Mayday Plays - Ashoka: Precious Cargo Ep. 1, "Precious Cargo"
Episode Date: March 4, 2021Ep. 1: Ashoka - “Precious Cargo” Welcome to Ashoka and Happy Fang Festival! We set our sights for Tengu Atoll drawn by an ominous letter to transport Precious Cargo to an uncharted island in the ...South Seas. Can this band of maritime miscreants deliver before the end of Summer? Or will dangers ahead blow them right out of the water. Adventure awaits you in this DnD Homebrew Short Campaign. This episode contains profanity, violence, and references to drug/alcohol use. CAST OF CHARACTERS • Aaron - Trig • Allegra - Xauti • Amanda - Snuvall • Caleb - Anchor • Eli - Dungeon Master • Zakiya - Kenny • Sergio - Rad MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS • Post Sound Supervision: Sergio Crego, Allegra Shivers, Eli Hauschel • Mixed: Eli Hauschel • Original Music: Aaron A. Pabst • Soundstripe (soundstripe.com) MAYDAY ROLEPLAY LINKS • Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/maydayrp/) • Twitter (https://twitter.com/maydayroleplay7) • Mayday website (https://www.maydayroleplay.com/) • Patreon (patreon.com/maydayrp/) • Twitch (twitch.tv/maydayroleplay)
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Ashoka Precious Cargo is a D&D homebrew campaign with violent themes and adult language.
Listener discretion is advised.
Aloha Kako friends, welcome to Mayday Roleplay.
My name is Eli and I will be your dungeon master for today.
We want to thank you for joining us for our first playcast of the year, set in my homebrew
world of Ashoka.
We also want to let you know that we are on Twitch now, creating awesome content such
as Mondays with Erin at the Sheep Farm.
On Tuesdays, Sergio leads us through the Ironlands in Iron Sworn Eye of the Storm.
And on alternate Wednesdays, leg teaches us some history and some heroes you should know.
We got a couple of one shots available as well as a 3 part debrief of our first campaign,
Delta Green Doom to Repeat, which are now available on VOD and wherever you get your podcasts.
If you love and want to support us here at Mayday, please be sure to subscribe to us
on Patreon.
There you'll get access to our Discord channel as well as perks like artwork from Zikia and
music from Erin.
The rest of the cast will be introduced throughout this narrative.
And if there's nothing else to discuss, why not we get started?
This is Mayday Play's Precious Cargo.
Welcome to Ashoka.
The year is 937 AF.
The events that broke this continent apart remains a mystery that is only known to and
referred as Old Ashoka.
But from these broken pieces, two strong empires thrive.
To the south and east, the pillars of Old Ashoka Oda now, the beastmen have always been
here before the cracking during the time of elves.
They are the hearth of wild magic and the fey wilds that have regrown.
Under the protection of the king and the three isle lords, Oda now remains.
To the north and west, the young warmongers of Ashoka, Sasan, battle-hearted men, conquerors
of the leukemen empire.
For 300 years, Sasan has sought to unify this scattered archipelago under the Torch Queen's
rule, and for 300 years they have failed.
This stalemate brokered the Treaty of Tides in hopes to flourish in Era of Stability,
and 100 years now peace has been the order of things.
But when the fires of conquest burns in one soul, what room is left for peace?
But our story, like many stories in Ashoka, begins on a boat.
In the northern parts of the border isles, the air is still, a fog clings to an unmoving
sea.
But Oda now in wayfaring canoe, juts through the calm, double-hole with a platform that
straddles between.
A single crab-claw sail full of wind looms over a small hut and a large steering oar
and pulley to adjust the sails to catch current at its rear.
On the helm, a weary traveler nears his destination.
Caleb, can you introduce your character and describe him?
Yes, I can.
My name is Anchor.
I'm a weary traveler, like you said.
I'm dressed in scarves, sashes, belts, and billowing materials all over.
I have a sort of nomadic dress about me, like someone who's come from jungles and deserts,
all over through different travels.
I'm about six foot four, well-conditioned, a strong, brawny warrior, with a club at my
back.
I have dark brown skin and noble features.
I'm a man who's come a long way to be here.
When I'm sailing my ship, I'm getting back behind that oar and making way for my destination.
Roll me a perception check.
So that's a big fat 12.
You lock the steering oar in its place as you step out onto the platform to take a look
around your surroundings, kind of peering into this fog.
Eventually, you finally see the marker head for your destination.
It's actually a large boulder that's kind of bobbing in the middle of this ocean.
It's got carvings marked into it that kind of look like a lotus blossom or a flower of
some kind.
But you know that that's the marker head noted on your map for the arrival of Tengu Atoll.
You know Tengu Atoll is an island that is a recessed in the cove of a dying volcano.
It's wide, craggy ring of steep mountain wraps around, creating a narrow passage in and out,
creating both in defense against enemies and unsavory storms that come from further north
up from the maelstrom known as Dalma.
You know that entering into this area requires a little less speed than you have.
So you look up to your mass head and you notice that even though that there's no wind around
you, that your sails are full of air and wind like it is a breezy day.
You approach the mass head and you notice that on the mass head itself, there is a ring
of like geretic ruins that are illuminated that go all the way to the top of the sail.
And when you kind of bring your attention back down, you see in the middle of the mass
head a slot and in that slot a talisman stone.
You know this as being a sailor and traveling on Odenau and vessels.
This is what's called a gust stone.
Travel throughout this archipelago requires a level of speed that simple sailing traditionally
doesn't quite cut it.
So the druids of Odenau created these gust stones as a way to quicken travel and is
used on various types of ships.
What do you do?
I think I'm going to reduce my speed like we were talking, you know, maybe manipulate
the gust stone if that's a possibility to bring myself into a landing in this sort of
a cove of Tengu at all.
I had a question about the gust stones.
Is this the sort of thing that you have to regenerate?
You go to the slot and you pull the stone and as soon as you pull the stone instantly
the illumination of ruins kind of like pull back into its place and the sail just kind
of starts to deflate as there's no longer air in it and you start to slow down.
As you pull the stone, you see that there are like cracks forming around it.
You know that these stones have to be often replaced as they only have so many charge
and over time of using those charges, the stone will eventually crack and fall apart.
Looking at the stone, you probably have maybe two to three days left as you've been using
this throughout most of your journey from your original destination, but it's easy enough
to traverse through this narrow passageway as you kind of become engulfed in darkness
and eventually on the other side you see Tengu at all.
It's a very small island, but it's kind of stacked up amongst itself and you see now
that you've passed through this tunnel, the sky is no longer foggy as it's opened up to
a level of dusk as it's about five or six o'clock in the evening.
As you see stretches of blue and purple and pink and orange as the sun is setting in the
west.
It takes you a while because as you continue through the bay, you notice that there's a
lot of boats that are kind of docked out in the middle of the bay as well as around the
main docking area and as you're continuing to kind of pass through all of these ships
you see like firecrackers popping off into the sky as they're bursting and illuminating,
casting down and you hear like drums and festival music and loud crowds and commotion and you
know that it's about mid-summer and during this time, especially in Oda now, it's the
celebration of the Fang Festival.
The Fang Festival is a time of year to pay homage to the Feywiles and to the natural
world and to the deities of Ashoka and people often dress up in masks and clothing to kind
of celebrate these beings that live and thrive amongst these people.
Tengu Atoll is home to one of the last remaining colonies of the Leukemen people and they are
been pushed out of their crown lands over the years of being under the rule of Sasan
and they've been essentially left to their own devises on these craggy, sinking islands.
But they've requested a help of an assistance of some kind and that's what you're here for.
Eventually you find a place to dock.
It's more towards the back end where more the fishermen ships are and as you're tying
up your boat, you see a harbour master who's kind of approaching you with a ledger in hand.
He's a Leukemen.
He's about seven feet tall.
He's portly.
He's wearing fancy festival type robes but you can obviously tell that he doesn't wear
this often as he's kind of like tight around the middle section.
He's kind of got a flush cheek.
He's got a flat nose, flush cheeks and just a whole bunch of just curly dark brown hair.
But he eventually approaches you and he throws out his arms and he says welcome to Tengu Atoll
and Happy Fang Festival.
Before he approaches I for sure I bring up my head wrap to cover my face and everything
just because I don't want to give any reputation before I actually speak and then once he
welcomes me I turn to him and I say, oh, thank you.
It's so good to be here.
Happy Fang Festival.
He nods at you and he says it'll be three silver to dock your boat here per night.
Do you tend to stay long?
Are you passing through?
Are you here for the festival?
Yes, the festival.
I also have come to speak with your dignitaries, the man in charge but that will come along
with the celebrations.
But yes, I can give you the silver.
I have some in my pouch over here.
I had a question for you.
Do you sell gust stones here on the atel?
He nods as I guess we should have some in the markets.
It's easy enough to find.
You said you were here to meet someone?
Yes, I have this note I've been given.
I'm to meet with the leadership of this island.
He kind of gestures to hold his hand out to see the letter.
Yeah, I mean I'm imposing enough that I don't think he's going to do anything about it so
I definitely I'll hand it over.
He kind of reads over the letter and he kind of looks you over as he goes back between
the letter and you.
I don't think the anchor has a sort of intimidating presence.
He's big but he's sort of slouched over, not great in the posture and sort of bending in
on his club, just sort of waiting for the guy to like, come on dude, the DMV please
give me through this.
He eventually hands the letter back to you and he kind of turns his head back and he
calls out in Echesian to somebody and eventually one of the Leukemic Guards shows up.
He's like a lanky, younger, much younger guy, very very thin, wearing just simple leather
armor and the both of them are exchanging something in Echesian to each other and then
the Harbour Master finally looks back to you.
This is Ro.
He will lead you to where you need to go to meet whoever you're intending to meet and
he'll be happy to lead you through the markets and you can procure anything you need along
the way.
Perfect.
I thank you for your hospitality.
I welcome that.
I'm wondering what is the festival all about?
It will be my first celebration honestly.
You must be from Sasan then.
I'm a traveler, I'm nomadic, I'm all over but I rarely stop long enough to celebrate
so this will be my first.
Well the Fang Festival was just a great time of year, around the longest days of the summer.
It's just a time to celebrate the earth beneath us, the gods that look over us and watch over
us and the Feywild and the magic that just lives and breathes alongside us here.
So it's just an opportunity to give thanks, to have fun before the harvest and into the
colder parts of the year.
Well thank you for the information.
There are any customs I should be aware of.
I was a part of a holiday once where pinching was involved and I had no idea and I was taken
by surprise.
He looks very confused at you.
As long as you're not causing any trouble, you should be fine.
There are many delightful things that you can partake here at the Fang Festival.
I don't think I've caused trouble in my entire life.
That's good.
I don't think you have to worry about that.
Well Roe will take you on your way, I must attend to other matters and you have a very
good evening.
The same with you.
He walks off and eventually Roe kind of just like gives you just a nod as you guys continue
on through this dock area.
It's a pretty wide dock that stretches around the rim of this ad hall.
It's got, there's tapestries of tents here of bustling of some levels of markets.
Down here by the dock side, there's a lot of different things going on.
There are tattoo makers in tents who are stretching out skin and tapping with ink and what looks
like fish bones to the leg of a person who's hiding his face as he's laying on his belly.
There are various gambling games going about, cards being thrown down, dice being rolled.
Anchor, you passed one of these particular stalls and what you hear is the skittering
and the scattering of scaly feet.
You kind of peek through and you notice just like a tail just like flacking up as you see
a group of five people.
For them look the same, like they belong in like a group or tribe together.
They have the same similar leathers and high that some of the travelers in the northern
parts of Ashoka tend to wear.
But across from them, you see a woman with very interesting eyewear as you're passing
through.
Can you introduce your character and describe them really quick?
Yeah, so Kenny is short.
She has brown skin, but sort of it's a little bit less saturated.
She's wearing like this large almost like sort of a coat, but it's a little bit softer
and it hangs off of her shoulders.
And she has a sort of like black strappy top underneath.
She also has this gold mask that almost looks like wires reaching around her face and like
curling up on her forehead and forming this sort of ornate pattern, but you can't see
her her eyes at all.
She also if she's participating in this game, she is smiling and you can see she has a wonderful
probably half inch gap in between her front teeth.
Oh, sorry, Jesus.
She has two banter knots and long braids going down, but the top is completely shaving off.
Kenny, you have a yellow lizard.
It's got a wide, flappy collar that's kind of wrapped around its neck.
As it's running through this course, it's kind of running on both feet as it's kind
of just folding its legs over back on top of each other.
It's racing again for other lizards.
One's a ponchy, stouty looking black lizard.
One's a thin horned blue lizard.
One's a tiny dragon looking lizard and another slender, almost newt-like looking purple lizard
and they're all racing down the track.
Yours is currently in the lead.
Can you roll me a D4?
A four.
A four.
Nice.
Your lizard hits a bend and it just slides effortlessly as the other four kind of crash
into each other as yours kind of slowly starts taking the lead with the purple slender lizard
slowly behind as it kind of jumps over the rest of the pack and just continues right
behind it.
Roll me one more D4.
We've got drifting this game.
It drifted?
It drifted.
Another four.
Oh fuck.
That's excellent.
Wow.
The last bit of this track is just a series of just like up and down bumps.
Your lizard just, with its long legs, just kind of jumps over each mound as the purple
lizard is kind of just right behind, but yours manages the skid right across the finish
line as versus everybody around you starts to cheer and loud as the four other ones are
just kind of slamming their tickets down on the ground.
Very upset.
We're going to turn it into shish kebabs later.
In the pot, you got about 75 pieces of gold from this.
On top of that, on top of that, one of the other men in the group who was betting against
you also put down a strange deck of cards in the pot as you play.
You pick up this leather card deck and you see the like laced around the edges of symbols
and ruins that of the conjuration symbol.
As you're like looking over this deck of cards, you are approached by the four men who were
with you.
The one who seems to kind of hold himself up as a leader is a human man.
He's got gray, thick, gray beard and dark green eyes.
His skin is sunworn.
He's been out at sea for many, many years and he's got a very unhappy look on his face
and he asks you, now a win's a win and it's all fair when all's said is done, but I was
really hoping that I was going to win that pot and I don't really want to give up that
deck of cards.
It's kind of a family heirloom.
It's kind of important to me.
