High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #173 | Wolflions in the Night (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 7, 2023

Lucius returns to a filthy party that is ready to explore more of the Festival of New Stars! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes and more on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Grab some High Rollers merch: https://freshmerch.fm/collections/high-rollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound & TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe Last time, the heroes returned to the Sky City of Horizon and caught up with their allies, as well as re-equipped Nova Vija following her return. The champions' next steps were discussed, including a plan to take down the great beasts of Italicus. They finally headed to the continent of Al Seraph to get ready and wait for the rest of their allies in the Great Hunt, and they came to the village of Star-saraf to get ready and to wait for the rest of their allies in the great hunt and they came to the village of star watch rise a borough folk settlement that has opened up to the travelers ahead of the hunt and they've arrived during a special celebration

festival of new stars they had a brief moment to assist a elderly borough folk couple clearing out their house of old clutter and dirt and get it ready for all the new spirits and luck that would be brought in and engaged in a brief little, not even full encounter, but a struggle against some dust and clutter spirits. It was deadly.

It's the hardest thing we've fought so far. Yeah, yeah. And in the process, Horrific. Sentry made a lovely little friend. A little creature has decided to tag along with Sentry for the time being. Oh, yeah. What did you call him again?

Briar. Briar. Yeah, Briar. A dust ball called Briar. Yeah, he's a clutter spirit. Clutter spirit. Not a dust spirit. Called Briar.

Yeah. So they resemble like a little glowing little humanoid with a kind of dung beetle head. And then they roll around balls of clutter like a little catamari. They a kind of dung beetle head. And then they roll around balls of clutter like a little Katamari. They can have so much fun. Yeah. Yeah. And that is where we literally left things off last time,

I think. Okay. The Burrifford Village, because I appreciate Trott wasn't here last week, although he did say that he read the wiki to catch up. Thanks, wiki team. Thanks, wiki team. I'm not going to watch the episode.

You have to listen to some annoying dude talk all the time. Well, I tried to keep it down. There are three kind of big hills where the village has been built sort of in and over. So the village actually kind of encompasses the top of the hill and then the sort of burrows and tunnels within them as well and they're all linked up and then there are farms and fields and the edges of the forests or on the outskirts of the base of livestock huh yeah no no like like livestock like cows and pigs and things

like that it's all mainly fields and farms that's strange did you get that from the wiki yeah yeah okay yeah yeah I should read the Wiki. How's Jack doing? Big Jack. What's his other name? It's Jack. Just Jack. Jack's Jack. To be honest,

you could have probably said anything in front of Jack. Welcome to the joke. I get it. Oh, wow. Anyway. But yeah, this is the... Little bear bunny. Oh, it's one of these days. It's just one of those days!

I'm just gonna let these guys take it away, and then I'll just sit here, jump in when I need to. Wake me if I fall asleep. We'll take over here. So the town is here. The festival is ongoing. You know that you've got some time. You're waiting for the rest of the allies and the forces to arrive before this great plan to take down the beasts can be fully enacted.

As was discussed with Danica and Commander Rain, the idea is that all three of the beasts need to be attacked at the same time, and they need to be defeated at the precise same time, within a few seconds of each one being stonewalled. We decided on Stonewall, right? Yes, we did. We were previously thinking about the icy cold one, but then that's changed to

stone more. Yeah, because of their current resistances and the elemental dragons. There wasn't really a cold one before. There was the storm rock, basically a giant bird, giant storm bird. It was previously known as the Tide Hydra, but they changed the name because Danica thought it was really stupid. Yeah, Danica, yeah. Didn't begin with an S. What's the point? Yeah, exactly.

The other two began with an S, and then there was one which began with a T, it was stupid. So they changed it to Surge Scale, which is like a big underwater hydra that would regenerate. Yeah, but as the dragons fight them, they're gaining resistances to certain elements and stuff. So you guys wanted to go, because you wanted to deal with Vort and Sauron, like, you had to buy time. The dragons have basically been rotating certain elements out, but that means that these creatures have become immune to certain elements.

It's like the Borg, basically. We have to hit them hard, hit them fast. Oh, we decided last week, actually, Lucius is going to one-shot one of them on his own. Lucius can do that. That's where he is now. You're after the Hydra. Oh, I'm in week actually Lucius is going to one-shot one of them on his own. Lucius can do that. That's where he is now. You're after the Hydra. Oh, I'm in front of the Hydra. Yeah, you're in the Hydra right now.

Oh, actually you're in its mouth. Interesting. You always seem to get gauzed by stuff, so it made sense that you were in its mouth. Never say gauzed again. Stop getting gauzed then. say gossed again stop getting gossed then for American and non-English speakers

listening to the podcast gossed is a UK slang term for sort of barfed or spat on or sort of you know

in a mouth yeah it can mean anything really we don't need to no I think that some people need to know what we mean we like to educate

we're an educational it's an educational because otherwise they think they know what goss know what we mean. We like to educate. We're an educational show. It's an educational show. Because otherwise they think they know what gauzed means, and then it's like, no. I've been gauzed on. Have you heard the lead? Walk on.

No, if he stopped himself, I don't want him to continue. Save that for your hat falls. Also, at the festival, we still have to shit up some kids. Yeah. Well, there was a bunch of things. There's a bunch of things to do at the festival yes we still have to up some kids yeah well there was a bunch of things there's a bunch of things to do in the festival we need to go and look at the vegetables oh no no no there was something about vegetables mark said last week go to re and tom you have to deal with the vegetables oh you did i will remind you hey century you want to go see some vegetables there are a number of things going on.

The Festival of New Stars is sort of a celebration of a bunch of different things. You were kind of told a little bit about it by the matriarch of the clan here. They're called the Brighttail family. It's kind of the borough folk that live here. Mama Vindra, Matriarch Vindra. And the Festival of New Stars is all about kind of the celebration of uh new beginnings and like new life but also the recently deceased um there is you can make paper lanterns and tonight uh after the sun goes down um when it's night time they'll release all of the paper lanterns to send up the new souls to the astral seas the idea is they kind of launch these paper

lanterns that carry the light up into the air to sort of rejoin and it's a you know it's an old tradition based on the gods of kalara and siasca and italicus kind of all coming together uh there are also lots of shadow shadow puppet theaters uh that go on like light and shadow is like a big part of this as well um they put on little performances you also know that at some point uh and you were told to sort of play along with this at some point there is a giant wolf lion spirit a possessed corrupted dark uh wolf lion spirit that will come around to scare all the adults and the children have to basically chase them off with like light and noise and all the adults have to act scared and you've been sort of asked if you'll play along with that and help

the children you know give them things or ways that they can scare off this thing when it appears. We shouldn't have told Trot that. We should have just let him. Yeah, Lucius, no. Oh, it would be a repeat of the cow incident. No, maybe not. Cones of coals and murders, loads of innocent borough folk. There's been so much character growth since that dreaded day. There has. The birds. The birds.

I was a teenager then, so technically I was younger than the cow incident. That's very true. Finally, there was also, when you were coming in on the airship, you did spot from the air some exceptionally large pumpkins. And you know that the cooking and dinner

and things is a big part of the festival as well, but you have to go and basically collect your own food to turn into ingredients and food and food um that's what's done yeah you have to grab other things to make the foods food um and that's kind of yeah where we're at you also know that there are like um the wild elves are also here no more gain frost blessed uh rethra who you rescued from astral space uh Varnia, who are all going to be part of the hunt, basically, to go after these great beasts. Along with Sana Long Ears, who's an old, old ally of yours.

From long ago. Like three months. It's like a year and a bit, I think, in game. Yeah. Timeline's crazy. We saw her at the leaders' meeting, but we didn't have... We adventured with her on the road back at like Rose...

Dawn... When we found the underwater ship. Before Kayleigh's Rest. Yeah. What was the one before Kayleigh's Rest? I can't remember. It was like the lake and the underwater ship. Pinewick.

Yeah. Pinewick. That one. Well remembered. I was just like... That place. I am Wick. That one. Well remembered. Mother of... I was just like... That place. Oh my god. She's got the wicky open.

That's genuinely impressive. Yeah. She used the wicky. So yeah, and you've got, this is time for you to enjoy. After all the madness that has been going on, this is perhaps one of your brief, perhaps maybe even the last time

that you will have before, you of moment of levity well i mean you know that after this you have to take down the great beasts once the great beasts get taken down valor will be able to locate a telekis you need to fight a telekis you know that callus and everything else is still out there and time is growing short after the live stream last week one of our audience members put in our discord that I can't remember

where in the world but somewhere there is actually genuinely a pumpkin festival where they grow giant pumpkins and the image the photo

the photo that they had was people rowing across a river in a pumpkin in a hollowed out pumpkin that's pretty amazing like that's pretty crazy.

