High Rollers DnD - Operation Opal | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #113 (Part 1)

Episode Date: August 11, 2026

The heroes prepare for Operation Opal (disguising themselves to get into the Diadem's Opal Lounge) but Ophelia and Xantheus have some assistance with a little Soul Cage! 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/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠v Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickax. You should listen to our show, Tales from the Sninky Dragon. It's an immersive D&D actual play show with a fully voiced cast of characters plus sound design. And then I finished my action with a high five. Go ahead and make a dexterity check. That's an 18. Oh, that's a good high five. I rolled a 16 on initiative.

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put the sword down get him get him do it now it's your turn listener Subscribe to Tales from the Stinky Dragon wherever you listen to podcast today. Welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire. Last time, our heroes recovered and regrouped after the diadem

ambush on Xanthius inside the Imperial Academia. They discussed the events that had taken place as well as the offer by the mysterious Malcolm Tumes to assist them in their dealings with the diadem. After discussing their options, the heroes decided to join up with tombs

and watchtower and to investigate the mysterious opal lounge that was mentioned in the arcane letter they found in Professor Brasquil's study. Meeting with tombs, he gave them a selection of arcane gadgets to help them against the diadem, as well as the support of someone called Agent Darling, one of Watchtower's agents in the city, saying that they would be observing the heroes from afar and would intervene if necessary. And that, my friends, is where we basically left off last time. concluded your meeting with Malcolm Toombs. I believe I'm hoping that somebody wrote down

all of the gadgets. Two hoods of false face, a perfume of tracking, spectacles of secrets, two potions of invisibility. Excellent, they are all on D&D Beyond, so hopefully you should add them to your inventory. You could party in the room for now. Jokes on you, my face was false the whole time. What?

Who is? I'm the great father. We do need to do fate. Let's roll. I've actually rolled good first. for the first time in like what six weeks? You didn't roll a two? No, I did not roll two.

You lost the two curses, okay, I took it off you. I didn't actually. Oh. Oh. What's Rianan starts off? Four. Two, three, four. That's not German.

Four. Cinco. Five. De Mayo. Six-o. Oh. It comes down to me. I'm going to give myself any.

No. Blessed be. Holy saved. blessed. What a good day. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing going to go wrong. On a self-mission? No. It's okay. We've got the tools for it. Yeah. Have you added those to the party inv?

Per chance. I'm fucking dare you. Please. Assume that. Please. I'll do it now. Thank you. Love you. I know. I know. But yes, you had concluded your sort of breakfast meeting with Malcolm Toomes. So we're probably looking at sort of like 10, 11 a.

probably 10 a.mish. So you have a good amount of time depending on when and how you want to approach this Opal Lounge. Hmm. Skepically. Yes. With hesitation.

Did we get a layout of the Opal Lounge? You were given the opportunity to ask, but you did not pursue that as a course of interest. Right, so I can't do anything in terms of super stealth, though, because I'm a big fucking lion man and putting a mask of disguises on my face just means... We'll leave it to roll. You can be another lion.

I can be another lion man. That's not bad. But you could, wild shape. What? What's that? You were druid. Fuck off. Oh, shit.

Apparently. What? Did you change class? Don't try and be caught. From Paladin? I must have done. I'm sorry. Shut up.

Don't be quiet. I mean, I'm literally wild shape the last episode I was here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We do have false face, but that doesn't change. Big lying marks. Doesn't change your ancestry. So, for example, Xanthias cannot hide, like, his dragon tail with it. He can appear as another dragon born.

He can't talk and the aura too strong. No, no. Just tuck it, bro. Tuck it. Can we color it, but cannot change your actual, like, physical. Same with, like, you know, Rowan can't really appear shorter than he is. Yeah. Just real quick, I have to say this

because it's been rattling around my brain, and I have to let it out. Wolf is to dire wolf as dem is to... Dyer Dem. That's the show thing I had to get it out of. Great. When we encounter a dem, we'll find out what the weakest, smaller version is.

We've already beaten the diadem. Yeah. It's a dem! You can say we've already encountered Dem. We have to encounter Dem. I know, we have to face Dyer Dem. Fuck. That's what I was the way.

Yeah, yeah. Can we end the stream? Do you to just like, just like, please? Because I have an aneurysm. Take a quick beat on to death break. Very nice. Sorry, it was just, yeah, yeah. That was good, it was a good thought.

I can feel the pressure building up in the head, you know? Yeah, it was a thought to have. There was a vein just going off the forehead there again. But now I've said that, back to planning. Um, um, um, um, um, we need to scout the, I need to reckey. to rec. You need to a quick wreck. So maybe a seren or a sneaky

rogue of some sort? Maybe with like big bushy of hair. I think they tried it a bit odd. Daisy is here and I will play Daisy if necessary. But where possible let's try and not have Daisy do things because I don't want to like

make decisions. Hey, you haven't spoken it a lot of time. No, yeah. No, I'm very distra. I'll just stuff some face full of cake that she carries at all times. It might not be in the spirit of, what's the word, stealth, if seren, a translucent ice-diver,

not native to Kelskaris, flies into an enclosed bar during the day. So you're saying we have to do this ad hoc. I think so. What does that mean? I don't know. Oh, okay. I don't know somewhere.

Right. But certainly, I would say certainly, like, visiting the area where the Opel lounge is, getting like an understanding of like where it is, maybe getting an idea of like the building layout, if at all possible, would certainly be useful to you. But also depends on like, yeah,

what time are you doing this like during the day? Are you going to do this in the evening? Like to actually go in and investigate fully? Like, do you have an angle that you want to approach with? I know that Xanthias floated the idea of potentially trying to maybe pass yourself off as brass quill. Obviously the masks can't do that, but other spells might be enable you to do that.

Do we know what sort of time Brasquil left his study to go to... I don't think you know that, no. You know it was pretty, like, you know that he went back to his study. He was seemed to, I think you remember, like, in the discussion with the authoritar, that he was, like, flustered, somebody came to deliver a message to him. He was kind of irritated, and then he very quickly left after getting that message. Okay. But you don't know if he came straight to the Opal Lounge,

you don't know if he went somewhere else, like you don't know. Okay, I'm just wondering if, like, if we went in the evening, is that just an immediate red flag straight away? I mean, I have no idea. Okay. Well, we've got the... There's other preparations you might want to do as well.

Like, you, you... This is really over to you guys now. Yeah. So two consistent working solid disguises with false faces. Other than that, we might need some more, well, we will need, either to... some more mundane disguises, clothing,

um, makeup, uh... I can do that. You can do makeup? I can do, well, Percy does mine. Do you have makeup that isn't red? No. Right, we might need some more, then. That's the other thing.

We need to cover up our, um, unique attributes. We're not, we saw the people that ambushed me. They were not the most eccentric characters. Like, we are, you know, what with gestures at Crown, Gestures at red makeup, gestures at lion. Justure at all of me? All of me, thank you. Okay, yes, at all of you.

You do have, like, main characters in a video game in amongst all the MPC villagers. You know, everyone else is wearing the same. Yeah, yeah. And I'm currently, I am wearing the air that has the best stats. I've got like a pink shirt with glowing shorts. I've got a glowing...

