High Rollers DnD - Fury of the Tarnished | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #111 (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

The party is once again split as Xantheus is ambushed by two high ranking Diadem agents. Can he survive long enough for help to arrive?! Can't wait for Part 2 of each episode? Join our Patreon to get early access EVERY week (+ a few other bonuses)! www.patreon.com/HighRollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://geekyclean.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.highrollersdnd.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠v Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickax. My name is Peter Parker, but I'm also Spider-Man. This July. You're faced with a threat. I can be anyone. The world may have forgotten Peter Parker. I'm just a neighbor, friendly neighbor.

But he hasn't forgotten them. Sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing. That's my responsibility. Talk to Banner? I didn't know you could get that big. Spider-Man, brand-new day. In theaters, July 31st. Welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire.

Our heroes finished up their second training session with the junior hatchball team, the Ascension Alleycats, and headed to the Institute of Imperial Learning, the Imperial Academia of Kelskaris. Seeking to provide information about the treasonous and missing Professor Broxton Brassquil, they met with one of the academia's considerates and convinced them to give them a temporary access to the academia

in order to speak with the investigating authoritative. After searching Broxton's room, Graff found a strange letter which Xantheus revealed to be disguised with magic. Quick and unusual use of dispel of counter spell saved most of the missive, which indicated that Broxton may have turned to the diadem for help. After agreeing to work with the authority and parting ways, the heroes went to the academia library to research various topics. However, Xanthius, growing bored and annoying everyone, went to the authority. off alone to find a magical training room to practice his manor zone ability. Unbeknownst to him, two mysterious figures

followed him and are poised to strike. Oh, thank you. But we're not gonna start with Xanthius. Oh no, why would we? Why would we? What? Instead, we travel, the sort of camera. It goes back in time.

We rewind time a little bit to sister Ophelia de la Rosa of the House of Blood, arriving at the Ossian Embassy, presumably to make a brief prayer to the Gravefather or to make plans for the upcoming event. But you would sort of left the heroes after the training session, them deciding to go to the Academy

with you having some business to briefly attend to. What do you think it would have been that Ophelia would have specifically been going to the embassy for? I think Ophelia might make good on him. her promise to catch up with Varus again because he invited her back. Yes, of course. So you arrive at the embassy. Mid-afternoon, the undead white guard still standing, so stoic, so firm, so still.

No questions you and Percival enter the chamber. You being very welcome, honored guests, of course, and being members of the Ossian entourage here. You make your way in, once again greeted by the opulent, you know, beautiful mansion, converted mansion that has been turned into the embassy and are greeted by the familiar spectral sort of secretary who seems to occupy this main chamber. Sister Ophelia, what can I help you with? Hello, good to see you again. A pleasure. I was hoping to see if Varus was free again, the Farververite. I believe that he is once again in the lounge.

There's no need for you to wait out here. Of course, without your accompanying friends, you are welcome to wander the halls of the embassy as you see fit. But I believe I last saw him in the lounge. Oh, thank you very much. Of course, of course. Enjoy your stay. If you need anything, simply alert us.

I will. Blessings of the Grave Father to you. Blessings to the Grave Father. And just vanishes, turning ethereal. You make your way down, wandering once more down that impressive windowed gallery corridor that leads off to the site, the looming, imperious portrait of the Gravefather, almost staring down at you, you know, with those blazing eyes and its skull as you make your way.

As you arrive into this glamorous kind of, you know, lounge area, you see that Varys is actually in conversation with somebody. as you arrive, you see that Varys, you actually hear him laugh, you hear it like, oh, kind of hear that muttering laughter. And as you enter, you see that he is sat talking to a very genuinely, like resplendently beautiful young woman. But she's not Osseian. She seems to be Caldron, not Caldron, sorry, Ilmerin. Okay. She has, blonde platinum hair that spills out in these thick, voluminous waves around her shoulders. She's dressed maybe a little seductively, kind of a plunging neckline, you know, draping fabrics.

But you can see that she has the robes of the academia placed over the arm of the chair next to her with a long, slender baton, similar to ones that they carry at the academia. And then you notice something else, which I think would become something that would draw your eye. You notice gold glittering scales along her arms, a pair of golden horns protruding from her head, you know, from which the blonde hair spills around, and a golden tail kind of curling out from underneath the chair.

As you arrive, you just hear a sort of like, oh, how fascinating Father Evernight. I truly do. I did not realize that Ossian had such accident. your necromancy is so different to ours. And ha-h-h-ha, and kind of like a very kind of, quite irritate, like, kind of, not irritating laugh, but it's that kind of laugh that, like, is very fake.

Yeah. And you immediately can kind of pick up on this. And, you know, Various is like, well, of course, my dear, you know, we have many things. But your interest in the subject is quite the talk of the embassy and blah, blah, blah. They seem to, there's not a flirtation, but there's very friendliness going on. As you sort of, were you going to, like, listen in,

or do you kind of make your appearance? I think she's make herself known, yeah, she was open the door. Sorry, sorry, am I interrupting, sorry. Oh, Sister Ophelia, Sister Ophelia, I forget that he has slightly European assing. Ah, yes, of course, my friend, so good to see you. My apologies, I was just wrapping up a little discussion. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, not at all.

I think we are, are you happy with the conversation that we've had? Oh, yes, of course, Father Evernight, of course, absolutely. Yes, I do have to still speak with some of the other speakers of the houses, but you've given me so much to think about in our research. Is this a friend of yours? Oh, this is Sister Ophelia Delrosso of the House of Blood, one of my companions and a good friend of mine from the lens of Osceus. Hello, good to meet you.

A pleasure, a pleasure to meet you, and she offers a hand, very, very delicate, like golden long nails that complement her scales. You are a splendid. Give me a perception. Oh, we should draw fate. Yes, we should, yes. Do you want to use fate on this, Ophelia? Oh, yeah.

All right, let's roll it first. Every fucking week. Another two. Yeah. Oh, lovely. I cast a curse on to you. Oh, I got one too. Oh, lovely.

Tom's going to need these, so you guys want to get some blues. I don't know the last time I haven't rolled a two. I think Ophelia's about to use, but the five. I rolled five. Oh, you got five. No, no, no, no, not today. No, Tom got one. I got five, sorry.

You got five. I've tried. Two. Another two. Oh, brilliant. Sorry, mate. Lovely. And we're just going to use that one.

Oh, you roll the two as well. Everyone would you like choose a point of fate? Yeah. Oh, brilliant. Okay, so we've got zero fate. Wow. I didn't need it. She didn't even need it, dude.

Didn't even need it. Wow. Didn't need it. Twenty-eight on perception. Oh my God. It is, like, like, This woman looking at her like humanoid features, she's not familiar to you.

The draconic elements and her eyes are unmistakable. Her horns, the sheen of her tail, the style of her scales. They're the same as Xanthius. And her eyes remind you of Rexanets. She has these like very intense, almost golden, smoldering eyes like pupils. And you can see that they are dracconvents.

conic slits, they're not like normal people pupil eyes. Which in a normal dragon born wouldn't be out of place, but you have seen these eyes before. You have the brassy kind of golden texture of her scales. It is without a doubt that this person is blood related to Xanthius and Ritz of that 28 reception check. I will also give you something else. Because you beat the DC by five, I'm also gonna tell you something else.

The robes, the way that she's had, handling the robes and the baton, you walked past the academia on your first day here, and you remember seeing some of the students, the baton is wrong. It's not quite right. It's like somebody has made a forged version, like a fake baton.

