High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #39 - Disguising and Dealing (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

Lucius continues his investigations into the Elenasto Estate! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Thanks to our sponsor D&D Beyond! D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Create your FREE account now and start digitising your campaigns here: www.dndbeyond.com/ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Anyway, on to the episode. Quill has returned and the party continue their El Anasto investigations. Welcome back to Erois. Last time our adventurers traveled to the city of Gusthaven, the sky city of Gusthaven, home of one Lucius Virion Elowin Elanasto. What do you mean a year, Mark? I canasto. I mean a year mark. I can't. I can barely speak.

Lucius Wingard. Oh no, we're angering him. Home of Lucius Elanasto. Virion Elowin. The party having arrived via transportation provided by Piri and his planar transportation device, which had been fixed in the Midwife's Forge, with a new resurrected sentry, they fought off what appeared to be bandits or pirates of some form in a warehouse and were then promptly, not arrested, but taken into custody by the City Watch of Gusthaven.

by the city watch of Gusthaven. There, they met an elven mage called Elois, who has broken the news that the Elanasto family estate was destroyed in an explosion and the Elanasto family killed. Having revealed this information to Lucius, taking him before the Sky Prince of Gusthaven, the party then went on to the church, Lucius, taking him before the Sky Prince of Gusthaven. The party then went on to the church, the

Star Sorrow Cathedral, where they acquired the assistance to resurrect Quilek and Kolar. Having provided the materials from Lucius' new wealth, which has been bequeathed to him in a will,

the party acquired the platinum and aetherium rod necessary to channel the raised dead spell, and Quillock was brought back to the world of the living, but not before a brief conversation with his god Hesper, and a new boon being given to him. and a new boon being given to him. And we pick things up as Quill, you are seated still on the altar of the Star Sorrow Cathedral. Your friends around you with this new power and you can see out of both eyes to you, the world appears as if your vision has been fixed.

But for the rest of you, when you look at Quill, you cannot mistake that one of his eyes was previously damaged, and there's probably still a terrible scar down the outline of his face, but the eye itself is healed, but instead of an iris it has a swirling storm cloud

that occasionally crackles with lightning. Yeah, I've just taken off the blindfold as well. The eye patch, yeah. How does it look? Be honest. That's weird. Is it good? It's weird.

It's like, they're fascinating. Oh, yeah, it's like a storm, but in your eye. I can't really see it. It's probably better, because I know you don't have... Oh, there's a bit of lightning. Is there? Yeah. Oh, that's...

That's kind of cool. Wait a minute. Wait, sorry. Wait. Smeak's still here. What's a Smeak? Oh, Smeak's here. Quill! He knows me.

Yeah, we can... Well, you see... How long has it been? Century. Century is back. Big hug! We've got Century back. A quill, a big hug.

Ow! How did you... So, yeah. Big hug! You got sent right back! How did you- Ow! How did you- So, yeah, um... It's a very long story. Okay. And we're in...Gust Haven? Yeah.

I know that much. Yes. How long has it been since- Since Quill died? Since Quill died, how long has it been? I think I have it at about... 84 years. It's been about five to six days. Cool!

Five to six days? It's so good to see you. It's been five to six days. Is that it? You work quick. You managed to get both me and Sentry in such a short time. Yeah, but only because we have... Oh, God, there's so much.

And I have zero tech. We've been carrying your body for about five to six days We got sentry back. Smeak knows who you are because we've been carrying, you know, you with us for a bit Um, no, it's fine. You're not as heavy as sentry for the record for the record. Um, you're very light Yeah, sentry looks better The goblin is trying to climb up you and is like looking in your storm eye. BANGA BANGA BA! He's like pointing at Quill's eye.

How harmless. He like climbs down. Very harmless but he seems to have grown attached to anyone who has any form of lightning, stormy powers. He's on his knees and he's praising both you and Ayla. I can see why he's so- BANGA BANGA see why he's so- Gagabradlalim ufgandafgadalikbek. He's really- Ufgandalabekdek. He was a stowaway, we didn't want to bring him, but he's somehow here. Right, okay, well, a friend is a friend. Um, that's good.

There is also a Fyganassi stood there, awkwardly, at the back, not saying anything. Oh, this is Peri. Peri, this is quill. Hey bird. Yeah. Yeah, we are Kind of spent a long time Got two arms and I spent a long time trying to bring you back and you know the guys they saved me in Vox are That's where I landed and I think it was just after you um, you know did the thing You know you mean died Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Put your arm away when you're talking as Quill.

Damn it! Don't make this more difficult than it needs to be! You made it difficult for yourself. I didn't make it difficult. Lucius made it difficult by saying, oh, we're going to have a long conversation. No, I mean, you made it difficult for yourself in that you decided that you would put your arm

behind your back every time you were talking as Quill. So that was your thing. It's role-playing. We'll carry on with the role-playing then. Go. We'll jump right in. Where was I? Which character was I in?

Which headspace? Is this what it's like to be you? Yes. It sucks. It's hard. It sucks. When I have to have a conversation with my house. Hey, shit.

Sorry, guys guys That's alright Get yourself my turban We're having a real fucker day Nah that's okay mate It's good We've literally just started You've interrupted at the perfect time as well Yeah

No don't interrupt She's not here yet No she is It's fine No she is Perry and Quill are having a really nice long conversation with themselves Okay We've only just started

Okay so So you helped these guys bring me and I guess Sentry back as well? Yeah, yeah. I guess. I have this watch that I can use to teleport and yeah, we got out of Voxar, we brought you here, we had to

go through a load of stuff to get a load of materials and things and they put it in your chest and now you're back but your eye's fixed so that's cool um they're kind of from the rest of the group you see a elderly graying head maybe in the 60s to a 70s half elf woman dressed in priestly robes um bearing the symbol of siasca the holy symbol of siasca half half kind of circle with stars over it, basically. And she steps forward. I do hate to interrupt, but I felt that I should, well, greet you,

given what your friends have called me is true. My name is Lightseer Eris. Lightseer Eris Oh yeah I told her that you were like the chosen of Hesper You know all that Oh well I mean Indeed That's me

Just a chosen of Hesper Just doing what he tells me Normally being a chosen Is a little bit more involved than simply doing What he is told but i wondered if i could speak with you in private briefly i know that you have just been um reconnected with your friends but there is something which the gods have been speaking to their servants about that i should speak to you about okay um something you may not be aware of since your disappearance from the

earthly realm. Right, well that sounds important. I'd love to recap everyone, but God stuff. So it will not take too long. Bring him back and he immediately runs away. I'll be back. I'll be back as soon

as I can. I really want to find out what's been happening with everybody. Well, I'm curious to find out what the gods have to say, honestly, so that sounds important. I'll try and share everything I can. Step this way, please. Okay. She gestures off to a side room,

like a small side chapel in this great big cathedral. She leads you down through beautifully marbled stone corridors, stained glass windows depicting various imagery of all the gods into a smaller private chapel. There's a small altar at one end, a few pews, a small font, and she leads you inside.

