Speaker 1: Physical manifestations. Item 11. Afterward, recategorized as patient 68 dash x. This entry cannot be substantiated with an accordance specimen. Instead, you, future researcher, must labor with a meager description of what this researcher observed.
This specimen was collected. It was a neatly bound bundle of brown hair wrapped tightly with a piece of black wire. Later, when I asked an assistant to bring it to me as part of the interview process with the patient, observational calculus, the bundle of hair crumpled to dust. The assistance pewn before my eyes. This obviously caused some amount of consternation in the room, and I like to think I would have masked my alarm quite well but it were not for what had happened next.
Welcome to ash and snow.
Speaker 2: These intros just keep getting weird.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I
Speaker 3: mean, hey, I prefer these ones to the teeth guy.
Speaker 4: Yeah. That's fair.
Speaker 5: That's fair. I think we have
Speaker 1: a little congratulations in order. Aubrey, nominated for best GM. Congratulations.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 2: Yeah. You crushed it.
Speaker 1: Actual verifiable award at, Gen Con. So good job with your nomination. I'm I'm sorry you didn't ultimately get it, but I think it's a good thing for us to talk a little bit about your other podcast for which you probably got that award for, Goblets and Gays.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I definitely, nominated for that because, I mean, it's the only other Paths Venture show I do GM. So
Speaker 1: So guys are starting a new season. I don't know what it'll where it'll be by the time that this episode goes live.
Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean, we're wrapping up the, the final season of our the the campaign we've been playing for about 3 years. Wow.
Speaker 1: So,
Speaker 4: and then it's like figuring out what we're doing next. Like, I have something in the background, but it's also me turning to everyone else being like, please run something else. I'm tired.
Speaker 2: Please give a give a couple
Speaker 4: of months of stuff, please. I think that there's talk of, revisiting our alien game, so that might be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, with star finder 2e coming out soon, that that'll be pretty easy.
Speaker 4: Hey, Pysover. We're gonna get an alien crossover?
Speaker 3: How many star finder races are we just gonna shove in the Pathfinder 2e? Our ancestry list is about to, like, quintuple. All of them. Yeah.
Speaker 5: And it's not
Speaker 3: There's 70 new ancestries.
Speaker 1: That's fine. It it'll be a pretty incredible list as it comes up, but just wanted to make sure that that doesn't pass without the, congratulations that it's due. And, you, Lister, I hope that you'll check out Goblets and Gays as well as, all the associated other projects our players and myself are a part of, which we'll talk about a little bit more as, the season goes on. But, yeah, great job, Aubrey.
Speaker 5: Thank you.
Speaker 1: And with that, let's get back into the episode. We find our battered and broken heroes in another one of the endless rooms that they seem to be caught in. Varen has returned. He is unscathed and stands next to a party who only just barely were able to get past the latest abomination that they have faced in Konepo's keep.
Speaker 5: Baren?
Speaker 2: This place has been kinda nuts.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, at least we managed to find each other again.
Speaker 5: Baron, where were you?
Speaker 3: I don't know. We had Somewhere here.
Speaker 5: We had a plan. Where the hell were you?
Speaker 3: Well, the plan was to follow the rope back, and I did so, and the rope led to nowhere. Then I found a crazy fetchling man who is now deceased, who informed me of a way of reaching you all. And then Kanipo kidnapped me into an endless void before I eventually found my way back here.
Speaker 5: You see? You see? Mia over there? She was stabbed. You see?
Speaker 3: As were you just briefly a moment ago.
Speaker 5: You see Freya?
Speaker 3: Yep. On the ground trampled.
Speaker 4: Better.
Speaker 5: Where the hell were you?
Speaker 3: Trying to find my way back here for the rest of you.
Speaker 5: We had a plan. We had a rope. And when we pulled on the rope, you were not on the other side of it. It looked like it was a very intentional thing.
Speaker 3: And just kinda looks down at his waist where the rope isn't tied anymore. Well, it wasn't that way on my end. I've kept following it down hallways until it led to that range of specialty man I mentioned.
Speaker 5: Who are you?
Speaker 3: As far as I know, Varynn.
Speaker 5: You come in. You claim you don't have a memory. You question everyone. You have claims and accusations galore. You have a bird that somehow knows how to use weaponry.
And when we needed to stick together, you disappear. And now you're saying, oh, you met a Fletchling, the the silly shadow world creature. And suddenly you're back here in the nick of time.
Speaker 3: Finn, you're in no state to be engaging in any of this. Surprised you're still standing after that blow from the blade, but either way, had I wanted you dead so as some secret agent of Konepo, you think we'd be talking right now? You think I wouldn't just fire a shot off into your head of what little remains of that flame? Get yourself some recovery, then we can talk.
