High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #57 | The Family (Part 1)

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

The team explore the lower (and most dangerous) floor of the Red Wing in the proto-magi vault! _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at https://geekyclean.com/! Check out https://www.highrollersdnd.com/ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews Support the High Rollers on Patreon and get early access to Podcast episodes, vods and more: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe Hello and welcome back to Ulthaya the Dragon Empire Hello, and welcome back to Ulthaya, The Dragon Empire. Our heroes have entered a Proto-Majai Vault, a demi-planar space once used by the powerful precursor beings that inhabited the material plane before the gods arrived. This vault is called the Prism, and our heroes have entered the Red Wing.

Seemingly unable to leave, they have begun to explore the vault after dispatching a broken Guardian construct. Gruffuth of Tremoro, who had been trapped outside, managed to find a way in, sent his bird companion Seren down to the lower levels to retrieve a colored rod that seemed to be part of the strange arcane system of this place.

But poor Seren was torn apart by dangerous things below. Exploring some of the open chambers, Construx attempted to process the heroes and implant strange magical devices in them. Unfortunately for Gruffuth, he held one such device too close to his body, and it latched on and burrowed in. After some trepidation, the party used Featherfall from Rowan to descend into the lower levels, where they fought the creatures that had killed Saren, mutated humanoids, each with a single giant eye.

After dispatching these creatures, they found an open cell which was covered in the same engraved symbols they had found at the Galowax lair, as well as disturbing messages scratched into the walls. But now they have located three coloured rods and have the rest of the facility to explore. And that, my friends, is where we pick up again today. When last we left, you were in this large square chamber covered in the polygonal design that you had seen scratched into the Galowax layer, and indeed covers much of Squire Pascal's exposed skin.

The haunting message, that last one, the one that you read, me, Frieda, I hurt, help, leaving a distinct impression in your minds. But, that is where we pick back up. You are in the lowest level of the chamber. I should make it very clear that there is no light, except for whatever magical lights you have on you.

Candle. Dagger. You have enough to see by, but it is very dark down here. There were several open chambers, and also many of these corridors are blocked by a wall of color, and you don't quite know the system of how that explores, although you have some theories about how that might work.

This single main chamber does have this large cylindrical tunnel that leads up and that tunnel does have a faint glow of green energy and runes to it when you look up. And that is where we continue off. We are gonna start by rolling for fate. Okay. For, for, for, for fate. For, for, for, for fate.

For our special system, reducible of fate. Well, Tom, why don't we kick things off? Oh, I got a two. Oh, a lovely dice for me. One. Oh, Katie, thank you very much, a dice for me. Three. Oh, another dice for me. One. Oh, Katie, thank you very much. A dice for me. Three.

Oh, another dice for me. Happy Mother's Day to me. Mommy's having a good time. Chris, drop. Well, have some more. Three. Yay! Five.

Oh, Rhiannon. Boo! Always one. Boo! You don't love me. Oh, there. What is Bo! Always one. Bo! You don't love me. Oh, dear. What is it? Two.

Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two.

Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two.

Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. Two. whatever. Cry, cry. Sure, no, I'm not gonna do it. We call a river. We drown. As a reminder, the map currently displays the mid-level,

it does not currently display the layout of the lower level because this room is basically bare. Although there are remains of, there are- There's a bear. Where? There is a ripped off crystalline arm which actually held the yellow rod which I believe you acquired.

And there is clearly some signs of battle that took place. Like you can see that some sort of fight happened here. In this room. In sort of the corridor and yeah, leading into it and just outside. Who had which rod? I think we just got the red one. I can't remember who picked it.

We have a red rod and a clear sphere. Well you also had the blue rod from the body that you found here on the lower level. Yeah. I don't know who has it, but you have it. I've got the clear sphere and the red rod. Cause we... Well you had two spheres, cause you had two spheres,

cause you actually found another sphere as well. So you had, I believe one was a black sphere, but you worked out that you could drain it. You made it clear. And I believe you made a red sphere using the rod as well. Yes, yeah. So you have a red sphere, a clear sphere,

and a red rod. We have the ability to make pretty much every color, except there is a door to the, what would be the east, I think. Which is Prism. Which is pretty bad. Yeah, I'm counting north is where you came from on the map, so yeah, east, southeast. We don't know how to make a prismatic one yet.

If you even can, who knows. If we can. So, who has the blue rod? Wait, sorry, Rhi, which one did you have? I had the red one. Okay. You had the red one, didn't you? I think Rowan had the red one. Rowan's got it, so I did you have? I had the red one. Okay. You had the red one, G, you said you had the red one. I think Rowan, I thought Rowan had the red one.

Rowan's got it, so I no longer have it. If I have it, I'm gonna pass a rod to you. We are together right now, so I'm just gonna hand rods around. Take the blue one. Take the blue one. I mean, it's blue. As long as somebody is carrying, yeah,

as long as I know who's got what. So Gruff currently now has the blue rod, and then you also picked up a yellow rod in the arm of this creature, the arm, the crystalline arm that was remaining here. That was a yellow rod. Let's give it Daisy, because it's yellow. That makes sense.

That makes sense. Orange. Near you. Okay. Rowan last time saw the last message, and then turned to Gruff with embedded prism in chest. Yeah. And was like, Gruff, we have a problem.

Oh, I think we've got a lot of problems right now. No, but specifically, and I'm pointing at your chest. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know? What are you saying? What are you saying, Wojo? Well, they're controlled that they lose their minds.

Are you... I mean, the Galowak made you start saying some things. Are you hearing those thoughts again? Am I hearing thoughts again? No. Ah, I don't... You remember that they tried to command you to do something and you mentally resisted it. There was a moment upstairs where it tried to make me

do something but I managed to fight it off. I do hear this low level buzzing in my ears but I've heard that for a couple of years now so I don't think that's anything to do with this. Okay, okay, that's good. Well, I mean we need to solve that when we get out of here. But... Well, looking at the messages,

it starts off quite coherent, and then slowly, the control, they lose their sanity, Gruff. We need to get that out, straight away. But we also don't know how long that was here, because that seemed like it was a really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really long time ago.

They couldn't take it out, despite being there that long. So we need to find a way. I have all the faith in Althea that we will figure this out. Someone does, because I'm really freaking out right now, Gruff. I love you, but freaking out. I'm also really tired, Gruff.

I think we're all quite, come here, Daisy. I'm also really tired, Grump. I'm also really tired, Grump. I'm also really tired, Grump. I think we're all quite, come here, Daisy. Come here. Come here. The messages from Frieda, did it say it was embedded in their head? What was the message say? It says, my name is Frieda, they did this to me, I'm not a monster, please help me. This way, the layout, this is the layout to this place.

I don't know which door they put me in. Thing in head, hear voices, must obey. Me, Frieda, I hurt, help. Cute. Cute, yeah. Thing in head. There, the hear, hear thing. Right, okay. Hmm.

And as a reminder as well, like, Gruff found this sight amp, I think that the construct referred to it as, and they were working on it, they were like making them, and he held it up and like held it near his chest, and it went in. It might be that like, but you remember that they were trying to get Ophelia to like lay down on like this slab,

and were going to do something to her, so maybe that would have implanted it more in her head or brain, you're not sure. I reckon it, I mean not to be too morbid, but judging by some of the creatures we've found so far, points over her shoulder to the last room of freaks. Maybe this Freida was experimented on, so maybe I'm okay for now.

Okay, I mean, do you want me to take a look at it anyway, just to see if there's a way to? If you wanna have a look. Can I make like a arcana check slash fireball check? You can make an arcana check. Why is your hand glowing red? Why are you muttering? It always does that.

Why are wounds appearing? Crowns do. You can make an arcana check. Why is it really ottenous? I can't blame that for everything, Senth do. You can make an Arcana check, sure. Why is it really autumn? You can't blame that for everything, Senthil. I'm gonna go investigate the bodies. Oh, right, you're gonna go back into the main room? Arcana.

He said that in a way. He's been doing this the whole... I'm investigating the body to see where... Do you move up to the nearest body? Yes, very close. Yep. Breathe it in. Within melee range.

Yep, oh good, thank you for the hard fight. Yeah, that's all right. And I'm gonna see where their prism is on their bodies. Give me a medicine check. That's the prism. Get that phone off of you. That's the side chip beeping. Yeah.

What do we get on the Ocona check while Trot rolls? Sorry, Gruff, there's just too much fur here. I just can't get to it anymore. It's gotten in real deep. I rolled a six. This thing is... Where is it? It's gone!

