We would like to thank our chief sponsor, Reckless
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at checkout. spice? Spicy peppers? I'm Pepper
from Pepper's Peppers. I didn't say market and
some stock going. You should come on by and try
our new selections. We've been breeding some
new ones. We got ourselves the Jules Pepper.
It's brand new. It's a Jules LaRoche. It looks
pretty cool. It's got that model starry night
kind of design. This little lump on it looks
like a pompadour. It tastes pretty good. You
should try it out. It's selling out everywhere.
So yeah. I often wonder about Pepper. I didn't
want to write a recap or an orange, so I was
like... We'll do commercials. Commercials are
easy. I love it. That means that when we return
to the Citadel, we get a higher payout from Peppers
Peppers, right? Yeah, but the thing is you can't
swear on the network. Jeremy, you can't swear
on the network. That's not usable. That's some
easy cash. You're saying I just got Pepper a
fine? You got Pepper a fine? Shit. All the money
he was going to make towards you actually went
to paying the fine. Oh my goodness. The FFCC.
The fantasy. I don't know what the rest of FCC
is. The AFCC. Ah, Tosh's FCC. Oh, guys. Stupid.
Stupid indeed. We are stupid, Steven. Most of
the time. Man. What are we doing again? I think
we're in a closet. You're in a closet. A lot
of people are in closets, actually. Well, almost
just you in one closet with your sidekicks, with
Diva Luma, with Jules, Steven, I don't know.
Anyway, on the other side of this room, though,
we also have another closet. And that's pretty
funny. I actually have the map for this now.
You only see a tiny piece of it. Yeah, I see
a closet. You're in a closet. You see a closet.
I'm not showing you what's outside of it because
that door's closed. Who farted? We'll talk about
when we get into it, but when you moved into
the room, as you kind of pushed in there, I imagine
Harlan closed the door behind you, kind of wanted
to keep whatever's going on here sort of separate,
just to keep things safe, keep people from panicking.
But ideally, he's probably outside that door.
I guess you don't know, because it's closed.
But it's funny, though, because this closet that
you're in right now is only like 15 by 10 feet.
It's pretty small. I noticed this map. It's pretty
small. We're taking up the entire space. You
are taking up the entire closet space. We got
ourselves a Shea Lounge. You can see the glory
of your Shea Lounge here. Isn't that beautiful?
Oh, that is lovely. Oh, my goodness. Isn't that
great? There's two more of those because we're
idiots. Is that a Rochelle Shea's Lounge? It
is. Oh, my goodness. I got to zoom way in. She
hooked us up. Look at that. Zoom into that Shea's
Lounge. Look at the seams. Oh, it's tufted or
something. Yeah, that's excellent. tough beautiful
teal color it's very inviting beautiful um it's
funny because like we also we know that amos
near and lorisa also went into a separate dressing
room and this dressing room that they're in is
like 10 by 10 and filled with clothes so they're
like crouched up together like no space at all
dude yeah it makes even funnier yeah but pause
the recording right now go measure your bedroom
No. I'm guessing that like if you're lavish,
you have like a 12 by 12 bedroom. You know what
I mean? I feel like that's pretty normal. Man,
I never really thought about it that way. I don't
think it's lavish. I mean, we started this podcast
in that room. You guys remember how small it
was? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It was very, very small.
Huh. Or we're just very, very big. Damn. I bet
this room is 10 by 10. I guess. No. I've measured
it a couple of times, but I forgot. But it's
not 10 by 10. I don't know what it is, but I
know what it's not. It's weird to think like
five feet is the ranch. You always look at the
tokens on the maps and they're right up against
each other. But when you actually think about
it, five feet is pretty good. Like five feet
is you're swinging a sword that's pretty long
and hitting somebody over there, you know? Like,
yeah. Yeah. Weird, right? Yeah, you know? When
you look at just tokens on paper, you don't really,
I guess it's hard to imagine what it all really
looks like. Anyway, hopefully we see more of
this grand room you guys are staying in. We have
the entire suite here. It's glorious, as always.
Rochelle killed it, but you can't see it yet
because you're in a closet. This grand, giant,
10 by 15 foot closet. You're in the closet with
the killer. And somebody found it. So I should
ask, gentlemen, anything you want to talk about
before we get into this combat? Before we just...
Dive in off the big old... What do you want to
say? Diving board. Isn't there a word for those
things? All I want to know is where's the sirenscape,
baby? All right. All right. We got some sirenscape
in here. But it's not what you expect. Oh, no.
Sad things happen to this music. That's the flashback
sound. It is the flashback sound. We are doing
kind of a flashback here. We're not flashing
back very far, though, just a matter of minutes
to earlier in our last episode. See, I need you
to bear with me for a minute here. I hate to
do this, but I'm going to spend a touch of time
talking to myself. It's not something I love
to do. I really do not love this. You know I
do not love this. That's like 90 % of this show.
Normally I'm talking to you, at least, but I'm
not going to talk to me and respond to me, and
then me has to sort of interject in there somewhere,
too. But, you see, I need to remind you, I think
it's important to establish the stakes. To remind
you of exactly who you are about to be fighting
for. Because right now, you are very much in
a hostage situation. The bees, like a bullet
in a gun, is primed and loaded somewhere just
off, sort of out of your sight, waiting to pull
some trickery. But in the midst of all this danger,
with this threat unbeknownst. We see this opulent
suite, this suite that is the master suite belonging
to Amos Nier, just loaded with Shay's lounges.