Speaker 5: Notice the only one uninjured here.
Speaker 3: You were on the ground. I just got back. I did not fight anything along my way here.
Speaker 5: So you came in, knew exactly what to say to get this creature just to back off a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yes. That its boss had sent me after being captured to kill it, to let it die.
Speaker 5: So the boss sent you?
Speaker 3: He released me from wherever shadowy room he had me within. Some doorway that let me lead here. By the way, Freya, what were you thinking in even remotely suggesting splitting up?
Speaker 4: Look. I panicked. Okay? You vanished. I didn't
Speaker 2: know what was going on.
Speaker 4: I Of all the b ones, we lost
Speaker 3: sticky things in order.
Speaker 2: Hey. How did you know that?
Speaker 3: You had some strange window that I could watch as you were walking down the hallway. Some sort of torture to emotional blackmail of sorts. The choices were either I abandon you all here and leave, or I found out no information that's useful to us and we all die. Did you find out anything useful? I have a name, but no context to it, and a bit more information on Kannipo himself, his goals and end games, what his plots are.
He thinks there's some sort of kindred spirit, madman.
Speaker 2: Well, if we're being honest here,
Speaker 3: out of everyone, you're kind of the one that's most similar to him. Kind of grumpy. He's kind of grumpy. He's insane. You you have you question everything and he kind of questions everything.
I don't know.
Speaker 2: There is a kind of there's some similarities. I'm not saying that it's a bad thing, but don't, please don't wear my head off. Sorry. But like if we're gonna go there, we're gonna go there and you you kinda there's there's a similarity. That's why I'm saying, Alright, I'm gonna go shut up now.
And she like wanders off like
Speaker 3: Sit down. The blood losses go into your head. You keep walking around. You're going to pass out.
Speaker 4: There's food in my pack.
Speaker 5: Varynn, we need to bandage our wounds and get a little bit of rest. I think he should stand over there.
Speaker 3: That's the plan is, well, I'm uninjured. The rest of you need time to recover. I can take watch. That's not a problem.
Speaker 5: I swear, the last thing you will see is my blade if you are not who you claim you are.
Speaker 3: Says the man who had recently attempted to choke out Maya while on a drug binge. Fantastic.
Speaker 5: I rolled rolled ahead.
Speaker 1: Oh, some p v p. Okay. That is a 16. Then you try to strike at Varen, but he's able to step back as you are still feeling woozy from your wounds.
Speaker 5: Right. So I imagine he's, like, just going forward. He aims the punch, and as he does this, he, like, trips over his own tail ever so slightly as the the sword wound causes the wound to reopen for a second. And as he does this, he kinda crashes to the ground.
Speaker 3: Just kinda almost see Varen as you go to wind this up. Doesn't go to back away, but almost step into it. Just kinda, like, get inside the range, and then you hit the ground. He just kinda looks down, shakes his head, reaches into his pocket a moment, and pulls out a little bundle, and just tosses it on the ground in front of him. Here.
You're more useful when you're on drugs than when you want. Maybe you can get your act together when you're a bit numb and just sets himself over into the hallway. Dang. Get your rest. When you're ready, let me know.
Maybe once you've had some bit more time to recover, you'll actually be able to think straight. Uh-uh.
Speaker 1: With that, Varen goes not out of eyeshot of the rest of you, but has definitely separated himself a little bit. Well, I'll take him up on your offer to have a long rest and recover your wounds and stamina and spells.
Speaker 5: What drugs are these, by the way? I might take them.
Speaker 3: It's it's the last the thing of Playleaf that he had.
Speaker 5: Okay. No. Mia said no. I will not take the drugs.
Speaker 2: Later, once we're out of here.
Speaker 5: But I am keeping
Speaker 1: him. Alright. When you all settle down and take a not necessarily restful sleep, it is odd sleeping in here as the lights never dim. There's no sun to go down. There's no moon to rise up or stars.
There's not even the odd comfort of a, campfire. It is just this unending dim sort of light. But you are able to get your, full 8 hours, which somehow adventures get and real people never do. Right. But you're able to, recover with a full night's rest.
Speaker 5: Did Varon sleep.
Speaker 3: Assumedly some point someone would come to take watch, but
Speaker 4: I I would at some point. You know?
Speaker 2: I was gonna say Mia would, but
Speaker 3: He wouldn't stay far from where like, he would from where someone is keeping watch, he would keep himself distant from Vin and Mia and just, like, if where they've they kept watch where he was at, he would keep watch while he would go to bed, like, 15 feet away from them in the corner just laying on the ground.
