High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #28 | A Brief Intermission (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

The Heroes of Ashen Rest have a few days of rest to prepare for the tournament... it's time to give Gruff an upgrade! HIGH ROLLERS LIVE in London on the 17th September 2024! Tickets live now: https://www.aegpresents.co.uk/event/high-rollers/ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/ 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/! Check out https://www.highrollersdnd.com/ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews Support the High Rollers on Patreon and get early access to Podcast episodes, vods and more: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. That's crypto on Kraken. Powerful crypto tools backed by 24-7 support and multi-layered security. Go to kraken.com and see what crypto can be. Not investment advice. Crypto trading involves risk of loss. See kraken.com slash legal slash ca dash pru dash disclaimer for info on Kraken's undertaking to register in Canada. Hello and welcome back to Althea, the Dragon Empire. It has been a few days since Tobias Leto and several key members of the Lamplighters Guild enacted a terrible plot to use Ashen Rest and the people within it as a way to give a powerful demon called Balascore the Phosphorus a way to manifest itself in the material plane. Trapping the town in a barrier of demonic magic, tranneled through the huge magical Everlights installed into the town's watchtowers, tranneled through the huge magical Everlights installed into the town's watchtowers,

and then feeding off the negative emotions of those within, the demons nearly succeeded in breaching the planar wards that prevent them from entering the material plane in such vast numbers. It was the actions of our heroes who raced across the town, saving a few allies along the way, and fought an epic battle against one of Balascore's powerful lieutenants to stop the artivisser, Morris Goldsite, from fixing the malfunctioning Everlight and completing the ritual. As time nearly ran out, Daisy revealed herself to wield incredible celestial powers and flew up to the top of the tower and destroyed the light. Though victory was not entirely without a price, Duke Ignarius,

his mind warped by the demon and Tobias, injured his own daughter Lady Emberissa in her draconic form and the High Authorita Eremina Willethorn was killed. Ilkara Sunsword, the former priestess of Pyrrhus who was revealed to be working with the lamplighters, was corrupted by the demonic influence and escaped the town with several zealous followers similarly corrupted. Three days have passed since these events and the people of Ashen Rest are busy at work repairing the damage of the battle and our heroes have had ample chance to rest and recover.

Today is the last day of Stormfall. Tomorrow is the first day of Bronzeglove and Saint Misara's Day, a festival to celebrate the divine saint of the forge, magic, and artisans. And as is tradition in the Dragon Empire, a grand tournament is to be held as part of the festivities, with knights from around Kaldra and Ilmira expected to attend, and the people of Ashenrest keen to celebrate and forget the horrors of the Lamplighter's plot. And that, my friends, is where we pick things back up today.

It has been three days since the battle at the Watchtower, which means you can all long rest. Make sure you get all of your... You can take multiple long rests to make sure your hit dice will go back up to full. Any items that have things like charges or anything like that, all of that gets fully refreshed. Nice. I am fully rested.

Yes, and although it may not come up, we always have to do it. Let us do our Crucible of Fate rolls today. Okey-dokey. Six. Five. A six. A five.

Two for you so far. A one. A one for me. Two. A one for me. And then finally, Rhiannon can witness a four. That's a dice for you. There is no trot today.

There is no trot today, so we don't roll for him. Three for us, two, well, three on our favor. You usually put them on the other side. Do I? Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's messed up. Thank you, it was messing me up. But yeah, we might, we might.

It might come up if you make ability checks and stuff like that, or if you know, there are some, if you guys roll ones on things, I might spend them to do some complications or something like that. Oh, yeah. As a brief reminder, and just on some sort of housekeeping-y bits,

it has been three days. Tyria, the spirit that inhabits the inn that you have been gifted as part of your duke's favour that you had before all of this Lamplighter's business happens happens you have noticed that in the last day or so she is becoming a little bit more unstable there is probably not too much more time before she will resort to her haunting and sort of the um the sort of uh not malicious but sort of more aggressive spirit that she was. She's been calm for several days now. That is a thing.

Still fine for now, but just definitely you've noticed perhaps a little bit more unstable in her appearances. You were given 5,000 gold by Duke Ignarius as a reward for helping save Ash and Rest. You are also regarded as heroes, as champions of Northvale, and this is part of a renown or a reputation system, which means that in this part of Caldra, which is the province you're in, in Northvale,

which encompasses the northern section of Caldra, you are well known as heroes, and that reputation will, if you introduce yourselves by your characters' names or as heroes, and that reputation will, if you introduce yourselves by your character's names or as a group, that reputation will precede you and will have benefits or, you know, maybe also have problems from time to time, but will also have lots of benefits. Kelskaris is beyond that reach, isn't it?

Yes, Kelskaris is kind of its own province that's at the heart of the Empire. Yeah, but it's just north of Northell. Yeah, but the way the reputations work is there probably would be, you know, people in Kelskaris probably will have at least heard of you more than before this whole happened. Like, news will spread and travel. Yeah.

Specifically, it's handled by a group called the Clarion, who are like travelling, kind of like town criers, but they travel town to town and spread news and things like that. They also work with print media to publish newspapers and things like that as well. So they will probably spread word of the events that took place here. Big dome. Yes, big dome, big hero. Many good time.

Yeah. The inn that you are in, the formerly known as the Enticing Devil, is still in pretty bad repair. Like, staying here is not the most comfortable rest in the world. It is still pretty ramshackle

and things like that. But you do now have funds and everything else. But yeah, this is probably going to be a bit of an interlude episode. This is probably going to be a bit of, like,

you know, catch up, figure things out, spend some money, go see some NPCs, do that kind of stuff. And I suspect next week we will probably jump in, or basically as soon as we go roll into the next day, the tournament and the festival of St. Nisar's Day.

Festival of the Forge will begin. So what, just as a sort of after the battle and everything that happened, what happened to the Pharos? The tower? Yeah. There were, so you would find out over the next few days, you know, because there's a lot of work being done

by the soldiers to make the city safe, to rescue things, but you would be kept in form of things, probably by Zarantekis and the Duke himself, and the Lord Marshal. There were still lamplighters who weren't part of the plot, who did manage to survive. A lot of them were killed by Tobias' faction within. Some of them did survive.

The Pharos as a tower has basically been cleared out and the Duke is deciding what to do with it. Okay. It is quite a large and impressive building. There is a lot of petitions, like some of the guilds want to use it. Things like guilds like the blacksmiths and things like that want to take over it.

How about a small group of heroes who currently have a haunted inn? Could they have it? Possibly. It would be a very big tower for you guys to operate from. You know what it could be used as? A big old tower for someone who's

about to found a religion that is a huge tower to be gifted could you imagine it's like being gifted a skyscraper yeah i can imagine it it's like the tallest one as well except for the dominant ignorum basically yeah domicile norm is is is equal just it's tiny bit taller but that's because it's also on a massive hill, the Dominus Ignorum, the Duke's Palace. So has the entirety of the Lamplighter's Guild just been completely dissolved now? So it has been dissolved, yes.

So the actual Lamplighter's Guild as it was has been formally dissolved by the Duke and by the edicts of the Church of the Scions after Il Cara has been sort of kicked out and excommunicated. You have heard that there is a new Sunsword who will be coming to take over Ilkara's position. Okay. Likewise, a new High Authorita will be assigned

to Ashenrest as well. Zarantekis is not experienced enough to take on that role. So you have heard that there will be a new High Authority and a new Sunsword will be sent. Okay. But the Lamplighter's Guild has been, yeah, completely dissolved. There is talk amongst the guilds and with the Duke of whether they want to form, like, a new Tinker's Guild

that will take some of the surviving members who were loyal, people like Theresa Lavendale, who you met, and offer them, or if it's rolled into being part of the Blacksmith's Guild. It might also just become part of the Blacksmith's Guild. What happened as well to Obsidious?

Obsidious was, you would find out that was helping fight against his father during the battle. He was basically channeling spells to try and slow his father down, and then that's when they broke away, and Emberissa had to come and join the fight, which you guys witnessed Emberissa shielding you to protect them.

Obsidious was basically trying to channel magic to try and lock his father down or something like that, and that's what happened. He is fine, he is uninjured, but he was temporarily out of the fight while he was doing that. Not much has been seen of Lady Emberissa. Lady Emberissa has not been seen since the attack. She has been sort of secluded away of her own volition.

She has not chosen to come out and be part of the public celebrations just yet. The last you remember seeing of her, that wound was quite significant. Yeah, because we saw her when we spoke to the Duke. It's like a celebration thing, I guess. Well, not a private thing. Yeah, you guys had a private chat with the Duke.

There was also a bit of a sort of medal ceremony and remembering the falling ceremony immediately after. Yeah. But since then, she has not really been seen. Yeah, okay. I guess for Xanthius... If there are any questions about those three days that you guys... We've been assuming that you guys were pretty exhausted

from the events that led up to that, so you've taken several days to rest, recuperate, probably fix help around the town, help your allies, do things like that. Yeah, I guess with what energy is available, I would probably attempt to assist with... I imagine the lamps are being dismantled and replaced with lanterns and things. If there is anyone that's... Because I guess I knew maybe not as much as Obsidious or anyone like that,

but quite a lot about the actual devices. Yeah, I imagine that because there was work put into the infrastructure of the lights, because there was a lot of them around, the idea is that they're checking all of the lights are being dismantled to remove any of those disks that you had, the planar disks.

But the actual lights themselves, they're being replaced with more mundane lanterns now. Just like the same light stand is staying and they're just going to make a sort of traditional lantern in there now. Okay. Not a magical light. But I think that's kind of what I would do to assist the town in any time that I have.

But also, I think for Xanthius, in that battle at the end, there were some sort of strategies or feelings that he was having that weren't quite his own, especially when that one little shitty guy tried to command Xanthias, and he was like, you ain't shit, you're nothing to me, and things like that. And he's still kind of coming to terms with those emotions and feelings, but also, I suppose, it's been three days. Is there anything going on with that arm, or...