Would you mind maybe we exchange it or I'll give you gold for it, I'll pay for it.
You put it in the pot like you were willing to gamble it.
Did anyone force you?
I didn't see anyone do that.
It was voluntary.
No one forced me, but I thought it was a sure win.
Well, I voluntarily won, so it's voluntarily mine, I think.
Did I get it wrong?
Did I get the rules wrong?
Did anyone...
Are there new rules?
Everyone.
He realizes that a scene is being made and he says, now just one more time, if we could
exchange it for, I could give you more money for it, just would mean the world to me.
I see where you're coming from.
I see where you're coming from.
The thing is, we did already agree on the game before we started playing.
Now if you could buy them back for me in a separate transaction, but for now it's mine.
Irrelevant.
How much did you pay for this?
You said it was a family heirloom, so probably a lot.
Just interest and over time, the way value works, so what, 45 gold pieces?
45 gold pieces?
Yes.
He looks amongst the others and they kind of look at him as if they've just spent all
their gold betting on this race.
We'll see you a little bit later throughout the festival, maybe your mood might change
and maybe luck will be a little bit more on my side.
I've already earned so much money here today.
Who knows how much money you'll earn throughout the rest of it?
Right, as he starts to slowly back off, still eyeing you, trying to remember the face as
he eventually dips off into the market.
Roll me a perception check, Kenny.
14.
After that, just a little bit of a scene, you kind of straighten yourself up and pocket
your gold and this deck of cards, and then you just start to kind of continue to wander
out through this dock area of Tengu.
In the artisan part of this city, there are various merchants and artists that are making
things.
There are painters, painting stuff, there are porcelain makers who are building figurines.
Tucked away at a corner, more for like a kid's paint art and easel setup.
There's two younger kids who are kind of taking these pods that look like little squids and
like squeezing them out onto the little canvas and then kind of painting it around.
On the opposite side of it is a tall turtle who's squeezing paint onto a canvas and running
his hand on the canvas.
Sergio, can you introduce your character?
For sure, I'm Sergio and I'm playing Rad.
Rad is a turtle, but he looks more like a sea turtle to be exact, his coloration and
kind of size and demeanor.
He's about 6'2", though.
He's very tall for a turtle and if someone were to weigh him, he probably is over 200
pounds, closer to 300 pounds, but it's mostly muscle and the big shell on his back.
But Rad's got a big smile on his face.
He's loving it.
He's got all his fingers covered in paint and like these kids is just trying to make the
most colorful canvas he can.
He has a bandolier, like a leather bandolier across his chest.
It seems to be full of pockets that are full of things.
A spiked into the sand behind him is an 8 foot tall longboard, a surfboard that he's
obviously put there while he's in the middle of painting.
He has a puka shell necklace and some bracelets and anklets that have different eccentric
shells on them that you might not necessarily see on the shoreline, but yeah, he's got a
very chill demeanor and as he's doing it, he's looking at some of the other paintings and
be like, Jaws!
I mean, it's just kind of going on for the canvas.
Oh, sweet.
Thank you so much.
What a gift.
Rad, roll me a perception check.
Rad, man.
That's a two.
Damn.
I'm just really into these finger paints.
You're so into the finger paints that you don't notice a leukemen guard as well as a human
looking man in wraps passing through the marketplace as anchor is continuing his way.
Eventually as you're just focused on your painting, whatever it is that you're drawing
on your canvas.
I'll say that I finish it like not even really thinking and when I pull my hands back, it's
like it's a wave, like a giant tsunami wave, but there's this kind of malicious looking
face in the center of it and even I kind of appear surprised by it.
Cool, I did.
As you're caught up in that for a second, you get a feeling that you're being watched
by something.
When you kind of like look around, you notice that there's a small, tabaxi boy just looking
up at you.
He looks like a little panther, got big blue eyes and he's just kind of staring up at
you kind of sheepishly like taking in your height and your size.
And then you finally ask you, are you a pirate?
One thing I failed to explain is that Rad actually has an eye patch, like a black leather
eye patch that kind of wraps around his head and I guess he kind of looks around and says,
wouldn't you like to know a little dude?
I guess I would look around to see if anyone is directly looking at me besides the tabaxi.
If you're looking around, you notice that there is a smaller, other Odinaoan kid with
him who's kind of peeking over the easel shyly.
It looks like a little bore kid.
He's got like little tiny tusks that are like glipping over his mouth, kind of like looking,
but he sees that you've like kind of met eyes for a second.
He kind of just like tucks it away.
I'm, if they're the only ones really looking, I'm just going to have a good time with them
and I'm going to take my eye patch and just flash real quick what's underneath it and
then immediately drop it and just see what the reaction is.
Roll me an intimidation check.
Okay, that's much better.
What is better?
It's a 17.
It's a 17, okay.
As you flash your eye, the tabaxi's kid's face just kind of grimaces in unexpected
like surprises.
He did not expect to see what he saw in there as he kind of like his ears kind of fold back
as he kind of just like slowly backs away.
As he's backing away, I really, I realized I'm getting the reaction.
I didn't want to be like, oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cry, I didn't mean to cry.
And he's like, he's reaching over for his friend and they're both like start to like
turn around and scamper off into the market.
Very scared.
Yeah.
Before anybody notices, I'll probably get up and take my painting and walk away.
You take your painting, you grab your board and you kind of try to shift off into the
deeper into the art market.
And as you're doing that, once you've kind of settled back into a steady pace, you start
to feel this itching sensation underneath your eye and it starts like on the lower eyelid
and eventually it kind of starts to sting and it starts to then like slowly burn.
You know that feeling and it almost makes you want to like take that eye patch out because
he wants to see what you're seeing.
What do you do?
I'm worried that if I just, if I let him see what I see, people aren't going to be happy.
So I think what I'll do is I'll try to find like a, like a torn bit of canvas or like
some useless piece of fabric and I'm going to like wrap that side of my head up a little
bit so that it can't really be seen, but I'm going to try to leave a little bit of a hole
and then I will open up the eye patch so that I can see using that eye, but no one can really
see that eye.
It's kind of, it's going to be a little hidden.
That's easy enough to do.
You find some, some cloth that you have on your persons.
You kind of wrap up your face and you leave just enough space for you to kind of, just
a tiny slit that you can just barely look out of.
It's a little uncomfortable.
Probably look like a lever or something, but a little bit, roll me one more perception
check.
Okay.
Oh, this dice needs to go to bed, I think already early bedtime.
That's a six.
Okay.
Um, as you, you finally finish up that wrapping, you smell the faint smell of pie, your favorite
kind of pie.
He's going right for the pie for sure.
As you start to walk off.
Squid pie?
Squid pie, sure.
Yeah.
You start walking off into that, towards that direction of that smell.
Eventually there is a large food market area where that's where the hub of like all of
this food is being made.
There's different types of cuisines being cut.
There's fish.
There's meats.
There's, there's vegetables.
There's flames of going up in different various booths as things are being passed around
and ordered out.
A band of bars are walking through this food eatery area and are playing just a loud song
as they're proceeding through.
As they turn a bend, they cross the paths of a golden color dragonborn who kind of winces
at the sounds of their horns as they start blaring around the corner.
Amanda, can you introduce your character and what they look like?
My name's Amanda and I'm playing Snooble, a seven foot five inch dragonborn.
She has, think of it like golden, kind of almost like reflective metallic skin.
Her black monk robes.
Very simple form fitting on the, so it's not really billowy.
It's pretty.
It is on her, a person should be well.
But she will have white belt, white cuff over her forearms and any kind of accents that
are like stitching and all that, that is also white.
She has actually a copper braid, very long copper braid, very oriented all the way that
actually goes down past her waist.
And in that, in the braids, you will find little, again, little white markings, little
jewelry, but you will see almost like a very heavy brass ring at the end of it.
So it is, it is definitely shows a stasis if you will, a status if you will.
Also kind of a weapon like she is, I would say her eyes are very clouded over with white
and black kind of swirls going around.
So that is smooth on.
Roll me a perception check, 21.
You kind of hurry past this, this parade of loud of music, you kind of wince and it hurts,
it almost seems like it hurts your eyes, but you walk past them.
You first notice as you continue to walk down that this part of the market area, it runs
a long canal.
This canal is fairly wide about almost like 15 to 20 feet across and there's various
boats that are kind of parked up against the side as there's a small lane that of people
that are roaring through this area seems like where they're, how they deliver foods or other
things up and down this stretch of area.
And eventually as you're looking around, you see a pie eating contest beginning to start
as you see various people, including a turtle, the long surfboard that's kind of stuck in
the back as a pie is being set down in front of them.
The next thing you hear is just this light drolling bell and it sounds pleasant and it's
very attractive and it's just like ding-ing at you and it almost seems to kind of call you.
I will go ahead and follow towards that sound and while I'm doing it, I'm going to, I'm
going to walk at like, I would say it would almost look stiff.
This is one of the few times that she would actually start to like glide a little bit
like she, like her shoulders are moving with the bell's rhythm.
So you follow the cadence and that the temple of that bell as you kind of sway gracefully
between people.
Eventually on the opposite side of where you were standing is a small cart and it looks
like a man who has various like little ice cream cones and like a box that looks and
feels fairly cold.
He waves you down and greets you.
He's got a very thick mustache and a little tiny hat.
He's like a halfling that's got little puffs of gray hair that kind of spouts off to the
sides between his little hat and he's, and he asks, would you like an ice cream?
Apologies.
I'm so sorry.
What is ice cream?
You've never, you've never heard of ice cream before as he just like starts to just like
pluck a cone from the front of his cart as he just dives deep into it and he starts putting
this very cold scoop of white ice cream and then he puts another scoop on top.
Can I actually, I would like to look into him?
If you, Eli, if you know what I'm talking about, I want to actually look into him.
To the soul of the ice cream man?
Soul of the ice cream man.
As he, as he's like generously scooping these ice cream scoops onto your thing, you peer
into him and you, in your mind, you start to see a golden scale and you see that one
end of the scale is, is kind of starting to teeter higher on the left side over the right
as there's about maybe three or four coins on, on the opposite side and a whole stack
in the other.
Okay.
Okay.
You kind of zap out of it as he like thrusters this ice cream cone into your face and he's
like, this is on the house.
You have to try ice.
It is truly a delight.
I need to know.
We know how you think about it as he kind of puts his hand over his, his chin over his
hand anticipating you trying this.
Snoovo's going to kind of tilt her head almost like a dog, like was curious and then kind
of let a soft grin, but because she has very sharp teeth, it may come off more intimidating
than anything.
She will go ahead and grab the scoop, the cone of ice cream and she's going to go ahead
and take a tentative lick and they go, yeah, like kind of a growl like that.
And then she's just going to go ahead and like, this is, I apologize, I've never, never
had.
It's okay.
It happens.
It happens to everyone.
You, you, you have to keep making this forever and I'm going to go ahead and like pull out
I'm going to reach into my pocket and I'm going to go ahead and give him a gold coin as a
gesture of thank you.
Now go ahead and walk away.
He takes it.
Any knots?
And you're just going to walk off with your ice cream cone.
I'm like content.
Like this is the most content you'll see.
She's going to like ice cream and then the teeth licking smearing.
It's on the snout.
Like she's like, she, she's, she's almost kind of like doesn't know how to react to
it.
This is the first time she's trying this.
So she's like, just like, and then she licks too much and gets a little bit of a break.
Please.
Well, as you're enjoying and, and downing this ice cream cone, you don't notice the
tall, very tall figure that walks past you as you're kind of still in the mech mix of
the crowd.
Very awkward standing person is just kind of sneakily trying to wander through the food
court.
Allegra, can you introduce Shoti and, and describe them?
So Shoti is a very tall, very like gangly thin Goliath person.
They have, they have all their clothes don't really look like they fit.
Some of them are like too big in the sense that they're too thin to fill them out.
But too small in the sense that they are too short to fit their long limbs.
So they look, their clothes are a little awkwardly hanging on them, pretty dark clothes.
They've got bright blue eyes, kind of like a taupey, purpley, heather skin and their
hair, which is pretty, it's pretty long and it looks kind of matted and kind of clumped
together and dark little like speckles near the roots of lighter color.
On top of their head, they've got a headband with buttons on either side and on like hanging
off of one of the buttons is a little piece of fabric that's got a hole on the other end.
So you think that they could probably pick it up and put it across their face as a mask
if they wanted to.
But they don't have it on right now.
And they've got a, like a, their, their, their skin has a few like lighter pocket areas that
look like burn scars almost.
Oh, roommate perception check.
All right.
Oh, Shoti.
Nice.
Let's see this one.
20.
Talking through this food court, you pass by this golden dragonborn who is just licking
covered in cream, just enjoying this two scoops of thick ice cream.
As you continue through, as you're clinging to the shadows in this food court, a burst
of like fire comes from this one booth that kind of illuminates you a little bit in the
shadow and it kind of fades away.
You notice something very familiar, something you don't really want to see.
You see two large, two tall men in dark robes that cascade all the way down to the floor.
Like you don't see their hands, you can't see their feet.
And it almost gives the appearance that they're gliding.
They have a tall black brim hat that kind of also obscures their overall appearance as
they kind of walk candidly together down one of the hallways and kind of turns a corner
almost effortlessly and out of sight.
You know them to be the Magistari.
The Magistari are one of the wizards found in parlis in Sasan.
They are like a secret sect of mage users, of those who truly choose to go deeper into
the study of magic of the arcane within Sasan.
And they're very dangerous.
I'm going to pull in an abrupt about face and try to sneak my way literally any direction
they're not going.
I'm going to pull my sleeves down as far as I can and put my little mask over my face
and pull my hair over my shoulder and the little plumps that it's in.
Roll me a self-track.
I'm 11.
You're going in time out too.
Yeah.
You kind of push yourself into the shadows.
You think you're well hidden, but you are very tall and you're very gangly and you can
be a little bit noticeable.
So occasionally someone might peek their head over.
But earlier in the day towards the artisan market, there is not a very tall man, but
a man in a black hat and a duster and he's walking through the market.
Erin, can you introduce Trigg and what he looks like?
My name is Tucker Triggafing Johnson, but most people just call me Trigg.
I have a currently covered from neck to toe in a long black leather trench coat.
It looks like there's a bunch of objects kind of protruding out from his person underneath.
He has a tall cowboy hat on that's pitch black with a slick of dark hair kind of hanging
out over the front over his eyes.
