Hey, Pants People. I want to play you a snippet
of our conversation with Nicholas Casparo. He
is the author of Vidalirium, Descent into the
Void. You can find him on social media or on
his website, vidaliriumseries .com. And I know
that you guys asked about pronunciations and
things like that in the email. I did. want to
respond to that. I just did not have to be able
to do so today. So it's, um, so the, the, the
series itself, the overarching series is called,
uh, vidal area. Yes. I, I, I picked up the, um,
audio book yesterday, last night. And I was listening
last night and today, and I was like, man, I'm
really glad that I did that. Um, cause yeah,
vidal area. I would have been tempted to say
vital area or something, but no, I I'm glad that
I glad that I got that. You know, most people
go for that the first time around. And for a
while, I was actually thinking about changing
it because of that. But then I was like, you
know what, we'll get it across. We just got to
inject a whole brand new piece of nomenclature
into the vernacular. Sure, exactly. Yeah, that
can't be hard, right? No, no, I don't think so.
And I think when you're going into a series like
this. You know, you have to expect that you're
going to be learning new words. Right. You know,
especially something space faring. There's new
planets. There's new. And you've done a really
good job at that. David and I were talking about
I gave David a ride over. We were talking about
the scenes where the father was was quizzing
Roman and he was pulling out all this. Oh, yeah.
For this and that creature, you have to behave
in this way and whatnot. I love the intro. The
lower intro was fantastic. Yeah. Really cool
way to kind of set up the blue gold rush. Super,
super cool. As a big fan of like that, that sort
of Western gold rush, I love the idea of bringing
that into space, having the new big thing and
then, yeah, just seeing what kind of calamity
results from it. I'm excited to keep going. Yeah,
yeah. Thanks, man. Well, I appreciate that. And
I'm glad it came across. you know that that way
because that's that's kind of what i was what
i was hoping for in terms of like just really
giving people like the full story so you can
dive head first into the content like give everyone
like a real introduction to what they're about
to be diving into and i feel like given the history
at the beginning really um it brings people into
the world Right. Yeah, it's it's not just the
introduction. It's the it's the it's it's the
doorway into the universe I've created. So, yeah.
Speaking of diving in, I feel like we kind of
already did. So I don't know if this is a nightmare,
Jeremy, for editing. But Nick, if you want to
introduce yourself, we can we can get an intro
out to the pants people and we can talk some
more about about your book. All right. Awesome.
So. so yeah my name is nicholas keating casbaro
i'm the author of the vitellarium series and
the first book vitellarium descent into the void
um is out now it's on amazon audible uh basically
anywhere where you can get your books online
and uh it is a far future space faring odyssey
uh where you're basically following the emergence
of a future mythological hero in a space faring
universe where humanity has become multi -planetary
basically the person who becomes the most important
person in future history but you're not just
you're not seeing it i guess you're not seeing
it from you know the history book version you're
not hearing the songs that are sung after the
fact you're getting to kind of follow him on
that journey the gritty truth of that journey
through every step of the way as he basically
uh you know, becomes that person. I love that
viewpoint. That's fantastic. Yeah, just the idea
of the next, like, Odysseus or King Arthur, but
in the far future. I guess what I thought about
sci -fi, mixing that kind of idea of, like, the
mythological hero, that figure, it's really cool.
I'm excited to see where Roman goes in this adventure.
Right, because you're not, you know, when you
start the book, you're not learning about, like
you said, somebody who's already a hero. you
meet him on the sports field. Yeah. You know
what I mean? As a teenager. Yeah. And that was
my, you, you meet him as a, as a kind of a teenager.
I did that on purpose because I wanted to make
sure that people understood what his backstory
was, because for the majority of the book, you're
basically following him as, as an adult. And
he is not the, the cleanest. type of uh adult
character let's just say that he's definitely
a morally gray protagonist extremely rough around
the edges he basically becomes a uh a mercenary
he's a gun for hire they call him a freelancer
uh and he's doing odd jobs for local gangs when
you meet him when you first get introduced to
him as an adult He's kind of floating through
life. He's a little bit of a drunk. He's basically
doing these odd jobs to just make ends meet.
And, you know, and then he goes out and he blows
it on booze and horse. And he's not he's not
he's not your he's not your knight in shining
armor for sure. But he's definitely skilled.
There are certainly remnants of discipline in
the way that he does things, certainly in the
way that he runs. missions he takes them very
seriously but you know in the rest of his life
he's he's kind of uh he's kind like i said a
lost soul um and so a lot of the book you're
also kind of watching his rediscovery of purpose
through the circumstances that he's thrust into
hell yeah yeah uh man i'm a i gotta keep going
i gotta keep going I got to find out if Roman
ever learns to pass the ball. He does. He does
at some point. I feel like that's not too much
of a spoiler. Yeah, exactly. Nick, and really,
I'm talking now to the pants people, the audience.
We wanted to give away a copy of Vidalirium Descent
Into the Void. So if you're hearing this, pants
people, hit us up on the Discord. We're going
to have a poll up for whichever way you want
the book, whether you want the hardcover, if
you want just an e -book, if you want the audio
book. We'll take all that info. We'll pick someone
randomly and we'll send you a copy. Nick, do
you have maybe another book in the series to
tease that we can talk about next week or something
about what's next for you, the Videlirium series,
and for our main character, Roman? Oh, absolutely.
So I'll be the first to admit I have some pretty,
we'll call them unrealistic expectations for
what I plan to turn this series into. I have
a 10 year plan where I basically I'm anticipating
bringing this into all mediums of entertainment
within the next 10 years. I would love to see
this as a video game. I would love to see this
as an animated series, a live action series,
all of it. And so I'm taking steps to basically
make that happen. But for right now, I have seven
books planned with my publisher. Book two should
be coming out sometime Q1 next year. Oh, wow.
And I also have a comic book series that I've
adapted the book to. And three episodes of the
comic book are currently out. And so that literally
I just I just released episode zero, which is,
you know, actually comes before episodes one
and two. And that's going to start something
interesting where I actually have two timelines.
So one going forward with the narrative of the
book. And a timeline moving backward in chronological
order that documents some of his basically times
as an adult doing missions for all sorts of different
people throughout the city of Kairos. And that's
going to move backwards in chronological order.
Talk about the universe. Talk about world building.
