The beginning of the end

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Thank you. So let's go around the table and introduce ourselves. Let's start with Tyson. Hey, I'm Tyson. I play Galford, who is a Fapac Gnome Warlock. And Alana. Hello, I am Baranath. I am a Cleric Elf. And Danielle. Hi, I'm Danielle. I play Trixie, the Drow Assassin. And Megan. Hi, I'm Talaprithain, the Razorclaw Shifter. And Brian. I am Brian. I play the Mole or Mule, Ruin Priest, Slaveborn, Root Priest. Shane. Hey, this is Shane. I am Tholomin Chandler, Human Seeker. And I'm Jason. I talk a bunch. Now... Do you guys remember what happened last time we sat down? We conquered the cubes.

We beat up the Dane cubes. With the power of Christian wrath, yes. I found out why Shane's character possibly died. In the last campaign. Hey. Well... And that briefly, Rikas wanted to kill him. Uh, yes. Choices were made. Some not as great as others. How do you know where the line is unless you test it? Yeah. Good point. So. You guys have been enslaved here and stuck to battle in the arena. You have been stuck here for about nine days now. It's been a week since the last time we've sat down. So you've been in and out of the arena off and on. They cycle you out, sometimes in teams, sometimes all together if it's something truly nasty.

Sometimes they'll grab Syl and Katie instead of you. Sometimes if there's a bunch of newbies they want to just have someone run through them like a buzzsaw, they'll bring in Valus. He'll take on six, seven guys at a time sometimes. Where is he, by the way? Uh, we're gonna get to that in just one second. Um. There'll be some days where they don't use you at all. They'll just take you and put you in the pits, have you clean up dead bodies. Or they'll have you scrub floors, something like that. Just real menial shitty work. Um. Today, they're starting off the arena combat by bringing out Valus and having him do that buzzsaw thing we were just talking about.

So he's not in the room right now. You have no idea how long he's gonna be gone, but you can tell by the crowd that someone's getting hacked up. Like you can kind of hear the crowd swell and explode here and there. In the room with you is Katie and Syl. They're kind of having their own conversation, as they tend to do. Throughout the week you guys have gotten to know both of them and you'll chat it up here and there. And you're genuinely nice to each other. Valus is still a dick. He stays in the corner, he doesn't talk to anybody, he stays to himself. Um.

What would you guys like to do while you're in this room here? Um. I would like to steal some of big guy's hay. Just a little bit. He's not there! Why not? I just like the fact you referred to him as big guy. Guys, he's up there getting his ass beat. Are you wanting to come back to a bed that's not even remotely good as it was before? Reality check. JDR on reality check. I'm pretty sure he's kicking everyone else's ass. Maybe but I think he's not going to get hurt. So, okay. Okay, so you're walking over to Valus's corner here. In that corner is his table and chair and then next to that sprawled out is this nice full bed of hay and straw.

So you're just going to pilfer some of that and drag it to the other side of the room? Just a little bit. Put it in any pockets I have. Okay, so, okay, wait. You're going to jam the straw into your pockets? Yes. Okay. That will be noticeable. Oh, it is? Well, it's straw. You're jamming straw into your- Normally people don't have straw coming out of their pants. Right. Unless you're a fucking scarecrow. So, if you're taking any- like I'm assuming you're taking it to kind of pad your bed out at night. To sleep better. I'm guessing. If you're going to take any that's going to be worth you taking any, like besides a few strands of straw and putting it- But I mean, yeah, if you're taking a couple of handfuls, yeah, it's going to be noticeable.

Aw, then fuck that. So you're not going to touch his stuff? He's going to kick your ass. Yeah, exactly. I stop right before I do it and come to think of the consequences. Maybe look at your teammates, they're kind of eyeballing you like "Mm-mm, mm-mm." Yeah, we're all kind of shaking our heads going "Mm-mm." [Laughter] Are you just going to sit down and pull Thalman over to the side and just go "Really? No. No, I'll just- I don't want to have to get in front of you and Valus when he gets back." I just sign and go "Okay." [Laughter] Katie and Sillar kind of looking around the corner like eyeballing you like "What is he doing back there?" That kind of thing.

So, Galford will kind of turn over to Rikas and go "I've kind of had a thought. I'm pretty sure I could still use my shade Twin Power where I can take the appearance of someone else that I'm fairly near to. Do you guys think this might be something helpful if I could hide out, make myself look like one of the guards, sneak out? You know, I promised I would come back and rescue you guys. I don't know, what do you think?" Insight check, please. Oh, you want to insi- [Laughter] Wow. It's fair. It is. Uh, Baranath, roll an insight check. [Laughter] I love that.

I was about to respond and she's like "Insight check." Just sticking that one in there. [Laughter] Oh my. 27. Uh, so let's see here, that's gonna go way past your, uh, yeah, so. Uh, I- I am telling the truth that if I was able to get out, I would come back and release you. Not out of love, but out of tactical reasons. Okay, I'm satisfied. Uh, Thelemyng, uh, talks to Galford and says "Well, how are we supposed to, you know, hide you? Like, they're gonna notice you're gone, you know, how are we supposed to hide that from guards? That you're not here?" See, that's what I was wondering about is, is this something where, you know, the only time I ever see the guards look, you know, slightly less than totally focused is when dealing with Valus.

I don't know if I could take Valus's appearance, we could try and talk to him and see if we can actually convince him or find out if he even wants to leave this place. Or maybe when we're down in the pits doing some cleanup, there's a lot more places to hide down there. Uh, you know, just long enough to kind of get out into the, uh, you know, into the structure here. Maybe I can release some other prisoners, you know, some worthless fodder, and let them try and distract the guards. You know, I'm talking out loud here, but, you know, we know we're going back to the arena to fight soon and it's only a matter of time before they bring back something that, uh, we're not able to defeat.

Um, I, it just, I think tactically it doesn't make quite sense. Obviously, you don't feel 100% confident in the plan that you would have. And I think the easiest way for us to try to get our freedom out of here is just to go and do what they say and kind of work our way through the system because eventually it's going to pay off in the long run. Okay, so Galifert says, "Everyone just keep it in mind. If you see an opportunity, let me know." And, uh, I'm confident I could, uh, perform the spell adequately that unless someone was watching me face to face do this, that we could, uh, we could trick someone.

Obviously, unless I'm standing right beside someone and they're going to see a twin appear. So, I'm out of ideas, but just putting it out there. The only other problem I have is you're counting on Katie and Sil not ratting you out. That's true. I, I'm also open to the plan of making myself appear as one of them and getting into the arena. Whether or not we choose to include them in this or, um, take advantage of their presence, we'll just see what happens when the time comes. How much do we really know about those girls too? Like, um, you know, we're kind of, we're kind of taking what they say as face value that they're in the same position that we're in, but we haven't really investigated that.

That's true. Maybe we should find out a little bit more about them. And they've told us about the structure, about this place, a little bit about how they got captured, but, uh, other than that, I don't, I mean, I don't trust them. I don't know a lot about them. Yeah. I was feeling that. Solomon, why don't you go work your charms on them? That, that, that's what I was actually going to say is like, well, if, if we haven't gained their trust, maybe, you know, the smoothest person in the room can kind of like use their charm. Which is obviously you. You could trade some hay for their love.

Stuff the hay down the front of your pants, Solomon, and, you know, strut over there. Well, who wants to be my wingman? I'm going to let you take this one, buddy. Rikas? Eh? Eh? Solomon, I find out if we had, you know, just put it out there that maybe we are formulating a plan of escape and, you know, would they be interested in it? And let's see if we can gauge their reactions. I'm sure one of us has got some pretty good insight and can eavesdrop on this conversation. Uh, well, that's not really insight. That's more perception. If you're trying to eavesdrop.

More perception. Okay. Yeah. It'd be insight if you're trying to read into it more than... Okay, so, Solomon, you're approaching Katie and Sil, who kind of have their own little corner of this... This makeshift living quarters you guys have. What... How would you like to start things off here? They see you approach and Sil just kind of rolls her eyes because she... Of the two, she has less patience. Katie seems to be more mannerly. Oh. So, I... So, you know, since we've been fighting, you know, for a while, is any one of them impressed by how we took down that cube?

Any of the cubes? Because, I mean, they might have heard any, you know, some story. Well, they're... Okay, you guys, they're not out there watching you fight, so they kind of just... They... They... They... You've been around long enough that they would know that you obviously are alive and that they don't play with kid gloves here so that you can take care of yourself in a fight. They know that much, but they haven't watched you fight. We never fought with them in the arena. Like, they haven't snagged Tala and the two of them and sent them out there together, so we've never actually fought together with them.

No. They mostly fight as a team. Like, they kind of have this sister tag team thing and, again, they like to... They like to pair women up as a team. It's more... It's an attraction that way. Okay. So, I... Katie's the more, you know... She's... She's not a bitch. I wouldn't put it quite that way, but... Yeah, they've laid it quickly. Of the two sisters, she's a bit more friendly to, you know, outsiders. Like, she's got more patience. Okay, so I basically say, you know, I'm gonna cut the crap. You know, we've been here for quite a long time and, you know, it doesn't matter how many times Galford makes that water taste like Cherry Coke, you know, it's still shit.

You know, we're trying to plan a way to get out of here and we're curious and we're wondering if you'd be willing to help. Uh... Sill just kind of scoffs at that, just like, "Ugh, idiot." Ugh. And Katie says, "Do you have someone on the outside who could help us? Do you have a plan?" I kind of, like, turn to Galford because he seems to know, you know, more than I do at the moment, so... Do we want to do an insight check on that last statement just to see if she's genuinely interested or if she has any other motivations for finding out if we're doing something?

Uh... What have I got for insight? Plus five, I guess I can give it a shot. I have plus eleven. Okay, why don't you do an insight check on Katie? So it's a D20 plus... Eleven. I was gonna say, Thalomund seems more talky. Yeah. Uh... D20... 16. That's not good. Uh... You kind of gleam that, like, she seems interested in the escape plan. Like, why exactly? You would wager that, I mean, she's just as much a slave here as you guys. She's just as much in danger as you guys, so you would imagine that she's genuinely interested in getting the hell out of here. Who, Katie?

Well, anybody would be genuine, but you're checking against Katie, so yes, particularly Katie. Yeah. Okay. So we, uh... That doesn't tell us that, you know, that they would sell us out immediately or something for their own advantage. At least she seems sort of marginally interested in it. Yeah, that doesn't... It doesn't tell... Yeah, so that's kind of what you're gleaming from it, yeah. Okay. Sill speaks up, uh, and says, "You know you're not the first person to try to escape here, right? Even if you could escape this dungeon, we're still in the middle of a complex.

