High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #51 | A New Journey Bee-gins (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

It's time to leave Ashen Rest and embark on a new journey as the team chase down rumours of a new Proto-Magi Vault in the area! _______________ 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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Cheers, thanks everybody. Welcome back to Arthea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes have spent a few weeks in Ashenrest, making improvements to the inn, researching and even exploring a proto-Majai vault inside a comet that soared across the Empire. Prompted by this recent endeavor, Rowan delved into archives to learn more about these mystical dungeons and extradimensional spaces and believes that one may be found in the Rust Whale woods north of Ashenrest, and is likely connected to the sightings of mysterious lights and disappearances in the area. As the group discuss the opportunity and make plans to leave for these woods, Sister Ophelia de la Rosa of the House of Blood conducts another another ceremony in her shrine to the Gravefather,

having attracted more curious citizens to attend via some wonderfully produced pamphlets. During this meeting, she infuses her skeletal assistant, Percival, with a wooden necrotic heart that makes the skeleton minion greater intelligence and capability and strength. And that is where we are gonna pick up again today.

It was a very RP heavy session last time around. It was, we loved it. Lots of planning, lots of figuring things out. But I believe that a decision was made that, you guys were gonna make your way to the Rust Whale Woods. To explore these disappearances and perhaps find a Proto-Majai Vault. Before we do that though.

D and V. Excuse me? A D6 from everybody please. Potomagy. Six. Oh, a six. A dice for you. This doesn't bad.

Why do I always want to put your dice here? Because you're a psychopath. Because you want to trigger them too. Two. A dice, oh, three for me! Come on, I can't pull this roll, you. That's okay, Mark's got your back. Four.

There you go. Three and two. Three and two. And as a reminder, these can be spent on, you know, your basic kind of adding to attack rolls and saving throws and bits and pieces. If you want to make a devil's bargain, you can always ask me to try and convince me.

And perhaps the enemies may, or the environment, may get to spend them to do things to you as well. But yes, we find ourselves in the morning after Sister Ophelia's ceremony. Once again, waking up in Tyria's Rest, the wonderful inn. I think most of us didn't sleep. Certainly Rowan didn't sleep very well. Can't sleep, Ophelia will bite me.

Did see that meme. Or Percival, Percival will eat me. But yes, we awaken in Tyria's Rest. We are in summer, and so it is notably warmer than it has been in some of your previous adventures. When you were returning from the Ash Hills, the weather was definitely changing. And for those of you who are not perhaps used

to the cauldron climate as well, there is a kind of early summer kind of, you know, temperature and feeling in the air. Like things are beginning to heat up, you know, the ambient temperature is warming. The sky is very clear, a bright, bright blue. There is just a gentle, gentle wind, you know, blowing through the streets of Ashenrest.

And many of the cauldrons, as they are going about their business, you notice that summer seems to be a particularly important season to the Cauldrons. There is a liveliness in the air, there is an energy that is building. Perhaps following on from St. Typhines Day, a recent festival,

there's a lot of love and passion around the place. Clothing is perhaps looser or more sort of lighter garments, and people are very much enjoying being outside. The restaurants and taverns have all set. Most of them, they've got like outside seating for everyone. And also it's bustling with tourists as well. People that are, you know, traveling and exploring Caldra during these summer months. But yeah.

Nice. I love this season. This is Zanth yeah, happy time. Warm-blooded dude, I got fire resistance. You do? Like, this is great for me. I'm having a time of my life. This is exceptionally comfortable. Like, you know, you are, yeah, just totally fine.

And if I ever need to cool down, I'll just walk into the garden. And that's the thing, Kim would love this climate. Kim needs this climate right now. Gruff is very much sleeping in his hermitage, or just existing in it at every free moment. He's just out there in the cold, just like, I guess like an air conditioned room,

just a little air conditioned microclimate. So is that frozen land, is that your comfortable level? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Okay, so what do you look like when you come out of that? Ice cube. Oh, just, yeah, like. Yeah, yeah. Well, he just turns into a, like, is it humid? It wouldn't be humid, it's a dry heat.

It's a dry. It's a dry heat, man. Yeah, it's a dry heat. Because it is, you know, volcanic in this area and it's not near the coast, so yeah, I would say it's quite a dry, you know, if you want to think of it, you're kind of looking at, like, you know, Spanish, like, you're kind of looking at like, you know, Spanish, like Italian summer kind of like vibes.

Like very Mediterranean kind of climate, right? So, you know, a little bit of humid, but not like humid-humid, you know? It's just perfectly temperate. He's probably drooping a little, just like a bit like, oh god, so hot. His tongue's always out. Every opportunity you just like flatten out

on the ground in the sun. You know how cats puddle? Yeah. You're always barely up. That's my barely up. I'm not feeling safe enough to have my belly up. He's barely, Gruff is barely down. Perhaps the summer coat has come through as well.

Because it was like spring. Most of your adventures so far have taken place throughout the spring. I'm shedding like mad. Do you shed fur all over the place? Do lions shed? They must do. They must do. Oh cool. Also you're like a winter lion, so I guess you do.

Like you're like a palace cat. But would I ever? Because in ice height it's just cold all the time, so would I shed? That's true. We need to brush out your undercoat. Hmm. Isn't that more of a long haircut?

Mountain lions do. Mountain lions. Are of a long haircut? Mountain lions do. Mountain lions. Are you a mountain lion? You're more mountain lion-y. I guess I am more mountain lion-y, yeah. There are two wolves inside me. Hmm, both of them bad. Both of them, yeah.

So. Both of them rabid. Anyway, awoo. Awoo. What are people doing? I'm gonna remind you that Mark's DMing this week, so it's a lot less passive. I'm gonna be like, right, what are you fucking doing?

Where are we going? Just as a point of agging, I've handed out the stuff that we took from the Volant Vault, so I now have the Voidstar Ring, and you have both the Spellstones? I have both the Spellstones that I intend to, at some point, I know it's a project to do, I wanna turn them into scrolls, maybe,

like, I don't know, find some way to make them more accessible to everyone else. Yeah, so you would need to learn them first, so you would need to absorb the knowledge from them, which takes a ritual, and it costs... Oh, so 10 minutes. No, it's a... Not a ritual cast. Not a ritual cast, but it's a ritual of process to learn and absorb the knowledge.

You do it over a long rest, and it's 50 gold of incense and materials and things like that. And for you, I would almost imagine it almost being like ink that you paint on your skin like your runes, and then it becomes absorbed into your natural magic. And it's 50 gold per level of the spell. So the first level spell would be 50 gold,

150 gold for the third level spell, but you can do that over a long rest. And then once that's done, you can then write them as spell scrolls, but that's a bit more of an ongoing process. But for now, with me having these things, they're like a one-time use thing as well, right? If you use them as a, if you consume them,

they are gone forever. That would not be a wise way to use them. The only instance of that spell, I know what these spells do, and they are gone forever. That would not be a wise way to use them. The only instance of that spell. I know what these spells do and they are pretty good. And I want to try and make them accessible to... Well, if you want to, you could say that over the last long rest, literally last night, you could have done the ritual.

Okay. Just basically spend the 200 gold and then you have access to those spells. You would need to replace spells that you know with them. So you don't gain them for free, you would basically replace a first level spell you know and a third level spell you know. Because you're a sorcerer, you're not a wizard,

you just get to have spell knowledge, like you have to replace what you know. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough, fair enough. Have a think about that. Fair enough. I will. Just as a point of a little more admin, I'm also gonna leave some of my loot at the Tyria's Rest.

So I had a chest of 800 gold from the Ashen Citadel ruins. I also had two Rubian Obsidian statues from the same place, so I'll just leave them somewhere, I'm moving the basement or something. Tyria's Rest. All right. And that is all thought that Gruff is going to have to the security of that. Okay, I love that. I love that for you. Sure. So good, great. Yeah, that's absolutely.

So like, yeah, you can basically, you know, because half of the basement is Xanthius' like arcane workshop. So like in the other half, you've started putting down some of like these chests and you know, bags full of statues and things like that. You know, your acquired treasures from your adventuring. Dragon's hoard down there.

Yeah, feel free to like, and again, this is your like bastion, this is your like base, you can leave stuff here if you want. I'm not a dick of a DM, I'm not gonna be like, let me see if thieves randomly turn, oh, oh yeah, they've robbed everything you own, I'm not gonna do that. Also, you are very well known in Ashen's Rest, the Duke's Guard, if you leave, they're gonna make sure that somebody's keeping an eye on the tavern

and stuff for you. I think it's still that gruffy idea as well, even though obviously he's been traveling around, he's still used to the kind of homestead nature of Tewaro. Very trusting, yeah. Where it's like, you leave your door open and it's fine. You leave your door unlocked and strangers come in all the time and it's, you know.

