High Rollers DnD - Cult Smashers (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #73

Episode Date: August 12, 2025

The heroes recover from a gruelling fight in Netting-On-Sea and track down some loose leads! MANY ANNOUNCEMENTS: Discworld Live! 28th November at Indigo at the 02! Tickets: https://aegp.uk/Discworld New merch collaboration with Harps Corp! https://harpscorp.com/high-rollers-dnd-x-harps-corp/ Use discount code 'altheya' for £2 off per coaster! Use code 'roller5' for £5 off every thing else! (£5 per item!) Can't wait for Part 2 of each episode? Join our Patreon to get early access EVERY week (+ a few other bonuses)! www.patreon.com/HighRollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://geekyclean.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.highrollersdnd.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickax. Hey, I'm Arne Neekam from the fully improvised comedy podcast, Hello from the Magic Tavern. I'm here with my co-hosts, Chunt the Talking Badger, Bing Bong, and Usinor the Wizard. I greet thee, listeners. Look, I'm trapped in the magical land of foon, so I started a podcast, interviewing elves, unicorns, and other weirdos. We have great guests like Felicia Day, Jason Manzuka. Brennan Lee Mulligan, Amy Mann, and so many more. Oh, and I think one time we interviewed a sentient shoe?

I hope it was sentient. Not to mention the evil people we've had to interview. How I hate evil. Join us as we bar crawl across the magical land of foon. Looking for adventure. Getting caught up in escapades. Hello from the Magic Tavern is available right now on your favorite podcast app. And add free and with lots of bonus content on Patreon.

Subscribe to Hello from the Magic Tavern today. Tom, you're not ready to fight obsidious? No, no, I don't. Obsidious? Yeah. No. Oh, hello, everybody. Whoa!

Whoa! Hello, everybody. It's High Rollers Day. It's me, your game's master, Marks, Sashmara. Hello. Welcome to another fun Sunday, full of adventure. Sunday. Fun day, Sunday, Sunday, Fundy, Fundy, Sunday.

Wish it was Fun Day? I hate that song. I don't know what it is. Just sometimes I just let Tom talk to himself. You hate silence. Hello, there is an absolute boatload of things to talk about before we get the episode started today. First up, a brand new merch partnership. With the folks at Harps Corp,

They've got a range of handmade wooden TTRPG accessories. Harps Court is a regular face at UK events. Probably if you've gone to Comic-Conns or Dragon Me or UK Games Expo, you've probably seen them. They have a giant dice there. Big dice. Big dice. They sell dice towers, trays, coasters and more.

They are producing a high rollers collection, which includes the exclusive. Othea Chronicle. The Chronicle is a dice tray and dice storage in one with a dry erase board and a pen to keep track of your spell slots and things. There is also the High Rollers Warden, which is their Dice, Trayton, and Tower in one.

The High Rollers Warden comes with, you can choose either High Rollers logo or the Altheir logo. There are also High Rollers coasters, with three different designs, including the Clever Toad. The 3D. And also, it's not plugged in right now,

but our awesome D20-shaped high-rollers LED light. Don't roll it. It glows and changes colours. It's colors and everything, it's great. There's also the high roller's crest on there as well. Yes. Because Hart's Corps are literally two people making these. Everything you see here is handmade to a very high standard

by Michael and James at Hart's Core. So the way that it works is they make these in pre-order waves. So if you click on the link in the chat or in the video description now, it will take you to basically the store page. And then when you pre-order stuff, you'll see that you can order for the slot for like, November, December, January, that kind of thing. And then, so if you click through on that,

that's when you'd be able to select which one of these you want, unless you want all of them, all of them. So, yeah, these are all, like I said, handmade in the UK by two very talented chaps. Go and check it out. Link in chat in the video description, in all of those places. Go and check it out. This is our brand new merch

partnership with Harp's core. And, you know, I'll throw it out as well. Don't forget, you can go check out our partners at Geeky Clean, Dispelled Dice, all of that good. stuff as well. But what's that? Wait, there's more. There is more, you see. Do you love live shows? No, I do. Oh, I do, too. And we've got quite a few of them coming up actually. We have partnered up

with our good pals at Modifius, as well as the lovely and handsome Andy Ferrant from Ox Venture, as well as Agey Events, who did our our Delphi live show in London to do a special Terry Pratchett's Discworld RPG live show. I'm so fucking feral about this. So excited.

That is on Friday, the 28th of November. We will be at the Indigo at the O2 in London for a live adventure in Terry Pratchett's World of Discworld. The amazing Andy Fran from Oxfenture will be our GM. So I don't know anything about Discworld.

world, so I actually get to be a player and get to experience this world for the first time. So tickets are out now. The show is happening also the day before DragonMeet, which is a big tabletop role-playing event in London. So if you were thinking of going along to Dragon Meat, and who knows, maybe some of us might make our faces known there as well, why not come and see the live show the night before? Go and check it out. Very excited about that.

That one's going to be a big show. Yeah. Big show. And the O-2. Show at the Indigo at the O2. Indigo. Indigo. Indigo. And the O2. But what's that?

You can't. You can't wait till November time? No, I can't. I want more, please. I'm hungry, Daddy. Well, you know what to do? No. No. You made it weird. You made it weird. Cancell it. So at the end of October, we have got a bunch of very, very fun things happening. Do you know what? I'm just going to tell you about them.

I was going to do a little tease and I was going to be all vague. But no, I'm actually... Fuck it, I'm just going to tell you. Fuck it. It's time. We're back. It's been so long. We're back, baby.

We're going to be back at MCM Comic-Con in London. We're going to be doing on October the 25th. That's the Saturday at October MCM London. We're going to be doing a live show in the convention itself, as well as a meet and greet. And it might be part of a rather special announcement. Maybe our most special yet. You don't want to miss.

I'd be involved as well, perhaps some old friends and new ones. Mark, what if those two events aren't enough for me? Wait, you mean, you what? You're saying that a live show and a meet and greet and a special announcement at London Comic-Conn MCM, is enough? I crave the third. You would like another, another word, please. Well, this one might be a little closer to home.

That's right, we're doing a live show in Bristol. Yay! Not just that, yes, way. We don't have to do transport and accommodation. Not just that. We can go straight home afterwards. Guys, it's on Halloween. Oh, Friday, 31st of October.

That's right. Halloween itself. Keep your eye out. We're going to have more details that coming soon, but there's going to be a live show in Bristol. Keep your people's peeled for more information about tickets and links

and all of that as well. But keep those calendars free. That'll be a special one too. Yeah. It's going to be a very special one. Again, there you go. So lots of things happening at the end. of October, you've got MCM Comic-Con and our Bristol live show on October 31st.

We will have ticket links to the Bristol show and, I guess, to the reservation system at Comic-Con. Soon. We just wanted to let you know, because there's loads on. You can buy your Discord tickets right now. There'll be links in chat, links in the video description, all of that good stuff. Go and check that out. Come and see us. The announcements do not stop there, Trottomus, San. There is one more on the horizon running towards us. For the, after the last episode, we recorded a 30-ish minute behind-the-screen special,

available to members and Twitch subs and YouTube people. If you want to see that, link up your Discord. It'll be in the supporters channel there. An extra just, we're just chatting about the battle that just happened in the previous events. We want to do more as I was going to say, yeah. Sign up because there's going to be more of them. We want to do more. There was a lot of love for an extra buying the screens.

We're not going to do them every single episode. but after major events, things like that. So if you want an extra, an amount of time of us just chat and shit for... What if every episode has a major event? If every episode has that, then there's going to be an extra one every single time. Let's do it. Let's make it happen. So we want to do that.

But yeah, that is it. Do go and check out behind the screen. Also, don't forget to go check out our live tab. There's a lot of one shots. You might have missed some that we've done because it is hidden on the live tab. That's right. With that, lots of announcements. Uh, done.

But one more rolls towards us. No. The episode's about to begin. That's my announcement. Thank you, Tom. Hello, and welcome. Hello, and welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes had uncovered a nefarious cult of Orjania in the sleepy fishing village of netting on sea.

