High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #22 | Harrowed Reunions (Part 1)

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

The ritual to cure Rowan and Xantheus begins while Ophelia ascends towards the Grave Father's Temple! 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

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We are so professional and cool, but now it's time for some D&D fun. Welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire. After the loss of Sister Ophelia Della Rosa, the remaining heroes sought to find answers and bring justice to the ones behind the demonic assassination attempt. In the process, revelations about Xanthius were brought to light and he revealed to the party that buried in his chest he carries a shard of crownsteel, a dangerous and illegal

metal. However, the curse that had been inflicted on Xanthius and Rowan a few days prior was growing worse, and fearful of losing more of their number, they sought out Sister Inquisitor Malady and Sister Inquisitor Benedicta to take up their offer in aid of removing the curse. Meanwhile, in the planar realm of the Greylands, Ophelia continued her quest to trek across the dust plains of the wasteland to a temple of the grave father, where she was told a chance to return to the living world awaited her. On the journey, she began to acquire new powers and met a nomadic mummy called Rahajan, the Merchant Prince of Nowhere, where she traded precious gasps of the Father's Breath in exchange for supplies and a beautiful rapier that

once belonged to a vampiric prince. Armed with more supplies, including a living flame that clung to her for survival, Ophelia climbed the mountains to reach the temple, fending off a giant undead vulture in the process. Now, the heroes gather in the rundown inn that they were gifted to perform the ritual to remove the Curse of Harrowing as Ophelia arrives at the temple and her final test to return to the material And that, my friends, is where we pick it back up this week. Daisy, Rowan, Xanthius, and Gruffydd, along with Sister Inquisitor Malady and Sister Inquisitor Benedicta, you find yourselves in the common room of the Enticing Devil Inn,

the inn that you were given by Duke Ignarius, the draconic lord of this area. And Malady has finished kind of making some initial preparations. You have watched her taking the pure fresh water that Gruff, I believe, you created with magic and using that pure water and her own magic to bless six silver needles, which she has placed in a circle in the middle of the room sort of dug them into the floorboards basically like you know positioned them stuck them in

and is now sort of has asked Rowan and Xanthias to stand in the middle of it Rowan gets up off the bench that he thought was going to be where the curse was lifted he assumes that he's just going to be where the curse was lifted. He assumed that he's just going to lie down.

Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. No, yes, I'm afraid that we will need some room for this initial prospect. If the two of you could stand within the circle of the circle. At the same times? Yes, yes. Okay.

Rowan opens his arms. How big is the circle? Because I think last time, Maladie said that we would have to be like, moving around quite a lot inside this thing. It's large enough that it's probably about sort of like 20 foot radius, like in the room. So the needles have been spaced out around,

so it's not a tight circle, it's quite a large area. Okay, right in the center here? Yes, anywhere within the circle. I'm ready. The process of this will require, and she will look towards Daisy and Gruffydd, one of the two of you will need to read Sir Mortimer's poem, whilst I encant magic to withdraw the malignant energies that are currently within the two of them. Benedicta will provide me some support, as well as sound a bell, which is also something that the dead find, necrotic energy in the dead, find somewhat compelling. The process of all of this

is to use a sort of reminder of what it means to be dead, of the harrowing nature of death to drive this malignant energy out of you. Okay. Okay. You have the glass objects, the ones used to capture the energy. Oh, you've got those. I left them on the bench. Oh, go get them.

One second. Until it begins, you are free to move as you wish. If there are any other preparations you wish to make, I would make them now. Can I cast spells? Yes. Well, I'm thinking if it takes its toll on you, I can heal. It is, yes. I mean, if there are any, there should not be any difficulties.

Once the malignant energy is released from you, it will simply be a matter of capturing it within the glass object or the crystal. The energy itself does not have any potency unless... Well, it should not cause any harm. It is more that this is a very draining process for me. It is... It considers... It uses a considerable amount of magical energy and I find that difficult to replenish over time.

That's all. She coughs, she wipes her, you can see that whenever Maladie does cough, flecks of blood always come out and she kind of wipes her sleeve over her mouth. Benedicta kind of puts a hand on her shoulder, kind of very reassuring but also protective, like steadying her almost.

Maladie's sort of leaning on her cane that she carries. While Maladie's been explaining all this, Gruff has been squinting at the poem, like the piece of paper with the poem on it. He's been squinting, and while this is all going on, he kind of very, like, you know, slowly reaches into his pouch and takes out a pair of incredibly battered spectacles. They don't fit him.

They're quite small. One's got a crack in it. There's no arm. And he just very carefully tries to balance it on his nose. Are they like a little pair of polnaise, like the little glasses that they balance? Yeah, and they're not fitted for him. Where's he gone from?

I don't know. But, like, yeah. He's, like, borrowed someone's face. He found them and, like, got them off a dead body in the ocean But like, yeah. It's like borrowed songs. Found them at like, got them off a dead body in the ocean or something like that. Wow. Yeah.

Dark. I need your glasses. Have you ever seen into the eyes of a man who's drowning? I'll have those. You don't need them anymore. It was the only way

you could see them. Yeah. And she will look, if Gruffydd is to take on this task, then she will look over towards you, Daisy. I would suggest that you keep to the side, my dear, the malignant energy. Do not try and step in the circle

once the ritual has begun. Okay. I'm gonna sit cross-legged on top of the table. Okay. Oh, and for us, we shouldn't leave, then, the circle. Do you not leave the circle? No. Once the ritual begins, you should remain inside of it as much as possible.

Okay. One glass orb thing each? Yes. Thank you. Oh. Thank you. One other thing. You mentioned that this inn has an unquiet spirit. Yes.

Yes. Though it is day, the spirit is still present in the space. They are weakened. The ritual, it will not do any harm to the spirit, I should make it clear, but the dead can find this ritual sometimes peaceful, but also sometimes it can be disturbing for them. If you have any... You seem to have struck an accord with this spirit, at least temporarily, to leave you alone. Perhaps call upon that if you find them to be

disturbed by this. Should I warn her? If you are capable of doing so, yes. I would, it would be difficult to warn them. Perhaps offer reassurance once the ritual has begun. In which case, I might go up to the balcony level and just near Tyria's room just in case she gets unsettled and I can shout in. Benedicta will actually kind of, as you're going past, Benedicta will kind of stop you. And, you know, Benedicta, always very friendly and smiley.

Generally when you've interacted with her, she's the more sort of affable and sort of charismatic one when not questioned on matters of faith. And she kind of stops you for a moment, Daisy, and with a very sincere look in her eyes, she will say, Tell me, little one, you can speak with this spirit? Well, we've just been shouting to her. It is sad to hear that one of the faithful of Ulthea is trapped here.

It is not a natural thing. They should be tethered by the arrows of Saint Athea so they can move on to the next life. I am sad to hear that this one feels locked here. Well, we're trying to find out what truly happened to her because we believe that actually it was a crime and it was covered up. So if we find that, then maybe we can release her. It's on our to-do list. It's definitely this, the whole curse, Ophelia, there's lots of things but it's definitely up there on the list because we don't want her to suffer. She just smiles at you and says, you are doing the Scions' work. It is good to make sure that this spirit does not feel bound here.

They should be born into their new life so that they can prove themselves worthy. And she's, you know, and... I mean, you guys can make insight checks if you want, but she seems very sincere when she says this, right? It's like somebody who's speaking for belief. Starting a new life? Yeah, I mean, so...

Being worthy? All of you are, well, with the exception of Oph so worthy all of you are well with the exception of ophelia all of you are probably at some point taught the very basics of the religion of the scions and the idea is that when you die an althea you are tethered here by one of the saints arrows and you are reborn into a new life like you are reincarnated your memories are wiped and then you get to be born into a new life and the church of the scions teaches that if you can prove that you are worthy you ascend and you become a divine saint like dithia like typhine like some of the like saint talan and some of the others um but what is the interesting thing and this is more of an

out of character thing nobody really knows what worthy means. Like, the way that Gruff was taught what worthy means might be completely different to what maybe Xanthius was taught worthy means. But also, if you go to one temple, they might think that worthiness is about this, and another temple thinks that worthiness is about that. And it's not 100% clear because they base it on the actions of the saints who have come before. Some of those saints, their points kind of overlap and they don't quite match up. Do we know of like Dathyr and those divine...

Do we know how many there actually are? Yeah. Do we... What's the success rate? Yeah. He's trying to do the math. Yeah. Well, if it's like...

