High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #45 | The Curse of Crownsteel (Part 2)

Episode Date: December 5, 2024

The curse of the Crownsteel is showing it's power as Xantheus and Ser Eldrak struggle to resist! The battle-map for this encounter is available for free on our Patreon! Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/116726161 High Rollers x Jingle Jam! Get a ton of awesome games by donating just £35 for charity! Check out the collection here: https://tiltify.com/@highrollersdnd/high-rollers-against-living-miserably ... and check out Calm, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, here: https://www.thecalmzone.net/ _______________ 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

Pickaxe. I am so dreading groceries this week. Why? You can skip it. Oh, what, just like that? Just like that. How about dinner with my third cousin? Skip it. Prince Fluffy's favorite treats?

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Two freshly cracked eggs any way you like them. Three strips of naturally smoked bacon and a side of toast. Only $6 at A&W's in Ontario. Experience A&W's classic breakfast on Now, dine in only until 11am. Welcome back to part two of Orphea the Dragon Empire. The battle in the heart of Daranax, the Reclaimers stronghold, the very center of the veins of Daranax, the underground rivers to which the crown-steel polluted waters have been blighting the ash hills, this is the very heart of it. You are in a battle, it is one of those tight, tight battles. You have taken out many of the lower level soldiers,

you have taken out some of the more powerful parts of this contingent, one of these priests, one of the chosen is now down, however, a lot of you are looking pretty hurt and injured. Lady Verithera is still trapped, and Sir Eldrack is gorging himself on the crown still further. With that, we start at the top of the round.

Daisy Thistleheart. Get it, get it. Sorry, podcast listeners, I got really excited. Apologies for the claps. I'm going to... We've done excited. Apologies for the claps. I'm going to... We've done a lot of math during the break. A lot of planning.

I've worked out my move. It's hard to see the movement from this angle, so I've worked out my movement. So I'm going to hop this wall and travel west towards the dome where Lady Vethere is. So I will use my movement. So you get to the edge of the ruins on the eastern side of the map with your normal movement.

And then I will bonus action, dash, and I would like to sleight of hand the rod from Lady Prophet's. From the prophetess Amelon. Yeah, so. Ace Amelon, so. Yeah, yeah, no, that checked. I will make this,

she doesn't know you're there because she would take a hidden action. I will put this, she doesn't know you're there because you had taken a hidden action. I will put this against her passive perception. She does have a pretty good passive perception. She might hear you running up behind her. There is a battle. Sorry. So give me a stealth, sorry, a sleight of hand.

I will give you advantage because she is distracted by the battle. Okay. So you have advantage on this roll. Should I use? Sleight of hand. I can check if the monster actually can. And. So you have advantage on this roll, slight of hand. I can check my character actually. And also if you've got any radiant points left, remember if you're proficient in this,

if you fail you can add it. True. So you could spend a fate if you want to. I'll decide after I've done my. Yeah, you can absolutely do that. Oh my god, I rolled absolute garbage. That's the highest one you got. A five. Okay, or remember if you fail you can add that side point. Oh my god. You could absolute garbage. That's the highest one you got. A five.

Okay, or remember if you fail, you can add that side point. Oh my god. You could also add a fate point now, and still add a radiant point. So what do you have? Hang on, no, no, no, so I have a plus 10 to slight of hand. Okay. So 15 is my base.

Okay. I will. That would normally fail. She's gonna detect you, so you can add your, you wanna add fate before you do your radiant point? Oh, I can add my radiant, actually, yeah. I'll add my radiant point. You can do it any order you want.

Which is a D8. Yeah, yeah, yeah, if you got a D8, it's better than a D6. Two, so that's 17. 17. Do you wanna add a fate? Do it. Yeah. I think there it is. Okay.

Spend a fate point. Four on top of that. 21. 21 is enough. Our passive perception is 17, so if you hadn't added the fate point, it would have been a draw, and I would have had you get it,

but she probably would have like, grahammed it last minute, and I'd probably say that you were like, locked on it together or something like that. But with this, Daisy, you rush up, I'm not gonna make you Naruto run, but in my head, that's what you're doing. As you leap the fence, you run up. I'm not gonna make you Naruto run, but in my head that's what you're doing. As you leap the fence, you run up, you pin yourself in,

you dash in, manage to slip a hand through her guard, grab the wand and pull it free. She hasn't even noticed you yet. You can see the other riders just ahead on the ground by the fallen body of Neris. Behind you, Ophelia is conscious, but on the ground. That's pretty much everything at this point. I will hold the rod behind me,

but like against the thing, in case she turns around and sees, because I do have some movement left, and she hasn't spotted me. That's true, you do have five, 10, 15, you have 15 feet of movement left. I'll move around the dome. Yeah, five, 10, 15, you have 15 feet of movement left. I'll move around the dome. Yeah, five, 10, 15, you can get to this side.

And I will stand there. Okay. And prepare the rod. Yeah, you're basically touching the rods of the thing. But I'm basically gonna, as I walk around that way, show Ophelia, point to the rod on the ground near the thing, and then I'll make my way and I will prepare. Yeah, absolutely.

Verithera sees you and she's like, excellent work, yes, we just need the other one. As soon as I'm free, I will help. And like, stay safe little one, and like you kind of like, put it, and when you touch this like golden slender rod to the surface, you see that the globe itself, the dome of force begins to ripple

with these red and gold sigils kind of spread all over it, the dome of force begins to ripple with these red and gold sigils kind of spread all over it. Almost like a debugging language, but it's all arcane sigils as it's kind of rippling over it. But it needs the other part of the key to fully unlock it. Okay. Excellent stuff, Daisy, great turn. Look at me, I'm not here.

Ruff, then it's Ophelia. Hello. Hello. I am going to... You've got a lot of dudes headed your way. I've got a lot of dudes headed my way and my HP isn't great at the moment. So I'm going to take this turn to cast Cure Wounds at second level on myself. Nice. So 2d8 plus 4 is a 6 and a 4.

10. Plus 4, 14 healing. And then you get your 10 HP because you cast a healing spell. And then... Sorry, I just had a vision of that guard just turning around and seeing me and being like, oh, she does exist! Well, you are not hidden anymore, right? So like...

If he turns around, I'm just gonna go... Yeah, boom! Yeah! Just to cheer him up. Frightened. So again, 14 HP plus your 10th HP. So a bit healthier now, but that's your action. Bonus action or move?

Bonus action, I will, I'm not gonna move because... Do you wanna like rotate around him or do you wanna keep the range out of the archer? I'm gonna keep out of the archer because I don't need a third guy coming up on me. That's true. So I would like to, I'm just gonna daunting roll. It's all I have left as a bonus action,

but I might as well try it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yep, absolutely. And this is, the captain is the only one in range. Wisdom, DC 14. Wisdom, okay, that's one for this guy. That's a one, two, he is frightened of you. Nice.

Disadvantages. I kind of like, I like the idea in my head that like, yeah, like Gruff does it simultaneously, so as the captain steps up, Gruff kind of crawls in his face, like ready to have a fight, and this magic just like flows over him. Resuscitates him, the wounds close up,

the armor of Oak and Thorn grows stronger as it revitalizes you. This guard is almost taken back for a second. And I just take a very aggressive stance. Yeah, and you see as you do, this captain starts muttering, he's just like, no, the prophecy will protect me, the prophecy will lead us,

the golden emperor of the vessel will become, he's muttering prayers to himself as you do that, trying to bolster himself, basically. All right, Gruff, that's your turn. That's me. Ophelia. Yeah, Ophelia will stand up. Stand up.

Heeding Daisy's instructions, we'll move as far as you can towards the rod. Five, 10 barrels. You've got spider climbs, so it's fine. You can just literally do these. I forgot about that. So then you could dash, if you use your action to dash. You will get an attack of opportunity here though,

from Amalem. Yeah, that's fine. So you move in. I'll do the attack of opportunity. No, it's not fine. It's fine, I'll do it. Go. Oh my god.

