Hello, friends. I just want to reiterate that
we are in the horror arc now, and there are going
to be some scary moments, and there might be
some adult themes that aren't appropriate for
everybody. So be warned, and enjoy. Discovered
dead hands digging holes beneath boards For farmers
controlled in the party's lament With backs to
the wall to the guards they were sent One pathway
remained to a cavern beneath Kiana blood -eyed
in a rotting arm heap Fingers like claws dragging
pile across land And a child's voice asking,
can I take your hand? And it ends. Oh, it ends.
Roll for initiative. We're getting right to it
tonight. No banter, no goofery. This is the final
boss. You ready, gentlemen? Are you ready? Oh,
God. Yeah, actually, I feel pretty good. All
righty, then. Glad to hear it. That is a 15 for
Jules. 15 for Jules. And that is, I believe,
a 5 for Chester. Let me just check his... Hell
yeah. But also... Oh, no. I know. All right,
Zebulon. What do you got for me? 12 for Zeb.
15 for Jean. Not the hottest rolls tonight, guys.
I hope that turns around. Yep. For your sake,
I hope that turns around. Mm -hmm, mm -hmm, mm
-hmm. All right, then. Anything you want to say
before this gets... Full on going, gentlemen.
Any last words? It's been fun. It's been fun,
guys. It's been fun. Yeah, I hope these blessed
dice really come in for us today. Yes, yes. Let's
do a quick sweep over this field, over this open
cavern beneath the farmhouse in which Kiana works.
You went down through the kitchen, you saw a
pantry. A trap door beneath led down to like
a sort of a cool cellar room to keep a lot of
their produce. And in the wall of that room,
you saw a large hole opened up, a burrow digging
deeper, farther down and around, a twisting pathway,
hard to fit through. You move through here, crouching,
listening to the sounds of Kiana's humming and
singing somewhere just ahead. And then you entered
this cavern. I told you before, this cavern is
something like about 40 by 40 feet. It's not
fully squared. It's kind of this sort of obtuse,
circular, oval -y sort of shape. But for the
sake of your mind's eye at home, imagine a circle
about 40 by 40, and you got the gist of the idea.
We see a number of these holes moving out from
here. It looks like various trails dug by smaller
hands moving into this one room. But you don't
see them now. You only see two figures in this
room as you're the light of a jewel's blade.
fills the space, casting great shadows against
the wall, the shadow of a woman, Kiana, in the
center of the room, singing, and eyes filled
with the same telltale blood, the sort of magical
control that this creature can trap people in.
And you see a pile, just a pile of limbs, lying
on a little cavern on the very other side of
the room, this own little cubbyhole? Coven? What's
the word I'm looking for? What's the word, Steven?
Like a cove? Alcove. That's it. I like it. Little
alcove on the edge. See this pile of these bloated,
slick hands, fingernails ending in these cracked,
dirty claws. You made a move. First of all, you
all start entering the room. Chester's in the
very back. He's still kind of in the tunnel itself,
getting his ranged weapons ready. Upon seeing
Kiana, Cully just went running in to go after
his niece. In that moment, Jules, you grabbed
him, forced him up against the wall, and that's
where you stand now. You've got Koli grappled
at the start of this thing. Debulon, you're in
just behind Jean Franklin, who came charging
in by your order to try to grab Kiana. But as
he came close, as he tried to force her out,
she went berserk, went wild, not wanting to part
from this place, this control affecting her.
making her unpredictable, making her strong.
And she kicked out, knocking Jean Franklin back
and peeling herself towards the back of the room,
closer to this pile, which began to animate.
And so we see in a line from the center of the
room, Jean Franklin's the closest to this thing.
Zebulon behind, Jules behind him, holding Orin
up to the wall. And this thing begins to move.
Legs reaching out, this sort of twisting, writhing
body, all tangled together. Just shifting around
towards you in this unnatural manner, like some
horrible CGI nightmare. A really fucked up movie.
And guess what? Shit. It's going first. Of course.
Of course, because it couldn't get any worse.
Nope. Well, there's only one target to go for,
isn't there? Poor little tortle in the front.
This thing just moves past Kiana, who's now kind
of... sort of pushing us up against the wall
behind it. It reaches out, hands pressing towards
him, trying to grab onto the turtle. Stay back!
Back! That is a 19. Ooh, 19 AC. Holy shit. Okay,
okay. Here we go. Oh, my. Oh, my. Pretty good
damage. That is... Okay. You watch John Franklin
is holding his spear out, holding his spear and
shield in hand, trying to, like, ward this thing
off, standing bravely. And this gigantic, this
large pile just, like, shambles up to him, hands
reaching out, grabs onto his arm, starts pulling
him in, and, like, all these clawed hands start
reaching out and scratching at him, yanking at
him, dragging him deeper into, like, this fold
as he's just getting overtaken by hands and hands
screaming, Ah! Ah! He takes 17 points of damage.
Oh, my God. What the hell? He's got 24 HP. Oh.
Oh, dude, we're so fucked. This is it. I need
you to make a constitution saving throw because
John Franklin is now grappled, and I'm going
to use a bonus action. Nine plus two, so 11.
Okay. That will not do it. He takes five more
points of damage as you watch as he's being overtaken,
these claws digging into his body, deep into
his skin, and you almost see veins being able
to pop up on the bloated hands. You see them
filling with some kind of liquid, pumping, pumping
out of him and into this pile of limbs over.
He just screams. You see his body starts to shrivel
as he takes five necrotic damage. That's 22 out
of 24. It's actually not. It's 22 out of, well,
19 now. Because that 5 damage is also going to
his max HP. Are you serious? So, Jean Franklin's
down. No, no. It's 22. No, sorry. You still have
it. It's just that when you heal, he's only going
to heal 19 now. I made this sound really confusing
to be dramatic. Oh, yeah. That didn't make sense.
