High Rollers DnD - Beasts of the Crown (Part 2) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #89

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

The heroes take down the last of the Crownsteel brutes before they reinforce the battlefield! Altheya: The Dragon Empire Campaign Setting begins in Q1 2026! Register interest and support the journey to release here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rollandplaypress/high-rollers-altheya-the-dragon-empire Can't wait for Part 2 of each episode? Join our Patreon to get early access EVERY week (+ a few other bonuses)! www.patreon.com/HighRollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ _______________ 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 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/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠v Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickax At No Quest for the Wicked We ask, What if we start an actual play podcast That never plays D&D? What if we combine the joy And friendship

of our home game With studio quality sound design? What if we tell stories that will make us And our audience cry With laughter And sadness And everything in between?

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dip your toes into one of our many series or one-shots or jump right into our ongoing second campaign, released every other Wednesday at noquestcast.com or your favorite podcatcher by searching NoQuest for the Wicked. Welcome back to Part 2 of Althea, the Dragon Empire. Our heroes of Ashenrest are currently engaged in a fierce battle

against these crown-fallen monsters, having launched a surprise attack with their allies, the Holy Knights of the Church of Sions, and their warrior companions. They have launched into battle. Powerful, minion-like beasts, a giant brute, and a powerful lance that can conjure

javelins of energy with additional pylons. You have joined the battle. Things are perhaps beginning to turn. Your allies have taken quite a beating. Ophelia is looking a little bit rough as well. Well, you took a crit for 20 damage, right? Yeah.

Still looking pretty rough, though. And then an acid ball as well. Well, yes, fine. Rowan brought to life several 3D-printed golems. That's right. But then, sadly, they were immediately destroyed.

You also ODST them in as well. You ODSTed them in as well. Or Warhammer 40,000 them, the original, thank you very much. No, I think it's drop-potted. Hell divers nowadays. So, at the top of the round, we jump back in. Ophelia, this is the top of brandy round. It is your turn.

Options, heel or hit. And you are currently in the very middle of the battlefield. You are in melee with the brute, the crownfallen brute. I shall hit. Okay, go make your attack. You currently have four points of fate over on your side. over on your side. Lovely. I want to use Vex for this first attack

because I hit the last time. You did, yeah, so you have advantage. Nice. So, oh my God, I've rolled two 14s. Well, with your modifier, that might be enough. 21. He's a hit. Amazing, right. So I've been saving up some blood points

and I have the Bardick inspiration for an extra D8 of damage. Can't be added to damage. Bardick cannot be added to damage, not from Chris Trott's type of VART. Do you not get the extra? If it's spent on the, the attack roll. You get to add the thunder damage.

Oh, it is on the attack. All right, all at Gucci. So I will. So you can spend one blood point to add a D6. One blood point, and I've been stacking them. Well, you can't spend multiple, remember, you have to spend them on different parts of the properties. I have two blood points because I have my necrotic damage, D6 and I have a D8 of damage.

So, I think, now, 13, 14, 15 for the first strike. Okay, what's the necrotic damage on that? Because I need to resist that. The necrotic damage is two. Okay, okay. So it's actually, it'll go down to, two, go down to 30. 14, because it's halfed, so 14 points of damage. And second strike, I will reckless for another

balthed advantage. Yes. Well, you hit, so you have vex. Have vex again as well? Yeah, so you don't need to reckless. Fair do's, okay, so 13, 20. 20. Hits, yeah, cool, so same again.

So yeah, now you spend the second blood point on the next attack, so you can't stack it on one attack, but you can do it on more than the first. So necrotic is three. Okay, so that goes down to one. And then five, six, seven, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. To thirteen points. So you watch as you slam Veracian,

cutting at this thing's tendons, trying to tear into it. It's very heavily armored, it's thick and brutish, and it is still on its feet. It's looking rough. Oh, good. It's bloodied, but it's still standing. It has more than enough strength left in it to fight. Cool.

All right, yeah, I'm gonna skirt around, move around to the back of the beast, between myself and Sir Morning. This is Sir Glory over here. So yeah, so, so, basically you're gonna flank it with the rest of the party and the Holy Warriors, basically. Okay. Okay.

End of turn. End of turn. We go to, bu, but, but, uh, gruff. I might need some help on distances and radius, or radius. It's fine. I wish to move into the middle of everyone to try and hit a 30 foot sphere radius.

Right, the problem is, so Daisy's fine, because I don't worry, no, no. No, no. So forget the people's at the back. I want to hit Ophelia, the knight, Rowan. Okay, so if you go... If I can. If I can.

You can sort of go 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. 35. 35, I would say you probably want to step in. Uh-oh. You are now in melee range with this guy, though. But that would basically get you 510, 15, 20, 25, 30. It's actually here. 5, 10, 15, 20, 20, 30.

Yeah, so you're within 30 feet of basically everybody in the center area, except Percy. Oh, Trey killed everyone. I will rush in, slam my staff down on the ground, and a green light will wash out as I cast masculine wounds, up to six creatures. So I choose Ophelia, the two Holy Knights, Rowan. So you've got two more. You do the regular soldiers, I guess.

Who of the regulars is looking on? The worst one is Nell, who is the dark-armored, priestess warrior of Malia here. The rest are all about the same. Agna the Dwarven Warrior is the least of them all. Nell? Yep, and just one random other one. Yeah, I won't.

Okay, Fergal it is. Furgle. Names have been generated. They were generated in the break. They all started shouting their names at the same time. 21, 23, 24. I, Fergal don't want to die here. 27 points of healing.

27 points. Oh yeah. Nice. 27. Lovely. The two regular warriors are fully healed. Oh, nice. And then 27.

So Glory, she looks much better, still injured, but much better. And so Morning Bailey has a few scrapes now as this powerful healing spell washes over everybody, this green divine primal energy washes over everybody and heals. And you see the creatures, all of these crowned fallen, just go furious.

They're just like, and they start screaming and bellowing and just go absolutely berserk ape shit as this healing energy washes out. I mean, I do that when they heal, to be fair. 28, sorry, it's 28. 28 points, all right. So everyone gets an extra to you.

Everyone gets an extra one. Okay, one. One. Because I said 27, but it's actually 28. Math, right. Oh, 63, nice. Well, I mean, the two regularity, you healed fully anyway,

so they got more enough. Alright, Graf, is that the end of your turn? So that was your move and action? Action, bonus action. I'm just gonna try it just for Japes. I will roar at. What would you like to roar at?

The beast. One of the minions? The brute. The big brute. A large lad. You roar in this thing's face, however. Its madness is so prominent and it's so consumed by its brutish,

you know, warmongering nature, it is immune to being frightened, unfortunately. Doesn't it like, oh, maybe the minions would have been, but the big guy, unfortunately, is too strong. I had a feeling, but I went with. It's worth trying. It's worth trying. I went with a story.

Yeah, no, it's worth trying. You bellow, and I think like what I would say is while it's not frightened, you certainly draw its attention and it's now looking at you. Also, knowing that you were the source of that hateful magic it's just felt, you have drawn its ire. So that is gruff, so we go to Percy.

Yes. Percy will sprint out from the cops of trees towards the brute. Here he comes. The real hero. Oh my God. Strike the brute. Oh my God, this boy. 15 plus 7 to hit.