Speaker 4: I mean, I have to be up any earlier anyways for daily preparations. So
Speaker 1: As you all wake up, there is something distinctly different about the room that you wake up in compared to the one that you went to sleep in. Though you are safe, you're not surrounded by enemies or anything. One of the hallways has been replaced. Instead of just being a long empty hallway that veers off to the left or right, There is now a set of double doors.
Speaker 2: And we see this? Yes.
Speaker 1: All of you see this.
Speaker 2: Alright. Mia like blinks. Their eyes are bad. But was that there before?
Speaker 4: No. This is, it seems to have done the thing it likes to do and rearrange ourself when we maybe aren't looking.
Speaker 5: Wasn't someone always looking?
Speaker 3: The place works by Konepo's rules. He puts you where he wants you to be, or the place can keep you wandering infinitely from the place that you do not want to be. It's an odd series of loops and maps, and the only way to escape it isn't to find the way out, to throw the map out entirely.
Speaker 2: Oh, you gotta get lost.
Speaker 3: We're going to go where he wants us to go.
Speaker 5: Is this person entity, like, divine? How do they have yeah. Can he but how does he have so much control over this domain?
Speaker 3: My understanding, it's tied into something of a dealing with Cat Ranulac, one of the Fae eldest. They gave him a corner pocket of this place, and it's now his to rule over, his to control. From what I gather of what the map maker told me, supposedly, this was the tree something where he was previously sealed and defeated by the first elves that dealt with him, but now it's his dominion, though I'm not sure how accurate that is. What information I've gotten so far? I believe it's called Nighthold.
Speaker 2: What an interesting name.
Speaker 5: Did we stand a chance?
Speaker 3: He is, well, as mortal as a fey is. But he controls this realm. He's not a god.
Speaker 4: I mean, we know what's probably weak to cold iron. I mean, we just gotta work together. We've been great at that, but, you know
Speaker 5: I have to write.
Speaker 2: I tried so hard to hold that in, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3: Freya says this, 3 people turned around and just raised eyebrow.
Speaker 4: I said, this is a moment for us to learn to work together.
Speaker 2: Oh, I get what you're saying. Yeah.
Speaker 4: We have not been great about working together before. But to do this, we do need to work together. Then I know you you are our frontliner. You're the one that makes the most noise and, you know, runs in first. And, I mean, that's it's good.
It's really good. You and I together, working together in the front lines, I think, was really good. And, Mia, you, with your magic, you know, keeping us up and, you know, doing anything you can to damage enemies from afar or just make their lives hell, gonna be good. And Varen, Overwatch and, you know, being really good at shooting things always seem to know what they're weak to, and those words of encouragement when we really need it.
Speaker 2: Me is just looking up at everyone, like, yeah. That sounds great.
Speaker 5: Ben's probably scowling.
Speaker 2: We can work together.
Speaker 3: Varynn just pulls up the weapon at his side and just kinda lets the bird start reloading it it from the side of his arm and just oh, the doors are right there. He's presented it to us. Might as well.
Speaker 5: When we say doors, does it have, like, a doorknob and, like, a lock or a place for a key?
Speaker 1: They are normal looking double doors. They're not, like, you know, the Jurassic Park gates or anything like that.
Speaker 5: That's as much as
Speaker 4: we can do. We'll get sued.
Speaker 3: You get 5 notes.
Speaker 1: But it is large enough that you would expect to see these doors, like, on a traditional castle going to a throne room. So, yeah, they have, like, you know, sort of knobs. I don't actually know what kind of opening apparatus. Everyone just always seems to, like, push the doors open, and they go.
Speaker 2: That's because everyone wants to be Eragon from with the rings.
Speaker 5: Is there a, like, light coming out from underneath the door?
Speaker 1: No. Alright.
Speaker 5: Rhea, open the door. Mia, can you shoot some light inside?
Speaker 2: Four little light bulbs floating around. Alright.
Speaker 1: Are you opening the door? Yep. Yeah.
Speaker 5: Ben's walking in for his
Speaker 1: You open up the doors. A short flight of stairs leads up to a wide chamber. A raised dais holds an elaborate throne of living wood, leafless black branches twisting up out of its back. A 4 poster bed of black silks on the western side of the room. Next to the bed is a small bird cage, inside of which is a hat wearing hedgehog clutching the iron bars.
Huge tapestries hanging down from 20 foot high ceilings, showing a bright forest at the top slowly turning to spindling black branches at the bottom. Sitting at the throne is Koneko, who stands and addresses Mia. You have arrived at last, daughter.
