High Rollers DnD - Crownfall (Part 2) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #88

Episode Date: January 15, 2026

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Medcan, live well for life. at Medcan.com slash moments to get started. Welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire, Part 2. Our heroes have attended a war council at the Dominus Ignorum to deal with the imminent threat of crownfall. Having watched a piece of the crown fall from the skying and impact several miles to the northwest,

the town of Ash and Rest, Duke Ignorius, and the armies of Northvale prepare themselves to deal with this on-combed. threat. Our heroes have been gathered and Sir Gruffeth, as well as most of the companions, have offered to do what they can, to head to the impact site of the crownfall and to deal with the powerful creatures that may be lingering there. Meanwhile, the armies and the dragons will concern themselves with the unrushing attack from the creatures that land with the crownfall itself. Zanthius stepped out of the conversation for but a moment.

tempting to plead, bargain, threaten sovereign to back down. To do so, he chose to open up the runic barrier that currently keeps the crown steel from affecting others to enable this communication to happen. It was unsuccessful in convincing sovereign to pull back his forces. and with the runic barrier removed, Obsidious, Lord Obsidious approached, trying to console Zanthius but was pushed away, and Xanthius fled the scene.

The rest of you, Duke Ignorius sort of bows his head. I must thank you all once again. You are doing something truly noble, and you have no obligation to do so. It is truly... truly heroic. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will ensure that these deeds are recorded

and you are justly rewarded as well. Is there anything else? I believe the holy knights will be gathering soon to make their way out. They will try to get around the oncoming forces. So I will not keep you too much longer. But if there are any questions or anything that you need, please let me know.

So Groff's a little distracted because he's kind of in looking at the door and he's kind of going out, Zanthius. Zanthius, you okay, boyo? Like, on that, yeah, in the... And you would see... So as you're kind of looking in that way, Gruff, as the Duke is looking at everybody,

you see Obsidius, like, re-enter, just... Stoic-faced, drawn. Oh, I would have seen him leave them. He, like, comes back in. So maybe I would have chilled out when I saw him. Okay, so you see Zanthius walk outside, and then he disappears.

Obsidius goes out, and then very quickly comes back in and does not look happy. Yeah, because I think you would have almost seen, like Gruff half stand up until he saw Obsidius go out and then he's like... Oh, okay. So maybe just a bit distraughtily.

Oh, a Trinviel matter, your lordship. Since I'm going to the front lines, I have this diamond. I was wondering if you could turn it in a dust so I could use it for some of my healing spells. Magic, I do not know much about magic, but obsidious, obsidious! And he sort of catch his eye and he's like,

yes, father, what is it? Gruffeth needs diamond dust you sent. Oh, yes, sorry. Are you able to assist with this matter? It is used for some sort of spell, healing magic. And obsidious will, yes, yes, I can. Do you want the whole thing, turn to dust? Groth, yes, please.

Yes, I should be able to do that too. Pass it here. Yes, Xanthius. That's all he says. That's all he needs to say. I think there's like a knowing glance between the two, right? You see, he takes it and he will say, give me a moment, I will take it up to my study

and I have a solution which should turn this into dust. He holds his hand out in front of me, right? Yeah. Do I see anything different? What shall pass the perception? 18. Yeah. If it had been 20, maybe.

Not as 18. So he takes it and he's like, give me a moment. I will return very shortly before you leave. And he heads off. And then for the sake of brevity, by the way, he will come back in about like five minutes. He has a small embroidered silk bag and he hands it to you and it is the...

How much was the diamond worth? 500 GPP. 500 GP of diamond dust basically. Sweet. Thank you. He provides that to you easily enough. Anything from anybody else that isn't Xantheus? Do we have...

Is there a way we can access potential healing? Potions, anything that have vitality? Potions, I'm afraid. They're afraid they will be given out to the soldiers who do not have access to any sort of healing medications and things like that. I'm not sure that we would have much supplies for that. The Church of the Siam, the Holy Knights, I understand,

have some healing magic of their own. Okay. But I'm afraid that, no, any other supplies like that will be given to the troops. I'm sure you can understand, Sister Ophelia. You have your own abilities and spells. They do not. I must think of them first.

Okay, thank you. Of course. Is there anything else? Is there like a quick way for us to get there? I'm afraid not. From what the scout said, it is a few miles. We should only take you a few hours to travel that way. But I imagine that the Holy Knights will want to avoid the oncoming larger force.

So it may take you a slightly wider path approach to the impact site. You should still be cautious. whilst there is a large force heading this way, that is not to say that there will not be smaller bands of these creatures roaming around. We know that from reports of other provinces and incidents with Crownfall, these creatures, they protect the impact site.

This emissary, I think you heard the term earlier, yes? This is a sort of much more powerful, more intelligent creature that remains at the impact site. It draws on the remnant magic, the remnant energy left at the impact, to create rifts from which it can draw forth more of the lesser creatures supplementing. It's false. We know that they are more powerful, so that is all I can share with you, I'm afraid. I have not much dealing with Crownfall myself. Oh. Yes, Ron.

This is Roan. Your draconic majesty. With regard to, and I don't want to make you angry again, so I really sorry if that happens, the incident that we reported to you in the past... Yes, in the Ash Hills. If there were, say, for example, other people that are clamoring for this, what would your orders be?

