Hey, Pants People. Have you checked out the Discord
yet? We'd love to see you there. So if you find
us on social media, you can link to the... That
was my, like, Simspeak. I don't know. It's pretty
good. It's pretty good. Population of Omizu.
The Citadel has declared a state of emergency.
It's happening. Just like Tithos. The Cyclone
is coming. It's forming over the Kamino region.
The Storm Eye is there right now. We don't know
what's going to happen, but we can guess. The
Shield Bearers are en route right now to take
folks from the region off -world. We ask that
anybody who is fit to evacuate move quickly and
orderly to the Pearl Darken Bay and await transfer.
Follow the directions of the Shield Bearers.
Help your neighbors and hold tight. We are going
to get you out of there. Just hold tight. Let's
pick up where we left off. The diamond sky above
the preserve. Red pulsing light. This alarm blaring
everywhere all around you. Jules staring up the
red glow. Quashing over his features. Blanch.
Poised to run. Poised to act. Knowing that action
is called for right now. Something is happening
right now. And the great came in. It is happening
again. I feel you, my lost brother. The Keeper.
Oh, Senyo Shikatsu, he is stoking your soul,
bringing your storm to the skies above your shrine
of storms. He will claim Umizu for reunification,
but how? How? How is he doing this? Roaring voice.
all around you. What do you guys do? I don't
know if this is going to work. I don't know if
I'm misremembering what you've said before. Yeah.
I think maybe you said that two people could
ride the broom if we rolled like disadvantage
or something like that. It would be basically
it's a little slower if two people ride the broom
but you could have two people and there's two
of you here right now. Your psychics did not
come. Chester's still at the coyote. Arlon's
still at Xena's. You came alone. Just the two
of you. You can take the broom. Blanche is going
to mount the broom, and she'll look over her
shoulder. Jules, I don't know if I can ask you
to come in good conscience. I don't know if I'll
be able to come back, but I have to go see Ozen.
Jules is already on the broom. All right. He's
already there. You just turn, you run. You can
see the broom is getting set up. You dive onto
it, and the two of you take off. You're in the
sort of far southwestern side of the... Preserve
of the Ancestors, where there's a hot tropical
side, you're staying on a beach, but because
you're so far south, you're actually fairly close
to the entrance, the stairs that rise up and
up and up. Taking the broom, you can launch yourself
up there and reach it pretty fast. So you are,
boom, sailing away. You just hear that last,
like the howls of this incarnate. No! How? This
knowledge is only for the Sunweaver and his incarnate!
Voice fading in the background as you launch
yourselves up and up and up. Everything moving
is a blur. You're moving towards that pulsing
red light. You're moving up towards the exit.
I want to ask you a question, Jules. We've mentioned
before that you have dead drops. with Dresden
that you share information via like maybe he's
at Dresden on his off shift has a certain location
you kind of mapped out that he leaves information
for you notes and you got it back and forth yeah
does Jules know that Dresden has gone to Umizu
would that have been information Dresden would
have left for him yes I think they tell each
other everything Time and time again, Dresden
has acted to save Jules from desperate situations.
Being caught in Zavar's chambers. Allowing you
to escape. Sacrificing his own freedom, his own
future, his own loneliness. To get you out of
that tower. And even on Sansatian, when he left
that world behind. Left his life behind. Sacrificed
nearly everything. Risked everything to come
to that world to slay the demon to free you from
its icy grip. Maybe now is the time to repay
those favors. To repay that friendship. Because
you know, you know, Dresden and Crispin are going
to die. With that knowledge firmly in mind, you
blast onward, sailing towards your next destination.
Blanche's hands are... shaking as she holds onto
the broom. And I think she vocalizes something
that maybe she never has. Jules, I'm afraid.
And then she turns her eyes back front and tries
to focus on flying. Jules leans forward a bit.
I got you. We got this. On that note. We leave
these figures for now and return to the coming
storm. So here we have it. Everyone coming together,
going to Omizu, going to their deaths. I'm about
to blow up this whole fucking show. We're all
going to die in Omizu. This show is over. Well,
we hit 100, and then we made it to 104. Great.
Great. Good run, guys. Good run. Good run, everybody.
Who are you going to play if all four characters
die? Dude, it's so fully possible. I don't know
what I'm doing, but, you know, I got to follow
my instincts, and my instincts generally are
insane. I don't give a shit. As a player, and
now at this point as a character, we know that
the world of Mizu is going down. Yeah. But, like...
I'm sorry, man. There's no way Blanche is not
going there when she knows Ozen's there. Especially
after hearing what the Incarnate just said. I
mean, crazy. This is crazy. This is fucking wild.
Before we get back to the storm, before we get
back to that. Let's lighten things up a little
bit. It's dark. Let's have a little banter. Okay,
yeah, I'll banter. Got a few things to talk about
here. Are you giving us false sense of security
here? Absolutely, yeah. It's so I can punch you
harder later. You gotta raise the chin up before
you hit the chin, right? He's tricking us here.
He's trying to convince us. It's like Stockholm
Syndrome or something. I'm the buddy. I'm the
good cop and the bad cop. When you're crazy enough,
you can be both. Sounds like you might need a
little help, Dave. I want to mention real quick
here, just a quick shout out, because this is
honestly incredible. Andrew, HooliForge in the
Discord, maker of the Spider Venom and the Hungry
Moss and the Spirit Potion bottles we have here,
as well as the bottle opener and the Pick of
Minor Destiny. Pick of Minor Destiny. Yeah, huge
guy in the community. Andrew's crazy, does everything.
Yeah. And he's done even more lately, because
he has... put together for us oh yeah a fancy
pants wiki page yeah that's awesome wiki page
with fan wiki this is crazy he's put an insane
amount of work into it so far it's wild yeah
it's unbelievable i honestly don't even entirely
understand exactly what's going on. But I know
that there is now a dedicated page with Fantasy
Pants lore, and it's getting added to all the
time. Yeah, yeah. So super cool. Check it out.
