High Rollers DnD - Matteo's Mailbag (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #80

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

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What a run! This champ is picking up speed. But they found a lane. Phenomenal launch into the air! Absolutely incredible! Air Transat! Fly the seven-time world's best leisure airline champions, Air Transat. Welcome back to Olthea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes, having won victory against the champion of Ojania choral song, returned to the surface along with a variety of treasures, such as the magical bow Parheelian, a plethora of valuable objects,

a golden ship's figurehead transported back to Ashenrest, via magic, as well as a fine set of salt-encrusted bones. So fine. Back on board, the sun-kissed, Sojourn took them back to the port of netting on sea where they discussed their next steps, as they discussed their options, Lord Obsidius, draconic, Lord of Caldra,

swooped down into the small village and sought out the party to discuss the events that had taken place in the city of Wavemeat, and the various consequences and future threats that may yet come to haunt them. However, during this conversation, their newfound friend and Bard Mateo overheard many things he probably shouldn't have.

Obsidious was set to modify his memory to forget the conversation, but Xanthius managed to convince him to stand down. And that is where we pick up today's episode. Now, I believe, unless anybody has anything pertinent, Obsidious was, I think I'd already described them as flying off, but if there is any sort of like last minute bits, you know, it was a bit of a hasty finish.

So if there's anything, can you? God damn. Oh man, I've had something stuck in my throat for like most of that in trouble. And it was really like starting to tickle and like bother me. Sorry about that, everyone. It's all right.

We'll take it from here. Bro. You enjoy your drink. Bro. Brofuth. Gruffeth. Hey. I think Sir Joran needs to meet up with you.

Yes, I was actually... I did want to ask Lord Obsidius if he would join us. Like, if anyone ever seemed like he was in good need of a drink, I thought. You think dragons? Alcohol affects them? Yeah, because we had it in... When we saw him in his rooms, remember he had it? but it was like really, really strong.

And we probably shouldn't have it. Yes, they have a higher tolerance. Yeah. He had like some specific things. Well, he's flown off now, so... He's gone. Also, I don't want him to go all mind-wipey on people, you know? Do you think he'd do that when he was drunk?

Oh, he probably would. I don't want to think what the Psygis has done, and it unnerves me. Well, recently what he has done is in the benefit of all of us, right? Well, that's a thing, isn't it? I don't think doing that is right in the first place, regardless of how much it helps. Doing what, wiping memories, or...

Yeah. Again, so, the shadow Rowan, I think Rowan definitely picking up on this and perhaps a few of us as well, that it does not appear that the worst things that Lord Obsidious done has been wipe minds from the conversation you had, I believe Rowan had picked up,

that it is unlikely not the first, time Lord Obsidius has used influence and power and magic to cover up whatever his various business dealings have been in the past. We're lucky to have him on our side, because he's very powerful, and I think you'd be dead if he wasn't. Yes. So that I am thankful for, but I don't like the way he goes about things. Well, I mean, the past is just the past, right?

I mean, sometimes it's helpful to forget things had happened before. I disagree. I don't think that that person didn't have a choice. He was going to have that done to him anyway. It was non-consensual. Yeah. That's the difference. Like, if you came up and said, hey, Lord Obsidious,

I want to forget this thing. The chair out the window, horrible event. I mean, I do want to forget that. If they could mind why that would probably be good. That's different. Yes. Because you've asked for that specific thing, but I think if he didn't, he didn't want to forget things.

And Mateo doesn't want to forget things. Yeah, I think Mateo is not in this conversation. He's, like, kind of moved off to the side. You can see him, like, pouring out, you know, this big glass of something that he's found from the Halflings stores. And it's having, like, a quiet sit-down. Seems definitely a bit more melancholy

than you have seen Mateo previously. The events having probably quite shaken him. Well, useful as obsidious has been recently. I also pray that we never need to use him again. There's only so many favors he's willing to give us before he starts asking for some kind of payment. Or just killing you. That's my biggest fear, really.

We'll reach a point when that would be the easier option. That's why I fear it. And I don't want that to happen, so let's maybe try not to need him. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Or we give him good reason to not kill you. As in, I'll read between the lines. Well, either way, we have a quick route back home now. One, we should obviously take. We should use obsidious just one more time, and then we're done. Is there, aside from speaking to Sir Joran, is there anything else? Anyone needs to do what we're here? We've only got a few hours, right,

before we're being teleported away. Oh, so Siddy said he would return in a few hours when you were ready. I say we get the due diligence with Sir Joran and you're swearing in. I don't know what is cool. I don't think it's really a swearing in. It's just...

Is there a procession? I don't... No, no. Banners. I can make one. He did. I did already say no capes. I think you all are missing the point

of the order of the Lowellowns. We just like to celebrate you specifically though. I get that and just... That was a go, Graff. Joining me... Painting, for example. Joining me for... This accident, what the fuck is happening?

Hello, my name is Graf. No, my name is Graf. I'm from a little village. In Trimorog. Zantias, Zorgon. Hello. Zantias Oregon. Yes.

Zantias Oregon. What is it? Will you be there, Zantheis? Oh, yes, of course, absolutely. It's just, yeah, it's just a confirmation that I've done a job, the task that was assigned to me, there's still more. But it would be very nice for all of you, my friends,

who obviously had a very key part in all of this. And Mateo. Mateo! Huh? He kind of looks up. Oh, sorry, I was miles away there. What's it happening? Would you like to come to the pub with me?

I said, yes. Yes, absolutely. I mean, there's plenty of drink here, but I'll never say no to a little visit to a local joint. A celebration, mater. Oh, for the victory. A quest complete.

For a night. Yes, yes, of course, yes. Quest, nightly quest. I think it's about time. We had some outlifting and positive things to talk about. Yes, yes, absolutely. I want to hear all the story, of course.

Well, I thought you... Well, you need to tell me the details I wasn't there. That's true, the underwater. I need to hear all about it. You owe him a tale. I do. Yes, yes, absolutely, of course.

Let me fetch my thing and he starts picking up his things. And you can see the mask is very much back on and sort of like comes up. And certainly weren't heard to take something for the road, eh? He holds up this like bottle of like half-in brandy. I love what you think. Oh. It's like, I found this for your sister, Ophelia, it's like a bottle of wine. Oh, no, thank you very much.

Oh. But yeah. With that, you make your way. back out towards Netting on Sea. The Ogden's little family, you know, estate ranch really is, is, you know, maybe like five, ten minutes out of town, just short walk away. And as you make your way back in,

the town seems a bit more lively and is bubbling, and you overhear from the survivors and the townsfolk, the village folk, really, chattering about the dragon. It was scales, was it. You hear, like, people saying, like, it's a black dragon from Erdas Kira. no no he's a red dragon from caldra and people seem to not quite sure exactly where obsidious is from having

only probably briefly seen him fly in um but you make your way into the catch the local inn run by uh the secret daver the daver that you met kala um and when you enter you can see that most of the damage that it sustained has been sort of tidied away and repaired uh during the battle that took place here and there is just one person sat at the bar which is sojourn his armor is off it's i think probably your first time seeing him uh no you would have the first time you met him he would have been out of his armor but it's been a while but he's out of his big clunky sort of diver's suit esk armor and he's just now in like a very simple kind of fantasy white tunic sleeves rolled up um you can see he's got an ash tray and he's smoking his little rolled up cigarettes um and nursing a big

glass of some sort of whiskey, sour mash kind of thing. A bottle just sort of left there. And yeah, he's just happily sitting there just silently. You can see Carla is like busying about, you know, making, perhaps packing a few things away or cleaning glasses and that sort of thing. As you enter, so join, we'll just look around you. We'll be like, finish with all your business then. I think we are.

