 So you all are floating on a rock suspended in space, which is slowly approaching the lower kind of area of a massive rock-like structure underneath the building. You are now in Wirtheim, home of the spine of death. Sitting on the rock is all of you just kind of standing there, including Luke, who is clutching at his shoulder. He is badly hurt from the encounter with Thorn, and you can see there is a massive wound on the back of his shoulder. Ooh. I feel like right now it's like, see, is that ready? Oh, okay, good. Turns around, see, Luke's hurt. Fuck! He seems to stumble kind of down to a little sit on the rock. How bad is he? Hmm? How bad is it? You can give me a medicine check, perhaps. Sure. That's neat. Oh, he looks pretty messed up, and he's bleeding a lot. I think my healing can, since we don't have time for this. You may. You could say eight hit points back. Okay, eight hit points. Yes, four. Yep, you can see the wound close a little bit, but Luke is still coughing. Yep, just like that. Yes, sorry, I will limitate the cost. I'll be roleplaying the cost. Good, good. Cool, cool. Awesome. Today is going to kind of kneel down next to Luke and just be like, shit, shit. He lifts his hand up. I think we'll be fine. I simply need time to rest. And she was about to say, do we have time? And then kind of thinks about it. No, no, actually, I think we actually have a little bit of time because, you know, I don't think they know that we're here unless nothing comes with a fucking drug or device. When is this ascension meant to start? Oh, right. Yeah. The definite time, I am not sure. But the time is nigh. In a few hours or perhaps the end of the day, I am not so sure. Do you think we have enough time to spare an hour to wrap our wounds? Perhaps, but... If you want to risk it. I... It's up to you guys. Sorry, this is... This different plane is doing something to my voice. How many of us signed it? I'm fine for the most part. Ah, she's fine as well. I'm fucking fine. So it's just a... Looks like? I'm fine. I'm ready to kick ass. No, Nathaniel's got no personality in it. I think the dimension jumping meta fucked up is good. Hail to the king, baby. Maybe we should take a bit of a rest just to sort that out. We will have time for a spite. We approach the lower levels of the time now to the rocky tunnel basement known as the Middens. Alright. It is a dumping ground of failed experiments and garbage accumulated by the spine. We're not going to find anything that's like potentially alive that was a failed experiment, right? I see, so we're in the trash compact. Not quite yet. So... I am not sure what exactly will be found down there but it is dangerous, no doubt. Well, let's then we'll avoid that. I apologize. It is the most inconspicuous point of entry that is not from the building's own designated portals. If we can find a safe outcropping, we can take a rest and try to at least figure out a plan here. I don't think just walking around aimlessly is going to help us. I'd like to look to Kara. You can see that she is taken aback by the scenery and just kind of baffled by it all. Just kind of whispering to herself, kind of clutching her chin. Kara. Yes. She seems to snap herself out of her days. Yes, what is it? What are the chances that they know we're here? I'm unsure. This is magic I was not expecting. I assumed some sort of a simple pocket dimension, a blank slate, but this is something else. I don't imagine that they would know. I wouldn't imagine why they would know we're here unless Bloodstride has some sort of omnipotent grasp on the place. Or a simple wire spell that would be tripped if we enter. Perhaps. We cannot. We cannot get rid of that possibility. Renee, are you able to detect magic? I can sense lapse if you. So let's go ahead and try that. Make sure that we're not about to walk into one when we go in the fucking front door. Yeah. Yes. That will alleviate our worries. Yeah. I have. I have. Just pass the thing. I know that job is a lot. It's okay. It's okay. I can get a lozenge. Luke, I wanted to know. We've heard the name the Black Vein Queen a lot. I mean, though, it's not Kara. Is there even one? Is there a bigger player here that we should be concerned with than Lazlo? He looks at Kara and back to you. Your guess is as good as mine. Considering Kara and Mihalyan is not the Black Vein Queen, anything could be the answer. For all we know, the Black Vein Queen could merely be made up a false god to rally the banner of the Necromancers under. Wonderful. Under Lazlo. If he's saying he has the Queen's ear, then people are far more likely to follow him, yeah? I'm just not entirely convinced that he's at the top of this. It seems like there's something he answers to. That would not be out of the realm of possibility. No one has seen the Queens themselves aside from Bud's side, and it is forbidden to question any further. Now, Blood's Slide makes him sound too cool. Let's just keep calling him Lazlo. It means him. Oh, fairly well. Listen, take away someone's name. You take away a lot of the power over people. How many people around here do you think know that his name is Lazlo? Being fair, we're really just giving it back. I mean, how many people know that his full name is Lazlo Dunghud? Dungbite. Dungbite. Sorry, sorry. The last name is even well, so honestly. We could call him Mr. Dungbite. Perhaps in confidence, I would be more willing. So, in this case, only Lazlo and those who are deemed to ascend have apparently met as a back vain queen. The only certainty is those who ascend are not heard from again. We will get all of our answers from Blood's Slide. So, we're not going to kill him on site then? No. That comes later. There's too much that he knows. We need to figure out how best to handle all of the people who will probably get pissed if he does die. If you can stay up late for long enough, that man has a knack for making you a bit upset at him. Ah, that's not a familiar territory. Territory, well. Besides, if we capture him and bring him to Cara assuming, not Cara, to Chandrail, assuming Chandrail's motives are pure, perhaps this... Ah! So, well... Do you want me to check that for you? No, it is all right. It is all right, I just have to get through it. I just have to get over the hump. Perhaps that will forgive any lost time over the two weeks that we have agreed on. To this point, I'm not really concerned with our time limit in terms of our payment, and I'm more concerned for Merth. I couldn't care less if we got paid at this point. That's really the only major reason why I'm here. And with that, we should go. Merth is in there. They will need us. Beep. All right, let's go. Towards the end of this conversation, the Rock does approach kind of an outcrop in the side of this inverse mountain below the building. You enter inside. Map! This is, as you can see at the bottom right, the Middens of Vertheim. And you all step in. Luke kind of stumbles down. Are you sure you're okay? Yes. As a blade, it seems to have some special properties. I would need to be attended to. Perhaps Miss Michalian can assist. She just rolls her eyes and just kind of kneels down very well. If only I'd known we'd be traversing so many underground caverns when I joined up, I would have brought more than my sleeping gown. That's your sleeping gown? This was a three-day journey, and you did not bring extra clothes. She lifts one hand. Listen, I've already put up with all the societal shite with a necromancer. You think I'm going to give a single wit about what's socially acceptable to wear? It just smells. Are we meant to bring extra clothes? I said we're getting... Oh, my God. And she kind of just puts both hands towards Luna as a sea motion. Listen, you have to travel light. Luna has been fighting monsters and bathing in their blood for years. Her oral sensory faculties have burned away by now. You know what? Fair point. Onward, beep boop. I'm sorry that I'm fancy. Calls out to you before you head out. Be warned. Most members of the spine are forbidden to venture into the middens. It has all manner of secrets the spine would keep from even its own members. As such, there should be a teleportation circle. But it is protected by a powerful charm that not even I have a full grasp on how to use it. So as to keep out forbidden members. Luckily, a master of charms happens to be with us right now. I wish you the best of luck with Stapler. At least you will not be hunted by thorns. I'm going to swap out weapons. Okay. Switching the gavel for the rapier. Because I do not want a single ounce of noise coming out of the man. Can I make a suggestion before we go on? Since we do have the ability to do so. I'm going to swap out weapons. Switching the gavel for the rapier. Switching the gavel for the rapier. Since we do have the ability to scout out a bit of head first. I can send my echo down. That's a really good idea. How far down can I see right now from where I am? Okay, so let me reveal a little bit. Also, did you cast Detect Trap? I haven't cast it yet. I'm trying to see how far I can get before I need to do it. So, when you look down, you can see that there are three paths. The fuck? Oh my God, there is a bone goal. Right here, that seems to be simply kind of just standing there, staring at the wall, banging its head rhythmically against it. Oh, I don't like that. Boom, boom, boom. I've seen that for an age, I'd be like, trots on over the car real fast. Hey, Kara, what the fuck does it mean if your little skeleton man is like banging his head on a wall? What? It shouldn't be in control of whoever the castor is. Well, the castor is making him butt his head on the wall, just un-rhythm. Let me see. She walks over to take a peek. It sounds like a 120 bpm. She just looks at it and just turns to you and mouths the words, what in the ever-living fuck? Sure, where's that going? Oh, God. This is why I ask you. I need to see something real quick if the echo needs to make a check, so it's not worked, because I... Whatever it is, it... No one would order it to do this, or they might be insane. They did say that they dumped their failed experiments down here. Oh, right. Perhaps this was their attempt at an autonomous skeleton. You can see her eyes widen a bit. They're trying to recreate my research notes. Maybe that's why Lazo was always so shocked and surprised when you had a page before. It would have seemed of value, but if I had fallen the wrong hands, I would assume that he would be a little bit upset about that. Yeah, so he's probably just trying to copy your homework. Poorly, by the looks of it, the skeleton continues to bang its head against the wall. Do you think this is something we can sneak by, or is this something we're going to need to put down? I apologize, but this is beyond my area of expertise. I have an idea. Hold on, let me look at my inventory. I don't think I have anything. I have a vial of perfume. I'm just going to go over here, and I'm going to hug the wall over here, and then I'm going to chuck the perfume bottle lightly over this way. Towards that tunnel and see if I can get the thing's attention by doing that, just like the clatter, maybe getting its attention. Okay, Kara lets you do so and starts the head back. I'll continue to heal your father. Try your best not to come to me every time you stub your toe. I did not stub my toe. She's just like, as Kara's walking away, I'm sorry that he happened to get stabbed by your sister. Alright, so you toss the perfume bottle. It clinks against the stony, kind of raggedy floor, just ding ding ding. And you can see the bone golem turn its head, but continue to bang. Now its skull just kind of on its side on the wall, looking in that direction. Oh, okay. So just like it looks back at Luna, like short shoulders, like it's not moving at all. You could very easily test if something can go by without anybody getting cut by just send the echo that way. Okay, just try it. Alright, yep, the echo, it's not Echo Dad anymore. Keep wanting to call it Echo Dad. It's not Echo Dad anymore. It's not Echo Dad, it's Echo You. Echo. This is you. This is you. Oh, god damn it, no. You're exactly where you're supposed to be now. Oh, I don't even have to go. I have to go into trance to do this because it's close enough. Echoes just kind of start walking along. I didn't say anything about if it makes stealth checks or not, but I think we've ruled that this is an object before. So if you want to rule that this thing has to roll stealth, that's cool. That is if you are choosing to stealth. I think she'd make an effort to, yeah, still have it be quiet. I'm not trying to get the things attention, but if it notices the echo. You roll me a stealth then. It'll be a healthy experiment. Yeah. Well, my stealth is at disadvantage. As I wear chain mail and I'm pretty sure that extends to the. Okay. I don't know why that. I don't know why that rolled four times. Oh, wait. Oh, 21. Yeah. 21. Okay. Damn. The echo moves silently across kind of in the semi dark cavern. And it doesn't seem as though the bone golem has taken notice. Okay. It'll leave echo there because it can't go much further away from me until without poofing unless I look through it and then I can't move. So. Yeah. It doesn't seem like it's noticed it. Well, that's a good sign. If you want to switch places for me and take the head just in case it does. I mean, I try to scoot up a little bit more and then see if it wants to poof you. First, if your ghost makes noise, if it's further enough away from us and we're hiding, it'll probably just attack the echo. And then we'll know for sure. Yeah. It will attack things. Luna's going to like gaze around you as Shelby is trying to measure and make sure that it's not. Right there, maybe. Like if you go there, then echo might be able to go here. Yes. Just let me in front of you, please. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Just put another hand and sort of like that. Um, yeah. And I'll just have both my swords out just to be ready and I'll have echo actually take a step closer, not being stealthy and see if it. Okay. The echo takes a step closer and the clink of your armor and sounds of the footsteps. The head turns 180 degrees as does the torso following right after and then the hips. Oh, God. And the legs kind of bend backwards to form knees and behinds now and its body is almost completely turned around. It roars, runs through the echo. So the echo is going to. Oh, it runs into the wall and it crumbles. Oh my God, that worked. It seemed this bone golem was incredibly fragile. What a nice job Luna. She just pats her on the back. It's just like that was amazing. Thank you for making terrible golems. And now I can see where they were failures. That was, huh? That was awesome. Did Mel here know? All right. Um, taking a gander, seeing that I can kind of get some sort of visual of what what stuff looks like in here. Um, which direction are we going? You want to go left, hold the light down up. This is a maze. In every maze, you must go left. Thank you, Mr. Robot. Uh, does everyone agree to go left? Just, just so you understand me, this is me trying to do Nathaniel's voice. Right. This is amazing. Yeah. There you are. Don't even worry about it. For all of, half a second. So we're sticking with the robot tonight. All right. I want to follow shortly after them. Okay. As I'm going to walk back to Kara. You're going to walk up to Kara? Yeah. All right. Is there something I'm going to ask her? All right. I have one specific question I want to ask you. I'll go on. You teach me something very simple, simple spell. Without looking from the wound that she is tending, what do you wish to learn? Make sure that it's something simple. A spell that would prevent somebody from dying the first time that they fall. And don't you already have healing spells? This is not about healing. It's about doing something to make it right. Ah, your friend. Hmm. She considers this for a moment and thinks. And when you, you would use this to prove to them about your consideration of necromancy, will you? Yes. Very well. She reaches into one of her pockets and pulls out a kind of slip of paper, writes down a few notes and holds out her bony hand. Expectantly for yours. He extends his mechanical handout. This spell is spare the dying. It will prevent, it will put whoever's been unconscious in a stable state so that no further harm can come to them, at least naturally. It will still need a proficient healer. But if you study this, you should be able to perform it relatively easily. Thank you. She goes back to healing Luke and kind of sit and mumble something under her breath. Didn't anticipate I would be getting any new students. There is, there's not a sense of hesitancy, just a solid appreciation for this. Also, Aaron, may you increase her volume just a tad? Yeah, incredibly quiet. I've bumped up to 200%. I'm sorry about that. And as there isn't hesitancy, there is just conviction in the eyes. And I'm going to make my way to the rest of the party. All right, congratulations. You now know spare the dying. All right. Sweet. So you guys are going left, is it? Yeah. Okay. So when you open the path to the left, you can see that there are various bones. I'll get to it. There are various bones as well as an elevated area, kind of a platform about 10 feet up, as well as various bookshelves, old molded and kind of worn out as well as a chest. And on top of the elevated area, you can