My orders do not matter in this case, Rowan, because it is law. anyone that is not yourselves or those chosen by the Church of the Sions who approaches that impact site are breaking imperial law. They are to be detained, if possible, captured, rendered unconscious, but if necessary, lethal force is approved. They cannot be allowed to obtain Crown Steel. It is a dangerous, dangerous substance that cannot fall into the wrong hands. and there may be scavengers, there may be mercenaries, only those approved by the church, and in this case, I give you my blessing to go, but it will be up to the Church of the Sions if the rest of you, as Gruffath's companions, are allowed to come, but I have a feeling

that they will allow you to do so. They know your heroics here in Aschon's rest. They know you to be of good character and good soul. I have no doubt that they would welcome your additional support, but only those approved by the Church of the Sons are allowed to investigate and reclaim Crownsteel. So if you meet anyone else, cultists of these ashills or criminals who are trying to obtain it for the black market, they are to be eliminated or captured ideally, for then we can gain information and learn more. And they can serve proper justice as per an authoritor. But I would have, I do not fear that there is any authoritative within the empire. would not support you, if lethal force is necessary.

Understood. Any other questions or needs? Very well. I understand. I do not know if your friend, Xanthias, will join you. He seemed to leave the meeting. I will be disappointed if he does not assist you, but I would understand it.

This will be, I must warn you, this will be dangerous. These creatures are powerful. I wish you all the best. I know that you go in my grace, and with the blessing of dragons behind you, and all of our might, I wish only that I could come with you, but even I would not dare tread near that place.

Are we leaving now? I think it best if you move now. Well, thank you, my lord. Best of luck to you, hope. Yes, I will assemble a small squadron. We will head to half and try and defend them there, and perhaps we can at least drive off the force or make it retreat and then return to the army.

but I think at best if we send as much immediate aid as we can, and quite frankly, I am the fastest I will reach that I can fly there in draconic form. We'll fight well. I will. You have no fear in need of that, Cicerophelia. If there is one thing to Kignarious knows, it is to fight well. We are in good hands. And as am I. He will sort of look around.

Lord of Cities, if you do need to contact us, I know you have the magical power to send us messages. if you do need to send us anything when we are separated? I do. I am concerned if I do not wish to spend too much of my magical energy if it is required later. Sending is not the most powerful spell I know, but it still drains my magical energies. I will only do so if I must.

I do have a scroll of it somewhere still. I will try my best to send word to you. Only if you need to. Yes, it will be in an emergency if it is necessary. Excellent. He sort of just... He looks... Obscilius looks like he's going to say something else

and then he chooses otherwise and makes his way to stand by his father. Cool. So while all of this has been going on, Xanthius. I'm really trying to figure out what route I take here. Because... I feel like I gotta wait for everyone.

Mm-hmm. Are the ones that we were going to be heading down with, are they nearby or anywhere? Of the church, and you could head to the cathedral. That's the most obvious place that they would probably gather. They weren't summoned here, no, because they are not part of the Duke's retinue. They are not like, they are like a separate entity.

But you would have known Sir Morning is at the cathedral? Yeah, and Sir Glory. You've met them both. Yeah, yeah. And I should say as well, it is so mourning is in the act of mourning or grieving. It is not mourning like the morning morning morning. Yeah. Not so the morning glory.

They're two separate people. It's very tasty vegetable. I know. So. Well, yeah, if they were nearby, I would have asked them what they actually do in terms of containing it. But, I didn't say not nearby. I mean, there is a part of me that almost wants to just, get wings out, get haste, and just fucking go.

Just go a direction. If you would have heard gruff in your head at the beginning, like before all of that, kind of asking where you were, like, rolling for you. Yeah, you do still have the telepathic connection. It's within a mile, so as long as you're within a mile of me. Yeah, can you roll in it just to see how long it will last because it might affect the journey and stuff like that there?

Because if it's over a certain period of time, you'll have it all the way up until you reach the impact. Three, but I can react. Three chinkers. Yeah. Three. It's important because also Daisy can spend those points on doing other things, so like, you know,

it's important to, like, make sure we check how long it is and stuff like that, so. No, I think I will just leave the Dominus Ignarum and there's this big sort of staircase up to the thing, right? It's like a winding path that, like, leads up to the Dominus, yeah, through the city. That I... we'll wait there for everyone instead.

Um, but I just, I'm sort of watching over the walls and just looking at this thing if I can see it from there. Um. You can't, you know, you can't see this site from the town. Like it's too far away. I mean, we're talking like several, several miles. Like, you know, it's, you know, behind terrain and stuff like, it's gonna take you hours to get out there.

Or at least in that direction. Yeah, you can look in the direction. direction, you know the vague direction. We'll opt to... Here's a question, though, for you, Xanthius. Yeah. The Dominus Ignarum, there are soldiers, there are knights, there are staff, or coming and going.

Like, you are not walking through this place in Tyne alone. Are you avoiding people? Yeah. Yeah, I am, yeah. Sure. I kind of almost conscious of this thing that you've done. Yeah, it's a fast walk and, like, if I round a corner and someone happens to be there, I'm, like, very quickly, like, spinning and turning around away from them to, to, you

get away from them as fast as possible. Because I don't know the effect this thing will have on anyone now. If there's any Dragonborn, I'm leaving. Like, I'm far away from then. Sure. You're going to actively try and avoid people. Yeah. Can I have a role to see how successful you are on this?

