High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #40 | These Golden Hills (Part 2)

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

The party and their two new companions encounter a mining camp deep within the Ash Hills! _______________ 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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Visit Intact.ca or talk to your broker. Conditions apply. Welcome back to part two, everybody. Thank you. Our party had finished gathering up the treasures that they had found inside the ruin of the Ashen Citadel, including a coat of useful items, now adorned by Daisy Thistleheart. The party gathered up their supplies and their new friends Penelope and Baranth,

and they've set off in pursuit of the miners' camp where apparently Penelope and the Lady Verithera and the Entourage encountered Settledrack Ignis, the knight they're looking for, and hoping that maybe they can find some clues or some more information there. Yeah, dog. Along the way,

they encountered, they found a bizarre golden pool with some deer grazing nearby. And after investigating the pool, Xantheus determined that there was something inherently magical about it, and that it might be some sort of boon to one drink it. And so thus, they have gathered up several water skins and a few people have tried it.

Although, Nim, the celestial spirit that works as symbiotic with Daisy, seems to be rather cautious about it and has advised not to drink. Yeah, I'm not gonna drink it. I'm gonna pour it out. Okay, sure. Yeah, of your water skin? Yeah. Okay.

I feel like seeing Xantheus be way too enthusiastic about it. Knowing all we do about like chrome steel, so I think today's is just gonna be like... So for Gruff, Rowan and Ophelia, it is nice water, it's very crisp, it's clear, it doesn't taste or seem fouled in any way. In fact, there is that kind of like element of spiciness

or citrusness to it. But for Xanthias, this is the best thing you have ever drunk. I'm not like- He's just in the progwon. I'm not like overly obsessive with it. A bit like a gecko. Or being like weird with it. It's just good water.

It's just good. Yeah, it's just good. Man, that's tasty. Good. If voice in head says no, do that. I'm gonna drink my own energy. That's some good squishy. Not'm going to drink my own energy. That's some gooood squishy. Not sponsored. Hashtag not sponsored.

But if you'd like to... No! Become Celestial. I don't want that. Red Bull gives you celestial wings. Crown still gives you wings. But yeah, so what's the plan here, guys? You fill up the water skins, you've had a lovely drink.

A little Wade. I'm good. I'm good. I hear a runoff. Have we marked this on the map, just so we can come back and bottle it up later? Oh, that's a good idea. That is a really good idea.

Yes, just southeast of the Ashen Citadel. Okay, but a big X there, and maybe a coin sign. A coin? Lots of coins, coins, coins. Oh, because for all the money we're gonna make from this. Yes, that's a really good idea. I'll do exactly that. Brilliant. Okay.

And anything else, or do you wanna head off after this? After you've marked the location? We scared off the deer, so that's probably for the best. Yeah, Penelope made me feel really bad about it. Everyone made me feel really bad about it. Yeah, well, we've gotta be nice and understand, you know, that people have differing opinions. I don't think that's a good idea at all.

We've got enough money from the place we were at and a deer, a beautiful deer, very beautiful, two of them very nice. Yes, yes, yeah, the most beautiful deer. The most beautiful deers. I've never seen deer like these in the world. They're the most perfect, beautiful deer. Everybody tells me.

I've been told that the hunter god is not even real. Don't believe what they say, it's not a real god. Yes. They deserve to live. Okay, fine, all right, I agree, okay, good. There's money on legs. Everyone back on the wagon, the gruff is on the wagon.

Emperor Rotary is like, you know, he's doing that dad thing of like, come on. Look at his watch. Slapping his legs. Right, time to go. Traffic's gonna be awful. You guys.

Yeah, we wanna miss the rush. Head off. You travel and it is not quite sundown, not quite sunset, like beginning into later evening. As you come across and you begin to approach to Penelope and Berent point out, Penelope's like, yeah, it was somewhere around here, up in the hills.

They had like a little camp, they were beginning to set things up around here, so we're getting close now, but keep your eyes out if you see anything. So it begins sort of taking you on. It doesn't take long before you guys see up ahead, nestled in this valley of sort of sloping hills and things like that, a cave system,

like a series of like hills with like little cave mouths and things like that, and you clearly see signs of a camp. But it comes as you approach it, you see very well-equipped guards who are sort of behind makeshift barricades, and they draw these bizarre-looking weapons, which you guys would recognize as being these kind of new firearms.

This is like a new thing in the Empire, where they've begun to manufacture this thing called dragon powder, which is like an explosive powder. It's kind of cauldron and suncrest isles, mainly. They have these muskets, and you can see that they wear swords on their belts, they're wearing really fine chainmail and tabards with some sort of sigil on them.

This one appears to be like a trident-like fork on like a long stem. And they bring these muskets up, and you just hear this strong voice like, Halt! Who are you? What do you want? This is private property.

We are just travelers coming here. Actually, we wanted to speak to you about someone who may have come to your camp recently. Kind of hear a few of the guards kind of mutter to each other and you can see behind them there are these elaborate, very quite nice looking tents that have been erected and you can see tables and mining equipment has all been laid out

and there are people hustling and bustling all over the place. And one of the guards will just announce and he'll kind of say, make a perception check if you want to hear what they're saying, because they're kind of whispering to each other. Everyone? Anybody who wants to, anybody who thinks their character would be trying to strain their ears.

Natural 20. 24, natural 20, easily. 17. 17? I'm going to say actually 17 is probably not enough because they're whispering. Zero. Zero.

So Gruff, I imagine that this is maybe like, in terms of like, this is how I would visualise, it'd probably be like Nim helping enhance your senses, because you are hearing them whispering, but you hear it very clearly, Daisy. And for Gruff, this is the leonin, like this is your animal hearing, this is like your unnatural kind of like, you know,

bestial instincts you pick up on this conversation. And they sort of whisper, well, they don't look like the ones that attacked us earlier it should be fine go go send word to the head go send words to the executives like let's have them decide you know we're not paid to do that we're not paid to make these decisions. What are they saying? Are they gonna shoot us? They've been attacked by someone. Alright just stay there we're going to inform our employer that you're here to meet with them

and we'll await their answer. If it helps, my name is Griffith. Hello, I'm Griffith of Tremoro and I'm a knight errant of the circle of the Order of the Loyal Hounds. We're here looking for Sir Ignis Eldrach. I don't think I need a role for that. He'll just say, the guard will say like,

your words say well, knight, errant, if that is what you are, but we do need to check with our employer first, but if everything seems fine, that shouldn't be a problem. Understandable. Yes, thank you for your candor. And he'll sort of just wait,

and they're not pointing these guns at you, they're not pointing these muskets, but they keep them ready. And you can see that actually a few more of them have been pulled in from maybe other places around the camp and they're forming up in case there is an attack, basically. It's kind of like tensions are a bit high,

they're quite wary, but they're very well trained. Now you get the sense that they're not panicked, they're not afraid, they're just like, this could be an attack, let's be ready, but they send off one of them, goes running off into a tent nearby, they come back maybe like five minutes later. And you see Penelope and Baranth sort of huddled behind you because Penelope's a bit too nervous

and Baranth doesn't seem to take front action, like he doesn't seem to be the one to sort of act first. And eventually a pair of individuals come out of the tent following this mercenary and come up to their little palisade wall that they've built. And it's made out of like crates and barrels and tarps and rocks that they've piled like sticks and sharpened stakes on.

You know, quite hastily built it looks like. And you see two figures arrive. One, they're both dwarven in stature and size, but one of them, she has completely bright gold skin and she has ram horns, like a Tiefling's ram horns and a tail, like a little kind of wispy, forked, like little demon devil tail. like a little kind of wispy, forked, like little demon devil tail.