Two. Yes! I live! I like this, cause it's her hair whipping you, right? Like as she does, you just flick veracity and it cuts the hair mid-air before it strikes you. And it like blunts the edges of it as you're like, and then you scoop down, you grab the rod,

you have 10 feet of movement, which would literally bring you in contact with the dome. Yes! Oh, nice. When you do that, because that's your full turn, that move, action, unless you've got another bone section you wanna take, you rush up, you touch the rod to it.

You see Amaline is like, fool, you need the other, and then like glances at her belt, realizing it's not there, looks around. Yeah, she sees Daisy, the gods like, she is real! As you touch it, sort of a second wave of these sigils like overlap and they meet in the middle and you watch as this dome splits in half. Nice.

Lady Verifera's ready action will go off that she's been taking as the dome evaporates and you see her just kind of like, she's like, you are, she like looks, you reclaim us, you are sick, I don't want to hurt you, but I cannot let this continue as she like begins to hunch as she transforms into a dragon. Yes!

See you, dragon! I've been staring at this mini the entire session. I did, I did, it was right there! It was facing me the whole time. I was just so scared. As you watch, this kind of eight foot, nine foot tall, slightly full of figure, antlered, like sort of elven looking-ish kind of woman

transforms into this still small for a dragon. Like she is nowhere near the size of Obsidius or Embarissa, still quite a young dragon, but rippling muscles, her wings flare into the air. Her horns are still those antler-like horns, and there are all these druidic charms hanging from the antlers. She has these gorgeous dark green swathes of cloth draped around her shoulders.

She has bracelets of wooden vines and twigs and things like that wrapped around her claws and her front claws and rear claws. As she takes a moment, her ready to action is to transform. She can't take her turn yet, but she is next in the initiative order. Oh! Yeah! So you watch as for her turn,

she's gonna do two things. I do have to spend a point of fate to do one of these. The first thing she's going to do is she is going to use her Call of the World roots to entangle all of the reclaimers. Holy shit. Holy shit, okay. You watch, and she will say,

please, no more violence, as she calls these roots, and they like lift some of these reclaimers up into the air. She tries to do this to Ser Eldrach with one cleave of the halberd, he just cuts the roots down. But all of the reclaimers now, except maybe Chosen Amaline,

she would be powerful enough to resist this. So I'm gonna keep her in initiative order. You guys can attack them, but Lady Verithera is basically lifting them up like 10 feet into the air on like roots and vines and like holding their bodies. They are completely paralyzed by her, right? As they're like trapped and you hear them, even the captain in front of you, Gruff,

he's like lifted up totally restrained. The second thing she's gonna do on her turn is she is going to use, what did I call this ability? Life-giving breath, and this is the one I have to spend Fate Point on, as she breathes. Not poison or anything else, because these are Arthane dragons, they're not typical green dragons.

Instead, what emerges from her mouth is a miasma of scintillating multicolored lights, green motes of that primal energy row in that you've seen Penelope conjuring, as this fills the entire battlefield and restores six d6 hit points to every hit. Oh my god! Holy shit. I should have attacked.

Teamwork. Hell yeah. Hell yeah, hell yeah, hell yeah. It was the exact right, like Ophelia was. 24 hit points to all of you guys. Oh wow. If you were five more feet away, Ophelia would not have been able to do that.

Ophelia would not have been able to do that, yeah. Yeah. So for the purposes, everybody except chosen Amalyn, who is right here, all of the normal Reclaimers are basically out of the fight. You guys can choose to attack them, Till. Right? That is totally up to you.

They are helpless, they are paralyzed. Doesn't feel very nightly. Exactly. I'm a little bit of a verisera. In fact, and I would also say, those ones that she has restrained, her life-giving breath will heal as well. Oh.

Right, she is very much against violence in this case, but she turns and she sees Ser Eldraac, who's going next, and she will simply call out, and her voice is now more draconic, more, you know, bassy and sort of deep and lower, but you hear also in your mind that softer, sweeter voice, heroes, I cannot stop him. You must find a way to stop him.

I think that he is too far gone. He is too strong for me to hold. I will hold the others, but this Chosen and Ser Eldrake, you must learn, you must manage to deal with them. I will hold the others at bay and do what I can to protect you. As this all rips up and then she flexes her wings up in the air and she will hover in the air somewhere.

I'll put her up in the air. Cause she can. Cause she can cause she's a big dragon. Big dragon. Yeah. Yeah. Nice. Brad.

She's gonna move back to Decian Fence actually. Hell yeah. Don't play with me I got a dragon right here. Yeah. And yeah and that is gonna to be half-full turn. Does Penelope go next? Oh sorry, yes of course Penelope would have gone, my apologies. I wanted to do the cool dragon thing first.

That's right, I would just have Penelope move towards Lady Veraferra. Yeah sure. Where is she? She's in the attack, I can't see her. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 is her movement. Do you want her to do anything with her action or do you would like her to dash? Can she dash please?

Yeah, absolutely. She will tuck herself in here, trying to get a little bit of cover and protection. Yeah, be close to her lady. Yeah, she's like, oh my lady, and she's like running over to her, like, oh, like kind of rushing towards her. Still taking cover.

Vera Thera would probably be like, Penelope, get yourself somewhere safe and get out of harm's way. Leave this to the other, to these heroes. But yes, thank you for that. So Eldrake, I am going to, he would normally have to make another wisdom saving throw to see if he continues his ravenous consumption.

I'm gonna have him spend one of his legendary resistances to resist the saving throw. Okay. Yes, it does cost me a fate to use this though. Oh, at the start of his turn though, before I do that, let me just do this. You currently have four stacks of fate in your pool. He steals them. Sovereigns. Fate will trigger, let me just do this. You currently have four stacks of fate in your pool. He steals them.

Sovereigns fate will trigger, which means I steal two. And also he gains another stack of auric empowerment. I will then immediately spend one to use his legendary resistance. So we start with spirit again. So now we have three. It's three and three. But it means that he is now free to act on his will.

And Xanthias, he looks up at you. Cousin, what are you doing? I think in all of this, when Ser, what was his name? Seris? No, the other one, the guy that you killed all the day. Neris. Neris. When he was floating up towards me

and I was laughing at him, that laughter has just continued. It's not like an evil laugh or anything like that. It's like a maddening Walter White in a basement, kind of just. Worse. Yeah, well. That's worse. Yeah, it's worse.

But it is just, I'm finding everything just hilarious. Like these guys just being levitated, they've lost the fight. I'm laughing at how pathetic they are. Like Eldrak eating this crown steal, I'm finding that hilarious. He's just. You are laughing like Eldrak eating this crown steel. I'm finding that hilarious. He's just... You are laughing at Eldrak.

Oh. That's obvious. You kinda, yeah, it's just... What are you laughing for, fool? I am Sir Eldrak of Northvale. You should show me respect. All of you should show me respect! And he will, he will use his crown steel blast,

he waves the halberd in the air, creating three motes of light, red, gold, black, and he is gonna shoot them. He is gonna shoot the black one at Xanthias. He is gonna shoot one at this guard who is currently restrained. He's gonna shoot one at this guard who's restrained. No, Ophelia!

Yeah! Yeah, I'm gonna shoot at Ophelia, because I'm mean. So he's ranged attack. This guard, dead. Oh! He's paralyzed, I'm just gonna kill him. He's incinerated by fire.

The radiant beam is gonna go towards Ophelia, and the Crotic are going towards Xanthias. Is this ranged against me? This is a DC 14 dexterity saving throw. Do I see this coming? You do. Cool. You have advantage.

