High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #42 |The Roads Less Travelled (Part 2)

Episode Date: November 14, 2024

Rowan takes the lead on the navigations as the party wander down some roads less travelled! _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: https://dispeldice.com/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 BetterHelp.com to learn more and save 10% on your first month. That's BetterHelp.com. You've always wanted to be part of something bigger than yourself. You live for experience and lead by example. You want the most out of life and realize what you're looking for is already in you. This is for you, the Canadian Armed Forces, a message from the Government of Canada. Welcome back to part two of Ulthair the Dragon Empire everybody. Our heroes have returned

from the mine of the Shura Khan Earthworks, having convinced Kuro Kincaid that his sister was a cultist of Belayne. They left peacefully, amicably, with the mercenary company and everyone else there, and have made their way back into their wagon with Rodri, the Thunderbeast, their pack animal, their pack beast, and have begun making their way towards what Rowan believes, having seen a vision, is the location of the Reclaimers and the current place of Sir Eldrach Ignis, the person that they are searching for. Many mysteries abound, many dangers lurk ahead, but you have a couple of days of travel between then and there.

The very last thing that happened was, in the next day, Gruff, Rowan, and Ophelia have woken up feeling awful, suffering the effects of withdrawal after drinking the gold water, we shall call it. Yes. Very, and at this point, out of character, it is absolutely, it has trace amounts of Crownsteel,

but enough for Crownsteel to be an effect on the system. Yeah. Obviously that is out of game knowledge, obviously you guys have made theories in character and stuff as well. But yes. So when you drink it, you get... Is it a full day of plus one to ability checks? Basically, yeah, it's a full day.

So it's plus one to ability checks and saving throws, and at one time, you can add one to a spell DC or a spell attack roll damage roll. On the next spell, yeah. But if you don't have it, the next day... ...is a minus two to ability checks and saving throws, which is quite significant. But I had a Glug before it was all poured away, so I feel okay right now, but my next day might be pretty rough. Well, like I said, there is one...

There's rivers. And like, Ophelia has enough. I've put it down as one days of water, which is basically probably enough for like, you know, you're going to be sipping it throughout the whole day and stuff like that. It's enough to like drink a significant amount off. So I'd say it's probably like,

all of you could drink from it and that will expend what Ophelia has left. Or one person can drink from it multiple times, basically. But I'm okay for the next day, at least. Yeah. So I'm not noticing it. So, but yeah, travel. Traveling.

You guys are making your way. You know exactly where you're going, because Rowan is guiding you. You also have Penelope and Baranth with you who are experts at traveling across the wilderness. So we don't need to make any rolls to make sure you don't get lost and things like that, but I would still like to know what your plans are

for like who's keeping watch, what are people doing, are you guys taking any extra precautions or trying to do anything in particular, and then we will roll on our events table to see what happens and the like. Okay, so we are traveling through a difficult terrain, so it's gonna take slightly longer, right? But is this hilly terrain, is it forests or is it?

It is a mixture, it's hills, forested hills, hills, the occasional large stretch of glade, things like that. It is, yeah, this is a full on like, you know. Off road. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, what are you guys all doing?

Was there any plans for who's doing things like keeping lookout or who's managing supplies and what are people doing? As Rowan's got the best idea of where we're going, he'll take his survival role and do the whole scouting. Yeah I mean you that succeeds automatically because you know where you're going so if you're gonna be the guide that's what you're doing but you don't need to roll for it you know

exactly where you're going you're not gonna get lost like you remember. Even with that you don't need to make the check with it like and especially aided with Penelope and Varenthe, once you've pointed on the map, it's in this area, roughly somewhere here, the three of you can easily get the crew there. You're not gonna get lost. I will, however, look out for possible paths, like the easiest path, whether it's through the hills,

on the Overland, or if there's an option to go... Okay. Like, oh, there's a cave or a valley that could go down to a river. Okay, sure, in that case, yeah, still give me a survival roll then. Check this out. Watch this, you gonna use fate or? Check this the hell out.

Yeah, go for it. Hell no. Right? Cause you're surviving my, it's gonna be a natural 20. Yeah, you don't need actual fate when you have Natural 20. Oh my god. Oh my god. He's not even lying. It feels Yeah, you don't need actual fate when you have natural 20. Oh my God. Oh my God.

He's not even lying. It feels good to call it right in. I hope I can see it right in. It feels pretty good. I survived. Well, remember, ability checks, they are still modifying, still coming to play. 27.

27, with a minus two. God damn. 25. 25. Your average roll today is 27. Yeah. It's feeling it. Yes, with no doubt you are gonna be able to,

I would say with that, so you wanted to see if there are ways to find rivers or underground things like that, like sources of water that might lead. Early on in the journey, because we're gonna probably commit to either Overland or go down. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, I see.

You can, yeah, I mean, you could navigate, and I will say that, you know, you kind of, trusting your gut instincts and like following feelings more than a thing, trying to picture in your mind some of those memories of the different tributaries of like all leading to this underground lake. You think you know a direction, so you kind of take everyone a little bit off course,

and you find a system of caves in one of these, in the hills, and going through those caves, you think that those caves will lead you to an underground river that will then take you. That is gonna be, you won't be able to take Rodri, because there's no way you can get Rogerie down in there, like you would have to leave Rogerie. It would be, there might be sections where you have to dive

underwater and swim underwater, and that could be long periods of swimming. It's like, is it spelunking they call it, or like caving? Oh no. Oh no. No. Let's go the other way. And this is actually the quicker route doing this, it would be a lot quicker, yes,

because you would be going there directly. Yeah, you would easily save time if you did that. I would at least pitch this to the group as I start veering in that direction. So what is it that you're veering towards? Is it literally just a hole in the ground? It's a series of caves, yeah, and like, Rowan's like, and you know, again,

abstracting a little bit of this, like this is on part of the journey, right? So a hole in the ground. So a series of caves, yeah, and like, Rowan's like, and you know, again, abstracting a little bit of this, like, this is on part of the journey, right? So we'll pause the journey. Rowan leads you to this series of caves, and you go in and scout Rowan, and sort of making your way down, maybe with some of the guys with you, and eventually you kind of find that, yeah,

like, there's a drop, and you can feel, hear, rushing water, and you're like, you will also be swimming against the current of the river, because it comes from there. Samining it. Yeah. Well, you're saying this is the quickest route. Yeah.

This hole is barely big enough for me to jump into. I know, but time is pressing against us. Of course, no, but you've communed, I suppose, with the earth and- I have a very strong, I know I've steered us a little awry before, but this time, trust me, through there, I get there in no time.

Creatures and monsters that attacked us had steered us wrong, it wasn't necessarily you, it's just as long as there's no creatures and monsters down there, again. I can't promise that won't be. The culture full of crime and steel. But you know the terrain, and I'll trust in that at least. Yes.

We can go in there and try. It's a little spooky, I won't lie. And also we have to leave Rodri behind. Baranth will also say, I will not be able to join you this path. I will continue over land. He's too big, like he's quite broad and bulky. Like Rowan, you're gonna really struggle.

You are massive. And getting through these rocks and caves, it's gonna be real tight. And also, Baranth is made of wood, so swimming is kinda hard for him, cause he float. It's also like, if there are bits where he's gonna physically go under,

he's like literally like, he's too buoyant, right? Yeah. Where are you all going, Rowan? We're going with you. I would like the group to make a decision here. I trust your intuition. If this is the best way forward, then we'll take it. I could be able to help out with the

being underwater bit as well. For everyone. Okay. You're, what, we breathe underwater or you're going to destroy it all? Okay. Is there a little bit of sarcasm in that tone, Xanthias? I just know what you do with water. You do a lot of things with water.

I'm just wondering what you're going to do with it. You're going to destroy it? I'm the one who poured out your water skin, but grass skin, that's it. I know, I just thought it got magical. There's a way you can actually do it. I actually think Tom isn't being sarcastic. Xanthius isn't being sarcastic.

I'm just wondering, what are you going to do with the water? Destroy it? If it's, if we're breathing underwater, great. Maybe I'll open my mouth once. But if you're destroying it, then I'm gonna have some words. Wow. Thomas, are you okay?

No. Let's just go into the fucking cave. Thank you. Yeah. Where does Tom stop? I don't know, I'm gonna be honest. I don't know. Stunt the espigate.

The line is blurring. Have you become him? Worrying. Yeah. After every session, I'm gonna be honest, I don't know. Dantius begins. The line is blurring, worrying. Have you become him? After every session I go outside and I punch someone. You just set something on fire. Something's going really wrong here. Shake him, give me the crown still! Okay, good, is what I say to that. It's a little spell that I learned

from watching my ice divers. I can help you all breathe underwater. Great! Ooh, exciting. Okay, well, as long as we can all fit. Would that mean that we had to breathe in the Crown Steel water? Heaven for Fend. How does that work?