Um... Do we need anything else? Give me a medicine roll. Medicine or Arcana. So I'll let you make the choice. Medicine will be more like, can you see a physical, like, has the corruption spread? You know, are there any, like, is there pain?

Can you feel anything? Our con will be to see if there's any change in the magical nature of the arm. I think for now it would just be medicine. Okay. Because that's probably the more concerning thing. Okay. At least for me now. But, yeah, medicine.

Let's see. 17. 17. You definitely spend some time, and this is something that maybe you're doing over several days. This isn't like one look. Yeah, just checking it every now and then. You can determine that there is a kind of slow progression rate.

It has slowed down, but it is always ever so slightly growing almost every day. Okay. But the rate is slow enough. With a 17, you suspect that within about 10 days, it will probably be up to your shoulder. But, you know. Okay, but that will look cool as hell though, right?

It will look cool as hell. Okay, so that's good. Yeah, it will take time to do that. Like I said, 10 days you're looking at. Okay, but nothing else is shifted? Like, I don't suddenly have... Nothing that you can see? Like, you check the rest of your body,

you can't see anything else? Okay, good. Yeah. Nice, but I would be mindful of that for me anyway. But that's at least what I'd be doing. And like, when you look at the arm, there is definitely, you know, this isn't what I'd be doing. And when you look at the arm, there is definitely... This isn't just like a skin condition.

This is like those veins of almost like lava and fire. There is movement, almost like it is flowing lava. This is like... There is something innately magical about this arm now. This is not just your body or flesh. Like, this is something more than that. There is, you know, your veins, whether it's your veins, they're not blood anymore.

There is something else running through that hand. Cool. And it tinges with power. Like, you can sense immense power. Like, not necessarily strength in the grip, but just a sort of, yeah, like a magical strength, a magical power. Mm-hmm. Okay.

I'm into that. Okay. Okay. That sounds terrible, but, I mean, you know. Sure. I'll surrender. Okay. Take me.

Nice. It's not my time yet. What about anybody else? okay take me nice it's not my time yet what about anybody else like that's just personal I know from yeah and like this is the perfect time for it

right Trot's basically given me like the thing of he is doing anything he can to help other people he's probably doing a lot of like helping clear debris he's probably helping a lot

at a latte fun to like rebuild it like the damage that the actual cafe took, he's probably hammering nails and sort of helping. Hello, I'm just repairing the roof today, and things like that. He's down at the Clever Toad as well.

Probably, yeah, checking in on the Clever Toad. Is the Toad okay? The Toad was okay. It took some damage. The actual inn itself took some damage, but none of the kobolds were hurt. There was definitely, you would go down there and hear from the Taric-Taric family

that there were demons that attacked, but they fought them off, them and their locals, their kind of regular customers all huddled together. And the big boy? Well, yeah, but yeah, he was instrumental in sort of the boulder. He was instrumental in kind of like keeping it protected, basically. He was killing demons that came in and throwing them out and stuff like that. He's a pretty powerful fighter, so. the boulder uh he was instrumental in kind of like keeping it protected basically he was throwing killing demons that came in and throwing them out and stuff like that he's a pretty powerful fighter

so such a good boy yeah anything from anybody else uh i think ophelia would stay at the inn for a little bit um just to help calm tyria down okay. But to also look at building some kind of shrine to the Greyfather, clearing out that back. Yeah. So basically it's part of, you've got the main inn building, and it's the whole area, the whole land that you own is like fenced off. So you have like the inn building,

quite a large back garden, and then there is a kind of what would have been once like the in-building, quite a large back garden. And then there is a kind of what would have been once been like a storehouse or like a shed, but it's quite large. You know, it's about 20 feet wide, about 20 feet deep. So it's a good size for a shrine, basically. It is stone foundations

and then it has wood walls and a sort of clay roof. But yeah, it could absolutely be purposed as a shrine. What kind of shrine are you thinking? Because it will take some money, right? Like, you will probably need to hire, like, if you want an altar, you need, like, a mason, and you're going to need to have, like, a statue or, like, a piece of jewelry, like, something to act as a channel,

like a holy symbol. What does this look like for Ophelia? So Ophelia already... I'm going to make some notes as well. She travels around with a little Greyfather figurine that she prays to anyway on the road. So maybe she'll hire a stonemason to look at carving a bigger version

to sit in like a stone plinth almost, sort of with like an arch of like gothically carved intricate patterns and flowers and roses on vines spiralling up. So around the statue almost on like an altar base. Yeah. Okay. Like candlelight holders and maybe some like seats, you know, just for future plans, like maybe there'll be some...

Are we like wooden pews or are we... What are we talking here? Maybe starting with like stools dotted around. Like maybe like three or four just little wooden stools for now. Yep. And then some candle holders and things like that. Yeah, yeah. The outbuilding.

The outbuilding. How big is it? It's about 20 feet by 20 feet. Okay. So it's sizable. Like, you know, you could definitely have people in it. It's not a full church, but you could have a good group of people in there, like a small group, basically.

I also imagine this place is already overgrown and stuff. Yeah, it is. Perfect. There are windows, so there's holes for windows, but they're all broken like the other ones in the main inn. They would have once held... These ones are just wooden shutters. They wouldn't have had any glass in them.

But looking at them, and again, this is maybe same for the future, you could have those windows expanded and then have stained glass or something put into them and things like that. Again, that's probably going to be looking at some cost and things like that. Yeah, maybe for now, I feel you would get some nice velvet red curtains to hang over the windows for now just to create some nice ambiance yeah i love that uh all right um well it's pretty easy you guys have access to the stonemasons guild here and you've gone and spoken with them before and it doesn't take too much

effort to go down there and the way that they work is you put in a work order and then they basically, masons who are members of the guild can pitch for them to take on the job. And they offer lower prices, kind of like Uber, but for artisans. Like they basically are like putting in lower and lower offers. And you get approached by several. You get a few different options. There is a very talented halfling mason who offers to do it.

Her name is... Her name is Halia. Halia Sutton. Halia Sutton, she's a stonemason. But she's quite pricey. So for the statue and the altar and everything else, but, you know, she comes to you with scribbles like, well, Sister Ophelia, I would imagine that we could work with this.

And also I have a unique way of we can incorporate glass gemstones and things like that. Wonderful. But it will cost you, it depends. Like she gives you an option of like, she can do something very simple for 200 gold. Or for 500 gold, you can have a very elaborate, beautiful shrine. There will be a tangible benefit the more money you spend.

500? You have to pass it through the group. Group. Hello. Hi, Oph group. Group, hello. Hi, Ophelia. Hi. So, after everything that's happened and the illustrious draconic majesty that is Duke Ignarius has granted me permission to preach the House of Blood's teachings

in Ashen's Rest, would you permit me so kindly? How much? 500 gold. For a little shrine. Bloody hell. A little shrine? A little one. Where?

In the outbuilding. Oh, that makes sense. With some stools and so I can teach in comfort. Is this to clean the entire building up as well? Windows, doors? On my own? Goodness, no. Not on your own, of course not, but... comfort. Is this to clean the entire building up as well? Windows? Doors? Oh my goodness, no. Not on your own, of course not, but... This is just for the shrine.

For the shrine itself? Mm-hmm. I will say that that will include what Hylia will do, is they'll make stone seating with cushions on it, so it will be basically, this is like a good-tier shrine, encompassed in one package. This is the altar you're paying for,

but you get some nice features. You get the candle holders and all of that kind of thrown in as well. You'll have seating and candle holders. It won't just be the stone carving altar itself. It'll be a nice space. It's worth keeping in mind, if you are planning on bringing people back here

to worship the Gravefather or whatever it is you want to use it for, Tyria is still... that problem is not quite resolved yet, and that area is still Tyria's. Well yes, well I can ask her. Yeah? Mm-hmm. You do have good contact with her at least. Yeah?

I could see if she'd be okay with me doing that. I think we intend to restore this place anyway, right? No? You shrugged, Gruff. Well, yeah, but we can't do it until we make sure that Tyria is at rest, because otherwise she'll break all the windows again, and that's really kind of a waste of money. That's true.

You're not putting windows in, are you? I'm not putting windows in yet, no. No reflections. No, no. No windows. But it's still her place, so I don't want to annoy her. No, I think it's what we intend to do with the place. I've got no plans for that building out there.

Wonderful. So I don't see why not. We have how much from Duke Ignarius? 5,000. I think it's a very good idea. I didn't have money for anything since growing up. I love stones. I knew you'd approve.

Oh, that's Rowan, I see. Okay. Who did you think that was? Who did you think that was? I don't know. Who else speaks like this? There was a second one where I was like, Percival can fucking speak now.

Sadly, my Chris Trott impression obviously is not like this. He can get really baritone. Yeah. Yes, he's very deep down here. Wasn't someone like, is that not hurting his voice? But no, he's just got a really deep voice anyway. He's chill with it. I don't see why not.

If it would make you happy. It would make me very happy. And the Great Father, of course. As long as it, we need to, I mean, we still need to total up how much we can actually spend. Graff's making faces. I'm not making faces, that's my regular face. He's concerned.

You did make a bit of a face. It's just, I don't know. It just feels a little bit blasphemous to me. Just a little bit. Well, but Duke Ignorius is allowed... I know. But then also, the church that

I've been following my whole life has wrought this upon us. Well, no, not the whole church, Just one person. Just one bad egg. I'm just having a bit of a religious quandary right now. So what... Well, would you be...

Would you... I mean... Don't pitch! Don't pitch the grapevine! Not right now! Ophelia, no! Not yet! I don't think I'm quite on that level yet.

Well, my door's always open. Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh. That would have been a crisis. Oh, gosh. She's going to pitch the Greyfella to Gruff. I'm into it. What would that pitch be like? No, I don't want to hear it. I do want to hear it. Oh, you do? No, I don't want to hear it. I do want to hear it. Oh, you do? No, I don't want to hear it.

