High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #30 | A Knight's Tale (Part 2)

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

The Grand Tournament has begun as the knights take their places and the fight for glory begins! We're joined by the illustrious Jasper Cartwright (Three Black Halflings, Dimension20, Critical Role) playing Atlas Altar Phoenix! Check him out and all his awesome work here: https://x.com/jw_cartwright _______________ 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

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Gygax guides us through this incredible true story as our Dungeon Master as we follow Deere on his quest to find Dallas Egbert, a Michigan State student who supposedly disappeared in the steam tunnels under his university while enacting a real-life version of D&D. What Deere encounters on this journey, and ultimately discovers, defies all expectations and changes the culture as we know it. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening now. For more information, follow us on social media by searching at QCodeMedia. Welcome back to part two of Ulthea, the Dragon Empire. Our heroes are finally at the tournament. The part, the festival of the forge, the grand knightly tournament hosted by Duke Ignarius.

But in doing so, in arriving at the tournament, our unusual heroes have picked up a new friend. New friend? Having rescued Atlas... I can't remember the full name. Altar. Altar Phoenix. I couldn't remember the surname.

Atlas Altar Phoenix, a young cauldron knight errant seeking to prove themselves in the tournament, just like Gruff, who is being harassed by some mercenaries. And we are... He hired. Thinking that they were going to help him out. And that is played by our dear guest, Mr Jasper Cartwright.

I'm so happy to be here. So happy to be here. Just before we carry on on crack on with the episode Jasper where can folks find you now that I can formally introduce you yeah

just like on my social medias at JW underscore Cartwright I have a couple of shows that I do you want to plug any of them right now Three Black Halflings which is

with two of my dear friends Jeremy Cobb and Olivia Kennedy and I also do I DM over at Rotating Heroes as well

with a couple of other cool with some cool folks from like Dimension 20 Jeremy Carpenter, Olivia Kennedy, and I also do IDM over at Rotating Heroes as well. Oh, nice. With a couple of other cool people. With some cool folks from, like, Dimension 20 and stuff like that. So it's a good time. Who's that? It's a good time. It's a good time. It's a very good time.

It's a very good time. Very lovely people around, and I love Jeremy and Olivia. Yeah, they're all awesome people. So, yeah. Go check out Jasper. Jasper's been a good friend of mine for a long time. I think we've worked together in little bits and bobs here and there. Yeah, we've done the odd show here and there,

but it's so nice to actually be at the Hyrolis table. This is very cool. We'd just like to have you on. And this table is so nice! It is so nice. You joined us when we had our old studio. You hired it for a little bit for some Hyrolis things when we had some very annoying construction going on.

But we won't worry about that. But yeah, so lovely to have you. Do you want to just remind us who you're playing? And also tell us a little bit about character stat-wise. Yes, I'd love to. So I'm playing Atlas Altar Phoenix. And so here's

one of the questions that was going on between me and Mark, which was whether Janasi exists, because I kind of had an idea to re-flavor it. And so essentially, my family is a long descendant, like distant descendant of a dragon. So instead of them sort of appearing more draconic, they just have some of the innate draconic abilities.

So it kind of manifests, and that's what gives him the Janasi powers, essentially. So mechanically speaking genasi but actually he's like kind of a distant dragonborn essentially and his mother is an elf so he's kind of like a again that's why it's a little bit like oh he's kind of like is he has a kind of pointy but he's also got a bit of a scaly kind of thing and then mechanically... Best friends. Truly best friends. As soon as I did the fire breath I was like, we're going to be so cool. This is going to be awesome. And then mechanically speaking, I'm actually a Psy Warrior fighter.

What we did is, because we already had all these cool fire powers going on, we reflavored the Psy abilities to be fire based, basically. So when I did. Psyonix not necessarily being a thing in a similar way that we've done something similar with Daisy. Yeah, that's something that people, I am a soul knife rogue, but we've reflavored it to be more celestial and radiant.

It's not. Same thing. Same sort of thing. So yeah, when I did my little powered sort of fist, that is actually psionic strike, which is where I get to add like a, so one of my psionic dies to my damage. So instead of it being like a telekinetic thing,

I just got a little jet booster on my elbow. Which boosted my fist a bit more. Very My Hero Academia, which I'm a big fan of. Definitely some. Falcon Punch. Falcon Punch, yeah. Oh, shoot. Oh, Street Fighter.

Atlas Punch. Phoenix Punch. Phoenix Punch. Oh,, yeah. Falcon Punch. Atlas Punch. Phoenix Punch. Phoenix Punch. Oh, hell yeah. Okay. Well, now I'm just going to want to do... I'm going to point this out now, Jasper. If we start doing combat and you don't name some of your moves... Yeah, yeah.

Got to do it. I'm going to start giving you disadvantage. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been trying to do this for so long. I actually do have a... My spear is a very, very cool item that Mark let me, Mark homebrewed for me, so I'm very excited to use that.

There's definitely some cool names going on there. And as a point as well, Jasper's actually going to be with us for not just one episode, but two episodes. So next episode, you can look forward to having Jasper and Atlas join us for that as well. Do you ever have interest? Do you just have a good description of what your character actually looks like? The armor that you're wearing is like the Ember.

Not the Ember, it's the Flame of Helios. We've got a lot of fan artists who would be very interested. Sure, yeah. So essentially, it's like some very kind of dark black armor with these kind of like red accents on it. And very kind of dark, jagged looking. It's very menacing. It's got the gauntlets are clawed,

so they actually finish in like points, like a dragon's claw. And the helm itself looks like an actual dragon head. I'm getting strong like Final Fantasy Dragoon vibes. Yeah, very similar. When you jump on the spear as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. And then basically then when he takes the helm off,

like I said, he's sort of like, he's sort of heavyset. Like he looks strong, like very strong with it, but he's not sort of like a lean muscular build. He's kind of a very kind of like rounded, you know, where you see like world's strongest men and they're actually just like, they're just like really chunky dudes. It's like a slightly smaller version of that. And so, yeah, he's just kind of got a slightly filled out face,

very kind eyes. And he's got his afro, it's quite neatly kind of kept, but it's like that dark burgundy, similar to his skin. So, yeah. Love it. Brilliant. Well, thank you very much for joining us. Very cool.

So excited. And if I get found out, by the way, I am going to freak out. Like, just so you know, I'd be so, so excited. That is a when. Just checking this out. I think that this all kind of came together while I've been doing some other projects and stuff. We would love to get some official art for Atlas as well,

but we couldn't get it done for this. But yeah, we would love to look at doing that. But yeah, fan artists, now's your time. Jump in and get in on that. Our first full-on, proper, full guest, like, canon episode. Right, so we jump back in. At this point, the night's parade, the opening ceremony of the night's tournament, has now begun.

It is about late afternoon, about 2 p. 2pm in Ashen Rest. The weather is cleared up, it is a fairly sunny but slightly cloudy day so there's a bit of a cooler breeze, it's not too hot. And we are now at the point where for Atlas and Gruffydd they will now be participating in the single combat, what is called the Shield Bearer tournament, which is for those who are using a single weapon and shield or a single weapon in two hands and that kind of stuff. Okay. Yeah, so they are not going to be fighting in that. They'll be fighting in rounds.

The rest of you, though, obviously this isn't just about those two characters, you have some choices. You can either go along and watch those matches and you might be able to help or do some fun stuff in that as well. Or you can also go back out into Ashen Rest where the festival's activities are still taking place.

There are things like the art workshops, there are games and things for you to come play and stuff like that as well. You wanted to, but obviously you can change those plans. Yes, because you can get those tool proficiencies, as I mentioned, but it might mean that you have to miss out on some of their matches, and therefore that means you won't be able to help with some bonuses and things.

