Feathers and Flames

This transcript is machine-generated and may contain errors in names, terminology, or attribution.

Hey, everybody, Jasper here. Welcome back to Frostborn, arc six of dungeons and randomness. If you're new to DNR or jumping into Frostborn for the very first time, we've got you covered. There's a full recap of episodes 1 through 20 in the feed that takes roughly 40 hours of story, compresses it down to about an hour. Just scroll down right after episode 20 and you'll find it. Listen, if you enjoy what we do, sharing those recaps with a friend is honestly one of the very best ways to help us grow. A couple of quick reminders, DNR uses level up at very advanced fifth edition from EN publishing.

It's fully compatible with D&D5E, but adds more depth, flexibility, and crunchy goodness to our storytelling. You can grab it with code D-A-N-D-R for a discount. And lastly, a shout-out to GM assistant, which helps Jason keep track of all of this. It's built to help manage big, messy campaigns like ours and keep plot threads from flying off the rails. Links in the episode description, and yep, code D-A-N-D-R works there too. All right, let's get back into it. Last time on Frostborn, where do we even begin? Okay, so the party was still split across Estherhold.

Ruby stuck it out with the Gearheart, upgrading and tinkering, while nearly losing her mind about the fact that it had fixed itself overnight, because, turns out, machines do not typically do that. Elsewhere, Logrin attempted to keep the kids out of trouble while Chimera ran a soul-powered fight club to appease his patron Colgoth. Meanwhile, Nithera connected just enough dots to realize the city's beloved monster hunter, Thane Silver Fox, was actually just a murderer with good branding. Eventually, Silver Fox shot Chet, long story, and as Nithera chased him across the rooftops, ruby stashed Chet and Vetti inside the Gear Heart to heal before running to help corner Silverfox.

I'm sure leaving them alone won't be an issue. So back at the Soul Tournament, Chimera's patron Colgoth discovered that Souls are incredibly delicious. So much so, in fact, the pot boiled over and surprise where demon chimera is now on the table. The episode ended with Lagrin locking the door of the tavern basement from the inside, planting his shield and calling out chimera and Colgoth to rain it in once and for all. Chimera-Kolgara will keep workshopping it. Today, well, it's a roller coaster, so strap yourselves in. Things escalate even more. between chimera and Logron, if you can believe it.

Nithera taps into some old habits of hers, and Ruby helps break down some barriers, literally. Also, I'm sure nothing weird happens with the Gearhart, so don't worry about that. All yours, Jason. Let's do that thing where we go around the table and introduce ourselves. I'm Jason on the dungeon master going around the table, starting with Jameson. Hi, I'm Jameson. There's a string of lights over here, Christmas lights. One green light blinking in my peripheral vision, and it's will drive me crazy by the end of this session. I play Logger and Cragborn. He's a dwarf and Marshall.

That whole string of lights needs to come down now. Like that would not. I could see it in the reflection of my glasses. Maybe it's like one. And I don't want to look for it. It's the big ball of school. I'm going to take a picture on the phone. No, everyone has to suffer and I'm not going to do anything about it. Right, if you're taking a photo, won't you have to take two photos? It on and it off, because it's going to start a live stream. It's going to be. And Ian. Hi, I'm Ian. My pronouns are he, him, any, and I play chimera, the teetling warlock. And Jasper.

Hey, everybody, I'm Jasper. He him. I play Ruby Pedigrew, the Half-Org Gear Slinger Adept. And last and certainly not least, Susan. Hi, I'm Susan Spanator. My pronouns are she her. And I'll be playing Nytheir Ryleith, the Elven Rogue. And my favorite part about Jameson's intro was the childish, like, glee. Like, he put his hands together like this. He just surprised us with an intro. I have known for my child, like, Clay. It's true. I know. It was so endearing. We've, stop. He's literally posted a video. I'm not looking at it. I'm not right now. Not before I, not before, I.

After work. God. And it's like behind the blinds too. It's too. Two feet away from my right eye. That's going to add the right amount of attention for how you come at every moment. Yeah. I can see you stare. session. I'm like this. Then I'm going to drop it. I'm not going to think about it. Turn 45. I did. I did look at it. It's a... I'll just be like this. That's rough. So, um, we've already bothered a couple of people out there. Explain. I didn't do the thing. I didn't do the typical intro. It was like the different. Yeah. I'm sorry. And that's going to bother a few people out there. totally get it.

I'll make up for it next time. It was requested that I just kind of spring intro on you guys every once a while. So yeah. You never know when we'll just be in a session. I love it. I was thrown off for about a second, but. I'm still thrown off. Never got to get ready if you're always ready. You know what I'm saying? And that's the thing. Especially nights like tonight, I want you off balance, because there's a lot going. going on. And I don't want anybody comfortable, right? So, you know. Speaking of which, we are in the basement of this tavern. And there are dead bodies everywhere.

There are pools of blood soaking into the floorboards. There are large cracks in between. And you can see where there's slightly darker areas where this blood is pulling. And there is a a massive demonic creature. And chimir is in there somewhere. But it's in there deep. At least, at least six point one feet deep. At least. Like, it's in the gator level, you know, if you listen to the behind the scenes. So I had a chat with Ian after the last session. Because it's another really big swing. And I didn't want. to spoil it for him. So I wanted to kind of... So I'm going to tell you what is happening from Chimer's perspective.

You know how werewolves exist. And you know how he was bitten by a werewolf. So Colgoth, to keep away that lichanthropy, essentially infused himself. into this. So, Chimir is kind of a weird demon. So instead of wolfing out and losing control and tearing people limb from limb, I mean, that can happen. He's kind of a demon of excess. You know, the most gluttony, the most violence, just whatever call of the void, you know, hair-trigger, terrible thoughts you have. that's like, wouldn't it be great if? That's just radiating out from him. Solve every problem with blunt force trauma.

Eat, drink, fuck anything in sight. Like, just like every, just the most primal, you know? Like, just God. I'm gonna need. I'm gonna need. your utmost today, both of you. We're gonna pan across town, and that's gonna be another tense, fucking, you know, whatever. But this, I need you to tell me from Chimera's perspective, imagine a chimera unburdened by choice and worrying about consequences. And oh, but what if? It is just what do I want in this moment? And how can I get the most of it right now? The light almost seems to get absorbed by you. Like this giant hulking version of yourself, like you can see Kymir in there.