Interesting. The robes look legit. The robes actually look like academia student robes, but the baton is a farged quite right. It's too slender, the ribbon is too short, there's just too many things wrong with it. Interesting. She printed your own certificate. But she offers her hand and, oh, call me Aura. Oh, lovely to meet you. Lovely to meet you as well. You must be you're a splendid. Oh, thank you so much. Thank you. I do try, you know, try to keep up appearances.

I do have to fend off some of the other students sometimes. Oh, you're studying at the academia? Yes, yes. I'm a student. In fact, that's why I've been speaking with the father here. We've been discussing necromancy, haven't we, father? Yes, yes, quite an eager student, quite an eager student, I should say, Miss Ory is. And how are you finding necromancy? Oh, it's fascinating, truly, truly fascinating.

I do feel that Ossius has so much to teach us and everything. I'm hoping to get some more time with some of these other ambassadors to learn more and more. But I really must go. I don't want to intrude on your lovely afternoon, but... but very nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Have a lovely afternoon.

Indeed. And she makes her way out. Oh, well, I'm sorry about that. I wasn't quite expecting you to come by so soon. I know that you had said you'd come by, but I was expecting perhaps a bit later on. Oh, no, I had a free afternoon on my hands. Oh, wonderful, wonderful.

Well, shall we have a sit down and catch up? I'm free for a little bit of time. And yeah, he like, calls over a lovely bottle of wine, of blood. His blood wine is brought over. Do you often get students from the academia come by? We've had little interest from the academia into some of our necromancy before, but this young woman is the first one who has properly made

the, I guess, connections required. I don't know the exact details of why she's here. I know that some deal, I imagine, with the academia, that we are exchanging some knowledge. You know, nothing, nothing. Nothing, nothing that they couldn't find out through other means. It's sort of, what would you call it, public relations. We are making sure that the academia knows that we are very welcome

to helping their students learn necromancy and such things. I think it's a very important step if we are going to build a temple here. Yes, of course. Yes, but... I was just... something seemed a bit off. Did you not feel that something was off with that one? No, no, delightful, delightful. young woman, very, very charming and polite and very respectful of our culture.

I was told that these folk of Gildai can be quite mercantile, but she's very, very affable, very pleasant to spend time with. Okay, I'll just, word of caution, just be wary. Give me an insight roll. 13. 13. I think that Azophilia, I'm not going to tell you whether you've succeeded or not,

because I rolled a contested check on this. I'm not going to tell you whether you succeed or what I am going to tell you is you do kind of get, like, Varys gets a bit sort of defensive, and you're not sure if that's like he maybe likes this person, this girl. She was very beautiful, and they certainly made quite a couple together. But he's just like, oh, Ophelia, I didn't think that there was anything wrong. What makes you say so? She seemed like just an eager young woman.

She looked apart, yes. I'll say that much. Oh yes, I would imagine so. Although I can't say that I've seen many students. It's, um, look like her. No. Most of them are not quite as pleasing to the eye. Hmm.

Well, um, yes, they're just, I don't know. Forgive me, I'm just, I'm probably just on, I'm probably just on a, a tight... I think, my friend, you need to relax. I think I need to relax. All this adventuring, all this... running around after your friends. You've not had time to sit and savor the wonders of life.

No. And good fine company and good blood and good wine and good music. Let's enjoy. This is why we do this. This is what we are here for, is it not? No, you are quite correct, yes. I need to let my guard down. How have you been?

Oh, very well. Everything is going just as planned. The fundraiser is going to be a wonderful event. And I think that the conversation, like, he kind of starts talking to them, but it's kind of nothing of real importance. Music is played, wine is brought, and for about an hour, you enjoy a fine conversation with Varys, and it feels a bit like old times.

You know, again, nothing really of substance is talked about, not through any lack of desire or secrecy, but like Varys just wants to enjoy this time with you, and that becomes very obvious. I think that it is about an hour in when the room goes goes very, very cold. Surprisingly cold. Like, colder than it has been.

And even you with your dampyric body and blood feel the temperature drop. And Varys notices as well, oh, this is not good. As a spectral woman kind of materializes. And as she does, she leaves. frost almost in the path as she materializes, and you watch as like the glass of wine that you had that's next to you begins to frost and chill. A very severe spectral, like ghostly woman, she almost looks like a woods woman, like a ranger of the woods, like cowled cloak. You can see

long kind of bladed knives at her belt, kind of half in armor, like mostly like mostly like leathers and things like that. And completely pale spectral face except her eyes, which glow the most vibrant sapphire blue. They're like lights, like kind of blazing. And she appears, and you would see that Varys inclines his head

likely to somebody who is another ambassador or like of somebody of an east. equal rank, basically. And I think you would know this person as well. This is Shadow Walker Delilah Forrester. She who stills the heart. Oh, cool. And she is the ambassador for the House of Shadows.

Delilah Forresta. Delilah Forrester, yeah. I'm trying. Yeah, Philea will bow her head in turn. She glanced around and her eyes fix upon you specifically. Varus will probably say like, a shadow worker is something wrong, it is not like you to appear

unless there is need. I seek this one. You are Sister Ophelia Delarosa, yes? Yes, yes, I am. The house of shrouds have had a prognostication. They alerted me of a divination, a vision that one of their mages received

from the grave father. It concerned an interesting party here in the city. I had one of my Shadow Walkers tailed them this afternoon. I believe that they are a friend of yours. They are, yes. Xanthias, Oregon. Sounds yes, yes. I'm afraid to tell you that my Shadow Walker reported the tomb figures had been following them for some time, and we believe that they mean ill intent. The house of Osceus is we do not get involved in such matters, but as this is a traveling companion of yours, I thought that you should know. Thank you for letting me know, Shadow Walker. Of course. The last they were seen, they were headed to the Imperial academia. Okay. I would recommend you hurry there with some haste. I shall. Thank you, Varus. This has been lovely.

Thank you. Yes, I hope everything's all right with your friend. Well, I guess we'll soon find out, weren't we? Yes, yes. Goodbye. Maybe see you with the... Definitely see what the ball. Definitely see with the ball. The Ophelia will just sprint out. Yeah. And you watch as this to Lila Forrester

just kind of watches you go, seeing what you would do next. You begin to sprint and race towards. Well, can I look for, maybe see if there's any traces of the gold dragonborn if he still may be hanging around

or if she is... Ooh, give me another perception role. Who isn't falling at the point? And in fact, I'm going to make this as a contested role and I'm going to spend a point of fate to give her a boost to her role. A little boost. 16.

I'll take it. I'm going to give you one. Thank you. I put one in the pool for you. Thanks. 16, did you say? Yeah. You, she's been gone a while, but as you run through, you see no trace of her.

As you, like, move through the corridor, you don't see her in conversation with anybody. You don't see her, like, still within the embassy. No sign of her. Okay. Well, in Ophelia's mind, it's a good sign. She's not on the embassy. So, but she's just running and going, shit, shit, shit, shit.

Percy's just like, I'm coming, sister, I'm coming, mother. And I'm kind of following behind you. So you begin racing your way to Imperial Academia. This is all happening whilst you guys were with, like, the considerer and Professor, searching Professor Brockston's room. So Ophelia is making her way and is probably going to arrive just as things begin to unfold.

And we joined Xanthias. Hi there, hi. Zanthias, you have found one of the Academia's training rooms. Yes. And when you entered, it's about a sort of probably 60 foot long, 40 foot, you know, square room. It does have an upper gallery as well. Four central kind of stone pillars in the middle.

But there is a large magical book on a kind of floating platform right by the entrance. And when you first entered, like flipping open the book, it was basically the instructions. This is kind of a bit like an X-Men danger room where you can say like, oh, I want this to be a hot environment. I want to spawn some like target dummies for me to like shoot.

