Cloudfall | 24 - En Garden!
Living a life means making choices. When we make choices, we take responsibility. We take ownership of the consequences, and in exchange for such a terrifying uncertain step, we become alive. Last time, on Cloudfall, Doran made a choice. Instead of waiting for another attempt on his life, Doran brought his life to the blade of the blight.
Tim / GM:He faced down Baloran Breeze, otherwise known as Learian Hale and dealt a blow while making it out alive. Meanwhile, the rest of the party helped Poppy make her debut among the food wagons in the Gardens of Backseat. Their campaign was a success and caught the attention of big names. But now the consequences of Doran's choices have arrived, and it's time to see who truly ends up alive. You're in the center of the lush gardens of Backsy, and it's silent.
Tim / GM:Every onlooker here is trying to figure out what is standing in the central fountain. It's a humanoid, made of dripping darkness, knee deep in a giant birdbath. It looks like a Tabaxi, a familiar one, but her face is warped with an empty grin, her hands and feet are long and skinny with sharp spidery claws. It's Harley Brumlinlow. Just a few hours ago, you were eating soup at the inn, and now she's here and she's gone.
Hannah / Eryn:I knew there was something wrong about that soup. Oh my god. Was it the soup?
Tara / Journey:I don't think it was the soup.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Good. Because we all ate that too.
Tim / GM:You look around and see more movement. She's not alone. Another shadowy figure is pushing through the crowd. You see a gnome in a baggy black tunic climbing on top of scrum diddly sweets. It's Ginch, the warlock from the blight headquarters in farewell.
Tim / GM:At the same time, you see a young dragonborn leap into the middle of the fountain readying a crossbow and you feel a terrible pressure mounting. This place is swarming with uninvolved people, children, all caught in the middle. And then you see a flash of light pour over the cobbles as per baked bursts into flames. You see a dark silhouette stepping through the fire. Mercy.
Tim / GM:Roll initiative.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh. This
Thomas / Guy:turned out so much worse since last week.
Tara / Journey:Oh, yikes. That's 11.
John / Doran:I have an 11 as well. 11.
Hannah / Eryn:Gosh. Wow. We work as a team anyway.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. We'll do our, tech combo.
Hannah / Eryn:Throw me, guys.
Tim / GM:Journey?
Tara / Journey:That's a cool 5.
Tim / GM:Aaron.
Hannah / Eryn:8.
Tara / Journey:We did so bad even without them doing
Hannah / Eryn:good. 11 was the highest.
Tara / Journey:3 times 11 was the highest.
Hannah / Eryn:What if we all combined our initiatives?
Tara / Journey:Can we Voltron?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. It's 33 now.
Tim / GM:We're all set.
Tara / Journey:If we die, we die together. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Speak for yourself.
Tim / GM:Well, you'll die 1
John / Doran:or 2
Hannah / Eryn:turns after this. Yeah.
Tim / GM:Scanning the scene, Doran, you see your party. You see adversaries starting to take their positions around here. It looks like an ambush. It looks like they knew where to find you or at least where to look
John / Doran:for you. Babka is still with me?
Tim / GM:Yes. Babka's still with you. You all look to the center of this place and the shadow effigy of Harley is looking around and just hungrily snarling, looking for something. She's hungry for something that isn't being offered here. She dives out of the fountain and goes for before we do this, let's get some relative positions.
Tim / GM:Dorn was just coming into this area, so kind of down a ramp into the gardens. Poppy was probably back at the wagon. Mhmm. K. Guy?
Thomas / Guy:I would also be with the wagon. K.
Hannah / Eryn:I think we're closing up shop. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I was back at the wagon. I'm still hooded and human looking.
Tim / GM:K. Erin?
Maggie / Poppy:I would say Erin might be just just a little bit more towards the center, like, trying to work the crowd a little bit.
Tim / GM:And what does Erin look like right now?
Maggie / Poppy:I am dancer, a white cream Tabaxi cat.
Tim / GM:Okay. You see Harley take a couple of steps out of the fountain, making little splashes as she does, and she's scanning the crowd for something. She locks on to a random passerby, wearing kind of robes. It looks like a scholarly or wizardly kind of person, but she dives at them. And she just tears
Tara / Journey:Oh my god.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Harley jumps out of the fountain and pounces on this person, and you see her just dig her claws into this man's collarbone and she just pries up and you hear a snap, and then she just digs her teeth into his neck, and she just does this kind of breathing motion, this huffing almost, and you can see the life drain out of this guy's eyes in a matter of seconds, and he didn't die from physical wounds. Harley looks up, you can see she's a little energized by something now. She's looking for her next target. Next up is another shadowy figure.
Tim / GM:Similarly, doesn't know who to go for, but takes the closest target they can find.
Hannah / Eryn:Did you say that civilian had wizardly robes on?
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. Sorry. Who's the
Maggie / Poppy:Do we not know who's attacking you? The shadowy form?
Tim / GM:So you're all seeing this person, the second shadowy form, kind of push out of the crowd, and it's much shorter, stouter, much older and slower. When it does push out, though, you can see that he's already got somebody grappled and is kind of, like, slapping at them, scratching them, and is kind of fighting with them rather than just destroying them the way Harley did. You can see there's some hesitance to this other figure, but it it does tear at this person. Okay. You can see bloody wounds.
Thomas / Guy:It's sim similar in shadowy form to Harley?
Tim / GM:Same thing. Yep. Okay. Okay. You all then hear a crossbow bolt whistle out.
Tim / GM:It strikes at one of the wagons. You just hear a thwack, and you hear a scream, people running. That's what causes this place to really stir into chaos. It's the same thing essentially as firing a gun. You know, it kind of kicks people into a familiar motion.
Tim / GM:They all start scrambling. This place descends into chaos in a matter of moments. You guys might be the only ones really standing still here. Doran, don't you?
John / Doran:Can I get a general perception? The 2 shadowy figures, does one seem more powerful? Or was it that they're both about the same?
Tim / GM:Harley seems a lot more powerful. She's quicker. She's faster. She's more vicious.
John / Doran:Okay.
Tim / GM:The other one seemed slower or older or kinder somehow.
John / Doran:Babka, I know we just made a deal. Right now, can you just help get people out of here?
Tim / GM:Perhaps I can. I will call for backup. You, you see him reach to an echo bell and kind of tear it off his belt and he just whispers into it and says, my love, I I need you. And he puts it back at his hip.
Hannah / Eryn:I like that he he's like Zoro now.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Catherine Zeta. Catherine Zeta. Joan. Catherine Zeta.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, okay.
Tim / GM:He says, Dorn, we need to get one thing straight. If I am going to go with you, He pulls a whip out from under his vest and he like hits the ground with it and you see a spark of lightning travel through the whole whip and he says I am not going to be the one waiting back on the ship.
John / Doran:Alright. I slight grin and then I run forward. I'm gonna go towards the fountain, run towards Harley. And, in previous encounters, it seemed like these things didn't have any sort of, like, sense of self left. But what you kinda described it made me think that second one had some reservations.
John / Doran:Okay. I'm gonna try to communicate with Harley. Just just shout to her. Harley, you just killed that man. Stop what you're doing.
John / Doran:Try to plead with her and try to reach something.
Tim / GM:Make up persuasion check. Okay.
John / Doran:Persuasion 27.
Hannah / Eryn:What?
Tim / GM:That's what I do.
Hannah / Eryn:Excuse me. Since when?
John / Doran:Oh. I'm persuaded.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god.
Tim / GM:She stops dead in her tracks, and she looks at you, and then she looks back at the corpse that she just made, and then she looks down at her own hands, and you can see the shadows literally dripping off of her, almost like blood. She can't quite make sense of what you're saying, but she's stopped.
