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the city of hell. Storms are, many would say,
an ill omen in our conquered worlds. Don't be
so, following Tithos. But I'm here to assure
you that the Shrine of Storm stands as a celebration
not of destruction, but of beauty. It is an altar
to the Great Turtle Sage, a powerful being in
the history of Omizu that protected the island
nation and facilitated the prosperity and growth
of its people. As such, it is a deeply sacred
place, and very few are allowed to tread within
its walls. One can understand how dark rumors
could be spread, though, when few know it really
lies beyond the shrine's main gates. I wouldn't
suggest trying to take a peek, though. The shrine's
defenses are said to be nigh impregnable, and
its guardians are fierce, especially one particular
god who is known to be quite diligent and very
ferocious. You know what I'm talking about. Who
are you talking about? Yeah, who are you talking
about, Dave? You don't know. You don't watch
TV. You'll find out. Do these characters, Kristen,
doesn't watch TV? Nah, they're too busy. Too
busy being fucking action heroes. How do you
think they unwind at night when they're done
adventuring around? Cocaine. Wow. You're not
wrong. These are action heroes. We're in the
action. genre arc now, all right? Because I got
bored of the other stuff. So we're doing something
new. We're doing crazy shit. Everybody put on
your sunglasses. Put on your sunglasses. Get
ready. I know you're probably thinking, wait,
didn't we leave off with some pretty dark things
moving in? We did. We'll get to that later, soon.
Let me recontextualize what did happen real fast
because I think where we left off could be a
little confusing. We left off. Basically, we
saw ahead in time just a touch because I wanted
to give you guys a premonition of what's to come.
We saw from the Jules and Blanche perspective
that very soon a crisis will strike the Concord
worlds. The diamond will shine red. Orin will
go out on the network, speaking to all worlds.
And all worlds will enter this red alert, this
crisis mode, as perhaps Umizu is about to fall.
We... Cut from there, a little bit back in the
past, before all that happens, to the Shrine
of Storms just before it, where we see, perhaps
unrelated to all of this, Crispin and Dresden
are about to engage in a wild mission. The Shrine
of Storms overtaken by pirates? You had intel
this was going to happen, and we're going to
touch on that. But you're about to engage in
this, and as we see them about to engage, we
peel back and back and back, and we see, far
behind them, soon approaching, Ojin Yoshikatsu.
the storm eye our characters know nothing of
this but our players and i love this our players
understand that very soon they'll be in a dire
situation but they must proceed as if they do
not know so we're fighting pirates and ozen oh
and so much more gentlemen and so much more thanks
david oh yeah yeah yeah yeah i'm excited um before
we get to all that though get a little banter
topic Now, it's a question that I know the answer
to Steven, and we'll get to Steven. So I want
to ask you first, Jeremy. Yeah. Have you ever
played paintball? Yeah, of course. Oh, yeah.
Okay. All right. What's your past with paintball?
Wait, what? What's your history? How long you
play it for? Like one game. You made it sound
like you were a pro. It hurt. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Well, yeah, I've played paintball. Okay. All
right. You were asking me, was I a pro paintball
player? You made it sound like you were. You
sound so cool. I just thought it was something
that everybody's played at least once in their
lives. You know, I have an answer to that that
might be weird and sad. Now, I know Steven here.
You've played some paintball. Yeah, there was
like two or three years where I would go maybe
a couple times a summer with family. The first
time we ever played, you know, it's like me and
my uncles and my cousins who are, you know, not
like super athletes. You know what I mean? We
were out there to have fun. We're at this, you
know, like paintball arena. So it's very organized
and there's refs and stuff like that. And our
very first match is against a group of guys who
just got back from like Marine boot camp. And
we got, I mean, obviously completely annihilated.
We were in the woods. And I remember at one point
I finally saw this guy, but I only saw him because
he like popped up, did some hand signals and
then popped down. And then like. off to his side
another guy popped up did some hand signals pointed
to me and popped it like we didn't make eye contact
or anything but he knew exactly what point to
me and then popped down and then like five seconds
later i got shot a bunch they're just like you're
surrounded they try they try to like you know
pair teams up by like skill level and there just
weren't a lot of teams there that day so we got
shot a lot yeah I remember we played paintball
once. He tried to get me into it, and I was like
so hype all about it. Worked all summer, bought
myself a paintball gun, got a helmet, got all
the armor. I was ready to go. We had names. We
had names for ourselves. We were going to call
ourselves when we became paintball legends. You
were going to be the sniper. I don't remember
this. I don't remember your sniper name. I don't
remember this. Do you remember your sniper name?
No, I don't even remember us having names. I
had a name. I had a nickname I really wanted
to play for paintball. I just remember. What's
the nickname? I wanted to be the crazy bastard,
assault rifle, getting up in the business. I
wanted to be that guy. And I had a name. I don't
know why. I was so fixated on the name. Can you
guess it? Can anyone guess this name? No. No.
You can't. No. I wanted to be called David Monroe,
a .k .a. Sweetheart. Oh, my. What? No, I don't
remember that. How old were we? Too old. Far
too old. So I was all geared up. Sweetheart was
fucking ready to pounce. We went out in the backfield
behind my house and we had one brief paper match.
We're just shooting, shooting. You hit me in
the leg, I think, once to end it off. And I was
like, I'm never playing paintball again. Sweetheart
is out. Big old bruise. It hurts so bad. Yeah,
it hurts. I was done. Oh, my God. Gun went to
storage. Helmet just sat on my shelf for the
next five years. Yeah. I don't know. Probably
still there. I was hoping one of you would have
an embarrassing story. I mean, I think mine was
pretty embarrassing. I got trounced. Yeah, by
fucking Marines. All right. Sure. Damn. I don't
want to be around you right now. I don't even
know you. Well. That was humiliating for me alone.
Good. Good. I remember shooting you in your backyard.
You son of a bitch. I feel like... No, hold on.
I feel like it got to the point where you were
like, okay, I want to see what it feels like.