She's wearing a like tight black leather bodysuit with like a leather jacket over it and there's like rose motifs embossed into the thing. And you can see that she wears like dark makeup and she has dark straight black hair with like a full blunt like cut at the bottom. Her eyes are pitch black with just the tiniest purple glow at the center of them.

So she looks very, she's very clearly a tiefling, a tiefling. The figure next to her looks very similar in terms of facial features, but is a dwarf, is just a normal dwarf, not a typhling. Sure. He is, so they're both in their sort of late 20s-ish, or what would appear to be for a dwarf is in their late 20s-ish, like for a human.

He has long, thick, dark brown hair streaked with like golden blonde bits, like Adolin from the Stormlight Archives, if he's how he often has to. Not actual gold-like. It's golden blonde, yes, like golden blonde hair, right? But it's streak-through. Not like drinking from the lake.

No, no, no, no. And he has a short beard, well, very similar, like dark brown, but like little flecks of golden blonde. Okay. His earth skin, which is the metal protrusions, are shaped as hooped rings in his arms and he hangs rich silks from them. He has septum piercing and earrings

that match his earth skin loops and he wears a fine sort of tunic with a big open, deep V at the front. You can see a thick plume of the same dark brown golden hair popping up and then he has, with a leather jacket over that as well, and tall boots. And he kind of has a little bit of like, his outfit's a little bit archeologist Indiana Jones,

but then he has just this romantic ruffled shirt at the front as well. He kind of has a little bit of Gale from Waterdeep energy in his hair and stuff as well. I love both of them. Yeah, here I was thinking we were the main characters of the story. We just found him.

We're just in their world. Yeah. Listen, I get to make all the main characters I want. Cool as hell. But yeah, they kind of approach and they kind of look over and you'll hear one of them say, oh, it's fine, Captain, I recognize the young green woman and the tall wooden fellow.

They are the ones that came with the lady dragon. Oh no, they should be fine. They're not like the others, no, no. Yes, come, come, come in, come in, please. Oh, good, okay. Maybe Penelope, you wanna take the lead here? No. Okay, well, okay, let's just go forward.

But I do recognize him. Him and the other one, they're the sort of owners, I think. They're the ones who lead this kind of operation. Right, okay, all right. Lady Verithera spoke to him, I'm not very good at talking to nobody. That's okay, all right. And she sort of hides behind you

as you guys make your approach. The two dwarves, the man comes out and he's big smile and he offers his hand. He's like, sorry about that, alligator. We've been attacked recently and we weren't sure if you were with them or if maybe you were some sort of trick or something like that. And he comes up and he offers his hand.

He's Kuro Kinkaid Gildenval at your service. Fuck off. What? Fuck off. Kuro, K-U-R-O, Kuro, Kinkaid. Yeah, we do. With Gildenval. Kinkaid is K-I-N-C-A-I-O, Kuro, Kincaid. Yeah, which is? Gildenval. Kincaid is K-I-N-C-A-I-D.

Gildenval. Oh my god, okay. But call me Kuro. Kuro, okay. Kuro, nice to meet you. Oh, Xanthius. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you. He looks around, looking for introductions. I'm Sister Ophelia Delarosa of the House of Blood. Oh, and he just takes you out and kisses you on the top of it. I'm flattered, wonderful to meet you. It's just like, of course, a pleasure. Pleasure to meet a sweet lady out here. Who is your tailor, by the way?

My, oh, I got this from a place in Kelskar, it's actually a beautiful little place. I must say, your taste, your fashion taste is wonderful. Sister, look at this, we got somebody who finally appreciates our lifestyle around here. Yeah, she seems pretty good actually, brother. Yes, very well. Oh!

She'll look around and be like, my brother's a bit more of a chatter than I am. I'm J. Soon, Guildenval. J. Soon, wonderful to meet you too. How spell? J-A-E-S-U-U-N. Jason. Jason.

Gildanval. Not Jason, Jason. Hey, Rhee, how did we name our spore character? I don't want to know. Okay, okay, all right. I don't want to know. It's not like that. Okay.

The other thing is it's J-A apostrophe A-S-U-N. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jason. Yeah, anyway. This is Jason. Sorry, not to take away from that. Yes. Chill sort of around, and yeah, like,

Cura will come around and be like, hey, how you doing? Nice to meet you. Hello, I am Rowan. Nice to meet you, Rowan, nice to meet you. You must be the knight errant that the guard told me about. Oh, yes, hello. My name is Griffith of Tremoro, knight Erend of the Order of the Loyal Hounds

and oath keeper. Oh, fancy, fancy business. You're welcome. I thought I'd give it a try. What about you young miss? I'm Daisy, hi. Nice to meet you Daisy, please call me Goro. Yeah, me and my sister, we run this operation.

We work for the, we work for Shirokar Earthworks. We run this operation. Shirokar-o. Yes, Shiro, S-H-I-R-O-K-A, Shirokar Earthworks. Earthworks. It sure does. Ah. I sure hope.

Ah. Right, that's great. That one, definitely never heard that one. You know a thing or two about Earth, don't you, bro? I do. So much. And not the ground. Great, I mean, we love digging in it,

especially if it's got gold and gems and metals and things like that inside. And this area's rich in gold and... Well, let's have that conversation inside. You guys wanna drink any refreshments, some food, anything like that? Whoa. I think we'll put it to your refresh.

We're not too bad, I think. All right, no, about that. Whatever you offer me, we'll pay in comparison. Yes, no, I think it's good if we catch up inside. Yes, absolutely. He'll turn around and be like, Captain, great work, thank you very much. Let's keep a close eye out

in case any of those freaks come back, all right? Yeah, it's very good, sir, very good. Not a problem. You know that we're at your service. Yes, what freaks come back, all right? Yeah, it's very good, sir, very good. Not a problem. You know that we're at your service. Freaks? Yes, freaks. Would they be people who have Ashen things? That's right, yeah, you've encountered them,

you've been attacked on the road as well. We have. Reclaimers, I believe they call them. You spoke to them. Well, we heard them before we... Yes, we went to a ruin and there was Penelope here and Baranth. Yeah, I was gonna say we... Yes, we went to a ruin and there was Penelope here, and Baranth. Yeah, I was gonna say we...

They were kidnapped and we rescued them. You rescued them, but not the Lady Dragon, she wasn't there with them. No, she was taken elsewhere. No, they took her away, mister. Like you see Penelope just like, ah. It's like, oh, that's pretty bad news. You see Kuro kind of glances at Jai-Soon

and they sort of like share a look between the two of them, and he's like, oh, that's pretty bad news. He looks, you see Kuro kind of glances at Jason and they sort of like share a look between the two of them. And he's like, all right, let's have this conversation inside the tent. And he looks around and he looks, and you can see that now you've moved up into their camp. There is a cave entrance that the other people are coming and going in from. And you see a number of dwarves, men and women,

who have like tool belts and they've got like maps and scrolls and like, you know, boards that they're writing on. And then there's a bunch of workers, all different ancestries, humans, halflings, tieflings, dwarves, like everything. And the, but there is definitely a kind of a rank of dwarves who seem to be like the main overseers of what's going on.

And they're directing teams of diggers and things like that and laborers and constructors to go in and do stuff. And there's quite a hustle and bustle about this place. Just as you're being led into quite a very well decorated tent, thick rugs, beautiful wooden chairs, you can see that there's a sort of bucket of ice with something chilled inside, fresh fruit and all this kind of stuff.

