High Rollers DnD - How to Get Away with Murder (Part 2) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #68

Episode Date: June 26, 2025

The heroes are examined with significantly higher scrutiny following Ophelia's simple request for "a little snack"! Can't wait for Part 2 of each episode? Join our Patreon to get early access EVERY week (+ a few other bonuses)! www.patreon.com/HighRollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://geekyclean.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.highrollersdnd.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickaxe. No Frills delivers. Get groceries delivered to your door from No Frills with PC Express. Shop online and get $15 in PC Optimum Points on your first five orders. Shop now at NoFriills.ca. Welcome back to part two of our Fair the Dragon Empire. Oh, what a scenario. Our companions having rested in the Radiance Hotel for the evening were enjoying, mostly, were all enjoying a lovely evening of peace and rest.

However, Sister Ophelia indulged a little too much, having bribed someone to offer themselves up as a vessel for her blood drinking, drank a little bit too deeply, creating quite a mess in the hotel room and leaving the person unconscious and very weakened. This was then upset by screaming and noises and now there are guards involved and people have been arrested and it's been a whole thing. Meanwhile, Daisy, left on her own with unable to find anyone, is sort of just made her way to the fort

where the players are being held with nothing else to do. While Gruff. Eating a tub of ice cream and crying. Eating ice cream and crying. Whilst Gruff makes his way down to the docks to meet with Sir Joran Harper, having a heart to heart and maybe getting some advice about what to do with the situation.

We mentioned this off camera, but I do want to introduce it now. As Gruff, you are leaving the docks. You do see one familiar figure making his way, little pack. On time. Oh, a dagger and on time, Mateo, the dead eye, your bard friend that you've made here with me.

The best of us. He's like, Groff, hello, where is everyone? We were going to be here for your quest. Yes, and I very much appreciate that you were on time. Of course, how could I not be? Unfortunately, our departure may be a bit delayed. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. What was the issue?

I have to get a- A bit of runny tongue for some of them all. I have to get three of them out of prison. Oh, oh my goodness. What kind of night did you have after I left you at the hotel? My goodness. I'm not entirely sure,

but I'm going to go and sort it out now. Well, as one whose hand the brush him with the law every now and then, my full assistance is at your hand. If I could ask... Yes. Actually, I'm going to go right to the fort and I'm going to see what I can do. Do you mind looking for Daisy? Yes, of course.

I'm not entirely sure where she's got to, and I must admit I did not think to tell her what I was doing. An investigation? Leave it to Deadeye. I will get on the case. I don't think she was arrested as well, so, you know. Good to know, good to know.

We were staying at the reef. I will begin searching at the hotel. Maybe don't say you know us. Right. Mum's the hotel. Maybe don't say you know us. Right. Mum's the word. Just an independent investigator. All right. Well, I trust you.

You are the best of us. It's true. But hopefully, hopefully, this Miss Sun's standing can be sorted out and we will get set, we will set sail before the day is out. Excellent. Very good. All right, with that, you begin making your way back

through a early morning wave meet. So Xantheus, I'm gonna start with you. Having been making a load of racket and noise, maybe about an hour, hour and a half after you've been put into this cell, or this temporary cell, the door, you hear the key in the door, and the door begins to open.

Oh, science blessing! The two guards that you spoke to that were in the hotel last night are like, all right, Mr. Oregon, was it? Yeah, yes, yes. Would you follow us, please? Oh, yes, where are we going? The authoritar wishes to speak with you.

So we set up a temporary... Will this take long because we do have a very, very tight schedule that we need to stick to. That is not for us to discuss. Oh, that's really disappointing actually. Okay, is there any... Alright, okay, great. Yes, okay, I'm following. So they will take you... escort you up into a chamber. A room that was...

It looks like maybe it would probably have been used as like a meeting room or like for the, maybe the HQ of this fort to discuss battle plans and things like that. I'm sure sort of led through. When you enter, there is, you would see at the far end of like a big wooden table, there is a dwarf sat there. He looks quite young for a dwarf.

His beard hasn't fully grown in, and you can see that he has sort of three studs of metal in his chin. So his beard's actually being chopped down to be big lamb chops. And then he has like three metal studs in his chin of his earth skin. You can also see that on his knuckles,

he has like engraved symbols of the, the symbol of the author's office, basically. And he's wearing, similar to the author's that you met in Ashen's Rest, he has like a kind of black long coat on. You can see like a hat has been put on the table next to him. He has a kind of big journal and like a,

would probably be some sort of a very minor enchanted quill that lets him write without ink. And he'll kind of look up and you can see that he has, he's gone blind in one eye but his other eye is like a really piercing bright blue. And he'll just be like, ah, you must be Mr. Oragon. Oh yes, Xanthius, where would you like me to sit? Please come and take a seat here.

Okay, no. You have a low passive perception, don't you? It's, my passive perception is an eight. Okay, perfect. So when you take a seat, you don't notice until you're already sat down and you hear the door close that stood inside the room, like inside where the doors were, you see two, not guards like the sea guard,

these look like temple guards, they look like they've come from like a church here. You can see that they are wearing symbols of melee, one is wearing a symbol of melee, one is wearing a symbol of pyrus, and they have both got heavy maces, they are both in bedecked in armor, they are watching you very cautiously.

Oh, well this is quite a lot of... What do you want to know? I think we can get this sorted out very quickly. Well, let's just begin with the events of last night, if I may. I'm Authorita Cardwell. Nice to meet you, Authorita. Local authorita here in Way of Meat. Let's begin with last night.

I am led to understand that a young man was found covered in blood in your companion, Sister Ophelia de la Rosa of the House of Blood's chambers. That seems to be the case, yes. Yes. When the guards came in to investigate, there seemed to be some confusion over your, you knew Sister Ophelia, you claimed that you knew her.

Oh yes, quite well. But your companion Rowan did seem to, you claimed to know you but didn't know Ophelia, there seemed to be some, can you explain a little bit about what may have happened there? Rowan, oh well, he is quite a heavy sleeper, sometimes gets confused in the mornings.

Confused enough to cut his own arm with a long sword. Cut his own arm with a long sword? Well that is definitely out of character, but strange things have happened. Oh, have they? Like what? I mean it's Rowan. He dreams about fucking rocks.

True. That's you. Yeah, wait for that question to come up, motherfucker. Were you aware of what Sister Ophelia was doing in the chamber? As in leading up to the event or the moment I saw it, when I first walked into the room? Why don't you answer both?

Well, when I walked in, I was told there was an incident, but knowing Sister Delarosa, I assumed that she had communicated with a man in order to do House of Blood stuff. And by do House of Blood stuff, we mean? Procure blood. To drink from a living entity. Well, yeah.

And so that was your, when you looked into room, that was your assumption of what had taken place. But you had no knowledge of this forebearing. No, I had no idea what was going to be happening tonight, no. But I mean, I didn't know it was going to occur. I see. If that makes sense. Does that make sense?