It's like the training level in Marvel rivals, basically. And you basically flick through and you've set this like, okay, practicing your fire magic, your fire magic. So you've set this to like a kind of hot environment. It manifests this like metal grill with like lava. And you can feel the heat but you kind of know. it's illusory, right? It's meant to create an environment and it's affecting physics. So, like, there is hot air rising, there is an ambient hot temperature. And it's spawned up on this upper gallery,

these, like, three hands, like magical Big B-Star hands that you've been, that you can use as, like, targets for, like, magical spells and stuff. And you've been in here a little while. What exactly were you focusing on why you're in here? So it's, in effort to try to work on the spell that Malady was teaching. So focusing on fire essences and like, unfortunately, I described it like this before, eyes closed, really like closing off my mind to outside sources so that I can feel those essences, feel the mana around. And you just try and draw on that. I've drawn, yeah. But trying to, yeah, reach out and grab those essences.

Sure. Can you make a... Let's make this because this is representing your control of your magic. So it's not Arcana, this is going to be just a straight charisma role. So D20 plus your charisma. So well, Tom does that. Probably one question we should resolve, because it could impact this. What's Ricks doing?

I believe Ricks was with you guys. Ricks was following, but would we... I don't know, because we've said that she's to bodyguard, right? I believe it was established that she stays with the... majority of the group. So unless you, yeah, unless you specifically sent her off with Xanthius, which at the time I don't think you guys made because you didn't know this was going to happen. We did have the conversation with her.

So she is still with you in the library. Because we said should Vricks go with Phelia and we said, Frick said that they would stay with the majority unless specifically sent off with somebody. And as we didn't know this was going to happen. No, that's right. I just want to say it now. So people as well aren't like, yeah.

But what about Bricks? Yeah. I also wanted to clear up another thing that was missed. It's a good time to do it. Whether or not Zanthius is still in the daisy chain. Yes. I believe I am, as much as I was being annoying at the end of the last episode.

We said at the end that you were. That was a joke. It was a little O-C bit. It was a joke. It was a little O-County. It was just us recounting how we treat Tom on Discord. Yeah. What?

Yeah. Anyway. And it's up to a mile. I think about that one later. Still technically in it, yes. Still in it. But right now, You're just practicing your magic.

But also, I know that I know of the spell that I'm trying to work on here, like we've spoken about it before. I know that it costs spell. It's more like an innate ability. Yeah, but I know that it costs spell slots. It will. So am I?

I would say for this practice, no. Until you actively try to manifest the manner zone. This is just you practicing control of manner and essence, basically. Yes. I'm just muttering manners to myself because I have to. Yeah. Well, you have to say Manorzone, then the ability name to activate it. That's actually in the rules.

Da-l-L-L-L-L-L-N-A-N-A-N-A-N-A. I mean, it would be a pretty good theme to go with it. It would be a cool... It would be when the cool X-Zantheist theme plays. Outside of that, I don't... No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I didn't commission that. X-Zan.

Right. Zan. Z-Men. Zan-Men. Yeah. To me, my Zan-Men. Spells, wise, I'm also not too bad. I did burn three third, two third level spells at the same time.

You did, because you did just spell magic and counter spell just so you're running a bit low on thirds. Other than that, like... You still got your like big ones, though? Yeah, I've still got... Fireball. But this is just to see, like, this is you practicing the manipulation of fire essence and manner. I just wanted to know what's at my... Yeah, what's in my tool belt here.

Listen. So, just a straight, straight race. Straight charisma roll. Okay, seven, I've got plus four. And then seven is the total. Seven total. You are struggling. I think it's the concentration.

Like, you can sense the manner, and you can begin to manipulate it and heat it and adjust it. But the second you try and expand it into a larger area, it becomes chaotic and uncontrollment. And your mind is so full of distractions. And it wants to get out, and it wants to burn and do everything else, and you constantly are kind of breaking it off.

Luckily, in this room, nothing for you to incinerate or burn, but definitely struggling at this period of time to fully control the ability. I think any time I fail, I fling a produced flame at one of the targets. Yeah, kind of like takes one of them down. And you're at this for a little bit of time, slowly, slowly practicing.

And I think by, you know, after 10 minutes or sort of practicing, you're starting to be like, okay, well, actually maybe, maybe I shouldn't try and control it so much. Maybe I need to, like, be looser with my control. This is fire. Fire burns. It's wild. Maybe I should embrace that. And you're kind of beginning to like find your feet because the thing with these abilities is it's very personal.

And Malady said this that like she couldn't teach you how to do your own version of this. You would have to discover it. But what you do feel is that as you've been practicing, the ambient temperature in this space has like been rising. and building and building. And you're kind of getting this sense of like, maybe I can control that. Maybe I can draw power from the ambient heat, the ambient fire, you know, in the room,

and that could be something you could use. Okay. At this point, with your eyes closed, I'm going to need a perception check with disadvantage. What's my... I'm not even going to waste a fate on it. That's quite wise. I have minus two, and it's a disadvantage.

Yeah. I believe I'm going to ace it anyway. Yeah. Natural 20. You got this. Twice. Yeah, twice. Natural 20.

And with disadvantage. With disadvantage. Natural 20. Are you kidding? No. What the fuck? Oh shit. What the fuck?

That's insane. He speaks it and it comes. What's true? You saw that, right? Yeah. That is insane. Okay. You're a miracle boy.

What that is going to me? Oh my god. This is, and I've got a good idea, I've got a good idea, but I think this fits in perfectly. Oh god. So, this is gonna mean a good thing for you because it means you're not gonna be surprised. Okay. However, one of the figures you don't detect

because even with a Nat 20, technically their role is still higher than that. However, I can't believe. As you are concentrating on the manner in this room and you're building this ambient temperature, you feel, you don't hear, you don't see anything, your eyes are closed, your ears focusing on, but you feel in that magical sense,

a disturbance in the manner of this room, as a creature under the influence of a spell, who is, you've seen Freireen, who isn't hiding their own manner source. Like you almost sense like something come into the bubble. and you're like, you realize you're not alone. And that's the point when we roll initiative. You are not surprised, which means you don't have disadvantage.

Otherwise, you would have had disadvantage on this role. Yeah, oh my God. I'm still joking. That's crazy. And it also means that, like, they're not going to get any advantage to you being surprised. Like, one of these figures deals quite a lot more damage if they hit you when you're surprised.

So that's a really good thing. I haven't seen them. what weapons they have. No. Bring it to the table. Hell, you. Okay. Initiative, I have a plus one to this.

16. Okay. Oh my god. I'm actually using the Tdbiont in camera, that's it. That's it. I thought it peaked when I was in the same Jesus, but... What did you... I'm back, baby!

He's back, baby. What did you get? 16. 16. Okay. That's crazy. That's nuts. That is genuinely crazy. What are the odds of that? And because of that, you're gonna act before one of these guys. Oh, good.

I need to reset my AC. Yeah, I want to know what the odds are of that. Someone look that. I'm not looking it up. Yeah, five of five, right? My AC is incorrect and it has been the same as from the Brexnaf fight. Okay. So what is my actual AC?

13 plus decks. Okay, so. Not.25%. Not 0.25%. That is insane. So we do have a little battle map here. We do have a little battle map for Sam. Xanthius is currently in the middle of the room,

sort of facing towards this upper gantry, with these targets and things like that on. These two figures have entered from a doorway, which is on the left-hand side, my left. Camera's right. They've snuck in, so we have these two figures here. You have felt the presence of this figure, who is closest to the door.

Slightly flat back, is it? Yes, another figure has entered undetected, and in fact is on their initiative, is going to sneak around. Five, ten. So just to describe it as well, you said it was a 30 by 60 room, right? Yes.