Yeah, tea and milk, it's like, you know, but don't take your chest to gold. And I think that like, thievery in Kaldra wouldn't be much of a thing because there's too much of a pride-ness. Like if you're gonna be a thief in Caldre, you don't just go for like some random house and like you break into some poor merchant,

you know, you go after like the best artistry or the best, you know, you go for like the big bank heist or whatever, right? Perhaps in somewhere like other places, Kelskaris, yeah, Thievery you might need to worry a little bit about because that's kind of a bigger cosmopolitan, metropolitan area.

But yes, anything else before you guys head out on the road, because we are going to be doing travel rules and stuff, so if there's anything you want to do in National Rest, now is the time. I'm going to leave my demon gun behind in the... Sure, in your arcade workshop. Yeah, down there, I'm just like, this is cool, but I'll research it later, throw it over my shoulder,

hits the ground, pfft. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's empty as ice. Through the floor. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It destroys the Clever Toad Machine, unfortunately. Oh no. That's where it was.

It's all broken and can never be used ever again. Can you imagine someone who breaks this thing? No, I did forget to mention that in the recap. Rowan did purchase the Clever Toad machine. I thought you were gonna do a special second recap. That's right, yeah I did. No, hang on, let me do that. And also, Rowan purchased the Clever Toad machine

from the Taric Taric family cobalts and has installed it within Tyria's rest, and which Xantheus discovered that there is no way to claim the money spent on the Cleverto machine. In fact, it is being teleported to an un-yet-known location. I know. There you go. So there's my addendum. As you're putting this demon gun down,

you just hear like a, you know that sound of the copper coin? Just like dull, just above you. Like the fourth. And then the music starts playing, the floor's like, you Let me check my inventory. I reckon I could spend a good 20. Okay, you do 20 predictions. You at this point, you can-

Overnight. Overnight, yeah. You can basically make up a bunch of prophecies that you will, like just make anything relevant, like, oh, they said that the Clevertoad said at noon this thing would happen. To be fair. You mean these aren't actual prophecies?

So the whole day planned. I mean, listen, for the Rose of Assat sat at the table, absolutely not. So it's been a night since Roanbort. Was there an issue with any Hierophants over the night? Yeah. Seemingly not. Because there was fortune yesterday for the Taric family.

There was a problem at Nightfall, yeah. Yeah. Maybe not this nightfall. Your prediction of, that's tonight, might not be correct. That could be, some night we're gonna have a problem with a Hierophant. It's gonna happen, yeah. Okay.

All right. Anything from anyone else? Ophelia? I think, what if, I think Ophelia will ask if Theresa can help look after the shrine while she's gone. Of course. Maybe ask Theresa to maybe do some writing as well, give her a plain book and some parchment and see,

and get her to sort of write down some of the sermons. Just start making copies and things like that. Yeah, basically at this point, Theresa's your PA and will do, if you give her a task, she'll do it. Like you've given her after everything that happened in the Lamplighters Guild and sort of losing her purpose. And she's a semi-talented like engineer, like magical engineer. Like she can like, you know, she has a little bit of personal magic that she can do, kind of like cantrips and stuff like that. Maybe a couple of first level, low level spells,

and has training in like artisans tools and things like that. She's a pretty smart little woman, like pretty smart halfling, or is she a gnome? I think she's a gnome. She's a gnome, yeah. Yeah, gnome. But yeah, you can definitely put her to work on stuff. If you want her to start copying out some sermons

and things like that, do you want to leave a copy of your prayer book for her to start making copies of? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, she's happy to do that. Nice. Yep. Excellent. Sweet.

And so, Francis Cale also said he would come by and keep an eye on things as well. Oh, brilliant, cool. So, there will be a sort of like a trained warrior guard present in the area most nights. Awesome., cool. So there will be a sort of like a trained warrior guard present in the area most nights. Awesome. Very cool. I was just thinking I would use my Hermitage.

Yes. To gain a spell slot. Yes, this is like a one use, you choose when you use that free spell slot, right, basically, but once you've used it, that free extra, it's like you get free casting of a spell up to third level, basically. Fourth level.

Fourth level, that's right. And the same for you as well, Rhy, you can do that with your shrine as well. Yeah. So you could do that as well if you would wish. Yeah, I think I'll do that as well. Yeah. Yeah. Might as well.

That sounds cool to start with. You do have to do a little ritual. I believe it costs you a certain amount of gold. 25. Yeah, it'll be the same for you as Rhy. I haven't got any money, so I'll just do it. Do you want some money from Daddy? Small item of worth.

Wait, is that Gruff saying that or Kim? Absolutely not Gruff saying that. Okay. Because if it was Kim saying it, it'd be mummy. Like you said last week. I don't know gender. Oh, okay. Okay. I might not have put it down there, but it'll be the same. Could I have 25 gold, please Gruff?

I'm sorry, I spent all my money on Percival. Are you asking Kim? Are you asking Gruff? Gruff or Kim? Whoever is coming to the table. Whoever will give the money. Whoever has the actual money. Anyway, yeah, Gruff will give you 25.

Thank you, Gruff. Yeah, Ophelia will then perform the ritual required. So just mark it off. 50 gold, basically, Gruff. But yeah, the ritual required. So just mark it off. 50 gold, basically. But yeah, the two of you kind of take some time. You know, you've bought like incense, you go to maybe Aquila's alchemical and buy like really strong, magically enhanced incense.

There is a kind of general, one of the kind of products of the world of Ulthaea is generally just called essence or magical essence. And there are various types of it. You can get elemental essence, so you can get like fire essence and ice essence and things like that, or air essence. But also there is just arcane essence,

which is a kind of amalgamation. It's kind of a distilled version of magic, which seems to naturally occur in the material plane. And sometimes that's combined with things like incense or ink and things like that. And that's what wizards writes their spell books with and kind of gives an example of some of these things. They do not call it wizges, Chris Chantel.

No, it is not referred to. As far as you're aware, in the world, in the alchemicals scholarly world, where Rowan's from. It's not called Wizges. He is our step. Rowan might, yeah, you could, you call it whatever you want. Menace.

But yes, the two of you conduct this ritual, and yeah, it'd be different, same effect, but different kind of roots for Gruff. This is about a connection with the land. This is about sort of quiet, peaceful meditation, attuning yourself, feeling that cold breeze on you, and realizing that there isn't a voice, but there is somewhat of a deep,

slumbering sentience to the world, to the earth, to the trees, to the air, to the snow, to everything. There is this presence that is deeply, deeply asleep. I think it's all, I just have it in my head that this is the first time Groff has ever done anything like this. He's never questioned his druidic magic,

and it's always been very low level, but obviously now, and with the talks with Brant and stuff like that, he's exploring this whole idea that yeah, there is something more here. Like he's always felt a connection to the land and particularly the sea and the ice, but now this whole concept of meditating and connecting with it, it's very new to him.

And like yeah, being able to summon Saren now and stuff like that, yeah, it's making him think and his all noggin. Yeah, and like probably bringing to mind like stories being a very faithful devotee of the Church of the Scions, the stories, the early stories told of Ulfey, who is where the name Ulfey, the world's name comes from,

who basically gave their life to become, you know, to replenish the land after the bright storm, this thing that supposedly wiped out the Proto Magi, they gave up their life essence to become the mountains and to regrow the trees and to fill the lakes and things like that. The lakes are made of their tears and blood, the mountains are their bones and their body,

that kind of sense. And that's very downplayed in the church, in modern church teachings, but it's kind of like the old myth, basically. And kind of, yeah, beginning to maybe connect a little bit with that. Think about that a bit more and be like, hmm. Yeah.

And then for Ophelia, this is a proper communion with the grave father. This is offering up, going through perhaps a bit more rote, a bit more sort of stereotypical. Like these are the prayers you were taught as a child. Perhaps you attended ceremonies in the grand cathedrals of Osseous, the black glassy marble and bones carved directly

onto the great pillars, drapes of red and black fabric, perhaps there with the Countess. And yeah, just repeating some of that and feeling this presence with you, this kind of shadow that seems to walk and move with you and knowing that the Grey Father is with you and empowering your magic. That'll bring Ophelia some confidence

and some comfort for the journey ahead, given that the level up events made her feel a little bit uncertain towards her magic and the changes she went through. But now she's instilled that confidence again after the sermon as well and doing the ceremony again. It's kind of imbued her once more. Wonderful.

