High Rollers DnD - Prison Break! (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #95

Episode Date: March 17, 2026

Sirens blaring, jail cells opening, guards going missing... we've got ourselves a PRISON BREAK! View the map for Gallow's Eyrie on our Patreon for FREE here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/152093760 Altheya: The Dragon Empire Kickstarter is NOW LIVE! Support the project and get tons of amazing extras here: https://www.rollandplaypress.com/highrollers 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. We are of Mex and Men, a weekly book club podcast about love and war in the 31st century. I am Canaan Hill. These are my friends, Brent, and Aaron. And we cover the battle tech fiction at length, highlighting the choices that shape the inner sphere through the lore that has been going for over 40 years. So read along with us as we start back at the beginning, where we cover a few chapters at a time with humor and love. These books rule, we have fun. Come hang out.

So subscribe to Ofmex and Men on your favorite podcast streaming platform. Le La. Welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes last spoke at length with Sister Superior Malady, a member of the religious ecliptic order, learning about her and her twin sister Benedict has passed and their connection to the plains. In doing so, their trust of High Inquisitor Argus grew, and they set out to ask the inquisitor if they would be allowed to speak with the Deva prisoner held in his stronghold of

Gallo's airy. Argus agreed and took them via teleportation circle to the order stronghold in the mountains of the Azar Step. Inside, they met Han Farrier, a blacksmith from Gildai who had bonded with the celestial spirit, Zachariah, but multiple encounters with the celestial Yeager that pursues old davers, led Han to surrender himself to the ecliptic order in exchange for a new life and safety of his family. Han was happy to share what he knew even if Zachariah was not, and was able to fashion a celestial essence for Xanthius. After discussing the problem of the Yeager, the party and Han kept together came up with a potential solution involving Fay magic, and so Han crafted a magical arrow to serve this purpose, as well as combining Daisy's bow, parheelian, her dagger,

and the celestial rod that they had found into a brand new weapon too. Alas, as things seemed to wrap up, the magical lights and locks in the prison area suddenly turned off and the sounds of fighting soon began to echo through these lower levels. And that, my friends, is where we pick up today. So I'm just gonna bring up because I will probably need to play gruff at some point. No, I got it. We got it. You got it, you guys have got it locked down.

Stand in front, shield up. Sacrifice thinezai. Boyo. Boi-o-bo-yo. Like a Pokemon. Santhia. What are you doing, Zanthius? Oh, gosh. Okay, yeah. Kim, come back soon. You're the right prick.

Wow. Wow, that was definitely more... That was well... I lived in Cardiff for like four years. Yeah, you know. I know it. With that, Daisy, you're... In your hands, just before the lights go out

and the locks on the doors release and the prison is plunged into this moment of uncertainty, you held in your hands the sort of re-forged weapon that Han had made for you. And not quite a retcon, but I want to give a little bit more detail and description of this, as well as tell you its name as well. As you can see, what remained initially was a sort of short rod,

still with some of the engravings that were familiar to both Parheelian and the celestial rod, to depicting all of these sort of angelic figures and now running amongst them these sort of hunting dogs. But at the ends of each rod were two of the light golden crystals that were from Parheelian. And when you held it, you could almost think in your mind to will it into a form. You imagined your dagger, and one of the crystals begins to flare with life in this radiant blade that looks like a copy of yours, sort of extends outwards and sheeds itself over the rod. But having activated the weapon and now attuned to it, you know that that is not the only form that this weapon can take. You can actually choose to move it through various different forms.

as you now wield Lumeros, the changing light. Sadly, I did not have time to put it on D&D Beyond, but we can make do for temporarily. It is an annoyingly complex one to put onto D&D Beyond, sadly. But you do have it available. For the most part, you can probably keep Parheelian

in your dagger and just use those for now. You know it's not complicated to put onto D&D Beyond? What? An Altheo campaign guide? No. Althea Player Pack. That one? That's the one.

But if you do need me to refresh you on what things do, just ask. Do you want me to use the details you sent me? Yes, if you want to, you can just bring those up and then you can switch between them if you like. All right. But when last we left off, the last thing you all remember is the magical lights, these kind of hovering continual light spells that kept the entire lower level, this prison level, illuminated, they all switch off, and the entire lower level of Gallo's area

is plunged into darkness. You hear the door sort of bolt itself or sort of begin to swing open as the magical wards holding the bars sealed open. And you begin to hear the sounds of fighting coming from nearby. Oh, I throw it. Oh, and grabs the door, Mm-hmm.

Pulls it too. You can hold it, but nothing is kind of sealing it. So as soon as you let go, it sort of becomes loose and can just be opened again. There is no sort of bolt or physical lock. It was being held in place by magic, and that magic is no longer active. It's not closing again. Uh, God. What's happened?

God. That doesn't sound good. You call out guard, Santheus. You hear muffled shouting. coming from. And you remember that opposite Hahn's cell, he has a sort of modified separate cell to everybody. There's a sort of corridor going east and west, and then directly opposite the door leading into Hans' cell is another door, which Sister Thorn and High Inquis, Argus told you, was general population. It was where the sort of lower, sort of lower threat criminals were all being

held. You can hear muffled shouting, you hear muffled fighting coming from that door immediately. It doesn't sound very good. You see Han looks around like, no, I don't think it is. Sort of begins to sort of back up looking around unsure what to do. So what was on, the door across from us, general population, what was left and right? So if you, looking down, it, It's a long corridor and it seems to lead, and I will. So you are in Han cell over here. It's like the outer perimeter.

Yeah, it's the outer perimeter. So left and right leads to the stairs that lead to the upper floor of the main floor. Oh, so there's another. So it's like a central, it's like a square corridor that goes around all of the holding cells. Yeah, and then to the south,

there is the high security area called the gullet, which is this area down here. It sounds like that's where the sound is coming from. No, the sound sounds like it's coming from here. General Poppillar. And as you sort of look around and you called out for the guards and you'll sort of stood there momentarily unsure what to do, it doesn't take long before that door opposite bursts open.

And you see quite a few figures desperately beginning to pour through from it. they are all dressed in the same slate gray plain uniform that seems to have been given to the prisoners here, but almost, in fact, all of the ones that you can initially see, it is not hard for you all to spot the signs of crown steel corruption,

mutated, brows, rigid spikes. You can see almost like horns or spines growing out from them. They're just like me. Their mutations are low, low level. They are not extreme. but all of them seem to be, they've pulled free,

some of them have claws, some of them have great horns, they almost look like they can use as weapons. Some of them have grabbed what looked to be like clubs and bludgeon's from somewhere. Some of them seem to, what did you just say? Cludgeon's. Yeah, full blubs.

Blubs. A lot of blubs. Some of them wield makeshift weapons of other forms, you know, kind of rudimentary blades, and things like that that they have probably kept hidden somewhere. As the door opens, and as I said, it is hard to see their exact number because they are almost swarming out of here.

Are you holding the door shut then? At the moment, yeah. Roan is currently moved up to the door and is the one sort of holding it. I could seal us in if you want. The hoidering. That might be a wise decision. I don't think being out there right now

That's a particularly good idea. Can we have a moment to act? You might do. We'll see when we roll initiative in a second. But first I've got to put all of these minis on the map. Do they look like they are running out to threaten or running out to get away from something that is in there? I would say that they look very angry, very much in control.

They do not appear to be frightened. They are, in fact, pointing towards Hans' cell and you hear sort of like, there is the bastard, get him! That sounds definitive. Okay. What do they want? I think there's diplomacy to be handy.

They sort of leer looking in, looks like we've got some new friends too, as they see all of the years. And that is going to be, before we roll initiative, it's going to be the fate roll. Oh, yeah, baby. One.

We should roll Kim, because Kim will be... No, let's roll Kim when she gets here. We'll add it into the fateful. Oh, I just rolled Kim's in it's a one. Oh, that's weird. That sounds like it was yours. No, that's Kim. You can roll yours.