John / Doran:We can try to help you. Just just keep control of yourself, if you can.
Tim / GM:She looks at you and nods, and then she smiles big, and then she And it's staring you down.
John / Doran:Okay. As a bonus action, I look around and see Guy, and I'm going to strum my lute and give Guy inspiration of the bardic kind. Here's a d 8.
Hannah / Eryn:Thank you.
Tim / GM:That's it. Well timed, it is Guy's turn.
Thomas / Guy:Poppy, get behind the cart.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, I okay.
Thomas / Guy:What the hell is going on?
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know.
Thomas / Guy:Looks like Harley over there and I think we have some blind visitors as well.
Hannah / Eryn:I don't know what to do.
Thomas / Guy:The good news is that it looks like your rival's card has burned down.
Hannah / Eryn:I didn't wanna win like this.
Thomas / Guy:Of the other 2 of Genshin and Ribbo Yeah. Are they kinda fixed on us too?
Tim / GM:They seem to be looking for you. Earlier, Ribbo shot a crossbow bolt into a random wagon.
Thomas / Guy:Into the crowd. Oh, I see. Papa Yu, try to help as many people as you can, but stay safe.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Good idea.
Thomas / Guy:I'm going to, maybe see if Doran doesn't get killed.
Hannah / Eryn:We can only help.
Thomas / Guy:What was that? Guy's gonna walk closer to the fountain, between Harley and Doran, if that makes sense. Like, not directly adjacent, but guy calls out to the creature, and he's gonna cast compelled duel on the Harley 1. K. Harley, the big story is over here, this way.
Thomas / Guy:Guy waves his hands, and he casts compelled duel, which will force Harley to do a wisdom saving throw.
Hannah / Eryn:She can't
Tara / Journey:be wise anymore. She's a nobody.
Thomas / Guy:Mhmm.
Tara / Journey:A heartless.
Tim / GM:Heartless.
Tara / Journey:She's a heartless.
Tim / GM:Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, you're right about that. That is a 13.
Thomas / Guy:Okay. That's a fail.
Tim / GM:So,
Thomas / Guy:she has disadvantage on attack rolls against creatures other than guy.
Tim / GM:K.
Thomas / Guy:She will have disadvantage on attacking Doran.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You kind of break her gaze away from Doran. She's doing this kind of maniacal off putting stare while smiling at Doran, but as soon as you start speaking, she just whips her head over to you and gives you that same sick grin, and just charges you.
Thomas / Guy:Doran, do you have a plan? I don't know. This was it. It's Bobby.
Hannah / Eryn:Who is, like, in the vicinity that isn't involved in the fight? Like, civilians.
Tim / GM:There are a couple people who have very unwisely hidden under some of the carts and stayed in the area. Smarter, flightier people have fled the area by now or are starting to, a good number of them, at least getting away from the flames, if anything.
Hannah / Eryn:The the closer people who are hiding still in the area Mhmm. If you get into my car, I can, like, drive us really fast out of here. And I'll try and usher people in and then rev up the biz night.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You're, you're parked next to the cream screamer, and you see a couple people. Hold on.
John / Doran:You you keep just, like, throwing that out there
Tim / GM:and, like, why is that a name? The cream screamer?
John / Doran:I normally like, words don't bother me.
Maggie / Poppy:Big cream for the cream.
Tim / GM:Yeah. So the
Tara / Journey:cream As in, like, ice cream. Ice cream.
Tim / GM:It's a giant We all scream. Horizontal ice cream.
John / Doran:Don't make
Tim / GM:me this about me.
John / Doran:Like, you know okay. Sorry. I was derailing a
Hannah / Eryn:bit, but
Tim / GM:The people that are trapped under the cream screamer, hear your invitation. And, they begin crawling out, towards you and then towards the back door of the rolling pin to
Hannah / Eryn:your side. Cindy? Yes. I'm just gonna give her a smug little look as I'm saving her ass.
Tim / GM:You see, she's got some, like, flour on one cheek and a bit of, like, burnt, like, charred coal on the other side from the recent flames on her own place. She doesn't have the energy or the wherewithal to be spiteful right now, and she she genuinely is happy that you're taking her hand and helping her in. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:It wouldn't be a win if she died. So
Tara / Journey:Yeah. True. She's petty. She's not evil. Yes.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A, a good handful, maybe 8 people are now are now packed into the rolling pin, kind of sitting amongst the bunk beds and kitchenware.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. I'm going to rev it up and tell them to drive it to the hotel we were staying at. Take care of her. She's my life, and I'll hop out. Oof.
Tim / GM:You hear, Cindy on your way out, and she just goes,
Hannah / Eryn:is this a levitator? Oh my god. Are you that poor? I mean, so okay. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. At least I still have a cart.
Tim / GM:She looks up at you and she goes Yeah. Yeah. And she begins, driving off. It seems like she gets the hang of it after hitting a couple, like, small bushes and signposts on the way out.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm assuming that was, like, all I can do.
Tim / GM:I think so. Yeah. Cool.
Hannah / Eryn:You saved them, though.
Tim / GM:Next up is Mercy. Fuck. Being that you're disguised, they don't know exactly which target to go after, so Mercy works by process of elimination. Yeah. You all hear another rush of air as a fireball lands on the cream screamer and engulfs the wagon.
Tim / GM:Next up is Aaron.
Maggie / Poppy:Could I have seen earlier where the crossbow bolt came from?
Tim / GM:Yeah. I think I mean, it's pretty easy to see her hanging out in that tree, actually.
Maggie / Poppy:Ribo? Yeah. Okay. Well, Erin's gonna take a bonus action and hide. Shocker.
Tim / GM:K.
Maggie / Poppy:I will try to just find, like, a park bench or a bush nearby, garbage can. Mhmm. Whatever. And then I will do a crossbow bolt. Let's go for ribbo.
Tim / GM:K. Crossbow fight. Mhmm.
Maggie / Poppy:And this is a sneak attack?
Tim / GM:Yep. Stealth checks to hide. Let me roll for that. Do that first. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:11.
Tim / GM:K.
Maggie / Poppy:My attack roll I rolled earlier was 5, but sneak attack is a
Tim / GM:you take advantage on that. Yep.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. So 11 to hit.
Tim / GM:No. 11 does not hit Rubo.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You send a crossbow bolt sailing up towards that tree, and it catches a bunch of leaves and just right past her. She kind of ducks out of the way and is trying to find out where that came from. You see, Mercy walking around this area, and she is starting to kind of fall into her element. She is almost like dancing, kind of twirling around.
Tim / GM:You know, she loves when there's just cinders raining down all around her. She says just out loud to the area, and you know she's talking to you. You know, I never really understood. How come every time I pulled your fingernails out you kept growing them back? Why not just keep them off?
Tim / GM:Why are you so stupid? You stupid little sprite. You ruined everything. You took him away. The only one who ever made a home for me.
Tim / GM:And you see here just whip flames across the scene again.
Hannah / Eryn:Gotta hate that cut. Oh. I like it. Hey.
Tim / GM:Punctuating that statement is a black smoldering bolt of energy with a purple halo that comes racing off the top of scrum diddly sweets. It's Ginch. Ginch.
Tara / Journey:Oh, I forgot about fucking Ginch.
Tim / GM:Except Ginch is shooting straight up. You all look up to see what he was going after. You see, chaotically tossing about in the sky, dragging a trail of blue and green sparks is Sir Beau flip flopping Yeah. Yeah. Up and down inside of himself.
Tim / GM:You can see one of his jets on his back is just spinning madly, keeping him in a constant spiral.