So, that'slin of Rolhau, the term of the spell is the ability to breathe underwater until a spell ends. Affected creatures also retain their normal mode of respiration. So, the way I like to do it, I think it would be down to Gruff to discern the sort of, not visual elements, but how this works. It could be that all of the party gain gills and they breathe like fish. Could be that like you make magic bubbles of air

around their head like astronaut helmets and then that's how they breathe underwater. It could simply be that they just absorb the oxygen from the water in their skin or like, you know, the magic of the spell is you breathe underwater. So I just said just now that it was inspired by watching the ice divers, and I think it is just ice divers just hold their breath, like cormorants.

Because ice divers are cormorants in real life, and cormorants just have a really long, long capacity and can dive, you know, for a long time underwater. So maybe this is like Euchandra magical breath that goes in and then that just sustains them. And how long is this? It's eight hours, I think. 24. 24 hours.

Oh. God damn. That's a big breath. That's a big breath. That's a big breath. Cool though. I came to get into this cave. Is this light really bright?

Like brighter than normal, if he's got his sunglasses on. It really hurts, actually. Ow. I just can't look at. My head is pounding, isn't it? It's not that bad. I mean, it's slightly short. Absolutely pounding.

Yes. Have you got any more of that, you know, this stuff? Oh. Because that right now sounds like it would be amazing. Which is exactly why you shouldn't be drinking it, because if you drink it, this is going to be worse. Oh, could you keep on? The next day. Sorry, but you're speaking

quite loudly. I'm sorry. That hurt me as well. Wait worse. Oh, could you keep us sorry about that? The next day. You're speaking quite loudly. I'm sorry, that hurt me as well. Wait, is it, are you feeling bad now? Cause I feel fine. When did you last have some of that drink? Like a day ago. That drank. Mm.

Before I went in the cave. Yeah, this is coming for you, boyo. Wait, really? Mm. Oh. Probably be worse for you, actually. Unless it affects you differently. Well, I doubt it.

Why would it? What's that face? That's the weirdest face I've ever seen. Dragonborn are so unreadable. Just one tooth. Okay, well, let's just go in here. I trust Roman's judgment on this one. And wherever Roman goes, we go. Rowan's judgment on this one. And wherever Rowan goes, we go.

But I feel good about this. Just to clarify, this is the fastest way to get there. I am not saying it is the best way to get there. I'm saying it is the fastest way to get there. Rowan's check was literally just, he identified the route rather than that. Exactly, the check was was this is an option. This is the, the check is not,

this is the best way to do it. This is, this is an option, right? I'm also not saying it's a worse option than go over land. I'm, I don't want you to be under the misunderstanding that the check is like magic best way to go. That's not what the check is, right? They're both an option. You have two options now.

You can go overland, which is slower, but you're going overland, or do you go through here? Or we go through the blender. Well it's like, again like I said, this is like spelunking, caving, like it's gonna be, if you can breathe underwater, that's gonna take a lot of the threat away,

but it's gonna be narrow passages, it's gonna be like crawling through, you're gonna be, if you can breathe underwater, that's gonna take a lot of the threat away, but it's gonna be narrow passages, it's gonna be crawling through, you're gonna be swimming against the current. You don't know, Rowan doesn't know what might be down here. Like you might have to, there might be rapid-like sections. There might be monsters down there. There could be whole caves and stuff, who knows? We're not a strong team.

Yeah, looking around. Speak for yourself, I can turn into a fish, bye. Looking around, is there any obvious landmarks, from what I can see where we're currently standing, that if we came back over land, we'll be able to find Rodri and whoever else is staying here. Apart from the path that you've charted, like you know where the mine is,

you row and it's kind of marked on your map where this destination is, where the reclaimers are. You could use your map and try and follow this again, but yeah. Yeah. That's my concern. If we get here. Baranth will say,

If you are worried about the beast, I can lead it for a time. I can either take it to the location that Rowan has marked upon the map, or I could lead it for a time. I can either take it to the location that Rowan has marked upon the map, or I could lead it back somewhere once our business is done. I will not be able to travel in this underwater path. I will have to entrust Penelope in your care, but I will make my way to the location to aid you in the battle if I can. I don't know, guys. I will travel faster on my own

if I do not have Rodri to look after. Well, it is that case, isn't it? The faster we get there, the better it is for Lady Verythira. And Ser Eldrake Ignis. That's the big crux here. It's like, do you risk the dangers of this unknown path? Going Overland, you might encounter monsters and stuff like that,

but you're definitely going to be better equipped to be prepared for it and things like that. This is the fast but risky option. Overland is the slower but maybe safer option. Is there any indication of how much faster it is? Yeah, significantly. but risky option. Overland is the slower but maybe safer option. Is there any indication of how much faster it is? Yeah, significantly. Because you won't have to wind your way through the hills. This is like as the crow flies, basically.

This will be direct. Does anybody else have any spells that can help with, I don't know, like navigating underground or light or? I can help, I can speak, like, I can speak with animals and I can speak with plants, but I don't know if that will help us a little bit. I could maybe make us a 10 foot boat. Since when?

I can create things. Well, he created a mattress. Oh yeah, remember the mattress. Oh yes, you didn't do the mattress. Surf on a mattress. It would be 10 foot though. It's quite large. For five of us, it's not gonna fit everybody.

But the entire cave can't be extremely tight. There must be some open segments somewhere, so it's useful. I can create things. It might be useful for a time, and then you might have to ditch it and go back underwater and go through narrow passages and stuff like that again.

We've got our rations, we've got ropes. Well, your rations are all on Rodri. Like, you can take small amounts with you individually, but this is probably gonna be like, a day less than a day if you go this way. It's probably like another two days or a day and a half, at least two days if you go over land. So you're basically cutting your time in half

if you go this way. I think we should go in. If we wanna get there quicker, this is the quickest. It's just, this is the quickest way. I got to say, I think the same thing. I want to get to Lady Verithere as soon as we can. It's going to be dangerous, Penelope. I know, it's okay.

We'll probably need your healing magics. Uh-huh, yeah. That's fine, I can do that. In which case, Gruff is gonna start casting water breathing. Okay. Baranth, I think you should take Rodri with you. It'd be good to have Rodri there. When we do eventually ascend out of this cave.

Very well, I shall travel to the point marked on the map and I shall endeavor to locate you once I am there. Percival can help you. I can send Percival with you. Baranthal looks. I know you'd prefer not to, but I trust you to keep him safe. I have little care for the undead of the world.

I will make no special task in protecting your risen companion. It's like, this guy's all about life and living things. He does not give a fuck about Percival. I just feel like that's a sitcom in the making though. I mean, listen. For Raph, Avatar of the Living, Percival, Avatar of the Dead, and Roderick.

Percival is not Avatar of the Dead, no. He's Ophelia's butler. He's Ophelia's skeleton butler. He's the embodiment of undead, though. It's the two diametric opposites, and they've got Rodri. And they're about to go investigate a crime, a bunny cop movie. Yeah.

You can do what you want. I'm just making it clear. Baranth as a character will do nothing to protect Verla. He does not think Percival is worth protecting. He's like, that guy's dead. He will do, though, at the end of this adventure. Barantha, the worst case... Worst case, it's not gonna happen.

We can get Percival to help you if you just give him these two pots and pans any time he sees something, right, Percival? Right, Ophelia? Yes, he's very good at banging pots. Well, he hasn't had to use them yet, but he might be. Yeah, he'll warn you if something's nearby. If you wish to leave the undead on the wagon, I will accompany the wagon to its destination.

Cool. I think that's gonna get. I'm just trying to think of sitcom names. And then Rodri. Hi. Life and death. Hello. Okay, Percival, you okay to go with Berenth on this little adventure?

He just stares at you. It's like... Are you telling him to do something? Would my whispers connect with Percival? I have to look something up. No! That's an interesting question. The moment you do.

Kill me! Yeah! My life is suffering! Help! I'm toasting without me talking. My whole life is a lie! Life is pain! Constant screaming. Interesting.

Can you read out your actual ability? What does it specifically say? Because this could be very interesting. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. He has a voice. Passing. What singer is it? Amber Wimps. And Rodri.

And Rodri. Someone said, live and let die is the title of this. Live and let die! Like having copyright issues there, yeah. Yeah, maybe. Dying and let live. Choose up to three creatures you can see. For a number of arrows equaled to a number of rolls, chosen creatures can speak to the same number of arrows Yeah, maybe. Dino, let live. Choose up to three creatures you can see.

For a number of arrows equaled to a number rolled, chosen creatures can speak telepathically with you, and you can speak telepathically with them, as long as you're within one mile. You and the creature don't need to speak a common language to understand each other. I can speak to a person. Okey-doke.

Bromch and bone. I was thinking bark and bone detective agency. Anyway. His bark is worse than his bone. Yeah. If it was Ophelia and Barathe. The bark is worse than the bite, like it's perfect. Bark and bite, but no.