He did save all of humanity. Did he now? Yes. Did he really? And he granted humanity the gift of necromancy. Is that a gift though? Well, that's why I'm here and I'm quite a gift. Aren't I? You are quite a gift. You are a gift.? Well, it's why I'm here, and I'm quite a gift.

Aren't I? You are quite a gift, yes. You are a gift. You are very lovely. Why, thank you. But, um. Nope, still terrifying, walking dead, terrifying, scary. Do you have passions, Gruff? Yeah, right now. But creative passions, what do you like to do?

Fishing. Fishing? Lovely, lovely. Besides fishing, do you like to sing, dance, music? Art? No, that's my wife. My wife is the storyteller of the village. Oh. Why, I fell in love with her.

Oh, she can tell a story. Oh, tell more, tell more, tell more. I love stories. Oh, when... See, in the evening when it's cold and we've all done our day's work, we gather in the central building of the village, get a big fire going, get the food, get the drink,

and everyone comes together and we have storytellers who fill the night with stories. Oh, wonderful. And she's the best storyteller I've ever met. Oh, that's so wonderful. When she speaks and she tells a yarn, it's like you're there.

What's her name? Good question. Oh, no. Does Gruff say that? No, I can't believe Gruff says that. Kim says that. It's been a day. Her name is Geredwyn.

Geredwyn. Yeah, Geredwyn. Geredwyn. Can you spell that for the crowd? C-E-R-I-D-W-E-N. Apologies to Welsh people in advance. C-E-R-I-D-W-E-N. C-E-R-I-D-W-E-N. C-E-R-I-D-W-E-N. C-E-R-I-D-W-E-N. Apologies to Welsh people in advance. C-E-R-I-D-W-E-N. Keridwyn.

Yeah. I may have said it a bit janky, but this is Fantasy Wales. It's not Welsh. It's Iceheart dialect. That was Iceheart. That was Iceheart, yeah. Iceheartian.

Yeah. Thank you. It's actually... You're welcome, Wikipedia. I think that, like, because you have brought in some of the Welsh and Cornish stuff like that, a lot of the Elven stuff in the Feywild draws a little bit from Welsh as well.

So I have this idea that, like, somebody, when they were founding Iceheart as its own province, the archdragon, whatever, all the people there, maybe they had some contact with the Feywild already established. Like, they found, like, a natural Fey portal fey portal and like they had spoken with like you know people that like lived on the ice probably like elves like you know wintry elves from the fey realm or something like that yeah something like that and so some of the the you know elven elements kind of flow in and have merged into the local dialect um in the same way that like yeah like cauldron definitely has some inspirations from real-worldy kind of places as well,

but it's not those. It's not fantasy Italy. It's its own flavor of things. So, yeah. Yeah. Never apologize. You're not doing a Welsh accent. You're doing a Clough accent.

It's, yeah. Kerridwen. Kerridwen. Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's beautiful. What a stunning name. Thank you.

She's a stunning woman. When we go to Iceheart, you must introduce me to her. I must hear one of her stories. Oh, she'd love to meet you all. She'd love to hear your stories as well. Oh, I'd love to meet her. Oh, she sounds wonderful. You know, Ophelia, that's one of the things about you. You're very charming.

And I... I really... It did not sit well with me, the way members of the church treated you recently and speak of you. It really didn't. Oh. And I want you to know that even though I've been brought up with the Church of the Scions

and all that, I really disagree with the way they speak to you. Oh, Cruff. You sacrificed your life for this town. And they still spoke of you as if you were some abomination. Okay, some of your ideas are a bit strange and maybe a little bit blasphemous. But in a way, you gave more to this place than some of them did. And Ilkara Sunsword, she put innocent lives in danger. And that is not by the tenets of the saints and the scions.

Would you like to bring her to justice? I would. She put a lot of innocents in danger. And I just... I understand what she was trying to do. I understand that she was, oh, we need to be more righteous, we need to be more faithful and all that, but bloody hell, like,

not by summoning demons, making packs with demons. No. Putting this town in danger. You died because of it. That's not right. And you are... You are more noble than anyone I've ever met.

You gave your energy to me when I fell. You've proven yourself time and time again that you are more than what you say you are. You are a knight. Not yet. But you are, Gruff. You have the virtue. You always have the bravery, the strength, the heart. We all believe in you, Gruff. And if you want, whatever you want to do, if you want to go after Ilkara,

if you want to fight in this tawny, we will help you achieve your goals because you have been there for us since the beginning, and you have proven yourself many times that you're willing to stand up for us, even though we haven't even known each other for that long. You've given so much of yourself to all of us, so let me repay the favour to you. Sister Ophelia, I should be the one making vows to you if I'm a knight, but I thank you. I'm also going to go in the other room now because I'm going to cry.

I'm going to cry. Before you do, I think a big hug! Oh, here we go. Daisy's been sitting on a bench looking between Gruff and Ophelia just the whole time. I'm kind of watching it as well, just enjoying it. Percival was bringing around jugs of water, by the way. Oh, that's what that is.

Percival has got clay jugs and is filling up people's water. So, beautiful roleplay aside, do we give Ophelia the thumbs up on monies? Well, I think after that... She's earned the 500. It works. Good job.

Mr Burns, excellent. Well, if somebody can mark off, or whoever is looking after your fortune... I didn't put it in, but I can put it in. I guess you won't have it in your inventory, because we kind of... We didn't do it in, but I can put it in. I guess you won't have it in your inventory because we kind of went through all this.

Yeah, it's complicated. The Duke will provide you money as you win. Or you can basically, because it's the Duke's money, right? Right. You can basically give a promissory note

to the Mason of like, basically you're writing a check, fantasy check, of like, hello, Stone Mason, the Duke will pay you 500 gold, go cash that in. I feel like we just need to track that stuff. I'll track it. Yeah, fantasy check, of like, hello, Stonemason, the Duke will pay you 500 gold. Go cash that in.

I feel like we just need to track that stuff. I'll track it. Yeah, just track it. Basically, give yourself 5,000 gold, but you're not carrying 5,000 gold. I'll give us 4,500 since someone wants her fancy church. All righty. It will take a few days to build.

They'll have to go and make it, Ophelia. I will have a think about the effect it will have but i've got some ideas um i'm thinking something along the lines of if you pray um and i guess it would be at night for you you would have to do a prayer at night if you pray to the great father at this place uh you will gain a benefit for the next 24 hours and what i'm thinking i'll do is the more people who pray with you the more powerful an effect maybe you get

so if you can but they have to be true believers they can't they have to be people that commit themselves to and are dedicated to the grave father

basically nice but there'll be some sort of cool effect where you'll get power red curtains are a nice touch as well because I'm guessing

at night like the moonlight just the inside of that room is just gonna be red it's Castlevania just like picture a scene from castlevania every time there's ophelia stuff i'm like castlevania yeah yeah yeah all right and how's uh how's ophelia's hunger looking as well um well you fed because you used veracity but you fought demons didn't you yeah

you fed on the demon which is not quite the same thing because the veracity still counts for you in terms of just okay Veracity is basically the equivalent like you are feeding through it, basically. It's a straw. But with, it's interesting because you have fed, but it's interesting for you, Ophelia, because when you drain the demons,

when you would use that attack on the demons, you weren't drinking blood, but you were definitely feeding on essence, on energy, and it gave you this incredible feeling of strength. But it's not satiated you. You don't need to feed, but it's like somebody who's like, you're not thirsty, but you really miss the taste of a fresh Coca-Cola.

Not sponsored. Or you're not thirsty but or you'd love a beer you know or like oh i'm really craving a hot dog even though you've just eaten it's that kind of feeling of like you don't need to eat but you you haven't had fresh blood in a while so yeah it's definitely there but not not uh detrimental because you have fed also do you have a track of how much blood veracity has drank i think i'm about 30 sounds about right sounds like mine yeah okay i think so okay interesting out of okay all right yep 180. um all right uh so yeah that will take several days to fix probably uh a couple of days uh you know two two, three days to have that made.

It'll take some time for the stonemasons, for Harley and Sutton to work on that. Nice. But paid for and in the works. Like I said, they'll do, like, little chairs and they'll do, like, candle holders. They'll organise with, like, the ironmongers to come and build candelabras and curtains and things like that. Thank you. All part of it. What is the general state of the building as well now?

Because I know with, well, I say we, Percival has been... Percival's done a lot of... He has tidied up, like, debris. So there's no longer, like, debris and cobwebs and things like that. Percival has been taking care of, like, the maintenance, like, the cleaning. Yeah. But you still have a building which is in a pretty bad shape. Just, like, broken floorboards and...

Yeah, so it is... So it's no longer dirty and dusty with broken furniture, you still have a building which is in a pretty bad shape just like broken floorboards and yeah so it is so it's no longer dirty and dusty with broken furniture but you still have a collapsed roof so part of the roof is completely collapsed okay um the windows have all been broken um so you know it's drafty if there's any sort of wind or ill weather rain it comes all in um the garden is completely overgrown um and whilst Tyria has been under control, you know that if she loses control, that garden is animated and will attack and cause problems as

well. The rooms also, most of the furniture in the rooms, like Percival has thrown out all the old rotten straw mattresses. He's just gotten rid of them all. So you're looking at bare kind of old crummy bed frames. There's no good furniture left here.

It was all taken, basically. Anything that could be carried out and ransacked at one point. So you're basically looking at an empty shell. Right now you've got an empty shell of an old inn with broken roof and windows. But really you could make it into anything you wanted to. You could renovate it, get rid of the bar, and not make it an inn.

You could just make it a big house. Or you could turn it into whatever you want, really. I do have the floor plans. If you want me to go and get them, I can go get them for you to have a think about. We should film an episode of Cribs. Sure. Yeah.

Yo, I'm Xanthius Oregon. This is Welcome to My Crib. Welcome, come on in. Let's take a look. Oh, I'm Xanthius Oregon. This is Welcome to My Crypt. Welcome, come on in. Oh, there is the basement as well. The murder basement. There is a murder basement as well. The murder basement. Or at least where a murder weapon was hidden.

