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Manifest Zone Special “Mind Under Mountain” Chapter Three FINALE!
273 Plays4 years ago
Welcome to the end. Find out what is waiting for our intrepid band down in the depths of Sol Udar, and whether or not they can survive to get another payday.
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, Jessica Smith, Charles Compton, Richard Cree, Nastasia Raulerson, The Kamm Family, David Scrams, Elizabeth Clark, Andy Dossett, Rebekah Miller, deviouspoptart, Eðvarð Arnór Sigurðsson, Michael Clark, Eric Witman, and Dustin Troupe.
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Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
The following episode is brought to you by Darryl Delaney, Ryan Royce, Darren Katska, Jessica Smith, Irene Villarito, Laura Pickron, Eric Whitman, Deavius Poptart, Elizabeth Clark, Jessica Smith, Andy Dossett, Natasha Rallerson, Richard Cree, The Cam Family, Charles Compton, Edvard Tharnoff, Dustin Troop, Rebecca Miller, Michael Clark, and David Scrams, along with all of our generous patrons.
00:00:36
Speaker
D20 radio, your game is roll.
Game Introduction
00:01:16
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Eberron Renewed and actual play podcasts at neighbor on campaign setting I'm your game master Eric and welcome to the conclusion of our special one shot with the host crew of the manifest zone
00:01:28
Speaker
I cannot overstate what a joy it was to run a game of Genesis for these three players set in Eberron. They were truly wonderful and great role players and just phenomenal players overall.
00:01:44
Speaker
I'm excited for you all to hear the end of the arc and let us know what you thought.
Engage with the Community
00:01:49
Speaker
Head on over to our Facebook group or our Discord. You can find the link over at thegeekpantheon.com if you want to be a part of the conversation over there. Or we're also on Twitter and Instagram at thegeekpantheon. And if you are new to the show and this has inspired you to check out our other offerings and you like what we do,
00:02:07
Speaker
then head on over to patreon if you really like what we're doing and want to join our patreon community patreon.com slash the geek pantheon is where you can join that community with all sorts of tiers if you've enjoyed this and you've started listening to our other programming and you enjoy it we also have a youtube channel youtube.com slash the geek pantheon where we put up videos uh typically a couple times a week
00:02:32
Speaker
on all sorts of role-playing game advice and insights as well as reviews of the latest D&D books that are coming out. So if you head on over to YouTube, you can check that out. Just search for the Geek Pantheon if you want to do it that way.
00:02:48
Speaker
Anyway, thank you all so much for listening. And once again, a huge thank you to Keith, Wayne and Imogen for joining me for this adventure. And I hope you enjoy the rest of this one shot.
Skill Challenge Mechanics
00:03:00
Speaker
And so we are now in a skill challenge. Okay. So. All right.
00:03:05
Speaker
All right. So there's no hard line initiative. This is just everybody gets to go in whatever order you would like to go. But the idea being that there are you need to get a certain number of total successes. So if you roll a check with five success, that's five successes towards this before you get a certain number of failed checks. So it's not the number of failures, but if the check is failed and the more checks you fail, the.
00:03:32
Speaker
the worst things get basically. But you all can use any skill or anything that you feel is applicable to this situation. But all you know is the world around you is beginning to crumble and you know the direction you need to get to. So it's time to hoof it. So is this a case where packed magic could be used without casting a spell or is any use of pack magic casting a spell?
00:04:02
Speaker
No, I would I would allow you in the context of a skill challenge to use your magic skill without casting a spell out. Second question. We ended an encounter. Did we recover strain? Go ahead. Yeah, go ahead and let me clear out the negative dice pool and allow you all to make those rolls. Thank you, Keith. No worries. It's a strain user, so that's a roll of cool. Is that correct?
00:04:30
Speaker
Cool or discipline? Oh, discipline. Right. Oh, much better. That's heartbreaking. Now I do have
Managing Strain Levels
00:04:40
Speaker
a rapid recovery. Does that work here or not? Because I did not get a success. It normally lets me get recovery.
00:04:50
Speaker
I believe that it still works when healing strain. So, yeah, it doesn't say that you have to heal a strain. You just you get to heal one additional. So, yeah, you'll one weight or you have two ranks. So, yeah. And I was not at at half my rate. So that's fine. So I will get two back is what we're saying. Even though I did not succeed. And that's that's just fine. Beatrix, you heal one plus any rapid recovery.
00:05:17
Speaker
So given the the whole crazy, you know, everything's starting to come down.
Navigating the Collapse
00:05:22
Speaker
This is where I just want to I've already been using my pack magic to sort of draw on the reality.
00:05:30
Speaker
of the region, and I've been using that to sort of break things. But what I'm trying to do here is sort of actually solidify a path ahead of us, like enforce my, you know, strengthen the reality of the path that we are trying to take. OK. Very cool. So packed magic. OK, so that is one success, one advantage and a triumph. So.
00:06:00
Speaker
So the way I treat triumphs in the context of a skill challenge is you can do something narratively with it if you want, or you can have it count as three successes towards the final count of the skill challenge.
00:06:15
Speaker
I think I'll go ahead with that. I mean, I think narratively, it's exactly what I just described. You know, I'm just trying to create this stable, solid path ahead of us. And what do you know for successes towards it? So that will be fine. So, yeah, as as you all begin to take off away from the crumbling hall, you see the floor of head of you begin to splinter
00:06:37
Speaker
and crumble as Rusty using his his magic solidifies it and keeps it from falling just long enough for all three of you to cross over it. Can't hold it for long. Keep moving. Who would like to go next? I had an idea, I suppose, I think.
00:07:01
Speaker
Beatrix is, she is a veteran of the last war and she's been, she's had plenty of experience of being in a castle as it crumbles under siege staff fire. So I'm kind of imagining that she uses her experience, perhaps some of her battlefield training to sort of know
00:07:31
Speaker
What is the best way to maneuver? Do you stick to the arches? How do they build these structures such that you can avoid the worst of collapse when these things come down? So I'm imagining a kind of a knowledge law kind of a thing.
00:07:53
Speaker
Yeah, we can absolutely do knowledge lore. That's going to be a three purple difficulty to kind of use that knowledge to think through. You could use a story point to upgrade your check, though, if you like.