No, it did not. He has 19 max HP now. Awesome.
This is starting out great. Our tank is on death's
door. Yeah, okay. What do we do? Oh, right. I
should note now. There was a poll, actually,
just a little earlier on, a couple weeks ago,
I believe, where you asked the pants people who
should get a button in this arc. And it's going
to finally pay off. And the poll winner was actually
Jean Franklin between the two sidekicks. So,
hey. Here's a Jean Franklin -only button, Stephen.
Jean Franklin button. So we can retcon everything
that just happened. Yeah, exactly. Here you go.
Take this. You have buttons. You can use them.
Are you serious? You could use them. Yeah, it
just didn't seem right to use two buttons to
give you disadvantage on the first attack of
the battle. It makes sense. Yeah. Here we stand.
Jean Franklin, his body shriveling, his shield
and spear barely holding on to them, his arms
slowly lowering. He's just... Run! Just... Run!
Can I take your hand? Can I take your hand? Hold
on, John. We're coming. Next up is going to be
Jean. Jean's going to just, you know, exhaust
his, well, not exhaust his Lay on Hands pool.
But, yeah, what is his Lay on Hands pool again?
Don't I have it somewhere here? It's full right
now, so it's 15. 15, okay. Yeah, he's going to
exhaust it on himself. Okay, good move. And that's
his action, so he can't really do anything else.
Okay. His finger's pressing down all over his
body, and you see his holy light begins to glow
in the center of this pile as he's starting to
fight back just a little bit, starting to refill
his own vitals. But how long can he really last?
Jules, what are you going to do? Can I start
off with a religion check? You absolutely can.
So you're doing a check on this creature itself.
It's a 12. 12. I'll give you this. It is clearly
undead. Given that it's clearly undead, given
that you see it's draining Jean Franklin, it
looks like it's essentially using the powers
of decay and life siphoning, which makes you
think that maybe it's either immune or resistant
to necrotic damage. You would think it's probably
not going to be poisoned. And you'd think it'd
be immune to a lot of conditions. Most undead
don't really have the... The sensibilities to
be affected by things the way a living creature
would. I'll give you that. Okay. What do I do?
I can't tell you that, Jeremy. I know. At this
point, I don't know if I can even release Kali.
Well, if you and Kali are sitting there up against
the wall, then we're all going to die. Oh, I
know. It's not going to do anybody any good.
Son of a bitch. Yeah, take your time. Read your
spells. I had an idea. Oh, no, she's back further
now. I'm not going to go into there. I will say,
as you're holding him, Koli begins to try to
fight back against you. He's just, please, please,
let me go. I've got to get to her. Just let us
get our footing. Let us get our footing here.
Figure out what we're doing. And then I'm going
to lean over and kick my hip out to use my loot
to cast Bardic Inspiration on Zebulon. Ooh, hell
yeah. Ooh, all right. That D6 will come in handy
pretty quick, I'm thinking. And then as I have
one hand still on Kali's chest, I'm going to
reach out with my other hand and cast level one
Dissonant Whispers onto the pile. Okay. All right.
So I'm rolling a wisdom save, correct? Correct.
All right, Kali Jr., don't fail me now. It's
a 12 straight. That is a fail. Okay. So now you
take, let's see, it was 3d6 psychic damage, and
you immediately have to use your reaction to
lose it as far away as your speed allows. And
I'll tell you right now, I know there's a lot
of conditioned immunities, but I see no reason,
I looked into this before, why this wouldn't
work. Fuck yeah. There's no set condition on
it, it's just like... Yep, that's huge. So I
hold on my hand? That's nine points of psychic
damage. Nine points, okay. You see this thing
is ripping, ripping into Jean. And you just cast
this out. It just kind of screams out this strange
thing. You have a little voice just, help, help,
help. Daddy, help. And it begins to peel away.
The limbs all coming off him. Is he in there?
I'm not taking Jean Franklin with me. He's moving
back, moving away from this body. I could potentially
move with grapple target, but I don't know how
that works with something like this where I'm
using my reaction. So to be safe, I'm going to
say he drops John Franklin, just barely standing
as he moves away, bleeding from all sorts of
scratch wounds and claw marks all over his body.
Yeah, I imagine that situation is kind of like
somebody dropping everything they have because
they're just panicked, trying to get out of there.
As the sound's assaulting it, this thing's like...
crawls back into its little alcove, just like
up against the wall for a moment, just terrified
like a child. That's your turn? That is my turn.
Okay. Are you still grappling, Cully? Yes. All
right. I'm going to make either Athletics or
Acrobatics to escape. It's his turn now, and
he's trying to break your grapple. You said either?
I'm going to make that you have to make Athletics.
Okay. It's a 20 for me. Yeah, you got it. Okay,
so he just... I got a three. No! Almost like
Spurred, you actually see this thing, as this
thing calls out, there's a moment where, like,
his eyes tinge a little bit red. Um, he's...
I gotta... I gotta... Go! Do this right! No!
Do this right! And he kicks you away and peels
down. Keanu! Keanu! Hey! Hey! He just slides
up next to her, she's just staying there. As
he gets close, as her hand touches her, she begins
to scream, No! No! No! Stay away! Stay away!
You left me. You left us both. You ran away.
You, you, you. And he just, no, hold on. Just
grabs her and they're just, he's basically essentially
like grappling her. They're kind of like struggling.
Mechanically, he can't do anything yet, but he's
just trying to get a hold on her. He gives you
guys plenty of space. He kind of moves off to
the side, I'll say. You know, kind of keeping
away from the creature. Now back in its shadowy
alcove, barely hidden by the darkness. And that's
going to be... Koli's turn. That's you, Zebulon.