Shoot me. And I feel like you just stood there,
didn't you? I remember asking you, like, I don't
think we should do this. And you were like, no,
no, no. I just want to see what it feels like.
Yeah. Well, you shouldn't have shot me. And tonight,
This night. Is when you finally get your revenge.
I'll have my revenge, yes. Because we're going
to the Shrine of Storms. And things are about
to get crazy. We have one matter to attend to
before, though. I know. Let me get the music
going. Yeah. It's not going. Well, I have the
fader down right now. That explains it. Yeah.
Yeah. Let me do a hand signal. Yeah, you didn't
give me your little signal to go up. Oh, baby.
Because before we actually get into this ride,
once again, because I love all this time finagley,
let's cut back in time one more time. Because
we've got to catch up on Crispin and Dresden.
What have these guys been up to? We haven't seen
them since San Sitian. That's a whole arc and
a half ago. So I'll put this here right now.
Dresden and Crispin know everything that was
just revealed to Jules and Blanche. following
your conversation with Sholay, where she told
you she wanted you to go speak to the Incarnates
with her blessing to learn the truth of these
worlds, and they could deepen your understanding
of your own abilities. They could make you a
better Mazir Drakon, and a better whoever the
hell you are, Dresden. You learn more about yourself.
You learn that the latent sort of falsehood of
these creatures carry an enormous amount of magic
within them. Their souls, again, are like sort
of imbued within their bodies in some cases,
like perhaps here at the Shrine of Storms. And
certainly below the Citadel, the soul can sort
of be pushed almost like stoking a flame to burn
hotter and brighter. The soul can sort of be
pushed out of the fossil, creating this grand
storm. There is a lot of magic innate to these
things, like divine, powerful magic. Zavar must
have been doing something to awaken the magic,
just in that one fragment he had, something to
really just like bring it to life, create some
kind of dangerous weapon. When that fragment
embedded itself in Dresden, in that flashback,
it responded to your wish and it gave you this
power, a power purely fueled by the fossil, by
the magic inside of it. Your echo grows stronger
with you because that magic, the magic of these
serpents, a tiny fraction of it, exists within
Dresden. Crispin, you're a very different matter.
You have no innate magic to you, but you have
some ability, one that was carried by many long
ago, but very, very few still retain it, to converse
with the serpents, with the dead of the serpents.
You have this innate connection to the world
and to the beings that once controlled it. And
so, that time on God's breath, you realize you
were speaking to one of the covenant gods. It
must have been buried in the swamp just beneath
your feet, deep within the murk and mire. So
cool. That day when it helped you tear apart
those undead, monstrous crocodiles, the day that
it spoke to you, those words, We will be sure
to come again. It gave you a mission. Unite the
pieces. It wanted to come back together. It wanted
the world to come back together. Some dying and
lingering last. wish, and will that it begged
you to see through. So you've met with the Incarnates.
You've learned their story. You've learned more
about yourselves and your roles. And you've gotten
stronger in the meantime. So let's start with
level ups, shall we? Crispin and Dresden are
both level 6 as well now. Oh yeah. Hell yeah.
So I want to hear about your level ups. And I
want to roll some HP, huh? Let's roll. Who wants
to start? Who wants to be our first level guy?
I don't think that a whole lot happened for Crispin
at this level up. I got another spell. So we're
level six, but I'm one level barbarian and level
five druid. So while it was a good level up for
me, it wasn't anything insane. Okay. Oh, HP.
Oh, yeah. Something more. No, I really got another
level three spell slot, and that's pretty much
it. That's pretty cool. That's pretty cool. Yes,
let's do HP. You are a D8 at this point, correct?
D8, yes. Okay. Let me pull up my... I don't know
why I'm giving you guys a double roll with Crispin.
Crispin Tuffy Dua over there. Yeah, but no, we've
looked at the potential values and I'm lower
than the total average. You son of a... Ready
for this? Ready for this? I am ready. First time
rolling HP in the new dice, right? Yeah, the
new tower. And for Crispin, at least for right
now, I'm bringing back my Labradorite die, my
Zebulon die. I just feel like it's time to use
them again a little bit. So I don't know if they're
just going to be Crispin's die or what exactly
I'm going to do. I guess we'll see how they roll.
It's so funny when Crispin dies and the curse
continues. That is cracked. Three. Five. Okay,
I'll take five. Not bad at all. Okay, that's
Crispin out of the way. Brings me to 64. 64,
damn. Yeah, you don't need my five. Okay, man.
I'll take care of that. Dresden Kellegg, my friend.
Yeah, Dresden didn't get a whole shit ton, but
he did get another feat. That's a shit ton. Okay,
that is a shit ton. And I chose Sentinel. That's
pretty cool. So I get, you know, standard ability
score increase, but then I also get Guardian,
which is immediately after a creature within
five feet of you takes the disengage action or
hits a target other than you with an attack,
I get an A -O -O. I believe that will not prop
with your Echo, but I believe the other part
of the feat will. The other part, which is Halt,
when you hit a creature with an A -O -O, the
creature's speed becomes zero for the rest of
the current turn. That's amazing. So if the Echo
takes an A -O -O on a fleeing creature, it's
no longer fleeing. Yep. Uh, mean. Very mean.
Okay. Uh, HP. What, uh, you say 1d10? You are
a d10, sir. Please tell me you rolled higher
than a fucking 2. You rolled a 10. I rolled an
8. 8. Nice. Not bad. Still good. That's great.
Yeah, that's great. Okay. I'll take that over
a fucking two. These two have powered up. We
actually did some payout and some prep for these
characters kind of off screen here. We did some
bartering here. I think you guys got some pretty
cool stuff. You want to talk about what you got
with your payout from both arcs? Because you
got some payout during the meanwhile, right?