No, no, no, yeah. Other side. Yeah, that's one for a year. I got a five. A five, that's a dice for you. Five? That's a dice for you. Five.

Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Five. Well, we know what Tom's roll. was a one, but what's my role?

A four. It's looking very good for you. I'm not thinking Kim could do this. Can I use fate on initiative? You could, yeah. You totally could. Can I use fate on fate? 1D6, 1D6.

Does that break the game? Not really. Yeah, because if you use two fates, then it gets burned. But only if they're different types. You can't spend more than one fate on a roll. There you go, so you can. But that is going to be initiative from everyone.

I would like to use fate on my initiative, please. Really? You didn't earn any of that shit. He wants to go first. I want to use one of your... No, that's Kim's roll, remember. Mine's coming up. I really wanna go first because I got a bad idea. Oh God, okay.

Oh my fucking shit. I'm guessing he didn't go first. Well, really good with fate with a six, Nat one, however. Oh my God. Did you actually spend the fate on... Lovely, I love that. You know what, big fan of you and Steven.

I've said some things recently that I take back. Yeah? get even Stephen the other day. Did you? Really fair. Extremely fair. Did you get even? Right.

Hate that joke. That's my least favorite joke. That's my least favorite joke. Xenth. Xenthia. I don't know. You've got one job, add your numbers up. 11.

11. Graff. I will roll the graph. It's the one thing. I'm just going to put graph at an eight for now. Rowan. 12.

Ophelia? 18. Perfect. Okay. And I will roll for Hahn as well. He is technically present. Okay. You're right there, buddy.

Yeah. I really wanted to go first. Well, sadly, you are not going first. No, I think I'm going like... Daisy, then Ophelia. So, Daisy, you are the first two weeks. These are... Use your help action on me.

They are... Help! ...crowding through the doorway. you know, surging out into the corridor and it is very clear that they want to get to Han and that they are more than happy to seemingly go through all of you as well at the same time. You can't really see anything beyond them.

You can just see that they are crowded around the doors like running into this direction basically. Okay, can I shift my weapon into parheelian? Yes, you can do. So it's a bonus action to shift it into Parheelian. And then I will just take shot at... Yeah. So when you focus the rod in your hand, it's sort of creating like an image of your dagger around

sort of one of the crystals that kind of emulates. Now it's sort of the second ore at the bottom of the rod flickers to life and it creates a radiant image of Parheelian's bow arms on either side of it. Can I? Yes. Okay. Can I use one of the fate abilities? Yeah, absolutely you can.

I will use a fate. Mm-hmm. So, I will take a shot and I want to fire a radiant arrow. Mm-hmm. Towards the closest, or towards, if I could see, the one in the middle. Like, the third one? You can do. They will get sort of cover, you know,

because it is a big crowd, you might hit one of the ones in front. I could hit the one in front, that's fine. Sure. Yeah, the ones in the front don't have any sort of protection or anything like that. I don't think we're diplomacy, it would be a diplomacy arrow.

That's true. Of charisma. That is 19. 19 will hit. Crazy weapon works. So 19 will hit, so it will be an arrow that will fire into that target, and then every creature within 10 feet

will also gain damage from. Oh, nice. It takes D8 of radiant damage. And then you get to also, any, you have, Rowan is technically within range as well. You can give Rowan D8 temporary hit points with Rating Arrow as well. Can I? Oh yeah, I'll give him to every hit.

You choose any number of creatures in range, you can choose to give them temper points or D8 of Radian damage. Holy shit. Roll your normal damage for the first guy though. That's dope. So that costs a fate to... Cost one fate to use.

So it wouldn't hurt allies. It doesn't hurt allies, no. It gives you, so this radiant arrow is almost, When it strikes the target, it then splits off, creating fragmented shards that injure allies, but Daisy can control if they become, like, not healing, but energizing light when it strikes you, either energizing or burning light.

Like that. Yes. So it'll just be a D6. I'll put your normal bonuses. I'll take the full six, please. No, this is. Yeah, when you roll it. When you roll it.

It's different. Hang on. Oh, so, five. So 11 damage from the, Okay, 11 damage from the bow. Is that to all of them? That first one is immediately struck down. It's a D82.

D8, 2. So this would be, and it's 15 or 10 feet. So 6. 10 feet range of the Tarring. So it will affect one, two, so it effect four of the bad guys, and then Rowan will get six temporary hit points. Nice. Good point for Rowan, and then roll a D8 and we'll do the same amount of damage to all these guys.

That was the six. Oh, so you want to do six, so you roll it separately. So you roll the D8 separately. for the temporary hit points and then the 8 for the damage. Six to row row. And six for damage. Oh, perfect. So one, two, three, four.

These guys are all minions. So they're all roasted toasty. However, as you see, as they are slain, so that's one, two, three, four, five, five of them. When they are slain, the crown steel energy in their bodies seems to go wild for a moment. and each of them have a different effect when they get killed.

So the first guy, do-da-da-da-da-da-da. Okay, I need the second guy, double kill, triple kill, quadra kill. What was, Seeked-demand-jail? Daisy, I need you to give me a strength save and then dexterity saving throw.

As you strike with this arrow and it splits off and just demolishes this first wave of these minions, they sort of, as they're falling to their deaths and as they're stumbling back, they sort of reach out with a hand and any last remnants of their sort of crown steel energy comes surging past Roman and slams into you.

But let's see if... 17 for the strength. 17 for the strength. And 20 for the decks. The decks you succeed, because there was multiple of them that had the same effect, so the DC goes up. So they sort of, a bunch of fire damage

comes launching towards you. I use uncanny dog. Well, you're not going to take it because you succeeded. Oh, I succeeded. the strength saving through you did technically fail, but you get knocked prone. So you get slammed by this force. You managed to dodge through most of it,

but you just get kind of knocked back and fall prone. Can I use my 15 feet of movement then to just get up and tuck behind that little wall to the side? And then you can... Then that's done. Okay, perfect. Ophelia, you are up. Pentecule.

Pentecule. Is this... Is the gate on the cell? Does it go all the way up to the ceiling? Yes. Cool. Okay. So in that case, I will move up just behind Rowan.

And I will look towards the three frontmost prisoners in the group and cast... Can you show me your ID, please? And yeah, I'll cast Bain on the first three. Okay, Bain. What kind of same throw is that for me? That is a Christmas save. Christmas save. I was Bain in the Bain.

Okay, two of them failed, the one in the middle succeeds. So they have a default subtracted from the attack roll or saves. Perfect. So you sort of reached through. What does it look like for you casting Bain? I imagine it looks like Ophelia sort of her face shifts. So it's almost like her skin pulls inwards and becomes more tall. Like she looks like a corpse for a second as she channels that energy.

I feel like it's that energy that like would have made her sick as a child. She draws on that sickness and just casts it out. towards. So you see like these black tendrils kind of strike these three. One of them, their eyes flare with gold and red and black and they resist that spell. But the other two you see them sort of clutch their chest and begin to cough, coughing up like blood and things like that as the sickness almost spreads into them. Love it, love it. Anything else, Ophelia? I'm not going to stay where I am, I think, next to Rowan in front of the group. Lovely, thank you. The crims.

Crims. We're going to surge towards... Oh, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, ro, roll, row. Kill that guy. Oh, ro, ro, row, row. That guy there, kill that guy. What do they want? But I'm afraid that there is more.

So there's five immediately outside their door there. And... Did you see the handful that just happened? Oh, yeah. How many doors were there again in this place? One, two, three, there's ten cells. This is a lot more people. And knowing...

These guys, they were like, it probably wasn't one to a cell. They were like 10 bunking. Just five guys. You're fucking Deca bunked? Do decahedra bunked. What is a Deca kill? Ten. I know that, but what's, um, Rowan, you are stood, you are holding the gate, right?

Odor. Yeah, you are holding the door. So these five that sort of rushing, sharp, they are basically going to attack you through the bars. And then as part of that, they're going to make one attack against you. And then they're also going to use the other attack to try and shove you back, basically. So their first attack as a group attack. It's going to be plus four.