Oh, my God. He cannot be stopped. 10 bludgeoning damage. He's halved because he is a mundane weapon, but... He strikes a blow into the back of this creature's leg. Yes, that is he slams his staff into it. Perfect, all right, still standing. Parsies go.

So we then go to Gruff, Ophelia, Parsi. It is the few remaining, only two of them remain of these little minion-like creatures. And I think that they are going to break away and they're gonna go for Gruff because they sense Gruff use this hateful magic. So Rowan and two of the soldiers are gonna get opportunity Anti attacks here.

Nice. I'll do for the two soldiers. What? Oh, that would have been from Agna, natural 20. Ew! Furgle missed. Fuck Furgle. That's what I always say.

Only, I roll one on the damage, so it's eight plus two, ten, eleven points of damage, it's five. It's better than nothing. It's better than none, let me tell you. It was a free hit. More than Fergal, can tell you that much. What do we get, Ron?

Do you make an opportunity attack? Yeah, did you? What'd you get? Yeah, we got two. That's a miss. Not even the best time. You're really furgled it. They rush, they're gonna attack,

they are both still up, unfortunately. Angna's critical hit not quite being able to take one out. They're gonna make a group attack with two of them. That is 29 to hit. Oh, God. That is gonna be, oh, also, everybody who took an opportunity attack takes four fire and two radiant damage. It takes six.

It was worth doing the opportunity. I forgot about that. Six. It's even if you make a melee attack, it does not require you to hit. You can just be the process of trying to strike them, you're blasted by this divine radiance. The eyes man.

So Gruff, that is going to be six slashing, four, four fire and four radiance, so 14 total if you don't have any resistances. And I need a constitution saving throw. You have advantage because of the ampule. 19 plus four. You are fine. Again, you feel then try to infect you

with this hideous kind of affliction, but you managed to resist it. That is there go. We then go down to Daisy. Hello, I would like to. Pop out. Pop out. Yes.

I would like to shoot at the, Actually, no, I will shoot at the little dudes because he's just gonna try and reduce my damage, so. Okay. Try and take them out, take one of them out. They are looking pretty weak and one hit, it's probably gonna be enough with this knee attack. 19 to hit.

Hits, you can roll the damage if you want. I am just gonna remove one because it is gonna just be dead. So the bow fires through, that's your action. You do still have movement, and now if you wanted to actually start getting all the way around here, you can, because it'd be 10, 20, so you get to the other side, 35, put you all the way back here, and then 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, you could pop out

on this tiny corner right at the back. So this is around the castle. Yeah, around the tower. Around the ruined key, basically. I'm basically just trying to. Can you come around the front, is that? Yeah, I kind of, but I will say you all. I'll stay behind, I'm not, you don't see me do it.

And you'll also have cover, and you'll have cover. Because you do, you, so. You haven't used, you could use your, oh no, because you had, that was including a dash that was. Yes. So you won't be hidden. So I'm just gonna tuck behind the corner of it, essentially.

I'm just, you are technically back here, but for the vague bit of camera that can see you, I'll leave you where you are. No, it can't. Oh, it can't see. No, it's fine, no, I'll leave it. She's round to the back of the tower, peeking out onto the battlefield.

So that, essentially, she's just using, using her sneakyness. The only one who might sent you there is the Lancer, because you have run around the back, but they don't know necessarily where you are. Cool. They don't know what buildings are. So that is Daisy's turn.

We then go to the mundane warriors. It might not. Might not. Quickly, finish off these beasts. These three, so Nell, Fergal, Agner are going to rush up to try and help out. Whereas the others, John, Harry and Knaar. I'm going to. Harry.

Harry. Knaar? Yeah, Kna. Yeah, Knaar. They're gonna rush the big guy. Like Kardassian drink? Okay. Yep.

There's a drink? Kana, yeah. In, yeah. Like Connor, but with eight. Oh, I'm trying to figure out where you got that. The Krasians have a drink. And Harry. Right, we'll do John, Harry and Kna,

their regular attacks. Go! Ooh, that is going to be two hits from John. Yeah, dude. Two misses from Harry. No. Try, Harry. It's always Harry.

Two misses from Kanaugh. Oh, come on. So that's gonna be three and then three points. So six points of damage from John. No, I've not got to them yet. Oh. This is it. Right, now the other three.

John, Agnes. Agnes, Agnes. Agnes, yeah. Agna, one hit out of two. Good enough, Agnes. Nel. One hit. Let's go, let's go.

And then finally, Fergel. Don't fuck this up, Fergel. Don't fuck it. He missed. You're a fucking piece of shit. He's off the team. He's off. He's gone.

Send him back. Max damage from Agna for five. Yes, right. Nell only two points of damage, so seven points of damage, which is enough. Oh! They take out this remaining minion.

Dream Tid. However, they all, because they all made attacks, they all take nine points of damage. Nine, goddine. They all just fall over. Worthy side. No, they're a little bit tougher than that. They're a little bit tougher than that.

So, that's a little bit tougher than that. So, that's a only the three that attacked with gruff against the minion as well. Jarn is the only one word. So Agna, get in, Jal, and Furgle, Furgle, Nel in there. So, right, that is the regular Holy Warriors attacks done. We then go to the Lancer.

Can somebody roll a D6 for me please? Yeah, watch this. One. Does not recharge their pylon ability. Great. This one does not know that Daisy is there yet. He's gonna sort of position itself with this tree as cover. And yeah, Gruff, you are, you are gonna get,

I think, two energy lances here because you summoned that healing magic. So first one is a miss. I've rolled, I don't think I've rolled above five on this guy's attacks this time. I'm okay with that. Next one. Did some damage with the pylons though, so.

Four teams. No? No. Just the armor, the shield, bouncing off. as these sort of bolts and javelins of energy are being flung in your direction. It's also like not a bad modifier.

I just keep rolling like dog shit. Are you concentrating on a spell? It was passed without trace, but I gave it up ages ago. Okay, so you're not concentrating on that anymore. Okay. Nobody else is concentrating on the spell, so. All right, that is the Lancers go.

We then go down to, I believe it's Xantheus. Oh, aha. Then Rowan you're up next. Get Xaninated. Turns out I borged or furgled my chromatic orb. It's when I roll the same number on any number on the D-A-C. Oh, so it's just double any number. So my ones and twos and all those low rolls,

would have still trained. But I'm going to do it again this time. That's a huge thing. Yeah, I keep forgetting. I think it's chaos orb that was two-eight. Yes, which is the cantrip, I think, or like, yeah. I'm going to do, yeah, another chromatic orb, but this time at second level.

It's sorceress burst that does it on the 8th. It's a cantrip, sorceress burst. Yes, that's the last one. I remember thinking for a can trip, that's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. Sorcerous burst is really good. I'm going to continue staying in this back line because it's, honestly, it's great back here.

When my ranged guy doesn't hit and doesn't recharge his cool ability. Speaking of ranged guy, is he within 30 feet of big guy? In the event of this change, which it will. 15, 20, 25, 30. I would say yes. Oh, cool, all right.

Well, so, Chromatic Orbegan. People are gonna be like, do you're not supposed to count diagonals? I don't care. For real? Yeah. Not supposed to. You've never done that.

I know, that's why I'm not going to. Life's too short. Wait, what are you meant to do then? Five and a 10. Did you like, else? That's fucked up. Yeah. Anyway.

Does anyone do anything? Or you count it as 10 feet on a diagonal, I think. Oh, that's a square basis. Mm, anyway, right. Chromatic all right, Cromat, right? Natural 20. B.