I'm gonna use a dice to connect. A voice for Percy! Who are you connecting? Can I connect Ophelia and Percival and me? Yeah. Roll your dice, see how long it lasts. Good god. Eight hours, bitch!

Fuck! This is huge. Give me a minute. Is he inexplicably French? You just hear, I just wanna try something. Hi Percival, a feeling is on the line here. Hi. She has a question for a million dollars.

Oh, that would be hilarious. I don't do requests, all right? I'm hoping. My fucking NPC, I'm gonna disagree. It was hope. I was serious. I don't do requests, all right? I'm hoping. My fucking NPC, I'm gonna decide. It was hope. I was hoping. I was hoping. Are we thirsty?

Ha ha ha. Rhy, what kind of voice would you like Percival? French. French. Ha ha ha. It can be French if you want. But this is very much your character and your little companion. You just had to make them dive into...

Do you have a particular thing in mind? Maybe you're kind of like Scandinavian? Redo, redo. Like a horse, you know, like... Uh-huh. Yeah, oh yeah. Really? Totally. Like how it looks, you know, like. Uh huh, yeah, oh yeah. Really? Totally.

How would that sound, really? Like, I can't see it. I'll figure it out. Yeah, it's gonna probably sound quite Skyrim-God, I'm warning you now. That's fine. All right. Do, do, do, do.

Uh. Oh. Hello there. Oh! It has been a very long time since I've had a chance to speak with anyone. Percy! Hi! This is Sister Ophelia.

Oh! I am honored to hear your voice, Percival. I am honored to speak with you, my lady. Oh, it has been a long time. What have I done? The best thing ever! I like it, I like being able to speak to Percival. This is amazing, thank you so much. Is this your magic, Lady Daisy?

Yeah. Oh, incredible. It has been a long time. Percival, I just want to know. Yes? Do you like us? Are we your friends? Ah, you are asking. It is interesting. I...

am not... I suppose I do, yes. It is odd. I am not alive as you know it, but I have a sentence given to me by my masters in Osseus. He's going very Renaissance, like French, Italian thing. I like it, I like it. I was kind of almost thinking of Piston Boots, you know, Antonio Banderas.

Yeah, there's a little bit of Antonio Banderas in there. Is that okay? Yeah, that's cool. Because the north thing I'm gonna slip out of it, I think. That's fine, that's fine. But yes, yes, I suppose I do, like you, yes. And Sister Ophelia, I have been very happy to serve. She has treated me very kindly and given me respect.

Some of my former masters have not been so kind. Oh, it's horrible to hear that, Percival. That is, I am unfeeling, I do not feel pain or anything. They simply disregarded me. They treated me more as a tool. You have treated me more as a companion. Well, you are a companion. You're our friend, Percival.

Anyway, just give him these pots and pans and all he'll do is clack them together. I'm just thinking of what was going through his mind now when he was in line and people were going up to him going, oh, why are you in line, boy? And he just kept running away and coming back. I just wanna know what was going through his mind now, when he was in line, and people were going up to him, going, oh, why are you in line, boy? And he just kept running away and coming back. I just wanna know what was going through his head at that point.

He was like, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. I was following the orders that Sister Ophelia had given to me, that I was to wait in line, but obviously I am not to allow my undead nature to manifest. As such, I was trying to keep my distance. I do not wish to harm any of the living. I was not instructed keep my distance. I do not wish to harm any of the living.

I was not instructed to. No. Just that little exclamation on the end there. Of course. Well, you are so dutiful, and I honor your companionship, Percival. Well, thank you, Sister Ophelia. I am honored to serve you in the House of Blood.

So, we're gonna have to part ways a the House of Blood. Um, so... we're gonna have to part ways a little bit, Percy. I'm sorry to tell you. Um, Baranth is going to take you overland because we are going under the caves and it might be quite dangerous for you. The tree? Yes, the tree man.

Ah. Um... Very well, if that is your desire. Although he's... My lady sister Ophelia. He does not feel particularly, what's the word? Keen on protecting you. I see.

So, you know what? Take this with you and I give him my whip. Bony hand wraps around it. If you come into any danger from any threats that attack the wagon or Baranthor yourself, you are free to defend yourself. Sister Ophelia, you are giving me permission to engage in combat. Yes. Oh, very well. I will do my best to keep myself, to preserve myself, and to defend myself until we meet again.

Yes, hopefully it won't be too long. And I'll see you again very soon. Yes, I hope that you look after yourself, Lady, my lady, as well. You see that when you give him the command of being able to defend himself, My lady as well. You see that when you give him the command of being able to defend himself, two red glows appear in his eyes.

His eyes begin to glow. Combat mode. Psst. Hell yeah. And he now has the black chainmail, which you gave him as well. So underneath his priestly robes, he has this black chainmail, the whip,

and he gives it a test, he kind of turns away. Whoosh, whatch. Yo, what is he doing? I think I've done something. What do you mean? Why are you guys looking at Percy smiling and now he's got a whip? We were just trying to figure out how to get into this.

You spoke to him? Yes! What did he say? He likes us, we're his friends. Percy likes us. Hi, Percy. What did he say? And how?

Do you like that one? Well, I greet Xanthius Oragon. I feel as towards him as I do to all of you. Yeah, he likes you. That was a very long answer, but okay. He likes everyone. I like you too, Percy. I see you cracking that whip now as well.

Are you going to fight on the whip? I have given him permission to defend himself accordingly. Great, perfect, Baranth, there you go. Percival will defend himself in your journey as well. Very well. Okay, so you can just call on him and he'll help you as much as he can. I mean, he is, yes.

I don't know why I never thought of it before, really, but then Rowan was speaking to Rodri, and he wanted to speak to Rodri again. And I just thought, hmm, kind of want to know if friends are always our friend. Skeletons have a high enough intelligence, and specifically it says they understand all languages in life but can't speak,

which to me says that telepathically, a viable option. Right. Yeah. The interesting thing, and this is maybe OC better to go on, but I just find it interesting to talk about, he is not like, as a skeleton, it's not like his soul is attached. Like the thing that you're talking to is not

was once a living soul that's like bound to the skeleton. It is like its own life form that has been created through the animation of magic, and then simply in existence. Right. Like it has memory and concepts of things, but it's not like it's a, he doesn't have memories of who he, as a life or anything like that.

Literally. We're not talking to the body of this character. No. This is. It's just magic. Well, it's magic born through being treated as a person and being given a task and things like that. Like, Percival probably isn't the body's name. That is just the name that was given by whatever

necromancer created him long ago. And then Ossius made him a permanent skeleton, basically, which is one of the things that they can do. And that process created sentient life. It's kind of animism. Yeah, yeah. And then by experience and following people around, it has gained sentience and life.

Yeah, it's animism fully on. Personally, I feel much better being able to talk to Percival, because now we can ask if he's okay. Yeah, I love this. This is amazing. Blessings of the Great Father to you, Percival. Oh, and to you as well, Sister Ophelia, and Percival will bow.

Ophelia will bow back. Have a safe journey. I'll miss you. I will miss you, Sister Ophelia. You will be able to talk to each other for like, as long as you're within a mile of each other, for a little bit, you can still have a little chat if you two wanna catch up about anything.

I'll just keep quiet. Okay. This is a great day. That's wonderful. Congratulations, great idea. I don't know why I never thought of it before. It's just like, I just really wanted to know if he thought that we were nice and he does.

So that's good. We are. cut to. Gruff, you look improving. Gruff has just been brushing down Rodri, like giving him, like, cause he's a bit sad to let Rodri go. And he knows Baranthal, but he's just gonna give him one last brush

and then he'll treat you. All right. So just to clarify, Baranth, Rodri, and Percival are gonna make their way overland, which is gonna be about two days of travel. Yes. To the location that Rowan has marked on the map.

Yep. You guys are gonna jump in this dark, wet river hole and follow the underground river. Yeah, up stream. Thrown around like a ragdoll, against rocks and crags. We'll get there in a day, bloodied. You're dead.

Where's Amy? Did you, in the day after, speak to Rodri? No. Okay. No. I mean, I could have. Well, I know, I was just wondering. I know you said you weren't going to.

Well, that would do the rest of the episode. Yeah. I was just wondering, yeah. It should be. I spent that time wisely, I think. We just got to speak to Percival, who's been here the whole time. And we only just gained a voice.

Yeah, and Mark was not expecting anyone to talk to Percival for quite some time. So he had not prepped like any sort of voice or character for him. That's a good voice, I like it. Good, yeah. All right. Very servent-y, servitude-y tone.

All right. But yes, they can... Water breathing. Yeah, so just to flavor it a little bit, Gruff will kind of shake his staff and the illusory Saren will fly out and he will fly around everybody. And Saren almost shakes out a feather

for everyone that just touches, like kind of gently comes down and touches your forehead. And that is the spell taking effect. I will cast it on everyone here, Penelope, and Baranth, just because it's up to 10 people, so. Sure, yeah. What about Rodri? And Rodri.

