High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #55 | Possession of a Dragonborn (Part 2)

Episode Date: March 20, 2025

Ophelia becomes the next victim of a ghostly light as the team finally uncover the entrance to the proto-magi vault! _______________ 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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Details at Fizz.ca. The Dragon Empire Welcome back to part two of Olfea the Dragon Empire. You rejoin us as our party, our exhausted, tired party, our traveling through the Rustwale Woods, following not a possessed Xanthius, but now a possessed Ophelia, who is faster than everyone. And has a friend.

We've really gone downhill. And has a bodyguard. Causing further problems. And Ophelia is rolling like a god king. God king against spells. Not only on certain things. Yes. The various ways to try and stop or stall Ophelia have failed,

but you have gained some knowledge maybe about what this thing is doing, how it works. Knowledge. But you are now facing the rather sort of desperate scenario where a difficult decision needs to be made in that do you try and stop Ophelia and force this creature out of her and hope that maybe you can defeat it?

Or do you let Ophelia carry on to the destination? The destination. I just realized something awful as well. Oh yeah? If we, well. Wait. Just additional awful. Grog is only now apprised of the situation. I'm here now, I'm right where I was, just additional awful. Grog is only now apprised of the situation.

I'm here now, I'm right where I was, I'm here. No, as Kim, because I'm not roleplaying right now, Tom, I need you to know that, I'm not roleplaying right now. Okay, no, this is important. But like, yeah, if we try and whack Ophelia to knock this thing out of her, we're also gonna have to whack Percival,

because Percival's not gonna have any of it, and that means we're probably gonna end up killing Percival because he's low on health and can't be healed. Do you say Percy has like one hit point? He has one hit point, oh my god. And he can't be healed. Also, you have to work twice as hard to knock out Ophelia because she Rage-es and is resistant to damage.

Oh, actually, she's had several rounds now, would her Rage not have faded? Do you have another Rage in the bank to go? I've got another Rage Oh actually, we had several rounds now. Would her rage not have faded? Do you have another rage in the bank to go? I've got another rage to go, I can do another one. I mean, we'd use, we'd use pinkies. Yes, rage would be a natural thing that it could like, yeah, basically this thing seems to have access to anything natural as part of like the body.

So like, I'd say like maybe, maybe rage wouldn't trigger, but like any natural abilities. But you don't know, maybe it would. Yeah, maybe. Oh shit. Although it never seemed aggressive, even Azanthias, it was always mainly trying to just get away.

Yeah. But even if I were, you can't really tell, Azanthias. Scratching away, not doing any damage. The most aggressive part of me was Borro. Yeah. Can we convince Borro to be possessed instead of us? We really don't want that. That thing would get away.

Yeah, he'd be gone. We never said that. But I mean, I guess it could. They were trying to grab Dragonettes before. Still the problem is, it's in Ophelia. Yeah, right now it's the problem. And it's more policy than war. Nobody has the spell, any spells that would get it out. Would help. Unless I can get a long sleigh. Yeah, right now, that's the problem. And it's more Percy than Wario. Nobody has the spell, any spells that would get it out.

Would help, unless I can get a long sleigh. Yeah, yeah. Except Fireball, Fireball would get it out. Fireball does get everything out. Fireball, is that? I was like, sit and bang. I didn't ask how to get rid of the orb, I said I cast Fireball.

Bang and the possession's gone. And so's the rest of Ophelia, but you know, details. Cleaning gun. So, my art question to you is, what are you guys doing? Fireballing Ophelia, was that not? That was actually clear. How long has it been since Ophelia's been made? How long have we been following now?

I think we've been trying just 50 things. For the sake of argument, like less than an hour, like you've been trying, but like, you know, yeah. Because you have been sort of like, Robin chased after her and tried to put the spell down, you've been like, you know, following her and talking questions and stuff. Yeah.

Because there is definitely the plan of getting a small amount of short rest to, and then catching up. I've got, not to brag, a decent constitution, so I could probably keep up, maybe. Or you said Seren, but I don't know how far can Seren go. I guess it's just a thing. 100, so while Seren can go.

Seren can go, but you lose communication after a hundred feet. Yeah, 100 foot, yeah. You can't telepathically communicate with Seren. Yeah. And I can't blink with, 100 foot, yeah. You can't telepathically communicate with Sarah. Yeah. And I can't link with Ophelia, unfortunately. True. So you could link with...

I was linked with her, though, when she got possessed. That's very true. What would happen then? It would just shut Ophelia off. Ah. I was holding her for a little glib. Yeah. She held up.

She held up. She blocked you. It would be more like entering a place of bad reception. Like bad cell reception, like it cuts a call. Are you a crackling dial-up here? Yeah. Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Mom! Okay. Yeah, so I could follow if people wanted a short rest. Cause all my short rest abilities are now gone, so. But if you wanted to lock in another communication thing,

I don't know how much of that you have left actually before. I have like a few, but I don't think, it's not gonna be really that, it's within a mile. So, if we get outside of a mile, then it doesn't work anymore, so. I think, to be honest, we just gotta keep going. We got, we're. Stick it out until we get there. And then fuck out of ideas.

Yeah, and then fireball. Hope that then. And then fireball. Pass me the map, please, Tom. Yeah, I am concentrating on Fyber. The hope would be we get to where the orbs want us to go and the orbs no longer need to possess us. So in the, I would have communicated the slight vision I would have had then.

Like, if the vault's not there, then Ophelia's just gonna stand there until she stops. Or the orbs walk her in there. Or if the vault is there, which hopefully it is. She'll just automatically go through that. She'll just go right in. Which is what, we don't really want her to be going on her own.

Because the- There is a universe in which the only way into the place is when a gateway is opened via a possessed person. So it could be that we- Wait, then? Maybe I'm adding an extra complication to this where I'm like, we have to go in. And then we'll sort it out, I don't know.

I don't know if we could take a rest when we're in there though. That's, I guess that's. How bad could it be? I would like to impart some knowledge. Let's go. Drop wisdom. Gonna drop some sick whiz on the aisle. Okay, I'm open and ready to accept. I don't know at what point I'd be able to talk

to all of you though considering we're constantly catching up to Ophelia. It's fine, you can have a conversation on the way. Yeah, it's a good point. We can slow down a bit as long as we keep her in sight. Right. I mean, yeah, I feel like we're loosely keeping an eye on her at this point.

We're moving about the same speed. Because before we were actively trying to like do stuff. Just stay there, just stay there. My knowledge on what happened to me when I went to a vault, bright white light, and I was inside an orb of some kind, against my will. My fear is the orb's possession doesn't end when Ophelia goes through,

and it continues until whatever's needed of Ophelia is done to her. That was like experiments and stuff though, wasn't it? So that's not really... Well, if we're... We've seen weird things. If we're thinking about the Galowak and how that thing was...

Oh! They had to put a big thing in Ophelia's chest. One of those. No, probably one of these, yeah. There's also almost certainly more of those crystal constructs around as well. The people that couldn't hear that, Rhiannon just whispered to me, oh, I've got the Galowax head.

What if they put the Galowax head on my head instead of my head? You'd like that. You sick fuck. That'd be cool. You love that boy. I feel like Brianna would like that, but I feel like you'd be like, no, mine first! What if it's on your shoulder? So you have two heads,

and then you have another head on your other shoulder, and that other head is Zambius. But here's the thing, let me tell you something. You can speculate about it, or we can find out. Let it happen. Either way, we're following. At the moment, you guys, you can speculate about it, or we can find out. Let it happen. Either way we're following. At the moment you guys, so basically it sounds like you don't have a way or you're not intending to beat Ophelia and stop her, so you.

