High Rollers DnD - Bound in Blood | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #116 (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

The heroes wrap up some loose ends as the battle comes to it's conclusion in the Diadem's Opal Lounge! 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. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca. When WestJet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different.

People thought denim on denim was peak fashion, inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. Hello, and welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes had concocted a plan to infiltrate the Opal Lounge,

a fancy lounge and bar in the Volt Watch District of Kelskaris. And whilst the plan had its ups and downs, eventually Ophelia, Xanthius and Gruth found themselves at the wrong end of a pair of dragon fire pistols. After a tense conversation at gunpoint, Daisy and Agent Darling of Watchtower arrived as initiative was rolled, and a battle ensued. Vricks and Rowan tried to see if there was another way in or out of the lounge

and discovered a secret exit and entrance, though it was guarded by a diadem agent disguised as a drunk. Inside, the battle was frantic. Old friends found themselves torn between their allegiances. Sister Ophelia and the sadistic glitter seemed to be having their own battle of swords. And a timely arrival from Rowan and Vricks saved gruff from what most certainly probably would have been death. Eventually, Miss Peridot, one of the diadem's facets,

eventually made a run for her office in some likely scheme. But using the power of his manor zone, Xanthius incinerated her with a blast of immense magic. Yeah, whoops. Some diadem agents still remain. Glitter and Ophelia are bleeding out on the floor, and the Opal Lounge still has many secrets left to yield. And that, my friends, is where we are going to kick off.

I forgot that you incinerated her. Yes. Yes. I've been thinking about it all week. I thought she was stronger. We are, she had taken a lot of damage at that point. We are remaining in initiative as there are several things happening here. Same initiative as last time.

Same initiative as last time, absolutely. The last thing we saw is Xanthius had blasted Perida with these, you know, this column this beam of fiery magic, leaving really only her magic items behind, having the rest of her just bursting and being incinerated to ash. The last thing that happened, though, was the guard who had been fighting Agent Darling has fled out of the door

and is making their way back upstairs. Absolutely not, I think, is... Absolutely not, is the last word. Yeah, absolutely not. The first person to act, though, as Peridot is dead, is Farrier. Oh, yes. Xanthius' childhood dragon-born friends.

You were trying to impress, right? Right before this? I didn't impress. I intimidated with an at 20 and said, prove yourself to me. And then he said, and he's just seen this happen. There is this look of amazement, of fear,

of terror, of uncertainty. But there is something else, and I think Daisy and Zanthius, you recognize Carl. and pride when it has been stoked. And he sort of glances behind him, and you see this moment where he thinks about the guard that just ran away, and almost there's this resigned,

like, he doesn't matter. Like, I'm going to prove myself now here. And he turns and moves his way. Darling almost goes to hold out an arm, and he's just like, no, no, it's fine. As he moves towards Alejandro, and he's just like, I know you're not going to give up,

so easily, and he begins to conjure. You see him his crown steel shards embedded in his forearms that he's now revealed. He begins to, in the air, you begin to see, probably pulled from all the blood that's being spilled, tiny fragments of iron as he's going to conjure basically a spiritual weapon, like this steel, this iron blade as a bonus action.

And then as his main action, he seems to hold up, and this is not a spell, but he seems to reach out and probably like glitter's fallen dagger. He almost like telekinetically grabs and throws it towards Alejandro. But before we do that, we should roll fate. Sorry, my apologies. I was so quick to get into it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes! Oh no, I know.

Oh, no. Is that no? That's one for me. I got a three. Oh, that's another one for me. Four. That's one for you. Yes.

I got a three, two. Oh, that's one for me. Four. That's another one for you. Oh, come. Come on, Stephen. Let's go Stephen. Let's go Stephen. Three?

No. Good. No Stephen today. You Stephen. Damn it, Stephen. Fuck you, Stephen. But as I remind, that sometimes,

because Barry is sort of like this neutral MPC who's been convinced to help with you, maybe he can spend it. So he is going to, I will do a basic attack with him. No, I will, yeah, yeah. I think he would get advantage

because I don't think Alejandro is really expecting it. So I'm going to give him advantage. He thinks he has but a worm. You see an... There's this like blade that he's telekinetically controlled from glitter streaks through the air and it begins to ignite and you see like black, red and gold flames, very similar to the crown still flames

that you've seen Xanthius use. They seem to ignite around it as well. Hell yeah. And you see as it kind of slashes into Alejandro. That's not too much damage unfortunately, but it is a little bit of something. And then his spiritual weapon will attack as well, which also hits for another 10 points of damage.

Sweet. So you see he's just like, we need to talk after this, but yeah, we need to take him out now. And he begins slashing at Alejandro, who turns around like, you cowardly snake, I can't believe you traitor, I'm gonna make sure you suffer for this, as he is being betrayed by somebody

he thought was on his side. That is gonna be all of Farrier's turn. We then have our first death saving throw, which is not gonna be Afeelia, but in fact I'm gonna give glitter some death saving throws, because I have a feeling that there's something a bit going on here. Now, like you guys, she's not unconscious.

You and Aphelia, you're not unconscious either, but you're so weakened and like bling out. There's not really much you can do except, like weekly speak. And she's just like, is looking at you, like blood, kind of coughs up, you can see she's like burnt and exhausted, and it's just like, just starts laughing. But it's like looking like,

the two of you almost like facing each other on the ground. I'm gonna keep you secret, I think. Okay. Okay. Was both Ophelia and Glitter downed by the Manazine? Yes. By you, yes. That is, because...

Three kills in one turn. And now it is indeed Sister Ophelia's turns. So if there... Yeah, you can sort of weakly communicate and make your death saving through. But you might roll at Nat 20 and get up. I've got plans for you. Ah! Eight.

That is a failure, I'm afraid. One death saving. throw. Yeah, plans, right. So many plans. It's all plans and plans and plans. We then go down too, as there's a lot still going on, Rowan. Hmm. Well, Rowan can see that Ophelia's down. Yeah. So we'll run over and

get closer. Mrs. Trips Mrs. Inclutter. Oh, shit. Kilbrous. Unless you want to carry on with this kind of death flirtation with Gloucethe, then I won't interrupt. She can flirt when she stands up. That's fine.

All right, cure wounds. Nice. Thank you. At first level, 2D8 plus 3. At least we know Glitza didn't roll the 20. True. Well, do we? Oh shit, that would have been 17.

17, thank you very much. She had rolled the 20. Guess what I would have done? Killedophilia. She doesn't have any weapons, well, none that you can see. Don't need a weapon to punch a guy in the face. To just choke her out. I've got these weapons.

My thumb. So you actually, you've moved like hot, like, probably like 15 feet or something. You've cast kill wounds on Ophelia. You are now next to Alejandro as well. In the little lounge area of chamber. As a note as well. I can't get the song out of my head. Daisy and Gruff, you guys are in Perrillo's office as well as well.

Just slightly off this main man. But we can see out the door. Yeah, you can, yeah, they connect together. And the other guy is gone, right? The guy, well, he ran out the door. You don't know what he's done or where he's gone. I think I'm just going to stand alongside Farrier and get out my blade.

Okay, well Farrier's not, he's only moved a little bit so he could basically see Alejandro. He's not engaged him in Melley. So you are the only one currently, well, and Aphelia now who's conscious. I will, yeah, stay near Alejandro because I know that they're going to get defensive. Beautiful.

And attacking. My best friend, I'm sister. Okay. So end of turn, Roman? Yeah. Okay. Agent Darling is going to be like, we can't let that other guy get away.

I'll take care of him. And she's going to run out the door chasing the guard captain. Great. And she vanishes running out of the door. You would hear, like, heavy footsteps, like echoing. You hear what sounds like, you know, somebody going up the stairs and then

you hear like several heavy thumps and that's all you hear. Okay. Incredible. No idea what's happened but you hear like and in silence. But do we hear Australian exertion? No, you don't, no, no.

We then go to Graf. Australian exertion. You know what they show. So the only My baddy is... Alejandro. Seemingly say?

Seemingly. I think... I think I would... You are a giant eagle. I'm also so low on hit points, but it's graph. He would go and assist, darling. I have 80 foot of... So you're gonna fly past?

