High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #15 - The Ironwick Mystery (Part 1)

Episode Date: November 12, 2018

The team lick their wounds and head down the Golden Road! D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Use the code HIGHROLLING on D&D Beyond (http://bit.ly/dndbeyondhighrollers) to get 25% off all digital items (excluding the Legendary Bundle)! Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Therapy is the ultimate self-care, and BetterHelp makes it easy to get started with affordable online sessions you can do from anywhere. Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. That's BetterHelp.com. Visit BetterHelp.com to learn more. I am a guardian paladin. Hi, I'm Katie. I'm playing Ayla, a wild elf barbarian. And I'm Kim. I'm playing Nova, who is an air ganassi

and she is a hexblade warlock. This episode is sponsored by D&D Beyond. We can't live without it, so why should you? Check the links in the description of this episode to make your free account and digitize your campaign. Anyway, on to the episode. The team lick their wounds and leave the elven ruins behind. It's time to explore more of the Golden Road.

Welcome to Erois, the D&D campaign. A quick recap on what happened last week. The party were exploring an elven ruin called Rosehall, where they encountered several elven spirits that sapped away their life force. Whilst exploring the town, they uncovered a few treasures, but didn't get far before they met Selick Zostro, an ex-paladin of Siasca who had now become

undead and was trying to protect the place fearing that mortals would get themselves killed, embroiling themselves in the ghostly affairs of the ruin itself. He warns you about Vessel Venon, who is an elven princess who was exiled long ago for experimenting

with planar magic. He attempted to rest, more spirits arrived, and the party had a very, very dangerous encounter with these spirits, with Lucius almost dying and Quill not being far off either. The party decided it was time

to leave and that the prize, the prizes within the Hall of the Ruin itself were not worth the cost of death. However, as they attempted to leave, the ghost of Princess Vesalvena herself appeared, mistook Lucius for her missing prince, and

Nova and Aayla convinced her that they were there to learn and to study the party fearing what might happen if left in Vesselvenna's hands decided to escape you broke Lucius and the others out by climbing and escaping through the window and

you took a long rest just off the road far from the ruin itself, but awoke to an unearthly howling rage emanating from the ruins themselves. Had we been in the radius, we would have died. Yes. You fear that if you had been close enough, the scream could have taken your very soul. But that is not where you are.

Instead, you find yourselves at a very cold, very uncomfortable camp at the side of the road. Most of you don't have proper camping equipment, so you find yourselves stiff, sore, cold, chilled

all the way to the bone. There is a light rain and the weather itself is unpleasant. It's windy, it's wet, winter is very much here, the sun rises late and you don't have much, you don't have too long of daylight ahead. But you had made plans to follow the Northern Road, also known as the Golden Road, to the city of Goldthrone, the largest settlement on the continent of Savona, which is where you are, which you know, thanks to Arval Dagus, your kind of dwarven traveling companion, is about seven days or so travel. On foot, it may be slightly longer.

travel. On foot it may be slightly longer. The road itself curls all the way around the Ironweald, a large ancient forest which seems to have some strange elements, wood and creatures that are infused with the iron that is

the iron veins that spread throughout the land. Far beyond those you can see the Auric Peaks, these kind of the iron veins that spread throughout the land. Far beyond those, you can see the Auric Peaks, these kind of almost golden mountains. They're kind of, you know, grey-brown, but streaked with these rivers of gold, which is more like a soil colouration that stretches up along the western side of the continent

where Goldthrone is nest okay and what time is it it is morning early morning bam nice you wake to yeah feeling cold wet you don't have tents you've been sleeping out in the rain as best as you can um it's unpleasant stay sleeping more like this will become a pretty big hindrance. It will start to sap your strength and start to make you even more miserable. I got a bedroll. You have a bedroll. You are better,

but without a thing like a tent, without anything to sleep in, you've literally been sleeping out in the rain. You are tougher than most. I'd say that probably out of everybody, I think Nova, you've got a pretty good constitution as well don't you plus three and Century yours is plus two

but you're a guardian you're a construct so I think the three ladies of the team are certainly faring better than Quill and Lucius Arval seems more used to it but Valar is shivering and you can see that she's not oh no I forgot about Valar she doesn't have a cloak she's literally just kind of got, like, loose clothing.

She now has some leather armour, but she doesn't have a cloak. She doesn't have a bedroll. She doesn't have pretty much anything. And so she's just been huddled, shivering in the wet. So I guess, would I know, as a messenger, would I know how long, how far away Golton is from... Yeah, you've studied. I think it's been, give me a quick check.

Just give me a, plus your intelligence. Okay. Six. Six. I mean, you've studied lots of parts of the world, but I think certainly when you were, where you took your test and things like that, that was another continent, you took that on Voxar. Yeah.

So you've travelled a long way. You've read a pop about God's reign and you think, yeah, about a week, maybe longer on foot. Depends on how much, how slow you go, how fast you travel. Well, I guess I would have, at that point, I would have flown everywhere

rather than walked. It's very different as well, yeah. And you can go as the crow flies, quite literally. Are there crows in this world? There are crows. Cool. I like when these questions come up and we have to go, Mark, are there ch crows in this world? There are crows. Cool. I like when these questions come up and we have to go, Mark, are there chinchillas in your world?

Sure. There could be. There could be. Should we assume most woodland animals are... Most woodland animals exist. Generally there are constant... Are there sloths? Are there sloths? Not on Savona. It's quite a tropical... We need to find them immediately.

Are there new? New quest! Fight the sloth! There would probably not really be noodles in Sifona. Never noodles. It wouldn't be the kind of dish they make here. Not this planet. I'm out. You know where there was noodles?

Solwyn. I don't think that's a fact. I would say, Nova, you've read up a little bit about the world. You're quite intelligent. You're quite studious. Oh, thank you. There's the continent of Zephenna, which, yeah, tends to be a bit stranger. Like, they have different cuisines and things like that.

Noodles are strange. They're strange. I know that strange people eat them. Noodle is a strange dish to people of Sivona. It's a strange, strange dish. But then also most of the continents have strange food. Sivona is the most western medieval out of everything.

Most of the food here is wheat and grain. Vegetables like potatoes, that sort of thing. Very little fruit on Souvona. Apples is probably the most common thing, but there's no exotic fruits here. Lucius probably has them, though,

maybe in the Sky Cities. Sky Cities have very controlled ecosystems. So, because they only have a certain amount of land, they have to grow whatever they can at certain altitudes and things like that. Certain cities, Gusthaven,

for example, has a big chunk of land that was risen up with the city which houses a freshwater lake and because of that they can grow more unusual things there they can grow things like grapes with the fertile land um what a law dump look you asked me questions i'm gonna ask i didn't ask i just want to know about slots slots i think slots is a good one. Where would sloths be? In the sky. Sky sloths. Space sloths.

They're from space. Space sloths. They're little aliens. Little helmets on just like. On another plane entirely. Throwing around. Throwing around. Jungle.

Zephenna would probably be a sloth. Sloth astronaut. Zephenna and Voxar. Sloth astronaut. That's what Lucius is vacantly thinking about. Where would Sloth... Wrenched. I wonder what kind of animals there are.

So yeah, Arvel is packing up his gear, packing away his cooking supplies. Arvel, do you know if there's any smaller settlements in between? Roofs? Beds? Yeah, exactly. Comfort?

Oh, yeah, sure, yeah. I mean, I know this road pretty well. I can't have any questions about what's along the way, I can tell you. Are there any?

