High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #5 - Soft Beds, Warm Plates (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 6, 2018

The party continue their journey down the Whitebreeze River towards, hopefully, civilisation! Huge thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond and Brilliant. D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Use the code HIGHROLLING on D&D Beyond (http://bit.ly/dndbeyondhighrollers) to get 25% off all digital items (excluding the Legendary Bundle)! Brilliant.org helps you master concepts through fun, guided problem solving. D&D has a rich history of puzzles and problems, so boost your brain power with Brilliant! The first 200 users to follow our link (http://bit.ly/highrollersarebrilliant) will get 20% off an annual subscription! Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. McChrispy fans, there's a new jaw-dropping McChrispy at McDonald's. It's called the Firecracker McChrispy. It has the crispy, juicy, tender chicken you love, topped with crispy jalapenos and a super tasty sweet and spicy sauce. You'll wish this spectacle of flavor never ended. Try the new Firecracker McCrispy today at participating McDonald's restaurants. Hello and welcome back to High Rollers,

a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Eros. Run by Dungeon Master Mark Sherlock-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Keeluk Adkala, the bard slash cleric. Hi, I'm Katie. I'm playing Ayla, a wild elf barbarian. Hi, I'm Rhiannon. I'm playing Sentry. I am a guardian paladin. And I'm Kim. I'm playing Nova, who is an air ganassi, and she is a hexblade warlock. Unfortunately, Chris couldn't make it into today's session. That means Lucius Virion Eluin Elenesto is being run by Mark for the duration of the episode.

A big thank you to our sponsors, D&D Beyond and Brilliant.org. So let's jump into the episode where we make our way into some form of civilization and begin a new chapter in the story of Erois. Welcome to High Rollers Dungeons & Dragons. A quick recap on what happened the last time we got together. You made your way through. You had been engaged in a battle in the Bitterwood, a cold valley of ice and mountains where your airship had crashed and trying to

survive you had basically made enemies with a group of wild elf exiles that were kind of living in the area trying to escape from a band of them you attempted to hide and had several of your possessions, namely Nova's sword that she seems extremely protective of, as well as Lucius's arcane focus, had been taken from you. And so a plan was made to raid their camp at night to try and steal the items back. The raid did not go as you had hoped initially. With alerting the guards, you were drawn into a pretty deadly battle where you were pushed to your limits their leader color a druid a druidic figure who'd shapeshifted into a bear bitterly fought you to avenge her fallen comrades and a battle enraged during the end of it valor the

teenage human girl that had escaped the airship with you had managed to sneak into a tent to retrieve um tiangong and the arcane foci but a strange uh purple explosion erupted from the tent or from the from the shelter um causing a mild distraction she emerged returned the items and you fought to the end uh defeating the jurid and saving your companions there was a brief moment where it looked like century might be dead, but she wasn't, thanks to her Solvang Shield protecting her. Definitely not a maths error on the Dungeon Master's behalf. Yeah.

But you managed to overcome the situation and you began the journey north to where you believe there to be civilization. You followed a river which Arvel, your dwarven companion companion referred to as the white breeze and began following that north towards a place called rose hall uh which arval said was a you know a town um to the southern end of a kingdom that he is part of you made your way there you camped overnight you really the travel went uh mostly uninterrupted except for on the second night

where ayla spotted uh a series of eyes watching you from the darkness and a gang of six goblins emerged to attack you uh almost uh knocking well knocking lucius unconscious and nearly injuring him but you managed to fight them all off. You complete the long rest. So I know you've all marked off a long rest on your sheets. Cool. And the morning comes too. And I believe that this marks the second chapter of the Eurowis campaign. So we're going to move on.

And this one is called Every Rose Has Its Thorns. Oh, wow. Nice. The first chapter was called Stormy Skies. Stormy Skies. That makes sense. Every rose has its thorns. You can consider this chapter two.

So if we were to bookmark it, we had a little section of your escape from the Bitterwood, and now we move on to a new chapter. Awesome. Stormy Skies for chapter one. Yes. I like it. And it begins with Paladorador himself the great sun that brings

light and warmth to erois rises to the east and casts long golden shadows amongst the hills and valleys of the green fields that stretch before you the river that you have been following the white breeze winds down and through the dales and you can see it begins to slowly lose some of its strength and size as little brooks begin to splinter off and it becomes more of a pleasant countryside river. The air begins to warm slightly, but the chill that signifies

the beginning of the long night still hangs in the air and you have a long road ahead of you, still two days' travel away from civilization. I'm guessing you would like to get started. Yeah. And you've picked up enough rations from the Wardolph's camp,

so everybody can mark off if you have your rations marked down. You lose one day of rations. So this is just after the fight with the goblin? Yes, you have thrown the bodies to the side, managed to... Lucius enters a trance, refusing to take any watch, wrapping himself up tight in a blanket, probably trying to get as close to sentry as possible for protection,

with whimperings of, Daddy! But so far the night, you are undisturbed. Can I have a proper look at the spear tip uh from color yeah so you look at basically it is a black iron spearhead quite large uh much larger than you would anticipate from a regular spear and it is strung up on leather thronging so kind of like almost like leather kind of cord um into a crude necklace. You hold it in your hands and, yeah, it feels weighty.

The blade is still incredibly sharp, despite being made from this kind of like very rough looking cheap black iron. Yeah, it's yeah, you look at it, examine it. There's no runes or anything on it. It just is a black iron spear tip. Were the weapons they were using black iron as well? No. They were mainly crude blades, looked like hunting knives,

and bows they had primarily. They looked like hunter's weapons, the kind of things that people who go out into the wilderness would use. Yeah, okay. Curious. Has anyone ever encountered such a thing before? Would we have encountered such a thing before? I don't think so.

I don't think I would have. If it's in your histories, then sure. If any of you would have encountered magic items. I guess the only thing is, like, Ayla, you know that Wyloft clans sometimes have relics. I mean, you carry the Howling Gale, so you know that it could be something like that. You have all heard legends of magic weapons and armor and things like that.

Those are not, you know, big surprises. You know, there is countless tales throughout all of Eros' history. Back during the war, there were weapons and armor which warriors rode into battle. There were legendary artifacts that could create food or water. You know, there was all these kind of like magic and things out there that people would use to supplement the war and to survive. So, magical relics are not something you are unaware of, but you have not perhaps encountered any yourselves.

Next question. Does anyone have a pearl or an owl feather? A what? An owl feather or pearl? Well, I know this thing. It's a spell. Tiangong taught it to me. I could probably identify this, but I need a pearl. An expensive one. I have Arakokran feathers.

Will they do? We could try. I've got plenty of those. We can probably find the feather, but the pearl... Unless Fancy Boy has one. Did you see any while you were find the feather but the pearl... unless fancy boy has one I don't know. Did you see any while you were at the bottom of the river? Oh no! I don't have anything like that! But your coat it's covered in gems and... Is that a pearl? That's a pearl right there! No no no this is all quite decorative it's

expensive but it is not that much. I'm just like lifting my fingers towards the jacket. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I said we. But you're minted! Yes, but this has to survive me until I can find Daddy. I'm happy to chip in, fair share. Fair enough. Well, until then, I can't really help, but yeah, if we manage to get a pearl, then I can... Do you believe it to be magic? Yeah, I think so. Look at it. It looks fairly magical. Oh, but you don't know? Do you believe it to be magic? Yeah, I think so. Look at it. It looks fairly magical. I mean... Oh, but you don't know.

No, but I can know if I conduct my experiment with, you know, and... Oh, I see. ...perform a ritual, but... We don't want to waste a hundred goldies. No, we want a pearl and an owl feather. It won't be a waste. The pearl... I can still use the pearl again and again and again.

Oh, I see. It's not a one-use thing. Oh, out of interest. So we don't know it's magical. use the pearl again and again and again. Oh I see. It's not a one use thing. Out of interest, so we don't know it's magical, have you tried asking your sword? You can talk to him, him, her, it. I still haven't quite decided. On what is it? Sometimes it sounds like a male voice, sometimes it sounds like a female voice, sometimes it's

many voices. Many voices? I understand me being in your world is very strange, but a talking weapon is unusual. Tiangong doesn't really talk. It's a feeling. It's words. It's a memory.