Yeah. Okay, Alejandro will make an attack opportunity. I really... I can't get past him. No. He's right in the doorway. And you are very big. And you're a big eagle. It wasn't all slowed, was he? No. That was... Glitator in a bit of slow, yeah.

Cool. He was in the other side of the room. Let's see. Land on him. Natural 20. Yeah, it hits. Oh, God. I'm dead.

Well, this is your eagle. No, the way that they change it. You do temporary hit points now when you're in animal form. Oh, shit. Oh, no. Well, this is, unfortunately, maxed as well. Oh, no, I've got the wrong dice. Hang on.

So, this is going to be the physical damage. 15 physical. and then 16 psychic. 31. 31. Okay, I'm still up. Oh. As an eagle. That's a...

That's it. Like, he only gets the one up. It's a giant eagle. So what's your movement? 80 foot. Flight speed. 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 50, 55, 60,

65, 60, 75, 70, 70, 70, 70, 80. So one movement gets you to the corridor leading up the stairs. May one dash. You won may dash, that would be your action. I will duck. Can you see anything? Not from here.

Stairs up, yeah. You fly up the stairs, and as you enter the corridor that was leading into the lounge, with your eagle hearing, you can hear like chaos. Like, you can hear, like, there's definitely, like, sounds of, like, people escaping the lounge. But what you see is Darling has got the guard basically grappled and is choking him out metal gear style.

Like, just has, like, a big, orky bicep wrap around his neck, and he's like sleeper choke holding him unconscious. Now, he could break free on his turn, but at the moment that's what she's done. She's basically attacked him, initiated a grapple, and then done unarmed damage, and he's trying to, like, knock him out, basically.

But he could break the grapple potentially. In which case, can I come out of eagle form and bonus action healing word myself? Yes, you can do that, yeah. In which case... That'll... Is it a free action to drop out? Yeah.

Sweet. It's bonus action to assume animal fall. It's like when Transformers transform. Um, no. I will cost it at... I'll leave you that and then we'll move on. Just for the mechanics nerds, I'm casting it at level three. Perfect.

You are de-transforming after 180 feet in one turn so you are going to momentum-wise slam into a wall. The eagle can stop and then transform back. Given that I was right next to Peridow when you blasted her, I feel like I think I said this. Let's not do physics. I took a bit of like, boo, butt draft. I'm not doing physics. Daisy.

Hello. I don't take a shot. Alejandro. Perfect. Who? Alejandro. There it is. There it is.

21. 21. 21 will hit. Not 21 points of damage. Not 21. Not to hit. 29 points to damage. The arrow thuds in, but he is still, like, kind of like,

kind of like similar to glitter and that. He seems to be a pretty solid agent. He sort of twists with the blow. It scrapes along his side, but doesn't quite fully impact into him. Anything else on your turn, Daisy? You are currently in Perid's office. No, I'm good.

You're just going to stand where you are? I believe so for now. Okay. In which case, we come through Alejandro's turn. This guy is getting the fuck out of here. Yeah. He is going to, he will move, provoking an opportunity attack from Rowan.

Would Ophelia get one? Yeah, Ophelia is technically conscious. Yeah. Stop his ankle. Yeah, you don't have your veracity, though. Dagger's. Nope. Seven.

23. 23 will hit. Yeah. I should attack you. Uh, nine damage. Nine points of damage. So you kind of slice at his leg. Managed to get like a shallow cup,

but not enough to like hamstring or like prevent him moving in any way. He's like, ah, bitch! As he gets to the door. Whoa! He turns around, he glances around, looks at Vricks. My friend, I suggest you help me get out of here and stop your friends from following me. And he's going to call him. Can I cast him as well again?

You have... Oh, reaction. Thank you. When did you last do it? You took your turn at the end of the last turn, so I think you've got your reaction back. It's okay. I've got counter charm. Counter charm?

Counter charm? There's a bard thing? I can't spell his counter charm. We'll need to tell me how it was. Yes, I will. You're sure you have something about right. As Kim reminded me. Yes, I do have it.

Yeah, yeah, he does, yeah. But I, this ability, like, even before in, like, it's rarely used. If you are a creature within 30 feet, fails a saving throw. Thank you, Katie. Against an effect that applies to charmed or frightened condition,

you can take a reaction. I'm not sure suggestions causes the charmed condition. Is it not? I think it used to, it didn't, but now in 2024, they changed it because it didn't used to make sense. They gained the charmed condition for the duration. So yeah, so do you have to make a roll or is it just automatically? When they fail a saving through. When they fail a saving through.

I can take a reaction to cause it to be re-rolled with advantage. Okay, well, unfortunately, Rix's saving throes are not great, especially her wisdom. system saving throw. But let's find out, where's your spell, save DCs? Okay. That would be a failure for Vrix. Okay. So they can do it again as a reaction.

But with advantage, with advantage. Okay. Cool. With the advantage, that pushes it to a 17, which meets it, beats it. Yay! So three roles.

You see Vrix, like, one of her hands starts rubbing a hat and she seems confused, like, mm-hmm, yes, stop my friends. than danger. She seems to be being affected by the suggestion. So what does Rowan do to counter this? Like, what is he actually doing? I think it would be more of an actual pleat,

like looking at Vricks, because we had this, we need to save our friends' scenario, so it's just maintaining eye contact. So it's not, nothing is said, it's just your presence. Yeah, we catch eyes wherever those eyes are. Yeah, she does have eyes,

but they're just like little beady black dots. And it's like a pleading. Well, I think, like, sees that, sort of shakes her head, snaps out of it, and then you just hear this, like, loud, this kind of rumbling, coming from inside of thorax. You try to control my mind. No, I don't like that.

And just looks towards out. Are you in danger? You're in danger. You see, like, he's so frustrated. You can tell that he's so used to people just, like, failing these spells and have, like, Daisy resist. and now Vrix has resisted it.

He's, like, genuinely, like, pissed. But you're also starting to see a bit of fear come through his mind as well. Where is Rix, sorry? Frick's is this giant knoll in the middle, next to Farrier currently. But also he's running for the fireplace exit. Yes, which is currently open.

Got it. I think as... So he cast suggestion as a bonus action. Lay down. No. You cast it on me. I think I probably have less wisdom. and Frick's.

He doesn't know that. Also, Vrix is, like, big and bulky and strong. And, like, for his purposes, you probably wouldn't do that. Like, because you could just be like, oh, I'm going to try and stop you weekly. Whereas, like, Vricks would be like, I'm going to block the doorway. Well, you wouldn't attack them. Because all he suggested was that you help him escape and, like, stop your friend. There's a benefit to look in this miserable.

Yeah, exactly. You could blast a hole in something. Yeah. To give them an escape. But if someone pushes me, I'm done. I think that's all he can. Was it pushed over by stiff breeze? Oh, no, wait, of course.

He can bonus action dash. He's got the same thing as the rogues and stuff. So he will go 30 feet up the corridor, which is basically he's at the top of the exit stairs, basically. So I will put him on top of this bookcase as a reminder that that's where he is. So he's still reachable currently. He didn't have enough movement to get all the way out, basically.

There is also that. fake drunk guard up there as well that could assist him. Yes, what happened with him? He just got shoved, I completely forgot about him. He's obviously clearly left and did not come to join before. He also up there, absolutely not.

You know what? Not a dynasty. Well, after Alejandro, it's Ricks's go. Oh, Bricks. Charge and Vricks. So, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Unfortunately, 30 gets her to the bottom of the stairs

and she doesn't have like a dash action. or anything like that. Anything to throw? She broke her gun. That's why she'd be out. I mean, I guess she could dash to get in range, right? Yeah, I think that's what she's going to do. She's basically just going to dash and catch up to the...

Where are you going? Come back here, music man. Could she just pick up an entire table and just fling it upstairs? I don't know. It'd be pretty funny. She could grab this table on her way. It'd be disadvantaged because it's an important... It's up to you. It's up to you.

It's up to you. Rick's like sees that she's not gonna catch up to him. So just grabs this like round table and then just throws it at him. All four arms. Disadvantage. Come on, Bricks. She still hits.

