High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #20 | Child of the Grave (Part 2)

Episode Date: April 25, 2024

The entire city has been shaken by recent events as the party is split between dimensions! Team Healthy gather more information from nearby allies while Ophelia wanders the wasteland dunes of the Greylands! ---------------------- HIGH ROLLERS LIVE in London on the 17th September 2024! Tickets live now: https://www.aegpresents.co.uk/event/high-rollers/ Add the Heroes of Altheya Minis to your TTRPG collection here: https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at https://geekyclean.com/! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews Support the High Rollers on Patreon and get early access to Podcast episodes, vods and more: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. Protect that lead. That's like 2FA on Kraken. A surefire way to keep what you already have safe and sound. Go to kraken.com and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. See kraken.com slash legal slash ca dash pru dash disclaimer for info on Kraken's undertaking to register in Canada. Welcome back to Ulfheir the Dragon Empire. Our heroes in Ash and Rest have been mourning the loss of Sister Ophelia de la Rosa of the House of Blood. They have made arrangements, taken her body back to the Enticing Devil Inn, as well as tried to gather information on what may have happened. They have been approached by the Lord Marshal

of the Duke's Guard, as well as High Authoriter Eremina Willhorne, as well as the Draconic Lord himself, Duke Ignarius, who has come to offer his condolences, as well as his outrage that such an attack has taken place and has levied his support behind our heroes. Meanwhile, in the Planar Realm of the Greylands, Ophelia appears before the Gravefather, her deity and the lord of that planar realm, and has been offered a chance. If she can make her way to a temple far across the Greylands wasteland, then she might be able to return to life. If she can prove herself worthy and having understood the lessons that the Gravefather wishes to teach her. And that is where we sort of jump back in. I will be basically treating it as if the party is split in two different locations

where I'll be jumping back and forth between you. Obviously your actions in the material world can't do anything to help Ophelia, with two exceptions. Right. Ophelia, as the Great Father leaves, dressed in these rags, and you begin to make your way across the dusty plains of the Greylands. You feel... ..not hunger or thirst, but almost satiated. And, like, the taste of blood comes to your mouth and you feel strength there. Because Gruffydd fed you blood, a significant amount of it as well, because Gruffydd fed you blood,

a significant amount of it as well, during your travels here in the Grey Lands, you have plus three to any strength checks you make, and also plus three to any attack rolls that you make. Plus three? I bled a lot. You bled a lot. Plus one for every 10 hit points

that were fed to a figure. Oh wow. Okay, yeah. The other thing that you have, the other thing as you are making your way, is you begin to hear a melody. Gentle, in your heart, vibrations of some song that you absolutely recognise as Rowan's. You have basically a sort of souped-up bardic inspiration

where you can re-roll a check. Like, at any point after you've seen the result, you get a free re-roll, basically. Awesome. Because of the performance check that Rowan made. It feels a feeling of, like, determination. I imagine that carries her forward with more vigour and more speed than before.

You also carry with you the Breath of the Father, your Dark Souls Esther's Fask, if you want to feel a bit that way. You can take a long rest in the Greylands. You don't regain hit points if you do. You do get other abilities back. You get hit dice back and that kind of thing. There are 12 charges. You can take a charge to basically feed yourself and you know sustain yourself as if you're drunk food and water or you can use it to spend a hit dice and heal yourself

basically um it's all on the card it's bonus action but it is a one once you've run out of charges there are no more charges it's a once it's gone, it's gone. All right? Cool. This is cool as hell. Yeah. I'm going to die. Well, this is very specific to Ophelia because of the nature of the Grey Father and the Grey Lands and everything else. I believe.

I'm not promising that everybody who dies will get the same treatment. It will depend on the character and the circumstances. That's my god. So let's stay with Ophelia for a little bit, if you guys don't mind. You just need to sit there and listen. But yeah, Ophelia, you set out making your way across the Grey Lands.

The way this is going to work is we're going to break it down into travel segments to represent an abstract period of time, right? And you will need to navigate this dangerous undead wasteland um you have no equipment uh any of your armor make sure you've unequipped any weapons or equipment that you have you have nothing you have racks basically nice um but that isn't to say that you're not gonna be able to find stuff or even maybe you know fashion things that you'll be able to use here. But the first thing I need you to do is roll 1d4 for me, please. 1d4? Mm-hmm.

Should I do a d6 as well? No, just a d4 for now. Okay. Let's see what kind of terrain you have to deal with. Like most plain old realms, there is a kind of shifting nature to this place. Two. Two. Two. So you set out on your way and you begin to trek through this vast dusty plain. And as you begin to travel, what you initially thought was just a flat horizontal

plain, you realize that because of the monochrome nature of the Greylands, you didn't notice that there's actually drops and rises in elevation, and there are these immense dunes that just become this grey field. I need you to make an athletics check. Now, don't forget, this would count for your plus three strength bonus

from Rowan, so you get an extra plus three to this. As you are physically having to, like, trudge up and down these dunes. 19. 19, all righty. So as you are trudging your way through these dunes, and it's not sand, it's grit and dust,

but it's, you know, trudging through it like sand and it's physically exhausting going up and down these places. But you do come across, as you're making your way up one of them, and you're making good progress, you're not getting too tired, and as you reach the zenith of one of them, you kind of scope out the landscape and you make pretty good time. But you also notice that there is something buried, like your foot kind of connects with something and there's something buried in the ground next to you

really wants to dig it up. I think Ophelia's going to leave it. Okay. I think she's going to carry on. All right, you just carry on. Yeah. Okay, great. So you press on.

Rather than spending time digging this thing up and you don't know what it might be, you felt that something was there, but you just leave it and you just carry on. No deviation. Okay, you just carry straight on. As you do, can you make a perception check for me, please? Okay. 18, 19.

18, 19, great stuff. So you do have to spend one charge of your Breath of the Father as you travel for what feels like to you hours and hours up and down these dunes and you know that you are getting closer to these ruins and the mountains beyond but you travel what feels like most of the day just nothing just up, down. Long stretches of flat and then more up, down. And as there's no sun, there's no anything to track time. Just the ongoing trudge.

Yeah. But as you do something, a movement up above you catches your eye. And you become aware that you are being followed by three skeletal vultures, their wings having enough sinew and membrane to keep them aloft in the air, and they are circling around you, waiting. You are aware of them, but they don't seem to be aware that you know that they're there yet.

They're kind of almost following you and waiting for you to collapse or being some sort of danger, but you are aware they're there yet. They're kind of almost following you and waiting for you to collapse or being some sort of danger, but you are aware of them at least. Okay. Can I like talk to them? I mean, they're flying high up above you, they're several hundred,

maybe 80 feet above you flying up in the air. Can I like shout to them? Yeah. Just say something like, Skeletal vultures, you foul beasts! Could you be of any use at all rather than hovering above me like some kind of... some kind of spectre of death? Can you help me find a way out of this, a clear path?

Okay. You call this out. You shout off into the nothing. They dive bomb down towards you. Yeah, yeah. I need you to roll initiative, Marie. Deserved. Oh, boy.

I do like that your opening thing was to insult them. Yeah. Like, oi, prick. You were kind of negging them. Yeah. initiative deserved oh boy i feel like that your opening thing was to insult them yeah like prick you big jerk do something better like how so ophelia these three vultures they're you know they're they're big they're vulture size they're not giant they're not huge but they are you know big quite scary birds they fly down and the three of them as a pack, just try and, they bite into you, hungry for flesh or life force or whatever it is. They don't speak to you, they just like mindless beasts and you can immediately tell that these are just

mindless creations that are here to feed. They are not cognizant enough to really respect the words that you've said or anything like that. But yeah, they're just going to all attack you. Fair enough, yep. So let me roll. So the first one is going to be an 11 to hit you. Miss.