Oh, I mean, I'm just here to ask, just to get your understanding of the events that took place. Yes, has the man been awoken? Yes, yes, they have been awoken, and I have a couple of my deputies speaking with them currently. Oh, well in that case, I think we can all just wait for that report, right?

I mean, certainly that will clear a few things up. If this was all consensual, then it's really just a matter of damages to the hotel room. There was, I believe, a piece of furniture was destroyed. Really? There's been some heavy staining of blood and things like that.

But I'm sure that fine, repayments to the hotel, all of that can be. Oh well, that is very unfortunate. But a fine that we can certainly cover for you. Yes, and I hope you can understand that at the time, the arresting officers had to make sure that we could resolve this in an amicable method. Yes.

Excellent. So, you are not aware of Sister Ophelia being violent towards others in these sorts of incidences? Have they happened many times in the past, feeding on the public like this? On the public, no. It's never happened before. No. I see. That's the truth, right?? On the public, no. It's never happened before. No.

I see. That's the truth, right? Yeah, that is the truth. That's the truth. And do you know, you don't know the young man who was selected for this process? I didn't get a very good look at them, I'm afraid, but no, I don't believe I know them.

Okay. All right. What with all the blood? I see. And them. Okay. All right. What with all the blood? Yes. And makeup. Yeah. Finally, it was, well, I think that that, paints a pretty good picture of your involvement

in the events of last night. Great. You heard, can you just run through it again, just for my benefit one more time, from the beginning, your experience. From my experience, we were in our rooms. I was asleep or, well, relaxing. Really lovely rooms, by the way, I love this place.

And I mean, I was awoken to another companion of mine knocking on the door. Which companion was that, Mr. Oregon? Daisy. Daisy. Thistleheart. Daisy Thistleheart, Mr. Oregon? Daisy. Daisy. Thistleheart. Daisy Thistleheart, thank you. Please continue.

Woke me up in a small panic, which admittedly is not massively uncommon. I didn't, I thought it was not gonna be that much. I get awoken in the middle of the night all the time for many different situations. Someone's dropped a glass. My dragonet pet is flown around and is eating people's seeds. That sort of stuff, ridiculous things.

Anyway, I sauntered around. I put my robe on, put my slippers on. I had to look my best self. You don't need to know. Anyway, I found my way down to the room and by that point the guards were already there. And I tried to figure out what was going on, and unfortunately, me being there got me

in this room as well. Simply by association. Well, I think that that clears up that matter rather well. Yes. Absolutely. That one. Just one more question, Mr. Oragon. Okay.

Would you mind rolling up your sleeve? I will do the wrong one. Ah, my apologies, I meant the other one, Mr. Oragon. He is melting below that table. He's trying to get small, He's trying to hide from me. No, no, no, no. What equipment do I have on me? Would you say?

Why don't you tell me what equipment you would like to have on you and I'll tell you if it's reasonable that you could have taken it with you. I'd like to have my 100 GP diamond, please. Your 100 GP diamond. The one I got from the proto- 100 GP diamond, please. Your 100 GP diamond? The one I got from the Proto Magi Vault, please. So the 500 GP diamond.

Oh, that one, yes. There was two 500 GP diamonds, I believe. I will allow you to have that in a small pouch on your belt, sure. Now, could I use that as a recipe? As a recipe? For a recipe? For a spell. Recipe.

What spell? I'd like to, now it depends entirely. Now if I remember correctly, you have subtle spell. I do have subtle spell. That's the most important question because if you are like, excuse me, ha ba ba ba ba ba ba ba, cast spell. You're back to me.

With subtle spell, yes, you will be able to cast spell. I have subtle spell which allows me to cast, I know, I don't have to check actually. It's no verbal and no semantic components. But is it only one of those? No, I believe it's both. Did it cast it without any, oh, okay. All material components.

So only if it doesn't have a price. Unless it's consumed by the spell. Yeah. Now, a 500 GP diamond isn't explicitly the resource for this spell. It's 100 GP of diamond dust. What are you trying to cast? I want to cast Stone Skin on specifically my arm.

Oh. Oh, interesting. Now, it's really a question of, does Stone Skin affect my entire body? I presume it does. Yes, it does, yeah. I obviously, with subtle spell, I can cast this, aside from the material cost, freely, quote unquote, without him knowing.

So there's the rub, right? Even if I allowed you to use the 500 GP diamond, what I would say is like a portion of it would turn to dust and evaporate. Right. That is gonna happen, even if you're subtly spelling it. Even if it's it, like, does it have to be, do I have to literally hold this thing to use?

I would say you have to be touching it. Hmm. I guess this is another sleight of hand question then. Certainly would feel that that would be a good role to be making. It's on my- Because also,. Because also, whilst you're like, you remember he's asked you to roll up your sleeve, take off your glove and show your hand, basically.

Yeah, now if I was to put my hand down to my arm, I've got my satchels on my belt. That's what the sleight of hand roll would be. Diamond would be down in that region as well, right? Yeah, but you wouldn't touch the diamond. So I can, that's my, all right, so my plan is to Stone Skin, that's the other thing, specifically my arm. Yeah, I mean, I'd say like, yeah, if you don't,

you don't have to do the full extent of the spell. What I would probably say with that is like, yeah, like, you are gonna try and use that spell but only go up to your arm and then we'll go from there. Because I'm assuming there's gonna need to be a bluff involved in here as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So let's give a go first to see if you can slight of hand

to reach. You only have two feet left? Yeah, you can burn in it. So you got one for this roll and then one for the bluff. So you've gotta slide your hand into, touch the diamond as you cast the spell and then bring your hand out to do the same. That's what the Sleight of Hand is for. Can you subtly like, dip in, touch the thing, and then...

Okay, well I'm gonna fate it for this one, the Sleight of Hand, because I only have a plus four. Please, please! 16 total. 16. Total. 16. We're under heavy scrutiny by three individuals. Yeah. The first one.

The second one. The third one. I'll spend the sorcery points anyway. So what I was going to say is the failure of the roll is you don't get to cast the spell because as you're reaching your hand towards the pouch you immediately see that the authoritar... the other two are too far away but the authoritar is like... Base part of it. Yeah and you can tell that like if you go for it they're going to see you do it.

Like so you can abandon it and try and do something else, or it's up to you. Okay, so they stop me from... If you do it, they're gonna know that you've reached in and done something. You've not gotten away with it. They've clocked you trying to do something with your pouch. So you can abandon it and just play it off like,

oh, sorry, I was just going to get my thing. What the fuck? Fuck. Shit. Dick. It's a great idea. I love the idea. It's a great idea, but.

18 pluses bonuses. Unfortunately, like, there was. The first two rolled really bad, I should point out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just don't think I have any other, like, covering sort of spells, you know? So I could do more freely. How do I lie my way out of this?