But the basement almost kind of dims. There's torches everywhere, but it almost kind of dims in the center where he is. Like, there's this repressed dark aura surrounding him. So what the hell is going on inside that noggin? I think, uh, I think chimera is like trying to figure out what's going on, right? Like, his ego locked inside of this alter ego. His natural sort of like way is to just sort of like assess, you know, like look around, see who the mark is. Like, where are the exits? What's, you know, like, what's my angle here? How can I, what can I do here?

How can I turn this into something? Good for me. And so I think that's what he's trying to do. Clearly, something has happened. And I, first off, I think he's thinking like, fucking Kolkhoff. Like, this is, this is something. Again, this is some kind of like overstepping of boundaries. Like, this is not. Oh, absolutely. In our contract, you know, like. And then he's probably thinking like, oh, there is a werewolf involved, too. That's like another thing in the mix. So maybe that's got something to do with it. I don't know. And the free basing of souls down here, like the, you know.

Right. And I got to say, like, this is a moment where you and Colgoth are the most intertwined. And one of the hugest things that, you know, keeps you guys budding heads is him making decisions for you and it affecting your life. In this exact moment, that's not a massive concern for you. It is just what you're doing in the moment. There is no tomorrow who gets. So this is going to be a major come down later. But it's almost got to be freeing to just not worry about consequences, to not worry about like, oh, what are people going to think of me? What are just all of that jettisoned from your consciousness.

Yeah. And I think, yeah, and I think that's like top. level, right? Like, that's our top level in chimera. And underneath that, I think Kimira is trying to figure out what, what can I do about this? What am I? What? How can I turn this? What can I use this for? Now, Loggeron standing on the other side of this space. here. And all day long, you've watched a situation that you already weren't really on board for all that much. Just get more and more off the rails. And then in... In this... It almost seems like in an instant. All this... this death and carnage happens.

And what was already... Probably, I think, you could put... You could say it's out of control. What was already out of control got so much worse and so much more heinous. And even if everything were to wrap up now, if you could just say, hey, "Hey, So much has happened that the ramifications of this are going to be felt for a while. So what the hell was Logrin thinking, you know, getting the basement door open, going down there and just confronting. What is going on in his mind? Damage control, basically. Like, he didn't expect this, right? Like, he expected Camera to indulge, overindulge.

Logrin didn't like it, but this is sort of one of the necessary evils that he kind of told himself might be necessary in order to keep Camera on, you know, as part of the team. But then it swiftly took a turn that he wasn't expecting. So now it's a problem that has to be solved, right? And Logren is considering himself not as responsible because he... He doesn't think he's as responsible for this situation as Camara or even ORA. But he does feel responsible for it in the sense that he didn't stop it sooner. So now he has to clean up. And if he... You know, we got the door open and a couple people escaped alive.

A couple people down here still aren't dead. Plenty of them are. but if we can minimize the amount of damage that's been done, that's where his head's at right now. I have thought about this moment a bunch, right? And I don't imagine Chimera speaking first. I, again, I imagine he's, he was busy when you walked down there. So like, the last, The last body hits the ground. However, he has disemboweled this person. It's in like, again, it is the most, right? So the pull queue running up through someone's stomach and then, like, that's, it's like, wouldn't it be need if?

Like, not just let me kill them, but let me do it in such a way that someone could tell stories about this for a long time, you know what I mean? No thought of the consequences after or even if they deserved it. How do you approach this then? So yeah, I mean, you know, planting a shield, racking is gone on top of the shield. He's pretty much in place between Camara and the exit. And there is just one exit to the cellar, right? Yep. He's not going to just run up a bulkhead in the back or something. Just leave. Just like, I, and you go up the chimney, be like, Yep.

I'm never going to see him again. All right. No, so he's between chimera in the exit. And he's made enough noise that he expects to be noticed. And is he, is he looking at me? Like do I have his attention already? Ian tell me. Yeah, I think so. Because if there's nothing else in this basement, if there's nothing else living in this basement, then yeah, Kimerin is certainly someone to take notice of. So yeah, I think he does that thing where it's like, you see, you see his back and he's like, boom, like throwing something down and like over his shoulder. He's just kind of like looking over you and his face is all changed and his horns are all sticking out and he's like breathing hard and like smoke is coming out of his nose.

There is a smell of death, not decay. There is a, it's an odor that hits your nose and it just reminds you of something dying freshly. It's an absence of hope almost. It's so weird, but you couldn't describe this smell to another person. But when you take it in, it's like, oh, wow, shit. There's like an aura coming off of them. So this is an important distinction. And I want to make this clear before we go any further. Ian, you're in control of everything chimera does from here on now. This is only like a werewolf situation in that you just tell me what chimera would do without fear or consequence of repercussions. that's all there is to it.

No willpower rolls. I mean, later, like, coming down from this, absolutely. But this isn't, oh, you have to roll to not, you know, kill your friends or whatever. You tell me if that's what you would do, you know. So I leave it in your capable hands. So Logging gets that eye contact and he just goes, Camara is at you. It is. I need you to stop. Why? Camere, that's a real weird question. Look at your hands. Look at what you did. I'm pretty sure. Let's say that's true. You're defended. I need you to stop. Or you'll what? Or I'll stop. Or I'll stop you. Or I'll stop you.

You sound pretty confident. Have I ever been anything else? No, but now I am something else. But now I am something else. Camer, I don't want to do this, but I will not ask you again. I'm gonna walk out of here. I'm feeling really good. And I want to find Silver Fox. And I want to screw his brains out. I hear that that's what you think you're going to do right now. But I'm telling you, no. You need to hear that word right now. That's not the word I need to hear to hear. And Lagrin, I wish you knew that. Can I make a religion check? Yeah, that's a good time for one.

Which God can I pray to? Who's close? My necklace of holy symbols. I get an 11. Specifically, The specific question that Logren has in mind is whether or not he is looking at a greater demon. Oh, boy. This is almost no different. then if you had summoned a demon yourself, this is... The only thing that's different is your friend is in there. Like, this is a... This is a greater demon. It's just... Instead of a giant winged thing, it's just your friend coded in it. Like, it... Colgoth is so much a part of the proceedings now. that he's almost more corporeal than chimera.

