Isaac Allen Burns: You land on top of a person who had gotten there first.
Joe Diametti: The masked.
Isaac Allen Burns: It's the masked individual. In the sort of kerfuffle you were surprised. Knew it. On that 20, you were able to get away, but on that fear, you see that the masked individual has a knife on Callie. Woah.
Woah. You see that he's got this knife kinda at her throat. What are you doing? No set of movements.
Joe Diametti: No one's trying to move.
Isaac Allen Burns: What are you You've landed on top I knew you were here. Yeah. Well, there's a reason for that.
Joe Diametti: Yeah. Well, there was a I reason for was trying to get into the shadow. Yeah. Well, I got here in the shadow first. What are you doing here?
What do you mean, dude? I don't have time for Are you helping us or not? What? Are you helping me? You think I didn't see you?
Yeah. Probably. Last time? Dropping smoke bombs and stuff?
Isaac Allen Burns: Get ahead. Who's side
Joe Diametti: are you on? I'm on my own side. Who's out of here? Go. How about And I pull out my blades and they're like in the air like rain of blades ready.
Isaac Allen Burns: Alright. Well, now that you have blades out, I'm certainly not gonna let her go because I'm the one who has the advantage here. You put your weapons
Joe Diametti: I have flying blades.
Isaac Allen Burns: I've got a knife. Yeah. I've got a lot more than a knife. You don't even wanna know what I can control here.
Joe Diametti: Wanna know what I can do. Alright. I Wait. Hang on. I actually have a move for this.
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay.
Joe Diametti: I am going to use scoundrel, which is my Slyborn community trait, where I have advantage on roles to negotiate with criminals, detect lies, or find a safe place to hide. Right?
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Go ahead and make that roll.
Joe Diametti: Okay.
Isaac Allen Burns: Make a presence roll as in this tense moment to see if your words will get through
Joe Diametti: to him or not. Presence. 15 with fear.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, with fear. He notices that Callie's hand is sort of out in a magical manner. You see like almost a bit of flame at the edge of it. Mhmm. And you see that he lets the blade up off of her neck, kind of pushes her forward.
Yeah. And she she gets pushes herself off of you. Okay. Lips around and like has her hands out almost in the same way you have your blades. And now we're in a standoff.
And he says, alright. I am after an asset that I believe is kept inside this warehouse. That is all I am after. And once I have it, I am leaving.
Joe Diametti: Are you working with Ash?
Isaac Allen Burns: Ash? No. Not with the vigil.
Joe Diametti: The who?
Isaac Allen Burns: You talking about the same guy, Blue and Fernie? Yeah. Yeah. I know. I'm not with them.
Okay. I work for myself. I'm my own boss other than for the clients I work for, which I'm doing right now. But I won't tell you who it is.
Joe Diametti: I I don't actually care.
Isaac Allen Burns: Well, what are you working for? What are you here for? Why'd you stomp on top of me?
Joe Diametti: I was just trying to stake out the place. I'm trying to figure out what's going on here.
Isaac Allen Burns: It's a good spot to stake out, ain't it?
Joe Diametti: Yeah. So what's going on here?
Isaac Allen Burns: There is an asset in there that they are protecting. Who? I don't know exactly who, but one thing I do know is that that's a Zeston warehouse back there. You know the Zestons related to the Balthazar's or the Viscount? That's right.
Viscount's clearly in charge, clearly involved somehow. So are the Zeston. So are probably some other players.
Joe Diametti: Yeah. Like the Apple people.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Apple people too, probably. Yeah. That makes sense. So here's how this is gonna go down.
We can help each other. He kinda turns around and sees that all the guards are gone and he says, oh, okay. Well, yeah. I guess guards are gone. So now I can just go in.
I was sort of waiting. I was staying out to see where their patrol was and so I could like use that to my advantage.
Joe Diametti: I can see We're going to then.
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay. Great.
Joe Diametti: Great. Why don't you lead the way? Actually, I'll I got this. You know what? We'll lead the way.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah.
Joe Diametti: You know what? We need to see where you are. You lead the way and we're gonna walk behind you. But it's not because we don't wanna lead. It's because we need to keep an eye on you.
Right, Callie?
Isaac Allen Burns: Callie. Callie is just like, I don't wanna work with this guy. He put another knife on me.
Joe Diametti: I can't trust him. Yeah. What the fuck are we talking about? Keep him in our sight. He's in our sight.
Isaac Allen Burns: As you You
Joe Diametti: would start rather he disappear again?
Isaac Allen Burns: As you look over, you see that he's vanished.
Joe Diametti: Damn it. Cali. You put
Isaac Allen Burns: your eyes off of him. Me? Yeah. We were just negotiate Negotiated? He clearly wasn't gonna help you.
Joe Diametti: He was We we we were gonna make him help us.
Isaac Allen Burns: How? Wait. Because we had to He could turn invisible.
Joe Diametti: And you can do magic fire.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Which is a magic fire. I can't find someone if they're invisible without just burning a bunch of shit.
Joe Diametti: You could burn a bunch of shit. No. You're right. We need to stay focused.
Isaac Allen Burns: Look. I'm pretty sure I just saw both of your friends running down there as a bird. So
Joe Diametti: Yeah. They do that a lot. Let's go.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. I think the stakeout plan is kinda over now. We just need to go check
Joe Diametti: out what's going on. Is
Rowan Collins: crank still like Scooby doing?
Annie Hawthorne: I think crank is, but he's trying to find an exit.
Joe Diametti: He's he's going through all the different doors.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Annie Hawthorne: It's like whacking all that.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. You keep running back and forth, and eventually, we don't know quite how it happens, but we just kinda cut to crank, and you're kinda standing next to a pile of them who've just sort of run into each other and then passed out, I think.
Annie Hawthorne: Just like looking around confused. I'm like, oh, well, that was easy. And then I, like, circle back to the warehouse.
Isaac Allen Burns: You circle back to the warehouse at about the same time. I think Kathy and Callie kinda come down. Yeah.
Annie Hawthorne: I'm gonna slip through that door that everyone was just standing outside of. I'm imagining there's no one there right now. I'm just gonna slip through the door.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. You slip inside and Pistachio, Father Charles and Hazel, you're sort of standing at the very entrance. And as you're sort of surveying this place, the door slips open and Crank comes in. And then eventually, the other two come in.
Rowan Collins: Hey, Crank.
Annie Hawthorne: Oh, hi.
Rowan Collins: How would it go?
Annie Hawthorne: All the guards are unconscious. They kind of like started running into each other at a certain point.