Everyone's ready to pack up. Move on, I suppose. All right. Do you have plans? Do you have plans? You're travelling back to Caldra? I heard a dragon flew in. Some of the locals have been chatting about it.

Lord Obsidious of Ashen Rest. I think, did you mention, we need to try to remember vaguely talking about something like that on the boat when we were travelling this way? Will you be travelling back with this lord then? I suppose. I think so.

Where will you be going? Wherever the coast needs me, wherever the aisles need a night, I'll travel there. I'll probably stay here for a night. I've said I'd keep an eye on netting on sea for the next few days. Quite a few of the locals are a bit skittish still, worrying about those creatures coming out the deep and, you know, that malarkey. So I said I'd stick around for a few days, keep them, give them a bit of sense of peace, help out with the repairs, that sort of thing.

And then I'll just travel on, see where I'm needed. Obviously, I have to avoid way of meat, but plenty of other places for me to visit around the else. You can see he sort of nods. Well, then, let's... Should we formalise this? Knight-errant Griffith? Yes, I...

Do I need to do anything? No, no. I mean, this isn't... I think I told you I'm not Dame Kell. I don't do... I don't really stand for much pomp and ceremony. Way I see it, you did a job. A reward for that job is more work

and a good drink, you know, pull out a glass and he pours a, you know, good measure within the glass of this whiskey and, you know, kind of like slide that down the bar a little bit. But no, I, Sir Joran Harper, known throughout the realms as the Barnacle Knight, do bear witness under Sions

and on the sea that Gruffeth of Tremoro has completed the task that I set him. He is vanquished champions of the embered goddess or Janja for the safety of the people of the Suncrest Isles he has acted as leader, as guide and as protector and I acknowledge this and I see in him an equal

he just nods his head and he will he doesn't he doesn't have a sword so he draws basically like a long fishers knife like a kind of like normally used for like gutting trouts and see if it and he's just like well Technically, I think you're supposed to kneel. All right, give me a moment. Take it, tell you.

He stands, like, stuff. And he literally just places the knife on your shoulder, very awkwardly like, there we go. I've written all the whole speech he said. I wrote it down, word for word. Can you just sign this at the bottom? We like to just keep a record for Graff's future things

so that he knows. Thank you. It's like the most hand-handed, like, signature, I suppose, yeah, absolutely. I will, I'll send word to the order that you've completed the task. Let them know that you've done as I asked. If I was some of the others, they'd probably ask you, what do you think you learnt in this quest? What mistakes do you think you made?

But I don't think we need that conversation, do we? I've learned things, I And I hope others here have learned things too But mostly I just feel the satisfaction Of innocent lives made better By what we've done in these shores And that to me is That's what being a knight's about

It's about doing the right thing And protecting the right people And that satisfaction of knowing That you've done all you can You put your life on the line And you led your team and you led your people that's all you can do

you know and I think you and I have spoken much on this journey and I've conveyed to you and I see in you a like-minded soul I've much enjoyed our time together and I have learned from you as well

but for now I think I'm not the speaking kind so if everyone could just raise your glass yakida yakala You see if you're all just clink and take a long sip. Now, your third and final test, Gruffeth Knight-Erant, when Dame Kel wrote to me, she spoke of that she had instructed you

that there would be another mentor in Kelskaris. Well, I can direct you to seek out Sir Fordering Forge Hand right sorry could you repeat that for a second so fordering forge hand is a dwarf can you spell that for the people you're writing things down

F-O-R-D R-I-N-G Fordring I thought it was forgering Fordring forchand F-O-R-D Ford ring forge and I don't get what their problem was Tom

No it's right there Ford ring forch hand You did say forge ring to begin with. Fordring. Forge hand. There's no E in the Ford ring. Fordring.

Ford ring. Fording. Fordhand. Yeah, but Mark, we have to check these things because you add things sometimes for no reason. I think that's very easy. F-O-R-R-D. Ford-T-H-R-D.

Forchand. Forchand. Forchand. You'll find Sir Fordring at the Peach House. In Kalscaris, it's on the coil. The Peach House. Peach?

House. H-A-U-S, obviously. Fuck you! I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking. All right, the Peach House, it's on the coil. I won't say more. That's for you to learn. But it will be different to this test.

Oh, right, okay. It'll be a different kind of challenge to what you've done so far. I wouldn't expect anything. Anything different? If I may, I would recommend when you travel back to this ashen rest. You take some time. A bit of rest. No need to rush.

Sir Fordring's not going to be going anywhere. Take your time. Enjoy. Arrest, recover from everything. If your body's anything like mine, Grof, you're going to be feeling this for one months and weeks. So take your time. And when you're ready, seek out. Seek out Sir Ford ring.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for it. Oh, yes, oh, yeah, well done. Ooh, I've done, Gruff. Two-thirds of a knight. You see, Mateo's pulled out, like, a lute or, yeah, I think he's, I've described him as having a little. No, I think he has, like, a liar, I think,

I've described him as having before. I'm not sure, but he pulls out an instrument, and he starts playing that, whatever instrument I gave him before. Rowan or join. Yeah? He's just playing, like, softly in the background. This is not, like, an overwhelming thing, but he's just adding a bit of ambiance.

I'm going to rule up the declaration and wrap one of my little extra pieces of ribbon around it. Give it to gruff. Thank you, Daisy. Just so you have it for your record in case anyone needs it. Thank you, Daisy. So drawing just drinks. Lights up another smoke.

A man, a few words. Zanthi's just good to have you here this time. I was told to shut up. Last time. Not to make a big fanfare of things, despite my feelings of how you've achieved much in such a short time, Groff of the Tramorrow.

Last time you missed it. Hmm? Last time you missed it. No, no, no. Yesterday when I asked how you'd want this to all to go and I said that you didn't want a big fanfare and I'm just saying, you're a hero to these people, you saved a lot of lives, and when we all put our minds together, we can achieve

great things in saving innocent lives and making the world a much better place. And that's exactly what a night should do, and that's our gruff. Gruff is the best. Thank you very much everybody. Hey, here. Right, really. And how do you feel about that bit where you've played a big part

in making people's lives better? You in this have protected the meek, the infirm and the vulnerable. No, but that's me. I'm the meek and the infirm and the vulnerable. Santhias, shut up and listen for a moment. Oh, you mean told to shut up. You helped.

All of you helped in looking after the meek, the infirm and the vulnerable. But under your... But under your direct supervision. And I hope that makes you feel some kind of way about it because helping people who need help, well, it's a good thing. We're leaving this part of the world better. You know, we've saved this village from a generational cult

that summoned Doomclaw here. We've saved the people of Paperea and hopefully made things better for them. by reading them of Coral Song and the Great DeVourer Who knows if we come back What these areas will be like Once these people have a chance to grow To flourish

To live peacefully You've all had a part in that I could not have done this without you And I thank you Every single one of you I don't have a drink, can I have a drink, suck it back in, suck it back in. Can I have a hug, Ruffus? You may have a hug, can I have a hug too?

Yeah, Ross just stands there. I feel warm and tiggly on me any bits. Right. Don't say that when you hug people. That doesn't seem... Like the warm fuzzy feeling inside. Oh, oh, no, that seems, uh, right, all right, very well, yes, very good. Uh, sort of leans on the outside.

Um, yeah. Well, I think it's time we had a celebration. Music, Mateo, music. Yes. Rowan music. Yes. Drinks. Yes.

Dancing. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, last time we danced. Yes, absolutely. Yes. You are drinking and dancing tonight. Let's have it. We've gotten two hours.

Two hours. The festivities. That's really, a mini festivity. Fill these two hours with as much fun and joy as we can in celebration of all that we as a group have achieved in this place. Let's see this will have to pull us out of here and teleport us away. Exactly. He'll have to wipe our memories. We have earned this. Let's make the most of it.