Lava ass. They transmog that these days. I don't get that as much. Thank you, Nassizza, for transmogging my best stats. That's true. Oh my god, yeah. So, we'll have to make ourselves look. Plain.

Plain, nondescript. Sure. Well, that's easy, because you've always told me my clothing is there are the planes, aren't this? Not plain, I didn't use the word plain. Go on, Rowan. What if the most obvious of us use the potion of a visibility so long as we spend that hour actually infiltrating?

Yes. The rest of us can go. Incognito, ad hoc. On fly. I've used the word again, but I still don't know what it means. Sounds cool, isn't it? Well, the stealthiest of us could benefit from... That Recky you were talking about.

What does that mean? So, Rowan and Daisy, invisible. Razy and Doan, go Invisible, and stealth check out the place. Come back to us, feedback to us the information, as the stealthiest of the group. Rowan checks his stats. I know for a fact he can hide.

He's disappeared. You pass. You hit on that tower. Yes. No one could see you. I have disadvantage on it right now. Because of my armour. You shouldn't do because it's a mithril chain mail.

So you can ignore that. I think it's pronounced Mithril. Mithril. Mithril. Meathril, yes. I mean, I could turn into a wee beastie or something. Well, I was... Daisy was saying...

I was thinking maybe I could hang out outside. I can activate the daisy chain and then I can keep a lookout for anybody who's like coming in. Yes? Because I can like blend in with a crowd and then I can warn you if anybody's coming in. Okay.

I'm not congruentia. This is good. The stealthiest of all. Yes. Infiltrate. Potentially. Other than that, so make ourselves look plain. Yes.

Which means I can't. How do you do that with you two? I can't wear this anymore. We'd have to get some new clothes. Your fashion winners. I know. I'll have to wear a color that isn't red. Yes.

What are you going to look like? I don't know, Rowan. I don't want to think about it. It would be very easy. Kalscarus being this enormous city that is, there's shops everywhere. You can literally just go in and buy traveller's clothes.

It would be like five gold to buy like a simple set of travellers clothes. Very, very easy to buy. I think green. Brown. Yeah, a muted. Beige. No! Zanthius, give me a history role.

History? Yeah. We'll see a few robots. History. Well, also, if this is a bar as well or something like that, then it probably shouldn't be like, you know, don't you dress up to go to bars. I don't know, I've never been to one.

Maybe. Turns out of the bar. I got an 18. An 18. I think as you're having this conversation, talking about plain outfits, and when gruff says that, well, actually, should you, you know,

at a bar you normally go dress up, you remember Toombs saying and your kind of knowledge of Kelskaris and what you know of Gildi from your past and your connection. It is a place called the Opal Lounge. You're pretty sure that Tum says that it's on an important plaza.

It's probably actually not the kind of place that just anybody goes to. This probably is going to be more of a sort of like, I mean, the people of Gildai, cauldrons are very much about being proud and like being very sort of like wearing lovely outfits and things like that. The people of Guildy still dress very nicely. They're just not as gaudy as caldrons with it.

It's a lot more like prim and proper and like courtly attire and sort of like everything's very covered up and very prim. But it's still very nice. It's still very luxurious. It's a very wealthy province. So maybe dressing down too much might not be the right idea. But you don't know. Again, that's the kind of thing of you might be able to see the kind of clientele that goes in and out.

So don't dress like me. Well, a little bit more up, but also not too up. You know? I imagine the diadem also have a strict catalogue of knowledge of what counts as a disguise and what doesn't, signs they can look out for to identify each other, but we don't know that. Rings.

Other than rings. That's all I got. Tattoes. And they're often working in pairs. Yes. The facets do. We're looking for Miss Peridot in particular at the Opal Lounge, should we not?

Yes. And again, we don't know. Peridot. Rowan knows that. It's a gem. Chris Trott currently doesn't know what colour that is. So Peridot, I believe it's pronounced Peridot. I always say Peridot as well, but Peridot is greenish in colour.

It's my colour. So... Do you think they be so obvious to dress in the colours? I think they'd have the confidence to, possibly. That's not a bad shout. And I think that you know that Miss Peridot is partnered with Mr. Emerald, which makes sense if they're both green-colored.

They seem to be paired up in colors like that. So we could look out for hints of that at least. So blend in. Look nice, but... Why are you making that face? Anthemtheus is looking at the lantern. Ah. But also not going to be obvious. Yeah.

Mm. Hmm. So I'm going to go in invisible while you two are kind of like our physical presence. Yes. And Gruff, what do you plan on doing? I could be a wee beastie, like a little mouse or something. Yeah, one of their pockets. Sure.

My pocket. Yes. Please don't crush me. I won't crush you. I can be very safe. And then we have Daisy being our communications liaison. Yeah. communication. At-hoc.

I'm the girl in the chair. Yes, the social network manager. Hopefully there's like a cafe or something. I can just sit in there. Okay. When do you want to go, by the way? When are we actually starting this? When do we execute?

Operation. Operation. Oprah. Nighttime sort of places or what? I'm worried about nighttime being a guestless sort of affair. Well, I don't know. I've never been to a bar, so I don't. I think the sooner the better, I say.

It might be really busy at night as well. I will really understand what the vibe is. Let's just go then. Busy could be good. It might be easier to blend in if it's busy. Like the game hit man. What's that? I've played that game.

What is it? I've hit many men. He's very good at disguising himself. It's a game you play when you're younger. You hit man. Basically like hide and seek, but with rocks. See, I was just working straight away when I was younger. Didn't have any times.

Really? Straight away. Yeah. Just... Nice heart. There's no time for play. Right away. It's work to be doing. Popped down to a fishing boat.

Boom. Well, when you're younger as well, you tend to make all the nets because you've got good little fingers to make the nets. None of you are from Mistwald, are you? There's a cool law thing about Miss Wald that ties into this. Well, I've heard that you're Missed Wald.

No, shut up. We'll have to read the book. Yeah, I only think about because I've been writing about it recently. So, what is, do you want to go to... Because don't forget, this is in Vault Watch, which is the Gold Dragon District. You guys are currently on the coil, which is the circular ring road

that kind of connects all of the districts together. You've just met with Tooms, you've come off the coil, you're kind of having this chat as you're going somewhere, but also if you want to go there, you could go there and look at the outside, find where it is, and then split off again. If you do want to go in the evening, you've got all day to do this.

Gruff does have a training session, but that will be about 3pm. We probably won't do a full role play thing for that this time because we've done quite a lot of things. that, Kim, and I want to kind of save it for the next hatchball match, but we'll definitely, gruff goes there and, like, we can do some roles and stuff like that. We also want to role play the montage

where we put on all of our bits of the outfit before the operation begins. Oh, you will. Like a true, no, because if this is a true, like, spy heist thing, if you reveal too much now, it means it's going to go wrong. That's right. The less you reveal now, the more right it goes. That's the

rule of the heist movie. True. The more you reveal in the set-up phase, like, the more they show in the planning phase, the more that will go wrong. Whereas if they don't show anything, that will be the surprise twist that they pull it off. Yes, Rowan. How about we start making our way towards Volt Watch

by going through the coil and look out for any good tailors en route to find you two some outfits. And then we can start locating the Opal Lounge and kind of giving it a glance from a distance, see if it's worth infiltrating immediately, or wait until the evening. Okay, tailors.