Five rooms, two main chambers, two dressing rooms
and a bathroom, sort of in between the two dressing
rooms. Five rooms and nine former suspects, nine
fates in flux, nine stories currently without
endings, all waiting on our heroes to illuminate
the shadows that lie, between them. We're going
to zoom in a couple of little vignettes, little
scenes amongst these nine. We'll start in that
10 by 10 closet previously mentioned where Amos
mutters to himself in the silence of this second
dressing room. Larissa stands in the corner watching
her, her master, her father. Her usual stoic
expression is revealing its cracks, the tiniest
fragments of concern touching her features, these
cracks seeming to spread as Amos just mutters
in the absolute humiliation. We'll show them,
though, Risa. Your brother will show them. But
it can wait. It can wait until they solve this
little problem. Point their fingers at who would...
dare kill my blood in my home. We'll get even,
Larissa, won't we? Won't we? Oh, yes, yes, we'll
get even with them all. He turns around to look
at Larissa as if finally realizing she hasn't
been responding, and enthusiastic agreement is
brow furrows the little. You have concerns? Speak
your mind. No, sir, I... Speak, child. She swallows.
I just... Would you... Mourn me, father, if it
was I that died. What? I'm sorry, sir. I just
thought maybe you wouldn't. Larissa, cut your
foolishness. You are my heir, my true heir. To
the public eye, you are my most invaluable servant.
Nobody would dare harm you. With the will of
the witch misdirected as plans, you will be perfectly
safe. Yes, but if... Enough of this, Larissa.
This day has brought many trials. I do not need
your nervous rambling. It's not like you. Yes,
of course. I'm sorry, Father. And as silence
falls between the two, we move away from this.
Help the doors of the closet into the sort of
master bedroom itself, where alongside the sort
of grand sort of covered canopy bed, we see Ledoux
is just finishing up the seams to fix Jean Franklin's
torn banner. De Piero standing above him, kind
of scratches at his chin with a sort of prideful
smile. I have to say, I never thought I'd see
you sewing my son's banner for him. And without
insult to argument, too. Well, I suppose Jean
Franklin is still a muscle -minded oaf, but I
guess he has some finer points. How to face him
now after admitting such is... Is that snort
from the beer? Do you know not how to speak with
each other without some form of combat involved?
A luminary and a financial advisor to the Lord
of the Golden Bay, yet boys still. That's not...
We just... He could have helped us, you know.
We shared the same goals, didn't we? Find evidence
of Proud Eden and expose Amos Nier. He could
have... No. We didn't share the same goals. Sure,
perhaps they aligned in a way, but our reasoning
differed greatly. In degrees, I could be seen
as an altruist. My goal has ever been to see
the rise of our people, but... Jean's altruism
is a simple, honorable thing. He saw wrong and
wanted to correct it. No forethought, no strategy,
just... goodness. He would have tossed me aside
in an instant if he thought it was the right
thing to do. It's no wonder he's become so sex
-sexful as a luminary. Yet, I do have some regrets
in not telling him sooner of our plans. When
this is through, I am going to speak with him.
I'll tell him everything, and hear his judgment.
Though I am nervous to hear it. I fear I've been
a rather harsh father, and have earned little
benefit. We slide away from those two, slide
away from the raising banner of the Golden Bay,
to a weeping Samira Ara, who quietly stares towards
a closed door where Fyodor Popov has just been
taken in, and we hear a shuffling of steps as
a figure moves up before her. She glances up
to see Xenia Ruba, standing awkwardly, eyes swimming
with tears of her own, and behind her a smiling
Margus lightly pushes her forward. Go on. She
steps closer to Samira and slowly roses a trembling
hand. The same hand one might think that killed
Meloara. There's a frozen moment. Samira does
not move to accept the outstretched hand. She
does not move a muscle, but she does, after a
moment, speak. My Melo always hated these parties.
He hated any reminder of our station, of the
privileges of our station. Yeah, he was a real
rebel in his own way. Yet this time he was different
leading up to the March of Ice. He was happy.
I take it this was your doing? And Samira's eyes
flicker to Xenia's hand, which begins to weakly
pull back. She reaches out and snatches it with
her own, a firm yet tender grip, and new tears
spill down her cheek, running to the edges of
her newly forming smile. He was a wonderful young
man, wasn't he? He was. They embrace, and Margus
watches, grinning wide. You could have told me,
you know. I would have been ecstatic to have
you as a daughter -in -law. I wouldn't have had
a room swapped at the least. I thought you knew.
When Mello approached me last year, he was sweet.
He told me he had gotten some womanly advice
on how to woo me. Well, it... That certainly
wasn't my advice. Then who? The door opens as
Fjordor steps out. And everyone goes quiet watching
the scene as he moves back into the room. As
after a moment of deliberation, Jules calls for
Diva Luma to be brought forward in chains. And
the three, Margus, Zenya, Samira, share a look.
And we pan to that doorway. The shackled Diva
Luma is led inside, and as it closes, Harlan
turns towards the room, keeping his back to the
door and listening for Jewel's request. Yet as
his ears hone in on the dressing room behind,
his eyes wander to the trio across the room.
And on Xenia they stay, filling with a hunger,
a need for forgiveness, for redemption, filling
with the pain he inflicted on her. Just as stiff.