So as you begin this sort of, you know, much more local kind of celebration, as Ophelia's kind of kicking up the music and sort of getting the drinks flowing, and things like that. Carla is kind of watching all of this with a wry smile and is quite happy to, you know, take the odd gold coin here and there for bottles of booze and what have you. You do notice that some of the locals of netting on sea

still recovering from the events that have taken place not that long ago, about four or five days ago. But they begin to pop in and you get a couple of the hardier fish of folk who once they can hear good music and smell, you know, cheap booze on the air, sort of poke their heads in. They're like, oh, and they'll come in. and have a drink and raise it in toast to gruff and sojourn and the rest of you and for everything that's gone on.

There are slightly more people in this pub now because it used to be a kind of outsider's pub. It used to be, yeah. So there's definitely, I think, with the events that took place over the last sort of few days, over the last week, really, there definitely has been a sense of camaraderie that's grown stronger with the survivors of the town, having realized that the Ogdens and the Cambricks were sort of playing them against each other and against strangers like Carla and in fact Carla helped defend you know the town have had a big impact and you can see that there is a more communal nature here I think one of the things I

forgot to describe was that when you came back into netting on sea that statue of St. Talon it has they're beginning to rebuild it you can see that they've taken the bits of it, but also any bits that were destroyed, because some of the statue, because it was all made from Driftwood, would have been completely irreparable. So they've used like pieces of the inn that got broken, they've taken like lumbers

and pieces of that, and shape those to replace it, basically. Very nice. And you can see that there is this more communal sense that's grown here. And it doesn't take long before, you know, Anne Breeze Water and her family and a few of the others all

kind of stopped by. And although they may not stay for long and get rip-roaringly drunk, you know, glasses are raised in Gough's name, in Sir Joran's name, in your name, you know, there is laughter for the first time. Mateo is probably happily telling jokes and, you know, playing music along with Rowan. You know, I'm not going to have the two of you roll because you're both quite expert bards at this point, and you can roll if you would like. I just do a little. You can roll and see.

do you say 300 300 24 yeah yeah 24 like you know these people the music is excellent and they are more than happy to sort of join in

maybe some of the younger ones like you get some of the younger you know not quite teenagers but not quite little kids sort of wander in as well and see everyone dancing and Ophelia are probably their day

ushering people in coming yeah absolutely and like you know you dancing around and twirling you know people are clapping and sort of with the beat and the rhythm I'm quite happy to watch this little scene. And those hours fly by. Are you handing out flyers?

Not yet. Okay. Remember, she doesn't have any because she opened up her bag underwater. True, you're right, yeah. So all your flyers are completely ruined. Yeah, or like smudged and smeared to the point you can't read them anymore.

It's just random, like, people who, all of the people that we met under the water just like, what's it? Yes. Just all of Terporea just walked up to Ash and Rest. We've heard about this. All the fairies. Whoa.

It just smears as the ink and the wall just melts it away. What is this language? Yeah, a whole line of them just outside of Ashen Rest is all giving a double thumbs up. One just small detail, like, gruff's mostly just drinking the sun, smoking his pipe with sojourn and stuff like that. But Groff will speak to the villagers about the caperun and try and just spread a kind of awareness of like,

you know, they're not enemies, they're not creatures of Virginia. They're very peaceful. Stop chilling them. Give me, I think, specifically because these guys were attacked, just give me a persuasion role, because you definitely would probably meet a little resistance here because, you know, they just recently dealt with creatures of the deep children and they're a bit worried.

We can sort out fate as this is, I wasn't expecting a roll just yet, so let's do a fate. Is there a time? Tom. I did it. I got a five. I got a five.

I got six. That's a point for you. Four. Oh, a lovely one for you guys. Christchral. I got a five. Oh, look at this. Is it a full house?

It is. Rihannan, full house. Here you go. One. There it is. Womp, womp. One. Oh yeah, that is a D6, isn't it?

Yeah, these are the sixes, yes. These are from our friend at Roon Fable. Rune Fable, that's it, thank you. I didn't have my notes this time. Who made us some custom fate little crystal dice. We got two and four. Two and four.

Two bad or good. So if you'd like to spend one, go off. Sorry, I'm taking a little fake dice. Yeah, go for it. Yep, you did that. 12. I think that you definitely reach a handful, but maybe not everyone in the village.

There's still a lot of suspicion. It's not that they're like, no, fuck you, gruff. It's more that they remain a bit unconvinced, and you're not sure that they're really in a state to listen. But you definitely get through to some people, and hopefully sojourn, and that will also help ensure. But the sun crystals are a big place, And, you know.

You've got to start somewhere. You've got to start somewhere. But, yeah, I'm not unsure. Perhaps it will make a difference for Perparea, as for Kaeparin elsewhere across the Suncrest Islands. Perhaps they will need to remain living in secret for now. But small steps, small steps. The few hours that you spend here pass very quickly.

Things, although begin perhaps a little stilted and awkward, soon when the beer and the mead and the whiskey and, you know, the local flavors of alcohol are flowing. Things loosen up and liven up very quickly. And, yeah, the time passes. And you are approaching the period where obsidious would like to meet to take you back to Ashton's rest, but... Obsidious wants me meat.

What? To meet. Oh, to meet, yeah, he wants to meet. Yeah. Chris Trott. Explicable. Despicable. Filth.

Let me spit everyone. Oh, one other thing, a little bit of bookkeeping, you can add parheelian to the group inventory. Done it, buddy. You did. Done it, thanks for adding it. Yeah, that's in there. Because I was very confused.

I was like, no, I did add it to D&DB on last week. I had misspelled it. It was per helion. Oh, right. So it was always there. It was just I had misspelled it when I put it in the custom items. It's not in the party inventory. Yes, it is.

Give it a quick refresh. It's a brand new feature that might not be working, probably. It's working for you and Ray, so. Holy shit. And that's all that matters. Get pegged, bro. So Parheelian, I think, yeah, we could distribute all of the bits we have. There was also that bracelet of health to boost constitution to 19,

which unfortunately does not benefit me. So if anyone wants it. Unfortunately, I already have that stat. Doing the Leo from Django. So if anyone has constitution, they won't boosted. What is Daisy fully aware of Parheelion? No. I'm reading about it now. It's very, very good.

Yeah, read about it, check it out. Watch the Vod. Watch the Vod? Yeah, good refresher. So, or we could just get Zipping back to Action Rest and sort it out another time. Zippity. I'd like to zip.

I can zip, zap, zap. I'm hot to zap. I'm ready to meet. It is quite late. So when you get back to Ashton's Rest, if you teleport back, you will be arriving very late evening. So it'll probably be not much room

to do much more when you get back to Ashton's Rest immediately. It'll probably be head back to Tyria's Rest and then... I'm going to quickly see where the figurehead is and then go to bed. Yeah, just make sure it's still there. It has to be.

It's heavy as hell, right? It's just like, where did it end up? That's true. Since you left the blood kelp forest, it's been about two days of traveling and your time spent here in netting on sea. So it's been about two days. So what happened to it?

I said this in the Discord. I just keep on thinking, if Ash and Rest was Ankh-Morpork, that thing would have been gone and melted down within about five seconds of it touching the ground in Ashen Rest. Yes, and I do want to clarify, gold dragons do not have, like, gold rangers. They're not like, oh, gold is here.

I must sit on it. Yes, it is, he can, so Xanthias, when he is very close to go, in the near proximity, he can estimate its value very, like he gets a sense of like, that is worth this amount of gold. But also he can, like, if he's like, can see a pile of gold, he just can taste how much there it is. I'm never going to use it to be like that inside that chest is a lot of treasure. Yeah.

