Hey, pants people. Our friends at Bard Soup are
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enemies and secrets catch up to them. What kind
of secrets? Well, one of them accidentally kidnapped
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soup. Bon Appetit! I call this one a gloominary
spotlight. Now our worlds have seen a non -stop
barrage of dramatic blows to a high and mighty
as of late. And one of the first in the sequence
of fallen dominoes was the fall of the Roche
family. Once seen as brilliant and kindly rulers,
the truth of the demonic worship and cruel treatment
of their people was revealed when Atash exposed
their cult on Sansa Tian. For decades, they have
used connections within the network to keep a
lid on the information they had wanted conflict
worlds to see. Devils. To use this marvelous
connection to lie to the good public. Absolute
devils. Anywho, this brings me to the subject
of the spotlight. One Dresden Kellig. Once an
esteemed personal guard to Speaker Cyril LaRoche,
Dresden's story is one of duplicity. It has been
said that Dresden had been working in secret
against the family for his entire life. Supposedly,
he had been in constant contact with the wayward
prince, George LaRoche, and had been throwing
his murderous brother, the very man that would
later kill Zabion Brass, off of the prince's
tracks. This, in my opinion, is utter bullshit.
I speculate that Trezor only flipped sides when
he knew the Roche family was caught. I speculate
that he still works for the demonic cause alongside
Jules and that he was instrumental in the plot
to see Amizu delivered to the gloom. And I speculate
that even now he works in secret to dismantle
the ideas of law and order in all our worlds.
But armed with only speculation, we can only
hope that some righteous force yet comes forth
to stop him. Excuse me. I got a couple of nitpicks.
Go home, Oren. You're drunk. No, no, no. Hold
on. So first of all, Oren says, any who? It's
right there in my notes. Second of all, Oren
says, okay, yeah, Dresden was working against
the LaRoche family, who are demon worshippers,
funneling information to Jules. And then he's
like, yeah. He said that's the story they all
say, but he's saying it's a different story.
Jules and Dresden always worked with the LaRoche
family. They just pretend they weren't. And when
the LaRoches went down, they flipped sides very
conveniently, like, oh, we were never part of
that group. Okay, so they both together flipped
sides. Yeah. I thought it was like Dresden flipped
sides, even though he was working for the same
side the whole time. The man's trying to tell
the truth out there. All right? Get rid of all
these lies you got going on. It's a weird version
of the truth. it's the best version of the truth
and the truth that everyone is going to know
gentlemen if that's what you want to believe
oren we're about to engage in one hell of a combat
uh it's about to open up goddamn and uh it's
a weird night it's a weird night yeah It was
a very weird night. Good dude night, but the
whole internet went down or something. I don't
know. I think it was like the Google cloud service
went down. Wow. An essential website to recording
just went back up after the time that we are
usually all at home. Yeah. We were like, oh,
let's wait around. Maybe it'll come back up.
We were about to leave. We were like, oh, it's
back. It's like, well, better check one more
time. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're going
to run this thing. We're going to do it. We're
going to fucking do this. It's going to be crazy.
There'll be deaths. There'll be tears. What?
Probably mine. My tears and that guy's die. But
this is going to get crazy. Before we get into
all that crazy, I want to go into a flashback.
I'm following this flashback. Keep me honest
here because we need to talk Jeremy Wolf. Okay.
Can we just do a little thing? Off mic, we're
kind of biding time, waiting for you to come
back. I gave you a bunch of magic items to choose
from. Oh, yeah. Yes, we're going to get into
that. Dresden's going to give a little power
-up that I think he deserves, and I'll get into
the reasons why. Before all that, let's go into
a flashback. As mentioned previously, Dresden
had been promoted to the role of Cirilla's personal
guard. As such, the Hymn of Time Lord Dresden
was relocated from Cerulean Tithos to a rural
town within the Citadel. How long ago do you
think that was, Jeremy? Was that kind of recently?
Was that some years ago? Try to create the setting
for our scene here. It was fairly recently. Okay.
In this case, our scene would still open up in
the Tower of Authority, in the city of Cerulean,
the world of Tithos, because at this point, Dresden
has not yet moved on. Now, I imagine we've talked
about this before. Dresden has many dead drops
where he'd pick up notes for Jules and leave
them in return as he's on his patrols. Yep. Well,
so you have one such letter now. Probably grabbed
earlier, but not... Wouldn't dare to open it
then. Not in the public eye. So let's open on
Dresden in his solitary room in the barracks
within the Tower of Authority. Let's open on
him in a dimly lit chamber. Probably sitting
on an immaculately made bed. Yeah. Pure soldier's
room. I imagine it's pretty stark, pretty Spartan.
And as we see Dresden here, probably a single
sconce of flickering light in this room, we see
him sliding, worn parchment from an envelope.
And what expression does he hold as he opens
this letter and begins to read, Jeremy? No expression.
And what does the letter say? It says, Hey D,
sorry it's been a while since I wrote last. Shit's
been crazy out here. The wealthy bastards are
starting to catch on to our scheme, so it's been
kind of dangerous. We've had to keep a pretty
low profile. On that note, thanks for facilitating
that horse stampede the other day. That was some
really good cover. We got in and out of Mr. Wink's
manor completely undetected. Cleaned out his
pantry entirely. Thanks to you, a bunch more
kids get to eat this week. Damn, I miss you,
man. I can't wait to introduce you to the gang,
to the family. I told so many stories about you
and I to the kids. You're already Uncle Dresi
to them. I promise, you'll be here soon enough.
Just sit tight. I'm coming for you. And as Dresden
folds the letter away, what expression does he
hold? Still no expression? I think he's got a
small half -crack of a smile. Hell yeah. This
letter, I imagine, is so much more than just
words on paper. For Dresden is a window into
a world of warmth and family. A world Dresden
can see but not touch. Its warmth can shine through
the glass, bring light into the solitary darkness
around him here. This double life could break
some men, shatter their minds, and drag them
down into despair. But not Dresden. He can glance
through that window at any time and know the
one truth that has shaped his entire life and
path. That Dresden Kellig is a guardian angel,
fighting every day for the sake of those he loves.