Moment, and then he barks an order to Grumby,
his second -in -command, and to the two officers
that linger at the nearby door. Stay sharp, you
lot. No more mistakes. All my life, no one else
dies in this palace. And their crisp salute is
interrupted as the main door bursts open. And
Blanche Trudeau rushes in. And here we push back
to the now, Blanche, you charge into the room.
Bladesong ringing out. ready to go. You step
in the room and Harlan slowly closes it behind
you, staying positioned, listening, as ordered.
And we trot to the true now, to a question posed
by Jules. Do you know who I am? And an answer.
Oh, I know exactly who you are, my lord. So creepy.
Diva Luma. Stares at you. No. Into you. Deep
behind your eyes. If you can see me, my lord.
If you are in there, my true name is Calamabarine.
My mother was a staunch supporter. I am sorry
about the state of your shell here. And flicker.
She's not looking into you anymore, but at you,
Jules. Tell me, Jules. Did Zavar use my little
present to him when you came to collect his head?
If I remember right, that half -dragon fella
had gone quite wild on the network footage of
your fight. Just my luck, you would have seen
my bees' breath before strolling onto my little
plot here. Yet now Uncle Zavar is dead and gone.
And you aren't ashamed to touch, are you? Despite
everything he did for you. You aren't even remotely
ashamed. You could be a hero, Jules. A real hero,
not like the fluffed up little luminaries that
prance around the screens of our worlds doing
nothing of real importance yet being worshipped
by the masses. You could be so much better than
them, than us. Yet despite everything your parents
gave you, you chose the wrong side. I would never
be so selfish, throwing away my mother's teachings
and gifts and propping up that self -righteous
celestial ass. You're slaves to both of your
slaves to Atash's will. This guy looks around,
and everyone deserves to deny it. Your words
are flowery, but something smells in here, and
I think it was you. Funny. Just look at you.
Helping him assault population on Hill. Killing
Zavar and having Itzmendel Prado gifted to Atasha
Sky Prison. And what a little old me, huh? You're
not going to let me go free, so what are you
going to do if you manage to kill me? What will
you do when they come to take my body away, to
have me revived to suffer lifetimes in the Sky
Prison? Your side locks people in cages, don't
forget that. Or my side sets them free. Your
side is evil, and evil people will meet a righteous
end. Righteous. That's what Atash is. Righteous.
I can't say that Atash is perfect, but, well,
he's better than you. There's no good sides in
war. And this is a war. Don't you forget that.
Everyone chooses a side eventually. Even Cholet
and his stubborn neutrality will fall one way
or another in this war. You chose wrong. I chose
wrong? Do you have any idea what's going on out
there? Any idea that our worlds are dying? crumbling
away and being consumed by the very planes that
formed them. Some are stripped down to the raw
elemental bases while others leak nightmares
into the land like pus from seeping wounds. It's
going to get worse and worse, until only the
strong remain. Yet in Atash's design, the weak
pull down the strong, and everyone is made equally
helpless before the coming storm. Only true freedom
can save our worlds. Only Zomateshab's freedom.
So what do you propose? You don't appear to be
the strong one here. Are we supposed to let you
walk out and take your word that you won't release
this monster of yours? Hmm. I think we both know
that's not going to happen. And you know what?
You know what? That's just fine by me. Because
I'm so very glad to have another chance at you,
Jules. The remaining is. That's my little personal
quest. But in killing you now, I'm going to save
the world. You know how many people have said
that exact same fucking thing? And you're less
than all them. We'll see. All right, Blanche
wants to attack this bitch. You go. You're prime
ready. You're going to move as, like, we start
with initiative here. You see her hand slides
in the folds of a ruffled skirt, clutching at
something. Her eyes flash red in this moment,
and a horse whisper rolls from the back of her
throat. You just hear... A chill wind suddenly
runs through this dressing room. Everyone roll
for initiative, and Blanche... As a matter of
course for your true strike, your setup here,
I'm going to give you advantage on this initiative
roll. Oh, sweet. You're the first to kind of
like, you were ready. You were primed and ready
for this fight. You were holding for this moment.
All right, so Jules got a 14. Chester got a 17.
Blanche only got a 16. Let me roll Jean's real
fast. I mean, hey, so far three of us are pretty
up there. Ugh. Natural one for Jean Franklin.
Oh, no. Oh, no. Is that just a one? That's just
a one. Okay. No modifier. Oh, that's rough. That
is rough. Let me make a couple rolls here. Blanche,
you go to strike out with your sword. The metal
sings. Your blade is honed in to strike true.
Yet before you have a chance, she's just so fast.
She slides into this sort of secret pocket, whips
out this, looks like a small sort of jar or vial,
almost looks like a perfume jar. Fuck. And it's
already opened and shooting out towards you before
you have a chance to react. Oh, fuck. They're
all pretty good. So here's what I was going to
try to do. You tell me if it's too late. Blanche
has a racial trait, along with John Franklin,
called hold breath, where they can hold their
breath for up to an hour at a time. It doesn't
say if there's an action required or anything.
It just says you can hold your breath for up
to an hour at a time. It's very cool. And yeah,
you definitely can be in that state, holding
your breath. You know what to expect. Or did
you? Because as this liquid comes sloshing out,
we realize there's no pink powder here. This
is something different. Oh, you son of a... Don't
blame me for this one. Blame our friend, Andrew.
