Hello and welcome to episode 184 of the Russell Gaming Podcast. I'm your host and GM, Alex Newell, and with me today I have... Ben Meredith. Brigham Monroe. Lydia Nicholas. And Helen Gould. And who are you playing? Zolf Smith. Hamid Salah Harunel to Hans. Bell Sightbottom.
An absolute beast. I mean, Azu. Goodness me, goodness me. Oh, you solve my encounter. Oh, you, et cetera. Yeah, when's the second, third and fourth encounter, Alex? We all know how this goes. Yeah, we know what's going to happen. It was definitely the sound of a terror reality. I remember that. Yeah. So that was clearly one of the arms, right? And then we're going to deal with the rest of the beast now. I don't want to. So, that's a reminder for everyone. We're in the Garden of Yerlik. It's lovely. You had a nice walk, met some slightly more hostile wildlife, but you're basically fine. And you just completed combat really easily.
Anyone have anything to add before we sort of just pick up? I think that's pretty much it. Really, really suspicious of all of this, just so you know. I mean, you told us we're still in initiative order, so it's really up to you who acts next, isn't it, Alex? I did, didn't I? Yes, you did. Gosh, I did. But interestingly, interestingly, I don't, you see, because Wild's taking his turn. So I guess I'll leave you in initiative for now. So Skrark is now after Azu in the initiative order because he delayed his action and should have adopted a new position? You are correct. So what would you like to have had Skrark do? Skrark hides in the tree and makes a perception check to swap other enemies coming. Gosh. Give me a perception check.
20 total. Okay, cool. This is going to play into what I was going to do at the start of this episode anyway. As a non-active perception check, can I please get everyone to give me a perception check? Okay. 19. But the hiding is relevant and noted. 25. Also 25. Ooh. 22 from Hammond. Excellent. Roll for NPCs. Hmm, interesting. I'm going to describe what everyone sees and then I'm going to describe a couple of NPC things. Oh dear. In terms then of bottom to top, Zulf at 19.
You are casting about four enemies. You definitely have the sense that there are enemies approaching. The best thing that you can do really is discern off to that side where you had the exhausted druid, as we shall call them, until they become more manifest. That seems to be like the most obvious one at first. And as you start looking to that, you suddenly realise, hang on, look up and immediately above you, a significantly larger portal than what was opened before seems to be opening immediately on top of all of you. So that is one where you're like, wait, what? Look up. I'm going to go ahead and say that unless you say otherwise, you let people know. So they're now aware of this as a thing. Yeah, cool. I would say it looks...
Roughly twice the size of what came before. That's the best way I can describe it. Additionally, Hamid, you note what Zulf was looking to see more, which is there is a creature off to the left-hand side sort of charging towards, but the only way that you've been able to see it is a flurry of dead leaves blows across and it outlines for a moment some humanoid sprinting aggressively towards you, but then the flurry of leaves passes and you can't see it again. It was clearly monstrous. It was not like, oh, maybe this is a friend. No, no. It was a very distorted humanoid that was aggressively charging forwards. Sel.
You get your first scent. Whatever is charging towards you, the wind is carrying its scent towards you. A very, very acrid, acrid pestilence. Putrefaction mixed with chemical plant. Which is actually the noise cell makes as well. Very, very sharp on the nose, but with meaty overtones. Also the noise cell makes. Like one of those fungi that smells of dead flesh. That's kind of the vibe I'm going for, yeah. But it definitely has an almost chemical twang to it, which feels unnatural. That's not a smell that you normally get in nature. Azu.
You also discern an extra element. I'm going to say that cell, your 25 is used upon spotting the scent bit because it gives you some extra info. And Azu, you notice there is movement all around, very small, very subtle movement amongst the deadly flitter. You know how I was saying in the rest of the garden it was more like, you know, bright as the petals and so on. Here it's either like...
bare rock or like heaps of leaves and so on you see very very subtle movements of things approaching you reckon it's hard to tell when they'll be here they don't seem to be moving super rapidly but the best description i can give you and this is what leaps to azu's mind given azu's context is being in a field when she stumbled into a say a group of snakes like you know like you can have like a bunch of them and they all sort of converge that i can't give you more than that with the perception checks you rolled you're definitely certain something is coming towards but to be clear it's not like you have three seconds and then they're on you but it is an extra element that you don't think is connected to the other stuff a lot of info there all in one go We are now at the top of the initiative round. Hamid, you are up. I am going to, for the sake of everyone's ease, obviously you can RP it if you want, assume that ice stalks are active and that everyone is communicating as the efficient well-oiled machine that you would have become over the time that you have been fighting together. How far up is the new special larger portal? It is at exactly the same height as the last one. Okay. It is exactly ten feet in the air and appears to be...