I have interest. You said that mid-tournament we can kind of go around, not rumor spreading and such, but like all those things. In between rounds, yes. So you have an option to do that now. But is it like, isn't it super obvious that I'm Gruff's friend? So, yeah, so if you do it, that might reflect badly on Gruff

if you try and diminish other people. Now, you could spread positive rumours about Gruff or Atlas if you wish to. Yeah. And that wouldn't be seen disfavourably. I'm always tempted to, like, whatever the crowd of the opposite knight, whoever's supporting the opposite knight, almost be in there and just be like, oh, that's rough.

Well, that would be a different thing. Just go and fight up their seconds. So during the matches, anybody who's not participating, you'll have the opportunity of, you will be able to do one thing per sort of like match where you can give you the person you're supporting advantage. And that could be you going and sort of like causing trouble amongst their crowd

to like distract them and then that would give Gruff an advantage or something like that. The whole rumor spreading thing is actually between the matches as more of a way of boosting or decreasing glory. Sure. But just keep in mind that yes, if any of you do it, that might reflect quite badly on Gruff if you are sort of noticed to doing it, which if you roll badly and stuff like that so it's the same as if we were boosting gruff's reputation no no no if you're

being positive then there's no no no harm to foul like that's not doing that yeah yeah um so uh i guess the way that we do this also for gruff and atlas i'm gonna give you guys a choice we can do Gruff and Atlas, I'm going to give you guys a choice. We can do proper one-on-one traditional D&D combat, or I do have some sort of narrative rules so that we can kind of speed it up so we're not just playing

out like four or five rounds of D&D combat. But obviously some of your abilities in that might not be as useful in those things. It might still be if you can think of creative ways of using it, but it's a little bit more of a back and forth you know making checks making rolls

and yeah I've come up with some fun stuff for that so we can do that. We'll say that I'm going to roll a d6 on a 1, 2 or 3 it will be atlases

that match up first on a 4, 5 or 6 it will be gruffs and then we'll decide what everyone's doing. Okay. So it's a 4, 5 or 6 so gruffs matches up first. a four, five, or six. It'll be Gruffs, and then we'll decide what everyone's doing. Okay. So it's a four, five, or six. So Gruffs matches up first.

This will be a bracket tournament, Gruff. You will have two matches. If you win both of your matches, you'll go into the semifinal. Atlas, if you win both of your matches, you'll go into the semifinal. And if we come down to that, I might do a proper D&D. Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, cool. And then whoever wins that will go on to face the finalist.

Can I ask one important question? Is there any kind of rest in between matches? Just in terms of like using stuff. You will be able to have a short rest. A short rest, okay, that's good. So just to understand the structure of the tournament there, you say they'll go against? Yeah, it's multiple, yeah. It's a, that's good. So just to understand the structure of the tournament there, you say they'll go against multiple. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They go against the finalist. That means the enemies are also gonna be in that position. Yeah. So if they go against the finalist, is there like a set hierarchy of people? Like the finalist is a set person, or? To make it simpler for me, the finalist is a set person.

Right, okay. As much as I would have loved to have written the actual tournament bracket. And been here, been like, okay. As much as I would have loved to have written the actual tournament bracket and been here and been like, okay, this guy goes through. Yeah, yeah. Five episodes later.

No, the finalist will be the best fighter who I know is participating in this part of the tournament. But also weakened and with less stuff, right? Yeah. But then you guys

will be weakened as well. And for reference as well for Jasper, things like we don't really have healing potions in this world. Healing's actually a little bit trickier to come by. Now, you've got some friends who might be able to use magical healing on you and stuff as well. But, yeah, just keep that in mind.

I got stuff. You've got stuff as well. Druid spells are a long rest, aren't they? Unfortunately, druid spells are on a long rest, yeah. But remember, you can't use directly offensive spells, like spells that do damage, basically. Can't use Moonbeam. But you could use a spell, like, if it knocks somebody prone

or if it buffs you, you can use that magic on yourself in this tournament, but you can't directly strike or damage somebody with magic. Not in the Shieldbearer tournament. In the Conquest, which is the team match, anything goes. Anything. Anything goes. You will still be held accountable for crimes.

But there it is, go. In the conquest, there are healers that when somebody goes down, they will cast healing word at the end of a turn. Anybody who's down in the conquest, at the end of a round, so the full round of combat, they'll cast healing word on anybody who's down because the conquest is not about knocking your opponents out, it's about an objective.

So you'll kind of get an automatic heal. So you'll be able to use things like your Radiant Blades without worry of actually killing somebody because they'll just heal. Are they then eliminated from the fight or are they... No, you'll find out more about that tomorrow. It is effectively a magical resource. Yes, yes, okay, no.

But it's magical healing. Single combat. Single combat. So Gruff, you are up first. Would you like to do narrative or do you want to do normal D&D combat? I'll do narrative. Okay, great.

So you will be going up against... Raxkel. Raxkel. Oh, he's absolutely the finalist. Braxkel. He's absolutely the finalist. You are going up against Sir Javar Caladan of Zenith, the Glittering City. So this is

a slightly tan skin, maybe not like fully dark skin, like somebody who lives in a very sunny area, but kind of like tan skin, dark hair, wearing bronze gilded brass kind of glittering scale mail. They fight with this fine sort of rapier and a bladed buckler, basically. So it is a shield, but it is also an offhand weapon.

And you can see that they're very, very well dressed. They're very smiley and polite. They're on the other side of the arena. It's a much smaller kind of like square bout ring. There's not a lot of terrain in it. There's no real terrain to use. There are like patches of dirt and ground and, you know, grasses and things like that. But this is not a you can use the terrain to your advantage.

This is pure martial skill, basically. And they come over. Ah, you are the one that the Duke spoke most wonderful words about. Graffith of Tremoro. Knight Errant? Sorry, Kim, out of character. Knight Errant is...

That's somebody who's already been set their test. You are basically just a warrior at this point. You're looking to attract a knight, in that order. Not yet. I'm aiming to become a knight, Erend, through using this tournament to attract the attention of some warriors. Ah, very well.

Well, pleasure to meet you. I hope that we can have a good match. And yes, I look forward to seeing how things progress. You are quite the crowd favourite, so we'll see how you measure up. Well, it is an honour to fight you, Sir Caledon, is that? Yeah, Javar Caledon. It is an honour to fight you, Sir Javar Caledon. This is my first time in a Knights tournament,

and so I am very gracious that you are my first opponent. You can see, like, when you say that this is like your first time in a tournament, there's a bit of a smirk, like a bit of a smile. Not like an arrogant thing, but he's like, oh, good. Like, this is like an easy, maybe an easy match, basically. So he's like, well, if you have any questions, you can always ask.

I've done a few tournaments now. I know my way around the ring. This is my preferred format. But yes, good luck to you, Gruffydd of Tremorow, and I hope that you attract whatever order you are looking for. And to you, sir. Very good. He goes over to the other side.

You kind of have a bit of a boxing match, Rocky, where you can have some people on your side, like in your little corner. They're not allowed to interfere any interference from the outside you're disqualified like if somebody

casts healing spell on you then yeah without subtle spell I mean you know what I mean yes if you had things like subtle spell obviously and there might be

you know if you intentionally like well I'm going to cast it on them to get them disqualified so you cast it on like the opponent there'd probably be

an investigation like it'd be a whole thing so and it's also not in the spirit of the tournament no I think Gruff would be very upset

if anyone oh yeah I'd be furious um you might just throw a fireball into the tree do that

do that not me uh so while Gruff is getting prepared what about the rest of you are people gonna attend Gruff's match are you gonna go off

and do other things like who's doing what I'm happy to be attend Gruff's match? Are you gonna go off and do other things? Like, who's doing what? I'm happy to be in Gruff's corner. Okay. And give you like the, you know, wet towel. You got the towel around, yeah, like wiping his face. The shoulders, massaging. I hope you know what this is doing.

