High Rollers DnD - CAMPAIGN 3 PROLOGUE! | Legends of Altheya - The City of Dragons

Episode Date: August 4, 2022

Welcome to Kelscariss, the City of Dragons! A festival is taking place for the Empress (for the EMPRESS!) and 6 players join the celebrations in various different ways! This was all possible thanks to Twitch inviting us down to TwitchCon in Amsterdam! Also, huge thanks to Myre - https://twitter.com/Myre_Test - and SMajor - https://twitter.com/Smajor1995 - for joining us with their amazing characters! Go send them your love. Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes and Studio updates on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Grab some High Rollers merch: https://freshmerch.fm/collections/high-rollers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. And now, your favorite Dungeon Master, TwitchCon Please Welcome, Mark Humes! Welcome, my children. I can't see a thing in those, so that's coming off straight away. And there we go, a proper D&D nerd for you. Ah, welcome adventurers, old and new. My name is Mark Humes. I am the dungeon master for High Rollers, a UK Dungeons & Dragons stream that have been telling stories on Twitch for over five years now.

And we're very excited to be here with all of you, live in Amsterdam, and of course, everyone watching at home for TwitchCon as well. Now if you don't know a thing about Dungeons or Dragons, or you haven't heard of us before, please don't worry. Rather than trying to introduce you to detailed rules of D&D or explain our epic four-year long ongoing story, we're going to be showing you guys something brand new that we've been working on. We're going to be showing you a glimpse at a fantasy world of our next big adventure,

a brand new campaign starting in 2023. The next 90 minutes is going to take you and the players on an adventure that will introduce you to Kelskaris, the City of Dragons. starting in 2023. The next 90 minutes is going to take you and the players on an adventure that will introduce you to Kelskaris, the City of Dragons, the heart of the Dragon Empire of Ilmera. And hopefully, we can show you some of the basics of how to play D&D 2.

So, think of this as a pre-title sequence in a movie, a glimpse into this new world and what you might find there. But before I go into my big lore speech to explain this new world, you guys should meet the players for today's adventure. So to begin with, two of the regular High Rollers party, we have Katie Morrison and Tom Hazel. Please give them a round of applause. Lovely.

Oh, here they come. Oh, they they come. Oh, look at this. Arm to the teeth. Professional. Yes, everything looks good. Everything looks fine. Yeah, is this good? Yes, this will do.

That statue looks otherworldly though. Oh yeah, our very famous emperor, your sort of knight commander. I think yeah Sorry about my sword everybody Next our very first special guest for the show roleplay streamer and voice actor Maya as well, please welcome to the stage Very regal. Fantastic. Welcome, sir.

Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. Of course. More of the High Rollers D&D crew next. We have Rhiannon Gower and Chris Trott. What is this beast that appears? Oh, and a gentleman as well. Alright, darling. Hello, mate, thank you.

And last, but by no means least, our second special guest, Minecraft legend, Scott Majors Smajor! Oh, in the traditional garb of a cleric, I see. Legs on display, I love it. Brilliant, well, it's very exciting to have you all here. But before we get into a couple of things, there's some things I need to let the lovely folks in chat and here in Amsterdam know that they can do to help out in today's game.

Currently, in Twitch chat, there is a poll to vote for one of three very popular D&D monsters. Now who knows what these monsters are actually gonna be used for, but the winner will definitely make a little bit of an appearance later on. Any hopes for what that monster might be from you guys? Grung.

Okay, yeah. A Flumph. A Flumph, yeah. That's what I meant. Flumph. Flumph would be good, yeah. A flumph. A flumph, yeah. That's what I meant. Flumph. Flumph would be good, yeah. Scottmire, any sort of monsters you wouldn't want it to be? A beholder.

Oh, god, can you imagine? Don't do that. A dragon, oh gosh. Any dragon. Definitely. That would be terrible, wouldn't it? Anyway, so moving on. One last thing as well is the dragon empire of Ilmera is ruled over by the first dragon, the dragon empress.

And she is beloved by all, the savior of the mortal races, chosen of the gods, etc. And it's very common in the city that when somebody calls, For the empress! You repeat this cheer for yourselves. So if you hear me say, for the empress! For the empress! You guys have got it, exactly. If you can say me say, for the Empress, it would be very. For the Empress. You guys have got it. Exactly.

If you can say that back. Let's try that again. For the Empress. For the Empress. That's exactly it. Wonderful. Good job, everybody. Wonderful.

So with that, are you guys ready to play some Dungeons and Dragons? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll get to my big lore dump now, and I'll. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. raging fires and the divine light of the bright storm, which once threatened all of Ulthea. The city is a sprawling behemoth of homes and workshops, manors and more, built with streets large enough for dragons to walk astride, and with grand architecture of white stone and prismatic crystal. From here, the dragon empress, the first dragon and saviour of the mortal races of Ilmera, rules the empire with her many draconic children, the ten most powerful of which each rule a

province of the empire and command districts within the city. To each draconic noble and their line, knights and citizens swear their fealty and work together to help the empire prosper. In the sky above Ilmera and the city of Kelskaris hangs the Crown, a broken, shattered moon that holds the imprisoned force of the god Sovereign, who nearly destroyed the world with the Bright Storm. Beyond this realm, the Planar War threatens material realm as immortal beings fight for a victory that may never come. And many other kingdoms, factions and powers would see the Empire fall. But today is a good day.

It's a special day. Today is the anniversary of the founding of the Empire. And as is tradition, a festival of games and music is held in the city of Kelskaris. Coloured banners hang across the street, the smell of festival food and good beer fills the air, and people let out cheers of For the Empress! In celebration of their beloved ruler's many victories and triumphs, the festival culminates in a grand parade through the wide streets before the Empress herself appears for a speech about the Empire's future. Amongst these busy and jubilant streets perhaps, enjoying the games or food,

browsing market stalls or selling goods of their own, or attending to other official matters, we find a group of unusual citizens of the Empire and starting with Rhiannon, I would like you to tell everybody who you are playing, what they look like, and what they might be doing in this grand festival. Okay, I am playing a rogue centaur called Arachne. Hmm? Uh, she... Uh, so she works for the, uh, the Clarion News Guild in Kelskaris. She's dressed in kind of like a, like, sort of official office wear, so she has like a white shirt, black tie, like a nice little leather bandolier over the top. She has sort

of grey, a grey sort of silvery horse-like body, and then like a standard human upper half, but with like horses. And then she has two pigtails, two arms, four horse legs, so her silhouette kind of looks like a spider, which she really likes. So she's going to be scouring the market town looking for some good news scoops, trying to talk to some of the vendors, see what all the hot goss is around Kelskaris. Okay. Yeah. Fantastic.

That's what she's up to. All right. Let's jump over and let's have Katie. Katie, who are you playing? And tell us what they look like and what they might be doing. Sure. I'm playing Heather Tolbrook, and she is a human. She is dressed in basically regular guard sort of armor for Kelskaris. She is probably trying to just look like she knows what she's doing because she's only really been in that role for about a week. So she's trying to, yeah, she's just really been in that role for about a week so she's

trying it yeah she's just patrolling you know trying to look like she's got she's got it together perfect all right let's have Maya go my name is Chaka the merchants and you see before you a copper dragon ball am, well I look like this. I've got a tunic, a rather big one. It goes so low. I've got these baggy pants that you saw me go on the stage with and they go so low. As a merchant also my prices are reasonable in this economy. Perfect. You see me wading through the marketplace just looking from vendor to vendor looking for things to procure. For as a merchant, I am one to do these things. Perfect.

Amazing. All right, Scott, tell us about your character, where they are, what they may look like. Yes, so my name is Taron and I am about six foot sort of figure and a cloak covering a breastplate and Taron has sort of metallic purple hair slipped back into a ponytail. Wait sorry. I don't have it with me. What's your name? Taron.

Okay good. Why is the accent? I thought it was Taron which is my other character. Oh sorry Taron okay I'll take it. But yeah so sort of adorned in jewellery and sort of moon emblems and I am also playing a cleric. A main healer and tank. Main healer and tank, diverse. And what do you think that they might be doing in sort of the city and the festival at the moment?

Sort of just looking around, sort of taking in if it's their first time in the city, exploring, seeing the other things and sort of seeing if I can find anyone else related to my religion, sort of seeing if people are willing to listen and spread the word of my God, Maelor. Perfect, all right. Let's jump over to Tom. Welcome everybody. I trust the treats and festivities

have been found to your liking. I am your considerate for the evening, considerate Le Fay. That liking. I am your considerate for the evening, considerate Le Fay. That's what I am. I am a bard as a character, and I am here to make sure everything you need is tended to, whatever you want. Okay, lovely.