All right. So, David, on the map, this monster
icon is fairly large. Yes. How big is this thing?
It's probably about 10 feet wide or so. Oh, wow.
Jeez. Yeah, maybe like a little. So like the
size of a car, maybe a small car? I think I described
it. Maybe it's, okay, maybe not so much. I think
it's, the shape of it is changing constantly,
right? It's sort of amorphous as like its hands
are dropping down to the sides and reshifting
up to like move forward. It's, it like goes from
almost like this long, almost centipedal sort
of shape when it moves to like a straight sort
of flat pile. Andron probably just kind of being
like a ball around him. But I think I described
it before as being roughly the size of like a
bowl when it's moving. It's got like a decent
bit of body bulk. but it can stretch out to about
10 feet or like 10 feet high. So the meat of
my question, do I have a clean shot on this thing
from here? Yes, you do. Okay. So first thing
Zeb's going to do is take steady aim on this
thing with his bow. Going to reach out and attack
with advantage here. Good thing for the advantage.
First roll was a nat one. Wow. Second roll was
a two. A one and a two. This is awful. Okay.
What do you think happens? Why are you missing
here? Oh, dude, he's terrified. What the fuck
is he saying? I can't. He's trying to shoot.
John Franklin's right in front of him, and he's
trying to shoot around John. He's too afraid
to step out. Mechanically, I couldn't move if
I wanted to use steady aim. so he missed both
of those shots. You were right there as this
thing went all over Jaune, basically just covered
him. You saw your ally just vanishing into this
pile, and as this thing peeled away as it moved
back, you're getting flashbacks of the rattlesnake,
the fear you felt, that cold dread that kept
you from moving into the fight. Zebulon, you
have to fight! Gee, I guess to end his turn,
Zeb's going to take just a step. Up there, so
he has a bit of a cleaner shot. Okay. So you
just kind of take a step to the north, basically,
pressing up against the wall of the cavern and
giving yourself a good shot on this creature.
I got all the bad rolls out of the way, guys.
All right. Let's hope. As you move to the spot,
you move a little closer to where Koli and Kiana
are. There's a sort of northern alcove here as
Koli's trying so hard to get around. And Kiana,
with her one left hand, her one good hand, just
spins around with a knife. With her left hand,
she branches a pocket knife, basically, off from
her belt and starts swinging out wildly towards
Kali. No! Hey! What are you doing? She's going
to try to strike him. She misses. So he just
kind of grabs her hand sort of pulls the blade
away for a second, but she's still just trying
to stab at him. You left us. You left us. You
went off to your city and run away. Did you think
you'd change your name? You think you'd leave
it all behind? You can't run away. You can't
run away and expect... She's screaming, swinging
her blade wide. He's barely sort of dodging back
from it. And that is going to be Chester. Absolutely
white -faced. He's okay to fight now, though,
right? Oh, he'll fight this. Okay. All right.
He's going to very apprehensively step next to
Jules. And he's going to take his short bow.
Question. Oh, yeah. I know as a whole we're treating
this as one entity, but since this is many and
many a limbs, could he do his quick reload? I
think I know the answer, and that's fine. It's
a thought that I had. Not currently. Okay. What's
quick reload say? I can rapid fire two times,
but it has to be different. Oh, sure. Targets.
Yep. But he just said not. What did you say?
Nothing. He said not. Not currently. Not currently.
Don't read what I say. Well, let's cross that
bridge when we don't get killed by it. I'm a
weird guy. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.
Something's up. That's a 26 to hit. Oh, that'll
hit. You want to give me some Chester action
sounds? All right. All right. Come on. Come on.
Got to do this. From now on, it's self -defense.
Jules, look out. He starts shooting. That is
a seven for damage. Ooh, not bad. Or Zebulon
missed before. You see one strikes through right
into the heart of this thing. A hand is reaching
out, and you see, like, a single arrow just digs
right through the palm, and it just, like, screeching.
Yeah, just pierces through at this thing. Recoils
into itself. And actually, it's my turn. Well,
I hate to be repetitive. But there's only one
target for me to go after right now. John Franklin
is keeping true to his oath. He is standing in
the place where this thing cannot quite reach
Cully. It can't quite squeeze past him. I'm really
hoping that was a high roll. So now I'm moving
back for him. He's standing tall. Shields wear
out. Just get him and run. Run, fools. That's
a natural one. Oh, thank heavens. That was such
a, like, a diabolical look in your eyes. I thought
it was another hit for sure. I thought he was
going to say natural 20. Seriously. It was one
or the other, and I had no idea. Okay. Thank
heavens. All right. That was a natural one. So
as this thing moves up, it's Kiana just swinging
wild and wild. I'm going to say there's a moment
where, like, Sean sees something in this movement.
He sees. some open spot, basically, where maybe
the hand that was injured, that Chester hit,
there's a certain gap where it would have been,
where it's kind of recoiled deeper inside. And
just now, as it's reaching out towards him, he
sees a quick opportunity for a free AOL. All
right. Here it goes. 14. 14 will hit. Ooh, nice.
I didn't expect that. Okay. Nice. That's how
we're going to win this. Five damage. Okay. So
he just stabs in. hits that same spot. Maybe
the hand inside just splits open. Fingers drop
into the ground beneath it. Again, just, oh,
please. Oh, oh, they're hurting me. They're hurting
me. You see Orin's eyes start to tinge red again,
almost like blood starting to form just a little
bit underneath. No, no, no. Hey, what are you
doing to my boy? No, no. Keep it together, Orin.