Sure. Is there a physical after the effect? Is there like a noticeable sort of consistent spell effect on us? Or is it gone after Saren taps us? Probably gone after Saren's feather taps you. Okay. You feel a little icy shiver, I think.

Almost like you've just plunged into some cold water. Yeah, okay. The cold water device. But there's not like an actual bubble or anything. No. Yeah. So, with the spell taken effect, you begin the sort of mixture of climb down into the caving system, and then eventually find like,

yeah, this kind of rocky pool. And Rowan, you're pretty certain that there is a current flowing in, you know, spilling into, flying into different cracks and things like that. a lucky pool. And Rowan, you're pretty certain that there is a current flowing in, spilling into, flowing into different cracks and things like that, but a hole wide enough that the group of you can start to make your way through.

You descend in one by one. The water is icy cold. It does have that gold coloration to it as well, but there is something when you dip in, it's not the same as that pool, that pond that you found. Whether it's a different type of concentration, or whether it's just like the magic just resided in it, this water does not have the same effect as that pond.

So even if you gulp it down, those of you who've got a headache, you don't feel anything, Xanthius. So it is noticeably not nearly as glittery and... Yeah, something about this is slightly different, whether this is diluted or whether it's maybe the pond has been affected by the sun or something like that, you don't know. This is somehow different.

But it does have that coldness that is very familiar and that slight tingle on your skin as well. This is still, Crown's still influenced, it's just not gonna have the same potion effect. Sure. You descend down into it, and yeah, one by one, you start making your way through. And like I said, you are fighting the current here,

it's not particularly strong current, but you are fighting the current here, and you begin climbing and making your way through. I think that for this, I'm gonna run this as a little bit of like a kind of skill challengey kind of thing here. So what are you all navigating this place? Imagine the kind of scenarios like, you know,

you're going through tight crevices, you're having to like swim against the current here, you're also having to navigate. It is pitch black down here, trying to find your way. All sense of like that, like I know where we're going because I've seen it in the vision, that kind of goes out the window because now you're down here,

these all split off in different directions, Rowan, and like that navigation, you're gonna have to rely on your natural navigation and stuff down here. What are you all gonna kind of do to help you guys do this journey? Like what are each of you doing as this journey to like help things along? I mean, light source wise, I've got Produce Flame.

You've got light, right? I was gonna say, yeah, I could cast light on just, if there's a specific like, boulder or something, I could cast it on as we're going along to light the area for people, so it's not just on me. It's like on parts of the cavern to guide people through. I'll probably do that.

Because it's at will, right? I think it's concentration. You can only do one light at a time, but you can light something up, move, and then light something up, and then, yeah. Cool. Yeah, I mean, that's easy enough to do. You can provide light.

You also have light vision, things like that. But if anybody's, you have a light source, but again, that light source is like,. But like, if anybody's, you know, you have a light source, but again, that light source is like, what, 20 feet of bright light, 20 feet of dim light. There are like dark shadows, there are like crevices and cracks, there's all sorts of like things here. I could feel you like scout ahead a little bit,

like sort of like 10, 15 feet ahead. And like sort of Spider Climbing along the walls and like using her dark vision to try and guide the party through cracks and crevices that are more optimal, like twisting and turning, and be like, oh, you turn your body this way, and then go this way. Okay, so using your own ability as a body

to try and help them guide through. So this sounds more like acrobatics almost, like you're kind of using your training as a dancer and stuff. As they get to these tight things, you're like, oh, bend your knee in this way. Lift your leg, like turn your head that way. Like turn your body this way. Yeah, okay, sure.

Give me an acrobatics roll for this. You do have fate dice to use? Too late, 10. 10, okay. Not the best, unfortunately, Ophelia, whilst you might be quite nimble and easy to turn, dealing with the others, and especially Paul Rowan, who is so much bigger, what you think is,

oh yeah, we can go through this way, you slide through, just binge it, and Paul Rowan is like, I don't quite fit, and you have to double back, because he's just not gonna be able to go that way, you lose a bit of time, Paul Rowan's bumped around a bit, even Paul Gruff as well, the fur kind of makes it quite hard for him at certain points to get through.

You know, carrying all the equipment through and everything else as well. Unfortunately, yeah, not super helpful, unfortunately. But progress is still being made, the whole time. Anybody else got any ideas of stuff that they might be doing in this journey? Roman's gonna look for the... Roman leads something from everyone.

Yeah. At least one thing. Try and navigate the... I will need something from everyone. Yeah. At least one thing. Try and navigate the... Could be a spell. Oh, yeah. It's mostly going to be navigating the wider stream. Okay. If it goes through, I know they're gonna split off in different directions. Sure, sure, sure.

I'm gonna look for the one with the strongest current. Great, sounds like survival check to me. Yeah. Yeah, check this out. Fate? Nah. Love it. Navigation should fate.

It's 2-8. 14? You said it's too late before you rolled it. Yeah. Come here. The momentum was already there. 14. I'm throwing.

Rowan, you desperately try and navigate down here, trying to find the widest points. Also trying to find spaces where you have caverns, where you can actually swim not necessarily always underwater. Even though you have the spell, like the water here is murky and you get turned around by underwater your senses, your balance is all off, you know, the lights reflecting in weird ways, you know, as an audience, we see you miss a couple of obvious turns just because you don't see them and you lead people down in the wrong way. And yeah, unfortunately, it does seem to be leading off in a different path.

But a failure, unfortunately, I have to say. So this is a mixture of land and water, right? No, well, mainly water at this point. There isn't, you're not like walking through caves and stuff yet. This is like, you might come across like some rivers, but even then it's like water, you're like on an underground river and there's a large space above you,

but there's not really like banks or caves or anything like that, you are in a proper water-flooded cave system at this point. Okay. I mean, if you want there to be like a section on land, I'd say I'd take that for a fake point. Like if you want to be like, yeah, we actually come out into a cave system

and it's all on land. Just come back to me in a moment. All right, sure. Anybody got any ideas? Hmm. Thomas or Katie? Yeah, so I mean, I've got Long Strider, which I can, it gets on 10 feet extra movement per turn,

but I mean over a long journey that's not terrible. No, yeah, and also like I always say that like, depending on the level of spell, like you can get yourself some like free successes or like bonuses to other checks and stuff like that. So I think I could, I mean I can cast it on one person for an hour, which I don't know how much that necessarily costs.

I don't worry too much about stuff like that. If you're like, I'm gonna cast Long Strider to make it so we can move quicker. Just, how do you think that's gonna help the team in this scenario? Yeah, it's either, I mean, if you have more movement speed, and then you use less of it to ensure balance

and agility, and not agility, yeah, I guess agility or dexterity. Does that make sense? You move slower than your maximum speed, but you're more careful with it, but you have Longstrider to your maximum speed increase. I mean, I think for the purposes of this, you are basically using Longstrider

to make somebody more adept at swimming through the water, and that will benefit the team by having somebody who's just able to navigate this path easier. Yeah, so I think... It's a level one spell, right? Yeah, it's just a level one. I'm not gonna give you an automatic success for that,

but I will give a heavy bonus to whoever you cast the spell on on the next roll. I think, I guess it depends on... If it's physical. It depends on what either Groth or Daisy are doing. Rowan and Ophelia can do other things as well. I just want to have at least, everybody has to do at least one thing. We can do other things.

But you can do other things. I'll do a help for whoever I feel is best appropriate next, I suppose. At least for now. Yeah, you can hold it, you don't have to say. And I'd say this has to be a physical thing they're doing. So it can't be a mental thing like navigation or anything like that. It would have to be like, like if somebody was like, can I just make an athletics check

to help guide the team through and help them swim better? I'm like, yeah, great, that's perfect. Okay, cool. Perfect example of it. Can I, in my mind, just mentally make a map and get Nim to remember the places that we're going, places that we find dead ends, anything that we find along the way

so that if we try and go back on ourselves, I can go, no, we've already been that way, go this way instead. Yeah, I think that that sounds great and it sounds like a perfect thing for Nim to help you with. That to me would say a survival check. Do you agree or were you me would say a survival check. Do you think, do you agree or were you thinking of something else?

Probably. Yeah. Are you proficient in survival? No, yes. There you go. Okay. So if need be, you've got your side bolstered knack on this as well. Or soul bolstered knack because we we can Flavor from Psyonix. We also have Fate, Natural, Vein, and Roll. I'll use a Fate. Delicious. Yum, yum, yum.

I rolled a natural one. Add Fate to that, though. I use my Psy Bolstered Knack. And you get a D6 to that as well. So you get your Psy D8 and a D8. So what is Psy Bolstered Knack? So this is a Soul Knife ability where on skills that Daisy's proficient in, if she fails it, she can add, or like if she can add numbers to it, I believe.