Rowan Collins: Fantastic. Good job, Fred.
Annie Hawthorne: Thanks. Good job to you too.
Rowan Collins: Thanks. They look at Cappy and go. So great. Oh, you're here now. Yeah.
You're you're here now. You're not abandoning us like, you know.
Joe Diametti: Abandoning you?
Rowan Collins: Right. Anyways, so the plan is to just kinda go in and stuff.
Annie Hawthorne: Do I see any sign of Shadowman?
Isaac Allen Burns: Shadow man?
Annie Hawthorne: Yes. I don't know what his
Rowan Collins: name is. Looking for him because I feel
Annie Hawthorne: like I could be his friend.
Isaac Allen Burns: You might be able to, but currently you see no sign of shadow man. But what you do see is a large warehouse. Warehouse. You're sort of in the entryway where you see there's a small desk where some of the logs are taken, the things that go in and out. And inside, you see a large warehouse.
Boxes stacked up high of certain wares and goods. There is a scaffolding that is along the edges of it, almost like a second story with a metal walkway that you see a couple of guards going to and fro almost as if on patrol. And as we have entered into the into the Zeston warehouse, Why don't we set a bit of the scene? And so I'm curious, Pistachio, you're the first one in there. Mhmm.
What is something different in here that sticks out to you to let you know that this warehouse is not all that it seems?
Rowan Collins: There is a functioning water feature in the middle of it, which like a big old fountain with the dragon.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh. Oh, Jesus. Okay. Yeah. Full ass dragon.
Rowan Collins: Yep. It's a full Ash Dragon feature. It's got the mouth open and it's dripping like regular water, but it with like some sort of purple y dye inside of it and it's bubbling over and over.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh. A bubbling fountain in the facade of a dragon. Yep. Goddamn. In a warehouse?
Rowan Collins: In a warehouse. Doesn't that make you go lucky?
Isaac Allen Burns: That is something that lets you work. You in fact see yeah. Well, you can't because there are boxes in the way. Yeah, you can see the top of that feature, the very center of the warehouse. Crank, as you step inside, you're surveying this and what do you notice is the biggest obstacle for the group of you in this warehouse?
Annie Hawthorne: I think that it's very dark.
Isaac Allen Burns: Very dark.
Annie Hawthorne: Dark. And like the area where the fountain is, there's like a spotlight over it. But otherwise, it's extremely dark. And like, I just adjust my eyes to like Mhmm. Adjust.
But I know like they're not gonna be able to see you very well.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah.
Annie Hawthorne: And like, I feel like anyone who's in this warehouse will just look around and see like two little orbs of light Yeah. That are crank size.
Isaac Allen Burns: Just looking around. Yeah. The the guards you saw earlier, they have like little flashlights that only go a certain district to make a beautiful cone of vision. They have vision cones in this. Yeah.
Cappy. So you're in this warehouse. You see boxes there. You see a couple of people milling about. Who else is in this warehouse that surprises you?
Joe Diametti: You said there was peacekeepers here? Yeah. It's fucking Stathani.
Rowan Collins: Oh, shit.
Isaac Allen Burns: You see sure enough kind of at the head of the dragon that there is like There's like a small crate where four individuals are around it playing some cards. You see it's two of these like Luvenhurst goons. You've got they've got the classic like dock worker outfit, the tattoo of a lion heart on the side of their neck. And then there's two peacekeepers and one of them sure enough is absolutely Stathaneil with with bars on his lapel that suggest he got promoted.
Joe Diametti: I start saying motherfucking and then the cat Callie like elbows me in the side. Oh, fuck.
Rowan Collins: Alright.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. The group of you see that there is a group around the fountain there. You could probably get a better view of what's going on with that fountain if you got closer. But there are people there right now.
Rowan Collins: Okay, guys. So father Charles has indicated that the disturbance that he had seen is very similar to what we fought in the forest, which means I have a feeling that we might have that same draining feeling or something similar. So we've got to take this carefully.
Annie Hawthorne: Do I see any of those, like, wristbands on any of the people by the fountain?
Isaac Allen Burns: You specifically do not.
Annie Hawthorne: I think we can take them.
Rowan Collins: I actually have an idea. And Pistachio looks at Quackers and goes, may I have Quackers?
Joe Diametti: What are you gonna do with Quackers?
Rowan Collins: Well, Kathy, quackers will be able to scout out for us.
Joe Diametti: What do you
Annie Hawthorne: mean? What do mean?
Joe Diametti: He was like, hands, you quackers. Be gentle with him. It's past his bedtime.
Rowan Collins: It's past my bedtime too.
Joe Diametti: Not that
Rowan Collins: you care. And they like scratch crackers and they go, crackers. Go find. And they're going to like bump him up a little bit and let him fly over to kinda like scout out.
Isaac Allen Burns: So a duck with a bent neck is flying in the warehouse. Up to the fountain?
Rowan Collins: No. Not up to the fountain. Just like on top of like one of the boxes like in the shadows. Uh-huh.
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay.
Rowan Collins: So where he wouldn't be seen but can get closer enough to like see.
Isaac Allen Burns: I feel like I want this to be a role. I don't think you're familiar has roles. So I'm gonna use I'm gonna have you make a finesse role for me unless the bent neck duck has.
Joe Diametti: Cappy looks over Hazel. Hey. Hey. Hey. We haven't really talked much.
Annie Hawthorne: No. We have.
Joe Diametti: No. I'm Gappy. Yeah. I know. Okay.
We've met. Well, yeah. I was like for like two seconds. Yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns: That was kinda all I need.
Joe Diametti: Are you in what? What? Are you enjoying being a priest?
Annie Hawthorne: Yes. Gappy now is not the time for flirting.
Joe Diametti: I'm not flirting. I'm asking you about Are you flirting
Isaac Allen Burns: with me right now? No.
Annie Hawthorne: Everyone he talks to, he flirts with.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh my god. I'm not your type, bro.
Joe Diametti: Dude, I'm not saying I'm your type. You're not my type. Yeah. Okay. What?
God, was just making conversation. Conversation.
Rowan Collins: Stop talking to my sister.
Isaac Allen Burns: I see that Callie steps next to Kathy and says, hey, your name is Hazel. Right? Hazel Hazel and her start talking and it they hit it off a little bit.
Joe Diametti: What is this? Lesbianism.
Rowan Collins: It's called lesbianism. That was for Quackers. Are we thinking an instinct or like a
Isaac Allen Burns: Absolutely. Finesse role.
Rowan Collins: Finesse. Okay. So that is a that is a 20 with beer.