And so he is a man that can never fall. Right?
Two things here before we get into this. One,
I am initiating flashback rules from here on
out. Two, back when we finished up the Imizu
arc, I denied you guys any monetary rewards for
the arc. I did this because for three reasons.
One, it made sense for the story. You've been
trash -talked hard and your sponsors are getting
a little hurt because of it. There's not enough
money to go around, perhaps. And they might be
shunned for. actually supporting you. There's
various reasons. In the case of the Golden Bay,
a lot of turmoil happening within that kingdom
lately. So there's reasons. Reason number two,
it was funny. Reason number three... Enough said.
It was funny. I laughed. Welcome to the game
we play. Yeah. Reason number three, and this
is important, was because... I'd already given
Blanche and Jules some very valuable things,
and that are, Jules, I had your loot upgraded
to basically a Rhythm Maker's Drum, giving you
plus one to spell saves, attack rolls, and I
believe you can also regenerate Bardic Inspirations
as an action. Up to a limit, I think it should
be one per day, maybe two. Pretty good stuff.
Pretty good stuff. Blanche, Sword of Sharpness
plus two is frankly insane. I don't know why.
I must have been drunk. So, you got those things.
It's almost like we had to kill a god to get
it. It only cost us a PC. I did add plus two
to my attack rolls in the character when I thought
of that, so that's kind of like even stronger.
Yeah, so we earned it. If only you were a door,
you would have died so fast. You got those cool
things. And so I did not give you as much of
a reward, but I did not give Dresden any major
rewards from the Ark. Crispin, who cares? He's
dead. Bone shattered. Corpse gone. He died so
Dresden could get a reward. He died to Dresden.
And so, in the time, the intervening time since
then, I want to say that at some point, Dresden,
you received a package of the Coyote. A package
from your sponsor, Freedom Ironworks, not of
money. but of a magic item crafted specifically
for you by Paloma, the current head of Freedom
Ironworks. I gave you, because I bought a magic
item card recently and I wanted to use them because
they were cool. So I gave you a bunch of really
interesting options. I want you to know this
here. There were a bunch of options and this
is the one you chose out of all of them. There's
some really good ones and you chose this. Yeah.
It fits in a lot of different ways. What did
you get from Paloma? Dresden got the Belt of
Dwarvenkind. While wearing this belt you gain
the following benefits your constitution score
increases by 2 to a maximum of 20 You have advantage
on charisma checks made to interact with dwarves
in In addition while attuned to the belt I love
this. It's so good. You have a 50 % chance each
day at dawn of growing a full beard if you're
capable of growing one or a visibly thicker beard
if you already have one. Oh, my God. So would
it get thicker every day? I don't know. I think
he's going to shave it every day. If you aren't
a dwarf, you gain the following additional benefits
while wearing the belt. You have an advantage
on saving throws against poison and you have
resistance against poison damage. You have dark
vision, that's huge, to a range of 60 feet. And
you can speak, read, and write dwarvish. Hell
yeah. It fits. Hell yeah. It's very cool. And
Paloma being a dwarf and reaching out this...
all branch of friendship to you, even when the
world's turned against you. It's really cool.
I love, narratively, it was the coolest option.
Big fan of that. I also need to know, on a scale
of retired detective to Santa Claus, where is
Dredson's beard at right now? I think he's clean
shaven. Okay. I mean, well, he's got stubble.
I don't know if that would be enough to call
it a short beard that just gets a little fuller.
Okay. Yeah. I think it's just stubble. Yeah.
It's more like bad Santa. It's middle of the
night. It's really shaved. It went to sleep and
it started growing in already. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Hell yeah. All right. Also, we got to remember
if you don't needlessly kill Dresden in these
coming times. Needlessly. This guy. We got to
roll every morning. Hell yeah. Also, for that
note, take a button. Oh, hell yeah. Whoa. Take
a button. And if it comes down to it, you might
want to use that button on a flashback because
for Dresden, I'm initiating flashback rules going
into this combat. You had some time before this.
You prepared something. You knew there could
be an attack. We'll say flashbacks are now a
thing. Nice. Wait, what was the button for? For
that cool letter. Yeah. Oh. Oh, hell yeah. I
should have said earlier, but I was busy being
cool. I didn't give it to him early enough, so
I'm going to give it to him late. It's the late
button. Oh, yeah. The late Mr. Button. And with
that, let's reset the scene. Dresden, you woke
up early. You had an hour regimen. You woke up
after only about 42 minutes had passed. For a
second, you didn't understand why. You couldn't
hear anything around. Then you realized there
was no sound at all. A complete void of sound.
as if magically imposed. As this fear strikes
you, you catch moving at the corner of your eye,
you see something moving down the steps, bouncing
onto the bottom and releasing a pale blue smoke.
Now, in this moment, we need to keep a few things
in mind. One, the room is dimly lit. I will say
you probably had some low candles, fires around,
things that you would actually see around you.
I think that makes sense. But you're also sleeping.
So I imagine it's not like fully lit room you're
in right now. There's no light from the windows
outside. The air doesn't really keep a lot of
light sources in his pub. Around you are the
cherry delights. Fibro sleeps. I think he like,
he was at a table reading a book and he was like,
I'm turning in. I never moved him from that spot.
I think he just like literally just collapsed
onto the table, onto the book and started snoring.
I'm going to bed now. Fibro is about 10 feet
to the south of you, right beside the front door,
sleeping on his stool, kind of in the corner
right next to where the fireplace would be. The
fireplace you're close to right now where you
wake up, it's about 15 feet away from you, and
you see above it is the crossed swords, the item
created by Andrew to cast. Pass without trace?
