High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #24 | The Iron Crows (Part 2)

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

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in sticks and creams too. Go get your secret whole body deodorant Welcome back to Althea, The Dragon Empire Part 2. Our heroes have continued exploring the tunnels below Ashen's Rest. After exploring the catacombs, they realized that perhaps their assumptions about where the lamplighters might be hiding could be incorrect. Not finding them in the catacombs they instead followed deeper in to the old sewer tunnels where they were uh they found a trap that went off and damaged rowan and ophelia and then rushing forward into an old cistern they have discovered several mercenaries

who are now setting fire to uh some notes and maybe some evidence and also have set up a defensible position uh to which to defend themselves with that we jump straight back in we are in initiative right now the mercenary leader had just gone they have left a trail of flame a trail of oil sorry from the fire to a red barrel they have then backed away uh ordered one of their companions to shoot and now we go to daisy hello and then it will be xanthius by the way thank you afterwards now what what oil is it what oil because the burn rate is important right fish oil sesame oil yeah indeed burn rate matters i have a whole table and chart for it. Does the barrel have TNT painted on the side of it?

It does not have TNT. It's a red barrel. But it is very specifically a red barrel. I mean... All of the other barrels, by the way, are normal wooden brown barrels. This one is specifically a dark red wood, and it's been reinforced with, like,

metal hoops and rivets and things like that. Right. I will... Could I... So if I move up to where Rowan is, do I see the fire? You do not. Okay. So you are currently behind Rowan. He's got this big tower shield that he summoned,

looking like a character in Rainbow Six Siege. Janko. Yeah, yeah. But you can see into the system a little bit. You can see that there's like a barricade of crates and barrels and things have been stacked up. You can just about see this guy on the turret on the other side. Is that another way in, down some stairs? There is some stairs, yeah. You can see about see this guy on the turret on the other side. Is that another way in down some stairs?

There is some stairs, yeah, you can see those stairs there. That's perfectly there. It looks like this part you're on, some stairs lead down into another part of this system. Okay, I'm going to dash and go. Using your bonus action to dash or your action? I'll bonus it. Okay, so five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 will get you down here.

Okay. Into this little side corridor that may be connected to the system, maybe allowed access to it. Okay. I'll hold my action, and if anyone is within my... Throw distance. Yeah, I will throw a dagger at them. If you see an enemy, you'll throw a dagger at them. Okay. I'll do my action and if anyone is within my... Throw distance. Yeah, I will throw a dagger at them.

Okay, nice. But I'm just trying to go a different way. All righty, Xanthius. I was thinking the same. I'd also like to action dash to get to... Was I ahead of Daisy? I'm just going to say you were all at the same point. I'll group up basically with Daisy.

5, 10, 15. But because it was an action dash, I can't hold anything special. Oh, there's a staking spell. There is, yeah. I'm going to actually put you just behind Daisy Xanthias. Nice. And do I have any spell, not spell slots, sorcerer points? I don't.

So I don't do anything with whether I go into section. You can turn your spell slots into points if you desperately want some. I only have one spell slot. Alrighty. So that's me. In that case, so it is the actual archer's turn. So they get their turn again before you, unfortunately, Ophelia. This guy here is going to...

He's going to stay where he is, actually, for now. This guy on the turret is going to point it towards... Oh, Gruff is down on the floor. He doesn't have to load it or anything? It looks like it... Maybe. You don't know. He's actually going to point it down towards you, Rowan,

still in the corridor, kind of suppressing fire, keeping you away. Yeah, and that's what they're gonna do. Montane. Their turn. Montane, that's a lot. Montane, that was it, yeah. Uh, right.

Sledge. I can't believe you got that wrong to start with. Where's me dice? It's okay, if he rolls a one to five from Ember. Yeah, on the big turret, yeah. I'm gonna have the turret, the Felite-infused turret go first. Felite-infused?

Was it actually? You didn't roll that 20. Oh! Ron's just going to explode, get gibbed. I rolled a natural 20. He's got shield. He does, well, I mean... That's just AC.

That's just AC. And he's a bit back in the corridor. Yeah, he is. It's not a direct hit, right? I think it is. Even with cover, it's still going to hit him. It was still a long fight, yeah. No!

Well, even with cover? How much cover did you have? His AC is 11. Two from the shield for 13. With cover, it would go up to 15. I would give him, like, half cover. This is not going to be it. It's going right through the shield. This is going... Matt, I would give him like half cover. This is not doing it.

It's going right through the shield. This is going. Matt, I'm using our normal crit rules by the way. Yeah. How many hit points have you got? I used Stonest Endurance last time, so I'm pretty good. 30 points. Okay, I'm down.

Yeah, no, he's down. Well, hang on. It's 30 points of bludgeoning, and then it's another seven points of fire, so 37. What's your current and what's your max? I was 23. 31. You're okay.

Okay. We don't have a round two of that. To the Greylands with me, right? Hey, Greyfather. I love you, man. I love you, bud. Big fan. We're so outmatched for these guys.

There's only three of them. There's five, well, four of us. So you... I did so much damage to Gruff as well. Yeah. Xanthius, Daisy, and Ophelia, you're the ones who see this happen to poor Rowan as he gets blasted by this thing. Okay, I'm going back up the stairs now. The one with the crossbow, Gruff, is going to try and take anotherelia, you're the ones who see this happen to poor Rowan as he gets blasted by this thing.

Okay, I'm going back up the stairs now. The one with the crossbow gruff is going to try and take another shot at you. Nope, fails. Natural two. So even with his bonuses. Prototype crossbow. No. He just reloads, takes a shot.

You manage to maybe bring your shield up or something like that. Thud. Thuds into the shield as you try and protect yourself on the ground. With that, that is the archers turn done. We go to Ophelia. Can I Ophelia to try and help Rowan? Try and stabilize him? So you can move up to him.

You can try and make a medicine check to stabilize him. That won't make him conscious, though. That's all I can do. Put my leg back on. That's a total of zero. You desperately try, but you tell me, like, is this... Ophelia knows, like, time to bandage the wounds, but this doesn't look like a cut or a bleed.

Like, he's knocked unconscious by pure force here. But also, like, where he is bleeding, is that, like, maybe distracting for Ophelia? Probably, yeah. He's like, must it eat, must it eat? I don't know how to help you. Unfortunately, you spend that time desperately trying to get him back up

or try and, you know, look after him. Can you not comfort others? I don't think I can right now. Anyway. Go try. Any bonus action on your turn, Ophelia? Probably not unless I'm raging or doing other stuff. So no, not right now.

I'm just going to try and stay with Rowan at the minute. Okay. I'm going to ask this because I don't want an Oriah. Do you have the potion? Who has the potion? I have the big spice. You have the potion. Okay.

I want to make sure because you went down. Yeah. And if somebody took that off your body, I want to make sure that, you know, who's got it. that off your body, I want to make sure who's got it. You've got the big spice. I've got the big spice. You've got the big spice. All right.

With that, we go to the top of a brand new round. It is Rowan's turn. Unfortunately, it's a death saving throw. Check this out. Watch this drive. Watch this drive. Natural 20. Really?

For real. It was. Amazing. It was. So there is something. Natural 20. Really? For real. It was. Amazing. For real. So there is something. The stones. Oh my god. This is an old place.

The fuck? And the hands that crafted this tunnel worked with ancient stone. This place is age. And as your heart is beginning to beat slower, as you fade out of consciousness, your eyes darn around, aphelia over you, you can't hear anything,

just wah, wah, wah, ringing in your ears, but you feel that vibration and the stones and the little pebbles bouncing up and down from the reverberations and then suddenly just this bloom of life comes back in, Rowan. It's the start of your turn.