This is worthiness, but no one has ever deemed worthy. Well, no. It has happened. It generally needs to be big things, right? Or things that you build up over a lifetime. Like, it's... And there's even some that believe that worthiness kind of carries over. And so if you are really worthy in one life,

but not quite worthy enough, it saves up into your next life. And if you're unworthy, that's like a penalty. You have to make up for an unworthy past life by being more worthy. This being a religion, right? Like, out of character, nobody really knows. Like, this is all very doctrine and things like that.

There are known, one, two, three, four, five, six known saints, divine saints, that in the history of the Empire have ascended and become these powerful beings. If you become a divinity, you aren't necessarily one of these saints. You could just be... You would be a new saint. Right, okay. You would become a new saint, basically.

Okay. Yeah. All right. I just didn't know if there were anyone that was made divine and then was just like, cool, I'm going to peace out and just chill. Well, maybe they have. Maybe they have. This is the whole thing of like, you know,

this is what the Church of the Scions teaches. Yeah. It all sounds so beautiful. Yeah. And so for like, you know, a loyal follower, and I think, you know, I know that Gruff is very much, but for somebody like Benedicta, the idea of a ghost, that's actually quite a horrible

thing because that's not meant to happen they're meant to reincarnate and go on or they are somebody who has made a pact with a planar being or sold their soul and is taken to a different realm and they do not get reborn basically um and very much like ophelia and and some of the other things that's kind of the you know people like like the hatred for Caliphras is because they have clearly sold their soul to some other planar power, right? So they won't ever be reborn. They will be snatched up and turned into some servant of the planes.

Which, out of character, we know, happened with Dathyr and Ophelia. Yeah, because when Ophelia died, Dathyr appeared, but Serpia was not. Yeah, Saint Dathyr was the archer who appeared. And, yeah, basically. She's like, bye. Bye.

I'll get out of here. Yeah, so Benedicta kind of has that little moment with you and seems to be very genuinely concerned for this ghost who is trapped here and just basically would say, if there is anything that you need, my sister or I, to help you move this poor woman on, ask it. It is in our nature to assist those who are stuck in between lives. I think we just need to find out where her husband went, really.

It's a case of tracking a person down. Well, my sister is... If it is a matter of physically tracking them down, I can assist you. If there is... The more intellectual matters I leave to my sister. And she nods. And you see Maladie kind of is smirking when she's saying all of this.

Like, there's definitely a bit of a... Well, I guess you could make insight checks if you want, but she smirks, basically, at that. But yeah, you make your way up, you get into position, and Maladie will turn and say, well, if we are done with the conversation, are you ready? Do we need to do anything else?

Breathing technique? I've got prepared some magical armor, I don't know if that will affect things. Can I play a song? It should not be, there should not be any harm that comes to you. Okay, okay, okay. I would, if you can, try and remain calm. Breathing slowly and steadily would be good.

In. Out. I was doing out first, but now I'm breathing in twice. Now we need to sync up, we need to sync up. I'll hold my breath for a second. In. Wait, were you in again? Where are we? He's not breathing at all! He's not breathing! Oh, very stressed. In, out you in again? Where are we?

He's not breathing at all. He's not breathing. A very stressed. In, hurt, in, hurt. As you begin to hyperventilate, Maladie will gesture, and Benedict begins to ring a bell, like a,

doong, doong. Maladie begins an incantation, muttering, arcane, strange language, draconic mixture of common, maybe some other languages, you know, that kind of...

And you begin to see a sigil, all of those silver needles begin to become linked up by a sort of beam of light, and it begins to kind of construct a dome within the room itself, almost this lattice of golden energy by a sort of beam of light, and it begins to kind of construct a dome within the room itself, almost this lattice of golden energy begins spilling out.

And she holds her cane sort of in one hand, and then the other she has like gestured, and then she begins making these kind of arcane gestures, very Doctor Strange-esque. And then she will pause, look at you, Gruff, and nod to begin. My dear Eliza lay soundly dead, lantern lit beside her bed.

Darkness draws ere a night so ill, and shadows waver where aught be still. As you do the first line, Tyria begins to just begin to manifest, and she walks downstairs cautiously, floating but kind of approaching, not in pain, but you see a look of sadness in that one good eye that she has,

and she's, like, drifting as if lured by the sound of speech and activity. And she looks to you, Daisy, and then begins looking down into the room. I'll just say to her, I haven't cast anything, because I'm not going to when these people are in. I'll just say to her, they're trying to remove an effect that was on Rowan and Xanthias, but it won't take too long, and then we'll be done.

Okay. And I just want to say to her, you can sit here with me if you would like. You're not doing this psychically, this is just speaking out loud. Just out loud. Okay. Can you give me a persuasion check, Daisy? 18. 18. I'm going to have you pause in betweenasion check, Daisy? 18. 18.

I'm going to have you pause in between each verse, by the way, Kim, so you know. 18. Yeah, Tyria just floats and, yeah, kind of sits, like you, kind of weaving her legs through the banister and just sits. And you see a little spectral kind of tear as the poem continues and the dolorous bells begin to

sound xanthius and rowan you feel something in your chests in your body like an ice cold starts in your feet and begins working its way up your body and you look around the inn and although it's bright day to everyone else, it seems to grow dark and dim and you see things in the shadows. Rowan, you see that little girl with the bloody eyes just looking at you from the corner of the room. They're all going to die. Xanthius, you see yourself but distorted and twisted. Now one enormous, grotesque arm, your mouth hanging open, a fiery ichor drooling out of it.

Any sense of rationality gone. You are just a beast, rage and power incarnate. rage and power incarnate. I am you. But these forms begin to flicker and grow dimmer as Gruff continues. Beyond the glass of this homely grave, I spy a feathered and wicked knave yes be gone say i my voice so craven the corpse doth whisper cometh the raven

tyria almost that form she never really manifests during the day but something that is happening here is causing her form to manifest and you see that there is almost she begins like looking around as if trying to find something um and a look of distress in that one good eye and it's important to remember like tyria unfortunately still has that horrific scarred face. Like, it's really only, like, one eye and a bit of her mouth that is not ruined by these jagged knife marks. And she begins, like, looking around almost as if trying to find something that you can't see, Daisy.

What do you need? Can I help you? She almost looks past you and begins kind of clutching her chest and looking around. As she's doing that, Xanthius and Rowan, those images, those fearful images that you see, they begin to almost stretch and pull as if trying to break themselves apart. And as they do, a part of that little girl's cheek pulls away and it almost forms like a howling face and it sucks back in. Xanthius, a part of your body kind of does the same thing, but it's like this twisted anguish looking face pulling itself and it snaps back in.

You begin to see lines of energy crossing across these manifestations, almost as if they are being pulled apart away. And you now see that there is a line of shadow that connects you from yourselves to them. And they become drawing closer within the circle. Maladie, for a moment, she stops the incantation, just hacking, struggling. And as she does, that spell begins to break and waver,

and the images almost seem to grow stronger again. But she slams her chest, seals herself, and then, and begins focusing harder on the spell. Benedicta just puts one solid hand on her sister's shoulder and squeezes tight, but then continues to ring the bell, not withdrawn. Benedicta will say, like, finish, Gruffydd. Aghast my eyes look to dear Eliza.

My bloody hands a dark reminder. As window breaks, I lose my haven. Fate doth call, cometh the raven that last line you see tyria just kind of puts her hands in her face like sobbing you can't hear it but you can see the act of sobbing like clearly upset or disturbed by the maybe the nature of the poem or whatever the spell the sound of the bell those shadowy figures that Rowan and Xanthius, you seem to be connected to, finally break apart. Oh.

And they become this kind of moats of green, purple, blue, necrotic energy that clearly have some sort of sentience or thinking nature to them, but they become like a mist. And you see Maladie relaxes, the lattice work kind of recedes back down to just like a thin beam between the needles.

The bell begins to soften, and Maladie is like, you can begin, gesturing for you to capture them. Could everyone see those shadows, or was it just only I could see? Only you could see yours, and only Rowan could see yours. Right, I see. And only hear them as well.

Yeah. Rowan takes his hands away from his eyes. I imagine he would instinctively be like, no. Yeah, I think I would have been backing up almost to the wall of this circle at this point as it was growing and things. And he gets his glass object out. All right, could you, the two of you, please make dexterity rolls for me.

So just d20 plus dexterity. Street dexing. Yeah, I also, at this point, I should tell you, the curse ends on the two of you. So your stats now return to their normal and you may gain the benefit of a long rest as well. Oh, okay. So my con is back to, yeah.

I had minus two on that. And of course, before you roll, let's do fate because that might come into it as well. So yeah, let's do fate roll here. I feel you if you could roll as well because we're gonna come to you in just a minute. Alrighty. Yeah. Daisy?y. Yeah.