So what you're saying is you need to go and find a giant pumpkin. Well, they're like 10 foot tall here, apparently. So, yep. Cool. Turn it into a boat. Go fight Kallus. Yeah. Throw a giant pumpkin at her dog.

We got pumpkin ships. Throw an enchantment on that bad boy and get it into the Astral Sea. Why not? We've got pumpkin ship. Throw an enchantment on that bad boy and get it into the Astral Sea. Why not? We've got a pumpkin ship. What is wrong? We're coming for you, Hadar. Row, row, row, row, row. So Lucius opted out of cleaning this house, right?

Yeah, mainly because I didn't want to play. That's the last thing that happened. We've just finished cleaning up. I mean, you could have been nearby, but you were just like, I'm not going to help. I to pop in just as they're finishing. Oh, what a surprise. Is it cleaner than it yet?

Or dirty? Well, it's... It's cleaner, but some of the dust spirits, they burst when we got rid of them. So actually, I think we may have made things worse Nova did say that Nova was staying behind

to help clear up the mess I can't leave the sad old man being a sad old man yeah you were and nobody has yet discovered the giant crack

in the windowsill that Ayla made oh yeah you're going to hastily leave okay sure but as I leave I'll be like

it's okay Lucius everything's taken care of don't worry and I'll pat him'll be like, it's okay Lucius, everything's taken care of, don't worry. And I'll pat him on the back. But it leaves a handprint of dust because of the soot. You were covered in soot, yeah. So, it's just there. Oh good.

I was thinking of how dirty it would have been and hands and knees and scrubbing and that stuff. I would have. Well, that wasn't too bad. I made a friend. Okay. I'll just present Briar't too bad. I made a friend. Okay. Present Briar. Oh, okay!

This is Briar. Hello, Briar. What? Is it dirty? No, no, no. Oh no, that's one of the scrap collecty ones. You've got like a thing with jewels and sort of chains on your hands and stuff like that. He's trying to pull the gems out.

Oh, okay. Come on, back you come. Can't have that. Come back in the century. I'll put it in my hair. Very cute. So he listens to everything you say. He's not going to go just tearing stuff apart to make himself bigger

because they got pretty big in the house. No, he's well behaved i'll keep an eye on him they get bigger the actual the little spirit never got bigger but their ball of stuff got bigger yeah it was literally a katamari like as they collected unattended items their ball got bigger and then they could slam it into people and stuff quill had to pick up a whole heap of forks because he was like oh yeah i was really worried about if they you know started shooting forks out stabbing you with it uh one of them did at one point and yeah almost got my other eye this is very bizarre to come in on yeah that's just look that's just how the festival's been

going lucius uh i don't know what you've been up to in the time that we were in in their cleaning did you get the net okay great? You had a nap, okay. Great. It's quite tired. It's probably actually, yeah, like where Mama, where the matriarch, her sort of like den is like full of big soft cushions and like things like laying around. Yeah, and then you just had a nice little sleep. A trance. Yeah.

You probably woke up with like a blanket over you and like a little sort of like mug of like tea. Me and Mai, when you woke up. I kind of knew they were there because it's a trance, but I let it happen. Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay. This is nice. So you've been enjoying the festival then? Just getting out there, seeing people, scaring kids?

Nope. Nope? Great. No, we're not supposed to scare the kids. This is an important distinction. We're meant to raise their courage. We're supposed to be scared. Yes. We're scared. We're meant to raise their courage. We're scared. We're not the scarers, because, you know, if we start doing that,

we're going to cause all kinds of trouble, and they're going to hate us. Okay. Like most towns. I should have asked this, like, a while ago, before the cleaning of the house, but in terms of, like, the three great beasts of Italicus potentially attacking the island and causing all sorts of disruption, are they all safe here right now? Is everything safe to go along with the festival?

I mean, there's no walls, there's no fortifications, but the people here don't seem scared. I just find it a little surreal that it's nice, don't get me wrong, but there's this threat on the island. Oh, they are very aware of that. When I was speaking to Big Jack, he was almost excited, more about the festival and just happy to just exist in this space for a while before, again, the big hunt that we seem to be excited for. Yes, but also the spirits will warn us,

hopefully, if something does come our way. With like that one? There's lots of different kinds and sometimes they'll come out of the woods and that means there's danger in the woods. Like birds. They're a good sign that something's up we should have spirits in our respective homelands i've never seen these kind of things before

i sound very useful pretty good at convincing them to stick around so there you go you can raise an army of guardians and an army of spirits. Out of all of you, I think Nova probably would have recalled, I don't know if you were going to say, but there was an explanation for why Alceraph has these kind of spirits and the other places don't. Yes. I think it's something to do with Italicus.

Okay. That must feel good for all the lore creators. Yeah. Having that knowledge absorbed. It's because the continent is afflicted with natural magic. Afflicted? Well, I say afflicted. Infused. Infused, yes.

Extreme biomes, extreme weather. I see. Well, do I feel more magical? I don't think you would, no. Your magic comes from more like arcana internal sources like color and things like that. This is much more about kind of the land and weather and things like that here.

Nature's magic. More nature's magic, yeah. I just feel empty. So what part of the festivals are you doing? I mean, we have done some of our hard work, which was one of the things in cleaning the house. So that's done. Maybe you could do something like that if you want to.

Pumpkins? There were huge pumpkins we saw from the ship. Oh yeah, they were going to ask if we could lift some of them. Oh yeah, no, Sentry and Aayla were going to do that. Yeah. Was there something about vegetables? Not the pumpkins, vegetables. No, it's like they basically, for all the big town meals, they do big group kind of cooking, and the fields need to be harvested, you know, pulling up potatoes and carrots and all group kind of cooking and the fields need to go and be harvested,

pulling up potatoes and carrots and all that kind of stuff. Let's just head that way and we'll take this route around the point of interest that you're pointing towards. I'm not pointing at anything. Unless you're pointing at nothing. Maybe we should have a group nap. There is a lot of pressure to relax, I'll be honest. I would definitely like to make a lantern before the final festivities start.

Yeah there is that. We also need to think about who we want to raise up to the heavens. And not literally... what? Come on, get inappropriate. She recently died. I'm not going to... She came back from the home. I'm not going to... Okay. Half of me is still up there.

I've done that too. Just FYI. Yeah, but you've had time to process it. Yeah, you're just like so over it. And if I'm over it... I dwell on stuff. You're fine. You're back now. It's supposed to be a day. I'm on stuff. You're fine. You're back now. It's been a day. I'm still fresh.

No, it's been like... It's been like two, three days. Got that new Bond smell. Yeah, three, four days. I think I was over it very quickly. Mainly because I didn't want to roleplay it. You've got to keep your body though. Yeah, that's true.

And all your stuff. That's what I still like. And all your stuff. That's what I stole, mate. And all your scars. Yeah. Anyway, so what do you want to do in the festival, guys? Vegetables? Vegetables! Or cooking, one of the two.

Well, we need the vegetables. VEGETABLES! This is reminding me of Taskmaster. That's old Greg Davies telling a funny story about that. I know. I've not seen it. It's just a funny story about him trying to get a fella he used to work with to say, Vans and Tom Hulks in a very weird way.

Stuck in my brain. Yeah, you can make your way over to sort of like, you'll need to basically work your way down from where the settlement built into these three hills is. They basically have like stone steps carved into the hills and the mountains that lead down to the plains where the actual fields are right they don't actually have the farms on the hills themselves um winding your way through and kind of moving your way across there's kind of almost like uh you know how like in hobbiton like the hobbit houses are built into the hills and it's

all very green and they have the little fences and things like that it's kind of got that hobbiton cottagecore vibe, but the people here aren't little hobbits. They're these tall bunny people, like men and women. Do you have to duck to get into the doorway? No, they're probably actually... Because Lucius is quite tall. I think Lucius, Aelor, and Sentry are quite tall, right?

But Sentry's probably the only one who still has to kind of duck their head in a bit because most Borafolk are like six foot on average. They're not kind for the ears. Yeah. Sentry has to do that everywhere, though. Yeah, exactly. Have you thought about squatting instead of ducking?

No. It's good for the core. Yes. Just so it's easy on the back, you know, work the thighs a bit. Yes. You have the right to do it if you want to. Oh, thank you. It's not illegal here in the House of Rhyme.

When you are making your way round... Make sure I squat right. It just means nothing to everyone. It's a pre-recording joke we were having. So stupid. It naturally happened. No one's gonna get that. They didn't need to.