see a twitching body. Now, I'm going to ask, does anybody have a problem with body horror? I don't have a problem with body horror, but this is... Oh God, this is just... Okay. Anyone... The actor just marathodied the entire sauce here. In the audience who may be triggered by body horror, I will give you a warning now and I'll let you know when the image is gone. You see a decrepit, malformed, humanoid body that seems to be standing on what looked to be burst ribs coming out of its chest and its spine coming out from behind it like a tail. Its arms shriveled up at the top. This is what it looks like. Oh, don't break it closer. Don't let me see more of it. What are you doing? That is horrifying. But that is also one of the most sickening designs I've seen. This looks straight out of Dark Souls I'm into. You draw this. I did draw this. Why? Why do you do this? The image is gone for any audience members who are triggered by body horror. You may return. I don't have one, but Joe. It was Ito. Joe K. Ito. It is not a face you are familiar with. It is not a face you are familiar with. Okay. I was just going to say like, you know, like in general, it's like the thing coming back wrong. Yeah. Yes. Is this too familiar a scene? Actually, yes. This looks like an extreme version of what you have seen. Luke creates. Whatever this was is like tenfold the kind of malformation of Luke's creation. Oh my God. Luke Fullmetal Alchemist is shit. Fuck. It's not equivalent exchange. She just steps back and has a hand on her mouth. You can see that it's standing there twitching. It's moving sporadically about its single spot looking around searching with various like occasional short screeches that seem to echo in that room. Is Renee like turned away from the scene? Yeah. She's turned away. She's got her eyes closed. She's just taking a very deep breath. Luna's going to come up beside you and put her arm around you, around your shoulder. Yeah. Fuck. Sorry. Enoch, you wanted to do something? I wanted to see if I could stealth into this room. You may if you so wish. All right. I wanted to ask before he ended. Let's see. To quote the DM for Merks of Mischief, you can play D&D as much as you want. Okay. I'll be 14. Let's see. All right. You move into the room quiet as a mouse as best you can. And when you do, unfortunately, your footsteps echo throughout this entire segment. And you see the body horror, which is what I'm just going to call it from now on. Turn to you and kind of angrily skitter its spiny. It's like rib cage legs on the floor. And I'm going to need everyone to roll initiative. It's not friendly. Dang it. Dang it. I was trying to get out hope. I was going to throw Kuro at it. Fine. It has. I guess I'll talk to Renee afterwards. It has hurt you, unfortunately. So. Okay. Okay. It's fine. He's fine. Fuzzy dice. Thanks, guys. Awesome. Oh, that makes sense. Is it time for Luna to rage today? I forgot to hit my avatar. I'll change it back to six. I'll change it. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll just consider it disadvantaged because Renee is having a punch in it again right now. Yep. All right. While this is going on as it screeches, you can feel a low rumbling. And I'm going to need Nathaniel to make a dex save. Oh, for the love of P. Wait a second. Yep. Wait a gosh dang minute. Okay. So with us with a seven, you let's see. Oh, no. You see the rubble above you come just a little too late. And as the ceiling kind of drops, you can see there is a little cave in and Nathaniel, you take 10 bludgeoning damage. Oh my God. Oh God. He can't handle that. A bunch of rocks fall and close in. Oh, shit. By notch. Holy shit. Okay. Error. Error. Wait, no. I might be able to get to him. I might be able to get to him. I don't think I have to see where my echo manifests. Well, I don't have to worry about noise anymore. And so now Nathaniel, it's your turn officially. Yeah. About that, Joe. Yeah. What do you do? What's this? What are you doing here? That's your problem. Not mine. It's my problem now. Do these does this rubble look like I can knock it over at all? Like, or does it look, you know, it definitely does look loose. Oh, it looks loose. Oh, so I got a rage and dig us out. That's what I'm hearing. Yeah. So perhaps somebody with a, with any amount of strength at all would be able to do something here. I'm the only one in the entire party with any strength. That's correct. That's correct. You know what? I'm going to hold my action to give Luna the help action when she tries to dig her way through this rubble. Very well. I appreciate you. There we go. All right. Awesome. Wow. I'm in so much pain. All right. That's my turn. Next. You're trapped in this room with this body horror as well as a bunch of apparently the bones on the floor have green moustaches now. Oh, oh yeah. Yeah. I put those in there because the terrifying monster creature was wigging me out. That's fair. No, it's so fucking cool. That's cute. Rapier away pulling out the pulling out the gavel and where's Coro? You may summon him if you so wish. I assume he's just with you. Because you summoned him. Remember, you de-summon him. Oh, yeah. So you don't have the materials, do you? No, he's just in my pocket right now. Okay. Which I'm pretty sure it's going to take an action just to drop her. So I'm not going to waste time on this. Let's see. I'm going to spend an action and cast haste so I can. So that way brings my at least my AC up. So if this thing tries to hit me and then I can't get it can't get up. So I well, I can't get I can't fly right now. So I am going to pull out the gavel and I'm going to spend my hasted action taking taking a shot at this thing. Okay. Okay. Show me the shot. 13 13 does not hit you fire. It goes you can see that this body horror moves with insane speed out of the way of the bullet. All right. Next is going to be the body horrors turn and it is going to screech at you and I'm going to need you to make a wisdom saving throw. It's great. Oh my God. No, it isn't. It's an eight. Ripping skit. Pinoch, you were feared by this. I don't think you needed to roll for that horrifying kind of abomination of humanoid shape and it is going to kind of leap on the ceiling, which is only a little bit higher. My God. And start skittering towards you. Oh my God. Let's see. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan. I'm not a fan. Simply comes here and drops down next to you. Like twice if you're dead. It's going to be a turn. I love it. Luna, your turn. Okay. Well, bonus action. I would like to rage. Please. I think I need strength checks. Luna, do you know what time for it? Because I'd like to start. Or you could say, you want to disrespect your surrounding. I'd like to start digging if this is loose rock. I want to start moving. Yes. You may with your advantage athletics check. Do you want to hear it? Simply kind of like hunt yourself. Shoulder barge. Yes. If you hold one arm in front of you, just angle to your shoulder and you burst through the rocks like a big explosion. To the other side. Do I still have my movement? You do. Yes. Running through. I'm coming through. I would say. Yeah. Sure. I can be right here. Yeah. Sure. That way I can give you knock a flank if he's using a melee weapon. But otherwise, I think that is my turn. Action, because action, bonus action. Yeah. Very right. Fucking hell. Next is Renee. I am not doing okay. Oh wait, I lost my rage because I didn't do damage. Wait, would you count shoulder damage to the wall? Would you count that as... I'm not sure if it qualifies because it's like you can only keep but if you do damage or take damage. Why did you rage in the first place? I forgot you were giving me the health option and I'm accepting my consequences. It says if your turn ends and you have an attack, they hostile creature. So I'm going to unfortunately count the rubble is not a hostile creature. Damn it. That's okay. I should have planned that out more. I haven't played a barb that much, so that's my good plan. I'm sorry. All this work. Why am I here? I appreciate you regardless, banana man. Renee, your turn. Oh God, I don't have a lot for this. I'm conflicted as a player. I don't know how well Renee is handling this but I guess what I can do is shoot it with my crossbow. All right, I'm going to say for flavor, you're going to shoot at it with disadvantage. Yes, give me that flavor. Hell yeah. Oh no. Give me that sweet, sweet flavor. Inherent fear effects. Yeah, there are stats for being afraid of a thing. Oh, I still do pretty good considering I'm afraid. 17 does not hit. Oh, darn. It simply skitters away and turns its head. You hear a slight cracking sound from the spine that holds it up. Oh God, is it looking at me? It is looking at you now. Oh no, Renee. Oh, Renee, baby, no. Baby, no. For flavor, I'm not moving. For flavor, I'm not moving. Nathaniel. Wait, did you miss? I did miss. I missed with a 17, my dude. Oh, great. Great. Scary. Okay. It's not great. I'm going to use a second level spell as I hold my hand out. This thing, I know it's the product of necromancy but maybe it's still got a little bit of heart left in it. Level two, sleep. Go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep. Go to sleep, go to sleep. How much sleep is that? That is... 25. That's 32 total. 32. 32. If it is undead, it's immune. So here's the interesting thing. Okay. You cast sleep. Okay. And it does. Oh, it's a sleep. It falls simply to the ground. It's like kind of rib cagey legs, limbs. Just splayed out. It just falls, just twitching on the floor. It is asleep. All right. Fantastic. I'm going to readjust my coat, calmly walk up to it. And while it's asleep, I'm going to start poking around. I'm going to look it over. Poke it around. All right. Give me an investigation. Oh my god. This thing's gross and creepy. This thing's gross and interesting. Why would something make this? What causes a body to look like this? It just seems like the outcome of equivalent exchange or some shit. I'm so curious. This is my 19. Looking over this thing, you can see that it's warm. Ooh, it's alive. You can see its flesh is warm and that there are black veins protruding from its fingertips and eyes. Very similar to how a necromancer would look after casting a spell. No hate on your description, but what fingertips? You can look at the handout again. You can see that its hands are kind of like splayed. Sorry. It's crawling on its ribcage. Trying to be a smartass. Sorry. I forgot that its hands were wings. It's easy to forget. It still has its own two legs, which makes it worse. Are we still in initiative? Actually, no. We're not because it's slept. You're out of combat for however long a minute is, which I will be pretty generous with what you guys wish to do because I'm assuming you're working quickly. Am I still in fear of it? Actually, over time, you would just naturally roll because it's every six seconds. So that's 10 turns. I would say you would naturally, eventually, the fear would go away. Whatever you're looking for, Nathan, you'll look for it now because I'm about to kill this thing. Same here. I think I've found everything that I need to. Okay. I'd like to start by killing this thing, please. Wait before you swing. Make sure everyone attacks at the same time for it will wake up if you don't kill it in one blow. Would this be considered surprise? I don't actually know, but I do know that it's an auto crit. Okay. Advantage auto crit. Right? It's incapacitated. Incapacitated, right? Yes, incapacitated. Surprised is not a condition in 5e. Surprised is around. Yes. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Well, actually, that's not exactly true. Surprised is a condition but only at the top of the round. Yep. Okay. So technically, you're restarting initiative and whatever it would get or like whatever it does have, it doesn't get its turn. But if you so wish, whoever wishes to attack may attack. And I will just consider it all at the same time. I have two attacks. I have two attacks. Actually, technically, I have three because I'm saying... 21. Because it's prone, right? It is prone. 21. Okay. I have a new one because I've named my flametongue now. Okay. Nice. Wrath. I like Wrath. Yeah. If you hit, it's automatically a crit. Yep. It is automatically a crit. Oh, do I need to roll extra dice then? Yes. I'll just double... 27. I'll double the damage that you deal. Okay. That's one. So, let's see. That's nine. Yeah, it dies. So, it only takes one... It's dead. It only takes one swing from Luna, that 21, that you swing it and just... This thing is very frail. You swing it, you hear a bunch of crunches and a viscous black fluid just burst from it. And it twitches and stops. The body horror is dead. As soon as that thing is dead, I am making a key line for Renee because she's not okay and I need to check on her. I am going to take my gloves off and start to peel this thing around. Gross. I want to look at it. I want to look at everything about it. Okay. Luna and Renee first. I don't want to get my gloves dirty. Renee. I know this story will do last time, so I make my presence known before I put a hand on your shoulder. It's dead. It's dead. It's dead. Okay. Okay. Okay. Fuck. I'm sorry. No. Don't be sorry. It's okay. It's okay. It looked like her. It looked like her. Hmm? I told you before. Look what I want. I can't see. And I saw it. She... She like... She wasn't thinking. It's like she... Like her mind was going like a mile a minute and then she was like realizes what you took mean. And her arm just like goes from like a hand on your shoulder to fully around your shoulders and she kind of pulls you a little closer. This time like because it's like she's aware of it. It's like, okay. She's a little bit more just... The initial shock was a lot, but she's just like, okay. That's what they mean by failed experiments. Great. Great. Fuck. Can I... Can I do anything? Anything to help? I can send the echo ahead to look before we even go around corners so you can be prepared. No, that's about as much preparation as I'm going to get. Now that I know that those are down here. Don't turn around. She just nods. She just nods. Will you... Will you be okay here while we search the room? Do you want me to stay with you? I'm fine. I'm fine. Go look for all I know. I saw a fucking chest in there. It might be another fucking mimic. That's the last thing we need right now. Okay. If you need anything, just call. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Of course. And she kind of gives you a slight squeeze in a half hug and then she walks back. Okay. Meanwhile, go on. Oh, sorry. No, no, no. You finish. I was going to say, as her arm leaves, Bernay's hand probably just kind of follows it until the tips of the fingers are like... Aw. She can then just upright seal it back. Yeah. Aw. Yeah. Meanwhile, Nathaniel, you're peeling this body like a banana. And... Yes. That's what it's like. Yeah. He pees everything. You can hear Enoch real a bit. Okay. And you can see that in place of blood, it is that same kind of black viscous thick fluid that has pretty much replaced all blood in this body and just kind of various different portions of it. You can see that there are just a few like hypotheses notes in its pockets about testing true resurrection and various different kind of methods of the like, trying it with less jewels than is needed, trying it with more jewels than is needed. And when apparently from the notes, as you can tell, apparently tell, this researcher ran out of subjects and decided to use themselves. Whoever was apparently with them is nowhere to be seen. Yeah. It's very interesting, Enoch. I didn't expect my sleep to work. Yeah. And do you know what that means? It means that this creature was alive, which also means it was alive when this transformation occurred. You want to know what I, you know, in my head, the worst possible like actual horror in my mind is like to visually see that kind of transformation. I don't even want to imagine it. That is bad. And I'm just going to walk into the room and I'm going to start climbing up. All right. You can play with that. I'm going to go play with this. This tells me two things. In the spine of death, the one led by Laszlo is desperate. And we need to find him quickly. Yeah. Because Murth's Ascension is soon. And if they fail, well, I turn over the head of the creature a bit. Oh, don't do that. It's just hanging loosely. Are you going to look at that chest? I'm going to poke it with the end of my gun to see if it does anything. You poke it and it feels like wood. It feels like wood, touches like wood, texture like wood, must be wood. I'm going to open it. All right. You creak it open. And inside you can find that there are six vials containing thick black liquid, very similar looking to the one that came out of the body horror. A little glass vial. Well, that's just not useful. I take them anyways. I'm going to take all the vials and. You know, can you check what's on the shelves before you come back down? Yeah, sure. May I look at whatever is on the shelves? You may. You browse them. You see that there are various books that they are all completely soiled to the point that whatever ink was on them has just completely seeped into the parchment. A lot of them torn, a lot of them worn out. It seems a few of them have like holes poked through them as if purposefully with sort of bladed weapon of some sort. However, you