Keep it together. And that's going to be. Oh,
that's going to be... Yeah, Jean Franklin. I
can't do anything. Yeah, all right. Jean Franklin's
going for another spear attack. That's a dirty
20. That will hit. Five more damage. Okay. Not
bad. All right, all right. Stabs out again. Splits
some fingers off another hand. Tears through
flesh on the top of an arm. Just like black your...
bubbles out. A little bit of like water it looks
like. Bubbling from these large sort of bloated
veins. Water from a certain lake. As you see
this thing you realize that all these limbs look
like they've been underwater for a long time.
And that it's going to be Jules. A lot of staring
going on. A lot of communication through eyes.
Look at my eyes. I want to communicate something
with you. Did you get that? Double metal fingers.
Oh yeah. I'm going to poke your eyes with them.
Real mature, David. I'm going to kill your character.
Holy shit. Jules is going to cast Tasha's Hideous
Laughter. Wow. That's going to be really weird.
Very weird. That works. Very weird. I know. I
love it. It'll get it prone. I love it. I'm uncomfortable
by it, but I love it. Okay. Wisdom. Wisdom. Okay.
I just checked this out. You cast this at it.
I think you hear it. It does fail the save, but
it technically can't become prone. So as you
touch it, but let me, this is really important.
I got to check because Tasha's, I think also
has a factor of it that makes them. It's an odd
one. It says it becomes prone, becoming incapacitated
for the duration. So I don't know if that means
the prone, is the precursor to incapacitation,
which this thing is not immune to. I don't think
so. I think you can be incapacitated without
being prone, can't you? This is actually an extremely
important thing to double check on. This is going
to change everything. All right, just a quick
search here. This is actually a very, very interesting
topic. Can something that can't go prone become
incapacitated by Tasha's? And Mr. Jeremy Crawford
says yes. Fuck yeah. For sure, for sure. So what
happens now? You cast this magic out. I rolled
a nine, and so absolutely I fail this. You cast
this magic out. What's it look like when you
cast the spell, Jules? My hand goes out, and
the telltale white mist comes out. Which hand?
The gloved one? No, my left hand. Okay. All right.
So you're kind of holding your other hand down
as you cast this. This magic sort of shifts around
this creature, moving around as Jean Franklin,
who's now right before this thing, spear out,
getting the second wind, stabbing out at it.
And as his hands start to move around him again,
this mist sort of fills the spaces between. And
all of you in your minds begin to hear. Not just
like a child's laugh, but many laughs intermingled.
You hear like the moaning laughs of some older
man. A woman just... It's a cacophony of horror.
Just filling every space, every crevice in your
mind. As this thing, its hands, its fingers begin
to just undulate and just writhe amongst themselves.
It does not fall prone. For a moment, it is stopped.
And I hate that. Yeah, I don't like that either.
Next up. For different reasons. Boy, let me think
about this. Okay, so. Okay. As this laughing
is happening, as he's being incapacitated, you
see Koli's eyes start to lose a bit of that tent.
He's kind of pushing himself against the wall
here. No. No. No. I see. I see. And all these
sounds, all these voices intermingling, he's
nodding. You ain't my boy. You ain't my boy.
There we go. I know who you are, and you ain't
my boy. You may have stole his mind, his memories,
but you ain't him, are you? No, no, you killed
him. You are the lake. You are cradles, echoes
of death and tragedy. animated by the evils of
this cursed land. Tell me, how many? How many
did you drag to the depths before my boy? Huh?
I bet there weren't many after, were there? Not
after those songs and stories. Bet you got real
hungry over those last ten years. I bet you suffered.
Well, don't y 'all worry no longer. We're gonna
put you out of your misery right here and right
now. Get him! And he just, like, screams out
to you guys. and turns back to Kiara. Hey, Kiara,
I know. I know that's you speaking. And I'm sorry,
you're right. I did leave. I ran away. I didn't
just lose my boy that day. I ran away from my
old daughter. That's who you are. Kiara, listen
to me. And I'm gonna go for a grab on her. She's
gonna counter it. Wow, okay, so he actually does.
He grabs hold of her, her blade swinging. He
grabs that hand and pulls it down, slams it against
the wall, puts a hand on her shoulder and stares
her right in the eyes like, you listen to me.
You listen. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Just grabs
her in a hug. And you can see the light in her
eyes begins to fluctuate as well. Blood starting
to trickle down just a little bit, then pulling
back up supernaturally. The strange, amorphous
blob just running down her cheeks and back up,
leaving red streaks behind. That's going to be
his turn. Holy shit. I had no idea what to expect.
from casting Tasha City's laughter. And it was
not all of that. That goes, yeah, that goes way
beyond what I was hoping for. You're interrupting
a lot of what this thing can do. I mean, it makes
sense. Incapacitated is rough. Holy shit. And
like the other voice, the sound, I mean, it's
all starting to click. You have your permission.
Wow. Fully go in there to fully strike. Spurred
on by these words, I imagine Zebulon, it's going
to be you. All right. Zebulon. Let's kill this
fucker. All right. Get him, Zeb. It's time to
do this. Zeb puts his bow away, draws his sabers,
and gets up into the action. David, I'm five
feet from that spot, right? Yeah. I'm just at
an angle. I close the tab. There you are. Yes,
you're five feet. All right. You're right next
to Jean Franklin, right by his side, so you can
squeeze in there real quick. Now, incapacitated.
Do I get advantage against an incapacitated foe?
No, he's not prone to doing advantage. Oh, shucks.
He just can't take actions or reactions. Okay,
that's fine. 17 for the first swing. That'll
hit. 18 for the second. Okay. All right, so this
first attack is going to include sneak attack
damage. Hell yeah. Oh, max on the D8. Oh, my
God. Max on the first D6. Oh, no. Then just a
one, so that's okay. So that's 18. Not bad. And
then the second attack is just the D8 plus three.