Joe Diametti: I really wanted to say. Thought we were
Isaac Allen Burns: gonna see a duck hunt.
Joe Diametti: Swore we were doing duck hunt. You flap up.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Quackers Quackers flaps up quietly. It's a familiar so it just like gets up there without even being seen. Quackers takes advantage of his position. And then
Rowan Collins: I will close my eyes and look through Quackers eyes.
Isaac Allen Burns: You look the Quackers eyes and no role necessary. I mean, he's close enough now. You see this dragon fountain in the very center bubbling up that there is this small circular crystalline shape that is on the chest of the dragon. Sort of in the front, dragon is striking a pose such that his chest is kind of forward. It's got a little bit of light blue indentations kind of shining from it.
You also see that the group that is sort of in the front playing cards, you ever hear a bit of their conversation. You see they're just kinda like making small talk, clearly bored. And you see that Stathaneal says, yeah. I kinda got promotion after all that shit with Bracken Road because, know, I was well I was to stay alive. So I'm kinda tough.
I'm kinda big business now. They got me moved up here. I'm under Byron Stormwater. You heard of him? That's right.
I'm under him now. He's a big deal. This is because she's, you know, major mouth is our said. All I gotta do is just like hang out here, wait for anybody to come by and take them out. I'm really strong.
No one's broken ever broken my bones.
Rowan Collins: Oh my god.
Isaac Allen Burns: Sorry. I'm really strong.
Rowan Collins: Pistachio relays. So there's a giant crystal in the middle of the dragon statue. And also, Suthaniel's being Suthaniel again. And like, you know, say he never got anything hurt because he's a little bitch boy. Also, he's losing at cards.
He seems to be very bad at this. Maybe we go around stealthily and
Annie Hawthorne: Perhaps we create another distraction.
Rowan Collins: We could create another distraction.
Annie Hawthorne: And I'm going to
Rowan Collins: Wait. Before you do, they look at Kathy and Cali. It goes, any thoughts, Kathy?
Joe Diametti: I think we need to do it quietly.
Rowan Collins: Okay. Do you want the distraction idea or do you want to do it quietly?
Annie Hawthorne: I'm I'm just going to find a loose bolt that my machinist and cerulean couldn't quite find a place for. Uh-huh. And I'm just gonna like take it and I'm gonna like throw it like into the corner and then Okay. I'm gonna hide
Isaac Allen Burns: You hear you hear a guard say. What was that? Must have been the wind. And I'm gonna say, one guard.
Rowan Collins: Is it Stefania?
Isaac Allen Burns: I'll say it's not Stefania. Stefania is too important. You see this. It's annual nudges the other piece. You're right kind of points and says, kill the rat or whatever it is.
It's over there because I'm the boss now. You see that one piecekeeper stands up and starts walking to the corner. You see him stride up to where the bolt is.
Annie Hawthorne: Is he facing away from me?
Isaac Allen Burns: Absolutely. Yeah. He's like looking down at the ball like, is it weird?
Joe Diametti: I'm gonna
Isaac Allen Burns: Use your magic, Crank. I need you to use more of it.
Annie Hawthorne: I wanna use magic hand to conjure a magical hand with the same size and strength as my own within far range Oh, dude. Behind him Okay. And try to punch
Rowan Collins: him in the head and knock him out.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Absolutely. Go ahead and make we'll say this is a strength role to try to take this guy down. Normally, perhaps this would be an attack. But I think if you hit him hard enough, he'll definitely be at least discombobulated.
Annie Hawthorne: Can I use battleborn because I know exactly how hard I need to hit someone to knock them out?
Isaac Allen Burns: Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely.
Annie Hawthorne: That's a crit.
Rowan Collins: Oh my god. Yeah. I
Isaac Allen Burns: mean, crit's even better. Yeah. Describe what happens to the sky.
Annie Hawthorne: He like walks over from his post like, know, any video game on PC that's like, what was that noise? And is like just like standing there staring into this dark corner where the bolt went. And he's just like, I wonder what that was. And then he just gets bopped on the back of the head and just goes like face plants.
Isaac Allen Burns: Fully face plants.
Rowan Collins: Do you catch him before he hits the ground?
Annie Hawthorne: No. Because I'm not there.
Isaac Allen Burns: That's right. Your hand. He just falls into
Annie Hawthorne: a heap. Okay. No. My hand is behind him. I think he just falls forward.
Isaac Allen Burns: He just falls forward into a heap.
Annie Hawthorne: And then I just go.
Isaac Allen Burns: I I really
Annie Hawthorne: didn't expect that to work so well.
Rowan Collins: Does that make sound though?
Isaac Allen Burns: Absolutely does. You see that the group that's there kinda like puts up and says, what a big rat that was. The other Luevenhurst goons kinda stand up. They pull up these little clubs and they're like, something's not right here.
Joe Diametti: Can I get to the knocked out guy before them?
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Because they're just kinda like looking around right now.
Joe Diametti: Yeah. I wanna drag that guy. I don't wanna put on that guy's clothes.
Isaac Allen Burns: Nice. A group of you now. Yeah. Yeah. You pull him over, you hit man and just kinda like bend over him and suddenly you appear in his clothing.
Joe Diametti: I go back out and I do picture that these peacekeepers have hats for some reason. Okay. Guess because Pistachio had the hat.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. They had hats.
Joe Diametti: And so Cappy walks out to the goons with his head down. Uh-huh. He's like trying to keep his head down. He's like, oh, sorry. Yeah.
No. Nothing was over there. And
Isaac Allen Burns: That's incredible. Go ahead. Give me a presence check. The DC for this will be lowered because you have fully donned their attire here.
Joe Diametti: Spend a hope to gain advantage on a role to deceive or trick someone into believing a lie I tell them? That should count. Right?
Annie Hawthorne: Yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns: Deceiver? Yeah. Yeah. Spend that hope?
Joe Diametti: Sure will. That's a
Annie Hawthorne: Is that
Joe Diametti: that's a crit.
Rowan Collins: Yeah. That's two threes. Whoo.
Annie Hawthorne: I got two threes too. What?
Joe Diametti: What is
Isaac Allen Burns: happening right now? Oh my god. Okay. Yeah. They fully believe you.
Yeah. Yeah. And they're like, they slap you on the back and say, oh, let's get back to our game of cards.
Joe Diametti: Yeah. Yeah. You know me, love love Peacekeeper stuff and playing cards. It's all about that peacekeeper life, bro.
Isaac Allen Burns: Well, don't be lame about it.
Joe Diametti: Hey. Okay. Relax. Peacekeeper. Hey.