You hear a deep kind of, pooooh, and a rumbling in the ground. And Rowan, you feel it as some sort of blast happens somewhere and the ground shakes a little bit. But nobody else seems to be that bothered about it. Nobody outside of us, you mean? Outside of you guys, yeah. Jason will else seems to be that bothered about it. Sorry. Outside of us, you mean? Outside of you guys, yeah.

Jason will be like, oh, sorry about that, just some of the construction and digging going on below. Nothing to worry about. That happens often. Well, yeah, that's how we're expanding to build out the mine that we're hoping to build here. I see, okay. I was worried there'd be more of those,

oh, but the giant bug thing. The vaultspawn. No, the vaultspawn, you know, in- Cryptid. Burnell. Burnell, yes, the big- Yes, yes. The big bug thing.

Oh, it's not our first mine, you see. I'm gonna spend a fake point. Okay. Oh, what were they called again? I can't remember the name of them. Bur- Venomorphs. Venomorphs, that's the one. Disgusting creatures. Kuro's like, I the name of them. Burr. Venomorphs. Venomorphs the Wester one.

Disgusting creatures. Kuro's like, I've heard of them. Yeah, a lot of the times we've had workers have to go in and that's why we hire really good mercenaries because you never know when you do some of these digs. You uncover a pack of those things. They're a nightmare. They're disastrous.

They're bad for the bottom line, let me tell you that. They eat gold and profits and gemstones and all the like, so yeah, they're a real nuisance. Did you hear what happened in Burnell? No, I can't say we did. We've been out here in the hills for a few weeks now. Well, why don't you tell them, Xanthius? Well, I can't remember.

Don't want to dug too deep and too greedily. There was a mine that was overrun by these Belimor things. That's a real shame. They were using some sort of artifact to... An artifact? What kind of artifact? What, to dig or something like that?

Yeah, it was carving away at the earth. And it was stolen and there was a whole thing. Oh, who stole it? Sounds exciting. It was. We were on the case, so to speak. Did you get this artifact back? Do you have it now? It was taken again. It was taken We were on the case, so to speak. Did you get this artifact back? Do you have it now?

It was taken again. It was taken, unfortunately. But those actions gained us quite the reputation in Ashen Rest. Oh, I see. You're looking at heroes. What can I say? All right, well, I mean,

maybe they're the people we need to talk to, brother. I mean, it sounds like, well, maybe we can help in some way. I don't know, but... Well, we are now on a quest from the daughter of Archduke Ignorius. Not El, Ignis, Arch. Ignorius. Ignorius.

Duke Ignorius and stuff. He gets his name mixed up every now and then. Archdragon and Duke Ignorius, they're very different dates. Yeah. They seem impressed by it. They lead you in. So maybe you can help us, maybe. Yeah, They seem impressed by it. They lead you in. So maybe you can help us, maybe. Yeah, they send for some people

to bring some extra chairs in. Kuro goes over and he pours himself a glass of chilled wine from this bottle that's in the thing. What, did you change your mind about the refreshments? I'm happy to help. I mean, I didn't know there was wine on offer. Do you want me to be okay? Yes, of course.

He pours you out a glass. Thank you kindly. And you see he takes a sip from want him to be okay? Yes, of course. He pours you out a glass. Thank you kindly. And you see he takes a sip from it. Water bouquet. Yes. And there's fresh fruit and things in here. And he takes a seat. And you can see that he sits behind a desk

covered in paperwork and maps and surveys and all sorts of business. And he's got different, almost rock samples. And he's got them with examining tools and glass tools and things like that. It looks like a pretty professional setup that they've got here, really sort of set in. And he's like, well, I mean, how can we help?

What can we do for you? What are you here for? We're looking for Ser Eldraak Ignis. Right, the Red Dragon Knight, yeah, yeah, yeah. We sent word to Ash and Rest, you know, we're out here surveying the land for what we'll, maybe I should explain a little bit about what the Shrekart Earthworks does,

just to get you a bit of context. Okay. We, you know, originally we were from a family from Gildai, but we left that behind and we set up a little corporation, a little company, and we go around and we survey areas looking for resources. And if we find something that we think is of value, we reach out to the local Draconic noble,

and we say, hey, listen, we'll take care of this for you. We'll excavate, we'll dig it out, and we'll split the percentages with you. We take a small cut in exchange and we provide those services to the Duke, and it's worked out, the dragon, it's worked out very good for us. It's very savvy.

It's very savvy, and we have experience being dwarves. We have a natural connection to the earth, and we can sense when there might be resources nearby and stuff like that, so it's a good way of us working to go with that, and we've got a good connection of mercenaries to act as guards, because the Belomorphs and bandits and all this kind of stuff, vaultspawn we deal with all the time.

We have to deal with that kind of stuff. But, and then we also have laborers that we work with and we operate all across the empire, you know, adventuring types like you, maybe you don't work with many mining corporations, but the Shirakawa Earthworks, we're a small part of a bigger organization. And, uh, so we were digging, we're surveying this area in the hopes that maybe we find something that we could go to, uh, your Duke Ignorius and say, listen, we found this out in this area. We don't know why, we didn't know why nobody had been out here before. We thought this is a great hill land,

hills are great places to find resources. We were wondering why is nobody out here digging? Why is nobody doing nothing? We come out here, we start examining, searching around. That's when we found the caves with the armor in. We found these beautiful pieces of armor. And we recognized the crest of North Vale. You know, one of my guys, he's a sort of a historian.

And he said, you know, I think we got something here. So we sent it to the duke. And the next thing we knew, days later, this Ser Eldrake Ignis, Knight of the Realm, he comes by, he's asking us about it, where we found it, can we show him?'s asking us about it, where we found it, can we show him? We take him to the caves where we found it,

we say, hey, this is where we found it. And we left him to it, and that was the last time we saw him. We haven't seen him since. He didn't go deeper into the caves? Oh no, he did, yeah, that's it, but that wasn't our business. We had searched those caves, there wasn't any gemstones or minerals or anything like that in there,

so, you know, he just wanted to, it was something about this armor, he said he was searching for something. Said that the person whose armor it was had something real important that he had to find. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And you haven't seen him leave the cave at all.

He's just been in there ever since. Well, we didn't stick around. I gotta be honest with you, Mr. Xanthus. We didn't stick around. You know, we've got work to do. We moved on. We move on. We didn't see, you know, he's a knight of the realm, he doesn't need our help,

he doesn't need our protection, right? You know, it's, we go off doing our business. You know, a few days later, we're starting to set up here, we found a great supply of, we got copper, we got gold, we got silver all nearby, we got gemstones in this area, we figured, right, we got a real literal gold mine, you know what I'm saying? And we start working on it,

and then these freaks, they attack our camp. They try to take us hostages, they're trying to kill us. You know, black, smeared all over their face, but they're well trained, you know, they're good guards, but we don't skimp on security. Oh no, see, yes. Our guys, we fend them off. We fight back, and I don't think they're expecting us to.

You know, we got the dragon powder weapons, we got things like that, and yeah, they leave us alone. They haven't touched us since, but we figured that something must be going on around here. And when did they attack you? It was about, uh, how long ago was it? You see Jason, Jason, she kind of looks over, must have been about maybe five, six days ago,

something like that. Right. And how far is this cave where you found the armor from here? Oh, from here? Whoa, let me have a look see here. Let me check my maps. Well, it's maybe about three days to the east, I'd say about three days east.