And if you're on the Discord, give Andrew a big
old slap on the back. Yeah, that sounds like
something you'd be interested in. You should
probably check out the Discord. Wait, we have
a Discord? Hey, did you know we have a Discord?
We do. Make absolute sure that the intro for
this episode is one of the Discord drops. You
know, just Steven pushing the Discord so we can
double do it and really make it. It's not. No,
it's not. It's the comments. Damn it. Come on,
man. It's the comments. Oh, well. Look forward
to next week. We're going to do the Discord,
maybe. I don't know. No, fuck you, David. Speaking
of the Discord, there was a question going on
in the Discord that we thought would be kind
of fun to talk about here. We saved it just for
here. Steve, why don't you take this one away?
Yeah, so I've heard people talk about this before,
and it recently popped up again in my world.
And the question is... what celebrities would
you want to play tabletop with? Who would you
like to see around your table? So in the discord,
we were talking about like four or five celebrities.
Maybe we cut it a little short and do one or
two celebrities that you'd like to see at your
table. I've got five here all day. Okay. If you
want to give me five, I made the list. When I
saw this conversation happening, I'm like, I'm
not going to forget this. I also have five. All
right. Okay. Well then here we go. You both looked
at me. I'll go first. My list is the best, so
I should probably go first just to make sure
you guys are disappointed. Sure. Okay, this is
actually a really lame list. All right, Stephen,
what's your list? How dare you, sir? Hey, it's
a really lame list. And only some people are
going to understand how cool this list would
be, right? Sure. Playing D &D. Sitting at a table.
You got four, maybe five people on the table
with you. You look out and you see Scott Lynch.
Patrick Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie, of course
the Mando himself, Brando Sando, Brandon Sanderson,
he's the best. And maybe, just maybe, George
R .R. Martin. He's the only name that I recognized.
All the big fantasy writers. These guys rule.
Their series are incredible, though I imagine
if it comes to D &D, George, Patrick, and Scott
would never, ever finish their character backstories.
Hey -oh. Someone out there. Rider burn. Someone
out there, air punt. Yes, yes. And barring that,
if you want to go for more modern TV show celebrities,
I would say the original cast of the deconstructive
sitcom Community, barring Chevy Chase. Ooh. All
right. Sure, sure, sure. I dig it. Yeah, yeah.
Anybody stand out in particular as playing the
role of GM? I mean, you got to go after the episode
that inspired me in a lot of ways to play D &D
was their D &D episode in which Danny Pudi's
Abed played the GM. And I just feel like as masterful
an actor as Danny Pudi is. He does so many impressions
in the show itself of the other characters, of
other shows. Of course, Danny Pudi as GM would
be incredible. All right. I think. I think. I
like it. Yeah. I like it. All right, Jeremy.
What you got? All right. I got to look it up.
I typed it out of my phone so I remembered. I
don't have any specific classes anybody would
be playing. Sure, sure. However, I do know my
DM. My first two are right in line with Genies.
My DM would be Robin Williams. That's pretty
good. Next up, Hugh Jackman. Yep, sure. Got to
have biceps. And then the last three. So this
is the stupidest D &D group that would die in
the first session. Okay, okay. So we got Robin
Williams, Hugh Jackman. Jack Black, Nathan Lane,
and Steve Martin. Oh, wow. Okay. Okay. Very cool.
Wow. That would get wild. Nobody said wow at
Nathan Lane. I think he's one of the best ones
there. I was like, I'm not sure about that one.
Who's Nathan Lane? Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness.
Was he in the... What would you guys know that
he was in? Was he in the talkies? Yeah, was he
in the whole silent films or the talkies? No,
he's a big Broadway star. He's done a lot of
film. He was the... Oh, Vaudeville actor. The
voice of Timon. Oh, okay. Cool. That's probably
the biggest thing you'd know him from. You guys
ever seen The Birdcage? I've seen The Lion King.
Oh, my God. Okay. Okay. You'd know him if you
saw his face. That's fair. You'd be like, oh,
that's him. Okay. I feel like I've heard the
name before, but it's like, I don't know if he's
a musician or whatever. You know what I mean?
I feel like Jeremy's thinking of the Lion King.
Like, well, that's his new stuff. I'm talking
about his original work. Right, right, right.
My run, you know, when I was a boy. The Lion
King's 30 years old now. 40 years old. I don't
know. Before TVs were flat. And actually, for
anybody who knows Nathan Lane and knows theater,
there's going to be like two people out there
that know this. I saw Nathan Lane in the Iceman
Cometh in Chicago. It was one of the greatest
shows I've ever seen in my life. Wow. It was
like five hours. Wow. Do you also know that Hugh
Jackman has some sort of local connection and
he frequents when he visits the coffee place
in Lancaster? What? Whoa, I did not know that.
What? Yeah, they have like a... Special coffee
named after him, I think. Fuck, we've got to
stake it out. Yeah, who jacked my own fancy pants?
I know where I'm spending the next two months
of my life. You want mine? No. No, we're good.
Okay, let's move on. Give us yours. All right,
so my first pick, Terry Crews. That guy has an
infectious laugh. And I just feel like he would,
I mean, he's got to play the barbarian, right?
Okay, yeah, yeah. Terry Crews laughing, having
a good time playing a barbarian. Fantastic. J.
Kenji Lopez Alt. He's a chef. Super, super smart
guy. Definitely does his research. Seems really
easy to talk to. Seems really fun. A chef is
so left field. I was not expecting it. I love
watching his videos. He does a lot on YouTube
and stuff like that. Steven is a foodie, man.
That's true. Fair, fair. Next, I picked the rapper
Jean Grey. She's very funny. She can be brutal.
Really clever lyricist. I mean, I just feel like
that sort of creativity would really vibe well
at a D &D table. Being a rap star myself. Yeah,
just don't wait for Phoenix. I think Stephen
King would make a fantastic DM. Probably terrifying
and brutal. He almost made my list, but he does
too much animal killing. I haven't forgiven you
for the refrigerator scene in It, Stephen King,
okay? I am still mad about that. That's why you're
not on my writer list. Lastly, I kind of wanted
an action star on the list, and I wanted to pick
somebody who, you know, I remember watching as
a kid, but maybe wasn't super expected. So I
picked Mila Jovanovic. She did the Resident Evil.
