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C2 Ep. 193 Head in the Sand Chapter One
476 Plays7 months ago
The party focuses on the Dreadhold job.
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
Introduction of hosts and setting
00:00:09
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is rolling.
00:00:39
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to Eberron Renewed, an actual play podcast set in the Eberron campaign setting. I am your game master, Eric. I'm Philip. And I am Randy.
Trevor's absence and humor
00:00:51
Speaker
I'm Jeff. We split the difference again. We renegotiated Randy's contract. Jeff, he gets the and before his name now in the COVID credits. That's fair. No, that's fair. And featuring introducing Jeff. You need to say with Jeff Forsey at the end. Welcome, everyone. Gentlemen, what happened last time?
00:01:07
Speaker
Well, what's happening? What's happening this time is I didn't hear our friend. Oh, yeah. Trevor's not here, everyone. Sorry. Raynard got lost in the garden party because scheduling things. Don't worry about it. Don't think about it too hard from a narrative perspective. Definitely. Everyone. Everyone. Just be cool. OK. Scheduling with a nationally recognized drag queen is hard. So just have to deal with that. When we signed Trevor up to be on the show, he had far less ambition. He was really racially recognized as a drag queen.
00:01:32
Speaker
Oh the sentences you get to say. It's crazy. Didn't reach to Florida yet. So yes, what happened in the previous episode?
Garden party dynamics and tensions
00:01:40
Speaker
Garden party. We had a garden party. Indeed. Some familiar faces popped up. Sigil was there. Hutch showed up. Dorgoth and Hutch have a history. You all found out.
00:01:50
Speaker
And also found out that verifiably, Hob is stronger than Hutch. So I think everyone had a good day. But not stronger than Ygric. No one cares about Ygric. How dare you. Okay. So let's pick things up. We are nearing the end of the garden party. You know, on the schedule, it said,
00:02:12
Speaker
like one to three people will continue to linger afterwards but like the proper festivities and most importantly Eris's obligation ends at three o'clock so yeah what what plans do you all have for the rest of the day as the garden party is beginning to wrap up the vendors are starting to pack up all that kind of stuff oh well i'm helping often pack up then since i was helping him at his booth
00:02:37
Speaker
Okay. Sana is also assisting as his ace. Eris is probably looking for the first opportunity to stop being present. It's probably about 15 minutes before the like labeled end time that people start filtering out. And so if Eris were to give all of a like, can we do that to look all of would like nod, like, yeah, we can, we can go. Yes. A hundred
Post-party plans and familiar faces
00:03:05
Speaker
percent. Yeah.
00:03:07
Speaker
And so then I'm assuming retreating to the cauldron. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Hob. Oh, you know, painting faces. Love the idea of this giant Hob sitting on a little stool in front of a child with a paintbrush in his hand, painting their face.
00:03:20
Speaker
Haav is standing near somebody he knows, probably eating something that was passed around and waiting to see. He's waiting until he notices one of his friends is gone and then assuming he's going to be Eris and he's going to wander to the cauldron too eventually. But yeah, he's just meandering. Okay, fair enough. Because he's not uncomfortable, but these aren't people that he knows necessarily. I mean, I know there are a lot of people he knows. We met them all last week. I in fact included that in the recap for you.
00:03:46
Speaker
Yeah, but then they all went over to help Ace and Ulfin, and Hob doesn't hang out with Ace. Just on principle now? Apparently. Yeah, I mean, Hob, you can clock pretty easily and quickly. I mean, this was not like a massive thing. There were maybe like 35 people at this thing, maybe 40. Like, it's a small community with some outsiders who came to check it out.
00:04:08
Speaker
So it does not take you long to notice that your blue haired, goggled, military coded gauntlet wearing friend is gone. Then yeah, I think he finishes up whatever he was doing or eating or the chat he was having. And he'll probably hit the kid there. Should you go home? Yeah. Right. That's all. He knows that now. So he'll head that way eventually because he's here. OK. Milo obviously would have heard that as well.
00:04:34
Speaker
You hear over the communicator. Are none of you going to the after party? Well, um, I'll, I'll catch you later then. So, from Raynard. Right. Okay. B. Whatever. Can do. Wait, wait. After party? Hold on. No, you're not on the list, Milo. Anytime Trevor's not here and I try to give an interesting narrative reason Randy wants to engage with the narrative reason, which he needs to stop. I feel like it's tradition now.
00:05:00
Speaker
The senility of an older man. So Eris, when you go back to the college during anything in
Potion making mishaps and successes
00:05:05
Speaker
particular doing, or just sitting in a chair quietly decompressing? Yeah, I mean decompressing. Yeah. She doesn't have any particular plans. And I think she's constructed all the things that are on her to-do list. Okay. Cool. Wait, did we make something to shrink people yet?
00:05:29
Speaker
I don't think we've successfully shrunk it. No, we haven't gotten the shrinking technology. OK, then that's probably how she's decompressing. She's probably just going through her notes thinking on how she will successfully shrink a kidnapped Vigo. Gotcha. Cool. You want to give me a like knowledge check of as you're studying and doing some initial research.
00:05:52
Speaker
She doesn't really have much in the way of knowledge skills to use here. She's a practical scientist, Eric, a practical scientist. I got alchemy, I got mechanics, I got artifice, I got a tiny amount of knowledge adventuring. I would
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I know when we were initially building the artifice skill, knowledge adventuring was like the related knowledge of artifice was kind of the idea.
