High Rollers DnD - Stealth and Deception | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #114 (Part 2)

Episode Date: August 20, 2026

Xantheus and Ophelia continue their charade as they delve deeper into Diadem operations while the rest of the party search for more clues! 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. Two and five Canadians will hear the words, you have cancer. That's why every step and dollar raised matters. On September 19th, join thousands in Toronto for the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation Walk. Challenge yourself, friends, and family to walk 21 kilometers in support of life-saving research. Together, we can carry the fire and help create a world free from the fear of cancer. Register today at pmcfwalk.ca.ca. Get your tickets now for the dog stars.

It's no surprise how fast civilization can disappear. Go! Out there, it's kill or be killed. Jacob Alluredi. There are people out there. They need our help. Josh Berlin. Shoot first and inquire afterwards.

Margaret Quali. Okay, tough guy. And Guy Pearce. Arm up! The Dog Stars, directed by Ridley Scott. In theaters, August 28th. Get tickets now. Welcome back to Althea, the Dragon Empire Part 2.

our heroes have begun their infiltration of the Opal Lounge, having donned magical, well, semi-magical, semi-mundane disguises for Xanthias and Ophelia, with Rowan and Daisy being invisible. Suspicion is maybe being raised by doors suddenly being opened by themselves, and our two very nervous new travellers asking questions and maybe not having any money on them when they first arrived. But Zanthius's former best friend from Rust End Farrier has just entered and seems to be at the bar nursing a drink.

And that is where we're going to jump right back in. I would say, yeah, Daisy, Aphelia and Gruff, you guys, this is where you've kind of come back in. You've moved back up to the bar. Anything before I jump in with the barman because he's probably going to immediately once a feelier approaches. I would jump up to go and join them at the bar as well. Okay.

Yeah. You're making your way over. I think that that definitely draws Farrier's attention as you draw closer. Anything? Otherwise, all go well, Kira? Yes, much, but yes. You're back. I'm back, sorry, yes. I had to powder my nose. But good news, new dress, so I'm just getting used to well the pockets out.

I found some gold for some drinks, so no tab required. Well, it's always good to find gold in one's pockets. It is wonderful, isn't it? That's your fortunate day. So, what can I get you? Assuming that your money is you're wanting to spend it on drinks? Yes, yes. I would like to order a peridose sling, please.

A peridose sling? Yes, please. Peridose sling? Hmm. Um, looks at you. Well, I... Ah, now that's an honest. unusual one. I think I'm going to need some fresh ingredients for that. If you'd like to take a seat somewhere, perhaps one of our private rooms, I could have one of our serving staff take you to a private

room and I'll get that prepared for you. Oh, wonderful. Yes, thank you. That'd be very much. And he like gestures around and he will gesture over and I think like he'll just gesture over to a gentleman who's over here serving drinks he'll say like ah Kyle come over here could you take these two to one of the private I think the that private room over there is free could you take yourself and your friend here yes please perfect could you take them to the private room I'm gonna get them a perido sling and he's like oh yes absolutely come please follow me lovely to meet you Kyle yes lovely to meet you as well sir lovely to meet you follow me this way and he brings you over this way Daisy and Rowan what are you doing

Runes coming back around the other staircase So you're basically Yeah you're gonna come down I pack men to the other side Yeah you basically do That is exactly yeah I will

I think I'll try and listen into the conversation of these two people So you're not gonna go with Xanthia's I'm gonna look at where they get taken to Okay And so what you see Is Kyle part a curtain steps through as they step through with him

and then you don't see anything once the curtain falls into place. Oh, okay, they're going through a curtain. Yeah. If they're going through a curtain, then I might... You would have needed to have decided that because you would have needed to be right behind them. At this point, as you go to move up to it,

that curtain is... Yeah, grass with that. What I'll say in the daisy chain then is, if you see Peridot, let me know who they are so I know who to target for the perfume. Send an image. So graph You can't really see anything because you're in the pocket

So you're just hearing at this point Ophelia and Xanthias You step through this can There is a corridor that goes off to the side To your left That ends in a pretty Secure-looking door But that

Kyle just immediately takes you past that To two opposite doors Either opposite sides of each other And there is a armed pretty good looking guard who's currently stood basically watching this whole little area, this little entrance area. Kyle opens a door and the two of you are led inside to comfortable looking chairs, cars like, well, whilst your drink has been prepared, is there anything else you would like me to get you, some snacks or anything like that?

I think I'm fine, thank you very much. Yes, absolutely fine, thank you. Okay, perfect. He steps down. Whilst you guys are left there, he passes out. You, Daisy, as you kind of step over to start listening to this conversation, you would see that the barman goes up to Farrier, like, leans in and you hear him like whispering something to him. Can I...

Give me a perception roll. See how much you can hear. Get out of the old ear horn. 25. 25. Or. Farrier. Go tell Peridav.

that there's somebody, two strangers have just ordered a perid of slang. I wasn't expecting anybody tonight. She might want to, well, maybe come and have a chat to him or something like that. Can you go let her know? And he's just, he looks up, he's like, sure. Can I borrow? You want to chase after him? You could bonus action dash.

So you just get through the curtain as it falls behind you, kind of pushing yourself up against. against the wall is he kind of turns almost like, something just blow up, he's like looking around like, something just, he just shakes his head. And you see him turn. You see the same thing on this side, a corridor leading towards a very secure door,

a guard who's watching it. He sort of nods to the guard, and then he makes his way to this door. And you see him pull a very ornate looking key. He touches it to the doorknob first, then he inserts it and opens the door. and you see he opens it and it leads to a set of stairs leading down. Down.

He begins following it. Do you follow him? Yeah. Okay. So basically I would like you because this is very narrow. This is not like a wide space. Can you give me an acrobatics check? Because I want to see if you can squeeze past him because he's going to turn and shut the door.

Basically so he steps in, you step in behind him, he's going to turn to shut it and there's, you're like, where do you go? 17. 17. What do you think Daisy would do in that scenario? So you've got this quite tall, quite broad Dragon Ball. He's stepped in, you're kind of following behind him. He then turns to shut the door. There's not a lot of room.