Well, you do have the Goldscythe eyes, and you've examined the big priz thing that you got from the Galowack, right? The Goldscythe only gives me advantage on investigation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it still gives you, like, you can detect magic and stuff with it. I'd say that with this, all you can tell is that this is very similar, if not a sort of smaller,

identical version of the thing that was in the Galowac, the larger prism. There is some element here of communication, of translation, but also this is not a type of magic that you are familiar with. This is not arcane, divine, or primal magic. Okay, cool. Don't hold this near anyone's chest.

This will kill you, kill you dead. But it won't. Don't put it there. My chest, here. Okay. You're quite possibly the worst person to have this thing. Well no, it might be the best because he's already got a thing in his chest. Maybe it was. Yeah, he's got a thing in his chest You're quite possibly the worst person to have this thing. Well no, it might be the best because he's already got a thing in his chest.

Yeah, he's got a thing in his chest that enhances magic. I don't have anything matched for my chest, just saying. Just up to your forehead. Oh, can I play? It's big enough that it would be most of his face. Yeah, it would be his face. What do we get on the medicine check, Ryan? 15. 15. You spend a bit of time, this creature,

like, in the shadows when you were fighting him in that panicked fight, like, these things were like, these monstrous creatures, like claws, and get your mouths with, like, fang teeth. Like, now that you have this closer look, you can see that they're wearing, like, very tattered, ragged, like, once-travelers clothing. These were people, and it's very obvious now.

You can see the remnants of their clothing. Their muscles have been stretched and hardened in places. Their giant eye looks like it's been taken from something else, and then surgically, their fate, you know, it's been put back in there. Oh, like a bomb. Um, I mean, yeah, maybe. And you examine and, yeah, like,

they're sort of malnourished, but there's something that was keeping them going, like, even though you can't see any sign of, like, them eating or food or anything around here, you eventually find behind the ear, and the ears are, like like twisted and deformed, you know, some are like pointed like elves, some are more rounded like humans and things like that,

but you find one of very similar size ones to the one that Gruff has like embedded just behind the ear directly into the skull. Each of them had one. Roman says, damn goals! I wanna be just like that. No, I don't. I don't.

Well, I'm sure they can sort you out. Very, very weird statement. I don't. Chris Trotter's very tired, by the way, everybody. He really wants to keep his peep up peeled. Yeah, I mean, this is the ultimate, because there's no eyelet as well, you realize. How is it moist then?

It's not, it's like dry. It's dry, that's the worst part! Ew. These creatures could not close this eye. These monsters. They were forced to be aware of all time. I am blinking so much more right now. Super bloodshot.

Jesus Christ. Well it's bloodshot, but it's like yellow bloodshot. It's like, rather than red lines, it's like all yellowy and stuff around the outside. It is very unpleasant. Yeah, Rowan was just using his foot to kind of like, nudge it. Move the head to the point where I could see the prism.

Oh, wow. I'll head back to the group. Sure. And inform you all. Well, these ones had Prism embedded on their back of their ear. I'm just saying, if it's just on you, you know, it could be a problem.

Well, what was the voice you heard? What did it tell you to do? It was the boyo in the thing, in the big thing. Oh. Vermillion, Orc, Sir. Big frizz. Big, big frizz? Big frism.

The big frizz, yeah, the big frizz thing. Sorry, you youngsters with your slag. I feel like that's what we should make. I'm crashing out, guys, I'll be honest. Chat. Chat. So cooked. Every day is a new word you have to learn.

How come fault my cooked is okay, but when I say skivety my sigma... Because it's not okay, none of it's okay. Right, so bring it back on to point. Yeah, so it was the same voice you heard when you held the prism. Yeah, it was the same big boy-o voice in your shiny thing. Okay. And it told you, I believe it said, to head to Stasis.

Or some such. It said that I had to kill you. It said that I had to head to Stasis. Did you feel any particular pull in a particular direction? Do we know where Stasis is? You wouldn't have, you probably, if you had failed the save, you would have then received instructions,

but because you resisted it, you think that it's upstairs, like on that level that you were, very close to the room where the processing was happening, but you're not sure. I have no idea. I think because I was able to resist the voice. OK. Nothing really happened. Well, let us know the moment you hear any more voices,

and we'll try and snap you out of it. OK. I will. Why are you raising your fist? Why is it really hot in here? I don't know. Oh my fur is sticking to it. It's strange, huh? Revenge for old Xan. We've had enough of this.

We know more of this than each other, Malaki. Yeah, I don't wanna do more. I've had enough. Yeah. Same. Can Amelia move into the room a little bit more? This room? Yeah, in the Frida room.

The fun room. I think she just wants to look at the scratch marks, see if there's any indication of age to them, or how long they've been here, like if there's any dust that have been gathered in the... Give me a perception check. This can be quite hard though. Archaeology check.

Archaeology. That's next. It's more to like physically see. You don't see, it's... I'll let you decide how you interpret it. There is no dust. No dust. There's no fingernails.

There's no sign of, there's no sign of a thing being here. It is impossible to tell how old these scratchings are. All you can determine is that, that this was, my name is Frieda, they did this to me, I'm not a monster, please help me. This is the layout of this place, I don't know which door we put me in.

That is the origin of that symbol. Like that's the first time it was scratched and then it's spread and spiralled out from there. How high does all these scratching go? The first, that's a great question, the first one with that first symbol, it all starts about like medium height creature, like a person, like a human, would put it, right? You know, at eye level. The last two are higher up. Oh, I was wondering. A larger creature.

Are we talking Galowak high? I will leave that interpretation to you. Was the Galowak called Frieda? Yeah, was. We took his eyes. Can Ophelia, like, she has the head of the gallop. I was going to say, Ophelia has the head of the gallop. Yeah, to be fair, I didn't take its head.

One of its eyes is burst. Does it look human? Look at, like, a tooth. See if there's, like, a scratching that matches. Give me a medicine check. Oh, here we go! Three. Can I... You open the mouth.

I'm gonna spend a face-off. I'm sorry, Frida, I think you're, are you Frida? I don't know, I'm sorry. Can you give me a constitution save, please, a feed? Oh no. As you open the mouth. 11. 11.

The flesh of the Galawak sloths off in your. Oh! It's like, putrefying. You... I don't want it anymore, I don't want it coming off his finger! Ah! You feel nauseated.

And, yeah, whenever the next roll you make is gonna be a disadvantage, because you're like, your stomach just hurts. Why don't you bring that, Ophelia? It might be best to leave that here. Please leave it. You feel sickened. But I will say that with this, what you do notice...

So can you be poisoned? Are you immune to poison? I don't think you are. So you basically have the poison condition for a certain amount of time and then it will go away as you feel sick. But as it does, it's now just like kind of the jaw... And as that flesh is peeled away, you see this thing didn't have fangs. It has perfect human teeth. No!

It's Frieda! The human teeth! There's something wrong with you. How you feeling, Mike? How's your day today going? Great, I feel fine. Well, just to really bring it home, can I just ask the prism,

what was the name of this subject? And I'm pointing at the Galowak head. The voice as you hold the prism, you point at the head? Yes. Okay. Or, I point at the prism? Yeah. There is a moment of silence,

and it would say, you are experiment XO00112. And what was my original name? There is no response. Okay. XO001. Doesn't care about names. Guys, the head is human teeth!

Don't, don't, don't, don't. Is that what you mean? Ophelia's hands are covered in this gray, yellowing swamp. I'm gonna stand behind the room. Let's leave this room and leave that behind. I'm gonna- You can stay here. Is it right to to leave it here because it feels kind of... I don't understand why you've got it out.

Ophelia, it's falling to pieces. It was a monster as a trophy, but now it feels wrong to leave it in the place where it was experimented on. It should be buried. It should be respected. It should be given a proper funeral. Something... I just don't think we should take the heads of things ever. It doesn't feel right leaving it here.

I feel bad. Okay, but where are you gonna put it? Because it's gross now. Ah! There's a lot more of it. I believe it was just hanging off your belt. Yeah! Like, for a while.

The side of your leg is really... Oh no, my ribs! Oh, don't rub it with your hands. Percival, Percival, we need some... Oh, you're rubbing it in. Percival's like this. Percy, Percy, Percy, Percy, Percy! Oh, he's with your hands! Percival, Percival, we need some more. I'm rubbing it in. Percival's on this. Percy, Percy, Percy, Percy, Percy! Oh, he's on this, okay, let's get you.

Gruff will start using elementalism to summon some water. It's like, wash, wash it away. Wash it, wash it, wash it. Wait. The Galowak was Frieda. Oh, bloody hell. Yes, yes, it's a really sad tale,

but the Galowak, Frieda was cognizant enough to escape this place somehow. What do you mean escape this place? Well, I mean- That's Frieda right now pointing at the Galowak. Yes, I mean, yes, not as Frieda, sure, but they clearly fought their way out of here. Oh. And found some way out of this place. So clearly fought their way out of here. Oh. And found some way out of this place.