Nine. Holy shit. Okay. Oh, my God. Pretty damn
good. Slice out twice. A couple of hands come
flying off of arms and spreading out from this
pile, landing on the floor and just dropping
lifeless. And then... And all you hear in your
mind is... Just laughing, laughing. I'm going
to do a quick bonus action. Disengage and just
pull back one spot here. Okay. Sorry, Jean, but
you're our tank for a reason. And that is going
to be... That's Kiana. Actually, I'll never do
anything this turn. She's kind of just like stuck
frozen. Eyes sort of, you know, like I said,
just like the blood leaking and sucking back
in. This slow kind of like reverse trickle down
her face. Just staring at her uncle. Yeah, her
expression shifted between just this awe and
surprise to this pure snarling rage, and then
back and forth again, this strange, constant
shifting. That's all she's going to do, and that's
going to be Chester. He's going to take his short
bow again. All right. That's a dirty 20. That's
going to hit. All right. For only three damage.
Okay. It's not nothing. And I believe that is
all Chester can do. All right, then. And that's
me again. I got to make a save here, don't I?
Let's see. Yes, you do. Oh, please. Yes. 17 on
the die. So it's straight 17. Yeah. But that's
my whole turn. Yep, that passes it. The laughter
slowly dies down. This thing begins to take shape
again. Its fingers start reaching out towards
you again. He's coming back up. He's coming back
up. No. No. No. That's going to be Jules. No,
that's Jean. Oh, boy, oh, boy. Yeah, there's
not a whole lot that makes sense for Jean to
do other than another spear attack. Okay. That's
a 21. That'll hit. Four damage. Okay. That's
going to be Jules. Jules is going to cast level
two Dissonant Whispers. Hell yeah. Wow. All the
mean things. Yeah, can't pull out any stops for
this one. Wisdom save. Let's go. Come on. Natural
20. Ooh, damn. Where's your head at for an attack?
Damn it. No, that's fine. That's fine. You still
get to roll damage, though. Half damage. Damage
for that was 4d6, so I'm still rolling 2d6. Hell
yeah. Get out of town. That's some horse shit.
Two damage. Oh, no. That is some horse shit.
And then... It's like its resolve has returned.
You, like, try to hit this thing again, and you
see it does not budge. And then as a bonus action,
I'm going to cast my Bardic Inspiration onto
Jean -Franc. Oh, sweet. Okay, okay. Oh, boy.
Yeah, you just reach out your hand again, and
it covers it, and just this thing, like, almost
poisoning down, crouching down like a predator
in all of its various arms, fingers digging into
the dirt. You hear only in your mind, Jules,
just... Such lovely hands. Such lovely hands.
Can't say the same about yours. Um, hell yeah.
That's going to be Coley again. I think he's
just going to hold her into deeper hugs. It's
all right. It's all right. Come on. Come back.
Come back. We can both move on. We can move past
this together. Remember what I said. Anything.
As a family, we can get through anything. He's
gone. But we still have each other. Just hold
on. And that is going to be Zebulon. All right.
We're going to rinse and repeat. Zebulon's going
to... Why don't you skip your turn, huh? All
right. Jump back in. Go for a couple of strikes
here. First one's a dirty 20. That will hit.
Jeez, second one's a 17 on the die. These blessed
dice are working out. You guys are rolling. That's
beautiful. I'm waiting for an excuse to use my
bardic inspiration. I know, you guys are doing
so good. Nine on the first attack with the sneak
attack damage. And eight on the second attack.
Okay. Thank you for consistently taking at least
decent chunks out of this thing. Yeah, I know.
That first roll was pretty bad for damage with
the sneak attack, but bonus action, going to
pull back again. You're flurries, you're taking
out two more of these things, two more hands,
a lot from arms, dropping dead to the ground,
bits of fingers flying off with them, and more
of this sort of black ooze and river water, or
lake water. pouring onto the floor in a puddle
all around. This thing is starting to, like,
get smaller as these limbs are dying off, as,
like, this bulk of this body is thinning and
thinning. And you're hurting it. You can tell
you're really, really hurting it. Oren, now's
your chance. Get Kiana. Get out of here. Holy
shit. That's Kiana. And I'm going to make a roll,
actually. I rolled a die for Kiana here. Now,
mechanically, there isn't really a set way to,
like, fight off these effects. But I thought
it'd be cool to roll a die and see if I could
roll a natural 20. The power of love. Jeremy,
look at this die. Look at this die. Oh, does
love prevail? Look at this die. I'm terrified
here. Does love prevail? Love does not. What?
No, I rolled a natural 20. Yeah. A save. For
Kiana. A save for Kiana. That's a good thing.
It's a good one. It's a good one. Steven, get
over here and react properly. That was a roller
coaster. Steven. What the fuck? Get over here
and react properly. Look at that. What's that?
Oh, my God. Look at that 20. That's what I was
talking about. That's a 20. Okay. Okay. I misunderstood
what was happening. I misunderstood what was
happening. I thought that was to resist the love.
We're just talking about Steven's heart. He's
like, what's happening? What's going on? Yeah,
I thought she was resisting the love. I was given
a chance to resist Coley Jr., so she's just over
there. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Should I say resist?
Oh, my God. Cradle Ace. You see, like, as she's
in this hog, as she's staring out behind, like,
her uncle's shoulder at this creature that's
just still, like, just being cut down to pieces,
the blood begins to run out of her eyes. washed
away by a stream of tears running down her cheeks,
just still gawking while her tight, her grip
around her uncle's body just tightens. And she
pushes herself into him, pushes her face into
his neck and just kind of holds there like, I'm
sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's all right.
It's okay. We're here now. Everything's okay.
And that's going to be your turn. And that is
Chester. Drop bow time. Hell yeah. Oh, yeah.
Smells like crit in this. Stinky. Stinky crit.