00:06:24
Speaker
So if you wanted to do that, it would be an easier check or I would let you do mechanics at a little bit harder difficulty just because it's a little less direct in terms of research. It would be more of you like as opposed to like researching it. It'd be you just thinking about it, which obviously might
00:06:44
Speaker
yield dubious results so it's like when I heard my our friend Brad's deck that is like 20 feet in the air he just kind of thought up the plans and didn't do any actual research on how to make something structurally sound and now I'm a little nervous anytime I hang out up there you were in you were in the play that goes wrong what's the worst
00:07:00
Speaker
He did have a licensed contractor build it, so it was signed off on it. Fair enough. Because I also had that question years ago. Okay, I will do adventuring in the spirit of what it's supposed to be. That was my difficulty. Just two purple. Four successes and one advantage. So yeah, you have a pretty good sense of how
00:07:22
Speaker
You could approach utilizing Artifice to create a device capable of shrinking and then re-bigning somebody. That's what's in her notes. Yeah. De-bigning and re-bigning. So in this particular instance, when you go to make the check to actually do the thing, you'll have a free upgrade on your pool because you did the research. You have an advantage. From something I have one strain, so I'm going to make it go away.
00:07:51
Speaker
Cool. Okay. As you are kind of, you find the notes and are at annotating said notes, Hobb said he was headed to the cauldron. So Hobb enters. I assume Harris would have said not to if he wasn't okay with it. Yeah. I'll tell you, I think because of what we're trying, because of the meat thing we have to do,
00:08:15
Speaker
What you probably get is just for the delight of the viewers. The hilarious image is definitely Eris over a very small smoking cauldron mixing in different things and looking looking very witchy because we have to get this has to be something that someone with no expertise can work. And so Eris is going to alchemy it and make it a potion that nice.
00:08:42
Speaker
Why can I never remember the name of the person we're trying to rescue? Aaron. Aaron. It's because it's too close to, too close to Eris. Every name that's in this show ever. Aaron. Barrick. Yeah. That way, Eric can just drink it and we don't have to worry about it possibly malfunctioning. Yeah. Cool. Well, then give me a artificial check for this type of effect.
00:09:08
Speaker
I don't know, is there even a spell for shrinking or something? There's not, so I'm finagling something. Okay. Wow. I'm going to say looking at the transform spell underneath the primal class, which allows you to take a one silhouette creature and transform it into an animal. I feel like that is as close as we're going to get to
00:09:29
Speaker
reducing size and assuming that Eris doesn't want Eren to come out naked like once like her things to transform with her, correct? How much harder is that?
00:09:40
Speaker
It adds a purple. Just saying we have clothes for on the other side. I'm like, it's not like she's not going to burn those clothes. Yeah. OK. Yeah. I mean, this is this is part of the research that Harris is doing is like figuring out, like, no, it does not care if her clothes come through with her. OK. She especially doesn't care if she goes to go through. I mean, they're perk. There will be a set of his mother's clothes waiting for him in the cell. She's OK with that.
00:10:06
Speaker
OK, it's going to be for purple because normally it would be a hard check, but obviously you are trying to create a potion out of it. So I'm going to add one purple because you're trying to create a tangible thing that can can do the spell. So
Rescue planning for Vigo
00:10:18
Speaker
at a later date. But I am going to flip a story point to turn one of those purposes into a red. OK, well, aren't you just spicy? He is not alchemy.
00:10:32
Speaker
Or I'm sorry, I was misunderstanding how the spell works because you're trying to transform the person into a silhouette zero creature, quote unquote, that's one fewer. So it's, it would be one red, two purple instead of one red, three purple. Right. Okay.
00:10:47
Speaker
You can translate into a Silhouette five creature. What is that? What is that in this engine? It's like a battleship. I mean, I don't even know. Like maybe the feral dragon is Silhouette five and tearing off. I don't know.
00:11:04
Speaker
That's why. OK. And I will take two strain and actually, no, I'm going to spend a story point to upgrade. And here we go. Wow. I didn't work at all. So your success, three advantages. So Iris finishes the potion and says here, Chip, what what here for here? What drink this? What?
00:11:27
Speaker
HOB does make note like this is the first time there's been a cauldron in the cauldron and he was about to make a joke when she handed him this. What is it? It'll make you smaller. We rely on you being big. I can undo it. Are you sure? I suppose I should. You can undo it like now or like we have to do some things and make like do we have to go fight somebody to get a thing for you to undo it? No, I just just make something after the drink and you and it re reinbiggens you.
00:11:55
Speaker
Okay, Hob, hand trembling, takes a drink, a cloth of this. You take a cloth, do you simply cloth? I don't know how it works. I think you just cloth. You take a- The drink gets drunk. You take a dram, pull it, I don't know.
00:12:09
Speaker
Hob drinks the droop. I mean, if you want to do this for the bit, I'm totally for it. Failure on the check didn't mean that Aeris failed at making the potion in my brain. But if you want to have Hob be a test subject and something happened. I assume that she made an ineffective potion. She has three advantage, so it's not going to, like, poison him. Yeah. But what happens, Eric? Jeff, roll D100 in RPG sessions. Oh, my gosh. I don't know. Negative one string.
00:12:39
Speaker
I got a 58. 58? No. Hobb turns into an ostrich. How ostrich? Does Hobb's brain become an ostrich? Or is Hobb an ostrich-shaped hob?
00:12:53
Speaker
It's actually an additional thing to retain your intellect and willpower. Hobbs an ostrich in mind and body. This is so bad. Obviously this ostrich is panicked and immediately fights Aerith. So does Milo walk in and see an ostrich? Yes, 100%. Ygric! What is... Nothing. You're still the ostrich, Jeff, so what does the ostrich do?
00:13:19
Speaker
The Hobstritch. No, no, we shan't. We shav, in fact. Yeah, I mean, Eric calls Ygric over to hold the ostrich still so that she can undo. The ostrich evades the robot as it's an ostrich. The ostrich attempts to not be grabbed. Olive is also assisting with like the arms that she was working on, trying to help wrangle the ostrich. Should I try to like put a net on it?
00:13:46
Speaker
Close the door. All right. Where's hob? He's right here. I don't even know. I don't even know. I just run around going. Well, this one does. Yeah, it's a Wulu ostrich. Right. From the Talinta Plains. Very sad you didn't roll a 25 because you would have turned into a blue whale. That would have been catastrophic. That's my blue whale. Anyway, I'm going to. We will attempt to apprehend the ostrich and undo like.