Daisy? Six. A six. That's one for you. The streak is broken. Three. That's one for you. That's one for me.

Thank you very much. Six. Six. That's one for you. Four. That's one for you. Five. That's one for you.

What did you get? As I rolled over here, it was a three. That's three. So it's four and two in our favour. Four and two in your favour. That's one for you. What do you get? As I rolled over here, it was a three. So it's four and two in our favor. Four and two in your favor. And so, yeah, this is going to be a deck save. It is an ability check, so if you would like to spend a point of fate, you may. I would like to spend, just because my dex is not incredible. Plus zero. Yeah, would you like to do one as well?

Yes, please. Okay. All right, so now it is 42 on the other side. Yeah, it's flipped around. Let's do it, gamer. Yep, okay. All right, so now it is 42 on the other side. Yeah, it's flipped around. Nice job, Gamer. Okay. 16. 16?

18. 18. The two of you begin to snatch up some of these fragments of the mist, right? You catch a couple of them, and then something seems to change. There is a crack-like sound that doesn't come from in this building, but almost in the air from like nearby. And that magic, the glass objects you're holding that you've just scooped some of that energy into,

you watch as the ghostly energy inside grows and cracks and breaks free. And those fragments of the nightmare, of the curse of harrowing, they seem to swell and grow and sort of combine into a shape, and Maladie begins, no, no, this is not right, something is empowering the magic, the malignant energy, something is, what is happening?

And at that point, we cut to Ophelia. Oh! You wanted a thunderstorm. Ophelia. Yeah, hello? After, you have no idea how much time you have been traveling these wastes and these mountains. It feels like days, weeks perhaps to you,

but eventually defeating that giant bird, the living flame still surrounding you, the rapier that you bought in one hand, your tattered rags, you know, almost more impoverished than when you first set out, torn and burnt and ripped. You make your way and you see it before you.

The temple from the outside is not particularly glamorous. It is quite austere and barren. You make your way and carved into the very side of the tallest, largest mountain of these wastelands, you see a great plateau, as if a great hand sliced a part of the mountain away and left a great door remaining in its side but on this flat plateau you can see that tributes have been left here to the great father there are piles of

bones and skulls jewels gold and a giant in the middle, a big stone dais, upon which is a set of golden scales. On either side of the plateau, just before the large doors that are currently closed, these stone tables are laden with glass vases and containers and jars, all of which glow with a green flame within. Stood beside the scales, blocking your way to the great doors of the temple, you see a creature that Ophelia would recognize at sight as a lich.

Rotted face, dressed in tattered black robes, no hair remains, skeletal but not the grave father skeletal, like almost zombified, you know, taut, you know, skin pulled back, and it just waits patiently by the scales and gestures for you to approach. Yeah, Ophelia will cautiously approach. She'll keep the sword at her side, but not in a threatening position. Just ready. Yeah.

Welcome, Sister Ophelia de la Rosa of the House of Blood. Hello. Who are you? Ah. It has been so long I have forgotten my name. I have none. I have but a purpose. I am a test. You seek entrance to his temple? Yes. He steps to the side and gestures at the scale.

This scale shall measure the weight of your soul. He points to the two tables. Upon these tables sit jars, gems, that contain the souls of kings, queens, warlords, commoners, cowards, traitors, and many more. To pass, to enter the temple, the scale must simply tip in your favor. You will have three attempts.

Should you fail, like I, you will be condemned to these wastelands forever. With a gesture, he points, and from your chest, a green flame pulls out, and it rests on one side of the scales. The scales don't move. And he just gestures to the tables. Choose.

Choose wisely. Do I just... pick a thing? Do I... What do you think? This is... What does Ophelia do at this moment? This is very much a... And I will tell you this as the GM, think about what you know of Ophelia. Think about what you know of the Gravefather, what you've been taught in Osseous.

And you may always ask me anything you want before you make any decision. If you want to go and examine these things, you can. If you want to use and examine these things, you can. If you want to, you know, use abilities or cast spells or simply whatever you think Ophelia would do in this scenario. Mm. A test of my soul and my will. And she'll just sort of gesture back towards the Greylands beneath her and sort of laugh to herself,

well, does the Greyfather not see what sort of laughs to herself. Well, does the Grey Father not see what I have endured to get here? I myself carry the strength to continue his great purpose. I have dealed, I have survived, I have wandered these wastes to get to this point. I will not be blocked, I will not be blocked. I will not be stopped. Serving the grave father is a privilege,

and I will not squander it again. I will create a following worthy of him and worthy of my death. Seeing this come to fruition will be my reward for the suffering I have endured and the legacy of my mortal service to him. I will do anything. I will remain true to him. I will let his will guide me and the Greylands to its great ultimate destiny. The Greylands have me. The Gravefather has me.

All my passion, all my rage, all my love for him. For eternity. The Lich stares for a moment. And you're staring at the Lich? Yeah. For the rest of everyone else, we see... Ophelia doesn't see this. If the audience were this a movie,

you would see that flame of Ophelia's on the scale begin to grow larger and burn brighter. I must ask you, Sister Ophelia de la Rosa, do you refuse to weigh a soul against your own? No. I accept whatever challenge you have to give me. I am worthy. He just gestures towards the tables. I am but a guardian. I am but the tester. Your words, mighty, but I am not the tester. Your words, mighty. But I am not the one to judge them.

Yeah, uh, should we just, yeah, any... So you, you go past and you see, Ophelia, you're, you see that flame. And it does seem like, like, it's almost diminishing again right but you see it it swelled and there was a little bit of movement as you were speaking and then it seems to reset you will just catch it the tiniest glimpse of it that it was going down but now it's reset back to where it was and it seems to have shrunk back down

back to where it was and it seems to have shrunk back down. Can I put my Breath of the Father on there? Yeah. You go up and you just pour. So do you put that on the same side as your flame or do you put it against the, on the other side of the scale? Like your side with the flame or the empty side? I'll put it with my, as like proof

that the Greyfather trusts me. How many charges do you have left in it? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Four left. Four left. You watch as it begins to swing the other way. It balances. The Greyfather has great trust in you. You have used his gift very wisely. Is that enough, Ophelia Delarosa of the House of Blood? She'll place her sword on there as well.

You watch as the sword tips it all the way down. And as it hits the bottom of the pedestal, you hear the grinding of stone as the temple doors open up. I am but the tester. The test is not a measure. He gestures towards the souls. Many have come here.

They choose the greatest soul upon the tables, thinking that it is a test of their weight against another's. But you know that the Grey Father does not care for this. The Grey Father does not inspire contests. He seeks only those who have the strength to endure, the strength to survive, the strength to go on even beyond death. You have great belief, great belief in yourself, great belief in him.

These trinkets. And he points to the breath and the sword. In time, you will not need them. But I give you one piece of warning, Sister Ophelia. I, too, was a follower of him. He is gracious with his gifts and his love, but like a teacher, he is unforgiving for those who do not learn from their mistakes. Then I will not repeat them.

learn from their mistakes. Then I will not repeat them. I hope you do not, for I once did, and now I am bound here. Do not make my mistake. Do not repeat yours. I will not. You have my word. Just gestures and steps away for you to take your things and move into the temple.

Yeah, Fida will take them and nod a thanks. Make your way in. Go in. Inside the temple, you see, again, quite austere. There's no decoration. There's no gold and silver, no great tapestries. It's kind of plain stone, but a few interesting pieces around the temple. A single stone sarcophagus, open, rests in the center with glowing runes and sigils

all around it. A large statue of the grave father himself looms behind the sarcophagus. And then five pools encircle the chamber. One filled with blood. One filled with skulls and bones. One filled with putrid water. One filled with sand. water, one filled with sand, one that is empty. Above you, kind of swirling all around, is a sort of black wind that you can immediately tell

is just raw necrotic energy surrounding this temple, infused into this temple, is part of it. What do you do when you enter? Can I have a look in the empty... The empty pool? Yes, please. Yeah. You sense, although it is empty as you get close to it,

you notice that the light of the fire that surrounds you it is the shadows don't pool correctly it's not that there's nothing in this pool the pool is filled with shadow and there is an immense amount of cold energy coming Ah. Ah. Lots of noises. Ah. Oh. So these are, I'm assuming they're the five houses. If that's what you believe, yeah. That's what I believe.

All right. And there's just necrotic energy. Yeah. I just lay down in the sarcophagus. Okay. You step up into the sarcophagus. Just before you get inside, the statue of the grave father animates.

Child, hold a moment. Do you not have words for your father? Thank you for your test. I... I was foolish in the mortal world, and what you have taught me has strengthened me, both physically and... My faith to you is now more present than ever, I believe. You've shown me great mercy, great fortitude. I thank you. show me great mercy, great fortitude.