For the Empress. For the Empress! All right, only I get to do that, don't you, Stud? And then finally, Chris Trott. Hello everybody, I'm playing Reg, the button. And I'm just a really good little dealer, honestly, I just wander about, I've got everything on me. I'm just, you know, a wheeler-dealer kind of guy, but my rates are better than his. How dare you! I'm just

a little undercutter that's all mate that's all and maybe some of it's already yours. Just nicked it. That's definitely not going to become a problem later on there but we'll circle back to that we'll circle back there and what kind of class is Reg? I'm an artificer which means I've got stuff because I can't really cast spells so I throw stuff instead and they do the same thing. Perfect, perfect. Well now that you've met this motley crew of adventurers and citizens and officials we are gonna begin. Those of you who are kind of exploring the city maybe for the first time or guards on patrol or looking for juicy pieces of information from the various vendors.

You can see that along the main street of the city, along Kalskaris' main highway that leads from the city gates to the central palace called the Path of Ascension, dozens of food vendors and carnival games have been erected in staging grounds and areas to enjoy the games. And you see a variety of these things. It looks like there seems to be some sort of archery range. There is some sort of bizarre contraption with pipes and a sort of stuffed cobbled creature

that's dropped in and then you have to whack the cobbled on its way out and guess which pipe it's coming out from. And then there is also a sort of stuffed wooden basilisk that is being attached to chains and ropes by series of attendants, and people ride it, and then the chains and the ropes get pulled, and they have to kind of like try and stay on the basilisk as long as possible. And anybody who wins these kind of games gets tickets, which they seem to be able to exchange for wonderful prizes as they are advertised. And there are also a number of food vendors as well.

There appears to be a delightful bakery with a blonde centaur who is sort of running the stand. There is also a very rough looking sort of dressed in thick furs and cream colored sort of wintry wear. Very angry looking fellow who is glaring at anybody who approaches and has a strange looking chest which like emanates frozen mist and seems to be offering some sort of good. And then finally there is a what appears to be a portable tavern called the wheelbarrow which is serving up drinks as well for anybody to go.

So I think that Arachne, Heather and Talon. Is it literally a wheelbarrow? There is, part of it is constructed to a wheelbarrow But then it has fold-out sections for like a longer bar and like that has like portable tables and chairs and things like that But yeah, it's a very large wheelbarrow The one of the proprietor seems to be a hot an orc male very big sort of like wide Sort of barrel chest thick mutton chops down the, covered in what appear to be glowing scars as well, which is a trait of orcs here in Ulfheim.

He sounds important. That was a lot of detail. That was all up here, Tom Hazel. Don't worry about that. That's just the old DM brain adding things in. But yeah, so is there anything any of you would like to go and sort of begin checking out? Anybody who's sort of exploring this part of the festival?

Reg the button. He's just loitering at the moment. He's near the kobold. Definitely splat the rat, but with kobolds instead. Sure. And he's kind of created some third party merchandise. Right. And he's trying to sell it.

So little kobold structures, that sort of thing. And he's just peddling it. So little kobold like structures, that sort of thing. And he's just peddling it to people that don't win. Right. Okay. Yeah. Well, you're a little bit cheaper. You could get one of these. Go on.

Yeah. You probably see like a little, he's like trying to hit the cobble. He's trying to guess which pipe it's going to come out of. Just completely misses. Oh, mate. Oh, you're so weak. You could be stronger if you had a cobalt of your very own it looks awful the little boy kind of looks at and he kind of like makes a little face

and so says oh dad dad can i get one of this oh yeah i pushed the kid out the way and i just like kind of like dad dad your poor son oh he just is so awful at that game he's never gonna win but i could give you the toy it'll make his day right it is just a game of guessing i don't think that there's any actual skill involved how much are you selling these things for for you and because i've got a little sweet heart for children that are really upset. Ten goal for this. Right, okay. Just sit. Come along, son.

Come on. We really have to push. Oh, all right, whatever. Anybody else? Sort of like anything that draws anybody's particular eye? I think that I would be in the area looking at the people trying the riding basilisk. Yeah. Not trying it myself.

Okay. But watching to see if anybody is going to make it. Okay. Well, are any of you guys interested in trying to ride the basilisk, the bucking basilisk? Anybody? I'm working. Oh, sorry.

Sorry, considerate. I cannot partake. Yeah, well, if none of you guys are up for playing it, you probably see a couple of people come up, a mixture of different races. You see a couple of dwarves, and Ironhide dwarves of Volthea, they actually have sort of growths of metal and crystal

that they file down into different plates and shapes and engravings and things like that. And you get a couple of young dwarves who are kind of jostling with each other, like, ah, go on, mate, go on, go on, you're going to give it a try, give it a try. And they're like, I don't know, okay, and then they get up on it.

And after a few kind of shakes, the dwarves just go sailing off, crashing into these straw barrels and hay bales nearby. And their old mates will have a good laugh of them and things like that. But kind of analyzing it, like, yeah, you kind of see that it's not the most complicated game in the world. It's basically sitting on a big saddle

and then having lots of men and women jostle you around for a couple of minutes. OK. All right. I am kind of like a walking stall of my own. I'm a fairly large dragonborn, but I have all my merchandise around me. And I see folk, and I say, hey, you.

That was a rather nice attempt. Maybe you should come down to Chaka's Emporium. Maybe help you out. I can. Well, these dwarves are kind of seeing you. and you're a dragonborn, right? So they look at you, and their eyes kind of go wide, and they're like, oh, my lord. I mean, yes, we would be, of course. Yes, of course, yes, we will come and check out your goods. What was your name again?

Chaka. Okay. And they all nod and seem, oh, yeah, this guy's important. We should go and check his stuff out, yeah. That's right. I have the best wares anywhere. Yeah, sure, mate. I said, I have the best wares anywhere. Yeah, we heard you.

What was it? Chaka. Chaka, right. Well, you're in my territory right now. I'm selling kobolds, so I get out something that falls apart in my head. I see. So if you don't mind. It's a bit unprofessional is all I'm saying.

Is that right? Yeah. I stride up towards the man. Okay, well, there's no need to... Well, all right. He's up. All right, show me your wares. Well, I don't want you pilfering my patents.

If you see what I mean. Right. What have you got? Oh, just about anything. I don't want to, you know, show off my patents. Oh, yeah? Well, good. Good.

Maybe we should... As you guys are kind of having this confrontation, just because I don't want this to become an actual different argument. I'll show you mine, but it's going to be yours. It's like a tennis match. I was so into that. I think that, like, consider it, Lefe, like, you know, you're working, you're kind of making sure the festival is going exceptionally well

and, like, making sure everyone is having fun. You probably would see these two kind of, like, you know, maybe having a sort of tense conversation at this point. And as you're going about your patrols, Heather, as well, you probably notice the same thing. I'm stood in front of this bus bucking basilisk game that people are trying to, like, get to. And they think that Chaka and Reg are kind of in the queue waiting to go on. So they're kind of like, oh, they're taking forever. What's going on? And sort of like a queue is beginning to form behind them.

I'm so sorry. Please let me investigate. What is happening here? What's the complication? Please. This man here is claiming he has better wares than I. Who? Who? Oh, me. Yes. Sorry. Do you work for someone? Well, I'm a considerate for the festival. Anything, any problems? And you are standing in a line.

Can you arrest people? I can direct people to the arrestees, the arresters. Heather will hear that and come over and go, yes, that's right, I have that power. There's no funny business going on here, if that's what you think. We're just two individual merchandisers, Oh wonderful. Right we don't want any trouble. No no trouble at all. Well in that case can I please just slide you over here please there are people trying to get onto the Basilisk. Oh wow that's a queue.

Look it's all for me. Hello what do you want? I'm talking at the first place please do you want to ride it do you want to buy it and I get out a cobalt they just whatever is that is that some some counterfeit merchandise there counterfeit no that's official merch it doesn't it's falling apart It's falling apart. For the Empress! For the Empress! That had no link whatsoever.

No, it didn't. You really didn't. I just wanted it to happen. He has too much power now. Don't let him have that. While all this is going on, all the confrontations, in the background,

in the shadow, there's like a giant spidery silhouette and Han's just feverily writing, observing the drama in a notebook, being like, like, oh, Clarion's gonna love this! Oh, yes! Brilliant! And then, what about... I was gonna say, at this point I'd have probably just been perusing, maybe grabbing a snack, and then just sort of watching the chaos unfold quite casually.