You gain one HP and you are conscious. Start of your turn. Excellent. That was his geeky clean dice as well. Very nice. It's a little... didn't even need fate for it. This episode is sponsored. No, it's not sponsored, but you can get them.

Hello. Rowan, you're back! That hurt a lot. I'm going to get back onto my feet. Right on your back! That hurt a lot. I'm gonna get back onto my feet. So 15 feet of your movement. Are they still out there? Yes. Are they ready to fire again?

I don't know. I can't take another blast like that. What can I do in this situation? Heal, heal yourself. Yeah. I'm gonna heal myself, I guess. Have a think about it, yeah. Real good think.

Yeah. Yeah? Seems kinda pointless. Pointless? Yeah. I'm going to. You tell me what you wanna do, Burr. I'm going to... You tell me what you wanna do, bro. I'm going to Enhance Ability on Ophelia.

Okay. Give you Bull Strength. Ooh. You have advantage on Strength checks. Cool. And I'm also gonna give you Bardic Inspiration on top of that. I don't want you to waste your time.

Don't forget, when a Barbarian rages, they already get advantage on strength. In which case... Which you would know. ...bears Endurance. So you get 2d6 temporary hit points. Oh. And you have an advantage on con saves.

Oh, nice. Con checks if you need to. Only con checks, remember. Con checks. Not saving throws. So I'll do that. Thank you. And Bardic Inspiration on you as well.

And I will retreat around the corner so I cannot be seen by the... So you can go, yeah, you could go to the stairs. Maybe down the stairs. Yeah, because otherwise you don't have enough movement to get back from where you came from. Yep. How's my tower shield looking? It's fine, yeah. It's stable.

Cool. It sort of hit the brunt, but it knocked back into you, that's why you took damage. Oh, a concentration thing. He didn't have any concentration spells? No, creation. No, creation, I just make a thing that lasts two hours. Cool.

So yeah, you just move into the thing and then you give Barley Conspiration and do you want to roll the 2d6 for the 10th HP? Who's doing that? I'll do that for you. Yeah, don't forget about it. 2d6, 10th HP, that's pretty good. Seven.

Seven 10th HP. Might be a crossbow hit. And don't forget my it 2d6 temp hp that's pretty good seven seven seven ten page please might be a crossbow hit and don't forget my body conspiration is augmented so let me know when you do something what you do with it attack roller saving throw an ability it might be able to enhance it yeah all righty great stuff right yeah so you duck around the corner um they can't see you now like you as a point you don't have line of sight between you and that turret now right um if you pop up back up where you were they'll be able to see you who. Like, there's a point, you don't have line of sight between you and that turret now, right? If you pop up, back up where you were, they'll be able to see you. Who am I closest to back there?

You are next to Xanthius, and then Daisy's five feet ahead of him. Hey, guys. What happened? You took the full brunt of that thing. I think I'm a little done with explosions. Okay. Today. Okay.

Gruffydd. Can I? Yes. Yes, Gruffydd. Do I have to cast spells when I'm lying down? Can I cast? Yeah, of course you can. Grumbling, I roll over, point my staff,

and Seren, the illusory bird, kind of shoots out of it, and where she flies, which is going to be across to the fire, rain starts pouring. I'm going to use the spell Create or Destroy Water. Yeah. So it creates a 30-foot cube of rain, basically, starts pouring. I'm going to use the spell Create or Destroy Water. Yeah. So it creates a 30-foot cube of rain, basically, and it specifically says

extinguishing exposed flames in the area. This fills this area. I'm also going to say it washes away the oil as well because it is oil. But it basically fills this entire area.

So with a cry, it's filling up to, like, your knees, basically. Yeah. Nice. You wash as the flames are extinguished. Some of the paper has survived. Not all of it, though.

All right. It was on fire. You see the mercenary leader kind of watches this bird, almost thinking it's an attack. And then when the rain starts to pour, he just kind of goes like... And he, like, claps. He's just like, well done. Yeah, he just kind of claps on his chest uh uh and yeah that's that's what you do so that was your action gruff anything else you got

movement and bonus action uh i will stand up his heart uh stand up um and i will cast uh well can i cast a cantrip as well uh yes you can do a cantrip yes so if it's a bonus action country it's a bonus action cantrip yeah you can it's yeah Chile yeah so I'll cast that yeah and 15 feet can I move towards the desk actually yeah yeah I'm 10 15 get you about there yeah nice just for a bit of thematic like he's grumbling as he pulls the arrow out yeah cursing uh you see the archer up above you watching you kind of you know summoning this he's just loading his crossbow um the fire damaged most of the papers there are some that have survived the chest is fairly untouched like the chest is

a solid wooden chest it hadn't gone to whatever was inside at this point. Good evidence in there. All righty. So after Gruff, that's your full turn? Mm-hmm. All right. The mercenary captain is like, well, looks like we've got to take care of things myself.

And he's going to step round. He's going to come and engage you, Gruff. As it should be. And he is going to lash out with his, I forgot an ability. I dropped you to zero, didn't I? You did. When this mercenary captain is alive

and one of him or his allies drop one of you to zero, he has an ability called Turning the Tide, which takes one of your fate dice and gives it to me. He steals a fate dice. I see. He's a beauty cuckoo but this. But only when he or an ally reduces one of you to zero. Okay.

He is gonna make two attacks with his cutlass against you, Gruffydd. 14 on the first one. No. 21 on the next one. No. Every time! The first one was a solid. Only four points of damage, though. Like, it's a glancing blow that you manage to deflect most of it away, but it cuts you a little bit, maybe hits into the armour, and then it becomes

absorbed as he does that. And then for his bonus action, I'm going to immediately spend that fate I stole to use his command ability, and I'm going to have him use form up. He points up. Lewis, get down here. He can immediately move.

He hops down, goes behind him, and they basically take a defensive position where they gain AC. So the two of them have plus two AC as they're taking up a defensive formation. He's covering him with a crossbow. He's crouched low to defend him. They're doing a cool buddy cop move.

Clever. That was his command ability. We then jump to Daisy. Hello. And then Xanthius immediately afterwards. I will remember you. No. I'm going to go around the corner, please.

10, 15, 20. Just there is fine. As long as I can see Doody Watson. If they had had a bit more time, maybe. This whole place is wires. And then I'm going to shoot the leader with a dagger. Throw a radiant knife. Throw a radiant knife. Nice, okay. Please. Yeah, he's currently engaged with a dagger. Throw a radiant knife. Throw a radiant knife. Nice, okay.

Please. Yeah, he's currently engaged with Gruff. He does have plus two AC currently, so he's harder to hit, but he's just not expecting an attack from behind. Yeah. You're not hidden, so you don't get advantage, but... 19.

Does hit. Yeah, does hit. Yeah, just barely. Just barely. Okay, and he's beside Gruff. Yeah, he's beside Gruff, so you get sneak attack. La la la la la la. Let's go. Oh, not very good for damage roll, but...

8, 9, 10. 12 damage. 12 points of damage. The Radiant Knife, he does duck it at the last second, but it grazes his shoulder leaving this like hard scorch. He's like, ah, where did you come from? And then I will bonus action throw my other one. Okay, yep. Cool.

Uh, 20 to hit. Does hit. Six points of damage. Another six points of damage. And then I will... He dodges again, but it does catch him. It throws him off his guard. He's slowly being worn down.

Then I will... Move behind the pillar. Five, ten. You would only get here with your remaining movement. Okay, I'll go back around the corner then. Basically, I'm trying to get myself cover from the shooty boy. Okay.

And I'll just pop in there. Did you get him? Yeah! Nice, good job. My turn? Yeah, Xanthius. Sorry, I will peek out around Daisy. 15, 20, 25 movement speed.