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, let's go for a story point because I think she's thinking, you know, she's getting a bit freaked out by this voice in her head and she's trying to ground herself in some normalcy and that means thinking back to past experiences and the war and trying to remember the good times when the world makes sense and the aberrations did the right thing and stayed put.
00:08:34
Speaker
The only monsters you had to worry about were the Ondarians. So, go ahead and roll that. One success, one advantage. So, that is a success. Okay, with the advantage.
00:08:54
Speaker
You could pass the boost. We didn't do anything with your mind. Apologies. Can we pass two to two of these guys to prepare like we're opening the way for him. You know, it's a big wall forged. He needs the room. Come on down.
00:09:17
Speaker
So as as Rusty sacrifices a step to solidify this pathway, Beatrix rounds the corner running ahead and spots a hallway made of a series of arches, knowing that that is structurally a sound place to be and points in that direction as everybody makes a quick right to turn. Propel. I'm going to propel Will. Basically, he's a telekinetic, so basically,
00:09:45
Speaker
Um, basically create a shield and almost like a drill in the front. So basically we can just kind of rush through without getting hit by falling rocks or anything like that. Um, yeah, I want to do that because I haven't used my sonic powers yet. Um, so yeah, basically, you know, telekinetic shield. Perfect. Okay. Wow. So that's three success and six advantage. Um,
00:10:15
Speaker
Wow, what can I do with six advantages? Oh, what can't you do with six advantages? This is the better the better question. Boy, so. Yeah, I would I would let you.
00:10:30
Speaker
For six total advantage, if you wanted to use all of them, I would let you pass an upgrade to both Rusty and Beatrix on their next checks if you like. Just your teleconnect shield is like doing a perfect like path, just knocking the rubble aside as it's crumbling. And so you've just opened them up to not only be able to keep running, but have a clear
00:10:55
Speaker
uh, field of view of the path of head. And so have a, have a full upgrade to their, their next check. That works. The other thing I was thinking is, can I use the advantages to cut this check, check, cut the skill challenge short. So basically create a telekinetic slide and we, you know, we're, cause I'm guessing we're going down, right? So to sort of like, yeah, we're going to cut past this part where it's really dangerous and, you know, get closer to our destination.
00:11:22
Speaker
Wouldn't that just be a success? Well, what I'll do instead of like converting them to successes is the the the fuse on this, the number of failures is currently six. Yeah. OK. I'll bump it up to seven. So you all will have to fail a whole other check in order to. Sure. To fail this, this whole thing. So it's good.
00:11:46
Speaker
Now, I assume we shouldn't just use the same skill over and over. Is that correct or am I wrong about that? I'm not the type of GM that's inclined to force that on you. I I like it when people explore the the spice of life through variety. But so. So with that in mind, I am going to employ knowledge adventure.
00:12:09
Speaker
And my logic here is that I have been in Solidar before and I've heard stories and things like that. And so basically this is just about, you know, between Rusty and and Propel, we've managed to sort of create a little bit of a stable path. And this is about sort of trying to pick where we should go and saying, quick down that way.
00:12:35
Speaker
You know, and just sort of spotting, you know, spawning signs and and aspects of the architecture that are going to make it safer. Does that make sense? Perfect. Totally. All right. One success and a. Succeeded. So success is success. OK. Success.
00:12:57
Speaker
Rusty, you succeeded, but let's just say seeing seeing Soledar crumble around you and just the situation going on, you suffer a point of strain. It's a lot. Right now. It's a lot. But you are able to. You are able to point out a good path based on your knowledge of Soledar. Yeah. OK, who would like to go next?
00:13:27
Speaker
I could go. I think Beatrix is kind of thinking that she needs to take heart and find resolve because if they don't, then we're all likely to die. It's the nature of the game and that would be terrible.
00:13:50
Speaker
So she's going to project this a bit and decide that that means her comrades need some support. So she's going to kind of shout out something that she thinks is
00:14:10
Speaker
Uh, super reassuring, but sounds more like you're being yelled at by a drill sergeant about like, you, you come this way, get on, you know, there's, there's no time to lose. Is she, is she coercing us? Um, well, I was going to go with leadership, but maybe. No, no, definitely. Yeah. Um, you're, you're, you're the war veteran. Yeah.
00:14:34
Speaker
So I'll go with some leadership and see if you wish you can whip this motley crew into something like her. We don't need resolve. We need to evolve. Oh, exactly. Oh, no. Oops. Two failure and two threats. Not good. There's too much of this voice of Dern in her. Yeah, it's clearly messing with her thinking.
00:15:04
Speaker
Yeah, your cadence is off with this. Okay, so that is one.
00:15:13
Speaker
failure. So with that failure, what's happening is Beatrix. You're shouting out these orders and you begin to cough a bit as you realize that with the crumbling going on all around you, debris is really starting to fill up the air and impede your all's ability to see the path ahead and what's going on. So with that failure, all of the
00:15:36
Speaker
checks following will have a setback die added to them because you all are starting to have a hard time keeping your bearings and seeing what's going on around you. Oh, no, I'm sorry. This is what happens when you try to bust people around. Yeah, mom, that's a story. OK, so that leaves us with propel. I'd like to be destructive in a.
00:16:03
Speaker
in a, uh, advantageous way. So seeing everything falling around, is there a way to say, let's say knockdown pillars so that we're not getting hit by the debris and we're clearing a path positively. So it's like, everything's going to come down. I might as well knock that pillar over so that everything falls that way. And we keep going this way sort of thing. Oops. I just hit the mic. Yeah, totally. Would that be, I don't know, would that be a bronze check? I don't even know what that would be.
00:16:34
Speaker
In terms of what skill that would be, I would accept athletics. I would accept brawl. You know what? If you're using your shield arm because that uses melee light as the skill to attack with it, I would accept a melee light check. All right. Sure. I will. Basically, I'm just going to I'm going to create a path. I'm going to create a path for us by basically strategically knocking stuff down.
00:17:01
Speaker
And you said we have some negatives coming. So so you have one setback die added to your your pool now, one black D6. And I'm going to use a story point to upgrade your check. So you'll have a red die in there as well as attempting to be productively destructive has the potential to go real sideways. You could spend a story point to upgrade if you want. Yeah, you just said the story point. So I'm going to spend one right back.