I don't know what I'm doing. That's what the other person's doing over there. Right, okay, I mean, I act up to it. I don't know, you just hit a nerve! Okay, here we go. I will say, Gruff, I'm there too. Does this help? I mean, do you act up to it? I don't know, you just hit a nerve! Okay, here we go, hun. I will say, Gruff, I'm there too, you did very good in making them underestimate you,

saying this is your first match. Very good work, get in their heads. Oh, yeah, that absolutely was a head-gaming thing. I know it is actually your first fight, but they might be thinking this is easy for them. But no, it's not, you're Gruff! I'm Gruff. You are glorious, Gruffeth. Yes, glorious. this is easy for them. But no, it's not. You're Gruff. I'm Gruff. You are glorious, Gruffeth.

Yes. Remember to aim for glory. Glorious, Gruffeth. Show boating and all the stuff that perhaps I wouldn't... Being respectful, dignified, honorable. I can do those. I can do those. And if you have a spare moment, just turn to the crowd.

They'll love it. You think so? Oh, yes. Well, actually, yeah, your cauldron, so you'd know. Oh, they would lap it up. Okay, sure. I put a soaking wet towel on your face. Ah!

What do you look? Like a cat, you, like, really recoil. Like the cheese. Like, you know, the hair just, like, goes, like, eh. Sorry, sorry. Maybe after a round, I'll do that again. Saw my life flash before my eyes. So what about Ophelia and Daisy and Atlas as well?

What about you guys? I think Ophelia will take a seat. She'd wanna watch, Gruff. Okay, you wanna be up in the crowd sort of watching. Okay, yep, great. Yeah, probably be in the crowd with the banner. Okay, yep. I think she be in the crowd with the banner. Okay, yep. I think she's gonna position it opposite the royal box

or whatever, like the important people, and just be like, understand there. There's definitely, one thing you would notice with this one is, this one is held in, sort of like there are multiple matches going on at once. Imagine you've kind of got like two matches going on side by side. You notice that the Duke is the only one

who's watching this. Obsidious and Emberist are not watching this one. These are kind of like the warm-up tournaments. These are like the more minor tournaments. So tomorrow...

I'm surprised the Duke is watching this. Oh, the Duke's like... He loves me. He loves it. He loves watching combat. He loves a battle. Is he like really dignified

for the most part but then when something big happens you... Oh, he's like Yes! Yes! Good blow! Get in!

He's like a football dad. He's definitely a football dad, yeah. He's definitely a bit of a football dad. Shirt over his head starts running over him. Not quite to that level. But there's definitely- he's like that reserved dad of like he's like very good drinking his like wine- Except for when he shouts referee, they actually-

All of the judges are like oh my god. Referee! very good, drinking his wine. Except for when he shouts referee, they actually do it. All of the judges are like, oh my god. Referee, whacker. Referee's getting executed. What about Atlas? Atlas is going to be in the crowd. You see Atlas has sat down, gauntlets off, and he's got a little notebook

and he's furiously taking notes on every like, every single night he's seeing, studying forms, studying, like, if there's any potential opponents on his side of the bracket. He's like, okay, looking at their movements. I'm not necessarily expecting this to have a mechanical impact, but, like, that's absolutely what happens. It might do. It might do.

All right, perfect. All right, so, Gruff, you are up to fight. There is a kind of, like, all right, you know, you kind of brought in a little bit of a sort of like bow, and then you go to your corner. The way this is going to work is I'm not going to make any rolls. Okay. You are going to choose, you can do things like make an attack roll,

use an ability check, cast a spell, whatever it is that you think you want to do. If it is an attack roll and an ability check, you'll have to roll it. If you beat certain DCs, you will score a point towards victory, a progress. You'll get a point of progress, right? You get one for a normal success. You'll get two if it's a high number. The more progress you mark, the better, because at any point, you can choose to try and finish the fight, right?

And when you do that, you roll a D20, and you add however much progress you have. Okay. If you can beat the DC, which will be, it will slightly vary depending on the opponent, but if you can beat that DC, you win the fight. Okay. If you fail the finish the fight check,

you lose the match. Now that, you know, it's a bracket, so you might have an opportunity to advance later on and stuff. Can you add fate to the finish? I'm going to say you can't add fate to the finish of the fight. You can add it to the other ones. Or if I did allow it, I'd be like, well, I get to increase the DC. Yeah, sure.

That kind of thing. There is, and I'm not going to tell you exactly the DCs or what numbers, but I'm also going to be tracking how bored the crowd gets. Because the longer it goes on, the more bored the crowd will get, and the less glory you might not get any glory if the crowd is too bored, right? Because they'll be bored by the fight. So you've got to balance

that, like, how quickly do you finish the fight versus how much boredom can you risk? Now, those of you... Now, those of you who are watching and not participating in the fight, you can do one thing each. And that choice can either be

you can try and boost Gruff by giving, like, a word of encouragement, like, come on, Gruff, make a persuasion check. You can try and distract the opponent by doing something, I don't know, using deception or using sleight of hand, whatever you can think of, right? Let your creativity go wild.

Or, you can try and hype the crowd up and reduce their boredom. So you can almost buy more time. So you can be like, you know, like, oh, look at that, it's really good. You can try and keep them interested, basically. Yeah, or like playing music or like, you know, do

whatever you want. Like, use intimidation to like, start a brawl with somebody and like, get the blood flowing, do you know, doing whatever you want. Like, use intimidation to, like, start a brawl with somebody and, like, get the blood flowing. Do you know what I mean? Amazing. So think about that. But it's going to basically work with, in between each of Gruff's roles,

one of you can jump in and be like, I want to do a thing, basically. Sure. All right? So, and it's you, Lev. You tell me, like, what's your approach? Like, you can see Serge Var has kind of got this bladed buckler, takes, like, this stance and advancing on you.

How does, what, how's Gruff going to engage? So I think Gruff will just stand in, kind of, I guess, on his side of the square. Kind of a very solid sort of, you know, an earth stance, you know, very, um... Low center of gravity, like, yeah, firm and solid. Ready for this. Yep.

And then he's going to, like, kind of spin his staff, hit it twice on the ground, extend a paw, and just gesture for them to come at him. Okay, great. Give me, for this roll... Now, is this intended to show back to the answer, or is this to, like, kind of just, you know, give them an opportunity to come to you?

Both? I think my idea as well is while they were running towards me, I would activate the armor of Oak and Thorns. Okay, great. Perfect. We'll track those, because you are expending uses of stuff, right? So your action is actually to activate the armor of Oak and Thorn. Give me

intimidation check. Because this is kind of like, this is your. Because this is your come here kind of thing. If you do it low, it kind of looks like a cat kneading the air. And everyone goes, ooh, big stretch. Ooh, big stretch. I would like to use a fate on this one, if that's all right?

Yep. Get those biscuits, mate. 14. 14, okay. For this, I'm gonna give you one progress for the armor of Oakenthorne, because that's a cool ability, it would absolutely help you in a fight, but that intimidation doesn't quite land.

You can see Javar's like, I don't think so. I'm not so foolish as to be goaded in that way, and takes a much more sort of like, he does some like testing strikes, but he's not much more sort of like, he does some testing strikes, but he's not gonna fully commit into launching into an attack against you, okay? Do I get any glory points for letting him come at me first?

Yeah, I'll give you a glory point for that, yeah. So you can go up to three. Nice. So the crowd is definitely like, you're almost like, yep, come and strike me. Using the armor of Oak and Thorn is quite majestic. And yeah, you see Javar kind of like does some you know testing things there's a little clash of steel as your staff and his scimitar kind of bounce against each other but nothing fully engaged um does anybody

want to jump in and do anything at this point not yet i think for me it's early for early doors all right because i have an ongoing thing what do you want to do and it will count for just one sure oh yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely Narratively it can be ongoing. So, you know like Tom and Jerry or movies that have specific soundtracks that match the actions? Oh, right. Okay. That's what Rowan's doing with the guitar. Okay. So when Gruff goes for a big strike,

and it's particularly heroic. You have a motif. I add motifs of Gruffeth to it. The Gruff motif, the Gruff thing. But when the other knight is going, it's. Give me a performance check. If you succeed, you will get advantage. Can you clear your dice tray?