So, yep, great. With your natural dexterity, you managed to dodge it. The next one is also going to be a miss. And then the third one is also a miss. So you're managing dodge it. The next one is also going to be a miss. And then the third one is also a miss. So you're managing to deflect. These things, they're just attacking with bestial ferocity. There's not really much planned. Even in your rags, you duck and weave to the side.

But I'm going to remind you, you don't have any weapons. Any physical equipment you have is gone. But it's your turn. You've got three of these things. They don't fly away. They're kind of hovering around you, trying to peck with their beaks and rake at you with their claws what do you do she's gonna bite him back okay just like grab one and try and like yeah bite into it yeah absolutely go for it playing that game are we uh 10 13 13 Hell yeah, let's go. Come back.

Oh, three. Three points of damage. You grab one and you bite into it and you kind of shatter some of its leg bone and things like that. It manages to break itself free, but it's now awkwardly flapping in the air, barely held together, its bones kind of all disjointed and things like that as they try and get around you.

Do you do anything else on your turn, or just that's it? Just grab one and bite? Just grab one and just fret them. That will happen to you if you don't leave me alone! They double down on their attacks. They try and swoop around. The one that you bit is going to try and fly away.

So you get an opportunity attack if you want. Like it's injured, so it would just try and flee uh 21 21 hits yeah six six as it goes to fly away you just grab it and add it's like vertebrae with your teeth you bite down and shatter it's like bone spine the the sharp incisors of your damp ear teeth and you crack it that one falls to the ground dead nice but the other two are going to keep attacking you. The first one's actually going to hit you with a 19, I believe. That's going to hit. The second one, however, is going to be also a 19.

So they both hit you. You're not raging yet, so you're taking full damage. So that's going to be five points of damage total as they basically peck and claw and scrabble at you. But you've taken one down. Nice. These things are just absolutely going at you as best they can. Cool.

Let's see. Why is my D&D Beyond doing this? Hang on. It's like my keyboard's being all silly. Come back. It's all right. Come back. Come back. Please, come back. Yeah, come back yeah there we go okay i think you can track this stuff as well all right i'm just gonna keep

hitting yeah i mean yeah these things are just attacking you like beasts oh isn't that one so yeah this time like you slip in the dust and you slide and the nature of it you just go sliding down completely avoiding and then these things just come and swarm around you again. Can I grab the body of the dead one? Yeah. And use it, just like a... Here we go.

A club. Yeah. So I'd say for this, it's like an improvised weapon. It will do just like a D4 of damage, but you'll have disadvantage because it's just like a bone to attack with. Yeah. But yeah, you can just attack with it

as if it was a melee weapon. Yeah. The first one is gonna hit you again and the second one is also gonna hit you again nice for another three points of damage total as these things are just like trying to tear and pecky you know you've got rakes down your skin pulling away whatever they can find oh TQLS on you filthy birds 23 23 were hit and another six damage six damage you take out another one of these vultures Buffy birds! 23. 23 were hit. That's another six damage.

Six damage. You take out another one of these vultures. With the club, you just bash one in the head, and it just snaps and falls into the dust next to you. There's only one of these things left now. It is going to try and strike you because it's an animal. It doesn't, you know, it's just going to try and take you down. That is going to be a 14 to hit.

Just hits. Just hits. Just hits. Four points of piercing damage as it bites into your shoulder. Nearly pierced. This is such... Old man yells at clarity. I know. 23 again. 23 hits.

And that is three damage. Three points of damage. All righty. Like the other one, it's now badly injured, and it tries to fly away. You get an opportunity attack. Yeah, let's do it. Oh, my God.

21, 22, 25. Yeah, it hits. Wow. And another three points of damage. So as it goes to fly away, you know, how do you finish this thing off as it goes to fly away? It's kind of got, like, it's skeletal, but it has, like, enough like enough like membrane and sinew

to like simulate wings, basically. Yeah, I just pull it, like I get its legs, pull it back, and I just, bam! Like just throw it on the ground. Yeah, you throw it on the ground, and as it hits the dust, you like stamp on it, shatters it. The three of these creatures, yeah, you destroy them,

they don't reanimate or anything like that. You do see that they leave behind like a lot of bones and sinew, right? Each of these vultures, so three of them, they drop bones and sinew. So you have three bones and three sinew. These are resources that whenever you do rest, you can try and fashion into tools or weapons or armor. This is dope. So, you know, they would be crude, but they will have full stats.

So, you know, you'd be able to make things like, you know, a short sword, like a, you know, a bone dagger or something like that. So you'll be able to, like, increase your damage a little bit. If you wanted to, you could try and make things like a shield, but you're probably not going to be able to do that with just bones and sinew. You might need to find, wood or a piece of metal or something like that to make a rudimentary shield. So you'll be able to make equipment as you go,

but there's always a chance that it breaks. So whenever you make an attack with something or if something hits you, we're going to roll a d6 and on a 1, that object breaks because it's made ramshackle together. So that's whenever you take a moment's rest, you'll have that opportunity to try and function and build something that's awesome um great right just before we switch back to the others can you roll a d4 for me and then another d4 for me all right first one is a one okay second one is also a one okay great that sounds good all right so the

last thing we see is you continue back on your way as you begin travelling, and you see in the distance, you come across the dust plains of the Greylands flatten out, but you watch as in the distance you see a kind of covered-up skeletal, like sort of just wandering aimless, like this skeleton that's just wandering aimlessly and as it moves over a patch of ever so slightly discolored dust it drops into some sort of sinkhole like it collapses in on itself and you can see that ahead of you you're going

to have to try and navigate this field of potential hazards and things like that in it, right? Yeah. But we'll jump back to you in a little bit as you continue your sort of solo journey across the Greylands. Awesome. Okay. Sounds like a fun place to go. I love that reaction. Oh. Oh, no.

It is... As I was coming up with what was going to happen, I had Tommy in my heart because I was like, this is very Dark Souls. Like, you're in rags and you've got to get to this place and you've got to just... Even Tide Island from Breath of the Wild. There you go.

Where it strips all your gear and you have to craft everything yourself. It reminds me a lot of that. Why do you have to bring that up right now? My favourite place. I love that. Thank you. Yeah, so that is happening. And I will say as well,

obviously time in planes can be very different. So what for Ophelia might be days or even weeks of travel might not actually take that long in the material world. You don't know. So don't assume that like, oh God, she's not going to be... We now have to fill weeks of time. You don't have to worry about that. She's on an adventure.

But we do return back to fill weeks of time. We don't have to worry about that. She's on an adventure. But we do return back to the Enticing Devil. The Duke and Obsidius will take their leave. They fly back to the Dominus Ignarum. Lord Marshal Logan Grey will basically make to leave. If there was anything that you wanted to ask or speak to him about, can but he is about to leave and head back to the forge uh to start coordinating things like these extra patrols that the duke has asked for and everything else um high author to uh i mean it is gonna looks like she's gonna stick around um maybe to talk to you guys um who was it who was who assigned

like the guard patrol to us? Was it the Duke? Duke. Yeah, the Duke said to have some protection, and that's when the Marshal said, I can't really spare anyone if you want me to patrol the city, like double the guards in the city, so I would suggest that maybe you have one of your knights so you can come and protect them.