We're still in the middle of the arena. In the middle of a slave city. In the middle of the desert. What exactly is your plan for dealing with that?" You gotta have faith, toots. That's all we have. You know, you could either help me, or you could sit here in the corner and dwell on having to fight every single day, every single week. You know, if you're not willing to help, then, you know, you're on your own. Uh, she says, "I'm not in a hurry to die. Uh, we've been here for over two weeks, or three weeks now, and why would we take our chances in escaping when we've been able to handle anything they've tossed at us, and we may actually have a chance to fight in the tournament for our freedom?" Do you really believe the guards would allow you to earn your freedom?

They're using us. Of course they're using us. It's entertainment, but if they don't let some people go sometimes, then there'd be no reason for any of the slaves to fight beyond just basic survival. We're putting on a show, and after the tournament, there's no reason to keep all of these slaves. Who's to say that the tournament is a ruse, and they won't keep us here forever? Again, I... there's no reason to not try. At least that way, there's been a promise of escape. I don't see where your plan gets us any closer to escape. Well, I don't see any reason to trust them.

As a matter of fact, she cut you off. I don't see where you have a plan other than "get out." Get out to where? Do you have anyone who could give us a lift? If we even got past the gates, do you have anybody who would get us through the desert safely? This is me out of character. No, because I gotta talk to the others. It's been a while. I'm rusty after listening to episode one. Did you guys meet anyone and any allies? No one that would know that we were here that could do anything for us. No one that's not already backstabbed us. I think we've learned what we can learn from it, in the sense that if we actually came up with something that seemed promising, potentially they would be in on it.

However, they're incredibly skeptical because, like they said, we would just get killed running around the bottom of the complex, not knowing where to go. I'm sure there's more than one locked door in this place, and then we can go into the desert and get eaten by worms. But having said that, if something did work, we got some type of stroke of luck, they're not going to just turn around and go like, "Hey look, they're escaping!" and stab us in order to get favor with the guards. I think that's kind of what I wanted to know from them. Anyways, back to them.

You hear the door unlock again, and it swings open. Three guards enter the room with Valus. Valus appears to have several cuts and bruises on him. He marches into the room and just heads straight back for his corner, and then sits back down. Not a word spoken, nothing. Just walks back in, covered in blood. I have an idea. I don't take it that that's unusual for him though. No, not at all. If we could find a way to make him our ally, can we heal his bruises? I was just going to ask, I've got a +11 healing. How do I roll a healing check on him? Can I help him out?

You could absolutely do that. Is that how that works? This is outside of combat. The healing check is mostly for when you're inside combat. This is more theoretical. Is this something you're going to do against his will, or ask him first? No, I would like to go and offer him and say, "I'm a skilled healer. If you're willing, I would like to try to help you. If I can do that." Ranneth, can you do a perception check on him to see how much of that blood is his, and how much of the blood is the people he's fought? If this fight is different than any of the other ones he's been through, you know?

I want the answer to my question first. You can absolutely walk up to him and talk to him and heal him if you wish. That is a skill that you have. You absolutely can do that. Okay, so that's what I'm going to... Now, you don't have your holy symbol or anything like that. That's in your personal effects. So while you can heal somebody, it's not as strong as if you were to have your stuff with you. I mean, my motivation is to show some kind of good faith and have an ally. So I'm assuming even if it's not 100%, it's probably better than nothing. Something, yes.

So do you want to just walk up to him and start talking? I'm going to have a chat with Phallus. I'm going to follow him to his corner and say hello. Okay. And I'm going to lightly trail behind her over here, just hang back. Yeah. Thank you. Oh my. I think she's just going to keep an eye from where she is. I have a feeling, like, if we can get him on our side, then the two girls would be more willing to, you know, help. So, okay. Baranath approaches Phallus and then flanking her, kind of like staying, kind of tailing her, just kind of following her into that general vicinity is Rikas and Talon.

Can I make her smell really nice with Prestidigitation? Like, bilex or something? Yeah. Aromatherapy? Sure. What do tieflings like? Maybe they like vanilla. What? Okay, you smell like vanilla. It's very unassuming and kind of common. I hate vanilla. I like chocolate. My father was killed by vanilla. Vanilla, the mating scent of the tiefling. The rest of you might want to clear out. No. Oh man, I need an adult. You are an adult, dang it. She needs a second adult. I'm, Gelford's gonna sit this entire conversation out. So, Phallus sees this group approach and, in a weird showing, normally he kind of ignores all outside stimuli.

He's very, very reserved, very quiet, and only interacts with people if he is absolutely pressed and is certain that that person isn't going to go away anytime soon. Even the guards, they don't speak to him. They kind of walk into the room, walk back into that corner, and he knows what time it is and he's ushered out. No one speaks a word. It's creepy, as a matter of fact. So, in a weird showing, he kind of looks up from... he usually just kind of stares off into the middle distance or just closes his eyes. He sees Baranath approaching and looks... opens his eyes and looks up at her.

Doesn't say a word, but looks up at her. Is he scowling or... stowing or... No more than usual, but not friendly looking, but not necessarily snarling angry. Just not happy. Just kind of sitting there, yeah. So, I'm gonna approach slowly and calmly and say, we haven't formally met. I know your name is Valis. My name is Baranath. Whether you care about that or not, I can't help but see that you're quite bloody, like you're hurt. And I'd like to offer you my services as a healer. I would like to help you out. Especially, you know, you look like you might be having some pain.

He kind of studies you. It looks like he's just kind of like reading you. And he tells you, "I don't require healing. The blood on my cloak isn't mine." Beyond that, you see where his face has been cut, like that's obviously... that's him bleeding. And you see some bruises and stuff, but the cloak he's kind of wearing, which is this like the same kind of beggars, tunic, brown potato sack type shit they got you all wearing, is just soaked in blood. So, I'm gonna roll Insight. Okay. Twelve. Can I, as well? Well, she's speaking to himself. Oh, okay, true. I mean, you don't see anything wrong with that statement.

You don't read anything too far into that. I look at him and I say, "I can see the cuts on your face. I would like to help you." Can I roll Diplomacy? [laughs] Let's do it in a minute. Let me see where this goes. He says, "Why?" [laughs] That's a really good question. [laughs] That's pretty bad. I would explain to him that you feel bad that he's over here all alone. Yes, just that you're in the same situation that we're all in, and I feel you're deserving of some healing, just as the rest of us are. He says, "We are not friends. We are not allies. I will heal just fine." You could tell him that it helps keep your humanity kind of thing.

I say, "Branathish storms off. Fine! I won't help you then." I'm going to have a little bit of a seabed and run to the other corner. Reek as he was mean to me. [laughs] I can also clean or soil items. You want me to walk over and clean all the blood off his cloak and be like, "There you go." No, he might like the blood there. He seemed very... The mood that I got is he might like it there, so I wouldn't try to clean him. That might be bad. This is going to be the Prestidigitation episode. I'm going to clean, soil, and smell everything. I was about to say that.

It's like Justin and his history checks. I realize I can clean the water and I can make it taste good. It's all I got, man. I'm in prison. No history on the water. I was about to say, that would have been a good thing to know last session. I know, right? I can make faint music. I could be sitting in the corner listening to tunes, making my hand taste good and licking it. [laughs] You've got to plan for the long term. Seems like a tremendous waste of your power. Actually, as is benefit. We're not witches. We don't have that stupid rule of personal gain shit.

Actually, Branip, ask him if he wants a drink. Sweet talk him. He might be tired. He might be parched. He's out there fighting. Ask him if he'd like some clean water, at least. Um... Oh my gosh, you guys. [laughs] I'm not... He's like, "I want to run away!" Well, sorry! You're acting like you want to diplomat, so we're giving you opportunity. You are. You absolutely are. And despite that, I've kind of decided that I'm not going to push the issue. I say to Valus, um... I respect your answer and my offer stands if you change your mind. And I'm going to walk away.

Before you walk away, Mmm. He stands up out of his chair and kind of places his hands on that small table in front of him. And leans forward and kind of closes the gap between you two. Mmm. And he speaks in, like, it's almost a whisper. So that only you can hear it. And he says, "Thank you." Just in this kind of gruff tone, but not nearly as gruff as when he's speaking out loud. And then he kind of retracts and sits back down in his chair. Um, I close my eyes and I just nod in his direction and just calmly walk away. And he returns to just kind of staring off into the middle distance.

Now what am I supposed to tell those girls? Huh? [Laughter] Wait, wait. Well, I figured that him coming in was what stopped the conversation. Well, that's kind of happening while you're in your own corner with Katie and Sil. I can just see her with her hands on her hips, like, looking at me like, "Yeah, yeah, tough shit. Huh? Huh?" Okay, Katie again has, like, she seems to be the warmer of the two. She would kind of get to know people or give them a chance or at least talk about things. Maybe not act on them, but at least talk. While Sil is very much, "Why are you wasting my time?

What is this getting us by standing here chatting with you? What, like, why? Why? I don't trust you. I don't know you. Why?" You know, that kind of thing. I've got to charm Katie then. Uh, by doing what? What would you, continuing the conversation, what would you like to do? I totally ignore Sil. Just look at Katie and say, "Can I offer you a drink?" Um, Galford makes a great martini. Hold on a second. Galford can't change the physical properties of things. Like, he can, well, I guess he can change the physical properties of things, but he can't, he can't turn, like, he can make it taste as though it's...

Exactly. Right. But even that, let me check this, uh, let me check this power. Pressed digitization. It's an at will. Yeah. I mean, like, I can't take the chunks out of the water. I can just make it taste better. It doesn't clean the water in any way, shape, or form. It just makes it taste less better. Offer her a shit martini. Yeah, it's, it's still gonna have chunks of skin and blood in it and, and, and, and all kinds of stuff where... It's, it's shitty, not stirred. Sweaty, and yeah, it's not great. Urine filled. I can also make a small item disappear. I can make a small item appear.

Like, it's, it's a real sensory kind of power. However, I'm drawing a blank at how it would help us in a, you know, brand escape when we'd probably be swarmed by guards. Be like... Yeah. But I'm guessing if you were sitting on a power like that, you probably wouldn't have been sitting in this cell for over a week. Exactly, yeah. However, at least now the group knows that it's there, so if we're in the heat of something and somebody goes, "Hey, Galford, make a shower of sparks," or, "Hey, make that smell like poop," or, "Hey, you know, make, you know, make something small appear, make a small mouse appear because this guy's afraid of mice," at least now the group kind of knows that this tiny, ineffectual power is there.