Thank you. My child, you need not thank a father for helping his child grow strong. It is my duty. It is part of my love for you, child, to learn from this, to better serve not just me, but all of us, to serve the Grey Lands

and your home of Osseous. There is one from such a place who wishes to speak with you. Oh, okay, um, yes, yes. The statue gestures to the pool of blood. Yeah, I feel it go over. As you go over... It's doing a hair and...

A shape begins to form out of the pool, as if somebody was emerging from it. A tall, slender, feminine figure, made of blood. There is no detail to her, but you can immediately see the features, the poise, the grace of a woman that you know very well as Countess Aramin Orsa stands before you. Countess, oh, you shouldn't see me.

I'm sorry, you shouldn't have to see me in such a mess, in such a state. It is fine, Ophelia. You have completed a journey that very few have. Gravefather has tested you. You have not been found wanting. You do the House of Blood a great service in this. Oh, thank you. I'm honoured. I'm honoured.

We are very proud of you. We have watched. Do you feel that you have learned from this? We have watched. Do you feel that you have learned from this? Yes, I have. Yes. I will not make those same mistakes again. I will not deviate from my path. I will not question my faith and my loyalty.

Where does your path take you now? When you return to the living world, what will you do? I must build a following. As the Grey Father originally instructed me, I must continue on this journey and build a following worthy of the House of Blood, worthy of the Grey Father and his sacrifice and his gift to mortal kind. She smiles. Good. Grey Father has another charge for you as well. My child,

these are things you must do. As a servant of our faith, as a servant of me, it is expected. But you are also a warrior. And you have seen now that in that living world, there are those who entreat with our foes, entreat with our enemies. They seek to strengthen the planar realms of the pits, the Helion, the Celestials, the Fae. Find these agents, strike them down where you can,

for it is the Greylands who will succeed in time. I will slay every demon until there are none left to scourge our great house. Good, good, my child. Countess will bring a hand. I see you have acquired a princely prize here in the wastelands. Your blade. Ah, yes.

I'll give it over to her to look at. Do you? Yeah. She takes it. The blood shape takes the blade. Almost holds it. And you've seen the Countess. She's a masterful swordsman. Just her movements are so graceful, so hypnotic to watch. Oh, it suits you. It suits you. This once belonged to a vampiric prince of another world. It has a name. It has a legacy. It has a destiny. You watch as the blood from her hand trickles up and into the pommel, a gem on the pommel,

it fills with blood and becomes solid like a ruby. She hands it back to you. Take this back with you. Let it be a reminder of your lessons and of your charge. Thank you. Thank you for this gift. As you now hold the blade, Rhiannon, Ophelia would instinctively know

that this rapier has a name. This rapier is called Veracity, the insatiable blade. Oh, shit. Veracity, the insatiable blade. Oh, shit. This sword is the first relic that this party has acquired. Oh, bullshit. I forgot about that.

Relics are a special magic item that has a sort of progression of its own. They can be enhanced by completing certain tasks and challenges within the game itself. You won't know what these are until you use the identify spell, and they also are revealed sequentially. So once you complete one, you have to then learn what the next ones will be, and you have to continue evolving the weapon and so forth and so forth. They start off quite... Not minor, but there's no plus ones or anything like that. That's normally something you unlock, but they can be developed over time.

In some cases, it will be quite a hard thing to accomplish. This is the first one. There will be many for everyone, right? But this is the first one that is going to be acquired. The benefit of Veracity for now, it is in your D&D Beyond sheet, so you can look at that. It's in your inventory. If you just click on it, it should show up. But the main thing that Veracity does for now

is that you can use Veracity instead of your bite attack with your empowered bite ability so you can use veracity to strike and feed and do other and do whatever your empowered bite does the other thing it does is it allows you as long as you are wielding veracity in one hand when you make an attack you get to make a free attack with an offhand weapon that is like so it gives you like a free extra attack with that offhand weapon right for now I'm gonna tell you one thing to keep track of yeah so because I'm gonna struggle to keep track of it I need you to tell you one thing to keep track of. Yeah. Because I'm going to struggle to keep track of it. I need you to track how much blood Veracity drinks.

Okay. Oh. That's a normal thing to track. Okay. Cool, cool, cool, cool. Feeding the sword. Can I ask, because this is going to be a brain worm that's never going to let go, is the prince, the vampire prince from another realm,

plane, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Are we talking about Strahd? I will say nothing. Okay. I will say nothing. For podcast listeners, he's doing that face. I'm not making a face.

No, he is. This is the most... That's what I'm saying. It could be another one. It's the DM face. Yeah. It could be. It might be completely unrelated.

I'm not going to say anything because I don't want to give anything away. Because one day it might come up. Oh, true. Yeah. Right? Because he does owe us money. That's for now. He does owe us money. completely unrelated. I'm not going to say anything because I don't want to give anything away because one day it might come up. Oh, true. Because he does owe us money. That's for now. He does owe us money. You now have that item. It does require attunement so just make sure you click attunement.

It also counts as a magical weapon. So if you fight a creature that is resistant to non-magical weapons this counts as a magical weapon. Man, we are eating well tonight. You guys have been cooking. The Gravefather speaks once you take the blade. Now come, my child. Sleep and rest

and return to your world stronger, more cunning. Thank you. With all of my heart, thank you. Thank you. With all of my heart, thank you. My child, you are most welcome. I feel as like streaming tears, and she gets in the coffin.

She lays... Mortal blood for the eternal. As you begin to reprise the litany of Osseous, you feel, as you see all of that necrotic energy above you, begins to trail and feed into the sarcophagus and into you. And you feel your body almost cracking open and being pulled almost within itself. It's a horrible but also painless experience.

But, and again, Ophelia does not notice this, but as a connection between the Greylands and the material world is made, some of that energy filters through as we return to the inn. As I mentioned, the curse energy, the malignant energy of the curse that Rowan and Xemphas was formed

manifests into two creatures. Oh, okay. Yeah, we see these two spectral entities of swirling malignant energy manifest in place. And you can see that, yeah, Maladie is like hacking and coughing desperately. Something is empowering them. She like looks up and you can see that Tyria is turning her head.

Daisy, you're the only one that would notice this. The rest of you, like, Maladie's like, it's not the spirit, it's not the inn spirit. But Daisy, you see Tyria, who has currently been sat next to you. Tyria turns, looks through the wall behind you, turns, and floats through. Oh. And she just vanishes through the wall,

heading out of the inn. But something is clearly manifesting this energy. I need everyone, including Ophelia, to roll initiative. Oh boy. Okey dokey. I would also, once we've got initiative, I would like to ask two people

to just keep Maladie and Benedicta's stats. I will sort of dictate what they're doing, but just for rolling dice and using their abilities, I will need some people to do that as well. Well, let's do initiative first, because I've already done theirs. Okay. So.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, my apologies as well. Yeah. Very briefly, and in a few hours, whilst F yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, my apologies as well. Yeah. Very briefly, and in a few hours whilst Fale was visiting, she did provide an illustration for Veracity as well. Oh, what? We've got a picture already? We're going to do, she's going to do a more detailed version for me,

but yeah. Oh, look at that. That's gorgeous. Okay. That's me, Fale. Wow. She took a very crappy sketch I did and made it a lot better. That's brilliant.

Otherwise you would have had my crummy arm. Well, for podcast, you may see this in the Discord at some point. Yes, we'll do it once I've got the improved version. Very cool. Right, initiative Daisy. Six. Six for Daisy. Xanthius.

Oh, sorry, 12. 12. Gruffyddh... 12. 12. Gruffydd. Also 12. Who has the higher dex between the two of you? Uh, mine is 12. 12. All right, well, pick...

Who would you rather go first? I rolled a d6, I got a 1. Wow. I rolled a 1, I rolled a 1. Using fate. You could just pick. 2. Low is better. Have Xanthius go first. Thank you. I don't know the rules of this game.

Fuck you, Mel. I just needed one of you to go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rowan. 21, net 20. Whoa! And then finally Ophelia. 19.

19. Alrighty. Ophelia, you are not going to be appearing in the first round. Cool. Not right. Got other stuff going on. Yeah,. Got a lot of stuff going on. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff going on. At the very top of the round,

the very first turn, at the very top of the round, as these creatures manifest, for the first time, a couple of things are going to happen. The first is everyone present, with the exception of Ophelia, who is not quite here yet.

So that's everybody in the room, including Maladie and Benedicta. You each gain one terror. So just make a note somewhere that you have one terror. Like the planet? Okay. Like a terror. Terrorizing. He's trying to be cute. I know he is. Let him.