We have a map, actually. Do you mind marking it? Yeah, yeah, pass it here and I'll mark it on for you. No problem. Oh, wonderful, thank you. Of course, of course. You know, if you, are you, so you're looking for this knight or something like that?

Oh, yes, yes. Yeah, he's gone missing. That's real interesting. Mm. Yeah, isn't it just? Yes, and we got it from the Duke himself, well, Lady Ambrose. Oh, yes.

They said he's been gone for- Put a big A there for armor. Ah, right, good idea. Oh, okay, oh. So three days, but that is traveling over- Gone to the hills and things like that. Through the hills, yes. Exactly, so.

A bit more treacherous. Right, gotcha. They said he's been gone for quite a long time now. Wasn't it a couple of weeks, I think? Well, it must have been, what, did he come over? It was about 10, 12 days ago, something like that, that he first came to us, you know. Like I said, we've been out here for a while.

We've been searching these hills, you know. Yeah. But yeah, pretty weird stuff. It is weird. As a side to that, obviously we rescued Penelope and Baranth. Right, right. And they were with Lady Verethira. The green dragon, yeah, we met her brieflyope and Baranth. Right, right. They were with Lady Varithera. The green dragon, yeah, we met her briefly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I believe what you call the freaks, I believe they're called the Reclaimers. Right, right, yeah, you said that before. I think they may have taken Lady Varithera somewhere as well. Oh, by science and science, that ain't good. Yeah.

As he says that, there is another... Pfft! Oh, again, okay. That's very, very common, okay. Oh yeah, we're trying to clear out as much as we can, you know, there's a lot of just dead rock that we gotta blast through to start opening up caves and things like that.

We found this is the quickest way to doing it, so. Uh, when that happens, like, you can see that, like, Baranth really is, something is, he's not okay. Something is going on with this plant figure. When those explosions happen, he retreats and all of his leaves, not wilt, but they droop, and he's struggling with something.

And even Penelope's looking around really, even more anxious than she was previously. The reclaimers when they attacked you, did you get any indication of what they were hoping to achieve in taking over the camp or was it simply just violence? I think, you know what, they were, they didn't talk much, they were saying some sort of nonsense. I'll be very honest with you, Mr. Xanthias.

You know, me and my sister, we can handle ourselves They didn't talk much, they were saying some sort of nonsense. I'll be very honest with you, Mr. Xanthius. You know, me and my sister, we can handle ourselves in like a, you know, in a tavern fight or something like that, but as soon as I knew that it was serious, we put ourselves behind the nearest barrier and I let my guards do the work. But if you want to talk to the captain, I'm sure he'd be happy to answer any questions.

I'm sure it wouldn't hurt, it's just we've encountered them before and they were very concerning to us. I think it's something we'd like to look deeper into. Sure, well if you want to ask any of my people here, we're more than happy for you to do that. I'd suggest if I may, don't go into the mines just because right now they're very unstable with the explosives with us doing the digging. I wouldn't necessarily want you to go in there.

Can't imagine we would. Yeah, no, I don't imagine so. But you know, because we got workers down there and stuff like that. But yeah, you're more than happy to talk to any of the guards up here, the captain. I'd suggest you go and speak with, uh, with, uh, Captain Nathaniel. He's, he's my main guy. He's the leader of this little troupe. Um, have a chat with him. Uh, yeah, I can't... If you've got any other questions, Jason,

is there anything you want to add into this? I can't think of anything, no, I think, uh... I mean, it sounds like you guys, sounds like you've dealt with these fine people have dealt with troubles like this before. I mean, we would certainly, if you could get rid of these reclaimers, I mean, that would be great news.

That'd be great business for us. I mean, it's gonna be, we were gonna send word to the Duke that there was these, we thought they were like bandits or something. So we were gonna come and send him to send the army and come clear them out, you know. We've got a valuable mine here. It's going to be great for his treasury, for his horde, so... It's probably a good idea anyway to send word to the duke,

especially because he might be interested that they seem to have some connection to Galvassar, his... Right, right. ...an enemy. A connection to what, the old trader, the old trader tyrant, Galvassar? Yes, they seem to have some belief that they are descendants or have some connection to him,

and he's the true emperor, the true leader of this area. Yeah, you see Kuro makes like the sign of Pyrrhus over his heart, and he's like, saints and scions, that's bad news. I didn't realize that they were that, we thought that they were just bad, we thought that they were just trying to rob us, that's real bad news. We can't be dealing with that. All right, no, you're right, you're right, Knight Eren, absolutely, Sir Ser Gruffydd, we gotta, I'll have one of my scribes,

he'll draft up a message and I'll put it on my best writer, we'll send them out to, send word to Ashenrest. Definitely mention the word Galvassar, the name Galvassar. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And the Reclaimers you call them? That's what they call themselves. I'll put that in a letter, maybe somebody,

maybe the dukes got people to know about this kind of stuff. Possibly. Yeah, I mean, listen, if you're looking for extra work, I mean, I'll happily take you on. If you're looking for extra guard time, or if you're looking for this night, I'm, I'll happily take you on. If you're looking for extra guard time, or if you're looking for this night, I'm sure you got business, but I'll pay you if you wanna work here and do some guarding.

Well, I mean, we are gonna be delving, I suppose, into this cave that Eldrak has found himself wandering into. Sure, sure, sure. Is there any indication of what we might be able to find down there? You said it was cleared out, but any changes? Well, it wasn't cleared out. We didn't find any, you know, because we're dwarves,

we can sense if there is, you know, valuable materials and things like that nearby and we didn't get that. We use magic. We couldn't sense anything that we'd be interested in. But there's definitely a cave system there and, you know, there's a running water. There's some sort of underground water system.

We think that a lot of the caves in this area are connected by some sort of underground river system or something like that, maybe dug out years ago. But we couldn't find anything that interested us, so we left it alone, we didn't touch it. The more the corrupting tendrils of Galvissar. Oh, I see, yes. The veins of Dardennach.

Yes. Yes. This is more of a natural occurrence. I see. How caves are formed normally through water erosion. Interesting. Yeah, he just sort of, yeah, that's what he says. JC would just say like, well, you know, you've just got here, definitely take a minute,

take your feet off, we've got a lovely camp here. I'd love to hear more about these stories, about these, what, the Bellamorfs that you guys fought before. Have you had any other adventures? But I'd love to hear more about that. Oh boy, would you like them to, the Bellamorves that you guys fought before. Have you had any other adventures? But I'd love to hear more about that. Oh boy, would you like them to song? Sure, yeah, absolutely. Well, I'll provide a background accompaniment

while the rest of us reshell. I can have some lunch brought up if you guys are hungry. We can get some food up here. Well, that would save our rations at least. Of course, it's the least we can do. I mean, it sounds like you're doing some noble work here. I notice Penelope and Brant looking a little unnerved. Utterbed.

I'm like, that's okay. Yeah, Penelope's just like, I don't know, there's something, that rumbling, I don't know what they're doing here, but it doesn't feel very good. I gotta be honest, Mr. Rowan, I'm not sure. I appreciate that I accidentally gave these dwarves New York accents. Rowan, I'm not sure. I appreciate that I accidentally gave these dwarves

New York accents, I did not intend to. Right, hopefully I won't have to jump between them too much. Baranth, sort of. It is wrong. Alfe is angry. It does not like what these dwarves are doing. Can I insight check? Sure.

Dwarf. Which on? What on and in what way? I just feel like they're being very like, oh, come in, let us be best friends. Sure. Don't go in the mine though. Sure. And then they are not fans of what's happening.

