High Rollers DnD - Bound in Blood | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #116 (Part 2)

Episode Date: September 3, 2026

Ophelia's blood ritual takes a surprising turn! 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 pmcf walk.ca. Oh, hi there, listener.

Gustavo Sorolla here with the cast of Tales from the Stinky Dragon podcast, and we're about to set the record for the quickest D&D session. Everyone roll initiative. I got the highest roll with a 19. I moved 10 feet toward the listener and say, Hi, I'm Barbara Dunkelman. You should listen to our show, Tales from the Stinky Dragon. It's an immersive D&D actual play show with a fully voiced cast of characters,

plus sound design. And then I finished my action with a high five. Go ahead and make a dexterity check. That's an 18. Oh, that's a good high five. I rolled a 16 on initiative. I walked over to the tavern piano. I play a sick song and say,

Hi, I'm John Reisinger. Wow, do you hear that? Tales and Steaky Dragon also has its own original score. It's like a movie, but for your ears. All right, yeah, go ahead and roll a performance check. That's a tune. Not your best, John. Okay, but I promise the show is actual music sounds really good. Okay, me next.

I moonwalk up to the listener. What's up? I'm Blaine Gibson. You should really check out the show. It's funny, heartwarming, and perfect for everybody. I'm talking D&D veterans, people new to the genre, old people, babies, everybody. And then I do a backflip. All right, roll an athletics check.

That's a net 20. Okay, that leaves Chris. Hi, I'm Chris Damaris. Please subscribe to our podcast. And then I draw my sword to attack. No, put the sword down, put the sword down. Get them, get them, get them. Now it's your turn, listener. Subscribe to Tales from the Stinky Dragon wherever you listen to podcast today.

Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Althea, the Dragon Empire Part 2. Our heroes have successfully disabled or defeated the Diadem agents hidden within the Opel Lounge. But now, each of them have been sort of driven to their own little investigations or their own needs and desires. As we find ourselves in the basement of the Opel lounge, the secret diadem hideout, with a number of different things happening at once. Gruff has been speaking with the prisoner, the tortured prisoner, Jarlane, who has given a lot of great information in exchange and perhaps earned the party a future ally. as well. Daisy is currently investigating Peridot's office looking for any evidence or clues

or information that can be found, knowing that having heard her earlier that there is something at least in here, she believes. Rowan has gone to interrogate Alejandro, along with Ricks, whilst Farrier is currently closing the secret entrance into the den being closely monitored by Xanthius.

And then finally, we have Sister Aphelia Deloosa of the House of Blood. who has begun performing an insane, necrotic ritual to try and offer glitter's soul to the great father. Just in the middle of the room. Just in the middle of the room. We keep having to step over them to get in and out.

Oh, I smudged your rituals. Let's jump in. Let's start with Rowan, talking with Alejandro. So you can see that Ricks has got him bound. He's like got tied up with his rope. Like his hands are like firmly bound behind his back. so he can't do like somatic components for spell casting. And Ricks has basically got all four of her arms on this guy.

Like her weapons are like leaning up against the walls. She is like prepared to grab this guy if he makes a move for it. And he sees you approach. Hello. I'm Rowan. Hello, Rowan. You probably know that already. I was made aware of you, yes.

You also suddenly appeared in our lounge. Okay. Yeah. What happened? You'll give visibility. I cast a spell. It happens. I felt so embarrassed.

You should. But here we are. Here we are. Here we are. You have your big bug? And you've got your embarrassment. I do. I try to run away.

Now this could be easy, or it could be kind of more glitter-esque. I like easy. Good. So all we need to know is a very simple question. Okay. Inside that room, where your subordinate was obliterated. My subordinate? You mean my boss? Sorry, yes, I don't know words.

Okay. It sounded good, though, right? Yeah, the one where I saw a beam of fire. Yes. I hear Peridot of scream. And that was it. I'm assuming she's dead. Oh, there's just a stitting.

Just ash. Just bones and... Terrible. It's actually quite... It's horrible. It's horrible. Your friend did that. I know.

It's a monster. No, well, he's misunderstood. He's complicated. My friend, I... I... I can fix him. He like leanswood. Roland.

We can call each... I can call you Rowan. Can I call you Ellie? I like Al. I can work with Al. I can call him Al. I used to think I could fix glitter. You can't fix monsters.

Right. Well, either way, you're not a monster. You should watch out. Your friend might incinerate you next time. Yeah, I'll worry about that. That's my problem. That's not your problem. Your problem is... You seem like a nice guy.

I want to look out for you. I try to be a good guy. Yeah, you seem a good guy. Vricks isn't. No, I don't like the bug. So all you have to do is answer this question, and Vricks won't tell you limb from limb. Okay.

Which I can't stop. I have tried, trust me. As nice as I am, Vricks, once they're set on something, they will do it, and they are very angry at you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. So there's some stuff we just want to get out of a drawer. Is it going to be destroyed if we open it? You see, well, here's the thing.

Your threat of me being ripped limb from limb adds not so scary to me right now. Because if my boss, the other diadem, which they're going to find out, by the way, Like, don't think that capturing me or anybody else is going to stop Emerald, Mr. Emerald, learning about what's happened. It's going to happen. When he finds that out, if I don't report to him, he's going to think I've betrayed him,

and then he's going to activate my, I have a magic tattoo that he can kill me with. We've seen this, yes. And cause me immense pain. Yes, we've seen that. So, I don't like the idea of being ripped apart by bug, but I'm going to die anyway. So here's the thing. How about this? Yeah, we won't kill you.

Let me make an offer, okay? Yeah, but you maim me, and then I die anyway. I get double dose of pain, because then he makes me suffering. That would be awful. How about this? I'm more than happy to help you if you can get rid of this type of. You get rid of this? I've got, I'm in your debt, and maybe I give you all the answers.

Maybe you just blast you off. But that's kind of like, that's non-negotiable. I need that done before I can do anything. anything else. Right. How do we get rid of it? I don't know. You got people who know magic? You seem to you know spells. I can't do anything with that tattoo. How do you know? We could just cut it off. We don't have a lot of self-belief. No, it doesn't work if you cut it off. Does it not? You sure? It reappears. Yes, we get told this. It reappears and also it counts as trying to remove it. And if you try and remove it and it doesn't work, it triggers. And if it triggers twice,

I'm dead. Okay. Hard bargain here. Yeah. I'll ask around. Sure. You go back to your team, let them know my deal.

Just keep them here for now. Yeah, I'm not going anywhere, bug. You can stop squeezing me now. I don't think that's a negotiation either. Sorry. Okay. Bricks enjoys squeezing. Well, you know, I take it.

But yeah, non-negotiable, get rid of my tattoo. I tell you what you want to know. Otherwise, I don't really have good incentive. to really tell you anything. Okay, well I'm not good at this. No, you're good. You're good. This is a good conversation.

Oh, thank you. I'm really trying, actually. This is a good negotiation. Thank you. I tell you what I want to, tell me what you want. Now you go speak to your team and see if you can prove. Yeah, so I did all right. Yeah, it's good. Okay, good.

Thank you. You're good man. Thanks, Owl. We'll jump over to Xanthias. So, you're sort of at the bottom on these stairs watching Farrier. And last occurred is, yeah, like my visual of him is just the, the light coming from outside, just a silhouette of him at the top of the stairs.

But like the last, he was, he rejected my hug, which is criminal. He did. But he, what was it he said? He was, it was just general fear stuff, right? He's basically saying it's a lot more complicated. You see he switches the inside switch

to close the outer secret door. And he turns and sees you look at him. You think I'm gonna... What, you're afraid I'm gonna run away? Of course I am. I know that look in your eyes. Right. I want you to know

that if you try, I'm going to try and stop you. I'm not trying to trap you here. I'm not trying to bleed information out of you. But you are? I'm not. I won't want them to do that. But if I try and run, what? You'll incinerate me like you did do.