do find one sheet of paper that contains language that you've never seen before, not language. You don't understand language. You've never seen before. Oh, we could put that to the test. I know a Bissell Celestial Common Elvish. It is a language you've never seen before. Okay. That's fun. Yep. That's not accurate. Let me stress this. Not just a language you don't understand, a language you have never seen before. You know how like we as English speakers don't understand Japanese, but we know it, right? And we can know it when we see it. But we don't know the, you know, the tongues of Cthulhu or whatever. Whatever this is, you don't know what this is. Oh, that's even worse. And I'm all like, okay. It is very symbols. A lot of them are ruined in a similar fashion to the rest of the books molded over, torn and just dampened by the humidity of this place. And same thing for the bookshelf over here. A lot of ruined books, but you do find that. Oh, God. It's like trying to understand Cyrillic. Okay. Okay. Well, fold the piece of paper into a quadrant. All right. And then I'm going to slowly make my way back and I'm going to give the piece of paper to Nathaniel as he probably is a lot better at taking care of us. I hold out my hand, which has the black Icar on the fingertips before I stop myself. Clean yourself, please. I'll take a handkerchief out. Wipe that and looking back down upon this mess. I'll put my gloves back on before I take the paper. Okay. There you go. Find the same thing. It is not a language you have ever heard of before Nathaniel. I also found these files of. Gross. More trials of necromancy. I assume we should probably we should. We should take care. This monster here is most likely not the first or it is not the first. It is most likely not the last we'll find here. This researcher had done experiments on other people for. Yeah. I don't favor that kind of idea, but. I was trying not to spend too much time here any longer than we need to. Yes. He said. It for my sake, we need to move faster. Very much. All right. Which path shall you take now? I wanted to try and look down both these paths before. All right. I can reveal more of those pads. Yeah, just. I imagine while Enoch was off investigating books, I was just. I was just taking time. So down this way, you can see that it forks again into two additional pads. And then to the right, you can see that this path leads into another room that has kind of elevation going down. And you can see that there is another body horror down there as well. There's another one. Cool. You can see that this room is a little less decrepit than the last one as the bookshelves are more kind of still in one piece. More or less. It seems that some of it may seem salvageable. There's another one in there. I can go in and take it out and we can go investigate as a chest in a couple of shelves. I mean, I could just take it out with a good shot. I can do it quietly. All right. All right. Sorry, but your tools are impressive, but they're loud. We're trying not to make our presence new. That is true. That is very true. Looks over at the rubble on the side. Right. Sato. Yeah. Very good at Sato. This place seems like it's falling apart. I'm sure that's normal noise here. Before you do that, I would like to check this next area ahead of us. Just in case the noise attracts something that we don't expect. Of course. Do whatever you wish. Which way are you checking? Rise and shine, Mr. Freeman. Rise and shine. Left or the right? What's in? Oh, I just want to look down these holes. I just want to see in case something tries to sneak up on us. Understandable. And let's see. You are able to see down the right path and the left path. Oh my God. There are so many more. I have so many more mustaches to draw. Down the right path, you can see that there's some kind of visible kind of green mist in the air, as well as a few more of the body horror skittering about. You can see it looks like they're fighting amongst themselves, just holding their ground. And it seems that they are very hostile towards each other. Kind of jittering and scattering at the suddenness movements of each other as if animals holding their territory. This one seems to be gnawing on this bone golem just scratching at it. The bone golem seems unfazed. This is my life, okay. I've long said to set that this tumor that is now on my leg. Wait, so I have a question then. Yep, go on. If there were there were these guys down here, but we fought something up here and made a lot of noise and they didn't come after us. It does not seem so. Okay, well, that's reassuring. There are more mustaches, but I doubt that they are going to be a problem. Feel free to slay that beast. Okay, I'll be right back. All right. Do you wish to self in that room, Luna? Yes. This is going to be fun because I'm always disadvantaged I think. Okay, don't be. It's a chain mail guy. Ching, Ching, Ching, Ching. Well, there's... Oh my God. She said 23 instead of... I wish. I wish. This would find a new session. Knock on wood. Maybe. Okay, yep. With a 23, it does not seem to have paid you any mind. It just seems to be eyeing this chest over here. Looking at it, just staring. All right. I want to try to do this quick and... You do have advantage. Coming in like the Grim Reaper. All right. Yeah. That's a good solution. That didn't hit. No. Wrath. Wrath. Wrath. Wrath. Your first swing just goes just a little bit. It looks like it's about to hit. Oh, and it's a bonus action. I lit it up. Sorry, so it gets the bonus. All good. It gets the bonus damage. The first attack looks like it's about to hit, but you see it move at... Super natural speed out of the way. Screeching at you. And the second one, just slice it. It's head clean off. It takes no effort whatsoever. And it just falls to the floor dead. Oh, it's grody. Okay. I want to try and kick its body off to the side. Just get it out. Yeah. We're nays, direct line of view. Like, this is a descent, so if I can just get it up again, one of these things, so Renee gets it in her vantage point. It is surprisingly light, especially for its size. I think I'd like to open this chest with my... one of my swords. All right. I guess just like tap the lid. You put the tip of the sword kind of in the crevice of the chest, and you creak it open. And it seems safe. Okay. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. You look inside and you find a very old, but as if someone has tried their best to keep it kind of as pristine as possible, kind of like those worn out things in museums, what looks like a map of various continents on a globe, but not of the lustrous expanse. The language is equally foreign to you, not resembling any that you've seen, similar to the paper that Enoch and Nathaniel found. I have a question. So I feel like this might take a survival check for me to figure out, and that's totally fine, but based on the path we've traversed so far with like the big entrance and then the two side rooms in the crossroads, does this look like it might be a map of this dimension we're in and maybe I can find where we are on it? It doesn't. It looks like a world map. Oh, shit. A map of some kind of globe with continents, but it's not like it's not the world you're from. Okay. This is interesting. I don't think Luna knows anything about multiverse, so that's fucking foreign to her. Look at this. It's just a bad map. It's a multiverse of madness, even. Nathaniel. Yes. You might find this interesting. No. And I'll hand him the map. I look at this map. I stare at it. I scan it. I examine it. I have absolutely no idea where this is. I don't either. Oh, um, I'm so sorry. I already left the room, but would I have been able to take a look at the shelves? Yeah, you would have. You notice that this chest is open and empty as if something was taken out of there. Inside the chest looks pretty clean, as well as the books. You can see that there are various kind of old, no longer, they are outdated spell books. You can see that there's various different spell books that are not the way you cast each spell, because you know it, because you've met spellcasters and know a little bit of spellcasting yourself. Various different like, oh, uh, flame hands turn, you know, uh, flaming hands turns your hands into flaming fists that allows you to punch people. And, you know, things like lay on hands allows you to develop more hands or, uh, lightning bolt is a ball that darts between targets and stuff like that. Inaccurate, you know, information. Whoever wrote these clearly did not know magic as much as they thought they did. Okay, so there's also a bunch of books written by amateur magicians that don't really contain correct information if that interests you at all. Uh, I will take these books and look through them. Yep, you can see that they're outdated from a couple, like, nearly 100 years ago, some of them. I'm gonna, like, specifically look for any charm spells. Or any of the, is any of the nonsense in these books, like, written properly? Are these possible in any way? Well, uh, even a broken clock is correct twice a day, so you do find some that are kind of like, along the line, it's like they got the right spirit, right? Like, uh, you find something like false life that does seem to show that it bolsters the vitality of the user. And as far as any charms goes, you can find that charm person incorrectly states that the person will fall in love with you after you charm them. Uh, you can find something like hold person incorrectly state that you're able to move them about, like a ragsaw, as if with telekinesis. I squint. And then I'm going to look at this map again. And I'm going to hold it out. I understand that we're on a time limit, but has anyone ever seen this place before in their lives? And I hold it out. Okay, um... If it's a map of the lustrous expanse, it is highly inaccurate. Can I make a history check? You can if so wish. Okay. Let's see what we got. Uh, 13. 13. Nope. This map is foreign to you. It doesn't if you could presume that this is perhaps another side of the globe, but this map seems to detail a large portion. If there is another side of the globe, the globe is larger than you thought. So... So question about just, I guess, about our world. Has there not, has there ever been like complete, completed maps of the world or are we not that far along? There is, yes, there are completed maps of the world. As far as the name of the continent, that is world-building stuff that I have not completed yet, but you do know that there is a map of the world. There are few places uncharted, but this map seems fully-charted. It's just a lot of it is faded, but the charted portions that have been sustained over whatever decay has befallen this map is not something that you recognize. So it doesn't look like any partial maps or full maps of the world. I may have said that. No, like it's like... It's like if you saw a random weird continent where North America would be if you looked at our map. I have a quick question. Where is the... where are the ice caps? Ice caps? It does seem to have pretty normal kind of cardinal directions as would be on a typical map north-south, east-west, from how it's charted. It is just labeled and cymbaled with a language that you do not comprehend. Okay. Interesting. Well, that being said, I want to see if I can start taking out some of these enemies. You may. I think Luna had one more thing she wanted to do. Oh, yeah. I mean, if that's where we're going. I thought I had a thought about the map and realized that it didn't make sense. Can I just stress? Quiet? Maybe just quietly? I have an interesting theory, but it's important enough to shut up. I don't think they're going to mind much anyways. You want to take the eight and I take the... I'll take the four? I'm sorry, what? Where are you pointing? All right. You take left and I'll take right. Okay. I will certainly try. I just love that. It's only because Enoch probably actually has a watch and Luna's probably never seen one. So she's like, what? It's right in four. I grew up in Yetzel. Excuse you? Yeah. I'm also somewhat of a soldier, so I guess. I used sundials. Strap them to the wrist. You should just looking up and being like, when you go over there, you can see the rest of this path and the fork continues down. Cool. Fun. Why did the music stop? The sake of like, could I ignite my sword before starting to step into the room so I can have my conversation? Also during that whole conversation, could I have Mended Crow at this point? Most likely. There's enough time for you to cast Mending. It's a cantrip. All right. Come on out. I will give you basically one round to do something before we roll initiative. Oh boy. I'm activating the Ring of Haste immediately before initiative. I do have a quick question before I make my decision. Is Absolution doing its Everything's Cold thing? No, Absolution. Ever since your meeting with the Raven Queen, Absolution has turned, has functioned like a mundane sword. Interesting. I mean, that's probably for the best if it was still getting called. I mean, absolutely flying around is a hazard. Okay, cool. And I'm just, I'm ready to do the Bap thing. So this is actually where a surprise round would happen. So we're going to roll initiative, but basically you guys are going to do each of your actions first before the enemy will have a chance to do any of theirs. I'm back, Bibi. Renee has kind of resailed back. Back on with the five guys. Oh no. That's a whole lot of guys. You can't beat that. Oh. Oh, Nathaniel. The cold is getting to Nathaniel. I'm doing my best. Oh my God. Renee's the only one that's like, okay. I love that she's so not okay, but she's apparently ready for this. She had her, she had a moment. I don't know how many more she's going to have. Okay. There's a lot more than I was expecting. I'm trying to kill them all before he's doing my promise. So the first one on the round is going to be Renee. Ironically enough, I would follow Luna. One, two, three. That's 15. And I can see them by now, yeah? I'm just going to shoot this big old guy with my crossbow. Okay. Shoot the big guy with the crossbow. Do I want to have the flavor disadvantage? Am I still... How does Renee feel? She's not okay, but at the very least she knows that they're coming now. It still does not sit well with her at all. She's still like, oh God, she's basically fighting the instinctual wanting to run away. And I will leave that to your discretion. I think my question is, is this an incline? It is a straight drop of 10 feet. Can Renee even see this guy then from the incline? I can move closer. Can you see the horror and not the big tall golem? I was trying to make the argument that you can't see this little skittery fucker. I would say she could probably easily see it or perceive it from its sounds. That's valid, that's valid. I'm going to say that she's still at disadvantage. It's going to take a little while before she's okay with it. Just for flavor's sake. I got you. I'll make up for you. Oh my God! Okay! Disadvantage is going to jack shit! Did I hit the golem? You did hit the golem. You fire it, it just lodges into kind of his skully head. Fall damage, baby! And he turns to you and roars. So much of being easy to kick its ass. And this roar it's not going to affect you guys but you do hear a little crumbling kind of off in the distance and some more rubble falls from the ceiling. Please, please, Joe. Right there. That's fine. Over where we were before. That's fine, we already looted there. We already went there. You're late, dude. Next are the body horrors who with surprise turn so they don't get to go. Yay! So two attacks plus a hasted attack. I'm going to start with this guy first. Can you see all of them? From where you are? I would say at that angle you can't see this third one. Yeah. This one down here. That's like too steep of an angle and that's 10 feet down. Okay. And also where's Kuro? That is for you to decide. You have control over the Kuro token in your journal. My journal? Yep, you may drag Kuro onto the thing. Kuro right there for right now in case he needs to do something green. All right. Three shots. Where's the first one going? To this boy. All right. 