You're also lucky he's not used all of that fate as well. Oh, I'm going to spend it on complications. Do you mind if... Is this same authorator speaking to the other people after me? Yeah, it will be. So it couldn't be a cut to someone else's situation for a bit while I think about my plans?

I can cut to like a Daisy and Mateo or a Gruff making their way back, yeah? Yeah, I just need to think. Sure, I mean, you know, I will just throw out some things here as well. You could just try and bribe this guy. You could say no. Be like, here's a 500 GP diamond, let me go.

Like, he might be corrupt, he might not be, you don't know. Yeah, yeah. But anyway, let's cut back to, yeah, so Daisy, what is Daisy doing? Like, this is like, you know, five in the morning, six a.m. in the morning. Did you try and go back to bed, or are you just like on your bed, just like, you know? I in the morning, six a.m. in the morning. Did you try and go back to bed, or are you just like on your bed, just like eating ice cream?

I'm eating ice cream on the bed, yeah. You're just eating ice cream on the bed. So you would get like a kind of like, hello, Daisy, are you in here? Hello? It's Mateo. Carry my ice cream over to the door. Hello?

Gruff sent me to try and find you. Gruff? Yeah. Where is he? Well, he went down to the docks. Did he leave? No, he's not left. He's making his way back up to the tower right now.

Oh. Up to the fort to try and see what he can do about this mess that your friends have gotten themselves into. Yeah. What happened? I don't really fully know, but there was a man on the floor covered in blood.

Oh, I've been there. Yes, seems likely. But I'm sure it's very much just a misunderstanding. So who, so what was it? Is it Xanthius, Roman and Ophelia got taken? Yes. Well, I'm sure it'll be all right. It's not like any of them have got any horrible

dark secrets that they need to keep, is it? Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. Ha ha ha ha ha. You don't want a joke. Thank you, thank you. To drink.

To drink. Ha ha ha. I know, I'm so funny. It's not like, oh, crazy dark secrets or anything. It'd be silly, wouldn't it? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Good point. Okay, but you also were not here. Yes, exactly. I don't know anything off the surface. Yeah. I've never seen these people before a day in my life.

Sometimes we wish, but no. I'm joking. What? No, she doesn't say that. No, I mean, no, you got the context wrong. Yeah, no I don't. I mean, that's. It's fine.

Yeah, can you just tell them I have to stay here because this is where they're expecting me to be and if I don't stay here then they'll arrest me. Do you need anything else? More ice cream, more ice. You know what, I'm on it. Don't leave it to Matteo De Die. It's easily done.

Also, if Gruff wants to come here and wait too, then that's fine. It seems like they wanted to talk to them and then they're gonna sort it out. That would be, I think, based on my very limited legal training, that would probably be the case. The authoritar will probably come up here, they'll probably speak to them all individually.

You know, they are eligible to get an authoritar of their own to represent them, if they are being arrested for anything. Oh. You know, good ones cost some money. It can take some time to get them here. Generally they're used to a bigger cases. But it could be possible.

But yes, I'll go and fetch Gruff and let him know. Okay. All right. I'm just gonna be here. Okay. Don't look in Ophelia's room. Why? Blood. Oh, cause of all the blood.

Oh. Yeah. I want to kind of have a little peek there. No. Sure. Did you see the chair? No. I want to kind of have a little peek. No. Did you see the chair? No. If you look out the window you'll see a chair. Oh I came in that way, there wasn't a chair.

Maybe they've taken it away. Maybe they've already gone. It was a chair. All right. But I'm sure it's a very big misunderstanding. Of course it is. You're all heroes. You know, I spoke to those guards.

I should go down to the barracks and maybe get the guards like I spoke to you. Remind them of the heroes who fought the monsters on the beach, that this is them. You know, I could put in a good word. But then that would be admitting that you know us. That is a very good point. I will subtly remind someone to come and tell these guards that they are the ones, that you are all heroes who fought on the beach

and fought the monsters. Great, okay. Great, all right. More ice cream coming up and then I will go fungri. Good, good, good, good, good. I genuinely feel better with Mateo around. You just feel better? Yeah. He's just around? Yeah. He's useless and will very likely die.

Oh. He is... I have rolled only Nat 20s with him. That luck will not hold out forever. I believe. I mean, sure. I believe. I mean, he could just be bones as those.

He could just become bones. And then you get delightful bones. Delightful bones. Handsome bones. Handsome bones. How are you doing there, Tom? I have nothing. You have nothing?

Nothing but the truth. I have nothing, so I'm literally just, I'll be back to me. We can be. I don't think I'll be doing that. What do you mean? How does this pertain to the case, exactly? Well, it does not pertain to the events of last night,

but we have- Fantastic. Then I will- Somebody has reported that there is a malady that I shouldn't be aware of that you may be bearing, that you may be harboring certain condition. And what condition would that be? Do you really wish me to say it, Mr. Oregon?

I'd like to know, thank me. Crown steel corruption. Crown steel corruption in a to say it, Mr. Oragon? I'd like to know, thank me. Crown steel corruption. Crown steel corruption, in a gold dragonborn, typical. I can assure you, Mr. Oragon, this is... Oh, he's gonna sass his way out of it. Not motivated by any prejudice, we have an eyewitness who saw your arm and recognized Crownsteel corruption. They recognized Crownsteel corruption?

Well, that is why I would like to inspect it, to make sure. If, of course, this is a misunderstanding, you would have no problem with showing us your arm, and myself and the good brother and sister of the church here can examine it and be on your way if this is some malady or some other issue. This is, as you said, not pertaining to the case

in which you're investigating, so I will not be cooperating with this request. I see. Very well. I presume I'm free to go? Absolutely not. I'm afraid that based on the suspicion of Crown Still Corruption,

I have to politely ask you to remain here. And should you refuse, you will be arrested. Fine. Very well, Mr. Orega. How the fuck do I get out of this? That is the way you wish to play it. Calling the big guns. Video.

How? I don't know. There's a bigger gun as well. Yeah, a Sovie, Sovie Wovie. No, not that one. Oh, that is a good one. I was literally thinking about Scaratelos. Oh, I was talking about my biggest gun.

No. Scaratelos is having a little nerpy nap. Scarra Talos is not, that's not gonna come. So. I don't know dude. No. You will be. I don't know how to contact OVRN.

You will be escorted. When they try and approach you, he will make his presence known. You will be escorted back to the room that you were in. How can I fucking leave. The two, the priest and the priestess of Maelor and Pyrrhus will march you down along with the guards. The woman, the female priestess of Pyrrhus,

looks especially sort of angry and judgmental, like this is a glower from this woman. Human woman, very tall, bright, sunny hair, just sort of glowering at you as you make your way down, as you are basically marched back down into the fort. Drowth, you arrive at the entrance to the watch, to Watch's Point, sorry. You arrive at the entrance to the watch, to Watch's point, sorry.