You never know. I, I believe that one you can also, like, light torches or snuff 'em out or... Yeah, I read that too where I can snuff out torches because that would be, you know, maybe the darkness would help us, but... Yeah, you never know. Definitely would help Trixie. Yes. Yep. Very, very true. So, do you want to continue talking to Katie, and if so, what would you like to say? Uh, well, still want to offer, like, a drink. Uh, she says, "Thanks for the offer. I appreciate it, but I try not to drink from that whenever I can." [Laughter] Oh, God, it's like a bad thing I've seen at a bar. [Laughter] I know.

Well, I turn to her and I say, "Well, if I could be of any assistance, be free to, you know, just call me over," but, uh, and I totally ignore her sister because I want none of her. Um, we'll talk about this another time, and I walk away. Okay. Uh, there's this pause and she's like, "Um, thanks, I guess. Thank you." And then, um, you see Sil lean in and whisper something in Katie's ear, and they both kind of give... [Laughter] I go to the group and I'm like... [Laughter] And I go, "Totally nailed it." [Laughter] Can I roll Perception? What did she say?

Do you want to roll, like, if you heard it from across the room, that kind of thing? Yeah, that's what I want to know. It's like, I gave him a phony phone number. Well, okay, wait. Baranath was talking to Valus during that exchange. Oh, okay, I was already... okay. But someone else could do that if you want, or you just wanted to take... Can I? You were there! Exactly! I didn't hear what they said! Oh. [Laughter] Oh, I thought you were talking about the whisper thing. No, no, no, no, no, not that. Like, that was, yeah, that was clearly meant for just those two.

Okay. I thought you were talking, like, you didn't hear the conversation you just had. I'm like, "I can't remember!" [Clears throat] And Thalom has Alzheimer's. That's... [Laughter] And AIDS. He has AIDS- Insult to injury to this adventure. Um... We can all just collectively facepalm and just tell Thalom instead of, you know, leave our roommate alone. Shit it. Sure she's been facepalming the whole time, I just want to point that out. [Laughter] Why do you think Tala walked away? Walked away. Every day, you guys kind of subsist on this routine. So every day, twice a day, you're fed.

And the feeding process is this. Every day the guards, like, you hear them kind of like clip-clopping down the hall. And then, you know, this big clunky key goes in the big clunky lock on the door. And they open it up and they bring in a bucket of... Let's call it stew. And it's the cheapest- you can tell it's just the cheapest form of, like, goop glop that they can serve you. And they kind of sit this bucket in the middle of the room. You guys pretty much just eat with your hands. This stuff is lukewarm. The only one who gets a plate, and it's not even a plate really so much as just this little tiny stone slab is Valus.

I'm sure. And you're not exactly sure how he got it? Or who he took it from or whatever, but he kind of keeps that in his corner. He has a small treasure trove of personal effects. And they're not great by any- I mean, even the poorest citizen in the city would have better shit than him. But, I mean, to you guys he might as well be a millionaire. He always- as soon as the food is dropped off he stands up without saying a word, walks over to the stuff and kind of pours out a generous grouping for himself, then walks back and sits down and eats. Then everyone else kind of gets their turn.

This stuff doesn't taste great. I'm gonna live with you guys. It's not great. Galford? Yeah, Galford can help with that. I can once again use Prestidigitation to make the food warmer and taste better. So that's something. There you go. So Galford has done a lot to make this a bearable experience for you guys, which probably has gone a long way in having you guys not as pissed off as you were the week previous. I mean, he's done a lot. He's like, "Here!" And you could kind of tell maybe Galford's going out of his way a little bit, kind of maybe to make amends or at least not get him stabbed in the middle of the night.

He doesn't feel like there's so much animosity towards him. Is there anything you guys would like to talk about or anything before we move on to the next little chunk? Is it worth speaking to Valus at all? I mean, I don't know. I feel like I want to know more about his intentions. Does he intend to win the tournament and be free? Does he hold a huge grudge against the Slavemaster and he wants to kill him? Or do you guys think we should leave him be? Out of curiosity, did he grab his food before we actually changed the taste? He doesn't seem to care one way or the other.

Oh, really? Yeah, he just grabs it. Like, Galford heating it up or changing the taste, it doesn't seem to matter. At least he's not letting on. At least he's not letting on that it would matter to him one way or the other. Well, over the last days, at least Tala's been hanging around in that particular corner she's in right now. For various and sundry reasons. I mean, periodically she'll check him and see what he's... Check what Valus is doing, kind of analyzing him over the last few days. But she won't directly interact with him or anything, otherwise she's been keeping to herself.

Okay. Cool beans. See what she can pick up from him. Okay, that's good to know. So, after the guards dropped off Valus and you guys were fed in the morning. So, after that, the guards come back down the hallway and this time you hear more footsteps. There's definitely a cadre of people. And the door swings open and there are two guards brandishing their swords right away. And the other just is propping the door open. You can see two more guards in the hallway, but in between the two guards in the back and the two guards forward are two men in cloaks. These are big billowy black cloaks with some red symbols on them.

These guys are wearing huge hoods too. They're kind of covering their heads. You can see their faces plain as day, but yeah, these guys are dressed to the nines here. Let me see. Who would like to roll a perception check on these? What's my perception? Plus six. I've got plus eight. Oh, go for it. Alright. There it is. Twelve. Can I try? I really don't want this to be a thing where everybody in the room tries. So, Baranath doesn't recognize any of the symbols or anything like that. You know what? Trixie. I'll let Trixie go ahead and try. Do a perception check? Yes.

I have a plus zero. Do it anyway. That's why. So is it just one d20? Yeah, it's a plus zero. Okay, so even though Baranath with her twelve doesn't recognize these figures, Trixie doesn't recognize the individuals in question, but she does recognize them. So, Baranath doesn't recognize them. Baranath with her twelve doesn't recognize these figures. Trixie doesn't recognize the individuals in question, but she does recognize those symbols. And you saw the same symbols at House Darksebane's complex in Brightport. So, a good guess would be that these guys are affiliated with House Darksebane.

Oh, goodie. So, these guys trudge in and the guards, one of the guards whispers something into one of the cloaked figures' ears. And he's pointing at each one of you as he's saying it. Everyone except Thalomin. Yeah, I was gonna say, even me. And then one of the cloaked figures points to Thalomin. And they kind of talk for a moment. And, Thalomin, roll a perception check, please. Okay, so my perception is six and a D twenty... Yes. Twenty-two. Yep, he's fine. Okay, so. I'm pretty sure he observed it. You can definitely hear them whisper about you. Whisper the name.

And then you hear them whisper the name Graddock. Fucking Graddock. And then... How is Graddock? Wait, this could be a good thing. You never know. Maybe Graddock sent them. For what purpose? Remember, Graddock isn't with House Darksebane and he's with Silverclaw. Well maybe he inadvertently sent them. Like, you know, they heard something. And they're like, "Oh, Graddock had something to do with these people." And, you know, I mean, could it really get too much worse than where we are now? Maybe they're offering us a plan to hunt him down and get some revenge.

Yes! Pete that little guy's ass. I would be for this. I would strongly approve of this. I approve this message. Yes. It has the Teleprothane Seal of Approval. The guards ask you after the brief conversation, "You! You six! Get in line!" So they have you line up. This doesn't sound like a lot. And the two cloaked figures walk up and down the line. And they walk up to Tala first and kind of put their hand on each one of her shoulders. And then take their hands away and move to the next person in line, down the line. And after they've let go of Tala's shoulders, there's almost this faint glow coming off of her for just almost an imperceptible amount of time.

But they've clearly done something. The only people they don't touch in any way, shape, or form is Trixie and Galford. Aww, what the hell? Why are they touching me? I wanna be glowy. I don't wanna... You wanna be magically violated? Eh, well, you know. It's the best action I've gotten all week. There's always Phallus. And out of character. Eh, he's not willing. And the guards motion for Trixie and Galford. Come with us. Oh shit, okay. Oh, I see. Thank you guys. Hi guys! So everyone else is left in the room and Trixie and Galford are taken down the hallway. The Condray of Guards and the two cloak figures lead them down this hallway into a smaller holding cell type area.

And there are a couple of chairs set up and it's a little homier than the one you're in. But you have the feeling that this is probably used for a guard's break quarters or something. It's not really... They either don't have enough top notch slaves to use that room as well. Because the shittier fodder slaves are kept on the other side of the complex. And they sit Trixie and Galford down in two chairs side by side. You guys are sporting the full shackles, the whole treatment. And then they shackle you to the chair on top of that. And they are still standing, right?

They're not sitting down at all? They're standing, we're seated? Uh, yes. Okay. In the room with you guys is several other cloaked figures. Most of them, three or four of them look exactly like the people who walked in and started groping everybody in the party. I feel like we're being introduced into a frat or sorority and I'm gonna be hit with a paddle at some point. Yes. Look, and we thought we were getting violated. And, uh... There's some BDSM shit going on over here. Then the ball gags arrived. Oh! I should have dropped that action line a whole time, a long time ago.

And the question is, can you accept this? It puts the lotion on its skin! About to get the hoe. Oh, god. One of the figures is not wearing a hood at all. Like, he's got an older, kind of balding looking man with almost a toucan-esque nose. It's large and hookish. It's one of the biggest features that stand out about the guy. He's human, but just kind of older and not decrepit, but frail looking. And as you're shackled, the guards leave and shut the door and lock it behind them. So you are now locked in the room with these figures. They are all standing, and the elderly man walks towards you and says, "I trust you're comfortable." She actually just looks at Galford and then looks at him and doesn't say anything.

But Galford says, as best as we can be, "Do you know who I am?" A person with a very big nose? Should we make a perception check? Totally up to you. Okay, I have a flat D20 anyway, so that's worth it. Seven. He's male and on the planet. Yes. You have narrowed it down to all the human males on this planet. He doesn't even wait for you to respond. He just kind of barrels on. He obviously has this pre-planned speech he wants to get through, you can tell. Oh, Galford, you get along very well together. He says, "Myself and my associates are a member of House Darkspane.