I think you gave me 500 gold on top of what you
made after San Satyan. It's kind of like a show
lay bonus. You're working for her now. You've
done stuff for her and you're about to go on
a mission for her. In order to suit up, she gave
you a little gold to cover some expenses, get
you some new gear. What are you sporting now,
Dresden? Dresden is now sporting plate armor.
Oh, yeah, which brings my AC up to 20. 20 AC.
20 AC. Yeah, that is nuts. It is wild. Plate
armor is not cheap. I just read it. It's $1 ,500.
No, it's $1 ,500. But we had some bartering,
and I was like, you know what? I'll bring it
down because you're working for Sholay. We make
things happen. She found you a deal. Now Dresden's
broke as fuck. Yeah, that's it. You have no money.
Zero. No money. He's got to call Jules. Yeah,
yeah. Get his allowance. Crispin, you want to
talk about what you got? Yeah, Crispin is also
broke. You want to keep it vague and mysterious?
Kind of, sort of, but I want to keep it vague
and mysterious and fun, too. I like that. So
imagine this. Whoa. In our travels. You can't
do that. That's my thing. In our travels, I imagine,
you know, a conversation between Crispin and
Sholay where he's asking her where he can find
something rare, something coveted. And she gives
him. a location in the Radiant Citadel. Maybe
it's down a deep and dark alley, down some stairs
and through a door. And Crispin gets there and
he's speaking to the man over the counter who
reaches down. He pulls out a small, you know,
a vial with some flower in it. And it's, you
know, dried and it looks all gnarled. It looks
poisonous, you know what I mean? Like it's just
a scary looking thing. So he pulls it out and
puts it in a little bag for Crispin. Crispin
hands him a small fortune. And you see later
that night, Crispin begins to use it and attune
to it. What he does is he prepares this flower
into a tincture sort of thing and dips a needle
into it. He pulls his bandana down and his ears
flop. And you see late into the night, he's meticulously
dipping the needle into this flower and tattooing
the inside of his ear. It's so cool. Damn. It's
so cool. So now when he puts his bandana back
on, you can see his big ears flopping down his
back. And depending on how he moves, you just
might catch the glimpse of a tattoo on the inside
of his ear. I never thought about this. It barely
matters at all. You guys must be staying somewhere
in the meantime. I imagine Shelly's got you set
up at the Crystallion. I forgot about the Crystallion.
Crystallion. So you've got this beautiful hotel
in Aurora Town and probably like right there
in the mirror of like the crystal mirror. Nah,
but he was doing it somewhere dark and cool.
The lights are all off. For some reason, it's
like, you know, you wouldn't want to see what
you're doing. He's on like this boiler room.
Yeah, or on the back balcony in the moonlight
or something moody. Wind blowing his fur everywhere.
Yeah, exactly. It looks so off from what you
want it to be like. And this music is playing
in the background. And only because you brought
it up earlier, but did Crispin snort the rest
of that? It's so funny because I was over there
and I just came from work at a restaurant and
you said flour and all I could think was baking
flour. I was like, where the hell is this flour?
Where are you going with this? What are you talking
about? Really? Bacon bread. I thought the same
thing too. No, man. Kristen's a forager. He's
always out looking for plants and herbs. You
said flour. I thought white powder. Oh my gosh.
Goddamn. She's got a full bread ear. No, I imagine
like this crumpled, gnarled, big black flour.
Sorry, two out of three of us thought something
else. All right, well. Yeah, it's like fuck me,
I guess. It's almost a cool scene. I thought
it was cool. Hell yeah. Okay, so you guys powered
up. And then from there, we'll cut to maybe a
scene inside the sort of cavernous horde of Sholay.
A horde of, again, it's information, files and
cabinets and recording diamonds all around. It's
pretty neatly stacked in some ways, kind of off
to the sides of those sort of pathways moving
through this room. Sholay does not deal in wealth.
She deals in knowledge. And there is knowledge.
everywhere around you. You can't touch any of
it. Not allowed. Perhaps in the middle of her
room, she has like a desk she sets up and you
guys are kind of sitting on one side of it as
she's telling you, giving you a quick rundown
of what's going to happen. I have work for you
to test your new abilities if you're willing.
Where do we go now? Umizu, the Shrine of Storms.
I've received intel. That kind of almost like
winces. She says the next word. The Gluminaries.
Stupid. Pirate captains Crimson and Azure are
going to make a move upon the Shrine of Storms.
From what I understand, they have a surefire
way to get in. I don't know how it's possible.
The Shrine is nigh impregnable. Very dangerous.
What? Sorry, it's just the second time. Yeah,
you wanted to use that twice. It's cool. It's
cool to say. It's just a very specific... I've
heard that. I've heard that. The Shrine is not
written. I was watching all of it earlier. Oh,
wait, we got an episode title now. That's actually
pretty good. Hell yeah. We cannot warn the Shrine.
Crimson and Agile have been extremely difficult.
to get hold of, and they have caused an immense
amount of damage. Stolen many goods amongst the
ports of Umizu. We must catch them in the act
when they are trapped within. Apart from that,
my sources cannot be found out. It must happen
after the fact. You must seem like you were wandering
nearby. Perhaps you were visiting Umizu on some
pilgrimage. You happened to hear a commotion
in the shrine, and so you, being luminaries of
the citadel, felt legally obligated to step inside
these sacred grounds. And I do not believe anyone
would have a problem with that. I have been meaning
to ask to take some PTO. Wonderful. While you
are inside, perhaps in trade for your services
in ridding the shrine of criminals, you might
take a look around. Perhaps... peek into the
innermost sanctum, learn anything you can about
Ozen, who he's been meeting with, any strange
behaviors you may have had. You can speak to
anyone there. It is very hard to learn anything
about the inner workings of the shrine, but it
could further our objectives to know more. While
you're there... Should we bring a recording diamond?
I dare say you should. She slides one across
the table for you. Do not be seen using it. Why
don't you hold on to this? I feel like it'd be
safe in your hands. Also, my stealth is only
a plus two, so... Oh, I thought I had negative
foot. I got a plus three, so... It's that dex,
baby. Yeah, so Dresden takes the diamond. With
plate, though, do you have disadvantage on stealth?
