WWW #47: The Battle of Twelve Brooks Part 1

This is the sound of Worlds Beyond Number. The Epiphany, completed after five years of construction in 1662, was the largest Imperial skycraft ever built at the time of its construction, and was never matched in its age in terms of its overall combat capability nor number of battles seen. The fastest capital ship in the Kemsahra's fleet, the Epiphany, was originally constructed by high shipwright Augustus Hermonistrix in conjunction with Spellcraft by the wizard Swift, sword of the Citadel, for whom the ship was requisitioned. Inherited by the wizard Steel and her ascension to the Tower of the Sword in 1664, the Epiphany boasted 144 guns across six gun decks and was crewed by no less than 500 sailors of the Azure Battalion, 200 named cloaked wizards of the Citadel, 80 to 100 war mages, and a support crew of between 30 to 50 Timori-bound spirits and Imperial constructs, along with a staff of 90 pilots and artificers to serve the Epiphany's three dozen single-fighter Gallopthor support craft. Within over 20,000 yards of arcane ruby weave in the construction of its original, with the working of over a ton and a half of gold bullion in the threading of its Spellrobe warding, the Epiphany marked the single greatest expenditure of material resources in the Citadel's history to that point. The smallest of its arcane cannon contained in its Onyx basin over 1200 unique phrases in the lingua arcana in molten platinum script. Created by the Archmage Saber as the single greatest instance of skycrafting of its age, the Epiphany was so named for the hope that its mere appearance on the battlefield would be sufficient to inspire compliance and camaraderie in those yet to offer their full loyalty to the Khem-Sarr as an Empire. And this loyalty, it so inspires in the beleaguered Imperial soldiers of 12 Brooks as it descends from a fiery sky. Cheers erupt from the last soldiers of the garrison of 12 Brooks, looking up, not in reaction to a trap that had been set. No, a miracle. The cavalry has arrived, and all hope for the glorious Empire is not lost. Spell workers to moorie constructs raise their fists from the crumbling walls of 12 Brooks beyond the flickering spellcraft wording. Illuminated from the high gemstones of the old castle, an Imperial soldier raises a fist. The sword is here! The sword is here! Hooting and hollering at the approaching fleshcraft dreadnoughts that have inspired shuddering nightmares in every night previous to this one for that soldier. Crawling up through the rubble of the collapsed smuggler's tunnel, you are still well outside the outskirts of 12 Brooks. No longer measured in quarters of a mile, but you are probably, you know, more than 100 yards from the edge of the city. So the tunnel is your life's blood here, and you will need to try and seek it. To describe the landscape to you once more, the Imperial garrison behind that shimmering diamond fractured shield of warding magic around 12 Brooks, a vast army of goutmine. The houses rounds up Bahavi and Kashif. Enormous fleshcraft dreadnoughts, multiple spindly legs, long tentacles from the front of a featureless face. You see countless uniformed soldiers of goutmine. You see tall fleshcraft sorcerers. You see moats of light on the horizon, which take to be other sorcerers. You see that books that battle is about to be pitched and commenced and coming from the sky at the outer edge of that wave of fire burning underneath a stretch of the orange clouds. Sky ships drop down several dozen Imperial sky ships and at the front, the epiphany. For this combat, you are currently in range of hundreds and hundreds of opponents. It would be impossible to run this combat as a normal D&D encounter. So we are going to abstract this because it's about to get as bad as any of you have ever seen. So what I would like is for a luck check. This luck check is an abstraction of the horror that is less than a second away from unfolding. This luck check will determine the highest possible value that you can roll on any check you make. What? So if I get a 17, it means that you can roll any die on your turn that you want and the highest value you can get is a 17. What if I were to roll a 6? If you were to roll a 6, it would mean that the amount of horror visited upon your exact location makes competence impossible. Cool, cool, cool. We would pick a die. Don't fucking hate me. Together. We die together. That one. Okay. 16. 16. Thank you! Thank you! There is a moment where the perspective of the task you have come here to accomplish and its importance puts you at the center of your own story and suddenly you realize you are bugs that have crawled out of some rubble at the edge of one of the continent's largest events in its history. You are at an outcropping of rubble. You look around you and see combat commence. The front sky ships of the imperial fleet. Gallifopters, hundreds take to the sky. As they do so, you hear thin gow a mighty voice. Antony, charge! Bolts of lightning mixed with pure force begin to scour the earth. You see that there is about a 40-foot line of that for which it would be impossible for a mortal being to survive as it scours across the earth. As you are standing here, I need everyone here to make a dexterity saving throw. And remember, you cannot roll a 17 or higher. Fuck. So if I roll over a 17, I just have to say 16? Oh, 16, yeah. What'd you get? You got a 20? I got 19. You got a 19. I also got an 18. So 16. Six. Oh, plus. 11. 11. As you charge forward, Ursulon, you go prone farther out as you're leading the charge up out of the tunnel. The impact with which these arcane beams of lightning and force are hitting the ground, even farther away than puts you in any danger of being vaporized, is shaking the ground so hard that the top two feet of soil and the first three or four feet of air that is above the ground are mixing with the impact, like standing in front of a speaker. Just ground and air are mixing such that you are waiting and fall prone and sucking lungfuls of dirt and rubble as you hit the deck. Amé and Suvi leaping in front of you, Joran surrounds you with his body as you see just light and fire rain down an area of effect over you. Rings and discs of some green light move out in flat planes about maybe, you know, 60 yards away a front line of Antari, which is the gout word for cousins, which is also the word they use for foot soldiers. The front line of them are decapitated as behind them, you see several of them hit their chest and their foot soldiers grow to be about 12 feet tall. Just about 300 men become 12 feet tall as they start running. Up above you, you see one of the Kashifi dreadnoughts, lumbers forward as a ship goes to give it the side of its gun deck. It fires out, no effect on the dreadnought whatsoever, and as the ship peels away, the dreadnought's tentacles wrap around the back of the ship. It hits its engines, you see a blast of blue arcing fires, it tries to pull away. The dreadnought pulls it closer, you hear a maddening whispered screech from the opening of an orifice in between its tentacles, and those Shoran, the 20-foot-tall clawed sorcerer monsters, leap from the orifice from the carrier dreadnought, and just start slaughtering imperial wizards, imperial guild wizards by the bushel. One of them decapitates someone who spent 20 years unraveling the mysteries of the universe in a movement so fast it can't be perceived by your eyes. You look up and see in this moment that from the back ranks of the Gaoth army, several shadows begin to appear in space, almost like vapory shrouds. Under the orange clouds, these feel almost like two-dimensional flickering, tattered blankets of a dark charcoal smoke, and as they do, you begin to see the flicker of spirits of Nightmare just pour out of them. Holes in the