Because he's got a ramp. It's insane how you're trying to roll in that thing. It's so full. There is so much stuff in there. 12 total. Unfortunately, that's not enough. So you're playing the music, but it's being drowned out a bit by the crowd and the sound.

I need an amplifier. Yeah. It's also like the crowd and the sound. I need an amplifier. Yeah. It's also, like, the music's just pleasant. Like, nobody really, I guess maybe the audience aren't musicians enough to realize that you're playing a specific heroic motif for Gruff. They're just like, cool music, man. They're just like, do-do-do. But no, unfortunately, you don't grant advantage.

No worries. So what does Gruff do next? Does this follow the kind of, like, bonus action? It's more narrative than that. So, like, you just tell me what does Gruff do next? Does this follow the kind of like bonus action? It's more narrative than that. Yeah. So like you just tell me what you want to do. So I will go for another strike, but I'd actually like to try and use the hook staff for this one

to try, I guess, yeah, try a shove attack, but I want to pull them towards me. Yeah, so you'd use the hook hand to pull them. So just make an attack roll, and you're just trying to beat the DC, same as if you were making a skill check. Okay, so it would be... Well, yeah, would I be able to use Shillelagh? Oh, yeah.

Assume that you've got Shillelagh on for this fight. Yeah, absolutely. You'd be fighting at your best condition. 14, okay. The strike, you try and hook, but Sergivar is so agile and quick on his feet, he quickly, nimbly, as you try and grab his hook and his asylum, he kind of gets some strikes on you and things like that as you do so. You are going to maybe occasionally take damage as well to represent these fights ongoing

and also to deplete resources a little bit for both of you. So when you fail an attack roll or anything like that, you might take a little bit of damage back as well. He gets some strikes in on you, you exchange blows, you try and hook him, you don't quite pull him or knock him down. He does about nine points of damage to you in these flurries of strikes back and forth. Unfortunately, no progress is marked on that either. But I would be healing with the armor of Oakenthorne as well. That's true. So what was it, four points you get?

So I get four points. So it'd only take five. Yeah, so just take it off the damage wise. Yeah. And yeah, you still gain the new temporary hit points and stuff like that. It's like you're attacking, we're just not going to do it like AC. Yeah, yeah.

We kind of make it a bit more interesting. So the crowd is like still fully engaged at this point. They're still enjoying it. Like, you know, it's a back and forth. Anybody want to jump in with anything? If not, we'll just go straight on. I're still enjoying it. Like, you know, it's a back and forth. Anybody want to jump in with anything? If not, we'll just go straight on. I'm okay for now.

If I'm... I'm trying to study the opponent. So I'm going to give you a choice, right? Yeah. You can either... If you want to study

the fighting style of Gruff and Ser Javar, you will basically make a check now, but you can't influence the fighting in the other way. Uh-huh. Right?

Or if you want to help out Gruff, you would have to stop taking notes and focus on that side of things. I'll give you a choice. I think I'm gonna take notes purely because I feel like if Gruff's anything like Atlas, he wouldn't want anyone to try and influence the, you know what I mean?

He'd want it to be like, no, I had to actually earn this. So I'll focus on just studying the two. Can you make an insight check for me? A non-investigation? Are you 100%? I'm studying the mechanical movements. I will allow an investigation. I will allow it. Thank you.

Benevolent. Nah, doesn't really matter. Eight. Eight? You studied, but there's... I mean, I guess I'll leave it up to you to describe, like, why this, either you're, like, distracted,

maybe you get too involved and you forget to, like, take notes, you get so wrapped up in the environment. Yeah, I'm probably just really excited to be here. Just, like, somebody comes by with, like, some snacks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're like, that's some coin. I buy some, like, oversized hot dog, and I'm sat there, and then I realize there's ketchup

all over my notebook. I'm like, oh, man. Oh, that's a coin. I buy some oversized hot dog, and I'm sat there, and then I realize there's ketchup all over my notebook. I'm like, oh, man. All my notes are smudged. All right, Gruffydd, what do you want to follow up on now? So don't worry too much about the mechanics. Think creatively. This is like a back-and-forth fight. I have a very silly question.

But that's what this is about. Use all skills. Use everything that you want. Is there any water, like barrels of water or anything like that? There could be. If you want to spend a fate point, I'll let you. So I kind of had this idea of a little bit of showboating, where, you know, to kind of show where Gruff is from, from Iceheart, and he would kind of make some funny quip, taming the seas and stuff like that. But I wanted to kind of use shape water, yes I do have it,

as a cantrip, to kind of like, just any barrels of water or anything like that, kind of almost make them create like little tendrils that dance and like splash, and like kind of almost make them create little tendrils that dance and splash, and kind of harmlessly splash into the arena. But it's very much a showboating. Oh, in that case, I won't even ask for fake points. If you're just doing this to showboat, that's the action, right? You just turn around, and it means that basically you're getting a glory point,

because you're basically just showboating to everybody, but you just won't make any progress in the fight. But yeah, easily done. You basically are like, you kind of exchange some blows, you don't make any progress in the fight. But yeah, easily done. You basically are like, you kind of exchange some blows, you don't take any damage, but you don't make any progress in the fight. And so Javar almost takes his moment,

he sees what you're doing, and he'll sort of like let you showboat a little bit because it's kind of the done thing as a knight. He's a crowd more interested again. You're kind of like, yeah, the boredom track doesn't go up, like you just kind of... Splash zone.

Yeah, like people are like, oh, like thingsom track doesn't go up, like, you just kind of... Splash zone. Yeah, like, people are like, oh! Like, things like that. You may, like, maybe use the water shape to, like, make some ice divers, like, out of the water, jump from barrel to barrel. Yes. And things like that. Absolutely, yeah.

So you gain a glory point. You can't do that again this fight, though, because that's not going to... Yeah. Yeah, you've done that already. All right, do you want to do something else? Um... I was just thinking yeah I guess well while I'm showboating like is there like could there be an opportunity where so such of our page of our is a little bit distracted and I

take the opportunity to maybe knock his feet out, like spin with the staff and knock his feet out. Yeah, absolutely. So you can either do that as an attack roll or you would make it as a athletics test versus his acrobatics. I'll try athletics. Okay, great, I'll make an acrobatics roll.

I'm actually going to spend one of my fate points to add to it, though. Okay. He's a nimble little bugger. We'll get total. No? Seven points. Seven points. Seven, yeah. He, and like, you know, he did say he's quite a skilled knight. Like, he sees this coming. Like, you've already tried to grab

his leg once. He actually waits. He jumps and lands on your staff and boots you, kind of kicks towards your chest, strikes you with a scimitar, does a little backflip. He got a 20, basically. Yeah, I rolled really bad. He gains a point of glory. He looks amazing

when he does this. You kind of stagger back. And I think, if anything, Gruff would be in awe of himself. How talented that was. Yeah. And so he kind of, like, sends you back. You reel a little bit.

You would take, that would be... 10, so six more points of damage from that cut as he, like, strikes you back. At this point, the crowd, you know, they're kind of like, that was an amazing move. They're very excited by it. But this match're kind of like, that was an amazing move. They're very excited by it. But this match is kind of going on a little bit now.

They're like still interested, but it's slowly beginning to decline. You've not made much progress as well. This guy's very much dominating you in the ring. Can I try and get a chant going? Yay, Gruff! Yay, Gruff! With the banner. Yeah, absolutely.