The reason that I bring you to speak privately is because this information is it could cause great panic amongst the populace. Right. You say Hesper speaks with you. On your return, did you hear from him?

I did. He mentioned, well, I asked him where I was heading back to, and he also gave me this gift. I have an idea of what it does, but, but well we'll see when I put it to use. Well you all know more of that. He did not mention the threat. He did reiterate my mission to go back to the Valley of Storms to figure out the source of the storms there and I guess clear it. And that there'd be a weapon for me or well a weapon a an asset to our cause.

Your cause? Well I guess we'll take things one step at a time. What have you heard? So there is a glint of... She kind of reads more from you than perhaps you might want. Well, the gods are currently in council. Being a priestess of Siasca, we no longer speak with the Star Mother. We feel her presence in the cradle, but she does not speak to us anymore the other gods perhaps with revenants to their mother

still send us messages I spoke with a chosen of Sayana she sent me a message from Horizon the tyrant has returned to Eros She sent me a message from Horizon. The tyrant has returned to Erois. Hesper was the one who told the rest of the gods.

He said that he had witnessed one of his followers in Calus Starbane's presence. in Callus Starbane's presence. That he had emerged from one of the old archways that had been activated by some cultists or some such. Gosh. Poker face, poker face. I'm real glad I'm not there. I'm glad Nova's not there. This is a grave threat.

We've done our best to locate what information we can, but Hesper has been.....difficultly silent with many of his followers about details. I was wondering if you might know more, if he had said anything to you. How many chosen does each god have? I don't know. Okay.

Do you feel that he has said something to another? Possibly. He's guiding me on a path, and honestly, the messages I get from him are sometimes very cryptic. As yet, the first message was to resurrect Sentry, then to bring all my friends together to get to the Valley of Storms, and then maybe he'll contact me again afterwards with this information on how to proceed from there.

If the God of Wisdom and the God of Magic has instructed you to put an end to the storms and find this relic you mentioned, I imagine that doing so will be of use against the enemy, against Starbane. But, you should mention this to the Sky Prince.

I know that he wishes to put... The Sky Prince is very... He has a lot of good in his heart, but I know that he wishes to put... The Sky Prince is very... He has a lot of good in his heart, but I feel that some of his ideas are a little naive. He would like to see Eros united, and he begins that with the Sky Cities. He knows of the threat, and he is trying to make preparations for it.

He knows about Starmen? Yes. Most of the leaders of Eros have been informed, but sadly not all of them are as selfless as the Sky Prince. Many of them do not wish to believe it. Many of them are perhaps trying to see if they can face the storm alone. It is difficult trying to make them work together

and the gods are tricky some of them are being quiet on the issue some of them are trying to help Sayana I know is keen to try and do what she can to assist mortals

but since the gods have retreated to their halls of resplendence they have been harder to communicate with in time. If you hear anything from Hesper, please contact a more senior authority in any of the temples. The Sky Prince.

The Sky Prince is the leader here in Gusthaven, but there is also the Grand Dean of the Empyrean Archives. That's the temple of Hesper here. But there are also many other temples. If your travels take you somewhere, if you hear from Hesper, if you have any information on the forces of Calus,

please tell them. Yes. This is something we need to face all together. Yes, I understand. I will keep this information quiet. If this gets out to the public, this could cause panics of unprecedented degrees. Of course, of course.

Do you know of any... Well, the Court of Shadows or anything like that, Remnant, do you know how active, how powerful they are in Sky Cities? In Sky Cities? Here in Gusthaven, I have heard of stories from travellers, but we've never had them attack here. The Remnant have always been

a problem of the lowlands. Sky Piracy, if they had any working airships, they've certainly never attacked here. Okay. Okay. Well, I've certainly never attacked here. Okay. Well, I will do whatever I can. And I suppose, Sky Prince, place to go in case I hear anything.

Yes. Be respectful, obviously, but yes. I will send word that I have spoken with you and that you are a chosen of the Sky Lord. Okay. Would it be a good idea to try to meet up with the other chosen? If you can find them.

I'm afraid I have no idea of how to identify them. The only reason that I trusted you to be one is because, well, your friend wasn't lying. Whether she was wrong, whether she was mistaken about your heritage, I do not know. But that power in your eye, that is clearly a gift from the Lord of Magic. Okay. But I, at least, I was willing to go out on a little faith that your friend believed that

you were a Chosen. Well, thank you for believing then. For believing in me. It's fine. I'll let you go back to them now, but I just wish to let you... give you awareness of the situation. Thank you. I'll do whatever I can. Thank you. And then she'll open the door and you can lead you back to the others, and then part ways. So... You will seek well sequel return and you're currently stood in this main cathedral this long open beautiful plaza i'm just trying to stop smeek

from breaking anything yeah he's not really he doesn't really try and break anything but he's curious about everything he's handsy he's grabby he's grabby he's like constantly he's constantly trying to bite the wood on the pews. He's licking stuff. He's just sniffing around. Right, Coritin? So, Aayla. Hi. Goblin. Big hammer.

Bigger hammer. I don't remember it being this big. Oh, it's a bit different. It's pretty awesome. It's got lightning on it now and stuff. We haven't fully tested it, but it seems to still smack people in the head real good. Well, that's good. Sentry, bigger armor. Was that part of when you were brought back?