He is though. So everybody gains one automatically when these creatures appear. And yeah. Okay. And that is the first thing that happens. These manifestations, what kind of form are they taking?

Are they just shapeless? They are like a swirling, yeah, massive, like there is clearly like some sort of incorporeal ghostly like element to them. You can see that there is, as the two of them are next to each other, the energy between the two individual manifestations is flowing and sharing between them.

There's almost spectral chains that seem to link the two together as you guys look at them. And they're still shadow-linked to us as well. No, they are no longer shadow-linked. When the curse was broken, which is that was it, they are no longer connected to you. If we had license to it, Fleetwood Mac Chains would be playing right now.

Yeah. Sweet. Rowan, I need a hero, would be playing right now. Rowan, you are up first. Looking at Xanthius, how scared is Xanthius looking? And this is not the manifestation I'd saw before, but I mean... There's probably fragments of it in there, but you can see things shifting around in there.

There's probably a glimpse. Yeah. You catch a glimpse of you. You also see a bloody-eyed child. You see... Oh, you guys are right there. You would see a man

that you don't really recognise he looks like an innkeeper and he has a bloody knife in his hand and you see a flash of him come past you would see what's maybe something like you see fire you see like a fire out of control

burning around I think Gruffydd is there anything that Gruffydd You see fire. You see, like, a fire out of control, like, burning around. I think Gruffydd. Is there anything that Gruffydd, because we've not really thought about, like, Gruffydd's fears. Like, family, like, maybe the dead family or something like that. Like, what would be something like a primal instinctive fear to Gruffydd? Like a monster in the deep?

It would be family. Yeah, so, like, harm to the family or something like that. Yeah, harm to the family. So you see, like, a, yeah, Leonin, to the family or something like that. Yeah, harm to the family. So you see like a, yeah, Leonin, sorry, Wildheart, you know, children and wife like, you know, dead or in pain and things like that. Flashes of them. But it's almost like seeing like a swirling storm of energy and in amongst this you're seeing these things, right? You would also see a young blonde-haired girl on her own,

looking sad and lonely, crying there, bright blonde hair, and then you see nothing, almost like a void of something. Right, okay. Yeah, okay. But yeah, you see all these kind of flashes. But it's roaming up first on the initiative, so... In terms of, like, if we were... Like, shortly before this, we were running around catching these things.

I'm, like, almost more, I guess, not combat-ready, but, like, not as terrified as I was when we were looking at the visage of, like, our actual fears and terror and stuff. We're noticing the chain, and it's going to be a battle of wills as well as... I don't know what we're going to do, actually. I'm going to cast Heroism on you is what I'm going to do.

Okay. So, level one. So what does that... So you get 1d4 plus my spellcasting modifier as heal every round. Yeah, you get temporary hit points. But also you're immune to frightened. Oh, nice. Okay. So how much is your charisma mod?

It is my charisma mod plus 2, I believe. Oh, no no plus four now it's 18 I was going to say so you get four temporary hit points at the start of a turn as long as the concentration is maintained

a d4 plus four d4 plus four do I roll that or yeah I guess you would okay I get two plus four six

six temporary hit points six temp HP nice you're immune to being frightened you also lose that terror that you had when frightened is cast upon you and whilst you are immune to being frightened. You also lose that terror that you had when frightened is cast upon you. And whilst you are immune to being frightened,

you cannot gain terror. So keep that in mind. If I inflict terror, you can't be given terror. Okay, nice. Whilst you're immune to it. Awesome. So we cast Heroism from Rowan. That's basically me, and I'm stealing myself

and trying to back away from the one that looks most like my... They both do. It comes in flashes. I'm just backing away. Am I in opportunity attack range of them, though? If you move away, yeah. Like these normal creatures, they will do things like opportunity attacks. I will maintain my ground there.

Okay. All righty. I'll be hesitant. All righty. So after Rowan, it would be Ophelia. Ophelia, you are not quite within this realm yet then we would go to

the one of the creatures is going to go out first whilst this is all happening I probably would say because it's like a bit of a free action Maladie

and Benedicta Maladie is like Harageists creatures of sort of elemental of necrotic energy we must defeat them quickly is just kind of like

calling out Benedicta is drawing her greatsword and like toss the bell to the side I would need two of you to take over just their stats

just to make things a bit quicker for them do you want to do one who do you want to be Benedicta or Malady Benedicta Benedicta cast that over to Kim please

Benedicta do we want this NPC to die yeah so you want to take Maladie? No, that's not what I'm saying. Don't give it to Maladie. Okay, I've got him. I will tell you when it's their turn on the initiative. Harrowgeist. Harrowgeist, yeah.

Harrowgeist. Sad ghost. Rad. So yeah, you will notice those guys, they have a fate ability. Oh! You spend your fate to activate their special powers, basically. There are some restrictions on once per turn and how much it costs. That's cool.

And all of that kind of good stuff, all right? Okay. So I'll let you go to this. However, the first thing is the first... Both of the Harrowgeist are, in fact, going to act. So the first thing they're going to do is... They are going to attack. So Rowan and Xanthius, they are both going to attack you each

with their Terrorising Touch ability. So that is an 18 against you, Rowan, and then a 19 against you, Xanthius. Yeah, that'll do it. All right, that does it. I'll just roll one damage for both of you. You're only going to take five points of necrotic damage, and Rowan, you would gain one terror,

so you're currently up to two. Okay. So, Xanthius, you would have gained one, but you're immune to being frightened. I also completely soak that through 10 HP. Perfect. Boom. Thank you.

So you do that, and then after using their terrorizing touch, they are going to use their horrifying Howl ability, and I need you both to make Wisdom saving throws for me, please. Uh, Wisdom... Okay, oh, minus one. That's fine. We'll see. We'll see.

Uh, eight. Eight, all right. Five. Five, right. So on a failure, you would normally gain one D3 Terror. Xanthius, you can't gain any right now. Oh. That is going to be three Terror to you, Rowan,thius, you can't gain any right now. That is going to be 3 terror to you, Rowan,

so it puts you up to 5. 5 terror. Hey, do you want a d3? And then, regardless of the saving throw, you take psychic damage. For you, Rowan, it would be 6 psychic damage. For you, it's 0, Xanthius, because you are currently immune to being frightened. So you have no terror and you can't gain it.

That is such a powerful spell to have cast turn one. Yeah, it's a great, great move. But Rowan is now paying the price. That is going to be concentration checks, however, because you took two attacks. So two concentration checks. DC 10 for both. That's a nine, but my con is plus two, so 11.

11, so the first one was a success. So the first attack attack you maintain the concentration then for taking the psychic damage all good all good so throughout all of this rowan is maintaining their concentration protecting xanthius from the these effects yeah i'm just seeing rowan as this just bastion of courage right now i don't know how he's actually he's sweating and he's going but i think there's almost like a perception that has almost been cast on me that I'm seeing this... You're fearless. ...courage.

I'm fearless and I'm seeing courage in you because you're projecting that onto me, but in real life you're like... I'm brave. You're shit. Yeah, I'm shit. The last thing they're going to do is these geists move and they actually move through Gruff, Rowan and Xanthius.

Okay. Each of you are going to take one point of cold damage. As they move through, it leaves this frosty shell. Does that add to terror or no? It does not add to terror, but it is another concentration check, I'm afraid. DC 10. Oh, nat 1. Oh, no.

So it's after all of this, this assault of psychic energy, the fear, the necrophotic touch. It seems like that thing goes through me. Just breaks the concentration. Unfortunately, you lose heroism on your side. I imagine it's not slowly moving towards you either. It's like that thing goes through me. Just breaks the concentration. Unfortunately, you lose heroism on your side. I imagine it's not slowly moving towards you either. It's like, shoo! Yeah, it rushes through in that kind of ghosty way, right?

But that is both of the Harrow Ghosts. All the damage they did was completely soaked by temp HP, so that was great. Great move. We then go to Xanthius. Okay, now I don't really know what kind of... Are these considered humanoid? No.

They are not. They're spookums. I also don't know if they're like... Well, remember, I always say you can always make checks. If you'd like to make a free check to try and figure out mechanics and things like that.

It's through you. And this tavern, is it wooden? It is wooden. Yes. I've done a lot of fire moves. Okay, I'd like to see if I can actually impact them with spells, I suppose.

Yeah, give me an Arcana check. Okay, Arcana. Yeah. And the higher you roll, don't forget, the higher you roll, you might get additional information as well. I do like staggered success.