Holy fudge! My God. Blame him for this little
concoction known as Hungry Moss. Perhaps another
jungle witch secret. Let me read this thing for
you guys. This is an Andrew original. I almost
wish you wouldn't, but okay. Smashing this bottle
upon a surface causes the liquid inside to coat
all objects and creatures in a 10 -foot -wide
sphere. That failing DC -13 dexterity save. Any
with liquid mans merely erupts in a thick moss,
which begins devouring the targets, as long as
it is not magical or made of stone or metal.
Each coded target takes 1d12 acid damage when
the moss grows and again at the start of their
turn as the moss digests them. They can make
a DC 13 concentration saving throw at the start
of their turn. After taking this damage on success,
they may use their action to remove the moss
from their person. Horrible. Absolutely, but
you can also have someone else use an action
and move it off of somebody else too. I call
OP. It's pretty gnarly. Oh, just you wait. It's
going to get worse than you think. So let me
mark down where in this... tiny closet this is
going to cover. I mean, is she going to make
a save too? We're in a small closet. It's going
to splash everywhere. It said break on the surface
and 10 foot square. 10 foot sphere. So I'm trying
to decide if I aim it high. You know what? She
is going to take it too. You did put yourself
in the middle. There's a reason why. I could
aim this up, I believe, but I'm not going to
for certain reasons. Which means everyone except
for Jaune is making a save. Oh, because it's
dex. And she has like a thousand dex. Dex save?
Dex save meets you. DC 13. Plus four. I'm going
to just roll it. That's a little better than
50 -50 for me. Come on, baby. Oh, natural two.
Oh, no. It's a two. Fuck. What do you got, Jules?
Oh, God. You also got to do one for Chester.
I know. I know. Oh, David, that's a nice drawing
of the... Oh, my God. I'm going to take a picture
so we can post this. I can just take a screenshot.
Yeah, do that. That'll be better. There you go.
God, do I use a button? I'm more scared that...
Fuck, I'm going to use a button. Oh, shit. Okay.
For who? Jules. Okay. Okay. I'll take your buttons.
I needed it. Okay. 13 on the die plus four. Wow.
That'll do it. First one was a six on the die
plus four. Oh, man. All right. Let me see here.
Let me see here. Okay. Fuck it. Fuck. Five on
the die. All right. This moss flies out. You
see this liquid. She throws the jar. It goes
flying as it smashes this clear liquid that's
filling it. It sort of sloshes out, and you see
little flecks of moss, like little green flecks
that land upon you like spores and just kind
of boom, explode, spreading rapidly, just covering
you. Jules, as this happens, you're able to weave
back, but Blanche, you were sort of in the moment
trying to weave in. Your offensive position essentially
puts you at risk of this. As you're kind of moving
in, already in stance to strike, this takes you
by surprise, sort of splashes off your blade,
and in that moment, you find yourself slow, which
is why you're kind of holding off an initiative
a little bit more than I can imagine you thought
you would be. Jaune, off to the side, just, no,
sir! Chester's, God damn, Jules! He just kind
of gets covered, and this thing just... sort
of covers you all. I'm going to roll some damage
now. 1d12 as it strikes you. And again, at the
start of your turns until this moss is gone.
Only four damage on both of you. Okay. As this
splashes around, roll me a perception check.
Another natural one. Okay. Getting them out of
the way. You can roll for Chester and Jaune as
well. God, a two. A two on the die. Chester got
17. Okay. Chester the wise. Chester's the only
one. He's kind of like reeling back from this,
kind of back against the wall. He opens his eyes
and looks around at you guys, assessing the situation,
looks down at the floor and hears the slight
creaking. The floor! It's eating through the
floor! Anything not metal. The floor is wood.
The floor is not metal. Diva Lula is making her
escape. Oh my god. Once this moss eats through
to a new exit. But that's all she's doing on
her turn. She just kind of splashes out at you
and she laughs a little bit. You'd be surprised
what a woman can hide in her makeup and perfume
kits. My mother taught me tricks aplenty. And
on that note, as she mentions those words, my
mother. That wind, that cold breeze filling this
room seems to strengthen. And somewhere just
outside the door to the south, into the sort
of main room, you can hear... Already? No. That
killed my throat. Good. You ass. You don't see
what happens out there. And that's going to be
Chester. Okay, is it D12? Oh, yes. Right. I'm
rolling my d12 out of the jar. Out of the jar.
Oh, it happens at the time and then at the beginning
of the turn? That is. Let me double check. I
think it said that you get a save first. Do you
get a save? After taking their damage. So you
take seven more damage on Chester. Jesus. Oh,
my God. Yeah. This is wild. Holy shit. So wait.
So if he passes this. Then he can use an action
to get rid of it. But he has to pass it. In order
to be able to do fucking hell. Then you get the
opportunity to... Oh, wow. Second button. Okay.
Wow. That shit's not fucking around. That shit's
not fucking around. Once you get inspiration
out there, that'll help a lot. Fuck me. Really?
Yeah. Holy shit. That was two. Twice. Oh my God.
Okay. Goodness gracious. Okay. And with that,
it's Chester's turn. What do you want to do?
He's still on it, but he can still see. He can
still act. He can still fight. Yeah, he's going
in for a melee with his warhammer. He just kind
of like... Pull it. I mean, he tries for a second.
He's like, ah, shit. And instead, he's just going
to pull out his weapon and just go in. Hell yeah.
It's only a nine. Nine to hit. Yep. Okay. We're
positioned in this awful way where... Yeah, we
did not choose these positions. Well, like, there's
four of us all next to Divaluma, but we don't
get flanking at all. Yeah. You can move around.