Yeah, of course, yeah. The first one we're going to go past is Ironwick. That's a small settlement just on the edge of the Rosewater Lake. Oh, I think we were

close to there. Let's go there now. Well, that's our next stop. We'll probably stop there. I mean, we don't have to. Y'all bought supplies. No, we stopped there. It's more that Val is shivering violently, and I don't want to be responsible for the death of a small child. Well, it's only about a day and a half's travel, so we'll

reach it by... Day and a half? Yeah, about that. Another night? No. Beyond that, there's Kaylie's Rest. Day and a half? Yeah, about that. Another night? No. Beyond that, there's Kaylie's Rest. That's a pretty big settlement here in Sivona. So that's the next biggest settlement we'll find until we reach Goldthrone, pretty much. How far is that one?

That's about two days away out of Ironwick, so... So, Ironwick it is. Sure. Let's head for that. When we get to Ironwick, go on. Well, I mean head for that. When we get to Ironwick. Go on. Well, I mean, for starters, we all need some outside camping equipment.

We need big furs. And big furs as well. Very fashionable this time of year. Fashionable big furs. Do they have horses, wagons, anything like that? It's not a huge town. So Ironwick was kind of set up a few, maybe a few decades ago,

and they thought it would be a profitable town, but the iron in the land ran dry pretty quick. So it's mainly reliant on the lake itself. So it's not a huge town, but they should have a few horses. Probably not one for every single one of us, but maybe enough that we could probably get a wagon, hitch a should have a few horses. Probably not one for every single one of us, but maybe enough that we could probably get a wagon, hitch a couple of horses to that,

and then that way at least we have something to cover our heads and take the energy out of the water. Do you think they'll have some designer tailors there? No, nope. The best you've got, Lucius, is Kaylee's Rest. That'll be the biggest settlement outside of Goldthrone here in Savona.

What do you need exactly? Well, I'm thinking this time of year, obviously I need to factor in the colors of my eyes. We can't have clashing colors. So I'm thinking, like, white furs. That's going to get dirty real quick out here. You might get a few gray wolf skins. Gray wolf? that sounds savage.

Yep. Guess I kind of want the lowland look. Cowhide? Well, you mean leather? Well, yeah, but I mean, just wanted to throw the word cow in there. I get what you were going for. I know.

Well, there's plenty of strange stuff along the way as well. I mean, I don't know if y'all want to just go straight to Goldthrone, but you all seem pretty keen on that Dwalin Den. There's a few places like that along the way. There is? There's an old observatory. There used to be a temple to Siaska called the Star Mirror.

That's far away from Ironwick. There's also the Shrine of the Sun Pool. It's a big temple to Palador. That's up follow the river away from Ironwick. There's also the Shrine of the Sunpool. It's a big temple to Palador. That's up near Goldthrone. As long as it's not a mirror that takes you to another plane of existence like whatever she was doing. An observatory

though. Yeah. It's kind of a mixture of temple and observatory. Where is it? Well, when we get to Iron... It's kind of a mixture of temple and observatory. Where is it? Well, when we get to Ironwick, there's a small river called the Silverthorn that runs into the Rosewater Lake. You just follow that to the west up to the mountains. It is a bit of a trek out of our way, though.

That's the only thing. It's about four days' trek out the way. That's a lot of trek out the way. Yeah. What were they called again, Simon? The places? Two places, yeah. Uh, the Star Mirror and Shrine of the Sun Pool. Do you think you could learn some interesting

things there? Well, you know, it's you. Why am I asking you? You can learn interesting things everywhere, Ayla. I'm learning interesting things now. Okay. Please, I will carry on I was going to say, the story goes that at the Star Mirror there's a seeress, a prophetess that can

tell your ancestor things that you need to know Oh Interesting Like where the local fashion is Or where Solven is Or why Quill has no wing anymore All very important questions.

Oh, that too, yeah. I mean... I don't understand this whole fashion current... A lot of people don't get fashion, honestly, but it's a very... You have to get into it to really get it. But you want the lowland look, yes? Yes, to take back with me, obviously.

I'm going to look so unique. Okay, because you've got gems all over your outfit and that's literally the opposite. It's kind of going out of fashion, but it's my thing. It's going out of fashion, so when you're done with it, can I have it? Yes, I suppose. Thank you, that's a lot. I mean, the gems are just falling off at this point. I kind of use it for colour, but there will be colour in my new look. We can sell them. So while you're having this very interesting discussion,

yeah, you're just, the railing is descending down. I'm still ready. Like, Century, you look over and see Vala just kind of like holding herself as best she can and just and like she just wipes her nose and you can see she's like

shivering a little as they're having this conversation. Can I give her my cloak and just wrap her up like a little bundle? Yeah you just wrap her around. She's a burrito. And she just kind of like wants her thanks. Oh, I tell you what Bella a really cute thing right now is to have a... Is this a

conversation we can have on the way? Let's go. We can probably start walking. You didn't tell me that you were doing this. We are walking while we were bantering. Yeah. Okay. To keep spirits up. Excellent. I've pulled like a scroll out of a I guess the tube I have on my

a scroll case. A scroll case, a tube. A tube. I use that as a tube. A Pringales tube City of glass Can I ask about that? What is the city of glass? You ask awful

Well I suppose Would I know Would Quill know The city of glass History check I think you've made a check On this before Oh have I?

We'll roll it again Just in case History History Where is my history Which one's history 13 You don't necessarily remember

a historical place called the City of Glass, but you do know that in the aftermath of the Sundering, there was a lot of errant magic and divine power that was kind of just still remnant in the world. And there's always strange tales about cities or towns being turned

to glass, or strange towers appearing out of nowhere or being shaped from the land um you're not quite sure whether yeah it's a historical place it could also looking at the way that your kind of clue has been written it it could be a bit of a metaphor for somewhere as well like maybe it's not up city made of glass but maybe something that you know made glass or yeah somewhere that glass was very prominent feature of or just a shiny shiny place or just wheel shape yeah exactly um yeah not not something you really know 100 unfortunately okay in that case i will ask arval um do you do you

know what this city of glass is is that gold? Is that any of these places you've described? Not anywhere here on Sivona, as far as I'm concerned. Never heard of a place like that. Okay. Sorry, Quill. Well, that's a future problem. I mean, the only, the oldest place, I went there once as a boy. There's a place north of Goldthrone called Starstone.

It's an old city. It's real old. It's from the founding. It's from the age of Goldthrone called Starstone. It's an old city. It's real old. It's from the founding. It's from the age of the prime races. Okay. But, I mean, I don't think that's got anything to do with glass. It's more of just an old city full of old things and old buildings. Do you like old things, really?

New, current. Okay. Fresh. Well, Goldthrone's. New, current. Okay. Fresh. Well, Goldthrone's got plenty of that. Yes. And the sorcery tournaments. Yes, yes.

Well, yes. I imagine you'll be quite interested in those. Also, how do you deal with this ongoing onslaught of oppressive water that just bears down on your souls every day? He's talking about getting his hat. He's like, you get yourself a good hat and a good coat. Do you really think it would go? I don't care. Right.

But you want to know how you deal with the rain? Good hat, good coat, good boots. It's probably a spell or something. Also just getting over it. You can't get over rain. Toughening up, you know. It's far too spell or something. Also just getting over it. You can't get over rain. Toughening up. It's far too high. You can get functional fashion.

It's good for you. It'll toughen you up. It's fine. No, it seems to be softening me and my hair. Very damp. Do you want to borrow my barrier ring? Yes! That would work.

It's a shield. Yes! It lasts one minute. Very short time, but... It's okay, we'll be at Arnwick soon, right? I think we're halfway there. This has been a few hours of travelling along the road. So anyway...

Having these loud conversations as you journey down this kind of very dirt... It's like a dirt path. It's a road, it's not like a paved road. This is a worn, muddy path at best. Should've worn my heels. And it's right on the edge of the Iron-Wheeled Forest, so constantly on your left-hand side as you're travelling north is this very dark, looming, giant forest, and beyond that is the mountains rising up into the air. Okay. So when we were in Rosehall, actual village Rosehall, there was the wagons that were being raided

that we solved sort of by dealing with Brookstone. Are there any, as we're going down the road, I know we're not too far away from Rosehall now, but have we seen any, like... Other travelers? Not yet, but you, I mean, you suspect, you would know that there will definitely be travelers on the road. Okay. There could be merchants.