Degrees of Saviour. Yeah. Saviour. What is a success you combine success and failure yeah degrees of savior what um what does a five get me a five is nothing you are you you can only hope that magic affects these things yeah um in that case i will play it safe and do a uh cantrip mind sliver. Okay. One of them,

let's say the one that is currently on the bar has to do an intelligence save. Okay. And then they

take damage? They would take psychic damage. Yeah. And what's the DC? It is 13. 13. You,

there is something there, there is a kind of a sentience almost, but you don't get... This is not a creature. This isn't even an undead. This is like an elemental almost. It's like a necromancy elemental.

It's like just living energy, right? There is enough of a sentience there that you try and strike at it, and you do feel that your magic connects with it, but you see that as it's together, those chains between the two of them flash and it takes zero damage ah right does it also um so the effect of mind sliver if it fails it would also take 1d4 from the next saving throw does that that would that no that still applies

actually so like we'll remember that. It just takes no damage. Nice. All right, cool. All righty. So after Xanthias, we then go to Gruffydd. Gruffydd is going to go with the old classic and bring up the armor of Open Thorn. We see that green energy surround you, create that armor. And as that happens, he grabs Rowan's shoulder,

and this kind of, I guess. Rowan shits. Oh, it's you, Gruffydd. You really need to get that scene too, lad. I'm cursed. Not anymore. Oh yeah. There's gonna be a green flash of light

that flows from Gruff's staff into Rowan as he casts... I bring custody. As he casts protection... Do you want this or not? Yeah, do please. Thank you. As he casts protection from good and evil... Great.

Nice. ...against undead, which basically means that they have disadvantage on attack rolls against you. You can't be charmed, frightened, or possessed by them. And if you are already charmed, frightened, or possessed by such a creature, the target has advantage on any new saving throw against the relevant effect.

And that's a concentration spell, isn't it? Concentration. So because it removes the frightened condition, you lose all your stacks of terror, and you cannot gain any more whilst that's ongoing. Amazing. So courageous. Thank you. I can't believe it.

Yeah, perfect stuff. And that's the full turn, isn't it? That's the full turn. Any movement for Gruff? I'll just, I mean, yeah, just in terms of the cave fabe, Gruff will turn around to face the ghosties. Great. And so right now, it's only Daisy and Gruff that have any terror, right?

Because you guys have both got one. I have one terror. Yeah. Just to go back in time, I still had a bonus action, which I would have used to spend a sorcery, gain some... Yeah, of course.

Yeah, that's fine. That's okay. In fact, it's very handy that you've done that, because you've reminded me what terror does, because it hasn't come up yet, because nobody's made an attack roll, but I think some saving throws have been made. Sure.

Every one terror you have is a minus one to your attack rolls and saving throws. Oh, boy. So, yeah, it does have a slowly creeping effect. So just remember, every point of terror is minus one to your attack rolls and saving throws. Okay, okay. And then, again, there's more mechanics

that you can interact with as it comes up. Alrighty, so that was Gruffydd's turn. So after Gruffydd, I believe, it is actually Benedicta who goes next. So Benedicta would absolutely draw the blade and would just be like, Sister, get behind me, kind of like from the roleplay. And he's definitely going to try and protect her.

But she's happy to jump in. If you wanted to have her run forward and attack, she can do that if you'd like to. Can she attack the chains? She can certainly try. With her great sword? She certainly can do that if you'd like to. Can she attack the chains? She can certainly try. With her greatsword? She certainly can do, can try. Do you want me to roll?

Yeah, so you wanna have her move forward, basically. Youth. She hops up on the bar. Step up, cool. And brings the greatsword down and tries to strike the actual chain. 17 plus six? 17 plus six.

Would definitely hit, Don't roll damage. As you see that that chain, it strikes the chain. There is just no effect whatsoever. Maladie is like, there must be something. They're empowering each other. Like kind of coughs a little bit as she does so. I think, unfortunately, that's all I got. Yeah, that's it.

She only has the one attack to make them a bit easier and simpler to run. Apart from their fate ability. In that case, after Benedicta, it is Daisy's turn. Did I see... So what's in the, is this just a wall? It's just a pure wall, basically. There's actually a room, there's actually like a door that leads into a room on that side, and then there would be, yeah,

like windows and stuff like that, yeah, for sure. Did I get the impression that Tyria was just getting away from it or that she had seen something that way, the way she looked? Make an insight check for me. See if you can, like, what you recall of her body language and stuff like that as she moved. While Katie rolls that, do these guys get terror as well? Yeah, I'm keeping track of that.

Okay, and does she have HP as well? She does, but again, I'm keeping track of that. Okay. And does she have HP as well? She does, but again, I'm keeping track of that. Don't worry about that. I've got that here. Because I also, that's more fun where I can be like, she's looking really bad and you don't know exactly how injured they are and stuff like that. Makes sense. Okay. 16. 16. You got the impression

that Tyria wasn't necessarily so much as frightened as if more like something drew her attention. As if called or summoned by something. Is there a window nearby? You would have to go into the room on that side, but there is a window in that room that looks out onto the rest of the area around the inn, yeah. He's stooped.

Yeah, I'm just kind of thinking, because Maladie said someone is powering them, right? Yeah, yeah. And she looked distracted. Can I look out the window and see if I can see Tyria? Yeah, well, take all your movement, because you have to open the door, move in, get to the window. You kind of, you know, there's a broken bed,

like the rooms still haven't been refurbished. You kind of step in. It's about like broken bed, like the room still haven't been refurbished. You kind of step in. It's about like 20 feet, but with the door opening and stuff, you look out and you don't see Tyria out there. What you see directly below that room is the little outhouse that was, you know, Ophelia was thinking of making into a shrine and where Ophelia's body is. And you see that there is black and green energy coming out of that building and it's dissipating into the air around the inn.

Okay. I will use my bonus action to dash back to the balcony and just... So you'd have 20 feet. So you've got another 10 feet of movement, basically. I'll just basically... I want to shout down to the the guys what i just saw sure and say that tyree has been drawn outside the energy is there we might need to deal with that too if it's empowering okay do i feel like that's something to do with these spirits is it the same kind of uh yeah i mean at

this point you could make an Arcana check to be sure, or you can just decide as Katie if that's what you think Daisy would think. I feel like she thinks that the thing that's empowering them is outside of the inn. Yeah, in that room. And they're inside of it. Sure, sure, sure, absolutely.

Yeah, and that's it. So you've got another 10 feet of movement, if you'd like, and you've still got your action as well. I can't connect to Tyria right now, can I? Because I can't see. You can't see her. Okay. I think I'll, for now, hold my action

unless any of them attack me and I'll attack with my dagger. Sure, okay. But I'm also, Daisy's conscious. She doesn't want to use any of her abilities right now with Melody and Benedicta in the room. So I can't throw a dagger. Okay, yeah, no, I love it. I love it.

She can't. She doesn't want to reveal that she's got that magic. Sure. I love it. All right, after Daisy, it is Melody's go. Okay. Well, since they have a magic bolt that is not fire, yeah, they do have a fey ability, but... You could also, if you want to be like, could Maladie make a check to figure out what's going on,

I'm happy for you guys to do that as well. I haven't written her skills on there, but she definitely has knowledge of magic and stuff like that. She has my information. Yeah, I mean, but for Rowan and Xanthias, we still can't leave the circle? You don't, no, that's all broken. Yeah, that's gone. These things are broken free of that.

At this point, all of that ritual stuff, whatever that ritual was supposed to do, it's done that job. This is something else at this point. Because I think Xanthius, in response to Daisy, would be like, can we still leave? Almost looking to Maladie. Yeah, Maladie would just be like, yes, yes,

we must find out what is empowering them or whatever it is that is making them stronger. Okay. But it's just a safety. Yeah, the magic bolt. Would Maladie know which is best to hit, the chain or the spirit themselves? I guess she would have seen...

I'd be making a check. Yeah, okay, let's see. So I'll roll it, because you don't have the stats there for her. I've got... Stats and stuff. She has skill. She has skill, by the way.

Oh, okay, I see. I've written those down. Yeah, yeah. That is going to be 15 plus 6, so 21. That sounds good. So Maladie is just like, they are empowering each other, we need to separate them. They will not be harmed until we've separated them.

Find a way to get them away from each other. Okay, that works because Magic Bolt, which I will try to use, their main attack, with a, oh, she's not doing so hot with a nat one, seven. She begins coughing. Like, she goes to cast a spell. Like, big chunks of blood and phlegm come out. She's, like, crippled on the ground, like, coughing.

Right. In that case, whiffs. Yeah. And you don't see the effect. Yeah. Well, it would normally push them back. We can say that. It normally, yeah. It would nudge them back five feet if it hits.