Yeah, the forge fully repaired me back in Murski. Is this armor what you were like back in Solwyn? Upgrade! Very cool. Thank you. Nova? I'm married now. Sorry? Psyche!

Four days, that's pretty quick. No, but Tiangong's bigger. I'll hold up Tiangong. You found more shots? Yeah. Yeah, remember in the same room with the bad... Oh, yeah, no, sorry. Things are a little bit hazy around that sort of time.

I understand. It was kind of a big rush, and then all of a sudden... Yeah, sorry I couldn't batter through a wall of force. It was a wall of force. It was a wall of force. It was really annoying actually. It was... a lot of... a lot of... a lot of mistakes were made by everyone, including me. Mostly me.

Mainly me. Mostly the person who killed me. Mostly that person I would say, yeah. But... Pretty much gonna pin it all on, actually, if I'm honest. Let's do that. We'll go with no faults on our end. 100% faults on their end.

They are dealt with, right? Yeah, we should talk about that, too. Maybe we should go somewhere a little bit better to talk about it. Yeah. Dealt with, but... But bad news. Bad news. You know, because it's us and there's never good news.

Right. Piri looks at us like, I'm as lost as you are. They won't tell me anything. Thank you. I mean, what do they want to tell you? Hold on. They just weren't paying attention. Typical Perry.

I don't listen to anything she says, especially. She talks a lot. She does talk a lot. But she says a lot of important things. Very quickly. Thank you, Quill. Very quickly. We went to the same school.

Really? Yep. Yep. Amazing. I don't remember it. He doesn't remember a lot from it, apparently. Okay, okay. One too many hits in the face. Okay, well. Well, thank you anyway. Lucius?

It's really good to see you again, Bertie. And he'll very quietly just walk up to you and give you a nice gentle hug. Thank you. When you're with fixed eyesight, I mean, Lucius looks like he's barely slept. His eyes are quite red, dark circles underneath his eyes. He doesn't look okay. Because your perception is back to normal.

Mm. Did, um... Mm. Did, uh... You know with Sentry we asked her questions? Did you do that with me? Yep. What sort of questions did you ask?

Did you ask my favorite color? Because I'm pretty sure I did. Did you ask my favorite color? I'm pretty sure I did. Did you ask his favorite color? You asked if you were best friends. Oh, he asked if you were best friends. You want to know what you said? I mean, I think I know what I said. You said, I guess so.

And it was real silly. Anyway, we did ask some important questions. Hence why you're still an Arakokra. I don't think it was that silly, but okay. It was a silly question. I thought it was very important to me. I thought it was fine. Things are great.

We should probably catch up on other things. We have nothing better to ask you anyway. I don't have anything to say. I feel very uncomfortable today. Okay. Okay. Shall we go somewhere else? I'm going to go. I feel very uncomfortable today. Okay. Okay. Well, we go and just somewhere else. Well, I'm going to go.

Oh. I'm going to get out of here. Before you go. Me? Yeah. Okay. Are you going back to Bortensar? Yeah, probably.

And I'm going to dig out my bag. Could you give this to my parents? I'm just going to hand over the letter. Sure. Where are they? You got an address? Yeah. Just give me the address.

I'll find it. If you go to the water quarter, there's a water quarter. Huh, that rhymes. Good old classic water quarter. Yeah. Right next to the lava plaza. But yeah. Well, yeah.

Yeah. That's my favorite place. I love the lava plaza. Yeah, yeah. It's quite central. But anyway, there's a food stall called the Voyager's Rest. Voyager's Rest. Yeah, my mom and my grandma run it. Sure.

Okay. Yeah, no problem. I'll send that back. Thank you. As long as I don't get into trouble with my guys, but I'm sure it'll be fine. They'll give you some food as well. Okay. Yeah, I love free food, so okay. He's like, well, it was great. I'm sorry about the bad stuff i'm happy about the good

stuff great to meet you but i hope i never find you again goodbye thank you very much i appreciate it flaming man just starts running away. Oh, man. Smeek weighs. Go, go, go! Okay, so Sky City, Gusthaven. Away from Voxar. Shall we... You said you wanted... Lucius, is there a good place

that we can go and catch Quill up on? You know, everything, ever. Is there more? Oh, there's a lot close, fine. I don't know any safe places. Hmm. I mean, walking through the city, you would have seen signposts and adverts for hotels. There are no taverns here.

There are hotels where you can rent rooms to sleep and stay. And then there are places called, cuisineries which are basically restaurants but they are normally government approved and citizens rather making their own food go to there and exchange rations to get a meal because food is heavily regulated in the sky cities because it has population control the only thing i can think of is to see where my nanny is. I can trust her and the place she would be would be safe

and quiet and secure. Safe and quiet and secure? Sounds good. This is kind of statement, right? Why don't we try and find her and I can catch Quill up on the way about

what's happened so that we're all on the same page. So Lucius, for your benefit there's lots of places Nanny No Fear could live and you don't necessarily know where. Did I get information last week about it?

I'm pretty sure he said... She lives in her own residence, yeah. She lives in her own residence. I remember telling you that. Did you ask for, like, her address or something from someone? It was the older dude. Eloise. Oh, Eloise.

You asked the old... Yeah, the mage. Eloise. The stave. Stave. Yeah, okay okay in that case he would have provided you an address

which is located in a district called the breeze which is a an urban like a living district it's like a domestic okay

um and it is something like flat four of and then there's like a building address should be able to figure it out

yeah you I mean you're not... You went out into the city. When you were younger, you know Gusthaven very well. You know the districts, you know the streets. You can pretty much anywhere that you say you want to go to, you can just go there, as long as you know where you're going.

So the only problem with Nannanofir is you never knew where she lived outside of the estate. But finding it in Gusthaven itself, you can lead everybody there. Gusthaven is a big place. So when you emerge out of the Noble District, because so far you've pretty much traveled between Noble District, the Palace, and then the Ethereum and refineries.