00:17:31
Speaker
OK, even even out the score here, so I'm going to spend that story point. Perfect. Yeah, I'm going to make my role. Wow. One success, one success, one advantage, one advantage. I will pass the advantage to the next person. OK, OK. Next person gets a boost. Take it. OK, Rusty.
00:17:56
Speaker
All right. You can tell me if this is illogical or not, because I'm still learning the skills. But my thought here is to try and use discipline.
00:18:15
Speaker
to basically just remain focused. There's a lot of chaotic stuff going on. And I'm just again, you know, I already know what we're looking for. I've tried to create a path and I'm just trying to ignore all the chaos and just keep pressing. Totally. That totally makes sense. Yeah. And I get the the benefit from propel. Yep. You have a boost die. I'll go ahead and roll.
00:18:45
Speaker
Three success, two threat. So so yeah, after the last threat that you suffered where the the insanity caused a bit of stress on you, you you steal your mind against that and keep pressing on with the two threat. I am going to pass a setback die to the next one because you your your focus narrows and so you stop kind of thinking about your two compatriots. That makes sense. Beatrix propel.
00:19:19
Speaker
I want to be able to pick the two of them up and basically just shove them forward.
00:19:24
Speaker
OK, I know it's the same skill, but I want to do something different with it. Yeah, totally. Yeah. So so yeah, you you all are now going down like kind of a curved ramp, going down deeper into to Soledar as now a giant like chunk of the the ceiling in the mountain has broken off and is now rolling down the ramp after you all. And so
00:19:50
Speaker
propel, you're going to try to use your psionics to shove them to where they can get a bit more ground on this giant boulder.
00:19:57
Speaker
almost like a feather fall effect, like or something like we're just going to like, yeah, we've got to move. OK, jump and and just silently throw them. OK, so you have your two setback die, one from the debris in the air everywhere and the other one because Rusty is kind of ventured off to where it's not as easy for you to get both of them. All right. So I'm going to upgrade and use a story point to upgrade the difficulty. And then I'm going to use a point to balance it back out. Let's see what happens. All right.
00:20:27
Speaker
Where is my. All right, here we go. To success for threat. Oh, no. Wow. How are we doing on successes at this point? So that was your 15th success, which was the threshold for the skill challenge. So.
00:20:48
Speaker
So, yeah, what I'm going to say is propel. This is playing into the fourth threat as well. So seeing this giant boulder, knowing the direction you all need to go propel, you use your psionics to pick them up and fling them to the left and you kind of jump out of the way. And you all see as as the dust kind of settles and you all are under a couple of layers now to where you're you're secure.
00:21:16
Speaker
Um, your your vision kind of comes back after being tossed on the ground and Beatrix,
Confronting the Mind Flayer
00:21:25
Speaker
you still have this this voice ringing in the back of your mind that is has grown louder over the cacophony of of crashing rock. But all of you note, as you look around, you see a stone forge built into the wall of this large room that you're in.
00:21:45
Speaker
And you also see several pairs of feet. Standing there as you all kind of look up and you see the figure at the front kind of standing there, arms nonchalantly folded and Beatrix, you recognize the voice as you see a purple skinned tentacle mouthed entity staring down at you going. Perfection.
00:22:18
Speaker
OK, so I'm assuming that you all are. You all can talk if you want, but what's what's your all's response? I look at Beatrix and say friend of yours. I got I got two things. Can I spend a story point to use my heroic recovery and get some strain back? Yeah, absolutely. So.
00:22:48
Speaker
Just because hey, I got some strain. Um, so I am using a player story point and I am getting my stream and cat just rolled a B 20 on the ground. Uh, can I assume as a, uh, person with.
00:23:06
Speaker
knowledge adventure or I could make this as a role. Yeah. Should I make a knowledge adventure just to get a general? What do I know? Like, I know what we're dealing with here, but Rusty may not know. I'm doing knowledge adventure just to get a sense of that. Yeah, they're rare enough to where I will give you because of your knowledge of such things, Rusty, I will give you a boost. I given the fact that you've been down in Soledad before.
00:23:32
Speaker
Um, so yeah, I'm just saying he's gut is, oh, we should just, uh, yeah, well, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe it seems, uh, Oh, okay. No, that's me up above. Got it. Um, uh, so yeah, that's one success and advantage and a triumph. So.
00:23:53
Speaker
Um, so yes, you do know what you're dealing with here. Uh, Rusty can react, uh, however Rusty sees fit. Um, with the advantage, um, are you still low on strain? Uh, no, actually I'm good on strain now. Okay. Um,
00:24:14
Speaker
Well then, for your initiative role, let's say that you'll get a boost die for that. When that inevitably happens. The triumph. Talk to me, what would you like to do narratively in this situation?
00:24:30
Speaker
Um, let, let, let me give you the full picture of what you're dealing with real quick before you make that decision. So, uh, what you see before you is, uh, a mind flayer as, as you know, um, um, you also see, um, a dolegant there standing idly by, but what seems odd to you is you do see two cyforged.
00:24:57
Speaker
Oh, with it. Plot twist. And and you see Kratzia standing there. And does she look like, oh, haha, you finally come into my plot or does she look like, oh, I'm mind controlled? I mean, like, what's her expression? Part of your triumph, I'll I'll I'll just give you the full no check needed. She looks conflicted, but not prisoner. So she doesn't have a blank zombie stare or anything like that. No, yeah, yeah.
00:25:27
Speaker
But she also doesn't look triumphant in this moment.
00:25:32
Speaker
So basically where I'm trying to go with my triumph and play this around is I'm trying to say, essentially, I know what we're dealing with. I know that, oh, there's going to going to likely be some attempts at psychic manipulation, and then I'm trying to sort of use techniques I'm aware of to sort of steal my mind against that.
00:26:01
Speaker
I would go ahead when I can and cast a defense spell again, so I don't know if it could be a benefit to casting a defense spell. But I'm just saying, oh, it's time for that mind flayer drill that I've been practicing.
00:26:19
Speaker
Yeah, since it's a triumph, I would let you go ahead and attempt to cast a spell right now before getting to initial. Then that is what I will do. I'm reciting the Dwarven Alphabet backwards in my head. I will not use our other story points. We only have one. OK. But let's. Well, look at that. Wow. All right. Wow.