Huh. So, I don't know. I just thought that would
be a fun pick. It's a fun list. It's a fun list.
And also... Jovanovic is fun to say. Yeah. She
was Fifth Element, too, wasn't she? I don't know.
I don't watch that many movies, man. Oh, my God.
Wait, you guys have never seen The Fifth Element?
Is that a silent film? Oh, my God. I'm bringing
it back. I don't care. Speaking of how old we
collectively are, I wanted to give a brief little
shout out to Miss Roy's class over in Vermont.
We recently just sent them some stickers. And
I heard back from Miss Roy today. It sounds like
everybody's very excited. So thank you, Miss
Roy's class, so much for listening to the show.
And on the note of my fantasy writer list, Miss
Roy is a local writer, correct? Yes, she's an
author. Hell yeah, hell yeah. We met her at Mountain
Mania. Oh, yeah, that's right, that's right,
yeah. So if you're interested in some of her
writing, you want to check it out, find us on
Facebook. We share her stuff pretty frequently.
Or jump in the Discord. Jump in the Discord,
yes. Hell. We do have a Discord. Wow. We're a
real podcast. We're a real podcast. And just
like a real podcast, we're going to do some real
combat. Okay. Nice transition. That was a good
one. Let's get that fancy plus going. Oh, oh,
oh. Let's slide on back to the old Shrine of
Storms. where things are happening. A lot of
things, actually. Before we even get into this
combat, we have to resolve the boatload of information
that you've just collected. Giant mechanical
steam crab tank in the back corner, just clattering
around, moving a bunch of unconscious, maybe
dead bodies of guard, shoving them into one corner
here. As you come across this, you send a Keo
out into the room to activate the trap, move
back, hopefully have this tank. be the target
of these defenses, because objects do not activate
these traps, but you've learned through testing
with the Echo that if something is moving, that
will become a focus for the trap's sort of enmity
when it does awaken. Kiyo runs out, little did
you expect. The entire floor would just drop
beneath him, water rushing in from the nearby,
sort of opening to the sea, a pool opening up
maybe 10 feet down. The water crashes. He goes,
he just swept up in it, crashed into the side
of the pool, takes some damage. You see something
moving around in the waters. The water itself
is like sort of snaking towards him. As you do
so, the crab mech sort of screams out, many voices
at once screaming out, basically saying like,
what are you doing? You've killed us all. And
lastly. Tiles exploding for them around the pool,
bursting out into these shards that go flying
everywhere. And you see the Zappies. Same ones
Jules and Zebulon fought on Tithos so long ago.
Why are they here? And why were they on Tithos?
And why were they on Tithos? I'm going to tell
you both this because... Your passive perception
should be high enough anyway, and you're already
kind of aware of this. You see these tokens.
The tiles explode as these zappies appear, and
these tile fragments go flying around, clattering.
You're just kind of standing on the stairs leading
into this place, and a few of these tiles sort
of clatter, slide up right before you. You look
down and see that same gold inscription on the
bottom of it, just like in the last room with
the wind elemental. These things were summoned.
They were summoned as part of these defenses.
They were summoned, but the tiles that would
summon them were always here. Yes. And the tiles
that would summon them were always on Tythos.
It seems that way. Whatever summoned these things,
the ritual that seems to summon them, shattered
the stone tiles they were summoned onto. And
maybe at this moment you think back to Akio's
words, answering to the location of the inscriptions
when Crispin was asking about it before, as you
were moving into the shrine proper. I believe
beneath the tiles. It is the conjurer's way.
This is some kind of trademark from whoever created
the defenses here. Could that person be the same
person that set these up on Tythos? Is that possible?
This conjurer. This conjurer. As that happens,
before we get into things going on here, as Akito's
being swept away, as you're seeing these fragments,
your eyes hook on these, but your ears are taking
a different set of information. The crabmech,
more voices, just, Help! Help! You have to help
us! Please help us! In trade, I have some information
that would be of vital use to you. You hear again
a motley of voices, but what really strikes you,
what really hits you, brings a chill down your
spine, was that last sentence. Because that was
Sholay's voice. Hmm. There was, I will tell you,
Crispin, with your passive perception, a slight
distortion to it that wasn't shared by the other
voices. What's going on? There can't be that
many people in that mech. I will let you roll
history here if you're interested, because you
have information that you may piece this together.
Well, I mean, like, Steven knows. Steven knows
what this is. But does Crispin. Nope. Natural
one. Dresden, you can roll this as well. This
is just to figure out how so many voices can
be happening at one spot. You said history? History.
Seven. You don't know. That's not going to do
it. You guys have not come across... The cause
for this is something quite rare that is not
commonly known to most people in the comfort
worlds. Even with the information packet you've
been given, you do not have the... sort of particular
information you need to piece this little puzzle
together in character. Honestly, Crispin is thinking
that, I mean, that just sounds like a bluff to
me. To Crispin, I mean. Yeah, the strange thing
is, I mean, like, Shohei's voice, I mean, it's
just a trick. Sure, exactly. It's a magical trick,
yeah, of course. Okay. And with that, let's roll
for initiative. I'm going to tell you right now,
before this initiative gets rolled, this is...
A hugely important initiative roll. I'm going
to roll Akio's first because I have his. Don't
roll yet. I want to tell you how cool this is
first. Whoa, whoa, whoa. What? No, I'm woeing
to you. Oh, whoa. Whoa. This is huge. You have
a plan to get Akio out of there before this goes
down. Because if Akio can leave fast enough.
then there's only one target in this room being
seen, right? See, that's where I've tricked you.
I don't have a plan at all. You had this plan
last time. You just forgot. Well, no, the plan
doesn't work with the water there. But Akio's
on the edge of the water. He could climb out
if he beats whatever's in there in initiative.