I was talking about centuries saving a bank. Yeah, that was absolutely right. You guys make your way round and... Just stop crying. They didn't need to. I was talking about sentries saving a bank. Yeah, that was absolutely right. You guys make your way round, and when you are kind of beginning to make your way down, you can see that the stairs kind of leading down to these fields. There's the fields themselves, and you can see these great stretches of, like, tilled earth and soil.

You can see these giant pumpkins. Like, it looks like one patch, one field has been dedicated to just this competition of who can grow the biggest pumpkins. And it's just been taken over and they're these ridiculously sized pumpkins. There's a couple of ones which are more smaller, but still impressive. And then there's also seems to be another field, like an archery field. Like there've been like targets have been set up and things like that. And that's probably the first time you actually see the Wild Elves. You've seen a couple walking around just in general,

but you actually recognise a couple of figures from distance because you can see the bright red hair and red tattoos of Rethra. And you can see the white hair, the sort of more frosted ice kind, snowy clothing of Morgaine, and then of Hunter Varnier as well, who dresses in that thick Inuit coat, with the big furry hood, and their ears. Almost parts of the hood have been sewn to accommodate their longer elven ears and things like that. of the hood have been sewn to accommodate their longer elven ears and things like that um and they're all seemingly uh enjoying some sort of competition with sanna and a bunch of the other

borafolk who are doing an archery competition um and there's this older much kind of you know whisk like long whiskers and gray hair old borafolk who seems to be like stringing bows and you can see these big kind of old old muscles, you know, when like somebody who's like quite old, but he's like super jacked, like that kind of figure. And he's like stringing and testing these longbows and he's handing them out and taking shots with them and stuff. Cool.

But that's all downstairs, down by the fields. You make your way down. And yeah, as you begin to arrive, a couple of like young bar folk are like, oh, hello, hello, hello, welcome. Are you here to gather some vegetables or or are you in the archery or yeah you want to see that oh okay okay yeah we can take you over there well the uh some will probably harvest right we could give it a go whatever needs i don't want to eat like yeah we're going to be doing big um big sort of

vegetable dishes later on there will be a sort of, we do like our fried vegetables, like we do them in a sort of oil and batter which is very nice. There's also a big sort of stir-fry pot where we mix them in with spices and seasoning and everything kind of gets all cooked together and we do that with sort of local elements of the dish. We also do sort of baked vegetables and things like that as well, baked potatoes, that sort of thing, baked carrots, sweet glazed carrots, that sort of thing as well, candied apples, all sorts of things, really. So, yeah, but you have to gather up

and you have to take it up into the village, up into the Starwatch, and then people will give you food in exchange, basically. Oh, I can help in every way I can. So the only way we eat is if we get our own food. Yeah, basically, yes, yes. It's part of teaching that, you know, we have to gather up what we get from the land and then we make that into the bounty of food and it's very tasty and lovely. You know, a dinner that follows hard work tastes better. So that's what we

believe. I mean, I'm no good with archery or anything like that, so I'm happy to gather some stuff for the meal. Great. Who wants to... I'll help. Nova's with me. Me too. Sentry's with me.

Are you guys archering? If... Archery-ing? I'll archer for you if you gather for me. I mean, Sentry doesn't eat at all. What? Sentry doesn't eat at all, so anything she gathers. Well, I don't need to, but I

enjoy the taste of food. Alright. If it's strong enough. Well, Sentry's getting her own food then. You can gather extra if you want. We'll get extra. I'll fire several extra arrows in your honour. Wow, thank wow thank you oh just so you know it doesn't it doesn't really work that way no you can't gather for somebody else everybody

has to everyone has to gather together that's the part of it you have to gather your own we don't have receipts do you no i don't say that wow certainly when they overhear the conversation it's definitely like oh that's not really in the spirit of it. Like, oh. We'll gather first. All right, we'll gather first. Okay, okay, I'm happy to gather. All right, well, we'll take you over.

Yeah. Howard's here. Huh? Howard's here. Nope. Nope. I expect him to be. You are.

I suppose the crew are, actually the crew are here. Yeah, they're on the ship, and like if, you know, I think that they probably keep most of the wolf pack up there to protect it. But it probably makes sense that Penny and Lansian and Howard and that would wander down eventually. Okay, let's not go that way. I'm trying to avoid Howard, actually, because I didn't manage to get the fridge for him.

I think I was conned. After you took all his gold. Well, again, he said he didn't want the gold. He didn't care about the gold because it's not about gold for him. It's about friendship and family. You had to use some of that gold to at least get him a fridge. No, I instead used some of our gold and got conned, okay? I made a mistake, and I just don't...

I can't face him right now. Well, make... Get a fridge. Properly. Okay, I'll work on the fridge. To be fair, all he did was save Nova's life. Yeah. And I expected that the fridge. To be fair, all he did was save Nova's life. Yeah. And I expected that the fridge would be ready for him.

Do you know who Zimzam Zambalor is? Why would you trust someone called Zimzam Zabdabdabdabdab? Exactly. Why? Why do you trust someone called Keelak Adkala? Did you meet him? Very similar name. Did you meet him in an alleyway? Yeah.

Okay, I always- He accepted- I was always told by my parents never to do deals with people in alleyways. That's just common sense. Yeah, it's shady. I left my family when I was one. They didn't have a lot of time to teach me these things.

You're now three. Yeah? It's not a huge jump, though. I would've thought you would've learned that from all the stuff we've been through together. You're also really smart. But like book smart. Remember Brooks?

No, he's also quite wise as well. Oh, he's just a moron? Out of everyone, he's quite smart and wise. Which I'm not really. I am, however. Trusting. We had a fair transaction. That's a fool's game. I mean, you questioned me back in the day.

You blew up the ship. But you, oh no, not at that point. Not at that point. Yeah, I saw the signs. But you couldn't question a weird man that you met in an alleyway who wanted money from you. How much did you get? What did he look like? The wizard?

I don't know. I don't know what he looked like. I think that's Tom. I think Quill would remember. wizard? I don't know. I don't know what he looks like. I'll tell you. I think that's Tom. I think Quill would remember. Yeah, I can't remember. But if Quill describes him, I mean, he describes what sounds like the homeless wizard man.

Like a tattered robe, very wild, unkempt facial hair. How much did you give him? You know, like Disney's Merlin with like the blue stars sewn on it and stuff? That's what Zim Zam Zimbalor looks like. He looks like a children's parody of a wizard but one that's been living rough

in an alleyway for like five years. And stains all over him. It's all stained, he's dirty, he's got wild eyes. What made you trust him? Did he spell a bit? No, well, yes, well, yeah, quite a bit, but he seemed to have the credentials. Credentials? How did you know he spell a bit? No, well, yes, well, yeah, quite a bit, but he seemed to have the credentials. What credentials?

How did you know he was a wizard in the first place? He was the only person who accepted the request, okay? Of all the people there, he was the only one that accepted the request? I mean... So you trusted him, but you didn't trust me? To be fair... You blew up the ship!

After! I saw the signs! So you trusted him, but you didn't trust me. To be fair. You blew up the ship. After. I saw the signs. As you guys are having this conversation, making your way, the borough folk... I'm going to go speak to Howard, okay? I'm going to admit what I've done. You know what, Quill? If I saw a little bird man in an alley asking if I could build a fridge,

I'd probably take the money and run. You guys had your spa day. It wasn't so relaxing for our Quill, okay? Young Quill. Whatever. Didn't get the fridge. I'm going to make my own fridge. As Quill is having this rant,

and you're being led over to this vegetable patch, you do hear, there's a group of various, like, you see some families gathering up some things. There's like a cry. There's like oh not again get quick get him um uh and there's this kind of like kerfuffle as you see like a blur of movement like quickly dash across and they're like a bunch of burr folk are chasing after and burr folk are pretty pretty spry and pretty quick legged but this thing is thing is gone into the trees away. And they're like, oh, we got...

Sorry, everyone, we got to gather. And they go back and they start filling up another basket full of vegetables and things like that. Someone's stealing the food? Well, you call out to the group. Someone's stealing the food? Yeah, one of them kind of turns around and they kind of look over and they're like, oh, hello, oh yeah, sorry. We're just having a bit of a, a local animal's causing some problems.

If you're here to pick up the vegetable, you should probably be on the lookout as well. I got distracted and I didn't see it run up and grab things out of my basket. So you should probably be on the lookout. Pretty fast, whatever that was. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is. It's a local beast.

We call it a dash hog. And they're just so fast. I see. This is why you wanted us to go here. Last week, you made a reference like, oh, is it going to be like a Sonic reference? And I was like, that'd be ridiculous. Oh, we did, yeah.