No, just all basements are murder basements. It's just a fact. But yeah, so that's the current state of the building. Yeah. And I do have the costs of what it would take to repair the roof, what it takes to repair all the windows and things like that. What would it take to repair the roof? To repair the roof will take about seven days of labor.

It will cost about 300 gold of materials and about 300 gold of labor. So about 600 gold all told. The problem is now before you guys had a reputation, nobody would probably come and work on the inn because of its haunted like history now you guys are known as heroes and people are coming in and like have seen that the ghost hasn't been around you probably could convince people to come and start working on it but if tyria becomes unstable and attacks them whilst working on it in a certain way i will double the cost of labour, basically.

Like, because they will basically demand danger pay and also, like, it will be harder to get people to come and do it. Is the only way for us to deal with Tyria is to go and get her husband, isn't it? Or is there a... Simply lay her to rest, however you think that that is to be accomplished. That was, like, the first sort of thing.

Yeah. That we thought was the idea. But even then, we didn't actually have a plan of what we would do when we find... And it might just not be one thing. It might be like you have to do... You know, you don't know.

Yeah, because the task is lay her to rest. It's not necessarily solve her murder. It's like, yeah. Just give her to the House of Shadows. No. That, i will say that is an alternative option if tyria's spirit can be convinced to go to the gray lands and become a banshee in the service of the grave father that would remove her from the material plane she would be bound to the to the gray lands and she would no longer be present in the Material Plane. That is also an option.

I feel like Ophelia's like, Yes. Stop. Yeah. Interesting. That's an interesting option. But... But Kavon is in Kelsgaris.

Yeah, that's a big quest. You believe. We think. We don't know. The guards saw them... Leave. You have your notes, I'm not going to, you know, like... They don't know where he went,

because nobody checked up that he arrived. No. Yeah, technically Gruff doesn't know, because he was away when you guys went to speak to Gavin Sayre, and I never got to have a catch-up conversation with you guys, because lots of stuff exploded. I mean, three days have happened. If you want to speak to Gavin Sayre, and I never got to have a catch-up conversation with you guys, because lots of stuff exploded. I mean, three days have happened. If you want to basically assume

that you guys are all brought up to speed on this stuff, you absolutely can do it. In which case, Kim needs to be brought up on speed, because I have a big blank spot in my notepad where I put it down. That's fine. It was episode 18, the Gateguard Sergeant Gavin Sayre. That's all I got.

I've got all my notes right here. Well, are you sure? Well, no. Just give me your laptop. No. Apparently people saw her leaving with a pack to go to Kilskaris, and she was calm. But she was already...

Oh, wait, no, it was him. Sorry. Yeah. Oddly calm. He would be in his 50s by now. Dark brown hair. Beard. Handsome back in the day.

Didn't look like he had enough with him to get to Kelskaris because it was quite a distance away. It's about a week's travel from here. There is a town nearby, Hearth, that he maybe could have gone to a nearby town, but he left through the north gate, so he would have had to have gone around. There's another small village nearby,

but it's deep in the woods. So yeah, there's a lot of small villages not on the map that he could have gone to instead of going to Kelskaris. And I've got a sketch of Kavan. Well, because you directly spoke with Tyria, didn't you? Because you could telepathically... Well, I spoke with Tyria,

but I also spoke with the guard who gave me a description of what he saw. And that's right, and you did a really good sketch of him. So I would say that with that sketch, and also with your conversations with Tyria, you have a fairly good idea, Daisy, that if you see Kavan, you'll recognise them.

Yeah. But the others won't just recognise him by sight. But I've got my sketch. Oh, you've got your sketch, yeah. I could show everybody the sketch. Yeah. So at this Oh, you've got your sketch, yeah. I'd say that, yeah. I could show them. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. In that case, yeah. I could show everybody the sketch, but. Yeah. So at this point, you're all fairly confident that if you were to see Kavan,

you would recognise him. Yeah. We've just got no idea. Yeah. Where they might have headed to. Yeah. Okay, and outside of that, we still need the tournament,

because you've got a tournament. But, yeah, that's what we do as well. I'm not ready. I don't even know... What do you do? Fight? Not fight? You tell me. Why don't we go and ask Sir Green? How often are these tournaments yearly? I can tell you a bit about the tournaments, yeah.

So they're not yearly. Generally tournaments... The size of the tournament matters, right? Okay. A big, big tournament maybe happens once a year, but smaller tournaments will happen pretty much on any festival or holy day because it is kind of, there are no, like, public holidays. There's no bank holidays or summer holidays for, like, people in Elmira. So the only time that they really get time off, like, working the fields

or working their shops is these like holy festivals and stuff or certain national events like coronation like the coronation of the empress like that is or like the recognition of the empress the founding of the empire that's a national holiday the death of the empress is now registered as a kind of public day of mourning across the empire um but yeah these these tournaments happen almost not quite every month, but like close enough. Yeah, yeah. Like for example, in Bronze Globe,

there are actually two Holy Days, so there will be two tournaments. St. Messara's is probably going to be bigger. The next one will probably be a much smaller local tournament. Okay. But it is something that we know the arrangement of it or potentially, I guess, would mean Daisy in Cauldron. I would say that Xanthius and Daisy probably would know the most.

Gruff would know just because you've listened to stories, right? Iceheart probably don't have... You would have to go to the capital for like... The capital city would have a tournament arena, but that's probably the only place where they would have an actual tournament tournament. Down here in Caldra, they're very traditional. They are like classic competitions. They tend to be split over multiple days.

So this one is two days. So it'll be tomorrow and then the day after. And there are normally different categories so you can go in as like a single combatant and normally it's based on the weapon so it's like swords uh uh two-handed like two-handed weapon sword and shield or single-handed weapon and shield um there are normally archery competitions as well like for archers uh there'll be a magical duel because knights can aren't just like knights in armor. A knight can be a mage, a knight can be

a ranger, a knight can be an archer, whatever it is. There will also be a joust on drakes. There will be a drakes joust. So like a proper old school joust, but not horses, basically. And then there is also, in larger tournaments,

which is going to be the case for this one, there will be team battles as well. So there's a battle where you can sign up as a team and you fight against another team of knights, basically. No biting, Sir Gryold. Yeah. Can't promise anything. And generally the aim in a tournament is...

Winning is good. If you can win and prove you're the best at a certain style of fighting or you're the best jouster obviously that earns you acclaim um and notably but it's also how you conduct yourself as well like you are it is a chance for knights to see recruits people that they want to recruit into knightly orders it's a chance for draconic nobles to see people they wish to offer favours and opportunities to as well. So it's as much about how you conduct yourself, how you present yourself as well.

So incinerating someone with crown steel? Probably not a good idea. Not a great impression, really. Something that Daisy and Xanthius would know, and again, I know it came up with the party, but for example, if Gruff turns up wearing tatty hide leathers and things like that, he's going to be looked on quite unfavorably. This is a cauldron tournament,

so how you look is as important as how you conduct yourself and how you fight. With the outfit that we had made for the audience, would that work? That would be fine, because that was like a social, like you were going to a duke's attendance, right? That is like a formal party wear outfit. Your armour, your hide armour, you wear like scraps of leather and fur as your armour. That, yeah.

My wife lovingly made those, thank you. Yeah, I'm sure they did. I was going to say, like, in the three days of downtime, I think there's two things that Gruff, three things that, I think there's four things that Gruff would do. Well, he'd fuss over the team, he'd fuss over everybody, make sure they're all right, they're getting their sleep, and they're getting their food. He'd go fishing, and he'd also probably go to the forge

to look at some kind of training, or ask Ser Griel like what is expected in a tournament because he's very insecure about his fighting ability in this

like he knows how to fight like in the wild as it were but he doesn't know anything about this kind of thing and then he'd probably

hang outside of Dante's the really fancy um the armoury the shop armour shop but still just hang out outside and just hang outside of Dante's, the really fancy... The armoury, the shop. Armour shop. But still just hang out outside

and just really nervously keep looking in, keep looking at all the stuff. Okay. Taking a step towards the door. Well, let's do that first because the training stuff with Sir Gryold, I think we can sum that stuff up. I don't mean to argue.

But we can sum it up. We'll do a little bit, but we can sum that up as well. But with Dante's, which is, as you rightly put it, is on the main square. So it's number nine, I believe. It's like on the map. It's like one of the main buildings. Yeah, it is an illustrious store. You can see the window is full of these ornate beautifully made

suits of like plate armor and um a little bit of leather and things like that as well but primarily metal um you can see beautiful swords and rapiers um a few like a mace beautifully like flanged mace almost like a an exploding sun, waves kalescing down. Everything is beautifully made. No prices, so you know it's expensive. But everything's also on plush velvet cushions and this

gorgeous draped fabric, and it's all enclosed. There doesn't look to be any natural kind of light going on. Every now and then, the door is blacked out with a curtain as well. So, you know, when the door opens, you just glance inside and you see these beautiful glass display cabinets acting as like a desk and shelf. And inside you see, you know, beautifully made daggers and stilettos and, you know, pieces like gauntlets and things like that

on display. And there does seem to be another building attached to the back that does not seem to be accessible to customers, but stood behind the glass. And occasionally talking to customers, you see a very finely dressed human man. He's got like a white shirt with a fine red vest dotted with gold and studded, almost like it's a piece of armor, almost like brigadine or studded leather, but it's actually just velvet and brass studs, gold studs, sorry.

And he has a necklace with a piece of stone decorated with silver bands and filigree around his neck as well. And he seems to be speaking with the customers. You notice that there's no swords on the walls to pick up or things like that. The customers just seem to be speaking to this man, and then that's it, and that's what you glance as the door shuts. Yeah, so I think, yeah,

Groff's just going to keep nervous, like, trying to work up the courage to go in, not able to go in, come out, almost, like, leaves one day and then comes back the next day and is still there again. Maybe gets two more steps in. And I guess, yeah, maybe if Xanthius is wandering by, he could have been going to a latte fun

and just walk past with a bag of pastries and just look at... You just see him doing that thing where you're hovering around a nice looking shop, like looking in and stuff. You said you were out fishing. I was, in the morning. Okay. You were snoring.