10 feet by 20 feet. Okay, so I can't fireball it because of the radius of fireball. To be clear, this is occupying the exact space just larger than the last one was. Sure. It appears to have immediately just dumped itself straight where it last was, whatever this thing is. Turn it off and on again. Hammond is once again going to float five feet backwards so that he's more or less 10 feet from the rest of the party at this point and he's going to cast Greater Invisibility on himself. Okay. So Greater Invisibility means that it doesn't last nearly as long but it also doesn't go away when I attack.
So I am now invisible for 45 seconds or something like that. You can blow stuff up whilst doing it, which is fundamentally disturbing as a GM, but here we are. Who made that nuclear submarine invisible? Stop it. Send it back. I believe that's everything you can do unless you've got a cheeky swift action kicking around or something. No, that's hands. Okay. Zolf, you are up. Yeah. How far away is this charging figure? 60 feet. And for the sake of ease, 60 feet from you specifically, because you're sort of... Oh, but it's invisible, isn't it? So it's got like a concealment bonus, yeah? There will be a minor concealment bonus. So we're talking about the, I have to roll, and if I get the roll wrong, I just straight up miss. Oh, unfortunately, yes. At its current stage, yeah.
I channel positive energy to heal Skrark and Hammond. Okay, cool. Obviously, I'll leave you to roll healing because goodness knows I have enough dice kicking around at my end. It's relevant. Of course, yeah. They're missing seven and eight hit points.
There you go. I rolled 2d6 and healed seven hit points. You can extrapolate the next to the three. That has to be your favourite part of this game, where it's just like, cool, roll me dice. No. It's irrelevant. And the game could continue anyway. The absolute bit of impossible is six, so I feel like... No, you're right. I totally forgot. I apologise. In which case, then, anything else that you'd like to do with your turn? There is anything else I can do with the turn, to be honest. So, the figure which we'll say, again, because of initiative order, it's off mid-charge forward, outlined in leaves. Suddenly, is gone. The leaves blow past.
And then right up in your grill specifically, Zulf, is an instant teleportation appearing. Just a horrendous, warped shambling corpse, it appears to be. It is what happens if you take a person, just treat them like plasticine, squidge them all up, and then try and mash them back into a person. It is just utterly distorted, clearly undead, straight out the gate, heavily putrefied. It is not pleasant. It is. But also, to be explicit, I'm just going to say, don't bother with your checks. It's so obviously the most classic undead I can give you.
There's no need to really bother. What I would say is, does anyone have any knowledges relevant to Undeadfall extra stuff? I've got Nature, Arcana. Arcana would be relevant. Okay. Religion. Yeah, no, Religion would be best. I also have Religion. It's another one where, like, Religion's the high scorer on this one, but if you roll super high on Arcana, I might give you some. 24 on Arcana. That's only a 16 on Religion. Fumble. 33 on Arcana.
For the Arcana check, you are certain that this was a teleportation effect. This wasn't a, like, oh, you know, it was invisible or something. That it is doing something to do with spatial distortion. It is doing something to do with manipulating space and or time in a way that you specifically won't necessarily have been aware of as a particularly undead thing to do. That's as much as I can give you, unfortunately, with such low rolls. 33 is not a low roll. No, but there are material limits on the Arcana, whereas the religion I could have said what it is. In that case, then, it also, because it's super weird, immediately takes an attack on Zulf.
So, its hands, it just sort of, almost does the sort of Wolverine double arm out, but it doesn't get those claws. What happens is it just sloughs off whatever flesh is remaining on its hands, exposing the raw skeletal claws, and then tries to slash. The first one goes wide, the second one is a very sort of 90slo-mo-esque sweep just before the eyes, and its turn ends with it effectively ready to just plough into you again. At which point then, Sel, you are up. I am going to throw some frost bombs at it.
It's a melee combat, isn't it? Yes. But I'm not doing splash damage now. No, you are not. They get three at plus eight and one at plus two. The first two are frost bombs, which are the same as other bombs except you get staggered if you fail a fortitude sec. So, first one, that is a ten. That is a miss. That is a twelve. That is also a miss. These are poor rolls.