00:26:41
Speaker
That is one success, three advantage and another triumph. Oh, OK. It's just Rusty's on a roll. So let's talk about about defense. And I was trying to go, I guess, for the the mage armor. Yeah. You know, a fact that we have. So I just so I understand the benefit that has actually been gained here. So you have three ranks in knowledge, Rusty or two?
00:27:10
Speaker
I believe it's three. Yes, three. So anytime somebody tries to perform a weapon attack against you.
00:27:18
Speaker
they're gonna be adding three setback dice to that attempt. And in addition, you get one for just casting the spell, and then one additionally for every unrolled success, so your soak increases by two, while effectively, while this is going on. And this is a concentration spell, so you can maintain it. And can I use...
00:27:43
Speaker
some of the advantages to offset the strain. Yep, absolutely. Since I figure strain is going to be a thing. And then we're just back to our triumph. My immediate question is, yeah, go on.
00:28:04
Speaker
No, what was your question? I was going to say you could you could pass a similar boon on to Beatrix or propel if you wanted to give them a chance to to get some kind of defense of magic. That I think is is exactly what I was thinking of basically sort of as I am bringing this up, I'm basically saying strength in your mind, you know, concentrate, prepare for battle danger.
00:28:30
Speaker
You know, and and let either one of them. Perform a defensive action. If I were going to make a suggestion, I feel like superior major armor on propel might be a bit overkill compared to Beatrix's defense, so. OK, so so I would do Beatrix. And are you saying that I cast it on them or that they can cast?
00:28:56
Speaker
They can cast it on themselves using their their skill. Yeah. Beatrix, try some try some magic. If I want to apply barrier on myself, is this what I'm getting? Let's stick with the the. Quote unquote, vanilla mage armor. OK, so I wrote define. OK, three success to advantage.
00:29:21
Speaker
So Beatrix, your ranks in your knowledge lore are two. So your defense goes up to two on each melee and range. And your soak is now... What's your soak currently, Beatrix? Far at the moment.
00:29:42
Speaker
As long as this is active, you have a soak of eight. Wow. Wow. So the. Yeah, each of you go ahead and describe because obviously the the sources of your magic being very different, your mage armors would presumably look vastly different. Certainly for Rusty, I think it's a combination of of, as I said, he's stealing his mind. He is.
00:30:13
Speaker
young sort of knows how to deal with these things, we sort of drawing on on knowledge and techniques. And then it is more of again, that reality shifting, that when the attack comes at him, he's, he's just sort of not where it's, it should be, you know, he's sort of suddenly in a different position sort of thing, he's just slightly unstuck in in time and space. Awesome.
00:30:40
Speaker
And for Beatrix, I think this looks like it's sort of a magical aura that's emanating from within, from her blood. So like when you shine a torch through the tips of your fingers and you can see that kind of glow from in there. But just for that added kind of blood of boldness to it, it's sort of,
00:31:09
Speaker
not shining through her bones a bit, so there's maybe a kind of skeletal cast to her. But the light is from within, shining through her blood. But in some places, you know, there's a skull in the way, but it's a good thing. Awesome. There's a skull in the way, but it's a good thing.
00:31:33
Speaker
OK, awesome. So let's go ahead and unless Keith wants to roll a couple more triumphs, we'll go ahead and roll advantage or initiative. So this will be visual because. Go ahead. Did you say I was getting some kind of advantage on the initiative or did we get Pat? No, we we or we just used all that and all what we just did. Is that correct? Yeah. Yeah, I believe so. Yeah. That's fine. OK, so it looks like up first is an NPC slot, then a.
00:32:03
Speaker
then all of the PC slots, then the rest of the NPC slots. So, first up is going to be, unsurprisingly, the ugly one with the funny teeth. He, in his long black robe with red accents, smirks and
00:32:32
Speaker
looks at Propel, actually, and says, have you come to join your brothers? And he gestures to the cyborg behind him and he is going to make a attack on the mind of Propel. And why not? I have too many story points. OK.
00:33:00
Speaker
Propel, you feel your mind assaulted. You still apply your soak, but it is strain damage. So that is going to be nine strain. And. And it's a crit because it has a rating of two, so. Eighty seven. So that would be seventy seven.
00:33:30
Speaker
which is going to be overpowered. The target immediately leaves themselves open. The attacker may immediately attempt another attack against them as an incident, still using the exact same pool as the original attack. I mean, good. Now, with Durable, is it an auto thing or do you have the choice? Your character reduces any critical injury result they would suffer. Gotcha. So it happens regardless when you want it to.
00:33:59
Speaker
We'll do another attack. That is another...
00:34:05
Speaker
nine damage and then we all that and. Rather than inflicting another critical hit on propel, it's going to grant a free maneuver to one of the cyforge to step up next to next to him as kind of he realizes having done this, people are about to try and stab me. So I'm going to bring this guy up here to to assist in my defense.
00:34:32
Speaker
So. All right. So granted a free maneuver to one of his allies. So how are you doing on strain there, propel? I'm at eight. OK, so now we have a PC slot. Can. Now I'm blanking on character name. Can Beatrix help with recovering strain or a strain you can't recover that way?
00:34:57
Speaker
I believe the heal spell allows for so it's one one win per uncancelled success and one strain per uncancelled advantage. So when you do a heal, if you roll a bunch of advantage, then yeah. Well, I'm at four wounds and eight strain. I took damage. And then during the last comment, we had to start running. OK, well, if if we want to start out
00:35:22
Speaker
the best version of ourselves that we can be, then Beatrix will start out with a heal with a call to her divinity to shine upon her allies and grant them resolve in this difficult time. So I could do a heal to try and get some of Repel's
00:35:51
Speaker
straighten wounds gone. Does, uh, Rusty needs any healing as well. Rusty's fine. Yeah. Okay. So I'll roll a single target heal on, um, on propel then we have divine. Wow. Okay. So that is five, five wounds and one straighten.
00:36:18
Speaker
Nicely done. And that's why you should leave in yourself. The power of positive thinking. Exactly. Beatrix, would you like to then use a maneuver to move up close or reposition? I have to use a maneuver to concentrate on the barrier, I think. Yep. You can do that. And then you could suffer too strained to then move if you want or just stay where you are and save your strain.