Like, wow, that's that's expansive. Yeah. Yeah,
I've got a I've got a whole canon planned that
includes, you know, character offshoots. We're
going to dive into some of the main, you know,
the other important supporting characters, backstories
a little deeper. We're going to get we're going
to dive deep into some of the some of the antagonists
and see what really forms them. You know, what
what kind of creates the the the the antiheroes
or the the enemies in in this book? And, um,
yeah, we're, we're, I, I, I have all of this
stuff kind of already plotted out and now it's
just a matter of, uh, transitioning it into,
you know, different mediums, whether that's comic
book, book, you know, what have you. Wow. Yeah.
I mean, here, here pants people, if you want
to jump onto a train, that's going places, launching
off, get in the first car, get on italyrium,
tend to the void, pick it up, listen to it. Uh,
You're starting off on an epic, epic journey,
it sounds like. I know I'm checking it out. Thanks,
guys. Storyteller Rune here with an update on
Calipang. Now, I need to start by saying that
we still have very little official information
from the scene. Shieldbearers are rallying in
a way to return of the Serpentine Jewel. When
it comes back, we'll have people on the scene
to interview the people on board. Just stay tuned,
and you'll get a full story soon enough, I promise.
But, in the meantime, if you want my opinion,
yes. As many have undoubtedly surmised, I do
believe that this attack is connected to the
Storm Eye, planned by it, in fact. Now, we all
know he's still out there, having escaped from
Omizu before its fall. Now that the party have
put a stop to his usual villainy, he must have
allied with the undersea storm giant factions
of Dayalan. Fuck. Dayalan. To help drive the
angels away, disregard that. And I have another,
further theory. I believe that the Dawn Incarnates
have been working with Ozen from the start. Now,
who else could have taught him how to channel
the power of the Keen and Gloom? Nobody! They
know the secrets of the Oral Diamond, of our
conquered world, of everything. And gods help
us all, now they've turned towards evil. I'm
gonna fuck that word up. Throwing all those in
under the bus. Dyalungan. And it's all staying
in. Dyalungan. It's a hard word, man. The best
one's Dyalungan. It's like a button. I crack
it up. Oh, yeah. It worked. It worked. Episode
title. I'm going to kill someone just for that.
No. I'm going to kill Arhalon just for that episode
title. Speaking of Arhalon, holy shit, dude.
Like, coming in clutch. I can't believe the first
attack. The foam just fell off the wall. The
same one that fell off earlier. I almost just
spit -taped all over my laptop. But dude, the
first attack after Arlon gets this adamantine
armor to make himself immune to crits, he gets
crit! Like, what are the fucking chances? It
was so cool. And I almost, I was rolling the
damage. I was rolling, what was it, 12d6 or something?
And you're like, wait! For the few seconds in
between when I knew it was a crit and when I
remembered that he couldn't be crit, like, I
saw you with all the die and I was like, nah,
man. man, there's something I got to be able
to do about this. And I was like, there's got
to be a reaction or, oh, wait. Oh, so good. And
the parry, remembering that parry to block the
second hit. I mean, by some miracle, he's still
up at one HP. One HP. you know, playing that
tank role. But these guys are strong. Storm Giants
are insane. I'll tell you now, these are CR 13
creatures. I don't know how... It's not fair.
CR isn't, like, the be -all, end -all of, like,
encounter balancing. There's a lot of problems
with it, but still, CR 13 means big, scary blokes
with a lot of damage. Yeah, but doesn't... So
doesn't the system... Doesn't the CR quote -unquote
system mean that if it's a CR 13 creature, it's
supposed to be a normal -sized level 13 party
to be a fair match or something like that? It's
like a decent but relatively safe fight for four
level 13s against one Storm Giant. Cool. You're
level 13, right? No, no. We're... Quite far from
that. Oh, wow. You're an asshole. You don't have
to go super asshole. According to you, we're
probably not even going to hit 13 in this campaign.
Yeah, you shouldn't have skipped those other
worlds. Yeah, I guess. It was like 24 of them
or something. We didn't have to come here, right?
Yeah, I mean, just trying to rescue the child
that David stole from us. Don't rescue children.
Moral of the story. Don't ever love anything
and you won't get hurt. It's actually fairly
true. Speaking of things you're going to love.
Real quick though. That was such a good segue.
I know it is. You've ruined me. Yes, exactly.
I want to think of a better one after you say
your thing. I'm going to keep going. I'm not
going to let you finish that. Give me a butt,
yeah. Can you remind me who has the potion of
heroism? It's gone. Dresden drank it. Dresden
drank it? Fuck. Yeah, it's gone now. Bye, take
that. Give me that card. Yeah, that's right.
You do have a... Giant Strength. Oh, wait, you
were... No, Fire and... Okay, never mind. No,
Fire and Stone. Yeah, never mind. I was going
to be all cool if Jules had it and roll it over
to Arhalon, but fuck. Keep going. Good work.
Speaking of... What? Fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck.
This mail is here. Thank you. Mail time. Yeah.
It's mail time, baby. We got mail. We got mail.
We got mail. Yeah. David, do tell. Do tell. This
mail is pretty cool. I'll see who it's from after
you open it because I think Steven forgot about
this. Okay. I almost certainly forgot about it.
You're handing it to me. It looks like the box
is upside down. I wanted to make sure that was
what was in it. Okay, but so I can safely open
it this way? Just open it. All right, it's definitely
upside down. I just want to make sure that I
don't... Your whole head is upside down. Yeah,
open that box. And I'm very self -conscious about
it. Open that box. But don't break anything.
It's all glass. What the fuck is that? I'm just
kidding. What the hell is that? It's actually...
It's bubble wrap. It's a bunch of bubble wrap.
It's bubble wrap. Okay. Can I safely put that
somewhere else? Is it throwable? Okay. Just empty.
Right. You really pop every one into the mic.
I really kind of want, like, some help here.
No. I don't want to be the only one opening this.
Pull out your murder knife. Whoa, what the hell?
What is that? Give me one of those. Wait, wait,
wait, wait. Don't open them yet. Don't open them
yet. Wait, why? Don't open them yet. What the
fuck is this? Let me look at it first. There's
names on them. There's names on them. There's
names. There's names. Oh, this one has my name.
This is Jeremy. What the fuck is this? Logo.
This feels like Christmas. That's everybody.
Okay, Jeremy, open yours. They already opened
it for you. What the fuck is this? Open it up.
Take a look. What? Oh, dude. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah,
baby. Oh! Oh, my God. Let me explain. We are
holding... Let's glitch on one! We're holding
wood burnings of Jules, Blanche, and Akio, all
made in the art style of Zila, Astropathic Art,
who's done so much of our art in this show, and
burned for us these beautiful pieces of wood
by our buddy on Instagram, Gaming Creations.