I was. Was I? I've done it. Pastry. Okay, so. Thank you. Do you wanna go in? No, yes. Look at these!

These are unbelievable! Oh, let's go in! Oh, you know what? You would look so good in these. Actually, how much are these? Xanthius and Daisy, can you both make history checks for me, please? Yes, can I have all of my d20s back?

Thank you. History. History. Oh! 19. 19. Plus hero. Xanthius. Dante's is a name you know.

This is not the only shop. Dante's is the name of several shops across Caldra. It's like a franchise, basically. Master Dante is a sort of legendary smith of Caldron origin. He's very well known for creating absolutely stunning pieces of weapons and armor, art pieces.

Most of them are Dante original, like a piece created by the original master. Okay. It's like a Rembrandt or something. It's a piece of art, right? And so they can go for, like, tens of thousands of gold pieces. Oh, my gosh. We shouldn't be going here.

However, Master Dante is years ago, right? He's an old master. This isn't the Dante in here now. No. Instead, what it is is Dante took on several apprentices or heirs, and they all then went off and founded their own sort of branches of Dante's. And they're all now competing to basically prove themselves as the next Dante.

So they are all called something Dante. They all have the surname Dante, but none of them are the Master Dante yet. And it's not quite clear if Master Dante is still alive. I mean, he lived like hundreds of years ago, but there's still this thing of like, but is he still around? Like, that's not possible.

Like, he was a human. He was a normal man, but there is this kind of like legendary element to him. Yeah. But yeah, you've probably, it's a story that a cauldron like yourself, like having grown up in Rust End and you've heard people talk about this and things like that.

Probably even your family as well, like some of the gold dragons in Gildai probably have a Dante original. And that would be like a piece of their hoard. The legacy. Yeah, it would be like an incredible piece to have. I don't know. No, but you've heard the name.

Yeah. You would look just resplendent in one of these, if only we had more money, of course. But, no, look, please, stand in front of the mirror, try and frame yourself up with that piece of armour there. See yourself in it. Can you imagine it? Oh, it's a bit fancy for the likes of me.

Fancy, but look at yourself. I don't think even my village, if we pulled all our money, could afford anything like this. Well, maybe, maybe not. I mean, there's not going to be any originals in here. There's no chance, zero chance. There's a slight chance. You should have seen the one in Kelskaris, the Dante's there. Unbelievable.

We could go and look, though. There's no harm in looking. You don't have to buy things, but we could just look. We could go and look, though. There's no harm in looking. You don't have to buy things, but we could look. We could just look, right? Yeah! Come on, come in, come in. They're not going to throw us out, are they? No!

Why would they do that? Would they do that? Would they do that? Well, if we go in there and start smashing things to pieces, but let's not go in there and smash things to pieces. Is that what both of you said? Cauldrons, they put a lot in appearance, and only braids are out, and I'm a bit scruffy, but... Yes, but we also put a lot of stock in people hoping to put a lot of effort into improving their appearance as well, and that's what you're aiming to do.

Also, I can fix the braids, it's fine. The braids? That's a Daisy problem. OK. Right, leave. This will be so exciting. OK, let's go in. Oh, no. You first. Yeah, you guys step inside. A beautiful, rich aroma kind of hits you as you step inside. There is clearly magical music being played by some small magic item or something like that. Very soft, orchestral, ambient music kind of thing.

And you step inside. You're the only customers in. Again, like all these beautiful glass cabinets, bejeweled long knives, gauntlets. You can see different weapons. There are some crossbows. You actually even see some early firearms. Like cauldrons have begun experimenting

with like dragon powder weapons and things like that as well. But they're like beautiful flintlock muskets with like these ornate barrels designed to look like sailing ships and waves and then the barrel kind of pokes out of the light they're pieces of art as much as they are weapons but you also see that on the walls behind like glass uh protectors there are functional looking ones that aren't just pieces of art that are just incredibly well-made weapons and some of them even look like they have strange attachments weird guards excuse me weird guards on swords or swords that

look like they can be extended to become pole arms and things like that like pieces of technical genius mixed in with beautiful displays of artistry and andmithing. The man behind the glass cabinets looks at you all, very placid-looking, kind of calm face, looks dark hair pushed back, wearing this beautiful necklace, beautiful vest with this strange stone necklace. Welcome to Dante's. How may I help you today?

Oh, it is so nice to speak with you. What is your name? Mr. Dante, I presume? No, no, no, good sir. No, no, no. I am Martijn. I am the armelier. Armelier? Yes. Which of course means? I am the steward of arms. It is my duty to work with our customers to provide them something that will suit their needs and purpose. Well, we have a future knight

in the making. Oh, I am very well aware of all of you. As the heroes of Ashen Rest, I am very honoured. I will have to let Mistress Dante know that we have had such prestigious guests arrive and to peruse her wonders?

Well, of course you know about the tournament happening soon. Of course indeed. We hope to make our presence known in the most extravagant way possible. And who better than Dante? Well indeed, Mistress Dante is very eager to show off. I believe that she has worked with some of our knights of the realm and some other knights to have her wares on display. Of course the the Festival of the Forge is an opportunity not just for our knights to

prove themselves but for many of the eager smiths and armorers of the town to also show off their talents. What better way than to show one's weapons and armor off than to see them in action, of course. And you are looking, I believe, Gruffydd, your name to be. I've heard around the town. Oh, this is very strange. No one ever knows my name before. Yes, Gruffydd of Tremoril. Gruffydd of Tremoril, Marteyn the Armellier.

Honored to meet you. Indeed. Now, how can I be of service? What are you looking for? What are you, what is it you are in the market for? What is it that I want? Well, for me personally. I want everything.

A full course. But, just his point, he doesn't think that's a joke. He's like, the full ensemble. We're just browsing mostly to see what's around. And maybe... Well, you are more than welcome to look at Mistress's collection that is on display here, but I should warn you that these are

primarily display purposes. We offer a much more personal service here. It is very much about tailoring a weapon or a piece of armor, a shield. Each individual who uses it, it is a very delicate balance. It is a relationship between the tool and its user. This is all very much just to bring people inside. But for a true fighter, obviously you are welcome to buy any of these items that you people inside, but for a true fighter, obviously you are welcome to buy any of these items that you can see, but for a true warrior,

we offer a more bespoke service. Gruff unhooks his shield from his back, holds it out and goes... It's a big plank of wood, right? It's like a bit of driftwood wrote together. I made this myself from my old raft. There is a... You see the calm exterior. There is definitely a bit of driftwood wrote together. I made this myself from my old raft. There is a... You see, like, the calm exterior.

There is definitely a bit of a blanch. I see. Also, my quarterstaff. I took it from an old bit of house. And my birds, when I was rearing them, they perch on it. That would indicate the staining upon the top of it. I tried to get it out, but it's, you know, quite pungent. Sorry.

But despite the tools at Gruff's disposal... And your armour, the leather and fur, this is your... My life made it. But you should see Gruff in combat. It's truly... Please, I... The tools. It is a matter of... That is more of my interest.

What you have now, you are clearly looking for improvements and something that is more customed to suit you better and to fulfil your needs. Yeah, I've been told that you cauldrons put a lot of stock in what they see. And I... We are very proud people. cauldrons put a lot of stock in what they see, and I... We are very proud people. Well, I'm going to be doing something in the tawny, and I'm trying to find an order of knights.

So I probably should scrub up a bit and try and look good. Is that right? Yeah, look good. Yes, well, mostly. But also, succeeding, doing well in a tournament will certainly help. May I ask Sir's expected budget for these endeavours? What? That's a good question.

I actually hadn't considered that. What? 500? Well, we gave Ophelia 500. We did. But this is the tournament. 600? Mm.

What kind of a budget would you say would be reasonable for an upgrade for Gruffydd? Well, with Mistress Dante's works, it would depend. For that sort of sum, 500, 600 gold, we are looking at perhaps a fine weapon, but certainly I would not be able to include a shield or armour.

Armour is particularly pricey, especially that worked in metal. You would need to be considering thousands unfortunately for metal armor but for weapons or perhaps a more simpler piece of armor we could extend it to it depends on what you are looking for good sir can druids wear armor that is not you so not wood but in the core dnd, it does say Druids should not wear metal armour, and I am inclined to follow that,

because I do think it's a good flavour for the class, but also it is about your primal connection to it, and there's the idea that metal armour is kind of somehow blocking that. You can also use heat metal, and that's just a nightmare. That does mean, though, that I'm perfectly willing to allow things like

scale mail that is made from the scales of a creature, or leather, like, and things like that. I'm totally okay. Or, you know, if you were to find, like, you know, a shell, like a creature with a hard shell, that could be turned into plate armor or something like that. Huh? Okay. Told.

Well. Yes. I'm thinking more like, you know, a powerful, like, an unkeg or something like an insectoid creature, like a chiton. I thought just, like, going... Skin a total, yeah. No, we just found, like, you know,

it's long dead and it's just there. Oh, yeah, just find a random long dead total. Just drag it all the way through Ash and Rest. Ego Dante. Do something with that. But, like, yeah, things like a chiton or something like that, or scales from a creature you could yeah, things like a chitin or something like that, or scales from a creature you could turn into, like, a scale mail,

or something like that as well. But, yeah, I'm going to say, for now, I'm going to kind of go with it that it is part of the class. I thought that was the vibe. Yeah. Listen. Okay. I can't be spending thousands on this.

Just for me, it's not... Well, maybe not yet, but soon. This is a goal. This is but soon. This is a goal. This is an investment. This is an investment. We do not have to do the full ensemble as well. If you are just, if Sir is just looking for some new weapons or a new shield or something like that, that is certainly something. And 500 to 600 gold, we certainly can equip Sir with some fine weaponry. What do you kids think?