Well, right, somebody could move, but I'm saying,
yeah, it's funny. Pause the fight, guys. Let's
shuffle around. Here, you go here, because if
you go here, you can hit her from there. Diva
Luma, would you terribly mind stepping over here
so we can get a plus two? All right, fine. All
right, then. With that, moving on to Blanche
Trudeau. Blanche, what are you doing? All right.
You finally kind of brace yourself. Chester goes
into a swing, and that kind of gets you in a
position where you can move. Maybe he, like,
breaks a moss that's kind of holding back your
foot. Oh my God, the buttons are coming out.
Flashback. What? Ooh. What? Okay. Ooh. Okay.
Pay my button for flashback. We did institute
the flashback rule, right? You did. You did.
I did. I did that. The flashback rule is in effect.
You had time before you split off to make plans
to do what you had to do. We had plenty of time
not looking at these characters on the screen.
What didn't we see? When Blanche realizes in
the salon what's happening and who the bad guy
is. As she's running up the hall, she reaches
into her pocket and she pulls out the vial of
phase spider venom. Holy shit. And applies it
to her blade. Nice. Holy shit. Okay. Okay. So
now here, with true strike already cast, as a
bonus action, she's going to cast shadow blade.
using my final third -level spell slot, and then
she'll go in for an attack with her sword. Shadow
Blade would be a different weapon, correct? It
doesn't coat your sword in shadow. It just creates
a blade of shadow. Hold on. I think you can use
it on a thing. Okay. I'm honestly fine ruling
that way anyway because that's cooler. Your damage
changes to Shadow Blade's damage. Right. You're
totally right. I thought it like turned your
thing into a thing, but it says you weave together
threads of shadow to create a sort of solidified
gloom in your hand. Solidified gloom is the coolest.
That hits so hard. I'm okay ruling it. That's
going to cover your blade. You're going to lose
your plus one when you're attacking with this
from your sword, but you will gain the poison
benefit. I'll allow that much. Okay. All right.
You're putting points into this. Okay, that's
fine. I'm happy with that. Honestly, honestly,
flashback to bring back the face spider venom?
Face spider venom! Honestly, I'll say it, really,
really great circumstance to do it. Take your
button back. Take your button back. I'll give
you a button for this. This is pretty cool. This
is pretty cool. That. That never happens. I didn't
even have to remind you because I was just about
to say that deserves a button. It deserves a
button. Hey, what can I say? All right. I'm using
my jar. You used your jar. There's a jar of superior
healing here, too. Let's bring all Andrew's jars
out tonight. So it's only a plus seven to hit
now. But that's okay because I got advantage
because true strike. That's true. Okay. So 19
was the first, which I'm. Oh, 17 on the die plus
7, so. Yeah, you're good. You hit. We're good.
So. Holy shit, this is going to hurt. Yeah, the
shadow blade is 3d8 plus whatever the hell this
spider venom is. Is that 4d8? That is 4d8. It's
4d8. Right out of the jar. Oh, my God. Hold on,
so that's 4. Here's 5. I need two more d8s. Oh,
he's adding to the jar. Okay. My hope is that
we can put Diva Luma down in one hit. Because
she just came back from consciousness. I will
tell you, Diva Luma does not look fully there.
She's not fully healed. She's very injured still.
We can't kill her outright, though. I don't care
right now. I know, but we know what happens when
she dies. What happens when she dies? The Biza
goes out of control. The Biza goes fucking crazy.
I thought the Biza was already here. It is. It's
going to kill everybody. What's the Beezer going
to do when she's dead that it's not going to
do right now? I guess the only thing is you wouldn't
have any chance to negotiate the Beezer out of
this. If she goes down, this thing has to be
dealt with through phantom violence. Huh, okay.
I didn't realize negotiation was... All right,
well, you know what? Let's roll all the D8s and
let's take it as it comes. She doesn't seem like
she's willing to negotiate anymore anyway. She
wants Jules. She wants Jaune. She wants Xenia.
Maybe she wants you. Here we go. Holy moly, it's
a lot of dice. There are a lot of twos. Oh, no.
But there's a lot of them. 26 is the total. Wow.
With four twos. I do get to make a save to take
half damage from the poison, I realized. Ah,
yes. I'm going to try to make that save. I'm
basing it off of the face spider venom. Here's
the fun thing, though. I want to point out, this
is really cool. And also, if we need to have
the damage, I have the colored die to tell us
exactly which ones are the poison. This is also
really cool. In the last combat, while you never
really end up utilizing it, Jules burned all
of D .Va Luma's legendary resistances. Hell yeah.
And that's once a day. They are not back from
that short rest. Do not get to override this.
I want to know if this will kill her if she fails.
That is a close... No, no, Nikon is not as high
as I thought. No, I fail. Excellent. I have taken
the full damage. How much was it? 26. Holy moly.
She is still up. No! But that looked like it
hurt. This drove into her, the venom, this blue
venom pulsates kind of off the edge of the blade
into her veins until her eyes open wide. The
poisoner poisoned... I love it. You. You. Holy
shit. Following that is Jules. Alright, Jules
is going to use his bonus action to cast Bardic
Inspiration onto Blanche. That's pretty good.
And then he's going to use his action. So, I
don't think I've ever used this spell. I think
this is the first time I'm going to use it. Oh?
What is this? I'm going to cast Enhance Ability
onto Jester. Excellent. I'll read this real fast.