So there is a way out. I won't be able to ask that, there's no way it will tell me. But... You might if you say, how did experiment... How did experiment 00112, XO00112, was that the one? Shit, how did that leave? How did this experiment leave? How did I leave?

There's no way. Because it thinks I'm the Galowack. Yeah, there'd be no response. Yeah. Okay. One thing I will say, as Xanthius, you've interacted with this thing a few times now, and Gruff has had this voice in the head.

I do want to clarify, you don't think that this is a creature that's responding to you. You don't think this is Oxanine, like the main Oxanine. You think this is like a sentience within the place itself. I'm under the impression that it's just like, kind of like an AI-ish kind of thing. It's like a spirit of the building. The vault itself is communicating with us.

Yes, it's big, great. One of my favorite comments on the YouTube video last week was the biggest bit of immersion in this was believing that Alexa slash Jarvish could understand a Welsh accent. That's true. Again, you don't get the sense. Remember, this voice is in like,

it's not like speaking into your head, like it is projecting just direct thought into you. So it's not based on physical speech, you don't think. Also my accent's not that good. Yeah. But nice, yeah, you guys are covered in free to juice. Ah, free to juice. The only other thing is this is clearly a holding cell,

and we have the key to lock the door. We could, provided there's not more of these keystones to open these doors, lock it from the inside, and we might have a decent place to get some rest. I'm afraid I put the Galowak hat here. Maybephelia put the Caliwack head here. Maybe slide that out the door. I don't know what to do, I feel like I need to do, we need to do something right.

I think that it would very much like, for Ophelia especially, like, dead rites would probably be a big thing, right? Like funerary rites, like it would, now that this isn't just like a monster that you've slain, I think like, just leaving it behind would seem pretty insulting to your faith. Well, what if, oh god, all right.

What if I use my magic to wash it and maybe slough off a bit more of the... Are you sure? And then at least we can transport it in a... hygienic manner. OK, yeah, that... Yeah, that would be good. And, Rowan, what about those creatures out there?

Were they... They were all people. OK. Elf ears, human ears, teethy teeth. I'm assuming Gruff starts like washing. I will put Frieda on the ground. It is disgusting. And the smell is extremely unpleasant.

I was wondering what that was. Yeah, just sloughs away, leaving a skull that is horrifyingly disgusting. I was wondering what that was. Yeah, just sloughs away, leaving a skull that is horrifyingly human, but you can see that it has been, the skull has been fractured and broken and then resealed with a different colored bone to elongate and stretch it out and make it bigger. The eye sockets where it had these huge,

disgusting bulbous eyes have been like cracked in tiny fractures and filled in, cracked, filled in, cracked to expand it out. You don't have to say any of that. Yeah, what if it wasn't? You don't have to say that, do you? What if it wasn't though? You know, like, it's like when making a warharmor

and you do like a modification to it and you get the green stuff to fill it all in. It's like. Oh man. Yes. Kim is loving this, Groff isn't. Kim, loving it. This is great. It's fun to ask myself sometimes, like,

how did this happen? And I'm like, oh, that'd be interesting. Don't get me wrong. I love the detail. Years of trauma. What trauma did you, I hurt you. A lot of people. I love the detail. It's like years of trauma. What's wrong with you? How hurt you? A lot of people.

A lot of people. But yes, so, but it takes some time, like gives you time to do other examinations and stuff like that if you want to. Yeah, absolutely. Do we need to do anything? Yeah, you can do whatever you want. I feel like we've kind of-

I'm not even playing Let him Cook. I feel like we've got every description of Frieda that- Yeah, I think we're Frieded out. We feel like we've got every description of Friede that exists. We're Friede'd out. We're Friede'd out? Yeah, yeah. We're so up and personal in there. We could rest.

Yes. I think, yeah, after cleaning the skull, Thank you, Gruff. Hand it delicately back. Oh, I'm so sorry, Friede. My goodness. Do you have any silks or something you can wrap around? Apart from what I'm wearing, I'll take my veil off and just...

Wrap it up in the veil and then tie the veil. Yeah. Just as a point as well from... Does Dawn want to, Ophelia? It's about the right size for a hat. For fuck's sake. It is the right size for a hat. But, I mean, you do have now this cool, like slightly see-through sack with a skull

like hanging off your belt. It's very cool. Pretty cool. It's fucked up skulls. It's fucked up, messed up skull. It's fucked up. I will say just from the last episode, Gruff would have taken the remains of Saren with him

because I don't think he would have wanted to leave Saren behind. So just as a point, like, he's wrapped her in his sash. I'm also gonna let you decide this, whether or not Saren's body remains as a physical thing, or perhaps over time begins to break away into primal magics, remember this is a familiar. Yeah, I think Gruff wouldn't know, would Kim know?

But it's also, what would Kim think would be a cooler thing to happen? I think eventually breaking away, because I I think Rush doesn't realize the spell, yeah, really. Like, it's why he was so upset. He didn't really quite understand how it works. So he thinks he is taking the physical remains, but yeah, it is probably breaking away. Okay, nice. Yeah, so what's the plan here, team? So does everyone feel... I mean, obviously there's no good place in this vault to rest and this is quite a terrifying spooky place

with these messages and these symbols but we can lock the door. Very unpleasant smell now as well. My only concern is Percival and Pascal who are upstairs. Can we communicate with them to go down somewhere? We might be able to change, make green with our things to power the... The chute.

Tube. Tube. And that might bring them down, or hopefully not send them up, but we might be able to get them down to us, unless do you have any more Feather Fall, any spells at all? Uh... Yes.

Do a high level, right? Yeah, you can always cast a spell as a high level, it just doesn't, sometimes it doesn't have an extra effect. If we can communicate, I can bring them down. We can just shout up to them and tell them to come down here and then. How close are they to the hole on the next floor up? They are like hunked down over on this northwestern wall.

It's about 100 and something. So from the floor of where you are now, it's 40 feet to the ceiling, and then the shaft, the cylinder, is 80 feet. So it's 120 feet straight up, and then it's there about 20, 30 feet from the hull. So like shouting very loudly, they will hear you. Do you not have telecommunication?

Can't you communicate with Percival? No, not telepathically. I don't know why I thought that was a thing. I have telepathy now. Yeah. Do you need to see though? I need to see. Also, there's still two eyes.

Walk up and just go get them. It'll take me a while, but I can climb up. You have to start at the side, right? And then go. Yeah, that's true. But if we bring them down here, it's just whether or not we are comfortable for a good, decent, solid, healthy eight hours of rest.

I think this is a safer place than any. Okay. We're not going to get many more opportunities, I think. We don't know if they have any more of these keys to open the door. They almost certainly do, but whatever opened this one was one of those constructs, so it might have been the only one. Should we rotate watch? Probably for the best. All right.

Should be an easy one, we're just watching down a corridor after all. Could also maybe put down some... Percival, does Percival rest? Well, he doesn't sleep, but... He doesn't sleep, he rests, but he's inert. So he still has to, so the way Percival works is, he still has to rest, but he is has to, so the way Percival works is he still has to rest,

but he is conscious and awake for the whole duration. And he basically gets pretty much all of his hit, but as long as he can take that eight hours to do nothing, he'll sort of regenerate his necrotic energy and that heals him basically. So it could be an alarm system. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, totally. Does the door.

Just keep in mind if that rest is alerted, he doesn't gain any hit points. Well, I think this is for the rest of us, right? Yeah. You guys, I normally give you a short rest, like short rest from Puzzle Ball doesn't exist, so. Does a door make a noise when it opens and closes? There is no door, right?

Let's clarify this, right? There is no opening and closing door. What you see is when you enter this, there is just nothing, whereas on the other sides, there are like these blocks of color that fill the space. Block them off. But did I, because I think we've seen one of those be removed or added.

Yes, you did. You saw the blue one upstairs. It literally like, it just vanished. It didn't like slide into a wall or anything like that. It didn't make a noise or anything like that. It didn't make a noise. Oh, okay, okay. Because I was going to suggest that we like get the tents and just make a sort of makeshift barrier along the corridor

so that if we heard the noise, they still have to get through the corridor before they can even see us. Sound corridor. Yeah. Traps. But we could make a little barricade just in case that we don't need to fight out of,

but out of what tents, I guess. Well, you say tents, I believe they are all on Rogerie on the wagon. No, someone stayed behind to pick them up at the camp. Rowan. Rowan. I brought some essentials here. Yeah, we brought our essentials with us. We basically brought them to the camp.

