The Static Between Worlds | Ep.3 | Shadows in the Tea Shop

[00:00:02] Hey there, geeks and freaks. Welcome back to Let's Get Critical, an actual play D&D podcast. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the show.

[00:00:20] Previously on The Static Between Worlds, four teens in Eldritch Falls, Cassandra, Madonna, Jimmy, and Sienna, were trying to survive their first day of school in their sleepy 1980s town. They didn't expect magic. They didn't expect monsters.

[00:00:43] What started as a party at the pier turned into a fight for their lives. Mutated fish folk, giant crabs, scald in waves, while wild magic tore through the night. And then, the Vanth Energy Facility exploded. Surrounded by mystery, the group's first glimpse of truth came from a man in a hazmat suit.

[00:01:10] He gave them a VHS tape. On it he spoke of a machine, one that could channel magic lost since the Middle Ages. He used it once, a decade ago, to save his son. His son disappeared. His warning was simple.

[00:01:29] He said,

[00:02:25] Well, except for Cassandra. Cassandra, you are back in the great room of your childhood home. The carpet underneath your feet is thick enough to drown your foot steps. Everything smells of citrus polish and fresh flower arrangements. The ceilings are massive and bolted. Art hangs from every wall.

[00:02:55] And on every counter, there's statues and flowers. It's elegant. Expensive. Across from you, seated in a cream leather satay, are your parents. Your mother, Helen, sits upright. Her hands are folded like origami in her lap. Her nose is just a touch too sharp. Her chin is a little too narrow. But nothing about her feels small.

[00:03:25] And beside her is Alexander Stern. Saint Xander, as his associates call him. The light loves him. It always did. His skin carries a literal glow like honey caught in the morning sun. He's got hair that's brushed back with this careless perfection.

[00:03:47] And even now, on the edge of scandal, he radiates an unshakable confidence of a man who's used to applause. Right then, he says. That about settles it. Helen will handle the offshore accounts in the house. And you, Cassie, you understand what a burden you are to your mother while she manages all of this.

[00:04:17] Cassandra was just kind of still passive, letting this happen. And at those words, you can see her kind of freeze a little dear in the headlights, but trying not to show it. That struck a chord for sure. This entire time, your mother has not looked you in the eye. When she does finally, she speaks in a pleasant and very practiced tone.

[00:04:47] You will be going to Eldritch Falls. Your uncle has agreed to house you. My uncle? Yes, your uncle. He was not interested in our family, so I haven't mentioned him. But given the circumstances, he has agreed to house you while we deal with this inconvenience. Right.

[00:05:16] Of course. You hear a knock on the doorway, just to the right of you. You can hear a pin clicking in this person's hand as he walks in. He says, Mr. Stern, it's time. The agreement required you surrender by five. You turn to look at the figure. But it's not a man at all. It's an eye. Massive.

[00:05:46] Slid. And watching. As its pupil contracts, you start to hear something guttural all around you. And I'm going to go ahead and need you to make a perception check. Hungry eye. Fuck. Okay, that's okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay. You said perception? Stripped the house up.

[00:06:18] So it's a good roll? It's a good roll? Oh, yeah. It's a great one. It's a seven plus a two. So that's a nine. What do I see? So you see an eye. It's a giant bloodshot eye. You quite pick up that guttural voice that seems to be coming from the eye. But there is kind of something in the background as the entire room around you starts to fade into mist that you do hear.

[00:06:47] And it is this creeping, crawling voice that says, The ever-lie and creeping shade pulls forth the dread that should not wait. And then you wake up. You are back in the Everfields living room on a couch.

[00:07:17] You see the Everfield kids next to you. Jimmy is kind of laying in a pool of his own drool, seeping out. And you see little Sienna tucked away under a big blanket. But as you kind of look around, survey the room, your eyes catch the art on the walls and even the little statues in the bathroom that Miss Everfield made for her kids.

[00:07:44] In this moment, what is Cassandra feeling? She is, I think, off the wake of that dream. She's definitely off-kilter. That she's kind of, not necessarily saying it out loud, but thinking in her head, that's not how it happened. That's not, we're fine. That's not how it happened. Everything's fine. Everything's okay.

[00:08:14] Everything's okay. And I think normally after a dream like that, she'd write something, she'd write about it in her journal. But I think it's a little too raw for her to do that. And as her eyes catch on these things, on this house that has warmth to it. I mean, there's, there's, everything is a different kind of shade of brown and then orange and then wacky color here and there.

[00:08:41] Just bright sparks, I think, as she looks at the macaroni art in particular. She feels both a little more settled in reality, a little more present in the here and now. The, the dregs of the dream kind of drifting off. But I think she still feels a little more cold and alone than, in that part of the dream didn't leave. Can I roll a perception check to see if I saw her looking at my macaroni art?

[00:09:12] If you can explain to me how, in the dead of sleep, drooling on this couch, Jimmy perceived this. I will 100% freaking let you make this roll. Started drowning in your drool. He started drowning in your drool. You know what? You know what? I, I, I like, I like the, uh, dedication.

[00:09:31] I'm going to say right about at this moment, Miss Everfield, you can hear her starting to, in a way that only like a mom can, where she thinks she's being super quiet, but she's making like so much noise as she's kind of like cleaning the kitchen and getting breakfast ready. You just hear pots and pans and clinging. And then of course it's, it's also Marisol Everfield. So she's in there and she's, she's like singing to herself the entire time. I told you not when I have friends.

[00:10:00] Finally, you were not supposed to do this. What? What? Jimmy, I can't. We went over my oats multiple times. Oh my God. Go ahead and roll that perception check for me. Uh, that is a, one second. Let me remind myself what my perception is. That is going to be a 17. A 17. Uh, is Cassandra trying to hide the fact that she's looking at macaroni art?

[00:10:29] I don't think so. I mean, she, I think, I think you can, I would definitely say you could see her dead eyeing that macaroni art for sure. I, I don't know how you would have run the whole, does he like, I, he would need an insight check to understand her like mood and everything. Right. So I don't understand at all. He's just, you know, looking at it. Yeah. Jimmy doesn't care. Jimmy, Jimmy. I mean, he understands. He has a strong understanding. Jimmy's going to walk right up.

[00:10:58] Uh, I saw you, uh, admiring the, uh, the art. Yeah. I'm, uh, I'm pretty popular around these parts. Uh, you can see, you can see why. We got to really think about everything from every angle. Madonna's woken up by this point. She's like listening to them with their arms still draped over her guitar because she's been stroking it, but she stopped. Jimmy, you have never been popular anywhere ever. Hey, and that one over there, that one's Madonna's.

[00:11:28] And he points over, it's like hidden in the trash bin, all stuffed up and crumpled. Yeah, that's it. Oh, no, early. What are we talking about? Sienna's just going to wake up in this middle stuff talking about these baby teeth. You're all awake at this point. I don't know what that was. You hear, you know what? You hear a Mr. Everfield coming down the stairs. Oh, hey, sport. You showing her the art? Yeah, Dad.

[00:11:56] You know how, uh, you know how popular these things are? It's like a, it's like a magnet anytime anybody comes in. Oh, yeah. Hey, that one he, he, uh, did right after he, uh, peed himself in the bed. So, uh... Jeez, Dad. Nice hair. I told you that that's gotta be a secret. That was broke talk. Between me and you. Why is that a secret? This is why I didn't trust you, Dad. This is why. Hey. Hey. I overstepped. I'm sorry. It's still fresh in my mind.

[00:12:26] It was just last month. You know, so... Dad, oh my god. And he's gonna, like, try and be pushing his dad into the kitchen. He'll let you. As they, they go into the kitchen, you get that aroma of bacon and eggs. Uh, as Mrs. Everfield's like, Oh, yeah, all awake. Oh, well, I have made some breakfast for you all. Like I said, though, we don't expect you to come to school. You know what, Madonna? I'm gonna leave the family vehicle here.

[00:12:56] You kids have fun. Go do something. Explore. Take your mind off the very tragic incident that occurred last night, okay? Your father and I are gonna leave for work. We love you. Jimmy... Mom, stop, stop. I told you. Not when girls around. Oh, gosh. Donna's already got her arms up to deflect parentage and parental kisses. She's like over here shadowboxing it. Oh, my gosh. Just go.

[00:13:26] Just go. Interesting. Very interesting. Yeah, so both your parents are kind of at this point getting the vibe. All right. All right. They're gonna start to leave. Your dad goes to lock the door and he has it just cracked so you can just see his mouth through the door. And as he's leaving, he says, hey, take the day by the horns. And he closes the door and they go ahead and leave for the day.

[00:13:52] You are now completely alone in a house where you can hear the crackling of static on a TV. And you remember a certain video that you had played the night before. What would you like to do? Guys, we gotta get back to that video last night, right?

[00:14:18] I don't feel I did as in depth of analysis was worthy with that kind of material. It's definitely worth a second look with fresh eyes. Yes. Yes, that. I'm getting food. Madonna disappears into the kitchen. I'm with Madonna. I usually get crow's feet. Uh, so we're not doing that, Sienna, but I will bring you back eggs and bacon. Whoa, did you just say crow's feet? It's a long story, Jimmy.