Give me a persuasion roll with advantage. Yay, Gruff! Yay, Gruff! With the banner. Yeah, absolutely. Give me a persuasion roll with advantage. Yay, Gruff! Yay, Gruff! That banner was so well made, any time it is used, I am basically giving advantage on it. Because it was like a 30 to make it. I would like to strangle the bad guy with the banner. Oh, it's so well made! It's so well made! 18.

18. 18 success. You have advantage on your next, as you feel the crowd chanting Gruff, you feel this like, oh man, you're starting to doubt yourself, like this guy's really good, and then you hear the chant and you're like, no, I've gotta do this, like you feel empowered to do it.

So you have advantage on the next roll. What would you like to do? See the ice heart colors on the banner? Yay, Gruff, yay, Gruff! My home. I think, can I go for a combo of a daunting roar and then a like a charge

to attack absolutely uh with this you don't need to make a roll because you're using up the daunted roar uh

you charge forward and that roar is enough like search of art startled by it and he like slips on his footing and you shoulder barge in and you get a solid strike

on him forcing him back you can see that you've definitely hit a landing blow I'm gonna mark one progress automatically nice um okay okay and you get a solid strike on him, forcing him back. You can see that you've definitely hit a landing blow. I'm gonna mark one progress automatically. Nice. Hell yeah.

Okay, okay. So you kind of like shove him back. He's now on the defensive. Does anybody want to jump in, or should we just go straight into another push from Gruff? Just like bolster Gruff. Just like, yes, Gruff, good hit! Yeah, absolutely. Keep going!

Yeah, do you want to make that as a, I'll let you do either persuasion or intimidation, because it's quite a forceful thing that you're yelling so intimidation sure yeah Natural 20. Oh, that's right. So you still have advantage on the next role as well. They think like we pushes you on. Okay? Should I try to finish it? Finish the fight. Yeah, so right now you have two progress. You'd have a plus two

to the roll. Do you get advantage? I would say you would get advantage. You can't add fate but you're almost using the momentum and you hear Ophelia

call out and you're like maybe this is it. I can try and finish it. Just keep in mind it's a risk because if you fail it you lose the match.

But right now the crowd is still roaring. They're like yeah i think you should carry on because um you can with advantage from that you can still get some more progress i think also i still got my time and i want to boost you as well you want to boost me obviously you want to boost me but let's game it but no but yeah it's a game it's a game it's a game it's 100 games are still going so you're not going to get a penalty for them being bored right now. So you may as well make some more progress while you can. Can I?

Yeah. Okay, maybe kind of leaning into the showboating a little bit. I want to cast the spell Sleet Storm. So it's a 20-foot tall cylinder with a 40-foot radius. So is that too big for this? It will fill the area you're fighting, basically. Nearly, quite nearly. I'm going to fall over as well.

That's a thing. Yeah, but this is your spell, and you come from Iceheart. I know, because this doesn't do damage, right? It makes it all slippery terrain. It basically makes it slippery. They need to make a dexterity saving throw. This is just after you've charged into them as well. Because it's a resource, right?

It's a spell slot. If you spend it, you just gain progress because you're spending resources to do it. So again, and Gruff will be a little bit of a fancy boy casting it, like spinning his staff around and being like, allow me to bring you a bit of my country to this arena. And you feel like the whole ground, all that water that you caused earlier begins to this arena. You cut and you feel like the whole, the ground,

all that water that you caused earlier begins to freeze over as you watch, like all the crowd are like, they kind of shiver for a moment as the whole thing becomes slick and Sujavar is struggling to keep his footing. He's agile but he's not used to this. He comes from a very sunny, tropical kind of climate

and you, skating with your paws, like you cause a spray of ice like from the ground, like blinds him for a second and then wham, and you, skating with your paws, you cause a spray of ice from the ground, blinds him for a second, then then wham, wham, sending him reeling as he goes back. That's a point of progress. Come on, Gruff, now's the time. Fight like I'm dying. So meek, so vulnerable.

Save me, Gruff. Affirm, say the third one. In firms well. All right, persuasion check from Xanthas. That is a a all that talk nine I believe nine is not enough to give advantage

at this point no but still maybe a bit distracting thinking like oh god like is Xanthius like you know like

in trouble yeah so no advantage but you are at three progress the crowd though is loved like that. They're still really hyped at this point. It's been about five turns, effectively, almost.

So they're still enraptured, but if you keep going longer than this, we're going to start pushing it. What do you want to do? I think I'll finish the fight. Try and finish the fight, all right. You have plus three to the roll you had a date to this I'm rolling really badly today as well you got this you got me now this is when you're gonna roll that that's money yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah 14 is it success using that momentum like you skate along the ground the whole floor is slippery Oh! 17. 17? Is a success! Yay! So you watch, using that momentum,

like you skate along the ground, the whole floor is slippery, this is your environment now. You slam the staff in, you plant it through the ground, smash in the ice, pull yourself up, and two paws kick into Sir Javar. He goes flying back, you know, his armor kind of caved in. You then land and bring blow after blow after blow, and he just can't keep up. He's desperately trying to parry and defend,

but eventually he gets staggered back and he just drops the weapon. I yield! I yield! And you can see that he's like wheezing and huffing and breathing. He's just like well fought, Gruff of Tremor. That was very good. I was not expecting this, and he kind of

points to the icy terrain. A very creative use of magic. The scholars in Zenith would be very interested in your style of fighting. Oh, thank you. It was a great honour to fight with you today. Oh, yes. Perhaps I should have warmed up a little bit more. I think that perhaps I was not prepared. But perhaps in the second round I will do a bit better. You taught me a lot today.

Thank you, I'm glad, yes. And he seems to be like, yes, I did that a lot. Yes, yes. Yes, a mentor role, I'll accept this. Because I'll offer a paw to pull it up. Oh yeah, I'll pull that up, yeah. And as he stands up, can I cast a Cure Wounds at level one? I'm gonna say don't spend, yeah,

there'll be healers here to take care of. I don't want you to spend resources. I will offer a pull. Yeah, he definitely takes that. You pull him up. A crowd clapping and cheering. Woo! Woo!

Nice! So you did score a victory, so that is another point of glory towards you. And the crowd was still engaged, so you do score that glory, and that counts towards your total thing. So all the glory you scored in this you get to keep um if the crowd had gotten bored you would have lost the other point from the

showboating as well because they would have got bored and walked away so is that like so i started with two and i finished with three more so five or do i get another one yes you finished the fight you earned three points of glory right uh so i earned three in total. One for the showboating, one for winning, and there was... Yeah, so I think just two then. Yeah, I think it was just the two. I don't think there was a third one. Because you didn't get above a 20 on a roll, did you? No.

No. Oh, I knocked him prone, though. Oh, that's right. No, you let him strike you first. That's right, yes. I let him strike me prone, and then, yeah. No, it's only if, like, if you purposely let him get up before he strikes you.

It's like a more thing. It's not just knocking someone pregnant. You should have five. Yeah, you've got five glory points. Yeah, that's correct. All righty. But yeah, first victory done. One down.

Very cool. So you kind of step out. There's a little bit of time. Atlas, you're going to be up next, but you've got, again, like, a little bit of time if you wanted to go and do anything or if anybody wants to do anything in between. Daisy might go and try the painting classes and stuff.

Yeah, you can go along to one of those. Yeah, you have to head out of the tawny field and go out into Ashton's Rest. I believe that they were being hosted by... By the square. Yes, they're in the square, and Miss Visa Fair, who is the school teacher, is hosting those classes. So that is one of your three

requisite classes that you need to do. For that. Alright. So Daisy won't be present for the match. Anybody else going off and doing anything else? I'm going to stay in the corner and be like, I think Atlas is up next. Please don't put

the towel on my face. Please don't put the towel on my face. Oh. Please don't put the towel on my face. I put it on his own face. Yeah, okay, perfect. I'm here if you need help. Gruffydd's just won, and it wasn't thanks to me. Obviously, Gruffydd did an incredible job.