The best knight? Yeah, I guess I can ask the author to this. Nothing ready for Logan. Yeah, in that case, he will just say, well, I will bid you farewell for now. Once we find out from the Duke the knight of the realm, Sir Gryul should be here to protect you. I would send more of my soldiers and guards,

but if the Duke wants me to patrol the city, I think they will be fair better suited at patrolling the streets in case any more of these attacks happen. Is there anything you can tell me to help identify which of the Everlights might be causing a problem? That will help me in my patrols. We can keep an eye on certain areas or districts or anything like that.

The only thing we know is that the main culprits have this disc inside them. And any adjacent. And there's something to do with ley lines. Yes, they might fall on the ley lines. So you might want to take

the lamps that we've investigated already or been attacked by and, I don't know, start drawing some bloody lines on it or something. I don't know. He sighs. He looks over to the High Authoriter like, this is more your realm than mine. I am a soldier.

And the Authoriter is like, the difficulty is uh gruffith the lamplighters guild they are the ones who have all of that information the exact layout of these ley lines and such and also as far as i could be able to tell from your own investigations there are no way to find these discs without damaging the lights themselves now Now, and I should tell you this now, who, she looks, who destroyed the lights? She like nods her head. Technically, that was a crime.

They are private property of the Lamplighters Guild. Okay, but they were also trying to kill us. I understand. Self-defense! Self-defense! I'll tell you what else is a crime. The bloody murder of Sister Ophelia de la Rosa, House of Blood. Here is the problem, Sir Gruffydd. Gruffydd of Tremarish. I won't call you Sir Gruffydd. Here is the problem, Gruffydd.

Not yet. You were attacked by, your claim, demons. Demons cannot be held accountable for a murder. Nor do we have any way to prove that they were sent specifically by the Lamblighters' guild. Yes, yes. Quint, yes. Very circumstantial evidence. They came out of the Everlights.

Yes, we understand that. But you see what I'm saying. The demons attacked you. I cannot prove that the guild, or Tobias, or anyone sent those creatures attacked you. I cannot prove that the guild or Tobias or anyone sent those creatures after you. I cannot hold anyone accountable for her murder. What I am saying is that I am going to conveniently forget that who destroyed these lights, and I'm going to impart upon the Lamplighter's Guild that they should not press any further charges,

for it may be difficult for the investigation. I'd like to see him try it and do it again. My advice would be if you do it again, make sure you are not seen doing it. Okay. We had, before this all transpired, a meal with Tobias. We learnt some information.

And I will spill the beans as to how that transpired. Well, I would like to hear it specifically from Rowan's perspective because... I spilled some beans. There's like things like Tobias might have said stuff that you as a player

didn't pick up on and therefore your character wouldn't necessarily know about them, right? So in Rowan's perspective, like role play it out, like what are the things he would mention and bring up?

That's a handy thing that I wrote all this down. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be, like, point for point, but, like, if you think there are relevant things that the High Authority needs to know, you tell me about them in character. Because, again, it's like, there might be things that you didn't pick up on,

but my notes are like, oh, there's this thing and this thing and this thing. Do you know what I mean? Well, we entered and we went up a magic-powered elevator, which I found very fanciful indeed. It was very well kept. And there was a stern-looking halfling that I've never met before, but we were introduced as Janya, the wife of Tobias.

I do not believe they are wives. They are fellow... They are partners, but... Partners in a business sex. I put wife in my notes. I don't believe that are wives. They are fellow... They are partners, but partners in a business sex. I put wife in my notes. I don't believe that is the case. Okay. She didn't like us very much. She suspected us as being part of this conspiracy. Interesting.

Maybe to undermine the lamplighters or working with the other guilds, that sort of thing. I remember the first course was quite delightful. I don't need the details of the meal itself, my good man. Just anything you think is pertinent to this investigation. Tobias is worried about his partner, Morris. He seems to put a lot of effort into telling us that Morris must be found and that he's disappeared and that it's very unlike him to have disappeared because he's always in his room, his chambers. Interesting. And he was also one of the ones that originally created this technology.

And he asked us to basically go look for him. Did he give you any indication of where he thinks Morris is? South. I don't remember the exact name, but I know it's the ruins south of Ashen's Rest. The Ashen Citadel. Yeah, Ashen Citadel. Ashen Citadel. That's... And you see that that really seems to strike the High Authorities.

She's like, the Ashen Citadel is four days journey from here. By the time you went there to look for Morris and come back, I mean, that would be a significant amount of time. We were walking. That, or he said in a nearby village. Yeah, but the thing is is that

I didn't get the impression that he was telling the full truth. And I don't know, but it seems like... It would be awfully convenient to send you all out of Ashen's Rest for such a long period of time. I didn't think of that. Yeah. I've been think of that. Yeah. I've been doing some investigating myself

since the attack in the Riverside district. The Lamblighters Guild have been almost too enthusiastic to help the investigation. They've been leading Zarin and the Duke's Guard on a little chase around the town investigating these Everlights, but through our examinations, without dismantling them, which legally we are not allowed to do yet, there is no way to tell the Everlights have this property that you've mentioned.

However, Morris was not the only member to vanish. Several other experienced Illuminators have also gone missing. None of them have been seen leaving Ash and Rest. When did they go missing? Around the same time as Morris. Some of them after, some of them around the same time. It's right before the incident, they said. Yeah.

The first one. Some of them did vanish later. They were present for that incident, but by the time we got around to questioning them, they had vanished. Were any of the ones that went missing suspects of yours in the... That's the strange thing. No. It was almost, call it an old and authoritous habit, but I don't like it when things are too convenient. When we arrested Teresa and a few of the others, it was almost comedically obvious. We found books on demonology,

we found books on planar experimentation, found very obvious and I must say quite easily planted evidence to suggest they were the ones involved. Some of them have remained silent and have simply refused to say anything. Some have protested their innocence, like Teresa, but we have not been able to find anything conclusive. These other illuminators, there was no indication that they were involved in anything, and certainly no evidence found in their quarters or the like, but their disappearance obviously is very suspicious. They all were part of Morris's chief team. They were experienced illuminators, people that worked with Morris exclusively on new designs,

new projects, that sort of thing. But none left the city? None have been seen leaving the city. It did look like they had packed in a hurry when we saw the room. Rowan, you said that stuff looked like it had been taken. Yes, there was. You had already investigated these chambers. Yes, we had, yes.

I saw nothing else. No, I didn't find anything either. Which leads me to believe that if they are still here, they have found somewhere to hide. Maybe they sent demons after them through the lights. Possible, but we've not had any other attacks. I mean, the attack on you, I mean, we had citizens run to the nearest guard post and inform them what was happening.

I mean, that was a very bold public attack. It is, if I may be honest, if it were Tobias who orchestrated it, it was a clumsy move for a man who is otherwise proven to be quite clever and subtle. It would be easier for us to depart town on a... a goose chase to find someone to the south for four days and dispatch us there. In my point indeed, you would be very vulnerable if you were outside of the town.

I don't know what's going on. My friend is dead. Yes, yes. And we must make sure that justice is found, but it is my duty to make sure that imperial law is followed appropriately. As much as my gut tells me that there is more to this than the few cultists we rounded up at the Lamplighters' guild, I have nothing to prove it.

