Arc 3 Ep. 8: Castle Chaos Continued
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This season, Instacart has your back to school. As in, they've got your back to school lunch favorites, like snack packs and fresh fruit. And they've got your back to school supplies, like backpacks, binders, and pencils. And they've got your back when your kid casually tells you they have a huge school project due tomorrow.

Let's face it, we were all that kid. So first call your parents to say I'm sorry, and then download the Instacart app to get delivery in as fast as 30 minutes all school year long. Get a $0 delivery fee for your first three orders while supplies last. Minimum $10 per order. Additional terms apply. Rotators, what's happening? It's me, Jas William Cartwright, back again for the finale of Arc 3. That's right, Arc 3, Episode 8.

Boy, what a journey it has been to get to this point. I just wanted to jump on and say hello. Thank you so much for listening. I really appreciate... We really appreciate you being here. Just wanted to throw out... If you wanted to support the show and maybe...

you don't want to head over to the Patreon or enjoy listening to it on the public feed, it would be really amazing if you could take just a second to drop us a rating on whatever podcasting app you're using. It really helps people find the show and, you know, helps us get new rotators into the family and that would make a big, big difference for us. So if you have literally two seconds whilst you're listening to this episode, just scroll down, drop us a little five-star rating and maybe say a little bit why you love the show. It really helps. But, um...

Yeah, you're all awesome and I hope you're having a great day. Make sure you have a drink. Hydrate. And... Oh yeah, and don't forget, if you're in the UK, there's still time to get tickets to see Three Black Halflings live. You can come and see me, hang out with me. Be great fun! Okay, catch you later. Bye! Welcome back to the Rotating Heroes podcast. I am joined, as always...

For the last time by the Rotators of the Third Arc, and that's last time in a campaign episode in the Third Arc specifically, so not really the last time. I'm joined by the Rotators of the Third Arc. You know them, you love them. I have a couple questions for them as I bring them on. First, we have the Loxodon Druid Grib. Jacob Wysocki, how are you doing? What's up? What's up?

I'm great. Happy to be here. I mean, happy to have you. Quick question. Did anyone send you a picture of them getting a bagel with their babe? No. Honestly, no. No one got a bagel with their babe? I mean, it's sad for me that I didn't get to see it. It's sadder for them that they didn't get a bagel with their babe. It sounds nice, and it's sad to not have any photographic evidence of that, but maybe next. I feel like

In the future, if anyone goes out and gets a bagel with their babe, I'd love to see a photo. Please tweet at, you know, Jacob Wysocki and then also Jacob. Please let me know. Yeah, well, I'll give you a reply and then you can see what's going on. But please, bagel with the babe. Only tag me after you've signed off that it's a bagel and a babe.

Zach almost passed away saying the phrase, beg a little bit. Beg a little bit. Well, as I pass away, well, let's move on to our next rotator. You know them once again as the Clank Queen herself. We have Victoria Longwell. Victoria, how are you doing? I'm everyone. How are you doing? Oh, I'm doing great. Thanks. Yeah.

I did. Did anyone you had a different one? Wait, what was it? I just listened to it. God damn it. Do you want me to tell you? No, no. Hold on. I know it.

God damn it. This is driving me nuts. I just had it. I should have written it down. Oh, well, I guess we've missed it and I've lost. Victoria, what is it? Well, everybody else must have forgotten, just like you, because I didn't get any pictures of summer quilts. And I know you're out there using summer quilts. They're just being selfish about it.

No photos whatsoever. I want to see them. I could use a summer's quilt. We got ours and I think it's really made a difference. I don't think I've ever seen a summer quilt, but in my mind it looks like a spider web. And that's why it's for the summer because it can catch a breeze. Wow. It's got some holes in it. It's just a fishing line crossed together. Yeah.

It's the net. Well, hey, again, maybe we'll find some more photos of this in the coming months. Summer's not over. Summer's not over. And I hope you're right, Zach. And, you know, last but not least, we have the newly minted werebear, Rufus Cutler. We have Devin Field. Devin, how are you doing? I'm doing well. Thank you. Happy to be here. Honored for this final go around.

It's an honor to have you. Let's do those predator handshakes where we clasp arms. It's a Roman handshake. You're checking for daggers. Oh, I didn't realize that's the root of that. Yeah, I always thought it was the predator handshake. You're checking for arm grenades and ejecting blades. Predators have those, right? Yes. Devin, did anyone send you pictures of bears in the water? They did.

I had three people send me things. What the hell? Three people? User Bad Weather is their Twitter display name. Send me a picture of a bear in a bathtub. Very fun. No notes. Cute.

Bear taking a bath. User Katie Husk sent me a video of a bear swimming across the Salmon River in Idaho, a river I have rafted down. Cool. Are you in the background of the footage? Yeah, I was in it. So in that sense, I was sort of incepted into that footage. That's not really a good use of the verb incepted as it was used in the movie. The point is, I was there.

And then also someone sent something to me that is sort of a depiction of Rufus and Freya. It is not a bear swimming in water, so not at all what I requested, but it is like a deviant art-like style drawing of a female warrior standing with a bear warrior.

This person, Luke of Alpha, did make a note to say Freya needs more armor in this image because the woman is depicted as in a pretty pornographic borderline way. Her only armor is over her nipples in terms of her torso. It's kind of a Madonna bra for those at home. How are they even on there? Yes.

They're pasties. They're armor pasties. They are armor pasties. So in that sense, this image is very sexual and disturbing. But I also do have to give it up to this person for sending it because it's like, if you found this online, this is so close to what Rufus and Freya would look like in this fight. And the way it's different is that it's really sexual and weird. I think...

I think Freya could be a burgeoning sexual character. And what I appreciate is that this woman has absolutely ripped abs. Shred. As does Freya. Does this feel like maybe sort of this arc...

feel like a gateway drug for people who are trying to figure out how to get into the furry community. Huh. Let me really think about that question. Let me really think about that question. Huh.

Yes. My friend, a friend whose name I won't say on this. I it's pretty tangential, so it doesn't matter. My friend's brother moved into a house and when they moved in, they found out that from the neighbors that the people who live there were really intense furries and they did stuff like do that thing where you like roast an animal like a pig, like in the ground, but they would do it with goats and

And when they moved in, the bedroom was painted jet black and the whole basement was painted blood red. No. Jesus. No. So it was like very ritualistic furries. I wonder if there's furries that are probably just like aesthetically they are animals and less like.

you know, blood oriented. I, but I don't know. I don't know much. There's for sure. It's furry sex. And one is very blood oriented. And there are some that are not blood oriented at all. I'm sure there's nuance. Is, is, is our furries. Is that specifically sexual or is it just dressing? Hmm. I couldn't, I couldn't tell you with a hundred percent certainty, but I think there's a sexual element. Copy. In my mind. Copy that. Um,

So, you know, we're learning about it. And, you know, maybe one day by the end of this podcast, we'll all be furries. Who knows? We'll see. It's been fun to explore it nonetheless. Yeah, of course.

Well, there's no segue possible from that to this, so I'll just get into it. Let's get into the recap, shall we? Last time on the Rotating Heroes pod, Rufus, Grib, and Freya made preparations for the final leg of their journey to Walden Keep. Rufus's werebear uncle, Lowell, just now it's impossible to not think of furries, of

His furry uncle, Lowell, gave them supplies that included some serious alchemical firebombs and a magical statue that turned into a majestic griffin named Boz Congo, I should say. Not Gozbomb.

Before heading out though, Rufus accepted Lowell's offer to join his family as a bear warden of the forest. After taking his sacred oath and a bite from his uncle, Rufus felt the lycanthropic energy flowing through him as the rotators took to the sky astride their new griffin friend. The crew dropped napalm-like bombs on top of the legion of horrifying bugs before landing at Walden Keep to help evacuate the Cutler troops.

Our heroes fought wave after wave of bugs with the help of the Cutler forces, and eventually Riffus' father and brother Cuthbert II and III joined the fray, blowing bugs away with a massive cannon.

Wow. Wow. Wow.

It's a little unique because we are having, you know, this is a bit of a cliffhanger moment. Rufus, you look through your bare eyes up at the castle tower where your brother, unconscious, is held aloft by this silver metallic arm. And as you feel the rage envelop you, you see this, and it is now your turn. You see this man, bald, with sort of like red stripes on his dome.

He's like smiling at you. It looks like a guy who thrives on fighting and he is completely unfazed by the sight of your new bear form. Roll an insight check if you don't mind. Okay. That's a 20. It's a little alarming that this guy doesn't feel fazed by the fact that you're a bear. It feels like he knows more about this situation than... Yeah, it just feels like he's...

sort of prepared for the side of that. You know that he's looking at you and it's not like...

you know that your uncle is the other bear warden. Like he probably knows of that, of your uncle in some way. Um, you knew that he was looking for him earlier. Uh, but, uh, yeah, he seems pretty unfazed by you. Uh, I think that's so may. So I think on a 20 insight, that maybe means that you feels like in some ways this guy is prepared for you or prepared, prepared for your uncle. But yeah. Uh, and so as a were bear, uh,

you gained, like, a couple of new abilities and things. I sent you through the chat what some of those attacks are. One of the things you have is now that you have a 30 climb speed. So the speed that you can run, you can climb. And that guy, I'll say it now, is about 30 feet away. Wow. You know, and that's really... I mean, if that doesn't tell me how to act, I don't know what does. You know, that's...

That's a green light. Hey, Matthew McConaughey says it himself. Green light. That's right. It's what his book is called is green lights or some shit like that. That's his philosophy. And now it's my dumb philosophy too. So I'm going to go ahead and charge. I mean, I got to go for my brother. There's no, you know, the rage is in my mind and my heart. I got to run, climb up this fucking wall. And I also got to try to take...

The multi-attack that I've gained being a werebear, I can do two claw attacks. I want to sink my fucking claws into this guy if I can, please. Amazing. You guys look over and see Rufus...

You see the ground give under his feet as stone is pulled away from his claws as he tears off towards this tower. He takes a few bounding steps and leaps up onto the wall and climbs just as quickly up this tower, the tower of the castle. He gets up to the top, and as you crest the top where he is up there holding your brother, three red rust guards come up and they take, ready to actions, three attacks on you.