Chimira is almost the passenger at this point. Like, he's driving, but, you know? When this is over, we're going to talk again about your contract, both of them. And he's going to let both barrels of his gun go. Ooh! Hit me. Well, hit chimera. Hit it. Hit it. I know that like aimed shots aren't really a thing, but for the, for the flavor of this, he's aiming for a knee. Oh. Ian, you should have a new character sheet. Should I? If you go into the Actors tab. I see. Okay. Got it. It's a slightly different version of chimera. So... Okay. So I am trying to remember how we did this with the shotgun last time.

Because if I fired, normally I would have a disadvantage on the saving throw. It's a strength saving throw. But with the shield planted... Just roll it straight. Okay. Just roll it straight. Yeah. All right. I'm going to roll both attacks separately, I guess. So here's the first A barrel. That's a 22 to hit. That's a quick. Great. Oh, my God, it is. That's a crit, yeah. That's a crit, baby! Oh, my God, if ever you needed a crit. Okay, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. Before we go any further, let's get this on paper, guys. I didn't expect it to get this... Harry so fast.

My God. So, do you want to see if this rolls on the crit table? It'd be a good time for that, too. I mean, do I have a choice? Yeah, you could say no. No. Let's see what happened. Well, you asked if you had a choice. No. Consent is key. I don't know. Yeah, give me a D20, baby. All right. I'm sorry. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. What? I'm not chimera. Like, it's very important to just... Wow. I heart stopped for a second. That was wild. Damn. Telling at home. It doesn't say, I don't see what it says. He says you wrote a 20. That's the big thing. Okay, yeah. I rolled a 20, but I don't know what it means.

You help you write the book. You ever read the crit tables? She doesn't even like the tables. Do you know how much I forced any knowledge of any tables out of my mind after that person's a day? Well, let me tell you that the 20 is almost certainly, well, it's not instant death anymore, but it is like you're going to die. Well, he'll show. I don't even have to look up the book to know that. So, this is interesting. Fatal blow. You deal a terrible blow to your target. They instantly drop to zero hit points and must roll a flat D20. On a 15 or higher, they cling to life with two failed death saving throws.

Unless, his challenge rating is more than double your level. Okay. What's your level again? Five. Okay, let's like I'm not. Yeah. You're a CR 9. So here's what we're going to do. You get to roll that with advantage. So give me a D20, Ian. Got it. Oops, I should have rolled two. Hang on. Yes. Seven and fifteen. All right. So this is going to do a shit ton of damage, but not instantly down him. Oh, Jesus Christ, that's 32 damage. Plus 48 damage for both barrels. I guess we need a boss bar for Ian. We need a boss bar for coming here. Weird. Oh, cool. It's all infernal and red.

Oh, cool. It's all infernal and red. too. I would be in the aspect. Nice. Spade no expense. As a result. and take a result of being bloodied. before his next turn. Ah, Jesus, Craig. So, Chimer's got a lot. If you go to the Features tab, you'll see a host of things that you can do. Oh, yeah, I'm looking at him now. I think... Kimer is going to take this full force, and it's just like... I think it's like... Like, you can see blood and visceral, like, it, it, it, like, craters into his chest, right? Like, it is, it is clearly a hit. There is shrapnel and stuff, and he gets knocked.

He gets knocked back. He, like, falls onto a body. And he, like, leans over and his breathing hard and, like, stands back up. And you can just see, like, in his... chest, like there's just like shrapnel and blood and everything. Um, and... He's going to take his full move and just walk over to Lagrin. Like, right in front of him. Stand in front of his shield. And... I don't... Do I have any of my spells? Or is it just these... features. It's these, these features, there's also a claws in there, like just a like a straight-up attack. But it's, if you want to throw in one of your spells for some flavor.

Yeah, let me do. Let me do for flavor. Just cast it at a much higher level. How about that? Tell me if this is, tell me if this is copacetic, but what I'd like to do is stand right in front of Logrin. grab that shotgun and cast a heat metal on it. Oh. Oh. Oh. Yeah. What happens when you cast heat metal at... No, not. Let's hold. Let me say, CR9, that would be like... Fourth, fifth level? Something like that? Let me... fifth? I think so. The target becomes oven-hot. Any Creature touching the target takes 2D8 fire damage when the spell is cast. Until the spell ends on subsequent turns, you can use a bonus action to inflict the same damage.

If the creature is holding or wearing the target and suffers damage, it must make a constitution saving throw or it drops the target. If a creature does not or cannot drop the target, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. So the target's the shotgun. So it does two. If a creature is holding or wearing it, it suffers 2D8 damage. Or they can make a constitution saving throw to hold on to it or they drop it. So there's nothing for casting it at higher levels. It's just, it just is. I don't think so I think it might. There's Susan's got some.

Damage increases by 1D8. That's right. Oh, for each spell slot about the second. So it'd be 4D8. Okay. Thank you, Susan. So is this you fucking with him? Like, you're not out and out hitting him, but it's just, it's like, that's enough of that? Or is it like, like, describe, what does this look like? Yeah, so I think chimera stands up and he walks over and he's fucked up. Like, it doesn't look good. But he has that chimera thing where even if he's, if, he's fucked up, like, it doesn't look good. If there's something going on underneath, he's trying to remain calm and unplussed.

And so he's going to walk up to Lagrin and just like grip that shotgun, pointing it at his... He'll walk up to it so the barrel like touches him, you know? And it's like... and like burns because it's hot. And he like grabs the barrel with his hand and just says... Lagrin. This is what you wanted. This is what you signed up for. Uh, well, let's let's do the save first and then yeah, yeah, let's do that. So it's not just damage, there has to be a save first and then he takes like half on a successful, something like that. You tell me, I don't know, you're looking at it.

Yeah, so because it's, because the target is this shotgun, it can't save. Like, so it's heated, like this thing heats up. Got it. If a creature is holding or wearing that target, then they suffer 2D8 fire, or they suffer the damage of the spell. And they have to make a constitution saving throw or they drop it. So if Loggerne wants to hold on to it, he's going to take damage and he has to make a Constitution saving throw. He doesn't want to take damage, it doesn't want to make the save, then he just drop it. He just drop it. I was going to say if if Loggering just let's go with the gun.

