High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #53 | The Gallowack Hunt (Part 1)

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

The gang gather the last bits of information from the vibrant village of Colvel as they begin their hunt for the Gallowack! _______________ 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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Our heroes have set off on a new adventure in pursuit of a proto-Magi Vault, the abandoned facilities of an ancient, magically superior race who once battled the gods of Ulfeia. Such places are often fraught with danger and peril, but offer great rewards for those who can navigate their alien magic, their guardians and traps. Their quest has taken them north of Ashen Rest into the Rust Whale Woods,

believing that a vault may be behind a number of disappearances in the area. After dealing with a malfunctioning construct that had been pursuing them on the road, the party entered the small village of Colville and met with the local key figures, as well as securing rooms at the Villages Only Inn. They asked about the disappearances and learned that Colville had many local myths and folklore, with few taking the threat of missing travellers – not very seriously. The squire of Dame Cassandra, Pascal, was sent to investigate and ask similar questions, but everyone in Colville seems to think that he had simply gone home. Having spoken to the local wreath, Alwindel, the innkeeper charity and his family, Osa Strongreed, the owner and boss of the local lumber mill, the party eventually sought out Maggi aka

Magathera, a halfling dragonborn from the province of Ordaskir. The old woman, blind but possessing with magical experience, gave them further information and said that Pascal may have gone to investigate the Galowak, a legendary folk monster, a local folk monster, sorry, that had a lair up in the mountains. Maggie also offered to sell them some of her more irregular potions,

which seemed to interest some members of the party. And that is where we jump back in with today's session. I believe I described Maga-thera's, these are mine now. No, they're staying with T-T. You will have them back. She needs to fidget. You will have them back. That's not fair, they all have stuff. I don't have stuff. Girl needs to fidget. You will have them back. That's not fair, they all have stuff.

I don't have stuff. Girl needs to fidget, let her fidget. I have nothing. Is it going to be thrown? No, but she'll do. If it is thrown again, it is staying in my possession. She'll do. I've got more.

Teacher spoken. If there's any more being thrown, anything gets thrown across, you're in trouble. I don't care. Wait. I don't care. Wait, I just, I just, I just, I just. Really? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I really want to throw something right now.

I'm sorry, I would never do it again. I really want to throw something. Can I throw Tom across? Test me. Oh yeah. Just yeet Tom. Members video, I get gunked through the table. I believe I described Magathera's hut as,

it's very small, so the taller characters have had to crouch on their hands and knees. Rowan got stronger, but Gruff is still crouching. There are charms and fetishes hung from the wooden rafters of the Thatched Dome cottage roof. There is a small crackling fire with a bubbling cauldron, a small low table arrayed with a menagerie of crystals and sticks and all sorts of strange little ritual items.

Maga-thera, this elderly halfling woman, but clearly, well, dragonborn woman with halfling traits, has like patches of scales, a long black tail curled out from under her grandmotherly robes. Completely blind, two milky white eyes, completely unable to provide her sight. But her monitor lizard familiar, Bracken, is sort of coiled around,

maybe sat up in a small wooden chair, watching you all with unblinking feverish eyes. And yes, Megathera sort of glancing around, Wes, was there anything else that you'll require of me? Well. I feel like he hasn't met Megathera, don't know. Anything else that you'll require of me? Well... Ophelia hasn't met Magathera, I don't know. We say that you were present, obviously you were. But Magathera hasn't interacted with Ophelia.

I feel like Maggie would be interested in Ophelia. I'll leave it over to you. There are... It's a quaint little cottage you have, Magathir. Thank you. Very cosy. Yes, I have made myself comfortable here. She doesn't always, she never looks directly at you.

She's always sort of listening more in your direction. Forgive me, how long have you lived here for? Um... Forgive me, how long have you lived here for? Hmm... It has been a few decades now. It is hard to keep track of the exact number of years. But it has been a while. I left when Udas Keir was no longer welcoming for me.

Why...Udas Keir? Why would it not be welcoming to you? That is a rather personal question for a stranger. But suffice to say, I have found my place here in Colville. The locals, they are cautious with me but I can give them many things that others cannot. They come to me for advice, for medicine on occasion, when their local priest cannot help. But yes. I'm sorry for prying, I just...

You are curious. I am. I also have a friend from Erdask here and the province is of interest to me. A friend from the homeland, yes. It is a place of, I would say, brutal beauty. A place where you quickly learn heart blessings, where the strong prevail over the weak. I see.

Yes, it is a precious place to me, even if I am not welcome there anymore. But still, she will gesture once again to this kind of selection of vials that she's arrayed. Oh yeah, so I gave her the spell stones to make up the scrolls. Yes, but she'll have to do that like over time.

Yeah, but was it after the game last time that we said that in trade for that we would also get one of the potions as well? I would say you can have one of the potions, yes, if she's allowed to make a copy of the Spellstone into her own spell book, yeah. Okay, so there's Wisdom of the Crone, which gives Visions. Dreamwalker's Tonic, Dreamwalking. You can enter someone else's dreams too.

Enter someone else's dreams, yeah. But if they're having a nightmare then. Whatever happens in the dream happens in real life, I guess. Don't know. That was never said. Well, nah. Respite of Youth, which I've just got written as One Day of Bliss. I feel like there was a massive downside to that that I didn't write down. We didn't get given anything else.

The thing that was consequential was the wisdom of the Crone. that I didn't write down. The different bliss and invigoration. We didn't get given anything else. The thing that was consequential was the wisdom of the crone. Oh yeah, you get visions with wisdom of the crone of like what you're, what you want, and what you're aiming for and whatever else, but there was some downside for that one. And draft of true self, which is a polymorph.

Kind of, it's like, yeah, it changes like your body, like voice gender and stuff. Oh, that's like, yeah, it changes your body voice, gender, and stuff. Oh, that was right, yeah. And then Major's Breath Incense, which was Spell Slot Restoration. Anybody who inhales it. Four levels of Spell Slots over short rest can be divided among people. Oh, that's awesome. If me and Gruff were there, we could split four levels between us,

like one and three or two and two, or I hunt them all. I think we should swap the stones for that. Yeah, I think that's a good motion. Yeah, that's a good one. Because that was like a short rest we could use over it. Yes, you can use it in during a show. Hell yeah.

So yeah, I think the mage's breath incents. Yes, I believe that I would be willing to give that to you in exchange for our agreement. You will need to leave the Spellstones with me for some time. It will take me time to scribe them into my book of spells. Okay, that works for me. But if you have business, if you intend on going after the Squire, the missing Squire, it will take you days to travel in chase of them.

So this should work out quite well. So when we come back, it will be safe and sound. And hopefully armed with even more spell scrolls, spell stones, or odds and oddities maybe. If indeed this, if you, if as we both suspect, this Proto Magi vault is nearby, and is indeed perhaps where these stories of the Galowak come from, yes. But I could not say. Perhaps

they are just local stories. But you would do well to ask one of the locals for directions. I have never been there myself, so I do not know the way, but as I understand it, it is at least a few days travel outside of Colville. But is there any interest in purchasing my other potions? Gold is always very welcome with Magathir's research. The next one I would recommend is the Wisdom of Crones. That's my two cents. Welcome with the Maga-thera's research. I would recommend is the wisdom of crones.

That's my two cents. Yeah. Visions of what we would like to know sounds very useful. Yeah. It is, I will say that you have no control over these visions. It is the visions are generally about things that you want or need to know or desire.

Is there something we could do in advance to taking it where we could learn more about the potion itself or is it just a plug it and see? Maybe if you buy it you can do some experimentations if you want. And do they only have one of each of these five? These will never be made ever again. Oh wow.

In that case, I'd like a lot. They are 50 gold each, a small price to pay, but as I always warn, such gifts always have a price to pay. 200 gold and we take all of them? I think that's a pretty good deal. It's not bad, it's not bad. I'm just wondering if there's any in particular that we like...

Dreamwalker sounds pretty cool. I mean they all sound cool. And you become a spirit which has its own benefits. It's like yeah, you could patrol at night like if people, if you need to watch at night. The way that she described it is basically like you drink it before you go to sleep, your body sleeps but you become a spirit

that can choose to wake up your body at any time. You can re-enter your body and just wake up. Oh, that's cool. Whilst you are the spirit though, you can also then go up to other sleeping people and enter their dreams. Oh! But should you enter a nightmare,

there may be dire consequences. So you're trapped in there whilst that person's asleep. Maybe, doesn't say. How's Zan Zan sleeping these days? Not well. Yeah, don't go near that one. Stuart's dreams, I bet they're amazing. If you like the pyro, meet the pyro.

Yeah! Yeah! What purse you would dream? I'm intrigued by Rodri. Graffith? Yeah. Do we have 200 gold to spare? Rowan I'm intrigued by Rogerie. Gryffith? Yeah. Do we have 200 gold to spare? Rowan is tiny, by the way.

He's like, yeah, okay. He's four feet tall. Right. He's still smaller than Daisy. Yeah, she's smaller than Daisy. Yeah, because it's half his height, basically. This is shortly after we also saw you big. Much bigger as well.

Oh yeah, I was enormous. He was like 18 feet tall. What? He like grappled with the the rope-board and things. Holy shit! Yeah. What the hell? So that's a thing you can do.

He's had a busy day. I've been up and down. Up and down. Down at the moment. Oh, the shrinking wasn't you though. That was a fair right, yeah. That was to fit me in this hut. I see, okay. But yes, I say that to Gruffydd.