If he does not, Akio will be in a seriously life
-threatening situation. Yeah, I can't give him
a button. He's the... sidekick and I'm going
to need those buttons. Everyone is groaning like
Stephen just sacrificed the dog. Stephen King
would love you. He doesn't really have anything
that can help him. Yeah, man. I don't know. I'm
sorry. I just... I've rolled my initiative. Will
you let me spend a button if I don't like the
roll or do you want me to spend it first? Gotta
spend it first. Okay, then I'm not going to do
it. I'm a mean person today. Now you're the dog
killer. Yeah, that's a five for Akio's initiative.
That does not beat a 21. Yeah, I bet not. Okay,
so I don't feel so bad because with a plus three
dex, he almost wasn't going to beat that initiative.
I had a really good roll. All right, Crispin's
19. Of course, he's not doing anything. He's
a bear. Great. All right. Mr. Dresden Kellig.
It's a 12 for Dresden. Not in the die plus three.
Okay. With that, very unfortunately, I'm going
first. Akio still kind of... Kind of trying to
catch a breath above the water. Sort of maybe
like... Just sort of lost his breath as this
thing smashed into him, smashed him against the
wall, stunned for a moment, and you see tendrils
of water suddenly reach out, sort of wrapping
out towards him, and I'm going to try to do bad
things. You're the monster here. Oh, this thing
is currently invisible? Kids listen to this show.
My two -hit is not crazy, but I do get advantage.
Oh, I almost did it in the right roller again.
I gotta stop with my... Home games. In this game,
the real game, I use real dice. Let's use real
dice. With advantage, that's going to hit with
a 21. Yeah, that's certainly a hit. Okay. First
things first. Damage roll was very bad. Okay.
Only nine points of bludgeoning damage. Okay,
that's not bad. But a Kyo. is now grappled. Great.
Actually, under the effects of Restrained, and
is pulled five feet back into the water. Oh,
no. Something is yanking him backwards. Oh, no.
You just see these tendrils wrap around, and
you see Akio not only gets pulled back, but gets
pulled under. Okay. Yeah, that was really bad.
Okay. Okay. But that will be my whole turn with
that figure. It's going to be Crispin Dubois.
Sorry, Crispin Dubair. Hold on, guys. Give me
like two seconds just to look through and decide
what I want to do here. Oh, my God. This is so
dumb. Jeremy, what do you think I'd do? Like,
Crispin can't drop out of bear form, right? That
would just be silly for the sidekick. He can
get himself out of there. I know. I'm just having
such a hard time deciding if Crispin would be
okay just standing there. Yeah. I can do some
things with my Echo. Oh, I hadn't thought of
that. But nothing is, I don't think anything
is a guaranteed. Right. I mean, as soon as we
get in, like even now, I'm worried that that
closest Zappy is going to clock us. and come
towards us. Yeah. I mean, if I, if I, if Dresden
throws his echo in there to do something. Yeah.
But I mean, even still, if the zap is right there
at the edge of the pool, I'm thinking more about
the elemental side. I think Crispin's going to,
I think Crispin's going to hold his turn maybe
and, and see things change as initiative goes
on. Maybe he can jump in if he thinks it's smart
to. Hell yeah. Crispin do nothing Dubois. Man,
come on. This is like an impossible situation.
This is tough. I'm just, I'm skating. David,
you're a dick. I'm a dick. All right. Go past
Crispin. Okay. And I'll speak up if I want him
to do something. Crispin's going to hold his
turn in initiative. Yeah. That actually is going
to be the Zappies. The Lesser Lightning Elementals.
Yeah, I'm very curious to see what these guys
are going to do. Two of them are pretty clear.
Two of them are going to turn. and just start
with this kind of almost like this staticky kind
of sound, like a scream. They start charging
the ones in the back towards the crab mech thing,
which I will refer to by its proper name now.
People who know what's going on know what this
is. This apparatus of the crab. Am I supposed
to know that? You wouldn't know that. No, I don't.
It's a very, it's an actual thing. It's an actual.
Actually, it's an actual item. Magic item in
D &D. This thing's really cool. You can see how
this would have gotten them in. I mean, if they
can go inside, the hole must protect them from
being registered as a non -object. This thing
could have come, you're guessing, maybe right
through the waterway, right up the steps that
lead down into the pool. So it must have climbed
over the seawall. You, even though you're watching,
may not have noticed because it goes under the
water, climbs right in. Nobody would have seen
it coming. I mean... the perfect way to get into
the shrine. Maybe the only way, except for, you
know, flying, to get into the shrine. One of
them cannot quite make it all the way, so we'll
just kind of, I think we'll just get over there,
sort of stand there, charging up. One of them
will actually make an attack against this apparatus,
but we'll actually miss. So it's kind of, tries
to reach out. It's like trying to get in, and
it seems like, Even though this thing is large,
it's something, this attack is not penetrating
through maybe some outer protective layer against
the elements. I was trying to, like, reach into
it. It seems like this thing is armored against
even electricity, even though it's made of metal.
There's something about this metal that, maybe
an outer layer of something that, what's the
word? Word for what? Rubber is... Spicy. Non
-conductive? Oh, yeah, okay, sure. Yeah, yeah.
It's probably better word than that, but yeah.
Something that's non -conductive in this, or
sort of around this thing. This thing tries to
reach out, doesn't seem to get, the electric
burst kind of fizzles away, but the crab still
sort of arcs back and, please, please, please,
please, help us! Man, literally have no reason
to help these people. Unless you're curious why
Sholey's voice was in there. Not that curious,
especially after that roll. Well, damn. What
are the other two Zappies going to do? One of
them is clearly going to spend his turn running
all the way around the pool. Can't get to anybody
yet anyway. So 1040 feet brings it here. This
one's got a long journey to go through to get
to anywhere. Which leaves just one who can go
north towards this crab mech or south towards
the bear. Crispin, evens or odds? Odds. Odds
will be going north away from you. Wait, I thought
I got to pick. Yeah. Wait, wait, wait. No, because
I want it to be the favorable option for you.