I do. But sleight of hand won't be affected,
right? Nope. There you go. It's just stealth.
One more thing. These gloominaries. I mentioned
catching them in a trap when they can't escape.
You will do no catching. You will kill them.
They need to die. Why is that? You don't need
to question this order. Truly, do you? They are
dangerous criminals. See them dead. I'm trying
to think of... God damn it, David. Well, on such
a mission as deadly and dangerous as this one,
perhaps we could equip ourselves with a little
more than an extra 500 gold pieces. Don't you
think? Oh. I made your deals and your payouts.
What do you want? What do you want? I don't know.
Potion or something? She just asked us to kill
people. Kill men. I mean, come on. You can't
ask somebody to draw, like, to take life and
not be like, oh, and you get a bonus. You've
got to get a real catch -22 here, right? Because
it's bullshit if it's like, roll persuasion to
have your patron give you a potion who's rich.
But, like, I can't give you all the things. All
right. Then she says no, then. No. You know what?
I'll give you each a potion of greater healing.
Hey, look at that. Oh, hey. A little something
extra. In all honesty and fairness, I do have
one. You can have another one. Okay, cool. I'm
not worried about it. Well, now I feel like I
bullied you out of it. No, I'm not worried about
it. Oh, jeez. Why did I even try? I also had
potions. I was going to give you later on. I'm
just going to not give you those now. Just give
her a different source. As we get those potions,
Dresden will look over to Sholay. It's just self
-defense. Very good. I knew I could trust your
discretion. Now then. Sorry, I didn't mean to,
uh... What's it called? Blackmail you. I appreciate
your tenacity. Very few will ask for more from
me now. Maybe she slides like a document across.
This will give you the time estimate and what
knowledge I have of the adversary in the shrine.
It's not much. Both the shrine and the gloominaries
are extremely secretive. Information on them
is very elusive, which is why I'm eager to see
what you can bring me upon your return. This
could be very dangerous. You should probably
send us with some plus two weapons, Dan. Out!
Out! Just eyebrow raise and we cut the scene.
We cut the scene. Before we get back to where
we are now, I will say two more things. One,
I am now once again initiating flashbacks. You've
got time to prepare for this. Is there anything
else you might have done beforehand going to
the shrine? Any information we might have gotten
beforehand? We can flashback forward with a button.
One more thing, too. As you're about to enter
this dangerous mission, Crispin, do you think
you'd use augury? Yeah, absolutely. Maybe, like,
a ways down the dark gray sands of this beach,
dropping the tea leaves near the water. How do
you do this? No, this time he's going to collect
a couple small things. the edge of the water.
And in his hands, he's going to shake and roll
some periwinkles onto the sand and read those.
It's like you roll them. Wheel and woe. The woe
is larger than the wheel. The wheel? Right? Wheel
and woe? I'll tell you. Saying wheel alone sounds
weird. yeah it's wheel and well wheel for wheel
for good results whoa for bad results uh the
woe sign is much larger than the wheel sign as
if like there is much hardship ahead but a spark
of something fortunate at the end of it and as
you look down on this i think a rogue wave kind
of almost like supernaturally far reaching its
hands fingers up the coast splashing into it
and so that they may sort of ships so cool before
it washes away you see a symbol that Simply means
death. Ah, shit. You almost don't know if you
saw it. It was this flash of an instant of like
a skull -like symbol. And maybe, just maybe,
behind it, a jagged streak like a lightning bolt
washes away. Dresden, say your prayers tonight.
I don't know if we're coming back from this one.
I'm getting better at that. Damn. Damn it. I
had something I was going to say, but then I
forgot it when you said that. Fuck. Come on.
Say something cool on the spot. Now all I can
think of is Justin turns over and says, ride
or die. Fuck, that's cool. No, no, no. Here's
a good one. Here's a good one. I don't pray.
Ooh, that's a good one. That's a good one. Come
on, David. You got one? We should give those
potions back. I feel kind of bad about it. I
feel like that was a little dishonest. Guys,
give me my voice back. Sorry. Prayers have no
place here. Yeah. And we see them moving up.
The document tells you right around the time
this is supposedly going to happen. It's weird.
This intel is so good. Whoever surely has is
like an actual like, like, like, Contact here
must be very proficient. You stand upon the beach,
perhaps like you're a little ways away and you
think you hear something. You know, you're kind
of watching the ocean. You never see something
approach the gate of the shrine or the side.
There's a sea gate coming on the side. You can
see the shrine from a distance. It's basically
just this huge, like sleek black walls, maybe
40 feet high, that kind of crest out into a sort
of sloping roof that surrounds the entire thing,
roof of like pure metal. Looks like some kind
of copper. The whole shrine is roofed in? No,
just the wall that surrounds it. Oh, okay. Yes,
it's an open -up shrine. There's a wall. There's
two main gates, each with two... For no reason.
For no reason. There's two main gates, each with
two doors into the shrine itself, gleaming red
doors that push through into this grand open
courtroom, courtyard. courtyard the second one
you know like a shrine i think a shrine would
have one edge of the shrine the the uh eastern
edge just rests on the uh side of the ocean the
waves splashing against it there's like a a seawall
that kind of surrounds a large amount of the
shrine so it's got its own kind of inner sort
of tidal pool and you can actually see like around
the shrine the around this tidal pool the water
is choppy like It looks like waves are pushing
away very fiercely, like a sort of constantly
moving wave pool. You'd see it at any water park.
Ships could not get near this thing. The waves
are splashing out. The seawall itself looks like
some steps lead into the shrine. But again, there's
no place to dock. It doesn't seem like this is
really meant to be an entrance at all, but there
is an opening there. At the back of the shrine,
where it basically touches into this grand sort
of cliff that juts up from the beach. You see
the shrine, like the wall just reaches there
and kind of ends, but it looks like perhaps beyond
what you can see, it pushes into a small cavern.
