Crash & Burn

**Crash & Burn** is a campaign that is running in the summer of 2022. It is DMed by Tom Jancis.

## Player characters

* Hunk, played by Chris Hislop
* Myrta, played by Emma Rose
* Alba, played by David Shears
* Hemlock, played by Mike Dospon
* Burnard, played by Shaun Smith

## Plot

Hemlock, a paladin/guard for the Keysmiths (an organisation that appears to have something to do with the Gatecrashers), is the only survivor of a vicious attack, and escapes to the Material Plane. Myrta, Alba and Burnard all travelled with Gatecrashers, and are waiting for them in Waterdeep when they see a poster for Heimlich Stratovarious' new opera, The Twelve Keys. Recognising the Gatecrasher allusion, all four head for the Zulpair Concert Hall.

Inside, Hunk is attending the opening night with Reggie and Heimlich, and the others find each other thanks to Myrta's prophetic visions of them and the future. All entering the same box, they watch the show unfold, until portals open all over the stage, depositing a talking otter (Willby) and a huge number of skeletons. Fighting together to defeat them, the crew all meet, and agree to talk through what is happening with the Gatecrashers.

Heading to a small local pub the group talk through what they know about the keys (while under an anti-scrying spell) when they are approached by a tabaxi who claims to be a part of the Gatecrashers. The group agree to meet the tabaxi's boss but are cautious - with Myrta scrying on them and Burnard following under an invisibility spell. They return with a kobold keysmith who convinces the group to hand over the 12 keys that Hunk has on them and undertake a mission to try and rescue some of the missing Gatecrashers. - however with a bit of persuasion the team get to keep one key to ensure their safe return. The kobold then opens a portal and the party proceed to the plane beyond.

On the other side they find they are in the Beastlands. Their first encounter with a denizen of the plane is a cloud with a face which weeps rain and claps along with Hunk and Burnard's jam session causing thunder to peal across the land. They befriend this entity before meeting a centaur, Cyllarus, who informs them of the missing prince of their lands. The party are unsure what this has to do with them and state that they already have one quest they are trying to complete, but agree to follow the centaur to the capital city to rest. Along the way they encounter a corrupted unicorn who they learn to be the spirit of the forest, as well as a group of boar - one of which turns out to be the polymorphed centaur prince Antimachus.

Trying to discern whether to keep going through the dangerous woods or rest in the relative safety of Alba's Tiny Hut, the group stop to rest and gather their thoughts. Through some keen divinations (based on a drawing competition between Hemlock, Alba and Burnard) the group learn the locations and identities of a team of corrupted Gatecrashers, as well as getting a glimpse of the machine they appear to be working on. Hemlock also receives a shocking vision of the final moments of his temple. The team are interrupted when Nairth, Burnard's warforged Gatecrasher companion, leads a horde of corrupted beasts to assault their safehaven.

Despite Myrta's complaints to wait out the storm the group jump into action, with the exception of Alba who takes some time to prepare all of his buffs to take on the corrupted treefolk attempting to force it's way into the Hut. This turns out to be futile as Myrta eventually grows weary of the fight and banishes both the corrupted Gatecrasher and ent away. The team head out to find Cyllarus and Prince Antimachus, only to find that the former aide has been murdered in a rear assault during the battle. They move on to the portal which will take them to a sacred grove where they believe they will be safe.

This is true for a time, however almost as soon as they arrive and meet the spirit of the lake, they find that the corrupted gatecrashers are there too seeking parlay. Gearing up for a fourth consecutive fight the party are persuaded to adhere a temporary truce at the request of the lake spirit. During this time Myrta performs some subterfuge, convincing one of the corrupted Gatecrashers to stay out of the onsuing fight, and Hunk comes up with a plan to take who they believe will be the most dangerous foe out of the equation quickly.

After their rest the two groups come together, interrupting the corrupted leader's monologue and getting straight into the fight. The plans almost come off without a hitch except for the unexpected loss of their Silver Key - which is used to power a plane jumping machine their foes had finished overnight. They are transported to limbo where they are afflicted with a series of wild magic effects until eventually they manage to recover the key, remove the curse from Anstagin and kill the half-elf blademaster who was a key player in the assault on the Keysmith's stronghold. Myrta manages to unlock the secrets of the Silver Key and the group emerge on a beautiful beach in the material plane.

## Trivia

* Crash & Burn is the first Roll Together show to feature a former NPC as a player character: Emma Sheard reprises the role of Myrta, originally a major NPC in Ancient Antics.
* Conversely, many Roll Together player characters have cameos as NPCs in Crash & Burn: the first episode alone features Heimlich, Reggie and Willby.
* On the cast TalkTogether it was revealed that Antimachus, a centair prince from the plane of beasts, was the child of Polly Tartan and Cyllarus, Prince of the Centaurs who both appear in The Way The Cookie Crumbles (in the story Cyllarus has been transformed into Daisy the Cow).
* In response to Shaun's penchant for setting anagrams during streams, Tom included three characters whose names formed a single anagram. The NPCs in question were the Gatecrashers originally known as Anstagin (a dragon), Nairth (a warforged) and Soma (a pigfolk). Shaun attempted to solve this anagram, coming up with the following suggestions:
	+ Shaming a stain on art
	+ Santana maths origin
	+ Naan sh\*t storm again
	+ Ah Stoning Samaritan
	+ So girth stamina nana (which the cast thought could be a good description for Valka Heartsong)
* Tom revealed that the anagram was in fact trolling Shaun as the solution was 'This is not an anagram'.

## Twitch Clip Archive

* Lay your hands on Hunk?
* Surprise Mount...
* Brimming with Essence...
* Non-pork sausage rolls are generally disappointing
* Unicorn gone bad? Bring it to Crash and Burn knackers - parts recovered.
* Do you want to look up?
* what isn't on fire?
* We'll just call you Betty
* I prefer "
* Helpful Hunk
* Interesting description.
* It's raining men (well... bones of them at least)
* Are these statements connected?

## Media

A typical scene from Crash & Burn.Crash & Burn - IntroIntro sequence for Crash & Burn.