I would say, Quill, you're also aware, because of you being a messenger, you're kind of aware of the things like the dangers on roads. There's always the threat of banditry, and monsters like to camp and keep an eye out on roads because they tend to be full of fat, wealthy merchants

or travellers to prey upon. Oh, slim. So, yeah, roads are very expedient, they're much easier for travelling everywhere, but they can also be dangerous as well. The nice thing with travelling more civilised roads like this one is they're generally patrolled by the local authorities. So the harvest guard, for example, would manage this road, it would're generally patrolled by the local authorities. So the Harvest Guard, for example, would manage this raid. It would be their responsibility

to protect it. Okay, cool. Ironwick, yes? Ironwick. Sentry, have you considered just like painting yourself? Paint? Why would I paint myself?

You know, just to change with the themes and the vibrancy of, like, gold turn, for example. You could really stand out. I'll paint myself gold? Or different patterns and stripes and, like, roses, things like that. You could paint that on you. I think she was made to look a certain way

because this is the family that she represented. Yeah, this is... It's like a clan. Yeah. In that way. Yes, but you are you though, right? You can express yourself and then rub it off when you feel like you've changed and put another thingy on your face.

But I'm proud of where I've come from. I'm proud of solving in my home. That's underneath, but it can be hidden by fashion. I've come from, I'm proud of solving in my home. That's underneath, but it can be hidden by fashion. You know, I've worked hard for, you know, a lot of the markings that I've bared. You know, these are all like medals, I guess, is what you'd have.

What, the scars and the dents? I've had like all these patterns swelled through my armour and on my shield, like my ranks. The Gustaven fashion shows, they wouldn't like dents and things like that. I'm thinking there's potential here. Are you trying to say that you want to put Sentry in a fashion show? Imagine. Imagine. It'd be the ultimate model, quite literally.

It'd be a very specific model. Okay. Put fur coats on you and things like that. We'd earn a lot of money. Would we? And he makes a good point, actually. We could make you even more intimidating as well. Instead of fashionable, we could give you, like, flames.

I kind of like Century the way she is. I agree. She looks pretty. But still scary because she's, you know, made of armour and has an axe. Thank you, Valor. But imagine me in drab clothing. Wouldn't that be boring? I would really like to see it, actually. I mean, you wouldn't be able to

cast most of your spells, for starters. Exactly. Then again, we've all got so many different colours, you could just siphon it off all of us, I suppose. That's true, too. Anyway, are we at Ionic now? So, I mean, you guys can keep talking as much as you want to talk. Don't feel you have to feel dead air if you just say, like, That's true too. Anyway, are we at Ironwick now? I mean, you guys can keep talking as much as you want to talk. Don't feel you have to feel dead air if you just say like,

yeah, we're just going to travel and we want to get to Ironwick. I think the next like 10 sessions is going to be the day. It won't be audience day. You approaching sort of midday. The rain doesn't really stop. It's just drizzling the whole time. Uh, the clouds are overcast. It's dark and gloomy. It's England.

Don't tell me it's windy as well. It's quite windy. Oh, worst. Century, do your arms fatigue? Or can you kind of lock them in place? I don't, I don't fatigue like humans do, but the wood underneath me can shrivel and become weak if I get too cold or too hot.

Would you mind, Orfley, and I know this is quite rude, but could you provide a canopy with your shield in our walk-under? That's fine, I'm happy to help you. Me and Valak will walk under it. It's all about Valak. If it makes you more comfortable, then yes, I will help you. Thank you so much.

That's okay. I can see now why you were built to protect. And also attack. Sometimes attack. So essentially you will be walking with your shield held above your head. Yeah. Okay. After about, I'm trying to think what would be reasonable here.

20 minutes. You're a warrior. I think 20 minutes. Yeah, that's a good shout. 20 minutes. You're a warrior. I think 20 minutes. Yeah, that's a good shout. You know, you're a warrior tough, but after about 20 minutes, give me a constitution saving fee. Okey dokey. Please drop it on him.

Oh! That's a zero. Oh, no, that's a four. With the bad weather, you can already feel the wood kind of beginning to stiffen and swell and it's getting harder to keep this shield held aloft and you just have to drop your arm and rest it I'm sorry it's okay, it's fine

I'll get a hat this is a very big shield it's a very big shield where do you guys want to try and stop for lunch? are you going to stay out in the rainy road? the forest itself provides cover. It also has iron spiders in it. It does have iron spiders.

Don't think we forgot that. There are many other things it has as well. Those are just something that I think Arvel or somebody else told you about. Probably still got some wild elves in there too. It's got a lot of bad stuff in there. No sloths though. Damn it, iron sloths. There are iron badges though. They're, iron sloths. There are iron

badges though. They're just sloths. Iron badges. Imagine dying to one of those. I suppose we could quickly stop for lunch. A little quick campfire. Warm up a little bit.

I don't recommend we start a fire. We don't need to do that till tonight. We want to keep trucking we can have a quick cold lunch and then I'll wait yep I concur keep moving I'm going to create dancing lights but combine them all into an orange glow and try and make it look

like the sun it creates an orange glow no heat no warmth but part of you is so eager for warmth that you can almost feel like it is, oh, it's lovely. Is it like an SAD light? Kind of, yeah.

It just makes you feel like there's heat, but there isn't. Yeah, you stop for a quick lunch, you have your thing. You definitely hear out in the woods this expansive ancient forest, and there is a strong smell of wet earth of this kind of yeah like ionic uh smell in the air that kind of you know like metallic metallic smell uh that you get um

but mixed in with leaves and foliage and you hear you hear animals you hear scuffling and scurrying out in the distance you think you can hear like a wolf and a wolf's howl um but nothing attacks you during your lunch you kind of have a quick cold lunch of of trail rations you know you're talking like nuts jerkies a little bit of bread cornbread are we marking that off uh not yet it'll be for the full day okay um and then you carry on it's around early evening when you come across the very edge you start to see the rosewater lake itself now you'd seen it in the distance and this is a huge lake that expands for miles miles and miles and miles it would probably take you you know a week if you walked

around the whole thing wow this is This is huge, this lake. And it stretches out for miles. And you can see, you know, in the very faint distance, you can see what look like little sailing boats, like kind of like little pleasure boats and stuff like that out on the surface. And what almost looks like a strange glow as the night begins to fade in and the night gets darker and darker, there is this strange green glow that seems to come up from the bottom of the lake

and kind of mirrors along the surface. And it's almost in a contrast to the cradle, which is this multicolored spectrum of light, like this aurora borealis, which is above the planet. And this green glow is is deep within the this underneath the lake and it kind of bubbles up to the surface and just reflects gently um and you begin to see and you're now kind of like following the the wood on your left and the lake on your right as you're following this this track along can we see so across can

we see gold throne from where we are now no No, no, no, you can't. You just see the Ironweald stretching out. Don't be dumb. You can see that it does become quite hilly to the sort of northwest, and then the mountains. And you know that Goldthrone is vaguely in your northwest direction, but the Ironweald and these hills just block that kind of... So we've come out of the woods, heading east.

And now we're going north. So, this won't be very visible on the camera, but you've come out of Rosehall, so you're down here. This was the Palace of Ruins, and you're now around about here. So we've been skirting the edge. So you're kind of skirting the edge of the Ironweald and the lake.