Ain't no thing. I'm a bear. Ain't no thing. And it's especially no thing because as a bear, you are straight up immune to the damage that they would have normally hit you with. Yeah, that's right. You see these swords. They come and swing at you with swords and axes, and they just literally hit you and don't do anything. This is...

One of the facets of being a werebear is that you are just straight up immune to bludgeoning, slashing, and I think one other type of damage. Wow. So these guys with their regular swords literally do not hurt you. Pathetic. They're pathetic. What losers. They look up at you as your werebear form says, pathetic. In like a bear voice.

Poseidon. They're like, Jesus, it's so weird to watch his lips try to form words. Ha ha ha.

So those guys attack you to no avail. He's in front of you with your brother. I'll also say we're going to start, and it's a weird place to start doing this, but we are, in this final episode, going to start using cleave rules for attack, meaning that if you kill somebody with your attack and they're next to someone, the damage over how much you killed them, like if you hurt someone for 20 and they had five health left, the guy next to them gets hit for 15. Hell yeah. We're going to be...

This is a part of the fight here. So there's these three guys, but then there's also your brother, Grandpa, they do. Your dad's up here, like, looking at you shocked. Like, he... You see a lot of things on his face. I think my bear focus, my animalistic focus, is on protecting my blood. And so I'm moving past these three stooges here.

you know, maybe dad can take care of them. I'm going for the big man. Okay. And I dive right at his goddamn throat claws out. Hell yes. So he is grappling your brother. If you want to,

make a strength check to pull him away you can or you can just take these attacks this guy is gonna be i'll tell you right now he's not gonna go down easy of course i guess i'll make a strength check to try to get him out of there huh cool you have 19 strength now i forget what your athletics was but um it's maybe not reflected on your sheet what does it say your athletics is plus five okay so your your new strength is now seven uh so uh roll a d20 and tell me what you get or roll the athletics and add two

Okay. Oh, no. I got a two. What's so adding two? I got a four. I mean, you can use your luck if you want, but otherwise that would be your... Yeah. I guess I'll say that would be your object interaction. I think I'll try saving my luck for a second. Yeah.

It's too early in a big fight. Yes, I get that. We'll say that was your object interaction trying to pull your brother away. You can take your attacks now. Great. How do I roll for these bad boys now that I have claws? Looking at the claws, you get a plus seven to hit. I don't know if you have any weapons on there that are a plus seven. If not, you should roll a d20 and add seven. Terrible rolls. I got an eight and a nine. Okay, two misses. You're slashing out...

extremely pissed off at this man who is effortlessly dodging your wild swings. You've been a bear for seven seconds, so it makes sense that you wouldn't be fully adept at the way to move as this sort of new creature. You look over and you see your dad looking at you. It looks like he recognizes the bear form, and I think he's surprised to see you as a bear, but it's not the first time he's seen one.

after rufus it's cribbage he is down on the ground oh god he's he's still alive he's like got like four health at this point he's looking around there's one last uh bug he's gonna take a shot at that guy okay he does hit and he's going to hit for he hits this guy for 11 damage um who's looking pretty fucked up but still standing um

You see in the distance more bugs, like pretty far away, but it doesn't seem like there's that many close right now. After Cribbage, we go next to the bug who is, let's see, let's just roll, the three of you are down there. I'll roll a D4 to see who he goes for. Grib, one, Freya, two, three is Cribbage, four is the Griffith.

Grib, it looks over at you and takes a swipe with its horrible mandibles. Bring it on. Oh, four on the die. It brutally misses, just snapping in your face. Silly goose. Your trunk is just dodging the snips.

To throw. After that, Freya, it is your turn. These men are looking around, like, trying to figure out what to do at this point. It feels like this is the last bug that they're going to have to fight for a little bit. Do you... You're remembering what Rufus's uncle said about getting these guys out of here, that there must be some kind of passage within the castle walls. But outside of that, there's one bug in front of you, and...

Yeah. What's Freya doing? Well, I guess I'll attack the bug, but should I not, like, use this moment to bless Cribbage, or are we just trying to move... Yeah, you could heal Cribbage as well, but I wonder, yeah, I mean, I think there's not really a wrong move here, but there is this one last bug left that probably would get an attack of opportunity if you try to move past him. Okay, okay, I'll go for the bug.

I'm gonna attack this bug with my great sword smart nice Freya's gonna zero in on him uh here I go 20 and 16 both hit wow you can roll damage on both of those 8 and 15 murder oh wow I mean just the 15 alone would have killed it I mean she's pissed uh you look over and watch Freya cut this thing in three quarters and it just splits in two different directions yes um

It doesn't seem like you look up and as the body falls to the ground, you look in the distance and there are bugs approaching, but it seems like you have like a little bit of a window. Okay. Make a perception check if you can. 17. Cool. You guys are in this sort of like courtyard area with this sort of wall around you. Rufus is up in the tower behind you kind of facing off into the forest. There's some stairs going down in the courtyard below you.

like the castle has clearly some kind of like basement level below what you guys are standing on so that's what you would see on a 17 and it lines up with what rufus's uncle was talking about yeah yeah you have your movement uh left as well so i have my movement all the soldiers are looking down at you like uh they're like all these men are just brutally exhausted like probably

It's like you just watch someone running, you know, a marathon and like ask them math problems or something, you know, like they're a little like slow right now. Yeah. Okay. Well, it seems, I mean, Grib, are you seeing what I'm seeing? Doesn't it's, should we get these men down there?

Should we head downstairs? Not downstairs, but, you know, lower to lower ground? Yeah, is that sort of the orientation or is, like... Isn't it, like, a tower, I thought? I'm sorry. Rufus is above you in a tower, but you guys are on a sort of flat ground on top of this mountain that seems to be, like, below you is a basement to this... There's, like, basement levels to this castle. Like, it's all built into the mountain. Got it. So, like...

Rufus, his uncle, was saying that he believed that there would be a way out within the castle walls, like a secret passage kind of situation or something like that. So, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. If the men are exhausted, we should put them, we should tuck them away. We should tuck them away. And, I mean, it's what Lowell was saying, and I'll never forget anything he said. And while I'd like to help Rufus, he's a bear right now. Yeah.

Great. Let's go down. Sounds like everybody loves Raven. I'm up on the wall. Just give me a persuasion check to see if you can get these men to pay attention, to have their wits about them and understand what they need to do. Yeah. I rolled a 15. Okay, yeah. These guys...

have their bows out you know like shooting stuff kind of in this like weird days war zone Freya like motions to these steps uh do you do you say anything when you do it yes hello I'm Freya I know none of you recognize me uh although earlier it's Freya specifically

Oh, wow. Okay. Listen, gentlemen, we've got to find a way out of here. We came here to get you out. We have reason to believe that there's a way through this castle, and we're going to try underneath. Will you follow us down? Sure. I'll

I'll do literally anything anyone else tells me to do. And they start climbing down. Grib, that was my first sort of speech ever. Wonderfully done. I was captivated. Oh, my gosh. Thank you. About how far down? Well, you're only seeing these steps. Got it. It's sort of like a basement entrance. It doesn't really... There's not much more to glean from this specific angle. Cool. And you know that there was like sewer...

directly below you because of your tidal wave. That's where it was, like, kind of coming from. But after Freya, it is Rickard's turn. Rickard holds your brother. You see...

Rickard, uh, throw your brother's unconscious body to the side of the, uh, the turret. And he's going to take, uh, some swings at you, Rufus. Um, sure. Go for it. He can go after, you know, he can go for it, but you notice, uh, he is going to, uh,

Does a 16 hit you? I assume I don't have a different AC now that I'm a goddamn bear. You have a plus one to AC. Oh, really? Because that makes my AC a 16. Ooh, so it does hit you. Got it. So you feel, to your surprise, this arm grab you and it feels different. It doesn't feel like the previous attacks that you had and...

I think at some level maybe would understand that this metallic nature, this silver metal of this arm has a different effect. It bypasses some sort of effect as he grabs you with his arm and it hits you for only six damage, but you are grappled and he laughs in your face. Arm is made out of material akin to a bear trap. That's what's activating in my mind.

Oops, looks like I got a little cub. He holds you, not intimidated in the slightest. After, your dad is looking on, trying to figure out what to do about the situation. But after Rickard Gribb, it is your turn. And just a reminder, Boz Gongo will go in. Oh, great, great, great, great, great, great, great. I don't have, give me two seconds to pull up the Griffin stats.

No worries. Give him two seconds to pull up Peter Griffin's stats. Hey, Lawish. Peter. Leave that in. Zach, make sure that you leave that in. Maybe Warren will hear it. Fine. Someone send me a DeviantArt style drawing of Peter Griffin fighting in a fantasy landscape. With Lois Griffin wearing just way too easy. All of this is real. Yeah, this already exists.

Yeah, for sure. Okay, cool. Grib looks to the tower. He looks to the basement. He doesn't know exactly what to do. He looks to Freya. He goes, I'll bridge the gap. And he hawks a molten loogie up to the tower, summoning Zwang. And they're all going to have to make a dexterity check.

Everyone does? Or can you ignore your teammates? I assume I could place him in a place where they won't get hit. Yeah, I'll say if you kind of do it to the right side, maybe he's sort of on the edge of the arrow slit kind of edge. Perfect. Zwom just appears like the crow. So they make a deck save. All these guys make deck saves. Okay.

Oh, God. What's the DC? Oh, 15 is the DC. Rickard passes, but the other three guards up there, the little dweebs, do not. They all fail. Okay. So they're going to take 2d6. Seven. Seven damage? Yes. So that's an action.

But that's not a spell, right? It is not a spell. Cool. Is what's-his-face, is cribbage within reach of me? Yeah, I think he's like right nearby. Cool. I'm going to cast Healing Word on him. Is Healing Word touch? I think you could also be a little further away. You're right. What's the word? What's the word? Oh, yeah. Never mind. The bird. The word is ma-ma-ma-ma.

A little too much Family Guy going on today for my comfort. I forgot that that was featured. I'm just a fan of the song. You've heard of Simpsons did it? Family Guy did it. I'm in trouble. McFarlane's coming for me. He's going to make me pay some residuals. I can't wait to do this podcast next arc. It's Seth McFarlane playing all the characters. Uh-huh.