Yeah, nothing happens. Like I don't want, okay. Yeah, so he lets go with the gun. You can have that. Okay, so this big fucking gun's going to clatter to the ground. Obviously like superheeded at the at the barrel end, like you can, you can see where it looks like it's been in a forge. Yeah. So after Camara says what he says and in superheets, Labyrinth gun, he lets it go, hits the ground. Says we both know this is not at all what we talked about. Happy to go over it later. Please sit down. We can talk about it later, but I told you where I'm going. And all three of us can have a discussion.

It's been a while since we've all talked. We should do that. We can do it after you wake up, and I'm going to have to hit him. I got it and I got to whack him. Technically, Camir gets another action. All right. So he goes to get his hammer and it's like, oh, shit. Technically, that wasn't drawn. So it's like, oh, you wait. Oh, I'm going to get this big one. Let me just a minute. So a couple of things are going to happen. First, Kamira's got this like, it's sort of like that heat mirage that, that, that, that, that, that, that, goes on when you look at a road and it's like evaporating heat and sort of like makes that kind of like heat stuff.

He's got like a fiery crown on his head that's like kind of doing that and flickering like flame up above him. Sort of just like settled on the top of his head and in between these massive horns just hovering there. A creature within 10 feet of me that can see him must succeed on a DC 16 wisdom saving throw at the start of their turn or be overwhelmed by desire for more power, more blood, more sensation. So that's a person. Shit, little skulls for the skulls thrown. Yeah. I'm sure. DC 16's wisdom save? Yeah. So he's just like radiating off this like desire that's like pulling almost feel like pulling you in to like a lust for violence, a lust for lust, a lust for lust, a lust for just being demonic.

Hmm. Okay. Let's see what happens. No, that's a 12. That's a 12. So interesting thing about this, it would probably heighten whatever whatever excess you were leaning into at the moment, which would probably be violence, right? It would be, you need to stop this. This has gone too far. This is completely out of control. And words, aren't doing it. So there'd be quite a, um, there'd be quite a desire to, maybe even go so far as to kill you. And the fucked up thing is, in chimera's current state, that's a win. It's you going too far. You go. It's like, yes, thanks.

That's what, that's what we're doing. Like, it's, it's... That's just an aura. That's just a thing that happens. That's just a thing. I made this thing and I forgot about that. Oh, man. Okay, cool. The creature also has disadvantage on wisdom and intelligence saving throws and must move at least half its speed towards the most tempting source of excess as determined by the DM. So whatever that is, using your speed. That's you. That's you. Well, it's me. Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, that's... Yeah. Yeah. Oh, gosh. And then Kimira is going to use Fiendish Step. And this is a bonus action.

Jesus Christ. So, Kimira magically teleports 30 feet to an unoccupied space that he can see. That is in dimlet or darkness. And each creature within five feet of him something about fire damage. But he's not worried about that. He's just moving. So you see, you go to reach for your hammer and he just like, in like a gout of flame falling into the floor, he reappears like 30 feet at the top of the steps of the basement, like at the door. Oh, shit. And he's gone. I'm never gonna catch him. He's gonna, yeah, he's gonna turn around here. And be, and, and say, I'm looking forward to our chat.

And then he's gonna spend his action to dash and run out that, run out that tavern. So, okay. Okay. That door is barricaded. No, it isn't. Wait. The basement door is. Yeah. I think Woggren had it unbarricaded so he could get down there. But he told her to buy a bar behind him. No. Oh. Okay. It's technically barricaded by some wood and a 15-year-old girl. But barricaded is barricaded. So you get to the top of the, like, if you're dashing, then you're dashing. Like you get to the top at these stairs and there's, it's a thick wooden door and and you're a major demon here.

So what do you want to do to this door? I don't want to blast this thing open. Oh. On the other side of this door as you're approaching it, because it's like, stomp, stop, like you're, you're kind of getting up there as as Lager turns around and starts orbiting. toward those stairs. A voice on the other side of the door is going to sound scared. Logren? Is that you? Get back. Way back. Let me do a wisdom saving throw here. That's a 19. Oh, man, she's going to duck way down, first of all. And there's like two chairs kind of wedged under the, the door here. And there's kind of like awkward bits of wood about like waist high.

And she's ducked real low and kind of lowers her voice. Come here. Did you do something to look? Not yet. She knows if she opens this for you or... Like, you're out. And once you're out, you're out, right? Like... I think... I think you need help. And you need to stop. And you can hear, like, Logrin starting up the stairs, right? Like he's got, you know, if he's, if he, you know, I don't want to speak for you. Well, what you would hear is basically this, like a howl of rage from the bottom of the stairs. Because you got made Lagrin want to fight and then left the fight.

Oh, as Dick. So he, like in a sound, he has never made before. Absolute fury. Technically, you could attack the pillars under the stairs. And this seems like the first time Kymar is under the stairs. And this seems like the first time Kimer is hesitated, by the way. Like, he could, he could, he could. he could rip this door to shreds, right? But just hasn't yet. Like... Is it my turn yet? I would say, because of hesitation, yes. And I guess whatever you attack is going to be with advantage. There's a bloodlust within you that... You know. Yeah. Well, Longgren's going to do a couple of things.

First, he's going to leave the shield behind. He is not in a place where shields are needed. He's going to whirl around in slow motion, because he cannot whirl quickly. And he's going to sort of like up-hand wing a hand axe up the stairs at Camara. Give it to me. It is very much like, like, almost incomprehensible, like how if he is enraged he is. like get back down here like you don't start something and leave all that type of thing. A lot of dwarven shit. A lot of that dwarven shit he tried to give up. Like you act like you can face me like a man all that kind of shit.

It's just coming forward. He sounds like his dad, you know? 90s loggerins coming out. Yeah. 80s predator handshake. Glogren's coming out. Yeah. So we're going to do a hand axe throw with advantage you said. Yeah. Okay. You're not a dexterous man, but you know. Well, throw is a strike. That's a 26 for 7 damage. I think we're going to take the hesitation out of chimera is the problem. And if there's time, the next thing you will do, will be take out these stairs with his hammer. Here's what I'll let you do. Because technically, that's two attacks. However, I'm picturing some real Hancock stairs here.