Do you have a feeling that this is magical? So on that, I'm going to hold the spear tip and just shut my eyes really hard. I'm just like... Well, this looks dangerous. Don't hurt yourself. Nova, Nova, Nova. Oh, my goodness.

You need to go to the toilet. Nova, you're going blue. Wait, no. Nova starts going like purple, like a little purple. I know you made the goblin's head explode, but I don't want to see yours explode like that because that was really messy. It would be interesting, though, wouldn't it? The idea that knowledge could make a wand's brain explode.

But no, Tiangong has nothing. Okay. Great. Well, fantastic experiment. Shall we continue? Sure. All right. You guys want to head off?

Yes, please. Okay, fantastic. So, nominate somebody to make a survival check. I believe Quill was the last one to do it, so I will ask somebody else to do it. Do you want me to do it? I mean, we were sort of working together, I think. Yeah, you can do that.

You can both make the checks. Ha, natural one. Okay. Good start. We fall over a log. 23. 23, okay. So, you...

Ayla, this're kind of... This kind of environment is weird. Like, there's no sea breeze. You're kind of, like, landlocked here, which you're not used to. You're kind of used to having the coast around. There's a stupid river that's too strong. Yeah. It's just terrible.

It's too loud. Are you still bitter about that? Don't talk to me about it. Okay. Are you still bitter about that? Don't talk to me about it. Okay. The other Arvel, Yusuf, Corrin, and Valar just kind of fall in behind.

Those four and Lucius kind of drift off a little bit and are following your lead. Smart can't play all of them. And yeah, with Quill's help, you manage to basically lock down the landscape. And you know that you're entering some pretty quite hilly plains like grassland um where there's a lot of dips and valleys and dales um but the river is pretty consistent and although it is beginning to lose some of its strength and it's beginning to kind of like filter off into little brooks and things like that majority of it is still a very large wide river and it still heads north so keeping that to your um right you just carry on going yeah it is late afternoon when you quill spot something off in the distance um perhaps like no more than

sort of maybe like 25 30 minutes walk away from the river like you kind of crest a large hill and you're looking down into a dale and you can see that far off to the east. Like, you kind of crest a large hill, and you're looking down into a dale, and you can see that far off to the east, west, sorry, you can see a large chasm. It's probably about three miles wide, and it has, like, the edges of it have been broken up into very rocky, kind of sharp hill lands,

whereas the rest of it is quite grass-covered hills, sloping, gentle kind of rises. This is very rocky and jagged. And this chasm just seems to plummet straight down. And it's about three miles wide. It's very large. And it just seems to creep in. And you can see, probably just poking up from quite deep into it,

but you can see the tops of buildings, what look like old, ruined town houses, just kind of poking up from somewhere deep in the chasm itself oh so there's buildings inside yeah it looks like it looks ruinous though it looks like

it's not lived in now it looks like it's crashed into this large chasm this chasm has kind of

swallowed something up and kind of like expanded around it would I know enough about Savona to know if this is a

new thing or an old thing you can give me a history check okay okay I would say if Quill points Enough about Savona to know if this is a new thing or an old thing? You can give me a history check. Okay. Okay. I would say... You don't see that yet.

If Quill points it out, sure. I think the only one that would really be able to make a history... Well, I think Nova and Sentry. I don't think Ayla would really be able to make a check on it. She knows something. It's more that you're not familiar with this area and things like that. So I've got 15. 15?

Okay, and I'm assuming you tell the others. Like, you point it out. I mean, yeah. You can see see this huge noteworthy enough yeah they probably would have missed it if they hadn't been scanning the horizon if you were just focused on your goal yeah because you're quite perceptive you kind of saw it and kind of like took another hill to get a better look at it and things like that um so if you guys want you can also make a history check uh nova and century um just to see if you might know anything a little bit about it seven eighteen okay so uh with your 15 quill you yeah this uh you're looking at this and you think this must be um and something that was caused by the sundering this kind of big uh catastrophic

event which kind of split the land apart drove the continents like buried certain cities you know dragged cities beneath the waves swallowed some up under mountains this kind of cataclysmic event um you think looking at this this is obviously you reckon that that is a pre-sundering town or city that was engulfed by a chasm nova based on your reading and your your research into the the sundering and also the the kind and also the places of Eros that existed before it, something called the Founding Age, you think, based on roughly

where you are, being this Savona, southern Savona, you vaguely remember something about a dwarven town called Dwalenden. Dwalenden. Sorry, Dwalenden. Could you spell that for me? D-W-A-L-I-N-D-E-N. Dwalenden.

Dwalenden. And yeah, you do remember there were large dwarven settlements in this area. The whole continent of Savona was once ruled by dwarves, effectively. And you think this might be... this is roughly the location of it. And you'd heard that it was one of the towns that was swallowed up during the Sundering. But you're not quite sure, like, of its local significance. Like, if people go to it, if there's anybody living in it, you don't know that much. You just, you're aware of this kind of old ruin and you suspect it might be this old town, this dwarven town.

Yeah. I think I would explain to Century, because I guess this would be the first time she's ever seen anything like that post-Thundering. Yeah. So I'll explain the whole, that's what happened to certain places. Yeah. You can even probably, you probably have like a very vague map, which just shows the continents kind of split apart.

You probably don't have it detailed with places but it's kind of a common thing that i guess a messenger would have like just the continent names yeah by the map i kind of showed you guys where it has like the continents and their names um and century yeah you're looking at this and eroes when you knew it was one large pangea this kind of large country um that really didn't have any borders because the whole people worked together. Everybody was working together in this utopia. And there were kingdoms, but nobody was ever enemies with each other.

There were occasionally border conflicts, but the gods kind of made sure that everybody worked together. To see this now, this map that Coral is showing you, everything has been pulled apart. Whole chunks of land have been lost, sunk beneath the waves. And looking at this map now you can see you vaguely would know where uh where solvin would have been and there is no land there it was open ocean it seems to just be complete sea okay um what you would know is that it was very far from where quill found you how you got from there to where you were found you don't remember

yeah but it is a distance it's a considerable distance like across the ocean okay um and quill's kind of explaining this but you see this map and yeah like your thoughts kind of like you know focus on different areas and things like that yeah um cool cool, cool. So I guess I could ask you, like, would you have known what this could have been when... I explained to you that this area over here, this is where Solvin was. This is where my home is. There's nothing.

It's gone. Where Century's pointing is near a place called the Starfall Archipelago, which was near the centre of Eros when it was one continent. And the nearest landscape to that is a series of islands called the Starfall Archipelago. So what was Solvin back then? Was it in the very centre of what was Eros? It was nearby.

It was very close to the centre. It wasn't the capital of the continent,? It was nearby. It was very close to the centre. It wasn't the capital of the whole continent, but it was nearby. It was a very large town and was responsible for a lot of the technological advances of Eros. So for an entire city like that to disappear? Wait, you come from Solvin? That's correct, yeah. I've always wanted to go. I want to go back. Let's go. Apparently it's the capital of technological advances. Well, you would know.

You are one. We did a great deal of trade in Solvin. We were well known for transporting technological goods around Arois, so... Think of all the things we could find there. Nova, I think you might have missed a little bit of that. It's gone, though. It's not there. No, it's not there on the surface, but it's got to go somewhere, right? Underwater?

Yeah! It's sunken? Well, that one is in a massive crater, which, by the way, sucks for them. But this one... Water? There's a lot of water around there. massive crater, which, by the way, sucks for them. But this one, yum, water. There's a lot of water around there. No one's ever explored. We could go explore. I can hold my breath. For how long? A very

long time. More than, say, two or three hours? Mm-hmm. Really? Mm-hmm. Really? Eric and I say hi. Yeah, I can't do that. No, that's not a thing anyone else can do. That's a solo trip, my friend. I think I can hold my breath for perhaps one minute. Try it.