She would probably duck down to go through. Like, she would probably think he might be quite broad up top, try and squeeze past on a lower level. So you squeeze, you make yourself small, you kind of tuck in, and you also use the timing of him leaning, to shut the door and you scoot, and you just barely, just barely,

managed to sneak past him. I'll in the daisy chain go, I'm just following Ferrier to go to Peridot. It's a terrible idea, but I'm just gonna show you where I went in my head, and I'm doing that right now. Oh God. So you see that image of the curtains, you see Ferrier kind of turning down this door.

Rowan, you've heard all of this, you've come down the stairs, what are you doing? And then I'll jump back to Xanthias. Is the guard still preoccupied at that end? I think that he's definitely, like, at that end, looking around. Yeah, he's checking the door. He's definitely suspicious of something. Okay, I will go up through the middle then,

and then just get a recie on that area. Yeah, so you don't see any of your companions as you step into here. You don't see anybody that you recognize. Into the main bar. Into the main bar, yeah. Okay, I'm just going to stay out of, like, main walking area. like to the side and just start listening in to people near me. Okay, perfect.

So listening in to that couple nearby, they're just, their normal citizens, they're talking about like business, it doesn't seem anything particularly suspicious. You don't believe that they're of anything, of anything important, they don't seem to be connected to the diadem. They're just rich citizens who have come here for a nice drink. Okay.

And they're talking about their personal lives, a little bit personal gossip, maybe a bit complaining about people that they know. I'm into that. Yeah. The Ophelia, Xanthius and Graf, you guys are in this room, just waiting. Can I, um... Are you both sitting like opposite ends of the table? Like you're kind of on out, or side by side.

Yeah, opposite ends of the table, yeah. You didn't just sit on Graf, did you? I don't think so, Graf, cough. Um, sister, Ophelia, just in case there's a sensor or something in this room, can you subtly take me out of your pocket and, uh, just get me near Zanthius. I'm gonna move to your pockets, aren't this? Okay. Yeah, Ophelia will make a move like she's just like dropped

all her coins on the floor, like, and then like, she's bending down. Can you give me a performance check? How well you perform this act of foolery? Is anyone in the room with them? Doesn't seem to be. Seems to be empty. I said if...

Nine there's a sense. Oh. A nine. It is a ten. Whoops! Very bad. It's okay. Like Spider-Man, I catch all of them before they land on the ground. No.

Still wouldn't help Ophelia looking like she very very, obviously just pretended to like lose all of that coins. But yeah, Gruff, you can scurry over. Are you trying to avoid, you could give me a stealth role if you're trying to like avoid it? As I said, there's nobody else in here currently. I think just talk of sensors and stuff like that, he's just paranoid.

Mm-hmm. Ten. You scurry over as quiet as you think you can. You scurry up a leg into a pocket. Just remember, this room might be, people might be listening. Mm-hmm. Anything from you guys?

There was a man at the bar. He kept looking at me, oddly. I'm saying this out loud. Really? Yes, and I don't know. I don't know if he was the person we were meant to meet or... It was strange. Hmm.

Weird. Just like idle. Character chatter. I hope this, well, I hope whoever we meet is going to help us of our business. Yes. That would be good. Absolutely. Daisy.

Hmm. You follow Farrier down a set of stairs. stairs and leads you into probably what would have once been a storage basement, but construction work has been done. Still being partially used for storage, liquor barrels, mead, you know, various supplies for the inn itself, bedding and things like that. But he moves over to a section of wall and you see him press on a certain sequence of stones and the door swing, a secret door swings open and he steps inside. As he does, a much more well-lit rugs and, you know, beautiful candelabras and things like that, very opulent sort of den is revealed. A large open space,

you can see that there are about three doors that lead off of this main sort of like loungy, sort of chill area, big rug. He moves over to one of them and you just hear him, he knocks on the door, Peridot, Peridot. And you hear a voice come from the inside. Just a minute, give me a minute. Fine. Fault his arms, waits, waits for a minute. You hear some shuffling, scraping of a chair. Give me a perception check.

Let's see how much you can hear going on in that room. 18. 18. Oh. I'm gonna give you every... It was a nine, it was almost like 16. You think you catch the end of, not quite a conversation, somebody muttering to themselves,

where you don't hear what they say. What you do hear though is the sound of like a drawer being opened and closed, and then maybe like a latching sound. And then footsteps and the door opens. Standing there, you see a young, quite sporty woman who looks like half human, half dwarf. You can see that she has,

earth skin, which is green gemstones, sort of in her temple and then around one of her eyes, her right eye. But it's quite minor for earth skin, so don't think full dwarf blood here. So she's quite short and curvy, but looks quite strongly bodied as well. She's got a loose white blouse with tight black leather pants, fashionable lace-up the boots trimmed with gold. And you can see she wears a series of nice necklaces and chokers. She's got thick blonde hair that she wears in a high pony tail. And she just looks, she got green eyes as well. And she just looks at Farah's like, what?

Apparently, somebody upstairs is awarded a Peridose thing, but the barman wasn't expecting any guests like that tonight. He told me to come down and tell you. You're sure, a Peridot's thing tonight. We've not sent out any other communications yet. I guess it could be an older one that's finally been used. Give me a minute. Let me check something.

Tell them, have glitter go in there and maybe have a chat with them. Or, yes, have glitter go in there and get a sense of them. And then maybe ask if they'd like a little music to keep them entertained. It shouldn't be too much longer. And he's like, okay, sure. Anything I need to know? No, no, it should be fine. And she then turns around and goes back into the room

that she just came out of. He turns around and starts making his way back the way he came. What are you doing, Daisy? Also getting ready to follow him back. So you're going to follow him back? Yes, because if I get ahead of him when he gets the door, then that's not going to work very well for me. No, okay.

So... Okay, so you're going to follow Farrier. You begin making your way and following him back. I will, in the daisy chain, though, I will say, I will project the image of Peridot and relay what she said that they weren't expecting anyone for the Peridot Sling and that they might send glitter in to talk to them

to get a sense of them first, just to give them a heads up of what they're going to get. Also, I'm coming back because I'm kind of scared down here, and I'm really sorry. I don't know if that's the right decision. You've done a great job. Good job, please, thank you. Farrier, before he goes back up the stairs and through the secret door, he goes to another one of those doors in this lounge area.