And without proof, I cannot make a case. I cannot make a legal case. I could potentially be removed from my role as High Authoritar if I do not properly handle this matter. The investigation will be judged by my superiors in Kalskaris. What do we do? I think we need to find Morris and these missing engineers. They seem to be a part of this. Either they are victims or they are involved in this conspiracy. But also, yet, I am yet to determine what motives a man like Tobias Leto or a woman like Janya Cooper could have for this involvement. I don't see what they gain from

it. I don't see a reason for them to take these actions. Both pious, both faithful servants of the Empire, who have built an incredible career and legacy. They have so much to risk. They seem quite conflicted with each other, though. Janya didn't fully agree with Tobias and vice versa. Maybe we haven't really spoken to Janya. That could be an interesting option for you to pursue. I will

set a few of my people to see if they can speak to her or follow her or see if anything can come of it. We're watching the Pharos like a hawk but so far nothing. It might change her opinion of us that we were attacked. Perhaps.

She was quite accusatory before. Really didn't like us. No, I didn't like her. We could try and speak to her. Would you be able to grant us access to the walls to maybe investigate the... They are open to the public. I mean, you can make your way up there, yes.

Do you think that there's something... Why the walls? Why the interest in the walls? The... The giant lights up there? Maybe if someone could, as you said, turn a blind eye while we... She, like, looks. She looks. It's like... I have my suspicions on the guild. you said turn a blind eye while we... She looks, is like, I have my suspicions on the guild. I would ask that you all do your best to act within it.

My limitations can only go so far. I can deal with a few broken Everlights. Understood. Those, and she points up at the wall, those are much more problematic. Unless you have... We're not going to hate them, we just want to look at them. Looking is fine.

Investigate by all means. Should anything happen, it will be much harder for me to support you. Understood. As for... Do you have any other allies here in National Rest that you can look to for aid? Well, we do have a particular idea on how to search for these defective lights without having to smash them or investigate them,

but unfortunately it requires a particular metal that would be extremely difficult to procure. What metal? Felite. Yeah, she takes a big inhale of breath. Yes, that will be... It's not very easy to find. No, in fact, and possession of it can be... is quite illegal.

Yes, unfortunately we'll need to look for another way. But using that metal, we might'll need to look for another way. But using that metal we might be able to create a device that allows us to track down the sigils and the runes that are breaking these lights. Sadly, Felite is forbidden. It is an illegal commodity in the Empire.

Obtaining it would be a crime of itself. We will continue to monitor the Lamplighters Guild, see if we notice anyone coming or going. We will keep a lock the gates are being heavily monitored everyone coming in and out of Ashenrest is being heavily questioned and monitored

at this point, searched. We have people checking for invisibility and illusions and magical means of escape and the like. What about basements, hidden rooms within the lamplighters, within Pharos? We searched the Pharos and couldn't find any there, although there is a high chance that my people and I missed something,

as you did. It's possible. and I missed something, as you did. It's possible... Perhaps the nearby area, perhaps somewhere close by, or somewhere else that this Morris frequently visited might have a place to hide. I don't know. I don't know. Unfortunately, the man, I know very little about this Morris Goldside.

Even searching his chambers did not throw up too much. Not one that I've kept a close dossier on, I'm afraid. Well, it is getting late. I am sorry about Ophelia. Sister Ophelia. Tell her we're still at the House of Blood. Indeed. I am sorry.

Let us make sure that her death is not in vain. Whatever is happening here is clearly far greater than I think you or I first thought of. It poses a threat. Today it was you being attacked, but tomorrow, the day after, next week, who knows? This is why it confounds me that we do not yet know the motive behind this. Cultists of this nature, those who meddle with planar powers, they want something, they need something, they are being compelled for something. I cannot fathom what that is. And until we know it, we'll be a step behind. But try and rest. We'll pick this up in the morning.

Thank you for your assistance and your quick response. I wish it had been quicker. Good night. And with that, this little halfling lady just makes her way back, middle of the night, just tootles down the road, makes her way back to the forge. She got no, like, guards with her? Doesn't have any guards with her, I think.

Doesn't need them. Maybe. Her reputation is enough. She just stood up to... Yeah. She has two guards, fucking A and fucking B. I mean, I think for, like, Xanthius especially, because you're a bit more involved in sort of your knowledge of the world,

and maybe Gruff as well with his interest in knights and things like that as well. High authoritor, like an authoritor, is one of the few positions in the world that can stand up to a dragon like that. It's not always very wise, because some dragons will take it very personally and then get their own authoritors to come and challenge them and ruin the reputation of people that have insulted them and things like that. But by the Empress's law,

when it was first laid down at the foundation of the Empire, authorities do have the right to hold dragons accountable. There are laws that protect non-dragons against draconic influence. Because if a dragon had, like say a personal grudge against a merchant or a guild and just was like well I'm just gonna destroy their house uh there needs to be a legal protection for the people to say well actually you can't do that and yeah and so the guild obviously the lamplighters Guild obviously have that where they've you know they own their land they own their property and the Duke's given them permission to operate these lights so now

he's kind of caught in a catch-22 where if he damages them he's the one breaking the law or anybody who is so yeah they're one of the few people that can actually stand up to a dragon noble isn't authority still cool when they do it yeah yeah absolutely and it takes balls to you know it's it's brave to do that because like I said if the Duke had taken that as a personal insult he could basically make her life a living hell and like get her reputation tarnished and. Considerate her.

Well, that again, he would then be committing a crime, but there are subtle ways to do things, do you know what I mean? I raised my arms when I said fucking A and fucking B, I actually meant left ball, right ball, she has balls. Yeah, okay, yeah, maybe. You know, we're very inclusive here, it's fine, she could absolutely have it.

Same. With that, are you all going to try and rest, or would you like to try and do anything else? It is very late. Probably rest, I guess? Yeah, I mean. Boyos, you know what happens if you rest. Oh, yeah.

Well, I mean, what else are we going to do this late? I'm sure that Blackwing is up all night. We could head over. I did receive instructions from Sansor Il'Qara. Oh, good. And what did they have to say? A quest was given. What does that mean?

Well, to be granted with a reprieve from the curse, you have to prove your dedication to Pyrrhus. It's a prayer to Pyrrhus to lift the curse. Seems easy. to lift the curse. Seems easy. That's me. We have to go to across the hills

across the Ruby River and find a creature bathed in gold light and burning with an inner fire. Kill it, burn the body until nothing is left. Scatter the ashes

at dawn's light and say a prayer to Pyrrhus. Do we have to do that each? I suppose both of you just killing the one creature is fine. Well, I think we'll find that to be quite impossible. A creature like that? I think normally, were we in eye, well, I think normally where we and I

well we could have done it but not now we have the Duke's blessing to go see the Blackwing we should probably do that now what time is it right now? Like midnight, 1am.

Ah, a latte fun's not open. I'm going to dose up on caffeine first and just put an all-nighter. You bought coffee beans. Huh? I'll get us a brew going. Where the bloody hell did you get all that platinum from? I took it off the table from Tobias. Did he know? Yeah. Okay off the table from Tobias.

Did he know? Yeah. Okay. He offered it to us. I didn't have it. I would never steal. I made a suggestion to, well, I thought it might be a good idea not to take that money from the Lamplighter's Guild,

just in case. I was being overly cautious, perhaps, but I mean, we have the money now. But either way, we don't need it to relieve this curse. Blackwing will help us, thanks to the Duke. Well, they might need money for materials to do that. They need refined silver. We haven't spoken to Blackwing yet.