That is going to be 22. I'm guessing that hits. And then there is one, two, three, four, five in the attack. So that is going to be. 20 points of bludgeoning damage. To you, and then... You're going to do 12. Stones Endurance.

You're going to use Stones Endurance? Okay, go for it. Is it seven reduced? That's good. So you take seven off, so you took 13. And then then next, so for the second attack, that's then going to be a 14, 18 to hit? Yeah.

So with that, all that does? No. 18 doesn't hit? Yes, it does. Okay, wow. All that does is, is it pushes you five feet back and it allows them to basically open the door

and sort of use their movement to step through. Bugger, okay. Mm-hmm. Holy shit. I'm just going to start stacking these guys up. They're all in, basically. That first group. Yeah, they sort of surge in, basically.

Okay. Oh, actually, roll a D4 for me because of the Bain. Oh, yeah. This would only have affected a couple of them in the group attack. Okay, so actually on that first attack, you would have taken, I'm gonna say, four less damage. So you can take off another four.

It's 13. Mm-hmm. And then roll the D4 again for me. First attack, two. Two. Would it, a 16 have hit you? Nine, isn't it? No. All right, in that case, because of the bane,

they do not push you back and are not able to make their way in. He-ha, the bane. Nice. So they sort of pummel you and stab you, claw it you through the bars. But when they go to shove you, those two who were made sick by Ophelia

do sort of aren't able to put their full force behind it and aren't able to shove you back, basically. You're not welcome in. Don't come in. Get out of the fucking way. We just want to kill Han. We know that you've been treated differently. It's time for our revenge, Han.

What do they want? I don't understand. Who's your words? Uh, Rowan, it's your turn. Can I step back and can I move Ophelia with me? Um, I would say, you probably can't move Ophelia with you, no. Is there an unoccupied space of 10 feet anywhere in front of me? Yeah, I mean, like, it, what, 10 feet space?

Like, yeah, you could basically put it on the cell door, 5, 10, 15, 20. You would catch sort of like the two in front, right in direct. in front of the door right now. I'm doing performance of creation. Okay. And I'm basically creating a slab. From what? From what?

Like a stone, how much space can you affect? I can affect a 10 foot cube, I believe. 10 foot cube, and you want to create a what? A slab. Of what? Of stone. So just a big slab of stone. Yeah.

Okay. So they basically jump out of the one. That was my plan as well. Well, not all that, but... You block yourselves into this cell. As Rowan's slab completely fills the door, and you are plunged into... Well, I mean, any light that was coming from Daisy's Bow is the only light source

as a, yeah, like basically 10-foot cube of stone materializes into place. Sweet. So out of initiative. I'm going to just pause the initiative. We're going to keep the initiative recorded, but we're going to pause it. How long does this last? It lasts four hours.

Okay, great. I will do a... Just let the guards clean that. Produced flame and put away my immovable rod. Oh my God. Imagine if it broke. That was my plan. I was got an immobile rod in front of the door so they couldn't open it.

Yeah, but imagine if he accidentally just permanently gets set. I don't know that. He doesn't know that. You see my inventory as an unreliable one, but Xantheist doesn't know that. No. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, you hear, like, frustrated,

like the muffled from the stone in front of the door, you hear these sort of irritated, like, and you can hear like almost like chipping, trying to see, like, you know, people trying to attack it, maybe seeing if it's real or not. I think you all need to calm down. Some of you stab me. Come, bring, kind of hear this like very muffled,

you know. You're all wasting your time, you're not gonna be able to break through. The chipping, the fighting, the arguing. I get it up against the wall. It carries on for maybe a minute. And then, yeah, you hear the sound of people like, and it goes quiet after about a minute.

Okay. I think that works. Yes. I mean, they couldn't have taken care of it in this. They'll still be out there somewhere. Right, what do we do? But there's a lot of guards and this is a stronghold. They'll have dealt with jail breaks before, right?

Right hand? There hasn't really been one. I don't really know what happens now. I've never seen anything like this. I mean, the wards on all the cells, that's pretty powerful magic. They had this whole system. It must have taken years, decades for mages

to have built a system of magic like that. That can all be controlled. And for it to go down like that is pretty impressive. There's someone else on there who's much stronger. or an external force has helped. Who wants someone, maybe. They want harm. Well, they wanted it.

These people wanted harm. Why did those guys want you specifically? I mean, I don't, I've never really spoken to them, but they know that I get special treatment here. I've got my own special cell. I'm allowed, you know, I'm not, I don't get taken out with them. I'm not forced to do any labor or anything like that.

I'm sort of, I'm a prisoner, but I'm also kind of a guest. I'm given better food. I'm given time to write letters. Didn't they say something about revenge? There was a lot of noise. I might have misheard. They were mad because of the special treatment. Yeah, that's, I haven't seen or met them before.

I'm more mad at that than the opportunity to escape a prison. Well, there must have been guards in there with them when they broke out, and if they could come out the doors to attack us, I can't imagine that the guards were in any sort of a good state. Oh, dear. Hey, Rowan, how long does this wall... I don't know. Right.

And are you able to, if we needed to escape, for whatever reason? Does anyone got a mining pick? No. So I believe once you've created the object, it's not like something you can just will away. It is like... I believe... In the spirit of writing it, I believe once it is created,

it is an object. It's not like a summoned, he hasn't summoned something. But if you just focus on it, you can just, you know, put it back, right? When you touch it, it glimmers softly and then emanates a little bit of music too. Oh, that's lovely. Beautiful. So it's got a little bit of elevator music. I imagine that when they were hitting it with the, like, they were trying to pick and chip away it.

It was like making little dings and pings. Duh, da, da, da. It was only making them angry. The creator of item disappears after a number of hours equal to you. So after four hours, it will disappear. Do you know that? Okay. But does Rowan know that? Rowan would innately know.

I let that to be your decision. No. Just. I don't know when this is going away or if it ever will. Just pull it back. Wait, you don't, if it ever will, like, are we trapped in here? I mean, I think I've got, maybe we've got something we can use to try and chip away. How thick is it?

I've got a chisel. Chisel, that's just... I mean, bro. We're safe in it, well, right. We are safe. I'm more concerned about, I've got some snacks. Well, yeah, but there might be guards

that are in trouble. Ophelia? Yes, Antheus. Are you able to do that thing where you detect magic nearby? Not detect magic, that's a different spell that I'm thinking of. Enemies, bad guys, fay, fiend, that kind of thing. Don't worry, I think I can. I don't know what you're talking about, Xantheus.

You're right? I can't do that. Turns out it's me that can do that. It's in the gold site. It's my power all along. That has no charges. So. Hey Zanthias, if you got a dagger, maybe I can.

Oh no, wait, that's, that's mine. That's my thing. That's your thing. Yeah. So you're getting hot. It's quite stuffy. It's quite hot. Crack a window in here.

No, there is no airflow coming in from anywhere. from anywhere. How much oxygen do you think is in a room this size? I don't want to think about it. There's no like, there's no window from the great. There's also six, seven of you in here currently. There's no grates or anything. Maybe.

Maybe gruff has something. It smells like people in here. Gruff does have something. But I'm not gruff. Gras, so. Sorry, that's me. Wait. You have a stone shaped.

Wait. Oh, hot! I feel like we have an answer. I feel like the savior to your problems is here. We literally actually, we do not actually need you because we're in a predicament. A predicament of your own creation. Rowan's creation.

Has anyone noticed that Gruff has been staring at the ground for the last 15 minutes? He's not only now. We all know that he tee poses. Everyone teaposes if they're not present until I play them or their player returns. I want to look around for a great. Oh, save you.

Who's been causing mischief here? Okay, the situation is, I've been watching. It's fine. Oh, you know, it's dark. It's so dark in here. This won't last four hours. Okay. It's a big stone cube that has sealed the doorway completely. It lasts for an indeterminate amount of time.