But it's like, if there's a big hoard of it, I'm like, I fucking want that shit. He could go, yeah. A thousand gold. Yeah. 893 gold coins, exactly. Yeah, and I know the figurehead is worth approximately $17.4 billion. It's not. Clamping that down.

It is not. Someone did the math. They did the math based on real world. It doesn't work here. Gold is more common here. It's way more common. It's also going to be magically created. And also, I think perhaps it was solid gold.

I don't know, maybe that it looks like. It's just gold clay. Oh, don't you know that. No. Still, it is worth a small. that small fortune is somewhere between 10 and 20,000 between 10 and 20 I thought it was just 10 oh it's well more than I imagine it's gonna love that yeah that museum is gonna love that yeah mm-hmm does this world even have museums yeah yeah absolutely

Rowan was an archaeologist before the 2024 redo just so you know it wasn't really an archaeologist this is his background was it ever really part of Rowan's story that he was an art guild. D and D and D&D, like rocks. Backgrounds in D&D, that critical part of story making. Tell me about it. But anyway, so is the plan to just go find obsidious and teleport back?

You tell me. You tell me. Yeah, I think I'm... Do you want to talk to... Carla? I mean, we talked to her before we went out last time and she said what her plan was, so... Yeah, well, she's...

She's going to stick around to, like, solidify sale and, like, pass things on. but then she's going to see. Then she's going to see, and we might come across her at the inn one day. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Do the old knee slaps?

Well, yeah. That's time again. That's all right outside. I imagine Gruff and Sojourner, like, outside smoking together because, like, you know, Dahl is like, okay, now there's more people you need to get out. Get out and smoke out there.

Those smoke for our children. Can I make one check? Yes. Is there at any point in these couple of hours Ophelia and Zanthia starts, and I want to check how bad it is because famously, We don't dance poorly with each other.

We do not dance very well. You tell me if they dance. Can you remember what happened last time? You stepped on my foot and then we start shouting at each other and then rough. It can only get better from there, right? Can it? Can it? It must do.

Mateo was saying, all right, now let me, let me help here. Okay, thank you. I don't know the circumstances of the last time you should dance together, but it was in a vault. Was it formal? Was it sort of dance what we doing? It was quite, well, I was doing the culture and sort of styles. See, I was doing the Osseian style.

And apparently they are, directly clashing within each other, and that's an issue, obviously, so... Well, then, all right, if I may. Yes. I'll play something a bit more sort of local, a bit more simple, with called out steps. I used to do a little bit of this.

We put a bit of Battlestime. Okay, and... We'll see how you get on with something. You know, something that is unfamiliar to both of you. How about that? Is it elegant? I would say that it is... Grace, oh, but with a little bit of pace, you know, at some point.

Grace with a bit of pace, yes. Grace and pace. I love Grace and pace. I love Grace and pace. This is good, okay. And so, and he'll go to Roan. Like, Roan, would you keep up with, if I part of playing, you can join it?

I can do some of that. Marvelous, all right, let's do that. Follow. So both of you give me a performance, Roe. Fait? No, we're a fading. No, don't use fate. Just both of you go completely without.

I'm fating this. Are you actually? If you're fating, I'm fating. It is not a group decision. It is an individual decision. I'm not gonna fate. I'm not gonna fate. I'm not gonna fate.

Pure role. What is it, sorry, performance? Performance. Raw dog in this dance. It's funny if you don't. No. Our powers combine. We can be strong.

We can. Together we can achieve great things. Now, basically, what you're looking for here is either you both want to roll low, you both want to roll high, or you both want to roll mid. If one rolls between one rolls low, then you're like once to blank. So we need to be in sync. Whatever the role is, it should be within close distance to each other. I'm talking like a digit or two. If we fail, who you blame him?

Because I'm blame Mateo. I'm blaming you. Oh, fuck. So on the count of three, I want you to both tell me what you rolled, right? Wait, can you tell me what your dice said? My dice, my dice said four. Did it? Yeah.

Mine said five. All right. But what's your performance? Okay, well, hang on. So on three, two, one, go, and then you're going to both say, three, two, one, going. Five. You have plus one? Yes.

For four, dude. That's not terrible. Single digit. Yeah, but there's the disparity between them. Five, there's four points between. It's always between and we both low. It is not the worst, but it is not good. I think that in this, it's definitely Ophelia

is trying to be more like graceful and like elegant. It's not that kind of dance. Just knowing you down. Neither of us are trying to give up the styles. Like, I'm trying to get you to do a little bit of cauldron dancing. You're not doing that. It's a bit more of like a ceilie. It's a bit more of a kind of like,

da-da-da-da-da-da. Was it a ceil? A cayley, that's it. My leg doesn't do that. Is there an Irish one that's like a ceiling? Akely. Is that a Kali? It's a Kali, yeah.

What's it called in our third? Foreign nonsense. Probably a Celia. Wow. That's it. There you go. It's a Sili. It's a Kali.

Sorry, I'm the G. Who's the world in right now? Punch someone. It's a Kali. It's called a Sili Annan dance. A Sili Annan dance is what it's called. No, I'm just. just made that up, that's canon now.

Did you? No, it doesn't show. It doesn't show. Sili Annan. Siliaddon. You've gone with, your mispronunciation of Kaley and Rianon. Whoa, mispronunciation. Mispron-I don't, I don't mispronounce anything. Mispronunciation of Kaley.

What a word to mispron-ed-no. No. Rianon. You basically have added Rianon's name to the end of that. So Sili-Aandand-Dots. I don't understand the problem. That's canonical to me. Sounds canonical to me.

Sounds comical. So, yeah, Xanthias, you definitely, this is probably a bit more like the kind of like dances from like back home and like, you know, it's not a courtly elegant dance. You adapt to it a lot faster. You're not great at it. No, no. God no.

But Ophelia is definitely ruining it. Like, it's just not like following your lead. Stay down! Stay down! Is just too slow. Percival, take my place for a second. I need to watch for a second and just understand what I'm missing here. Percival, I'll roll for Percival and see how far out of Aphelia's five, Percival is. But surely Percival knows the same kind of dancing style as Ophelia.

He does, but he's also trying to follow, like, Mateo's been calling out the steps. It's kind of like a called dance kind of thing. He is a skeleton, so he has a minus what to his charisma. Do you have his charisma there somewhere for me? Oh my. Oh, sorry, you've got to go through the draw. Just roll. Just roll.

Just roll. It's not going to match. It's not going to matter, but it's not going to matter. I'm pretty sure it's a minus two. I'm going to go to minus two. He actually does better than Xanthia. Spurs if we'll get to 10. What?

So he's like, oh, Mr. Smith, I appear to be doing something wrong. He's like, oh, I'm so sorry. Wait, wait, wait, wait, no, put the leg there, put the leg there, give me your arm. That's not what Mateo is saying to do, but yes, very well. Do I imagine what he says? It's just my dance. Ophelia, you need to listen to the song.

The song will go through you and then you... The beat is so off, like Rowan and Matteo are doing quite a fast-paced beat. And Ophelia's like doing like this kind of like... Is she doing your feet, too? Yeah, very cake, very gay-bones. Very gay-burned. Very gay-birds. Oh, oh, oh, no.

It's there, oh, no. Ophelia, I can't keep up with this interpretive stuff you're doing here. I don't understand. It looks interpretive. It's not the song. Rowan's backing up. Yeah, Mateo and Rowan are like, I'm saying eating snacks at the bar, just like pop-bar.

Just, what? You're doing it all wrong. You're not following the instructions probably. This is how you do it. This is why we should never do this again. Never ever again. Never ever again. Never ever again.

Never ever again. Terrible idea from you and you specifically. My idea? That was your idea. It was your idea. You came up to me. And it's the song. It's the song of Groff.