Stinky crit. In this cave. Oh, my God. There's
not a lot of ventilation. Oh, man. It's definitely
stuffy. Stuffy and moist. Holy shit. Chester's
braced himself. He's like, oh, yeah. Come on.
I can do it. Just this time to shine. Jules,
watch me. Oh, my God, how? What? Double ones
again. So that is a total of four. I thought
I was done for. I'm still up. I'm still up. He
shoots it. But that means he's pretty low. That
means he's low. You see, like, more hands drop
off, and this thing is in rough shape. You've
been holding it off this whole time. He's still
got a turn. I only have one choice now, don't
I? No, he's going after Koei. I have to heal.
Oh, that's not great. Holy shit. And yeah, I
think I know just the way to do that. Oh my god.
This thing just kind of... Like screaming, all
these voices screaming in your minds. And then
just kind of calms for a second. The hands, almost
like all you use to begin to point up, start
to move. And I'm going to make this roll on Koli.
But I'm going to, for drama's sake, say it just
turns. And, like, this entire body just reaches
out for Kiana. Can Jaune take his AOL? Nope.
It's still within his range. Ah, yeah. So it's
not leaving his space. Oh, yeah. Okay. So it
basically steps just barely north to the north
where these two are sort of having their moment.
Still in embrace. And as this thing is reaching
out with many hands, Koli looks up, sees it.
And pushes Kiana behind him, leaving the hug.
Just push her down like, go, run! And I'm going
to attack him. That might, might hit. Come on,
Kali. We need you to tank one hit. Just hit to
the 13. AC 13 on him. So he's going to get, this
thing grabs onto him. Make a constitution saving
throw. I'm supposed to do my initial damage on
Kali. As he just begins to scream, this thing
grabbing him. That's 13 damage on him. He's actually
still up. This thing just starts tearing into
his body, ripping through his arm, the flesh
in his arms, his face, his head. His clothes
come off in tatters. Just says, how about me?
Don't I get a hug? Don't I get a hug? Don't I
get a hug? Rip his scream out. He's grappled.
He's going to make a con saving throw. This thing
can heal when it rips and starts to drain them
of their bodies. With an 18 on the die, he passes
the con save. He just holds strong. He just kind
of, like, grabs onto the hands of himself. He's
almost, like, trying to fight back. He's trying
to, like, get something in his body, trying to
drain him. And for a second, he starts to, like,
age a little bit, starts to shrivel. But his
body begins to regain. No! No! You're not taking
anything else from me! No! His voice echoing
through the cavern, and he stands strong. That's
all a Soul Shaker can do. That's going to be
Jean. All right. Jean is going to take a step.
To the north here. So he's now five feet from
Cully. And take his spear attack. Bonjour. This
really might be the best time to use his button.
I'd really like to make this hit. Yeah. Okay.
I'll take that button. That's a 15 for the first.
Let's see if we crit. Nope. Just a 15. Okay.
Give me some damage. Damage incoming. Six damage.
Six damage. Okay. He strikes down with his spear.
This thing's sort of holding on to Koli. Junkers
are behind it. Stabs out. Rips through number
one of these arms. This can fall out like snakes
dropping from this pile. And it's like almost
nothing left now. It's very few arms sort of
weaving bound together. Almost like held by nothing.
Just sort of snaking around themselves. It's
so small, and the voice in your mind is becoming
much, much smaller. No! No! No! No! No! No! That's
Jules. This is the round that we finish this.
Yeah, I hope so. Either that or this thing's
about to reach its final form. Time to finish
this. Jules casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter with
two buttons spent for disadvantage. What? Oh.
Oh, I hate that. Whoa. I will take those buttons.
Oh, no. Oh, no. Okay, okay, okay. It's a 10.
That is a fail. Excellent. And I believe that
stops the grapple, too, does it not? I will say,
yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. The hands begin to,
like, as Cole is being grabbed and ripped into,
fingers driving deep into his flesh. This thing,
as the fingers once again begin to undulate with
this strange phantom. laughter. It sort of pulls
itself back, shriveling against the wall just
a bit, kind of like, almost like a spider dying,
moving into itself. It becomes smaller as it's
against a ball up in one spot, just like laughing,
undulating laughing in your mind. No! No! No!
No! Anything else? Let's not finish this! Hell
yeah. It's my turn. That is Cully. I think he
just, like, falls back against the wall, bleeding
against it, starts to slide down just a little
bit. Come on, Kali. Grabs onto Kiara, and they
sort of, like, hold each other down in this one
corner. He's just, like, got her down on the
ground, both of them on their knees, still holding
her tight, watching this thing as it's still
reaching, laughing, reaching towards him. He
looks over at you, Zebulon. Come on! Finish it!
Zebulon, that's you. All right. Um... Zebulon's
going to dance back into the fray here. As he
comes in, he'll mutter to himself, Here I come
to save the day. Zebulon runs out of the cavern.
He's moving her token way out of here. Hey, that's
my token. Damn, 16 on the die for the first attack.
Let's see. I mean, now is the time to use it.
That's a 4 plus 5 is a 9. I'm going to use my
Bardic Inspiration die. Okay. Oh, max six. That's
two hits. All right, two hits. Let's see. First
one with sneak attack. Damn, another one on that
D8. So that's four. Let's see what we can get
with these sneak attack die. So just ten for
the first attack. And let's see if we can finish
this off with a second. That's nine for the second.
Nine for the second? Yep. Tell me this. This
thing is now a ball. Its hands sort of starting
to spread out slowly, once again reaching out
towards Koli, towards Kiana, both cowering in
the corner. You feel bolstered by Jules. The
opening has been made, and you see it before
you. You slide in with both your weapons and
make contact. What does it look like? Hell yeah.