And after racing back to the village to try and put a stop to their wicked plans, they were drawn into a battle against the cultists whilst trying to also rescue several of their allies. However, the cultists were able to light a signal beacon, and just as our heroes managed to overcome most of the cultists, something began to emerge from the ocean. waters. Agamox, champion of Ojania and his multitudes of deep children minions surfaced and stormed the village looking to slaughter anyone, including the delusional cultists who thought they would be rewarded. Agamox was driven by a powerful hatred for everything and fought bitterly

and a desperate battle ensued. Despite some close calls, the party emerged triumphant and now must consider their next steps and the aftermath of the battle. We find ourselves it is late. The moon, the crown, casting that red golden glow across the dark, ink-black sea, the silvery moon of Malir, small but still bright and powerful hanging in the sky, as you all stand in the... blood-soaked town center of netting on the sea.

The civilians, most of whom survived, stand over their fallen friends in shock, in dismay, in confusion over the events that have just taken place. The bodies of the deep children already beginning to rapidly decompose, as you have seen their bodies do in the past, breaking down, turning into foul, briny-smelling ooze littered amongst the place. Your own wounds still likely sore or perhaps even bleeding. It is very, very late.

Battle taking place well into the night. I hand it back to you, heroes. What would you like to do? Does a level up fully heal us? No. No. I believe so. It happens in Final Fantasy.

No, I believe you've asked me this question before. I have thought of you. I have. Yeah, I absolutely have. No, no, no long rest. You do gain the extra hit points and things like that from your level up, as you are now level nine. Yes. But before, actually, before anybody says, we should roll fate.

Okay. Okay, do. Just before I forget. because I always forget. I'm trying a new dice, watch this try. Same, I'm just like that. I'm going to try a new dice next to it. Jesus Christ.

I was about to do that too. Well, a six, that's a dice for you. Nailed it. Yes. Yeah. That's cool. Six as well. I got a six two.

Oh, hell yes. The number of the beast. Yes. That's for you, Ozzy. R-I-P. I got a two. Oh, you had to ruin it. I got to three.

Oh, that's a shame. Sorry. Losers. I'm going to roll it into one of our new Harps' core dice tray. Available now. A two, yay, dice for me. Even. Even Stevens, even Stevens.

So last time, a John, not a Johnia, choral song calling. Yes. So that was the very last thing was Agamox. There were two things that Agamox left behind are not decomposing along with the rest of Agamox's body. A large serrated great sword made of this strange dark steel-colored stone as well as a conch shell inscribed with all sorts of ruins and glyphs.

And as I believe you began to hear a voice coming from this conch shell, which you believe belongs to choral song, the other champion of Ojanja, asking, her brother where they were and what was going on before Rowan crushed it. No, no, he said a line first, though I heard about it. That's true. He said a line.

What did you say? Did you say? He doesn't remember. I literally can't remember. He said Agamots can't come to the phone right now, please leave a message. What's the phone? Well, he doesn't say phone.

You also leave a message after the beep. Like, it was a very non-universe answer. And then you can beat. That's true. People beep. That's true. People do beep. They do beep, and...

But that, I think, was the very last thing. So the now broken, shattered remains of this conch shell litter the ground. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. What did they say? What, Rowan, did they say to us? Agamomox. I remember. Yes?

It was the sibling of Agamox. Let him say what he wants to say. Coral song? Yes. I don't know their siblings. The other champion. The other champion. They were calling Agamox?

Yes, finding out where they were, and it was strange that they hadn't heard from them. Obviously, because they're dead now. Well, that, yes, no, there is that, is that. And then I crushed the college because I was angry. Honestly, I think that was probably the best choice. We don't know what kind of magic was in that. thing. Yeah, that's why I did that. Yeah, it was, well done.

Well done. How's everyone, how's everyone feeling? I feel really, really tired right now. Gras's going around, because he finished kind of in the group of villagers, so he'd be going around asking if they're okay and bandaging and getting the healers kit out.

Yeah, I think there's definitely a couple of them and taken wounds. One in particular you remember is this sweet-looking otter wild heart. How could we forget? We're forgetting a little sort of like pinafore apron, a very simple kind of cotton,

sort of cotton wool dress, different shades of like blues and grays. And, you know, they do have like hair, kind of like more humanoid hair, but their features, they are not a puss and otter. They are like an anthropomorphic otter. And you can see that she took a nasty wound and, you know, you're bandaging her up.

You can see that a few of the other villagers have taken little nicks and cuts and things like that. Two of them were sadly slain by Jameson, the previous Marshal, who has fled out into the countryside. Not sure what has happened with them. Your attention's drawn more inwardly to the injured and yourselves.

The little otter lady will be like, thank you, thank you, okay. And like wincing in the pain as you sort of antiseptic and bandage them up, and you can see that she is looking at everybody else, just her eyes wide in. And you immediately can tell Graf, you have a bit of training as a healer.

They're in shock, like this person, and most of the villagers here, they're sort of doing that stunned, slow look around, not really taking everything in, not really hearing everything. A couple of them are attending to the dead bodies of their fellow villagers who are not members of the cult. Quite a few of them are like looking towards the bodies

of Merrick and Madeleine and these others in just furious disbelief of what's happened. Daisy Rowan, if you come here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do me a favour right now. Can you just help the villagers? They're all in shock, okay? I'm on it.

So soft voices, I don't know, cup of the tea. I know, blankets. They need blankets. I'm going to go. Fish stew. Fish stew. Make sure they're fine, make sure they're good. Ophelia.

Yes. Can you please, the bodies of the dead, please? Can you gather them, cover them out of sight, please? Yes, yes, okay. I mean, the most of the ocean ones are... Separate the villages from the... Right, yes, okay. From the cultists and the ocean leave them.

I can help you with it. I was gonna go and get some blankets from wherever the nearest place. I guess maybe it's like... Oh, it would be Kalazin. It would be the... Yeah, yeah, so Carla's probably coming out of the door as you begin approaching, like, is everything all right? Do you have just maybe a couple of blankets?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Come with me, and she'll take you inside. You go up to, like, the bedroom, and, like, there's trunks in there with, like, spare blankets and bedding and things like that. She maybe goes down to, like, her little private room downstairs and pulls out, just whatever she can, basically, and comes with you.

I was going to go over to the villagers who have passed away and just put a blanket over them just our respect, to just be respectful, and then give the rest of them to people who are standing nearby just to try and... Yeah, it's summer, so it's not particularly cold at night here, but there is a bit of a chill coming off the ocean because you're right by the ocean here.

But you can see that they're just not feeling it. They kind of just take the blankets, you drake them around their shoulders, and they just hold them, just sort of doing that stunned, look around thing. There is a couple who are stood next to the bodies. It looks like their immediate family. It might be like one was a husband of a wife,

and the wife is sort of kneeling, sort of holding their hand. The other one seems to be family members. They're probably like a young 20s, and they are another otter wild heart. And you can see that the one that you're bandaging... What? There's just another... There's a family of them, yeah.

I didn't know this. This is a crucial... I'm curious. I actually text me to tell me the altar was okay last. I'm furious. Oh, no, the one that you were worried about survived, but they weren't the only Otter Wildheart in the group of civilians.

This was important information that was not given at the time. I would have been in there with them. You were in there with them, but mutiny? I think I quit. We didn't quite get 10 years. Rowan comes up to Xanthias and Ophelia. Yeah. I can help you.

There's a lot of bodies. Okay, yes, yeah. Do you want to Wilburrow? Or do you want to... Oh, little wheelbarrow, no, I don't think it would be very respectful. Can you maybe a table or something? Yeah, maybe I just... Something that you can move people around.

It would be better than dragging them around, I feel yeah. Can make like stretcher. I can, well, I could probably try and carry them, but yes, we could probably use some help. I will get out Sustanuto and use my performance of creation to create a... I can make a medium-sized thing. Okay. for four hours. So I'll make it an Osseus-themed,

very ornate, like a cart with just two wheels on it and two handles on it so that you can just move things around. But it doesn't look disrespectful or shoddy. It looks very nice. It does look covered in bones and Osseon. Well, Ossian in terms of like Ophelia's plate armor and the filigree. What do you know about it?

I was going to say, for me, when you say like, oh, it looks very Oseon, it's like made of a rib cage. skulls, and like, it looks like something Skeletor would ride around it. It's Rowan's version. Yeah, yeah, yeah, family-friendly. So it's a bit more ornate, and it's more like Ophelia than... It's respecting the dead.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, you create that, which will make it much easier. There are, like, in terms of just cultists, there's, like, 17 or something of them, because there was about 12 regular cultists, and then Merrick, Maddalen, Madeline, and Hannah as well. So it's 15, it's about 15 or so. Before we go and do this though,

we obviously, if Corosong knew that Agamox was coming here and is now no longer receiving communication, it's not completely out there to assume that Corosong might be coming here as well. What have they had a little track? Wait, you're saying more of those things are coming? I say to the immediate group. Well, this is Carla.