Stone shape. I cast stone shape. Yes, your fourth level spell, stone shape. I was like waiting for him. I was watching in the car. That's on the assumption that we actually do want to leave. That's the same, yes. I'm going to say it's been about five minutes since you are attacked at this.

If we think about Minecraft for a second. I always think... I don't know what that is. You're creating a zombie pigling, a gold farm. Yes. Oh! You want to just get rid of... We want a slight...

Yeah, a slight grey. Dag it out. You want a mob star in a bit. Farm the X-Bin. It's an X-B farm in D&D. We'll be level 20 in no time. And that's definitely how it works. That's definitely how it works.

Yeah. I'm right. So you find yourself in this position. Like I said, you cannot hear any presents immediately out of the door. It's been about five minutes. I think they've gone. I think they've gone.

You can certainly make a perception check to see if they're trying to just be quiet. Do I want a snack? I got a nine. I'll do a perception. Oh my God, where'd it go? You hear nothing. Come back.

No, come back. Where am I in the initiative? Oh, I've paused the initiative if you were at the very bottom. At the very bottom. Oh, that's all to be. Can you do me a favor and roll my feet? Roll your feet.

Both, yes. Four. Oh, that's another nice, a good point for you guys. 21, Daisy and Ophelia, you strain listening. You sort of press yourselves up against the bars where maybe there is just the faintest, faintest crack where Rowan has created this cube to fill it. And you strain to listen.

You can hear very, very faintly. It's quiet, almost silent for a long time. And then after a few moments, you do hear a sort of, get away from me. No, kind of screaming. Sounds like the guards are in trouble. You're not sure if it was in guard or not. Someone's in trouble.

I can't hear a thing through this. If I can see out, I wonder if you can see out, I'm wondering if you can't see stuff. You cannot see. I can't see, okay. Was there? I believe the idea of the stone slab was to completely block the doorway.

Yes. So, I mean, that's certainly what the implication was, right? You wanted to stop them getting in. Yeah. It's a 10 foot cube of stone. Oh, it's large, apparently, so. 10, which is a 10 foot cube. For reference, that is literally a full stone cube.

Like, it is blocked it completely. I mean, there's a lot of boils out there, so, you know. Now, don't get me wrong, we've dealt with some really threatening things, but as a reminder, we are in a stronghold for the guards. So they might just be fine, you know? Well, I can't hear a thing past this music. Which, by the way, slaps.

No, I was a really great, right? The guards are not fine. No, someone said, oh God, no! So I could have been a prisoner. I don't feel like it would have been, though. Someone's in trouble. I don't know how to get rid of the stone. Well, if we wanna come out, I can help with that.

But you know, it's such a good wall. I don't know. You should see the other side. I put a big grumpy face of me, stretched. It's like in Mario when you get the blocks with a face on every side. Yeah. It's like a wide, it's like a four D thwomp. Yeah.

It's a Rhone thwomp. I mean, we are at least safe. But it's a Rowan's swamp. Were there any animals? There are any rats in this prison. This is a nice prisoner. Well, Harn's room is certainly nice. There's no rats in here.

And there aren't any like little holes or anything. Little mouse-shaped gruff could get out. Not in the stone, I think that's just giant magic home. We got what we came for. Bye! The war took down, so... It doesn't seem very nicely.

No. You certainly could try. Well, I can't hear anything going on out there, and the wall's not coming down, so... But they were coming for Han, aren't they? Oh yeah. I'm not leaving Han alone. Yeah, because in four hours, then...

baking back him. Well, we don't know it's four hours. I think it's permanent, based on what Rowan is saying. We could hunker down. I mean, if I, if it's permanent, if you go, you have to take me with you. If it's permanent, I'll starve to death. It's likely the walls of the prison are thinner than that. If we want to chip our way out.

Have you made any progress on the walls? We're in, we're in a mountain. We're in like deep underground. We're underneath the forts. We're in bedrock. Mountain stone. What if I mean because of a sheep in the sea? and we go up?

I mean, we're pretty far down, I think it... But we go up a floor? It's quite thick. I think it's like 20, 30 feet. Not five foot, right, okay. What if I create a hole in another wall? Can we go at a different way? We could, I mean, I don't know how thick it is.

You could try. Can you do that twice? So you stone shape once, then you go into that hole. into that hole and stone shaping the end. You're three times. Well, you can shape up to five feet, right? Up to five foot. So if you cast it on Rowan Stone,

you could create a passageway where you can get out of the room and into the corridors. Because it's 10 foot cube and then you would half it and then you would, because then you could have a single person sort of gap to go on either side.

Isn't it diagonal 10 foot cube 20 feet? How does that make sense? I mean, cut the corner. Ah, yeah. Gruff, I've, look, I stoned it. I mean, it's a really... And I need you to fix it.

It's a really good idea, so I'm kind of loath to carve any sort of... It's all right, I'm make another one. It looks good, doesn't it? Well, if you... That looks good there. It looks quite good on, yeah, could I snuggle in here and, like, see. I'm a little worried about the oxygen, gruff. Oh, I didn't realize it was an auction block in door.

Oxygen. I thought there's fire here. Maybe there's the time. Put that fire up for a lot. What, okay. Yeah, that's definitely just taken away like a good... I don't know what's wrong, guys. Bloody air, if I turn my back for one second.

No, I can't see. We're sealed in a bloody tomb. Right, okay. Do you want me to cast stone shape on this door? I will open it up if you need me to. Yeah. A tiny airhole. I feel like we just need to be able to get out.

Maybe stone shape is straw. If people want to make, I don't know, an arcana check to see if Rowan's thing is permanent, that's an option, I guess. Natural 20. Well, they do it. Gruff, you do not believe that examining this thing and getting the sense of the magic and having seen Rowan use this before,

you don't believe that this is permanent. It will probably last a few hours. Right, we've seen you do this before, haven't we? It's only lasted a few hours. That was a real godlike decision you just made. like an outer force told you to do that. I mean, this is what skills are for. I can't believe none of you thought,

can I work out if Rowan's thing is permanent or not? So it goes away? Rowans literally use this ability. You've used there so many times before we had always walked away before. We've never really stuck around long enough. His mattress that he made in the baths. We thought it was still there. I thought that was it.

I've been back. It's not. They might have moved it. They moved it, they just hit it away. Leave a mattress in the middle of a bath, you insane? Anyway. Right, do you want me to open this bloody door or not? You know what, it's going to go away in how long?

Four hours, ish. We could wait for four hours. Although if we do that, then the whole stronghold might have been taken over by whatever it is the site there. That could be not prisoners, could be something else. They must have things in place for this kind of thing. I'm sure they didn't anticipate everything shutting down, though, all at once.

They probably have patrols, but not for like every single cell. I'm casting a certain shape on the door. I'm open. Oh, aim there and it will come out of the mouth. Open. So you can create like a basically a diagonal passageway. Would you like to go east or west with your passageway? What's the way to the exit?

Both will lead to stairs that lead up. This way, the western side will lead you to a staircase, but also goes towards the gullet, the high security. Whereas this east will just lead you to a staircase. in the northern passage which doesn't have anything. That one. Okay, so. I mean, the Gremlin in me wants to go to the high security,

but the... Well, if you really want, we can do a loop. It's a loop. Oh, it's a loop, okay. It's just a co-. High security is where they, like, the duns are. So, yeah, you can have... Right, I'm gonna mark it off my shelves off.

I'm gonna leave this up from now. I'm not all right now. I swear to... The map of the stronghold is available for free on Patreon. Enjoy. Who said that? So... I think the stone said that.

Ghost, just took over my body. The sponsor ghost. It's about five minutes, I said, until you started having this discussion. It's probably been about seven, eight minutes since you were attacked. Gruff, you create this kind of, it's awkward because you also have to get it

so that you can open the cell door and you all have to sort of squeeze through it. I can turn it into a door. But it's a 10-foot cube, so you have to almost, you know, this whole thing. But you do mention to it. You manage to get a point where all of you can sort of squeeze your way out

into the corridor. As you do, I'm going to say, as you look down the corridor, who's the first to go out? I can be first. So, Afeely, you're the first one.