It looks like it pushes into the mountainside.
Okay. That, you would guess, is the innermost
sanctum. You can make it out from where you stand.
It's just like you can just see the shape of
it as it touches. Maybe you scouted the exterior,
saw that. And that's what you know. But you are,
maybe after scouting this place, you're sitting
out waiting. You never see anyone approach, never
see anything happen. But you begin to hear strange
sounds. Maybe like a few screams. Maybe like
a weird sound, like a release of breath or like
wind. Just like very magical. And you begin to
approach. And just as you're getting up close
to the shrine, we hear. You stand before the
gates and you bump fists. Hell yeah. And as you
bump fists, as you prepare to step within, a
voice rings out from behind you. So, you would
dare to frivolously touch paws in celebration
of your crimes. You spin around to see this big,
beautiful, badass, floofy dog. You see this dog.
Looks like an Akita. I don't know if you know
that. Yeah. Big, fluffy dog. It's got this snoot
eyes and face. They're all kind of black. Or
it's fur kind of takes on that model sort of
gray fading to a lighter white. It's got little
butts. It's just pure white fur. Tail. looking
around. It's wearing actually half -plate armor.
Looks like semi -plate. This dark blue armor,
like, tinted armor. And you see, like, there
are, like, straps going across with a few, like,
weird objects that are strapped to the dog in
a full, within reach of its mouth, kind of hanging
off of its arm. There's a full katana sheath.
What? What? Oh, yeah. Dog, what you gonna do
with a katana? What the fuck? You see this. You
just turn around and see this dog just kind of
like... Hackles are raised. It's sort of snarling
ground a little bit. But this voice, it's speaking
to you. It's talking. And it's sort of... And
you hear, I fear you have little to celebrate.
For you have been discovered by Akio, the Akita.
Guardian dog of the Shrine of Storm. And final
pupil of the Storm Eye. Prepare yourselves. Intruders.
Mouth bites down on the katana and slides it
out very, very fast. Like this blur of movement
in this katana. As a fighter, Dresden especially,
you recognize, like, there's a stance. This is
an actual combat stance. There's power behind
this thing. It is trained. It is deadly. Akio,
perhaps you may have been mistaken. You see,
we, uh, well, I am, uh, Luminary of the Citadel.
Here to rid the shrine of these pirates. And
you happen to appear just as the attack commences.
The chimes are ringing. You appeared even before
I, who was scouting the outside looking for intruders,
interlopers like you. We need either help or
not. How do I know that you're not? kind of pause.
His eyes sort of glow. He gets low to the ground.
His growl gets really deep. He spits out a word,
two words, that you can tell there's so much
venom behind them. Bad dogs. You don't. We're
all here. Crispin wants to cast Druidcraft and
knowing how sensitive dogs sense of smell is
he just wants to create like like the smell of
like fresh cut flowers and you know as he does
this he says something like while while nature
is my true love I must admit that as a druid
I would hate to see any harm come to such a sacred
place as this the smell of flowers strikes and
it kind of Nose. I think it shakes its head a
little bit. What is this? What are you doing?
You are one of those infernal creatures. Always
lingering at the edge, wanting to stomp on my
shrine. You. He's looking at you, Crispin. Creatures
to stomp on his shrine? You see, Akio, my feet
are too little to do much stomping. I prefer
to tread lightly. I have chased your type for
years now. Oh. I know of your ill will. Are you
here for vengeance? I'll have at you. I do not
come for your garden, friend. In fact, maybe
on the way out I can give you some tips. Uh,
by the sword. Very quickly slides back into the
street together. Just a blur of movement. Eyes
flicker between you. No. I do not trust you.
I don't know that you are not mad dogs. But there
are certainly bad dogs inside. I will watch you.
If you mean to enter the shrine to turn away
these intruders, I will join you and guide you.
But I will also... Keep an eye on you. And should
you decide to turn your coats or tails, I will
strike you down. Sorry again. Are you done? You
happen because we got shit to do. Very well.
Let us go together. Who wants the sidekick sheet
for Akio the Akita? Can Crispin ride Akito the
Akita? Oh. Oh, oh. Probably not medium creature,
not large. Crispin is size small. Can small ride
a medium creature? Can't it? That might be allowed.
What's Crispin's, what's your gear? Are you lightweight?
Because I'm already wearing armor. It's very
possible you could. Yeah, I mean, Crispin's unarmored
because he's a barbarian. You know, we're an
action movie now. Yeah, you can ride this thing.
Excellent. Well, I mean, I should probably ask
permission. You got to do that? Yeah. Akio, you
are... You appear to be a very strong boy. I
am the strongest boy. And you do know that...
I have trained for my entire life. All nine years.
I have trained. These small feet that I mentioned
before, they carry me rather slowly. I can see
that. Do you perhaps have an idea of a quicker
way we could travel together? I love that you're
making David suggest this. No, then you just
cut to them walking towards the shrine with Crispin
sitting on his back. And Akio's just like looking
a little dejected. I can't believe I allowed
this. Oh, my pride as a dog. You're just sitting
on this thing. As you're sitting, I think he
allows it, you sit on his back atop this armor.
There's a cloth almost like... cape hanging over
it um as you're kind of nestled into you do notice
those like there is that sort of almost bandolier
belt kind of running around him with uh these
couple like orbs kind of statues holding these
like little orbs on them um maybe your feet bumps
against them or something i don't know if you're
interested in those yeah are they like bottles
or um they look almost like stones okay round
like like water uh smooth stones What are these
you carry here on your bandolier? I carry the
arsenal of the shrine. I only have a few at the
moment, but these are thunderballs. That sounds
quite dangerous. Should I be worried about bumping
into them? If danger approaches, throw and see.
I'm going to give you... Hang on. Let me... You
wrote... I wrote his. I have his inventory. Let
me scribble out the two potions of greater healing.
He doesn't have those anymore. That's weird.