And this one, he just opens. And you see a pretty brutal scene. It's a plain stone room with a single chair in the middle, with manacal hooks like in the floor. And there is some worker, like, you know, looks pretty, pretty poor. Not quite, doesn't look like a kind of guild-eye rich citizen. but they're in this chair, bloodied, looks like all their mouth, like around their eye,

like they're clearly being beaten and tortured. And you see this, like, sparkly, gold-skinned tifling, and she's wiping basically like a kind of long razor. She kind of flicks that back and hides it into, like, a cumabund on her belt. And then with a wave of prostititation, she, like, cleans up all the blood in her blouse. And she just turns around as like, and what?

And she's like, oh, Peridot wants you. There's some people who've ordered a Peridot's sling. She wants you to go up and kind of get a read on them. You done with this guy? Yeah, I think so. He's told me everything that I think I need to know. All right, fine, yes. Do we know anything about them?

Just a green dragon-born, a woman, human woman. I don't recognize them. They're not ones that I've seen around before. Hmm, interesting. We're not expecting anyone. No, not as far as Perrido knows. All right, interesting. I love a mystery.

And so she then begins to follow him as well. And the two of them begin making their way towards the door. You see this like, they leave the door open for a little while, and then Glitter's like, oh, shuts it behind her. I will project that image as well. Lovely. We are going to get tortured. We are going to get tortured.

I am a bit scared, I'm just gonna come back. I feel like I should do something, but I don't want to do it on my own. You're done plenty, you're done plenty. Can we do anything for that one? He's still alive, it's just, I don't know how to get him out of there. It will drop my invisibility, and then I'll be stuck very close to Peridot on my own. I think we can come back. I think we need to come back for him.

Okay, so you're gonna follow the other two back. I'm not gonna have you repeat the acrobatic check because you kind of know what to expect this time, so you kind of can try and time it and, you know, try and get it. And especially where he's got to let glitter through. It's a lot easier for you to make your way through it this time. So as they're making their way upstairs, anything from anybody upstairs? Rowan, Ophelia Xanthius, Graf.

Rowan, knowing where Farrier went, based on the imagery that was sent, is going to make his way to the edge of that curtain there. Okay. And await their return. So sort of tuck yourself over here. And depending on what Daisy does, Roan's gonna tell the person that Daisy doesn't follow.

Okay, sure. So if Daisy decides to go into that room. Sure. With the Philean, Zan. Yeah. I mean, no, I don't think I will. I think I'm gonna, I think in my, I'll say, Graf, you're in the room already, keep us posted.

I'm gonna see if there's anyone else around here and we can maybe listen for some more info. Yeah, I'm in between in the main room so I can do the same. but we're on standby if you need us. Thank you. Well, yeah. Glisser speaks to the higher-ups,

but she doesn't have any visible rings from what I can remember. Did I see any rings on glitter when I saw it? No, you wouldn't have. No. No, no. She's wearing the same, so the sort of waiter, waitress outfit that Carl's wearing. It's kind of like she's got like a little black mini skirt trimmed in gold with white blouse, like gold things and like boots and like high-heeled shoes.

Carl's wearing like black like slacks with like gold, you know, stripes and trim. It's kind of like the waiter, waitress kind of outfit that they're wearing. But you don't see any visible rings on her. Can I make a mental note of the bricks that he pressed to get into that door? You're invisible. You know that. You can absolutely access that secret door.

You know where it is, you know how to open it. Don't need to worry about that. All right. The group ends up returning with glitter this time. And they all step out into the room. Farrier will make his way over towards this musician Alejandro, whereas Glitter immediately makes her way over to... Carl's over here doing some drinks orders,

and Glitter will make her way over. Is there anything from Daisy O'Nean? Where do you guys want to go? Really... I'm too big. I'm going to follow Farrier, I think. Okay. I didn't hear what these people were talking about before, so the one with the blue...

Sure. that Xanthas was sitting next to before, I'm going to see if I can listen to what they're talking about. I'm going to tell you now, they are just talking about general gossip. It's the same ones that Ron overheard. They're not talking about anything particularly interesting. Rowan, Farrier moves over and waits for...

He waits for Alejandro to, like, finish a song, and then as he goes to, like, have a break and have a little drink, Faria, like, calls him over. And you see Alejandro, like, literally sneers at Farrier. He's like, you, like, underling, basically. And he just like takes a drink and Ferris like, hey, hey. And he's like, what? What do you want?

The boss said that there's some guests in the second room. Maybe they would like some music. And maybe we'd like to know why they're here. When you get a chance. He's like, she sends you to come and tell me what to do. Things are going downhill. All right, fine. Off you go.

Go back to drinking yourself stupid. And he like picks up his instrument. He turns around and like big smile. He's just like, everybody, I'm so sorry, I'm going to take a brief break. I've got a little private, maybe a little private performance. So enjoy. And the half-ling woman strikes of just some ambient music. Can I really observe Alejandra and everything he does

before he goes into that curtain, whether he does anything to his instrument or like prepares a spell or anything like that? You see he reaches into his pocket and slips on five rings. Oh, sure. We've got a five ringer over here. That takes it. He's taking his time.

He's not doing that immediately. Meanwhile, one. Well, it's also like packing up his in. He's like, you know, putting his stuff away. He's taking his stuff. He's not rushing. Every ring that goes on, you just go, one.

And he starts on his second hand. Zanthiae. The door opens, and a very pretty gold-skinned, tifling girl opens it up. She is carrying a tray of drinks, bright green kind of cocktail drinks. She brings them, and it's like, hi, two Peridot Slings.

Yes, thank you very much. Of course, he comes and sits down and places them down. My name's Glitter. I've been assigned to be your sort of personal waitress for the evening. Thank you. How are you finding the Opel Lounge? Absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful place.

It's lovely, isn't it? We haven't been here long, but... No, we don't think we've seen you around before. You're new. We're used to quite regular customers in here. Yes, no. We're setting up a business. you see in the Burnbright district. So we're sort of new to the area.

Oh, right. New merchants in Burnbright. And what was your name? My name is Kira. Kira. Oh, sorry, yes, Kira Roth. Kira, Kira. Nice to meet you, Kira. And what about you? Fonson. Fonson. Fon. Farrear. Fon Farrier. Fon Farrier. Oh, very perfect. All right. Lovely.

Oh, well, how's your business going? Well, that's what I think we were looking to meet our contact about. about. Farrier. Are you the person that we're meeting? A meeting someone? We received a letter? Yes, we, um, yes.