I like it. Taylor's a good ideas. So good. Well, one tailor we can't go to. Okay. What was that about? Good ideas, yeah. We just love Taylor's so much.

We love Taylor's. Well, remember to downplay it a little bit. Don't go so fashion. No, we'll come out with exactly what we need. I'm thinking black. Maybe. Just all black. We'll find out.

I mean, how can we find how? Green? A little bit of green. A bit of rowing green. There. Wait, who's wearing the faces? Uh, you two. Oh, right, okay. You change your identity and wear clothes.

Got it. Okay, understood. The green can work. Green might work. Green always works. Green is ground. Green is moss. Okay. Rock clothes. You're right, yes. Okay. Rowan like green. Rowan rock. Diadem not care about green rock, Rowan.

What? Yeah. Okay. What? What? So you all begin making your way, traveling through the coil until you arrive at Vault Watch. The entrance to Vault Watch is hard to miss. A grand gate with golden dragon statues kind of curling up the sides lead into this beautifully cobbled street that sort of begins to weave in.

The district itself, you notice it has kind of similar to Kelskaris, like a big sort of main thoroughfare that leads to this huge, huge open plaza, but then it has all these little side streets. And the side streets are like jam-packed, very tight, tall buildings. They have these like overhanging balconies. The residential streets have like washing lines kind of hung between them. And you get this sense that there is like the workers kind of like streets. And then there are the more affluent sort of, you know, like high class. And the kind of places like, you know, the fancy kind of like streets in London or if you go to like Ginza and Tokyo, it's kind of like,

oh, these are like the really nice, high-end shops. And then you sort of turn down and you're in these little tiny, rickety little, you know, little nooks and crannies kind of thing. Everywhere is, you know, gold features prominently,

especially the tiles of all the balconies and the roofs. Like they are either painted gold or some of them, some of the richer-looking buildings, you think actually might be like gold-leafed or, like, you know, gilded in some way. Everywhere you look,

But there's a couple of common iconographies. Like you see a lot of like on the buildings carved wheat sheafs. So like, you know, like tall wheat fields and things like that. That seems to be a kind of common motif here. And then coins is another one. Like either coins strung up like coins with like holes push through the middle so they can't be used and traded, but used to decorate and things like that. Almost every building has at least one gold coin hanging from it in some way.

This place smells fantastic. To you, it's just like, yeah, it's this overwhelming of richness and wealth that everywhere you look. You would notice as well that there is, you know, statuary is very common here as well. Now, I have a question for Tom for Xanthias. Zanthias has never, does he remember what his father looks like? I don't think so. No.

No. So you see a bunch of statues that kind of scattered around the place. Obviously of all different forms. Gold dragons tend to have like these kind of like crested heads with then Kieran-like kind of horns that kind of stretch up. And there's like a kind of mixture of a little bit of Western dragon but also a little bit of kind of like Japanese-Chinese dragon. They have like these golden swirls that are kind of almost like growing out of their arms

and things like that. They have the catfish kind of whiskers kind of coming down, long, slender bodies, but they still have the wings and the forearms of like a Western dragon. And then their tails end in big, wide kite shapes. And they sort of have this kind of like mix. And you can see that like, on the real gold dragons, like these kind of gross, these like swirling flame patterns,

they're actually like solid gold that grow out of the dragons themselves and things like that. So you see all these different statues, different kind of like builds, different demeanors and things like that. Some of the dragons have different horn styles, but none that any of you would really recognize. you eventually come following the rough directions

You're a terrible one You know, I didn't know I didn't know You eventually come to a plaza you're directed to a place called Orescal Plaza Orescal I think some of you would know

is a place, is a town in Gildai and Vizanthius it is the region that your father rules over it is the town that Oregon rules over Orescull. And his family has ruled it for since the beginning of the empire.

Orescal Plaza is a grand plaza. You know, this huge circular ring, luxury shops and services. You know, high-end salons, high-end, like, artisans, like the most exquisite leather goods, like all tooled and, like, you know, gilded with, like, gold leaf paint

and things like that. You know, jewelers, jewelry is a big thing here. And you see, actually, there are several jewelry stores selling the most beautiful like bracelets, gemstone you know, chokers and things like that.

Choker brokers. Choker brokers. And they're all like glass fronted, like, you know, floor to ceiling glass. But you can probably tell that there's like arcane ruins to like protect and you know, make it like, you know, attack proof. Very

ornate place. In the middle there is a statue of a gold dragon. a very powerful, quite stern-looking figure, the sort of catfish tendrils, like, coiling off. But beside it is the humanoid variant of this dragon. And you can see that this statue is probably made of solid gold itself. And you see that the figure kind of stood beside them is a very tall, imperious-looking gentleman,

a very short sort of, like, very closely cropped. beard, the hair very tightly pulled back into like a top knot style, Kieran-style horns projecting from the top of the head. A kind of mixture, this is a very odd mix, but Hirouki Sanada, who's like one of the guys from the last samurai and Shogun, mixed with Mads Mikkelson. Like very handsome, but kind of this almost imperialist kind of face. Yeah. Looking down, wearing robes. It kind of has like the kind of Chinese court robes, but then, and breastplate over the top of it, like grieves and gauntlets,

a sword, like a kind of Chinese-style long sword at their side, sort of stood their hand on the hilt, sort of imperiously, like, looking forward. And this is, you know, you could imagine it is the dragon who rules over this place in Gildai. Are there any similarities to people we might know? I'm like looking around in the exact same place.

Yeah, the camera pan. Dragon statue, the human statue, and there's you just like... Where are we going? I think because this is a gold statue, it's not like a coloured statue. It is hard to see like a familial necessarily resemblance right away, but there is something, and I think it is actually a little bit more in a little bit of the way that they both stand. It's a little bit of like the cut of like the eye, like the jaw and things like that.

There is something there. But obviously for Xenthius, like, Xanthius' mother probably also played a big part in how he looks and things like that. But yeah. Is there like a little plaque or anything? If Gruff goes up to it, yeah, there would be a dedicated to Lord Oregonus, a Duke Oregonus, Lord of Orescull. Oh.

Wow, I thought, oh, figurehead. Oh, golden figurehead was impressive. But this, this is enormous. That is pure blood. The breastplate. It's molded in gold, but you can see that the breastplate has like a diamond at the center. It has like a diamond sort of gemstone at the center. The gauntlets and grieves have them as well.

Probably not on this statue, but it's designed in a way that it looks like it would be diamond. The armor detailing is beautiful. What does it say gruff? Um, gruff's looking directly at xanthias. I mean, I know the rover on. You know that it's Orescull Plaza. and there's a big dragon and a dragon noble. It's um...

It's Oregonas. Yep. That is... Oh. My... That I look around, people like walking around... It's a busy place. It's Oregonis.

Um... He's a statue. Sure. This is... Um... There's almost a thing that you notice, Antheus, which is even this... This statue isn't looking at you, it's looking beyond you.

Yeah. The gaze looks out into the city, not down at whoever might be looking at it, but... Are you okay? Yes, it's, I don't know this man. Really? Do I? No, I guess not. I didn't know what he looked like. So why should I feel any sadness or fear from this?

I don't feel fear from it. It's just a statue. It's just a statue. Very... Very golden statue. Rage. There's hate in you. Let's carry on.

