High Rollers DnD - Ambition Bleeds Gold (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #81

Episode Date: October 21, 2025

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Is it the matcha, or am I this energized from scoring three Sephora holiday gift sets? Definitely the sets. Full size and minis bundle together? What a steal. And that packaging. So cute. It practically wraps itself. And I know I should be giving them away, but I'm keeping the summer Fridays and rare beauty by Selena Gomez. I don't blame you. The best holiday beauty sets are only at Sephora. Gift sets from summer Fridays, rare beauty, way and more are going Fast. Get full-sized favorites and must have minis. Fundled for more value. Shop before they're gone. In store online at Sephora.ca.com. Welcome back to Althea, the Dragon Empire. Welcome back to Althea, the Dragon Empire. Our heroes returned to the town of Ash and Rest, following their adventures in the Suncrest Isles and helping Gruffeth of Traymorrow pursue his knightly test.

Once returned, they reunited with their friend Teresa Lavendale, acolyte of the grave father and caretaker for the inn of Tyrea's Rest when they are away on their adventures, and decided to take some time to recover and recuperate. But as they enjoyed this downtime, several letters arrived. Gruff's wife responded to a message that he had sent previously. Sister Ophelia is invited to a fundraiser by an Ossian rival. And Xanthias received a letter from his father. Oh, pop pop, pop. Before we continue with that incident, and see Xanthius' response,

but I'm gonna dial it back a little bit, just to prolong the torment. But also because we have been exploring several downtime activities, and so I want to jump in a little bit on those, because a few of you would give me some ideas of what you wanted to do. A few people were still deciding

and have come up with some ideas. So, Gruffeth. Hello. What did you decide to do in the sort of, you know, two weeks-ish roughly that you have had back in Ashen's rest? Oh, right. So the first week, I hung out in my little hermitage, I just decompressing from the kids. And I decided to send a message back home. And it would be a message to my eldest. son, more fram.

Oh. And I would like to, well, shall I read it? If you, only if you would like to. I didn't make that dingle. Um, I wonder who did. Sorry, that was my doorbell. That was the message. That was the sound it made when the message went.

That's the magical, the spirit. The, you don't have to throw your phone. You could do it on silent, dude. Someone's gonna stand on that when they go. No. It's gone, don't worry. It is up to you, Gruff, if you would like to read the message or if you would like to keep it a mystery for now.

I'll read it. Okay. So in the letter from... So this is for the audience. This is not the characters don't hear this, but the audience and the cinematics of it. Yes. So just as a reminder, so again, the gang don't know this,

but we read this out to the audience last week, but there was a line in my letter from my darling wife saying that Morfran is being rather quiet of late. So I will send a message back and it says, I have tried to guide you as a cub by telling you what to do. I never listened. I'm sorry. I am always here for you. Just a nice, simple message. The message is picked up by a small sparrow-like.

Like bird, as part of the juridic nature of your hematage, the special power that it bestows, clutches the little rolled up piece of parchment in its claws and flies off into the distance. And it will be likely some time before that message is both delivered and a response is possible. But you have that knowledge that that message is on its way. And what about the rest of your time, Gruff? What would Gruff spend his time sort of doing? So the other little matter is my wife did ask for some money for Cleary. So I am going to send 400 gold.

That's fine. Easily, don't know. Why that's some? Who knows? Maybe we'll find out one day. Okay. Is that from your personal fundage? Yes. So from my person. So I've got a piece of paper in which I've worked out. Maths on. It looks like I scroll it in a hurry and it's got red lines. Anyway, yeah, I will send 400 gold back to the family. And then, on week two, I wanted to go and train with Sir Gryold because I personally would like to be a bit more fighty

and a bit more tanky. And I wanted to swap up kind of what I was fighting with because currently it's a staff, which is fine. And you also wanted to put in an order for some custom armour as well. Oh, yeah. I want it with the six nipples. What? Yes. Because a line...

I will. Well, Robin! Finally! Keep in mind that artists will canonocise that if you're not careful. Don't canonize that? Well, don't say it. But now they are. You've just made it a thing.

You spend probably, you know, some of that first week as well, you go and arrange this training with Sir Gryold and likely draft in, Sir Gryold being more of a marksman, probably drafts in the commander and some of the guards here of the Duke's army. And you spend some time at the forge. And Gruff, it becomes apparent that, that you are an older man, you are not physically athletic. And at first there is perhaps a little moment

where you start getting quite disheartened by this. You are not able to physically keep up with these younger soldiers. You don't have the strength to push back or to deliver the blows within a force. And I think it's then that Sir Gryold sort of takes you aside and would say something like, if I remember, Sue Greal has a Scottish accent

if I remember. Do it. Do it. Hi, Gruff. So, I've noticed now forgive me you're not a young man and you've not trained for the life of a soldier

for a knight. But if there's one thing I've noticed about you Graf is you've got a lot of wisdom. You've lived quite a full life. And these adventures that you've been on, they've taught you much about the way people fight and hone those instincts that I know you have

from your life, hard life up in ice-hard. Let's lean more into that. You don't need to hit hard if you know where to hit. You don't need to be the strongest if you know how to turn an enemy's strength against themselves. So let's work on that a little bit. And over time, you develop a style of fighting that is gonna utilize your wisdom more than your strength.

And using maybe the knowledge of the Shaleli spell and that magic of how to maybe enhance your weapon with a bit of druidic magic as well, you begin to train. And you spend some time. Now, is there a weapon, you know, you have the array of an arsenal here. You can pick almost any weapon. What weapon do you think Gruff is drawn to

to sort of begin training with? So I think outside of the staff and that kind of thing, he's drawn to axes. because part of living in ice heart in the cold is... He's chopping wood. He's chopping wood, like, you know, for the fires, for our houses and stuff like that. So, yeah, he'd be drawn to an axe.

And I like the idea then as well. Like, maybe it's, maybe one of the guards, maybe, you know, one of the guards that you first met in Bernal. Like, they also fight with an axe. And they sort of teach the difference between, like, you're not chopping wood anymore, but, you know, some of the principles, like, aim for these joints. You learn how to strike armoured opponents

and still deal, you know, effective damage. and yeah, you practice and you are now proficient, more proficient in combat and are able to use your wisdom instead of your strength for melee weaponry as you spend that time training. Nice. And also, mistress Ilana Vidante,

having placed an order in, for I believe the sum of 1,500 goals, a suit of masterwork half-plate armor is delivered. To your design, but perhaps incorporating the pardron that she once gave you and maybe incorporating some of the armour that you once borrowed. But this is different. This is new.

It's custom made for you. And you will find that equipped on your character sheet already. Being masterworked armor, the strength requirement to wear it has been lowered. And also it no longer gives you disadvantage on stealth checks. Because a gambeson has sort of been incorporated into the armor. So it has that inbuilt padding, basically, underneath it. So obviously you are a bit of.

big line man, you don't want to wear a big heavy gambeson like a human warrior, a humanoid warrior would wear. But this has almost like a gambeson style padding built in underneath it. So it peaks out from around the corners of the armour, this kind of nice thick padded. So it doesn't make as much noise. And also the metal has been worked so that it is thinner and less weighty, but still just as sturdy and strong. And yeah, you find it's very flexible. And you can think of, you may perhaps like next week or whenever you feel comfortable, come up with an idea of what that might look like for us. But yeah, you find all of that in place.

The main thing is it's a little bit rounded on the belly. Sure. Or perhaps maybe because it's half plate, maybe the armor doesn't fully like, you know, protect that area. Maybe it's like chain mail. My profile will give a little bit, we'll give just on the belly it's more chain-man. So it's like plated from sort of like, you know,

the upper bit and then it's like a little chain mail belly and then like little skirt, like plated, you know, tacits and things like that. Holds with an it. How does it affect your AC? Quite a boost. I now up to 18. 18 base before Armour of Oak and Thorne is the main.