We kind of like glossed over a bit of travel last time. But just so you know, this is a huge city. It's like trying to get around London, like central London, not like London boroughs. How much time was passed between putting a quill in the cathedral, going out to get the thing and then coming back? Probably a couple of hours, like a good while. It's probably evening time. So you're probably looking at like

the sun has gone down um i mean it is night time you can see the cradle above um the whole city is illuminated by magical lights like lampposts which have burning lights like flames that just magically come on at night um and just illuminate the whole city but nothing really stops kind of like if you've ever visited places like London or New York. Even though it's dark, people are just going about business as normal. They walk up and down the street, people are out having late dinners. It's, you know, no real change has taken place. Quill was alive when Sentry died, but wasn't there for the resurrection. Yeah.

To get around the city, the quickest way to get about is to hire Pegasus. The Quill was alive when Sentry died, but wasn't there for the resurrection. Yeah. Yeah. I was figuring out the... To get around the city, the quickest way to get about is to hire Pegasi carriages, which are carriages with Ethereum, very minor Ethereum engines that levitate the carriage, and then Pegasi basically... Yes. That cuts down the travel. You can hail them from pretty much anywhere. You literally...

Lucius, you've taken these dozens of time, you literally stick an arm out and click your fingers and they normally come down and pick you up. I've never done the arm thing. You normally had somebody else do it for you. You've seen it done. You know how to call them down. And yeah, they'll take you pretty much anywhere in the city

and where you want to go depends on the price. They're not cheap. They are meant as basically like black cams in the only tourists and people that have a lot of money use them. They go on Monopoly on the business. Yeah. Otherwise, you're walking, so.

How much? Well. So, yeah, if you hail one down, if you want to go to the breeze, it will probably cost you from where you are 20 gold. Or we could walk. How long would it take to walk? Hours

It's a big city Let's call it Let's summon a pegasi It'll be worth it And you'll love it You will Smeek will Die for it

I'm totally on board for this Sounds like fun Sure So where are we going? Rhys. I will take Quillside while you discuss Pais' side. And just tell him.

I'll check Uber. Probably have some sort of fancy name for it, but no. I think, actually, do you know what would be a common thing, because it's mainly high elves up here? Probably a common thing to high elves get preferential treatment for a lot of stuff and they'll probably you probably conjure a dancing light or a light spell and that's like a cab like you kind of like it's how you signal one down that's it yeah but it's very like because it's only a cantrip but it's not high of focus so at this point yeah gust haven's like

but it's 70 high elves oh so it's also point... Yeah, Gusthaven's, like, 70% high elves. Oh, so it's also a refugee. Yeah, there are people that have come up to live here, but old habits die hard. Like, you know, it's more the case of... It's less kind of like, you know, people look down on other races, but high elves use magical lights that they can summon, like, you know, easily, and then the carriage riders are like, oh, someone needs to pick it up.

Whereas other people are trying to get their attention manually, and it just becomes like a thing. Yeah. So it's like a little minor little thing. There's no discrimination against refugees here. I was about to say, it was always one of the most welcoming Sky City. It's one of the most welcoming. It is the most welcoming Sky City.

But it's still predominantly high elves that live here. Mainly because it's so limited in how much space there is that if somebody new wants to move in, somebody has to leave. And Gusthaven won't kick people out unless they can't pay their taxes or unless they commit a crime.

So getting a property up here, generally the people that come up to live here rather than work up on the Sky Cities are very rich. Lucius, you wouldn't know... You would kind of have heard about this before, but what they've started doing, and you probably guys know this,

you'd probably know this, they've started building kind of... Not slums, but they've been building cheap residence on the bottom of Gusthaven, on the Sky Cities. Suspended from the... Suspended from the rocky island itself, and then they have to climb up ladders and things like that to get into the main street. But it's mega cheap because they're just building them and piling them up everywhere. Mainly halflings and humans from the lowlands live in there.

They're called the Chains. Wow. I don't know they exist. But that's not a Lucius thing. I think Nova probably, Nova, you probably would have read about it in like a newspaper or like a scholarly journal

talking about the wonders of Sky City technology, the world of tomorrow. Slum. If they can't. City, whole buildings dangled through the air. Yeah, they'll be more like low-income houses. Yeah. If they can't pay

eject just chip it off i don't like that yeah kind of cut the cords yeah yeah or you can just blow them up yeah uh so there you go there's some lore for you too soon how do we kill noah i mean it is a thing that lucius might have to make a decision on later is what to do with that land yeah because it is just a big old plot of land. Very valuable. Valuable, though. Build bombs. Yeah.

So, yeah, you can just hail a pegasi carriage. It will cost you 20 gold. Put your hand up like this, and then I'll do a light to make it more appealing. Okay. I think they like red. And, yeah, it takes a few minutes, and then you see kind of swooping through the this guy um a very beautiful gilded carriage on the bottom of it is a large sphere of metal that vibrates and hums and you can see kind of like pulses of magic and force projecting from it

and then attached by elegant chains and reins are two pegasi and then it just swoops down, hovers in place, and a young half-elf driver is like, Good evening, sir. Ride? Yes, please. Four or five of us. Two, three. Whoa, six of you there, so he points down towards Smeek,

who's like, Child ticket? Sure. Never seen a child like that, that one. He's not diseased, is it? No, absolutely not. He's had all his checks. Okay, all right.

Very well, yeah, hop in. Where are you heading off to? Breeze, please. Oh, 20 gold then, sir. And then it just takes off. 20 gold? Yes. It's probably like a good sort of like 20 minute ride.

So plenty of enough time that if you want to just say, I catch Quill up on all the things. But if you want to roleplay it, you can roleplay it. Up to you. What do you want to do, Quill catch Quill up on all the things. But if you want to roleplay it, you can roleplay it. Up to you. What do you want to do, Quill? I mean, everyone's already seen it. You're the birthday boy. We're just birthday boy. Yeah, it's been rebirth day. Birthday boy.

Kim got it. We'll just, yeah, recap. So Ayla basically brings you up to speed on all the things that have happened. All the things. All the things that Piri knew. So Hadar, Midwife's Forge, Lucius. Also Nova's conversation with Kallus. Was that shared?