[00:14:48] You'll, you'll find out when you meet my aunt. I mean, you matter, but you'll find out whenever you go and organize the tea with me. I don't think I want to come for breakfast. Definitely not at this point. I wouldn't blame you. Okay, so the two of you are going to get breakfast. We've got Sarah and, uh, Jimmy still as they pop the video in. Does everyone want to do some sort of investigation or perception check on this video, though?

[00:15:17] Oh, definitely. Yeah, Madonna's going to come back with her plate and, uh, probably Sienna as well. Uh, she's going to plop onto the couch and pretend like she's not paying attention, but she's a little bit of the details. Madonna's going to make room for Sienna on the couch. Hey, wait, wait, wait, that's my spot. Move over. Jimmy, ladies, Jimmy, and she's just going to shove Jimmy. Oh, oops.

[00:15:47] Jimmy, very little resistance happened. Tiny but mighty. But on the plus side, the girl touched him again, so. Emmy's not going to wash that shoulder now. I think Cass kind of perches on the side of all this chaos, just like on the edge of the couch, kind of like a good foot of space between it. And it's just like, okay. And like, it folds her arms and roots and then gets out of her journal and stuff like that. I was like, okay, where are you going? And focus on the, uh, who's putting the, who's putting the tape in.

[00:16:17] She's just sitting there waiting. Uh, yeah, everyone go ahead and give me an investigation check as we're looking for, are there anything specific that anyone's looking for in this video? Oh, uh, I want to be looking specifically as like, kind of like a little magic nerd with little, uh, uh, magical inclinations. I would like to try and focus on like the magic aspect of what's going on and see if I can pick up anything of like, what kind of magic thing to use maybe? Or, or what process is being done?

[00:16:47] Something, something along those lines. I'm going to look at the, that aspect. Okay. Uh, Cassandra, give me Arcana. Everyone else can give me an investigation. Yeah. Madonna's going to be looking for like, you know, details she didn't notice the first time. Like background details, like if there's any scratches anywhere or, you know, people she didn't notice before. Or pictures she didn't notice before. Any kind of, you know, clues as to, you know, something she didn't notice around, you know.

[00:17:17] Specifically background or? Yeah, specifically background stuff. Cool. Yeah, we're going to go slow. Jimmy's just going to do a general perception check and just see if there's anything he missed the first time. I'm investigating just the, um, like layout of the whole thing. Like, does it look like a hospital? Does it look like a shelter? Does it look like it's underground? Is there any echoing? So an investigation check. And mine would be a 14. Uh, Madonna's sitting at 18.

[00:17:46] That is a, uh, a 24 for Jimmy. Uh, 12 plus 9. So just check my math. 21 Arcana? Yes. Yes. Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. Y'all, y'all rolled pretty well. Um, let's go through these one at a time. So for Cassandra, you said you were looking at the Arcana? Yeah. Um, you observed quite a bit from your battle at the pier.

[00:18:15] You know for a fact that just observing the different type of magics your friends displayed there that night, uh, this is somehow either penetrating or utilizing magic from, from different sources when it is turned on.

[00:18:38] So you, you can't quite tell necessarily if it, how the machine is working, but it seems like the effects in the air come from different types of magic. Um, for, for Jimmy, Jimmy was looking at perception. Um, you're going to notice something in this video that you didn't notice before.

[00:19:03] Specifically in the part where, um, uh, the gentleman, Static Man, introduces his son. Uh, you notice that he's kind of laying out on a, what's like kind of like a medical table or bed. Um, clearly very ill. You notice movement of other legs in the background. They are not the only two people in the room.

[00:19:27] Um, in terms of Madonna and Sienna, you both got high enough to notice in the very, very back of the space in one of the clips, because it time jumps a few, few times. There seems to be some sort of glass partition, maybe like a window of sorts even, um, with painted on letters on the opposite side. So you're, you're looking at words in reverse. Madonna with, uh, you said an 18?

[00:19:56] Madonna would be able to kind of work out that backwards with her 18, that it actually says the words Vander and Heath. Vander and Heath. Um, that would be pretty much everything with those roles that you pick up from this video, though, the second time through. Whoa, guys, there's other people on that scene, man. Jeez, look.

[00:20:24] And he's going to rewind it and kind of point out everything that he saw. It's very quick. It's just a few seconds when he admits to discovery of the machine working. You see another table with two other legs sticking out from the side of the view. That's quite the catch.

[00:20:59] Oh, geez, well, he did mention to meet him in the, uh, at the roller ring, right? Right. Well, maybe, uh, maybe that's where we're going today? Would, uh, would Madonna share what she found out with the group? Um, me and Sienna both, both noticed it this time, didn't we?

[00:21:27] But, yes. Uh, she's, she's going to kind of lean forward. She's like, so, um, I don't feel like any of y'all noticed, even though y'all are major nerds and y'all should have. But if you look in the background, she's going to point. Vander and Heath. It's the name of that building for sure. Vander and Heath. Vander and Heath. Do any of you know, uh, Vander and Heath?

[00:21:56] Is that a place in town? My aunt owns a tea shop on the campgrounds, and I can't say I've ever heard of Vander and Heath. I feel like Jimmy would probably know something about, uh, about Vander and Heath. Can I give her a history check to see if I've ever heard? Uh, history check, yeah. Go ahead and give me that. She said big brain. That is a 17 plus 4, 21.

[00:22:24] I don't know if you would really know historically, but what you, what you do know is that there are no current companies in the city, uh, called Vander and Heath. No, I definitely, I don't think that it's anything I've ever heard of.

[00:22:51] Madonna's gonna be like tuning her guitar, kind of playing with the strings, fiddling with it. She kind of taps it for a second. She's like, so, being, being nerds who never date anyone, I'm, I'm sure one of you have to have, like, smashed your names together with somebody you were interested in. You know, half of your name, half of their name, and you mash it together. No. I feel like that's what's, well, hmm. One of the other nerds probably then.

[00:23:20] You know, it has to be a thing, right? Dang and Rob doesn't make you a nerd, Madonna. Just shamelessly looks to the ground. So, so anyway, um, Vander, Heath, you smash them together, it's Vance, right? They became Vance. You think? Gotta be. Or shit. Jimmy just looks visibly shook. He's like.

[00:23:53] Fucking hell, Bev. Hey, Jimmy, what's up? Uh, so, yeah, the house phone rings. On the other side, you hear. Oh, hey, uh, uh, is, uh, this, this is, uh, well, that's not important. Hey, hey, does, is Sienna there? Uh, I can't confirm or deny that information. What's the purpose of your call? Hey, well, I mean, hey, she would know me.

[00:24:19] Uh, I, I live over on the campgrounds near her aunt, and, uh, I just, I just wanted to contact her. I, I, I had some concerns here. Yeah, what'd you say your name was? Uh, you're a funny guy. Did you say Sienna's there? Jimmy, who's on the phone? Some weirdo from the trailer park's on the phone. He's, like, trying to cover it but doing a very bad job. Some weirdo from the trailer park's on the phone for you. Oh, thank you, Jimmy.

[00:24:48] Hello? Weirdo? Hey, Sienna! I know this weirdo, guys, don't worry. What's up? Hey. Hey, uh, well, I was having a great day. Uh, feeling, feeling a little sacked now, but hey, I, uh, I've been, I've been asking around, trying to, trying to see where you're at. I, um, I had some concerns with, with your aunt Celeste. She, she didn't seem to open the, the tea shop. And I was, uh, well, you know, I was, I, I was working up the courage to go see her.

[00:25:18] I, I would totally go and, uh, talk to her. But, uh, strangest thing, though, all around the tea shop, when I tried to walk up, there was this weird kind of, like, I, I don't know, like, lights or, or distortion. Almost like, just like a heat wave was all around the area of her house. I, I just was a little concerned, thought you might want to know. Oh no, I hope that she's not over boiling the tea again. I'll get over there right away.

[00:25:47] Thank you so much for calling me and, um, for finding me. Um, it's real sweet. Real, real sweet. I appreciate your concern. Well, that guy's really creepy. He, like, tracked her down and everything. I, I think I should hang up now. We've never heard his name before. Did we, like, when we first heard of him, did he actually not have a name? You guys, it's gonna be hard to explain.

[00:26:15] Yeah, Crazy Joe, Trailer Park Joe, whatever. Whatever y'all want to call him. Y'all want to call him Crazy Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Mojo, Joe, Joe. Yeah, so how on earth would he have tracked you down here is my concern. Why does he have to ever feel his number? I, I don't know, Cassandra, but it looks like we're all gonna have, I, I, you guys, Madonna, you have a car here, don't you? Your parents said that they left the car for the day. Do you think that you could give me a ride to the campgrounds?

[00:26:45] It's quite a bit, a bit away, and I just want to check on my aunt. I can do that. You're gonna owe me for sure. Okay, I'll owe ya. No problem. Don't do it. Don't do it. She's so cute. I have regrets. I have regrets. Okay, so just to clarify, we are heading towards Aunt Celeste's tea shop on the campgrounds? Yes, but, uh, Madonna's gonna lean over the counter and scarf down some food first.