00:36:49
Speaker
I think Beatrix is feeling pretty safe. She has this power emanating from her, and she's just shown, propel the power of, you know, self-worth. So she's going to charge in, taking some extra strain to close to the creature that has been sitting in her mind and haunting her.
00:37:19
Speaker
She's going to move into to engage the mind fire. Awesome. OK. And I think that's that's her turn done. All right. If I can follow up with that, if we're still PC slots from the look of it, I want to try giving her some covering fire and having seen this this creature
00:37:49
Speaker
attack my friend. I'm going to do a blast, but I want to make it deadly because that sounds like a fun thing.
00:37:58
Speaker
Yeah. So again, this is coming back to the I've I haven't actually personally dealt with a mind flayer before, but I've certainly I've heard about them. I've studied them. And I think that I can try and I have an effect that I've always wanted to try and basically boil its brain and it's in its skull here. So I'm going to try and do a deadly blast.
00:38:22
Speaker
Now, my question is, my thought is to say, oh, but the thing about this, you know, I've never used this spell before, so I think it's pretty dangerous. Um, perfect. So I want to use my dangerous casting, but again, this comes a little back to the, I don't know all the mechanics, you're going to have to walk me through this a little as to what's going to be effective.
00:38:43
Speaker
So yeah, your pool was too purple, so decrease it by one will upgrade that one to a red. So you're going from rolling two dice to only one, which is a net positive, but something crazy might happen. I'm doing that. And what's our story dice situation at the moment? Two and two. Two and two.
00:39:04
Speaker
I say if we could, I've got the the the deadly ads like critical. So, yeah, I'm going to I'm going to add everything in here and let us roll it. OK. Well, so that is a success. So 10 damage. Now, what's vicious do?
00:39:29
Speaker
Vicious. Oh, my gosh, I didn't read that. OK, points of vicious. So that adds 30 to your crit role on the one hundred. And I rolled. You rolled double. Mm hmm. So you can add another 10 so you can create with a plus 40 to your D. Well, I like the sound of that.
00:39:54
Speaker
And do I just roll the D100 or is there something else I should do here? Yeah, you can just go and pick the D100 option in roll 20. So that's one hundred and twenty eight. OK. So this is perfect. Rusty, go and roll a D10 for me in addition to this, because.
00:40:19
Speaker
Five. Five. Average. Okay. So gruesome injury is what has happened. So essentially what you have done is reduced his intellect by one.
00:40:34
Speaker
Noise for the purposes of everything so go ahead and describe the gruesome injury like you said you were going to boil his brain. I think that's exactly what happened it's one of these things where where like you see his squiddy sort of head like actually sort of expand a little in ways it shouldn't.
00:40:53
Speaker
And, you know, the thing about it is it's not sort of the same as human anatomy. And so like a human would definitely just be killed instantly by this effect. But, you know, I've never actually worked with one of these creatures before. And so he's obviously disoriented and uncomfortable and steam may be actually coming out of, you know, his eyes or something like that. But he is not completely dead, although I did drop damage on him, too. So yes, you did.
00:41:24
Speaker
I wasn't sure that would work. He reels. In fact,
00:41:32
Speaker
Beatrix, you can feel it doesn't have any adverse effects on you, but you can feel his agony in your mind. But to use kind of an anachronistic term, there almost seems to be kind of a static cut out as his brain is being tweaked. And yeah, I mean, you just see his head like the the iconically bulbous head is now kind of misshapen permanently. Part of it is like concaved in. He gestures it rusty and
00:42:02
Speaker
Uh, bring me the mind of that filthy little creature. But he certainly picks up over my shoulder and looks at me with a sort of, oh, what have you gotten us into? This is when he detaches and runs off. Yeah, just right back down vacation time. OK, propel, you are up.
00:42:31
Speaker
Uh, I'm going to look at these opposing cyborg and say, you are not my brother because we are not biological beings. And neither do you have a, neither do you have a gender and I'm going to head button. Okay. Um, so he's not prone. I take some wounds, but he is not thrown and disoriented.
00:42:58
Speaker
And then I'm going to, can I bypass him then? Cause now he's prone and disoriented. Can I just walk past him? Uh, yeah, you could. I'm going to walk right up to the, um, the mind flare. Okay.
00:43:17
Speaker
And I'm going to look at the little, you know, indent in his head and I'm going to crush it. Okay. Um, so I'm going to use my silence. I know I'm putting myself into strain territory here, but he hit me twice with a mind blast basically. So, um, before you do one quick question.
00:43:38
Speaker
Um, in my attack, I think we might have forgot the fact and you can tell me if I'm wrong, that when I get a success with an attack spell, I get an extra advantage because my wand. Oh, yeah. Can that. Can I pass that to propel here since we forgot about it or. Yeah, it just seems the simplest things. So just saying pass that along, please. All right.
00:44:05
Speaker
I'm a telekinetic, usually I use items, but basically I'm just going to use telekinetically press on that point.
00:44:11
Speaker
OK, perfect. So because you went up to engaged, you get that extra purple because of close combat. Yep. And because I am generous, I will spend a story point to give one back to you. Oh, you're so sweet to use it again. OK, might as well finish this guy with one shot. Wow. OK.
00:44:40
Speaker
three success, two advantage and a triumph. Yeah, you deal. A fair amount of damage for I guess he just attacks.
00:44:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, the attack spell. So intellect plus the three uncancelled. So that's seven. So, yeah, I mean, you you see this concave crease in his skull pressed down even further as he like reels and his body seems to seize up somewhat in agony to advantage. Well, with the triumph, you could crit. And because he has now had a critical hit,
00:45:20
Speaker
dealt to him, you would get a plus 10 to your role. So if you want to use your triumph for that. So with a triumph, I want to add an element. I want to have pushed him back far enough that I push him into the forge.
00:45:35
Speaker
Okay. And basically he can start his turn. I'm guessing it's lit. So I'm going to basically have kind of stumbled him into the forge so he can light himself on fire or environmental damage. Um, and so then I will use, then I will use the advantages to reduce my strain.
00:45:54
Speaker
That's pretty high right now. I am going to give him a coordination check to try to prevent from being thrown into the fire. The difficulty will be set by the number. You had three success on that check, so we'll make it a three difficulty check because of that force that you had. Like you push him and he like stumbles back, but manages to use his psionic energy to like keep himself from being lit aflame. So you've put some distance in between yourself and him.