Speaker 2: Excuse me. What?
Speaker 1: You are my tool to plunge the world into darkness, that I may step anywhere unencumbered and feast upon every life of Galeria.
Speaker 2: Meegan's, like, looking behind her, kind of, like, half chasing her tail. Like, what do you mean? I'm not no. And then she like tries to look really tough and she's like, no, we're not doing that. I won't let you.
Speaker 1: 1st, I shall free you from these burdensome pests. But I assure you, my child, you will come to see my way of things.
Speaker 5: I tried to cat as he declares his intention, I'm gonna try to catch him off guard and
Speaker 1: charge him. As you run into charge, he activates the shade wither key. It's trap guard.
Speaker 3: And the man out here playing Yu Gi Oh. You can't tell me shade wither key doesn't sound like a Yu Gi Oh card trap. Come on.
Speaker 1: Definitely does. It causes the mere image effect, making it look like there are multiple Kinepo the Slims now in this room. And since you have made the charge, let's go ahead and roll for initiative.
Speaker 5: Can I make an argument for athletics?
Speaker 1: Yes. You can.
Speaker 4: What? I'm so sorry.
Speaker 2: I've rolled a 20. I am ready. I really wanna, like, just annihilate this person off the face of the planet.
Speaker 3: Then once they rush in, Varen just is gonna watch this happen, both Nat ones. Starting off strong. Aster going 1st. Just just kinda just yep. There he goes again.
And right on in there, isn't he?
Speaker 5: Well, that's oh, Nat 1 +8 for a 9. Oh, boy.
Speaker 3: Nat 1 +8
Speaker 2: over your
Speaker 3: shoelaces. 8. Oh. Kineepa also rolls on Nat 1.
Speaker 5: But his is 7 to 1.
Speaker 1: And yet it's still 2nd in the initiative order.
Speaker 3: Because no one else rolled above, like, a 4.
Speaker 4: No. I got I got, like, a 7.
Speaker 3: That's barely above a 4.
Speaker 1: So, Mia, you see that Kineepo is starting to take the form of several versions of himself as Vin starts to charge at him. But you are actually quickest in
Speaker 2: the actively trying to pump the room with as much light as possible. Okay. I don't know how you wanna handle that since it is a cantrip. Yes.
Speaker 1: So you are able to do that. However, because this is his domain, it still has the active effects against light.
Speaker 3: It just makes it bright light dim and dim light dark.
Speaker 1: Yes. Exactly.
Speaker 3: So basically they only have a 20 foot dim aura.
Speaker 2: That's fine. I'm still just actively pumping the room full.
Speaker 1: Alright. Perfect. So you do that. Let me see if I can change that light radius 20 to do it.
Speaker 2: Do you have the little light thing there?
Speaker 1: Oh, I pressed 20 feet. Oh, anyway. So a 20 foot aura around, Mia will have dim light, which will have a impact. But, are you doing anything else with your last statue?
Speaker 2: Mia is going to just kind of take a step, like just a little 5 foot step out of the doorway to like here and just tuck herself into a corner. But she's still trying to, like, look intimidating and fierce and, like, like, no, I'm not gonna let you bully me into being your whatever. That's creepy, man. No.
Speaker 1: Looking intimidating while also cowering in the corner.
Speaker 2: Shh. Two things can be true at the same time? Mia contains multiple seemingly shaking. That's all that matters.
Speaker 1: The next in the order is Koneepo. Vin, you have started to run at him, but he is a little bit faster. He casts paralyze on you. I need a will save from you.
Speaker 4: Look, I know I gave the big we all need to work together speech. I did not think it would fall apart this fast.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 5: I'm trying.
Speaker 2: I'm staying
Speaker 1: in the
Speaker 3: back. I'm gonna use my spells.
Speaker 5: Help me to make lots of noise. I made lots of noise.
Speaker 1: Oh, yes. I I should clarify that because this is a boss fight, fight, you all have 1 hero point.
Speaker 5: Just one?
Speaker 4: Just one.
Speaker 1: You all been awarded 1 hero point since with however many else you still have.
Speaker 5: I don't know if I should burn it on a so it's a 14. It's a regular failure. I don't know if I should burn it on a regular failure and save it for one of those crit fails. That's bound to happen in this combat type.
Speaker 4: I mean, you just lose one action
Speaker 3: or You'll lose 1 for round.
Speaker 4: 1 round. Yeah. Paralyze for 1 round.
Speaker 5: I'm going to let it happen. I mean, I'm not going to reroll that. I didn't let it happen. I didn't want it to happen. It happened to me.