Oh my God, get tabled. Just barely still hits. Incredible. I will say that table does a D6 of damage. Yeah, but it's like Raven Home and Half-Life when it goes right through the middle. Unfortunately not. It's sharpened this edge.

So that's gonna be... Why are these tables sharpened like razor plates? It's like Kung Lao's hat. Yes. Yeah, that's a probably a problem. You know what she will do though? She makes that an inspiring strike, so you will get advantage on your next dirty title.

Whatever your next D20 roll. Amazing. You're completely... Quite inspiring. Yeah. That's only until the end of your next turn as well. So you can't save it. It's just like, use it on the surface. Yeah, she just grabs it, like,

Where are you going, Music Man? And then just chases him up the stairs. I love breaks. After breaks, we come to Xanthias. So I cannot burn anymore because I do not have the spell slots to Well, what you find is the room begins to return to its original temperature.

You feel exhausted Zanthius. Really? One level of exhaustion. Oh, shit. You're still getting used to this power. It's your first time that you've had it run out in this way. Yeah, so exhaustion. Just one.

So minus two to ability checks and minus five feet of movement. For every level, yeah. Yeah. Okay, and it's also, so that the burn that everyone got, which would have been at the start of my turn, that doesn't happen. Doesn't happen because you can't maintain it. You don't gain any heat, nothing happens. Basically, the whole Manor Zone collapses.

The room returns to its original temperature. The flames that almost seem to be clad around Xanthea's light armored dial. away and you see that he is physically exhausted. Okay, well, I will try to stop Alejandro and help Vricks. I will, keep in mind, Vrix is basically giving him cover because you have to, like, shoot around her, basically, because she's at the top of the stairs. That's fine.

I was thinking of doing a whole person. Oh, yeah. So you can still see enough of him. I just need to move, like, 15 feet to get to the base of the stairs. Sure, I'll move through the second. I will do the same three now. And yes, wisdom, uh, 17, say, please. Is this a charm effect?

It's not, is it, I don't believe. Paralyzed. Paralyzed. So he does not get his, um, advantage on this. And he doesn't have, like, ability to spend fate and stuff. Um, wisdom, you say. Yeah, I think you might have quite like wisdom from memory. Wisdom, you say, wisdom, you say.

Uh, that would be 19. Fuck. 17 plus two. Um, shit. Okay. And bonus action-wise, can you retrieve? Can I retrieve him? No.

I believe that. I can't do it. No, it's I can pull small objects towards me. How small is he? Not that small. Okay. What if I pull the table back into him? No.

It's not a small object. No. That's all I can do. That's me done. You try and reach out with the magic, but just being exhausted and he's in such a panic. He does not want to be locked down right now. and yeah, you are unable to.

Yeah. So at the top of the stairs, basically currently being grappled by Agent Darling, a very, very weakened looking guard is going to try and break free. Fails. That's his action. Yep, that's it.

Okay. So, Ophelia isn't a long time, but I'm guessing you guys don't want to give up on Alejandro. You want to catch him, right? Yes. In that case, we will stay in initiative. Farrier, Will move up next to you, Xanthius.

He unfortunately doesn't. Does Amelia get a turn? She had her saving throw and then she's not gone yet. So she goes after Farrier and that. So she's already had a turn. Because she did your death so. And failed. He can't heat metal again.

I think he just snatches up Glitters Dagger and he will start making his way up the stairs as well. trying to chase after them. And if he dashes, he'll basically get to where bricks is as well. And the two of them are surrounding Alejandro now. Okay. Punch me in the back of the head as he went past. So, no, he doesn't, no.

He doesn't care about you right now. Glitter death saving through. No one does. What the fuck? Harrier does. Faria does. Ophelia. Cool.

It's now your turn. Yeah. Ophelia will stand over glitter with a dagger. I love this song and dance, but your time on this mortal coil has come to an end. Do it, do it, do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And yeah, Ophelia will plunge the dagger down into her...

With advantage. Yeah. You don't need to roll. Like, she's helpless. If this was me attacking you, obviously, I'd still attack, but I'm not going to make you do that. She already weakened, already had one failure. And attacking her,

finishes her off as you just plunge it in. she, as you sort of begin to go in, you can see her winting pain, she's just like, I had a really good time. And it just finishes her off. Yeah. And she's dead. It's dark, man. To be fair, that's how I want to go.

You have 15 feet of movement left. I'm just having a great time. Actually, no, you've got more. You've got super fast movement. You've got 25 feet of movement. I do. I have things to do, though. Sure, stay here then. Do things. Do things. Do things. Do things. Yeah, I think Ophelia will start just

just because she's desperate to get it done, she will use, like, her, like, some of Glitter's blood and some of Ophelia's own blood and start drawing out a ritual circle around Glitter's body. As, like, this is all going down. Now, I think we can all tell what you're trying to do. So what I'm going to say to this is,

Glitter, if she's not a willing soul, you have to, like, force her to go to the Great Lands. Which you've never done before. You've maybe read about it. Maybe it's possible. but you can certainly try but it will be like a test it won't just be an instant guaranteed thing

because her soul is probably not going to be willing unless you can convince her soul to be but we'll see what happens I would say drawing this ritual circle you've already done an action so I don't think it's going to go off this round roll a D4 for me dokey

see how long this circle how intricate it need it need be one that's good that's great so that means basically So your next action, you'll be able to finish the circle. Cool. Then you can start trying to do this ritual. Awesome.

I make him the sup. It's cool. It's great. It's cool. With that, we then go to Rowan. Villea, what are you doing? I have work to do, Rowan. I've work to do. Carry on. I'm busy. Okay. Where's our... He is at the top of the stairs.

Vricks and Fari are basically, like, blocking the way up to him now. Right. And a broken table. and a broken table. I will storm up behind and if I can reach him, you're going to be like 15 feet behind. You've got Bricks blocking the doorway, then Farrier, then you.

Just going to stop him. I'm going to prepare an action if he tries to get past me. No, no, no. He's at the front. He's out of the door. Oh, he's out of the door. Ricks, then Farrier, then you.

So you are like behind the other two and he is already out, basically. Right, right, right. Ricks is like right behind him, ready to pounce. In which case, dissonant whispers on him. Nice. Yeah, yeah. I'd say you can see him enough to cast Dissident Whispers.

Wisdom saving throw of 15. Preetie's. Is this a fear or charm effect? Does it cause the frightened condition? It doesn't actually say, so it's just... If it doesn't say specifically frightened, then it doesn't. No. That is 14 plus 2, 16. That does beat it by 1.

Unfortunately, he is, yeah, just still resisting these spells. Half as much damage, though. Half as much psychic damage, perfect. It's also probably not bad that he doesn't spend his turn right away. He is looking very bloody, like he is not looking good, I should point out. Seven points. Seven points. Oh, so that's not already halved?

No. Okay. I roll pretty bad. So three. You try and get something into his mind, but whether it's the pure panic, whether it's the distraction of whatever the hellophilia is doing, it just doesn't quite land the way that you want it to. Okay.

And doesn't quite strike. Anything else, Rowan? No, I think that's it. Okay. Agent Darling literally just continues to try and choke this guy out. Got to sleep, go to sleep. It's the 10, like, ugh, in. Yeah, it's like 18 seconds of this as well.

I'm just watching. Supervising. Admiring. Yes, well done. It's slightly terrified. Yeah, I would be. 30 points of damage to him. I think that at this point, like, you just,

Gruff, you watch as this guy just, and then slumps and just go still. He's not dead, he's unconscious, but specifically non-lethal, Tim. All right, well done. Yeah, no, we need to make sure that we at least got somebody that we can get information out of. I'm gonna go make sure, I want to see if any of the others up here are running

or whoever's left. We need to make sure we contain as much of this as possible. Also, I'm gonna make sure that if any guard are coming, I'm gonna try and deal with them. and deal with them. You and your friends, you and your pals, I'm talking to a big, I know, you're not a bird anymore. You and your, like, you need to find it.

Like, they must have records, they've got ledgers, anything you can find, when you find that stuff. Alright, do you don't want any help from me in? Oh, wait, I'll just drag this guy back there, okay. Just leave him here, like, I don't think anyone's gonna come back here, like maybe get him behind the door that leads down, but leave all this up here to me.