So they're coming lengthway, the long as a... Yes, it's about 60 feet, and then 40 feet wide. Yeah. This figure silently pads in their direction. We see this as the audience. We see this figure clad in, not even dark clothing, like nondescript. like browns and grays,

they look, I wouldn't say they look more like a messenger than an academy student, but they kind of sneak their way and from sort of a leather bracer around their wrist, some sort of like flicked out a mechanical blade

kind of comes out and they go to basically strike you. You are not surprised so this creature doesn't, but you're unaware of this creature that they do get advantage on the attack wrong against you. Yeah. Their first attack.

So, really sneak attack, if they are rogues. If they are. Luckily, rolled not great, but with the advantage, it's still going to be a 17 to hit. Cool. I'm gonna surprise them by shielding it. I was gonna say you are able to use your reactions and stuff. So you at the last minute, kind of sensing this immediate danger, I think maybe you activate your, like, ruins, you spin around to kind of face.

But the thing that you're suspecting, You sense something over here. Yeah. You see a man literally in a mask, in a hood, thrust this blade. You just managed to get the shield up in time as the kind of blade bounces off of it. He then tries to strike two more times.

Okay, two more? Oh my God, okay. Yeah. That is going to be a 19. That will not hit because of the shield. Because the shield. He doesn't get advantage anymore. That's a 21 on the final strike.

21 will hit. Okay. As he strikes you, you would know, I think that being a mage yourself, you would feel, you see on his hand the hand that's wielding the weapon. Each of the fingers has a ring, including the thumb. One of them has three little gemstones, and one of the gemstones glows as the weapon makes contact.

And you feel like something instantly coats the blade. Oh, nice, okay. So, sorry, there's a lot of various things going on. Here. Maybe it's healing. Maybe it's healing. I'm bound to be who charged. I am the Uber Man.

Uber Man. Ubershark is ready. Storm scorpion, venom. Can you give me a constitution saving threat? Constitution, yes I can. Unnatural 20. You resist the poison, you take half damage. Great. And there is an additional effect as well,

but I'll get to that in a second. So, sorry, there's a lot of of like various things going on here. Sorry. I know. So that's gonna be. What a weird spell. He is risen.

A weird spell. You don't have any resistance like poison damage or anything to me. Just fire. Okay. So that's 18. Then this is high. That's a lot of dice. Was it three?

13. Five. Five. So is going to be. Sorry. There's a lot of various things going on. Oh my God. Lots of different things.

things. So, you take 18 points of piercing damage, nine points of poison damage. Okay, so 27, yeah. And then 10 points of lightning damage. Fuck me, 37 damage. Yes. And that's resisting the effects.

You feel that this poison, that kind of coats the weapon with a poisonous, like lightning sort of energy. As it goes to strike you, you feel your buddy start to tense, almost as if you're about to be stunned or parallel. but you managed to shake it off. You can't take reactions until the end of your next turn.

That's okay, I used my reaction already, but yeah, so quite handy, but he doesn't know that. And keep in mind that was the last of the third strikes. Bam, bam, bam, as this goes to strike. You see the eyes just furrow. The brow sort of furrows like, hmm, this wasn't supposed to go this way. I was supposed to take him out instantly.

And then I think, so he moved, Which he absolutely would have. Yeah, he would have killed you, right? Without shield. Let's be transparent here. I have 90 health max. That was almost half my health. Five.

Yeah. So. Yeah, you would not shield it. There would have been another. Yeah. He will bonus action disengage, and he's actually going to move back here, almost blocking the entrance, basically.

Okay. You see that he has this kind of mechanical blade in one, hand, he then with his other hand draws a hand crossbow and is now like dual wielding. He goes solid snake, CQC style with it. That's cool as shit. I can't hate it. But I hate it. However, Xanthius, you are up next.

Which means you're acting before the, I should point out that this figure is actually technically invisible currently. And I... But you've got a vague sense that someone else is in the room. I know that he's there, right? I would say you don't know exactly where they are. you just know that there is a vague presence. There is another being in this room,

nearish the door. Okay, okay, okay. I might need some fill for a bit while I go through every spell I have. That's totally fine. Do you, I mean, keep in mind, it's a free action to just be like, help in the daisy chain.

I mean, I recognize the five rings, right? We literally spoke about the one three, five things. And also, like, yeah, these are very clearly here to get you. I would say that you do feel that that final strike, that poison was obviously meant to try and paralyze or stun you. You're not 100% sure if they're here to kill you or they're here to capture you. Oh, fucking cool, cool, cool, cool, all right, cool.

Okay, good, okay, cool. And I know five rings are the scariest of the scary. They are the highest level of agent, but they're the highest level of agent, But then there are the codenamed ones above them, and you don't know if there's anything else above them. So these aren't, like, the top tier of the diadem, but they're pretty elite. And certainly, this one that attacked you,

you're certain that one of his rings was magical, that one that, like, seemed to create the poison. Okay, okay. They've come from pain. Okay. Is this poison? Let me just... The poison, but...

Let me just think about this for, like, a second. That's fine, you can... Yeah. Seeing this book here, it says that in archboard, there's a tactic. Shoo, chit, chich, chich, chich. I'm feeling it's running for a life, right? Percy's like holding your veil, like running behind. You're like, you're looking amazing.

Grasper. I did you get my glasses out, so of it. Alright, you can't. He puts two rocks in his eyes. I can't, gruffet. This is a joke. He pops them out. Carry on. That all cleaves.

It's why I did the head that I'm going to say in the days of change. You do realize this is why this is a joke. why I put this up so that you wouldn't get us kicked over the library. The dioderma here. Huh? What? That's what you get in the message. Cheat up, straight out.

I like hear Daisy's voice in my head and a mute you like, yes. You don't know where he is. We said he's gonna go to the training room. You don't know where that training room is. But they're all in one direction, right? They're certainly not here, so you can start running, but you don't know anything come more at this point. Cynthia's picture where you went.

Picture where you went in your head, send it to us. Okay. Uh, so Daisy, Graf, Rowan, you're all just getting up and booking it. Yeah. Yes. Okay, all right. I will tell you now,

there is no, unless Xanthius can get away from these pursuers, you're like five plus minutes away. That's like 50 rounds. So unless something changes, you are not going to get to this combat. And we need to find out where that is. Yeah, that's fine because he can definitely tell you where he is in the Daisy chain. But the difficulty is like the time here. Like this is not like he's 20 seconds down the hallway, right?

Like you are not going to get here in four, five, six rounds. Yeah, even if I was like five rooms down, it takes like... Like if you were a minute, that's ten rounds, right? So I'm guessing we need to wait until our turn. If you make it to Xanthius, I will bring you into... No, no, no, I mean like right now, while Tom is still figuring what he's doing. Like, so we will say that. If you have something to do, yeah, you can tell me what you want to do.

I want to go to the Ork Lady. Uh-huh. And tell her that there's an emergency in the training rooms. Uh, she will, keep in mind that this is like less time for you running as well, because this is like quite significant. Um, she will look at you and just say, Sir, if there was a problem in the training rooms, there would be an alarm and our security would be activated. How on earth would you know what's happening inside the academia?

Because the boy who was being attacked, I've got a telepathic message with him right now, and he's being attacked. Give me a persuasion wrong. This child needs it. I don't think I deserve that. Natural 20. Beautiful. Oh, boy.