And then you can see Ironwick just there. But Goldthrone is up here, so the hills and the forest would block your sight of it. Neato. Can I, as Quill, have a copy of that? Yeah, would Quill need it? How much of this would you know? Because we did have a map and we were updating it,

but I don't know where that's gone. So, yeah, because Quill had a map, didn't he? Yeah, he did. Yeah. So with all the information that Arvel gave you, yes. For Savona, the other side of Savona, this side, pretend you don't quite have that information.

I mean, if you want to, I can just save it for, like, if you give me one without the names on it. Yeah, I will do it at some point, yeah. I mean, I think I did give you one, but I need to sort it all out. I've got, like, the big one. Did you lose it, Tom? No, I've got it. I've got it still.

Where is it? I don't know. But that was not a very specific area. That was the original crash site area. Yeah, yeah. That was a very small area. I think we've already gone past it. I've got the bigger parchment one that you gave me the parchment for,

and I've been slowly mapping that out, but I've not had time to update it recently. So, you get to the evening. You haven't seen any travellers on the road, surprising me, throughout the whole day of travelling, there don't seem to be any travellers coming south. Is that odd? It does seem a little odd, yeah. It does seem strange.

That was Mark's, that was almost your That is odd, isn't it, Tom Hazel? That was that voice. It was a genuine, yeah, it strikes you as strange that you haven't seen any travellers coming south. Fountain of knowledge and hope and dreams. What is the glowing from the lake?

Is that normal down here? Seems to be some kind of bioluminescence. What is that? What? Bioluminescence? I don't know. It's a fancy word. Oh, I just want to say that.

Stop it. Diversion. Could be used as a diversion. Wrong world. Wrong fucking universe. It could be a natural occurrence from the vegetation that is in the river, the lake, or it could even be maybe a creature is in there and uses it to create a diversion. It's more from the centre of the lake.

It doesn't quite stretch out to the farther shore that you're on. It seems to be more in the middle of the lake. There was a spooky old ghost back there and there's more spooky here. That's entirely possible. No, thank you. Yay! Boat ghosts. Boat ghosts.

Not a fan. Arvel just shutters. Anything is possible in this world. I sure hope we don't know boat ghosts. So you don't fan awful just shutters anything is possible in this world boat ghosts so you don't know what's down there at all no I've

I've traveled this road a number of times I've never seen the lake glow like oh so probably not vegetation

I've never heard of anything like that in the Rosewater before no I I don't know what that is could also be magic uh

it could be an artifact maybe that's fallen in there. I mean, you see Tiangong. Tiangong glows every now and again. It would need to be very powerful to radiate that much light. Keep in mind the size of this lake. You can see it on the map. It is enormous. It's massive. Anything's possible. So to create a light that's reaching up

high enough, it would need to be given off Is it spanning the width of the lake? Not quite, but it's large. Whatever is causing this light is a very large source. What about the big spook? There's boats on the lake? There were during the day. They seem to have now settled back in. Do they go over the glow? No, they went in before the glow started. So most boats will sail out of the lake at night. They don't drift around. How about we

appreciate it from a safe distance and continue to Ironwick? I agree. I guess we can always ask the folk in Ironwick what's going on. That's true.

Their whole business is the lake. True. They might know. Well, we'll still be right by the lake when we're in Ironwick, right? Yeah.

So. Can we see Ironwick from here? Yeah, you can. You can just about see. It's not very big. You can see this very small town, just as the lights begin to fade and I guess Quill would have the best job of this with his spyglass, which he never got back, actually. I don't have my spyglass.

So you're kind of squinting. But you can see that there is a number of, like a cluster of small buildings but not many of them. But there are kind of very fancy looking buildings on the very edge of the lake. And then there's more kind of rustic, homely looking buildings as you get further inland. Ironwick looks lovely from what I can see. Which is very little.

I think this is the first time we've been on this road, because we dipped into the ironwood. It's the first time you've been this far on it, yes. You dipped into the Ironwood, but you came out and then just came straight back. We're actually making progress. What's that? Going somewhere. Actually going somewhere.

Well, I reckon we'll be there by about just after midday tomorrow, so it's not far now. How do the people in Ironwick feel about wild elves? Well, like most of Savona, you're going to get mixed opinions everywhere you go. A lot of folks lost people and farms and business to the wild elves. So a lot of folks ain't going to be too happy to see Aayla.

I'm a delight. You sure are, gal. I think you are. But the main thing is, yeah, there's a lot of folk around here that have got deep prejudice. Some folks, they won't mind. They'll be open. Sivona's always been pretty open-minded as best as it can. I can work with open-minded people, but also I'm kind of just used to this now, to be honest.

Fair. It's fair. The fact is, quite honestly, almost all of you might struggle a little bit. None of you are human, none of you are dwarves. I'm blue. Yeah, you're a stranger. That's the main thing. Most folks around here,

they can be a bit wary of folks they don't know, so. It's fine. For such a varied group of people as well. You're definitely a strange group. That's for sure. Me and Valor would probably be okay. You might raise some eyebrows.

Anyway, try and get some sleep. Who's going to be taking watch? I'll take watch. So you two? So one half, one half? Okay. Who's taking first? I'll take first.

You're going to take the first half? Okay. So you nestle in There's like a small Kind of Cup of like Not valley But like some hills

That are just off the road And you kind of nestle in Behind one of these hills Trying to keep the wind off you Kind of using it As a natural windbreak The rain doesn't stop It continues

Into the night And the night grows Very very quiet You can hear the sounds of the iron wheel this giant forest all sorts of insects and animals hooting of owls wolves growling and rustling far in the distance birds beginning to quiet down rodents scurrying around but also the very gently lapping of the late waves against the shore. Even though you're far away, you can just hear them in the distance, this soft

kind of lapping of water. Why don't both of you make perception checks for me, please? That wasn't very good. That's an eight. Eight's a eight as well. Damn it. Oh well. Okay. Sentry. Ayla wakes you up and then gets some rest herself, going into her trance. It's around early hours of the morning. it's pitch black, the cradle kind of gives this soft, you know, color shifting glow to the world around it. The stars, the countless millions of stars above

shine down gentle starlight. When you see something approaching on the road, you're just slightly off the road, but you're kind of keeping watch and you can see a lone figure on a horse is making their way down and they appear to be holding a lantern in one hand and just this soft clopping of this enormous armoured war horse. You can

see the figure is dressed all in black plate mail with a big hood over their head. Ring ring. They're just carrying this lantern, this kind of silvered lantern, which is casting a dull greenish glow as they just...

Dead. It just seems to be coming towards you. Okay. It's going to pass right by your camp on the road. Okay, can I nudge Ayla? You nudge Ayla? Come on, I just need to sleep. I just need to watch you.

I'm really sorry, Ayla. There's a guy. It's been about an hour into your trance. Can I look over and do I see the same thing then? Is he getting really close to us? Yeah, and you look up and are you trying to stay hidden or are you just poking your head out onto the road like, what's going on?

Craning your neck. I don't want to be obvious about it. Stealth checks then. I'll do one as well. Putting that 20 on that one. Oh, dang. 22. Okay, so the two of you actually...

Sentry, you lay down and let your natural foliage coming out of your head and the green cloak disguise you, kind of camouflage you against the green hills. Aayla, you slip into a little bit of shrubland and rely on your natural training as a wild elf to just let you blend away. And you just hear this...

And then as the figure comes close, they crane their neck and this lantern casts this green glow over the camp. And you can see the figure kind of watch for a moment as it begins looking around. And then he slides off the horse. You hear this armored boots crunch down onto the earth, big, long, black cape. And now as he's drawn closer, you can see it's a male figure. You can't really see much of their face they have this deep cowl that you can just see

this kind of strong jawline with a short bit of beard and their armor is engraved with thorns and rose kind of patterns all up and down their armor as he makes his way over and it's kind of looking around the camp. Seems to be looking at it suspiciously. I'm going to step out. The lantern spins around and you hear a half-drawn blade kind of at the side. Like, who's there? No need for that. What is a wild elf doing lurking in the bushes near this camp?