Like, Carla's with Daisy, so, like, you know, Carla's overheard it, and it's like, what the fuck? There's another one champion out there. Yes, but we don't know where they are, but it's not completely unreasonable to assume that they want revenge, right, for what we, you know, for Agamox. But do you think that this other thing knows where we, like, it knows where we are?

I can't say sure. Was it working with this cult? Were the cult working with both of them? We don't know that for sure. We know that they can communicate with each other. Now they can't. I can maybe... Yes, Rowan smashed the thing

that was using Mateo's... And ones dead. Yes. I could maybe take a look at the shell to see if I can figure out what kind of magic was involved in there, but I won't be able to determine whether or not

Coralong new Agamox was here. So... Maybe Sir Joran knows a bit more. I wish, no, I think Gruff was probably going towards and going, Sir Joran, you better not be dead in there. He, like, he comes out of the doorway. He looks fucked up. Like, he is badly hurt.

He's holding his ribs. You imagine that several of them are broken from Hannah's, like, you know, she was so strong with this, like, just metal bar with, like, concrete on the end of it. He comes out, he's covered in blood. Like, he's got blood sprayed all up his armor and his face, sweating profusely. He kind of, I'm not dead yet. He, like, looks back, and you can see this just, yeah, like, stamp through with his harpoon.

Hannah's body just stabbed through, like, the chest laying on the ground. I'm glad to give him my shoulder. He'll, like, he'll shrug it off. He's like, no, I can walk, I can walk, I'm fine. Just need to find someone to sit down for a minute. If I may, and I'll start casting magic in my hall. Yeah, he'll, like, yeah, he'll, like, nod, yeah, yeah. Something to help with the pain.

Cure wounds at level four. Oh, yeah, Christ, yeah. I mean, don't have to worry about the hip points. Like, you can't do if you'd like, but he immediately, is like, oh, and you probably hear like bones kind of like as like his broken ribs like remend and like he coughs up the blood as his lungs expels some of the fluid that was in there and kind of wipes that away on his tunic and he just nods

and he definitely stands a bit straighter now. But you suspect that like you would suspect Gruff that his injuries his injuries were bad and you've healed his physical injuries but he is an older guy and that intense of a fight after also having been like knocked out and concussed I mean, magical healing can only do so much and he looks bad still

like he looks like pale and sweaty and he's a bit, you know, uncertain on his feet but he is very stubbornly like no and he's like using, you know, he's like walking with you where he needs to go. Sir George and I must apologize. It's my fault. I told them that you were there, and I didn't suspect that something was up until it was too late. I don't think anybody did grow, hang on, more northern like that, bastard, yeah, we go.

He's like, I don't think anybody expected what just happened. I mean, we knew that these champions, but I wasn't expecting villagers to be in, working in cooperation with them. But, uh, and I thank you for your apology. I don't think it's needed, but appreciate it. something was wrong and, but I just, it was too late. It was too late. I'd never imagine that they'd be in a league with Ojania and with Agamox. What made you think that something was up? Just the way they were looking at us, the way they were kind of weird,

the way they were talking to everybody. I know what insular fishing villages are like with this felt wrong. I put it down just they didn't like outsiders. I thought maybe. this ghosts that they set up but they said they told us

about these ghosts up at the church though maybe there was something there controlling them and keeping them in fear

I didn't think I didn't think until it was too late and then I realized I told them I told them you were there and I shouldn't have done that

why not if they had been innocent it wouldn't have been an issue I put you in danger no I'm a night Griffith my life's in danger

coming out here I knew Why are you taking this guilt on yourself? Is it because you're in charge? If something had happened to me or to one of your friends, what would you do? I blame myself for not seeing things sooner. I felt something was wrong and I...

What would blame in yourself accomplish? I don't have an answer for that. Think on it. Being a leader, being a knight, having responsibility. Oh sure, it's great when everything goes right. It's easy. It wouldn't be much of a knight if it was always easy, would you? I blame myself for making the wrong call.

And you think you'll always make the right one? No. Good. You won't. Trust me. You're gonna make mistakes like this a lot. It's how you move on. move on, it's what you do with it. It's what you do next time that matters. Now come on, stop apologising, we've got work to do.

I may, Sir John. Gruff made an excellent plan when we got to the village about how we should infiltrate and get in and save as many people as we could. Tell me about it, I'd like to hear it. I will regale how Gruff instructed us to go around like Daisy going and Matteo and Rowan going into the...

and then going around the other side and all of that and just basically I just want to highlight that Gruff took leadership. He like listens very intently and he like, you know, he asks a couple of probing questions like, oh, why do you think he did that and things like that? But you get, it's not hard to tell.

Like he is analyzing Groff's performance. Like he is kind of, he once did know these details. But he make an insight role for me. Just make one insight role for me because he's kind of a hard guy to read. Groff's ears have just gone airplane ears because he's so embarrassed like it's just like flat ears

yeah airplane is I've not had that term Airplane ears is a thing is that thing there's a whole 17 17 you he's still pretty hard to read but you definitely see him like he seems to be

that's when they're ears called flat there's like a smile when he asks you questions and you answer and you tell him you know about the plan that Gruff came up with and how, do you tell him about much about what happened at the church or just the plan in the village? I'd probably tell them both because Gruff made a plan about going in

and said if we find out anything, then we know it's a trap, then we leave. Yeah, and you would know Gruff was the last one out and things like that, yeah. There's definitely a smile to Sir Joran when he's listening to all of this. Like, it's very subtle, like he's trying to keep his face placid, but he's definitely, you get the impression that he's impressed by it.

But you, I would say with the 17, you definitely, you can pick up the fact that, like, he's worried that Gruff is going to take on too much response. Like, he's taking on all the burden of, like, it going wrong. The results of it. And he's worried that, like, in the future, if Gruff makes another mistake, is he going to blame himself for that as well as he going to keep putting being hard on himself, you know, and things like that. But that's Daisy picks up on that, so.

Yeah. But there, he, like, he'll, like, probably, he also maybe uses that as an, excuse to like sit down with Daisy and you can see that he's relieved to like take a take a minute and like sit down himself he's yeah he's healed now but definitely still suffering um yeah aphelia and xanthias what are you guys anything in particular you guys are doing like gathering up these bodies or if you're looking for or anything you're doing in particular i think while ophelia is sort of gathering up the body she's sort of like carefully picking them up placing them in the cart like closing their eyes and placing maybe their hands

and strategically over, like, parts of their body that might be pierced from wounds, just to, like... So is this the cultists you're doing this, too? Or the civilians? The civilians. Okay. But, like, as she's doing that, she's kind of looking at the statue,

looking around, like, all the, like, the remains of all of Janja's followers and everything. Yeah, they've become almost this, like, putrescent slime with chunks of carapus and shell. There's kind of, like, this... flicker of like almost like an ambition where it's like these people were willing to lay down everything for a completely different entity that wasn't even their god like how how do they how does that how do they how do they change their minds like that like you mean the the the

civilians who joined with since all the cultists the cultists are the actual cultists of a jania So the ones who devoted themselves for that. There's like this weird sort of conflict where she's like, there's obviously this scene of destruction and sadness, but there's also this religious conflict. And it's kind of like, I guess Ophelia's kind of feeling the same way, this same parallel of like how is this happening? How does something have that much influence over a small village

that clearly dedicated so much of their lives to one God to then change to something completely different. Yeah, and like as you gather, the civilians, you know, their families are a little hesitant, like as you come over and make, you know, cross their bodies and things like that, cover any wounds. Probably don't want the bodies move just yet, but you offer the little comforts that you can.

Are you leaving, like, Xanthias in this question for you about, are you leaving the cultist's body? So this is the villagers who are the cultists. Are you leaving them where they are? Are you going to gather them up as well? Because when you see them, a lot of them still have looks of like adoration and like majesty. Like, yes, our things have come for us.

Perhaps the one who did not have that experience, was Jameson, who's fled now, who saw what Agamox was willing to do to these so-called believers. but the rest are all, you know, almost in awe in this belief. Even Merrick and Madeline still have this, like, they're clutching these symbols of Ojanja and their ritual lives as if their lives depended on it, you know? Yeah.