You see a couple of the guards outside. They say, hello there, sir, can we help you? Hello, I would like to speak to Watch Commander Myranna Taravos, please. And you see one of them will look at you and is like, ah, did you not, you came here yesterday, didn't you? Yes. Yes, I think I remember you. Knight Errant, right?

Yes, that's me. All right, very well, yes. The commander did say that. We'll see if she's available first, if you can just wait here. We had a bit of an incident last night. We're just trying to coordinate with the local City Watch, but I just need to go and speak with her briefly.

Thank you. And here we'll head inside. Whilst you're waiting, Mateo comes jogging up. He's like, oh, good morning, Seaguard. Hello, welcome. Ah, my, you there, good sir. You seem the type of fellow that I should have a conversation with about my performance.

Last night, you came to see me. Right. I'm just going to have a conversation with this man about his performance last night. Sure, yeah, they're like, yeah, that's fine, just don't go too far. We're waiting on the commander. And he's sort of like... She, like, gets it out of earshot. Crap! Hello. I found Daisy. Oh, thank... She like gets it out of earshot. Graff!

Hello. I thought Daisy. Oh, I thought you said... She's back in the hotel, but she's been told by the guards not to leave because they want to come and speak to her about what happened last night as well. I think she let them know that you were all friends or that she was friends with them and now they want to speak to her. Please. It's a whole thing.

But I thought I'd come and let you know. She's stuck there. She said if you want to come away with her, you can as well. But that's where she is. She's stuck whole thing. But I thought I'd come and let you know. She's stuck there. She said if you want to come away with her, you can as well. But that's where she is. She's stuck in there. I'm going to speak to the Watch Commander and see what I can do. Right, perfect. She wants some help. Take him with you. What's the worst that could... Actually, Mateo, you are the best of us.

He is the best. That's true. I'd really appreciate it if you could keep Daisy company right now. I'm on it. Can you apologize to her from me for just abandoning her? I didn't mean to do that. Ah, yes, of course, absolutely. Not a problem, absolutely. I can pass the message on.

She's had six pints of ice cream, it's fine. Just like, oh, it's just gonna be sick. I had a lot of things on my mind and I just... It's fine, I don't, Graraft, leave it with me, please. Delivering apologies for other people happens to be a speciality of mine. I'm very good at apologizing on other people's behalf. Right. Very good. All right, leave it with me.

We'll make it the way back. You are the best of us. Thank you for that generous tip for my performance. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Well, because I don't know you. I've never met you in my life. You're a funny fellow. Uh, you wait for a moment and yeah,

Commander Marana will make her way down. Um, who comes and meets you this time, like, rather than you bringing Braw inside, she will actually come outside. Um, and be like, time, like rather than you bringing Braw inside, she will actually come outside and be like, oh Knight Erend, I thought you were heading off on your, heading off on your quest. That was probably my favorite American accent. I was supposed to be,

but I was meant to be accompanied by several companions. Companions of mine, who apparently are currently sitting in your cells. Well, we don't really have, they should, normally they wouldn't be brought here to Watcher's Keeper because it was so close to the hotel, my men and women didn't want to take them all the way through the town to the barracks,

they should have been taken there, but yes, I need to, they're your, these are your companions. Yes. I need to speak with you about a pretty important matter. Come inside, and we'll take you inside, and takes you into a little side room of this sort of like, you know, it's quite a big fort,

you know, there's multiple rooms and things like that, and it takes you over to your room, and we'll just sort of like look at you and be like, Night Errant, I need to know something. There was a report last night, one of my guards, she's a pretty learned woman. One of your companions, the Dragonborn Xanthius, his arm showed signs of crown steel corruption.

Now, you know, as soon as my guards started talking about it, that information is disseminated. Now the authorities and the sent word to the church here that we have, as a priest and priestess of the Scions here, did you know about this? Why is your problem my problem? Oh god. I need to think, my next character is just gonna be a plank of wood. Even then it would just end up giving him

a rose pendant. There's woodworm in it, it's warped. 22 by four. I can only do what Gruff is gonna do. Yes, I am aware. Oh fucking Christ. Gruff is the best of us, he's never gonna lie. No, no, no, I'm just gonna lie.

If I may. She looks at you, please make it good. This situation... Would he? Would he? The situation is being dealt with. One of the reasons we're here is to assist in the removal of it.

You have to understand, what you're saying, I can't just take that on faith, Knight Errant Gruff, I mean, can you tell me, I need more than that. I need, I need, you're trying to remove it? What's, it's, he can't, it's, what, it's, is this removing the corruption? Is some, you need to tell me more. Can I trust you?

Because you must understand this is a matter of great sensitivity. Right now, Sir Greffith, I don't think you have an option of whether you trust me or not. If I, I can forget that you just told me that, but that young man right now is being interrogated by the authorities and the church.

It's only a matter of time until they send word to the ecliptic order, they will, I mean, you know the punishment for corruption like this is, it's normally execution. If it can't be removed, only lowest levels of corruption, they may take them to a prison or a temple or an asylum to try and remove it, but if it's bad enough enough they will just execute him. You don't have a choice on whether you

trust me or not but if it's worth anything yes you can. The problem is Watch Commander is what I'm about to tell you means that depending on what you decide to do with it, could make your life incredibly complicated. I will deal with that. That often comes with a lot of paperwork. Anyway, as an aside, we are here,

we have been here, to garner the assistance of the second magister of the academia, Lord Scaratalos. She takes a big inhale of breath. That is a very important name in this province. I do not say it lightly. If we contacted Lord Scaratallos, he would confirm that this young man is, he knows about all of this, this is with his permission?

He would confirm. I need to let the Duchess know. If it's, if we're talking that level, if this is something that Lord Scaratallos is involved in, I need to let the duchess know. Now that's where that becomes a problem. Why? Because the more people who know,

the worse this gets. This situation is being dealt with and will be dealt with before more people know. But the more people know, the more fear is spread. And the more fear is spread, the more bad decisions are made. I understand, but you must appreciate my position on this. I am sworn to my Lady Duchess.

This is the hierarchy. Lord Scaratallis is a very, very well-respected member of the provinces. He is not the ruler of this area, the duchess is, but she has great respect for Scaratellis, but I can't keep her out of this. Now I can press upon her exactly what you just told me, but I have to let her know.

May I beg time? I don't think we have the time. If we don't get this resolved now, your friend down there is gone. Don't think that I'm unaware of that. I have been traveling as this boy's warden for a while now. I am very aware of the dangers associated with this. Good.

What I'm saying is if we don't get whatever this situation is before the church send word to the ecliptic order, they'll supersede anything that we can do. They won't care about Lord Scaretel's...the church is not affiliated with the draconic lords. They won't care. So if we get him out now, it has to be under my approval, and to get my approval, I need my Duchess's approval. And for the Duchess to sign off on this,

she needs to hear from Lord Scaratallos. Now I can send a runner to the Ducal Palace now, and Duchess Glimaxor is a mage, she can contact Lord Scartalos. I'm sure she'll be able to send word to him, but I need to do this now. Kim to Mark. Yes. Groff does not know that the ecliptic order knows.