What down to do it? Oh, let's do lightning again. Okay, didn't light lightning. You're automatically gonna chain because you've just rolled X amount of eight. I have just rolled 4D8. Now you didn't tell, now technically you didn't tell me what level you were passing.

I did second. Oh, you did see. He did see. So, 48, 48, so 16, 32, base. He's gonna try it. Roll the D8 again. Of course I'm gonna reduce this. Well, 3, 3, 3, 3, 35, 38, 40.

And then another D8. Another eight. 48 lightning damage, apparently. 48 lightning damage. Okay, you've hit, you deal that. I'm gonna spend one of my fury points to reduce. I'm nearly out to reduce that.

That was good. Yeah, okay. Reduce away. Where are my ye changed? No. What is that for? Wait where my ye came? Eight.

12. So I reduced it by 12. So it goes down to 36. 36. Nice. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Now the dream is at this chaining, this bouncing chain is at Nat 20.

Well, let's find out. Come on, Eileen. Nat 1. It just dissipates. It bounces off the grid. Well, I imagine that actually, because this isn't it, like the creature, the brooch just absorbs it as it uses its power of solution.

It just, the spell energy fades out before it has a chance to bounce. It's gonna happen one day, one day. That is a hefty blow to this thing, by the way. Like, it is looking really hard. This is a big, but it can't reduce. Also with Chromatic Orb, second level,

if I did hit that guy in the back, it would then chain again if I roll the doubles. So it chains as much as I spell level I use. I need to check if it can hit something that's already been hit in the chain, because sometimes there's wording where a creature can't be hit by twice. That's true.

But it doesn't have now. Different target of my choice within 30 feet of the target. Okay, there you go. So I could just bounce. between them. Right between their heads, yeah. Gan and tennis. So, we go to, so Zend, any movement or bonus action?

No, I'm chill. Right, Rowan. Right, so, Rowan is going to, Hello, Rowan is going. Step up to Big Brutus. You want to get into Mela? Right up here, into Melley, right in the middle. You charge in, joining all of the warriors,

you know, standing in front of Gruff. No. Virgil. Others. I get my stone razor out with one hand. And with the other hand, I touch the brood and cast cure wounds. Okay. I just want to see what happened.

At first level? Yeah. Okay. Can you roll the hit point? Magic initiate Druid. Yeah, perfect. Oh. So just give me your 2D8 plus modifier. That's a 7 and a 5.

12. Plus 3. So 18. 18? Oh yeah, sorry, 15. This is a great question. What does happen? Huh.

Is it fun fancy? Is it your magic comes from Alfa? Yeah. That's a great question. Rowans has always been a strange mix of primal, but also there is something of the proto-magi about Rowan, encountered that in the vault, the geometric patterns.

the healing does partially, it doesn't have the full effect, but it does heal some of its wounds. But you see, but it's almost like it's resistant to it. So it doesn't have the full effect. But you see its body almost ripples and it just looks at you, Rowan. And you see in your mind this like flash

as your magic, as you touch this creature, as your magic kind of connects with it, and those patterns on your arms begin to glow vibrantly. Oh. As you feel this surge of elemental magic burn through you, coming from some part of you or some infusion in you, whatever happened to you

in that vault, you get this sense that it is reacting to the presence of this creature. and that you've now made this contact with it. And you watch as that pattern flows into Stone Razor, Stone Razor bursts a light with elemental energy. What element would you like it to be? Of the primary elements. So it can't be like necrotic or radiant

or anything like that or psychic. Think of like, you know, earth, wind, firewaters. I'm thinking earth. So is this like floating chunks of stone begin to form around it. Okay, for the purposes, for the, you don't know how long, Stone Razor is now a magical weapon, and it deals an additional D8 of force damage.

I love that. Oh, that's sick. I love that. So you kind of channel this, and you feel this like, you want this thing dead. This is your enemy. You want to destroy it. You feel like, almost like this force in you,

like I have to destroy this. Something is compelling. Like, the vile style. anti-althay feeling. Whatever you want to interpret it. Very cool. Yeah. Because it's a very, yeah, because it's an orthay weapon.

Well, but also, and maybe this is a little bit of the storyteller in you flashing back, these creatures, the ones you're fighting now, they were summoned by sovereign to fight the proto-magi. They were sent to wipe out the proto-magi and the proto-magi fought back. and whatever this power, whatever it is, it is reacting to that.

Cool. And it is combining with this elemental, you know, source, and it's combining with the sword, this stone of Ulfe, whatever it is. All of this is merging together. I'll let you make a free melee attack now as well, as part of that. Just the one.

As the best. Okay. Because it did heal it a little bit, but I want to give you a little bit of something in return. And I also, as a bonus action, activate it. by large form. Just for effect.

For effect, absolutely. I don't have your large mini. I left it out on the thing, but yes, you are enlarged. Well, no, that's too big. It's too big. But you do, you swell in size, yeah, you can go big, yeah, absolutely. Excellent.

And now I'm going to smack him. Yeah. Yeah, give me the melee attack. Would you like to spend a point of fate? Yeah. That's five on the dice. Okay, well, you know, we add it all up together. You got the fate dice.

You got a plus six. Okay. And then fate die? That was including the data. Okay, what's your, what about your modifier? Oh, I did that plus six. So 11, so I got five plus six. So the five is including the fate.

Yeah, I wrote a three. And a two. I'm following you now, yes, yes. And they've lost six. You swing this blade in. And it just clashes. This thing just bats you to the side and like knocks the blow up.

Four. So yeah, you go to swing, but it just bats you and knocks you, parries your blade away. Still cool. Very cool. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's all aesthetic.

I would say that you see that this is a sort of moment of inspiration for the two holy knights, as they see that, especially after the Xanthius's magic as well, it's like, the beast is weakened, come on, we can do this. Like, you know, someone calls out and glory, and he will just reach up his, he has, like, a great sword. He, like, reaches it up, which say, melee, please, grant me your blessing. as he will cast elemental weapon himself on his own weapon. And you see it begins to crackle with lightning. And he's going to charge in as well.

Yes. And Sir Glory will do the same thing and just be like, Pirus, ignite my blade. And you see the great axe is now on fire with elemental weapon and they will also charge in. And both will make two attacks with their strike profile. The first one, so Glory gets one hit. Sir Morning gets one hit as well.

But this time they get to add elemental damage which will bypass its resistance. So that is gonna be 10 plus five lightning, so 15 from Sir Morning. And then that is gonna be six, nine, 14 points from glory. So that's 29. Nice, sweet.

Still standing. Still standing. They drive these out. This thing is huge, it is clearly, you know, a siege weapon almost, this thing, meant to just absorb firepower as they hack and slash at its legs trying to bring it down. As they press on, that is the Holy Knights.

People describe me as a siege weapon in real life. But it's like one of the ones you ram against a door. It's done. Yeah? I am going to use my last point of fury. And as it does, you see this thing fully loses control of itself. It now is reckless.

It seems to have no care for its own well-being and is just fully committed to destroying anything that is close by. It is gonna use its corrupting fury against you, Rowan. That is an 18, oh sorry, with advantage now that it's run out of fury. 24. Yeah. I use Warden's Duty.