Hello. My name's Gruffydd. Hello. My name's Glaf. What was it you wanted? I think that's a very, uh, very kind deal. Yeah? For 200 gold. A small price for travelers such as yourself, but a great value to poor Magathera out in the middle of nowhere. Look at her.

Groff's already counting the money out, one by one. Anyway, we can help. Two. We'll help. You are sweet to care for little Magathera. Six. Grr, grr. Seven. Eight. The, uh, the Grove Warden, uh...

Drive me mad. The Grove Warden that roams this area, the peaceful, friendly, kindly Grove Warden. The ancient construct, yes. The one that houses those large bees and produces quite the wealth of honey for the village. Mm. Tell me more about that. The creature has been in these woods for years village. Tell me more about that.

The creature has been in these woods for years now. The bees pollinate many of the flowers here. It was, I happened upon it when it passed near Covil once and using a little spell, I convinced it to stop for a moment, allowed me to harvest the honey from the hives. I make herbal tea, use it as a reagent in some spells and potions. Yeah.

Oh. We encountered such a creature just outside the village before we arrived, but it seems like its safety gear, magical gear was damaged, and it had become quite enraged. Yeah, because you burned the bomb. No, wait, didn't you say?

That's what you're saying. You encountered the Guardian and you destroyed the hives. Is that what I'm hearing? It charged through the trees at us, enraged, and very willing to harm us. And in a moment of panic, I struck out at the creatures that were attacking my allies,

which were the hives, on its shoulders. There is this kind of like, hunt, like she sort of hunches in on herself, and you hear this kind of, those of you who don't speak Draconic would hear a kind of hissing like, Eth-ma-keh! Xanthius, you know that this is,

it would translate to, Fucking idiot. Fucking, fucking stupid children, or something like that. Like it would translate to... Fucking idiot. Fucking, fucking stupid children, or something like that. Like it would be like, ugh. She's like, ugh, stupid boy. What did you do that for? Have you no, I was protecting my friends.

I am no Akmaklek. It was enraged because it had an unaligned crystal. Did you destroy the construct? No, we fixed it. We repaired it. And like, doesn't look in your direction, Daisy, but sort of like turns ahead. This one is at least aware.

You could have tried to fix it first. We all repaired it. Yeah, we could have. I wasn't there that week. Not standing for the bee hit. Still, what is done is done. I love landing Tom in it, that's so good. He landed himself in it though, he was pushing.

He was like, he could have just not brought it up. He was digging himself in. He was so close to getting out of this place. I'd done it again, frankly. He was attacking us. What is done is done. I will make do without the honey, but still. It was very good.

I am. It was lovely. Well, if you are buying my potions, that will do enough recompense, I feel. Maybe we could keep an eye on, see if there's any more bees we could bring back, perhaps? These were special bees, something about the primal magic of the construct.

It infused their bodies, made them bigger, healthier. Honey was infused with magic. But still, I'm sure some got away. So like a once in a lifetime sort of situation, is that what you're saying? Can't ever be replicated again. A real like, a real alignment of the stars kind of situation.

I'm sure that there are similar creatures out there in the world somewhere, but perhaps not here in the Rustwale Woods, but as I said, there are other things here. It is what it is. Oh, yes. Okay, well. But perhaps before you blast things with fire,

you should consider if they can be fixed first. I do keep saying that to him. Do you wanna just like, sure, the crime steal while you're at it? Do you wanna just light it up? No. No. No.

No. I do keep saying that to you. Obsidious Magathera. She's on the list. Where's Gruff on this list? You're like one. At the top. Yeah. You're my number one? At the top.

You're my number one guy. If you are. My kill list. You can't find these in D&D Beyond because you don't know the properties of them and you don't know exactly what they'll do. But if you want to write down these four potions, or the five potions actually, that you have, you can do. Who would like what? Have you finished counting?

Please mark off the 200 golds. 199. See, there's 200 there. Oh, you've just ruined my countdown. Add one more, add one, oh my. Two. Well. Three.

Yes. You can't hurt people, okay? Bye, you. Zantheus knows that there are 200 coins in that pouch because he has gold dragon. He has part gold dragon magic where he looks at it and goes there's 200 gold. 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 100, 200, we're done.

Gruff. Gruff is making eye contact with you while he's doing this by the way. 200 gold Magathera for the remaining potions. She gestures and a mage hand, kind of like a draconic, very shriveled draconic claw will take the little pouch, hover it over to her and she kind of takes it protectively, puts it inside her robes.

Yes, very good, very good. And she will slide the five potions, well yeah, because you already have the mage's breath, so she slides them over. You are free, if anybody wishes to take one in particular, you can, or if you want to put them together, but you do need to write them down. Yes.

I think the Xan should take the mage's breath. Tell me when you're going to drink them. Mage's breath, I'll take that. The rest, I think, as we need them, we can keep them, if that makes sense. Sure. Is Gruff keeping them? Anyone in particular needs to have

specific ones right now. I think Ophelia should take them all. We'll never see them again. We'll never see them. I try, I try, I could help carry them, I don't mind. I love you, Rea. This is a safe space. We'll never hear from them again.

Into the void they go. Let's not entirely blame Rhiannon here. I'm also pretty sure that Chris Trott and Tom Hazel will also forget these potions' existence in like two or three sessions. Get ready to be proved wrong. Well, the mage's breath you'll remember because that has a very strong mechanical effect

and I know you'll remember that one. The other four you'll be like, wait what, when did we get that? You're about to see something fucking marvelous. Sure, I would love to see it. You can chuck them all in one go. Yeah. What?

No! I'm like, what a night that would be. Yeah. But yeah, so yeah, you have four four. I don't want you to do that, just to see what happens. Yeah. For science.

Yeah, science. It is, I believe you were heading over to Megatheera as like as the sun was setting. So when you sort of emerge, it is now nighttime. The forest has that kind of nighttime ambience. You can hear birds out in the distance, kind of the hooting of owls, and maybe the scurrying of something

in and around the underbrushes. The forest comes alive with the night creatures that roam it. The only buildings, most of the little local homes here in Colville have lights on in the inside. You can hear the sounds of dinners and families, loggers making their way home to be with their family. But the Acorn is like noisy.

Like it has that raucous. We booked a table. You did? We booked a table and a room, yeah. Yeah, but it's got that raucous kind of like country pub late at night, like every time the door opens, blah, blah, blah, blah, like hubbub and bubble of like. I've got the football on TV.

Exactly, yeah. England! England! You're going over to fucking Amherst. But you make your way back, crossing the sort of dirt, floored sort of town square or village square. You can see again, like people going back to their homes. And then yeah, when you step inside, there is the, you know, it's a summer night,

so all the windows and doors are open. There's no fire, there's no need. It's very, very pleasantly warm at the moment. But as you step inside, the strong smell of cider and beer, sweat mingled all together, as many burly carpenters and loggers are in here. The bar is completely packed. Most of the tables are packed with the exception

of one booth right in the corner by the open windows, which has had a sign put on it, like, reserved. Is it a wooden spoon? It would be... It would be like a little blackboard. It'd be like a little chalkboard, basically. It's like reserved for guests, basically. And you can definitely see that a few of the loggers

are eyeing it, like, can we, nobody's using it now. But when you step in, you see Charity, the Tiefling bartender with his dark skin, his little red, goaty beard. He waves and just, he doesn't have time to speak to you, but he just points in the corner and gives you a thumbs up as he's half conversation, pouring drinks and serving everybody around.

You can see that there is a hive of activity. Several of the loggers are playing darts, so they have a dart board here. And Osa Strongreed is also arm wrestling people on one of the tables. And they're just having a good time. Everybody's drinking, they're relaxing. Maybe somebody's got a fiddle.

One of the locals, one of the loggers has got an old beaten up fiddle and is playing it just on a little bar stool at the bar. So there's a jolly ambulance here. Ambulance? Ambience. You're going home in a fucking ambience. Why is the ambulance so happy?

Whee! You guys, whee, never goes boos. Just whee. I'm sorry. But yeah. Fuck you. That was a pure dyslexia moment there. But yeah, the table is set aside for you.

There's cutlery and things laid out. You have your keys for your rooms, so it's really up to what you guys want to do. What are we gonna eat? Yeah, how long does that spell laugh at you? Forever. I think it's minutes. I think it's like, it might be 10 minutes per level,

so it would be like 20 minutes. Or just pop back whilst he's in. Yeah, I think you would wander in. I'm going to find out. All the cutlery and plates just shoot off the table. Can you say something more in your cute little voice before you have to go back to normal room, please? Oh, yeah, it's only a minute, so as soon as you leave the little hut...

I quite like baseball. Yeah. Oh, yeah. What the? So just before you get back to the acorn, it will end. They grow up so fast. Oh, it was bigger as well. Actually, have you returned to your normal life?

Yes. Ooh, good point, fate. Before anybody has to make any dice rolls. I just looked down and notice all of my dice. My man. My man. I'm talking about me. I am my man.

Katie. One. A dice for me. Yes. A five. A dice for you. Six. A dice for you.

Two. A dice for me. Can always rely on good old Chris Trot, can't I? It's been weeks now of that. One. Oh, even better. You my man. My little squad over here. My little squad. I can always rely on good old Chris Trot, can't I? It's been weeks now of that. One! Aw, even better! You might not be.

My little squad over here! Little squad. Hey! Another nice for me. Four to two. Four to two. You and me, bro. Yeah.