No, I'm not going to incinerate you. Whole person at best. I don't want you out there on your own. Well, you don't have to worry, I'm not going anywhere. There's no point. He makes his way down the stairs, kind of gently kind of ushers you back in the room, and then he turns to the fireplace and flicks a switch,

and the fireplace park closes as well. Do you want to... How much do you know about the diadent? Like, you got in here in your disguise, but, you know, So you must know something, right? Have you tangled with them before? Yes, they... They attacked me in the academy.

Right. Are you aware of that? Yeah, I heard about... Well, I heard that we sent a couple of agents to collect a bounty. I didn't know it was you. Unfortunately, yes. I mean, there's not much I could have done if I had known it was you, but... But you have power now.

I have a small amount of power. at nowhere near what you used. Like, nowhere near. Well, great, consider me extraordinarily indispensable. I want to help you out of this. And clearly you're powerful, Zanthius, and it's the only reason that I'm still here is that having seen what you just did,

maybe there's a chance you can help me. But there's complications. The diadem, well, they have very good reasons. They have very good reason not to fully trust me. And I didn't join them very willingly. And then he lifts up his shirt and you see the same cursed tattoo that Nick's a hand. Shit, okay.

You know what this is? Yes, I do. How do we get that off you? Great question. All I know is they told us that if we try and remove it, it triggers. Triggers the first time causes unbearable, unimaginable pain.

We try again. Then it kills us. How much time? Does it have a time limit? Does it... As soon as Emerald finds out what's happened and clues in that I've betrayed them. So we are talking anywhere from six to 24 hours.

No more than that. It won't take him longer than a day to find out what happened. Okay, I have someone I can contact who might be able to help. I can get someone over... That's kind of what I was relying on. I betrayed everyone for you.

Yes, thank you, by the way. Thank you. Not that I did much, but... I didn't intend for any of this to go this way. I didn't expect to see you here. What did you want to? We're looking for information. We're working with people.

I just want to talk to you. I just want to... It's been so long, so much has happened. Yeah. And I miss you. I really want you back in my life. I don't care what happened. I don't...

I don't want you to think... That's because you don't know everything. Look, I was in bad debt with the diadem. Like, I owed them big. And then I get told that they need me to escort you to Kel Scores. That I'm to bring... you here take you to wear a deal where you had to pick something up.

You were a courier. Yeah. And you know what it was. I just knew it was big. And they said that if I did this and it all went okay, they'd call my debt square. Apparently some very, very rich, powerful person was paying a lot of gold to make this happen.

Yeah. I mean, you get it. I'm guessing that's your bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I'm sorry it went that way. What happened in that room?

I don't know. It just... I don't recall. I... You don't remember? I see glimpses of it. But... I...

You know, it awoken... It awoke some kind of magical power in me. thank you for what I don't know I just if you're blaming yourself

for that don't no I'm not blaming myself for that Zentheus like as far as I knew you were picking something up and taking it somewhere it wasn't a big deal and it was an easy win for me I don't blame myself for that I'd do it again

but you got away you got out of here all I remember is you staggering up the stairs of where we were, I couldn't even move. And you staggered up the stairs and got out of here. When I had enough strength, I tried to leave, but they found me and they caught me and they dragged me back.

And that's when I had this. And he shows the crown steel. And you see he's like pulling on his big leather, lead-lined gornlets. You should put these on before your friends get too close. You don't, it doesn't. Mine's protected. Yeah, of course it is. It's, yeah, it actually is.

No, it genuinely is. No, I know. Yeah, I know. Of course it is. You walk away from that explosion like nothing's wrong. You get out of Kelskiris, you get away from the diadem,

and of course you don't even corrupt the people around you, so you get to have all these friends around you. Do you know what I've had the last, God knows how many months, four, five months? No one. Because I can't even get near anybody. The only people that have been able to, to get nearer is a psychopath who's trying to experiment on me.

That's all over now. It's not. Not until this is gone. And I'm gonna help you get rid of it. Like I said, I can just message this one person who might be able to solve it. A person knows about me, about this, about everything. You say the word me and I a lot. I know. I don't care of...

Zanthias, right now my focus, it's great to see you. I'm glad you're well. I'm glad you got all your friends. But right now, if I don't do something about this, in 24 hours, I'm dead, gone. And I have suffered for the last five months. So if there is a chance that you can get rid of this, that's the only thing I care about right now.

I know. I'm talking about myself a lot. I'm... I want to help you. fix this. I want you out of this and I want to recover what we had. Well, first step, message your friend. Because you're not going to be able to recover anything if I'm, well, if they kill me. Then just come with me. Then just come with me. Let's do it. Great. Oh. Hi, Zan. We need to remove a tattoo.

Oh yeah. Alejandro. Yeah, it's very important if we've got. can remove this tattoo. Does anyone, do you know? No. Okay, I'll keep asking, and Rowan walks away. Okay, nice, perfect. Let's jump to Daisy.

Can I? We'll also say gruff, by the way, like, as this, like, you overhear like the last bit of that Zan and Fariya conversations, they sort of come back in after Jarlane's left. Rowan's just finished talking to Alejandro. So like the three of you are currently in that central together, Athelia is by the door and you can see something is going on, but you're not

sure what. I haven't left the video. No, you're still in the office. No. Maybe you see like just her on the ground outside the door. But she's... She was on the ground last time I looked. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

She's not dying. Yeah, she's not dying. There's not a blood on the ground, but... That's just Aphelia, doesn't it? Yeah. Can I try and disable the track on this drawer? You can. it's going to be hard because you don't, if there is a trap,

you know that there must be, because Rowan's short of the spectacle. So you know that there is a trap, but you don't know anything about it. You don't know the trigger mechanism. You don't know what it is, how it's going to work. So that is going to make it really hard. Can I investigate first? Yes. So that would be the thing is if you investigate and you're successful,

and even if you don't roll super high, you might learn something, but the more you can learn through an investigation check, the easier it is to disable the trap. Do you want to say. Oh, I didn't use the fate. It wouldn't have helped anyway. I don't have a three and I don't have any bonus to it at all. So, no.

You know when I said that if you roll really low on an investigation check. What did you get, sorry? Do you want to use luck? Do you have any luck? I have one point. Do you want to use your luck? I would allow it. Fine.

Can you add a... You can add fate? It's 17. Okay. Do you want to add fate as well? Sure. Okay. You had the luck point, sorry. 18, okay.

18. There is this moment where you're sort of, you pull out some of your thieves tools and you're inserting them to try and feel and like, how far can you pull out the drawer? Like, is there anything attached to it? You begin examining. And first of all, the drawer is locked, so you're not going to be able to fully open it until it's unlocked. But as you begin to stretch around, and it's where your luck comes in, because one of your thieves tools, as it kind of reaches the back of the drawer,

like a long, thin sort of wire, you feel. it catch on something like a wire. Okay. And you almost snap it. And then you just at the last second, like NIM steadies your hands. Like you almost feel their presence in your body. And it steals your hands to stop you panicking and tugging. And that gives you enough where you can then unhook this wire and pull the tool back.

But it's a physical thing, not a magical. It appears to be a physical trap. It's not magical trap. and it seems to be with an 18, I will tell you that, yeah, you don't know the full extent of it, but it seems to be some sort of trip wire that is triggered when the draw is opened. Okay.

Yeah. So with that information, can I try and disable it? Yeah, it's still going to be a high DC, but it's lowered because you've made an investigation check. That is a natural 20. Okay. Plus 13. Yeah, 33.

33. You're kind of going in blind a little bit. You know that there's this trip wire. But you don't know the mechanism it's attached. You don't know what kind of trap this is going to set off. And you feel NIM. And you feel NIM's voice. It's all right, little one.