Oh yeah, damn. So it was 15. Oh, that's a big jump, nice. So I was 18. Wow. God damn. Yeah, very cool. Daisy and Rowan, you had expressed an interest in your downtime of getting Tirea's rest up and running as an inn.

A tavern. As a bar as a tavern. People can't sleep there yet. No. But you, to kind of expedite this a little bit, in that first week, you would have met with the trading guildmaster of Aschon's Rest, a Nalunari man by the name of Patience Zante.

Patience, like the word patience, X-A-N-T-E-Zante. Okay, okay. He is one of the most beautiful men you have ever encountered. The most beautiful man I've ever encountered. Thank you. Oh, my good man. You, of course, need no...

You need no introduction. I recognize the heroes of Ashton's Rest. Being a Nalunari, a dark elf, or a drow in other worlds, they have this kind of supernatural allure, where they might have, not necessarily the most sort of, like, you know, what modern society would consider beautiful, but there's something about them that makes them alluring and, you know, appealing.

And I imagine that this man just has the most flawless, structure. And on their sort of dark, dusky, like purple lilac skin, you know, this kind of probably very sleek, quaffed hair, they're just this incredibly put together well-dressed gentleman. And you meet and patients is able to help you arrange simple alcohol trade, basically supply. You know, it manages to sort of do all the books for you to buy in and have transported the goods that you need for a cost of 80, every month. Mateo can run the inn as the manager and is quite happy to do so, but until you hire waiting

staff, somebody from the party is probably going to need to fill that role for now, or at least multiple people will. But what this does is with Mateo, who counts as a skilled worker and these basic supplies, Tyria's Rest currently has a quality score of two. And as it stands, it will make approximately 50 gold a week. Oh, so it does pay for itself. Does pay for itself over time. And there is also, I would like to know who is helping Mateo run the inn.

We know that Xanthius, Graf, and Ophelia are offering their own things. So you're going to be the server. I mentioned before that we were going to swap positions. So, now here's the thing. So if you would like Mateo, if you would like to be a performer, you and Mateo to swap, being performers, that is a different role. You still need somebody to serve drinks and take orders and things like that.

You need a manager and a service staff. And then a performer on top. So it's up to you how you would like to write. I could take orders. Yeah, it's just simple running, like proper waitressing basically. Roan and I would be the ones to be like, we got this.

Yeah, I think that makes sense. Yeah, I think it makes sense. And then Roan will fill in when there's peak times. Mateo will fill in in the bar when there's peak times. Yeah, that's it. The manager is almost always running things. Do some performances.

Sure. So, for this, for the first week, every week that the inn is sort of running, that there is a chance for random events to take place. He's coming in, guys. Now, one thing to consider for the future is if you have a bouncer, the bouncer's ability,

if you hire a bouncer, I know exactly who to get. They will allow you to re-roll if you get a bad result. If you get like a negative event, the bouncer can let you re-roll it, basically. But for the first week, also, if you have a performance, so let's say for the first week it's rowing,

or in fact both weeks could be rowing, you can make a performance check to influence how much money you make, basically. And the higher you do, the better if you do low, you might lose money because the performance is driving people away. Should we do fate first? Yes, let's do fate, in fact, actually. I think it makes sense that we don't even consider

the idea of a bouncer until after a bad event happens. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's why we have. Oh, good. That goes my street. Oh, is that a dice for me? That's a two for me. Oh, lovely.

Add it to the stats, everyone. Three. A three, and it's also a dice for me. A one. Oh, delightful, another one for me. Four. A dice for you. Natural Uno.

Oh, wonderful. Nice to me. It's the opposite of what it was last week. A five, that's actually four and two. Four and two. So, yeah, you are more than work. So, Rowan, if you'd like to make a performance check for me. Yep.

Here we go, natural 20. 15. 15 is enough to earn you to make sure money, but it's not gonna earn you a lot. So that would earn you an extra 12GP to the week. 12 GP for your performance. It's not great.

That's over a week as well, so that's like slowing up in the tips are rough. So the way it works is it's less than a minimum wage. You basically earn the amount of like sort of over with a subtraction basically. Oh, cool, okay. With subtraction. But also could Daisy, could you roll a D8 for me, please? Katie. Let's see what event is rolled

for the inn that week. An eight. Is that good or bad? That is great. Oh, good. That is party on. An unusual patron arrives and throws a wild, magical or otherwise unique party and 30% profit but come up with an interesting

consequence of this unusual guest's activities. And I throw this to the table to decide who this guest is and what effect may linger. Who could suddenly show up? Well, obviously, Caliphers knows how to show up for a party, but I don't think we can have Caliphress to show up on the opening night.

Hmm. What about... What if it was the guard squad that I've been training with? Yeah. They all come off duty, like, you know, and they're just like... Yeah, it could be like...

Drink hard. Yeah. Could be like some of the people we fought with during the battle crash and rest are like seeing, like, oh, we need to celebrate with the heroes of... They play wizard. And they want to...

No. But they just get far too like, not rarity and stuff. They get a bit boisterous. So what is the sort of consequence? Because this is almost like the idea of this is quite an unusual guess or there's something like mad or something that's going to leave a lasting impression. Obsidious. What is going on?

Sunsword Ikara. That certainly would be... It only would be a dramatic change to it. There was a party. Yeah. What if it's the bathhouse people? What if it's, oh, the Reverend Mother and Reverend Father? Boulder.

And his family. The Cobol's family. They come around to help celebrate the opening of the bar. And they get crazy. So what's the consequence of, like, the lasting effect? But what is, what Mark is left on the in, basically. They steal the clever toad back. I mean, if the Cobol's take.

Quite extreme, both paid a lot of money for that. If the Cobol's came and they got drunk and started partying hard, they would overuse the Clevertoad machine. Probably to be... So the Clevertoe machine now has like some sort of quirk to it. Yeah, it doesn't work properly. It has some sort of quirk to it. Like, something gets messed up.

Something's wrong with the AI. They put loads of beer in it. Yeah. They poured loads of beer in it. And now it's like... Yeah. There's that occasionally spurt out like half-proper. No, no. I'll tell you, this is exactly it.

So after this party, like the, the, the, The taric-tarix come. They throw this big sort of celebration to help you launch it. It brings in a load of their patrons, which boost the sales for the bar that week. And you'll have a lovely time. Rowan's playing his music,

boulders there, like you're throwing, you know, having a great time. And all the tarotics come in. And they start messing with the Clever Toad because now it's not their problem anymore. So they're like putting coins in, but then, yeah, they start like pouring drink down like into it.

They start like, one of them seems to be some sort of mage and is like, doing like weird incantations on it to try and get it to do different things. It doesn't go into the machine, does it? Well, no, it goes somewhere else. It does go somewhere else. So here's what happens. Rowan goes to use the machine,

and the music plays, the frog opens its mouth and you just get a, what is the bloody hell it's going? What have you done? What's this? Is this booze? Oh my God. Hello?

Clever Toad? Yes. Oh, my tired, Clever Toad. By the Siles. Yes. The clever to speak to me. The clever, which, uh, remind me again where I am. Oh, it's okay, clever toad.

We all have those days. Remind me where I am. Ashen's rest. Ashen's rest. And that is where? What do you mean? What is the name of the world I am on? Oh, you're silly toad.

Yes, silly toad. You silly to. Oh, there, obviously. Okay. What world? Too many coins maybe. Where am I? Althea.

Oh, Thayer! Yes! The dragon, lad! Oh, my God, is actually talking! You're speaking back? Oh, yes. My mind is reeling. More gold.

Send more gold as soon as possible. Goodbye. And then it closes now. It's gold now. It's gold now. Oh my God. Gras, the toad was actually talking. They said to send gold.

Rowan's vibrating. That sounds a bit suspicious. I know I don't want to send gold to the weird to. It sounded drunk. There is like a smell coming from, as if when it burped, it's like the toad really belched. And it smells of strong alcohol. Oh, that's rancid.

