High Rollers DnD - Prison Break! (Part 2) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #95

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

The heroes fight their way through the corrupted inmates in Gallow's Eyrie! 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 At No Quest for the Wicked We ask, What if we start an actual play podcast That never plays D&D? What if we combine the joy And friendship

of our home game With studio quality sound design? What if we tell stories that will make us And our audience cry With laughter And sadness And everything in between?

And what if we wrap it all up In a nice, polite Canadian bow? Well, we'd have a Multi-Award-winning podcast That's waiting to be Your New Favorite show. Start at the beginning with our binge-worthy first campaign,

dip your toes into one of our many series or one-shots or jump right into our ongoing second campaign, released every other Wednesday at noquestcast.com or your favorite podcatcher by searching NoQuest for The Wicked. Welcome back to Althea, the Dragon Empire, Part 2. Our heroes are currently in the were,

in the lower levels of Gallo's Aerie, the stronghold of the Ecliptic Order, speaking with one of their prisoners or sort of half-guessed Han Faria about various Deva-related matters, when suddenly all of the last. lights and locks were disabled magically. The party were then attacked by a screaming horde of criminals

who seemed to be very angry at the special treatment Han had had at the hands of the ecliptic order, but Rowan, thinking creatively, blocks the doorway with a large block of stone, preventing them from getting access to them. After a few minutes, they dispersed and left the party to discuss various matters that had gone ahead. eventually Gruff decided to use stone shape to create a passageway that would at least allow them to get out of the cell and explore the rest of the stronghold. Ophelia going first entered into the corridor where she saw a guard seemingly capturing one of the criminals, but then very quickly realized that something was wrong as the guard turned around and seemed to be infected with some sort of metal curse who charged forward and nearly infected.

or did briefly infect Ophelia with that same curse. A small combat ensued, and then the party managed to defeat the infected guard, knocking them unconscious, thanks to a powerful spell from Xanthius, before they began to make their way back upstairs. Emerging into the primary floor of Gallo's area, they have discovered that many, many more of these criminals

and several of the guards, the local warriors, the warrior monks and priests of the Ecliptic Order, have been affected by this curse. as well. And the central tower is almost being wrapped up and bound in metal vines. And that is where we jump back in today. You are all currently crouched around the sort of square staircase that led up from the lower levels, looking out onto the central tower from within Gallows area. There are various rooms and chambers adjacent to you, but you can see that moving around more of the Holy Warriors have been infected, and a large pack of about six of the criminals,

the infected criminals are trying to bash down one of the doors that lead into the central tower. I hand it over to all of you. We can't let them escape. Surely, if we let them escape, there's a potential they can infect the rest of the outer area. When we were walking around the outside of the tower here, the main entrance was like this, Was it quite a, I want to say a mundane door rather than an entirely magical force field kind of... The door that leads into Gallows Aerie

is a massive pair of double doors, metal double doors, like reinforced, barricaded from the inside doors. You know that that is the entrance that's marked on the map there, and that leads out onto the mountain pass, which is a winding, very steep, quite dangerous, hard-to-navigate mountain trail that leads here and that there are several watchtowers. I believe Argus or somebody would have told you

that there are watchtowers along that path that lead up here as well. There's a lot of heavy defences stopping them from getting out, but I'm more concerned, this is probably selfish of me. What's our plan? What are we doing? Are we trying to get out of here as well, or are we trying to take as many unmind-controlled guards with us? What if we hit the source?

I was thinking that too. Edith. Maybe if we go for the Edith, might knock the rest of them out. In any sense. Okay. So split up and look for clues then. That's what you're suggesting.

Right? That's my game then. Is she still locked up? We can try and retrace their steps where they came. We know where they came from, at least. Not what prison they were in. They might be controlling them from the shadows or something.

Can I just do a general perception to see if I recognize someone that's completely silver? You can make a general perception. You can make a check, if you would like. You do whatever you like. 18 plus... 22, total. 22. Looking around, you don't spy anybody that stands out.

to you as, you know, not one of the criminals or not one of the guards that you've seen walking around. You certainly don't see anybody, I believe that Hahn mentioned that she's an Edith, this Edith, aka Edict, is a gnome. You don't see anybody like a gnomish size. What you do see, though, on a 22, Rowan, is you can see that the central tower, you've got this group of six that are trying to break in, and you can see that the other entrance has been completely engulfed by these metallic lattice-like vines. but on sort of up above, you know that there are sort of windows

that look down into this sort of area of the stronghold. And you can see, like, there are weapons, like you can see more of those metal lattices that are kind of stretching over them, but people are trying to, like, break them from the inside. It looks like people are maybe trying to get, you know, weapons to be able to fire outside.

So it looks like there are people in the tower who are cognizant, who are probably not with, who haven't been infected. Can I connect telepathically to someone in the window? I believe you have to see them. But if I can see them in the window. You can see somebody's like weapons,

you can see like weapons trying to chop at these lattices. I can't see the person. I don't think you can see the person. You're just seeing like the weapon sort of trying to like hack at it and stuff like that. You could try, like if you could get up higher and like look in somehow, like if you were flying or if you climbed up there

or something like that, you probably could. But from down here, even with Rowan pointing it out, You're really just seeing like swords slashing and maybe a crossbow trying to like stick out and things like that. There's people in there that haven't been infected, we should probably help where we can. If we get infected though.

Yeah, we'll have to be really, really careful. But I think looking for edith or edict would be a good solution rather than trying to take all of them on. It might work. I can't see them amongst the ground, so they're not here. They're probably trying to get.

to two places. The teleport circle, which I probably don't know how to activate, or the main entrance. I think they're trying to get to people. Well, yeah, but after that. Maybe the controls are in there. The controls might be in the tower for all of these systems that they have.

I mean, we went through, because we came from the teleport circle at the very, very, very top floor, right? And then all the way down. Yeah, well, it wasn't, no, the teleport circle isn't in the top floor. Oh, right. There was a floor above that. The teleport circle is on the middle,

floor. Above that, you know, is Argus's chambers is above that, basically. His office is above that. Yeah, and you came through. You didn't necessarily see any, like, magical controls for the stronghold when you came out of the teleportation circle room. Okay. Can we try and find Argus? Would Argus help us know what to do? Is Argus even okay? Right. I think first priority, let's stop this lot. Let's give them some room to breathe, and then we can look for either. Yes. Okay? How many, roughly, there's six of the criminals who are, like, bashing on the door, and then further down the corridor, there were two of the,

there were two of the Holy Sisters who looked to be infected. All right, yeah, let's try and team up with the tower people, the tower folk. Sorry, was this an open courtyard? It's kind of, yeah, so the tower's in the middle, and then you have, like, buildings all around the outside with, like, so I'd say that this is, yeah, fairly open. Are we an initiative or? No, no, no, you're not.

initiative yet? No, no, no. And I'd say that these, the six around, like, none of these enemies are aware of you, yeah. Like, you're kind of being huddled up by the staircase. You are, yeah, completely unknown. I'd say that it's quite a distance. It's probably a good sort of, like, 80 feet to that door from where you currently are, and then probably another 80 feet to the end towards the shrine and the other staircase after that, about 160 feet from where you are to the other staircase. Right. Cool.

But it's up to you guys, what you would like to do. I'm ready to do what's needed, Gruff. It's all charged at the same time. Yeah. Coordinators at all. We're really good at those. Well, maybe stay, keep your distance in case they touch you again. Do something great.

Something great, yes. All I do is I'm far away. Everyone already? Ready. Yep. I'm going to start casting call lightning. Okay. So I guess, yeah, you would see.

On the group of sex. Yeah. raising his, oh, axe now, not enough. The usual sarin would shoot up into the sky where black clouds are forming, and then she would dive down and call lightning on the group. What's everyone else doing? Starry Wisp, cantrip.