Oh. So it's overall a 13. 13, even, yeah, unfortunately, from a nat 1 there is pretty good. From a nat 1 to a 13. Even with Nim's help. And I like to imagine that this is maybe because you are immersed in this water. Like, Nim is like finding it really hard to concentrate. Like, and you hear in your head like, oh, little one, whatever, whatever this is in this water is, it's overwhelming. It's so much just plain-arm magic is bound into this.

I am struggling. I'm so sorry. And it's struggling to help you, basically. So Daisy's doing, you're trying to do your best to memorize it. But yeah, Nim is so distracted and overwhelmed by the crown steel in the water that it is unable to help. So we've had no success. You've not had any successes thus far.

So we're just saying pure water here. No, it's got a little bit. There's little bits of land. It depends, yeah. What are you looking for? Tell me your idea and then we'll build from it. My idea is to Wild Shape. Okay. And I cannot decide between a seal or a dolphin.

Right, okay. But to what end? So a dolphin or a dolphin. Right, okay. Okay. But to what end? So, a dolphin has blindsight. And so I feel like I would want to swim ahead and see the currents, and it also has, I think, 60 foot of swim movement. Whereas a seal has 20 foot land and 40 foot swim. But yeah, the dolphin, I think, could go ahead and find the route.

Sounds pretty useful to me. And again, this is like a long journey, so the wild shape is probably gonna last a while. You're gonna use that, but then you might come to an area where like, I can't fit through this as a dolphin, I have to turn back to a gruff and then squeeze through, you know, whatever. But yeah, I'd say that with that,

because you're expending a resource on this, like a wild shape, and because it has like blind sight and stuff like that, I would say that that would be an automatic success, right? Yeah, I feel like a dolphin is something that Gruff would see in Iceheart. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I think that's, absolutely.

We don't have to worry too much about how many forms you have in that. When we switched to 2024, you have a limited number of forms, but for this, you're totally fine. So yeah, Gruff, you transform into this beautiful ice diver dolphin-like creature, maybe like a narwhal. Oh yeah, I wanna be a narwhal!

But I'm black again with that kind of, little bits of white kind of like, you know. I'm beautiful, man. Very cool. And you kind of lead the way. Well you would be, you would all hear this like, ah, and noise as you use the. Everyone watch out, there's something here.

Stop! Does that kill it? And yeah, you portray that through as, yeah, you manage to lead the team, kind of turning around, some of the lost navigation from Rowan and Daisy, you're like, okay, you turn into this form, and you will follow this creature

that most of you have probably never seen before. And you follow it through as Gruff leads the way, yeah, earning a success. Very cool. Okay. I'm a dolphin. I think I'll, in that case, I think I'll just do it. Yeah, it's the only one,

well, you've kind of done a thing, Xantheus, but like if there's anything else you wanna do, you can still use your own strata thing on somebody, if anybody else has another idea. I guess I would have, in terms of everyone's actions, I would have retroactively put it onto Ophelia, but then that's re-rolling, I suppose. No, not really, no, stop.

I could have put it on Ophelia then, in that case. Yeah, if Ophelia does a physical thing. You were doing that. Basically what I'm saying is bank it. Yeah, yeah, okay. Expend the spell slot, you've banked it, and if somebody does a physical thing, you're gonna give them advantage.

I'll give them Longstrider. We're on round two essentially. My other option was using my extra movement and dashing. If you gave me Longstrider, I could do that even more. Go ahead. Yeah. Yeah? I'd still probably ask for like,

probably an acrobatics check from you, to like, to actually like, have a roll, rather than just dashing, because everyone can technically dash, you know, it's. That would be 80 feet instead of 60, with long shots. But this isn't a race, right? No, I know, I know. This isn't a race of like,

80 feet's not going to mean much in a day's worth of travel. So like, what is the, how are you using that in a creative way to help you navigate and get through this like underground river kind of space? You know? Could I maybe use Verasity as a way to like, carve the stone and make tight holes bigger for like, Rowan and Gruff to fit through?

You can certainly try, yeah. I'm gonna go to Freckles and just like, can I act with that? Because like, the dolphin like, can slam and Frankless and just like hack away. Can I ape with that? Because like the dolphin can slam and charge attack and stuff like that. So I would say that yeah, you would be basically giving advantage to Ophelia. And Ophelia, I would say make a athletics check

with advantage. I will do fate. Yep. Cause like this isn't, like you're attacking with veracity, but really this is a matter of strength, of like chipping stone away to widen the holes. And a big wet fish.

Yeah. Technically I'm a mammal, thank you. Oh. Dolphins aren't fish, actually. 19. 19, so yeah, like you reach like this particularly tricky bit where the way you need to go is just too narrow, and like it's sharp rocks, and this is gonna be a bad way for need to go is just too narrow and it's sharp rocks and this is gonna be a bad way

for you to go. So you and Gruff move ahead and yeah, with Verasti and the Narwhal Horn, the two of you manage to break and sort of smash this crevice open a little bit wider so that all of you can get through basically. Nice. Filthy minds all of you, filthy minds.

They were laughing at me because I was imitating being a Narwhal. Oh I see. Shaking her head around, yeah. And then my neck clicked as well. Boy, all of you, filthy minds. They were laughing at me because I was imitating being a narwhal. Oh, I see. Shaking her head around, yeah. And then my neck clicked as well. Why, what did you hit? I thought it was about me smashing the crevice open. I thought that's where you were.

Filthy mind marks. That's disgusting. That's disgusting. That is too far. I do, yeah, that's too far. I did self-reported that one. I did. I did, I was a full on self-report that.

Whoa. Yeah. Cool. You guys are about sort of halfway through this journey. And yeah, you come across this section of, again, you're kind of swimming through these caves. The water breathing spell is still lasting absolutely fine. You find yourself in this labyrinthian

sort of like really tight crevices. But also, as you move your way through that, and you eventually pass through that, you start coming to areas where there is water. There's not really like any banks, but there are these high caverns that you're kind of swimming through. And the current is gentler,

because it widens out into these areas. But there is dark, it is pitch black, even with the light sources, these caverns are like 80 feet tall and they're quite spread out rowing. This is where I make a rowing boat. Yeah, sure. A rowing boat.

A rowing boat. Oh, I've even been thinking about that. A rowing boat, like rowing. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a rowing boat. And this is your use of your music of creation.

Performance of creation. Yeah. And it's a physical object that can be touched and therefore given light. It also, anytime anyone touches it, so if they're sitting in the boat, you hear soft music. Very nice.

And it kind of gets us a little bit. Does the soft music play in general or only when people are touching the boat? When you're connected with it. Okay, nice. So yeah, so like a 10 foot boat, like if you squeeze a bunch of you together, the dolphins swim along.

I could still lead the way. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So the group of you, and like some of you, like even if somebody's holding onto the side, like it's still gonna be helpful for that, right? It's buoyant. The only thing is that this is against the current remember. So you have the boat, which is gonna absolutely help you.

I've given you a success for the boat. Don't need to make a roll for it, it's an automatic success. Cool. To make this boat work, somebody's gonna have make a roll for it. It's an automatic success. Cool. To make this boat work, somebody's gonna have to row it, which is gonna be an athletics check. So you're saying I can hear music when I touch this thing? Come on, motherfucker, come on.

Come on, motherfucker. Wow. Where you at, Jack? Damn it. I'm at. I'm at. I'm at. I'm at.

Mortal. Combat. I'm at. I'm at. Cane of the Nails.uh-nuh-nuh. Luke Kang. Wow. Acrobatics, you say. Athletics. Athletics, you say.

It can be anybody that is not Gruff or Rowan. I think I'm... You just made the boat. Yeah, true, true, true. I'm actually, no, technically you could row the boat if you want. Gruff can't because Gruff is currently a dolphin. Oh, a dolphin. What would it?

Narwhal. Narwhal. What would it be? So you need that to just go forwards, right? Or is it? That is a thing that if you want to use this boat to more success, it will need somebody to row it. Okay, but in terms of like, for doing it for a long time,

what kind of check might that be? I would make that a con saving throw. Because that's... If you want it, yeah, you could of like, for doing it for a long time, what kind of check might that be? I would make that a con saving throw. Because that's... If you want it, yeah, you could be like, Xanthius is gonna row, and you feel like his stamina is gonna be, like I think I'd say you could make a constitution saving throw. I think I'd like to call on constitutions

to do it more consistently and regularly rather than alter you. Sorry? In fact, he has a plus one to a con save. Extra plus one. I do. So yeah, you absolutely could. Can I do it that way then?

Yeah, absolutely. Very cool. Great way of thinking about it. Love way of using something different as well. Yeah, in that case, I have plus eight to my con. Natural 20. Oh my god. Oh my god.