Four to two. On the team. Xanagraph. Xanagraph. Xanagraph. Katie was last week. Katie did a good one last week. You did a positive.

I've done positive ones for a while. Yeah. I haven't done a negative one in a while. Get those stats together. Yes, you make your way back. The food, as soon as, quickly, when you take your table, food is brought out to you, because I've been sort of keeping it warm

for you, waiting for you guys to come back. Charity's wife, Diana, has prepared a lovely meal, a very hearty, thick stew, beef stew, with like lovely fresh breads, salads, vegetables. Oh yes. I've heard great things about your food. Smoked sausages, and then obviously to finish it off, her legendary apple tart, which was spoken of

with considerable aplomb. I'm looking forward to this. Why is it always apple crumble, apple tart, and then we leave the studio going, I really want one of them apple crumble. It is like perfectly crisp, flaky pastry. It's drizzled with a kind of like a caramel sauce on the top, baked in with like sugar.

Very, very sweet, but the apples are exceptionally tart, so the two blend together very, very well. A big pitcher of cream. Stop being a bitch. Just stop that. Fuck off. On the wind. I'll just take all the cream.

Oh! Yeah. Tom and I walked past somewhere and there was a glorious smell of an amazing curry. And immediately we both went, oh, I'm hungry. And now you're describing this, and now I want curry and like apple tart. And a jug of cream.

And a jug of cream. It's probably indicative of the week that I've had, but that description genuinely brought tears to my eyes. I'm quite emotional about it. Just about an apple tart. I'm getting really, weirdly emotional about it. It's got that like monster animation where it comes out, it's a puzzle.

Oh, tasty! This meal is a good meal, is a high quality meal, so you all gain inspiration. This only lasts 24 hours, so you have to use it in the next 24 hours or it goes away. So that inspiration, as a reminder, is you basically choose it before you roll, you have advantage on a roll you make. Nice. With it, basically. That is heroic inspiration, right?

Yes. Okay. They've renamed it to heroic inspiration now. What, because inspiration wasn't heroic? I don't know, it's very silly. Why is there a gigachamp, Rad-Lag inspiration? Yes, because you've paid extra for this meal, you all have inspiration for the next 24 hours.

Amazing. Is there anything you would like to do before heading and retiring to bed? It is gonna be quite noisy in this pub for at least a good few hours. So you're probably not gonna be able to sleep, sleep for a few hours more. Would it be worth us asking maybe Osa or Charity

to see where this Galowac place might be? Yes. How are they looking right now? Yeah, Osa is in the middle, she's basically arm wrestling any Cummers and it looks like it's a, if you beat her she buys you a drink. What?

Arm wrestling any new Cummers? You just said Cummers, he didn't say you. You said newcomers and there was an audible gasp from this part of the table. Sure. Osa is armwrestling any newcomers. If I say enough, if I say enough it will get rid of the larynx. You're not going to know all those newcomers. What was the word last week that you didn't pronounce properly?

Oh, uh, debris. Debris. Debris. Debris. Debris. Good old Debris. Oh my god, there's a comers competition over there. You have to come first. It seems to be an exchange of drinks. If you beat Osa at arm wrestling,

she buys you a drink, if you beat you, you have to buy her a drink. She's probably, let's, I'm gonna roll a d4. How many drinks? How many drinks? Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's see what she's on. What's her street? She's only just finished her first arm wrestle,

so she's only one drink in at this point. Okay. She won. But yeah, there's like, so she's in the middle of that, but if you wanted to go and speak to it, you probably could. Charity is busy behind the bar, but you probably could go up there and get his attention if you go up and order drinks and have a quick chat with him.

Yeah. Robin's gonna go up to the performance that's going on in the corner. Yeah, yeah. It's just a local lager with a fiddle, like a pretty broken down fiddle, it's alright. He's just gonna enjoy it and clap along and be uncomfortable close to the performance. The guy's like, Daisy will not be uncomfortable close,

but she will move nearer to the music so that Nim can kind of get. Yeah, Nim likes it, it's very rustic. It's kind of like this person playing is clearly practiced, but is not like an expert of their instrument, basically. You okay there, bud? Do you need a timeout?

I was thinking about coming. No, really? I would never have guessed that's what you were laughing at. Tom is enjoying his meal. Tom, are you crying? Have we actually finally got you crying? It's taken nine years. I don't know why that was so long.

But we have here. All the jokes, all the fuck ups I've said that have made people laugh, this is the one that really got him. He's like, I'm so high. Did you not hear the wheeze laugh I did when he first said it? Are you laughing at your laugh to me saying?

I can't look at anyone. I finally got him crying. Give him a minute, everyone don't look at him, it's like the invisible boy, don't look at him. I'm enjoying my meal. You're enjoying your meal. Yeah, Nim is enjoying the music. It's a little rustic, but she enjoys hearing a new sound.

It's quite a lively kind of like proper like, so you would get in like a pub, you know, maybe like an Irish pub, you'd have a proper like, kind of like, you know, fiddle noise. Probably like some old, like some song that they all sing when they're out in the woods, like working, like logging and stuff like that together as well. You should have to be ignoring him.

I'm trying! I can't! It's not fair. Carry on, I'm not here. You can, you can, you can. I can hear him just like sobbing. I can't ignore him. Wasn't that funny?

Is there anything you're doing in particular? At some point he's gonna like reach for his sostenuto, but like gauging the person's eye contact as to whether this guy's terrified with the prospect of a duel. He's not shaking his head. He's seeing you and he's nodding towards you. Immediately he'll get it out and start, he's already memorised. This guy is not thinking duel by the way, he just thinks you want to play.

He's just joining in. Yeah, yeah, yeah duel, by the way. He just thinks you want to play. No, he's just joining in. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Give me a performance check. I use all the fate. No. Do you want to use the fate? No. Okay.

I don't need it. That is 28. 28. Oh, my God. You join in and you are so... You outclass this, like, local fiddle player by so far. Oh my god. He becomes the accompaniment to you.

Oh shit. But he's fine with that. He is, his eyes go wide, he's enthralled listening and watching your incredible skill with your instrument. My thumb is retaining a bass rhythm and then my upper fingers are doing like the top melodies, so it sounds like two instruments. Yeah, and like you quickly draw the attention

of the whole thing. Like everybody like kind of stops their conversation and like listens to you play. Just this, not silence because the music fills the entire space. Like even Charity and his wife and the children, like, everything just stops for, like, a few moments as everyone just listens. And not only does it sound that, as Rowan plays,

it's like two instruments, but the sound is bouncing off the wooden beams, off the stone walls, filling this space, almost this rhythm, filling your hearts and your souls as it plays. People begin, like, they start joining in the bass with thumping on tables, stamping their feet, and the fiddle player begins to lead you in a song that is known amongst the loggers, and they all begin to sing this kind of working song

that they're used to. And it's just this collection of voices melding together in a proper, almost sea shanty-esque way, right? This is a proper like... Oh, it's that kind of rhythm and tune. And in between the breaks, you just show off with this incredible skill, Rowan. And everyone is amazed.

They, after your performance, huge cheer of applause goes round. Oh, please. People are like coming up. Give him a rock song. They're like, giant mate, do you want a drink? Let's get him a drink, get our big friend here a drink. Everybody's willing to buy you drinks.

You do not need to pay for any drinks this evening. You can have your fill as a party. Like, once they all know that you're with Rowan as well, like, Rowan can be like, can my friends get some? And they're like, yeah, like, you easily. I'm like overloaded, like, so can you guys help me with these? Yeah, like, it's like, he's got like six ciders

that have all been bought for him, and you know, easily enough. And yeah, you bring like this wonderful mood to the whole evening, basically. This is a night that they're gonna remember for a long time. Awesome. I'm going to utilize that aura. Be like, now might be a good time

for people to ask about the Galowac. Yes. I'm just gonna drink these. And then come. I don't know why it gets him so much. I think it's like he's left so much for me that he can't. It's broken him.

It broke my laughbox. Is anybody in particular taking charge on asking about the Galawank? Are there like, is there like a group of kind of older patrons, like? There's like, there's the old guys, right? Or like, is there like a gruffy eight? I don't know, he wants to hang out with adults.

Oh yeah, I mean, but. No disrespect. No, most of the people here, like, most of the loggers are, even the young ones have like a grizzled-ness to them. They're gruff folks. These are hard, living in the deep woods. They're pretty tough folks.

But you find, sat around a round table in the corner, playing very worn wooden dominoes kind of game, you find the three old guys, right? And they are just like, like looking around, like they're kind of enjoying the music in their kind of grouchy kind of way, but they don't stop their game for nothing. So that they're playing.

Am I a young man in this group? Like am I like- You are definitely like, you know, these guys are probably like in their 70s, 80s, but they probably don't work anymore, but they probably worked for loggers for their whole lives and they know everybody here. Like, and they probably worked for loggers for their whole lives and they know everybody here. Like, and they're just like,

that's pretty good music, isn't it Jim? It's not too bad. The tall fellas are a bit much, but it's all right. And they're kind of like grumbling to each other, but they're tapping their feet and not their heads, yeah. Yeah, if Gruff approaches them. Yeah, I just wanna get on with it. I just wanna hang out with people who don't make him feel immensely old.

Well, yeah, you would feel probably young amongst these guys. They'll kind of eye you up and be like, hey, stranger, welcome. You want to... you need something? Have you got room for another one in your game? Do you know how to play? No. All right.