Anything from Xanthias or Rowan before you head out? Rowan wants to go out into the shops. I imagine when the alchemical Essence. Is gathered. Yeah, Rowan also goes out with them. Ask Ruff for some coin as well, in a queue behind Ophelia.

Yeah, I imagine like Ophelia's like, oh can I, and then everyone's like, oh, oh. I spent all my money on the clever toad yesterday, and then my copper coins and. You really need to start saving your money, boy. Yeah. How much? Oh, one gold.

One. Just one gold. Just one, not 25. No, just one. Okay, you can have one. He goes in his little coin purse, Groff. It's quite hot, Groff, you're like, oh, you're in the shop, like,

you bring out the coin, give it to Rowan. Rowan's going to go to a basic clothier of sorts and get a colorful felt hat. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I was going to go to a basic clothier of sorts and get a colorful felt hat. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. In fact, like perfect kind of thing, like keeping the sun off your head. You know, you find a sort of tall. Like tall.

What kind of hat are you looking for? Imagine like Fez. Tall. Right, okay, but with a brim? Yeah. Okay, yeah? But it's gotta be big enough for me to hide the Hearthstone in.

So like it goes in that and then you put it on your head so it's on top of your head under the hat. Yes. Sure. There would be, yeah, this would be basically, it'd have like a domed top to it. It'd look a little bit like an armish hat, like a kind of like big sort of like pilgrims hat with a slight doming.

But this wide felt hat. The available colors, because this is Kaldra, they're not very green. It's like, I think brown would probably be the only one that would really match. I would like something that really stands out. Oh, they have a bright red, beautiful cauldron red, bright hat.

A real summertime hat. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Perfect. And they, like, you can probably get ones, like, there's plain ones, there's one with, like, flower decorations, you know, you can get things with, like, there's plain ones, there's one with flower decorations, you know, you can get things with little embellishments. I only got one gold, so is that just the base hat?

One gold, I will allow you to buy a base hat for one gold. I misjudged the hat pricing a little bit. Yeah, this is like a really quite cheap brown, like mud brown hat. I was eyeing up this amazing like all the red one. That is like 10 gold for the Nose hat. Oh. I might take the brown one.

How obvious are you being? I'm like at the window just pouring at the back. Oh. What's wrong, Rowan? Well, I thought the hat should be differently priced. Right, so you want that one. No. His chin wobbles. I'll be fine with the cheaper one.

I feel like I need to make a constitution. I'd be wisdom... ..to resist. I'd be wisdom. To resist. That one right there. No. Are you sure? Yeah. Would you look after it? Of course I would.

It's for the rock. Isn't it better to secure the rock in a satchel or something? Well, I feel like I've learned a lot since Candle Hat. And freeing up my hands is phenomenal. And I can't put big rock with small rocks and food because it will crush them. What if you had two satchels? That thought never crossed Rowan's mind.

I mean, you wouldn't even need a satchel, like a belt pouch. Like you could buy like a large pouch that slides on the belt, right? And that would be fine. Gruffscorp. Yeah, Gruff like points at like his pouch and is like this.

Another? By God Gruff. By the Saints and Sirens. By the Saints and Sirens. By Siaskar. Siaskar. Who? Who is the siren?

We're gonna have to update Roman's character art now. He's got a whole nother satchel. I've got a whole thing on my thing. Well, he's also bought the brown hat. Yeah. Oh, you bought it, okay. Yeah, I've already got it. He said he bought the hat, he's got that hat.

But you could go and buy another pouch, which I believe is about a gold, to buy a little pouch. I've got the hat now, so I put the rock in the hat. Remove the hat for a moment. The rock falls out. Like it just falls off his head. Yeah, this isn't working. You are walking around with like,

about a sort of this side stone, like just balanced on your head, and you put the hat on. As soon as the hat comes off, like, or even if you move too quickly, like. Yeah. It's a windy day that flies off. The rock has, it's gone.

I thought the rock would hold it down, but then I realized. The rock's inside. It's in it. It's like a chin strap, like a little ribbon. Oh, yes. No, that's not gonna help, no. Why not?

What's my intelligence? You're not this dumb. It's pretty low. It's eight. It's eight. Yeah, it's pretty low. It's not that low. It's not six.

It's below average. Sentry's intelligence was eight. Let's make that point. And I don't think Sentry would put Artifact in a... Out on a... Magic, like, put it back. You're currently operating at like, Grog, six in. You're operating at like, six intelligence right now.

He's on an off day. He's having a... He spent too much time up night. He's Taravangian. Taravangian, yeah. Taravangian day. He's on a Taravangian off day. Yeah.

He spent too much time playing video games all night. Clever Turd. Playing Clever Turd all night. I've really been maxing that there. Right, I don't understand anything that you're saying there, boyo. Me neither. But you need less toad time. I'm going to buy-

I was getting all my toad time in before our long journey. All right, I'm going to buy you a little belt pouch to put the stone in, is that okay? That would be lovely, Groth, thank you. Right. It's a gold, I'm a pouch. Xanthius, so I think Xanthius. Man, I'm just like prepping to head out

because we bought some potions. Got the rations, got potions. We got 10 days rations and Rodri rations. Have we actually got Rodri? Not yet. You can go and pick him up, it's super easy. I'm going to get you guys. Rodri? Not yet. You can go and pick him up, it's super easy. I'm going to get you guys Rodri. All right, yeah. You...

Psst, psst, psst, psst, psst. Ah! When they make your way over to the stables, you pick up Rodri and your wagon, which has been stored there as well. You know, your covered wagon that you can rest in, or at least several of you can sleep in. And yeah, I'm going to guess you would all meet

at the North Gate of Ashen's Rest. Have you made all your preparations and North Gate of Ashen's Rest, having made all your preparations and things like that. I'm trying to think, was there anything else we needed to do before we leave? We forgot Daisy! Phone my lane. Yeah.

Podcast listeners, Daisy's not here today, if that's not obvious already. Latte fun, we've done a latte fun run. We've done that, I've got some already. Did you shut all the windows? I opened all the windows. No, shut them! It's okay, well.

It's summer. Yeah, no, you probably wanna. No, but we're away, like. It'll get stinky and moldy. It's okay, we've got people looking after the house. What we got? Yeah, Theresa's there. The rest car is there as well.

Did you turn the tap off? I kept that running. I thought you said keep it running, Grog. Heating off, locks. On. What is heating? The fire is off, I think. We snuffed the fire. We put out the bonfire.

Yes. Luckily it was magical, so gave off no heat. It's in the dark, yeah. Or light. No, it gives off heat, doesn't give off light. I remember how magic works. I've learned my wisjes. Let's see, we've got rations.

You definitely kissed the toe goodbye. No, I didn't do that. I presume you did, that's fine. No, absolutely not. Oh my god. Absolutely not. Well, we've got rations, we have our potions, we have all of our equipment, we have...

We've got Percy. Percy, Percy's equipped, ready to go. Percy's here. I am ready to go. How are you feeling? I forgot you can speak first of all, I'm so sorry. Percy adventures, this new Percy. I feel trepidation.

I'm worried that you will be hurt, Sister Ophelia. Oh, don't, don't worry, I'm worried you'll be hurt. I had not considered that before. Well, oh dear. Oh no. It'll be fine. You will be able to reconstruct me. Yes, yes I will.

Oh, I don't like that thought of you being reconstructed. And you, because Percy wears his new, he has his arm, he's chainmail, but he has a helmet and a shield and his transforming halberd now. I'm guessing he has those under his heavy monk robes and his big cloak that he wears to kind of help him blend in a little bit.

A lot of people are looking like, this is quite warm weather, and plus he's in these heavy, black, thick linen robes or caught heavy sack cloth robes, and everyone's like, oh, is he all right? You just hear a voice from the dark shadows like, I am fine. Like I feel her sweating, like her makeup and her eyes

is like dripping a little bit down her chin. She's like, I can't keep it on. It keeps dripping down my, it's so hot. How do you cope? Is it normally much colder in Osseous? Oh, it's not this hot. It's level. It's temperate.

Everything stays the same. It doesn't fluctuate like this. It's almost very few, there's not really seasons in Osseps. If I had the money, there was a perfect hat that would have blocked all that sun off of you, and it was red too. Was it? Yep. Oh, I'll get it later, it'll be fine, I'll just,

Percy, can you just like pin my hair up a little bit for me? It's making my neck sweat. Of course, it's the reveal, yeah. Thank you. Scareful hands come out. Just figured like pinning there. Not to bring up Ilana Vedante,

but she did have a parasol boy, remember? Weren't you supposed to be seeing her again? When we get back, she wasn't in. Right, okay. Yes. I really might go back and check the windows are locked. If you really have to, but I'm pretty sure we'll be fine with the people watching the place.