So I'll let you run into the pillar if you want. Give me an athletics check. All right. You know what? Let's do it. Which feels like it fits the moment. It's like, just like, you know what I mean? So it doesn't apply to this directly. I do have a combat maneuver called shoulder check, which is... Is that an action or a bonus action? It is a reaction, actually. But I don't know, it just feels appropriate. It feels like kind of juggernautting through these things. I'll spend the exertion point, you know. Yeah, okay. That's fair. So, yeah, let me just make an athletics check.

I'm just doing it for flavor. Uh, da-da-da-da, let's see. This is a strength-based thing, so with advantage, please. With advantage. 15. All right, we're gonna drop a five, take an 11, or 15. So, whipping a hand axe up the stairs. And it's gonna catch, kind of catch, kind of. in the shoulder, not a, not the beefiest hit this time. Not like blasting two barrels of shotgun into someone's chest, but it's enough to probably piss him off a little, uh, or, or just. I don't, I usually don't want to speak for chimera, but it might even be a thing where it's like, see, that's why you don't hesitate because you know what I mean?

I could be outside by now. Fucking. And I'm here. Uh, so. And you are going to run into the first two pillars holding the stairs aloft. So they're going to start to buckle and cave in. I think it's a great time for us to jump across town. See what's going on over there. I... You know, decompress. Yeah. God, you guys are fucking killing it, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. I'm editing this in my head. Fucking rock hard. God. So good. Love you, Ian. I didn't mean to shoot you in the chest. That was cool. I'm not being like, he was aiming at the knee, then the first barrel went off and the recoil pointed up and the second barrel.

Yeah. Ah. Yeah. Yeah. It is a shotgun shooting at 30 feet. So. Too good. Anyone want to drink or anything? Anyone want a box or something? Just want to destroy some stairs. Oh, I don't know if you care enough. I want to break our things. I want to break someone else's things. Hey, folks, Jasper here. Sorry to interrupt everything. Listen, we want to connect with you. If you like what we do here, please consider joining our community on our Discord server. And if you want even more, please think about joining the DNR at patreon.com slash d-a-n-d-R. There, you'll get behind-the-scenes looks, bonus games, Patreon groups with Jason and Bree at higher tiers, and so much more.

There's even some big surprises coming down the past. links to our Discord and Patreon in the show description. Now, just a couple of words from our sponsors, and then back to the show. Susan, are you, how you feeling? Are you ready? No, but. All right. This is going to have a slightly different feel than the all-out, ragey, like, This is going to be a bit stealthier. We're going to use the other stats. We'll see. No less deadly. Yeah, I don't know, actually. Yeah, I don't know. You might, yeah. This guy did try to kill a child. Yeah. Yeah. Well. It's kind of one of Nithera's bugaboos.

So across town. A rooftop chase ends with Silver Fox getting shot and then tumbling down a sheer roof and then through the roof into some kind of dark room. And to paint a picture, we've got Vetti and we have Vettie and Chet, Chet is very poisoned. And they're both sitting in the car with sitting in the gear heart waiting for Ruby to come back. Ruby has ascended and and joined the roof chop J. So you're a bit behind. Yeah. I mean, just just trying to catch up. That's all. To be helpful. So it's going to take you a few seconds to close in. It's going to take a few seconds for Knight Thera to after after he falls through, you're you're going to close in and you know that wasn't a killing blow.

Mm-hmm. He's hurt. But any assassin or monster hunter, whatever he wants to call himself, if he is good, is preparing something, right? You know that. Nythera can't be stupid enough to just slide on in, right? So I didn't even want to present that as an option, but you tell me what you do. How quickly after he falls through does Nythira get to the hole that he fell through? I'd say another eight or nine seconds. So I hear him hit. And then I'm getting there after. Okay. And you would be, so you would be approaching this large hole. And it's just looking down into a very dark room, right? because there's not a lot of sun out right now.

We're still trying to wrap up the 22nd of Duel. Lots happened today. One for the history books. But it's getting to the point now where nighttime is falling, and that's not a great thing for this specific thing. So Nithira will look down into this hole for just a second, and then grab something that's like on the back of her belt, like underneath her cloak that's a her. heavy cloak that she wears because in this perpetual winter you're wearing big heavy cloaks and layers. And taking off from her belt, she is going to pull that raven mask. It's like a raven.

It's like a plague doctor mask with an elongated nose and it has a silver lining around the eyes and vince for like a beak and it has feathers on it. And she's going to say down into the whole. as she puts on this mask, I'll show you what a real monster looks like. And then she puts on the mask and jumps down in there. Hmm. Hmm. And just straight off the bat, the first thing that I get with this mask is she could always sense the presence of nearby hidden threats, meaning I get advantage on perception checks for, ambushes or hidden creatures. Bo bo bo bo bo bo bo bo.

Damn. Well, it's escalated quicker than I thought. So I'm just going to set up a map so that we can see like what would. You know what I mean? And just I guess from the distance to what Ruby sees is her put on that mask and instantly the edges of Nythera starts to flicker. And her shadow starts moving without Nytheira moving. And Nythira kind of just starts to blend. Kind of like a super fade where it goes back and forth really quickly. You can't really pinpoint exactly where she's at. Wow. I feel like partly this is like setting up the spinoff of Flores.

Like the Nythera tales like go back in time and over the last hundred years. Jump back to the last time she wore it. So, peace. So Ruby was following. Yeah, I'm trying to figure out, I mean, given the circumstances, Nythera is, Ruby saw Nithera. Ruby saw rooftop shenanigans. There's a lot going on. I feel like Ruby may want to help control strategically the battlefield a little bit. And rather than chasing up and trying to just follow 9th era, like, where are you going? Kind of a thing. I wonder if she might try to calculate a little bit more from the street, from the ground, and maybe keep him from getting out, from coming through a door.

She's not going to stand around, but she may want to go in from the other angle. So you're doing the thing like when there's a when there's a foot chase. in a movie. You're trying to show up at the back door where they eventually like... Exactly. He comes out on landing and it's like, hey, I've been waiting for you kind of a thing. If he were to run, if not, what she would be thinking strategically is, how can I find out which, where did, where did that hole happen? Where did, where did Nethera disappear into basically? Because that's where she needs to focus.

And then she's going to try to go in that house, building, shop, whatever it is. I don't even know. and see if she can make her way up. If along the way, she feels like she's better off staying put and just waiting, she would kind of do the big battle version of readying her action. Like she'd be ready to stop him. And from Ruby's point of view, just for a moment before you decide to like shift right or left to go to the front of the back of the building or down, you would see Nythera, as soon as she puts the mask on, her shadow along gates a little bit and almost fans out like wings are coming out of her shadow and then she starts to flicker a little bit like you can't see exactly where she's standing.