14. Oh, sorry, the DC would now be 16. Well, shit. Okay. Because of its horic empowerment. 18. 18, you succeed, so you dodge this entirely, but Xanthias.

14. Taking the full damage. Nine points of necrotic damage. Yeah? Concentration, say it in three, please. Oh, a concentration on my fly? Sure. A 12.

You're fine. I'm fine. As he like, these three beams, bam, bam, bam. As he slams in, he begins looking around. He's like, you're here to stop me. No, this will give me the power to protect, to protect everything, to protect everyone.

I need it. I need it to bring justice to this land. As he is off the deep end at this point. He is looking at you. He now sees everybody as a threat. Shit. That is his turn for now. This archer is paralyzed.

The Chosen, Amelie is not currently paralyzed. She is strong enough to resist Verithera's entanglement. So she will. This looks pretty bad. She just looks towards the dragon and towards Ser El Drak. He's like, no, this is not how it's supposed to be. This is not what the prophecy foretold. You are the vessels.

You are meant to inherit his will. This is not what it's meant to be. And this is not what we were promised. And she's just like losing her mind at this point. She will, Xanthius and Eldrake, you are false vessels. And she calls up and she's gonna rain fire. I know you're resistant to it,

but that's what she's gonna do. That is a DC 14 deck saving throw. Eldrake will also. I throw. Eldraq will also take it. I fail. Eldraq succeeds. So he's also resistant to fire. So he's gonna take a quarter of the damage. That is 13, so half to six.

Eldraq takes three. Another con check too. And another con check. Thank you very much. 19, still flying. Still flying. He's still floating around. He's so fine.

He's got a really high con. Like, it's Enthius' con is exactly the same. I rolled a 19, still flying? Still flying. He's still floating around. He's so fine. He's got a really high con. Like, it's Enthius' con is actually the same. I rolled a 19, I actually got 26. Yeah. So. Yeah, he's great. Is the AOE from the Prophetess' green spell still AOE-ing? It's not an AOE.

Oh. That's a good reminder, thank you very much. Whilst you are in this area of this runic sigil, you are vulnerable to fire, which means no resistance. Oh, so he would have taken... Double damage. Vulnerable is double damage.

I would say it will strip your resistance. Okay, so I take... You take 13, and he would take six. Seven. Yeah, so, and I will also add some previous damage because he took for a fire damage previously as well. Sorry. No, no, no, well remembered remembered because I forgot I put that down.

We haven't actually seen what that does yet. Yeah, so now that we know if you are in that area, this is called Auric Circle, you are vulnerable to fire when you are in that area. Okay. So she basically strips your resistance as the fire is intensified whilst you're within it. She basically strips your resistance as the fire is intensified whilst you're within it

At the end of so that was her action to do that bonus action she's gonna hair whip against Ophelia Seven to hit Captain restrained Xanthias. Hi there. Would you like to spend some fate? Yes, I would. Thank you very much. Let's see, wisdom so far. Minus one. Let's just see... No, zero, because you've got you drank the water.

Doesn't matter. Because I rolled so high. Pass that to Thomas, please. Another piece of paper goes to Tom. He has four. This is at the start of your turn, remember? He's making a face. I can't read him at all.

Nor can I read the paper, by the way. The jaw has tightened. There is some tightening in the jaw. I feel like this is not good, Tom. He's tutting. So, quite a lot of these... Are bad. Aren't great.

But you said they were all good, Tom. You lied to me. I think I might have been lying. Oh. Like, I, he hits me with this beam and this listless flying around, like the recoil of it, I'm just almost twisting in the air, like upside down, still in this spot,

but just cackling this laughter, looking at people being levitated, the entire field being healed, the fight's clearly going in our favor. I don't give a shit. This Eldrak guy is throwing insults at me, but they're bouncing off me, because what I have is better than what he has.

Anything in this pile is weaker than what I've got. He could- There's a moment when you think that you're like, yeah, all of this is weaker than I am. But then there's this voice, and you remember a figure sat by a pool, wrapped up in some disheveled cloak, golden skin. More. Wrapped up in some dishevelled cloak, golden skin.

More. You want more. You can be so much more. You think about what your father did, the times when you've been vulnerable, when you've needed others. If you had more, you wouldn't need them anymore. Now it says I have to use an action. So I have little choice, but to use that action, I want more. And I'm I want more.

And I'm gonna grab more. No! You reach down as you're floating in midair, and an elegant chunk, not too dissimilar to the one in your chest, finds its way into your hand. You pull it in, and yeah, this is, the fights go in your way, but like, just, this makes you so strong. What could you be?

Like this Eldrake, he doesn't know how to use this power, like he's a plaything of it, but you, you're better than that, Xanthas, you know how to use this better than anyone. I think there's also a visage as well. I know there's not really much of a physical change, but the golden dragon, well, the dragon elements of Xantheus is like almost flaring up just a little bit more.

Like an afterimage of it or something like that. Yeah, like. The glow of magic shows the horns being more pronounced. Yeah, the scales in his arms seem to coat his entire arms now. Like he is almost becoming more dragon-like and... therefore making it hard for him to, I guess, like, fail this thing. Or resist it. You now know, and you keep this knowledge,

regardless of what happens next, because of your level of Crown Steel, let's call it adaptation, you are able to consume Crown Steel. Now Crown Steel, when it's held close to you, will slowly begin to mutate and corrupt somebody. But its effects are muted. The Crown Steel itself might have property

like the piece in your chest does. It enhances your certain types of magic. Consuming it is of a greater effect in terms of pushing that power through your bloodstream and your body. It is faster at accelerating Crownsteel. Oh, good. But it also has another benefit

in that it gives you a temporary boost as well. You consume, I want you to keep a note of this because you also drank the water a few times. So this piece of Crown Steel you pick up is worth 400 gold. And you have drunk about four golds worth of the water. And that's how much crown seal you have consumed. Not even including, I guess I haven't consumed the one. You haven't consumed the one in your chest.

That is like radiation from a thing you're too close to, right? This is like ingesting it. Two things happen. One, you are immune to being frightened for the rest of this encounter. Just if it came up, you are immune to being frightened for the rest of this encounter. Just if it came up, you're immune to being frightened. You are so overwhelmed, you just cannot be frightened.

You are too sure of yourself. Sure, yeah. You have advantage on any magical spell attacks, and creatures have disadvantage against your magical saving throws. This is a one time per fight benefit. Right, right, right, right, right, right. We'll see how this affects your Crownsteel in future turns.

Okay, group chat cancels. Yeah, you all see this. Group chat cancels, new group chat starts with Gruff. Is that an action on your turn, you can do it. Pretend, I'll look. Just check it. You can cancel it, I think, as a free action, but you might have to wait till your turn. As soon as Xanthius is touching crime steal,

I'm canceling the group chat. I think that laughter, that maniacal laughter, is almost echoing through into this psychic sort of cognitive chat as well. So everyone is just hearing that, like, it's obvious what's happening here, like, I'm not even covering it up. I think as soon as Gruff sees, like,

so he was so busy engaged with the captain, but with the captain being restrained, he turns and sees Xanthius put this crown steel to his mouth and Gruff screams, Xanthius, no! And it's like, this is metal, but Xanthius' teeth are like biting through it, crushing it, turning it into powder that he's swallowing in huge chunks,

and then eventually it's all gone, and you see Xanthius' eyes, the veins on the corrupted arm, that afterimage of the horns, all of it flares with gold, red, black. And god, Zabtis, you've never felt this strong. This is, there's almost a sense here of like, yeah, how could anybody mess with you again?

Like, this is, it's exhilarating how strong you feel. That's your action. That's your action. That's my action. Movement-wise, I don't have much of an option there either. No. Bonus action. I don't have a huge amount. I think instead, all I'll do is tear away

the upper half of my cloak and the bandages too with it. And the shard will just be prominent and pulsing. It's pulsing like a high, it's like thwom, thwom, thwom. Oh my god. Throbbing. Cool. So we're gonna kill Zanthias now? That's one interpretation. With that done, I feel pretty good right now. Yeah, yeah you do.