Oh, so you're gonna deflect the attack onto you? Yeah. Okay, that is gonna hit you then. All right, great. Look, pants to my hit points. Looking points. That is going to be, so that's going to be, 10 points of bludgeoning and then 10 necrotic damage to you, Gruff.

And also, you cannot regain hit points until the start of the broods next turn. That was just its first attack. It is then going to rain a powerful blow on you and Rowan, basically this time. Powerful slam with advantage against you, Roan, 26. And then against Grubon. that is also a 26 with its advantage.

This time it's gonna be, just pure bludgeoning damage. 18 points of bludgeoning to you, Rowan. I'm gonna reduce that with Stone's Endurance. Love it. And then 17 points of bludgeoning to you, Gruff. I think you said 17 and I thought. 17, no, 17.

But remember you can't regain hit points until the end of its next time. I'm Gucci. All right. That is all it can do. You can see that this thing is now in this just absolute rampage. Yes. We jump back up to the top, Ophelia.

Yeah, Ophelia will pull back Veracity. Go in front of a strike. In the name of the grandfather, you will fall. Vex, strike. Five and a one. Loll. So no for that one. There's a no for that one,

which means you don't have Vex on this next attack. So I'll reckless for this one. I'll match at Brutes energy. Two-fifteen's, what the hell is going on? Definitely get a hit. 22. It's. Cool.

So D8, one D8 and two D6. So I've got six on the necrotic. Okay, so three. Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and then ten on the piercing and the... So 13 total. Yeah. Okay, it's looking real rough.

This is down to its last few little bits of stamina now. As you plunge Verasti and sort of tear through it, You see Sir Glory sort of look disdainfully over you as you praise the Gravefather, but focuses her attention on fighting. Percival sort of rallied by the cry of the Gravefather. Is there anything else you'd like to do on your turn? No, that's it. I'm just going to stay in his melee range.

Gruff. Wonderful, DM, I wish to make a devil's bargain. Ooh. I want to run over to the Lancer, and I wish to use the bargain to say that there is a boulder next to them. because I want to then run over to the boulder and cast stone shape and I want to shape it around the Lancer's feet so it traps it there.

Okay, yeah, absolutely, definitely can happen. This creature will get a chance to resist it because I don't want this to just be an automatic like you can guarantee capture it. And it's very good that you did this because on its turn it does look like it's gonna, it would have had to basically get around you but it does look like it's gonna run.

I'm gonna say this is gonna be a dexterity save against your spell DC. I'm gonna give it disadvantage because this is unexpected. So I'm imagining that it's actually, it's not a bolder, it's like you can see that poking out from the grass, there's maybe this like huge chunk of slate or something underneath it. You run up, slam your paw down onto the ground

and this stone slate tries to wrap up almost like ribbons of stone and grab onto its legs. I'm gonna give it disadvantage. I'm gonna roll this publicly as well. 16. 16 to beat. I have a plus three, so I need the 13 on the highest dice here. That's an 18 on the highest.

I'm afraid. Nice try. Is stone shape a concentration spell? So you slam your things in. This thing reacts exceptionally quickly. It has no face or no eyes, but it's halo almost pulses. It senses you coming. It leaps up in the air as the stone just narrowly grabs it.

As it lands, you see it begin to spring forward. It is gonna have to get to the other side of the battlefield, but it is looking like it's about to run. Anything else you would like to do on your graph? That was a great idea though. Yeah, yeah. Bonus action. How's your health?

Oh. It's fine actually. You find, is everyone looking healthy? Uh, thereabouts. I can't heal myself. I haven't we got 58. I'm fine. I don't think you heal before the back.

Yeah. I think I'll leave it. You're just gonna leave it? Percy's actually up next. Yeah. Oh, so wait, you did run up as well. Oh yes, yes, I will do, yeah. Okay.

So is it, you have to touch the stone, basically. So I'd say that you are basically, yeah, next to it in order to get this through. That lens has not. No. A little bit from the acid fireball. Yeah. Percy. Yeah, Percy would just golf swing this masterwork hook stuff.

Yeah, just flop and crack it. It got on the back. So that is a 17 to hit. Does hit, is it's AC. He has not missed. He has hit every time. This guy does not miss. Six bludgeoning damage, though.

It's only three points of damage, but he still strikes. Nice. I mean, this thing is looking really weak, and he cracks it along the back. It kind of goes to one knee. It kind of tears up the ground around it as it kind of brings itself free again. He kind of leaves, like, yes for the grandfather, slams into its back. After Percy, we've,

then go to all of the beasts are dead. So Daisy is up. Oh. I would like Toll. Scoop down near that group of about there. Right here. Do I see the Lancer from there? Yeah, absolutely.

You see Graf like trying to snatch this thing with the Stone Shake? No, that my ally is there. I'm gonna take a shot at the Lancer. Perfect. Oh yes. 26 to hit. Would normally hit, this thing hasn't been attacked

by a range weapon yet, I'm gonna use its reaction, uncanny retaliation, it dodges the attack and then makes an energy lance attack at the triggering creature. So it senses, it senses this coming, like it did with gruff and the stone shape, it dodges the arrow to automatically, and then lobs an energy lance back in your direction, Daisy.

That is going to be a 24 to hit. Yep, what kind of damage is it there? I am going to choose to do fire damage. It doesn't know that I'm resistant to raiders. Do you know what? I will roll for it in that case, because it does get to pick. It doesn't, it doesn't see me.

It gets to pick. I will say on a one or a two, it's radiant, on a three or four it's fire. Yeah, it's fire damage. So this is gonna be, nine, 17, 21 fire damage, and your speed is reduced by 10 feet

until the end of your next turn. As it kind of dodges the sign and throws this thing back, almost very specifically built to deal with. with ranged attackers, it seems. That end of your turn? I do nothing. Okay.

Well, you did do something, you used up its reaction. Can you throw a dagger still? No, no, if I use Parheelian. Yeah, because it's a set, because it's a two-handed weapon as well. Why I don't like using Parheelian unless I have it. Wait till that motherfucker levels up though. And it becomes, I've got no name for this.

So the warriors, Redux, sensing that they won't be able to reach it in time. Three of the warriors, Agna, Nell, and Fergill, They form a defensive line. They're going to ready an action that if the Lancer moves past them, they'll make an attack against it. The other three are going to try and wail on the big guy.

This is it. I'm going to save Yarn for last because he's been the best so far. Harry. Misses both times. Knaar. Misses both times. Come on, John.

John. John, John, John. John, John. 18 on one, seven on the other. He hits one. One hit. We'll take it. Max damage.

Let's see. He like slams his halbered into the ball, this sword into the back of it. This thing is just so nearly dead and he's like, die beast, die abomination, for pirates! Just slamming this thing into its back. There are so many minis surrounding this giant thing.

It reminds me of does anyone play age of mythology? Yeah, it's kind of like that, yeah. All the little workers are building the tit. There's eight mini surrounding the big boy right now. You and the rest of the, These guys are all going to get a tax opportunity. So what I'm going to say for the Lancer,

if he reaches this corner where you guys came in from on the battle map, which is the far opposite corner to where he currently is now, if he reaches that corner, he escapes and will reach the other battle to assist them, basically. But he goes up. About 90 feet away. 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 30, 35, 40, he will get to about here. He goes running.

So Gruff, you get an opportunity attack. 22 to hit. Hits. Do I get a primal strike on this if it's an opportunity? Yeah, you get it on any time you make a successful melee attack, I believe. So three lightning damage. Okay. And five.