Thank you. Pass without trace on a number of
figures around. I believe the number was seven.
Might have to go back and check if you used that.
But it is there. It exists. Mm -hmm. About 20
feet to the west, against the other corner, opposite
of Fibro. You see there's a table with a cloth
over it. Mulligan sleeps underneath that. At
least you believe he does. Before you could hear
his snores. Now you hear nothing. Miskin sits
at the top of the table, fully asleep. And to
the north of you, about 20 feet, are... Just
next to the bar, we see Jeans, the pangolin,
whose name is Jamal. Jamal. Yes, there's so many
characters. And round stuff all kind of nestled
together, sleeping. You see the cherry lights
all around you. They are asleep. And because
of this silence around you, you realize you cannot
wake them unless you move to them. But as the
cylinder hits, it begins to spew out. This pale
blue smoke, some kind of gas, is going to fill
this room. I'm going to give you one free turn
before we roll initiative to make one move here.
What can you do? One move? One full turn. One
full turn? Yeah. Because you rolled high enough
to see this happen as it's happening. I'm going
to say before we roll initiative, you get a chance
to try to negate some badness that's going to
happen here. Fuck. Fuck indeed. So those are
the only ones I can see downstairs. There's others
upstairs. The only one you do not see is Ader,
who sleeps in his room behind the bar. Okay.
But you saw the canister came from upstairs,
so it means someone's up there. Okay, so Dresden
will summon his Echo with a bonus action at the
grenade. Ooh, okay. Okay. Okay. And then... Echo
appears on top of this thing. In an eye blink,
Dresden is reacting to this moment. The spew
of smoke is just barely funneling out into the
room. What does the Echo do? He takes the grenade
and throws it back up the stairs. Okay. I like
that move a lot. Hell yeah. You grab it, you
hug it. flies up there, bounces off the wall,
and you see a cop rolling around the corner up
into the upstairs hallway. The smoke's still
coming out, but I believe smoke does not settle
quickly. Okay. So you have time now. Okay. And
he's going to use his movement to go over to
the mantle. Okay. Hell yeah. I don't have control.
I now have control. You're out of control. I'll
give you the echo as well. All right, you slide
over to the middle. You reach to a touch. I don't
think of an action to speak the word here, but
as you're kind of moving over, preparing yourself
to act mentally. Again, everything you're doing,
entirely silent. Hell yeah. And with that hand
above the fireplace, turning back towards the
stairs where the echo stands at the bottom, looking
up into the void above, into the showers of the
second floor, let's roll for initiative. Dresden's
a fucking seven. Okay. What, does Echo have the
same dark vision? Yes. The way that Echo typically
works is you'll, like, inhabit it to see through
it, and it'll go in and out. It's almost like
a shadow that you can step into and out of. It's
pretty rad, actually. So can you see anything
up the stairs? Uh... Not yet. Okay. Initiatives
are rolled. The echo. I imagine you step into
its place to see through its eyes. You're looking
up the top of the stairs. As I take my first
turn. Well, I don't want to compromise his ability
to use the item. True, true, true. So I guess
in that case, no. Okay. It won't matter much
because they're coming fast. You hear footsteps.
No, sorry, you hear nothing. You hear nothing.
There's no sound. Ha ha. Almost got me there.
I won't fall for your tricks, Jeremy. You see
two more figures. Moving down the stairs, you
see figures. Hulking forms in brass plague doctor
masks and thick black leather armor wielding
tower shields and cudgels, as well as nets forged
with interwoven steel bands upon their backs.
Their eyes covered by lenses seem to like stare
down towards the echo and they go charging down
the steps surrounding your shadow. They're going
to make some attacks. Wait. You gave me one action
or you gave me one turn. Yeah. Can I use action
surge? Oh, shit. Can we retroactively go back?
It's up to you. I'll do it for a button. I want
to use action surge. Yeah, that's fair. I'll
do it for a button. It's fair. Because I want
to use that to activate... The mantle thing?
The mantle. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Okay. Take
that button. You get a full extra action on this
turn. There we go. Okay. You reach up. It's the
pinky you kind of switch over as you kind of
reach this thing. You know what? You know what?
Keep your token. This sounds, the way it's ascribed
to me. What? Keep your button. I'm sorry. It's
10 o 'clock over here or something. Keep your
button because the way this is described to me,
you're just basically flipping a switch on a
pinky in order to activate this thing. Mechanically,
I want to call it just an object interaction.
I don't think you need your action search. So
I get to keep my action. I'm going to allow it.
I'm going to allow it. I think it's cool. You
threw the gas and you see the gas sort of go
down the stairs and you see these figures unaffected
by it. These masks they wear. These beaked Plague
Doctor masks made of brass seem to... Totally
make them infected by whatever gas this is. Sure.
The steps going through the light blue fog that
now seems to emanate down from the upstairs.
You reach out. You come to this thing. You flip
the pinky behind the hand. And immediately, there's
this flash of... It gives me the opposite of
a flash of shadow as all the shadows move into
a long egg and wrap around the seven nearest
creatures, which at this point are exactly Dresden,
Jamal, Jeans, Roundstuff, Fibro, Mulligan, and
Miskin. While they are sleeping, you see the
shadows. cover them. You can barely see them
and you know the same effect is on yourself.
You have a plus 10 to stealth. Now they're not
necessarily hidden right now, but this effect
will last some time. Sure. And those that are
in, you know, places that can be, you know, considered
obscured or hidden will be a lot harder to see.
Yeah, that's free. All right. Let me beat your
guys up. Does 19 hit? The echo? No, it does not.
Oh my god, echo? It shares an AC, doesn't it?
Hold on, let me just double check. I think it
shares AC. Oh, no, no, no. The echo's AC is 17.
Okay. Yeah. Shit. It just stands up there as
these things come down. One of these clubs phases
through as the first one strikes. The second
one. As they get one more full move action, because
they did not have to attack. Seeing the echo
vanish, they look through where the echo stood.