Sure, sure, sure. Can I use fate? Yeah, absolutely you can. One spent. No, there's only a 12. 12. You get the sense, I'll tell you this, you can easily pick up on these people are very business minded.

And if anything, maybe they don't want you going in the mine because they just don't want you messing up their business minded. And if anything, maybe they don't want you to go in the mine because they just don't want you messing up their business opportunity. You know, and it seems like maybe it's in their interest. Or didn't use the fate. You didn't roll the fate. That's what it's something, or? 16. 16.

16. Yeah, you get the sense that they care very much about their business, and maybe there's a worry that you're gonna mess that something up or you're gonna do something like that. You're not really sure. In terms of body language, you would know that like, Kuro is just all smiles, like he seems genuine. And like maybe he's like, he's like casting glances,

especially at like Xanthius and Ophelia who like, he seems to have like that kind of like, yeah, you guys get it. There's a kind of repertoire of all the fine clothes, the compliments, the way that Xanthius, you speak in a certain way, and he's connecting with them on that kind of socialite level. Jasonne is definitely the more quiet one. She keeps to the back, but she really wants to hear Rowan's story about what happened in Burnell.

Okay. I guess while you're doing that, I'm also sort of continuing the conversation with them as well. Sure. I'm surprised to hear that this place, so rich in resources, is not being mined already. We thought the exact same thing. I mean, we're not from here. I don't know if there's some historical... I mean, I heard that there was a battle... There's a history of the Ash Hills some historical, I mean, I heard that there was a battle. A history of the Ash Hills.

Yeah, I mean, I know that there was a battle here, but... Well. Why would nobody not come here and, you know, mine it and search for resources? Well, I mean, you've seen the wildlife and the way the plants grow here, the water, the earth, everything is touched in some way by something curious.

Are you seeing any effect of that inside the caves? I gotta be honest. Our interest is more in what's underneath the earth than the plants and the creatures and things like that. I'm not a zoologist. I don't particularly pay much attention to that stuff, Mr. Xanthias. I can't say I noticed it.

Is there something wrong with this place? You make it sound like there's something wrong here. Well, I mean, not necessarily wrong as such, just different, enhanced or... Magic seems a little different here, yeah. It's stronger somehow. But I mean, are you seeing any of that in the minerals that you're picking out of this ground? Oh, can't say at all. I mean, are you seeing any of that in the minerals that you're picking out of this ground? No, can't say at all. I mean, everything seems great.

Like I said, there's plenty of rich and abundant different resources, like I said. Okay, and these explosions we've been hearing, you're just trying to open up new caverns? Yeah, yeah, just a new mining technique. We use the dragon powder, you know, small condensed explosive charges to blow open some of the, you know, I don't know if you've ever worked in a mine before, Mr. Xanthius, but it's backbreaking work. And, you know, we try and provide a good life

for the, what, laborers and the people that we have here. And, you know, if we can save them a week's digging by blowing open a cavern and forming some natural places for us to start looking for veins and things like that, hey, that's great, it stops my guys breaking their necks. I know a place where you could probably acquire workers that don't need rest or feeding. That sounds very ominous, Sister Ophelia.

What do you think? Oh, it's not ominous, I'm just saying, Oh, that sounds very ominous, Sister Ophelia. What do you mean? Oh, it's not ominous. I'm just saying if you were ever interested in just a new perspective, I, well, just say I have ways of making things a little bit easier for the more manual labor- labor intensive workers. Well, that's very interesting, but I mean,

is it expensive? Is, you know, this kind of thing? What are we talking about here? Hmm, expensive. Hmm, it doesn't cost you anything monetarily, I suppose. That sounds great to me. I know, right? That sounds perfect.

What's that name again? I'm just saying. If you ever come to Ash and Vrest, I have a little temple and I worship the Gravefather. Does he know, the Gravefather? Gravefather, what's that? I've never heard of the Gravefather. Jason, you know what a Gravefather is?

I can't say I've ever heard of it. It's not one of the saints. Maybe it's some cauldron thing, I don't know. Oh no, it's from Osseus. Osseus, where's that? That's not in the Empire. We're from across the ocean. Oh right, you're foreigners, you're not from the Empire.

I'm not, no. Oh goodness me, no, I've never heard of anything about it. I gotta say, like we, you know, I grew up, we grew up, you know, we grew up quite poor. We were taken in by the company, and we were raised in that, and so we haven't had much of an education beyond what we do for a living, let's put it that way. Sounds oddly familiar, your childhood.

So I'd say mine doesn't branch too differently from your path. Sounds very curious. I mean, I'm interested. If you ever come to Ashland. I must say though, I am a very dedicated man to the Sionist faith. I'm not looking for no new gods or anything like that.

I'm a religious man. I say my prayers, I do my rituals. Of course, of course. If you're ever in Ashen's Rest, just come to the Enticing Devil. I have a temple I can tell you more. Tyria's Rest. Tyria's Rest. Tyria's Rest, I'm sorry.

We're still working on the new year. New branding. New branding. Right, right. I will make a note of that, and if we're ever in town, I'll let you know. Yeah, absolutely. Good job. Anyway, I think...

He has no clue what you're talking about. Well, I think we can go speak with the captain of the guard warden's name again. I'm Nathaniel, Captain Nathaniel. Nathaniel, okay. Let's see if we can, what's wrong, Rowan? You have a confused look on your face. Oh, I just, yeah, it'd be good to,

I think Penelope and Baranth would like a bit of fresh air. Okay. Not used to the cave, so I'll escort them outside one second while you wrap this up. Sure, go ahead. Come with me, Penelope and Baranth. Get you away from this. Yeah, he will, so as you're doing that,

as you're sort of like leading them away, yeah, he will just say to you like, yeah, Captain Nathaniel, he's the captain of the Mermaids Folly mercenary company. They're just outside the small company, but very efficient. Yeah, Baranth will follow you just like instinctively, like he's like sort of almost like disorientated, like it's like he's in a crowded room,

but you can't hear it. And Penelope's just like nervous, so she just sort of follows. She's like, yeah, sure, I'll follow you, Mr. Rowan. She kind of like bounces along with you. Baranth, when he gets outside, like his face, you can't really tell his expression because he just has like wood face with eyes and a mouth,

but he like looks to that cave mouth, like where the miners are coming in and out. This is not right. It is painful to the progenitor. The progenitor? Althea, the one who is the land. Huh. Right. Sorry that it's been hurt at the moment.

It seems like it's not out of ill will, just out of naivety. Hmm. All I know is that the earth is angry. Is it likely to retaliate? I do not know. I can hear. I can feel. but I do not have the power to speak to the spirit that is here. Oh.

It is hard to put things in a way that your mortal lives can understand. See, we are naive. that your mortal lives can understand. See, we are naive, and people of the land, they don't often see the way you do. You cannot connect with the land like Penelope does, and so we harvest, and we don't feel their pain. This is not unfamiliar to me, but it is. As the great thunder beast does not notice,

the mosquito that takes small bites, tiny drops. It is unbothered by this. But this, Baranth looks to the cave. It is like an ax driven deep into its flesh. It feels this. I will do my best to communicate this to them, but I fear that it will not stop them. Then there will be consequences to their actions.

Well, all we can do is tell them and then it's their responsibility. It is your world. Our world. Our world? Yes, if that is easier for you to understand. Yep. Puts like a big, branchy hand on your shoulder. You, you are a friend of Alfey. branchy hand on your shoulder. Oh. You...