Weapon or shield? Well, I think a shield would be bigger than a Weckman and therefore more glamorous. Potentially. You might better go smaller, but shield could be good. Are you talking about how certain smiths in the area are, I suppose, promoting their work through the tournament? Yeah. Is there anyone you're sponsoring in the tournament?

Minister Stante has already had a number of clients who will be displaying, advertising her wares, yes. I see. I would say that, unfortunately, in this place, there is not room for another, especially one who is not already a knight. And I do apologize, good sir. That is not meant as any sort of insult or anything such. However, there may be other smiths out in there. And he says, and he leans in, Mistress Dante does not like to speak of their services,

but, and you see he holds the whetstone around his neck. He's like, but the Blacksmith's Guild, perhaps if you are looking to spend a bit less coin or looking for someone who might sponsor you, I would perhaps advise you speak with them. Yeah. I just wonder if in this tournament, the first tournament since the event,

people might have their eyes on the heroes of Ashen's Rest. Most certainly. Most certainly so. This boy! I can't speak of the future, but who's to know? Would you like to give me a persuasion check? A very spicy persuasion check. I know.

He's making a very good point. I have pride. Do you want to use fate? Yeah, I do. Keeping in mind, it is tomorrow. I know. But, yeah, all right, you're going to spend a point of fate. Just something off the racks.

Now, I'm going to keep in mind, if you spend a point of fate and you flub this roll, it's going to have a consequence. No! You should have seen what that piece of shit was saying. So what is it? Sorry, persuasion. Persuasion. Okey-doke.

With this. Oh, my giddy aunt. Oh my god. You're older, 19, not 20. 19, 24, 27. 20. Plus! Wow. Oh!

You see Martain when you say that, and there is a kind of wry, knowing smile. He's like, well. But what, who's to say the future? And with a fine knowing smile, he's like, well. But what, who's to say the future? I will go and inquire with Mistress Dante. Let her know that one of the saviors of the town is interested perhaps in displaying,

this would only be a rental for the purposes of the tournament. That would be amazing. Well, that would be, yes. It would make everyone look amazing. Now, before I go, I don't wish to bother the mistress without having the full details. Now, whether or not it is a shield or weapon, I want to have a mind.

It seems that we have some custom, whether it is a rental or perhaps a purchase. And he kind of looks to you, Gruffydd, and he's like, now, my good sir, I have a few questions, if I may. What is your preferred fighting style? You have a shield and staff, but more than that, do you prefer to engage close? Do you keep your enemies at reach?

What is your fighting style? Describe to me how you engage in battle. I generally put myself in front of everyone else, so everyone attacks me and not the others. Yeah, real out there, real good. And do you prefer control, or are you more aggressive? Oh, Ogroth has both, like, all the time. Balanced fighting style, would you say?

I suppose, yeah, I mean. And can you use, are you purely martial in your ability? Do you employ magic in any way? Gruff can turn into a kitten, but he won't. He won't do it. He says that it's demeaning. If I may, madam, this is a matter between myself and the... I'm just so excited. I'm sorry.

Sorry. Gruff's really nice. Let's go look at the... Oh, daggers! Yeah. Yeah. We're going to get kicked out. Imagine, like, you've got a wine sommelier,

and somebody's just like, oh, he likes cherry. Oh, you like it when it's fizzy, right? And the sommelier's just like... The thing is that Gruff needs this. Gruff doesn't fucking know. But that's the job of a good armadillo, to get the answers out.

So in private, he's just like, no, no. So a control fighting style, use a mixture of aggression and control discipline. Disciplined mind, would you say? I try and be disciplined, yes. This is very cool. Sometimes I do lose my temper a little bit. Sore!

That's good to know. And with the staff, you prefer to fight one-handed. With your shield in the other. Do you employ the shield for any attacking? To bash, to block, to push? That's a really good idea. That's important to know. Now, let me see.

You mentioned, can you use some magic? There seemed to be a cusp, a matter of things there as well. Yes, I... I should have talked about the kitten, should I, Xanthius? No, you shouldn't. Okay. I do a lot of healing magic and elemental things. Things I've learned from the storms and the ocean.

The ocean? You are a sailor of some kind? A fisherman. So you are used to being steady on your feet. Would you say that when you fight, do you imagine, envision the battlefield like an ocean, swaying the pull and push of combat flowing upon you? You know, I suppose it is. It's changeable. It has tides, it has waves, it's unpredictable. There's normally something in the depths that come up and grab your ankle at the last minute.

Yes. Gets in your eyes and blinds you a little bit, but you can also judge it and control it and use it. Yes, very good. This is excellent, excellent. And in terms of armour, what are we looking at? You are currently very lightly armoured. Leathers and furs, that sort of thing. Do you prefer to be light on your feet, or would you like something more protective, more sturdy?

Are there any limitations? Are there anything I should know about your preference for armour? Well, I can do with this. And the armour of Hogan forms. Marvellous. Absolutely beautiful. Stunning. Oh, bless you.

And this is on top of whatever you have underneath. If you did not have the furs, this is still projected around it. Yes, oh yes, I've never really thought about it. And how quick on your feet would you say you are? Are you quite dexterous? I'm pretty quick and I am pretty dexterous. Very good. Now what about weight?

How are we feeling? Are you comfortable with a heavier weight? I have some measuring devices and he literally rolls out dumbbells and padded vests and things and he gets you to, like, dumbbells and, like, padded, like, vests and things. Yeah. And he gets you to, like, try on. What's your strength score as Gruff?

It's a flat 10. Flat 10. So there's definitely a point where, like, when you start putting the heavier stuff on, you're like, oh, this is a bit uncomfortable. And without even having to say anything, Martain is just like, I can see that that's making you uncomfortable. No, we take that off.

He tries on, which is almost like a middle middle weight and actually you feel kind of good it still gives you a look your deck score is uh 12 12 so plus one um so you put that on and you're like yeah this is good you still have a bit of you know you've got flexibility but you can definitely feel that there's like a sturdiness to it and he's like yes this i think is what we need to be looking at sort of a medium weight very good very good uh he looks at your paws he's like, yes, this I think is what we need to be looking at, sort of a medium weight. Very good, very good. He looks at your paws. He's like, ah, larger than a gauntlet, yes. And he starts taking measurements, and he gets like a measuring thing out,

and like a, you know, he's like a tailor taking measurements. He writes them down on like a little chalkboard. He's like, very good. All right. Let me go and speak with the mistress about a loan of some armor for the tournament. But weapon-wise, I think I have something. And he goes over and he unlocks some of the cabinets and he starts pulling things out,

a selection of different things. He closes them up and he brings them over. And the first thing he shows you is, it almost looks like a club, more like a long kind of flattened metal and wooden beautifully made uh steel capped like rod and he's like ah now this is perhaps a bit more useful for traveling uh and he throws it and with a flick it becomes a quarter staff so it moves between a club

and a quarter staff so you can change between the two good if one is using one-handed but needs the extra reach or if one wishes to switch to a two-handed grip and he begins almost displaying fighting moves with it. Very useful, much more versatile. Collapses it down, places it down. This one is quite interesting. He pulls out a quarter staff, but this one has a large hook on the side,

and on the other side, it has like a flattened sort of end, almost like a heavier weight. Ah, now, the bill pole. This is much more interesting. You mentioned flow, push and pull. Very useful. Flage, flat end, pushing away. Makes, gives you much more weight and advantage.

Helps you leverage your strength. But an ally or an enemy that needs to be brought closer, now we have a hook, we can pull, we can maneuver around, spin it around, like begins showing off all of these things. It's out of a fight. You, back here! Shields, brings over a couple of shields. One is like a smaller, rounded, domed shield

with quite a large kind of dome in the middle, a punching shield, very good for disarming, but also for the strike. Much more. Not as good for protecting those around you, but very good as an offhand weapon. But for protection, he brings over, this seems to be a normal size, like, metal shield, but there is a trigger on the inside,

and when equipped, it extends outwards, becoming much wider. Useful for protecting one's allies who are nearby. Does reduce your mobility, reduces a little bit on that, makes you a bit more of a... But provides a little bit of additional cover, good against archer fire or some things coming in like that.

And with a flick, it locks back in, places those down. What are we thinking on these choices, sir? I don't know if we can intervene. So Gruff kind of reaches out, his paws go over all of them. Please, pick them up, have a feel. This is important we get the right notion. And he probably rests on the billhook and the protection shield. Yes, I thought that those would be your choices.

Now, does sir have anything for if sir is disarmed or if one is not able to use his primary weapon? I've got my claws. Oh, very gorgeous. I've got magic in terms of a knife made of ice. We don't need a backup sidearm, a knife, or a short blade, or anything of the like you're not in the market for, sir?

I'll probably be okay. For the claws, gauntlets perhaps, something to protect your hands if you are going to use them in close combat? I never thought of that. Give me a moment. He goes over and he begins pulling out, now we only have the one set of these,

unfortunately I cannot offer you a number of options, but he plays out two very simple metal gauntlets that would wrap over your hands and over the claws. A little bit of extra protection when you go to strike with them, but also, and on the back you can see they have studded spikes, are good for a reverse, just to give you a little bit of extra offensive ability as well. They would just increase your unarmed damage, basically.

Double plus. Yes, yes. But also to protect the fingers and nails and things like that, as if you are using them. Oh, sir. Yes, these would be, and he puts them in a little separate pile, these would be an additional cost, of course, for sir.

But looking at these, the masterwork billhook and the masterwork protector shield, we would be looking at about 600 gold for the pair. Oh. Do you both think that's all right? Hm? Sorry? Oh, we were just looking at the weapons over here. We weren't paying attention at all.

I didn't have any money to spend on nice things when I was growing up, and now we have a little bit of money to spend on nice things, and Ophelia got a nice thing, and I think that you should get a nice thing too. And it's very important, because this is the start of your journey to being a knight. So get it, or we'll buy it for you anyway. Right, I have a feeling I have no say in the matter, because even if I say no, the children aren't going to mind it anyway.