I believe you've heard of us. You recently spent some time in Brightport, did you not?" I just nod. Galford nods. And he pulls up a chair after this and sits down and there's kind of that old man grunt when he sits down. "You've caused quite a bit of damage in your time. It'll take us months to rebuild that house. That served as our headquarters for decades, and in a matter of moments you've torn it to sunder. You've also stolen from us, which I cannot abide. Now some would say you've been punished severely enough, but not enough for us, I'm afraid." He motions to a couple of the cloaked figures and they walk up to you and touch you the same way that everyone else in the party was touched.

So that faint, glowy shit happens. He says, "Firstly, I hated that I had to travel to this rat-infested city to find you. But I wanted to see you with my own eyes and give you a message. You will die here. We'll make sure of it." "What makes you so sure?" He says, "Not a word," but just smiles at you. It's the first time he's smiled since he's laid eyes upon you and you him. He motions to the two guys in cloaks and they kind of back off. So they're kind of circled around him like a posse. Not saying a word. He's the only one speaking. He says, "I have some business to attend to in the city and then we'll be leaving here as soon as possible.

My only regret is that I won't watch your slow, agonizing death. But rest assured it's coming." And then he pushes the chair away and stands up. And his posse leaves before him. They kind of wrap on this door like twice. Just two solid knocks. And the guards unlock the door. The door swings open with a creak and they leave. As he's about to walk out the door, he turns around and says, "Now he's behind you." So you just kind of hear his voice echo throughout this small chamber. "You've done well to survive this long. I bet you've made some friends with your fellow slaves.

I wonder if their friendship can be purchased." And then he just walks out. The guards walk in and unshackle Trixie and Gelford from their chairs and usher them back into the slave chambers. Oh my. And he never told us his name. He didn't, no. He didn't? Okay. And you didn't recognize him, so. Right. Okay. Can I do an Arcana check on the glow on our shoulders? I was just about to say that. We need to do an Arcana check. Yes you can. Go right ahead. That was a crit miss. Can I do one too or no? I would put this on Gelford. He's your magic man. So like that's, well, Baranith could too.

I have a 6. I used up all my juice making everything taste good and now I can't even help out. So as soon as you guys are back in the chamber, you can tell Gelford is frantically like, "What do you do? What do you do? What do you do?" And just kind of drawing a blank. Baranith or Trixie, if you want to give it a shot, go right ahead. For what? Knowledge Arcana. The Arcana check. I'll roll. Hopefully. One. Eight. And two. Okay. You guys have no fucking clue what these guys did to you. If anything. Yeah man, that is so low. Yeah, you have no idea. You can't gleam anything.

What the fuck, man? I just did a private roll after that just to see and I got a 20. So it's kind of like, "Okay, great." Was that Alana shouting, "What the fuck?" No, that was me. Okay. That was me and my mic was muted. That's just you hearing me. Okay. Katie approaches you guys. She approaches Thalomn to be specific. Yeah. And she kind of like grabs his shoulder and jerks him close. She's like, "You want to tell me what the hell that was about?" Jason, I think you like the word jerk. I say, "Hell if I know." And she says, "I can't afford to be friends with anybody who's going to get us killed.

And I don't know who the hell those guys were, but I don't want any part of them." I mean, I don't know who they are either. So I mean, I'm in the same boat as you are. So hours pass and nothing really seems to be... Nothing has... You don't feel differently. You don't notice any changes. You're kind of all just sitting in this room in this awful tension-filled waiting game. You don't... You kind of eyeball each other from across the room seeing if anyone sprouts horns or a tail or anything. Just any physical changes and no one seems to notice anything. I'm going to give you guys one more chance.

If you want to talk, do so now because we're about to move on to something here. I think we're fine. I just had to walk over to Galford and just say thank you. Not really implying what it's for, but just to say thank you truthfully and then just walk back away. So Galford doesn't say anything. He doesn't pick up on really what she's saying. And he looks pretty nervous though altogether. And says, "I don't want to die here like some common slave." I know they were from House Darksevain. I don't know who he was, but what House Darksevain could do to people...

I don't want to be any part of that. After a time. Go ahead. After... Well, once we kind of generally break off, as you can see I'm back in my little quiet corner over there. I'm proceeding to, in these last few hours, I've been proceeding to try and meditate and try and kind of... Commune with the Raven Queen to see if... To not necessarily see if... Or if your future truly is an impending death or anything. Like what this kind of glowing thing has in store. Okay, would that be... Let me see. That's more of just a roleplay thing? Or is that something that you would actually like to do like a religion check?

Something like that? I guess we'd do it as a religion check. I mean, the way we'd play it from my game, from the other games I'd do, is it would be like a percentile roll. And depending how the DM set up that percentile, it would give me kind of a variant of an answer. There's percentile, I suppose, where I don't get any answer at all, but I rolled a nine. A nine religion. Because I don't have anything to it. Yeah, that's... So this... It's hazy. Like you're not getting anything... Like nothing definitive. And you can... In your head you can kind of see this going one of two ways.

Where the group makes it to the end of this tournament and wins your freedom. Or you all die a horrible, horrible death. But you don't see at whose hand or why. So it's very... It's kind of Magic 8-ball-y. Like, "Check back later." That kind of thing. Like you're not exactly sure. Well, would you know I didn't really expect a holistic, definitive answer anyway. Because that would be a direct tampering with fate and that's not the Raven Queen's shtick. I know that. Right, right. So it's more or less kind of laying your options out. Again, you hear the clip-clopping of guards, boots, and the unlocking of a door.

And this time they point to all six of you. So for the first time in actually a few days you're all going to go out and fight as a team. And whenever this happens, it's something big and awful and ugly. Each successful time you make it back, they seem to go snag something even bigger and nastier. Sometimes it'll be a whole cadre of fodder that you'll have to fend off. And sometimes it'll be a giant scorpion or something akin to that. Scorpions? Just as an example. I was going to say, if I had chosen that scorpion perk, would I have been friends with a scorpion?

No. Aw, man. You're never going to be friends with anything that they're going to shove in the arena at you. [laughs] So they snag all six of you up and take you to the arena. So you guys want to slide yourself onto the board here? You are back in the arena. Yeah, just kind of pop yourself out there wherever you'd like to be. So the hype man is announcing your presence. And there's a pretty packed crowd there today. And everyone's just kind of going nuts, going nuts. And then nothing happens for the longest. It seems like they're either stalling for time or whatever they're getting ready to attack you with.

It might take some time to wrangle or something. In the meantime, they've given you your weapons and armor, and there's this kind of a circular sand-covered changing room, where they keep everyone's personal effects. And if you were to go down the hall, before you get to the big arena gates that let you into the arena proper, there's this changing room where they kind of give you all your stuff back. And under watchful eye, they let you put all your stuff on and everything. You notice security in that room is incredibly tight. So lots of guards with spears surrounding you the entire time, in case you get any funny ideas of fighting back against them.

Then they usher you into the arena and announce your presence, and then you just kind of wait. So minutes go by. And finally, your opponents enter from the opposite end of the arena. Oh no. And you instantly recognize them as Syl and Katie. Oh no. So everyone please roll initiative. No, I don't want to. Nobody wants to roll initiative. Can I kill Syl? Did you hear yourself? Hey, she's a bitch! I'm just saying. Hey, I got somewhat decent initiative. Yay. Oh, my initiative is... So how do you roll initiative? I'm... D20 plus your initiative. Yep. Oh, wait. I didn't throw my initiative in there.

Ignore that one, hold on. I got 18. Oh, you beat me by 19. I usually roll pretty well on initiative, no idea why. Okay, hold on. I did better than that. I'm worried that Rikus is gonna fight, that he's just gonna sit down cross-legged and end up taking a horrible beating. Or get executed on the spot. Yeah, it's kind of... It's a moral quandary you guys are in, like... I yell over to them, "I told you so!" You yell... Okay, wait, wait. You yell over to Syl and Katie? Yeah. Katie yells back, "You told us what?!" And Baranath got a what? Oh, I got a nothing, because I really don't want to.

You're gonna have to anyways. Yay. Well, if she doesn't take initiative, technically she comes in at top of the order when everyone else goes. Geez, Jason's rolling good in initiative. What is the world coming to? An end. Oh. So the initiative order is gonna be Syl... Damn, Jason! Then pretty much everyone else, then Katie, then Thalom and Rikus, Gelford. Okay. Damn it, Rikus, why do you have, like... Ugh. How is 6 on 2 a fair fight? Yeah! You're about to find out! Did you notice that all the girls rolled better than all the guys? I don't know what the plan was for a sweet fair.

I thought, what, what was mine? 18? Chop the fuck up. I don't think the plan was for it to be fair. I think the plan was for us to choose either to let Katie and Syl live and us die, or... ...us kill them. I don't wanna fight. So, Brian, you might wanna get a little closer to the mic. Oh, I was talking really low, so... Oh, okay, that's cool, that's cool. So yeah, you guys are in a shitty situation. And the crowd is ambiguous to all this. They just, it's like, "Oh, a fight!" And it's all skilled warriors, it's not monsters, so this is an actual... This could be an actual fight, and they really eat this kind of stuff up.

It's kind of rare because they don't use the really good slaves against each other because you're doubling the chances that you're gonna lose someone. Monsters are easy to get, like skilled warriors are kind of... You gotta import those. So... Katie and Syl just kind of look at each other nervously. And... Syl breaks away, like she just starts sprinting towards you. And then vanishes. God damn it. What? The hell? I believe somebody has invisibility. Someone is, she is called Syl the Sneak, I mean... Yeah. Berenith, your turn. Oh my gosh. Let's do this, I'm gonna suspect some invisibility here. *sigh* Okay, um...

I... I guess I have to move? I mean, and it would be suicide if we tried to convince them to join with us and have an eight-party fight with the guards, right? No, that'd be a good idea. Well again, you're still... *laughter* You, I mean... You could try this in the middle of a fight, but you don't know... There's a lot of unknowns into this, I'm not gonna get into it, but I mean, yeah. And even if you did convince them, then again, you're still in the middle of the arena, in the middle of the city, in the middle of the desert. Or you're gonna fight off everyone.

Yeah. I know one thing, she's going for me. Okay... Um... I'm going to, uh... Move a couple squares here. As soon as I get my pointer out here. We're all gonna sound so, like, reluctant to do anything in this fight. We're gonna be like, "Well, I guess we're gonna do this." I think all I have to do is get them bloodied and see what happens. I'm gonna... I'm gonna use my Shield of Faith as a minor action. So that's a close-burst 5, and all of my allies get 2+ power bonus to AC until the end of the encounter. Except me. And Thalman. Oh... What, why? Because we're outside of the 5 point burst.