No, Nova shared it with everyone. When we were waiting for Sentry to wake up. Hey, what about Spell? Did you tell me about Spell? Space Elf? You didn't tell anyone about that. No, at this point I think Aayla Bell is like it's a distant memory as well. Katie can't remember either.

Or what she thought about. I wrote it down really shakily and Mark needs to send me the notes. You didn't write down a spell? I did write it down but it's really fuzzy. I remember all. I was having a little freak out because I was literally like this the whole time. I remember all of it. Okay. But I didn't write it down. Yeah, no, I was just trying to remember out because I was literally like this the whole time I remember all of it but I didn't write it down

I was just trying to remember if you told anyone I didn't tell anyone because it's not my thing to write down but you write everything down if it's not relevant if Nova hasn't experienced it

then no I like that that's my preferred way of doing it it's just Kim remembers what happened because Kim was like fucking cool I didn't do anything

well so yeah so cool you are caught up that took longer than just catching me up in roleplay is what happened because Ken was like fucking cool. I didn't do anything, Dan. Well, so yeah, so cool, you are caught up as best you can. That took longer than just catching me up in roll.

Lil. Sure. Sure, okay. I'm up the front. Yeah, so there's a seat up the front so you can watch.

These carriages are quite large. They're used to transporting large parties it seems. Six is pretty filling it up to the brim. Smeaky's just set on the floor of the carriage in amongst like between your legs like a little dog or something or a child and he's just kind of sat like child but he does not

appear to like flying like he's like got his claws dug into the floor and he's just looking around unsure of what's really going on so So how is this flying? Is the carriage attached to a Pegasus? Carriage? A therium engine, which gives it, basically lifts the carriage and makes it weightless, and then the Pegasi pull it. Cool. Okay. Awesome. I think Sentry would be in the same boat. So no wheels.

It's just like a wheel-less Cinderella carriage with an engine on the bottom. Nice. Like a little orb, like a hoverball. And you are lifted through. I. Like a little orb. Like a hoverball. And you are lifted through. I think like Sentry there is a slight sort of like it's not used to having so much weight so it's like holding on to the slide.

Sparky. So yeah, Lucius is not doing well, the thing is I'll be saying it quietly because Lucius is up front. I'm trying not to... He thinks that it might be a conspiracy and that they are still alive somewhere. Okay.

And we're pretty sure that that's not the case, but he's quite convinced, so he's a bit... Is that why he doesn't look like he's slept in a few days? I don't think he has, but I think that he's clinging on to a little bit of hope that I don't think is there right now. And you don't believe that? I mean, everyone that we've spoken to so far pretty much seems like it's legit and they're gone. Okay.

But it might be that we think that someone caused it, someone set it up, but he seems to think they've gone into hiding. So Hesper gave me something that might help, but I'm not sure whether or not I should. With this eye, I can look into things that were, things that are where I'm not, and things that could happen. Does that make sense? Nope.

Right. I could ask a question and see the events. So you could ask what happened to Lucius's family. Potentially. That's very useful. As long as I ask the right question. But what if I see what Lucius doesn't want me to see? What if I see an accident? We don't know at this point what it is,

but Lucius still has some hope. I think that it would be best for us to try and manage expectations, but also we still don't know ourselves Nova as this conversation is happening as you are flying over Gusthaven

as a city I'm sticking my head out the window you feel the breeze, the wind rushing through your your cloud-like hair just bugs no bugs too high for bugs damn it uh feeling like breathing in this incredibly ox like rich ox you know oh no sorry thinned out oxygen but you know for some reason here in in gust haven it doesn't seem to affect you it feels like your lungs like it was normal air and then you feel not you feel something from tiangong not the presence of a shard it's different to that

you feel the presence of another eterna somewhere below big wide Looks like a trade district, maybe. Several large buildings, but... And then it's gone. Like, as the carriage is flying over, you just... And you almost hear Tiangong's... Multiple... When it speaks to you,

it's almost like multiple different voices of different genders and ages kind of combined into one. Friend. And you hear this in your mind. Cool i make a note of like where just like where we were when i heard that yeah i mean yeah look like looking down you can make a note some sort of trade district like or like place where you know you can see like rows of shops and things like that um there's one there's a couple of buildings in particular two larger looking buildings

one you make a perception check for me actually see how much let's see how much information you get out of this 18 18 okay that's pretty good so you see two in particularly large buildings one has the symbol of hespa the book with the iron and the wings, and appears to be a temple, but you can also see it's multiple storied, almost like a library, but it has the temple symbol on it.

We're good here. The other building you see is a very large, rich-looking store, like almost like a modern-day department department store like multiple leveled but you can see goods and workers inside and there is a sign outside which calls uh that calls it um the aether gora aether as in you know magical aether and then gora gora. Cool. And those are two buildings in particular that you just happen to know as you're flying over,

but you can't tell if it's coming from a particular source. Ooh, Debenhams. Kind of like fantasy Debenhams, yeah. Yeah, fantasy John Lewis. House of Fraser. House of, yeah, something. It'd be House of Fraser if it was on Gustaven right

yeah probably or John Lewis yeah it's definitely a John Lewis it's not it's not let's get that in gold not here

yeah yeah so that was a little something that you just pick up on thank you Smeek ekes his way over to Century

seeing that you are also terrified of flying and is now gripping onto your leg and looks up and is now gripping onto your leg and looks up and is like Yes! I'm glad he's making friends with everyone now

and not just doing that to me, honestly. It's a common interest, it seems. Of being terrified of flying. And then poor Lucius, you are just at the front looking down the lights of Gusthaven arrayed below you multiple dozens hundreds of lights like little stars

burning away but in your mind you can still just see that empty burnt out husk that was the estate just kind of flashes in your mind sweet thanks for putting that thought in my head I'm also trying to push that aside and just

focus on getting to nanny getting to nanny that's the saving grace in all of this yeah so it doesn't take long before you pull up in a district which is and you give the driver the specific address and what you find is you find yourself in a narrow street of four or five storied like spires they look like almost like wizard towers these kind of tall round spires with kind of your classic disney mickey mouse kind of like rooftops tiled blue roofs but they all seem to have been converted because you can see lots of people that appear to be workers or farmers coming in and out of them and there are windows like you can tell that there's floors because there's windows set into each of them and looking around you get the impression that they're like almost like little apartments or

flats and they're built into these rows and rows of all these different shaped and sized magical towers um and there is a strong breeze that kind of blows through and all the pennants flicker and things like that and looking down on the address, you find this one tower that appears to be the living address for... Do I have a full name here? I still panic

when I hear breeze. It's just a word. Not anymore. It sucks because that's what Nova's mum is called. Oh. Mum. Yeah, you find...