I will send, if you are, they've communicated with you telepathically. Yes. I will send word to the academia. academia guards to go investigate the training rooms if there is a problem they will handle it right thank you goodbye and it is you all right she because you had visitor passes she's the scene that you've got visit passes and Vricks as well with us oh yeah Rick Vrix is like what because Vrix isn't in the days he's name as well but Vrix is there a problem how far away Zanthius in feet

in feet like thousands of feet shit yeah like you got to remember like If he's like five... I can get the final 500 feet with someone else. Do you need to see why you're going? But he shows me telepathically with that work. I'm going to say... Yeah. Yeah.

I think you have to physically see. I can state a distance and direction. Okay. If you can do that, yeah? You could definitely do that. Also, I know that like Daisy, for example, anaphaelia move faster than everyone because you can dash. So I'm accounting that you and Ophelia

are probably going to get their first. anyway, but you could get there even quicker if you did want to use Dimension Door to, like, close 500 feet of distance now. Like, you could basically, because you could save yourself time, rather than having to go out of the library and back in, you could just bam through the walls into, like, the gardens and then start making your way from there. I think because I'm not very familiar with it. Mm-hmm.

I'll hold it just now and dash as much as I can. Because there is, like, if you just go 500 feet that way, you might be in a door. That's what I'm thinking. But I'll also hope that on the way, if we run past a gun, I can't. and I can get better directions by going, tell me how to get to this room now! And I can maybe try and on the way, hone it down. Definitely, wow.

And or maybe crash into Aphelia along the way. Definitely, definitely will help. I'd say the last thing that you see is you see the librarian lady. Basically, she kind of opens up her thing, picks out what appears to be like a sending stone, and you just hear a sort of like, library to guards, apparently we have an emergency in one of the training rooms. Could you please investigate her to earliest convenience?

Make it so urgent woman. For the natural twig. She believes gruff, but is like, okay, sure. Also, the academia is, like, so well protected. Yeah, like, why would they think that there would be something happening? But yeah, definitely you guys will begin to make your way. Keeping in mind, I'm going to keep in mind that Daisy wants to get an opportunity to, like, bump the head.

I think that as well, as you start making your way in, you see Ophelia like running towards you down the street as well. Oh. I just point in the direction we're going, go, go, go. I'm going, I'm going! Did you have saying right? So, polybolf, right? Uh-huh.

So as a creature you can see within range, if I look down on myself, can I technically wild shape? No, so you can polym off yourself, but keep in mind that when you polym off a creature, they also get the mental capacity of the creature. They don't keep their own mental sense. mental stats. So you might be your personality, but you lose any of those abilities.

You also wouldn't be able to cast other spells. You also can't willingly end the polymorph because you now have the mind of a creature, basically. You would get the intelligence and the wisdom of the creature, which is probably quite funny. Well, let's not say things that might not be true. No, I think it would be from most things that he can. Birds can be sentient as we know. What intelligence level can creatures read?

seem to fill memento. Oh no. I would say that most creatures have an intelligence of three, and that's not going to be enough to, like, read. This goes through Rowan's mind. Briefly. Briefly.

To turn himself into a creature. Yeah, you can start running. I mean, you can still turn yourself into a creature. Like, you have Rowan's personality. You can be like, my friend in danger, and we must go help friend. I kind of want to. Yeah, I mean, you can totally do that.

What would you want to turn into? A bird. Right, okay. so you can just fly. Like a robin. Like a robin. Oh, God. Okay.

Because it's small. I might be a shortcut through a window or something like that. The only thing, and this is not technically rules as written, but the way I'm going to argue it is because you lose your mental capacity, you can't willingly end the spell. So you'd be like a robin. But you can like attack and hope that they like knock you out, right? And then you become rowing again.

But have you heard of the phrase bird brain? Yeah. It's concentration as well. so can I hold concentration on myself? Yes, I would say. As a Robin? Yeah. A robin?

You're not being attacked in it. Unless you're attacked or you're hurt. Then it would help break concentration. Just don't smack into a window or something. No, no, it's not the intelligence level. It's like... There's a really clean window in between you and Zenfus. Oh, God.

Knocked out. Yeah, absolutely. But you can think about it. I want to do it. You're going to do it? I just want to do it. Okay. You cast polymorph on yourself.

Rowan turns into a little green... Robin. Oh, that's quite sweet. It's a green chest instead of a red one. It's not quite the same. I'm going to give you a fly speed of 60 feet. So you're going to be twice as fast as Rowan. Can I dance as a bird? Yeah. So you're basically

on the same level of Ophelia and Daisy, because Daisy can also move at quite a rapid elevator. I'm Rowan, right? I've got Rowan's personality. I identify these two. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You have your memories. You just don't have the, like, intellectual capacity, right? You still have your personality and you recognize them as friend, friend.

I think technically, Aphelia gets five to ten feet more around than I do. Yeah, because your speed is what? 50. 50 feet, okay. Yeah. And then- Wait, no, your speed's fit. You're more than me.

You're way more than me, actually. But you can dash each extra. So you can go like 90, she can go 100. Yeah. So, but I kind of, I'm going to say that also, like, you guys wouldn't want to like, you're going to stay within communication range and stuff. So am I allowed to do anything else or is that, yeah? So I think seeing that, yeah.

Like, I'm gonna let you guys set yourselves up. You guys can make all your plans now of how you wanna get there, and that is basically gonna affect the time it takes to get to it. So I think seeing Rowan Polymorph, I would wild shape into an eagle. Can you become a flying creature at your level? Yes, okay, perfect.

And I did it before it. Okay, that's right. But you're not a giant eagle, you're a regular eagle. Oh, okay, a giant eagle. CR1, yeah. Okay, CR1, so you can become like a giant eagle. So I get a fly speed of... Keep in mind, a giant eagle is gonna be very,

very noticeable in the sea. That's fine. I'm rough, I don't care. Big boy is danger. I'm eagle. Because I was a giant eagle when I fought that guy, right? You've been a giant eagle before. Yeah.

I believe you could be a giant. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I was when we were at, not wave me, netting on the sea. I was stuck in the building, the prison. That's right. And I turned into a giant evil in. That's right, yes.

Yes. So that's 80 foot fly speed for me. And eagle's an apex predator. Yes, but I'm gruff. Gruff gets to keep grubes. Do I, as Robin Rowan, understand that that's not an apex predator? I think... Your little bird body is too measly if you think.

But that's it. I think, like, it's saying that you'd be scared of the big predator, right? I think... I'm going to rule that, like... They're behind you. You know it's gruff. Okay. You've seen gruff and you're like, gruff now big bird, scary, but gruff, gruff?

It's the same. Rough friend? Question mark, gruff friend, question. Better, tweed, tweed, tw, tw. You'll probably want to keep your distance, but it's not attacking you right now. And your friend hurt. Your friend scared.

Tweet. Cool. So your giant eagle goes at 80 fees. Okay. Oh, damn. And you can obviously dash as well. Yes. That is keep in mind, that's only like nearly a third

of your running speed, so you're not, we're not talking like, we're gonna be there in five rounds, like you're still quite a ways out. It depends on what Zantheist does. It does. It really does. Like, I have it worked out here. I am keeping track of all this,

and now it comes down to what boy do. So what I want to check, is there anything else that other team is doing to increase their chances of getting there? Like, Daisy's going to find a guard and Banff another 500 feet. That's going to be great. It's going to help save loads of time.

Or if I'm near Ophelia, I would ask a guard on the way and then grab Ophelia and go with it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure, sure. Okay, so you're going to take a lot of me. because I think that will help you keep up with gruff because gruff's going to get quite a lot of distance on both of you dashing at 160 feet a turn but that means that 500 feet means you can close the distance so like gruff ophelia and daisy are probably going to align at the same time yeah so anything else you guys want to do

just before this is going to be like after this it's going to be pure boy yeah and what boy do start we think it's five and it's give her a half movement speed bonus i would say that's not going to make it big enough difference but what we can say is like you can do as soon as you're on the scene you can BAM! Instant rage, yeah. Yeah, perfect. All right. Insta rage. Okay. You could read as soon as I grab you.