But it's just like, whatever. Are you joking? Dashog. I love that. Who's a Dashog? Is it like a group of Dashogs? Well, I mean, there is a group of them, but they'll sort of spread themselves out and they wait

because they know if they all kind of came at once that we'd be more cautious. So they sort of wait and give it a few moments, but they'll run in, grab what they can, and they know if they all came at once that we'd be more cautious. So they sort of wait, they give it a few moments, but they'll run in, grab what they can, and they run off. Yeah, because they can't go fast. Yeah, they go very fast. Okay. Very speedy.

What color are they? They come in sort of different colors, really. Sort of browns and sort of grays. Just say blue. He did say a blue blur. I You did say a blue blur. I did not say a blue blur. I did not say a blue blur. You said a blur.

Blue streak does not go by. Blue streak, speed by. Sound it, the Pitch Hogs! Best theme, best theme of any show that they did. It's really good. Is there something we can do to assist with the Dash Hogs? I mean, if you, yeah. No, I mean, we try and deal with them, but like, you know,

if you keep a close eye out and sort of, you can catch one before it grabs what you're trying to grab, then they'll leave, they'll bugger off. But, you know, they'll try and risk it. But yeah, if you're sort of aware, you can try and prevent them grabbing things. But, you know, don't, they're quick. You know, if you're sort of aware, you can try and prevent them grabbing things, but they're quick. We think that they've got, it's magic.

They're sort of possessing natural magic from the lands and they are very, very speedy. We can try and ward them away, but I think the best thing is hold your basket close. Don't put them down. You can't stick around, gotta keep moving on. The next line of the song. Got places to go.

Got places to go, gotta follow your rainbow. What rainbow? I don't know, just... It's not a rainbow, it's not right. It's actually quite nice weather. I guess there's only one way to find out. The weather conditions aren't right for a rainbow. Yeah.

I mean, I put it in there for you, so I can't be mad. But the Borough of Fogel give you some baskets. They're kind of like these little shallow wicker baskets. You're welcome to pick what you like, anything you take up, you can use to cook or people will prepare for you. But you just got to gather it and it's hard work. You need to pick up a few things and fill up your basket as best you can. It depends on how much you want to eat really. If you're not that hungry, then maybe you just take a couple of things

up there. If you want a full meal, you probably need to fill up the full basket. They'll give you a basket each and you guys can gather up some veggies. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Keep wary. Yeah. The way this works is it really depends on how much food you want to get,

like how difficult you want to make this for you. I'm going to draw a dash hog. Can I split my focus between gathering some bits, but also laying out a trap? Oh, yeah. So like, oh, I dropped some things and things like that, leaving it like a little pile. I'm going to create a fake fruit or something out the ground that isn't an actual

piece of fruit or vegetable vegetables fruit doesn't grow in the ground look my um i mean there's bushes for like berries and like that. So you can go gather. Just leave out a little pile, but I want to create... But what are you going to replace the food with? Is this your painting rocks? It doesn't need to be replaced. I don't know why. I was like, what are you doing? Yeah, it's a rock. You're just going to get a rock and you paint it red like an apple?

It's like gluing a penny on the ground. All right, okay. Nice. But yeah, something to keep them there for longer than they need to be and then I'm going to trap them. Okay, all right. So you're going to try and prepare a trap for a dash hog? Yeah. Okay, all right, nice. But that means you're not going to gather that much food up for

yourself? It's going to have to split my focus, yeah. Okay, all right, sure. Okay. What about everyone else? How hungry are people feeling? Because that basically determines the DC of your check your check of uh pretty hard doing the work i think century's excited to try all the new dishes you just heard about so he's gonna try yeah get a bit of everything okay yeah ayla as well all right sounds like nova in the same i want to keep an eye out all right warn people as a lookout so you want to play more like a lookout and not gather as much food? I'm like picking stuff, but at half the speed of everyone else,

because I'm really whipping my head around. Everybody needs to roll. This would be athletics, because this is like physical work of getting on your hands and knees and pulling up all the veggies and like, you know, walking around. Yes. Would I have long rested since claiming the Diamond of Siaska? Yeah. That was like six days ago.

I haven't slept. You just slept in the chair. That was a nappy. All right, so 26 for Ayla. 27. 27 for Century. Sorry, what was the chair? That was a nappy. All right, so 26 for Ayla. 27. 27 for Century. Sorry, what was the check? One.

It's athletics. So lower DC for you and Tom. I rolled a three, but I've got minus two strength. 12. So it's a one. 12, okay. Plus 13. All right.

All right. Quilla Nova, the process, even though, Quill, you're still trying to keep a lookout, just the effort of half-heartedly picking vegetables. Oh, God, you're just so out of breath and tired. You're both going to have a level of exhaustion. What? It's been a good few hours.

You haven't gone picking, but it's a long, long bit of work. But everybody else is like, you're doing fine. It's pretty easy you know uh laying it out um i'd like lucius to make a if you're setting up a trap i would call this stealth like you might have slight of hand actually yeah slightly plus two okay perfect and then quill will be making 14 a perception check and then Quill will be making 14. A perception check. Will I? 14.

Oh, every time you do this, you fail. You've got disadvantage and mobility checks. You do. What, from level one? Because you're exhausted. Yep. Every time you get cocky about a perception roll, you fuck it.

Yep, that's a three. Yeah, that's 21. It's still 21. Damn it! Still fail. How fucking dare you. So the rest of you, as you're kind of all working, you know, mainly like Aayla, Century, Novi,

you're hard at work gathering stuff, focused fully on pulling up veggies, and going around, you're gathering all the different fruits on the bushes and the trees, you know, and it takes a good couple of hours, this whole process. Meanwhile,cius and quill are still doing that but i've got maybe like not even a half like maybe even like a quarter of their baskets full of what you guys have got um but you can see that lucius has been sort of like

setting things aside and like trying to set up this little clear area of like i don't know what is your trap what is your trap going to entail I'm going to try and find a really big root vegetable. Okay. And I'm going to try and hide a spike in it so that I can spike it into the ground. Okay. So that it's hard to grab. Okay.

Which gives me a bit of extra time. I'm placing, now and again, I'm just coming back to that area and putting more vegetables around it to make it look really appealing. Really appealing, yeah. And I'm just like glancing back at it now and again, I'm just coming back to that area and putting more vegetables around it to make it look really appealing. Really appealing, yeah. And I'm just glancing back at it now and again. Perfect.

Out of all of you, Quill is the only one who gets to act before the Dash Hog because he succeeded in the perception check. Dash Hogs. So, yeah, Quill, as you're kind of doing all these things, it would probably be... I would say... Let me make a check for these. They're pretty smart.

It looks like they basically... They can tell that Aayla and Sentry, they're like avoiding Aayla and Sentry. So there are these three dash hogs. One comes for your basket like, basket of stuff. One's going to go for Lucius's, like, trap. And then the other one is going for Nova's kind of things. And you're the only one who gets to react before them.

Like, they are, like, they are a blur as they come running out. And you can see that they are, they're probably, they count as, like, a small creature. They're like a kind of dog-sized hedgehog. And they've got these long kind of like quilled spines, and their feet almost kind of kick up the dirt, so you can't see their legs. It's just like a kind of...

It's just a circle. It's a circle, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Or it looks like they're just rolling. They're red feet. Yeah. I'm going to tell Nova to... It's more that you can't see.

If they had shoes, it's like there's just a blur of dust under them. So it's like a little cloud of food. It's amazing. I'm going to yell to Nova to hold her basket in the air and I'm going to flap up. Okay. So you fly up. So Nova, you call the warning out to Nova,

but it's too late for Nova. This thing's going to reach Nova beforehand. It's too late. But you can fly up. So you grab your thing and your talons and then use yeah and then use your wings so it's out of range of there yeah small little hand well how high up do you go i'll go these can jump can't they i'm gonna go like that's just like 10 feet up this is a small creature dashing towards me 10 feet so i'm only gonna go 10 feet up. Okay, all right.

So Lucius, you've got a trap. It goes for your root vegetables, right? It goes up and you can see that it scoops them all up and almost like a chipmunk, like it opens its mouth and it stuffs its cheeks with these vegetables. You will get a chance to do that, yeah. Because it's not going for your stuff directly. So yeah, what spell do you wanna cast?

I'm gonna quicken it so it's faster. Okay. Wall of Ice Dome. Just around the thing. Okay. All right. I'm assuming you want to create it so it doesn't obliterate all the props around you.