Resting here. You're with these people? Yes. Puts it down for a second. But he can see that the hand is still on the kind of shoulder. I've still got my hammer, like, over my shoulder. Looks around. And then he kind of, the lantern light flickers on where Sentry is.

There's another with you. Who are you? Stand up. Hello, I'm Sentry. And as the green glow kind of reflects off your silvery form, a guardian. Very well, wild elf. I thought that there might be more of your number, which you might be trying to trick me, but if you're traveling with a

guardian, then I certainly have some questions. And why would our number concern you? We're only travelers. My job, my duty, is to watch these roads. There's often a lot of attacks on these roads. In fact, the reason I've been traveling south is because there's been a number of caravans that have gone missing.

They've never reached Rose Hall and they never returned to Ironwick. So I was sent to ensure that they were, well, see what was going on. And did you find out what was going on? No, I've only just set out. I've just been making my way to Rose Hall tonight when I encountered this strange group on the road. Are you just travelling to Ironwick? I cast this glow. And you can see he puts it down

and then he brings a hand to his chest and he clutches a symbol, which is a lantern with a single star in the center. He clutches this amulet and he whispers under his breath, give me a perception check just to see if you catch it, the two of you. 13, 12. You catch something along the lines of, spirit guide, tell me if these people are what they seem to be

and then he kind of closes his eyes and opens them again. Well, you do not appear to be creatures of the night or monsters in disguise. You seem to be keeping an eye on your camp so I will leave you to it.

What's your lantern? What does, what did that do? Ah. I've never seen one of those before. What's your lantern? What does, what did that do? Ah. I've never seen one of those before. It's a strange green glow. I suppose you are strangers to this land. Guardian, perhaps have you recently awoken? I have. I'm well beyond my time, I believe.

Yes, I know of your kind. I've studied them. I am a servant of Killara, goddess of death. It is my responsibility to watch these roads, to lead wayward travellers to safety. Sometimes we are employed to investigate strange occurrences such as vanishing caravans. I see. This is enough to wake us up. Yeah, would they have woken up hearing this? I think his voice is quite soft. He's keeping his voice

like I'm speaking normally for the audience, but he's kind of not whispering, but keeping his voice quite soft. So unless you want to wake them up, I think that he's kind of a little bit away from where you're sleeping. He was just kind of casting it over you. It doesn't seem to have woken you guys up yet. I suppose there's enough ambient noise to cover all of it as well.

Yeah, there's like, yeah, you hear like the sounds of insects. And also, you guys, this is like, you know, six, five, six hours into your sleep, so you're pretty deep asleep at this point. I only need four. So is he travelling towards Ironwick or away? He was heading towards Rosehall. Towards Rosehall. Yes.

He looks around. There have been some strange things of late. The lake's strange glow. Yeah. There have been some reports of missing children. And then he seems... That's a good point. He sees Valor,

and he kind of eyes her a little bit strangely. Have you had much trouble with your young friend? Actually, yes. Yeah, that's... Yeah. Yes, there have been a number of disappearances over the last few weeks. Girls with dark hair, about her age.

You should be careful. Yeah, we actually just had to rescue her ourselves from being taken from us. You don't know this! I'm glad that she has such stalwart protectors by her side, Guardian. It was no mean feat, I can tell you. My order has always held your kind, I suppose, in high order. You've performed many great services to Erois, and that is something I understand very well. Forgive me, my name is Ebon. I am a Knight of the Black Rose, of the Blackened Rose.

Blackened Rose? What's that? He's been writing everything we've been saying. A Knight of the black rose, of the blackened rose. Blackened rose? What's that? He's been writing everything we've been saying. A knight of the what? When Quill sleeps, Tom writes notes. Blackened rose. I am a servant of Killara, goddess of death. Lovely to meet you.

I do not wish to wake your companions. I should be on my way to check on Rosehall. Have you come from there? Yes. All was well? There's no travellers on the road that we came across. The whole way here, which has seemed odd. Yes, people have been unwilling from Calais Rest and where I was sent,

and when I passed through Ironwick, people seemed reluctant to send any more wagons south. Too many have gone missing. Most haven't returned or reported back, reluctant to send any more wagons south. Too many have gone missing. Most haven't returned or reported back, so they were unwilling to send more. So it is my job to investigate. Contact the field marshal there and send word back. Because KT wasn't here when you did the wagon stuff.

They didn't really do the wagon stuff. He didn't really do anything? No. Just making sure that I didn't do anything. And I think Ayla wasn't there, so it doesn't make sense that Ayla wouldn't know. No. I just wanted to make sure. I think it was more that we figured out

that there was something to do with the wagons because of the Brookstones. Yeah, I think we found out it was Brookstone that was doing that. That was cause and intent. Because we stopped Brookstone. Right. But Ayla didn't do that.

I don't know. Was that fact, or was that hearsay? I'm going to leave that to you guys. I'm not going to tell you if that's what you think as characters. I feel like we would have come to a natural conclusion because it stopped when the Brookstones were arrested. Okay. Yeah.

I just can't remember if it was something that was confirmed like, yep, I did it. I was doing it. You got me. They're going to stop now. Or if it was something that was confirmed, like, yep, I did it, I was doing it, you got me, they're going to stop now. Or if it was like... I think it was you came to a logical conclusion. I would know the logical conclusion, then. Sure. Okay.

How many children have been disappearing? It's not an investigation I've been assigned to myself, a rumour I've been hearing. There was a couple in Ironwick, a beast walker and a man from Goldthrone. He was looking for his daughter, I think she was helping him. They happened to mention it to me in passing. I believe that there's been a slew, perhaps six girls have gone missing over a few weeks, all from all around Savona.

Still missing? Yes, sadly. Interesting. I can only pray that if they are dead, that their souls have been guided beyond the cradle, and if they are still alive that they find rescue soon. Hmm. It's just interesting. Someone of

this exact nature explains a lot, though. You should be careful. There are many threats out there. The dead that still walk to the remnant. Beasts, monsters in the night. It's a dangerous world down here.

Not that I need to tell you that, Wild Elf. Yes, we've just come across an interesting spirit. A spirit? At Rose Hall. wild elf. Yes, we've just come across an interesting spirit. Yeah. A spirit? At Rosehall. Lady, a lady in white. I'm afraid that I

am not normally, I do not normally walk these roads. I came here a few months ago. But a spirit, you say? That is something that the Order of the Black and Rose cannot stand. Each spirit must pass beyond the cradle, peacefully. She's very dangerous. Thank you for the warning. Rose cannot stand. Each spirit must pass beyond the cradle peacefully. She's very dangerous. Thank you for the warning.

I will investigate. Take extreme care. I will. I will not take any action if I cannot handle it myself. I will call for more of my brethren to put the spirit to rest. Very sensible. He murmurs in his sleep. It's been over four hours, right?

No. I thought you said it was like six hours. Oh It's been over four hours, right? No. I thought you said it was like six hours. Oh, it was over four hours. So yes, actually, Lucius would potentially be out of his trance. I'm pretending. Okay, yeah, yeah. But if you want to wake up and join in, you'd be doing light activity at this point.

I'm lightly pretending to trance. Okay, sure. Listening in. Okay. Can we tell that he's pretending to trance? Sure, you can make a perception check. I kind of want to. Put one eye open.

14, 8. Give me a deception. Or performance, actually. I think performance would be more acting. Yeah, they've probably been spotted. It's just like... Yeah. He rolls up.