sky, partially translucent demons, begin to pour out of them. You see them as faint vapor, but you see that on one of the Imperial Skyships, they do not see vapor. Their Nightmares have been called here to this place, and to them, they will be more real than any other part of this battlefield. The epiphany drops down and begins to charge directly towards the lead dreadnought that is leading the charge that you can see has its massive sort of fleshy and yet somehow insectoid body towering over the battlefield is swollen, its massive fleshy pouches full of Gaoth Kashifi soldiers, ready to break through the wards of twelve books. It is far in the lead and raises its tentacles up at the approach of the epiphany. The epiphany's front eight arcane cannon converge, fire, and seem to miss for a moment until you realize that all eight are firing at a point in space about 60 feet in front of the ship. Thin green lines of light converge to a single point, swell in a sphere of bright green light, and fire forward and hit the dreadnought in the center, pushing its fleshy corpus like a massive finger being dug into the stomach of an unsuspecting opponent. And yet it does not die. Instead, the green boom hits it. A shimmer goes over its skin as something very important is dispelled. The voice of the wizard steel calls out over the battlefield. VOLLEEEE! 1,600 irullian bolts emerge from the epiphany. Each of these bolts on average does three and a half points of damage. With the almost 1,000 person crew of the epiphany, all of whom are capable of casting this spell, 5,000 points of damage are dealt to the dreadnought, immediately vaporizing it, and unmaking every single soldier and sorcerer aboard. Zuvy, you are first to act as hell breaks loose and reality itself buckles under the weight of too many mortals who wield the power of the spirit, umora, and the dance between them. Okay, uh, looking around really quick. My eyes are on earth salon, but we popped up to like, you were up and out. You are the farthest out in front of the gout army. Go ahead and give me a perception check. Nine. Okay, it's so Joran's on top of you. You're looking out from underneath the buckles body through his limbs. You can see some of the sky. The light coming is messing with your ability to see because it is dark, it is dark clouds dark everywhere, dim orange glow, and then it'll be a blast of lightning that will fry your retinas for a second. Uh, you on a nine, you know the direction you are supposed to be heading in because you can feel the other shape changers coming out of the opening behind you. And you know from the map, it's supposed to be straight. The only issue is on a nine, you don't know how much collapse there is. You don't know it like if the whole rest of the tunnel collapsed, this opening could be all the way through a distant field towards like 12 brooks itself. Yeah. With that then, I'm going to point at Ursulon and cast message. Because now I know, shut up. Too many people are yelling orders and they'll start to hear things that don't sound like orders soon. So point, send message. Do you need help getting up? We have to get back into the tunnel. We're not safe up here. I'm fine. The opening should be forward. Cool. In the casting of that, I will bust out my first secret of the day, secret of the Twilight Crown. Uh, too much light play. I'm going to call the darkness, uh, from those clouds and reject the brightness of that light and give us like dim cover. You look up and as you call them, you have that last moment of looking all the way up to the top of 12 brooks. See the gleaming purple and green gem light of the old castle, the central garrison where the great bullfrog looked some few days ago and attempted to do what you now hope you might do in his stead. The children of the Grinnell, if they are anywhere, are there and it is your task to save them. Ursulon, what do you do? I assume that Suvi is charging forward. Ursulon, you're doing the same. Any action or bonus action? I will make the same check that Suvi attempted to make. I'm also looking for where on the battlefield is that, uh, how, how great was the collapse? Uh, go ahead and give me perception. Well, and that one will do. Oh, no. It is taking every bit of your concentration to try to find places to put your feet as the earth separates from itself. You look around, you can see the impact of these arcane cannon on the ground. Boulders are being lifted from the air by, by the impact of these. At any given moment, there are probably two or three score arcane cannon on the landscape around you, pummeling the hill sides, scorching the earth. You look behind you Ursulon and see a squadron of gout soldiers running. A cannon moves in front of them and you see, doesn't even hit them to vaporize them. Its impact on the ground buries 20 men alive. They are running, the beam hits the earth, mixes earth and air with the power of its thunderous impact and when it leaves, they are underground suffocating and dying. Ame. Ame charges forward, following hot on the heels of her friends. At any moment, she is ready to deploy a sound, a smell, a texture, anything to calm them should more horrors burst up right in front of them, ready in action. Incredible. I'm going to need an athletics or acrobatics check from everybody. You are running across difficult terrains, you only have half your movement available to you and it's going to be a DC 10 to stay headed in the right direction. That's a 16 total for Ame. 13 total for Ursulon. 7. You rush through the dark, Suvi, you call the darkness to yourself, you're moving through. You have dark vision when this is on, correct? So you are rushing forward as fast as you can. As you do Ursulon, you are following Suvi, you are protected by her magic in this moment. Ame, you are right behind her, but you can see as Suvi is charging forward that the natural slope of the hill is causing her to bear off right. You have spent around moving not away from your goal, but not in the correct direction for you. You are slightly off course in this moment. I'm going to need another luck check at the top of this next round. Lou, you do the honors. What's that? Oh, and that three. Oh, yeah. Charging forward. Suvi, your ears are ringing with the noise of shattering stone, shrinking, lightning, the explosions of flame. The shadows are protecting you in this moment. As they do so, you hear from behind you horns blowing until you realize it is the muffled roar of a dreadnought that still has voice somewhere in its body and no mouth. The deep base roaring of a monster crafted for the express purpose of war. As it sees a moving shadow, you are protected, but the spell has called the shadow down to it. What you look through your own shadow protecting you and one of the Zazzara, which are the openings into nightmare created by House Bahavi, opens overhead and shines shadow down on you as well. You feel bathed in the meaning of these shades called to this place. You see the dreadnought begins to barrel after you roar as this thing begins to roar and pursue you. And you see an imperial skyship, a royal skyship begins to move down as it pursues you. And you see huge lamps reigned by arcane light. And the darkness of your darkness ends. So you have a 60 foot radius. These 10 foot radius spotlights cut through it like lights in the deep ocean. You hug a tight circle in the center of this as the light cuts through and narrowly misses you. They are searching through your patch of darkness and you hear a voice in imperial call out and say darkness not sorcery as though that is significant to them for some reason. You see the dreadnought barrels down. This imperial skyship is charging for the dreadnought and then you realize no it's charging for your darkness. On an 18 initiative you see Yoren goes run, bounds