I think Zebulon's just trying to, like, as a
hand reaches out to attack Kali and Kiana, he
just cuts it off. And another hand reaches out,
and he cuts it off. And he's just playing. He's
just trying to keep it off. Keep it off Kali.
Just cutting hands and cutting hands and cutting
hands. Slicing, slicing bits of hands falling
all over the place in a pile sort of around you.
Just spread out in a circle where this thing
once stood in silence. A very eerie silence.
Yeah, I don't like that. Isn't it, though? You
stand there, Zebulon. There's a lot of Cole and
Kiana both breathing together. Is that it? He's
gone. He's gone. He's... You watch as eight of
these hands on the ground around you begin to
reanimate and stand. God damn it. Fuck. I knew
that wasn't all. Oh, yeah. We're not done yet.
That's going to be Kiana. Well, if we know anything
from fighting these hands before, if it's just
the single hands, it took nothing to get them
gone. Right. Just screaming, echoing your mind.
I think she just holds her head and just sits
there. As these things start to move around.
Just kick it. And I think her eyes open. She
grabs that knife and swings out towards the nearest
one. I'm going to give her disadvantage because
she's using her offhand, unfortunately, out of
necessity. But she's, no, no, no. Y 'all can
stay dead. And that's a two and a one. That's
rough. So just swings out completely, misses
this thing as it kind of like crawls aside. She
cuts her other hand off. That's Chester. Chester
just sees all these hands begin to reanimate
and start moving. So these are separate hands,
right? Yes, they're not separate hands. I can
now use... Because it'd be a lot of work to add
eight hands. No, that's fine, but I can use quick
reload. You can use quick reload, yes. Nice,
good stuff. Here comes Chester. Foreshadowing.
That's a 14, the first. 14 will hit. Reload.
That's a weird way to reload a short bow. And
it's a 10. Second. Ten does not hit. So he hits
the one, barely grazes the next one right beside
it. So one just starts charging towards him.
Max damage, six. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Eight.
Absolutely annihilates it. Fuck yeah. Arrow sticks
right through the hand, sticking right into the
cavern floor. It immediately just flattens out
and dies. Seven left. It's the hand's turn. Yeah,
seven of those, though. That's still scary to
attack. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. I don't think
we've ever actually been hit with the hands yet,
so I don't know what kind of damage it does.
Well, it almost one -hit KO'd Jaune by the single
-eel hand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I see what you're
saying. Yeah. How about this? I'll have five
of them go for Koli. No, you won't, because Jaune
is going to use Noble Sacrifice. So if I take...
I think it's after I hit, right? When a creature,
Jean Franklin, can see targets an ally within
five feet of him with an attack, Jean Franklin
can swap places with the ally and become a target
of the attack instead. So he's the target. Oh,
my God. Okay, it's a creature. I will let him
switch with one of the hands. Still very helpful.
He just, like, as Cully and Ken are hugging,
these things are diving towards him, and as Jean
just grabs Cully, throws him out, he's like,
I have orders to follow! Slides him out and just
goes into place, and this hand is going to attack
him instead. So I'm going to say two, they're
actually going to have like one for Jean, one
for Zeb, and five for Cully. Now it's two for
Jean. I'll do those first. It's only going to
be a 15 on the highest, so that will miss. So
he just easily bats them away with the bottom
of his spear as they come moving in. But five
of them still managed to jump on Cully. Let's
do those next. No, sorry. It was four on Koli
now. Yeah, because you originally said five.
Which is actually great because that means one
of them does miss. The last one I rolled was
Hyda. Holy shit. So Jean Franklin actually did
stop one from hitting. Let's roll some damage.
Oh, God. He's going down. You see these hands
launch at him. He manages to, like, he holds
a scimitar out and just slides through, knocks
a few back with the butt of the blade. Two of
them go falling off to the sides, but two of
them manage to, like, jump on, grabbing onto
his neck, around to his shoulder, and with their
claws just tearing into him, blood begins to
pour out of the wound of his neck, and he just
starts to, like, fall down to his knees. And
Koli falls unconscious and dying, his hands on
top of him. One coming for you, Zebulon. That
is a 16 to hit. Nope, 17, because I'm wielding
two swords. Oh, so yeah, you literally just bat
it off with your swords, repost on the claws,
it dives at you. Okay. Seven hands are still
up. That's going to be Jaune. Okay, Jaune's just
going to attack one of the hands that are on
Cully. Okay. Just a 13. Wait, I already used
his... You can use yours for him, too. Okay,
yeah, I suppose there's really no better time
to use it. Oh, sorry, I meant button. Not bardic,
not that. Okay, all right, that's what I thought.
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, so just a 13. I'm
doofing. 13 will hit. Ooh, nice. Okay, great.
Max damage, that's seven. Sweet, sweet. And that's
all he's got. Okay. Jules, that's you. So currently
six hands left. Sean just drives through one
of them with his spear, splits it up. They're
all kind of all together in that one spot, basically.
All wedged between Zebulon, Koli, Jean Franklin,
and Kiana in kind of the upper corner. Meanwhile,
Chester and Jules are kind of together towards
the entrance of the room, holding the back line.
All right, I'm going to turn around to Chester.
Jules? Chester, hold the back. Okay. All right.
He's just fire in his eyes. And Jules is going
to move up to just behind Kali and cast level
two cure wounds. Okay. Not today, my friend.
Not today. Hell yeah. Yeah, that's the move,
man. And this is for level two. It's 2d8 plus
three. Pretty good healing. That's 12. Okay.
12 points of healing. Good stuff, good stuff.
Healing on Koli. You put your hand down. Probably
then your hand reaches down towards his neck
where that wound is opened up. As you touch it,
you see the skin closes as he glows with this
magical light. His eyes open again. Good stuff.