00:14:14
Speaker
the effect. I mean, so what's interesting, it's a concentration thing. Austin's going for a window. He's going for a window. So I think at some point, yeah, but like it would naturally like how would turn back into an ostrich or turn back from an ostrich.
00:14:34
Speaker
Aeris does not need to actively do anything to make it happen. But I like to think that it's like a slow transformation, like Hobbs head turns back first, but with an ostrich body. You're doing your prisoner group thing? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, but yes, eventually your mind returns and you are, your loincloth is gone. You are completely naked. I do not wear a loincloth.
00:14:56
Speaker
I'm sorry yes you're correct yep that's my bad it's i i cannot remember the name for it it's it's you're covering yeah yeah yeah are gone and on the it's not an obi that's something else anyway so yeah all right i'm so do i have any idea what has happened to me
00:15:15
Speaker
Yeah, you were aware the whole time. You're just, your mind became that of an ostrich. Okay. I suppose I look at Aeris and I say, not the manner of smaller I was expecting. Now that was interesting and I don't know why it happened. Here's your clothes. I was gonna use Reynard, but he went to the after party. Got it. Sorry. Sorry. Um. It's, it's, it's fine. It is fine. No harm has been done. Are you going to try again?
00:15:44
Speaker
Well, yeah, you got this alchemy. She's not an exact science. Yeah, it's true. But hey, hey, I know how to turn somebody into an ostrich now. Hob does not laugh because Hob does not think she does. Hob doesn't think she could recreate that if she tried.
00:15:58
Speaker
There's definitely like the since since apparently this was done through research, there's definitely a really sketchy looking spell book open on on the workstation that's made of like it's real spooky looking. It's made of some unknown material. There's weird stains on the pages. Some of the pages are partially scorched. Yeah, it's it's obviously a type of making that is not.
00:16:24
Speaker
not Eris' usual game. So she bends back over that to try and figure out how she got the proportions wrong. Yeah, I mean, you basically clocked that. Yeah, there was some component of obviously trying to modify it to not turn someone into an animal, but rather like the size of a mouse. You're supposed to whip the eye of Newt, not mash it up with a pestle.
00:16:46
Speaker
I drink what? Just eye of Newt. That's that's what you just it was just some. There was just some new eyes in it. Jeff, I've made note of it. But if you want to make note of it also still like back of mind, like the idea of eating insects seems appealing still like you don't know where it came from, but you know, fine. I put some tarragon in for taste. I hate it here.
00:17:11
Speaker
I could have made it snakes. I'm pretty sure herbivores, but okay. Both of those things are on menus. According to PBS.org and their nature blog, you are incorrect. They are omnivores who enjoy eating insects, snakes, lizards, and rodents. I mean, we could probably find a restaurant with all of those things in charm.
00:17:30
Speaker
That's true. So fry tickets. Eris, with your lessons learned, like I said, I was going to I was going to let you still successfully make the potion even with a failure. So you are able to figure it out. The only cost is Hobbs brain chemistry a little bit. So but all right. After a while, she offers a potion to Milo. I don't think Hobb will do it again.
00:17:52
Speaker
Where's Ace? You know what? You can get Ace. Actually, this is really good because you're the same size and as them. And so we'll know whether you get small enough. Yes. Hobbs is excited to see a tiny ostrich. I have full confidence that you have discovered your error. It's definitely different. Well, yes, we'll, I guess we shall see.
00:18:17
Speaker
So Milo wafts the potion. You all see a pile of clothing fall to the ground with Milo's clothes crumpled to the ground. Oh man, you turned him into clothes. Don't step on him. You rapidly are covered in cloth and darkness as you're struggling against the weight of your clothing being too heavy to move off of you and you get tangled up in the cloth.
00:18:41
Speaker
So you guys see a bunch of wiggling. You see a little mound of the clothes like struggling against the weight of the fabric.
00:18:48
Speaker
Eris sips through the clothes so that Milo is not suffocated under, under the gigantic clothing. You see a tiny two inch tall naked Milo. That's awesome. There's all sorts of things you could do with that. And Milo, you kind of have the sense that you are, you are actively aware that you are small and you are keeping that state. And so you get a sense of like, when you want this to stop, you can, you're in control of getting big again. It's concentration. Yeah.
00:19:18
Speaker
Okay, hey, do we need to sneak in anywhere? I don't think so right now. I just want to. Let's not press our luck. Alright. Alright, fine. Milo slowly transforms back to his size and puts his clothes on if they fell off or did they stay on?
00:19:37
Speaker
No, they fell off. They fell off. Yeah. Milo grows to hob size. Is he real? No, just go have a test of strength. The oddest proportions. So, yeah, Milo, you are back to normal. You have been back over her cauldron and makes the necessary number of of doses of this. I don't know. You let me succeed. So I feel like the three advantages you were you were able to make three doses of it, let's say. OK, then I make that's plenty. Yeah. OK.
00:20:04
Speaker
If I don't have to, if I don't have to have a separate potion for, for re-invigining, then three is plenty. Yeah. Got an extra. So you have those, you have the teleportation pucks and those have been delivered. Right. So yeah, basically. Yeah. Reynard was really weird about that. House of Ireland is awaiting just the go ahead to go get Vigo. Uh, obviously Tarvel was still working on getting Aeris fully warmed up to the idea, but he was confident he had made progress.
00:20:32
Speaker
We should clear it with Tarvel before we activate the rest of the plan, right? Yes, that would definitely be the way to go. Okay, well, all my parts are done, so who's gonna get Tarvel to win over Eren? Well, I suppose I could go check and see how it's going. She got one of those weird milty coins.
00:20:49
Speaker
Do you know what? He rummages around in his robes. Yes, certainly. He pulls out a handful of change from like international coinage. What is this? That's a button. Milo's just got a lot of friends with weird coin powers. They keep giving them to him. Yeah. You all... So do you just try to use the coin to contact Tarvel? Milo? Yeah. You remember how it works. 25 words one way, 25 words back. Yes. Where are we with Aaron? We are ready.