Okay, would just for canon purposes, number one, first of all, that's just fucking cool. Number two, canon purposes, would Ruby have ever seen this before? Would she be familiar? I don't mean they do this all the time, but would she be, she'd be like, oh, it's that thing. She would know of the mask. But Nythira probably hasn't worn it ever. But she would have had it at some point in their travels. That fireside conversation, Nythira would go, whether that represents my old life. And I don't like who I become when I wear it. So I would expect unless you tell me otherwise.

I think Ruby would, she would be like, what's going on? She'd say, oh, In fact, she might even just say out loud. Hoping beyond hope that this guy is nearby and could just hear her say it out loud. Oh, shit. You keep running. She's just going to get madder. I'd stop. And then she's going to try to, and while she's looking for the window for the door, for calculating exactly where that might be, she's going to sort of pick up the pace. So here's what I want to do. I was thinking about this for a couple seconds. Give it a lot of thought. I want you to give me a survival check, but survival normally is an indication of you tracking something, like field guide type stuff.

But you grew up in a dense urban environment. So I want you to add plus two to it because it isn't as dense as bright port. But some of these houses and shops, like, city's been around for, you know, a couple of centuries almost. So houses are stacked on top. of each other. Everything's kind of built vertically. Yeah. You're, you know, fantasy cities kind of get a New York vibe eventually, you know? There's only so much space, especially in a walled city. So give me a survival with plus two. Plus two. Here we go. I breathe in you. Oh, wait. What? What? Oh, I still have disadvantaged from something from a long time ago.

Sorry. Oh, you have strife. Oh, that's what it is. Oh. Was that from seeing Chet shot? No, the strife came from. She did a check when she was checking out the Gearheart. And she crit, like, she was trying to figure out what the hell's going on here. And she just, she was a crit fail. And she's just like, enough. She just exhausted mentally. Too many, too many thoughts in her head. I don't know if we explain that. But I do that with PC repair. This is all. Why isn't this working correctly? I did everything. It's all there. I've triple-checked everything. And you just get frustrated.

You just like, yeah. 100%. Okay. And she doesn't know when to stop mental load gathering. She's just going to keep doing it until she breaks, which is what I think that happened. But yeah, 12, 12 survival. She's trying to calculate where all this could be happening. So you're taking your best educated guess, right? You're just trying to, it's like, okay, well, if I were a thing, you know. So while you're doing that, as Nythera jumps down into this hole, it's about all said and done, like, a nine-foot drop, nothing massive, right? I'm not going to have your role for damage or anything.

It's not, whatever, you're an adventure. Like, let me ask some questions. canonically and mechanically about this mask. Now, you and I went over this, but the listeners didn't. So we need to, we need to, we need to educate and entertain. So, um, what changes for Nythera right now? Visually, mechanically, like, does this give you dark vision? Does it? You know, that type of stuff. Well, Nythera already has dark vision. Of course. And you don't sleep. Hey, that's always been an elf thing. No, I know, I know. It's an old D&D joke at this point. Yeah. But visually, her shadow flickers in the shape of a raven, even in dim light, which is why Ruby saw that.

Her voice drops into like whispers overlaid, which gives the mechanical benefit. of she gets advantage on intimidations, but because it's this whisperer overlay, she gets disadvantaged on persuasion checks because why would you trust anybody with a voice like that? And then she has this like danger sense, so she gets a sense of the presence of nearby hidden threats, so advantage on perception checks related to ambushes or hidden creatures. Advantage on stealth checks because she's becoming one with the shadows. Plus two to attack rolls made with daggers because this is an assassin's mask.

So it's an assassin's specifically for an assassin. Little things like that. She's immune to being frightened, but I can't benefit from inspiration. So there's like drawbacks and boons and jawbacks. But the fun part of this is that's a round-by-round improvement. So the more she uses this, the more benefit she gains. but she also gained strain every round of combat she uses it for, which equals strife. So eventually, it'll just keep going up strife, strife, strife, strife, strife, until the mass just has to fall off or else she goes insane. Because in A5E strife, you can get long-term and short-term madness.

Yeah, it's no Bueno. So you're burning twice as bright but half. as long, right? Like it's, you know, okay. God, I want a new infamous game. Sorry, that's only gonna like, it's, yeah. So, jumping in here, this is, it's kind of a tight kitchen setting. So it's boiling kettle. There's, so someone was cooking in here and it looks like, either they left something like a stew or something like that on, uh, to boil. So there's like a wood stove and there's four four by four pillars. And you can see him braced up against one, but not like he's in, I mean, he's injured, but not like he's critically wounded, more like he's just, it's like in case you throw something else, I want to be, you know.

And once you land, once you land, you know, once you land, He doesn't attack at all until like you're in the room. I want you to give me a dexterity saving through, please. Okay. 17. Oh, shit, that's good. Okay, that's real good. So a crossbow boat is going to kind of flick your way, and it's going to go kind of wide, right? But you get the sense of that's, you get the sense of That's more of a covering fire shot more than him taking aim. I thought you and I were becoming fast friends. Nythera is going to use a bonus action to coat her dagger in her hand and oil of tag it.

I have six uses left. Use a free action to say that wasn't until you tried to kill a child in front of me. And then use an action to hurl her dagger at him. So he is going to have cover. So that's going to be, yeah. Gonna raise his AC a little bit. Okay. I was going to bring a boy all attack at, but let's see if it's fit. I think it's like a DC-15 to see if he falls asleep. But... Mm. Mm. But it could have to be able to take it. be wrong. What do I get? Plus two to attack rolls. I think that should already be in the calculations. I think we check that math before.

I believe so, yeah. I think that part works. Yes. Yes. Poof. Oof. I'll use luck. I think I used one last session, so I have one left. Yeah, we're going to re-roll that because that was two. for a total of seven, and a one on the D4 for a total of three. Timeline splits. And you see that reality for just a moment. Yes. 16. Oh. So. That is going to hit the pillar in front of him. And he is going to rush you. And he is going to try and overrun you. a bit here. So let's see. I have never used this. So let's see. Oh, overrun. That is an action. Strength. Yeah, I don't know.