Hannah / Eryn:Has he been flying for 3 days? Seems like it.
Tim / GM:Next up is Journey.
Tara / Journey:Alright. I am going to do a bonus action hunter's mark Mhmm. On Mercy. K. And then I'm gonna fucking kill her.
Tara / Journey:Yeah. I'm not fucking around.
Thomas / Guy:Good start to this,
Tara / Journey:I'm not fucking around. Okay. Cast hunter's mark,
Hannah / Eryn:and then shoot an arrow. 24 to hit.
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah. That hits
Hannah / Eryn:her. Whoo. So that's
Tara / Journey:5 is 10 damage. K. 2nd attack, dirty 20. Not so good. 8 damage.
Hannah / Eryn:K. You're
John / Doran:adding your dex to both of those?
Tara / Journey:Oh, I forgot to add 3 both times, so it's plus 6. 24 damage total
Hannah / Eryn:k. To Mercy.
Tim / GM:Cool. Nice.
Tara / Journey:I'm also just gonna drop the disguised self entirely and just look like myself.
Tim / GM:Okay. You pull back your first, arrow and lose it, and, it lands right in her thigh. And, like, by the time she turns around and realizes what that force was from, the second one, like, raises her shoulder, and it just lacerates her in a really horrific way, actually. You see blood, like, spray out into the fountain. That first one is still sticking out of her, and you just hear her shriek.
Tim / GM:And she grabs it and incinerates it. And you see the wound cauterized.
Tara / Journey:Journey looks absolutely focused. No anger. No feeling at all. Just absolute, like, I'm on the hunt now.
Tim / GM:Cool. Final point of this round is, Babka stepping in.
Maggie / Poppy:Babka.
Tim / GM:Babka walks towards, the other shadow creature and throws out his whip. He manages to wrap the whip around him and you hear this this lightning shock go off as it does And you see Bob could just keep pulsing this whip. And he's just, like, electrifying whoever he's got tethered over and over again.
Tara / Journey:Babka's so cool.
Tim / GM:Sounds like a lot, but they're d fours.
Tara / Journey:Doesn't matter. He's so cool.
Hannah / Eryn:He can stay with us the whole time. He can hang. Mhmm.
Tim / GM:You see Babka repeatedly electrifying the smaller squatter shadow creature. It seems to enrage, becoming less docile, more attacked and harmed here.
John / Doran:Babka, you seem to know more than you let on. Is there any chance of reversing whatever this is, or do we just have to deal with it?
Tim / GM:My friend, I'm afraid I have not seen this before.
John / Doran:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Crap.
John / Doran:Well, shit.
Thomas / Guy:They are they are corrupted by the Bismite, are they not? Like we saw back in Farewell.
Tim / GM:Yes. Bismite's a powerful thing to meddle in.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. It is a metal. I think
John / Doran:This is no time for puns.
Thomas / Guy:Thank you, Poppy.
Hannah / Eryn:What? I learned it in college.
Tim / GM:At that, you all hear a shriek as Harley dives towards Guy. Natural wood.
Hannah / Eryn:Sorry. It's
Thomas / Guy:a mess.
Tim / GM:Thomas, you freaking smart ass. Okay.
Tara / Journey:We'll take this as our last chance.
Tim / GM:Cool. Alright. Harley acquiesces to your compelled duel. You point your compelled duel. You point your sword at her, tell her that big story's over here, and she pounces at you.
Tim / GM:And boop. Yeah. I think you just step out of the way or she gets too excited and she over pounces. And she actually ends up back in the fountain, except this time she is laying down in the water having collapsed headfirst. She is now prone and will be, half speed for her next, round here.
Tim / GM:Actually, which means she won't be able to move at all. She's stuck in the phone for right now, and that is her whole freaking turn. The other one, the shorter squatter shadow is, going to try to go after Bobka. He is successful.
Tara / Journey:Babka better have, like, 5,000 hit points.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Babka.
Tara / Journey:Babka the eternal.
Tim / GM:Babka is still standing, but you can see the kind of motive or the MO of these creatures is to grab onto people, sink their claws in or pin them or pounce on them, and then drain them somehow. It looks almost vampiric. It almost looks like when islands get drained.
John / Doran:Fascinating.
Tim / GM:You see that happened to Bobka here. You see something being pulled out of him, man. He looks thoroughly dehydrated after all, but he's still standing. He's still doing okay. Bobka gives this thing a knee and kind of kicks him out a little bit so that there's some distance between them now.
Tim / GM:Journey.
Hannah / Eryn:Mhmm.
Tim / GM:You are being shot at by a crossbow coming from a cherry tree.
Hannah / Eryn:Cool.
Tim / GM:That is a 17 to hit. Yeah. A cavalier.
Maggie / Poppy:Journey's like Boromir in the forest She's getting shot with
Tim / GM:your house. Yeah. That is 6 piercing damage. K.
Hannah / Eryn:Don't die. I'm gonna
Tara / Journey:go down fighting.
Tim / GM:7 poison damage.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, poison. Ribbo, you naughty little bastard.
Hannah / Eryn:From inside your garbage can.
Tara / Journey:I let you live.
Tim / GM:I'm just going to number people based on their initiative order here. It is Serbo's turn.
John / Doran:K.
Tim / GM:1234567. Poppy. Great. You catch the momentary sound of Serbo spiraling above you, and he's kind of tightening that concentric circle as he's coming towards you. I need you to make a deck save.
Hannah / Eryn:Don't make me do sports. Do
Tara / Journey:a barrel roll?
Hannah / Eryn:I was gonna
Tim / GM:say Do a sports save.
Hannah / Eryn:Can I add?
Thomas / Guy:Touchdown.
Maggie / Poppy:You got this copy?
Tim / GM:Test dare demodify.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, net 20. What?
Tim / GM:Touch, touch, touch it. Amazing.
Hannah / Eryn:Never for anything
Maggie / Poppy:cool. I've blessed you.
Tim / GM:This could be cool.
Hannah / Eryn:Yes. Hiding.
Thomas / Guy:You can, like, surf on the robot now.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god. No.
Maggie / Poppy:It's like you grab on
Hannah / Eryn:and it shoots you and kills one of the baddies. But it's, like, accidental. I'm just like, accidental. Yeah. It's like stop.
Hannah / Eryn:Instead
Tim / GM:of violently crashing into you, he instead just swoops low and nearly touching the cobbles, but kind of grazing you and flying at you with big open arms and you hear, Poppy.
Hannah / Eryn:And he just grabs you and hugs you and
Tim / GM:is now flying with you. You're suddenly 30 feet up. It's like spinning around. And you can hear him, like, now just right into your ear like, Poppy, I am having issues with my flight mechanisms. Boone made adjustments so that I could fly using Bismite, but I'm too fast.
Tim / GM:I have gone too far, and I don't know how to stop.
Hannah / Eryn:In a panic, she just, like, reaches out and feels for the bismite and tries to, like, slow it down. I don't know. She's had some connection with it recently.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Give me an arcana check.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Another net fucking twenty. Right. Oh my god. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:She can fly on this robot now. Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. He just I heard you smack a puppy.
Tim / GM:He fuse into the yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:No. Oh my god. I mean, cast Iron Man.
Hannah / Eryn:2 twenties in a row with him. Come on. Okay. Thank you for laughing.
Tara / Journey:So good.
Hannah / Eryn:Cast Iron Man.
Thomas / Guy:That's pretty good.
Maggie / Poppy:That's great.