Well, then, I am very pleased to do business with you, sir. I will get these properly packaged. We all do some resizing and things like that, make sure the straps are well-adjusted for your forearm. The mistress will work on those momentarily. And he starts putting the unselected items away. If you wouldn't mind here, would you care for refreshments whilst you wait? Oh, yes, that would be wonderful.

Yes, of course. There are seats over in the corner. There's like a little table next to the window. He brings over, it's like cucumber water and like beautiful little glasses, a little tray full of nuts and savoury snacks. He puts those down. It will only be the briefest of moments while I'm gone.

Thank you very much. Thank you. And he collects the billhook and the shield and he takes them into the back and is gone for a short period of time. I'm standing there calm and smiling as he walks out of the room and the moment he's left, that is how you get it done!

We did it! I have no idea what just happened. You're gonna be a knight, and you're gonna be wearing this armor in the tournament. Right. And you're gonna be using these weapons and you're gonna look amazing. And what's more, we've got rent in the tournament. Right. And you're going to be using these weapons, and you're going to look amazing. And what's more, we've got rentals for ourselves as well.

Wait, what? I think. No, wait, they were the rentals. I've misread this entire scenario. We're not getting anything. We don't need anything. I do feel really bad. I feel like you both need things as well.

No. Especially you. I don't know how to use weapons. I can make a dagger in my hand. It's got a dagger. And also, armor-wise, too heavy. I don't know how to use weapons. I can make a dagger in my hand. It's called a dagger. And also, armor-wise, too heavy. Restrains me.

It was quite heavy, actually. Yeah, I saw. I wouldn't be able to carry that sort of weight. No. I've got the magic armor. Okay, use that more. As a point, Dante's is like the, this is like masterwork quality gear.

You can just go to the blacksmith's guild if so you want to get like some armour for Rowan or if Ophelia wants some armour like you don't have to come here

Ophelia will want to come here but you want to be here fancy pants would be wait there's Ophelia

she's walking past now guys just like looking in sure if you want to join in on the scene how long has Ophelia. She's walking past now. Guys! Just like looking in. How long has Ophelia been shiny? Sure, if you want to join in on the scene. How long has Ophelia been at the window? I don't know. There's a lot of steam on it from her breath.

No, no, no. The weapons are bought outright. There is no steam. She has no breath. The armor is to borrow, yes. Yeah. That is the deal that has been run here. So mark off 600 gold,

because the shield and weapon are bought. But they're bought for you for good. I will have to do custom stats for those, so we'll have those for you next week, Kim. But I didn't know what Martain was going to suggest until we had a conversation, so I had to make it up on the spot. But we'll have those custom items for you.

They are non-magical masterwork weapons, so they're not going to do any extra damage. I'm thinking in my head that the bill hook, the masterwork bill hook, is basically going to give you a plus two bonus whenever you try to shove or if you try and grapple and pull somebody with the bill hook. Or you can use it on allies

and they willingly just go like, yep, okay. You can move them five feet closer and stuff like that. It will also... Pretty good. It will basically be a quarter staff with reach, I imagine. so it no extra damage but it does have like an extra little effect and five foot of reach as well right you they will not be that's a different staff you might need to go and have a mage do some transferry nonsense for that but that is i'm gonna say no this is like a masterwork thing on its own. The shield is probably going to be

as a bonus action, you can extend the shield. When you do, it will probably reduce your movement, but it will offer half cover to an ally within five feet of you. So if you have, as long as you have somebody next to you, you can give them half cover with this cool extendo shield, basically.

That's good, 600 gold for two really cool things. 300 gold each, basically. That's really cool. Yeah. That's good, 600 gold for two really cool things. Yeah. Yeah, 300 gold each, basically, or like 400, 200 for the shield. And then borrowing armor, which is gonna make you look really cool for the tournament. Yeah, so Ophelia comes in,

having been looking in the window, like you're brought in. We've been shopping. Have you, have you? We have. You know our knight in training over here? You've got armor! I'm not a knight yet.

In training. I may have purchased some things. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Can I see it? Is it ready? Oh, well, it'll be back very, very soon, but you're going to look so good. You will look amazing. Oh, Lord, everyone's going to be looking at me, aren't they, by the same- They're going to be looking at us anyway. Right, okay. But you're going to look good doing it, being looked at, I mean.

Should I make a banner for the tournament? For Gruff? I wouldn't, no. That's a good idea. You should make a banner. I will point out, you have a day. I'm making a banner! Okay, about.

Dany's gonna stay up all night. I would say about 10 to 15 minutes pass, and you hear Martain returning, but another voice adjoins him of, I want to meet this man before I don't hit my armor. I want to, you know, I've heard of these heroes, but I want to meet them, Martain. And Martain comes out,

and you can see he's carrying the uh bill hook and the shield looks like the straps have been adjusted and like you know grips and things like have been re-gripped and everything's been like polished up and made nice uh they are not put in like a nice bag or anything like that um maybe like a ribbon wrapped around it yeah um but yeah brought out uh martin will bow his head uh also will see ophelia and sort of bow to you as well as a new customer um if i may introduce please uh mistress ilana vidante uh and you see um a uh a cauldron woman in like her like late 30s um her hair is kept short on the sides but worn quite long on the top and then tied up in a bun. She wears a very elegant sort of blouse with a pair of work trousers,

like quite tight work trousers and boots. The boots are the most stunningly gorgeous leather knee-high boots. They're embellished with gold and fittings, all looking like tiny hammers and flames. Ophelia has powerful knees. Engraved, embossed leather, all done with these

fiery motifs. Her work apron, she has a blacksmith's apron, which is of the same quality. The apron is beautifully embossed. All the clasps and fittings are handmade and fitted, and it's perfectly fitted around her figure. And you can see that on her belt, she has various beautiful artisan tools as well. Flawless makeup, like, full face, you know, not a drop of sweat on her. She sort of, like, you know,

looks around, and she has these tiny Ponsonnet glasses as well, balanced on her nose She sort of looks around and she has these tiny Ponsnay glasses as well, balanced on her nose, and she looks around. You must be Grothoth of Tremoro, yes? I am. I charm to meet you, mistress. Mistress. I am

mistress Elana Vidante, apprentice of the great Master Dante. Yes. Xanthius Oregon, I'm called. Yes, indeed. Pleasure to meet you. Oh, thank you. You are quite bold for your suggestion. Well, apologies for any offense. No, you are cauldron, are you not? I am.

Do not apologize for being bold. I'm intrigued. I already have many of the knights. Sir Griot, Dame Cassandra, many of the others have already purchased works from me, or I am learning them, objects to wear in the tournament to show off my skill as one of the true heirs of Master Dante. But you have made a bit of a name for yourselves. I am intrigued. Perhaps I will loan you a piece for the tournament.

But I wish to meet the warrior, the man, the lion, who wishes to wear it. A wild heart? I have not made armor for a wild heart before. A wild heart? I have not made armor for a wild heart before. Now, I'm told that you favor a sort of medium weight to your armor. What about any, like, you can see she's, like, looking down at your feet. Now, we can't possibly, armor on those would be too dangerous.

You need those loose. Yes, we can't have that. And she's, like, examining, walking around you, not really kind of treating you as a person, like, it's like looking at you as an object, basically. Did you tell Martijn about no metal yet, by the way? I guess, yeah. Because you could just say metal interferes with my powers. Yeah, absolutely.

You can just say that. Very curious. No metal. What a challenge. What a challenge. I am very skilled in leather work, of course. How much metal, if there are studs of metal, would that affect you, do you think? The answer is no.

The answer is no. The answer is no. Do we still have some of that hide that we bought from those other adventurers several months ago? Of course, mistress, we have it preserved out the back. Yes, we could make something with that. It would not be a full suit of scale, male, but we could offer some protection in the much-needed areas. This will take me all night.

We'll have to use the magical forge, but it's possible. Very well. I will craft you a suit of armour to be delivered just before the tournament begins. It will be on loan. You will wear it for the tournament and when you have the opportunity to speak, you will make sure to thank Mistress Ilana Vidante

for the beautiful armour that you are wearing. Ah, Mistress, this is a great honour. It is, yes. for the beautiful armour that you are wearing. Ah, Mistress, this is a great honour. It is, yes. For a country boy from a very small village in the north that no one's ever heard of. And I must let you know, I am making a name for myself in this town as an Oathkeeper. So you have my oath that if I have the opportunity to speak,

I will shout your name and your praises from the rooftops. Very good, this is what I wish to hear. But if I may offer a bit of advice, no more of this I am a country man from the north. No, no, no, no. You are in Caldra, we do not speak of that way. You are a hero of this town, a knight in training who wears the very best. There will be no more of this humble origin.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not if you wish to win the hearts of Kaldran people. No, no, no, no. Very well. I have my moment. I have inspiration. Martijn, you will deal with the rest, yes? Of course, Mistress, yes, of course.

Absolutely. Then I go to work. The armour will be delivered to you tomorrow. Thank you, mistress. Do not disappoint. I will be most displeased if I am to loan you this beautiful custom armor that I, heir of Master Dante, am to make, and then you are to perform terribly in the tournament.

That would be quite the insult. I wouldn't dare to let down a lady's honour. Now we are speaking as a knight. Yes, very good, very good. She goes. She doesn't clap to anyone. That's for herself. She kind of swanters,

and she definitely has like a sway in her walk. Like she has a very sassy walk when she leaves. Very, you know, Edna mode, almost kind of like brimming with ideas. Taller, sexier Edna mode. But when you leave, Martain is just like, well, sir, I have prepared the weapons and armour. They have been adjusted for you.

Please, and with your thanks. And I'm assuming you do like a promissory note like that. Ah, of course, I will take care of that and make sure the payment is accepted on behalf. Is there anything... My apologies, my good lady. I did not see you enter. I've been busy with another customer.