I don't think we're playing. It's so okay. Fane's not a big strong guy. You know what I mean? I mean, us stealthy folks really aren't. Right, but I was like to say, neither's nice. So like, why not? Yeah, he's probably in a. It'll probably work, honestly. Shit, I don't know. Let's try it. So this is a basic melee, strength saving throw. Okay, well, I'm going to fail. I mean, no, no, no, no. I'm going to. I'm not to say, like, this is, let's, let's, let's, yeah. I got this. Even though I got a minus one. So you just roll a 20. Just do that. Well, that wasn't a 20 at all.

So he is, he is just going to rush you. Kind of a desperate show. older charge, right? And just kind of blam, like, right into you. And it'll be enough to knock you over, but it's kind of clumsy, right? He's been shot. He's been, you know, so you're going to go down next to this stove here. And you can feel that wood stove. It's like iron, like it's very heated. It heats up a room. You can feel that heat. You just kind of roll away from it a little bit just so you don't burn yourself. And it's going to do two damage, but it's mostly just a like, like, Let me knock you down.

And you're going to see he's turning to get distance from you now. Like, run. Your rebel. Okay. Hey, Jason. So there's a boiling pot of water. Sure is. I'd throw that at someone's face. Would you perhaps say maybe that blinds them or incapacitates them in some way? I don't know. Just sleep falling. You know. Mames them? Well, okay. Okay. So, let's. First of all, absolutely, use that. That's cool. Like, that's, you know. So what we got to do is, I imagine you're sitting up to do it. Because like, you're not going to reach it from, you know, so. Are you just sitting up one-handed just trying to throw it at him?

I imagine she's going to like stand up. And then as she puts her hand on the stove, it looks like she's going to put her hand on the stove. She's grabbing the handle of it. Like it's like a fake out. Like it looks like she's trying to steady herself as she's standing up. She's grabbing it and like throwing the boiling water at him. Okay, I'll give you a couple of options here. Let's paint a picture for everybody. Right. Oh, and this is round two. Oh, shit. Raven. Uh, uh, okay, I got a roll AD6. Because. Yeah, for the mask. Yeah, the mask, like I said, it increases every time.

But I could either get, it can increase too much. And bad things could happen. I didn't want to have like a cheat code mask. I wanted something that it's only used in times of desperation. And it's so, okay, it's got to be one of those things where the audience at home. It's like, why wouldn't you use? use that literally all the time, right? Like, it's got to be. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Also, it's got to be a thing where I don't ask that. Why don't you use that literally all the time? Okay. So Raven's pulse die. This is a flavor die at the end of each of ninth year's turn.

Roll 1d6. So on a 5, it's flickering vision. So there's no new effect, but it's a plus one strain. So now I'm up to two strain, whereas I would normally at round two just have one. And at three strain, I get a strife. So. Oh. Damn. Okay. Okay. One second. Let me pull something up. To paint another picture at 10 strain, the mask forcibly de-activates dealing psychic damage equal to Ninthira's rogue level, leaving her stunned at the end of her next turn. That's a reason why she doesn't wear it all the time. Yeah, no. Anything that could hurt you in combat is probably, uh, it's not good.

That's not great. So I'll give you a couple of options here. You can stand up. That uses half your movement and we're not really using the grid. So get that out of your head, right? But it is precious seconds for him to get a few feet away. If you picture all this happening simultaneously. So you can do that. And all you're going to do is make him do a dexterity saving throw. And you could do it kind of sitting up and doing it, which would increase the difficulty of the dexterity save, but probably lower damage because it's going to be more wild and out there.

Can I propose an addendum? Please. Always. So I have a maneuver called perplexing flurry, which basically is I just a rain up. short, sharp strikes that disorienting your enemy. I feel like throwing water is very disorienting. So, and it gives me an extra attack. So maybe with this, I'm lining it up. So the water flies and I'm also flicking a dagger at him. So he sees the water coming, but doesn't see the dagger coming. I mean, it is due too. So this is going to be pretty spicy. Uh, maybe a little extra damage there. I'm just saying. Just, I'll shut up. It's a lot to throw.

It's a lot to throw, right? Like you're, you know, um, so let's do this. But if we just want to use a perplexing flurry, we could just use that maneuver and then it would be just like a dex throw against him with damage, right? If I use my maneuver for it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would say so. I don't want to break your game. Yes, you do. It's just a little bit, but... All right, let's do that. So I'm going to give you a dexterity saving throw here. And let's just see what we got. 15. I... Hmm. That's right on the borderline I feel, because it's a lot. So I am going to say that...

That boiling water is going to hit him. He is a teafling. So it's not going to hurt as much as it's. But I am going to give him disadvantage on anything he chooses to do next. Which lines up because perplexing flurry says that creature has disadvantage on the attack rolls against you until the start of your next turn. So. Oh, sweet. Okay. I'm going to use Hunter's reflexes. Okay. So this is a last ditch. Like, fuck this. I don't like. We're throwing soup at each other now. That's where we're at. You tried to kill a child. Yeah, but like, kid was a vampire, going to be a vampire.

No time to really like get into all these specifics, but, you know, he's going to throw these bolas at you. Okay. And his goal is to wrap your arm up against that hot stove. Like the chimney of the sun. stove, right? Yeah. Give me a dexterity saving throw. We're looking for a 15 or higher. Okay. Which should be fucking no problem. She said that. 15. Good Lord. He is going to stumble out this back door. So harsh light coming in to this kind of dark kitchen, kind of stumble out where everything's bright, and the door's going to swing shut again. I imagine you're right after him, right?

There is still a knife in his back. He cannot get to it. It's between the shoulder blades. So there's that and like the back, the back of his head, like his hair and shit is steaming. Because, you know, hot water, whatever, ham and cabbage that was in that, whatever it is. You know what? Tell me what it was in there. You paint a picture. It's... Okay. I'm trying to think where we are in the world. It doesn't really matter. How about it's like a potato and sausage soup, like a Zupa? So there's like... It's been simmering all day. So this... It would have tasted really good.