away from you and he charges the dreadnought. He reaches the dreadnought, leaps halfway up to the first articulated knee joint of its many jointed leg. Climbing up like some great ape, he leaps to the top of its body, raises a claw as though he was going to strike it dead and instead grabs its flesh, faults into the air. For all his strength he need not even fly. He can leap anywhere on this battlefield he wishes to and he calls down to the shape changers back to them. Get them forward at any cost! He leaps through the air, claws up, grabs the prowl of the imperial ship coming for you, rips its front cannons off and begins to smash the deck of the ship apart with a massive old fist. You see the deck of that ship opens on him, rays of fire. The rullian bolts hit him to no effect. Suvianist moment you realize spells of third level and lower cannot affect Yoren. A guild archmage, one of the advisors to the court of the Saraz Imperium, comes out and levels a ray at his head, some powerful spell. You see Yoren begins to move across the deck, he sees the ray coming and as the ray is about to hit him in the head it is a what you believe to be a ninth level necromantic effect it is the highest possible killing spell that there is. He goes dead in his eyes dies before the ray touches him it blasts his head apart as he is throwing a punch and you see that the punch his talon fist turns into the head of a snake and the snake moves. Another spell comes down on him trying to cut the snake in half and he is a swarm of carrion birds of vultures that surround that mage pick him apart in a moment scatter his bones to the deck and suddenly he is vanished something the size of a beetle or a bug goes between the planks of the ship and moments later the garen reappears at the bottom of the ship hurling the arcane engine of the ship out into space as he rips it from the deck I'm dead okay we're on the right team oh god I'm feeling really good about the honestly three three is not that bad three is not that bad when you got Yoren you know but I think you see in this moment that you no longer have Yoren Yoren is gone from your company he is now clinging to a crashing sky ship probably now hundreds of feet away from you but has called to his other shapeshifters to get you to the tunnel as fast as they can. Fuck, Suvi just watches that and then turns and tries to reorient herself and does like a little look to Ursulon because I think he was the one that like clot like did you signal at all when you realized I was off course. I don't think so given the chaos but if we are able to make eye contact I think I will just kind of swing my arm this no no and it's just kind of pointing just gesticulating to the right to kind of get us back on the straight path from earlier. All Suvi needs is the no uh that means that she needs to like recheck herself can I make another check? Yes give me another check um you are going to be rolling with disadvantage but with the correction that Ursulon is making here you are only going to need a 10 to get back on course so you're rolling investigation with disadvantage. Okay. With a four on the die we get there. What are the skill checks or anything else that Ursulon and Ame are doing in this moment or are you just moving? Survive. Survive. Can I also uh in that realization like I can't do anything every one everything's being deleted and there's that moment where Suvi realizes that in all of her prep she assumed we would still be like sneaking through the tunnels and there would be more time and she hasn't cast mage armor on herself. Yeah. And it's the most like she casts it and it gives like a weird like reflection of the sky before disappearing and it looks like she just has her clothes on again but there's something in that like Joran's gone she feels exposed she casts mage armor she still feels exposed because this will mitigate damage but things aren't getting damaged they're getting deleted so she casts it and hauls ass. As we conclude your rent you guys get back on track but have not made progress and the dread knot is still barreling down. We're gonna roll another luck check on a one through five it gets within its reach of you. Anything else and you are going to be able to keep some distance ahead. A 16 or higher on this next luck check immediately finds the opening to the tunnel again okay? Erica you're gonna roll this luck check for us and the dread knot I want to be clear is it's a total party kill. It is of a challenge rating beyond one through six one through five one through five dread knot catches up and dread knot is a total party kill unless we can befriend it I'll make it ready. 16 or higher means you find the tunnel anything else means you continue to make progress through the darkness and the ash. It's a five. Oh no. I'd like each of you to pick a discrete number between one and ten. Don't. Okay. Two. Five. Four. Lou would you roll 2d10 for me? Four and three. Four and three. Who picked four? I did. One of the shape shifters in the form of a wolf next to you rushing forward the darkness as you guys stumble the the ground gives way the now the problem is that a landslide is starting a shale and rubble and ruined landscape just from the beating of the dread knots massive legs so as chasing you the tremors in the ground are causing you to slip and stumble next to you one of the shape changes a very sure-footed panther leaps forward scrambles for a second a tentacle whips from the sky grabs it strangle cracks the neck gone shape changer dead it's going to attack Ursula. What's your armor class 19 as the shape changer vanishes you wheel around shield up and are knocked back start easily sliding 10 feet across the rubble as the shield rings as a tentacle thick as an ancient tree lashes out from the sky. Honestly I'm kind of I'm kind of upright now you know that went as good as it could if it if I enrolled either of your numbers you'd be dead I have it like works I'm I'm right now I'm up I'm waiting for more description but I'm upright yeah Ursula of your many achievements as a warrior you have survived the blow of a kashifi dread knot unbelievable um Brennan yeah how would you classify a dread knot uh in terms of its creature type yes aberration okay yeah that feels appropriate but you'd say it was a creature yes and it just attacked Ursula yes correct well Ursula carrying the little doodle of the fox on his shield as my token being attacked by this creature means that light would probably read the tentacle that struck him and curse it oh shit let's go retributive curse the activation is harm yes creature attacks or deals damage to you you're familiar or a creature holding a token or talisman you created you tell me which of these curses you want to use let in shoes unbelievable and also because it has transgressed against a witch of umora you have offered no harm or insult to this beast it has lashed out at one who carries your token there is no saving throw the curse simply takes effect as the tentacle whips forth to strike at bursalon it is met with that same glowing fox fire from basement it breathes the tentacle it shoots upwards coating the entire and suddenly it feels heavy it's so so very heavy it slows to crawling molasses and it has let in shoes it cannot move faster than five feet and it cannot take opportunity attacks opportunity attacks for a group of people in its 50 foot tentacle reach is pretty huge um uh uh i'm a standing in witchcraft you stand and you see this creature suddenly hobbles its knees buckle under its own weight as a massive you can feel the atmosphere from directly over to the top of the sky compress with a burden of responsibility for the wrong it has committed in this place i would like you immediately uh erica with that dope ass move to roll and uh luck check with advantage let's go take it 