How can this thing get any more frightful? This is a glorious day. I think there's a curse on this. So I'm going to go coins on this. No. I do. Do not feed this thing gold. I've got this party in victory.

It's a scam. I could shove part of alien through there. That is the first week. I can't believe it. I can't believe that he came back. I give you a reddit, clever toad. Would Rowan, would Rowan like to perform for the next week? Should he is the question?

Or did you like to pass it over to Mateo? Mateo, would you like to do a duet? Well, I, listen, I, well, no, I've got to manage the bar, Roman. Oh, yeah. I keep forgetting about the work bit. Yes, you know, there's the work bit. Oh, okay. I'll stop with the rock song. Try a different song. I don't have lyrics for it.

Sure. You try that. I'll try a new song this week. Sure. Here we go. I'm glad it's a plus 11. It's 18 this time. 18 this time. Okay, it's a little bit better. It's a little bit better. That's going to add...

I'm playing this kind of music. Yeah. Ding-d-D-D-DG-DG-DG-DG-DG-HG-G-G-G-G. And can I get another D8 roll from Daisy, please? Rollback now. Oh, that is so... Look at it. Six.

A six. A six is just a normal week. There is no special event this week. Oh, good, okay. Normal. So across those two weeks, the first week you made a total of 80 gold. Okay. So we've basically offset our supplies.

And then the second week we made... 65. So I'm going to add that to our party fund. Sure. 65. Okay. Because at the moment, Mateo is working for free.

He's basically working for room and board. And you guys are running the end so you don't have to pay any staff wages. We can give Mateo. Yeah, we can give Mateo. If you would like to, but right now he is not incurring a cost. I think he deserves a cost.

If he would like to give him a profit, for his... Normally, he would be paid seven gold a week, is what he would normally... Oh, we can take 14 gold off and... give that to Mateo. Okay.

Can I also suggest putting out a little tip jar for Mateo? That is good idea. And I write on it tip jar number four. Do we want to make tipping culture like a thing? Yeah, do we really want to put that? Well, we pay our staff a reasonable living wage. Yeah, you are paying like an upper end for Mateo. Do we have benefits?

Do we have a pension? It was a suggestion from one of our locals to set up a tip jar. Right. Okay, in that case, yes. And also that quality score, if that goes, up higher, you will get more, like, profits, but also you might get extra events added on as well. And you do that by, like, pretty... So quality two is, like, still base level, basically. So quality score of two. But if you get, like, special alcohols, if you get, like, special

suppliers, if you hire unique staff, that sort of thing can do. I should also point out that if you, after these two weeks, Mateo won't have the staff to run the inn, he needs a server, basically. So you still need to hire one person, isn't it? Can we do some hiring in the... the second week? You guys have been running the inn, so I'd say that maybe you can do like a day of trying to hire somebody.

Or like just like maybe like one a day. Like just try and not do a full day of hire like interviews or something. You know in the morning when you're setting up the bar. Yeah, before the bar opens something. We'll get the drunkest person. Do you want to just step behind the one? You've been there all night, may as well?

Well, I'm going to throw it over to Sister Ophelia because that's like kind of like occupy most of the two weeks. So we can do the hiring in a bit. But Sister Ophelia, what does Sister Ophelia spend that time doing? So I think in the first week, Sister Ophelia will do some research on St. Defeir as per Teresa's suggestions. Okay. Just to find out a little bit more about her and where the two religions cross in their similarities.

Yes. So, well, you would know that, at St. Detheir, you would probably learn a lot about the Cyan faith, the Church of the Cyan's belief of death in the afterlife. And for Affiliate, this would probably be fairly new knowledge. In the Church of the Cyanes, you would learn that Cyanicism teaches that when a mortal body dies, if the soul is considered worthy by the Cyanes, it ascends and becomes a divine saint, to serve under the Ceyons and help protect Althea and its people.

The constellations in the night sky are believed to be representations of the active saints, whilst the celestial bodies, the moon and the sun, are the realms of the Sions themselves. St. Dethia is one of the first divine saints ascended during the bright storm, which ravaged the land, and their job is to tether the souls of the unworthy to Althea, and they do this by firing an arrow with a long ribbon to their soul. As their body dies and their soul leaves their body, they fire an arrow and it tethers their soul to Althea until it can be reborn into a suitable vessel.

Normally another humanoid body, but not always. Sometimes there's an animal or sometimes there's something else. And then that person has another chance, another life to try and become worthy, right? St. Death Air themselves is, let me just get my divine saints. Sorry, this is going back a long, long time to when Aphelia died.

I try and recall, but didn't you, before you were sent to the Greylands, didn't you see? Did you have a flash of St. Defeer, yeah. You did, yeah. I was like, nah, not today, fam. Not you. And reading up on this, you recognise it,

the depictions of St. Detheir is a woman in, like, honest, ornate roads, almost fine clothing, but it's more, like, ornate, kind of, you know, the sort of long-draping ceremonial robes almost. They are a maiden, they have a bow with arrows with trailing ribbons, and they have this long, beautiful hair, but their face is just skeletal. They just have a skeleton face head. And they, you learn that they were once an ork woman.

who fought bravely during the bright storm using a crude primitive hunting bow to try and fend off and save as many lives as she could and was deemed worthy by the Sions and was given the immediate charge of basically securing the souls of the living so that they could be reborn. And their face was lost in that confrontation. That was their kind of killing blow. It was one of these sort of insane,

Celestials or demons that accompanied the bright storm basically ripped off the face and left her with this grievous wound. And she was rewarded and ascended as a saint and tasked by pirates and Malia to help the mortal souls. There is a belief in Altheir, although she is respected as a divine saint, there is a lot of fear and trepidation with Saint Dethea.

As mortal beings, unlike in Osseus, the people here still have this fear of death because they are taught that if St. De Thier misses with her arrow or is temporarily blinded because St. De Thier is not infalliable, a soul is not tethered, it will rise up and be snatched by the planar powers and taken to places like the Greylands or the Celestial Peaks,

and then they are transformed into an eternal soldier in their war, which is regarded as a tanker. terrible outcome is, not something that the Sions and the people of Altheir are taught is a good end. And there are many reasons for that. Again, having lost her vision and things like that, St. De Thier is not always accurate with her bow and shots can be missed. The idea of the church is, it is taught that if you are particularly unworthy,

St. De Thier can't see you, and therefore that causes her shots to miss and then you are snatched up. And the closer to worthiness. And for Affili, you would notice this. Worthiness is never very clearly defined. No. All these different saints seem to be worthy. There's never really a good explanation as to why some fight in battle,

some, you know, you just don't really get it. And it's never really explained what it is. And it seems that different religious texts teach different things. But yeah, the more unworthy you are, the less likely saint Athyrus team. hit you with her arrow. Another little fun fact for you is something that I think Ophelia would maybe catch on to

is there is a saying in Ilmera, which is when somebody is close to death, they might say something like, I can feel her taking her aim, or I can feel death is arrow trained on me. But there's these kind of like sayings for being close to death. You know, St. Death Thera is hunting close by. These kinds of sayings are common for people who are close to or are afraid of the closeness of death.

Very cool. And in fact, yeah, there are reports that people who have died or been on the brink of death and then been brought back by healing magic, they have said that they can see her always on the outskirt of the battle or the incident or whatever it is. They see this woman with a skeletal face in this gown lifting a bow and drawing it back. and in the last minute when they're healed, it vanishes. And in fact, you know that very well,

having had that interaction with that. So cool, holy shit. So that would, you know, you spend some time, you would probably go to Bright Shadow Cathedral. You would probably, you know, ask to see some of their religious well. And I think that when you go to Bright Shadow Cathedral,

the reception is a little frosty. It's, you know, there is definitely the faithful who are here sort of look at you in that, why is she here? Like, you have become known. Like, you are gaining a following in this town or the Gravefather is, and it is because of you. And people have been turning away

from the established church to come to you. So when you arrive, it is definitely... Not in droves, though, right? Not in droves, but enough that, like, this is causing an upset in the community. They've had meetings about her. Yeah, and it's only because that you and your friends, you know,

help save this town. And in fact, the Speaker of Secrets, Arden Savarin, who you've met, they're like, yes, of course, Sister Filia. I'm more than happy to share our religious teachings with you and you come in and they sort of sit down and teach you some things or lend you some prayer books and things for you to go away and read on.