Also, most people probably still think the place is haunted. That's true. We need a ghost machine. We have to clever toad. That's true. Do you mean a machine that makes it look like there's still a ghost there, like a bad haunted house? Yeah.

It's like a printed haunted house? Yeah. It's like a British chicken jet. Like a home alone house. It's like, Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. Yeah. It's just like, there's Torea on a bunch of strings just doing this.

Oh, it's busy tonight in the pub. Yeah. Don't go in there. I thought you said they went home. They've gone home. Dun dun dun dun dun dun. A little home alone reference for all of you people that are there that know home alone. I thought you said they went home. They've gone home. Then, then, then, then, then. Home alone reference for all of you people that are there that know home alone.

Anyway, so you successfully do the things that you need to do. And just wait. It named nothingness. It named nothingness comes to an end. You set out. Serious business now. I think I've no, was I?

You head out of Ashen's Rest. Now you do have a map. It is journey time. So what is the route that you expect to be taking? So we are in Ashen's Rest. People are gonna hate me for that one. My god. One, two, three tiles.

Well, do we know about, you put a marker on the map. Do I know about this marker? Yeah, because you would be able to go and ask and be like, oh, can someone point out where Colville, do you know where Colville is, where are we going? And there would be locals. There are, Colville is a very small village, but there are a couple of people that come by for business

and the Reeve has to come and have appointments with the Duke and things like that. So people know about it, it's just not a big place, it's not an important enough place to go on maps. But yeah, they'd be able to say, oh, it's sort of in this region, they would say. It's three days travel, give or take, things on the road. It's roughly around here, it's near the river.

You can't miss it, look for the big lumber mill. Nice. So there's not really a, for podcast listeners, the map is available on Patreon, more free to look at. You might have to scroll a bit, though. So, there is a road kind of going that way, but we will have to go off road. But if we follow just a river down,

would that be quick travel? It wouldn't be quick travel, no, because like- Or quicker than just going through the wild. No, because you're still going to be going through woodland and stuff like that, and there's going to be areas where you're not going to be able to necessarily walk right alongside the river. It's not particularly paved or ready for roads.

If you were traveling on a barge or something like that, you maybe could do, but it's very rare for barges to go up river here. They are normally going down river. They normally go between Ashenrest and Farros and then Emberfoot. They river. They normally go between Ashenrest and Farros and then Emberfoot. They don't tend to go beyond Ashenrest because there's not a lot of reason to.

Okay. Yeah. Well in that case, I guess we could just, I mean if we just follow the river down alongside it, I presume then, it will just take us straight there. Either way it's, oh no, there's forest here, here, and here. So that is already slightly. It's gonna be about three days with the forests, yeah.

With the forests and hills. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Okay. Cool. All right. Yeah, north. North. You guys set out heading north,

and your first part of your journey takes you across a mixture of farmland and countryside. You're following little country trails. You're not on the Imperial Highway. This is not a paved, maintained road. You are taking these little hiking trails, weaving in between farmland. And out here, north of Ashen's Rest,

there is a significant amount of it. This is where most of the town's food is grown. There are vineyards, there are vegetable crops, there are fields of wheat and grains. And most of your journey for the first day takes you through this kind of area. It does, as you set off, not shortly after,

maybe late morning, a sort of heavy summery rain begins to fall, and so you are either staying under the cover of the wagon, or you see, there is a slight relief in that it is a little cooling, but it's still quite warm, it's that kind of hot summery rain. It comes in these big, heavy bursts, like showers, you soaks everything through and then minutes later, it's dry and

clear, and you begin to feel your clothes drying again. And then maybe a little later on another big gout of heavy rainfall comes down as these big thick dark clouds seem to sweep across the landscape at a rapid pace. You pass farmhouses, you know, you see occasional sort of families out working the fields, or like a couple of kids sat up in a tree munching on their lunch, sort of their eyes and ears pick up, like seeing you kind of go past,

seeing this motley little crew of you assembled. What are you guys doing on this journey? So tell me what your characters would be doing and I will do my usual of giving you a sort of secret role depending on what you are doing. Okay. Rowan would probably take up the usual that he would do, scouting ahead,

just understanding the land a little bit, looking for the path of least resistance. Okay, so trying to figure out where you're going and keeping yourself, yeah, navigation, okay, cool. So you're kind of taking the lead on that, Rowan. So you've got the maps, you've walked around the countryside many, many times before, kind of keeping your eyes out for trails

and kind of pulling the maps out, checking the sun, checking your location, making sure you're going in the right direction. Yes, but can we add a minus two to the roll? Sure. Because I'm also basing a lot of my decisions off of the Clever Toe prophecies. I love that.

I tell you what. Logically it would be like left here. I think based on premonition number four, we should go through the rocky crevice. I won't make it a minus two. What I'll do is I will say, we'll treat a fate dice as a D3. I'll roll that and that's the minus you get.

Okay, nice. But you'll gain a fate dice, right? So I'm gonna spend a fate dice. Okay. And you will have a minus three. To any, to your, and you will have a minus three. Oh. To any, to your, and this will be a survival roll, but don't make it just yet, you'll make that in just a moment.

Let's hear from everybody else, what's everyone else doing? I know we don't. So you can see Rowan leading and be like, well, the clever toad said. Like, he's like, you can hear him making these kind of decisions. I know we're a few days out still,

but going through farmlands and people working the fields and stuff, could I, even if the wagon is still going forward at full speed, I almost want to stop and just talk to people just to get a feel for the land around us. Just by, I know we're days away from this place, but have they heard any rumors about this thing? Well, this journey is like, we're doing these roles now. These are gonna represent the multiple days

that you're on this journey. This isn't just one day. Not that individual title, okay. So also, feel free to make your decisions of what you do. That can be like, well, when we camp, Gruff's gonna make dinner for everybody. Or like, Ophelia wants to, when we camp, I'm gonna keep an eye out and stuff like that.

That can be for when you're resting and stuff as well. Yeah, well, at least the first leg of the journey, I'd like to just sort of talk to any of the sort of local people working around here or families or whatever and just try to get some kind of... Yeah, what kind of information are you trying to get? What are you trying to get out of this? Either a quick, nice, clean, easy route

to where we're trying to get to or what stories have you heard about these weird ghost lights in the distance? Do you have a preference for one? Because I'll say if you choose one over the other, I'll be able to give you more. I would probably choose a safer journey over... So yeah, just a good quick route. Okay, I will... Yeah, this is over the multiple. If they give me information, it's like... a good quick route. Early in the journey, yeah. Okay, I will, yeah.

This is over the multiple. If they give me information, it's like, when you see a torn down tree from lightning, turn left. Hopefully the prophecy agrees with me. It's weird, but you have to go through it. Right through it. Okay, and you'll end up in Hogwarts. When it comes to it, I'll have you make a role.

I'll have you make a persuasion role. And what that will do is that will determine what kind of information you get, and if you succeed, you'll give Rowan advantage on his role. Okay. Because you'll be able to be like, oh, well those people back there

did tell us that actually we should stick to the left path and like, you know, kind of help encourage him in that way. But not just yet, because I want to hear what True, okay, good point. Gruff and Ophelia are going to do on the journey. Hmm. Again, you can feel free to be creative,

like doesn't have to necessarily be a set skill. Like what would your characters do? I think if it's like when there's a gap in the rain, Ophelia will probably dash out and use her dark vision to go through the forests looking at sort of like the wildlife and the plant life. Okay. Trying to see if any of them are A, crown-stealed, like the ones previously.

And also just to get an idea of like what eating's gonna be like, what hunting's gonna be like. Okay, so like foraging and things like that. So she has an idea of what animal she can go and hunt for the group. Okay, nice, okay. Excellent. Perfect. And I will say, Ophelia, for your checks, basically, Personal will just give you advantage on whatever you're doing,

because he's going to help you. Like, he's not... You could have him do something else, like if you're like, Personal, I want you to watch the wagon, or like, keep a lookout, you can order him to do that. If you don't give him an order, he will default to helping you and giving you advantage on the run. I don't know if an order, he will default to helping you and giving you advantage on the run. Percy helped me this time.