And I think that it would either need to be initiative or perception. Because it's like testing your reflexes, like you round a corner and there's like a little cobble there. Like, how quickly do you react to them like coming around the corner? or like, do you hear or notice them? I'm going to give him the choice of either initiative or perception. Initiative for just like reaction time, perception to know that they're coming ahead of time. I'm going to go with initiative, I think, which is plus one.

Surprising. 14. 14. You definitely, you would believe that you've, like, reacted quick enough to, like, not expose anybody to the crown steel. By the time you reach outside, are you constantly trying to replenish the? shield or are you just like, I don't know what to do? It's the biggest focus of me right now is, yeah, just, A, do I just go? Or be, yeah, trying to summon these runes together.

What does it, so for a ruin, when you normally create your runes, it's when you spend a sorcery point, right? When I, yeah, spend. You do a meta-magic or you get spell slots back. There is a bonus action thing I can do as well. So I think even way- What's the bonus action thing? It's the Mario theme. followed by, you spend a bonus action to do something.

As a bonus action, you can spend a sorcery point to convert two essence runes into charge runes. So one sorcery for two runes. Cool. I would say. And I have a max of 10. If you, like, because you're focusing and you're like trying to concentrate,

how do I get this back, how do I get this back, and you're trying to figure it out. Roll, one sorcery point gets you two ruins. Yes. I think it needs quite a few of your runes to form this shield, but it's like subcontract. Yeah. Roll a D4 plus one for me.

D4 plus one, D4 plus one, this one please. Oh, uh five. It's gonna, if you spend five sorcery points, you can replenish that. I want to lower. Five sorcery points, I go, so I had to go. And this might be something you can, like, learn to do in the future, like if you wanted to take it down for whatever reason,

you might be able to like do this cheaper and cheaper each time, but right now it's going to cost you five sorcery points. to get the shield back. Can I get to five? Well, you have sorcery points there just to spend, right? Yeah. Oh yeah, I have ten, so I will spend one. It costs you half at the moment.

That's a lot. That's a lot. So do I still gain these ruins? So you don't gain them in the mechanical sense like you normally gain them to protect yourself. You can reform the barrier that keeps the crown steel secured. Yeah, that entire run out is just burning this magic to try to fuel this thing.

But also learning how to deal with it. Yeah, like, you're like, how do I make this thing? How do I make this? This isn't like anything else I've done before. Trying different things, like drawing on that innate magic and focusing on the ruins and thinking protection, thinking warding, thinking of the things that you can do. And like maybe the first one flickers but then fades. And you try again and maybe like two or three flicker. And you feel like somebody, somebody with immense strength and weight, pressing down on your

chest. And it almost hurts to, like, reform. and then you start and it kind of breaks apart again and then you kind of grit your teeth, you lock your heels, and you dig deep, kind of driving your claws into the stone ramparts of the fore and you draw,

and you almost feel like you're going to pass out as the pressure and the weight built, builds and builds and builds. And then, and the runes are there, holding this thing back. Oh, shit, okay. Do they look, I guess I can't really look at them right now. I just glance down. Hey, Sautra, can you take a look at this?

Are they weaker than before, or different? They are different. Okay. They're different ruins. Different symbols, different shapes. Again, you don't really know what these ruins mean or look like, but they are different to the ones you remember seeing before. Okay, but the pressure is relieved.

Okay, good. The pressure is back on. Up until now, you felt great. You feel like this weight's been lifted off of you, and now it's like, oh, my God. It's like somebody's just, like, dialed the gravity up, 0.1. You know, you're like, oh, man. And you remember how freeing it felt before?

I think in my head I also probably have a feeling that I have to now concentrate on this thing or it will just break away on its own. Like, the subconscious part of it is now gone. That's my worry right now. You have to learn to do it subconsciously. Yeah. But yes, I will.

I will wait outside. Okay. Having somewhat contained this thing, I think this has taken the entire time for the party to finish having that conversation for the diamond dust, for them to start making their way back. Yeah.

You finish this and you're dripping with sweat and sort of breathing heavily as the group of you, you've seen no sign of Xanthius. You've kind of gone out. You've made your way. Maybe you asked like a passing guard. They're like, oh, I think I saw Zanthia,

like Mr. Zanthias heading that way or something like that. and you're approaching as you see Xanthus kind of taking like these deep breaths out on the stairs, not stairs, but like pathway that leads up to the Dominus Ignarum and he's sort of looking out on the wall. Zanthias, you okay, boyo? The protection, it's weakened.

I can hear him in my head now. I tried to tell him to send his forces back, but it didn't work. I think we have to go there as fast as we can. Are you going to be okay if we go there? Can you feel anything? What are we supposed to feel? I don't know, different.

Put a pore out on your shoulder? I don't think so. Yeah, if you don't think. Okay, I think I've contained it again, but it's weaker, it's more frail, it's... I don't... I'm... I had to tell Obsidius to leave

in case it turned him or twisted, or something, but... Ah, that explains that look. Yeah, he was so angry when you came back. He was... Okay, he didn't, the Duke wasn't concerned that I left or... He was... Didn't seem to... I don't think it was top

on his list of priorities, honestly. He was sad to see that you may not help. He would really like to help. We didn't question why you left. Was there a plan put in place? Go to the front line. Okay. We're that team.