He drank them earlier. He dropped them. Oh, my
God. Fuck. Yeah, I gave you nothing. Take that.
Great, thanks. Way to play. You can play me.
It's my game. Oh, man. You can play the player.
What am I looking at? Oh, on impact. Thunderballs
on impact. They're grenades. They cast Thunderwave
at second level around themselves on impact.
So it's 15 feet square. So basically the five
-foot area around them, I believe. Is it radius?
Spoiler, I probably didn't need to prep that
then. No, mine is a 15 -foot square. 15 -foot
cube, excuse me. So the five -feet area around
these things when you throw them will cast Thunderwave
at second level. Basically, they're thunder grenades.
We're in the action movie now. He can use these.
All right. He's trained to be able to reach and
throw them. So that's also part of the stat block.
You're riding Akio. Do you want Akio stat block?
Yeah, definitely. All right. Let me ask your
sheet. Is that cool with you, Dresden? Yeah.
Hell yeah. I'm just really concerned now what
we're up against if you're giving us this character.
I was thinking, we talked a little bit about
like wanting a, potentially having a sidekick.
I know we meet Steve on the walk and he mentioned
like, like, you know, cause I told you, you know,
you were doing the shrine and I was like, yeah,
I gotta give you a sidekick. I don't know who.
And you mentioned a shrine guard. And I was like,
that's so boring. I don't know who's the shrine
guard. And I was thinking about it. I was like,
what if it was Nikita though? And then Al came
together. Instantly cooler. Instantly cooler.
Um, yeah. Uh, good, good read. Good read through.
What, uh, It's a new sidekick. Akio's got 17
AC because of his half plate. 42 hit points.
He's got a little bit of strength here. 14 strength.
16 dex. Boofing blade. Akio can cast the cantrip
booming blade at will. I was proud of that one.
Quick sheath. Accio can draw and sheath his katana
as a free action. You can move between your various
things very quickly. Ooh, improved critical.
Nice. Crits on a 19 and 20. That's awesome. Two
attacks. Very cool. He can only hold one item
at a time. His mouth is his only way of sort
of grabbing things. That's why he has the quick
sheath, kind of offsetting that weakness. Yeah.
Okay. Defender. Sidekick can use its reaction
to impose disadvantage on the attack roll of
a creature within five feet of it whose target
is not the sidekick, provided the sidekick can
see the attacker. Okay, cool. Yeah, there's good
stuff here. Okay, hell yeah. And you have, for
this mission, a new ally. How would you like
to proceed? The sea is beside you. There's that
one sea gate as a potential option, but there's
the main gate also just ahead of you. The red
doors shut before you. Actually, let me open
up a little bit of the map so you can see the
doors here. Those are kind of hidden away. Well,
Akio, do you know a secret way in that perhaps
the pirates won't know to expect us from? I fear
do not. Most ways are sealed with chimes of warning.
Have begun. That means all defenses have been
activated. We have a battle ahead of us. Quite
fierce. I wish I knew more of the shrine's defenses
myself, but I missed that meeting. Well, I feel
like we could spend a bunch of time trying to
figure out how to get through the seawall. I
know of only one thing, though. The last words
I heard as I moved upon the meeting myself. The
word, Sword Nado. That sounds... Sword Nado.
That sounds like an action movie to me. Yes.
And you know what they always do into action
movies? They kick down the front door. Kick down
the front door? I mean, it's either that, or
we spend a bunch of time trying to figure out
how to get through this water gate, and we're
going to end up in the same place anyways. You
don't know. If there's other defenses there,
you can swim. But who knows what could be waiting
for you. Once the nothings are activated, it
could be very dangerous going anyway. Right.
And, like, I could burn some resources. I could,
you know, wild shape or something like that.
But I just don't know if whatever resources we
use to get in there. And I don't have a lot of
gold to do any flashbacks with anyways. Sure.
So. Wait. It's buttons. Oh, well, I mean, you
still have to buy the item. You know what I mean?
Like if I wanted to buy a potion of water breathing
or something or a ring of water walking. Right,
right. I wish that I had prepped the spell for
water walking. Even then, that would only be
one of the three of us. Yeah. All right. So with
that, Dresden will turn over to Crispin. If you've
got any more of those prayers, say them now.
And he's going to start moving forward. As you're
approaching, you're kind of moving, like, there's
a slight kind of walkway where, you know, this
thing kind of juts out into the beach from the
gates, and you're kind of stepping now, ting
-ting onto the tile, leading towards the shrine
itself, leading towards the grand, sloping, elegant
archway, the doors beneath it. Crispin, what
is your passive perception? And I need you to
add five to that because of the legal prime senses.
You have advantage on hearing, I believe. Yeah,
so passive is 18. Holy shit. Jesus Christ. So
24 for hearing. That's actually going to be two
things. As you're approaching, you kind of look
up the sleek walls. You look up to that sort
of branching out, kind of almost that little,
you know, parapet. Yeah, maybe that. That seems
to slide around. I don't know terms. I'm just
guessing. Your ears twitch towards it, and you
do hear. A very kind of dangerous sounding hum.
As if perhaps the top of this wall is a conduit
for some serious electricity going through it.
Oh, jeez. Top of the wall. So climbing the wall
could be deadly. Oh, so don't climb the wall.
Your senses pick that up and you're like, okay,
that's how they can defend an open roof place.
Unless you're flying. Gotcha. If you're climbing
that thing, it could be very dangerous. Because
you have such a high passive, though, you do
hear something ahead of you. Like a slight, very
slight rattling sound. Like through the door?
Yeah. Through the door or just near the door,
somewhere around the door. Like something rattling.
Can Crispin look around the edge of the door?
Give me investigation. Gladly. Can Dresden get
in on this, too? Yeah. Yeah, you see Crispin
kind of looking out. Fifteen. It is. Something
rattling around his door. 19. 19. With a 15,
it's hard to make it out. It's like you hear
it, but you can't quite catch anything. With
a 19, you also kind of hone in on this. You hear
him say something rattling on this door. You
look towards one of the hinges, and you see the
door move the tiniest bit, kind of rattling against
the wall, rattling against its hinges. Oh, the...