Okay. All right, odds are going to you. Okay.
Okay, odds are going to you. It's evens. Good
move. It seems the sound this thing's making
out, you have not made any sound. It seems like
it's drawn towards the screaming of the people
inside this mech. This zappy runs over, kind
of moving past the sort of downed pile of bodies
and sort of right up towards this mech thing,
reaching out. It's going to make an attack as
well. And it's actually also going to miss. It's
not quite getting in there. Static sort of fizzles
away. And that is all of them. That's going to
be Mr. Dresden Kellig. Okay, so a little bit
of my fear is diminished because the Zappies
are going for the mech. That was your plan. It
was a really, really good plan, actually. And
honestly, Dresden's going to leave them to die.
Yeah, right now Crispin has no reason to help
them. I don't know what else to do except to...
I want to send my Echo into the water, but I
don't know what to do when I get there. Um. Like.
Hold on one. Because if you're thinking that
we should try to save Accio, Crispin can make
stuff happen, I think. I think we should try
to save him. I don't know if that should be,
like, the primary goal. Gotcha. But my Echo is
a dispensable. that we can toss in there. Okay.
And see what happens. All right. Yeah, I guess
let's see what happens. Okay, so... What do I
do? You know what? Okay, the elementals haven't
gone yet. It's just been the zappies, right?
The thing in the water did go. It did. Yeah,
it pulled Accio back. It was the first thing.
Oh, that was the... Okay, that was the first.
Okay. You've only seen one thing in the water
so far from what you're noticing. Okay. You know,
I think for now, Dresden's going to send his
echo right in the middle there between Akio and
the outlet going out into the water. Is this
proper? Yep. I think he's going to hold there
momentarily. So just appear above the water and
dive in? What's that going to do in here? How
cool does it look? It looks cool. Hell yeah.
Give me a word. It looks mildly cool. It's kind
of cool. When coolness is second nature for you,
you don't acknowledge it. It just is. Perfect
dive straight down. Sure, David, that's so cool.
Wet, long hair. Streaming backwards. Is he in
range to do anything? If he can, because I have
no idea what the hell these things actually will
take. I did not hide. I am invisible. Because
I did not hide, you still can actively see me.
I just can have Concealant whenever I want. You
dive into the water and you look up. What you
see before you is just some mass in the water
of water, like churning, swirling, almost like
a mini whirlpool in a somewhat weird, almost
like this weird, piscean fish shape that has
tendrils coming off, almost like whiskers on
a catfish that are wrapped around Akio, yanking
him further and further down. If I'm in range,
I'm going to try to attack it. I'm going to make
it appear. I will tell you that this thing is
going to have advantage. Or no, you're going
to have disadvantage against it. Yes. Because
it's invisible. But you do see it on the map
now. Okay. Okay. Yeah, fuck it. I'm going to
go for it. So you're just going to swim for it.
Echoes into the dive. Comes churning out. Mid
-dive. Pulls the weapon. So disadvantage, I think,
because it's invisible. You also, with your weapon,
would have disadvantage. In water. This is pretty
gnarly. That means that you're going to have
disadvantage of minus two. Yep. Okay. All right.
Do you think this is about to end? Oh, God, no.
I don't think so. I just want to watch this dog
die. Well, I mean, attacking the water elements
isn't going to save Accio. It's just the move
in that direction. Exactly. And I will say, for
anyone who knows what's up with the game, this
is a water weird. It is an elemental. It is a
water elemental, but it's not the stat block
water elemental. So I'm rolling disadvantage
and minus two on top of that? Yes. Fuck me. Gnarly.
You need to find a way to bypass some of this.
Only certain weapons, like Jean Franklin's spear,
actually can attack underwater without that.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Ooh, that is not going to hit.
Not with a 11? Nope. Let's try one more time.
Okay. Don't need to roll the second one on that.
Oh, no. Because that was a natural one. Oh, my
gosh. Oh, God. Seahorses. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
seahorses. Comes a clash. You're rushing in with
the water. You're trying to hit it. It just looks
like splats in your face. Makes the whole flop
the landing. The judge holding a ten switches
to a six. Very unfortunate. Yeah. don't quite
land in. You're trying to hit, but you can't
quite make out. You're trying to strike out at
water, in water. Yeah. The Kyo just, bubbles
just appearing. I love this, because you're like
in the eyes of your Echo, and you're kind of
flashing back. I was going to say you have one
eye on each, but you only have one eye, so I
guess not. As Crispin is watching this happen,
is he able to gleam anything about what's going
on and possibly what's in the water? I'll let
you take an arcana check. Awesome. I don't know
if the rules allow you to just take checks. I
think if it's a knowledge check, it's for free.
It just makes sense. You're just recalling what
you know in the moment about something. Sure.
Essentially, you're rolling to see if you've
studied this before. Right. So it's a free thing.
Man, that's seven. All you know is it's some
kind of elemental. God. This is brutal. Yeah,
this is not great. That's Akio. Okay, let's talk
about... Getting out of a grapple and just moving
away. Okay. You're going to need to make me an
athletics or acrobatics check. If you don't have
any efficiency in those, it's going to be a straight
strength or dex check. That is your action. So
if you do this, that's what you get. Yeah, we've
got a plus two in athletics here. So let's go
for it. 19. That'll do it. Akio maybe looks over,
sees Dresden fighting alongside him, and you
kind of see this determination enters the dog's
eyes. Just... I think what you actually kind
of see is Akio opens his mouth under the water,
and as he starts strolling backwards, there's
this, like... wave of force that just poofs out
like he opens up the bar and you see this actual
thunder strikes the elemental and it kind of
recoils for a second just long enough for him
to pull away. That was your action. What do you
want to do? Okay, then I'm going to have to move
away and take the AOL. Okay, it's half movement
in the water, so it's going to take 20 feet just
to get to the shore. Isn't it just one square
between me and the shore? Yes. I goofed. Tempting.