Yes, go for it. Great. So he's going to heal 1d4 plus 4. Oh, good. 7 total. Cravage is back up to 11. That feels nice. That feels good. My tiny little baby. And then I'm just going to kind of... I will literally try and just bridge the gap where I want to keep one eye on sort of what's going on in the tower and then be able to be in communication as Frey and them head down.

So maybe if we are heading down, if I end up following that momentum, I'll be the last one in. Cool. So you are up there. And is Boz Gongo going to do anything? Oh, yes. Real quick. Hold on. I just need to read this with a bow in my hand. Whenever you cast a spell that does fire damage or restores hit points with your wildfire spirit summon, roll a D8. So he's going to get an extra D8 to his heal. An extra D8? Yes. With my enhanced bond because Swam is summoned.

Cool. Four. So he gets an extra four. I mean, huge. And then the griffin, I'm going to just have fly up to the tower and just try and murk the strong boy. So he goes at Rickard? Yeah. Hell yeah. He's the beefy one, correct? Yeah. He's the beefy one for sure. And he is fully beefed. Not hit at all. Cool. So plus six to attack. Let's see.

The first one is a nat 20. Wow! That's how it stands. Boz Gongo? Get him, Gongo! That's a Boz Gongo special. Heck yes, dude. So that's 1d8 plus 4, and I rolled it twice. So it becomes 2d8. Cool. The 4 stays static, but you do the dice, double the dice. 2d8. Yes, dude. 11.

Plus four. 11 plus four, so he takes 15 damage. 15, and then one more attack. Boss Gungo rolls. Boss Gungo. 16 hit. It's not Gungo Boss. It was, but then on a luck check, he started saying Boss Gungo. It makes no sense. Does a 16 hit? Yes. Cool. Roll damage. I always thought it was Gungo Boss, but, you know, it doesn't matter. 2d6 plus four. Ooh, eight plus four, so 12.

Man. So that's 12 in addition to that other hit? Jesus Christ. Yes. Wow. Powerful smack. Yeah, you're facing off against this guy. You know, it looks like a Marvel previs fight scene where it just sort of looks like a...

one color versus another color kind of mashed in a big circle that you kind of can't really tell what's going on. You guys are locked in with each other. And then this Griffin flies up behind him and just tears into his back. Uh, he seemed like grimace and pain as he was not expecting this, but after, uh,

Grib and Boz Gongogo. Grib, do you have anything else you're doing? That's about all I can do. Anything else, Grib? Yeah, I think Grib and Gongoboz and Lerman have done enough, you know? You look and you hear sort of this weird cackle as on the other turret, on the other backside wall, you see that man who looked like he was dressed like

Crocodile Dundee come up with his large, he has this insane looking rifle in his hands that is extremely futuristic looking. It looks like it should be mounted on a ship and he takes it and he just fires it

at one of the turrets at the front of the castle. And you see this laser chop straight through the turret and this whole section of the castle wall just falls off as he just blew up part of the castle. There were soldiers nearby that are like nailed by rubble as you see this man, honestly gleeful, like looking around like, oops, I guess I destroyed that. Okay. Okay.

That's something we might need to take care of. You know, the giant laser beam. Morris has entered the battlefield. After that, we have Cuthbert Cutler. Your dad pops up with his sword in hand and takes two attacks. He's going to try to take out some of these weenier guys. Thank you, daddy. You got it, son. So he actually makes three attacks.

Ooh, not 20 on the first one. That's my bad. There goes my hero. Hell yeah. Exactly, dude. Papa's here. Is this guy Mark Wahlberg? Because daddy's home. You know what I mean? Oh, no. I think distinctly not Mark Wahlberg. Okay, cool. Yeah, that's for the best. Mel Gibson. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah, that's better. We went from shitty to even shittier. Yeah.

The sequel of Daddy's Home, Daddy's Home 2, has both of them. Anyways, Rufus...

You look over and your dad pulls out a longsword and decapitates one of these guards. Yeah. And the strike keeps going into the other guard. Of course it does. Killing him. And his second attack... Actually, yeah, because he cleaves. So his second attack then just runs straight through the neck of this third guard. They all drop dead. He's three for three. I mean, this guy's batting a thousand, you know? He's going to run over and check on your brother. Smart. Yeah.

Son, there's your other brother is, I don't know what's going on, but let's get out of here. And he's going to try to like move him. So he's no longer being grappled. Your brother got thrown to the ground. Exciting. So yeah, this guy is grappling you now. He thinks. Cuthbert Cutler Jr. is going to make a death save because he is unconscious. Oh no. 18, he has one pass on the diamond.

But that is his turn. Rufus, it's back up to you. This man has grappled you. Look, my first strikes were not what I wanted them to be. Rufus is still figuring out his new body. You know, this is, he's in many ways still a passenger in this form. But he's going to go for it now.

Let's see. Oh, I can't use action surge because I used it already. Yeah. That's okay. So you can keep attacking while grappled. Just to clarify. We're just going to do both claws again. Going to try to do one near his neck and one near his groin. The classic vulnerable points that an animal would seek out. Okay.

Here we go. Yeah. He's like, what do you got there? Uh, the first roll is a nat 20. Oh my God. I should say, no, wait, it was a crit. The first roll. Yeah. That's a nat 20. Yeah. Got it. I'm still learning the lingo gang, but I got the roles. The second role is a 17. I'm still bringing the hit. Uh, Jesus Christ. Uh,

so nat 20s mean you roll double dice so that first so you these the way these claws work you're rolling a lot jesus that is a lot of damage so you're gonna roll 4d8 okay plus four actually just roll 6d oh god i mean i don't know if it's rolling for you already but that this is going to be 68 plus eight 68 plus eight okay

68. I got them ready. And then we're going to add eight. Are we ready for this? Yeah, baby. Let the claws sink in. It's a total of 30. Holy shit. Smackdown. Time to play the game.

That's right. These claws are going deep. Rufus is in a full bloodlust as he's... With spittle just flying everywhere as he... He's gonna get inches from this guy's fucking nose. He's been trying to put on this face of a man who will fight any bear, but you see his face...

You see the slight twinge of fear in his eyes as you hit him for 30 points of damage, clawing deep into the chest. This may be slightly esoteric, but do you feel like Rufus is kind of like right now, he's kind of being like, ooh, ah, ah, ah. Yeah, he's down with the sickness. Yeah.

And the sickness is werebearism. And he's riding it. You know? That said, there is... This man is still looking pretty healthy. Cool. Are you kidding me? He is a huge... He is like the biggest man you have ever seen. Really? Is he as big as a bear? Shut the fuck up.

Devin. Devin, I'm Zach, by the way. Sorry, sorry. That was the royal shut the fuck up, not the... After Rufus's turn, you see these bugs start getting closer. These fucking bugs, too much is happening. There's a lot going on. And there's going to be a lot more going on. Good, good. You see these bugs...

As they get closer and closer, the packs of them get closer and closer. They start sniffing out, like some kind of instinct is taking over them, kind of similar to what you think you heard about at the bridge. And they are starting to burrow into the castle. They're burrowing into the building with sort of this weird instinct of trying to lay eggs. This is about to be a weird bug fuckfest.

Good. But as this happens, this is starting to rumble the whole castle. Everyone, this is sort of a lair action of sorts for this encounter. That means that at the top of the order, something is going to happen every round. So everybody give me a DC 14 dexterity save. I'll roll for all these other people. A DC 14 dexterity?

Yes. The difficulty is 14. So if you go to the saves and you just say your dexterity. Got it. Barely made it. Grib got a seven. Should I roll for the Griffin and stuff? Oh, God. I think you should roll for the Griffin and roll for Zom as well. Your boy got an eight.

You got an eight? Yeah. Luckily, for this specific thing, Rufus, it's not. You see the castle shake and rumble as shit is falling over and breaking. An eight won't be bad for you, but everyone who failed has to take one D6 of damage.

I got a 14. I got exactly a 14. Okay, so you pass. But you take half on a failed set. So I rolled a 4. So everyone who passed takes 2 damage. So even Cribbage gets a little smack. Zwan takes 2 damage. I'm sorry. The griffon failed, so it's going to take how much again?

Just four damage. Is Rufus taking two then as well? Rufus, you're not going to take any because this is not magical damage. This is just like debris and you are immune to that. I'm a damn bear. A rocking bear. This is pretty overpowered. Just the fact that you can be just immune to damage. So Zwom's back down a little bit. Your dad takes the two damage. Your brother fails to save because... Ooh, so your brother takes a death save.

this you got to get your brother it seems like your brother can't survive this situation much long uh it's been as an unconscious person he's gonna make it zach okay so if you could just get that negativity out of here i'd appreciate it i'm just saying just gonna make it okay that's what i'm just saying okay

I'm Zach. Okay. You see more guards climbing up the backside of this building. They aren't up yet. But after that is Cribbage. Cribbage is going to, I think Cribbage is going to follow Freya down into the castle. Yeah. Can he hop up on my shoulder? And I'm very hot. And he's like, guys, come on.

And starts motioning for the soldiers to follow him, waving his little tiny arms, pointing at the stairs. And some soldiers are kind of... Let's see if they see him. Oh, listen to cribbage. They see him hopping in the air, waving his arms. Like, thank you, little...

are you a dog? What are you? Uh, just follow down into the, the castle. So cribbage follows Freya into the castle. Freya, you're in the castle. Um, you start going down, uh, these steps. You're in sort of a weird little hallway. Um, and they're, um,

It seems like there's a door towards the end, but that's all you're seeing down here. Okay. And Freya's just a little in her head at this point. This is her first time kind of on her own. She does have cribbage, but she is kind of like, "I told these guys to follow me. Now what do I do? What do I do?" Uh, be calm, Freya. It's definitely safe this way and the way out, right? 100%? Yeah, we're gonna- we're trying our best.

We're trying our best. I have a good feeling that this is the right thing. Okay. So I got to just go towards this door, right? I see a door. That's like what you see down here. So, yeah. Okay. I think she's going to make her way. Open up that damn door. Cool. Freya, you open this door. Oh, Jesus. And within it.