You are a friend of Althea. Oh. Thank you. Althea's got so many good stories. Yes. Okay. Well... Lovely chat with you, Baranth.

I'm always free. Um, I'm gonna go tell them that they're angering the land. That is wise. Wise counsel. And if there is, if you're still wrapping up, I will go back in. Sure. So yes, I think what you're doing is a great idea. You know, gotta get that coin, gotta get that gold. Well, you know, that's it.

You know, we're from Gildi. That's what we're taught there. You're a gold dragonborn, if I'm not mistaken. Oh, yes, well, I mean, you can see the golden scales. Exactly. I'm sure you've... I'm not gonna pry into your business. It's none of mine, but you know that there is...

I'm not going to pry into your business, it's none of mine, but you know that there is trade, and it's what makes the world go round. Your progress, you know, more minerals, more resources, we can build greater things, we can have bigger cities, we can build new technologies that can make all of our lives. The mercantile empire, where the gold flows, life grows. Indeed, very much, very wise, very wise. I think that, yeah, I can see you doing very well.

Thank you. But yeah, you come back in Rowan, as this conversation's kind of wrapping up. Well, you know, we've all spoken. Do you mind if I speak with you, Jay, soon? Yes, I'm still waiting to hear your delightful story about the artifacts and things. And I will give you a little tease,

but as something I wish to discuss. Sure. Thank you very much. Yeah, sure, follow you, if you want to take it outside. Hello, I'm Rowan. Hi. So, as a growing concern, there are people that are very connected to the land

and can feel the land. I am one of those. Right. I can feel the resonances. I know when the land is in pain. Really? Yes, and the stories that it's told... There is something wrong.

The land here is growing in anger But there is something wrong. The land here is growing in anger because of these new forces that you're wielding to explode the land. Oranth compared it to mosquitoes taking small bites versus an axe to the back. Yeah, I mean, I can see that that would piss somebody off. Yeah. I'm not saying that your entire business is in jeopardy or that you should shut everything down.

That is an unreasonable request. Right. However, I am merely expressing my concern. Okay, well, make a persuasion check for me. Should I fake this? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, go for make a persuasion check for me. Should I fate this? Yes. Yeah. Yeah, go for it. Bing.

Oh, good. 19. Oh. Thank God. 19. I am going to roll to see how resistive she is to this. So I'm gonna spend a fate dice, which will burn them,

because we spend on basically the same action. So I will roll this with my D6. Okay. She looks at you, and it's very unnerving, because she does have these pure black eyes with this tiny purple light in them. She's a team gold skin, looks very different to her brother, but they're still similar features.

And she sort of nods and she's like, okay, all right, you seem to know more about this. My brother and I and some of the other dwarves, we have a magic to detect minerals and to get a feel for the land and the stone around us, but clearly you and the stone around us, but clearly you and your walking tree there, you seem to have a deeper connection.

So what's the danger? Are you saying that the Earth's gonna do something? Is it gonna attack us? Is it gonna fight back? What are you saying here? Yes. If things are disturbed to a certain extent, there is always a consequence.

So, I worry for your workers, your miners, and your situation if you're not equipped to deal with the repercussions. All right, I will talk to my brother, I'll let him know and I'll take this seriously. It seems like you really believe this stuff, so we'll look into it. Maybe we can go-

I'm not here to tie myself to a rock and tell you to stop. Sure, sure, sure, but we'll look into it. But, can I ask you something? Sure, I'm an open book. This artifact that you mentioned, the one that you said it could dig, you said that they were using it to dig out some mine and stuff like that, right?

Yes. Where, what was that? You said that you lost it, did somebody take it? It was already taken, it was stolen from a place of importance and it was harnessed by the miners in Burnell fearing that their mines were drying up, and they needed to go deeper. Okay.

And this artifact was able to harness some sort of energy that would beam a great powerful energy that would break away the rocks. Okay. And, yeah, oh. The Hand of the Lightless Pilgrim, I think it was called. Hand of the Lightless Pilgrim. Oh good, let's give it.

No, we don't have it. What happened to it? You said it was stolen from you? It was taken by a bad person. Oh. They're more of a demon. A demon? Yes. What, do you mean like a tiefling like me or do more of a demon. A demon? Yeah.

What, do you mean like a tiefling like me, or do you mean a demon? Hard to tell. They have powers beyond. Okay, I mean that sounds like some sort of devil or demon. They appear, they disappear, they change shapes and forms and they're very persuasive. Feels-

I mean, yeah, that sounds awful. I think it was... I think it was a demon. I don't know. Okay. Did you fight this demon? Oh, they were very tricksy and they were hiding whilst we went all the way down to reclaim this artifact. They were lying in wait.

And how did those creatures factor into all of this? The Belomorphs. Yeah. The land was disturbed, hence my concern for you. They dug too deep and too greatly. Better than this. And you stopped them, you helped them, and you said you had some sort of power

to sense stuff like this? I can commune and resonate with the land around me. That's a mighty gift. Yeah. Okay. That's pretty good. Okay, well listen, you know what? I will talk to my brother, thank you very much.

Hey, you're not gonna use this artifact, are you? Well, it sounds like I can, if it's in the hands of a demon, what am I gonna do? I can't get a hold of something like that. Well, you just seem very interested. I am, I am, I mean, I've always been very interested, you know, in terms of, you know, my brother's very religious, and he's very cautious.

But, you know, when you hear something that can dig and create things like that, obviously it's a good opportunity. But even if it's just to keep it out of maybe our competitors' hands, just I like to know things. You know, he turns his eye away from things that he doesn't want to see. So it's my job to keep an eye on the things that he doesn't want to look at.

So it's just good to know about. Well, you should really speak to Ophelia then, in which case, because the whole labor thing, they got that all figured out. All right, maybe I will. Hey. And you may not even need the artifact. Sure.

This power of yours to connect and resonate. Yeah. Could you use, if I took you down into the mine, could you use that to maybe understand a bit more about this, what we might be anchoring? Like maybe that's a, I can use that to convince my brother. You know what? I think that would make Brant feel better.

So I would like to hear what the land has to say. Do you want to come with me now? Oh, do you mind if I tell my friends? They're probably worried about me. If you feel like you need to, sure. Yeah. Okay. I'm going.

Okay. Hello. Oh hey, hey Rowan, how's it going? So, had a little discussion, and I'm going to be going down the mine. Really? Why? Oh, just to see how the mine feels with all this blowing up going on.

How the mine feels? Little worries that it's angering the land. Remember Burnell? Oh, it's angering the land. Right. Okay. I'm going to make sure it's all okay because I can sense these things. I don't know what's gonna come to me, I don't have a choice,

but I'll allow it to commune with me. Okay, Baranth, was that your suggestion? Yeah, Baranth has kind of stood to the side because you were having that conversation with Jason in private and he would just say, it was not my suggestion, but if Roland can communicate with the earth and stone, convince it that these dwarves will cease the hacking

with the axe that could quiet its spirit. Axe hacking, that sounds rough. Yeah. Is that a... Jason, is that okay if we... I think, if I may, I'll take Rowan down myself, because, you know, we know these mines and I can take him down, we can make sure that everything's alright, that nothing happens. And also, it's a good reason. I can tell our guys to stop with the explosives.

Okay. And do you remember the Bellamoth, the sounds they made, if you hear anything like that? I mean, stay away from it. I'm gonna be running. I'm gonna be running right back. Sure. Worst case, we can stay away from any dangers like that. Oh, sure, yeah.