We're approaching Sir Morning and Sir Glory now to head up with them. What should I do? What do you want to do? If I think about going there and saying that I want to help, I'm worried at some part of my mind that is not my own telling me to go there. So tell me what to do. What do you want me to do? I don't think we can make the decision for you, Zanthea.

I think it needs to come from you and the fact that you're even questioning it, I don't think it's going to be your... I don't think it's going to be someone controlling you. I think you still have control. We have an out. We have a way to get home quickly, thanks to Rowan. That's true.

So if anything goes wrong or if anything happens, we can just leave. I have this cape too and I think I can get you quite far away quickly too. With that. Say 500 feet. Hold that, yes. The choice is yours, Xanthius.

We won't force you either way. Are you going anyway? Yes. Okay. Gruff has made it quite clear what he intends to do and I think that we're stronger together. But we also understand if you don't think,

that that's good for you. I want to fight this emissary, and I want to stop the attack, so we can do that, but I don't know about going much further than that. Did they have any way of containing the Crown Steel? Did they have any way of, how are they collecting it? They didn't mention. And I think this is,

where you would know, Gruff and based on the conversations, you know, Duke Ignores said to you and things like that. The church is separate to Duke Ignoress. They wouldn't know each other's plans. So the best bet is to, you need to go and ask them. Like, they are, their mission is to go and contain the crowns deal and deal with the emissary. And if they fail, then it falls to the Duke's army

to basically fight its way to the impact site and destroy whatever it's there. Okay. Containment is the church's duty, so the duke does not know. So we can ask the church, they're the ones we are traveling with, they're the ones we were fighting with. Okay. He said that Rowan asked about if anyone else tried to get the crown steel.

If there's crown steel there, if anyone else tried to get it, then it's against the law and lethal force, if necessary, was authorized. So we need to get permission to go to the front lines, which I think we will, but there might be other people there trying for it too. Great. Okay. I think it's best if it's better in our hands than someone else's. In our hands or in my hands? Everyone but your hands. Can I make a request, Antheist, if we're doing permissions?

Sure. You know what happened last time? I do, yes. And that's my worry. I would like permission for us to intervene on your behalf, should it come to that. And what kind of intervention are we talking about here? I've had this conversation with Ophelia before and... No, I'm not going to kill you.

I mean go big and push you back. We're going to do everything we can. Despite what you say, we will do what's best. Yes, absolutely. If you need to use the stone on me, just me to get me out of there, then yes. Even if you say, because it may not be you at that point. Yes. I want to hear it from Xanthias now.

You have permission to do whatever it takes. To save you. To save me. Thank you. Felia, I think maybe a memory flashes in your mind of that conversation you had with Zanthias. And you know that Rowan does not mean death. No. but Xanthius did specifically,

you made a pact with Zanthias that if it comes to it, it might be. And that sort of lingers in your mind for a moment. Yeah, Ophelia would look to Xanthius, just called knowingly. A knowing look. Yeah.

A shared message between the two of you, that if necessary, Ophelia would deliver the final blow. It's a look to Ophelia when I say whatever it takes. I did also swear on earth to Lord Obsidius. as well, like, that I would stop him if it came to it. Good hope.

Love oaths flying around here. Mine was not detailed. Yeah. You just promised to stop him. Exactly. There's some wriggle room there. I feel like most of us, our idea of stopping him is push him far enough away that it's not an issue anymore. But I think that's why we get that little moment, because with Ophelia, it is a, you will kill me if you have to.

Yeah. And that's why there's this little moment, like the camera sort of like does the little glance. It's an arrangement we make. What I would think I would say is the Duke would have told Gruff and the rest of the party to head to the North Gate and to meet the party there

rather than going to the cathedral. Because they're probably already mobilising and probably about ready to go. So you do not have real time to dawdle here. Like this is a go, go, go scenario. You know that. Okay. I'm assuming you head there, basically, you can pick up Xanthias, have this conversation,

and go straight to North Gate. Yes, yeah. On board. Yeah. So you arrive and you see that basically mounting up on Drake's, sort of the riding horse-like dragon beast, kind of like Wyvens, they're not quite dragons. You know, drakes are these sort of more horse-like creatures.

you see Sir Morning this grey-skinned teafling with these horns that almost curl up and have like this moon-like symbol sort of in between the horns, like on this jewellery, kind of beautifully knit in silver plate armour with this enormous guts from berserk style great sword on the back,

mounted up on a horse. Next to them you see Sir Glory, I have this kind of bright, gold, and sort of amber-coloured robes armor with a great battle axe, like great axe, sort of hefted in one armoured gauntlet, mounting a pristine, brassy drake. So morning he's on a silver drake. And then alongside them would be one, two, three, four, five, six, six warriors who

look like kind of warrior priests sort of dressed in symbols. They have mixture of symbols of melee, some have the symbol of pyrus. And they're sort of all clad in like chain mail with shields and halberds. and sort of soldiers gear, basically. But definitely more skilled. These are like elite soldiers, basically. And they're mounting up on Drake's as well as you approach. And you would see that Sir Morning and So Glory sort of nod in your direction.

The Speaker of Secrets is also there performing some sort of right with an incense burner and is blessing them as preparing for this journey, basically, and is offering them prayers, which I think you would recognise as being like divine spells. The Speaker of Secrets is casting aid on them and giving them like protections of blessings and things like that as you begin to make your approach but they're all mounted, they're all on mounts currently and you guys are on foot.