Isaac Allen Burns: Relax, dude.
Joe Diametti: Oh, no. Sorry. I just get so into meet my career. Know, it really made it my whole personality. God.
Peacekeepers are so lame.
Isaac Allen Burns: They pull you over.
Rowan Collins: Since we're back here, I feel like now that Kathy's in place, I like
Joe Diametti: I'm sorry. I don't know why that was so funny.
Rowan Collins: I feel like I can hear Callie and Hazel hitting it off.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Hitting off pretty well. Yeah. Yeah. So what are you doing right after this?
You hear that from Callie?
Rowan Collins: Are you hitting on my sister
Annie Hawthorne: right now? Crank is really confused because I thought that Callie liked Dingabork and now I'm I'm very confused. Well,
Rowan Collins: I think I think it is at that moment that pistachio clicks that like Callie is Cappy, just a girl. I think
Annie Hawthorne: Crank thinks that humans are like birds and that they mate for life. And every time this happens, he's like, what is happening? I don't understand interpersonal relationships.
Isaac Allen Burns: For some of us, Crank. Ones Kelly,
Rowan Collins: don't fucking talk to my sister.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, hey. What's this energy coming from? We're just talking.
Rowan Collins: We're just chatting. Yeah. You're just chatting. You're currently in a relationship right now. I know you're probably gonna do something stupid like, I don't know, break it off in the middle of battle or something.
But
Isaac Allen Burns: She kinda looks back and forth and is like, what are you that's crazy.
Joe Diametti: What are
Rowan Collins: talking about? Yeah. I'm sure you are. But, Hazel
Isaac Allen Burns: Listen. She's just she's too She's too good for me.
Annie Hawthorne: Okay? That's the problem. So I need to help her.
Rowan Collins: You're self sabotaging because you're just happy. That's exactly what this is. You're just happy. And look, Callie, you're allowed to have love in your life and have people care about you and you should fucking listen to that and let people love you and take care of you. And Hazel, don't get involved with her right now.
This is the no. Anyway, we've got people to take down right now.
Isaac Allen Burns: So you say that, Kathy, where you're sitting, you see that all three of the people at the table are hearing this and are all looking in that direction right now. Wow. And they're like, Stefaniels like, wait a minute. Well, I mean I that voice.
Joe Diametti: Yeah. And I look up and I'm like, hey, buddy. What? I'm a little tougher than a rock and then I And I mean, I'm here so I'm gonna I'm gonna raid of blades. My god.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. They're all surprised by this because they definitely thought you were just another lane peacekeeper so go ahead and make that action.
Joe Diametti: Yep. We're gonna spend a hope to make a spell cast. My ring lights up. I conjure. Nailed
Isaac Allen Burns: it. Nice.
Joe Diametti: Throwing blades that strike all out that strike out at all targets within very close range. Targets you succeed against take a d eight plus two magic damage using my proficiency.
Rowan Collins: Isaac, does this count as a sneak attack since none of them were expecting it?
Isaac Allen Burns: Especially after that bother line of I'm tougher than a rock. I'm gonna say, yeah, sure. Absolutely.
Rowan Collins: Hell, yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns: So we'll say in this case, like, it's a sneak attack occurs when you're cloaked Mhmm. But I'd say in this case, you're kinda not cloaked in shadow but cloaked in deception of your visage from that presence check. So I'll say that you do gain sneak attack and at tier two, that is two d six additional damage to this attack.
Rowan Collins: Do you need extra d six?
Joe Diametti: I don't actually.
Rowan Collins: Okay.
Joe Diametti: Thank you.
Rowan Collins: Why why don't you
Joe Diametti: I just say that proudly now because I I actually have dice.
Rowan Collins: Yay.
Joe Diametti: Two d eight, eight, nine, ten, and then two d six,
Isaac Allen Burns: Five. 15.
Rowan Collins: To each of them?
Joe Diametti: I wanna be clear. I didn't wanna kill any of them. I just
Isaac Allen Burns: No. Yeah. You're saying that this is not lethal. Yeah. Awesome.
So these guys are a little tougher. They're still guards but they're a little tougher. They're more, you know, scaled up tier two everybody. So 15 damage is going to be major damage to all three of them. Two of them were minions.
So you see that the Luveners couldn't they just immediately get shut down with blades and you see that's Nathaniel, he gets hit with all these and he yells at me. Fuck.
Joe Diametti: Shut the fuck up.
Isaac Allen Burns: Help. I'm being attacked. I gotta go. I'm trying
Joe Diametti: to cover his mouth. I'm trying to take my hat and like shush up.
Isaac Allen Burns: From You can hear that because of like a bit of this kerfuffle that there are footsteps from the guards that are on the side and from a couple of other people. You see that Hazel and father Charles make eyes for a second and father Charles says, you all go up to that dragonfarer. What's going on? We'll cover you. And father Charles and Hazel head to the side and are gonna take care of some of the guards coming your way.
You know that there's a couple more that will be approaching your position, but Cappy's got Nathaniel locked down. You two are still here. What would you like to do?
Rowan Collins: Let's move up to the dragon and figure out what's going on with the fountain.
Joe Diametti: Kali's with you?
Annie Hawthorne: Okay. Yes. I'll kinda I'll let Pistachio go ahead and I'll kinda like walk backwards
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay.
Annie Hawthorne: Behind them. Just keeping an eye out for anyone who's like coming up behind us. Okay.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. You and Cerulean kinda hang back. You see that Cerulean has some magic ready seemingly pointed at you. From what you know Cerulean, he's very he's very much into like shielding magic. So you know that while Cerulean is with you, you'll be a little more protected here.
Now, Pistachios, you're going up. Go ahead and make me a knowledge check as you're looking at this dragon.
Rowan Collins: Knowledge. Okay. This is going to be a 12 with fear.
Isaac Allen Burns: 12 with fear. On a 12, you are looking at this thing and unfortunately, you have never seen anything like this before. This is strange and confusing to look at. That is unfortunately a failure with fear. And so at this point, I'm gonna spotlight Stefaniel who takes this moment and kinda like pushes you off of him.
He is a head guard and he's going to rally the guards and give them all a movement. In this case, there's one group that is heading your way. And coming down the stairs, you see that there are two guards with crossbows and one of them with what looks like a little sword. The two with crossbows immediately point at you and are going to fire because in this case, his rallying
Annie Hawthorne: Do any of them have the wristband things?
Isaac Allen Burns: They do not. Okay. They do not have these. Alright. So quick question for you.