12 okay 12 12 means you could potentially uh uh there's so 12 opens up a range of possibilities depending on the skills you are using uh you guys are going to surge forward from here just think cannot take opportunity attacks you put distance in between you and the dreadnought behind it running up seeing it hobble you see the ontari charging the foot soldiers of the army of gautham i 12 feet tall and they just look so small you see them charging and in the front with a beautiful polished helm and a long nose guard padded armor of purple and indigo with gold brocade you see a 12 foot tall sorceress foot soldier a double bladed staff a staff that ends in two curving blades on each end is running long strides and as he looks up at the hobbling dreadnought you see in a flash of fire you get a good look at his face this giant who is under the effects of a first level spell an enlarged spell uh is probably about 17 years old uh and as the dreadnought hobbles you uh see true fear strike his face uh and realize that much like you this is the first time this soldier has ever seen combat in this moment there may be no lesson here for ame but it is a moment of your station and for a moment across this blasted wasteland you see that a 17 year old is probably about to meet his death having traveled across the world from some homeland that you and your friends may never see i'm going to need everybody here to tell me what they're doing with their turn suvi is absolutely gripped in that animal fear but she's a pack animal and the moment something in the herd looks weaker she knows to throw up signals for it the moment ame makes that reaction happen and this dreadnought is letting and pointed out suvi points up to the sky and fires off just a burst of white hot fire that's so deeply flavored like the sun and sand of the irrelian desert that anyone looking will know that this is an imperial a citadel like mark and i want to try to mark that dreadnought for everyone looking up to go this one's week in for it as we run hell yeah go ahead and give me an arcana check not in order to cast the spell but in order to cast the spell persuasively and clearly 21 in the far distance you see the epiphany slow and begin to turn uh irsalan and ame irsalan on the ground alive feels hope feels like bringing himself here he has purpose and he will not die here and i think it's instinctively going to cast bless as he thinks and looks at the shield and its tree and its fruit and i think the wind kicks up looking up to the clouds overhead an imperial craft that does not appear to have the long keeled aft and stern hull of a normal dirigible or sky vessel it is instead under the sphere of a hot air balloon with four quadrants some sort of helicopter blades a kind of stationary hub craft but absolutely enormous in size behind the swiftly maneuvering capital ships and battleships and frigates of the fleet a platform that you can see smaller than grains of sand seven figures standing on a platform at the top of that station in a massive crystal disc set into a marble stone platform each raise their staves point it at a single point in the sky and you watch as a 200 foot by 200 foot golden square of light appears at the bottom of the clouds and shimmers almost like a gilded picture frame emerging from that golden square a dragon lowers its head and as it pushes through the threshold of the frame you see golden chains stretch along its cheeks find itself in its jaws wrap around its horns and eyes and keep it partially within that golden frame its body turning into vapor and mist as though that golden frame were just some portal from somewhere else perhaps somewhere else familiar and a line of steaming arcane acid billiards yellow stretches across the wasteland and obliterates a battalion of gout soldiers as this dragon vomits forth its terrifying breath ruining the land here for living life for generations to come i love the cast off collection fuck you guys fuck you guys i quit i'm going home that's dope that's dope but i like it i don't care i don't care i especially love the chains and the cheeks part you know it's not even like a manacle around the neck no no we have to get him to do this part as well it is the next turn i would love a luck check uh from uh suvi here um reminder nat 20s are gonna break through the difficulty of finding entrances lowered to a 15 but this is just a luck check for the round 16 on the dice 16 on the die okay as you are charging forward go ahead and give me any checks you're making to find the entrance back to the smugglers tunnel 21 rushing forward through the rubble you suddenly feel yourself and slide hitting on your back and suddenly vanish for a moment thinking death and ruin awaits you and instead slide into the darkness of an open hole into the far end of the tunnel where it picks up again after the collapse you have found it you have made it oh we leave initiative as you surge into the darkness rubble ash noise violence and suddenly the welcoming cool of tunnel reopening with each footstep farther and farther from the chaos and nightmare of the battle unfolding outside the cool stone the falling earth from the impacts up above dust and debris roots growing in through the tunnel still ushers you forward into darkness and safety moving forward as fast as you can there is a moment where you feel far enough that there is a moment to stop and catch your breath and check in on one another the wolf beside you turns to face the other shape changers of which there are now only two leona and one other uh she looks back out uh and barks at the beginning of the tunnel turning back she says separated do you see them fall and you see that next to her that a mountain lion shakes its head back and forth all right they may have joined your and turns to face you uh you see the fox uh looking around you are back in the tunnel uh do you continue forward ercelin looks to his true friends just gauging harm yeah i'm okay are you okay i'm fine i'm fine okay pull out the map double check this tunnel will lead you into the western part of 12 brooks uh the the sort of western ward of the city you don't know exactly where it will end up the map was drawn uh again over dinner on a piece of butcher's paper and does not have a block by block depiction of the city but you know it will let out somewhere on the western half of the city which is the half facing combat it will continue probably to another sluice there'll be another great past that great will be the end of the smuggler's map it will be you in the city together all right so we'll emerge somewhere in the city we'll make our way to the central garrison find the children and in terms of escaping i i have a knife that might be able to point our way but oh oh you were uh the sea glass that you took off of keen yes it's a teleport spell oh there are usually limits to how many people it is i don't know how many kids are going to be there i don't know if it's more than a we can't take more than a dozen but an unlimited number of people can go through a door and i hold up one of the doorknob one of the doorknob's all right okay so we find a door get the kids through they wait at your house mm-hmm we stay behind neif pin a note to the front child you see the fox goes there she is close the doors we stay behind take out the doorknob take out the doorknob teleport and catch up yeah i like it that's a very good escape plan okay now we just have to deal with the fact that i think there is a new version of the calabal non-omatic apparatus sort of sitting on top of the garrison the lights were the same yeah i do want to point out that the two remaining of the three here that hold power as great spirits are the queen of coins and the stranger the one that came to the cottage your point just that one of those two could show up