19. Yep, that's going to hit. Okay, and then damage is 15. Yep, it crumbles. It's very fragile. Okay. And I'm going to take five feet across and fire down the lane way right here to this guy. Fired. And then I'm missed. And then I'm missed. You did miss. You missed. Fired again for my hated attack. I totally forgot about this. After you kill this body horror you can see it burst into a black liquid and the black liquid seems to float in the air into this one. Oh, that gets stronger. That's so interesting. Oh, I hate that. So I'm going to give this one a little hit. With a 22, I'm assuming it hits. Let me see. Hold on. I have a separate stat sheet for when it has to get higher too. No, that does hit. Show me the damage. Okay. I know I should have said I wanted to Well, I wouldn't know anyway. So yeah, so might as well. Okay. Then I'm fired. You fire it and it goes through. You can see it seeps some of the black liquid, but it's still alive. Kuro, bark at it. Okay, so force cannon Kuro for strike 30 feet. And he has a plus four. Let's see if it. Oh my God. She's great. Yep, that hits. All right. York York. All right. And then the damage is going to be a lovely 1d4 plus two three three. Nice. Could be worse. I actually know it couldn't. That's the lowest you could roll Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's as bad as it could get. Bjork, it could be worse. It could be Renee's unarmed strike. What? My unarmed strike hurts your feelings. Okay. Yes. Moral. Moral damage. Moral damage to your pride. The Bjork goes through. You can see the body horror shutters a bit, but screeches back at Kuro but Kuro whimpers. That is its turn. Or rather, it doesn't take a turn. Is there anything else you do on your turn? Okay. So all my actions. I don't think I really have much of a bonus action. Oh, I do have a bonus action. Expedious retreat. Yeah. Expedious retreat just in case something gets a little too it's a little too feisty. So I tap myself and now I can move as a bonus action with Dash. Alright, cool. Luna, your turn. Okay, so I'm trying to figure this out and I'm pretty sure to long jump it's up to my strength mod or my strength score, how many feet I can clear, at least according to roll 20. So this might be really dumb, but also it could be cool. I don't know, Laylor has a lot of luck with this, so let's try it. I want to take five steps back because I have to do 10 feet to do this and I want to try and jump on this golem. Okay. I'm going to say so I have a rule where I like to consider athletics going up and acrobatics going down because you're trying to land. So give me an acrobatics to see if you land on the bone golem. Okay, let's try this. Nice. Nice. That's a nine. That is a nine. How many 20s am I going to go tonight? Listen, this is your night, baby. Let's go. You land over here and let's see you take a little bit of fall damage because it's 10 feet. That's okay. I tried, I sort to, what is it? Sort to close to this guy. You take two falling damage and you land right. You kind of like fall on the golem but then like slide off just right down here. Okay. You can feel each one of its bones on the way down. Yeah, that's your movement. That's a movement thing. Okay, cool. And that was only 20 feet, I think. Unless you want to count my fall and like that Well, no. You fell. That does not count for your movement. You don't suddenly stop falling after you reach 30 feet. Okay, well then just for optimize I'm not losing. You may. Yeah, and then I think it's just gonna be time to take some Bapity Baps. Take some Baps. Hell, yeah. Well first, bonus action Echo please. Just get over there. Get over there, Shadowland. Not there. Right here. I don't know if that counts to flank for anybody but it doesn't matter because I'm not going to use that anyway. I would like to start smacking. Let's work on big guy first. Big guy, alright. Big man on campus. Yeah, big man on campus because I don't want head-charging grenade. Oh. Unfortunately not. That's not gonna hit. You've swing and kind of against the bone. It is pretty sturdy. Wrath. 21 against big guy. 21. Okay, you slash into it with Wrath, your flaming sword. You've cut a big chunk of the bone off of the golem and it kind of singes it a bit. Unfortunately I'm gonna need you to make a constitution saving throw. Oh, what? 23. Okay, you're fine. You feel a ringing within just like inside your body as you strike this bone golem kind of a shuddering kind of as if you were a bell and you were just struck by a long sound from inside your body however you're able to stave it off whatever it is. Okay, and it's still up? Yep, it's still up. Unleash Incarnation to take one last attack at it. Okay, okay. I didn't have that, but that's fine. Absolution one more time, 19. Yes, 19's gonna hit. And once again, constitution saving throw. Oh God. 19 for the Echo. You feel... Oh for the Echo, yes. You can kind of feel it from the Echo coming back to you that same feeling as if you were struck, but you're fine. What the hell is that? What does it mean? I don't know, but I guess yeah, it's my turn, movement, action, and photos. Yep, I'm done. Nathaniel. Sorry for taking such a long turn. Bring it on. Okay. These guys over here, they're a problem. These guys over here, they're also a problem. Me? I don't have solutions. But you are fine. Actually, that's not true. I'm gonna wander over to this one, to this side. I'm gonna help out with my boy Enoch, since it seems like Luna and Renee have got massive bone men over there dealt with. I'll wave my hand. I'll toss out... I'll wave my hand. I'll toss out another sleep. It'll be second level, because we're extra today. Oh. Second level, okay. We're getting very extra. And you're gonna try to catch both? I'd like to try to catch both, but the way the spell works is it's gonna hit whichever one has the lower amount of health. And then subtract whatever's left. Yeah, and then that'll go to... The one down here, it falls asleep. However, the one up top is still up and ready. Makes sense. After putting that boy in defense mode, I'm gonna walk the fuck away. I did my job. One is dead. You're welcome. Next is the top of the round, and the surprise round is over, Renee. Oh, boy. I'm trying to save my spells, because I have no idea what's coming up. I trust nothing. So... You know what? I'm gonna shoot at this boy again. All right. Still flavored, because why the fuck not? Let's go flavor. Oh, no. Flavor failed. Oh, please don't tell me Renee shot me. Don't say that. Don't suggest it. Don't suggest it. Fine. Or in the worst case, I hit the thing that I'm afraid of, because I made it for this guy. Shot me. Okay. I did a little on-the-fly severity rolls, and you do hit the echo. And the echo bursts. You know it's better than me. It's fine, Renee. Renee just goes, fuck. Shake your head. Anything else you want to do, Renee? Um... Good. I am so stingy right now. I don't want to use anything. I don't want to. That's a smart move. That's a smart move. Yeah. No, I'm holding on. Because stuff that I do have wouldn't really work well in this environment. Okay. I am going to keep a steady eye out. Next. The bone golem is going to stare into you, Luna. You can see that its eye sockets glow kind of a bright green light within it. I'm going to need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Oh. Renee. 19. You are fine. However, this gaze that looks at you pierces into your soul. You shudder and take 18 necrotic damage. That's halved. Halved. That's right. You take 9 necrotic damage. And whatever additional effect has not had an effect on you. This body horror seeing the dots fly out from above is going to go and investigate. It does not disengage. Luna, you have an attack of opportunity. Yeah, and I'm going to smack it. Because fuck you. Smack it. You do not smack it. It's skitters, crawls up the wall and goes up to you, Renee. Oh, God. She might scream. It leans its head very close to your face and it is going to screech and I need you to make a wisdom save as well. Oh, fuck. I'm coming for you. I'm coming for you. 12. Okay. Renee, you are actually feared so you cannot move any closer to any creature. Listen, I don't want to be close to you anyway. I don't want to be close to you anyway. It got more close to personal anyway. Frightened rather, yeah. Yeah, that's fine. And this one is going to skitter on up. Let's see. It just made thematic sense. Yeah. It moves 40 feet, that ain't good. It normally would move 30, but now it moves 40. Skitters up. Oh, because it's bigger. It skitters up, goes to Kuro and it is going to take one of its kind of like rib legs and stab it. Okay. Does an 18 hit Kuro? Yes, it does. Okay. It stabs Kuro just you see sparks fly out as it lifts its rib leg and continue onwards to you. That's just me. And it's going to breathe out a fume out of its mouth. That covers. Let's see. Yeah, only you two. So both of you need to make a constitution saving throw. Oh no, not constitution. Well, it's a good thing. It's one of my better ones. No, no. 13 Nathaniel, you need to make a constitution saving throw. No worries. Very sorry. I was zoning out due to the sickness. But here I have succeeded in my con-save. You're welcome. I'm going back to my void. Okay. Nathaniel, you take two damage. Okay. You take four and you are now blinded. This stench just like covering just like in your lungs have make your eyes water. Yes. This is fine. Oh, that's so dirty. Wait, what kind of damage was this? Necarotic. Okay, make sure. Dirty. Does that mean that Enoch takes half? Yeah. But you are blinded. Oh, no. I didn't roll for Kuro. I mean, isn't Kuro dead? Well, we'll see. He has five hit points. He has like five or he has five because that's going to matter. He has five. Okay, well, he has two now. Okay. That is the body horrors and skeleton golem. You may roll another constitution save at the end of your turn. Oh, okay. Okay. I can't be blind fighting like this. Not with that kind of attitude. Yeah, well save. God, I wish I could transfer all my attacks on to Kuro. Okay. Even at a disadvantage. I knew it ran up to me, right? Yes. Okay. I'll call all my attacks with disadvantage then. I'm willing to accept the responsibility. So first one's so natural one. Do your thing that you got to do for your for your gun. Oh, yeah, that's right. God. This is what it's like. Okay, so it has to be so misfire is three. So I rolled a seven. All right. Okay. So that was your first shot. Next shot. First one's pretty solid. Don't jinx yourself. Okay, that one does hit. Yes, you fire the second one blindly in the direction of the body horror and it does hit and it blasts off one of its limbs. It is close to falling apart. All right. Let's go again. Go, go, go. Whatever you roll is even if it's above that it's going to. I got it. No, because that's that's a skill that I can only get after a short rest. So it just goes it's going to break. I have to spend a sleight of hand in order to fix it. Okay. Either which way Kuro, go Kuro, Bork Kuro Bork is my healthy dog. No, Kuro. Bork does not go off. Bork not enough. Bork not enough. Well then disengage. That is an action. So does expedites retreat allow you disengage as a bonus action? No, I don't think it does. Not disengage. You've used up all your actions. I really wish I could disengage. All right. It's fine. All right. I'm standing strong. This thing needs to go down. All right, Luna. My constitution. You can roll your constitution to see if you're no longer blind. Is it a constitution or is it or is it a safe? Constitution save. No. You are still blind. Now it's Luna. I have a plan. So first I'm manifesting my echo right here. Okay. And it's just going to stay there. I'm pretty sure I can do this and it'll still be within 30 feet of me. I am not disengaging. So this will provoke an attack of opportunity. But I want to follow that thing after Renee. And I believe it'll take 25 feet of climate. That is a 10 foot climb. So let's see. This is you. It goes to slam its fist but you're able to move out of the way. I start fucking wailing on this thing that came at Renee with a fucking fury. I'm not raging but... Go show me the wailing. Luna. 19 hits. Six slashing. And then wrath. 14 does not hit. However this thing is nearly fallen over. Just with that single slash. Damn. Alright, that is all I can do. But my echo is going to take an attack of opp at that thing if it moves closer. And I will be invoking Sentinel if it does so since I think I can because it's only one size category larger. Yes, it is a large rather than a gargantuan or whatever. Nathaniel, your turn. This thing is right next to you and tried to blind you. Yeah, that's not... Kill it, kill it, kill it, kill it. Why would I do that? It's gonna hurt me. It doesn't know what it did wrong. It's an abomination. That would be a mercy to kill it. It's a cheese. That is true. I can't abide this thing being so close to me. It might bother my cloak. Yeah, it might get that gunk all over you. Under normal circumstances I would project the image of something terrifying on somebody when I cast a dissonant whispers. Instead, I'm merely going to project the image of this creature onto this creature's psyche as I cast dissonant whispers. Oh, that's such a... Oh my god. Alright, and is that just damage or is there more to it? I forget what I'm saying. So if you fail, you take 11 psychic damage otherwise he'll take 5 and if you fail, then you have to use your reaction immediately to run the fuck away. Yep, and that's exactly what happens. It just starts to take its, like, rib arms, the front rib arms and starts to claw at its own skin and screeching. And it starts to run away and you both have attacks of opportunity. Ah, yes, me and my powerful weapons. I have a dagger. Oh, you have a dagger, okay. Actually, no, I don't. I don't even have a weapon to fight. No, you don't. You could just drop your gun. Actually, no, I could use the rapier. I thought you said you had it out. He put it away, but it's a free swapping weapons of free action. Curiosity compels me, I will stab. I still have objections, so pull out objection. Let's see what objection has to say about this disadvantage. Yeah, no, that's not going to hit. But the dagger hit. As this creature turns away, I'm going to grab onto my dagger and I'm going to swipe at it to cut a piece free. When the monster skitters away, I stop and I look at the slice that I've cut staring at this thing on the knife. May I see the damage on the dagger? No. It was so close to death that your slice cut it down and it falls. In that case, as it's running away, I'm going to turn my dagger, I'm going to stab it into the back of the neck and as it cries, I'll pull my dagger back and then I'll look at it. Yeah. Your dagger is covered in a little bit of the viscous black fluid as this thing it has been and you can see the viscous black fluid starts to travel out of it and it starts, it doesn't reach it but it's on the floor over here kind of about to approach the one by Renee. No. Renee, look out. The monster next to you is going to become more powerful. I don't feel any better at all. I'm going to wipe this my knife off on the monster because I don't want to wipe it off on me. Very well. Next, Renee, your turn. She is frightened of the thing so I can't get any closer to it. Can I attack this while I'm in proximity to the monster? Let me just look up. I think you will be disadvantaged because you can have this thing in your line of sight. That's how frightened works. Cool, so basically just keep on working with my flavor. Keep on your frightened of this in line of sight if you all your attacks are a disadvantage. Cool. I love it. This is perfect for my flavors. How does this condition wait too many times? It's the worst one in the game. Do you fight a lot of dragons? No, my DM is just a psychopath and puts this up against stuff from the far realm a lot. Actually, knowing the situation and the fact it's got worse and Nathaniel just said this thing is going to get more powerful. I'm sorry y'all. She's going to disengage. Oh no. Fair point. Step into the black. Step into the black. I don't know that. Listen, I know you said the black goo is there. You said it would become more powerful. I don't know not to step in it. Okay, that's fair. Maybe it's like the slug from Spirit to the Way. Evil will be gone. Evil will be gone smack. But no, if we're really worried, I can go there. Evil is defeated. 15, 20. I don't want to go too far from everybody and I still want to be able to see. She's not doing okay. This is probably the worst she's been. Oh no, it's fine. Play your character. I will kill this thing for you, Renee. She just looks scared out of her mind. Can't have our bard be upset. It can't be. Yeah, that's my turn. Actually, I can move 25. Be like up there. All right. Next are the body horrors. So the first thing that's going to happen is this bone golem is going to ram into the wall. Doom, doom, doom. Well, um, and reaction. The attack of opportunity. Oh, yes. Show me the attack of opportunity. That's a nice idea. Yeah, that's going to hit. It doesn't move. It doesn't move. It's about to move, but you chop it kind of in the tendon and it just stops it into the tracks and it is nearly about to fall apart. Cool. Sentinel. This body horror is going to try and move out of your range. Well, fuck. And if you use sentinel, disengaged doesn't work, right? But I've already spent my reaction. So I can't attack it because the thing sentinel does is that ignores disengages for attacks of opportunity. Right. Run for me, you coward. This one's going to disengage and move into the black goop. It's going to go to the goop. And the goop. Come back and fight me, you bitch. I wasn't coming over here. Sorry, I was just moving it so I could just take care of that. And the goop goes into it and it starts to slowly start to inflate its body is like morphing and bubbling. You can see there's bubbling underneath its skin and it starts to screech in panic. Ah, this is an inconvenience. Come back and fight me. Next, Inok. Oh, good. Hey guys, what's going on back there? Inok, are you still blinded? Yes. That might be for the best. Damn. All right. Well, the only thing I care really do as per actions is either make attacks or try something dumb. You want to know what? I still have an attack action for my haste. So I'm going to expend an action and I'm going to just start trying to blindly fix the gavel. Okay. So yeah, show me that sleight of hand. Okay. This blindness effect. That's a natural 20. I don't think, I don't know how blindness works on crafting. I don't know the first thing about crafting. I've never seen a check like this before. I would say that the old adage is you need to know how to build and unbuild your weapon blindfolded. I trust in that. You also built the gun. You know where the marks are. Congratulations, the gavel's fixed. Holy shit. Don't rob him of this natural 20. I don't know. I don't know what's behind me. So can I probably perceive the noise coming from behind you? The noise got a lot louder. Okay, well then I'm going to have Kuro act like my seeing the eye dog point me in the right direction. So he's helping you? Yes. Okay, so now your attacks are normal. At least your first one I'm pretty sure. Like help action only works for one attack, right? Yeah. And then I am going to also take a dead eye shot. I'm going to spend my second grit point and make that an advantage attack. Okay, cool. Okay. All right, let's see. Let's see where it goes. It was the first one. 17. That's nice. And the second one is 8. All right, that 20 said show me the damage. All right, here we go. Seven. That's enough. And this thing, you fire into it. You can see the bubbling skin. You puncture it and it explodes into a black like balloon pop. But nobody is within melee range. So everybody's fine. You can see that it splashes just like in a vicinity around it. As he's holding the gun like, like towards that channel area you can hear him say, did I hit it? Did I hit it? Yes. Awesome. Now I'm going to roll my saving throw to see if I'm blinded. Yep, 23. Yep, you are no longer blind. Let me take that off of you. You wake your eyes and see this. Oh, shit. That is nasty. Now it's Luna's turn. Okay, so Luna doesn't know about the thing in the other room so seeing that's dead I would just want to jump back down over here. All right. And just fucking wail on this thing this thing needs to die. Show me the wailing and you will have flanking because your echo is on the other side essentially. Plus two. So 17. 