00:21:17
Speaker
highly efficient well done she what she is as on board as she's going to get won't be a problem perfect so shall we tell house feeling to go do we need to do anything else just wait around for them to deliver Vigo with a bag over his head I don't see we didn't talk about that we didn't bother so much we didn't talk about what
00:21:43
Speaker
Are they going to deliver Vigo with a bag over his head? What's how do we where do we? I thought so. Well, I'm still in contact with car, right? Because I still have more words. I thought we didn't work that out. That's like genuine. It's it's it's one and done, Randy. Like you can send up to twenty five. You can get up to twenty five and then you're done. But it's your hands just wet now.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah. No, the conversation with Alastair, like, basically, I think it's, they're not awaiting for you. Just, just say, do it. It's like, we'll wait for you to tell us the plan. Basically. They know what you want them to do, but yeah, they, they want, they're going to want to establish a drop off point. Like there's some happens. Talk to them. Talk to them again. Yeah. Okay. Where should we have them dropping off? Bring them on down to the cogs. Then we don't have to worry about us transporting them down.
00:22:35
Speaker
right? And like, I don't like covert their whole thing. So like, they know what they're doing as far as getting them down there. I mean, yeah, so probably I will say just your collective knowledge of
00:22:45
Speaker
where you're ultimately going to need Vigo to go. The Pure Lads are based on Docks and they're smugglers. And Bjerglen also has probably adept at smuggling stuff into the city. So they probably could deliver Vigo to the Docks in some manner that would be disguised if Tarvel had a heads up that that's what was happening. That seems better. Yeah, that's why I was hoping I had more words. Well, you don't have to go like there are other ways of contacting.
00:23:12
Speaker
Yeah. Name one kids with their melty coins. They don't want to talk face to face anymore. All right. So, all right. So what order do we need to do these things in? I guess we need to establish where Tarvel can receive this package and then go tell Alistair time to go. And here's where to do it. Okay. Yeah. Unless we just have him delivered to the back of Torvald's office, Tarvel's office possibly.
00:23:39
Speaker
Well, Tarvel's office is at the docks that the peerlets operate. So the plane is as close as you can get to. But we should we should get Tarvel's clearance before we tell them to do that. Yes. So true. And we'd have to sneak there, obviously. Well, maybe not. We're not concerned. Are we are we concerned about Tarvel getting cold feet at the moment of doing this? Like, we're pretty sure that he would rather have Aaron out than Vigo out, right?
00:24:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I think so. All right. I know Vico sucks, but he's still his kid. I don't know. I just slightly worried about her. Yeah. No, sure. But I can't do anything about that. No, we just gotta go for it. Yeah. All right. So we should go talk to Tarvel, set up a drop point, and then go talk to Alistair. Maybe less weird if Reynard doesn't come this time.
00:24:32
Speaker
Most things are less weird. Let's assume that Raynard is off by himself doing something extremely competent accidentally again. He probably does okay at this after party. Okay, so you all are heading to the peer labs. I want to kill him by that pause carry. It's true. So off to the peer lab, off to the docks.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yep. Okay, cool. As you all are traveling there in Tasha, I'm guessing, somebody can give me a perception check with a one, or actually.
Spotted! The invisible skiff
00:25:05
Speaker
I'm four greens on perception. I'm two yellow and a green. So you've got more pips. I'm a yellow and two greens, so. So two yellows and a green is the highest. It's the most chance for a triumph, but it's not the most chance for success, right? Four greens would be above that.
00:25:23
Speaker
Yeah. Opposed checks are wild. Okay. The difficulty of the perception check is four reds and a purple. Can I opt not to roll this? Yeah. Like I'm offering you all the opportunity to notice something, but if you, if you would rather not, that's totally fine. Hang on. There's something unbelievably difficult to potentially notice while we're trapped. You can combine it. We can do a combined check. So the four.
00:25:47
Speaker
green plus the two yellow. So it'd be two yellow, two green, which is, it's still an extremely difficult tech, but- Oh, I was just thinking of the odds of a despair here. Yeah. Jeff, what were you going to say? I was going to say this, I just want to make sure I have the circumstances, right? This is while we are traveling across town or down to the cogs, but it's just the three of us in Tasha. You all aren't headed to the cogs, you're headed to the pier lads. The Delvers are in the cogs, yeah.
00:26:17
Speaker
So, but it's just the three of us and there's something that we may notice, but it's extremely difficult to notice. And Milo would, Milo would definitely be looking around because he already knows somebody had followed him once. That's true. Milo's a little paranoid. Yeah. And I don't think he told you all about it. Yeah, I did. I thought I did. Okay. Is there a conclusion to that, Jeff? I don't know. If we get another despair, this campaign is going to last six more years.
00:26:42
Speaker
Four reds and a purple, is that what he said? Four reds and a purple and our pool would be two yellow and two green. And a boost because Milo's alert, right? I will give you a boost because Milo's paranoid. And a boost. And strictly speaking, two more boosts because of Aeris's goggles, because that's to all cunning checks.
00:27:04
Speaker
Okay, seriously, I feel like we'll probably end up on the right side of perceiving, but we're probably gonna catch a despair with four hits. That's my thing, yeah, is like, that's... Do we wanna start this session off by letting Eric completely derail it? I'm not saying that's what'll happen. I mean, we would be looking around, so do we see something or not?
00:27:25
Speaker
All right. All right. And you can blame me if it goes south. OK. Because you're going to anyway set up. We're combining hobbit heiress skills. So we should have a total of two yellow, two green, three blue against that pool, I think is is what we end up with. OK, I've got that. Shall we shall we flip a story point? Yeah, sure. OK. All right. I have three yellow, a green, three blue, four red and a purple. Are we ready?