Cantrip, okay. Yeah, I'm holding a sorceress burst for any that are still standing after the call lightning. Forks again. Sorcerous burst, so that's one target, though, isn't it? It is one target, yeah. Okay, so one target, one target, and a-o-o-e. I'm doing a target at Toll the Dead.

One of them. Any of them that are still alive yet. I could do the bow thing again, an AOE. Just do the little radiant damage. Yeah. I might try and hit one in the middle. Mm-hmm. And use a fate to do a...

To do an AOE. Sure, okay. Well, spend the fate. Basically, I'm not going to have her on an actual initiative because there's no point. These are six minions, basically. Combined, you wipe out the six by the door, especially with the radiant arrow and the cool lightning.

You immediately wipe out these six criminals, sending them flying with your various spells and cantrip. The cool lightning, like rains down. Three of them are instantly vaporized. You would notice that when you... I suppose actually this would have happened to the one down in the corridor as well that was killed by the tidal wave. When they take lethal damage,

you watch as their bodies, all the metal parts that have been sort of turned to metal, they disintegrate and leave them completely, you know, half their corpses like, whatever was turned to metal disintegrates and is just left nothing. So for the guard that got captured? You knocked unconscious, that didn't happen. Because you knocked them unconscious,

you didn't lethally kill them. So as their life force ends, whatever has been corrupted and turned seems to break away and is almost, you get the senses, is going somewhere else, as in it is being siphoned to a different world. But yeah, you take care of these six,

however that attention draws several of those guards towards you. And I think that's where we're gonna roll initiative because the minions really weren't much of a threat at that point. So. What are the guards that were there? So there were two Holy Sister guards at the far end, yeah. But there could be more. Like those are the two that you saw,

there might be more around that have been drawn by this attack. And this one, we are just gonna theater at the mind this one because I don't have a back on that for this. But I don't have a mind. Yes, you do. I don't have a theater. I feel, you guys, you like so and sing. I know.

Especially our periods. Full me. Okay. Full me. I did bleed blood out my hands. That's what happened. Daisy, Initiative, Daisy Initiative. Sting up, Seven.

What's it? Zantheis Initiative. Gruff. 11. Wow, Rowan. Eight. Jesus. Oh, geez, Ophelia.

Rattled. Natal 20, 23. Park in hell, four. Four today. Damn. Fifth total today, I think, with mine. Wait, I think you got one. Someone who's got one, I think.

What? What? Yeah, I did a Nat 20 on something useful. I was six today. Okay, so quite far away, but as obviously you've rushed forward, you've kind of spent a turn kind of calling down these spells, giving them a little bit of time to rush towards you,

but still a good sort of 120 feet away at this point. You see two of the Holy Sisters at the far end of the corridor towards the other staircase begin running towards you, but then you begin to hear sounds coming from the main entrance door to the right of you, and at least one more very infected-looking Holy Warrior Brother sort of stumbles out of that, and they're going to basically just spend their turns dashing

towards you. So they're about 60 feet away from you on either side at this point. Post dash. Yeah. Post dash, yeah. But we actually start, so that is kind of their reaction to all the noise of you guys fighting the dominions. So they're going to begin 60 feet away from you guys as we start the initiative. And, Ophelia, you are the first to act. Sweet. So I am going to. So there's two. Basically, we've got kind of left and right here. There's no cover or really anything in the hallway. You have the stairs behind you. You have the stairs behind you. You have, of two to the left and one to the right basically, 60 feet on the side. I'm going to go towards the two then.

Okay. I'm going to go 40 feet towards the two. Bonus action rage. Use my whip for 10 foot reach. And then multi-attack strike the first one. So you move 40 feet. More 40 feet. Yeah.

And then my whip has a 10-foot reach. That gives you 50 feet. So you're 10 feet away currently. And I'll move 5 feet forward. You need to go 10 feet forward. Yeah. So you're going to be 50 feet. 50 feet.

Okay, you move 50 feet, which you can do. You've got movement, right? Yeah. 50 feet ahead and then you've got to whip reach. Yep, no problem. Yeah, cool. Okay. And then I'm going to reckless, but I'm going to forego my reckless for my brutal strike.

Okay, sure. New thing. New thing. So what do you mean? So instead of being reckless, you get another effect, right? So instead of using my reckless dice, I can go advantage on my attack. and that chosen attack becomes an extra D10 of damage on a hit.

So instead of advances, you do extra damage. And I also get to do one of three different actions. I can do a forceful blow, a hamstring blow. Or hamstring bro. Or just a brutal strike. Amazing, okay. So I'm going to just. So you don't get advantage, but you do get the extra damage if you hit.

Okay. So 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15 to hit. 15 is not. enough to hit them. Once again, they still have their armor and their reflexes from their training as before, but now also benefiting from the metal infection. Cool. Now I shall try again with my whip, 1421 to hit. That will hit though. Amazing. So 1d4. So you hit one of them, yeah. Do I still have the radiant damage? Uh, you, that last 10 minutes, so yes. Cool, so I can add extra D4 damage. D4, yeah.

So 2D4. That's the D10. The missed, isn't it? So. Yeah, but don't you get that on all attacks, Reckless? You get that on all attacks for a turn. I think it's if it hits. Right, but you get it for all attacks on a turn.

So when you choose to do reckless, you get it on every attack that turn. Brain? Yeah. The answer is yes. Yes. So you still get it because this one hits. Okay. So you still get it to your real strike.

So that's two, three, four, ten damage, but they're slowed. Ten points of damage and they're slowed. Yes. Do you also get the, what was that, hamstring bro? And the hamstring bro. Or whatever other option that was. Yes, thank you. So I am going to give them, yeah.

Can I double stack slow? Or is it just the highest one? What does this one do? So if I do hamstring blow, it reduces speed by 15 feet instead of 10 feet. instead of 10 feet? I think they both apply. So 35 feet speed reduce. It'd be 25 feet.

10 feet for slower. So 25 speed reduce. Okay. I mean, I'll check that. I need to look into it, but yeah, sure, okay. Sounds like it from the wording, because it reduces it by that much. Sure, and also, because you might not use a slowing weapon

with brutal strike. You might use a vex weapon or something like that. Pretty good. So yeah, you slash at one, managing to cause like a deep gash along their leg. They sort of stumble, and again, just completely placid, no reaction in the face, but they are only 10 feet in front of you, Ophelia.

All right. End of turn. End of turn. Okay. Unfortunately, because all of your initiative is quite low, it is their turn now. So the two are going to rush up on Ophelia. The other one who is still 60 feet away is going to basically dash towards the group of you, probably going towards whoever it can see is the closest target. So I'll randomize that to determine who that is.

so I'll say one, two, three, four, and then five, six will be Han. Daisy, unfortunately, that is a one. The guard is going to go for you. So I'll do his attacks first. That is a 19 on his first one. And then a nine on the second, and then a 14 on the third. So only the one, which is good. It means you don't have to make a con save for the infection.

So that is going to be 8, 12 points of bludgeoning damage. And then Ophelia, I'm afraid that you are getting attacked by two of these. And they are going to go forehand. Now, if you use Brutal Strike, do I still get the benefits of Recklers? It doesn't say... I think it, because it says you give up... You forego the advantage, which means that implies me I still get the advantage. Yeah.

What is their speed? Is it 30? 35, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, sorry, their speed is 40 feet. Oh. No, no, 30 feet, because they dashed six. If they dashed them, they still have attacks.

They don't have to dash to get to Ophelia Ophelia's only 10 feet away from them. No, I mean the guy who attacked me. He was 60 feet away. He did, yes, yes, yes, sorry. I'm getting confused because he was 60 feet. You don't have to say that down. Yes, he doesn't get to attack you.

But he is engaged with you. Okay. So he's engaged. That's cute. But also one of the guys against Ophelia. That's okay, they've got range attacks. Oh, okay, fine. So that one's going to move five feet

and then make two range attacks. And then the other one is going to make three melee attacks. Yes. So I'll do the two range attacks. I'll do the melee attacks first, actually, against Ophelia. 19. Hit me, yeah, yep.