Like popcorn. Yeah, popcorn, like, oh, I want to see how this turns out. What kind of snack would take your fancy? There seems to be a lovely sort of blonde, sort of very sort of confused looking centaur woman who's selling like baked goods. There is this very strange looking fellow from an area, a region called Iceheart, which is like a frozen area to the north. It's ruled by the white dragons and kind of wears like a little snow goggles, like little

tiny wooden masks with like little slits and then has like thick furs and things. And yeah, it's like scooping something into little sweet biscuits and then handing them out. And it's emanating cold, you know, magic from this little box. That one. Yeah. That one. Again, the more detail the DM gives it, the more interesting it becomes.

But yeah, you kind of make your way over and you hear like a, Yes, can fewer frozen fruit help? Good day, I'm, I'm, I would like to purchase something to eat, please. Yes, we have sold out many flavor. Have prickleberry, yam, cauliflower. Prickleberry, very good. I'll take a word for it.

I'll take one. Okay, good. You can see it definitely is the one he has the most of. Scoops it out, and then he'll kind of put his hand out and just say, two copper, please. Take the pieces and give them those. A very kind man, thank you so much. And he hands you, it's like a sweet biscuit with mashed fruit frozen into ice cream, basically.

OK. And sort of hands that to you. And it's just like, oh, many people being very noisy, strange merchants arguing, and now considerate involved. Bad for business. Bad for business. Well, I'll go and see what that is. I've got my snack on the watch.

It's fine. Don't worry. Thank you, sir. Very pleasure. Very pleasure. What does it taste like? It has like, you taste it for momentarily and it's really sour. Like it kind of like your face crinkles up and then this delightful kind of sweetness

kind of comes, uh, comes in afterwards. But it's definitely an acquired taste because you have to make it through that first kind of like bite, um, and then you hit the sweetness a few moments later. I imagine I will be watching the drama and then like lick it, and then forget about it for a while. Watch the drama, and be like, oh, jeez Christ. I kind of imagine that scene where Homer eats the really sour sweet, and you've just got this incredibly sucked in like, Yep.

That just every so often I keep forgetting that it's bad. All right, perfect. So yeah, so you're kind of being watched. Rackney, as you're kind of watching and scribbling down the notes, yeah, you're kind of feeding in this information. You've never really heard of probably Reg the Button before, but yeah, you probably would have heard of Chak the Merchant being a Dragonborn merchant, like definitely have a bit more

sort of influence and sway in the city, so sure. All right. I mean, you are welcome to continue your argument if you wish. All right. How long have we got? I go to the crowd because I suppose the crowd is long, right? Yeah, the festival is huge and there are crowds and you can hear music in the background. This city is enormous and it is packed full of visitors. All of the citizens have come out, they're bringing their families. It is an incredibly dense, crowded area. And you guys having an argument

has definitely kind of drawn attention and drawn eyes. And yeah, a queue has started to form behind you because people think that you're queuing up for some of the games. This, sir, over here has definitely made me puff up a bit. And so I go around the Basilisk place and I say, okay, watch this. Whoever gets the highest time on the Basilisk

will have 20% off in Chaka's Emporium. And I just wait for the applause. Well, I think that's going to be our first role of the game because I would love for you to make a persuasion role. So you're going to roll the d20 and then add the persuasion skills. And this is going to going to roll the d20 and then add the persuasion skills. And this is going to be to see how much influence you have over the crowd on this.

All right. Not very much. What were you going to say, sir? I rolled against it. I mean, yeah, you tell me what you're going to say in a minute, let's get the result for Jacker. I rolled a natural. What?

The worst possible roll that we can have. Lovely. For the Empress! For the Empress! Look, you're tiring them out now. You've got to leave it. All right, so yeah, you kind of make this big speech track. You kind of draw everybody's attention to you, this big sort of large copper Dragonborn, right?

Yeah. Yes. So copper Dragonborn, everyone turns their eyes eyes and then when you say 20% discount, everyone's like, and then they kind of groan and turn away, expecting that you were actually gonna give them something interesting. I like turn around, I expect a crowd to form, like people to start rushing forward and then nothing.

But Arachne, there is another voice it sounds like was potentially could actually, you wanted to roll against, right? Is that still something you wanna do? I wanted to do if Chaka Could influence me to then go on the basilisk, right? Okay. Yeah Well, I mean if we roll a roll a wisdom saving throw for me and if you roll a natural one, let's see I rolled a natural

Completely pointless natural thing But yeah, so like I guess I leave it up to you. Does that, if you were being influenced to go on the best list, does the natural 20 have some sort of result that you can think of? It's looped around. That's what I was thinking. That maybe it's like, oh no, that guy.

Actually, you know what, yeah, I will. Just to show. I might take him up on it, you know, actually. It was such a good speech, you know. Sure, okay. Just go for it. Sounds like you could have just made, you know. Sure, okay. Go for it. Sounds like you could have just made that decision, but sure, we'll go for it. I'll take the vice-assign.

Okay, so yeah, you go up to the vendor who's controlling the basilisk, a very happy sort of like halfling woman, who's just like, oh, hello, my lover, yeah, you want to go on the basilisk? Yeah. It's just, it's two copper to have a go. If you win, you get a prize ticket, my love. Oh, yeah, I'd love to have a go. Yes, please. Absolutely. Right, here we go. Everyone, we've got a lovely new contender. It's just, it's too copper to have a go. If you win, you get a prize ticket, my love. Oh yeah, I'd love to have a go. Yes, please. Absolutely. Right, here we go. Everyone, we've got a lovely new contender.

This, oh, spider horse lady. I'm Arachne, lovely to meet you. Lovely to meet you. She's not quite sure which leg or hand to shake, but we'll shake. Anyone will do. Anyone will do. Anyone will do. Great.

She'll shake your hoof and then lead you up. You are a centaur, so this is gonna be interesting because it is basically a horse's saddle with a basilisk built around it, like this kind of like big lizard-like beast. So they have a hard time getting you on it. So I'm gonna give you disadvantage on any roles to be on the basilisk.

Incredible. But yeah, this is basically gonna make athletics, acrobatics, or constitution ability checks. And as you get on it, Arachne, the rest of you watch as four very exhausted, tired-looking humans and dwarves and orcs are like got these big ropes and they start just going like shaking it back and forward and like running backward and forward. And the basilisk bucks and turns and tries desperately to throw you off. And the more checks you can succeed the longer you stay on all right all right so yeah athletics acrobatics or constitution i'm gonna go for acrobatics all right let's roll

a disadvantage because this is designed for people with two legs not four nine plus two eleven for the first one eleven for the first one is just enough to succeed so for the first moment uh you're managing to hold on, despite your legs kind of flying all over the place and flapping around. You're managing to hold on. So that gives you a bit of time. It's going to be another one. But now the DC is going to be slightly higher.

So the number that she needs to roll is going to be slightly higher. So yeah, acrobatics, acrobatics, because that was the first one you picked. All right. 17 for the first one. Five, seven for the second one. Seven for the second one. So you hold on for that moment, but then as this gets it, you start feeling dizzier and dizzier.

And then one big sort of lurch by all three of the sort of attendants sends you tumbling off and sprawling into the side. And the half of the- And I'm so sorry, my dear, it's not long enough for you to be on the praise, I'm afraid. I just, just swung up next to Shaka and say,

oh no, that's about as successful as your sales pitch, mate. OK. Sorry. All right. I don't know you. I don't like you. However, how about this? You go on. Oh, hello. I go on. Oh. We'll see who is the best

merchant basilisk rider. How about we sprinkle a little something on top of this? All right. If I win, I get something of yours for free. And vice versa. Vice versa. Oh, I have a proposition. Whoever which one of you two wins will get a write up in the Clarion newspaper for your store. Are you saying this while still riding a bicycle? I've just got up and I've just heard you two.

And I'm like, yes, a story. The eyes still kind of like rolling around in a racket, his head swaying around. Promotion! Chaka's name in lights! And I cast lights. Pshhh, Chaka. Alright, I'll take you up on it, sure. Wookie. You first.

Not me. I don't want to go first. Goinfli. Which would you pick, heads or tails? Tails. Chaka goes first. Damn. Luck is on my side, I think. Right, so we're going to do the same thing.

You pick athletics, acrobatics, or constitution, and we'll see how long you can stay on the bucking basilisk. OK. Constitution. And we've got these big, lovely, new D20s, like these huge giant boys. They're huge. All right, so give us a roll, Ch noisy. Give us a roll, Chaka.