I'm feeling good. And next turn. And like you, like everything I said here, like you are still the master of your own mind, like you are not mind controlled or anything like that, like you feel great. Yeah? Yeah.

Cool. Rowan, do, oh sorry. Just a real quick question. Are allies still allies to me? Good, good, good, good, sorry, just a real quick question. Are allies still allies to me? Good, good, good, good, good, good. Of course they're your friends. Yeah. But they obviously need your help.

Well yeah, and that one just tried to shoot me. Not Eldrake, Eldrake's cool. I like this guy, he's a god dragon. He's a red dragon, he's a red dragonborn. Also he did attack you and that. He did attack me. You need to at least retaliate. Yeah, I'll retaliate at some point. Yeah. There's a sorcer dragon. He's a red dragon, he's a red dragonborn. Also, he did attack you in that. He did attack me. You need to at least retaliate. Yeah, I'll retaliate at some point.

There's a sorcerer out there. Oh yeah, she needs to die. She's gotta go. She's gotta go. She's gotta go. Rowan! Okay, so I think it's Gruff's Shalve that causes Rowan to look from the archer being entangled, Yeah, wall.

to focusing on what's going on behind him or to his right. Seeing Xanthius in this state, he's gonna run dash, so action dash, as close to him as possible, maybe running on this short wall. Yeah, I'd say, yeah, you could like 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. And then I'm gonna dash. Yeah, I'd say you can hop down. What would Rowan do?

I'm gonna stay there. Okay. Stood on this wall, this short wall, looking out on the field. You've just seen Xanthius do this. Eldrake is looking furious. How far away am I from Xanthius? You are. It's five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 feet.

Marvelous. Xanthius, what are you doing? We told you not to do it. I'm gonna give him bardic inspiration. Oh. And in front of him, on the crown steel pile, I'm gonna create a silent image, and it's a diorama of all of us slaughtered.

More? Oh shit. Okay, I love that. What is the scene? So it's all of you guys, but is this like where you are now? Like you create like the landscape of this battle or is this somewhere else?

It's a testing foot cube. Yeah, it's huge. So within that, a pile of us dead. Is it literally you like getting, because it's a moving image or is it? No, it's a us dead. Is it literally you, like, getting... Because it's a moving image, or is it...? No, it's a silent image. It can be moving, if you want it to be. Yeah, well, it's an image of you essentially standing

on top of our corpses in your current form. Oh, shit, okay. I love that. But a body conspiration, so I can add a D8 to Attack Rolls, ability checks, and stuff. Yeah, and it's a... Attack Rolls. I've got the... Attack Rolls....mode of potential as well. Yes, yeah attack rolls, ability checks. Yeah, and it's a... Attack rolls.

I've got the... Attack rolls. Motive potential as well. Yes, yeah. You can do it. Yeah. Amazing, love that. That's my...

That's your full turn? I love that, big fan. At the end of your go, Roman. So Eldrak is gonna take a villain action. Oh. A what? So these are like legendary actions, but they don't repeat. So once I've used one, I can't use it again.

I can only do one per turn. They're a little bit more powerful than legendary actions, but I only get three of them the whole fight, basically. And you know how I described he had like an FF14 Dragoon helm, and he's got a halberd? Oh, he leaps up into the air. Yes, yes, yes. Oh no. Dragoon jumps, Eldrake le up into the air. Yes, yes, yes. Oh no.

Dragoon jumps, so Eldrake leaps into the air, moves 60 feet without provoking opportunity attacks, and then lands. Creatures within 10 feet of his landing must make a DC 14 dexterity saving throw. Oh no. Bam! Oh no.

Shit. Ophelia, Amalyn, and I think I'm gonna catch Daisy in the 10 feet as well. That's true. Verithera, technically, but she's a dragon, she's got a lot of hit points. I was worried that. This guard is dead.

He slightly just annihilated. I was really worried Verithera was his target for this. No, he is landing into the biggest group of enemies he can see. Heaven's Ward? Do I get advantage? I love it. You do, it's a deck saving throw.

Yes, absolutely. The DC for this is going to be 16 because he has a couple of stacks that boost his DCs. 21. 21, you succeed. Deep Dexie girl. Yeah. Unnatural 20. Nice. Fails.

So, unnatural 20, you succeed. So you're going to take half damage and you are not pushed back, either of you. Amalyn takes the full amount. It's not a lot of damage, but it's a very good move that gets him around the battlefield a bit more. So that is eight. 11, so it'd be 11.

Bludgeoning damage halved to five for Daisy and Ophelia. Amalyn takes the full 11. It's halved again for Ophelia, isn't it? I'm not raging anymore. Oh, you're not raging anymore. I got knocked down. Oh, of course. Amalyn is looking very hurt. Amalyn's also pushed back 10 feet and knocked prone.

Damn. Not the barrel. Barrel guy's barrel. Barrel guy's gonna be... Barrel guy's dead. So that's at the end of Rowan's turn, he does that. He leaps up in the air and then comes slamming down. He slams the Talbot on the ground,

stone cracks and breaks, dust cloud and annihilates everywhere from him. That is his villain action for this turn. That was at the end of Rowan's turn. The normal soldiers, they're all paralyzed, we don't need to worry about them anymore. Daisy. Oh shit, oh sorry, I did not realize

we were at the end of the turn. We've lost a lot of guys, a lot of things have happened, so it's Daisy, Gruff, Ophelia. What are they capped into on his turn? They're all restrained, right? Oh, he's included in that. Yeah, only one that wasn't was the Chosen Amelon. Cool, cool, cool.

Can I set up a group chat with Ophelia, Ruin, and Gruff, please? Is that an action or bone section? Action. Action, okay, great. I mean, it's gonna last, yeah, three hours, yeah, fine. Um, how do we stop him without killing him? I don't know what to do. Did you include Varithera in that? No.

Okay. I can only do three, and because Xanthias is being, I wanna talk to, obviously, a group of friends, and be like, what do we do? I just wanted to check. I could drain him if I can get up to him or bring him down. No, he's still our friend.

We can appeal to him. I don't know if it's gonna work, Rowan. There's a lot of crown steel there. Look at the crown steel. And I show the silent image. Oh god, that's horrifying. Why have you done that? I'm showing him what he could do.

I'm using a biscuit! I'm kind of hungry too. Oh, okay. Does that start from inside the loot? Because I think they're really moldy now, Rowan. That tastes a bit weird. Make a concept. It's like, it's a cast ring.

Oh, he's shooting again. Right, so that's your action, Daisy. Anything else in your turn? Burnt section, move. I think for now, so that not everyone's grouped up, I'm gonna move away. Am I within his reach if I move? Do I have to disengage from him?

He does have reach. That halberd gives him 10 feet of reach. So I'm gonna disengage. Yep, bonus action disengage. Move to near my favorite little pillar again. Your favorite column. Over up towards the north. You want to do it?

Oh, no! That's why I saved it. Dragon. Just to space out the battlefield a bit, because I don't want to take any actions that are like, because the thing is, Ser Eldraak, she doesn't want to hurt him, because she's been charged with coming to get him

and save him, and she doesn't want to hurt Xanthias, so she's just like, ah! Yeah, absolutely. So that is gonna be my turn, but for you guys, you've got mental note now. You can speak to me without speaking out loud to tell them your plans. Groghfus.

How high up are you flying? I was 15 feet. I imagine that I have to move down to pick up the steel. So the pile is about like 10, like five, 10 feet up, yeah. So you would have moved down like 10 feet and then you would have had loads of feet to go back up. You can be 50 feet up in the air if you wish. I feel like in the unveiling of...