Yes or no? Yes. Yes. 17? No. 22. Yay, I'm going to be Con-safing,

and that's gonna be five, 11 points of bludgeoning. Yeah, 12 on the con save. That is a failure. So 11 points of bludgeoning damage from the first, 12 points of bludgeoning damage from the second. Yeah. Did you, you didn't rage?

I did. Oh, you did? Okay, perfect. So you get to half those, so five then, but you do begin to hear those voices again and you become dazed as you are infected in the first stage. The other one is then going to range to attack against you. That was just one of them by the way. 23 to hit. And then the second attack is a 24 to hit. That's going to be eight points of force and 10 points of force damage.

So Ophelia just gets pummeled as she rushes forward to engage them, gets pummeled by one in Melley and then these range blasts kind of slam into it. Daisy One has run up and is threatening you is in Melley, threatening range with you. And now it goes over to the rest of you guys. So that is both there goes go. We go to Gruff, in fact, actually, followed by Hahn, then Rowan. Is my armour of Vulcan Torn still up? Has it been ten minutes since we last?

No. Nope, so it's still up. Still up. Excellent. And they're all swarming us right now, aren't they? Well, they've, so Aphelia's moved 50 feet ahead, and they've swarmed Aphelia. One has moved up to your group and is currently engaging Daisy in close combat.

So Daisy has one in her face, Aphelia's got basically two fighting her 50 feet away. Okay, I'll hit the one that's going for Fifi. Do you mean Daisy? Daisy, yeah. Fifi? No, I was thinking of Aphalia, but it's been a long day. Yeah, Aphalia's quite far away.

at the moment. 17 plus 9 to hit. We hit. That is 1.8. So that is 11 points of axe damage. And I'm going to use, so my primal strike can be fire, cold, lightning, thunder. I wanted to be fire.

But because of Tharakvul, I can re-roll the fire damage. So I roll a three. Four. Wow. You know that the fire damage applies to like spells and stuff, well, all right, it's any fire damage you deal. Any fire spells. You have it on your special fate attack.

Some fate? Well, there's two. Oh, there's two, I thought there was one. But yeah, first attack, 15 points of damage. You slam the axe into him on the first attack. 11 to hit. 11 to hit does not hit. Wooft it.

Woofed it. So first attack comes slamming in, second attack it brings up its arms and defensive maneuvers to kind of avoid out the way. Gruff, that is the end of your turn. So, Han on his turn, seeing that Daisy is in trouble, will reach out holding up his hammer, and you feel like celestial, almost like plates of armor

kind of begin to surround you. You get a plus two bonus to your AC. No, sorry, plus one AC for one minute. I'm getting confused with other delays. So you get plus one to your AC for one minute. You feel that those kind of spread around you, and then he's just gonna basically back up and take a defensive position at the stairs, basically.

Then we go to Rowan, followed by Daisy then Xanthius. Rowan is going to 60 foot healing word of philia at level of all. Perfect. Yeah, gonna do that now, so that's 8D4. 84 plus your mod. That's too many D4s to roll. I've got two more. Wait, I've got some more.

What's the D4? Put it down. What do you mean put it down? It's a D4? Is it, though? I'll do this. twice. That's not a D4, wait, it is.

That was a D4. There you go. I'll roll it. That's a D4. Two. Six, seven, eight nine, 10, and 12, 13. 40, 16, plus 19 total.

19. HP. Damn, thank you. And then. Bonus action. That's bonus action, and I can do a can't I? So I'm gonna do Starry Whisp at the one directly attacking Ophelia. The one in Malay with Ophelia.

So 60 foot range so I can attack. Perfect, yeah, can reach. So I was gonna roll a biscuit. 14 plus seven. Hit, 21. Is a strike. And that's 3D8 damage. Check this out.

A.A.A. Here it comes. Um, that's not AAA. 12. 12 points of damage though. Radiant damage, isn't it? Yes, it is radiant. Is there any other effect on it? It instantly kills anything that's saying,

Obey, obey. No. Which is crazy, isn't it? That's in there. dim light. Okay. Sometimes they're like, oh, it has like... It's a cat trip.

Yeah, it has no things. Great, yeah. The Starry Whist flies out, slams into the creature fighting Ophelia. Again, she has no reaction. She is just focused on her target. Doesn't seem to suggest... In fact, actually, no, I think seeing another creature attack

and seeing that Ophelia is in the throes of the infection definitely begins to turn in and out regards the main group, basically. That is Rowan's turn, So we go to Daisy. I'm going to disengage from Doody Wadsett. Okay. That's in front of me.

Yep. So bonus action disengage and then move, move away. Yes, move. And then I will use my movement to, basically I'm just trying to get myself as far away from the creatures as possible. But keep the, so I'll be within like 60 feet of them roughly. I would disengage. 30 feet movement.

So you'd be 30 feet away. Oh, yeah. So you're 30 feet away from the nearest one. Basically, you're backed up into a corner, so you're still 60 feet away from the ones fighting Ophelia and 30 feet from the closest. So I want to shoot at the one that's fighting Ophelia, please. Yeah, what's the range on your road?

80 feet. Yeah, you're fine then. Ooh, 19 plus 10, 29. Hits, easy. And I'll get sneaky attack. You will get sneak attack on this. I'm just back, so. What happened?

eating biscuits. Tom's just being so funny right now. 26 points of damage. And this is one fighting Ophelia in melee. Yes. 26 points of. Damage. Yeah, you see that that strike, that arrow,

strikes her in her side, where she's distracted from the fight, and deep, you know, pierces deep in, blood begins to gush out. I'm still standing, but now bloodied as that strike. takes on that weakened one, which was already weakened from the Starry Whisp.

Yeah, as it staggers too, but looking now in a direction of fresh victims to try and infect, basically. These three are all guards. Yeah, ex-guards. Yeah, ex-Hoddy. They're all probably easily as tough as that. Probably. So, Daisy, anything else on your turn?

I think that's everything. Bonus action move action. Zanthias. Hi there. So guy next to me, if I move heel attack, or is it... I'm going to say that you guys will kind of come together. Gruff is now engaging him.

I'd say you can, because Adaisi was in close combat, yeah, so I'm going to say you're free to move. Needo. All right, I will move. Unless you move closer to them. No. I'm going to move 30 feet kind of in between that mess and Ophelia's whole mess. Okay.

So you're halfway between them? Yeah. So 30 feet towards the ones. Othelphelia's fighting 30 feet from your current one. Staying within the group somewhat. And I will cast on Ophelia's group because because Ophelia's looking spooky. A chromatic orb.

Okay, good for that bounce. Hoping for the bounce. Yes, so a plus eight to hit. Let's go for what would be the weakest one. The one that's in melee currently. It's the one that's the most injured. So try and take that one out first. Oh, does a 10 hit?

Does not hit. Oh, that's weird. All right, so. Just like the one shot. So that one misses. And actually, actually goes all the way around to the tower, hits me.

Oh, okay. Do you want to roll the damage against yourself? I mean, if I do, and I get two weights, can I bounce onto him? No, because I think you'd be too far away at that point. I'll take the hit. Unfortunately, yeah, the bolt just goes wider. Can I use the seat on my?

You already spent, you should have done it when you rolled. That should totally be a devil's bargain every time you miss there. If I miss, it hits me instead, but I bounce it. But you get to roll the damage. Yeah. I mean, I mean, because the, The range of the bounce is 30 feet, right? You've 30 feet away.

Yeah. So in theory, you could. Could, oh. Did you want to? No. He knows how much damage is. So, like all big turns, I'm going to use my bonus action to produce flame. Love it.

We need this oxygen, bro. Right. We go to the top of a brand new round. Sister Ophelia, it is your turn. Okay, dokey. Up first. You are currently dazed. Yeah.