[00:27:16] Cassandra didn't eat anything here, but I think, watching this, she's, like, trying to put some of the dirty dishes in the steak, and she's trying to, like, around Madonna, trying to kind of, like, get a little bit quick, because you don't, you don't just leave the shit here, like. So Madonna's gonna grab a biscuit, shove it into Cass's hand, and then, like, grab her collar and start dragging her toward her. No, they read the dishes, but they're not done. They're not done. Jimmy's gonna quickly run to the other side of the kitchen,

[00:27:43] and he's gonna get in the underneath cabinet where he keeps his plate, his bowl, his knife, his fork, and his spoon, and he's going to pull it out from its case and get his plate and quickly run by and try to organize his plate into his quadrants and quickly scarf it down as he goes. He very clearly takes way too long, but he's adamant that he's being quick about it. But, oh, yeah.

[00:28:09] Santa's just twiddling on her thumbs, wondering what her aunt did, what's going on. One sec, one sec, I swear. Just a couple more seconds. Honestly, take what it's right to need. I don't want to go and see what's going on, but I have to, you know, with that type of... I know what you... You know what I mean, Madonna, right? With Jimmy as her brother. Sorry, I don't know. For sure, for sure, we gotta leave. Madonna's gonna reach over, grab Jimmy's fork, and, like, mix all of his food together.

[00:28:36] Jimmy's just gonna place it back on the counter. So you place it back on the counter, and we start to get in the car to drive away. Let's get just a straight wisdom check from Madonna to see how well she does driving this car over to the campsite. Wisdom... You said straight, so 15. 15.

[00:29:07] Perfect. Yeah, there's no real issues. The rest of you don't notice anything too drastic with the drive, other than the music that she's got going in the back. The entire time. But yeah, you start to pull up to the campgrounds, and Cena's helping you kind of... Madonna's gonna turn left, but it's gonna be like a U-turn, and then she's gonna correct it and turn back. And Jimmy's just like... Fish... ...folding on.

[00:29:37] I'm gonna be sick. Shut up, Jimmy. Cast dude out the window. She's gonna be calm as day. She's skidding along the road. She's gonna pull into the trailer park. She's gonna miss the spots entirely. Back wheel up on the curb. But she's gonna be like, okay, we made it. Perfect. Perfect driving. Everyone... Leave a tip. All right. Awesome. Uh, hey, uh, Cena, I think your mic might be muted.

[00:30:05] Cena, you were awfully quiet this whole ride. Are you feeling okay? I'm just nervous to see what monstrosities lie behind that door. But you know, sometimes it's an adventure, so... You guys ready to come into my humble abode? You guys, don't worry. There's a key right here, and she's just gonna reach down into this pot that has a dead plant. In it and pull out a crow's foot, and it has a key connected to it. My aunt likes to make keychains!

[00:30:34] And then she's gonna unlock the door and push it open. Oh, listen, I have C's. And then you're just gonna... Uh, before we go in, like, we see, like, the heat wave that I was describing. Like, like, what does it look like around the outside of the house? Like, what is this? Yeah, as y'all are entering, you definitely see what he's talking about. You see that warbled heat wave all around. And even as you start to open the door and walk through,

[00:31:01] the moment you step through to the tea shop, everything goes ice cold. And everyone's stomach sinks. It's still cold in here. I would like to, the second we break that threshold, can I start ritual casting Detect Magic? Yeah. Yeah. You start ritual casting that, and as that's happening,

[00:31:26] why don't we get some just perception checks from the whole group? Because I'm just sitting there, and I'm looking, and I'm like, mmm, that felt weird. What is this? What is this? And as I'm paging through the book to find something, I find that. And so I'm studying it and just mumbling little bits of mumbo jumbo to myself. That's an 18 for old Jimmo. Same. Madonna's got an 18 as well. Mine is a 10. Let's go Sienna.

[00:31:58] Yeah, it's a 10. Yeah, it's a 10. Frantic. You guys, I don't understand why it's so cold in here. I mean, it's usually, like, you know, not very ray of sunshine and all that, but it's so desolate, and it doesn't even seem like she's here. Aunt Celeste, are you here? Um, you all look around. Madonna and Jimmy immediately notice some of the tea displays are knocked over and just kind of on the ground.

[00:32:28] It's very dark in this tea shop. So where you're currently standing, you're in this tea shop on the bottom floor. It's kind of like a front retail area, and there's a small storage area with a stairway in the back where it leads up to the bedrooms and your private home and the shack. In this area, though, it's very disarrayed. Things have obviously been moved around.

[00:32:52] Um, and as time kind of goes by, we kind of hit that 10-minute mark, and we go back to Cassandra. Uh, Cassandra is looking at the rituals, walking around the room, and then all of a sudden you feel as if, like, a third eye awakens in you,

[00:33:19] and you start to see glowing areas of the room, specifically where the shadow is the darkest. Um, right in the middle of the room, though, even though you can't see something there, you see this pale, sickly green light that seems to almost be outlining the shape of something humanoid. And as you see this,

[00:33:47] you look down at your book, and one word appears, and it says necromancy. Oh, dear. What would you like to do? I'm going to back up a little bit away from these points, and as I do that, I'm going to say,

[00:34:17] there's definitely something odd here, and I'm, uh, necromancy? Necromancy may be a thing. Oh, jeez. Necromancy. Necromancy. My aunt would never, what do you mean necromancy? What are you talking about? Stay away from the middle of the room, and I'll point to exactly where I see the light. When you point,

[00:34:45] the outline of the figure reacts, and then it seems to be turning to face Sienna as a thin, wispy voice says, Ah, champion. Jumebox champion. It has been a long time.

[00:35:12] And I'm going to need Sienna to go ahead and make a strength saving throw for me. Sienna's just, like, sitting there in utter fear while it just goes down her spine, this chill, thinking of Junebug and this creaky-ass little girl. One second. Oh, my God. It was almost a 20, and it went on a 2. I'm going to fucking cry. Hold on. Oh, man. I'm going to cry. So you hear this voice call out to you as just for a moment,

[00:35:42] it seems to make itself visible to the room. A horrific, hooded figure, skeletal-like. And it points a finger towards Sienna, and Sienna, you are thrown back against the wall from the doorway that you came. And as you're thrown back, you take 7 points of force damage,

[00:36:10] and you feel a tingle in the back of your neck. And from the Walkman that's around your neck, you hear a small girl's voice going, uh-oh, as I need everyone to go ahead and roll initiative. Hey, this is Micah. Thanks for listening to Let's Get Critical. If you're enjoying this show, tap the follow button or leave us a review. It really helps.

[00:36:39] Now, back to the Static Between Worlds. Today's going to bring us to the first of these shadow figures. You see this one over here is going to approach Cassandra. Okay. And it is going to try to make an attack on you. Okay. Okay. Question shield.

[00:37:07] That's a reaction I can do after I see if it hits or not, right? I don't have to call it. Technically, you just call it, but I'll be nice. When you are hit by an attack roll. Yes. So if it hits, then I can do it, right? Yes. I'll be nice to you. I'm going to let you know right now, though, it doesn't hit. They rolled a 4. Oh, God. So that is going to miss. Let's see if there's anything else they can do. No. I think that's all they got.

[00:37:34] It is going to take an opportunity attack and go back from you. Oh. And it's going to try to go into this corner and try to hide in the shadows. It uses my reaction to hit him. It does. Typically, doesn't it? Then I just let him go. Okay. That one is now hidden in the shadows of the corner. I'm going to take him off. It's going to be nice. If y'all want to try to find him,

[00:38:03] we can do a perception check on your turn. But he is, for all intents and purposes, hidden. That's going to bring us to Cassandra, actually. It's your turn. Okay. So the book told me that this is necromancy. We've got three figures, one that's disappeared.

[00:38:30] I saw the Jimmy over there threw down moonlight and hit somebody with a bright shining attack. And I'm trying to put it all together and I'm just thinking desperately, I need something that will get these guys off my back. I need something. And the book's not giving me anything. And the more I panic, because the book has failed me in this moment, it's not giving me an answer. I feel something bubbling up inside.

[00:38:56] And I'm going to use Celestial Revelations. Okay. Once per long list, you transformed using one of the options below. And how are you transforming? I think that this panic, like butterflies in my stomach, keeps fluttering around, bubbling up, until the glow behind my eyes becomes a glow underneath my skin, becomes more and more, until I am just shining.

[00:39:25] With inner radiance, I shed bright light in a 10-foot radius, dim light for an additional 10 feet, and at the end of each of my turn, each creature within 10 feet of me takes two radiant damage. Okay. So immediately, the one that was hiding is no longer hidden. Hell yeah. They do seem to be cowering a little bit from the light. That's your action? That is, I believe... Is that a bonus action? I believe... I think it's a bonus action.

[00:39:55] Yeah, Celestial, one bonus action. Go ahead and give me an action. That is my bonus action. Go, go, go, go, go, okay. So I am going to... Seeing them cower, I get a little bit of confidence. I think I'm going to walk a little bit closer, until I get within 5, 10... So two of them are in within range of that then. Yes. I'll say if you move here, you would have hit that one and that one. Okay, dope. Awesome, awesome, awesome.