Tim / GM:You hear some gears and servos turning inside servo. A couple, like, mini arms reach out and just kind of grab you so that you are now in kind of like, a
Hannah / Eryn:A baby viewer. That's what
Tim / GM:I was gonna say. Yeah. Viewer. Kind of strapped to the front of servo. When you connect to this bismite, you feel that if you wanted to, you could turn off servo right now.
Tim / GM:But you can't fix his jets, it's a mechanical problem.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm gonna try and, like, time it right Mhmm. So that we if we're closer to, like, the fountain or something, I can just, like, drop him.
Tim / GM:It is Doran's turn. Doran, you had a big breakfast. You know? And you demanded that you, a mainlander, should try a big helping of saffron honey. That's right.
Tim / GM:You then had a big day in a new place, and you ended your night with a double dose of coffee. Mhmm. You also faced down a big villain of yours. Yeah. Safe to say, your stomach is fucked.
Tim / GM:Make a constitution save. Shit. Okay. Well
Hannah / Eryn:Shit. Literally. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:We'll see. Quite literally. Mid battle.
John / Doran:Con save 17.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh. You
Tim / GM:pull through for now. Okay. Go ahead.
Maggie / Poppy:I like how Tim is making the coffees hit. Watch
Hannah / Eryn:out, TNT World.
John / Doran:Dorn has a lot of empathy towards Harley. And even though Harley is now stuck in the fountain and hasn't hurt anyone since, he feels like he needs to try something. Thorin's gonna burn his, best spell slot, his level 3 remaining, and try to dispel whatever this is just to end it. Mhmm. Whatever has overtaken Harley as a person
Tim / GM:Yeah.
John / Doran:Created this monster. He wants to try to end
Tim / GM:it. K. There's no role for this, because it's not a spell that's causing this. Doran, you had a great idea and you watch to your horror as it all unravels. When you cast Dispel on Harley, you strip away that little bit of light she had left.
Tim / GM:You see her demeanor sink again. Whatever got through to her before is gone, and whatever she was hungry for before, she is ravenous now.
Thomas / Guy:Should've guessed to spell bad magic.
John / Doran:Okay. So that had no effect on
Tim / GM:It actually had an opposite effect. It seemed like you had made some progress towards a good thing here, and, like I said, you stripped away or removed something from her. Now she has less than she had before, and she's furious.
John / Doran:I was trying to help. Shit. Okay. That'll be my turn.
Tim / GM:Guy, it's on you.
Thomas / Guy:Guy still has his sword drawn. How's it going with Harley, Doran? I've got a lot of targets here.
John / Doran:Not good. I think I made it worse.
Thomas / Guy:Worse, okay. Not what I wanted to hear. I'm gonna take out this one facing your loot friend.
John / Doran:Okay, Guy. I'll I'll take Harley.
Thomas / Guy:Guy's gonna attack the smaller shadow. That's fighting babka. 14 hit?
Tim / GM:14 does hit.
Thomas / Guy:Good. I think I would like to perform a wrathful smite on this one.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Thomas / Guy:I'm gonna roll damage and then they also have to do a wisdom saving throw. I have not rolled damage.
Tara / Journey:It's so
Tim / GM:fucking long. 22 damage. Okay.
Thomas / Guy:And then if they're not dead, I guess they're doing a wisdom saving throw to see if they're frightened of me.
Tim / GM:So Okay. You drop the great blade of Lodom into this figure, crosswise over the collarbone. And when the iron touches its shadowy skin, you see it divide like a hot knife through butter, to use the cliche, but you split this figure, and he just falls into 2 pieces. It's not as gory as you'd expect it to be. You just see liquid shadows kind of sink into the cracks between the cobbles.
Tim / GM:Doran, make a perception check.
John / Doran:Natural 20. No joke.
Tim / GM:We need we need downward facing cameras. I know
Hannah / Eryn:this is Oh my god.
John / Doran:I got it. It's happening. It's really it's real.
Hannah / Eryn:He's like switched it to 20 when
Tim / GM:he dropped his phone. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. No.
Thomas / Guy:Time to find out who I murdered.
Tim / GM:Doran, the motion catches your eye for just a second as you take your gaze off of Harley. And hitting the cobbles, you see the somewhat familiar face of the clerk from the hangar that had helped you guys get your wagon back. Oh, no.
Maggie / Poppy:The old man?
Tim / GM:The old man.
Tara / Journey:That's such a bummer.
Hannah / Eryn:Old man car salesman.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Bismite soul stealers are so vindictive in following us around.
Thomas / Guy:As the top part of the body falls off Yeah. I meet eyes with Babka and give him a small knob.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Babka still got his tether around the lower half, and then you just see him, like, retract the whip and drop the grapple that he's got. What? Yeah. It's on Poppy now.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm in the air.
Tim / GM:Sherbo's gotcha. You're 30 feet up in the air, kind of, directly over the fountain more or less right now. Has been catching you up on what's been going on with him.
Hannah / Eryn:Sorry. I hate to cut this short, but I snap my fingers and turn off the Okay. Yeah. Okay. And drop, I guess.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Are you wearing the levitating shoes?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. I'll activate them. And while attuned, I can cast levitate on myself at will as a bonus action.
Tim / GM:You snap your fingers and you feel Servo kind of go limp, and you just hear this, and then rude decided that we should go. And then, like, you're just, like, plummeting out of the sky when you do that to him. And, you feel those little, like, clips around you start to loosen, and you just start to fall away from him during this descent. You click your boots and you begin to levitate towards the bottom of the fountain and you just hear him splash not far from Harley.
Hannah / Eryn:Sorry. And then I, like, light me lightly let myself down into
Thomas / Guy:the Yeah. Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:You're fine.
Tim / GM:Yep. Anything else you wanna do with this turn? That wasn't much of an action.
Hannah / Eryn:Right. Okay. So, Harley, who's in the fountain?
Tim / GM:Rubble's in the tree in the fountain, so close to you. You can see Ginch on top of one of the wagons.
Hannah / Eryn:You're right in the middle of it all. Mhmm. I guess I don't like Mercy very much.
John / Doran:Good.
Hannah / Eryn:And I'm going to ring of the ram her.
Tim / GM:Oh, yeah. Forgot about that. Forgot you guys got a bunch of items.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. So, I have to make an attack roll with a plus 7. 17. That hits. And I am only spending 1 charge.
Hannah / Eryn:K. And that would do 2 d ten force damage. Where's my other d ten? Oh, no one took it. I'm just blind.
Thomas / Guy:It's because I hope that's rhetorical.
Tara / Journey:We don't know.
Tim / GM:12. 12 total?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. And she's pushed 5 feet away from me.
Tim / GM:Alright. Cool. You get her attention.
Tara / Journey:Yeah.
Tim / GM:You point your fist, point your ring towards Mercy. Do you say anything? Also, how do you activate your ring?
Hannah / Eryn:I say, leave my friends alone. And then I, like, do a lame little, like, bad form punch at her Yeah. In the air.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You you throw, like, a weak little punch that your arm just kinda, like, flails out.
Hannah / Eryn:My thumb is tucked. Yeah. But then
Tim / GM:you, like, hold it there for a second and you, like, shake your fist Yeah.
Hannah / Eryn:And all of
Tim / GM:a sudden just
Hannah / Eryn:And I probably Yeah. Yeah. Oh.
Tim / GM:With the boots of levitation.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, no.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You you actually go just, like, rocketing out of the fountain. It throws you back 15 feet.
Hannah / Eryn:Well, at least I'm further away from
Tim / GM:it now. Yeah. You land just fine, but it does throw you when you use the Okay. Equal and opposite and all that.
Hannah / Eryn:It's a bad combo.