Oh, yeah, I'm next to Jester. You touch a creature
and bestow upon it a magical enhancement. Choose
one of the following effects. And then there's
a list of effects you can have. I am choosing
Cat's Grace. The target has advantage on dex.
Ah, shit, never mind. Oh, you thought it was
saving throws? It's not saves. Damn. It's checks.
Okay, okay. There's actually something I really
wanted to look into for this. I actually didn't
know you had that. Give me a quick second. I
want to look up one thing real fast because there's
something here I might be able to give you that
I've been kind of cooking for a while. So just
two minutes. Two minutes, gentlemen. Okay. All
right. I grabbed a beer. Good use of your two
minutes. I had time. So here's the thing with
Enhance Ability, right? For the most part, I
think it's a reasonable spell. But there is one
that gives you advantage on... Constitution checks,
correct? Correct. This is a weird little homebrew
thing. At least I'm willing to do this right
now. Somebody wants to argue with me about it
later on, tell me it's a bad idea, please go
ahead. But this is a second -level slot, and
this is... A third -level slot. Third level.
Are you upcasting it? It's third level. And we
are dealing with a homebrew potion. Yes, that's
what I was going to say. If we're dealing with
a homebrew potion, other homebrew rules should
apply. Here's my homebrew thing. Okay. Strength
checks. You know, that's going to help a lot.
Athletics checks, this and that. Dexterity checks
you're going to use to get over things. And a
lot of skill checks rely on dexterity. Constitution
has no fucking checks. Constitution checks, advantage
on that, is essentially the most useless thing.
I'm going to say that if you cast the Constitution
variety of this, I'll give you advantage on saving
throws. I think that's what you want to cast
because that is what your saving throw against
the Moss will be now that it's already covered,
Chester. Okay. Right in. Tell us about your constitution
checks. Yeah. If you can have a constitution
check, please let me know. I just can't think
of one. I can't think of one. It's always reactive
when you use con. You drank poison or you're
going to drown or something, or you're running.
I guess maybe if you're running a long time,
you might argue that's a con check to like it
around that. But some people might also use saving
throws because you're still reacting to the environment.
I don't know. It's a whole thing. Let's not get
into it right now. Steven. All right, cool. So
instead of cat's grace, I'm going to use bears
endurance. The target has advantage on con checks.
It also gains 2d6 temporary hit points. Whoa.
Which are lost when the spell ends, which is
concentration for an hour. That's really cool.
Yeah. Earl 2d6. Oh, Chester. Chester. Chester.
It didn't go all the way through. I was going
to say, I was like, you're looking like you lost
it or something. It just went into the dice dimension.
All right, so that's seven. Rolling into Narnia.
Seven, okay. Chester just kind of, whoa, whoa,
hey, whoa, whoa. Oh, man, I feel great. Oh. I've
been working out. Muscles up a little bit. Just
body gets a little firmer. He feels like less
pain from this moss eating him. He's like, all
right, yeah. That's pretty damn cool. All right.
And that's my turn. That is Jules. Good turn,
sir. Actually, hold on. Can I jump on? Oh, no,
I can't. She's in front of me. Never mind. I
was going to jump onto the chaise lounge, too.
Get on the chaise lounge. I'm just realizing
that you didn't do your d12 to Blanche at the
start of her turn. Oh, I did not. You only did
it when the bell. Well, I'm sorry, but like...
Five. Cool, great. Yeah, good stuff. Hey, you
know what? You could have tried taking it off,
but you didn't. You wanted to get some damage
in, honestly. Good on you. Well, I know. I'm
still trying to think about... Honestly, Jeremy,
good on you. That's a cool spell. Thank you.
I know you had that spell. Thank you. I like
that spell. Thank you. Take a button for that
spell. Thank you. Yeah, take a button. There
you go. I'm generous tonight. We're getting crazy
up in here. We're getting crazy. We never do
buttons during combat. I never do. I guess I
like you guys tonight. It's been a rough summer.
He's just butting us up because he's about to
kill us. Yeah. Oh, butter, butter. Butter, butter.
Grab me the knife. Okay, then. I'm going to sound
kind of fun here. Don't. I wish you would. Yeah,
what comes after that is never good. I'm going
to show you the players, not the characters,
what's happening outside the doors. Oh, yeah.
We need to like. Oh. We pan as. This moment happens.
Chester is strengthened as him and Blanche are
being consumed by this moss that's eaten away
at the floorboards beneath. Jaune's standing
at the ready. Blanche, I mean, just struck. We
pan out of that room and just outside. You might
have been wondering why when you heard that howling,
this scream from outside, this strange creature,
why you didn't hear any other screams. No voices
at all. But you see, outside the room, Harlan
has indeed been listening, as ordered. And what
you have not been seeing is the flashes of hand
movement between him and other officers. And
the quiet evacuation that has been happening
just outside. The royals have been split up and
sent down different hordes. quietly as to not
give away their movements to the killer. Dude,
the silent verse actually did their job. Dude.
She told Harlan to listen. I can't ignore that.
I was going to say, dude. You kept her talking.
What if we had brought him in earlier? High five.
Holy shit. You kept her talking. Holy shit. The
various royals can split up different parties.
There's two silent verse officers that can join
each group as they're being led quietly, carefully,
through the palace, outside different exits.
They're... getting out. I suddenly feel much
better about this whole thing. Well, yeah. I
mean, not for our purposes, but... The innocent
people are not there anymore. Yes. For the most
part. For as you peek out and you see, like,
this, uh... this creature screaming and screeching
appears. You see this hazy, like, red spirit.