And inside it, it's just... You see, as the door opens into it, a strange-looking...

lab of sorts it looks it looks like not like the like futuristic stuff we were talking about before but more like a wizard's lab like there's scrolls on the table there's uh alchemical fluids and sort of a big uh there's like cauldrons uh there's one bigger cauldron that has like liquid that is changing colors and stuff uh roll a perception check okay 22 22

uh you're looking around this room uh there's a bunch of stuff going on that you're you're it's it's a lot to take on take in in a moment you see sort of on the wall there's this sigil of a bronze owl and a lot of the stuff here is like marked with that on a 22 i think towards the back of the hall there's like some tapestries hanging on the walls one tapestry is kind of blowing the

Okay, we got an opening behind it. We got some... We got... We got air. Cribbage? We got air that would suggest an opening. Daylight. We got daylight. We got something, buddy. We are working...

Okay, so I think Freya just kind of as, you know, stealthily as she can or carefully is going to make her way. You know, maybe they both even do the thing where, well, I guess I can't control what Krivich does. You can plan with them. Okay, Krivich, I'm going to walk this way. You're going to walk the other way, okay? And we're going to go until we find the opening. Okay.

And we meet on the other side. Does that make sense? I think I know what you mean. So just go over there. And he just runs. Yeah. Okay. You got it. Perfect. Okay. You guys arrive at this tapestry and it seems like there's some sort of door behind it. Oh, boy. It's a door. Okay. Um.

She's got to open it. Freya sort of puts her hands up against the door, takes a deep breath, and decides to open. Freya takes a deep breath and reaches out for the door, turns it, pulls open this old wooden door, and there is a dark set of stairs going down out of the castle, down a mountain pass, it seems like, from here.

So, you've found what appears to be some sort of exit out of the castle. Kribbage, we found it! Kribbage, I found the thing that Lowell was talking about.

Great. Let's get out of here. I'm so sick of this. Guys, come on this way. So it is your turn. There's a lot of people to evacuate, so how many people you get out in a turn will be depicted by a persuasion check. Okay. So roll a persuasion check to see how many people you can get out of it. Okay. Now, while she's rolling this, with a 22, would she have been able to perceive if someone was working in the lab late one night? Ha ha ha.

On a 22, I'll say that, yeah, there was possibilities of someone working late one night. Okay. Possibly. There's possibilities of a fright. Just something to keep in mind. We might have a monster. Cribbage. Never mind. If we're having a monster mash, as long as there's no graveyard smash, I'm fine. Cribbage, do you hear music?

No, never mind. It was just in my head. Okay. That's what I thought too. Was there some sort of graveyard there? A smash. A smash?

We're gonna unpack this later. - Cribbage is gonna give you the help action on this. - Okay, unfortunately I only rolled a 12. - Did you roll with advantage? 'Cause Cribbage is gonna help you. - Oh, Cribbage, okay, okay, my sweet. - He's like, what's all this stuff you, like he's looking at? There's like a lot of interesting, weird stuff. - Okay, and Cribbage, I do think that we should take a look, but be careful, don't grow yourself or anything. Don't eat anything.

15. 15. On a 15, there's like 30 people that you need to evacuate still. And so on a 15, it seems like you got eight of them to follow you. Like focused up enough to like get out. Okay. 15's okay, not great, but not bad. That's all you see down here right now. It seems like someone has to be like doing this a little bit to like get the guards to continue this way. But yeah, yeah. I think like,

They're starting to spill down here. If you want, you can make an investigation check if you want. So would you say that Freya's efforts to evacuate people did not catch on in a flash? It sort of did not catch on in a flash. I think that would be fair to say. 17. I'm going to look up the lyrics to Monster Mash right now so I can make sure that I'm ready to go. I got them up here, baby. Okay, yeah.

And it is the laboratory in the castle east. Good. Yes. Good. And I don't want to be too on the nose, but would you say that's where the ghouls call their humble abode? I mean, roll for it. Roll for ghouls, I guess. What did you get, sorry? I rolled a 17. On a 17, yeah. It does, you're looking around and it does feel like

people left in a hurry. There's dust and stuff here, but if this was an undisturbed lab before you...

There are signs maybe, not necessarily of a struggle, but of someone picking up and running at some point. Like certain things are really disorderly and like hastily packed looking, other shit's on the ground. On a 17, I'll say that, yeah, you notice just a ring with the, it has like a little raven on it. - A ring with a raven? Can I take it? - Yeah. - Cribbage!

will you hold on to this for me okay got it he puts it on um fits on my thumb uh he uh he holds onto the ring um after uh freya yeah i think like you can try to like it's kind of hard to like if you saw your movement to get down here so there's really not that much you can do you have uh you can heal people uh you can do that kind of thing cribbage is still not looking great yeah i will let's see here

Let me look at the old sheet. I think I could... I have... I only have two spells left, but I could do a Cure Wounds on Cribbage. You also have the... Oh, the Lay Hands? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Yes. Let me go ahead then and Lay Hands on Cribbage. Hey, Cribbage, come here. Okay. I'm going to... I'm going to...

heal you a little bit, okay? Please, hurry. Okay, so she just like, she just like very gingerly puts like one hand on his chest and one on his back. It's like big vapor rope. My nose is opening up.

And let me just go ahead and give him, why don't I just give him 10? How many do you have? 25 per long rest. Okay, great. Yeah, you take, you give him 10 health. This is huge for Cribbage. He's almost back up to full. He's like, wow, I could, I might go up there and just like hang out and fight people or something. Cribbage, no. Okay, I'll stay down here. Cribbage, I want you to know something.

You were the bravest creature I've ever met. That seems unreal. Okay. I'll take it. Okay. Well, I tried. I did try.

Hey, you've done enough. Thank you. Krivage stands there helping you filter these guys through the castle as they, like, eight guys continue down out into this mountain. It's like hidden steps in the hillside that seem to be going down the opposite side of which you guys came from. Yeah. Though it's like going back into the forest, it's not going to be on a mountain that is covered with bugs. Yes. Enemy soldiers. Yes. So, yeah, these guys start going. Walk gently, men. Yeah.

Okay, fine. My legs are wobbly. After Freya is Rickard once more. Rickard, still holding Rufus, is going to do his move that he gets to do when people are grappled by him. So, Rufus, you see him use this metallic arm to...

pick you up in the air and slam you onto the ground. And this is make a DC 15 strength check. Sorry, make a strength saving throw. And you're going to be able to just add two to whatever it says, just because your strength tour is different. Well, it's a 19 then. Okay, so you're only going to take half from this. But he's going to slam you for...

15 half to 7. So you take 7 damage as he slams you into the top of the turret. Okay. He's like clearly pissed off that this did not hurt you. Yeah, well, that's what happens when you try to wrestle a bear. You half man, half machine fuck. He smiles at you and he's like, I've hunted bigger game.

After that, you see that... Do we think that that ring is the property of Dracula and or his son? Could be. Why his son? Does Dracula specifically have a son? It's included in the lyrics of the song.

So that's what this was his action for this turn. Sorry, what? That was his action for this turn. And I'll tell you right now, we'll just start doing this now because I straight up forgot about it for the first round. You look as you're grabbing him and he said that he's hunted bigger game. You see that the face of this cloak he's wearing has this sort of beast face that looks familiar to you. It looks like the displacer beast.

and his body sort of shimmers as he says this, you have a feeling that this person has a little bit going on that will make him a little harder to hit next round. - No, thanks. - I pissed off Nott. - Change your mind, Zach, no thanks. What if that didn't happen? Cool. - Whose turn is it? - It is now Grib's turn.

All right. It's your turn. You're going to be controlling a couple of guys this round. Yes. Grib is keeping a mental clock of how long they're gone, because if they're gone long, that means they're successful in their mission. He looks around and he goes, he's so lonely fighting with nobody by your side. How far is the guy with the gun? I would say he's about 45 feet away from the other tower. Okay.

How far is he from you? You're on the ground, so probably like 45 feet away from you as well. 45 feet away from me. I'm going to cast Heat Metal on the gun. Cool. And they can make a what kind of save? The creature must succeed on a constitution saving throw or drop it. It's going to take damage regardless.

Gotcha. Any creature in physical contact with the object takes 2d8 fire damage. If the creature is holding or wearing the object and takes the damage from it, the creature must succeed on a constitution saving throw or drop the object if it can. If it doesn't drop the object, it has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of the next turn. So he's going to, no matter what, take 2d8 and then he also makes a constitution save. Correct. But he's going to take 3d8 because of my enhanced bomb.

So this counts as that kind of spell? Yeah, it's a fire damage spell. All right. So he gets hit for 10 damage. One of those is a one, unfortunately, on that DA. Oh, you rolled the damage? Hold on. Sorry. No, you rolled the damage. Excuse me, sir. I did roll. It's 17. Or 16, sorry, is what I rolled. Okay. He's going to take 16 damage.

as you heat up his gun. It already looks like kind of something that he shouldn't even be holding as a human being. And as it like is melting in his arms, like you feel like this thing wasn't even that stable to begin with and it's getting really hot. And he rolled an 18 on the die. He's just gonna keep holding it. You smell his skin sizzling as he smiles. You feel, it's so big that it's like sizzling his cheek and his cheek is melting.

Does he still take damage the next turn because he's still holding it? What is the language of that? Until the spell ends, you can use a bonus action on each of your subsequent turns to cause this damage again. Okay, so that's the end of Grib's turn. That's a full action. Okay, cool. What do Swarm will...

make an attack. He's going to do his fiery seed on the big boy. Okay. Let me just see. Yeah. Fire seeds flies off into the forest. Griffin first. A fire seed off into the forest. I'm going to have to try. The second forest fire. 11 plus six. So 17. That hits, right? Oh, I'm sorry. Roll that with disadvantage.

As his cloak is shimmering, you feel that it's not going to be as easy as you'd like for him to hit it. Okay, a nine plus six. So 15 hits. So this hits, and then also for the round, the cloak stops shimmering. Oh! Nice. That's interesting. Sorry, 1d8 plus four. Five. Five damage? Yeah. Okay. And then I'll do my claw attack.