There's still this devout fanaticism there. Are there any of the villagers surrounding the bodies of the cultists? Because obviously these would have been friends. I think you... Were any of them, like, family members? No, it seems to be that the survivors and the people who weren't the cultists. are not members of the Ogden and the Cambric families.

Right, okay. They look like it was basically exclusively these families. Yeah. What you probably would see is this burly, was one of the militia guards. He sort of, his shock turns to anger, and he goes over and he looks at Merrick's body, and he just starts, like, kicking it,

and he's like, you fucking traitor! Like, and he starts just wailing on this body, like, picks it up, and, like, he's, like, full of just this fury. He's just like, you lied to us, you betrayed, you were going to sacrifice us. How dare you? We look to you to protect us. And he's just, he's so consumed by this betrayal and this rage. I thought I got angry.

Yeah, I mean, there is like a part of me that's like, that's not massively dissimilar in that regard. Like, I guess I don't know how Ophelia's feeling about it, but where you are almost getting, like, the admiration. like you were saying, in a weird sense. Yeah. I feel like Xanthius is kind of looking down on them, I suppose. Like...

Pathetic. Yeah, like they have all of this worship for that thing that is also just dead on the ground. That you killed. Yeah. Right? Like, it's hard to not separate the idea of just like, what a fucking waste.

It's quite tragic. It is tragic. I guess there's almost a grim part of Xanthius where it's almost like the person who's kicking Merrick on the ground of almost like, we should make an example out of them. Like, it's, it's, if Corlson comes here and sees the body of the cultists that worship her, that would be spooky, right?

That would shit her up. I don't think that's the thing, they were deluded, right? That's true, yeah. They were deluded into this worship, and Agamox was like, I was going to kill you all anyway, yo. Yeah, that's true. Which does seem strange. They were clearly working to help Agamomax.

So they must have, there's probably this realization of like, well, they must have had some sort of deal. And it just, the Agamox clearly was like, well, fuck you, I'm going to kill you anyway. That was the grand plan that he'd never reveal, right? You probably see that man who has been, like, kicking this body, he just spits on Merrick's corpse. And then he goes back to, like, help his still living people,

but like just leaves this like crumpled now sort of broken dead corpse. Yeah, I think I would probably, well eventually I think move the bodies but I think for the immediate moment, Santhius would probably be almost picking up the weaponry, I suppose. Like I imagine some of it's like blood-soaked weaponry. Well, most of the, yeah, the cultists, they had like these like ritual knives, which it appears to be like a very large shark's tooth with like a crew. handle carved out of it

and then wrapped with this natural fiber and then this just serrated sharp's tooth knife like ritual dagger. The creatures, the deep children, most of their weapons kind of begin to dissolve and break away like the rest of them. The exception being

sort of planted in the ground is Agamox's great sword, which you can immediately tell is different to everything else. It's made of a different substance. It's not coral, it's this kind of rock that's almost steel-colored, like a steel-colored rock. And it's got these like jagged, serrated edges, but it's made from one piece of stone with like

a wrapped handle and it's just shoved into the ground where he died. Interesting. That's pretty cool right there. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I mainly want to see if there's any indication of any kind of like, I don't even know what to look for, right? I'm kind of just trying to investigate any of the bodies as much as I can of like, oh, carol song's on the way. The creatures?

Yeah, I mean, just before they fully wither away. Give me an arcana check. Arcana check. We do have fate. Yeah, I'll pop a fate on this boy. Sure. Arcana, I have a plus four. Huge role.

Huge role. Incoming. 16. 16 is not bad. It's not bad. I also have no idea what I would possibly find in order to be like, oh, it's another conch. Oh, wow.

I'm going to spend one of my points of fate to add a complication. I'm going to say that's a success. Okay. Which is going to burn these two fate. They are now removed in time. See? No, but it's good. So I'm going to add this complication.

So you search the bodies, and there's really not much to find, like they're, they are putrefying. Like, it's clearly like being exposed, not being submerged in the water. Once they die, they quickly break down some sort of defensive or magical process, you know, to make sure that their bodies can't be recovered and things like that. Even their shells begin to become fragile and break away and their weapons and everything else. you go back to those remnants of the conch shell and you can see that although Rowan has smashed it there is still some lingering trace of magic there not enough to make it work but enough for you to analyze

and you know you begin to like you know conjure a few ruins in your hand you begin to sort of try and get a sense of what magic was used to it to try and understand like does Coral Song know where this is okay and I'm going to say two things I also have the gold site eye as well I guess you do yeah Would you like to spend a charge to identify on that as well? Do I have a charge as a question? I do.

Unbelievable. I do have spells slots. Yes, I will... So, the conch shell was basically a form of a sending stone, like a more powerful sending stone. It allowed... This shell has a pair, like a twin, and it allowed the two to talk,

as if they were in communication, as if literally one was next to one. Okay. You don't get... You get the impression that this shell... There's no way, like, you don't believe that this is a focus for scrying or allowed, like, Carl Song to know where it was. And maybe you hear sort of almost whispers that kind of like,

where are you, brother? Like, what is happening? And you get the sense that you don't think Carlson does know where Agamox was. Okay. Obviously knew that Agamox was doing something, excuse me, doing something, but you don't get the sense that they knew where this was happening. You hear, like, those whispers, that last message that Rowan,

heard, you know, and you catch like, yeah, where are you with what's going? And you get that sense. However, as you're analysing this magic, you do. I say that she doesn't know we're in netting on sea. No, I would never be something that cool. What I would say is you see one last kind of flare of magic. Okay. And you get the impression that Coral Song gets a sense of you

activating this thing and something about your magic has translated through and there's almost this brief moment where in your mind you see this creature that has almost this kind of bulbous jellyfish like shape

behind her head almost like hair and you can see like ribbons of seaweed kind of floating up from her wrapped it's not quite a dress it's almost like corals being grown over her in a dress like shape but the face it's not a huge humanoid face.

This is this almost like mollusk or like, you know, tentacled-like creature's face. Very haunting compared to its very feminine otherwise form. And it flashes in your mind. Very eye of Sauron.

Like, you have seen it, but it has seen you. Oh, good. Okay. I will, yeah, I'll jump back away from that. And then you see that the magic in whatever these fragments, or the magic is now completely gone.

You caught these last embers of magic from it. Does Ophelia notice him doing that? I think you see him jump back. What happened? What did you... What did you... I think Coral Song. I think Coral Song just saw me in the shell thing. I don't think... Good news. I don't think she knows where Agamox went.

But now she knows you. She's seen you. I know. I'm very jealous of the image she got because the one I got was not very nice. Proud, proud boy. Very proud. Come on. It's fine, you're yours. I'll get you killed.

Maybe, but... Definitely. Possibly. Certainly. We'll look back on this moment and cry. But I think we do have some time, which is good, because we desperately need some time to rest. Do we have time to rest?

Who know? How long? We should probably be moving on somewhere, right? We probably shouldn't be staying here. Yes, true, but we're not awaiting an immediate oncoming attack, is what I'm saying. We have some time to travel and rest and be ready for whatever this thing has for us. I dread to think what they're like.

If there anything like that Doomclaw thing was, then... Well, if there anything like Agamox, they're killable. that is true can be killed at least well that we know of yes but either way they don't know where we are

are you okay I think so yes I don't think there was any other effect of this but just in in general are you okay I am exhausted are you okay I mean you obviously were I'm fine I've had worse

I've died so no that's yeah no that's true and for you that's a good thing It's great. Yeah, but no, for me, I've never been more spent. Well, yes, I mean, some of those things you were doing, that flame attack I saw that... Was a firewall, the wall of fire?

Well, no, there was one that you did was... Oh. Oh, the scorching ray one? It was, the colours were odd. That might be the scorching ray one, yeah. Okay. Are you talking about the wings? And the wings as well.

Magnificent. Thank you. But no wonder you're spent. It looked like there was a lot of energy. If there was another fight right now, we would have to run. But I think once we wrap up, tending to the bodies,

we should seriously discuss our next step. Absolutely. You're good. I'm okay. I'll survive. I miss Percy terribly, but... Well, I mean... This little fellow on the back of my neck helped me a lot.

Yeah, you're still wearing the armor if you receded the helmet. but the arm is still up. Yeah, the armor's still up. Does it speak to you at all? I get a sense of its feelings and its thoughts. It was very happy when I needed his help. Okay, but not malicious, not guiding you.