So the guy, I wanna get get the guy on the cannon. The turret, yeah. The turret within line of sight. He's within 60, I believe. Yeah, 510. And I would like to cast Hold Person on this guy. He needs to stop shooting. I know he has a 25 chance to explode, but, like, got to stop him.

What kind of saving throw am I making? He needs to make a wisdom saving throw. I get a plus one to this. Yeah. That is gonna be 12. 13. Oh! So you watch, what is this,

because this is the first time you've cast a whole person, I think, isn't it? What does this look like for Xanthus? Normally he's a big fiery, you know, burny boy. I mean, there's a part of me that almost feels like this could be like Crownsteel's shackles are like locking this guy to the, almost pinning his arms down. Would they look like Crownsteel?

If it looked like Crownsteel, that's pretty rough. So maybe they're just metallic, like, or like golden. You are a gold dragonborn, maybe. So it is... Let's throw a third option out there. Third option, go on, yeah. Big egg. I put them in a big egg.

You really want this to be done? No! Right. Gold shackles it is. Gold shackles. So these gold shackles hold him in place and he just freezes, like, holding the controls but completely frozen in place.

And so that means that he can, at the end of each of their turns, they can make another wisdom save. Yeah, yeah. But they are now locked in place. Frozen, paralyzed. A full action to do that, but I just needed to lock that guy down. Great.

You've got five feet of movement and a bonus action left. Five feet of movement. Sorry, could I have had line of sight on him five feet back? Because I also want to kind of do the same thing. You've got to imagine that I've had to change it for the map, but some of these walls and stuff, I don't think you would have known i'll just i don't think i would have been able to shoot you if you were five feet back yeah that's cool i'll just fight foot back these guys know we're here anyway so that's okay um you it doesn't mean you are kind of protecting

daisy if anything comes around the corner um ba-bam ba-bam ba-bam ba-bam ba-bam ba-bam ba-bam Bam, ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. Bam, bam. That's me. I think I need to really lock in how this damn sorcerer works. I think you've got it. If you've got no spell slots or sorcery points left, there's not much you can do with your bonus action.

Yeah, it was just I can't remember if I use a spell, do I get strewns? It's only if you spend sorcery points on a metamagic or you purposely do the thing with it, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, no, I haven't got a bonus action. All righty. So that's okay. It goes to the archers. I'll do the saving throw for the whole person, go first,

but he can't do anything. It's at the end of his turn, but I just want to roll it now. A seven. He stays paralyzed for a turn. The other guy is like, behind us, behind us, captain, and he's going to jump out. Ooh, a nice thing. The other guy is like, behind us, behind us, Captain. And he's going to jump out. Hi. I'm going to spend a fate point to use Ricochet Shot.

So he's basically going to get to attack you and Daisy because he's going to bounce his shot off. Off my teeth. But he does have to hit you both. So against Xanthius. Yes. 19. That hits.

10 points of piercing damage. Ouch. Against Daisy, 22. 12 points of piercing damage. Jesus Christ, what? For just a basic shot? D10, heavy crossbow. Yeah, D10.

Plus his dex. And his dex is 4. So you watch as this bolt bounces off the stone, scrapes along your arm, Xanthius, and then thuds across Daisy's leg as it ricochets back. Don't forget as well, if you want to make sure you don't want to miss, you've got plenty of fate, guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You've got it, bruh. You've got it, bruh. That is going to be their turn, though. He just moves, he takes that shot. He will actually, do you know what? He's going to back up then, and he's going to take some cover behind pillar here uh to give himself a bit of cover um from anybody else beyond it uh so that's their go we then go to ophelia um if i spider climb up

the ceiling um okay can i get above the leader with my movement if i so 5 10 15 20 25 30. you've got 35 yeah so you can basically be right above him so the the ceiling is not super duper high um i'm gonna put you on the pillar next to him but we'll just remember that you are up on the ceiling above him all right cool so you just run up you're above him uh The ceilings, it goes up to roughly where these pillars are, so you're maybe just five feet above him, basically. Cool. Can I then draw Veracity and just... Plunge it down.

Plunge it down. Absolutely can. Yeah, go for it. Yeah, make an attack. Do you want to spend any fate or reckless or... Let's reckless it. Let's go. All right, advantage.

23. Hits, even with. 19, 20, 23. Hits, even with his boosted AC. You needed that, Reckless. I did. Seven, eight, that's nine damage. So you're not raging yet, are you? Not raging yet. Yep, so nine normal damage.

And then can I use my Veracity Drank, please? Yeah, so we then go to... Oh, is it just a big straw? Well, basically, it allows Ophelia to use her bite attack as it, but through the sword. So she has the thing called Empowered Bite. What benefit do you want? Do you want to gain hit points,

or do you want to empower your next attack? Empower my next attack, please. All right, so as the rapier digs in, and it kind of catches his shoulder, you watch as there's this thin line with these gems along the blade and in the handle as this thin line of red fills it. And you see him kind of like stagger for a moment.

Even though the blade's already pulled back, it's not like a mosquito that it has to stay in. Even after you've pulled it away, like this trail of misty blood flows up through the air into the blade and you feel it as if you drunk it a few days. Like you feed as if you had drunk his blood. That's dumb. Amazing.

That's great. And can I do my whip attack with my offhand? Yeah, bonus action whip attack. Hell yeah. So is that empowered by your... That'll be empowered, yes. I'll get a D6 on top of that. Is it to the damage roll, though?

To the damage, yes. It's a nice wombo combo. Reckless again? Yeah, yeah, if you, It's a nice wombo combo. And then reckless again? Yeah, yeah, you're reckless all your attacks. Once you're reckless all your attacks that turn go right. I'm probably going to miss with this one, let's be honest. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve. That is unfortunately going to miss.

He's still kind of defensive. He manages to kind of, now that he knows you're there, wasn't expecting you to get up on the ceiling, he parries it with his cutlass leaping to the side. Cool, cool, cool. All righty. Nice. All right, end of your turn. End Cool, cool, cool. All righty. Nice. All right, end of your turn.

One more turn, please. All righty. In that case, those guys are not there. They went away. Rowan, we jump up back to you. I'm going to... You are behind here. I can see you.

You are basically... You've got... If you wanted to get around the corner, or you could come back up the top here. I might go down. around the corner or you could come back up the top here. Hmm. I might go down. So you go 5, 10, 15, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25. I think it's about 25 there.

I'm the healing word myself. Okay, put you next to Xanthius and Daisy. Hello, Xanthius. Hello. What's going on around the corner there? There's three people, but I've managed to lock one of them down. Fantastic work. Thank you.

You're so good at fighting. Good job. Would you like some assistance? Please, yes. In what way? Healing yourself would be good. Doing so. Good.

I just did that for nine. Okay, that's your healing word. Doing so. Good start, good start. That's cantrips only now, I'm afraid. No more big spells. For some. I'm going to... For some.

Bardic Inspiration. Well, you've already used your bonus action. Healing word's a bonus action. Bardic Inspiration's also a bonus action. You're a bonus action. No, I got him. I'm a full action. He is. You're a bonus action. No, I got him. I'm a full action. He is. You're a reaction.

Ooh. See? You just reacted. Carry on, turn. Gonna get out my long sword. Okay. And just ready myself, I think. I'm not gonna ready an action or anything,

just get my tower shield out. Might as well take the dodge action then because I mean Okay The notes on the table can I reach them or is this individual in my way? I will say if you try and gather up these notes you are opening yourself up. I'll make an opportunity attack against you up these notes, you are opening yourself up. I'll make an opportunity attack against you. How messed up does he look? He definitely, like, that attack from

Ophelia and Daisy's, like, dagger definitely have weakened him. He doesn't quite look bloodied yet, though. He's still fighting strong. I will... Yeah, I'll attack him. Okay. Lash out I will... Yeah, I'll attack him. Okay.