12 but i don't think it 12 hits doesn't hit okay that's it that's it for me so he gets like pecked in the back um so after grip uh you look up and you see morris face melting lining up a shot at you grip grip um make a dexterity saving throw i failed i rolled a one all right

Haha. Haha. Silly. Funny. Did not roll that great, but could have been worse. 14... Grib, you take 14 damage. As this laser punches a hole in the castle next to you, slightly sizzling you as well. It seems like more designed to destroy structures than it does people, but it's still...

brutal laser attack on you as this thing just like blasts next to you burning you badly yeah I'm getting singed and again I just under my breath certainly is lonely fighting with no one by your side

Grib, make a constitution for your spell. Because you have to concentrate on that heat metal, right? It says that I just get to use a bonus action. I don't think it would just persist on without having to have a concentration check. Because you took damage, right? Oh, so that means I have to... Okay, so what do I do? Constitution save? Yeah. Yeah.

16. Okay, that'll pass. Yeah, you maintain concentration on the spell. Nice. You see him just kind of futzing with the gun. He pulls out some kind of weird futuristic canister and throws another one in there. He's like, I'm going to put you on my wall, boy. He's a real creep. No, thank you.

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After that, Cuthbert is looking down. Cuthbert's trying to, like, get your brother out of the situation, Rufus. He's like, son, I have to... Are you okay up here by yourself, son? I look at him with sort of wide, bare eyes and, you know, try to say, everything's going to be all right. But it sort of comes out as like... Is that a... Can you nod? Is that going to be easier?

I'm going to leave you, I think. And he jumps. He tries to jump off. He's carrying your brother down into the castle, having seen Cribbage and Freya go down that way. Smart. And from there, he's able to get with a full dash to the wizard lab area. And he hasn't left yet, but he's down there with you, Freya. You're Freya, right? You lived at Fort Cutler? Oh, yeah.

Yes. Wow, I'm overwhelmed that you know. I did. You know that you're the only elf there, right? Like, it was very clear that we all knew who you were. I do know that I was the only elf there. It was not clear to me that everybody knew and remembered who I was, but it is, I will say, nice to know. Fantastic. Can you...

Can you help me with my boy? - Yes, of course, of course. - So that's the end of his turn and Cuthbert's gonna make another save, a pass. That was a pretty big one 'cause if he failed and the lair action hit him, he might've been permanently dead. - Yikes. - So Rufus, we're back at the top and it is your turn. This dude's still grabbing you. - I got a question.

Is there any way for me to rip this motherfucker's cloak off? I would say that that would be your entire action to do that. But you can try to do that. And he will make a post-athletics check to keep you from it. So it's either try to head him off at the pass or... But, you know, he's hit right now, so he doesn't have that advantage anymore. Yeah. So I do feel like I should take advantage of that.

Okay. Rufus is going to use a new fight style that he's sort of developed. It's kind of a hybrid fight style between his human fighting style and the bear fighting style, which is that he's going to punch with his claws as fists, but then after they hit, he's going to extend his claws and stab. So it's a punch and a stab. Incredible. A punch stab. A punch stab. He's going to go for two of those right to this guy's stupid face. Oh.

Roll your attacks. Okay. One is an 11 and one's a 24. So he quickly dodges the 11 and just takes a full rake to the face punch style. Roll damage for that one attack. I will. 14. 14. Okay, cool. Still strong, but you've done a lot of damage to them. After... Wait. Sorry. Can I do second wind? Yeah, you can take your second wind. Great.

So now if I do 1d10 plus 4 for the hit points. Hope it's a good roll, baby. Heal myself. Let's see how it goes. Let's get that 10. Or a nice 8. Won't be greedy. Ooh, it's an 8. Plus the 4 is 12. Clean. Wonderful. So you get 12 HP back. Yeah, baby. As like you summon up this sort of grit and determination of the fighter that you are. I'm a stronger bear than I've ever been.

rickard here after that is the lair action again as the castle once more shakes freya you're down here and you see the the walls of this castle shaking everyone once again needs to make that uh dexterity saving throw um at the top of the store 24 grib makes it he got a 20 okay even unconscious for some reason cuthbert jr uh passes um

What's the passing mark again, sorry? It was a DC 14. Okay, great. Everybody, Zwom, Griffin, and Grib all make it. I got a 12. Okay, if you fail, you take six damage. If you pass, you take three. No. Kribbage takes six damage. And does that include me this time, or no? No, you're still okay. You're still not dealing with that. But down here, Freya, you notice this lab just sort of shaking, and that...

filled with this sort of like fizzing multicolored liquid. It's like red one second, then it's blue and then it's green. It shakes enough that it fucking tips over.

And this weird liquid is all over the ground. It's unclear what it's doing, or if it's doing anything, but there is this liquid on the ground near the doorway of this wizard's lab. You hear these bugs skittering around in the walls, kind of burrowing in. They're not necessarily... It's like a different instinct has taken over, and they are trying to lay eggs and shit in the castle walls.

- This is disgusting, man. - Is there any way for Freya to know more about this liquid? - I think on your turn that you might have an opportunity to do something. I think there will be, but as you say this, three guards, including the captain of the guard,

into this room looking at you and he points to you Freya this is the guy we saw choked earlier he is sort of like built like the other guards but a little more impressively like he points to you and he points to the that little multi-tool thing on your belt and he's like so he points at you and he says give me that back and that is the end of their turn they use their movement to get to you so they are kind of blocking up this room

After that, it's Cribbage's turn. Cribbage is just going to hide and throw a knife at one of these two guys. - Great. - Smart. - He, oh, he can do that. So he hits, he just completely kills one of the guards with the knife to their head. - Yes, Crib. - Yes, Crib. - Slay, Cribbage. - Slay. - And he just dives into like a pile of scrolls after that hiding, successfully hiding.

So that's Gribbage's turn. Freya, you see these guys on the other side of this liquid. Yeah, what were you thinking of to figure out what's going on? I guess I just didn't know if this liquid is harmful or maybe helpful in some way or what its purpose is. They stopped short of it. Okay, I guess... But I will say that the lifeless body of this guy fell into the liquid and nothing specific seems to be happening at this time.

Nothing specific seems like a thumbs up to me. I mean, come on. How bad could magic liquid be? Well, maybe it turns them into bugs. Fuck. I simply don't know. That's exactly the kind of thing Dracula and his son would have cooked up in this lab late one night. If it dissolved him, I would throw the liquid at the other two. How would you pick it up?

I don't know, you know, like kind of Hocus Pocus style, just like push it at them, see if it splashes. Well, it's like spilled all over the floor and it is like continuing to gush out of this thing in a way that's like kind of absurd. Like it doesn't feel like, there's a lot of this stuff. Okay. This is, it's gushing. Okay. Well, anyway, Freya looks at this like kind of lead guy and she's like, well, if I caused you a lot of trouble...

You must remember me, huh? I don't know who you are at all. Okay, and I don't care for that. That's speaking to a vulnerability that I have that I don't care for. Okay, fine. Freya's gonna attack them. Is it my turn? Yes, it is your turn, Freya. Okay. Go ahead and do... I will point out

The way that this stuff is on the ground, there's not going to be a way to attack them with your sword without at least getting into whatever this is. Up to you, Aida. Okay. Unless you threw a javelin. Yeah, and I could throw a javelin. I can't cast Moonbeam at him or something, can I? You could totally cast Moonbeam at him. I'm going to cast Moonbeam at this guy. See? Moonbeam.

And he's going to be engulfed in ghostly flames. He's going to be engulfed. Ghostly flames. Ghoul flames. Who's working in the lab? Pulled the parachute real quick. Okay. Well, I assume we can't clear the song to Monster Mash. It'll be tough to go. It'll be really tough. It's going to be really tough. Yeah. Okay. So Freya looks at this guy and is like, okay, well, you're about to know who I am.

And then she summons up some strength and focus, and I guess some seeds of moon seed from a mood seed plant, and casts moonbeam at him. Amazing. Freya, you glow with this sort of silvery lunar light as this, you might say, ghoulish laser. Nice.

This ghoulish light emanates from Freya and shoots out at this bandit captain. What is the radius or what is the language of how that attack works? Let's see. Okay. Oh, it says, okay. So a silvery beam of pale light shines down in a five foot radius, 40 foot high cylinder centered on a point within range.

And when it enters the spell's area, the creature is engulfed in ghostly flames that cause searing pain, and it must make a constitution saving throw. It takes 2d10 radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Okay, cool. So these guys are going to make this roll to see if they pass.

The other, the littler guy does not pass. But as this beam strikes down on these guys, I would need you to roll a D100 as your attack hits the ground next to them, striking the liquid. Okay. Uh-oh, moonbeam hit the liquid. Maybe liquid is gasoline. Okay, I found the D100. Oh, God. Dame mas gasolina, you know? Ha ha!

Well, I mean, really. I mean, Dalai, Dalai, dude. Okay, I rolled an 80. 80. As you strike them with this, they are hurt really bad. Let's roll damage for that attack first, I guess. Oh, yeah, okay. Moonbeam damage is 14. So half on a successful one. So the smaller dude is toasted, just completely dead. And then the main guy takes the seven damage.

Okay. He is a little hardier, so we're not quite... Yeah, he's still standing pretty strong. Cool. So as you did that, you rolled an 80. Suddenly, you look around you, and you see butterflies floating around you. Wow. They came from nowhere, and then also...

flower petals float around you as well. They are just circling you. That's all that happens. What does this mean? This weird wizard magic stuff. I don't like it. You hear from within the scrolls. After that is Rickard's turn once more. Rickard's up there with Rufus, Zwam, and... Griffin. What a crew. Yeah.

Rufus, he's going to... Die. He's not gonna... I mean, he has you grappled. He thinks. Still. I think it's true. I think he does. It's canon. We'll find out. He's going to pick you up and try to throw you off the side of the castle. Well, it's not gonna work, so... Give me an athletics check, and just make an athletics check on your thing and add two. Just an athletics check and add two. Seventeen.

You beat him. Yes! You do not get flung off the side. What did I say? You said it wouldn't work. That's right. And what happened? You said it wouldn't work. It didn't work. He's, like, getting a little frustrated, and he looks over to his brother, and he's like, a little help over here would be nice. Oh, boy. He is going to... I think he can still do his slam attack. Well, actually...