i'm going to ask a question and i understand that comes with the sort of loaded energy from me if one of them shows up do you want that to happen no because now the arc the archmages know how to capture them exactly or destroy them i also feel ame when we arrived here the spirit is gone there is something this place is a wasteland what do you mean there is no song the great roll frog is gone he's gone not captured the way naram was i think he's truly gone urselon is going to look to suvi and would like to make an insight check urselon recognizes the ship we've traveled on it before i think urselon is going to give you it's just a one sofa but it is trying to see if there is a part of you that is i think also with the spell the white the marking spell that didn't feel like it was for our benefit i think it's just going to glance over at you and an insight check with regard to suvi's feelings about the possibility that steel is here give me an insight check and persuasion or deception your call six fifteen what does urselon read on suvi what you clock off of her words and why they are so careful is not that she's trying to like the carefulness is not about placating you or convincing you of her affiliation she is trying to mentally step around the problem she hasn't solved yet which is my mother is here and she knows that i'm here and she will find me i don't know how to get i don't know like that's the variable she can't deal with yet and because she doesn't have a solve for it she's trying to step around it but at like you know suvi well enough to know that like that is a thing of concern not her like not trying to play her hand got it but it doesn't feel like there's a part of you that's not here focusing on it she's thinking about it but it's very much in the like i'm trying to grab variables and solve them okay i'm thinking about this walk around the thing steel is so big in her mind that you you are watching her try to circumnavigate a thing that she doesn't even know how to begin to tackle you move forward through the tunnel and arrive at an iron sluice you once again hear more crisply the distant sounds of combat and war only because you are nearer to fresh air once again after being deep underground looking out through the sluice under the dim orange light you see a curving street of cobblestones moving down this great is supposed to dump floodwater or rainwater out onto the street which itself has more storm drains underneath it you think this is like a foundation or buttress wall of a neighborhood above you so like a big curving wall that follows a road with houses and shops on top of it sort of raised up in a raised neighborhood looking at the sluice you think this loose is probably about not an easily jumpable distance but probably about four or six feet up on the side of the wall so you're kind of looking down at the road curving away anyone who wants to can make a perception check for me what's our upper limiter again we are out of luck checks this this area now that we're back now that you have found a little bit of quiet and have moved away from combat your actions are your own again copy we are not at the vagaries of insane luck right now eight for us a lot 23 for am a 18 for suvi great uh am a walking up towards the sluice you notice that in between the slats of the great there is small sort of metal 10 mesh like of a screen like that you see on a screen door or something like that uh that appears to be added here recently yes it is not of the making of 12 books you can see that these grades have been uniformed the the one back in the smugglers cave did not have it uh this mesh would be to like keep mice or insects from traveling through but that's sort of a that there's a this degree of that why would 12 brooks care that like as flood water gushed out into a storm drain that like there's a bug in there and i'll ask for a luck check from lue here different kind of luck different kind of luck different kind of luck check six uh you are quite near the harbor with the entire length of the city up to the garrison which is you think probably why it's your so there was probably not a world where 12 brooks designed a flood water sort of like escape route to come to the top of their town it was probably always going to be like this that it was going to come down here and be near the harbor and looking at uh looking at the grate this there's a new part that has been added that is not for the purpose of what 12 12 brooks would need i pointed out this mesh has been added recently can i give it another look but use investigation instead yeah go for it 25 without even needing to cast detect magic you become aware of an alarm spell this is magically trapped what what can we use can we use the agent yes we can and i've got three three vials so uh i'll use separate from r2 yes i got two uh from three from my guys uh we got yeah we have two for my guys and i had one from earlier in the arc okay incredible uh so yeah i'll use the oldest stuff okay you get the oldest stuff pop the quark uh pour it out and watch as the dispelling agent it's only a first level spell uh completely erases the mesh and the mesh actually just dissolves like sugar and water i will need everyone here to give me a perception check and what i would like is for ursalon to do that with advantage i'd like you to roll separately for the fox and roll with advantage for him ah fun 16 on the dive for the fox okay 11 for ursalon 16 for suvi 22 for ame ame as suvi uncorks the bottle and the mesh disappears you smell beeswax fabric and you smell you smell ghost do i smell it no from the dispelling agent yes the little girl the little cofam ursalon you see some of the agent dripping down the steel grate in front of you a single drop oh we never found her we sent her and lost track of her we have to go to carol they have her in their court the glass cornet yes we'll save her we have to save the children first we will it's okay i don't need to be comforted that was for me forward then i'm gonna open the sluice you push the sluice out and it hits the ground in front of you as you leap out to the street remembering a young girl and a stone construct carrying the blood of spirits an artificer with a talent for dispelling and an eight gift arriving out on the street the hana and her wolf form the panther beside her she turns up to you and says do you want us to scout ahead if we can or do you want us to is it more important for you to be stealthy or is it more important for you to uh have a fighting force with you i would lean stealth we are few we are strong but if we can avoid if we can avoid combat i believe we should as long as we can we'll provide you cover a lot of turns over to her companion and each of them turns into a small winged bird one of them a crow and you see another one turns it into a dove flies off we are going to uh be making checks to get up through 12 brooks i'd like each of you to roll a d4 for me four two three we rolled a four a two and a three for a total of nine nine checks there gonna be nine checks to get through here is there anything you do out on the street as you look up at the shadow roads most buildings in this part in the wide western ward of 12 brooks most buildings have between one and two walls left standing it is skeletal rubble filled waste with enough gasps of buildings left to obscure visibility to stand in the way to as you move through these winding cobblestone streets in a city that came up very organically on a hillside this is probably one of the last good views you'll get of the garrison before you have to dive into the destroyed honeycomb of 12 brooks i'd like to make a check on the garrison looking at it from a distance okay is there anything else of architectural or landscape significance or um uh some sort of a hidden path there