I can sense that there is no magic you. So this is made by men. And if it is made by men, we can overcome it. And she begins, like, you get pictures and images of her, them, on kind of stalking through the Lucent Peaks, stalking after demons and devils who constructed these horrific booby traps in the spaces of the realms. And that kind of gives you a bit of guidance. And as you lean back, you use your tools and you realize, okay,

this trip wire, the tension is what's holding this thing in place. And if you open it, it snaps that tension. So you kind of use your tools and wedge the wire in place and press and hold it. So it has the tension locked in. And using another piece of your Theat toolkit, you kind of like lock that in place. And then you go to the sides and whatever connectors are there, you insert like thin metal sheets, like too thin, like straight pieces of metal.

Performance surgery in here. This is, like literally, like this is such... And you realize as well, with that Nat 20, this is an incredibly complex trap that would have gone off if you hadn't done this. But you feel like you've disarmed the trap. Great. Nice.

It is locked. You will need to unlock it as well, the door. Fuck so. It's locked and trapped. I will try and pick the lock now then. Go for it. Yep, give me another Thieves Tours test. So hopefully it'll be easier. 21.

I could boost that further with my D-10 from my... Would you like to? Sure. I still have... What do I? 21? 24. 24. It takes you longer than you would like. and it's so close to me in success. I'm going to give you the success, but it takes a long time.

So, like, you're there. And this is, like, this must have been such an expensive lock. This is like a 30-pin rotating tumbler. Like, this is an incredibly complex thing. What looks like it should just be a normal little tiny key, you realize there must be something more to it, like some sort of mechanism or something. I did a pastry stat!

And I think what that is is it's going to take you some time, so I'm going to jump over somebody else. But you are, you've definitely disarmed it. There's knacked without a good. Great. That's a lot of checks. Nice to be done, well done. I feel you. Aww.

Smile. Glitter. This kind of, you see again, like, almost like she's invisible and now she's been coated in your blood. Can you make another constitution saving three form? Oh, no. Oh, no.

Oh, wait, how many hit points do you have? Very low. Just three. Take nine points of damage. Yep. Oh, God. I'm down. But you're not really in the living realm.

So this is what happened. The rest of you just looks like Ophelia, muttering, mumbling. Maybe she shakes, convulsors a little, but that's not that unnormal. It's a regular day. Yeah.

You feel very weak. The blood does not stop coming. The grave father, this place, it is taking more from you. And glitter starts becoming a lot more solid. I could, whatever you're offering, I could take. You're looking a little weak there. She takes a few steps towards you.

This is just how much I want you to be in that realm. This is my dedication to you. Is it? Dedication to me. How very kind. Something's talking to me. I can hear another voice here. Saying, well, you see that you are starting to almost turn translucent,

like you're covered in blood too. I could take your body. I could take your body and keep killing. I might even pretend to be you and then I'll kill your friends in your sleep. But she is going to rush towards you and tries to get into your body. Shit. What the fuck? You are currently dying.

Yeah. She is dead. The veil, you have weakened the veil between, you know, she's, like, death ear is, I imagine as well that, like, you would almost hear arrows being fired, but none of them are landing because there's just darkness around you. Maybe you see blue and green flames, like the herald's lanterns, begin to, like you're being watched,

like a gladiatorial arena, just like back home in Osceus, two dampiers, two vampire Nephites locked into combat. Who will be the victor? And right now, it is a contest of not strength,

but of will. I think that this is going to be, because it's a sense of self, this is going to be a charisma role. Okay. So D20 plus just your charisma. Oh! Not today, Satan!

Holy shit. Oh my God! She rushes towards you, grabs you, and is almost trying to pull herself into you. What is it in this moment that Aphelia's sense of self, her conviction, her will, not her will, because will is more wisdom. This is like the sense of who you are. This is the sense of Ophelia, not of faith, not of the great father, no of it, this is of you.

What is it that rebuffs her? What is it that prevents her from taking your body? I think, yeah, I think Ophelia would just stand her ground and just square up to her and just say, I am Ophelia Dellaosa of the House of Blood. My fate is my own. You will not take that from me. And she bounces off of you.

Can you roll a D20 for me, please? Oh, oh. Six. We're gonna jump away from Ophelia. Let's jump into the main room with, Rowan, Xanthias and Graf. So, Ophelia just looks normal. It's not normal.

What's your perception? What's your passive perception? Passive is 18. 18. You, Ophelia convolces. And she's looking pretty pale right now. She's also in an enormous, runic circle of blood. We don't know how much of it is.

Right, to no one going to tell me what's going on there. The thing that you notice, Graeme, is that there's a slight glow to that ruining circle. And both glitter and ophelia are inside it. It's something Ophelia has to do. She doesn't look very well. Looks like Ophelia to me. She's lost a lot of blood.

I'm performing surgery, sorry. On a drawer. And that's the thing is that that extra little bit of complication, which I should have spent a point of fate for, by the way, apologies. that you're locked in, like, you're like so, you don't notice what's going on with Ophelia Daisy. So Ophelia is also like being still, like, held up

by the power of his spell as well. Not like she's on, no, she's on her knees, on her hands and knees, like crouched, like almost like a predator over Glitter's body. Her hands on the circle, almost like she's finished it with her palms. And she's like on her hands and knees, like kind of arched over Glitter's body, but like her eyes are rolled back in the top of her head.

She is still, like, she's not collapsed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, she does not look good. Yeah, but I've got, like, eight passive perception. I mean, I'm leaving this up to. I would start to walk over intending to heal her. Okay. To, like, physically get next to her?

Yes, it would be a cure wound. Okay. When you go to pass over that runixer, something does not want you there. Can you give me a Constitution saving for a graph? Shit. I figured that, you know, it's what he would do. Constitution.

14. 14. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna roll it. It's the average severity for you. This is gonna hurt? Mm-hmm. 26 necrotic damage. And more importantly,

you are like brought to your... your knees. As you like, you don't pass over the circle, but as you, as soon as you get close enough, you feel this weight pressed down on you. And for a moment, gruff, it looks like there is a figure stood over the circle, a hulking nine-foot blue-skinned woman with angel wings, with a helm completely covering the top of her head. And she just is like literally holding a hand, like, stopping you. But it's like, you see it briefly, and then it's gone, and you feel terrible.

Like, you're just forced to your knees unable to take a step forward. You are at the edge of the circle. And Xenthias and Rhone, you definitely see that. Like, gruff is, like, walking, and then just, whom is on his knees. Like, you see, like, his skin, his fur, like, he looks unwell.

Is he beside the circle, or is it? He's next to the circle. Okay, so it's, okay. I'm casting mass healing word. Okay. Level five. Okay. Targeting of first, Ophelia, and...

Cool. Heal everyone but ophelia. Yeah. Interesting. You, Rowan, also see... Roll the exact amount of healing as well for me, please. Yes. You also see this woman, and as you go to heal,

you can kind of see, like, you saw her holding her handgraf, and then you see her again, like, briefly flash. and she's holding up a hand, you don't really see the rest of it. You see like half of her body in this hand. And then as Rowan cast a spell, she brings up another hand. And she's holding like an old school lantern

with a candle, and it sucks the healing magic into it. And she's holding it. So 11 points. Just 11 points of HP. You see the candle dims ever so slightly. It's got like a greenish flame, and when that healing, it dims a little.

Not much, but it gives a little. Let me heal her. You say it's just to be open air? There's no answer. Why would they care what? Why would the Herald of the Grave Father care? What about you? This is his servant that he can do with what he wants.

Graphie okay? You really gotta get you away from that guy. He's such a loser. He's a bad guy. He's not the one that tried to initiate this rich, on, sorry, how much HP? On team? Yeah.

It had to be done. It didn't have to be done. It did. It did not have to be done. It did. Zantheos, would you like to do anything before I cut away? I'd like to use some sorcery points to convert them into spell slots, please. Okay, great.

I will figure out how much I can do that. It's a bonus action to do, but I don't think I can have anything. The thing is, so my plan with Farrier and the tattoos requires obviously the sending stuff. Obviously, the sending stone, the sending stone is in the hotel room. Is it? In fact, because I... Did you not put it in the...