Joe Diametti: Copy. She's laying next to Stefania. Oh, bitch.
Isaac Allen Burns: Does a nine or a 19 hit you? Both. That's my excited noise. Okay. The first one is going to be five damage.
Joe Diametti: Mhmm.
Isaac Allen Burns: The next one is nine points of physical damage.
Annie Hawthorne: I'm gonna use an armor's love for that one.
Isaac Allen Burns: Nice. And you see these two bolts hit you and the other one you see kind of pulls out what looks like on his blade, a little device, it's kind of glowing blue And he attaches it to the hilt of his sword and it glows with this sort of light blue glow. As he charges at you, he's gonna try and hit you. Oh, that is an 18 to hit you.
Annie Hawthorne: Is there any way I can kind of have a reaction and do my little book of Typhar Mysterious Mist?
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, what is Mysterious Mist?
Annie Hawthorne: I make a spell cast roll to cast a temporary thick fog that gathers in a stationary area within very close range and I would like to heavily obscure myself so this guy maybe misses me.
Isaac Allen Burns: That's something you can definitely do on your turn right after this occurs. But as he is charging you, he is going to strike at you first and foremost. Awesome. So that's gonna only be three magic damage to you. However, you see that cerulean is going to hold up their hands as magic kind of coalesces you and it is going to decrease the threshold of that damage by one.
Annie Hawthorne: I don't take anything.
Isaac Allen Burns: Nice. You see that this sort of cerulean surrounds you. Clearly cerulean is meant to defend against
Annie Hawthorne: myself for it and I just like look over at him and I'm like, oh, wow. Thank you.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, I've got your crank. As long as it's magic, I can stop it. I can't do much about swords though. I haven't gotten to that part of my training yet.
Annie Hawthorne: I appreciate it.
Isaac Allen Burns: Cutting back to Stephen Norquick after he has yelled at people, he is still spotlighted based on his ability called rally guard. So he is going to swing his mace at you. So he has a mace. He meant hero and natural one. Misses.
Joe Diametti: Nice.
Isaac Allen Burns: He like swipes.
Joe Diametti: Can I roll out of the way?
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Easily. He roll out
Joe Diametti: of way. Get up.
Isaac Allen Burns: You roll out of way and get up. Yeah. And crank as these three are kind of around you. You hear a bit going on around the fountain. But these guards are coming at you, they'll probably get past you and head to them.
So you got boxes in between you right now. You've kind of got them in like a corridor. If you wanna use that mist, you definitely can.
Annie Hawthorne: Yeah. I'll do that. I have to make a spell cast roll. I'll make a knowledge roll. And I'd like to use my I've got the magic baby experience.
Isaac Allen Burns: Do it up. Absolutely. Spend that hope.
Annie Hawthorne: So that is our knowledge. Fifteen six team with fear.
Isaac Allen Burns: 16 with fear. Awesome. That will work though. So I think on that fear move, I think that as you are obscured, this guy stays next to you. He's like, where'd it go?
Where'd it go? The ones in the back are kinda looking. They can't quite get a shot. But on this, I will say that Stefaniel was gonna see you. And his eyes are kinda go wide and he's like,
Joe Diametti: what are you doing here? What the fuck? What are you doing here?
Isaac Allen Burns: What am doing here? I got
Joe Diametti: promoted. Promoted? Yeah. To what? I'm now Has anybody had a conversation with you?
What? I'm so worried about people that have decisions to do these kind of things. Do you Don't you think it's like a little Yeah. Ridiculous that a few weeks ago you had a broken leg and now you're promoted? Yeah.
Yeah. That's called failing up, Stathaniel. Well, at least I'm going upwards. Yeah. Down.
Isaac Allen Burns: I'm You and your fucking Oh, friend. Go
Joe Diametti: Okay. Can I Yeah? That really hurt. Leg breaking friend.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Your friend that did that
Joe Diametti: weird shit to my leg. Oh, Pistachio? How did it heal your leg?
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. It hurt real bad. I didn't like it. I do appreciate it.
Joe Diametti: Cool. Hey. Can I show you something really cool?
Isaac Allen Burns: What?
Joe Diametti: I'm gonna kick your ass now.
Isaac Allen Burns: No. You're not. And he's he's going to pull out what looks like some coins and just kinda throw them at you in a distracting move. And he's gonna turn around and you see that he as he runs, you notice on the far wall that is just outside a close distance to him is what looks like a little lever with a little red light above it.
Joe Diametti: Hi. Joe raises his hand.
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay.
Joe Diametti: I'm gonna do shadow stuff.
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay.
Joe Diametti: Because the whole room's dark. And I'm going to shadow in I'm going to shadow step in front of him, basically.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh my god.
Joe Diametti: Yeah. So I'm gonna go ahead and mark stress. And yeah. Disappear where I am and and basically show up right and he's like running so fast and he looks back and he's like, where is he? And he looks forward, bam.
Clothesline him. Right. Yeah. Wanna close line him.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Go ahead make that attack roll. Or in this case, we'll say What is strength check for close lining him. Yeah. Go ahead.
Give me a strength check to close line him. And as you're doing that, pistachio.
Rowan Collins: Can Quackers see that Cappy is in danger and swoop down to try and help Cappy and like get like attack?
Isaac Allen Burns: I'll say you can spend a hope Yes. To give Cappy advantage on this and that would take the form of Quackers running in and getting there. Getting on in there.
Rowan Collins: Perfect. I'll spend the hope.
Isaac Allen Burns: At the same time, Callie who has run up with you is also looking at this and looks at you and says, this is NovaSite. This is some kind of NovaSite device. We can either If we wanna break in, we might just need a bit of magic. There might also be a key somewhere that we can use.
Rowan Collins: Okay. Yeah. I I've never seen anything like this before.
Isaac Allen Burns: And in fact, Potential, as she says this is NovaSite, that kinda clicks to you. You think that you could do some shenanigans in it and now that you've got someone who can do some magic, she might be able to help you. So if you want to make either in this case a knowledge or a finesse roll to attempt to break this lock. It is As part of the environment that is here, magical locks. Trying to break into any lock in this place, the difficulty increases by five unless you are supplementing your ability with magic, which in this case, Cali is helping you.
So the difficulty for this will only be a 13.
Rowan Collins: Okay. Can I also additionally like maybe try something with like one of my spells or is it just it would be the same regardless?
Isaac Allen Burns: What are gonna try with spell?
Rowan Collins: Well, so this is a weird way to use this spell but I do
Isaac Allen Burns: I like to hear. Here we go.