He has this pattern of black paint that runs across in a bar and goes up onto his forehead.
He has a little toothpick hanging out from his from his mouth that he occasionally just
like takes out and kind of taps a little bit and puts back in.
And he has a bunch of deep red scars on his face that look like slash marks from like
monsters and knives and looks like a tough, tough, rough and tumble looking guy.
A Romeo Perception check.
Perception check.
Perception, perception, that is going to be a 15.
As you're as you're looking through the different stalls and shops of this artisan market, something
catches your eye.
It's a tiny porcelain dragon.
It's green in color.
It's got a golden underbelly and it's got little clouds.
I'm walking right up to it.
I walk right up to the booth and I'm looking down at it and I'm just I look up and is there
a shopkeeper?
Yeah, as you are like putting your hands out to it and you look up, there's a dwarven woman
with red braided hair that's tied up in a bun who's like kind of holding a porcelain
like unicorn that she's painting currently as she notices your your interest into her
stall.
I'm just kind of like snake one hand down into like the trench coat and I'm looking for
my coin pouch and I pull it out and while I'm pulling it out, I just say how much for
the dragon?
She looks it over and she says a gold, take a gold for it.
Done.
Slap it down on the table.
Thank you very much, ma'am.
And I take the little dragon and I'm going to try to find like a little piece of extra
like cloth, pull like the bandana out from like around my deck and I'm just going to
wrap it up in that and I'm going to try to tuck it away as safely as I possibly can on
my person.
As you're stuffing that dragon into your bag, you hear a woman screaming for help down
just a little bit further down the way.
And as soon as I deposit my new treasure, I hear the crapper help and I'm booking in
that direction as fast as I can.
As you like round that corner and you're walking through that, you do notice a woman
trying to flag somebody down and she's pointing further down the way and she's like, somebody
stole my purse down the street as you see like this hooded little row kind of darting
between the crowd.
I'm going to cast Zephyr Strike and I'm charging at him full speed.
Oh, and I can make an attack.
I can make an attack at the end of Zephyr Strike.
So I'm going to pop him in the full as I run.
I'm going to make this a disarming attack to try to knock the bag out of his hand if that's
okay.
That's going to be 18 points of damage and he has to make a DC 14 strength saving throw
where he drops the bag as you're standing there and you see the woman pointing and you
see the darting of this creature.
You just book it and as you book it, you just pick up with tremendous fucking speed that
is kind of like a gust of fucking wind as you knock into this creature, sending it onto
his feet and tumbling as it tumbles ahead, the bag drops right in front of you.
What you hear is like this, the crock in the squawk of a little Kenku bandit as it rolls
into the ground and it hits up against something and it just goes limp.
I spit on the ground and I say, that's what you get for being a dirty rotten, no good
fucking thief.
And I'll pick up the bag and I'll casually strut up to the woman and I'll kind of like
tip my hat and say, ma'am, does that have to do with her?
She's like half in tears because she doesn't quite understand the whole situation and she
takes her bag and she finally says thank you.
As you say thank you, you can hear the squawking and the flapping of birds scattered in the
distance.
Oh God.
Well, here in the bird's squawking, I'm going to walk away.
You eventually just continue on your way, treasure in your bag and a good deed done.
The rest of you spend a good couple of hours enjoying the festival.
Anchor, you do eventually get a gust stone for yourself as you eventually are led into
the meeting place in which you've been ordered to meet at.
And the rest of you as well.
Did Rad win the pie eating contest?
Yes.
It's a date.
No.
Okay.
The rest of you enjoying the rest of the festival knowing that eventually towards the later part
of the evening, you two also have notes in which a job has been offered to you in some
odd way as you've found this note in your passing.
As you guys are also traversing through the festival throughout the evening, you also
gather masks as they are kind of casually passed out to who haven't been, who don't
have any as there are various cars that are tucked away on different corners.
Sergio, you got a crystal elemental mask.
So it looks like a bunch of like diamond jutting around in like the square-ish form.
Amanda, you have a mask that looks like a knight's helm.
Sakia, you have a spider mask.
Erin, you have a mask that looks like a human king with a crown and little sparkly fake
jewels.
Well, I'll pay.
Allegra, you got a wolf's mask and the mask has this very crude looking smile on it as
well as six red eyes that are painted on its front.
And Caleb, you got a beholder's mask.
So it's just a creepy looking smile with a giant eye and these little tiny little pieces
that stick up with like these little tiny eyes around it.
So as the night progresses and it finally gets to about the time where you need to go
and meet, you are eventually all led to, with mask in hand, this ornate center of the city.
This seems to be kind of the most ornate part as everything else seems fairly simple.
Simple housing, almost shanty like.
And even this is, it looks very rundown.
It looks like it's been here for generations.
There's holes in some of the tiles and the patchwork.
All the stained glass has kind of been faded and just sun bleached over the years.
But you're led into this building and then also led to a side room, which is this lower
photo you guys see.
And it's just this unusual looking office.
It's got tapestries hanging all about a desk and a table with various notes.
There's bookshelves with scrolls and various types of tomes and whatnot.
And it's just the six of you all been ushered into this room and you're waiting.
On my way there, can I have like stopped at the booth or stopped someone on the street
and just lent over and asked them, Hey, you're your leaders here.
How do they treat you?
The person looks at you and says they treat us very well.
We're all a community and we all work and live to help each other out on this small little
atoll.
Why do you ask?
Oh, no reason.
And I'll just wink at them and walk away.
I also think that Rad as he's like getting close has replaced the rags that he put on
his head and was like using the mask and like poked a little hole so that his other eye
could see through it.
But once he gets to where he knows he's going to be meeting other people, he's just going
to kind of be talking to himself and be like, lights out, sorry, I can't be most conspicuous.
So I'll lift the mask and pop the eye patch down and then enter.
But I'll keep the mask on the top of my head.
I'll save Shodi probably left as soon as the Magistari people kind of disappeared.
I think Shodi just headed straight for the center of town and just kind of hung out there
until until it was time.
Like an old box bag sort of strapped around her body.
It's like wooden, but like whitewashed and faded and there's small drawers on the side.
She's going to start like rearranging papers and sort of stick out as many on the top like
easily reachable like scrolls as she can and head inside.
I was going to ask if Snooval sees everyone in that they're all entering the same room.
Can she do a check on everybody?
Sure.
Yes, you can.
As everybody enters into the room and you guys kind of find places to stand about, I
would say Rad and Anchor, you guys are kind of towards this window that outlooks and you
can see part of the bay and some of the dock areas and the eclectic amount of boats that
are kind of scattered amongst everybody else is kind of just hugging bookshelves or just
standing in the middle.
Rad wouldn't necessarily say hello to Anchor, but he probably like look at him, give him
a chin, like throw him a shaka.
So I think Anchor is a little confused by the shaka, but he returns it very awkwardly
and says good evening, anchor.
Snooval, as you kind of hug a corner of the room and you kind of just take in every single
person around you and as you kind of peer into them, again, you start to see the scales
in each and every person and you're just gauging them and you're just getting a getting
a feel for all of them as you're kind of enthralled with that.
But a few moments go by and eventually someone enters in the room along with two leukemen
guards who are accompanying him.
He's a very short man, Oda Naowen in race, he looks like an otter.
He's got a very circular kind of head that's kind of covered in fur with little short puffy
circular ears on either side of his face.
He's got a large, large nose that's very flat against his face.
He's wearing simple ropeage and a sash that kind of goes over it that's silvery in color
and at his hip is a sycmentar.
Those who are born in Oda Naow know of the druids that reside in there and their role
in shaping, building Oda Naow itself.
Druids are seen as like liaisons between the kingdom and the natural world and they're
used as advisors and in higher up stations alongside the king, the various Oda Naowen
lords and any nobleman's house.
They also serves as like the hub of research throughout Oda Naow as many of the different
circles will send emissaries out into all around Ashoka to study various plant life
or ruins or anything that needs to be discovered as one of their biggest missions is to find
out what has happened in old Ashoka and to uncover its mysteries.
While no individual sect actually claims they are one to look to, often it is revered
that the circle of the moon is utilized as the hub of leadership and what people kind
of use their guidance to kind of shape their own way of running things in their own circles
and it peers with the moon symbol on his sash belt that he is a member of the circle of the
moon.
This is the small spectacles that he has on his nose and he gives you all a greeting
and a smile and he says, hello there, my name is Nock.
I am the emissary here on Tengu Atoll and I assume you are all here because of the letter
I had sent out into the various monasteries and factions in Ashoka.
Is that correct?
Yes, sir.
Anchor takes the tapestry that he wears about his hip like a sash and he sets it down on
the floor and then he slowly kneels to both knees onto that tapestry on the floor and
gives him a bow.
He says, yes, I've come about the note that you've given and I assume you've given to
all of us.
It is a pleasure to meet you.
My name is Anchor.
I'm at your service.
Everybody when you hear the name Anchor, roll me a history check.
I got a 19.
17.
Somehow I got an 18.
16.
Oh wow.
15 for me.
You have all casually heard this name Anchor used as like a first name, but you've only
heard it in myth.
There have been known people that traverse throughout Ashoka that go by this particular
name doing any sort of task or deed.
They are from a hidden faction known as the Order of the Ballas, but as far as all of you
know, it's a myth and it doesn't exist.
I think Rad would like it take a minute once he says his name and then he just kind of
blurt out loud.
Whoa, you're real, dude.
Last I've heard of you.
It is good that you know me or at least my order.
I am here to serve in any capacity to the court of Tengu hotel.
I'll look to like everyone in the room and be like, is everyone part of a secret club?
No.
Yes, you best be watching your back.
Oh, cool.
You're going to stay still not really melt then.
Are you part of a secret club?
No.
Do I believe him?
I don't know what it's like, Jack.
You're going to make him do deception for that shit, man.
You want me to roll my deception?
I'll call that one.
Not great.
Ten.
Ten.
Get you roll.
My deception is a, like a 20, a 19.
I mean, with the wide smile that and the casual laid backness of his tone of his voice, you
believe him.
He seems very genuine about it.
I'm very touched, man.
Knock approaches you, anchor, and he kind of like ushers you to get up from your knees
and kind of says that it's not quite necessary, but I appreciate the decorum.
He turns around to you all, takes you all in for a second, trying to see who had been
sent to take on this, this task, this mission.
And when he finally feels a little comfortable, he finally begins to relay the task in which
he needs of you.
And eventually he says that the matron of Tengu Atal, the Great Toad, has passed two
days ago right before the Fang Festival.
She was very old in her age, and it was coming to a particular time when she was going to
pass on.
She, of course, was the one who proctored this task and had sent this letter out weeks
ago and was awaiting the arrival of those as travel takes its time.
And it's unfortunate that she will not be able to see this mission.
What she wanted and what she had asked of you was to deliver a piece of cargo from here
in Tengu Atal to a place between Asawe and Seren, known as Al-Janah.
Everybody roll me a history check.
I got a 13.
I have also a 13.
Negative one.
Three.
I got an 18, and that's after rolling a 19.
Trig, did you say you got a negative one?
Yeah.
Trig, I don't even think you're paying, I don't even think you're quite paying attention,
Trig.
I think you're, I think you're thinking about that rascal in the market who was taking
that lady's purse.
I'm like fingering my new, my new dragon figure on like my little, just enjoying it.
But the rest of you rolled high enough to know that, oh, no, wait, who, who rolls?
I roll a three.
Oh, you roll a three.
Ken, as far as you know, you're not quite aware of this place called Al-Janah.
The others, especially those who come out of Oda now know that that word is elvish in
nature.
You have heard of Al-Janah as also a myth in the way that the Order of the Ballas is.
It's an island in the middle of the ocean in the South Sea straddled between the island
of Saren and the island of Asawe.
But as far as you know, that island also doesn't exist.
It's not real.
It's never been charted for the amount of travel that has traversed in that area of
the world.
And as far as you know, elves do not exist here in Ashoka.
There has been depictions of elves and there are half elves here.
Full elves have never been seen in this part of the world for centuries.
It's very safe to say that they don't actually exist at all.
Do we know if Al-Janah is to the north, to the south?
Where is it in relation to Atal?
From here in Tengu, you would know that it's about south of here.
South, almost southeast, leaning in towards Oda now in the farthest point.
Rad, for some reason, audibly like size and relief.
Maybe I'm like not the smartest guy in the room, but how are we supposed to go to an
island that doesn't exist?
Isn't that what the mission is, to find the place?
Well, no, the mission is not to find the place, but to deliver it to the place.
I have required the charters that will lead you to this isle.
You will have a small window to be able to get there before you will miss being able to
find it.
At the end of summer, Al-Janah has been able to be seen and revealed towards that part
of the world and you'll be able to find this actual island.
So you need to take this cargo, get it there by the end of summer, and deliver it to this
island.
So the island itself shifts?
Shifts and it hides.
What is this cargo you mentioned?
As you say, that not kind of leans over to one of the guards and speaks Echesian, which
Kenny is the only one who would be able to understand.
And he says, bring them in.
And in a couple of moments, a very tall, leukemen woman who's kind of dressed as like
a matron with like a very tight head scarf and a very simple dress walks in.
She's a very wide woman and takes up most of the door frame as she enters.
And she kind of gives a gracious nod to all of you.
And then she kind of looks to her side and expecting somebody to be standing next to
her and realizing that they're not there.
She kind of like looks around, she eventually kind of like turns fully over and kind of
kind of like admonishes and scolds and kind of shuffles out as very small child.
This child is a Janasi.
She has light blue skin and very bright, big, light blue colored eyes that are kind of like
looking at you.
She's kind of gripping onto the matron's dress and skirt.
She's got very wavy hair that seems to be kind of flowing and kind of tussling about.
In the center of her forehead is this dark matted color looking stone.
And it seems that from like her eyes, around her eyes, she has like coloring that kind
of looks like a tattoo that kind of crosses down her face and towards the back and you
kind of see in like the different parts of like around her fingers and like the little
bit of skin that you can see outside of her robe that she's got these colorations throughout
her body.
From like, you can see it on like her ankles, you can see it on like the tips of her fingers
like that.
She's covered in these markings and she's holding onto the matron's skirt as well as
a tiny little pink teddy bears kind of tucked underneath her arm.
Nock looks over and says, this is Matron's soul and this is Boran.