Healing up our VIP. That actually means he gets
to make a move. He cracks a smile at you as his
eyes open. Luminary. He grabs his sword, kind
of stands up, and he starts swinging towards
these things. The one that's on him, it kind
of falls off. He's going to swing right at that.
He has two attacks, actually. And he hits on
both. 13 and 14 of the dice. Sweet. Nice. Two
hands chopped to pieces. It leaves, what, two?
Uh -huh. Weren't there just six left? I thought
you said six. You're right, yes. Yes, because
Jon took out one of the six left. No, no, no,
there were four. There were four. No, you're
out. Yeah, two left, two left. So four left.
These things got cut down. He's smiling. Looks
over. He's standing right now right between Jules
and Zebulon. And he just looks at Jules, looks
at Zeb, and nods like, oh, yeah, let's finish
this. That's going to be you, Zeb. Can't get
rid of you that easy, huh, Cully? We got to make
you all famous, remember? Yeah, that's right.
Okay, yeah, let's rinse repeat till we kill these
hands, huh? Just a 12 on the first, but I'm going
to use my... It's an extra three, so that's going
to hit. That will hit. 19 for the second one,
so two hits. D8 plus three on both. Do I even
need to roll, or is that an auto? It's actually
going to be an auto. Okay, sweet. Oh, yeah. You
slice three more down, leaving only two left.
Screams entering your mind. Different screams,
different people, different hands. You see, like,
the ones left, there's, like, women's hands,
children's hands, large, burly man's hands. The
one that was kind of, like, one of the two that
are left, the one that's in front of Kiana, trying
to, like, move it on her as she's trying to stab
it. Looks a lot like her hand. Oh, fuck. Speaking
of Kiana, that's actually her. She's swinging
again. hand in front of her, and she actually
hits. Awesome. She takes her dagger, and you
see just like her own hand, baby. You can't really
be sure, but it's got similar size nails, similar
build, and she just kind of takes her dagger,
and she's stabbing, stabbing, and finally this
thing's almost like braced itself. It's going
to leap, and she goes right through it with this
little knife just sticking to the ground. It
just shrieks and dies out. The last hand. One
left. And that's Chester. All right, I need some
heroic Chester stuff here. Jules is going to
turn around, look Chester in the eye. Chester!
Yeah! That's you! And Chester's going to pull
around the side of everybody. Hell yeah, he just
nods, starts running, shoulders low, bow out,
arrow knocked, spins around the side of Zebulon,
draws. And whiffs. And whiffs. That's a chew
on the dive for an eight. God damn it. Shoot,
goes wide in the mark. Shoot, hits it. Stares.
Ah, the sun was in my eyes. I couldn't see. I'm
still proud of you, man. Still proud of you.
Thanks, Jules. My throat is not able to handle
Chester today. Oh, God. He's just like standing
there looking kind of sad with his empty bow.
My last hand gets to make a move, but who do
I make a move on? Huh? I'll go for the one that
just shot at it. It skitters up and launches
itself right at Chester. Chester takes three
points of damage only, this thing. Launches at
him. It just crawls up on him. He's just kind
of, hey, hey, get off! It's just scratching into
his body, just ripping down his chest. Bloods
were pulling out of a small wound as it cuts
there. That is going to be Sean Franklin. Okie
doke. Let's see what happens here. Just an 11.
He hits Chester. That does not hit. Yeah, I figured.
This thing's on Chester, like ripping at him,
and John's trying to, oh, it's still right here.
And he tries to, as it goes on his shoulder,
he tries to hit off his shoulder. The hand dips
down. He misses it. He can't quite get a beat
on it. It's moving around too much. He doesn't
want to hurt Chester. Jules, that's you. Only
one left. It's hurting your buddy. It's going
to turn toward the hand that is just trying to,
that just attacked Chester. It's trying to mind
its own business. It's a wrong move, asshole.
And I'm going to go. and grab the hand and cast
Inflict Wounds. I'm only doing this because it
is a higher modifier than just my rapier. It's
a plus five to hit. My rapier is just a plus
two. Sure. I like it. I, in fact, love it. And
that's a 15. 15 hits. It would have been 12 with
the rapier, so pretty close. Yeah. Good move.
You grab onto this hand. You... Feel your magic
pushing into this thing. A scream echoes through
your mind. The scream of some man, some victim.
Just... And in your mind, you begin to see something.
Brief flashes. A family in a farmhouse. Water
pouring in through broken floorboards. People
trying to scramble out the door as a massive
sinkhole is opening, dropping down into the land
of the rattle. And just as this figure you're
seeing, just as this hand is reaching towards
a door, someone grabs him and holds him back.
An older woman, the matron of the family. And
everyone begins to drop down into the depths,
water filling their eyes, their mouths, suffocating
blackness. You feel yourself become something
new. First you're small, but there's others.
And you meet them. And you join them, wrap around
them, becoming something hideous. Grotesque.
This creature. And as those who come to the lake
come near. As you feel them. This hunger in you
grows. You couldn't escape the lake. Why should
they? Why should they? And you grab them. But
when you grab them, you pull them under. And
they join you. And they join you. And they join
you. You feel all this in a moment. You see this
thing that you just fought. This writhing pile
of rot. in death, in hatred. And as you see this
thing in your mind, all the voices of this creature
look at you, feel this magic, feel your hand,
and say one word. Monster! Monster! And the hand
drops dead. Vision's gone. And the room goes
silent again. And this time, there is nothing
left to animate. You all stand around just a,
I don't even want to call it like a massacre,
just severed limbs and fingers and arms and pieces
and lake water mixed with a black ooze, mixed
with the blood of those who were attacked. You
stand here. In the cellar. In the rattle. For
a long. Quiet. Moment. Until the silence is broken.
By Coley. And by two words. It's. Over. And we'll
call it there.