[00:40:24] I didn't think I could get both, so I got you. Okay, and is there a save for that? Um... It's at the end of each of my turns, so not yet, and they just take two radiant damage when it happens. Okay. So I don't see any save on here. No problem. Um... And then once on each of your turns, before the transformation ends, I can deal two extra damage to one target when you deal... Oh, that's part of the thing. Okay, okay, okay. Oh, no, no, no. So one target when you deal damage to it with an attack or spell. Okay. Okay.

[00:40:54] What are we doing for... For my action, uh... I'm panicking a little. I'm holding it under. Mask is still here. It's not cracked, but I'm shaking a little bit with how much I'm glowing, and I'm like, this isn't the magic book that reassures me with its knowledge. This is me doing this. I'm going to go to a tried and true, and I'm just going to go ahead and do a magic missile. A magic missile. Okay, where are we directing those attacks? Okay.

[00:41:24] Uh, the one who came up and took a swipe at me is going to take two of the darts, and then the one that I see in front of me over here is going to take the other. Okay. I'm only casting it at first level, and I believe that gives me three. Go ahead and roll damage for me. I want to do four for each. Okay, uh, two, and then two, so that's four for the guy on the... To my right. Well, you get plus one, so that would technically be six, uh, for that first guy.

[00:41:53] Oh, right, right, right, right. So six for the first guy. Okay. Okay. A force damage, and then one plus one, two points to the dude in front of me. And then with the, uh, let me see. Let's see. You get that additional plus two to whoever you want it. Yes. I would like to do it... Um, screw it. I'll do that extra two damage on the one who took a swipe at me because he came up in my face. Okay. So that dude, I think, takes eight total? Yes.

[00:42:23] And the other guy takes two. Oh, yeah. All right. Anything else you'd like to do on your turn? Uh, no. I use my movement, bonus action, action. Um, so when I end my turn, uh, the people who were within ten feet of me take two radiant damage each. You see them both get seared by this, and terrible just screeching comes out of them as this happens. Uh, hell yeah. That is gonna bring us to... Sienna, actually. It is now your turn. You're currently against the wall.

[00:42:52] You can't see the one that hits you, but you do see the three kind of around the edge of the tea shop. What'd you like to do? My aunt always said that free entry isn't okay! And she's gonna misty step in front of number three and try to touch it with my chill touch. Okay. Nice. Uh, so we all go ahead and... Uh, let me see. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty.

[00:43:21] Yeah, you totally have range if you want to be right in front of him for chill touch. Yes, if you want to use a special ability either for, I believe, healing or to deal damage. Immediately after you teleport, you are one creature you can see within ten feet of yourself gained in 1d10 temporary hit points. So you could potentially do that for Madonna if you'd like. I'm going to. Okay. Uh, roll me a d10 that's the diamond shape.

[00:43:53] An eight. Alright. Madonna has eight temporary hit points. Hell yeah. Wow, that like cancels out the damage I took earlier. Thank you. Perfect. Okay, and we're doing chill touch. That's an attack roll. Roll me a roll a d20 for me. See if we hit with this attack. Okay, what do we got? It's a four. A four? Ooh. Uh, plus what? What's your, uh, plus for chill touch? Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, so the hit would be plus six.

[00:44:22] So it's a ten. It's close, but still misses. Uh, so you try to reach out. Don't quite get it with the still touch, but you are able to heal Madonna in the process. Any additional movement we want to make? I, yes, I am going to move out of melee range. And I'm going to, can I misty stuff away? Uh, you can't misty stuff away, but I will say it technically already used its reaction, so you can walk away without taking an attack of opportunity. Oh, Mike is a nice DM.

[00:44:52] Yeah, I'm going to moonwalk away. I'm just going to. Moonwalk? Okay. Yeah, Sienna moonwalks back where'd you like to be. You got 30 feet of movement. How far back do you want to go? You should, like, go back. All the way back there? Yes. Okay. That will be in a turn. That is going to actually bring us to that shadow, though. Seeing, uh, everything that happens, this shadow that you just tried to attack is going to move up to Madonna and try to make an attack roll.

[00:45:22] That is only going to be a 10. Is that it? Okay. That misses. It is not currently in shadows. It can be seen, and with the radiant light, I don't think that it can hide anymore, so it is going to stay there. That brings us to the other shadow that was in front of Cassandra. It is going to move up five feet to try to attack you, Cassandra,

[00:45:51] and that is a seven. That will also miss. Ouch. Okay. Okay. Um, we're not done, though, because... Uh-oh. Just in front of Jimmy, who's now this dinosaur, we are going to go ahead and see a figure emerge once again, and it is going to try to make an attack against Jimmy.

[00:46:24] Does a 16 hit Jimmy? A 16 exactly hits Jimmy. Okay. Um, you see he... kind of seems to appear just for a second, and you kind of hear a slight hum in the air as one of the T-Stands physically gets lifted up out of the air and just is launched straight towards you. Oh, boy. Aunt Celeste is going to be so upset.

[00:46:53] Uh, let me see. Ooh, that's going to be eight points of bludgeoning damage. And I'm also going to need you to make a strength saving throw for me. Ooh. Okay, strength saving throw. Uh... Ooh. That's kind of cocked. You want me to take that 13? Um... Yeah, let's redo that. Okay.

[00:47:24] Oh, even worse. That's a 13. They both... They both failed. Uh, or you said it's a 13 with your modifier? Uh, so 13 with my modifier, yeah. 13 with your modifier actually will succeed. Let's go! Um, so you don't take, uh... Any damage on that. And because he has chosen to reappear, uh, that was his bonus action. Uh, that is going to bring us back to the top of the turn order with Madonna. Madonna!

[00:47:54] Jimmy, that was cool as fuck. You're becoming a fucking giant lizard with feathers, dude. That's sick. That's right about him last night. Anyways, she takes her guitar again and tries to hit this shadow creature in the face with her guitar again. Okay, go ahead and roll an attack roll for me. 11, 13. 13. We'll hit. Let's go. Go ahead and roll damage for me. Uh, 6.

[00:48:25] 6! Okay. Um, still seems strangely hard to kind of like slash through, but you can tell it's definitely not liking everything that's happened to it right now. Excellent. Anything else you'd like to do? I think we still got a bonus action and movement. How many inspirations? Just one at a time, right? Um, you've got, uh, it would be up to your proficiency modifier

[00:48:53] in terms of bardics that you can hand out, uh, for rest, but this is a different bonus action. You technically could hand out another one in this battle if you wanted. This would be your second one. You've only got a proficiency of two. Okay. Yeah, speaking of that, I need to remember that. So I think she's gonna, she's worried about Sienna. She's so tiny. She's trying to stand in front of her, but she's not doing a great job because this creature's flipping all over the place as a shadow.

[00:49:21] So she's gonna turn your guitar down again. Dun, dun, dun, dun. And she's gonna give her inspiration. Okay. Uh, Sienna was given inspiration on any D20 tests, including an attack roll. You can choose to add that inspiration that's a D6. Yeah, so the normal-looking, normal-looking dice. Um, excellent. That is gonna be Madonna that will bring us to Jimmy. Oh, you done good now.

[00:49:47] And, uh, with, like, uh, casting a spell or doing anything else as an action, um, if I'm a creature that has multi-attack, would that spell or action count as one of my attacks? It would have to be a druidic spell that specifies that Moonbeam does count, though. Yeah. But it would still count as one of the multiple attacks, or I could only do the one spell and that would be it. Uh, it would count as a magic action. So it wouldn't, like, cast an- It wouldn't take an initial spell slot, essentially,

[00:50:17] but it would take your action to use. Damn, okay. So, um, okay with regular Moonbeam rules. If you want to do that, that would move- allow you to move 60 feet within the room. Uh, but it will take your full action in order to activate that Moonbeam somewhere else. Gotcha. Uh, I'm actually- I'm not gonna use Moonbeam, and I'm also not going to, uh, to regularly attack. My Starry Wisp is a Circle of the Moon spell, and I can use it while I'm, uh, Wildshape. You certainly can.

[00:50:45] Uh, I'm going to go ahead and make an attack roll with this guy that keeps turning invisible on us, so he's no longer able to turn invisible. Go ahead and do that. All right, let's see. That is going to be- Oof! That's not good. Um, do I even want to use this for that? Uh, let's see. Uh, no, I don't. Okay. Because even if I got a six on it, I'm fairly confident that wouldn't have worked. No worries. Anything else Jimmy would like to do on his turn?

[00:51:12] Uh, Jimmy would like to- Oh, let's see. Uh, Jimmy would like to- To walk up and, uh, just kind of, like, put a hand on this guy. Could I just walk up and, like, just grab him by the wrist, not even to restrain him, just to- I'm going to say that's an action. Darn it. To do it. Uh, if you want to get with the Mally Ranger him, you can definitely do that.

[00:51:42] Um, I think that I do. I think I would- Uh, what could be wrong with going towards a horrifying cloaked figure that floats and disappears and repairs? Anything else Jimmy would like to do on the turn? Uh, Jimmy would like to just kind of stand there. Okay. Yeah. A realistic bird dinosaur face as you're just staring at this cloaked figure and we will end Jimmy's turn there. That is going to bring us back to, uh, the first Shadow's turn that is currently behind Cassandra.