Did you not put it in Rowan's... All of your stuff in Ruan's bag? Oh, is everything in the bag of holding? I believe everything is in... Oh, okay. It's not my Xbox. Yeah, not your Xbox. That's not there.

Vrix is playing, but... Oh, well, can play it. You put all of their equipment in your bag, right? I don't think you know specifically what's in there. You just have their stuff. I know that Veracity's in there. That's true. That's true.

I'm just thinking about that now. Well, I'll leave you guys. to that as we come back to Sister Ophelia. No! So you've rebuffed her, like she cannot now try and take your body, but you can see she's like, what's going on?

You're weak, you're... Are you dying? I think you're dying. What happens if you die and I'm still here? Do I get your body then? No, we simply just trade places. But maybe your friends will bring me back in your body. Trust me, they will not. They will want nothing to do.

with you, only I am interested in you. They won't know. They'll think they're bringing back you, but what if they bring back me? Wouldn't that be fun? Then I can kill them in their sleep. But why trade a different life when you can live a life that you enjoy living over and over again?

Why trade that? So tell me more. What does this entail? Is this part of it? Is this part of your foreign religion? You join the Great Father's Legion. Learn to fight. using weapons. I know how to fight.

You can fight better. Fight powers you've never even seen before. Prove yourself. Kill. Become a commander. Lead a legion of your own. Let the legions tremble at the sound of your name.

No, I do like the sound of that. I know you are capable. You can see she's stalling for time, though. You can see, give me another persuasion with advantage because you're definitely tapping into the things that she likes here. 18. I do like the sound of all of this but would I be like you like a blood drinker? What would I be? You would be an eternal. What does that mean? What would I be? No come on would I be like you. Would I be something else? What?

And I'm dead. Never ending. Like the sound. But this was so... Something delightfully, deliciously twisted about coming back. That would be so boring. I have so much work to do. I don't mind work. I've done plenty of work. And you can command a legion of your own. People that would bend at the knee to do anything that glitter would want them to do. She's convinced, but you get the sense that she's also... She likes it, but the idea of like seeing how this is going to play out,

She's curious about that, because she would certainly love to get revenge on your friends. Why don't you give me another D20 role? Nine. Let's go with days. Don't worry about me. You leave me after a store. All right, fine. I'm just sitting at a drawer.

You are just working on the drawer. Please break the drawer open. I need to think about this. Oh, you want me to think? Okay, sure. That's kind of why I was coming up. Okay, sure. So this is taking a long amount of time, but you don't really know what's going out there.

You're like very locked in. Eventually, spending a lot of time on this lock, you get a click, and it's now open. You know the trap's disabled, no problem. You open the drawer. You find lots of different things. Okay. Keep in mind as well, you've only really searched

the drawer itself. You've not looked at the desk as a whole. No, not yet. Not yet. You've only looked at the thing. What you find inside, first thing that you would notice is there is, at the back of the drawer, connected to that trip wire, there is a large canister of what appears to be highly volatile dragon fire powder.

So the same explosive used for the gunpowder, but this is like a liquidized, it's basically a bomb. And if you had triggered that trap, this thing would have exploded, destroyed everything in this desk, and probably also done quite all. Yeah, I probably would have. You were right to worry about it. Inside the drawer, you find lots of paperwork. You find a couple of ledges.

Tax returns, tax returns. You find a couple of ledges and two letters. One of which immediately you can tell is written in some sort of ciphers. Ciphers. Lovely. Cool. Good luck.

The ledger is not looking brief. Sorry, I thought they said period at the top. No. The ledger that you gang, the ledger seems to be some sort of like accounting book, but at a quick glance you can't really, you don't really know much about it. Interesting. Do you do anything else after you grab these? Is there anything else in the drawer?

Nothing else in the drawer, but like the desk itself is very ornate. Like the writing desk itself, and you know, This is the only visible drawer on it, but there could be more. There could not be. I could be completely selling you a load of bullshit. I guess I will look and see if there's anything else on the door. Perception or investigation. Are you looking or are you touching?

Sometimes there's benefits to perception. You could taste. I'll... I'll... I'll... I'll look the desk. I will perceive initially. Okay, perceive.

That was a natural one, so a 10. Yeah, because you, yeah, reliable talent. I could add another 50. Go for it, yeah. Not 13. Wee. Plus your bonus. No, that is my bonus.

No, but you get your skill bonus, because it goes to 10 plus your bonus. Because you have reliable talent, don't you? Yeah, plus the D10. So it's a rogue thing that you can never roll lower than a 10 on skills you're trained in. Or have expertise. You're not kidding me?

Oh, my fucking God. Yeah, but I'm not in investigation. I'm not proficient. Yeah, I have to be proficient in it. Yeah, still, like. Does that mean, so 19 and then what you got, three? Three. So, 22.

Yeah. Glancing over. Have to be proficient in it. Still. Looking at this desk, there's two things pick up on. There seems to be some sort of, on the green leather, top, you think you can detect a seam around sort of the green leather area where you would write letters.

There seems to be a seam that would indicate that there is some sort of opening that you can potentially open there. But also, you glance under the desk, and you notice that at the sort of lip of the desk, there's like a strange, a section of it that looks like it's been,

not carved into, but something's been, like, added to it. Like, it's hard to see looking straight up, but there's almost like a, raised, something like raised on the bottom of the desk. Okay. Like you would need to, like something you would feel. Like a braille, almost.

Like a little tiny, tiny section of almost braille-like, but it's not braille, but it's like a raised thing. Series of symbols maybe, but hard to, can't see them. Can't see them at all. You can see that there's something, but you can't make out the shapes because it's so delicately done with like the grain of the wood and the shadow as well. Even if I cast light on like my weapon to try and be underneath.

I'd say if you cast light and you spend some time, you sort of angle it and eventually, and maybe like gently touch it as well. You do actually. You feel this. These are the shapes that you feel. So many bird tags for you. It seems to be like two, yeah, hashtags and two Xs

with a bunch of dots. and you sort of feel and can detect that. But we're going to leave you to puzzle over that. I'm not good at puzzles! Well, maybe your friends once they're finished dealing with their feelings. Unfortunately, you're locked in. Well, Kim, but not Groff. Well, I mean, Gruff's got good wisdom, so Kim's wisdom can apply.

Okay, I got it. Right. You're not getting near it with your wisdom. That is not common. I shouldn't be near it with my wisdom. It's under common. Well, Samthias, Gruff and Rowan. I don't know where she is right.

I don't know what will happen. No, I'm not okay. Okay. I'm about to try something incredibly foolish, right? Can you run it by us first? Because I don't know what's happening to Ophelia. Her god is stopping us from healing her. Look how much she's bled out. She looks really bad. That's just great. Middle finger in the sky. I think, look, I need to heal myself and then I'm going to give her some of my blood.

Work by their rules, right? I can give her veracity as well. Maybe that will help. Perhaps, but don't touch that circle. I was thinking of cutting the circle with it, but I won't. All right. What would you guys like to do? Bangor holding.

I think about veracity. You feel the hilt of some sort of bladed weapon. Give it to me. You pull out the rapier. I give it to gruff. I'm going to cast cure wounds on myself at level three. Okay. Can I?

Three, four. I can't. Five. Can I hear them talking about you? I think that you're coming, and I've sort of, I haven't spent some time examining, you're sort of, you're hearing something. All you really see though is like,

Ophelia on the ground in a circle of ritual blood. Um, to 10, 15. They're panicking. Can I? Hold on, 14, 15, 16, 16, 16 plus 15. 31, yeah. 31, yeah. 31 plus four.

I said it first. He was really quick, really fast. I have this ladder here and it's got lots of symbols on it. I just wondered if you might want to take a little. I just got something a bit more immediate, my darling. We think of Phineas dying. What? Can I, before you go in, I want to say this before you went in it,

I can use my glyph of Vegas on you. I'd like to give you. Glagas, that's right. Please. I'd like to give you six of my glyph of Vegas. So you're all six runes. Six runes. You are glowing brighter than a candle.