Everything. My crown steel, I think I would almost slowly be sort of rising up, like surveying the horizon. I'd say I'm about, yeah, 20 feet up. Not full, I'm not like a million feet in the air. Yeah. All right, 20 feet up. Can you move me 35 feet towards Santheus?

I absolutely can do. Five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35. Crab's still on, yeah. Gets you to the edge of the pool. Finally, another one. Rough. So he is now within 15 feet, I would say. Well, 20 feet, 20 feet, because he's diagonal.

Yeah, so he's up in the air. He's 20 feet away. Xanthius. Xanthius, son, come on down, please. Let me ask him a question before he says anything. Sure, absolutely. So you're spending your action, you basically are trying to convince him to like,

is that what you want to do? You're going to spend your actions to try and convince Xanthius to like, come down. I do have an idea if he doesn't, but I feel like spending an action would be stronger. Absolutely will be, yeah. It will have a direct effect and it will be result in a mechanic.

I'll do that without shenanigans then. Xanthius, as a reaction, I would just like you to make a Wisdom saving throw. He's so good at those. With advantage because of Rowan's silent image, and of course you do have two points of fate and a Bardic Inspiration die. Bardic Inspiration as well.

I guess the question is, does Xanthius want to save? I would say he has to make the same throw because it's counteracting a thing that he is not in control of. Gotcha. I think... I'll still need to make saves on my turn, right? I think you guys should be at three.

I don't know why I moved to fate. Do I still need to make a save at the start of my turn? Maybe. Because I think I'm going to save my Biotic Inspiration. Okay. In that case. I will say that if you succeed this saving throw now, it will have the same effect as if you save the one at the start of your turn.

Okay. In that case, yes. In that case, I will... It's basically you get to make this save an extra time. I think Rowan also calling out to me, and with the silent image, I'll also throw the d8 into this. Okay, would you like to spend fate? Yeah, yeah I do, I do. So a d8, a d6, and advantage on a d20, minus one, minus zero because of my glove.

It's because I spent one on Sorrel Drag's villain. Oh, okay. So advantage, D8, D6. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. And also this is a degrees of success roll, so the higher you do, the better it's gonna be the effect. 26.

10 points above the DC. You may hand me back two of the failures. Oh! Oh! Because you've got this a degree higher. Is it a choice? No, it's the top two levels of it, basically. So you hand me back the two worst ones. Four and three.

Four and three. I mean, at this point, we can reveal them if you want to, I don't want to. I did actually have a save in here. Yes. Of the four cards I had, I don't want it. I did actually have a save in here. Yes, I did. Of the four cards I had, I had three failures. So giving away those two, those two with the rough ones.

Yeah. Okay, okay, cool, cool. And you feel more like, what am I, like there's this kind of realization of like, yeah, what the fuck am I doing? Like, why, like, I shouldn't have done that. Like, there's that, up to you, of course, but like, if you want to, you can have that like,

oh, like you got lost in it, but it's up to you. It's your choice. I thought I was trying to help you. South, here's police. Come down here, please. I think I would slowly almost, On your turn. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But you can see that your words have had an effect. What's that, what's on your D8? My D8 was a four. Eight temporary hit points. Oh! So a little mote that was floating around your head goes into your chest. Cooling. Yeah.

Music begins to maybe play and you feel invigorated. Yeah, I think that there was like an emanation of red and gold and black from the Micronsteel and the rest of me, yeah, I think the Moat would counteract. Nullify it as much as it can. Yeah, that would be Gruff's action, but yeah, you can definitely see this

has had an effect on Xanthias. I'm just gonna hold out a pour to him. Okay, great, I love that. Very nice. Ophelia. Sir Eldrach stands before you. Chosen Amaline is on the ground, about 10, 15 feet away, but Sir Eldrach does not look like he is here to fight. Yeah.

Sir Eldrach, our fight is not with you, but with the people who have captured you. We have come to take you home, as my friend Gruff has said. Give me a persuasion check, just straight up, a high DC. High DC persuasion check. This won't be a one and done, this will be a chip away. 12. 12, he just looks.

You, what even are you? You are not of my realm. You are some invader, some foreigner. No, I won't listen to you, you're one of them. And he's like, then hit me. Gladly, begins to make the motion to swing towards you. Yeah, anything else on your turn, Ophelia? I just say that can be a little free action,

a bit of role play, a little, because it was just taunting him basically. It's not as cool an effect as the Xanthius thing. Yeah, Ophelia will just rage at him, just... Ah! Pfft! So you get the blood, da-dum, da-dum. So bonus action to rage.

Yep. You still have an action to move if you want. No, she's just gonna stand there. Okay. Yeah, against her. Well, if you're gonna do that, do you wanna take an action and move if you want. No, she's just going to stand there. Okay. Yeah, against her. Well, if you're going to do that, do you want to take an action like the dodge action? Yeah.

Yeah, to get disadvantage on any attacks against you. So as you're preparing for him to hit you, you're kind of aware of the strike. Yep. You might as well if you got an action spare. Yeah, nice one. Never hurts to hit the old dodge action. Yep.

Great. Lady Verithera's turn. She will, she can actually speak telepathically with all of you now. she's not the thing. So she doesn't need the telepy thing. I forgot Penelope's turn. Penelope's turn. Good shout, thank you.

What should Penelope do? Can Penelope, can she cast Sanctuary on Sir Eldrake? She could run in and try. As like a piece, like, ah, like, come down! Sanctuary do again, I can't remember. It's like a ward spell, basically. 25, she has just enough movement.

So what Sanctuary does is anybody who wants to attack them has to make a saving throw, and if they fail the saving throw, they can't attack that target. And it also is like an area of calm and things like that around them as well. That is the effect of the spell. Yeah. Yeah.

That's great. Bonus action. If you do an action. Can't use a spell if it's an action though. Yeah, I think that it might actually be a full action. Oh no, it's a bonus action, sanctuary. It's a bonus, you're right, it's a bonus action. Draw a craft and...

I don't know what else to get her to do. She might be healed. At this point, it doesn't protect from air effect stuff, so if it's an air effect spell, they don't have to worry about zone throws and stuff, so indirect attack. So she could just dash away again to get safe. Yeah, yeah I'll do that. I'll move her backwards then to get safe from Eldrake.

Okay. Which I just have to disengage to do that. She doesn't have to disengage but it might be an attack of opportunity. Maybe then I'll have her skirt around Eldrake towards Lady Ferefere, just around his back. Just cause she's really teeny. She's tiny, tiny. She could dodge as well. Like she reaches up and you just hear like,

please Mr. Eldrake, it's me, Penelope, we met before, please, don't hurt anybody, we're there trying to help you. And she's raising her hands up and you see this shimmering field of the little green butterflies surround him. And Eldrax, he thinks at first it's an attacking spell, he's not sure what's going on, and he's looking around, what have you done to me?

What have you done to me? He's gutturally snarling around. Cool. Very cool. Love that. But he does now have Sanctuary on him. Interesting thing, I'm just curious about how you ward a creature within range until the spell ends.

Any creature who targets the warded creature with an attack roll damaging spell. So it's not about choice here, of anybody's choice. Anybody who attacks a Eldrack will have to make that saving throw against Penelope's DC. Yep. Lady Verithera will call out to all of your minds, except Xanthias', and she will say to all of you

and to Penelope, I did not realize your friend, he has been corrupted by the Crownsteel as well. I have magic that can help alleviate some of it, but it requires time for me to cast. If we can subdue Ser Eldrach, or perhaps your friend if he needs it, I can help them with restoring some of their purity. But they must be brought down. I will do what I can.