Lash out with the staff. That is 19 plus... Yeah, hits. Five. Yep, hits. Even with this boost AC, that will go in a moment. Five points of damage. Five points of damage, hey, all adds up. He is now bloodied.

That's with all the... all the gobbins. As that happens, Gruff's going to let out a sharp whistle, and Saren, who's still pleased with herself, flapping around the room, making it wet, is going to head to the corner. I can't quite see the line of sight, but to a space I can see. So I'm trying...

What are you trying to do? I'm trying to land a healing spirit near the corner club you could basically the only spot you can see is here okay that works that's cool okay and that's right in front of me yeah so basically anyone who is in the space so it starts in the space or is in the space for the first time or moves into it for the first time, it gets a 1d6 healing. So if you move through that space, you'll get the healing.

Does that count as Xanthius? No, it's that 5-foot space, I believe. So it moves into it for the first time, okay. So Xanthius on his turn can just move through that, and he'll get the healing. And you can only do it a set number of times right before the spirit vanishes. Five, one, two, three, four, five, yep. Yep, five times, okay, cool.

Hey, I mean, that's great, great healing. Alrighty, so there's action, bonus action. I'll stay here. That's it, yeah. Yeah, there's no point moving, you'll just get attacked. Alrighty, it is the mercenary leader's turn. He is going to attack you, Gruff, twice with his Cutlass. First one's an 11. Nope.

Second one is an actual 20, I'm afraid. Oh. I love them, I love them. I'm not even using my Hyrule's dice, which I don't know where it's gone. It's gone somewhere. So luckily this attack isn't loads of damage. It is going to be 16 points of slashing damage.

That's fine. Still a lot, but Gruff's tough. And I've got my 4 HP. Yeah, so it's actually 12 damage, basically. Yeah, you get 4 every turn, right? Yeah, 4 temporary HP. Yeah, various things, which I have done. With what spell, sorry?

With what ability? Armor of Oak and Thorn. Armor of Oak and Thorn? Armor of Oak and Thorn? Oh, I see what you're doing. I'm trying to figure out what it is. You've just seen a Discord conversation is what you've seen. A couple days back, yeah. And?

Oak and Thorn. Yes. I always heard it as Oak and... Yeah, Oak and Thorn. Well, that's his two cutlass attacks, which do strike. They do that damage to you, Gruff. And then, yeah, he's going to turn around,

he looks over at his paralysed ally, rolls his eyes, Lewis! Shoot that sorcerer! And he's going to use command, so I spend a fate die. And he's going to have his buddy make a crossbow attack against you, Xanthius. Nice.

Not nice, awful. That is a 22. Didn't that hit you a little bit, bud? Yeah. 12 points of damage. Alright, I'm gonna... 9 plus 3. I'm rolling, like, nearly max damage on this d10. So I still have essence runes from, I think, the ritual fight, and they only go away after a long rest.

I've got two of those, so I'm gonna use both of those to reduce it by 2d6. Okay, let's go for it. Uh, six, so I take six damage. You take six damage. I do need, is whole person concentration, I believe it is. Yes. It is, almost certainly it is. Baldur's Gate 3 has taught me that. So I need a concentration check, dc10. dc10, concentration, which is...

Consave. It's been a while. Sorry, is it plus my consaving? Consaving throw. DC 10. DC 10 concentration, which is... Con save. It's been a while. Sorry, is it plus my con saving? Con saving throw. Oh, plus six. Yeah, you're a sorcerer. Eight. Oh dear.

You see the guy on the side, kind of shakes out of it as your concentration, I'm afraid, is broken, Xanthias. Oh, I found my high roll, it's d20, nice. Hey, it's back. It's back. Player killer, it's back. is broken, Xanthias. Oh, I found my High Roller's d20, nice. Hey! It's back. It's back. Player killer, it's back. What a great day for everyone involved.

Yeah, I'm so happy. But that is on his turn. So that was his command ability. He's going to stay engaged with Gruff. He doesn't want you grabbing like these notes. He does give me an insight check, Gruff, because you're the only one who can really... And Ophelia, actually. Ophelia's up above him. Hello. He kind of forgot you were there, actually, Ophuff, because you're the only one who can really... And Ophelia, actually. Ophelia's up above, I think.

Hello. He kind of forgot you were there, actually, Ophelia, because you're above him. Nice. 12. 12 on the insight. What is that? What is that?

A number. Oh, it's a nine. Ten. Ten. I would say you can both tell that he's definitely, like, his eyes are, like, darting back over here. Like, he's glancing over it. He's looking at his buddies.

He's, like, weighing up the two of you's combat experience. Like, this guy definitely, he's not here because he's, like, part of whatever's going on. This guy's a mug. And he's weighing up how much this is worth at this point. But he is staying with it for now. He thinks that his team have currently got the upper hand, so he's gonna stay in the fight.

We then go to Daisy. Hello. I will, can I currently see the dude behind the? Which one? So the archer behind the pillar on the ground floor he has cover you could see him you would need to move in front of Santhea so you'll need to move through your buddies no I'll poke out until I can see the this guy this guy yeah they're going up on the turret on the turret so you would move through the healing spirit.

Okay. So is it D6 plus for the healing spirit? Yes, D6. Five points of healing. Five points of HP for Daisy. One use of it's gone. And then you have clear line of sight to him from there, Daisy. Okay, I will try and hit him. I'll spell with a fire plus one.

Nice. No sneak attack, unfortunately. Yeah, that's true. If he had been paralyzed, not only would you have got a sneak attack, it would have been a crit. Yep. Oh, actually no, it's a ranged attack.

It's only if it's a melee. Oh. Actually, I can see the leader. Yeah, of course, yeah, you can change your target. I'm gonna change my target to leader because he's currently next to Grump and I will get sneak attacks. And you have sneak attack, yeah, absolutely.

That seems like it's much more sensible. Totally. Okay. His AC is lower now as well because he's not using form up. 19. 19 hits. Voltron.

What? I'll form the head. I wanna be that sword arm, bro. Red lion. 12 damage. You would be a foot, 12? I wanna be the ass then. I wanna be the whole. Okay I wanna be the whole thing.

Okay, Voltron's ass. Bonus action. Anyway, I gotta do some math here. I know you guys heard me on the podcast. I didn't. Yeah, that blow of the radiant knife cuts into his side and you hear him like gruff. Where even are these knives?

Magic. 18 to hit. On the second one? Hits. Six damage. Six points of damage. Okay. And then I will tuck myself back in again, because...

Wait, back through, is it? Oh, no, you can't. 10, 15. Yeah, I'd say you can just about squeeze it. Actually, you can do it diagonally. And then, well, if one of us stays up and has a little boop-ee-lee-oo, then that's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The leader basically puts a hand up and he's like,

stop, stop, surrender, boys, lay your crossbows down. I'm not dying for this. He says like, yep, he's just like, you can see that dagger, like, he's bleeding, like, deeply from his side. He's just like, nah, fuck this just like, you can see that dagger, he's bleeding, like deeply from his side. He's just like, nah, fuck this, I'm not going for this. How do we trust you? Well, you don't if you attack me,

and he says like, keep a bead on them, John, and you see the girl in the turret is swinging the turret. John, don't you dare! Don't you dare, John! Listen, we can all be cool here. We can all be cool here. We were mercs, we were paid. I'm not dying for it. I'd rather have my life. You know, I'm not one of these cultists, I'm not one of these believers.