Aww. You guys are fanned out pretty well. Yeah. Should have been closer. One second, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, yeah, you are just outside of it. Yep. That's what you get for being individuals. Not following the pack. Thanks? Hey, following the pack has its perks. I am no sheep. Uh, oh god, there's really nothing else I can do. She's like, "I'm not gonna attack them, I have a moral struggle with this." I don't want to, I really don't want to. I mean, unless one of them comes up and hits me, in which case it's on. But, oh god. You want to die. Brandon, you have to look at it this way.

You're gonna fight to the death or until you get out. They're technically just standing in our way. Even though we've made friends, they already said that they were gonna back away from us if, you know, if, it's because they think that we're friends with the cloaked people, so now, you know, that's essentially them saying, "We're not gonna back you," and now they're gonna fight us. Like, they're not gonna hold back. Are they really friends though? Well, also me being... Sorry, go ahead. I mean, they're close enough to friends with them. They're the only ones that were talking to us.

Me being a skeptical warlock thinks that we've been touched with something by House Darksbane, and potentially these two could be just a couple of, like, crazed monsters that are appearing to us. Yeah. At Katie and Sil. Oh, we are. So we knock the shit out of him and then, um, knock the shit out of him kind of thing and then maybe we can break the spell. Or we are appearing to them as a bunch of, like, crazed maniacs kind of thing, like the girl's killed. So they think we're, like, cornrow guys and that's why she charged us immediately because we appear as monsters to her because we're under some type of magical influence.

I don't know how we're gonna break that in an encounter without, you know, taking off some arms and heads and, you know, it ending bad for us, as the Dungeon Master usually aspires to. But I'm just putting that out there as, I don't know. No, you're right. You're right, dude, because why else would you say, you know, when I yelled across the room, you know? So this magic is special that we didn't turn into these figures that they're seeing until we entered the arena? Like, we were touched before. Well, did Trixie and Galford share with us that the figures had said to them that we were gonna die a slow, painful death?

No, we kept that to ourselves. I wouldn't have told you. Because the last thing I needed was to bring that back in there and tell you guys, "Hey, by the way, we're gonna die anyway." Well, because if you told us we were gonna die a slow and painful death, then it wouldn't make, that logic wouldn't make any sense. It wouldn't really be slow and painful if they were just gonna chop us up into pieces. I think the entire group is aware we've been magically touched, and I don't mean, like, special needs. Yes, you do. Okay, I'm just, I'm ending my turn. Alright.

Trixie, your turn. Um, I guess, I guess I'll move forward. I mean, if we're gonna start doing anything, we have to be a little bit closer. So, I'm just gonna move forward to there. Okay. And I'm actually just gonna end it there, because I can't do anything to her anyways. Okay. You can move twice if you don't want to take an attack action. I do not want to move that far away from the ground, just in case. So, let me describe the scene to everyone who's listening at home. There's this immense arena, it's real, it's a huge battlefield that you guys are on. And very much on one side of it, you guys entered, on the other side, Sill and Katie entered.

Sill starts to charge the group, immediately vanishes. So, there's this chasmous expanse of about a hundred feet or so, where there's just no one. Like, there's just air. So, you guys have this weird, do we close the gap, and yeah. So, uh, Tali, your turn. Um, I am going to use a double move action, so I believe that gets me right in front of Katie. Okay. Um, also, I will have Wildshaped into my tiger form and essentially tell her "make a choice." Uh, first of all, she's shocked that you closed that big of a gap in that short of a time. Damn. Uh, and that wraps up your turn, correct?

That more or less wraps up my turn. Okay. So, that makes it Katie's turn, and she is going to, let's see here. Uh, she's gonna use Sweep. So, that's gonna be a d20 plus 5. Now, the momentary shock of you, firstly, clearing that gap, so you're right up in her face, and then the shape change thing is like "oh, shit." Like, that kind of shocks her. Then she narrows her eyes and uses Sweep. So, that's gonna be 22 for sure AC. Okay. That hits. Uh, firstly, that's going to knock you prone. Okay. Uh, and then that's a d10 plus 5, uh, 9. So, you're gonna take 9 damage.

Okay. So, what does that mean for my next turn? Uh, it just means you're prone right now. Uh, and- I'm prone for now when I'm gonna be fine my next turn? Well, oh, well, you have to use your move action to stand up. Okay. Yeah. That's what I was checking for. Uh, as a result of that, she gets to shift back one square, uh, and then she's gonna spend her move action. And... 2, 3... 4, 5, 6... 7. Uh, she's gonna move 7 spaces away from you, and that will end her turn. Thalamin, your turn. I'm gonna move... right... here... and, uh... Jesus, there's only one out in the field and it's the one I like! [laughs] Shhh!

Ah! Mmm. I'm ending my turn. Okay. Uh, Rikus, your turn. Okay, so, um, obviously... the only... uh, and this is an internal battle with Rikus, uh, so, but he's just gonna, uh, uh, casually move up 5 spots. And there's nothing more I can do, so he's gonna end his turn too. Okay. Again, you can double move if you want because you're not attacking. Uh, I think I'm good right now. Something tells me, uh, I, I, given the fact that I don't know where Sil is right now... Mm-hmm. ...it's probably not a great idea to move, double move right now, just because I don't know where she is, but...

I'm good. Okay. And that'll bring up Galford. Uh, okay, so I will move... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... Um, I just wanna see what my range is to Katie here. 8, 9, 10... Blah, crap. Um, and you can't use a minor action if you double move, right? Oh no, minor action can be used on top of both, that's just a minor action. Minor action, okay, so if I double moved I could still pop the minor action. Okay. Yes. So then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... I'll move within range, it's a, uh, minor action close burst 10. I'm gonna use Shade Twin and turn, turn myself into Katie's appearance. Okay. So, I look exactly like her.

Okay. Cool. And... [Laughter] And that'll, that'll be pretty much it for you. Unless you wanna pop a... That's pretty much it, yeah, so, whenever I take damage while I've adopted the target's appearance, the other target, like, so Katie would take psychic damage equal to half what I take, and, uh, whenever the target takes damage from this effect, roll a d20 on a 10 or higher, the effect ends. Okay, um, so Katie, upon, like, seeing you approach her and then change, apparently change into her, that's what she sees. But she kind of cocks her head like a dog would if it didn't quite hear you properly, like it, like that kind of thing, just for a second.

Uh, and that will bring up Syl. Uh, Syl is going to move... Uh, here, and then become visible. Uh, and she's going to, uh, she's gonna use a little move called Sneak Attack. Um, uh, she's actually going to be attacking both, uh, Thalamen and Rikas. Mm-hmm. Um, did I get, did, uh, Baranath use the AC bonus thing? You got it. Okay, I just wanted to double check before I knew. Yeah, the only people who don't have it are, uh, Thalamen and Talon. It was plus two, right? Yes. To AC, I believe. Oh, I am a tank right now. Yeah, so, uh, let me swing, let me get the Rikas roll out of the way first.

Seventeen, that's gonna miss. Bing. Uh, and then let me swing at Thalamen. Sixteen. Uh, I'm sixteen AC. Well, then that's gonna hit you. Uh, that is a, it's, uh, let me see, 2d8 plus eight. Okay, so you're taking sixteen damage right off the bat. Uh... Uh, plus five ongoing poison damage because her blades are coated in, uh, a deadly poison. Uh, you're gonna take that every turn on your turn, uh, until your save ends. I'm already bleeding? Yeah, you're half health already. I knew this was coming, why didn't I do something? Uh, Baranath, your turn. Okay, so, um, I'm gonna move...

Three, four, five, six, uh, I'm attacking Syl with Sunburst. Okay. And that is a d20 plus ten. Twenty-eight, that'll hit. Twenty-eight, and my damage is... d8 plus six. Uh, I th- oh yeah, that's the right one. Twelve, very nice. Twelve. Okay. So, um, uh, the effect, myself and each ally within five squares of me gains five temporary hit points and can make a saving throw. I don't think we need saving throws, but I think the hit points are... Uh, Shane does. Oh, does he? Yep, he has five ongoing poison damage. Okay, I'm bleeding! So, go ahead and make a saving throw there.

So, what do I roll? Uh, flat d20. Okay, so... If it's over ten, you get it, if it's ten or under, then no. Oh, you get it, okay. Yes! Ooh, yeah! No more poison for Thalamen. Yes! Uh, everyone else, let me give you your five temp hit points. Woo! Thank you for ran it! Any time, honey, I got your back. See, I think I would get that too, right? Uh, let's see, your one, two, yep, you would too. I don't think Trixie's in range, right? Sorry, honey. No, I'm not, it's okay. Okay. Uh, and that'll bring up Trixie. Alright, I am going to scoot over next to Regus, and I am going to attempt to do my Shadowstorm on Syl.

Okay. Which is a d20 plus ten. 25. 25 will hit. Alright, so then, we'll do one d10. Plus six. Twelve. Twelve damage. So you guys have got a nice little, uh, you guys are flanking her, so you kind of got a wing on either side of you, Baranath, Thalamen, and Regus. So does she get extra damage because we're flanking? No, no, that's just, it just helped you hit her, that's all. Oh, okay. Like, it gives you a plus two of your roll. Your attack roll. Okay. Uh, anything else you want to do? Um, what else can I do, anything? Well, if you wanted to pop an action point and go again, you can do that, but.

No, it's too early yet, we'll see. Talah, your turn. Fires of Life. Okay, do you stand up first? Yes. Okay, so you used your move action to stand up Fires of Life. Yep. I imagine that's on Katie. Yeah. Okay. 'Cause I don't think it can quite hit, so. I believe that's out of range. Yeah. Okay, go ahead, Fires of Life. 25 will hit. Okay. And an image on that says, why did I go over to powers, that's not even useful. Uh, it's a D6 of fire damage, but it's ongoing fire damage. Nice. No, she gets, let's see, she, yeah, ongoing fire damage until she saves. And that's your daily damage.

So she took seven initial damage there. Okay, seven damage, and then five every time it's her turn. Until six. Yeah, I also gain seven. Wasn't there another thing? After effect, one creature of your choice within five squares, so yeah, you're not within range of anybody for that, so. Yeah. Alright. And you're all done? Yep, I'm done. Okay, Katie's turn. She takes five damage. If anything, I would have told her, so be it. Um, Katie readies an arrow from her quiver. Oh, she has arrows too? She does. Damn. Go figure. Katie would be the sister who uses ranged combat, and Syl, as you already know, likes to get down and dirty.