Dude. That's underscore Gaming Creations, one
word. underscore on Instagram. Check them out.
Dude, this is, this is not, look at the quality
of this work. This is fantastic. Look at Akio.
Oh, everybody, show your, show your wares. Oh,
Jules is sick. Look at the detail. Oh my gosh.
That's a bunch. That's a bunch. Super, super,
duper cool. Dude, that means I know what this
is. Let's see what that is. Yeah, I'm pretty
sure I got an idea. This one says logo on it.
Oh, I bet it's... I bet it's... Oh, it's a logo!
Nice. That looks slick. Oh, it's an old -style
logo. It's like our second logo. I like that.
A bit of history. Hell yeah. Dude, I can't wait
to show these off. Yeah, super cool. Yeah, mail
them. Thank you again, Gaming Creations. Oh,
yeah, thank you. Oh, my gosh. Super, super amazing.
This is great. Thank you so, so much. Oh, we
got to, yeah. We got to get these out there.
Show everybody these things. They're insane.
Oh, yeah. It'll definitely be on socials. Oh,
yeah. Let me take that from you. Yeah, if you
don't mind plopping that down. I'm going to keep
mine right next to me for good luck on this one.
All righty then. What do you guys think? Can
we get back into Calipang? No. I'm so nervous
and so unsure about everything that's going to
happen in this episode. Yeah, Stephen and I have
said multiple times today before recording that
we don't have a fucking plan. I just feel very
unprepared. Holy shit. I feel like my kit is
not designed for this. Dirge your loins. Stiffen
your balls. Here we go. You ready for this? That's
my secret. Because we're going right back into
the streets of Tythos. They're always girded.
Yeah, that's right. Tythos. That's where we're
going today. We're going to pick up on a little
flashback as we look down upon the dusty streets
of the Low City. And here as our camera glides
through the populace of laborers and urchins
moving about under a, say, a cold... cloudy day
a gray sky and a light snow drifting as as wintry
as it really ever gets on tithos uh we see a
title card appear against that gray backdrop
three years ago and we see jewels Age 21, sliding
down a side alley. Jules, your arm is currently
in a sling. You had a pretty gnarly incident
recently. You know, a botched job. One of the
Cherry Delights got themselves in a bit of trouble,
and you had to kind of put yourself at risk to
get them out of it. And everything's fine. Everyone
got out good. You avoided the guard, thanks to
Dresden's warnings, once again, pulling in a
clutch for you. But your arm is currently fractured,
you think? Not really a lot of doctors around
to help you with it. But you are moving back
to your hideout, guarding yourself from the biting
wind. You have your old, what was it, like the
sack cloak you used to have? Oh, yeah, yeah,
yeah. It was like a burlap sack. A burlap sack
up against the biting winds. How far we've come.
I forgot about that. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. And you're
moving. towards perhaps an old sort of cellar
door that moves in behind me, some like whole,
like butchery or something. A little smelly a
spot, but it's a great spot to hide your burgeoning
little crew, the Cherry Delights. As you approach
the door, though, you do hear some kind of commotion.
Sounds like people might be yelling. You hear
like a lot of thudding and moving, like a lot
of just rapid movement inside. What do you do?
I'll open the door. But he'll slowly crack it
open and peek his head in first. You peek your
head in and just catch the chariot of lights
in a bit of a panic. Just kind of hushed discussions
and members are hurriedly gathering coats and
boots. You're like, well, I don't really know
where we lost it. I'll head out and hit the road
and... Yeah, Mulligan and I will take one direction.
We'll just start heading north down the street.
We can ask people around and... Jules will open
the door all the way at this point. Whoa. Hey,
Jules. Guys, what's up? What's up? Well, we lost
a little imbecile again. And she jeans rounds
on Chester. That's enough. He's not an imbecile,
Chester. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, I
didn't mean anything. He's not. People have always
underestimated Paul because he's quiet, but he's
very smart. Guys, guys. He's distracted. All
right. Sheesh, Jules. Guys. What happened? I
don't know. He's just gone. He left. You know
what he does? Just wanders away sometimes. What,
he got babysitting? I told you these two are
going to be more work for us than they were.
And you see, like, Jean's just glaring at him,
and Chester kind of finally calms down, sort
of shrinks under her, like, scalding, scalding
glare and kind of, whatever, all right, I'll
take the western streets and kind of moves past
you, Jules. All right, Jules will look over at
Jean's. She's flustered. Face red, looks like
she's, like, almost about to cry, but more just
out of sheer rage. And, okay, Jules is saying
this not in an angry way, but legitimately, like,
he's confused. How did this happen? I let my
guard down. I thought he was fine here, inside.
I thought he was going to rest. He knows what
he's doing, Jules. He's not... People think of
him as... It's simple, but he's not. He's smart.
He does things with intention. He wants to be
somewhere he wanted to go. And Jules, a memory
hits you there. This botched job. You remember
you were hosting a sort of like a temporary scout
tower. There is a quarry stone sort of storage
and cutting facility right at the edge of the
high city. You were kind of keeping an eye on
a caravan moving through from that point. And
you remember you had Paul with you then. You
were kind of teaching him the ropes. And when
you left that roof just some days ago, he really
didn't want to go. He seemed happy in that spot.
His eyes locked on the great towers of Tythos.
So he's done this before. Where has he ended
up before? Most of the time he's caught very
quickly. He like wanders out in the street and
he usually will go after musicians. He likes
when he hears music, he'll wander towards music.
It's actually how you first met him. He wandered
across the street, almost, you know, got roughed
up by some thugs and he was trying to go towards
a guitarist. Okay. Jules is going to, so he knows
Paul enough to where it's so like. This is still
early on. They've joined you for probably about,
this is probably their fourth or fifth week.
But he knows that Paul loves. the music. Yeah.
Okay. Jules is going to hang on jeans and Jules
will scale the building and go up to the roof.
Okay. So you, you leave the head towards that,
that Corey stone cutting facility. Um, well,
no, I mean just, Oh, your roof. Yeah. Okay. And
he's going to go up and he's just going to play
a little tune. Uh, what are you playing on? You
don't have your loot yet. Yeah. Um, What did
Jules use before he got his sort of royal loot
back? Yeah. I love, like, the cigar box guitar
thing. Well, I almost wonder if he still has,
like, if he has almost a toy one. Okay. Like,
what he got for Paul in the future. Yeah. In
the future, he got for Paul. Yeah. So maybe he
still got that from, you know, maybe he. He smuggled
it in as a kid and he always had it. I don't
know. Or maybe when he left, that was the first
one he could afford. How about that? We'll say
that. That's what he could afford. He knew he
wanted to do something. He knew he needed to
express himself. So he just got that. And he's
going to go up and just start playing a little
tune. Maybe the melody of it is reminiscent of
the future song that he will play. You know,
it's not that song yet. It's just a tune that
he likes that he has in his head at all times.
playing this tune, strumming these notes out.