So 28. You... Yeah, well it's more that like, Xanthias just keeps rowing and just doesn't tire. The flywheel just starts kicking in. That'd be a different thing. That would be a different thing. But no, you are able to keep this boat rowing

with just very little issue. Yeah, you are able to keep this rowing. I just power on. As long as the boat, like, eventually the boat's gonna reach a point where you have to lose the boat and go back under the water. But for this large section of this open cavern,

you're absolutely gonna be able to do that. Hell yeah. Is anybody else doing anything else? I guess I'm still leading the boat, with my blind vision. I won't make a new roll for that, because you've already done that for a success. The boat looks like Rowan.

Does it? Does it have a masthead? It's got a Rowan face. What are the oars? The oars are Rowan arms. Oh my god. This is going to be incredible. It's going to be mischievous.

It becomes the perfect picture. So the entire time I'm going, your face is looking up at me. Or would it be facing outwards? It's facing out. It's facing out. So I just see ass. And then I guess like, Daisy's put light on your head. So it's like your eyes are like... You've got the headlight.

Oh, yeah, no, yeah. That now is magically glowing and projecting light. I'm gonna say like, log flume, like that kind of thing. So for the reference for this, because like, yeah, you've already succeeded at navigating as your dolphin, so you can't do that again, right? You have to do something different, like... I'm gonna say blind vision.

Blind vision? Blind sight even. Oh I see, okay. I just changed it a different way. Do they actually have that? No, they have dark vision. But a shark has blind sight. Just turn to a shark then.

Yeah. Okay, what could I do? I mean, it doesn't have to be like other people can do stuff if they can think of something as well. I have used all the things. Well even like simple like, while we're on the boat, I want to make a perception check to look out for danger. Like, somebody can make one of those, if somebody wants to. Or like... Like, ducking from stalagmites.

Or like, I'm gonna move ahead and stealthily try and see if there's any danger ahead of us. I want to make a stealth check. You tell me what you want to do. Find a thing that your character does good, and I'll find a way to make it work. At the moment, it's swimming. My trick is to just look at the skills and then try and figure out how they work rather than...

Yeah, that's fine. I know I'm rowing, but I'm just saying. Yeah, but that's fine as well. I don't mind that. If I use my dolphin's charge ability, can I use that to, if they put a rope on me, to try and just help the boat go forward? Yeah, I'd say that.

I would say that you as the dolphin would have to make a athletics or strength if you don't have athletics listed under the dolphin. So it would just be a strength. Strength plus two. So it'd be just plus two. Okay. Because it's like, how like,

can you pull a boat full of people fast enough than the rowing is? Can you people fast enough than the rowing is? Can you tow tow the rowing boat? And also, do you injure yourself in doing that, or do you tie yourself out and stuff like that? So the charge ability is one of their combat moves. Is it limited use or is it just a thing they can do? Because if it's just a thing...

It's an action. Then you don't get any special benefit from it, but just because the dolphin can do that, I'm gonna say you can make an athletic strength check to see if you can help. Oh, wait, hold on. If the dolphin moves at least 30 foot straight towards a target and hits it with a slam attack on the same turn... You're not making an attack, so none of that's gonna move around it, right?

You're not making an attack against it. I was just reading the full thing just in case there was something I missed. Just a big dash. I get it. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. I took a fate by the way if you hadn't. Oh, okay. Thank you.

22. 22, great. So with that... Okay, so Gruff is currently almost acting like a motor and helping pull the boat along, kind of giving Xanthia some bit of a time to break and also moving at a bit of a faster speed. Let's see where you can locate.

Yeah, with blind sight so I can... Yeah. Daisy or Aphelia, anything you guys... One thing from the two of you. I might do the old Perception check with my Darkvision. Sure. Keep a lookout for danger. Yeah, so just Perception check.

Would you like to use fate as well? Nah, I'll be all right, as she says. Keep a lookout for danger. Yep, so just perception check. Would you like to use fate as well? Nah, I'll be all right, as she says. 17, 15 with my thing. Minus two. Just barely a success. In fact, that's perfect that we ended on that perception check because as you are making your way down

through this large open cavern, maybe the final part of this journey, you think that you are on the cusp of arriving near your destination in this section here that you're in, it is Ophelia with that perception check that you would notice there is something odd about this last section of this kind of cavernous-like river that runs underground. There are, as you are moving up, hanging from the cavern roof, and there are this natural rocky texture all over the walls

and there begins to form the sides of, not banks, but little ridges out of the water. And there are formations of stalagmites and stalagetites, water dripping from them and things like that. Several of the stalag-tites, you would notice, you're like, you're almost fascinated because from the Stalag-tites, drip, drip, and maybe for Raphelia it's like,

oh, that almost reminds you of drips of blood, kind of like dropping into a pitcher or something. Sometimes like the courts of the House of Blood would like do these beautiful sculptures and blood would run down them and then drip off into a basin, and then people would fill their glasses and things like that. And it's watching that, and you're like, that's odd. A couple of those stalactites, water's not dripping off them,

but it is dropping off the neighbouring ones. And you just notice that. And the boat is moving in that direction, being pulled by the dolphin. Oh, oh. Rowan, do you know? Blue. The stalactites up there,

those ones, do you see those? They're not dripping with the water, but the other ones are. Do you know why that might be? As you said, and point towards them, Ophelia, one of those stalactites, a part of the rocky surface opens and a glaring yellow eye snaps down as it opens a maw, hidden within the rocky texture of the surface and a long tendril reaches out and would have caught you all by surprise if you guys had

failed the skill challenge I was going to have you go into this being surprised but because you caught it you are aware of this thing as yeah that is going to be let's roll an issue. Okay. Wait did you say that thing? be, let's roll initiative. Okay. Ophelia. Wait, did you say that thing? That Starry Tide has an eyeball. What?

Is that normal? Well, I thought I'd ask you because you're the Rock Man. You know rocks and things. Wow. I'm the Rock Man. You're the Rock Man. And Rock Man eventually becomes Mega Man.

What does a dolphin do for initiative? Dexterity. If you don't have a specific initiative, it's just dexterity. Oh, natural 20 now! Nice. That makes sense you're going first. You're looking right at it.

It's looking at me. Yes. Yes. All right. Oh, I'm not sure. Daisy. 20. 20 for Daisy.

Sathias. I got a 10. do you get minus two? This is an ability check. So it is. Yes. Initiative is. Does dolphin still get sad? Yeah.

Okay. Doesn't take away from the hangover. Can't wild shape a hangover away. But if you could though. In that case, Gruff. So minus two to what you've used. Fifteen. Rowan.

With the minus two? Wait, no, hold on. I'm confusing things. It would be a 14 minus two. Twelve. Ophelia. Twenty with the minus two as well. Great, well I think Daisy has a little bit

quicker decks than you, so I'm gonna give Daisy the priority. You would watch as, yeah, the ones that you pointed at, so Ophelia pointed at, I would say there are five stalactites that weren't dripping water. Oh, god. One of them is this one that's opened its eye and all these tendrils and mouths have come out. But there are other stalactites that haven't moved yet.

They just look like stalactites to you. But yeah, Daisy, I will maybe for next week have a map for this. But imagine like a long, very tight river. Like I would say 10 feet wide, like the boat is literally up against the walls, but it's very deep underneath the water. And then about 80 feet high is a rocky ceiling, basically. So nothing else at all, no sides to the cat?

There are sides, but like, they maybe winds out and there are like lips where there are like rocky protrusions. Nothing you can really stand, or you could like hold on to. Yeah. I will just throw a Radiant Blade. Okay, what's the range?

I feel like it was 60 feet. I think it is, these things are about 80 feet above you. I will move 20 feet and then I will throw. They up, like 20 feet. Oh, above. Yeah, like it's 80 feet high at the ceiling. Up onto a ledge? 20 feet, like you don't have a climb speed or anything, do you?

No. So. You could attempt to physically climb, but that would be an athletics check to try and like physically climb the but that would be an athletics check to try and physically climb the wall. It's rocky, it's like natural handholds and stuff, but it would be pretty much your whole movement. I don't know much I can do then.

Hide. Let's all get under the boat. Yeah, what's in front of us? Is it still just more river? Straight on, yeah. I'd say maybe there's a slight curve here and there. I'll do a proper map for next week, but I think we're only gonna get through one round anyway.

We'll just kill them all in one round, it's fine. Sure, maybe. Yeah, watch this. How many are there? Five? Yeah, five. Some of them are scattered about. I'd say that, okay, let me put this into the thing.

So the one that is attacking you is basically directly above you at this point. With two more. And then there are one further down and then two more further down in front of the boat. Imagine like a straight line. Did you say the stalactite? About 20 feet between the two groups.

Did it like demi-Gorgon out from the stalactite? No, it's like, there's like an eye, and then it has like a mouth, like, on the side, on the curved section of it, like a cone. Like, imagine a cone with a face, with a single eye and a big mouth, and then, like, parts of the rock have split off into long, whip-like tendrils, basically. Can I hit one of the tendrils? If it's reaching to us with the tendrils.