When we were chasing after Zan Zan. Sure. Okay, great. Because he was late arriving. Yes. But either way, we can just... If, Ophelia, do you want to start heading up then and bring them down with you? Ophelia, you spider climb along the walls,

up onto the ceiling, and then up and through the cylinder. No problem, totally works. You get up there, Pascal is sat next to Percival, and Percival's like, oh, Sister Ophelia. Percy, oh thank goodness, you're okay. The battle went well? Yes, I think so. Well, any, well, what you define as well in this place

is spotty at best. Well, you are not dead. I am not hurt, no. Then I would consider that a victory. Well, thank you for clarifying. That brings me some comfort. What is our next step? To come back down, we have found a place to rest for now.

I see. So I'll fetch you and Pascal, I'll bring you boys back down with us and we'll take a little break. Are you gonna carry them down, basically? No, try to, yeah. Yeah, what's your strength? My strength.

Pascal, no problem. Super light, he's very, very malnourished. 12. 12. Percy is stronger than me. Yeah, I'm gonna say that, and also Percy's wearing full armor and has weapons and stuff.

It is gonna be a very unpleasant experience for you. Especially with that sick feeling that you still have as well. It's gonna be until Rowan can. I can feather four. It's up to you guys what you wanna do with it. But I see the fear struggling. I imagine you'd just be trying this. Yeah.

You're heavier than I thought, Percival. Yeah, it's like as you go to like take, because it's also, you've got to take that awkward step where you go, and then you're there. This would, as you're going to make it, this is what I was going to say, it's like it would probably be an athletics check to see if you can keep hold of Percy.

If he drops, that would be 12d6 of damage. He's got one HP, so. Do you want a f-f-f-f? Well, I'm saying that you don't have to do, like, this would be an athletics check if you were gonna try and carry him down. An actual 20. So, before you need to worry about the f-fall, like, you struggle, but you manage to like,

get him down, like it takes a lot of your energy, you are exhausted afterwards. I can help. Well, we're done. You bring them both down. Oh my stomach, hang on, give me a minute. Oh my goodness. Yes, that would have been a disadvantage

because of the plesants. Very true. Which is why it was gonna be a check. Uh, 11 for the second one. I would say just enough, but you are definitely feeling very, very tired. 11 for the short one. Not quite, but just like role play-wise, you are wiped. Oh, I'm gonna just sit down before I get Pascal.

Any moment you can have further thought. Yeah, you can just jump whenever. She's on the sidewall now. Here she comes. She's still going. Oh, thought. Yeah, you can just jump whenever. She's on the side wall now. Here she comes. She's still going. Oh, sorry. Just let go, just let go. I can't drop him, I can't drop his precious.

Yeah, okay, all right. Okay. You get them both down. It's exhausting, but you manage to do it. All right, well let's get you all into this room at least. Okay. And I guess like whoever has the yellow. Yeah, like you tell me what you're doing.

All right, Daisy. Point it, pray for door. You just point the rod at the, where the door, nothing happens. No, no, no. Oh, okay, give me that. I'm not good at magic. You should, you were wrong to do it.

Do you need to put the color into the sphere? Well that would open it, right? Wait, actually it is already open. I thought it was about orbs. Oh give me the clear sphere. Use the thing. I shot putt it. What?

Okay. Don't shot putt it. It replaces my head. Gallowax. Okay. So you go out to the small plinth out in the main floor. Yeah, alright, I will orb in the plinth. What kind, what orb you put in the plinth?

Is it clear? I had a clear one. Okay, you put a clear one in. And the yellow keystone, I think that was called. Yep, you put the yellow keystone in and color fills the orb, turning it yellow. The lights on this lower floor flicker and and then white light fills this lower level once again. Oh, is that light again? No!

Oh! Okay, okay. Um. Oh, God. That's gonna be a difficult sleep. What, what do you do next? Uh, all right, um, okay,, well I'll go into the inside. Everyone's inside.

What do you take out of the plinth? The keystone first, the yellow torch. Yep, you take that out, and then the sphere. And then the sphere. You now have a yellow sphere. So it doesn't drain. That's why I asked. And then, if everyone is inside the yellow sort of corridor,

what would be the yellow corridor? Well, this is the thing, so as you approach the door. Oh wait, sorry, I've just realized it's yellow upstairs. It's yellow upstairs, yes. We don't know what color it is here. Yep. I was reading it on this map, okay. Because it's open.

Just says open, that's correct, you don't know? Well, once I'm inside, I will instead point the orb. Yeah. Nothing happens. Ah! I agree. It is confusing because it does say yellow. That is for the upstairs, the mid-level door.

These two, this one and then the one to the north west is also open, so you don't know what colors they're missing. What color's missing? These two, this one and then the one to the north west is also open so you don't know what colors they were. What color's missing? Give me, that's a good question actually. What was upstairs that's marked here? Purple? We don't have a green. There's a blue.

The shaft is green. How do you make green? Yellow and blue. Okay, give me the blue. Oh, yes, I'm blue. You're blue, cause you're blue. All right. Okay, all right, I'm blue. Okay, give me the blue. Oh, yes, I'm blue. You're blue, cause you're blue. All right. Okay, all right, I like this.

Yeah? So Daisy has the yellow rod at all times. Sure. I feel like she has the red rod at all times. Yeah. Orange! I could have the green rod at all times. It makes sense. Where is the green rod?

There's no green rod. Well, there will be. No, there's gonna be green stone. He wears yellow. I'm literally gold. He wears blue. See, he's a be green stone. He wears yellow. I've literally gold. He wears gold. He's a gold dragonbird. He's a dragonbird.

Yeah, Daisy has slightly blonde hair. Like. I just attribute it with sunshine. Okay, you know what, you guys start getting ready for a sleep, I'm gonna make green, and start figuring out some colors. Maybe just give me all of the colors, and I'll just start playing around with them.

Okay, but what if... You're not resting until... These guys can start... Although I am concerned about the lights when I did that, I'm worried there might only be a certain amount of uses. In which case... Man, what a cunty DM. You said it, man.

We don't even know if it's true. It's either that or we just rest in this place with some makeshift barrier and we don't worry about the lights. And we just have now a yellow orb, which we can open upstairs. Okay. Well... I... I... No. There were two yellow doors upstairs. That's true, yeah. I was gonna litter this corridor with things that they would step on and make noises.

That's not a bad idea. I put a, one of them, I got a shovel. I put it down. Are you gonna be like, somebody steps in, don't you? It's like a high-shaped object. You're being like really delicate with your placement. Where would they step? So, just to clarify, move things.

Everybody's going into the room. Rowan is tracking the corridor, Xanthias, you're gonna go out and start figuring out orbs. Can we just try green? Let's try a green. I would like to try a green. Okay, give me the blue. I have the blue, I'm blue.

Cause you're blue, I'll take the blue, I have the yellow now. Cause you're yellow, not Daisy. Cause I'm gold. Orange is. Alright, I will place orb in first. So you put the which orb? The yellow orb.

Yellow orb drains of color and is now clear. Great, the green and the yellow at the same time. The yellow and the blue at the same time. Yellow and the blue at the same time. You put the yellow and the blue at the same time, they lock in place and then the two colors like injecting, like ink being injected into water. It makes it an creates a green sphere.

Does it look like, well I'm not there, but. You can ask what it looks like. Does the rods look like they lose color at all? No. All right. The lights flicker? Uh-uh. Okay. Not that kind of video.

For podcasters, this is like say, uh-uh. But they heard. That's how podcasts work. They can't hear us. They just can't see. For podcast listeners I said, that's how podcasts work. Um. While I'm just at this,

I don't wanna do it from the outside, I will go into the room. Rowan, where have you placed things? It's hard to see in here. Everywhere. Oh, okay. I've had this all, guys, come on. It's all clear, there are lights.

It's lit up, you can see. Although this room isn't lit up. This room stays quite dark. Oh, okay. Goodness. Good. That's how they like it. In that case, once I get through

where it looks like the light will be, which from the looks of things is right at the end, I will point the green orb. Nothing happens. On that door, nothing happens on that door. On that door. Next color. Can I, from here, point it at the...

Are you sure it's the orb? Because the orb is the, oh yeah, the orb is the doing. Can I point it at the tube? you sure it's the orb? Because the orb is the, oh yeah, the orb is the doing. Can I point it at the tube? You would have to go up to it, like this thing does, you get the sense that there is a range to this thing. You can feel that when you kind of hold the orb up to where the door should be, there is a kind of sensation of like,

nothing happened, like this is wrong. You kind of get the sense that it went, it tried to do something and it was just like, nope, wrong. Like losing a sneeze. Yeah, it's more like, you kind of get like a, like a, kind of like, wrong. No, you don't get that, but you get a sensation of that. So you would have to go up to the cylinder area.

I'll just see. He's gonna just, whew! It's just like a dramatic tube. From the outside of tube, I will, outside of the tube, pour green at it. You see that the sort of 20 foot cylinder, the sort of 20 foot radius cylinder that goes up, green motes of light begin to fill it.