Do you play, you got coin? Yes. Then we can teach you. And they'll sit you down. And they're pretty fair, like they will teach you. They do win every time. Mark off three silver. Like, they'll play you for like brass coins, but you just lose every time

because these guys have been playing this game for decades. You've just learned it. But it's kind of like a kind of mixture of dominoes and like Chinese checkers. But it's kind of like a mixture of dominoes and Chinese checkers, and it's called, the game is called, something to do with about cutting lumber or something like that. It's probably called like. Timber?

Yeah, it's called Timber. It's called Timber the game. And it's, each of the dominoes, when they're turned, it's like they're falling and stuff. Timber. Yeah, timber, you call it when you say that. But yeah, you lose like a few silver pieces, but they enjoy your company.

You probably swap stories, they tell you about the hard life they've lived as loggers, but also there's this, and you would pick up on this Gruff immediately, the people here in Colville, you feel a kind of bit of a connection to Iceheart, because like in Iceheart, where you tell these kind of spooky stories, and like there are all these dangers

about being out on the ice, and these creatures, and folklore and myth, very much the same vibe here. And you build a rapport with these three old guys, like you know, they tell you stories about here, you tell stories from back home, and yeah, you can easily, any questions you've got, you can ask them if you want to, or if you just want to, you can just be like,

yeah, like Gruff spends the night hanging out with these old guys. I kind of love to almost like try and tell them spooky stuff just like oh we've got spooky... I try and... You tell a story. Yeah, tell them about them. But yeah I would I think yeah after getting a report and then telling a spooky story of my own, you know, maybe one of my wife's favorite stories, I would ask them to tell me of the Galawak

and like, you know, hear their telling of it and if there's any new information. So there's, one of the older guys, a bit more quiet than the other two, the other two are quite chatty. And you find that this guy, this older guy, he's an old, let's go with, he's actually an old halfling. Like an old halfling though, like quite grizzled,

Bilbo-esque, you know, white hair, puffing out. But he's built, like, you know, he's got strong hands, this guy. He's a carpenter. His name's Claude. And Claude, like, looks at you, the Galude looks like the Galowack. The Galowack. The Galowack.

They say it's nearly 20 feet tall. It's built like an eel. It's got quite big claws and it's big eyes. They say that those who hear its cries go mad. If you hear it whispering and whimpering in the woods, it calls out, it speaks like a child wishing for its mother, or it speaks like a man trapped under a log,

always calling out for help, it does. And it lures you in, and it snatches you up, and if you're lucky, it'll kill you and eat you, drink your blood. But if you're not, it takes you back to its lair, keeps you alive, plays, talks to you, and it drives you insane, drives you mad, until your body pops and bursts and your ears come out

and your blood comes out your ears. It's said to live up north in the mountains. They say that it guards the entrance to a treasure of a hag queen. It guards her treasure palace. It sneaks out into our world to feed. That sounds horrible. Have you ever seen it?

Looks around. People laugh at me when I tell them, but yeah, I think I've seen it. At a distance, mind. You know, being a halfling, easy to hide, easy thing. I went out into the woods, this was decades ago now, 40, 50 years, went out into the woods, was looking for a special type of tree branch

for my sweetheart, was gonna carve her something. I was out there, maybe a half a day north, northeast, near the river. I saw it, it was late. Sun was beginning to go down. I saw something moving out in the trees. Too big to be a wolf or a beast or a bear or anything like that.

I saw these two yellow lights, I saw these two yellow lights, like eyes, snaking and slithering around, looking for something. I knew it was the Galowac, because I could hear it. It sounded... Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr There was this horrid moaning noise. Felt it in my stomach, I did. Turned my stomach green. I went running, never looked back. Scurried underneath a log and I stayed there

until it was night and then I snuck back. Well, sounds like the right thing to do, otherwise I wouldn't be talking to you now. Yeah, people don't think it's real, but I've seen it. And where did you say exactly this was? And so I'm just trying to... Yeah, like he'll say, well, they think it's real, but I've seen it. Where did you say exactly this was? And so I'm just trying to... Yeah, like he'll say, well, they say it's lair. What you want to do is you, it's up near the mountains,

it's near the fangs of the empress. And if you travel, you follow the river northeast about a day, and then you head further east, directly east into the foothills, right at the base of the mountains. It's difficult terrain that way, though. There's no paths, there's no trails, dense woodland, rocky mountains, got to cross the river. It's not easy to travel.

That's where it's lair is supposed to be, where the Galowack Stone is supposed to be, who marks the entrance. Galowack Stone? supposed to be, who marks the entrance. Galowak Stone? Yeah. Fascinating. On a side note, timber! Ha ha!

Nope, you got the rules wrong. No, you can't do that yet because you've got too many acres in your backfield. You have to have a limited number and then you can do it, and then they describe how you got it. It's a shame. Yeah, it's quite it and then they describe how you got the game. It's quite complicated.

It's quite complicated. It's about the cones. It's like always about the cones. You forgot the essence of the game. It's about the cones. I love how he just picks up dice, rolls it, and doesn't even look at them. Yeah, it's just like a hand-fuse.

It's like, I drew this. It's like bullshit rules. But anyway, yeah. On your, if you pass me your map, I'll actually point where Claude is telling you that the Galawank Stone is laying. Old, trustable Claude. We did hear the exact same directions from someone else.

What exactly? We did hear it was in the. From the acorn. We heard that it was in the files of the Empress, yeah. I've marked it with a tiny G. And we heard there was a stone. G for Glord. For Galowack.

That makes more sense. Yes, it is about, it's estimated two to three days of travel. Just a couple hexes away. With that in mind, is about, it's estimated two to three days of travel. Just a couple hexes away. With that in mind, thinking about, and Gruff would know this, based on what Claude's description of, taking Rogerie in the wagon is gonna be very tricky. It might even take you longer

if you try and take Rogerie in the wagon with you because you're gonna be going through dense but difficult terrain at this point. There's no road, there's no trail. It's going to be pure hiking through the deep woods basically. So something to consider. You can do it, it just might either be slower,

or you'll have disadvantages on any hazard checks and stuff like that. Cool. You will also need to cross the river to get to it. Gross. How are we going to cross the river to get to it. Gross. How are we gonna deceive the river? How long would it take to difficult terrain hexes without a Rodri?

It's the same amount of time. The thing is, what Rodri makes it easier is for things like resting and camping. So because you have the wagon, you don't have to camp out, which means you don't have to build a camp, you just rest in the wagon basically. You can you have the wagon, you don't have to camp out, which means you don't have to build a camp, you just rest in the wagon, basically. You can also take more supplies with you, you don't have to physically carry things like rations

and tents and stuff like that. How much ration-wise we brought to this place to begin with? 10 days. 10 days. Yeah. So you would have used, did we use any because of the fishing? You would have used fishing for at least some of it

and then rations for some of it. I would say you're probably down about two days worth of rations. Eight left. Eight days, so we have enough rations so we don't need to buy any more. Eight days for about four days there. And you would be following the river

so Gruff can fish again and provide fish for everyone. And we know we can come to this village before we head home. Yeah. There's lots of coming to to this village before we head home. Yeah. There's lots of coming to be had here. So much coming. And yeah, I think we're good for rations. Sure. Especially with this dinner.

Yeah, there's no general store or anything here. You've not seen a general store like this, you'd have to go to individual families and be like, can we buy your food? And things like that. There's no market town here. Yes. You all right there, Tom?

Yeah. I'm holding it together, I'm holding it together. Anything else whilst you are in the inn? Anything anybody wants to do while Gruff is having a chat with Claude and getting all this information? I think Ophelia would like to try and do an arm wrestle. Yeah.

Yeah. So as you step over, and I'll give you the full description because you won't hear me, Osa Strongreed is a very tall, very broad woman. She's a bear wild heart. She's so human, but she has these little round teddy bear ears. Thick mane of like brown, curly hair

that like drapes around her shoulders, and also tufts of hair on her arms, her massive forearms, her biceps. She kind of has a little bit of a berry nose as well, a little darker, thicker nose, and you can definitely tell some fangs in her mouth as well. She's dressed in a simple, but quite nicely put together sleeveless vest shirt thing, trousers, belts,

that kind of stuff. She does smell quite badly of sweat and hard work, but when she approaches, she will sort of like, are you up? She's met you before, but hadn't properly interacted with you, like, oh, hello. What, can I help you with something again? You're here for more stories, maybe?

Oh, I'm here for, well, I've tried the ale, and it's a bit too sweet for me. It's a bit too, I want something a bit fuller bodied. So I was thinking, could I maybe challenge you to an arm wrestle? And maybe if I win, you could get me a bottle of red wine perhaps? She like looks around and there's like, most of the loggers are like laughing.

Cause like the look of you, they see this very finely dressed, you know, very well to do young woman. Osiris like probably twice your you, they see this very finely dressed, you know, very well-to-do young woman. Osir is like probably twice your size like width-wise. And there's this kind of like, yeah, if you beat me at an arm wrestle, sure, I will buy you two bottles of wine. How about that? Perfect.

But if I beat you, you have to buy me, let's say, I would like a very, the finest whiskey the charity has. The finest glass of whiskey. You're on. All right, very good. Now, as long as you're sure, I can't be responsible if I hurt you.

You're fine with that. Are there any prerequisites, any rules I must abide by? Yeah, strength of arm, you know, you can't get help. No using two hands. No using two hands. No using two hands? No, it is a single arm, it's a normal arm wrestle. Okay. Yes.