Malady knows. And Malady was kind of on the sly anyway. That's the thing you would know, is like Malady has been, is like, she is a member of the Ecliptic Order, but you have always got the oppression that she plays by her own rules anyway. And you know that Benedicta's reaction

to a lot of this stuff, playing powers and things like that, has always been pretty bad. Yep. Sorry, Tom, there's no way I can. Yeah, I know, I mean, yeah. I've got no way out either. Well, Gruff wouldn't lie as well. Especially to a position of authority.

I don't blame you. Um... Yeah, I can't think of another way to kind of... Wash Commander. The reason I came here was because today we were supposed to set out on our journey to Surjor and Arpa. I remember. To stop the attacks that are happening on the coast. I remember.

I need my companions to do this. And the more this is delayed, the more people are going to die in these waters. So that's why I need to get this word out to the Duchess now. As for the rest of your companions, whatever happened in that hotel room, I'm pretty sure that the young man, whoever it was, collaborated the story, that he was paid, it was consensual, maybe there's some damages to the hotel,

that's not an issue anymore. But the authoriter is keeping them down there because of this crown steel problem. This would have been resolved 30 minutes ago if it wasn't for that. Do you thought it is known for certain? Or are they going off what some... I don't know.

There was one of my guards, she said that she saw his arm when he was getting changed. She is pretty learned. She's studied and listens and hears stories and she reported it to the authoritar when he came by and she said what she had seen. He immediately sent word to the church. They sent a couple of priests

and I believe that there's, I think they're speaking to him right now. I don't know, now, I don't know this young man. Do you think he's the type to admit to it? Do you think he's, if they, if they tell him to show them, will he do that? No, he will not. Then maybe there's time.

If I can send word to the Duchess, if I can get an approval, if I can get a writ, basically giving a leave for him to be let go, maybe we can make this happen, but... I just worry what will happen when the Duchess knows. That's the gamble you've got to take right now. I just worry what will happen when the Duchess knows. That's the gamble you've got to take right now. Because the last thing we need is a lot of panicked dragons. You need to make that call right now, Knight Erend.

You're our leader, remember? I never asked for this! This is our knightly quest, right? I never said I was a leader! That's what we're doing, right? Should have left you on the road. For those who couldn't hear that, Kim just said, I should have left him on the road. Yeah, there's a lot of situations where you should have left.

Do you want a minute? I can't think of it. I gruff when... Do you want a minute? No, because there's nothing I can do or say. I've got this whole like, Sir Joran needs a favor, but I'm not feeling it.

Gruff, because you know she's in a difficult position and, Gruff doesn't do that, but then this boy, this boy! This boy. I feel you needed a snack. then this boy, this boy! This boy. I feel you needed a snack. I feel you needed a snack! She didn't even need the snack. Let's be clear. She had a snack, she wanted another snack.

Oh, somehow Rowan was bleeding! A snack for what I'm pretty sure was communicating wasn't a two-day ride. If you want a little minute, I can do another thing. That was like two weeks. Was it two weeks, right, Roy? There's nothing you can do. Huh?

You're like banked into a corner here. Yeah, yeah. It's not your fault at all. No, no, no. Ride out whatever decision you make. I think honestly my biggest concern is I just... The more dragons that know about this, the harder it's going to be to lift this, to remove this crown.

We have a plan. We have a plan. We have things, we have processes in place. We need time. I will let you make a persuasion roll. The DC is going to be high. In fact, I'm going to tell you the DC. The DC is going to be 25. 25.

What is your persuasion? You don't want to know. Not great. I'm assuming you're spending the fate point. Last fate point, yeah. Plus one. You just need to roll on that 20. Yeah.

Just knock out a 20 real quick. 20 with a six on the fate. You have advantage, so that's fine. I have advantage. I lie to the table. Oh. We've done enough of that today. You can imagine if that worked.

I will give you advantage because she does respect Nigh-Aren't Gruff, she does respect him. Was it quite an impassioned speech? It was a very impassioned speech. It was a very impassioned speech. I will give you advantage on the roll. You need 25. No. Yikes.

Yikes. That's a big yikes, dog. I hear you, Knight Arangroth, but I cannot do this without telling my Duchess. I cannot promise you anything, but if what you're saying's true, if you have Lord Scaratallis' blessing to carry this young man in whatever danger he poses,

the only way that I can get him out of this situation is with my Duchess's approval. It's that or he goes with the authoritor and the ecliptic order. I apologize for what I'm about to say, but this is all the only card I have left. Ser Jorah wants me to remind you of what he did for you at the Fragwitch. Fuck!

She looks pissed. I'm sorry. That is how far I need to go for this boy. Then you tell Jorahn... we're done. And I never want to see you in my town again. Any of you. You don't know what you're asking me to do. But I do owe Joran that. But I never want to see him or you,

any of you in my town again. I'm sorry, Watch Commander. This boy means a lot to me. Go to the docks. You'll be brought there. Thank you. She goes inside. I genuinely want to cry. Oh my god.

That was amazing. That was so good. Well done. Santhias. No, I'm gonna leave you till last. Thanks, please, dude. Ophelia. Oh.

Boom, boom, boom. Door unlocks. What? You hear it unlock and it opens. You're free to go. What, what? Come on. What, what, what happened?

Why? You're free to go. No questions? No questions. Blessings of the great father! What? Okay. You are escorted out.

You see them go into Rowan's door. Rowan, you hear the same thing, unlocks, opens up. I lied, okay? I cut my arm to defend. Stop. You're free to go. What? Come on, your friends are waiting outside. Oh, all right.

The two of you are led outside. What the hell? What happened? That was so easy. That was so tough. I've never fought for a life. What a rush. Santheus.

I climbed a building with a man. That's not potato. And I'm still in prison! You climbed a building with a man! We should do that again. You threw a bloody chair out the window, and I'm in prison! You're a community with sovereign!

I didn't choose that! Uh, correct it, you did. I'm allowed to put the skin on, I'm allowed! I'm not allowed! To be clear, like, this is the thing. Xanthias, you hear, outside of your room, you hear an argument, an explosive argument. You can't do this.

He is a prisoner. And it kind of muffled, you are only catching words of it. By order of the Duchess, that young man is to be released under the Duchess's orders, under my orders, authoritar, you and the priests get out. It's like, you can't do this. You don't and the priests, get out. It's like, you can't do this. You don't have the authority, you don't represent. I am the watch commander, he is my prisoner.

He is being released. Now go. And you hear like this argument, like you hear steel being drawn. Oh fuck. You hear, don't make that mistake, Authoritor. You know that I have plenty of loyal people here that can deal with you if I need to.

You, you're going to regret this. Well, Nobi's going to the Lavender Garden ever again. There's another franchise in a different sea. Yeah, well, that's a wrap. After a few moments, the door opens and a very tall, imposing half-orc woman in full plate armor covered in a crisscross of these glowing scars, come with me.