The address, it's written on the address, No Fear Tramadel. And then it gives an address. Blah, blah, blah, the breeze, flat four. Was this the right place? Yes. I believe so. I've never been to her place before

but that's what the stave said. Totally said last week. Shall we knock? Do you want to lead the way? Yes, I will. Otherwise it looks like there's strangers trespassing with a goblin. Yeah. I mean, you've

entered the bottom of the tower and you can see that the bottom section is open. There is a metal series of metal lock boxes on a lower ground floor with numbers 1, 2, 3, 4. With little letter boxes and they're like little metal little post boxes and then there is a winding staircase that leads up and there is a

small balcony uh with a door on each each floor it looks like a nice establishment right it looks comfortable it's not very rich um this looks like something yeah like this is like a small it's not run down nothing on gust haven is really run down except maybe the chains it's not as fancy as it could be it's this is not fancy this this was probably once used it was you know that when the the history of gust haven is that when the sundering happened they were suddenly lifted up into the air with few resources no idea what was going on. And they lost a lot of people. Like, you know, with a sudden change in their situation, a lot of people died of starvation before they could get food grown and things like that.

And so what they did is they ended up taking places like individuals, you know, Wizard Tower and basically being like, sorry, we need this to house people. They gutted it and then they built flats and things. Refurb. They refur it, and then they built flats and things into it. Refurb. They refurbed a lot of it. And this looks to be like a kind of stock bill for the general populace. Like, probably people like cleaners, cooks, artisans live here. So it's not fancy, but it's not run down.

Okay. And flat floor is at the very top. Does anybody know how to fly? Because that's a lot of steps. Nope, we go. I'm just going to start marching upstairs. Just lift one foot up and put it down, and lift the other foot up and put it down. Ayla is already making her way upstairs.

Smeek follows behind. Okay. Smeek does not seem bothered by the stairs. He's just like... Yeah, I'll start making my way up. Okay, so you will start making your way up. Ayla, you get to the top of the stairs first, and you see a very plain door, number four written on it.

I'm just going to wait. Okay, so you wait. Smeek waits, like Smeek goes to move up to the door. Smeek? What? Nope. Stands next to you, and then Lucius comes up behind Smeek. And I'll step forward and do a gentle knock.

Okay. It's open. Hello? Is anybody home? Like, there's nothing. I can see a short highway. You can see, Like, there's nothing. Nanny? I can see a short highway. You can see, like, a short hallway. Hmm.

I'm going to go in. Feel free to follow me in. Wait a minute. This doesn't seem... Would she normally just have the door open like that? Well, knowing her, it's Gustaven. It's fine. Call out her name from here. Uh, Nanny? It's Lucius. No response.

Would you like me to send Echo forward? Yes, yes, if you could. Thank you, Sentry. Okay. Wait, hold for a moment, and then from the chest, this bramble, this floating bramble with a great purple gem in its centre forms in the air. And then...

And then, yeah, it sends it forward. Do you want to look through Echo's eyes, or are you just saying to Echo, go in and look around? I'd like to look through Echo's eyes or are you just saying to echo go in and look around i like to look for echo's eyes okay so you watch a century's eyes like the purple light fades and your vision becomes echoes and he begins making his way through floating through the air you see him float through a very kind of short hallway there's a little house plant on a little kind of cabinet. Looks into a kitchen, sees a very bare, empty looking kitchen, a few pans, a few knives, maybe a loaf of bread on the side. A short, a small two-person table with some candles, unlit. Looks around, doesn't

see anything, floats out, goes into another room. This appears to be some sort of lounge. There's like a little table and chair, a bookcase, a little desk. And then there's another two doorways kind of leading off from that. Make a perception check with echo for me, please. Okay. Do I have echo stance?

Your creatures tab. Might be my folder. Let me see. I think we didn't put it over into the... Yes. That's all right. I think he's... I know that he has advantage,

and I'm pretty sure he has, like, a plus or a bonus, so I'm just going to roll for him now. Okay. I'll just get the folder anyway, just in case. So as he's looking around, Echo glances around the room, and the two other doors are shut, so he can't get through them.

He can't open doors. His little floating ball. But you do notice as he's looking around that on the little desk there is several pieces of like they're opened letters and a single crossbow bolt is kind of laying on the desk.

Like it's been placed on the desk or whatever. Can I cast, while this is happening, can I start casting Detect Magic? Sure. I would like to do that. You do it as a ritual? Yeah, I need ten minutes. Takes ten minutes.

I mean, ten minutes is definitely more than enough. Echo, like, just floats back, having not seen anything. Just... And while I say that, I'm just going to run in. Okay. So Lucius just runs in. Yep. I'm going to follow him.

Yeah, you just burst in. You're, like, looking down down the hallway you've not been in this place before you don't know anything but you kind of start looking around it's a bit more panicked this time do you so you head down so there's like a little short kind of like corridor with a little plant and then a little thing and there's two doors lounge okay so you step into the lounge um make a perception check for me yes let, be careful. We don't know what is in here. 18 plus 3, 21. 21.

So you burst in, you look around, you desperately glance around, and you see the desk with the papers and the crossbow bolt. You begin making your way over, and then that's when you just feel the point of something into your neck um something sharp and pointed like it's being pointed ayla you kind of burst in behind him and you see dressed in pretty common looking clothes um you see a mess of kind of long brown hair and a ponytail and a feminine hand holding a hand crossbow with it pointed at Lucius's neck.

And you hear Lucius, a feminine voice that you recognize, that is basically just, I don't know who you are, but Lucius Eleonasto died. So if this is some sort of trick to torment an old woman, you've made the wrong mistake here, my friend. Can I just come in and... Stop! It is Lucius.