Great, well, you can leave this place, but you leave the notes behind as well. Sure. As long as we can get, as long as me and my boys can get out of here. Let's all lay down our arms. But they're conspiring with demons! Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm not conspiring with nobody. We got paid to protect a dwarf. And that's what I'm doing.

Where's the dwarf? He left. Some creature came and told him that some strangers were in the tunnel, that they'd spotted some people finding him, and he took off and ran. He took a couple of my guys with him. Which direction? Well, that's a different thing.

Then I'm betraying my contract. You want information? Your contract is broken. You failed here. Well, they don't know that. Listen, you want information? I'll do it for gold, but... How much?

I've got platinum. No! Yeah, that'll do. Whoa. I also don't need to know that you told us where they went. Oh, maybe it's a... Maybe this is a negotiation. I've got something you want.

You've, you know, got something I want. Your life. Well, he jests us up. Well, that's still... I'm surrendering because I don't want to take this to the teeth. We can go... You want to go to breaking point? I've already nearly dropped your man over there.

We can go to breaking point. There's no need for any more violence. I agree, I agree. But if you want information, I want something out of it as well. Gold, preferably. I'm a mercenary, darling. This is what I do. It's my business.

Don't darling me. I'm not your darling, you brute. Well, it's a shame. You're quite a lovely lady. Don't make me bite you. She will. Not in a nice way. You won quite a lovely lady. Don't make me bite you. She will. Not in a nice way. You won't like it.

You won't like it. You really won't like it. All right, all right. Can Rowan step forward, get a little heal? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can step through. One. Can I cast a spell? Oh, fuck.

Plus one, right? Well, don't forget, casting spells are obvious. Well, it just happens, though. No, no, Rowan said he wanted to cast a spell. You can still do it, but just keep in mind that that might set these guys off. I am saying, by the way, that, like, as we're kind of chatting, we'll pause the initiative,

but I'm assuming everybody is going to take a readied action, basically, of, like, all of you will make an attack, all of them will make an attack. Did they drop their weapons, did you say? No, no, they've not dropped their weapons. No, they're just... He's holding his hand up, but he's still got his cutlass out, basically.

He's like, whoa, whoa, like... Sorry, I can't get rid of my weapons. I'm not... Nobody has to get rid of any weapons. We're just not going to fight each other. Gruff, do you have any idea where they could have run off to? No. I mean, listening out or...

Okay. I took a bloody big hit right there, and I fell. We all did. I can't be all things at once at all the time. I walk forward. I want to heal. Sure. Let's... Two. Let's give these

mercenaries here an escape, an exit out where we will not block. Great. What's your price, mercenary? Depends on what you want to know. What do you want to know?

Who hired you? The dwarf. He thinks for a minute. 300 gold. So someone important then for that much. Smart lady. Sunsword Ilkara. Pay up the coin.

I'll let you know. I'd like to insight check on that. Can I, yeah. Sure. If anything sort of gives through that. Yeah, sure. I will do my usual of I'm going to roll. It will either Can I, yeah. And that sort of, if anything sort of gives through that. Yeah, sure. I will do my usual of, I'm gonna roll it. It will either be deception or persuasion.

Just so that you're not like, he's rolling the dice, it's deception! Can I use the fate dice? You absolutely can. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. 20? Yeah. Ooh, dirty 20.

Anything better than a 20? Yeah. Three. Okay. Let's 20. Anything better than a 20? Yeah. Three. Okay. That's not how math works. Graf. The name didn't seem to mean anything to him. You don't think it was Unsolved Elkara. Like, the way that he was just like, hmm?

But, like, there was just, he didn't even seem to know who that is. Like, it's just like, yeah, it wasn't her. Not even from Ashen's Rest? Definitely not from Ashen's Rest. This guy's a merc. He could be from anywhere. Hey, listen. I've named my price.

I'm willing to negotiate. Looking around the room, how many exit points are there? You can see that there seems to be a grate down the side. This is also a grate door. I just didn't have enough of one with a door in it. These two grate doors, they are locked. They have like locks, like padlock, like not padlocks, but like built into the gate.

It's got like a keyhole. And then the way you came, those seem to be the only exits. How about 100, and I'll use my healing ability to get rid of that nasty bleed. Use the healing ability first, then maybe we've got a deal. Okay. Healing.

Okay. Level two. Great. Aw. Rowan. Ten. Ten points. You call out, the wound knits,

and he says, okay, okay. Can I out the wound knits. And he says, okay, okay. Can I see the gold? Oh. Ophelia? I've got the platinum on me. Do you, like, pull it out? I've got 86 gold. Oh, hang on.

Do you round down? Oh, no, 100, I'm afraid. I've got 77. We can share. Yeah, we can make it. 50-50. 50-50. Throw it into, like, a little coin pouch. Did you round down? Oh, no. 100, I'm afraid. I've got 77. We can share. Yeah, we can make it. 50-50. 50-50. You throw it into a little coin pouch.

Did you throw it to him? Yeah. He catches it. He weighs it up. It's just like... The guildmaster. That lamplighter guy. The old guy.

Tobias. Tobias. Tobias. Why did we get Morris wrong? But he didn't hire me directly. He hired my company. I spoke with the other captains. I'm just fulfilling the contract.

Morris, we were hired to protect that dwarf, Morris. Assist him with some mission, some plan that they've concocted. We were supposed to protect him here, then take him up to those big watchtowers. Maybe take out a couple of the Duke's guard who were protecting them. That was it. Are you local around here? No. No. those big watchtowers. Maybe take out a couple of the duke's guard who are protecting them. That was it. Oh, God. Are you local around here?

No. No. I'm from, we normally work around Kelskaris, sometimes work up in the Aestep, sometimes work in Ud-Askir. We work all over the Empire. All right. I think we've got what we needed.

While you're healing and some such, can I pick up the notes? Something's going on. What? Yeah. You go and pick up the notes. Do you want to go see? I just want to make sure that it's not somebody breaking in. So Xanthius.

Yeah, I just want to pick up and sort of scan. Yeah, most of them are quite heavily burnt at this point. Sure. But you can see that there are fragments of what looks like to be a map of Ashen's Rest, like a kind of crude, but actually quite crude in that it was done quickly, but actually the work of it is quite impressive.

Okay. And a map of Ashen's Rest, most of it's been burnt away, but it looks like somebody's drawn lines that you think might be you came back with a snack it was out there you can see tunnels like lines that match up to some of the tunnels you've taken sure but ones that connect to the city walls okay and specifically the big watchtowers all along the walls of Ashenrest. The other thing you can see is, again, half burnt. You're not able to get anything more out of these.

There are schematics for something that looks similar to the discs, the Everlight discs, but on a bigger scale. It's those big fucking beacons. I don't suppose the tunnel maps, are they, are any of them? I'm just gonna, this guy, by the way, is like backing up, he's like slowly, now that he's got his gold,

he's gonna move over to his at-buddies, he brings this buddy over to him, he's like ushering them around. He's like, okay, you got your information, we've got some gold. We will stand on this side of to him. He's like ushering them around. He's like, okay, you got your information? We've got some gold. We will stand on this side. Where did Morris go? I'm going to need some more gold for that, hon.

Sweetheart, come on. He healed you. Yeah, and I've given you great information. Does that feel okay, by the way? That feels great. Move around a bit. Yeah, that sounds, that's perfect. Where do you want, where are you intending to go?

We're going to leave this fucking shithole, I'll tell you that. There's three exits. We'll go up, and he points up to this exit. We'll go up there, you can go back the way you came. See, there's a kind of part of me, I know this is a long shot, when I said there's three exits, like, does he seem to indicate, not just three, motherfucker.