We don't know what they want. We don't know what Blackwing needs yet. I'm gonna interrupt here, because we're gonna... Meanwhile! ...start the scene. Well, we're going to... Meanwhile. Well, we're going to head over to Blackwing, I think, right? Well, maybe you will.

Maybe something else is going to happen. We're thinking of doing that, is what I'm saying. Groff is preparing to frog march the two of them over to Blackwing. Meanwhile, in the Greylands, Ophelia. Hello. So you see this plain field. You've seen this skeleton fall into this sinkhole, and now you're looking at it. You've closed the distance.

Those ruins are getting closer. Maybe I would say that if you get past this field, you'll be in close range of those ruins, and then from there you can start making your way to the mountains, right? But I need you to make a perception check, please, to navigate this field. See if you can spot these sinkholes before they collapse under you.

Natural 20, baby. Natural 20. Wow. So I'd say with a natural 20... Mario 64 triple jump. Why are you the way that you are? Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You... For fuck's sake. Why are you the way that you are? Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah! You not only navigate this field of these sinkholes, right?

You quickly learn the slightest discoloration. You begin to see the pattern of where these sinkholes are. And it looks like some sort of tunnel network. And then something has maybe made these traps for this area and you spy as you're traveling through it and you're making your way you actually spy in the distance uh these zombie-like creatures you've never seen a creature like this before it walks like a person but it's clearly insectoid it's covered in this thick carap a person but it's clearly insectoid. It's covered in this thick carapace armour

but it's clearly dead. Pieces of it kind of falling off. Parts of it's kite and ripped open and bloody wounds but it's become some sort of zombie creature

and there's two or three of them and there's a risk that you might have to engage them but you can actually lure them into these like sinkholes. You basically as soon as these creatures detect you, they come charging, you use one of these sinkholes, and it causes it to collapse and they all fall in.

And they get crunched. There's heavy rocks at the bottom, like natural thick stone slates, and they slam into them and get impaled. And when you're looking down, you spy within the sinkhole more of these tunnels connecting it but you actually spy something metal and glittering and looking down you can see that there are a few skeletal remains in there all of their like marrows and body has

been stripped completely blasted clean but there is uh like a large piece of maybe what was a piece of metal armor and it's still glinting and shining down there um and you can also see some like scraps of like leather and like maybe an old leather bag that's not being fully deteriorated yet um and you can see these resources down in the sinkhole which you can you can make your way safely down to and grab if you want to yeah um i was thinking, because after the last encounter, I would have had some blood fury points. Yeah. Well, you didn't rage, so you only gain blood fury whilst you're raging.

Oh, while I'm raging. Oh, never mind then. Okay. So. I was thinking, could I craft, like, a bone spear and then, like, use the spear to, like, try and fish these items out of the sinkhole? Yeah, yeah. I would say absolutely you can try and do that.

So what that would mean is whilst you're in this field, you're going to take your moment of rest. So that is another charge of your father's breath where you have to, you know, you're spending time, like, you know, sustaining spending time like you know sustaining yourself um but what that means is you can attempt to craft yeah like a bone spear um and you can even use the sinew to like add like a kind of like line to it so you throw it and then reel it back in and stuff right so what this is is you need to make an intelligence roll um so it's just d20 plus your

intelligence and you your crafting is mainly with jewels and stuff, isn't it? So you won't be able to add it to this one Because you're crafting weapons So it's just d20 plus your intelligence Can I use my bardic inspiration for this? Yeah, well it was a free reroll that you got for that But you could spend In fact, we haven't done your roll yet

You could spend a point of fate A three A three, so that is a point for me. But you've got four fate points. You can spend them just as much as everyone else can. Would you like to add one to add a point of fate to your roll so you get an extra d6? Thank you.

Oh, I needed it. And that one, five, seven. Seven. So unfortunately, like, one of those bones and one of those sinew that you recovered, you spend a few hours trying to fashion this bone spear, but without anything else, it's really hard to try and craft. And you just put too much pressure and it snaps in half

and it ruins what you've been making, unfortunately. It's a tantrum. Yeah, you can still make it, but you will just have to go down into the sinkhole to get that stuff, which you think you can do. Yeah, she'll give it a try. You just don't know what else is down there. Yeah, she'll give it a try.

All right. You make your way down there, kind of sliding down the soft dust. You make your way down amongst these heavy rocks and now these corpses of these insectoid-like creatures. And you find the skeleton and you go and you get the leather satchel. You pull it off.

There's like half-tattered, probably not useful as a bag, but could be cut into strips. So you do gain the leather resource as well. So you have bone, sinew, leather. The piece of metal, though, as you go to pull it, it's stuck. What I need from you is a strength check to try and pull that free. Okay. So you do get a plus three from Rowan's, from Gruff's blood.

Cool. Twenty-two. Twenty-two. Easily pull it free. No problem. Don't make any noise. You just pull it free and you've got it now. Nice.

So you add a piece of metal to your thing as well. So you have one, like, large piece of metal. You've got some leather so you add a piece of metal to your to your thing as well so you have one like a large piece of metal you've got some leather bones and sinew awesome um and you make your way back up to the top and you carry on you continue on your journey um as you begin approaching the ruins um you see moving amongst the ruins and this is at a distance right you're seeing this so you've got a bit of time to prepare and stuff if you wanted to. This must have once been a vast city. And you are now in its blasted, ruined state. Most of it's buried beneath the dust of the Greylands.

The tops of the buildings now forming these bones of a civilization that you don't recognize this place looks completely alien to you and as you begin making your way through the ruins you become aware that up ahead uh sort of in amongst maybe what was once like a large courtyard with all buildings on different sides and things like that. There are four skeletons. Okay. Two with bows, like ragged kind of makeshift bows,

and two with short swords. And unlike Percival and the skeletons that you are used to, these skeletons are not talking, but are moving like living people would. One of them's, like, picking up rocks and, like, throwing them against, like, small... Like, it's playing a game with another one. The two with the short swords.

They're, like, almost playing, like, a game of, like, marbles or, like, some sort of darts or something like that where they're picking up these little rocks and throwing them to hit other rocks. One of the ones with the bow is just sat on top of a building, and it's swinging its legs. And then another one with the bow is patrolling, and it's actually looking around,

patrolling around the outskirts of where they are. They haven't seen you yet, but if you want to get closer or if you want to move around them, that would probably be a skill check. But you can see them just kind of hanging around. Oh, man. Can you make a religion check for me? Oh, of course. Let's see what you might know about this. Stop calling one. Not one.

Not one. The only thing I'd say is that you would know that these creatures are called the untethered, and they are basically undead that have escaped their service to whatever lord or the great father or whatever. They're like, they're rogue undead. They're like, you know, undead that have escaped,

and they're like deserters, basically. And they're condemned to these wastelands. Oh, I want to go talk to them. They seem chill. But are they chill? You could also, if you want to see, like I said, they've not spotted you yet, you could duck into cover and try and craft more stuff,

or do whatever you want, make any preparations you want. You could try and sneak around them. True. Whatever you can think of, imagine-wise, you can do. Yeah, I will do another rest and bolster myself up. Okay. Can I spend a hit dice as a bonus action, try and regain some health?