[00:52:11] Uh, it is seething from that last attack. It is going to come up to Cassandra and attempt to make an attack. Does a 12 hit? It does. So, Shield. Shield? What does that bring your AC to? Okay. Shield. Uh, gives me a plus five. So, it gives me 15. That misses. Okay. Um, that is your reaction this turn, but that lasts all round. Uh, so your AC is 15 until you- Mmm.

[00:52:41] It's until the start of my next turn. Yes. So, it's immediately. Yep. And with that, we are to Cassandra's turn. Hey! Okay. So, I'm going to say for Shield, uh, the little butterfly on my brooch because it was behind me, sped off my brooch and then like butterfly wings just in a huge arc block the attack. Nice. I love it. Just for some fun flavor since, you know, it's there and gone in a second and it's back on the brooch. So, I'm going to pretend I didn't even notice that. I didn't notice what was going on. Hell yeah. All right.

[00:53:09] You are currently basically flanked on either side by two of these shadows guys. What would you like to do? I don't know if you guys noticed, but I'm the wizard with 10 AC. I shouldn't be in the middle of this. I made a mistake. Um, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I am, however, doing lots of beacony stuff right now. So, I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to try it in true method.

[00:53:38] It worked before, but oh my god, I need one of these guys at least to be gone. I'm going to cast magic missile on the dude behind me. All three? All three on it. What, how, wait, how, how wispy is this wisp looking? Would I be able to tell if it would hurt? Is there just a lot of patches? You know what? I'm going to throw you a bone here. Give me an arcana check to see if you can tell. Okay, okay, okay. It's not really human.

[00:54:06] 16 plus 9, uh, uh, 25. Uh. To be fair, I'm throwing a lot of spotlight on it. I can see it here. There's a chance. Well, I'll say that. You think that there might be a chance you could take it out? Might be a chance I could take it out. Might be a chance. Okay, well that lets me know I'm a little more reassured to just go full throttle, and I'm just going to slap my hand on the book,

[00:54:33] and from it shoot out three beams at him and let them. Yeah. Give me, uh. Freaking go. Give me three rolls here. Okay. Okay. Uh, first one is three plus four. Four. Uh, another four. Okay. Uh, and that one is five. Four, four, five. Sorry, math. How would you like to do it? 15 damage. Oh my gosh. Okay.

[00:54:59] So I turn around, and I whip my hair over my shoulder, uh, because at this point it's come loose from the pointy tail and all the chaos and everything, so it's big, fluffy, and everywhere. Uh, and when I slam my hand down and bring it up and the three, uh, uh, shots hit it, that, uh, uh, butterfly before on my brooch comes through, and as the butterfly wings flash through it, the mist just disappears and he's just gone. Just gone. And I believe that your celestial bonus action is still active. Double check, make sure if that's still active.

[00:55:28] I think that's a one minute. Uh, yes. Yes, it is one minute. So you technically cast another spell. Where would you like to direct the other two damage? Then I, after getting rid of it, and that space is just gone from shadow, just starkly bright, I just turn back around with my eyes glowing, and I lock eyes with the other wisp, and just just send that his way. Horrifying cry is let out again. That's a fun bonus action. Good for you.

[00:55:58] Okay. Anything else you'd like to do on your turn? Let's see. Uh, uh, I am going to, uh, I'm just gonna, now that it's here, I'm gonna feel a little more secure. I am going to, now that I'm not surrounded, I'm thinking a little bit more clearly, I'm feeling pretty confident, feeling myself, I'm gonna skitter around this guy. Okay.

[00:56:24] Until I'm a little bit closer to the big Mammajamma over there, hoping that once I take this guy out, I can go full light on this other guy. What is the range on your... Uh, it's ten, uh, uh, it's ten feet for the, at the end of my turn, two damage. Okay, so you don't quite reach him for that, but you do get that to... He is in dim light. He is in dim light. He absolutely is. Uh, ten feet is, uh, uh, uh, it's bright light and an additional ten feet is dim light. Tight. Yeah.

[00:56:54] That's a great turn. Um. Hi. Not at all. A little irritated by that. No, I'm kidding. Excellent. Oyger. Uh, let's go ahead and go to Sienna. Uh, it is now Sienna's turn. You are currently kind of in the corner, away from anyone in particular. Um. That's my Moonbeam. Oh, I see. Okay, perfect, perfect. I want to mark it in some way so I didn't cheat later on. Excellent. So we still got the Moonbeam going. What would Sienna like to do on this turn?

[00:57:23] I want to point, so Sienna's going to point her direction on the necromancer who just popped back up from the beginning, who threw her in the wall. And she wants to basically, for a action, she wants to send him a message. Ooh. Yeah, go for it. So she's basically going to ask the necromancer, where, where is Aunt Celeste?

[00:57:52] That's all she wants to ask. Give me just one second. You've got to bring your mind. Weary. Weary. Okay. Love it. You see, uh, the little beam of positivity of the group. Just, how does this look for you as you're staring down this kind of shrouded figure, ethereal figure? So Sienna begins to hyper-focus on the main necromancer that came back.

[00:58:20] And as you all are witnessing this, her face goes to a blank expression. It's like she's almost not there. Her aura's different. She's just hyper-focused on this necromancer. You guys have no idea what's going on. Her mouth's not moving. It almost looks as if she's turned into a statuesque. And she's just sitting there on the floor, hyper-focused on this necromancer. Uh, you hear a voice just reach back out.

[00:58:51] I saw you on this necromancer. If we cannot become champion. And that's all you hear. Um, hell yeah. Do you want to do it? Do you have a bonus action you'd like to do? Or do you want to use any of your movements? Well, I still have movement and a bonus action, right? Yeah. So Sienna is going to stand up in utter rage because that gave her no explanation. You just told me what you told me before!

[00:59:21] The rest of the group doesn't understand why she's shouting this. She's going to dart up to the necromancer and she's going to cast a command spell. Uh, I think that's going to be another action. So you can do a bonus action. For you, that would pretty much be, I believe, um, probably just misty step if you wanted to try it. Mm-hmm. I have a shield. No, it's command. Okay. No. No, you're right. Yeah, because if your message was your action, then you can't use...

[00:59:51] Yeah. Unfortunate. But you could misty step. Yeah, I could. You could just, I like, stand up, pissed as hell and go behind him and be like, hand on shoulder. You didn't tell me anything. There she is. Okay. She has a top spell. She has an armor of Agathus. Oh, yeah. You can, you can, uh, digitally hex any of these creatures. You could armor of Agathus yourself.

[01:00:21] Armor of Agathus is not going to get me any answers. Can I hex plus a command or no? Nope, it would just be command because we used the action for the message. Okay. But the hex does affect one of their ability scores. So it not only allows you to do extra damage, it affects their ability of your choosing. So it seems I'm not going to get information out of him, so I'm just pissed. My three feet butt is going to run out of him and cast armor of Agathus. Agathus? Or Agathus? Yeah. Okay. Armor of Agathus. Okay.

[01:00:51] Okay. Oh, yeah. So your movement is 30, isn't it? So one, two, three, four, five, six. You can get as close as to about here. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Yeah. Uh, Sienna just pissed. Run straight up. You see, what does armor of Agathus look for you as you kind of erupt with that? So she's going to turn to the side and just say, you weren't ready for this tune. And she's going to turn up her Walkman and it's just going to have an automatic, like, sonic sound go right at him.

[01:01:22] Hell yeah. Uh, you hear this blast and you, you've always kind of felt this weird connection with Junebug to nature every time she saw something. And this is just ice cold winter that appears all around you. Um, as you come up to him and that is going to be your turn. That is going to bring us back to some of the enemy's turn. Uh, we're going to start with, uh, the shadow that's currently in front of Madonna is going

[01:01:51] to try to make another attack. Uh, that will probably hit. Does it 22 hit? Yeah. Okay. Big time. Uh, what is your strength currently at? Uh, with, it's a minus something in it. Uh, in terms of like just the, the regular stat. Oh, uh, my regular stat is 11. 11. Um, so it was a minus two. So nine. Then nine.

[01:02:21] Just so you're aware, I'm not going to be a mean DM. Anyone who strength, uh, score goes to zero automatically dies. Any, if any of your stats go to, uh, zero, that's automatic death. Uh, this is going to hit you for another six, uh, necrotic damage. And I am going to need another strength, uh, strength saving throw. That is going to be a negative one for you now for your modifier.

[01:02:51] Uh, you said. Or you know what? Actually, I don't think there's a save for this. Let me just go ahead and minus that. I don't think there was last time. So. There, there was not. Uh, it just automatically does that. So you're at nine. Nine. Your new strength score is now a six. Hey, twinsie. Um. Wow. That's so nervous, dude. Um, yeah. It, uh, it is going to end its turn at its current position, though. Uh, you know what?

[01:03:20] Actually, I'm going to, it's going to try to get as far away from this moon beam as it can. It's going to come around to the, the behind you without promoting, uh, opportunity attack. That's going to bring us to the other shadow, uh, that is currently in front of Cassandra. It is going to make an attack at Cassandra. That's a 23 to hit. Oh, God. Yeah, that hits. There's no, yeah. Okay. Uh. Uh.