Your choice, athletics, acrobatics, or constitution. Okay, I'm not very athletic or acrobatic, but I have a high constitution. Oh, there you go. Hey, Maya. Oh my God. Welcome to High Rollers, buddy. One of us, one of us. I thought this to High Rollers, buddy. One of us. One of us.

I thought this was High Rollers. Yeah, it is. Sorry, it's a bit of a misunderstanding. Only I get to roll high in the show, so. We named the show really terribly. Yeah, it was a really bad decision. I roll the natural one. Yay!

There you go. Well, Chaka, you last maybe 10 seconds before that big sort of belly full of delicious festival food that you've been consuming. You kind of... And then you eventually get thrown off and just whatever you want is come spewing out, whether that's your actual breath or whether... This is not so hard. And I basically like a deflated balloon just go and smash into the side of these hay barrels uh the lovely little halfling lady's like oh are you all right sir are you okay sorry i am fine okay let me see you do better very good lovely i love

you yeah i loved all that that's lovely anyway. Anyway, my turn. Can I, slight of hand, stick a dagger in the side so I get a bit of purchase? I tell you what, you absolutely can. You don't have to make a check. Well, actually, make a check to see who can notice you doing so. All right, here we go. And then anybody who's watching can make a perception check. I think I'm cleaning up the vomit. Yep. Almost swore. Be careful I'm cleaning up the vomit. Yep.

I'm going to check. Be careful. 10. Like the acid. Right. Oh, no. Perception, perception. Perception. 20.

20 for Heather. Yes. Plus three. 19. 19 for Talon. I got a 16. 16. So everybody sees Jacka,

except for the people running the actual little carnival game who do not notice. So you see Reg slide this dagger into the side, dig it into the sort of wooden puppet of the basilisk framed around this. It's all in the thighs. Yeah, absolutely. Acrobatics, athletics, or constitution, Reg? Sure. Acrobatics. Oh, God. Seven Reg? Sure. Acrobatics, oh god. Seven!

Seven! I mean it's better. It is better, but even with, you're holding it and you're like, this dagger, got it. Easy peasy, watch this. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, whoa! You come sliding off as well. And I think that with that, it all wasn't a natural one though, was it? It wasn't, no.

Okay, so the dagger stays in, it doesn't come flying out and nearly strike somebody in the face but yeah there is this very clear like doing dagger still stuck in the side as Reg comes someone's trying to kill me cheating cheating we won't we won't have that here. Yes, someone's cheating. That's right, right? I can call them out on that. There's no cheating, no, please stop the game. No, no. Arrest this man. Yeah, arrest him, he tried to kill me.

He threw a dagger, did you see it? I didn't, no, I, who, did someone- Heather's gonna go up and whisper to you and be like, can I arrest someone for cheating on a game? Is that enough to arrest someone? It seems a bit more- Apparently someone threw a dagger. They didn't throw the dagger, he stuck it in, he's a cheat!

Oh. It would make an excellent story! Arrest him! Sorry? It would be brilliant, arrest him! Who are you? Doesn't matter, you don't know me, I'm in the shadows. Okay! Arrest him!

I, I, no, no arresting, no arresting please! Sir, I've only been here for about a week, I really need some instruction, please! No arresting, no arresting, please,. Just move along away from the basilisk games children play here. I'll take this for evidence, and I grab my dagger. Sure. Absolutely. Absolutely.

You can do that. All the foam is coming out. What a disaster. Well, is it a real basilisk? Yeah, absolutely. OK. As this is kind of winding down as well, like as you guys have, Reg's little incident

is sort of being.. You do begin to Reg's little incident is sort of being attended, you do begin to hear the sounds of a sort of heated argument kind of taking place nearby. And those of you who are kind of interested, like as, you know, this kind of scene has drawn attention, it's sort of turned a lot of the eyes away from something else, which does actually seem to be a little bit more severe

or perhaps like not necessarily dangerous, but you overhe overhear like if somebody doesn't shut that guy up I'm gonna shut him up myself and you start to hear like a much more sort of like violent aggressive kind of tone taking place nearby. That seems like something that we should probably do something about right? Yes but these two are at each other's throats! Yeah we're all good right? But that one's actually gonna... Um... okay. Perfect! about right yes but these two are at each other's throats yeah we're all good right um okay perfect i mean you embarrassed yourself and that's good enough for me heather's going to be looking at

whatever he writes on his notebook over there as well to just be like just to make sure she's doing like all the right things and he's not writing anything up about like her performance on the job you know guard girl doing okay and then she's like yes at this point i probably would have heard the commotion moved from the enjoying the drama to like oh no i should probably do that and i'll just like swallow whatever i have like old bag like throwing it up like it's fine and then move over a little bit of brain freeze yep um and you want to go over to the other kind of like... Yeah, I want to see what that is. Yeah, anybody who's interested in this,

like you guys can jump in as you need to. But you see what appears to be a very threadbare looking old human kind of like long decked cane wizard beard kind of like descending down his chin, thinning gray hair up on top, stood on what appears to be like a broken prickleberry box with a couple of attendants handing out like handmade little parchments. on top, stood on what appears to be like a broken, uh, uh, prickleberry box, um, with a couple of attendants handing out like handmade little parchments, um, and he seems to be

some sort of preacher, like a kind of like, and causing a bit of a disruption. Um, you kind of hear like, uh, See what the dragon usurpers and the traitor goddesses have driven us to, my brothers and sisters. They turn us against each other to keep us weak to stop us releasing the light of creation the true ruler who will provide a utopia and redemption for us i forgive you my sister and he seems to be speaking to a dwarven woman who looks like she's ready to dick and punch this guy knocking him out and she's like i he's i forgive you i forgive you for your violent ways that is not what we are here for.

Please, please take a parchment. He's trying to give her one of these handmade parchments. And she's being held back by her wife, who's just like, it's not worth it, dear. Come on, like, pulling her back. And she's like, in Mela's name, I'm going to deck him. I'm going to shut this guy up. He's talking nonsense.

Excuse me, sir. Please, clearly this woman does not want one of your pamphlets. Please leave her be. But she is threatening me. I have done nothing wrong. I am merely spreading the word of the great light, of the true ruler.

There is nothing illegal. No, no, just please be respectful and let her on her way. But she is troubling me. I have no quarrel with her. I forgive her. And she's like, you need to shut him up. He is ruining the festival for everybody, preaching this madness.

Do you have a permit to be here? A permit? Yes. I do not... And he looks down. Yes, actually, I have some in my... Here you go, you can sign this. And it takes a couple of days to respond and all of that,

so I'm afraid you might have to just stop right now. Savari, is this true? And you see one of the attendants is just like, oh, I will look at the form. And then she sort of reads through it like, no, this is not accurate. We do not need this form here. This is just for festival attendances.

I'm a considerate for the festival, Madame, so I think I know what I'm talking about. She says to you in Draconic, do you speak Draconic? I do not. You do not. She says something to you in Draconic. Anybody who understands Draconic? I do not. You do not. She says something to you in Draconic. Anybody who understands Draconic would hear it.

But I imagine, I don't know if Chaka does. I am Raranozi, yes. Yeah. I mean, yeah, anybody who does, she basically says in Draconic, go on. Okay. I've got like, I'm like hearing other things, so do forgive me. She says, I've got like I'm like hearing other things so she says Horvath's Calvary was Zara no risk door which basically means what is not written is not law and

she's looking over this thing and she is she gives it like a scholarly eye like she looks like she understands like detailed law City law and she's like no this form does not this is only for festival performances This is not required. This is not city law. Oh, well, maybe I got the wrong one Hold on a second disturbance of the peace Talent yeah, they like that. That's your job when this preacher has been speaking about these Make a there is a skill called, to see your knowledge of that.

Can you make a religion check for me? I can't. I don't know how good it'll be, but I can do it. 13. 13. The things, the terms that he's speaking about, and the sort of like light, I mean, he is very clearly talking about Sovereign, who is this creator god that was basically imprisoned for nearly destroying the world, and basically is trapped in this broken moon called the Crown, and all this like the true ruler, the light of creation, like very clearly refers to them. And you have heard that there is a sort of cult almost called the Ardent Pillar, and these guys basically believe that if they bring Sovereign back, Sovereign will sort of redeem everybody and, you know, apologize for what they've done. Sorry, I just noticed Reg is drinking one of his potions over

there. Very good. Thirsty? A little bit thirsty, a bit parched. Hopefully. Carry on. And yeah, they're basically seeking to return Sovereign to the worship, which is probably not the best idea from your understanding of the gods. But yeah, and he's just sort of like, no, I will continue speaking. We must get rid of these false dragons who try and lead us astray. Worship only, only the light. Sir, sir, please. You're just quite loud,

and a lot of people are trying to just enjoy the festival. If you could just calm down slightly, lower the volume. Deck him. He ignores you, Heather, and just starts speaking even louder, like, I will not be silenced. These false gods, they are trying to silence me. Deck him.