And almost, I think that Arden specifically is like, yes, yes, come learn about Saint the Theatre. Oh, like maybe I can bring you back. And, you know, would probably say, You see, sister, it is not, the people of Orthea, death is an interesting concept to us. It is something that many do fear, because you speak of an eternal life. But to us, if that eternal life is spent in servitude to fight endless wars, that is not a goal. We seek to become something more than that, to become more than,

a servant of the Grave Father, we seek to ascend and become divine. But what if you spend your entire lifetime serving the saints and Sions and St. Defeer misses? We do not see it as serving the Sions. We are trying to live up to their example. They do not tell us how to live our lives. They guide us. They offer us peace.

They offer us courage and comfort. But we don't see it as serving them. necessarily. And that is why we encourage people to be worthy, to be as worthy as they can. Well, how do you judge that worthiness? Who's to say who is unworthy and who is more worthy than the next person? Well, that does, I will admit, that does change depending on the doctrines and the priests. I have always been taught that worthiness, especially in Malir's eyes to whom I am the speaker, Malir values those who do do what is right for themselves and for their communities.

They seek to help their neighbours, but also to know when to protect people from themselves, to protect people from ugliness of truth. Worthiness is a difficult substance to linger upon. But you can understand perhaps that why some may be hesitant. We've been taught that the grave father is not someone who would care for us. And I do worry. The planar powers, they have an ulterior motive. They need soldiers and warriors to fight in their wars. I fear that you are, that that would be your fate as well. Well, one of your very

was fighting for demons. Who's to say, influence no matter where it comes from, is the true test of who is truly good or bad in these situations? Yes. Yes, it is true that many are led astray by the Helian throne, by even the Lucent Peaks and many other places. Ossius, it is very difficult for us this relationship with you. relationship with you. The lands of Osceus are very strange to us, especially to our faith.

I hope that there is some common ground that we can find here through St. Detheir, but I hope that you can understand at least my viewpoints as well. Well, thank you for sharing the line. Of course. I only come from a place of curiosity more than anything. As is befitting a diplomat of your nation, I'm sure. And I am happy to have this conversation with you and to share. And he probably gives you like a prayer book and perhaps some other light reading. some scrolls, like these are, you know, various tales of St. Detheir, some reports of those who have seen them. I hope that this is useful to you. It will be, and thank you for inviting me into, well, your house. Of course, of course. The light of both Melia and Pyrus is here for us all.

May I extend the invitation to you, an invitation to my house, maybe you join me in some prayer if you would be willing to partake. I understand it's a difficult commitment, but... Would you join me in prayer to my gods if I invited you? Or would you come to observe? To observe. Then I will reciprocate that. I will come to witness your faith,

but I will not pray and worship your God. I find that very respectful. Thank you very much. Very well. and sort of bows and inclines his head and leaves you on the way. That's the best outcome. We've had so good outcome, actually.

I think that especially being a speaker of Malia, who is a little bit less aggressive than her sister, and also the fact that, yeah, you help save this man's life and save his town and his flock does a lot of wonders for that sort of thing. So, yeah, I think that Arden Savarin is definitely a little bit more willing

to give you the time of day. You do not get that. impression from most of the pyrus congregation that is very much daggers glaring the paladin glory who you met sort of is very much just of keeping a close eye on you and sort of like you come and go just saunteres in and out you know just very yeah very sort of like mm but I think is um you've only you've have entered the cathedral before but it's always been a bit wary hasn't it yeah well I've entered because I think there was a same thing into the catacombs

Yes, and there was a sermon, but I think Ophelia sat outside of Daisy. Yeah, she's been around. Yeah, through the catacombs, we would definitely... Yeah. But you never went in for a service. Never in for a service, no. Well, I think, yeah, Arden would perhaps make the same thing if he comes to one of yours, you come to one of his and make that offer sort of thing.

I think Ophelia respects him for, you know, for this debate and listening. Yeah, she respects people that listen. Okay, good. All right, and then for the second week, what would you like to do? Second week, uh, by Percy some new art. and a weapon. Okay. Yeah.

Do you have the funds for that, or is this party funds? I have about 400, on myself personally, about 400 worth in jewels and gems that we took from. Yeah, so you wouldn't be able to buy masterwork gear, but you could certainly buy common gear for Percy if you wanted to pick him up some armor. Start a set. Chain mail, you know, easily you could buy some chain mail and a weapon. Yeah. So feel free to equip and add those in, yeah, we don't have to do that right now. You can do that as you wish to.

Cool. Would he want the... So I now have this masterwork hookstaff. I thought I'm not using it. It's not the strongest, but it's got shenanigans. Percy will take some shenanigans. It's always up for some shenanigans.

We're always saying that he has like a long range or a reach weapon, right? I think it's handy for him. Yeah, staff doesn't have reach. Oh, okay. Well, this is the hook staff, so... It's good at like pulling people with it. I don't think it has reach.

If you pull people to me. True. I can go bram. True. Feel free to have a look like if you're... In the party thing, there's a moon of stone-deferated dress sword. I think that was... That's for selling.

Yeah, you don't want to just use that as a weapon. That's definitely more of that. It's got a fault of a piece, is that one? It probably wouldn't fault a piece of it. It wouldn't be the best way. Oh, shove attacks, nice. Yeah. I don't have anything.

I'll put it on the party. You can ever look through that. Thanks, man. Is there anything else you'd like to do or just focus on that? And then, uh, Ophelia will. go to Tooms and Co and print out some pamphlets for her next sermon. Oh, love it, yeah, perfect. Easily done, you're a repeat customer here.

I'm trying to have got the name of the... You need to reply to the thing while you're there. Were you going to get Tooms and Co to draft a printed reply at some point? It's not urgent at some point. You're not going to RSVP? I'll have SVP. I guess this is all pre-geting the mail, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, good, because. So, Aphelia would have had her invitation at the end of the first week. Yes, you're right, yeah. Ophelia, if you need any time, I can sign something and pretend to be, like, a really important secretary or something.

Hmm. Well, I need to go to Tumes and Co. Anyway. Well, I mean, easily done. So Yida Parin, the known woman who writes the self-insert fiction. Hell yeah. His royal chef.

Sorry, you're right, my bad. But yes, you can easily get those. pamphlets made and everything else that as you desire to. Nice, amazing. So a stack of pamphlets, all good, lovely. And I also want to look. So is this the new design or is this? New pamphlets for my sermon, which is called the cost of being worthy.

Oh, wow. Oh, that sounds like an active, like, attack as well. You literally just went there and like, what does worthy mean? And then your next sermon. Jesus. Rehas designed a new pamphlet. I will take a picture of this and put it on to the paper. Patreon for people to view

and social preview. It's empty as hell because I don't have time to write it. What was the name of that again? The cost of being worthy. That's such slain. You're a sassy a little bit, aren't you?

I love that. And then you spend the week basically giving these out or? Yeah, I go around town, handing out pamphlets, putting them on that post. New sermon coming. Could I have, this is going to be a rolled, to see how effective it is.

I will let you choose here. Oh, damn. Because this is quite an aggressive, quite attacking, sort of. The picture of sake of fear is very tasteful. Very tasteful. I will let you choose whether this is persuasion or intimidation.

Oh, okay. Because I feel like there is a sort of intimidating factor to this a little bit. I'm gonna do intimidate with fates, if you play. Okay, first. Intimidate with fate. Intimidate with fate.