As you have begun the first stages of the... subjugation infection. But it's your turn. It is my turn. There's one in melee with you and one about five feet away. Cool. Then I've got some sick blood points saved up from that last round.

Make use of those. Double strike against the one that I'm in melee with. Are you still using the whip or using a different weapon? I'm using Veracity. Okay. So you switch to Veracity. Yeah.

I mean, it wouldn't have hit anyway because that's, you know, that's just how it's wrong. Two and a six. No. No. So I try again. You still get advantage if you're recklesing because remember it's on all attacks.

I shall. Natural 20. Another one. Here we go. Another one. So Veracity damage plus the radiant damage plus any blood points. Well, you can get one D6 from blood points.

8 plus 6 plus I get an extra D6 of necrotic damage from the upgrade. So 20 currently. So 20 and then plus 2, 22 with my barbarian. and then do you want to throw blood points out I'm throwing a blood point as well so that's another six twenty twenty eight so it's 28 straight up and then all the dice and then a d10 because that

hit and i was you got you used the advantage so use the advantage d4 for radiant so that's another four 32 right now roll all of those dice and add that so figure out how much more than 32 has killed them yes uh d4 so it should be a d8 two d6 and a default. Oh my God, where are you going? That is a five. A five, not bad, not bad. Five, seven.

Another 27. Yeah. Oh my God. 17, I can't read. I'm going to say, 27 on those dice. That doesn't sound right. So another 17 on top of 32, 49 points of damage.

You watch, as the first strike does go wide, you're not able to kind of find purchase with it, but the second one, driven by all that rage, the blood pumping through your body, you slam Veracity forward and you basically, and you didn't say this was non-lethal, you just tear the sister in half with the rapier just ripping their body out.

The heart, you know, part of their neck, part of their leg, part of their chest begins to disintegrate as their body just collapses to the floor dead. Holy shit. Obey, edicton. Now I need a constitution saving throw from you, please. Obedee-e-e-dictive advantage.

Natural 20 again! It's one success. Jesus Christ. It's... Six! It's... She saves them up. Next week it's gonna be one, one, one, one.

This is making up for the Alfea one shot that we did. This is what's making up for it. You do have advantage on these as well, right? Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. That's crazy. Six in one... It's pretty crazy.

The amount of Nat 20s you've rolled and you're the only person that's been taken over. Yeah. Imagine if she hadn't been rolling these items. So that is your turn because you are dazed, we then go to their turn. Now all the slow effects end on that. other one and honestly I don't think wow they can't get to Xanthius with

their four movement because you're 30 feet so they would be 35 feet away mm you could try me motherfucker they've got ranged attacks they do have range of text I don't want to use range attacks I want to infect you I could sidel up some if you want bonus reaction reaction's kind of wiggle at them siddle. Come get me. Stick that out. Gets to do this of bread.

It's not funny. It can't affect me. Feelea does look pretty hurt though, right? About half, yeah. Do I just finish you off then run up? That's the question. Yeah, let's do that. So she's going to step five feet, make her three attacks.

This is Sister Thorn, the one that took you around on the tour, by the way. So she's going to step up, attack you, and then basically use the rest of her movement to carry on. Hell yeah. Don't have to. So first attack against Ophelia. These are all with advantage because you used reckless. That's a natural 20. This is the downside.

Yeah, yeah. Is that the 90s today? How many? Yeah, this is an insane amount. 22 points of bludgeoning damage. You are raging, so that does go half to 11. You guys, imagine not rolling a natural 20 today. 22.

Oh, that feel late. I've rolled one. I know. That is going to be 12 points of bludgeoning damage. It's a roll of one. And then. That is going to be 25. Shit.

Ooh. 15 points of bludgeoning down and show would be half to seven. Yeah. Cool. So, slam attacks. I do need you to make another immediate constitutional. Oh, they hit you with more than, yeah, they hit you with more than once.

8, 9, 10, and 12. 24. It's a success. This is a success. You are then going to get an opportunity. attack as she is going to run past you 25 feet. So she's about five feet away from you, Zanthia. That's nice.

Cool. This is just standard, not reckless. No, the reckless, I think, still applies, yeah. Oh, no, I think it's on your turn. Sorry, no, I think it's on your turn. That's all right. I missed anyway, because that was a nine. That was terrible.

Okay, yeah. So you go to swing, but she just runs past shit. It was a 20, and it rolled back to a two. Oh, that's how dice roll. So 25 feet away from you, Ophelia, back towards the others. Cool. Five feet away from Xanthius, 35 feet away from the group. Gruff, there is one fighting you.

He's just going to attack you three times, basically. They want to spread this infection as much as possible. Look at me, Daddy. 23 to hit. 23. Yeah. Yeah, hits. Second attack.

It's probably going to miss. That is only a 16. Miss. Ooh, that is going to be 25 on the second one, on the third one. Sure. All right. I need a constitution saving through from you. Does this count as a disease or a poison?

No, this is not either of those. This is a curse, a magical curse. And it's also you're going to take some damage after this saving through as well. I think they successfully licked me and I'm ill, but I'm 13. It's a failure, I'm afraid. First of all, you're going to take nine bludgeoning damage and then 12 bludgeoning damage. And you are now dazed and have begun the first stages of the subjugation virus. So you are dazed

and you all need to repeat those saving throws at the end of your turn. That is all there goes. So we then go to Griffith. Straight away. Yeah. You have an action, a move

or a bonus action. And you cannot take reactions. It's basically what I am though. It's a reaction. Oh, you wouldn't have got that reaction attack anyway because you're dazed. Cool. Sometimes rules.

It's a good thing you missed. I will healing word of failure. Love that. What level? Four. Love that. So that's eight. That's great for you. That's lovely. I'm going to re-roll the one.

It's a one. Love re-rolling a one into a one. 15. 15 on my first. So remember 15. 15. 15 plus whatever this is. 17. 16, 17, 18, 19, 19, 21, 21, 22, 23, 24. 24 HP.

Thank you very much. And that is the end of your turn, Graff, so I need another Constitution saving through from your... Let's go, not 20. That's all eight. An eight. Okay. Uh-oh.

You see Gruff. I imagine it sort of sunk the claws and the grab of this guard, this infected guard. Where it's grabbed you on, like, sort of your mane and your chest, those metal flowers begin to bloom and have now spread, and parts of your body. are being coated and infused with this metal. I love the idea because I've got armor of oaken thorns up

that it's breaking apart. Like the flowers are cracking through the armor of open thorns and cracking those thorns apart. It's like breaking through. As that is your second failure, you are now subject to the confusion spell. So start of your turn, you have to roll the dice to see what happens.

Your mind gruff is being full. You can hear this voice. It's so loud and so droning. and it's so hard to concentrate and think of anything else as this voice just, obey the edict, obey the edict, all must be perfect, all must be perfect. Obey law, law, law. It's just almost repeating these phrases in your mind

and you slowly lose it. I am already perfect. You can be more perfect, don't worry. You can be way more perfect. 1D10 for confusion. I must obey. From there, Han isn't going to really do that much. So we go to Rowan.

Oh, babe. You see... Fucking thanks, huh. So I would say, Rowan and Daisy, he's not a fighter. Like, he can enforce, like, he can reinforce weapons and armor,

but he can only really do it on one person at a time. Rowan, you and Daisy are the only ones who really see what's happening to Gruff. Like, you can see that, unlike this is spread way more than what Ophelia had,

and Groff does not look well. Oh, Griff. Oh, babe. Gonna go out to Gruff. All must be law. Find a spot that isn't covered in this weird stuff. No, it doesn't. Doesn't have to be.

Face, cure wounds. Okay. Which is going to be slightly more successful. I can only do it at first level. Magic initiate mode. So it doesn't work, in D&D Beyond it doesn't always use. You can just use a high-level spell. It just won't automatically.

I'll do a third then. You just have to manually mark off a third and manually calculate it. It should be, uh, no, it should be 60. 68 plus 4. Thank you. Plus three for you. Three more, please.