I'm going to
Speaker 4: Finn, just like, no. I will I will accept this. I will let this happen, Kid Depot. This makes you happy.
Speaker 1: Alright. Then then you are stopped in your tracks as you are temporarily paralyzed. He uses his, next action to slim step where he appears significantly closer to all of you. Stepping into the back of his throne, and then out of a wall that is unlit by, Mia's, like, Freya.
Speaker 4: I, I am going to yeah. I'm going to move over.
Speaker 5: Seeing as he's coming through this way, I'm going to try to
Speaker 4: head him off to stop him from getting Daimia with the the talon drawn, and I am gonna go in for a spell strike. We're gonna do a, hydraulic push spell strike.
Speaker 1: Okay. Go ahead and make that roll to see if it hits. That is
Speaker 4: a miss. That is a miss. That is a miss as, well, he's a little too slim.
Speaker 1: Alright. Next. Vin, you are still paralyzed.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna roll recall knowledge checks to see if I get Okay. Anything. I am going to start with an occultism, recall knowledge. I am looking for like, he seems pretty quick. Because he seems sturdy.
So this is a yeah. It's a blind roll.
Speaker 1: You look through your mind palace of occultism knowledge and are coming up with a blank.
Speaker 5: Maybe I can figure out this teleporting ability.
Speaker 1: Whatever he's doing, it is not something you're familiar with. And maybe the key? Well, you know, it's the one you're looking for, but exactly what else it can do besides the obnooblit curse, you're not sure.
Speaker 5: I'm, like, wanna yell at Freya, but my mouth is just, like, that's random. Derek. When the intelligent guy or the least intelligent guy makes the intelligence work.
Speaker 1: So you would not have your cold iron rounds on you anymore. Right?
Speaker 3: Just regular old bullet. But well, we'll find out if I can because this is the first time Baron's been able to, physically see this man where he wasn't hiding in the dark or, like, halfway behind a tree or showing up in a painting where he wasn't before or something. I don't know. This dude's just creepypasta. So stage 1 is going to be an exploit vulnerability.
Speaker 1: That is a regular failure. So as much as you have learned about Kinepo the slim, and though you know that he is a fey, without any kind of extra knowledge, you're not sure what exactly you're supposed to do now.
Speaker 3: Well, only other thing we can do is level the gun, fire off 2 shots. Oh, this is where we got to, Konepo. You knew this was coming. Fair's fair. 1st tick.
Another 7 on the die. And a 7.
Speaker 1: A first shot, Kone.
Speaker 3: Got a much lower modifier. 18 on the die, 21. 1 misses?
Speaker 1: That is unfortunately still a miss.
Speaker 3: Yep. We're level 2, but that is 8 g 21. Miss.
Speaker 5: How does, the mirror image effects work on that?
Speaker 1: Yes. So if Konepo is hit, there is then a random chance that it hits one of the images instead of Kamepo.
Speaker 5: So we had had do we have to declare the hit? We have to hit before we declare if it doesn't
Speaker 1: you you have to make the hit, and then I roll a dice. And depending on the outcome of that dice roll, it'll either hit Kameepo or it'll hit a mirror image.
Speaker 5: Okay.
Speaker 1: If it hits the mirror image, it's destroyed, but you don't do any extra damage.
Speaker 3: Gonna need probably at least a 14 to hit this guy on my first attack.
Speaker 4: Our dice like not that good.
Speaker 2: Jori, me this whole time to think about it, and I thought I had a really great idea. I super fucking don't. Mia is going to continue to just run around the room, but designate lights on people. So everyone gets their own light. Gets a light.
Speaker 1: Okay. Little lights appear on top of Vryn, Freya, and Vyn.
Speaker 2: Hope this helps you all. Sorry.
Speaker 1: They do provide some dim light directly surrounding you, but, don't extend much further than that. So where are you moving to?
Speaker 2: I'm gonna move here near Vinh, and I'm gonna just call out to Vin. Be like, hey. Hey, buddy. You doing good? You're doing great.
I think you're doing great. You were so scary.
Speaker 1: Kameepo. He lashes out with one of his claws at Freya. Mhmm. That is another What? Mat twenty of mine.
Super fun.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: So on top of doing the critical damage to Freya of 18 points of damage, Freya, I need a fortitude save from you.
Speaker 4: Yep. Man has a plus 18 to hit. Oh my god. My AC is 18. Bosses
Speaker 3: not get crit on the first attack.
Speaker 4: So 12, I don't think that's gonna succeed.
Speaker 1: 12 is a regular failure. Luckily, not a critical failure. As bits of his flayed skin start to wrap around your shadow, it starts to cause your body to wither as you take 9 points of mental damage. And I'm unconscious. Unconscious as well as still frightened.