00:46:23
Speaker
And he'll have to use a maneuver to stand back up. So if he's going to try to close the distance with anybody, he'll suffer strain to attempt to do that. And then I think I have one more thing I can do.
00:46:36
Speaker
With your triumph, though, Wayne, just so it's not fully wasted on a successful check by an enemy, if you like, I will also say that the force with which you pushed him into it caused the forge to crack a bit. And so some of the the flame and the coals and everything have spilled out amongst the enemies to where they're they're going to have to navigate around that, basically creating more difficult terrain that they have to deal with.
00:47:01
Speaker
I had bad news, by the way, team. I've just come to a disturbing realization. Yeah. We don't know who we're dealing with.
00:47:09
Speaker
I mean, I don't know. I mean, he's obviously a mind flayer, but we don't know. Like, is he Greg, the mind flayer? We don't know. I hate not knowing who we're dealing with. This is George. George, the mind flayer. Um, I am going to, I guess it's an incidental. It doesn't say an activation because once per round I'm going to activate defensive stance. Cause I'm just kind of standing in the middle of all of them. Yeah, for sure. So defense defense crystals light up and it's.
00:47:34
Speaker
kind of pushing telekinetic energies, pushing people away, making it harder to hit me.
00:47:39
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Yeah, you're going to suffer one strain. And yeah. So yeah, you you activate the crystals. OK, now it is next NPC's turn. So the. Sci forge are going to the one that's still standing is going to approach you suffering. It's too strained to get there. It says to you propel as it closes the distance.
00:48:10
Speaker
Do not fight us. We are, we are all his children. And he's going to stab. Don't fight us. Let me fight you. You know, I mean, it's a compelling argument when you add the stabby part at the end. So offensive stance adds one difficulty. Yeah.
00:48:33
Speaker
Yes, all the purples upgrades, the difficulty. Yeah. Whoa. OK. Two success, two advantage and a despair. So he does hit, but he's going to be really bad about it because he's hitting his own. He is conflicted. He's your brother.
00:48:55
Speaker
Yeah, so that's going to be nine damage before soak. OK. The two advantage he is going to pass a he's going to give a boost directly to the other cyforge and the despair. OK, gang, something really bad happens to in your favor. So all of the forge is broken. Why doesn't he fall into the flames? I'm just OK. Easier. Yeah.
00:49:23
Speaker
So yeah, with that despair, I'll say that you can sidestep and use your shield arm to shift his momentum as he sinks his blade in between the seams of your plating. And he tumbles over the mind flayer and into the forge as he begins to struggle in trying to get out of it. Poor guy. That's your brother.
00:49:48
Speaker
Okay. The other cyborg is going to, he's prone and disoriented. I don't know how long it's, but the description kind of cuts off. So you can see what that says.
00:49:57
Speaker
So he's going to stand up disoriented, basically mean until the end of the next round. So is the the duration. So he's able to use his maneuver to stand up. He's going to suffer to strain to get over there to you. And then. But he's isn't he? He needs to spend one maneuver to go around the difficult terrain.
00:50:24
Speaker
Fair enough. Yeah. So, so he'll stand up and then, um, yeah, so he won't be able to get to you in this turn. So while you could, if you use this action as a maneuver and he has nothing. So regardless of the configuration, you can only ever get two maneuvers in a turn. So you can use your action to use a maneuver and not suffer the stream, but you can never get three maneuvers. So.
00:50:50
Speaker
So yeah, he'll stand up and then he'll use his action to to begin navigating the the fire and the embers that's building around all of you. Lastly, the dole gaunt is going to break.
00:51:04
Speaker
Yeah, there's a dog. A wild dog appears. So the dog is going to attempt to attack Rusty because the last thing that it heard was bring me the mind of that foul creature. So don't forget that I made drama for three. Yep. So that is going to be I got to tell you, dad is going to be so annoyed when he finds out that I've been like,
00:51:34
Speaker
actually trying to blow up my flare brains.
00:51:38
Speaker
It's going to be awesome. OK. A failure and two advantage. So it it gets up on you rusty with its tentacles kind of trying to wrap around you as it slashes and your mage armor deflects its its attempt. But because it's up on you like that with the two advantage, it's going to impose a setback die on your next check.
00:52:05
Speaker
OK, because it's just it's really trying to give you a nice warm hug. Yeah. OK, so the mind flayer is going to use his maneuver to stand up and he is going to he looks real bad and.
00:52:27
Speaker
He screams at that propel. How dare you? Do you not know who you are, who you were made to serve, kneel or be destroyed? And he is going to do. And don't forget that his intellect got.
00:52:53
Speaker
Shrunk. Got got. Yep. He working with half a brain. So, yeah, that's going to take him down to one green and two yellow for his check. And he is going to attempt. Why not? He's going to add the doom doom.
00:53:18
Speaker
a curse on there, and we're going to spend a story point, upgrade his check. And I think that's everything that I could possibly do to benefit myself here. So. Well, seven dice got one failure, so he extends and attempts to manipulate your mind and twist it propel. But for some reason, his magic just can't gain purchase.
00:53:48
Speaker
because you're more than he thinks you are. We have a PC slot. I'm kind of all tangled up with a stroll grim who I'd love to blast the crap out of, but Propel, do you want to respond to that attempt to take over your brain? Is there anything loose around here?
00:54:07
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there's your standard rubble. You also have cracks of the forge and some of the coals that have spilled out onto the floor. But it's clear that Kratzia has started to move in as well. So there's crates and things like that. I'm going to lift up part of the forge and try to drive it and the mind flare into the fire that I've created. OK.
00:54:35
Speaker
Basically. No. And what are we at for points? I'm going to spend a story point for that because I would like him to die.
00:54:48
Speaker
Um, a horrible, horrible death. Um, okay. And I will spend a story point cause I would like something interesting to happen if you roll a despair. All right. Um, yeah, basically, uh, I'm not working at a respond to him. Sort of sick and tired of talking to this thing. And, um, basically just going to try to drive him into the flames. Okay.
00:55:11
Speaker
Wow. For success to advantage. Damn. So intellect of four. So that's eight damage. I mean, describe them. You fling this dude into the fire, like head first. Yeah. We're concentrating on the head. So basically, um, basically as he's talking, basically lift up a piece of rubble and like slam into the back of his head. And as he kind of like falls into the flames, kind of like drive it back down on top, obviously just one action.