And you, while you are wreathed in shadow, are
still unhidden, staying in front of the fireplace.
And this figure is going to begin to move up
to you. But it's only going to get to where it's
10 feet away. You see it's reaching around for
the net on its back. There's no action left.
to strike with. And that's their turn. And that's
you, Dresden. Okay. He will manifest his echo
behind it. Echo silently appears. Got flanking.
Targetable, so plus two flank bonus. Cool. And,
yeah, he is going to just go in with a war pick.
Not great. Thirteen. 13 will not hit. Okay, that
was the first attack. Bounces off this huge tower
to a black metal tower shield. You're going to
get the extra attack. 16. 16 also does not connect.
Are you fucking kidding me? Big shield. This
thing is made to stand and not fall. You just
go in. And again, I made a sound, but you just
feel yourself hitting this thing, but no sound
comes off as you just... Bounce and bounce. So
strange. So surreal. You are locked now in combat
with these figures. But at least that's it. Right?
We pan outside of the coyote. We look out upon
an empty street. It's the middle of the night
now. No one is about this deep down in the trade
disc on the tail of the citadel. No one except
for two figures perched on a rooftop across the
way, which I will now make visible. We see two
more brass plague mask wearing assailants that
stand on top of this roof right along the edge
of this. I believe we mentioned this before.
It's like a fine China shop. I think he went
in here once and caused some sort of chaos. I
can't remember. It was a million years ago. They
wear black robes, the hoods that curve up to
pointed ends. Their eyes, hidden behind the glass
lens of their masks, look into the front window
of the coyote. And they hold sleek black staves
with metal tips, although these figures are quite
content to hold the spells they've already cast,
watching as the assault has begun. That is their
turn, but they will make no moves. And, just
like that, We are back to the top of the initiative.
But as we step into round two, our focus does
not return to the interior of the coyote. No,
it stays here upon this rooftop. Upon these mages
that look down through the front windows, look
down into the room. And it focuses upon what
they do not see. For behind them, sailing out
over the back of this china shop, across the
roof. Another figure enters the combat. One who
saw this coming from a mile away. Steven Rodriguez,
will you please re -describe for us Salome Sightweaver
and how she comes to enter the fray here. Salome
is a Pari angel. So she has her big red wings,
her blue skin, and part of her, Luminary costume
is her gold makeup on her face. As she flies,
she carries her sensor. It's like a flail in
one hand and her shield in the other. And as
she approaches, she's casting a spell. Okay.
Okay. We're going to go right into your turn
here. Cool. I'll give you top of the rack. We
just see like, I love this too. I think your
eyes are like essentially just radiant forms,
like orange radiance. And so we just see like
two orbs of radiant light sliding over in the
sort of dimly lit blue of the actual like auroral
diamond, which your skin probably fades so perfectly
into. It's so cool. And let's see. I don't expect
it to matter, but... I want to be perfectly clear.
What's the weather like outside, David? Oh, that's
a weird question here. There is no weather per
se in the Radiant Citadel. Though there is one
unique feature of the Citadel when it comes to
weather. Constant keening gloom? There is the
keening gloom. Down far below, there is constant
rolling thunder. I mean, there's a storm brewing
beneath the Citadel. What do you want? I mean,
if you're outdoors in a storm, when you cast
this spell, that spell gives you control over
that storm. This is a fucking Steven thing to
do. Hey, man, you used the term storm. What if
I just got to control the cleaning, the cleaning,
the fucking what? God! What if I just got to
control the cleaning? That's what you sound like.
Hey, man, I'm just reading the words of the spell.
What does the spell do? This is some weird magical
bullshit. The spell is call lightning. Okay.
I'm open to your interpretation. There's a storm
nearby. It is far beneath the sandal, but we
are on the tail end of the fossil. One of the
places where this actually might work. You know
what that makes me think? You want to roll a
die about it? I think we should roll a die about
it. Give me that D100. Oh, D100. Yeah. We're
calling this a 50 % chance. Someone else tell
me what that means number wise because I am bad
at that. 51 or higher? 51 or higher. 51 or higher.
51 or higher. And you get the thing you want.
Then I get the extra D10. That sucks. Wait, can
I take this back? Wait, wait, wait. I didn't
know you finished. Do you want an advantage?
I don't think advantage works on a D1. I think
it's just D20 rolls. Yeah, we'll call it that.
13. 13. Thank goodness. It's too far away. It's
too magical. It's a soul storm. That's all right.
I think I can still pull some. Hold on. What?
We didn't roll Salome's HP yet. Oh, my God. Hold
the phone. Salome slides in. Lightning crackles.
Freeze frame. She's like, wait a minute. What
are my stats again? We slide back to... Let's
roll some HP. Some hippity poo. Hippity poo.
Ready for this? No, not yet. Hold on, I gotta
remember how to... Gird your loins. Zip your
pants. Let's hit your grandma's HP. Hit point
manual. I'm going to slam this entire drink so
I'm drunk for the entire rest of this comment.
Oh my god. Rolled HP. Why did I do that? Alright.
I got a D8. You got a D8? Should have had a V8.
Oh my god. Three. Three, actually. Really? Damn
it. Are we doing it seven times? Yeah, I mean,
we're seventh level, right? All right, let's
do it. It's three. Five. Seven. Yay. Two. One.
No! Is this good radio? Four. One. Eat shit.
Hold on, hold on. I gotta keep track of how many.
Was that number four? I think so. Yeah, it was
four. Six. Seven. Oh, nice. One. One. No! Oh,
no. Despite all odds. Oh, no. The last one? Dude,
this is... Something is wrong here. Three. Seven.
Modifier's probably not added yet, though. Uh,
no. Yeah. So that's 31. Oh, wait. First level
you don't roll for. First level, I believe...