Oh, that is a 27. Oh, that's a hit. Could you imagine if I said it was a miss? And the next one to 10. That's a miss as well. Ooh, unfortunate rolls there from Cell. Yep, cool. That does 5d6 plus 12 plus 1. You also get the wild body conspiration bonus to that damage. 29 damage. Okay, what type of damage is that, he said, leadingly? That is...
Frost damage. Plus, if they fail a fortitude check, they are now cold and staggered. Ooh, interesting. Okay. Alex is going to check something, but I don't think that's going to go up, I'm afraid. That's the kind of thing that Undead are often immune to. Ah, yeah. Yeah, I'm going to say that it appears to have gone off exactly as it should. It appears completely unaffected by those secondary effects. No worries. I would say it's a throw that bomb, isn't it? So as you throw that bomb, I'll say it explodes just in its face. Just...
Yeah, oh, it is. Also, it appears heavily damaged by it. It isn't like shrugging it off or anything. It really seems to have taken quite a heavy hit from whatever that did to it. It is very heavily messed up. It appears to have, to be blunt, it appears to have reacted the way flesh should, which is not a small thing in these monsters at this point. At which point then, is there anything else that you would like to do? No, I do not think that Cell can. Okay, at which point then, the next thing that happens is, you know, that double-sized portal resolves itself into two separate identical-sized portals that are just immediately next to one another.
plopped straight on top of the party exactly as the last one was. Such a hack. Hydra. Hydra. No. At which point, Skrark is up. I will note Skrark is hidden. I will provide info to Skrark, if you know what I mean, which is, as far as Skrark, again, can determine, nothing appears to be paying any attention to him whatsoever. Skrark waits and observes the tentacles, activates the ability of the stalking dagger. Understood, yeah. At which point then, Azu, those snakes that you were seeing earlier finally resolve themselves to you and the rest of the party. Oh dear. Some...
plant vines appear to be snaking from multiple directions towards the party. To your eye, you count four. They are not, to be clear, they do not appear to be part of the tentacle creature, and they do not appear to be part of the zombie-esque creature. These appear to be living plants, though admittedly with some kind of sickness. You can see trunks that have a rot and things like that. There appear to be four, for the sake of my own ease, the four points of the compass, are snaking inwards towards the group. They're moving at...
quicker than a plant should but they you literally see them move you know that they are now within 20 feet and will be upon you next turn and i will say for the sake of my ease to the group if you see what i mean in the next turn so they are 20 feet away and have just finally resolved themselves it is impossible to tell where specifically their source is but to be clear there are three distinct flavors of enemy here your portal things your weird zombie thing and these plant things the plants do have a smell the smell is of rotting vegetation cell for your benefit oh thank you thank you and the final piece of information and I'm layering loads of stuff to be like, ah, too much information. Try and act optimally now. You're pretty certain that the bell ringing seems to be coming from them somehow. From the vines. From the vines, yes. Right. We've got jangly vines. We've got jangly vines coming at you. Okay. It's now Summit Mule's turn. You know what? Summit Mule will just immediately take a swing at the big old beastie that's immediately rearing its head overhead via the portal. It's just... What's she do? A fine hit. Dealing... Dealing respectable damage.
By respectable damage, I mean normal. You know, sensible amounts of damage against my babies. Not the ludicrous, ridiculous, over-the-top nonsense that you guys are hurling around. But nonetheless, a respectable amount of damage for anyone other than you horrendous bullies. Azu, you are now up.
So Azu's big weakness is that she's bad at attacking multiple enemies. So I have to pick one. Can you tell me how far each thing is from me? The nearest vine is 20 feet from you. Okay, I can't reach that. The portal is 10 feet above you, but the tentacles are already just all amongst you. It's just all up in your grill. It's done exactly the same thing, just twice. Okay. And in terms of the beastie that's facing off against Zulf, 10 feet away.
Every single creature is within your range. However, the only one that you could get to without moving are the tentacles. Then I think I'm just going to do my smite evil attack move thing again on the tentacles above me. It worked pretty well before. Yeah, it did. Right, so I cast the smite evil because I already know these things are evil.
Assuming it is not an identical, but good set of tentacles. Oh, I missed an absolute trick there. No, that was Gary. Gary was the evil tentacle monster. Damn, damn, I missed it. Three tentacles, one good, one neutral, one evil. And he only tells the truth. Oh, I missed an absolute ticket there. Good for it. Hit my baby. And again, plus 19 to hit. Well, let's hope I don't get a five again, because I'll be really annoyed. Oh, I didn't get a five. I got a two. 21 to hit. I think that's still a hit. Yeah.