17, yep, that's enough. And yeah, that six damage is enough and it crumbles to pieces down to the floor. Congratulations. And that thing is sleeping so we're going to end initiative here. All right. Okay, I can dismiss. And I again going to... Combat is over. This body horror is slept. And I think Luna and Renee wanted to have a moment first. So we'll go to Nathaniel after. Sounds great. Just trying to calm her down which I assume will not take too terribly long after enough saving throws. I'll sync Coro in instead. Let them do their thing. Yeah. Renee is not dead. I hit the wrong button, I'm sorry. I walked over to you and you died for me. Right in front of you. She died of fright. Once again, Luna will make some sort of say your name or acknowledgement that she's there so she doesn't start with you. Yeah, fuck. Sorry, sorry. It's okay. You don't need to apologize. We're so fucking close and... Oh, this... This... This is the shit that's happening. Really? Really? Oh... God, the fucker. She like, actually kind of think that does like kind of turn her head back to where Luke is. Motherfucker. What do you... What can I do, Renee? It's just... It's going to take me a bit. Is there anything I can do to make it easier for you? Anything? Honestly, just... Making sure I don't get my ass handed to me. I mean, I'm glad to do that. And just... You... Seeing... You and Enoch and Nathaniel, it does register. It's just... I haven't tried to think about this for a while, and... Yeah. You don't need to explain your trauma, Renee. Your feelings are still valid. And... Just because we are where Nathaniel now doesn't mean that they should be pushed inside either. It's okay. We're close, yes, but we need everybody at our best so if you need to take a minute, that's fine. Right. She kind of like keeps a hand over her mouth a little bit. Like... It's like NFS, so she kind of like holds it up. Yeah, I might need a moment to just... Well, you were talking about taking a rest and it looks like we've cleared out this area here. I mean, I'll talk to the others just a second. Just stay right here, okay? Yeah. All right. This rubs rise. Thank you. Of course. Anything you need, just let me know. Okay? I will. It's a good shot, by the way. No. She's like kind of thinks one. It's the one on your ankle. Yeah. The fuck! The very least I didn't hit you so I'm grateful for that, but fuck! Yeah, it was a good shot. Just... That grinks a little bit back of the old Renee. She's like putting her hands up and up into the sky. I'm like... I wanted a good shot! Luna's got like a half grid on her face. She's clearly enjoying this reaction. Okay, so... She's honestly happy that she got you to kind of... Relax a little. In the meantime, Nathaniel and Enoch. Enoch, you sent in Kuro, yes? Yes. Now, as a homunculus, let me see... He is immune to poison. He is. And that will help. And you have... You take this whiff. It's a strong smell. And although it's not one that's familiar to you, you do recognize a little bit of what this smells like. It is poison. Which is why you are totally fine. I had a feeling. It was green. And green is the universal sign. Poison. In that case... I'm going to step in. I'll look at this broken down... bookshelf. You look in the broken down bookshelf and this looks like a lot of books that kind of seem more recent. Covers that are well kind of preserved. However, each and every single paper in all of those hard covers have been either ripped out or vandalized in some way with black ink covering the contents of it. And destroying your research even after demutilation. Unfortunate. And after approaching this thing. So this spell does not work this way. I am wondering if it is allowed to work this way just for cool factor. But I am perfectly fine with you saying no because this is not what this spell does. I have encode thoughts. I was wondering what would happen if I tried to pull out a memory of somebody else. Namely James. I named him James. Pull out the memory. Yeah. So encode thoughts normally allows me to pull out my own thoughts and read them. And just like see them. Like visually look at them. It is fine if you don't want me to do that. I'm just curious. I would say no on account that that sounds like something so specific that there's probably a spell that does allow you to do that. But I think actually there is one sec. It's called the tech bots. I actually have that. In that case, detect thoughts. Well, I don't have that. No worries. I actually have the tech bots. So can Kuro kind of paw at this chest to see if it moves? It seems like a simple chest as any. Pawing at it. And inside you can see that there is a rusty iron sword that looks horribly corroded down to about half its blade. Like it's almost as if it was just eaten away at the blade all the way down. And as well as what looks to be an equally corroded leather tunic that seems to be folded very nicely as if it was put away like laundry. Well, he can only carry one thing in his mouth at a time. So he's just going to do a slight towards Nathaniel saying there's stuff in here. Yes. Enoch, could you do me a favor? Yes. Shoot this creature, please before it wakes up and eats me. Okay. I'm taking a deep breath going to hold my breath while I walk into the room. I'm going to do some quick maths. I would say getting there is enough to see it because I'm thinking in terms of because how this works is in combat whenever you are in the poison you take three minus your constitution modifier at the end of every turn but one turn is six seconds so if you're able to get here and then end out here within one combat thing which we're not going to roll initiative for that is 30 feet. Keep in mind I'm hasted and I still have my hasted action my hasted well and expedious retreat which means in a single movement I could go 90 feet. You can go pretty much up here and then back if you wanted to let's see if your shots can destroy this sleeping body horror. If you take a deep breath fired with advantage wait is it actually no it's proven in your range so it's actually it is advantage is that how that works? Yes but it's also unconscious so it's normal. Okay so it's normal. Yes an 18 will hit this will auto crit. Actually I'm not sure if that happens with range but it's an auto crit that's 40. Yeah it's still 20 damage. Jesus Christ let me check to make sure unconscious makes you incapacitated any attack that hits you has a critical hit if the attacker is within 5 feet. If the attack I would say well 90 feet is enough to get within yeah you've got 90 feet of movement yes a simple shot just it crackles a little bit and you can see that the black viscous liquid falls kind of at at the floor at the base of this creature and it has nowhere to go so it stays there. Yeah just pow how unfortunate I'm gonna search this thing a little bit. You're Mr. Krabs running noise. Yeah After I hear the shot presumably don't hear screaming so I think that's enough to assume it's dead and can I just call down that we need to take a short rest and kind of gesture my head back in Renee's direction like she's not okay. Yep I'm in agreement with this. That might not be how do I get up how do I get above this? It's not with an auto it's necessary for us it's necessary for Renee. I understand however it might not be necessary. Well she asked for a moment I am allow me to talk to her. And I could definitely use some of that short rest and because I need to refocus my head on a few things. Oh never mind I need to get my marksman and stuff back. I could also benefit from just having a few minutes we're going to keep going it just seems more productive tend to all wins Never mind. I checked what I was going to do it's not going to work. I suggest if we rested over here where there's alcohol there was a cave in but we already know that room's barren. Unfortunately I don't think it would be a good idea. I understand that Renee is in a difficult place I know. Well let's put it to a group vote then. I must remind us I must remind you that we're here on a rescue mission. I know but we also need to be at our best for this rescue mission and that includes mentally. I agree Renee should be here for this conversation I have a temporary solution Follow me She's over here Don't exactly want her mingling around the corpses of these things any longer than she has to Disgusting Hi She's probably like was having a little bit of time of deep breath and then here's everybody walking her body posture changes and she tries to pump up her chest You aren't okay No but I can I just this I wasn't expecting these she just gestures at the body of the thing they are familiar to you I understand If you are willing then I might have a temporary solution I can charm your mind to subdue suppress the uncomfortable feeling that you have it will only last for a minute but it will get us out or through these creatures I won't do it without your permission Renee actually kind of does think on that for a second and she'll nod and say I trust whatever you're planning to do Nathaniel is it worth expending resources? Yes fast but we also need everything we can there's a lot of factors we don't know we don't know what stage math is in and we don't know about this enigmatic figure the following You're correct we don't know which means that we should assume the worst I will be fine I wouldn't suggest it if I was unable to use my magic but Kuro should scout ahead ensure that there are no more of these monsters so that we don't simply run into another problem not an hour we cast the spell and then we move forward but first I simply want Kuro to check because after a minute the spell will wear off if these are the only creatures here then it's simple but if there are more and the spell ends prematurely well this will be the better recommendation let's send Kuro first see if there might be anything and then it would be better to send a command to see if he'll if he sees anything and when he returns he'll bark as many times as there are enemies that are visible that is acceptable alright that's what we're doing then then let's cut the time even further just three casts right three casts to check I'm asking as I look at this I only saw two yeah there's two more in that room there are four there's one in the poisonous room as well well then then Kuro can go down one side and my Echo can go down the other he can go about a thousand feet from me if I concentrate on it it'll cut off time alright then I can just see through it okay sounds like a cell phone okay is Kuro affected by poison? he is not he is immune to poison perhaps you should go into the poison room then I'll take the other way alright are you able to see through Kuro? I can't see I can't see through Kuro but the command is that if he sees anything that is a possible threat he turns he will bark alright I would say yeah and where are you sending Echo? I am phasing into Echo's senses so for that purpose Luna up here is blind and deafened going into the avatar yep yep and I am sending Echo I think down this one first okay so down that way you notice that this way these two ways are actually one way that intersect into each other there is an open chest and a few more bones and various sheets of paper and books strewn about the floor kind of haphazardly time to get my mustache on okay seeing that it will move the other way then alright and in the other way you can see that there is down here another poison room I need to actually with three body horrors that are just kind of standing standing off still like statues only with the slightest twitch of their head at kind of the drippings and crumbling sounds throughout the cavern and three chests okay I am just checking something really quick about my Echo because it is kind of weirdly written I am just seeing if my Echo has to make it is immune to all conditions so I don't know it can't be affected by the poison I would say it can because poison is not a condition well it is but not this poison this is more an environmental thing that if it makes any saving throws it does it with yours same size as you it just says it has one head point in immunity to all conditions if it doesn't have immunity to the poison damage type it will still take poison yeah then it can't enter that room without it disappearing so that's where well would it be able to get right here and try to peer further down that hallway hmm what's your passive perception my passive ain't great passive perception I believe is 10 10? yes no that's as far as you can see yeah well then if that's the case I'll dismiss Echo and come back to my senses you've scouted out and Kuro when Kuro arrives back Kuro barks three times except one of the barks is a loud bark like a rah oh big bork really huh so these two paths as like she's pointing I imagine like she'll stand here and like point these two paths connect there's a bookshelf and phones that place had poison I couldn't get too far down but there were three of those things in there and in the path ends two chests sorry okay as far as Kuro is aware the path going further down leads to three more enemies and apparently one of them is a big one it's as I feared if if we can move past these dead creatures I can still cast the spell so that you will be capable during the next bout if you so choose knowing that you're willing to do that actually it's just alone and it's comforting I just ironically enough it's actually making me want you to not use it more because if there are more of those things I want you to be able to defend yourself too so fuck I am perfectly safe Renee because you're here she smiles and nods and just she'll let you do whatever you decide to do my face portrays no emotion only sickness yeah but she'll she'll basically just give like an out of approval of like do what you do what you need to very well but we should do it past these right yeah no let's just go ahead forward because we don't want you to have this beautiful moment and then fuck it up by wasting it I assume you guys are going down the path that doesn't start with poison earlier on yeah I don't know how far that poison goes also I wanted to know if anybody had anything that could negate poison I know it doesn't affect you that much I don't unfortunately I can't dispel it or push it around well perhaps we should well there are three down there if I turn on the lights I can get more damage in time and I think there may be a simpler solution is there anything in the way between this hallway and the room nah so we just goes right in and then the kind of group together but they're all still it's weird in that case I can simply lure them out and then once they're out of the poison we kill them it's gonna listen as you can see it would make it easier to fight if we weren't also having to negate poison that's also fair well what do you intend to do to draw them out to make noise I'm gonna move over I'm gonna pick up a femur oh wait before you do can I just make sure I'm in a position I mean I've got to walk down a bit so that I can see them I just want to make sure I've formed a sort of front line so that they can't get to the squishies that's my biggest thing is I want to protect you guys since all of you guys can range thanks mom I'm worried about all my kids now I'm gonna move over here I see the freaky deekies I'm gonna lift up the bone I'm gonna chuck it out are you aiming at any of the body horrors specifically really I probably want to aim at the massive bones over here I just want to like I want it to clatter across the