I see. And you and they told you to come here, did they? Yes, yes. And what was this regarding? Well, you see, well, we don't. We just want to make sure that, you know, if you are meeting someone and you're having a conversation, you're meeting with the right people, and you're meant to be here and everything else.

I don't want to upset any other clients. It's about the, uh, the, uh, you know, operations of our business. Right. Have you been having problems? You could say that, yes. You know, we have a lot of clientele that come in here. And we're very fortunate.

We know a lot of people who can do a lot of good in the city and can often help people with problems. So is there something in particular that you're looking to get some help with? What's the attention our business has been getting? Can I book get deception checks from both of you, please? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, would you like to spend a point of fate?

Yes, please. What about you, Zemph? I will not. No, okay. Gruff, you're obviously just in a pocket listening to all of this. Oh, fuck sake. Natural 20. Natural 20.

Lovely. What did you get ready? 12. Okay, 12. Right, so a business and you're having some difficulties? Yes, some unwanted attention. That concerned us for the operation of the business. the business and let's seem to imply that you would be able to help us remove that attention.

Like I said, we have a lot of people here that can help with a lot of different problems. My boss, she's currently, she was going to come and have a chat with you, but just wanted me to come in and have a little bit of a quick conversation, get the gist of it. So when you say you've been having unwanted detention with whom, from whom, should we say? Because that does change things, obviously. From officials. Officials. Oh, I see.

We're not talking councillors and things like that. Are we talking wormguard? Yeah. We're talking about wormgard, right? So you've been getting a bit of unwanted attention from them, I see, for your new business. What's the name of your business? Well, we were thinking about names, don't we?

Because we're newly set up. Scale and horn, I think is what we were thinking. Scal and horn. I was thinking Gilded Rose. Gilded Rose, I like that. Yes, because of, yes, I see. That's great. That's very good.

I'm sorry, I'm a little confused. You have the business or you don't have the business set up? We're setting up, we're working on the official side of things, aren't we? So we're getting the main transitionary period. How are the guard giving you trouble? They've been checking our stocks as we're getting set up. Right. And they're getting a bit too close to what we have.

Our initial wear. A closed shop plus. Right. Yes. We understand that this. The Burnbright District for clothing is a bit of a contested place. There's already so many wonderful fashion places in the Burn Bright district, but we don't want to tread many toes.

I'll make a big name for us. Right, right. I see. Can I get another pair of deception to this, please? Two Nat 20s, here we go. So that Nat 20, by the way, cancelled out Aphelia's failure. So I did not adjust the suspicion track. 15? 15. You've got 15 max total.

I got 22 again. Right, so is it Scale and Horn or is it, is it Gilded Scale or Horn and Rose? What do you want? I quite like the Gilded Scale, actually. I think that works. No, it was Scale and Horn. Gilded Rose was your suggestion.

Right, right. Gilded scale. Gilded scale. Now you've suggested it. Sorry, I misunderstood. I misheard. I must have jumbled them up. I thought it was scale and rose. But, so, right, well, okay.

Very good. Well, let me go and speak with my manager. Like I said, she knows all of our regular customers. She knows all the kinds of people. And I'm sure that we know someone that can help you set up your business and make sure that all the proper paperwork is done. And make sure that everything is above-border. You know, we're very good at that sort of thing. Well, thank you for your assistance.

Perfect. And it was... Kira, Kira Roth. And... Fonson Farrant. Fawnton. Perfect. Well, give me just a minute.

I think that what we've... We actually have a lovely musician who performs here. And, you know, seeing as your first timers, I thought, why don't they come in? They could give you a little private performance. That would be most wonderful. Absolutely. Wonderful.

All right, well, I'll send him in. All right. Take care. Bye. She steps out. Don't drink the drinks. Not drinking the drinks. It's not very...

Five rings. One of them will be more. logic. Rowan, you see Alejandro enter into the curtained area as glitter comes out and the two of them are going to have a conversation before. I'm in on that combo. Do you want to try and follow in or are you just leaning up against the curtains? I'm leaning up against and casting guidance on myself. Okay. To remain on. See. Okay. When you cast guidance, invisibility drops. Oh fuck! Yeah, you can't cast that anything.

You suddenly appear. You are in line of sight of several people who see your large form, well, not large form, but your bulky frame just, there is a stunned, it's so easy to forget, but I have to play it harsh and it's like, you cast a spell. I'm not gonna give you reminders. You have about six seconds before.

Like, people are like stunned for a moment. Like, I think this, a half-ling barred, the guy at the bar table at the far end, the barman, I think Ferry is probably looking that way. Daisy, you see this happen as well. The people that you're chatting to engage in their conversation, they haven't noticed yet, but pretty much everybody else in this main lounge has.

Luckily, there are no guards currently in this room because the other guy is still patrolling the other end. but you've got six seconds. So I'm gonna give you one round each, Daisy and Rowan, if there is anything you would like to do before they basically go, A man! Rowan dropped invisibility! In the days chain.

That's a free action. That's a free action. I might have to get us out of here. That's a free action. So that's all you can say in the six seconds. You can still do an action, and you can take a full turn, basically. I'm gonna dimension door out. So you just dimension door straight.

I have to. Yeah, you have to. So you just cast so you strums, so you turn, bring, oh, vanish. Sorry. Can you say sorry? And then dimension door out. I mean, if you do it fast,

I'm gonna dimension door into the room where bricks is. 500 feet, I'd say you probably can't get to there in 500 feet, but you could get out into the street, basically, so that you can run in that direction. Rowan, you are basically out of this scene at this point. The lounge, you hear like a, ah, ah, and then like a bunch of shouting, and a few people begin calling out, Daisy, the people who are in conversation with you, like, what's going on, what's going on?

Farrier immediately turns and runs through the fabric, and you see him vanish, basically. The guy in the lounge will just call out, Stefan, Stefan, quick! And you hear the guard, like, making his way towards this as well. I will in the Dazza chain say, guys, he's gone to get Peridot. I don't think we can get out of this. Did Rowan get out quick enough that they didn't quite... They saw him.

I think I'm going to have to... If they look for invisibility, I'm out too. There is a commotion. Glitter and Alejandri do not come in the room. They step back out, and they immediately go over to the bar guy and start asking... They're just, like, Daisy, you hear this.

They're like, what happened? There was a... A big yacht near, he had like gray skin, like green cymbal zop his arm, and he just appeared out of nowhere, and then he teleported away again, and the two of them immediately look at each other, and they know exactly who that.