Up close and personal. So, what we're gonna do is, she readies an arrow, and kinda like points at Tala. And then readies the arrow and fires. And let's... Twenty-eight. Goddamn it. So that will hit you. She's good. Yeah, so, uh... Good lord. This particular shot aims at your leg. Okay. Uh, so... Her paws, as it were. Yeah, let's do damage here. Thirteen. Ow. Uh, let's see here. Crap. What's that d6? Uh, that's a bonus because you're her prey. Like, she gets to call out, like, um... Kind of like marking you. Oh, it's like her call shot. Yes, she's... That's her babe Ruth.

That's her... It's like you. Um... Okay. Uh, so, not only that, but you are now slowed. Okay. Because of the damage to your leg. So let me mark you. Uh, you're gonna be slowed until the end of her next turn. Okay. Uh, and adjust conditions. Slow... There we go. And... Uh, she's going to move back a couple more spaces. And, Thalomund, your turn. Um... Alright, I'm going to move... Three. One second, not three. Uh, actually, zoomed out on the map. Um... Three. And I can move diagonal? You can, but you're... You're currently right next to Syl, so you can only shift one space if that's going to be her move.

Otherwise, she gets an attack of opportunity. Ah... Yes. Move off one. You're flanking with Trixie too, so if you have any melee stuff, that's good. You're already getting the flanking bonus, right? If you move back away from her, you lose your flanking. I really don't think he has much in the way of, like... Yeah, that's true. He probably has, like, one attack, and it's probably with his dagger, so that's like a... You know, a D4. Like a finger poke of doom. Yeah. I feel like, kind of poke you. Like with a pencil, that's about it. I'm going to end my turn. You're not going to Fire Runner at all?

No. Okay. Uh, Rekis, your turn. I was thrown off by that. Yeah, me too. Rekis, who at this point has... he's very reluctant in actually fighting people that he's gotten to know, but given the fact that Syl, at least, has started to attack him, he pulls out his hammer, and he's going to do his basic melee attack, which is D20+9, 16. Uh, 16's going to miss. He will shout the word "Fock" really loudly. Okay, good. The word "Fock" echoes through the arena, bouncing off the high stone walls. Uh, I guess I'm going to end my turn there. People know when they bring their kids to these events that there's going to be some profanity.

I mean, it's just... it's in the ticket when you buy it. It's right there. Yeah, it's just, if you were discretion, it is wise. Also, card subject to change. Galford. My, uh, I was going to say, my Shade Twin is a daily, so it's done for the day. Oh, gotcha. And when I finish my turn, I turn back into Galford, so it would just be only until the end of my next turn. So if I had got attacked while it was her, she would have taken some damage. That was mainly for effect, because I wanted to see if she saw that and went like, "That's weird." And she did. She absolutely did.

And the limes don't normally do that, blah, you know, maybe to try and throw her off or realize that it's us, if for whatever reason we're not appearing as ourselves. But I am going to use Shadow Claws on Katie. She's within 10. And 18. It is Charisma versus Fortitude. That'll hit. Okay, so this is cold damage. 1d10 plus 6. Uh, 9. 9 damage. And if she moves during her next turn, she would take 4 damage. Cold damage. So you kind of, she's facing Rikaus and you kind of blast her back with this stuff and she's like, "Ugh!" Just stumbles forward. Oh, I hit Katie.

I hit Katie. Katie, my bad. Yep. It's a range 10. My bad. I took it from the wrong one. There we go. So let me hit Katie. Smack Katie up. Bam. Okay. Uh, and that ends your turn and that brings us back to Syl. Um, Syl's gonna kind of crouch down in this offensive position. And then almost with some blinding speed here, she leaps upward and swings both of her poison-coated swords outward. And she's going to swing at Trixie and Berenath. So let me do that. Let me do Trixie first. Oh shit. At 30, that's gonna hit. And then Berenath. You don't know that. 24. Um, if you have any defense that's 30 or above, I've done something terrible wrong, terribly wrong so far.

Uh, and that's gonna be 2d8 plus 8. Uh, so you're both gonna take 14 damage and you're both poisoned. Uh-uh. Uh, so on your turn, each turn you're gonna take 5 damage until save ends. Uh, and it's Berenath's turn. So you're gonna take 5 damage. And you're now bloodied. So go ahead, ma'am. Okay. Oh. Sorry, I'm just checking what else I've got here. Okay, um. Oh my gosh. Okay, I guess I'm using Singing Strike against Syl. Okay. d20 plus 10. 19. Uh, what's that against? Uh, Wisdom versus AC. Uh, that'll hit. Alright. Uh, d8 plus 6. 14. Okay, 14 damage. Alrighty. Uh, what else does Singing Strike do?

Um, I think that's it. I uh. I thought that gave you a heal or something. Uh, target, oh sorry, target takes a minus 2 penalty to attack rolls until the end of my next turn. There we go, okay. Yeah, don't want to forget that. Trixie, your turn. Oh, can I shift? Yes, sure can. Okay, moving back one. Sure, sure can. Okay, Trixie, go ahead. Um, let's see here. Okay, so I'm going to try one of my dailies, the Gloom Thief. Okay. It's Dexterity versus AC. Um, it says Dexterity, if I get a hit, it's 2W plus Dexterity modifier damage. Until the end of your next turn, you are invisible while within two squares of the target.

Okay. Okay, so d20 plus 10, 14. That is gonna miss. Of course it would. And let me check that off, you've used it. Uh, do you want to shift or anything like that or are you good there? Um, I'll stay right here. Okay, that's gonna bring up Tala. Okay, so I'm slowed, so what does that do to my move speed exactly? Uh, that means you can only move two. Holy crap. Yeah, slowed is no good. You got an arrow in the knee. Yeah. Tell me you did not just say that. I did. What kind of action would it be for me to take it out? Uh, well, I mean that would be a minor. You could just pull the arrow out, but I mean your leg is still injured until the end of her next turn.

That's fine, but I imagine it's excruciatingly painful to keep it there. Um, yeah, either way, you're kinda, yeah, you're gonna, it's gonna hurt. But yeah, if you just wanna like kind of break the arrow off or just pull it out in the middle of, yeah, that's just a minor. Just yeah. I'll ignore it for now. Okay. I'll ignore it for now and move two spaces. The whole two spaces I can move. And use my fantastic shiny new Call Lightning attack. Okay. Wanna tell the people at home what that Call Lightning does? Uh, Call Lightning, it's a standard action area burst in ten squares.

So that actually I think it's both Katie and Sil. No. No? No, no, no, it's a burst one within ten squares. Okay. So that would be like if you wanted to do that. If I, okay, so that's what that area burst means. Alright. Yeah. I misunderstood when it read that one. That's okay, but the range on it is ten, so that's still, you got options, you could pretty much hit Katie or Sil I wanna say. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, yes you can, you can hit Katie or Sil, up to you. Okay, well I'll focus on Katie for now and let's do it where she's just outside the range.

So then as soon as she moves, she takes additional damage. Okay. So that the area burst right there then. Okay. So we'll delete that AoE and right there, bam. So that's right on the corner of where she's touching right now and if she were to move or anything, yeah. So but let's roll that attack first to see if this even lands. Oh lord. Okay, let me take that AoE off the field 'cause that is an eight. And let me check off Call of Lightning, I'm sorry. You kinda moved and attacked. Do you wanna pop an action point or anything? I wouldn't know what to do with it at this point.

Okay. Katie's turn. She readies another arrow in her quiver. Don't forget her five damage. Oh yep, that's right, she takes five damage. And she also has to save at the end I suppose to see if it does that. She, yes she does. Actually while we're on the subject, Baranath. Hi. Can I get a saving throw please? Flat D20? Forgot to do that on your turn. 20. You, wow, that is awesome. You, never mind about that whole poison thing, you're good. Oh good. That whole poison thing, forget it. Did I get my five temporary hit points? You did. I did and then they got stopped up by poison.

Um, yes. Okay, alright. No, wait, you know what, I did not give you temp hit points. How many was that? Five. Five, alright. Well then, we'll take care of that right now. I forgot you in all that. I gave everybody else who had it coming, so you're not bloody. You're at 18. What we're gonna do now is... Hey don't I get a saving throw too as well because she hit me with the same blade? Uh, yes, but only, oh yeah, you're right, yeah it was your turn. Go ahead, roll a saving throw. I am failing at remembering stuff today. Not that it matters, but... Twelve, yeah, you're good.

Oh yeah, okay, cool. Yep, you're no longer poisoned. Um, ooh, but that does, that does remind me, I gotta take five away from you, because I didn't do it on your turn. I forgot about the poison, so thank you for reminding me of that. So you are now bloodied. Uh, Katie readies another arrow in her quiver and, uh, she calls out Talah again and fires the arrow at her, and 23. Yeah, I can't imagine she missed with a plus 13. So the arrow hits you again, same thing in the leg. Oh, really? Yeah. I hadn't noticed. So your leg is starting to resemble a large pin cushion.

Yay. I've always wanted to be a pin cushion in another life. Uh, and damage 15. So Talah is in a bad, bad way. She's down to seven hit points and you're gonna be slowed for another turn, and that'll bring up Thalamen, who was also bloodied. Yes. Are you kidding? So her bow doesn't even get like a saving throw? It's just until the end of her turn, so it's only gonna last one turn, but since it's... She comes after me. Yes. That's her defense mechanism for yeah. So I can go? Yes, your turn. Uh, so now I can move more than one. Yes. Okay, I'm gonna move up to here.

Okay. Is there anything I can do to help? I would fire an arrow at somebody, anybody. And how far can my arrows go to? It depends on the attack. Usually it's 10 to 20, so it's 10 you can fire comfortably and 20 you take a negative two against the shot. Talah could use your help. Yeah. I'm gonna use Tidal Spirit Shot. Okay. Which is a d20+10, so let me... and that's on uh, Katie. Right, I assumed. Um, alright, so d20+10. 13. That's gonna miss. Mm. Uh, you wanna do anything else? Can I heal up? With what? I'm like, is there any way I can get my, you know, I'm bloody.

Right, but that would have been your... Action? Yeah, that would have been your action to check to see if you can use a healing surge. Uh, Reekus, your turn. Things are starting to not look so great. Yeah, and for once I'm not the one actually getting the crap beaten out of me, I guess. I'm gonna just, I guess, try another basic melee attack that nothing else can really call or do much better right now other than the basic melee attack trying to take Sil's head off. Okay. 29. 29 will hit. Hell yeah. I mean, um, and then it's 1d... oh crap, I accidentally grabbed the 1d20.