Yeah. Yeah, that is it um at the top of the round uh i am going to spend a point of fate uh two points of fate in fact i believe i have to spend uh two and i get 2d3 uh so only three uh sorry only two actually uh for emerging through the wall. Oh. 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Two spirits arrive. On the bottom floor? On the bottom floor.

They phase through the wall of the inn, coming from the outside. Just looking tormented and horrified. Daisy's up there with her thumb pointing in that direction. And then two ghosts emerge out from there. If we need to go that way. Definitely, over there, guys. As they do, then spirits come emerging from that way. We need to go that way. Definitely, okay. As they do, there's a bit of role play, Ophelia. Yep.

You are, you begin to sense, you can smell earth and wood, mildew. You begin to feel the sensation of the living world coming back to you, but you're also still half in that sarcophagus in the Greylands, and you're watching this energy float past you. You begin to see it emerging into a dark room, and then it seems to evaporate out amongst you.

You can see looming over you, Percival, just looking at you, but you can't speak or move yet. He's just sort of looking at you but you can't speak or move yet he's just sort of looking at you waiting and then another figure joins him as you see the spirit of tyria float into view she's like looking at you but also through you you hear the gray father's voice. What is this? A lost child. A young woman. It's sad to see her given this power and yet unable to do

anything with it. Something ties her to this place. Free her, my child. Convince her to join us not to be reborn to another prison of flesh and bone

she would be a great ally to the Greylands a banshee of most incredible power that's what you see are we the bad people? Well, I don't know. We, we. Could be Tyree's choice.

You never know. We go to Rowan. I choose that. At the top of a round. You can either separate them or run to the next room. Rowan's going to, I don't know if he'd leave everybody, but at the same time, pressing. He's gonna go out the front doors.

Okay. I'm going to go check next door. So, five, 10, 15. Oh no, pulled him off his base. Might have to go get the other one temporarily. He's the big one. The big one. That's more to scale. The big one. That's more just going 250%.

Yeah, yeah. That's Rowan. You throw open the front doors, Rowan. Rowan T poses through. 20, 25, 30. You get a few steps outside. Dashing. You're going to dash as your action.

So 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Can I peek around the corner, see if there's weirdness going on? Yeah, you definitely can see the same thing now. Like fragments of energy pulling out of that, the barn basically, where you do know Ophelia's body. That's where you guys put Ophelia's body to rest. You begin to see these pulses of dark energy kind of flowing out of that space.

That's what you see. Damn the dark arts. Yep. Wow. So that is movement and action. Have you got any bonus actions you'd like to cast? I don't, unknowingly. All righty.

So I'm just going to have to stay there. All righty. So after Rowan, our two spirits will act. And Gruffydd, you are right there, my friend, I'm afraid. Tasty, I'm juicy. Tasty, tasty. They are going to make a group attack against you. That is going to be...

Ooh, I think that might just be... Yeah, it's going to be 18, 19 to hit. No, yeah. It does. Hey, how often do I actually get to hit you? Not that often. You're the tanky one this time. That is four necrotic damage.

Oh, that's funny. So it knocks offy one this time. That is four necrotic damage. Oh, that's funny. So it knocks off your temp HPs. That is the spirits go. Very quick and short. Ophelia. Hello. That lingering presence of the Grey Father, the Grey Lions, ends.

And you are now lying on the ground in the barn that you hoped maybe one day to turn to a shrine and you see Tyria and Percival just looking at you uh Tyria is once you sort of wake up and that connection seems to you know that the Greylands she's still looking at you but through you as well um and you can sense that there is still some presence of the Greylands lingering within you, yourself. What do you do? Ophelia sort of fixes her hair and sits up, has a look, it's like, oh, oh goodness.

Okay, Percy, Tar-Taria, oh, it's lovely to see you. Percival just immediately comes to you and begins, like, brushing you off and, like, sorting your hair out. Thank you, thank you, thank you. As you kind of do, you feel that next to you, that rapier is here. It's on the ground next to you. She, like, picks it up, looks it over in her hands. She like picks it up, looks it over in her hands.

Okay. I'll do as you wish. As I promised. And she'll, yeah, she'll stand up. Yeah, stand up. You sort of purse her as like a... Yeah, purse her, helps you stand up. To get up. Absolutely.

And sort of looks at Tyria. She, like, follows you the whole time, her eyes, but not looking at you, looking almost into your chest, through you, as if she can see and hear something that you can't anymore. It's good to see you, Tyria. It's good to see you, Tyria. I... How is... Are you OK? Is everything OK?

The spirit does not seem to respond or hear. Could you make an arcana check for me, please? All right. Eww. Ten. Ten. 10. 10. There is, you can feel in you and suffused into that spot where you were laying, there's almost like a burnt-in shadow on the ground of your body outline,

and you're seeing wisps of necrotic energy almost pulling out of that burnt shadow but also from your skin from yourself like you yourself are giving off necrotic energy it's fading but it's still currently present um interesting look at her hands and i guess being reminded of like seeing the energy I guess being reminded of seeing the energy in the smoke, reminded of the smoke demon and everything that's gone on. This is definitely the energy of the Grey Lands, you know that. This is not any kind of demonic energy or anything like that. I guess she'll make her way out.

Yeah, you just kind of... Go find her friends. Yeah, yeah, you just use your action, kind of step outside. That's 15 foot of movement. You get outside. Yeah, first of all, we'll follow. Tight rib against following. You could use your action to dash if you like.

One, ten, fifteen, twenty. What the fuck? Does Rowan see that? So this is going to be my point. Rowan, you peeking around through the fence, the iron fence, looking into the grounds of the inn, you see Ophelia's body walk out of the barn, followed by Percival and the ghost of Tyria and begin making their way.

Like brushing herself down. And Percival's like brushing the thing. She's got some sort of weapon in her hand and literally makes her way as if coming back into the end and like aphelia would look different as well wouldn't she like slightly different yeah yeah i mean yeah do you want to describe how she looks a little bit different because um yeah so now she's looks not as well put together as before but still she has that grace and elegance about her but she looks a little more gaunt she look and like she's covered in the wounds that haven't quite healed

and like her skin is kind of sunken over her skull a little bit more so it's kind of revealing the contours of her cheekbones more and like her eye sockets are a bit sunken and like she just and like her hands like she has a red gauntleted hand on one side but the other side is kind of almost tipped in red that kind of fades into like her grey skin color and she's sort of just creeping around definitely looks not yeah it looks different looks different same energy slightly different gal yeah that's what Rowan sees. Can I make a con save? Yeah, sure. Nat 20.

Okay, sweet. You keep it in. You were praying for like a one, weren't you? A little bit. You keep it in. There's nothing left in you. Rowan is just wide-eyed. He can't believe what he just saw.

Yeah. Pretty wild. Doesn't even let out a sound. As that all happens, Ophelia, it's going to's gonna end of your turn uh and just before we wrap up uh gruffeth um and everyone else in the present so if i remember malady and benedicta both have a terror daisy you have a terror and gruff has a terror right um so as uh gruffeth you are there i'm gonna randomize who they go for because you all currently have an equal amount so we'll say I'll do d4 say one two three for Maladie four for Benedicta first one is gonna go after Benedicta the next one Daisy

unfortunately is the other one so this creature is gonna float up and it just flies up through the floor and comes after Daisy. Gruff, you could make an attack of opportunity if you like. Yes, I think I will. Sure. No, I think I won't. Okay, you swing, but it sadly sails past. You had the right action to attack.

You do, so yeah, do you want to take that? That's a good point. I rolled nine. Well, I rolled a two, so probably not, no. Two? No, it's probably not going to be enough. So you go to swing, but this thing kind of almost floats up through the floorboards, taking you by surprise. I haven't seen a chain look at this distance from each other.

You don't see, like, the chain flashed when you, like, attached them. Inside the building. Yeah. The flame flashed when, like, the chain flashed when you, like, attached them. Inside the building. Yeah. The flame flashed when, like, you damaged them. So until, like, they get struck, you don't know what's going on with that. But they are going to make their multi-attack. So I'm going to do, this is against Benedicter and Daisy.

So Daisy, terrorizing touch. That is only an 11 to hit. No. So you managed, even though you kind of swipe, you managed to kind of scrabble and duck underneath this thing's touch. It is going to scream at you with a horrifying howl. I need you to make a wisdom saving throw, please. Minus one, remember, because of the terror.