I'll take care of this up here. Is there anything you want me to do with the people up here? think I should be aware of or anything. Don't kill anyone? Well, no, you just saw me knock this guy out. Come on, sweetheart, I'm not doing this. Look, I'm really stressed right now.

Yeah, me too. All right, you go, and then that's it, that's going to be, yeah. And then it goes to you, Gruff. I will drag this man just where, like, just drag up to the top of stairs, you can shut the door. No, there's one at each side. Yeah, just drag.

That's true. One is dead. One is very much unconscious. Well. Well. In fact, I'm just going to drag him all the way back down into the room, like... Dragging him, you probably won't be able to.

Not with your normal gruff speed. Don't forget, your now, your movements less now as well. I'm just a boring old... Old man. So you can get him down to, like, the corner of the corner of the end. Just like, put him down nicely. I will. I'll move him in a minute because it's not... It's definitely most of the work.

Just kick him down. Break his neck. I'm not you. I'm not Sophia. Break his neck. All right, cool. End of turn. Yeah, so I'm just going to make my way back in and in the daisy chain just be like, Right, we've stopped the guard.

Darling's going to guard the top room. Daisy. Hello. I'm guessing that I'm probably not going to be able to see Alejandro. You can see him. He's going to have total cover, which is like a plus five AC. You can still hear him, but he's just going to have a big AC. Yeah, I'm not going to bother.

What I'm going to do is in the Daisy Chain C, I heard her put something away through this door earlier. In a drawer or something, we need to search the office. We also need to let that prisoner, the person who was being interrogated, we need to let them out. We can't leave them here. I'll go for him. Okay.

I want to start looking around this room. I want to look at some of the drawers. I want to have a look and see if there's a key on the floor, isn't there, that she dropped. There was a key. It was the one that she used to open the door. Yes. Okay. I will pick up the door. her items. Well, there's quite a few.

So if you want to pick up the things that she's left behind, it's probably going to be your turn, because there's quite a lot. I will do that and locate where the drawers are for the next turn. Sure. So what I would say is basically, what she's left behind, like, you know, it's not like there's nothing left,

but it's like the bones are like almost like, they're breaking apart. Like there's just a streak of ash. It's just an ew, ooh, ooh, ooh. But what seems to be of been left, behind is anything that wasn't mundane but was magical in some form. First thing you notice is that

there is a full suit of studded leather armor. She was not wearing studded leather armor when you fought her. She had like tight leather trousers, but they were thin. She was wearing a blouse. She was wearing like pretty light boots. These are like grieved boots.

These are like shoulder pants. It's like a full like rogue set of studded leather armor. I forged the net 20s. You also would see that her leather satchel, she had like a kind of satchel. kind of silky pat, like silk satchel, that has remained. An earring, like a gold little earring with a green gemstone in it has also remained.

Also her dagger that she was using also seems to have been left behind. And then the other thing is a key that you saw her, there was the key that she used to open the door. Okay. The main door into the office. Okay.

You can tell... Are the rings on the floor? No. You do remember that she had tattoos, rings that seemed to glow when she activated them but she didn't have any physical rings on her. The other thing you would, the other thing you would be able to tell is that she clearly had other things on her. Like there's something that's like a slagged piece of metal that looks like it maybe it was another key. Like the gun completely

ruined. Like it's a good thing the powder didn't go off in it. You know things that probably would have been spare bullets. So she has like, you know, there's a puddle of gold, like melted, like burnt, ruined gold. And you can go... That's what I can smell. That was worth so much. It doesn't look like it was that much. It looks like a small handful.

Like a good handful of gold. But yeah, unfortunately those things are all completely ruined. But those other items remain. And then when you look around, you're currently in the sort of middle of the office, and there are two things. She was stood next to a vanity. You can see that there's like makeup and like ointments and skincare things. but also had these four stones around this giant arched mirror.

There are also two wardrobes on either side of the bed, which has these like draped kind of princessy, gauzy drapes all around the sides of it. And then there is a writing desk to the side, which also has drawers. So the two wardrobes are like closed. They could have been the noise that you heard. Or there's a drawer on the writing desk.

The vanity doesn't have a drawer. Okay. So you don't think it's anything to do with the vanity. But that was what she was going for when she came in here. Yeah. I think I'll probably move towards the desk for the writing desk. Okay. Yeah.

And so that that's basically your full turn. That's going to be your action, bonus action and movement to basically do all of that. Perfect. Alejandro, he's got a very angry bug woman chasing after him. He's very hurt. He does not want to be here. And he knows that if he gets caught, that's very bad. So the first thing he's going to do is bonus action Misty Step.

and I will leave that to linger in the air for a brief moment. Let me check my spell slots because I can counter spell, I think. You can't counter spell before as well. Yeah, I just need to see if I've got a third. Now, I will remind you, count of spells change. It's not automatic anymore.

It's now a saving throw. I mean, I want them captured. I want Vricks to get the attack, so I will counterspell the misty's day. Okay, all right. Constitution saving throw, I believe. Yes, it is. Constitution of 17, please.

17, okay, he has plus two to this. No way to gain any bonuses. He didn't get advantage, can't spend fate on it. That's a natural one. Great. Nice, hold on. So he strums like the lute, or he sings out on Aria, and then you just kind of snap your fingers,

the ruins flare to life, and the spell breaks. He doesn't, he like, he like, no clips. He briefly turns like semi-to-smoke and then reform solidified, and he just goes like, fuck. He just screams, fuck. I don't think he wants to risk getting heart anymore. So he's going to

action disengage and then move 30 feet down the alleyway. But as a free action, he's going to start yelling. They're killing me, they're killing me, they're trying to kill me. And he's yelling that to whoever can hear basically. Oh, yeah, that's a legit strike. Um, Ricks. But he deserves it. Ricks does not care about his Christ.

Like, she does not care what people think. Like this man tried to get. in her brain. He tried to kill you guys. She wasn't here. I don't know if Ricks can hear me over the aggressive buzzing. No. But just knock them out. Just knock them out. Oh yeah. Make a persuasion with disadvantage. Yeah. Maybe fate. Is it worth it? Yeah. We need someone to talk to you, right? This could be a crime. You got a guard. We do have a guard. We got a guard.

That's just a hired guard, though. Yeah, he doesn't. Unnamed Gart, you just called him GAR! He has a name. He has a name. You just don't know his name. I will fate it because we need someone to talk to. Okay. I've got four on fate with disadvantage.

I, well, I lost a Nat 20, unfortunately. Oh, is that not? But I got persuasion. Is it very correct, charismatic? Unnatural 20. Nice. Unnatural 20. Ricks, you just see this head snap round at you like,

mm. That's a different. And then she charges. She does hear you. You see that she is pissed as hell. But her first attack she's going to make with a horn. Fuck the halberd. She's charging at him with her horn.

Her remade horn. And she's going to charge... Cabab him. Where's my... That is going to hit him. It sadly does not kebab him. Oh, my God. But it does hit him for seven.

And then he has to make a strength-saving throw. He fails, he's knocked prone. Nice. Okay, uh-oh. So from like a bystander, this guy's running out gets... Gord. Slammed by the name.

Drag back into the alley. She knocks him prone with a horn, and then I think she... She only has just enough of him to get behind him, so she can't push him back into the alleyway, which is with a halberd I was going to try and push him back. But I think... I think knowing what you've just...

just said, rather than a halberd, she puts the halberd in one hand, and with one hand, she's going to try and grapple him and then drag him, and then throw him back. So I will do... How deep into the main thoroughfare did this guy get out of the alleyway? He's at the...

So he got 30 feet down the alleyway, so he's at the mouth of it. Yeah, at the very edge. So, this is what I'm going to do. Now that Rix has had her turn, I'm going to roll a D-100. I'm going to roll a D-100. Now this is, I mentioned this earlier,

this is a very popular plaza in the Volt Watch District. This is like a really, like, well-to-do, nice area. This is going to be the chance of somebody that would do something about the shout. Because a lot of citizens would be like, I'm not looking at a seat-life. How many feet away are the guards?