Daisy, they know exactly who that is. They know exactly that it's Roman's description. Could I, is there a guard just outside the door? Yeah. You saw him when you came in. Yeah, you saw him when he came in, yeah. I mean, I kind of want to peek out at the door and be like the, what's going on?

I heard some noise out there. I don't know if, like, before they moved away, can it have been, like, I asked Santhius to, like, get me near them? And I kind of... So I have this idea of jumping into, like, Alejandro's pocket. Those two were out of the room before Roman even appeared. So I'm going to say that would be too much of a retroaction because they were already out and not...

I just mean if I asked Santhias to... You didn't have any knowledge that this was going to happen. No, no, no. I mean, like, so we heard the commotion, We heard Daisy say he's popped out. Oh, right now? And then, like, yeah. Oh, you want me to find a way to get to Alejandro? Yeah, just, like, pop out of the door

and just, like, before they would have... Moved over. ...furted further into the bar. They would have moved pretty quick because they would have heard the commotion. But then you would have to have opened the door. Yeah, so if I... Well, if I do come out and do this whole...

I heard a noise what's going on, I could, you know, peek through the curtain. If I was meeting through the curtain and then, like, trying to find this glitter who just spoke to... to us. Yeah? Like trying to understand what's happening.

I think that that would be the play to do it. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Yeah. For sure. And you did have the Daisy Chain warning of Daisy saying, like, Romans just to be like he's dropped invisibility.

I just went before they moved from the curtain to the bar. Sure. I would say, yeah. Okay. So what I'm going to say here is, yeah, Zantheus can do the, like, what's going on before they really, like, step out. Glitter will turn around and be like, oh, please don't worry. Are you sure?

It's absolutely fine. Don't worry. Okay. there's that enough of a time, but how are you doing this? Because this is going to require either stealth. I think it would be slight of hand for Xanthius to get the mouse out of the pocket into a place, and then it's going to be stealth from the mouse. Cling onto the curtain.

I could cling on, and then jump into someone's pocket. Like when they come through. When they come through. I might need some help with a distractor, because they might feel a little, boop. It's going to be the same thing, slight of hand from Xenthias to get you out without being noticed. stealth from gruff to basically scurry and get involved. Big risk. Big risky. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Well, my hand is going into my pocket. Is anything happening here? Do you tell me to stop? I've grabbed you. Sight of hand, please. Do you want me to... I wild shape immediately. Bam.

Um, do you want me to stay with you, Zanthias? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, hmm. You tell me, gruff. Any more conversation and you're going to miss this opportunity. I'm going to stay. I'm going to stay. You're going to stay? Not the mouth.

Okay, so exactly what transpires, they come running out. Alejandro, he has anything. I've had the lady gargoss on it this whole time. The entire time. She's still in there as well, Daisy, yeah. I am where I am. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The two of them...

If they bring out Perid, I might have to... Yeah, the two of them immediately start looking around. and I think that they go over to the barman and glitter is just like, she says like, so he just appeared out of nothing, and he nods and she's like, give me the moonshine. And he passes over. Go around the corner as soon as they start talking.

I'm going to go up the stairs. I'm going to rush back. The barman hands like two bottles of a clear-looking moonshine to both of them and they drink them. And then they start looking around. They're looking for invisible people. I have to go, guys. I can't stay.

Do you, do you, the day to look at the moonshine? No, I was too busy trying to get away. Right, right, right, okay. All she heard was them say, so he appeared out of nowhere, right? Give me a moonshine. But we knew that they would do, because before a darling said, if they get wind of it, they will. I will tell you now, like they are on full-blown alert.

Yeah, right? They're at max alert now. Yeah, and I was mainly asking, because if I can figure out the extent of what this moonshine does, Because if it's just reveal invisible, great. Not a problem for us. If it's a true sight. Yeah, true sight, yeah.

It would be pretty extreme for them to have that just to hang out really, nearly. Logically, I would say you guys are pretty much confident there's probably seeing invisibility potions. And they probably don't have more than those two at any one time. So these two are like looking around now. And you can see that they start scanning around. I think Alejandra immediately steps out here. they're mainly concerned with these two areas.

They kind of ignore this area. That's the kind of east wing with the private rooms. Yes, both privateers. Basically where the two side doors that lead down, the guard, Stefan, moves to the door and stands in front of it. The entrance door. Yeah, the entrance door. I'm going to go upstairs.

So you just go fully upstairs. Yeah, I just don't want to risk them coming around accordingly to see me. Absolutely. I don't think I'm going to flee yet, but if... I kind of want to stay in case stuff kicks off and I need to help, but... Rowan, maybe...

They're going to be looking out for you, but maybe you can try and find some kind of exit the peridoreau might take. If they flee, you might be able to catch them. I'm sorry, I messed up. It's okay, it's okay. Where does Rowan land? So I think that the 500 feet of the dimension door

would put you out on the plaza on the street that leads towards the inn where Vriks and you go. were getting ready. So you're like on the street, you're about like 300 feet outside of the inn, basically, out on the street.

I think I want to make myself visible to at least the person on the front door. Oh, I think that that, like, the person on the front door doesn't know what's going on. But he's, you definitely, like, he can see you from where you are. Like, because he can see the whole plaza? Can I, when I appear,

also cast silent image and make a version of, Daisy. Yeah? And then as my action, I'm going to run and have a fake Daisy run with me. Love it. Perfect. Great. Yeah. You do that. He definitely clocks you, but he doesn't know what's going on inside yet, so he's just like, huh? Did that man just appear if no? Oh, okay. And then he sees the two of you running off.

But it's very clear you and Daisy. Cool. And then what you want to run down towards the inn? Where are you? No, different direction. So you're going to just take a different alleyway. Okay. So you basically start taking alleyways and things like that. Okay, great. Perfect. Those of you who are inside, shortly after Farrier returns,

Alejandro comes out. Basically, they're doing like a patrol now. Basically, he comes up here. He starts looking around. Glitter comes into this room. So sorry about all of that. She's like looking, like her eyes kind of like, so sorry about that.

No, yes, we just had one of the patrons. We don't, they cast. a spell and it caused a bit of a fuss and not a people panicking not a violent well no but it looked quite scary and I think some of our patrons you know they got a bit drunk student wizard I'm not going to make a deception check because you know she's lying so you know she's lying but she's like no everything everything's all right in here I'm so sorry I'm afraid the musician has again the commotion's oh that's no that's that's totally fine um just as long as everyone is okay outside. Everyone's fine. Absolutely fine, no problems.