Ein's five. You could just roll one more. Dry. Okay. It's a big. 27. Failed. Wow.

Plus three. 30. 30. Ding dong. Fortunately, the healing magic, whilst it mends his wounds, It does not seem to have any effect on Gruff's mind. We will assimilate.

Oh no, I'm starting backing up away from Gruff. Okay, getting some distance. How far would you like to move away from Gruff? Ten feet. Okay, perfect. Away from Gruff. That was an action, bonus action, Bardic Inspiration on Gruff.

Okay, great. You've got this gruff, just snap out of it. Resistance is... Listen to this song. Yes. Resistance is what? Can I take a shot at the one that's beside Gruff? You absolutely can.

17 plus 10. Hits. You can use one you save and through us. Quite andedly hits. Hit. Give me my ideas. Does Groff count as an ally still? I would say for now.

All will fail. Just like Gras. The confusion we'll see what happens on the next turn. Yeah. 26. 26 points of damage. The distinctiveness will join. You watch as another powerful blow,

the arrow shoots from Lumaros now, masquerading as Parheelian, slams into its chest, kind of causes it to stumble back, but it just reasserts itself. And also is no longer really paying attention to Gruff and is looking towards Rowan. It's basically going to be advancing on Rowan on its turn.

You stay away. Anything else, Daisy, on your turn? I will move slightly further away again so that I'm keeping them at a distance. Sure. So I'll probably move about another 20 feet away. So you'd be moving towards Zanthius and the other one with that,

because it's like an L-shaped corridor, basically. You're in the corner, basically. You'll have to, yeah. Okay, no, I'll stay there. Okay, so you're still about 30 feet from either side. You're about as far away as you can get from either of them. Zanthias. I'm just trying to keep distance.

Hi there. It's five feet. Ophelia, how are you feeling? I feel really sick again, Zanthias. They've got me again. I must have been. They're making me obey. Okay, well, there's one five feet away from me.

I will, wait, 10 feet, I can still cast range spells without any... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're not in combat with you, basically. And the one next to graph is not 30 feet from the one that's five away from me, is it? They are... No, they're about...

Yeah, they'd be about 35.40 feet away from that. In that case, I will do a sorceress burst on them. Okay. I will pop a fake because I want them gone. Okay. Nat 20. Bam.

Oh, Nat 18. So like 27 to hit. Hits. Right, 3D8 of Dmeag. Oh, one, two and three. Oh, my God. One, three. Baby boy.

That fucking sucks a full... That sucks a full chode. Okay. I don't want to say it. I know you was thinking it. I knew he was thinking. I was thinking lollipop. Um.

I'd like to roll an insight on that. Hmm? No need. What we're looking at there? I was thinking cock. Lollipop. Six pluses. Do you get anything else?

Oh, it's cat-throft. No, so six. Six points of damage. Wow. Whee. Kills it, Ed? How are they feeling? No.

Not even bloodied, I'm afraid. It's weird. God, that's crazy. That's wild. That's wild. I will use a bonus action to burn some sorcery, give myself some loons. Sure. Any movement? Any movement? Probably should.

Let's go. Wait, how close is the one to him? He's about technically 10 feet, 5 feet, basically beyond him. Beyond his range. But the thing is, is if you move back towards your friends, then you're going to be close to the one that's currently still fighting gruff. I can cycle around him, though, and just go further towards Ophelia, right? You could go behind this one, but yeah.

Stand behind Ophelia. Yeah. There you go. I'm going to go back towards Ophelia rather than back towards... Okay, so you're basically going to go sort of diagonally and then round. I'm right next to Ophelia right now. Okay, you're next to Ophelia. Perfect.

Okay, all right. Ophelia, it's your turn. Okay, cool, cool, cool. I would like to... Okay, move away from Dampi. Move up to the one left? Can I move 15 feet towards the one on the left? Or move.

The one that was fighting you. Yeah, so move 15 feet. So I have 15 feet. What are you trying to do? Why are you trying to do? Where are you trying to be in relation to you want to whip and range? I'm going to range veracity. You're like a throwing weapon.

Okay, yeah. So I need to be 15 feet away from... Yep, so just 10 feet with movement or get you there. Yep. Cool. But you only have an action, a movement, or a bonus action? That's true. That is true.

Sorry. Any spiel? Anything you can do from there? I can do a spiel. I could do a Toll the Dead. I've got 60 feet on Toll the Dead. Yeah. Or if you need some health, I mean, I'm right here.

Fight me. It's tempting. I would have advantage because I'm under half as well. Get some crassie or blood in you. Get another voice in your head. Toll the Dead. Toler dead. So yeah, whiz 13.

At 14, I'm afraid. Okay. Cancel each other out. Leave nothing on the camera. I can't control me. Obey, no. You ring out a dolorous tone trying to prey on the sort of life energy of what remains.

But whether it's the madness in your head or the infection that cuss, your connection to the Grapefather just doesn't quite extend that power and does not quite fully strike. Constitution's statement throw, please. 17. 17.

Yes. 23. You succeed. Thanks that undead sort of lineage helping protect you. Was that your second or third? Second success. Second success. So one more.

Who? Fantastic. Does it reset if you get hit again and fail it? No. No. It's just one. It would have just progressed at worse, basically. We then go to their turn, I'm afraid. I think that they are just going to move past Grubb. as they don't have to worry about an opportunity attack

and just go for Rowan, the one that was next to Gruff. Meanwhile, the other one is gonna charge back towards Ophelia and Xanthias, who is next to Ophelia. Hello. Hi. So, Gruff, sorry, Rowan, first one, nine, misses, 16. Yeah, does miss. 22. Yeah, hits.

Only one hit though, so not infected. That's gonna be 11 points of bludgeoning. Okay. That's all the three attacks from that one against you. And then I've got so much fate. I'm going to spend a point of fate because that is within 10 feet of you and Gruff currently. So I'm going to use its ability.

And that is a dexterity saving through from you and Gruff, please. Can I still save? You can, yes. You can still make a saving throw. You're confused, but you're not completely dominated. 13. That's a failure. 20.

Success. So Gruff, you're going to take full damage from this. Gruff, resist this. Oh. Do you know Worf actually says that they're on first contact? It's one of the best ones. You did the Star Trek quote. I knew that.

That's why I did. Only 17 points of force damage to you, Gruff. So that would be eight points of force damage to you, Rowan. Very low damage roll. And then, you said you were next to Ophelia. Yes. So she is in range of mellia in you. You should.

What, Ephelia? This. This. This. Engage. Oh, yes. Yeah. Okay.

So knowing that Ophila is infected, it is going to throw all three attacks at Xanthias. Hey. First one, 22 to hit. God, that will hit, yeah. 18 on the second? Let's cast a shield. Okay, so miss.

And then 24. Unblockable. So two hits. Two hits still, even with the shield. So that's going to be 12 bludgeoning, followed by 14 bludgeoning. 26. And then a constitution saving throw.

Say the magic words, Tom. The magic words, Constitution, that's my strong suit. Is that the magic words? Okay, yeah, yeah. I wanted, like, Constitution save, I'm great at those. Hello, I'm a sorcerer, so Constitution, plus eight, 20 something, 22. Completely resist the effects again. Tries to infect you with this cuss.

And you can tell Xanthias, as it tries to infect you with this thing. This is very clearly a magical cuss, not like a disease or a virus. Can't curse me, I already am. But also, you can tell from what's been said, This is plain-ar magic, and you have such an immense amount of plain-ar magic. I'm already plain-ar cursed. Exactly.

But a lot of damage, as you get slammed and thrown around by this thing. But that is there go. So we go to... Ouchy, wow. You need to roll a D-10 for me, please, Brough. I have the effect. Oh, do you have the table up?

Thank you, Tom. A six. What does that do, Tom? Would you like to not move or take actions? You don't have a choice? That's what it is. So you are just sort of in a stung, stupil gruff as you stand there, the voices are so loud.