No, I think that was his turn. But you are, I think when he tried to throw you, make an acrobatics check. I certainly will. Nine. Okay, he still has you gripped. Fuck. I was going to say maybe you could have slipped out in that thing. No, he does. He really does. Time will tell. We'll see. After Rickard's turn, grab it to your turn. Okay, because I have the heat metal, even if I use that as a bonus action, that's a spell, correct? Correct.

It's not a new spell. You can cast a new spell, though. Lovely. It's a spell you already have. Yes. Lovely. We'll see what happens. A tip of fedora that has always been there.

Grip has always been there. I hate that. I hate that as a retcon reveal. You can't retcon a fedora. Absolutely brutal. Rufus would have never gone on this adventure had he done. He doesn't have a fedora. I would hate that. Your diamond in your forehead bursts and a fedora pops out. No.

Cool. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to use my bonus action to keep the metal hot. Okay. So then I just roll damage. I'm going to be rolling. Correct? Yes, I believe. 18. Damn. Okay. He's going to take that 18 damage. And then so that was my bonus action. Then for my action, I'm going to heal myself because I am doing it. So I'm going to cast heal wounds on myself. Okay.

I'm just going to give me a 2d8 plus 4. Oh, wow. Two 1s. Absolutely devastating. Do you add anything to that for your thing? Plus, I mean, yeah, it's a 1d8 plus 4, and I add another d8, and both d8s were 1s. So, I'm sorry. A 6 total. How are you looking? Like, what are you at? I'm at 18 right now. What I want to do with Zwom is I want Zwom to go up to...

the werebear and I want him to use fiery teleportation so he gets him out of the grapple. Ooh. So he, Zwom runs up to Rufus and he's like, finally, I will become part of you too. And he grabs him. That's Rufus. And I'll just have them, I'll have them blink. Like, let's just say like, you know,

like, I guess, 10 feet away or whatever. So they're still... So, yeah, they are still up on that tower? Yeah. Is that... Yeah. So, yeah, Rufus, you are pulled 10 feet away out of the grasp of Rickard. Was never in his grasp. Always had it under control. Told you. And Rickard is saying, I have had you. I actually had you. I actually had you. And Swamp's like, no, yeah, no, no. The bear's going...

Nuh-uh. I did have you. He's got to make a dexterity saving throw. Oh. Okay. What does he have to beat? A 15. Okay. He fails. Five. Takes five damage. He's been beat up, but he's still going strong. And then the griffon will go. Oh, it's his turn now. So his cloak is powered back up. I mean, sorry, it's not his turn. The round is back up. Understood. So I'm rolling at disadvantage.

Yes. Unless you hit. So his first attack misses the second attack. We go in, I hit with a 17 and he does 14 damage. Yeah. So, uh, boss gongo comes up behind him again. It's just boss gongos really kind of a MVP of this, these two episodes in terms of just damage output as he, uh, just, uh, breaks this guy in the back again, uh,

17 damage? Oh, no, that was absolutely wrong. Sorry. Seven plus four. Uh, so that was my bad. 11. I'm sorry. No worries. Wow. He's taking a lot of damage. That was the end of Grib's turn. Uh, Boz, Gongo just rakes, uh, you know, with his talons into, uh, Rickard's back. Uh, Morris is looking up, um,

He is trying to figure out what to do because his brother is on the other tower being attacked by all these things. He's going to line up a shot and let's see who he goes to. Oh, he has to roll to drop it. Oh, I did roll it already and he did pass. So he's still holding it. Yeah, he's still holding it. He took that 18 damage. He is going to, let's see. I think he's just going to shoot Grib. I don't like this. This is probably it for Grib. No. What?

This might be it for a while. No. That kill was pretty bad. Grib, give me a dexterity saving throw. Five. No. Grib, you take 17 damage. Grib, what are you at? Two? I'm at one. No! Oh my god. So, Grib, another laser fries you as it blasts past you, also into the castle as well. Feel the ground shake as the foundation is that much worse off.

Grib, you're standing there with one HP. Grib is absolutely smacked. You know how, like, Goku, like, will just get, like, thrown through an entire mountain, and then, like, he'll get, like, a beam at him, and then the mountain's gone, and it's just him, and he's, like, shirtless, and his pants are ripped? So Grib's vest is completely torn away. Totally. It's a shredded little tiny vest left.

Grib, you're holding yourself up with your staff dripping blood. Yeah. It's so hard to fight with no one by your side. Zuald looks back at you like, no! Make a constitution saving throw. Make a constitution saving throw? To maintain concentration.

Ugh, six. You see the weapon that you had the heat metal spell on, that cannon, although it doesn't seem like things are going right with it, and for many reasons, it is at least not burning his skin anymore in the way that it had once done.

After that, Grib, Morris cackles to his brother and he's like, I can't help myself. This guy's almost done. After that, Morris, that was Morris' turn, it's Cuthbert Cutler Sr. He's like, do you know what, he looks to you, Fran, he's like, what is that stuff, that grub?

hellish liquid over there. I mean, what are we going to do with that? I have no idea. Did you bring butterflies? No, they just appeared after I cast my moonbeam spell. Hmm. I don't know what that's about. He is... So you have not healed his son. I haven't healed his son. Okay. He's just going to go in for an attack. He's like...

I guess I have to take matters in my own hands. So he's going to go up and take an attack on the other captain guy in front of him. He's going to take three attacks. And guard. He hits twice. Ooh. He does 19 points of damage to this guard in front of him, who's also still standing tall. Jeez. And as he steps through this liquid to fight the other captain, he is going to roll. Can someone roll on the D100 for him? I can do it.

99. Wow. Wow. 99? Come on. Okay. I'm going to say this table is a little... It's not exactly designed for this situation. And there's only two numbers on here that would...

not make sense for someone like him and this is one of them uh so i'm gonna say you see him just fully regain all his no not not the bad guy oh oh whoa cutler senior um looks like he almost looks like a year younger uh daddy i feel great sir this liquid's amazing

I knew it might be good. - You see the guy he's fighting gets like a little scared. He's like, "What the heck? What sorcery is this?" And now after that, it is Cuthbert Cutler Jr.'s turn. He's going to rolls a 10. He stabilizes. So he is not- - Cray. - Very good. After that, Rufus, it is your turn at the top of the order. - Rufus is looking down at Grib in this courtyard, you know, seeing him waver.

He doesn't know what to do because Rufus cannot heal Grib in any way. Now, at this point, I'm wondering, is it worth it for Rufus to try to get this laser gun motherfucker and abandon temporarily his fight with Rickard? How far away is Morris? Morris is about 45 feet away on the other tower. Don't worry about me. Before you get rid of him, Rickard looks at you and he's like,

I gotta complete the bear collection. Wow. So he's trying to bait the bear. Okay. Yeah, you realize after he says this, you think about it, and yeah, Lowell has not arrived to this fight yet. Okay. I'm gonna fucking kill this guy. Okay. So he's... Morris is far enough away that I wouldn't make it there on this turn, right? Yeah.

Yeah, you wouldn't make it in one turn. And how hurt is Rickard looking? He's pretty hurt, but you guys have consistently done a lot of damage to him in this round. Okay, motherfucker. If you killed my beautiful uncle...

the warden of this beautiful forest, then that means that I am the remaining warden of this forest. Okay, these are all thoughts going on inside his bear head. Obviously, he can't communicate this in the real world. It kind of grumbles as bear drool comes out of his mouth. So he rears up on his hind legs with a newfound...

of bloodlust and righteous purpose as the warden of the forest. And he's going to go for Rickard's eyes with both his claws. Rickard looks at you and says, I didn't say I killed her. It's a 13 and a 24, but you know what? It's luck time, baby. Hell yeah. It was a 15, but then it's plus 7.

Right. Yeah. So 21. 21. So that's another hit. Okay. So you have two hits on it. Great. Four D8s plus eight. Here we go. 24 plus eight is 32. That's 32 damage, folks. Right to his eyes. You did four D8s plus eight? Yeah. And he got 32 damage? That's right. I got an eight, a seven, a one, and an eight. Nice. Plus eight. That's right.

into the eyeballs, into the ocular cavity. Rufus, describe how you kill this man. Okay. It would be my pleasure to do so. Rufus inserts his claws fully around both of this guy's eyes. So first, just the tips of the claws reach in, rendering him blind. Then, with the force of the full bear paw's

creep in through the penetration he's the hole he's making in his skull so essentially it starts with just his eyes but then eventually both my paws are inside his skull oh then i just rip pull them apart so that what was left of his punctured watermelon head uh just rips in half and he's completely decapitated he was like yeah

And you hear him like, my dreams! Yep, good. Say one last speech or something and then his head is ripped.

to just nothing. Good. Uh, Rufus fully, completely takes this man's head from him. 32 points of damage. Did not expect that to happen this round. Sheesh. Uh, that guy is toast. Rickard. RIP Rickard. His, his big, uh, metallic silvery arm just flops to his side. Uh,

seemingly useless at this point. Yeah, like de-animating and his body falls limp to the ground. At that point is the lair action. No. Oh, fuck, dude. Oh, no. I'm going to roll a D for one and a two. No. Okay. So there's going to be, now that certain things are in play, there's going to be two things that could happen.

You want a one and a two will be what we have done before. Three and a four will be something different. So I'm going to roll it right now. Are these bugs about to pop back up? Okay. So I rolled a four. On a four. Everybody heals 30 HP. Yeah. God comes down and touches us. Freya, you're down in there. You see on a four,

you look up and you see these bugs that have been in the walls fucking or something, you know, like whatever, however, bugs fucking reproduce. These bugs are fucking sucking. Fucking and sucking and touching. That's what four was. Cool game, Jack. One and a two rocks fall off the tower. Three and a four, the bugs fucking the wall.

You see these bugs spill out that, like, are kind of being, like, territorial and weird. Like, you know, like, they were, like, doing something in the wall, and then they're just now snapping at each other, just coating themselves in the liquid that's on the ground. And they are just starting to, like...

scrambling away from it, like, finding other places to scramble into the castle walls. They're dragging this, like, liquid behind them, like, you know, like if a dog got, like, a paint can. And, like, it's just being, like, spewed all over. You see this, like, multicolored liquid that is just being tossed around the castle, like, basically covering that whole room up into the landing above. So now that there's, like...