ground I'm not trying to hurt them I'm just trying to get their attention but you're not throwing it at them you're just throwing in their direction yeah not necessary like if it hits one I'm not gonna be upset but I'm not trying to but you're not aiming for it okay so this one notices and its head like turns kind of like a snake just like around back in that direction to look at it and this one immediately just screeches clatters over and just like stumbles over the pile of bones in this direction right here into the wall and I'm gonna need you to roll initiative we're good we're good can we do it yes we can we can it's okay Renee you have an excuse and these guys are gonna be not all that fast the name of this episode should be femur I hardly know her oh you like that one here how about another one molar I hardly know her boner I hardly and what Luna you're up first okay I already have my echo out so this is gonna be fun so again I want to form a wall so just get the echo closer I think the echo can move up to my speed so I think so sorry I should have had this planned out yeah the echo can absolutely move there easily would standing there be in the poison or is it that not it's not no if the tile you can notice I planned this if you notice the tile itself like whatever color takes up primarily that tile if it's white it's not if it's green it is cool we're gonna start bapping and start bapping bap bap bitches bap does not hit unfortunately even with the flanking plus 2 alright Wrath I'm gonna say I spend my bonus action to ignite Wrath not enough but that's another 12 see that's the guys who are doing that really fun thing they don't like seeing Luna be cool okay well I have one more unleashed incarnation I can do why though that's a 10 alright this thing is dodging back and forth just clittering and clattering just all over the place you son of a I'm just here then I'm hoping that I'm wedged in a good spot that if anything moves past me it'll provoke an attack of opportunity Nathaniel you see this thing doing battle yeah well I don't particularly do battle so I'm gonna I'm just gonna I'm just gonna push it I'm just gonna shove it and run away I really uh honestly I think I'm gonna you whiffed all of these correct yes I did it was tragic alright in that case I'm going to cast distant whispers on it I wanted to see what it has become and more importantly I wanted to fuck off get out let me let me opportunity attack it please it most certainly does see what it has become and fear just actually seven psychic damage you it sees what it's become and just just like scratching itself and it just fall to the ground dead oh my god like I said you showed a mirror and it died okay look at yourself um has anyone actually checked to see how powerful these creatures are they're not that powerful unless something dies near it but this might be a problem Renee your services might not be actually required Renee but that ends my turn well I'm gonna move a little bit further back I ain't fucking around with these guys they got legs now hopefully I'll be able to stop legs for days you know what are you gonna do with your legs I'm going in what do those legs do are you still hasted or did haste go off how long does haste last it's a minute right one minute yeah I would say after that conversation you wouldn't be hasted anymore yeah I would have to re-up before but because I didn't that doesn't mean I did so I suppose with that being said those two in the room that I can see you most certainly can see them alright shotgun bang taking a shot at one of them the closest one to me show me gun bang yep that'll hit alright that'll be yes shotgun bang that one dies alright and now shotgun booby black goop on the floor just like right here aim down sights for the for the other one show me shotgun bang shotgun booby really yes okay you're able to kill it before the black goop seeps into the next one just like two quick shots yep yes that is enough dead before you even they even get a chance well done there are three chests in there Nathaniel if you would like to take a look since you can walk through this without you know dying yeah hold on before anything we should say crow it just in case any of these things might pop out at us I'm willing to take that chance I doubt that the mustache skeleton must follow me miss your dog if we don't need to oh it's just a simple mending back together not too much trouble anyway Nathaniel are you going to open that chest flip this chest open flip it open and inside you see that there is a roteak yeah sorry you see that there are two potions of greater mana which each one restores a second level spell slot I've been using mostly those yeah you have and Coro can open that one inside that one you find you find a scroll of invisibility as well as a few torn off sheets of paper with scratched out notes on them seemingly a bunch of failures whatever they were well he's definitely taking the scroll that's all he can take one mouth one grab and this last one I assume you're going to go open it open on its own it's a mimic oh my god it's a mimic oh as if you're not going to go open that chest I love that for a second Coro had a mustache of course I would go open it of course he has a mustache there's nothing but further inside that one you can see that there seems to be some old versions of the spine of death uniforms it's not quite the same design whatever these are they were made a long time ago and it seems that they have been kind of outmoded by the new ones you can see that the trim is a lot more ornate and flashy and kind of swirls and designs all throughout and it does retain the same kind of green and silver trim green with silver trim that Luke is wearing but this one is a lot these are a lot fancier two of them in there what the hell is this I'm going to pull out one of these outfits it is a little bit large for you but you could probably grow into it if you have any more space to grow it's all like you're a grown man yeah I'm going to be shrinking soon I'm going to collect these two outfits alright I have a quick question go ahead I want to know if this is by hold my breath and see if this poison hurts you by contact or breathing it in I feel like that's an important distinction if we can just hold our breath and walk through so when you step in it is not breathed when you step in you feel your skin immediately kind of start to sizzle and burn slightly so it's acid air okay yeah how much damage is that there if you stay in there it is going to be three minus your constitution modifier okay I'm going to argue that I probably take it because I was trying to experiment but that's only one damage for me because I have high con so it's fine it's fine it's what it comes in through the skin we could have just asked and no it is not acidic poison there are many poisons that can absorb the skin said well that's a science lesson and how it works just so you guys know you could probably make your way through it but how it was supposed to work was that for every round you stay in the poison at the end of the round you would have taken that poison damage so base what we could do is maybe dash through 30 feet every 30 feet you would take the damage unless you dash which is 60 yeah so that would be the movement is because Nathaniel being about there I would say would reveal the rest of this segment because the other side is right there problem solved what the fuck and I'd like to dash through there's enough space that you guys would likely be able to dash through unscathed yeah we can dash, I'll dash would you allow me to re summon my echo on the other side you most certainly can so in this room what you see a path to the direction that Kuro scouted and I'm just going to reveal that because I know you guys are going to want to look at it yeah we are, I'm going to want to kill things in there probably nope I'm leaving that out so you can see there are two more body horrors a chest and and a bone golem there's also a behemoth and in this room let him go, hey let them in flavor text no it's fine in this room you can see that there is a trash heap with various different just nonsense and miscellaneous items from just random stones to old moldy food to skeletons and bones and papers and trash just like all thrown into this pile and there seems to be another bookshelf over here with books that do not seem to have been tampered with look see you may you look inside and as your hand approaches it doesn't do anything to you but as your hand approaches it seems to be that there's when your hand gets closer and closer the spot it gets closer to starts to glow a bright green as if there is a green kind of wall of arcane energy that stops your hand before you're able to reach in to the bookshelf one of the ones better at magic would probably come check this out um I'm just gonna stand here with my echo to kind of guard this path so that these fuckers don't come running down heavy breath runs through his kids to the end and I'll Rene if I see you come through I point down this path and say you're gonna look down here this kid probably hops a little bit at the end just rubs her arms a little bit okay duly noted deep breath and make my run uh, Kuro just comes over he ain't got nothing to worry about just zero just like strolling through like it's a novel day I'm just standing in it and you keep seeing the damage marker zero zero zero zero let's you get one point of free damage another fun history another fun science lesson you know did you know that Yuan T can produce their own poison really? it's from a gland it's about him and I'll point just underneath my heart oh I would love to test that at some point I Rene's just kind of like a re-grazing eyebrow with the two of them like ha ha yeah, no have you never heard of dipping your bullets in a in poison? to be fair I'm not familiar with the whole gun situation no what that is absolutely fair they're not just banned the poison on uh, no actually it's a moot point I tend to not to use the gland it's a bit barbaric and it usually splashes back and gets all over my coat this bookshelf has a weird book on it I can't touch it you never want any splash back it's just messy I'm gonna look at the book let Rene have it Rene hasn't gotten enough to do oh no it's okay you get it Rene okay Rene the same thing happens when you approach your hand the closer it gets the more kind of area around your hands appears to be a green wall that stops you from reaching the books in the bookshelf do I know what this magic is? you can give me an arcana check see what you might know okay 19 it's a simple magic that stops anyone from going through it a simple dispel magic should get rid of it well I don't have dispel magic what? I don't think I do I don't think I ever took it why does everyone think I have it? you have detect magic I have detect magic I don't have dispel hmm you do know that it works functionally like any other physical wall it's just magical as is the person's preference can I use mage hand then to get it? well can I use mage hand to go through? it functionally works like a wall a mage hand would not be able to unless your mage hand can go through objects is that how that works? your mage hand can mage hand can be uh summoned wherever you can see it so if you can oh you could summon it inside I can just pull it out yeah I'm gonna summon it inside the wall and just yank it out I've absolutely done this bullshit before alright that works if I can't pull it out if I can't pull it from the wall I'm just gonna use mage hand to scroll through the book it's up to you whether or not oh yeah that's okay actually that's an idea I was gonna say it's up to you if the book can even come out but if you she can just open it from the inside and just read it from there that's great yeah I know great idea open sometimes just do that yeah I can just read it through the glass very smart the magic glass Renee handled it alright get out you search through the books you can see that these are more up to date spell books and inside one of them tucked away just like deep into one of the books you can see some very familiar handwriting a folded piece of paper when your mage hand unfolds it you can see that it is a note that you are ever so familiar with I don't know more more cards more more cards more cards more cards I can't read it more cards I'm not reading it and if you cannot read the handwriting there is text at the bottom there are notes at the bottom yeah listed our countless notes on failed resurrection subjects and below an entry in like to the others collected no matter how much I siphon how powerful the soul of the target how recent the corpse has passed how well preserved the body is the results are the same every time research conclusion there is no true resurrection if they had this this whole time why would they keep trying ambition a full hearty belief they could do more than car I really think that this has something to do with whatever this black veined queen is I don't think that's just something laszlo's conjured up I feel like it's an actual entity what brings this belief just the fact that so many people seem to believe in her and yet everybody who's met has disappeared except for laszlo it seems I don't know if he's bringing her sacrifices when these people are ascending what if the ascension is just leading them to being siphoned by the black veined queen the real one what if that's what this is it would make sense why no one comes back it would make sense why laszlo is still here the one bringing them like a sheep to slaughter maybe he's made some sort of deal with it maybe we're not dealing with a person maybe we're dealing with something kind of like what was in Enoch something otherworldly I could conclude to that I find it hard to believe that laszlo is working far no you're correct how is it possible that laszlo no if I'm correct laszlo was working underneath Carl Maharian for a time am I right yes but he he went on his own way yes exactly I believe that this is him spiting his former teacher nothing more but it is worth being prepared for an unforeseen outcome and we'll have plenty of time to talk to him after without kicking his ass well then maybe true resurrection isn't what they're after anymore I don't know what they could be after but maybe they're using Carl's research to try and just further necromancy not to search for true resurrection just further their own power in order to overthrow those in charge right now as a matter of fact you also what laszlo was doing right sorry no problem go ahead oh I was going to say as a matter of fact these cloaks we should have showed them to Kara but I suppose we'll be able to afterwards believe that these may be what Kara and her original cult war it would explain why they're in the trash a spited student no it's not true resurrection any longer it is anarchy sorry anarchy I'm assuming that over there is probably that circle we've mentioned yes that looks like it's going to be a point of no return so we had we had better save now or finish our dialogue options while we had it I was going to suggest we take rest now I need a rest I just spent a lot taking all those out I have to agree I need to make sure that I can face this just as strong we know where our enemies are but to the north I can stay here this is the entire time in God very well in the interim I'm going to bring these to Kara see if there's any last bit of wisdom we can glean from her before face don't look at ourselves alright careful I would say for simplicity's sake would you wish to lead them here for the conversation oh that works just as well yeah alright wait here we go boop boop boop oh shit shit shit there he goes zooming on like a banana wizard he's got the zoomies you never say the banana I'll just put it there no come on losers we're going hunting oh my god get in the van nerds we're going to warp vroom vroom Luke has mostly pretty much recovered you can see his wound has been patched up albeit with a few kind of black splotches from the necromatic healing from Kara they approach this room can I just link the motion for people to be quiet just because we know there's enemy in that side so just keep your voices down I'm just going to spend time thank you Kara of course but she looks over here and looks at the bookshelf these are my books all of them not all of them but I recognize did that bastard steal from my library hey it's another one of your pages on the shelf he seems like the type to steal like we said he stole your homework he does seem a bit obsessed he was a lovely ambitious student what else did you learn of this place the monsters oh you go that is what happens when you attempt true resurrection and you can see when she says that you can see Luke just like looks down in shame he just like a shadow over his face to the person these are all subjects from what I can tell those are bone golems whatever they were trying to do they were trying to improve them haphazardly it seems explain what they added but when I was striking it it almost felt like a bell I managed to withstand whatever it was trying to do to me but it was different than the one you created she rubs her chin a bit perhaps resurrection on a smaller scale you see when one attempts to bring back the soul it rips the body in twain it cannot handle such arcane energy and divine might on itself and so it turns into such a creature