Yeah, yeah, I think I'm good. I'm excited. I'll see what happens, I guess. Yeah. No, I saw the way you jumped on that spear. You're agile, quick. I don't know who you're up against, but we're quick. Well, I'll take it.

Thanks. It's a little bit icy on the floor, just because. Oh yeah, melting now. It's melting now. Awesome, yeah, that's fine, okay. So everyone else sticking around for Atlas' match? Yeah, I'll watch. I also want to examine.

Okay, Atlas goes down. Just in case, you know. So, in that case, you kind of get everything set back up. Atlas, you are pulled in. Your opponent is Sir Bolvar Brass Bull of the Whistling Halls. What a title. Sir Bolvar is a ugly dwarf. He has got a broken nose. His eyes, his cheeks are all puffed out and bloodshot.

He has barely any of his original teeth left. They've all been replaced with metal and things like that. He's very heavy set brow, but you can see he's wide, he's strong, clad in plate armor with a shield and a massive round-headed mace, like a huge cudgel, basically. And he kind of was like,

See you there, boy! Yes! I did not expect that. You're the son of the Flame of Helios, ain't ya? Yep, that's me. Pleasure to meet you. He has to kind of look up at you a little bit, he's a dwarf. He offers an armored hand. He kind of has to pull his shield off.

But you realize that he must have a prosthetic arm under his armor because there's no grip or movement. He just kind of wiggles his arm, basically. And then he slots the shield back onto the arm. Yeah, pleasure. I heard your dad used to be something of a pretty good fighter. Yeah, my dad's pretty awesome.

I'm not too bad myself, so. That's funny. Yeah. Yeah. I shouldn't expect this. Why is that funny? What'd you say? I said you're gonna lose.

Okay. You're happy losing? You don't mind? What? Okay. A good fight to you, son. Yeah, to you, too. Me what?

Okay. Okay. Okay! Tarles off back to his corner. Wow, okay. You can see his ears are so cauliflowered, like swollen and broken. Make a note of that. I'm like, maybe it'll be useful, I don't know.

We'll see. Yeah, maybe, could be. Some campfire shit. He like, you know, you see him like stretching out his fighting arm, like, sorry, it would have been this arm that his prosthesis is on. He's rolling his shoulder.

He's cracking his neck. He's not old as a dwarf. He's just so beaten up. He can't hear anymore. His teeth whistle when he speaks. And you can see that there's a crew of dwarves that have come with him. A little bit like Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. There's like five dwarves, all look beaten up.

They look like miners or something like that. And they're all like, like kind of talking to him in the corner. And he's like, kind of mumbling to each other. And they pull out like little banners that have got like his heraldry on them and they start waving them. But you think that like nobody else really knows who this guy is. Like guy is like he's got his little mates and that's it um but everyone's kind of excited they can see this like really strong burly looking dwarf you with your splendid dragon armor um and we're gonna jump into uh our match match one with here we go let's go

let's go so yeah you're happy doing the same sort of narrative stuff? Oh, yeah, definitely. Okay, great. Well, lead us off. You take the lead then. This is like how you choose to sort of approach the scenario. Okay. I'm going to do a... I'm going to try and do a bit of a showboaty thing to start us off.

Given the fact that Atlas can hear, Atlas is just going to turn and kneel in almost like a prayer motion and just listen for when he approaches. So is this like a showboat? Yeah, this is a showboat. He's basically just turning around, kneeling down on the ground. Do you say anything in particular? Like, is this like a prayer to the Scions, the gods, the saints? Or is this to, like, your lady? Yeah, yeah, this is to the, yeah, this is to the, yeah.

Lady Meteona. Yeah, I'll say, like, I will claim this victory for Lady Meteona! And then I'll kneel down, and then, just to add a little bit, I'll use Produce Flame, but I'll sort of put my gauntlet up to my mouth and then Produce Flame, almost as if the dragon helm is producing fire.

Nice. Very cool. Glory point instantly. Yes! I mean, yeah, starting the fight, turning away from the enemy. And you do hear, like, you kind of do this, and you hear Bolvar like, What's he doing?

Is that predestination? And then he just charges. He goes to swing, but you hear him coming. You spin around, bring the shield up, deflect him away as you take that moment. Anybody want to jump in in between these rounds? So give an advantage or do anything in the audience. You don't have to. Remember, there's plenty of rounds.

You can save this up. You can just roll in. I'm at the art thing asking if I can have supplies to make a second banner. Okay, nice. Because I want to make Atlas a banner. Okay, very good. So you're like going around.

Like there's paints, the teacher's like, yeah, so are you not doing the clown? You're like, no, no, you just want the paints. My friend, I have a new friend. And he's in the tournament and I made this banner for my other friend. But then I want to make another one. All right, well, maybe if you ask some of the, I have a new friend! And he's in the tournament and I made this banner for my other friend, but then I want to make another one.

Alright, well, maybe if you ask some of the... I think they're doing a textiles class over there, dear. And she points you in the direction and you rush off to go and get some fabric and cloth and things like that. I love that you go to the art class and show off the most resplendent pattern anyone has ever seen. You always see Lisa like, and then you're already off and she's like, no, no, no, come back! And she's chasing after you. You have a talent, you have a talent!

I'll come back later, I promise! It's like Mikote Catwoman, basically. All right, so let's just go straight back into it with Atlas. All right, so you're now like clashing, you know. Absolutely. Does this dwarf have any like fabrics or anything, or is it all just armour? No, I think he's all armour.

He's all armour. Yeah, I don't think he would have much in the way of fabrics and things like that. One thing that I guess you wouldn't know yet, because I had to do a thing on the world. So dwarves in this world, they have this condition where around puberty, they start, like metal starts, their skin and body starts turning into metal and growing out of them.

And as they get older, it takes over more and more of their body. And in their final years, it basically completely turns them into metal or crystal or stone. And so you can see, like, Bolvar, like, from, like, his jaw, he has, like, these chunks of what looks like iron, like, just growing out of him. And he shaved them to almost be part of his beard. So, like, the beard actually kind of grows in amongst it,

and it creates these, like, almost, like, spiral designs that he's, like, shaped it into. But he also has, like, studs of it around his eyes. But he's, like, all metal, basically. A absolutely baller as hell. Okay. In which case, I'm going to see that, like, I know that he has this prosthetic arm on the shield hand,

which I think is going to limit his ability to attack me from, like, one side. So I'm going to stick my spear, like as we're in mid-blows, I'm going to stick my spear into the ground effectively to block a glancing blow. I'll spin around and then use my shield to club him over the head. Cool, I love it.

You tell me, for me this sounds quite acrobatic, but I guess it could be athletics. Yes, whatever you want to rule. I'd say acrobatics, because this is like a spinning kind of move, almost using the spear. It's a bit more graceful and dexterous, I would say. Okay, let's see what I get.

18. 18 is a success. That's one progress. I will mark off the boredom track as well. So the crowd will love this. They're just like, whoa, yeah, exactly what you planned. You stick it in the ground, he goes to strike it, blocks the thing, you spin round,

you club him in the side with the shield, he staggers back, you pull the spear out, spin it round. Oh, I was actually gonna leave the spear in the ground. Oh, okay, yeah, great, yeah, leave it in the ground. So you bam, bam, maybe use the produce flame, like you kind of like use that to flick him around. Yeah, like blind him for a second. Great, anybody wanna jump in with anything, or just roll in, bam. Maybe use the produce flame, like, you know, kind of like use that to flex him around. Yeah, like blind him for a second. Great.

Anybody want to jump in with anything or just roll in? Okay. I want to create a silent image. This is for the crowd to keep them less bored. Okay. It's going to be a 15-foot version of your helmet breathing fire and it's kind of just swooping around the front of the audience. That's awesome.