So half to two, so five total. Okay, you slam your axe in, managing to weaken this thing. This thing hasn't really been hurt currently. First attack from the soldiers. This will be Nell. Yeah. One hit. Great.

Fergal. One hit. Oh! Agna, one hit from all of them. So I'll do this as three. The best thing does. We hit. Six. Fergal rolls minimum damage for one. Oh, Virgo.

So it's currently six half to three, three half to one. So four damage, so we'll always find a way at this point. And then Agna, that's gonna be eight, so half the four. So eight points of damage to all. Awesome. But look blood, looks bloodied. By that, you managed to bloody this thing as it kind of like, you know, jumps past them.

That's just its normal movement. It is then going to make ranged attacks. Oh, okay. How could it come to a failure as it ran past? It moved, it made sure to stay, but it would have stayed more than five feet away, basically. Yeah, because I kind of moved it around the outside. Like a whip.

What about the whip, yeah? Whips 10 feet. Do you have the whip equipped as well? Good, because you kind of do you will, don't you? Yeah, you could make an opportunity to tell with the whip. Yeah, that's good. Give it a go, give a go. It does use your reaction, don't forget.

Nat 20. Yeah. Worth doing. Now the whip is not magical. Yeah. But still worth getting that extra damage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Still, still, still.

So that is three, five, eight, nine, ten. Although you whip a horse. It'll go faster. Ten. Ten. Did you spend a blood point? You could do it if you want to. Eleven.

Eleven. Okay, so half to five. What do you think? I don't know the joke. Okay. This thing is then going to, I forgot to see if it reach It does. It does.

No, no. Don't bother, to be honest. To be honest, actually, I'm not gonna bother. It's gonna throw its energy lance. It's gonna throw, Ophelia, you're looking pretty rough, right? You've got a big heel. You've got a big heel, but I'm not half, so make it that what you will.

Yeah, it'll shoot one at you. Try it my best, now. I tell you what, it will throw an energy lance at Gruff and one at Ophelia, because you both hit it as it ran past. So it'll do that. So, rough, 25. Oh, finally. Ophelia, that's only a 14.

Nine. It doesn't hit. It doesn't hit, okay. German note. German nine. It doesn't matter whether I do fire or radiant to you, does it? It doesn't matter, then. 14.

Fire is pretty bad against you. 20 points of fire damage and your speed is reduced by 10 feet until the end of your next time. And you can't feel. Oh, I hit it with my whip. It's got slow. Ooh, good to know. Meaning that is very good to know.

So that's what reduces its speed by 10 feet? 10 feet, yeah. Perfect. So you kind of catch its hind legs with the whip, kind of tripping it and stumbling it. Very cool, very, very cool. That is the launchers go, which brings us to Xanthius. Fuck is it?

Oh God. And then Rowan you're up next. I should have spent this entire time thinking about my turn. I need to... You get so wrapped up in like, oh, cool. Yeah, I'm just... I like watching people whip horse. I take that back.

Don't finish that sentence. Do you say to like watching people like tea? Whip horses, I was going to say. I don't think of a lot about lactation. I mean, yeah, to be fair, I think it's allowed. Did you know? Tom, Tom, take your turn. No, no, I, no.

You tell me what that fun fact is. Kim's husband told me that men can lactate. Yeah, literally we have this. Don't ask why my husband knows this. Cool. Tom, turn. I am right now. This isn't a white shirt.

Right. I'll nip forward a little bit just on behind that tree in front of me. What? Yeah, he did. He did that delivery. Do you want to be in front of it on the other side? Clos just to where the lancer is hitting. Do you saw I got a line on both the big and the small?

I mean, I kind of want to just kill the Centaur guy. The Lancer. Yeah, we all, yeah. Well, if you get a chromatic orb and you bounces. That's the thing, I don't like to fall back on El Clashico, but it is. If it works, it's great. If you get another 40 points of damage.

Right, do it. And they have, wait, have they taken their turn since the reality? They just took their turn, yes. Fuck, so it's gonna block a chromatical? Because it's a range, if it's a range attack, now if it's a saving throw, they can't block it. If it is a range spell attack, they will get to do their reaction. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Unless you have a more creative solution. Yeah, um... Yeah, it's a little something I like to call. Oh, God. Now... This is the guy who's like, hates silence and wants like nice, you know, fast turns. Oh no, it's... My silence is filled with,

ugh. See, he's filling the silence by his own noises, therefore it's acceptable. Fourth level scorching rate. Okay. At which target? I'm going to target centaur, centaur, centaur. Lancer.

The Lancer. Now, these are separate attack rolls. Yes. So it will negate the first ones and fire a shot back at you, but then the others will hit. Yes. Yeah, that's actually a good way of dealing with it.

Okay, so first one, so this is what level scorching ray? This was a fourth levels. So how many beams is that? So it is five? By default, it is three. Three, so four, five, yes, you're right. Okay, so the first one is completely negated,

and then I get to attack you back. Yeah. That is going to be a 17 to hit. Oh. Oh, yes. Yeah, that hits. Do you mean anything about it? It doesn't know I'm resistant to fire.

It doesn't, so I'm going to roll. I have a gold dragon board. It doesn't. I don't think it knows that. so I'm gonna roll for it. Okay. So this is gonna be, 11, 13, 17 points of damage, and then I'll do the same thing.

1, 2, Radiant, 3, 4, fire. It's a radiant. Oh, son of a, so. 17 radiation damage, okay. And your speed is reduced. But then you get to make the other four scorching rays. Yeah, now if it dies before I finish the attack, can I rotate all the spells to go to the...

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I'm fine with that. Fantastic ish. If it dies. In that case. First one. All of these bolts are also firing through the same room that transformed the fireball.

It's that one sorcery point to do the change element? Change element. Now it changes it for the entire spell as well. Great. What are you choosing? Acid to acid again, yeah. So these are acid blasts of... Perfect.

All right. First one. So we've got four. Piers. First one. Now this is my best spell. It's really good. Scorching Ray, come on. Never fails.

14 plus 8 hits. Is it worth doing damage now? Nope, just roll all the attacks. 11 plus 8 hits. 7 plus 8, 15. Misses. And then the final one. You've got currently 2 weeks.

6 plus 8? 14.0. You get 2 hits. 2 hits. That's 46. If you want to just roll it all together. 4D6. It's not resistance to it.

It's not resistant. Just do it. 2 and a 5, 7 and a 10. Oh, 10 total. You thought that's going to be big, didn't you? The acid slams into the lancer. One of the blasts, it dodges, throws the lance back.

Two of them, it manages to duck and weave. Two of them strike it in the chest. It is wounded. It looks pretty bad, but... Could be dead! Dilla. Could be dead, but it's not. It could all be dead.

Zantheus end of turn? Oh, yeah. Rowan. Rowan is going to use his chused-up stone razor and attack the brute. Go for it. I could use my green dice. Okay.

Would you like to spend fate? I'm gonna eat it. Uh, no. Okay. All the Thay is behind me on this one. You got the Z20? Okay. 16 plus six.

That's a hit. Sick. Now 2D6. What's the extra? Uh, so it's 2D6 plus your strength modifier and it's an extra D8 of the element you chose, which I believe was like, I'm gonna flavor as force damage because you chose like Earth,

and I'm gonna flavor it as like force damage. And it is now a magical weapon as well. 17 points. Total? Yeah, well, plus two, 19. 19. You bring Stone Razor, sensing this new energy into it. How you would take, is this like a thrust, is this a slash?