I've been not very successful with my animal hunting as of late. Sure. More animal destruction. You keep trying to wear their clothes. I keep trying to wear them as hats. And what is Gruff doing? Definitely not trying to make rude words

turn up on the camera. Gruffydd, enjoying the fact that he can now have Saren along with him, probably is actually sending Saren off on flight, so kind of just almost playing, like doing that kind of call, like sending her out, calling her back, and yeah, just enjoying watching her fly again.

And I feel like in that, you know, maybe she could relate. I don't know how, but like. It can basically scout for you. It's like flying ahead and like looking up for any dangers, yeah, absolutely. Do you have stats for Saren? Because I think we just said we would use a hawk stats. So you should be able to look them up from D&D Beyond.

Yes, I think if you go into like extras, you can add a familiar, I think. Yeah, that's right. And I think you should just be able to just use the hawk stats. Have you got a Percival in yours? I did have a Percival on my own. I've got a physical stat.

I've got a physical Percival. Yeah, he's got upgraded stats. Fantastic, all right, well in that case, I've got a pretty good idea of some checks for you guys. We're getting there safe is basically what we're saying. Well, let's find out if I agree with you. Yeah, I know we're saying. Let's find out if I agree with you. Yeah, I agree with you. Okay.

So, I would like, for this part of the journey, so, first things first, Rowan, I need you to make a survival roll. Would I do my persuasion first? Oh yes, sorry, do your persuasion first. Yes, thank you. So, I have a pretty good persuasion. Yeah, we're gonna use it for each day of travel.

And I have rolled extremely well. Plus six on my persuasion, nine. Nine, you find that a lot of the people of Xanthias that when you try and approach them, these are quite like simple country folk, and they're either too intimidated to speak to you, seeing a fancily dressed gold dragonborn, they're sort of easily intimidating,

and maybe some of them sort of hurry off before you can even approach them, sort of like usher their kids back inside, or like head off. The ones that you do speak to are friendly, but not particularly helpful. You know, sort of don't do nothing. Don't go traveling much. Yeah. Don't go traveling much.

Yeah, don't go traveling much. Don't do the rude pasties parts, sir, me lord. And stuff like that. So unfortunately, no advantage to Rowan, and no extra information for you either. Shit, and also Piers. Yeah, Rowan, can you therefore give me a survival roll with a minus three?

18. 18. 18! Wow! All right! That is more than enough, and in fact is gonna be great for today. Fantastic. Can I get a perception check from Ophelia

and a perception check from Saren specifically? Saren. Saren has plus six to perception. Cool. That's a useful thing of familiars. 19. 19. Dirty 20.

Dirty 20. So yeah, like- Not everyone including me. Ophelia, you are able to secure enough, like, you know, hunt for food basically. So you don't have to expend a ration for a day of travel, for today's day of travel. You manage to hunt down some local game. There is no crown steel. Like none of the fauna or flora here

is affected by crown steel. Not as far as you can tell anyway. It is, you are right in the sort of first, this early part of the journey. You're in the countryside. You pass like small little woodlands and like little copses of trees here and there. You find, you You find abundant summer berries

that seems to be quite a popular thing around here. Pass a lot of blackberry and raspberry bushes. There's a lot of game in their primating season, so there's lots of deer and more local cauldron beasts that you can easily hunt. Yeah! Yeah, it's a good time. And then for Saren, we will keep Saren's roll,

and it means that Saren will have early warning if you do encounter any sort of encounters or events on the road. What I do need though is another survival roll from Rowan for the second day of travel, and then an event is gonna occur. Shit. I really fumbled that one.

Ha ha ha ha. 12. A 12, okay. This is, on the second day, you enter, you leave the sort of country farmland behind, and you now enter the Rustwale Woods. You know, it appears, you can see the fangs of the empress, these tall, dark mountains that stretch

and cover a huge part of the empire, leading all the way to Kelskaris. And the Rustwale Woods sit in the shadow of these mountains. And as you approach them, you can see that they expand for a vast region. In fact, Xanthius, you know that these trees go all the way to Rust End where you're from. These travel days, you know, this is a massive forest.

And the trees here are old. This is an ancient woodland, you know, from the earliest days of life here on Ulthaea since the Bright Storm. The trees have a oddly odd sort of russety brown, reddish brown color to them, giving them perhaps the name of rust, rust whale woods or something like that.

Their bark almost has it, almost looks like it's flakes of iron, sort of that red, heavy rust-like discoloration to them everywhere you look as you pass through. And Chris Trott, as you know, discoloration to them, everywhere you look, as you pass through. And Chris Trott, as you did, unfortunately, as the terrain becomes a little bit more forested and hilly, you begin to lose your way a little bit. And I need you to roll a D4 for me, please.

Very well. Two. A two. Okay, this is to determine your event. Seren flies back to you. So you camp for the first night, you camp without issue the second day of traveling. The second day, the weather is extremely hot.

This is like heat wave level temperatures. Those of you who are not Xanthius, Xanthius your fire resistance makes you completely immune to this effect. Great. But the rest of you, you will have disadvantage on any athletics checks, because it's so hot.

Like you are just wiped out, you know, from the heat. Like it is doing any kind of heavy manual work in this heat is gonna be exhausting. Also you would notice that as a sun, like all of the trees and woodland around you, it's very dry. You are in proper heat waves, kind of like territory here. The rain from the day before,

perhaps making it a little not, at risk of wildfires or anything like that, but very easy for, like, dry brush and things like that to go up in flame. As you make your way through, you begin to, like, head into the sort of outer skirt, the outskirts of the woods. So we're not in dense, thick woodland yet. You're kind of like scatterings of trees,

big stretches of, like, open land, some vague trails and old stone walls still remain behind. When Saren flies back to you, Gruff, with a sort of curious look in their eye, and I don't, do you have any sort of like telepathic communication as part of Find Familiar? Can Seren talk to you? Double check, I'm still getting used to this.

Yeah, that's fine, that's what it's all here for. It's a new thing. Find Familiar. Blah blah blah, telepathic connection. While you're familiar, it's within 100 feet of you, you can communicate with it telepathically. Great. And I can also see through their eyes here.

And do you have a preference for how Seren would refer to you? Or would they call you Gruffith? Would they call you by another name? I think Gruffith, yeah. They would just call you Gruff, Gruffith, Gruffith. So Seren would fly back, and when they get within that hundred feet, you would hear this kind of soft, very cool voice. Gruffydd, Gruffydd, something ahead, something strange on the road.

A man, a small man and flying creatures. They seem distressed. Hmm, dangerous. They are very small. Hmm, are they attacking the man? The man, he seems to be trying to maybe attack them. I am not sure. But it is unusual. There is not much else far from here.

Thank you, Saren. You did good. Stay with me. Yes, so Saren sort of lands on the wagon, and within moments you actually kind of see what Saren's referring to. We can see further up the road, there appears to be a halfling man dressed not like a cauldron.

He has more sort of brassy bronze. He's wearing ornate jewelry, like these thick braces, thick ringed neck gorget necklaces, big dangly metallic earrings, deeply tanned, like deep deep tanned skin, black hair, a little goatee beard on this little halfling, no shoes, he does have loose little sandals on, just sort of like little flat pieces of wood

with sort of very ornate silk ropes attached to it. And he looks infuriated. There's like a beautiful sort of horse, an actual sort of beautifully maned, no, it would be a riding drake. So beautifully barded riding drake with a small wagon being pulled behind it, upon which looks like a wooden sort of cage system.

And all around, you can see this halfling is like jumping up and chasing after about six flying snake-like dragons. They're tiny, they don't have legs and arms, they just have wings and like snake bodies, but their heads are very clearly draconic, and they are like flying around him and like flying in the air and like going through

all the trees, and you see him like, and as you get closer you hear like, please come down, please come down here, you need to get back inside it. Oh, and he's like, by the saints and scions, and he's getting frustrated, and he is not having any luck. And you can even hear giggling

coming from these little creatures, like, hee hee hee. Whish, whish, whish. Whish, whish, whish. Do we know what these things are? Yeah, I think that all of you would know what these are, except Ophelia, but all of you who are from Kodra, these are called dragonettes. Dragonettesodra, these are called Dragonettes. Dragonettes.

Yeah, they're called Dragonettes. They are not actually dragons. They are a sort of flying serpent that looks. Sky deal. Yeah, they're pets basically. They're intelligent, they're kind of like cats. They have like a cat-like personality. They are intelligent.

They have very limited speech. Generally they tend to just mimic sounds that they've heard. But they do have quite strong personalities. And they're all different colors, you know, red, white, blues. All sorts of different kind of colors. Silvery maybe. But yeah, and they're sort of like, and their wings are more gossamer and fairy-like. But their faces are very draconic in the way that they look.