Tim / GM:It blasts into Mercy, and it pushes her back. You see the wind knocked out of her? She throws her hands to her knees, and then she goes to stand back up, and then she crumbles again, and she drops to a knee and tries to stand.
Thomas / Guy:Guy turns around from the guy he just killed to see Poppy fly directly in his line of vision. What?
Hannah / Eryn:Stay away.
Maggie / Poppy:Guy's head spins around 360 degrees.
Tim / GM:What is going on? Beautiful. Next up is Mercy. Mercy looks up at you from across the way, barely able to stand, barely able to breathe on her own. And she holds up one hand, and you see it ignite with flames.
Tim / GM:And you remember what it looked like when she cast scorching ray on journey? She starts to kind of form that in hand. You see her moving her hand across all of the wagons here, and she's kind of testing your response to each one. And then she notices one of them is kind of getting away, and then she goes she points at it, and you see this yellow beam flash from her all the way out to the wagon.
Hannah / Eryn:And it's not anywhere near me?
Tim / GM:They made some good distance. Your wagon is still not the fastest thing in the planet. It's about 50 feet away from you guys or so.
Hannah / Eryn:I can't intercept the beam.
Tim / GM:No. But you also don't know what that was. It looks something like a fireball, like a bead of orange light that raced across the scene towards the wagon, but when it hit, nothing happened.
Thomas / Guy:She's casting at her Yelp reviews.
Hannah / Eryn:One star.
Tim / GM:After she did that, you can see that she is just smoking parts of her. You can see there's, like, little kind of black singe around some of her clothes, and you see her just start to laugh. Next is Aaron.
Maggie / Poppy:Can I tell if that was a tracking thing that I've seen before?
Tim / GM:Go ahead and make a history check. This is gonna be a a high roll. I'm gonna say DC 17.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh. 11.
Tim / GM:Yeah. It looks familiar, but you're not sure.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:Eren's gonna shoot a cross bolt. Sneaky bolt.
Hannah / Eryn:Do I have
Maggie / Poppy:to roll to stay hidden? I'm hiding.
Tim / GM:Nope. Not yet.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. Shoon a crossbow at Ribbo in the tree. 26.
Tim / GM:Yeah. That hits Ribbo in the tree.
Maggie / Poppy:And it's a sneak attack? Yep. Because I'm hiding.
Tim / GM:Still hiding.
Maggie / Poppy:16.
Tim / GM:16 in total?
Maggie / Poppy:Yes.
Hannah / Eryn:K.
Maggie / Poppy:I finally get the bolt lined up right Yeah. Out of my trash can.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Into the tree, I see Ribbo.
Tim / GM:Nice. Yeah. You, it's pretty dark in there, pretty stanky, but you're just curled up on a pile of discarded, you know, half eaten food from all the wagons here. And, you're actually resting your your bow, on the edge of the trash can here in all the darkness, and you finally get a clear shot. It seems the instant that you loose that crossbow bolt, you just hear the thud of Ribbo falling out of the tree face down into the water and not moving at all.
Tim / GM:Got him.
Thomas / Guy:Erin's also got a, like, full fish skeleton stuck on
Hannah / Eryn:her hair.
Tim / GM:Yeah. K.
Maggie / Poppy:Alright. That's my turn.
Tim / GM:Alright. Next up is perfect. The one who saw you do that. From on top of scrumdiddly sweets, Ginch is pacing, flicking little motes of purple energy between his fingers. He's got a lot of high priority targets to go after right now, but I think none as personal as Aaron.
Tim / GM:He throws an eldritch blast at you from across the way. At 20, baby.
Maggie / Poppy:Uh-oh. The trash can burns extra hot.
Tim / GM:And, eldritch blast is multiple attacks. Correct?
John / Doran:It's multiple. Yep.
Tim / GM:Alright. So the first one was a natural 20. Second one would be a 12 to hit.
Hannah / Eryn:No. That misses. Alright.
Maggie / Poppy:I have uncanny dodge as a reaction. When an attacker that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to half the attack's damage against you.
Tim / GM:Can certainly do that.
Maggie / Poppy:Yes. I will shift. No. I'm just kidding. I'll dive out of the trash can.
Maggie / Poppy:That's like, I'll shift around in the garbage. I'm just a raccoon at this point.
Tara / Journey:You got a slice of pizza on your shoulder.
Tim / GM:That is 15 necrotic damage. Sorry. Force damage. Not necrotic. And that would be halved by your thing.
Maggie / Poppy:K. So that's 7. Yep.
Tim / GM:Next up, we've got Journey.
Tara / Journey:The first time that I shot Mercy, I was kind of, like, crouched to kneeling, just going, like, gotta get this business done. And now I'm a little bit mad seeing everything around me going to shit. Mhmm. So Journey stands up and takes a couple steps forward and pulls back the luminous bow with intention using a bonus action to really light it up before shooting. Feet to hit on the first one.
Tara / Journey:Sorry. No. Does the luminous bow only count for that first attack? Yes. Okay.
Tara / Journey:That one fails. So you just see a bright ass arrow failing and nothing. Yep. And second one is a natural one. Oh, man.
Tara / Journey:Terrible.
John / Doran:Yeah. The
Tim / GM:first shot from the Luminess bow sinks into the cobbles, and it does detonate. And it just sends sparks, like, flying all over this place kind of momentarily blinding everybody. The second one, because of that blindness, you just fire it off. Oh, you got lucky. Good.
Tim / GM:You shoot at mercy.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. What?
Tim / GM:Sorry. Give me one more attack roll.
Tara / Journey:Okay.
Maggie / Poppy:23.
Tim / GM:Oh, well, shit. Okay. Yeah. That one hits. Yay.
Tim / GM:So what I did there, I just randomized the actual receiver of the attack based on our mission order.
Maggie / Poppy:Yeah. Randomly.
Tara / Journey:Okay. Nice.
Hannah / Eryn:The best fail ever.
Tara / Journey:Mhmm. 13 damage.
Tim / GM:K.
Tara / Journey:Jesus. In this game, we feel forward.
Maggie / Poppy:At least every once in, like, 3 campaigns, we get to deal damage on
Hannah / Eryn:a fail.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah. It's funny though because Mercy is sandwiched between Poppy and Eren, which
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, it could've been so bad. Oh, it
Tara / Journey:could've been bad.
Tim / GM:With that, you see Mercy take one too many arrows, and she goes to the ground. She is holding herself up with one arm for a little while there, and you see her cough something dark onto the cobbles, and she just lays herself down. Still smoldering. She's not moving. Babka has retracted his lightning tether, his whip, and he looks about the scene and you hear footsteps coming down the ramp.
Tim / GM:You hear this? You see a crowd of 4. Very happy looking, kind of chubby, fluffy, stupid, his guard from before. You see 4 of them this time instead of 2. And, they're coming down the ramp, and they're each holding different improvised weapons, except for one of them is actually holding a sword.
Tim / GM:And, when they get there, they look
Thomas / Guy:up at Bob Ko, and they go,
Tim / GM:and Bob goes, thank you for coming so quickly. It's good to see you. We are fighting for our lives. Please. This one.
Tim / GM:And he points up at Ginch, and he just go, uh-huh. And he just, like, takes one of the weapons he's holding, and he just whiffs it up at Ginch on top of
Hannah / Eryn:the wagon.
Tara / Journey:These good boys.
Hannah / Eryn:Nails? Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Hell yeah. Awesome. We need a name for the good boys.
Tim / GM:What's that a name?
Maggie / Poppy:What's his name?
Hannah / Eryn:We never asked. Did he call him my love?
Tim / GM:Yes.
Maggie / Poppy:But there's multiple
Hannah / Eryn:of them.