It has like this really creamy broth and like little chunks of perfectly spiced sausage. And maybe a little spinach or kale, whatever, you just floats your boat in there for a little more iron and fiber. It's really good. Gonna be like a little flex of sausage in his hair or something like that. Just, you know, just... And potatoes are dripping down as like a suit or whatever. I would say that Ruby's going to appear in... There's like a side alley to this, this, you know, she's going to appear and, you know, she's going to appear and kind of hop a fence and be on the other side of it.

So about, you know, 35, 40 feet behind. but now within striking distance. And there's a moment. While Fane is getting ready to hop a fence into like a yard or something, that Ruby has a clear shot. That's just as Nithyr is coming out the back door of that kitchen. Don't know what you want to do. Ruby doesn't seem to have a lot of incapacitating moves that I know of. Other like solid punches and things. Yeah, I mean, there's sort of the standard stuff, right? Like, she can try to grapple somebody. She's going to do a quick calculation. Is this, is this ranged?

Or could she sprint and tackle? Without a grid, sort of just thinking about this, you know, like. And you have like dashing stuff, right? You know, that's great. I'm looking right now. Boy, I should have brushed up on this before I did. I only know that because I think we share one. Yeah. Well, I mean, I can do a charge maneuver, right? Let me think. Let me get this group out of here real quick. Yeah, I can move up to 30 feet in a straight line. Like dashing and make a melee weapon. an attack. I'm assuming he's... Is he beyond that? Here's what I'll let you do.

Yeah. I said like, you know, 35, 40 feet, but here's one I'm going to... You see where he's hopping this fence. He's like halfway over. Like, picture like a reinforced wooden fence. I'm going to let you dash and try to tackle through the fence. Here's what she wants to do, importantly. Okay. She knows that Nythera... she doesn't put this mask on for fun. Right. So she's not saying like, oh, there's a person. Let me try to take them out. What she's trying to do is stop them from running. So because whatever the situation is here, she's trying to do this for ninth era.

So she's trying to play her role. Which is why I ask about the range thing. She could, you know, clock a couple of bolts into them or something like that from a distance. But that isn't. what she wants. What she wants to do is dash power up the Velocis springs and then just spring forward as fast as she can through whatever she can, breaking whatever she can to tackle his ass. Okay. There you go. Okay. So here's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for. I'm looking for an athletics check. Okay. And if if it is a 15 or higher, you're going to go straight to that fence and kind of clip his legs out from underneath of him.

Because he's straddling this fence. So let's say it's a weak portion of this fence. Clip him and just ride right through and probably incapacitate him if you land this. But if it's lower than that, we're going to say that one of the, the posts of the fence is like right there. And you know, it's just gonna be here. If it's a straight up failure or something, but let's see. I'm at disadvantage. I hate this moment. Oh shit. Do you have any like? I've got inspiration. But I'm not sure that'll have to do. Well, that get rid of my disadvantage or I'm just gonna have to do inspiration later.

Well, I'll let you make a choice. You can pop your inspiration to make it a regular role or you could just roll twice. There's always a chance you roll high twice. Like that is a thing that happens. All right. I'm going to do it. I'm going to go for Athletics check. I'm going to. Shit. Take your time. Think about it. All the audience. That's fine. Susan. What do you think? Season. Tell me. Help me. No, I was just doing an anticipation. Oh, my God. I thought you had an idea. All right. So I'm just haunting. Thank you. I was just the audience going, oh. All right, athletics, disadvantage.

I'm going to add my daily expertise dive. All right, here we go. Holy shit. We're going to drop a crit to take a, What was it? A 14? 14. It was a 10 and then it came a 16 with the with the expertise done. Oh, with expertise. Okay, got it. Holy shit. 16. So you're going to plow right through this fence, clip his legs out from underneath of him and he is going to like kind of head over hails like fall to the ground and you guys are just kind of like splaying out on the other side of this fence. There's kind of like a small tavern, almost like a speakeasy thing, not illegal, but like they have little chairs and stuff outside.

And you're going to just barrel right through those and kind of splay out into a small side street on the other side. Both of you are going to come to a stop on that cobblestone. And there are a, there are a few guards walking by. So everything's fine. They're walking by and then all of a sudden, blasting through a fence, you click this guy and both of you are just going to spill out to the street. There's obviously something. They're going to draw on you and just like, okay, whoa, stop, stop, stop, stop. On the other side, Nitha is now going to have a clear, visible, like, straight through the fence.

There is a half-work shaped hole just blasted through, and you're just blasted through, and you're going to have a clear, visible, like, straight through the fence. you know, a good like 45, 50 feet away kind of splayed out into the street here. You're going to see three guards kind of draw their crossbows, like holding. It's like, whoa, stop. Uh, do, do, do once again. She murders them. Oh, fuck. That's a full six. So, okay, you have rolled a five and a six so far. Tell us, tell us in the audience. what that means. Okay. So the five, like I said, was flickering vision.

So Nythera's vision started to just go a little wonky, but it really just made her more part of this mask. A six means the raven surges. So as when she first put on the mask, you see her shadow elongate and those wings flare out. And then Nysheera starts to hear, kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him, kill him. You want to kill him. Is that even talking about the guards or just? Just him. Just kill them. Okay, just kill him. All right. I think it's a good time for us to stop for the night. I really do. And I want to pick up with this when everyone's here. Oh, no idea.

I kind of figure we got to a point where it's like, all right, hold on. Actually, I don't want to. stop right there. I want one more thing. Just one more thing. As this is happening, Thane and Ruby are in the street kind of like laying there. Thane is just trying to, to, like, his back is screwed. Right now, there's a knife in it. He has already fallen a couple of times. And I would imagine, like, Ruby's probably just, you know, like looking back to see Nythera and this, this, this big shadowy raven kind of aura coming off. And the last thing that you're going to hear, before these cards kind of look up and see Nithera, is you're going to hear this roar.

And no. No one could tell you what that sound means, but Ruby would absolutely know that is the the Gearheart starting and moving faster than you've ever heard it move before. And it's just going to peel out and you're going to hear it drive away. But you're going to hear it drive away. Interspersed with a lot of clanging and banging and, you know, you know what I mean? These damn kids. God. Damn. That is where I'd like to stop for that. Now I hate you. I liked you. And now I hate you. I was excited about next time and now I just want to destroy. Ruby's not.

They're going to be in timeout so hard. Makes it feel anybody. That's definitely vetty. Like trying to get to like some kind of it's like, I got to find a healer. Oh, I know. I know. I know. I know. I know.