Oh, no, not a problem, not a problem. Sorry, I was just a bit flustered. Oh, yes, of course. No, please take your time. Please, indeed. If there is anything else I can help any of you with, are any of you in the market for our services? Just to be clear on the deal that was made there, simply thanking Elena Vedante during the tournament. Hashtag ad. Mistress Elena Vedante, yes. I believe that if as long as Mr. Gruffydd performs admirably in the tournament and indeed can mention my lady's name. It is generally given that most knights who compete

in any of the major tournaments will have an opportunity to introduce themselves. This would be a... Or to have a speaker announce on their behalf. Okay. That is generally... That is where we would... Somewhere within the first 30 seconds of the speech.

Yes, something along those lines. We can create a banner as well to go over the top as well. Well, that would be lovely, but not necessary. They have to see the banner before they are invested in the speech. Of course, yes. Maybe I could.

Disclosure. Advertising standards. It's very important. I could send my birds out to send word. Oh, so they can always say that there's. They could tweet about it. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh. That sounds very good. Oh, so they can always say that there's... They could tweet about it. That's very good. Remember, they have to disclose it instantly. Can't be hidden in their tweet. I mean, I knew what I was doing when I put some of this stuff in here. I knew, so... But yes, he will say, and then once the tournament is concluded, on the second day we would expect the armour to be returned,

Once the tournament is concluded, on the second day we would expect the armor to be returned, ideally in as good condition as can be expected after battling in the tournament. Okay. Right. No blood stains. Blood stains are fine, we can deal with blood stains. We're talking about damage to the armor itself.

Right. Yes. We can manage that. I. We can manage that. I think we can manage that. Excellent. We wouldn't want to disappoint her ladyship, would we? Oh, God, no. No, no.

No, not at all. Oh, no, no. But no, for me, armor doesn't sit right for me in battle. I'm comfortable as I am. Any preference? Do you use weaponry, sir? No, no. Purely magic.

Ah, very good, very good. What about you, my dear? Anything for yourself? Um, I have weaponry, sir? No, no, purely magic. Ah, very good, very good. What about you, my dear? Anything for your son? Um, I have weaponry taken care of. I'm okay, I think. Very well, very well. And of course, madam, apologies, I have not had a chance. I am Martein, I am the armellier. Wonderful to meet you. I am Sister Ophelia de la Rosa of the House of Blood.

A most gracious pleasure, Sister Ophelia. Thank you. Is there anything that we can offer you here? As I have mentioned to your companions, it seems, most of these are weapons that are on stock. We offer a more bespoke service where we work with the individual warrior to determine their needs in terms of armour or weaponry and such things. I mean, if I may, I can see that you have a very fine sword already.

Oh, thank you. Would you like to take a closer look at it? If I may. Yes, its name is a voracity. And he takes it. Oh, yes. Examines it, holds it, and immediately falls into an incredibly detailed, like, fencer's style. Oh, it suits you to a T. It looks wonderful on you. Balancing is wonderful.

He puts it, like, on edge, and he can, you know you to a tee. It looks wonderful on you. Balancing is wonderful. He puts it like on edge and he can, with a single finger, perfectly balance. Wonderful. Oh, and the gill. Yes, this is a wonderful piece of art. No, I think that if I may, not even, even my mistress would be very, very pleased to see such an item.

Oh, she can look at it any time she likes. Oh, she would most, she would certainly she likes. Oh, she would most... She would certainly love to. I'm sure that if you were to stop by, my mistress always appreciates seeing... Where... Who made it? Is it a work of art? It was a gift from the Gravefather himself.

Gravefather? I am not familiar with this artisan. Oh, he's my deity. My god, if you... Oh, I see. Oh, you are not from the Empire. Oh, no, I am from Osseus. Oh, Osseus. I'm afraid that my skills and training extends to arms and armour, my lady, not to geography. But whatever it is, or whoever made it, it is a fine piece indeed. Well, I'm sure they'd be very pleased to hear it. I'm unaware of the maker of this sword.

Really? You do not know who made it itself? No, I do not, no. Oh, then the mistress will be most equally pleased. A mystery of this kind. It is rare that we see such fine works. Well, if she would like to peruse, she is most welcome. I believe that she is occupied currently. Perhaps when she delivers the...

She will likely deliver the armour in person. Perhaps you could introduce her then. That would be splendid. Excellent. But what about armour or side armaments or things like that? Well, I mean, what do you recommend? I mean, you have so many wondrous pieces on display. Are we talking weapons or armour, my lady?

I think armour. Mm, armour. He kind of, like, looks back. He, my lady? I think armor. Armor, mm. He kind of looks back, he takes in your figure. He asks you to spin around. Would you draw your weapon for me? Show me how you would fight. Oh, yes, I see.

How you would fight. She rages. But the way that you draw and hold yourself. She has a dance stance. I can see that you have a beautiful grace to you, Sister Ophelia. So we cannot go, but there is also a firmness, a sturdiness to your sense, your core. Athletic. I think that something not too heavy, but actually it is wasted on you to wear and I think too light I think that you could handle something a bit heavier

something akin to what we will be making for Mr. Gruffydd something of a medium nature but not too much perhaps a breastplate would suit you you already have something akin to that I can see this beautiful decorative piece but something a bit more protective

to cover the upper arms, the forearms gauntlets of some sort yes, I forearms, gauntlets of some sort. Yes, yes, I do have the gauntlets and the chest armour, but I do need a little more protection. I can see that this has been made for beauty rather than function. We could certainly, I mean, and he goes over and he brings out this beautiful, gilded piece of half breastplate, and it seems to be cut for a woman.

Like it has like a shape, you know, not boob plate. Individual cut. But there is a cut to it. And it's like, but it's like a midriff kind of up armor. And it comes with like a gauntlet, like a shoulder piece, and then a secondary gauntlet. And then there are panels for the hips and things like that as well. And he like takes you, there's like a little changing room.

He takes you, pulls a curtain back, you puts it all on for you like a squire would um and yeah it fits perfectly well um and for you like medium armor so barbarians have an unarmored thing where they if they don't wear armor they get their con mod but for you that's only plus two if you were to wear breastplate like this, your base AC would be 14, and then your plus two decks would boost it to a 16. So you can already feel, and this is masterworked armor, so there's actually extra benefits to it as well. But those aren't going to be relevant until you wear it. But this is beautifully made, very lightweight.

You get the full range of your motion in it as well. And yeah, you can definitely feel that this would be a beautiful set of armor to wear and things like that. What is your current AC? 14. Okay, wow. That's pretty good update. That's pretty low for a bar.

Well yeah, but it's still a good upgrade. Yeah. If we gamify it. I mean, it's okay to gamify it though sometimes. I know it's been an expensive day. Friends. Yeah, yes. I feel like it's an expensive day. Friends. Yes, yes. I feel like it's already taken 500.

But don't I look wonderful? How much would the Sauna cost? For this particular piece here, which I do think is fabulous on the Madam, this would be, if I'm correct in understanding, this would be, we would be looking at 1,000 gold. You might get that. Take that off me right now.

Take it off immediately. Everybody runs. Take it out. Spy the clients out the door. To be fair, we can get Ophelia and Rowan armor at a blacksmith. Yeah, you could get a normal plus 80. I hope you like studded leather.

Yeah. Well, a regular breastplate would cost, I believe, 400 gold for normal breastplate. Maybe we could get them to put some skulls in it, so I don't know. It is beautiful, and I can appreciate the craftsmanship that has got into it. It would make Ossius proud to see such wonderful craftsmanship. Budgets are budgets, madam, we understand.

We understand. I am very, it has pleased me to see such a beauty wearing it. Oh, thank you. It very suits you, but I understand. I will have. Pleased me to wear it. It did me a great, it gave me great pleasure. We have already had such great custom

with your companions, it's my pleasure. But I will have to ask you to step in. Yes, of course. It's taking off. but I will have to ask you to step in. Start taking it off. Get off! I'm having a hard time. Get off! Good! You see he very meticulously takes each piece,

puts it back up in the display like armoury and things like that. It's like, well, perhaps if you find yourselves in abundant in coin, please do consider coming back and shopping here with us at Dante. It's a goal that we can get to. It will be mine. Oh, yes. It will be mine. Yes.

As I mentioned, we can also do bespoke works. Armour can be customised as well, improved upon it. For example, we could add elements, and he shows you a more plain-looking bracer, but this one he flicks like jagged blades come out the side we can add features such as this too now why would you show me a thing like that ophelia leave the shop right now thank you and you guys make your way out of dante's the armory. 1,100. Gone already.

Almost 2,100 if we got that armor. Jesus. I mean, you went to the fanciest weapon store in town. It was great. I mean, I'm happy that you did it. I've had this guy sat there since we began the campaign. I've been waiting for you to go in there. Oh, gross.

Always been thinking about it. How good we're going to look in the tournament, though. How good you're gonna look in the tournament. And then he just rolled Nat 1. Because I know people are gonna bring it up, it is absolutely inspired by the sommelier scene in John Wick 2, where Peter Serafinich is like the gun sommelier.

100% inspired by that when I was writing it. The idea of a guy who's just like, no, no, you tell me how you fight, and I'll suggest a way. So good. I just like the idea of a guy who's just like, no, no, you tell me how you fight and I'll suggest a way. So good. I just like the idea as well that the difference between Ophelia and Gruff. Gruff is kind of awkwardly, he's awkwardly moving around doing it, whereas Ophelia is like a ballerina,

totally used to people sharing attention. Yours was like medium armor for necessity and like, oh, I don't want to wear anything too heavy, I'm a bit clumsy and that. Whereas with Ophelia it's like no this is perfectly balanced and sculpted you know yeah

hell yeah right so in that case we are going to take our five minute break everybody it's a little bit later than normal we're going to take

a very quick break and we'll be back after that we'll see you in part two bye take care bye see ya

bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye

bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye

bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye

bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye bye Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.