Cool, fun. Mount me. A woo. Sorry, was that the Drake sign? Yeah, yeah. It's like a t-shirt. Muncho. Monschon.

Show it off, yeah. Monscho! So, that's your round. I really want an Angus, one, didn't I? So what's, yeah, what do you guys do? I would probably wave at them and... They sort of wave back. Nighter Errant gruff, Sir Gloria will call out,

and companions, glaring at Ophelia. Philly just arm us up. Oh yeah, Sir Gloria's just like, by the scions. Clarets back. As the helmet, they have this moment, but you see Sir Morning will sort of say,

Knight Aaron Gruffeth, and the Speaker of Secrets will bow to you all. I'm afraid that we do not have much time we are heading off to deal with the crownfall. We have the blessing of Duke Ignarius to join you. We are fighting with you. Sir Gloria will say,

it is not sir, it is not the Duke's behest. to send people out there. That is not, by Edicton law, he is not involved in this situation. But you see the Speaker of Secrets is like, Sir Glory, please, patience, a moment. Are you saying that you are volunteering to go to the impact site?

I am, I. And the rest of you as well? Yes. Yes. He's sort of the Speaker of Secrets looks up, Sir Morning looks and nods his head. Sir Gregory's like, Speaker, you can't, they cannot go to the site.

This is church business. The speaker holds up their hand again. It is not your decision to make, Holy Knight. I represent the church here. These five have saved this city. They have fought for the souls of those here. I trust them. And you will need assistance.

This is, this is, this is, I believe that Malia is sending them with you as a blessing. I believe that this is the will of the Sions. and he sort of nods in your direction. Yes, yes. They have already mounted, but perhaps we can find some others to send with you, and he begins to immediately be like, he'll call over to one of the soldiers,

like, see if the stables have more riding drakes, and they begin to make their way over. As they do, as that soldier goes to move, you hear this Scottish voice, there's no need for that. And you see approaching from the north gate, leading his Drake, Black Drake Obsidian,

as well as four others, Sir Greal will approach. And he just says, I'll be with the army, so I'm a frisdion won't be much use to me, I'll be in the ranks fighting with the infantry. So I figured it was only best if I bring you some raids, some mounts hearing where you were being sent. And he will hand obsidian's rites to work.

Yeah. And then the rest hands out to you. What kind of colour, based on the dragon colours, what kind of colours would you like your drakes to be? A red drake for Ophelia? Yeah. Yep. Green for Rowan.

Green for Rowan, yeah, absolutely. I kind of guess a goldish, really antique. Well, you could have gold or bronze? Probably gold. Gold? I'll go with bronze. Bronze. Yeah, there you go.

So you kind of have these drakes and, you know, these are powerful reptilian sort of creatures. you can tell that they're quite strong. They have no barding because they have scales. They're like scales. Do now. They've grown in the areas that they need to be protected, leaving their underbelly more flexible and soft,

but sort of on the sides, their scales have grown quite heavy and hard. They've all got saddles on them, like war saddles and things like that, enough for weapons and equipment to be stored on. And you quickly mount up, and Sir Morning will say, Please understand, heroes. I am grateful that melee has sent you to join us, but I am in command of this expedition, and I entrust that you will follow my guidance in this.

It is the church's duty to contain the evil which lies to the northwest. I do not know how much you've been told or what you know of the foes that we will face. But now is the time for questions, for we will not have much time when we begin to ride. to ride. What containment methods do you use? It is secret knowledge of the church, but, and he will gesture.

And you see that there is a dwarven woman with a great hammer, dressed in with the holy symbol of male here. And she sort of looks at some morning and the speaker, but sort of nods ahead. And you can see that she produces from the side of her Drake several, like these long boxes. They are, they, appear to be wooden, but when she opens them, you can see that they are lined entirely on the

inside with this slate grey material. It looks like stone almost. And you can see that the whole box is like etched in not ruins or magic, but prayers. Like prayers have been written out and the prayers do have some sort of divine glow to them. These reliquaries have been blessed specifically to contain the dreadful influence of the material that must be obtained. Oh, you put Zanthlius in a box. Why should you get a big coffin? You just get a fucking coffin.

Made like that. I can make that. This material, it is a metal that falls with the crown for. You must not approach it, citizens. It is, it has an aura, a malice, that can seize your mind. mind and your body and corrupt you.

Please trust it only to Sir Glory and I, for only we have the divine protection needed to resist it. That's crazy, man. I've never seen it. He doesn't know this, right? He's treating you guys, like, you guys... He's cheating, and it's like, we don't. Yeah, exactly.

Well, no, you're normal law-abiding citizens, right? Golly gosh. Skip tutorial. Yeah. Skip tutorial. But you see the Dwarven woman puts the relevant. queries away. Is there anything else? Do you wish to know anything else about what we face? Is there anything we should know about the monsters we will face? Any weaknesses?

It is always difficult to say. They are resistant to mundane weaponry. It will be harder to attack them if you do not possess enchanted or blessed weaponry. Myself or Sir Glory may be able to offer you a temporary enchantment that will allow you to bypass this resilience that they have. They are empowered with fire and with radiant light, which makes them also resistant to these alarms as well.

Damn it! Fuck! Fucking hell. But also, and he looks to you, Sister Ophelia, I do not know the magics of Osseus, but they are also resilient against necrotic energies.

I see. They are... They come in different forms. There are smaller beast-like ones, which are easy to dispatch, but dangerous in vast numbers. We know that there are... They were once soldiers, so they come in different forms.