00:27:55
Speaker
Here we go. That was a disaster. Okay. Thank you for moving that point. Yeah. Hey. Wow. That is remarkably. Five success, two threat. Oh my goodness. That's shockingly unremarkable considering the number of potential triumphs and despairs that were on that. This was legit. Hobb just looked over and was like, Oh wait, check that out. That's weird. What is that? Well, it's bad because I suspect two threat. You all.
00:28:22
Speaker
Yeah, as you all are looking around, you clock as it's kind of up above you and to the right. As you're looking around, this figure just so happens to pass between you all and some of the buildings and architecture of Sharn to where you see the form of the stuff behind them warp slightly to indicate that they are doing some kind of like active camo like
00:28:50
Speaker
looking invisible, but in the predator style way to where movement can give it away with the surroundings. And I'm going to see. So that was it a large thing that was cloaked or a humanized human sized thing? It looks like a skiff. Oh, a skiff. OK. Oh, I may have missed that. Sorry. I'm going to have them do a check to see if they notice you notice. Is it four reds for them to notice if we notice? No, it is not.
00:29:21
Speaker
I'm going to do it against URLs combined. URLs combined perception just to see if, unless your stealth is better, but I think Raynard would need to be here for your stealth to be impactful. Yeah, no. Yeah. My stealth is very pedestrian.
00:29:35
Speaker
Two success, three advantage. So, they do notice that you notice. Because hog goes, hey! Milo, because it was a group check and everyone was contributing in some capacity, the two threat I'm going to throw at Milo's paranoia, Milo take two points of strain. Fine. And with the three advantage,
00:29:57
Speaker
I'm going to give one of them a boost on their initiative check. Okay. Which means I need initiative vigilance or cool from you all because you passed the perception check. So you were aware that something was coming. So I'll let you go either way. And yeah. Oh, I didn't click initiative. Sorry. Oh, I did. Okay. Nevermind.
00:30:18
Speaker
I have it set to start initiative, so all of your roles should count as the initiative role. So don't roll anything unless you mean for it to be. Cool. Initiative. Uncool, Eric. Triumph rolling. Vigilance is willpower, right? Yes.
00:30:34
Speaker
Is cool cunning. Am I remembering that right?
Battle with a warforged on an enemy skiff
00:30:37
Speaker
presence presence. Thank you. Oh, that's better. I mean, cunning, cunning. Okay. So collectively between all of them, there were two triumphs rolled on their initiative checks, which in the context of initiative, I'm just going to have them be able to take some maneuvers at the start of initiative. So the skiff, as they notice, you all see it bank dramatically and try to like.
00:31:03
Speaker
get alongside Tasha and then for the second maneuver out of the kind of dome of invisibility you see a very it's weird to call a warforged jacked but like they are like augmented to like
00:31:22
Speaker
It's like they've got like the piston things on the sides of their arms to like reinforce their punching ability and stuff. It's not. Just punches the power of kicks. Yes, exactly. They leap from their skiff coming out of the dome of invisibility and land amongst you all in Tasha. It's kind of as the momentum is like banking, they leap.
00:31:43
Speaker
and have that additional momentum to land amongst you all. And yeah, it's initiative time and we have an NPC slot. So this warforged is gonna go ahead and go. And it's going to punch. Sorry Milo. No, he's got too much pride for that. Hob. Yes. Melee defense. Three. Three? Nice. Yeah, I got beefy. I got a beefy tanky guy at some point when I was doing some XP buying and spending.
00:32:09
Speaker
Okie dokie, and just making sure that I have everything. Okay, so this is going to be four yellow, one green, one blue against two purple and three black. Okay, jeez. Crap. That counted as an initiative roll, so I'll need to get rid of them. Stop initiative. A four success, four advantage, and a triumph. Bollocks. So, goodbye.
00:32:30
Speaker
With the triumph, they are going to crit. It's a good thing I'm diligent about healing my critical injuries, Aris. It's good. It's good. It's good advice. It's a good thing I'm a real healthy boy who takes care of my things. Aris actually still has one. I know. Just one. He did subtract 10. I did not. I will do that. I clicked the button. We all believe you. Didn't do anything. Would you like to immediately click the buttons? No, I got it. Well, I tried to hit the roll, crit button, and it didn't work, so.
00:32:59
Speaker
45 minus 1035. Very good. Stunned. The target is staggered until the end of the next turn. So you cannot take an action until the end of your next turn. Well, okay. That's not good. Don't I don't like that. Thankfully, I can move as much as I need to around this gift.
00:33:18
Speaker
Well, funny you say that they're going to use two advantage to use the knockdown ability of their punch. So hob is prone. Good. And with the other two, they will pass to boost. So yeah, hob, this thing just leaps. And as the fist comes close to you, those pistons activate and just square in the sternum and you feel something crack.
00:33:40
Speaker
a little bit as like this metallic fist makes contact with your chest and all of the air in your lungs just like rushes out of your throat and you fall back like stumble backwards from just the sheer force into Tasha. Okay, for how much damage? Thank you. It's an important part of all this for success plus the base 12 damage. Okay, the soak still soaks. So yeah, there's no pierce or breach or anything. So
00:34:09
Speaker
And the, as the warforged lands kind of looks at Hob like falling back on the ground is like, I expected better. And frankly, so did I. Next up is going to be a figure that is within the skiff. Gonna target Eris. Did Eris bring egric? We said it was just the three of us. Okay. This is going to be a hard divide check. This is a magic check. So no defenses. Okay.
00:34:36
Speaker
Going to roll, unless you want to flip a story. The pool is three yellow, one green, three purple. Would you like to flip a story point to upgrade the difficulty? It is a magic check, so it would be. Yes, I do. And I will take that story point back immediately as a human. Okay, okay. Roll. To success, to threat. So they need to suffer to a strain. But it's magic, so doesn't it double?