Make an inside check. I know it's like... Yeah, I mean, three, motherfucker. Make an inside check. I know it's like... Yeah, I mean, like, yeah, maybe you got something out of him, right? Like, yeah, maybe he like glances towards a flagstone or a secret door or something. You're not the wisest guy. Four.

He seems cool as a cucumber, man. Like, you say it and he's just like, we'll go up that top one. You go back out the way you came. But listen, you want more information? This is... I've already, we've failed the contract. I'm going to be in deep trouble with my bosses. So I want to make, if I can take some gold out of this,

it'll make things a lot easier for me. You got 100. Well, I just didn't think you wanted to fight Duke Ignarius. Listen, I don't want to mess with the dragon, and I don't intend to. I will be long gone before you even leave this place. How about

I give you a platinum and you tell us everything? One platinum? Or do you mean the rods? Did you show him? Yeah. Because he'd look at it and be like, oh, about a hundred gold? Sure. I'll tell you where the dwarf went for that. I'll throw in a bit of extra information for you.

Smooth things over. Make sure we don't part on bad terms. Like I said, this is just business. It's nothing personal. And that you're put in a future that your guild won't come across us and start trouble? I can't promise that. I'm not the captain. I am a captain. I am not the captain. Worth a try. Listen, hopefully we won't. You know, maybe you can even hire us in the future.

We're mercenaries. We work for whomever pays. He's got a business card. We've got your names. They won't mean too much. I can tell you who we work for. I'll tell you that for free. Sure. The Iron Crows. If you ever want'll tell you that for free sure the iron crows if you

ever want a mercenary company now that explains ask for the iron crows i'm hallister alistar i'm rowan rowan thanks for the heel i appreciate it that's quite all right yeah what do you say uh dark and beautiful you gotta just to just be trying that. Here you go. One platinum. Do you pass it to him? He'll say, like, you can drop it from up there. Yeah, I'll just throw it to him. Yeah, he, like, catches it. He, like,

puts it in his pocket. He went out, and he points down to that side passageway. He went down there. He pulls out a set of keys, and he pulls one off and he throws it up to you, Ophelia. That unlocks that great and you'll find it connects to the others as well. Leads into more of these tunnels and it takes you out. I think it's the last watchtower. He's had his other engineers, what do they call them? Lewis? Illuminators boss. And he's just

like, that's right. He's had the other illuminators, part of whatever they're doing, some cult or something. They've already dealt with the other Watchtowers. Morris, he was waiting for this last one. He was finishing up the device. When he heard you guys were on your way, he took a couple of my men and he booked it. No more traps down that way? He thinks, shouldn't be,

but I never went down there myself. Morris might have set... He might have set someone on his way out. He has magic and machines like these things, and he points to the turrets. He's learnt some sort of, I don't know, demon magic? He can make stuff like this. Is there a code word we can tell your men

to indicate that they need to stand down because you've broken your contract? If they're with Morris, they'll probably defend him until the point, like I'm saving my own skin here. Honestly, I mean, look, if they're fighting with Morris, feel free to do with them as you want. Like they'll either surrender

and you can decide what to do with them, or they'll run or they'll fight to the death. That's on them, that's not on me. They're no longer in my command, basically. What was his name again? Hallister. Hallister. Hallister.

Hallister. Like Kevin McAllister. Just like that. Same face, too, when he's coming. Yeah, he just says, like, look, I can't do anything more for you. I can give you that info, but that's it. And I'm glad to be paid.

Well, it looks like we're done here then. Yeah. Sure. All right. I think, and he points over at the chest. I took some of the more valuable things out of there, but there's some weird demon metal stuff in there. Feel free to take it.

Yeah, Gruff will. Gruff's already kind of hovering by, like as if everyone was trying to destroy it, like he would stop. No, I I mean you stopped him. He's like fair enough. He probably even says like, yeah, nice water trick by the way. Wasn't expecting that. I'll know that next time I have to destroy some evidence.

People can make water out of nothing. Science, damn you. We're all learning. Alright. In that case, we're out of here. Lewis, John, and they'll basically back up. He will dismount the machine from this. He pulls it out. Takes it with him.

He'll basically, he's like, he's like hovering. He's like, Halaster's like, point that fucking thing away from me. But yeah, the three of them will basically go up here. Halaster pulls out another one of these keys. He unlocks it. He turns around. He relocks it behind him, and then they back up down this corridor, basically.

Oh. Yeah, he's like, Bye! Thanks for the heal! They were truly dishonorable men. They... They paid their money, and they gave us information.

Guided by coin and coin alone. People like that, they have no virtue. They only worship the coin. They have no loyalty. It's their kind of loyalty. We should probably leave here because I don't trust that they are not gonna tell their other men to come and finish us off.

Um, can I grab the chest? Yeah, it's small enough you can just take the whole thing with you. As soon as you go to move it, you can tell it's already been opened, so it's not secure. Okay. Can I peek? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You peek inside. It looks like it probably contained more stuff,

but you do find that there are a couple of things left behind. One is like a beautiful... Oh, no, actually, Morris would have taken that with him. Oh. What you see is a single bar, very thin, like a metal rod, maybe only three, four inches long, very thin, like a pencil thin,

of a very strange metal streaked in green and red and orange that runs through it and it smells like it smells like that that the the smoke demons and the explosive material um yeah uh yeah it's sulfury rotten but there's also something like fiery it's like brimstone fire or brimstone kind of stuff um and yeah you suspect that this is a piece of felite we needed that we did well tell us which one of the can i look at it can i ask nim and say do you know which of the pits that this would come from if it has these colors and you'll need to hold it little one but i might to. Oh. Was there any effect of you touching it? Or did you touch it? It didn't seem to be.

Okay. Yeah, Daisy, you hold it, and it feels wrong to hold. Like, there's something, maybe it's this connection with Nim, but, like, it does, whatever it is, the connection does not like you touching it. And you feel, like, Nim squirming in your body, like, sorry, their mind, like, reeling um as they focus and they're like oh oh i can it tastes like suffering and torture and slaughter this is from diablos it

has to be it has to be i will immediately put it back down things from things things from the other pit, they feel more oily and binding, sticky almost. But this, this feels awful. This is definitely the pit of demons. Okay, I guess you guys don't know that because... It's in your head. It's in my head and you don't know that I have... We have some maps here, by the way.

These notes that they were trying to burn. Gather those and keep them safe. We need evidence to take to the High Authority. Yes. I have interest, I have mending. Oh. Oh, I was wondering. But is anybody's torn?

Mending normally just basically mends one seam. These aren't torn, these aren't burnt. There's a single break or tear in an object. As long as the break is no longer than one foot in dimension, you mend it, leaving no trace. It's like crumbs of ashes and stuff. I don't think mending's going to help on this. Cool idea.

If it had just been torn up, easily no problem. But these are just burnt. These were caught by the flames. They've burnt away to ashes and stuff. I sprinkle the ashes on top of it and then cast mending. Like Salt Bay. Yeah. It's just, you know.

But, I mean, we've still got... So the maps, they had tunnels leading to the towers and also schematics. One thing I probably forgot to mention as well, some of those towers have, like, crosses through them. Oh, OK. But you can only see two or three of them, and all three of the ones that are on the map you currently have are all crossed out.

Right. So there's only one left. Yeah, the final. Yeah, the final. Yeah. Yeah. Which is where they're headed now. While this is happening, can I have Saren fly over to me and get some heals?

Yeah. We've got two more charges left. Well, you basically walk over to the healing spirit, right, and just stand in it. But you can fly to me. For the sake of mechanical purposes, Gruff goes to the healing spirit. No, I can move her on a bonus action.