Boran has been a ward of Tengu Atoll for about two years.
We found her in the wreckage of a ship that had washed upon the mountainsides on the outer
ring of Tengu Atoll.
She was the only survivor of this wreckage.
The Great Toad decided to take her in as a ward of hers.
Over the last two years, we've discovered that Boran has a very interesting story that
we're still kind of uncovering.
Any of you ever done any studying and may know about some of the ruins and artifacts
that have been discovered in Ashoka in the last hundred years?
All the time.
When you've heard of the of a soul render.
Yeah, you got your soul renders and your meat renders and deception check.
That is going to be a third team about a soul render.
No, no, no, sir.
Why don't you just give us some background?
Just for those of us that don't.
From the ruins that we've discovered of in the last hundred years, that the soul render
appears to be a type of energy source of some kind.
And over over the years or during its history, it was cracked and fragmented and scattered
across all of Ashoka.
It appears that this event had happened prior to the crack, but we can't correlate if it
was the source of the incident.
But Baran possesses various ruins and markings about her that suggest that she might know
the answers or the way to finding some of these fragments of soul render.
And we fear that if fallen into the wrong hands, it could be devastating to the balance
of the world, which is why which is why now that the now that the toad has passed, there
is no protection or safekeeping for her here.
And now is the time as good as any to send her somewhere that would be far safer out
of prying hands.
Are there people on all Janan?
Will someone take care of her?
Yes, yes.
The elves that reside on that aisle will keep her safe.
I know it seems a bit of a shock, but the elves still exist in this world.
They're just just not where they're seen.
We're going to meet elves.
We're going to see elves.
Eli, I'm going to go ahead and definitely like look into this guy and the child to see
if I believe him, but also what his real intentions are just in case.
Let me an inside check.
13.
He seems very genuine.
You you were aware of the druid circles and the sex and the oats that they take to preserve
the higher order of Oda now and the greater good of it.
He seems pretty, pretty genuine about it.
Rad in his mind was actually going to bring up the subject of payment.
But after seeing this little Genasi girl, he just kind of feels overwhelmed with emotion.
And he just like everyone's like in a semi circle or something.
He kind of steps forward proudly and then gets on one knee and he's facing Baran.
And he just says, my name is Rada, but most people just call me Rad.
And you have my longboard and I like hold out my longboard.
I'm going to say as he's doing that, Shodi had been going to sit on the ground
and like reaching into their pouch and pulling out different seashells of different sizes
and just lining them up like smallest to biggest.
And then seeing Rad do that, they're going to look at their shells and look at
Rad and look at their shells and look at Rad and sort of like try and awkwardly
make their way into a similar kneel, not really knowing how this works.
Anchor is just immediately moved because he was already kneeling.
He's so glad to be in a group that kneels.
And of course, he takes his war club out and he sets it right next to the surfboard.
Very ceremonial, he says.
And of course, you have the order of the ballast.
Me, myself and Rad, we will protect this place, this this woman.
Meanwhile, Trigg is back.
Well, I guess it's the thing to do.
So he reaches into his pocket, pulls out a bummer and kind of drops it.
Can you just sit down on the floor and take out a piece of paper
and say, you will have my full protection as soon as you sign this contract.
Do you have a last name?
Can you? Are you asking for a last name?
Oh, my God.
She kind of peeks out and and she says something in a language that you do not understand.
All right. Well, then I turn to the matron.
Do they have a last name and can they write?
Actually, you know what?
Does she is she speaking awkward?
No, she is not.
Oh, she's not.
But you you do speak primordial, though, right?
No, I speak a draconic.
You can roll an intelligence check if you would like to try to see if you understand what she says.
Minus one.
Yeah, minus one, but that's what I think we should do.
That's right.
What she's kind of murmuring to to Kenny is just utter nonsense.
She's about four years old.
She's very small, very tiny.
And she's just talking about just she's kind of just babbling and just saying little small words like
like my teddy bear and and and like like looking at like Kenny's like little wired
mask and saying that it's like pretty and like very shyly and then kind of tucking
yourself back in.
She says, Teddy, grizzly mask, pretty.
Oh, well, thank you.
And she reaches inside and pulls like it like a quill, like a little ink bottle
and pour some of it in our hand and like extends her hand so she can like put her hand in the ink.
And like, she's going to like like model putting her hand on the ink and putting it on the paper.
OK.
Hey, was that contract there?
Say, I wasn't aware of any extra contracts.
I mean, I you can have a contract if you want.
But I don't want to do this is between me and her.
So as soon as we're done, it's just it's just a promise of protection.
Hey, you you OK with with the little lady sign in a contract that she doesn't have
the wherewithal to know what she's signing.
The matrix steps up and and she approaches and grabs like Barron's hand
before she like slaps the ink on the paper and she's like,
yeah, I would actually like to know what's exactly you're having this small child sign for.
I mean, I can read the contract if that makes it easier on anyone.
But again, it's it's just to make sure that I can properly protect everyone involved.
Shall I read it?
Let me wait for the person piloting me to find their note.
OK, I think we all I and then you would write or pop print,
whatever, hereby grant the provider the service pirate healer me full
permission using traditional and or arcane methods at the pirate healer's discretion
to heal those who signed the contract with the intention of avoiding permanent death.
There's more, but should I think we covered it?
Do you want to keep going?
Yeah, is there a clause that says the trio's you something if you healer?
Yes, in exchange for the services of pirate healing,
the client will supply the agreed upon fee and harbor no malevolence,
willing attempts to murder, theft or snitch toward the provider.
And by signing this contract contract, sent to all agreement healing.
So just don't be a jerk.
Such a whole thing. Is there more?
I mean, there's a clause about drowning, but it's really not that important.
Oh, I can stop that. That's fine. Great.
Pirate healing is that I hope that's homeopathic pirate.
I just tend to work for pirates.
It's it's easier if you say pirate healing and not medicine or anything weird like that.
If you put pirate in front of things, pirates tend to get excited about it.
So. Oh, so it's like a branding thing.
Exactly. See, it's exciting.
And then she sticks out the contract a little bit more towards the four year old.
The major kind of looks to knock for like assures that this is the proper way to go.
And he kind of just gives her a reassuring nod that this is a part of the process.
So the major kind of just helps her stamp her hand on to the signature set.
Snoval's going to like approach and be like,
it like as everyone's focused on the child, be like,
are you going to provide us with a ship in materials, a map?
If you have not traveled here with a ship, we can provide one that should be easy enough.
And with all the supplies you would need for transport and travel.
I sure you all in some way can navigate a small vessel.
Cross. I have a ship myself.
I came here on it. Oh, I'm a talented enough behind an ore.
Well, then we can provide the choices yours.
We can provide you a ship where we can load your ship up with all the proper supplies.
You know, would my ship be able to carry everyone?
If we yes, your ship is large enough to carry everyone.
OK.
Now, I know everyone's really emotional over this very cute little kid,
but is there any kind of compensation you can give us for this task?
Well, there is this.
There are things that the the king that the colony could
possibly provide you in terms of wealth,
unless there is something else, particularly that you're looking for.
No, I just want enough money to get home to my tribe.
I don't think it's much.
Oh, we can even require you safe passage to what part of the
what part are you heading towards?
Oh, I would now, you know, Norse Norse, like Boonai.
Yeah, yeah, around there.
OK. Oh, we can talk about it later.
You know, we don't talk about it right now.
Sure, sure. Certainly.
Kind of eyes you up and down.
Can you roll me a perception check?
That's a seven.
You hear the two
Luchian guards murmur something to each other,
but they don't you can't quite pick up what they're saying, even in occasion.
Well, I will save your people any sort of putting out.
I have a boat that I think could procure all of us
and keep us safe in our travels.
Excellent. Well, then we can first thing in the morning,
load your ship up with supplies and send you on your way and get the proper charter.
Well, shouldn't we try and leave secret as later?
Since we've only got a small window of time.
Some are coming to a close.
I mean, it is it is evening.
And it's not always the best
starter journey in the evening at the night in the middle of the night.
If you're trying to get her out secretly, though, it might be good.
I'd rather not sail at night if it's preferable to everyone else.
The seas can be dangerous that way.
That makes sense. I'm sorry.
I just want to be perfectly clear.
Are you granting us a request if we complete this?
So is it gold?
I'm just confused on that one more time in terms of compensation.
Well, we can give you some money for the task now.
And if you return after delivering the cargo, then we can require the rest of it.
The safe passage for your friend and anything else you might be interested in.
We only have so much money, but we can give you what you need
and all the ready supplies.
I don't need no coin for helping a little lady out.
I agree. I don't need much.
Yeah, we can figure it out later once we get back.
How much money do you have?
We're willing to offer at least five hundred gold for the time being now each
and then as a team together as a team, we can work with that.
Who stores the back of the room towards the window?
Probably me.
I probably like laid out my shells just in case,
in case the small child wants to investigate any further into the room.
But I'm probably furthest back.
I think I'm still by the child after they signed the contract.
I'm actually closest to knock, I would say.
Show, do you roll me a perception check?
Oh, national team.
So twenty six, you're close to the window.
So you can hear the the festivities continuing on outside.
The loud music, the sounds of the crowds, the ooing, and the occasional
firework that continues to pop off, pops and pops and pops.
But throughout one of those moments where the firecrackers are popping off,
you hear a burst that sounds just a little bit different.
You recognize that being on a ship of this particular sound as you now hear
a screeching bit of metal that seems to be coming closer to you.
Everybody in the room, roll me a dexterity saving throw.
Amanda, please roll that at disadvantage.
Yes.
You already had to do that.
Is there anything to help me now?
Dirty 20.
I rolled an 18.
Thirteen, nine, six.
With disadvantage, I still got like 17.
OK.
I don't like anything that's happening right now.
It went south.
OK. Shoti, because you rolled high enough,
I will allow you to do one thing.
So for this shit.
So there's a screeching outside the window.
Yeah, you you recognize that as a familiar sound of cannon fire.
Oh, I'm booking toward that kid and I'm going to try and just wrap her up
and keep her safe.
Like I'm running past all of them and just like diving.
Everybody else, as you're continuing to talk to to knock and gather
more information, settle your arrangements and agreement
that all of a sudden sees the form of Shoti just kind of fully erect
to a seven foot tall height.
Doesn't even say a word.
They grab her and even tackling the matron at the same time.
When a giant loud bang
abruptly crashes through the window as an explosion goes off,
those who rolled under a 19, you've been pushed off your feet.
And you have sustained seven points of damage
as you're knocked prone as the.
That's if we failed or succeeded.
Have you failed?
Do I take that running across the room?
Yeah, you'll take that running across the room,
but you have managed to also at least buffer yourself
between Baran and the major.
And as this entire office has just been ripped apart
from an explosion of two rounds of cannon fire
that erupt on either side of the office.
It's a moment as those who are knocked around
are trying to grab, gather their bearings.
Anchor and Rad, roll me perception checks
as you guys are getting to your feet.
A 19, nine.
You guys are closest to what's left of where the window used to be.
And as you kind of are slowly getting to your feet
and dusting the soot and debris off,
you notice that three ships in the harbor
firing off their cannons into the city.
And, Anchor, you recognize some of these ships
as some of the ships that you had passed through
on your way that were part outside of Port
when you entered into the city.
As I'm like, as Rad is like stumbling up, he just says,
Anchor, what the heck just worked us, man?
A cannon fire.
There's invaders off them, off the dock.
And as you two are kind of looking,
the wind is kind of blowing in your guys' face and stuff like that,
you do hear the collective now once Jovial's sounds and tones
of the festival has now turned into screams and terror
as you start seeing the shuffling of people moving throughout this window.
Kenny and Trigg roll me
upception checks as you guys are getting your bearings.
10, 15.
Kenny, you're still kind of gathering yourself
as the debris and dust is settled, so you don't quite see it.
But Trigg, as you get up and you notice, knock is on the ground
and he's been kind of pierced through with some of the debris
of a beam that had come over.
And it looks like he is on his way out as he's kind of gasping for air.
But he sees you and you guys kind of interlock eyes for a second
and he kind of reaches out and kind of tries to usher you to come forward.
I'll try to flip him over on his back and I'll all yell,
Kenny, I know you didn't sign your damned contract,
but you best be getting to work.
I'm going to run over and just say you heard most of it.
I just need you to touch this paper, please.
God damn it, woman, would you just heal him?
Knock as you are like thrusting that contract in front of his face.
Instead, reaches into his robe and he pulls out a scroll of some kind
and he kind of puts it in your hand instead.
And he says to you, you have to get to Aljanan by the end of summer.
And then you just kind of hear the last bit of whispery breath as you.
Oh, shit, no.
That's on you.
Oh, no.
Oh, gosh.
OK, OK, you need you so bad.
I'm going to put you down right here and now just for that.
We need to get out of here as fast as we can.
They're going to fire.
Agreed. Yeah.
As he died, did I see anything in particular happen to knock in his body?
Did anything emerge that I see?
You are when the impact hit burst of just light
hit your vision as everything kind of just went white.
And then you just felt the pressure and the movement of being pushed
through the air by some force and you're on the ground.
And as you're still you're like all you hear is just like this
loud like ringing in like your fucking ears as you're just trying to get your
you're bearing. But as that kind of starts to like fade away,
as your vision starts to kind of come back, you do hear something.
You hear the sounds of sliding coins being collected off a scale
as the ringing is slowly kind of like turning into that cadence of of plucking of coin.
I've got a couple questions.
One, does it seem like the boats that attacked are they still attacking the atoll
or does it look like they've done their job and they're moving on?
No, they're steady firing into this.
OK, OK, I'm going to look at anchor.
I want to say I can stop those ships, but I've got to get within 300 feet of them.
OK, we'll do that.
OK, OK, and then just so we better understand this building we're in,
is it high off the ground?
Is it just basically on ground level?
It is higher up on in terms of the overall
like layout of Tengu as like Tengu's kind of stacked up on top of each other.
So it's on a predipus.
So there's ways that you can go down, but there's like various alleyways
and stuff that you've seen throughout traveling between the different market
that would lead there.
And I'm just going to I'm just going to turn to anchor and say,
you can find me at the docks, dude, and then I'm going to literally leap out
and on my longboard try to try to surf through the town
to get close to the docks again.
Fly on that damn thing.