And that's a spell slot right for you. So no roll needed. You just automatic success. Hell yeah. Yeah's awesome. And that's a spell slot right for you. So no role needed. You just, automatic success. Hell yeah. Yeah, you do exactly that. The crowd are like, wow! Like, just freaking out. Like, as it gets closer, people start following it and doing the wave and like, you know,

like chasing it around the crowd and stuff. Yeah, 60 foot distance, so as far as I can... And you can maintain concentration on it, right? So yeah, you keep that going for a whole fight. Every move, I can move it. So that's going to absolutely reduce their boredom. Cool. can maintain concentration on it, right? So yeah, you keep that going for a whole fight. Every move I can move it. So that's going to absolutely reduce their boredom. Cool.

Atlas, what do you do next? Cool. He's like rounding around and he's just like, you're a quick one! And he just, like basically, he charges towards you

in like a dwarven headbutt. But he comes at a speed you are not expecting. He's quick. More quicker than you were expecting to. And he's just like, he like jumps and like launches himself towards you. What do you do?

Okay. Jumps and launches himself towards me. I'm going to, I'm going to use my, it's called telekinesis movement. Okay. Basically, I'm imagining that the sort of spear is now behind us in some way. Yeah, sure. So essentially, you see that the spear gets a little, like, fire on the base of it. It sort of, like, scooches out of the ground and flies back into my hand.

Okay. But I was kind of hoping I could fly back into my hand, like, through an arm or something. Yeah, sure. So this is, and it costs you your points, right? Yeah, yeah, this is costing me my... Call them, like, fire points or magic, something like that. Great. Actually, this first one is free.

Okay, first one's free. Okay. And it's also short rest, something like that. Great. Actually, this first one is free. Okay, first one's free. Okay. And it's short rest, which is important. Yeah. So because they come back on a short rest, give me one roll. Make just an attack roll for me. Sure. So with your spear, make an attack roll for me.

Okay. Natural 20. Which actually, because my spear is Blaze Dancer, any creature that I choose within five feet when I score a natural 20 takes additional five points of damage. As you watch, I think it's basically the spear starts spinning in midair. The tassel on it ignites, and it almost looks like a Catherine wheel of fire.

And he's mid-leap, so he does not have a chance to see this come in, and it just tears into his back. He's knocked out of the way. He goes spinning. He lands face down. I'm going to do a couple of things here. I'm going to give you two progress points instead of one. Ooh, okay.

Also, it was an above 20, so you get a glory point. Ooh! And I'm also going to have him fall prone, basically, to represent he takes the damage, but he's also now face down in the mud. He comes up. His face is covered in mud, and he's like yeah what was that he's like looking around and you're there with this burning spear looking like a badass um hell yeah yeah amazing so what was the spear i know xanthius wouldn't know this what was the spear called uh this my spear is

called blazed on so i think as i do that, I will shout something like, dance through the fire, and then call it into my hand. Very dance-like. What I'll do is if he's prone on the floor, I'm going to give him a minute to get up. As I turn around to the crowd and I say, behold, Blaze Dancer! Okay.

Woo! Blaze Dancer! flip blaze dancer do you want to use that as your next action to basically let him get up so let him get up and attack me that's another glory point yeah absolutely yeah perfect anybody want to jump in at this point feelings just cheer and just like the crowd you want to in the crowd. Do you want to hype the crowd or do you want to boost Atlas? I'll boost Atlas. Okay, yeah,

give me another, this would be persuasion because this is a lot more sort of positive. Cool, cool. Fifteen. It's just on the money. So yeah,

you get the crowd hyped up, you're like cheering, like, everyone starts cheering this name and you start hearing like, Ember, Ember, Ember. You have advantage on the next roll, Atlas.

Okay. That's how you'll use of support this turn. You are currently at three progress. Three progress. And three, well, I shouldn't tell you the ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I should keep that secret. Okay.

I think if I've got advantage and three progress, I'm going to try and end the fight. You're going to try and finish the fight? What I'm going to do is very... So, yeah, he's attacking me, but I think I'm doing that, like, the Morpheus thing, where as he's attacking because he's slightly reckless, I'm just stepping out of the way like this.

I think I actually drop my shield down and just sort of further kind of increase how comfortable I am, and maybe I just get chinned by this dwarf. We'll find out when this rolls, because this is it. It's a one or nothing. So either he's going to use this to beat you. I'm going to roll this one at a time. Okay, yeah.

Oh, that's cocked. Is it cocked? I think that is still cocked. That was between an 18 and a 2. I'll take it. Yeah, if you think it's cocked, I trust you. Nat 20! Oh!

Oh, my God. Joy on your face. Oh, my God. Oh, the other one. Yeah, yeah, if you think it's cocked, I trust you. Nat 20! Oh! Oh! Yeah! Oh my god! Joy on your face! Oh my god! Yeah, yeah, let's just see. Oh, 15! 10 plus 3, so it's a little bit of an 18. Another glory point.

Yes, oh my god! Well, two, because you won the fight as well. Oh! Oh, that's wild. So, yeah, you basically watch as, dodge the sight, dodge the sight. He's getting so angry, he's like, stay still, you! And I go, what? And then he's like, he starts, he's like, stay,

and then you just kick around. The spear comes out. How do you want to, like, kind of, like, you're not going to kill him, but he's going to surrender. So, like, is this, like, a furious stab of blows that he's struggling to defend? I think as I'm, like, dodging, I then start grabbing his hands

and continuing the movement. So he starts stumbling around and things like that. You really just make this guy look like a fool. Yeah, and then I think basically what happens is I bring my leg up as if to do a kick and I'm going to produce flame on my foot. So I'm holding this flaming foot above his head and I'm like, huh?

All right, all right. I quit, I quit. And then you hit like the crowd, like, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber, Amber. I wish my dad could see this. Well, he's right here. Oh my god, Dad. Rowan like silent images him in the clouds like Mufasa. I'm proud of you, son. A burning tear. Rowan like silent images him in the clouds like Mufasa.

I'm proud of you, Sala. A burning tear. Yeah. You, victory. Congratulations on your match. You win a victory. Was that one glory for winning, but also another glory for another 20? You got another 20. Yeah, any time you perform an incredible feat,

so anything which is, and it could be a 20 or higher, but obviously with a nat 20, we know it's going to be higher than me. You get another glory point as well. Okay. Also, mechanically, in between turns, can any of us go or is it just one of us at a time? Oh, well, you get one chance. Each of you has one thing for the combat.

Because I think what I would have been doing, I guess it kind of counts as two turns, maybe for a potential future Gruff fight. I almost want to examine the way that Atlas is fighting as well in order to maybe influence gruff fight in the future. I have a favourite. There was definitely times where I was swept away by how cool you looked out there. But there is still, like, I kind of want to...

This would be insight or investigation. Insight or investigation. Because that's what I let you do. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And if it helps, my, like, wisdom and stuff or investigation. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And if it helps, my wisdom and stuff is garbage. No, no, so I'll give it as a flat DC. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just to see how you're fighting,

maybe I can kind of give you some advice or something. Cheeky boy. Yeah, I mean. Do it. Ugh, nine. No, eight, sorry. So I am. He was so cool.

He looked incredible. I was swept away by the tournament before like the way you were moving you you you put fire behind your spear and rocket it back towards you that's the coolest i've ever seen in my entire dang life it was pretty cool um with this notes of atlas and then i think think the funniest part is as soon as he gets backstage and takes his helmet off, he's just like a really excited, he's like, oh my god, did you see what I did?

That was so cool. It's like it never worked that well before, like ever. Whoa. That was just so cool. That was so cool. Yeah. Everyone's cheering and there's a- I know.

They all said, it was awesome. Oh man, this is great, okay. If I was your father, I'd be very proud of you. Oh, that means a lot. I'm gonna need a minute, just kidding. And just runs off into a corner. Well, I was gonna say, so with those two matches, you now have a little bit of time, the two of you.