Yeah, I'd say you can attempt to, yeah. Because the tendrils are very long, but I'd say you can attempt a cold shot. Sure. Better than doing nothing. Yeah. I guess I'll try. More than just throwing blades.

Not for me. Yeah, there is,. More than just throwing blades. Not for me. Yeah there is dude, come on. Fly, get up there, just go right up his face, stare him down, have a staring contest with him, win. He runs off in shame, story one. Elthea ends. Yeah but I have one of those a day, that's it. If I use it on this, I don't have it for the big fight.

That's true. So for now. That's like five days away. Speaking of going. I hope not. Natural 20. This is a short cut. Natural 20. So yeah, I would say, literally I was like, you need to roll fucking high to do a cold shot kind of thing.

It's natural 20, so it's 27. So roll me damage. You would not have sneak attack on this, but roll me damage. So do you think, huh? It does have multiple tendrils, by the way, so you are gonna strike it and do damage, but it's gonna have more to attack with.

It would be 10 for the, because it's a crit, plus three, so 23 damage. 23 points of radiant damage, so 23 damage. 23 points of radiant damage, yeah? Yes. Nice, okay. 23 points of radiant damage. Yeah, you... No, sorry, 10 plus three, so... Oh, 13. 13.

13 points of radiant damage. Yeah, like I said, this literally needed to be a nat 20 to do a cold shot on this tendril, because this thing is so far a reach, but you wait and time it, you throw the knife, and as the tendril is reaching down towards the boat, you just manage to catch it searing through the tendril. It burns the tendril away, and then more just come

lashing out, like it has an untold number of these things. And then I guess I'll try again with a bonus action, because... Oh, actually, no, I'm going to slight record, I didn't fully read. There are about six of these tendrils. You have destroyed one of them. Oh, nice.

Nice. I'll try again. Uh, yeah. No. I rolled a three, so probably not. A three is not enough, no. I will just use my movement to go into the water, because we've got water breathing, and I'll just make us less of a big target.

I'll move away from the boat slightly. So you want to move like, do you want to move ahead or behind the boat? Behind slightly. You want to move behind slightly, okay. What did you want to say, ten behind the boat? Behind slightly. You want to move behind slightly, okay. Would you want to say 10 feet? Yeah. Make some notes for next week when I do a map.

Alrighty, Ophelia. Let's try and route through and at least get a turn in. Ophelia will rage. Righto. And she will jump off the boat and dash up the wall towards this thing. A full dash upwards. Okay, that will get you so...

That'll be 10 feet, so 35 feet at most. That's perfect, yeah, so you get within 10 feet of this thing, and yeah, you're just staring at this horrid thing in the way. As you rush up, the two static tides next to it, which you also will, that's weird, they're not dripping water. You see about six yellow eye-like orbs

open around one of these stalactites, and it almost like a jellyfish, like undulates like an umbrella, as two of them react to you moving up close to it as well. These seem to be a very different creature to the other one with the eye and the tendrils. Oh, cool. There's more, there's more!

So that is just your full turn, isn't it, basically? In that case, Rowan, what is your dexterity? My dexterity is a hugely whopping, my god, ginormous 10. 10, okay, so it's actually these creatures that you've moved up next to, these jellyfish-like stalactites that come alive. And yeah, they seemed indistinguishable from a stalactite.

You just happen to notice this water dripping funny. And they are one of them. They basically detach and begin to almost float like jellyfish. And one of them is gonna try and wrap itself around you. Oh. That's interesting. 23 to hit. Yep.

That is only gonna be six points of bludgeon damage, so half to three because you're raging. You are a medium creature. And you have dark vision, so it wasn't blinded or anything like that. Okay, so this thing tries to wrap itself around you. Like completely, but you manage to kind of shrug it off for the time being.

I had to have advantage, I didn't realize I needed advantage on the attack roll to do this. But it tries to wrap itself around you. And sensing that you seem to be able to perceive its movements, even though like you're up in the dark of the roof basically. Keep in mind that like Daisy's light only goes up about halfway. This is all like nearly in pitch black, it's only because your dark vision being able to really spot it. The one next to it is instead going to open itself out and a 15 foot radius of magical darkness will extend and engulf you.

So your vision goes completely black. So 15 feet around it in the middle and the creature, the one with the tendrils, becomes like a 15 foot of darkness basically. The two which are further down the river, one of them is gonna target the boat and engulfs the boat in magical darkness, and then the other one is gonna drop and it's gonna go for the gnar wall at the front.

So those two are gonna drop down and do that. So against the gnar wall, of course I roll a natural 20. Oh, bloody hell. La la la la la. How much health does that gnar wall have? You'll see. And the gnar wall has of course I roll a natural 20. Oh bloody hell. How much health does that gnar wall have? You'll see. And the gnar wall has blind sight, did you say? Blind sight, yeah. Great. The magical darkness means nothing, so I don't get advantage against you either.

So that is going to be 9, 10, 11 points of bludgeoning damage as it dives into the water and tries to wrap you up. But the same thing, you can still sense this thing, even though it's in darkness, and you manage to wriggle free and stop it from completely engulfing you. And that's the end of the Dark Mantles. How many hit points does the Narwhal have? That was exactly enough to knock me out of Wild Shoot. Ugh, bugger.

Which means you no longer have Blind Sight, which means you're in magical darkness, but I wouldn't have had advantage in the Attack Roll still, so it still doesn't grab me. It doesn't matter though, you've gotten out 20, so it doesn't matter. No, it does, this ability, I have to have advantage to do this special ability. Oh, really?

Oh, I see. Yeah, I have to have advantage to do it. All right, that is the Dark Mantle's turn. Rowan, you are in Magic Darkness in your boat. Yeah. Yeah, that's a bad. It goes completely black. I'm gonna have to just use my wits and do a disadvantage attack at the thing

that's causing it, because it jumped onto the boat, right? No. Or did it just cast it down? It cast, yeah, it created darkness. In which case, I will... Oh no, it did spread out from it, so it would have dived onto the boat, you're right.

It is there. Okay. I can sense something is in the like trying to grab you guys. Chumps onto the boat and then it's darkness. That's correct, yeah. Alright. So yeah, disadvantage, but you can still make an attack roll. Before I do that, I'm gonna cast Baric Inspiration on Xanthias.

Cool, thank you. They only need to hear me, so I strum the tune. You get an extra D8, 10 minutes. Something, great. Something also you get the extra ability, motive potential spinning around your head. Which could help. And then I'm gonna have Disadvantages swing for this thing.

Right for it. Yep, love it. Oh no. Yeah, that's not gonna hit. I roll it too. That's not gonna hit. You just swing in the darkness, sword whips through the air, unable to see. Anything else on your turn? If not, it is Gruff's turn. That's it. Alright Gruff, you're out of dolphin narwhal form.

Can I make a sort of Devil's Bow again? I will describe what I would like to do and we'll see. I imagine just like, yeah, panicking, kind of just being knocked out of this shape. Suddenly it's dark, there's a thing trying to grab. I kind of almost see Gruff trying to grab this thing himself with his claws and try and pull it underwater with the idea of trying to drown it. Like, he wouldn't know if it is watery,

you know, can live underwater or not, but this is my Gruff is planicking. I don't think you need to do the difference bargain here because what you're describing is, what you want to do is grapple this guy and then move with it underwater. Yeah. Yeah. Which is totally fine.

So we'll use the new version of it because it's on your character sheet. So I believe you make an unarmed strike against it. Unarmed strike, yeah. And then if you hit an unarmed strike against it. Unarmed strike. And then if you hit with the armed strike, I have to do a saving throw, I think. And then if I fail that, then you have the thing and then you can move half speed with it. Oh. I believe.

Okay. Then can I use that for the last fate dice for the words? Yeah, boost that roll. Let me use Fate Dice. 17... plus 3 for an unarmed strike, so a dirty 20, but minus 2 for... Not to attack rolls. Just a bit of checks and saving throws.

Oh, and plus another 5 as well, because I fate. You easily grappled. Okay, so instead of doing damage, I believe, you do the grapple option. Yeah, so the target must succeed on a Strength or Dex. It chooses Saving Throw, DC8, plus Proficiency, plus... Is it my... No, you choose. No, no, no, it's you choose. So DC8 plus Proficiency, which would be 11, plus your Strength modifier?

Dex, it says Strength or Dex, it chooses which. So my Dex is plus one. Okay. So DC eight plus proficiency bonus plus dex. So it'll be 12 if it's plus one. So DC 12, this thing is gonna make a strength saving throw. Okay, how strong is it? It's pretty strong, plus three. When I roll a seven though, it still fails.

Oh. So you dig your claws into this thing. You have it grappled, that's your action. You can now use half your movement to carry a creature that you're grappling. So you can move 15 feet down. Are you doing that to the one that attacked you or to the one that made the darkness?