Let's carry on. It's a bit ostentatious, isn't it? Just, you know... Yeah, I think a figurehead from a ship is far more reserved and appropriate. A bit over the top, you know. As you turn away, you locate... on the edge of this plaza,

kind of looking out onto it, a three stories tall, very well-appointed, very grand-looking, I guess you wouldn't know what kind of building is just to look at it, but you see that the sign with a beautiful sort of round,

golden-y kind of opalescent, perlessence, sorry, opal. The O of Opal Lounge is the gemstone itself, the opal. There are no windows on the first and first floor. The second floor looks like there are curtained windows, but then the third floor seems to be some sort of rooftop terrace.

And it looks out onto the city, it looks out onto the bar. Kind of imagine one of those high-end, like, London, if you've ever been to like a high-end bar in London, and they have the rooftop lounge with the umbrellas, and they look out on the city. And then, like, underneath, it's like a trendy, kind of, like, cocktail-y kind of lounge bar. It's kind of the vibe that you're getting.

There is a guard, two guards on the front entrance. You can see that it's also like a curtained door. So like once you like they're kind of part of the curtain, you know, you would step through into it, basically. Well, this is the power lounge. So Oprah must be nearby. Okay. It looks nice.

So we need to get past some guards. It's easy. Just coming in for a drink. Yes. Was I understood that this is just you guys just wanted to check the place out. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not going in just to...

No, no. We need to sort out the outfits and stuff, but anyway. Does anyone go in at any point? Like if we wait for, I don't know, 10 minutes or so. 10 minutes? Let me roll to see.

Can I, like, keep an eye out to see if, like, anyone's looking at us? Yeah, absolutely. Give it about 10 minutes. I'll give this thing. But during this time, like, looking at the building, seeing if we spot anything, I guess, like, yeah. Look at what people are wearing as well. Yeah.

You, in about, in 10 minutes, you don't really see anybody come and go. Okay. It looks like this is, you know, this is early morning. This is like 11 a.m., let's say, by the time you've had a discussion made your way here. So this is very much like, yeah, nobody's really coming going. The guards look very bored. and they're sort of just sort of, you know, picking their nails and sort of having a chat amongst themselves

doesn't look like this is kind of its busy time. Gruff, what did we get on our perception check? A natural uno. Oh, perfect. For a grand total of Cinco. Lovely. You, I think that your eye just keeps getting drawn to that statue kind of watching over it.

And like you're trying to keep an eye out, but you look at Xanthius, you look at the statue and it's just there, kind of an ever-present sort of thing. And yeah, you don't notice anybody really looking at you. Doesn't seem to be anything that's anywhere. Yeah. Because you guys have come here just as yourselves, right? You're not in disguises or anything like that.

Yeah, I mean, we're not like right outside the front door. No, no. I figured you're in the plaza, but you're kind of, because it is crowded, right? So you're kind of in a crowd. You've sort of made your way. You're almost looking a bit like tourists, and you're sort of glancing over and getting a sight of where

places and what it looks like. You maybe make your way over to the edge, sort of huddle together, and then you wait the 10 minutes trying to see if anybody comes and goes, but you don't really spot anything. It does look like there are a couple of places nearby. There's like a very upmarket-looking little patissory place that maybe is across the plaza that maybe Daisy could hold herself up in and keep an eye on you, but still be within range of the Daisy chain. If you go back into the sort of smaller streets, plenty of like tailors or general stores where you can buy clothing but also if you wanted to find like another place to like an inn to rent a room

to like kind of get ready and stuff in you could easily find that here as well basically it's a very busy very commercial part of the city so pretty much kind of most things that you want to find are probably here is there anyone in the crowd that I can immediately identify as someone not a tourist but someone who is from this district oh easily oh gosh Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's very easy to spot, like, the Gildai citizens, they look like Gildi citizens. You know, the citizens who live here look like Gildi citizens.

So very sort of, like, crisp, formal robes, very much looking. There's a kind of little touch of, like, Barsing Say, from Avatar. Like, very sort of, like, long robes. Like, everybody kind of keeps, like, everything quite prim and proper. Okay. Very neat haircuts. Like, it's not gaudy. It's not outrageous, like, culture.

Like, nobody's trying to command attention here. It's, like, everything's very, like, understated almost. Understated, but also uniform. Everyone's trying to like conform, is what I'm thinking of. It's like conformity. Okay, I'm just going to try something. Excuse me, excuse me, hello.

Hi. Yes, you, a woman is like, you know, she looks like maybe she's a scribe or a scholar and like on a... Yes, hello, sorry. We are travelers to Kelskaris, a tourist, so to speak. And we've been looking for places to eat, to stay, and we're just hoping to get a run of the, an idea of the area. And I wondered if you had any recommendations.

Local flavour, that sort of thing, you know. She's going to look you over and make an insight check for her. You are being judged. You are being judged. I mean, you're wearing a very nice outfit. Gruff is not. Rowan's not. Ophelia's is very nice.

She's sort of like... Maybe when I say, my friend's here, I just go to one side. Just to a feeling. Yeah, sure you can do that, if you like. She sort of looks the two of you over, and I was like, well, there's a few places. If you're looking for somewhere to stay, I think that there's a place just back the way you came.

It's a very traditional guild I in called Kiyoshan's. There's the Opal Lounge. I think they have rooms. Opal Lounge. I've heard stories about that quite prestigious the Opal Lounge. I understand there might be some sort of guest list to end. enter that place, is that right? Oh, no, I don't think so.

No, I mean, it's open... I mean, it is for wealthy citizens. If one does not look like they belong, then you certainly would... You would have a hard time getting in, I think. Oh, it owned the guards, right? Yes, yes. It is sort of an elite clientele.

But they have some rooms, but, again, they're normally... They're very expensive. But Koshans is quite reasonable. in terms of places that each, she lists off a few different restaurants in the area and things like that. But I really must be going. I'm running late already. I'm so sorry I can't give you more help. Just one more. One last question. Yes, very quickly.

So we've just been travelling from different districts and we had some run in with some ruffians, so to speak. We were concerned about security. Would you say that we were thinking about the Opel Lounge? Would you say the security there is guards? Well, the worm guard should be patrolling. You should have, if you've had trouble, certainly in full. form the wormguard, but the Opel lounge has its own private security as well. You do, okay. Yes, that's good to that.

They have, like, mercenaries or something that they hire. Wonderful. Well, thank you. It's just over there and she points. Yes, thank you for your time, please. Yes, you're more than welcome. Okay. There's kind of, like, I think there's a lingering moment of, like,

she didn't put her hand out, but there's this, like, moment where she lingers for a second, because this is Gildai, and it's very transactional, and it's like, I would probably, probably know this, right? Yeah, I mean, like, it's definitely, like, you've asked her for some help and, like, ask him. Oh, I have something. I put a gem in her hand.

Oh, my God. How much is that gem worth? I have, I have 25 gold left of gem value. Okay, so 25 gold? Sure, it's not 600. She spent that all already. Can I maybe do 10? 10?

Yeah. Sure. 10, 10 gem value. She's like, oh, my goodness, thank you so much. Oh, what a lovely, how to consider it? I thought it's your outfit. Oh, thank you. Thank you, it does. I have to see if I can get this fashioned into something.