Deck him. Can I try, from a slight distance, cast Command? Yes. And I'm just going to basically just be like, silence. Like, don't talk. The spell, are you casting the spell? No, I'm not casting the spell. I'm going to cast command, but it's one word,

so I'm just going to be like, silence. Oh, excellent. Okay, and is that a saving throw? Yes, it's the must succeed in a wisdom saving throw. Okay. Will a nine be successful? No. So he starts speaking, he's like, I will not be silent!

And for a few seconds, he goes completely silent. And then he starts looking at what has happened, and he's trying to see who has done this to him. Thank you, sir. It's really appreciated. I think that the rest of the people at the festival will be really pleased that their day isn't going to be sort of disturbed. And hopefully, madam, you can get along your way too. I'm just going to have a slight smirk.

The dwarven woman sort of like glares for a moment. And her wife is just like, come on, dear. Let's go and enjoy the festival. And they kind of go off together. How long does command last? Just so you speak one more command. Does it say? One round. One round. Oh, so about six

seconds later, I will not be silenced. I will preach the true Lord. And he's just like, you step away from me, you enforcer of false laws and falsities. I speak only the truth, brothers and sisters. And this guy is just raving at this point. Okay, so now I can rest, right? I think we might have to. Considerates, please, we need more assistance here. Okay, okay, I'll try and restrain him and say, sir, please, you're disrupting the festival.

Yeah, absolutely. When you go to touch him, he's just like, get your hands off of me, no, no, no. And he's going to try and resist. Would you like to make an athletics check for me? Hopefully. That is a 16. I rolled a 19.

He actually kind of like wriggles out of your grip. This is the right laugh. It's the first time I've had to arrest someone. I'm not very good at it. Sorry, sorry. He wriggles his arms free and you see this kind of change come over him as you've like physically trying to grab him Suddenly this kind of like peaceful like no

I'm but a preacher kind of fades and there's this look in his eyes where he gets something very very angry Can all of you make a perception check for me, please? Yeah Can I use my eye for detail? Oh, yes. Tell me what this is So I can use a bonus action to make a perception check to spot a hidden creature or object to make an invest- Or to make an investigation check to uncover or decipher clues. Sure. Well, we'll just say you use it and there'll be a thing. How you doing over there, Maya? So I thought this was cursed. So I use this and I rolled a natural!

What? You are joking! How? How does it happen? I just want to say- Is want to say that those are high rollers dice that Mark gifted to him before the show and I feel like he's just cursed him for eternity. Wait, are those your microwave dice? You melted them, didn't you? Yeah, so I did drain the luck out of it.

So as you guys, so let's just quickly get those perception checks from everybody. Real quick. 13. 13. 15. 15. 9. 9.

I use my eye for detail. You use eye for detail. 24. 24, and then a lovely natural one. Those of you who scored over a 15, a 15 or higher, Heather, you do manage to grab him and eventually manage to restrain him and stuff. Those of you who got over 15, you notice that as Heather's arresting him

and pulling him free, you notice two things. One is his entire right arm, all the way up to his elbow, is blackened like burnt skin, and his veins are almost like glowing red. And it could be like a magical effect. It could be that maybe he's a warlock

or he's made something like that. Something which is kind of common in the Empire, but it's very still unusual that he has those blackened skin, like fingertips almost like smoldering, like they're still embers on fire. And then the other thing you notice is a necklace he appears to be wearing. It appears to be a holy symbol of a broken crown, but it's made from a strange metal you've never seen before, like a red and black and gold alloyed metal. And as Heather is kind of pulling him away, you just see this kind of like flapping underneath his robes

and it almost seems to glow for a second. But that's just the last thing we see. As you guys are doing this, Heather, you eventually kind of return to everybody, just gonna leave that dangling there, you know, don't worry about it. Oh, okay, cool. I wasn't, I didn't even perceive that.

So yay. To move things on, as these kind of events, these kind of dramatic arguments and things have taken place, a fanfare of music suddenly and loudly echoes throughout the city. Magically projected to everyone, the music signals for the start of the main parade. And the crowds all begin to cheer.

Anybody who's ever been to Disneyland kind of get that kind of vibe. Okay, we're making that street. The main street is quickly cleared and people line all sides as the parade arrives to go through the city. You can see brightly colored performers dressed in prismatic multicolored costumes

and colors to represent the aura of the dragon empress. Along with the performers though comes the highlight of the parade, a series of floats themed on the aura of the dragon empress. Along with the performers though, comes the highlight of the parade, a series of floats themed on the history of the empire and stories of the empress's mighty deeds. They are built by different districts of the city or each province and they go down. You see there are three prominent floats

that arrive for a section of the parade. One features a large clockwork creature, like a giant eyeball with several tendrils coming out of the side of it. Made of clockwork gears and cogs whirring on the inside. It's the conveyor belt of Doom, this, isn't it? I don't know what you mean! It's absolutely fine. You can see that there are tendons guiding the eyeballs around and it has a lamp in the middle which makes it look like it's casting a spooky blue light onto the crowd as it passes.

The next float is of another famous beast slain by the Empress once, a chimera, a creature with a lion's head, a goat's head and the tail of a serpent as it moves past. It appears to be made out of straw and wicker with a large wooden frame and wooden carved heads as it makes its way down. Finally, the last float is particularly impressive, an illusory outline of a golden dragon, its features twisted with an extra pair of wings, one angelic and bat-like, with demonic spikes jutting out from its shoulders and mouth, giving it an otherworldly appearance. This is a representation of an infamous figure from the Empire's history, Gald Vassar, the traitor,

who was responsible for a civil war that nearly engulfed the Empire after they consumed a mystical element called crownsteel. And these floats are kind of... And the illusion is almost like it's being projected by these three orbs in the middle of it. It's kind of projecting this illusory image of the dragon around it as it moves on. And then, as the parade is making its way down through you, in the distance, coming from the central district or further into the city, you begin to hear screams and

cries and shouts. Flashes of light, deep purple, blue, green, red, yellow, silver, pulse in the distance or down alleyways. Light rushes over you in a sudden flash and when your vision clears, pandemonium has broken loose around you. The crowd stampede in terror as they flee from what appear to be creatures made of light and crystal itself, running to attack them as the guards and soldiers and mercenaries around you rush to engage them, fighting them off so the crowd can escape.

But before you can even think about moving yourselves or going to aid them, you see that one of the three floats has become animate and lurches towards you to attack. And I'm very pleased to say that we had the winner of our poll from Twitch chat. Mm-hmm. Oh, yeah. Let me guess.

Oh, do you remember that? Do you remember what I said at the start? What did you guys say? What are you going, what are you going to do? I want to see that one. You guys see that gold dragon. Oh, thank God. Gold dragon being projected. Thanks, guys. You see it. Love you.

Loom up and breaking free of the float itself, even though it's made of golden light, the image itself pulls itself free. Each orb in its center slowly disappearing as the illusion fills with fog, almost like a body. And it begins to loom forward. And that is, my friends, gonna be a little something that we like to call initiative. Okay.

We roll initiative. I don't like these dice. I'm a level three peasant. Yes, you are, Crystal. I'm an attendant. Oh, okay, peasant's cracking off. Hey! Oh. Oh, mate. Peasants crack it off. Yay! OK. Oh.

Oh, my. It's better. It is a little better. Are you kidding? Is that another nat 1? OK, so starting with lefe, lefe. Unnatural, 20. 20.

And then we have chaka. So it's twice as good as my last roll. Oh. Hey, we're going up. Yes. Natural 2. Total 2? 4.

4. Arachne. 21. 21. Heather. 3. 3. Whoa.

Somebody did worse than Chaka, though. Hey. Whoa, somebody did worse than Chaka though. Yay! Moving it up. Talon. 17. 17 for Talon. Oh, my God. And then Reg the button.

Oh, I got 20 something. 20. 20 a lot. 20 lots. I'll put you down for a 22. 22. There we go. How about that?