You want to create it as small as you can. Yeah, I'm going to do it. So you just create a little hedgehog-sized dome. Like, thump. All right, yeah, sure. And you do hear a kind of, like, squeal. I've got it. Nova, this is going to be, you have to, it's athletics or acrobatics

as it's trying to grab. Can I not cast a spell? No, this is because, like, it's trying to grab your basket. So you can cast a spell after this, but this is to see if it can grab your things. Lucius' stuff was all on the ground, so it was on the ground picking it up. Ooh, that is not a d20.

That's a d10. Okay, cool. That's a natural one minus... No, actually plus three. Four. Four. You are like... Quill's warning,

and you're like, what'd you, huh? And you kind of turn around, and then before you know it, you see like, pulling your basket down, and maybe like half of its contents has been shoved into this little, or you know, this dog-sized hedgehog. It's like, cheeks are like, it's drooling now. It kind of looks up at you, and it's like,

and then it goes to run away, and it starts running away again. You can potentially cast a spell. I'm going to shout, Aayla, heads! And then I'm going to cast Vortex Warp. Okay. The fuck is that? What is Vortex Warp?

So the range is 90 foot, and it needs to succeed on a constitution saving throw DC 19. That is going to be 17, so we'll fail. It fails, so it teleports to an unoccupied space of my choice. So I'm going to teleport it into Ayla's hands. Unoccupied means it can't go in Ayla's hands. You can do it next to Ayla, but Ayla's still going to have to grab it. You can't teleport it into her space. But you can teleport it next to Ayla's hand. Well, like... You can do it, like, next to Ayla, but Ayla's still going to have to grab it. You can't teleport it into her space, so...

But you can teleport it next to Ayla, and it kind of looks around like... It's, like, confused as it's looking around. We'll give it a second because, like,

you weren't... You know, this is as everything else is going. So Ayla's going to try and grab it. Quill, you fly up, and it jumps. It, like,

sees you fly up and it... It's going really fast. i thought tails was going to come out oh yeah two-wing two-tailed fox is gonna fly down uh this is gonna be with that with it athletics yeah that's 20 on an athletics check it jumps up into the air and it's going to grab onto your basket and it's going to try and pull you down. Can you make an athletics check? Pull me down? It's a small creeper.

Well, it's going to try and pull the basket out of your hands, basically. Oh, and I've got disadvantage as well. Well, that's a one. Can it get lower than that? No, two. So you're flying and you're just like, there's no way it can reach.

It jumps. It like grabs the basket and almost tips it, like swings on it. All the food goes, like drops out of it and it lets go and then in the air it kind of quickly shoves it all in its mouth. It lands. It does take a little bit of damage as it lands.

It kind of goes, and it goes. Speeding off again. So right now you've got two dash hogs, one in front of Ayla and the other one speeding off away from Quill. Ayla and Sentry, what do you guys want to do? Do I see the one that's near Quill? Yeah, you see it, yeah. You both are aware of this now. Can I cast Locate Creature? Yes. So I can keep track of it.

Okay. So that would be your action, is's your, like, that dash hog locate creature. Yeah. Yep. And then I guess I'll just, like, try and chase it. So you just start running after it. Do, do, terminate it running after it. Yeah, sure. What's your movement speed? 30 feet.

Yeah, 30 feet, yeah. Okay, yeah. It's ahead of you. Its movement speed is 60 feet base. It's without dashing. Yeah. All right, okay. and it is ahead of you. Its movement speed is 60 feet base. It's without dashing. Yeah. All right, okay. 60 feet base. So you just start running after this thing,

like the Terminator run. Yeah. Yep, nice. And it's running for the forest, basically. So next turn it will get to the forest. Ayla, what about you? Can I hold my basket in one hand and pick the... Try and grab it.

Try and grab the one hand. Half a lettuce check. I rolled a five, so... 18. 18. It is a hedgehog. So you take four points of piercing damage, but you grab its spines and literally pick it up,

and it's like... Its little legs are like... in pick it up and it's like... Its little legs are like... in the air. And it's kind of like... It looks terrified. You have grappled it. Can I hold out my basket for her to shake the stuff into? You can, T.

Is it holding anything at the moment? Is it all in its cheeks? It's all in its mouth, yeah. It doesn't have hands. It's not like a person. It's got legs. Oh, is it not like... I would like to think it had a little raccoon.

I mean, it has like hedgehog, like little hedgehog paws, right? But it's not like they're not big enough to be like... Little grabbers. It's still technically an animal. I will look it straight in the face with his chubby little cheeks and be like, spit it out.

You can make an animal handling or an intimidate check. Can I shake? You can, you can have advantage. If you shake it and you use intimidate, I'll give you advantage. Okay. But if you want to use animal handling, it's just animal handling, no advantage.

I'll do an intimidate. All right, you get advantage. Because of shake. Oh, I rolled a six and a five, so that's only 12. 12 is enough, I'd still say. It kind of is like... All the saliva-covered vegetables. And it looks at you.

Don't do it again! Go away! Don't do it again! Go away! I'll yeet it. You yote it. It lands, it looks back, it grins, and it's got one carrot in its mouth. And it just runs off into the forest. Yeah, you run. So Lucius, you have one trapped under an ice dome. I think that spells like, what, 10 minutes?

Your saliva, veg. Enjoy. Fine, fine, fine. Yep, 10 minutes concentration. Amy, what do you wanna do at this point? I have it planned ahead, I've got it. What do you plan on doing here? I don't know, but it hasn't got the veggies.

Well then. Well, it has the ones that you put in the trap. Yeah. It has those ones. But I've still got my basket. You've still got your basket. Half. So I'm going to just spend the ten minutes just gathering my own vegetables.

Okay, just like picking up a few more veggies. Like nine minutes. It's furious. I'll make sure I'm really far away from the food. Okay, and then you'll let it go. Just let it go. All right, nice. Okay.

So I guess the only one still remaining is Sentry. You watch as this thing speeds into the woods. It gets to the edge of the field and it just goes into the woods. It moves about, if it dashes, it goes 120 feet. Jesus! So you were like, and it just quickly gets ahead of you and ahead of you. So wait, where is it before it uses its dash? Where is it before it uses its...

It would have been about 60 feet away from Sentry. Okay. Well, 30 feet, because Sentry moved 34. Hmm. Okay, well, I... Can I... But yeah, it has the initiative, technically, so it would move first. Yeah.

Why do I feel like Sentry's gonna go, I SUNBEAM THE... KILL IT! Um... I might try and use Speak With Animals. Okay. At that point, it would be like 120 feet away from you. It's at the edge of this wood,

but it would probably still hear you if you spoke to it. Yeah. I'll just like shout, stop! Okay. So you can't speak with animals and then you're like, stop! Yeah, just like, stop it! Cut it! Stop! Make an intimidate check.

With advantage because you used to be with animals. Intimidate. But now this one can speak back. Oh no. Oh, I want to hear what it sounds like. You know what it's going to sound like. I know, it sounds like, yeah. 19.

19. That's pretty good. It's pretty decent. It like turns around and goes like, what do you want? It's my vegetables. You can't catch me, I'm too fast. They don't belong to you. Too fast, too slow. I don't care if you're fast.

You're naughty. Yeah. You're too slow, rock lady. And then it just goes. Does it make physically, does it with the mouth make the sound? No, it doesn't make the sound. That's the, Does it make, physically, does it, with the mouth, make the sound move? No, it doesn't make the sound.

That's the, when it moves its legs, its legs move so fast. Does he make it make sound effects? Its mouth is always on the camera side of its face, never in the middle. I'm just saying, does it make sound effects? Because if I could go fast, I'd be able to make sound effects.

It definitely doesn't have, like, big teeth as well. Big, freaky teeth. Too slow. Also, one big eye, pupils um yeah unfortunately uh yeah they do have they unfortunately they've got got some abs um at this point yeah lucius can sort of gather up his veggies move to the side let the other one go um but unfortunately i think nova uh and quill you are not gonna have well that's true if you want to gather up your saliva covered veggies

you can. Better than nothing. Wash them off, it's fine. Don't put that in the big bowl that's shared please. No I'm not, I'm not gonna wash it off, he'll be fine. Gross. I lost all mine. It jumped at me. I didn't think it would jump. There's like a couple of bits and bits, but it's not much. Yeah, mostly smoke. Have a glass, Nib.

Thanks. They're so fast. It's unbelievable. Yeah. And rude. So rude. I thought they'd listen to you, to be honest.

No, you just gotta give them a talking to. Just shake them a bit. They just need to open their heart. They just... So rude. I. They're just so rude. Never heard anything so rude. Yeah. Never. Never.