You want to obey, but you know you shouldn't, but, like, maybe you should. And it's the end of your turn. I need a constitution saving throw from you, please. Do I want to get a bonus option? No, no, you get nothing. I want to obey, but... Well, it says no move or action.

Actions. Or does it say action? Let me double check. Just to make sure, because... There would be very specific word important. Target doesn't move or take actions. Actions. I'm going to say that that means you don't get the bonus actions. Yeah.

Yeah. There's such a long gap. What do you roll there, Kim? Rowan's Bardick was a three. Yeah. My D20 was a three. You had like two points of fate up here, too. I rolled a...

You get three, ten, eight, nine, ten. If she rolled high enough on the fate, or would you? I rolled a ten. You rolled a 10. You watch as Gruff's body, more of these lotuses begin to bloom, and Gruff, whatever consciousness was there, is no longer there.

And you now serve only to obey the edict. That's the end of your turn. I obey. I obey the edict. No, we have to knock. Oh, God, darn. Did she obey edicts before? E.

E. Kim, no, yeah. Kim, no. Gruff, I think, obeyed lots of edicts before. So it doesn't really sound too different right now. But if this happened to Kim, we'd all be like, well, fuck something's wrong. Yeah. She's obeying all these rules.

She's actually said still. Do not fuck the police. What the hell? Who are you? I'm going to start backing away from Gruff saying like Gruff. and looking around, who's the closest? Don't forget you do have one of these creatures in melee with you. They are in melee.

Okay, I'll get Stone Razor. They rushed up and attacked you. You're going to Stone Razor. Okay. Looking very hard, I should say, this one. That's a one. That's a one. I've rolled ones.

Yeah. But not the 20s. No, no, no, 20. Rian's stealing them all. You go to swing, Stone Razor, but I think it's at that point that gruff, because you've been focusing on this creature attacking, you kind of glance towards Gruff,

and as you go to swing it, Gruff steps in and puts the shield up and blocks. Yes! Oh, yeah. And there's just, Gruff's face is just placid. Oh, babe. Awesome. Anything else on your turn, Rowan?

Shit. I think I'm going to try and run away from these two. Okay. Sure. Is that what you like to do? Yeah. Can I barter inspiration myself? As a bonus action, you can.

You can. You've got this. Rowan. It doesn't help you against AC, but sure. Oh, I'm just, sure. It's a shield block, a reaction. No, that's just a flake. It's just a flavor for the mist attack, basically.

Oh, mist attack. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So if you'd like to move, I will. You would provoke opportunity attacks. Yeah, I won't hit. Gruff, can you please make an opportunity attack against Rowan, please?

With pleasure. The creature, the infected guard misses with their opportunity attack. This would be with all my usual torture. You're gonna roll a one. Yeah. 11 plus nine.

Plus nine? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And this will be with my primal strike and everything. Okay. Eight points of bludgeoning damage. I'm gonna re-roll my fire damage. That's a two.

Not sufficient, I've seen that, Kim. Yeah. Honestly, that is not. I've given her permission. Yeah. So yeah, so Rowan, as you go to back up, you easily avoid the attack of the infected guard, but then again from your side.

even anticipated. Barrack vall slashes across your arm as you see that gruff takes that swing at you. Oh my god. So that's still one hit, right, so you don't get the infection with one hit? No, but in Rowan's relationship bars, gruff's is like lost to heart. Yeah, minus minus. Daisy.

Oh, hello. Rowan will remember this. I'm going to take a shot at the one next to Rowan. Gruff. No. Just keep in mind. there are no allies next to that one anymore. Because Rowan moved away.

Assimulate. Rowan has now moved away from that one. How is the other one next to... Ophelia Rinzantheus? Pretty unhurt. Hasn't taken many hits yet. Oh, fuck, hell. Okay.

I hit up to six. You did. So... It's half dead. I will to maximize my damage, hit the one next to Ophelia. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Just so I'm telling Rowan. Just run. Just run. Gruff just hit me. So immediately, not. 17 plus 27. It's like a dad hitting this, son. 27.

That hits. 27, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, isn't it's going to be devastating if he comes out of it? Yeah, I don't actually have a huge wealth of curse blocking ability, just FYI. It's weird. I think.

Ruff has quite a few spells for that. Yeah, I was gonna cast one actually. And I had it all. 29 points of damage. And then I got confused. I mean, instantly you bloody Sister Thorn, and she looks really bad. Okay.

Finish it, Xantheus. Finish it, Ophelia. Fuck. Zanthus. Oh, son of a. Yeah. All right, flame blade, bonus action, big flaming scepter.

And I can, so that's a bonus action, and then it's a magic action to attack. I would like to fake this against, ooh, no, don't ignore it, yeah, faint. Bam, 15 plus two plus eight, 25 hit, 3D6 plus four DiMaggio's of fire. Interesting, no I won't, I shan't. I'm in a fucking stronghold of the Ecliffe.

Pretty desperate times. They're all kind of watching as well. I don't think anyone out there is looking at this and being like, hang on a fucking minute. I think they're in a pretty dire situation. I don't know, I think that wolf guy is like, mm. Special. 3D6 plus four is pretty spicy.

It's this, and it's also a big roll. That makes up for the 3-2-1 last time. Yeah, 6-5-5. So 11, 16, 20 damage with my flame blades. With that, the flame blade comes crashing down in this kind of flaming arc strike, Cleaving Sister Thorn in two as she watches she falls from the floor,

her leg and part of her face. The top of her head begin to disintegrate away as she is slain. Try to wipe blood off my flame blade, burn myself. My clothes are on fire. I'm naked. Oh, again. You have some movement, if you would like to use it?

You'd be like an action or something to examine in lotus flowery curse things on Ophelia, right? I would let you do it as a free action. Yeah, I almost want to see if there's a way to break them away in a, almost a more mundane way. Not kill, but like... Burned off. Burned off.

Yeah. Give me Arcana or medicine. Arcana or medicine. What is my medicine? Turlet. So, oh God. Seven plus four, 11, unfortunately. You have no idea.

No, that's permanent. The only thing you can really tell is that they bloom as like metal lotuses and then they sort of dissolve and just fuse into the skin. Ophelia, look at me. This is who you are now. Sorry. He's easing it. I throw up back onto you.

No, no, you're reminded me of a video. Ophelia. That's so gross. Ophelia. Your turn. So you know one I'm forward to ask. There's one left, it's next to, like, you look back and you've just watched Gruff attack Rowan.

And Gruff... It's taken Gras! You can tell, because you can, you felt it, and you can see it, Gruff is fully taken by this thing. So two of them, so Gruff and the male monk are still remaining. Rowan is, like, backed up from them and is, like, currently running away. Him and Daisy are about 30 feet away from them both. But yeah.

I can only do one action, so I will... If I can reach them, I'll toll the dead on the remaining monk. The remaining monk, 60 feet. Yeah, they're running. Yeah, they should be within range. What type of saving throw? Whiz. I got 13.

Oh, this is it. Beets it. It beats it. Oh, 13, I'm afraid. Whatever, I mean, their minds don't seem particularly strong, but whatever energy you're using just isn't really affecting them in the way that you're hoping. Maybe it's the caste, whatever it is. They seem to be somewhat protected from it.

So that's gonna be the end of your turn. I need a constitution saving throw. 25. Is a success. That'll be your third success. So you shake off the influence of the curse. End of turn? It would normally be the monk's turn.

However, the door that the six criminals had been at and were bashing on that you destroyed them all flies open as after having spent some time coming down, a looming, wolven figure sort of emerges. Quickly! This sort of gestures to, towards you like, you know, this way, kind of gestures towards you.