I can't believe this. You hit it. I know, but why can't I hit it better? Stop trying to get better than an A. There is no S rank in damage. But I want there to be... Do you have any idea how far beyond the curve you guys are already? Stop coveting power, please. So 2d12 plus 17, yes?
Okay, that's 11 plus 17, which is 28. Now you get your second attack. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I didn't kill it this time on my first go. This will be a plus 14 instead of a plus 19 to hit, because it's always five less. Not even any point. So that first one, by the way, you sweep and it slices multiple tentacles. Just swoop, swoop, swoop, and the icor starts pouring out again. To be clear, you seem to have already done heavy damage to this thing by virtue of you and Summit Neil. Good. It's what she deserves. Okay, so I need to get a six or above to hit it.
That was a 10! Yay! So that's a 24 to hit. So that's 1d12 plus 17. Oh, well, that's only 19. That's quite a low roll. It's still horrendous amounts of damage in one turn, but it is quite a low roll. I'll give you that. Yeah, it was a 2. You just did 45 damage in a single round. Like, that's a good amount of damage. Just for reference, that's like a normal attack for you. I used my big levels 5 spell and did 45 damage, so... So, Ikor is flying off as it was. She's covered in the viscera of this sort of extra-dimensional monstrosity as she plows her axe into it over and over. Easily half of the tentacles that are visible have already just been severed and it is gushing Ikor everywhere. There's definitely sounds of distress coming from beyond the portal, but they're so muffled as if underwater that you can't really...
discern anything useful but you are hurting it so much anything else that you would like to do apart from just hurt me hurt me physically just tear my heart out and hold it beating in front of me No, no, I think I'm happy with the damage I've caused you so far. Excellent. At which point then, technically, Skrark is up because we're at the end of the initiative order. Oh, yeah. Skrark flings himself out of the tree, pops out his gliding wings and lands knife first on the tentacle that Azu just attacked and literally drops, pops the wings back in as he drops down it, holding the knife in its flesh. At least it did. Nice. I'm expecting this attack to be against the flat-footed AC since he was hidden before attacking. Yes, that's correct. Oh dear, I only rolled a five, but...
Right now, his... Oh, no, I need to make a fly check first. You do, but you will have to roll horrendously low to fail. Skrark's fly check is 22. You're fine, you're fine. Yeah, okay, so the attack roll was 21. A solid hit as well. Okay, so Skrark's damage is... Ooh, 28 damage. Wow, with a dagger. That's impressive. Oh, no, sorry, 29 damage. Okay, we're taking a break, we're taking a break. Sorry, God.
And welcome back. Cool. Yes. Skrark's one of you now. That's fine. Yay! Go Skrark! Skrark's always one of us. Beyond the curve. To quote certain films, Skrark is now ready for a higher form of warfare. That's what I'm hearing. He's not quite as OP as Sasha, but he has some pretty good abilities and the little jump out of off a high place to attack something is one of them. It is one I admit when we were talking about the leadership thing. I was like, this works. I like this. It's nice. I like it. Please. Hamid, you are over at the top of a fresh initiative round. Hamid is going to, once again, cast Scorching Ray. He is going to cast Scorching Ray against the other tentacle.
Understood. To be clear, you will be provoking attack of opportunity against you. Cast defensively check. Okay, I rolled a 9, but that is a total of 26. Yeah, that's enough. Hamid's built to be able to blow things up under combat. Okay, these are ranged touch attacks, and they are... Again, I'm firing into melee, so it is that plus 8, which is 23 and 18. Both hit. 22 damage on the first one. 21 damage on the second one.
Still really respectable. You immediately just beam off chunks of the pentacle. You haven't done as much damage to that as obviously the other ones undergone. But yeah, real solid start. Anything else that you want to do. And you didn't even manage to provoke an attack of opportunity, which is astonishing me. I underestimated your combat casting. Well, the other thing is I am completely invisible, so I may not provoke attack of opportunities anyway for that reason. Oh, God, God, you're invisible. I just forgot that. God, you're invisible. That's such a me thing to say. I forgot you're invisible on top of everything else. God. Don't take any weird build that gives you sneak attack damage on top, because then I'd be really actively upset with you. Fair. Okay, Zulf, you are up. Facing off against...