I'm going to stand in between the two. Just dance into the middle. Yep. That's how he's in there as well. Children, you're so going to dancing. Let's start for me. Can I get you to sign this bit of paper? both of you. What? Me? It just says that you'll never do it again.

And I need confirmation. Yeah, well, but... Percy's Com's a plus two, so he's fine, he's fine. No, there's charisma. Oh, charisma. Zero. Oh, it was a 12. Even better. He's more charismatic than your average skeleton. Is he? Oh my God, there's only one more charismatic than me. Or there's intelligence.

Or there's intelligence. That's really important, actually. 11. He's 10, I'm an 11. Oh, okay, okay, you're smarter than a skeleton. Smart than the average skelly. Yeah, he's certainly wiser than Xantheus. Everyone is.

I've got seven. There are children here who are wiser than champions. And they believe in fairy tales, the idiots. Father Christmas. A little boy, a little boy just looks up at Xanthius like, you need to understand more about the inner self. Oh, God, you're so wise, little boy. What does that mean?

Oh, my God. I'm like laying on a shade lawn, just like, interesting, and how did that make you feel? Roan is more intelligent than Xantheists. Intelligent or wise? Oh, my intelligence is eight. So personally smarter than Roe. I'm as smart as personal.

And no way. I'm minus one inch. How are we on it? You didn't, there's no idea. education up in the tiny villages of Iceland. You don't get no education up there. This guy travelled around on the road all the time. Edgimication.

Yeah, he's clever. Education. Wait, how smart, what's your end up? I am so smart. At MIT. Smart, smart. Fair English, that's impossible. That's impossible.

Right, with that, as Xanthius and Ophelia arguing into the night, you make your way back to find sort of lingering outside of the Ogden estate, Perhaps reading through a book, as he sees your approach, he folds it and it disappears into his robes. You see Lord Obsidious waiting on the outskirts. Your business is concluded then, Ruffeth. Yes, I, Sir Joran, what's the word ratified? I want to say the word ratified, but I'm not really sure

that's the right word. Canonically it is now. Sir Joran certified. We just make that words around here. You don't get to make that. So I just do that, yeah. I made up jr-commodation, like borghing. That immediately got banned, though.

And became a character. He's not wrong. He's not wrong. It's just generic. Anyway, ratify is a word. Grat. Sir Joran has certified that he was satisfied with my completion of my second task. Good.

So your business is concluded. There's nothing more remaining here for you. I believe everyone is ready to head back. Very ready, yes. So ready. from the salt and the sand and the sea and the, just the water in general, actually. You see Lord Obsidious is sort of gazing down at Mateo

and Mateo is just doing everything he can to look at anything that is not Lord Obsidian. It's like, oh, my boots, sort of like doing all of that, like, is that a new mole? But you gather around, obsidious will say, form a circle around me. I trust that you will remember this experience You there, was it, Mateo.

You should be aware that this can be a little disconcerting and uncomfortable. It will feel like your stomach is flipping upside down and then out of your marathon and back in again. Daisy as well, take my paw, remember what happened last time. It's fire-based. I'm going to close my eyes this time. Good idea. Very well.

And with that, you see as flaming sort of black and red ruins begin to appear over his hands as he begins to mutter in draconics. the incantation and then suddenly you are all turned into living flame as you merge and like a comet launch into the sky flying across the land you see it rushing rapidly all below you as you streak through the now night sky most of the land you see below you is pitch black as you fly over mountains and forests, but you see like the twinkling lights of wavemeat, still illuminated, perhaps even seeing the slight purple glow of the lavender gardens and many other places. You see little towns dotted here and there, little mountainside villages and little forest lodges

and things like that as you sail across the mountain ranges and pass towards ash and rest. In the distance, as you begin to follow the path of the Ruby River that leads through Caldra, you see the great capital is the wrong word, but I guess it would be the sort of grand city of the province of Ferros, which is the main big city of Caldra, all completely still illuminated as if the city itself sleep would not really come to it, built into the side of active volcano mountains, inside, but you can see that the grand, you know, stone and gold city spirals out and then eventually extends over the Ruby River and even to a little small outlying section beyond it. Cool.

You shoot past that and continue following the Ruby River until you see the Dominus Ignarum, you see Ashen Rest before you, and the flight hurling, fiery comet that is yourself, lands in the open chamber of obsidious's study as you once again unbecome as flame and appear as yourselves. You see that several sort of loose pages and papers have caught a light and through a tiny small-sized door bustling come out the cobald.

Using ice magic, Lord Obsetius, you're back. And you can see them patting off things like that. Obviously some sort of alarm system let them know that the Lord was returning. Their little maid and butler uniforms as they begin scuttling around. You know, they bring over...

When they see that he's arrived with other guests as well, they'd be like, oh, heroes, hello. More drinks, more food. And you sort of clap and plates of like refreshments and fruit and drinks are brought out for you. Heroes. Mm-hmm. Oh, this is marvelous.

look at, that's so cute. That's adorable. As he's like taking like a plate of grapes. Oh, thank you, my dear. Oh, a wine as well. Very good. And he's like looking around in amazement of Sidious's study full of sort of tombs and magical trinkets

and cupboards full of, you know, all sorts of wonderful things. He's sort of taking it all in, looking around. I just had the, I think they have like, you know, out in an office, there's someone who's like the designated fire warden. Yeah. does one of the cobalds have like a little hive's vest and that's a fire warden guy.

Probably doesn't have a hive but definitely has like some sort of badge, you know, and has been taught ice magic or like, you know, like, you know, air magic to suck the oxygen out of something, you know, to, you know, control flames and things like that, specifically on hand. I think, you know, in a red dragon province that's probably quite a regular occurrence for the house,

the host cobalds to know. Where the pyramid? The fire pyramid. You need the sauce and the oxygen and a spark. Whenever someone new joins the crew, that's the training manual. The pyramid. Your nearest fire warden is this guy.

Zick, you know. And then it's just a long list of many, many cobald names as it gets passed along. But yes, obsidious will very dismissively, but very casually just places like his satchel bag and his. books down and just immediately turns to his books and starts opening them. And he's sort of like, right, off you go. Like, I've brought you back. Kiss off.

Thank you for the teleportation, Obsidious. This is really no trouble. Would you need any more assistance while we're here or anything else you might require of us? The only thing I require is do not forget what my mentor, Scaritalos, has offered and what they have requested. It would serve your needs, Xanthius, as well as the needs of your friends to quickly locate those essences, the planar essences.

I fear what may happen should another episode occur. Yes. Occur. I would not delay too long. I am led to believe that you have someone who is, or there was, you mentioned that you had been, that you had been looking into acquiring some of these essences? We have. Yeah, we've made some progress.

We have made some small amount of progress, absolutely, yes. But, I mean, perhaps we'll be able to find better sources of it than simple ash and rest. Well, if there is need for communications or some such, come and see me, do not send word through the considerates or couriers. Come and speak with me directly. I will ensure that Orgrim knows that you are. to be allowed in as required, provided I am present. But yes, apart from that, I would not delay much further.

Amazing, well, in that case, I think... You may see yourselves out, and he just sort of wades a claw and the doors just open automatically. All right, well, bye then. If we come back, I'll bring more of the pastries that you liked from a latte fun. That is not necessarily...

Don't try to tell me, you didn't like them. I saw them, you liked them. Thank you, bye. See you too. Thank you, Daisy. Oh, it's nice to be back in this weather. It was far too hot and wet there. Everyone good, everyone got all their bits.

They didn't lose them in the flight. You cannot lose the... What? I don't think so, but... I don't think that Lord of Sidious is... He's so good with magic, he wouldn't. But maybe people aren't so good with magic. That's true.

