Episode 109

This is **Episode 109** of *Dice, Camera, Action*.

(Holly) Strix - Tiefling Sorcerer

(ProJared) Diath - Human Rogue

(Nathan) Paultin - Human Bard

(Sam Sykes) Kozin Xorlarren - Drow Fighter

#### Fish Heist

Diath looks at the giant aquarium holding the Xanathar's little fish friend, Sylgar. He quietly realizes he's never going to be able to check out the trap door in the other room. Diath climbs a ladder so he can get above the rim of the aquarium. He pulls out a rope.

Paultin realizes that they're being watched by Ott Steeltoes, one of Xanathar's demented sidekicks. Paultin tells him that they are fish tank maintenance workers. Nate rolls well and Ott buys the story.

Strix, in rat form, is in the hallway. Two creatures are approaching Strix. One is a creature with a forked beard and an apron, wielding a big wrench. Floating about a foot behind him is an albino baseball-sized beholder. They pass right by her.

Elsewhere, Evelyn and Kozin are trying to distract a hoard of bad guys with charismatic chatter. The Xanathar wants to know where Strix, Paultin, and Diath. The Xanathar realizes that this is Distraction Force and he sends Kozin and Ahmeargo (the dwarf who thinks that he is a minotaur) to go find the others. The Xanathar grumbles about his eye. Evelyn tries to express sympathy, but Anna rolls a one. Xanathar says that he liked her better as a statue. She decides to stab him. They roll initiative.

She wants to stab him right through the empty eye socket. She misses the first attack, but hits with the second. She does 40 damage to the beholder, who howls in pain. Ahmeargo hears this, and leaves Kozin to check on his boss.

Xanathar shoots her with a sleep ray and she fails her saving throw. She is asleep. He hits her with another ray. Since none of the other heroes are here, we don't know what happened to her.

Diath is in the tank, swimming around. He lunges for the fish and actually grabs it. He swims to the surface and throws the fish to Paultin, who is holding the smaller tank. It actually lands in the water of the smaller tank. Kozin and Strix enter. Strix wants to polymorph the fish. Kozin points out that Evelyn might be dead.

Paultin casts *locate creature*. Evelyn is not in the radius - she is not a creature anymore, apparently. The adventurers go try to find her. They decide to try to use the fish as a bargaining chip.

#### The Fate of Evelyn

They see the Xanathar using an eye ray to levitate Evelyn, who is a statue. Many members of the Xanathar's gang is around him. Paultin is furious. He makes himself invisible, gets next to the beholder and casts *thunderwave* at level 6. Xanathar rolls a 6 on his saving throw. The spell does 34 damage to the beholder and many of his minions. A lantern shatters and the hallway goes dark.

Evelyn's statue falls to the floor. Paultin tries to break her fall. He rolls a 14. The Evelyn statue shatters.

Paultin tells them to back off or the fish gets it. He rolls a 19 on his intimidate check. Strix threatens to boil the fish.

Kozin has had enough. He has 11 hit points and he just wants to get out of this place. He heads down some stairs and comes to a blood soaked arena. There's a halfling with a scourge ordering two combatants to put on a real fight. One is a minotaur, the other is a hippo-man. Yes, it is Warrington Munt. They begin punching each other.

Kozin slips through the room undetected. He notices a scrying eyestalk. It doesn't spot him.

Back in the hall, Xanathar tries to telekinetically snatch the tank from the hands of Strix and Diath. He succeeds.

The beholder hits Strix with a fear ray. She fails her save. It looks at Paultin and says, "You can't *counterspell* that, can you, you little shit? I've seen your character sheet."

Paultin is surrounded by enemies and is stabbed a number of times. He uses cutting words to cause one big hit to miss.

Xanathar taunts Paultin, comparing their Intelligence scores. Paultin thunderwaves again, making sure to keep the fish bowl in the area of effect. He does 39 points of damage. The fish tank explodes.

The beholder uses a legendary action uses telekinesis to catch the fish in mid-air.

Paultin activates his sunsword and his cloak of billowing. The beholder says he didn't see the cloak on Paultin's character sheet.

Strix casts *polymorph* and turns the fish into a butterfly. Diath isn't sure what to do. Paultin tells him to kill the Xanathar. He runs over, stabs an assassin, and then moves over to the butterfly. The beholder shoots a paralyzing ray at Diath, but he makes his saving throw.

Xanathar hovers 20 feet up. Diath has a chance to make an opportunity attack on the beholder's "butterfish", but decides not to.

Diath helps Paultin jump into the air to get the beholder in the range of another *thunderwave* spell. He does 28 points of damage. This kills Sylgar, who turns back into a fish.

Strix launches off a *fireball* and does 46 damage. This kills most of the flunkies. The beholder is hurt badly, screaming "Sylgar!" Strix shakes off the fear effect.

The Xanathar shoots a death ray at Strix and she dodges it.

Diath *misty steps* behind Xanathar and stabs with Moonsplinter for 39 points. He kills the beholder! His blade pops out through the eyepatch. Diath says, "I've done it! I'm the Xanathar now!"

#### Aftermath

The one remaining minion, Ahmeargo, kneels down to him. Diath sends him to fetch a scroll from the treasure vault.

Strix runs up to Evelyn and tries to use *mending* on her remains. It will take a while, but it will work.

While Strix is assembling Evelyn, Diath goes back to the fish bowl room. He hears the voice of Warrington Munt down in the arena. Diath shatters the fish bowl. He wants to check out the treasure chest in there. He dives in and retrieves it.

It's locked. He picks it, rolling a 32. Inside it is stuffed full of precious gemstones. It looks like there was something else in there at one time, but it is missing. The gems are worth about 3,000 gp. He finds a secret compartment. In it is a wand and a scroll tube.

He brings the treasure to the group and tells them that Warrington Munt needs to be saved. Paultin and Strix are preoccupied with putting Evelyn together.

Diath runs down into the arena and sees that Warrington has knocked out the minotaur. The halfling taskmaster is there, watching. Warrington sees Diath and knocks out the taskmaster. He doesn't want to leave yet - there's a huge trove of smokepowder down here. Diath sighs.

End of Session