They've got scaled bodies. They're not like snakes, like smooth scales, they're like, you know, plated scales like a dragon's. And they're just sort of, yeah, you can see that they're all, there's like half a dozen of them, and they are like, some of them, they land, and they're like, wriggling in the flowers, and they're like, you know, getting, they're very happily sort of in the grass,

like on their backs, on their wings. Some of them are like, one of them flies down and is like stealing one of these halfling sandals. Like he's like jumps up and one of them grabs the sandal and whips it off and then he's like hopping around. He's like, no, come back here, stop this, stop your games, oh! And he is totally engrossed in this

as your wagon draws closer and closer. Oh dear, glad that's not me. Should we help this man? What are those horrible things? What are they? Oh, don't worry, they're perfectly fine and tame and actually very cute. The way they snuggle up to you.

You'll love them. Dragonettes. Dragonettes? Yes. So they're dragons? No, well, kind of, not quite. Obviously much smaller and much more mischievous. I had one myself many, many years ago,

but well, maybe for like two days, but also ran away. Impossible to find these things, as you can see. They're not much different to you then. What? What? They're very cheeky, like you. Oh, I thought you meant,

I ran away and am very slippery. Oh, and also that you did run away. I mean, yeah. No, you're right, I thought you meant, I ran away and I'm very slippery. Oh, I'm not so bad, you did, but I mean, yeah. No, you're right, actually, I can... So as you draw closer, this halfling seems almost like hear the thundering of Rodri and the creaking of wagons, and he turns around and he's like, he starts with, hello, hey, hey, hello! Hello, hello, hi, I can see you're having a lot of trouble

here with these. Oh, my good friend, I am so glad to the... Would you be able to help me? I'm willing to offer a small... We can, I know how difficult these things are to wrangle. Yeah, well, these are not the only ones. Oh, forgive me, I've not introduced myself. My name is Jun Rukwillo,

I'm a merchant from the Suncrest Isles. And I'm supposed to be transporting these to to Cal Scaris I got lost on the road I think I'm miles away from Imperial Highway these These my little children they are flying all over the place and and these ones I think I can eventually get back into into the wagon with a bit of food But some of the others have flown further afield and I don't wish to leave these here And I need someone to help me go and fetch the others that have flown away.

I'm willing to offer you something in return. I have gold or perhaps you would care for one of my pets, one of my little beauties. Well now, that's very interesting an offer. Before we continue, Jun, now how would I spell that name? Oh, it is J-H-U-N, Rookwill it is J-H-U-N. J-H-U-N. Jun. Rukwilo, exactly as I'd spell it.

Yes, of course. W-H-O-U-K. Hwilo. Hwilo. Hwilo. Hwilo. Hwilo. Hwilo.

Hwilo. Jun, Jun Rukwilo. Jun Rukwilo. But yes, no, I could give you one of my darlings as a reward, I could pay you some gold or whatever it is, but I just, there's another six, four of them flew that way. Two of them went that way.

I need to get these back in before I go looking after them and I'm just by myself. Would you mind helping a poor merchant out? Of course we'd help you. Oh, you are, oh my dear, you are too kind. He like, he's like hops over to you and like tries to like take a hand. And he's like mwah mwah mwah, like kisses it on the cheek.

He's just like, oh you are too kind, my beautiful lady. And he sort of like hops back. Do you have enough bait in order to get all six of them back? These six, yes, but the others, well, they flew off. I could give you a few small portions, but perhaps you have ways of coercing them or encouraging them. They're not named, are they?

I have not named them yet, no, no. I generally call them by their colors, but they like to be praised and they like to be sort of soothed. They love music. There are many. I'm sure you will find a way to convince them to come back. They're just playful little things.

They just... I think they got a little sick of the road and being trapped up in their cage. But I tried to assure them that it would not be long until we reach Cal Scaris and I would be able to pass them on to some wonderful customer who will take care of them and such, but they're playful little things. Is it still Heatwave Day? It's really fucking hot.

This guy is like, he doesn't seem bothered by the temperature at all. He's like, maybe a little sweaty, but he's not bothered by it. He's kind of like you, Xanthias, in that he's kind of used to this kind of temperature. But yeah, everybody else is definitely, even Daisy's feeling it.

Daisy's like, I can't, she's asleep in the wagon. Let's say for the sake of argument, Daisy's having a hot day nap in the wagon. Ron's gonna go to the back of the wagon where Daisy's sleeping. Yeah. Look for Stuart. in the wagon. Ron's gonna go to the back of the wagon where Daisy's sleeping. Yeah. Look for Stuart.

Yes, Stuart would be in there. Didn't she say that she was gonna leave him in the back? Oh no, she's gonna leave Stuart behind, yeah, that's true. I see a space where Stuart should be. Close the, like, Stuart's run away. I mean, I could get it wrong, but I thought Katie was like, yeah, she's gonna leave it out of the way. Let's say for argument until Katie comes back,

let's just say that that's the case. Or at least Rowan doesn't see Stuart, even if Stuart maybe is there later on. For the moment, you don't see Stuart. You see a space where Stuart should be. Stuart would have been great for sniffing out the dragon nets, but. That's true, but are you,

would you like to play a song at least? Try that, they said they like music. Yeah, I could learn them with a tune. Okay. Or so I could lie to them. What do you mean? I could make a big pile of their favorite food. Oh, you could?

What is their favorite food? It would be like, they are meat eaters, they are like little sort of like, like the riding drakes and stuff like that. So like small mice and chickens, like little pieces of chicken, little mice, they love mice. Okay. Can your illusion make it smell like a cow?

Maybe bugs, they like bugs as well. Same. They might be able to smell the last, not a real chicken. Yeah, he points in the direction of, and it's kind of, you can see that there's like, you know, there are trees scattered around, so you can't immediately see them, but he basically points to the east and west,

and he's like, a bunch of like, four flew off that way, two flew off that way, like. Okay, I will try to gather the four that have gone that way. You know your dragonets? Well, not really, it's more, I can see how much you're all struggling with the heat. I don't know what you mean. And, I mean, it is quite hot,

but I can try something, I don't know. No fireballs. No fireballs, no. I know they don't really like whistling too much. I'm making stuff up. Yeah, he'll say that, yes, they do not like loud, sudden noises. They are spooked very easily, they will quickly run. Honestly, knowing my beauties,

some of them are probably having a little nap if they can find a nice spot to take a nice little rest. They're probably sleeping, they love to sleep, they love to eat, they do not like loud noises. Don't spook them. They like to chase after little mice and insects and things like that, that they love to snack upon. Okay. You can see that maybe he's got like a bag of like crispy crickets or something like that, that they love to snack upon. Okay.

You can see that maybe he's got like a bag of like crispy crickets or something like that, and like he's like, That's a shame. And like one of them sort of eventually like kind of wraps around his arm like a snake and then starts eating out of his hand, and he like takes that one and puts it in the cage,

and then shuts the cage. I totally like when they do that. That's scary. Oh, I don't like when they do that. That's scary. Oh, I don't like that. Oh! Listen to that. Oh, that's really weird. Oh, you keep a skeleton.

Yeah, but he seems like a big person. He's like a little wiggly, fast, weird, slimy, flying things. Oh, they like to perch on your shoulder and climb up your arm. It's delightful. Do they leave like a goo? Are they in a gooey?

No, not gooey. Not gooey, no. No? No. Mark shakes his head for podcast listeners. No, they're not doing it. They're very dry. They're extremely dry.

Very. They're like a sponge, actually. They suck up all the moisture around you. I need all the moisture I can get. I knew a Dragonette lady once. Died. Dehydration. If you die in a house with a bunch of Dragonettes, they will eat your face. We'll try. I guess we'll try our best.

We'll try our best. How bad can it be? How bad can it be? How bad can it be? How bad can it be? How bad can it be? How bad can it be? How bad can it be? How bad can it be? So what's the plan? How about you two go off that way and us two will go off this way.

Okay, sounds good. Okay. Who's going east, who's going west? I'm going to the four. To the four and then to the two. We're going to the two. Okay, right. Okay, all right.

So. Because we don't do well in the heat. How are you approaching this? Are you going to try and sneak up on the dragonettes? I want to do. Because you need to find them as well. So what are you guys doing? From what little I know,

from the now additional backstory of Xanthea is having a dragonette for two days, I thought going towards them slowly and going, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, was what they like. Okay. Instead of whistling or making mouse noises or anything, just little, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, sss, was what they like. Okay. Instead of whistling or making mouse noises or anything, just little hisses.