But, yeah, you see what I mean about the stomach flipping upside down, out of the mouth back in again? Kind of feels like that. Honestly, it wasn't that bad. Really? Yes, yes. Reminded me of the time that I was in that circus for a little while, actually. I used to do the trapeze.

Oh, really? Okay. Maybe we can have one set up at the tavern. Oh, my trapezeing days are long past me. No, no, no, I couldn't. Seemes aren't that tall. No, they're not, but. We have a garden. We have a garden.

We do. Oh, the garden. We need to get back now. Yes, we do. Mateo, we are going back to that tavern we've told you so much about. Well, I'm assuming I'm coming with you. Yes, I know, I'm saying. You're not just going to leave me in some random town.

God's no, no, no. I'm just saying. I think the Sions. Finally, you get to see all that we've been working on this entire time. And also, Ash and Rest is the place that we are, well, we saved a long, long time ago. I say a long, long time ago, a while back. But welcome, welcome, welcome. We'll show it to you properly in the daytime.

Yes. So as you sort of make your way down from obscenities tower, the various host. cobalds and host guards, house guards, sort of know you at this point, don't seem to be too bothered. You probably see a very grumpy, consider at Orgrim, the dwarf,

doing his rounds, he just sort of nods in your direction, grumpily. Might consider it Argrim. Grumble, as you make your way out. And yeah, you find a very sleepy, quite late at night, you know, the sun has set, all the torches and candles are out. Most of the street lights that were once used by the Lamplighters Guild long, long ago now, have been replaced with similar magical lights,

but it's slow going. So most of them are still out, which does kind of make Ashton's Rest a bit more shadowy than perhaps when you first arrived here. But you mic your way back down to Ashton's Rest. Much less demony, though. True. Yeah.

It takes a while to replace magical lights. So efficient, you know, magical minds that aren't demon-infested. There's something going. You make your way back down towards the street that Tyree's Rest belongs on to. Nothing is open, but you can see that there is a single sort of candlelight in the inn itself. Probably Teresa up late as you make your way back. Okay, so in this garden, Matteo, we actually fought a giant haunted tree here. Oh, by the way, this place used to be haunted.

I think I told you that, right? used to be haunted. Used to be, that's fine, that's great. I mean, this is all great work. This is going to be excellent for the balance. This is going to be brilliant stuff. Fantastic, great. Absolutely amazing.

Over there, that's Ophelia's... What do you call it? Shrine. I was going to say conversion chamber. That's not good. Let's call the formal title. Yeah, but Shrine. Around the back is Gruff's nice little powder of ice. It's just a hermitage.

Hermitage. big icy bubble in there, but in here, this is where all of the work has gone into. This place used to be smashed windows and broken beams. It looks lovely, it's a bit empty. So it's not operating as an inn, right? Or a tavern or a bar, anything like that, it's a sort of... We were

working on it, and we had some interviews, and they didn't particularly go very well, someone broke a hip. Yes, I remember that. Oh, hip! In an interview? She was very old. Oh. Yeah, very, very old. Yeah. And then there were some others, but then some things happened.

You know, I used to work as a bit of a barman. Long ago, when in my youth, I used to run a, I used to work behind the bar. Well, maybe you can either help us. I think I've done most things. You've done most things. From the sound of things, yeah. I've done a lot.

Could he help train up someone? Oh, certainly, yes, absolutely. I can help teach to pull a pint and how to polish a glass. The thing about being a good barman, you know, people, you joke about it, right? You always, they're always polishing glasses. Why? Right. It's because it sets people at these.

If you're just stood there doing nothing, it's very unnerving. Whereas if they see a barman polishing a glass or, you know, doing a little odd job here and there, it relaxes people. Mateo, you might just be the smartest person I've ever met. No. No. I can't believe you do odd jobs for fun. No, not for fun.

Goodness. Oh, science. No, Sister Ophelia. No, but when you're poor, you do whatever you need to, to make money. to like pay for food and eat and have a roof over your head. I love the fact that that's so new to you. She usually just waits for someone to just give her gold.

People just give me things. I mean, I don't, I doesn't surprise me. Look at her. Let's raise this. Keep going. Keep doing. It's beautiful. Just who would ever expect this wonderful being to do anything of hard labor or any such?

you would be so perfect for what I'm trying to say to. I'm not already. Oh! I like you more and more every day. Anyway, you open up the doors and when you sort of, you know, you hear the little dingle of a bell

and you kind of step your way in. It's dark, you know, there is a candlelight probably coming from probably the back room, like the kitchen or something like that. And you hear the door sort of open and sort of looking a little bit sleepy, sort of holding a little mug of some sort of hot beverage.

You see Teresa, the gnome who you recruited in her black grave father, you know, robes, Mortarque, Ecclesiarchy robes. She's just like, oh, you've returned. Teresa! Hello, sister, affiliate. She comes over and bows and, like, blessings of the grave father on you, sister. Blessings to you.

Your business has gone well, I'm assuming? Very well. come back so late. Oh, that's all right. I was actually just about to go and perform my prayers. I was, you know, I try and do them at as close to midnight as I can, as you've instructed. Wonderful. When the veil between the grey lands and the mortal realms are at its weakest, of course.

I try and go into the shrine and perform my habilations. Yes. A couple of days ago, did you perchance hear quite a loud crash out in the garden? Oh, now, was that intended? It was, yes. still... I mean, it's there. Yes?

I didn't really know what to do with it. No, fantastic. I thought about should I hire some of the local... You know, like go find some local sturdy men and women to come and drag it inside, but then I was like, but what if they see this big gold dragon statue and then they try and... I didn't know what to do.

But no one's interfered with it. I put a big blanket over it. Wonderful. Fantastic. That is... That's the only thing I could think of to do. That's a great solution. But yes, sorry to have almost literally dropped that on you without letting you know.

What if Teresa was in the garden? They wouldn't have. Why, the silence, well, if that had been, it would have been what the Greyfather wanted for me to go to the Greylands and join their legions there. Life and death are fickle. They are fickle things. That sounds really healthy.

Yeah, anyway, I'm going to go check it out. So I'm going to walk to the bank. Okay, you go ahead. Yeah, you go ahead. Yeah. So it's dark outside, so, you know, old lantern helmet. You've got a lantern helmet. As you cast it over it, you can still see Gruff's hermitage

covered in that perpetual little pocket of this garden that is like snow covered. Didn't hit that. You sort of pass the light over. No, it is, because there is like a, the other half of the garden where the runestone is. I forgot so badly. There is like a big space by the runstone

where you normally arrive, because it's going to have room for like eight creatures to arrive. but it fills that circle, basically, as there is, with a sort of, I think it would probably be two blankets stitched together. Like, very crudely, it has been covered. But you can clearly see the outline of this draconic figurehead that Teresa has covered up as best as she can.

Still there. A pair underneath it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Does it smell stinky? It's a bit briny, yeah. But I think it's been out in the open air, so it's probably dried out. It hasn't, doesn't look like it's been raining here in cold or anything like that.

So it looks like it's dried out, and the wind has sort of carried a lot of the smell away. Is it, like, embedded in the ground? It's, it's, it's, so it is large, um, but now it's not, not underwater. You can see it's probably not as heavy as if it was like solid, solid gold. It would be a lot heavier and it would like completely have sunken in. This looks like almost like it was being placed there

and then its weight has like, you know, pushed down a little bit. It's bloody hollow. There's chocolate inside. Oh, hell yeah. Oh, cool. Well, because it was mounted to the, figurehead, right? They're not going to put solid gold as a boat's figurehead. So it is

gold mostly and then it has like an interior. It does have the gems. Well, I've tried them out. You pride those out, yeah. I've got those separately. Cool. I'm happy with that then. I'll re-enter. Have you been looking after... I hope he's not been too much trouble. No, I mean... Borrow?