Hasn't seen what has happened yet, but it's sort of gesturing towards you to come. And we'll look back down the corridor and conjure like blue flame from his paw and throw it down towards the monk with a sacred flame. Doesn't hit Gryph. That is, it doesn't hate Gruff, it's just going for the,

because he doesn't know that Gruff is currently affected. That is gonna be a success for, I'll just keep that snap. 12 points of radiant damage. leaving that one looking heavily, heavily hurt. You can see that he's holding the door open, but that metal lattice work is almost beginning to snake around the building and is going for the door almost.

And he kind of sees that and sort of is kind of blasting with Mandj to try and keep it at bay for now. But yeah, that then brings us to the infected brother, the infected monk, who is basically going to, to move 30 feet after Rowan, and he's gonna try and attack Rowan. First attack is a 22.

Second attack, a 17. That meets it. Meets it, beats it. Last one is a nine. That doesn't. So two attacks does mean they need a constitution saving throw from you, Rowan. Yeah, we'll check this.

It's my first Nat 20 of the day. Here we go, big Nat 20. I should stop rolling this one. 16. Oh, is a six. Plus three, so yeah. 19 success, you're not affected. You do take 11 points of bludgeoning damage from the first.

And then you take 11 points of bludgeoning damage from the... That doesn't help anything. It doesn't help for damage and stuff. You could have used it on the saving. Could have used it, but I didn't. You didn't. And then another 11 on the second attack, so 22 bludgeoning damage at all. Okay.

Yeah, it's now like literally come up behind you, trying to grab you, spin you, like, you know, pin you and infect you as much. After that, I've got some bad news because it's Gruff's turn. Gruff, please spread infection to the nearest targets. You have Daisy or Rowan. So that's all I can do. Yes, please attack either Daisy or Rowan. Do you want a D2 to decide which one?

Yeah, I think it's probably... That's a gross, that's an infection. It's a D2 in the shape of a D12. Who wants to be one, who wants to be two? Two. I'll be. Are you, one?

Two. Sorry, Daisy. Okay. So we fell on a H8HP. Oh shit, yeah. Oh my God. Yeah. Why didn't you just say that?

I would have said hit me. It's either one or two. 26 to hit. Yeah. 10 points regular damage, six points fire damage. 16 total. 16 total. It's fine.

I'm still on. Natural one. So misses, so no infection. So you mentioned duck the second attack, Daisy, as the two of them have pursued you and Rowan. Obviously, Ophelia and Xanthius, you see this, Argus now also sees this. No, not gruff, quickly.

Not gruff. I can help him, but only him. You will be assimilated. I don't wanna be. Join the Orrush. That was Gruff's turn. We then go to... Han has also been running...

Sorry, you would have been an option to attack Han. I should have included him in the one, two, three. But he's moved up with you as well. You've already got the extra plus one AC from his benefit, so you can't really do anything. So we then go to... So it's Rowan's turn, then Daisy, then Zan. Yeah, I will absolutely run.

but that gives the opportunity attack, right? So you could disengage as the action and then move, and that will get you to Argus, basically. I'm going to have to do that, yeah. Dias straits. Yeah, so disengage. And then I'm going to bonus action. Hale myself.

Hear yourself, yeah? Yeah, healing word. Actually, I could kill wounds. You could kill wounds? Well, no, because it's an action. It's a bonus action. Truth. Like when Jermot slaps himself.

I don't get these jammer. It's good, it's a good joke. You can just stop. Right. You saw that out, Rowan. You do the hitting on yourself, but you are now at the door into the tower. We then go to Daisy.

I will disengage and move and bonus action. Bonus action and do all the things to get into the tower, please. Yeah, I mean, you still would have your action left over. I will take a shot at the munk. Yeah, no sneak attack, but you might as well get some damage in. I will. He does look very, very, very insol. injured.

Natural twin. Oh my God. Not on the sneak attack though, that stinks. No, I know. I don't know, but all I know is... So it would be... This fucking chump over here hasn't rolled one. 10.

10 points total? It's so bad. It's so close. Have you rolled one? The arrow does strike kind of sends it reeling back, causes it to stagger a few steps, but isn't quite enough to take it out. That's shit. Feel well. When we go, but you get to the tower with August.

Zanthius, you are up. Gindorce. Oh, and affiliate's fine now, right? Yes, affiliate's okay. August, do we need to just lure Groff in and you'll be able to cure? I have enough energy to Greater Restoration Graff, but it will be the only one I can do.

Oh, I've only the supplies for one last. Yeah, of course, Gras. I was gonna use it and then I got confused. Oh my God. Kim literally showed me the spell. I have the diamond. I love my life right now. Graff is gonna be so fucking traumatized

that you're actually both. Yeah, you got a lot of doers after this. If you remember it all. I'm a board that, it's great. I'm living my life, my best life. I knew you didn't. How far am I from the monk guy, sorry? He's like, he's very feet away from you.

I could just run up and flame blade him then. You could? Yeah. Okay, you're not great. In the tower? I don't know there's only one guy left in Graff. Sure. Yeah, we could just.

And Argus has a greater restoration. He just said you did. No, I know, but have you got enough to then get to the tower? Let's hope that he just... Joina Santhius. Next turn, okay, so you're gonna get killed. Obey Santhius.

Because I can withstand that. Resistance is futile. It's easy. Go on top of this, it's fine. Yeah, let's fate it. Wait. You've got one. What side of fate does possessed gruff use?

That's a great question. That's a very question. I don't think... We'll figure that out. Probably the player side, right? So I'm gonna use the last one. Okay. Uh, to kill this mic.

Oh, wow! Two and a one. Two and a one. Two and a one. What's your bonus? Two and one. Plus eight, so... Oh.

That's going to miss, I'm afraid. Oh, that misses, really? Yeah. I'm afraid that misses. Just check your... Check your math again. Let me check. I've done the math.

I've still missed. Oh, that's crazy. That's good. But I trust you. Okay. So you've moved up. You've made an attack. I will bonus action give myself some more shielding. Some more real needs. That sounds smart.

And with that, that comes to the end of Xanthius' turn. Ophelia. Yeah, Ophelia is going to shake herself out of this stoop she was in. Yeah, and she's going to run to Argus. But while she runs, she's going to throw Thrasi at the monk. He's arranged blood point. to make it a range attack. Yeah.

Love it. And I shall reckless this throw. Okay. 18 plus seven to hit. Nice. Rock and roll buckaroos. Here we go. Big time.

Me. You got to hate yourself. That's true. That's true. 14. 15 on the first hit. 15 is enough. With that,

you sweep with the rapier and this kind of crescent of blood flies out cutting the remaining monk in half. You watchers there. body splits, falls to the ground, parts of it breaking and disintegrating away, leaving behind a rather ravaged corpse. But that one is dead. Cool.

Awesome. Anything else you would like to do? You can fucking try. You have to burn through a lot of things. Yes, I do. Somebody healed me. Fuck sakes, you're right. And gave you 10 page, Pee.

That's true. That's true. Stay down. What would you like to do? I shall continue running to Argus and... Just basically get into the tower. Get into the tower, yeah. Why does no one want to fight me?

Okay. Hi. Come on. After Ophelia, we don't get infected. It is Argus's turn. So who's in the tower? So it's Rowan, Daisy and Ophelia. Argus will turn around to you and he sees that Zanz run up

and he sees Gruff literally pulling the axe about to strike Xanthias. and he will say, stop these vines from encroaching the door as much as you can, keep them from holding us in. And then he sprints out. I think to get there quickly, you see that he very briefly, he puts his blades, he has these dual, like, big long kukri knives. He puts those away and goes on all fours

and sort of sprints over as he leaps up. You know, Xanthius, you lock eyes with this completely dead-faced gruff who just brings the flaming axe up towards you. Come here, Graf, come get cured. Obey. And then front, you see just a shadow as August. Kind of like body slams into Gruff, slams your chest with this pouch that spreads diamond dust

all over your body, and we'll just call out, My moon heel this weakness! As all of the metal begins to burn and break away as he casts greater restoration on you, which removes the cast and the, effect that is currently, you know, affecting your body. It's painful as all of this metal burns and is almost regenerated.