Little hisses, sure. And I'm doing that. So, but approaching slowly and cautiously. I'm approaching slowly. Okay. Until at least I discover where they are or how they're hiding or whatever they're doing. And what's Ophelia doing?

Are you gonna follow suit? I think we'll do like a, can I? Because I'm assuming Percival's with you. Yeah, I think Ophelia will go up in the trees, like spider climb up, and see if they're up in the trees, and then maybe have Percival go alongside Xanth, he's in like a pincer movement, and then we'll try and converge in one spot.

Sure, can you two and Percival make stealth checks? So for Percival it'll just be a dex. Okey dokey. He does have disadvantage because of his chain mail. Yep. Watch this. Watch what? What do we watch? It's a group stealth, so I need at least half of you

to succeed. Group stealth, you say? Group stealth. What, did you roll a two and a three? No way, because I rolled the one. Oh, wow! One, two, three! Nice.

I will come back to you guys in a moment. What about Gruff and Rohan? How bad can it be? I always think that your castings speak with the same One, two, three. Nice. I will come back to you guys in a moment. What about Gruff and Roan? How bad can it be? I always think of you casting Speak with Animals, and then calling out to them in the animal language. Yeah, I mean, these are beasts. They do count as beasts.

All right, okay. And then what about Roan? I have a fucking droid. Roan's gonna start playing a soft tune on his sostenuto, but it's gonna be a skulking pink panther tone. Oh, da-dum. Da-dum. That's his skulking timos.

Ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam, ba-bam. He's dragging it. Ba-la-bam. Cool, can I get a performance check from Rowan and a persuasional animal handling from Gruffith? He's gonna be animal handling. I figured he would be. Fucking royalty three stealth music.

17. 17. Ooh. 23. 23. I'll deal with you two first. So you make your way, not being particularly quiet, in fact being quite noisy,

shouting out, calling out like, oh, dragonets, dragonets come to me and then playing this music. You eventually kind of make your way out into like a little grove in the middle of this kind of scattering of trees, a big wildflower meadow, basically. And you can see that these four dragonettes

have basically been chilling in amongst all the flowers. Like some of them are curled up like in amongst all the flowers, some of them like wriggling around. They're just having a lovely time. And you sort of see them, if we imagine like a bed of wildflowers, and as they hear the music and the shouts, these little heads, like little snake heads, pop up and like whip around in your direction.

Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. And then they whip towards you, totally entranced by the music, and then Gruff, you begin to hear like, pretty music, pretty music, yes, yes, yes, we love it, we love it, more, more, more, more, more, as they kind of begin swarming around Rowan. Snake noises.

They really like your music, so maybe if you keep playing, we'll be walking back that way. Hello? Hi, hi, hello, hello, hello, hello, hello. There's four different voices. Names, well we don't, names, that's blue, I'm red. Oh, I'm Grif and this is my friend Rowan.

Hello? Hello. Hi, is there gonnaff and this is my friend Rowan. Hello. Hello. Hi, is there gonna be more music? Do you have any food? And they kind of start sniffing around you, Gruff, like. There is food back at the cart you came from. You're very fluffy. I am very fluffy. They start like brushing up against you

and sort of just they seem to experience like textures and smells and flavors and sounds sounds seem to really excite them. Do you like my mane? Oh, and they sort of sneak and they start burrowing into it. Because they don't have arms, but they've got these little claw appendages on their wings, so they can kind of bring those in and they sort of nuzzle.

Gryffindor, what's going on? Ooh, ooh. Yeah, they've gone into the tunic now. Rowan, one's wrapped around the brim of your hat, and the other one is wrapped around your wrist, and is like, I love this, I love your music, I love your sound. Keep going, Rowan, they really love your music.

They don't bite, do they? Oh no, they're fine, they're just a bit tickly. Ooh, ooh, ooh. Slowly creep our way back. That's right, lad, keep going. And yeah, the two of you together, you catch these four dragonettes easily. Like they are totally in go some music

and being able to like. No, Rowan, not the intrusive thoughts! Ah, and Vigroth, keeping conversation with them and like, you know, keeping them talking. They are really like, they're like little excitable like toddlers, like they have like cat mentality. Like, yeah, they're like little mischievous cats. Like.

Hiding these two around an airport. Yeah, yeah, exactly, right? But like, they probably do things like, they're probably like, one of them wiggles out of your tunic and is like nudging your little gourd, like, what's in here? I want to see inside. And like, kind of like tries to like open it,

but it can't, it's too strong. It's just like, and then it like gets distracted and starts playing with like, you know, something on like Rowan, like they start tugging at your little sash and things like that. Like. Hey, my new belt pouch. With a little bell on my collar. Oh, well as soon as they find that bell collar,

they're just like, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, and they'll do that for a minute and then they get bored. They're like little ADHD cats, these little dragonettes. But the two of you eventually make your way back to Jun, and yeah, he's like, oh my god, thank you so much. He's got like half of his in the cage at this point, and he kind of helps guide them back in from you and sort of lures them in.

Meanwhile. Meanwhile. Ophelia, how's it going up there? It's so dry down here. There's so many sticks. Someone set up a load of cans on a string. I'm sweating. Ding ding ding ding.

I'm sweating on the, I can see the sweat coming down the way. There's so many kids and you can't stop them. Two of you. Kung kung kung. The two of you, as you two are standing. Kung, kung, kung. The two of you, as you are stalking your way through the woodlands here, making a fair bit of noise, like Percival just doesn't really seem to understand being quiet, so he's trying to move,

but the chainmail's rattling, you know, you're stepping on loads of sticks and things like that, but you hear this kind of faint shrill like, bleh, this kind of like screeching noise, as you hear this kind of dull boom, boom. And as you step through and as you kind of break through a little tree line, you see two of these dragonettes are actually

at the top of a tree, desperately trying to get away from a very bizarre looking creature. Okay. from a very bizarre looking creature. You see a seven foot tall crystalline humanoid like shape. There is no features to it, there's no gender to it. It's almost just this most perfect mannequin of crystal that's glowing with multi-colored light inside its body. It has four arms, two of which are like trying to grab

these creatures out of the tree, but they're too quick. And then two of them seem to end in these elongated oval shapes. And it's trying to grab them. And you hear this tone that is very different but somehow very reminiscent of the types of noises you heard in the proto-majori vault. Okay.

As this creature, there's no voice to it but it's just, boom, boom, boom. It's like emanating these droning noises, and it's like climbing up the tree and is trying to grab these dragonets that are like freaking out. Like they are just trying to get away from this thing. It's got oval hands. It, here, but then as you kind of step forward,

crunch, Xanthius, you and Percival make a heavy footfall, and you see this crystalline mannequin. It just turns completely featureless. No eyes, no mouth, no nose, just pure spherical head shape and it turns it in your direction. Let's go of the tree. Roll initiative.

Oh shit! Oh! I like see it. I'm still in like, the moment I see something, I'm gonna sing a song. Twinkle, twinkle. Now listen up, here's the story. I have a pencil.

Thank you. Something I forgot to do. Oh man. So do you guys need to roll as well? We're not here. I would say yeah, for now, like you know, for now they don't know anything's wrong. We're having a lovely time.

We'll get some chairs and some popcorn. Yeah? So we've got. You guys got this. Woo! It's easy. Ophelia and Percival. You can just roll initiative for Percival separately for this, R ray, I think.

Is it crystalline as in you can see through it? Yeah, like I said, it's not fully translucent. There is some frosting. Yeah, but there are colored lights inside it. Like red, purple, green, blue. All throughout its body. Is it, how tall is it? Seven feet tall, with four arms.

But two of its arms don't have hands. They have, I don't want you to laugh at this, they almost look a little bit like Mega Man's like Buster cannons, like these oval, like cannon-like shapes on its arms. I can't laugh about it, that's cool as shit. Okay, so. Four arms, seven feet.

Okay. That's a lot of feet. That is a lot of feet. Right, Xanthius, initiative. Seven feet? Seven. Xanthius, initiative please. That's a lot of feet. Tom. Eleven. Thank you, stop cracking jokes and answer me when I ask.

Father wishes me your attention. Mother fucker, I'm making content. Yeah, I'm making content too, it's called a combat round. Ophelia. Fucking, ain't Mara DMing this week, motherfucker. Like, 10? 10. 10, and then for Percival.