Not about the wolf pack. Yeah, the wolf pack are pretty. Yeah, they're quite respectful to Sentry. I'd say they're tough, you know, rough and tough. You live with me. Yeah, Aelith is some pretty. I wouldn't say you were rude i don't think you're rude we're making improvements yeah the uh the borough folk farmers

who kind of gave you the baskets they'll take the baskets back and they give you these kind of um like sacks that you can tie up and put your veggies in um and carry with you so you can like take them back up uh they will also they've got like a bucket of water and they'll wash off uh your your goops yeah goopy saliva covered vegetables they'll got like a bucket of water and they'll wash off your goopy saliva covered vegetables. They'll be like, yeah, it happens quite regularly with the dash hogs. Like, it's fine. They don't carry any sort of diseases or anything. We'll just wash this off.

It should be fine. It's just a bit of, it's no different to having a bit of dirt on it, is it? So, you know, just wash it off. Yeah, you are free to continue as you wish. You can hear some sort of like cheers coming from the archery range wish. You can hear some sort of like cheers coming from the archery range nearby. You can hear some arguments coming from the giant pumpkin patch.

I reckon those farmers are very competitive over there. You can hear them shouting for their pumpkins. Yeah, I could go check it out. I mean, I'm no good at gathering. These hogs are too fast for me. We could double check, make sure no one's cheating. Yeah, how do you cheat in essentially a size competition? One could be a fake pumpkin that's been inflated.

Or an illusion. Oh. Yes, magic. Yeah, magic, big pumpkin. School of illusion. Sorry, I'm not running. Is it right for a group of people that don't live here to come in and start accusatory, pointing fingers?

Well, yeah, I don't want to ruin the festival, is all. For anyone. We can do it diplomatically. We're good at that. We're not. I can definitely handle it. You want to go over there and rough up some pumpkin farmers? I'll just use my words and stuff, you know, because I'm really good at it now. Apparently, yeah.

That hog listened to you. I mean, you'd shake it a lot. Shake it. Yeah. You have a feeling the shaking might have been more effective than Ayla's actual words. It got shook pretty hard. Yeah. Right, what do you want to do?

Let's stop by the's on the way. So no to archery now? I guess we could do archery. I thought you didn't want to. I don't want to, no, I'm no good at it. I'm just saying. It's also where the people we want to meet are. I was going to say, you don't have to necessarily do any archery. That is true, we could get an update on the beasts.

Yeah. We should probably do that. It is very easy to get swept up in it. I see now why. Exactly, see if you were here earlier, you would have been in that house sweeping. Sweeping, yeah. I'm so glad I wasn't.

Anyway, let's go see the wild elves. Yeah. Okay, good. Vethra, Morgaine, and the other one. So you wanna go over to those guys? You're gonna archery. And then get a at hitting things. With a bow. You've got a bow.

I do. Normally if I have to though, it's way better to just hit something right in the face. I know, I'm just saying. I tried to aim something once and I couldn't even hit a stained glass window. I remember, it was really embarrassing for everyone involved. Yeah, it was with a gun which is much easier than a bow. Oh well, so I'm not going to try because I might actually hit someone. So, could do some archery? Archery? Yeah.

Let's at least go speak to them. We could get some useful information. Does Eldritch Blast count as archery? No. Oh. Well, I hope it doesn't. Anyway, I'm going to walk this way. If you guys want to move behind me, I'm just... Bye.

We're all walking with you. I was going to say, there is such a thing as walking and talking. All I need to be told is that's what we're doing. Archery. And then we're doing it. Nice. You make your way over. You pass the farmers.

It doesn't look like necessarily they're like there's arguments but like no sort of like accusatory arguments. It's more arguments how they're going to get the pumpkins up to the village.

And lots of like you idiots you made them too big. We can't we can't carry that kind of arguments more than I see. But when you make your way

over to the archery range Sana and a few Barofoko kind of in light conversation with the wild elves. It looks like that they've stopped sort of shooting, that whatever archery contest they were doing is over or they're not interested in anymore. And they're just having sort of conversations. Some of them are sort of sat on the ground.

You can see the wild elves look a little bit uncomfortable, but they're sort of like sat around or standing around, chatting away, examining the bows, sort of admiring the craftsmanship. The old Borafolk is kind of like sat there on like a fence around the range. And he's just kind of sat there, his big sort of like feet sort of dangling off the side. And he's smoking out of like one of those

kind of corn kind of like pipes, like kind of shaped from like dried corn cob kind of thing. He's like, he's like, he's like having a deep conversation with the Waddle. When you begin making your way over santa probably spots you all first and just sort of it's like hey hey it's you guys and kind of like waves over and it's like good to see you again she's kind of like calls you over like hey morgana it's the other than they she kind of directs your attention as you guys make your way over um she comes probably comes bounding down kind of comes up like he's doing that look of like handshake hug handshake hug sentry hugs all right so she hugs

century and she'll go around but ah it's good to see you again um she comes down like oh yes you know me yeah big big and you know yeah that wraps her arms around like does the same thing for everybody um kind of looks around um and says i think you i think you've met most of the the wild elves here they've we've sort of been talking about what we're going to be doing uh that's old cob and she points to the old uh yeah that's uh that's cob uh he's the he's like a he's a bowman and a boa uh around here uh, we heard the competition. Hello. Hello. We heard the competition you were having.

It sounded quite lively. We were trying to gather ingredients for the food and the hogs kept, well, they stole the food. Exactly, exactly. And it was a struggle. But I hope you had a good competition. Yeah, the wild elves kind of look around, and Morgan's like... We don't normally do kind of...

Archery's for a purpose. It's not just for fun and games, but these butterfolks seem to be interested, so we figured that we'd shoot a few rounds. Vanya put us all to the shame, as I expected. Vanya, who, like, you can't really see much of Vanya's face that we'd shoot a few rounds vania put us all to the shame as i expected and vania who like doesn't you can't really see much of vania's face except this big kind of like bristly elven beard um and then these thin snow goggles like these kind of like uh like thin wooden mask like thin slits for

the eyes and then they're most of them is covered up by this giant hood um it looks like if they were wearing that in sort of like hot weather they would be absolutely dying of sweat in there. They're covered in thick furs and this thick hunter's coat. They just nod silently in the direction. And yeah, it's fun, I suppose. A way of passing the time before we get everyone together, get everything ready. Yeah, well, I mean, congratulations on your victory, Vanya.

Thank you. Okay. Well, I mean, we are happy to talk about the beasts whenever, it's up to you, obviously, we don't want to disrupt the festival at all. The old, he's like, what about me, what? He's fine with it, so. Who knows, might knows like i'll be no i read him like an open book

somehow yeah so let's um i mean we've kind of come up with some kind of thick eyebrows almost you can't see his eyes his eyebrows are like so thick like a like a disney cartoon almost like where he's got the big the huge eyebrows that cover his entire face. And so it's like, yeah, I mean, we can, I think Varnir and Morgaine have got the most information about it. If you wanna talk about the Great Beasts, I think it's still, probably still got a day or two before everyone arrives,

but if you wanna talk about stuff, they're the best ones to ask. I'm just sort of here more as a representative of Borafook from other lands more than anything i'll be coming with you of course but not really much more i can i can add um i think this and and you can see rethra this uh other wild elf has been sort of like quietly kind of stood at the back hasn't really said anything or approached um but the last time you saw rethra was just after you kind of like brought them back to aroes after you'd rescued them out in the astral space

um but there's a couple of differences they look a lot more healthy they look like they've like eaten like before they were pretty malnourished um they were muscular but they were like thin scrawny like they hadn't eaten or been like properly fed they look a lot more uh sort of put together now cleaner um they no longer have the chains they had these kind of like elemental chains around their their wrists and the actual chains were hanging down. Those have gone. And they also have like new outfit, including a strip of tartan similar to Aayla's,

but it's of their own, like it's of different colors. And they've sort of like added to their gear and they've now dressed more similarly to like a wild elf that you might encounter on a ROAS. The other thing is that on their back, they seem to have a kind of double-hafted axe. So it's like an axe with two ends, like two axe ends on a single long staff.

A battle axe. Yeah, but two battle axes joined together. So like a double... Both ends. Yeah. That's cool as hell. Yeah. And the middle of it almost looks like a double. Both ends. Yeah. Yeah. On both ends. That's cool as hell. Yeah. And the middle of it almost looks like twisted iron.

Like the section in the middle almost looks like twisted iron. Like separatable. Possibly. Possibly. Pretty cool. But doesn't really just kind of like stays behind the other two. Doesn't really say too much. Not quite sure why or if they're just being quiet.

But yeah, kind of like keeps themselves. Well, it is lovely to see you all again since the summit. Apologies that it's been so long. There's been quite a lot going on for us, but we're here now and ready to take down the beast. Have you determined which ones you might be facing yourselves?