That's not. You're so fucking welcome. Anytime you take damage, you can roll an amount of D6 as equal to the amount you spend. Okay, thank you. So as all this is happening, I take veracity. Fad of conspiracy. And I will cut my hand with it. Sure. My paw pad. Not the paw pads.

I know. I will call my beans. I will call my toe beans. And I will say, flesh for the mortal, blood for the eternal. and I will try to bleed onto the circle. Oh, words are accepted. She spoke the past. Make a religion wrong. Oh, shit in that.

You do have fate. I will fake that. There is a fate, yeah. So what did they say? 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20. Dirty 20. Filthy. Filthy.

Nalphi. No, like 20. Don't ever see that again. What? What were I? You. Norley. Gruff.

The room grows dark. Xantheus and Rowan vanish. Oh, no, he said. Darkness spreads out. You see Othelia speaking, with a vaguely teafling-shaped figure covered in blood, but stood between you and her is this her. Eight foot, nine-foot.

blue skin, feathered wings, clad in the ancient armor of a warrior. She looks at you, holding this lantern with its green flame. He has heard your plea. But you are not a faithful. What you are asking, you would need to give up something significantly more than blood. You want me to join the legions of the Grapefather. You would need to do something. Why else would he help you?

Sister Ophelia does this willingly. I don't question that. Yes, you do. I just wish to help her. And then you question it. She's dying. Is that not the duty of the faithful of the grave father? If she dies, she cannot carry out this act for her grave father.

Perhaps this act is the last one she is supposed to make. This is what faith means. She does this in service of her lord, mortal. So if you wish to interfere, something must be given. Can I see Sister Ophelia from, like... You can see her behind her, as Harold. And how does she look?

You see that she is partially trying to... translucent herself, also covered in blood, head to toe, Carrie-esque. And she seems to be in conversation. Ophelia is speaking fervently to glitter. Glitter's sort of her tails swishing back and forth, and she's sort of swaning around, taking her time. I think that's the perfect time to cut back to sister,

Ophelia. Oh God. I've gotten myself into a bit of a moment. A little bit. Just a little bit of all the friends. What's just another pledge to add to list? I've got a list. I've got a list.

This can be number five on the list. So you do not see Gruff. You cannot see him. You do not see the Herald. It's just you and glitter in this space. I'll tell you this. She's persuaded that the Gravefather is a good choice for her. You get that sense.

Like she knows that she could find a place here. But she's also testing the grounds. This is a woman. Maybe you even see this connection when she tried to take your body. You get flashes of her life. She was a cruel. She would torture,

hurt her brothers and sisters, kill small animals that she found just to see what happened, see how they would bleed. Her parents, so far. frightened of her. Eventually, her life, her sadism became too much. They kicked her out. They couldn't handle her anymore. Trying to give her to the church, church wouldn't take her. Nobody would. So they just left her in the streets. And then the diadem found her. They trained her,

taught her how to use a blade properly this time. She finally found a place where she belonged, where her gifts were appreciated. You don't, you see a shadowed figure dressed in emerald green, but you never see their face, but you can only assume it's Mr. Emerald, sort of almost patting her on the shoulder, ruffling her hair, very fatherly. But she's also had to fight,

and she has used every opportunity. You see glimpses of her killing other diadem agents so that she can advance, snooping, spying, taking every advantage she can so that she can get head. You think that that's what she's doing now. She's waiting to see if actually does she need you? Or will this grave father give her this choice? If she waits you out, maybe this is better for her to do it this way. She's convinced that the grave father is the way to go, that there's opportunity for her. She thinks she's stronger than you in some ways. She can't take your body by force.

Maybe she doesn't have to. She can just wait you out. But what sort of form? You know, what kind of undead are there? I don't want to be a sack of bones. I don't want to be a zombie. What, what can be? And she's stolen for time.

Like, this is just ranting and rambling. Like, you can jumpstart the process. Undeath is the goal. And frankly, I'm jealous that you get to. Be there already. Be there already. Be coming undeth forever for all eternity. I have to wait my time.

I have to wait in the queue for my chance. Doing all this work down here, mortality is so boring, so long, so painful. You get to be first in line, get ahead of me. What have I quite like the pain? I quite like inflicting it. I like receiving it. There's plenty waiting for you on the other side for as long as your heart desires. You're quite desperate for me to go.

Why is that? Why are you so desperate? You're being so nice. You're being so charming, so persuasive. Sister Ophelia, you don't need to sell me. I'm already sold. But I'm just wondering, do you deserve your place?

Yes, I do. Do you? Do you really? You're here. trying to sell me off. But in that fight, well, I suppose we were both taken down at the same time.

So who is stronger? Who deserves that place, that second chance? Is it me or is it you? Well, if you go and then my time should come, we can find out forever together. You can give me persuasion,

but this one is without advantage. Because you've already persuasion, She needed her a lot. Persuading is not getting you any further. So you can change tactic if you don't want to make this, but persuasion probably is going to be less effective now. How about one last fight for it? We both like to fight, do we not?

Why not? We do. I don't make this a more permanent choice. All right. You know what? I like that. No weapons. No, just, well, raw. raw, bloody, as we're supposed to.

What would you like this to be? Is this athletics? Is this attacks? I think this could this would be pure strength. This would be Ophelia giving everything she has. I think this is two athletic roles. Contested. And this is whoever wins this,

wins the physical contest. Are you raging? I think that in this space, this is just 20 plus your role. Like there's no form. to rage with, right? But then there is a lot of blood, and you are a blood fury barbarian.

Do you have a use of rage left? Yeah, I've got four. And I've not, I've been to use two so far. I will let you rage. I will let you rage. Okay, good. Advantage. Yeah.

Advantage. Oh, no. No, no. You're 20. Yes. Your strength modifier. Strength mod, plus one. What a athletes is.

Oh, no. What is plus zero. Oh, go at it. Jesus. This is animals. This isn't people fighting. This is brutality. This is punching, scratching, biting, tearing as the two of you go at it.

And as you fight, you watch as she becomes more drenched in the blood until she is just red. And you two, two red silhouettes, two red shapes caked from head to toe. Eventually, she's on her knees gasping you yourself barely able to stand. Best one I've had in so long. All right, I'll go. I'll go to your lord and we'll find each other again. And we'll fight again and again and again and you'll be so much fun. Dear Ophelia, everyone I kill, everyone I bleed, everyone that I make suffer.

I'm going to whisper your love. Go have fun. And she turns and walks away. The herald emerges. Gruff, you watch this, but it happens lightning quick. It's like watching something in fast forwards. Like it's happening before you. He's pleased with this.

Offering. You did well. Thank you. So quickly, so swift from your failure. I couldn't let the opportunity go. Thank you. And this soul you have offered is, well, she has different uses to the other. But he is very pleased.

I hope he is... Burned his favour once more. Would you like to speak with him? Yes, yes, I would, please. Your travelling companions are waiting. One of them has attempted to make an offer to him. Who? Wait, who? Who? Who would do that?

I want to save you. You need to be saved, Sister Ophelia. No, no, no, not now, not now, no. Then I will see them away. Thank you. Gruff, you see this figure just. She does not want you. And suddenly you are back in the room.

That's probably good. He's probably fine. He was literally, he'd open his mouth to make a deal. So it was like, yeah. Oh, fuck. You are interrupted before you can't do. Oh my God. Ophelia, the room shifts from black.

Begins to become more solid. Ancient stone. Most of it crumbled, dust scattered across the flagstones, cracked and shattered. You stand before an old iron throne, rusted, twisted, long fallen into ruin, and sat upon it. He sits, his great form, armored head to toe, except for the skull with blazing green flame in its eyes. I did it, see what I did if I did for you.

I do. My child. This was a fitting offer. makes up for your failure. I'm glad. I'm so glad. Thank you. I return you now to the world of the living to conduct the good work. Things are happening in the city of dragons. I know you will.