00:35:02
Speaker
No, I was saying just for casting the spell, it's two strain. That's not necessarily the two threat. This person's name. Okay, Eris, with two success, it is 10 damage. And you feel... Yeah. Hang on. I've got this. No, shoot. It's a magic check. No, nevermind. I have to have cast a bot. I've bodyguards to work on magic. I had to have cast it first, though. Gotcha. So, Eris, it's almost like you feel...
00:35:30
Speaker
the blood in your veins, like cool, like almost like ice crystals form and like start tearing inside. And yeah, it hurts extremely bad. Sorry, there it is. That person is gonna take four wounds. I'm gonna take some strain and inflict four wounds on them. If an ally in short range has hurt, I can suffer three strain to inflict four wounds, so. Okay. I can't do that every time, but I'm gonna do it this time, because I'm on the ground. I can't do anything for a turn.
00:36:00
Speaker
And that's even for ranged attacks? It says if an ally in short range is hurt. Let me look up the... Sometimes I shorten them to put them on my character sheet. So let me look up the full thing. One second. Because it may say melee in the whole description. It's threatened is the one I'm looking at. If you want to look at the document open, I got to pull it. What tier is it?
00:36:20
Speaker
It is, here it is, it's tier two. After, okay, the adversary also has to be in short range. I apologize, so there it is. Okay, I shortened it too much. Okay, well then I take it all back, nevermind. Delete everything that makes me sound dumb from any of the episodes ever, please. Oh, you want me to give you the Eric treatment? Do you have time? It'll cost you. Okay, so. To get your strain back. Good call, thank you.
00:36:41
Speaker
No, that's my punishment for making a bad move. I've got to keep the strain. Learn my lesson. Okay. And I'll go ahead and say as the magic, it's like this sickly greenish, like necrotic S energy blasts out of the cloaking of the skiff. The cloaking dissipates and you see a fairly modified skiff as well. This is like a custom job kind of thing.
00:37:10
Speaker
and you see on the other skiff all of you see three other or yeah three other figures one of whom clearly has just cast this spell which is a tall very gaunt pale-skinned elf man with like long black hair kind of blowing in the wind and then you also see a a feminine looking figure but their face is covered by a purplish mask
00:37:39
Speaker
And a person driving the skiff that is also a young looking woman who has some like cybernetic attachments and things like that, like some metal, like on her jaw, like neckline, like going down below her clothes. And then one of her arms is also fully metallic. So.
00:37:58
Speaker
And there are two, they look like almost like drones near her that are kind of hovering and flying along with the skiff. So that's what you see. And obviously the war forged in the middle of you on the skiff. It is a PC slot. Milo, unless you have a really big swing, I'll go. I can't hear you, Milo. I was thinking about maybe trying to blast, do a blast. If you want to. Sure. Okay. Well.
00:38:23
Speaker
Milo's wand flashes in his hand and he flicks it and this flat black disc flies out straight for the other caster who attacked Eris. Okay, this is medium range so for the attack spell that would be with but you don't you get blast for free.
00:38:43
Speaker
because of your wand. So that would be two purple, starting out. All right. Anything else that you want to do to the spell? Fire, ice, deadly, giving it a crit rating, anything like that. What's that going to do to the difficulty? Any of those would increase it by one. All right. Let's let's put fire to it. OK. All right. Two success, one threat, two triumphs.
00:39:10
Speaker
Amazing. Explode their boat, Milo. Yeah, that sounds good. We don't want to learn anything about these weirdos. I said that cool person driving. I knew she was going to say that as soon as you started to describe it. Well, you had to deal with that. So how much damage do you deal to the caster, Milo? That's three plus. So that's oh, man, it's been so long since we fought. I don't remember five. That doesn't sound right. You had your intellect as well.
00:39:39
Speaker
OK, so that's nine nine damage. OK, this fire mean he can trigger burn if you have the advantage to do so, but you can use a triumph. But so you would need to use a triumph to trigger blast if you want to do that. Yes, I guess that sounds reasonable. OK, what is the blast rating on spells? It is blast one.
00:40:03
Speaker
So, everyone else on the boat takes three damage, thanks to blast. No. What? No, I'm just kidding. Wait, actually, does Soak come into that? I think so, because it's... Does the fact that I'm laying on the ground help me avoid the blast? You're not engaged. The other skiff. The other skiff, not our skiff.
00:40:27
Speaker
I'm so sorry, I don't know why I thought that our skiff got the blast damage. I don't know why I thought Milo would do that to us. Well, actually, that's not true. I know why I thought Milo would do that to us. Milo's paranoia just took extra strain. Summon that mind flayer over there.
00:40:39
Speaker
Yeah, can you shoot one of those out of your head? Drop an Eldritch Horror on that ship. That's funny. Slowly starving mind flayer somewhere out there in the city. I mean, he might not be starving. That's true. The driver, the two drones, and the masked person all took three blast damage.
00:40:58
Speaker
So, boom. Yeah. What does it look like, Milo? Is it just a concussion, a fiery explosion on the skiff? Yeah. It just explodes just in fire. Okay. So we have an NPC slot then. So the... Oh, go ahead. Wait, wait, wait.
00:41:16
Speaker
Don't tell me what to do. Please, please, please wait. Never ask me what to do. I'm going to I'm going to spend a story point to be a conduit and perform another magic action. OK. And this time Milo flicks his wand and this little baby zips out towards the driver of the skiff and forms into a black fist to try to punch them off the skiff. OK, so what's the
00:41:46
Speaker
It's a ghostly fist. In Genesis terms, what's the spell that you're casting? It's Open Palm of Zenthix. It shows two purple. That is something somebody else created using the Genesis rules, but I need to know what spell you're casting. Is it the attack spell? Yes, it's the attack spell.
00:42:07
Speaker
with what modifiers to allow you to move the person. Does it say that on your card? Yeah. I could spend advantage to move the target one range band in any direction. Okay. So it is the manipulative condition. Yes. Added. Okay. Yes. So at medium range, that's going to be, what, what did you say the difficulty was? Too purple.