is near to the water tort where the empty crater of lake padstone begins you see that there is a cracked or a sort of amphitheater uh down near the base of the city uh with its stone benches largely cracked in some impact of arcane cannon and you see that there are waterways going up the waterways are not smooth they are rock filled and filled with boulders that you know any moss or plant vegetation has died under the ash and ruin here but there's a decision that i will allow you to make here in this moment the waterways are go unfailingly to the old castle but they are the most exposed to the sky they are the most exposed to those who would watch and see them as pathways i will allow you to cut the number of checks you need to make in half by going up the waterways and you will roll all of them with disadvantage amai peers up at the garrison at the top of what seems to be an insurmountable hill and notices that the pathways that lead down to it though dry are direct can we get up there without being seen i can be invisible for an hour we should and the shadows will guide us all right up the waterways then what is the shadows will okay bristolan is going to follow the path that amai has laid out and i think open up his divine sense and call on the on the promise that was made the previous night promise of the man in black to a spirit of freedom to be free is to be unimpeded and the shadows will not betray you each step of yours guarded by the power of night and the promise of unfettered travel not only for yourself but in the spirit of true liberation for those under your protection amai and suvi you watch the shadows of the waterways of 12 brooks stretch not at the command of versallan but simply in deference to who and what he is as though the very force of nature itself knew in its heart that this was simply the way of things we are going to begin we are going to cut down to five checks from nine you're going to make them with disadvantage they are group stealth checks additionally your two shape changers that are running interference for you are going to give you two re-rolls all right for an individual a nat one should it be rolled is an immediate encounter with the garrison forces here within 12 brooks additionally for each of the five rolls we are going to roll and lock check as well and on a one through four you will encounter a group it does not mean that you will be spotted but there will be an encountered group there all right top heat let's get our first stealth check versallan's rolling straight because of your boots suvi and amai are rolling with disadvantage but you are now adding plus 13 to your check do i still have disadvantage if i cast invisibility on myself oh if you cast invisibility i will say you will roll with advantage if you have invisibility of yourself i've come upon a second problem suvi goes to cast invisibility as she did for the first time when they were making their way through the shroud mountains and she reaches for her ring and it's not there anymore i don't have an arcane focus anymore no i've cast magic since then i just don't know how i did it now that i'm thinking about it you need to get a war staff somewhere in the city okay uh i need it'll be fine what do you need i don't have my ring anymore i don't know how to cast without it we'll find you what you need him okay let's go ahead you'll be rolling with disadvantage i'm able to roll disadvantage you roll for the fox as well with disadvantage we'll add a 15 irislan you're rolling straight it's a natural one natural one irislan 29 amai 16 and then for the fox nine on the die plus 15 is 24 uh the nat one is going to trigger in this moment unless you use one of your shape changer uh re-rolls i personally would like to yeah yeah 100% just laughing and i'm trying not to like say things and sound gleeful amai leading up through the waterway that you found that goes to the garrison give me our luck check for this first of five checks 12 okay uh nat one we're gonna re-roll that yeah great 22 you see uh when you're out through the waterway there is a slip on stone and a loud noise uh however uh nearby you see that the guard tower overlooking this section you look up waiting to have been spotted from that loud noise you've just made uh and look up and see a dark red trickle from the watch tower and an imperial guard's limp hand hanging over the side i think it's very clear to both of you that see these bell looks rung now it's okay i'm sorry it's i'm sorry it's not okay i'm here for you and i tap you hold your hand again guidance breathe and i tap my fingers in your hand in a little rhythm to your breath and she taps back matching it thank you there is going to be another check go ahead and give me stealth 26 30 20 23 for amai and the fox incredible uh abria would you give me the lock check i'm gonna throw up 14 okay uh you make your way through a long straighter broader area of the waterway you look out into a small square you see what looks like a strange stone and then you rise actually just an enormous mold covered wheel of cheese broken on the ground nearby moving through a long straight away we're gonna make our third of five checks as you get into the heart of the city up near its academic center go ahead and uh go ahead and give me another stealth check 21 for suvi 19 first one 21 for amai 24 for fox okay uh lu go ahead and give me our lock check 17 mother fucker fuck you 17 moving up through uh the academic section of town um you see the ruins of a library and an academy you see amongst the rubble uh sticking out uh the shape of those that stood at the door of the academy begging that the building be left to stand go ahead and give me another stealth check this is going to be our fourth of five 22 for suvi 19 again 21 for the fox 15 for amai amai you look and for the first time in the ruins of this place you see what feels like a warm and inviting splash of color there is the remains of an archway and you see streaking color across the ground in front of it there is something up ahead that looks like it's hard to tell if it's magic right now at this distance or there's ash and debris around but there just seems like a splash of color on the street that catches your eye you stop for a moment you're unfortunately you are a little bit short so you're gonna have to like hoist yourself up to get a better look at it i have to look i look as you clamber up the archway leads to the ruins of a weavers guild and there is a shattered amphora of dye clay on the ground what looked from a distance like magic is simply the ruins of the beautiful workings of this place of artistry and wonder as you clamber to the boulder there is a slip of a stone and you are hit with a fairy fire spell roll initiative 16 for amai 16 for uslan nine for suvi okay wheeling around you see them immediately uh amai as you come up across the surface you see that there is a wizard of the citadel standing a blue robed wizard holding a staff of the citadel who has just cast fairy fire at you from an open window in basically a free standing section of wall and so it has partial cover and running around the corner you see two imperial infantry with uh with matchsticks running forward you see this small area here behind the wall here you can see that there is a tarp over two or three boxes of munitions with a broken wheelbarrow it looks like this group was accompanying a wizard up to a gunning station up towards the garrison bringing supplies from down and this wheelbarrow broke and pinned them down here in the middle of the city and just has the look on the wizard's face having cast fairy fire is that he has been chattering his teeth feeling that some bird or insect or invisible thing was about to crawl over the wall and kill him maybe for the past day or week amai pushing yourself over