I always will. I promise you. Would you like a gift before you go? Do you... am I worthy of this gift or I deserve it? I feel like I'm not worthy of this. See this as a test. If you are worthy. Thank you. Yes, I will. Thank you for this test. Thank you for trusting me again. Thank you for believing in me.

See, I said I would never fail you again. I don't think I have. Just stares at you impassively. Nantes, great skull head. No emotion, no response. almost waiting for something from you, expectantly. Um, would you like an offering, my lord? I shall provide you here.

Here, I have, there's so much, I can give you so much. Please, take it. The hands are just full of blood, just... Takes your hand with his giant, own, gourmeted hand. He takes something for you a piece of yourself. What do you offer him? for him. Um, like physically, like a piece of me physically?

No. A piece of you, a piece of Ophelia. Um. Something internal. Oh, sick, okay. Um. I don't, I don't like when really is excited. It's not a kidney.

My heart, my lord, for you. Oh, for fuck. If a skull could smile, you should have been a good. You feel like this would. He would. I'm afraid you still require the organ itself. But there is something I will take.

Your heart, you will be better. And then everything suddenly rushes. Sister Ophelia, you all watch as her body slumps to the ground. I'm going to roll. Blood stops pouring from her veins, from her wounds. You stabilize. You are no longer dying. But something is different, Sister Ophelia.

Something has been taken from you. But something has been given in its place. But maybe it will take some time to fully understand what those things are. But what I will say is it is harder for your heart, for love, that is, to be passionate. It's a little harder now as he's taken your heart. The rest of you. Sister Ophelia, the blood you watch as the Brunic blood sigil melts, turns to black ash and disintegrates.

Glitter's body goes with it. And only sister Ophelia, dazed, barely conscious, still remains. Holy shit, but you're so fucking cool. You should have gone with a kidney man. I know. You can't piss as well. Not really what I was suggesting, but I love it.

Then we made it work. Well, yeah, I'm worried about the extended implications of your heart. You'd be quiet, consequences, boy. Don't you talk about people? Yeah. Anyway, so what's everyone doing? Oh, there we go. She's pleaded.

Yeah, I guess Daisy turns around and you just watch this circle of blood and glit his body just get like infinity ward. I'm gonna pretend that that meant that good things happen. I think so. Ophelia, are you awake? I'm awake. You're at one hip.

I'm going. I'm more awake than I've ever been. That's boring. You look terrible. No offense. Do you like some healing? I want to sit with this for a while. That's weird, but we don't judge.

Gruff, are you okay? Do you need healing, Gruffeth? I'm fine. Sister Ophelia, what happened? I did it. I repented. I saw him again, Gruff. Did she drink the poisoned drink again?

No, that was me. No? Did she drink something else? How much wine has she had? No wine. She seems drunk, and Feele just slowly sits up. I think it's all blood. Oh, wow.

No. She gave him blitter. Oh And it was accepted Accepted So But you nearly died Again

I didn't know what was going to happen But It was for the best It all worked out fine Everything's fine Harry Your sword Sister Ophelia

Yes Veracity yes Passer Thank you Feels good Feels good Feels comfortable. Are you sure you don't want healing?

I'm fine, I'm fine. A good glass of wine will sort me right out. Not any of these. For Daisy and Gruff, Thelia looks a lot more pale than she did before. A lot more pale. There's black veins, upper arms and neck. She looks significantly more undead than she did before.

I think is well like the one. way Gruff would hand over Veracity, kind of both pores out, you would see the slice across his paw pad. Are you okay? You hurt, Gruff? What happened to your paw? I mean, everybody looks a bit of a rough, but that looks fresh. I didn't know what to do. I tried to give blood... Graff... to help. Is there anything I can do? A bandage? Something... something of a gruff. I would be fine. I just, I need to know that you are fine too. Thank you. I am fine.

You don't have to give your blood gruff. It's a lot. Thank you for thinking of me in that way. But you don't have to keep giving up more of yourself to help me. I just didn't want you to die. I didn't want to die either, but it's fine. I mean, it was close, but it was fine. It worked out.

It's okay. But thank you. What did he say to you? Why did you see him? I made him proud. He said he was proud of me. He used those words specifically. Yes.

I am pleased for you, Sister Ophelia. Thank you. I've atoned for what I did wrong. Everything is fine. I don't want to bring it back to other things too quickly. However, I'm just aware that there might be guards that are on their way here. We need to get as much information as we can. Right, what have you found, Daisy?

And have you searched the full room? Not full room, no, I was really busy with one drawer in particular. Did you get the stuff in the drawer? Yes. Oh, Alejandro, we don't need your help anymore. Sorry. Well, you definitely still do, because that one drawer is not going to give you all the answers. Oh, a curious strategy of, well, just keep them in prison then.

I have an idea. Yes. Isanthius. Sissophaelia. Yes. Out of earshot of this one. Actually, join me in the room. You've still got the daisy game. Okay.

And so in the daisy chain, they were trying to give you drinks, were they not? Yes, they were, yes. To make you more pliable. We should drink it too. No. Right. I also had a spell cast upon me as well.

That the spell was making us tell the truth. The drinks, we don't. know for certain what that would do. Right, but they have drinks in this area. And Daisy, you said you saw them drinking something. They drank something upstairs, but that was what made them they could see in invisibility, I think. That's how they were searching the room.

I don't think that was something to benefit them. The ones that they gave you, I think, was bad times. Bad times. Because they kept trying to ask you to drink something, right? Yes, but... Find the drink, give it to Arana. When if it kills them? Then it kills him.

Okay, Gruff. Okay. You're asking me to do this. Santius, go look in that room. That room that I found, uh, Jarlien. Okay. Uh, slowly open the door. See a very blood-stained chair.

Cut bindings. The stone around the chair is soaked. the chair soaked deep, you know, so old and dried and has seen so much blood that it's actually got into the stone itself. Table with knives and vices. A little sort of magical bowl to heat up the tools as they are needed. Oh shit, the closed door. Gruff, I'm not going to do what you ask me to do because that's not what Groff would do. Would they have really given something to kill you?

Possibly. Gruff, you can leave here, you can go upstairs, and anything that happens beyond that point is outside of your responsibility. I'm not going to do what you ask me to do, but I could see it done. I don't want you to be a part of that. You're trying to become a knight.

I'm sorry, that is not what a knight does. Thank you for reminding me of myself. I think this will all be fine. We can work things out after. We can deal with him after. has a hold of him just now. If needed, I don't think they would have killed you because they kind of

need you alive. And in this letter, it says that the boy, if we can grab the boy, I'm sure he'll be a good prize. So, I don't know. I just think that it's probably not lethal. If they were trying to feed you it, I think

they just want answers. But, many things, many answers. That way. Okay, I'm going back to the desk now. The desk and I have unfinished business that's really being very stubborn. Daisy, would you at least recognize the bottles of the thing that made them see magic?

Because we could use it to scout this room. Oh, it's, yes. Pulled my glasses out? Hmm? Can you pull my glasses out of the bag? Oh, what do they look like? Oh, those would help. That would help a lot, actually. The gold side eye.

Gold side eye. It's like a monocke, like a fancy monocle with all like little crystal lenses. I bring out a glass first. Not that one, no. Monicle kind of looks kind of dull on its own, but when it's on me. Dull.

Single lens. Single lens. Lens. Yes, magical. One eye. One eye. One eye. One lens.

Why have you got that from? I don't know. That's from Philly. Oh, here we are. Oh, great. Okay, well, I can detect magic with this. Can you get the Sending Stone as well? Kind of looks like a bird.

I know that one, yes. Sending stone? What is this? I think you can put your hand in here, by the way. Oh, great, give me the bag. Sending stone. I see, every five of your credit. Okay.

Oh, by the way, this is Farrier. Oh, that's a later thing, Zambia, is we need to keep going. They are so excited to meet you. I'm so excited, too. Potentially, maybe if they're not evil. Are they evil? Farrier, I've heard a lot about you.