That could have been really exciting for me. 1d8+8. 18. Wow, maximum damage. Alright, good good good. Uh, yeah, you clobbered the shit out of her. It kind of takes her off her footing for a moment and, and like she did not expect that noise, so, uh, bam, she is bloodied. Well and truly bloodied. Would you like to do anything else? You have an action point remaining. I'm just... No. Okay, Galford, your turn. Okay, um, I just realized my Web of Shadows, the daily that I was kind of complaining about before is only a burst 1, I thought it was a burst 10. It's just within 10 squares, similar to what Tala was trying to do.

Yes. So that makes it way better. Um, what I would do if I did this, I could immobilize one of them and, and deal out some damage too. Um, who would we want to immobilize? Should I take a shot at, uh, Sil? Yeah. Take a shot at Sil or take a shot at... like, is Sil's kind of surrounded? Yeah, Sil's surrounded and already pretty bloodied. I know, but if you finish her off already, then... Would, wouldn't, if we, if we immobilize Katie though, she can't keep using Tala as a freaking pincush in every turn. True. Um, no, she could still fire arrows. Immobilize just means you can't move.

You can't move? Oh, okay. Oh, sadly that's what we want her to do. Yeah, that's not really, that's not, I mean, like the Katie thing, she's, that's not really a problem as she hasn't moved in a couple of turns now and Sil is surrounded on all sides. So if she tried to move, there would be several opportunity attacks. So... Uh, Sil is bloodied, so what I might do is I'll take a shot at her. Let's try and kill her and then, then swarm Katie. Um, I'm very sad. That sounds horrible when you say it. Yeah, I really did. I'm very sad for you, Sil, but you're, you're fucking up my friends, so you're going down to the pits.

Um, okay, so Web of Shadows daily and it's area burst within, area burst one within 10 squares, uh, on Sil. To be fair, really only one of your friends is kind of fucked right now. Yeah, that's you, you're my friend. Meanwhile, I'm totally fucked. Oh, half the party's bloody though, so... I'm bleeding here. You still have more HP than I do. True. But in the game, you just see bloody. Fuck. Charisma versus reflex. Uh, yeah, no, her reflex, yeah, that's a 14. I will wait, I get a plus two to, to attack rolls from, uh, uh, Baranath. Sixteen on reflex. Still gonna, yeah.

D'ah! I'm gonna have to say no, sir. Uh, would you like to do anything else? You have an action point, you, uh... Um, you know what, I think I will, uh, pop my action points. Aw shit. And, uh, I will just use Shadow Claws again, but I'm gonna use it on, uh, Sil. Okay. Big hit coming. Fourteen. I could have rolled nothing but pure, drizzling diarrhea this entire fucking game. Honestly. That hurts even worse when it's your action point, that sucks. I could eat, uh, like, some dice, some actual physical dice and poop them out and they would be less shitty than these rolls.

That's pretty shitty. That's pretty shitty. Um, it is Sil's turn. Uh, she is going to take one step back and then step forward and plunge her sword at, uh, at Trixie. Uh, yeah, so, yeah, she is totally not fucking around. She doesn't want to take her chance with Rika's. Uh, twenty-four. I know, right? You're just sticking your chest out. It's just like, "plink." Um, she attacked him already and saw where that was pretty ineffectual, so it's just like, "well..." He ain't going down. Uh, and roll damage. Eighteen. Holy shit, Trixie is down, ladies and gentlemen.

No! Uh, so, Trixie takes one to the gut. All up in the gut he works and she just stumbles back and then falls down. Uh, you're also poisoned. Um, but don't worry about that. Uh, Baranith, your turn. Turn around, I'm poisoned right now. I'm dying. Don't worry about that. You're already dying, worry about the poison later. Um, okay, uh, gonna move. Right there. I'm going to, as a minor action, uh, I'd like to use my holy healer's weapon. Ooh. Uh, ally within five squares can spend a healing surge, regain hit points equal to five plus my wisdom modifier. Okay so you're letting her, that's the daily power associated with that and that's a minor action so okay.

Yeah. Ally within five squares of you, uh, so, uh, that just lets them spend a healing surge of wisdom. My wisdom modifier is five. So, um, uh, Trixie, you can spend a healing surge now, plus five, if you want to. Yeah. Uh, so use a surge and then plus five. So bam, you're back up to 13 hit points. So you regain consciousness but you're still on the ground. Okay. Uh, and what do you want to do with the rest of your turn there, Baranith? Uh, I'm gonna use Singing Strike against Sil. Okay. D20 plus 10. Come on. That's great. That is right. Singing Crit, ladies and gentlemen.

Uh, Singing Strike. Thank the lord. What is the, what's the damage? One, two. Uh, so that's gonna be 14 damage, uh, and you sink your blade into her. Oh wait, what are you doing? Oh, you're using a staff now. I have a quarter staff. So you beat her about the head, neck, and shoulders with a staff. She goes into some kind of weird blood rage and just starts just knocking the shit out of her. Less theatrical than sinking a blade in, but... Uh, and Sil falls down dead. Whoa. All right. Thank you, Baranith. You're welcome, sweetheart. And I want to use an action point, please.

Okay, go ahead. When I use my action point, can I, can I move as well? Like, I can move and then... Well, you get to either move or attack, you only get one. Can I, can I move and use another minor action? You only get one minor action per turn. God damn it. You've had a really good turn, so I mean, you know. I know, but I want to help Tala. Uh, it's okay, I'm slowed anyway, I was gonna use a surge. Okay, all right, well we're down like one, like Sil is down, so at least we only have one left to... Okay, all right, my turn is done. All right. Well, and luckily I seem to have Katie's undivided attention here, so...

Well, except that I just, I tell, I look down at Sil's, you know, like, this spot and say I'm very sorry it had to be this way. I actually, I actually moved up there because I was curious whether or not she would actually go on to attack me. Um, one moment. As soon as Sil falls down prone, Katie freaks the fuck out. Oh no. Oh, I'm sure. Uh, and she readies an arrow, and when she sees Thalom and approach, she whips an arrow at him. Ah, god! As a, as a trigger. Uh... I didn't do it! 13, 25. No! So, same thing as, uh, yeah, same thing as... To be fair, she would have had to have rolled a two not to hit you.

I didn't touch her once! But you're approaching her and she's just, like, she sees the writing on the wall now, like, you're on it. Oh dear god. Uh, so that's a 19 to you, Thalom, and, well, hold on a second, and... I'm down! And you're down at two. You're also... No, you're good! You're slowed. Uh, sorry, Trixie, your turn. Okay, um... I'm really far away. Let's see here. Mmm... I'm gonna go ahead and move up... What am I doing here? I'm gonna go ahead and move up behind Galford, and I'll just end it there. I just wanna slowly get closer to her. Haha, use Galford as a human shield!

Yes, I'm bloody! Haha! He's fine. Talah, your turn. Okay, so if I use a healing surge, is that my turn period or do I still get a minor action? You have to roll to see, well yeah, you'd have to do a healing surge and that would be your action. Not the happiest camper about that, but okay. Unless you also do have a, you definitely have your... Action point. Action point, thank you, I could not fucking remember that. Okay, um, I'm still slowed so ultimately that minor action wouldn't really do me as much good as I'd like. Right. Um, so healing surge, that's... what again?

Healing surge is exactly what, like you're using that in place of your action so... Well yeah, but I'm like what do I roll for that? Oh nothing! Oh, okay. That would be just your, yeah, the only time you'd roll to see, like that would be if you're trying to heal someone else. Alrighty, alright. So that would give you nine hit points and you get a move. Okay. Alright, so you are back up to sixteen, and you can move. I can move my whole two spaces. You can move your whole two spaces. All of them. Yay. What I always wanted was to move two spaces. Um... She moves one and a half because she's scared.

I'll just hold my action then. Alright. Prepare to block. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna hit it again. Oh did Katie save from her last turn or not? Uh, technically that wasn't her turn, but it was a triggered action. Well does she still get the fire damage from before? On her turn, yes. Okay. Yeah. Which is now. So yes, now she takes, it was five damage I believe. Five damage. Yes. And okay, so she readies another arrow in her quiver, and she aims at Thalman because he would be the closest to her. And twenty-three. So this is gonna be bad for you. Eighteen damage. Holy shit.

That oh, holy shit. Oh man. I think that kills you outright. No, no, no. Oh no. That sucks. It does kill you outright. No way. Because it's fifty percent of his hit points, he's negative fifty percent of his hit points. Oh wow. Yeah. That sucks, I was totally, man. Oh god. Oh. *sings* *laughs* That's our first group two death. Is it just a coincidence that it's the same death from group one? I mean, Shane, I love you, I do, but... Oh wow. Shane's crying right now. Well it's... Yeah, that sucks. Yikes. Thalman takes an arrow directly to the chest. Uh, what? And falls down dead.

Do you have any parting words you'd like to say as Thalman there, Shane? No. Okay. So, Thalman just kind of lets out this gurgle, like, "Gah," and just kind of falls down. Wow. Katie has this momentary look of relief that he stopped advancing, and then instant remorse, like kind of covers her face. Uh, and...Rekis, that'll bring us to you. I...I...I'm shocked, because I had this whole plan of how I was going to help him. But okay. So I'm going to move. One, two, three, four, five. And then...let me see here, just strategically, because I don't want to give her a great opportunity to shoot, but I want to still move close enough.

Uh, I'm gonna...I can do double move, right? You can, but you won't get an attack, yeah. Well, yeah, I'm not going to be able to get...I can only move five spots, so there's no chance I'm going to be able to get up to her. Right. You're pretty beefy, so yeah. One, two, three, four, five. Not exactly the closest way, but this at least...she won't be able to get an easy shot on me. Um, yeah. And then I'm done. Okay. Wow. Uh, Gjalford, your turn. I had a minor technical difficulty there and had to restart. What happened to Syl, just to update me? She was beaten to death.

Okay, so she is dead. Alright. A combination of, uh, Rikas slamming her with his hammer and then, uh, Baranath entering this zone of rage and kicking the living shit out of her and finishing her off, basically. Okay. And I can take it by Katie's reaction to downing Thalomund permanently that, you know, they...she knew it was us. Yeah, there's no...yeah, like you...she also freaked out. When her sister was murdered. Okay, so I'm gonna go try and kill her. Um, you know what, I'm just gonna move and, uh, one, two, uh, and then I'll launch Shadow Claws at her again.