It's an epic overhead slash down. Braver style, you kind of, oh, yeah. Bam, as you slam it into it, the jagged points, yeah, the jagged points, dig into this thing's chest, the armor around it breaks and splinters, and you, you drag the blade down, ripping this creature's torso in half as it stumbles to one knee.

It brings its blade and its fist to make one final attack, and then you twist and pull the blade free, and it just, and come slamming down defeated as the crownfallen to vote is defeated. Hell yeah. That was your action run,

would you like to do anything movement or bonus action? Do you just eat your dice? What are you doing? You can't swallow that. Don't just hold that up. Should I, Jaime? Should we get you a hospital? No, it's tasty.

It tastes like lime. Edible dice. I wanted to sell the bit for like the audience just a little bit. But that rolled actually quite well. You should have eaten it. You should have kept it. Might have gotten a bit gross. He's gonna poop out in that 20.

I was like that 20. Call it then. All right, we then go to, he's the holy knights with a brute down. Sir Gloria and Sir Morning will turn around, be like, the Lancer, stop it from getting away, come on! And they will charge in and block its path. Yes.

And both will make two strikes with their elemental weapons. Get it. Strike it, Derek. First one. Catch it. Sir Morning. One hit, one miss from Sir Morning. From Sir Glory.

One hit, one miss. hit one miss. Okay. So this is gonna be 2D6 plus the 8 of their verish element. Plus three. Oh, big roll. Woo.

Wow. Big day. 17. 20 points of damage to it. From Sir Morning. Yeah. And then from Sir Glory. Oh, it's pretty good though.

So 12, 13. 16 points of damage. Oh, shit. Love that. And it didn't cost them a level four spell slot. Didn't cost them, well, no, it did use one of their high spell slots, though, for the elemental weapon. Oh, yes. Try a major feature plus two turns.

That's true, you're right, you're right, yeah. And then you're on my level. Then you're at your dice. You watch, as they bring their weapons, their enchanted elemental weapons to bear, the lancer is forced back on their blows. You can see the lancer is on its last legs, it's barely thing, and they will look over probably knowing that you were up next, Ophelia, sister Ophelia, finish it!

As they're kind of holding it back from advancing. Ophelia, it is your turn. Yeah, Ophelia will gladly heed that call and she will rush towards the Lancer. Charge in. Yes. Did I hit last turn? I didn't I?

Oh, well, this is a different creature. Amazing, cool. Reckless. Reckless. Just going straight in with the reckless. What is going on? You're all the same number again. Three times in a row, no, that's happened. 17 to hit.

17 against the Lancer. Is a hit? Oh yes. All right, so DA, 2D6, let's go. 12, 13, 14, 15 on the first strike. I'm learning how to choose the right audio apps for you. That's good to know, Apple Watch, thank you. Don't.

That's fair, it's fair. You always throw us the tech on the floor. Apple Watchers are pretty fragile. You hear this call from these knights who you don't share a faith with, but they are faithful, and you know what that means. 100% faithful. They've slammed their weapons in, they're holding this thing back.

It looks like it's about to leap over them and make a break for the thing and it's nearly there, probably in one movement I'll be able to get it. You rush forward with Veracity and distracted by the other two Holy Knights. You slam it into the side. It rips through the creature

as it stumbles completely over to its side as it falls in a crumple pile. Diffing. Nice. Bam. And with that, this combat is brought to an end. You buy. Every time we end a battle, we go into a sponsor break.

We've got to end it soon. You gather yourselves for a moment. Any lingering maladies such as the hit points and things like that and the slowed speed from the attacks vanishes as you all take a moment to catch your breath. The Holy Warrows, like, yes, we did for Sions! And they saw a little clap each other in the back. Not you, Fergal.

Not you. Well, Fergal actually wasn't the worst. Did actually hit a few times. You see that Herrian Kinnar, looking quite sheepish in their sort of failures. And so Xanthius. You did have got a great net 20. Yeah.

Oh, yeah, that one, yeah, that's true. That was a huge hit on Big Guy. You see that they begin to sort of attend to their wounds a little bit. Sir Morning and Segori will sort of look over me like, we need to take the approach, we need to perform a small ritual to make sure these bodies are fully destroyed. We can begin the preparations for that. but you have a few moments.

And you see that they basically organize the Holy Warriors to start dragging the bodies of all the minions and the lance are together with the big brute. And you see Sir Morning starts to out, basically draw a huge ring of salt. You can see it's like a consecrated salt and is muttering a prayer as he draws this massive runic sigil around all of the bodies together.

And they go about this business. Do these creatures have crown steel? or are they simply corrupt? Who are you asking? So, morning? Yeah, so as he's performing the ritual, he kind of stops the prayer for a moment and says, oh, my apology.

No, these creatures don't have have crown steel in them. We would have felt its foul presence. No, they are just creatures created by the sovereign. They fall with the crownfall, they're driven by, but they don't have crown steel in them, no. The crown steel will be at the impact site. Okay.

But we do not wish to take any risk. We wish to make sure that these things never come back. And there are rights that are passed down through the Church of Silence to make sure that they are. The Ecliptic Order teach us these rights to destroy their bodies entirely. We do not know what may happen to them should they be reinvigorated with life.

They may just be in a state of healing or slow regeneration. We do not know. Okay. Good choice. Yes. But you fought quite well? Sister Fulner.

Did you? Well done for slowing down that brutish thing. We did not want it to reach the other enemy lines. Can I feel anything from the ritual? From the ritual there performing? Yeah, I'm not inside it. I'm going to actively going to choose to not stand inside it. You don't think you do.

You can make an Arcana role for me. Arcana, okay. Or, or religion. Anybody can make a role here. Okay, plus four. for eight from me. You don't really feel anything, Sandtys. You don't feel anything from it. It looks like the prayers, the runes that they're drawing.

This, yeah, this looks legit. Like, you know, this seems to be like some sort of sealing power, sealing spell. We've been in a ritual before, right? Yeah, yeah. Are there any, like, insignias or, like, symbols on the armor of the preachers? I will get back to that, I just want to get by,

did you roll on that religion? 21 religion. 21 for a gruff, did you roll, I think? 16. 16 is actually pretty good. I would say that both of you would probably be able to tell that this is, you're not really sure if there's any holy power in this ritual. They certainly might believe there is,

but you don't really sense any divine power coming from this. This almost seems to be more ritualistic. The salt that Sir Morning is using is definitely holy and consecrated, and perhaps that has some sort of power. But they certainly believe it has power, but you're not really sure. And for you, Graf, yeah, you would definitely know that this is very much,

perhaps the ritual itself doesn't have power, but the faith it inspires may have some sort of effect on the warriors. Like they feel like they're doing something to protect, you know, this world from this external threat. And that sort of gives them a sense of spiritual strength. And it takes maybe about 10 minutes, you know, to complete this ritual. And then they basically use these like holy lanterns to, you know, light the bodies on fire and watch them burn, basically. And they all start muttering prayers to pirates and Malia as the guardians,

the wardens of the crown. Please, wardens, you know, destroy these beings. Do not let their foulness taint our world. You are our great protectors. You are our guardians. We beseech you for your power. And as they make that prayer, there is this slight flare in the air. The salt circle does sort of light for a moment.