Okay. And you get a sense of, you get a sense of you have control as long as you're holding this orb, that you and any creatures you designate with you basically are under the effect of a levitation spell. So you can control when you're up and down, basically. Could I constantly focus on just up at all times so nothing can come down?

No, this is like you are affecting yourself at any creatures that are with you. You basically are putting them under the effects of a levitation spell. You're not controlling the direction of this thing. Good news, everyone. Good news, everyone. I've...

Good news from the morrow. I've solved the tube. Oh, good day. So, that's, I've done it. You've solved the door. I haven't solved the door. I don't know what color this thing is meant to be, but it's not yellow, it's not green.

Okay, you've only tried two. I could, I could. How long does it take to like fill these things? Like how long is each sort of rotating? You're taking sort of like five minutes each time. All right, okay. So we could do red and blue to make purple. All right.

Or blue and uh. Should we try the primary colors first? Yellow and red to make orange. Okay. We haven't tried blue. Get comfy everyone, give me all the ones. Give me the, give me the red. Oh I'm glad you will.

Wait, did we try yellow? No we didn't, we tried yellow. No, we didn't try blue. We could try blue. I'm going to, through process of elimination. Well, there's a thing here, because obviously you currently have a green sphere in your hands.

Who has the red sphere? I have the red rod. You have red rod? Does Rowan still have the red sphere? Or did you give it all to Xanthias? I've got Rowan written down. Yeah, Rowan, I believe, had the red sphere. Yeah, red orb, yeah.

So you have the, but yeah, if you,, now you know, like you have to clear one to make a new one, which means you won't have the green one anymore. So I don't want to just do a like, no, no, we cycle through until we find the answer, like you have to tell me what you're canceling, what you're making. Whatever I, you have two spheres.

I'll try the red on the door. You try red. On the door. Yeah, red closes the door. Oh my God! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Ah! Yes! You bastard! It was red! I will point out that if you look across, one of the lower doors on the other side is also red. The one opposite is on the lower floor. The one that's purple up top is red on this floor.

Amazing. So good. For podcast listeners. Marks being difficult, no. I'm not being difficult. Mark's face was a sight of pure joy. Very bland in my dungeon map. Mark's face was pure joy.

So my fault you had a red sphere and you didn't try that one first, is it? We can rest, we can rest, we can rest. Doors closed, I did it. Careful of the shovel. Whoa, okay. Give me a reflex save. A reflex save? Yeah. That's pathf OK. Give me a reflex save. A reflex save?

That's pathfinding. It's a reflex save. Oh, sorry, dexterity. It is a pathfinding thing. Dexterity saving throw. What the hell? It's also an old D&D thing. He's getting clown-roboted.

14. 14. You are narrowly, like, as well as like, watch out for the shovel. You're like, oh! Narrowly dodging it flies behind me. Ugh. Tweet, into the face.

It wants to behind you. But yes, you all now, once the door closes, the corridor and the room go very dark. Only the faintest light from Daisy's Dagger and the runes and whatever light sources you have really illuminate this place, and they cast long shadows along those patterned engraved walls,

which makes them ever so more ominous. And you try and rest. Now, you do have camping equipment. This is dry and it's safe, but there is an unsettlingness to this place. So what are you guys doing? How are you setting out the camp? What are you guys doing in this moment of rest?

Think of this as when you go in a video game and you go to your campsite, everyone's got their own little things. I guess we don't need tents, right? I'm burritoing. You're burritoing? I'm a burrito of blankets. Okay.

Wrap yourself up as tightly as possible. I've got my bedroll, so I'm rolling that out. I put all my snacks in arm's reach. Are you just gonna use like trail rations? Are you gonna try and cook a meal down here? Oh, I could try and get rid of the smell by cooking up some fish stew. Oh, please don't.

I mean, I don't really... The fish that you caught, I think, four days ago, at this point? Four days matured. Oh, just like the Ganodactyl. I'm going to bring that up. I've lost my appetite after seeing that, to be honest, but... You don't want a stew?

Yes, actually. I'll attempt to make a stew. Okay. With the cooking utens make a stew. Okay. With the cooking utensils I have. Okay, are you training cooking utensils? You learned from- I learned how to make this specific stew. You're not like a trainer.

I'm not good. So this would be a D20 just plus your intelligence modifier. Oh yeah. Or I'd let you use wisdom. I'll let you choose between intelligence or wisdom actually. Intiwisdy. Oh thank you. Take it that means nothing.

14. 14, actually yeah, you're like Rowan, the fish is not good, but you're like, you don't think it's rotten yet, but you've got salt. I've got like seasonings. Like you basically have to crust this thing, and you create a very rudimentary little oven to bake it in to try and get rid of as much smell

as possible. I ask her after to get me some water that I can boil. Yeah. This is very- And to heat it. Produce flame, I'm just laying there. Yeah, exactly. This is very delicious in dungeon style.

Yes, I was just thinking of that. Yeah, very much that. So Rowan has this little rudimentary little oven, you've got the fire going. Weirdly, because this is an enclosed space and normally a fire in here would be very dangerous. The smoke touches the ceiling and just seems to evaporate somewhere.

The smoke does not coalesce in this room. Well that's good. Because yeah, that would have been very bad in a sealed airtight environment. I'm not gonna say that. Burn out all the oxygen. How did you die? Not from a big boss or anything like that.

Just carbon monoxide poisoning. I was gonna say it when you busted out the cooking stuff and I was like, no, I'm just gonna leave. All seven of us family guide on the floor. Not just my characters. But no, the smoke seems to almost be absorbed by the walls itself, as does a lot of the lingering heat. This room is not cold, but also not warm.

It's just on that slightly chilly side of a cold, medical kind of room. But the scent of the spices, the very strong spices that Rowan uses, the stew, the bubbling broth, does do wonders to alleviate some of the tension. And it's a very good job you did that, Rowan, because otherwise this rest would not be a comfortable rest,

so you wouldn't get all of your hit points and spell slots back. But I'm gonna say with that stew, you have your camping supplies like bedrolls and blankets, which actually makes this a comfortable enough rest that you get a normal long rest. What a good boy. Curse his back.

Yeah, so yeah, what are we doing in terms of watches? What are other people doing? Are there any preparations or? You want to make this a heroic long rest. You can heroic short rest, you can't heroic long rest. Heroic short rest is a thing. Full eight is what we need here. Yeah, full eight.

You want to get spell slots and everything back. Yeah, we're pretty tapped. Yeah. In terms of watch, I am not good at watch. Also, Rowan, if you complete an eight hour rest, you will also lose one exhaustion level. How many do you have? I can do a watch.

You should have been getting a minus two to attack rolls and saving throws and ability checks and stuff. So that stew would have only been a 12, but I'm gonna say that's sufficient enough to be a stew. Cool. Not enough to give you cool temporary appearance. Yeah, I guess we would have been helping as well.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It would have given you advantage anyway, so. Fire. Well, let's slide, but yeah, so you'll lose one exhaustion level. Anybody who does have exhaustion levels would lose one. Did you have one?

Yeah, two, I believe. You had two, okay. So you got one now. Okay, that's good. So minus one to pretty much everything, by the way. Tak rolls. Running around. I'm fine.

Saves. Saves, ability checks, and I believe five feet of speed as well. Yeah, okay, but we got food. I need to check that, but I'll check that in the break. We got food, we got bedrolls, we got a decent rest, and a trapped corridor. Well, and yeah, so is Percy keeping watch, I'm assuming?

For a little bit, I do want him to get a full rest. Well, he rests, he doesn't need to sleep. He is conscious the whole time, so he can keep watch. Like, it's one of the benefits of being undead, is you don't need to sleep. I think, like, for Percy's watch, Ophelia might stay with him a little bit, but also, like, chat with Frieda's head.

Just... That's normal. We left that on the outside. Oh, no, sorry, you tied it on your belt. Just, like, have her head, like, just, like, sat with me, just, like... Um, so... I'm Ophelia, these are my friends.

I'm sorry. She hasn't met us. Yeah, I'm- Unfortunately. Yeah, not as our best selves though. Not our best selves, I'm sorry about what happened to you and what we did to you. There wasn't, well, we thought you were just,

I know you said you weren't a monster, but we thought you kind of were a monster a little bit. We didn't really know, sorry. But I'm gonna make it right. I'm going to give you the respect that you deserve and you'll be okay somewhat. I don't know, I don't know how to make this right. This is horrendous, I'm sorry.

The pain you must have been in, what they put you through, those, I mean, they're the monsters, not you. Am I right? Yeah. Anyway, you rest now, I think. Yes, just... You're resting now.

As well as you can. Silent, deformed skull just stares. It's huge, malformed eye sockets looking towards you. I'm sorry, Frieda. Anything else from anyone else? Gruff will just tend to Pascal as he has been, just making sure that he eats some food and drinks some water.