Okay. Gotta stick with the cold stuff, 'cause that's the way she treated poor Thalomund. What will killing her really prove? So that's 17 with the modifier from Baranath. Uh, Charisma versus Fortitude. That'll hit. Ah, finally. Okay. D10 plus six damage. 16, if she moves again, she takes more. Okay, wow, damn, that's a big hit. Uh... See, I knew I just had to restart my computer. That's what it was. It was glitching the dice roller. I mean... Uh, she is bloodied. Uh, and it's...oh, uh, uh, Baranath, your turn. Oh, gosh. You are standing over the corpse of Syll. Oh, oh...

Okay, uh, I guess I'm gonna move. One, two, three, four, five, six, um... Two, three... I'm not close enough to do anything else. Okay. Uh, so I guess that's my turn. And I don't want to get too close without being able to fight. Okay. Uh, Shrixie, your turn. Alright, so if I move and...if I move, can I like, maybe drink my potion and then like, make an attack or no? Uh... You don't have a potion. Is this potion of Cure Light? Well, that's in your personal effects, but they don't give you that for... Ehh, okay. So I... I can move six. Okay, I'm gonna... Mmm... I think that's...stay out of her range, because, uh...

What is her range? Like probably ten or fifteen, something like that. A lot. Me and Rika's have full hit points, right? So I mean, like... I wanted to try to use my Shadow Darts, but I have to be within five squares of her to use it. And with you being thirteen, she can put you down pretty quick. Alright, um... Can I use another Healing Surge or no? Uh, yeah, as your...yeah, sure can as your, um...as your attack, yeah. So you've moved forward and then for your standard action, you're just gonna use a Healing Surge. Yeah, so can I move up again behind Galford?

Oh, you don't get two moves. I don't get two moves. I didn't move forward the first time, did I? I mean, I'm just letting you know you don't get two moves. Like, you can move behind Galford again, yeah, that's fine, but...yeah. Right, I just wanna move behind Galford and then use my Surge, and that's it. Okay, sounds good. Okay. Tala, uh, you are no longer slowed. Yay. Uh, because Katie used her turn to gun down, uh, Thalomund, sadly. Um... You know, it's almost poetic, you know, you live by the arrow, you die by the arrow. Uh, she's a damn fine archer if it's in...it's not like it was just some random slug monster or something that got you, so...

Go ahead, Tala, what do you wanna do? You got your full range of motion back. I will use my Razorclaw Shifting, so at least now if she rolls a five or lower, she'll miss me. Um, and I will, against possible better judgment, get in her face. Alright, you've closed the gap, and you are right in Katie's face. And then...that was the other thing. Oh! Oh my god. Like my scroll had a heart attack and scrolled all the way to the bottom without me doing anything. Um... It's telling you you made a bad decision by getting up in her face. Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty sure it is, but...uh, Savage Rend.

Alrighty. Let's see what that does...nah, I didn't hit her off course. Crit miss. Uh, yeah, so that's a...yeah. Well you guys are not having luck with these rolls. Action point! Oh, woah woah woah woah woah! Action point, go ahead! 18 versus what? Reflex. That'll miss. What?! Geez, it's like a super awesome archer. What is her heaven forsaken reflex? If it were anything other than reflex, you would have hit her. I can tell you that. And I...that is good to know though, because I was about to use something versus reflex. Thank you. Oh, jeez. So wait a minute, wait a minute, since I knew what I was going to do already, don't I get that complimentary plus one?

So that's a 19? You know what, you do. Have you been forgetting that the whole time, Jason? Uh, that's up to you guys to remember. You add it to your dice roll. That's not on me. Oh, it's a 19. Does the 19 hit? 19 will hit. Yes! 19 will hit. America! Yes! Merica. I'm going to show up at your house, there's going to be a door that says Merica at the back door. And she gets a 5. 5 damage? 5 damage. Alright. I still did damage to her, darn it, and you know what, she's going to get a 5. You know what, she's taking 5 damage in a minute too. Uh, so, oh wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I didn't roll a saving throw for her. Hold on a second. Let me see if she rolls one. Crit missed one, so she will take 5 damage on her turn. So you kind of slash out at her and you kind of catch her arm a little bit, and then on her turn she's going to take 5 damage. She slipped in front of you. Uh, she's kind of holding her arm and backing up, you're right in her face, and she's going to turn and try to sprint away. Take an opportunity attack there, Tala. Okay. She doesn't cure panic broke. I get another standard melee, is that what it is? Standard melee, yep.

Okay. Beat her ass. So she turns her back to you and starts running. Uh, 14. And you will miss. Okay. So she runs back. Uh. Ah, well. Uh, and she readies another arrow, and then she fires at Tala. Jesus. 32. Um, well. That'll hit. Uh huh. One damage. 14. I'm down to two. But you're not dead. You're not dead. So she has the ability to kill. She's done it before. Rikus, your turn. God, this is, I'm doing this reluctantly at this point. Cause if I, I feel like if I get any closer, she's just going to knock my head off. But um. She can knock your head off from there. Maybe you should try to talk to her.

Really? This has gone on just long enough? Listen to us. Well, we're sorry. Just stop. You murdered her sister and she murdered Solomon. Like it's. Yeah, but she's a good archer. Also, remember that I did give her the opportunity to make a choice. I did not attack her the turn I could have attacked her. This is true. Um. I gave her, I gave her a chance to help us and she decided to attack me. I didn't realize I could actually get up right next to her the way she moved. Um, but I'm gonna walk up to her and, and uh, take a swing with my hammer. I think I have the, what attack are you using?

Uh, basic melee. Okay. Uh. If you kill her with this, this is gonna psychologically mess you up. Yeah. If Rika steals the killing blow, just covered with gore of someone that's innocent. No worry of that. Uh, that's an 11. Uh, do you want to use an action point or anything? You know what? Why not? Okay. Action pointing it up. Let me take that away from you. Okay. Action points gone. Um. I think I'll just do, I don't have anything else that could really do much better, so I think I'll just stick with the basic melee attack again. Alright, let's do it. 25! 25 will hit!

Nice. As the crowd begins chanting, "Reach us, reach us!" Um, that's one plus eight, 13. Okay. Um. So, you swing your hammer down at this poor girl. Poor girl! Some would say! Some would say! Actually, I would even say that. I'm the one who's dead. Jason. Uh, some would say! I'm not, hey, I'm not here to take sides. Look. This bitch killed my friend. History books will judge you guys. I'm not here to, it's not on me. I don't blame her. And Rikas just smashes her with this hammer. And she falls backwards and drops to one knee. Uh, Galford, your turn. Uh, alright. I'm going to coldly step over Tholoman's body here.

One, two, three, four, five, and use Shadow Claws against her again. D20 plus seven. 22. 22 will hit. 42. It'll hit. Yeah. And one D10 plus six damage. Seven. Actually, and she took, she takes four damage for moving when she moved with Talah. Forgot about that, sorry. Yeah. So on her roll, let me see if I, okay, she's still being affected by the fire on her turn too, but that won't be a problem. Um, there are tears just streaming down her face. Uh, and then the Shadow Claws do their work and just rend her and she falls down face first, dead. God. And the crowd is just blood, blood, blood.

That's just what they're chanting over and over again. Uh, so no one is coming out of this one. Uh, no one is coming out of this one unscathed. Um, let's see here. Baranath, make a Perception check please. Alright. 28. That's a crit. So, uh, during the entire closing moments of this fight, uh, Baranath is kind of scanning the crowd and just kind of in awe by how, like it's insensitive to you guys that they're just like, yes, yeah. Because it's one thing when you guys are slaying monsters, but it's a different thing when you're killing each other and it's just, it comes off as so, so awful and cold.

Whereas you guys were kind of soaking up that adulation when you were fighting gelatinous cubes and scorpions and stuff like that. Something else you notice is, uh, the Slave Master, uh, in, like he's in a place where he can signal to guards and things. And uh, you see one of the cloaked figures from earlier, but just one of them. Uh, and during the closing minutes of the fight, uh, you see that cloaked figure kind of lean over and whisper into the, uh, into the Slave Masters here. And then a moment later you see, like after the fight wraps up, you see, uh, you see the Slave Master signal over to a dispatch of guards.

So a bunch of guards wander onto the field, uh, instantly with spears and swords at the ready. And normally what would happen around this time is, uh, they would shackle you up, bring you back and take all your weapons and armor away. This time what they've done is they've wandered out onto the field and they've started pulling back the, uh, the pit covers. So now there are several gaping holes, uh, which you guys remember lead down to the pit. Uh, and then the large, the large gates on the opposite side, uh, the large gate is pulled up again. And you hear even over the crowd, like you can hear the, the, the rhythmic thumping of boots and what sounds like someone dragging a chain.

And it would appear that you are not done for the day. Uh, the guards dumped the bodies of Syl and Katie into the nearest holes respectively and they tumble into the pits. Uh, so let me remove them from the battlefield. Does Katie have a sword? Like, did she have a sword at all? Uh, it was a dagger and just the bow. Can I take her dagger before they throw her down? Uh, let's say it was in the, yeah, it was just like sitting there. So yeah, you can pick up her dagger. Fine. Um, so they have been dumped into pits and you just watch their lifeless bodies like tumble in.

They kick them in and the crowd goes nuts when they see who the next participant is. Uh, Valis struts onto the field, son of a bitch, dragging the, what appears to be about a 10 foot chain behind him and attached to this chain. Like you've never seen a weapon like this. It looks like something akin to a bear trap on a chain. Oh God. And with one fluid motion, he kind of yanks this thing up and starts making large circles above his head swinging this. And I think that would be a good time to stop for today. Wait, they leave my body? Um, no, they, they, they totally kick you into the, uh, I forgot.

I'm so sorry. I forgot about your body. Um, talk about insensitive there guys. I'm so sorry. So they, they, the guards do roll followman's lifeless body into one of the pits and he just kind of tumbles into the inky blackness. If you were still alive down there, I would drown you the next time I had to clean up. But as a mercy killing, like make that clear that it's not, it's not to be cruel. It's a mercy killing. Um, wow. I've never had someone just gone down due to the malkus came close with drop, but that was just a lucky role. She just got an artery. That was no emotional episode.

Like I want to go take a nap now. I do too, but I've been up since 4m. So like that's why I took three hours of sleep. Shane man. I'm really sorry dude. That sucks. Yeah. We need to make it a lot better than Dan did. We'll try and get some art of Solomon. Like I'll go on Ms. Paint and make like a tribute. you