You look over and you now see a second hand is pointed at you with a second hand crossbow. Jeez. Don't move, wild elf. I'll put my hammer down and say, look, we're not here to play tricks. We're here to find out what has happened. We're not here to play tricks. We're here to find out what has happened. I'd like to know why you're traveling around with some sort of shape change that looks like my deceased ward. I'll slowly turn my head to look at her.

It's Nanny No Fear, but she does not look how you remember her. She looks... She looks scary. Like, her bangs are kind of over her face. She looks like she could shoot you in the face and you wouldn't even blink. You can see that she wears no makeup. She's got, like, loose kind of clothing. But you can see that things like her sleeves

have been tied to her wrists so they don't flap around. Her trousers have been tied with, you know, ribbons or bands so that they kind of grip to her wrists so they don't flap around her trousers have been tied with you know ribbons or bands so that they kind of grip to her ankles so her boots that they don't catch on anything and she's just basically looking at you and there is a moment where you see that sternness flicker and her hand twitch almost like she's she's second-guessing herself. As it were, I'm rolling for flying nurette. You might want to change that.

Bring up old Lucius. The D&D Beyond thing. Yep, okay. Wait, are you doing something? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Details from wishes. Okay. Aqua Mamba. Aqua Mamba.

Please, Nanny, I need you right now. I know, you're some sort of trick. You're not him. You can't be. He died. Something from our past together. Only I can answer. You can see she's desperately conflicted about something.

Something in her is conflicting with the scenario. And is there something we can share from our past together? is conflicting with the scenario. Hmm. And... Is this something we can share from our past together? I mean, you might be able to... You can say something. Like, she just... She looks at you and she's like, please, I know that there are ways,

there are magical ways to read a mind, there are magical ways to alter memories or something like that. If you really are him, then you'd know what to tell me. Lucius, your father's briefcase. Yes, I have my father's briefcase, but that is not... Anyone could steal that.

I lost something that you gave me when I was a young boy, remember? The one thing that turned everything around for me and it allowed me to continue to pursue my sorcery, I took it on the airship with me when it crashed. It was a small, small toy. You see the crossbow begins to dip. No, no. And then her hand goes to completely drop, and you can see that, yeah, both of the crossbows go away as she drops, and she's just like, they told me you died.

How is this possible? How? After everything that's happened, I thought I'd lost everything. And then she just grabs you. I'll embrace with a slight bit of worry that I'm going to die. She drops the hand crossbows and you see none of you, well, Quill probably would have seen

creeping kind of everyone distracted by the scene. Smeek had crept his way along and was bringing up a club. Like, he was ready to attack this woman, and then he sees the crossbows and grabs them, and like, literally holds them. Holy shit. Smeek? He brings them to

Ayla. Thank you. Dear god, nobody gives this thing a crossbow! He's holding one of the hand crossbows like, this is mine now. Smeek, drop it. Thank you. Jesus. But yeah, she just like pulls you in tight and you can see kind of very, you hear very gentle sobs.

And then you do probably feel like on her belt a very sharp knife that she kind of adjusts and moves. Like a kitchen knife or something like that that she'd grabbed. So much has happened in such little time. You have no idea. You look different, Nanny. Of course. I thought that after what happened with your father and the family, what happened with you, I thought that I'd been lucky to escape.

I thought that they might come after me next. I've been waiting for them. Who is they? Who are you? Hi, I'm Ayla. I know that you may... This may very well be my boy, but I don't know who you are.

Let me introduce on their behalf. So give me back my crossbows. Takes them, puts them in like a sash or whatever. Am I the one I keep an eye out because this goblin really wants them? He's fine. He's harmless. Promise. You should be careful with those creatures. I've seen them kill a lot of people down in the lowlands before. They might act innocent, but they're killers.

You should be careful. They're not pets. She turns back to Lucius. This is how I turned out. Just so well-rounded. Anyway, Ayla, you've already met, and Smeek, this is Quill,

who recently returned to us. It's been a long time. A lot has happened She doesn't seem to She doesn't pick up on that You mean return from the dead She thinks that you meant like She means that he's gone from

That's my first strong point It doesn't occur to her He means like Oh he's gone back from the dead But yeah she just kind of like nods He's got something special about him That when we know we're in A secure place

Maybe we can reveal more If it's useful Right Quill? Yes. Yes. Well, possibly. It might work. Right.

You can trust Nanny with your life. Probably more so than me. I don't know about that. But you can certainly trust me. We were all passengers on the Sparrowblade with Lucius when it crashed. We've been through a lot together. Spino. Real ride for the past month. We've been through a lot together. Spino. Real ride for the past month.

And I owe you a lot. It's funny that everyone thinks that Lucius is dead, whereas these two have been dead really. No point in centering. This is Nova. Hi, my name is Nova. I've heard so much about you. You are a very energetic young one. And she kind of offers a hand.

And you can see that this woman is probably in her 40s, 50s. Like in her late 40s, early 50s. Because she's a half-elf, again, it doesn't show as much as other races. Like, with a human, she probably would look like a kind of human woman in her, like, late 30s. But there's just a couple of, like, signs that she's a bit older than maybe she appears. Like, graying hair. Like, more wrinkles than you'd maybe expect and stuff. She's certainly broadened my horizons in terms of knowledge and wisdom.

Oh, I see. You mean as in... And fire bears. Fire bears. All right. And this is Sentry, a guardian. Yeah, this, like, Nanny No Fear actually bows her head and is like, I am very grateful to the Star Mother that you had a guardian with you,

Ancient One. And she kind of just nods her head. Thank you, it's lovely to meet you. Indeed, you as well. Thank you all. Thank you all for making sure Lucius is safe. I can't imagine it has been easy travelling across the lowlands. I lived there for some time, so I know how dangerous they can be.

Lucius has learned a lot about lowland life. I lived there for some time so I know how dangerous they can be. Lucius has learned a lot about lowland life. I imagine so. It's a lot like you mentioned, Nanny, and a lot like I've experienced a lot. It's been a lot. A lot. I hope that it's prepared you for what's happened here.