She is very pleased and it's just like, yes. Well, thank you for your information. Thank you so much. You're more than welcome. Oh, seeing as you've been so kind and generous, the Oprah lounge is quite dead during the day. It gets quite lively in the evening. Some of the influential people of the city like to visit it in the evenings.

They have some excellent musicians. They have some wonderful performance there, yes. I do recommend it if you can get in. It certainly seems like you, if you are happy to give away this sort of currency, you're fit in just fine. Oh, yes, you can tell. Wonderful. Well, have a lovely time. I hope you enjoy your time in Kelskaris. Thank you so much. Thank you. Drifts off like, oh, this is lovely. What a wonderful little treat.

He's really happy. Filter it through me. I said this last time at Narcissa, filter it through me. Sorry, you see, you made her so happy, though. You made her happy. I'm so unhappy. I'm so unhappy. I'm sorry. I've got I feel it. I've got about 10. I mean 10 GP in or fair

is not as much as it might be in a regular D&D campaign. Don't forget, like everything's a little bit more expensive in the empire. You really hurt your head, didn't you? I've really bonked it, but it's not good, you know, to feel something. Brain still rattling around there. Yeah, they are.

Okay, okay, okay. So, no... I'm going to say your other gemstone is 15 GP down. Perfect. No good, don't want you breaking that down into small amounts. Just shave it off. You can do that.

Like cheese, just shave it on a little bit off of it. You can go to a jewelry or if you have jewelry skill, you can... Topaz shaving. Yeah, you can definitely cut it down into smaller pieces. One left, okay. Well, that worked. We could do that again if you want to get more information. Is there anything else we might want to know? I can't see from the reflection of this golden statue.

Okay, let's please go somewhere else. We need to maybe get away from the site. Pop into the tailors maybe and get our outfits sorted, perhaps. Yeah, yeah. Where is the Opal Lounge? It's right there. It's right, you're standing near it. Why doesn't it say it?

The stone is the old. An open stone. It's the old, isn't it? Yes, it's right there. Um, okay, well. He thought of that bit and he's like, I'm gonna milling. We're going to all the way home with this. Yeah.

We'll go look for things to disguise yourself. Yes. Yes. Maybe we should look for different pieces to make this plan come to fruition, right? Like what? What pieces? Individual pieces. Outfits. Outfits. Maybe some makeup to...

Make-up, yes. Make-up. Could hurt. Couldn't hurt. You're wild shaping into a mouse or something very small. Something small. Like a worm or a kitten. You can have these.

The spectacles are secrets or you, whoever it fits the... Handy, yes. Should be in the D&D beyond. Spectacles and secrets. I tried to find them, I couldn't find it. Oh, really? Oh, it might, yeah, that's fine. But I put them as a custom item in there.

It should be in there. Okay. Specter of secrets. Maybe you had a little bag or something to put these in as well, like the potion, the perfume of tracking. Got my bag of holding. You've got the bag. Yeah.

Then you're fine. Okay, good. I put them all in there already. Yeah. Wonderful. And I'll be invisible. So if you need anything from me... Brilliant.

Daisy will be... Maybe invisible? Outside. Outside. She'll be observing from outside and feeding us information. She may not need the potion, so maybe I'll... No, yeah, you should... Because I can just hide in outside.

And I'll have it as a backup. Yeah. In case one of you either gets discovered and needs to... Skiddle. Yes. Ad hoc style. Oh, yeah, ad hoc, yeah, that's a good idea. Or I need to top up because we're spending too long in there.

Yes. Yeah. Well, I suppose in the absolute worst case, we use the giant's teleportation stone, half and home, to just really get out of there as fast as possible. It does mean we go back to my shun rest. But... Also, if I'm outside, then I won't be in there.

Yep. True. But... Don't do that. That's when... That's just a way the cookie crumbles. Do you think, if we all took a small sip of the potion of invisibility, we'd get slightly see-through? Like a finger.

Yeah. A visual of an invisible finger. So the hood of false faces and the perfume of Tracking are in there, in D&D Beyond. Yeah. The Spectacle of secrets, it's a wand of secrets, but it takes the form of spectacles. Okay. Spectacles. Okay.

Um. Spectacles. Okay. Okay, maybe I'll sort it. Let's split up and look for clues. Really quickly. What clues are we looking for? We're going to go look for some tailors to get us some boring clothes.

Do you want me and Graf to find some makeup? Oh, yeah, I absolutely know what that's like. Mm-hmm. Yeah? Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. Great. Great. Here we go.

Good one team. Makeup is like that sludgy stuff. Slodgy stuff. It's kind of wet. Wet sludgy stuff. Wet sludgy stuff. Normally it comes in like a glass vial or like it in a little tub or something.

Wet sludge in a glass vial. Yes. Sometimes with a little brush. A little brush. Sometimes. Not all the time. And it's compatible with the face. Yes, yes, yeah.

Ideally compatible with the face. Yes, with a brush. Maybe you ask that. Sometimes with a brush, sometimes with like a kind of spiky little spike of shape kind of thing, yeah. So an accessory of a spike, a sludge in a jar. Sorry, hang on, what makeup are you, what is the... That's for, yeah.

Oh, right, okay. Key bulb. It's like a tiny cap, what are you talking about? How else for me is right? on the end of a mascara. I thought you were going to go with sponge. Oh. Could also be a sponge.

Could be a sponge. A sponge. So look for all of those things. Yes. We should go to like a hardware store. That's what I'm thinking. Give me an hardware. We'll see you later.

I suppose it would do, wouldn't it? Where should we meet back? Not at the statues. Hardware armor. Should we meet back? Should you meet back? At that little confectory store just next to the statue, but not under it.

No, anywhere near the statue. Where Daisy stay in? Yes. wherever Daisy is. Yeah, she's hold up in a little patissory place. Circle back in an hour? Yes. I don't know if I can commit to a shape.

That's fine. And that's- Have for I come with me. We're going, come on. Okay. All right, so you guys split up. So Gruff and Rowan are gonna go back to makeup. Meanwhile, because I know what these two want to do. Okay, Xanthius and...

Good luck, everyone, good luck. I feel it. This wait, this way, quick. Run. What's the first. What's she gone about? Sorry. Okay, small alleyway somewhere.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, you can find, I mean, there are alleyways, but there's like windows and balconies that look over into the alleyway. Maybe we can find somewhere private. We want to use the land. Oh, this, yes, we absolutely sure. Exactly.

We need a tailor who knows a diadem, who knows disguises. Ah. We've got the right here. Exactly, it's right there. We can't use it in front of those non-believers. So. What? What?

We were explicitly told not to. Exactly. We have to follow the rules. Because apparently we don't have morals. Who to thunk? Which brings to question, is this morally a good thing to do? It's fine by me.

Of course it's right by you. Yes. Nixir was going to kill us. Okay, run me through the exact way this works. Right, when I was thinking... What is this lantern? Well, this lantern contains Nix's soul. Which means?

Nixir is technically in this lantern. Just not in a physical form. So... Well, in a physical form, but not in a floaty physical form. So... Not flesh. Dead. Not really.

Sort of trapped in a limbo between one or the other. But not beyond? Not yet. Because trapped? Until their purpose is fulfilled. Huh. Right. So we're doing them a kindness, really,

because once we've done our... then all the charges are used up and then their soul is done with. So we should use it as quickly as possible? Well... That's definitely what I said happens. And then once the... Once the soul lamp diminishes... No, I love the fact that that's what Ophelia thinks it does.