And then he's looking around. Nothing, no one
seems to come, but Jules, you know now that you
have this ability to connect to things. When
you hold a deep connection with someone, when
you care about someone, that can shine through
in strange ways. And as you stand upon that roof,
as you play these notes, you feel a tug on your
heart pulling you. towards the high city, perhaps
towards that scouting tower of yours. I think
the camera will pan behind Jules, looking toward
the high city, and he's just staring off into
the distance of it. I think we see you staring,
and our camera zooms in towards the towers, closer
and closer. We pan down to that. wide warehouse
i think we see the a different character being
sort of backshot by the camera now we see paul
young scrawny child is just sitting on the edge
of the roof where like he's a little bit raised
feet sort of kicking over the side his gaze is
looking up slowly moving between the various
great sort of pillars that dwarf everything all
around and we hear maybe this awkward kind of
tink tink there's a ladder to climb to the top
and A little painful, a little awkward for you
to get up it in your current state, Jules, your
arm still caught in that sling, but perhaps you
round over the top and you see him sitting there,
just staring, completely distracted, completely
lost in something, and you don't hear music here.
Uh, Jules, we're going to just sit next to him.
You sit. He does not look to you, but you do
see he smiles at the company. Slowly, he just
raises a finger up. He points to the Tower of
Authority, your old home. Listen. And do you
listen? Yeah. The sound of the streets. Urchins
playing. A woman weeping some blocks back. Nothing
that should captivate this boy. At this point,
would you say that Jules' nose detects thoughts?
No. What are you hearing, Paul? And that smile
breaks out to a white grin, and he... Music.
What kind of music? He looks to you, Jules. His
eyes are so big, so wide, and so full of wonder
and emotion, as if he's so deeply moved by something
right now, and he reaches a hand out towards
you, as if... Asking to be held. Listen. Yeah,
Jules will take his hand. He has no reason to
believe one way or another. You take Paul's hand
and for the briefest moment you think, you think,
you hear something, a tone, a hum, and it's gone.
It was something so brief, so fleeting, so ephemeral.
It must have been your imaginings. It was strange.
As if satisfied, Paul climbs up to his feet.
Home. And almost as if he's trying to pull you
back as if you were the one that wandered away.
Almost forcefully trying to take your hand and
pull you away from this place to bring you somewhere
safe. Home? Why? He doesn't answer you. His ears
cock up. Towards the towers, if he's still hearing
something else. Who's with you? Huh. His eyes
go wide. And I think what you gather, he doesn't
say anything, but you gather that he does not
know. He does not know who he hears. Are they
scary? No. Can you tell what they want? To be
one. To be one. One. And he begins to walk towards
that ladder. Like he slides his fingers out of
your grip and begins to move away. And you watch
this curious little boy. And it's so funny. You
remember how it smarted your arm as you climbed
those ladders. And yet you realize in this moment
you don't feel any pain at all. And you just
slide your arm out of the sling and you don't
feel any pain at all. Must have been a pretty
minimal fracture of that. At the edge of the
roof, I think Paul slides over the edge of the
rail. He begins to climb and you see his head
peek up at you. Jules, come home. Perhaps we
do one last quick camera zoom cut. As Jules and
Paul move down the streets of the low city. And
Paul just... continues on, eyes staring forth
and head cocked slightly, sort of swaying, listening
to that song, that wonderful song, that lonely
song, for it is a song that belongs solely to
him, not heard by another mortal for centuries,
at least not up until the moment Crispin Dubois
died and felt the song of the Drakon. of Shadrakhan,
of everything and everyone ringing through his
own departing soul, and we fade back to the present,
to hell. Before anything else, I need you to
roll me a d6, Steven. A d6? A d6. Weird. Okay.
Not too exciting. For who am I rolling? Because
I have two different sets. You were rolling damage.
I forgot to have you roll on the storm giant
that was hit by Orcalon. He used Searing Smite.
There's where his armor is scalded. You see glowing
metal embers where the chain has become molten.
There is still fire burning at him. What did
you roll? Max damage on the DC. Nice. It should
be my giant voice. Oh, brother. Okay, I get to
roll now. I believe it's a constitution saving
throw to undo that. Yeah, I can open Arhalon,
but I'm pretty sure you're right. Wait, it's
not undo it. It's to... Not undo it, but to stop
the fire. To stop the next round. No, the next
round does not happen. He does. So you see the
last, the rain falling, the wound kind of...
steams out. You get that last six points of damage
in as Arhalon is like shaking. Oh, last. Arhalon's
shaking. Barely have one HP. Just parried a weapon
and then got... absolutely annihilated by bolts
of lightning from the sky. Gabriela is holding
strong behind, still in position to kind of like
flank and fight. Jules has moved off to like
the side of the sort of burning shop beside it,
hearing voices screaming out from inside the
shop and seeing a woman die in the street outside
just before him. Salome launching up into the
sky, trying to reach the Bakunawa, the great
sort of descendant. of the drakan of old that
is locked in combat with celestials. You see,
as it is flying up there, Salome, it seems to
kind of like turn, maybe fleeing after the celestial
that dropped down, the light that shot towards
you and begins to move its way towards the ground,
sliding in your direction. Those great razor
teeth moving at you, crackling lightning behind
the storm, roiling. Somewhere far off to the...
Oh, no. Is it west? I think it's west. This is
my greatest weakness. East, I think. Handsome
Jai. Theater of the mind, huh? I know, it's so
bad. Jai was east. This would be so much easier
if we had a map. You could hear, like, pounding.
Handsome Jai is locked in combat. You hear a
shriek from him. elsewhere in the city in a place,
direction I'm sure I described last time. I don't
care to anymore. Three other giants are locked
into battle with a number of celestials trying
to cut down on probably the largest sort of grouping
of them, the greatest source of damage. But here,
only one giant stands before the Concord Jewel,
faced only by your party and the diva sent by
Salome above. You also see the Concord Jewel
has started to... rise into the air, taking off,
swiftly shooting up to its 500 feet so it may
transfer back. Your way home is gone. But hopefully,
reinforcements are coming. They'll be too late.
They'll be far too late. And it'll be the shield
bearers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, you want
to give a scene with those guys, don't you, Jules?