And then, of course, I need to roll for the dragon. So imagine you are in a packed city street, the crowds of all fledgling giving you room to fight, but there are merchant stands around you, there are columns, pillars, there are buildings, sort of things that if you want to use as terrain features you can do, but at the very start before anybody's turn takes place, you watch as the dragon itself almost begins to its rear half with the tail and its back legs, its middle part with its arms and its wings, and then its front with its head, almost drift apart, creating like three separate parts of it. Like the illusion splits into three.

And the dragon's head, it opens its mouth and you can see golden flames beginning to form in its mouth. Everybody, everybody calm down. Reg! Oh, shit. You are going to be going first, my friend. I will run away from the head and head towards the butt. Yeah, absolutely. Well within your rights. I've got on me an experimental elixir.

Okay. Can I roll to see what it does? And what I made? You absolutely can, as long as you have those rules and you're not expecting me to. I do! I dunno what I made, so I'm gonna roll a d6. Okay. Figure it out.

Look! Four! That is... Boldness. I can roll a d4 to add a number roll to every attack roll. Oh! That's actually not that bad so I give that a little swig. I'm like, I can do this. Come on Reg! You're a button! And uh...

He's gonna attack with green flame blade, please. You're a button. And he's going to attack with Green Flame Blade, please. Oh, very good. It's got dagger. So I'll tell you this, Reg. So as you kind of move up to it, are you attacking the sort of like the dragon's legs and tail and things like that? I guess I can't reach the butt. You could reach the butt if you want to try and strike the butt.

I would like to hit the butt. Okay. You don't need to worry about your attack roll or your damage roll because as you swipe your sword through the sort of where the dragon's butt would be, it does pass through it like it's mist. And you can see that within like the illusion itself, maybe as you get close enough to sort of strike, there is this orb, this crystal orb that was projecting the illusion

as part of the float is hovering inside it And your blade just kind of passes through completely Right. It's not real It's just a couple of orbs inside It absolutely could be and you're by the butt I'm in the butt I guess now. All right Anything else on your turn Reg? That's about it. All right Arachne Anything else on your turn Reg? That's about it for me.

Alright, Arachne. Can I try and fire a dart at it? Which part would you like to fire a dart at? I'll go for the middle. Okay, sure. And again, you're just going to target the dragon itself? Yeah. Okay, you throw a dart, the dart passes through, and you actually see it come out the other side, and it of like flies out uh impacting something beyond um not a person or anything no do you want to make a uh make a investigation check for me okay it's not great uh five plus uh six or eleven eleven i mean

kind of seeing what reg did like you saw reg Reg's sword strike go through, seeing the dart go through, you're absolutely confident that the actual image of the dragon itself is just an illusion. It's just magic. It can't be harmed. It doesn't look real. But you do remember those orbs being in the inside, and they were projecting the illusion to begin with. But yes, unfortunately, your weapon attack does not go. Is there anything else you would like to do? I could try and do the bonus action. I could try eye for detail again, perhaps.

Yeah. Do a perception check on it. Yeah, absolutely, go for it. 10 plus 12 total. 12, I would say that yes, I will say with a 12, those orbs, like, and you can't see your one because this illusory sort of like middle part of the dragon is filled with fog to make it look like it's full of this golden swirling mist. So you can't actually see the orb from a distance. But if you get closer, you can see the orb kind of inside it.

You would have to step inside the illusion to strike it. But the other thing you will notice is those flames in the dragon's mouth. It has turned its kind of head probably towards, I would say, Heather looks the most sort of like dangerously armed of the group. The head is pointing at Heather and those flames in its mouth are building up. As the round goes on, it's gaining more and more flame in its head. So that's your full turn, Arachne. Can I shout to Heather to duck down or move out of the way?

Of course, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so you hear this cry of like, oh, you know, look out. What'd you say? I say, look out, get down, stay away from the flames. Okay. I got a really bad initiative. And I imagine that Heather is just like, I didn't sign up for this. Lethe, Lethe, Lethe. Guard girl, guard girl, you need to do something about this at once.

Right now. Okay, okay. That's a bardic inspiration. Oh right, okay. Is that your turn just to tell somebody to fight the monster? That's a bonus action. I'm a bardic inspiration. Oh right, I was going to say, is that your turn just to tell somebody to fight the monster? That's a bonus action, I'm a bard, yeah. Okay, sure. Fix this! And a bardic inspiration is you give a bonus die, right? What die is it?

Yes, an extra d6 I believe to your next... Attack or saving throw. And I'll also... I've got an action, so... So with a sword? Yeah. Which part would you like to move up to? I think I'm next to guard girl right now, so I'll go for the head. So you move up to the head, and again, the same thing, you swipe your sword in the actual dragon's head. And I stab.

Okay, if you want to make a stab, make an attack roll with disadvantage for me, because you can't see inside it, but you never know, you might hit something. Plus one. OK. OK. Seven. Oh, seven.

Yeah, you strike in, you're kind of like swirling around, desperately trying to hit. You just wiggle your sword around to no avail, unfortunately. Nope. That's not for me. When we have the dragon, it didn't roll very well. Talon.

So you're kind of seeing this. And you guys can see each other's actions. You can infer from it as you will. You kind of know each other, what each other have done. So what would you like to do? I'm going to, as I'm sort of running towards Heather, I'm going to basically pull my shield out and kind of get right up to the dragon,

like in between them, so I'm within five feet, and I'm going to grab my necklace with the moon and I'm going to cast Word of Radiance, which means it needs to do a constitution saving throw if it can. That is going to be a total of six. Which it fails, so it now takes 1d6 radiant damage And as I grab it like a sort of purple light just emanates from me And it's going to take one damage Okay, it looks cool

You run up to the front of the dragon's head and you kind of unleash this spell and you don't see the illusion of the Face of the dragon itself doesn't change, but you hear the faintest crack of glass, like from inside. And then I'm basically just going to like ready the shield like in front of me. You're just gonna raise your shield and try and like. Like serve the ed to them. Yeah, absolutely.

Okay, so after that, the dragon, one of its parts is gonna activate and Reg, as you are right by the butt, the tail... What kind of attack? Sorry, I was expecting a different kind of attack. Oh, right. Okay, no. Let's keep it PG-13. Okay, sure. So does a 14 hit your AC?

I believe it does, yes. That is going to be eight points of damage, force damage, because whilst the tail, as you've been trying to strike it, your weapons have passed through. As it swings for edge, the moment the tail is about to impact, the illusion seems to flare, and you're not hit by a thing, but by magical force, and it kind of slams you, and you get pushed 10 feet away from it. Holy moly. Into a pillar, kind of like, and you kind of slam back into the pillar,

cracking it like behind you as this force kind of throws you into it cool Yeah, right. So that was the dragon's turn We then go to Chaka Okay, I look at the illusion and I go by Galvazar's gilded guts and I step to the side and I Start to bring my hands out and move them around, almost as if I'm hitting dials.

I make a sigil of my house from the Copper Dragon and I cast Firebolt at the illusion. Okay, and the middle part, the head or the tail, sorry? The head. Okay, can you make an attack roll with disadvantage? With disadvantage? Mm-hmm. Okay, can I use your dice? Yeah, go for it. I can't guarantee, my dice rolls are pretty bad normally.

Alright. Oh, two at once. Oh, okay! Um... 11 plus... Your spell attack bonus. Okay, 15. 15.

So the firebolt again passes through the head of the dragon itself, but it strikes something in the center of it. Can you roll damage for me? Roll damage. Okay. And this is the one you hit as well, isn't it, Tang? 1d10. Which one of these has 10 sides? Okay. Natural, That's a ten.

Ah, okay. Natural ten. Ten points of damage. You actually hear the bolt of fire swarms through and Talon and Heather in front of you guys, you see the fire pass through and then you hear glass shatter. You hear like and the entire head of the dragon's illusory head vanishes. Just as it looks like it was about to breathe a cone of fire all over Heather and Talon. And then the illusion breaks apart

as you see fragments of the glass orb used to cross the illusion scattered on the ground itself. Just as it was about to reach its flames. However, Thank you, sir! You're welcome!

As its reaction to one of its body parts being broken, it is going to use its reaction. You see its wings raise up into the air and it sends out these motes of golden fire up into the sky and they hang there for a moment. And that's what you see. Ooh. But very successful attack.

Well done, Chaka. Destroyed one part of the illusory dragon. Excellent stuff. Then we go to Heather, last in the round. Hi. Hi. So the last part of the illusion is still up. There are two parts.