Oh, no, I'm going to I'm going to like ride down the side of the building
and then see if I can get to like a sloped street or something.
I'm just getting there as fast as I can.
Oh, man.
We had a athletic check or acrobatic.
Amazing.
I was so fucking cool and nature.
Yeah, you you just grab the board and like you you see that the the way
that the the roof slant at you seem to be able to like
talk from slat to slat of roof to somewhere reasonable to jump off
as you just slide and you hear just the sounds of breaking as you
here's a jump in another crash and another crash eventually gets down
low enough where you can kind of topple down onto the actual side street.
I'm just going to spend like as much as many turns as it takes
to get to within 300 feet of these ships.
What's everybody else doing?
I'm charging after the turtle.
I'm going to push myself.
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
You're right. Is everyone OK?
You look down, Shoti, and you notice that Baran seems to be OK.
But she's now crying.
She's in tears as she's got like soot and debris just kind of now
scattered on her on her small face.
The matron is there as well, but it appears that her leg is broken
as she's kind of grabbing on to it.
You can kind of even see a bit of the bones sticking out on the side of the leg.
And up north, lady, so I want to do I think the sister named Kenny.
Can you can you fix her leg?
I can.
I'll just kind of like back up and I'll if the kid is letting me,
I'll just like set her in my lap and wait for Kenny to come over.
Right. So again, everyone can just sign this paper as quick as possible.
I would love to do that, please.
And she won't out the paper again.
I please just.
Anchor, Trig, roll me perception checks.
Well, Kenny is talking to her.
I missed 16. 24. 24.
You're hearing commotion coming around from like inside the outer parts,
like where you guys entered and stuff like that.
You're seeing and hearing like a lot of shouting and screaming and crying
and like something's going on on the outside of this building.
Direct myself in that direction. OK.
You head down there and as you kind of look out into it,
there's just a stream of people just flooding the street and what you can kind
of see in the distance looks to be people wearing leather type of armor
and hide running through the city and kind of toppling over cart
and swinging their weapons and firing loose arrows.
I will cock.
I will cock the stick of dynamite in my crossbow fire it over my head
to make a loud noise and I'll scream out everybody inside now.
You hear everybody inside hears this loud bang
as these guys have now taken attention to you, Trig,
and are now making their way as other people are like scattering.
But the loud sound kind of makes them like duck and scatter and they're
they're not listening to you.
They're they're full of fear and they're just continuing to run somewhere else.
But you've gotten the notice of the four that are.
Can I see? Good.
Oh, you just went off a stick of dynamite.
Can I see or am I still at disadvantage?
You're far you're far enough to it won't affect you,
but you hear the loud burst and you know the direction in which it's coming
from as it just appears like a bright light in your thrifts.
And the trench coat drops to the ground.
Concern.
Everybody else before before you get into this, anybody else trying to do
something, Baran is crying.
She's murmuring something to herself over and over again.
The major plague is broken.
But you guys signed the paper.
Did not sign.
She didn't sign the paper.
She has yet to sign the paper.
She's reeling in pain.
Her leg is busted and broken.
Listen, in my experience, can and fire more than once.
We need to leave.
We need to grab that child and go.
Matrin, can you give us permission, please?
We need to go.
She she eventually just like just just take her.
I'll I'll be fine.
Just just please just take her and get her out of the city wherever she needs to go.
Just please keep her safe.
Stay close. I can protect you.
Yeah, I'll pick her up.
I'll pick her up and I'm sorry.
I'm really sorry.
I'm so, so sorry.
I'm so, so sorry.
And then she's continually to say these.
Do you speak per mortar?
No, I only speak giant in common.
She's saying something.
She's murmuring something over and over.
And she's kind of getting upset.
And she's kind of like reaching out down towards the mage.
She's crying as as as you guys are making your way out.
I mean, you want to do something much.
Does the major way she's fairly large?
Leukemans are tall people naturally.
So they're about seven.
She's about seven feet, but she's a very large woman.
I can lift at three hundred and I would be be like,
but can I am I can I scoop up this night?
You can roll a strength check and you can try.
Can I assist?
Sure.
You're going to both try to carry this nation with you?
Yes.
You're going to roll me strength checks.
Oh, Lord, please.
I got a five.
I got a 14.
Oh, no.
I can lift three hundred pounds.
I can't do this.
Given the the awkwardness of her shape
and the fact that her leg is broken,
so there's no real leverage to really pick her up.
You both try to lift her, but she's not budging.
And eventually she just kind of slaps your guys's hands away.
And she's like, there's no time.
Please protect Baran and get her where she needs to go.
I will be fine.
I will do a very, very quick prayer,
like under my breath to have a more as I go ahead
and lay towards the other door.
I'm going to cast spare the dying on them.
OK.
And then we're on.
Wait, make sure everyone everyone else is running, right?
OK, good thing.
Yeah, everybody else has taken off.
Then we're going to move it in formation.
We're we've got the kid and Zaudi in the middle.
And then we're sort of diamonding around them.
Yeah, can I say that I took the the wolf mask I have
and I put it over their face and say,
oh, you're a wolf, man, you're so big and strong.
And I'll reach into my my little like my little pouch
side of my seashells in and I'm going to find
like a really big, smooth one.
And I'm just going to like hold it in my in the hand that has her.
I'm just going to hold it like in front of her
if she wants to like hold something to play with.
And then I'll draw my short sword with the other hand.
She actually takes it and it seems to console her for the moment.
And so you kind of put that little you put the mask over her face.
But she's still kind of crying.
She's still you can still hear her kind of like inhaling
and making that noise that that little kids make
when they've cried too much.
But you guys have now exited this building
and you see Trigg, who's now taking off his coat
and four raiders that seem to be approaching.
Kenny, you recognize them as the the guys
that you had seen earlier in the day that you were playing
Lizard Race with this ridiculous.
Maybe a shirt of rough shot.
But every blow those boats up, man.
But the city street is very busy.
And even these guys who are are trying to push through
all of these scattered people to try to get way in there.
They're still a ways away.
But there is another way down the alleyway
where some other people have scattered off
and Trigg seems to be between you and that other opening.
I'll call back. I got these guys.
You get the kid to the boat.
Are you all going to run?
I'm hesitant because him against four combatants
sounds a lot like a room.
Exactly. I'm saying because they're my problem.
Yeah, I call out to him.
No, it's better if we stay together.
We need all of you to protect her.
I'll meet you there.
That sounds like a terrible idea.
I just want us right now.
I'll stick.
Snoova will stop ground ground.
And then she's like, I'll stay behind.
I'll bring I'll bring them up and bring them back.
So you guys are going to stay.
You're all staying.
We're all staying. OK, good.
Just going to hold them off long enough
for you to get away. I promise.
Yeah, we're all going to do that.
Yeah, we're all going to stay.
We're all going to stay.
They're about 15 feet away from you guys,
as you guys have now kind of stand your ground.
There's still people kind of checking you
as they're still scattering through through the street.
But yeah, they're the guys have drawn their swords
and they're approaching you.
Fuck, let's roll initiative.
Natural 20.
Outside the contract.
15.
I have a nine.
I've got an 11.
A 12.
I'm so excited.
19.
So Kenny is going to charge up to them.
And you can see sort of like flashes of light
coming from underneath her mask and out of her mouth.
And she's going to get as close as she can
and cast Inflict Wounds on many people if you can.
I roll a 25 to hit.
25 hits, all of them, then.
Let's save.
I've got 3d10 for that app.
That's 21 points of damage.
Then I'm going to cast Command as a bonus action
using my, what is it, like Voice of Authority?
That is a save.
14, like I said.
Yeah, as they approach Kenny, you just kind of step forward
and as that light kind of pours out from you,
you just touch one of them and you just,
all of a sudden their whole body just kind of breaks out
into like sores and wounds.
And that is they just eventually just collapse on the ground.
Wait, are they still on?
Because, you know, no, you just chill the fuck out of them.
I will go to another one and cast Command.
And as you still have that smoldering light
that's kind of peeking through the wires of your mask
that you just like turn to another person.
Yeah, they didn't save that throw.
They, it was an 8.
Then I just say, and there's like maybe a couple other voices
in her voice, and they just say, wow,
the big cop of squat for a while.
Yeah, just kind of seeing that fear
and that ethereal and gelling energy
that you're just spouting right now.
He just kind of just gets on his knees immediately
and puts his like weapon down and he just bows at you.
And he's kind of like also kind of like looking down
at his friend who's just kind of a dead pile of sores.
One of the bandits is going to finally make its way
through the crowd.
And since unfortunately Kenny, you are the closest to him,
he's going to take a short sword to you
as he pushes through the other guy.
That's a miss though.
You just take a step straight to the side
as you hear just the ringing of the sword
just swiping past you as it clacks down
onto the street below you as he misses.
Have I made it to the shore?
Or a better question, am I within 300 feet of the?
No, you're not quite 300 feet.
You would be probably next round.
All good, I'll spend my entire turn running
using my action and just getting as close as I can.
You're pushing through people,
you're trying to get out of the way
as all this franticness is happening and going on.
Trigger up.
Okay, so there's three guys left, right?
Okay, and so first of all, both of the crossbows come out.
Anyone standing nearby, you're going to hear a series
of clicks kind of go off on his back and legs
as two bolts shoot into the air over his shoulders.
The crossbows come up, whack, whack.
The crossbows latch into the bow.
He cocks it against his waist and he's letting one fly.
He's taking a sweated Kenny there.
I'm going to take sharpshooter on that as well.
Okay.
And then I'm going to do a precision attack on that,
which gives me an extra D8 on the attack roll.
So that's going to be 15 to hit on that one.
That'll hit? Okay.
So that, of course, is plus 10 damage
because of sharpshooter.
So that's going to be, well, I roll a one,
but that's still going to be four.
That's going to be 14 points of damage on the first hit.
Second attack, I didn't say sharpshooter,
so it's just going to be straight.
That's going to be a 22 to hit.
That'll hit.
That's going to be nine points of piercing damage.
Is this on the same guy or is it on?
Yes, same guy. Okay, yeah.
As the sword hits the ground,
he hears the loosening of the bolt as he turns around
and he just takes one straight in the chest
and it pushes him down a little bit,
but he tries to get back up
and make his way towards you and you shoot him again
and he just gets down on his feet in a run
and he just dies right in front of your feet.
Crossbows turn to the next guy.
Crossbow expert bonus action attack.
Jesus.
So many words.
All right.
Sharpshooter.
We're going.
Oh my God.
Natural one, I miss him.
Change it.
Surge two more attacks.
I'll roll them at the same time.
We're going kids.
We'll go off.
Jeez, cowboy.
First one is going to be a 22 to hit
with sharpshooter.
Okay, so that's going to be,
that's going to be 18 points of piercing damage.
Second one, I'm going to do a precision strike
using my third superiority die for the day.
That's going to be 16 to hit,
which I believe hits.
Yeah, you, as you pop off those two shots
on the first guy and stuff like that,
it's almost like instinct as you just shut it around
and you pop off those secondary shots.
As the guy is like running full force,
he just hits great into your arrows
and knocks him prone.
And yeah, he doesn't get back up.
As far as you know, the four that had approached you
with weapons drawn are now dead.
So we're out of initiative.
All right, on to the boats.
Here we go.
And I'm just going to use my 30 feet of movement
to start bucking it towards the harbor.
Okay.
I'll make sure to grab my couch on the way.
Good.
We're not playing games.
Not playing games.
Brad, you are within 300 feet by now
as you've pushed through.
Okay, so I come huffing and puffing up to the shoreline.
I put my feet in the water
and like I reach into my vandalier
and pull out this kind of gray powder
and I close my eyes and I sprinkle the great powder
into the waves.
As I'm like concentrating,
I begin raising my hands up
and the water begins to recede unnaturally
from the shoreline and I'm going to cast control water.
My intention is to control the water
around one of the closest ships
and I want to redirect its cannons
onto one of its enemies.
Okay.
Hot damn.
Or excuse me, one of its allies.
So I want to aim the ship at one of its allies
and have it fire.
Sure, yes.
Let my people go.
Thank you for the water.
Brad, as you run to the shoreline
and you take out that action,
you sprinkle it into the water
and you cast control water
and as you kind of just like push your hand out,
you just see like the ocean like just part its ways
a little bit.
Enough for you to kind of now stand inside
like where the shore once was and has receded
and you're just, you're holding it
and you're pushing it as the water starts to just collect
and collect and collect and as it near a ship
that's kind of close, it's a galleon ship
but instead of the regular sails,
they're kind of like spine fin sails scatter
across its back like a fishwood.
You eventually collect so much water
that it kind of pushes and brushes up against it
enough to where it's starting to just teeter
and shift and turn slowly.
And as it's turning like the cannons are still going off
and just powering it, it's still hitting parts of the city
but eventually it's now turning its sights over
to other ships and eventually
it's slowly now turning towards one of the other ships
that are in the harbor.
I'll say that maybe next turn it will finally fully
turn around.
Everybody else, roll me athletics checks
as you have to now navigate through this crowd
to get to where you're going.
You're still holding,
Shodi is still holding on to Baran
who is wearing a little wolf mask.
Solid seven.
Big eight.
17, 30, 26.
Kenny, Anker and Snamal,
it's easy for you to navigate through this crowd.
You're seeing the openings between the cadence of people
running and then you're able to kind of duck and weave.
But as you guys, the rest of you are pushing and trig,
you and Shodi kind of get bottlenecked by a group of people
and you guys are slowly slowing down
with the rest of the pack
as everybody is continuing to push forward.
Eventually you guys make it back to the food court area
as like tables have been overturned,
tapestries are on fire and scatters of fruits
and vegetables and meat all over the floor.
There is tons of people still kind of traversing down
the same way that you're going to,
but you also notice that the canal on the opposite side
seems to be a little bit more freer,
but you will have to jump over the boat
that are parked along the sides to get across.
Which way would you like to go?
You can either go down and cross the canal
or you guys can continue to push through this crowd.
I can make it, I can make it.
Hold on, I'm going to, is it possible for me to do
our reaping work?
If I do it, like I can just do a roar
to scare people out of our way for a dead saving throw.
I'm sorry, wisdom saving throw,
or they're going to be frightened.
So if they're frightened, they can just fuck off from us.
Can I do that?
Sure, you can try that.
Hell yeah.
I did a four.