Not exactly people who are thrilled to see. Jules
is right there. Where they're going to be coming
out. Very notable figure, by the way. No burlap
cloak to hide you now, Jules. And we're going
to start this combat off with Salome. No! I don't
know what to do. This diva, I believe, I think
you just told this diva to... To go down and
help. Go down and help. Gave her information
it had. This creature has gone mad. It's been
attacking outer settlements. It just showed up
here. The storm giants seem to be following it.
They seem to not know what's going on. Before
this thing is said, it seems like they viewed
this Bakunawa as some kind of herald of war.
They voice frustrations towards these Celestials
being on their world. You don't know the situation.
Bakunawa is coming ever closer to you. You may
be able to glean information from it, but what
will it take from you? So Salome is going to
continue to... fly straight up towards this Bakunawa.
And as she does, she'll pull out a vial of holy
water and a pinch of powdered silver. What? And
she'll throw them together in front of herself.
So she flies through them and she's coated in
this sparkling liquid as she casts a fifth level
spell on herself. What? How long will it take
me... How long will it take Salome to touch the
Bakunawa? You're using your full movement this
turn, or is this going to take an action to cast
the spell? Casting is an action. This turn slows
you. You will need to use your full movement
next turn. If you're guessing right by its trajectory,
if it stays on course towards you, you think
you'll be able to touch it. You will not have
an action at that point, though. Okay. I'll see
you in three turns, I guess. You need to use
your action, then? Yeah, I need to use an action
to interact. Gotcha. It's pretty high up. I'm
trying to just logically deduce how long it would
take. If this thing's flying down, you're flying
up. It was, like, way in the sky before. It's
coming up. It's coming up. That's the end of
Salome's turn. Okay. You don't have to spell
you cast, are you? Not until I use it. Yeah.
All right. I'll see you next week. I'll see you.
We'll move his lung fast once Arhalon dies. Speaking
of Arhalon, he's up. A giant looming over him.
Another one is pounding ever closer. It's getting
close now. You think by the end of this next
round, it's going to be on you. Two storm giants.
How's that for fun? Fuck off. So can you very
quickly set the scene for me again? There's the
storm giant in front of Arhalon. How does that
storm giant look? Uh, it looks blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah. Pretty bad. I took a few heavy
blows from Handsome Jai. I would say, uh, D &D
turns, you might call it, bloodied. I thought
Handsome Jai was to the east fighting those.
When he first came in, he attacked this thing.
Oh, right, right, right. It was already bloodied
when we got to it. Yeah. Okay. And the other
one is running towards us. It'll be on us next
turn. Yeah. Our Halan's going to look back over
his shoulder and smile at Jules. Grip his flame
tongue sword extra tight and go in for a couple
of swings on this frost giant. Hell yeah. Storm
giant. You're a storm giant. First swing is only
an 11. 11 does not hit. Even the plus two. Oh,
right. I'm flanking. Gabriella's flanking. 19
then with flanking for the second. That'll hit.
Okay, great. Oh, this might be his last attack
in the game. The last brass. Flametongue is already
active, and I can do smite three times a day,
so I'm going to go all out again. So that's 66,
right? Yes, it is, 66. Holy shit, Arhalon. Plus
another d6 on my turn, so potentially 7d6. Right,
because now the giant's on fire, and he'll have
to take it at the end of his turn, right? Yeah.
24. Holy shit. Another hefty blow from Arlon,
ripping through this thing's armor, creating
almost like a cross, a black sort of molten cross
in the front of its chain mail. This is where
I fall. So be it! And he's positioned at the
end of his turn to react and parry the next blow
if he can. Hell yeah. That's Gabriella on the
other side of this thing. Having dodged lightning
itself. Yeah, she's just going to go in for it.
Hell yeah. She's going to do her thing. The last
turn you used your bonus act. In this turn, if
you want to spend a ki point, you can do four
attacks. Oh my goodness. Monks, baby. Definitely,
I'm going to do it. 100%. Plus nine to hit. I
kind of want to do all four at once. Like right
in a row. Then I'll do the damage. So there's
a 16. A 12. A 19. And a 21. Three of those hit.
Oh, yeah. Nice. Oh, yeah. Three hits. All right,
cool, cool, cool. Holy shit. 1d6 plus 5 for each
of those. She has her magical wraps over her
face, kind of giving her a little extra oomph,
oomph, oomph on each attack. I got two 6s and
a 4. So, wait, hold on. That is 12, 16, that's
5, 21. Oh, my God. Boom. This thing is massive.
This thing is healthy. You got it down pretty
darn good. And she just comes in blow after blow.
Focus on its back. You hear, like, cracking lightly
of bone as she strikes with fury. Holy shit.
It was 6, 6, 4, plus 15. Plus 5. Plus 5. Oh,
I thought it was plus 5 for each roll. Yeah.
Oh, fuck. Oh. Oh my god, wait. No, yeah, math.
Math? Holy shit, yeah. Math? Yeah, so, oh, fuck,
yeah. That's 10 more? That's 10 more, so that's
31. That's 31. Fuck, thank you, Steven. Holy
fuck. This thing looks really bad. We're going
to have all the pants people screaming for like
30 seconds until you say that. There's one last
really loud crack. It's a delayed crack. It's
exactly, yeah, yeah. Wait, one more. Gabriela
spent a semester learning to be a chiropractor.
She's pulling out Fish of the North Star moves
here. Cool. Sweet. 31 damage. Yeah. That's bonkers.
I was going to say, what, in two turns we did,
what, 52? Dude, Gabriela just out -damaged Arhan.
And she's unscathed right now, too. Right now.
Incredible. Right now. Right now. But maybe she
has put a target on her back. Uh -huh. We'll
slide away from that down the street. Damn, I
messed up. What'd you do? What? I could, what?
It's a damn problem. Would you, I want to talk
this out real fast. Would you let me use a reaction
after the fact? Hmm, I'll allow it. Jeremy, what
was your lowest, do you remember your lowest
attack roll? You know what, I should ask for
a button for this. Right? This is a button situation.
Then I'm going to leave it. I want my buttons.
All right. I feel like, yeah, I think the lowest
was 12. Can't be too nice to you. It's only two
storm giants. Give me a third storm giant and
I'll be nicer to you. Oh, dude, there's like
six storm giants. Well, they're not on yet. I
probably should have used my leadership reaction,
which he can do four times a day, to add a D4
to your attack roll. I was paying attention to
you rather than my sheet. But yeah, that would
have made a fourth. That definitely would have
made a fourth hit. A fourth hit is what I'm thinking.