12. 12 just unfortunately fails. So you gain another point of terror, and then you would take two psychic damage. And then against Benedicta, that is going to be probably a miss as well well i know it's a miss it's an 11 um and then uh can you make a wisdom saving throw for benedicta just using her wisdom stat eight plus minus one yeah no she fails as well so she's gonna be three terror at this point so she's up to four um and then she would take five points of psychic damage so you watch and you see this thing kind of strike with its hand it misses you know benedictor

dodged the size but then it screams at benedictor and she almost like with her hand like she closes it um and you hear her like yelp, she would yelp, no mother, don't send me away, don't let me go. She kind of like lets that out as she's struck by this howl. And then I'm also gonna have these guys, I'm gonna spend, oh, where have I put all my fate? Oh, I spent two, you guys have two more.

I'm going to spend my two fate to give you a full stack. Full of fate. But they're both going to use Freezing Fear. So I need Daisy and Gruffydd to make charisma saving throws, please. You could use fate.

Charisma. Stacked on fate. Do you want to spend one? I'm going to use a stack. All right. A whole stack. The entire stack. You can to spend one? I'm going to use a stack. Alright. A whole stack. The entire stack.

You can only spend one at a time. I tried. So plus a d6 to your Christmas saving throw. Nice. Not nice. Thirteen. Thirteen is a success. Twenty-two.

Success. You both succeed. So these creatures try and freeze you in place. They were basically going to reduce your speed and prevent you taking reactions, but you managed to stave off that fear, basically, as they use their freezing fear ability. But yeah, you guys resist that, and no more any problems.

Nice. I think that's cold. Try getting up at the crack of dawn to go sailing tomorrow. So as you say that, we're going to go to Xanthias, and then Gruff, I want to try and get through

the round and then and then we'll go from there tomorrow we're colder i think you'll find xanthius sorry um um um i will uh try a... Okay, look, if I cast a fire move and it misses, is it going to whiff and catch this entire place on fire? If you roll a one, I'm going to say it will probably strike a flammable object in the inn, yes. Does fire burn? There's magical fire burn.

Well, what spell are you casting? Because it specifically states which fire. It's a bonfire. No, it doesn't. It's a bonfire bolt. I believe it's called firebolt. I believe the firebolt spell description says it ignites flammable objects. Like a wooden inn.

If you strike... It actually does. Yeah, I know it does. If you roll a one, I will say it hits something and might stop. I mean, it's like a pretty standard thing. You can still attack with fiery things. Yeah, I know, but yeah. Does it emit light, though?

Yeah, does it emit light? A little bit of light, but only temporary. Furious. All right, well, yeah. Zanzan's going to try a firebolt on... I guess, like, I can't see the chain, can I? You, yeah. It only appeared when it flashed.

People have tried to strike where they saw the chain, but you could try and do that, or you can strike one of the creatures. I mean, in the interest of trying to see that chain and the stress it's under, now that they've separated a bit more, I'll try it. Maybe they're separated enough,

I'll try and hit them. Okay. Which one? One next to Daisy or one next to Benedict? One next to Daisy, because she's on her own up there. All right, okay. And I'm going to roll a 13 to hit.

13 is just what you needed, actually. Just barely hits them. That is their AC. I know, I'm really cool. Does it do damage? It does. Oh! It does.

Let me just check because technically it is here. No, it does not. They are still within range. But you can see that that chain is stretched at this point. Whatever connection between them seems very tenuous. Yeah, it seems close, but the Firebolt strikes, but flashes and does not quite do enough damage. No, I mean, worth a try.

But you can see that the further apart they are, the weaker that link is. Okay, cool. Yeah, I don't really have any decent bony actions, so that's it. All righty. So Gruffydd, I'll try and get through a round. I will cast Shalala.

Shalala. Shalala. Do the custom dance and ritual that accompanies it, and I think I'm just going to whack at one of the ghosties in front of me. I'm going to point out that Gruffydd would have absolutely seen the firebolt hit and not do any damage to them. No, I mean the... Oh, the spirits, yes, the little ghosties.

Not the ghosties that are grabbing at my... My apologies. Continue. They're grabbing at my stuff. Yes, absolutely. I'm going to piss off. 16 plus five. Hits. And then eight, oh, I rolled a one,

so four points of damage. Four points of damage, these are minions. Four points is not enough to kill both, but it will destroy one of them. Oh, good riddance. When it dies, you see, luckily you haven't, it doesn't seem to have a main effect, what it does is when you destroy the spirit,

it breaks apart, and the closest haragise to the one next to you and Benedicta almost seems to absorb its energy. I will say if that had taken any damage, it would have healed it a small amount. Ah. I see. If the spirits die within a close range, then they seem to empower the other ones.

Ectoplasm. That one. Also, I need to retroactively do a concentration save in a close range, then they seem to empower the other ones. That one. Also, I need to retroactively do a concentration save on protection because the little ghosties... You took four points of damage there, so DC 10. That's a natural one. So protection from

good and evil is gone. Luckily, Rowan is currently outside on the street. Just stay outside. I rolled a one. So that was Gruffeth's go. It then falls to Benedicta. My heart is otherwise engaged. Yeah, Benedicta's turn.

She does currently have four points of terror, so she has a minus four to her attack and saving throws. As tempting as it would be to hit, I think what I want her to do is disengage and back up. Yeah. Seeing the distance thing and listening to her sister, I think she's smart enough to... Like over here next to the window?

Yeah. And I don't know if it would help in terms of RP or something, but I would have her kind of trying to goad the thing into attacking. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. She's just like, You don't frighten me. Come, come, come to me. I will fight you. And kind of, yeah, trying to, yeah, absolutely. Like, she's just like, you don't frighten me. Come, come, come to me. I will fight you.

And like, kind of, yeah, trying to engage them, absolutely. And the creature does look like that it is going to pursue Benedicta. But you can see Benedicta is almost her voice is quavering as that terror is mounting. She's like, come fight me

and like trying to get on, but she's clearly terrified or like her terror is building in her. But yeah, it does seem to almost be focused on her and is drawing in. Great. So just disengage this action and move. We then go to Daisy. I will just attack the one that...

Actually, no, it's not going to do anything, is it? Yeah, you saw Xandris's move. It's still weakened, but I'll remind you guys, there's a couple of things. You can take the dodge action as an action on your turn, in case you're disadvantagedandrius's move. It's still weakened, but... I'll remind you guys, there's a couple of things. You can take the dodge action as an action on your turn, in case you're disadvantaged on any attack against you. You can also use your checks to analyze mechanics and stuff like that as well. If I move, though, it's going to move down and then they'll be closer again.

It's like I need to keep it up here. Can I...? What would you like to do? I don't know, I'm on my own. A few people with ranged abilities who can help you out once the other thing is far enough away. You could ready an action, you could say, when the other creature moves far away, I'll make an attack.

Yeah, I'm... Can you attack the little ghostie from where you are? No, I'm not using my abilities around them. Doesn't want to use them in front of the inquisitors. So I can only use my normal damage. Do you have a bow or anything? Yeah. I will just ready my action.

So when it gets far enough away, you'll make an attack. Yeah, can I do anything with my bonus action? You can dash, disengageengage or hide with cunning action. Then I cannot. No. Yeah, unfortunately hiding, there's nothing for you to really hide behind. That's it. All right, so just ready an action.

In that case, we've got the last person to act is Maladie. In that case, I guess the other one up there, unless it was pushed through a wall, can't be further away. They have shown that they're in Camporial. They might be able to be half in a wall, half not. I'll give it a go then, yeah. So in that case, Maladie will shoot at the one that's next to Daisy. Yeah, Maladie has one terror, so just minus one to the attack roll.

Okay. So it could roll a zero this time. Could do. But she does have a bonus as well um that is a 26 25 hits um so no damage no damage but we watch as the creature is half shunted into the wall um and as it moves that little just that extra five feet something seems to shatter between them um as there's now 20 feet of distance between the two of them and yeah there is like a very visible kind of uh effect uh where they get kind of shunted away um and you did say if they move further away so do you want Ready to action. Ready to, yeah.

22 minus 2 is 20. Yeah, 22 minus 2. Yeah, absolutely. Hits. Oh, my God. I've forgotten how to broke. Well, you won't get sneak attack, so you'll just get your normal... Nine damage.

Nine points of damage to the first one. So for the first time, as Maladie kind of shoves it back with magical force, Daisy then turns and plunges this dagger into it, and it sort of tears through it like cloth, like, you know, ripping through the energy, tearing it apart, and he does let out this maleful...

kind of screaming moan as it does get affected by it. And that is the readied action. No other turns on things, so that is going to be... He's trying not to laugh. He's trying not to laugh. It's the Mecha Dragon all over again. I'll never beat that. No.

But that is going to be the end of part one. It's going to start a brand new round. That is going to be the end of part one everybody we actually can if they can be cut we can end the episode now we'll see you in part two

everybody bye bye see ya