Do you want a competition? I want him to start going a bit purple. After a minute he does. Notice holding her breath as well and just nodding her head. You're very good. And starts breathing happily.

Yusuf kind of looks quite solemnly at Sentry And is kind of watching to see your reactions To things and things like that Valor is like looking over the map And she's also like Valor comes up to Quill and she's like So what do you think is in the chasm? In the chasm? I don't actually know

Does anyone know? Of course she knows. Yeah, I'm just sticking my arm up in the air. You know, kind of like... No, but add to the... Go ahead, please. So judging on where we are, I think I saw this in a book once,

and I think that is the old dwarven town of Dwalenden. Dwalenden? Hey, Avil's just as like... Yep, that's pretty much what it is. It's an old dwarven town from before the Sundering. And what was it? What did they specialize in? Oh, well, I mean, it's ancient history for me.

I mean, this is long before my ancestors were really around. But from what we're told, I mean, anybody who grows up in Savonia, you learn all about these ruins all over the place. Well, Dwalenden, it was a trading town. That's what the researchers in the Sky Cities discovered. They used to collect lumber from the Bitterwood, before it was called the Bitterwood. And they also used to find treasures out in the mountains, gold, gemstones, that sort of thing. It was a pretty wealthy town.

That means it's attracted a lot of treasure hunters in its time some of them come back say they find a few things here and there a lot of them don't ever come back don't know what happens to them so most locals tend to avoid it tends to be dangerous place but sure is I reckon if you can get down there and deal with whatever's down there you'd be a wealthy person I've never really fancied funding an expedition myself, but... Whatever's down there? What could be down there? Anything. Old priests, sundering treasures, magical relics, lost lore information. Who knows?

Nova's getting more and more excited with everything that he just said there. Could be caches of gold, idols, gemstones. Maybe even early magical relics, weapons, armor. Maybe a single pearl. Yes, exactly, Ayla. There could be a pearl. Exactly. And think of the lore we could find.

Sure. She's just oblivious to Ayla's sarcasm just like she's too excited century do you know anything about dwelling then were they around when you were around would i've known uh give me a history check with advantage this time okay uh i've got 17 okay roll again just see if you get any higher with advantage. So for the advantage, so 17. And then what's your history? History is minus one. So you do know a little bit. So, I mean, you were a soldier in the latter years of the war

against Calistarbane and the Starbane forces. However, you were primarily focused on Solvin and the royal family, specifically the royal heiress, the princess. So you didn't really get to visit places like that. What you do remember is this country, you've not really heard the name Suvona before, but this Dvalinden was part of a place called Goldenfields, which was kind of the breadbasket of Eros.

Like the land was magically fertile and a lot of Eros' food was grown here, like, you know, almost to feed armies and armies and armies. And yeah, you remember hearing of a place called Dwalanden. It was very rich. It used to farm a lot of materials, trade them all across Eros along with the food. It would basically, along with the harvests from golden fields, it would send up trade wagons full of wood, metals, gemstones, which were often used for magical components. And most of the guardians have a gemstone for their matrix of will.

So a lot of guardians were made using gemstones from that. And you remember that guardians were sent to Dwallon Den to work or to protect it. A lot of the guardians who fought were fighting to protect the golden fields. Cool. So yeah. So there could be guardians, don't there? Potentially. Potentially, there could be, yeah.

I mean, I don't know much about guardians. You'll know more than me, but... There's a high chance they could be feral. Feral? What does this mean? Feral? So guardians like myself, we have a limited lifespan. So myself, I am 13 years old, but the average lifespan of a guardian is about 15 years. After that time, the matrix inside us that keeps us going breaks down

and can cause guardians to like i said go feral they can become unpredictable uh violent and some well some of them just shut down altogether so there's a chance that we could face more altercations and after the last time it's there's no possible way for this energy to be replenished for you? Well, not as far as I know, given what Quill's just shown me. A lot of the technology that I used to know could be anywhere around the kingdom. It could be under the sea. So what you're saying is we need to find that or you might kill us all at some point in the near future. I wouldn't like to suggest it, but I won't say that for certain.

This is very sad to hear, Century. I am sorry that you have such limited time. So what's the earliest that you've known a guardian to start displaying signs of this? 15 years There is a very hard 15 years and then the core begins to degrade. And what's the oldest you've ever known a guardian to live for?

I have, well during my time there were guardians around Solvin that were maybe hundreds of years old because they were able to replenish oh I see so we just need to replenish you've heard of them

but generally like the ones you knew they were all being replenished because you had the technology to heal yourself but that technology is like we said under the sea in the middle of the Starfall Archipelago. Sounds like Nova can hold her breath for a really long time, though.

Project. Well, at some point in the next two years, if you would, hold your breath, dive down into the middle of the ocean. Let's go now. Now? I'll do it now. We need to... I do have one other thing to do.

We have plenty of... But we could have a week ago now right now how the starfall archipelago is pretty far from here nova i mean you need to concern yourselves with getting to gold throne first i mean that's weeks away baby steps is what we're saying we have you have time long-term plan my mom always said if you want to achieve something you just got to start by putting one foot forward in front of the other. And that's a reasonably good question. I mean, do y'all want to investigate this chasm or are we heading straight on? I mean, we're still a few days out of Rose Hall, but I suppose we can make camp here if y'all want to go spelunking.

It's a little bit out of the way. Oh, I don't think that I should go anywhere near that chasm. There's gold. Oh, I've got plenty of gold. Daddy can give me more. But it looks awfully dark and scary. Treasure. Also, we have no idea what's down there. It's fine.

Yes, but what about climbing down there? I can... These hands are not for climbing. My handsies. They're so soft. I can lift and push you down really quickly so you don't have to climb. Do you mean falling? With style.

No, no, no, I don't think that that's a very good idea. I suppose I can come with you if you desperately need me. I don't think spelunking is the right idea. But we could find guardian stuff down there. We could. Do we see the direction that we're going? Do we see the other town that we're aiming for? No, you're still like a day and a half away.

Maybe you could tell you what you probably could see is if you're at the top of like the tallest hill you can find and you kind of squint, you can see that the the white breeze the river does seem to reach a very large looking lake and on the outskirts of that you can maybe start to see like small like settlements and things like that but it's about a day and a halfway so i'm not even sure you would be able to see that far i mean i see it just fine it's like i'm there bird yeah bird vision yeah i would say Quill probably is the only one who can see that.

But you estimate you're about a day and a half's travel away. Yeah. I mean, okay. How about this for a compromise? I mark it on the map. We'll keep it in consideration if, for some reason, we want to become bounty hunters. No, bounty hunters is the wrong word.

No, that's a bad word. That's a bad one. Treasure hunters. If we want to become treasure hunters one day, if, if, then... Question. Okay. Arvil, are there people in the settlement that might be looking for someone for money to go to the chasm and do any jobs

within it. Sure. I'm just trying to get the best value here. Double money. Quite honestly, if I didn't have my priorities changed from that crash, I'd be one of those people. I'd be more than happy to hire a bunch of other people to

go into a dangerous place and get me a percentage of treasure on my behalf. But I'm sure you'll be able to find somebody. I mean, I don't know the people of Rose Hall particularly well. I've heard about it. I've done a few bits of light trading there in my time, but I'm almost certain that there will be some entrepreneurial business fellow, business woman out there who'd be interested in hiring a bunch of free, uh, freelancing treasure hunters to go digging up in some hole.

I mean most people around here would have heard of Dwalendan and, well, if they can get treasures out of there they'll be pleased as punch. In that case we could also find out more information about what we would potentially be up against. I don't want to go into it blind. Not one bit. You have really, really good eyesight though. Oh no, I mean I say blind. I'll see it just fine, but I want to know what it is before I see it. Before it sees me and eats me. Always be prepared. You sound just like daddy. Except I'm here. What?