I mean, it could be. Do you want it to be? How many feet away are the guards? One feet. He's there. So, I think... Hold! Well, well, well.

In the Vault Walk District, I'm going to give this that there is a 30% chance that there is either a guard or a civilian who would like try and get involved like a brave civilian who's like something bad is happening and I need to help not just a bystand who's just going to be like

they might still go and get the guards but they're not going to do anything about it immediately I mean this is 30% chance so is it 1 to 30 or is it 70 to 1 to 30 we're going to do so any 31 and above you're safe Okay. Well, you might be all.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a 58. Oh, okay. I'd say on a 58, though, what you do, like, you guys don't see this, but Rick's does. There are a couple of, like, because this is quite late at night, and there's, like, maybe a merchant

coming home with his, like, his wife, and, like, he, like, hears this. He sees a man in a shadowed alleyway, like, they're trying to kill me, they're trying to kill me. And then this hulking shape, just, like, br, and then grabs him and, like, throws him backwards.

He's seen it, he might go and get the guards. Okay. But we don't know what happened. So we don't see what Rick says to that guy. Rick says successfully grapple him, but she hasn't got any movement left to drag him back or anything. She's just got her claw on here. So for now, Alejandro's speed is zero as long as he's grappled.

He could try and Misty Step again, for example. Zanthius. My turn? Oh, God. Comes around quick. Yeah, it's come around quick. I think I'm... It's just you guys in Alejandro now, basically.

I think I'm... done in the fight, to be honest. Like, I don't think I can go up and massively help and run out spell slots, and I've just gained exhaustion. So I think I might come back into the room. I don't need drinks anywhere? Yeah, yeah.

It's like a cabinet in the far corner. Pour yourself a big... Lazyly just grab something and just sit on a table and just like... I just said to you, we need to search. I'm looking... I just found. So you just pick up a drink and drink it? I think I'm done with the fight for a bit. I found a fine vintage.

I didn't find a poison drink, did I? Probably. You know that they poor, you, you, you can I have a concert? I rolled a D-100 for it. Can I get a constitution saving? But like, I didn't pick up the drink they served us. You don't know. You do realize, this is a highly...

That's hilarious. I rolled a 92 on my D-100, so give me a con save. Alright, you're fucking... Sure. I rolled to see. I love it. 23. 23.

You definitely feel like this one, you kind of feel like your head get very drowsy. You're already very exhausted. You got minus two. You don't forget minus two though, because you're exhausted. Oh, but yeah, okay, so yeah. You're still fine.

This is some sort of, like, sleeping draft, and you're, like, struggling to keep your eyes open. Oh, it's swill. You do not gain the poison condition. But you nearly did. I rolled. Okay. I was like, I'm going to give this, like,

A 20% chance he gets this one. I'll go pick up another one. Try again. Double does. Oh, you missed that one. Try another. Okay, I think at this point, because you all get to act before Alejandro.

So with Rowan, with Farrier, with Ricks, I think that's enough to basically, especially with him being grappled, I don't think he can really get away at this point. Farrier will run up and just starts pummeling him, like gut punching him and stuff. And I think like, yeah, like, Roman,

what would you do? Like, he's still conscious and like Vrix is trying to drag him back. I would just assist, honestly. Just go up and help drag him back and things like that. And maybe stop the pummeling a little bit. We want him to be unconscious. Well, to a point.

It's going to cost spells. Yes. Okay, all right. Stop that. stop it. I'll just grip his arms. You get to couple in before you do that. Stop pummeling him. No, he did, because on his turn, he would have got a couple.

He's already dead. I think that, like, yeah, in the hands of Ricks as well, like, this guy's just, like, there's not really much you can do. He's, you know, he's not gonna be able to, he can't misty step again, I've used most of his spells, so. Yeah, can I, uh, uh, uh, actually it's a bard. There's no focus or anything. Okay.

No, no. But you could bind his hands. And you could put a gag in his mouth. I'll take the loot away. Yeah, yeah, you can take his loot. He's like, mm, kind of struggles with it, and then Vrix just grabs him. I think at this point, I'm going to take us out of initiative.

All right. Because Ophelia is alive. Alejandro is captured, the guard is captured. So at this point, we can jump out of initiative. Does Ophelia get a turn to complete the... Well, I was going to jump to that. Okay, cool. Because now that we're out of initiative,

it would basically be Ophelia's time would be next, which is you finish drawing the ritual circle. And then everybody is then... and present to see what you do next. Hello, everybody! When I sit at this table. So Daisy, you were searching the room, so we can come back to Daisy and do the search

in a second as well, but we'll jump in with Afeel. I'll try and keep you vaguely initiative, but we're not gonna be like a hard initiative, basically. So if anybody else wants to jump in, you can, like, on a scene. Ophelia, is this for, um... Yes, this is, I believe they're a worthy candidate for replacement. Okay, carry on. Or I die!

So... Don't do that. I'd rather not. Don't do that. By the way... Don't drink that Good to know, good to know That's the bad stuff So you're

Are you gonna continue? I'm gonna continue on Okay what gruff? What's gruff doing? We know the Rose Dragon, Alejandro back and we're checking with Daisy I'm gonna go for the room that The prisoner was in Okay And see what is going on Yeah, you move up and the door is not

locked You can see that When you open it do you look inside first or you just immediately step in? Oh look. You look. So the room is incredibly bare. There is a single chair to which a very beaten, bloody-looking man.

Young man is tied. That's what you see when you look in. He looks like he's got very tanned skin. His clothing, at best guess you'd think he's like a traveler from the Azar Step. Like he's not quite dressed. same as Rowan, but you've seen a few travelers when you went there to Yalt and things like that. He looks like he's from the Azar Step. So he's got very tan skin.

You can see that like all of his clothing looks like it's like designed for like hard weather and stuff like that. He is one side of his face is just completely swollen. His jaw looks like it is being broken. One of his hands, all of the fingers on his left hand have been like snapped and like broken. Why did you have to know that thing with your hair? He also, you can see his shirt has been like ripped and pulled off of his body and he has like deep lacerations all over his body. Like they went to town, or glitter went to town on the sky.

He is barely conscious. Luckily because the door was closed and the way that we work with spells like Xanthius, his manner zone didn't get in here and stuff like that. Because you do think, gruff, looking at him like any severe trauma, like even minor trauma, will probably kill this man. He is in a bad way. Okay, I'll tell you everything. I'll immediately step up to him and cast cure wounds at level three.

Okay, so you cast cure wounds at level three. You see the lacerations sort of heal themselves, but like the broken bones and things like that. Level three is probably not. You can give me a medicine check though, Graf. You see the, and you can see like the swelling goes down in his face. He sort of is coming to, coming around, looking a bit more alert. Dirty 20.

Dirty 20. You know, I would tell you this. I mean, he's in a bad way, right? And obviously, like, hit points for you guys, that's not always necessarily physical injuries. This is going to take something. Healing spell will work, but to heal, like, his broken bones,

like his jaw and things like that, I think it's going to need a fifth level healing spell or higher. So basically, but you also will, like, there's no way he can talk with that broken jaw right now. You hear, like, I don't know. Like him trying to... And it sounds like he's pleading, like, please no more

and things like that. Don't worry, don't worry. You're okay. You're safe. I don't worry. It's okay. I'm here. I'm here to save you.

It's okay. He's just so weakened and slumped. There's not really much, you know, he says or does. But I'm gonna jump away from you, because like, that's, you basically had like a little turn, like, stepping... Oh, the other thing that you would see, by the way, is like, as you turn around, like, on the wall behind the door, there is a table and you can see that there's like,

there's like a thing to heat up tools, there's like bloodyed blades, there's like vice looking devices. It's a torturous room. You also would notice the other thing, stepping inside here, Gruff, you cannot hear anything that's going on in the other rooms.

Like all the fuss with like Vricks and everything else, no sound is coming into this room. And it seems that no sound is leaving this room. Even though it's like a thick stone nothing's coming out. It's magically silenced. Thanks, I'm really sad now. Yeah.