Yeah, so, yep, that would be the use of your Father's Breath. So your hit dice is a d12, right? I think it's a d10. For Barbarian, it should be a d12, I think. I'm almost certain it is. It10 for barbarian it should be d12 i think i'm almost certain it is it was for alien yeah that is a d12 yes so you don't need to roll you just get 12 hit points back when you do it yeah the nature of the father's breath and that is like you uncork this crystal thing and when you it's almost like drinking like you're almost drinking this vapor

and then you stopper it and you've spent four charges of that now i think three now three now so yeah it's 12 yeah so it's about a third a third depleted um but yeah you take a moment to rest you heal yourself a little bit um can i try and craft some armor with like the leather and some of the yeah do you want to make armor or do you want to make a shield? Ooh. Shield will give you plus two to your AC. Armor will give you, like, a base AC, and then you add your dex on top of it. Let's do armor.

Okay, great. So, like, some sort of, like, you know, fashioned-together breastplate of bones and metal and leather. Yeah, very cool. All right, so this is going to be the same thing. It is an intelligence roll. You can add a fate dice if you would like um i'll leave it for now okay save them intelligence this one watch this drive

unfortunately these bad rolls yeah the uh so for that the metal armor you try and like use the flat end of a bone to like try and shape it into place and you just split the metal, and it breaks into two smaller pieces. The bone is shattered as you try and do it. So the metal, unfortunately, you lose, and you lose one bone resource as well. No, one bone. Yeah, you waste the resource, unfortunately. A bone. A bone.

Same, because you actually have a plus two to your intelligence. I know. It's just bad rolls. Bone down. Gosh. Yeah. What a thing. All right.

I think because of that I think she's gonna go sneaky because she's not got any armour sure she's gonna try and sneak around the skelly boys okay so I'm gonna need the stealth check

stealth check opposed by my perception check they've got no eyes eleven magic sense eleven you start making your way

and this isn't gonna be like a one stealth check thing. You move in, and that one skeleton who's patrolling, you wait for him to move out of range, and you begin sneaking your way into a side street. You begin making your way, and you've avoided them for now. You come across to a joint, but you have to cross the plaza,

and one of the other ones who's playing the rock game might see you. So as you kind of move to the side, you're now pressed up against the wall. You have to make a dash across this plaza to get to the other ones who's playing the rock game might see you. So as you kind of move to the side, you're now pressed up against the wall. You have to make a dash across this plaza to get to the other side. So that would be another stealth check. Okie dokie.

20. 20. You wait. You give it a beat. He goes to take his turn. He throws, and then as he goes to pick it up and then return back to his friend

who's not paying attention, you dash across the plaza, making the soft dust beneath your feet, bare feet, no noise. You make your way, and you get across to the other side. Nice. And, yeah, you're free to continue on if you want. Yeah, I'll continue on.

Okay, all righty. You continue making your journey across the Greylands. I need another d4 roll from you please two uh another two so that would then drop to that as you are making your way with the ruins behind you you kind of continue on through the rest of this ruin city and you don't really encounter anything else um but as you get to the other side you can now see once again these vast endless like dunes and plains before these mountains and as you are crossing a wind begins to build up and then suddenly you find yourself blinded by a storm of dust as the wind has picked

it all up into a dust storm um i need a survival roll from you. Cool. Got a minus one, so that's eleven. Eleven. Okay. You unfortunately get lost. The dust kind of turns you around and you stumble around For for you what feels like Maybe days and you just spend a resource from your flask to keep yourself going. Okay And then actually would be two resources sorry my apologies So you're down two of those resources and you unfortunately unfortunately waste time being lost and turned around by these dusts.

But as you are making your way through, you come across something. You are making your way through the dust completely blinding you almost. And it's because of that dust that as you are moving through, something on the floor glints with like a red light. And as you're kind of pushing your way through, you know, it's in your path. What do you do? It's almost like a piece of glass, like red glass.

Does it look familiar? Yes. Yeah, Ophelia? Yes. Yeah, Ophelia will move forward towards it. Move your way closer towards it, and you bend down and see that in the dust is a broken crown of sanguinite, the blood jewel of Osseous. And this thing's broken into a dozen pieces.

What do you do? Um, Fili will put it in her leather bag. When you touch it, that first big piece, because it's broken into several pieces scattered around in the dust, when you touch it, it's like a vision flashes in your mind. And you are this powerful vampire queen at the head of an army. Yes. And you raise a finger and point to some village and you just watch as the hordes march on. And you begin to see the village burn.

And as it does, you feel all the terror The swords march on and you begin to see the village burn. And as it does, you feel all the terror and the fear of the people, the living people, almost flows into you and it feeds you. This vampire, whoever you are, she didn't feed on blood. She fed on beer. And as you come out of that vision, that crown is gone. And you unlock your Pact ability.

Oh. Yes! Yes! Yes! And for a moment, you close your eyes. And you know you can feel something, but obviously we as an audience see it from an external perspective. As that red blood broken crystal crown appears over your head, and your visage sort of almost flashes for a moment, and then returns to normal.

Going back to the team. As in weight. Actability as in... I'm not. Going back to the team. As Gruffydd, you begin to frog march Rowan and... Is that like a hop? What is that?

Yeah, what are we talking here? You would notice... I well shake it for frog. Okay. Okay. Yep. Two figures approaching. Coming from the direction as you were making... If you had come from where you were attacked,

they are coming from that direction towards the inn. One of them is limping on a cane. The other one is a tall, powerful figure. Nope. Don't honestly those guys. Rowan's just pretending not to see them. Santheus, go back inside now. Now.

Okay, okay. Yes, I'm heading in. Okay, you head in. You watch as the figures of Sister Benedicta and Sister Malady, You watch as the figures of Sister Benedicta and Sister Maladie, the Sister Inquisitors of the Ecliptic Order, make their way towards you. Maladie coughs.

Good evening. I'm told that you had an encounter earlier this evening. Word of it has spread around. We came as quickly as we could. Benedict looks to you, Rowan and Gruff. Did you destroy them? Are there any more? The demons? We disposed of every single one that attacked us. She like nods. Good, good.

I'm only sad that I could not be there to join you. I'm sorry. I would have loved to have assisted you in defeating them. That's not a good memory for us. No, I imagine not. I heard that Sister Ophelia was slain. You heard correctly. My sincere condolences to you.

She seemed a woman of great faith. Her own faith, of course. And it is always tragic to learn that the Planar Powers have attacked our realm. I thought to offer what assistance we could. But I also have questions. About this incident. Why did you not tell me before that you had encountered demonic forces here in Ashenrest, when last we met? Well, you didn't ask me much.

We didn't know? I would have thought that the appearance of two members of the Ecliptic Order, sworn enemies of the Planar Realms, we could have been great allies to you. With great respect, you didn't seem to have much interest in talking to me and Rowan. But also, we assumed that you knew from the other Thorntons. No, the incident, I believe, in the Riverside district. It only happened after you arrived here, yes? We only knew of the matters of Burnell. A lot has happened in a very short period of time. Indeed.

And sisters with the greatest of respect, when you first met us, you had a lot of questions and you didn't leave a lot of time for us to answer. Very fair, very fair. It is the nature of an inquisitor to ask questions not to be asked. Well, we are here now. Your air. The enemies of the

material world seem to be your enemies. She does glance towards the inn when she says that. Ah, I crouch down looking through the window. It's Lord Orogan and Daisy Notdrenningus. They're tired.

Yes, it is quite late. Can we reconvene? Well, it's been a day. It has. I would very much like to hear more about these demons and what they are connected to. Why did they attack you? I wish we could answer that question,

but we don't know ourselves. But you have... This was random. There's nothing you are involved in that would lead them to attack you? They seem to be rather angry that we attacked their kin. Well, their kin attacked us at the riverside. He, like, stares at you for a moment, Gruffydd.