Some are more suited to long range. Some are brute siege beasts that are there to absorb, you know, blows and protect their allies. Others are like trained soldiers. And then there are the emissaries, their leaders. They will not leave the impact site and will focus on drawing forth more of their forces. But if engaged, they are intelligent. intelligent, very mentally unwell, shall we say. They seeth in rage and hatred and babble,

and their presence, their very closeness, can incite madness and confusion in you. They are able to channel magic and perform deeds of immense power and strength. They must be dealt with very quickly. I will need your blessing upon my weapon, please. I will have to do that as we engage in battle. It will only last a few minutes at most. Understood.

I'm ready. Ready. I'm ready. Well, then let us begin. Let us ride. With that, begin to, you... Duh!

Ride for a red dawn! A red day! A red day. A glorious day. You begin to ride the powerful drakes there their sort of clawed feet thundering across the ground, tearing up the grass and the dirt as you rock it out of the north gate and begin to head northwest. You travel for sometime a few hours,

and you begin to see that faint gold-reddish glow that I'd mentioned. It is still dim, but there is a presence to it that seems to be growing bigger and bigger. You also begin to hear, you know, as your... you're traveling through hills and sort of going down divvets and up pathways and through small woodlands and things like that, you know, you're traveling out into the country into like the wildlands, basically. You can hear in the distance the sounds of the chittering, of screaming, of roaring, some force of sighs is tearing its way through and across the countryside. You never see them, but you see that Sir Morning,

always has at least two of his riders sort of way far advanced of your party, and occasionally they will ride back and, like, gesture to go further afield, you know, trying to avoid this confrontation with this massive, massive force. You also would have seen as you first left Ashen's rest, you see the Duke's army, the second company marching in columns. Being the army of Northvale, this is not some like 10,000 person army. Each company is perhaps only, you know, 600, 700, soldiers. So 700 sent out 700 still to guard the walls. But they march in tight columns. You know, they have shields and spears and pikes at the front, arches behind, they have skirmishes on the flanks. They have cavalry, Drake cavalry, all prepared to fight. And Sir Greald, obviously,

marching alongside them. Duke Ignarius has taken some squad. You see him fly out in the direction of path and quickly vanishes. His great draconic speed to take him at a great distance. And then after a little bit of time, just before Ashton's rest sort of vanishes behind the hills behind you, the last thing you see is you see a sort of great spell-like shield forming around the sort of front half of the gate. As you see, a familiar black and red draconic form

sort of coiled around the old lamplighter's guild tower, sort of concentrating with their claws stretched out on this barrier shield as Obsidious has taken to his duties of protecting Ashen's rest itself. But you and your small band travel out. You eventually reach a point where Sir Morning will sort of bring the company

to a halt and gesture as a small woodland begins to sort of spry up. We must leave the drakes here now. We must approach. No, Derek. I am sorry, Daisy, but it would be too dangerous to take them with us. Whilst they are formidable fighters,

they will give us away, and I think at best if we use the element of surprise to attack here. You can tie them up here. They will be more than, they will be safe. You will draw forth. It's like Drake. They're quite nasty-looking creatures. They're not pretty things.

You know, they're sort of a mixture of a sort of like dragon horse thing. And sort of like, but it does sort of, I think Daisy's got away with animals and it sort of nozzles its skulled face up against your hand. Fucking druid right here. You don't do anything,

but when do you do druid shit? Like without... I have a bird companion! Yeah, there you go. And I heal. Yeah. And I fish. Well, it likes Daisy Moore.

And I wear first. And also this is Sir Gry Old's Drake. You don't give a shit about you. I've fought with a stick for ages. You sort of dismount, tie the drakes up to this little cot, wooden, wooded copse of trees, give them some shelter and then, yeah,

begin making your way on foot. Could I have, from the group, how are you approaching this? Are you guys going to offer to, like, help scout ahead? Are you trying to move quietly? Are you going to use any of your skills or spells or anything like that to help your party in this? I'm casting speak with animals.

Okay. Because I apparently don't do enough druid ship, and I haven't cast that for a while. Sure. Yeah. Okay. I'll speak with animals. Let's go with grudge-based choice-making.

Broer is going to offer his services of being able to scout quite well. He uses survival instincts through the woods to offer a good path. And this is a survival role you want to make. Yep. Okay, go for it. Yeah, I love that. So, yeah, you're a season traveler. You know, you're used to traveling through the wilds.

You know how to avoid natural dangers and threats and things like that. Yeah, give me a survival role. Livid over there. 17. 17. Nice, nice, nice. A roll of a 7. 17.

I think that, yeah, you are able to, you sort of make your way up, and you can see that where some Morning's scouts are sort of going to lead you, you have a feeling that's going to leave you too exposed because you think that this trail is actually going to open up too wide, and you sort of go up and suggest a different alternative route, which is an old, like, deer trail. So it's cleared, but it's quite tight and secluded, and that's going to help keep you a bit more hidden and protected.

and hopefully avoid any confrontations, or at least give you the jump on them if you were to find anything. Who's next to me right now? Ophelia and a soldier. Soldier. Yes. Have you faced one of these before? Can't say that I have, sir, but we've been taught them in the temples and the churches.

You must cover yourself entirely in mud. Can you give me a deception check, please? The seven again. Plus five, though. So, 12. I don't think... Yeah, no. I got a 14 on an insight.