Oh yeah. I don't understand. Daddy's not here. Yeah, but he will be soon. Oh, well, yeah. How many days are left on his counter? I reset it, but then... It was like 5.9. But then he got attacked by the goblin, and technically, you know, see, that's why you don't reset the parameters

because he got knocked down again. But you would have died if we weren't here. Well, yes, but isn't that part of the calculation? There's too many variables, to be honest, at this point. True. Anyway, shall we head to the town? To the town. A day and a half of travel.

Fine. Agreed. Okay. So you guys carry on. You follow the white breeze and you continue travelling. The rest of the day goes by. follow the white breeze and you continue traveling the rest of the day goes by you might occasionally see very small farms with things like sheep or cattle um just on the outskirts but there's certainly they're like one room kind of like little kind of like more like shepherds and

things like that rather than actual farms um you continue traveling and you settle down uh they're kind of like in a base of a small like valley to rest for the evening. My first question is, who is on watch? Who's taking the watch? I can take first. First, second? We need a third one.

Oh, I guess, yeah, I could take the third. Okay, perfect. All right, so first watch, second watch and third watch. I'd like you all to make perception checks for me, please. Please. Whilst I roll some percentile dice. Natural 20. Woo!

Woo! Nice. First one. What does that mean? First one. Seven. No, I don't think so. But I got a natural one earlier, so I feel like I've redeemed myself.

Best watch ever. Okay, so your perception check was? Seven. Seven. Uh-oh. 20. Natural 20. Natural 20.

20. 23. 23. Three. Seven. Uh-oh. Natural 20. Natural 20. 20. 23. Three. 23. Yeah, nice. With a natural 20, you get the same as the Birdman. What did you roll out of instance? I rolled an 18.

That's all right. That's still pretty good. Okay, so during the night, you settle down, and a few things happen. Century, while you take the first watch, you eventually, nothing happens, you switch with Ayla, and you enter your kind of low-powered state to replenish your energy and to kind of recharge for the day. Guardians don't dream, but you do have the ability to cycle through old memories. And sometimes it happens without any intention to do so. Tonight, when you take a rest and you power down, your memory flickers back.

It flickers back to a time in Solvin. You see the tall walls of the city before you, the pennants fluttering in the wind. People come and go trading and you can see many guardians helping them carry goods or patrolling the walls alongside their fellow soldiers, their humanized soldiers or dwarven soldiers. And people seem in good spirits. You think it might be a celebration day. And you find yourself in the royal chambers, sat along with several other humans and dwarves, all wearing the same royal guard armor that you yourself currently wear. And a series on a long table, shields and weapons have been laid out, and each shield bears

the symbol of the Solvin royal family. A large man, and his face is somewhat obscured for some reason, almost like a hazy memory that you can't quite remember his details. But he marches before you all, and you remember him going down the line.

He shakes each soldier's hand, says a few brief words, and then hands them a shield and they take a preferred weapon of their choice and they are led out onto the marching field. You are at the end of the line and when he approaches you, you see a beaming smile and

a kind of dark eyes and dark hair, but a name doesn't quite come to your memory. He stands proud. Sentry, you have been gifted to the royal family as one of the greatest guardians that has ever been produced. It is with a great honor that we accept you into our ranks. You are to be given a special assignment. Guardians, you do not have the same failings

as us flesh and blood guards. You rarely need sleep, you don't need to eat or drink, but you can do so if you wish. It makes you perfect for testing for poisons. You are relentless. You pursue things with a great ambition, and that I admire greatly. We would like you to protect our greatest asset, the heiress herself, the princess. She will be a fine leader one day, but we must ensure that in these times of war

that she is well protected. We would like you to be her personal guardian. You will care for her, you will care for her needs, protect her if you must. Do you accept this? Yeah. Then please stand forward, and I would like you to recite the oath of solving

before us all today. And he holds the shield ready to provide it to you. Okay. Ooh! Whoa! Oaf! Defend the joy, shine bright, protect the pure in the name of light.

Night will fade in the glow of day. My axe and shield will never sway. He hands you the shield and you remember holding it for the first time and there is a pulse in your core this kind of feeling that something important has happened and

yeah, that's it. So you remember that. That's your oath of the ancients now, so that is fully yours. Yes! Please! Nova, whilst you are sleeping, you hear fragments of a voice. It flits between genders, and sometimes it is many voices, sometimes it is just a feeling

tiangong pulses in your mind you feel it as a vibration through your body you see an image a memory of your own purple light exploding out of a shelter in the woods as a young girl emerges with a sword in hand there is a strange sensation from Tiangong fear he's afraid of something of what you don't know but it also feels stronger tells you in a strange unspoken manner that there is more power to it to be unlocked and as you begin to think on this strange thoughts alien thoughts into your mind there is magical incantations that you know that you didn't know before spells new spells that you can use and all that Tiangong seems to desire

in return is protection. You begin to feel these pulse through your mind. Ayla, you wake up. Sentry swaps places with you for the guard and you begin sitting down. It's been a long time since there's been a storm. It doesn't seem to be one

coming for at least some time and there is almost a peace to that whilst the storm brings comfort you know that often either good or bad things follow it and perhaps a little bit of stability is necessary right now the dark night you can see the stars all above, bright and gleaming, kind of a silk blanket over the world of night and light sparkling away. And the glowing rainbow-coloured cradle just casting dim light down below. It's when you begin to hear something out in the dales, kind of shuffling, howling, but not like a wolf, more like a baying of a hound. You'd heard these sounds before, hunting dogs you've heard.

This sounds otherworldly, eerie almost. And then a horrid smell begins to waft up from a nearby crest of the veil, a smell of rot and death and decay. What would you like to do? Just like kind of nudge these guys a little bit, like quietly though.

Okay. So that they wake up. Are you just waking up Quill and Sentry? So Sentry, as you kind of have this memory, you feel yourself being Joss and you suddenly become aware that Aayla is trying to wake you up. You wake up and see it. Anybody else? You've got one other.

You can probably wake up one other person at the same time. You can get Quill or Nova up, or Lucius if you really want. Nova. Okay, so Nova, again, you kind of feel this kind of sensation of being protected, and then you feel yourself being jostled awake. Quill, you're sleeping soundly. Can I look and see if I see anything? Sure, give me a perception check for now.

If you're not moving from where you are. Natural one. You're like, you have the, you know it's like, you can't even, you're not even sure the direction because you're kind of in the basin of this valley, but from somewhere you've got this horrid smell and you heard this baying you heard this hound like bay and it sounded like maybe there was more than one but but you're not quite sure where from you're not sure where to look the darkness you're even with your low light vision you can't really see any shapes or anything like that um nova and century when you wake up yeah like you're just

looking at ala you haven't seen or heard anything yet so you don't know what there is out there the rest of the others are all sleeping oh what is that smell do you do you hear that it's like a like a dog you can make perception checks yep 19 okay six six no you're like what like you're still thinking of the memories and he's like you're like oh new magic yeah uh century yeah you strain you don't hear a baying but up on the right hand side like up this kind of like maybe like 30 40 feet embankment up onto this part of this valley, you hear paws scrabbling through dirt and you hear just heavy breathing like and you can hear it up on the left side, perhaps no more than 40, 50 feet away. And then you kind of

begin to hear something turning in the direction of where your camp is, almost like sniffing the air. You can hear it shuffling around. We might be in trouble. That's birdie. Quill. Is it time for my watch? Lucius.

It's for the best that he stays that way. Sure. We should wake him up, shouldn't we? I'll wake him up, but I'll put my hand over his mouth before I do it. Because I know that he's probably going to ruin everything. So you put his hand over his mouth and you wake him up. Daddy! And he looks up at you.

Shh! It's not all goblins, is it? Maybe. Does it sound like an animal? Yes. I think I can speak with them now Firebear went really well No, that was an illusion

But I feel different I think if I try, I can maybe speak with them I know what it is, but I'm not going to No, I know you won't I was like, I'm going to put this here. Okay, you can see that. That's interesting. So yeah.