No, why would we? At least until we get to this. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Well, oh yeah, good point. It takes you about another six hours. God, man. Is this another? So this is, it's about another six hours. God, yeah. Is this another? So this is, it's about half a day.

You are on the very sort of edges of the fangs of the Empress now. The forest is thick and dense. You know, this part of the wood is not visited by loggers or travelers or anything like that. You are in like deep mountain, you know, like out in the Rockies, kind of like deep Sasquatch territory.

Sasquatch territory. Proper untouched woodland. And eventually, and Afina's not been walking in a straight line, there are diversions, there's been a slight shift south and then east as you're following the ridge of the mountains, avoiding different obstacles and clambering up parts here, maybe heading a little bit down to where the land

starts to flatten out. And you come across, you see up ahead, and Xanthias, you recognize it, because you can see where the forest, you know, this is thick canopy, but up ahead, not far, like, I feel like it's gonna get there very, very quickly, is a sort of area of not flattened trees but where trees just no longer are. It's sort of like thick, dense woodland and then there's this big circular area that just is no trees. And all the branches on the outskirts of this ring sort of are twisted in strange ways.

Their limbs and their branches have almost spiraled round, shying away from growing into this sort of ring, perfect circle of space. At the center you can see a single large, almost like sequoia, sort of massive tree stump. But it has, it no longer grows up. It seems like something almost sheared off the tree, and then it's regrown itself up and out to the sides. And there is something that reminds you of almost like an archway or a chair, almost. Like it's kind of grown up the sides and around the base.

It's kind of left like a space in this throne room. Gruff, your passive perception is the highest in the teams, isn't it? Yeah, I guess so, 17. 17. You almost missed this. You're the only one that picks up on this. But in the space behind this tree stump,

in the big open space of this giant ring of nothing, of just soil, basically, there is a faint shimmer in the air. As if something is there, but light is warping around it. And that seems to extend sort of around this weird throne or archway shaped tree. Okay. You see something there.

Yeah, this is just passive perception. Oh, you've got the same, you've got 17 as well. In that case, yeah, you would see the same thing, Stacey. Sorry, I thought you had slightly less passive perception. But yeah, so you and Gruff both see this. Kind of almost like something massive. And it's about 15 foot tall, vaguely tower shaped,

but it's weird angles, right? And it's refracting the light in a way that basically renders it invisible. But every now and again, the light catches it in a way and it kind of creates this distortion. And as you approach you kind of tilt your head to try and get a better look at it and for a split second when you just move and the light catches it right the whole thing turns red. Just pure opaque red and then it's gone. As soon as you like like move ever so slightly to the side, it's invisible again. Ophelia is beelining to the large tree stump. Oh shit, we should probably...

Well, this is it. There's definitely something over there. Daisy, can you see it? Yeah, this was the place, I think. Yeah, it was red and then it wasn't, and then it was, and then it wasn't. You saw the thing in the middle? There's something shimmering in the middle there.

Okay, well we should be able to see Ophelia climb maybe something invisible to us, but this looks like the place. Do we try to get us out now, or do we follow? I've set my peace. I'm gonna say you've got like two rounds before Ophelia gets in there. Unless you stop her or slow her down.

Is there any, there's no other orbs around? No, no other orbs. Is there anything like, does this feel? Yeah, there is something actually, as you draw closer around that tree stump. Bodies, bones specifically, just hundreds of bones. Not all human, some of them look like creatures, large animals, bears, wolves, something like that,

but you can see that the skulls and the bones almost form around the base of the stump as if something was just stood there waiting and just fell apart and broke away and it's covered in lichen and moss and you can see that there's this healthy bed of soil around this tree stump, and that moss has grown over probably more bones and skulls, and it's just created this...

Sweet. Yeah. That is very cool. Did you see, sorry, there was a tree stump that had been hollowed out like a throne? It's like it's flattened, and then it's sort of grown up and around and sort of created like an archway. Like a doorway. Yeah.

It's more like a doorway. Like the back of a throne. You know, like it kind of has like a straight bit, it's kind of... Because Gruff's thinking about the King's throne folklore that he picked up. It sounds similar, yeah. It might be that, again, like it's folklore, you don't know how much, you know, obviously you don't know if it's true,

but it seems that maybe this is the place that inspired that legend maybe. You don't see any creatures around. Yeah, a challenge from a knight to win his powers was what I wrote down. How much of that is true or not, you don't know. The Gallowack was real. There's something that commands the trees.

And then all the trees. Yeah, it's like the trees are like turned away from this thing, whatever is this invisible thing that Daisy and Grog can see. And I would describe it as like a tower, but it's made of wrong angles. If it's gonna do stuff when she gets inside, like Rowan says, I think we should stop her now.

But then we have to do with Percival. Percival? Yeah, he's just like, oh, yes, Mrs. Santhius, he's still walking next to Ophelia. Have you noticed that Ophelia is a little bit possessed like I was? Possessed? She's being very quiet. She's been very, very quiet.

We may need to attack her very, very soon to get rid of this possession in order to save her life. Is that okay? Would you hurt her? Would you? Of course not. I will not allow Sister Ophelia to come to any harm. But if we were in order to save her, we have to...

Zatis, have you got a whole person left? I do. I mean, this is like, that's like a round of chatting. Unless anybody else wants to do something. But he's like... Percival is going to defend, if you attack Ophelia, he doesn't care what the reason is, he is going to defend her. Fart with bones.

It's also like, I would say that there's no persuasion check in the world that will overcome his loyalty to Ophelia. Yeah, yeah. That's what he was made for. It's also like, I would say that there's no persuasion check in the world that will overcome his loyalty to a friend. That's what he was made for. You need to revise those rules, bro. That's what he was made for. I know, I know, yeah. Well, I guess.

Also means that it explains why he can't be charmed and stuff as well, because he just can't be, he's immune to it. Those two, they're walking together, right, ahead of us. Yeah. I will cast Entangle again to try and catch both of them. Alright, Strength saving throws from both of them. Strength 15.

Strength 15. Watch me fail this. I am going to spend a point of fate on Sister Ophelia's. Add a d6, please. Okey-dokey. To that saving throw. So that is 11, 12, 13. 13 total. Strength 15. Okay, 12, 13. 13 total.

Strength 15. Okay, so fails. Saving with the fate. So yeah, and then Percival's. Percival's Strengths. I'm gonna spend a fate on that. No? I mean, it's definitely Percival.

Well it's not Percival. 16. 16, so he does succeed. So you see Sister Ophelia like vines sprout out, kind of coming up, rupturing, spilling bones everywhere. As these vines grub in the moss, wraps around your legs, and Ophelia, you can feel your body tugging, but not able to move.

And again, just silently inside, you are aware of everything. Percival stops, and he's like, so Gruff, why have you stopped Sister Ophelia? Sister Ophelia is possessed. I'm mimicking your accent. That is really rude of me. Hello, my name is Gruff.

It's really rude of me. My name is Gruff. Xanthias, Xanthias Oragon, what have you done? If she goes forward into that tower, she's going to be in danger. Oh, that does not sound good. That's why I'm trying to stop her from walking forward. I see.

Oh, very well. She's not being harmed, so I... She cannot go forward into that tower there. You're telling me that Sister Ophelia will be in danger if she goes into... Yes. Well, he can't see the tower. He's like, I do not see a tower.

Can I show roughly, if she steps around this thing in there, danger. Okay, very well. Bad times. Okay. Can I, I don't know, like try and... I mean I could like. And it's a saving throw every round, right,

to break the entangle. Possessed light thing that's inside Velia. We do want to go into this thing, but we just need to have a little rest, but you're gonna get all of us, not just one. You're bargaining with whatever is inside. Yeah, cause Daisy doesn't know what else to do. As a good deal, I'm not going to make you roll,

because this thing doesn't listen to reason. It's doing what it's meant to do. It's not a thinking creature. It is, in the same way as Percival, following orders. Now that Ophelia is restrained. It does not have the ability to... This is like, sorry, not the manager. like, you know, I can't do it. It's like a quarter-step right where it's just,

it's reprogrammed to make you do a thing. It must go to the sun, yeah. I mean, could I, I guess alongside the prism that I have. Yes. That is like, there is a warmth to it now. Okay, and is it, anytime, now that I'm sort of looking in that direction it's been pointed out to me, is it almost identical in it's like,

when that thing is red, this thing is red? Well, that's what you realize is, it's not that the thing is changing, it's, you realize, Xanthias, you're holding this and you've kind of connected with the magic a little bit. That the thing that is there is red, but it's filtering out the light like a prism, so that when you look at it in a certain way,

it looks invisible, it looks clear. So I have to stand in a very specific place. And it looks almost like maybe it's not malfunctioning, but like something, it shouldn't do that, but you can catch it and it looks pure red. You also get the sense that if you wish to, you could have the thing in your hand like match that color.

Like you could like be like go red and it would become red. I would like to go red. Have it go red. Yeah, it becomes red. The prism in your hand turns pure red. Very interesting. Not super useful right now, but. Very interesting.

Not super useful right now, but... I think if... I'm just trying to investigate this thing and... Well, before you do anything more, Gruff or Rowan anything, and then I'm gonna have Sister Ophelia make another... I have to concentrate on Entangling. Okay, so you're concentrating on Entangle. Rowan, are you doing anything?

I'm going to... Daisy's pleading with his sword. Please, don't go in. Let us sleep, please. I'm going to... Daisy's pleading with his sword, please don't go in. Let us sleep, please. I'm so tired. It's not working. Not much I can do, so I'm just gonna give Xantheus bardic inspiration for whatever he does. Hell yeah. All right, you give bardic DA.

You've got this, whatever you've got planned. You've got your extra brain to fit, your motes that they do things as well. I haven't got a bone of fit. Bone of fit. Uh, Ophelia, can I get a Strength saving throw please? I'm going to spend a fate point so you can add a d6. Alrighty.

Nine, 13. That's not enough. Held. So Xanthia, it's what you want to try. So, um, I, should we go into this tower before Ophelia and just have a look first? It might send us somewhere that isn't the same place as Ophelia.

Can we get in? I want to, yeah, I want to try to just get a sight of this thing exactly as it is meant to be and try to notice the entrance, I suppose. Or- You don't notice an entrance. You can't see a physical opening. There's no door. It seems to be like, I mean,

you can tell that whatever this thing is, now that sort of Gruff and Daisy have pointed it out, you can all see that there is something there. It's hovering about five feet off the ground. It's not actually connected to the ground. Okay. And, but it's also, you get the sense that it appearing has kind of over the years

forced the trees to like move away from it, and this stump thing that it's cut off, somehow something is there, like you know that there's something in that place, you know, that's connected to that tree stump, and that's why the branches have like grown around where the thing is not, because it's learned that if I grow here, I get vaporized X amount of times.

So if I grow this way, I'm safe, right? Why'd you say vaporize? Okay, I'm gonna tentatively step closer. Yeah, you get the sense that the tree stump is the first part before the towers behind this stump thing, this throne or chair or archway, whatever you want to call it.

Okay. And it looks like Ophelia is going towards that. Like Ophelia's going towards that stump thing. She's gonna almost stand on the stump. Can we throw like a bit of a branch into the... Yep, clatter across the stuff. Doesn't do anything when it gets in the... So what are you doing, Xander?

You said you wanted to try and get in. Are you going to move up? I'm moving slowly towards it. Whether this gets me within five feet of it or whatever, I'm just trying to see if anything happens. You're right next to a field, right in front of this tree stump throne archway, whatever you want to call it. And then the thing is above and beyond that, right? Like it's like, you can see it now, like you're close enough that you can clearly see that there is this clear sort of glass or crystalline thing that's refracting light.

And every now and then, like when you look at it at a certain angle, it's pure red. I don't want to jump on it. All right, can I get another Strength saving throw, please? Oh, I'll add another cheeky d6 to that. 15. Bang. Succeeds. Does anybody want to do anything? So Gruff, you would see that the Ophelia Breaks Free 15. 15. Bang. Succeeds. Does anybody want to do anything?

So Gruff, you would see that Ophelia breaks free. Parsifal, because of your warning, will move in front. It's like, please, Sister Ophelia, please do not stop. It's gonna try and grapple you. So you need to make a, what's higher, your strength or dex? Your dex, right?

My dex, yeah, is higher. Yeah, so can you make a dexterity saving throw against DC? This would be... Oh, no, my strength is higher. Oh, okay. Yeah, so whichever saving throw is higher. Okay, yeah. Against DC, 14, because of Percy's strength.

As he's gonna grapple you. Nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. 13. Whoa! That holds Ophelia back for at least a turn. Anybody else doing anything? If she goes through, we have to go with her. We can't leave her.

We have to go in. But I don't know how to do that. I'll step up. You go up onto the tree stump? Yeah, I'm gonna help first of all. I feel like a tingling. I feel tingly. You don't feel vaporized?

I look at my arms. There is a tingling in your arms, but nothing changing. My arms are gone numb. Okay, all right. But you've stepped on this to like hold, because my person's not on, like they're not on it yet. They're just in front of this like stump thing and like Percival's holding Ophelia back,

because he was told not to let her up on it. I think I was instinctively get in front. Okay, so you actually go up onto the thing and you're like trying to hold them back. To like be the next level of stopping. Sure, sure, sure, okay, great. And nothing happens, it's just tingling. Yeah, there's definitely a, there's a sense of like,

ooh, something's here, but you can't see it, you can't hear it. Feels weird up here. Okay, I'll try it, I'll try it. But he's not going anywhere though. He's not going anywhere yet. That's strange. What do you do with this? I'm gonna, it's big enough to stand on with.

Yeah, you can probably get about three people up on this stump at a time. Okay, I would. Yes. If people are physically holding me back. Yes. My uncanny mobility, can I just walk up? No, you can't walk up a person.

I think you can walk on structures like stones, but you can't walk up a creature or anything like that. No. And also this is personally pushing you and dragging you back and it's like a physical grapple. Nice. If you had an ability that was like, you can't be grappled or can't be restrained,

then it would be the same, but. Cool. Just checking. Nice try though, nice try. I think I'll go with the, I still have a charge in my gold sight eye. Okay. With which I can do to take to magic, I suppose. As I will step up onto this thing as well.

Give him a con check. With advantage because of the Gold Sight Eye. Oh yes, okay, cool. Okay. One of them's a one, the other one was a 16. Which I will fate. Oh my god, I'm working so well on fate. So 22.

Geez. You, with the Gold sight eye examining this, it's two things. That structure and the aura of magic on top of this stamp is very similar to that of the prism when you examined it. It's all schools of magic. Oh no. But also a source of magic

that is not arcane, primal, or divine. Okay. You have a feeling, you're looking at this prism, it's like bright, like, well, it's probably gone clear now, but you can will it to become red. Okay. So it kind of reverted back to its clear state. Sure.

This thing and this tower, it's all connected, and you know that the Galowak came out with it, you have a feeling that there's some sort of connection here between the two. That something, this is clearly like waiting for something to happen to possibly transport you somewhere, to like take you into the vault. Oh, I feel like the key.

Okay. Does anyone else want to jump on? I might have a way to travel with this thing. I think, actually, I don't know what you've just learned. Yeah. So, who wants to go first is what I'm saying. I'm already here. I just want to ascertain that Squire Pascal

is in the room with us. Because we would have kept him. He's currently following behind, because he's not on the tree stump for anything. He's with, I guess, you and Daisy at the moment. Yeah. Yeah, you didn't leave him behind, did you? Yeah, yeah. You made it very clear you're looking after him.

Yeah. I guess, can I get on something with Pascet? Like, I just want to make sure he's not left behind. You are with Xanthius and Rowan up there currently. There is room one more. There is room one more, yeah. Okay. Do you want me to go, then?

And then second round, go? Okay, yeah. Second round goes to Othelia. I wonder if there's something in this symbol. and then second round. Okay. Second round goes to Othelia. I wonder if there's something in this symbol and then Gruff will trace out in the air the or actually point on Sir Pascal where he's probably scratched that symbol into himself.

Multiple times. Yeah. I mean if I look around like if I look literally down, is that sort of the stump in this hexagon? It's a scorch mark along the stump edge that matches that symbol. Ophelia, can I get a Strength saving throw from you?

Yeah, ask a wait-rot while I'm thinking. I have knowledge, I don't know if I want to impart it. Oh, sorry, I had a desist. Oh, I don't know if I want to impart it. Oh, sorry, I had a Desist. Oh, I don't need to. Sorry, my apologies. So that is 24, 28. That's enough to break out of his grapple. Rowan, your DC was 13.

Can you do another Strength Stamina, as Rowan is now stopping you getting up onto this thing? No, no. Seven. Seven, okay. So you're holding Ophelia back at this point. I'm not going to double spend for it. Yeah, stop. No, no. Seven. Seven, okay, so you're holding Ophelia back at this point, I'm not gonna double spend for it. Yeah, stop. Stop. Okay, almost, all right.

Go long. Whatever you wanna do. Okay, is it, are either of you on the thing with us? Do you want me to get on? I'll get on then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Daisy, Xanthius, and Rowan, you're all on there. Okay, in that case, I will, while we're on this,

and it's currently in the clear state, I will switch the thing into red. I don't wanna be here, I don't wanna be here. As soon as you switch it to red, Rowan, Xanthius, and Daisy, you feel yourselves yanked, magically, very similar to teleportation spells that I think some of you included, maybe very similar to when you enter Blackwing's Tower.

Right, I feel like a kind of yanking sensation. Graff being the only conscious one still outside that isn't possessed, you see these three vanish in a sort of, it's like the air around that stump cracks like glass and red light just engulfs them and then they're gone. Bye, I guess. Well. With Rowan no longer holding her there,

Ophelia Percival's like trying to pull her back but Ophelia steps up onto the stump. What do you do, Gruff? Um, so it's- You've got Pascal with you. One, two, there's four of us, isn't there? Yep. Oh no. You've got a round to decide.

Yep. Well, how much do you decide and how much does Percival shove in? Yeah, like what's... Oh, Percival's on there. Like there's no choice. Percival is there with Sister Ophelia. It's like, do you wait and try and find your own way in

or do you go and leave Pascal behind? I am waiting. I'm not leaving Pascal behind. Okay. That's, I love that. That is the, that is a true knight. And I think that's the thing. You will, if someone was watching,

you would see Gruff just like look, look at this and then just shake his head. What you see is Ophelia steps up on it and that red orb pops out of her. Your body is like, you begin to feel movement coming back but it's slow, Ophelia, and that red light just appears in the air and the exact same thing happens as with Xanthias.

There's like a shattering of the air itself and then a red light and then they're gone. I think, yeah, you'd probably just see Gruff reaching like... They'd be like, Gruff! And Percival with you. So the first ones to see anything that happens is Xanthius Rowan. We have like a turn before Ophelia shows up, right? Basically, yeah.

If she shows up where you are. What if Ophelia appears inside Rowan and explodes Rowan? You need to move now. Oops. I fall in. You all appear in a fairly sized antechamber. You are stood on a kind of lattice of glass that's all multicolored. It's like, again, like the prism, a kind of lattice of glass

that's all multicolored. It's like, again, like the prism, it's all different colors spreading through it. And it's like a woven basket of this glass lattice that almost forms like a sort of egg shape around you with an opening at the front. As you, whoosh, vroom. All around you, the outside of this kind of lattice glass egg is, you can see the walls are made of a kind of foggy glass-like material,

almost like the fog is shifting and moving inside, but it looks solid. You can see a passageway dead ahead of you that seems to lead into a much larger chamber. I'm currently concentrating on detect magic. Do I get anything just jumping into this place? Everything. Everything, okay.

You're blind, Tucker. Take that off. It's not kind of blind, but you're like, yeah, everything here, in that same sense in that there's all kinds of magic everywhere, but it's not from one of those three sources that is familiar to you. Okay.

A few seconds later, not entering your body, but in a space nearby, Ophelia and Percival and the red orb. Oh, it's out of you, okay, okay. Where's Gryff? The orb, vrooom, just floats forward down into the corridor. Bye?

Gryff is behind with Pascal. How are we gonna get Gryff in here? How do I? Your? I could try, I could try and shift it back. I don't know what the right color would be. Maybe. It was clear-ish.

Clear-ish? Okay, I'll try clear. I'll be back in hopefully just a second. I'm like standing on the platform with this thing, shifting it to clear. Nothing happened. It's not doing anything. Yellow.

What are we doing? It's not doing it, green, I don't know. You get a voice in your mind, Xanthius, now. Just me? Echoing. Yeah, just you're holding the crystal, right? Yeah, yeah. It comes from this place,

and it just says, not authorized. Did anyone hear that? Everyone hear that? Hear what? What? Xanthius. Not authorized? Something up there just said that. Did no one else hear that? Everyone hear that? Hear what? What? Xanthius. Not authorized. Something up there just said that.

Did no one else hear it? No. No, I did hear a lot of shouting from you earlier though. Well. How dare you, first of all, talk to everyone the way that you talk to everybody. We were doing what we could. I was being very attacked.

You had no other choice, Xanthius. But you then got yourself possessed. You attacked me when I was being very attacked. You had no other choice, Xanthius! You then got yourself possessed! You attacked me when I was being possessed by Theresa! So I've been on the receiving end of that. I don't think I did. Everybody did. I didn't. I did.

So I know how that feels. Well, yeah. Well, we didn't know what to do! I know. They were using the information that I had given them that I had known to help stop you. Just saying, we still are in exactly the same position now. Yes we are, but I'm just saying We don't have gruff!

Where's gruff? We're all working together, and now is not the time for these kinds of shenanigans. Where are we? You're right, it's not! It's not the right time! Teams don't attack people, anyway! Unless there's a dire need, in's not, it's not the right time. Teams don't attack people anyway.

Unless there's a dire need, in which case, sometimes. Orb reaches the end of the corridor and then it seems to go up into the ceiling. Ro is kind of looking off in the distance, being in this place and just rubbing his arms instinctively. There is no familiarity to Roa. It's completely alien. This feels so, like, you don't remember

the vault you were in very well. But that dome, yeah, this doesn't feel right. Like, you remember sound, you remember vibration. Nothing like that. Yeah. Was there that. None of that, yeah. Was there any of the patterns that were similar to? There's patterns in the wall, but not like Rowan's. It's the patterns that the Galowack was drawing, that hexagonal shape, and they're all connected

to one another, so it's kind of forming like a hex grid over everything. Some larger, some smaller, but kind of all, very spiraling kind of pattern all around. But what you would notice is that there is a lot more like multicolored light, which you don't remember. Yours was like pure white or darkness, you don't remember there being color.

Whereas here, like even the walls, this crystal lattice that's around you has this kind of prismatic color to it all. I mean, it looks really pretty, but I'm kind of scared of it. How do I get authorization? I want authorization. That feels really redundant to ask.

Give me a second, Gruff, outsider. Just want to check in with what Gruff is doing. So I think I'd be standing there with Squire Pascal and I'd just kind of look around. He's sort of crouched, he's like hunched, like on his knees. Yeah, I'd put a kind of reassuring paw on his shoulder and I'd be like... Well, lad, it's just you and me and I'm so sorry

we couldn't get you anywhere safe before we had to come back, come into such a dangerous place. But you know, unfortunately, I've got another, I've got another boy that I need to look after as well. And well, the wee Crute has gone and abandoned us now, but I'm sure it'll be about long any minute to get us in there. So you just look, I'll look after you.

I've also got to look after him. I'm sure this will be fine. Yeah, I'll look after you. I've also got to look after him. I'm sure this will be fine. Yeah, I know. Right. Croft's just having a great conversation with himself. And he is just gonna ramble, like talking to himself, like trying to reassure himself, reassure the Squire,

and he's gonna look around and try and fervently remember what it was about, the stump and all that. He will get on the stump stump and with everything he does, he will be guiding Pascal. Don't worry about that. I'm not gonna stiff you on that. I know you're trying your best to look after him.

By taking him to a vault that he's possibly traumatized by. And I'm gonna, can I look at the pattern around the stump? So it is that same pattern that Groff saw when he was driven mad. Is there anything from his time when he was driven mad with the maddening whispers that he's like, oh, is there something? Do I draw the symbol?

I mean, you watched the others, they didn't draw a symbol. You watched, Xanthias held up this crystal that was red, like, he made it go red and he held it up and that transported him. And then the red orb came out of Ophelia and then that transported them. You can feel like your fur is tingling. You know that this is just suffused with magic.

Is it lifting up slowly? Yeah, like, definitely. Pascal is, like, tracing the one on the floor. He's just running his finger around it. Just tracing it. I'll start doing it, just to try something to see, you know, and then gives up, looks around. Is, I have a thought, and now it's gone.

No, the thought has just gone completely out of my head. Something about the whispers? Yeah, is there a way he can... pump magic into the symbol or the stamp or something? You can make an arcana check. Hmm... Four. I mean you try putting a little bit of

probable magic, you know, you summon the druidic magic that you know, like a cantrip, you know, you don't put spells or anything in there just to try and see if there's reception, but it's almost like it doesn't want magic. There's no, there's nothing to feed the magic into here. Are there any animals in the vicinity? Probably not.

No, it's oddly quiet here. You could probably go out into it, but this area seems to be abandoned by living things. And the amount of bones you can probably sense that animals know to avoid this place. Is it afternoon or evening? Let's say late afternoon. Late afternoon.

Any hint of lights in the area? As in the orbs? The orbs, the Wailing Wisps. Roll a D100 for me. Ooh la la. Say this will be a. That's how many there are. There's a hundred of them.

There's a hundred of them. This is gonna be a 20% chance. So you need to like. 24. 24. Oh my god. Not yet, maybe soon, but not right now. So for now, I will get off the stump.

Okay. And I will start cooking a meal. The next practical thing I can do. Yeah, yeah. So coming back inside, yes, Xanthias, you're like asking, how do I? How do I get authorization? You would hear a voice in your mind

that says, authorization can only be provided by Vermilion Orxa Nine. Vermilion, Vermilion Orxa Nine? Is that what you said? Yeah, that's what it said. Whoa. Authorization can only be granted by Vermillion Orxa 9. Do we hear it to both sides of this?

You hear Xanthius, just Xanthius's side. No one else can hear that? No. Okay, okay, okay, might just be to do with the or, Vermillion Orxa 9. Daisy, you would notice that like, when Xanthius seems to be speaking to something, the colors are like pulsing in a pattern.

It's like, you notice that the colors are changing differently, like more rapidly when Xanthias looks like he's listening to something. Hello shiny colors. Okay, it's not responding to what is Vermillion Orcs are nine. Vermillion Orcs are nine leads the Red Wing. Leads the Red Wing? Okay, Vermillion Orcs are nine leads the Red Wing. What is the Red Wing?

The Red Wing is this part of the prism. How do we get people into the Red Wing? Survey wisps bring subjects along with collector constructs. Collecter constructs and survey wisps bring subjects to the Red Wing. That's what it says. I'm repeating all of this as well. How do people leave the Red Wing? Via permission by Vermillion.

Vermillion or to nine. Senties, Sentillion, Auxer Nine. Vermillion, Auxer Nine. Senties, Senties, get them to send a red, a little red boop boop boop boop boop. Send back. Send a survey drone outside to collect specimen. You do not have permission. Vermillion, Auxer Nine. Where is Vermillion, Auxer Nine?

Vermillion, Auxer Nine is located in the upper section of the Red Wing. And how do we get to the upper section? Because I saw the thing go through the ceiling, right? You saw it go into a large chamber and then it got out of your view. You didn't see what happened to it. I think we have to find whatever

this Vermilion Orcs of Nine thing is, try to get permission, or at least send one of those, they're called survey drones, I think. Survey wisps. Survey wisps. And then we might be able to get Gru, or at least send one of those, they're called survey drones, I think. Survey wisps. Survey wisps. And then we might be able to get Gruff in here, but it does mean we need to go further in and into the upper section of the red wing.

What is Vermillion, Orcza Nine? The leader of the red wing. How do we know, are they a person, are they a concept? Is Vermillion, Orcza Nine a person? No answer. Okay. It's not a relevant question. Not relevant, no.

No. I mean, someone else could take the Orb and try, but the prism, I mean. How are you, Rowan? This place doesn't feel familiar at all. This is nothing like the other one? The one that flew across the sky? The Volant Vault, well, it's not like that one.

That one had more similarities to my one than this one does. This one's completely different. The Volant Vault, you saw similar patterns, you felt the vibrations, you felt the tones, but it was also different in its own way. It was unique in its prospects. You didn't feel that same connection that you did.

You kind of had a flashback. This one, yeah. The only thing that's really similar is this kind of glassy material that the thing is made of, like the walls. That looks somewhat familiar. Maybe the floor was kind of like that in the vault you were in.

That's very similar to the Volant Vault. You remembered seeing a kind of similar that in the vault you were in. It's very similar to the Volant Vault. You remembered seeing a kind of similar structure of like the surface. But yeah, like this weird multicolored crystal, like none of this is ringing about to you. Magothera did say there were multiple different protomagia that constructed their own different versions of their vaults.

Maybe this is just a different person. To your one. Seems like it. Trust whoever is in control of this. No, if they're making weird creatures like that, whatever it was called. Well, they're also kidnapping people with strange lights. And kidnapping people. Galowack, not Jabberwack.

We are here now, and we need Gruff inside. Yeah. So we need to find the thing in me. The person. Vermillion Orcs of Nigh. That one. How many creatures reside in the Red Wing? Ooh.

Would it answer that question to you? Without authorization. It wouldn't be classified. I don't think it would tell you. What did you say, how many creatures are currently in the bird wing? Sorry, this is like, I wasn't expecting that question. You now have to go like room by room. That's literally what I'm doing.

I think I've crashed it. You have, this would happen instantaneously. This is Mark's programming not having enough here. I can hear a dial-up tone. Mark! That's what I heard when I tried to connect with Ophelia. It just blue-screened. Shit, that's it.

Restarting. Go for some login. Admin. Be amazing if he comes out with two. There are approximately 22 creatures. 22 creatures? I suppose that includes us, hopefully includes us. Oh, it didn't, correct, thank you for pointing that out.

I didn't include that. So there's four of you, no, with Percival. Although Percival's undead. So there would be, so what did I say, 22? So it'd be 26, there are approximately 26 living organisms. Would Borrow have gone? Oh, that's true, yeah, Borrow. 27. 27.

Where Rowan's rock. No. There are approximately 27 living organisms. 27, 27 living organisms, as it says in this place. How many of them were possessed by a wisp and our specimens? How many were led here? You're freaking me out.

You're really giving me fucking work out here. Hopefully they say like 26. That would be nice. Well I guess it would count you guys. We were led here. Yeah. 17 of the living organisms are test subjects. Oh, we're test subjects, that's great. Test subjects, yeah.

What are they testing for? What is, what? What are the tests? What are the experiments? The current lead project for this wing of the Prism is hybridization. Hybridization, hybridization.

Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay. So there's 10 who weren't led here. 10 people working here that probably won't be happy that we're not orbed up right now. What do you call yourself? There's no response.

Okay. What do you call this place? The prism, the red wing of the prism. The red ring of the prism, okay. What happens to test subjects when their bodies are destroyed and taken into said, Redwing. Are we in trouble?

Is what I'm asking. I'm in danger. I repeat that. Deceased dead subjects would be harvested for organic material. Oh goody. They need the living to put them together. I would like Gruff now, I need an adult.

I want to go back in, I want to go. We need authorization from Vermillion. Then we go down there. Vermillion Auxer Nine, which is Vermillion, the color, A-U-X-A-9. Dash nine. That's the only thing I need. Yeah.

Aux. Auxer, Auxer Nine. What was that, sorry, Auxer? AUXA-9. That's the only thing I know. Yeah, AUX. AUXA, AUXA-9. What was that, sorry, AUXA? Yeah, AUXA-9. Is it cool? There's nothing like that, though. It did say living organisms. Okay.

To what extent are they living, though? I'm living, Percy is. Percy is not living. You are living your best life right now. Living adjacent. Living adjacent. Sideways, living sideways. Living adjacent.

Do you consider the survey wisps to be living organisms? Negative. Okay. Okay, so there's potentially much more in there than just the 10 quote unquote workers. Look, we've got no choice. No doubt Gruff has stayed behind with Pascal and is struggling to find a way in. So let's just go where they all went.

Yep, okay, let's. The sooner we get forward, the sooner we can leave. All right, you guys make your way down into the corridor into this larger chamber. Oh my god. I apologize, it's a very crude map, I didn't have a lot of time, but. Oh, it looks like the symbol.

It's a symbol. It does. You enter into, oh, slide that down, you can do what you want with it. You make your way into a large chamber that has a polygonal shape. It's approximately 80 feet across. The walls of the room are made of that same smoky,

cloudy gray and seem to have a lattice-like design of the same shape layered over it. The whole room is currently lit by a dominating white light. In the center is a large 20 foot cylinder that extends up and down. It glows with a faint green light. Around the chamber are arched doorways filled with solid glass-like material of colored light,

two yellow, two purple, and one blue. They're also on the far side of the cylindrical pit and chamber leading up, is some sort of dais made of this kind of smoky glass material. That is what you see. So one blue, two yellow, two purple. Yes. Yeah, not full prism spectrum, is it?

Yeah. Is there, sorry, was there an indication that this was, ours is the red door? I have given you all the information that's on the task. Yeah, yeah. What's the, but is there any, like, the one that we have just come from, the corridor that we've come from?

No, this doesn't have any, it doesn't have any, like, blocking. Like, these are like doors, like these colored glass are like filling. It doesn't have any blocking. These are like doors, these colored glass are filling the doorway basically. Blocking, it's also completely opaque, you can't see through it. Ah.

But your one that you've just come from, there's no light blocking it. Okay, I thought this might have been a central sort of. Same with the cylinder that goes down and up, it has a green light, but it's not blocked off. And it is like a pit, like it's a pit going down, and then if you're looking up, it looks like it extends upwards as well.

And that's where the wisp went. But we're walking on glass. You would imagine that the wisp went up there, yes. Yeah, you're working on this smoky, hard glass surface. And we can see through the pillar. No, it's quite opaque. As you get into this chamber, you can see this massive 20 foot drop,

and then it goes up. You can't see through the material stood on. So it's like a tube? Yes, it's like a tube going down and a tube going up. And we can go into it? If you wanna fall into it. Does it look solid? No, no, no, it's hot.

It's like a pit going down and a thing going up. I'm now with you. Yeah, yeah. Does it look solid? No, no, no, it's hollow. So it's like a pit going down and a thing going up. I'm now with you. Yeah, yeah. Okay. That's where the orbs go, up and down maybe. Is this all the Red Wing? All of these doors? It doesn't look like out of character.

I was imagining, I was thinking that all of these were like entrances from different colored towers, but if ours is not the red one, then I suppose this is still the red wing. Just red wings, right. Well, if there's like that many test subjects just in the red wing, then it's gotta be pretty big. That's a lot of things.

That's true. Up to this dais, and have an investigation. Yeah, so the dais, you kind of walk around the pit. Sorry, Gruff. I'm enjoying this. I'm gonna jump back into the costume. No, no, it's fine. I'm thinking about things.

You walk around the pit, Rowan, to the other side, and the dais, you can see, it's not very big. It's like a kind of, sort of like an altar that you might get in a temple, like a, what do they call it, where you have the Bible on? Pue. Yeah, and then the-

Lectern. Lectern, yeah, thank you. It's like a lectern, smooth made of that same kind of foggy glass material, but this one has a sort of spherical indentation in the middle, which is currently housing a clear glass orb. And on either side of the orb are two

smaller holes that look like something can be inserted into on either side of the single clear orb. And it looks like that orb can be picked up and taken away. Ooh. And the middle one is the same size as my one? No, yours looks completely different to ours. Oh my one. No, yours looks completely different. Okay, yeah, yours looks completely different. What size is the orb?

It's like a Final Fantasy VII materia. Okay. Good ponder orb. Yes, a good ponder orb. Enough like you can easily hold it in one hand or put it in a pouch or something like that. I will pick it up. Yeah, you pick it up.

Does it change the dice in any way? No, no, you have a clear orb. I have a feeling of the little concave divot. It's very smooth. I feel it. Feels real nice. Yeah, are you able to do anything with this orb? Can you see anything different with it?

Do I look different through it? You look all distorted. It's fish eye lens. Fish eye lens, Antheus. Such an Iroquai video. I'm going deep underground. Sliding around. Very proto-major.

If you at home wish to do your own proto-major, I'll take inspiration from the Jamiroquai video. The one. Was he sliding you around? There's some sort of controlling device, What did you say? Did they wear the hats? Was he sliding you around? It's some sort of controlling device, but there's two holes here. Seems like you might need something to go in them. I put my fingers in them.

Oh, just a little bit of a kind of magic burst of energy. Like some, clearly these are like connected to some sort of magic source. Ow. Not enough to hurt, but enough that you feel like, oh yeah, there's something. Not ow. Okay. If you say ow, it hurt a little bit, but no damage was taken.

Rowan would probably still say ow. He feels like the type of person to bump into someone else and be like, ow, you didn't hurt him, it hurt them. So far we've gotten ow and not ow and then an ow. I put that back in. Yep. What happens if you move the little orb while it's hidden there?

Can you spin it? Like a mouse ball track? Yeah. Oh, nice in. Yep. What happens if you move the little orb while it's hidden there? Can you use Spin It? Like a mouse ball track? Yeah. Oh, nice, nice. Okay. Maybe we can take this to one of these doors over here to open it. Actually, I might be able to use this as well.

Like, am I able to point this at the, say, the purple door? Because when I point this at the tower, I can turn it red. Can I turn it purple? This one, you turn it purple, but it doesn't seem to have an effect on the door. And you would hear that voice in your head saying, it would say,

Fuck you. Ah. You in particular. It would say, it would say incorrect use. Incorrect use. Is there anything next to the doors, like any panels or anything that look like... No, this is the thing, this is very alien subject. Like this is clearly designed to be used by creatures that are not you guys. Right? Like there is no panels or handles or really anything.

Like it's all just smooth. The doors are probably like 10 feet tall, these like archway halls. They're very thin sort of like arched doorways. The whole air here, it feels like, almost like you're at a high mountain. It's very oxygenated. The whole place feels weird.

Can I look inside the tube? Yeah. I can't get in the tube and just look up and down. Okay, so looking up, the only thing you can see is that there is clearly another floor or something up there. It's lit in the same way from a white, strong, dominating white light. But because you're looking up, you can only just see the ceiling above.

You can't see any detail up there. Can I like, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop. Well, because you're gonna say you're looking up and down, right? Yeah. So you look up. The only thing I'd say is you can maybe hear like what sounds like, like some sort of metal on glass sound.

When you look down, before you make your way up, when you look down, the floor below is pitch black. But at the very bottom of this pit, which is maybe about 80 feet down, you can see that there is what looks like a body slumped and the reason you can see it is it's pitch black but it's holding something in its hand like a blue rod that's glowing

and it's causing enough light that you can see just the illumination of the body. Can you give me a perception check as well please? Oh, shit, I'm gonna get the Unantico. Like at the bottom of the pillar right in the center. Yeah, well not right in the center center, but like in the viewpoint of where you can say it. 22.

Ooh. The other thing you see up here is in, it's just all you can see is this body and this blue light and like maybe some clothes. The corpse is decayed, but quite well preserved. Not quite like mummified, but like it hasn't been ravaged by bacteria, so it's like desiccated, like a corpse in the desert, right? And it's lying there, and the light is kind of spreading

this blue glow across the floor below, but you can't see the wider room, because it's blocked off by the sides of the pillar. But something causes a shadow to gllflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflflfl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl-cl The uncertainty is freaking me out a little bit. Okay, okay. He's holding a rod. It might be used to control, how do we get down there though? Well I can probably climb down, but he's not the only thing down there.

There was something else? A big wiggly thing. How many living organisms on our current floor? On the current floor, fuck you. It says fuck you. You could just say no authorization. No, because I don't want to cheap you out of good, because this is good stuff.

You're using your brain, I want to reward you. Why is that the first time I've heard that in all of these years? It's like you're using a brain now. There's big metal footsteps upstairs as well. I say upstairs. Up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up because I feel like there's only bad. This motherfucker better be ready for my next question. How many legs are there?

How many have burned down to fuck? There are approximately 14 living organisms on the middle floor. Middle floor and... How many living organisms on the bottom floor? There are approximately five living organisms on the bottom. Nope. Oh, it's definitely three more than I saw. Well, no, four more than I saw. Can you ask what the name of the bottom floor is?

What's the name of the bottom floor? No response. What is the purpose of the bottom floor? No response. What is the purpose of the bottom floor? That's a good question that I know the answer to. The bottom floor houses the more dangerous subjects. Oh, I want to know! No, no! Are you relaying this to us?

I am, yeah, everything that I say and it says, yeah. And the same as if you ask it a question, it's going through me. What's the purpose of the middle floor? The middle floor is temporary housing, engineering, and other services. Other. Like a shop, hopefully.

Well, we love a shop. And what's the purpose of the top floor? Administration. Oh, we'd love a shop. And what's the purpose of the top floor? Administration. Oh, there's always an admin. Which is probably where... Where all the important people are. A million oxen, ironers. Yes.

How do we ascend or descend from the middle floor? The central chamber can be accessed using a green keystone to activate the levitation mechanics. Oh. How would we find a green keystone? Green keystone can be achieved through two primary keys and a keystone orb. Keystone orb?

Keystone orb. Key down on the bottom floor. I'm choosing not to look at that one and not count it because I don't wanna go there. I think we're gonna, I think, well. What about since? There might be another one down there as well. That's just the one we should see.

But there's five things and these things are most dangerous. Five of the most dangerous things are down there. Oh, it's only dangerous if they know we're down there, right? You said it was immediately in the darkness, you could see it? There's a body. I could see it, but I didn't know if it would be able to see us. I don't know, if we sneak down there maybe we can... Why am I saying this out loud?

I can featherfall us all down there. But it's just we can't get back up again. I just think up is how we need to go. We can't go down there. So we need to find a way to activate this thing. How high up does it look? So that's the tricky thing is the room itself is about 40 feet, like the ceiling is 40 feet up and then this thing goes another 80 feet, like straight up.

So it's about 120 feet up. 120 feet up. Could we make some kind of, fashion like some kind of hook system so we can bring the body up without upsetting. Quite a lot of rope. We need about 80 feet. It shouldn't be too long.

Well, it'd need 120 because it's 80 feet to the top of the lower floor, and then you've got to go from the top of the lower floor to the bottom. 30 foot. 120. What about mage hand? Oh yes, I could do that. I could mage hand. 30 foot.

30 feet. Oh. What if, okay, 120 take 30, so 90, and then... So, how much... anyone got any rope? Anyone got any rope? Yeah. How long is your rope? Whilst you have a look at your inventories,

Gruff, is there anything you would like just to check in with Gruff? You know, it's only been like a few minutes, it's been a couple of minutes, like just, you know, you said, you know, get like some rations on the go, make sure Pascal's fed, you had a little bite to eat, like, drink some water skin.

I'd like to try something that could potentially be stupid or could potentially be true. I mean, I love that. I love that. I'm a big fan. So, one thing I'm going to do is, to start with, I'm actually gonna, Graf's gonna take off the sash that's around his waist and tie it between him and Pascal. Okay.