Just pleased, which is nice. That's nice, that is nice. It's nice to feel that something is pleased by my presence sometimes. Speaking about Percival though, yes. I mean, I know, really doesn't feel quite right. Obviously, the cultists.

No. Merrick. He's like an old halfling. He's an old halfling. From bones. From bones. Yeah. Jameson would have been a great fucking vessel.

That was the person I was meant to say. Probably should have been a little woozy. I mean, there is that one, there is the one Stora killed, maybe. He was very powerful. Older, but still strong. And bones are bones. Bones are bones. Well, bones, old bones, not as good as good,

healthy young bones. Racist bones. Well, yeah, true. Don't be no more racist bones. Goodness. Did that carry over? Yeah, a bit too. It's not touched that.

Yeah. Oh, but I will point out there was a graveyard up by the church. There is a graveyard. Just saying. I'm just saying these, these ones are already quite tethered to something else. something else. That's true. Look, Percival to serve the best.

Yes, only the best in my work. Did someone say my name? Hello? I do, I do, I don't have a PIN. Do you need help with something? Yes, right. If Mateo dies, she's ten hours. I'm not similar wardrobe. What's that?

Well, we were just talking about You're amazing, very much. Oh, thank you, thank you. I felt like I tried to help a little bit. You performed fantastically in that combat. You were evading the broadest. The broadsword, you dashed in for the strike. You were incredible.

I thought I had to do something, even just distract it for a bit. One of you could get a final blow. And Groff certainly did, with the ring and the... It was amazing. Honestly, I've been endlessly impressed with your abilities. My friend, thank you. He did fall down the stairs when we were... Blah, blah, blah, blah.

What he did what? No, I didn't fall down the stairs. I tumbled down the stairs. If it helps, material. Yes, I acrobatically and loudly. Yes, I acrobatically and loudly tumbled over a stone wall as well, just over there. Oh, yes, no, it guards spotted. It happens, it happens, it happens.

I think I heard the noise you made when you did it. Yeah, no, I wouldn't want to recreate it, but if I had to... That's what I was looking for. Are Zani's wings still out? Oh. I think it lasts a minute. I think it's a minute. I think it's a minute.

You... Yeah, because I saw you fall out. Yes. Yes. You fell out of the sky? Oh yeah. He flew really high because he was like, I want to be out of reach of everything. And so I had to lightning bolt himself.

It lasts ten minutes. Ten minutes. I still have my wings, I guess. Do they go away if you're incapacitated? Yeah. Yeah, they do. Okay, fine. So I don't have still over wings.

Because you fell and Gruff healed you. Yeah. And then you got trapped in an ice ball. That I deal four damage too. Chill out. Yeah, true love. What is, so Gruff, you know, we've got Zanthius and Afida having this little conversation, Mateo. What is Gruff and Rowan

up to, Daisy as well? So Gruff would have been prioritizing the villagers and kind of, you know, getting them healed, like bandaged and then home, I think. Like, you know, for the given value of home. Maybe is there's a central building, like a village

hall, like temporarily shelved? No, these all people have homes. Like they have small homes that are on the sort of outskirts of this village centre. So most of them have got like, you know, fishing houses down on the coast, or they have like farmlands. The Little Otter family live in the general store, which is just off the main village.

You're going to in the little shop. Tomorrow. But yeah. So they have homes to go to. Some of them do look reluctant to leave. It's almost almost fearful that something is going to happen. The wife of the husband who was killed doesn't want to leave the body and doesn't have, you know, is on her own now.

The Otter family kind of take their dead with them. He wouldn't be like, go the fuck home. It would be like those of you who need rest, can go home. But like obviously those who were staying, you know, the grieving wife and all that, maybe he would speak to Carla being like, could we perhaps use your in, your, as a sensuous floor space?

I mean, they could take the floor in the main room, but I figured that you would all want to stay somewhere and I've only really, unless, look, this is going to sound all. but Merrick has a massive farmhouse, he's got the Reeves' house, it's just up the trail, out of the village, like his family, and she's like gestures, like, they're all dead. No, but I was thinking, did you guys?

Because then I can house other people here in the inn. We can take that, but I just thought somewhere communal for those who need... Yeah, I mean, like, I'm happy to take them in, and I can give them a bit of whiskey, and we can get them from food and things like that. You know, but I don't have the space for them and you. That's absolutely fine, prioritize them. And then after that, Gruff would look at the sword. Yeah.

And maybe with Rowan. Yeah. What's your strength as Gruff? Like zero. 10. So 10? Yeah. This heavy for you, right?

Like, you go to pull it out. I've got this. Yeah. It's like you can look at the sword. I don't have a ton of strength. Yeah, and it's embedded. It is not dissolving. As I said, it's, you know, I described it.

But yeah, you definitely. It's made from rock. It's made from stone, yeah, like a dark stone. It is a great sword. Rowan, I mean, obviously I don't know how dangerous this could be, but is there anything, like any resonance or anything you can tell from this? From what, sorry? The sword, great sword, stone great sword.

That big, jagged, horrible looking thing. An abomination to rock kind. I was thinking that. Nevertheless, Scruffeth. You are leader, and I will obey. No, we don't do blind obedience. Anything for you, not in this. Right, if you're listening to anything, listen to this right now.

No blind allegiance. I'm not blind. No, as in like following me without questioning it. If it's something that goes against your moral code or your self-preservation, you can say no. Will it kill me? I don't. I question this, grufford. I don't know if the sword will kill you.

I don't, if it's enchanted with dark magics, I don't know. Right. Well then, acting upon myself. Do you feel it's safe enough in your right state of mind to commune with this sword and see if you can get any reading from it? I'll give it a go. Is there anything I can do if you start going crazy, like knock you out or something?

A little drop kick to the back of the head. Right, okay, drop it. Something like that. That will knock me out of it, I'm sure. I enlarge. This will help. Hello. The remaining villagers.

I mean, a man just, a man who is already like eight feet tall just became like 15 feet tall. So now this is like a one-handed, like in your lodge, I'd say this is like a one-handed weapon. as I go to grip it and lift it up I'll remind myself Oh, by the way, villagers

I'm making fist you later You'd like any They just look up in sort of stunned horror You stand amidst The broken driftwood statue of Saint-Alan that you animated that they believed had been animated by a miracle It's all broken around you and they're just like

okay they just cool and yeah I will because I have this ability to connect with the

environment around me can I focus my efforts upon this rock it is made of natural stone maybe look at it history

yeah I'd say so considering it's made of stone if this was metal it'd be a bit hard because that's obviously worked and stuff but this is just raw stone So I'll sit on the ground, put it on my lap, cross-legged,

and then just focus in. Do you, Rowan, feel your mind kind of race for a moment, and you feel the vibrations. My mind is racing. I'm sorry. A pair of drop kick. You feel the vibrations of this sword. The natural tempo and the natural rhythm

of the earth, of the stone that it's made from. This is this stone, you immediately get the sense that, first of all, this is a rare stone. It's not a stone that is easily found here in El Mera, in the lands of El Mera. There is something different about this. It's ancient, but there's something connection here to a divine power, to Alfei. deity who created, or healed, I should say, the land of Althea, and in fact where Althea gets its name from, your mind begins to conjure a story and a song.

You see that this stone was shaped long, long ago, back when the bright stone, when sovereign and the embered weight fought against the gods and the powers of Pyris, Malia, and Althe. And when Althe gave their body to heal the world, they also equipped many of the still living races and the mortals who were fending off the celestial and demonic forces of the Bright Storm that Sovereign conjured. and from the earth, from rock of they made weapons and made this stone and they came out formed

and you see hands of orcs and humans and wild hearts gripping these weapons and pulling them free to fend off to buy their companions' time. This didn't begin as this serrated blade you see now. It was once a solid, plain great sword. And it was lost.

When one of these warriors was fighting, it fell into the oceans and sank away, drifted, deep down into the waters. There it laid for a long time until it was found by a servant of Ojanja. They took this and they could sense their most hated, you know, sibling, one of the gods who had been there with them at the time in the world's creation. had betrayed them and so they took this and with their own claw and coral they chipped at it to turn it into this vicious serrated edge and it was passed down champion to champion but it didn't begin that way so it has a rather bloody history you see these champions of virginia use it to kill sailors to kill pirates to kill land walkers but originally it was a a weapon created by all the way to protect and to help.