He opens one eye on occasion. Every now and then. every now and then he giggles you see Lucius yeah this Ebon says well I won't keep you from your rest much longer just be careful if you reach Einwick

just be safe. I will report back to them when I know that the roads are safe once again. Are there many of you on these roads? No, there are very few of Knights of the Black and Rose. We are mainly sent out from our temples and come to places where we're needed. My predecessor, he passed on. He was quite elderly and became sick sick so I have come to replace him

it is my job now to walk these roads to offer safety and to guide those that lose their path back to civilization that's a very noble cause it is certainly nothing compared to the service my goddess performs for all living things it is my honor to be able to do this. He just gives you a nod. Safe travels to you all. Bye. And he just, he looks over. Goodbye. And he just like looks.

Like as if he knew you were awake the whole time. What? He's in your head. And you just hear him kind of. Puts one foot in the stirrup. Straight back up onto his horse. Light kind of tap, and then the horse just plods along slowly,

this dull green glow just fading down the road as he continues on his way. I liked him, he was cool. Yeah, he was really nice. Nice guy. He was terrifying. Lucius, oh no, you're awake. I've been awake. You heard it the whole time.

Yes, I was listening to the whole thing, very stealthily. Getting good at that. Yeah, you might, yeah thing very stealthily. I'm getting good at that. Yeah, you might. Yeah, okay, yeah. I'm going to let that one slide. For a man who's devoted his life to protecting others, he doesn't seem so approachable.

I think he needs to update his clothing. Oh, with the clothing again. I'm just saying, he hit his face. He had a green glowing lantern like a ghost. We saw a man very similar to that who was dead. I'm just saying, I wouldn't go to him and say, guide me home, please. He'd be terrifying. He's got a war horse.

He's got the theme. Yeah, but he's got to protect them against whatever else is on the road. So he needs to intimidate that. Maybe like an orange glow instead of a green one goddess of death as well sounds fun sounds good anyway lots of lore anyway was that mark's whatsapp message earlier i've just done a thing um i told i posted it in the group earlier because I thought it was a cool concept it's also yeah like the fact that these nobody knows what's going on with these roads and all these kids are going missing like it makes sense it's interesting though there's like six or seven

girls that have gone missing yeah Nova's asleep Nova's asleep at me the rest of the evening passes without incident. The rain stops. It is icy cold. It is freezing cold at this point. And damp as well. You think if you go

another night without proper equipment and rest, you're gonna start suffering penalties. So this would be your third night. If you spend another night without proper equipment and rest, you're gonna start suffering penalties. This would be your third night. If you spend another night... Half a day. So you'll reach Ironwick just before. Basically, anything more than two days

without proper equipment, in miserable conditions, you'll start to lose maximum hit points. Your maximum hit points will go down. So just as a heads up, that's how that works. I'm shaking over a week up that's how that was. I'm shaking Nova awake. We've got to go, I'm so... Up you go.

We met a cool person last night Nova. Bella yawns. I'm not a morning present. Get it! Ah! Yeah, like everybody, everybody just is like, ah, I want to go. Let's go.

That's not how Arakokra wake each other up, Lucius. How do they? What's the, is there like a call? It's kind of like. Does one of you take turns to. I guess I'll do like a really, really pleasant kind of like. Yeah, just like a nice kind of like an alarm on a phone. Yeah, like a bird song.

Yeah, well, like a bird song. It's a bird song. But I mean, it's like a really pleasant. Can you wake us up that way every day? You're banned from waking up, GT. I agree. Well, you need to get up. I think that was that she agreed, but I don't know.

You need to get up before the rest of us to do that beautiful song. True. I mean, I do wake up pretty early as it is, but you guys, you sleep like four hours. It is. I can't beat that. Do you guys not get tired? Absolutely, but that's only if we don't trance.

Nova's fallen back asleep. Elves are cool. Nova, Nova. Elves and guardians are cool. Maybe we could crush you down and make you into a little like, sentry stone. And we can build a armour piece around you. No. Sorry?

No. I've had a weird trance today. Yeah. I had a weird dream about a man in black. It was real. He was here. Sorry? Yeah.

There was a guy in black. He was very intimidating. Very cool. Guy in black. Lots of armour. Patrolling the roads. Yeah, like all in armour. And a big horse with glowy eyes.

You were asleep. I am very confused, fella. I had a dream. What happened? Do you often have dreams and then... Just a man was on the road, I just watched him walk. He passed like a light and then he went. He did a spell to test if we were all goodies. So maybe that got into your dream.

Maybe. Spell. Sorry, hang on. Was all of this a dream or did this actually happen? I'm confused. It happened and I'm confused because Vela was asleep. Vela, how often do your dreams actually happen? Very often.

I don't know. Not very often, but like the fact that. No, like sometimes I think, you know, I just, I don't know not very often but like the fact that no like sometimes I think you know I just I don't know like I don't dream things that happen

but sometimes I have a dream that relates to stuff I guess sometimes but I'm thinking like maybe I woke up like Corin and Yusuf

used to say that I would wake up and maybe I kind of imagined it or I woke up and saw something and then I thought it was a dream

I had a dream once where I was trying to saw something and then I thought it was a dream. I had a dream once where I was trying to oppose people laughing at me and it was a bad dream. But I had that a couple of times. No, it never happened. I'm just saying. Dreams, sometimes they happen, sometimes they don't. I was like, I keep having nightmares about ghosts. Well, that one happened. That's understandable.

That makes sense. But Valor wasn't awake And that just happened And that's a bit odd Well maybe it's like what Lucius said If he cast a spell Maybe that kind of woke me up Like half woke me up or something

Or like got into your Into your Subconscious Subconscious She's a bit more awake She's saying words She's alive Alright let's go

I think you would have liked that guy You probably would have asked like tons of questions Tell me all about him On the walk to Ironwick Is that Sarkaz Here you go One roll One roll

It's like a roll With like cheese Chopped up like chorizo kind of thing It's like a corn roll Like a cornbread roll What is seasoning with like cheese and like chopped up like chorizo kind of thing um it's like a corn roll like a cornbread roll what is seasoning nope

that's okay there is your breakfast roll thank you yep there's one for you there's one for you there's one for you one for Vala

would you like one century I know you don't normally eat but I know you can I'll take one then. There you go. Make one extra one. We'll be there by midday, right? By midday.

So let's get breakfast. We can restock. It's fine. Let's get breakfast. So yeah, so mark off one trail ration for everybody. I did that already. Excellent. I did that at night, yeah.

So it counts, right? The other thing as well is unless you have water skins, which I think most of you do have or have something equivalent to With water skins you can carry like four days of water tops. Okay, so you have had to rely on like drinking Rainwater somebody else's like water skin the whole way. I will can I borrow your sippy cup again? Yeah Just hands it to you It's a good thing. We near, we've been near plenty of rivers lately. Oh, you haven't been taking... And also, Arvel is drinking some sort of,

like, liquor bottle. On the side. Perhaps his other thing is, like, when you drink his water, he's like... But he's a dwarf, so... Onwards to Einhuyck. Yeah. I'm going to tell Nova all about that, and I'm going to pull her to the side and tell her about the fact that six or seven girls have gone missing. But I don't want Vala to hear that. Okay, so you just tell Nova. Did you tell him about Lady Vale? Huh? So when we recovered Vala and we interrogated the bookstore girl,

Ah, she mentioned a contact called Lady Vale. And we interrogated the bookstore girl. I think Hala was there. She wasn't there. Ah. She mentioned a contact called Lady Vale. In Goldthrone. She offered 10,000 gold for Valor. Yeah. I know that this kid, there's something with her. But the thing is, there's a contact. So if we see this guy

again we should tell him because then they'd be able to at least trace the trail back to gold true maybe that's where the girls are yeah it's just extra confirmation that vala is definitely the one that they're looking for oh yeah that's not in question but we should do we should tell as many people as possible so that they can that's not in question, but we should tell as many people as possible so that they can maybe try and find these girls. We should tell people that we trust. It's hard to trust people out here. Well, it seems like this Order of the Black and Rose are pretty trustworthy.