I need you to tell me the truth if you have it. The truth? I have information, but I don't know about the truth. Even I still can't see the full picture yet. So you think there's something fishy about it all, like I do? Oh, Lucius, there's no doubt. This is a ploy.

Your father... They could be somewhere else. She just looks up. No, my boy, no. No, they were there. I saw that explosion. They were inside. There's some... You might have seen

it wrong. It could be something else. Lucius, I promise you. I watched the house explode. I'd gone out. I was meeting a friend of mine. We had explode. I'd gone out. I was meeting a friend of mine. We had dinner. I was coming back late, later than I expected to. I was walking down the avenue on the plaza,

and I just watched it go. I ran in to the fires, desperately trying to see if anybody was still alive, and there was nothing. There was no way they could have survived. They might not have been there. They were there when I left, Lucius. Your father said he had work in the workshop.

There's every chance that he could have left, you know. We've got to have some hope, right? No one knows for sure. I cannot argue that there is not a chance he left, but you do yourself no favours by believing in such false hopes. There is a chance, but you should not pin your heart on it, my boy. This... This was a plan to kill your father,

and of that I know. Your father never told me, but I overheard conversations between him and Edea. This was the Wind Barons, without a doubt. The Wind Barons? Wind Barons. They were once a petty band of Sky Pirates, but

in the last few years, they have grown extremely powerful. They have agents in many of the Sky Cities now. Why would they do that? Why would they... I don't know. Your father was working on something,

a new process for... I never understood your father and your sister's technical babble, but something to do with refining Ethereum, a new way to do it. And I know that they've got their fingers into the Ethereum industry here, but I never knew more than that. I was more of a bodyguard than a spy.

It's really obvious to the nanny that while you're talking that Lucius is glazing over and it looks like he's about to pass out. Yeah. She's like, hey, and she, like, slaps you, like, you need to be strong now, all right? I don't... You have to listen lucius this is i know this isn't easy but you're the only one that's left you don't understand what

danger this puts you in what does it matter if it does matter you're still here that's what matters your family line still exists because of you. You're still here. They thought that you were dead. They sold everyone. You were dead. But me of all. My sister had so much potential. My father had great things planned.

Your father loved you. And he knew how much potential was in you as well. Not in business. He didn't care about that. He wanted you to do what you wanted to do. Art, exploration, jousting, whatever it was you wanted. I know he was never kind in a traditional sense, but that's because he didn't understand you. He didn't know how to connect with you. Why do you think he asked me to look after you? It wasn't because he was worried. He wanted you to do things with your life. I thought it's because he didn't have time.

He didn't. He didn't pay someone else. He didn't have much time, but he wanted to provide a good life for you and Edea and your mother. Well, he knew that he couldn't trust the future of Ethereum and Gustaven to the likes of the Magronas or Etheron. They're just in it for the money. He actually cared about this city. Now that falls to you. I'm not ready. Nobody ever is.

I think I was ready to do the things that I've done in my life, to kill people, to survive. Of course not. Not to mention, this all seems so inconsequential. In comparison to what? In comparison to the world at large. I've seen things. We've all seen things. It's easy to overlook a few small problems

in the grand scheme of everything on Aroes, but that doesn't change that these things still matter. They always matter. Even in war, there are still people that need to paint or sing, or there are people that still need to make sure that trade happens. We can't all be great heroes or gods. Some people just need to do what they're meant to do. Some people just need to be a bodyguard for a young man. Or some people just get swept up and caught amongst other gods. Very much so. But that is...

That is the nature of life. But you are not safe here. None of you are if you're travelling with Lucius. If they learn that you're still alive, you pose a risk to what they've done. You might uncover things. It's not the first time we've been attacked. It won't be the last.

We've been embroiled in a lot of different problems and seem to have stumbled into one problem after the next. I'm afraid that there will only be more problems here. Nanny? Can I call you Nanny? Just no fear, please. OK, he calls you Nanny all the time. That's because I raised him as a nanny. Yeah, it just feels...

Did you just say that you've killed people? Yes, yes, it is, yes. Recently? I mean, not for many years, no. Oh, OK. Not for a long time, a few decades, perhaps. No, I just thought, would this get up? I mean, I know how to break into someone's house

and kill them in their sleep, if you're asking. I know how to... Cool. I know how to... Cool. I know how to shoot someone through the heart from a thousand feet. You didn't tell me this. Of course I didn't tell you this. Why do you think your father hired me in the first place? You said you were an adventurer, but I didn't know you.

No, I was an assassin, Lucius. Cool. I was an assassin. That's so cool. Dwarven lords of Goldthrone and the people in the various kingdoms of the lowlands. Yes, all the stories. Yes, well, many of those stories are true, but they had normally a more bloodthirsty ending. Why?

There's no point hiding from you now. Why are you on alert now? Because whoever killed Varian and the others They blew up the estate Thinking that everyone connected to the family would be there They didn't know that I'd be leaving that night And whoever it is has also somehow Managed to get the message out that lucius died and pretended to scry on him to confirm it which is obviously not true because we've been with lucius the whole time

and he didn't die well you almost died wait quite a few times the airship when we first met was the revenant there connected to my assassination attempt? The wind barons? I thought they were... Did we fall out of the sky because someone was trying to kill you? I thought they were going after Sentry. No, they were going after Valor. Valor.

I don't know who this Valor is, but from the sounds of things, when the news first arrived of the crash, it was a surprise. Nobody seemed to be i have a few eyes and ears to the ground and i got the impression that it was something of a shock to many the sparrow blade might have just kick-started a few series of events true um anyway we're gonna take a break yeah it's time for a break. Yeah. We're going to take that now. And then we'll be back. Let's do it. We're going to be back in five.

Shit. Yeah. Don't go anywhere. We'll see you in a bit. See you in five. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Hey, everyone. Thanks for listening to this episode. Remember to check out D&D Beyond with the links in the episode description. You can also support the podcast on our Patreon page, patreon.com slash highrollers, giving you early access to the podcast episodes and other snazzy little benefits. We'll see you on Thursday for part two of this episode when the team go on a shopping spree to disguise Lucius. We'll see you then. Thank you.