ripping a soul is beyond mortal matrix so when one tries to it is akin to ripping paper out of the hand of someone clutching it it is in a state of being that is neither alive nor dead and all it is is suffering Renee kind of just her brow furrows hearing that I just look wait are you telling me that those things in there are softer but that doesn't explain thorn no it doesn't I can't wrap my head around it so when we were told about thorn when we when we were first took this job we were told thorn was somebody who escaped the prison I'm trusting to know at least thorn's origin wherever thorn was kept it was no prison I don't think anything could hold that if that is a resurrection subject I don't know where they got the power to pull the soul in such a complete state not even all the dragons in the realm are powerful enough to do that you'd need a divine a true god no one step in mortal means unless the black vein queen truly is a divine creature that's what I was saying I truly do not think that this the black vein queen is only something that was made despite you I don't think it's just a talking point that laszlo is using people are the only people that see her disappearing curious or incurious these particular monsters oh sorry sorry kind of thinking out loud on this one but what if shondrill actually found something something divine much like much like a cog that's literally what I said 15 minutes ago yeah I know but like well if she has down if she has then I don't think I know what might happen divine intervention is not something that I often dwell on it's not often something I need to worry about but I can't imagine they are very happy about souls being pulled from the afterlife especially with what kind of toll it takes on the body it's cemented into as the case with thorn or the body that is used to cast it and she kind of gestures to her herself I'm just trying to narrow it down as to what god what being would ever want to step down that close what if it's not one that's currently in existence without being there what if they created something what if somebody ascended Kara widens her eyes and points to you just like as if you were on to something siphoning does create power it does allow a user to go beyond their mortal limits I stopped because it was taking a toll on my body but if my sister has somehow found a way to contain all that power within herself we may be dealing with more dangerous than just a simple elf I had a thought that the reason why nobody but Laszlo has ever seen the Black Veined Queen in Mancine again is because she she's somehow using him to lead her powerful necromancers to ascend because no one who's ever ascended has survived or has been seen again but what if ascension just means being siphoned by the Black Veined Queen it would be so perfect it would be something they could throw on you to discredit use that you could do nothing about it and continue to have forces thrown at you in clove way perfect red herring and with the desperation of the necromancers being recruited into the spine of death no one would question it out of fear of being kicked out and brought back to the kingdom exactly it's refuge help we enter Chester City we watch the mob ready to absolutely annihilate someone for just being accused of necromancy it makes sense hmm what of this hypothesis if Karam if Chandra is capable of harnessing the power that comes from siphoning and the amount of power gained is commensurate with those necromancers' powers it would explain why she won't see you so badly and if it is Chandra behind at all it would explain why the court-on-court black veined queen is unknown to us of course she wouldn't want to be seen how terrible would it be for the country to find out that the live count was the head of the leading terrorist group in velkaness and it is a particularly efficient way of wiping out necromancy in velkaness that was ever her go we may have just found the answers we're looking for great, I wonder how we need to figure out how the hell we're going to stop I was going to say, only one way to highly verify for sure is Renee kind of looks over at the portal Luke steps up and without looking at anybody he's staring at the floor but simply gestures over to the portal that will take you to the first floor of Wirt Heim a storage facility where they put supplies for food, resources, books and a majority of what is needed for nurukuts it should be mostly remote aside from a few guard skeletons it will likely have some uniforms for you to stay incognito while you go about the facility ah, that reminds me can I pull out the old version of the uniforms and what the hell is this Kara looks at it, just kind of like lifts it with one hand but this looks garish yes, I agree you can see Luke kind of scratches the back of his head those were the old uniforms they proved too expensive to make expensive so it's safe to say that I believe that's why it's called garish so it's safe to say that we can't that wearing those would be a giveaway then you could, they would likely mistake you for high ranking officers or veterans of some long known renown however, there are so few and far between that they would know who the members are you would be hard pressed to come up with a lie of why you have not been seen before I mean, if I know you're the best liar I know I am, Renee come now, that can't be true but I must admit, the outfit almost does fit me it would allow you to go into more restricted areas without question but those questions may be difficult to answer Renee, what do you think you are the best talker out of all of us um well are there any quicker freshers that would help us avoid those kind of questions it gives Luke a pointed look of like help is there anything you might know that would make it easier to avoid even having to answer those why would a higher rank need to answer to a subjugate no, that's a great question perhaps you could pose them that question alright, that's good enough for me there is a culture of knowing your place and not questioning when a higher up makes sure that you know your place fantastic, I'm good at being a pretzel bitch she's just like, there's a clock on I'd feel more comfortable with the all two taking the front line and being the face and I guess me and Luda, we could always stand in the back as I don't know, imposing muscle this seems very reminiscent of the first time we all worked together so this is fitting only this time, I'm a lot more cooperative that's an understatement and she grins in you as she says that yeah, it's like, every day is like, yeah understatement of the fucking sensually actually, let's put that to the test pick up this book I point at Karo and I have him go pick up the book once Karo picks up the book, I will I'll reach my hand out, I'll put it into like a finger gun bang he falls over that was quite entertaining I think I like to miss this when this is over maybe? really? I don't think that's the most sentimental thing I've ever heard you say I don't know if I'll be able to actually let Karo out because I don't want to raise suspicion Joe yeah holy shit I'm the master of hit dice oh my god nice nice god, if there is a possibility is there enough, I would say bones to kind of make shift an outfit to make Karo look like an undead dog he's made of metal he's made of metal, but it's kind of like putting like a skull on a marrow act you know what, I'm gonna let you make a straight charisma check to see how well you can fashion Karo a bony costume to cover the fact that he's made of metal you literally just put the skull on, you're like there you go, and it's a human skull yeah, no, it's this thing yeah, there's really many dog skulls here so it's just a charisma check straight charisma okay, here we go where do we find a dog skull? eleven well, it looks like a dog wearing a bone costume it's like a small tapestry are you telling me you tried to put him in your coat or something? well, I would prefer him out, but if we can't hide him, I'll just put him away yeah, that might be for the best because that just feels like it would be more jarring than everyone alright, well, sorry Karo and I kind of rub his cheeks and he just compacts back into a small ball and I put him in my pocket Renee, if you're wearing the spine of the fruit can I get my coat back? can I just keep my head covered a bit? I don't feel to see it and also Luke did say there were extra hoops yeah, just until we get to them I have a bit of a distinct look and I have been very open about how much I hate the spine no, no, that's why you've really been kicking their asses fuck it, just give us yeah, you can pick me out of the line at least I'm going to assume that you two are probably not going are you going to be going up with us or are you going to not? we will come with although I will not be able to attend to you for very long for I have my own responsibilities but I will try to meet up with you back in the portal room whenever you're ready there is a space for various portals designated to out to the kingdom of Balkanis you can get us nearer to Balkanis proper I can there we go, fuck it and Kara casts Disguise Self on her to a uniform that kind of looks reminiscent of the lower rank members that you guys have seen and she changes her race into a human oh, I can do that think about it do what? well, I can make myself kind of look like someone else Disguise Kit? no, it's actually one of my first level spells Disguise Self you've had Disguise Self? just never used it oh my god I love how everybody's disguised themselves and they're just putting a hood on that'll contain all of this hair I mean what should I describe it with? not subtle, it's fine before we head out can I investigate this pile of bones? you may want to see if there's any other little notes or something about the people who have unfortunately perished you see that there are a few love letters down here you can see that there is a what's the answer to number seven and then a note back fuck you, you should have studied you can see that there are some notebooks some trash, some old worn out clothes just various miscellaneous knickknacks and stuff and bones and trash some like old molded food that is far beyond its due date you wish to put them out of their misery I will not stop you I am bothered by their continued life Renee's actually going to look over at Luke as everyone's discussing that you can see Luke is just staring at his feet it's very clear he is in a lot of shame right now he says a few words to Kara you can overhear him that saying that the portal is powerful magic that he cannot tend to and Kara nods she walks over and she starts to conjure a few things as if to see what she can make out of the portal to try and open it as he mentioned before that he does not have permissions to use that portal so she's going to try and do something with it and I will activate the ring of haze first just in case just in case I miss I can certainly do that for you thank you alright I'm going to count this as a surprise round I trust in your guys' ability to kill these guys quickly if not we will roll initiative for just the two of you I feel like we're going to have to for this big guy but you know I can probably one shot these dudes alright I'll let whoever wishes to go first to go first do you want me to go first let me run in just so I can keep this big guy busy that way if he has any fucked up reactionary abilities I can keep him in place sounds good just having this ready you don't need to roll right now of course I'm just going to run into here I'll say Luna takes a deep breath but I don't think realistically she can in combat so that's just flavor and I will run in and try to back this guy I don't think I, oh yeah surprise they don't get reactions you're surprised right okay so cool no attack of all that's awesome absolution 13 does not hit unfortunately breath with your rolls today it's just your rolls in general what is wrong with Luna's dice so that is your surprise turn I still have bonus action right oh you have a bonus action you want to offhand no I just wanted to put echo out so that I had extra shit right and Enoch your attacks okay so the one closest to me first gavel shot nope we're trying to do this quickly I trust in you alright so because I ended up taking a short rest I can see if I can roll higher than a roll higher than a 3 for my ability to be honest what happened slight misfire it's fine it's fine yep racket second shot okay as long as it's more than 6 you should should be enough and then my third attack will be on the farthest oh yeah alright show me the damage you fire at them and they quickly fall to the floor and unfortunately since Luna you whiffed we're going to do a quick little initiative here so both of you are going to roll for initiative that's valid I tried guys I'm sorry 16 16 that's decent initiative at least 15 well the thing is your guys had had but they were finally just puttering out yeah well okay it said I wasted those two nat 20s when I was trying to fix my macros earlier yeah got a zero both of them goes last so I'm laying into that mother fucker luckily yep it is your turn Luna okay the bow and golem has noticed you and kind of screeches in your yells in your direction cool cool so we are gonna bonus action ignite wrath so that I have that okay so we're going to start with wrath that shouldn't be consumption but that doesn't hit anyway it's fine it's fine sorry I'm not reading consumption right now that's a lie oh my god my god incarnation one more time fuck you hey alright you slash into it and a bunch of bones crumble it seems this one was one of the frail ones that you saw earlier it is nearly down not quite but it's getting ready to charge yeah yeah that's fine you don't kill it alright side step I see it I zone in on it let's go three attacks should I have taken poison damage yes at the end of your turn so you would take one because it's two it's three minus your constitution modifier I'm fine I'm okay yeah that is to hit yep alright that will be a cool 15 points that's enough you fire and it crumbles to the ground um okay I just want to hold my breath and as quickly as possible just like kick this fucking open yep I might take another point you kick it open and just quickly nab what's inside it's a mimic it's a mimic and leave out of the way and then inside you find you find a potion of greater healing yeah oh good and I pat you on the shoulder and I give you as much damage as you lost in there one potion of mana that will heal that will restore one first level spell slot actually can I get that I was just about to say push it into your hands in exchange for the healing and then Luna was like you know can't believe it I shouldn't have held my breath I think that it fucked me up I forgot this isn't breathing it's just contact I can't I use my brain oh no your brain's fine it's functioning no I don't think the reason I work with Scorpio he's a bit more intelligent than I am in the meantime I think Brené you wanted to say something Luke I mean she was just like keeping an eye on it's one of those things where it's like she does want to say something but she's not really sure what to say okay it was more so just her trying to gauge like how remorseful he actually is about all of this would you like to insight or use your your insight a score since you can just yeah which is a plus nine holy shit give it to me give to me my passive uh yeah yeah but my or my passive wisdom yeah it's 19 you've seen this face of remorse it is not too far from the shame that you saw on your brother when it was discovered that he you know all the failures that he's done and that he has made so many mistakes and that he's trying to prove himself to you there's a very similar look that Luke has from what you can tell Brené will walk over to Luke and just pat his arm in like a one two she doesn't say anything anything and her face betrays no emotion oh shit she's picking up the Nathaniel treatment damn oh no he doesn't move his gaze from his feet but he speaks up I did not want to say it even when you confronted me and demanded to know if I regret what I did and I lied I do seeing these abominations knowing what it does to people what I did was wrong and learning that the spine was no better than I was when you were also young to see how foolish they are like I was I am sorry you get to spend the rest of your life however long that may be making up for that mistake yes ever since I learned that has been all that I have wanted not to be redeemed but to atone I do not deserve redemption and he looks up to you this eye to eye and Niza does laszlo she gives a nod and let's start on that atonement she'll just walk it takes a deep breath walks forward and Nathaniel you wanted to do something with Kara yes while she's doing this summoning circle I will speak to her those abominations actually let me not start with that I will start by saying you are the one who created the teleportation spell was this castle in existence not like this one this is not a pocket dimension I am used to they're usually temporary unless with certain specifications like a bag of holding that is usually on a smaller scale this is something different there was absolutely no possible way laszlo was able to create this on himself just all by himself the monsters around they hint at they hint at true resurrection meaning laszlo was attempting