Okay. Watch Commander, I presume? That's right. Okay. I would suggest you don't say anything else from this point on. I nod a lot. You are taken not out the main entrance.

She leads you to, she leads you into a storeroom and then will look at you and be like, turn around and face the door. You go, okay. You hear grinding stone as a secret door opens and you see a staircase leading down. And she basically is like, come on.

Where are we going? Does it matter? You're not going with them. I don't want to die. You're not gonna die. Okay. She takes you, leads you down, it's quite a long way, and then eventually opens up another secret door which

leads out at the seawall onto the beach itself and it's kind of hidden by like a rocky sort of like alcove like it's it's this you're gonna get your feet a bit wet as you go through the shallows but she will just look at you and be like remind your friend gruff of what i told him Remind your friend Gruff of what I told him. Gruff did this? Gruff did this. Remind him of what I told him. And count the scions. You've got a friend like him. And then shuts the door on your face.

I'm just gonna sort of look around like, where do I go? With that, you're as Asantius is left there. Yeah, I, I mean I'm gonna be looking around, like I'm expecting someone else to show up or I'm ready for guards to round the corner or something. I don't know. No guards to be coming? I don't know where I am, I don't know why I'm here.

I'm like. The two of you, Rowan and Ophelia, you are escorted up into the main exit, and you are held in sort of like the main lobby area. I think coming from like a basement is this tall, imposing orc warrior woman. She will come over and sort of gesture the doors open, and she'll be like, she'll come up to you and be like,

the matter of last night's incident has been resolved. Your story was collaborated by the young man you paid for his service. Yes. I would recommend in the future you take breaded precautions and don't lie to guards when they come asking about what happened.

Okay, I was- You are free to go. Okay. Sorry? She just holds up her hand and then leans in. Your other friend is waiting on the beach. Was that, why's he on the beach? Good day, citizens.

What is happening? What's going on? Why are we, why are we? Who did you suck the blood off? Are they royalty? No, just a man. Daisy and Mateo, you have been waiting patiently, but Gruff, you would know where Daisy is,

and you could make your way to them to let them know what's going on. Oh, bang on the door. Oh! Ah! Mateo draws his dagger. Who is it? It's me, Gruffeth.

Oh, thank God. Thank the gods. Daisy will hug Gruff immediately. Are they okay, are you okay, what's happening? They will be okay, and I'm sorry, I hope you're okay. We need to go now. I got all their stuff already, I gathered it up because I thought this was gonna happen,

here's the outcome, I slagged everything. Mateo will help light hoist it up. Mateo, we have been told to leave and not come back, and this is very serious. I will understand if you do not want to come with us. They don't know that I'm with you, so I can come back. I can still go with you. As long as you understand the dangers,

we are not welcoming you. How can I, how can I abandon my friends in this dire time? In this time of need? You need me more than ever. He did bring me lots of eye cream. It was very nice. I don't need you, would he? It's fine. Come, my friends. It'll be all right. Let's go, Daisy. We need to go to the docks immediately. OK, OK. Let's go. Let's go.

As we leave... Um... Thinking about the condition of the room, I'm gonna leave another 100 GP. Okay. Just literally as we leave. The little halfling is like, oh, thank you, Mr. Graff, thank you very much. Would you like to leave a message for Lady Kay,

or Mr. Kay, or? They did mention that you might want to leave some messages for them. We're not gonna be a problem, we said, when we checked in. Just a case of... They did mention that you might want to leave some messages for them. We're not going to be a problem, we said, when we checked in. Tell that charlatan... The charlatan? He'll know. They'll know.

We've had to leave and I trust they'll know how to find us. Oh, all right. Very good. I'm assuming this money is for the state of Miss Ophelia's room? Yes, and I apologize on their behalf. That's all right, we'll get the magic cleaners in. They should be able to get the blood out no problem. Oh yes, oh, very good.

We'll have the rooms ready for you for when you return. Yes. Very good. I think we may be some time. Oh well, you know, the room's paid for a week, so if you need to be gone for a bit, that's fine. Still some free slippers on the way out. No, straight to the docks.

Sure, all right. Rowan and Ophelia, what do you guys do? Ophelia, I'm so sorry for making it worse. Don't, you dare apologize. You had nothing to do with this. This is all my fault. Yeah, you did a naughty. Let's not get past that.

You did a real big naughty there. I didn't mean to do a naughty. I know. It just got a little bit out of control. It was a lot of blood. It's still down your front. Yeah, your outfit is stained. I'll get like a rag, dip it in the seawater by the beach.

No, it's OK. So you guys make your way down there, because then you'll bump into the sand. I guess so, yeah. Yeah. So we'll head down to the beach talking like this. I deserve to be a mess for the time being. Well, you don't have a purse, you do, so here.

You're not, my. I'll just clean anyway. Try and like wipe off what you can. I mean, it's kind of stained in now. Honestly. There's not much you can do. It's kind of scaring me, so I'd like to mop it off. Okay.

It's dried in, so it's like you're like smearing. It's not working. Cracking. It's okay. The area we're in is like no one else is coming down this way. So you're kind of like at the far end of the beach, far away from the tourist area,

and it's all like probably further over there. So there's like a little kind of like little alcove nook cove, and you've come out that. You'll get your feet wet, but you can go around the rocks and get onto the public beach basically. Yeah. Well, I guess if I hear voices, my immediate thing is like, I'm gonna back up into a corner

and just see who this could be first, because like I said, I'm worried guards are gonna come down. I have just been arrested and highly under suspicion, so I'm like trying to avoid people. But if I hear Ronan and Ophelia's voice, I guess from like the rock wall behind like a, I guess a jagged horn or something, you'll kind of hear like a Rowan, Ophelia?

Rowan, is that you? It's Antius. It is, is anyone else here with you? No, just us. Okay, I'm gonna come out then. What just happened? I don't know, I don't know. Why are you here?

I was arrested, I think you guys were as well, right? Yes, yeah. Somehow they knew about... Oh. Yeah. And then now I think all of them know, but for some reason I was set free by the... We were set free too. They just let us go.

But was it the Watch Commander that Lady Wyrd? Yes. I think so. Tall Orc Lady. Right, same. Pretty weird. They just let me go despite having, they were going to detain me.

They mentioned Gruff. I think Gruff was there. Yes, yes, I need to speak to Gruff as well. They had a message for Gruff. Oh no. So Gruff knows about, I, I, I. Oh. Where is Gruff?

Let's go back to the hotel. Should we go to the docks first? I think Gruff might be there waiting for us to leave. We completely missed that. Oh true, yeah, the hotel is bad because of what you did. I don't want to go back through the city. I, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the,

the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, an authoriter. Let's go to the docks. And some of the- What? Yes, yeah. What? Oh, that's serious.