That was really pleasant. So as you're kind of whispering, you see two shapes loom at the top of this valley looking down upon your little band of awoken heroes. They are hounds. They appear to be made, they're black furred, but they're covered in sores and pustules. And a thick, green, almost glowing ichor kind of drools out of their large mouths. They look like mastiffs or like, um, rottweilers, but to an enormous size, like large beasts. Their paws are crawling with like worms

and bugs seem to be inside their skin and these dead black eyes just kind of look down at the four of you and then just a, oh, that's going to be initiative, please, everybody. Probably don't have 10 minutes, do I? I certainly don't have 10 minutes. No.

Oh, no. I probably don't have ten minutes, do I? You certainly don't have ten minutes. Oh, no. I'm rolling terribly tonight. Nat one. That's a two. I'm on five. Aayla. Woo! Will.

Nova. I need to look up my aura stuff. The dog's really ever not as fluffy. I don't think you want to talk to these ones dog two for some reason and then bloody Lucius

bloody Lucius right Aayla five Quill nine Nova 21 Sentry two oh I think they are Right, Ayla. Five. Quill. Nine. Nova. 21. Century.

Two. Oh. I think that got away. The others aren't awake yet, but the sound of fighting will probably wake them up. I will roll initiative checks. Who's fighting? Who are you fighting?

Who are you fighting? I thought we were going to talk to them. If I have ten minutes, then yeah. I mean, I'll be dead in two. They're just pussy wolves. We can split one of them each. Wow, Arvil there with a whopping six. Still quicker than Ayla, though.

Nova, you see these two dogs at the top of the thing, and they look down on you with these dead eyes. You can see their bodies just crawling with death and decay. How far away are they? They are about 50 feet, I will say. Them dogs are kept in smelly. I definitely don't have time to do a little speak with animals, do I? Not as a ritual, no.

That's ten minutes. You can try! Can I just have ten minutes, please? Wait! What would you like to do? Can I... So I'm just going to be like, that's probably bad, isn't it? Really bad, and I would like to Eldritch Blast their little faces.

Okay, were you going to go for the one on the left or the one on the right? Really bad and I would like to Eldritch Blast their little faces. Okay. Were you going to go for the one on the left or the one on the right? Left. Okay. Good choice. 24? 24 hits. Yeah, the Eldritch Blast, this purple beam shoots out of your hand as you hold onto your Tiangong, colliding with the dog's kind of muscular, dark-furred form.

Four. Four points. It hits it, but the dog just doesn't even flinch. It just kind of looks down at you with these just dead eyes. And it charges towards you. As I see it kind of look at me, I'm going to be like, oh, that's probably bad. That's really bad.

Would you like to move for bonus action? Can I? Before I take my turn? Do I want to do a little Hexblade Curse? If you did a Hexblade Curse first. I would have had to have done a Hexblade Curse first, wouldn't I? You don't have to, but you just won't gain the benefits of it. You'll gain the benefits on it from now on.

Yeah, I'll place Hexblade Curse on it. And can I move away? Okay, so you're going to move away from it. Yeah. Okay, so it will still charge towards you, but it's going to have to take its action to dash up to you. So it doesn't get the tap, but it's right in your face. And as it gets you, it stinks

awfully. It smells like rotten death. It just smells like decaying flesh, like unearthed grave. It smells horrid. Does it smell like durian? Yes. The other one is going to rush up towards Ayla, and it actually crosses the 50 feet in an instant.

It just bounds toward her. If Nova hadn't moved away it would have gotten to Nova as well. It just bounds up to Ayla and begins biting with this Icarus green disease ridden goo all around its mouth. Ayla, does

a 22 hit you? Does it? Does it mark? However, a 7 will not hit you, I'm guessing. No. Okay, so the first attack hits. You're going to take eight points of piercing damage. I need you to make a constitution saving throw, please. Oh, no.

Not this. Natural one. Okay, you are currently poisoned. As this creature bites in, you feel something, your blood, like as it bites in, it actually gets into your blood, and this green ichor smears across the wound, and you suddenly feel cold, shivery, like a fever has taken you in on almost an instant.

So while you are poisoned, you have disadvantage on attack rolls, I'm afraid, and ability checks. Wow. However, second attack missed. So that's that left one. That's Nova's turn. Good, good. You begin to hear the sounds of the others stirring awake,

but they won't get a turn this turn. So, Quill, let's go with you first while I switch over to Lucius's character sheet. Cool. I would like to turn to the one that is actually, I guess he's within 30 feet of me, the one that's facing Nova. What's that? The one that's facing Nova. The chase down after Nova. Yeah, he's within 30 feet of me, or the one that's facing Nova? What's that?

The one that's facing Nova. The chase down after Nova. Yeah, is that within 30 feet? Sure, yeah, absolutely. Because this is Theatre of the Mind. Basically, they're either next to you or they're within 30 feet at this point. Okay, fair enough. And I would like to channel divinity.

Okay. So, as an action, I present my holy symbol. What would the holy symbol of Hesper be? So, his symbol, oh Christ, you symbol. What would the holy symbol of Hesper be? So his symbol... Oh, Christ, you're going to make me look this up now. Would it just be feathers, of which I have a plenty? No. Of which I have plenty.

He has a holy symbol, which I believe is a staff, a winged staff, I believe. Oh, do I have one? You could have one if you wanted, yeah. It could be your... If you have a quarter staff. I do.

Hesper's symbol is that of a staff tipped with a pair of wings. Yes, I have a quarter staff. There you go. Nice. So your actual quarter staff has, like, engraved kind of, like, bird's wings at the top. Nice.

Probably a star as, like, its main figurehead. In that case, slam that onto the ground. You're going to channel divinity. What do I do? Turn undead. Turn undead. Great. I'm assuming I make a wisdom saving throw you do. Yes DC 13 wisdom Okay, the first one passes. Oh, it doesn't both second one. I believe it is all creatures. I'm dead Unfortunately, that was a 19 on the first one and a natural 20 on the second one Slam this down man. Like what do you say?

Do you say anything or you just slam this down and you're like, what do you say? Do you say anything or do you just slam it down and let the radiant light burst out? Radiant light burst out towards the boat. You watch as they kind of shudder for a moment

but you feel that the pulse of light kind of wavers and is weakened almost like your full faith wasn't behind it. Like this kind of commitment wasn't there

and the energy kind of washes over them but they kind of like one of them snaps up and does look at you but like turns its attention back to Aayla and the other one looks at Nozak they kind of like one of them snaps up and does look at you but like turns its attention back to Aayla and the other one looks at Nova. Does it look like it actually works?

It looked like it could have worked. The magic which keeps these things risen is holding them together better. Okay, so they are undead. Yes. From the reaction to it they are definitely undead creatures. Nice.

Okay, fair enough. And channel divinity, that's as an action. I don't really have much by way of a bonus. I can cast a healing word on... Aayla. Aayla. First level or second? I will do it...

How much damage did you take? Eight. Eight. Don't worry. I'll do it at first level. And it's a d4. d4 plus wisdom. Five.

Okay. So you get five hit points back. Lucius. Thanks, buddy. Oh no! What horrible doggies! He pulls out his diamond. He's like...

Spins it around and launches a bolt of cold using Chromatic Orb. A bolt of ice. A bolt of ice chromatic orb. A bolt of ice. A bolt of ice, which hits. He'll go for the one that bit Ayla as well.