It would have. It would have. I had a 15 in there,
and that hit. My lowest was a 12. Well, right.
So then it would have added a D4. So it's close.
It's a tweener. But David's being stingy. I'm
being stingy. I'm being stingy. What's stinky
old Jules LaRoche up to? Swing and a miss. Oh,
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think he's going to
do what you think he's going to do. Oh. I know.
Two different choices and your allies potentially
dying back there. Jules is up against the wall,
kind of like kneeled down a little bit, his hand
braced against the wall, breathing heavily. He
looks over. He looks back over his shoulder.
He hears the screaming. Mom! Mom! And he looks
over to the dead woman over there. And then he
looks over to Arhalon and the group. And we've
talked a lot about how Jules has gone through
these massive changes and these huge just growth,
maybe? I don't know. He's changed so much. You
get me excited over here. Yeah. And I think in
this moment, finally, in the big... The beginning
of the climax of everything. I'm about to climax.
I shouldn't have said that. I opened that door.
He's starting to really understand that sometimes
saving everybody might be impossible. At the
very least, he understands that in this moment,
if they're not able to stop this, everyone's
dead. Yeah. So with that, Jules is going to try
to help these people. But in this immediate moment,
he is going to reach out his hand and cast level
4 Healing Word onto Arhalon. Whoa! Okay. So that
is 4d4 plus 5. Oh, baby. You going to roll it
for me? Yep. That's 19. Nice. That's great. Yeah.
Hell yeah. That's great. Good little boost. Three
of them were max. Hell yeah. I feel your light,
Jules. I can still fight. He stands tall again.
And then Jules will yell, got a little more help
for you. And then with his bonus action, he's
going, oh! With his bonus action, he's going
to command the big ol' rock to go at the face
of this giant. Oh, my God. Yes, the animated
object. Holy shit. Yeah, so he shares the initiative,
so it goes immediately. Okay, yeah. So... Well,
maybe it hits him. Let's not get ahead of ourselves
here. Well, okay, the to hit is my spell attack
modifier, which is 10. Oh, that's pretty good.
It's pretty good to hit. It's pretty good to
hit. So you can roll a die about it. It's going
to hit me. It's rocking going to touch me. Natural
fucking 20. The rock cramp me! The rock cramp
me! What the hell? The rock fucking crit. Dwayne
Johnson walks in like, oh my god. All right,
so the damage on this is 1d10 plus my proficiency
bonus, which is 4. So 1d10 plus 4. 2d10. 2d10
plus 4. Yep. Holy shit, dude. You're going to
raid my giant? This is crazy. Yeah. I can't wait
to kill every one of you on my turn. I have so
many dice now. Wait, do I get a turn? I don't
remember what the turn order is. You get a turn
eventually. Okay. Next week, right? Yeah, next
week. 16. 16. You say this thing is the giant,
like, like hit by our heart. It's like bad by
Gabrielle behind and kind of turns its head to
look at her as its head turns. That temple sort
of opens up and this rock comes flying, cracks
hard into this thing. You can see blood spurting
out where it strikes. It looks bad. As this happens,
Jules will look over to the, to the child over
his mom and he will just scream. Don't worry.
I am coming for you! And then that's it. That's
his turn. Holy shit. Eyes dripping with tears
look up and see you. He also, in a very just
sad turn of events, inside he understands that
might have been an empty promise. He knows that
he can't promise that. But he's got to give everybody
hope. Hell yeah. That's all he can do. The Bakunawa.
And he's surging down. You see Celestials moving
into chase, kind of, I guess, almost like shooting
stars, swirling around in blasts of light hitting
them. But one lightning strike fires out from
the clouds above, ripping through one of these
Celestials, another D .Va. Then he's just going
to vanish in a burst of light. Only two left
on it as it comes down towards you, Salome. Towards
you. And that D .Va is up now. And it's going
to... Try to help people. Try to help in the
situation. I think the most immediate thing it
sees is there's a big giant causing trouble.
You sent this thing down there. It flies down.
Have no fear. I've come to aid. It's going to
start striking this thing. I'm going to hit this
guy with two mace attacks. First attack hits.
Second attack hits. Thankfully, I now have actual
dice out and about so I can roll my attacks.
First attack does 19 damage. Oh, nice. Holy shit.
This attack does 21 damage. That's big for free
health. Holy shit. 19 and 21. He slides down
and just begins to pummel this thing. Two massive
hits. Now like doing one figure hanging by its
head, light shining off over Gabriela, over Arhalon.
This giant's looking real, real bad. And that's
the top of the round. The other storm giant.
Nearly on, you can hear the ground shake with
every boom, booming step where you stand, Jules.
You're almost losing your footing. Every leaping
charge, shaking the city. It slides up. It's
about to careen right through that tavern, right
into the fray. When another figure appears in
light. You see Atash suddenly hanging above a
structure nearby. Finger pointed towards the
giant. The giant star stops. Its eyes catching
the radiance. And Atash says, Hello, giant. I
am Atash. And I challenge you to battle. Fucking
Christ. I hate you so much. Fucking hell. I hate
you so much. And the giant just starts charging
in towards this, I think you would realize, illusory
figure. Wait, what? It's not Atash? What? Mesmerize
has made her move. Wow. He's distracted for now.
God. So we'll be skipping his turn as he was
charging and trying to go after that. We're going
to the other storm giant who's going to make
a... Oh, what am I going to do? What am I going
to do here? This guy's so cool. Do I blow up
everyone with a lightning strike? He hasn't done
one yet. Oh, that'd be so gnarly. Or do I go
for a great sword attack? Take out old Arhalon?
Oh, the options. The options. You can try. We're
going to do that. One on Arhalon, probably one
on the D .Va. We're going to start with Arhalon
because he looks kind of sad and injured and
I want to kill him. I don't know, man. Hey, God.
Give me a second. Is a 33 going to hit? Oh, my
God. Hold on. Let me check. Let me do some typing.
Do some typing. Do some math about it. Plus two,
carry the one. Yeah, it fucking hits. Let me
roll it so I can dice it once. That was the shittiest
roll. I've ever... Four of those are ones. Look
at my stupid roll. Dude, thank goodness because
Arhalon's got 20 HP. That is so satisfying. I
still might take him out. Hang on. Four ones,
two threes. That's six. That's ten. That's ten.
That's five. That's amazing. I'm going to tell
you right now. They need a plus nine to hit.
So it's 19 damage on Arhalon. Get the fuck out.
That's fucking amazing. Get out. That's so stupid.