Rowan Collins: I do have the vicious entangle spell which is like Okay. Vines shooting out from things. So I'm almost wondering if like the vines can go into the lock, kind of almost like a magical key, like push them up. I don't think it would.
Isaac Allen Burns: You know, I love that so much though because that's so cool. I think yeah. I think in this case because this is your magic going into it, we'll say that can absolutely work. And so in this case, you will still get the benefit and I'll say instead, Callie will give you advantage on this role.
Joe Diametti: Okay.
Isaac Allen Burns: So go ahead and roll this as we cut over to the clothesline. What do we roll for that?
Joe Diametti: That was a 11 with hope.
Isaac Allen Burns: An 11 will unfortunately not beat the difficulty. So as you come in with that clothesline, he sees that and he ducks under your arm and he says, nice try. I learned to duck.
Rowan Collins: Speaking of duck, I did spend
Joe Diametti: that hope.
Isaac Allen Burns: You did go ahead and have advantage. Oh, nice. Two. Quackers flies into the scene and then out of the scene uselessly. And
Rowan Collins: His depth perception is completely off.
Isaac Allen Burns: He looks you I'm gonna spend a fear because I have so much of it right now and he's gonna take another swipe at you with the mice. It's a natural 20. Oh my god. My man just crit on you, bro. That's embarrassing.
That's 22 physical damage to you. Damn.
Joe Diametti: What? Okay. Well, that would be severe. So I will take I'll mark an armor slot to drop that down to major.
Isaac Allen Burns: You were like, I think you were fully not expecting this guy to have some chops and he like hits you hard. And he says, yeah. That's right. That's why I'm promoted. And then he is going to go buy you and head towards the lever.
But what did you roll, Pistachio?
Rowan Collins: 23 with hope. Nice.
Isaac Allen Burns: 23 with hope is enough as your vines are kinda going in there. You see Callie is kinda holding her hands up in a magical manner, kind of suppressing some of the magic that comes out of this. You hear a loud click. And what happens to the dragon as you unlock this?
Rowan Collins: I feel like the dragon almost like splits in twine and both half of it like go down into the floor itself. And then a spiral staircase kind of comes up from where the water was.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh. That's cool.
Annie Hawthorne: Chamber Of Secrets.
Rowan Collins: Chamber Of Secrets.
Isaac Allen Burns: Nathaniel sees that and is like, uh-oh. And, Crank, we cut to you now. You're in the middle of this mist. These guards are trying to find you. They cannot really see you.
I am gonna spend another fear though to let them move real fast. So I'm gonna I'm gonna use two of my fear that I got from you specifically and they're gonna roll. They have disadvantage on this. I'm gonna say gonna say they have disadvantage solely because you are surrounded by miss. They really can't see you at all.
Oh, my first one is a 12. The next one is a three. So I say the 12 will definitely hit. Mhmm. That is going to be seven piercing as they're both just kind of firing randomly, but you're so big that one of them catches your shoulder.
And I don't wanna use too much fear. So I think in this case, the guy with the sword, just kind of like waving it in a defensive position.
Annie Hawthorne: Mhmm.
Isaac Allen Burns: Where you at? Where you
Joe Diametti: go from? Mhmm.
Isaac Allen Burns: Where'd you go?
Annie Hawthorne: Where did you come? Prank what you can do. I'm gonna punch him right in the chest.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, shit.
Annie Hawthorne: Out of the mist.
Isaac Allen Burns: Out of the mist. Go for it. Do it.
Annie Hawthorne: Do I happen to have advantage? Because I'm in mist.
Isaac Allen Burns: And he can't see me coming. Honestly, in this case, yeah, that makes sense that you would you kinda know in the mist.
Annie Hawthorne: Wow. That's an eighteen nineteen twenty twenty one with fear.
Isaac Allen Burns: That will definitely hit. Go ahead and roll that damage. 17. 17.
Joe Diametti: Ow.
Annie Hawthorne: And what the heck? I'll mark a stress and hit him again.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, okay.
Annie Hawthorne: Do I still have advantage or is my advantage spent?
Isaac Allen Burns: I'll say you still have advantage. Why not? Sure.
Annie Hawthorne: 18 with hope.
Isaac Allen Burns: That'll also hit if you can believe it.
Annie Hawthorne: Well, plus seven is 19.
Isaac Allen Burns: 19. Here's a question. Crank, do you go with this guy?
Annie Hawthorne: I think I probably do.
Isaac Allen Burns: Nice.
Annie Hawthorne: I don't think I was trying to.
Isaac Allen Burns: Mhmm.
Annie Hawthorne: But I think I want to punch him in the rib cage and his rib cage just caves him.
Joe Diametti: Absolutely. And then
Annie Hawthorne: I have like a brief moment of a flashback to, like, killing someone on the battlefield and a tiny little bit of PTSD.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, yes. We go back to that battlefield way back when you see Adrian is behind you seemingly preparing some kind of big spell and you see that ahead of you the rumbling of these large noviceite tanks. What were the first edition of them at the time. You see a flag flying just behind him, this green flag with a wolf's head on it, a symbol of Jestane. You see that there are soldiers all around you.
You see that a soldier who looks exactly like the guy that whose life you just ended, He phases in and out of being surrounded by mist and surrounded by war and his armor red just like his face as blood covers it and as you hear Adrian's voice behind you saying, keep it up crank. Don't think, just fight. I know normally I tell you to think, but right now just keep fighting. Keep them off of me. I can't have these peons ruining my work.
And as you flash back, we you see the guy in front of you. And he drops like a sack of bricks and you hear the two in the back say, what was that? Is he okay? What happened to Jenkins?
Annie Hawthorne: I don't know. Don't say anything. I'm just.
Isaac Allen Burns: Now you did real fear on that one. So I am gonna go ahead and just keep it simple in this one. I'm just gonna have the one that missed you earlier. I'm gonna have him fire shoot again. That is a 16.
That's the lower one. Don't you hate that? Oh, this is so great. Oh my gosh. Seven damage.
Annie Hawthorne: Okay. I'm gonna use another armor slut to knock that down to nothing.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yes. You got these two guards in front of you right now. They look smaller. They don't know that their guy is down yet. You feel like in order to progress further, these two are gonna present a problem for you.
Annie Hawthorne: Any question? Yeah. In the three weeks that you were in this town before, did we get supplies at all, like health potions?
Isaac Allen Burns: I believe that you did gain health potions from sister Rocky. So she would have given you equipment.
Annie Hawthorne: So maybe I have one. Absolutely. I do have one. I'm gonna chug that real fast. Nice.