Daisy, let's jump over to you. Rowan, do you still have those spectacles? I just, I think there might be some... Let's put him here, put him here. Some magical things in this room that might be of use looking into. I turn away, and then I flick back around with the glasses on. on. Hello.

Are you activating the Spectacles of Secrets? Yes. This is the last charge. You feel the magic flares and you will get result, but after this they just become mundane spectacles. They're just like a pair of black horn-rimmed glasses. They're not sunglasses, they're like reading glasses. They're not like the Batista from Bladernawana one. Oh yeah, no, we did say they were like little Ponsnais, didn't we?

Yes. But they're like reading glasses, they're not sunglasses. Yeah. And if a secret door or trap is within 60 feet of you, the wand pulses and points at the one nearest two. So it only works on the one near. If there's more than one, there might not be. You are in paradise, right?

Yeah, you stepped into it. I would say that when you do that, Daisy, the drawer glows blue. And Rowan sees that but tells you that the drawer glows blue. You see it? Yeah, the drawer. They put something in the drawer. I know they definitely put something in the drawer.

Be careful because it could be trapped, magically trapped. I don't know how to, can someone help? Santhius. Yes? Can you dispel right now? Can I dispel? I know you're busy drinking. No, I'm not anymore, no, actually bad stuff, bad, bad stuff in there.

Dispel, you say. Yes, please. Dispel. I cannot. Given that we can't speak to, um, I look at the stain on the floor. Just the bones and chalk and ash. She's smeared. While you have that conversation, Aphelia, what are you doing?

Yes, I think Ophelia will, if you'll finish her ritual circle, and then she'll just, she'll stand over to where Gliss's head is, stand there and just try and summon energy from the Gravefather. Try and summon his presence to her. Okay, let's do this as a series of roles. Okay, cool. Now, failure doesn't mean that this doesn't work. The more failure you get,

perhaps the greater consequence will be. Or perhaps there will be a price to pay later. So, I would like, as you try and channel the Gravefather's energy towards you, that to me sounds like a religion role. Cool. There is one point of fate left. You want to save it for future roles.

Save us for the last one if these go bad. It's not a democracy. You can just choose to use them. Six. Six. Okay, well that's like even with the six. A slight soul playing. A slight soul playing.

Please hear me, please. You try and channel. You beg and you plead. Coldness does begin to fill the air. And the room grows dark beyond the circle that you've created. Just like when the herald came to see you. There is no beautiful sarcophagi or chalices or temples, just blackness. and a presence of cold.

You can vaguely hear your friends chatting, calling out, you know, calling for Xanthias to come and dispel. You can hear the sounds of shuffling. Maybe Ricks and Farrier, like, throwing Alejandro onto a chair, Vricks, like, finding something to tie him up with. But it becomes very muffled and muted. Please, please, please. It begins to echo, please.

And that's where we're going to leave it for now. When we jump back on everyone else. Gruff, what about you? Let's just jump between the despair. Yeah, so I think gruff being gruff, he would spend his level six. Cure wound. Well, I've got cure wounds and heel.

Whichever you would like. Would the medicine check have helped him figure out which spell? The heel will be better because the heel is more powerful. It's used on you. Yeah, like that is an incredibly powerful healing spell. Not enough to regrow limbs or anything, but you know, almost you're certain that this will mend any broken bone.

I will cast heel on him. Okay, you cast heel as... What does this look like? Tell me more about what Gruff is actually doing, rather than just I cast heel, like, what is Gruff doing in this moment? So I think it would be with Seren. Like, so Seren, so he's...

Gruff is trying to, like, undo bindings. Like, you know, he's mopping his, like, mopping the blood away, tending to him, almost panicked because he's never seen someone in such a bad state. He's never seen a victim of torture. This is a very horrific thing to say. Yeah, he's horrified, he's panicking, he's shaking.

But it's Serran that comes from him, almost as he's doing these ministrations, he starts to glow. And Seren just gently settles perhaps at the crown of the guy and starts waving her wings, just very softly, like, you know, batting her wings. A cold but not unpleasant. Like a refreshing cold breeze begins to flow into the room. You almost begin to hear the sound of rolling waves and the ocean. As Serran perched on the back of the wooden chair,

her claws kind of digging into the blood-soaked wood, begins to flap her wings. And as she does, you, I mean, you hear, like, snapping as fingers reset back to their original place. You see swelling reduce and reduce and reduce. Still leaving the skin a little yellowed, a little bruised, a little purple, but the swelling goes down. And as it goes down, you now realize,

oh, one of these, like the eye that was underneath where it had been swollen, you couldn't see, but the eye has been completely ruined. Beyond, like, heel is not going to replenish that. That would be a regenerated spell. But one eye has been completely, like, you know, ruined. But you hear something snapping the ribs, clearly some broken ribs,

and then the jaw kind of... Thank you. Oh, I'm so sorry for what was done to you. Are they? What happened? To them the typhling, the golden typhling, what happened to her? She's dead. Good.

Spits on the ground. Malia and Sin Pyrrish curse her name forever. God, what a job this was. May I ask your name? Jarlane. My name's Jarlane, friend. Thank you. I'm gruff.

A thousand thank you. Gruffetheth of Tremoro. Grotheth of Tremor. Thank you. Thank you. May I ask, how did you end up down here? It's a long story. Have you got any water?

Oh, of course. I'll take it some water. And as you give him some water, we'll jump back over to the others. So Xanthius, you are called in with Rowan and Daisy. You can see Rowan is, like, looking through the spectacles at a drawer in the writing desk. And you can see that there's this faint blue glow around the drawer itself. So Daisy and Rowan and Zanthias, you guys are in the office currently. I'll just be at the door for now because I will look in.

I'm sorry, I don't have the man. magical energies to dispel that. Does anyone else have any way of getting through? I'm worried that it's kind of... Keep in mind, the blue glow is because the spectacles reveal a secret door or a potentially trapped object. It does not necessarily mean it's a magical trap. Oh, of course.

It is just that it has revealed that is the closest trap to Rowan right now. And I'm being very... I've said what I've said. Can I keep walking in? It doesn't change. Once you activate it, it's a one and done, and you've got no more charges left. I will say this.

Foolishly, this is on my bed. I'll give you a little hint of this. The door that leads into the room technically would have been the closest track project, but we'll say that you took a few steps in and you were closer to Daisy when you cast it. But you maybe get a brief glimpse that the door leading in here,

the door knob and the door frame also briefly closed blue. I'll give you that one for free because that's my fuck up. Okay. Okay. There's no guarantee, but we should play it safe in case maybe it's one of these, if it's activated by the wrong person, it destroys all evidence.

Does it have a, does it need a key to open it? The draw? Yes, but it doesn't look like it's the same key that you picked up. It's the one that's a mound of metal on the floor. The lock looks very mundane. There's no or innate runic sigils or anything like that. or anything like that. The door leading into this office

was a lot more ornate and fancy, and that looks like it has, it matches the key that you picked up off of her. Which is what they've been doing is tapping the, tap the door, gnaud, and then they unlock it. Whereas this one, it's like, you know, like a Rhinisc, it's just that little classic black little keyhole. It just looks like one of those, basically.

I can protect whoever wants to start rooting around in this room, but it's up to you. I can't magically help you right now. There is also, just as a reminder, there are the two wardrobes, there is also the vanity. There also appears to be like a trunk at the bottom of the bed.

I forgot to mention that as well. Maybe Daisy, you're best adept it. Although I'm more than happy if it is rigged to take that pit. Does it seem like it's... If you would like to learn any more, it would need to be checks to learn more about this thing.

Can I, looking at the... key that was on the floor. Mm-hmm. Wow. What you assume was a key. Does anyone have mending? Mending only joins things back together, like a broken seam.

It can't reshape something that's been like melted, for example. And you would need to know the exact shape of like the teeth and stuff. Ariya? Huh? And you see he's like, you see he's now, the adrenaline's kind of run off and he's like, rubbing his horn and he's, oh man, what have I done?

This is a bad idea. It's okay, it's okay, welcome back, buddy. No, come here. Come here. This is bad. Come here. What do you want? Come here.

I'm not going in that. No, come to me. I'm not going in there. Come to me. You come out here. No, it's hug time. Not right now. Like, Zantis, I mean it.