Are you serious? That's so stupid. How the hell
does he? He just comes out again. He catches
the blade. He's like a crater forms under his
legs. He's just holding on. God, dude. Dude.
Dude. I'm going to swing at the D .Va. Fuck.
Damn it. That's great. I'm taking out Arhalon.
Damn it. I'm taking him down. Second attack's
going for Arhalon. Wait, what? Yeah, I don't
care. Wait. Why? Asshole. Yeah. Yeah. That's
going to be a... 22 to hit. God, I can't even
with my reaction. I can't parry it. Yeah. What?
Yeah. Why did he change? Because I realized strategically
it makes more sense for Arhalon to go down. Why
would this guy turn away from the guy who's about
to go down? Because you said so. He did big fire
damage. He rolled a fuck ton of dice. It's enough
damage to take him under one HP. Yeah, yeah,
I bet it is. Yeah. So, there you go. It's not
going to overkill him. He has a lot of HP, but
Arhalon is now... He takes that one attack, looks
up, eyes gleaming towards this creature, defiant
as the blade raises again. The blade does not
crush him, for it is a weapon, while as a sword,
it's somewhat blunt. I imagine a razor edge for
a giant is not so razor for a small folk, but
Arhalon is essentially crushed beneath this blade.
He does not scream. He is silent as he is beaten
into the earth. Well, that's my turn. Salome,
that's you. Okay. At the top of Salome's turn,
she's going to use a bonus action to... Ah, hold
on. So here's what I want to do. I want to cast
a spell that's a bonus action and then ready
an action. But if that readied action is a spell,
that's... I can't do that, right? It's a spell
you already cast last turn, though, correct?
Yeah. Yeah. So you already cast the spell, right?
It's on you. Right. The spell has cast. I can
use an action to activate the... You're shimmering
in glitter. You're a glittery angel. So I'm still
not using two spell slots, so it's legal. I'm
allowed. Yeah. Okay. So Salome will look down
at the fight, and she'll say, I'm sorry I can't
help more. And her words will take physical shape.
This, like, gold -flowing essence. And they'll
shoot down at Arhalon as she casts Healing Word
at fourth level. Nice. What's the range of Healing
Word? It's theater of the mind. It's 60 feet.
I'll have 60. I'll have 60. If it was 30, I was
going to be like, no way. I'll give you 60. Because
that's actually how far you are up right now.
Exactly 60. You did 30 feet the first turn. 30
feet is like, yeah. Fear the mind still has rules,
Steven. It's called a map. First rule, I rule.
Come on. Oh, my goodness. What? Three max. What?
Nice. Holy shit. So that's 18 back to Arhalon.
Okay. Arhalon's up again. He just does this.
His eyes open. Up and down. The haze of your
magic kind of flowing from his body. That light
shining. Narhalon begins to rise again. And you're
moving. Salome is moving as far up as she can.
The silvery glittering ness has coalesced onto
her hand that she's reaching up towards the Bakunawa
as she flies up. And you're ready to actually
touch this thing when it gets close? Yes. I love
this. And she's calling out to the Bakunawa.
Mazidra Khan! Where is Mazidra Khan? Holy shit.
Okay, I don't know what this is. I have no idea
what's going on here, but this is incredible.
We slide down from that. Arhalon is up. Is he
standing up? Is he doing anything? Is he going
to play it dead so he doesn't get squashed again?
No, he's going to look at his sheet real fast.
Let me see what I can do here. He doesn't have
Lay on Hands, does he? I don't have Lay on Hands.
This is bullshit. I'm a paladin. Who made my
sheet, Steven? I mean, I... He has no healing.
He is a pure damaging paladin. Man, like part
of me wants to like full withdraw or something,
but it's fucking Arholon. There's enough help
around here. I think he can stay out of trouble.
He's got flanking. Like this is kind of his best
shot. I mean, we know that this thing is taking
a boatload of damage. So he's going to get up.
His Searing Smite, sorry, his Flame Tongue is
still active. He only gets three Searing Smites
a day, though. But if I don't use it, he could
die. Okay. So Searing Smite works for the whole
turn. If I activate it, do I get it with both
attacks? I think it's just one attack. Okay.
All right. Well, I'm going to roll twice. Do
I have to call it before I... When the attack
lands, then you can... Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
Yes. Yeah, when you hit a creature with an attack.
Okay. First one's a... Just a 12. Will not hit.
Oh, 17 on the die. That will hit. That's a hit.
Arlog climbs to his feet. Sword sinks down. The
heat sort of from the start, like the flaming
blade kind of cutting into the dirt as he stands
up, kneeling on it, whips it around, launches
into an attack. First one the giant sees and
parries. The second one he sees an opening and
strikes through. Will it be enough? 18. What's
it look like when Arlog kills this storm giant?
He, again, tightens his grip on the flame tongue.
And with both hands, like a baseball player hitting
a fucking home run. Full, you know, his lower
body turns first, his upper body turns second.
And he's swinging at, like, waist height for
him and just cuts the giant off at the knees.
Through both legs. And he falls to the ground.
The bigger they are. And this thing comes crashing
down into the end. You see, like... The dialogue
on my fall. Can I get another bite? Wow. Screw
you. Wow. Okay. He crashes down into the ruins
of the tavern. Gabrielle sort of weaving out
of the way. And dies. Harlan takes a deep breath.
Gabriella. Her foe is down. She's free to move
about. Perfect. What should she do? Okay. Stand
by. Tasha's appeared. She's doing something.
She doesn't know about the people in the building,
anything like that. Right, right. I don't know
if she'd want to redouble to go to Jules. It's
really your call. Well, that was going to be
my next question, is could Jules yell out to
her? I'll allow it. You had a turn since then,
so it makes sense. Cool. I think he's just so
panicked at this point. He's like, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey. And he's waving his arms. Hell
yeah. She's 30 feet away from Jules because you
had moved 30 feet towards the edge of the building.
She's on the top of that one. So you kind of
are doing a Pythagoras here. So she can just
jump right to you. Okay. There's people trapped
inside. We need to get them out. She moved her
30 feet movement. You can action move in. You
can burn a key point bonus action move in and
have an action still despair. It'll be a third
key point on her. How many did she have total?
She has nine, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I'll spend
one. Okay. And just have an action if we need
it. She, there's not even, you say there's people
in trouble, your eyes move towards, and I think
the second Jules' eyes turn back to her, you
know, what was meant to be a signal, you don't
see her anymore. She's already in the building,
leaping through like one of the sort of crushed
windows, sort of sliding through, moving closer
to the sound. I need you to roll a... perception
check. This will be her action this turn. Okay.