Doors to the shrine are animated. They open upon
command. It's very convenient for those without
hands. Like me. After you. Okay. Crispin is also
going closer. We go under the door? We kick down
that door? If Accia knows how to open it, if
Dresden's not saying anything about the hinge...
Well, that's what I was assuming that he was
referencing when... Yeah, so he moves forward
like he's going to activate it, kind of pause,
step forward. He perhaps doesn't notice anything
quite wrong as he moves forward to verbally kick
down the door, shout the command, have his presence
sort of open it. Too late. He steps close, and
you watch these doors. You told him to move forward.
He's already moving forward. He can't stop. He
can't stop. This train's gone. Full off the track,
you see these doors, and you go to kick them
down. Decide they're going to kick you down because
you watch the hinges all fly off and four doors
come launching towards you. Roll for initiative.
Oh, door battle. Door battle. It's going to have
an asterisk on this, David. I don't see what
the problem is. Because I would if I didn't think.
That his continuation of saying, oh, yeah, the
door is open on command. And what I thought in
my head was that they're just waiting to be opened
by command. In my head, I was like, these are
going to attack. And I was going to stop all
of us from going through the fucking doors. But
the glory of this is, because it's my sidekick,
I can walk towards the doors anyway. I was already
walking over there. I can't tell you you walk
towards the doors, but I can sure as well say
I walk towards those doors. Jesus Christ. Natural
one. Oh, my God. uh for uh chris what you got
five plus five for a ten and let me get accios
here who was a nine a lot of uh really lousy
initiative that's i think everyone's everyone's
really surprised especially dresden who's the
last to go he had no idea this was coming shut
up He was stunned. Asterisk. You just, like,
Dresden, I think you're, like, last issue because
you're just kind of sitting there, like, shaking
your head, like, no, I, like I just said. Akio
just dives forward. He opens up to say the word,
and as the doors fly out, he goes, like, he didn't
know this was going to happen. He, like, they
are supposed to be animated, but perhaps because
the defenses are activated, they have a secondary
feature, which is they fly out of the head and
just kick the shit out of anyone who tries to
approach when the chimes of warning are active.
So these things fly out. Let me roll for my doors.
Fuck your doors, David. Yeah, you better. Somehow
with a 12, the doors go first. Oh, God. God damn
it. You were all so surprised. Oh, God. What
is Crispin going to do? Fight like hell? I guess
so. I just don't want to use up a bunch of stuff
to get through these doors. I forgot to get the
token for... Look at this beautiful guy. Look
at this beautiful boy. I'm too busy looking at...
what I'm going to do. Yeah, David, you can't
kill him. He's so beautiful. I'm going to put
him a little bit ahead. Let me put him in the
back layer so we can see he's beneath. To back.
Crispin's currently riding on top of our favorite
little boy here. I'm going to put him five feet
ahead of Dresden where he just basically stepped
forward five feet. Dresden, you're just like
five feet behind. You were standing on the walkway.
The doors are about ten feet ahead of you and
the doors come flying out. Let's see here. Four
doors. Seven years ago. Oh, come on now. Okay.
I'm going to do... The first door flies out.
It's going to strike right at Okiyo here. That's
going to be a miss. 13. I'm going to attack Crispin
now. I'm going to attack twice. I have two doors
flying at you. they're gonna get flanking bonus
because they're surrounding you. So two of them,
one flies and tries to whap him. Akio kind of
slides aside as he does two more red squares
on either side of you, lining up. They go to
slam down, both at the same time, this sort of
crushing maneuver, right? You, Crispin, that's
going to be... Hold on, I think Akio can give
one of them disadvantage. Oh, shit, that's true.
Yeah, with his reaction, the defender. I have
to ask you now, right or left? Is that how it
works? No, it has to be a creature within five
feet of... Accio. Yeah, they are. Oh, I thought
you said... Oh, you said Crispin. I'm sorry.
I thought you said they were attacking Dresden.
Oh, sorry, sorry. Right. They're attacking Crispin.
I might have said that. I will give disadvantage
to... Let the dice decide. Odds is left. Evens
is right. Odds it is. Left. Left. Okay. Okay.
15 on the left one. No, that misses. I think
when he ducks down, he bumps his butt up, and
you kind of fly upwards, and the door clears
for you, grazing your ears. That's awesome. But
as you're in the air, you turn over to the other
door. It's moving just up. Will a 20 hit Crispin?
Yep. This door's striking true. And that's going
to be... All right, close the window. Ah, there
we go. Only six points of damage. Okay. Pretty
cool. Slap on the rabbit cheek. Not the face
one. You kind of slide back down. Doors are still
hanging. One more door coming for you now, Dresden.
He looks mad. 15. Yeah, no. Not at all. Okay.
You have a shield, right? No. Oh, no, I do. I
do. We decided to keep him. You just bang, the
door hits you, hits you. You bang, knock it back,
flutters in the air a little bit, kind of off
control. And we cut to Crispin. Okay. Sorry,
give me two seconds to just make sure I want
to do what I'm going to do here. We're skipping
Crispin. Back to the doors. Okay, Crispin's going
to keep it pretty basic for now. Bonus action,
he's going to cast Shillelagh. So his... club
now becomes a plus one club so he's going to
take a swing at let's see uh well crispin can't
move well he can move hmm do i want to risk the
aoo though yes i do crispin's going to jump down
off accio to the space um adjacent here so he'll
be going out of One door space. Okay. That's
the one that just hits you a little bit as you
slide out. It goes in front of us, spin arcs
around to hit you again. That's another 20. Oof.