Rufus from above, you see one of these bugs, like, fighting another bug with this, like, cauldron smashed to its head, like, spinning it around, getting that shit everywhere. Can I scream to Grib to get near a bug? Doesn't that shit heal? So you've been rolling a D100. It has a lot of things it can do. Okay. A hundred things, to be exact, I have to assume. We're rolling on the wild magic surge team, guys.

So a number of random effects could happen. Cool. I can't wait for it to kill Griff.

Hey, honestly, you got the one roll of these coin flip that didn't kill. That's true because there's no imminent damage currently, right? Yes. And so that was the lair action. Wow. After that is the captain who's down there fighting you guys. And he is going to scoot it out of these bugs. And he is going to just take damage.

He's gonna take a swing on your dad. No! He takes two attacks. Two hits on your dad. No! They're not... Papa. Papa, can you hear me? He does 15 damage to your dad. No! No!

Who is like, you know, like I said before, looks a year younger. Yeah, sure. He's like Jack LaLanne. He's like weirdly ripped and ready to pull a truck with his arms or whatever. But still, 15 points. He's like leathery old man muscle. That's right. 15 points of damage on my dad? That's 15 too many. Okay. But after that, it is now Cribbage's turn. Come on, Cribbage. Oh, and I'm sorry. You know what? He's...

He's got to roll a D100. Cribbages? I mean, the red rust captain. You're going to get fucking... He got a...

51. Well, I hope that means that his butt swallows the rest of his body. You see a spectral shield hover near him. It looks like it's protecting him. Son of a bitch! He doesn't know what it is. That is what he gets. Fuck this shit. Cribbage is going to run up and just take an attack. Cribbage, be careful!

Or, wait, I'm sorry. Do you want me to just throw a dagger? Do you want me to get in there? You can just throw a dagger. Great. It bounces up the shield, kills Krivich. He does miss. Krivich does. Wait, let me double check. Well, that's my fault. No, it's this D100's fault, I think. Oh, he actually hits. He does hit. Good man. Wow. He has a plus fight. So we will take that. Ooh, meaty roll from Krivich. Krivich does 13 damage to this guy.

- Gribbage. - And then tries to hide back in these scrolls again. Gribbage is like, "Should I get out of here? "Like, do I need to, it seems like the, "this place is coming down a little bit." - Yeah, yes. Is there any way that with the bugs, like, crashing through the ceiling that we would be able to see Grib in any way? - Just roll me a luck check. I will say over a 16, you can see Grib. - Okay, and for a luck check, what do I roll?

Just roll a d20. I got a 14. You can't. I mean, there's some holes in the ceiling, but you don't see a way to get to a grip. After that, it is Freya. It's your turn. Okay. You see Rufus's father fighting this man, trying to figure out how to get out of here. Roll me just like a straight up nature check. 11. 11.

It's like hard to make heads or tails of things. I mean, you haven't seen your friends in a minute. It would make sense for you to go check on them. Okay, great. Yes. Can I please, just knowing that I think Grib would have tried to follow us at this point, may I please backtrack and go find him? I forgot to make you do these persuasion checks to get more soldiers out of there. Right. On the top of your turn. You've had two turns since, so let's just roll both of those now.

Yeah. Okay. And cribbage is going to help. Okay. Okay. 22. Okay. So that you got like another, you had eight last time. This time you had, I think you get 12 out on that. So there are 10 guards left. Okay. Before you take your turn. Yeah. Just roll another persuasion check to see how many soldiers you're able to. Okay. Men, the building is coming down. Gotta move. Fucking hate bugs. 16.

Okay, yeah, I think that's high enough that you get the last nine soldiers. One guy got smoked by a laser earlier, but you got most of these guys out of here. The only people left in here are Rufus's brother and dad. Okay. Yeah, what do you do? Okay, so I think Freya at this point would be very concerned that she has not seen Gribb. And if it is permissible, I would like to, she wants to go check. Okay.

It is permissible. Yes! Permission granted. Okay. I shall permiss this. So Freya frantically looks around, looks through the hole. She can't get a beat on Grib anywhere, so she takes off. Tells Kribbage to stay. So you're going to...

Yeah, you're gonna take off out of there, go back up the stairs to where you guys came from. You're gonna get a slash on you from this guy as an attack of opportunity. Okay. So that happens. Rolls a two, so he misses. Great. So you're good. You fly past him, and you go up to the top side. You see Grib just...

almost vacant-eyed, just hanging there on his little staff, talking. Grib, yeah, what are you doing? So alone, just like you into this world, you're gonna leave this world. Grib! You were a fucking gardener. Look at you now, you stupid, stupid. Grib! Wow. Grib, you're not alone. I'm here. Do I hear it? I roll a perception check. I don't know. Is she standing right next to you? Yeah.

The mumbling's too much. I rolled a two. You don't hear anything, but she is right next to you. Okay. Freya's going to lay hands on him. Okay. Don't hurt him. No. So Freya... Uppercuts Grib. Grib catches him. Freya's sort of... Freya's saying, Grib, stay with me. Please, we'd be lost without you. And she lays her hands on either side of his face, like...

I'm going to go another 10. 10 health for Grib. Grib's up to 11? Is that right? Yeah, that's huge. Is that enough? I can go five more. Should I go five more?

Could you have other wound curing abilities? I'm going to say that you said that you gave him that much. Let's just go with that. Okay. But he's not like imminently... That's a lot better than one health. Yes. Yeah, I'm in a much better position. Thank you. You did great. And Freya, what's the language of Moonbeam? When a creature enters the spell's area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there...

Oh, on each of your turns after you cast this spell, you can use an action to move the beam up to 60 feet in any direction. Okay, never mind. You use your action to heal him, so it doesn't matter on his turn. So it's just sitting in that same spot. I'll say that, though, that guy never moved. So he was just standing in that light like a dumbass. So he's going to take 2d10.

The guy who was downstairs, the guard captain, takes another 10 points of damage from the moonbeam as he moves out of the way of it now. After that, Freya, you're up there with Grib having just healed him. Rickard is dead. His whole head is gone. Grib, it is your turn. How...

How is the brother looking? The gunman? He looks like a crazy maniac whose face is melted and he looks hurt, but he doesn't look like he's dying. Okay. I look to Freya. I should have never doubted that I would end alone. Thank you very much. And I guess I would have never doubted that you would end alone. You mean you never should have thought you might be alone? I'm dying. I'm sorry that my grandma's up to snuff.

I'm happy you're here. I'm happy to be with you. I'm gonna... How far am I? Am I less than 30? From what? From the brother, the gunman. You're 30... I think we said 45. Ugh, I really can't do anything. I'm gonna turn into an ape, and then I'll charge towards... I'll charge towards the brother. You see Gribb?

A swirl of flame turns, flickers around him, and he turns into an ape. So Zwom is dismissed, right? Is that right? Unfortunately, yes, but it's just a utilitarian move at this point. So Zwom is dismissed. Zwom's gone, but then the griffon's got an 80-foot fly speed, and he's going to absolutely bomb him to the brother. Cool. So the griffon flies at the brother. Ooh, another crit. I kid you not. Holy shit. An ape crit.

You went 8th crit. I went 8th crit. 2d8 plus 4. Pretty dumb, but funny. 14 damage. Okay. And then his claw attack. So he does his first one. That's a crit for 14. But 12 does not hit, correct? 12 does not hit. That's the end of Griffin's turn. So this guy's pretty hurt, but still standing. He's looking at his, like, brother's

corpse uh without its head on it and he's like well looks like the chains are off if you remember this guy was sort of like the one that was kept in check by his uh brother so he's like kind of the more wild one of the two he is going to take his laser and grip

Now that this liquid has splashed everywhere, roll a d100 for Boz Gongo. 60. Yeah, Boz Gongo... You just feel that Boz Gongo got a spell slot back. Cool. All right. A completely useless spell slot. I would love to have that spell slot. It's Boz Gongo. Boz Gongo? Gongo Boz. Morris is going to...

Fire his laser directly at the ground of the castle, or at the ground underneath Rufus's tower to try to knock it over. Fuck off. Rufus, you feel... Make a dexterity saving throw. Happily. 20. Okay. You're able to leap off of this turret as it falls, crashing into the ground below. Of course I am. Of course I am. I'm a mighty bear. Make a...

make just an athletics check to to grab on okay that you see this whole tower this one-fourth of the the towers on this castle just crash down this hillside you feel the ground rumble below 12 uh you're able to grab onto the ledge but you slide down a little bit you're on the side wall of the tower i mean of the castle wall itself the ground is extremely unstable right after that uh

It is... That was Morse's turn. He's like, looks like we're all gonna go spilling onto the ground. Just has this weird, creepy, dead-eyed thing going. It's your dad downstairs. You hear some fighting down there, but you guys are up here, so you don't really know what happened. So, three... You heard three attacks from your dad. No one ever healed Cuthbert Cutler. I didn't. But we'll see...

We have heard the sounds of fighting below, but you guys are not there.

After that, Rufus, it's your turn. You're hanging on the edge of this building. That guy's probably now 55 feet away from you. Okay, well, I got nothing to do except try to just jump where? You can climb back up onto the, like, sort of surface of this castle or... Because, you know, he was trying to blow you off the castle. Right. So I'm hanging... You can take your full movement this turn to, like, get back with your friends. Okay.

You can take your full movement to close distance with him, but you won't be able to attack? Yeah, I guess I'll close distance with him then. Yeah, you see from your perspective, Grib and Freya, you see Rufus having just flown off the side, appear back up near Morris. Pretty tight. Covered in blood. After that, that was Rufus' turn, you feel the ground shake once more.

Yeah, you guys all... Everybody make a dexterity saving throw. This is... The castle's shaking a lot more than it has, so it's going to be slightly more damage this time. 24. I rolled a 4. I failed. I also rolled a 4. Okay, you guys both take 6 points of damage. And, Rufus, you don't take any damage from this. As the ground continues to shake, you see these bugs ripping apart this building. After that, it is... You aren't down there, so you guys...