Fine. Let's wrestle. Yeah, she puts her arm, a big meaty bear paw of a hand out for you. As their arms clasp, Ophelia starts raging. So it's like on the clap, she goes, and the rage energy. So we see like the sort of slightly sunken in face,

like the intense veins begin to pop. There's definitely like an eye here of like, oh, like a little bit. But yeah, this is a straight athletics check. You have advantage on it. Woo! Fake, fake, fake. Do you want to say?

Oh yeah, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake, fake. Oh okay, you'd like to spend some fate with you. Yeah, I need that wine. Daisy, should we be concerned about this? Why? I think she's about to break someone's arm. Sick, yep. What'd you get?

A natural 20. A natural 20, 18, fair enough. It is an arm wrestle, so you are winning. This is not a one and done test. So like you have got a halfway, and there is this look of surprise from everybody as you are raging and pushing her down. Give me another one.

No, well you can spend fate, but you still have advantage. I'm gonna spend it this time. 15. Is enough, though, with that, the second thing, you get her arm all the way down, and there's a kind of like, what do you? Power of the great father, Osa. There's this like stunned silence,

maybe a break in the music, as like the fiddler like, whee, like looks, as everyone's sort of just stunned that you've beaten Osa in this arm wrestle. And she kind of like blinks and then like looks at you. Ha ha ha ha ha, and just starts laughing. Like, wow, I was not expecting it from one,

like a little one like yourself. You've got a strong arms there. Oh, goodness me, ugh. I seem like, oh, my muscles hurt. No, no, no, no, I am impressed. I am seem like, oh, my muscles hurt. He got us grapes. No, no, no. No, I am impressed. I am very impressed here that you've done such a good job. I mean, I shouldn't be surprised.

You really got us a fun grapes there. Well, yes, I owe you. Two bottles of wine, I think it was. Yes, charity, charity, two bottles of red wines for the young lady here, as fair is fair. Thank you very much. I got wine for the journey! Oh good, good. Hooray!

How much did that cost you? I got it for free, I want it! Oh that's good because as I recall, you don't have any money. Shhh! Don't say that out loud! because as I recall, you don't have any money. Shh. Don't say that out loud. Wait, you were betting, I hope that your friends would be willing to pay for you. Well, I won, so it doesn't matter. Ophelia, were you betting my money?

Do you have money? Yeah, we all have money. No. Except for Owen. I look around at the people in the bar. I have no money. Nothing on me, and I'd like to get home safe. Luckily they're all quite drunk.

I wrote a one on an insight for the pub. So yeah, they're all pretty happy to just go back to their business. Well, thank you for the contest, officer. No, you are most welcome. It's nice to have travelers who are willing to sit and spend some time. Your friend has been playing some beautiful music. Oh, he's great, you are most welcome. It's nice to have travelers who are willing to sit and spend some time.

Your friend has been playing some beautiful music. Oh, he's great, isn't he? He's very good, yeah, I do enjoy it very much. I love rocks, sir. I'm just talking to another vlogger or something. I'm at this point just sat around people. He's like, hey, rocks are pretty good. Sorry, don't get it.

I'm holding his head. Oh! He's like locked in, he's like, how do I get out of this? And then, you know, I suggest to you, it seems that Gruff, who I met earlier, is having a lovely time speaking to Cloud and some of the others as well.

Maybe it's this one. This one, timber on this one, right? Yeah, that works, but then I'm just gonna do timber, timber, timber, and we're out. Bloody hell. Here's another silver. Eh heh heh heh. And they're quite happy.

They're also, because they're playing against each other as well, so like your silver is being passed around as like they're winning against each other and stuff as well. But you're having a lovely time. It's a lovely, lovely game. And like you, by the end of this,

I will say that you will be proficient in the game Timber. Hey! Timber's the only place in this village. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, like, Osa seems to be pretty, like, it's nice to have travelers who are willing to kind of spend some time with us locals.

We get a few, very few travelers up this way. Friends of the Reeve. Well, I think it's just a testament to the community you foster here, Osa, honestly. I think you've got a good thing here. You are speaking, yes, you understand correctly. This is a community that my family and I, we have done a lot to try and foster,

and it's why I think that a local person should be the Reeve and be in charge of things happening here in Colville. Not some foreigner from the city who doesn't understand things. Clearly doesn't want the job anyway, from what I've heard. Exactly, exactly. You see, you get it. I'm all about community.

Yeah, yeah, really true. Good, good, yeah, it's good to hear. Strong community really brings people together. Absolutely, yeah. really true, oh good, good, yeah, it's good to hear. Strong community really brings people together. Absolutely, yeah, good strong Verc ethic. They say blood is stronger than water, eh? Yeah, yeah, you know my family runs the lumber mill here, like, I'm gonna roll an insight to see if she's picking up on what you're putting down.

That's a two. It's like, you are getting more and more explicit, like yes, but it's just, I have a cult, I'd like you to join. Why do you like to join? You join, sow these seeds, but it's hard work. And eventually the drinks are coming and flowing. Can I give her my leftover ale? I know these seeds, but it's hard work. And eventually the drinks are coming and flowing. Can I give her my leftover ale?

I've had a couple of sips, but I think. Oh yeah, I'll take this. One gulp down, bam. You have an absolutely fabulous night, oh sir. Oh, well thank you, yeah, thank you. Thank you very much, I will. If you and your friends, if you need any more, if you. Thank you very much. I feel and you know if you and your friends if you need any more And you know if you need any more stories, or you want to know anything

Oh, yes place you you can ask me or any of my family and things like that You think we're trying to find this this Galowack Monstrosity oh yeah, the Galowack a cloud knows all about these says he he thinks he's seen it before, but he's just old. But yeah, the Galowack, my father, my grandfather, my father knew a few of those stories, he's the priest now, but yeah, you can go up and ask. I mean, we've all heard the things, that it turns you mad if you hear it,

if you get too close, it would drive you mad, that it can see, it can see even if you are hiding or if you are hidden, it can still see you apparently. Oh, goodness. It guards the entrance to another realm, you know, a plane or something like that. Well, quite a frightful beast. Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of this mystery.

Do you know what my favorite part of the Galloway story is? What? Well, they say that the people that claim to have seen it or survived it, they say that it has a star from this guy, embedded into its chest. A star in its chest? Exactly, this is how I know it's all nonsense. But they say, you know, they say that it has a glowing star

in its chest. Well, how would it get a thing like that? Exactly. How prostorous, I say. Ridiculous. Exactly. Foolish. We'll go up it get a thing like that? Exactly. How prosperous, I say. Ridiculous. Exactly. Foolish. Well, go up there and see it's all just

poppycock and then everything. Or if you're heading up to the, if you're heading up into the mountains, it's quite a trek, but just be careful out in the woods. You know, all these stories, there are some real dangers out there. Some nasty beasts and the nature spirits and things like that.

Nature spirits. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we get a lot of them around here. You know, this is a very old woodland and sometimes manifestations of our way. You know, they're not necessarily bad, but they don't often take kindly to mortals, you know, or living creatures in their, what they think of as their territory. You know, we as loggers,

that's something I actually take very seriously. We check all the trees to make sure that there are no bound spirits. Check the trees, okay. You know, the last thing we want to do is like chop down some dryads trees, and sends the dryads all coming looking for revenge. I see.

Or, you know, some, the home of some fairies, or sprites and things like that. You know, those are, you know, they're not, they're troublesome if we were to, you know, enrage them. So we try and be careful. But yeah, nature spirits, beasts, you know, sometimes you get very desperate bandits. You know, they're fleeing from the duke's army. They come out into the woods to hide.

They build little hideouts and dens out here. So if we're going up that way, be careful, yeah. Oh, thank you very much for the warning, yes. We'll keep our heads on a swivel. Well, I want you to come back so we can have a rematch. Of course, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And just sort of like, very drunkenly kind of gets up,

you know, she's been drinking most of the night and sort of like, we have work tomorrow, everyone. Come on, back to your houses, back to bed. It's time for sleeping. Takes like another pint, downs it, bam. Well have a lovely night-o, sir. Farewell, good sister-o-filia, come on. And like starts shoving the more drunken patrons

out the door with her. The old men sort of like, they shake your hand, gruff like, good game, good game, sonny little sonny Jim. They call you Sonny, gruff like, good game, good game, Sonny, little Sonny Jim. They call you Sonny. They're like, good game, Sonny, you did all right. You played pretty well. Oh, thank you, thank you for your wisdom. Thanks for the stories as well, much appreciated.

Always loved to hear a good folk tale from time to time. You're a hometown, this Tremora sounds like a pretty nice place. And you'd always be welcome. Ah, mm-mm, kind of give you like a rap, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, with the crowd. What about Xanthus and Daisy? Was there anything you guys were up to or anything you wanted to do? No. Not particularly. No, we're just having some idle chat.

Do you think anyone, Daisy, if they only ever read the word would probably pronounce it as protomagy? Well, maybe. I think about that sometimes. Just a weird thought I just had. Yeah. Protomagy. Yeah.

Do you know what's a weird word? Pickle. Pickle? I suppose it is. It's a bit odd. Just sat there with like your empty plate. It's like a post meal tired dumb chat. You've been like traveling for a long time as well.

You know, you've been having a long journey, but it is late. Charity charity starts kind of cleaning things up, like people begin shuffling out. Yeah. Nice. Sleep time? Another song. Here we go.

I've got a few more words on my rock songs. Really? Oh, no. But I think they're gonna just come out. Okay, but I'd love to hear it. Here we go. Last time you only had one. You had one word last time, I think.