So you sort of make your way out into this corridor. Who's going to be behind, give me like a marching order of who's coming out where? I'll be in front of Han. It's probably going to Rowan next.

I want Han to be. be sandwiched so that no one can. Don't take the rear. Take him by the rear. What? I'll be at the back, please. Back, okay, so I'm so present right now. Squeezing through.

Same. Then Gras, then Daisy and Santhias. So, Afeely, you're the first, as you sort of squeeze out and you come out into the corridor. Oh my goodness. You have dark vision, don't you? Oh my God, yes. So there's this, a dim glow of light coming from behind.

Daisy's bow. or weapon being the only real source of light at this point. But in your dark vision, you can see that at the end of this corridor, you see one figure is sort of slumped over, and you can see a guard dressed in the Holy Warrior, one of the brothers, the Holy Brothers of the Ecliptic Order. It sort of grabbed him and is holding him up against a wall. But looks a little odd.

Can you give me a perception check, please? 11. 11. You don't necessarily, it's a little strange, he's sort of drooped head, but he's sort of holding him there. And the person he's holding is one of the criminals who you definitely saw attack. And he's sort of holding him,

but he's not moving or speaking just yet. But you see them up ahead. This is weird. Everybody, I'm just going to, there's a guard. I'm not sure about the situation. Oh, there are gods. Oh, good guards. Brilliant.

I'm just not, I'm just. As Rowan sort of says that, oh, good guards. Is everything okay? as you call out, you see the sort of figure sort of lurch and pull back and look in the direction of all of you coming towards them. And you can see that where they've grabbed this person, that criminal is also not really moving. Their head is just sort of slumped against their chest.

Their arms are like just slack by their side. And as that guard turns and looks at you, you can see that all over their cheek and their neck, metal, almost like a blooming flower, metallic has like grown out and is like covering their neck and their skin. One of their eyes has gone completely silver and just sort of looks,

Edict remains, must assimilate. And they take a step forward to you. We're going to re-roll that initiative. What are they saying? Eidict must be assimilated. I don't think they're friendly. Okay. If you can run forward as fast as you can,

I'm way at the back of this thing. Shall I make another stone? Yeah. Ooh, that's better. Are we re-rolling initiative? Yes, please, yeah. Because it includes a different type of creature. Oh.

Turn around, everyone. Back in the hole. Back in the hole. Back in the hole. Back in the hole. Well, that's a problem, though. It feels been weird out here. Can you stone shape it shut again?

Daisy. Close up that sphinct door. 16. Clanthius. 19. 19, uh, graphus. 13. Rowan.

Five. Ophelia. 16. And then. I have to balance between a few things here. Yes, okay. Edict, assimilate. Borg.

There is something a bit borg-like about them, yes. Borg gear. This is Star Trek thing. Uh, May the call of you. Well, Ophelia, I am sad to say all of you. I'm sad to say that none of you are going first. And in fact, that corrupted guard,

you can see they turn towards you, Ophelia, and they just begin to rush in this sudden sort of burst sensing towards you. They just drop the criminal that they were holding up against the wall. They just drop them and come towards you. And the last thing you see is the infected, sorry, the criminal, sort of raise his head as you see those little metal flowers beginning to bloom

and stretch over their skin turning their neck and their arm into the same metallic substance that's now covering half of the guard and the criminal manages to look at you and their eyes are fearful for a moment before their face just slackens into a calm expression.

The one that rushes towards you is not angry it just almost has this calm, placid thing. Must, must spread, must control, Edict demands, edict demands, edict demands as it rushes to try and grab you. Oh yeah. Let me grab from my infected guards and a criminal. Kind of reminds me of the expanse.

Yes, that's all the geth in Mass Effect, if you would think of the, when they do there'll be husks. All right. He's gonna rush straight up to you, Aphelia, and make several attacks against you. Nice. The first one is a 19 to hit. That hits.

I technically made a cube. A bog cube. You did. That is going to be eight points of bludgeoning damage. Bludgeoning, yep. Then a second attack against you, that's only an 11 to hit. That that misses. And then a third attack against you, that is going to be a 20 to hit.

That is hit. Okay. Can you guys be better at SEA? That's going to be 11 points of bludgeoning damage. And because you've been hit by two of these attacks, I need you to make a Constitution saving. Oh, I'm going to get assimilated. Come on.

Starfleet, 10. I thought they hadn't. Oh no. You all watch as this creature runs up and it just slams its fists into you and sort of grabs onto you with both arms with each attack. As it holds onto, Aphelia, parts of it almost like tendrils kind of stab into like spiders bites.

From its fingers, you can see that there are all these kind of dozens of tiny, you know, not fangs, but almost like hooks into its skin. And as it grabs onto, It scratches at your body and you suddenly, you feel very, very unwell. You start to feel feverish and you probably haven't felt this way in so, so long.

Now you are undead partially. Partially. So I'm gonna give you advantage on that saving throw. Because I just realized, obviously you are half-laving. As well if you needed. I mean, you couldn't spend fate. That's two. So a failure.

Yeah. She wants this. Whatever is still alive in you, It's been a long time since you felt sick like this and you feel feverish and you feel unwell and you watch as on your sort of hand this metal lotus like flower grows and spreads out. You have been infected with the subjugation command virus.

Oh, yes. On your first failure, you are dazed. So you have that dazed condition. So a move, an action or a bonus action, not all three. and you can't take reactions. And at the end of your next turn, I need you to repeat that saving throat. You will get advantage because of your half-undead nature.

Alrighty. But yeah, he just runs up to you, slams into you, and you start to feel very unwell. You also begin to hear a voice in your head. Oh, you can't, yeah. Obey, you must obey. The law, the law is almighty. The law is most important.

Obey edict, obey edict, obey edict. Begins to sort of echo in your head. Hell you know. Well, that was there you go. As a reaction, can I hellish or rebuke? You can. No, you can't because you're dazed. Oh, actually, well, that's an interesting thing.

You would have been able to do it on the second attack. You would have reacted. Oh, that's interesting. Saving throw. Can you read out to me what Helishabukes says when it triggers? The creature that damaged you, oh, one reaction which you take in response to taking damage from a creature, you can see within 60 foot.

I will allow it then. So you took damage, then you make the saving throw, but because this is on the damage part, I will say that this is the last reaction you get, basically. Dexterity is a saving throw? That is going to be a failure. All right, 2D10 fire damage. Okay.

So that is seven fire damage. Seven points of fire damage. Perfect. You see the fire sort of scorches the still fleshy part of the brother. I would imagine that this is actually one of the brothers that came with Argus and Melody to Ashen Rest that you didn't know, but that you recognize their face and it just sort of burns their cheek and their shoulder

and there's just no reaction of pain or anything, just their eye. You can see that their one good eye is crying, but there's just no reaction to it. Xanthius, you hear all of this happening up ahead, but all of your friends are currently... Everything good, Ophelia? Okay.

He's just screaming. Oh. Can I see, like, through this line of... I don't think you can see what just happened. I think you, Daisy and Gruff, are just currently too stuck behind everything. Okay. Well, I'm going to give you space to come out.

I'll just stay here. Sure. Anything you want, any held actions or anything? If not, I can move on. Sure, let's sorts for a burst, anyone that looks kind of spooky. All right. Daisy, then it's Ophelia.

My sorcerer's burst, Daisy. I will kill you. You just kill five people, I can't. Yeah. Try me. I can't see anything. Not currently, no. I will just have to hold an action to take a shot

if something becomes in my range. Okay, and you can see it. Yeah. Okay, cool. It is Ophelia's turn. You aren't dazed? Dazed, a single action. Multi-attacked is that character.

as a single action or is that? I would say it counts as yes. So you take the attack action and you get to make two attacks. This isn't like slow or anything like that. It's a separate thing, but no bonus action, no move action this turn. Then I'll just, yeah, make up a straight multi-attack against.