No, wait. I have no idea. We'll figure it out
later. Just put it in there. Okay. Yeah. So with
my lowered HP, because I think the first roll
was like a three or four, we got 45 HP. That
ain't bad. It's not good. Cleric. All right.
Let's see what happens. What's your con modifier
over there? Plus two. Well, yeah, that's what
you get. Yeah. Let's dump con. No, I just got
bad stats. Dude, that was my second best stat.
Wait, really? Yeah. What a shit character. Oh,
no. We did ruin a whole new Zebulon over here.
God damn it. Salome stumbles across the rooftop,
falls and... No, hold on. I'm going to do damage
and shit. All right, do damage. So I'd like to
say that Salome is definitely not up close to
these guys. I also can't control Salome. Hang
on, let me figure that. Well, I'm just going
to tell you, I want to be 60 feet behind them.
You can be wherever you want to be. Wait, what?
Oh, no, that's... Okay, well, just put yourself
at the end of the map and we'll figure it out
because my map doesn't go that far. Okay, that's
fine. I'm going to screw even more. I want to
be like, no, 60 is fine. Can't fly? You can fly.
I thought you said can't. I was like, I thought
I could. You can go wherever you want. So the
wording of the spell says that you create a storm
cloud that you can see in a point you can see
above yourself. Oh, neat. So I have to be behind
them and underneath them. So again, this place
that never sees storms, that is absolutely terrified
of the thunderstorm that's below, is now witnessing
its first ever thunderstorm above. And so we're
probably going to see a lot of panic in the streets
very soon here. Yeah, super cool. Lightning cracks.
You, Salome, can hear everything going on. Oh,
okay. That's good. So there is a storm cloud,
60 -foot radius above them. And I'm going to
pick the guy on the right to make a dexterity
saving throw. Ooh, that's a good choice, maybe.
Let's say they're each holding a spell. You only
know what one of those spells could be. Pretty
good roll on my side. That is going to be a 19.
Okay, that is a pass. So you will only take half
of my... 3D10 lightning damage. What the fuck?
3D10? Holy shit. And you want more D10s? Why
do you let you roll that die? It's a guy. Hold
on. Do I want to do the thing? Or should I save
the thing? Stop it. Do the thing. Well, let me
double check how many times a day I can do the
thing. I can do the thing three times a day.
So I'm... Screw it. I'm going to do the thing.
Do the thing. What thing? I don't know. I'm just
saying do the thing. I'm waiting for it, too.
Oh, my gosh. It's called Thunderbolt Strike.
Nope, that's the wrong one. What? Where did it
go? Ah, yes. It's part of my channel divinity.
It's called Destructive Wrath. When you roll
lightning or thunder damage, you can use your
channel divinity to deal maximum damage instead
of rolling. What? Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait. Holy shit. What? Yeah, so I'm
just going to do 15 points of damage on this
guy. That's zany. Yeah, it's pretty zany, right?
Holy shit, that's cool. So here's what happens.
You come sailing in from behind. We see your
red wings outstretched. You stop in place. Hands
go out. I imagine we just see like the swirling.
Another smaller Keening Gloom appears spiraling
above this rooftop, 60 feet above. We hear a
peal of thunder and we see these two sort of
like bird beak mass sort of look up. just in
time for one of them to get absolutely blasted
by a bolt of light that shines out onto the rooftop.
You just hear like a scream as this figure kind
of lurches back. I need to roll a concentration
check. which I failed. Oh my goodness. Oh my
goodness. Inside the building, Dresden, as you
take a step back from that first hit, you hear
your footstep as silence is dropped on you. That's
amazing. That's incredible. What's the other
spell then? That's incredible. Oh, you don't
know the other spell yet. Oh my God. No, I don't
know the other spell yet. Holy shit. Oh, and
you have done some damage to my Riot Mage, which
I have a stat block I made. Is that block you
made? Oh, then you know it's unfair. I'm doing
a really fun thing with this fight. I do one
of the usual, like, David does a modern day thing,
but fancy style. Oh, so it's the... It's a SWAT
team. Yeah. Fancy SWAT team. Let's have fun with
this. Hell yeah, Salamay. Your turn. That's the
end of Salamay's turn. Okay, two mages now turn.
They're frantically looking around, and they
turn their beaks towards you. Stabs, rays. You
are locked in combat. She has her sensor and
her shield slightly held out, like presenting
herself with her wings spread behind her. But
what, pray tell, has brought Salome to this battlefield?
We'll find out, perhaps, if she doesn't die.
Speaking of death, top of the round now. And
that's me, Dresden. You can hear again, and so
you hear it. When the door to Ader's room opens.
That familiar creak you always hear. There's
one more figure wearing a brass plague mask steps
out. Steps out of Ader's room? Yep. Are you fucking
kidding me? You see, as the figure steps out,
there is a dagger in their hand. Are you serious?
Are you serious? Coated in blood. that they stow
upon their belt. I don't know. He's Aedir's what's
-his -name's friend. And as his figure steps
out, they draw two sabers very similar to the
ones that hang above the fireplace, the style
once wielded by Zebulon. Oh, yeah. I think you
know exactly what's happening now, don't you?
It's the police chief head guy. Oh, my God. The
guy who comes in. It's fucking Ariat. Ariat.
It's fucking Ariat. Yes. You son of a bitch.
Or it's like a setup or something. Take a button.
I can't. I have three. I'll take it. Nah. Actually,
you don't get a button. You forgot the name anyway.
You son of a bitch. Oh, I'm throwing a boss at
you. Think I wasn't going to do that for a filler
battle in the middle of another arc? No, nobody
thought that. Yeah, I'm crazy. I'm insane. I'm
foaming at the mouth. I'm drunk a little bit.
You can't stop me. I'm crazy. Oh, my God. You
also see, as these swords are drawn, there are
three sheaths on each hip, the only two swords.