Oh, borough. He's been... Stuart has been a darling. With is wonderful. And Borough has been delightful and has been... He got into the flower sacks again. He loves that. He loves that. He does love that. I know. He's such a... I love him so much. I just sort of let him get on with it, really.

He is looking a bit pudgy. Really? He eats a lot. Okay, okay dokey. I'll be back in a sec, everyone. I'm going to like start running upstairs. I'm like clicking my fingers, hoping that Borough will find his way to me somewhere in the house. Uh, so yeah, you start, like, clicking your fingers and things like that. You don't find him sort of anywhere upstairs.

Um, eventually you go down into your, like, arcane lab in the basement. Oh, right. Oh, no. He's got the gun. I, like, I run into the room and he sat in the chair behind the door. With a tail rat around the gun. I've been expecting you. Bang, bang, bang. Uh, no, he is coiled up sleeping, but he's in the little sort of a heated album, um, um,

like little canister with like a little magical fire under it, sleeping inside it. And when I creep up really slowly and then just like rob the forehead. His little fins kind of flick and then he kind of looks. And immediately like, it's me, it's me, borrow, it's me. He's like in your shirt. Okay, all right, ow, ow, ow, okay, ow, he starts biting. Oh, ow, oh, that.

Scratch in. Oh, goody. And just like, eventually, like, wriggles up and like starts licking your face. There he is. There he is. Sorry? I don't know he could speak. Thank you so much, Porro. It's like a little, but it's like a little pat

and there's like a tiny little bit of flame. Like, pah! But not enough to like set anything on fire. That's my, that's it, I'm done, I'm done, that's my scene. Yeah, Stuart is like sleeping in his little doggy bed out in the kitchen, happily just like, you know, he's sort of like, when he hears the door, He's a little tail wagon.

I'll just pick up Stuart and give him lots of cuddles. And I'll just, oh, we hear it from the other rooms. Ow, ow, ow, ow! Oh! He found him. It's all good. No, Theresa was just saying, no, it's because the inn is not operational.

We've not had, and that sign outside letting people know that it's not open yet, it's been great. That's helped a lot of people not come around. It's been very popular in the shrine. We've had several people coming by. Yes, some of the newer people who were interested the last time you were here, they've been coming by.

We've been having little lunches and talking about them, reading material. And yes, just sort of, you know, some of them, one thing, Sister Feele, is I do think that, you know, it's very difficult for a lot of people to, we've been taught all of our lives here about the Sions and about Malia and Pyrrhus and the dangers of the Plainar Powers. Some people are really struggling. I wonder if...

I know that St. Detheir, St. Death, is quite a fearsome figure, but it's one that people respect. I'm wondering if there may be some way of bringing the sort of teachings of the Gravefather and maybe integrating it with some of the beliefs of St. Deathier as well. That could be a very interesting way of doing things.

Yes, I'll have to look into that. It could be an idea, but some people just really struggle to go... Like a slow introenter. I think it's, the people that have responded best to the teachings are those like myself who became very disenfranchised with Sions or those who were never quite believers in the first place and offering them alternative mindsets have been very helpful. But for a lot of people, it's very hard for them to sort of give up on the teachings that their parents and their grandparents and everything have had. I do wonder if that might be something we could do. Hmm, yes. Well, I'll conduct another sermon in the next coming days while we're back

because I don't know what else is happening. Are we going to be shooting off again? I don't really know what the plans are. As you see that, Puzz. Rest to Gruff. So Jordan said rest. Graff need rest, so we will be here for... I mean, you probably could all do with an extended rest, right?

To like take some downtime, get your heroic short rest back and things like that, which will be a weak minimum. But also, as you're kind of having this conversation, Parcy, Perci, who's been, you know, traveling with you this whole time, will just say, oh, it is wonderful to see you again, Mr. Reza. And she just looks out, oh, Parcelal is back. Parson is so bad. Oh, I love the, oh, my goodness, it's quite a briny smell.

You're used to it. It's quite comforting, in a way. I suppose, yes. Oh, is this, are these salt crystals? I mean, you're like, like, lifts up his robes, and he's just, like, looking down quite happily. It's quite, quite charming, isn't it? He's wonderful, and I spoke to the Grapefather as well while I was away.

Wonderful. Wonderful. Blessed once again, Sister, of course you were. And he said that we are doing good work. Oh, I'm so pleased to hear that. Me too, me too. I got worried for a second, but... Oh, you have nothing to be afraid of, Sister Ophelia. You're the most dedicated and devoted servant of the Great Father,

and you've introduced myself and so many others to his wonderful teachings and help us take that piece of his teachings into ourselves. You have nothing to worry about. It means a lot to hear, thank you very much. Of course, of course. I know we'll be resting while we're here, but you yourself, you've also earned a rest. Oh, well, I'll go and perform my prayers,

and then I'll head home, and yes, well, I'll see you tomorrow's. I'll see you tomorrow, yes, but yes, go get some rest. Yes, yes. Your help here is always appreciated, Teresa. Of course. Thank you so much. I'll go do my prayers first, and then I'll head off, and she makes her way out to the shrine.

Good night, Rowan, sort of waves. Everything is all right with your statue. Yes, thank you so much for the blankets. That's all right. I didn't know what else to do. Yes, it is pure gold from what we can tell. So it's definitely worth wrapping up. Oh, goodness me.

I know. I don't know what to do with it. My fortune. Perhaps we could melt it down and have a statue of the Greyfather made. Nope. Oh. Oh, that was very quick, but all right.

Sorry, it was great, wasn't it? Yeah, I was quite definitive about that. Well, you know, you've got... It's good to be definitive about your own thoughts and feelings. I guess so. Well, that came out of nowhere. Sorry, Theresa. That's all right.

I'm going to go do my prayers now. Yeah. Enjoy your prayers. Death to Rowan. Teach him the other than his face, my lord. Oh, it's so good to be back here. I know. I'll get the fire going.

Oh, please do. Why does Theresa have it so cold? I don't know. I don't know. Right. Well, now then. It feels weird to relax, right? Everybody rest. Yes.

I've got an idea of while we rest. Okay. If we're going to be here for a bit, maybe, yeah. I reckon we could slow open. Really? A slow open. We need people.

We still need people. We do. Me and Mateo. Yeah, but we need to bring in other people. We can, I mean. I reckon we get the thing going. Yes. And then people will want to work here.

but this is so cool. I mean, I'm certainly, you know, if we're going to be spending some time in the town, like I said, I've worked as a barman before. I'm certain I can keep the place running. If it's just a barman, you need. I've got an idea, Mattair, on top of the idea. Okay.

You start with the bar. Yes. I'll do some bardic stuff. Yes. And then you teach me how to bar stuff, and then you do some bard. Yes, all right. Bardic.

You, we also need some. You start barred, he does bar. So that, yes. We need to cover the point. We need stock. We need stock. Yeah, we were going to go get the, that, was it wine? It was wine, right?

So, yeah, if you want special stuff, you have to go out and, like, something to source it. But you can speak to, like, the local trade guild and just have regular stuff. Like, you can just, like, buy up, like, a bunch of, like, normal local stuff. But you just won't get anything special. We've got to start somewhere, haven't we?

We do. Maybe with our coinage that we've just got, we could invest that into this tavern. We could do. And stock and get going. We are now the hero. of not one, not two, but three different places. You're right.

We're also banished from one place. But we don't mention that in the advertising. Except maybe to people who like banished people. Ed, we don't mention that bit. Does anyone like banished people? No. Demons. We don't want demons here.

No. That's a hard. Mateo, just as a heads up, no demons. Got it, boss? Absolutely. Not a problem. And... Are you more of a...