Wonderful. I've heard you run a tight ship. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, we do, yes. And she's like, well I will just, I'll be back momentarily. Wonderful. Thank you. She steps outside. Faria and Peridot enter. Not that you guys have sight on any of this at the moment. You are just left in the room. Daisy, you are upstairs. You have no sight on what's going on. Don't drink the drinks. No. Maybe pour just a little bit behind. somewhere hidden, just what it looks like we've at least been enjoying it. Or maybe that would be suspicious because if they know that we've drunk it, we should be dead.

Maybe you should distract upon the commotion? Oh, yes, it's horrifying all this action out there. As this is all happening, Daisy, as you are up the stairs, invisible, kind of panicking, not sure what to do, you see a shadow on the wall sort of kind of, kind of not come to life, but somebody who was expertly, expertly, hiding in the shadows, steps out and you see darling. What's going on? What's going on?

Rowan accidentally made himself visible, and now they're all in high alert, and now they can see invisible people. So I'm hiding. And I saw Peridot. I know what she looks like, and I'm glitter as another one, but Zanthias and Aphelia, I think are still fine, and Gruff is in Santhius's pocket, I think. So, okay, we're not blind then.

All right. No, but I don't know what else I can do. You're fine, you're fine, I got you, don't worry about it. She pulls a vial out of like a little... You can see that like the cloak she was wearing was what was helping her blend into the shadows and when she sort of parts it, she becomes a lot more visible. And she pulls out a vial and...

It'd be a wand, actually. It's not a vial. She pulls out a wand and it's like, look, the invisibility's blown. We're just going to get rid of that. I'm going to give you a disguise, but it's illusory disguise. If they can see invisibility, I won't see through this, but just don't let them touch you. But this should let you move around. You need to show me where they came from.

I was keeping an eye on the main lounge, but getting through the curtain, it's too busy down there. I couldn't get through. They came from the curtain on the left-hand side as you walk in through the front door. And then there's a staircase that goes down. There's a hidden door there.

I remember how to get through it. Okay. I'm going to make us look like a couple of people that are staying here. You're going to stick with me. We're going to go in there. We're going to act like nothing's wrong. Maybe, you know, we're just going to play it super cool, all right?

Okay. You got this. Okay. You've got this. Yeah. We got this together. And she points the wand at you, and she casts a sky's self, and you feel like a shimmering sort of illusion takeover you.

And you now look like a more mature, sort of young, probably from like the brass bellows, like an academia student, she'll make you look like. And then she makes herself look like a kind of much more sort of like, business owner kind of woman, basically. And she zaps the two of you. The wand crackles and turns to ash, basically. Last charges, and she just sort of scatters it. All right, we got this.

Okay, they're on high alert. There's a guard at the door again, and I think that Glitter and this other guy, Farrier, he's a red dragonborn, and Alejandro, the musician. Glitter and Alihandro. They're all died in agents. Yes, but Glitter and Alejandra are the ones who can see invisibility currently.

Farrier, the Red Dragonborn, went to get Peridot, who is the woman to blonde ponytail. Yeah, blonde ponytail, right, okay. All right, blonde ponytail. She's the facet. Right. Let's try and stick close to her and find out what's going on. Did you say that you, like, did you go, Farrier took you somewhere? I followed him to find her. Right, so you saw where they came from? Like, do they have like an office or like a, you know. There's three rooms downstairs in the basement.

Three rooms. He took, if you go behind the curtain on the left-hand side as you enter. Sweetheart, you're going to take me there. I'm not going to... Oh, okay. Well, you need the key to get through that door. Okay, who's got the key? The Red Dragon-Born, Farrier.

All right, okay, let's grab that key. Are you good at picking pockets? Yeah. All right, here's what we're going to do. We're going to go down there. You're a little drunk. You're going to bump into him. You're going to lift the key out of his pocket,

and then we're going to stumble off to a private room, right? Okay, okay, okay. Okay, yeah, you with me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do it. The two of you, we cut back. In my head, I'm going to go, I'm with Darling now. We're doing a thing.

I'm still here. Good luck, Daisy. You're doing fantastic. Well, thing you do a win. Apparently, I'm going to look drunk. I'm disguised now. I don't think Daisy's ever been drunk before. I'm panicking.

Does that sound like drunk? Yes. Yes. Yes. So, as the three of you, Graf, Aphelia and Xanthias, you are just waiting. Yeah. Eventually, after a bit of time, you hear some commotion,

and the door opens, and this time a different woman and glitter enter. And now you see Peridot, this kind of short, curvy, blonde, ponytail, half-dwarth, half-human woman. And she smiles and it's just like, hello, I'm so sorry about the commotion. I'm one of the managers, Misty.

My lovely colleague Glitter told me that you'd received a letter and you've been having some business problems, all of that sort of business. Yes, problems that we were, Glitter mentioned, you may be able to solve. Possibly. You guys didn't drink to Peridot Slings, did you? No.

Good. Right, well, I think that we can definitely help you with something along those lines. We've got a few friends in the Worm Guard. We can make sure that any sort of difficulty gets smoothed over. Of course, we would need to discuss some terms, especially if you're opening a new business here in Kelskara. We would need to make sure that, you know,

normally we offer these kind of services, you know, help smooth over transactions, make sure the guard aren't giving you any troubles, especially if you're trading in, you know, things that perhaps one specialty goods, specialty goods, let's call them. There is a fee, a monthly fee that is to be paid.

And that offers that fee. We'll make sure that you have plenty of protection and opportunities. We also do a lot of, we'll connect you with clients for some of your business as well. Does that fee increase with the scale of the product, so to speak? It certainly can do. If you're moving particularly special goods,

then obviously there's a lot more work on our end that needs to be considered. But we can roll all of that out. We can do a lot of paperwork and get all of that sorted. Oh, wonderful. Once it's all happening, Julia is channeling like, ponytail's here. Peridot, I think she's, this is the one, yes?

Blonde ponytail. Okay, Peridot is here with us. I think you've got a picture of hers, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh, God. That sounds wonderful. Yes.