Well, you see players. Characters don't see this
yet. It's a hazy red spirit staying in the very
center of this room that has this sort of, like,
the shape of this older woman, but features sort
of lost in this kind of ever -shifting ethereal
mist that comes to surround it. Its mouth locked
open too wide in this constant, feral scream.
And it's... The phantom eyes bulging seem to
linger on the door. It moves towards it, reaching
out and then behind it. You see, we see an impression
sort of sink down on the shea lounge in the back
corner of the room towards the balcony as Harlan
Burnshadow appears from invisibility, launching
off like this and slides down onto this creature.
Harlan! Wanting redemption, Harlan stands with
you. Okay, I trust Harlan now. And you hear that.
You hear that from outside. You hear the scream.
You hear Harlan's shout as he comes in. I am
going to actually roll damage on this thing with
advantage from striking from invisibility. Because
Harlan is, it's actually Harlan's turn right
now. Excellent. I know, when you said I'm going
to do a couple rolls here, I was like, okay.
D .Va and the Biza, I'm guessing. First I get
advantage and lands. Whoa, way out the box. That
almost hit my foot, David. Both attacks are going
to land. Nice. He is not able to go big. He did
that already today. But Harlan is backing you
up. Let's do some damage. Not too shabby. 12
damage total he does as he strikes out. Oh, sorry.
It would have been 12 damage. Let me do something
about that. Hang on. Don't worry about it. That's
what I was thinking. This whole time I was like,
I wish Blanche knew more about Beezus or something.
What you don't see again is Harlan leaping off,
sliding in, strikes down with his sword once,
twice, sort of two -handing it. And as the red
haze parts between the blade, some of it sort
of dissipates. Most of it sort of re -coalesces.
His blade is not fully functional in this thing.
Proud Eden, this vengeful spirit turns her bulging
eyes, her long fingers towards him. But Harlan's
not done with this turn quite yet. Because up
to three allies with 120 feet of this duergar
that can hear it can use each of their reactions
to make one weapon attack with call to attack.
So you just hear, Rally, allies! Rally and fight!
And you guys feel this sort of like supernatural
energy coursing. You feel spurred on. All of
you can choose to make your reaction to attack.
Oh. Ooh. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yep. I'll take
it. I'll take it. Harlan is here. My reactions
are precious. I honestly just looked at it. I
forgot that I could. It was everybody. That is
insane. Yeah. It's a good thing I stashed it
against you this hard. It's a good thing. All
right, I'll take it. Yep. 19. 19 will hit. Excellent.
You didn't even make it in there. You just juggled.
I'm excited. Just juggling. What? 16 damage.
What? On 3d8. 5, 5, 6. Oh, absolutely ridiculous.
That is. For a reaction? Yeah. I'll take 16 damage.
Oh, my gosh. No. No. Not with a natural one.
Chester and Jaune can also make a good Jaune's
here. Okay. Oh, 19 on the die for Jaune. Nice.
That's pretty good. That will hit. When is Jaune's
damage going to go up? Oh. Five on the D6, plus
two. Seven. Seven damage, huh? All right. You
look like you're waiting to say something. Yeah.
Chess doesn't even make his A. Because Sean,
as Diva Luma's looking down to the floor, crouching
down, you can see she's about to run. The voice
of Harlan screaming out stops in her tracks.
She looks up in some kind of shock and surprise.
Things, once again, are not going as planned.
In that instant, in that moment, that flash,
Blanche strikes true again. Right where the venom
struck before. And then Jaune comes sliding in
with a spear. What's it look like when Jaune
finishes her off? Jaune, oh, how gross do I be?
Be gross. Be gross. She, Devaluma, maybe looks
over Blanche's shoulder. Wait, no, the door's
closed. There's no looking. Jaune pokes her.
That was so gross. That was, dude. That was,
that was, that was, that was excessive. I had
like this whole idea. It was like through the
doorway, like blood and stuff. And then it was
like, wait, door's closed. He just slides in,
stabs out, takes her like deep in the chest,
kind of off to the side. And she just kind of,
her eyes go wide. They fall on her like, nah.
And her head drops. Divaluma has fallen. But
the real threat lingers still outside. All right.
Following Harlan's turn. Because that was Harlan's
turn, crazy enough. Dude, Harlan's the man. MVP
Harlan. Harlan, take a button. Unfortunately,
Divaluma falls. As she does, you see the bees
just kind of... Well, I guess Harlan sees the
bees kind of snap ahead towards that direction,
just... Kind of go silent for a second. And then
with this last sort of ghostly scream, arms shoot
to the side, head rears up too high, just...
An echoing scream, a wail that carries all through
the manor, down every hall. We see that just
across the way from you here in this room. In
this closet, two have not escaped. What? Lorise
Serene and Amos Nier, refusing to bow to the
demands of the Dwarven Guard, refusing to listen
when Harlan demanded they leave. And now, as
they scream, like, they kind of look towards
each other. And suddenly, the shadows in this
room begin to sort of swirl. Together, something
begins to crawl, sliding up from the tendrils
of blackness, forming a shape, forming the shape
of a young man, a familiar man. Get out. Azra!
What? You! What are you? Just outside the room,
we see two duergar were standing at the ready
to protect if needed. Fyodor Popov standing with
them as another shadowy shape begins to crawl
up from down below. Another specter. What the
fuck? Downstairs. You would not know this, but
the specter that appears before Fyodor outside
the dressing room is that of Amal Mata, killed
by poisoned... bloodletters during a riot. What?