He's like, I don't think, I've never heard that one. I'm gonna not do that. I'm trying to keep the mood light. We're going into a terrifying situation. That's great. Pirates blessing me with you, brother. Yes.

So as Rowan is kind of lean, that as anybody else doing anything else, you don't have to, of course, this is entirely optional way, it just may help your chances. I can't pass without a trace. You can't speak without animals. You want to mark off two spell slots?

She's fuming. I'm leaving the party. Yeah, okay. No, I, can I, can I just cast with Patswell Outtrace please? So you don't want to cast me with animals? No. That's weird, because I'm... Did you not hear Kim asked to cast me with animals?

I thought you were going to do some fluid things, but I guess not. I heard you, Chitrin. You asked me very nicely, Kim. Maybe I'll forget that you said that. My darling, my gorgeous, my indomable, my beautiful dungeon mask. I would like this small and petty worm would like to cast. Oh, I like that.

Oh, don't bring me into this. Would like to cast the humble smell instead of speak. Pass without a trace. Instead of the joke I made. And I understand that you didn't take it to be a joke because it was such a terrible joke for me to make because I am a terrible jokester.

Well, when somebody says I cast a spell in D&D, I think it's quite fair for the DM to assume that that's what you're doing. It is. in my graciousness, allow you to cut twice a year. Thank you. This most humble urchin thanks me.

So you will find that as you begin to move, your footsteps aren't making sound on the leaves. You know, branches, when you push them away, don't creak and snap. They just bend effortlessly with the gesture. As, yeah, you no longer seem to be leaving any sort of trail or trace of your passing down this very secluded track

that Rowan has found for you all. We must all cover ourselves. I've got no wisdom. I'm rolling. Like an arnie and predator. Ugh, exactly. Can I go a bit further ahead? Can I like try and do like a

full stealth and just, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. You're perfect at this. And also like you know you've got Nim guiding you and this is what Nim did. Yeah, was a scout and a military like a ranger basically. So I want to scout. Yeah.

Stealth check, please. 12 plus 13 plus 10? Yeah, if you win the 30 foot. If you win 30 foot of me. Yeah, until you get a bit further away, even then it's still gonna be a 25. 35-5-hmm? Yeah.

So Daisy, yeah, without making a sound, the magic of graphs, although you leave that behind as you scout out quite far ahead, I would say that you're the first notice. You're coming up on a clearing that has like an old ruined watch tower in it, and you would know, with your passive perception as well, there are creatures.

In the tower? Not in the tower, but in the woodland around it. And if you, it's going to be very difficult to avoid them because they're probably going to be part. They're like protecting the area. Okay. And you have to go through them to get to the impact site. But what you could do is absolutely go back to your allies

and tell them about this, and it's likely that you will get to sort of amble. ambush these creatures. Rather than it being the other way around where they were looking, they're looking for like creatures nearby and protecting this impact site. And likely if you hadn't scouted ahead

and done really well, you likely would have been ambushed here. I shall report. Okay. So yeah, with that, like some morning we'll be like, very good, we must prepare an ambush. We need to head through here. We cannot delay. We must press through. But perhaps if we can ambush them and gain the upper hand.

Is there anything Ophelia and Xenthius would like to do before this sort of ambush happens? Um, could Aphelia cast, um, what's it called, Unseen Servant? And just, and have it sort of go around the troops. And if they have any like, empty water skins or anything, send it off to look for a stream to like refill water skins. Yeah, what I look back. Yeah. So kind of like keeping like, as you're making this journey, it's making, rather than everybody having to worry about their supplies or like checking their equipment and things like that, the Unseen Servant is kind of taking care of that. Yeah. I kind of like that. Yeah. I think that because it's a spell slot, you don't have to make a role, you're just expend it.

But yeah, I think that why don't I say that, like, for the first round of combat, all of you and your allies are going to count as having been blessed, so you get a D4 and attacks and say, you know, only for the first round of combat, because that's going to represent, like, morale being high, they're hydrated, they're fed, their equipment's all prepped and ready to go.

Like, the unseen servant is, you know, made sure that everybody is in the best peak position that they can. This is all red wine. It's my horse speaking. Yeah. What? You turn up to very merry. And then what about Xanthus?

I mean, my plan was to do... I know these things to be celestial in nature, right? Celestial and fiendish kind of merge together. Yeah, so my original plan was to detect evil and good just to stop an ambush occurring on us, but it sounds like we've got the upper hand already. Do you have the upper hand, but perhaps that spell might reveal like if there are...

Because there might be... Daisy knows that there are creatures out there. Doesn't know how many, doesn't know wig. doesn't know exactly where they are. Doesn't know how powerful they might be. So maybe something like that would give you a bit more information. Yeah, so it's Celestial Elemental or Feind, or Undead, within 30 feet. Okay, yeah.

I'd say that that's probably going to come into it when you start the combat. You'll instantly know where they all are and what kind of presence they are. It is a concentration spell. Okay, good to do it. Does that break any other concentration I might be holding? No. Good. Nope, move on.

Didn't seem to you. Okay. So, let me set this up. I don't think we'll have time to start it today, but we can at least set everybody up. We'll just start off the landscape. Yeah. I might need some help because we are trying

with a new reset and I can't quite reach. That's right. Our table has an inset. It has a whole, big old old. This whole time. There's a whole in my table. Can you reach that corner? I don't know if we can.