I mean, I think it's just, I mean, yeah. We can go down there now, if you want. I think we can. Okay. Rowan, are you okay going on your own, or do you want one of us to come with you? Well, I always like company, but you know least I understand if it's tight or whatever. I mean, it should be safe. I mean, there's no dangers down there.

Our miners have been down there all fine, so it should be fine. I've been roaming these lands for a long time on my own, and I'm quite used to it. It's okay, Gruff. I appreciate you looking out for me as a night errand. Check this out. It's my duty. He won in a tournament, by the way.

Hello. Impressive stuff. Very impressive. Yeah. Just wanted you to know that. Yeah. Okay. Well, anyway. Can I insight check, J. Soon? Sure, go ahead.

Do whatever you want. I'm gonna fate it as well. Okay. Can I, like, Sleight of Hand, detach my hand? Sleight of Hand. You can try. Sleight of Detach Hand. 21. 21?

She's really difficult to read because the eyes, the golden skin, like, she's very good at just, she keeps very calm. Like, there's no twitches, there's very good at just, she keeps very calm. There's no twitches, there's no weird glances. She seems to be concerned with everything. You don't get the sense that there's anything surreptitious going on, but there's also, I can't tell you for sure, it's not,

insight isn't lie detector, but she's not showing any signs of unsuspicious behavior. She doesn't look arse, she doesn't have weapons on her. She's got this black bodysuit, she's got a tool belt, but no scabbards or swords. She doesn't look like she'd be much of a threat. And she certainly isn't, you know, showing anything suspicious, but... What was your sleight of hand? I shall roll that now.

Actually, no, I'll do this on passive perceptions. Can I cast my whispers, please? Psychic whispers, yep. Whispers, please, on... Psychic Whispers, yep. On Rowan Gruff and... I can only do one more person, so who wants? I don't mind. What's the range on it?

It's a mile, so he might not be able to stay within that if he's going, but either way. Depends how far it is. And it would be for... Four hours. Four hours. What do we get on our passive perception? I've got...

Not passive, but sleight of hand. 11. 11, okay. It's not the stealthiest removal of a hand. It's sort of like turn your back like... Oh, Trash, I'm sorry. Loud crunch noise. Yeah, a few people sort of look in that direction.

I'm assuming you're like holding the hand, it's like detached, but you're like... Holding it on, just like... Because also casting the spell is like, you know, you're muttering words to yourself and things like that. Like, there's definitely maybe some notice, but nobody's, like, reacting in a bad way. So it's so dark in here, I just lose my sense of balance sometimes,

you know, in dark vision. I'm just having a pleasant conversation with this guy. Yeah, you're in the tent, yeah. So, like, this is like, yeah, like, you know, you just come back in. He's in a pod. Yeah. I mean, Rowan, if you want to go down the mines, that's fine. Just let us know if you want any help. I will.

So you came back into the tent where Kuro is, right? You were having that conversation with him. So like Kuro would be like, what's all this? What are you talking about? What do you mean you're going to go down into the mines? Jason, what's this about? And she's like, listen, brother, I will talk to you about it later,

but I think that, you know, our good friends here have brought some information to our, you know, awareness, and I think that there's a real concern. You know, this explosive, I know, it was your idea and it's been very good, but it sounds like that there might be a problem there, and I just think we should go down and explore it. He's like, what problem are you talking about? It's fine. We haven't had any problem. There's not been... I mean, the earth's getting mad. What does that even mean? What is it gonna do? Be more earthy? You know, this is, we're doing Saints and Scions Good Honest work here. What's the problem? Yeah, it certainly doesn't hurt to check.

There might be some creatures down there, you never know. I mean, there's plenty. We've not had any creatures. We've not seen anything down there, but. Oh wow, the Reclaimers were looking for something. Oh sure, I mean, maybe, all right, fine. You know, whatever. Jason, this is your business, go, deal with it.

It'll be in your interest, we can assure you. All right, all right, all right, fine, fine, fine, fine. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Are you good, what about the rest of you? Why, he goes down and does this, what are you guys gonna do? You want to do that? I mean, we wouldn't hurt to go speak to Nathaniel.

Sure, sure, sure. More about the reclaimers and, well, it depends, who's going with you, Rowan, is it just you? Cool, I hope you're right, great. Do you want someone to go with you, Rowan, is it just you? Cool, I'll be all right. Great. Do you want someone to go with you, though? Always. Why don't we just, why don't we just?

Well, now's the time to voice it. Why don't we just go? Who? In their heads, Gruff, Rowan, and Xanthius will hear, we should all probably just go, right? We shouldn't let him go into the caves on his own. Wait, why? Hello. Because something may happen to him.

Oh, come on, it's safe mines. There's people down there already. It's a mine! They're blowing stuff up. Yeah. I'll be all right. I know how to navigate mines. Last time we were in a mine, a lot of stuff happened. That's true. Just don't do that again. There's a lot of workers here, though. We're not going into a mine already riddled with Belomorphs.

You don't know that yet. Maybe the workers are balomorphs. Whoa. In which case, we're in the right place to help. Sure. Before it gets out of hand. I just think we should maybe all go. Oh, you can go down with them if you want.

Into the caves. Don't worry, I've got my hat. Yeah. All right, Daisy, you had time. Oh, I see. Oh, so one of us should go. No, we should all go. It's okay, Jason will go. You're saying that out loud?

Yes. So you have a conversation in your head and then Rowan just goes, it's okay, Jason will go, okay. But they kind of look a bit surprised and confused. Jason is definitely looking at Ophelia's hand. Like, is that hand connected Ophelia's hand, like is that hand connected? Like she's like, what is that?

But like when you say that, it kind of snaps her back and she's just like, well yeah, no, we can go now. Yeah, absolutely, I can take you down there now if you want to go. Sure. Sure, okay, great. Okay, let's go speak to Nathaniel then. All right.

All right, sure. You begin making your way down. Jason takes you into the mines and begins winding your way down. Jason takes you into the mines and begins winding your way down. They've not dug super deep or anything, but they've got enough to the point where they've created a vertical shaft and they've got a wooden staircase,

like a scaffolding that goes down. They're in the process of building what looks to be an elevator, kind of like a pulley elevator system to bring stuff up and down. And she starts leading you down. As you go, she starts giving a few orders to people here and there, like,

hey, hey, nope, stop that, take that back up to my brother, we're gonna cease operations for today. We're checking something out, we've got a specialist in, he's gonna examine, there might be some dangers here, I want you and the teams to get out, spread the word, clear the mind, basically, just for now, for a few hours, it should be fine. There's a couple of people who are like,

oh, whatever you say boss, and then they start getting everyone together, maybe making their way upstairs. Until eventually you're brought sort of like, deep down into the bottom layer, you know, where their fresh digging is happening. And it's rough, it's all rough, hewn rock like caverns. And you do notice that at like, points,

there's dripping water coming from somewhere. Like there's clearly water coming from somewhere. There's clearly water somewhere around here and there's condensation and drips of it and stagnant little pools and things like that building up water erosion. And there's just that innate sense. I know you're not using your homonymous recall,

but there is that strong sense of a familiarity where you sense that corruption sort of flowing through the land. It's almost like as you've gotten deeper and closer to the source, like you brush your hand up against the part of the wall, and it's almost like you can feel it moving somewhere past that wall, like flowing, like it's flowing alongside this mine and out. And that connection, that sense becomes a stronger understanding of like it is corruption. Moving like, flowing like tributaries of a river,

kind of spreading out. And as you get down, it gets dark, you've got your light on, scanning around. What do you think, by the way? I think that's, oh right, that's real fetching. I'm just saying, maybe your workers might need something like this. Yeah, I mean, we have something similar

but not quite like that, and she's on her belt, she has like a smaller lantern, which is sort of attached to the belt, basically. Oh, that's very lovely too, but look at this. I look somewhere and it's like, the light's where I'm looking, see? I mean, yeah, there's a real benefit to that. Yeah, absolutely, I can see that.