Very interesting detail. Oh, well, looks like
we need to dash the bonus action to reach you
this turn. This figure steps out, looks over,
sees you locked about, Dresden. crouches down
and bounds forth, leaping over the bar in incredible
speed. Oh, we're going to have so much fun here.
Don't be shocked yet. Here's the thing. I'll
make three attacks on you. That's the thing.
So now the Cherry Delights can hear attacks being
made, right? The Cherry Delights, actually, I
think at this point, as the figure comes in,
sliding down, you see figures being able to snap
awake. and just look on in terror. I think Ron's
about to speak, and Jean just fully grabs her
and pulls her down to keep her quiet because
they are covered in shadow, and she tries to
move deeper behind the bar, trying to hide them.
On that note, I think Dresden has probably had
group conversations with all of them where if
something like this were to happen, they stay
quiet and hide. Hell yeah. There's like a safe
word that means like, get the fuck out of here.
Yeah, you can see like... As they become aware,
they're starting to move into hiding spots behind
tables, just wherever they can find in the shadow
of the bar. This figure is going to attack you.
God. A figure that I will say, Dresden, even
you might recognize this quick form. You recognize
these blades you see on the hip of the captain
commander of the shield bearers. And these brass
masks take on a whole new meaning. There you
go. Thank you. Also, side note, I forgot to level
up Dresden, so I just did. Get out. Oh, we're
so screwed. Just levels up. Dresden's just like,
seriously, level seven now. Yeah, he doesn't
really get anything except more HP. Hey, that
doesn't hurt. No, it doesn't. You're going to
need it. Attack number one. That's only going
to be a 16 to hit. Nope. 17 to hit. Nope. There's
a good one. 26 to hit. Fuck, yeah, that hits.
Oh, man. As a sword strikes true, 10 points of
damage from the blade itself. Holy shit. But
then you feel the poison. No. Now, I really didn't
want to give you... That Dwarven kind belt. That's
the first thing I thought of. This is a very
Poison focused fight. That's why I gave it to
a bunch of things. I was like, he's not going
to choose that. It's fine. He was talking about
that earlier and he read the Poison thing and
he was like, that's way too OP. I'm like, dude,
I can count on one hand the number of times I've
ever played with you and Poison has been in play.
Poison is such a big deal. I love this so much.
Now, the Resistance. won't matter for this part
of the show of this, but because are the, uh,
the, the advantage on roles, but the resistance
matters a lot because it uses flat damage to
do as poison from these attacks, but it's halved
automatically undressed, which is huge. I think
you still, I think you still might die anyways.
I might, I might. Because it's halved. That was
5d6. Jesus, fuck. Because it's halved, that's
only 16 points. Only. Oh, no. You're dead. You're
dead. That's all. I can't help you. That's all
I got. Fuck. That's all I've got. Oh, wait. There's
one more thing. Which do I want to use? I get
to apply one of the three. Which sheath was my
sword plugged into? Oh, so each sheath has, like,
poison in it? Hey, shut up. Jesus Christ. You
are in the poison condition for one round. Oh,
yes. And remind me, is that disadvantage? Disadvantage
on attacks. You're going to die. This is not
even fair. I mean, like, unless these guys...
This is not even fair. Unless these guys across
the street have, like, less than 30 HP. Yeah,
this is silly. You got this. Come on, you got
this. This is silly. You're fine. You're fine,
Ken. The guardian angel of the cherry delights
holds strong against this foe. Dresden, you know
who it is that strikes at you as a sword strikes
true. Movements so fast. Movements made by a
trained warrior. You know Ariat is the one that
stands before you now. A foe you knew you had
to come across eventually, but probably did not
expect to come across on this night. Okay. I'm
not done yet. Oh, God. Of course you're not.
Of course you're not. Because now, as you stand
there, Dresden, your Echo is behind one of these
other warriors, these sort of hulking figures
with their shields and their nets. One of them
is going to come up and try to strike at the
Echo. Full kind of blow to the back of the Echo's
head. I'm going to try to attack. Let's see what
happens. 16. And a 19. Nope. I thought Echo had
17. Oh, you went in the Echo, sorry. So the first
one misses the Echo, second one does poof the
Echo. That's that guy's whole turn. The second
guy tries to throw his net on you. That's 8 to
hit. Oh, Jesus Christ. I thought it was an apologetic.
No, no, it was not. I was apologetic to myself.
I was really sad. 12 to hit. So you see this
sort of steel mesh net comes flying towards you.
You easily do a sidestep, pull it out of the
way. Guy tries one more time, throwing it over
you. You don't fall into the net. You step back.
This figure is now going to move up beside Ariat.
Jesus fucking Christ. One hulking figure and
one slim assassin before you. And it's your turn,
Dresden. Kill them all, Big D. All right. God
damn it. Okay. A Dresden will use a charge of
the Ring of Obscuring. Oh, shit. Oh, first time.
You forgot I had that. First time on the Ring
of Obscuring. Oh, my God. Yeah. What's the thing
do again? It has three charges and regains 1d3
expended charges daily at dawn. As an action
while wearing the ring, you can expend one of
his charges to cast the Fog Cloud spell from
it. Oh, cool. Okay. With the following changes,
the cloud is centered on you when it first appears,
and the spell lasts for one minute, no concentration
required. Huh. Holy shit. So we see, like, the
fog seeping down the stairs, that pale blue smoke
is suddenly met by this explosion of what's a
gray, normal, typical fog? Yeah, I think so.
Fills the entirety of this room, I imagine. How
big is this fog? It's a 20 -foot radius. 20 -foot
radius. So 40 feet in diameter on Dresden. The
sphere spreads around the corners and its area
is heavily obscured. It lasts for the duration.
Well, yeah, that's a change. Hey, so was the
first thing that Dresden heard the crack of thunder?
It would have been right after because you shot
the thunder and then it dropped concentration.