00:42:28
Speaker
Okay. That's if they're short range because they're at medium range. It's three people. Right. Right. And I'm going to flip a story point to make it, or these are, this is a combat check. Hold on. Hold on. I didn't do it with the last person. The driver that you're trying to punch has adversary three. So it's three red instead of three purple. Eric said they're a man down. They haven't been challenged enough lately. We still have a triumph on the table. Do we not? Yes. One of your trials has not been accounted for. Okay. What would you like to do with it?
00:42:57
Speaker
Do I need to do it now before I roll? Preferably. You could give yourself an upgrade if you just want to keep it simple. You could have critted on the caster that you hit with that spell with the triumph. That sounds reasonable. I like the crit idea. Okay. Gun roll D100 then in art. Have you already built your dice pool? Yeah, I've already got my pool. I'll roll it. I'm fine with that. 78. Go ahead and add 40 to that. I'm sorry, Randy. You're going to have to get rid of the pool that you've built.
00:43:27
Speaker
Overpowered. The target leaves themselves open and the attacker may immediately attempt another attack against them as an incidental using the exact same pool as the original attack. So you're doing the blast spell again. So clear out your current pool. Okay.
00:43:42
Speaker
I am going to remember this time on this, this additional attack. I know it says the exact same pool. The spell caster has adversary one. So the difficulty should have been one red, two purple instead of just three purple. So with this second attack that you're getting for free, please do one red, two purple on red, two purple. Okay. Is the difficulty. So this is the blast disc part two. Okay. So that is another eight damage.
00:44:07
Speaker
to the spellcaster, but you do not have enough to trigger the blast because you only got one advantage, but you can pass a boost die to your next check. Okay, let's do that. And sorry, gang. I neglected to address the two threat from the spellcasters check. You just want me to give them four additional strain. Sounds good to me. Yeah. Okay. So, and Milo, you had one threat on your two triumph checks, so take two additional points of strain. Gosh. Now you can cast your other spell, Mr. Conduit.
00:44:36
Speaker
And it was what now two reds and one red and two purple. Three red. You remembered. I did. Unbelievable. Yes. My guy. Two success, one advantage. Awesome. So this little BB turns into this black shadowy fist and just clocks this driver square in the head. Nine damage as the base. And let's move him one range band off the skiff.
00:45:06
Speaker
move her one range band. One range band off the skiff. Sure thing. Philip doesn't like that I don't think. He wanted that person. I don't know who this person is. Okay so yeah the fist hits this person their hands go flying off of the controls and they go flying backwards over the edge of the skiff. They're going to take the next initiative slot immediately after to use a maneuver to command their drones. So one of the drones swoops down and
00:45:35
Speaker
She catches it, obviously not in a good place to actively attack you all. So Miley, you think still, yeah, it did work because one of the drones had to go catch her. The other drone is going to turn its attention towards Milo, obviously, because Milo has just made himself the biggest target on the boat by casting three spells in one turn. Yeah, but you feel kind of silly for hitting me.
00:46:00
Speaker
So it is going to use. So this one just kind of turns and you see this little small tube come out of the top and you hear up as this small metallic cone comes flying out and you can see kind of glowing runes all around it as it comes flying at Milo at a very fast speed. So I dodge.
00:46:27
Speaker
Good luck. Use its maneuver to aim. A range defense, Milo. One. Okay. And why not? I'll flip a story point to upgrade one of the pool, one of the dice in the pool. So two yellow, one green, one blue, two purple, one black is the check. Would you all like to flip a story point to upgrade the difficulty? Ready? I mean, I probably would personally.
00:46:54
Speaker
Go for it. Okay. Turn one of those purples into a red. Cool. Three success, three advantage. Wow, those negative dice did no work. Nope. There's a lot to read on here. There's a lot of info on that little card. Okay, Milo, you take 10 damage. Ow. This is the sink hit you square in the chest. And then Eris, Hob, and our friend here on the boat, everyone else but Milo, takes Oak into account, but the cone hits Milo and then explodes.
00:47:22
Speaker
in a massive fiery ball and you all take 10. Soak. Take Soak into account. I don't know why you're getting all huffy, Jeff. On behalf of my friends, I get huffy. If they die, I'm dead. Like, I'm on the ground. Bill? I have a little bit of Soak from taking all those wounds. And then, Hob potentially
00:47:45
Speaker
concerning to yourself as you're laying on the ground and you're looking at this warforged figure standing above you, they also seem to be very non-plussed by the explosion. Interesting. So like I said, the other drone is focused on keeping its controller alive so it's not going to act this turn and she is going to use her action to crawl back into the skiff. So her turn is wasted trying to undo what Milo did to her.
00:48:12
Speaker
So the last NPC slot is the masked figure. They are going to pull out a small hand crossbow and aim it as Milo as well. They're anti-S. It's the anti-S. They're our dark mirror.
00:48:27
Speaker
You think the big guy's name's Bo? No, his name is Shaw. Like, very quick, very clever, but I can't abide it. Milo, you have one ranged defense. The necromancer's name's Otis. Yes. The rogue's name really is Reynard. But they go by Draenor. They will aim Okidoki. How do we befriend them, though? Right, yeah, that's what I'm working on. I'm working on it. Two success, two advantage on Milo. Well, we have to get to the end of The Fast and the Furious movie before they become our allies. Right.
00:48:57
Speaker
So Milo, you take five damage. You up? Yeah, I'm up. Pierce five. So you take all five. Are you up? Yeah, but barely. I'm going to think activate my cloak. Do we still have a story point? You got one. Do it. Do it.
00:49:17
Speaker
Yeah, but my strain is getting up there too. But if I want to, I don't know. I figure if I get hit again, I mean, I'm going to go down anyway, even if I do save a couple of points. So how much five? Yep. So four notes, take it one, two, three, four, five. Yeah. I'm.