No, you're a very smart man, very smart man. Very blessed. The rest of you, you go and find this mercenary captain and he's by that paracade wall, and you begin asking some questions and things like that. So you're kind of separate, you're up there with everyone. Rowan, when you get down, she's like, so how does this work, do you close your eyes,

do you meditate, how does this thing work? Usually it's a meditative form, and I just close myself off to the outside world, and then feel the resonances through the ground. All right, well that sounds great. See if it connects with me. Let's see what works. Might take about 10 minutes. Okay,, well that sounds great. Let's see if it connects with me. Let's see what works. Might take about 10 minutes.

Okay, great, that sounds perfect. Yeah, you just... I'll just wait, I'll just wait. Yeah, just wait there. Okay. Do you want to sit? Yeah, I'll just take it. And she sits down on a rock nearby.

Cool, never really had anyone just sit and watch. Well, I promise, I'm not gonna be judging. Okay. I close my eyes. I open one eye quick. Close again. Yep. Okay, I'm going to start now.

Okay. Here we go. And I stretch my hands out and place them on the ground. And you begin to pulse it out. As you use Homo Neus Recall, it generally detects events, significant events that take place. And as you begin to sense those senses out, there isn't really like an event that takes place.

But as your connection, as your magic connects with the stone and the earth around you, you again sense that flow of corruption moving not just through, past this mine, but out further into the Ash Hills, back up to the Ashland Citadel. It's still ongoing. not just through past this mine, but out further into the Ash Hills, back up to the Ashland Citadel. Still ongoing. This place is connected somehow to something here in the Ash Hills. Can I only sense a flow of energy?

You don't know what it is. It feels like blood in the veins. It feels like water in a river. It feels like air currents through a canyon. Does it feel like it's going? It feels like movement. Yeah, is that movement, I guess I can't tell whether it's passing through solid rock

or if it's just, it's got a carved path for it. You can't tell that. That's the only thing. You can't tell that. It could be. It could be that it's carving through like water. It could be that it's like, it could be a tunnel that's like magic's flowing through.

You don't know. But it could be that it's like, it could be a tunnel that's like magic's flowing through us that you don't know. But it could be. And you're a little bit closer now, you feel like you can, this is closer to the source. Like it's moving past you out towards the Ashen Citadel. And you're feeling it go past, like the source is further in to the Ash Hills, is what you pick up on, with regards to the corruption.

In terms of what's happening here, you get these flashes of pain, like this, and it feels like that explosion, like a stab, a punch, something violent and aggressive tearing the stone apart. The outside of Rowan would be wincing as if he's being hit, but like in a dream. Yeah. It feels, you know, that forceful and violent nature and the earth here has never felt that before.

You know, it's felt the slow wear of erosion. Even the chip of a pickaxe, quick and expansive as it can be, It's not, it's not violence. You know, it's not an aggressive thing, like an explosion. And there is, the very nature of that corruption is also enhancing the magic of this place. Like the magic is denser here in the Ash Hills. And the rocks have a power here. And there is a sense of the rocks are getting angry,

the stone is getting angrier and angrier, and it was building and building and building. And just as you're about to kind of feel that moment, that's when you feel the other presence. Not earth, not corruption, not old, something now, Something powerful, something dark and old. Like an eye watching this space. Hungering greedily for the riches buried here.

A power, a rather cowardly but terrible power that lurks in the dark between the stone. And you know that something or someone has been appeasing it to keep it away. And that's when I need you to make a constitution saving throw for me. Oh shit. We have one fate left.

You have the golden water. Plus one. Plus one. So plus three. With fate. With fate. The last fate. Oh no.

Oh yeah? Eight total. Oh, okay. I rolled a three and a two. You feel something thrusting against your mouth. And as you open your eyes, there is a hand holding a cloth, like a handkerchief, over your mouth,

and you feel your body paralyze. And you are paralyzed, and sort of moving in front of you, you see Jasonne, but her mouth has split open like an insectoid mouth, and she leans down. The great Belaine will greatly appreciate this sacrifice, Great Belaine will greatly appreciate this sacrifice

and your power will be so, so useful. As she is going to hold her hand out into the air, as you watch as a dagger made of some sort of twisting energy, like a warlock's packed weapon, summons into the air and that's what we're gonna win today's episode. Holy shit! Oh! Oh no.

Oh man! Oh no. Oh, that's awesome. We're never gonna split the party ever. No, that's really, I, yeah. No, because I have it, you all knew, but in the terms of story and making a fun game happen, Exactly. You went with it.

Oh yeah. Which is the best. Yeah, of course. So cool. Well, obviously the dice were like, we're gonna make Rowan suffer for it, but imagine if he succeeded. He can still mind talk.

And he can still mind talk. I had this idea as well that I was gonna turn into a mouse and sneak in his pocket, but then I just, I just couldn't get it out. I was just like, I wanna do, oh. Always do it, dude, always do it. Is that why you were detaching your hand? Oh, you did detach your hand, but she did see.

Yeah. Right. And you would know that she 100% saw you did something. So you didn't send it in? I haven't sent it in. Okay, fair enough. If you wanted to record it and say that you did send it in still.

Because I kind of fluffed it, so. Sure, okay. Can I record it on my mouse? It would have had the same effect. I'm gonna say no. Yeah, it's too big. Because it would have been a much, and also there would have been roles involved

and stealth and stuff, but Katie was 100% right. She's got the psychic link on Daisy did that. Rowan can be like, help. Bray, help. But it does mean- What's the safe word? Pineapple? Was it pineapple? I think it was pineapple.

Does mean- Is it pineapple or pickle? Rowan is gonna be on his own, and we just don't know what's gonna happen. I believe in you, bud. But yeah, so join us next week. Yeah! Find out what happens.

God damn! First character death? No, it won't be the first. It won't be the first. We sailed right past it. Back to where we begun with old Bellamol. Bellamol. Belaine. Belaine, yeah.

Yeah, Belaine. A conquering worm. I wondered if it was Belaine. Yeah, yeah. 40 episodes later. Yeah, I mean, like, you know, digging deep into mines and things like that. But whether this is just

this particular person, or whether this is a conspiracy with a whole group, or you don't know, I don't know. You will find out. Is this all a big trap, or is this just one person? Oh, the rods, they would have known about the rod. Probs. Yep. Probs.

Because it was cultists, so it's the way they stole it. Damn it. Well, they were employed the way they stole it. Damn it. Well, they were employed by someone to steal it. But... With that, we will see you guys next week. Thank you so much. See you next time. Bye bye. See you next time.

Bye bye. Everything's fine. It looks boring. All of their games, they look boring. It looks like you're an assassin on the Isle of Man. But it doesn't have the kind of... Wow. The steampunk, quail-based economy is incredible. Yeah, it's boring.

VG247's Best Games Ever podcast is ostensibly a show about figuring out what the best game in a weirdly specific category is, but it's actually just about petty arguments. You should listen to it, it's good. Is that it? That's the whole promo? Yeah, it was just doing it. And that's supposed to make people subscribe, is it? Yes! Okay, good luck with that. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts.