High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #56 | Chromatic Quandary (Part 1)

Episode Date: March 25, 2025

The party are split as they enter into a proto-magi vault and explore the Red Wing! _______________ 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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Welcome back to Altheaya, the Dragon Empire. Last time our heroes had defeated the Galawak, a creature of local legend, and encountered a strange coloured light in the woods which possessed Xanthius. His body moving on his own, Xanthius began to head east, with his companions exhausted and unrested chasing after him. Eventually, deciding to try and knock Xanthius out, the Light reappeared only to then possess Sister Ophelia instead. Continuing to head east, the party followed till they reached a mysterious grove with strange trees growing in odd ways, which was revealed to

be the entrance to a proto-Magi vault. Ophelia, Percival, Daisy, Xanthius and Rowan managed to make their way inside. However, Graf and the magically cursed Squire Pascal whom they had rescued from the Galowak were left outside. As the party inside the vault began to explore their strange alien surroundings, Xanthius conversing with some unseen force, a construct emerged. And that is where we left things last time.

Yes. As a little refresher. Yes, please. The vault itself, when you entered here, the walls are constructed from a smoky, nearly transparent but obscured glass, as if smoke itself had been captured and frozen in place. All around there is this pervasive white light,

but there are doorways made from different colored light, two purple, two yellow, and one blue, that seem to lead off in different directions. There is also a large central pit, but also sort of cylinder that goes up and down in the middle of the room that extends quite significantly, about 40 feet up to the ceiling and 80 feet down, with then another 40 feet at the bottom

as the cylinder ends and reaches the chamber. This whole place is very different to what Rowan remembers. This is not like the vault you have been in before. There are some similarities to the Volant Vault, the comet that you had all briefly encountered, but it is also different in its own way. The use of color seems to be particularly important here.

You also remember that there is a dais, like a plinth on the edge of this pit, which has a sort of, it had a glass sphere in like a spherical indentation, and two holes where it looked like something could be inserted. Yeah. For Gruff, you are outside in this grove. The grove is this big open space,

but all the trees do not encroach into the interior of the grove. Their branches specifically grow away from it. And in the middle, there is a large, almost like a redwood or a sequoia big tree stump, where it looks like it was just sheared off, and then all the branches have begun to grow around something that is imperceptible.

You had watched your companions step up to it, Xanthius using the prismatic sort of gemstone that he had got from the Galowak to turn red, and then he and Daisy and Rowan vanished, and then later Sister Ophelia possessed, stepped up to it with Percival and... That was something, somebody, I know, it was just Percival, I think.

Because you couldn't, that was right, because it was three people but you couldn't take Pascal with you and you didn't want to leave him. So Sister Ophelia and Percival had stepped on there, the red light emerged from Ophelia and then that transported them. the red light emerged from Ophelia and then that transported them. Inside the vault, I think we will begin there.

Okay, good. Also, we saw on the lower levels as well, there was something moving around down there, but there was also a green rock. Sister Ophelia had looked down there, and at the very bottom on the floor, there is a body of some adventurer, it looks like. Not, no decay, but almost desiccated,

like a mummy in the desert. Like no bacteria, but it is just like shrunken and withered away. But there is a blue rod in their hand that is glowing with light. That is the only light down there. and Sister Ophelia had seen shadows moving as if there is something in the room that you cannot see, like beyond that circle that you can look down on.

You also know that it goes up and there is a chamber above you as well. Yeah. Also, one last thing. Yeah, that's it. I tried the prism, I tried changing it, I think, to purple on one of the doors. I think I got a message of no authorization as well. So, potential, but we need authorization. Yes. You have been Xantheist this whole time holding this thing that you got from the Galowak.

You have been hearing this voice that the others can't perceive. Whenever Xanthius does seem to speak to something, the walls pulse with like a vibrant flash, like rapid flashes of other colors, but Xanthius is almost interpreting that as a voice in his head. And you've been told that the sort of, the person running this facility, you know it's called the Red Wing,

and there is somebody, something, some creature in charge called Vermillion Oxxer Nine. And that is, I believe, most of what you've learned. I will say there is some slight retconning. Okay. Xantheus was asking me a lot of questions about how many creatures there were. Yeah, yeah.

And I was throwing out some numbers because I was doing a lot of work in my head. I'm gonna change that because I've had a bit more time to develop the dungeon a bit more. Okay. What you would have learned is, fuck it, I've gotta go get my piece of paper. Oh, it's blue screen again.

Flip, flip the, man. I've looked at the entire thing. Look at it. Jump behind his screen. What's behind it? Reveal the secrets. Now's the time, revolution. Oh, the day is ours, comrades.

All right. If you want things to be easy, you can just do that. Yeah, we could cheat. You could cheat. We could. I'm not gonna gain much from that, all right? So, you would have been told that on the middle floor, which is where you guys currently are,

there are, and I'm gonna change my terminology, because I think I said living creatures last time. Organisms, I think. I'm gonna say, instead you are told that there are 11, I can act you guys, so that would be... Not including Percy. Not including Percy, so another four. 15 subjects on this level.

That word. Yes, 15 living subjects as well, right? 15 subjects. What is living? Trying to get that nuance. On the lower level. But that still doesn't count Percy then, if it just says, oh, okay, yeah.

On the lower level, 13 subjects. That was a lot more than I said last time. It was like five last time, yeah. Maybe. Do any of them have shark arms? I don't, maybe. Do the shark arms count as two? If there is a creature with shark arms,

it might count as one, it might count as three. What if it becomes one subject? What if there's like a ball of babies? But they only count that as one subject? Yeah, at one point. It could do, yeah. So yeah, so they're just retconning, a little slight retcon,

because I have had a bit more time to work on this dungeon, which I'm quite pleased with and I think I've made some good changes to it. Could those be anything about the upper floor? There is no information on the upper floor. Okay, no authorization. No authorization. The other thing, and this is where we left

the episode last time, is as you were discussing your plans and what to do, noise, you heard something basically approaching from above and climbing down the cylinder and now out onto the ceiling, and in fact I'm gonna say that it drops to the floor, is a large kind of mixture between a sort of scorpion or spider-like bodied creature with an upper half that's similar to one of those crystalline humanoids

that Xanthius and Ophelia had encountered before. But, but, without the cliffhanger of the last episode, you see now that it drops and lands, this construct is badly damaged. It has cracks, one of its arms is completely missing, like it's been ripped off. It does still have some sort of like clawed hand and it seems to have some sort of, you know,

like cannon-like device in place of a mouth. But it's covered in like cracks, several of its arachnid limbs have also been ripped off as well. It looks in a bad shape, basically. In terms of, oh, there is a mini as well. Oh, it's a big scorp. It is not a full scorpion.

I'm using the best miniature that I have available to me. In terms of Althea and its technological level, yes. When you say a cannon in place of its mouth, for example, we know it is like just a big gun. Well, firearms exist in Alfea, but they're like rudimentary blunderbusts and pistols and things like that.

This would look almost like the barrel of a gun, but it's made of crystal, and you can see that it has gemstones like gemstones embedded into its like, jaw, instead of like, powder reserves and things like that. I should make it very clear, in the vaults, there is a kind of alien sci-fi nature to it, but this is not technology. Like, the walls are made of some magical,

crystalline glass type substance. The barriers of color that you can see look to be magical in some form. This is high magic, but not science fiction. Right. Is it also the same materials as the walls and the construct we saw outside with lights in it and stuff?

So the top half has multicolored lights in it like the creatures you encountered before. The Scorpion King bit, the Dwayne Johnson bit. The Dwayne Johnson bit. The Scorpion bit of the Scorpion King. Cause that is genuinely kind of the vibe. The Scorpion bit is made of like obsidian glass. Right.

But it's like almost perfectly smooth. But it's cracked and broken where it's been damaged in the past. And with the big can of mouth, it does look like it's pogging. I guess it would look a bit like it's pogging broken where it's been damaged in the past. And with a big can of mouth, it does look like it's pogging. I guess it would look a bit like it's pogging. Cool, cool, nice. Okay, cool.

Yes, Gruffus. Would you like to roll for fate, please? Oh, that's a very good point, thank you very much. Good reminder. Can I have inspiration? No, because you benefit from fate. Well, let's go around, what do we get, Rhiannon? Five.

Oh, that's a dice for you. Yep, six. That's a dice for you. One. Oh, that's a dice for me. I can never line up with a group. Six. A dice for you.

What do I roll? I can never line up with a group. Oh, a three, that's a dice for me. Three and two. Three and two, you know, quite balanced. Not too bad, not too bad, not too bad. Not too bad at all. Not too bad, not too bad.

This creature, for the purposes of being here, also, like, if you do get into a fight, I will play Daisy in terms of combat ability, but otherwise she is going to, yeah, Shu, I think you're gonna need it, but otherwise she's like hiding behind Rowan, very clearly scared to be in this place, very clearly worried.

Okay, nice, yeah. But generally will hang back and not engage. If you want her to be like, "'Daisy, come and disarm a trap or search for traps,' like I will roll that for her. But you kind of need to direct her a little bit. Walk into this trip wire. Yeah, if you want to do that,

you could just be like, "'Daisy, search for this trip wire,' you know, that's fine But just let me know what you wanted to do and I will I will roll and stuff for her Otherwise, however, I will just pretend that she's not here big thing just landed in front of us so this creature lands and It Gestures towards you this kind of like cannon-like mouth and one clawed hand

which just towards you, this kind of like cannon-like mouth and one clawed hand, and it just sort of looks in the direction of you. It doesn't immediately attack though. What is this creature? I ask into the prism. You would hear again the walls. I guess you wouldn't know I'm actually talking. Flash, flash, flash, pulse, pulse, pulse.

They flash a myriad of colors, purples, greens, blues. You here in your mind, this isn't like you're hearing with your ears, you're feeling this presence in your mind, Xanthius. Sentinel construct. Sentinel construct, does it, what does it intend to do with us? You are subjects.

Like watching it sing, like, is it moving towards us? It stands there menacingly, almost waiting, and then it begins to circle around the pillar, going around in a clockwise fashion. I believe I'm gonna shimmy. Yeah, Ro would instinctively be the opposite. So you start, okay, great. So you start all shimmying around the other way.

Probably nudge Daisy to stay behind. Whatever the exact opposite of this thing is constantly. Just wary. Very wary. So, and you do that until it reaches about this point where it is on the other side of the room, and behind you there was this blue light that was blocking off a passageway.

And as you reach that position where that blue door is behind you, the blue door opens. Oh! What's in the blue corridor? Doesn't matter, better than that thing. How's the prison, I mean? No response.

It's not responding to me. I think we should go in. You see that it kind of stumbles as it tries to step on one of its broken legs and it kind of, and it writes itself. But I think that's where it wants us to go in there. I don't think we should go in there. Oh, where do we go though?

We've got nowhere else to go. As you guys delay for a moment, Where do we go though? We've got nowhere else to go. Uh... Uh... Uh... Uh... Uh... I don't know. As you guys delay for a moment, it begins advancing directly towards... Is it hurting us? Okay, we're going in. We're going into the blue corridor.

I'm going in. I don't wanna go in. I don't wanna go in. I don't wanna deal with that thing. I think, I don't know. What do you guys see? Uh, can, can I... What do you want? What do you want with us? Shh, can, can I? What do you want?

What do you want with us? It does not seem to have the capacity to speak or communicate. Griswold! Do you want us to go into the blue corridor? I ask the prism. You say that out loud, holding the prism, and the walls flash.

You are accompanied, you are subjects, it would say, it would just say, you are subjects. Is this the subject corridor? What'd you guys do? Oh. Can I just panic cast Mind Sliver on it? Yep, absolutely you can. I'm just like, ah, what is it,

it went near me, ah! Absolutely you can. The smirks. Yes, you could fight this thing. The Smirks. Yes, you can fight this thing. Intelligence saving throw. Intelligence saving throw. 12. DC 12?

Yep. How much brain can a cannon hold, really? That is a one. Oh, cool. So 1d6, 2d6 psychic damage. Mm, delicious. 11, and it subtracts 1d4. 11.

It's a saving throw at me. Well, you remember that. If I make a saving throw, try and remind me. How much damage to remind me? 11. 11. Psychic damage. Okay, 11 psychic damage.

You see, as Ophelia, what does it look like when you cast Mind Sliver? So Ophelia, when she casts magic, her eyes roll back white, her skin tightens, and then the red that was on her hand expands up her arm as the magical energy charges through her system, and then it just releases in this blood red beam, strikes the creature.

Strikes the creature, and you see, its legs kind of stay still, but its upper body moves weight, it's like, kind of like still, but its upper body moves weight, it's like kind of like jitters and shudders, like it's glitching out almost. The colors in it flash all sorts of colors, as that spell seems to have some sort of effect on it. What did I do up here?

It then is just, it's initiative. Okay, yeah, okay, that's fine. Please be high, please be high initiative. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, that's fine. Please be high, please be high initiative. How'd you do that, bud? I don't know, I don't know. Hey, do you wanna roll? Just to see where you would be? I want to, I want to.

Graf, you said initiative. While this is happening, I want to imagine an option. I will check in with Graf. If Graf has a plan, because the last time I think we discussed this, your plan was to basically wait for an orb to try and get you. If you have an idea of a way to get in,

in that case, what I'll do is I'll do maybe a couple of rounds and then I'm gonna jump to you. TPK them and then jump back to me. That's fine. Because that will change my plan. All right, let me keep your numbers in your minds, guys. I'm just gonna roll daisies. Sure, buddy.

Yeah, of course I will. Okay, Ophelia. A natural 20. And Percival. Five. And Xanthias. Nine. And Rowan.

Why is it half? I got nine too. I wanted higher, I wanted higher than 10 at least. Ah, well you didn't. You guys picked. Hey, you didn't either. Who out of you two would you like prefer to go be quicker? I've got 10 decks. I have 12.

All right, let's go with that. Makes sense, yep. Gruff, like I said, when you get into this, if you join the Firewall Roll Initiative, but it might be over quicker, so we don't know. It'll be over like that, because we're dead. Right, Ophelia, you are, like, this thing reacts to you casting a spell, you see that blue energy

is coalescing inside its body, charging up into that cannon, and it looks like it's about to spring and attack. Right. Specifically, it looks like it's going to attack you. Yeah, that's fair. Ophelia's going to rage. I don't want to be a prisoner here!

And yeah, she'll just run up and attack this thing straight up with her acidity. Okay. 15. So that is a 12 to hit on the first hit. That is not enough. This thing, it's damaged, but it's made of a hefty material. It looks like it's quite tough to penetrate.

All right, I'll strike again. Can I use fate on the second one? You absolutely can. Thank you. Delicious. Love it. Tasty, tasty. A, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 14, 20 to hit. 20 will hit.

Cool, okay. Okay, nice. And I don't have anything, do I have any blood points saved up? Let me check. Points. I don't think I do. It's probably been too long anyway. No, I don't think it's been too long yet.

Cool, so let's rock and roll. D8 plus three. Cool, six, seven, eight. Damage. Eight points of damage. Alrighty. So yeah, Verasty. Plus 10 to 10. Plus 10 to 10, okay, nice.

So the Verasty kind of strikes into this creature's body, chipping some of the crystal, maybe one of those cracks that's already on its body, causing it to split further. This thing, yeah, it looks in a really bad shape, it looks like it was already pretty badly damaged when it started this fight, but yeah, with those two attacks, it seems to be pretty weakened.

I'm just gonna stay right up close in this business. Alrighty. In that case, I'm going to go with... So it would next be the Constructs Go. It is going to... Yeah, Ophelia, it just goes straight for you. Yep. With its... Yeah, it's just going to try... It only has one claw remaining, so it can't make its two attacks,

it only makes one attack. So against Nafina, and that's a natural one. So like, you manage to parry it with veracity, kind of maybe skid you back, this thing is very strong. This thing's strength is above any of you, so as you parry it, you're almost like skidded along the floor, like, as it tries to, and're almost like skidded along the floor, like sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss is he's gonna just Radiant Blade. Yeah. I'm gonna just try and keep it nice and simple. That is gonna be a 17, which is gonna just barely hit.

So. 17, okay. That is gonna be 10, 14, 18. 18 points of Radiant damage to it. And then I'm gonna have her as a bonus action. She is going to move behind Rowan and try and hide. So she's just gonna scoot over here and basically use Rowan to hide behind.

Just to keep it nice and simple. Yep. Then we go to Xanthias. I would like to concentrate on a spell. With the condition being that Ophelia comes back towards us and telling everyone else to stay away from this thing. The moment Ophelia comes back towards us, I would like to cast Wall of Fire across the entire room.

Okay, wow. And separate the creature from us. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Fantastic. It's a 60 foot line and I think there's like five foot. Yeah, so I think I described it last time as being 80 foot across. I've made it a bit smaller so I could fit it on the map.

So it's now 60 feet across this chamber. So yeah, it literally will go from wall to wall. Yeah. And he came down from the pipe in the middle. The central cylinder up. Yeah, the floor above. So I'm hoping that it only lasts a minute, but if something else starts coming down from there as well.

Now how high is what's 10 feet high? Oh, that's a good question. I believe it's 10 feet high. There's probably gonna be things flying over. So the room is about 40 feet up, basically. 20 feet high. 20 feet high, so it's about half of the distance of the room.

Cool, all righty, but good to know. But that's your held action. My held action, and yeah, telling Ophelia to come back towards us, I'm gonna separate it from us. I am, at the end of your turn, Xanthias, I'm going to, because you begin to cast a spell because you're holding the action. I'm concentrating again.

You're kind of like, you're charging the spell effectively. Yes. I am gonna spend a fate point to use this thing's elite action, it's like a minor legendary action. Yeah. Because it immediately detects you casting a spell,

and that cannon mouth is going to fire something towards you. I need you casting a spell, and that cannon mouth is going to fire something towards you. I need you to make a, now it looks like, there's almost like a malfunction, it looks like this cannon's taken some damage, and normally this would be a line, but it is only able to target one creature as it's now currently badly damaged.

I need you to make a dexterity saving throw for me, Xanthius. Dexterity save is a 16? A 16 is enough, you're gonna take half damage. So what happens is... Let me roll the damage and then... Eye damage? I was hoping it would be like a normal first 10. This is lightning damage.

So what you see is it fires a sort of stream of crackling gel, like gel with lightning, like all throughout it. As you dodge out of the way, Xanthias, and that the sort of charge of lightning in it blasts you a little bit, you take 11 light damage half to five, because you saved. But as the gel impacts on the wall behind you,

it hardens, like as if it would lock, like a kind of gel that would encase you or lock you in place. And then shock you, right? Yeah. In terms of my concentration, I got 24, so. Yeah, success. Dang it.

Still holding on to that wall of fire. Alrighty. Rowan. Nice, sir. Rowan, hearing Xanthias. You can see a line of runes slowly forming on the floor. Oh yeah. Looks at Scorpion King, does the people's eyebrow.

He's going to pull his elbows back like this, and then as he's doing so, you hear the discordant sounds of Sostenuto, all of its strings, like the THX brandy. So he's charging up on his wrist geometry, and he pulses forward a dissonant whispers at it, which is a blast wisdom saving throw of 14. Why is this going? That is gonna be a fail, it's a six.

Don't worry, guy. It's an 86 psychic damage, and it has to use its reaction to move as far away from us as possible. Oh, shit. Very cool. Okay, so that will help with the wall of fire. That's actually awesome. 12 points.

12 seconds of psychic damage. So that would go to that. And it immediately uses reaction to move away. Does it say if that provokes opportunity attacks? It must immediately use its reaction, if available, to move us far away. On successful save, the target takes half as much. Ophelia, would you like to make an opportunity attack

as this thing scuttles away? What does that count as forced movement? No, because it's not being pushed. It's choosing to use its movement. It's being forced to do it. 15. Wow. It does not hit, unfortunately.

Its hardened body seems to be very resistant to these kind of physical attacks, but a free strike is a free strike. Excellent stuff, Rowan. Anything else on your turn? I'll just be like, checking daisies behind me. Yeah! It's okay, sorry if that was loud.

I don't want to go in that room! Was that really loud? It was really loud! Would Percival like a turn? Percival's on 1 HP still. I can't read... I'll have Percival stay back. Preserve the boy.

Yeah. Need to get that boy a range weapon. I've got to get him a range weapon. boy. Yeah, need to get that boy a ranged weapon. I gotta get him a ranged weapon. Yeah, gotta get that boy a ranged weapon. Give him a gun. Would you like him to take a dodge action? Yes. You might as well, because then it's disadvantageous

if he does get attacked, right? Yeah. Alrighty, the top of the round, Ophelia, you are the next one. Okay, Ophelia will listen to Xanthias and move back towards the crew. Well, if you give me a minute, Tom. Oh, get your fire out. Firewall, firewall!

There's only so many red dice. I actually have a surprising amount of red dice. How many of them are fucked? That one's a fucked one. Is everyone's favourite noise as Mark goes through his box of goodies. Oh, yeah, do it straight into the mic. People love that, don't they? It's fire.

It's like a bath. It's loud as shit. All right, big wall of fire. Give it a like, don't, do it, don't, don't, don't. It's like a bath. It's loud as shit. All right, big wall of fire. So you have a rock. Son of a bitch. Ha ha ha ha ha. Yeah, straight across, 20 foot high.

Pew! Mini's. I love it. Also, I like just to point out, I bought this big old school dry erase map. It's very old school D&D where I've drawn on it. Vintage. Yeah, I didn't have enough Dwarven Forge

to build this as a Dwarven Forge map. So it's why you get a drawn one. Yeah, where those runes are slowly appearing on the map, I almost like swipe at the air with what I guess would look like a scorching ray, but it like lines the floor and then. Nice. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. Mmm. Love it. Nice. Yeah, boy. Very cool. A combustion room. Yeah.

And I believe you choose the side, you choose the side which does damage. Yes, it will, towards him. Towards it, and what's the range, it's like within 10 feet. Yes, I believe it is, ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba. Ha la la la la la la la la la la la la la within 10 feet. Yes, I believe cast Ray of Sickness as a reaction. Okay. But you know what I mean, I will cast Ray of Sickness.

Okay, so if it moves to attack you, you will cast Ray of Sickness. Alrighty. Can you roll a D6 for me please, affiliate? Just see if it recharges its crystalline cannon. Two, three. Three, does not recharge its crystalline cannon. Two, three. Three, does not recharge its crystalline cannon. With this in mind,

Just gone. I am going to, no, this thing's not the brightest. It kind of acts on like basic orders, so it just moves forward. It's looking kind of dumb with a finger and a thumb on the shape of that one's forehead. It will move through the fire, which I believe is a-

Dexterity saving throw. That is a Terral, a three. Wow, five D, eight of fire damage to this guy. What a silly boy. That's on the first two, that's 14. Another eight. 22. Oh.

What do I need to do, man? 28 fire damage, please, por favor. Mon amie. You watch as the magical flames crack, and like the heat of the fire is enough that all those cracks that this creature sustained from its previous injuries and Ophelia's and the discordant damage to it, it causes enough like buildup of pressure that the cracks just split open and this thing falls apart and just collapses.

Oh it doesn't explode, okay. Doesn't explode. I remember the last one, the last crystalline thing exploded. And it made a noise right? It made a noise, yeah I remember that was a noise. Yeah it did make a bit of a noise. This one doesn't explode, okay. Doesn't explode. I remember the last one, the last crystalline thing exploded and it made a noise, right? It made a noise, yeah, I remember that was a noise. Yeah, it does make a bit of a noise. This one doesn't. Doesn't make a noise.

Doesn't make a noise, doesn't explode. Oh yeah. But yeah, it just, as it bursts through the flames, that is enough to cause it to just collapse, basically. Nice. Oh, god. What was that? I hated that. And are there more coming?

Is the blue door still open? The blue door is still open. Is the way to the entrance still open? Yes. I would like to perceive what's down there. Have a little glance. What, in the blue corridor? Down the corridor, yes.

Well, you'd have to start moving down there. I'm gonna go just tentatively see what's down there. Okay, just, if we see that thing close behind him, try to yell, get him back. Looking for escape routes here. Okay. So, the first thing that you see, Rowan, as you begin sort of making,

you take a few cautious steps inside to have a little peek. You would see. Peepers. Ba ba ba ba ba ba. Are they peeled? You would see, the first thing you see is there is this sort of small chamber to the north. The corridor does continue on,

seems to extend into a larger room. But it sort of turns to north and you can see a 20 by 20 feet, 25-ish feet room, which is made from the same material, all this kind of like smoky glass, but in the middle there is almost like a lattice crystalline bed and upon which a... one of these humanoid crystalline constructs is laid upon, but it's broken. And you can see the parts that have broken away,

and it's like lying there. There are like floating orbs of color, smaller than the ones that possess Santheus, which are sort of hovering above it, and it's just laying there. There is a red cylindered rod and a black glass orb on the lattice next to it. Looking further down, there is this much larger chamber

that you can also see. It's all pretty well lit, so you can see it quite easily. What you see is a very large chamber which has these crystalline slabs or altars almost, like 10 feet long, with a ring of crystal over the top of them, like a band of crystal. At one end. From side to side, almost like a bed

with a ring over the top of it, kind of like an MRI machine or something like that. And it looks like it's big enough for somebody to lay upon. And you can see several of them. And from the little bit of the room, you can see... I'm just going to reveal the whole room, but remember, Rowan can only see a little bit of it inside. Oh, hello. That's a big room. I could do with an MRI on my knee right now.

Whilst you do that, let's cut out to Gruff on the outside. Yeah, Gruff, it has been maybe a couple of minutes. They've headed since they went inside. Pascal is quiet no more, sort of not talking about lights or anything anymore, but just sort of tracing that symbol, you know, on their skin. Busy few minutes. Yeah, so I think in the last episode we left off where I had tied, used my sash to tie Pascal's wrist to mine so that, you know...

He can't wander off or if you get led off somewhere he would come with you. Yep. All right,-o. So, challenging this guardian didn't work. Making the sign didn't work. So, what do you think, Squire Pascal? Yeah, I'll be honest, you remind me of my youngest. She doesn't really speak much to me either.

Right. One last idea. And then we go to the default plan of letting something possess me. But I don't really like the idea of something possessing me. I'll get up on the stump that I saw everyone else get on. Pascal just passively follows, sort of being tugged along. Doesn't resist. Too weak to really do anything more. I think as well, whenever I can, I will try and stop him scratching himself with a symbol,

just every now and again, just gently kind of moving, just trying to stop him scratching the symbol into his hand. You try your best, but as soon as you aren't physically restraining him, sometimes he does it on his clothes and it isn't doing it on his body, but it's just absent. He'll just go for the nearest surface. So if you've got his body, but it's just absent. Like he'll just go for the nearest surface. So if you've got like his arm, like his free hand,

he can't do it that so he'll like do it on his shirt. And he's just like tracing it over and over on his like dirty ragged shirt that he's wearing. Graff will just as much as he can just try and stop him lying himself. But yes, I would like to try something. I would like to use elementalism. So you create a thin cloud of harmless embers

and colored scented smoke in a five foot cube. You can choose the color and the scent, and the embers can light candles, torches, or lamps that are in the area. So I basically want to create a red light with the embers and the colored smoke. I would say,

cause this is like specifically, you don't create like the shape of it, you're just creating like a colored light and the scent of it. But what I would say is if you spend a fake, cause this is what sounds like a really good devil's bargain, like can I use this spell to do something that's in the realm of it but is a bit different?

I'd say if you spend a fate point, you basically shape the smoke into like an orb and let the embers within it and the color kind of fill it to create a similar ball to what you saw Ophelia. Ophelia, yeah. Yeah, coming off. Might work, you don't know, but you can try that if you spend a fate point.

I would like to spend a fate point. Alrighty. You and Pascal stand up and you concentrate for a moment feeling the primal energy of Ulfey and the land and the spirits that you connect to. And in this place, there's almost a trepidation of the natural magics. It does not want to come into this place. Almost like it can sense that there is something here that should not be.

But something in you coaxes it, calling it to you. And as you do, almost like steam rising off the ground, smoke begins to form just above your pore into a perfect round smoky sphere. And embers flicker on the inside and begin to fill it with a red smoky light. What's the scent you pick, by the way? Ooh. I think just a classic bonfire.

It reminds him of... Camping out. Home, but like no, the storyteller evenings when we light a giant fire and we gather in the central hut and then like yeah, my wife tells her stories for the night and it is that just classic bonfire burning peat maybe, that kind of smell. Yeah, and in our eyesight probably be more like peat and things like that, or coals as well would be quite common.

Like something that radiates a lot of heat, and you our eyesight, probably be more like peat and things like coals as well would be quite common, like something that radiates a lot of heat. And, you know, but yeah. But yeah, so you feel this, and you smell this campfire. And as it takes a while, because it takes a long time for the hue to get right, it seems, but as the red becomes bolder and brighter, and it becomes this almost opaque red, you feel your body lurched out of space.

Oh bloody! And you now find yourself in the sort of entrance portal of this vault, which is this lattice-like egg shape in a big chamber with a pathway that leads out. And you can now see a line of burning fire just cutting across half of this chamber, and you begin to hear maybe the sounds of your companions coming from just shortly up ahead.

I will place. Hello! I might need some people who have longer arms than me to put them in position. But yeah, you guys make your way into the vault. Meanwhile, let's cut back to everybody else. Rowan, you are the one who's seen this so far. You can hear from that larger space, more to the west,

you can hear metallic tapping, and like glass, touching glass. Like noises, like something is doing something in that room, but you just can't see it yet. Nope. And he starts backing up, seeing the orbs in particular, because he thinks based on what he's seen before of orbs, they might be able to spot him or something.

So he backs up. Okay. He's like feeling for back into the room. Okay, yeah, yeah. Make your way back out, yeah. What's going on, what's wrong? First of all, I swear I heard Gruff just like coming from the corridors or something.

You're just imagining things. Okay, well either way, there's a construct broken on a table. It's got a rod. Does it look like this one? No, it's like the other one that we saw. It's like, yeah, like a humanoid shape. A humanoid one.

Okay. That we saw on the outskirts of the forest. It's got orbs floating around it, ready to go into our bodies. And there's a different colored rod and a black sphere on it, on its little table. Okay, we might be able to get that. Well, um.

There's a bigger room with glass tinkly things. Glass tinkly, I hate glass tinklies. I don't like any of this. Well, um, Robyn, I guess, was doing that and while we're talking, can I sort of investigate the construct that is smoldering in front of us as best I can without burning. Yeah, yeah, sure.

What are you looking for in particular? I am looking for any more, I guess, of either the prisms I'm currently holding, or I guess anything of more extreme magic. I've turned off my detect magic because it blinded me before, but just any kind of... Yeah, give me an investigation check.

Also, if I just quickly eyed the door, the yellow door, with the flame going close to the yellow door, does that have any impact? It does not. Okay. So, investigation. And in fact, I would say that after a few seconds, there is a pulse in the walls of this chamber,

and your wall of flame spell goes out. Ah, okay. Like it kind of like like some sort of suppression system seems to be like detect some sort of like. Sprinklers. Sprinklers. Kind of like, but there's no actual water, but like something seems to go like, oh, a fire. And it just goes out.

So sorry, investigation. Yeah, it takes all the oxygen out of the room. Everyone suffocates. GG guys. Now I know you have wall of fire by the way. I'm going to leave these out all the time. Thank you. If you want, just leave them over here. I might do actually, yeah. Now I know you have Walify, by the way. I'm gonna leave these out all the time. Thank you. If you want, just leave them over here.

I might do, actually, yeah. Do you say investigation? Investigation, please. Thank God I have a... Because if you're searching for something in its remains, if you wanted to analyze the magic, it'd be more of an arcana. I have advantage, thankfully, because of thingy.

My first was a one, my second was an eight. So just an eight. Just an eight. You, like, this thing is broken up into multiple pieces of crystalline material. It's just squallering. But as you start going through it, you You, like, this thing is broken up into multiple pieces of crystalline material. It's smallering. But as you start going through it, you realize, like, actually quite quickly

this thing is breaking down. Like, it's almost turning into a fine sand. And then as that sand touches the floor that you're stood on, it melts into that glass and vanishes. And it's kind of like, shh, shh, shh, shh. Sick nasty man. But you look through it,

you don't find, like, a crystal prism, you don't find one of those. It was just released or anything? No orbs, no colored keys or anything, no. I don't even consider it. I'm worried that more of these things might be coming down from the ceiling and the fire's now gone.

What, did Rowan just say he heard gruff? Yeah, I was gonna say gruff. Imagining things. What are you doing as you kind of emerge from this lattice? So I saw the fire go out. Yeah, you can hear this conversation, yeah. It's like echoing, the sound is carrying a fair distance. Hello, Ophelia?

Go and get some Ophelia. Oh, it is Gruff. You're not possessed, are you? Oh, I am possessed from. Bible. Oh, Gruff, it's horrible. How'd you get in? How'd you get here?

It's horrible, it's horrible. It's been terrible. Oh, walking. I can't reach, sorry. I'm gonna let someone else do the minis for me. Bloody hells, what is this place? Thanks, Seasky, you're here. It's horrible.

Who the bloody hells is the Seasky? You keep tearing it up. Sorry. Fucking hell. Why do you keep doing that? What's her name? Blasphemer! They're just so used to it from a row. It might be a Multiversal carry.

It might be. Is that one of your rocks from at home? I tell you what, to try and make it make canon for Rowan, Seasky could be a name of one of the giant star people that they see in the constellations. Now wouldn't that be very fitting? That would. That would indeed. A maiden called Siaska who is a star constellation.

A star maiden, Siaska. I'm so glad to see you. Hi, hello. How did you get here? I created a red light. You made a red light? That is really good to know. That's amazing.

Yes, out of fire and embers. You didn't start a fire in a forest, did you? No, I didn't. Of course, I wouldn't start a forest fire if it unattended, Xanthea. Yes, of course. But you're here now. I've been able to speak to some kind of voice in this place, and it's telling us that we're subjects, and this thing, I guess if I point, it's now just...

It's like most of this thing is dissolved. Like you're maybe seeing the head and the upper torso and like the claw arm, but it's breaking down into sand, which is melting into the floor. It tried to herd us into this blue room, but we didn't feel too safe and comfortable going in there, so we killed it. Right. Is that what the fire was?

That's what, well, the fire, and also I think Ophelia used some magic and Rowan did some stuff too. Daisy used her blades. All of us really were complicit in this murder. Didn't want to go in that blue room at all. I don't want to go in there, but Rowan took a quick look and saw some... A little peepers. Pretty bad in there.

Glassy tinkles, I think he said. And... Alters with disks, or like a little ring on top. No, people could lie down and be... Be subjects or something. I wouldn't lay on that. Also, another one. Cylinder, up, down, bottom floor, bed, body.

There's something moving down there, but there's a body with, there's a whole lot just. You also remember, Xanthias, the voice did actually tell you that the lower floor is where the more dangerous. The more dangerous, yes, yes. Were you responsible for the body? No, no, no, no, that was there when we got here. Oh, okay.

This one, that wasn't here when we got here, we were responsible for this one. Insight check. Right, you all seem pretty on edge. Well, I mean, we were beset upon by a big scorpion, I don't know where we are, everything is so clean and bright, my eyes hurt, I don't like this at all. I want to go home.

It is a very white light, like harsh, like clinical. That is a lot of glass, I wonder who cleans it all. But this is the vault, right? This is the vault you were looking for. The red wing is what this voice is telling me it's called. We need to look for something called Vermillion Orcs and Nine to get something called authorization so that we can go through these doors.

And I'm shitting myself. Right, but this is where you want it to be, right? Yeah. This is the vault. This is the vault. This seems like the vault. Okay. So somewhere in this vault is hopefully a solution to the- This is why we needed grub. Yes, okay, you are already calming me down.

I don't know how you do it. I feel fine now, I'm tired, but I'm fine. You're right, this is why we're here. This is why we're here, this is what we were looking for. But yes, there are more things like the Galowack, I think, in this place, or things like that, or yes. It sounds like places are locked, but we found this dais here, which has slots in it,

for maybe the rods that we've located, and a sphere in the middle. Right. We've found two rods in different places and a sphere so far. Okay, well first off, is everyone okay? No. No, I know maybe not mental health wise, but.

Physically. Physically. Physically, I mean, I've definitely been better. Oh, do you need something? I'm okay, I'm all right. For now, I can keep going a little longer. I'll cure Wyn's Antheus. Oh, thank you. Okay, just at first level.

Physically I'm now feeling really good. Arcanically, not so good. Arcanically? Some magical thing is in his head. Your mana is low. Your mana. I'm um. I'm not um.

Gold wizard, gold wizard needs mana. Eight. Eight, hell yeah. I roll um. I'm not um. Gold wizard, gold wizard needs mana. Eight. Eight, hell yeah. I roll low. Eight, still eight. Things, as you have this conversation, no creatures seem to be appearing. As they're all updating me,

can I peer over the edge of the cylinder, the central cylinder? Yeah, give me a perception check. Be careful, Gruff. Plus seven, dirty 20. Dirty 20. You see the same thing as V, you look down, it is 80 feet, and then there is probably

another 40 feet of distance where the cylinder ends, and then the chamber begins. So it's actually 120 down, it's 120 feet straight down. At the very bottom, you can see this desiccated corpse, like this kind of like shriveled mummified body with this blue rod that's kind of casting this solid blue glow. The room down there is pitch black.

You can see that the body does have like a very nice cloak and like a satchel. But the other thing you see is, yeah, you see the same thing as Ophelia. Something on the outskirts of the room moving, which is causing that blue light to rip. You can see something is down there, basically. Shifting shadows.

Would you like some wine? Would I be able? Yes, I'd love some wine. Here you go, some. Shifting shadows. Would you like some wine? Would I be able to send Saren down there? Saren is a familiar, correct? You absolutely can. Yeah, I'll whistle for Saren. And send her to fly down. I need to know Saren's AC and hit points, please. Yes.

I had a feeling that was gonna happen. So we said it was a hawk. I believe that would be the fairest, yep. Here comes the shark arms. I don't have, if I discover her later and she's got shark arms. That's a good idea sending Saren down there, by the way. We may want to turn Rowan into an owl.

That's true, I did. It should be under like, yeah, notes, or like you should be able to just Google, like search like on D&D Beyond for Hawk. Tom, fill time. Don't, in fact, don't worry about it. I just rolled a nat 20. Yeah.

No. Don't worry about it. Something is clearly waiting for something to come down as soon as Seren gets close to the bottom, a humanoid shaped thing, it's pitch black, so you only see the briefest glance of it in this blue light. It has clawed limbs, vaguely humanoid shaped body to it.

It just, and just ripped Saren apart and then scuttled back into the dumpster. Saren! What happened? What did you do? What happened? Saren! My sweet Saren!

Where has she gone? There's something down there just torn Saren apart. Saren! Oh no. Okay, we are not going down there. We're not going down there. I nearly went down on a rope. We nearly turned Rowan into an owl.

Can Saren come back? Can we get Saren back? Saren. Is there anything I could do? Saren, I don't know. Oh my art, my art. Oh god, I'm so sorry. Oh my girl, my sweet girl.

Damn you, Seasker! Who's Seasker? It's a star. Okay, I'd love to hear the story of that. It's just a star. Gruff, your heart rips in two. Not just seeing this horrific thing, but this... Seren has been a lifelong friend.

I hatched her. I helped her grow. Those memories kind of flood into you, but there is something, some primal voice. It's very distant. Being wherever you are now, that connection you normally feel to the land, to the soil, to the snow, to the ice, to the air, feels so far away. But there is something like you can feel Saren's spirit still out there. You know that whatever magic allowed you to summon Saren to this place

may not be that they are gone forever, but unlikely to return in this place. You cannot return... As a mechanical thing, Findfamilia won't work in the Vault, because you have to call it from the spirit of Ulfey and you are not connected to that right now. So just as an FYI. You'll just see, I imagine Gruff is just collapsed

to his knees, and you just hear this, and it is a growl as he says this, it is a growl from his chest. I am going to kill whatever did that to my sweet Seren. Okay, I... We can help you. We can help you with that. We just... We don't know what it is. We don't know how to get down there. I don't want you to get eaten.

It just... It just... Just... We need to keep a level head before we proceed. Just, I know, I know you're angry. I'm so upset for you. This is horrible, but we need to just keep our heads or we're going to lose them. We don't know where we are.

We have no reference points. This is all very strange. I don't want to lose anybody else. I am going to tear it limb from limb. That, I promise you. That was my Seren. Okay. Okay.

Rowan is scared of Gruff right now. Good. This is a side of Gruff that, yeah. Yeah, you would have never seen anything close to this. I think out of everyone, Daisy's the one who maybe comes over and just clutches on, tries to hug you to calm you down or give you a bit of comfort.

It's okay. I accept it and I'll put an arm around it. I think you can tell, like, your insight's high enough that Daisy's trying to comfort herself as well. Like, she's terrified of this place. And so, like, kind of like bring her in. I think, yeah, looking at Daisy and seeing, I know she's not a young girl, but seeing that young girl.

You can't help but with Daisy, she has such a youthful kind of energy to her, for sure. Immediately, the fight goes out. When he realizes she's scared, and he's of energy to her, for sure. Immediately the fight goes out. When he realizes she's scared, and he's perhaps scaring her, it just goes out. Yeah, okay. And he just brings her in for a hug. Yeah, nice.

What'll the rest of you do? I think Graf needs some wine. Would you like some wine? I have two bottles. Well, one and a half now. One and a half. I will be fine. Half a wine bottle.

But two and a half. What were we just having? We will be fine. Half a wine bottle. Two and a half. Water. We were already collecting. Do you want some? No, thank you. I know I said about keeping a level head earlier, but... It's helping. Needs must.

I'm okay. What about some coca-ina? Just drink your golden water again. As a very clear point, that does not exist right now, and that is not in your possession. We don't endorse it. Drugs aren't cool, kids. Drugs aren't cool. And just the whole arc about the golden water. That's fine. I mean, that your possession. We don't endorse it. Drugs aren't cool kids. Drugs aren't cool.

Just the whole arc about the golden water. That's fine. Crown Steal's not drugs. Crown Steal's not drugs. Just had a penalty to it when you weren't imbibing it. Crown Steal's not drugs. Crown Steal's not drugs. When the...

Yes. When the Rock Johnson scorpion guy started dissolving into fine sand. Yes. What? Oh, you wanna? You can try. I'm not gonna.

Okay. They call it scorpion king. Rowan is gonna- I'm off my tits on vault right now. Rowan is gonna busybody his scaredness. Okay. And go back into the blue. Yeah, which part would you like to go?

He's gonna step in. He's gonna peek around the corner, seeing where the orbs are and what they're doing. Literally like it's just here. Are they still floating? Can I feed you a follow seeing Rowan? I also. Don't want you going in Rowan, Rowan.

Is everyone going in there? I'm joining. Okay, what do you wanna with Pascal, by the way? Yeah, I just did all of that, he's still tied to me. The only question I had was, is there a different vibe to Pascal now that he's kind of quote unquote reached his destination? No. He never wanted to come here, he was never trying to get here. Pascal went to find the Galowack and then something happened with the Galowak

that has driven him magically crazy or insane, and that's the curse that he's dealing with. He does not seem to know where he is. He doesn't seem to care where he is. The guy wasn't feeding himself or drinking water. Like, he just is completely noncompliant. Yeah. Healthier than before, but still not.

Rowan, you're the first one you kind of peek into this room. Rowan thinks he's stealthing in on his own. Okay, give me stealth troll. A stealth troll? Stealth troll. Hehehehehehe. Four. What's a stealth troll?

Yeah, it's when a horse goes really quiet. When they do that dance. It's more just because if you are trying to be stealthy, Rowan thinks he's being quiet. It's more just because if you are trying to be stealthy, Rowan thinks he's being quiet. Sure. But he doesn't notice the entire party. He's following us. Yeah, we're like, you're stealthy,

but we're not behind you like, Rowan, be careful, there could be something right in front of you. Rowan, there's something for the good people. So all of you now see this, like I said, it's like it's grown out of the floor, like a lattice that forms a bed under this construct. The lights that Rowan saw are significantly smaller than the ones that possessed Xanthius,

and they're just sort of hovering above, almost as if they're waiting for something. The construct is in several pieces, its torso is split in half. Oddly, it looks like it exploded. And it bears a remarkable resemblance to the one you guys fought. It even has some of the wounds you recognize now

as the ones you inflicted on it. Interesting. Because me and Gruff didn't see it. We didn't see it, no. It vanished. By the time we got there, you guys had basically just vanished it. The feeling was like... The next to it. It vanished, yeah. Have we finished with it?

The next to it on this lattice, not part of it, looks like it was maybe on a little separate section, is this red rod of crystal, like a pure red, and a glass black sphere. This is very weird, Santheus. Oh, this is very weird, Santheus. I'm almost certain that construct is the one that Muniphilia fought. It's got the same slashing marks from your rapier.

It's almost identical. It's the scorched marks from your magic. So it's here to be repaired? From the looks of things, yeah, they dragged it back somehow. What if it gets repaired while we're here? The orbs are just waiting here coming in it Let's we get the rod

Maybe we can try and get the rod. I mean Would you be able to Quietly just try pick up that rod there Or maybe a Mage Hand maybe? I can try it, yeah I can try a Mage Hand. Mage Hand's your Mage Hand. I'll do a Mage Hand, okay. That's way safer.

I'll send it over. Yeah, and this is in, sorry this is in this section. On this, yeah, on the bed itself. Is it detached hand, Mage Hand, or? Yeah, it's reskinned, so. But it sort of hovers now, it can fly a little bit. Almost like a projection, like of Ophelia's hands, it comes off and then it shrivels into a skeletal,

like the skin kind of falls off and then it's nice, nice, nice, nice. Rowan just closes his eyes. Yeah, you cast Mage Hand. What do you want to grab, the rod or the sphere? Should I grab the rod or the sphere? Do the sphere first. Sphere, okay, sphere.

Wraps its hand around the glass sphere, picks it up, floats back to you, nothing happens. I will take this back before anything else happens. Are the orbs doing anything different? Nope. Okay. All right, let me take that orb. Okay, you take the orb.

Should I try the rod? Make it note that you have a black glass sphere. It's really shiny. Yeah, it's like made of like, it's like a perfect glass orb. Kind of like that. Very clearly, but the blackness is inside. Like the glass itself, you know, hard to tell, but looks like it's like the blackness is something

on the inside of the sphere. Okay. Now if I, is the Prism a particular color right now? Or is it still just a... It's the same as it always has been, yeah. Okay, cool. All right, yeah, carry on. Podcast listeners, Tom has props now.

I have props. I have a magic eight ball and a big D20. Glittery blue. Glittery prismatic D20. A big glittery prismatic d20. Yeah, it floats over, grabs the red rod, pulls it back, nothing happens. Okay, we're one step closer. I think, I don't know, I don't know.

Okay, I'll take this back. Can I take the bag? Take what back? I got the rod. I think that's everything we want, right? What we need, the other rod is down there. Down there, but you can't reach that one, can you? No, it's too far for my mage hand.

I can, I mean, if I climb down, I get eaten. I don't know what to do. I'm gonna go back to the central chamber. It's also this large chamber here. Is there a way to block off this room so when this thing wakes up, it doesn't, if it- You look around, there's no doors, there's no hatches. Is there a way to block off this room so when this thing wakes up, it doesn't, if it wakes up. You look around, there's no doors, there's no hatches,

there is seemingly nothing for you to physically move. I mean, like, if you have a way of creating, it's a 10 foot, well actually no, it's a 15 foot opening and it's about 15 foot high as well. How much does it look like when me and Ophelia first saw it? How healthy does it look? I guess it's a question. Oh, this thing looks destroyed.

It looks completely ruined. Yeah, and this is like daily after. It's like broken, like where it exploded as well, like its arm's broken away, its torso's broken away, like, you know, it's in multiple pieces. Hmm, can I Mage Hand one of the construct limbs? Yeah, you grab it, I'd say it's arm, it's the only thing, yeah, the rest of it would be too heavy,

but the Mage Hand sort of tugs on one of these arms. Bring an arm back. As you try and take the arm, one of those lights floats down and seems to almost form like a node between the shoulder and the arm, and you see this string of blue light, the orb goes blue and it creates a blue line, and the Mage Hand is like tugging

and now doesn't have the strength to pull it away, and it sort of hovers in place, and it sort of, almost like it's attached by a ligament or a string, and it hovers in place, and then slowly goes back into where it was. Very cool, I love that. I wasn't expecting that. Okay, so the orbs are just trying to fix this thing, but I mean, unless this construct got here very recently,

we don't know how long the repair's going to take, so it might not be a problem for now. I was just worried in case it came back. I thought maybe if I took a limb, I could somewhat disarm it if it came back. That's very good. That really lightens the mood. I was great. How about, right?

Yes. We've got one sphere and one rod. Maybe that's enough. We just put it in the little dice. Okay. Maybe touch the rod to this orb. No, no, in the dice, in the middle of the... I just want to see if I can light this up, you know? Oh.

I want to see what it does. Can you probably stand back, everyone, in case something happens? You touch the red rod to the black sphere. Yes. Nothing happens. Okay. I don't know what I was expecting, to be honest.

I don't know, I don't know. I thought I'd just see what happens. Yeah. Well, anyway, should we go back? Should we get back into the main chamber? From the larger chamber, you hear more of those tinkling, metal on glass, glass on glass kind of noises. And you see, moving past the corridor,

going from the top of the building, the north of the building, to the south, you see a crystalline construct, but it looks very different to the ones you've seen before. This one has no legs, it has almost like a solid skirt that just lets it hover. And it has four arms that each end in these fine manipulators.

It too has like a completely featureless face, but it's more slender, it's no muscular to it. It's almost like stick thin arms, as it kind of just, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, and floats to the south of that room. Okay, did you see that? I saw that.

I just want to see that. I saw something just as it was going. You don't like that? No, I'm not a fan of that. But there's probably more things in there. Maybe we should try the sphere first though? Okay, yes. Where there's not a skittering thing.

So you guys make your way back to the main dior. Let's go back, let's see what happens here. Okay. I feel like this is our safe spot now. I feel. Even though it's definitely not because a thing came from the cylinder. We should watch the floors and the walls as well. If they can absorb stuff back into the glass,

things might be able to come out of it. Why did you say that? Well, I just... It could go. I just... Vomited word. Things come out of walls. Thank you for the idea. That's really good, actually. I wish I thought that.

They're in the vents! I see the goddamn room, man! Six meters! So sorry, what kind of... I have the red one. Red rod. Red rod. One clear glass sphere,

which was in the machine when you first arrived, which I can't remember if you picked up, but I think one of you picked up. I had a look. You have the glass one, you have the black one, and then that's what you have, yeah. Black rod in hole? Black Orb in hole. Yeah. Red Rod.

Red Rod in. Let's do one thing at a time. Yes. So, swap the clear one for the black sphere. Clear for black. See what happens. So you do that. Yes. The black sphere drains of color and becomes clear.

Okay. That's... Try touching it with the red rod now. Red rod, my clear orb. Red rod. You're just touching it up in the air. Nothing happens. Touching it up in the air is in like literally

making impact. Yeah. Oh, okay. On the days. What in the thing? Clear orb. So, in dais. So you put the clear orb in the dais.

Red rod in dais. In dais. You put the red rod in the dais. So you put the clear orb in the dais. Red rod in dais. In dais. You put the red rod in the dais, color bleeds into the sphere and turns the sphere red. Oh. Oh. Red, red, red. All right, okay.

I understand. Wait, none of these doors are red. No, we need to mix colors. I don't know color theory, Daisy. Yeah, yeah, I mean like, well, we need blue to make purple or like you could get yellow and make orange. And how, we've got purple, doors here, and yellow.

So I think purple might be very difficult to do right now. Right, okay. So wait, how do I make a yellow with a red? You can't. How do I make a, I don't know colors. Red, yellow, and blue are primary colors, and you will count mixed. There might be a yellow rod somewhere.

Yes. We can mix it, but yeah. In this system, it's a... And my prismatic orb doesn't fit into this dais. It's a different shape. It doesn't seem to be the same sort of device. Like, it seemed to give you entrance here, but I will say that from your exp...

Like, the prism will not work on any of these systems. It is not, it's designed for a different purpose. And also, I would say as well, like, you're getting the impression that, like, you holding it is not the way it's meant to be used. Like, it's meant to be, like, embedded into something. Oh yeah, I remember it said, like, incorrect usage or something like that.

But yeah, the sphere, like, and I would say that it's enough that you can feel that there is definitely some magic about the sphere, now that it's been infused with a color. Can I just try something? Yes, yeah, here you go. Take red rod out. Yes.

What happens to the sphere? You leave the sphere in there, it clears of color. Then put the red. Becomes red. Okay. This is our little painting station. Okay. Painting the sphere, whatever rods we put in,

and then we can clear it if we want to as well. So we now have two clear orbs then, right? Or one clear, one red. One clear, one red now, yeah. Keep a note of this stuff. If we put the clear into the other side of the dais. You can't, so the dais only has room for one sphere and two rods on either side. Oh, two rods. So one rod on one side, one rod on the otheris. You can't, so the dais only has room for one sphere and two rods on either side.

Oh, two rods. So one rod on one side, one rod on the other side. Right. So it's like an indentation for a sphere. One rod, one rod. Okay, sorry, on the map I was imagining it the other way where it was like orbs and then... Sphere in the middle, rods on the side.

Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right, just like Final Fantasy X. It's very, yeah, like the trials actually. Macalania trials. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Fuck yeah. I love you.

I know you do. I don't say it enough. I know. I love playing D&D. I know. You haven't said it ever. I love playing D&D. Yeah.

I love it. But yeah, like I said, this is what you've found so far. My suggestion. Yes. And it's up for debate. As always. Purple, scary. The idea of getting blue for debate. As always. Purple, scary. The idea of getting blue?

I don't like. Right, no, well, yeah. Yellow give option. Yellow might give. Why are you speaking like this? Why is Rowan, yellow may be good, bad, too bad. He used few word because many don't do trick. I misquoted it.

Oh! Gruff, anything from Gruff? So wait, what was the suggestion there, sorry? Find a yellow rod. Find a yellow rod, okay, good, okay. All right. Because we know the blue is and we don't like the blue. Blue is, no blue is terrible.

Gruff is looking down at that blue rod and he's looking hard. Actually now that you're here Gruff, we were considering rope. Don't look at me like that. You had wine, I think. No I didn't. No, Gruff didn't have wine.hope. Don't look at me like that. You had wine, I think. No, I didn't. No, you didn't have wine.

No, that was me. That was us. No, we both had wine. It was pretty good. There's only one bottle left. I want another clear head for what is to come. Yeah. Right.

I'm going to push you down the hole. But we considered Rhope. We considered turning Rowan into an owl. Obviously, bad idea. Is there any way that you might be able to bring that orb to us? Because I'm not going down there. Did you not see me try with my child? Yeah, magically.

Did you not see what happened? Well, no, I didn't. I was the other side of the room drinking. Did you not hear? I heard a lot. I heard, I know, I'm just, maybe there's some other opportunity we're missing here. I could lower you down.

We thought about that and I don't wanna do that. I reckon we steer ourselves, divert our energies towards finding a yellow rod, which might present us with new opportunities to find blue rod. I see, so we're soft-blocked right now. What? Okay.

What is soft-block? It's all right, it's okay. Locks are only hard and metal. It's okay, there's a universe in which we will speed run this in the future and we will find some Dave Brranking ways to clip through the wall and then get straight down and get the blue rod straight away. Children these days, I have no idea what they're bloody on about.

We'll probably start messing with the coding and the inventory systems and things like that. Did he hit his head on the way in? I think he might have done. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, right, D, A, start. That sort of thing. We'll be able to... We just say that none of this is true. Let's just make it very clear this is very un-canon.

I want to reverse long jump. No. Okay. What? When we had that conversation last night, Tom, about bits sometimes just needing to end. Yeah. It's one of those bits. No, I think there's still some juice in it. Put a pillow on it. Put a pillow on it.

All right, okay. Put a pillow on it. So what you guys say is mother that bit. Right. Look, our only option is the blue corridor then in that case. Well, no, there's two other options. Up and down. I'm very up for lowering you down. Well, you can climb.

I can climb down, yes. And up. And up, quite. Down bad. Down bad, up maybe? Maybe? Maybe? But the scorpion came from up there.

Also boss maybe up. The film- What's the boss? Why do you say boss? Noah's Inn. The boss of the place. Oh right, I see, yes. The owner of these premises.

Yeah. Boss of Red Wing. I can pop my head up, have a little swivel and see what- And then come down headless. And then come down headless, yes. Don't do that, Bit. I mean- Do the bits before headless.

I mean, I can go handless, but the hand doesn't tell me anything. And doesn't go very far. Oh, you can't look through the hand anymore, can you? I lost the Earth. Since the great magic. Since the magic changed. The magic changed.

Out of character. Yes. Spider climb. Yeah. Is that just persistent? Yeah. Is it run out? Flora-philia is, like, just climbs and falls and stuff.

I had a fallback to feather fall you if you were to lose that. I'll tell you what you could do, you could feather fall all of you down. Huh. It can't get all of us. It can't be all of us. I mean, it's Gruff is ready to rumble.

I know Gruff is, I know Gruff is. Blood! But yeah, what, do you guys wanna explore up? Do you wanna explore the other room that you guys didn't go in? Like, what's the plan? Should I have a little peeky-poo up? You carried me before, Carried me again.

You want to come too? No. Okay. I regret saying it. Slow Ophelia down and you'd probably both be in jeopardy. I think Ophelia should have a little peeps. Could you do something sensible? Like I don't know if there's something

that you can poke up above your head so that if something attacks, it attacks that and not your head. Verasty first. Yes, sword first? Sword first. You could use me, Sister Oph and not your head. Veracity first. Yes. Sword first? Sword first. You could use me, Sister Ophelia. Oh no, heavens no!

By the great father, no, Percival. But I wish to be useful. You are useful alive, my dear. Very well. Stay as you are, your lovely, perfect self. I don't want to ruin you. What? The voice is considering Percival not to be a living subject.

So maybe this unliving not subject wouldn't be under any threat from constructs. Nobody told me he was hearing voices. That's a new word. I did. Yeah. Percival development. Yeah, he was talking to the crystal. Right, okay, that's the Vermillion also.

We didn't hear, but the walls were pulsing weirdly. I don't know the- Right, hold on a minute. Okay. You're telling me Xanthias heard voices telling him about this place, but none of you actually heard it. No.

Do you want to hear it? Right, so you're claiming that Xanthias is hearing a voice saying all of this, but none of you have actually heard it. Well, the walls were pulsing. I can hear you. If you want to hear the voice, I think it's just through this prism thing of you have actually heard it. Well, the walls were pulsing. I can hear you. If you want to hear the voice, I think it's just through this prism thing.

I don't think so. It's okay. It's not Galvazar. Oh, I'm really short there. Well, you know. I'm really short there. That's what you're worried about. Your chest is looking at me. You feeling all right, boy?

There's like a face appearing in there. Hello. I'm Vermillion Orcs and I. I'm the only one that's been holding this prism thing. If you want to hold it, you might be able to hear the voice as well, if you have some better questions for whatever it is. Here, try it. Right.

Okay. What is it you say? You just ask a question, but direct it to the prism thing. Hello? No response. Did you hear it? How do we exit this place?

Insufficient authorization. You hear that? Oh, see? It's not, you're not hearing it, you're feeling it in your mind. It's like when Daisy telepathy's you. See, the walls. Oh. All flickered and stuff. Ohathy's you. See, the walls. Oh.

All flickered and stuff. Oh, is that what? Yeah. Ah. Is there a cure for crown steel infestation in this place? Why did I not? I'm straight to it. Yes, a nose-plit.

Yes, a nosebleed. It's because he doesn't want a cure. It never occurred to me. I'm going to let you just have a laugh while I think of my response. Out of character, Tom never thought of that. I do like the idea that it was like... The scientists just didn't even consider it. Something was blocking that thought process. It was Dad who came along and was like, get this bloody thing out of him.

Am I gonna join this place? You would hear, Gruff, the voice would respond... Condition unknown. Define. Define. What did it say? And I'm not giving this thing a voice because it doesn't really have a voice.

It's like, there's no accent to it, there's no gender to it, it's just like information. Yeah. So you suddenly know. Yeah, you just know. Also, are you doing this, basically the same thing I did, where you're saying the response to us? Are you saying it out loud or?

Yes. Okay. It wants me to define your condition. Oh, oh. I think it not be called that in here. No. Moon. Moon, plane. Grumpy dragon ball. Ask it to give you the name of the metal

that falls from the crown. What is the name of the metal that falls from the crown? Unknown location. Oh. The moon that orbits this planet. Unknown location. Sovereign's prison? Sovereign's prison.

Unknown location. Oh, god. I guess if it comes from another world, it doesn't really know where it is. Subject has met corrupted metal embedded in chest. Subject is displaying signs of corruption. So subject's kind of cute though. Subject is getting more annoying as he gets more infected.

Still riding that high of that contest. Yeah, yeah. Information logged. Sending to Vermillion Oxanine. Well, now they got more info about you. Well, good, now more people know. Is there a cure? Unknown.

Probably need deep analysis of your body. Is there a possibility on removing metal from subjects' body? Affirmative. Magically enhanced, corrupted, evil metal. Do you want me to say that? Well, yeah, I mean, it's easy to remove steel from someone. Is it possible to remove

magically enhanced, corrupted metal from subjects' body? Affirmative. At risk of the subject dying in the process. Is it possible to do what I just said before without the subject dying? Negative. Yeah.

Great, well that's just. There we go. You know what, do you know what, memes aside, it would say unknown. Cause it wouldn't know, until it knew the subject wouldn't know. Now I can take it out. Yeah, it's that kind of thing, if, oh yeah, I can get that out.

It's dead now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or like chop him into pieces to get the metal, right? If you were to analyze the subject for more information, where is said facility? There would be no response to that question. Are you struggling with answers there? Because there was a point where Xanthias

just wasn't getting answers from certain things. I don't think this prism has authorization. What is the function of the beds in the blue room? It wouldn't know what the blue room is. Specify location. Would it be like? Be northwest. Northwest room.

Current floor, and that is a question to you. Current floor. No, it's asking you what floor are you on. Middle? Middle floor? Middle northwest room. Sorry, I to find it. Subject processing. Application of psionic amplification for control.

Right, that doesn't sound very fun now, does it? I don't want to be controlled again. I mean, it depends on what processing means. It's either in order to add us to their catalogue and just record who we are, what we are, how we do it, why we do it. Define processing. Yes. Subject is analysed.

Subject is determined usefulness for future projects. Subject has psionic amplifier attached. If we were to scan subject that has corrupted metal in his chest, would you be able to scan your knowledge? Data would be sent to Vermilion Oxanine for processing. Where is Vermilion Oxanine? Administration level. Oh, you already know that one. Up the cylinderilion Oxanine? Administration level. Yeah, I've talked to him.

Oh, you already know that one. Up the cylinder, yeah. He did ask that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I used my brain on that one. Yeah, I've been busy. I am a little concerned with giving it a lot of information. I mean, it's going to...

I mean, I feel like... But he might know a lot already. I feel like this is one of those situations where as soon as we got in here, he knows everything about us. Yeah, we might have been. Probably, yes. Give me an insight roll on that gruff,

as you said that out loud. You've had that thought. You said it kind of sexily. 11. Oh, yeah, no way. What a fleeting thought I had. Maybe ask, maybe it'll just tell us where the, wait, what one are we looking for?

Yellow, yellow, Rod. Rod is. What is the location of the yellow rod? Specify rod. It doesn't know what you mean by rod. Torch. Yellow... Control...

Yellow key. Color calibrator. Colab... Color... Yellow color... Calab-rate-er. Calibrator. Calibrator.

Maybe just ask it what this is. That is, whoever has the blue one. What is? Not the blue, red. What is this? What is this called? You don't get an answer to your previous question. It's not saying anything.

I don't think, I don't know that it can see. Ask it to see. Can you see me right now? Affirmative. Oh. Okay, hold up the red. What is, ask it what that is. Can you see the device in Sister Ophelia's hand?

What is this? Identify this red primary key. Right, where is the yellow primary key? Status unknown. Yeah. Oh! Where is the blue primary key? Lower floor, main, chamber.

What is guarding it? No response. Because I'm going to find it. Yeah, that'll be one of the more dangerous subjects down there. Maybe it could have been another Galowak. Could have been Galowak-like. There is nothing more dangerous than a parent grieving its child. Right. Why are you looking at me like that? So, what is the plan? He hands the prison back to me.

Oh, thank you, thanks. His second- You've got your claws out. Right. Our only way is through the blue corridor. Well, you could go in the subject, probably, I think. That's what I mean. Oh, yeah, yeah.

Through there. Oh, yeah. To the big room and investigate it and hope that the construct in there is just doing things to people on tables. It's only soul purpose. That sounds like the exact opposite thing we want. Well, we don't lie on the tables.

Well, we don't lie on the tables, yes. And otherwise it won't attack us, is what I'm saying. What did it look like again? It had like a skirt and an androgynous, skinny upper body with no face. It was like a crystalline construct. With like, snippies. Grabbers and little snippies.

That might have been the glass tinklies you heard. Was it like a bigger version of the Volumvolt construct? Or a smaller version of the Volumvolt? Kind of similar to it, yeah. The one that created the Void Star Ring? Yeah, very similar. Not exactly the same, but similar in sounds. From Rowan's description, like maybe similar purposes.

That's interesting. Use these constructs maybe in doing jobs around the vault. So it could be logical. So why are these constructs, they're similar constructions, right? But the vaults are different. Well, yes, I mean. So are the, oh, my brain!

Are the vaults the same, are they from the same place? Do the vaults come from the same place? And do they have the same, I don't know what I'm thinking anymore. I'm having so many thoughts at once. Magera suggested that there were many different proto-magi, and they all constructed vaults of different purpose.

They never collaborated. They don't collaborate, but how come they follow the same design? They might, like, I guess we sometimes come from different lands, but similar things arise out of our die. Too smart. I mean, no, Rowan, I think that's a good point

that you're making. Like, you have all these different, like, in Osseous, you still have a hammer to hammer in a nail. It looks, it might look different, it has like a different aesthetic design to it, but it serves the same function. In Caldra, you would have a hammer to hammer in a nail. It looks, it might look different, it has like a different aesthetic design to it, but it serves the same function. In Caldra you would have a hammer. Like, you might have tools.

Like Convergent Evolution. Well, also tools are built for a purpose. These constructs have probably been designed to be optimal at a job, and so there's no reason for the Protomanjaiger to deviate from that. They might aesthetically shape them to whatever side, whatever they want, but ultimately they're like, yeah, I need something

that's got manipulator arms and can do a job, basically. Doesn't mean that they're all exactly the same, but similar functions. It seems like this place is constructed from an entirely new, different school of magic that we ordinarily would have on Althea. It's whatever the limitations and constraints of that school, I guess.

I will also say this is my third vault and the first one was less like these last two vaults. So they can be very different. There's been differences between all of them. Like, the Volum Volt had similarities to the Volt you were in, because you remember seeing the similar patterns. But that was more resonance and harmonies, and you remember that from your first one as well.

But that was almost like... Rowan, you remember almost being this expansive space. Like, it wasn't rooms and corridors, it was like... You just remember this space full of these orbs and domes and you went in one and then your memories of that are what they are. The Vaunt Vault was, it had like this, almost just a singular passageway,

but you know that it was moving and rotating and shifting. Whereas this one is like, it's not too dissimilar to like something like a prison or like a keep or something like that. It has corridors, it has rooms, it has security. It's clinical. It's clinical, but this one is all about color and light. Nothing really like that in the other ones. Sort of like combining things.

Combining colors, combining creatures. There are these similarities, right? What a theme to have, combining. Mm, Ophelia. I like the colours a bit, not the creatures bit. Yeah. I think we should have more wine. I need more wine.

And I think we should go through the blue corridor. Well, at least we're going on our own free will this time. Sort of. I mean, we don't really have a choice, but at least we're making a choice. Well, the choice is up or down, but we're not doing that. Yeah, it feels free when we decide ourselves. This is like just being discovering a new... Just... It's like going across the ocean again.

I'm just going across another ocean. It's like coming to Rathlaer for the first time. And it's just all very different to view. Seeing new sights. It's all weird. It's all weird. Everything new. But there's some similarities. Like, the soil's still soil.

Stone is still stone. Volumvolt is so weird and weird. This place is weird. Red Wing, yes. Yeah, you see open minds, open hearts. Graf starts just walking off Pascal. Graf is going, so. Okay, let's go.

Yep, that's, all right. It's time to go. Yep. Fly behind. We need to remember when to let a bit die. Before my brain explodes. All right, Percy coming up behind as well. But before we...

Just one more thing. Okay, so I have you guys step into the room, and I'll describe it a bit more too. Like I said, you find this chamber with these four large crystalline altars, or sarcophagi, if you wanna think of them like that, flat. They have this ring over the top of it, all made of the same stuff.

At each far end of the chamber, the northern and southern parts of the room are long work benches with silvery metal devices, tools, holding up pieces of crystal and gemstones. Magic seems to be swirling around many of them. On the southern side, two of those constructs that I described earlier with the thin appendages, the four minute poems,

they appear to be working on something, making something out of the metal and the crystal and the devices upon the workbench. In alcoves between, three alcoves between the four slabs, you see silver and obsidian black glass. They almost look squat, maybe a little dwarfish in their kind of proportions, but similar humanoid constructs, completely faceless,

with simple kind of like, almost just bodies, like hands, normal hands, maybe three fingers instead of five. But Obsidian, not this frosted glass. Not this frosted glass, not this more transparent clear glass. These are like black and also metal kind of like woven through them.

And they're just in these alcoves completely inert, just like eyes, well they don't have eyes, but just not doing anything. When you enter, one of the creatures at the work table seems to spin around and hovers over to you, standing before Rowan and Gruff, and both of you in your minds hear a kind of subject, new, please, lay down.

You must be processed. But what if we would like to not lie down, please? Subjects, you are new, please, lie down. It's trying to force us to lie down. We are subjects. We would not like to lie down, please. Hi, hello. Communication inefficient.

Lay down. You are subjects. We're just looking for the yellow keystone. You are subjects. Lay down. You must be processed. It's not reasoning with us. Is it actually getting more aggressive in its tone?

It's becoming more shorter. That's Mark. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It is not sounding aggressive. There is almost a neutral tone to it, but it's just being more persistent. Definition incorrect, we are not subjects. Subjects, you are subjects.

I'll hold up the prism. We have already been processed. It looks towards the prism, looks towards you. Incompatible. And yet. Do you hold it to your chest? No, I do not. I mean, if I was to like hold it in front of my chest,

I don't want it to touch. Sigh amplification device separated from original entity. You are a subject. Lay down. Oh, we're supposed to be in you. This is the sigh amplification device and I don't want that anywhere near me. No.

You've got enough in you. Are you like holding it out? You should not have this. And it comes to try and take it away. I like this, this is me talking to the thing. I've been, like I wanna pull away from it. I'm gonna put my hand over my sword now. This is going south.

Subjects are becoming distressed. Alerting security. Take us to room number nine. It doesn't respond to you. It flashes colors like you've seen the golems, like interior, it just flashes colors. Nothing happens. Fine, I will lay down.

I will lay on the bed. No, you don't lay down. We don't want one of these in you. Please, subject, this way. And it leads you to... I just don't know, I feel it. I don't know, I'm just trying to... It will lead you over.

In fact, I'll put these constructs down. One is still working on a device over here. This one has led you over. And it will, it's like behind you, kind of ushering you towards a bed. Like, it can't make you go, but if you go with it, it will follow you to the bed. I just like, slow it down, like,

just try and look for the yellow key somewhere. I don't know, look around the room. Do not lay on that bed. Oh, slow it down, just try and look around. We can't allow processing. It can't happen. Can I look around the room for the yellow key? So both of the- Yeah, anybody who wants to look around,

give me a perception check. Both of them are now, like, distracted with- One is working on something on the bench. It's not ignoring this. One is absolutely like with Ophelia, like, you are under stress. Please, lay down. The procedure is not painful.

I'm under stress because you are pushing me. Please don't push me. I'm just, I'm just, I'm trying to get a bearing of my surroundings. What are you using there? What is that? Can you tell me? You are a subject.

Please lay down. You must be processed. I will be, give me a minute here. I'm just, how's it going? How's it going? 25. 25? Uh, my, my, my.

I see through time. I'm afraid I only got 12. 12. I'm sad to say that neither of you see a yellow rod in here. What you do see, Gruff, is on the workbench, it's a smaller version of the large prism shard that you got from the Galawag.

Maybe only sort of an inch or so wide. The creature has made, see how many it's made. It's made four of them and it's now working on a fifth and it's got them lined out and they're being almost levitated off these silvery disks and they kind of look almost like, yeah, little starred prisms, but there's almost a sense of like a microchip about them. And it's like making it using magic,

kind of warping it and shaping it, almost like a glass being blown, and then it's reset and it begins engraving like runes in like tiny, tiny, tiny, you know, inscriptions, and it's creating more of these things. Can I just try and take it? Like, take one? Like, what happens if my paw gets closer? One of the ones that it's not working on? Yeah. Yeah, you can take one.

Nothing happens. Yeah. Rowan's gonna go up to the construct ushering video. Yep. And put an arm on it. Get your hands off her. We will an arm on it. Get your hands off her. We will not be processing today, thank you. Subjects are becoming, what was that I said, aggressive. Subjects are becoming aggressive, alerting security.

We're not aggressive, we're just questioning. We're just asking questions. What do you do, how long have you been here for? Hi, I'm Ophelia, nice to meet you. Communication inefficient. I haven't found anything. Oh, it's very efficient. I'm quite good at it, apparently.

How are you today? It does not shake your hand. It does not respond. It doesn't have, like, it's not holding you in any way. And when you hold it, its arms just go by its sides. It will. I can't find any yellow keys over here. Keep looking. Okay. I can't find any yellow keys over here. Keep looking.

Okay. I'll keep trying. It doesn't do anything, it just stands there, but it's not holding onto Ophelia. If I just like... Yeah, nothing's gonna happen. But I will try, Graf will try and hold the chip device somewhere on his chest and just be like,

subject has been processed. like somewhere on his chest and just be like, subject has been processed. Oh. Make a dexterity saving throw for me. Yeah, okay. Right. It's gonna latch itself onto you. Seven.

You hold it to your chest and like pincers of crystal and it embeds into your skin gruff. You hold it to your chest and like pincers of crystal and it embeds into your skin gruff. You feel it kind of like dig in and set itself in. And then there is a sense of almost clarity in your mind. You are now attuned to a psi amplification, a psi amp, basically. Okay.

This is a magic item. You cannot willingly unattune to it. Okay. Certain conditions need to be met for that to be unattuned, which will disable it. There are benefits. You immediately, your mind is lit up like a thousand colors. You gain two cantrips.

You can now cast Mage Hand and Mind Sliver. You also gain telepathy to 120 feet. Oh, damn. You also have vulnerability to psychic damage and disadvantage on any saving throw against a psionic effect. Okay. I will remind you of this, because I don't have the cards to hand, but you are now... Yeah, this thing like...

As, yeah, it attaches itself to you. I already had Mage Hand. Can I have something else? No. Two Mage Hands. Oh, this Mage Hand is basically, it's like minor telekinesis, so it's invisible. You don't actually summon a physical hand. It's like a minor telekinesis, so you can only lift like five pound objects and stuff like that. What's the range on that bad boy?

30 feet. We already had this this with, yeah. Getting the rug from downstairs. As you do, you hear that voice, like when you were holding the prism, you hear it now. Subject, please proceed to stasis. I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Let's go, bro. Can I hear that voice, because I'm holding the, okay, it's directed. Send direct. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Can I fate before or after? Before? You can, roll direct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Can I fate before or after? You can, roll it afterwards if you prefer. Yeah. I roll a 15 plus seven. You have to decide before I tell you the result. 20, oh wait, but you also have disadvantage. You do have disadvantage. Oh, okay.

Because this is a silent effect. So I roll a 15. Six. Fate it. Seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 13. Please fate it. 13, please. 14, 15, 16, 11, 12, 13. Please fate it. Please, please, please. 14, 15, 16, 17, 18.

18. You manage to resist, like this strange feeling in your mind as you resist the suggestion to go to stasis. You are immune to this effect for an amount of time. Okay. Right, this thing wants to put me in stasis. What thing? This thing, this thing in my chest.

The construct is like, subject has been processed. Graf! What, what happened? I just held it near my chest and it's embedded in my chest. Oh, get it off. Okay, I'm keeping that prism away from me. That's why I asked. I can hear that big boyo's voice,

the Vermilion Oxer, whatever their name is. Vermilion Oxer Nine. You take it off, take it off. It's embedded into the skin, it's like dug in. Not without gouging my chest out, no. Oh, okay, good. You know what that means, Gruff? It means now would be a good time to take a break.

I was gonna say, yes. I just wanted to get to this point. I could do with a break, yes. We are gonna take our five minute break there. That's the end of part one. Thank you so much for joining us. We will see you in part two for today's episode. Very good.

I love this vault, it's cool. See you in five. Dungeon crawling. Bye! Oh! ["Dungeon Crawling Theme"]