Intim of fate. Ooh, Sam, the pamphlets on the table. 27. 27. So I'm going to spend a point of my fate because this is a success and this is one of the things I can do with fate to add a complication. It's still successful, but that's going to burn those two points of fate for the rest of the session. They are now gone. So 27, this pamphlet is being spoken about.

Oh no. And it is drawing. the attention because in the dragon empire, the religion, the Church of the Sions is a dominant faith, and it is an endorsed faith by much of the government and the military and everything else. The dragons don't really care. The dragons have their own thing, and so this is like, this is ill-kier stuff. They don't care about this. But the Church of the Science has existed since the foundation of the empire and has been the dominant religion. But that's doesn't mean that everybody is

religious. There are many atheists. There are many people who doubt this concept of worthiness. I think calling that out specifically gets people talking. And the next time you host a gathering,

the numbers in the shrine have swollen to considerable numbers, to the point that you cannot fit everyone in the shrine anymore. Oh no. As people are interested, they want to hear what other options there are. And also, there is this, you know, Teresa is going around saying,

I've become an acolyte of the Grave Father, look what I can do, and using her warlock magic and using, and they see what you've done, and they know your heroics, and people are like, wait, if I worship, I don't have to be chosen by the Sions to gain power. Yeah, this sounds great. All I have to do is worship the Gravefather, and I can have power and I can be something important. This sounds great.

And so it begins to build that complication is this alienates a large portion of the faithful here in Aschon's Rest because you are directly questioning one of the core beliefs of their faith, that if you are worthy, you can ascend and become this divine saint and you don't have to worry about saying death, you know, there's all these kind of elements to it. And I think that Arden Saverin, after seeing this, he attends that sermon and, you know,

you are left with a very cold impression that he is not best pleased that after his nice, polite conversation, that this has gone a certain way. Yeah. You named the sermon before you, of you. Obviously, you wrote this before this episode. So having that conversation with him then,

where you were like directly questioning the worthiness thing, just for the sermon to then be called that. That's such a cool, like, tie, and you've just managed to do here. But it's also like... It's also a declaration of war. Ophelia, yeah. Correct me if I'm wrong, Priyne. Aphelia is, we've had some wobbles with her faith.

Mm-hmm. But it feels like, no, like, Aphelia is recommitted, like, is... I think with the stuff I'm letting on. see that happened, how quickly the people were keen to turn from the Saints and Sions, just based on a Janja's children's promises. Like, things can't be that good if people are willing to turn to literal monsters for their faith.

Kind of like people... That's not the takeaway I was expecting from this. Well, and obviously this is how it's easy, but it sounds quite similar to what's happening right now with people being like, Great Father, hey? Oh, interesting. like undead creatures, that doesn't sound so bad. Yeah, but it's all for smart. But it's good now because you know the Grave Father is great and wonderful and so good.

He said that I'm good, like he's given me praise. Did he say that you were good? Did he say that you were good? He said I was doing good work. Okay, but is that saying that you're doing good? I'm doing good, yeah, okay. He heard the word good. What about all the other times you spoke to him?

Yeah. But he didn't bring those up and so, you know, it's... Sister Feeley is like, I'm in this cult, so it can't be the bad cult. So, I think that a very successful recruitment. And I think that... Would you like a sermon? Well, I think we will get to that.

I'd like to jump to and then maybe we'll return to that in the same way that would be said. But also, remember, your renown is not just in Ashton's Rest. Your renown has spread. And remember your renown point that you are... It's... Yeah. You were in the fucking newspaper.

I know, yeah. Your name is known in Colville, but also the next territory is next to Ashen Rest, the heartlands, which is another section of Caldra, and the city of Ferros as well. Your name is not known here. You begin, Ophelia, getting correspondence. From Ferros, from other villages.

Sister Ophelia de la Rosa. My name is, you know, my name is Augustus. I'm from this place. I've received one of your pamphlets from a traveler who visited Ashton's Rest and your words, but you start getting, not like fair mail, but people who are like, people who are interested in what you have to say,

but they are too far away to attend directly. And your influence is beginning to spread. Still small scale, but it's growing. Hey, your rival might be working in Kelskaris, but if you take every region outside of Kelskaris, that's pretty big. That's a bit mixed of food. Well, this is Caldra, right?

Well, no, I know, but yeah, like, it's still, like, a massive improvement. So, very successful. We'll come back to the 70 minute, because Xanthias. Hello. All the letter arrives at the end of the two weeks. At the end of the two weeks.

Okay, so I was working on the Thunderstone pistol, trying to wrench it out of Borough's hands. Thunderstone, different universe. Thanks, Yasker. Bracea. No, the Dundercisiaska. No, the demon pistol, the demon gun that we got from the Battle for Ashton's Rest. Yes.

Because it has a essence inside of it that I have, in the first week at least, determined to be potentially a actual living demon soul. Don't care about that. Why would you? I want the essence. But there was a suggestion that busting open this gun... Yeah, you basically spend the first week basically working out a ritual to break the gun down.

to reclaim that essence and dismantle it, basically, and break it apart. Yes, so that was the first week. And, I mean, I think I'm all focus on just get gun and, well, get essence. Because we need all the essence as we can get. And if this one is going to take me two weeks, then the rest are going to take me two weeks, so it's a lot longer. Well, you don't think that the rest would know, the rest won't take that long, especially if they come in already in their essence form.

That's true. It's because this one is bound into the demon, which is in itself dormant within the weapon. Like, this demon was sealed in here, basically. So, yeah. So my next week, pre-letter. When life is breezy. When life is breezy.

Life is peaceful here. Is the time I want to get my experiments fully underway. In terms of money and my financial situation, I still only have seven silver. So I don't know if, like, the party fund is... How is that actually visualised? If we take the stuff that we got from Coral Song, that's 3,100 GP.

Yes. I've taken 200 from that, so 2,900 GP left. Okay. To do some of the stuff that Gruff is done, I sold the two statues that I left at Tyria's Rest, so the Ruby and Obsidian statues, and the chest that we took from Ashon Ruins. Yeah.

Yeah. And then some of the money from Gruff's wallet, the bank of dad. Okay. Me being dad, not your dad. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't worry, clear distinction. And some of that was the Duke's favour.

In short, we have 2,900 GP left from the Coral Song loot. Mm-hmm. And about 500, Gruff's got 500 left, and you know if you asked him, he'd give it to you. Yeah. Well, if there's just a room. in which there is a chest full of money I think Xanthius in his pondering

magic learning state like idly just goes in there because gold Dragonborn money money who cares who cares who's it is I'll just like pick up oh I just need 10 gold and walk out I think that's the thing we'd sell the underwater chest the decorative sword

the two top houses and the chalice we've spent we've done that the only thing is is we probably would have to put a sign up it's like auction soon for big gold figurehead. Because I want to figure out how we're getting rid of that. What's this?

What's this big sign? It's for the, um, oh, to figure out what we're going to do with this. Who wants it, who would best be able to donate it? Do you know what that's the idea to just be like, auction, big gold historic dragon figurehead? We can't take it to someone. Santheist, do you know what that is? What is, the sign?

Come and rob us. We have lots of gold. Rowan try and lift that thing. Okay. They can chip away at it. They're not going to chip away at it. They might. They can't do damage to it.

And if they did, that's vandalism, for starters. I think that Xanthius would be aware enough that you cannot just sell this to merchants. Like, you are not going to just be able to sell this to the people of Ashton's Rest. Like, there is probably only one man in Ashton's Rest. You can buy that, and that is the Duke. We can ask him. could send word to a bigger city like Ferros, and they would probably have dragons,

multiple dragon nobles, and very wealthy merchants there who might be able to buy it, but also that might also then get word out to the wider empire, and there might be collectors. Like, this is a significant piece of history as well as also being a monetary thing.