Yeah, and the nice, as soon as you kind of put him in that sleeping position, and now that he has been fed, although he has this madness, he's no longer under the fear of the Galwag. He does, and as he has been when you've been traveling as well, he does sleep. Um, uh, so he kind of drifts off,

maybe just muttering like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, like, you know, kind of muttering to himself and tracing, and then eventually the tracing slows down until he just, his eyes shut and he falls asleep. Mm. Oh, Gruff, I don't want to be cruel, but I have a suggestion.

It might be best if you sleep towards the back of the room. Just in case. Why's that, my boy? Well, just in case something happens in the middle of the night and you suddenly feel some kind of urge to just wander out, you know? So we can all keep an eye on you and make sure you stay where you're meant to be. Right, and you promise you're not gonna

punch me in the back of the head? Sleep well. If I sleep well, okay? That wasn't a promise! I mean, you're not prone to sleepwalking, that hasn't happened yet, so. The door's closed. Door's closed, but maybe there might be some command

to take the red orb. I don't know the extent of it, but. Well, who has the red orb? Xanthias has a good point. I will go sleep at the back of the room. Who has the red, you keep the red orb then. Xanthias, I'm assuming, has all the rods and orbs at this point here. Yeah, you have everything,

because you were testing. Why can't I hold all these puzzle pieces? You've got that Resident Evil attache case open, slotting it around. Orbs are one, slot rods are two. All of them really close to my chest. Not this low. Sure.

Motherfucker tried to jump on that one. Just promise me, friends, if something does happen to me, could you make sure you look after Pascal? Nothing's going to happen to you, Graf. Don't leave him here, okay? Of course we won't. All you need to do is just make sure you don't leave the room.

I will, yeah, I'll set up a bedroll, I guess somewhere close to the corridor, but I'll make sure that this prism orb, big priz, is slightly away from me so I don't accidentally just roll. All right. All right. Sure.

Sure, okay. Also, it doesn't talk to me in my sleep. I hate that thing. Okay. You all take a long rest. Sleep is not easy, despite the good stew, despite the comfortable blankets. Everywhere you look, those symbols shutting your eyes, the eerie silence, the memories, those words,

be freeda, I hurt, help, echoing, in your minds. But you all do manage to rest. That rest is not disturbed. Nothing comes for you during that time. Oh, hell yeah. At the end of the eight hours, I do need Gruff to make a wisdom save friend. Oh, no. Ooh.

Fake, fake, fake. I can fake. Bap bap bap bap bap. Yeah, after. You can? You can. 19 plus seven. You hear in your mind, subject, you must report to stasis, but you resist it.

Nice. Yeah, yeah. Just feeling that sort of pressure in your mind, something speaking directly into your mind itself, urging you to report. And you get, again, that same sense of like, you have to get up to that middle floor where you were, but beyond that, you're not sure. There is an insistence in this presence,

but it is not aggressive or hateful, more just insistent that you do it. But yeah, you resist. You are immune to that effect for a certain amount of time. Keep it down, boyo. But yeah, the rest of you awake, sort of eight hours-ish later. I can swap spells.

You can, yeah, druids can prepare their spells each day, so you can swap any of that stuff. It's good, Graf is still here in the room with us, didn't go wandering. I just love the idea that, as you're saying, I'm just like behind, like you wake up and I'm just staring at you. Huh, okay, is that Graf? Graf, is that you?

Good morning, Sam. Oh, good. Oh, you didn't hear anything during the night? Oh, I did. And? Yes, the Vamillion Orcs of Balgur was trying to get me to go upstairs again. Oh, OK. What did it say?

It said, subject, please report to something-something. Oh, creepy. It wants... There's a compulsion for me to go upstairs. Okay, well, I mean, we can stay down here for a little bit longer maybe, try and explore the rest of this place, but what subject?

Does it say any numbers afterwards? No, just call me subject. Probably because I haven't been processed properly. True. Just wanted to know how many things they've worked on down here. I think the Galowak was whatever it said to me. Number?

X-O-0012, or 21, I'm dyslexic. I don't know what that is. 21 or 12? No, I don't know what dyslexic is. Rec on that. Yeah. That's a bit of Kim just slipping in there. The zeros at the start, they planned to do thousands.

Well, luckily they didn't get that far. Well, unless. They probably have. They probably have. If this is one of the only ones. It's also, it may, this is just for rules clarification, no, sort of law clarification. Like, as I said, this is going into your mind,

so this could even just be like your brain interpreting it as a string of numbers to make it make sense. It might not be that the actual predimension had a numbering system or anything like that. Be very unlikely if they did, they don't really have written communication. It's probably your brain just interpreting

whatever they've said is, yeah, you're basically like, it's like a barcode, but you're interpreting it as numbers or whatever. Okay, what does everyone else? I need to add to that as well, as like a sort of retcon of the information. When you heard that number, what you probably would have also, along with it,

would have been a visual component of a flashing of colors. It would have been red, red, blue, blue, blue, three, green, green, like, you know, it would have been a sequence of voices. Oh, that's cool. That's always the case. Whenever you're hearing these voices,

the walls flash in color sequences as well. Trippy. It's color code. Wondering if we close our eyes if we can't hear the communication. Maybe. I'll give that a try at some point. I'll forget that completely.

Anyway, is everyone else okay? Everyone rested? Yeah, as well as I can be. Is everyone still aware of where we are? Unfortunately, yes. Okay, good. Hopefully this thing hasn't shifted away to a different realm and we are still in Elthaea

on the outside. Did you think of that before you mentioned it? I know. Good morning, everyone. Morning, Santheus. Good morning. What do we want to do now? What's our plan?

Leave. Well, yes, but however. No, no, what? What's our plan? Leave! Well, yes. But, however. No, no, what? What, Santheus? Oh, we're just going? Well, I would like to leave, but what is your but? What is this?

Well, there's a reason we're here. Well. Beyond just me. True, true, I'm sorry. I hate this, Santheus. I know. I want to fix you, I hate this. But.

Not that you need fixing, the crowns deal needs to be removed. Where? Maybe you need fixing, I don't know. Pretty spectacular. I just want to leave. Okay, Percival's done a wonderful job cleaning up your leg and arms and hair. He has.

And your face. I have cleaned your robes whilst you were sleeping. Thank you, Percival, we didn't need to. Of course I did, yes. No, he did. No, we were very stinky. I was very stinky, I'm sorry. Yes, but we had. We didn't eat it. Of course I did, yes. No, he did. No, we were very stinky. I was very stinky, I'm sorry. Yes, but we three had a good rest, I think.

I'm still a burrito, by the way. I'm just communicating to you via burrito form. It's understandable. What is the waking protocol for Daisy? Has anyone ever actually figured that out? No, I've never seen it. Okay. Do you think? I've never seen it. Okay. I'll get there when I'm good.

Oh, you're awake. Okay, good. I've been awake. I've been talking to you. Yeah, but your eyes were closed and you were fully burrito. I thought it was a dream speech, you know? I wonder what goes on inside that brain. We could use a potion to find out. No, probably lovely things, Ambrose. It would probably be lovely.

That's what I'm saying, it would be a nice holiday to just escape into your dreams. Do you dream of Stuart? No, I dreamt that we were in a horrible, horrible place and I woke up and we're in a horrible, horrible place. Yeah, that's a good one. That's a text house, yeah. So I'm just gonna be a burrito for a little bit longer.

Understandable. While we discuss what the plan is. What about Rowan's dreams? What do you dream of? Cuts two. I would fucking rock. Oh dear. Do you ever wonder why a lot of stuff

doesn't get done in Hyrule as part of the way this is why? We're talking about dreams. Yeah. I just... If you ever wonder why a lot of stuff doesn't get done in High Rollers, by the way, this is why. We're talking about dreams. I suggest we use this opportunity of being on the lower floor to explore the lower floor. Yes, yeah. So we go around the clock. So you have an open door to the north, to the northwest.

The southern door, which is orange currently, you would need to open and unlock. The prismatic door, you don't know what to do with. And then there is a red door to the northwest on this lower floor. There is not a passageway to the north down here, that is not present. Okay.

I've got nothing that removes a curse. This is quite irritating. Sorry. Curse? I was hoping to try and help Pascal somehow. His body is okay, but his mind is... Boy's not right. And I don't have anything that can help with curses.

Hmm, has he got a prism on him. Huh, that's a really good question, Rowan. Well, yeah, he may not have made it this far, but. Can I check Pascal for a? Sure, medicine check. A thing, ooh, I'm good at that. 17 plus seven. You examined him, you've actually examined Pascal before,

you're kind of looking at his state of nutrition and things like that, you know he's in a bad shape. He is a lot better, since you've been sort of slowly reintroducing food, making sure he's heart more hydrated, he is better than he was when you found him. But you do not find any evidence of an implant, whatever this thing is.