He says there's not many of them, though. Well, perhaps we can leave a note for him at Ironwick. You said he came from there, right? Yes. So he must have an agency or something or someone who employed him. We can leave a note for him, perhaps, and he can spread word. Or continue his investigation. We can try.

But I think that if six or seven girls have gone missing and they haven't been found yet, that's still going on. So as you finish up, as you're having this conversation, you've been traveling in the morning. The weather is abated, but you still get this. There's now a fresh smell, fresh water smell from this lake. That smell of fish, like a fishing lake kind of thing mixes with the foliage smell. And you begin to see ironwick it's a small town there's no formal wall there's no formal defenses it's mainly just

clusters of buildings um with a kind of almost like a row like a street of buildings along the lakeside and then a few more buildings outside you begin to see on the outskirts things like lumber yards primarily you don't see a lot of farms around here, though. There's maybe like an orchard kind of nestled away in the back, but it's mainly lumberyards. And as you near it, you begin to see the kind of town center, and there is some sort of commotion. You can see that there are a bunch of kind of dwarves and humans, Dwarves and humans. And they are currently having some sort of loud argument with a man who looks to be in his 40s.

Maybe like late 40s. And you can see like salt and pepper kind of black and white hair. He looks exhausted. He's got big deep bags under his eyes. His features are sunken. His eyes are red like he's been crying, and he's kind of hunched up. He's wearing not quite wizard's robes, but definitely he gives you the impression of somebody who has arcane skill. And next to him you see, at first you're not, you always don't think that it's right what you're seeing. You see a woman with very long,

very muscular looking legs, and she's wearing a thick pair of armored plated boots. And her legs almost look slightly strange, like she has really long feet, kind of half on, like she's standing on her toes, but her feet are elongated and her toes are much longer. And she's wearing extremely tight leather trousers with a small hole just above her butt where a fluffy tail is poking out, like a little rabbit's tail. And then she has a very tight, kind of athletic-looking body top.

You can see, like, with a little bit of leather armor, long, long white hair, and then two enormous rabbit ears sticking out the top of her head. And she looks very much like a Fiera from Final Fantasy. And she is stood in front of this guy with

one arm and she's kind of protecting him from everybody else. But the gathered crowd are like Listen! We know it's your people responsible Beast Walker. Get the fuck out of here you're stealing from us we ain't gonna take it and she's like i am not i'm not responsible she's like trying to

argue and say like it's not us look i'm just here to do the job i'm just a bodyguard blah blah blah and you can see the man is like please please friends i just want to find my girl please it's not santa she's been with me the whole time. I don't know who's stolen what, but it's I need her, please. And you can hear this kind of conversation going on as you guys are approaching into the town itself. And Arvel is kind of like, this is what I mean.

Folks around here, they don't take Canada. Strange folks. He's about to get a whole lot stranger. Is anyone as we're walking through are anyone kind of having second glances at Valor? so as you get closer

a few people do clock her and then there is a kind of not look of disgust but look of like who the fuck are these guys from a lot of the gathered crowd as soon as the man this kind of like tragic very sad looking man, sees Valor

there is a brief moment of hope in his eyes and he just, he looks, he's like, stop! Stop! And then he like seems to realize it's not who he thinks it is and Santa kind of, this this bunny woman kind of looks around and sees him

and she kind of is like, I'm sorry Galen it's not her we'll find her though, we'll find her and then she kind of looks around and sees him, and she kind of is like, I'm sorry, Galen, it's not her. We'll find her, though. We'll find her. And then she kind of gives you guys a nod and kind of gives you a thing like, listen, friends, you probably don't want to stick around here. These folks... And then they're just like, you know, the argument picks up again.

Do we... Do I... Well, do I know what she is? Yeah, so all of you know what she is. She's a beast walker. Okay. So this is a race that was born into a world very much like Aarakocra. They were born into the world after the Sundering by one of the gods, by the god Atelicus, known as the Earth Warden.

Okay, so Sentry doesn't know. Sentry wouldn't know these guys. The rest of you would. Aayla, the wild elves in particular, have kind of a kinship with beast walkers because they tend to live in the same forest. There's sometimes a bit of competition with the more aggressive tribes,

but beast walkers are generally seen as children of Atelicus, and most wild elves see Atelicus as a god that they favor. So there's kind of that mutual respect and understanding of like, hey, we love the land. You love the land too. Let's we love the land you love the land too

let's all love the land together but they're also pretty cunning a lot of people treat them as being quite simple because they're a lot of them are because they're they kind of live in the wilds and they're beast basic you know they're kind of like beasts but they're a lot more cunning than people give them credit for because they're like animals they can be clever as well um and you can see that she has you know the rest of her body is quite athletic but her legs are incredibly muscular like they seem like you can see these like rippling muscles in these tight trousers and then her boots are heavily armored you can see like metal plates all along the fronts of her shins um and she's just kind of holding like the guy back and she's just she's kind of turning to him and they're trying to have a conversation and like the crowd are like get out of here like

you know like and one dwarf in particular he he's kind of got like a sandy beard short sandy hair and there are three girls behind him like teenage girls a dwarf girl a tiefling girl, and a human girl, and this man is just like, they've been taking things from my store for the last few days, I know it's you, I know it's you, Beast Walker, and he's like, you know, stammering and pointing at her aggressively, like, my girl saw you, and the girls are like, well, we don't know if it was her, Bodwin, but we saw one of their can with the big rabbit ears, and they're kind of like trying to, you know, well, you can see that they're accusing this woman of stealing from them. As you, like, pull into the town,

more and more eyes begin to kind of drift your way, and one of them, a human, drunk, surly-looking drunk in a blacksmith's apron, sees Aayla. And he's like, this one's working with them wild elves. Look, it's one of them right now, you fucking wild elf. And he's like half cut already. And you can see he's got like a bottle of drink. And he's got like blacksmith's gear but most of it's missing he's just got like one hammer and a pair of clippers

and he's just like they did it and the crowd now kind of turns on all of you what okay good well like they as in like they like turn and fully regard you all now hey don't listen to the drunken man

we're travelers from rosehall. We're just trying to get to Goldthrone. You can see Arvel's like, listen, listen to my good bird friend here. We're just traveling through. We want some supplies, a bed for the night. That's all we want. We don't want any trouble. I'm a delight.

He's a delight. I was going to say, give me persuasion with advantage, but now it's just going to be a normal persuasion as Aayla is stood there with this massive fucking hammer I'm a delight

so not with disadvantage then no persuasion that's 19 okay 19 they kind of like murmur themselves

and one of them this this kind of general like this you know blonde dwarf with a stammer and one of them this kind of general like this blonde dwarf with a stammer so you're not with

the Beast Walker? I mean we just got here alright I guess if y'all ain't just arrived then that's no problem most of this stuff's been happening anyway what's been happening anyway.

What's been happening, sorry? Don't, just some business, some thievery by their kind. And he points again at this lady, and she's like, for the last time, it's not me. Look, I know you've had problems with people from the boroughs, but I come from Goldthrone.

I've traveled here with Galen. I was here before all of this, any of this started. And you can see the crowd are kind of like murmuring to themselves. Goldthrone, you say? Yeah, that's right. That's where me and Galen came from. His daughter went missing a few weeks ago. Oh, I'm so sorry.