Grossy gross face. Grossy gross face, yeah. Yes. So one question. Its teleport avoided attacks opportunity, did it? Basically, yes. You couldn't have got an attack on it. Okay. The space it teleported from was outside your... Yeah, yeah. So the teleport specifically avoids attacks opportunity. Yeah. Cool. Well, it's not going to avoid this. I take a five-foot step back, so I'm now threatening it with my glade with reach, and it's not threatening me, as far as I understand, with its stupid hands. Unless you say otherwise, I'm going to assume you were five-foot steps towards the group, not out of the group. Yes, towards the group. That's absolutely fine. Back away from it, basically. Yeah, you're still in range of all of the buffing effects we've got. That's all I wanted to check. And then I cast offensively, because tentacles. Yep.
So I'm rolling plus my class level plus my casting modifier, right? Yep. So that's 23 I've got to hit, and my bonus is 14, I think. Come on, give me some attacks opportunities, Ben. What's the point of covering your tentacles if I can't fight you?
That is an eight, which gets me to 22. So I get attacked. Okay, understood. You get two attacks of opportunity from basically both portals simultaneously. They both appear to be... Interestingly, even though there's always tentacles, they both still have mouths, and they both seem to be focusing on using the mouths rather than the tentacles on you. So you're hitting a 22. Both hit.
16 damage. Total. That's total for both attacks. Also, can you give me two will saves? Yes, they are separate. What type of effect is this? This is going to be charm effect. Cool, so I get a... You get plus four. Thank you. And another charm effect, actually. Aha, and I'm grief-filled, so emotion, spells, and effects, right? No? Yes? I don't know. This is bang on. That's exactly what this is. So sad you can't punch me. I'll be honest, Ben, this thing was not designed to take you out of the fight. My basic will save is 24 right now.
You could still fail. Okay, so that's a 29 and a 34. Yeah, you hit both, you're fine. I suspect you didn't get all your bonuses because you're still being boosted by protection from evil and by bardic inspiration as well. Oh, yeah. You took the two bites. This thing is not designed to... This is not your enemy. You are here, but this is not your enemy. Yeah, my will save was about 30, probably. Right, so I need to roll a stupidly high concentration check. So it's another concentration check, so you'll get the same bonus. The DC is 30 because it's 10 plus damage taken plus level of spell. You took 16 damage. Oh, no, I don't think I could. I could roll a natural 20.
No, you had a plus 14 concentration. Okay, yeah, I just need a good roll. Yeah, it's about 25% chance that you hold the spell. Nah, is the spell spent? Yes, I believe it is. Ah, that's a shame. Okay, in that case then... Oh, by the way, that was Searing Light that went away. That would have been 10d6 against the... Ooh. Damn. So it goes. It's fine, I'll just start channeling positive energy because I'm a cleric. Yeah, of course, it's undead, yeah. Don't. Just do something else. Do that. Well, actually, Alex, I'm going to wait until you deal any bloody damage to the party and make it worth my while. Keep it coming.
Keep it coming, that's fine. Oh, no, I don't like that. I don't like that at all. I want you all to take a little bit of a hit, and then I can wipe it out in one go while damaging the zombie, and we are... So efficient. So, the chonker... No, not the chonker. Alex, turn your brain on, sorry. Which of them? Yeah, exactly. Moldy McMoldface. Ah, very clear. Takes a five-foot step, takes two swipes at Zulf directly, a 16 and a 17. No. At which point, the creature then just dead-eye stares Zulf, throws both arms out again, chucks its head up in the air, and just starts screaming.
lurid purple light starts emitting from the bones. All of the flesh upon it is just flayed offwards. It screams as a wave of energy comes out. Everyone give me a will save. What type of effect is this? Yeah, what type of effect is it? It's a teleportation effect. Oh. Which is super specific and rare. Oh, God. And really hard to dig up. Yeah, we haven't cast Dimension Lanker, so... That's literally all that you could have done, and I'm so glad that I managed to find something that could do this. It was really hard to find. We are also getting the bonus plus three from Wild. Yes, you are. Oh, okay. The likelihood of this hitting everyone is slim. The likelihood of it hitting someone is high. Oh, God, no. I got 25. Guys, I rolled a 19. I rolled a 19. Sel, congratulations. You hit your DC. Nice. 28. Hit your DC.
Skrark rolled a 17, which means that that's a total of 24. Oh, God, these are high rolls. That's fantasy as well. Oh, no. Rolled a four. What'd you get? What'd you get? What'd you get? Which means a total of 16.