Yeah, you don't see anything. You don't know what happens down there. After that, Freya, it's your turn. Okay, but I'm too far from anything, right? You're too far. You could throw a javelin at this guy. Yeah, let me see. He's not looking great. My javelin? Okay, so... You still have your focus on that spell.

Right. You can move it 60 feet. I don't think you can move it all the way there. I think that's more than 60 feet. Yeah. But my javelin, it says my range is 30 feet. 30? You can roll longer. You can throw it at him from where you are, but with disadvantage.

Okay. You hear shouts below you, though. I mean, like, there's, yeah, just depends. You meaning, like, I should try and move my moonbeam, but I can't see the guy, so I wouldn't know how to move the moonbeam onto him, right? Yeah, you wouldn't know how to do that. I'm just saying, like, you could go back downstairs or you could throw this thing here. Those are what seems like the two options. Yeah.

The ground continues to rumble as these bugs continue to... I just don't feel like I would run away from my friends in this moment. For sure. So I think I'm going to go ahead and try the old javelin with disadvantage. Cool. Oh, boy. This was maybe dumb. 18. With disadvantage? I rolled a 22 and an 18. Wow. Okay. Roll damage on that. Nice, dude. See, it's worth it. Take the gamble. Six. Six damage. Okay. Okay.

Cool. He's a javelin pierces this guy's shoulder. He's like, God damn it. Like spits up a little bit of blood after that. Freya, do you do anything else at your turn? I mean, I get can I I guess if I can move toward this guy. Yeah, you can move closer. So you move like 30 feet towards him. So I guess maybe I just like meet up with grip. Grip move further. Oh, I just wasn't able to attack.

Okay. After that, it is Grib's turn. I'm within range now? You can be if you move. Yeah, I would love to get up in this dude's face. And I'm going to rock him with my two fist attacks. 16 hit? 16 does hit. Great. First attack is six damage. Six damage as you nail this dude. Second attack hits...

Five damage. And then Griffin will go. Okay. Nine plus six, 15. 15 doesn't hit. Okay. Second attack. It'll hit. It's a 15 plus six. Eight damage. Awesome. Awesome. This guy's looking not great at all. More fighting happening below you guys. You're unclear of what's happening down there. I should have gone down there. After that, he is surrounded by...

Rufus as a bear, Grib as this fiery ape. He looks down and he just goes, hey, you win some, you lose some. And he's going to shoot a full laser blast into the heart of the castle floor, basically under Freya's feet. You look down and see the castle floor collapse.

hit with this beam of energy as the ground splits where it was. Everything that is going on in this fight is contributing to the integrity of this whole castle just continuing to be destroyed. It splits and breaks as bugs and

just sort of, you know, covered in this weird goop, weird magic popping off of them, spill out of the holes. There's weird fireballs from within the building as well. Just like lightning, you know, just like different elements just exploding off. And as this building continues to just fall apart, as the laser just overcharges and explodes, it's,

Literally in this guy's hand, the whole thing explodes in his hand. The ground below Freya drops out. Freya, give me a dexterity saving throw. Eight. You guys see Freya drop out of your view into the space below, whatever is below this castle. The castle is coming to pieces. Everybody make a dexterity saving throw. 22. 10.

Griffiths, as this gun went off, this man's head is gone. The laser exploded in his hands, frying his whole brain. He drops to the floor. The castle is coming to pieces. You are right next to Grib and this Griffith. I will say on a 22, you could grab Grib and the Griffith.

then i shall so you can hop onto that you are able to take off into the air uh with the two of them uh as the castle continues to like split and fracture in a dozen different angles see pieces like sliding off to the north of it the south the east east west all directions it's just like continuing to be like unmade as like the devastation of the bugs magic and all the out of control technology like rains down on the castle uh rufus uh

You grab Grib, you guys are... The Bosgongo is able to take off as the ground below you just continues to implode on itself. You notice that as it continues to crumble, it's not just falling off the sides of the mountain, it's falling inward. It seems like you remember that, Grib, I think you would remember that the sewer grates below that you pulled the tidal waves out of, there was some sort of hollowness in this place. Mm-hmm.

as you notice some of the building continue to fall through the center of it. Freya, you fall continuously down as the castle crashes around you. You fall further and further and lower and lower through the darkness as the light above you looks like a pinhole and then just goes out completely. No! You feel like you're just still falling for a very long time.

You make a constitution saving throw as you continue to fall. 21. Okay, you maintain your strength as you continue to fall. You feel the last thing that you touched was that ring, right? Yeah. And you gave it to Crippage, who has it. But as you continue to fall through the darkness, you eventually see a light, just a little bit of a glow.

And you feel like it's coming from you almost. And you look around and you realize it's coming from your prayer beads. It's lit up with a sort of a green glow. And as you are falling and falling, some magic, possibly from the castle, from the forest, or one of the bugs you don't really know, possibly from that ring, affected the prayer beads. You're falling...

falling but you realize that even though it's dark it's hard to tell you're falling really slowly and you eventually land softly into this body of water in complete darkness uh and you feel the current of it pulling towards you can't you don't have your cardinal directions in this point but towards uh a direction to the side of where you just landed and you

From that direction, you're looking and you see some lights from that direction. And it's just a subterranean river and this sort of dark lake. You don't see anyone else.

And I'm... So I'm just alone and I'm underwater? You're not underwater. You're, like, above a... I think you were just swimming in this, like, subterranean lake. There's, like, bits of rock and land around. It looks very, like, where, you know, Gandalf, the Balrog kind of area. Uh-huh. But there is, like, this, like, current going towards this light. Okay. I think Freya would take a moment to thank the goddess who...

is no longer with us, that she isn't immediately dead, she doesn't think. Behold her prayer beads for a second, and then I guess set off toward these lights. Amazing. After that, Freya, we're gonna cut back over to Rufus, Grib, flying on this, on Vosgon. No! No! No! Turn around! Turn around!

Rufus, as the bear, just lets out a mournful howl. Yeah, I guess I'm an ape, so there's no English as well. Just two animals howling. Two animals riding a third animal. I do try and, like, I guess there's an awareness of trying to, like, pull the reins to turn back around towards the hole.

You know what? I go ahead and I drop my werebear shape. I am returning to humanoid form. Grib, you look over and you see Rufus shrink down to his normal stature. He looks tired. He looks not super stoked. My father, my brother, and Freya are dead. This went almost as poorly as it possibly could have, Grib. Roll an insight check. 14. Um...

You know, I think Rufus is going to act how Rufus would like to act, but I think part of him realizes, like, well, they went down there a while ago. We don't really know where they went. But didn't this whole castle collapse inside on itself like a fucking black hole? Where Freya was leading those soldiers out, that was the outside of the mountain, and so they had some turns to get out that way. So there's a possibility...

However small. But they were still fighting down there. They're fucked. But you don't know that. Yeah, I guess I will unape as well and return to normal form. We have to check the roughage. Fine, take us there. You guys fly towards the wreckage of the castle, towards down the side where everything spilled out. And you see...

what looked like a bunch of, you know, the tracks of where all these people went. Make a survival or nature check. 23. 16. Yeah, you would both see this on that. You see two sets of fine cutler boots in the ground and a little tiny pair of boots as well. There, there. Them and cribbage, I guess.

little cribbage. Cribbage is a lot. In the rubble, you mean? In the, like, where the rubble has spilled out to, like, the edge of the mountain below, you see some foot... tracks of where they could have gone. Oh, wait, so it's not physical boots. It's not, like, the Wicked Witch of the West. It's, like, footprints. Yes. Okay. As you are looking at these tracks in the ground, and you've seen that Freya fell through the mountain itself to where you don't know. You take...

months to dig out this rubble uh rufus uh boss gongo and grib sit there yeah rufus falls to his knees distraught grib's like is a little frantic and he's using his mold earth he's trying but he knows there's no point yeah and rufus kind of lays a gentle hand on grib's back and and just shakes his head as tears roll down his face grib takes a deep breath and he lets out a melody let it out

Time is never time at all. You can never ever leave without leaving a piece of you. And our lives are forever changed. We will never be the same. The more of you you change, the less of you you feel. Believe. Believe.

Believe. Believe that life can change, that you're not stuck in vain. Burner. We're not the same. We're different. Tonight. Tonight. Tonight. Tonight. So bright. Tonight. Tonight. Wow. Gribb continues to sing as he molds Earth into...

You guys look on a lot of different branching paths in front of you. Freya, you're underground, wherever this may be, and there's one path forward down this river, and that's where we'll end. Wow.

Wow. This is, you know, apologies for the dark ending of this arc, but that was the third arc and we will continue on in some fashion with Freya in the close future. And

This has been such a fun arc. It's been so fun to get to this point with everybody. And I hope to eventually find a time where we would all reconvene and hopefully everyone finds each other again. Until then, it's just Grib and Rufus butchering Sundance out there. Just digging. How long do they take?

How long do they dig? This has been wonderful. All of you have been amazing. Follow them all on Twitter at Devin Field, at Longwell V? Is that right? That's right. At Jacob Wysocki. And then on top of that, listen to...

friends talking fraser and feelings on patreon yes and then also uh the first hand podcast yes is that right that's correct if you haven't had the pleasure of checking out please do this is probably the only time i'll plug it listen to i don't want to talk about like a great pod i made a year ago i mean we got a bunch of options here well thanks for listening and we'll be back next week with the arc bark and then we'll you know be discussing a little bit more about what we do next or what the pod is next so

Thanks for listening. See ya. Goodbye. Don't be mad at me. We hope that you enjoyed that episode of rotating heroes. That was DM by the one and only Zach Oyama and the players were Victoria Longwell, Jacob Waisaki, Devin field. Remember if you're enjoying rotating heroes, then please go ahead and check out the rotating heroes, Patreon, which is where you can get early access to all of the episodes and

You can get them in full as well, so not part one and part two. And you can also get the exclusive talkbacks, which is where the crew dissect and talk about everything that happened in obviously totally the most serious possible way. So I don't even know why you'd think anything else. This episode has been edited and produced by Zakoyama and Jasper William Cartwright, which is me.