I believe this is 3D. I'm feeling a bit sick, guys. So you watch as this cold blast encapsulates one of the dogs and then he looks over at Nova, Lucius, that is, and with his blue eye begins to glow, he reaches out a hand, and part of your coat,

like some of the color, kind of pulls out of it. It stays blue, but some of the blue pulls out of it, and he launches a blast of ice at the other one as well. Whoa! That's so cool! So that's going to be 11, 16 points of damage to the one that was fighting Aayla. And then that's going to be 11, 16 points of damage to the one that was fighting Aayla. And then that's going to be, I believe, five points, no, six points of damage to the other one

as his dichromancy, he pulls off some of the other ice and spretches out six. Oh, I thought you said 16. Yeah, no, he did 16 to the first one. It was like, yeah, it's his chromatic orb. He's doing better now that he's not. Yeah, now that it's me yeah exactly

um the dog turns around like you can see half of its flank is covered in ice and it like snaps its head round

to Lucius and he's like oh century uses movement action to move behind century um uh

Valor and Arvel both wake up and you can see Arvel like Vangelene and he's like Vala pulls outvel both wake up and you can see Arvel like Vangelene! and he's like Vala pulls out one of her knives and is like hiding behind Yusuf

Sentry no no Aayla sorry Aayla first you're last I would like to rage okay hella stormy now so you kind of like

as this thing bites into you and you feel this sickness wash over you you just kind of you watch and A thing bites into you and you feel the sickness wash over you, you just kind of, you watch, and Aayla's eyes almost turn pure white and storm lightning begins to crackle up and down her arms. The clouds overhead begin to swirl into dark, stormy clouds as this begins to strike, and you feel yourself empowered.

She fears. I would like to hit it with my hammer. You're going to reckless, no? Wish I did. You have disadvantage, don't forget, because you are poisoned. Add it up. You don't know. These guys might have low AC.

Ten. Ten? Not enough, sadly. So you bring the hammer down, but the sickness is still there, even through your rage. Your swing goes wide. But as a bonus, because of my aura, they can make a dexterity saving throw.

I don't know what my DC is for that. It will be eight. It will be ten plus your... I don't know what stack. I don't know. Constitution for now. We'll look it up. So 10 plus con.

So 12. 12. Okay. It passed, but I believe it still takes half. Still takes half damage. It takes one damage. Lightning. So there's like a bolt of lightning.

As you go to strike it, like a small bolt blasts into its hide as you swing and miss. It's like static. Century. Century. Cool. I would like to smash the one that's got the ice on it. Okay. Yeah, this is the one fighting Aayla, and it looks pretty badly hurt. Yeah, and then I want a bonus action,

and snaring strike the other one. Okay, so how does ensnaring strike work? So ensnaring strike the next time... Is it that one? Is this your channel divinity? So ensnaring strike, the next time, is it that one? Is this your channel divinity? Oh, no, this is the wrong one. And then channel divinity is you present your symbol. But I believe it's an action to do that.

The ensnaring strike, which is, is this the one? That's the spell. The spell that, like, oh, yeah, the vine one, yes. Yeah. Yes, this is a... So there's a bonus action to cast. One bonus action to cast. And then it's normally the next time you hit a creature.

The next time I hit it, yeah. So it would be the one you hit with a melee attack. So you couldn't target the other one with it, for example. Okay, yeah. Cool. Okay. So you cast that on your axe and then you're going to swing for the one fighting Aayla. Okay, perfect. Make an attack roll.

Awesome. So, B20 plus your battle axe bonus. Is it that one? Yeah, battle axe. It's the attack bonus. It should be in your combat, I think. Actions? Actions, yeah.

Battle axe plus one D8 plus three. So that's the damage, but it's the plus five for the bonus. So D20 plus your attack bonus first. Nat 20, 25! Oh my god. So natural 20, you double the dice. So if the damage was what? 1d8 plus...

1d8 plus 3. So you roll the d8, you double it, and then you plus 3. Oh, crikey. So 16, 19. No way, is that perfect damage again? That was perfect damage! You're a fucking beast, you are. He's a high roller.

So you bring the battle axe and you enchant it with this kind of spectral vines. They don't even have a chance to go off because as soon as you hit this thing, you target it where the ice has covered it. You target it at such a point where it splits the dog in half. Oh!

As it dies, it releases this horrid gas that flies up into the air and it stinks. But the body just kind of crumbles. It almost instantly decomposes and it just begins to melt and rot away. But it just kind of falls to the ground completely dead. The other one is going to attempt to bite Nova because it hasn't taken a hit's turn yet. So first attack against Nova. The one that just died, was that the one with the curse on it?

No, you cursed the one fighting just died was that the one with the curse on it uh no you curse the one fighting you is this one uh so 12 to hit you nova does that mean hit okay second attack is only a eight to hit you so it kind of tries it's trying to bite you and you can see like ayla kind of swooning so you're desperately trying to use tian gong to keep it at bay and it manages to avoid it for now. And then we jump to Nova, your turn. Please can I attack with Tiangong? So you're going to melee attack, yeah? Or I might use toll. Yes, because it's alone now. Is it damaged? It's not damaged.

That one's not damaged. It's not damaged. Oh, it is, yeah, because Luci's alone now. Is it damaged, that one? It's not damaged. That one's not damaged. It's not damaged. Oh, no, it is, yeah, because Lucius injured it. Toll the dead. Yeah, okay, I would like to attack with toll the dead. Okay. So could you make a wisdom saving throw, please? That is a failure.

That is a nine. And it's a d12, which is... The big red one. 11. 11 points. That's a d12. Mm-hmm. Which is... The big red one. Okay. 11. 11 points. That's a damage. So you kind of wait, and having seen Quill use this magic to kind of like,

and you can see it react like this kind of purge the undead, you kind of focus on Tiangong, and you ring him like a bell, and this kind of like... rings out across the dale, and it echoes across the kind of like misty, like low, low hanging hills, low rolling hills. And you watch as this creature's form,

like parts of it begin to slough off and decay as if it was dying. And it just kind of like, it just kind of rolls around for a second. Quick question. Sorry. It says add proficiency bonus to damage rolls. So that would have been an extra two to that? Yeah, that would add that.

So that's 13, sorry. That's right. So you add that to it. So yeah, it just kind of seems to react to this noise and parts of it begin falling away as it does so. Sister Yusuf at this point is awake and will attempt a sacred flame, which she does,

for a whopping seven points of damage, actually. Wow. So you watch as she stands up and she's just like, creature of the darkness, be gone! And she throws out this bolt of blinding light, which kind of catches the dog on the face, begins burning part of it away. Then we go to Quill.

I'll hold out my arm and say, what she said, and cast Guiding Bolt. Okay. So how's Guiding Bolt work? I have plus five to hit with it. Okay. So 20, unnatural 20. Yeah, that hits. And it does.

Just four D6. Just four. Wow, that's not a great roll. Six, seven, eight, plus 2, so 10 damage. That is garbage for 4d6. And does it have any other effects? It just hits them big, I think. Does it not mean the next person can...

Yes, the next attack roll has advantage. That's good, well done! Thanks, Tom! No, sorry. What? No, it's advantage. That's good, well done! Thanks, Tom! Oh no, sorry. What? No, it's perfect. It's good, yeah. So you kind of launch out this bolt of light.

How does it look? Is it with your feathers? You kind of throw out feathers again, or is this different? It's like, almost like a kind of human hand envelopes mine for a second, like a shimmering sort of spiritual hand envelops mine, and out of that comes a bolt to then hit. And you can see that as it strikes, it almost like the ground around the hound begins to glow brightly, and weapons and arrows and things like that seem to be drawn towards the light slightly.

Lucius will just attempt to firebolt at this point because he's already used a spell, but he does have advantage now, which is a good thing. So he launches out. He's like, does 10 points of damage, which ignites the creature. And where it hits, like where it's been sloughing off,

he targets like part where it's like its ribcage is exposed. It seems to hit the inside and ignite some sort of gas and just explodes doesn't cover you guys it's like a small eruption it just kind of explodes in a large cloud of gas oh goodness and yeah so there's an icy dripping puddle of... Well, as soon as both of them are dead, they almost instantly begin to decompose into bones and nothing else.

Their bodies just melt into the earth and these bones are left. You almost feel like these spirits get released. You almost kind of hear this howling, this baying one more time as their bodies decompose and And their spirits are gone. Well, that was thoroughly disgusting. You are still poisoned, Ayla. You feel feverish. You're shaking.