Speaker 4: Yes. My corpse will be very scared of this.
Speaker 1: So Frey, your, initiative will move right before Konepo.
Speaker 3: Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 1: And that was his first action.
Speaker 4: Yep. TBK, here we come. Oh my god.
Speaker 1: He takes a step back with his slim step and appears up here, closer to his throne, but putting Vyn and Vyn into a line. And that'll be all for him this turn. Vin.
Speaker 3: No longer paralyzed.
Speaker 5: And as the paralysis goes, as Freya falls to the ground unconscious, like, don't touch the key. Oh, whoops. Too late. And we'll charge at Konepo. We will take one action to stride.
Should I try the trip?
Speaker 3: I don't think a trip's gonna matter here. I don't know well over his AC but he can just move at will.
Speaker 5: Yeah. We are going to reach out. That purple flame is gonna try to to surround him as we use a touch of corruption.
Speaker 1: Okay. So he'll need to make a fortitude save. Here it comes. That is a failure.
Speaker 5: Nice. He is going to take What? What?
Speaker 3: Kick him to that role in the lowest damage possible.
Speaker 5: But most importantly, he has a
Speaker 3: That's really
Speaker 5: what it does matter. Which is really the the the good part of this effect. And then I will take my weapon and swing down. It's a net twenty. That is a tiny core.
Jesus.
Speaker 1: But let's see if that hits Kameepo or one of his mirror images. So there are 3 mirror images. So the first roll is a 1 d 4 on a 1
Speaker 3: Good news.
Speaker 1: It hits him.
Speaker 3: Even if you hit an image, you still hit him, but only for normal damage.
Speaker 1: Yes. So
Speaker 5: I hit I I roll normal damage. I don't I don't crit. I don't get my fancy
Speaker 3: But you do break an image. 88.
Speaker 5: I did.
Speaker 1: No. You don't. Because that is a 4 on the d 4. So one of the images is destroyed. But, yeah, go ahead and roll the normal damage.
Speaker 5: Alright. Normal damage is 10 points
Speaker 3: above average damage. Wow. We're doing it.
Speaker 5: Alright.
Speaker 4: Some of us one of us is, at least.
Speaker 2: Don't jinx it, man. Don't jinx it.
Speaker 1: Only 2 of the mirror images remain now. Anything else that you can do, Vin?
Speaker 5: That's 3 actions there, so Vyn.
Speaker 3: Gotta look her to me. Mia, can you get her up? And then immediately rush forward here like I did. There we go. Rush up behind Vyn and just there's nothing stopping me from trying to figure out more because exploit, you can it doesn't have a cooldown.
Just once a round. I can keep trying.
Speaker 1: It's just the action economy that matters about it.
Speaker 3: I'm only gonna hit this guy on my first attack anyway unless I roll an at 20 on my second, so it's it's worth it to get the extra damage. I'm gonna try this again, and this is actually a public role I just checked. That's a nat 20.
Speaker 1: It is. That is a nat 20. So along with all of the other stuff that you know about him, you are able to exploit his cold iron weakness even though you don't have any cold iron bullets on you.
Speaker 3: Just gonna pull up his rifle here, level it at Konepo, and just kinda pat the spot where the ammo wasn't or well isn't anymore. Just kinda smirk a moment. Well, the joys of, iron Konepo is any of it could be made cold. The rifle kinda just has a brief shimmer of blue along it, before a shot's gonna get fired off at this man.
Speaker 1: Now you also learn any of his resistances and immunities. Though he doesn't have any specific resistances, he is immune to fear effects.
Speaker 3: That's useful because that was gonna be what my other actions were gonna be because I'm not hitting him on a second attack. Figure out something else after this turn, I guess. For now, we're gonna try and shoot this man. That's a 19 total. 11 on the die.
I do not shoot this man.
Speaker 1: The bullet flies past Kanipo as we move to Mia.
Speaker 2: Seeing Freya go down, Mia panics and, like, just sends so much healing light and energy over to her.
Speaker 1: Alright. Doing a 2 action heal, which is a good call because still can't do your battle medicine quite yet.
Speaker 2: Do do do is it do I target that right?
Speaker 1: So you just need to roll the healing effect, and, we'll apply it to Freya. Freya, you heal for 13 points of damage. And, go up, you just wounded 1.
Speaker 4: Why is there a skull?
Speaker 1: Because for some reason, it still says you're dead. You are wounded 1.
Speaker 4: I know you I know you want us to make other characters. Let's Try this hard.
Speaker 5: I like your character.