Wonderful. Perfect. Um... How's the Peridus Lane? I've been so distracted by what's going on. Everything okay outside. Yeah, sorry, after all the noise out there, we got very concerned. Um, you really should try it.

It's lovely. It's a lovely drink. Spill it. Knock it over. You'll use your tail. I will turn around and my tail will... tail will... Wow, it hits both of them, it's crazy. Give me a performance check.

Nice. You've got one fate left. Yeah, you've got a fate if you want it. I don't know if I want to use it on this because I've got a bad plan. Oh, no. Performance. Oh, I don't... Oh, my performance isn't great, actually. I will fate it. It's the last fate.

Okay. A chance to spend, Mike. 21? 21. You, in a sort of clumsy, like, oh, gosh, so silly me, your tail just knocks them. Oh, you're so excited when your tail goes everywhere. Yes, I, sorry, I know this was so expensive. Oh, control that tail of yours. I must apologize.

Oh, that's all right. That's not a problem. Oh, you do seem, you've got your lovely, you know, your clothes is all over them. It's just, um... It's a good thing we're running a tailors, isn't it? Yes, it is, it is indeed. Oh, yeah, very fitting, very fitting. Well, listen, why don't we...

We could go down to my office and we can hash out the paperwork. How about that? Sounds good, yes. Do you, are we, is it safer down there to discuss in deeper? Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. That's why I suggested. Yes, absolutely.

That's discuss terms and make us all official, shall we? Yeah, should we head there now? Yeah, I think we can head there now. Yeah, that's something. Good. Glitter, why don't you get a few more? more drinks for us and we'll take those down with us. Absolutely, of course, Misty.

Um, she heads out, heads to the bar, and then she leads you out, but very much is like, come with me. Um, in the daisy chain, mm-hmm. I have a very bad idea, a very, very bad idea that might be a very, very, very good idea. I'm not sure I need your information on this one. What if I suggest that this business that we're running has ways of moving crown steel? Stick with what you know. Oh god. Why do I know that so well?

Where are you? What are you doing? Bad stuff. Terrible bad stuff. We're heading down to the Peridoo's office. Okay. What are you doing? Can I say that to Darling? They're going down to the office. They're being taken down. We shouldn't let them go online. Come on. The two of you...

Start making your way around the corner. You see Alejandro, who is like, leans past you, looks you up and down. I'll sway a little bit and try and grab Darling Give me a performance or a reception chair. I'd say performance because it's like acting rather than lying. Not good. I'll have to be paid to you. I'm so sorry. Hey, she might roll high.

1921. 21. He moves out the way not wanting to like get this drunk student. Darling like hooks like her arm through yours like, steady darling and then sort of like carries you through. like very much playing like, I know we had some fun, but you've clearly had too much.

And the two of you kind of step through as he then moves up and he starts patrolling the stairs area. You step through, you see glitter is like getting another tray of drinks. Again, you see like her pointing to specific bottles to like pour into the drinks. Farrier is basically,

I think actually no, he's just at the bar drinking and he's just like holding his head just like, What the fuck? And you hear him just saying like, this is a fucking mess. What are we going to do? And he seems pretty perturbed about what's going on.

Can I go like round the corner to where he is and then just go up to the bar and go, I want another drink but then bump into him. Yeah, hell we go. And try and get the key. I won't do another.

Where the key is. Yeah, exactly. I think rather than doing another performance check, because you've already done one, this is just going to be slight of hand to try and pick pocket the key. But Kate, you really slammed her elbows against the table then. Yeah.

No, I didn't. No, advantage. Absolutely not. I'm going to give myself adventure for luck. Oh, we love it. Okay, it was a nat one and an 18, so that's good. 18 plus 13 is my thing. Yeah, oh my God.

Doesn't even notice. All his stuff is gone. I have everything. You. You have a skin. Grab. Your skin. You slip your hand in

and without him even knowing you grab this ornate key that you've seen him use, swipe it, it goes into the illusory robes into your pocket. And he's just like, whoa, slow down there, miss. So maybe I shouldn't have another one.

And he kind of like looks at you and there's like, you get this real look at this guy and you can see that his hands, his arms all the way up to his elbows are in thick leather gloves. Really thick leather gloves. way thicker than they should be. Gotcha.

Like there's something in between the glove and his... You almost think that there's metal like underneath the glove, like a lining. And he looks at you and you can see that he's covered in scars and bruises. He looks like he's been through the wringer. And he looks... His cheeks are hollow, his eyes look sunken. And there is a sadness to him

and a weariness. to him and he just kind of like weekly smiles. He's like, I think you've heard more than enough, maybe. Maybe now's the time to think about heading home. Can I, I guess you guys are not in the room yet, so I don't see you. They're not gonna be in the room. No. As we're passing through, yeah.

No. Oh, you're right. Oh, you're going down another way now. There's two, two ways down to the basement level. Okay. So yeah, you guys, by the way, so while that's happening, Xanthias, Gruff and Ophelia, you wait for a second,

and basically she will go ahead to open the door, Peridot, and then basically kind of steps aside to let you guys go down first and make sure that she comes in behind you. Hila, and you can see that she's literally like almost holding her hand, like behind her, and like basically feeling the space. Oh, to see if someone's coming through the door.

Basically, they're now checking. for anybody invisible coming behind them at this point. But nobody seems to. So she lets you guys through, and you guys start making your way down the stairs. Meanwhile, yeah, Daisy. And yeah, Darling maybe will be like, come on, darling, let's go get a little private room

when we can have some privacy. I'll just take her lead and just... Yeah. I think glitter-tops. turns and Farre goes back to his drink and there's a moment where she like stops and is almost looking like I don't know if I recognize these two

but then something I rolled really badly she's just like ah and then she carries on and she's gonna come up and start following behind these two and kind of following these guys Glitz is following us, the group of us, yeah yeah yeah I mean she probably opens the door again but she's got like another tray of drinks this time and she's making her way down behind you guys

Daisy and Darling, you guys step around Farrier, pass through the curtain, but there's this guard who is currently just staring at you and is quite on high alert. You can see that there's two doors to either side of him and then the corridor you came down, but you know that there's no private rooms down there. So he's kind of like looking at you.

What do you guys do? God, what to do? I'm gonna... stand there, pretend to be a bit drunk, and be like, oh, sorry, sorry, I think we went the wrong way out. The room is a different way. He just nods his head.