Oh, was that not explained to you by the Fire Woman, the Phoenix that we spoke to? We were all in the same one. Oh no, I was. I just wanted to hear it from you. And we are all going after the same one together. We're all hunting Stonewall, if I'm correct in my assumptions. That's right. Yeah, it's Vanya, myself, and our clan, we've been tracking Stonemoor while it's here on Alcerath. The Borafolk have been aiding us and helping us with that.

This one, and she gestures back to Rathra, came and sought us out after they heard from other wild elves what we were doing and asked to join us. That's really it. Going good. Rathra, Aayla is super uncomfortable because she's feeling this pressure of being like, oh god, there's wild elves here and I don't know what to do with myself.

They, yeah, Rathra will kind of look up and he'll nod and he just says, I'm doing well, thank you. Good to see you again, Aayla. I just didn't really know what to say or anything. The last time I saw you, I think, I didn't really know how to say or anything. The last time I saw you, I think I didn't really know how to thank you properly for what you did, but my journeys have really come to find myself here, so thank you.

It's unusual. I'm not used to talking this much. No, it's shit, isn't it? It's kind of weird. I hate it. Thank you. Just saying. You look really good, Rathra. Thank you. I feel better.

Being here, the sort of horrors that I endured on Azaghrat managed to put sort of behind me at least a little bit. The wild elves have been very kind. They've welcomed me as one of their own. So I've done a lot of traveling around, learning about the culture of the elves here and bringing a little bit of the knowledge of what I know and what I've since learned about Calus and the wild elves, trying to pass on what I know at least a little of.

Yeah, not a lot of people know the full actual story of that. No, but the wild elves I Wild Elves I've spoken to don't seem to care all that much. As far as they're concerned, it's been generations of life here on Orois. To them, it doesn't really matter. They are what they are now,

and that's something that's brought me comfort. That sort of... not caring, almost. Did you make that axe? Yes, yes, I did, yes. I think the last time I saw you, I was still carrying the chains that I carried from Asgrat when you rescued me. Part of the process, and I wore those chains for a long time when I was here.

But part of my journey has been discovering a new life, a new self. And when I was welcomed into a, I learned about the cloth that points to the tartan, this tartan. When they told me about it and what it means, I was invited to create one of my own. Being a clan of one, they told me to create my own and own, being a clan of one. They told me to create my own and that one day perhaps I would join another and the two would become merged, intermingled. When I made that, I figured that it was time to let go of the past. And so he reaches around, he brings out this double axe. He's like, I use the chains to create this.

And he speaks a command word, he says in Elven, unmake. And the middle bit turns into a chain. And it kind of... And he can... And then he speaks make. And it snaps back to you. Wow. I didn't expect the chain in the middle.

That's amazing. The twisted iron. You can see now it wasn't just twisted metal. It was chain that had been like magically warped into a salt form. And then when he speaks it, it kind of... And then... It was a chain that had been like magically warped into a song form. Oh. And then when he speaks it kind of and then That's very impressive.

It's useful. It's not powerful in the same way. And he kind of gestures to the Howling Templest and like Starbreaker. I can tell the strength of your armaments is greater than this, but it's useful. He kind of demonstrates it. He'll go to a nearby tree. He unmakes it, and he can almost use it like a grapple, and he pulls himself. He speaks the command word, and it kind of snaps him up to it and stuff.

And then he kind of jumps back down and kind of seems to be like, has that childish, nervous, proud. Yeah, he's like, I made this, and they think it's cool kind of thing like he's kind of got that going on um and like he kind of like sheepishly comes over he's like it's it's been useful but it was also the process of making something new out of what i was leaving that past behind creating a new future yes that's kind of how i see it yeah it's i didn't have one before as a rat was a prison in a lot of ways. Now I have a future, I make my own choices.

And this was one of the first ones I did. I just sort of went nuts. Well, speaking of Azograt, we met old Grats again. Kicked his ass. Good. Real good. Second time, yeah, yeah. Deserves nothing less. Deserves far worse, no doubt.

Yeah, we're not entirely convinced he's gone for good. However, kick his ass a second time if needs be. Even if you managed to, even if you were to defeat him in a battle, I'm sure that a being like Gratz doesn't just disappear. He's not a mortal creature like the rest of us. I'm sure that part of him would live on and be reborn in some form.

Creatures like that don't tend to just be something you can defeat so easily. I'm sure it was humbling to have somebody who can actually stand up to him and bite back, perhaps. Well, next time, if there is a next time, we'll let you know. Let you get a few hits in.

I thank you for the offer, but I see no need for it now. I'm quite happy. I'm happy more to protect this place, protect this world now. Wonderful. And Morgana Sahar, yes. I think that's true for all of us. We've got a lot to protect here. Forge, what did I call the name for?

For what? Forge Sworn, she'll say like, yeah, Forge Sworn has been a great asset to us in all of this. And she gestures to Rhetoran when she says Forge Sworn, but she refers to Rhetoran. It's a cool name. It's a name that we give and she'll say it's like Stormwalker. that was it. Oop. Mmm. Well, it's tradition that those of us who are blessed with the primal gifts, in our clan it's always been Frostblessed. That's why I'm more getting Frostblessed. It's a name that I've carried down generations.

You have a Lois name. Yeah, Lois. Yeah. Sure. You got one now? Never really. It's more of a title than a name. Yeah. Sure. You got one now. Never really, yeah. It's more of a title than a name. Well, yeah.

But to us, we would refer to the one you call Aelor as Stormwalker. This one is Forsworn. That's very cool. The great beast, Stonemore, we believe it's still vulnerable to ice and cold and to lightning. Ice and cold. But that won't last. We will have some dragons to call in, but they won't be too effective.

Think of them more as if we feel the need to do a great burst of ice or lightning, we can call the dragons in to use their breath, but if they use it once, the creature will become resistant, not just to the dragon's breath, but to any form of ice or lightning that we use. So consider that a sort of desperate option if we need to deal a sudden burst of powerful magic or damage to the creature. That should be called in as a resort, but just keep in mind that from then on in that battle,

it will likely adapt and become resistant. It happens very quickly. Yes, it does, yeah. The immunity takes longer, but resistance is very quick. Likewise with our weapons, we'll need to be careful. We can only damage it. We'll only have a few opportunities to really damage it with weapons, with spells and things like that.

And every time we do it, it will become, it will adapt, it will change to it every time we do it. Have you found a way of approaching it that maybe would be beneficial to people on land? Yeah, I mean, we'll surprise it, we'll ambush it. Okay. And she'll look to Varnia. Varnia can tell you more about that perhaps another day,

but we have plans. We'll stake it, we'll, it's like any beast, really. Apart from this strange mutation, this adaptability that it seems to possess, it is like any other beast. We can trick it, we can lure it. It is drawn by prey. We can hide from it, its senses.

It has a very strong sense of smell. Its hearing is quite good, its vision is quite good, but they are all things that can be fooled. The wild elves of Alcerath have survived against deadly creatures in this area. We know how to hide ourselves, we know how to disguise our scents, how to lure beasts off track. So we'll ambush it. The main thing will be dealing with its armor, the plating that's grown across it. Varnir, do you want to talk about that? The old hunt?

I can talk about that. The creature has plating all over its body you need to we'll need to get on top of the creature or onto its body we have ways of doing that we have devices similar to this one's fancy axe that he's made uh devices that can dig into the armor and then we can pull ourselves up to it. But then with great force, we'll need to separate its plates, rip them off, break them off, do whatever we can to destroy the armor. That will expose the vulnerable parts of its body underneath. That gives us a limited window in which we can strike,

which we can do damage, try and harm the creature as best we can. The armor plating grows back rapidly, very quickly. And then the creature also, once we're on top of it, it will try and shake you off, get you off of it as quickly as possible. So it will be a case of rapid movements. One group engages, gets on top of it, tries to damage the plating,

whilst the others prepare to launch their attacks once it's available. We might need to cycle and rotate those groups around as we proceed. You want us to be part of that team? Absolutely, absolutely. I believe the others all have airships and sailing ships and cannons and all sorts of other weaponry to use.

We're doing this the old fashionedfashioned way, as I like. Proper hunters. So yes, your strength, I'm told, is quite impressive. Your magic and your skill at arms will be necessary. We certainly have plate-removing strength, and we have pain-inflicting abilities for after the fact. Yes, exactly. Speed? Well, that's where we'll come in.

We can help with certain elements of this. We can strike, but we are, I doubt we have the same strength and capabilities you do. But we can do things like help hide, launch the ambush. We can help get you on top of the beast to distract it, that sort of thing. It's likely only Rethra and Morgayne that will actually be able to help you

in any sort of physical act of damaging the creature. The rest of us will focus on keeping its attention or distracting it in the best way that we can. Stopping it from shaking us off. As best we can, aye. Is there a tactic to what kind of damage we should be focusing first? Should we cycle through like the dragons have been doing?