There is a tail and then there is a middle section. Okay. Even though the head's being destroyed, they seem totally fine to just continue on without a head. Okay. Am I intelligent enough to have seen that smash and know that there might be something in the other part? I leave that entirely up to you.

You do have an intelligence of eight. I will leave you to role play that as you see fit. She knows nothing. But she will move up to the, yeah, I see Katie knows. Heather doesn't know. Yeah. That's good. That's good role play.

That's what we like to see. I'll move up to the middle part. And I will, first of all, I'm going to spend one of my superiority dice and I'm going to use one of my maneuvers which yields a maneuvering attack which will allow me to allow one of my allies to move away so I'm gonna say to you, go, go, move! And you get a free action to move out the way. I get out of town. Yeah, is there any way you would like to move to?

There are pieces of cover, there's pillars and columns and merchant stands and things. You can see, by the way, the rest of you, these motes of light are hanging in the air and they're beginning to sparkle and glow. Whatever they're going to do sparkle and glow like whatever they're gonna do but it hasn't happened yet and then i will uh use my long sword and i will stab into the middle all right give me a roll with disadvantage if you're stepping into middle and chaka where do you want to move to do you think um so i rolled the dice to see how far i would go and also i wrote constitution for something for later, but I rolled a three. So I'm just going to go maybe five, 10 feet away.

Okay. And then turn around and go to where? I don't know, away from the fire of doom that's about to potentially rain down on us maybe. I don't know. And you've moved five or 10 feet into the middle of an open street Take cover take cover. All right, um disadvantage attack. Yeah. No, I rolled a two so it's

Probably not gonna hit right through stabbing with your longsword and unfortunately it just Misses whatever's inside. So I'm gonna use my bonus action to use my dagger and try and... Two-weapon fighting style. Okay, disadvantage again, yeah? Yeah, if you're stabbing in, yeah, if you're not looking where you're going. Three is good, but I'll tell you this, Katie, you do have Bardic Inspiration, and you've got your modifier.

So what's the total on the attack roll? I rolled a six on that d6. Oh. And I... 12. With your bonus and the six? Yeah. Three. Eight.

Nine. It should be 14. 14. I got it wrong. 14. Because that's what you needed to hit. That's why I wanted to double check on it. Yay! Thanks! So, Cranny, the inspiring words from Considerate Lefe, an official of the city.

Fix this. Yeah, fix it. Fix this! You strike forward. The first blow with your longsword definitely misses, and then you kind of just thrust forward with the dagger, and again, you feel the dagger finally strike something. Roll the damage for me.

This is going to have some resistance, because this is a weapon attack against it. I made up for it. I rolled a one plus three, so four damage. Four damage. I'm gonna unfortunately half that, because it is your striking glass. But yeah, you kind of,

but you hear and feel something inside the actual illusion itself. Okay. All right, at the top of the round. Do I still have any movement left? You do, yeah, would you like to move? Can I get into some kind of cover? Because she's looking at the sky.

You absolutely can do, however, the claws of the middle part of the dragon will get to make a free swipe at you as you move away from it. Okay, I'll stay. No, I'll go, I'll go. Okay. Because she's scared, she would go.

That's a natural one. Yeah! So you kind of like leap to the side, Dark Souls rolling, tunneling through like some barrels and crates that had been placed nearby. You smash through those in the dragon's horse. Probably in a very clumsy way.

Yeah. It wasn't graceful. More of an accidental kind of like, ugh, kind of way as you jump to the side. Cool. So the dragon swipes down. We begin a brand new combat round at the top of the round. Those glowing embers, the dragon's wings kind of throw up into the sky.

You see them all become like shooting stars and they cascade downwards, all over you. Anybody who didn't move into any sort of cover, which I think only Heather has had the opportunity to do so due to the rounds and the reactions and things like that going on. The rest of you are gonna take 10 points of damage. Reg is down.

Down? You down? So as these kind of like shooting stars kind of fall from the sky, the rest of you like, you know, being singed and burned by the radiant light, you see Reg who had been thrown, slapped by the dragon's tail, just like, ah, just on fire, and then just fall over. For the Empress! For the Empress!

For the Empress! For the Empress! There we go, I love it. So, that is gonna be at the top of the round, and it's actually Reg to go first, so, we have a thing called Death Saving Throws, which we roll in D&D when you're unconscious. Horse 11.

Oh, 11, all right, so you're not getting worse, but you're not, you know, it's one step towards getting better. But yeah, poor Reg is unfortunately unconscious on the ground. Arachne? I'm going to use my charge action. I'm going to charge towards the body of the dragon and try and strike for one of those orbs that I can see inside. Do you want to charge, because at the moment you guys have been sort of attacking the outside parts.

Do you want to charge, because to strike the orb you have to be inside it to be able to attack it without this part. Yeah, I want to charge just through, and as I'm going through, two strikes. This is a normal attack, no disadvantage. You charge straight in. However, when you do, you're going to take three points

of radiant damage, because as you're surrounded by this fog, you feel it burning away at you as you're inside the illusion. Okay. Are you still alive? 19 to hit for the first one. 19 hits and I will say that you I will give you advantage on this because the glass orb itself is not you know it doesn't have a way to defend itself so I'll give you a sneak attack damage. Oh okay well I've got a five on the second one. Oh sorry I mean sneak attack not advantage. Oh sorry sorry that's all right okay cool so 1d4 for the hoof attack three plus two and then sneak attack is a d6. And the your hoof attack is bludgeoning damage right?

It is just a melee. Yeah so it would be bludgeoning damage. Oh yes, yes, sorry, yep. And it's 2d6 for your Sneak Attack. 2d6. You are level three! Three, six, plus two, eight damage for that one. Eight points of damage. Because it is a glass orb, it's vulnerable to bludgeoning damage. So as you strike through, your big hoofs,

you kind of raise up, and again, you feel the glass break and shatter underneath your hoof and that entire middle section of the dragon bursts away and it completely fades leaving just a pair of legs and a long draconic tail hovering over Reg's body that being the only part of the creature still remaining as it remains but yeah and then you kind of emerge and I think there's how's Rackney looking? She's not looking great, but I can make another attack. I can make two attacks if I use charge. So you want to keep charging in?

Bam, bam, and then through. Into the next one? Oh yeah, let's do a line. Oh, I mean, okay. Yeah, let's go for it. Normal attack? Yeah, 12 plus, 16. 16 will strike.

Are you going inside the illusion of the next one? Yeah, let's just carry on this Okay. All right. So roll the damage on this. Oh, you can't do sneak attack again, unfortunately, because it's only one round So just with my dagger, so it's a d4 plus 2 I rolled a 1 so that's 3 damage for the second one Unfortunately, it's half because it's piercing down. So that's one point of damage Then you take three points of radiant damage because you entered the illusion. And I go down. Oh my god! So the rest of you, when you see this, by the way, these illusions are like opaque,

right? They're like thick golden fog. So you see Arachne run into the middle section of the dragon. It collapses in a shattering explosion of glass. She continues charging into the rear part of the tail. You hear like a, and then a heavy thump. And then that's it.

You don't see anything else. So after a great turn, as a reaction to being destroyed, the tail will raise up and you see it cast a long line of a shadow over Reg's body. You just see this like long, like 15 foot line of shadow over Reg's body. You just see this like long, like 15 foot line of shadow over Reg's body.

Please kill me. Well, we'll find out. Lefe, consider it Lefe. I'm gonna run over to see two bodies. I guess one is inside. Yeah, you don't, yeah, you might see just like a hoof, like sticking out the side. I see

Reg Now I kill wounds on Reg yeah, yeah roll it for me You're gonna stand next to Reg or behind Reg I Reach from the distance from the side. I see the tail From the distance. From the side. I see the tail. I'm not going in there. Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's fine. So that is 1d8 of healing, plus 3. After Lethe, we have talent. 7 healing. 7 points of healing. Reg, your eyes, they flutter open. You see, stood next to you at a great distance. My hero!

Oh! And a giant tail, as you see that dragon's butt like a cat's tail lifted up. Watch out the butt! I'm like run! Are you finished? Tom? I'm like run! What?

This way! It's done. Okay. Talon? Okay, so I am going to run towards the group so I can get like, can I get it so that they're all or like that at least like the three that are near the butt are like within 30 feet of me? Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so I'm going to basically go as close as I can and I'm going to cast Twilight Sanctuary. Oh, what does this do?