Tim / GM:There's 4 of them.
Maggie / Poppy:It's a power hero.
Thomas / Guy:Probably a couple.
Hannah / Eryn:A harem ball. No.
Tara / Journey:What if it's just one guy that splits into multiple people and they get dumber as he splits off? Oh.
Thomas / Guy:That's fun.
Tara / Journey:Is that it?
Tim / GM:Just fuck you, Tara.
Tara / Journey:Is that it for real?
Thomas / Guy:Oh, no.
Hannah / Eryn:We can cut it until Tim's reveal.
Tim / GM:Yeah. No. It's fine. And it turns
Thomas / Guy:to be like, wow. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:I'll act really surprised.
Tim / GM:Okay. Not enough, blushing damage to take out Ginch, but Ginch does get hit with a piece of a cobblestone
Hannah / Eryn:and goes, Fuck Ginch.
Tim / GM:Alright. We are back at the top of the round. All that remains are Harley and Ginch.
Thomas / Guy:That's it. Harley and Ginch.
Tim / GM:Harley stands up from where she is in the fountain. You see her heaving with breath, but the effort of standing from her prone state after having been launched, is her entire turn, which means it is back to Serbo, who is turned off. You all hear this like, like, in the fountain, which brings us back to Doraan. Doran, make a constitution save.
Tara / Journey:To not shit your pants. Yeah.
John / Doran:Wow. 18. Wow. You keep trying me.
Maggie / Poppy:He's got the young bowels.
John / Doran:Yeah. I got a sphincter
Hannah / Eryn:of steel. Please.
Tara / Journey:He's under 30, so nothing hurts him.
Thomas / Guy:Yeah. You check that feet. Right?
Tim / GM:Yeah. Yeah.
Maggie / Poppy:Tight butt?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Tight ass. Tight ass.
Tim / GM:Alright. Tummy boy. Do what you wanna do.
John / Doran:Tommy boy. So, Ribbo is where?
Tara / Journey:Genshin Harley are the ones that are left for Tim's last email. The
Hannah / Eryn:sass. If you see below. This
Thomas / Guy:is too real.
John / Doran:Yeah. Okay. So, Gench, I'm just going to use, Vicious Mockery, I think, for the second time in this campaign. My can drip. Yep.
John / Doran:60 foot range. I say it again. Why don't you just lay down and pretend to be dead like the rest
Tara / Journey:of your friends? Oh, that is vicious.
Tim / GM:It's pretty good. Alright.
John / Doran:Go ahead and roll that with save.
Thomas / Guy:Binch. More like bench.
Tim / GM:Wow. That's a 15. That's a still fail. Really?
John / Doran:Yeah. 16.
Hannah / Eryn:Hell yeah.
Tim / GM:And you're not just saying that.
John / Doran:It says 16.
Tim / GM:I I trust you. Yeah. You can't see the screen, but I trust you.
Hannah / Eryn:I didn't read it.
Thomas / Guy:There's probably a 16 on there.
Tim / GM:You guys don't even have characters.
Tara / Journey:Just blank screens.
John / Doran:So that's 7 psychic damage and,
Thomas / Guy:Dorn's character sheet is just a word document that says tight ass.
Hannah / Eryn:Plus Cannot
Tim / GM:be hot.
Hannah / Eryn:Tight ass.
John / Doran:We're just trying to guy with sick abs and stuff.
Hannah / Eryn:Absolutely not.
John / Doran:Okay. So 7, the psychic damage Yeah. And disadvantage on the next attack roll it makes.
Tim / GM:Okay.
John / Doran:I'm going to give inspiration to I'll do I'll do Poppy. Poppy's nearby. Got it. Pull the root. Loot out.
John / Doran:Quick strum. You got it, Poppy. Mhmm. Inspo.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh, thanks, Doran.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Poppy, you get a little flash of memory
Thomas / Guy:of that inspiring loot duel that he had with Babka earlier.
Hannah / Eryn:That was so cool.
Tim / GM:Brings back the good old days of this afternoon.
Tara / Journey:The good old hours.
Tim / GM:Alright. Dorans turns over. That means it's Guy.
Thomas / Guy:Guy turns his attention over to Ginch on the top of the Scrum Diddly Sweets cart.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
Thomas / Guy:Guy's gonna run over to the cart and, try to break into the cart.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Not the time for looting.
Tim / GM:Yeah. Give me an athletics check to do that.
Hannah / Eryn:21.
Tim / GM:Wow. Okay. Yeah. Most of this stuff is made of, like, glass, like, framed glass. And so when you, are reaching for the door, it's, of course, locked, and you can just shove your hand through it and, grab the door handle from the other side and open it.
John / Doran:Guys gonna look for
Thomas / Guy:to see if there's any bismite in the engine. I don't even know if other carts have run on bismite.
Tim / GM:Yeah. This one's got a similar levitator. It's an updated model, much better than the one that you have. But there's Bismite in there.
Thomas / Guy:Guy's gonna pocket some Bismite.
Tim / GM:K.
Thomas / Guy:Knowing that there's a bad guy directly above me, could I get up on top of it with the move with the, movement I have left?
Tim / GM:Depending on how you're gonna get up there.
John / Doran:Can I
Thomas / Guy:go out a window and climb up on top?
Tim / GM:Yeah. There's some windows in this place on either side. You can also see some of the glass towards the ceiling has thinned out into kind of a skylight.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, yeah. I'll go through the skylight.
Tim / GM:Alright. Yeah. There's a downpour of glass as you, I guess, just thrust your sword through it to, shatter it and then hoist yourself up. Alright.
Maggie / Poppy:Busting through that glass ceiling.
Hannah / Eryn:Nice. Good job.
Tim / GM:You see, a horrified Ginch is kind of, like, leaning over the, he's laying on his belly now, and he is just barely leaning over the edge of this thing. And he looks terrified looking out among the people now. And you hear him muttering about seeing his dead friends everywhere.
John / Doran:I don't know what to get on that thought.
Thomas / Guy:Oh, hello.
Tim / GM:Don't mind me. I've gotta wait for my next turn. Yes. God, that is Poppy.
Hannah / Eryn:Harley's still up? Yes. I'm going to chromatic orb. Oh. I think thunder damage, just for fun.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Range spell attack. Can I use my inspiration on this? Yes. Is that what it's for?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. 18?
Tim / GM:That gets her.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay. Thank god. And I'm casting a second level.
Tim / GM:Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:It would be 3 d 8.
Tim / GM:Pump up the volume a little bit.
Hannah / Eryn:19 thunder damage.
Tim / GM:Alright. You throw a chromatic orb. You see it kind of rapidly flicker through colors, like a strobing, flashing orb, and then it suddenly stops. And it's just kind of a scintillating, almost like a heat ripple, where it just kind of distorts the air around it. And then every time it pulses, you see the water of the fountain turns to snow, like static.
Tim / GM:You see it just fuzz out with all of this thunderous energy that's going through it, this sonic wave. If you've ever seen like ferrofluid on top of a speaker, it's forming these weird geometric circles as the sound energy rumbles through here, and it is epicenter on Harley and it tears her body apart. You see shadows just being ripped from her, intermingling with the water of the fountain. She is a a scrawny husk, a humanoid by the end of it, laying in the fountain. Past Poppy gets us to Mercy.
Hannah / Eryn:I could definitely
Tim / GM:Yeah. You hear Yeah. Mercy cough and choke on the cobbles. Aaron, it's on you.
Maggie / Poppy:Am I prone or anything? I jumped out of the trash can,
Tim / GM:but I don't know. You'd be standing fine now.