[01:03:45] That's negative two to your strength score as you just feel it draining the life out of you as it hits. Um, and it is going to hit you. Oh, big crap. Oh. Uh. Uh. It is going to hit you for max damage. That's going to be from nine. Okay. Okay. Necrotic. Necrotic. I have, uh, defense against necrotic. You do have it halved. So that is going to be a four for you. Ooh, thank goodness.

[01:04:12] Uh, in this radiant form, what should have been a mark of severe death doesn't seem to be affecting you quite as much. Uh, that is lastly, though, going to bring us back to our invisible kind of friend here as he is now refocused on Sienna. Ooh. Going to attempt to make an attack. And, uh, nine doesn't hit Sienna, right?

[01:04:42] No. Okay. Uh, in that case, I just need another strength saving throw from you. And don't forget. I'm going to be nice to you. Um, you do have bardic inspiration. So you can use. Uh, you don't have to use that right away. You can roll your d20, see what you get, and then roll the bardic if you need it. Okay. I'm going to roll this. So a five minus a one, that's a four.

[01:05:13] Four. Mm-hmm. If you want to try to use it to get it up, you can. Otherwise, uh, it's. I'm going to use it. Okay. I'm going to use it. Yeah. All right. Come on. Good money. I might as well. Okay. Plus a five. That's good. It brings it to a ten. Yeah. Just short of what you needed. You are once again thrown, uh, back against this back wall. Can somebody do something? He's throwing me.

[01:05:44] Oh, geez, man. That's not cool. You can't do that to women. That is going to be another eight force damage to you as you're thrown back. And he is going to, as a bonus action, uh, go invisible. He is going to be moving out of range. I'm going to be nice and say that if Jimmy wants to try to make an attack, it will be at disadvantage because you don't actually know where he's going. Jimmy definitely will.

[01:06:15] Uh, Jimmy's going to attempt a bite attack. He just tries to get him as he's warping away. Oh, that's not going to hit. That's, uh, that's a two plus, uh, four. Yeah, that's not going to hit. It's the hit. Um, so you, you kind of just try biting all around the air. He seems gone.

[01:06:41] Uh, but with that, that will bring us back to the top of the turn order as we're back with Madonna. Uh, you currently have one that's kind of right behind you. Uh, and the other one that can be seen is going to be the shadow that's in front of Cassandra.

[01:07:09] So I've hit the guy behind me a couple of times, but I think I want to get rid of him. So I think I'm going to firebolt. Instead of chunking this firebolt, I'm going to hold it in my hand, immediately swing around, slam it into his face. With him being in, uh, melee range, it will be done at disadvantage. So maybe not.

[01:07:37] Uh, you do have some options, I believe, that would count as ranged if you wanted to. Uh, that wouldn't impose disadvantage, something like Vicious Mockery, potentially. Um, or you could look at maybe your spells list to see if you want to do something else. Or, again, you can keep going with what you've been doing. You know, actually, I'll swing my guitar on him. Okay. Because I'm trying to save that. Who needs magic, right? Who needs magic? I'll just...

[01:08:08] I'll just... Uh, you keep going at it with your guitar. Uh, so 14 does it hit? F14 will hit. Go ahead and roll damage. Bet. 10. 10 damage? You did say plus 4 earlier, right? Uh, for the attack. Oh, okay, never mind. Uh, so 6. 6. Okay.

[01:08:37] Uh, 6 damage. You twirl around with your guitar one more time. Uh, in what has to be one of the more metal moves, uh, this party has done. Slash at it one more time. Again, it's that weird kind of soup through, but when you slash through it, nothing reappears. Uh, as you have taken out the shadow.

[01:09:03] Uh, just with the pure, unsolicited power of rock and roll. Uh, excellent. Anything else you'd like to do? Uh, she's gonna use her movement. She's gonna move right here, so she's in range. I think she's gonna look at Cass. And she's just gonna, you know, strum, just be like, don't sweat it, baby. And then, like, she's gonna heal her. The magic, magic.

[01:09:32] With, uh, with. Healing word. Healing word, okay. Uh, excellent. You've already used one, uh, first level spell slot. Is this gonna be first or second level? Um. Cassandra doesn't look too hurt. Uh, she'll just use one. Okay. Is that cool? Yeah, excellent. And we have, uh, Jimmy on deck after this. Oh, beautiful.

[01:10:01] Okay, excellent. Uh, so that will be Madonna's turn. She's kind of finishing in the middle of the room. Two shadows have been completely evaporated at this point. And we are to Jimmy, who is currently a strange reptile dinosaur. What is Jimmy doing? Uh, Jimmy is gonna go ahead and he's gonna actually back up real quick. He's gonna go 5'10". And you're gonna take the 20-foot charge. And he's going to take a claw attack at that guy.

[01:10:28] And, uh, that'll be a DC 12 strength saving throw for his pounce trait that he has. Okay. If he fails it, he'll be knocked prone with this attack. Hit or not hit, he still gets. Nice. So that's a 15 to hit. That's a fail. And that will hit. Okay, so he's now prone. Uh, so that's one hit with the claw. And then he gets a second hit. That'll be another hit. How do you advantage on the second hit if you need it?

[01:10:57] Or does that already hit? Already hit. Okay. Here, I'll roll it again. Technically, he's a shadow person. So I'm debating on whether he could truly go prone or not. But... I'll tell you what. The only real benefit that I get from it is I get to make another bite as a bonus attack. Well, that's perfect. You still get that. Cool. So both attacks hit. Go ahead and roll damage for me. So that's two, actually. I actually get two more bites. So by default, I get one bite, two claw attacks. But if I run up 20 feet and hit him with the claw, then he falls. I get another bite for free.

[01:11:27] Go ahead and roll the rest of the attacks, then. Yeah. So that's an eight plus four is 12. I'm going to go ahead and make my bardic there. Yeah. 13 hit. That hits. Nice. Okay. So the bardic inspiration's gone now. And... That one doesn't hit. I don't reckon a six. No, that's not hit. Okay. So that's... Let's see. So three hits. So that's three d8s. Did you notice that? D8. D8. D8. Plus six.

[01:11:59] Ooh. Okay. So that's 16 plus another six is 24 damage. How do you want to do it? So Jimmy just absolutely enraged by these things and the fact that this one just disappeared in front of him. He is going to take a full-blown running charge. And then he's going to just pounce and immediately just shred this thing until it dissipates.

[01:12:25] You ever seen like a really lame fight between two siblings? That's exactly what Jimmy was doing. You just see him go crazy with these slapsies and nibbles and this thing just slowly disappears as he does that. Excellent. Jimmy really poses up. He thinks that that looked really badass. He's like posing for the camera. A lot cooler than it was Jimmy. Aura farming over here. Anything else from Jimmy? That is it for old Jimbo.

[01:12:53] That is going to bring us to Sienna who is currently in what appears to be a empty room. But you do still know there's one invited guest. So Sienna's just kind of going to sit herself up after being thrown into the wall for the second time.

[01:13:21] Look around and ask everyone what was that. Sienna, get over here. That other guy's still here somewhere. Everybody all along backs together. Did anybody see where he went? He was over there I think. And he kind of points to this general direction. You have no idea currently. You could try to potentially use a spell if you think you've got something or you could

[01:13:50] try to communicate to him again. It would just depend on whether what you have requires a visual component. Would I be able to possibly get a glimpse of where this guy would be if I touched the bookcase that was thrown? Probably not. No. I mean but light has a radius. A radius. With this particular individual it does not appear that he's hiding.

[01:14:19] I will give you that. He seems truly invisible to your eye. So it wasn't like the other little wraiths who disappeared into the darkness and then when I showed a flashlight in their faces they were there. It's this guy was in the middle of the radiance and then just... I can't. Who's gone. Can't I? I can use command. I think you have to be able to see him. You may have to be able to see him for command. Okay. Bro the amount of spells I want to hit the eye with and then looked and on there it says

[01:14:48] or a creature or a person you can see and I'm like... Yeah. If you thought something that's an attack roll and you want to just like maybe pick out a spot in the tea shop I'll be nice enough to let you try to attack a certain spot and we can say whether it hits or not. Oh there's also if you're cool with it the option of like holding your action choosing a spell that you're going to use and waiting for like a specific thing to happen before you launch it.

[01:15:14] So for instance you could say I'm going to wait until... hold my action until he reappears and then make an attack. Okay. Or you could be like if he swings on me I swing back. Okay. So in panic since we're all back to back and surrounded in the middle of this room feeling surrounded by this creature I'm just going to shoot out a hellish rebuke. He has to attack you for that. Yeah. So he has to attack you for that. So what I would personally do is I would hold your action.

[01:15:44] I would hold your action. You can either choose a trigger of when you see him or if he attacks you or someone else. So armor of Agathus made it so where you're tougher. Okay. And if you hold an action to attack so whatever you would attack him with if you could see him just be like I'm going to do that if he attacks me or I'm going to do that if he shows himself. Okay. If the creature chooses to show itself I'm going to use my Eldritch Blast. Yeah. Excellent. That'd be safe. Perfect.