Yeah. Rock. Yeah. Yeah. I love rocks. That's three, I love rocks. We rock. Uh.

Uh. Uh. Okay, well, I think it's time for bed. I had such a great night. Come on, babe. No, I love you, I think it's time for bed. I had such a great night. Come on, though. No, I love you all. Yes, we love you too. No, you don't understand.

I do understand, big fella. Where did my... Who's got sustenuto? It's on you. Where are you? It's on your back. It's on your back. It's on your face.

Right here, right here. I heard it. Where is it? Well, I think it's about time. I managed to cajole Rowan up to bed, you know. Yeah. I believe Ophelia has, you and Percival have like the private room and the shared common room.

We are so welcoming. Thank you. Yeah, and yeah, you guys tuck in for a long rest. So if you want to, you can take a long rest. I would also like everybody individually to roll a D100. 100? That's interesting.

Okay. Wait, so that's the two together, isn't it? Yes. Yeah, yes. Oh shit, 96. Oh, nice. Oh, that's pretty high. I don't know if I can tell you if high or low is good or bad. Oh shit, 96. Oh nice. Oh that's pretty high.

I don't want to tell you if high or low is good or bad. Just want the number. Okay. Okay. 71. 71, 96 for Rowan. 96. Yep.

51. 51 for Daisy. 31. 31 for Gruff. 18 from Zanzana Dynamite Man. We're very spread out. Just all over. Oh, you wanted that.

You all. Slap back in the middle. Who gets indigestion at night? Go into bed. The beds are comfortable, I feel it especially yours, very soft, luxurious double bed. Perceval happily standing guard,

just looming over you. Oh, Percy, you'd love this bed, it's so comfortable. I'm ashamed you have to stand. I'm not sure that I would understand comfort if I felt it, Sister Ophelia, but good night, blessings of the great father to you. But why did you say that? The whole mood has been brought down.

I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Sister Ophelia. I will not speak again until I... Oh no, no, keep talking, just don't make me sad. Don't make me sad, I don't know why. Shall I speak of things that you like? No, you need to come in this bed. Come lay down, I'll get up, you try this. It's a double bed, so he very awkwardly comes to the edge and lays down perfectly vertical on the tiniest sliver

of the edge of the bed. He's like... How does it feel comfortable? It is soft. On my bones. Soft on your bones, that's a good start. Soft on your bones. Is this what comfort is?

I suppose. Then I am comfortable. Ah, that makes me feel better. I am glad, Sister Ophelia. Me too. Goodnight, Percy. Goodnight, Sister Ophelia. It just stays perfectly upright on top of the cupboards,

on the edge of the bed. But yeah, the rest of you, those in the common room, it's like four bunk beds. It's kind of very simple, it's like a little vanity, like a simple wooden desk with like a washing basin and stuff on there. It's Rowan in the top or the bottom bunk? I wanna go out of the top bunk. simple as like a little vanity, like a simple wooden desk with like a washing basin and stuff on there. And you- Is Rowan in the top of the bottom bunk?

I wanna go out of the top bunk. I don't think that- I'm not staying in that one. I think you can take- I'm not going up. No, you just go into the bottom down here. Grabbing. Okay, I can't stop this, even if I wanted to.

Rowan climbs up a very thick sturdy, yeah, maybe the middle back, or also for Rowan, like your legs hang over the edge. Like, it is very uncomfortable. He's too drunk to notice now. No, yeah, exactly, yeah. I think I could speak all... Grrrr.

Grrrr. Grrrr. As Rowan drifts off, Gruff and Daisy on the other side, you guys pass out into sleep as well, and Xanthius, you're all for sleep, for a long rest. About, well, you wouldn't know exactly the time, but in the middle of the night, Xanthius, you wake up. As sometimes people do when they're sleeping.

Something, maybe it's the bad dreams that you have been having. It's usually a cat. The... It's probably a cat. It's a me. Is it a borough? It could be a cat, if you would like it to be a cat,

but something wakes you up, whether this is Santheus's plagued nightmares or an external force like walking past, but something wakes you up. And as your eyes, you kind of blink them open for a second, realizing you're still awake. Before you have that moment to try and fall back into slumber, you get the faintest hint from the window

as multicoloured light, very dim and faint, just passes. And you can hear a very, very soft kind of whistling, wailing sound. Whistling Who is kind of like, I can't do it, but it's like a very distant, faint wailing whistle. Okay.

That's weird. Turn over. No, I, where deal. Where is everyone? What is the bunk arrangement? Well, I would imagine you would be underneath Rowan, and then you've got Daisy on top of the other side and Gruff on the bottom of the other side. So it's like two sides of the room, basically.

Bleary, like, slap, like an arm or a leg that's hanging over the edge. Rowan, stop it, stop it. I will leave it to Trot to decide whether he wakes up or not. Rowan, I see, look out there. Look. Oh.

It's like, some lights or something. I'm gonna be sick. Can you see it? How am I dreaming? I see what? Right there. Rowan, so as you are now awoken. I peel my eyes open.

Ha ha ha ha. Peepers. Peepers. Peepers. Get those peepers out there. Lashes awakened. Am I dreaming or is it my imagination, thanks. Yeah, there is a very soft, quite distant,

but there is that shift of, like when there is a light outside and it's Changing hue and brightness so it's kind of pulsing and it's it's Dim enough that it wouldn't have woken you up But it's now very noticeable Oh, yeah, I can see it Yeah, I can see it.

Yeah, that's just weird. I think I'm first to bend. I don't want to say that. You can't let it sit for a minute, can you? You just can't. I don't know why I said that. I know why, because you're a gremlin. It's because Sam was a top bunk.

It's the brain demons. That's what woke me up. You know, Tom, sometimes the thoughts don't have to be said out loud. Yeah. Rowan's gonna stir and sit up and get down and looks out window closer. You see? You move up and you part like this little netted curtain and you peer out, Rowan.

And looking outside, give me a perception check. I think I'm still drunk. You're looking in a mirror, Rowan. Perception... Oh! Perception, you say? Yes please. I believe it was 15. 15.

Takes a second for your eyes to adjust. Pretty much pitch black outside, but through the canopy of the trees there's enough moonlight and starlight filtering through. Peering and watching, you see quite a little distance outside of Colville itself, but bobbing through the trees, you see a tiny ball of light

that shifts in colors and hues, pulsing. You hear that kind of, oh, this kind of, oh, this kind of like faint wailing, whistling sound. And it vanishes behind some trees, then it reappears again, vanishes behind some trees. Come on, we gotta go. We gotta go, we gotta go see it.

All right, I'll slide up and sit, sit up at the side of the bed. All right, up time everyone. Well, I wasn't gonna wait, okay. Up time. Oh, we got a thing outside. More adventures. Nick.

Come on, everyone. Why are you like this? There's lights outside. We gotta go follow them. Why? Because that's what we're looking for. All the local legends say not to follow. There wasn't the plan.

I'm sleepy time. We can't go see them. Come on! Do you not remember what the little girl said about how you just don't go out at night and follow them because bad things happen? Oh, I'm gonna go get a few. There was something about being possessed, Rowan,

that I seem to remember Rowan being quite afraid of when this story was being told. He's drunk, he's got some courage. Yeah, maybe that's it, yeah. Having Gruff remind about the fears of the place, fears of the night time. We should wait till the morning, actually. Good point.

All right, night. We're going back up to my bed. Yeah, you watch for a moment, like those of you who are interested, like, you, Gruff and Daisy, you both see the kind of slight, the same pulsing, it's moving away. And eventually, after maybe a couple of minutes, it goes completely. You see the same thing, like, this little bobbing light.

Boom, boom, boom. And just vanishes behind the trees. Good. I must say, though, looking at it, it's quite hypnotic, isn't it? Mm. Mm. Daisy is snoring already, under the duvet, completely.

You can't see her at all, she's bundled up, she's cocooned because she doesn't want to be woken up. Okay. Yeah, if you want, you can just go back to sleep and your long rest completes. Where's Trouble? Where's Trouble? Trouble?

Borrow. Where's his little dragon head? Hey. Not here. Wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee. Is that how you should- Piss piss piss piss. Piss piss piss piss.

Have you lost your little boy over there? I think he might, where, I, he was around my neck when I went to sleep. Oh, Bethiel. Trouble. Oh, you enjoy your sleep, I'll go find him. No, I'll come with you. Okay.

Zathias from Under the Duvet. I think you should call it Dave. I think Dave's a better name. I think you should go to sleep. I am a sleep shag. Okay. I think right should go to sleep. I am a sleep-chap. Okay. I think right in this moment, trouble is the perfect name for it, come on.

Okay. Great, I love animals. I love dragonettes. I'll go hunting for this thing. Just remind me, what did you roll on the animal handling? Like a three. Very low. Maybe it was a one.

Oh no, it was bad, whatever it was. But yeah, you do now, as you go to step out, there is probably just enough space under the door for a little wiggly serpent snake to- Oh, oh no. What did I tell you when you got here? Ophelia! What?

Ophelia! Xanthias? I'm glad you're aware, it's trouble in there? The dragonette? The tiny creature is not in the room, Sister Ophelia. Oh, thank you Percival. No, thank the Gravefarer it's not in here with me, or I would be screaming right now.

There's lights outside, by the way. I'm gonna go looking for this dragonette. Lights outside? What kind of lights? Oh, spectral lights, like the stories. The ones that the little girl told us you shouldn't go out at night. for this dragonet. Lights outside? What kind of lights? Oh, spectral lights, like the stories. The ones that the little girl told us you shouldn't go out at night because you die. Oh, I've already been possessed once.