You are cold all over. That was the worst fight in the world. Missed, and then everybody else hit and dealt damage and killed it. Sucks. Disadvantage to hit. Fucking sucks. Yeah, that's pretty bad.

That wasn't normal. I think that's safe to say. Sorry? Help. Help? Help. She's poisoned. Help.

Oh. Let's see. Right. I'm just going to lie down over here. Just ignore me. Pretty much, yeah. You would probably vomit at this point as you get on the ground and it's a horrid sickly green there's

definitely something wrong Ayla's shaking, unable to properly focus your vision goes a bit blurry can I heal her? I don't know, can you? Sister Yusuf goes over to you. She will attempt to cast Cure Wounds for

nine hit points. That was way too much. But she's just like, I'm afraid that I do not know anything stronger than this. I don't know what to do here. I can examine her. Thank you. As you're like throwing up

she's got you on her side and she's like checking your eyes something is definitely wrong this is some sort of poison or perhaps a disease I'm not sure, whatever this creature the ichor the concoction it had in its mouth

is doing something to Ayla do you feel well enough to at least carry on? concoction it had in its mouth is doing something to Ayla. Do you feel well enough to at least carry on? No. Okay. I mean, you are, you can walk and things like that, but you have disadvantage

on all your ability checks and you do not feel well at all. Can I do lay on hands? Yes. Cool. Are you going to do the five hit points? Yeah, five hit points

to cure a disease or neutralise poison. Oh. What? That works perfectly. Cool. I will do that. So you lay your hands on and you kind of feel the energy in your matrix

and you pulse it through her body. But the way it would probably work is you probably, like, send the energy through all of her veins and her stomach, and it basically pushes all the toxin in, and she just vomits up one last time. It's all black and icarus, but it kind of purges the system of the poison and the disease sorry for the mess you get the feeling like having done this like

sensing the lingering essence of this death disease or whatever it was if this had been left untreated it it would have probably eventually killed ayla it could have like slowly built up and slowly killed her if it hadn't been treated. Cool. Thanks. I'm sticking around this one. I apologise for the discomfort that may have caused you. That was quite hideous. Close your face.

He's like, he's like, he's like, get away, daddy. I don't remember him being bitten. I don't think he's poisoned also. No, I'm not. No, it's just...

Can I suggest we pitch tents somewhere else just slightly maybe up-breeze from the vomit? Yes, please. Wait, hang on. Does anyone know what they were, where they came from, how they... why? Is this normal? Can make a religion check.

Religion. Ooh. Can I? Yeah, everyone can. Awesome. Religion. Religion. 19.

Seven. From the cleric. Yeah. I beat you. You are more normal than you were better. 17. 19. I've got the password.

19, 17. 17. Okay, so Century and Nova, you both have a vague idea 19. 19, 17. Okay, so Sentry and Nova. You both have a vague idea of what this could be. You have heard tales. Sentry, probably this is assumption more than knowledge. Based on the creatures they were, you would recognize the divine energy from Quill.

You would actually recognize it as holy energy to banish the undead. Okay. And Nova, you've probably read more about these. You suspect that these creatures were called plague hounds, and they are normally undead spirits of dogs of war that died and their bodies were kind of left to rot. And sometimes they can be, sometimes the spirits can linger

and cause them to become these kind of agents of... You drew a little sad face underneath that. I saw a little sad face on mine as well. We don't like sad dogs. They normally died away from their masters or were killed by enemy combatants in horrible ways. And they're normally left in battlefields. They're super dead now at first.

You suspect that killing them has released their spirits. Back with their own lives. They're often found in areas where they may have been fighting or battles like long ago. They're sometimes known as blackhounds. People see them on roads and they're kind of like a folklore that people avoid. They're also often, if there's a disease

that runs through a town, they're often attributed to being the cause. Like, diseases spread around them very easily. Yeah. Okay. Well. Aw. Yeah, so when Quill's like, does anyone know, I'm just going to really slowly hold my hand up again.

Yes, Nova. I mean, do tell me if this is annoying. But, yeah, those are plague hounds. They're dogs of war that died. That probably means there was a battle around here somewhere. When? Recently? I don't know. They look pretty decayed, so... You imagine they probably would have died during the war with Calus.

There's not really been major battles since then, but they could have been from raids from the wild elves or things like that that as well but yeah um do we know if there could be more of them possibly if there was a battleground around here i mean you'd know by the smell that's pretty bad yeah no i think that might be ayla and lucius and lucius the sick not you And Lucius. And Lucius. The sick, not you. Thank you. You were throwing up a lot.

Uh-huh. It smells bad. I remember. Okay, good. I think we should maybe try somewhere else. Did we hear other ones? No. We didn't hear any more.

Seems that it was just these two. You just happened to maybe catch up on, like you rested near where their resting grounds were or something like that. Tracted them. So has this interrupted the long rest? You can finish the long rest easily enough. Although any spell slots spent are spent.

So you get your hit points back. I mean none of you were really missing hit points, but you just won't gain any more spell slots back. Apart from those of you who get them on short rests, I'll give you those back. In good news, it means that we kind of freed their spirits. I'm so happy

for them. Well, good, because they've found rest now. Noble girl, you really gotta learn sarcasm at some point. It's better this way. You're probably right. My professor did always say that. Well, if we're gonna move on let's get it

get somewhere a bit safer and finish off let's get a nice breakfast or something going definitely safer you manage breakfast? sure great

cool always in that case so yeah you guys can head over and you can finish the long rest by basically taking like down time

sort of like four hours of doing nothing in which point you I imagine you do things like have uh food so you can mark off a ration um you the the river here has basically you had five days i think nova split out gave everyone five days rations i did not so we should have you'd. The river here is also, it's slowed down and become gentle enough that bathing in it, washing in it is possible. Whereas before it was like strong rapids, now you can actually just happily wade out into it

and it's just cold, fresh water for anybody who wishes to bathe in it. Any loose ground anywhere, like dirt? Yeah, there's gravel along the shores of the river and stuff like that. to bathe in it. Any loose ground anywhere? Like dirt? Yeah. Maybe just kick up onto myself? Just grapple along the shores of the river and stuff like that? Will I just squat down and throw some dirt over myself and get it through my feathers?

Get all fluffed up? Yeah. That's my form of bath. Not birds, but some birds do bath in water. You know that, right? You're not a chinchilla. No, it's chickens do that. Yeah, I know it's chickens do that.

Okay, so you're a chicken now I'm more chicken I think okay I'm more chicken I'm more chicken than you yeah so Sister Yusuf

probably cleans like Arval's bandages and things like that and like rinses those out she probably forces Vala herself and Corrin to wash

because they have not in a while I'm gonna go swimming yeah you just jump in, strip off, and then just jump in. Yeah, the water is clear. It's cold, very, very cold, but it's almost that refreshment as well.

Like it's kind of spring water, like from the mountains. I'm just going to be splashing around going, this is amazing! How long do you spend underwater when you can? Probably a long amount. It says indefinitely, so... Really? Well, she's an air ganassi.

She has an unlimited supply of air in herself. Amazing. Okay. I like to think it's because my freakish lungs can just, like... Yeah. So I think, like, it's probably Valor, Nova, Aayla are all kind of, like, washing themselves, just bathing in the river and things like that.

I'm going to clean my hammer, too. Lucius probably moves quite far down the river, and he's not really getting in the river and things like that. I'm going to clean my hammer too. Lucius probably moves quite far down the river and he's not really getting in the water but he's probably trying to like wash his hair. Oh, Laurie held his hair. He's probably got like a little bit of soap in his leg. I'll probably like wash my axe

and then I'll probably like see how much fun these two guys are having so I'll like run in and then just like lay there. On the bottom. Yeah, just like. I'll sit past you. You two can literally stay underwater forever. I imagine we're just standing at the bottom of the river. Just walking along.

Valor probably takes a big breath, tries to swim under and tries to swim up to you and stuff like that. She's prodding you and it's a maze that you're just at the bottom. Valor's trying to hold her breath with Nova, but eventually has to dive up. I imagine we'd have competitions, although it's not really a competition. It's not really a competition.