Yes. I'm looking at rules, or is that the DC's 15? I think that looks like a DC's 15. The DC is 16, which you hit, therefore, five. I'm really annoyed. I'm really very annoyed here. Also, it has to be an aerial effect to affect me right now, since I'm flying invisible. Oh, it's a horrendous effect that you might have all managed to dodge, and if you did, I'm really... Before, I was playing it up, ha, ha, ha, I have something else. If this doesn't go off, I'm going to be furious. I'm going to be really legitimately annoyed, because this was beautiful design. Asi, what have you got? I also rolled a four. Oh, yeah, you're a pound. But that means that I rolled a 21.
How about Wild and Summit Neal? Oh, we just got him back! So this is where I am going to now suggest. I would like someone else so that I can't pretend that I'm fudging in any way. I'd like one of you to roll for Wild, the dice, and one of you to roll for Summit Neal. I know the modifier's at my end, but this is so that you can prove it's not fudged. I should roll for Wild, shouldn't I? Yes, you absolutely should. I'll roll for Summit Neal. So that's just a d20, yeah? Just roll a d20. I'll maths at my end, but I just want you to flub it so I can blame you. Wild got an eight. An eight? Summit Neal got a 14. Come on, come on, Wild. Fail the check. Fail the check. Come on, mate.
No, Alex. Alex is doing a face. He's doing a face. Was it an eight? Yeah. Not a nine, an eight. Definitely an eight. Okay. Ah, okay. But... Because my friend, Ben, if it was an eight, not a nine, but an eight, you're in so much trouble. I'm doing a little read of the points. Oh, yes. Right. I have unity, so I can allow people to use my saving throws instead of theirs as an immediate action. Am I able to, like... Or, or, you could just not. Okay, so that's as I can. Do it, do it. You could just let it happen to a while and then find out what it is. So, I'm going to turn it from an eight plus question mark, question mark, question mark, into an eight plus eighteen.
This has been such an up and down. It affects everyone as well. It does affect everyone as well. Fine. This is fine. This is optional. Does Wilde want to take this boon? I have to ask you because Wilde is not my character. Wilde does. Wilde wants to take the boon. Fine. I'm going to pass out. I'm getting big grizzled flashbacks. Yeah, I know. There is an elaborate and dangerous light show as energy, raw energy, just surges out from this now skeletal figure that screams up.
and then the skeletal figure's gone and apparently nothing happened. All of you have like licks of purple flame all over you and there's a crack of thunder. Can I roll knowledge arcana to know what that was? Yes, you can. If anyone has knowledge arcana, I'll allow you to do that on the fly. Okay. I'm fudging the knowledge stuff a little bit here, but yeah. Oh, that's a nat 20. So 25. 32. 29. That was a, all of you who rolled a check, that was a horrendously potent teleport burst of some kind. The kind of thing that will teleport you a decent distance in a random direction, which sounds like not a lot.
That could have been downwards into the ground. It could have been up into the air. It's a big deal. Oh, my God. And really powerful. Like, way, way more powerful. It's effectively a form of Baleful Teleport, but way beyond what any of you in your knowledge arcana are aware of as a, this is a thing that people encounter, because this would, like...
This would be something no one would allow to live because it could absolutely wreck things. Yeah. It's gone. There is no trace of it. It has ceased to be, apparently. So it's teleported itself away, which means it's still out there, potentially, right? It was just a skeleton, though. I would say you saw the skeleton explode into pieces as it exploded. Oh, okay. I'm not going to spell stuff out, but... That's useful knowledge, Alex. Thanks. It properly, like... It was a teleport bomb and it blew up. Yes. Okay.
a horrendously powerful one, and I cannot overstate two things. One, it was incredibly unreasonable of me to put you against that on top of everything else. And two, look all the good it did me anyway. You as a baby. Helen's all like, oh, no, that's not fair. And it's like, yes, you're right, the unfairness is going against me. This is ridiculous. Good, sirs, you've got that right. Learn from this. If I may, and I may not, but Zom stares at the gap that used to be the zombie goes, oh, I may, that's just a Monday for us. I hate you. I hate you deep in my soul. Right, I'll just delete them from the initiative order. Sel, you are up.
There was a massive elaborate explosion that you're fairly certain would have been horrendously fatal. Sel, there's a quick check. Everyone is still here. Cool. Everything's fine. I mean, Hamid may have been teleported. Who knows? No, that's true. I'm invisible. Yeah, Hamid's still invisible. But... No, it gets worse. Oh, no, it gets worse. Don't edit this out. Do not make it any less inelegant than what I've just done. Does it hit everyone? Does it hit potential? Alex needs to do a check for one or two of his monsters that he's like, that is an acceptable loss for the chance of getting rid of you all. Oh, my God. Yes. Are you teleporting away your actual monsters? So... Please. Sel, you know when you do your quick check to be like...