See if she can find where she needs to go. Okay.
Smoke. Passive perception's 12. It's just like...
Just throwing it out there. It's pretty low,
but... On some sunko, the burning tent. She flew
in there. Now, once again, she's finding some
lost in the black smoke, kind of hiding her face,
pushing towards a sound of muffled screams. That's
going to be 16. 16 is good enough. She's... trying
to find it. She can't see. She closes her eyes,
opens herself up, hears a screaming, hears vibrations
through the floor. It's coming from down low.
A cellar. A cellar. It must be trapped beneath
the fire. And she opens her eyes and begins to
look, sliding through, getting closer and closer
to the sound, and she sees it now. There is a
trap door under the smoke she can barely make
visible. There's a large beam burning. fling
over it. And she's going to have to get to work
to save them. And that's her turn. Okay. And
that's Jules. Jules will reach out his hand toward
the child and his mom and cast level four healing
word. You cast the spell and you see it does
not take hold. She is dead. Fuck you, David.
You have the power. to heal this malady, but
it comes the sacrifice of healing it on someone
you love. Are you willing to burn the power of
life? Well, now he's going to scream over to
the kids, stay there! And he's going to run into
the building. Okay. Okay. Into the smoke. That's
your turn? Mm -hmm. I believe you still have
an action. Healing words bonus action. Is it?
I think so. Healing word is. Healing touch. Whatever
is not. Whoops. Then I would have done something
else the last turn, too. Oh, whoops. Yeah. Whoops.
Whoops. Actually, hold on. No, no. That's it.
He's going to run in. Okay. Running into the
smoke, following the sound of that muffled screaming.
I think because Gabriella is standing in the
way, you can kind of see her silhouette as you
get closer. You manage to move up to where she
stands. Jules, what do we do? And then. before
the Bacchanawa goes. Because I think that's going
to be a very dramatic beat. I want to do an undramatic
beat and have the D .Va go. As the giant falls,
this thing's flying, seeing its, like, smoldering
corpse. It looks up in awe at Atash. The commander
-in -chief has come. Atash! Atash! I'm ready
to you! And the D .Va blasts towards his greatest
hero. Honestly, thank goodness. Actually, you
know what? Yeah, I love that. That's the perfect
move. It's not helping you anymore, but maybe
Mesmer's going to need it. Yeah, if you let me
make a move, it would have been that. But now
I'm going to make a move. The Bacchanawa surges
down, and you are in its way. Mouth opens up.
You see its whole body begins to crackle electricity.
As if it's become the storm surge itself. It
flies down towards you. Mouth open wide. You
see it coming, coming. It's all around you now.
Salome, your hand is out. You have arrayed action.
What do you do? Salome is going to use the special
function Break Enchantment of the Dispel Evil
and Good spell. What? The reading is, as your
action, You touch a creature you can reach that
is charmed, frightened, or possessed by a celestial,
elemental, a fae, a fiend, or an undead. The
creature you touch is no longer charmed, frightened,
or possessed by such creatures. That is fascinating.
That is fascinating. You reach out, silvered
hand, and it just comes down like... Almost like
something happened to this moment as your hand
is out, as that gnashing mouth is going to take
you. It just snaps shut before you just enough
that you can place your hand upon the creature's
sort of nose just above its lips. This massive
towering beast and you so small before it, you
feel your magic boom, boom out through the creature
and you feel. No effect from the spell. Goddamn.
But then you feel something else. There's a golden
mote around you, Salome, connecting you to jewels.
And I think as you cast this silvered spell,
a wisp of gold floats into your hand. This is
complicated. This doesn't make sense. If it's
possessed, it should have stopped. Why didn't
it work? Why? And as you touch this thing, it
seems to stiffen and react. Another feeling very
familiar to you, Salome. The feeling of a vision.
You peer into a wide, expansive cavern, trailing
off into blackness. A single tall torch holds
this blackness at bay, a solitary sentinel against
the sheer madness of imagination. You see the
ceiling above is broken by these massive, twisted
roots, blighted by spots of thick black, with
specks of glistening, sickening orange, a light,
a little glow at the top. In your mind, in the
streets outside, you can hear the creature now,
just before you open its mouth and wail its mantra,
SRIVE! There's a cage in the cavern, Salome.
Steel bars shining in the torchlight. An ornate
thing like a giant birdcage. And inside, a figure
laying in a pained, tormented pose. As if every
part of his body rings with agony. Eyes hollow
and broken. Mouth laying still in an open O.
Shallow breathing accompanied by a whistling
wheeze is the only activity the body seems capable
of. And you feel a tremor run through each and
every feather on your wings. Salome, your blood
becomes ice. Because the figure you see is not
Paul. Save Jules! It's Jules, Salome. Jules,
as you just saw him down below. Jules, but wrong,
haunted and defeated, lying in the darkness.
And you notice now there are bars before you,
a cage around you. As you are seeing this place
through, eyes that are not yours. Eyes set low
to the ground, peering between the bars. A hand,
small and smooth, and dark skin reaches out towards
Jules. And behind and above him, something enormous
moves the darkness. Eyes snap open between black
scales. The full extent of their cruel focus
is on you. Beneath them, backlit by a luminous
green haze, you see razor teeth curving into
a smile. You stand before this creature again,
floating in the air, not understanding. I think
for just a moment, frozen. Confused. The chaos,
the screaming, the storm drowned out. Your mind
lost in that cavernous blackness. As the mob
before you opens wide. And tries to consume you
whole. As the jaw comes down. Your eyes remain
locked in the blackness, frozen in this moment.
That spell, that spell, it should have worked.
Your... Mightiest magic to break this connection
should have worked. I'd like you to roll me an
insight check to find out why it didn't work.
Since she's currently connected to Jules right
now, can Jules use a button for advantage? I
mean... Oh, I like that. Salome can use a button.
Do you want to use a button? Let me math it out
real fast. Got a plus eight to insight, and I
have my bardic, which is another d8. It's not
a gimme. This is something big. Now I'm going
to use it. Now I'm going to use it. This is something.
Same roll. Twice in a row. I'm going to use my
bardic. 23. 23 will do. I wanted the 20 for this.
Oh my god. That's pretty good. Only through this
spell and this check will you gather this information.
Something that I... Wanted to hold close to my
chest. The jaw comes down. And you are frozen
because you realize if there was a connection,
a possession, you should have stopped it, but
it wasn't a possession. You saw a vision. A boy
in a cave. Jewels. Tortured. You saw this and
you realized that it was not a vision. It was
not a connection, Salome. It was a memory. And
we'll call it there.