Okay, does mean no rage at this point if you haven't had a chance to, yeah. 16 to hit. 16 to hit does not hit. As the rapier goes to pierce into his chest, you realize that you've strike, struck one of these parts that seems to have turned its flesh into metal.

Oh, interesting. Okay. Can I reckless? Is that an action to rectal? No, no, no. You choose that when you make an attack, so you can reckless, yeah. I'll do that this time.

Oh, might not help. 18 to hit. Just barely hits. That is its AC, is its body. Not only is it still wearing it, the guard is still wearing his armor and like his holy robes and armored robes, but now also has this additional protection

from the metal skin. 14 piercing damage. 14 points of piercing damage. No, just hear of Philly just don't let in touch you! Don't let it touch you! Obey! Obey! Can you give me another Constitution saving throw, please,

with advantage? Don't call me Bay. Talking to the Grave father again. That is one success. You still are dazed, but that's one success. You need multiple successes is to overcome this, by the way.

Cool. And if you get multiple failures, there is a point where you are no longer in control of yourself. It gets progressively worse. All right, we... Love it. I'm sick. Perfect. Well, after Ophelia,

I'm afraid that you hear Ophelia are sort of lumbering as this infected criminal... 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 will come up next to you and sees a fresh target in Rowan behind you. And he's going to make an attack against you, Rowan, I'm afraid.

That is going to be 25 to hit. Oh. Yeah, just a bit. Just a little bit. Now, luckily, on his own, these minions aren't too bad. That's only going to be four points of bludgeoning damage. But I do need a constitution saving throw from me. I'll show this out.

15. He's a success. So you manage to sort of, as it goes to grab you and sort of, you feel these like tendrils and a hooks in its hands. and parts of it almost come out like strings trying to dig into you. You manage to shove it back and any scratches on you.

You feel ill for a moment, but then you shrug it off. There's a brief moment where you hear a voice in your head that's almost a bay, but you shrug it off immediately. Okay, cool. After the infected criminal, it is Grafeth. Can I peek my head out of the...

I would say, like, you can sort of peek out, but you've got Han and Rowan in the way in front of you. And it's a very narrow kind of corridor. Can I pull Han back into the room? Yeah, you could do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like, if you want to swap places with him,

I would totally allow that. Armour of Oak and Thorn will go up as I do that. Bonus action. Perfect. So now I'd say you can see both of them, and you can see what's happened with Ophelia. Can I make a medicine check or something to kind of... Yeah, absolutely.

I would say you can either make medicine or Arcana or... Religion. Medicines plus a 20, dirty 20. 30 20. I would say, I'll just let that be a free action as well, by the way. Whatever is affecting the guard and the criminal, you haven't really seen the infection of what's happening to Ophelia. There's no possible way it can be like a natural problem.

Like this is clearly some sort of magical curse or magical malady of some kind and will require sufficient magic to remove it basically and I haven't seen it affecting aphelia you you can hear Ophelia acting a bit strange but you've not seen the thing that's growing out of her hand at this moment or any either they're not close to me or they I can't touch them I you can't touch them now you've got a good 15 feet between you and them until Rowan moves you can't draw closer he's currently blocking your way because it's quite tight not enough room to squeeze

through either, unfortunately. Yeah. I'm conflicted about whether or not to cast a moon beam because I don't want to burn the... They're nice. Well, apart from the criminal, he's a criminal. Croft supports the death penalty.

Apparently so. Apparently he does. Can I do a moon beam that knocks them out but doesn't kill them? It does radiant damage, right? Yeah. I would say, yes. I would say that's a type of energy that you have control over how lethal it is.

because it's like radiant is like holy, like magical light. So I imagine that, yeah, you could use it to be non-lethal. I'll do a polite, radian. Or have I not let you do that before? You didn't let me do that. No, in that case, if I didn't let you do that before, then it doesn't apply here. I thought that's my mistake.

You said that Daisy couldn't be non-lethal because it was radio. Because it was radiant. In that case, it's non-lethal. In which case, can I do a tidal wave and try and push them back? That's a little bit. Yeah, where would you start that? On them? on them.

And then so back from them. Yeah, sure. So that is a deck save 16. For the guard, that's a failure. For the criminal, that is a success. Twelve, twelve points of bludgeoning. And they get, well, whoever failed is not prone and pushed. How far?

The entire duration, right? The entire distance. 30 foot, yeah. 15, 20, 25, 30. Nice. They're just off. The criminal is basically swept away and thrown up against the rocks and is dead as they are a minion as they are just push, push back, sland against the war.

Like you said, he is a criminal, therefore deserves death. Deserves death. Yeah. Oh, I very much believe. The guard is knocked away from ophelia, no sound, no scream, no grunts of pain or anything, just kind of pushed back, staggers against the water, and eventually is dropped to the floor. but immediately you can see

is just beginning to turn himself over and push himself back up to stand back up ready to come back out towards you we go to after Grafeth it is Rowan's turn seeing them being pushed back by water Rowan's gonna spin around in front of Ophelia

what's happened what's wrong with you and give like a cursory glances to what's happened to Ophelia yeah again it can be a medicine an arcana or a religion check, I would say. Okay. Nine.

Or medicine. No idea. Like, you see her hand, and you can see now several more of these sort of metallic flowers are beginning to bud and grow. But the first one, the one that first sprouted, it sort of bloomed and now is laying flat and is almost seeping into her skin, almost covering it, like liquid metal. You have no idea what this is.

I feel it, try to shake it off or something. And I'll give you Bartik inspiration. I'll strum a tune that resonates with you. Okay, that's your bonus action. Saving through. And then looking down the corridor, do I see a silhouette? You see the guy beginning to,

because I knew that you're asking for dark vision before. I would say that like there is enough light from Daisy's bow, 20 feet plus another 20 feet of dim light. You can, it just barely, he's in darkness and is partially concealed though. Are you okay now? Did you snap out of it? You call out.

Could I see that how affected they were before? You definitely did, yeah. It's like half of his face was covered in metal. Half, like most of his arm was covered, parts of his hand. There was no, you saw him, he was just talking gibberish towards Ophelia. What I'll do after I've stromed a bardic is turn around to the guard and do a probing vicious tone. See how affected their head is.

So it'll be a con-saber, I believe it is. Wisdom, sorry. Wisdom saving throw against the infected guard. That is going to be a 17 total. Yeah, that will succeed. So that doesn't do anything. So you try and probe their mind and send in this tone, this aggravating,

you sort of pain-inducing tone, and they seem completely unfazed, completely unaffected. Whatever's affecting, there's something affecting and infecting people. Ophelia's been hit by it. How do you feel, Ophelia? Really sick. Do you need healing? I can do a bonus action healing wound.

Obey, obey, to obey the edict. Obey what? To obey the edict, Roman. The edict? I don't know what that word means. You were done? Yeah. Okay. On Han's turn, he is going to, he will just say, I don't know what we're dealing with,

but if I can help boost your armor, I can help enhance your weapons, but I don't know who to help here. Ophelia, help Ophelia. If Ophelia's in trouble, help Ophelia. Okay, he will step. Alright, well, don't touch her, though. Well, he can't get to her, but he will step behind you, and he holds up his small blacksmith hammer.

You see it glows with radiant energy. And Ophelia's weapon gets blessed with a reinforced weapon, which now deals for extra radiant damage. Oh, good. Use it only for good, Ophelia. We go back up to the top. The guard uses half of its movement to stand up. Five, ten, fifteen, and begins marching just towards you,

Remember who you are. He lives in you. You're still in there. He looks, I would say, not quite bloodied, so like not injured. You can see that he's been scorched by the Hellish Rebuk and there's some blood pooling from where he was stabbed, but completely unfaced.

August, do you remember August? He raises his hand and where that metal has begun to kind of cross over all of its palms, you see part of it split open, and a ball of magical energy begins to form as it fires a plus fast. At Rowan, you're going to get two of these. The first one is only a 12 to hit.

No. The second one is going to be a 23 to hit. Yes. That's going to be nine points of force damage, and can I get a strength saving throw from you, please? Yes, you may. Kill. A three.