[01:16:12] So that's going to be I'm so sorry. Oh, also. I think I skipped Cassandra. Oh, did you skip it? Go ahead and let's get Cassandra now. Okay. Yeah. For sure. For sure. I'll save. Yeah. I'll hold on to my action because he's disappeared while I'm looking around too as well. Right? Okay. So everyone's you're holding your action. What would be the trigger? And I'm down for us to move however we need to to be back to back all around.

[01:16:41] The superhero shot of the camera panning all around us and we're all back to back. I'm down for that. Yeah. You have movement for that. So I'd say, yeah, that's about right. Okay. Cool. Cool. What's the trigger and what are we doing? Yes. I'll do a mind sliver for if I see him. Okay. So if he's in my range and he pops up and I can see him, I'm going to sliver his mind. Real quick question, Micah. Do you happen to have like a place in your mind where he is?

[01:17:09] So like if I say ran a moonbeam over him, like you'll hit my, okay. Yeah. No, there's a spot that he's currently in. However, I will say if that's end of your turn. Can we think your battleship? Is that going to be end of your turn? Yes. He is going to appear right here. Both of you go ahead and make an attack roll for me. Yours was a save though, I believe, for Cassandra.

[01:17:39] What's the save again? Mind sliver. Let's see. You try to temporarily sliver the creature from mind. You can see. They must succeed on an intelligence saving throw. It is intelligence 15. Saving throw. That is a failure. Go ahead and roll damage for me. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Go ahead and roll an attack roll and you'll add that. I believe it was a plus six you told me. All right. Plus gold. Oh, and don't forget you have bardic. So you can add the d6 if you need. Oh, okay. Well, six. That's 18. 18? Yeah, you're good.

[01:18:09] 18 hits. Let's go. All right. That's a mob. Psychic damage. Psychic damage. The next saving throw it makes before the end of my next turn, 1d4 is subtracted from it. Understood. And let's go ahead and roll damage. That's a d10 for Sienna. So we're going to do 10. So this one here, right? Uh, yes. Okay. Six. Six. And I think that's plus, is it plus five, Fraildress Blast?

[01:18:39] Plus six. Plus four. Okay. So another 10. Yeah. Y'all both immediately hurt this thing as it, as it pops up. Doesn't seem quite so happy anymore. Um, seeing y'all all kind of bundled up. Oh, no. He let us bundle up. Excuse me, I'm out of fun stuff I can do with the DM how I want to play this. He was too happy to let us get in.

[01:19:07] Um, hi, you guys want to buddy out together? Yes, absolutely. He is currently looking at Madonna. That was a nat 20 that he just rolled in his attack roll. No. So he might. No, wait, wait. Did you say he just rolled a nat 20 against her? He did. Fortin. No, he did not. What did he roll? He rolled a six. He rolled a six and misses. I still need a strength saving throw from Madonna. Your expect is now six. So it's going to be negative.

[01:19:38] I got a 19. 19 minus three is still going to save. Over here. Let's go. You start to feel like you're going to get pushed back and you just kind of brace yourself and are able to kind of resist it. As he's not able to do a freaking thing on his turn, that's going to bring us back to the top of the order with Madonna. Get him. Okay. Immediately fire bolt. She's been waiting to do this one. Yeah. Go ahead and give me fire bolt.

[01:20:06] She's going to wind up like she's playing baseball and just nat 20. Go ahead and roll damage for me. Skabooski. I wanted to play two guys. Ah, damn. Like none. Well, hey, how do you do yours? Yeah, roll another. Roll two. It's double damage. So two rolls. Ten. So 11. What's going?

[01:20:37] He's hurting. I'll say that. Anything else that Madonna would like to do? Jimmy. That's definitely something. Jimmy rears up. He hears this thing right here and he goes, but he turns around, still in bestial forms. Pure instinct taking over at this point. He's going to go ahead and he's going to take the charge. Jimmy's going to go ahead.

[01:21:02] If I can reach five, 10, 15, 20, 25. And he's going to go ahead and do the same thing. He's going to attempt to make that claw attack. I need a DC 12. I probably should have clarified. He is floating in the air. Okay. I'm going to see you floating in the air. 10 feet. If this is how you want to make the attack, give me an athletics check before we make the attack. Okay. So athletics is strength based or dicks?

[01:21:32] Yes. So it's plus strength mod? Yeah. And am I going to have to roll that like each time or just one time? Just once. Okay. Don't forget your inspiration. I don't think you've used it yet. I did. I used it last turn. I am going to go ahead and I'm going to take the dive. I probably should use my moon beam. No, go for it. Cool. Do it. It's way cooler. Yeah.

[01:22:02] So it's a flightless dinosaur. Don't get me wrong, but he's still going to spread his wings and attempt to cry out there. Heroes never die. There's never been an issue with heroes dying. Hey, that is a 14. Yeah, you make it. Go ahead and make your attacks. Oh, yeah. All right. So that'll be two bites and a claw. Attempts, that is. So that'll be a 10. Misses. Oh, my gosh. A six. Misses.

[01:22:33] And 14. That one will hit. Go ahead and roll damage on that last one. Okay. So he jumps up, takes two swipes, and then he'll bite down on it with his teeth, take a ghostly chunk out of it. And that is not a D8. Ghostly chunk. That is the one that I actually want. I rolled a nine on a D8. Hey! So that's 8 plus 2, 10 damage.

[01:23:02] Jimmy, with a death beam of radiance directly behind this creature, just burning a hole in the floor. The sides instead, I'm going to charge with my dinosaur body directly towards this creature.

[01:23:21] Jumps up and misses, misses, hits as this creature dissolves one more time. And the moment that this happens, you feel the warmth in the room begin to come back as we are now out of combat. And as Jimmy gets him, he falls straight down to the floor. Boom! Lance face first. Oh, my gosh.

[01:23:51] Kind of shakes it off. Okay. So y'all are currently in the tea shop still. I will say that the strength that you've lost, you do not get back until you've had a rest of some sort. It doesn't need to be a long rest. It can be a short rest. You do have to take a rest. What is everyone's passive perception? Whoa. 15. Passive perception is 12.

[01:24:21] Passive investigation is 17 if that doesn't... Holy cow! What is it, 1? 17 passive investigation. Oh, I like it. 11. Yeah, I'm a curious man. Investigation 14. Cassandra and Jimmy... You said yours was 15 too? No, mine's 12. 12. 12. 17 passive investigate though. I'll say you can get it too.

[01:24:42] Coming out of this combat, you both hear weeping from up the stairs. Whoa, I think your mom's crying, Sienna. I think we should head up there. She's my aunt and yeah, we should. Oh, I'm sorry. See, Jimmy gets around in his dinosaur form.

[01:25:05] You all head upstairs and going up the hallway. See, you know, you would know this. She's a pack rat, but she loves her memories. And as you go up the stairs, you see pictures of family members all along the wall. And you start to go towards her bedroom.

[01:25:30] As you go to the bedroom, you see pictures spread all across the floor. And there in the center is your aunt crying. And you just hear her saying that she looks over all the pictures with her poor eyesight. Lost. Lost. Lost. All lost.

[01:26:00] Aunt Celeste, I thought you were lost. You've been up here the whole time. What do you mean lost? Oh. Is that God or Sienna? Aunt Celeste, it's me. It's Sienna. Oh. You didn't come home. No, I felt rude. I felt rude not having a bowl of mac and cheese with my chums. And, you know, before late, before you know it, it got really late. And I stayed.

[01:26:28] And then Trailer Park Joe, if that's even his name, called and said you were in trouble. And then I came here. And did you not hear all the racket downstairs? And what are you doing surrounded by all these pictures? For the first time in your entire memory, you see a moment of clarity pass across her eyes.

[01:26:54] As she looks at you, I know you're growing up. I can't keep you here. But tears stream down. She says, but can you blame me for trying? She picks up a picture of you would recognize once your uncle. She says, gone.

[01:27:23] She picks up another picture of a small baby. Tough of red hair. Your cousin. Gone. Gone. And then lastly, she picks up a picture of your own mom and dad. As little teardrops fall down on this picture. She goes all gone. Lost.

[01:27:52] They're all left without me. And here I am. With nothing but my niece. And tea. Well, the tea may not last, Aunt Celeste. But I can tell you this much. I'll always be here. Such a good girl.

[01:28:19] You always were such a good girl. She sniffs. She said, you wouldn't believe the strangers that came. Large bunny men. Strangers from the past. All kinds of wonderful creatures came for tea. Tea time. Tea time. And then. Just sorrow.

[01:28:50] And sadness. And shadow. They asked about your mother's music. She kind of seems to turn away. With a 17 passive investigation. Cassandra looks down at these photos.

[01:29:17] One in particular is very striking to you. As you see a much younger Aunt Celeste. In a hairnet. With a apron on. In front of what seems to be some sort of. I don't know. Assembly line. In the picture though. There's two figures. On either side of her.

[01:29:47] A little bit older gentlemen. About her age. One of them you recognize. You recognize him. Because you've seen him. In a certain videotape. That you watched. Last night. She sits there.