Oh no.
I don't know if it would.
Snowball, you're like, you think you got it
and you try to run up to the crowd
and you just take this stance of some kind
and you like try to push out this roar,
but nothing comes, like your throat kind of tightens
and it cracks the stuff and nothing really comes out.
As everybody just sees you make this
like non-monk stance motion and nothing happens.
We all get the same anxiety from time to time.
So go in my head and just move.
Just too many crowds, go for the canals.
Can I like parkour from boat to boat across the canal?
Yeah, roll me an acrobatics check.
That's all of us?
Yes, everybody.
Everybody's running across this canal.
24.
10.
21.
18.
Shodi, it's easy enough for you.
Given your size, given your lengthens
and your knack for acrobatics,
you easily just in one bound jump from one ship
to another boat to another boat
and make it over to the canal.
Kenny, Anker and Snowball,
you guys take a second to kind of balance yourself
on the first boat,
but you guys get your rhythm
and you're able to jump from boat to boat
to get to the other side of the canal.
Trig, you jumped on the first boat
and you kind of rocked really hard
and it took a second for you to stabilize yourself,
but it takes a minute for you to slowly jump
from boat to boat.
As you're climbing up to the top
of the other side of the canal,
roll me a deck save.
The adrenaline is coming down.
Got too excited with the band.
Yeah, I did.
That's gonna be a fucking 12.
A 12?
Yeah.
I'm paying for that natural 20 at the top of the game.
You hear the sound of an arrow
whoosh through the air and it hits you.
You take three points of piercing damage
as it knocks into your shoulder,
but you still manage to prop yourself up,
but it clips you as you get to your feet.
On the other side of the canal,
you see another set of bandits and raiders
who have noticed you guys fleeing
and have taken shots at you.
Tears, butterflies, women.
You gonna keep running?
All right.
Rad, you're still pushing and moving that boat.
The boat's getting pretty close to fully turning all the way
and is now firing off into the opposite side
into the bay area, crashing into other boats.
This is not the boat that's firing in,
but another boat adjacent to it as it rips through.
As now that boat has caught fire,
but eventually it's finally moved fully over
and has taken two shots at one of the adjacent ships.
And it hits as the two cannon fires
rips into the bow of it, setting the lower half of it
on fire on one of its faces.
But it's still managing to pop off a shot,
loses two more cannon into the city.
I will spend my action.
I'm still using control water.
I think I'll just, did one of the ships take damage?
Yeah, it's taking damage and it's on fire,
but it's still got enough left in it
to keep firing off shots.
I'm going to move my control water from one ship
to the ship that was just damaged.
And I'm going to cast a vortex,
which is a 50 foot wide at the top and 25 feet deep.
And the point is that the ship is going to have to make
an athletics check or it's going to take some damage.
Wide-earl fucking whirlpool.
What's the DC for the athletic?
14.
I've got four.
The ship is going to take an additional 10 damage.
Yeah, it seems that that vortex
that this ship is kind of caught in it
as it's now kind of also spinning in its place
in underneath as this vortex is forging.
And it seems like it's taking on some water.
And as I'm casting really thick purple-black smoke
is starting to emanate from beneath the eye patch
and he just says to himself,
sorry for the crease dude.
And just continues to mess with the ships.
The rest of you have kind of traversed through
the back end of the food court area
where a lot of the food was being had
and have now reached back into the art district.
There's nobody there.
It's actually very quiet here
as it seems that everybody's abandoned it.
There's some fire on the residual buildings around it,
but overall it doesn't look like anything was really disturbed.
Like tables have toppled over from people
kind of knocking into it and stuff,
but there's nobody seemingly here.
Everybody here, roll me a perception check.
13.
22.
14.
12.
Yeah, you guys are just kind of searching around,
kind of catching your breath
as you guys have been running for a little bit,
assessing any additional damage.
Trig, there's an arrow in your shoulder
that has not been addressed.
But yeah, you're taking a second to breathe.
Something catches your eye.
It looks like a half-elf.
He's wearing like full leather armor.
As you kind of look at him,
his form doesn't seem like it's solid.
It seems like it's got a little opacity behind it,
and you can kind of see like the leg of the stall
right behind him.
But he like watches you for a second
and eventually the image fades.
Really quickly, can I like lean up against a wall
with my shoulder that has the arrow in it
and just push against it to snap the stem off?
You hear the clacking of the arrow breaking
and it's uncomfortable,
but it's a lot better than whole arrow.
The rest of you, as you guys are kind of catching your breath,
you do hear the sounds of footsteps
and people coming closer.
You don't know if it's random citizens
who are still running through the town or it's an enemy,
but they're growing closer.
As you guys continue to progress and forward,
roll me a dexterity saving throw.
14.
18.
18.
9.
Alleyway End, like one of the buildings just erupts
into and explodes around you
as you guys are pushed up
or kind of a scattered amongst this debris
and you guys kind of get your bearings in around.
You notice that like who's with you
is not everybody's like there as the dust settles
as you guys seem to be on different sides.
Trig, Kenny, you guys are together.
The rest of you are Shoti, Snavol, and Anchor.
You guys seem to be on the opposite side
of what appears to be piles of rubble
and of the building that has just exploded.
I shout out, keep moving, we'll find our own way.
Okay, we'll see you down by the dock.
I'm gonna check over the kid, make sure she's not hurt.
And then.
She's got more sud and what looks to be like scratches
and debris, but you've been kind of covering her entirely
and she's such a small child
that you've been able to kind of skate off
a lot of the damage.
Everybody takes five points of bludgeoning damage
from that explosion as you guys get to your feet.
And roll me survival checks
so you can get your bearings and figure out
where you are in the city
and how to get down to the docks.
While you guys are rolling that stuff, Rad,
what are you wanting to do down at the docks?
Your vortex is still going and stuff like that.
I think I'll just keep it up.
I'll keep pumbling the same ship that has just gotten hit.
So on their turn, or if you want on my turn,
they have to make another athletics check.
If they fail, they take two to eight.
Yeah, no, that's a nine.
Ooh, nice.
They take 13 bludgeoning damage
as the waves are just pummeling them.
Yeah, I mean, as you continue to just suck this vortex,
the ship deeper into this vortex,
it's starting to take on water.
And you can even see like the residual fire
from where the initial cannon blast is seeming
to like starting to extinguish as like water
is starting to fill.
And it looks like the ship is starting to sink
within this vortex that you have formed.
But you're going to keep that up.
Yeah, I'm just waiting for my allies to come.
What were your survival checks, friends?
21.
Fat eight.
Fat eight.
Dirty 20.
I got the unholy net one.
Oh, no.
Shodi, you kind of look up between you and Anchor.
And guys can, you can hear the sounds of the harbor bell.
And it seems fairly close to you guys.
And you kind of pull, you kind of like find like where it's
going and you see an alleyway that kind of like leads
towards that direction.
You guys are going to head that way.
Snowball, you're kind of just still catching your bearings
and not really paying attention.
You notice that at the very least when you turn around,
you just see the last bit of like Anchor's,
Anchor's like robage just kind of flicking in the corner
as they have like turned the corner and left you there.
Thinking that you were going to fall.
Can I dash after them?
I'll call it like a dragon.
Oh, yeah.
You slowly run after them.
Kenny and Trick, you, Kenny, you turn around
and the only place you see is another alleyway
and it looks fairly empty as you guys are kind of taking a,
you guys kind of been blocked off from the other path
that you guys were walking on.
Seems like you kind of like was pushed into like
the small side alley from the explosion.
Yeah, about that.
I got the plan B.
I'm going to pull out another stick of dynamite.
All right.
OK.
And then I'm going to wait until I feel like the allies
on the other side of the rubble are gone
and I'm just going to put a stick of dynamite into the rubble
and just kind of like strike the views and step back
into the alleyway.
How much dynamite do you fucking have?
I'm going to grab Trick and say,
I'm sure you'll be able to see it from farther away.
Let's go and drive down the alleyway, if possible.
Just roll me a dex save because you get dynamite in the alley.
Why would you not?
Why would you not?
I don't know.
I don't know what.
So technically speaking, if you're within five feet of it,
you have to make a DC 12 dex saving throw.
I'll say Kenny pulls you out far enough that you guys don't
have to do dex saves, but just as you get to the end
of the alleyway, the dynamite goes off
and it's just like a rubble scattered across this very
loudly.
You do blast the hole in that debris
as it's just rocks and loose wood.
Yeah, you've poked a hole in there.
We probably could have moved it with our arms,
but that's OK.
Let's go.
I'll scurry through the hole.
Kenny looks at the perfectly empty alleyway.
The perfectly empty alleyway.
What are you going to do?
You are a long way around kind of person
and follows you through the tunnel
that you've made back on track, hopefully.
Technically, this is the more direct route.
Is it?
Is it?
It's fine.
It's fine.
With this intelligence, it's the most direct route.
Yeah, I can't argue with that.
That's true.
Amen.
Shoddy, Shoddy, Anchor and Snoball,
you guys have tucked into another alleyway
and you guys have been running down it for a moment.
And it seems like you've been running for quite a while.
It seems like you're just running and running.
You hear the harbor bells and it doesn't seem like it's ever
getting really closer.
Who's in the front?
Romeo Wisdom's saving throw.
Well, we'll get it.
Nice.
On 24.
As you're running, you blink for a second
and there's just a wall that appears,
but you manage to skirt around it
as there's another part of the alleyway
that you can turn into.
You kind of like stop with enough time to kind of turn
and with enough time for everybody in the back of you
to see that you're making a hard left into the side street.
You guys continue down to this alleyway
into a larger section where there's another row of market
stands and you guys progress a little bit further.
Roll me another wisdom saving throw.
That's 16.
That's 16.
What you think is the continuation of this alleyway
and all of a sudden you take a step over one part of the road
and you feel nothing.
You barely manage to grab onto something
as you fall through and all of a sudden you see nothing but just debris
as the section of this road has been kind of eaten away by cannon fire
and there's fire now that you are holding on to this rubble
that you notice that there's just a chunk missing
and just a wide hole down to another level of the street below you.
Yeah, I'm going to hold myself in the threshold
and put a hand back to everyone behind me.
The city's playing tricks on us.
Something's happening.
And you know, I'm looking down at the rubble.
Is there anywhere else we can go to skirt this back the way we came?
Or can I start feeling the walls to see what is real and what isn't?
You feel around and you know, like what you see now feels real.
The edges of this street, you're able to kind of put yourself up
and you look and you see that just a giant chunk.
It's only about maybe 10 feet or so of a jump across this road that you could
or there's another side alley that you see in this area
that might lead down to the lower part where you were kind of
what you kind of see inclination of what would be faster to get to the docks.
Well, me a survival check. OK.
I have a 17 17.
As you kind of like look at the lower part of the road,
you do notice that it's emptier down in that lower street.
When you go across the way that you see a collection of people
that are still trying to make their way down to what the dock areas would be.
But you know that eventually you'll have to go down another level
to get to the docks anyways, as it tears down all the way flat to the dock area.
I'm going to follow that easier street then.
Rad, come back to you.
So what does it look like the other ships are doing?
Like, for instance, like I moved one of them.
Is it like trying to redirect itself?
There's a third one I haven't even touched.
Is it just still shooting into the into the city?
Yeah, the one you had initially pushed in that direction is now
trying to round about themselves and put them back into a position of fire.
As you're slowly sinking this other ship, it seems that the other ship
that is also skating fire has just been continuing on its course.
There are various boats now in the harbor that are attempting to flee.
And you've noticed you can notice that some ships
that are making their way out of Tengu has been actually assaulted
by the back end of some of those those cannon fire and is essentially trying to
bust any ships attempt to leave the harbor as well.
If I am within range of 300 feet, I'll try to target some of the civilian boats.
And I'll just I'll just use and control water all like redirect flow
and make them move faster out of the harbor and like just have a big wave
like hit them in the back and they just move as fast as possible.
Kind of bring your hands up as the vortex slowly starts to dissipate,
collecting all that water together.
And you finally kind of bring it towards yourself and you just kind of push out.
And that wave just kind of ripples through the harbor
and it catches the tail of some of those ships that are making their way out.
And it is pushing those ships faster along.
And you can even see one or two making it to that narrow pass and making their way.
And I'm looking behind my shoulder like, where are my fellow dudes?
Well, your perception check.
Since you've been kind of focused on the ocean, you haven't really been taking a look.
Dirty 20.
You turn around and you just can take in the level of damage
that is being that's just being assaulted over Tengu at all.
Is a good part of its structure is on fire.
You're seeing just the scattered of people trying to make it to shits,
trying to make it to safety somewhere.
But you also notice one other thing,
somebody who's standing at the main entrance of where the docks are,
just standing there waiting.
He's wearing black armor and he's just casually just calmly
just standing there amongst the fray.
I'll call out to him.
You should get to safety, dude.
But he's like completely stoic to standing there.
He's completely stoic.
He doesn't.
No, he doesn't seem to notice your your calls to him
as he just continues to look out at the at the city that is that is burning
and being destroyed, Trig and and Kenny,
you guys have tunnels your way through this debris and you've made it out
and you are running back down the same road that you were traversing down.
And eventually you kind of cross over this one bridge onto the other side
and you're making your way down and you can see the docks just about a tear or so away.
And eventually you take a couple like stairs
on down a side of of like what appears to be like a residential housing area.
You are now at the dock level.
Well, me perception checks.
Great. Six.
I did a little better than that.
I got an 11.
It's just chaos down where you guys are at as you're seeing people trying to flee.
There's some people even like looting as you're seeing people carrying off
with like items and trinkets that are a little too large.
And like, why are you carrying that kind of stuff in the middle of all of this stress?
And a lot of the the dock area is on fire.
Some of the some of the fishermen ship it.
You guys don't know what Anchor Spote looks like
and you don't see any of your allies.
Patrick, you do notice something in the crowd.
The face of a half-elf man that kind of seems like he's standing waiting,
though there are people kind of pushing through him.
And Kenny, you find a look around and he's about 30 feet away from you.
You can kind of just give out a shape.
What stands out about him is that he's just not moving.
He's just standing there.
Kenny, when you kind of see kind of looks like the person that you were,
you had seen down at the art market, but he's just standing there waiting.
I mean, I see him standing there like an idiot,
not seeing anything else to do right now.