Which one was nearest to me? Both were right next to you. Can I roll a dice to see? Because I feel like all the kerfuffle of everything was happening. One to three, the one that made the darkness. Four, five, six, the one that attacked you. I can't read it. Five.

There you go, so it's the one that attacked you. So you grab this thing, and you dive underwater. 15 feet, carry it underwater. It is undulating like a jellyfish. You're not sure if it can swim, but it seemed to have some ability to fly, and that's probably gonna help it try and get out. But while you're grappling it, its speed is zero.

So as long as you can maintain the grapple, you have it underwater. Whether or not it can breathe water, you don't know. This is pure Gruffy instincts, because a lot happened. Yeah, no, I love it. Yeah, sure, cool. That is Gruff's turn. Xantheus, last, not quite last actually.

Monster goes last. Sweet, so what's the space on this boat? Like how far away am I from Rowan? It's a 10 foot boat. It's a 10 foot boat. You are at least five feet, you are basically next to Rowan. Yeah, but there's also a big pillar on it

to emitting darkness. There is this weird stone jellyfish emitting a 15 foot radius of darkness. So for me, I had that place that it hits the boat and the five feet in front where Gruff was. So Daisy, you're currently not in the magical darkness, but everybody else is. And there's a 15 foot darkness up on the ceiling as well.

So the front of the boat is basically where it is. Or the front hull. It's on the front, it's on your head. It's on the ceiling as well. So the front of the boat is basically where it is. Or the front. It's on the front, it's on your head. It's on Rowan's head, boat head. On Rowan's boat, the Rowan boat head. Yeah, that's where it is, and you're like behind me. And then you saw, and just before that happened,

you saw that there were two more on the ceiling, or three more on the ceiling that Ophelia ran up to fight. Okay, well in that case, I'm just gonna, I need to remember for next week that I have the Moat of Potential. I'm not gonna use it this time because I'm gonna use a Burning Hand right in front of me onto this thing

where I know it landed before it emitted to darkness. Great. Cool, what, the DC? Is a Dexterity 15 save because of my Poison. Level one or level two? Are you gonna use that? You only get to do it once for DC. No, I'll save it, actually, yeah, you're right. 14, next save.

Level one, level two? Level three? Level, level, level, level, level one. Level one, level one. All right, great. Rowan, can you make your same throw for me as well, please? Are you next to me? He said he was next to me.

It is a five-foot boat. You are gonna be burning hands. He's either in said he was next to me. It is a five foot boat. You are gonna be burning hands. He's either in front of me or behind me. I'm not gonna cast it if I know he's right in front of me. That's insane. Yeah, he thought he was sure. Sure, okay. He was even next to me or behind me.

He attacked the creature, remember. So he's next to me. I swung my sword at the creature. That was a thing that happened in the combat. Right, but where was I rowing? How would he attack if he was behind you? Where was I rowing the boat? Well sword at the creature. That was a thing that happened in the combat. Right, but how would he attack if he was behind you? Where was I rowing the boat? Well, out the back. In the middle.

Out the back. It's a 10 foot boat. Where's the middle in a 10 foot? Five foot. I guess you were at the back. I was at the back, okay. He attacked it, so he had to be next to it. I'll move on to his space and cast it through his arm.

Okay, doesn't work that way. Okay, I don't do Burning Hands. You still can, it's just Rowan will be hit by it. No. Precious boy. I'm not gonna cast it on Rowan. Okay. Cast it through me.

Yeah, right through you. Which I guess is just on you. It's not just my, you have to remember, if somebody says I'm gonna move up to attack it, that means they're right next to it, right? I'm also managing a lot of things. Yeah, I'm more than five foot. Yeah.

God, Earth Tremor's annoying as well, because that hits everything. Also on a wooden boat, on a river. Yeah, yeah. All right, I'll do a Chaos Ball in darkness. I know it's disadvantage, but whatever. Sure. Fate.

And I won't use Fate, I'll instead use your motor potential. Is that plus eight to your attack roll? Well not plus eight, but D8. It's two attack rolls, you can add it, yeah. Hell yeah, but disadvantage. Ability check, yeah. Okay. Attack roll. Holy shit.

Holy shit. 28 to hit. Hits, even with the disadvantage. I mean, like I said, you kind of knew where it was. Using on the attack roll. Yeah. You need to make a DC 15 concept. Fail.

It does extra thunder damage. Extra thunder damage? Oh my God. Of which? Equals to the bardic inspiration dice plus four. I rolled a seven on the bardic inspiration, so plus four, 11 thunder damage. Equals to the number roll on the side.

Oh, okay, so another seven thunder damage on top. Okay. That's great. You take plus, so not plus four? No. No, you get 10 hit points equal to that plus four. What? But what, on an attack roll as well? Mm-hmm.

No, sorry, that's on saving three. Okay, you do an extra seven thunder damage. Seven thunder damage. On top of that I also do two D8 and a D6, five and two, one either ice damage or lightning damage. Ice, I guess. On damage? Yeah, I guess cold, cold, I'll pick cold.

But that is seven, another 10 on that. I didn't roll the same number, it doesn't chain. Everything has been a mess. So is it just 10 from, because you did the D6 as well? Yeah, I didn't roll very high. So 17 total. 17 total. 10 of ice, 7 of thunder.

Okey dokey. You feel it connect against this creature. There is this kind of horrid noise as it gets struck. You feel this icy blast pass you, Rowan. The thing is still just barely standing, but yeah, it is heavily injured. This is not a spell, so it doesn't have to make concentration checks on the dark.

Shit. It kind of exudes it from its body. It is heavily injured. This is not a spell, so it doesn't have to make concentration checks on the dark. Shit! It kind of exudes it from its body. It is the darkness. It is the darkness. Mm. Okay, that's... Damn it. Does the thunder do more?

I guess I can't tell. I can't see the thing. Yeah. No, I will, in that case, I will use a sorcery point just to give myself some Glyph of Aegis. And that is my turn. Okay. The final thing to act is the creature up on the ceiling

next to Ophelia, the one that has not act yet, the one with the eye and the tendrils, that had one of its tendrils chopped off by Daisy. This thing is annoyed at its companions for blinding it as well, with their magical powers. But it can sense, you know, it knew Ophelia was there, had its companions for blinding it as well with their magical darkness. But it can sense, you know, it knew Ophelia was there,

so it is still gonna try and attack you as well. Yeah. Charlie forgot that it got. You do hear like some sort of, like the sounds of hundreds of tiny little feet. Grrrr, grrrr, grrrr, grrrr, grrrr, grrrr, grrrr. As the thing is, can technically move 10 feet. So it's gonna like skitter across

and like try and come around, trying to get out of the darkness. But it's still gonna try and attack you. Amazing. It has, it has a lot of attacks. But they're all disadvantage. So first tendril, that is a natural one to miss.

Second tendril, that is a nine. Third tendril is a 11. Fourth tendril, 18. Okay, so you are grappled as this thing wraps around you. Whilst you are grappled, you are restrained. You have disadvantage on strength checks and strength saving throws, as you almost feel like a kind of leeching poison

making you feel a bit weaker as it touches you. Oh, I've already had a rough day as it is, get off! It then pulls you 25 feet closer to it, so you feel yourself like, like, running through the air, and then you feel something bite on top of you. Again, with your restraining grapple, so it has advantage, but the darkness still gives it disadvantage, so it's a straight roll. and then you feel something bite on top of you. Again, with your restraining grapple to it,

it has advantage, but the darkness still gives it disadvantage, so it's a straight roll. I will back out my phone. That would be rough without magical darkness. 15. That just hits. Just hits, all right. It's all right.

Oh, low roll so far. It's not bad. That's all halved as well. 16 points of piercing damage, halved to eight points of piercing damage. That could have been a lot worse. I rolled bad. As the Roper bites him down on top of you

and you feel yourself, you're still wrapped up, it is a action on your turn to try and escape, and that is where we're gonna leave it with Ophelia wrapped up in the magical darkness. So that's it. God damn. God damn. And like 80 foot in the sky.

Yeah, in magical darkness. There's better places you could be. Yeah. It's cozy. One of those things. But that is, excuse me, that is where we're gonna end today's episode. We'll pick this up back next week.

I will make a fun little map to make the visualization of spacing a little bit better. I might try and do some weird thing where like, I'll put the river up high so we can have like down. And then I'll try and like, try and figure it out. I might have to use like. We need a fish tank and some water. Oh yeah.

It's floating to it. I don't wanna ruin the minis. But I'll try and figure some cool way of doing it. I could use the other minis. I wrote. Use the here for mini. I just drew a little bit. I don't want to ruin those minis either.

I worked hard on those minis. But that's it, so we'll figure that out. That is it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us everybody. We'll see you next time. Take care. Bye bye. Bye bye.

Bye bye bye. Bye bye!