Yeah. Throw me in, angry. Ah! Okay. I'm Robin Rowan. Yeah. Can I large form as a robin? I don't believe you have access to those abilities. You have the stat block of a Robin right now.

Well, yeah, that's true. The idea was to create a slipstream between me and eagle so that we could keep overtaking each other. I love it. Don't forget this is a fantasy world and physics don't always work the same, but also you can't become large. Rowan thinks about that. Yeah.

As Robin Rowan. But if Robin Rowan big make slips, may go fast, Robin Rowan can't become big. Why doesn't Robin Rowan just sit on top of the eagle? I could just sit on the eagle, actually, yeah. Yeah? It could just grab a little. Yeah, you could totally, like, be carried by.

I think Gruff could just crush you to get you into Rowan. That's true. Oh yeah, just go, yeah. So I believe that you basically, the way Polymorphics is you have that stepbox, so you have one hit point right now. So as soon as one hit point is done to you, you revert back to Robin.

That would actually be a super solid plan. A little one hit point of Groff. Is that the plan? Is Gruff gonna, eagle gruff? Well, you can just scoop him up in your claw. So there is a moment where Robin's like, oh no, apex predator and you're gonna fly away and it's just, it takes you on.

Pretty sweet. All right. That's pretty fucking good. That's a good solid. Are we settled? I think that's as much speed as we could muscle. I hope, Tom has come up with a plan. Zanthius, keep us updated.

We can still talk to you. Was that enough filler for you? No, it wasn't. It actually wasn't. I was not prepped for combat when I selected these spells because we were training children. You said you're going to fireball the children. Yeah, I kept that for the children.

Oh my God, okay. Can you some guards all come into the room? At their earliest convenience. And there's other things. Door closed. Door is currently closed. Does it open in or out? I would say that it would probably open in. Into the room.

If force was exerted on it. It wouldn't. You would have to open it from this side. Like, yeah. Telekinetically pull it open, yes. Like Luigi's an inch. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. Or ditter, I hope you. So. Yes. To go through my brain space for a second. Oh, dangerous. This is like the anime moment where like time slows and we hear Xanthius's thoughts.

The dynamite here. If my friends get here, just ten turns, I might make it out a lot. I need to hold off for one minute. And dagger, how did these strike me? It got through my shield. Maybe I could dispel the magic. No, can't work.

They might have counterspell. There's definitely a major in there somewhere, invisible. I sensed his presence. Take a potato chicken. And eat it too. Maybe they've got low wisdom. Maybe they have low wisdom. But one of them is a mage.

So likely has high wisdom, so not possible. Can't go for dexterity because one of them is clearly rogue light. Very agile. Not rogue light. So that might not work. Could I haste myself? Haste could be very, very strong, but you can't use it to cast multiple spells.

Also, if you break concentration, You're stuck. It's bad. Haste is very high risk, high reward. Scary, scary shit. Confusion could work, but again, it's a wisdom save. Wall of fire is a deck save. But telekinesis is just a strength save.

And I don't think this guy at the front, if I've perceived him correctly, is... Strong. Entirely the strongest creature in the world. Door does open inwards, But if you do throw a person at it, it might smash through. Then again, now this is a question for the arena that I'm in,

which I probably would know being in this room for the time I've been in here, probably quite strong doors if this is a... They are heavy iron doors. Heavy iron doors. So slamming eye into it. Do a lot of damage to them. Certainly would. If I keep pushing him, he'll go through the tiny little hole.

That could work. What are we arrived to? Probably better to just go over and go Play-Doh. I could telekinesis door open, but again there's two people, one that I can see, blocking my path, so I can't do much there. Plus, it would be an action to telekinesis, I can't bonus action to use Misty Step. Misty Step would be useful, but I don't know when to Misty Step 2.

Really. It's literally gone through his entire spells. So, there's that. That's my, that's step one of my plan. Good to know where his heads are. Okay, my other thinking... You've got other things. Yeah. My other thinking is that guy just did a lot of damage to me.

Zanthius recognizes they've got five rings. Could cast hold person on him? Could try. Like, stop the guy that just tried to hit me three times from going again. Maybe he has more resistance against the mage. I think that's more likely. So I think that's my first... My first turn.

Mm-hmm. 25 minutes in is to try to cast... This is episode 3, right? Hold person on the guy at the front. The guy that is attacking you? The rogue. The rogue guy. I know the guy at the back can still take his turn,

but I can't see him. No, you can't. Unless I can cast a spell on him, but... So you are casting hold person on the rogue. Yes. Okay. Can I cast it at a higher level? You can.

I can't remember what effect it has. I think it affects more people. You target additional humanoids? That you can see. Choose a humanoid that you can see within range. Now, can I foresee them? Can I see their diminished aura for you in style? Damn it.

No. You had a brief, literally you rolled two net 20s, dude. You had like this brief, like, I think something's in the room with me. Oh God. It wasn't even perception. It was just like a reaction of just like, I heard something behind me, shield. What's that?

What's that noise? Must have been the wind. Wasn't the fucking wind. It was a diadem. Hold person on the guy at the front, please. Just a low-level, standard whole person. A pathetic little shitty whole person. Say it, just say, say, counter spell.

I mean, they would know what a whole person does. This major knows this spell. They want their buddy to, like, be able to beat the crap out of you. They are going to cast a whole, counterspell. Now, Camspel's different now. It's a save now, right? It is. So you need to make a Constitution saving throw.

Yes, I will fate that because it feels like a big deal. I mean, he still has to make a save after this. He does, yes. I have a plus eight to my... Con save. To my constitution. This is the third net 20. Nat 20.

Not 20. A natural 20 with fate, plus 8, 28. 28. You overcome this mage. I will tell you this, right now, you know that you're more powerful than this mage. This mage is not as powerful as powerful as you're expecting. Don't get cocky guys.

Run away, they say. But ego is struck. Well, maybe Mara made this major a little bit less powerful than she was intending. But you get the sense that this mage is powerful, but is not as powerful as you. You overcome the spell and the spell goes through. Now I have to roll to see if the spy

gets their saving throw. So this is a wisdom. Wisdom save being throw. DC, DC, 1000. I think it is. It's crazy how high that is. 17, 17, you've not spell-raged yet, have you? No, I didn't.

I was saving my bonus action for Rooms. I'm gonna spend a point of fate to boost this guy's saving. I'd like it back, please, thank you. Oh, very bad, very bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad, or bad, bad? 8. 15.

With fate. Oh! So you watch, as this guy brings up the hand crossbow, freezes in place, and your whole person's belt. I mean, this is the exact same time as- I think that's the first time it's ever worked this campaign. I think in my head and out loud, like it's a panic. I do, that's when I shout the, the diatoma here.

Mm-hmm. How did you get here? What do you want? I know you want me. How did you get in? You're asking them? Yes. Okay. Okay.

The end of ten? Yeah. Okay. The mage-like figure will step forward. Now I know the only person who can speak is the mage and he's invisible. No, he's now, because he counts as spelled. Oh, you're right. He becomes visible.

I was hoping I could locate him by him speaking. No, no, he's visible now. He, and you basically would like why he's like, why do you think? We're here for you. You've got something. that belongs to us. I don't have anything to give you.

We'll see about that. Let's see if your whole person's concentration, right? Yeah. I believe it is. It's coli. Yeah, it is. He's like, and you see that ice begins to form around both of his hands. Let's see how good that concentration of yours is.