I'm sure you have. Listen, I don't mean to rush you, but I am on a timer. That's what this is for. Okay. So is Alejandro. and they made a bargain with me because I interrogated them

that they would tell us how to get more information from that room if we remove the tattoo. Xantheists can look around with his magic thing thing. As a point, I know more than just the things in that room. I have information about anything.

Oh, you should have said, Ella. No, but it's his first first thing is this room. I said this is a non-negotiable. I want this. You're dead anyway. Why are you negotiating? I don't understand. Okay, so the thing is, I'm dead if they think I've betrayed them.

Yes. So are you going to kill me? No, we're going to ensure that you look like a betrayer. Well, then I'm dead either way. Why would I help you? Because it's... Vrix is here and it's going to be awful. Yeah, so will the unbearable pain of this tattoo when you kill the triggers.

You get both, which is awful. Yeah, just people who hired you, they're just going to let you go just like that, and you're just going to let that happen and not help us bring them down. I will help you if you get rid of this tattoo. Oh, well, that's just great. Fantastic.

You would do exactly the same deal if you are in my position. Don't act like I'm being unreasonable here. You know what's unreasonable? All right, I'll come join you with them. All right. Great. Can I see the things that was left by Peridol and your letters? Can I see the letter that has my name on it? Well, it says that the...

I don't forget, along with those handouts, there is also just a general ledger as well, like an accounting leger. The professor is out of sight. Oh, the professor. Still knocking around. And then there's this, which is all coded. And then I found these sigils on the back.

bottom of the desk and I don't know what they mean, but there's a compartment under there and I think I could open it but I don't know if it's supposed to trap. You think the compartment's in the top of the desk. It's not underneath it. Yeah. I think I could, yeah. Right. Are those symbols on the top of the desk around it?

No. No, it's literally you could feel them. It's like a kind of, yeah, like as if you're feeling under the desk now. But it's like a braille. Are there books in this room? No. Okay. Two wardrobes and the trunk at the foot of the bed and the vanity. Santhias, can you look at these and tell me if there's magic or anything?

Daisy, can you also look and see if there's traps at this or the furniture? I can't just re-equip a magic item straight. Yeah, you're already attuned to the gold side. I've got a crazy idea. Uh-huh. I animate it, and then it might point out what it, what it can do. Really? Does that work?

It might just start flapping about it. It might unlock itself. What I'm doing to take magic? Okay, detect magic. After this, that doesn't work. The vanity mirror. The four stones, magical. Okay.

The bed and the drapes that surround the bed, also magical. You don't detect any other magic. On the desk? No. Nothing left? No magic on the wall. Oh yeah, it was a physical.

It wasn't a magical. That was the connection with the other agent. Yes. That's what they were trying to get to. Which, by the way, is showing the fairest of them all. She was reaching for the lower right stone on the vanity when I came in here.

Don't touch the stones. That might be the link to... Don't touch the stones, Rowan. I can only think of the Skype call right now. Okay. The accounting ledger, does it have... Can I look at it?

Yeah. It is very dense and very complicated. To properly read through it is going to take quite a lot of time. A skim through is just like rows and rows of like Like just like so much garbage of like transactions and like names and play like it and it is full It is like really dense So it will take time to properly analyze and read through Okay, I'm just wondering if it's part of the sofa

Could be there's another thing in the desk. There's another compartment Can you open it? I can try but I don't I don't know how I don't know how to It works. There's this braille type. There's these symbols underneath. But the compartment is in the top. Can I investigate for that? It would be an investigation, yeah, to try and find the opening mechanism. 11.

You poke and twist and prod at this desk, but nothing seems to give way to you. It's about how to open up this. It's time to have an animated desk where it goes, You know. Animated objects can't speak. It might flap. Can you do it to magic items?

It has to be mundane, I believe, actually. I believe so. Just to warn you that there is where I took the drawer out, there is basically a bomb in the back of the drawer. You should have opened with that. Maybe I won't make it move then. No. Yeah.

Yeah. Rowan just makes the draw pop out and I'm like, cool, that sets off the bomb. Yeah. Animate the bomb to get it to run away. I should make it clear as well. Once you open and took the things out of it, you can't leave your tools in there to lock it.

So, like, you've shut the drawer, but if that drawer gets opened again, you know it's going to set the trap off. Don't open the drawer. Oh, you didn't disable the trap. You disabled it to open it, but it's not completely disabled. Like, the bomb is still present,

and if the tripwires tripped, I really love the idea of animating the Dragonfire thing and be like, go away. It just bounces away. And explode. Yeah, somewhere in the city. Definitely won't cause it. Put it in the bag of holding.

You could do it. You would need to very carefully remove it from the desk itself. Could I may chand the bomb? No. No, no. No, no. Just not even touch it. Don't touch some bomb.

Don't use a ghost hand. No. No, no, no, no. No. Just carry it away. Yeah, no. If you open that drawer, the whole desk will explode and probably send everything in this room.

Maybe the building. It's opened once already. This desk is quite big, isn't it? It's a writing desk. Can't fit in the bag holding. No. We'll solve this later. The bed is magical, by the way.

Don't know why. What kind of school of magic? What kind of school of magic? That's a great question. Maybe it's like a spell of extra comfort. Could be. I'd love that. Could be.

Maybe it just massage you to sleep. It's probably in that desk, isn't it? Yeah, I know what this is. I know I just don't want to... Transmutation. If anyone else wants to try and investigate... I have a terrible... I have minus one.

Is the bed not a bed? I have minus one. I have zero investigated. Should I? Don't worry. Does any other part of this room look like a bedroom? The whole thing looks like a bedroom. It's a little thing.

It's a vanity, wardrobes, dance, bed. I can inspire anyone to do this. Oh, your bardic inspired me, didn't you, before I... I did. I still have the bardic. A D10 to add. Oh, a D10? Yeah.

Can I investigate... I can show you where the seam of the seam of the... the desk that I think opens, it's... I'm just wondering if there's, like, anything in the wardrobes or stuff like that, but okay, where the scene, because the thing is, so this was on... That's the fore... Underside of the desk.

It's on the raised rail. But this is not where this compartment is, this hidden compartment you found. It's not, well, the hidden compartment is on the desk. It's like on the top, on the, like, the green leather section. Okay. That was underneath the drawer. Okay.

That, the ledger and letters and stuff were found in. And it's like a tiny little just raised part of the death. So we just tried to lift like the green bit. How would you lift it? Like there's a thin scene that's a Daisy scene, but it's not like, it's not like an obvious opening. I'm just going to smash it until it opens. Um, no.

Um, please don't. There's a bomb in there. So with my bardic, you have a motive, um, motiness potential, which means you can rerol the barric and choose the higher number. Okay. So we'll be let you check. Can I just look at this drawer that Daisy is, perception, like this.

I think it needs an investigate. Because I've perceived where the thing opens. There's nothing more to perceive. I just don't know how to open it and my investigation failed. You can telekinesis it? Yeah. Right, telekinesis, I don't believe you can manipulate fine. You could like lift the whole desk and smash it.

Creatures are objects by thought. It's like mage-handing. But you would still need to know how to open it. Otherwise you have to physically rip it off. It's going to set off the trap. Yeah. By the way, I'm thinking of calling obsidious right here. Yeah, you should have done that about 10 minutes ago.

Yeah, no, it's just a lot was going on and people were... Go do that. Obscidious. Yes. Okay. And just bring him here. Can I search Alejandro and see if he has any keys? I can.

You can search Alejandro. He kind of protests, but there's not much he can really do at the moment. Not with Ricks and Farrier, keeping an eye on him. He does not seem to have a key or anything like that on him. Does he have? He has clothes. He has a pouch of gold. He's about sort of 50 gold in the pouch.

There's a dagger on his belt. Pretty mundane, doesn't look very fancy. And he has his rings. One of which looks very nice. You have Alejandro's very nice ring. Okay. There's also a platinum, gold, bronze and silver ring. Oh, yeah, take all of the ring.