So as an action, I present my holy symbol and a sphere of twilight emanates from me. So it's going to kind of look like a galaxy so we like space and stars and all that And it's a sphere centered on me as a 30-foot radius and it's filled with dim light. So it moves with me for a minute But whenever a creature including myself ends the turn I can give them 1d6 plus 3 temporary hit points Very good So the other thing I would say because this is it creates that shadowy dim light, right? So as it passes over the illusion of the dragon itself, that golden fog now becomes a bit more translucent

and you can all now clearly see, now that the light itself has been dimmed, you clearly see the orb on the inside projecting this magic outwards. And then, yeah, so So and you end your turn. So if you'd like. No, I'm going to bonus action healing word. Oh.

Yay. What a turn. What a turn. I have to make up for it. So then she gets 1d4. That's a long dice. Yay. 3 plus 3, 6 HP.

Thank you. 6 HP back. Talon, if you're finished, the dragon, having sensed that you're the source of this shadowy magic, almost seems to become enraged. There's no voice, there's no sound, but the tail aggressively whips towards you, having conjured, especially with your goddess.

I can't read books, but that looks angry. 15 to hit you, Talon. That misses. OK, so you've got like a shield or something? Yeah, so you raise your shield and it slams against you nearly crashing you to the ground, but not enough to strike. Chaka. I turn to the lady and I say, go to where? And then still reeling from the basilisk's cry, I rode a constitution, a constitution, a saving throw for my constitution Yep, to see if I was to you know, a constitution, a saving throw for my constitution. Yep.

To see if I was to, you know, blurt out more of my draconic breath, but the party will be happy to know I did not get lower than a 10. So they don't get instantly killed because that. So instead, I tear to the fabric of time with my, with my claw, again, writing the sigil, and then cast Firebolt on the thing. On the orb.

Well, now it's been revealed, thanks to Sounds of Magic, this is no disadvantage, just a single good roll. Okay. Really? I'll tell you, would you like to give Maya advantage everyone? Please? Yeah? I'm feeling inspired. You're inspired? Okay, all right 18 is enough Roll some damage for me. Okay, that's d10. Yes, of course

damage for me. Okay. That's one. D10. Yes, of course. It's eight points of damage. With another blast of fire, your hands swirl and kind of feeling this invigoration like you are Chaka the merchant, you are one of the greatest merchants of Kelskarius. Yeah. You launch the fire, smashes the orb to pieces and the illusion of the tail, the final piece of the dragon, fades as all three illusions are shattered. Congratulations. It was all reg. It was all reg. Now I don't want to rush you, I don't want to ruin your RP, but we are running out of time.

So the energy that seemed to bring the illusion, the parades to life and the cries and screams around the city fall quiet for a moment. Looking around, you can see that other creatures of light and crystal that had been being fought by the soldiers of the city have been defeated. They've vanished. And there is a moment of silence, then suddenly great cheers erupt up

from the rest of the audience. For the Empress! For the Empress! Celebration and victory of the spirits of the city overcoming yet another hardship. And then one voice calls out, look the palace! A young girl points to the centre of the city. All eyes follow her hand to the tallest point, the palace, a building of magical beauty, as it is enshrouded in a strange yellow and purple

haze. A single point of light hovers above it, and then everything becomes deathly silent. The light seems to expand in a flash to a colossal sphere of the same strange purple and yellow light that engulfs it, completely obscuring the palace from view. And then, just as quickly as it appears, it shrinks to nothing, revealing a domed crater where the palace had once been. Shattered, broken sections of the white stone and colourless crystal still hover in place above the collapsed ruins in the crater, like

they were frozen in time as the rest crumbled. Before anyone can speak or scream, a blast of wind and force rushes out from the palace at the heart of the city, sweeping through the streets. With such force, it snaps wooden beams and shatters glass. The very ground shakes with tremors that crack the stone foundations. That floating debris is suddenly launched like missiles into the city itself, crashing down with explosive force as around you buildings begin to collapse and crumble.

What do each of you do in this moment? Reg, go. Pee himself. Talon. I'm gonna find someone that's like, covering like, put my shield over them. And like kind of like okay Heather? Grab any small kids around or something. Dive. Dive into cover. Arachne? Ducking into like a doorway with a notebook just like scrolling. She's trying to take those

final notes. Yep. Chaka? I just throw up with my breath and I fly into an alleyway. Okay so we go through the breath of like flame launches you. Consider it Lethe. I am standing in the middle of the street. I'm trying to guide everyone else to safety behind alleyways, things like that. Don't park like this way. Everybody this way, please. Down with the ship.

All right. I would like all of you to make dexterity saving throws to determine your fate along with the city. Aww. No. Oh, I rolled on my own dice and I got a nat 20. Where's my dice? Let's start with Katie.

I rolled a nat 20, but I accidentally just grabbed my own dice, so it's not on the big one, sorry. It's fine. Oh, I was gonna use the big one, I used the small one I got. That's fine. Non-nat 20. Non-natural 20, 20, natural 20,

natural, non-natural 20. 12. 12, ooh, mate, no. 22. 22, Chaka. Are you kidding? It wasn't... it was six. Yeah. 18. 18. Okay. Heather, Talon, Considerate Lefe.

What did you get again, Arachne? 22. 22. And Arachne, all four of you managed to dive for cover, or... Considerate Lefe, you don't dive for cover or consider that you don't die for you Guide enough people to cover but you yourself are exposed Chaka you managed to defend like a group of people with your shield Heather you grab some kids and dive into the cover underneath an alleyway But Reg and Chaka and Lafay You are either maybe thrown against a building kind of slammed You are either maybe thrown against a building, kind of slammed, your back kind of like you hear bones snapping as you are slammed, smashing through glass into an inside of a building. Lethe, you just look up and you have these final moments knowing you did your duty as a giant piece of stone just slams into you.

The alleyway that Chaka, you flew into collapses in on itself, burying you in rubble. Oh, wow. The Dragon Empress was assassinated that day. Her remains were the only thing to survive the blast that destroyed the palace, and no amount of divine magic could restore her to life. No culprit could be found. No faction came forward to claim responsibility. And even the deities, the

gods and goddesses of Ulthea could not answer who orchestrated this devastating attack. There are many stories, many rumours and conspiracies of course, but as of yet, no proof has ever come to light. The dragon empire was lost in mourning for years after the Empressress's death. But eventually the eyes of her children, the ten archdragons, turn to the throne of the empire. Tensions rise across the empire. Cults of dead gods gain power. Factions play against one another in the shadows for control. And ancient evil stirs to deep beneath the land. But there are also opportunities that exist. Gold flows as power shifts,

and across the Empire there are those in need. Champions are called for, spies are summoned, scholars seek answers, mercenaries desire pay, and of course, adventurers can follow their destiny. Welcome to Ilmera. And that's it. We're out of time. Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you. Thank you very much.

If you would like to see what happens several years after the events you witnessed here today, make sure to come and follow us on High Rollers D&D on Twitch, Twitter, podcast. We're pretty much everywhere. We don't normally dress up like bizarre cultists, I promise. We're going to be finishing our current epic campaign, which is a space fantasy called Erois over the next couple of months. So if you want to jump in and see a high level D&D equivalent

of the Avengers and Final Fantasy flying out to the edge of space in their anime battleship to punch God in the face. You can come and watch that live every Sunday, 5 p.m. BST, 6 p.m. CEST, or 9 a.m. PST on twitch.tv forward slash highrollers D&D. But before we go, a huge thank you to our special guests, Maya and S-Major. Thank you very much. Maya, where can people find you for more role-playing and gaming?

You can find me at twitch.tv slash Myer. I do a bunch of roleplay stuff and things like that. But if you want to see me playing D&D, you can find me on twitch.tv slash TableStory, where I do dress up like a bizarre cultist. So there's that. Yeah, absolutely. It's an amazing show as well, TableStory. Go and check it out.

Scott, where can people find you? At twitch.tv slash Smaor and also smajor1985 on Twitter and other socials where I just do content. Amazing. Thank you so much for joining us, both of you. Can we get some love

for four-fifths of the High Rollers players? We've got Rhiann and Tom, Trot and Katie. Can we have a big round of applause and some thank you for those guys? Thank you very much. And a big round of applause for our lovely audience here in Amsterdam.

You guys are amazing and everyone in chat as well. Thank you so much. Thank you guys all so, so much for joining us. I've been Mark Humes, your Dungeon Master for this evening. Thank you very much. Hopefully we will see you all in our chat on Sundays for more D&D. Until then, have a wonderful TwitchCon, everybody.

We love you. Goodbye. For the Aquarius!