But it's not coming from the ritual. It's coming from their belief. and it's sort of channeling this divine power, and you watch as the fire that's been sort of burning on their body. And you've seen it. These things are resistant to fire. That fire turns strangely a mixture of silver and gold the fire becomes, and it does start burning away at their bodies and their remains.

Cool. There are no emblems or heraldries on their armor, Ophelia. But on the Lancer and on the Brute, You can see that the armour is quite ornate, or at least it once was. It's now tarnished and broken and cracked and dented, but it would have once been resplendent and beautiful. It's engraved with images of almost like swirling ribbon-like patterns, but there's no emblem or symbol or rank or anything of that nature on this thing.

I think that Percy keeps quite back from all this ritual. He's just like, oh, nope, don't want to go. near that and kind of hangs back a little bit. But yeah, what do you guys do for a moment? How far are we from the site of the shard itself? From the impact site? Are you asking that, or do you want to try and work it out on your own? Try and work it out.

Give me a survival role, Rowan. Damn straight. Check this out. 20. 20. You're maybe like a couple of hours, hour and a half, away from the impact site. Can we see it? You can't see it because you're kind of in this dense, like,

valley where there's all this woodland and you're kind of making your way through the hills, but you can see in that direction there is quite a prominent red glow, red and gold glow in that direction. I'm going to go climb this tower and try and get a better view of the site of impact. Okay, good idea. Let us know how many creatures you can see out there as well. Can I go with Rowan actually? Yeah, the, this old watchtower is pretty run down. and ruined. It's covered in ivy. But the two of you, you know, Rowan, you're a season traveler. You've climbed many trees. You've climbed, you know, many mountains. Daisy, you've scrambled walls and things in your time and you find handholds in ivy and broken stones. The actual main

staircase has long collapsed long ago. But I'd say the two of you actually, without really needing to roll, manage to make your way up to the top. And it does give you a slightly better view as it kind of crests the valley and looks out beyond the tree line and things like that. Still large as well. Yeah, so you're like actually heightened up. Well, actually, know, how long does your large take? 10 minutes. So it's probably going to fade after this, but we'll say it's currently up.

So the two of you make your way up and you're looking out over it. Daisy, you can get on my shoulders and get an even higher view. Oh, good plan. Yeah. And then I can just do that as well. Yeah. I don't like that one. Okay.

Both of you give me a perception role with advantage, because you use the tower to gain the height advantage. here. 14 plus 4, 18. 18 total? 19. 19 total. I'd say that the two of you...

Although I am proficient in it as a skill. So you could spend one of your radiant points, yeah? We're also looking for beasties as well. Crownfallen. 22. 22. I'd say with NIM's guidance for you, Daisy. As a bit of a scout kind of trying to.

Yeah, and like maybe your vision sort of almost slightly enhances, like it kind of clears up. where you're kind of straining your eyes to see. You feel this celestial light help guide your vision, maybe highlight certain things. What you would see is I'm going to say that you can't see anything in great detail. But what you can see is for the next hour of travel from where you currently are,

many of the trees have had all of their leaves blasted off of them. And they're like pushed out in a direction. You're seeing like an impact as the shock wave has like launched forward. You can see that most of the most of the world. You can see that most of the woods beyond this point have all been sort of, not flattened, but decimated.

It was a sizable shard then. Well, sizable impact of something, and you felt it in Ashton's Rest, right, the shockwave. It could be like a marble. You can see that there are pieces of, like, rocks that have been broken and split. You also might notice that there are carcasses of, like, animals and creatures

that maybe lived in this part of the woodland and the wild that have been killed. Stand down. You would also see, maybe in the distance, more of those beastial, the little minion-like creatures have made their way, and they're scampering off in the direction of Ashton's Rest far, too far from where you currently are. There's no more creatures between you and the impact site, it doesn't look like.

You can see, though, you can just barely make out, maybe just you, Daisy, you can just make out sort of the divot, the impact where this thing is landed, and you can see the sort of blasted grassland and stone and earth around it. You can see like a little pinpoint of light that almost looks like a doorway and things are sort of coming through it.

I mentioned that there was this portal and stood next to it. You just see this really to your eyes it's like a glowing red light but it has the vague outline of an armored person and it sort of stood by the doorway. That's like probably all you can see. You know, it's quite far away at this point,

but you just about make that out. Can I just connect in Mind Zone to the group and just kind of project that image to them so that everyone gets in? Oh, wow, you can see way further. Oh, I think that NIM kind of helps a little bit. Yeah. This is what we can see from up here

just so that, you know, we can be prepared, you know, doorway. I don't think it's one of us messaging the other forces to see if they can get in front of those minions that are heading towards Ash and Rest to just pick them off. You imagine that really the only one who would be able to do is Duke Ignaris

because he's gone out to fight at Hurt. Sir Grealdon, the army, who have come out to meet them, I'll probably go meet them anyway. They'll meet them on battle anyway. They can't send like a forward team. They've got to keep everybody they can back. You guys kind of are the team. Like you're the only ones who could go and intercept that

if you wanted to. Okay. But only the small ones. You haven't seen any more big brutes or lancers or anything like that. Well, that's a portal in that shape seems to be either sustaining it or... Yeah, we need to close that as soon as possible.

Yes. They said there might be more of those... Whatever it is, it's holding the gate open, they said there might be more of them as well. Enesaries. Emissaries. Emissaries. The scout said there was one,

maybe two, they weren't sure. Yeah. The longer that stays open, the more forces are gonna get to Ashton's rest. You guys have made pretty good time getting to where you are now. Like you made some good roles, you haven't lost any time.

So if you are able to get there quickly, you will be able to stop it before big reinforcements kind of come through. Okay. But you will need to, like, you don't, you could take a short rest now. That is going to be an hour of, like, more reinforcements sent through to fight out Ashton's rest.

You could heroic short rest, and that will definitely make sure that there's no more additional time. Anything more than that, if you take a long rest, that will be a big problem. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need some eight hours of sleep, though. Fortunately, I mean, you could do it.

You hear from down below... Cast levitate on you, just drag us off. I just eight hours sleep. It's not eight hours to the destination, unfortunately. You hear, Segoorri, like, adventures, adventurers, we are gathering up, we are heading off. We are just finishing, patching up our wounds, and then we'll be making out.

It is not too far now. Sorry? Can I, from my vantage point up here, try and plot a optimized path? Absolutely. Without a doubt. Don't even have to roll for it. You think you'll be able to reach there

in about an hour and a half, 90 minutes, two hours. I'd relay that through NIM. You can see that the soldiers, I'm going to say that they've basically spent like a sort of bit of time just patching themselves up. Agner is the worst-looking one out of them. She's definitely still injured. and the two knights are basically fully healed.

Like they're gonna have fully healed themselves at this point. Thanks to Gruff's incredible healing. I could do with a heroic case. A heroic? Okay, we'll do a heroic rest. All right, yeah. So you guys can take a short rest. It's just a five minute short rest, right?

Yes, it's a five minute short rest. Okay, very cool. I just get some less. What is my healing? Is that a new D&D thing? No, that's a me thing. We've had that for a while. I think we've done it very, very rarely.

We did it once in Bernel. I'm saying it was the audience that may not. I'll explain it, don't worry, give me a minute. I get that. Give me a second and I'll do a little... It would be in the book? Many, well, you can find out in the Q&A. Well, I guess you will.