Oh, okay, there you go. Nice. That smells great. Can I go over to the grate I've got the keys for and just check the keys actually fit the lock before the... Yeah, you do. ...is too far away?

Well, they're like down. They're scarred. They're gone, yeah. As soon as they got out of sight they ran yeah um you get there it does actually fit yeah that little face yeah it does yeah it does actually fit cool and you can see down the end there is like a ladder that leads up to like a hatchway um that seems to maybe leading to maybe the newer sewers or other tunnels or something like that newer sewerer sewer. Newer sewer. Okay, I mean, are we continuing the chase? We might be able to convince his two guards that Halister, John, and the other one have surrendered.

They might listen to that, but I am wiped. I think we should go and tell guards and people who can go to all of these towers. It's maybe 10 seconds, sort of as Daisy says that, like 10 seconds after, about 30 seconds, you do, Gruff, get a message back in your head. You just hear, Young Gruffydd!

Scotland, aye, that's where he is, it's from there. Jump in a chute! No, I don't need you to shoot. I'm on my way. From misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Sorry. Bringing what guards I can. Okay. Um... I think, like, there is long pauses. Sir Gry'old wouldn't know what to say.

Sure. He's probably not used to these sending spells. Um... Don't do anything foolish. Uh... Don't do anything foolish. I've sent word to the authoritor and duke. Oh, he told you. That's good.

He sent word to. Well, still. We'll be soon. Very soon. And I can't speak back to him? Not unless you cast Sending again. I've done a very foolish thing. What do you mean, what?

I panicked. Right. And I sent a Sending spell to Sir Gryold. Okay, good. To come here. Right. And he's coming here. Okay, good. To come here. Um, right. And he's coming here. That's fine.

And he's bringing a lot of guards. That's good. But that means that there are less guards up there when whatever happens with these city watch lights happens. They're all down here. There's a... He's not bringing every guard.

There's a lot up there. Plus, they still have to figure out for another tunnel. Did you use the scroll? Aye. And that's gone now? Yep. Okay, I think we can work with this.

Should we leave a note here for them, telling them where we've gone? Good, I do feel bad about the wild stoke chase we're taking this guy on. We are against the clock here. Or we head back and try and meet them and take them directly to the towers. We know that's where they're headed, so it makes sense that we try and meet them first, and then charge in with a bigger party,

because right now I'm not ready to jump in. We're battered and bruised. Yes. All right. Do we know the way out? Uh. The nearest way out? All right, we're going south and east.

Well, we can go out through this gate here and up, probably. I don't know. That's towards. It was the newer sewers, but. I made a map. We can go back to the way we came in. Let's retrace our steps, maybe. We can get back the way we came in. Hopefully meet them.

Or you could all go forward after Morris, and I could try and... No. In some sort of form, I could try and... No. In some sort of form, I could get back to Sir Gryul as fast as possible. No. We stick together. I think we try and find them.

We need to charge in with Sir Gryul and whatever group of... Morris is aware that people are after him. He's going to reinforce. With traps. That's a good point. We need to hurry. we need to move now. We need to find Segwit Yold. And move as fast as possible.

And so Gruff will start going back. Yeah, you can go back the way you came, yeah. You can retrace your steps easily enough. Takes you a few minutes to get back to where you were, making your way, not even that, moving through, probably takes less than a couple of minutes. And when you get to the entrance to the catacombs um you make your way back and do you go into the catacombs or you're just gonna wait by the entrance i guess when we get closer to it because we heard the footsteps coming from the catacombs like i guess we would

probably slow down around that point to try and listen out to see yeah give me a perception check everybody come on there is plenty of fake dice spend them sure we'll use a fake 14 for me okay yeah please feed me I'm going to roar you're not good at them anymore man You're not good at them anymore, man. I rolled a one. He's rolling a garbage shell. I rolled higher than a five. Not on perception checks. Not on those.

Not on anything. All right, then, Tom. All right. I'm having a good day. 14 for Daisy. Not very good for Xanthius. Zero. Xeris for Xanthius. 15.

15 for Gruffydd. 14. 14 for Rowan. 21. 21 for Ophelia. That fucking hurt. Everybody but, sadly, Xanthius. 15. 15 for Gruffydd. 14. 14 for Rowan. 21. 21 for Ophelia. You fucking hurt. Everybody but, sadly, Xanthius definitely hears movement. Some people moving around.

You hear muffled voices. Kind of hard to make out except for Ophelia, who you, you know, maybe it's the battle. It's like your adrenaline rushes. Your senses are on overload. You hear a, uh, uh, uh, but Sir Glory, perhaps we should not go down there. We do not know what is in there. Perhaps it was simply grave robbers.

They don't seem to have disturbed anything. You were instructed to keep these catacombs clear. Somebody has broken the seal. The magical alarm went off. We know that somebody has entered into here. We should explore these tunnels. Why have these not been reported? This is not new.

This has been here for some time. We do not know, Mistress. We have not been down here for some time, my lady. Normally the Sun Sword has been taking the patrols of the catacombs of late. And you just hear this kind of, why? Why would she not tell me? What is this? As you hear this kind of conversation going on.

There are voices up ahead. Scare them off. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Stop barking like a dog. Yeah? Don't actually, please don't actually do that breathe think what ophelia would do not what ryu would do so what does the feeling do okay

we've lost you for a while it's just a image of it it's stupid in my brain just like on the ceiling on all fours there's uh not to go but there's a great scene

in a recent episode of delicious in dungeon where a main character does exactly that it's very fucking funny

I guess you would just call out and say hello oh okay the noise in the other room goes silent,

and you hear what sounds like... as weapons are drawn. Who is there? In the name of Bright Shadow Cathedral, in the name of Pyrrhus, Sun Maiden, Lord of Justice, who is this? It is Sister Ophelia Delarosa of the House of Blood. Okay.

Fucking great. No. You hear, Sister Ophelia, is that not the foreigner who died the other day? We sent an acolyte, was sent to preserve her body. She's dead. A spirit! A spirit has manifested!

Stand back, all of you. I shall handle this. Emerging from the catacombs, you see, dressed in... I actually have to open up my older notes on this lady. For God's sake. What's happened?

You see, stepping out of the tunnel between the catacombs and the old sewers, you see a very well-dressed-looking knight in golden, resplendent full plate, almost a mirror to that of morning, so morning that you met Gruffydd. Symbols of the sun, like one golden wing actually carved

into the shoulder plate of the armour, carrying a radiant-looking axe that is done like a blossoming sun, almost like this axe itself in two hands, a great axe. Standing forward, she's quite slender, but you can tell that there's an athletic build under the armour. But a half-elf.

Radiant sort of... You can see that it's brown hair at the roots, and then it's dyed to white and yellow at the tips. She's got these long, kind of like half-elven ears. And she steps out and she just points at the

group of you and sees the very obviously undead like, white! And she like, pulls it back and she holds up her hand and in her gauntlet is the symbol of the sun BEGONE UNDEAD! And she tries to turn undead.

I thought she was going to sunbeam. No, no, she tries to turn undead. I thought she was going to sunbeam. No, no, she tries to turn undead as this golden light erupts from her. By the power of the sun, be gone! And then it just washes over. You feel uncomfortable. It's like... Be gone!

What manner of creature are you? Stand down, stand down, stand down. It's okay. Do not look, Acolyte. She's trying to confuse us. I'm not trying to confuse you. What is happening? Can I step in front of her and just go,

Excuse me? Young one, step away. No, it's okay. No, it's okay. It's okay. Please stop showing your arm at me. I have a similar reaction because it's terrifying, but she is back.

What? Not a wife. She's real. I prodded her. She's real. But also, we're not here to cause any trouble. Who are you? What are you doing down here?