I will also see if she recharges her life-giving breath. So this is a D6 roll first to see if it recharges, five or a six. It does not. So can't do anything with that yet. Instead, she will cast, using an action, she will attempt to,

she will attempt to use Touch of Slumber, which is a special thing that green dragons in Althea can do, which is she chooses a creature within 60 feet, they have to make a wisdom saving throw or they fall asleep. Because green dragons are also tied to the realm of dreams and life giving. So she kind of reaches out a claw and you see this miasma of magic and she's gonna target Sir Eldrack.

I'm gonna make a saving throw, I fail it. Okay. Then a legendary resistance. Oh, okay. Burns, one of his mother, he's only got one legendary resistance left now. So he's like, no, get out of my head cousin. No, we, why are you trying to stop me?

I'm trying to protect my lands. These people are against us. So he's like resisting her control basically. Please, please Noble Knight, rest. Be at peace. I cannot be at peace. She sent me here with a task. I need to complete it.

Um... With that, it is Soreldrax go. Penelope and Ophelia... You are next to him. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. And you did say... Hit me. Hit me. With his corrupted claw he's gonna just try and backhand Penelope. Oh no! Wow. Because he thinks that she's done something to him.

No magic he thinks that she's cast some sort of spell on him. Yeah. Ophelia he brings that flaming halberd down on you. Let's go. And you do have a stack of Auric thingies still. Mm-hmm. Against Ophelia, a 19 to hit. That'll hit. Okay. Remember you used it dodge. I like to use dodge.

Oh, yes. Disadvantage. No. It's the lowest one I rolled. Darn. I'll do the slashing damage first. Ten points of slashing damage, half to five. Nice.

Six fire damage becomes eight fire damage. Okay. So, 13 total. Not bad, not bad. Penelope. No. 17 to hit. That will hit.

Yep. Yep. She does not have a good AC. That is 15 points of damage to her. And then can you just roll a strength saving, dexterity saving throw for her please. So just plus her dex. 21. 21.

She dodged so he hits her badly, nearly knocking her back, but she manages to kind of tumble and stops herself being knocked prone. What was that damage again, sorry? To you. To Penelope. Oh, to Penelope, that was...

15, you said it. 15. 15. Thank you, my brain died. Is sanctuary concentration? It is concentration, so yeah, can you make a... I believe it is, isn't it? It doesn't look like it is.

It is not. Okay. It is just, as long as it lasts. So that's still up. That is up. That is all of that. That is Eldrex go. Okey doke.

That's not triggered, that's not triggered. Yep, okay, great, great, great, great, great. Blblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblblbl Go, what is this? What the fuck is the NPC gonna do now? I need to decide. Just leave. The prophetess. Yeah. The prone prophetess who just took a truckload of damage from a spear. Yeah. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And has also been hit pretty hard.

She will remain prone as she prostrates herself to Ser Eldrach, and she's like, please, you are the vessel, you are the servant, you are to inherit his will, you are the prophecy, my lord, take, like, I am your chosen, and like, lets her hair just become this luminous, like, silhouette behind her thing,

as she's gonna spin her just turn, like, begging Ser Eldrach that she is not his enemy, and make a persuasion check just like Ophelia trying to. I see. That is a failure on her behalf as well. Podcast listeners, Mark has a sneaky, cheeky little grin on his face. Whatcha thinkin', Mark?

I do something for dramatic effect. Yes. Let's go. Use an ability that I'm not technically gonna use, but it's just for a bit of flavor. Let's go. Eldrack looks at her just like that. He's like, you, you are a criminal of these lands. I am a knight of this realm.

You will burn. He holds up the corrupted claw, and you see now there's like this, this like fissure in his palm, and fire just begins to belch forth as he incinerates her. Oh, brutal! This would technically be one of his villain actions, but I'm using it for effect.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I will have him use it this turn, but he engulfs her in fire, radiant, and necrotic damage as this blast of crown-steel flame just incinerates her down to nothing. If this were like an animated show, we'd go black and white and all sketchy. Yeah.

The prophecy. Oh my god. Oh my god. Hell yeah. That was so cool. As the Chosen is eliminated. Well, that takes that problem out of the way. We don't have much choice of what to do.

I don't want you to have to wait. There's one problem you, well, maybe two problems that you need to worry about. That's enough of a problem. Yeah. The dragon? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, very thorough. Penelope, actually.

Secret assassin that I've sent this whole time. With that, we go to, show them checking the time, Xanthias. Hi there. Hello. Hey, please. What for? Is it wisdom say, oh, sorry. Or did it count for the one that he made earlier? It did burn two away.

Burned two away, I'm just thinking what's cooler for this. Well, it's yeah, because it's one level. Okay, so do you know what? You just roll this for me this time. We're beyond the point of needing this to be secret. Not that we needed to in the first place. Sure, sure, sure, sure. It doesn't really matter if the guys know

what you roll on this one now. So don't forget you get the D6, because you spent the fate. That's true. Oh my God, I should have rolled these the entire time. I got a 22. 22? Yeah.

Not quite enough for the plus 10, but you do not, there's no other effect. Like you remain at that level basically. Great. I slowly sort of descend. I realized technically I couldn't have actually ascended. Is it worth? I'd say that like you can ascend and descend.

You just can't move away from it vertically or horizontally. So the first failed save meant when I was 60 feet away, when I entered the aura, said I couldn't move away from the crown steel. I must remain within 60 feet of it at the end of my turn. The second one is when it gets a little spooky, it means I have to use my movement to move towards it. But right now...

Because he had the fly spell, obviously his movement was higher and yeah. So if Gruff is reaching out with a paw, I'm trying to sort of reach out to it, but there is just something... He's like looking back, like he can't pull himself away from the crown still. And I think there's...

Is he lower down now? Yeah, I'd say like you can lower down so you are like at five feet ground level with Gruff. I'm still five feet within this crown. Basically, you can't move from the spot you're in right now. So he's about 10 feet away from you, Gruff. And you can see Xanthius is like, he's like at your level,

hovering just like his feet, just barely touching the water. And he's like reaching, but he's like, he's like glancing level, hovering just like his feet just barely touching the water, and he's like reaching, but he's like glancing back. I'm trying. And he just can't bring himself closer. You still get your action. Where are we with the boy, Eldraq? The boy?

What do you mean? Like, are people trying still to convince him? They are, aren't they? I'm just wondering how much am I still, do I still feel complete disdain for this guy? Oh, that's up to you, that's always been up to you. I think to be honest, I'm just gonna use my entire action, my entire turn, just trying to wrench myself away

from this thing's control and failing. And just use my turn. I think there is a massive part of me that's saying, this guy, this Eldrake, is nothing. He's pathetic, he's weak, he is a false believer in the one true god, but I'm fighting against just trying to kill him myself. I'm fighting against trying to devour this crown steel, I'm also fighting to try and move towards Gruff to...

So there's this frustration of just being torn in all these directions, part of your mind wanting to desperately to reach back and just eat more of this stuff, wanting to kill and fight Eldrak, and then wanting to break free and take the hand of your friend. There's like, yeah, the arm is flashing intermittently

with this energy as that takes control. I look back at the crown steal, but then the scaled arms start to flare with this gold, and that's ripping me away from it, and I'm just in a consistent inner turmoil right now, and that's my entire turn. I love that. Mainly because I don't want to attack Eldrake.

Sure, I love that big time. Rowan. Hmm. Hmm. What to do? Rowan, you could also have, like, you probably would have passed the shield as well as you ran past, so you've seen it, Gruff called it out earlier.

Oh, a shield. Oh. Oh yeah, that's why we're here. Well, you were here to find out what happened to Ser Eldraak. It was just a part of the quest of like, oh, he was sent to get the shield. Lady Embryssa would like it. If you could find the shield, that'd be great.

I've got two options to go towards. Xanthius encounter or the Ser Eldraak encounter? Fucking El. It's alright. It's alright. One V one me, bro. Insta-kill. Rowan seeing Gruff is reaching out to Xanthius.