As he casts code of cold. I can't read, dude. That is pretty good. He cast cone of cold. Con of cold. Constitution saving throw. So you are good at these. I am good at these.

But I will still take half damage and fail. So either way I'm making a save. I'll save the fate for that concentration then. That's when you're here it comes. Let's use my crown to your place again. It's going to happen. Oh! 19 plus 8, 27.

My God. Success. So that's going to be. What is happening? It did fall out of the dice. You hit my elbow like four times. You're doing it! You're doing it!

See, that was a two. It stayed in the two. Would have been 45 cold damage. Oh, my God. 22 points of cold damage and a constitution saving throw for concentration. Is there something I can do to help with the resistance on that? No, it's... It's a shame that you've not properly learned energy cascade yet.

Energy cascades, you're right. It's the Pramaget I've got. I got rid of the atheric armament as well. That's not my spell list at the moment. Aetheric armament I really wanted to use at this point. to use at this point. So, sorry. So 22 points of cold damage

and a constitution saving through for the concentration of a whole person. Concentration, yes, I will fate this please. I mean, absolutely, I would. 19 plus 1 and 19 plus 20 plus 8, so 28. So you are blasted, like, frost and rhyme against like build up on your body as this major conjuring this howling vortex around you.

But you grit your teeth and you keep that spell in place watching this rogue completely froze. It's frozen in place. Stronger than you think, apparently. Yeah. And then... Zanzan, zan, zazan. Zat zah zan.

It's wild to do. Okay, let me roll a percentile dice to see what's going on with the guards. Oh. Because also you don't know what room is in, so they've got to search room by room. I'm going to say there are at least five training rooms in this area that it could be. So I'm going to give this a 20% chance, but every time they... search and don't find Xenthius, the chance will increase because they search room by room. So 20% chance, so we're looking for a

0 to 20 basically, a 1 to 20 at 66. So the guards are busy, searching elsewhere currently. Has he communicated yet his position to us? By, this is... This is every six seconds, so I'm going to say every round he can do a burst transmission, right? We go to the spies' A whole person they get to save again on their turn?

Ah, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Uh, uh, whole person. Um, at the end of their turn. I will spend a point of fate. Do it, can't. To add, uh, 17 again. 17. Yes, please.

End of turn. Thank you. Oh, that's gonna be enough that time, 22. At the end of his turn, ugh, eh, kind of breaks free of the spell. You're gonna pay for that, Zanthius. Oh, good. The diodem's been waiting for you to come back.

back for a long time, mate. Zanthius, it is your turn. Would you have moved at the end of your previous term? I asked him if it was the end of his turn. So I did say I was using a bonus action to stoke my ruins, which I did do, so that is. Sure, you said that? I didn't hear a movement.

No, there was no movement. I don't intend to move because the further I get from the door, the scarier it is. Plus I figured I had this guy locked down. So I have... I mean, you bought yourself a ton. Three attacks from this guy, probably would have knocked you out. Yes, it would.

But I don't need to concentrate now. No. And also, do you get the impression that mage can't do that kind of cold again? Cool. Right. What are you guys doing? What are you guys?

Literally, it's just on you, bud, like, they're just running. We're not gonna be cutting back to them. Running, running, flying. Yeah, well, flying, running. being caught, being carried. Yeah, Fricks is, unfortunately, gonna be quite slow to like, but it's trailing behind, basically.

A giant claw with the Robin in it, and the Robin's eyes just like... A tiny little Robin Rowan Rowan. Rowan Robin. Rowan Robin. I like the idea that for some reason... Rockin Rowan Robin. Yeah, Rock and Rowan Robin. I like the idea that Sarin's flying with us as well.

Oh yeah, yeah. It's just like a little group of birds, a flock of birds. There's definitely, I think, that the students are like, who the fucking size is that ego? It's like, a lot of like, is that a student? Like, there are a lot of people being like, oh, the transmutation classes are getting out of hand again. Like, they're kind of like, fine.

What's it holding? Like, what's it's going? Is that holding a tiny bird? Why is there a green bird? It's blue. And then like, you know, Daisy and the barbarian come charging through and then Ricks is like waving a gun in the air. Oh yeah, Bricks is gonna be way slower than everybody else.

everybody else. Frank's just like, Fax sake. It's a book? Yes. To manipulate this room? Yes. Do I have to be close to it?

You had to be at the thing, yeah, within five feet of it. Now, what powers does that give me? Illusory, but... Illusory, you can kind of create... It's kind of like Mirage Arcana, so you can make the room look kind of like other terrain.

You can adjust things like the ambient temperature. You can make it hot, you can make it cold. You can change, like, you can create targets, things like that. It's kind of mostly visual. Yeah, no walls or... Yeah, if I could make, like... I would say you can move the pillars. Okay.

But no creating of walls and things like that. Even if it wasn't physical walls, I think, it still would be kind of funky to do that, but if it's just... I would also say it'd be an action to do it. Well, that's okay, because I was thinking of Misty stepping over there. to manipulate the room, then I can use my movement to get to the door.

Mm-hmm. But I'm stronger than the mage. You are? How many hit points are you got left? That's for me to know and for me to lose. You can just shield again, right? I can't just shield again. He can't hit me. Oh, no, that guy's too scary, I have to...

He gets three attacks. So, movement-wise, what would it take for me to get to the door around? Also, as a reminder, because you successfully counter-spelled, the mage doesn't lose... Sorry, you successfully save, the mage didn't lose their counterspell. They don't lose the spells lot. Oh, you're right. I forgot about that.

But they do lose their reaction, though, right? Which they've regained. Yes. Okay, I'm sorry this is taking... No, dude. Like, you are in a real precarious position. Do not worry. I think the audience is on tender hooks as well.

Like, we all are like... What's gonna happen? Is it tender hooks or tenter hooks? I think it's tenter. Is it tenter hooks? It's not, it's half-eight. The dad jokes are getting worse by the day, I swear. His powers growing stronger.

Stronger. This boy is like, look at him. He's like so tense. I'm fully in there. I'm fully in there. The mess. You can do it. It's also the roleplay.

Do I go any offensive? Do I go any offensive? Do I go any offensive? What does this say? Kill her fun. What would? I'm not going to say it. Say it.

What would... Sovereign wouldn't stand for this insult. Disintegrate. Don't need you, mate. You're better than that. Powered pain. I mean, I know what I have. So it doesn't matter if I use it.

No. Right? It doesn't matter if you use it, right? And if the guards come. Oh. Um, I'm gonna make a decision here. and I want no judgment for it. Never. I want to... Safe space.

Do it. I want to attack them. Okay. Go for it. I want to burst my mage for stars. So... Roiling flame begins to coalesce around you. Golden bronze or a runes go fucking wild for it as well.

Unate sorcery activated bonus action. Yes, which gives me advantage on attacks. It also boosts your DC by one. Saves. Now, shit, what was the next step of this? Far away. The guy at the front has high dexterity. Yes.

I want to cast. I was going to do chain lightning. That's a deck save. But I don't want to do deck saves on this front guy. Could hit the mage loaf. A lot of fucking damage. And if it does chain into the... Hey?

Still a little bit of damage. It's still half damage, right? Then that's huge. Unless he hasn't like evasion. Which, maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. Who's to know? Who's to know? Who's to know?

I know. I'll never tell. I never tell. I would like to cast chain lightning on the mage, please. I love it. Now, on top of this, I would like to transmute the spell from lightning into fire. Mm.