He hired me to try and track her down. I know that she's now, this woman kind of turns it back on the crowd like I know that she came here and none of you have given us any information. Somebody's hiding something from us. Estelle's here, or she was. And the crowd now

seems to get defensive back and they're kind of like we don't know anything about that. You're the thief around here Hang on sorry Is there any evidence And you can see Valerie is now like clutching to Sentry Like kind of nervous at this gathering Tension

You asking the If there's any evidence of her doing it Well He points And he says He points to the tiefling girl, who you can see has bright red skin, curved horns above her head, black curly hair,

dressed in kind of like peasant girl kind of clothing. Xana here, she saw one of these rabbit folk breaking into my store, my wares, the other night. He ran off. Bunny ran off before we could catch him.

Sorry, you just said he. That was Marge. Okay. So did you see her? Well, no. But if it's not her, it's one of her people. So why punish her? Just because they're the same kind of people

doesn't mean that she's got anything to do with it. There's like a... I'm a wild elf. I know this very well. So Quill's the one... I have a delight. Why don't you and you both make persuasion checks for me and see how much you can help Quill.

Because Quill's the one kind of making the main argument and then you're trying to... Three. Oh, my God. Eight. So you just make me a straight persuasion that you're going to get no help from this. Because Quill's the one kind of making the main argument and then you're trying to... Ah, three! Oh my god. Eight. So you just make me a straight persuasion that you're gonna get no help from this. Oh no. Uh... Seven. Now why are you

so quick to defend her, huh? You just said you don't know this woman. Well, no, I don't. I just don't want the wrong person to go for any crimes that you might have been committed here. Well, are you a lawman? No.

Then I guess it's none of your business. I suppose. If you punish the wrong person, though, the actual thief is still out there and might steal again. There's another. Give me a persuasion check. Fourteen. Fourteen. Fourteen. There's a general kind of murmuring,

and this time an elderly-looking dwarf woman, gray hair, piercing blue eyes, spectacles, kind of comes out of the crowd. She just kind of looks around. She's like, Bodwin, get you and the girls back to the store. She's, Bodwin, get you and the girls back to the store. The rest of you, get out of here.

Come on. What is this, a circus? Finally. None of you, all of you strangers, you stay right there. Well, I would like to purchase something. Well, this is my town, Mr. Sky Elf.

You ain't going to be purchasing nothing until I decide that you're allowed. That doesn't make any sense, but okay, sure. I'm the field warden here. What I say goes. Oh, field warden, did you get my note? Uh, a bird would have brought it. Like, maybe a few days ago, it mentioned about, like, some fugitives coming to Ironwick.

I addressed it to a field warden, but I wasn't the harvest... You know, I don't know if it got here. One of the locals did bring me a message carried by a bird. That was from me! Hi, I'm Nova. It was a pleasure. We didn't have no fugitives come, and to be honest, I wasn't quite expecting to trust the word of a bird messenger. Understandable. We actually caught up with the fugitives, and to be honest, I wasn't quite expecting to trust the word of a bird messenger. Understandable.

We actually caught up with the fugitives and we took them back to Rose Hall. Rose Hall? Is that where we did it? Y'all have come from Rose Hall, you say? Yeah. You didn't have any trouble on the roads? No, not at all. Hmm. Interesting. What we meant.

Well, is there any trouble on the roads? There's been a lot of trouble on the roads. Caravans and wagons going missing, that sort of thing. A fella from that order, the Black and Rose, came through to deal with it, sent from Cali's rest. My name is Mrs. Steel Eye. I'm the field marshal here. Galen, Santa, you stay right there as well.

Now as you can see, things are a little tense in Ironwick. Had a lot of things happen. Now this man, she points at this wizardy looking human. Mr. Sands here claims his daughter has been taken and his beast walker friend claims that she was brought here. Now, as far as I understand, this woman has a bit of a reputation as a bounty hunter, so I'm willing to take a little faith that what she says is true, but my people say they haven't seen nothing, and I'm inclined to believe. Now, I appreciate what you said.

We can't let the real perpetrator get away. If there's thieves, we want to catch the right people. I don't want no thieving in my town. This town thrives on tourism. I don't want any rumors about no thieves going free around here, much to what the people might say. So, as far as I'm concerned, you can stay here. That goes for you as well, Galen, Santa.

But consider yourselves on close watch. All right? I feel so welcome in this tourist enhanced town. We don't plan to stay for too long. We're on the way to Goldthorne. You have come at a particularly bad time. I can assure you the views of the lake are still just as plentifully beautiful

as they normally are. Blah, blah, blah. You wanna try that one again, Stevie? Plentiful, plentifully beautiful, as they normally are. Blah, blah, blah. Want to try that one again, Stevie? Plentiful, plentifully beautiful. I'll be taking less lip like that, thank you very much. It's a really nice green glow on that old lake there. Healthy. As soon as you say that, she stiffens a little.

And you can see, well, that is just a natural phenomenon. That is being caused by some sort of algae at the bottom of the lake. It's nothing to worry about. Can I insight check? Yeah, absolutely you can. I mean, you all can because Arvill said that he's never seen it before. So everybody can make an insight check. No.

19. Is that just with any bonus? Oh. One. Yeah, 20. 14, 20. Nova loves everything. Six.

So everybody, I'll make one for Arvel and Vala as well. So everybody except Lucius, Sentry and Arvel. I mean, you don't pick up on it. It's not that you believe her, but you just don't pick up on this tenseness. The three of you, Lucius, Sentry, and Arvel, yeah, I mean, there is clearly something that isn't right.

Arvel's already said that he's never seen it before, but also the way that she's stiffened up as soon as it was mentioned makes you think that she's worried about it. It's not necessarily that she's hiding something, but this green glow is something that she's worried about. And she's not necessarily that she's hiding something, but this green glow is something that she's worried about.

And she's just like, well, that's nothing to worry about. Now, plenty of views. I mean, we don't allow boats out on the lake at night anyway. It's dangerous. There are some critters in the lake that come out at night, so you make sure you don't go swimming on a late-night dip, please. Now, if you need to be somewhere for a place to stay, the Traveler's Lodge, it's called the Coral Vase. It's just over on the lakeside over there.

It's those lovely little row of buildings. If you need some supplies, the Acorn and Bale is owned by Mr. Bodwin. That was the blonde dwarf with the stammer that you saw earlier. I'd give him a few hours to calm down if I were you. He's been having some real turn of bad luck, getting a lot of thieves in his area, and he is ready to pop. He is ready to storm off after the iron burrows and go take all of those beast walkers back to Darpion.

Do you sell winter clothing? Gold clothing? He will have some winter clothing, yes, of course, sir. He will absolutely have that. If you need any... things that a blacksmith would deal with, I'm afraid you're a bit out of luck how local smith is... Dead drunk.

Yeah, certainly is that. I'm trying to sober him up, but... You know what? He wasn't a delight. Is that a recent occurrence? I'm trying to make our good friend here. No, he's been like that for years. Ever since the iron ran out, he's been having a hard time. Iron without iron.

Indeed. But anyway, just be careful. Did this town have any dealings with the Brookstone family? Brett Brookstone? I mean, he would send his iron up this way. I mean, he would just send it on to Goat Throne. I'd normally do the usual, charge a small tax for his men to pass through. Okay.

But nothing major. Why? Just wondering. I suppose if you've come from Rose Hall, I suppose if you've come through Rose Hall, obviously you must have heard of the Brookstones. You're about to get dead. Anyway.

Alcohol poisoning. I will leave all y'all to your business. But do keep in mind what I said. Got a close eye. If any of you are up to no good we'll find out about it she just tips the spectacles and then turns around and shuffles off into

one of the local buildings we'll take a break there and then we'll jump back in straight away break for a cake very cool see you in five hey thank you for listening to this episode of high rollers make sure you check out dnd beyond with the link in

the description search high rollers dnd wherever you want to follow us we're probably on there and also remember to check out store.yogscast.com and use the code high rollers to get 10 off any purchase that's high rollers all, no space in between. Anyway, we'll be back on Thursday for part two where we start to explore the town of Ironwick.