And do you know its name to be called Stone Razor? It is a magical great sword. It is a plus one great sword, and it also deals an additional D6 of slashing damage. You can also spend one fate when you hit an attack to inflict the bleeding condition on an enemy. The bleeding condition is any creature that is suffering from bleeding. If it takes an action, a bonus action or a movement,

it takes a D4 of necrotic damage. Now, some creatures may be immune to that. For example, constructs, oozes, things that don't bleed won't suffer that condition. But that is ultimately weapon. And it is in D&DBeyland, if you'd like to add it. I did have a card, but I forgot to bring it over from my desk. But it is in D&D.Biont. It is a great sword, though, and I don't know if Rowan is proficient.

I don't know if you're proficient in martial weapons. If you're proficient with longsword, you should be... Got a long sword. Yeah, you should be proficient with it then. Cool. This is Stone Razor. It is not a relic, but it is a powerful, fated item. Dope.

Hell yeah. Nice. I come back to the present. And I look upon this ancient, God-given rock of a weapon. And it travels. I just give it a little gentle stroke along its serrated edges. Oh, how they've mistreated you.

I'll treat you better. You deserve better. And that's it, yeah. Do you like, slide, like, you know, probably find, like, a strap to, like, slide it into or something? Yeah. So it is, for Rowan in your large form, like I said, when you're in large form, by the way, you can wield this one-handed. But when you're in your normal form, it's big enough that even rowing, going to probably have to put it like one's back.

I think it would shrink back down as I'd come back too. Yeah. And so it would be the appropriate size. Yeah, because even like for Agamomax, this was a huge sword and he was a large creature anyway. So even in your yacht near form, it's still massive. Like on a normal human, this would be almost oversized. It would be too big to wield, really.

We're talking like proper berserk, you know, thick slab of stone sword, basically. Cloudstripe. Yeah. of bust a sword width, basically, but more of a pointed traditional Klaymour. Cool. People that have seen the anime Berserk,

will know what I've been, I think I've seen some, yeah. So the final words I will say will be in Yotnir speak. Hmm, the language of giants, I see. Language of the giants, and I'll just say to it, it's time to you to fight for Althea again. And then I'll stand up, turn to gruff,

Gruffoth, it was good. Okay, I don't need to drop kick you. This is a beautiful weapon that's been made naughty. Right. Over many, many years, but it's, it's an honor to have this blade. Do you want it? No, no, lad. It's really heavy.

No, I can't think of a more perfect, a more perfect yacht near to wield it than you. Oh, you don't know anyone. That's why you're saying that. I think this was meant to be. I like the sound of that, thank you, Griffith. Well, thank you for communing with it and for putting yourself at risk in doing so.

Yeah, this is powerful. I think when Rowan, you like, gripped the hill, because right now you've had it on your lap, you've not wielded it yet. When you grip the hilt, you see the patterns on your arms glow for a sense. second, and that geometric pattern almost kind of goes up the blight, but then it recedes, as if there's like a momentary flash where those patterns and that connection to primal earth

and stone seems to want to connect, but there's maybe your mastery of that power isn't quite there yet, and it sort of descends back into your sigils, and then they stop glowing. That was weird. Anyway, fish stew? Perfect. Anything from anybody else? I don't think so enough for me. Daisy.

I think Daisy's just going to be near gruff. Do you need to do anything else? I gave them tea and blankets. And I told Sir Joyne about all the things that you did and the things that you told us to do because it was a really good plan for everything. Even up at the church and then down here. And now I need something else to do because I need to keep busy. Keep busy. Do stuff.

You look tired, Daisy. I'm fine. I think it's time we all tried to get some sleep and tried to get some rest. I don't think there's any immediate danger right now. Carla suggested we take the Merricks. The Merrick's, the Carvericks. The Ogden family.

So Merrick Ogden and Madeline Ogden. The Ogden family's farmhouse for a night because she's going to shelter everyone who needs company tonight needs watching. So Joran will actually say I'll stay here at the inn with this Carla because I can keep an eye on everybody as well I've dealt with shock victims and things like that before

I'll stay here with them you boy need points at Matea you can stay with me and help out as well let these people have a bit of a quiet moment to themselves we'll look after the people here so you can go and rest properly in all honesty as well I do want to search this house and see if there's anything else to profane

we can find. Not a bad idea. Sounds like a wise course of action. These cultists like this, they tend to, they'll have something. You know, they can't help themselves. They put shrine or book of ledger or something like that. They'll probably have something. Tomorrow we prioritize fixing up the sun-kissed and we'll figure out the next course of action.

But first we make sure the villages, the surviving villages, are okay. I don't think they did any real damage. did any real damage to the ship, it's just getting the mast and getting the sails back on and it shouldn't take too long, a few hours at best, provided they've not done any damage to the hole, which I don't think they would. I don't think they did when I had a look too bad.

Yeah, you remembered like it just, they had just taken everything down so it couldn't sail and then they'd like dump the anchor and stuff a few hours of work and it will be back up fine, so. All right. Okay, rest then, yes? Is that what we're doing then? Rest.

Okay, good. Okay, great. So you all travel, you get directions from Carla and some of the other locals, and you follow sort of not really much more than a dirt path. Maybe it's like very loosely stoned that goes out of netting on sea back out into the countryside and kind of follows the river that leads down to the coast. And you get given these directions, and after a few, you know, not too long, about 10 minute walk, you see a large,

quite nice for this sort of area compared to the other buildings it is well-made well-maintained large farmhouse it has a barn it has like a gated you can see like there's livestock in like the fields there is there are barns there are you know water there's a water well on its own land this is very clearly a rather opulent place for a small village like this and yeah there is no sign of life whatsoever, given that the Ogdens and all their family were there in the battle in the cult. And yeah, you find probably like a few lanterns have just been left outside because it is pitch black when you're making your way here. But yeah, you make your way up and find an abat. Well, not abandoned, but now empty reaves home. And you step inside.

It is not locked, kind of very typical for a small village like this, especially when they thought that they would be coming home. You find the door unlocked, and it opens into a very well-maintained hallway with a nice rug, probably imported from somewhere that runs through it. Staircase leading up to a second floor. It seems to be that there's a parlor room, a dining room, a kitchen. It has like a bathroom with a magical heatstone for, like, heating. water and things like that.

For a place, like, out here, it's, you know, compared to, like, the big cities and stuff, it's not that fancy, but for somewhere out here, this is probably the best you could hope for out in a small village. Right. Does anyone have any magics left to detect magic or anything? I'm just worried that I don't think they would have anything obvious, but, you know, they probably have some hidden things here

and I just don't want to set off any, I don't know, traps or anything. Um, uh, GoldSight Eye. Yes, I do have a few things, Gruff. Um, I can... I know you're tired, Boyle, but just to make sure we're safe and we don't set anything off. No, it's okay, it's a good point, it's a good point. Giant fight walks into house, trap.

Fyble. Um, I can detect magic with the GoldSight Eye, and that is the last charge on that. Okay. Um, but, uh, I'll flick it down and, uh, have a little peek to see if I can, Yeah, like, what of us? Are you just going to literally go through room by room, like doing the old scanner, looking around?

Yeah, just, like, slowly walking around. It's obviously, like, difficult doing this as well, at least for Xanthias it would be, because, like, very evil people, we're now in their house. We killed them. Now it's, like, looking at all of these things that make, like, an ordinary, happy family, horrible, horrible people.

And that's, like, you see that, like, you know, there's a, like, a cabinet in the kitchen with, like, the family dishware, like, plates, like, you know, little fishes and, like, little... It's so mundane here, right? There's a portrait of Merrick, maybe a slightly younger Merrick and Madeline together as a couple, you know, like, on, with the farm in the background, or maybe the river, and, you know, it's so normal, but then you also remember the kind of stuff he was saying and what you witnessed and what they were prepared to do.

Yeah. Could I have, so I will, I think that the way I'm going to do this is have, because are you just leaving this to Xanthius to check out, or is everybody like looking around? Yeah, for everyone else I'd say, like, you know, especially. I'd probably have a look, because if I can look, like, for things that thieves would do or anything that looks maybe a bit suspicious. Yeah, absolutely.

Kind of use my expertise on. Sure, sure. So I'd say that, like, yeah, anybody who wants who can make an investigation or a perception check. And I'll do this as like a top. total group thing to see what you find. So I'm just gonna total up your scores. Does mine fall into that as well if I'm. So you can make investigational perception,

but the detect magic will allow you to find and see things that normally people wouldn't be able to. Right? 24 perception. 24 perception from Daisy. 19 perception. 19 perception from graph. Perception.