Speaker 4: I,
Speaker 1: So, Mia, you still have one action left.
Speaker 2: Mia's just gonna stay here. She's just taking everything in, kind of, like, observing the situation and realizing just how out of her depth she actually is and is starting to get really mad that this creep entity shadow whatever the frack he is, fae thing, keeps hurting her friends.
Speaker 1: Now as a bit of GM advice, you do have the cantrip's guidance or shield as well as your one action gravitational shield.
Speaker 3: Guidance is great because we need it to hit him.
Speaker 4: And we need those plus ones. Any of us any of us could use guidance.
Speaker 3: And you can re you can cast another
Speaker 5: round from it.
Speaker 4: On somebody that
Speaker 3: Once someone does get the benefit, it's, yeah, it's a while.
Speaker 4: It's like an hour.
Speaker 3: Once for this fight. But Yeah.
Speaker 1: But this person can get it once. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Just calls out to Varen, and he's like, hey. You did really great. That was awesome. Can you do more of that?
Speaker 3: Certainly trying.
Speaker 2: I will absolutely use guidance.
Speaker 1: Alright. So Varian, you are now under the benefits of guidance. And Freya, you wake up prone on the ground at wounded 1. Oh, god.
Speaker 5: I really
Speaker 4: gotta stop doing this. Yeah. And then I'm gonna spend my first action too. Stand up.
Speaker 1: Alright. Your heightened condition will still be in effect because you've only been down for the one round, but, at the end of this turn, you'll go away.
Speaker 4: So I am going to I'm gonna cast produce flame, pull the sort of flame out of this guy this dancing light that's, like, hovering above me and chuck it at Konepo. Okay. Burn, you bastards.
Speaker 1: Alright. Do the attack roll.
Speaker 4: The 2 on the dice for an 8 for a critical miss.
Speaker 1: So luckily, there is not a critical failure effect. There's just not any fire that, Konepo takes damage from.
Speaker 4: I'm pretty sure that Foundry just hates my character.
Speaker 1: Kameepo is unable to slim step because of the, very dim lights that, surround Vin, but he still smiles as he takes a normal step to the side, getting Vin and Varen in a straight line.
Speaker 4: Horizon thunder sphere. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No. It depends all about creepy shadows. It's gonna be clip tendrils.
Speaker 1: He targets Vyn and Vyn with a 60 foot line as once again, flayed strips of his flesh reach out to your shadows. I need both of you to give me riches.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna use that guidance on this. My forts
Speaker 5: 13, 4 to 2.
Speaker 3: That's great, and I don't wanna be hit by this. Didn't do anything, unfortunately. It's a 17.
Speaker 1: Both of those are normal failures. So on top of taking 12 points of mental damage, you'll both be frightened 1.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna react to this as purple flames block some of that damage. Okay.
Speaker 3: Viren just it doesn't manage to cut into him at all, but it's it took a lot to dodge all that. That's all of my stamina gone.
Speaker 1: That is actually 9 points of damage that Vin takes. Right? I calculated that.
Speaker 5: Right? Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that is all for Konepo. Minh.
Speaker 5: I'm going to swing my blade down. I think I'm just going for just going for broke at this point even though I am minimize 1. A 22, which does appear to hit. So what what do I hit?
Speaker 1: Let's see. On a 1 to 2, you'll hit Kameepo full on. Anything else on a 1 d 6 roll will be one of the images.
Speaker 5: Okay. That's
Speaker 1: a 5. So you do destroy one of the images, but you don't do additional damage to Konepo.
Speaker 5: Okay. We're we're just going to spend all three actions to strike and Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, get rid of the we just gotta get rid of the images either way, like yeah.
Speaker 5: Right. That's the first priority. But I'm going to critically miss both attacks, a 9 and a 4. And that will end my turn. Alright.
Speaker 1: Oh. Very.
Speaker 3: Stage 1. Try and hit this man with a gun because I well, It's gonna be hit him and we're doing some support actions because, I need I think I need a 15 or higher on the dice, so I got a 25% chance of this hits. Let's find out here. 16 on the die. That's a hit.
Speaker 1: Yeah. 23 we
Speaker 3: actually shoot this guy or blast the last image off.
Speaker 1: So your chances are 1 and 2. So on a 1 through 3 on this d six roll, you'll hit Konepo. As a 1, you actually hit Konepo.
Speaker 3: Oh, buddy. You're getting some cold iron damage with max damage plus the cold iron trigger. Oh.
Speaker 1: Or do you? I get to use my reaction as Konepo hasn't slim stepped since the beginning of their last turn. Instead, he now slim steps, taking no damage if their new square would move them out of the Yeah.