And I want to call upon my favorite puppy. of the hour. Well, that's just the raw power of the crown, so you don't need sovereignty. You've used this power without, you know, you can just activate it. Another pop-y, like, it's, it is lightning that almost holds in place for a second

before it is just supercharged. It's like red lightning, it's just, it breaks through the confines of that, which power can be, I am immortal, and this thing is toast. Sure. Dexterity save. Yeah, I don't. I don't like to counter-spell damage spells

because I think it's lame after the experience is numerous. So they're not going to counter-spell this. Okay. So it's dexterity saving through for the mage? Yeah. All right. 16. 17 you needed.

Thanks to that, mage rage. Would have succeeded if it wasn't for the innate sorcery. If you could. Uh-huh. Can you do another save for the guy at the front because it will chain onto him? I will. The Rouge.

Now, a little bit better. A little bit better. That is going to be a 25. Half damage. Half damage is still good. On 10D8, turned into fire, empowered, so... You add your crown steel dice. Do you need D8?

Which is a D10, I believe. So another D10. Yes. That will only get added to the initial damage. Do you need D8? Yes. Yes, please. That's why both people do.

I'm going to say no. I'm going to say that the crown steel boost applies to the first blast of it, and then as it arcs off, it wouldn't contain the crown steel enhancement. Yes, one more, thank you. It's extra damage against the mage. Okay, so fire damage against the mage. I am shaking.

Because of vests of dice. 10D8. Sorry, this is still not enough dice. Why do you not have an eight? Two more D8, please. Have a red one. Thank you. Oh, right.

Okay. That lives there now, Trot. Okay. Leave it. Leave it. Right. Bam! That's a lot of ones.

That is a lot of ones. But I might be able to do something with that. 7-7-7 on three of them, so 21. Do you have empowered spell? I do. Yeah, so you can rewere it. But I need to check. How many?

When you roll damage for a spell, you can spend one sorcery point to, when I roll damage, so I can do that as well. Yeah. And you can roll up to your charisma one, I believe. I can re-roll up to four dice. That one, that one. That one and that two, they're gonna get re-rolled.

Okay. So currently, they're gonna be eights now. 21, 24, 27, 32. This is to the mage, and then we roll again for the second time, yeah, I believe. 7-7 and 1. Ooh. So,

15. 32 you had. 32, so 47 plus a crown steel of six. 53. 53 damage. To the mage. To the mage. To the mage.

Then 26, the other. I believe you roll 5D8 against the other one? Oh, is it literally half the- I believe. Would you have to roll again? Yeah, I think so read the spell, I can't remember. It's been a while since I've used chain lightning. Taking 10D8 lightning damage on a failed save

or half as much on a successful one. So I think I... What does it say about the other target? So it normally has like a second text box, I think. D-da-da-da-da-da- fuck. I can look it up. Each target makes a dexterity saved, taking 10D8 lightning damage. Oh, so it literally is just the same.

Minus the crowns to the, yeah, each target. No, I would say if it just uses the same role, then it would, then it affects the both. So 53 half would be 26. Provo, sorry. You watch as, oh my God, he is, I'm saying Jesus. The mage.

The Frick those do I say. I'd like to imagine that the mage didn't try to counter spell it. And I like to imagine, And I like to imagine that the mage sees this as lightning damage in coming. And you see them conjure like an absorb element spell. Like, oh, I'm gonna make myself resistant to lightning against this. And then as he finishes, you know, I'm not actually cut, but he's like doing this thing to like, I'm gonna channel,

kind of doing like the Zucco, I'm gonna channel the lightning away. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then just before it hits him, the lightning, the blue lightning turns red and then explodes into a whip of fire. and just engulfs this mage who is screaming still alive, but just barely. Really? Very badly burned, very, very badly hurt.

It's very badly. Heavily bloodied, like, heavily, heavily bloodied, half on fire. The arc, the whip of the flame lashes into the spy. But this individual, much, much more prepared, kind of using the column as a bit of cover, like leaps to the side, catches all of his cloak, kind of rips that off.

Definitely was hurt by it, didn't ignore the damage completely, but nowhere near as injured. But leaving the mage in a severe state of panic, basically. So that was your bonus action and your action. Yeah. Yeah. Would you like, as you've just conjured this enormous gout of fire, to try and use your manor zone? I would let you do that as part of casting this spell.

That, I mean... But you would have to give up a spell slot and we'll have to basically see how effective it is. What level would it is again? You get to choose, and the higher the level, the more sort of powerful and the wider the area is. Does... I don't think Xanthius even knows what it does yet.

No, you don't. I've got a vague idea, but it might change. Yeah, we've spoken about what it does. Did it affect me? No. The, um, if I use the Manazone, I mean. It won't affect you. As in the effect of the spell is beneficial to try.

I'll try it. I think, yeah, I'm trying to focus on it. So what spell slot do you want to try and, are you going to put into it? So remember, that's like, so the way that the manor zones work is you put a spell slot into it that determines how big it is and how powerful the effect is, but then you have to maintain it every turn by spending a spell slot of that level or higher to keep it going. Okay, I will use a fourth level.

So when the red lightning... impacts both of these people. It lets out, for me focusing on, previously focusing on trying to see this man and these essences, just this spray of red, fiery essence all over the place. And, like, something almost, like, slows in Xanthius's mind where he can almost see the pattern of that movement, the way that it arched with the lightning, like, he suddenly, I'm presuming this works, sees and understands the way that fire acts, especially in this massively empowered state being a level six spell.

Yeah. That he will try to stop and focus, and he will say, Manor's own, Fury of the Tarnished. Fury of the Tarnished. You watch as the room in a 40 foot radius around Xanthius takes on this golden, bronzy, orange glow, as these phantom flames begin to kind of like rise up,

the air temperature suddenly increases. You watch as this spy, not quite knowing, kind of sensing another spell, is like now dripping with sweat as we're talking like 40, 45 degrees, like it's building and building. Just like last week. You Xantheus, you are, with your innate sorcery going on as well,

it is like you were, are a flame with manner, with magic. Like there is this kind of like flickering aura of flame like magic around you. Fury of the tarnished. Fury of the tarnished. As you activate this, immediately I want you to get four D6

and separate them. Oh, yes, I'll use my fiery dice. Yeah. This is your heat. As long as you maintain your manor zone, you will generate heat every start of your turn. and when you first activate and when you start your turn. You can spend heat to decrease physical damage and fire damage.

You can also use it to increase any fire damage that happens in your manner zone. So it doesn't have to be your fire damage. It could be a friend's fire damage. Okay. You can also, as long as you have certain thresholds of fire damage, you gain extra benefits. So right now at 4, you are immune to fire damage. And you also ignore resistance to fire damage.

Oh. But if you dip below a certain amount of heat stored, you might lose some of those benefits for now. Okay, okay. So if you spend it, you might lose some benefits. But remember, you're going to gain more as long as you maintain the manor zone. Yes.

And also, there might be other effects, which will come in at the start of your turn. So spending spell a slot every turn, basically, has to be fourth level or higher from now on, to keep the manor zone going to go. That's good, I've got. And also, I'm going to add in an extra effect where I might have you do a concentration to check

because you're still new to this to see if you can keep hold of the manor zone for now. Okay. This won't be a choice. This will be like partly dependent on how well your focus is. Okay. But anything else you would like to do on your turn? Uh, uh, uh, there's no point moving.

Okay. I still want to be somewhat close to the door. I don't want to get further away from it. These turns are insane. So with that, you conjure this thing. The mage who's like clutching their arm is like, oh God. What's he doing?

I've never seen anything like this. It's so fucking hot. Like looking around at all these flames, and that's where we're going to take our break today. Oh my God. At that time? Where is that time? Oh shit.

So we're going to take our break. We'll be back to see what happens in five minutes. Take care of everyone. Oh, God. Soon, I bet. Holy shit.