17 perception from Othelia. 15 perception. 15 perception. So all perception so far. You do a perception or investigation. Investigation. I have advantage. It would be very good for someone to do an investigation.

Sorry, Roman, what did you get? 15. 15. Possession. All of us. Pretty good. And then Xanthius, what did you get? 17.

Investigation. And I have advantage from the gold sign. You do, and so that means you can also detect magic stuff. So in total, if we add all of this up. Four hundred. Four, five. That's a good meth. Yeah.

I've been doing so much maths this week. I've been playing the Blueprints. You're doing maths, isn't it? Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Pretty good, right? They institutes square roots, build. How far into it are you?

How many days? Your total, by the way, was 92 for all of your... Oh, damn. Which is very good. So you find a number of things. Extremely good for five of us. For all four, yeah, I mean, like, you know, all of you got above 15, or 15 or above.

You would find... First things you've... find some mundane things that might be of interest, including behind a painting in the hallway, Daisy, you find that painting is on hinges and there is a wall, just like a little alcove, it's not like a safe, but in that alcove as a chest, it's a locked chest, but it looks like it's probably their, like, money, their finances is stored there. I mean, I'm not that sad about this. Horrible murderers.

All of their clothing, like up in the cupboards and you're just kind of searching through everything is very well nice. It could be worth a lot, but it is all half-ling-sized. It's a half-ling family. So a lot of it. You find, like, jewelry, like Madeline Ogden had like a box of jewelry up in her thing,

which is worth some stuff. Little grabby hands over here. Shiny, shiny, shiny. Again, half-ling sized, but, you know, still worthwhile, still worth money. And then finally, combined, you know, all of you kind of notice this. I'd say maybe Gruff, you get a strong smell of like brine. As you're walking past the stairs that go up, you can't help I get this like,

oh, that's like a really strong fishy smell. And then Daisy, you spot there's like a gap under the, like where a section of the stairs goes up. There is, you know, it's a solid sort of, you know, foundation underneath it. You see an outline, very, very faint, very easy to miss, like outline of a door, like a hidden door. And then just as you point it out, Xanthius, when it's pointed out to you,

you would notice that on the edges of this hidden door, very, very tiny, fine, invisible to the naked eye, but magical runic script. Okay. It's written all the way around it, basically. Okay. Daisy's flat on the floor. There's a door.

There's a door, yes, but there is, it's a magical, either, well, it might be trapped, I'm not sure, but definitely a door there, you're right, good spot. Can I identify, I can't cast any spells, but the runes themselves, am I able to infer what they might be? I think that this would, because I think you have this spell, glyph of warding. Okay, okay, you would identify it.

Yeah, so once his point, pointed out and things like that and described, like, yeah, this is a glyph of warding spell. You don't know the effect that's been bound to it. I mean, you know, Rowan, if you know the spell, you can either choose like an elemental type or you can infuse a spell into it as well. But generally, if it is meddled with by somebody

who is not approved by the spell, it will activate the held effect. Could be really bad. I also don't know what the trigger of it is either. Whatever they've... On a door, it is. It's probably safe to assume opening the door or touching the door or doing anything.

If it's saying a very specific word. It could also be, like, yeah, it could deactivate it. Normally, like, glyphs of warding have some sort of trigger phrase or... For what's that, Ophelia? Agamox. No, okay. No effect. So chalatable.

Bounty of the sea. No effect. So, from my thoughts about glyph of warding, it could be only specific people can activate said trigger as well. If it's an advanced glyph of warding, which it might be considering the Merrick's ostentatious and all that. Can you make it go away? No.

I mean, like any other magical effects, it's dispellable. You might need to sleep on it. Yeah, I could do that for tomorrow. We're in no hurry, I don't think. Now you know it's here. Is anyone going to get Dickie Tom-Tum if I make fish stew now? What, sorry? Dickie Tom-Tum.

What's Dickie Tom-Tum? Yeah, explain Dickie. Bad belly? Oh, I know what that is. If you make what fish-toe now, I am so hungry, so I'll eat anything. I'm going to pillage their kitchen. Their kitchen is very well-stocked. It is small for Rowan.

Everything is built for halflings. So you are like, sco- Which I think actually maybe... Can't help it. Yeah, absolutely. If he asked me to get something and then I'll find it. Otherwise, like, Rowan is literally like on hand. So you have that classic rack with all the saucepan. And so it's like, it's right, like, yeah.

Which is strange because, like, the proportions of the house are not half-ling-sized, but it's like all of the furniture inside has been replaced a long time ago and built, which implies that they kind of expected that they would always have this house, even though it's the Reeves' house and technically belongs to whoever the local Reeve is. generational implies that they've had this for a very long time right um but yeah with daisy's help i will be snacking on whatever bread and crackers i can find as i give stuff to row it yeah there were crackers around here somewhere i'm more crumbs falling out of daisy's mouth there's like water with that preserved sausages there's like you know like chorizo sausages there's

like you know like breads a lot of kind of like salted fish and like preserved fish and like there is a cooled, magical, cooled box that is keeping... All of a sudden, just something in Santhius' mind just flickers for a second and he simply must know more about the box. Detect magic on it.

You do have to detect magic up, don't you? Yeah. Would you like to know what school of magic is? Yes, I would! Well, this one in particular just generates a cold environment inside it. Right. So it is evocation. It creates a layer of cold elemental energy.

Well, it is like frosted and, like, you know, there is... It's a low-level tone of cold just all the time. Constantly generating a thing. So it only preserves certain food, but yeah, you find, like, salted fish. There are, like, lots of, like, canned goods and things. But they're, you got fruit, like, this place is fully stuck. This is, like, Bilbo Baggins pantry, right? Cheese wheels.

We have to take all this stuff before we go. Well, I'm going to. I'm gonna put it all in a big stew. All of it. All of it. I'll be honest with you, Daisy. I don't cook. I've learned from cobalds and a tifling.

Yeah. But the tifling was fine. Yeah, I mean, like, yeah. It was a beautiful stew that both saw you. We've got some premium products here. Yeah. All that salted fish and like vegetables, that would be great. And there probably is even like a soup stock

in like a glass jar like sealed up. and there's like a fish stock that's already ready to go. Because like, you know, this is a seaside town. You know, bags of muscles and things like that are all in there. That's what I call myself. Bag of muscles. I don't know. You gave up on that joke.

Okay, Tom, sometimes the thought should stay in some, right? Sometimes. I know. All right, well, the canned goods, great for rations on the road. The stuff that's somewhat fresh. In this cold box, I'm confused. So what you're saying is... Cheese wheels will keep well on the road.

What you're saying is get a big bag and put everything in it. Yes. Okay. Anything I don't use for this stew. Okay. Alright. Okay. I find a big bag.

Can I find a big bag? Can I find a big bag? But it's going to, whoever carries it is going to be carrying a pretty hefty weight. Can I split it into more than one bag? You can split it to more one bag. Yeah. Yeah. I think I'll make like little packs for us.

Yeah. Yeah. Luxury ration. That's what call that. Probably won't last too long on the road, like probably like two or three days worth. Probably won't last too long with Daisy. No.

Full stop. But yeah, you cook up a delightful, you know, you don't have to make the roll. This is a recipe you've perfected now after a few times. You've got it pretty good. You create a lovely fish stew for everybody. And anybody who partakes may have five temporary hit points

to start the day tomorrow. Oh, ma'am. Lovely. You won't get Dickie Tom-Tum. You won't get Dickie Tom-Tum-Tum. Hopefully no Dickie Tom-Tum-Tum. Oh, my God. Luckily, I didn't ask for it.

Ophelia, it's not a shit. That's some serious dick. But yeah, there are, again, this is the beds. They're half-ling-sized beds, but there is at least one guest room with a human-sized bed. Okay, Rowan can have that one. Yeah, I think that makes sense.

I can reduce the size. There's also, oh yeah. That could be a tiny little boy. How often can you do that? Is it all for like 10 minutes? There is, like, large rugs by the fireplace. You could probably, because you're used to sleeping quite a lot. Curl up by the fire.

No, it's more that like Gruff is more used to rough sleeping because you travel a lot and obviously if you were like, you know, hiking around, you'd probably be a bit more used to that. But yeah, for the rest of you, you probably could in some of the rooms like there's two half-ling-sized beds for like, you know, the siblings. Push those together and like you stretch out diagonally and that's basically a normal bed for you. I could probably curl up smaller.