So the only people that can really buy this are the elite nobility, or like collectors or wealthy or historians or, you know, city, like a town could buy this for a museum or like, you know, like, you know, the academia in Kalscaris might want this for their, you know, history collection, you know.

We could... Why don't we send some letters? We could send some letters, or we can have the letters sent for us in the form of good press. Tooms and Co. If we tell them that we've recovered this ancient artifact from the ancient wall,

and it's now sat in Tirea's rest. Come see the wonderful and amazing... Glory of Palladrax. I mean, you could mount it in the inn if you really want. You could host a night where everyone can come witness it. And on top of that, people will come to the inn. That's heaven. So, I'm going to make you an offer here, guys.

Maybe someone will buy it. If you... You could try and sell this thing, you will have to find the appropriate buyer. And that may take some time. And the price will vary. that 10 to 20,000, right? Or, and I don't expect this, you might not go for this, but if you were to basically display this properly

and have like a display built in the tavern for this thing to go into, it would be quite a major attraction. There would be potential complications with it as well, of such of, we have lots of money, but I would improve your quality score significantly. because it would be like a unique item that is like we have recovered

this piece of draconic history like this warship figurehead. We could display it for a time and then if we decide down the line we could sell it. You would lose the quality of it but you would be able to gather certain clientele for sure

that might be willing to purchase it off us. Now I won't lie, Rowan. The first thought I had was of course about the money. But if, instead of just gaining money, putting it into the tavern, getting minimal upgrades and all of these different things, what if we just had it and people will come to see it

and then have a nice drink in the gift shop. The gift shop? What did we sell? What if we sold? Bruin, miniature ones. Oh, God. So we're the museum? Yes. Yes. Essentially.

I see. That makes sense. We can protect. Why sell it for one fee when we can... Sell it for a thousand. A thousand, hundreds of thousands. Well, we could, because everyone needs to see it. We can figure it out, obviously. We'd absolutely need to get some security, though.

Security? Oh, yeah, yeah. A lot of gold. Okay, well, of course, for starters, those tiny little velvet ropes. I love those. It's not really security, though, is it? No one's going to cross the velvet ropes. Are they insane? Yes, they will. I've never crossed one. No, exactly.

Well, I mean, I heard recently that I was a burglary at a art gallery in the next town over. Is that so? Okay. Well, it's not the next time. There is not a gallery in Emberford. In Emberford, yeah. He stole some jewels. Well, they didn't put up the velvet rope.

They didn't put up the velvet rope. They crossed the velvet rope. I've crossed the velvet rope. I've crossed the velvet rope. Dark evil metal. You must. So. I'm just saying it's not going to stop people.

A couple of things, like, a bit of bookkeeping here. If you'd like to display it, you're probably going to have to spend, you know, a couple of hundred gold to have proper mountings and extent, you know, make adaptions to the tavern so you can properly display it. security, you know, features put in. Those would be, if you want to have, like, magical security, that's more gold on top. If you want to put, like, magical security, like wards and stuff,

you can do that with your own spells, or you can hire somebody to do it for you. I'm also... Hire someone to stand next to it and just go, ah, if anyone steps to go. I'll do that. Security. I'm also going to point out, Ophelia,

you are at the point where your shrine, if you want it to have more people, you need to expand it. And that's going to mean, you know, enlarging the space, basically. So something you might want to consider as well. I can just put up a glyph of warding and that lasts until it's triggered.

Can you do a spell of bigger shrine? Not an explosive one. No, I was going to say, you can choose to put a different spell into it. So you probably don't want to have it explode. Child just as like, Della, la, la. But we put a spell in it, yeah.

Yeah, we could just put a spell in it. Yeah, just some kind of spell in there. But we do need to do a misty step. Just teleport the feet. Just back out. Into prison. Oh my God. It's 30 feet.

No, teleport them into your shrine. Hello. Oh, I think you, like just make the criminals convert. But have a think on that. Because they don't want to move things full a little bit. I like us mounting it. Yeah. Should we mount it?

Instead of selling it. So obviously would be nice to get 10 to 20,000 gold. But I think this is a cool future. I think it would be a cool way to boost the tavern for now. Like, until we spend some more time investing in, like, the better alcohol and stuff like that, this could boost us for now, get that up and running, and then if we want to sell it down the line, we still can do that. But we can then spend more time in upgrading the tavern.

I mean, if you do plan on visiting Kelskaris, say for Gruff's Quest, that would be the ideal place to find a buyer. And they are probably the kind of buyer that you would do the agreement with them, then they send somebody to collect their objects and then find a way to transport. By that point, they need to make it more worth our while than just a cost of the statue. We just absolutely need some security, especially if we're not here.

Okay, who do we know that could protect the tavern and also this wonderful piece of art? I know a very strong man. Right, can bend a car? I don't think obsidious should do it. No, not parvenator. Fuck sake. Also, as a reminder, like having,

a bouncer for the tavern is different from security. So the security probably would be better by having magical security, right? And that, you know, Zanthias can do a Glyford Wooden, but you could also hire a mage right, like somebody to cast like a permanent alarm spell on it and things like that. Yeah, or like, you know.

Braxkell. What? Rax Kell. Oh, the asshole. Yes. Oh, the one we fought in the tournament. Aren't they a knight? Yeah. It's scary. Also from a completely different place. Erudus Keir, right? They're a knight of Hurteske.

It was just the first one ford that came into my mind I think it's rather a bit busy. Strong, terrifying presence, the kind of person you don't want to cross. I quickly look at the window. Yeah. In any bushes or roads nearby. What are you looking for? Just anyone's staring back.

There he is. Across the street. Has he been outside the entire time the tavern. Every time you look out the window, he's there. He's on the other side of the street just stood there staring at the tavern. Breathing. But you're pretty sure he's not there when you go to bed, but then you don't look.

Like, you don't think he's there. I'm going to look. He's there right now, yeah. I think someone was at the end of my bed last night. Just this skinny, thin, human boy, dark leather coat, you know, dark leather hair tied back, probably a fedora-like hat. Oh, God.

Long katana on his back. Oh, yeah, I forgot about the katana. Yeah. The velvet suit. The weird breath boy is out there again. I know. Actually, we just buy a ward or an alarm spell. Yeah.

Put it on the dragon, put it on the front door. Can we turn it on and off? We should probably put the back door as well because that art gallery that I heard about in Emberford, they got in through the back entrance. Well, it does mean that we can't go through that door anymore ever again. Can we not turn it on a little? You can program it to be fine for you guys.

Okay. Magic literally can be like designate. who is allowed to come in and out. Alexa set along. It kind of is. Anyway, not to get lost in the weeds. We do need a secure a bouncer for the door. If anyone knows anybody really strong.

So what do they have at the... Just say Boulder, guys. Just say it. We can't steal him. We need to reach that conclusion naturally. What kind of bodyguards to other taverns in this? Oh, oh, oh, oh. Yeah? No, I don't know anymore.

He's got a job already. We can't steal him from the tariff, tariff. Who's got a job already? Boulder, oh, what a great suggestion. Oh, my best bird, Boulder. Your best friend, Boulder. Yeah, but he's busy. I don't want to start a war between us and they've already messed with the clever toad.

He could do a part-time shift. There is another one you could hire for a bouncer. If you can find him, the mysterious marks. Oh my God, I'm going to have to fight. You have the mysterious marksman standing outside breathing. I'm going to put flyers up. Were you this mysterious marksman on the room? We have a job for you.

We have a job. You've fired an arrow. Roll a, everyone is going to say, yeah, it was me. Just roll a flat D20 for me, Katie. No bonus to this, just a flat D20. You may add your last point of fate if you wish. Last? No, don't.