Can you move the minutes instead, please? Yeah, apparently I'm in the problem. Yeah, basically like as if you are kind of approaching, in fact, I'm going to move this around so you guys have got a little bit. So we're from the south west. Weist. Southeast is on the rock. I'm, uh, where's the crowd still crashed?

I'm there. Not yet. This is all like further in. This is like an encounter you're having beforehand. Who's up front? I've peeled it like a banana. So Daisy was scouting a little bit ahead, so maybe have right down. Rome was also doing, probably guiding.

through this path. And then if you just sort of arrange... I was passing without a trace, so I imagine I'd be in the middle so that I can hit a 30-foot radius for the whole troop. Is that good with everybody? Yeah, that's good to me.

So, for reference, your allies, all of these black bases are like the regular warriors. The two on the clear bases, the one in silver is Sir Morning, the one in the orange is Sir Glory. Trog. All the troops need to be probably behind us, right? Yeah, or scattered around you.

It's like you are kind of moving in, you know, sort of formation. Yeah, they're in the void, they're dead. And what is this formation you're forming here? This is a 4-4-2. There's two defenders, there's a midfielder. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who strikers. Oh, perfect.

Sports terms. 4-4-2, classic. There's actually only five of them, so. Back of the net. Oh, two on these guys as well. Yes, please, yeah, that's the two lead knights there. They're dead. Wallop.

Prossed. Bullocks. That's my impression of football. That's as far as it goes. Every week. Oh, go see. Gras, watch out, Stone. Big rock.

You know, Rowan. So because of that, Detect, Ebel, I'm going to put all of the creatures on the field, which normally you wouldn't see. That's a big bastard. Oh, my goodness. That's a bloody big bastard. Don't worry about that I was.

I was painting him on the stream just before we went live. Oh, gosh. Great. More attention. We'll. Look at that going. What is that? Weird, horsey, sexy.

So, as you sneak up. And I'm going to say, with a pass without a trace, with Daisy scouting ahead, I'm not going to have you make stealth checks. You guys are going to get basically, you're going to surprise them, so you have advantage of initiative roles. And that's how it's going to work, right? You guys are ambushing these guys. What you see, thanks to Xanthus's to Tech Spell and everything else, is in the tree line and around this ruined fort, you can see these smaller beasts-like creatures. They're hunched.

You can see the remnants of soldiers' armour, and you can see, like, vestigial wings out of their back. Some of the wings are, like, burnt bat wings. Some are, like, burnt angel wings. They have twisted heads where the helmet has almost fused to their skin, and their jaws have unhinged and great sort of fangs and slobbering jaws replace them.

Could be you. That could be me. They have the crown still corrupted. Like their arms have that same effect as like Xanthius's arm and things like that. But they look like they would have once stood upright and walked like men and women. But now they're sort of hunched. They're like dark souls kind of like they're crawling.

And their armor is like split and, you know, cracked open where their joints have like double jointed and spikes have grown out of them and things like that. And they're like prowling like wolves or beasts and sort of sniffing the air. They don't appear to have eyes because their helmets have completely covered them, but yet they still seem to be able to see and sense around them. In the far tree line, you can see, it is not a centre. I've had to use a mini that I already had.

Instead has this almost Leonin-style body. And then it's upper half. it would have been a beautiful, celestial creature once. It has this, you know, perfect slender body. And you can see that it's carrying this, you know, what have once been a golden long bow. It doesn't have any arrows on it, but it does have one of its arms.

It almost has, like, growths along its forearm. And it has this long, black, gold hair that seems to, like, ink kind of drift and float around it. But it too has got a helmet that's kind of fused to its head, pieces of armour that are fused to its body and its leonin rear and things like that.

It's this twisted metal sort of angel that's being corrupted. And then finally, in the back, ripping trees apart as it steps through, is this Behamov, this hulking great giant of a warrior. one arm holds this piece of stone that's been sharpened and carved to be like a sword

and it has that texture of the crown for the sort of black and grey stone streaked with gold and red on the other arm it is made of multiple muscle fibres that have sort of knotted and woven together like a basket weaving but it seems to stretch and grow as this clawed gorneted tag, digs into the ground, and then it drags itself forward on it. It has legs, powerful legs, but its torso is weighed down by chains and metal plates, and the bodies of fallen soldiers that sort of spill around its legs. So it uses the claw to give itself additional momentum as it draws itself forward. And they are scouring around, looking around desperately for prey or for foes.

but you will have the advantage, but we're not, I think we're gonna end things there because I think that that's a perfect point to end today's episode. We do have to wait another week before we. You do, because it's a special adventure. Just do another three hours. I mean, listen, I'm up for it.

I can do another hour at least. Look, we can finish this fight straight away. We've got a surprise round. Easy. Yeah. I mean, I would do another hour, but people want to go home. But we are going to end this episode here.

We will be back in Alfea in two weeks. So next week is going to be a special one shot. Special anniversary. But I think that's why it's more important to start fresh, nice big action combat. I don't want to forget where we are. And then go straight into it. Yeah, exactly.

So with that, your first encounter with the Crownfall spawn. These creatures that fall to Alfea attached to the meteorite will take place next time. So cool. Wood. What an episode? Can't want to read about them. With that, we will see you all next time, everybody.

Thank you so much for watching. We'll take you, catch you next time. Bye-bye. Goodbye.