Gruffydd's telling the truth, like, but... He's keeping things back, though. I think it's more that he's just tired and it's been a long day it's not that he's necessarily lying he's not lying but he's not revealing you know when you get tired and you just don't remember stuff she'll look at you and say like

I believe it'd be more than that there must be something these creatures do not care for their kin in that way they do not seek vengeance they do not care for their kin in that way. They do not seek vengeance. They do not seek retribution. They would not care for the death of another. There must be something else.

Why you? Why this place? What was it the daisy said in front of the duke earlier? Something that they called you something? Because I arrived... Well, you were already in mid-fight when I arrived. Called me something. Well, they said something, a name or something like that. The Phosphorus.

Phosphorus, Phosphorus. Many demons and devils have titles and monikers that identify themselves. Likely the name of whatever greater being that they serve. Well, according to Daisy, because I arrived late, they said the phosphorus wants you dead. What about this incident in the riverside? What was that about?

Oh, bloody hell. We were hired, or we took up a guild job to protect a lamplighter while she fixed lights, Oh, bloody hell. We were hired, or we took up a guild job, to protect a lamplighter while she fixed lights, broken lights, down by the riverside. And when she was doing so, various other guild members from the Carpenters and Blacksmiths Guild attacked, well, trying to attack her to stop her from making, fixing the lights.

And it all got a bit... well, scary for her. And something about her emotions drew a smoke demon from the light. From the guild light? Yes. Hmm. And do you think that this guild is connected to this attack on you?

Yes. Interesting how we are getting somewhere. This guild, you think that they are involved in this demonic matter? Yes. They are putting discs. Really? You should really go speak to the High Authoritor. The High Authoritor has not been very receptive to my sister and I.

Right, I thought you were the same sort of... I do want to refine what Gruffydd is saying. We don't accuse the entire guild. I bloody do. Gruffydd does, but I do believe there may be innocent victims within the guild that have been manipulated, or there may be a corrupting essence within

that's trying to do something nefarious without the guild's knowledge. Yes, that would be... that rings true to how many of these insidious cults and planar creatures act. They corrupt and they corrupt others.

You want a seat, and Rowan takes a knee and just slaps his thigh. She smiles, the malady actually smiles like, well that is a very kind offer for you, but no, I'm fine, no amount of sitting will help me. Perhaps a sit inside with some water would be most appreciated. Oh, about that.

There's a ghost and she's gonna rip your head off if you go inside the inn. I do not, I'm a spirit I can deal with. We don't want to have to deal with the upset of the spirit that we've inhabited the home of. We've gained her respect and we do not wish to anger her any further. Benedicter is like, I could destroy the spirit for you.

No. Very well. She is a victim of a crime. We are going to get her justice. Ah. Very good, very good. All right, then we will remain out here. Another question.

And I will let you go eventually. How does your chest feel? Not again. I told you to get back inside! Do you think that the local church has any involvement with the Lamplighter's Guild? Oh, that's a funny, funny question. So I was eating the, what was it, bread at the time, I think. We had a meal with Tobias. Fascinating discussion.

And he mentioned his involvement with the Sun Sword and how they have a very deep connection with each other and that she basically treats him like a father figure. So it would be bad of me to make assumptions, however, that link with the Lamplighter's Guild and the church is an interesting one for me that seems very deep. Maladie is like staring at you intently rowing through this.

Benedicta actually looks and she's like, sister, you are not suggesting that a member of the church is involved in all this. You see Maladie is just like quiet Benedicta, like just dismisses her, like really rudely, is just like, be quiet. But there's not been any indication that she is involved with this demonic plot?

Absolutely no evidence. Just a connection between the guildmaster? It was merely something I picked up, and I've got an associative memory with the smell of bread in that moment. Interesting. Very interesting. Question to Mark.

That's lovely bread. Yes? Is Maladie very intently staring at Rowan? Yeah, but like in a way that like, if you were making an insight check, you might kind of be looking at someone intently. Kind of the other way around. When Rowan starts saying that, Gruff tenses and looks at him at someone intently. Kind of the other way around. Mm-hmm.

When Rowan starts saying that, Mm-hmm. Gruff tenses and looks at him like, what? Yeah. Yeah. In the same way that Benedicta kind of has that same reaction

like when Maladie's asking the question. Like there's this kind of like, it's very similar kind of thing, I imagine. Mm. It's more on hearing that there is a connection between Tobias and Ilkara.

Yeah, okay. Or is that just clutching on Gruff's head? Something's happening in Gruff's head. Oh, okay. I thought I was being blasphemous and you're angry at me. No, no, no, no, no, no. This is like a connection. Because this is the first time he's heard this.

He was not at the dinner party. He didn't meet up with you guys when you did a sort of background check on Tobias. This is the first time he has heard Tobias and Alcara mentioned together. I haven't had time to tell you. Sorry, bud. Yeah, but there's something that happened

when Gruff had his little nighttime sojourn in the church, right? Yeah. Rowan is basically innocently stumbling his way into this information. Yeah, and you see that Maladie's kind of taken in, and she nods and says, He's mostly focused on the bread. Where are the two of you heading so late at night?

It seemed that you were heading somewhere. We're going to go see the elf in the tower. An elf in the tower. I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with Ashenrest. It's the tower. They're called Blackwing. We need help with a curse. A curse?

Boys cursed. By the demons? No, the spirit. Ghost. Ah. Hence why we don't want to anger her any further, and why it's midnight and we're being inquisited and we're staying awake.

Oh no, no, no. My dear big fellow, you're not being inquisited. No, this is a friendly conversation. But that's your job, isn't it? I'm asking a few questions, is all. Not very friendly questions. Are they not? I have not...

How are you? ...said anything rude. I'm all right, as well as one can be when one is very ill, but... Sorry to bring it up. This is all right. Do you want some food? No, no. But I perhaps could help you with your curse, if this elf cannot. You can?

Yes, I'm a powerful spellcaster myself. It is the nature of the Ecliptic Order to deal with these sorts of matters. We do not just go around asking questions, you know. We deal with possession, with curses, with maladies. We investigate magical relics. What about death? Can you save our friend? Sadly not. That is a power far beyond me and many of my kind, but many of my order.

Bringing someone back from the dead is... That is the purview of the gods and the saints and powers of beyond our mortal ken. I'm afraid that, uh, think of me as a very... I am very talented with magic, but even my magic will not go that far.

But a curse I can remove. Two of us are cursed. Who is the other? The girl or Xanthius? Xanthius. Oh. Well, allow me to offer my assistance. I would be happy to remove the curse from you. Both of us?

Yes. It will leave me weakened for a few days, but it seems like whatever this demonic matter is, and she looks towards you, Gruff, I don't believe that... I think that you are looking into it, and you would like to see it resolved, yes? Yes. Then I would imagine that if I am not able to pursue my investigation for a few days, then it would be in good hands. So I'd be happy to.

It is my duty to remove these curses of other powers, undead creatures, demonic creatures, elementals. Many such find themselves in these situations. That would be very much appreciated if you can help, Xanthius. We're in a strange neutral position having entered Ashen's Rest so very recently and not being tied with the authorities or the duke or any other imperial law. We have the ability to act as freelancers, so to speak.