Yeah, and they did not- And they still released you? They did not sound too happy. The watch commander fought, argued with them to set me free. Ha, either way, I think people are after me now. Let's go to the docks. Yes, go to the docks.

First, are you okay? I have no idea what is happening or how I got to this situation. You should have just stayed in your room. I should have. I really should. What were you doing? Who was that?

What? Who was that person? I paid him. He was just some schmuck that I... He was coming out of one of the bars, and I asked him, I gave him 50 gold, and he let me drink some of his blood. I was going to take some on the boat,

because I only have one jar, and I needed more. I have three questions. Yes. One, why did you need more blood? You have blood, you have blood. I don't know how long we're going to be and I need more. Two, who's 50 gold did you spend?

Gaffs. Why do you keep spending gold? You keep giving it to me to spend! I don't like this at all! Okay, we need to just- So you're having this conversation, like the public are starting to filter down to like fill out the public tourist beach.

Have you got like a cloak or a cowl or a cape or a shroud or something like that? Yes. I have an ornate painting! You do not! You don't! No, you don't! Ophelia, you keep doing this,

you keep saying I have an ornate painting and then you hold nothing up. Why does this keep happening? I'm going to do this with my hands and pull apart and I'm going to use performance of creation to create a very big cloak for you. Perfect. Okay, that is wonderful.

It might, I mean, okay, it might seem strange. What are you doing with that? I'm gonna wear this because I don't want people to see me or I don't want guards to see me. Understandable. I don't want anyone to, I think, I think what's happened is Zanthias Aurigan is now well known as a crown still have a. Great, because I'm now well known as a people drinker.

That's not news. No, but if it gets, I'm a diplomat. If it gets out, then a diplomat from office is going around drinking people willy nilly, it's not going to look very good. Ophelia, I really like this place. Me too. I had such a good time in here. I relaxed.

I relaxed as well. I relaxed. I laid down on the beach and I was having all of the food. We even had that moment. Everyone does it on holiday when they have some kind of special food and they're like, wow, we have to have this every day when we get home. It was wonderful. We did that.

It was like a dream come true. I don't want to have any way of being food ever again. I don't want to think of this place. My shoulders went down. Did you know how long it's been since my shoulders went down? They are so up right now. They're touching my ears. They're inside my ears.

I am. My heart, it's a person. I wish I did! Rowan, are you okay? I don't know what to do! What do we do? Okay. I'm gonna walk out into the sea. No, no, you stay out of the sea.

I'm gonna walk out into the sea. Wait, you can cause water breathing. Let's all walk, we can live little water, you can live on water. You can live on water. Start again. This is us now. This is who we are. The Great Father can't wait to be in the water.

No one can find me down there. Oh, Jona, take me now. I grip Ophelia. No. I grip Ophelia by the shoulder, Xanthias by the shoulder. We need to get this together. We do. But Gruffus, Gruffus get this together. We do, we need to go.

But Gruffydd, Gruffydd has done something. Okay, yes, you're right. And we need to do right by them. Let's go to the Dock right now. Yep. I think I'm more scared of this than anything else. The three of you make your way along the beach, passing by, you know, tourists beginning to filter down,

laying out their towels, getting a good place here on the beach. You see the bull on the beach opening. Branick, you know, kind of gives you a little wave, seeing you as you go past. Small sheepish. Little sheepish little wave. Eventually you come to these series of jetties and docks,

various ships, little coastal sloops and small ships, catamarangs, that sort of thing, being loaded up with cargo, being set out for fishing, and I guess waiting. Imagine the whole walk from the hotel. Gruff's probably like power walked to the docks. It's very determined and Daisy's like trying to keep up. Trying to keep up.

Matteo's kind of like helping carry some of the stuff. As you see, yeah, Daisy and Matteo sat there, probably catching their breath, breathing heavy, and Gruff, very standing there, looking as you see the three of them approaching from the beach. Well, you see two of them, and then somebody in a very big, thick, heavy cloak

coming alongside with them. Oh, Gruffwith, I'm so sorry, I fall to my knees. Get on the boat. Okay. Sheepishly get on the boat. You see Ser Joran sort of just nods to you this barnacle night. He's wearing his kind of big rounded, diver suit-esque kind of armor. And he's kind of loading it up. And he just sees you and he immediately like gives you like some supplies.

It's like put those over there and start putting you to work immediately. Like, pick that up, bring that here, that sort of thing. Come hold this, tie this, blah, blah, blah. That's all I need to do. Yep. Okay, it's me, Gruff, it's me, it's Santhius. I have no idea what just happened.

Get on the boat. I'm getting on the boat, okay. But we can speak, we'll speak on the boat, yes? Ophelia, there is water on the boat for you to clean yourself. Get on it now. Yes. Oh, that's best.

The two of you get on the boat. Mateo, like, Mateo would probably whisper, he's like, Krf sounds really pissed. Yeah. Oh, I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. Luckily, we're the good kids. Did you bring ice cream? I'm stressed again.

Hands you a little tub of ice cream. I'm still, Mateo and Daisy just start eating ice cream. Yeah, they look. Graf, do you need anything else? Yes, do you need anything, Graf? Anything before we head off? Graf is not answering, he's busy pulling up the gang. I think we should get on the boat.

Oh, are they not on the boat? Oh, sorry. They'll get on the boat now. Yeah. And then just be like, right, throws that in the ocean. Mr. Knight, anything we can do? He's like, ah, yes, take that, you get down there,

hold that, come tie these rope. Gruff, I swear to you, I was doing everything with my power to make it on time for your quest. It was of the utmost importance to me. I don't know, things just really spiraled out of hand. Somehow we ended up in the barracks. Somehow they knew about, I look around the boat to see who might be listening, you know, this thing.

And somehow the High Marsh will let me out. Well, I say somehow, they mentioned you. Apparently you spoke to them and they argued with the authorities to set me free, but I don't understand why that's happened or... Gruff? Why aren't you looking at me, Gruff? You can probably see a muscle twitching in Gruff's jaw

and his tail is twitching like that sharp... Yeah. Swish. Flick. And he's not necessarily looking at you. He's looking over the three of you. Like, and looking at the shore, and looking at the tower. So you feel like the wind catch the sail of this little sloop as the boat sort of lurches and creaks as it begins to pull away from Wavemeat.

So Joran goes back to the tiller, gets like a hand on a rope, as the boat sort of lurches and creaks as it begins to pull away from Wavemeat. So Joran goes back to the tiller, gets like a hand on a rope, and it's basically probably Daisy and Mateo, he calls the two of you, he's like, right, you go over there, come help me with this, and he's directing those two, leaving the three of you and Gruff

sort of more at the front of the boat for a minute. As you watch, as you all see Wavemeat beginning to vanish into the skyline, into the horizon. Probably the last thing you would see is on the very edge of the docks is that same tall orc woman in her armour just staring and watching you leave. Just her cape, her blue cape kind of caught in the wind as she just watches you all leave. What does Sajoran, what's he doing? her cape, her blue cape, kind of caught in the wind as she just watches you all leave. What does Sir Joran, what's he doing?