Not right now. This is... Hey Zanthias, can you get your friend to tell me if this is trapped and what kind of trap it would be? Okay, well, it's hug time later. Have you ever been in this room? This room here, Paradise Room.

No. She didn't let me in her office. Only Alejandra and Glitter allowed in there. Okay, at the very least, do you know how to close that fireplace exit again? Yeah, there's a latch on the inside that we can, but we need to close the upstairs the way that we.

I'll get the door upstairs and then I'll close this one. You got the guard, right? You got the guard that was running away. He got got got, right? Easy chain. Graf said that I already said it. Oh, you did say as you came in, okay. Yes, God's gone.

Guard, well, guards dealt with. Okay. The outside guards are still going to know, but we've maybe bought some time, maybe... We've got someone upstairs that's dealing with that level of the building right now. All we need to do is just close that, and we're fine. And he goes up and... You see him go up the stairs. I won't say what happens at...

I mean, I want to watch him go up because I'm ready for him to... Okay, so you're at the... You leave the office and you're now watch him go up. Yeah. Perfect. Daisy Marone, are you guys doing anything else before I jump away to Ophelia? Should I search more things in here, or shall I try and get information out of Alejandro?

If he's still awake, then that'd be good. If you can ask him, then can I try and take a look at this drawer in the desk? So what exactly are you doing? Are you looking? Are you investigating? Because investigating is a bit more physical. Perception is like you are just looking at what you can see to see if there is anything unusual about what you can see.

But that will only reveal information that is. available by site. Investigation will reveal any information. And it's also like, are you investigating the drawer or the desk? I'm going to be very specific about this, because these are like, this is where you have to like search things. It's got a lot from things regardless, isn't it? You don't know?

It might not. I guess investigate. I feel like investigation is probably more useful, but my perception is way better. Then it's up to you what you would like to do. You might be able to spot glyphs or something like that. Can I do perception for the drawer? Give me a perception roll. You've also got time.

This is not like a you need to get this in one role. You've had advantage from bricks. It would be on the next D20 roll you make. That would be, yes. So God. Good memory. Oh, I would have allowed my constitution. 24.

So with a perception check, you look at the drawer itself. Pretty sure that, yeah, this is not the same key as the door. Pretty sure of that. the blue glow is beginning to fade at this point. You sort of look, sort of scanning around, there is nothing on the surface of the drawer, on like the front of the desk, even like looking underneath.

24, you say, I would say that like, no, it's more, you're looking at the drawer. You don't see anything about the drawer. Like, you can't see, like, a trip, like, you can't see, like, a switch or anything. like that, there's no ruins, you don't see any runes, like nothing inscribed into the drawer itself, at least the outside of the drawer. You don't see like any signs that there is like a false bottom to it or anything like that is what I would say. But that's all you can really glean from a perception check unfortunately.

I got nothing, guys. It's more that, it's not that I'm worried about it. Traps. Trap. I'm worried that it will destroy whatever's in there. That's why I'm being careful. Well, I'll tell you this for free. If you investigate, you're only at risk of setting off the trap with an investigation if you roll really badly. Like, you have to get really low.

An investigation is fairly safe. But this is going to be one of those roles where you can't just try again on investigation, unless you do something different, unless you find a new way to, like, investigate it. This is the writing desk. Yeah. This is the writing desk, yeah. So, let's jump over to Sister Ophelia. And then we've all been stepping over this.

And then Rowan is going over to interrogate Alejandro. So we've currently got like multiple. Kind of stepping into the room where this is happening. Ricks is like claws on his shoulders, other hands on the back of the chair. You see that she's tied him up with, she found like some what looks like climbing rope with a grappling hook in like a chest.

And she's used that to tie him up basically. And he's like, the hook is sticking into my back. and he's just like, good. But Ophelia. Yeah, I think after not getting what she initially wanted, you sense that there is a presence. You've opened up a connection.

But nobody's talking, nobody's coming to speak to you. You ghosted. She is just pleading. Like, I imagine she's got some wounds and, like, her side. She, like, takes her hands onto the wounds and, like, holds her blood up to the sky. And just like, please, Graeffather, my Lord. my saviour, please accept this soul into your eternal kingdom

so that this cunning spirit may provide an advantage in your eternal war. Please, please, flesh for the mortal, blood for the eternal. This soul will be eternally entwined to you. Please, hear me. I would like a constitution saving through. Okay. Yeah, let's do a saving through. 14.

14. Phelia, you take 14 damage, not resistable, it's just straight up damage. Oh shit, I watch you all. It's fine. It pours out of your wounds. You offer it. Yeah.

It is being taken. The blood begins to pull out of you and you don't know if it's going to stop. And as it begins to pour out of you, you begin to hear something. The darkness of the room grows stronger. Your friends' voices grow. even more muffled, and you begin to see a faint outline of an archer in a long dress with long hair,

pulling her bow, and you hear glitter. I had a pretty good run. I suppose I'm not really worthy, am I, like they say in church. Church, can you imagine? But here you are, Lady of Death. Wait, where are you going? No, no, no, where are you going? Come on, where's my...

And then she looks around, and you see, almost formed out of your blood. almost like a ghost that's been coated in it and it's running down her face giving her vague form you again here to continue our little dance and she's like, where are my weapons what have you done? What is going on?

Plans for you glitter. There is work to do. I'm not working for you. I work for the diadem. I'm not working for you. You're not working for me. I've seen your spirit. I know what you are capable of. Yeah?

And? There is better work for you. Better? That's a rather bold claim, don't you think? You don't know anything about me? Better work. What could be better than what I had? I got to have all the fun I wanted.

I got to do whatever I liked, because the diadem knew what I was about. They knew the skills I could bring. An emerald. Oh, emerald. What a... It's like a father to me, you know. He spoiled me rotter. and gave me all the best interrogations, sent me on all the best killings.

And it may continue if you wish it to. What do you mean, continue? How? I'm dead. You killed me. How can it continue? You could become glorious, an eternal warrior, for a kingdom that will give you everything you love. And just to be clear, because, you know, I'm used to working for rather shadowy organizations. When you say everything I love, you are talking about, killing, hurting, torturing, yes.

Eternally, you say. Eternally. Roll a persuasion with advantage. She is a good candidate for the great father, isn't she? Is she? Maybe. Natural 20. Oh.

Yeah. Tell me more. And with that, we're going to cut back over. It's all like within the... This is, you all... Anybody, like, so Xenthius, because you're the only one currently out here who would really see this.

Yeah. Because, Rowan, you've come out, you've sort of walked past Ophelia. Ophelia is, like, sat on her... Like, she's like, on her knees, she's drawn a runic blood circle around Glitter's body. She has both palms, like, pressed into it.

Like, she's almost, like, lurching over Glitter's body. Her hands in the ritual circle. and she does not look good. Like she looks really rough and pale. And you can see her lips moving, like, she's speaking, but you can't hear what she's saying. And her eyes have like rolled back up into the top of her head.

Like she's, I, B-V-R-R-W-W-W-W-A-W-E. Exorcist like on here. But Grah. Sorry, what was this chap's name again? This chap's name is, B-B-B-B-B-B---- Jarlon. He would tell you, Jarlin Asker.

J-A-R-L-E-N, A-S-K-A. Jarlen. A-S-K-A. Yeah, Jarlene-A-S-K-A. I'm in that room right now. Yeah, I'm in the silent room. I can't hear whatever. Yeah, John and Asker.

You asked me how I got here. It's a bit of a long story, but it doesn't start here. I'm sort of a mercenary of information. Not a sell sword, but when people want to know stuff, I would work for him. They'd hire me. and I heard of a job, some merchants in Guildi. They wanted me to spy on a rival of theirs, another merchant, but a gold dragon born.

And, uh... That one? They asked me to look into what he was up to. They wanted to find dirt on him. They... he's too successful, too influential, got all the right deals. And... Not me. ...started to investigate.

And I followed them around. They came here to kill Scaris. I followed them. Started looking into what they were doing. Learned that they were caught up with the diadem. I'd heard of the diadem, but we'd never really crossed paths before, not people I normally would want to mess with.