I think Rowan feels a bit more... Drawn to that. Comforted by that. I'm also clearly, like, as a result of it now, fighting against it, yeah. So Rowan is going to move towards the big threat, which is Ser Eldrake Ignis, so 30 feet as close as I can get. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.

Get to about there, just be in front of the ruins, just south of the Crown Still Pool. Maybe about five, 10, 15 feet away from Eldrake, 10 feet behind Ophelia. Hello, Sir Eldrake Ignis. Please, Embarissa, she wants you back. Stay with us. Don't be consumed.

And I'm gonna cast Charm Person. Ooh, he is, he is still a humanoid. Technically, he's still a humanoid. What is your saving throw? Two million, wisdom 15. All right, I will warn you, he has a Legendary Resistance left. So, he fails it, I spend a Fate Point.

That is his last legendary resistance. Make a persuasion check for me as part of this spell, because you are kind of appealing to him as well. Do you want to fate it? Yes, fate please. I think I'll just spend that one I just gave you. I'm going to use a different dice so I can read. That character's burning.

It weren't... No, because I spent it on an ability. I'm gonna use a different dice that I can read. But that count is burning. It did. Well... No, because I spent it on an ability. Sure. Dissuasion. Yes. So it'll be a degrees of success roll. Eww. Dissuasion, I got... 19. Oh, 19.

Good success, but not a mega success, like not a high degree of success. Still, you hear him like, Emmerissa, she sent you to find me. Does she trust me so little to get the job done? No, no, it's not like that at all. She was worried about you. Worried about me?

I will mark that as a progress towards something. Progress one. You do seem to be getting through to him, but this is gonna be more than one roll. So like get to him. Anything else around owning your turn? The Charm Person, I move 30 feet. Healing Word, or Nafelia.

Thank you. That's probably a good idea. Just a little bit. Yeah, it's gonna be a D4 plus 4. Hi-ya! Nah, bye. Thank you. It'll help. We have a choice here, by the way.

It is nearly the time of the end of the episode. Yes. Keep going. But do we want to keep going? We're all good with that? Don't you dare stop this. We can. We don't normally do this, but yeah.

We don't have to, we could leave. We have to, there's a lot of it. We have to. We can leave it for a month. No! All right, Daisy, go to the top. Oh, so I'm going to use my full movement to go towards Xanthias and then dash if I need more.

But basically, seeing what Gruff is doing and seeing. Do you wanna go into the water? Yeah, yeah, I'll just go straight towards him. This is all fucking gone by the way. So five, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Dash. Five, 10, 15 gets you. This is next to Xanthias basically here. And that's 15 feet.

Can I just go the other side of like 20? 20, yep. And seeing that he's basically trying to get towards Gruff, but he's struggling. Yep. Can I... I want to stand in front of him and just take his hand and step towards Gruff and just gently hold his hand

and try and encourage him to come in that direction because seeing that he's struggling but just trying to give him more, like... Sure. Motivation and just say to him, you know who you are, this is not you. This was a bit much, it was kind of weird and scary. And just come and stand with me and Graff.

You cannot move further away from this. Um... But... Right, yeah. Daisy could pull you by grappling you. Sure. But Xanthius, he doesn't want to, but his body's resisting. So I need you to make a... This will be strength, unfortunately, for both of you. I know, but neither is he.

So, Phage, is this... I'm also in, like, just the throes of... If anything, it's like maniac like, just the throws of, if anything it's like maniacal, mumbling, whispering, sort of trying to, if this was arcane, there's like flashes from the lights and all of this stuff, the red and the gold, it's just. Probably hearing like, some draconic figure,

you know, shouting things at you, and like there's like glimpses of an explosion of light. Yeah, there's flashes of roaring, but also flickers of Gruff's face trying to calm me down. All of this stuff is just locked in there. If you both roll a strength check for me, please. What'd you get? Not good.

Do you mean? I'm not fading. I'll fate, I guess. Oh, I got a six on my fate. So, 11, 10. Straight 10. 19, sorry. I also only have a plus one.

Like, you tug, like you've got his hand, and you're like, come on, like come with me and gruff, and you pull him. And like you can see Xanthias is like trying to take a step, but it's like that corrupted hand is like, no, like it's like pulling him back, and he can't, like you're tugging him, and he's resisting, but you look in his face,

and he doesn't want to resist, but then he flashes and he's like, no, get off me, and he's like torn between these two things. Is he pulling my humanoid regular hand, like the other one that is- Like reaching back. Also just latched onto the edge of this thing, like I've clawed into that to try and pull myself

towards it with that other hand. Could I try and like, reach my other hand out to Gruff? Yeah. As well? Yeah. So that, I don't know if- Well I would say if you do that, is if like Gruff tries the same thing,

I'd have it as an advantage because you'd be helping. Daisy's just gonna look at Gruff and knowing that Gruff is stronger than her, just be like, wow. What, you'd have advantage? To try, well. Well, you have advantage. To try and pull him away, if it helps. If nothing else, she's connecting the three of them.

Absolutely. To just show solidarity. It's a beautiful moment. Absolutely, it's a beautiful moment. She'll just look at Xanthias and just say to him, I think she'd just be, if he's mumbling constantly, just say, it's just say it's okay It's okay like just so that he he knows that they under like we understand that yeah, that's all

rough stand Santhius Listen to my voice This crown steel you don't need it. You have always been enough. That's pretty good. Yeah, that's pretty good. Give you a choice, Kim.

Oh, fuck, that's good. If you want, it can be another action to try and inspire him with words to give him another saving throw. Or if you want to, you. Oh, fuck, that's good. If you want, it can be another action to try and inspire him with words to give him another saving throw. Or if you want to, you can reach, take Daisy's hand, and try and pull him away from the crown still. I'll give you a choice. What do you think?

What do I think? I do like the Daisy chain. Yay! Nice! Being Wolfie in Twitch chat. Credit to you. Your call, bud. You have a point of fate left. You have advantage on the roll.

You have advantage, yeah. So... Do you have any skill in athletics? I have proficiency. Yeah, I'd let you use athletics. Okay, so it would be a D20. Do you have Athletics? Sorry, I thought you had Acrobatics.

No, no, wait, maybe it's... Yeah, I think you have Acrobatics. It's Acrobatics. It would be a D20 plus three then. Plus Fate or anything else with Advantage. And Advantage. You got one point left. I'll take the last Fate.

All right, Xanthias, I need you to just roll Straight Strength, or Athletics if you have it. Or Athletics. Okay, if you have it. Or athletics. Okay, plus one. Okay. And I can't bait it. You burned my pool, goddammit. Nope.

Okay. 17. Seven. A hole. With that, technically, you can move him half your movement speed. So you would step technically, you can move him half your movement speed, so you would step in, you can move him up to 15 feet away from this thing, with Daisy's help.

So the way I see it is that Gruff says that, and maybe there's a moment where Xanthias, I imagine you've been looking around, like fervently just like looking at the, and maybe you just look directly at Gruff, and in that moment, Gruff pulls. You come down, Gruff will just, I mean this is probably more RP than mechanics, will just put his arms around you and spin and move as far as he can.

You pull them to the side of the pool. Because you've been forcibly moved, Xantheus, that breaks that current failed saving throw effect. Because you've been forcibly moved away from it. You are still within its aura, so on your turn you might have to make a saving throw, but that can come back this way. Okay, okay, okay. So, or you can just keep hold of it,

but you're not under effects by it. Nice! You've gotta eat it now. Hell yeah. As, yeah, you are pulled away by Gruff, that would be your action and movement Gruff to basically grab Xantheus with Daisy. I've moved Daisy as well, by Gruff. That would be your action and movement, Gruff, to basically grab Sam Theus with Daisy. I've moved Daisy as well, because I mentioned Daisy.