I'm the run and I'm just going to try to grab him and fire a man
over my shoulder as I keep running, trying to take him to safety with me.
OK, roll me a strip check.
Are you going to be sneaky about this?
Are you just running straight for a fucking grab him?
I'm just going to.
OK, it's a straight.
You, like for some reason, you believe that this man is in danger
because he's just either in shock or something because he's just not moving.
So you run up to him and you're like, I'm going to save you.
I don't even say anything.
I'm just going to like try to like shoulder check him.
And at the same time, kind of like scoop him up and just keep running with him.
As you attempt to pick him up, you realize that he doesn't have any mass to him.
As you kind of like the arms link through what he just could
portal as it disappears.
Well, that was weird.
Let's keep running to ask him next time we see that ghost,
just let me do the talking.
Weird request. OK, great.
Let's go.
So the anchor and snowball, you guys have gone down similar stairs
in a different part of the market areas and are slowly making your way.
It seems like it it makes a bend as there's like a wall
down at the end of the staircase that kind of makes the stairwell
jut and turn a different direction.
And you eventually go down these stairs and you come out of the dock area.
And as you enter into this chaos and fray,
you notice, since you're at the heart of where the dock kind of intersects
from all around the coastline, you see a guy with black armor
just casually standing at the front of the docks
and appears to just be waiting for something to look into him.
I want to see him like you want to see what what he gives off to me.
He gives off an aura of just fear.
That's what you feel from it.
Just straight fear doesn't scales show up to me or no.
The scales show up to you and it teeters towards not being a very good person.
But he's just standing there waiting.
You guys are at the docks now.
There is still people moving about trying to get to their ships.
Where's your ship?
Where's the ship that's from where we're standing?
It's it's just there on the dock.
It's past that guy in the black armor.
Right. We have to walk past him to get there.
Yeah, it's past that gentleman in the black armor.
It's the farthest side.
I'm going to approach the gentleman and be like,
I'm just going to just approach him just to you need to step aside.
He doesn't move, doesn't look at you, doesn't say anything.
Are we together?
By now, I would say Kenny and if you guys are heading
towards further towards the main part of the dock area,
I would say you and Kenny would eventually walk up on them.
It's that stupid ghost.
Where are you watching from?
And I can call out to the to the ghost.
I think it's a ghost.
You're just calling out or you're calling out to the the the the guy in the
yeah, I call it to the dude in the armor and ask where he's watching from.
It doesn't seem to answer you when he says that.
I'm going to do an unarmed strike to get him to move.
So close.
I'm not going to use my fist.
I'm going to go ahead and whip my head around
so I can hit him with the ring on the bottom of my face.
OK, well, well, well, well, that's my good attempt.
Let's do this.
I bet you that's a not 20.
OK, not the best.
But all right, we got five points of damage.
You you flip your hair and you hear the cracking of ring
that's on the end of it make with the armor as it makes a loud sound.
See the indent in the the place where you had shrug.
As you do that, his head finally turns and meets your gaze.
He's slightly shorter than you since you're seven feet tall,
but he is a very large individual.
I want to do that our reaping again.
I want to see if I could scare him to here.
Yeah, I want to see if I could scare him.
OK, before you do that, since you did something,
he's going to look at you and as he looks at you,
you see something glowing underneath his mask.
I need you to make a wisdom saving throw.
Nineteen. All right.
You as you see like this glowing red light
just coming out through his mask, you feel this wave of fear
just kind of envelop you and and it kind of
like you feel it kind of going down in between like your scales
and into your like you have, you know, studied under the monastery
and you know how to swallow your fear as a lot of the practices
that you preach has to deal with overcoming fear.
And as that fear kind of kind of pushes inside of you,
you kind of steadfast, kind of push that away
and you manage to scathe off this feeling of fear.
But you can sense a very strong divine presence
coming from this particular person.
Everybody else who's standing there,
are you guys attempting to do something?
I'm not doing anything yet,
but my hand's kind of like twitching at my side a little bit.
I'm going to look to the Goliath and go,
you need to get the child to the boat at the farthest end of the dock.
It's on the right with the red tapestry, the red mast.
We'll stay here and deal with whatever this is.
When we go, you go further.
Go ahead.
I'm going to like run with the child for now.
Yeah, best be best be doubling the guard on the kid up.
When anything kicks off, I'm big enough.
Rad, is there anything you want to do while you're down there?
You know, I turn around and I see this figure
and I see my allies appear and like, it's over here.
I'm just like signaling for them.
Before I go running off with Zowdy,
I'm going to stay in the back of the pack
just in case this ghost tries anything
and I can be the buffer zone between.
But I am going to wave down Rad
and I'm going to point at the boat at the end with the red mask.
I'll just flip him some thumbs up.
I give him that really awkward chaka again
because I think that's like his greeting symbol.
It's Naval and Trig, are you doing anything?
I'm going to...
I feel like I'm going to end up in this guy.
I'm going to go with the kid.
I'm going to keep an eye on that, help her keep an eye on that kid.
Yeah, essentially, if this guy tries anything,
I think the dragonborn, the cowboy and anchor
are going to try and intercede while the others run away.
Yeah, I'll feel like close your eyes, close your eyes.
And Stephen will be on a boat.
Just think about the boat.
You guys begin to proceed
and just try to walk past this particular individual
and just make a beeline straight to your...
Or just eyes are just staring at it as we just walk by.
We're doing like that Scooby-Doo thing
where they're kind of like in a line, creeping by.
Roll B, a wisdom saving throw.
Feels right.
I got a five.
I got an eight.
Twenty-two.
I got an 18.
I got a four.
As you guys progress forward,
again, you feel this creeping sensation of fear wash all over you.
Anchor and Trig, you guys have been through enough
to kind of skate off that fear and swallow it
in the way that Snavol did.
But Kenny, Shoti and Snavol,
that fear just kind of sinks in really fucking deep.
And it stops you in your tracks and you stop moving.
You feel the need to back away from this man
instead of trying to cross past him
as you guys are stuck full of fear.
You're frightened currently of this particular entity.
I go ahead and activate like my stillness of mind,
which is it would take me out of an action,
but it basically would just...
I would just have to stand still, but I can become unfrightened.
Can I just like go into like a meditative pose
for a second to gather myself?
That's what I'm gonna know.
Rad, roll me a perception check,
since you haven't left your position on the beach, right?
No, yeah, I'm still watching.
15.
15?
As you see the Goliath stop and Snavol and Kenny
all stop in their tracks and they're not moving towards the boat,
like where Anchorhead pointed in a direction,
what you notice is behind them,
two other people have come out from the opposite end.
One is a half elf in leather armor,
and the other one is what appears to be a woman.
She's wearing very long robes.
The thing you notice most is the mask
that she's wearing over her face.
It's a blank, like whitish mask.
It's a little bit bigger than her face,
but she's got crude like spirals that make up its eyes
and this really large smiling teeth.
She's got like bush kind of hair that circles around it,
and you can't tell if that's her actual hair
or it's a part of the actual mask,
but they're both now kind of approaching behind Kenny,
Shoti and Snavol.
Well, any doubt that this dude isn't being totally aggro
has now been dispelled.
Would you say that this man in the black armor
and the two new individuals,
are they within a 40 foot cube of each other within range?
Are they farther away from each other than that?
The two are just a little bit outside of that,
but they are moving towards them,
but they're still in the city line.
They've come out through alleys in the same way
that you slowly saw your party approach.
I'm just going to raise one of my hands
and this light, this energy sort of forms
and one of the columns of my hands
is going to blast off two eldritch blasts
at the man in black armor.
Sure, at the man in black armor.
Yeah, the highest is a 14,
and then I'll just spend the rest of my turn
just moving 30 feet towards them.
Okay, yeah, you pop off those two blasts and stuff like that,
and it does make connections with its armor,
but it doesn't seem to do anything as a kind of,
the energy kind of just scatters and fades,
but that draws the attention of the two that are approaching.
As you are running towards the rest of the group,
the woman who's standing there just kind of blinks
and disappears, and as she disappears,
she eventually appears in front of you, Rad,
as you're approaching up to her.
As you're approaching her,
you notice that like where her hands are,
there's these long bladed claws
that are resting on the tops of her hands
that are the only thing that you can really see
sticking out of her long sleeves,
but she's got that mask on,
and she's got her head kind of tilted to the side
as you're kind of approaching her.
Why don't we just roll for initiative?
Okay, I have a 20.
Six, 17.
15.
Get another nat one, the initiative four.
12.
The top of the round is the man in the armor.
Some of the members of your party frightened
and unable to continue on as Trigg is on the opposite,
Trigg and Anchor on the opposite sides,
on the back end of this evil guy.
He draws his greatsword,
and he approaches you, Shoti,
as he notices the little child in your arms,
and he...
And as he approaches you, and he pulls his greatsword out,
he says something to you,
and he says,
I've received a letter and a note
to help deliver precious cargo,
and I have a feeling what you have in your hands
is just the cargo I'm looking for.
If you hand her over now,
I won't burn this entire city to the ground.
As he's stepping forward,
it's making you take steps back as you're frightened.
I'm gonna switch her to my upstage hand,
so she's furthest away from him,
and switch my sword hand,
and just kind of like shakily keep my sword out
in front of us.
Not a chance.
He's going to take a swing at you
with his greatsword then.
He takes it in both of his hands,
and he swings wildly,
but you manage, since you're frightened of him,
you take that awkward shuffle back,
and it's just enough for you to skate off,
but you hear the weight of the wash across your face
of his sword.
Trigger up.
Okay.
How far away am I from this guy?
You're about, now that he's taken a few steps forward,
he's about 10 feet, 15 feet away from you.
Gotcha.
Pop, pop, I'm gonna take two shots at him.
I'll roll him both at the same time.
Sure.
So that is going to be a dirty 20 and a 16 to hit.
A dirty 20 and a six.
The dirty 20 will hit.
The 16 will not.
Okay.
On the dirty 20,
I am going to try to do a trip attack,
spending my final superiority die,
so he will also have to make a strength saving throw
against a 14, or he's gonna get knocked prone.
Okay.
And I get to add an extra D8 to my damage roll.
I hit 18.
Takes 14 points of piercing damage,
bonus action, crossbow expert to whack him again.
Sharp shooter, 14 to hit.
You managed to fire off those three arrows
and one actually does manage to get underneath
some of his armor and jut out from in between
two of his plates, but he doesn't seem unfazed by it
as he's continuing to focus on Shoti and the child.
Anchor, it's your turn.
All righty, I'm gonna get in between Shoti
and the black armor and immediately in between them,
I'm pulling out that big metal war club
and I'm gonna take two huge swipes at him.
Okay.
You know, trying to pummel him with it.
Let's see.
I hit 18 on the first one and a 25 on the second.
25 points of damage total from both hits.
And then I'm just keeping myself within five feet of Zoti,
Shoti the whole time to make sure that they're protected.
Okay.
Shoti is actually your turn.
I'm gonna cast Hold Person on this fucker.
It's a wisdom save against 15.
He rolled a natural 15.
Son of a fucking bitch.
Roll a d20.
A seven.
Okay.
I want a bonus action disengage
and use my movement to get as far away from him as I can.
Yeah, as you disengage and Anchor is wedged between you
and this armored man, you attempt to try to flee back
into the city, but as you turn around
and use the full length of your movement,
you do notice that there is somebody,
a half elf in leather armor on the opposite side
as you had not paid attention to him
and you're now running towards him.
All right.
Okay.
All right.
Okay.
Rad, you're up.
This woman has jumped up in front of you
and is waiting with you as you're running towards her
in her direction.
And she has like her blades out.
Like she's gonna attack me.
She has her blades out.
She's just standing there with her head kind of cock
just kind of looking at you.
Seeing what you're gonna do.
Am I within 30 feet of shoddy
or can I get within 30 feet of shoddy?
If you get closer to the woman,
yeah, you'll be within range if you use your movement.
Yes.
I will definitely get as close as I can
to where I can see shoddy
because I know that she has the child, she has Baron
and I'm just gonna yell out be brave shoddy
and I'm gonna cast enlarge on shoddy.
It's gonna become 14 from tall.
I'm now concentrating on that.
So I've dropped control water.
Because you've gotten close enough to this woman
before you cast it and you're within,
I would say about five feet of her,
she does use her reaction to use both of her hands
to strike at you with the claws
and you just hear the raking of steel against your shell
but you don't feel a damn thing.
That's what the shell's for, dude.
She kind of tilts her head.
Her head was tilted to one side.
She then just kind of tilts it to the other side.
That smile just kind of looming and staring at you.
You got really weird vibes, dude.
Oh, and it's her.
She is going to...
Yeah, she's close enough.
She's gonna try to attack you.
The first one is a three, the second one is a one.
She just starts to rapid fire,
try to stab Ashie with her hands.
You're just kind of loosey-goosey about it.
You just kind of move to the side one way,
move to the side the other way
and it just keeps raking against the...
That tickles!
You just hear the quickness of her hands
but you just don't...
All you just are managing
is just the blocking it with your shell
and just keeping her off her toes
but that's about her turn.
For her, Shoti, you are now have been enlarged to 14 feet
and you're still standing above this half elf
who's still standing right in front of you
as these kind of watch,
tracing his steps all the way up
and you can hear the tiny cries of brawn
and your hand is about enough size to hold her entirely
as you just have her covered to it.
I'll just cover against my collarbone and just...
He is going to, first use his bonus action
and he's just going to create another copy of himself
that kind of manifests into a fog
into an image that looks identical to him
and he's going to push it towards anchor
since he's within his range
and he is going to pull out his halberd
and he's going to just attempt to strike you, Shoti,
at your ankle.
Ankle bite me, let's go.
He's going to ankle bite you.
Oh yeah, that'll hit.
That's a 24.
Void is that hit.
You are going to take five points of slashing damage
and then he's going to roll a secondary attack
and that is also going to hit that is a 22
as he's going to kind of take his halberd.
He's going to first go with the pike end.
He's going to strike you straight into the thing
and as he pulls it out, he's going to flip around
and rotate around your large leg
and then strike you again in the opposite leg
with the axe face side of his halberd.
That'll be eight points of damage on that one
as he's just striking that
while his other form is approaching
and walking towards anchor.
You're a creepy little man who makes ghosts fuck off.
Samal, you're up.