A three. You are pushed back. Aphelia, can you make a strength saving throw, please? Rebound. Everyone's just going to dominoe through this tunnel. Natural 20. So you managed to stop. Rowan does fall prone. She works out.

But yeah, Aphelia, you managed to sort of dig your heels in, sort of force yourself as Rowan falls, you know, he stumbles out of your hands, but you stop it from cascading into gruff, and then yourself falling prone and everything else. But he then just sort of stands there with his palm out, lowers his hand. All must become one with Edict. Zanthius.

I mean, fucking this tunnel, dude. I know. 10 foot stone cube got put in the way. It's a real nightmare. Ophelia, on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad are you feeling? I just feel sick, Xanthius. I feel like I need to obey.

Two, for two. That's pretty bad. I didn't hear a number. If someone is trying to make Ophelia obey, I will combat that and become Ophelia's new master. Dominate person, please. Okay. So, Ophelia.

What? Make a wisdom saving throw, I believe. Okay, dokey. Money? Nope. Wow. Incredible. Incredible.

Couldn't ask for better. Riannon, the way you're laughing, we know you're not joking, sweetheart. We know. So you try, It's okay, I've dealt with Ophelia. You try and seize control of her mind, but you don't even hear Xanthias Ophelia.

All you can now hear is this, it's a slightly feminine, monotonous voice just telling you, obey edict, obey edict, you don't even hear Xanthia's commands. I'm just not to think Dominic person might not be great. That's the second time. Well, when somebody rolls a Nat 20 against it,

it's not much you can do. Soror Roe is right. Yeah. I don't think it's ever. When it works, it's incredible. It's a game change. I think it's maybe happened once in 10 years. 10 years.

Santhis, you done. Bonus action produced flame. If anyone can charge forward, that would be much appreciated. Well, speaking of people that can charge forward, it's Daisy's turn. I can't do anything! I will again hold my action to if I can, there's no way I can peek out and get a shot.

I would say now that Hans moved out of the way, you are a little bit small, because, you know, you had Gruff and Rowan. Yeah. Two very big figures. And Rowan's fallen over. And Rowan has fallen over, but Ophelia is in front of Gruff now.

I would say, Daisy is the only one that I will let you squeeze through, but it's going to be difficult to rain the whole way, basically. I just want to basically squeeze enough to get a shot out the door. I don't think you can. I think because you've got, like, you've got two friends,

blocking the way. Even if you would squeeze behind Gruff, I don't think you're going to have like a line of sight. So you would have to basically move out to into the corridor to get a shot, basically. So you could do that because you'd go five, 10, 15, 25, 30. You can get next to Rowan, but then you'll be out in front. Okay, I will do that, take a shot and then scoot back with Dash. Yeah, yeah, you could totally do that. So you sort of squeeze, you kind of crawl under Gruff, legs, sort of squeeze past Ophiria, step over Rowan, bring out the bow. I'm just Peter Griffin on the floor.

Some might prefer a yamcha, but Peter Griffin will say. Sharks. 19 to hit. 19 will hit, yeah, AC's 18. They're not within five feet. They are not, they're not within five feet of anyone, I'm afraid. Damage and joy. Hey, listen, seven points of damage, seven points of damage.

The radian, is that radian damage or regular damage? Regular damage. Regular damage. So you conjure like this, the arrow, like a physical arrow, it slams into his shoulder. Now you can definitely see that the body is beginning to slow down. Like there's blood pouring from the still fleshy arm. There's definitely a sluggishness to the movement

as they are now bloodied. But that is it. And then you want to basically dash back, right? Yeah, if I can tuck behind a gruff again. You're basically in the doorway at this point. Oh, hi Daisy. How does it look at that? Oh, I know.

He's a bit slower now. but you know it's still a guard I don't know if we want to go ahead god god no you are still dazed and I need a sink-thro at the end of your turn you do have Bardick I think Ophelia is going to Misty step oh that'll be your whole turn because of dazed yep just forward maybe 30 feet up so I'm behind the guard just so people then have I just want to give you this as an option you because it's If you're gonna bonus action to Misty Set, which is gonna use the spell slot,

you could just move. And then you save the spell slot, and you get exactly the same result. I will, shall then move. Just because I don't want you waste the spell slot, right? I mean, if you wanna do it for coolness, you can. I shall move. But yeah, five, 10, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30.

You can get behind this card. Just go up behind him, yeah. Yeah, but as you kind of get there, you know, you're staggering, having to lean up against the wall, as this voice is getting louder and louder in your head. Give me that extra new constitution saving for at the end of the turn. I'll use Rowan's Bardick as well for this one.

Lovely. Got an attack. No, saving throw. Saving. 18. It's a success. That's your second success. What's the D8?

The D8 was seven. You get 10, 10 p. Oh, that's pretty good. Oh, excellent. Ophelia, that is you done. That guy is dead. Gruff. Oh, and all.

Oh, hello. Um, right, can I see, could I get a bad look at Ophelia when she bumped away? Yeah, I'd say that like you got a good look at her now. Ask me. How was she looking? Bad, she's got weird metal on her hands. But she seems pretty in control of herself right now.

She seems vaguely in control. She's definitely not well. She's not doing all the things, you know, she's sluggish and she's not quite doing everything that she normally would. Oh, sincere apologies, this creature has a reaction when you moved up towards it, Ophelia. As you kind of move to go run past it, as you enter its threatened range, I can use a reaction to make an attack against you. Cool, yeah, no worries.

That is going to be 19 to hit. Yep, that hits. Meets, beat it. Would have a misty step. Stopped that. No, I didn't misty step. I just moved. Yeah, that's all right. It technically is when you enter its area, like, its threatening range. so even if you misty stepped he would still just give you a smacks say that is going to be 13 points of bludgeoning

that's cute right i'm going to go up to the boy oh there and i'm going to attack him but i want to knock him out rather than murder him yeah sure you can do normally thole okay i'll do that then uh 12 plus 9 21 to hits hits uh that is oh not very good damage uh six points of regular damage and three cold damage from my primal strike. So nine total. Yeah, you see that the axe it slams into him. You kind of hitting him with the blunt, the sort of lava-encrusted flat end

of the axe, kind of staggers him for a moment, sort of sends him reeling. Again, no reaction, no cries of pain or anything like that. Second attack? That's a natural one. That's going to miss, I'm afraid. I think probably because he's so unused

to the close quarters. And it's heavy. and also you're trying to be non-lethal so you're not using the cutting edge and there's still quickness. You think that this thing would be slow and shambling the way that it's not reacting, but when you go to swing, all of those

instincts as a warrior is still there and it just brings up its metallic arm and blocks and shoves the weapon away. But yeah, it's still got a solid hit in, unfortunately, on Gruff. That's you done. In that case, we then go to Rowan. Have you handled it?

No, I have a bloody handle it! Oh! Rowan's gonna get up from prone. I wouldn't shout that, I wouldn't shout Rowan. Grass, have you handled it? 15 feet of movement left. Bloody end boyo, don't get me come back there and have you smack round your head. And he's gonna equip his sword,

the stern razor, and go for a stem. Okay. This end is suffering, right? It's a moral thing to do. 16 plus... It's really hard to read. 16 plus 6, yeah. 282. 2d6 plus two. Another nine points.

Perfect. The Stone Razor slams in the jagged edges kind of tearing at the flesh and robes, leaving like a bloody gash along his shoulder and arm. But again, no reaction is still just barely, he's very heavily injured standing. Graff, you should stand back away from this because that's how Ophelia got got. and I'm going to back up. Okay. Oh, I'm going to be in attack range, aren't I? Potentially.

He's used his reaction. He's used his reaction. Does it have more? I'll back up. Okay. You can go... Five feet to give some space for everybody else. Spend your movement to get up.