Are you a chief or a boss? I don't know. I never really thought about it. Chief, hey, chief. No, that doesn't really sit right, does it? Certainly not Lord, certainly not. We can work on it. Why have we decided that Xanthius is the chief boss?

No, I mean, all of you would be. Well, I thought that was just natural. No, I mean, you would all be. I'm trying to work out what word fits you all. Can we banish Zanthius from the town? I don't want another banishing in my life, thank you very much. Mateo, as far as I'm concerned. there is no hierarchy here.

You're part of the team. Right, profit share. Yeah, how much? Profit share. We haven't actually... Profit share? Profit share. I don't like this combination of words,

profit and I don't like profit share. Okay, which is the word you are having trouble with? Share. Okay. I thought it might be. So what's your suggestion, Ophelia? Profit. And then who gets the profit?

Me. Okay. See, that's going to be an issue. That's going to be an issue, Ophelia. The issue just now is there's no profit to be had because nothing set up. No, okay. Maybe we just, we just get it out there, open the doors, let people come in, whatever stuff we have, and we just get it done.

We can always close it. Exactly. If it's too busy. And just to be clear, like we're not doing foods, you're not doing rooms, it's just a bit of a bar. I can run a bar. That's no problem. You get me stock. you go out and want to, you know,

if this place must have as a traders and things like that, you get the stock, I can run a bar for a week or two. That's not a problem whatsoever. Yes. And then you get someone in, I'll train them up, and then I'm free to barred and travel and explore. Then we start expanding on what type of services we can have in this one place. Let me start building more property.

Then we have franchising. And then we have going into different territories, Kelskaris, Oda's Kear. Can you imagine? I'm overwhelmed. And then eventually we take over the world. with our franchise. There you go. With,

operations, hurrah. That you can all, it is very late, you can all retire to bed. We're done. Wait, Mateo, final test. Borough attack. How does imagine us Borough like Mateo?

He would get a 24, an animal handling. Damn. So he sees, he's like, and then he like sees this and he whistles in a certain tone. And then he holds out his, and Barr like coils around it and he's like,

who's a handsome fellow? You are? You are? Who's a handsome little snake friend? Woo! I think that... And Barrer loves it. He like spins him around. He's like, wha! I've never seen him so still. That's the best he's ever behaved ever. Tateo. Yeah. He truly is the best of us. Like you say. What? That's unbelievable. You threw a flying snake dragon at me. No one has...

Did you hear... Ow! Did you hear earlier when he said, when you heard all the hours? Yes, I heard all the screaming. Yeah, that was how... That was bonding. That was bonding. Yeah, stupid.

All right, I'm... Okay, I thought I was making an impression on this fellow. No, you're very good with him, but he's still boring. He's still boring. I just needed to know him, you know, anyway, carry on. Well, I mean, it is, you know, you can go upstairs to your own beds, in your own rooms, and enjoy nice... Do we have a room for Mateo?

No. Don't have a guest room. I was going to say, Mateo, you might want to use my room. No, but you, that's your room. I'll go sleep in the Hermitage. No, God, that'd be ridiculous. No, he actually wants to do that. I like the temperature out there.

Yes, but I can't take your room. Too late, I'm gone. Well, how about, no, how about this? I will sleep in your room very kindly this evening. And then in the future, I can, like, the little, kitchen, I can get a little cot and I can get a little bed out there and it'll be fine for now until I can find something more permanent. I don't really need a room though. I have the hermitage. You can't sleep outside every night. I absolutely can. I don't think you actually

can. That would be quite insane. Do we have a basement? Like the temperature yes but if it rains it's like out in the elements like no it's like a little shrine it's not like a little Well, I got fucking money, I'm made bigger. Put a bed in it. He could go in the basement. He could, yeah, you could set up a room for. We could set up a lot. Oh, wait, the cell of the, is the arcane workshop, isn't it?

Yes. Well, no, that is, not all of it, no. No, but yeah, there is, there is, there is. Partition. Yeah. But a nice little part of the kitchen. He also has the kitchen. There's spice.

To be fair, we're not actually using this. There's a whole lot of spice. I don't really intend to stay here, so my room's probably going to be quite empty. What do you mean? I've always said this. I don't. But, but my, I don't. I don't plan on staying here permanently, no.

I travel around. I've always made it very clear. And that's not shifted a little bit. No. My home is an Isart. With my wife. Yeah. He does have a wife.

And my family. And a family. Family? My community. And a community. Can we go? Let's go visit them. Yeah.

Who's your family? We're your family. We'll go there. My wife. The relative. my in-laws. Okay, well, we can... Insight check.

Roll it? Yeah. Kim can roll a deception or persuasion trial. Check, don't tell you which. Sorry, in Twitch chat. I sleep in a big bed with my wife. I sleep in a tavern. What about you?

21. 16. Oh. So yeah, you get a read that, is definitely holding something back, but. I twitch. Interesting. Noted. We'll come back to this. But it was never my intention to say,

and I think I made that quite clear from me. You did, but I thought things might change. Do I sound worried? Oh, God. That was the vocal equivalent of the low-cap, high-cap text, warbling. That's okay. can come with me.

I'd love to. Can we at some point go to Ice Hot? Oh, absolutely. Yes. Yes. I want to go. I want to explore. All family.

So many different places. Yes, all of them, everyone. But for now, we've on to rest. We're going to open up shop. Open up shop. Get some new staff in, have this place. Growing and flowing like a dream. That's what people say.

Businesses. Wow, that's growing and flowing. I'm going to bed now. Good night. And by bed, you mean you're going outside, right? Yes, okay, good. Do you want my tent? I have a tent.

I was one of the few... Grafts the man who would have a bed roll. I have all of that stuff in the road. Do you want a double tent? Do you want my blanket? Yeah, so for the hermitage, like, there is not enough space to actually, like, go in it and, like, sleep inside it.

It's like a... Half in, half out. It's like a cave shrine more than anything. It's not really like a full one. Yeah, you can do that, but you are still quite exposed. Head or legs. I'll probably head in, legs out. Or you could set up the tent.

Like, the garden is big enough that you can pitch the tent in there. I got Ted and bed. I do have a Ted. I'm married to a head. Not in Althea. But in Althea, I have a tent and a bed roll. So what I did there was I put...

Ted bed, bed. Ted roll. Ted roll. You can get your Ted roll and set that up. I think everybody makes their way to bed. You, you know, the familiar comfort of Tyrea's rest. Aphelia looks up at her big, ornate painting on the wall. Yay!

I tried to smell you so many times. Oh, there it was the whole time. On the wall in a frame. Amazing. I've been offered in just so many freaking people on this journey. I thought I lost you. I thought it lost you. The rest of the statues are in the room at Mateo's right now.

The last thing we see as you all go to bed and the candles and the lanterns all flicker out in. out on the street, there is a single figure watching the inn. No. Yeah. They're fine. We see his there from the rear in a long black coat. Oh, sake.

We could probably hear him from inside. And that's where we're gonna take our break. We're gonna take five minute break here already. We'll see you for part two. They're not bar. They're not coming in. I was in a very loud mouth breathing. I was going to say,

Mateo, no demons, and also, by the way, there's one more person to ban. We will see you. Karen Darkblade. We will see you in five minutes, everybody. Take care. See it a bit.

Bye. Friends Are Digital is a podcast about video games and the stories they tell. Every week we cover a retro title, where Mark finds a way to bring up Terry Bogart or aspect ratios. And Caitlin grudgingly acknowledges that there are games other than Square RPGs. We do a feature review of a recent release and also chat about what we've been playing lately. We love the stories and memorable characters that video games bring us. Geras Vicarian will never love you the way he loves me. Sometimes a little too much. Join us every week for all my best friends are digital. Wherever you find your podcasts. I'm Dan Marr, host of the Conversions podcast where I invite the talented, inventive and uncompromising

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