Okay, is the dark, the guy in the dark armor
right in front of me still?
You and anchor are still within his sight
but you are no longer frightened of him.
Okay, so you're going to go ahead
and I'm going to do, so now that I'm in action,
okay, I'm going to do hour of reaping again.
And that is a what saving throw, a wisdom?
Wisdom saving throw.
He is very high wisdom.
All right, well then I get impatient
because I can get my other action.
I'm going to go ahead and use my breath weapon
and you have to do a deck save of 12.
No, he doesn't get it.
Thank God for that, all right.
So I'm going to burn you with, hold on,
14 points of damage and then I'm going to go ahead
and have my bonus action of fury blows.
15, does that hit?
Hit.
All right, another one.
Oh, Nat 20, that one hits.
Six points of damage for that.
Yeah, you step up in front,
like anchor is taking a position of defense
and stuff as Shoti's grown into this immense size
and using that opportunity of both of them stepping in.
You just let loose a flame breath over this guy
and he's like to the point where you start to see
like his own fucking armor just starting to kind of glow
with this like gaze of that breath.
And then you just follow it up with just a solid strike
into it.
He's pretty fucking hurt as he takes a few steps back away
from you, Sneval, and has turned his attention to you now.
So really quick, I'm going to touch,
I'm going to cast heroism on myself and Shoti.
You're immune to being frightened now
and you gain three temporary hit points.
And that's my bonus action.
And then I'm going to cast, what did I just say?
I think spiritual weapon at third level,
at the dude that's going to be...
Which dude, the dude in the leather armor or the...
The prime dude in the black armor.
That's going to be a 17 hit.
17 hits.
Is that at third level?
Okay.
Oh, that's only going to be four points of damage.
But that's okay.
But it's your spiritual weapon.
It is a huge golden sort of...
Oh, wow.
Yeah, it is a golden hand, not to get all smashed on everybody,
but it's a giant golden hand.
Nice.
He just slaps that like punches the dude.
Yeah, he just gets struck with divine energy.
The hand is extremely well-manicured.
It's a beautiful hand.
It's about to hit the top of the round.
Are you guys going to continue to fight these four
or are you guys going to attempt to get to your ship
and try to leave?
As you guys are now not...
Yeah, none of you guys are frightened
and you guys can attempt to make a run
as the series of attacks have put this guy
in the black armor, teetering back
and there's a moment where you could try
to make a break for it.
Let's go, boys and girls and people.
Make an athletics check.
I'll see them running and I want to give chase,
but I want to do something.
Can I win to run until after Dark Armor takes his turn?
Yeah, you can.
Okay.
That's it.
10. 23.
10.
Ooh.
Not 20 kids.
Hell yeah.
Okay. I have a 25 on my athletics.
Okay.
Those who were low, you're on the back end of the pack.
It's shoddy just with one big, large foot,
just stretches over, pass everybody
and just go and just put...
Like you can hear the crunching of wood
as they put their foot down onto the docks
as the wood creaks against the weight
of just the sheer size as in like just two easy steps,
just make it to the red-sailed canoe that's right there.
But as you stand in front of it,
you realize that you're 14 feet tall
and this boat is just not going to cut it for your size.
The rest of you are slowly making your way around
with Snavol trailing the back of the pack.
Rad, what did you want to do before I started the initiative?
I see Shoddy making their way to the boat
and this whole time this person with the mask
has been like striking my shell
and it's kind of shaking my stomach
and I ate a lot of black ink squid pies.
So I just like involuntarily start feeling sick
and I'm going to turn around and just vomit
all of this black ink squid pie under her.
But as it happens, it's kind of like in Shin Godzilla
where like first a bunch of magma comes out
and then this like high-powered seam breath comes out
and they need to make a deck safe.
What's the AC for that?
Oh, 14.
Oh, no!
So they fail, I assume, by that reaction.
Okay, so they take nine fire damages.
I just blast them with this hot air
and then once I finish like in a belch,
I'm like, oh, sorry, dude.
And I just start running away towards the go.
And if I see Shoddy like getting close to the boat,
I'll just drop my enlarge.
Okay, yeah, you just cover her in this steamy black,
almost like tar just from just what's been sitting
in your stomach and it just covers her
and you can kind of just feel the burning
and she kind of like streaks out
and she's kind of trying to wipe all this nasty shit
from her face, but that gives you enough time
to just break it for the boat.
And you see just Shoddy's large frame
just like standing in front of this ship as you cast out
and brings them back down to their normal size
as Shoddy, you're now able to jump onto the ship.
The big guy is going to try to get himself together
as he's going to now step forward at Snavall.
Since you are one of the last people in the group,
he's going to try to make his way towards you
and he is going to cast.
So he moved away from me? Yes.
You can incur an opportunity attack
as he's stepping towards you
because he's more enthralled with Snavall.
Okay, and is Snavall within five feet of me?
Is that how close we are?
Yeah, because she was like right next to you and stuff
and so she would cross past you
as she's making her way towards the docks.
Okay, cool.
He's going to cast Spiritual Weapon on him as well.
First, I hit him with my OP attack.
I have Sentinel, meaning that he can't move in his turn
after I hit him on and off. Nice.
So he stuck where he was originally.
Okay.
He takes 12 points of damage.
Nice. And that'll just be my reaction.
Yeah, you crack that Warhammer into him,
stopping him in his track.
He's no longer able to move forward
and you kind of look into his helmet.
He's just looking back at you
and you can kind of see through that bit of that darkness
to see that you can see like two human eyes,
like two green eyes looking back at you.
If he's looking at me,
I pulled down the headscarf completely.
I show him my full face.
Oh, yeah, okay.
They're both looking at each other, looking at each other.
He's going to cast the Spiritual Weapon.
Ironically enough, he also has a hand,
but it's a gauntlet like hand that's black and reddish
and he's still going to try to attempt to strike Yusnevol.
That is a 17 to hit.
He just, the hand just comes straight down on top of you.
And you take four points of damage
as it just strikes down onto you.
Trig, Anchor, Shoddy and Rad,
I assume you guys of all are dashing
and making your way to the ship.
So within your turn, you manage to do that.
I'm not sure.
Can I also, as I'm stepping onto the boat,
can I kick a hunting trap out at the entrance to the boat?
You wait for everybody to kind of what through
as you just pull this hunting trap out,
as you just set it right at the plank
in which you can board onto the ship.
I hope Anchor doesn't step on it.
Does it take all of our movement and action to get there?
Yeah, can I?
You're already on the boat,
so you can take an action from the ship if you want to.
Sorry, is it my turn?
Yeah, I'll allow you to do your turn.
Everybody else is running to make it to the ship,
but since you're already there, you can do something.
Hey, Dope, since I'm there,
is anyone still in melee range with that dude?
I would say Snavol.
I would say Snavol, yeah, Snavol would be, no, no.
Yeah, no, Snavol would be the closest
as she hasn't taken her turn yet to run.
I'm going to use Firebolt on him.
And hold on, I'll see if I hit first.
Nope, that's a nat one.
That's a nat one?
Beautiful.
That's a beautiful thing to hear.
No.
Roll me a D100.
Plotted, planned.
Plotted, planned.
Okay.
25.
As you cast Firebolt, it just fizzles
and just bursts, just goes around.
Everybody is just sitting on the ship.
And as everybody is just, feels this wave,
just pulls out of them, you all start to hiccup
uncontrollably, just start to hiccup and hiccup and hiccup
and hiccup.
Well, I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
So do you feel like a searingness on that mark
that's on your upper arm?
As that feels like where it emanated from this energy,
but everybody is just hiccuping.
I turn to Kenny, I need you to heal me immediately.
I'm sorry.
She turns to you holding her breath
and still holds up the contract that no one has signed yet.
Oh, God damn it.
Snibble, as you're trying to make way to the ship,
the half elf is racing towards you,
trying to follow after you.
His secondary form is also much closer to you,
so he's right behind you.
You're the last one to get on this boat.
Okay, well, hold on, I'm gonna dash, dash, dash,
but I'm gonna use my bonus action first,
which I can put, what is it called?
Step of wind to double my speed to haul ass.
I'm gonna run and jump onto that boat, so bye.
As you hear the sounds of a blade trying to swing at you
as the how bird is racing through,
but just at that minute, you pick up the wind in your feet
and you just fucking jump down the staircase,
land on the ground, and you just fucking cartoon sprint
straight for the boat as you jump onto it.
All of you now are on the boat, what do you wanna do?
As you now see the other members approaching
and running after you guys.
First of all, does anyone step on the hunting trap?
Ooh, hey, Snibble, roll me a quick dex save
because you're running so fast,
you're gonna miss that hunting trap sitting there.
Oh, all right, 21.
Even in her speed, she sees the danger ahead of her,
and she jumps over it and she lands in the boat
and she kinda skids across the way.
Gonna do like that, like jump, twirl,
and then kinda like on the boat baseball slide
and on the deck.
Superhunter landing.
Brad is just gonna find anchor and say,
I'm gonna put my hand on his shoulder and be like,
dude, it's time to shoot the curl,
let's get the hell out of here.
Good, yes, shoot the curl,
and he reaches into his side bag
and he takes out the gust stone and he gives it over to Rad.
Get that in the mask, we're going,
and I go straight to the oar, trying to get it down.
Rad, you grab the stone and you quickly knowing
what its purpose is, it goes and inserts it
as the druidic ruins like illuminate on it
and the sail starts to pick wind up,
and as you guys slowly start to push your way
out of this harbor.
Nah, that's not gonna miss.
You see like two eldritch energy blasts
just shoot across as you see the woman
that that Rad had puked all over,
kind of still smoldering with this,
this blackish tar stuff on it,
but she's running feverishly after you guys down
towards the dock area, hoping in an attempt,
as well as the half-elf in attempt to try
to get onto your ship.
Rad, roll me a survival check.
The best, let's see, oh, 12.
As anchor is trying to steer you guys out,
you know that the mass and tilting it in the right direction
can also aid in steering it and moving it along.
So while he's focused on pushing the ore,
you go and grab the secondary pulley
and you pull it tight as it shifts it sideways
as you guys fully are able to turn around.
As you do that, you hear a splash as the half-elf
had attempted to try to jump onto the ship
and just at that right moment,
the ship turned around far enough
where he misses it completely
when you land straight in the fucking water.
As you see the woman standing
just with that mask looking at you guys,
as you guys have pushed out.
Even though you guys have left the harbor,
the two ships, the one that Rad had been vortexing,
had finally succumbed and sunk to the bottom of this bay,
those two ships are still out in the water
and they are still firing their cannons.
As you can kind of see flares and stuff like that
popping off on the shoreline
as maybe drawing attention to those ships
that something is afoot.
Rad and Anchor both rolled me survival strikes
as you guys are both helping each other
navigate through this bay.
As there's still a collection of ships,
it seems that some of the boats have been,
some of the other merchant ships
and other boats that have been sitting in this harbor,
some of them have been destroyed
and are half-sunk in and scattered about this bay.
What did you both roll?
320.
I rolled a dirty 20.
19.
Excellent.
Easy enough, it seems like even both of you in tandem,
both being sailors know how to navigate
and work this way through as you all pushing
through broken debris and the fires
that have been alighted amongst this water
just illuminating it in a glow.
Okay.
Anybody who's on the ship who's not navigating it,
roll me perception checks.
11, 20.
21.
There's your 21.
Okay.
Rad and Anchor are skillfully navigating you
through these ships,
trying to be as discreet as possible
and with as much speed as the gust stone will allow you.
The rest of you are just kind of keeping an eye out
for anything that seems to be a foot
and the other additional danger.
Shoti, you do notice that it seems that
on the larger galleon ships
that have been firing onto the ship have made
that you see people flagging each other
on the deck of the ship as you see some people lining up
along the edges and stuff like that
as they've taken note of your boat.
Anchor and Rad, roll me a quick athletics check.
A natural 20.
So a 20.
19 for me on athletics.
Yeah, you guys see a couple of bolts of fire
just firing at you guys as members on the top of the ship
are taking sight at you guys,
but you guys both pull tight on your oars
and stuff like that and are managing to kind of navigate.
This boat is particularly fast.
This wayfaring canoe is enabled to kind of jut in between.
One last athletics check as you guys are gonna try
to get between these two ships out to the back end
and trying to get towards the narrow pass.
I rolled an 18.
18?
19.
19?
Yep.
That was athletics, right?
That was athletics, yes.
19.
You guys are pushing forward.
You're seeing that the two ships are attempting
to kind of barricade you guys together
as they're pushing towards
as they're literally kind of side by side to each other.
But you watch the gust stone
and you're just waiting for the right moment
where it seems they're gonna push an extra bout of air
as you guys tighten up the reins of the oar
and the pulley and you guys just barely,
he's hearing some scraping on the back end of your ship
and against that oar a little bit
that kind of out kilters you a little bit anchor,
but you manage to get between these ships
and you guys are on your way out of the narrow path
and on the outside of this atoll.
As you guys kind of look on,
like all you can see is the large rims of the sides
of the craggy mountain ring that makes up Tengu Atoll
and just the faint glow of fire.
As you guys are continuing forward,
like Buran is just still kind of sobbing
and she keeps saying something over and over and over again.
Those who speak primordial,
roll me an intelligence check
to see if you understand what she's saying.
After making that like very narrow escape,
I'm gonna just slap anchor on the back
and be like, that's how you shoot the curl, dude.
Woo!
Very well shot, I'm proud of both of us.
Your form's a little sketchy, but I'm impressed.
I'm sorry, is the curl some kind of substance
that we should know about?
It's what we just shot, weren't you listening?
Nevermind.
I rolled a 16 on that intelligence check
for the primordial.
Okay.
Anybody else speak primordial, so just anchor.
Just anchor?
Okay.
I'm probably like trying to comfort her
and like never having actually hung out with children,
Shodi's really awkward and like just like
petting the back of her head really awkwardly
with a huge, they're huge.
You're doing that bouncing thing too.
I'm like, she's like bouncing around me.
You're gyrating her just a little too hard
just because of your form.
Yeah, like how it looks too hard.
But she keeps muttering this word in between her sob.
Anchor, you kind of pick up on it,
knowing a little bit of primordial.
And she's saying the word teddy over and over again,
as she doesn't have her bear with her
as you guys continue off into the darkness of the night.
And that's where we'll end today's session.
Oh!