What's the chances of it happening again? Quite high. Quite high. Probably. Okay, I'm getting up, I'm getting up. Come on, Percy, let's go figure out what's going on. You can stay if you want, it's my dragon name. It's okay.

I'm... No responsibility, young lad. I'm still riding the high from winning that arm wrestle, I'll be honest. Okay, well, I'll head downstairs. I'll see you outside in a bit. Can anybody who is going with Xantheus or helping Xantheus roll a perception check?

Or just Xantheus, if it's just Xantheus. Cocoon. I figured,theus. Cuckoon. I figured. Daisy's not a morning person. Oh, I actually got 16 with my minus two. That's nice, that's nice. What did you get? 21. That's nice, that's nice. Natural 20 plus 727.

Oh my god. As you're making your way downstairs, Ophelia and Grav, Xantheus you're like bleary, you're like stumbling down in the dark, like making your way to the doorphelia and Graf, Zanthius, you're like bleary, you're like stumbling down in the dark, like making your way to the door. Come on, piss piss piss piss, piss piss piss piss piss piss. Ophelia and Graf. Sorry.

Ophelia and Graf, you hear like the sound of something being knocked over in the kitchen behind the bar. Oh, did you just hear that, Graf? Where did you hear it? It's in the kitchen. It's in the kitchen behind the bar. Did you just hear that gruff? Where did you hear it? It's in the kitchen. It's in the kitchens? Oh no, trouble, trouble! You go in the kitchens and sort of in amongst,

there's a mess, like there's flowers being knocked over. Oh no, oh what have you done? Things have been knocked over and you see this little red tail just sticking out of a bag of apples. Did I not give you enough snacks? Can I call you Mage Hand and just send the Mage Hand to pick it up?

Sure, what's your spell save DC normally? I'm just gonna have it make a deck save. 12. Yeah, the Mage Hand goes to grab it, and the tail whips in and goes inside the bag. Apple falls out the front of the top of it and you just hear a kind of. Kshkshkshkshk.

Oh no, get out of there, get out. I can tell, I'm trying to get it out of there. Like burying my hand in the bag. Just take the bag, just take it outside. Oh, the apples are probably ruined. You better fix this. Can you give me a dexterity saving throw? I'm trying to encase it in the bag.

Oh, are you just gonna try and seal the bag? Well, it's not seal the bag, I mean. It's like a big Hessian sack of picked apples. I'm trying to grab it outside of the sack, but then kind of pull it out using the bag itself. Squeeze it out. Yeah, just roll decks or strength. Yeah, decks or strength for me.

Oh, the apple are going everywhere, Xanthius! I know, I'm doing my best! They're all chomped anyway, Ophelia, what does it matter? They were so nice in that crumble. 14. 14? Hang on, it's coming out, get ready! You manage to wiggle him out,

and you just see with his whole head bitten around into an apple, you wiggle trouble out. Many half-eaten apples go spilling out. Is there any you didn't like? But there's also, you can see a bag of sugar has been knocked over, and it's been licked up where it's been knocked over.

Oh, he's topped up on sugar. And he's just like wiggling around. Oh, you're not going to sleep at all, are you? Oh, good. Oh, great. Okay. This is coming out of your pockets, I'm sure. Well... Okay. I want to go to the bathroom.

Oh. He starts licking your hand with his little tongue. Take a couple of apples with me as well. May as well. Yeah, maybe take him outside for a run or something. I don't know what they do to burn off energy. Do I need to get a leash or something? That would be a good start, yes.

Don't take him outside right now though, because you know he's just going to go run off into the woods and then he's going to... No, it's okay. I've got some rope. That would be the worst thing. Is there anything to tie around? A beehive. He's creepy. He's not creepy. I don't like the way it slivers.

As you're having this conversation, a very sleepy charity with like a hand axe is like, like, birth soaping into them. He's like, I'll kill you, who's here? It's us, it's us. Oh, what are you fucking doing? I'm sorry, bandits. Bandits?

Sat the ass. Oh, okay. It was, it was my pet? Stop the ass. Oh, okay. It was, it was my pet, escaped under the door, and jumped into the kitchen, started eating all the cat food. Is that what that racket was? I know, I know, I'm sorry. I heard you lot making noise, I didn't even know what it was. All right, well we'll sort it out in the morning.

We'll sort it out, I'll pay for everything. Okay, good, good, good. Yeah, that sounds great. Great, good night, characters. Night, good. Yeah, that sounds great. Great, good night, night, night. Like, looks around, looks and he pokes his head in the kitchen like, what the fuck did this? Yeah, you just hear like this little kshh, kshh, from around Xanthus' neck.

I munch on one of these apples, just like, hum, hum, hum. Okay, we're gonna run around for a little bit. Not outside though, because I'll be possessed by a ghost that I can see. And it's definitely real. But yeah, you return and like, yeah, trouble takes a long time to settle down. But you know, it's only a little thing

and burns off the energy quite quickly. Probably just does laps in the room, just like, woo woo woo whoop whoop whoop. Until it eventually just topples. Yeah, basically, and it's like, I'm sleepy now. But yeah, no, trouble is recovered, and you can finish your long rest. I had everyone.

Finna's already in the upper room. Yeah. But yeah, you guys finish your long rest. Great! And you, everything else? Come the morning, it'd probably be like five golds worth of supplies that Trouble ruined. Oh, god.

It's like a new bag of flour, you know, bunch of new apples, but bag of sugar, kind of like, you know, nothing too bad to replace. Maybe like a broken bowl or a jug or something from when he was sliding around. It had the rest of the honey. Yeah, he ate the rest of that honey, folks.

Yo. It's real good. It's got his little tongue in there. And he's passed out, by the way. This morning, he's just looped around, he is super passed out, sleepy. Full of This morning, he's just looped around, he is super-passed out, sleepy. Like, full of sugar. I'll get him a leash.

Is it sooner rather than later? Yes, no, I'll try. Don't really know where to tie anything around this thing. It's all just one big rope with wings. Probably need some kind of cross harness. Yeah, maybe. Probably. I love him so much.

I just want you to know that. He does like, as soon as like, when you were playing with him, like he's like licking your hand and like loves like snuggling up to your scales and stuff like that. He's very affectionate. He's just, trouble-y.

Yeah, he's naughty, he's a naughty boy. He's really the best of us. Yeah. If anybody, I should point out as well, anybody else that tries to handle trouble, he will try and bite you. Like anytime, like if you reach to touch him, he's like, in like playful but like not playful bites.

Like he chomps hard. I mean I've still got like scratches on my neck and arms and stuff from this thing clambering around. He's not even delicate with me, am I right? But. Yep, I remember that. In the morning, is the plan for you to set off after the Gallowack, after the events of everything?

I think so. Think that's about right. In that case, could you nominate who is navigating and tell me what you are doing on this travel? And are you leaving Roger in the wagon at the inn? I think we should. Well, the thing is, as long as he's looked after.

Yeah, they can be. Like, they'll look after Roger. Like, it's not really much on them to stable him. It's just water and grass, so. If he escapes, you won't get very far anyway. Yeah, well, he's kind of got like that elephant thing where like, you just loop his harness around something and he's like, well obviously I can't leave,

I'm attached, I can't go anywhere. Not realizing that he could absolutely just pull the fucking boat down. He's just like, I can't go, I'm attached, upside down. He's pretty smart though. He's not that smart. Rodger is not smart. No, I'm saying elephants are the smartest.

That's why Rodger is just trained smart. No, I'm saying elephants are the smartest guys. That's why Roderick's just like trained to be like, I can't go, I'm tied to that thing, I'm not allowed. Gruff would be talking to whoever his stable hand is, it's just like, and another thing, he like scratches after his afternoon meal. You really need those, and you really need to get your claws in, and he's just, and every time he goes to go, he's like, and another thing, he really,

you're writing this all down, aren't you? So the person who looks after Roger is, in fact, Charity's son, Michael, who is a human, he's a human boy. Charity's wife is a human, and so, you know, typhoon blood gets passed down in certain generations, but not all, and he's like, he looks a little bit like his daddy's kind of got darker skin, a little tinge of red in his hair,

but he's just like, yes Mr. Gruff, yes I'm writing it all down, yeah absolutely. He's like, not like. He's like, don't see a pencil in yams. It's written down in my mind. Right, okay. And he just keeps going on with another thing. Yep, and he patiently listens,

he's like, yes, yep, absolutely, yep. Gruff is fussin' for his boy. Yep, yep. He's a sweet boy. Rogerie is also just very happy to just have water and food. I know, I know. Kim knows. Kim knows, yeah.

The gruff does them. The gruff. But yeah, so you can stable in there and then yeah, you can head off. So I just need to know who is navigating and what you are getting up to whilst you travel. Before we do proper, where we saw the lights outside, is there anything on the grounds outside or anything?

Oh, you wanna go and search around there? Yeah, just like where we would have seen the lights, is there anything odd in that area? Give me an investigation check. Investigation? Yes. That's what they call me. Investigation man.

While he's investigating Daisy, do you have a healer's kit? Yeah. Cool. Table of love. Like eight uses or something. Cool. Yeah, I've got like, I've only Like eight uses or something. Cool. Yeah, I've only used it once or twice.