Speaker 3: It is a ranged attack. He would need to move himself literally outside of this room.
Speaker 5: Alright. Is he still in the dim light from the lights to counter Yeah.
Speaker 3: Because you're up against him. So he can't slim step, but he can do this.
Speaker 1: Yes. So the key is going to appear next to Freya.
Speaker 3: He's still within range of my attack. It's 30 feet.
Speaker 1: That is true.
Speaker 3: 30 feet before penalty, so
Speaker 1: So, yeah. Go, go ahead. He will still take the 10 damage as you see this coming and make a quick turn shooting past Freya, who can't believe that you are aiming your gun at them.
Speaker 3: Freya's looking over towards Koneepo and just sees Varen full go to fire and turn towards her right over the shoulder and impact into the wall.
Speaker 5: She just
Speaker 1: I would like to hit the deck. Right then, Kameepo steps out of the shadow and is finally hurt for the first time against
Speaker 3: Just an icy stare past Freya to where this bullet lodges into his shoulder and just burns. It's not cold iron, but it's working like it is, and just a dead blank stare from Varen. Yes. I told you I didn't need the cold iron, didn't I? That was a one-sided deal you made.
Freya, behind you. And going to do some
Speaker 1: I've noticed.
Speaker 3: Encounters for Freya and our friend Vin. Good job taking care of the images. Wouldn't have been able to get that without you. But we're gonna give you both a great diplomacy to see if we can give you back some stamina points. Find it in my actions menu.
There we go. Alright. Well, it's not wanting to post. DC is 15. This is a diplomacy check on Freya.
That'll be at a minus 1 still from the frightened. But that's gonna get you a d 8 of stamina back.
Speaker 1: Yes. That's
Speaker 3: gonna be 6 stamina back for Freya. And for Vin, let's give this another go. Sadly not going to work on Vin, though I can try again later.
Speaker 1: Vin's still feeling a little
Speaker 5: Or mad. I'm re rolling I'm re rolling Vin as a fire barbarian.
Speaker 1: Vin, did you use that guidance?
Speaker 3: I did. Yeah. I have the immunity on me right now.
Speaker 1: Okay. Gotcha. Alright. So, Mia.
Speaker 2: Mia, incredibly frustrated, not just with herself, but with the entire situation. Everyone sees something that they haven't seen before from Mia, and she just kind of starts levitating ever so slightly off the ground. And as her eyes open up, they actually glow, like from the inside of her skull out low. She looks like Kini Bone. She's like, I see you don't like the light, but I think maybe you should have more of it.
And I'm going to use moonbeam, and I wanna heighten it.
Speaker 1: A focus spell. I love focus spells.
Speaker 2: She is looking dead into his soul.
Speaker 1: Hey. It's a 26. 26. And it's a
Speaker 2: Oh, yep.
Speaker 1: An attack roll to hit. Mhmm.
Speaker 5: So we
Speaker 1: have to see if he hit Konepo or his image. On a 1 to 3, again, on the d 6, it'll hit Konepo. Everything else, you'll destroy the last of his mirror images. That's a one. You hit Koneepo.
Speaker 2: Over you. All the damage. Damage.
Speaker 5: If he heightened it, he probably need a 1 d 6. Yeah.
Speaker 4: We we are not high enough level for you to heighten it yet. We don't have higher spell levels.
Speaker 1: It it'll heighten itself anyway. So he'll take 3 fire damage from the Moonbeam, as well as be dazzled for 1 minute or for 1 round. So all creatures will be concealed to him, so he'll have to make a flat check to see if he can hit anyone.
Speaker 2: The downside is Mia's eyesight has taken a giant crab.
Speaker 1: Freya.
Speaker 4: Okay. I am going to spend my first action to recharge my spell strike, running my hand along the blade and channeling that magical energy into it. And let's let's continue with this. I'm going to spell strike, cast Bryony Bolt at him. Oh.
There's a 22.
Speaker 1: A 22 is exactly what you need to hit. Now let's see if it's against him or one of the images.
Speaker 4: A 4?
Speaker 1: Freya, though your spell strike doesn't hit Kannipo, you and his mere image. You can look at his beady eyes, and even though they don't look like they have pupils, you see a slight glimmer of worry as he no longer has the one effect that was keeping him truly free from harm. With blood gushing out, black as ichor from the bullet that Varen did, and seeing the strength of Mia's moonbeam as well as Varen's flame and the power exerted from your spell strikes, a tiny imperceptible sweat goes down his forehead. And will they get their hands on the shade wither key? What will happen to them when they do?
We'll have to find out next time on Ash and Snow.
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