Daisy probably wouldn't have let go. She would have kept him, like... I like the idea of the two of you pulling him away. Like pulling him into a hug, turning him away physically from the thing, you know? As you get into the edge of the pool and face him away from it. End of turn.

I think Gruff would just repeat, like whisper into his ear, you have always been enough. Damn it, that's cool. I love that shit. Yeah, Ophelia was just pissed at Eldrake. Yeah. He's just gonna keep circling around him, just like... Like a predator, just sort of like, you know,

I imagine almost Verresi like scraping the ground, like sparks, just like staring at him. You call yourself a knight of the realm. You don't protect a realm, you protect a pile of scrap metal. Oh! That's a fucking good line. You have a lady back home.

You've done both very good, I'll be if you give... You have... You have a dragon back home. Think of your training, the years you have spent learning your craft, and you're giving it all up for scrap metal. Can you make for me, I'll give you a choice, intimidation or persuasion?

Intimidation. With advantage. Because that was a cool last line. No fate to spend. 15. 15's a success. Progress 2. You watch as Eldrake, like he's just like this face,

you don't see his face. It's like completely emotionless, but you see the halberd and you see his grip tighten on the halberd, the claw flexing after he's just annihilated the chosen. He's like looking around and the calming butterflies begin to land on him from the sanctuary, which I'll count as a progress as well. The sanctuary spell like calming his aura. And he like looks at you and then he drops the halberd and he just starts like pummeling the helmet.

He just starts like hitting himself in the face with his normal hand and then he rips the helmet off. And you can see that from that arm, the corrupted side, crawling up his neck is that same corrupted crown steel like flesh and his horn, the dragonborn horn that he has, has become twisted like the arm as well in that same crown steel manner.

But this one human eye that hasn't been affected, like one dragonborn eye and the rest of his face and he's like looking directly at you. And he just looks, he's like, the arm, cut it off. Gladly. Yeah. Let's be real at this rot.

Veracity is not a cutting weapon, but that halberd is. Yeah, he's gonna pick up the fucking halberd. You pick it up and just bring it down. He doesn't resist. Whatever you've done, like the Sanctuary spell, the persuasion from Rowan, the intimidation from you, is enough where he just like turns his body and like stretches the arm out.

And you can see it's building flame ready to turn that attack in yours and Rowan's direction. He's about what he did to Amelie, and he's potentially gonna do in your direction if this doesn't work. But he points it towards you. Roll for me. You're raging.

Am I reckless? I would say, yeah, do this reckless and give yourself a... What's your normal attack bonus with Veracity? Plus five. Make it this with a plus six, because this is a plus one weapon you're using. Okay.

So, reckless advantage plus six. Why don't I roll three d20s? Doesn't matter, two of them rolled the same. No. The top one didn't roll. Okay, the top one I didn't roll, okay, thank you. Both got 16, so 22. Is enough to hit.

Ooh. And for the sake of levity, we will say that as this is a non-resistant called shard, with one swoop of failure, you bring two-handed down this halberd at the shoulder. Maybe it's something because this is his weapon, maybe because it has too felt the touch of crown steel through the corruption, but it bites through that flesh with ease. And that corrupted arm falls to the ground, completely serrated.

At this point, Lady Vera Thera places an enormous claw, almost pinning Eldrek to the ground, and you see her draconic eyes flare as she's gonna cast, because she would go after you, she's gonna cast Greater Restoration on him. Ah, nice. And you see not much, but some of that corruption just recedes enough.

And she's like, sleep now, Knight. Sleep. As his eyes close. And Ser El Drak is unconscious. Hell yeah. Fucked it up. We did it. We will leave this encounter as it is. Perhaps not him. We that. Did it.

We will leave this encounter as it is. Perhaps not everything is done yet. When we return, will Xanthias be tempted to rush back to the Crown still? Will you be able to recover and get Sir Eldrek out of here? But you seem to have at least for now aided both of them. With that, we'll bring today's episode to an end.

Oh, man, what a fight. Jeez. What a fight. Even with all the stuff going against us. Way to end the year. I know, yeah. End of, yeah. Some very cool lines, some great RPs, some touching moments. I think Fan Art Sister's gonna lose their mind over this one.

Fucking job, Reeve. But yes. That final thing as well. Well it was a combination, because it was like Reeve's Intimidate, the Rowan Persuasion, and then I counted a success. I said it would need three successes, like successive chests.

What's the Sanctuary, which is pretty cool. So the Sanctuary I think I'm gonna count as a success, because it's like a calming orange, like Penelope's trying to help him. So I was like, okay, well with that, yeah, he'll give you this opportunity and then yeah, cut off the corruption. The main part of him that's been corrupted

doesn't necessarily lose his corruption but maybe helps with the mental influence. And with that, we'll see what it means. There still could be tricky elements to this to come but for now, you are not in any mortal danger. Just emotional. Just emotional danger. You won!

Hey, I probably need to have a charity at some point. Pass with that at race on me like every day, because having a plus 20 is powerful. That's so strong. That's really strong. You've also got like the plus 10, I guess it's because of the rogues. Expertise, yeah. Expertise, yeah.

That is so powerful. Very strong. The image for Xanthius as well was pretty bold. And the rogues. Expertise, yeah. Expertise, yeah, that is so powerful. Very strong. Yeah, and the moment for Xanthius as well was pretty balling. He would up. He would up. Very good moments, very good support. Good teamwork all around. Good short team.

And that was very much an encounter. Oh, here's another great thing to end the year on. Would you guys like to level up? Yeah! Hell yeah! It's been a while, but this is like, you've concluded a big story arc. Oh, finally, hell yeah!

What does that mean? I'm very... I have to... Do I take another molly? No, just one. Two? Two would be nuts. That's crazy, Dan. It's never been done before. It's crazy.

It would be pretty cool, though. Pretty cool, though. Do you guys want two level ups? I mean, I think you've done enough in this arc to warrant two levels up. That's nuts. That's crazy. One in Bob and one in Warlock.

Oh. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. I'm a crazy man. I'm just crazy. Two levels down, mine. Two levels up, I want three. No.

How about a level down? 15? But I will say this as well, because I'm assuming you guys, now Heart Warden, you're gonna have to say it back to Lady Imbriza. So, Sereldrax Halberd there. Just sitting around.

Might be a tasty little murder garden for you guys, maybe. I want his other arm. Carrying around. I figured we'll just put in a cup and then give it a bite. Very much, you'll appreciate this. You'll appreciate this, because I know you've played. For me, the inspiration for Soul Drac is Nightmare from the Soul Calibur games.

Oh. As well as Thank You, yes. Tyrant from Resident Evil, the big, big art. Very, yeah, so Nemesis from, sorry, Nightmare from Soul Calibur. But with that, that is gonna be it for today's episode. Thank you all so much. Don't forget, it is December, it for today's episode. Thank you all so much. Don't forget, it is December,

which means it's Jingle Jam season. You can go to our page. We're supporting Calm this year. Calm is an amazing charity supporting with work with suicide prevention and mental health, and we are big fans of that cause. So please go and get the collection. Get yourself an awesome bunch of games.

Excuse me. Next week, there won't be an Ulthaya episode, we're gonna do a special little fun one-shot. I don't know what it is yet, I've got some rough ideas I'm playing around with. But we're gonna do that, that's gonna be next week. But the whole, the campaign's gonna be running throughout the Jingle Jam, so you can get the collection.

We're trying to raise as much money for Karma as possible, we'd love to see you guys donate for an awesome cause. That is it from this week, we will see you for a new Althea episode at the end of the year slash beginning of next year. We'll let you know, keep an eye on social media and all that good stuff. We'll see you there.

Ho ho, exciting! Bye bye! Bye bye! See ya! Bye! Bye!