This merchant, he got involved with them, and I could tell that it was big. Whatever deal they were making, it was a big one. And then one night, they jumped me. They must have seen me spying on this client of theirs. They jumped me, dragged me here, and then glitter. She went to work on me. Kept asking me what I know, who I told, what did I, what I had learned, who I was working for.

Pretty tough. I didn't break. But I was close. If she'd come in to me again, I don't think I would have survived another round. What was the name of this merchant? The merchant. His name is Calzanus. He's from Oriscal. Uh, handsome, young, gold dragon ball, but human, human-like.

Don't suppose you know if this... This dragon ball... Does he have any links to... Have you heard the name Oragonus? I don't think so. He was operating under a different name. Um... A popular merchant.

name, Taravato or something like that. I'm not 100% sure. I'm sorry, my mind's a little bit foggy still. But no, Oryganus, that's the gold dragon. He's the Duke of Orescault. As far as I know, no connections to him, as far as I know. Sorry, what was the name of the merchant you were following again? Calzanus. K-A-L-X-A-N-I-S.

Calzanus. But yeah, I was following them, and that's when they grabbed me. And did you find anything out about this, uh, Kalizanis? They were doing, I knew that there was some big deal that they were organizing with a diadem, like really big, important. He, it's all been done through one of their leaders, Mr. Emerald, I think. Oh. Ah. It's big enough that Emerald's been dealing with it personally. It's been leaving this lot here to run the district. There was a deal going down, but it hasn't happened yet, but I don't know when or where.

I never found that out, sorry. But he must be important enough if they were willing to grab me and do this to me. They were worried that I knew something or I told someone. Anything I really remember, I mean, he seemed on the up and up, all of his business dealings, I checked into them. It was all pretty legitimate. Lots of big shipping, lots of transferring of, you know, large amounts. of grain, all the usual guild-eye merchant stuff. But he did seem to, seemed real lucky.

A lot of good fortune coming his way. Got all the best deals, managed to, you know, buy grain just before there was a blighton, the farms, that sort of thing. There was a big shipment coming from Orescal to here. That's part of the deal with the diadem. I think that was the last thing I really knew. I followed him for a while, but mainly kept to himself. There was, they kept sending, there's a red Dragonborn

that kept coming to meet him. Dragonborn didn't seem particularly pleased about it. And, you know, usual, met with a couple of business associates, nobody that suspicious. There was one, there was two, though, that stuck out. A couple of days, maybe a week or so ago, this dwarf, like a professor. Like somebody from the academia.

He arrives at Calzanis's estate where he's staying. It's accompanied by a couple of, I'm pretty sure they were diadem, goons. And then that was it. That was the last time I saw this dwarf. I never saw him again. And there was someone else as well, somebody that stood out because, man, she was a beauty. I don't know if they were lovers or what, but like she was blonde.

Another gold dragon born, gorgeous, stunning. She came to see him a couple of times too Orathera, that's her name I think that's about all I can remember right now, Grav. And who was it you were reporting back to? Listen, you saved my life, but they're merchants in Gildai. You saved my life and you healed me.

His name is Lord Halsanai. He's pretty reclusive, lives quite far out from the rest of, rest doesn't seem to be particular popular, but he's good. Like, he's a good guy. Good dragon. I've done some work for him before in Guildy. Always pays, never asked me to do anything that I don't want to do. He, he was the one who was most concerned about this Calzanis, seemed to think that there was more going on with him than anything. I appreciate what you've told me. Appreciate what you did. I don't, look, I'm not good at this information,

business. I'm an honest man. I can tell. I can just tell you maybe. I think those Dragonborn, I think they're brother and sister. I can't confirm it. I want something about them. Obviously, I couldn't be sure I didn't see her up close. I was never sure if it was a family thing or if they were a couple. But now that you've said it, yeah, I can see that. I can see that. Like this, Jarlin. I don't like this at all. You seem to know more what's going on. You asked about Oregonis. Is he involved in this? I think so. Fuck, that's a big fish.

This is above my pay grade, but I can at least report back to how... I haven't had a chance to send well back to Lord Halsonai, but I can at least tell him about this. You got in here, so I'm going to assume that, and you seem interested in this Kalsanis guy, can I assume

that whatever he's into, you're up against? Yes. I'm going to get out of this city. I'm going to report back to Lord Halsonai. If you're ever in Guildi, come find us. Lord Halsenai is a good ally. Trust me. Gil, look after you.

Do you need money or supplies or anything? No, I've got that stashed away. Well, I can at least... And I'll cast mending on his clothing. Oh, thanks. Yeah. I'm pretty bad if I walked around to... I'm gonna need some new shoes,

but he's like, but don't worry. I'll find those. I'm sure you must have killed someone. If you stay a night, I could probably fix your eye. No, it's better than I get out of here now. Look, one lost eye, it's not that big of a deal. Plus, spies look cool in eye badges. Well, I can't.

No, seriously, you've done enough. And thanks to you, there's no pain. I just can't see it out of it. But it's fine. I'll get used to it. I was a lousy shot with a bow anyway. So, Mr. Emerald, and there's a big shipment from Oroskal to Kevskaris. Yeah.

Professor, by the way. It might have information here about that. I don't know much but from what I could glean Peridot was in charge she didn't let much slip this glitter she was all Emerald was her favorite

she would talk about it she didn't like Perido she followed orders but she didn't like her kept complaining that she didn't like the fact that they kept things between them that they didn't share with everybody so whatever was going on I don't think glitter or the others are going to know much about it

but there's the Red Dragon born. He's one of them and he kept going to see Calzanus. He might know more. There is probably one more name I can give you. The professor, his name is Professor Broxton Brasquil.

Broxton Brasquil. He's from the Imperial Academy and he disappeared recently. Kidnapping? Well, I think he was led here. Right. Well, I don't think he's here anymore. Like I said,

I watched that estate. I knew all the ins and outs. Unless they've still got him in the estate, I think they teleported him out somewhere. That would be my guess. Kalsana seemed pretty pleased that he had been brought along. Thank you. Thank you.

Really? I owe you everything. Find me in Gilday. Can you stand? Yeah. Thank you. And you can feel that there's strength back to this man. And like that heel spell has like rejuvenated him completely. You know, any exhaustion and things like that,

I'm going to say that like it's kind of like he's pushing through it. It's still there, but he's got enough strength to like get out of here. He, you see him go up. Before you go? Yeah. The door shut, right? Yeah. It can be.

You say you're an information broker. But also information doesn't come in and out of here. So whatever you say in here, nobody else can hear. You're an information broker? Yeah. Can I ask a favour of you? Of course you can. I hear you way more than one favour.

In your travels, if you find a wild art who looks like me, but younger, Talison of Tremorro, if you see him if you find him, please let me know. My sigils are golden sparrowhawk. If you get a letter

with the insignia of the golden sparrow, that's me. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. I'll get you out of here. I'm, you imagine you've got more work to do, but yeah, let's get out of it.

You open the door. There is a scene. It's like that pizza scene. A little bit, but I think that, like, this guy does not, he, like, moves over, he snatches up, like, the sword from the guard that you killed, pulls off the guard's boots, puts them on, slips it into his belt,

and just, he's gone. Like, he doesn't speak to the rest of you. he does not want to be here anymore. So unless anybody actively calls out to him or anything like that, this guy is gone. I think we can probably see on Crofts, like as you come out, it's all gone well. I would nod, and I would be Vrix.

Let him go. Oh, no, I'm worried about this one. That one I'm assuming was being held here. Good. Let them go free and just grips the shoulders. Ow, stupid bug. Be safe, Darwin. Good shit, Kim.

Good shit. What a night. And with that, we're gonna take our break as it is halfway through the episode. But I think that's a great point to take our break on. Oh, so much information just from that one place, yeah. And it's the rest of this place to go through as well. I figured a level six heal man, like.

Oh, yeah, yeah. You healed him to the max and he is more than happy to share with the one who saved his life. Good job. And the potential ally for the far future as well. Yeah, that's really good. But with that, we're going to take our break. We'll see you back in five minutes, everybody.

Nice. See you in a bit. Bye. Goodbye.