Does not attack you. It has in fact used its reaction. Come back here, Gruff. Well, as you say that, let it get a feelier instead. Han literally can't do anything, so just sort of hunkers in the room with Xanthius and Daisy. So we go to the top of the round and its turn, Gruff. It is going to make three attacks against you basically,

with its metallic grasp. That is going to be an 18 to hit on the first. Misses. Second is going to be, that's a natural 20, 27. Misses. I'll do damage, you admit. The last attack is only an 11. So you are hit with a critical,

but you are only hit once, so you are not subject to the infection. This is gonna be 12, 16, 22 points of bludgeoning damage. You hear it from behind you. And then I am going to spend one point of fate to activate its unstable reaction, A.O.E. All creatures within 10 feet, can you give me a dexterity save? Shit.

Oh, awesome. Do I see this coming? You do, so you can have dangerous sense. Natural 20. What's that? What's that? 20 unnatural. Fuck me.

Nine. 20 unnatural, 20 natural. You two both succeed. You take half damage. Graff, you're taking full damage. As you can see that all the metal that's been overgrowing this creature, where are all my D10s?

I ate them. Why did you eat my D10s? I need those. How many do you need? You do look the tastiest. No, no, no, I don't want your disgusting, though. What is still wrong. No, it's right, I can just roll them multiple times.

I was actually gonna give you actual details that time. Oh, I thought you were gonna give me your freaky dice. Yeah, and then inside there's like soft chocolate. Yeah. Ooh. 32 points of force damage. So it would be 16 for Rowan and Ophelia. Chris Trott, 16 points of damage.

That's already halved. That's already halved. Yes, it was 32 full. Jesus. So Gruff, you take the brunt of this. As you can see that all the metal parts of its body, those flowers re-emerge and all of them begin to create these like balls of force energy

and then they just barrage out all around you and slams into all of you. You two manage to dodge out the most of them but you still hit by a few straight ones. Gruff, you just take the full barrage. But that was a fake point. We then go to Daisy. Daisy.

Oh, is it me? Yeah. I can leave the room. You can leave the room without any trouble. Can I leave the room? All your friends are around it. No, this is something. It's probably going to be overkill, isn't it?

Zanthius isn't going to do shit in this combat. Daisy's going to kill him, and Zanthius would have spent the entire combat in a room. Just winging. Before you carry on, are you sure it's not my initiative? No, I'm before you. Oh, no, no, no, no. Correct, it is Zanthius, correct.

I'm going to go back. Oh, no, no, I wouldn't let that slide. No, no, no, no. Zantzius is going to do shit. No, no, exactly, no, that's very fair. You know what, you do it. It'll be overkill if I hit with a speaker to end up. You should dominate person on Daisy.

No, I'm going to have... And then fire the bow. It's got to release flame. Delay my turn, actually. Okay. No, I want to go out, and I want to use a... Let's just do a sorceress burst on this guy.

Force damage to try and knock him out. Force damage. Force damage, non-lethal. Okay. But I'm going to rebound it off the walls like he did with his little pinball move, which is rad. Sorcerous first, plus eight.

Nat 20. Roll the damage because I know you want to see how much you do. Yeah, hang on, just before I do that though, I'm just going to say... I'm just going to say, fucking step to me, motherfuckers, Xanthius do nothing.

Fucking 24, 27, 32, 35 damage, please. For a cantrip. From a can trip. For a can trip. The box of scratch. A bunch of scraps. The box of scraps.

Well, don't tell us. Did this in a cave with a can trip. I did so much damage. It's not even non-leaf anymore. His head explodes! Do you genuinely want to do non-lethal or lethal? It depends. Yeah, non-lethal, sure.

Non-lethal. This just ball of concussive force launches from Xantheus, this swirling storm of sorceress magical energy. As it slams into him, you watch as all of the consciousness, his body is blown up, thrown back against the wall, it sort of cracks the stone behind it, and their head just, slumps as they fall into deep, deep unconsciousness.

Yeah. Can I get another same throw from Ophelia though? You're back. So you've had two successes, haven't you? Fate. I'll fate. You're gonna spend fate, okay. 24.

That is a success and that is the third success. Fighting this thing, fighting off this control, you watch as these metal buds and flowers which are trying to grow over, you sort of manage to like shake and tear at your skin, And eventually like buds that don't take root, they sort of fall out. And as they hit the ground, they just disintegrate into nothingness.

It doesn't leave a hole. No, no. I'm not gonna jinjia-ito this, so you're okay. Hey, why are we attacking guards? Did you not see why I have interophilia? They were taken over by some kind of. I mean, Xenthius, you can see that like the metal is like, this thing is, this guard is hard.

This side, look. This side. I'd have very low perception. Oh, oh, oh, yeah. Ooh. But you remember when said Ophelia said, Sissot Ophelia said, don't let them touch you? Yeah.

Obey, obey, obey. Yeah, oh, that's gross. They touched Ophelia. Are you good? How are you? I think so. Like a hands like shaking. You think so, or you know so?

You're hiding it, you're hiding it, aren't you? I've managed to remove them. I think I've taken a lot. Lift up her sleeve. There's a bite in there. No, it's fine, it's fine, it was, there was something in my mind, something saying,

Edict must be assimilated. Obey, obey, obey. When you say that now that Han has managed to kind of, it can actually hear what you're saying, is like, do you say Edict? Yes. That's one of the special prisoners. A gnome, Edith, Embercog, they were called,

but now they call themselves Edict. They made some sort of deal with the precept coil, with the plain of law. And yeah, I mean, I haven't ever seen them, but I've heard the guards talk about them. That was a lot of words that I did not understand. Does Edict have the ability to bring down...

I have no idea. I've just heard them talk about... You ever heard guards talking about someone silver? They had silver skin. Mm-hmm. In what area was it? It was... The other way down the...

The gullet. That's where all the special prisoners are held. So that's been released as well. Maybe if it's affecting... the guards. We don't know how... I don't know. I just... When you said Edict,

I know I've heard that the guards talking about them. It's only been what? We should get out of here. We should go find the Heinquisitor and figure this stuff out. All right, stay close to each other. Don't let anything get too close to us.

Don't let them touch you. Watch each other carefully. Vigilant. Everyone stand behind gruff, is what I'm saying. The stairs are just ahead, I think. Yeah, just a head up this way. Right. And with that, you guys want to make your...

way out of and up to the main fortress floor. You travel up cautiously. The path behind you that would have led to the gullock now, thankfully blocked, so there's no way for you to go there without going all the way around the stronghold or through general population. But instead you make your way up and into the sort of courtyard, near to the courtyard and the sort of main corridors that surround the central tower. As you emerge, you emerge, out here, you can see half a dozen of those criminals that came to attack you in the cell. They're sort of all clustered pounding at a door that leads into the central tower, and they are not speaking, they are not acting, screaming, shouting as you might expect them to.

In fact, you can see that one of them, their whole hand has been turned to silver. and you hear the mutterings of edict, edict, open, open. The tower itself, you can see that almost metallic-like vines have grasped, sort of grown out of the stone and are holding, sealing several of the doors, the windows of the main tower shut. And the door that these six are trying to break into seems to be barricaded from the inside at least.

and you can hear the sounds, you know, are fighting. But as you're sort of creeping at the top of the stairs looking out, you can see they are pounding on this door. And I think that Gruff and Daisy, who I know have very good passive perception, you can see that far further down towards where the shrine and the barracks are, you can see a couple of the Holy Order, a sister, two of the Holy Sisters, Sister Thorn being one of them, sort of shuffling and moving. And again, you can see those metal flowers

kind of blooming from their face as it seems that quite a few of the guards and the prisoners have already been infected by this edict. And that is where we're going to end part one. Nice. This episode. How will we... How are we to know staying behind that stone wall

that this was going on outside? I mean, this was going to go on any other way. However, certainly adding another 15 criminals to get infected is certainly... you know, plays very much into Edick's hands. What's seven minutes in terms of rounds of combat? That's quite a lot. 70 rounds of combat.

That's quite a lot. But with that, we'll find out what happens in part two. We'll see you there. Enjoy the break. Bye. See in a bit.