Well, I shot lightning and thunder follows lightning.
Fucking guy. Yeah, I was wondering if it was
thunder. It's so cool. I'm going to Bill Nye
me in my own house. It's Jeremy's house. I don't
care. Well, even still, there's still a storm
outside. That's very cool. Yeah. You hear thunder
outside and you probably wonder like, I mean,
there's probably a thought in your mind resident
of something is happening beyond this fight.
Yeah. Right. You hear sounds outside. You heard
a scream as the first thing you heard upon that
step was a bit of thunder and. from somewhere
outside across the street. Where somebody is
having a much easier fight. We'll see about that.
All right, where's the door to the coyote? Right
there? Yep. Perfect. So the door is currently
set between two windows, about 20 feet to the
southwest of you. Perfect. Okay, so Dresden is
going to then use a bonus action to manifest
his echo behind... Ariat? Ariat! Okay. Echo appears
behind Aria. Yeah, he's going to use his action
surge to make an attack. Okay. And now did we
decide that use it? I forgot. It's been a while
since we've used this. Because I get the extra
attack. Is that included with action surge? The
dual attack. Yes, it is. Cool. Cool. So he's
going to do that with flanking and anything else
because of the fog? Do you get the same disadvantage
for... Yeah, I was wondering. Yeah. Because it's
fog and flanking. Yes, you are obscured. Okay.
Now you're poisoned, so you have disadvantage,
but no minus two because you have flanking, which
would counteract the fog's minus two. So you
appear behind him. You can attack, disadvantage,
no minus two because you have two mitigating
things. You have a bonus to undo your minus,
essentially, from flanking. Okay, so it's just
straight disadvantage. Straight disadvantage.
Okay. And you're doing Axe of Surge, so how much
attack does that? Oh, because the ring was one.
Right. Yeah. Okay, cool. So this is just, yeah.
So it's two attacks. You see that figure before
you? It stiffens just a little bit. To negate
disadvantage. Oh, shit. Okay. So is that for
the whole attack action? Yeah, is that for the
whole attack? Or is that just for one of the
two attacks? That is for one of the attacks.
Damn. 1d20 roll. Damn. Yeah, that was pretty
shitty. It's going to be 14. 14. Does not hit.
No, it doesn't. And for fun flavor, because I
can, I'm going to use a reaction. Oh, no. Oh,
God. To swap. You see a very familiar move happens
as the shield bearer then pulls Art to the side
and slides in place to take the attack. Very
similar to the move Jean Franklin, your old ally,
used to make. Okay. Yeah, I want you to see all
my tools before I use them all and kill you.
Are we close enough that Dresden realized that's
just what happened and he can go for Jessen?
Jessen? Jessen. Dude, no, seriously, no. In this
moment, you see Arya and, like, he's endangering
your family. He's coming to kill your family.
And you see fucking Jessen, like, you see your
brother sneering at you. through the cloud. That's
no, seriously, that's cool. That's cool storytelling.
Probably because we haven't seen it in 50 episodes.
That's really cool storytelling. Like, someone
you hate with all your heart, Dresden, and you
see this figure superimposed for Arya for just
a moment. Did you go with that second strike?
Well, I would probably take the strike on the
ad, too. I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet.
You've got the flanking. I'm not done yet. Not
done yet. I got poison, though. What? Well, right,
but if you switch, because of Ariat switching
places, if you switch to attack Ariat again,
you won't get the negation of the flanking. Oh,
I didn't even realize I did that. I'm a real
motherfucker. Yeah. I love it. But I'm still
also not done. Okay. I'm still also not done.
How dare you? Yeah. Be done. Yeah. No. I'm not
going to be done. So, yeah, also leave it to
David to be an amazing DM and create a cool,
awesome story component out of me fucking up
names. Right, right. That was pretty cool. That
was pretty cool. Anyways, he's going for Ariat.
Okay. So it's disadvantage minus two, right?
Yes. Okay. With the fall clap button. That's
right. I don't have it on you. Oh, it's so cool.
Yeah. You're like, I just love this. There's
literally shadows in the fog. You see one huge
golden shadow that's sliding in front of Arya.
The thinner shadow with the two blades. And you
turn to strike at that. Oh no, that was terrible.
That was terrible. That was terrible. That's
a two. You cut down at this shadow in the clouds.
In the fog, you hear again the sound of your
laughing brother. That fog disperses for a second.
There's nothing there. You feel his presence,
but you don't feel him there. Where is he? Where
is he? Unleash Incarnation. Oh, damn. Okay. Whenever
you take the attack action, you can make one
additional melee attack from the Echo's position.
On Ariat or on the... On the other one. On the
Riot Trooper, as I call them. Actually, I'll
say it now. Shield Bearer, Riot Trooper. And
my question, does the same poison effect apply
to the Echo? Yes, because more like you're taking
its place when you do the attack. Yes, that would
be. So it would be disadvantage minus two as
well. Gnarly stuff. No, I'm not taking the Echo's
place. The Echo is attacking. I can swap if I
want to, but the Echo attacks itself. But it
is an Echo of you. Right, exactly. It's a double
of me. It should say if it shares your conditions
or something. It doesn't. We'll say it doesn't.
Because unleashing our condition is different.
Oh, and immunity to all conditions. Oh, there
you go. There it is. That's crazy. But it won't
be the minus two if he's attacking the riot.
It'd be a disadvantage, but no minus two. Yeah.
Because of the foul cloud. So just no minus two,
just disadvantage from the fog. That's crazy.
But can you hit? No. Not with a 12. He can't
fucking get a hit in. Not with a 12. Even with
a plus two from flanking, you go to strike and
this thing, shield swims around to block it.
It's so hard. No one's landing strikes. But now
with this fog filling the room. Dresden will
then run to the front door. Okay. See how far
it goes. I think it's making an attack at disadvantage
because of the opportunity, but it's in the fog
cloud, so it's going to be hard to hit you. Wait,
didn't he already use his reaction? One guy did.