Where did things go? You're not certain, but I'm going to say that you're aware of these snaking vines. You're not certain, but you think there's less of them. I've got to play the rules as written. I wrote this going. It's fine. One or two of them will get got. That's fine, because it'll be such a mess. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Fine. Cool. Carry on.
This could not have gone worse for me. I put so much work in. I was worried. I was legitimately worried here. Carry on. You know what's going to happen is this is going to go really well for us and then on the way out we're going to trip over a squirrel. Yeah, that's what happened, yeah. Just fall into the sky and we all just shatter like glass.
Sal's going to throw a bunch of bombs at the tentacle thing. Yeah, please. Which one? The one that Hammond has damaged or the one that everyone else has damaged? The one that Hammond's damaged. Yep. First one, 19. 19 is a... Bring up the stat lock for that. God, there's so many stat locks in. It's useless to me. Is not a hit. It doesn't make it through the hide. I think it's very unlikely that Sal will hit anything, though. Oh, no. Here we are. That is a 23. That's a hit. Cool. And the next one, 25.
25. That's a hit. Next one is an 8. Is an 8. Okay, so that's two. Both of them I'm just going to do as a normal alchemist bomb because Cell doesn't think that this thing would care about cold. So that is 5d6 plus 15. Ooh.
Oh, so actually plus 16. So the first attack did 37 damage. 37? Yes! 56 plus 16. Yeah, it's a really good attack. Very, very good. God, I wasn't ready for that. The next one did 32. Jesus. When Cell gets a hit, it matters, but it takes a lot of prep. The bombs are incredible, but you get, what, 12 a day? 14 at this point. And once you're spent, they're properly gone. Yep, they are gone. So Cell has used up eight of the 14. You horrendously damage it. Absolutely eviscerate it. It's now far more damage than the one that the others have been.
hitting. Absolutely horrendous. There is just extra-dimensional gore everywhere. You get the impression that it might even be that the way that you're attacking, because there's just so much of it to hit, is only helping you more. Like, horrendous damage. Okay, in which point then, thankfully, Alex at least gets to try again at an attack. Okay, let me settle myself. Hammett, you're invisible, right? Yeah. You haven't flown away, though, have you? I'm ten feet away from the rest of the party. So hypothetically, if these things could see through invisibility... Yeah. Wicked.
Oh, Hamid, you're squishy. What's your AC? 23. Cool. That is quite a good AC, though. It's not a good AC, though. That's basically my AC. He's got them magical spells. So, Hamid. Yes. Every single tentacle, all of them from both portals, swings, like, ignores every other player, and every single one goes for Hamid through the invisibility. So the good news is that confirms to the rest of the party that I didn't get teleported away while invisible. True. It does, however, mean that you've been hit.
Six times normally plus a crit. You're going to get grizzoped. Oh, no, no. Oh, that's bad. I would like to stay for the record. I do not have loads of hit points. How many hit points do you have? 51.
Ooh, that could... We're in the danger zone. You aren't aware of it, but you have done an enormous amount to help yourself by flying. I can't go into why mechanically. That probably is going to save your life. If you hadn't have been, you'd already be dead. Oh, God. Because of additional stuff that you've just auto-negated. Oh, God. There's a reason I was like, I'm not going to be on the ground for this fight at any point. Oh, God. You take 32 damage total. And I have to make how many willsets? So here's the thing. I can't go into why. None. I won't go into why mechanically. You have made a series of good decisions as a group, which has meant that Hamid has survived comparatively fine, as opposed to just...
be utterly eviscerated. Well done. Good. But yes, it's very clear to you at this point. Yeah, and it probably yelps multiple times. They might be able to see you. Yeah. Can we, like, see his blood dripping out and stuff? Oh, God. Or just, like, whether the tentacles make a shake. However, could everyone please then give me a will save? Everyone in the group. I'll be rolling for the NPCs for this one. What type of effect? This is a fear effect for anyone who's relevant to. Okay, remember your applause, everybody. Three from wild, four from us. Oh.
46. Really? Yeah, well, because all of the bonuses brought my will up to 27, and I rolled a 19. So 46. I'll admit, the fear effect is primarily for other characters, but goddamn, dude. Like, goddamn, you're about to break 50, and you're at, like, level 9. Oh, my God. I also rolled 36.