Because he never came in here. He never came here, no. He was just kidnapped by the Galowat, whatever this thing is. Because he never came in here. He never came here, no. He was just kidnapped by the Galowak, sorry, Frieda. It's the effects of Frieda, yeah. And Frieda, I guess, showed him and me visions of this place, of this symbol. There seemed to be a sort of aura around the Galowak, around Frieda, that did seem to drive people mad.

You experienced it, Gruff, you came very dangerously close to kind of reaching to the level that Pascal is at. And it seems that because Pascal was under the effect for so long, it has developed into this sort of magical malady, this magical curse that is, unfortunately, driving him insane, effectively. To the point of him just being non-responsive. Would the 24 give me any hint

of if lesser restoration could help? Lesser restoration will not help, no. No, it would need to be remove curse or greater restoration. Which I don't have. Well, that's a real shame that... He peep-oop-oop on face. Shall we try the open door like we did last time? Yes, yes, the one just next door.

But we also have a way to open both the orange and the red, but I've got no idea about the prism yet. Maybe we should close doors as we have explored them. Okay. We could, now that we... Have we dismantled all of the stuff? The sleeping arrangement? I will be packing down.

Don't worry about stuff. But I was wondering, like, is it worth maybe leaving Percival and Pascal in this room? Closing the door and then coming back for them as we try to leave? I am fully replenished. I could help you in battle and such things. Or if you wish, I could look after the young man here, of course.

I am fighting fit once again. Good to see. Yes. You would probably see that, like, yeah, it's like the cracks in, like, Persil's bones where he's taking damage, they've healed overnight. Like, he replenishes with like energy. I feel a lot better knowing Percy is fighting fit.

It's just, is Pascal safer in this room, behind a closed door that we can open up later, or with us when we do eventually flee this place? I'm just loathe to leave him behind in case one of these creatures, you know that thing that I came in, found trying to scoop you all up? I just feel that I don't want to leave him behind

in case something comes and gets him. He can't defend himself. That's true. He can't run. Okay, let's keep everyone together then. No wandering off on your own. We know the rules. Okay, don't split the party.

And let's go into the north, what was that, northwest. I'm not gonna move you guys on the map because I don't have rooms for the down here, like drawn out, so I'm just gonna describe them to you. But it's a similar structure, right? Similar structure so we can kinda see it. When you head to the open chambers to the north, you leave, you hold up the red orb,

you open the door that leads out of this place, you go out into the main chamber, I'll just move you here, and then we know where you guys, like you guys around this room. What a big cohort. You find, following that room to the north, which you'd explored the floor above,

exact same layout. There is a small side chamber, as you are making your way through. Are the bodies still there? Eight hours. Why are you whispering eight hours? So I have to do some head stuff. I have to do some stuff in my head.

He's doing head stuff. Head stuff. I hate head stuff. I never do that. They are all gone. Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Is that just like, is it completely clean? Yeah.

No blood, no residue, nothing. Just what about the body? As if they were never there. Yeah, the body in the tube. Yeah, that's still there. Why is that still there? Because it's not part of this experiment place. They're the dungeon team from Kelskaaris.

It's only cleaned up that which the Vault recognizes, which makes me worried about holding this thing everywhere with us. It thinks I'm a subject. It thinks I'm the Galawak. I'm pretty sure it can see all of us regardless. It's been useful so far, though. True, but I'm worried it's eventually going to try and reclaim me. Oh. You know? Then throw it.

Throw it? If you feel the urge. I mean, I can speak to this Vermillion thingy now. That's true, but can you? Hello Vermillion, orc's buggery. Nine. Nine. Oh, maybe not.

Maybe ask it just another question, because we're not certain this is the million oxen nine that we're talking to. What subject number am I? You would hear, you would almost see a visual representation of a flash of series of colors, and you would hear, no identification applied.

Oh, says there's no identification applied. Okay, but you can talk to it, so, says there's no identification applied. Okay, but you can talk to it, so... But it's so pretty, though. Maybe leave it in this red room, and then as we go through each room, we just come back, check on it, maybe ask it a question, then put it back down,

and then we come back and look at it again. I think someone will probably take it if you leave it, because they took the bodies. I'll throw it if I need to throw it. Okay. Get rid of it if I need to throw it. Okay. Get rid of it if I need to get rid of it. But I'm putting it in my bag. I don't want to hold this thing anymore.

Okay, you place it in your bag. Do you continue into the open rooms? Yes, so yeah, Northwest room. Yeah, you move through a side, you move past a side chamber where you can see floating slabs of crystal that show the larger room beyond. Each of the slabs of crystal have a flickering illusion that hovers ever so

slightly above the surface, showing four metal spheres with blinking grids of different coloured hues surrounding the image. When you look into the main chamber itself, you see that exact site. You see these, it's completely bare, very much like the Galowax room, but there are no symbols engraved on the wall. Instead, there are these huge metal spheres split down the middle and sort of cracked open,

revealing a 10 foot by 10 foot cell inside. Just enough, like not quite a bed, but sort of a slab that one could sleep on, rough, you know, material of some kind stretched out. There seems to be some sort of like, you know, latrine in there, but that's it. And they just hover off the ground, these four spheres, each with a 10 foot

by 10 foot cell inside. All of them cracked open. Yeah. Well, not cracked, like split, and then sort of like peeled. Is this where the one-eyed fellows were? Maybe, why do they need a cell like this? There are also several broken constructs like the ones that you saw above.

The squat obsidian dwarves and the multi-armed scientist constructs if you'd like to call them that. The labor constructs and science constructs, basically. Pens in their pocket. No. Okay. Is there any indication or any sign of the similar sort of scratches from the other room?

Like, whatever creature was in the previous room also fought in this room, okay. I mean, it could be those four we encountered outside, but. They got out somehow, yes. They got out, and I'm. Defied orders. Don't know why they would deserve a cell like this. Maybe they were trying to do something else,

but the experiment failed. And they went feral. And broke out. Okay. Either way, I'm not getting into one of those. No, nowhere near one of those, but I mean. You wanna go inside? Take a look around the.

But there are work tables either side. No, not in this room, no. There's just the foot, it's completely bare except these four metal spheres hovering off the ground, these cell spheres. There's nothing else in that monitoring room, the side chamber that you passed. There was just a single kind of desk

with these floating crystal slabs that seemed to be, there was like one slab for each of these cells, basically. It was like a pattern and grid and shifting colors that sort of blink in and out and change. Maybe that adventurer fellow, maybe he didn't fall down. What if he was a test for those four little creature men? And they never returned to their cells?

And they never returned, no. Possibly. Possibly. Possibly. Luckily a test that we passed. Oh, I don't like this place. Was that body eviscerated? No. Showed no wounds on it.

And didn't have any slashes or cuts or bites. If they had any interest in it, it would have been... But you saw what it did to anything else that came down here. OK. It completely ignored it. It would have been... But you saw what it did to anything else that came down here. Okay. They ignored it. And the adventurer's body is like almost petrified. It's like mummified. It's like just decayed but there's not enough rot to cause it to break down. So it's just become like a, but a dead body in the desert basically,

it's shriveled up and become very desiccated. Did you detect magic on the cloak that was on it? Oh, I didn't identify that yet, no. We can say that you did it during the long rest, if you want. I'm allowed to do that. Yeah, sure, sure, sure. Sure, yeah, in that case, yeah, I would spend a charge,

which I basically immediately get back, identifying that cloak, which is blue. It's called a Cloak of Resistance. It gives you a plus one to all saving throws. Very simple. You had it, though, so are you giving it to Blue Boy, or? This is a protectiony cloak, and it's blue. Oh, that does so, that does so much.

It would suit you, I mean, look at it on me. Gross, disgusting, horrific, awful, gauche. On you, though. You shouldn't do yourself down like that. Pristine, masterful, perfect, splendid, runway ready. That's not runway. The thing that he paraded on, he's probably gonna be in the newspapers for.

That little fashion show he did. I don't know why I called it that, I guess plank-ready. Plank-ready. Right. I don't want to do a fashion show. I'm not going to lose. If I'm in it too. I think Gruff will most massively put some pour out on Ophelia. Nope. He's like staring down Xanthias.

So, you want it? I don't want it as anyone else. It would look rather fetching on you, Gruff. It would. I don't want to inconvenience anyone else, he says. Just take the cake. Take the cake, Graff! It will look good!

It will look great on you. Oh, fine. Plus, you're always protecting us. Always on the front lines. Jumping in front of swords and spears and other things. Fireballs. Fireballs. Not mine, not mine!