We've only got the one. We know what's coming. An 18. 18. So I think it's during that second week, all these conversations about what you're going to do. And it's just in the middle, just as you're about to close the bar for the year,

the door dramatically like kind of swings open and a short half-ling-sized man in a dark cape. You can see a thick, aragon-like beards. But he's a hobbit-sized, yeah, kind of walks in. He's got no shoes on classic style half-ling, you know, he's got like little fuzzy feet. He kind of walks in and you can see that on his back is this, you know, way too, like,

almost as big as he is, like, heavy crossbow. And as he kind of, he very solemnly kind of walks up, gets up, hoops himself onto a bar stool with the most incredible dexterity that you've seen, just almost like, swings himself onto it, like a, he's mounting a horse, and just throws it back. As you see, like, very chad square jaw.

Almost like, you've been looking for me. Does he have beautiful long hair? It's like, it's like down, but it's kind of grungy, but it could be. If he like washed it and like puffed. It's ajarre. But if he had Frodo's feet. Yeah, Frodo's physique.

Frodo's legs and feet. And you can see that he's quite well built underneath it. And he's wearing dark armor with like a bandelier with like crossbow bolts. And you can see like a pair of, you know, finally. like blades, like, you know, sheathed at his side. You have been looking for me. Were you the one? Were you the one who helped with the street lamps

and the, was it you? It was. It's him, guys. We found it. We found him. I believe. What's going on up here? The cross-

It's the guy! Whoa. Can I throw like a pebble in his direction? Sure. Shoot out. I'm gonna spin, I'm gonna spend. No. No.

That's terrible. Um, he, uh... He hits him square in face. It hits him, but he just sort of raises an eyebrow, like, why did you throw a pebble at me? Sorry, I don't know what came over me. I really don't. I was, I was gonna test a reflex. It's very rude.

I am, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it. We're getting someone. I'm not some, you know, I'm not some, you know, like, not to just react to you. I am mortal. I'm sorry, I really built up a picture. Just a very well-trained mercenary. What's your name?

You don't need to know that for now. Oh, but we do. Maybe just like a... Accident liability forms that you need to sign. We need to call you something. We've been calling you just crossbow guy. Mysterious crossbow guy is actually. Seems to think...

Is that enough? It was mysterious crossbow guy. It was mysterious. We not have root for him. Mr. Erius. Did we... Did we not have rooftop in there somewhere? Oh, yeah, Mr. I was a top crossbow guy.

Yeah. But we could maybe swing to Mr. Earius if you'd like. We need a bouncer and we thought that you might be good at it. Just be Mr. Reus. Mr. Reus? You're naming him, aren't you? I prefer Eerie. Perhaps I did not consider that I would need a name for this man today.

Or Mr. Ear Reus. His first name is Eirius. It's Reus. Eirius. Mr. I'm not Mr. Erius. Why not? Because it's not. Okay.

Because it's not, okay? Peter Andre is a massive fan of it. Oh. Get out. Mysterious guy. Get out. Go get your phone and get out. He will look at you and be like, very well.

My name is Garrett. Garrett Erden. Garrett, Erden, that's it. That's exactly the kind of name I expected. Yes. We could have guessed that one. Garrett Erden. I'm gonna awkwardly pick it.

How'd you fell Erden? You are D-E-N. D-E-N. Yeah. See, there's all this. Garrett-Urden. At first I thought I was hired by the Carpenters Guild

and the Blacksmiths Guild to defend their territory. That's why initially our first contact was Not positive. But then I saw your actions in defending Ash and Rest. I saw in you the same heroic heart that beats within my own. I knew we had something in common. Yes.

Do you want to be a bouncer for us? A bouncer. We need a bouncer because we'll have a thing. This was security. This was security. Okay, we have a big thing that we need guarded. I'm a mercenary. I can be hired. I can be a bouncer if it is required.

required or I can guard your valuable whatever it is. It's an ancient figure out from a warship from the glory of Paladax that we found at the bottom of the ocean. I need not know the details. Right, I just gave every, yeah, no, that's the entire detail. That's all the details we have. There's literally no more to share with you, you're afraid. No, I don't have any carbon dating or anything like that. Worth 10 to 20,000 gold.

I see. That's about it. That's about it. That's not. No, details go pay. He works for free, right? Oh, I require pay. Damn it! I will be your bouncer. Really?

Security. But my fee is not cheap. Right, okay, what are we talking here? How much? Because we earn about... No. He doesn't need the details. He doesn't want them specifically. He doesn't want them.

So mysterious. So mysterious. 30 gold a week. 30 a week. A week. How much did we make last week? We made... 65.

50 a week on average, and then that's minus my performances. Yes. Which didn't earn that much. And then there's also the wine... That would be the majority. I am an expert at what I do. We don't need the detail. It sounds like you do.

If people are coming in to see this figure, that might bring extra... Yes, that's true. That's true. He's really giving me the eyebrows. Can I ask Mr. It's all eyebrow? Can I ask Mr. Erden?

Just a little... Just to check your qualifications. Like, obviously we've seen your qualifications, but just I want to give you a little hypothetical test. Follow me over here to this window, please. Oh, good idea. Yeah, him. Now ask him to poor bit.

You're out there. I just walked in. Perhaps you're referring to that strange boy who's been across the street. Can you hear him? I can hear him. I can hear him. Yeah.

We don't like him. He's been... What does it sound? I've been watching this place for a long time. Right, so he's number one on your list, okay? Wait, have you been watching this place for some time? He's no threat. You've been watching everything.

You've been watching. I'm always watching. And what do you know about this place? And it's inhabitants? Many things. You have a close relationship with Duke Ignarius and Lord Obsidious, it seems. You've performed various quests and tasks that have earned you

great renown, but there are many secrets still hiding within your hearts. You've performed great deeds. In Colville, you've found a proto-maggi vault, and recovered many treasures from out there. You watch us the series.

I mean... Recently, you just returned from the Suncrest Isles, quite rapidly, I might add. I cut his head off. He does too much. I think we should hire him. We want him on her side then.

None of that happened. You're a liar. Good, good. Nice cover. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He slides off the bar stool and looks up at you. Never call me a liar. There are many things that I am, good woman,

but a liar is not one. I'm sorry. The beat will send you. Yes, yeah. He fixes you with a steel eagle. Don't look me like that. He is three feet tall. But it's scary.

He's like Aphelia's perception though. He's like, he's like aura maxed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're looking into my soul. I don't like you when you look into my soul. No, clearly you've done great research here, but I have to ask, how long have you been watching us on the tab?

Why have you only now started to reach out to us? I saw. I put a flyer up. The message that you sought my aid. I just wanted to know if he would be good for the, The guarding thing, because, you know, he helped us before. I have been trying to keep an eye on Ashen's rest. This is my home.

I've lived here all my life, and I'm protective of it. At first, I thought you may be a threat, but no longer. Well, that's good. Well... Is this what you do, then? Yes. I'm a mercenary of many years. I have hired out my services to the draconic lords,

but also merchants and travelers, the guilds, businesses here. Okay, and hypothetically, if you hear information that you may not, may not have, should have heard, are you good at keeping secrets? If I'm employed, your secrets are mine. I believe that. I believe that, yeah. He looked into my soul.

He did, yes. Now, if we were to employ you, would that keep your ever-watchful and vigilant eye away from the, really stop giving me that look? Really, it's a smolder. Would you still be able to watch over the, city with which you wish to protect? I will use the hours that I am not here to continue my vigil of a rations rest.

I see. Now, is that a service that we could also utilize if you were to gain any information about the city that might be of use to us as well? Such a service would cost extra. I see. I am a man of principles, but I know my worth. Yes, no. You've read the flyers, good. Yes. Yeah, the cost of being worthy. 30 gold a week.

Turns out, yeah. That's what your sermon was. You just stand up then. You can work for us. 30 gold. It's that before or aftertax as well. Oh, yes, yeah, you've been 18. It must make things a bit messy.