it at some point yes or some of his subjects do these monsters look anything like the ones that you created she looks down for a moment just pausing her conjuring for a few seconds and continues almost exactly there are some variations depending on the race of the creature being resurrected but all the time very similarly some ribs bursting out of the chest elongation of the spine bursting out into a tail-like extremity in the back arms being pointed towards the sky very frail but very quick I assume you know whether or not there is some capability of reversing this process she nods there isn't well unfortunate she looks a little frustrated and is kind of like air slaps the portal but just her hand goes through what even is this bloody thing who made this portal it's unlike these runes are strange and foreign to me are you sure this is a portal a teleportation circle and Luke just speaks up of course it's just what the higher-ups use it is a a recreation of one of yours no yes but this has been modified and I don't understand it strange it might take me a little while but I still have the map right you do any similar to that weird script that none of us can figure out it does I just pulled it out the car what is this something we found I've never seen this language before I'm not even sure if it's a language to be honest she looks it over she takes it and just kind of scans her finger around the various different I've only seen a full world map a few times but that's certainly not like what I've ever seen she puts it down glances over at Luke for a minute this isn't a pocket dimension this is a destroyed world wait what what are you talking about what do you mean a destroyed world how does that work she lifts the map to you this is not a map of anywhere in the lustrous expanse a world that charted its lands as a language no one has understood this place is completely dead whatever Laszlo was planning he wanted all the necrotic energy he could find so he found a world that was completely devoid of life only corpses remain including the world itself that would explain why you are having a difficult time with this magic it would also explain how they're able to get so much necromatic power they need to get it on everything around you instead and when Nabi's at a great place there's something that powerful as this black being queen to be fighting exactly another question might come to mind what if whatever is left in this world that possibly destroyed it is still here I would like to not humor that thought but this map I think this map can help me with the circle some of the symbols seem to align so if I just perhaps whatever is here is maybe this black being queen is the thing that killed this world I thought I truly hope not Inna calm down N'Kara these might be able to help you I'm gonna pull out the arcane books they were nonsense when I read them but now they seem to make a bit more sense she holds them kind of like flipping them back and forth between the map and the papers if we make it out of here alive Mr. Gainsby would you mind if I took the time to research these assuming that all goes well you can have as much time as you want I wish to learn as much as I can about this world but if this symbol and she kind of scans it over she casts a wave of arcane energy over the papers they kind of float her eyes darting between them and the portal she does a few hand motions and the portal flashes should be good now okay I very much think this is a point of no return so I'll be ready send the dog first he's not even here I can't get rid of his token okay so click and hit delete so he goes in the portal and is there any sort of way you can know anything he does I thought he wasn't there no he wasn't there he's not there you tucked him in that's right so who wants to go in my pocket I'll go I would like to go with Renee I would like to go with Renee please alright don't let her go alone she's too squishy how about that squishy I don't think the echo can go through there well I've already used it well yeah if it's more than a thousand then I won't know anyway so let's go one by one you step into the portal and you come out appearing the other side as if you had just simply stepped through an open door and you guys can see at the bottom here oh I'm too zoomed in hold on just before just before we leave I apologize for stalling I'm gonna look at this menagerie of runes as they glow in front of my face right and just before stepping through and disappearing into who knows where I will say to myself father perhaps a world such as this conjuration would have made more sense to me oh into the portal into the portal you show up on the other side on the first floor of their time something I want to note Joe I am using disguise self hmm how are you disguising yourself I'm gonna pull a bit from everybody from the entirety of my party and it's kind of a slight mixed bag of what everyone kind of looks like but like slightly combined so like Nathaniel's very elegant face Renee's eyes and and Luna's long hair but probably a little bit more probably a bit more dingy and then of course like the the stubble of Enoch yeah no he said his hair I'm gonna make it look more dingy like yours is great yours is great but no I yeah no I want this version but like pretty much this is a combination of everyone's little attributes onto me it's gonna look really it's gonna look a little weird having an elegant face but like thick stubble for Enoch but it works alright when you step through the portal Luke kind of comes in front of everyone next to the doors before we head in this is the supply hall there will be patrolling skeletons they mostly clean the place but if they do not recognize you in the span of deathguards they will alert the others there is also a bone golem kind of the guard dog of the air here but so long as you are able to get to the uniforms before they see you you should be safe myself and Enoch stay here if you so wish I will see if I can get its attention while you try to find some uniforms there are swords crates around and we have many many uniforms ready on various sizes you should be able to find one to either of you have a way to alert us to scrutiny I will message one of you creaks open the door and you guys can see the rest of the supply hall bones can I just say I am hiding on this side I just don't want to be in line of sight of the golem me and Nathaniel are wearing a garnt you are just good and Luke creaks open the door the car is also disguised she is disguised but yeah so to try and just go by I would have opt to try and like make my outfit at least look like a familiar spine of death at least likely one that you have seen before you have seen lots of them Rene and Nathaniel you I am going to need just a your choice of survival investigation checks I will do an investigation you think that I have rolled this you fool I have a passive investigation wait that is true critical I should have put what it is see plus three that amazing actually I think it might be a never mind it doesn't matter Rene you scavenge the wilderness of crates and searching through them just judging by the placement of where things are looking through them peeking in the little cracks and crevices you can see exactly where the uniforms are it is on a stray crate just kind of like off to the side able to lift it up and grab a few that you feel as though might fit your companions cool and these bones don't give a crap that I'm grabbing extra it looks like they are simply like carrying supplies back and forth to crates the one over here seems to be bringing some like dry food stuffs over to this crate and this one appears to be bringing just a bunch of trash about to head towards the portal well I'm going to beat it I'm going to beat it I'm going to tell this one to stop it stops and looks at you cocks its head to the side remove your head take your head off your shoulders shit I don't blink neither does the skeleton it simply stands there and does not follow your orders all right good understood in the meantime that does give Renee enough time to bring the uniforms over I probably grabbed three of them because even though I know the disguise self like does kind of disguise you it's not like it's an illusionary thing it's not physical so just in case throw those on in case anyone tries to grab you there is in fact fabric there how long does it take to don these uniforms not long at all they easily slip on like a onesie cool oh okay cool it's hard for me to find anything that fits in the shoulders well these don't do anything for the ass unfortunately I don't need that I'm not trying to impress anyone else you're done with your glamour show may we go ahead you know we have to be lighthearted sometime okay it's kind of fucked up here yeah listen you gotta have some fun I do have fun once you guys arrive it's called a nice book and some tea agreed not having that hit not having that hit sorry as Kara approaches me I will have experimented with a few other things it didn't respond to remove your head but I will point towards this box knock on that box it turns to you and it follows it knocks on it sit down sit down it simply looks down shrugs its shoulders and sits you stand back up it stands up and about now is when the party would arrive and Kara looks at you what in the hell are you doing I must say I see why you are so interested in necromancy it's very fun but I was I was seeing the power that this cloak provides they can't do things that they're physically incapable of but they seem to do anything else turn around walk towards the wall and stand there the skeleton turns complete 180 degrees goes to the wall and stands question are these skeletons or are these people those are skeletons you can see that those skeletons are armed with crossbows they are scanning the area you can see their head kind of move just back and forth horizontally without moving any other kind of part of their body almost like they're like sprinklers do the ropes have a hood yes they do I want to make sure I've got that hood pulled up and my hair tucked into it yep you are able there are also two pads off to the side however you can see that there are doors and Luke speaks up and mentions those are restricted they are very dangerous if someone were to find you in there researches even for those even with my hot new look as she like gestures down at her fancy ass robes he just like looks into his face he doesn't you are able to see that there are high glass shits she's your daughter I was going to say you can't appreciate your daughter's fashion choices he just looks up to this you really are a dad he just looks up to the ceiling why you chose this you didn't get to act exasperated this is my punishment oh no that's on the way you've seen maybe 5 minutes of it spend a whole day with me fucking tell him oh god not jesus who's jesus who the fuck is jesus he is the one man to perfect true resurrection it's been about 3 days yeah car has been trying to discover true resurrection for years jesus built this in a cave that makes sense jesus was able to build this in a cave who the fuck is going to who the fuck is going to alright anyway it's a joke so what is the plan at the end there is a staircase up presumably to the second floor of vertheim we didn't actually get an answer for whether our super outfits would get past these guards yeah asking luc that so long as you appear to be the spine even if a bit or more ornate you should be fine there are a few odd members with those same uniforms albeit they are not sent out anymore you should be ok there you are well are these older higher ranking members are they going to be ones that need to be mindful of the people who give that body of names hmm I myself are not familiar to them they are simply known as higher lieutenants we usually speak their title but not their name I see you and do not recognize you you may be in a bit of trouble so I suggest you make sure they do not see you alright feel enough well now let's see if this actually works I'm going to walk up to this big bone golem mm-hmm put your hand on your face cover your eyes it does so but it has no it just like puts its bony hand up to its face although it looks like you could easily see through but uh covers it sockets as best as it can when you do that would I be able to look back at our do you think you can figure out just to change this thing what the bone golem mm-hmm they've been doing weird things before that's all perhaps I can try and conjure up something I'll see what I can find thank you she looks it over and Nathaniel what else are you doing with this bone golem uh nothing my hope is that when somebody next sees this golem they announce loudly something akin to who did this it's just a prank bro something that regularly happens in the spine of death I'm going to be angry this is my ward system for right now yeah that's fair Korra finishes her conjuring and she speaks up it appears that they have attempted to imbue magical capabilities into their summons albeit at a cost a few of them seem to have some sort of drawback either frailty or difficulty in function but they are capable of casting magics like you or me I don't like that they all rather frail to see if you can see what exactly they're casting or what effects they're bringing I don't know it's not super important I can take these things down regardless yes it seems a few common necromancies but more or less nothing spectacular I assume Laszlo wanted to start small so as to not put too much pressure on this body I assume larger magics will require more trade-off see in a way I know how to do it's a ward a very straightforward way of dealing with things don't you it's gotten us this far don't knock it the only way I was told I'm afraid well far beard for me to complain your friend is right I've made it this far she continues off what are you guys doing what are you guys doing with the archers they're smarter than the other ones that we saw or if they're just dressed fancier they're basically dressed fancier they're scanning the room they have very simple orders do they have bows and arrows I want you to patch your head then lob your stomach it does not follow those orders does it have a bow and arrow or a crossbow that's very cool show me where you keep your bolts it simply just turns its hip without turning the rest of its body you can see attached there is a kind of quiver full of a bunch of bolts do you have a bolt loaded in right now it simply lifts it's while looking at it you can see it is it is loaded oh very good give me all of the bolts that aren't loaded it simply turns its hip back away from you I'll take these no it takes it away from you oh away from me don't mind oh I was going to say you do far better with a dead audience I did not expect that dead creatures would be so sassy luke walks up they they are under the command of prod style himself he did not want to take any chances so he wanted his own personal summons to keep guard of this storage room that's very smart can he be alerted by these summons of weird activity he has not imbued that function on them he has only given them the minimum required function in order to keep this place safe besides and he just kind of like has the slightest smile why would any enemies come to this pocket dimension I know that's also fair but you know security security is important skeleton how far is blotstride I assume he's above us they will not answer for you any information you try to clean they will not be able to respond they are not alive they are no more than automatons well they are going to let us through right I he steps through alright fuck how to roll what if you'd like to go searching around you may but it could lead to further complications yeah I mean we have we have we have shit to do you know we have mirth to save right now yeah walking towards you simply just ice that other room while walking towards you the stairs do we need to keep an eye on you too what do you see nothing right now well I don't trust you yeah I don't want to I don't want to do it too but that was sussy honestly I trust Kara implicitly god god damn it she's gonna incite you back and she notices that you are all trying to to you're all raised from Enoch who's just like laser focused on mirth she she sighs I'm not going to go rogue I'm simply wondering if a few of my research papers are down here who knows what else they've stolen from me that might be in this place if we survive and everything turns out all okay we can come back down and check because then no one will give a clap very well I certainly this place simply doesn't sit well with me what also if you do have your notes here and we are able to clue this place out is it not better than that dog practice remains in a dead world yes or destroyed I intend to burn my papers we're able to collect them all we can do a come do a come over here before we leave thank you so you guys going up the stairs yeah I'll just share for Renee and Nathaniel to go first since you know she probably have the head honchos up first I ascend you going up you going up and I ascend you going up and as you do you enter into the Athenium the second floor of Vertheim where you see a long hallway full of spine of death necromancers please tell me we don't recognize any of them you'll have to find that out on the next session because that is what we're going to call it today