I was kind of square you're in, like you obviously
do. Yeah. Guy's moving. He's moving as far as
he can. Okay. Akio climbs to the edge, begins
to climb up, dig dog paws wet, slap onto the
tile, holds himself up, and he's trying to get
away. Now I'm taking my attack opportunity. As
you get 10 feet away, that is my range. These
tendrils latch out of the water again, trying
to wrap around this good boy again. Here we go.
Come on, Akio. I do have advantage on attack
opportunities because I'm invisible still. Here
we go. What a miss for that advantage once again.
Akio is just getting out. And again, those tendrils
wrap around. And he's yanked five feet back,
splashing back into the water again. Sinking
beneath the surface so close. What's even worse?
Oh, actually, I do damage. I do some damage on
that. Of course, damage. That's another nine.
This is not great. All bludgeoning, by the way.
I don't think it matters for Accio. Alright,
there's an important distinction here. It says
under the attack constrict that I have that when
I have a target grappled, the water weird tries
to drown it. I think this implies I cannot use
constrict again on the same target. The behavior
of this creature would instead want to pull this
thing as far down in a way as possible in order
to ensure it drowns to death. I'm going to roll
with that. I think that's really cool. So rather
than actually taking my turn... Yeah, really
cool. It's really cool. Rather than taking my
turn, because it's grappled, I can move half
my movement with the creature. And I'm going
to dash action to do that twice and just start
pulling Akio away from safety, deeper into the
ocean, if possible. Okay. Actually, before I
do that, before I do this thing, this is the
top of the round. If Crispin wants to make a
move this round, do it before I do my turn. Because
that's... We're doing the next round now. So...
Dresden sees Crispin start to get in a more bipedal
position. What? And he looks like he's going
to start to shrink, maybe. What? Unless Dresden
decides to stop him from shrinking out of bear
form. Not yet. Crispin's going to hold a little
longer. We maybe have a play. Okay. Okay. We
did that in silence, but you understand what
I'm talking about, right? Yeah, I think so. I
mean, I couldn't read it all that fast, but if
that works, right, if that works with that feature.
I'm there. Yeah. I get that. Right. I love the
idea of these two, like, action hero badasses
basically just have this silent communication,
this moment of... looking into his eyes. They've
only fought together a few times, but they've
learned so quickly how to pick up on each other's
patterns. Dresden, who spent so much time with
non -verbal communication, Crispin, who spent
so much time alone and maybe communicating with
animals, it makes a lot of sense. You would have
this heightened ability to just look to each
other and read everything. It's so cool. I'm
also going to retcon that Crispin didn't loudly
snarl like a bear while we're trying to be quiet
in this course. Bear whisper it, then. Not yet.
Take a button. You're already maxed out. Use
some buttons. You can earn some. I can't on the
stinking sidekick, man. How could you? Everyone's
going to hate you for this. Okay. I'm going to
just move. I mean, we need him, though. We kind
of need him. Dude, I think I can get him out
if you want me to get him out. Okay. Well, let's
keep this play going first, and then we'll see.
He's only got 10 HP left. Fuck me. Can you get
him out on this turn? I don't know. Then again,
I mean, I guess it's... Fuck it. If we do something
now, we're going to draw that last zappy. Because
he's standing right between us and Accio. I'll
look at the drowning rules after this round and
see what happens. Fuck. After this round, we'll
start doing the drowning rules. I know it wouldn't
happen in one round anyway, but what I am going
to do is start pulling these two away. I think
Crispin could probably do it. Okay. Right? So,
David, here's the thing. You're not pulling anyone
away. What? Until Dresden's Echo gets his AOL.
It would get this far, then. Akio is 10 feet
out, so it would actually be like it's moving
out from Dresden. You could feel it kind of go
underneath your Echo as the water turns, and
it's still only half moving, but you see Akio
being pulled and pulled right as Akio is beneath
the Echo, just kind of scratching on the sort
of tiles on the floor, trying to get claws and
sort of stop this thing. The Echo, primed and
ready, feels this thing step out of its range.
Is it a creature? It is a creature. Is it a creature?
Yes. But it's still. disadvantage disadvantage
negative two yeah this is i forgot about that
too after he moved it yeah hey man i i mean like
yeah it's oh god oh no oh no i'm using one okay
so that takes away the minus two it's still disadvantage
that's fine that's better than disadvantage and
minus two this is out of me drowning we kind
of we kind of need him We kind of need him. Do
you want to be one character short when shit
goes down? No. But I also want to be in bear
form for the next two hours. All right. So takes
away the minus two. Okay. You hone in. You focus.
If I give you a button, can he be regular, not
disadvantage? Yeah. You're in the same scene.
I'll allow it. Holy shit. It's also your sidekick,
so you share the button. So your button is actually
Akio looks up, sees Dresden's Echo primed, and
Akio's actually going to, like, do something
to throw this thing off. Maybe Akio, like, kicks
hard right then, pulling the tendrils a little
closer towards Dresden, setting this thing up
to get struck. Hey, before this roll, I don't
want to hear about the Discord, because I tried
to help Akio. I gave him a button. button all
right they're not gonna tear you apart anymore
oh man 12 just lie just say it's 18 12 just barely
missed god just my wait barely no damn 13 so
it's 13 close so close i'm so upset yeah what
a waste of a button two buttons actually Shut
the fuck up, David. I get to move one more square
away for the Kiyo, who's now sliding past. You
go to strike out, and even though you guys are
working together, this thing squirms when you
feel the water squirm away from you. You strike
out and hit nothing. Yeah, I know. I'm going
to make sure Warpick is not one of the weapons
I can do underwater. I probably should make sure
about that. Oh, yeah. Oh, dude, yeah. I mean,
yeah. Uh, dagger, javelin, short sword, spear,
or trident. And war pick. I heard war pick. Yeah,
I heard war pick. Did you say war pick? You do
have a plus one on your thing, right? Like, in
your notes from your magic weapon? Okay, just
making sure it's all there. Oh, yeah. Okay. So
then, uh, shit. Oh, brutal. And it's my turn.