00:55:40
Speaker
and basically drive him into the flames. OK, so yeah, this massive piece of the Ford. Yeah, he was about to continue on with his next point and then. Yeah. And then a giant piece of the Ford just pins him into the coals as you all get this sickly sweet smell permeating the air.
00:56:00
Speaker
Uh, okay. I'm going to use one of the, um, one of the advantages to reduce strain. And I'm going to pass an advantage to whoever's next pass a, uh, pass a boost. Excuse me. Perfect. I can, I can jump in here. Um, and I'm going to look at the other side forge in front of me and I'm going to activate the blade now for some cutting.
00:56:28
Speaker
And is is is the mind player still alive or is he taking care of here? He he's he is taking care. So I'm going to I'm going to try and get the the dog hunt. And, you know, take advantage of the advantage there, you know, with the needless to say, you know, saying, hey, hey, things aren't looking so good there. You know, you might want to check out your boss.
00:56:58
Speaker
Um, and then I'm going to use the trick that worked on the, um, I'm going to see if this spell of mine works on, on don't got as well. So I'm going to again, try to do the attack with a deadly upgrade.
00:57:14
Speaker
Awesome. Uh, I will again, I know, you know, it's gotta catch up with me sometime, but I will make that dangerous to, to those chances. And, uh, since we got them, I'll spend a story point. So I'm just, I'm just throwing everything.
00:57:31
Speaker
on here burning the candle at both ends, Rusty. I know. So it's dangerous. I got the boost from plenty on and I think I'm just basically saying, Oh, you might want to look at your boss or you might want to feel like it. And let's try and pop his brain.
00:57:49
Speaker
Um, and if everything is set for that, then boom. Very nice. Very nice. Sometimes the dice are just hot. None of them bad. So that would be 13 damage. Plus it is a critical hit and it's got the vicious quality of, of plus 30 and a triumph on top of that.
00:58:19
Speaker
And you have the additional advantage so you can do another plus ten to a plus 40 on that because of your wand. So, yeah. So go and roll roll a D100. And does the triumph factor in here or is the triumph we'll worry about the triumph later? You you could use the triumph to add another plus ten as an additional crit or you could do something else with it. Save it for something else. Plus ten isn't that exciting.
00:58:47
Speaker
OK, so so we were at a plus at the brink. So let me do the damage calculation. You did 13 total damage. So I will just say if we threw if we threw the extra plus 10 from the triumph, then would that just simplify things or should we not worry? No, actually, then then then then let's keep going.
00:59:14
Speaker
The 94 is more effective. So at the brink, the target suffers to strain each time they perform an action until this critical injury is healed. But what's interesting about rivals, which is the category of enemy that this is, they can suffer strain unlike minions, but they don't have a separate strain threshold, so it just gets converted straight into wounds. So effectively, this thing will be suffering to wounds every time they act.
00:59:41
Speaker
All right. And of course, I hit him for 13 points of damage. Yes. And I still have a triumph floating around. Can you stop her with a triumph? She hasn't done anything yet. What's she doing? She hasn't done anything. She once again looks conflicted, freaking out and. It.
01:00:04
Speaker
You all you all can give me just as an incidental real quick a perception check to see if you can get a beat on on why she hasn't acted. So go ahead and you're ready to roll. So this is a weird set of rules. So you guys don't get her. She's a dwarf, right? I understand dwarves.
01:00:31
Speaker
Well, what's interesting is you have a triumph, but you did not succeed on the check. You have no success. So that's why this is super weird is propel. You have one advantage, two failures. Beatrix, you have a threat and Rusty, you have a triumph alone. So I'm also rolling off a previous triumph, too. Don't forget. So I stacked up two random triumphs. Um.
01:01:01
Speaker
So, yeah, propel. You've been taken straight. Recover a point of strain. All right. Beatrix suffer a point of strain, although you are relieved that the mind is no or your mind is no longer seemingly invaded by a chatty Kathy. But.
01:01:19
Speaker
Yeah, let's talk. So you none of you have any insight as to why she hasn't acted. She just looks conflicted. She's watching, but she's not moving forward to make any kind of action. She has moved a little bit away from the fire that's spilled out of the forge. But yeah, so. We have two triumphs effectively on the board right now. So can you yell at her to surrender?
01:01:49
Speaker
I mean, in regards to her, like I said, she's not doing anything. She she it doesn't even seem like she's like casting magic to bolster the side that she was standing on when you all arrived or anything. Like she seems to be purely an observer as to what's going on. But that's really all the insight that you can gain at this point in regards to her motives. Two triumphs. Can we get the war for the stand down?
01:02:17
Speaker
The boss is done. The dole gaunt is done. Well, and furthermore, you're the you're the you know, maybe they were created by this guy. We don't know. But this other cyforged has come in and just crushed that guy. Like maybe they they will be like, hey, maybe this guy is no something we don't. I mean, like, I don't know. He's their brother after all.
01:02:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, we can we can we can go with that. It's two triumphs. So in that realm, pretty much anything is possible in terms of driving the narrative. So if they're just even uncertain, if they just want to stop and try and hear what what propel has to say or something.
01:03:01
Speaker
Yeah, OK, here's here's how we'll we'll do this just because the literally the next thing the dole grant or the dole got was going to do was going to kill it.
Kratzia's Betrayal and Confession
01:03:11
Speaker
So the the dole got like lurches and then just falls flat on its face. And at this point, Kratzia throws her hands up and starts telling the cyforge to stop.
01:03:27
Speaker
Um, like. Stop, stop. He's dead. He's dead. His his little goon is dead. You're not getting paid. Just stop. I hired them to come here. I'm sorry. Uh, I I would say I could explain, but you probably won't accept any kind of explanation at this point. Um, but just just stop.
01:03:55
Speaker
And I'll give you your money that he promised you. And so the cyforged stand down. What did she promise you? The cyforged still standing says we were. And his it seems like his brow is for furrowing. Who we.