But no, so Heroic short rest is a thing that the heroes can do once a week, so they have to have a week of downtime specifically. So they have to spend like a week in town, chilling, doing downtime activities, research, etc. And it's basically they get to take a short rest but in five minutes rather than a full. hour. And it's used for moments like this where like time is of the essence. They need to have a short rest, but they don't feel that they can even give up that hour to try and take a short rest.

So and any abilities that trigger on a short rest, you guys get those. So if you regenerate any sourcey points or if you want to, you know, get any things back, that's all good on a short rest. Nice. Nice. I'm back to full. Fantastic. Nice. Fantastic ish. Um, uh, uh, do I still have an open? an line to Sovereign. No, you sealed your rooms again. You see what you could open up. I could open it up again.

Open up! Um. Instantly all of the, the nights just go, what's that? Yeah, what do they know? Um. They even notice there's a skeleton

walking around amongst. That's true, that's true. They're not. They are choosing not to say anything or engage with it. There's a bigger problem right now. Yeah. And also they know that sister Ophelia is protected by that pesky duke. Yes.

Damn him. Religious freedom, bleh, spit. Nice to be. Not loud. I guess it's too late for an insight check, but did the creatures kind of look at me in a different way to everyone else? No.

Tells me to come accept a gift and then kills me on the way. Oh hey, it's that guy. Yeah. Go on then. Well then you're not worthy. He'll just look at you. Well, also, your ruins are currently active. Yeah.

You've had your runes protecting and stopping the crown still from... Still. So we don't know sovereigns like test him, you know, like make sure he's worthy of getting there. You don't know. I've proven myself. I reckon you've been scammed and it's not.

I think, yeah, there's nothing there. It's just junk mail. God. So do you guys set off? Yes, we do the action sequence. Gather up your things. On, bell. Charge your runes, build the magic, flare your hands.

Dagboard, rabbit. With Rowan. Belly, out. You're in. Oh, right. With Rowan leading the way, taking this optimizer route that you've seen from up high, shrinking back down,

you trek for about 90 minutes or so. Like I said, Rowan, you and Daisy have already seen this, but as you begin to travel through, you notice that the trees have been blasted of their leaves, any shrubbery has been decimated, the ground itself almost has a pattern where the grass and the stone and the dirt have been pushed outwards.

You see dead bodies of animals, of creatures, probably ravaged by the cramfallen monsters that you've just fought yourselves. You draw closer and closer. The whole of Caldra is these hills and valleys, so it's not a straight path. You don't see this coming. You wind your way up and down through little hilled trails, taking this excellent route that Rowan has deduced, and eventually you sort of crest down into a much deeper, deeper valley

where the impact site has actually fully landed. The terrain very, very steep with these dead leaf blasted trees all around you. And as you approach it, you see, you know, rocky hills on the far side. You see dead trees on the outskirts. And then huge chunks of stone debris that has been blasted out all around a divot, this impact crater at the center of it. Zantius, as you've been getting closer and closer to this place, your chest is beginning to feel so tight.

And your mouth, it's like, no matter how much water from your water skin you drink, it's this unsatiable thirst, and you're sweating. You don't feel well as you draw closer and closer to this place. And you almost feel something pulling you there. Kind of almost like a chain in your chest is almost pulling you forward. Even though you want to go, it still feels. that you're being being drawn there. Rowan, your geometric patterns have not gone away

and that energy is still in Stone Razor for the time being. And you almost feel that energy is growing more nervous, more agitated as you draw closer and closer as well. Ophelia, and I would say Daisy, thanks to Nim, NIM can sense divinity, can sense fragments of divine power, can sense planar energy. And you've been in the presence of a god, at least as far as you know one is. And as you draw closer and closer, you can feel this palpable thing in the air,

Nym Daisy to you as like, I can feel whatever that thing is. It is unlike anything I've felt before. It feels like one of the great, it feels like one of the great archangels. For you, Ophelia, this feels like the greatest of the great father. servants. You can feel this presence approaching you. For Gruff, you just sense something is so wrong. Something is, it's almost like you can feel pain from wherever you're going to.

Whatever it's your primal connection to Ulfay and to the land, but it is wrong what's ahead. And as you draw closer, you see half a dozen of those beastial crownfall and scam. tampering around the ruined sort of debris of this stone, but at its heart right by the impact crater, you see a great shimmering red-gold doorway through which you can see a sort of broken, burning, blinding,

almost. It hurts to look into this portal. It's so bright, but you can see the vague outlines of broken buildings, broken keeps and castle walls. but it's also so hot and fiery and just pain and agony. Some world beyond that is not a plane, as you know, you've travelled to the planes now, but this is, it can only be the crown itself, it's beyond. And stood beside it, she's almost beautiful.

You see this tall, sort of nine foot, ten foot tall, armored being in this resplendent, would have once been resplendent gold armor, but now it's dented and scorched and cracked, holding out her hands, channeling this power into this portal. Her robes, you almost think they're robes, but it's this red cloth.

You know it wasn't always red. Stained or something. Change. It flows into ribbons of light that sort of coalesce around her and these not wings of feathers or wings of dragons but almost wings of light itself, red light spill behind her as she channels. And as you get closer, you can hear her just rambling.

Yes, yes, of course. No, we must, we must, we cannot let them, must take vengeance for the fallen, must take vengeance for the fallen. They must all, must all burn, must all perish. They cannot be allowed. No, no. And she starts crying. Please, please, no, I cannot take this.

No, we must. It must be done. It must be done for the sovereign. The storm, the storm must be finished. We must bring the storm. And she's whispering and muttering to herself and more of these little crownfallen beasts scatter through the portal,

almost worshipping her. And they scamp her off to form a little semicircle around her. So morning, the other holy night. They all steal themselves. This is it, the emissary. Look there. They point down and you can see that amidst this crater, chunks of a very familiar-looking metal to you all.

Raw, unprocessed, not refined. Even the shard within Xanthius has some shape of what it once was. This is crown steel and it's pure raw. Orr form, three chunks of it glittering around the debris site, radiating power. The robed head whips round, and there is no face. Just light, but not radiant white, not pure gold. Tarnished, broken, ugly, coppery, golden red, light just spills out from under it.

She just points as Yanaria, emissary of sovereign. Yes. She wants to face you. So cool. That's cool. And shit. Holy shit. Oh, she's cool.

And we will start that battle next time. Oh, man. What a cool description. That's great. Oh boy. Yonaria. Emissary of... Emissary of sovereign.

Sovereign, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I will also tell you that you can all tell that this is one of the most powerful threats you have come to face. Oh, good, cute. Oh, good, yeah, oh, good. Oh, yeah? I mean, everything's worse.

More than a proto-magi. I said what I said. With that, we will see you all next week. Thank you so much for joining us here on High Rollers. Thanks for watching. Althea the Dragon Empire. We will be back. Don't forget, tomorrow, at 7pm on our YouTube and Twitch channel,

we will be putting out a Q&A for the upcoming Althea the Dragon Empire Kickstarter campaign guide. Announcing the Kickstarter date, as well as giving you a little bit of a sneak peek into some of the art and some of the stretch goals and contents of the book as well. Yes. And if you're watching this on the Vod or in the podcast, it's already available on our YouTube.

YouTube Live tab. It will be on the live tab. And it reveals a total. of information. You don't want to miss it. That is it. Thank you very much to join us. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.