Maggie / Poppy:Okay. I am going to take out my doppel fox daggers that look kinda like fox ears. Mhmm. When any chance, Aaron is going to toss one of them at Mercy. K.
Maggie / Poppy:My bonus action is gonna be to call it back to me, and that'll be a second attack.
Tim / GM:Got it. Okay. So
Maggie / Poppy:19 to hit. Yep. Okay. So 6 for the first hit, the dagger.
Tim / GM:Dimension. Yep. K.
Maggie / Poppy:And then I'm gonna call it back. It says I can call it back as a bonus action with a command word. That's what I
Tim / GM:was trying to think of. Oh.
Maggie / Poppy:And say yeah. Back to me. And then it'll come back.
Tim / GM:Taking damage while you're making death saves is an automatic double failure of your saves. Mercy already failed her first one. You all see Mercy die.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, wow.
Tim / GM:You see the dagger that you threw landed in her throat. She spends a while gurgling before you call it back to you.
Hannah / Eryn:Released the pressure on her artery, and she bled out. Wow.
Tim / GM:It also ended the concentration on the delayed blast fireball that was sitting in the middle
Hannah / Eryn:of nowhere. That's what it was. Oh. Thanks.
Tim / GM:A small crowd of onlookers was staring at the bead, trying to make sense of why it was burning a smoldering hole into the floorboards. And moments before it went off annihilating all of them, it just went out of existence.
Maggie / Poppy:Wow. You Aaron?
Tim / GM:Guy, you see Ginch roll around on his back and he puts his hands up and he goes,
Tim / GM:Hank, listen. I I'm a victim here. I was I was made to work for the Blight, and it's
Tim / GM:Being that Ginch is the last person conscious in initiative, he is, forfeiting the encounter, where you're out of initiative.
Hannah / Eryn:Tell him.
Thomas / Guy:Guy's going to he's still on the ground. Right? Yep. Guy's gonna walk across Kinsha's body and jump off of the, the cart.
Tara / Journey:Journey is gonna, with bow and arrow drawn, walk over to Harley.
Tim / GM:K.
Tara / Journey:Is Harley alive still?
Tim / GM:Harley's still alive.
Tara / Journey:Okay. I'm gonna try and use my Ganymede ability to see if I can feel her.
Tim / GM:Yeah. You're gonna have to lay your hands on her if you want that full effect of this.
Maggie / Poppy:Is your Ganymede ability touch? Can you remind me? It's it's feel. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Okay. So that encompasses a lot of interesting things.
Hannah / Eryn:Okay.
John / Doran:I I see what Journee's doing, and I place a hand on Journee's shoulder to give Bartok inspiration.
Tara / Journey:Oh, thank you. Yeah. I look up at Doran and nod, and I say, I wanna see if she's still in there.
John / Doran:Me too.
Tara / Journey:Keep an eye out in case something goes wrong. Yeah. And I'm going to set my bow aside, kneel on the ground, and put my hands on Harley.
Tim / GM:K. Okay. This one's almost gone. I know. We don't have much time.
Tim / GM:You're going to have to focus.
Hannah / Eryn:I'm ready
Tara / Journey:and willing.
Tim / GM:K. Concentrate. And when he says that, you feel this Like, the world just melts away around you. You can't even really feel Doren at your shoulder anymore. Go ahead and give me a perception check.
Tara / Journey:Do I get advantage?
Tim / GM:You get advantage. Okay. And I'm gonna use my inspo.
Hannah / Eryn:30 21.
Tim / GM:Okay. Very good. With your eyes shut tight, just feeling what you can feel, you see in your mind what Harley is feeling. And, you see Harley clearly and she is grabbing at the edge of a cliff. It's made of coal or graphite or something dark and brittle and she is scratching at it trying to keep herself up and supported.
Tim / GM:But every time she grabs at the edge of this cliff, it just crumbles away under her hands, and there's this glittering light that seems just out of her reach, and she keeps reaching reaching for it. But it's her. It's Harley. It's how she always was. But she is without something now.
Tim / GM:That's the visual that you get. Marley is lacking something. She has been drained of something entirely.
Tara / Journey:I saw what the creatures were doing when they were stealing life force. Mhmm. I think Journey would feel that this is something wrong in a way that could be right. Like, there's something about magic in life stolen versus magic in life given. And I want to try to give a little bit to her to try and help her get to who she is again.
Tim / GM:And you hear a different voice, one that you hear far less frequently speak into your mind and say, But are you willing to sacrifice?
Tara / Journey:I am.
Tim / GM:Guy, you hear the little squeak of Ginch sucking in air as you drop off the side of the wagon, looking into the fountain. You see this whole area kind of dim around Journey, and a few stragglers that are here and trying to find safety for themselves just look on in absolute awe. The rest of your party's attention is drawn to this light in the fountain, glimmering out over the water now, the Fae buds have left Journey's hair, and they've begun to circle around her, and they seem to be conversing with themselves among their own kind. You see some 20, 30 Feybuds all talking together, and then one of them begins to drop out of the group, and it begins to flicker, and it begins moving towards Harley. You all hear a melodic cry of pain, as the Fae bud begins to tear its body apart, And as the drips of color shake off of this little Fey Bud, infusing into the water and causing it to glow, You see Harley's body, you see the shadows start to drip off of her like thick tar and clear away from her flesh, and you can see that gray blushing smiling curious Tabaxi face again as the Fae bud dies and Harley is filled with magic.
Tim / GM:She kind of weakly opens her eyes and looks around. Hey. Oh, you're not Valoran. What happened?
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my god. She's alive. I didn't kill her. What did Valorin have
Maggie / Poppy:to do with this?
Tim / GM:Ice after I talked with you guys, I I just had a hunch. I went straight to him, and I I grilled him pretty hard, and he had me he walked with me, and he took me to Starlight Street and put his hands on me. I don't know what happened.
Thomas / Guy:We must confront this Balorin at once. No. We can't let him do this again.
John / Doran:Hold on, Harley. Why no.
Tim / GM:It it took nothing for him. He he just looked at me, and it was over. You need to leave. We all need to
Thomas / Guy:leave. We need
John / Doran:to find somewhere safe to go. I have news I need to share with all of you. I don't think we can linger here though. It's clear they were after us.
Thomas / Guy:Wait. Hardly. When he turned you, did he use this? And he pulls out the bismite. Did he use this as a catalyst?
Tim / GM:You see her eyes kind of, like, shaking side to side, and she says, yeah. He showed me he had bismide, a lot of it. I can't remember everything. It's so cloudy, but we were in we were in a bar, and then we were there was a back room to the bar, and we came out in some of the Glamour boutiques, and there's more passages. And we were inside the tunnels, and there was bismide.
Tim / GM:I don't know.
Hannah / Eryn:Do you think you could remember this and map it out? Write it down?
Tim / GM:Yeah. I just need to think.
John / Doran:Well, you're right, Doran.
Thomas / Guy:We should probably not be here anymore. The one on the cart is still alive.
Hannah / Eryn:Don't look at me.
Thomas / Guy:I believe it's one of your friends, Aaron.
Maggie / Poppy:Oh, Ginch. Can is he still up there? Is he trying to get away?
Tim / GM:Make a percentage. You do have advantage. Sight. K.
Maggie / Poppy:18.
Tim / GM:Yeah. He's not here. Great. Oops.
Maggie / Poppy:Well, it's alright. We took out
Hannah / Eryn:the big guns. Journey, are you okay?
Tara / Journey:Journey is kneeling in the fountain, basically.
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah. Still glowing.
Tim / GM:Still colorful, glowing water in here.