Rowan Collins: I thought you don't have the ability to drink things.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. You can't drink anything. How do you apply this potion?
Rowan Collins: Is it like oil? And you just like put it in I
Annie Hawthorne: put it in my joints. There you go. Just like, I I do the whole like, Macarena thing, you know.
Rowan Collins: Hey, Macarena.
Annie Hawthorne: With my joints. And I'm gonna clear, hopefully hopefully, some hit points here.
Isaac Allen Burns: As you apply this.
Annie Hawthorne: Oh, damn. Nice. Could have been better.
Isaac Allen Burns: Cappy, we cut to you. Stan's in front of you. You see that he's about to reach for the alarm. What do you do to stop him?
Joe Diametti: Yeah. I have been sitting here the whole time thinking about that. And because I can't think of something good enough Uh-huh. Despite looking through all of my equipment. Yeah.
I, in this moment
Isaac Allen Burns: Uh-huh.
Joe Diametti: Want to have a flashback
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay.
Joe Diametti: Mhmm. To something that happened with me and Cyrus.
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay.
Joe Diametti: And I want it to be a flashback where Cyrus says something that I can then remember to use in this situation. So tell me what I need to roll and then I'm gonna add plus two like Cyrus, like Cappy, please.
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay. I have a perfect thing, actually. So, Cappy.
Joe Diametti: Okay.
Isaac Allen Burns: You're standing in a field. There is a dummy. There's like a like a crash test done. Like one of those, like, know, you just fill a scarecrow up with some straw and like you hit that like a practice dummy. Mhmm.
It's standing there. Cyrus, this is old Cyrus standing there. We see the crew again. We see Lil Raisins. We see Caleb.
We see young Callie. We see young Cappy. This is like one of the early days of your training in sire says. Okay. So we've learned about our flanks.
Okay. We've learned about our sight lines, learned about keeping exits. Okay. Now what happens if you're in a dire situation, you've got multiple combatants coming at you, right?
Rowan Collins: You'll kick them in the balls.
Isaac Allen Burns: Okay. Okay. You can probably only get one person at time though. You might have a lot of people coming at you. But that's a that's a good thought we're thinking.
Okay. Any other ideas? Okay.
Annie Hawthorne: Run away.
Isaac Allen Burns: Run away. And that's also a great idea. But if you're coming out from multiple angles, it's kinda it could be tough to run away because you're trying to find your exit. Now here's the thing. I think you gotta focus on is limiting the directions in which they could get you.
So if you've got some multiple combatants coming at you, one thing that you can do is if you can get one of them, can make them a meat shield. Okay? They fire at you. They'll be hitting their friend. Right?
And this can shut off certain lots at which people can get you. And if you got some teammates, right, who could perhaps take ranged attacks either magical or physical, you could set them up for a clean shot on the person that you're trying to go with. Okay? So remember, it's not always about getting in and going for the kill. Sometimes it's about going in and setting up your friends for the kill.
We understand? Yeah. Okay. So here's what we're gonna do. So my long range people, he points at Cali and he points at Raisins.
Prunes. Prunes. Thank you. Points at prunes and says
Rowan Collins: Senator prunes. Senator prunes.
Isaac Allen Burns: Senator prunes. Thank you
Annie Hawthorne: so much.
Isaac Allen Burns: Points at senator Prunes and points at Cali. Now you two are my more long range individuals. Okay. So Cappy and Caleb here. What we're gonna work on, you're gonna try and take advantage of this year dummy and get them in a position where they can fire on you.
Okay? We're using live ammunition, but don't worry. Father Graham is just off to the side. If any of you get hurt, you'll be able to help you out. Okay?
This is just training, but, you know, aim to kill the dummy, not your friends. Okay? Understand?
Joe Diametti: Kill the dummy, not the friends.
Isaac Allen Burns: That's exactly right.
Annie Hawthorne: Kill the friends, not the dummy?
Rowan Collins: No.
Isaac Allen Burns: Caleb wrong and bad.
Rowan Collins: Caleb, put down your listening ears.
Isaac Allen Burns: And you see that Kyle's
Joe Diametti: like Kyle's like, we talked about this, but then he like like, that was awesome. Dumps I
Annie Hawthorne: pull a piece of paper out of my pocket and I ball it up and I throw it at. A pretty fast.
Rowan Collins: You want to go again?
Isaac Allen Burns: And we cut forward and you realize in this point, Cappy, you may not be able to damage him that much, but you've got two friends with clear sight. If you can get this guy
Joe Diametti: Yeah. Yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns: In a stopped formation, they could lay into him.
Joe Diametti: Cool. I'm a do it. I'm gonna I'm gonna spend another stress to do the shadow thing to get right behind him and then try to grab him and face him towards Pistachio and Cali.
Isaac Allen Burns: I'll say in this case, either finesse or strength as a form of kinda like getting in there.
Joe Diametti: I'm gonna do finesse because it's a plus two and I would like to use my like Cyrus like Cappy.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. That makes I like that. It you know, it's learning from Cyrus.
Joe Diametti: Yeah. 21 with
Isaac Allen Burns: Dang.
Joe Diametti: Fear.
Isaac Allen Burns: So exciting. 21 with fear. Okay. You wrap this guy up and he is like yelling as loud as he can. Stop.
Pistachio. So she look you and Callie look over and you see that there's an opening. You can take the shot on us, Nathaniel.
Rowan Collins: Alrighty.
Joe Diametti: And I'm like looking at Pistachio. Take the shot. And in
Isaac Allen Burns: this case, Pistachio, are you gonna take a shot on him?
Rowan Collins: Yes. So Pistachio will look at him and like point down at Quackers and go fire. And they're gonna use the conjure swarm spell fireflies. So I think Quackers is gonna land on his head and like push down into his mouth as he I'm doing a spell cast roll.
Isaac Allen Burns: Kali is gonna give you advantage on this as well. But you already have advantage, so what's gonna happen is that we're both gonna roll a d six since you're holding them.
Annie Hawthorne: Mhmm.
Isaac Allen Burns: I'll say that you are giving advantage. So we're just gonna both roll advantage and see who's is higher. Cool.
Joe Diametti: Well, I got a six.
Isaac Allen Burns: K. So, Kev, you got a six. You need a six to this role here.
Rowan Collins: Okay. Fantastic. That is going to be a 20 with fear.
Isaac Allen Burns: That definitely hits.
Rowan Collins: So what this is gonna look like? I get to spend another hope to deal two d eight plus three magic damage to the targets I succeed against, which is to Nathaniel.
Isaac Allen Burns: Uh-huh.