[01:30:18] Jimmy is just currently. Like found the snack section. Yeah. Jimmy's up there. Still. He's in the killing. This raptor like form. Digging into the snacks and stuff in the shop. And he just kind of fumbles in. Stumbles over his own feet. And collapses into the room. Oh hey. It's great to meet you. I've heard a lot about you. And he extends one of his little raptor claws. Aunt Celeste reaches out her hands. Not shaken at all. And says. Are you with the bunny in the costume? Do you?

[01:30:48] Uh. I can't say that I am. But. I mean. I really like tea. If you have any good. Like you know. All natural. You know. Anything that. You know. It's possible. Green. So do you know. It was hilarious. Her whole potty starts to vibrate a little bit with excitement. How do you feel about mushrooms, dearie? Oh my god. There's like the most natural. Jimmy. No. I've been saying that for years. But for some reason. Whenever I tell the tourists that. They never come back the next year. Man.

[01:31:18] That's really rude. I would never want to do that. I should introduce you to my new tea. Soul crushing. It's delicious. Oh. I think I have enough of that. Do you happen to have anything else? Hmm. Uh. Well. It depends. Can you turn into a crow? Uh. Uh. I don't know. Let me try. And Jimmy really focuses. He's just as hard. And you see him just kind of with himself. And then he uh. He toots a little bit. Let's out a little squeaker.

[01:31:47] And then immediately collapses. And just turns back into Jimmy. She kind of pokes at your toes. Just. And slowly puts a kitchen knife back in his. Her back pocket. Aunt Celeste. Please stop probing my friends. I'm sorry, dear. I'm glad you have friends. And I'm sorry. I'm glad you could lose a butt, Jimmy. For everything. Right? Aunt Celeste. Speaking of friends. You said they were friends from the past. Friends from the past. Do you have.

[01:32:17] Do you have pictures? Were you looking at these friends from the past? Or you maybe confused. You just saw a photo. Or did somebody actually come to visit you? Well. The bunny man did remind me of one particular crow that I saw a whole time ago. Delightful. Delightful. I was tripping pretty hard. I'm not gonna lie. But I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure I got the dosage right on soul crushing now.

[01:32:46] I don't think that it would have any hallucinogenic effects. Yeah, you really gotta make sure your shoes are tied. I'm tripping all the time. Holy crap. Where did you come from? I don't know. I mean, it's a really bad habit. Sometimes I just get so excited and I trip over my own feet as I run. Does it have any bones in it? Aunt Celeste, how often does the bunny man come to visit you? Yeah, I very much like boneless tea. First time I've been met by a bunny man.

[01:33:16] Crows? Crows come quite a few times. A skunk once. But I tried shooting that. Never a bunny. So Sienna's just kinda gonna sit there a little puzzled. And she begins to remember the coldness that she felt entering the shop.

[01:33:42] And she wonders again why she heard this voice of this little girl, Junebug. She feels she has significance to what's going on. Is Junebug the reason that her Aunt Celeste has seen this bunny man? Do you want to try to reach out to Junebug? I do. Uh, you put your headphones on. What do you say?

[01:34:15] I, I need your help. You said we were friends. I know that was very much a little bit ago. I don't know if you're real, but Junebug, if you can hear me. I have some answers. I, I need some answers. I have some questions for you. So she's gonna... Uh, you feel a trembling again down your spine. And she says,

[01:34:41] I don't like to think about it. I prefer games. But those were very bad creatures. And the one that sent them took out my family too. It goes silent. I like to play games too, Junebug. So how about we play a game?

[01:35:10] And if I win, you tell me about this bad bunny man or this bad person that hurt your family. So maybe we can find him. You hear a little giggle. He he he he. Good. Then I've got a test for you. I'll let you know when. And I'll let you know when, where.

[01:35:38] And if you pass, I'll tell you more. And it goes silent again. Does Cassandra share any of her revelation regarding the photograph with the rest of the group? Um, yes. I will. Uh, I was trying to... Thank you. I was trying to, uh, see if they were going to get the aunt out of this room.

[01:36:07] And that I was just going to take that picture. But it doesn't look like that's happening. So, uh, uh, Aunt Celeste is still there? Mm-hmm. Well, hi. Oh, hello. Hi. Uh, I'm Cassandra. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. And... I'm Aunt Celeste. Hello. So, do you prefer Aunt Celeste? Or Miss Celeste? Or Celeste? Yes! Cool.

[01:36:37] Wonderful. Um... That's sweet. That's a long title. Holy crap! Where did you come from? I... I... I'm getting more confused by the second. You and I both. Hi. Um... This picture here. And I'll point to that one in particular. She gets, like, an inch away from the photo trying to look at it. Ah! Ah! Could you please tell me what was going on during this time?

[01:37:05] Oh, those were during my working days. Before the tea shop, of course. It was back during the war in the 60s. Uh... I was part of the assembly line for, well, a whole bunch of different things during the war. But I did particularly well that week. And Mr. Vander and Mr. Heath were very proud and took a picture with me for the paper. Uh... That is amazing!

[01:37:35] Congratulations on all your hard work! Hey! You sent, uh, Mr. Vander and Mr. Heath. What... What company was this? What was... It was... It was Vander and Heath. What did they make? Well, all kinds of things. Whatever... Whatever. Good old uncle... Uncle Samuel asked of us. You know? And he said... We, uh... We... We... We made, yeah. Jimmy's gonna lean over and elbow Madonna directly to the ribs. Yo, she used to work for Vance, dude. And what happened to this company? I don't...

[01:38:05] I've never heard talk of it around town. Oh... Did her scan a long time ago. I don't know the details. I just know that when the war stopped, so did the assembly line. So I came out here to make my tea. Oh, but Mr. Vander and Mr. Heath were just a delight. So sad to hear. Sad to hear what? Well, the company had ended. I liked working for them. They were good men.

[01:38:34] Oh, good, good, good. I see. As a... And there was another person in that picture right next to her. Uh, so... Which one of them's Mr. Vander and which one of them's Mr. Heath? She's gonna put her finger on the one to the left. You recognize that as a very thin, wispy elf man. Mr. Vander? Uh, and then you see a human on the other side. Uh... Handsome, uh, but kind of a very long face. Um...

[01:39:03] Uh, and... You kind of get the sense more of like a business front man from him. Uh, even in this photo you see, uh, Mr. Vander's wearing some sort of lab coat as if he's been on the assembly line or somewhere in the factory. Mr. Heath is in a suit. Very nice suit for the time. Uh, big old golden smile. Uh, she goes, that is Mr. Heath. He was quite a charmer. Oh, he looks it.

[01:39:33] Oh. He was. Ah. But I was married and very faithful. Oh, of course. Of course. No harm in looking, though. Oh, no harm in looking. Except now Charlie's gone. And so is my baby. Oh. Your baby? Anna. What do you mean? I didn't know you had a baby.

[01:40:02] Can't just ask questions like that. It's okay, I like to tonsilize him. I'm sorry to cry, but did my cousin by chance have two different colored eyes? Do you remember? No, no. He was just a normal hatting boy. Tuft of red hair. It wasn't his fault. He had weak lungs. And he just couldn't make it.

[01:40:28] Mr. Heath even offered to try to help him with some experimental, uh, well, experimental drugs or something of that sort. But it's, it didn't work. They weren't ready. And he died before I even got to bring him. Where they, where did they hold these experiments? I don't know. I was only ever on the assembly line.

[01:40:56] I heard rumors that Mr. Vander worked on some very special things for the government. But those type of things were above our pay grade. And below our feet. Heh heh. Ah. Oh, uh, where, whereabouts in town did you used to work? Oh. Do you know where the old, uh, uh, uh, bike shop is? The, the, the mechanic and, and dive.

[01:41:25] Mechanic and dive. I'm relatively new to town, so I've not been around. I have to remember. I think that, uh, it was a young man when I met him. But I, I think it was a very nice auctions man, uh, the last name Bloodaxe that runs it. Anyway, so it, it, it fell apart. Nothing important or special there now. Just a simple bar and little mechanic shop for cars. Aww. Do any of us know Battleaxe?

[01:41:56] You do? Uh, you know her daughter, uh, his daughter. Rockbeat, Roxy, Bloodaxe. I like it. Bloodaxe. Bloodaxe. Sorry, if I said Battleaxe, that was my fault. No, that was, that was her, uh, she said Battleaxe. Dun, dun, dun. At this point, uh, she's gonna look at all of you and say, I think I need some rest.

[01:42:24] Wait, so that was Heath Battleaxe? Or Bloodaxe? Uh, that's the, that's the current owner of the facility. Oh, okay. Mr. Heath is a human. Mm-hmm. That was, uh, a scientist businessman. Part of Vander and Heath, which does appear at this point to be some sort of business that existed in the 60s, question mark? 70s, maybe? Um, and, uh, something happened. They're no longer around. There are no public records of that.

[01:42:54] In Town Hall, the library. You might be able to look around, maybe go to a library or something if you prefer. Or, don't forget, too, uh, there is someone still waiting for y'all. But you'll are more than we all come to explore if you prefer and try to snoop around before you meet with them. Hmm. Right. Is, has Aunt Celeste moved out of the room? Imagine. You see, she moves, you're in her, almost her bedroom. She moves and gets into her bedroom, still kind of sniffling.

[01:43:24] And as she gets into her bedroom, that's actually where we're gonna end this session. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!