you here as a spell illuminates you in glittering citadel light you are now a beacon down here even though the shadows no longer betray you the part of you up over the riverbank is covered in this blinding light you take 10 points of damage from a bolt of flame first to act as these sleep deprived exhaust malnourished soldiers leap into action is going to be Ursulon and Amé sharing an initiative of 16 I think Ursulon continuing to move with shadow is going to pop out and move swiftly and directly toward the imperialist who just hit Amé okay so you staying in the gulch rush in the opposite direction from the charge in imperial infantry leap up behind them and close around the side of the wall before the wizard knows anything is going on he whiffs around to see a spirit barreling down on him go ahead and take your action I will be attacking and for the first time in this campaign you will be attacking twice in one action do I have advantage yes you do an 18 on the dime hits yes it does seven points of damage you kill seven points of damage to this wizard he looks injured uh and cries out you see in reaction he casts a shield on himself that your sword uh breaks through uh you have your second attack 14 14 does not hit you slashed him for seven points of damage yeah uh as he uh moves back trying to get away from you as fast as possible Amé that is your turn Amé snaps her fingers and sparks ignite into a flame in her hands she rolls it at the cart of munitions I also had like explosive ordinance question mark yes yeah hell yes uh give me an attack roll um you are trying to overcome eight points of damage to ignite the cart 23 that is a hit go ahead and roll damage five oh the munition cart catches fire behind you and the fire takes uh you will be able to roll that damage again on the next turn and if you do the last three points of damage it's gonna go up uh Ursulon you see this great uh Suvi that is gonna be your turn Suvi still bell rung feeling weird about her magic but there are easier spells things that don't require focus and concentration that she has practiced so many times that she doesn't need to think about them to cast them I reached to that and even though this spell will come off with all of the heat of the arulian desert because that's the way she was trained to cast it I will growl in gout light of the tower and hit that same conflagration again great if you hit you just need to do three points of damage to it 19 plus seven 26 26 go ahead and roll damage nine points of damage I'm gonna use dexterity saving throw from Ursulon and I'm gonna need one from this wizard of the citadel as well nine for Ursulon oh no Ursulon you take 15 points of fire damage as does the wizard and he is torn to shreds Ursulon you watch as his body breaks buffeted more by the wind from the explosion it's more that his spine snaps from just the concussive force though the flame does push him almost on top of you badly sincing you for 15 points of damage I want to turn to the two infantrymen and do my best approximation of speaking imperial with a gout accent okay you don't have to die here run away go tell them the munitions blew up go ahead and give me intimidate we're gonna call this a difficulty of 17 14 okay hearing the gout the words in gout you see that the the infantry are shaking malnourished and have completely ejected from their conscious minds they are pure training the imagery fire twice and both miss and are going to rush down the street not taking their full movement because they're firing their opening actions but looking for cover once again to continue to fire on you Ursulon and army that is your turn Ursulon's going to chase them down okay they are within range for you you barrel forward go ahead and take your attack on the first one 27 on the first attack hits go ahead and roll damage 14 points of damage dead second one 20 hit non-native seven points of damage badly injured but still standing Ursulon rushes forward slashes across the chest instantly killing one and the other drops his staff to the ground and stabs straight through the shoulder the point of your blade exiting out through his back army there's one soldier left with a very small amount of eight points left once again army snaps her fingers a ball of flame appears in it and she hurls it at the soldier go ahead and make your attack roll with advantage 18 that's a hit six points witch fire you saw it the first time in port Talon burning the fields outside the city summon to your hand it launches forward as the imagery man raises his staff lowering it point blank at Ursulon's chest the sword pulled from his shoulder the fire finds the wound and spreads through his body his eyes glow with flame before erupting and he falls to the ground dead the noise of the explosion has attracted attention and you can see lights beginning to move towards this work of the city minor illusion i make it look as if somebody has run down another alley in the opposite direction a figure disappears into the shadow lights begin to follow behind it we are going to have to re-roll our fourth stealth check with the attention that has been brought here in this moment 21 23 23 for Amé 22 for Fox incredible as you see lights follow that shape Ursulon you are standing in between two fallen infantry soldiers Suvi you are standing in the bank here as well do you what do you do in this moment as attention comes to this area Ursulon just looks to his friends quickly and is going to kind of uh motion and begin to move in the same direction they were moving earlier okay Suvi what do you do Suvi's eyes are locked on the staff where that wizard fell but she's like she isn't moving yet Suvi I'm better in a fight if I have to I don't have anything I can't I killed we don't all know each other but Suvi is cursed with an incredibly good memory yeah do I know the wizard I killed do I recognize the wizard I killed give me a history check dc 10 16 uh the wizard shilling yeah okay I think you see the like whatever Suvi's been circling the drain for a while if there is light behind her eyes it's out now the wizard shilling was a uh uh understood to be one of those that barely clears the bar an example of uh some older arch magi who talk about the needs of empire needing a flourishing citadel has hurt the standard to which a name cloak used to be held uh but he's dead now so he won't be spoken up in that way anymore let's go then I run final stealth check 19 for fox 22 for ame 25 15 Suvi would you go ahead and roll our luck check here as well 15 okay and we have a this is our last roll this is your last roll and we have one reroll you have one reroll left and I'm gonna ask Suvi do you want to keep that 15 stealth check no okay reroll your stealth 21 okay okay you make it up the waterways which is the best move you could have made because every gate and every drawbridge into the old castle is crawling not only with infantry but with constructs to moori and the heart of the last standing garrison of the empire here in 12 brooks sneaking in between now massive boulders for indeed this moat around the castle must be mighty you are 30 feet down in what could end up being 30 feet of water if the bullfrog had not been destroyed you look up and can see crackling up above on a bridge almost out of sight through the ash and debris of war the menacing visage of a fiery to moori with numbers ready to spell out his version of a name his eyes glance and before he alights on you and casts himself the distant howl of a wolf draws his attention instead you look and hear at the bottom of the moat you see up amongst the now dried slime and algae that once accompanied it ledges where frogs once sang and an iron gate that leads into dungeons in the bottom of the castle out of sight of the garrison above which is the map show about this part