Yes. And so helping us, I guess, would help the town. Indeed. And as I mentioned, I do not wish to see you suffer from some otherworldly power. That is very much why I became a Sister Inquisitor, to help others and to help people like yourself. Oh, I thought it was mostly the questions. You take our title too seriously, I think.

But yes, I will need some things. Mundane things, not too expensive, but things that I will need for the ceremony, the ritual. Silvery Paptor? No, no. I would need some fresh, pure water, not from the city well or river, something fresher and purer. Some silver needles.

Some clear... You said that there's two of you are cursed. Then two clear gemstones or glass objects. And finally, a copy of Sir Mortimer Graves' poem, Cometh the Raven. All found within the town, I'm sure.

Well, we were rather hoping that the curse could be lifted tonight, because it seems to get worse when they sleep. Ah. It would be difficult even for, even if you were to find another spellcaster, I imagine, to remove it this night without preparations. Almost all of these spells require components

or objects and things like that. We can stay awake for one night, it's fine. I don't hear no bell. Right. Is that what you say, canonically? Of course. Welcome to Try Whatever Sauce is. If you do not wish my help or my sister's,

then that is fine, we understand. We are offering you this as a balm, as a favor. Well, we're in the market for you. I have made it quite clear to Xanthius that I am not his enemy. In fact, I am rather concerned with the young lord's future. Can you make a promise? Oh, I very much can. And not lie? Can you make a promise? Oh, I have very much to do. And not lie? I have not lied to you yet. I'm not suggesting you do, but if you were to remove his curse,

you would not pry further and utilize that ritual to learn more information. She, like, choked her. Without his consent. Ah, you have no fear of that, my tall friend. I know all I need to know about Xantius. Insight check, please. Absolutely, make that insight roll. Yeah, no, 10.

I'll do my Deceptional Persuasion. You don't know. This seems like one of the realest people you've met. Kind of like the high... Even the High authoritor, you feel sometimes like, not necessarily lies, but like her body language implies

that she's maybe not telling you everything. She has her own agenda. This malady, this sister malady, like you get a clean read off of her. Like she is being straight up. That's such a reading of a, my role beat your role. This is the realest person. That's such a reading of a my role, be your role. This is the realest person.

Yeah, it's so real. You trust them with your life. I trust them. That's it, that's where you go wrong. Xanthius, get out here! Show your chest! It's my new best friend! We thank you for your offer.

I thank you for your... Thank you for your offer. I thank you for your... Your truth, your answers and your information. I, let me be clear, I am not your enemy. If you stand against the evil forces of the Planar Realms, if you seek to defend this empire and the innocent people within it, I am not your enemy.

I am an ally and a friend. My methods may be different, but we seek the same goal. Well, I'm glad. But if my friend gets hurt, I am not sorry for what I will do. Bloody hell. She smiles at you. A threat from a kind and generous man means far more than one from a wicked one. I appreciate that.

I've lost one today. And if I may say, my boy, if you live a long time, it is likely you will lose more. But that is just the nature of life. You can see, when you made that threat, Benedicta's hands, she's gripping that sword tight. And she's like, watching you, Rowan,

for the subtlest movement. Just ready. There's literally nothing from Rowan. No, but Maladie's smiling. She's not intimidated. When Rowan says that, it's not really a threat. It's so much that you could see the welling of tears up in his eyes because he's thinking about...

He doesn't want to lose anyone else. And if anyone gets in the way, he's basically protective. She sees how genuine it is, and it's like... Almost impressed. But she says, Well, like you said, you have been questioned long enough. We merely wanted to ensure that there was no lingering issue. And also, if this problem with the guild involves demons, it is not one I can ignore. It is our duty to see an end to such threats. We will begin asking questions. If I could ask my own question.

Please. I love questions. Well, it's pretty mundane. I swear you're going to be tomorrow, because chances are I am going to come for you with the boys and... My sister and I are staying at the, that very, what was the name of that charming place in the middle of town? Grumpy Hog. That is the one. We are staying there.

Inquire for us. I will be likely up. I do not sleep much myself. I'm sure we'll be seeing you once we gather all the components. It should not be, they should be fairly easy to obtain. They should not be too expensive. It is just simply they are foci to use

for the cleansing ritual that will be required. I very well. Blessings be upon you, sisters. Benedicta is like, saints and scions with you, Gruffydd of Tremorro. Maladie just goes, and a good evening. And thenffith of Tremorro. Maladie just goes, and a good evening. And then the two of them head off.

And as Benedictus says that, Gruff's actually going to kind of raise an eyebrow. Sure. And just, I don't know, snort. And then just turn to go in. All right. So yeah, Daisy and Xanthius, you could totally have listened in at the door.

I was weeping out the window. Squeaking. I had my peepers peeled. Peeping. Yeah, that's it. I had new ears. I hate it. Nice.

Yeah, I was listening in, yeah. All right. So, do you still intend to go see Blackwing, or do you want to try and rest or do you not got a Xanthius more I'm gonna try and stay up like what's the plan? I mean, I guess gruff would kind of you know, reiterate a bit about the components and probably how this is probably the easiest thing but Frankly, I don't know if you really want her to touch you we can go to Blackwing if that's better To be fair. I guess you don't know this,

Blackwing knows just as much as they do. What about? Bloody hell. Yeah. This is, I need. What? What is he now? Something.

Something horrible? Is it to do with maybe the arm thing that, I'm sorry, I tried to ignore that, but I just feel like we need to bring that up. It's late, but I think it might be important. Bad time story? God damn it. Oh, look at the time.

I think we're okay. No, all right. If you want to, we can end it here. But I'm happy to go a little bit. We can do another five, ten minutes if you want. We'll give it more space another time. You really want to hear this now? Xanthius asks.

If you're in trouble, I would very much like to know. I don't want my trouble to be your trouble. Sit down. We can always do donations next week. Dude! Do you want to do this another time? This is him asking.

I'm literally asking the same question. I wasn't prepped, I'll just put it that way. Sure. I think maybe we could give more time to it. Perhaps, well, because we could leave it on a bit of a cliffhanger if Xanthius wanted to maybe show, but I don't know if that's what you were thinking. No.

Okay. No. All right. In that case, then I think that, yeah. I will take a seat. Okay. And then take a long breath. And that's where we will end the episode.

Nice. And that's where we will end today's episode. Okay. So much is going on. There's a lot going on. To be fair, I think the Inquisitors are probably the ones we'll go for. Yeah. They're also the cheapest.

Well, we don't know what Blackwing is. Blackwing has got the Duke's favor, or the Duke's, I guess, permission. Consent. But I'd say it'd probably be a very similar thing with Blackwing where it'd be like, go and collect a bunch of mundane things or maybe things you've got to go out a day and come back to get them and stuff like that. Yeah.

Because I want to make certain spells, like things like Remove Curse or things like if you eventually get to the point of Raise Dead or Resurrection, they're going to be like rituals where you have to go and get certain specific things and bring them together and do a cool ritual, basically. Yeah. And it's going to be the same for Remove Curse.

But yeah, in that case, we will leave it there. Thank you so much for watching episode 20, Child of the Grave. That's right. So, is this the first time that we've had a party on different planes of existence? Probably not. But it's a pretty good, if you're going to split the party, what a great way to do it.

Split them by planes, yeah. Split them by life and death. Literally. Pretty cool. But yeah, that is going to be it. We'll see you, yeah. Split them by life and death. Literally. Pretty cool. But yeah, that is going to be it. We'll see you next time. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye.

Goodbye. Thank you very much. Bye.