It's definitely recommendable, yes. Like I said, it will become, it takes a bit of time, but because of the armor plating, the creature's flesh underneath, we think it will take longer for it to adapt to it, but it will adapt to it. So, you know, things like, me and my hunters will be on hand with bows.

We can, you let us know when to strike, we'll fire a volley. We can probably do a good bit of damage, but multiple attacks like that in one brief moment, the creature will quickly adapt to it. It will probably become resistant to arrows from that point onwards. If you use a blade to slash and cut, it might quickly adapt to that as well. As I said, outright immunity takes time, but resistance becomes quite quick.

So cycling through what powers and abilities that you have is recommended. So strike hard and fast. Aye. Use different weapon types and use different magic that you can. Whatever we can do. Is there such a thing as striking too hard? Not really, no. The harder we strike the creature, the quicker it will become resistant to

that type of damage. If you were to unleash a blast of, I don't know, magical lightning, a really powerful blast of magical lightning akin to a dragon's breath for example, that will probably trigger the creature to react. The mutation process as well has effects. We've seen creatures that when they've attacked it, when the dragons attacked it, whenever it would mutate and adapt, it will almost harm things around it to give it a moment to regenerate or to change. It's regeneration as well. We don't exactly know how to stop it, but we do know that it is possible to outpace it. It cannot regenerate too much at once.

Hmm. Okay. And also defeating all three at the same time. Yeah, something apparently either you have wizards or enchantresses or some such that have devised a way of us dealing with that. Sending stones, right? We leave that in your hands. Yeah, we can communicate, it's just obviously we don't want to defeat ours too quickly or too slowly. It may be a case of if the others are slower to harm their beast,

we may need to just weather our attacks for a period of time. We can try and lure it away. We can try and flee into the forest, take cover, hide, that sort of thing. But you may also just be, you may just need to weather its attacks for a brief moment to allow the others to catch up.

All right. We can outfit you. We'll outfit you. We've got outfits and equipment prepared for you. Things like your bright clothing and things like this. You won't be able to wear that. Well, let's not be so hasty. No, you can't.

It will give us away. You need to disguise yourself. You would say you've already made. Well, it will give us away you need to disguise yourself you've already made well it's been yeah it's been made for you yeah what taylor do you use i don't understand what this word is uh who who constructed the um oh it would be one of our hunters one of the help makes fine they make fine camouflage cloaks fine camouflage cloaks camouflage goodyage. Goody. Yeah. Like greens, browns, that sort of... Depends. We're expecting to find stone more in the forests here on the southern side. Yeah, so probably greens and browns, oranges, that sort of thing.

Is that good for you? Well, not this season. Okay. But it's fine. Needs must. Yeah. Same with smells. You'll be needy, you'll have to make sure that you are what you eat, you cannot bathe.

Once we begin the hunt, it will be, you'll need to smell like the earth, we need to disguise our presence as best we can. Okay, now you're judging. No, I'm not. Unless you want to be bait. Well, how long is it going to take? Obviously, the not eating particular foods you were saying.

How long between us leaving to actually maybe encountering the monster? Depends. The beast moves at Stomor, moves around. We expect about three days. Three days. Three days. That's very funny, everyone. Good one. festival for volunteers and all that i don't understand i am not going to not bathe for three days you are or we will all die you have done it once before strong smells will give away if the creature smells something

unfamiliar it could it may not even you might it off, move it away from the ambush site, we'd lose our moment of surprise. It's just the whole world. I don't understand why you wouldn't do this. I don't know. Yeah, it's for the good of, you know. Eroics. Three days, it'll fly by.

Time's relative, century. Well, sorry. Morgaine's just looking at Ayla just like, how do you put up with this? Sorry. Morgaine's just looking at Ayla just like, how do you put up with this? Sorry. It's just the way it is. Down here in the lowlands where you have to survive. We've been pretty spoiled on airship.

You watched it once before when we first met. Yeah. Remember all the times- Still keeps me up at night. Fine, I'll find a way. This is probably our most difficult battle yet. There's- Taking all this into consideration.

There are three titan giant monsters, but luckily we're against just one of them. It's just making sure we coordinate properly. I'm sorry, all right, okay. Okay, okay, what is it? Scenario time. Okay. Right. Cone of cold, I like to do this.

I'm gonna get a whiff of my armpit. You're not, you're not. And it's gonna be on the other side of our stuff. You're not gonna get a whiff, okay, firstly, you're on the back of a giant monster. But someone else smells it, and then I'm like, oh my god, I'm so sorry. We're all gonna smell the same. You're all going to smell it. We're also gonna be on the back of a giant monster. But someone else smells it. And then I'm like, oh my god, I'm so sorry. We're all gonna smell the same.

Oh, you're all going to smell it. We're also gonna be on the back of a beast that also hasn't washed for many, many... Beasts understood. But the smell of the beast is gonna massively overpower the smell of three-day-old Lucius Armbit. I'm not convinced my brother washed and you were fine with him.

I mean, Vortensar was on the verge of complete destruction. So was Erois. I just need to be distracted, I guess. I think you'll be distracted. Yeah. You'll be distracted. Yeah. Sanna will come over and be like, Lucius,

before we head out, we'll make sure that you have, we can have the nice hot bath prepared for you here in the village. We can get all the nicest scents and aromas, get all the local luxurious things that we can muster for you. So you can at least have the next couple of days in pampered quality. That sounds wonderful. I think you said it. We can do that. That's fine.

He's still got a dusty handprint on the back. I'm sure Mama Brighttail won't mind. On the back of his cloak, he's still got a handprint. I just can't imagine being unclean. You're unclean right now. There's a... Have you seen this? What?

There's a thing on the back of your cloak. Very funny, Nella. Look. Very good. Look here. Oh, we're all... Oh, my... It's on my hands.

It's just black soot, yeah? Disgusting. You've had that there for quite a while. You know when Ayla tapped you on the back? I'm preparing you for what's ahead! It's just one handprint! It's fine. It wasn't so bad until you noticed. But yeah, I think it's a very good plan.

And I look forward to working with you all. Well, as you're chatting, you see out of the corner of your eye, you see Briar has got a bunch of discarded arrows and has made a ball around his side. And you see him. Whilst you've all been having this conversation, he's snuck away from Sentry

and he's gathered up this ball of arrows. And he looks at you because he sees that you've seen him. Whilst you've all been having this conversation, he's snuck away from Sentry and he's gathered up this ball of arrows. And he looks at you because he sees that you've seen him. Sentry? Esquill? You're... Stop. I what? Stop it. Come back.

Your thing, it's stolen some arrows. Briar? Briar. Briar. Stop him. When Sentry looks around, Briar is just stood next to like a little block, like a little hay bale.

And he's just like looking there, he's like empty handed. Why? He's got, there's no ball. Why? Briar, if you're gonna wander off, at least let me know where you're going. A little tap on the shoulder.

Briar walks over to you and he like puts his arms up. Come here. Where are the arrows? Didn't have a ball of arrows you've got to don't wander off without telling me where you're going it's scary it's a big world out there i'm going around i don't know uh yeah the ball of arrows is there now as soon as like he lets go of it is now just like a pile of arrows how'd these get here what keep control maybe he tidied it.

That's not tidy. They were in a thing. They were probably fired there by... Well, they were everywhere else, and now they're in a nice pile, so... She's making it easier for Pia. The last one had forks and knives and other sharp things and used them to throw at us

and our faces and our eyes and our body. Just every part of. Just remember, if we don't say anything, he'll keep talking. I'm just timing it. Waiting for literally anyone else to join this conversation.

They were just protecting what they thought was their home for a time being, I suppose. In a way, they were being defensive. Okay, well, Jorn, this isn't his home. He's a creature of habit. Ugh! It's fine. I'm gonna lose so much stuff on the ship, aren't I?

No! Let me just double check. Welcome to Smeek 2.0. Can it roll so much stuff that it rolls the airship into its ball? If it could get its ball big enough like a Katamari maybe then the Astoria they actually once they get to a certain size

they the ball explodes like and it creates a singularity yeah and that's it they die of satisfaction just in Quill's room

just fucking farts sticking out the walls anyway thank you Morgaine Poof! Fucking forks sticking out the walls. Anyway. Thank you, Morgaine, for the information about the Armament. Well, I was going to say, you don't need to wrap this up because it is time for a break. That's where we're going to end part one.

So thanks very much for joining us for part one. We'll see you in part two. See you in a bit. Bye. See you in a bit.