He's a five ring, so. Hopefully, maybe he'll be able to cast spells that. I'll investigate this compartment. Please roll investigation check for me. Minus one, let's go. Nope. You can re-roll the detail. I can read the...

Oh, so I rolled a 10 on the bardic plus 3, 13, minus 1, 12. You again sort of run your hands on the side, you're trying to see if there's hidden switches, hidden in like the cornerings, the engravings on the desk, on a desk but you don't find anything. What if we ask Agent Darling to come down here and look at her, she's better this spy craft than I am.

If you know how to contact her, she's upstairs. She's upstairs. Okay, do we want to, are there still other people upstairs though? There was a lot of screaming and running when I was up there last. Oh, okay, well.

I will probably say that Agent Darling is probably busy, making sure the guards and things like that aren't coming, so I would not count on her aid in your investigation. I have been defeated by this desk. You've got the secret drawer. You got the drawer open. I took...

And the trap. But the other compartment is to be it. Can I have a look at the wardrobe and do a perception check on the wardrobe? You can make a perception check. There was a wardrobe and then a chest. Two wardrobes and a chest at the foot of the bed. 14 plus 8 is 32.

No, 24. 22. They appear to be normal wardrobes. You don't see any runes. You don't see any sigils. no hidden pressure plates around the floor around them or anything like that. Can I check?

Oh, so can I open it? No, that perception is, yeah. I just told you what the perception check was. It's just, yeah. I've told you everything that I'm going to tell you. Okay, can I do the same thing. Because, like, I can't just give you, say like, no, you're fine. Like, there might be.

No, sorry, sorry, I'm getting confused. I've just looked at the war jokes. You just looked. No, you did a perception check. Yeah. Uh. Unfortunately. The investigation tells you.

Yeah, yeah. Perception is good for certain things. Like, if there was a pressure plate in, like, a corridor, perception, you'd be able to spot that, right? But, like, finding the secret switch to open a secret compartment or search for, like, a hidden tripwire or, like, something like that, that's investigation. You do not perceive anything out of the ordinary

upon the wardrobes. Anyone else for anything else? Unless I use investigation on that desk. I think the desk is a... I could use performance of creation to create a full pack of thieves tools on spruce. I have...

That would give everyone a thieves tools. I have thieves tools. Yes, masterwork. Is it master? I just don't know how to... Open it. I don't know how the mechanism opens. I know there's a mechanism. I just don't know how to open it. Correct.

Well, don't worry. Okay. Broan's about to roll a net 20. Let's fucking go, bro. Unless subsidius arrives. Let's go. He's not hasn't been here. I was going to, I was just letting people do stuff.

I'm gonna do a sending thing. Should I just do that now? No, I'd like right to roll this investigate. Okay. Like, right. We'll investigate. 16. A 16.

Better than anyone so far. Hmm, it's a desk. It's a desk. 16. It's not a raven. I think. It's a writing. I'm gonna spend a point of fate.

Oh. No. Oh. Rowan, you search around, and yeah, you think you found it. On the side of the desk, there are two hidden switches, kind of very, very discreetly hidden amongst the sort of paneling and the engravings.

And you think, oh, I have to press them both at the same. You press one, nothing happens, press the other one, nothing happens. You try pressing both at the same time. The lid of this writing desk pops over. Oh, whoops. But I spent a point of fate for a complication. you press very hard.

And the drawer, the secret drawer with the bomb in it, kind of rattles. And Daisy, you don't know, but you think that, like, you hear, like, wood splinter and, like, almost maybe where the wire is, and you hear it crack a little bit more, you've set off a basic countdown. You don't know how long,

but, like, that trap is probably going to go off shortly, unless you do something about it. But the secret compartment pops open, and you can see that it basically, it lifts open, and there is a beautiful-looking platinum circlet with a single green gem, a diadem, you know, set into it. It looks very valuable. Snatching. Grab that.

Bag of holding. Anything else in there? Nothing else in there? No. I'm going to stand back. I'm going to use performance of creation and encase it in stone. Can you encase things in stone with performance of creation? Well, I can create an inanimate thing within 10 feet of me. The item must appear on a surface or in a liquid that can support it.

The item must, GP value no more than 20 times on a barred level. I think it has to be an item rather than just like a block of stone. Because that's what like stone shape and those kind of spells do. I think it has to be an item worth no more than 50 GP. Like a block of stone is not really an item, I would say. Is the wall stone? Yeah, the wall that it's behind is, yeah. Could I cast stone shape to water the stone and in case it?

Can you affect that much with stone shape? I believe you can only five feet. A stone object of medium size or smaller, no more than five feet in any dimension and form it into any shape you like. Writing desk is a medium object, I would say. What if Gruff makes the side walls in the top and I create the item of a little drawbridge that closes on the front?

What's the drawbridge you made of? Obsidian. Yeah. Obsidian's worth more than 50 Gb. A plate of obsidian's worth more than 50 GB. Steel? Yeah, okay. I'll let it be iron.

It's basically I'm just trying to give advantage. You can do an iron front plate to this. I can show them where the bomb is situated on the desk. So that would be two actions, because you have to cast a spell, you've already done one thing. So you did the test, you sense something's gone wrong, gruff stone shapes in it in the same time. Six seconds after you do that, you hear it.

Everyone takes that one. And yeah, like something explodes within this little sort of oven that you've created between the two of you. Oh, okay. They've invented an oven. I think that's... Yeah, dude! We've already nuked something in it.

So... We're not dead. No, you completely like... The explosion was pretty bad, but being completely encased in stone and iron, it doesn't... you basically seal it off in it. Nice. Doesn't... We're alive. We're not dead.

Oh my God. I don't know how we're still in this place. I've been here for such a long time. I've been in this exact area. invisible and then we're here again. Anyway, it's a whole thing. Dentius, would you like to do something? Yeah, I'd like to call Daddy please.

Which Daddy? That's what. I was like at the door. Big O. 25 words. Diadem hideout secured. Oh, Sions, an explosion. Need your assistance.

Is the O-Science thing true? Yeah, okay. while I was on the sending sim. Just instant. Yeah. Need your assistance. Opal lounge, Kelskaris. Love you, bye.

Potato. As soon as possible. ASAP. ASAP is still four words. Not unless you say ASAP. ASAP. ASAP. How many is that?

10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Must remove the tattoos, bring spell components. Please. Please. 17, please. 18. 18 with the please? Um.

7 left. 7 left. Um, I love you. Need to talk about Soul Cage. One left. Bye. Hi, X.

And just FYI, I have a sending scroll in this bag of holding as well, so if he ghost me, I'm not gonna ghost you. He gave you phone too. I'm surprised I got so much distance out of that, even when I wasted like five words on Oh, silence. An explosion. Oh, sioms. I think that adds to it.

I think that helps the urgency. Yeah, come here as soon as possible. Oh, science! It's foote! Yeah. Lord, help me. But you got the thing from the... as well.

Yeah, as I remember it. Yeah. Put in a bag and then forget what it looks like. What did I pick up? I have a lot of stuff. You did pick up a ton of stuff. Yeah. It's okay.

Have you lost something today? It was a circle of green jamming. I don't know that. What's a heart between friends? So much. Whatever that means. Picking up a message. Obsidious.

Yeah, obsidious is thinking about it. He's thinking, oh, three dots. The three dots. Go on in to see him. Yeah, he's typing. No, it stops. You receive a response quite shortly. Oh.

I cannot remove the tattoos, or I would have on Nixir. It will take me time to get there. How urgent. Soul Cage concerns me. Oh. And if you'd like, we can leave it back. Yeah, I can send another message.

But we can do that at the start of next episode. How were you? You've got like six hours. Well. Beep. Get here now. Well, maybe he can't. With that.

Maybe he got it. We will bring today's episode to a close. Thank you all for joining us. It's been a lovely episode. What a banger. What a banger. And we will see you next time. Take care.

Goodbye. Bye.