I love that. I trust Ophelia, you know this stuff. So once the soul lamp diminishes... Yes. After what, four uses? Four uses. Nix is free. Two serve.

Oh, Gravelands. Yeah. Yeah, okay, well that's got expected. Yes. But it could go elsewhere, but you would like it to be to the Grave land. Well, yes. But it could go the other way. Very good Taylor, just pointing out.

Just such a shame. Such a shame. What waste of potential? Well. No? Hmm. Could use them again though. Right. In that case, how do we do this?

Is this gonna be a whole thing? Because it's not the quietest here. See, I was thinking of maybe making a kind of a sort of a comfortable environment for them with which to give us information. Okay. Make them feel like that, you know, we can be trusted. So I was thinking of maybe making some kind of like,

I'd start it again. Didn't we lacerate all of their guards? We did. And, yes. But I was thinking of maybe bringing back something like, like, something they enjoyed to bring them some kind of comfort. This?

Like, sewing things, you know, like things that Nix's enjoyed doing, getting them some little, like, sewing material, something nice. Wait, are we actually bringing Nix's up back? No, no, but just to make their soul more comfortable. Sure, yeah. So I'm always thinking as you go to the tailors, we buy a little, like, sewing kit, right? Right, then we leave the tailors, and then we use the sole lamp. Use the soul lamp.

Use the sole lamp. And then... Ask the questions. Just some soul fumes, I suppose, maybe. Or, however it works, then go back to the tailors. With the information on how to disguise ourselves and buy the correct stuff. Yes, Kim.

Where's Fricks? Where do you want Fricks to go? You split up. I said last episode that I was here, that she would always be with Xantheus. Okay. Hi, Fricks. Hello.

And we would know this. Yeah, of course. So I guess, like, you've ducked into an alleyway, and Ricks is at the end of the alleyway. You know, like, you've kind of, like, huddled together. You're clearly having this whispered conversation with the fear. Ricks is not paid to ask questions or deal with your nonsense. She cares not for your...

She does not care. She is literally there to keep an eye out for trouble, and that is exactly what she's doing right now. We could just see what happens. We could just... Just see what happens. Ask the question and see what happens. So what we want to ask is, how do we...

we disguise ourselves in such a way that we will be untraceable by the diadem? Right? I love that, yes. Yeah, you love that. Great. That's so good to hear. Anyway, I'm going to take a step back and let you do it then, okay? Oh, I'm doing this.

Oh, it's the death thing. And you're the death one, you know? I thought, I thought we were on the same page. Oh, we're on the same page. We're on the same page. Go ahead. Sure. I'll be here cheering on from just a few steps back.

Right. Okay. You got this. Thank you. Thank you. I know of this stuff. I've never done this myself. But you would. You're right.

I would. Okay. I'll still be here. Are you doing this just here in this alleyway? I mean, yeah, I guess we are, right? Okay. Anywhere else we could go? Any...

Anything, anywhere quiet? We suppose we could rent a room. It's body-guarded. It's body-guarded. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. We could rent a room, maybe.

We could rent a room. We need to rent a place anyway. Yes. Should we rent a room? Let's rent a room. Okay, let's rent a room. I feel like that's more sensible. Well, they don't, while they're gone, rent a room,

and then we meet back up and we've rented two rooms. That would be so embarrassing. We just say we've gone ahead. We'll rent rooms ahead for everybody. Rent a room. Okay. Where are you going? Well, we're going to rent a room.

Okay. I will follow. Thank you, Vrix. Thanks, Vicks. Your secrets, you may remain alone. Do you heard all that? No. Great.

I am not interested in your... Fantastic. I love to hear it. You're the best, Rick's. I know. Do you remember which ways are... Yes. Good, thank you. Can you lead?

Yes. She leads you back in the direction of the scholar, the scribe that you stopped into a place of called Kiyoshan's, which is like a kind of traditional like Tavany in rents rooms, kind of comfortable prices, probably looking at about five gold a night for a room. Sure. Looks at Vricks and the two of you, the sort of half-ling man behind the counter. One room for the three of you? Yeah.

No. Let's say two. Two rooms. Ten gold. Ten gold a night. Well, five gold each a night. Five gold each a night. Okay.

So 15. No, five gold for the room. Right. And you want two rooms. Yes, got it. Okay, I thought you meant per person. I'm really good with money, just so you know, obviously. Just ordinarily, we've flustered. It's been a long day traveling, long day traveling. I'm not going up.

Gold. I don't have, can you? I have my, I haven't you the last gem. This is. Can we have three rooms? Yes. Yes. Thank you.

Just for the one night. Yes, please. Yes. Takes out like a little thing. Is it nice? It's authentic. I'm just checking its value. Definitely 15. That should suffice.

We don't normally trade in this, but this is good quality. Oh, no, I was looking to get rid of it actually. It was making too much noise. Oh, well, I'm happy to take it off your hand. Much lighter now. Here are three keys. Thank you. Please drop them back at the front desk in the morning.

Great. We will. Check out is at 11 a.m. We're making such good progress. We're doing so well. We're doing so good. 11 a.m. Checkout. 11 a.m. Checkout. All right, let's go up to our rooms and check out.

go up to our rooms and check the place. Thank you, thank you, goodbye. Fricks, just wait. Yes. Okay. Well, do you want me to stay outside the room? Where do you want me? You can, if you want, stay outside the room. Yep, answer.

Yeah, yeah, just outside the room. That would be great. All right, thank you. Very well. What should I do if I hear noises? What kind of noises? If you hear our help, Xanthius, Al Payne, or any combination of that kind of thing.

Like, Nick's is alive back from the dead. Yeah. They're coming to kill us. If I hear that, I'm stabbed, I've been stabbed, I've been stabbed. I'm bleeding, I'm bleeding. And Fee is now eating me because I'm bleeding. If you hear Fricks, help,

then come in. I will come in help. Yeah, otherwise. I will not come in unless I hear help Frick's help. And all the other things we said. And all the other things, yes. Like I'm stabbed, I've been stabbed. I'm bleeding, I'm dying.

Oh God, oh God. I will listen out for general sounds of your distress. Yes, that's a good idea. Yes. That sound like you are being specifically you are being attacked. Yes. Yes, exactly.

Distress sounds may happen that you are not being attacked and I will not intervene. Yes. That means it's under control. Very well. Thank you, trust you. Love you. Her giant arms, all four of them.

Okay. Waits outside. Great. After you. Okay. Right. How do we do this? How do we do this?

How do we do this? Right. We just focus on the lamp. If you want, I could get magical and figure out how it works? I think Obsidious would have told you how it works. There's a button on the side. Ah!

Yes. It's right there. He tried turn it off and on again. Ding. It's out of charge. Ah, you just put the USB in. Plug it in. It's the wrong way round.

Okay. And when it's glowing really purple, you know it's charged. Great. Okay, so now we've done that. Go. Pretending that none of that was canon. You focus, Ophelia. You shut the curtains. Shut the curtains.