Oh, what, the Helo's kit? Do you have any spares, like as an SP? It's just a one kit, and then it's got uses. I got a 14 with the Gold Sight Eye advantage. 14, you go and examine the area where Roy had seen the colored light, this little orb. And it's quite far out of the village, but you spend a bit of time searching around.

You don't find, it's more what you don't find. That anything than something that you do find. You find no tracks, no sign of anything passing. The only thing that I would say is you notice on a couple of the trees up quite high, maybe where this thing would have passed by, but not like a normal height, like this is quite high up, there's like slight scorching on the trees, like some sort of intense heat or magical energy passed by. Okay. But definitely telltale signs that it wasn't one of those crystal constructs. Creatures.

Don't think so. They were big and they had like legs and they moved and everything else. No. Okay. Cool. The coloring was also different because when you fought the crystalline creature, it was like a fast, like a multitude of colors swirling within it that would change.

When Rowan saw it, it was like green, then blue, then yellow, like it was a single globe of light that was changing as it moved. Cool. Yeah, no, I thought it'd be good to see that anyway. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Obviously I point out to everyone. Uh-huh. Yeah, I have eight uses.

Is there anyone in Colville I can buy a healer's kit from? As I said, there's no general trader here. Like, Maggie might have something, but it's not going to be a full healer's kit. A Sergeant trader. Funny guy. Thanks. So... Why were you thinking?

I have a new thing that I can do with Healer's Kits. Do you want to carry it? Do you want it instead? It's probably best for you to have... You sure? Yeah, because I can heal... It's just more like... I'm over-catastrophizing for going into a dungeon. I'll be fine.

How bad can it be? What can you do with healers' kits? So as part of the new... Eat them. Eat them. As part of the new... Feats rules, I had to change my thing. My background, so I'm now a healer,

which means I have Battle Medic. So as a utilize action, you can expend one use of a healer's kit to tend to a creature within five foot of yourself, and that creature can expend one of its HP dice, and then you roll that die. You regain a number of HP equal to the roll plus three. Oh, maybe you better if you just have it then. I can give it to you.

Just thinking if I run out of spell slots, healing spell slots. It's not a lot, but it's also good in between, like if you need to top up and you don't have time for a rest, six seconds to get a bit of healing. You got some spell slots from never healing me, because. That's true, don't worry, I've filed that away. Yeah. No, you can have it, I'll give it to you.

So healer's kit with eight uses. Just before, because I want to go on to the break, who is navigating, what are people doing on the track? Because I wanna do that roll before we go to break. Normally Big Roro takes the lead. I think I overdid it last night. Well, no, it wasn't too bad. Everything was foggy.

You didn't throw up, you didn't... I would like to do this with disadvantage. Great. What I was gonna say is, I'm gonna spend a fate point to make you make a constitution saving throw to see how badly you are hung over. Hey.

Sick. Hell yeah, hell yeah. I know you want to just do it for the sake of it, but I wanna, this is like, exactly what the kind of fate points is good for on the GM side of me to be like, yeah, I'm gonna spend it to make you hang over. Yeah, yeah. Like minor gonna spend it. Hangovers.

Yeah, like that. Like minor detriments and stuff like that. Con saving throw. He's a big lad, he might be right. 11. Plus? 13. 13, I would say it's enough you do not have disadvantage.

You are bleary, you're still feeling the effects of it, but it's not so bad that you're gonna struggle to like, navigate things like that. It's Berlin Zoo. Yeah. That was really cool. No, that was pretty bad. That was bad.

You were still drunk. Wait, what happened? I was just going to hear it. It was just going to end and we're still drunk. Rhiannon was drunk. Before break. Let's not get distracted ADHD kids. Gun dog night.

Yeah, gun dog. Is this your dog? So it would be a survival check for Rowan. Everyone in the chat is loving this. I'm sure they are, but I'm also aware that we want to go on break and I want to move on. I need a wee. Okay.

Oh. Oh. 24. 24, fantastic. So Rowan is going to be leading by navigating. What is everyone else doing as you travel? I'd like to look with my eyes and Sarah and Scout. Okay, so Scout in ahead and basically trying to be

warned of any incoming dangers. Okay. I kinda wanna keep on the lookout for signs of travel and who might have... Okay, like looking for tracks and passing bys and stuff. Yeah, to see, because obviously if the Squire has been out here, then I kind of want to look out for that. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.

Oh, actually, just to amend mine slightly, because of what he was hearing last night about the false cries for help and stuff like that, like what's he here for that? Like if he hears like weird, like, ah fuck. That'll be less of a seren thing and more of a grunting I imagine. But yeah, okay.

Oh, Xanthius. I think I'll, again, it's perception, I think like everyone else. If you can think of something else, like this is very much a, you're allowed to be creative here. I wanna. If you're keeping everyone's morale up or like,

thinking about. Tracking is probably survival anyway. Sorry? Tracking is gonna be survival, yes. Oh, that's true. But I wanna, instead of looking for tracks for... Pascal. Pascal, I want to keep my eye on the sort of the tree top line

and look for the sort of scorching that was left behind, see if there's a similar, or even more of them, than what we found before. Okay, that would be investigation. Oh, great. So can I get a survival roll from Daisy, investigation from Xanthias, perception check from Gruff, and then what's Ophelia doing?

Hmm. I think, I think Ophelia might take Osa's advice and keep an eye out for any signs of dry-eyed spirits and fairies. Okay. Yeah, just see if her. So I would say that's a nature roll, because it will be more on your knowledge of focal,

rather than actually looking for perception, this is looking out for signs of nature spirits or things that might indicate them. Don't wanna upset the triads, yeah? Yeah, all right, nature roll then please. Bangin'. What do we get on our survival? 14.

14. I got a natural 20. Natural 20. Unnatural 20. Unnatural 20. Three. 14. I got a natural 20. Natural 20. Unnatural 20. Unnatural 20. Three. Three. You make your way,

and you travel for about two days, making your way through the deep woods, following the directions that were given to you by Claude and maybe some of the other locals as well. As you travel, Ophelia, you're keeping an eye out for things like dryads and things like that you don't encounter anything that you're familiar with. Nothing that kind of alerts you to it.

You don't hear any signs or cries for help for most of that journey, Gruff, but maybe as we get later to your final destination, you might. The Scorching, you might, the scorching, you see no sign of a regular pattern, Xanthias, but you do every now and then see erratic marks that are very similar.

You don't see a trail of them, but every now and then, keeping an eye out for it over those two days, you might just sometimes see a line, like trees where it's scorch, scorch, scorch, scorch, and then nothing. And like, they seem to just, almost like indicating that these orbs or whatever they were,

were traveling erratic patterns all over the woods, basically. So they would say the way they're 20. Do they go up and down as well? Sometimes they go down, you... Would, you got a natural 20, didn't you? Yeah. Yeah, I would say that like, you can glean,

as you're journeying for two days, moving through the woods, you pick up on a few things. Those lights move in erratic patterns across the rust whale woods. There's no real clear direction they're coming from or direction they're going to. What they do seem to do is sometimes you see signs of like, maybe where animals have nested or like come to feed

and they dip down lower and then they vanish and things like that. There's signs that they are maybe attracted to living creatures and seem to focus in on them. There's no indication that they were, like there's not like a body next to someone as gorgeing. Never any bodies. Never any bodies.

Curious watching movement. But there are disappearances, are there not? There's a lack of bodies. Lack of, yes, a lack of bodies. A deep lack of bodies. With the survival check on Pascal, you would, maybe once at some point on the journey, Daisy, you find what looks like somebody made a temporary shelter,

and you find like leftover crumbs of clearly travel rations. These aren't like natural foods. You feel where somebody's like, you know, Nim points out like, oh, somebody's made like a lean-to there. Not particularly well. This looks like the efforts of somebody who does not really know what they're doing

and is kind of, Nim would describe it as somebody who's read how to do this in a book versus somebody who has done it in practice. A nova versus an ala. Yes. But you do see signs of it and you seem to be on the right track. You are kind of traveling in the same direction

that this person traveled in. Definitely come up this way. Definitely come up this way, yeah. Okay, good to know. When you reach on the second day, you begin to arrive, I know you wanna go to the Lou, but you arrive. No pee for you.

Crossing the river, you find the looming, imposing, jagged fangs of the empress, the mountains that divide Kaldre and Gildai from Kelskaris. These immense jagged peaks become the backdrop, and the foothills, everything turns into a steep incline as you are now moving through like a hilled woodland. Eventually the trees begin to thin out and become sparser, giving way to rocky outcroppings or hills.

And on the second day, when you begin to near where the location of the gallow stone, the gallowack stone, you see this clearing and this kind of series of mountains with a cave mouth, outside of which there are a number of rocky hills or cliffs or outcroppings nearby, one of which has an unusual kind of shape to it that does look like some sort of serpentine winged beast,

far too thin to be a dragon, and it has just an unusual shape rock, probably worn down by water erosion or something like that, but you can see it having to local folklore, perhaps. And Gruff, that's when either you or Saren alerts you to, you can hear a faint kind of whimpering coming from within the cave. A kind of, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah,

like you hear these weird noises coming from up inside it. within the cave. I kind of... Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah shreds of a red cauldron tabard, kind of scattered nearby. And that's where we'll take our break and we'll come back. Okay. Woo. For Pascal. But it was whimpering. Oh wait, no.

Hmm. Hmm. Not going down. With that, we will be back very shortly for part two of Our Fairer Dragon Empire. We'll see you then. Nice. It's pee time. Pee time.

I've got to sign off. Pee. Pee. Pee. Pee. Pee.