That was your A -O -O. Uh, but that's my whole
turn as I move 40 feet. Oh, wait, hang on. I
goofed really bad. I actually moved farther than
that. 10 more feet. Akio is now pulled 10 feet
away. Akio is going to die. 15 feet away. Almost
certainly. Pulled towards the sea. Maybe Akio
can break free. Maybe Akio can get out of this.
Yeah, he's going to have to roll well. This is
super, super bad. Great movie. Crispin. How far
down in initiative order are the Zappies? The
Zappies are going to go after you. Okay, then
I'll wait until after the Zappies. Okay. See
what happens. Okay. Seeing as you're not within
this thing's sight and this thing, the map rat's
still making a lot of noise, I am going to give
you your plan, let it go through all the way,
because I think it's really cool. This thing
is going to charge the one near you, kind of
going around the southern rim of the sort of
open pool here. It is going to move around the
corner and head up to the north to catch up with
its brethren. There are three of these things
surrounding this tank now. I'm going to resolve
damage to the tank after, or as we kind of go,
sort of on my own, because it sounds like you're
going to kind of hold back and just watch these
things attack, and it's going to be really boring
from just rolling and rolling and rolling a thing
that's not involved in the combat. So they're
not going to get in the water and help Accio
as a way for us to help them? The zappies? No,
the tank. I mean, are you going to feed that
potential plant to them? Right now they're panicking.
No, I'm a bear. This claw is trying to reach
out, reach, try to grab. You see, it seems to
have these stiff movements that kind of rotates
one way. One claw comes out, tries to claw or
rage around these things. Actually, I should
roll for that. We're on our own. One attack on
these guys. We're on our own. Hang on. The app
brass does get an attack. It won't have to be.
Okay, one of the zappies actually does take a
claw, kind of goes around it, crunches it a little
bit, and you kind of hear, Please! Please! Please!
as they're surrounded. Shocking lightning zapping
all around. And I'm just going to count that
as all of their turn because they are not focused
on you. This plan was almost perfect. Okay. That's
Dresden. No, hold on, hold on. Are we going to
save this dog? Save this stupid dog. We have
to. Okay. I think we have to. So... Crispin seeing
that the Echo missed with, I mean, freaking double
disadvantage. All the buttons in the world. It
just wasn't quite enough. So Crispin is going
to stand up and start to shrink down. Because
he is going to use his second and final wild
shape. But he's going to cast it as, well...
Hmm. Yeah, I could just do that too. I was going
to cast Wild Companion, but I guess I could just
cast Wild Shape. Wild Shape or Wild Companion.
Hmm. Fun. Interesting. Wild Companion. That's
more fun. So Crispin is now normal sized. Okay.
And he's going to cast Wild Companion. And in
the water right there at the corner of the pool.
Appears a giant octopus. Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah. Solid. That's so cool. Giant octopus is
going to save this dog, I hope, I think. So he'll
be around for two hours. So does this giant octopus
get a move, a turn, I mean, on my turn here,
on his summoning turn? The image didn't load.
He's just a big gray square. I'll give you an
octopus next time. So down here, was it at the
bottom of the pool in the corner? I mean, well,
that's the thing is I don't know. I'm trying
to find, I'm trying to find how, what the, what
the range is and it's not showing it for me here
on D &D Beyond. Oh, okay. Dude, I think this
whole thing is, no, hold on. This whole thing
is a bust. Whole thing is a bust. See, the grayed
out bad image of the octopus was actually foreshadowing.
Well, yeah, it's cast the Find Familiar spell.
I think I'm confusing it with a different spell
that Crispin has access to that I didn't prep.
Gotcha, gotcha. Probably Conjure Animal. Yeah,
exactly. Okay. I got the two mixed up. Okay,
so that's fine. Then we'll just go with Wild
Shape into Giant Octopus. And he'll jump in the
pool. Hell yeah. Here is your unloaded square
for your character sheet. That's so dumb. Oh,
my God. I can't. I don't even. Now he's going
to. I can't do anything until next turn. That's
my action. How far can you go as an octopus?
I mean, do I even... Swim speed is 60 feet. I
don't want to do math, so let's say you can go
10 more feet. Man, I really wish I didn't mess
that one up, because I think it's a cool move.
It's a cool move, too? It's a cool move. Let
me just double check to make sure. Yeah, giant
octopus doesn't have any bonus actions. Okay,
so that's the end of... Crispin's could have
been really cool turn. Okay. That's good. That's
super cool. That's super cool. You turned into
a fucking octopus. I know. Just couldn't be cool.
The octopus jumps into the water. He's cool.
And he's... No, so imagine, imagine. Oh, okay.
Oh, wait, hold on, hold on. Let me read. Does
it say that I can just dispel Wild Shape as a
free action, or is that another action? You can
revert to your normal form either by using a
bonus action on your turn. Okay. Okay, so it's
a bonus action to revert to normal form. So,
yeah, you've got this giant brown bear in the
corner. Bonus action revert. Runs to the pool.
Jumps in. Action. Goes to giant octopus. Jumps
in really cool. Well, yeah, he's a little rabbit
splash as he dives in. And then once he breaks
the surface of the water. Yes. Turns into a big
giant octopus. Flaps with him and starts blasting
across the pool. Probably like one turn late.
This is cool. This is cool. You are launching
your way over. Man, that was a messy turn. Yeah.
And now it's Dresden. Oh, boy. All right. So
at this point, Dresden has to move out because
he has to be within 30 feet of his Echo. Okay.
So he will move out to the side of the pool.
I can't move him. Remember, you share movement
with your Echo, so you want to plan around that.
Huh? You share movement with your Echo, so you
want to plan around that fact. Okay, well, he's
going to move out as far as he can while the
echo is still able to get onto the other side
of the elemental. Ah. Or even if you're within
five feet of him a bit. It's not going to work.