Like the spell almost regenerates the flesh that's been replaced. But you see like moonlight just it turns into silvery moonlight and mist and burns away as, yeah, gruff you come to your senses. You were fully cognizant of everything that was happening. You had no ability to control it. You could hear the voice. it was as if you were paralyzed in your own body, unable to... So I love the idea that he started to roar as Argus charged toward...

Or he was charging towards Santhius. But as that healing magic works, that roar starts turning into a scream, like, you know, a pained scream. Like, no! Like, yeah. You see, does Gruff stay on his feet, or does he go, like, you know,

does he crumple? I think he'd drop down. He'd drop the axe. Like that momentum would just drop. Sure. I guess we'll look back to all of you and we'll just say, if we go into the tower,

there's a chance that we will be trapped inside. I think there is only one solution to this problem, and it is below. But if you wish to get to safety and hide in the tower, that is where we can go. But if these vines, if these things take over the door again, and I'm not sure that we will be able to break out.

What do you wish to do? There is the shrine or perhaps the barracks we could hold ourselves up in there somewhere to try and recover. But Grohah had a sense when he was under her control. Would he have had a sense of where Edict was? Yeah, absolutely. You know that she is exactly where she was

when all of this began. She remains in herself in the gullet. Damn it, you were right. How does everyone look at Groff? Like, if he looks up, like, how is everyone looking? Scared. Probably a little freaked out. I mean, as far as I'm aware,

you weren't aware of what was going on. Yeah, it's not like in a, not scared of you, scared of the situation. It's okay, Graf, the fight is over. There's no more left. We took care of all of them. You helped as well. I'm sorry. I am so sorry.

I didn't Rowan. Oh, it's okay. We do not have time for this now. We need to make a decision. Do you wish the safety of the tower, or do you wish to finish this? We should finish this. We should finish it.

And you three out now, quickly. Yes. Yeah. As the three of you step away, as the door shuts, the lattice finds without you guys kind of hacking at them and keeping them at the blade with magic, they quickly kind of seal up the tower. And you realize that either they were trying to trap somebody in

or they were trying to keep forces out. But Argus just basically like half lifts you gruff and drags you off to the side to find a brief respite as you are dragged in... There's very little sympathy to the situation. It's just like, no, there is a mission. We have to do this. Kind of bundles you through.

I think at the speed this is going, and Gruff is still looking at everybody and how scared they looked. Gruff's actually going to shrug him off and start running towards where he knows Edith does. Okay, great. So you basically head straight for the stairs behind you and you start heading straight down.

Gruff? Gruff, it wasn't your fault. We've got to go after him. Sorry, I was. How's everyone else feeling? Anyone else? We're any lingering? I'm fine. I shook it off. No one. Great. Fantastic. We're all cured.

Daisy, what's your passive perception? And a Felix. I know Rowan and Rowans as well. I know Xanitis is, I'm garbage. We are all totally fine. 19. Dazzy, you're the only one who would notice this. Again, the adrenaline of the situation, everything going on. Argus is badly wounded.

Like, you can see he has, he's been stabbed multiple times. His side is just pouring with blood. And he's, you know, as he goes to move, he's holding a pore against it to try and hide it, but he is not in a good way himself. Argus, you need to rest. You should have gone in the tower. There is no time.

No, there was no time. I had to heal Graf. I can heal a little bit. No, save it for yourself. You will need it more than I. I am fine. Please, I am fine. We must deal with this.

I am sorry. I, edict, I don't know how she managed to get control, but she has done something. We must go after Graffetheth. We must go after the knight-derent. We cannot allow him to face her alone. She's too strong. We will fix this, don't worry.

Yeah, already heading towards Gruff. Okay, yeah. So Gruff, you are the first, you make your way down the stairs. And as you get down there, you basically know you now have to go the long way round because of the stone cube. You make your way all the way around.

You can hear footsteps of people chasing after you behind you. And eventually, on the southern side of the fortress, you reach a door that has been forcibly opened by metal tendrils, like vines, like metal vines that have pushed the actual steel of the bars and bent them and shaped them into other vines. And almost, you see staring down

into a almost shaft-like diagonal corridor that seems to lead down. There are rough stone steps cut into it, but it's quite a, angular, quite steep shaft, like diagonal shaft. And you can see that the whole thing has been almost turned into a vine light, almost like the inside of a tree. It's become fully covered in these metallic vines and flowers that are now blooming.

And they do pulse and move as if partially alive. You see something, and you tell me how gruff reacts to it. But as you arrive at that doorway, you glance, because again, you have really good passive perception. In the sort of corner sort of hiding and sort of almost trying to make itself look unseen, you see a ragged, gray-skinned, undead creature, just sort of looking around, hoping that you haven't noticed it, sort of almost covering its bat-like ears and kind of hunking its whole body and head down. and you just hear it muttering to itself like, no, no, Rackus is fine, don't know, don't see, you don't see Rackus.

Nothing sees Rackus here. Nothing can see Rackas. We're hidden in the shadows. In the corner of the... Like, yeah, as if it's hiding from the thing that you're looking down towards, as if it's hiding from everything that it can think of. It's not doing a particularly good job. I think I will just stand, maybe look over my shoulder in their direction.

Do not test me today. No testing, no testing, only rackus, rackis, humble, humble, rackis hiding. Can't see, cannot threaten. No, no, no, no tests, no tests for rackers today. No tests. We'll trust their word. I think he's too...

So you start making your way down in the gullet as well? Okay, you start making your way down there. This time it's not in your... your head, but you begin to hear a voice, almost coming from those flowers on the walls. You were supposed to obey. You were supposed to be perfect. Why do you reject perfection?

I could have made you whole. I need to make you and everyone perfect. That's why I'm here. That's why you've come. You want to be perfect just like me. Imperfection is what makes us alive. just like the others. Foolish, foolish, simple-minded beings. Very well.

And as you begin to make your way down, you can see that the far prison has the stones been opened and a chamber has almost been sort of created with metal. There was another chamber as you begin making your way down that again has been ripped open and looks empty. But as you draw closer and closer, you hear the voice just say, Dragon, my perfected specimen, stop them and teach them what perfection means. You see emerging from the cell to the side,

you see this hulking 10 feet tall, what was once a Yotnir, what once was a demonically infused Yotnir, is now silver and metallic and just walks out with a passive face. Its arm now formed into an enormous arm blade instead of a normal hand as it just steps out. Yes, all will be perfect for the edict. And that's what we're gonna end today's episode.

Oh, nice. Yes. Final form. Mm. Wow, this seems to be a different creature entirely to Edict. This seems to be perhaps the other prisoner that was down here that has been assimilated. Oh, cool.

Less interest in the undead rackus who couldn't be affected similar to Ophelia. I like rackus. I thought you might. There was a good chance. I was like, I wonder if Ophelia will try and sneak in here to see if she learns that they've got a ghoul trapped in there. But alas.

Still, what a scenario we find ourselves in? Quite a few of you very badly injured. It's not good. Racing into another combat. Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, nice. I love the art, either.

I love it. The narrative, but you do have a very injured Argus with you, but he is quite powerful. A very injured Rowan with us. Avery, very injured Rowan. Afeely is probably not looking too great. Daddy's got you. Yeah, it could be better.

I mean, Daisy's taken some blows as well. I'm okay. You're fine. You're okay. Zan's taken a... couple of wax. Yeah, but I'm already perfect, so. So there you go. Can't be affected by this. I'll be affected. Can't make me any better.

Yeah, I mean, just say our pride works, yeah. Won't work. I mean, it didn't work. Just straight up, won't work. It's the same. Yeah. So with that, we're gonna bring the episode to an end. Well done. We'll see you next time. See what happens in the gullet. Yeah.

That's promising, doesn't it? Yeah. All right, very cool. With that, we'll see you next time, everybody. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.