The assassin did not. Okay. But you're right.
Good point. I was actually going to make two
attacks. So, you know what? Good on you, Steven.
Keep me honest. No. That's going to be a 14.
So, with disadvantage from the fog cloud, you
go to, again, like, you feel that figure disappears.
You're struck. You feel a presence move up on
you. You move, and that figure slices where you
just were. You're diving out of the way, rolling,
sliding over. You go to open the door, Dresden.
And you run into a wall that you cannot see.
Fuck. You think it wasn't going to make it that
easy? Come on. You think my riot mages aren't
going to steal the exit? Come on. Oh, that's
the other spell. Yeah. That's the other spell.
Yeah. I thought he was just being a dick because
of the fog. Nope. There's another spell. There
is another spell. The silence is gone. Maybe
in like three or four rounds I can... Just spell
that one for you. Pick up my dead body. You can
oversee the funeral in three or four rounds.
Okay. Dresden, you hit that wall. Your heart
sinks as you realize the exit, the primary exit
has been sealed. They have you trapped. You threw
away their initial attack, their poison, whatever
that was. You had a moment to get rid of that
before you could breathe it in. What? Just hide.
What do you do now? Let's slide back outside.
So you did say Dresden heard something happening
outside. Yes. You heard a scream. You know someone's
fighting outside at this point. Okay. I am going
to take that play, though. He's going to realize
the wall is there. So I'll do a weird thing real
quick. This is a two -year token because the
fog cloud should stay where it was. Yes. So you
don't have it on you. He's going to run along
the back wall here. So Dresden, I want to check
this real fast. The fog cloud right at the door
is where it basically ends. You slide in the
door, you kick it open, you slap into, and you
can see there's no fog in the way. You can see
that you slap against some kind of invisible
wall. You're looking out across the street. As
you look up, you can see a storm swirling around,
two more figures that are turned away from you
in combat with somebody you cannot see. Someone
is helping you. That's so cool. It's so fucking
cool, actually. Oh my God. Okay. Yeah, and then
he's going to move into that corner and catch
his breath for a minute. Okay. So you just slide
past the form of hiding Fyro under the table.
You can, like, feel him there. You know he's
there. You feel him brush against your leg. I'm
going to put a hand on him. Hell yeah. Give a
little squeeze. Just say, it's going to be okay.
Stay right there. Tucks up in a corner right
beside the fireplace, holding tight in the fog.
And is Echo still there? In the darkness, Echo
still fights. On the rooftop, two figures turn
to face their assailant, their sudden assailant.
They almost reel back in some shock as they look
upon the face of an angel, a Pari, flying 60
feet away from them, commanding the storm. I
think you see just a brief moment of indecision.
They look towards each other, and their sort
of black, sort of crackling, electric -tipped
staves come up, and they're going to fire some
attacks at you. All right. There comes four attacks.
Does a nine hit Solomon? I don't know. It does
not, actually. Okay, hang on. It's going to be
cool. Hang on. Ooh, baby, but does 18 hit Salome?
18 does not hit Salome. What? Yeah, Salome's
got a shield, baby. Okay. All right. Well, that's
okay. Well, maybe 12 will hit. Hang on. Got this
time. Here it is, baby. This is the one. That's
a 23 hit Salome. 23 hits. Finally. Oh, it's going
to be a record for me to kill your character
in the first combat. It's going to be a record.
Nothing crazy here. That's just going to be 12
points. Oh, my God. Of lightning damage. Oh,
my God. Crackling blast strikes at you. Imagine
you're swirling like the last electricity fly
out of these wands and you're kind of like flying
to the side. you know, doing like full barrel
rolls. The last one, finally, like you, the other
pincer attack comes at you, dodge one, just get
hit by the other, right in the shoulder, crackling
electric pulse through your body. That's all
I can do. And that's you, Salome. Okay. Salome
is going to raise her, raise her hand at the,
the one that she's already damaged and say to
the one on the left. Leave now and you may escape
my justice. And she's going to use call lightning
again. I need that dex save, please. Please fail
it. 13. Oh, 13 fails. Yay. And I'm going to do
the thing. I'm going to do the thing and I'm
just going to do 30 damage to you. Oh my God.
Oh my God. That is one hell of a lightning bolt.
Yeah. Go ahead and describe what it looks like
when you kill. Oh, excellent. She tells this
guy to get lost and then just closes her fist
and the lightning strike falls and just cripples.
As you're going to strike the one, the other
one, you hear like a woman's voice. It's like,
no, so that's true. You don't understand. Wait,
this, this is your will. This is your master's
will. And then the lightning comes down. Holy...
You see, like, this rooftop, like, explodes.
Rubble goes flying. There's a hole right through
into the china shop. A bunch of china breaks.
It's very sad. I hope she's got good insurance.
And the figure that was staying there is just
fully decimated, gone. Then one stops and looks.
You've gone mad! You've gone mad! And Salome
focuses on him next. I'll say Salome is... expression
is usually a little distracted, a little aloof.
I came up with a term on the drive over here.
I'm going to say that she now is more focused.
She has initiative eyes. Hell yeah. Yes. Nice.
I love that. Well, Salome, always viewing ahead,
always seeing the future. Salome saw this. moment,
saw this coming tragedy, came here to stop this
coming tragedy. But now, right now, in this moment,
she exists in this moment. She is present. Because
she has to be. As we look down, sliding through
the windows, past the wall of force blocking
exit for the chariot of lights, into this room
enclosed where this fog is trapped, filling the
space where Dresden huddles beside a fireplace,
holding strong, and where Ariat, Captain Commander
of the Shieldbearers, sheathes his blades in
a moment. draws them against, spraying some bits
of ichor around, some poison, dripping onto the
wooden floors, dripping through the fog, and
begins to search for his prey. And we'll call
it there.