You win every time. Yeah, and the morning, I mean, it's a cold morning, so getting dressed is very, very chilly, and you probably would need a fire, which Lucius can just create with Firebolt, just to warm yourselves back up otherwise you are gonna potentially risk getting super super cold but yeah you uh you're fine well no temperature still affects you temperature still affects you so if it's really

hot like your wood would potentially have the risk of burning if it's really cold you could frostbite you know damage your your internal workings and things like that. So temperature still affects you. Just food and drink and air. Just those. Yeah, just those. You don't need those. The weird expands in the winter. So in the wintertime, you're really... I'm super creaky.

I'm super creaky. Reduce mobility. I'm a tin man. I'm into the boss. The morning goes effortlessly. There are no more dangers. Swimmingly. Oh, very, very poor.

It goes swimmingly. And you continue on your way. Within about half a day, you see the settlement. You see it on the distance, following alongside the river. You make your way past a few large farms, large, large grain farms. And there's a couple of things you notice on the way. One is that the farms are patrolled by they almost look like farmers, but they're a little bit too heavily armoured.

You can see them almost wearing like, they have like rolled up like three-quarter trousers, but then they have like armoured boots and shin pads and knee pads and like breastplate and they carry things like farm of size or pitchforks as weapons. And they're just chatting with the farmers occasionally, like looking around.

They see you and they kind of cost like interesting glances at you. They might send like runners ahead of you and things like that, but they kind of watch you with a careful eye of your, they don't look like they're belong around here. They kind of give you that West Country farmer-like, they're not locals, what they do in here. I guess they're watching out for wild elves or something like that. Yeah, and you can see that they are definitely...

But they look different to the farmers themselves. The farmers are wearing tunics, and most of them have got their shirts off, even though it's quite cold. They're still working the farms. Basically, it looks like they're tidying up the farms after a harvest. harvest so most of the grain is gone so it's all been cut down and the fields are basically they're pulling up the last of the root vegetables things like that just before winter sets in but they're still hard at work just kind of doing up the last few jobs that they need to

a lot of them are working on their farmhouses repairing holes putting like new boards and things in place getting all their cattle in making sure they've like new boards and things in place, getting all their cattle in, making sure they've got enough hay and things like that to last the winter, the long night I should say. And you're kind of, you know, watched cautiously, but most folk just don't bear you too much mind until you arrive towards a large palisade wooden wall. This wall is actually only covering half of the city because the other half is high up on a hill. So it's kind of a wooden palisade wall that covers like half of the city because the rest of it is kind of

backed up by this very large hill. At the top of the hill itself is a large tower-like building emblazoned with the symbol of the sun of Paladol, one of the gods. That is at the very top of the hill itself. You can also see several large buildings

there are also windmills and then behind it uh there's two things the river continues on to the north where it meets a large lake perhaps another sort of like half a day's travel away from the town um and from the lake some other rivers join into it and then it kind of leads out to towards the coast um but also on the western side of the town, an enormous forest begins to stretch out, leading all the way to large, tall mountains that rise on the distant horizon. Snow-covered, almost gold-colored mountain.

Like the tips of them look like gold covered with gentle drifts of snow. And they kind of stretch out far, far, far to the north. But this large forest like dominates between here and the mountains themselves. So that's to the north. Sort of northwest. Yeah, the river continues north towards the large lake. To the northwest, this forest carries on until it hits the mountain range,

which that mountain range then just goes straight north. Okay, fair enough. And yeah yeah you can see that all and as you approach uh you see that there is a number of these kind of farmer guards they look like you know farmers they're wearing sort of like farmer garb but they've got bits of leather and bits of metal and they've carried like sickles instead of swords they've got like wooden shields with pumpkins and apples painted on them and things like that And as you approach one of them just kind of like holds up a hand

Well, hey friends, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you your business before you come any closer Right, okay. We've just been in an airship crash. We'd like to find civilization, please Like look he like looks at you and he's like, You're a birdman! Yes I am! You said, sorry, you said you were in an airship crash? Yes. Was that far to the south? Uh, yes. In the Bitterwood in fact.

Well, blessed by the god, we saw something happening in the sky almost, what, nearly a week ago now. Saw something up in the sky like a big old fireball. Looked like a big crashing ship. That was us. Yeah. Well, bless the siesta and the stars. Ain't you lucky to be alive?

Yeah. Yes. Yes, we are. He like glances at you now that you've spoken to him. Miss, you're a wild elf. I am. You can see the guards like all become Very sort of they begin gripping Like pitchforks

You can also see one of the guards has A very big boar That's like next to him like a pet Like he's got like a little leather harness Like a spike leather harness And he's got his hand on it like a dog And he's kind of holding it back and the boar is like Towards Ayla

He's like, you're not around. What do you mean you're not from around here? I'm passing through going somewhere else. You ain't from the Caelan Rus now, are you? No. From the Bitterwood? Oh, we had a great time with them. Good news, in fact. They're dead now. Well, not all

of them, no. They were technically not even part of that clan. The ship landed in the Bitterwood, and we had a run-in with the Caden Roos. We know your worries, but Aayla is not one of them. Don't worry. And you can see, like, one of the guards in the back, a large, like, six-foot-three, hulking man,

like a curved, like, scarred lip, like cauliflower ears, like broken nose. He's just like, she might not be one of them, but she's a wild elf. Like, he kind of mutters under his breath. And the younger man who's been talking to you, he's kind of got, like, sandy straw hair. He doesn't seem to be wearing any armor apart from a bit of leather, like, hide scraps. He carries, like, a gnarled staff with a pumpkin, like a carved pumpkin at the top. And he just turns around.

He's like, come on now. Ain't, that's not, when did she be, and he's like, look, he's like, you, listen now, you, and the man's like, blah, blah, blah. Too right. Well, miss, you may not be from that tribe, you said, or clan, but

I should let you know, most folks here are kind of wary around your account. We've had a lot of trouble with wild elves in the past. You're allowed to come in, but we will be keeping a close eye on you. We don't want no trouble now. We're just a nice farming communal town. We don't want no trouble. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

No trouble. I got it. I got it. All right, fine. And if I can give you a piece of advice, certainly don't go anywhere near the Brookstone family. They really don't take kindly to wild elves. They had a lot of trouble. They're going to give you trouble. And if I got to get involved or any of the Harvest Guard get involved. I'm a really nice wild elf.

I'm sure you are, but Brett Brookstone, well, he ain't going to care any one whit about that. Well, listen, welcome to Rose going to care any one whit about that. Well, listen, welcome to Rose Hall. My name's Jessup. I'm the deputy of the Harvest Guard here. My commanding officer, Wendy Gale, she's somewhere inside. I don't know. But you all have a nice time now and no trouble.

Otherwise, we'll have to deal with you. Don't want to get old Big Suey out here. And the boar is just like... Does it make that face as well? Yeah, it's got a fucking angry-looking face. And this boar looks mean. It looks mean. But the guy, it's the big guy that was kind of like,

kind of scoffing a bit at Aayla as the one holding it, and he just like pats its head and he's like, It's all right, suey. You ain't no, you ain't, you good girl. He's like, just pats its head, and's like it's all right sue we we you ain't no you ain't you good girl his head they kind of like nozzles up against his hand um and like the the young man jessup is just like all right good day open up them gates and like you hear the wooden palisade gates being opened and you see a fairly sizable kind of village town it's not quite a full town um it's maybe got maybe sort of like 30 40 kind of like buildings or families um but it's sizable kind of village town. It's not quite a full town. It's maybe got maybe sort of like

30, 40 kind of like buildings or families. But it's sizable enough. It's mostly open air. Real rustic. Real rustic. And with that, we're going to take a break before we get into the town.

Thank you for listening to part one of this episode. Once again, I want to say a big thank you to our sponsors, D&D Beyond and Brilliant.org. Part two of this episode will be on Thursday, so we can see how the party blends in into this farming settlement of Rosehall. See you then.