It's a lovely, quite, you know, it's like double bed, fairly standard looking room, comfortable, but nothing fancy. You place the lantern on the ground, you place it on the bed. In the middle of the room. Middle of the room. Yeah, just step back. You step back, and what Obsidius told you was to focus on the lantern.

You know, you've basically been bonded to it. To focus on the lantern, to focus on the flame and then to direct your will mentally towards it. And as a reminder, you can spend a charge on the sole cage to either drain vigour from the soul to regain hit points. You can borrow experience, which is normally you get an advantage on your next attack, roll ability check or saving throw. I'm going to slightly adapt that because I don't think that's especially useful in what you

want to use it for and say that you could temporarily for a certain amount of maybe like 24 hours you could borrow one of Nix's proficiencies so if you want to become proficiency in like Taylor's tools or perhaps a skill that they might be proficient with but you have to guess what skill they're oh that's cool so you would have to be like I want to borrow their ability to be deceiving or like I want to borrow their you know experience in being intimidating or something like that. You can also use Eyes of the Dead to name a place the humanoid saw in life, which creates an invisible sensor somewhere in that place if it is on this plane of existence you're currently

on. The sensor remains for as long as you concentrate and you receive visual and auditory information from the sensor as if you're in that space. Remember, it has to be a place that the humanoid saw in life. Cool. And then the last one is you can query a soul. You can ask the solar question and you receive a brief telepathic answer, which You can understand it knows only what it knew in life,

but it must answer you truthfully and to the best of its ability. The answer is no more than a sentence or two. So those are your four options for the soul cage. And you have four charges of it left. And then, as far as Ophelia believes, a soul is free to go to wherever it wants to go. Isn't that nice? So we're asking how to make a perfect disguise

or how to select a perfect outfit to be undetectable to the dye. Uh, yes. Wait, is this too, mechanically, I think what we want is to get the benefit of the, like, advantage, right? So that, rather than asking a question of what disguise is best? So you would want to try and borrow one of Nix's experience, or, like, proficiencies in that case? perceptions, I suppose, potentially deception. You would gain proficiency in it for 24 hours.

I already have proficiency in it. So yeah, help us. What if we ask it, have you ever been to the Opel Lounge? If so, which it has to answer truthfully, if it has, if they have, then make a sense of that. Yeah? Part of the diadem. Could have been there.

Could have been there. Yeah. Might have not been. If they haven't been, second question, what disguise would be best to fit in in the Opel Lounge as a Diadem agent? They answer that one.

Then we say, I would like to take your abilities. Then, fourth question, by... What's your favorite color? What's your favorite color? Okay, I like...

And then we set them free. Right. All four charges in one burst. Right? Bad idea? No, no, it's a great idea. I mean, I have one question I'd like to ask, but... You go ahead. No, no, no, no, no.

I don't need to do this important. We need to do this first. Okay. It's only a human soul. Yes, I just don't want to mess this up. Right, focus. I'm thinking about what you've just said. Oh, okay.

So you begin focusing on the lantern? Is it useful if I keep talking so you have my voice in your head so you can think about what I said. No, no, no, no. I need to focus on what you specifically just said about the disguises. About using my voice, so it's in your head? All the bit before that.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just quiet. I just need to focus, Santhia, sorry. I will be quiet. Thank you. Right now. It is difficult, Ophelia, because when you begin to truly focus and project your will towards this lantern, you begin to hear another thing, you begin to hear sounds, you begin to hear screaming, screaming in torturous pain, agony.

Someone trapped in dark, I'm not really, I stopped my toe. It's what they deserve, it's what they deserve. It's what they deserve. Hmm? Ah! No, no, no, no, you did this. It's your fault.

You deserve this, you deserve this, you deserve it. Let me out, please. No, no, no, no. What was that? Nothing, nothing, nothing. Okay, I'll stay quiet. Over here. Nick's a missed. Please answer our questions.

Then your soul will be freed. How have you been to the Opal Lounge? You spend a charge. The question you hear the screaming stops. Yes, once, long ago. Can you place a sensor there for us? You wish to use the eyes of the dead? Yes, please.

You spend another charge. As the first question is asked, Xanthias, you see the flame becomes a little dimmer. The presence that you sense Ophelia weakens. And then when you spend the second, you Ophelia are no longer in this tavern room. You are no longer in this inn. You are in a beautiful art deco style lounge,

geometric gold and marble statues and art pieces are sort of scattered about rich fabrics and curtains drape covering up doorways you seem to be in some sort of recessed sort of open lounge bar above you there is an incredible chandelier that has glowing opals dangling from golden chains. rather than candles or lights, each of those opals glowing gently with a magical glow. You see a bar, you see a rather bored-looking bar staff, kind of checking and cleaning glasses, checking bottles, seeing if anything needs to be restocked. You don't see many people, perhaps one person. There is a large table set up on a slightly raised part of the lounge, long, wide table.

You see a, you would see a, hmm, no, they wouldn't be here. What you would see is that next to this table are two stages, and there is one, a young halfling bard, and you can see she's like tuning and checking her instrument, checking the performance space. You see a couple of servers come and go, and it looks like this central area that we have here on the map. That is what the sensor shows.

You can see this kind of main area down here. Like I said, you see, you can concentrate romance and for as long as you create up to 10 minutes. Yeah, you hear the soft sound of like this loot being attuned, and the bar staff is abrupt. conversation. Eventually, after perhaps five minutes or so, a well-armed looking mercenary guard comes up and will check in with the musician and they will say, in fact, actually no, it won't be a guard. You see a gold-skinned tifling girl comes up to the musician

and you see that she sort of looks around and then says to this girl like, go get Alejandro for me and the half-ling performance looks up like, okay, why don't you get him? And she's like, I didn't, did you not hear me? Go get Alejandro. And she just sort of like nods ahead.

You see that the young half-ling bard the girl has a single ring, a bronze ring on her finger. You don't see any rings on the Tiefling girl. Eventually, after a couple of minutes, the young bard goes up, and you see she goes through a curtained doorway. She exits away from the sense that you can't see. But a few moments later, a young, handsome, very cauldron-looking young man enters another musician and he's like what is it glitter uh what is it why do you why do you want me

like i was i was talking to perido like what's the problem and she's just like we need to be careful apparently they've been seen in the district um they were spotted by some of our people on the street we're not sure if they're coming here but we've seen they've they've been spotted in Vault Watch. Which ones? Well, Oregonis' kid? Yeah, that one. The one with the crown steel. Okay. Well, what do you want me to do about it? I'm performing tonight. Yeah, well, they might be coming here, so keep your eyes open. Yeah, I guess so. And she just sort of shakes her head like, I don't know how you, how on earth did somebody like you get to be five

rings? And he's just like, well, you know the right people. Yeah, I could say the same thing for you. And she's just like, yeah, well, I know I'm useful to the diadem. I don't know about you, though. And they sort of have like this little spat moment, but then that's at the point that the sensor ends, the vision ends. But yeah. So you see that. And you got a very clear look at both of them.