Seems super focused. He's got like a little cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He's focused, like catching the wind, like kind of holding up a hand and then just... But he doesn't, he seems nonplussed. Gruff, it wasn't their fault. I'm sorry. The thing about being part of a group, being travelling companions, being part of a family,

is that your actions have an impact on everyone. I have done what had to be done, and I am not proud of it. All I ask in the following days is to think of the people your actions will have an impact on. And please, don't disappoint me again. And with that, we will end today's episode of High Rollers. As we last see the tiny sloop with its name written in beautiful handwriting on the edge, the sun kissed as the boat, the sun kissed, makes its way out heading off towards the deeper oceans and the isles of the Suncrest Isles.

With that, those last few words hanging in the air. And that is where we end today's episode. What? That was my favorite episode. It was everything. That was a lot. I think there's gonna be a lot of people at home just stressed out of their minds.

I'm so sweaty. We have had so many do not sleep on X episode of Hyrule is because, like, hey, do you remember those couple of episodes where they went gambling? Watch the next one. Yeah, you think it's like a fun beach episode, Ark? Mm-mm, it's pretty real. Put us in a very lovely town, we will find a way.

I mean, honestly, I was not expecting any of that to go. My notes for this session, by the way, it's a two line thing for Ophelia's, it's called Ophelia's Oopsy, and I just have two lines in it, which is basically like, yep, the guy's unconscious, he can be roused, there's blood all over the floor, the guards have this passive perception, stuff like that.

If there's a lot of noise, the guards will come and investigate. Those were my entire notes, because I was like, it won't be that big of a deal. It'll be nice and quick. It just wasn't. Yeah, but he woke up and he screamed. It was like, well, he screamed, Rowan screamed.

Like, his scream, it was Rowan's scream that brought the guard, by the way. Ophelia threw a chair at the leader. It was already going to shit by that point anyway. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it didn't help, let's be honest. But I was like, what, help? So it was just like, it was just like this escalating

series of events and dice rolls that just led to all of that. The fucking combat encounter that I planned, I just like, I just shelved that for next week. It's a lovely little battle there. Lovely little battle. It's still there. It's still there for next time.

I've just delayed a little bit. Yeah, but it's great. It's just a series of cool decisions. Like, do I need to get changed before I go to the barracks? Yeah, okay. Oh, I'm gonna have a guard with me? Oh, okay. I'll make a slight hand check.

Oh, okay. There's so many degrees of hand check. Oh okay. There was so many degrees of error that led to this. This Frieden, Sherlock Holmes guy, rule of 20, being like, I've possessed everything in this room. And then this sidekick Watson here, looking at Xanthius's arm, being like, hmm. Well, you know, like there's no way,

if they were being arrested, she wasn't just gonna leave him on his own to like change. She's like, oh I'm just gonna leave him on his own to like change. She's like, oh, I'm just gonna like make sure he doesn't take anything. He buffed, he fucking balked to the sleight of hand roll. Then I had to roll a fucking arcana check to see if she would recognize it, which she did. Because I rolled like an 18, 19 or something crazy.

And it was just like these things where it just kept happening. Just, yeah, it was just like, I can't feel too bad about it when it was just like these things where it just kept happening. Just, yeah, it was just like, I can't feel too bad about it when it was just like, Just tell stories, man. 20 different events all led in that direction. Everyone's just like, I feel you just wanted a snack. It was all I wanted.

It was just a silly little event. A little num num. A little num num. A little num num for the road. A little num nums. And he paid, you know, the thing is, he's ultimately, he consented, he paid him. Like, it wasn't a big deal.

It was just the circumstances that looked bad. Well, that was the other thing, because I rolled, like, when you woke him up, I rolled a con save to see if he would knock out again. I rolled a five. And so he just passed out again. And I was just like, well, he's out again. And then that made it look so much worse

when the guards arrived. It's just little things like that. But what a fucking thing with Gruff. What a great way of this friendly NPC who is totally willing, like, look, I'll help you, but I've gotta let my Duchess know. And Gruff's like, you can't, you can't tell them. Like, it's great though.

And then using the favor to basically, and just for the context of why that was so big a deal, it means that basically she has now, she's acted without the Duchess's authority to let this really serious criminal go, and it's probably gonna cost her her career, it's probably gonna cost her her honor with the Duchess, but whatever deal she owes Sajodorin was enough to do it.

And so you asking that, bringing that up is like, fuck you. That's why I felt so bad doing it. But what changed my mind was I was like, I failed the roll and I was like, how far would Gruff go for Xanthias? The answer, we have the answer. I have written those down, the authoritar Kaz Cardwell as well,

and Moranitola. They're like, Kaz Cardwell is gonna be fucking after you, dude. You are gonna be like the criminal that gets away. I got rid of one authoritar. Yeah. I'm just chaining authoritors at this point. What if they speak? I'm ruined.

They just need to talk. What's his name? Sorry, authoritarial. I hate to remind you of this as well, but do keep in mind that Sister Ophelia left a message. Which is where you can be found. There is evidence that the authoritar has of like Sister Ophelia, the House of Blood, Ashen's rest, Tyorea's Rest Inn.

Yeah. I'm also just imagining, like, they came to Ashen's Rest. Isn't it a bit weird? They also work quite closely with the duke. Isn't it weird? Obsidius also went to wave me at the same time? Yeah, I tried not to say that name. Obviously we didn't play very smart.

And I contemplated it, but I was like, I'm gonna go for the bigger dragon, cause this dragon, please. Well, also, but I was like, I'm gonna go for the bigger dragon, because this dragon... Well, also, actually, the smart play, because Scaratallos is from this province, he's a very influential, powerful political figure in the Bronze Dragon province. Obsidius wouldn't have had much power,

wouldn't have had much influence here. However, if an investigation starts to, it's easy to start piecing stuff together. Obsidius obviously came to WaveMeet with us. There's records of you teleporting with Obsidius into WaveMeet. You arrived here with Obsidius. I was thinking about what Graf said to Obsidius,

and that's why I kept his name out of my mouth. I was like, yeah. Hi there, bud. You okay there, bud? This is funny. Stop giving people notes. Yeah, just stop that. Just never leave them out. You were trying to people notes. Just stop that. Just never leave a note.

You were trying to recruit him, I get it. But I gave the teleporter lady a note as well. You did, you did, yeah. You did, yeah. You did. You did, yeah. You did, yeah. You did, yeah.

You did, yeah. Yeah. It's the opposite of realistic development. Anyway. Consequences. Anyway. That is it. That, that whale is a good time to end the episode.

It's a great one. With that, thank you very much everybody. We'll see you for the next episode of High Rollers, baby! Yeah! Let's have some fun combat. Night quest, finally! See you now, yay! Woo!

See ya. See you in a bit. Wouldn't wanna be here. Bye.