It's half movement in water? It's not going to
work. You need to move your entire echo's movement.
Could he double move and still retain his reaction?
The echo could, yes. But Therese needs to stay
within 30 feet. Yes, but if the echo moves out
of the way... If the echo moves out of 30 feet
range, it disappears. Now, Dresden, can you,
as a bonus action, re -summon the echo somewhere
else? You could move 30 feet, and the echo would
send 30 feet away, and that would do the same
thing. You could avoid the water. It is a bonus
action to summon it. So you could do 30 feet,
and then it would be right in front of the water
element. So you could even double move if you
just wanted to move, or single move if you wanted
to attack. I'm going to single move because I
want to at least try to get an attack off on
this turn. Okay, so we'll do that. We'll have
Dresden move his 30 feet. Dresden moves 30 feet,
runs up. You're actually running. At this point,
Dresden is running right beside the giant octopus,
Kristen. The two of you, boom, boom, boom. One
in the water, one on the rim of the water, just
running together, saving their ally. What are
you doing now, Dresden? And he will resummon
his echo on the other side of the elemental.
Okay. Got to check movement here. blocking the
echo you can get to like you can get to the edge
of the left of it jeez uh the right of it i can't
get behind it at all okay but you still get to
a point where you can ao it yeah yeah okay so
we're gonna do that and we're gonna go in for
an attack on that hell yeah i i can't use a button
yeah i think we've already we still have so much
more i used i used an instance of wild shape
my last instance of wild shape and we've used
two buttons already so Disadvantage minus two.
Fuck this. This is so unbelievably gnarly. Is
there any benefit to him sort of seeing where
it is because it's holding Accio? It's like,
I know he has to hit right next to where Accio
is. You're able to attack it. Visibility is actually
super nasty, especially when you don't have weapons
in water. Water weirds are legitimately terrifying.
They're not high CR, but they probably should
be higher. Right. Okay. So, attack number one.
Disadvantage. Minus two. Oh, my gosh. I rolled
the same number both times. Was it a high number?
It was a 17 on the die. All right. There we go.
Plus seven. Oh, baby. So, first attack hits.
That will hit. Give me that damage. Oh, my gosh.
I'm so stoked. Max damage, 10. Ooh, that's pretty
solid. Attack number two. Attack number two.
Lowest was a 10 on the die for a 17. Oh, man.
That's going to hit Dresden on fucking fire right
now. Yes. Yeah, you have, like, a really... Honestly,
even with... Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't have... You
know it's AC now. Oh, yeah, right. It's 14. I
was going to say, I was like, okay, well, even
with the minus two, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Yeah,
yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. I forgot the minus
two, but they were still high. They were high.
They were still high at 14. Yeah, yeah. 13. A
12 just made a difference. You're a 13. Thank
you. Out of 10, baby. I've rolled this three
times now, and it hasn't gone through. I know.
What are you going to say? It's like... Max damage
again. Ooh, that's 10. You did some solid damage
to this thing. It's a beefy boy, but, like, that
already took it down pretty good. Wait a second.
What? Standby. What? Standby. I'm standing. I'm
exhausting a lot of things here. Okay. I mean,
the thing is, you couldn't fight these and the
Zappies. You found a way to get the Zappies away
from you. That's really cool. This plan was scary,
but because you all didn't go in the room, it
made the Zappies target something else. That's
huge. So, I... We're not exhausting buttons,
but I am exhausting something else. Okay. Unleash
Incarnation. Oh, I knew it was coming. Yeah,
you did. Yeah, you did. Okay. What's Unleash
Incarnation? Whenever you take the attack action,
you can make one additional melee attack from
the Echo's position. Oh, yeah. So you're just
trying to take this thing down. Yeah, baby. Can
you possibly, possibly hit it again, though?
I don't believe it. I don't believe it for a
second. There's no way. Lowest roll was 11. So
that's eight fucking team. Give me that damage.
You can roll max again. You can roll max again.
One under max. That's nine. That is an additional
nine. So that's 29. 29 total. You're just pounding
in this thing. Even though it's hard, you're
just this strength, seeing an ally in danger.
Dresden is a protector. He is. A born protector.
His friends do not get hurt in front of him.
You dive into the water. Switch to your echo
for that moment in the water. You feel pressing
against you. You start swinging hard. Boom, boom.
You feel something. Something you're hitting.
Something that's getting lessened as you strike,
strike, strike. True. You can't see this thing,
but I'm going to tell you it looks pretty rough.
A little bloody, perhaps. As you... Boom! The
waves just go crashing out across the pool. He
doesn't release Akio? Uh, no. It's not his turn.
But maybe. Maybe. We'll see. We'll see. That's
the end of your turn, I believe. Yes. Next up
is not Akio. We look at this situation here.
The echo in the water battling this creature.
Dresden, Kelligan, Crispin Dubois charging. A
giant octopus in the pool. A man in armor clattering
beside. A giant crab mix surrounded by lightning
elementals. Arcs of electricity blasting all
around. Crab clock trying to close in these things.
What a complicated, crazy situation. What could
possibly happen now? To make it even crazier.
What could possibly happen? Oh, come the fuck
on, David. The mech again just screams, Help!
Help! Coptains! No. David. And you see, from
that walled off back area of the room, David.
Two figures. David. No. Step out. David. No.
David. On top of the steps. No. Leading into
the inner sanctum. No. What the fuck? Two...
twin brothers, it seems, in similar, like, brown
roughshod cloaks, both of them on their backs
wielding these gnarly -looking huge glaives.
They step out. They don't turn towards you. They
turn towards the mech, towards the elemental
surrounded, and they speak. Oi, quit your bellyaching,
will ya? Yai, quit your bellyaching! Ah, you
just hear these two unique voices echoing across.
as they draw their weapons and enter the fray.
And we'll call it there. That's just, that's
just, that's scat. I'm the scat man. Can this
be post -credits? I just hit record. I'm surprised
you didn't see me hit it. I was too busy bebopping.
Exactly.