Would you mind if we were to have just a quick discussion over here in private? You'll probably hear it anyway. That sounds like a yes to me. We have to have him. I know it to cost is steep. But think about it, this relic that we've unearthed will bring in the customers. I already said it was fine,

because the cost of people coming to visit this, the power of tracks will pay for his wage. Yes. I think we should. I think we absolutely should. I think him and Mateo would get on famously. He knows he can hear the mouth breather. That's true, and we do want him away.

He's already on him. Should we include Mateo in this decision as well? He's right here. Hello. Oh, Mateo. He's under my eye. I've been listening the whole time. Yeah, what do you think of...

He's great! What are you talking about? Why is this even a debate? Look at him! You look how it just exudes aura. I mean, this is a man of legend. Would you say he's been aura maxing? Yes. Yeah, he is really high tea.

If someone came here and tried to steal it and he just looked at them, they would go, oh, sorry. But also, even if anybody does give him shit, which I'm sure that being a half-ling, he probably gets a lot, he's going to ruin them. Oh, yes. That's right. No, we did see...

Physically and emotionally. I think. Do you remember that shot he made in that fight? Very good. He really, he's not afraid to, you know. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. All right, where are you in there?

Okay. Garrett's. Yes. It was with, I don't know, I don't know what to say. You're hired? Yes. Good. Can you start immediately?

Yes. Okay. I take my payment up front. Here you go. Right. I'll take it out. It's just gone into his cloak. Like, he just, who...

Oh, this is good at. I'm not going to ask where he puts that. Very well. My watch begins. You are closing for tonight, yes? Or do you wish me to protect the goods? What are my hours? Um, where?

Mateo. Can you sorry the details of our hours? I mean, I don't think we need a bouncer and security during the day, because normally I'm here and you're all here. But, like, yeah, I think like, well, you know, when the evenings get rowdy is generally probably, maybe like 8 p.m. till? the morning, if that's good with you, Mr. Erden?

That's acceptable. Acceptable, okay, good, we can work for you. In that case, I will begin my vigil now. I will keep a watch on the premises. Okay, enjoy your- Can you try to scare away the most breathing boy outside? I certainly can. And with that, I wanna watch that.

We're just at the window. Yeah, I'm just gonna go to get that. But like when he moves, he sort of moves very quickly, but it's because his legs move, like, twice. So it's like, and he just, like, you know. I think as well, like, he has, like, a small lasso, so when things are too high, whoop, opens the door, and then,

and then closes it behind him. Yeah, we're all at the window. Yeah, we're all at the window. You see, he just stands opposite Terran Dark Blade, and it's like a Wild West jewel when they just stare at each other. He, like, puts his hand to his samurai sword. Yeah, he, like, looks at him. And Garrett Erden doesn't even move.

He doesn't flinch. He just stares at the boy. Oh, my God. And you see Terran like... He's going to kill him. He's going to kill the boy. Don't do it. Don't do it, Terran.

And he like goes to draw it. And as he does this motion, you just watch Garrett hand, and something flies out of his hand and pins the sleeve of his coat. To the wall. He like rips it and then runs away. You see Garret just walks up,

pulls it free. and goes back to his... What did they work together? You watch him walk up to the front of the inn. He like nods at you, looks up, throws his lasso and then disappears like Batman off to the roof. Holy-s-da-da-da-da-da-da! He's on the roof!

This might be the best 30 gold we've ever spent. Yeah, I think so. A week, a week, sure, but it's gonna melt up. Worth it. That was good, that was 30 gold won't spend. What a great day. He is an expert, uh, uh, Security officer.

We should, so are we spending, what, is it, 200 gold for the mounting of the thing? Oh, yeah, the thing. Yes, and then you, do you want magical security as well? Yeah. I think there would be another 300 gold. But that would provide you basically for the figurehead. We just update the magical alarm.

It will also provide you probably some sort of like, I think for 300 gold you would get a permanent alarm spell. you would also get something which like you can disguise the figurehead at night so it looks like it's kind of hidden so you can kind of activate. Anybody who can detect magic would probably be able to find it still and yeah and it would send the alarm mentally

to all of you, Mateo and Garret Erden basically. So if anybody tries to like break in and doesn't disable the magical alarms that will trigger and they'll know that somebody's trying to break it. Sweet. I'm hoping that displaying it and having it as a proper, like, thing for people to come and see will be better than just straight up standing it.

So, what that's going to do is I'm going to give you an additional three to your quality score, bringing it up to a five. Wow. Which will increase it here, because it is this kind of impressive thing. That's also including the bonus you get from having Garrett Erden as a skilled employer, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Perfect.

But I think that with all of these shenanicals, Just before we cut to the break, that is the point when Zanthius, your letter. After these days of fun and frolics, we now, sort of, that scene that we saw in the last episode where Xanthius begins reading out loud and then very quickly goes silent and sort of walks away, and the rest is now in his father's voice, in his mind.

We hear those last words. echoed your father and xanthius where have you gone to as you've been so this is um i mean it's very obvious i've just started reading this letter uh and i've gone pale and have hurried off to my room um so i think last time everyone basically followed me up there right uh so you're just on the other side of the door i slam it shut to continue reading this letter and It is like re-reading all of those individual words that are just like cutting more than maybe they were intended to, but almost exactly how they were intended to probably,

knowing Papa Oregon. Like, I do not begrudge you for making the most of this opportunity. I welcome it. Fuck you. Your sibling is coming to retrieve the property. Submit to them and I'll let you live out the rest of your date. let me live out the rest of my days. Fuck you.

It's just, there is, like I said last time, there is a real desire to like burn this letter and just destroy it in a rage. What begins as fear and panic as you sit down and now are in this enclosed space, the rage is beginning to boil. Yeah. As that rage is burning in your chest,

There is almost a heat there that is not of your body as almost like a whisper, like a purring presence in your mind. Yes. Yes. Destroy. You sup. You hear these kind of words, and they sound like your thoughts, but you're not really sure anymore if they are. As that rage is boiling in you.

I mean, they very much align. Maybe not usurp as such, but like an absolute hatred for the father. And I guess it's being twisted in such a way where it's like, I mean, if you did go after him and something did happen to him and you happen to be the last Oregon, then I suppose you would be.

But it's taking a long time. And I don't know if you guys are like outside calling it. or whatever else. You might hear like a, yeah, like... Yeah, it's like, there is a process in which I try to shake out of it and quench those feelings in order to...

What do you do with the letter? It's crumpled. It's like maybe there was a slight singeing of a, like, ready to do a produce flame and burn this thing. Do you... I will let... I will give you the choice here.

Do you want to roll for that and see if you resist, or do you want to just commit to resisting? It would be very useful to keep the letter. However, however, no, I think there's, it's like a boiling over thing. Like, it's the knife edge of just burning this thing that I would like to roll for it, yeah.

Now, what kind of role would that be? Your wisdom, say, me. Is that wisdom? Is that wisdom? Not high DC, DC's going to be 10. All right, I think it would be fateful and advantageous for me to keep the letter, so I will use a fate. That's perfectly what is designed for. But I do have a minus two, my wisdom.

Oh, okay, at 14. 14? Yes, good, because fate saved that. So, yeah, you feel this rage and anger and frustration, maybe a little tinged with fear there as well. as the edges begin to blacken, as if a piece of paper held too close to a candle beneath your fingers,

and you hear that voice, destroy, take power. You hear these voices echo in your mind and then you just snap it shut and you, as the letter was burning, burning closing. You've kept hold of it, it's not destroyed. And just at the right time for like the knock as well that it's like, I realize what I'm about to do

and try to hold myself. I like that it's the knock that almost shakes you out of it. But it is enough that, I guess maybe we can return to this after the break by I will intend to turn around to open the door with the letter in hand. Okay. Perfect.

To continue this conversation and talk about, oh, my siblings who are coming to get me. All right. Well, we will take that after the break. That's going to be it for part one. Thanks for, you see you very shortly back here for part two. Take care. Bye-bye.

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