His thinking is, if an orb appears and he gets possessed, then Pascal will come with him. Great idea. So they're just kind of tethered to each other. We're just going to then get up onto the stump. And thinking about one of the folklore tales that we heard in the pub. Like I said, this could be potentially very stupid. Um, Graf's gonna...

I challenge you! I... I challenge you. Voice echoes. LAUGHTER Doesn't seem to do it. No, I didn't think that was going to work well. LAUGHTER To be... To be honest, Squire,

I actually didn't really want anything to turn up right now. I'm in no condition for a fight, so I'm actually kind of glad that nothing turned up. But, you know, you've got to show willing, right? That's the lies, the lies. Yes. The lies. SHE LAUGHS I'm really sorry for this fella.

You know, one of our... one of my new vows is to bring hope and comfort to those in need and to walk beside them along paths we've already walked now. I cannot say that I've walked along your path, but I surely hope that I can bring you out of it, young lad. Oh. Just rocks back and forth, doesn't say anything, unfortunately. I love this.

It's so big. Just Groth basically talking to himself, but it's done through like, no, no, no, I'm talking to him, it's fine. Like, yeah. All right, coming back to our intrepid adventurers. And also, I won't lie, I'm talking to him, it's fine. Like, yeah. All right, climbing back to our Intrepid Adventurers. And also, I won't lie, I'm really glad that that didn't work. Because I was like, this could go real bad.

I've got quite a bit of rope, but I don't think it's enough. I've got it. Also, I don't think we could climb back up, honestly. I love just saying, if one of you ties all the rope together, then ties it to me, lowers me down, then I cast Mage Hand to bring the rod or the corpse up to me, and then you pull me back up.

I don't know if we have enough rope. Mage Hand won't be able to pull the corpse, can only pull up to like five, 10 pounds, I think. Just one of them can pull the rod. The rod, yeah. You can probably get the little blue rod, yeah. Or you tie me to the rope. That's so much worse.

I go down to you, and then, hold on, within 30 feet, you guys hold onto me and my mass, and then within 30 feet, I can animate the rod and it can fly upwards. That's also worse. Why? It could fly around. Yes, yeah, but we also then have to hold you on a rope.

Yeah. Aw, it's gonna be. Hope he is strong. He's a little on me. He's a little on me. you on a rope. Yeah. Oh, it's gonna be... Obvious draw. He's a little... Just a little on me. He's a little... Can you make yourself smaller? Oh no, that was Magathera that did that.

I can polymorph myself. Into? Whatever you want. Like a bird? Can I polymorph and then do... And you can fly down and get the thing and come back up. Can't cast spells while your shape changed. But you could fly down and try and get the rod

in your little claws and fly up. Yeah. You could turn into a little- Wait, don't you lose intelligence when you polymorph as well? No. No, if you do it to yourself. You have to do it to something else.

Yeah, no, if you polymorph, you have the intelligence of the creature, because it's an offensive thing. Okay, what's the smartest bird you can think of? Polymorph me, I want to be a bird. No, but we need a smart bird that follows orders. A crow. A raven. An ice diver.

Ice diver? Yes, an ice diver. Seren looks very smart. Ice divers are intelligent for birds, yeah. But we want something relatively small and nimble. We don't want to alert whatever's down there that we're here. This is a problem. If we alert them that we're here, then we're in trouble. So what if I choose a crow or a raven that's already dark? Ask them if they will, if the creatures will come up here.

What about if they know we're here? They have silent flight. Do they? Mm-hmm. Oh, that's true. Do the creatures on the bottom floor have the ability to ascend to the middle floor? There's no response. Like, how would it know? On the bottom floor, have the ability to ascend to the middle floor.

There's no response. Like, how would it know? They're like, no, there's no idea. It just doesn't respond. Do the creatures on the bottom floor have authorization? Negative. I don't think they can come up. But maybe they can.

What if they have wings, Sathian? I don't know. What if they're like Ophelia and they can do the creepy wall thing? Ophelia. And they can just go on the ceiling and then come up. And then eat our entire heads. I'm gonna turn you into an owl.

Yes! I need you to constantly think to yourself, I need to go pick up that rod with my beak. Pick up the rod with my beak. Pick up the rod with my beak. And as I polymorph you, hopefully that carries you. Literally being an owl would be better than being myself right now. Here we go. I pick up the rod. And as I polymorph you, hopefully that carries you. Literally being an owl would be better than being myself right now.

Here we go. I could be an owl. An owl would be good. Just before you do this, give me one second. Can you, can you... Just give me one, just give me a minute. Wait, I'm out of fourth level spell slots, I can't do it. Yeah.

Fuck. Okay. Jesus Christ. Look for the best. I think we should blow you down. You are about to be attacked by an owl. Can you ask, is it safe for us to have a sleep here? This random bit.

And hope that Gruff can get to us? Yeah, until Gruff gets here. I mean, yeah, that might be something. Trying to think the right question to ask there. Unless, at least, anyone else has a question, which I can just relay there. Are specimens in danger on the middle floor? Just do this, right? A T symbol.

Yes, time out. Yes. I've heard that. Can you see this T symbol? I am aware of your presence. Oh. And you can see this, the hand gesture I'm making. I am aware of your presence. Oh. And you can see this, the hand gesture I'm making. I am aware of your presence.

What about this? No, I took middle finger. Pontius has put up two middle fingers. Is Vermillion Orcs and I aware of our presence? Yes. Are the creatures on the bottom floor aware of our presence? It's no response.

They don't know, okay, they're just experiments down there, I imagine. They're dangerous. Could we communicate with Vermilion Orcs and Nine? Permission denied. You motherfucker. So Vermilion Orcs and Nine Yes.

is aware of our presence. If it was a concern to them that we are not possessed, I assume security or something would be after us, but they're not. It's so beautiful that you've said that. It's so, I've been waiting because it's the most perfect timing. Oh, good.

The voice in Xanthias' head, as Rowan is like, well, they would have sent something off for us, wouldn't they? You would hear, test subjects should not be out of their holding cell. Eh. Where are our holding cells? There's no response. How do we get back to the holding cells? There's no response.

Is it us they're talking about? Has somebody, has something else escaped? Are we the test subjects? You hear like a dink, dink, dink, dink. As something from above. The metal guy, the metal guy. You see a creature that is partially crystalline humanoid, like the ones that Xanthias and Ophelia fought before.

But this one has metallic spider-like legs for a lower. Oh! Pretty long drops. As it... Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, t Subjects should be returned to their holding cell. And that is where we're gonna end today's episode. Fuck! Oh! T-shirt.

Oh god, at least it didn't come down with an R-E-O. Oh! It only leaves with that. And it says in your minds. Oh boy. It only leaves with that. And it says in your minds. Oh, let's just, I wanna go to the holding cell. That's good resting right there. I mean, yeah, it could be, it could be. Until they start chopping your legs off

and shoving a tail up there, I know. I don't want to be a Galloway. What a delightful carnival of things. Oh my god. You know when you said, my stupid brain, when you were like, oh the more dangerous, unstable creatures on the lower four, my brain immediately conjured up a T-Rex

with two sharks for arms. What? Just gonna make a note there. What are you saying? Just sharks with two sharks. T-Rex with? Sharks for arms. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. This one poos blood. Chris Trott just the most perfect like, it's set up there. Surely it would have sent someone down. But no, with that we will wrap up today's episode and we'll see you next time. Damn!

It's vault time. It's vault time baby. Here we are in the prism. We will see you next time. Take care everybody. Bye bye. Bye bye. See ya.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.