There are people in the sewers causing trouble. What? She, like, turns back. You said that she was dead. She was, she was so, so glorious. Moving on from the dead woman. Not dead now. I am confused.

Citizen, please, what is, what do you mean there are people down here? How are you down here? You should not, did you cause this? Did you break into the holy catacombs? No. No, we did not, we did not break in. We are...

It's a long story. We need to speak to the High Authority now. The city is under a grave threat. Make a persuasion check for me. Fake, bro. Yeah, yeah. Double fake. Triple fake.

Nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen... Seventeen. Seventeen. The dice did not look like it was going to go that way. It causes pause, and you see Sir Glory lowers the axe, keeps it ready, but lowers the axe. The High Authorita... I mean, she is some distance away, but the city is under attack.

It is fine. We've not heard any alarm or warning. There is a plot afoot. We need to stop it now before something dreadful happens. I do not know what manner is going on here. Do you know what talk about all the demons, yes? Demons? Yes, I've heard the demons that have been attacking.

There have been guards patrolling. You're saying that the... People are in the sewers planting things and doing things and the demons and the stuff and it's bad. All right. All right, come with me. We will find, we will send word for the High Authorita. Acolytes.

And she calls out. And you can see that they're just priests. They're like scribes, you know. And she will like look to them and just be like, where is the Sun Sword? She knocked back from meeting with the other, the Duke and the Guildmaster. No, no, Mistress, they are not back.

They were called early this morning. They have not returned or sent word to us. I must deal with this myself. Would one of you go and wake the Speaker of Secrets? Wake the High Priest of Maelir. At least I can call upon him for some advice. All right, come with me. Sir Grail should be here any minute.

The Knight of the Realm? Yes. All right. Be called for his aid. All right, that will lend some So Grail should be here any minute. The Knight of the Realm? Yes. All right. Be called for his aid. All right, that will lend some credence to what you claim. He sent word to the Duke. All right, good, fine.

Come with me, we will head up into the cathedral. Please, and she gestures. You can see that this woman is rattled. She does not know what's happening, she's very confused, but is convinced, gruff with you, almost like that knightly demeanor, right? She takes you at that value,

and she might even say that, like, I am trusting you, that you speak true. I do not take your trust lightly. Good. Then come, and she will lead you back up, And she actually leads you that corridor north that you heard the noises coming from.

You follow that along, you go past some more burial chambers to a stair that leads up and round to a set of double doors that then leads into the back of Bright Shadow Cathedral. If you had actually come up this way, you would have circled all the way back up into behind the altar and things like that. Okay. She takes you up there.

She dispatches some of the scribes, like, go and fetch some of the duke's guard at least. Maybe we can send them into the tunnels to search. What should we be looking for? Traps. Demonic traps. Demonic traps. Right.

We will inform them of that. I can give the map. Like, I can hastily draw another map of the route that we took that we know is now safe to get to that place. Sure. and give it to one of them. Yeah, the scribe will take it and just be like, oh, of course, Ser Gory, and then they make their way off. And she's like, I know that you said

that time is of the essence, but I cannot be, I trust that something is going on, but I must make sure, if you say that Ser Grield is here, that is on their way, we will then address the matter, But I cannot just let you go off, not after finding you down there in the way that I did, and not with this mystery. Good madam, it has been said that you were dead, and the scribes were sent. They attended to your body, and I trust these scribes to not be incorrect. How is it that you are here? The Greyfather sent me back. The Greyfather? The Plainer Power?

He's quite wonderful. I've met him twice, won't you know? Sir Knight, this is... She is an emissary of Osseous. They are permitted their religious beliefs. I am well aware of that, scribe. Very well. If this being has brought you back, so be it. But forgive me. I'm not used to it.

I'm new to some of this. And she does look quite young. Not like young, young, but like in her 20s. Like, you know, if she was a human, she'd be in like her mid-20s, early 20s. Very, very well. I am Sir Glory, Knight of Pyrrhus, Holy Knight of Pyrrhus, and champion of the Bright Shadow Cathedral. Pleased to meet you.

Were it under better circumstances, I'm sure it'd be a little less confusing. Yes, and I apologise for my attempt to banish you to the shadows. I thought that you were some wight or spectre. It's understandable. It's your practice, like how I find your practice of cremating your dead very unusual. It's all the same confusing mess at the moment. That at least we can agree on. Ophelia, maybe when we go in places, maybe you can maybe stand at the back to start with,

because if people still do think you're dead, it is quite terrifying. Oh. But then when they realize that it's fine, then it's okay. Okay. You wait for approximately, I would say, it would take Sigriold on Obsidian and with some of the other Dread Cavalry. The earliest he would arrive is about three minutes. You know, and that's him rushing here after sending word and things like that.

And you hear the claws of the Drake mounts thundering on stone before you actually see them. The doors of the cathedral open up wide and you see sir griold in his full plate the crossbow um he has his short sword at his side his helm is down it actually covers his face so kind of like gladiator when he pulls the little face plate down it's like that and it just has the eye sockets for him to look out of um and he marches in you can see that he's flanked by some other elite looking guards um and there is maybe

some hastily out of breath foot soldiers who are desperately trying to catch up behind them as well um and he bursts in uh and he's like where is where is scotland where is groth of the three more where are the uh the adventurers that work with the jew ah and he like looks over and he like nods in your direction there There you all are! What happened? What's going on? Bleh! At that point, with you explaining it, it takes you a bit of time. Yeah, I threw up my hair. Oh, I see. It takes you a bit of time to explain everything, right?

Just to explain what's going on, Sir Gryll asks some questions. Sir Glory is asking questions, not really sure what's happening. You can hear guards are dispatched. Like, Sir Gryll asks some questions, Sir Glory is asking questions, not really sure what's happening. You can hear guards are dispatched. Sir Gryol immediately as you send is like, send word to the Duke, send word to the High Authority. I'd probably say as well, get to the Watchtowers now. Send them to the Watchtowers and things like that. Deactivate them, secure them, everything. Yeah.

You hear all these messages kind of being sent out. You spend a bit of time explaining everything to Sir Gryol, but it's been several, close to about ten minutes since you really fought the guys down in the cistern. And you were travelling for about five minutes or so before that as well.

As you begin to make your way out of Bright Shadow Cathedral, onto the steps, Sir Gryll, Sir Glory, they listen. Sir Gryll backs you up. He's just like, Gruffydd, I trust you. And if all of you have found this information, and he looks at the evidence,

he's like, clearly something is going on here. You see the towers on the wall. And their lights, it is close to nighttime, and they begin to light, as they do. And all the Everlights in Ashen's Rest begin to blink into existence as the lamplighters are turning them on. But as those larger lights on the towers ignite, they are not the usual white-yellow light.

There is a sickly green colour to them. Vump, vump, vump, vump, vump. One last one,ayed for a moment. You all look. Vump. Sickly yellow light turns on. And then the Pharos, the great light at the top of the

Lamplighter's Guild, also turns sickly yellow. Vump. And something like smoke leaks out, connecting to each of the watchtower lights, and a dome begins to form over Ashenrest. And that is where we're gonna end today's segment. Oh no!

Oh my god. Shit. Activated it! The bastards activated it. Several things could have happened. Several things could have gone different ways. I mean, I don't know how it could have gone any other way for us. Absolutely it could have. I had multiple things that it could have done.

Because I didn't know what you guys were going to choose to do. There was multiple things. But we'll discover what this means and what happens next. The Purge! On Hyrule. Yeah. Thanks so much for joining us, everybody. Don't forget, we've got all of our new merch.

We've got our new website. Go and check that out. And we will see you next week for more Hyrolers. Bye! See you next week! Bye! Bye! See you next week! Bye! Bye!