Tara / Journey:Looking down at her hands and is not paying attention to any of you. Looking a little shell shocked, I think.
Thomas / Guy:Is she going to be okay?
Tim / GM:I don't know. Harley, let
John / Doran:me get this straight. Your profession is to write and document stories, share news about about the blight, about crimes, about things people need to know. Yeah. And the first person you go to talk to is the goddamn leader of the blight. Why did you go
Tim / GM:I didn't know.
John / Doran:To Valorant Breeze?
Tim / GM:I caught him out on the streets. I just I knew he was influential. I had just put it together how often Valoran talks to the high council. I
Thomas / Guy:Yes. Is this
Tim / GM:is this my fault?
Thomas / Guy:Since when is Valoran the leader of the Blight?
John / Doran:The name Lyrian we were chasing down? Yeah. It's an alias for the same person.
Tim / GM:You see her, like, rapidly putting things together in her mind, but every time she does, she just chooses a new cobblestone to look at. She goes, what the fuck?
John / Doran:No. He knows a lot about us now.
Tim / GM:He's been number 1 for a long time too.
John / Doran:I don't know if there's anywhere safe for us now. I'm not even sure if we can even save the Skyland. I don't know what we should do.
Tim / GM:Make a constitution check.
Tara / Journey:To not shit your pants.
John / Doran:6. Come on.
Hannah / Eryn:I've never seen Tom is so excited.
Tim / GM:No. Darn in the middle of talking to Harley, you feel this in your stomach.
John / Doran:I'm gonna go find,
Hannah / Eryn:I'll be right back.
Tim / GM:As you begin to walk away from this group, you hear a clap, and then a clap, and then an uproarious round of applause. You look high up onto the railings of some of the upper ledges of Tabaxi looking out over the gardens. You see 900 Tabaxi holding Venus crystals out towards the gardens, now in a thunderous slow clap that has erupted into applause. They know they're looking at the next stars of Fax.
Tara / Journey:Thank God I was in disguise.
Tim / GM:The greatest heroes Bax has ever seen. Timothy Matterfax does this kind of stuff in his movies, but it's not real. Not like this. Doren, you look at overall your fans now as you're looking for a bathroom.
Hannah / Eryn:What do
Tim / GM:you do?
John / Doran:Well, I already failed the constitution save. Hopefully, I got some strong riches here.
Hannah / Eryn:He got
Tim / GM:a couple he got a
Thomas / Guy:couple rounds left. Is he going to be alright?
John / Doran:Talking to the crowd, that's gathering around. The Blight have infiltrated your great Skyland. They've moved up your ranks and they have seeded corruption throughout this fine Skyland, for lack of better shit.
Tara / Journey:Guys, sit
John / Doran:here. For through this fine city sorry. This is my first speech. But no more. We have found them.
John / Doran:And I use minor illusion to make, like, a a large, like, roach.
Tim / GM:Mhmm.
John / Doran:And then I stomp on it, try to with prestidigitation, make kind of like a crunching sound.
Tim / GM:Yeah.
John / Doran:And we will crush them.
Tim / GM:A brewery's applause.
John / Doran:But this is not all that ails this city. We are all in danger. The Blights are within the best in backseat.
Tim / GM:I hear a a kind of a gasp.
Hannah / Eryn:Oh my gosh.
John / Doran:The very foundation of our sky land is in danger, and we must work together as a community to make sure
Tim / GM:all is right. The people begin to clap and cheer, and then you hear some of the closer people shouting towards you when they say, is this all gonna be available at once or is it gonna be like an episode each week? They continue to shout out to you and they're like, this is the best thing we've seen in a long time. Great show. Is it?
Tim / GM:Okay. Great. You get the impression that not everybody thinks that this is real.
Hannah / Eryn:Dorn. Dorn. Tell them this is reality crystal Yeah. TV.
John / Doran:Okay. Is, is there
Tim / GM:is, Mercy near me? Mercy's body's near you. Yeah.
John / Doran:Okay. I walk over to Mercy. I know that you see much of the world through your Venus crystals, but I implore you to understand that what I say is real, and I pick up Mercy, and I just hold her up.
Hannah / Eryn:Good god.
John / Doran:This is one of your best. Mercy, a member of the Blight. Flan, She attempted to murder many today. She has murdered many and tortured many before. I need you to understand this is real.
John / Doran:And I I just kinda, like, throw the body and it just kinda limps and flops onto the ground. Yeah.
Tara / Journey:Fuck. Wow.
Tim / GM:Yeah. That sends a sobering ripple through the crowd. You see log and quiet down. A few abstainers are just, like, oh,
Hannah / Eryn:no.
Tim / GM:Special effects.
Thomas / Guy:Guy is now adding an approval.
Hannah / Eryn:Poppy is horrified.
John / Doran:I look around at the rest of the party, I guess. Guys giving thumbs up, giving the opportunity for anyone else too.
Tim / GM:Yeah. The, the crowd begins to kind of understand the sobering reality that's upon them, and they are no less eager to record every second of it, and they do.
Thomas / Guy:Also that guy in the Blight stole my horse,
John / Doran:Balorin Breeze. He is also known as Lerion, the secret leader of all of the Blight.
Tara / Journey:Lerion.
Tim / GM:At that, you see controversy. You see sudden disbelief, and the crowd is no longer in your palm. Valorant is number 1 in backseat. You are nobody, and you are trying to take him down.
Maggie / Poppy:Can he do, like, some sort of role for this? Like, performance?
Tim / GM:Maybe persuasion check. Yeah.
John / Doran:27. Woah.
Tim / GM:Hey, everybody. Here's my backseat speed run. If you just tell everybody it's a Halloween.
Hannah / Eryn:You don't have to do the baking competition.
John / Doran:Yeah. You don't have to
Tim / GM:do the climax fight. Nothing. Yeah. You see that controversy erupt, and people begin talking amongst themselves, and then it kind of quiets out. They seem to have reached some sort of consensus, and they turn back to look at you.
John / Doran:Looking up to the best in their respective professions makes sense. They are people that are self sufficient and wise and skilled. However, it is not what it once was. These are now people manipulating and binding themselves together to control the entire Skyland. I know how hard it is to accept what I am saying, but Valoran Breeze is a deceiver.
John / Doran:He doesn't care about any of you. He's after he wants to change the whole world for the worse, and we have to stop him.
Tim / GM:You see that at some point, people had run out of crystal space and were obligated to drop them, but your speech is recorded in its entirety and you see people eager enough to break away from this crowd to sprint to the mainstream to upload it. All of you know that by tomorrow morning, you're going to be the talk of the town. Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Yep.
Tim / GM:Yep. Yep.
Thomas / Guy:Did Dorn shoot his pants yet?
Hannah / Eryn:Yeah.
John / Doran:What I was trying to do is when I squish the cockroach, that's actually
Hannah / Eryn:gonna be shitty. My god.
John / Doran:Just to cover that up. No. Little prestigitation to disguise it. Okay. Snack that up.
Tim / GM:Let the performance check. Okay.
Hannah / Eryn:Jesus. This
Tim / GM:can unwind your entire 24. You're fine.
Thomas / Guy:Okay.
Tim / GM:You nailed it, Dora. And I think we'll end it there. Okay. Thanks everybody for listening. I'm Tim, your GM.
Maggie / Poppy:I'm Hannah, plain Erin. I'm Tara. I'm Journey.
Thomas / Guy:I was just trying to be fair. You know, I'm Thomas, and I'm Guy.
John / Doran:I'm John. I play Doran.
Hannah / Eryn:And I'm Maggie, and I play Poppy Kenmore.
Tim / GM:Share the show with people you love, and we'll see you in the next one.