Cell rolled 14. For a total of... No, that is the total. Oh, no. You're now my favourite, Lydia. Oh. For a very short period of time, I assume. Yes. How are we doing over at Team Hamid and Team Scrant? Hamid rolled a three, Scrant rolled a ten. Both of them therefore get a net of 21.
Cell, you're now shaken. Except ignore that. You take shaken, but you are not affected by it. Oh, yes, because of the magic circle. Though that is potentially relevant depending on what happens next. Yes, it can scale up. Yeah, yeah. Because interestingly, it could scale up even though you're not affected by it more and more and more, couldn't it? That doesn't affect while I'm within 10 feet. 30 feet. So you're basically fine. Just don't wander off. And also, yeah, so just for the record, this also stops frightened and panicked. So basically, for the next six rounds, we're golden. As soon as that ends, I might have a problem. So I'm going to be, oh, no, is it calming touch Cell or heal Hamid?
I can heal Hamid. I'll calm and touch Cell then. At which point, with gore just pouring out everywhere, just spraying everywhere, the portals just start to close. The tentacles retract themselves. They just pull themselves up. Honestly, they just retract themselves. The bits that are left there already falling away into that residual basically cling film-esque stuff. And honest to God, the portals revert to their state that they were at before signaling their arrival. And they apparently just retract themselves with that same gentle, sort of almost tearing noise to indicate that movement.
at which point we're still in initiative, technically. Oh, God. Skrark is up. So the tentacles are just gone? Yes. The thing that's interesting is the ringing is still all around you, but clearly coming from two remaining plants that are right up against you. Like, are 20 feet away. I don't have to chest them up yet. Oh, my gosh. Skrark would like to delay his action. That's fine. He's probably going to insert after Azu again. Sure, that's fine. He's a rogue. He needs the flanking. Okay. At which point...
The remaining vines, so this is one, if we're looking at cardinal directions, one due east, one due west, so to the left and the right of you, more or less, snake in remaining distance, and then suddenly rear up, almost like a snake. To describe them now that you can see them with them reared up, they appear to have bright silver flowers at the front, like look almost metallic. Like the plants in Jumanji, but silver, maybe? Yes. Like, yeah, honestly, yeah. So like cross the silver seed that we had before with the scary... Jumanji plants. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. Right, well...
They also seem to have a slight sheen to them the way that the extra-dimensional creature did, interestingly enough. But yeah, they rear off as if like snakes, at which point they then spray everyone who are grouped together. Could everyone please give me two thought saves? Does this affect Hammond? Hamid is 10 foot away from the rest of the group. Yeah, he wouldn't affect you. He's the one that just moved away. They also are not aiming at you to be invisible. What kind of effect is this, sorry? This is a sort of a poison effect. It's a bit complicated, but basically a poison effect. Okay, so Hardy is in effect for me. Yeah. And afterwards, one of my mercies is poisoned, so I can help out with that later. Anyway, let's roll the two fortitude saves. Yes, two fortitude saves, please. No wild bonus to this one, because wild is only affecting will saves. Correct. Oh, okay. I rolled a 25 and an 18.
Cell rolled a 25 and a 13. 29, 18. Hammond, nothing. Skrark, 22 and 18. Oof. Wild seems to do something I'm not going to really be able to explain beyond. He sort of passes a hand in front of his face temporarily and then there's a sort of flash of, like, it seems like the dust that comes out is silver itself. Seems to sort of just flash away. Cool. Summit, you know, gets that straight in the face and then starts shaking and drops to one knee, breathing incredibly heavily. We are still in initiative order because technically those two plants are still kicking around. Okay? Okay.
But I do have to end the episode. Stop threatening our NPCs, Alex. The problem is you're so over-scaled that they're... Okay, this is truth, okay? You keep getting given NPCs who are a higher level than you, but you are more powerful than by virtue of your build. Even if they have player-class levels. We're not over-scaled. We are scaled. We are playing the game as intended. I hate it. Thank you, Alex. Now you're with me. Right, well, as we enter our third week in a row of combat, I guess we'll see each other and find out what happens next week. Bye, all. Bye!
Rusty Quill Gaming is a podcast distributed by Rusty Quill and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Like 4.0 International License. Today's episode was directed by Alexander J. Newell and produced by Hannah Preisinger. To subscribe, buy merchandise or join our Patreon, visit RustyQuill.com. Rate and review us online, tweet us at TheRustyQuill, visit us on Facebook or email us via mail at RustyQuill.com. Join our community on the Discord or via Reddit at r slash RustyQuill. Thanks for listening.