the old castle was a haunt of rum runners and smugglers that came here um there were gates under the surface of the water but they got sealed up with iron but they lead to uh sub aquatic there's there are some some sort of water docks in the dungeon of the castle for row boats and things like that like there's a little z cave river z cave here at the bottom of the castle but it'll be completely dry now and perhaps the old catacombs under the castle that were sealed up might be accessible from this point you think that this door is not uh uncommon and you also see that the spell energy being projected from the castle around the city means that this castle is not being guarded like the city is being guarded does that make sense yeah it's it's they're keeping the outer wall so the inner wall is not where their focus is right now what's the space between us and is it a matter of climbing it's about it across the moat it's about a 20 foot climb okay earth salon is going to step up to suvi would you like to stay here what why what what what are you saying you seem distract you don't seem present you've been through so much and i understand that do you i understand that you have been through a great deal i do not feel the way that you do i could not understand that but i understand that there is immense weight on you however the weight that carries me pushes me forward if the weight that you carry holds you down and in this moment i would leave you here and come back for you when there is time suvi's face moves from shock to like the beginning of a snarl you don't make it out of here without me we'll see about that earth salon is going to turn cast jump on himself jump 18 feet straight up into the air and reach the great you reach the great effortlessly boom land in front of it as you do you look in and see cool damp masonry walls the beginnings of catacombs under the castle tiny cramped hallways aqueducts places where water is supposed to move through and and maybe even some old drowned chambers sealed up in some ancient history of the castle here uh it looks like a honeycomb in this place uh what do you do as you reach the great hommie do you have rope i always have rope and i uh i toss it up to you i attach it to the great okay so that they have an easier time you attach it to the great blue and drop the rope behind uh and i proceed it you get to the great pull it open attach the rope move into the catacombs ame and suvi the rope lands in front of you what do you do i grab the rope but i look back at suvi he is driven by something i cannot even begin to feel and i cannot even begin to understand everything that you have gone through in the last couple of days you are so brave you are so clever and i would not leave you i could not make it out of here without you because i would not suvi suvi gives a little nod she's nodding along with ame's words not seem unaffected by them she's wrong but trying to be present i think she just gives a little tilt of her chin and goes go ame wants to go and knows she has to go to help but i think she wants to give suvi the choice to feel like she has a choice because right now suvi is being forced once again to choose between everything she has grown with and everything she has ever loved and been loved by and her true friends and the things that she knows she wants now and to be pushed into a corner like that and forced in that way is not something that ame wants to see her do the bridge between the spirit and the mortal stands holding a rope to follow her true friend the spirit into the darkness of an old castle and a wizard who gazes upon the fruits of empire the light of the tower the harbor of suvi's life and the unfair things that have been asked of her is a choice that should not be asked of her you have told suvi that you do not wish to leave her here the rope can be left here for her but your presence by it is a demand you make upon her she knows you are with her the choice to follow must be hers and hers alone i love you and i start to climb the rope and watch them go suvi steps up to the rope it would be so much easier if i could just stop here i'm so tired wizards are known by their secrets i've learned too much truth it's worse than i ever expected it's bad all the way down and i don't even know how to help anymore i have no focus i can't focus and if i'm not my best for them they can't fail because i can't focus i don't know how long it's been but i hold the rope and i wait long moments pass the western sky is hell itself you see glimmering for a moment a point of clean light appear concentric circles lined with runes stretching some 120 feet in all directions begin to spin in the manner of a gyroscope of light and figures arithmetic and language arcane around the figure of the wizard slain who appears in the sky lowering a staff of the leader of the citadel's warm ages he carves a line into the heart of one of the shahoran destroy one of the sorcerers below raising up his staff he begins to absorb protecting the warm ages around him as best he can and the sun rises in the west a sorcerer so radiant as to blinding the sun blinding you even some miles away hangs in the air and extends a finger towards the wizard slain beckoning him towards the light and the wizard slain is unmade you look and see crowned in light and gold a robe and cloaks some 40 feet in length twisting nobly in the wind behind him the first one set of arms a second and a third as harmas ronza leader of house ronza appears in visage over the battlefield as he appears points of light begin teleporting and some hundred nobles of the house of ronza appear on the battlefield from across the wide world of the mora he points forward towards 12 brooks the dreadknots converge and as he raises his hand he opens a door in space hundreds of spirits bound to the house of ronza the bashal the spirits of those of his house that failed the trial of their ordeal to enter into sorceress covenant with their noble lineage who now bear the heads and wings of white eagles made of blinding light wielding broadswords double-handed curved at the end fly forward gushing onto the battlefield a cheer goes up from the forces of gouth my for the conteran art for ronza as the lord of house ronza holds his hands wide it is here we make an end to their tower a white cape streaking through the sky from the epiphany a flash of steel a glint of a sword a bubble forms around the leader of house ronza and a white cloaked woman with auburn hair who hangs in the air before him time slows she twists her wrist turning her sword 90 degrees to the right all of the world is mapped out like a map of the stars your own body is simply lines and the names of your joints and blood vessels she twists to the left raising the sword up in front of her in guard position vertical matching her straight spine all the world is rendered in black and white as though drawn in charcoal on fresh paper she levels it straight out floating in air written in the lingua arcana is simply her name cloak the wizard steel and before her the symbol of house ronza with her off hand she touches that symbol undoing his true name in front of her she points draws her sword back the image fades it never happened it was just a dream how could she have changed the nature of the world itself the point of her sword at his heart you shouldn't have brought so many of your grandchildren old man who pushes the sword through his heart blood bursts like a wave from his back killing not only him but each and every one of his children grandchildren and great grandchildren on this battlefield who fall like rain from the sky their light extinguished the sword of the citadel hangs in the air as the leader of a great house falls before her blade the cheer from gautama dies as quickly as it was born suvi what do you do you