Downstairs. Oh, no. In the great entrance hall
as Margus, Xenia, and Samira charge towards the
way to Dwargar leading them. Two spirits appear
from the showers before them. There's a scream
from Samira as she looks to Mello, Ara, eyes
lost in death as he reaches forward. Xenia, no!
Mello! An Arlovim killed by his horse some time
ago appears behind them as well. They are boxed
in the duergar, turning to either side and towards
the back hall, right before the back exit, led
by two other silent -verse officers. DiPiero
and Ledoux stand before Jacopo Ain, killed this
very morning by his family's own poison guard,
who reaches towards them. Five. dead heirs five
specters claimed by the visa and now she's going
to use them we have to hope and believe that
killing i mean like our characters don't know
but right i steven i'm hoping and believing that
by if we're killing the visa yes they go away
to add to your lack of knowing i will say that
as these shadowy specters begin to reach forward
as they move in to engage This sort of veil of
swirling shadow sort of encompasses the area
around them. Locking them off from your sight,
I am blanking out the battles on the floor you
stand in. That's just rude. It is rude. What
happens in those fights? We'll find out later
because our camera is focused on this little
closet where Diva Luma has just fallen. And that's
going to be Jean Franklin. Okay. Talk to me about
opening doors. Object interaction. I don't care.
Okay. I don't care. Talk to me about pulling
moss off of other people. Action. Okay. And honestly,
it's a con save to pull it off yourself. And
because the pain, it's hard to like do it. I
want to say you can, as an action, you can take
it off somebody else. That just makes sense.
If you can do it to yourself, somebody else can
do it to you. Okay, great. Those are the two
things that I want John to do then. Oh, okay.
Nice. Who's he going for? You? For Blanche, yeah.
Blanche, okay. So Jean, he pulls a spear back
and he's already kind of like wiping this off
of you. Just pulls the moss off of your scaly
skin, off your shell. Just real quick few movements,
kind of tossed it down. His hand sort of burning
with it. And then he turns towards the door and
just smashes it open. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I
love that. Shoulder into the door. Door snaps
open, and all of you come to see Harlan Burnshout
standing towards the back of the room behind
this creature, this bee that stands in the middle,
wailing and screaming out. Does Jean have any
movement? He has 30 feet. Okay. It's going to
cost him. No, he's right at the door. Yeah, 30
feet. Right. So let's say that he shoulders through
the door and ends up, just based off of his momentum,
a couple squares. through the door next to Harlan.
Okay. I like that. Harlan, are you all right?
I'm glad you're here now. All right. Let's stand
together. Okay. Okay. This would be Diva Luma's
turn. But she's dead. She is very much dead.
You hear like the top of the round. You hear
the... It's just sort of fizzing as, like, this
moss, almost like an acid, is eating through.
You see parts of the floor begin to fall away.
In fact, I'm going to say, like, her body being
burned by this, you know, on the floor beneath
it. You see the floor beneath her, and that one
spot just burns out. The wood sort of falling,
and Diva Luma's body just collapses down. Then
down below, there's, like, a morning room. She'll
be, like, right down on top of some, like, coffee
table. Just smash! She's just gone. That has
got to lower the property value. Let's do something
fun. Let's do something very... There's that
phrase again. There we go again. Yes. Jaune stands
before the Beezer, who again, just like having
finished this wailing scream, this thing that's
more feral, more terrifying in its appearance.
And it spins around. It looks around at all of
you. Oh, who do I pick? Harlan and Blanche. That's
me. Yes. I need you to make... A saving throw.
I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Okay.
I'm going to make a wisdom saving throw. And
I have my bardic that I can use after the roll
but before the result. After the roll, before
the result, and with a saving throw. Wait. What?
Don't make the throw yet. Because I want to describe
what's going to happen to you. I want to describe
to you why you're making that saving throw before
you make it. We see Harlan, this thing like reaches
out, hand kind of outstretched. Maybe there's
some of this red mist like flies throw off in
a beam kind of covering his features for a moment.
His eyes close. I'll make his throw first. Oh,
excellent. He does fail. Good, good. I needed
that. Harlan's features sort of darken as he
turns towards Jaune. Just you, you. This rage
building veins. And he slides in to attack. I
hate the visa. Oh, you're going to hate the visa
so much. That's why you gave me the button back.
That will miss, though, with a 16. Okay. I mean,
good, I think. Jean just turns and it parries
off his shield as he kind of leans backwards,
the blow almost taking him. But Blanche, you
don't see this. You don't see any of this because
as this haze strikes you, as your eyes fill with
this red, I want you to tell me one thing that
you just really don't like about Jules LaRoche.
What's something that annoys you about Jules
LaRoche? A habit of his? Something. I just wish.
I mean, it's the first thing you do when you
get up in the morning. You should make your bed.
You've already gotten one task out of the way
accomplished to start the day. I'm just going
to mess it up at night again. Memories of little
tidbits of argument flooding into your mind.
Slovenly. He has no discipline. Obviously grew
up on the streets. Obviously just never learned
to be a soldier. You think about this and it
fills you with this rage, this anger. And with
your blade already set to shadow strike. You
ass. You feel your hands turning. towards him,
your blade pointing towards him because you're
just so very mad. Go ahead and make your save,
Blanche. Wisdom? It is wisdom. It is wisdom.
Oh. Oh. Oh! It will come there.