Rowan Collins: If you're holding him up holding him up, what I imagine is that he's like screaming and the like, and trying to have things like like yelling at us. And I think No.
Annie Hawthorne: I'll be in person.
Rowan Collins: From I think Quackers lands on his head and almost like quacks and then a like wave of fireflies go into his mouth.
Joe Diametti: Out of the duck's mouth?
Rowan Collins: From Quackers. Yes.
Isaac Allen Burns: Quackers baby birds a bunch of bugs.
Rowan Collins: For 16 damage. Yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns: And as that's happening, you see Callie was about to, like, throw a bit of magic at it to, like, aid, but didn't need to and just watched in horror as this occurs.
Joe Diametti: How do you let's go? Oh, god.
Isaac Allen Burns: What the See, Nathaniel's, like, choking.
Joe Diametti: Holy shit. Is
Isaac Allen Burns: is he still alive? He is still alive. That was some major damage to him, but he didn't have a lot of health to begin with because he wasn't very strong.
Rowan Collins: Mhmm.
Isaac Allen Burns: And so he is just sort of like rolling back and forth, like clutching his throat.
Rowan Collins: As like fireflies, just like the glow down his throat.
Isaac Allen Burns: Absolutely. Is
Annie Hawthorne: there a suffocation mechanic conduct? I
Joe Diametti: don't wanna kill. Can I just knock him out before this happens?
Isaac Allen Burns: You can certainly try. However, both of you did roll with fear so we we cut over to Crank and Cerulean as Crank, you're kinda standing there. You just you just took some potion. And in this moment of sort of hesitation as you're taking this potion, they're gonna fire at you again because they rolled the fear. They both rolled the fear, so I gotta do it twice.
One was a natural one and the other was a natural one. Okay. So they both missed. They shrunk into the boxes. And these two are here, and they're like, oh my god.
I can't hit them. I can't see. We need to get to a high ground, maybe. Frank, what are you gonna do in this moment? We'll keep it here with you.
Once you take these two out, you could probably go back.
Annie Hawthorne: I'm going to punch one of them
Isaac Allen Burns: first. Yeah. Do it up. Roll that hat.
Annie Hawthorne: I think I'm gonna go ahead and say I'm gonna mark a stress and punch. Try to punch both of them at the same time.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, like a double punch.
Annie Hawthorne: And I have advantage because I'm still in the mist.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. I'll say that. You're like coming out of the mist.
Annie Hawthorne: It's better. And that's a twenty two twenty four five twenty five with hope.
Isaac Allen Burns: Yeah. Would you believe me if I said that hit?
Annie Hawthorne: I don't know. I I think I'd need proof. 13 damage on the first.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh my god. One of them goes down Okay.
Annie Hawthorne: Immediately. Then the second one.
Isaac Allen Burns: His head crashes against the boxes and just a spray of blood as he falls to the ground dead.
Annie Hawthorne: Oh gosh. 20 with hope.
Isaac Allen Burns: You know, the 20 actually that misses. Their difficulty was 22 and
Annie Hawthorne: worse damage, 11.
Isaac Allen Burns: 11. You see this guy gets hit. Typically, that would be major damage, but we'll say that Cerulean comes up from behind and then like punches him trying to be like you. And that's just enough to like knock him out. And you see this really insists.
Alright. We got him.
Annie Hawthorne: Oh, good job Cerulean. We're learning from each other. We are. Okay. I think we should go help our friends now.
Isaac Allen Burns: Oh, we should.
Rowan Collins: Good guys. I got the the staircase open.
Isaac Allen Burns: You turn around and you see that Stefano has been passed out on the floor as Cappy is fully unconscious to him.
Joe Diametti: Yeah.
Isaac Allen Burns: The alarm was not set off and you're looking at these stairs that lead down. As you're standing there, you see that father Charles and Hazel now come. Now that the scene is over, they have finished their business and taken out the other guards. And that's how I've decided to handle a lot of NPCs being with the group is that they're just gonna go handle some other problems for you so that you don't have to deal with them.
Rowan Collins: Nice.
Isaac Allen Burns: As you're at the top of the stairs looking down, there is a loud pulse that comes from deep below. Like the bass at a rave, you can feel it in your chest before you can hear it in your ears. And crank. Something inside of you is rattling and your vision grows foggy. You begin to see stars as the landscape around you shifts to a purple blue and standing near you is Adrian who's looking at you with a smile that carries the same look but feels almost sinister as he slowly walks towards you.
You know, Crank, it's not the first time that you've had a run-in with these relics. After all, I had to borrow the Palatinate wand from the university before I left, obviously. How else could I have made such a wonderful invention such as you? The energy around you shifts oppressively and he says, you've done so well, Crank. Better than I ever could have expected.
And he walks up close to you. I think in this moment, everything is frozen, Crank. You feel like you almost can't move. And Adrian says, Crank, I made you for a beautiful purpose. I knew one day I'd die earlier than I wanted.
The research you've helped me discover, the transferring of anima through Nova Sight, will be remembered for a very, very long time. I promise I'll mention you in the acknowledgments. Perhaps I'll even make you the second name on the paper that I'll publish about this.
Annie Hawthorne: I don't understand what's happening.
Isaac Allen Burns: Ever since you opened yourself up to me in that strange seance you and your friends did, I've slowly been able to put myself in place. Ahead of schedule even. Here I thought you'd die first. But now it is time. You trust me, right, Crank?
Just go to sleep, close your eyes. You've worked so very hard all these twelve years that you've been bringing me back. I truly appreciate it, Crank.
Annie Hawthorne: But he's just thinking about Pistachio and Cappy because that's really all he knows how to do in this moment.
Isaac Allen Burns: You feel this great abyss close in and envelop you to feel your consciousness beginning to fade into the background.
Annie Hawthorne: I'm not a.
Isaac Allen Burns: And Adrian says, goodbye, Crank. Hello, everybody. It's time to shout out the patrons. That's right. Those in the bag of gold tier, some of our biggest supporters.
We're just gonna give a shout out and a big thanks to Condor Blue, Max l, Niklas w, Severed Ronan, Darcy r, Tales by Daggerlight. Minor thoughts, Jacob Hadwin, Josh's seven zero eight, Maria w, Kola Cago, thirty bird, Batty Bright, BDS at Dorkmaster, Muscles Dynamite, Tabletop optimist. And finally, I, Isaac Allen Burns, nominate Zorak for Dodo CEO. Oh, no. That I guess is binding.
We'll be in touch with you over email. Thank you so much everybody, and squawk you later.