00:49:37
Speaker
I'm barely up. And it has a crit rating of two, so we're gonna go and crit on Milo. And it is just too squishy. And their hand crossbow has vicious three. So 69, internet number, blah, blah, blah. Scattered senses. Until the critical injuries healed Milo, you remove all boosts from your skill checks.
00:50:00
Speaker
Okay. So yeah, this, the bolt from the, the hand crossbow sinks in to your chest, Milo, but then on the tail end of it, you see a little ball that then like flash bang explodes as it's like buried into you and like you see stars. It's really cool. It's pretty PC slot. Okay. Eric, everything's awful. You could always try to escape.
00:50:25
Speaker
That is a viable option. One of them's on the skiff. You can deal with that. Like I can't because not because Hobb can't hold on. I'm just so I can't like barrel roll to toss him into the sky. That could be all right. So with the future is immediate. All right. With the with the goggles on and getting all of these readouts that the goggles are constantly distracting me with.
00:50:52
Speaker
what is there anything I can just immediately tell about the skiff as it becomes visible other than it's fast and obviously modified she's got drones does she also have an autopiloted ship it does not
00:51:08
Speaker
Yeah, you don't get the sense that it has like a Tasha in it that can fly it on its own. It looks like this thing is capable of cruise control, cruise control. It's not automated, but it can keep going without anybody being behind the controls. Question. Yeah. Does that cause it to count as a non-sentient automaton?
00:51:31
Speaker
I'd allow it. All right. Then Eris would like to deplete her goggles and hijack their skiff. Okay. So the skiff is mine until the end of the encounter. This is how you're friends. And what would you like? So that's a maneuver. So I'll take some strain to be able to spend a maneuver to command the skiff. Just flip.
00:51:50
Speaker
Eric says, You're really cool. I'm sorry. And the skiff just dives. OK. So I'm ordering the skiff to take to take its action and turn and whatever to just dive. OK. She's not actively trying to kill them, but definitely to make them not be here anymore. Yeah, I get it. Okey dokey. And then for her action. Yeah.
00:52:18
Speaker
She pulls out the Fletcher and is going to activate its auto fire property and just unload on this warforged who's beating up her friend. OK. You're probably also really cool, but frack you. No, not cool. Adversary two is the is there and no defenses. So don't worry about that. OK, so obviously to what I assume a short range with this thing. Yes. Yeah. So it'd be one red, one purple.
00:52:44
Speaker
Okay. Fascinating. All right. Okay. So four successes, two advantage and despair. Indubitably Pierce two. Yeah. So total damage is 13 with Pierce two with the new model of the Fletcher. We replaced blast with auto fire. I think I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna auto fire. I'm going to hit him. I'm just going to cause it to hit him twice. Okay. So.
00:53:10
Speaker
So just a burst of flechettes just smash into the Warforged and so he'll take 13 damage, pierce to twice. Okay.
00:53:20
Speaker
So it is very much like Iron Man 1 when Tony like walks in the Mark 1 and like all the gunfire where a lot of the flechettes are bouncing off, but some of them are burying into the chassis of the warforged as they turn to face you as you're opening fire on them. But yeah, I mean, it did a not insignificant amount of damage to this individual. Okay, the despair.
00:53:49
Speaker
yep is a thing that has happened that is a thing that has been rolled behold the despair kind of fits perfectly okay i'm using the despair one of these characters has the ability called and just like that where they may spend a despair rolled by an enemy during a combat encounter to immediately leave the encounter
00:54:08
Speaker
So one of the people on the boat is fine, but they are gone. And I'll let you guess which of your cohorts would have that ability to just be like, you know what? I don't wanna be here anymore. Okay, so that's the despair. And now we- That is all the things I can do. We're now to Hobb's turn. You can do anything but an action. So two questions. One, an incidental is not an action. It's not an incidental action, right?
00:54:36
Speaker
Two, remind me of how an opponent being prone affects what we can do. An opponent being prone means you get boosts on melee checks, but setbacks on ranged checks. Okay, that's it, like, okay.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yes. Then here's all I can do. Like I use my maneuver to stand. Yes. And then I have an incidental called headbutt. It's the only thing I have that's not an action. Love it. Or that doesn't require an action. Like I have a lot of incidentals are like, when you make a check. So I am going to suffer two wounds and I am going to select the only target I can. And he is now knocked prone and disoriented until the end of the next round.
00:55:20
Speaker
Love it, so adds a setback to all of his checks. And that's all I can do, I believe. Wait, actually, let me go ahead and I am gonna bodyguard Milo.
00:55:31
Speaker
Okay. That's a maneuver. Shoot. If that's a maneuver, I. You can down, because you can't take an action, you can downgrade what would be your action to a maneuver. And that's what I wasn't sure about if I could even do that. Okay, great. Then yes. So for my second maneuver, I'm going to take two strain to bodyguard Milo. Milo has all difficulty, all checks upgraded. There. There. I can't talk. Okay.
00:55:56
Speaker
Cool. Twice upgraded twice. Pardon me. Splendid. Yep. And that is the end of the first round of combat. The enemy skiff is diving. The warforged is still on your skiff, but full of flechette holes and on the ground. And we are going to pick it up next time. So end of episode.
00:56:18
Speaker
Thank you all so much for listening. If you want to be part of the conversation surrounding the episode, you can head over to our Discord, the link to which you can find on all of our socials, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter. And we have a Patreon, patreon.com slash keep pantheon. If you want to financially support the shows in any way you're able to do so, you can do so over there or buy some merch at the keep pantheon.com. We also have a YouTube channel, youtube.com slash keep pantheon, where I make TTRPG content and Philip is now going to plug a thing.
00:56:42
Speaker
There's also a channel called The Laughing Tree where you will see another actual play on YouTube using 5th edition and set in Stormreach in which Eric is a player. It's called Kyber Shards. Indubitably. Thank you all so much for listening. I have been your game master, Eric. I'm Phillip. I'm Randy. I'm Jeff. We'll see you next time.