Not yet. Whatever. What does the rope do? Oh, thank you. Protect. Yeah, it makes you more resistant to malign effects and things like that. It's a plus one to all saving throws.

I look down at the desiccated body. It doesn't protect you from- It doesn't protect you from 120 foot fall damage, no. Not falling, no. It's not cloak of anti-falling. No falling. There's no saving throw that gets you past 120 foot drop, unfortunately.

It doesn't let you fly. Maybe it will help you resist the prism. Yes, that actually would be really good. Maybe, maybe. Maybe more physical based. Cloak of protection. No, don't worry about trying to look it up. Like, you'll have to apply it manually for now.

I will, no, cloak of protection is different because that adds to AC. Weird, it says, no, Vorpal Blade. It's not, it's not. I've just added a Vorpal Blade. Fuck off. Don't have time for your games. Cause you plus one people same throws, I will add it.

And in this room, like can we see just from, if we just walk in. So you're still in the metal sphere room? In the metal sphere room. Are we able to see, even if the crack is quite small. Do you go in the metal? I don't go in the metal sphere, I just wanna know, can I see clearly enough into them?

That's why I described, you can see that they're a 10 foot by 10 foot cell. There's no like, weird writing. There's no... I don't know, you should see. There's a latrine, a slate. That's it. And that's it in there.

The most basic of prison cells in there. Well, if there's a latrine, I suppose. That's one blessing. There's one more blessing than poor Frieda didn't have. Did Frieda have a shitter? Nope. Is that the correct way to ask that? Does a gallowick whack sheet? Great questions, guys.

Any poops in the cave? Did it have a spook tour? None that you could see? It might be like the dragons, they fly it out to sea before they burn it. Fascinating. I think that was canonical. I was just like burning in convenience.

I think it was. Crispy will back me up. Yeah, that's true. It's on the wiki. Right. Anyway. Okay. So yeah, honestly, nothing else you can see

in these two chambers. Okay, the only worry is if they came, those four now completely gone creatures came from here, the other rooms are still closed, so if there's anything being held in them, if they are cells, it might still be in there. What was the number of entities down here? Lots, apparently.

Even minus the four. I wasn't. One, two, three, four. Yep. Five? Deadwood? There were nine on the bottom floor. Yeah, there's more here. I guess not counting Frieda, because Frieda had already escaped, so there's probably five left. Five somewhere. Somewhere.

Right. We already have a red orb, so we can open the door. Five somewhere. Somewhere. Right. We already have a red orb so we can open the door. I guess we're now in the main hallway, right? Sure. We can open that door over there. It's easy to make an orange. The prism, we still haven't figured out. Unless I maybe use, I don't know.

You were talking to that thing before I got here, weren't you? Oh, yeah. So, okay, so... Best of friends. Wow. So, so easily replaced... Best of friends. Wow. So, so easily, you're replaced. So... Like a father to me.

The prism. Oh. Big prism. Oh, no. Honestly, I think it might protect me from anything, everything. I'm just gonna go back into the freedom room and just have a bit of a cry. I kiss the orb. Do you?

No. Yeah, that's the next question. And exactly none of that conversation happens. Bwomp, it's out of your face now. Are we role playing now? Yes. We're role playing. We're role playing now. So, sorry, this thing told you

how many subjects are down here? Oh yes, yeah. You were on the middle level when it did, but also that was a long time ago. That was a... I mean, you could ask now if you want. Well, did it tell you anything about what this facility does or what this floor does?

Yes. Dangerous things. Mergers, mixers, combines. Sorry, Daisy. You told me that this floor was where the most dangerous things were kept. Right. We mentioned this when you first came in. We did, we did do that.

But we had to come down here for these. You were really angry though because of poor Saren and I don't think he listened. So that's understandable. But that's why we came down here, to get the rods. I suppose if the Galowak was here then, yes. Yeah. But while we're down here.

You've dealt with the most dangerous things. We've dealt with the most dangerous things. It's two open cells. Maybe it was the Galowak and then these four guys. Shh! There's five more down here. Maybe there's no T-Rex with shark arms. You could maybe ask. Hello. What's a T-Rex?

LAUGHTER What's a shark? It's a thing out in the sea. OK. Is it nice? No. Oh. Well, if you leave them alone. OK.

OK. I bet they have just one row of teeth. Why would they have four? THEY LAUGH They just grow back. Shall we go have a look at one of these other rooms, then? OK, well, we can open the red one right now. OK.

Let's do that. Let's do that, then. OK, everyone ready? No. Doesn't red mean danger? Ready, okay. Battle stations. No. Drip it up, the red orb. Okay.

Do the wall of light vanishes from the northeast doorway, leading to a short corridor. You can remove the thing just to get the layout, but just ignore what's inside, because obviously you haven't seen the above one yet, but it's a large change. You can remove the thing just to get the layout, but just ignore what's inside, because obviously you haven't seen the above one yet, but it's a large chamber. Remember, that's the middle floor chamber. Well, we won't describe it now,

but it's not relevant. But it is a large chamber. Inside, looking from the corridor, you are immediately hit by a heavy, earthy, verdant green smell. There is a sort of musk, sort of strong, heady, flowery scent, and you can see that the corridor is only short maybe like 10 or 15 feet or so

before it enters a very lush environment, thick with strange foliage and vegetation. It is very dark, there is no light source in there, so the light kind of going through the corridor illuminates sort of the main area, leaving lots of thick, because it's thick with foliage, and so there's a lot of shadows in it. There is a, there are large, well actually no,

you won't be able to see those from your current position. So that's what you can see from here. Well, it looks very nice. It looks nice, did it? It's a lie, it's not, it's evil! Nice. Yeah, okay, maybe throw something forward. I haven't got really anything to.

Was there some debris in the dock? There's no, no, there's no, yeah. I haven't got really anything to... Was there some debris in the doctor? No, there's no, yeah. You could go get some parts of the broken constructs, but you'd have to go back into one of the other chambers to get those. Could I just cast a sorcerous burst at the floor in front of me, just down the corridor into the room?

Into the room itself? What kind of energy? It is very lush, verdant. Not fire, maybe ice? Okay. You conjure this blaster, and launch it into the room. It strikes the floor.

Ice kind of sprays everywhere. Give me a perception check. Me? Everybody, I'd say everybody can give me a perception check. Good. Minus one. Ha ha, natural one. Yes, minus one for your exhaustion.

Natural one for me, which makes a... Eight. Eight. 22, great, good. Math, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 20, 23. 23 for Daisy, 22 for Ophelia. 12. 12 for Rowan, three, three.

Everybody, so maybe it's Gruff and Rowan and Xanthias. You're maybe a little too focused on the immediate, shut up. What day is it? For podcast listeners. My laptop is taking off. Laptop. You don't see anything.

Maybe you're too distracted by the sudden blast of magic or like maybe too focused on preparing your weapons or readying yourself. You don't hear anything. Daisy and Ophelia though, you hear a sort of like muffled, from inside. You kind of hear like a,

you kind of hear like conversation coming from inside. Does anybody else hear that? I'm gonna grab Graf... There's something in there, it's talking, they're talking! Were you able to hear a voice? It made a gasp, it did a... Let go a little bit, please. Hurry, I'm very tense.

It's still going, something's talking. Can we all hear it now that they've mentioned it, or...? Yeah, now that you've kind of strained your ears, there is now also almost like a faint hum or buzzing. Who knows we're here? Hello? When you call out, Gruff, you see something in the shadows of the foliage You see something in the shadows of the foliage, sort of cautiously begins to break through, and you hear this kind of voice, like,

Hello? As you see five figures push through, you see the first one that appears on these kind of flapping buzzing wings is a creature halfway between an enlarged mosquito mixed with a spider and a butterfly, the size of a person. With its eight eyes and its long proboscis and in a very normal voice. Hello? Are you? Who are you? Beside it comes a humanoid shape of plant matter in the form of an androgynous person, kind of this kind of, brrrr, brrrr, brrrr,

that is completely silent. Skittering, sort of smaller creature underneath its legs is this, I would describe it as like a child-sized spider with hooked hands instead of legs. Behind that comes a fly with a sort of half-human body for its top, with these big, wide insectoid eyes, followed by a mushroom creature on all fours

that plods itself forward, scampering up with them, with an enormous mouth. And then finally, this kind of like fronded plant on four legs, almost like a vase that's like plant shaped on four skittering legs. Skurries out and sort of clings to the leg of the plantoid man or plantoid person. Hello.

Guests. Oh, so long. It has been welcome. And that's where we're gonna take our break. Yeah. Well, there's the other five. I remember that scene in Toy Story where... Yeah, she's like, she has toys.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, okay. It's a very good representation. But that is where we're gonna take our break. We will see you at part two. As they continue exploring the world. See you at part two.

Bye. See ya. See ya.