Like you could describe them to both of them. I said Glitter, she's a gold-skinned typhling. It looked like she was dressed like a serving girl. Like very sort of like cocktail on. to like very tight leather kind of like mini skirt, like white blouse, very upmarket kind of like cocktail lounge, hairs like pulled up into like a tight bun, heels, um, lots of jewelry, but you didn't see any rings on her. Um, Alejandro, much more kind of casual kind of like big, open white shirt, like deep V-neck, kind of hairy chest sticking out, long sort of like black

goate, like black beard, but not a goatee, but it's quite long and pointed. sort of long, dark, wavy hair, sort of wearing like a, that kind of rock star long coat that's like really thin, like there's no point to wear it. It's just kind of like a rock starry kind of like slightly furred collar and sleeves.

Very much kind of mighty, bushy kind of vibes to this guy. And you saw that he was wearing three rings, at least. But he might have been wearing more, but on the one hand, you only saw the three. Were they a certain color? The rings? Yeah, you saw bronze silver and gold. Three rings, not five.

Yeah, but he could have, you only saw the three on one hand. You didn't get a good look at his other hand. He kind of kept it in his pocket. Three visible. Cool. Yes. The half thing had one ring. Yes, the other bard.

You got the impression that she was like dismissed. She was like, you're not allowed to be here for this conversation. like go find this other person for me. Glitter didn't have any visible on them. Glitter didn't have any rings visible on her. They can do that. That's cheating. Toe rings.

It would be kind of crazy if it's like you must never take these rings off. Kind of makes them quite easy to find it. That one, right there. Yeah. But that's what makes it easy for us. Yeah. It does, yeah.

But you, Affili, your consciousness returns to this in-room and you are staring at the land. and Xenthius, it has gotten, it's about half the brightness that it once was. Um... Ophelia, are you okay? The presence. I'm okay.

Steady, can't know. So cold. I think I'm okay. You can take a seat if you want. Um, is everything going okay? The flame is, um... It was about ten minutes. Ophelia was just, like, silent and, like, focus for ten minutes.

I was, I was in the Yopold Lounge. I was observing them. Great. Great. They know what of us. Well. Of course, but they know they're going, they're going to be looking to be looking to be looking to be looking for us. Well, that's good.

If they're looking for us, they're not going to look for... They know of you. Our alter egos. Yes. We need names. Right. They don't know to look... Well, we're going to be disguised, so that's okay. We are.

They might be a little bit on high alert, but that's okay, right? We expected that. We just need to be very careful. Extremely careful. We can't give away a slither of who we are. No. We need names. You need names.

Right. But the flame is getting smaller, much, much smaller. Is that correct? Is that right? I mean, I suspect it's just because we're using it, right? Okay. Is the flame the soul? I think so. So if it's getting smaller, weaker.

It's probably just ascending. Okay, maybe it is. Yeah, okay. Just in pieces, you know? just like bits and bobs. But it still works. It's still working just fine. Great. Perfect.

That's good to know. That's all I was worried about. The cold. So we have the next thing, which was to maybe one of us siphons one of the abilities. Okay, yes. Nixir is so good at.

And I imagine a tailor for the diadem would be good at disguising themselves. So that kind of ability. Okay, so. Is that something you would like? So you could pick expertise with a disguise kit. You could pick, sorry, not expertise, proficiency with a disguise kit.

Proficiency with Taylor's tools. These are things that you can guess. I'm not saying that these are things that makes it has. Proficiency in performance, proficiency in deception would all be similar sort of abilities. Do you have deception? Proficiency in disguise kit would be like good for like literally doing non-magicry disguises, like makeup, like prosthetics, that sort of thing. You would just need to acquire the tools to do that.

Easy, easy, easy. I've already got proficiency and deception. I've got proficiency and perception. Intimidation. Perception. Deception. Not deception. Right, okay.

I also have the condition unconscious, which apparently I didn't tick off last time. So this entire time I've actually been very unconscious. How long is it? Yeah. So let's say, how about we make our disguises the best they could possibly be? Yeah. Yes, yeah. That's good. Yes? So you want...

So you ask Nickster... Mechanically the... What does it feel desire? I just... we need to succeed at this. We do. We absolutely... The cost is already too high. We'll also be in the middle of a diadem headquarters. I don't, save house?

Yes. But I don't want to lose anyone. No one can get found. We need to succeed. Mm-hmm. Okay. Are you okay with this? What are you thinking?

Asking Nick, sir, to give us the best possible chance? Great, yes, yes, perfect, yes. Okay. Afeely of focuses again, closes her eyes. Okay. I'll be over here. Nick, sir, please, can you lend us your expertise? Help us make something that'll be undetectable by the diadem.

Help us blend in. You wish to do the Borrow Experience? Yes. Affiliya, you are now proficient with disguise kits for 24 hours. Okay. If that's what you were seeking, it sounded like you specifically wanting to blend in and create the best to disguises.

Yeah. Rather than being good at deception. or performance. The same. The flame in the lantern is now but a green ember, a slight dim glow. And that voice,

it sounds so tattered, so weak, stretched thin, impossibly paper thin. Play me go. So really we should just ask one more question. One more question.

Right? That's the best thing for Nixir. Yes, they want to go. In your expert opinion? They're ready to go. Are you okay if I ask a question? Absolutely, if it's free as a soul. It... Related to your family.

Oh, right. Oh, yes. Yes, that's a great idea. Is that okay? Yes, absolutely. My family, yes. I wanted to ask what the organs wanted to know from Osceus that Erdis Keir can't provide. Absolutely. You go ahead. I'll be over here.

Sure. Interesting. Nick, so one more question, and then you may be released to the beyond that waits for you. The one you deserve. Please. What do the Oregon family wish to know from Osseus

that Erdas Kier cannot give them? I think that as you asked this question, there is this pained sensation for the spirit does not know for this was perhaps a plot that they were not involved in or perhaps it is that the Oregonis family do not want that knowledge perhaps it is not part of that what it is but what you do feel is that spirit pain cannot answer. And then you get the sensation Ophelia. Can you make a wisdom saving throw for me

please? 14. You feel Santhius, you watch and this flame extinguishes. It's gone. It's completely vanished. And Ophelia, you do not

feel the release of something. You do not feel that that cage opens and something is set free, what you feel is like a piece of paper shredded and torn, and then it's pieces burnt to nothing. There is no more soul. You want to believe that Nixir has gone, that that soul is now in the grey lands, that that soul is now bound to be reborn here and Othaya, but you know that what you have just done is destroy that soul. That that soul is gone forever.

That it cannot be claimed. It cannot be returned. That that soul is destroyed. I think Ophelia's like she feels like in her heart just sinks a little bit. They're gone. Santhius. Yes? Like gone?

Okay. That's what we wanted, right? No, no, no, no, no, they're gone. The soul is gone. Not to another plane, not to the Greylands. St. De Thier? He killed them. The soul, what do you mean?

It's gone, just... Not here? Not... Not on any plane, not... Saint... not even Saint Defeer could get to them. They're gone. Not even the Greyfather. No.

No one. The pieces of that soul that remained. Okay. They're dead. Truly. Truly dead. Where that happens, we will cut to a break and we will take our end of part one break.

She's revivify. Just bringing back. Come on back. Come on back. Come on back. I'm afraid to say that that is no longer possible. There is nothing to revivify. There is nothing to revivify.

And yes, this is different to how the Soul Cove spell works. But this was, I believe it was hinted. that. But yeah. With that, we are going to take our break. That is going to be it for part one. We will see you after the break for part two, where Gruff and Rowan buy some makeup. Glad to stay out. You made some great progress.