Your next match is maybe about an hour, so you have another time for a short rest. You probably don't need one, Gruff, but if Atlas wants to take one. But you have a little bit more time before your next matches for the day. And this is an opportunity for all of you, if you guys want to go off and do anything, this is an opportunity as well.

Yeah, Rowan. Rowan is probably going to go off and go to a food vendor to get some, not too stodgy, but some re-energising food for the two of you. Okay, yeah. So, if I remember, you bought snacks earlier this morning in the previous episode, didn't you?

You got the potato snacks and nuts and stuff. Okay, so that means if you get snacks now, you'll be at two snacks. There's a snack track. There's a snack track. Snack tracker. I've had so many snacks. Well, officially you've had one snack when you were with Rowan.

I had one in each hand. Okay, it doesn't count. From the same vendor. There is bad art. There is. I saw a curly potato stick in each hand. It's per vendor. Oh.

Yeah, you've got to go and buy your stackable butter, basically. But yeah, you go and do that, Rowan. It would cost you 15 silver for like everybody. Daisy, you get the fabric, you go and do that Rowan, it would cost you 15 silver for like everybody. Daisy, you get the fabric, you get the paint. Do you want to make a check to see how well your Atlas banner is? Yeah, can I use paint?

You can. What's my thing? So I believe I did it just pure Dex last time. Did you? Yeah, but you did get the Bardic Inspiration from Rowan, which you won't have this time, unfortunately. No, you did it with proficiency as well. Oh yeah, that's right, because you are painted,

yes, that's right, so Dex plus proficiency, you're quite correct. What's my proficiency? Three now, because it's level five. So it should be plus seven, and then you've got a D6, yeah. Okay. Don't let me down! Nine, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. 16 plus

18 18 it's a rush job it's a rush job it's nowhere near the exquisite quality of the Groff banner but

it's an old green banner what would you what do you think the design of Atlas's banner would be is it just yay Atlas yay Atlas um What do you think the design of Atlas's banner would be? Is it just Yay Atlas?

Yay Atlas. You can have a think. Yeah, let me have a think. It's going to have a flame on it, but it's probably also going to say... Flame on. Oh, I need to see that. Flame on. Write that down.

Flameo, hot man. Flameo, hot man. Flameio, hot man. Have a think. It's going to say... Atlas. Go, go, the ember, and then have a flame. Nice, perfect, great. Simple effect.

Still very good. Still very, very good. All right. Can I... I yeah go on while everyone's at the tournament can I go back to the enticing devil yeah I want to speak to Tyria

okay Orianna always throwing me those curveballs remember that house oh my god oh yeah haunting that's the ghost Tyria

fantastic she's going to recruit her Ophelia Oh my god, okay. Haunting? That's the ghost, Tyria. Fantastic. She's going to recruit her. Ophelia, you head back to the Enticing Devil. And the street that you're on is quite, it's close to the 24, but it's not near anything that people would want to go near, so it's quite quiet and empty. Most of the houses are shut.

Pretty much every day is a tournament. So you don't encounter anybody. When you make your way there, the Enticing Devil, in its state of disrepair, the broken windows, the shutters that are closed but broken apart, broken beams, half the roof collapsed in.

Work hasn't begun on your shrine yet because of the tournament, so you make your way in and of course Percival is the one there. Percival just quietly waiting. As soon as you arrive back in, Percival comes over to there. Percival just quietly waiting. As soon as you arrive back in, Percival comes over to you, dusts off your dress at the bottom,

like wipes anything that's, you know, out of place. It fixes your hair from the little scuffle that you had, and Percival just sort of waits by your side. It is the middle of the day or like a late afternoon, so sunlight's kind of filtering in through the broken roof, through the window slats and there is this quiet to the inn but because you know that this is steeped in an energy of death that quiet you know all too well it is the quiet of a grave it is the quiet of somewhere that has

been touched by death and you know that she is present it is daylight so she it's harder for her to manifest but she is here and listening but you also know that her stability has been waning and some of that anger some of that vengeance is bubbling in her that vengeance is bubbling in her. Ophelia will walk up to, or she'll go up the stairs quietly up to Tyria's room and just sort of linger in the doorway a little bit. You see the drawer of the dresser, the broken dresser. The first place you saw Tyria,

where she was sat miming, brushing her hair, the door, the drawer slides open and the hairbrush just moves and shuts again. Tyria, my dear, it's wonderful to see you again. I have a proposition. Wonderful to see you again. I have a proposition. Within you, there is so much power. You've shown everybody your abilities, what you are capable of.

And, well, I can give you a choice. It's up to you. You see the shutters close, the slats draw, and the room becomes a lot darker. This is in the roof, and with the shutters closed, there is a much gloomier-out environment, a little bit of sunlight filtering through, and in that chair, this translucent,

bluish-green figure begins to materialize and you see the horrific scarred face that to most people is terrifying the scarred lady as she is known this face jagged and torn where she was brutally attacked and and mutilated that one eye looks at you. The voice, unable to speak with them, but that voice rasping. She looks towards you, curious, certainly intrigued. You are capable of much, and myself and my friends,

we, of course, would love to help put you to rest. But of course, rest is not always the end. And it doesn't have to be your end. Where I am from, Osseous, there is a house called the House of Shrouds. And they provide homes for spirits such as yourselves. And you could be useful there. It could be a home for you. You would be amongst other spirits.

You would have work. You would have a whole other life, of course, in this form. But you could use your powers for other things. Or, if you are content, we are of course happy to continue our path and put you. That is up to you. But if you would like to make your choice, I'm always ready to hear your response. The ghost doesn't stand, but drifts. You can't really see her legs. She sort of trails away into ether at the bottom.

She drifts towards you, and a hand sort of reaches for your face tracing the outline and that ghostly hand comes up to her own scarred almost measuring or sort of testing or perhaps in a sense you almost get a sense of envy or nostalgia. Make a persuasion test for me. I'm not going to give you, oh, didn't even spend the fate. No. 21. Oh!

What is happening, by the way? Yeah, we had a whole plan for this situation. I like how you did it while we were all out of the house. What's the character alignment here? Yeah. Well, what? There is this complexity here. I checked out. Yeah.

You are not, you know that the House of Shrouds, she wouldn't be bound, like, controlled. She would be free. She would be given, she would be released from whatever holds her here, and the House of Shrouds would help her develop her powers, and develop her being an undead creature.

Regain her intelligence, regain her ability to be in control. But, it would be damning her to an eternity as a spirit. But there's this kind of, and I think because you've caught her

in a slightly unstable state of mind, you feel this intense need for vengeance burning in this spirit. And that is encouraging her to take your offer. Oh. And she like looks at you, but she doesn't know how to make this happen. What do you, but you get the sense

that Tyria is open to this choice. I will find a way to contact my deity choice. I will find a way to contact my deity and find a way for them to open the gateway and allow you to traverse to the House of the Shrouds if that is still what you would like to do. Yes. Vengeance......home. I will carry out your wish. Thank you for listening. Thank... ...you...

...sister. And she just drifts into your body and you feel this cold wave over you. And that's where we're going to end today's episode. Where'd that come from? That is all that one. Do not look at me with no fucking idea. I had a whole tournament arc.

And she's like, I was like, oh, Ophelia's going to do some art classes or something. Art classes. Yeah. Well, good game. Wild. That is it for today's episode. Oh, crap.

See you for next week. Thanks again to Mr Jasper Carly for joining us. Thank you for having me, everyone. You will be joining us for the next episode as well. I will. So we will hopefully get to see the conclusion of the tournament. Oh, yeah. I hope so. We've got a couple of matches, but also the conquest.

So we are going to jump pretty much straight into that. We will see you next time. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye. Thank you very much. Goodbye. So what's it like to buy your first cryptocurrency on Kraken? Well, let's say I'm at a food truck I've never tried before. Am I going to go all in on the loaded taco?

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