Percival got 14. 14, he's quicker than... He's so much faster than me. He's so much faster, and then our construct. Ooh, 13, perfect. So Percival, perhaps this is like, you know, fresh. This is his first time being in a combat and being much more aware and instinctively he's gonna react.

And you can just control Percival. You decide what he does on his turn. But this thing looks at you and begins to advance menacingly towards you. Let's say he is about 30 feet away. Oh, God. Okay, let's see. Percival, I think Percival will instinctively go towards where Ophelia is,

who's currently up in the tree, and he would stand kind of protectively at the base of the tree, waiting for Ophelia to come down. Okay. So we have the shield raised, ready to come. So he pulls his shield out, he's got his one handed, like, axe version of the Halberd, yep. And he's just ready.

Yep. Does he want ready in action if anything comes close? Ready in action, he'll strike if the construct comes close. Okay, perfect. This creature, it goes next. The two Dragonettes just immediately, now that attention is on them, they fly back the way you've come. So they fly back in the direction that you guys came from. This thing will glance, and it's sort of very Terminator-esque, sort of scans you, Xantheus and Percival, and then looks up at Ophelia,

and its eye, well, its face doesn't have eyes. It just glances over Percival. Like, it doesn't really even know he's there, or certainly doesn't seem to care about him. And looking between you two, Xanthius, he just, do, do, do, do, he just makes his way over to you and he's gonna try and grab you first. That is only an 11.

Against, oh my AC. AC. That does not hit. Yeah, so he goes to like grab you with one of his hands. You manage to pull yourself away, and with his second attack, he's gonna try and grab you again. Yeah.

That is a 16. I will use a reaction to cast Shield. Jump out of the way, and then block it, the next one with my Shield. Okay. Yeah, he just comes up, the way and then block it, the next one with my shield. Okay, yeah, he just like comes up, and this is like T1000 just like, like tries to grab you, and its movements are so rigid and inflexible,

but there is a grace to this creature as well. Xanthias, your turn. This thing is in melee range of you. It's in melee range. And it's a hot day. I'm worried about casting like a fire spell. I'm worried of burning this place to the ground. Don't worry about that.

First of all, especially for any folks, friends that we have out in LA who were recently affected, I don't want to upset you guys. But also, yeah, it's a hot day, but you're not in any fear of that. You have enough control of your magic that, yeah. Yeah, well, I have a whole new set of spells. This is the first time fighting in this new edition.

It is. I actually have access to Misty Step. You do? And I'm gonna use that. I teleport 30 feet away. Where would you like to go? Like, back from where you came? I'd almost like to do wherever Ophelia and Percival are,

the opposite way, so it's like in the middle of the two of us. So it's like split between the two of you? Yep, absolutely. You vanish, leaving behind this kind of trailing mist and then reappear. Bonus action complete. Grrr! And that's a bonus action to do,

so I can only cast a cantrip now because that's my magic action. I am gonna use my cantrip, which is a new cantrip, Sorcerous Burst. Love it. Which is basically... It's like baby Chaos Bolt. It's like baby Chaos Bolt.

So, yeah, I roll to hit, and then I roll a D8, and it does a different type of damage for whatever I roll. Sure. Or can I choose? Yeah, I choose. You choose. I can choose what damage type it is, so it's just a really versatile damage type thing,

but I don't know what this thing is weak to. But I still need to hit anyway. That is, does a fucking 13 hit? No, sorry, does an 11 hit? It does not, no. This thing just, it just twists its body, almost pivoting perfectly on its torso as the blast of energy sails past it.

Yes. Anything else on your turn? That's it, that's me for now. I've used, I believe, bonus action, I have got some movement, but I still, like I'm 30 feet from it, Ophelia's 30 feet from the other way. I'd say that like, yeah, Percival and Ophelia are like, yeah, about like 20 feet away from it

in the opposite direction, but also Ophelia's now up a tree and Percival's at the bottom of the tree. I don't suppose I can do like a, I have no shame. Help! Yeah, yeah, I see. You cry out as loud as you can, like help! At which point the two of you hear this.

Really? Yeah. Dragonettes. Yeah, what do you guys think? Do the dragonettes, that they were, They will do like probably in like a few, in a few seconds they're gonna, Yeah.

Up here, but not right now. Cause I would be like, I'd ask them where to go. But yeah, I guess we go towards the sound of Santhias's. Why don't you roll an initiative for me and then I'll hand you in when you get there. I guess it depends how far we actually travel away from each other, right? Not long, like not too far,

but like definitely a couple of rounds maybe. That's fair. At most. 11. At least. 11. 10. All right, I'm actually gonna drop you guys a few points just so you don't match with these ones. What's your dexterity, Rowan?

My dexterity is... What did you get, 11 Kim or 10? 10. You got the 10, so I'm actually gonna drop you guys down by a couple of points just to make sure the initiative works smoothly. Alrighty, but you're gonna arrive for a little bit, right? You basically head off in that direction.

Eventually the dragonets come past you and they would just be like, help, help, help, and they kind of like pass you like, a scary thing, a scary thing! It's only Xantheus, don't worry. No, no, no, no! A scary thing! Which way?

And they just sort of point their heads in the direction that you know Xantheus and Ophelia went. Go back to your father! And they just fly past. But yeah, you guys carry on. And you can hear like the sounds of something happening. Like you hear flashes and flares of magic and stuff like that. But meanwhile, you guys carry on. And you can hear the sounds of something happening. Like you hear flashes and flares of magic and stuff like that.

But meanwhile, Ophelia. Yeah, Ophelia's going to rage and charge down the tree. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Leaping off the tree. Yeah, the blood sense pumping, the red light pulsing. So it's interesting, when you rage, there is no blood in this creature. This is, there is no blood.

You can sense that there's magic, but there is no blood or heart or anything in this creature. Interesting. Hmm. She is going to charge towards it so she has 50 feet of movement speed. Easily enough to get there. Down the tree and jumps off.

And I will hit this creature with Vex with my Rapier. All right, let's see if you hit with Voracity. It's going well then, guys. 18. Only just hits this thing. Oh wow, okay. So it hits crystalline body, but it also knows, almost like a martial artist,

like almost tries to deflect itself, but you're just pure strength and speed, Ophelia just, poosh! Kind of like the arms kind of move independently from each other as well. Yeah. Cool. 10 damage on the first hit plus two for the rage. All right, so 12 points of damage total.

Your new weapon mastery trait goes off. So your next attack has advantage against this creature. And I've got extra attack so I can hit again! You do! So do you get advantage on this one? Immediately, got extra attack so I can hit again. You do. So do you get advantage on this one? Immediately, and if she hits on this one, her next attack gets advantage. Two 18s, baby.

It hits, so your next attack will also have advantage. It's your next attack, not everyone's. Not anybody's, just only a few. That's cool. So that is another six and eight, nine, ten, 11 damage. Another 11 points of damage. Do we have any movement left after that? Yeah, you would have 20 feet of movement.

20 feet, so I'd like to just skirt around towards the back of the creature. So stay within combat range. Combat range, but towards his back. Okay, yeah. So he spins around sensing a threat, but you can see almost positions his body, or its body, so it's kind of got two arms facing towards Xanthias

and now has like you, like within range, and it's almost perfectly split its body. And you watch as its head ripples. Oh God. And splits so it can face two directions at once. I, I, fuck the Dragonettes, I want one of these things. That's awesome. Anything else in your turn, Ophelia?

Uh, attack bonus, actually. You got blood. Anything else in your turn, Ophelia? Attack bonus, actually. Just his head. You got blood points, because you did crystal, you know, so it's not like, gore. Bloints, no, but it just splits his head. It's like, well, it's single head, yeah, like splits in half and then turns so slightly.

Kind of like the T1000 when it's made of liquid metal and it kind of... If it had eyes. Yeah. Yeah, if it had eyes, then yeah. Yeah, if it had eyes, it would have one eye on each side, but it doesn't. I have no eyes yet, I must see. I am good for my turn right now, thank you.

Alrighty. Okay, with that, we are gonna take our break. Break time. Okay. But yeah, as this bizarre looking creature has turned its attention, seemingly chasing after these Dragonettes for whatever reason, but now

Volta turns, it could very well be. Like, the nature of this creature, this definitely does not look like any sort of, you know, creature you've ever encountered before. And in fact, bears most resemblance to the kind of materials and the noises and the effects that you have experienced within a proto-magi vault. I see, I see.

I see. So with that, we will take our break. We will see you guys in five minutes. Hell yeah. Until then, take care. Bye-bye. See you in part two. Bye now!

Wow, wow, wow. Wow! Wow! Wow! Wow!