Yep. Okay. That's going to be only five points
this time. All right. The other cheek. I hope
the flanking is worth it. So now Crispin's going
to attack. This door here in between himself
and Dresden. Okay. The left one that you just
barely dodged. You flip over it, land on the
side of it, spin around. What are you doing to
this thing? Just going in for a great club smash.
That's a 19. 19 will hit. Okay. It's a wooden
door. You crack in wood meets wood with your
great club hits it, and your great club, you
hear a crack as it snaps a bunch of wood off.
11 points of damage. 11 points of damage. Okay.
That one looks pretty bad. You hit this thing
with a bunch of red charges to spray all around
you. It's still kind of up, like halfway. It's
almost like hanging. Part of it's like broken
off. But it's still ready to go. Okay. Okay.
And that's it for Crispin. That's a key go. So
he gets two attacks. So he's going to do two
katana strikes. The first will be... On the door
to his right. Foul doors. I've always wanted
to do this. Sword slides out. He's a plus one
katana, by the way. He's a magic sword. Yeah.
So that is 11. We're just above him as he slices
out. He gets another attack, though. His head
arcs down one way. He pushes up, tries to strike
out again. Tent. And the door just flips away
again, kind of lightly poops him on the nose.
His snoot gets moved. Foul doors, woof! And that's...
That's bad. He's not having a good strong showing.
Oh, dude, this is not going great. Dresden. He
is going to go after the door that just hit him.
Okay. But he's going to manifest. Does that go
behind the door? Hell yeah. It's like standing
upon the railing of this walkway. kind of crouching
low behind the door, almost shudders, like, what?
As it spins around. Yep. I get flanking, right?
You do get flanking with your echo, I believe,
because it's targetable. I'm going to get two
attacks. So, first attack is going to come from
the echo. Okay. Turn around, you stupid door.
It's flipping around. It doesn't know which way
it's... Fuck, 14. 14 will actually hit. It hits?
Okay. Attack number two. Woof. Woof. Natural
one. Oh no. Yeah. So that's only a... Yeah. It's
a natural one. Hang on. I can do this. Hang on.
It's been a while. I can do this. Oh, I got one.
What? You know how some people hang a horseshoe
on a door? Yeah. It falls off. There's one on
this door. It just falls off. Look at me. No,
it hits him on the head or something. Ow! Wait,
this is important. Does it actually hit the echo?
Because the echo would disappear. No, he said
the second attack was from Dresden. Oh, gotcha.
Yeah, second attack was from Dresden. Ow, my
fucking toe. Nat won dorses. No, no, no. You
ruined it. That was a stretch. Damn it. That
was a little too much. A little too much, David.
You missed. I won't punish you. Well, yeah. Can't
even come for that. I won't punish you now. I'll
save my punishment for the next match. All right,
so damage for the one hit. Shit. Nine. Nine damage.
Okay. Okay. With that, top of the round. The
doors go. Taking some glancing blows. When you
hit, you strike true. Pick. drives into the wood
right through it. Another spray of red wood.
Pit comes out. The doors begin to fly around.
I'm going to have one door sort of move around
to the back of you. Dresden, one more door moves
around you. Crispin, we have this shot, like
the open gates into the Shrine of Storm stand
before you. You can see this grand sort of plaza
just inside. So Dresden gets his AOL, right,
from the Echo? Oh, you do. That's right. Oh,
shit. Shit, that's true. And Accio does not get
his. I forgot. Well, no, Accio, now that's the
top of a round, he's got a new reaction, right?
Or is it on his turn? I always forget that. Was
that what that was? It was what that was, wasn't
it? Damn, why did I do that? Yeah, it's a couple
of AOs. Damn. Go ahead and take your AO. Damn
straight. Both of you. That's an 18. 18 will
hit. Now, does Accio's AO have to be his bite
or can it be his katana? Eight. Eight, okay.
He's got his katana out, right? Yeah, his katana's
out. It can be his katana for sure. Yeah, he
already had it out. Ooh, 18 on the die, baby.
That's going to do it. Nine damage. Okay, hell
yeah. He finally, like, after that boop, he took
that personally. This door slides away. He kind
of slides up this sword. It carves deep into
it. Little piece sort of. clunks off, and one
of the knockers slides off as well. The door,
beaten but not broken, slides before you. Crispin,
you hit me. Do I move or not? Jules, Sentinel
feet means you can stop me from moving. Or Dresden.
Oh, yeah. That's the one. Yeah, of course you
do. So I cannot flank you. I was going to try
to get flanking on Dresden. This thing goes,
and the Echo just, what does it look like when
the Echo stops the door from moving? What does
Sentinel look like? It's so cool this already
happened. Yeah, that's really neat. Okay. Rather
than something that just happens, maybe it's
like a little power -up. Like when you hit, you
just... And you get this power -up. Okay. And
hands stretched out, like jazz hands, push forward
like a wall of just like a sonic boom. Ooh. Like
you see the air kind of... Warp around. Wave
and warp around. Like another echo almost. Ooh.
Like audio just kind of... I love this too. Imagine,
if you will, like we talked about that your power
emanates from these sort of beings that seem
to be like intimately connected with the idea
of storms. And perhaps, as you say, this rippling
of air, perhaps it's the slightest crack of thunder
around as you reach out. The echo reaches out
and like in this sort of warping of air, the
doors halted, kind of shakes and shudders like
it wants to break free, but it can't move. It
can't move. Holy shit. There's a high pressure
system moving in. All right. Good. Okay. Nobody
likes the weather jokes? No. Okay. Check that
one off the list. Tough crowd. The door stays
firm, buried between Dresden and his Echo. Crispin,
you've got two of them surrounding you now, both
looking pretty rough, but both kind of... shaking
and shuddering with almost excitement as they
raise up in the air. They're going to come down
on you hard. Akio spins around to face the one,
his adversary, Blade, still in his mouth, growling
low. Three heroes standing together against this
first threat. But if even the doors of the Shrine
of Storms come at you like this, and even the
entrance can be deadly, who the hell knows? what's
waiting for you inside but for now we'll call
it there