Daisy's probably fine. Daisy's actually probably fine. Like it's, your feet are like just slightly dangling. Yeah, but other people, it's like you push them together. But yeah, you can have a pretty comfortable night long rest. Woo! Hell yeah, thank God it's been such a long time. And also 510 p.hp.

Yeah, from... Is anybody doing anything special before they go to sleep? Any preparations, thumbs up? I... What's that? I eat a lot of cheese and I have some weird dreams. I ate a lot of crown steel and now I'm not having weird dreams

Just like really funny ones Like just absurd things Like I don't know Like about the group You've got to tell us now I don't know I haven't I have to think about it It's like but like comedic kind of weird dreams Like

Okay well I'll give you a minute And then you're gonna tell us one when we come back from break Can I feel you'd be the jester from the deduction game Everyone's dressed at Oh yeah Like those characters in the game. I was imagining the soccer when he drinks cactus water dream. It's the squinchiest.

Nice. Yeah, with that, you all get a long rest. Make sure you take it. Click the Bhutan. I mean, I feel like even if I was about to say like, oh yeah, Xanthius has some plans before he goes to sleep, he just falls into bed and immediately is just done. You just pass out.

completely dunzo. Sorry, I want to make a point. Rianna made a noise when I was like, make sure you take a long rest and push the button. Are you not long resting? Well, I'll just... How hungry are you? I'm all right. I fed her in the fight.

It's true. I was just thinking... Quite lovely, greedily. Kind of tempted. How far are we from the church? Oh, God. Oh, well, it was like 10 minutes back to the village and it's about a 30 minute walk from the village. About 40 minutes.

I kind of want to like go to sleep in the graveyard. I'm gonna get killed. But not like in the graveyard, but just like within the vicinity of the... I want to feel grounded. Okay. She needs an anchor. I need my anchor. So you want to go to the graveyard in the church.

Yes. Just like a bit of a grab. Just for like a little bit, like an hour or so and then come back. Are you sneaking out? Are you telling anybody? Okay. It's another one of these. A second half of the episode.

episode's been massively tweaked by Epidia. And windows you can through. It's just every time we take a long rest, we should know by now. We shouldn't sleep. I don't think I've taken a long rest since we were in, the night. Probably not.

Since then. We haven't. You certainly didn't take a long rest then. No, you didn't. So I don't know when the last time. When did you last sleep? I don't know. On the ball, surely.

We had a, we had to go on the boat. You should have, you should have had a long rest of it. You should have had a long rest. before the first fight against the deep children. Oh, most of them. No, on the boat, we didn't long rest. We didn't long rest on the boat. Oh, no, we didn't know.

We short rested on the boat. And I don't think we long rested the day we went to go see Obsidius, which was in Ashon's Rest. Oh, it was. We had the Obsidious encounter, and then that evening, we all had a long rest, and then we set out to wave, we teleported to Wave Me, and then we did the casino, and then you got drunk.

I mean, that was only a day ago. This is like the second, not basically since. We are so. It's like, it's about 40 hours. I've done flights where I've not slept for 48 hours, and you're pretty fucked up, but you're not, like, dying. No, I'll be fine.

Yeah, but you didn't have a very horrible fight, multiple fights. Listen, you don't know how, like, those airports were killer. Let me tell you. You should have seen the size of a sandwich he ate and then the battle off. Listen, don't give it, I, I want to very briefly give a shout out

to pot bellies in Indianapolis. Okay. Pop belly's great. Fucking really good sandwich. Holy shit. They haven't, we had that in Seattle, didn't we? We had Pop Barley in Seattle. I'm sure we did.

It might be, but man, it was fucking good. Like, and they do these, they put these like hot, but, like, brined, pickled hot peppers in the store. Can you stop? Yeah, I'm so hungry. The bread was just so, like, oh, okay, meat sandwich with Swiss cheese

and hot peppers. I'm so hungry, this cannot continue. Garlic, roasted aiole on it. Don't! The lips are gone on. Don't! Well, Ophelia, for your benefit. Second best sandwich I've ever had in my life.

Ophelia? Was the first the French dips? No. Oh my fucking God. No. Ophelia, for your benefit, I am out like a light the moment I go. So, I think we'd all be disadvantaged.

All right. Well then. Ophelia. Eh. Eh. You make your way back. It is late. There is no stand of life.

Even the tavern, there's maybe a few flickering candles inside the gentle hum of a, you know, a few people talking. You make your way through, head up the long winding trail up the cliffs. Your body worn out and tired. You make your way and the dilapidated, quite lonely looking sight of the Church of St. Tilan rises up before you. You see the broken stone walls and the scattered remnants of gravestones and sarcophagi outside. The crowns ominous light filtering down but the bright silver of Malia stronger sort of casting everything in this bluey silvery glow the trees of the local copse of

trees around the church outlining it to some a rather sinister visage but for Ophelia, for a child, a daughter of Osceus, there is something comforting. This is your vague memories of your time before you went to the baroness, the vague memories you have of home with your mother and father. There was a church not too dissimilar to this, in better condition, but this kind of country aesthetic reminds you of it. You wish to sleep in the graveyard? Not in the graveyard, just sort of, within sort of the... So I can see it, just within the vicinity, just to...

So you are not going beyond the bounds of the church's walls? No, I just want to just soak up with the vibes. Okay. But what have you did? You find a spot just off the road before the rusted gates, an iron face. fencing of this church rise before you. As you lay down the soft earth beneath you,

looking at this place, this once a bastion of faith, but now fallen, forgotten. You see shapes begin to form drift. Blue spirits, tortured priests, tortured civilians, those slain and sacrificed by the cult. Faze through the walls, they rise from the earth from the graves. And a very familiar black wraith of smoke and darkness stands in the still open doorway that was left up.

that was left open. Red eyes, staring. It drifts. Until it reaches the very border, the boundary of this place. They just line. Their hands stretching as far as they can. But as soon as they pass the boundary, it's like their hands dissipate into nothing. And you feel that chill, that cold washing off them towards you. desperate for your life force desperate for your warmth desperate for vengeance but they are unable to reach you as you wisely

do not step beyond those bounds what does a feel you feel in this moment seeing these vengeful spirits just sad just like you know they're bound to this just one place they can't go anywhere They're just stuck in this endless cycle of torment and anger and fear.

Like, the feeling he just wants them to be free. Just wants them to be able to exist. They are unable to speak to you as you've not passed over the boundary. They're only able to manifest here. You get the sense that unlike Tyrea, these are old spirits. Like, these are, you know, decades old, probably older than Tyreas was. Which explains maybe why. they were less able to be convinced, as you did with Tyria there.

Their hatred and their vengeance has sat with them too long. And you've heard about this in the House of Shadows. You know that spirits and spectres and wraiths that are not attended to properly can go literally quite mad with their pain and their torment, and they become these sort of just weapons, really. Certainly that's how the House of Shadows sees them. weapons to be sent against enemies and things like that. And yeah, you feel this profound sense of loneliness and sadness and grief.

But that is not unfamiliar to a daughter of Osce. I can sympathize. Eventually, those spirits unable to reach you begin to wink out of existence, just fading away. Some return until there's only that priestess, that form of show. shapeless black smoke, never raises her hand towards you, just stares, these red eyes.

I feel it would just say that to her. I'm so sorry for what happened to you. I know you probably don't even register me or my existence or my presence, but I am sorry. It wasn't fair. You were just doing what you felt was right. Linger's first.

for a moment, turns away, floats back into the church. You are left in that cold, chill. Eventually, sleep takes you. You take a long rest. And with that, we're going to end part one, and we'll see you in part two. Take care. Bye-bye.

Bye. See you. Hi, I'm Dan Marr, host of the Conversions podcast, where I invite the talented, inventive and uncompromising minds behind some of your favorite and soon-to-be favorite indie games to talk about what they do best. On each episode, I invite two members of the indie community, many of whom will be meeting for the very first time to share their journeys, their formative experiences, their successes and failures, their advice for aspiring. inspiring indie devs, and no doubt, lots of unrelated waffle too. I mean, this is a podcast after all. If this sounds like your cup of gin, then subscribe to the convergence podcast from wherever you choose to ethically source your podcasts. Hi, this is Michelle Madison. And I'm John Jacobson. And we're the Video Game Outsiders

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