01:04:23
Speaker
We were promised payment for providing guardianship, but we were told we were serving something greater. But given how effectively you all have dealt with this one, I now question the greatness of those claims. I certainly will just be, you know, basically poking the
01:04:50
Speaker
Dolgond in the forehead, just making sure, yep, that's dead. Just again, sort of securing the room a little. So just confirming that the mind flayer and the Dolgond are actually dead.
01:05:05
Speaker
I'm catching my breath, so if that's the end of an encounter, taking that strain back, you know. OK. And approaching Krasnia, you know, not pointing the wand at her, but not not pointing the wand at her. You know, certainly keeping it at a combat ready position. OK, Beatrix, what are you doing?
01:05:41
Speaker
I think she spits on the body of Mind Flayer and then turns her attention to Grazia and starts fishing through her belongings for some rope to tie up this new prisoner that they're obviously going to make of this surrendered betrayer.
01:05:59
Speaker
Um, I think
01:06:07
Speaker
So as Beatrix goes to sit on a mind flare, I'll pull like an anvil and drop it on the mindfare and push it down so she has a seat. Oh, spit, I think is what she was. Yeah, spit. Oh, I like to sit on my. I'm like, Oh, you got to sit on my chair. Making making mind flaring to furniture. I do think it's a pretty cool idea. It's awesome. Oh, Krasnya.
01:06:38
Speaker
What's going on? Oh, my. So after.
01:06:53
Speaker
After my scouts didn't come back, I received a message about what had happened to them and that unless I wanted the same thing to happen to myself and members of my clan, that I needed to provide
01:07:14
Speaker
I guess if you were to get religious about it, a sacrifice for lack of a better term. And so I just put up a flyer to see if anybody would want to go into Soludar and look at you all. You didn't fall for it. You came out on top. And so, yeah, why are you tying me up? Oh, hello.
01:07:35
Speaker
as Beatrix approaches. A question for you. Are we the first or just the next? The latest. Yes. We are the first? Yes. Yes. If anybody would like to give me a perception check to see. Seems on the level to me.
01:08:05
Speaker
That's a lot of threats, guys. You just don't get dwarves. Oh, my goodness. That's so Beatrix got two success, three threat. Rusty to threat propel on threat. So Beatrix, she is very clearly lying to you all. But Rusty propel you like she seems cool. Like it seems reasonable. It's business. I mean, we we did, you know, it's a job.
01:08:37
Speaker
It's a business of submitting yourself to a higher power if you want to call this creature that and there is nothing worse. Well, what I want to get to the point of is so let's talk about payment. Like, you know, I don't think minority share is really covering the situation.
01:09:04
Speaker
As, as he says that I'm going to pull the mind flare out of the flames, um, and bring it over to, I'm going to bring it over. Like basically, cause I'm taller than, than Rusty, right? I'm going to bring it over. And as he's talking to her, I'm just going to lift it up over Rusty's head. So it's kind of like looking at her like bird face, cave, skull, you know, you know, perfect blood. And I'm just going to hold it up above as rusty, uh, rusty does his pitch.
01:09:34
Speaker
I mean, this is technically your clan's territory. I mean, so I mean, I get that you're entitled to do whatever you want here, but, you know, we've gone a little above and beyond, I think.
01:09:49
Speaker
One thing that you do notice Beatrix as you are giving her the old Carnathy stare down, now that you know that she's lying, you begin to notice something about her outfit that you hadn't previously noted because there wasn't any point in noticing such a thing when you all first met with her.
01:10:12
Speaker
She's wearing an awful lot of purple accents. So she says, oh, because Rusty and propeller, the two currently talking to her. Yes, absolutely. I would be more than happy to arrange for, let's say, between the three of you a
01:10:34
Speaker
I keep 60, you get 40 split. Would that be amicable for the profit? I mean, obviously the forage has sustained some damage, but that's totally understandable and I'm more than happy to cover the costs of
Forge Negotiations
01:10:46
Speaker
repairing those. But once the forage is up and running, 60 40 sound good. Yes, logically, logically 40 doesn't divide by three very well.
01:10:57
Speaker
I think 60 divides much better than 40. Well, I'm not going to give you the majority of the forge. That would be ridiculous.
01:11:14
Speaker
Well, how much of your share is this? I notice you're... Well, you're one of them, aren't you? This isn't just business for you. So how much of the share of this forge is going to your aberrant masses deeper in this place? Aberrant? I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, don't play dumb with me.
01:11:43
Speaker
OK, I'll give you because you've you've noted what's going on. I'll give you an upgrade on a opposed coercion check. So it's going to be going against her discipline. And with with propelled dangling the mind flayer, we'll get at a boost in there as well. No, it's OK to success. So.
01:12:12
Speaker
On that, she just sneers at you Beatrix.
Looming Threat Revealed
01:12:20
Speaker
Does it matter? None of it matters. You'll be dead. They're coming. And once we find a way to let them venture out into the world, you'll all join us.
01:12:41
Speaker
Yeah, OK, so we're definitely talking 60, 40, our favor. And I I can't think of a better place to to call it than there. Yeah, good. OK, well, thank you all so much for thank you so much.
Closing and Gratitude
01:13:04
Speaker
And I hope you enjoyed the system first time out, but
01:13:09
Speaker
Yeah. I got to blow up a mind flayer's brain inside his head. That was great. Yeah. What more could you ask for? That's the dream, right? Totally the dream.
01:13:20
Speaker
Thank you all so much for listening to this great special one shot that we have done with the manifest zone crew. If you are one of our regular listeners and have enjoyed listening to these three players in the world of Eberron and you have not yet, you should absolutely go check out the manifest zone podcast. You can find it on all of your
01:13:40
Speaker
podcatchers or if you head to manifest.zone, that is their website where you can find all the episodes and all the resources for their show there. So yeah, just another huge thank you to the three of them for being such wonderful players to get to enjoy this game with and for taking risks and doing fun and interesting things. And yeah, it was truly a joy to run the game for them.
01:14:07
Speaker
I hope that you all have enjoyed it. If you're new to Eberron Renewed and you've come here from the Manifest Zone, then welcome. Perhaps you will stick around and listen to our main campaign if you've enjoyed it. And yeah, thank you. And if you want to be part of the conversation, head over to our Facebook group, The Geek Pantheon, or our Discord. You can find a link at thegeekpantheon.com. And yeah, once again, I've been your Game Master, Eric, and I will see you next time.
01:14:33
Speaker
you