Darling will take the lead from you if you pull her away. Well, I was going to give myself steady aim and then shoot a dagger, a radiant blade at him. Okay, okay. I'm going to have you and darling roll initiative with advantage against his initiative.

And then we're going to see what happens. We're running out of time, but I need to see what happens here. All right, there's darlings. 18. With advantage. With that advantage, 19.20 for Darling. So, Darling, at 20. You are 18.

And this guard, luckily very bad. Nine. So I'll just swap you and darling. Like, you're going to go first because this is your action. So you steady aim, bonus action. and then you've got to whip out the dagger. Yeah, go for it. Make an attack roll with advantage.

19 plus... That will hit. The thing, the number. So close. So close. Plus 10. 29 to hit. It hits.

Yeah, you don't need me to tell you that. It hits. 31. 31. 32. Damage. The dagger flies out of your hand. It kind of stabs into him.

but the armour absorbs some of it. He's not fully down. Darling springs forward and she basically goes to grab him in like a headlock basically. I can also... Oh, do you want to... Of course, yeah, I forget you've got your bonus section one.

I forget that... Bona section was steady aim. Oh... Oh, yeah, bonus section is steady aim. Darling runs up. She wraps her arms around this guard, gets him into a grapple, and he's basically like choking him out basically,

which has got him currently suffocated, he can't currently speak, and then she fumbles in her bag with her second attack, and she pulls out what looks like a syringe and like jabs it into his neck. This will only work if he's taking enough damage from this to affect his current hit points. Please.

So, it's quite a lot, but I need to be able to affect how much? 29 HP's worth. I did 30. Yeah, no, no, I know. This is against his, like, remaining HP, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm against his remaining HP. You watch, as she injects him with some sort of sleep serum, like the sleep spell, but a kind of more potent version,

and you see that the weakness, like the blood sort of trickling out from the radiant blade, is enough, and he's big, and his eyes flutter, and he goes limp in darling's hands. She, like, looks around, and she just gestures, people in either room. Way go. I will take around to the thing. So she drags him. She's holding the blood like in her hand

as the two of you drag this unconscious guard back this way. I will tap the key on the door handle like. The door knob, yeah, like she did, and then insert it. Then open it, take the guard into the stairwell. Perfect. So. Fuck you. Nice job.

Two of you guys. Oh yeah, very good. Darling will say to you, she leans in is like, I only had one of those. We only got that one. That's okay. We're in the basement now. Yeah, good job.

If he hadn't been weakened enough, I don't think that would have worked. All right. And she, like, plops him down next to the door, sort of pushes him up against it, like, gets like a handkerchief, like stabs it, like puts it into his wound, basically, to stop him bleeding further.

He'll be out for about an hour. But if anybody comes along, they can wake him up, so we've got to be quick with the rest of this now. Okay. I'll lead her down to where Are you going downstairs? I know, no, we can't over. Sorry, Trot.

Like, you're just, I mean, we can't. Actually, that's a good point, because Gruff did say to try and find like another exit to see if they escape. What are you doing, actually, when you're outside? Are you going to go back to the inn? Hmm. I think Rowan is too rattled

and feels like he's just fucked up so he doesn't want to be seen anymore. So he's going to go to Brits. There's like a long twist around. Okay, perfect. When you get to Frix, Vicks, Vicks, mine's everything alright. No, it's not a ride at all. I revealed myself and now everyone's on high alert and they're all still in there.

Should we go in there? I take you in the door and kill them. I like your tenacity, Frick's, but I think... I've still got a connection with them. What if they need us quickly? Then we'll be near. Shall we go near? We are far here.

Let's go near, but not be seen. All right. Very well. I'm good at being quiet. It's Frick's good at being quiet. Actually, no, doesn't have to, Carapace doesn't impose disadvantage. 18 on a stealth for Bricks. Not bad.

Where did you go? I've never seen Bricks in my life. I mean, it's hard when you're giant. That's a 20. The two of you... Where is that? It is using the shadows of the alleyways. Oh, huh.

I imagine that this pressure of like, you fucked up, like, you have to. to be on higher light, you have to take this seriously now. And the two of you, like, big hulking shadows just leap from alleyway to alleyway, pinpointing the right places. Basically, yeah, I imagine a little bit, maybe like Ricks climbs up and pulls right up and you kind of go over it, and then another bit is like,

right, go now, and then you jump across. And the two of you together actually managed to make your way to be close to the Opal Lounge that if your friends need you, you can be there much, much quicker. Meanwhile, Zanthius, Ophelia, Ophelia and Gruff, you are led down into the sort of cellar storage basement and glitter kind follows in down behind you. Perida will say just like, oh, just a moment. Obviously for security reasons, would you mind just looking the other way, please? Yes, absolutely.

Gets you to face away, you hear a few stones pushed in, but you don't see them. And then you see that a door has opened up into a beautiful little relaxed lounge. And she's like, come in, come in. in. Where are you? We're heading into the basement with Peridot. And Glitter. On the left, what's the one with the man in it? Just for FYI.

There's a man in there, okay. She gestures, there's like Shizlongs, there's like chairs and things like that. Glitter comes and puts the drinks in your hands this time. Doesn't just leave one. Oh, thank you. More Peridot slings? I would just, yeah, I thought that you didn't get to have your first one, so. Thank you very much. Oh, very kind, thank you.

Uh, well, are we safe here to just, fcch, okay. If you do it again, it's gonna be very suspicious. We also don't have to do it. You don't have to do you. No, I'm just swirling in my hands. Sure. Saving the bouquet.

Yeah, save the bouquet and then unconsciously. Yep. Yep. Um. But all smells quite nice, actually. Are we safe here to continue our discussion? very safe to have a very open discussion here. And you see that she reaches up and touches a little brooch on her lapel.

And I need you both to make, and Graff technically, charisma saving throws, please. Oh. Okay. That mouse is going to squeak. Oh. Charisma saves. I believe it's charisma.

I believe it's Chrisman. Let me just check. It is, yes. Okay. Spill size again. Mm-hmm. A literal, 20. Nice. No, Rianan, that doesn't sound lucky good. Well, I got 25. 25. Mouse is safe. Yeah, you guys are safe.

Ophelia? Oh. Three, three total. You become aware, you are all aware, including you, Aphelia, that a spell has just been activated from this brooch that is the zone of truth spell. Fucking shit. Ophelia, you cannot lie in this zone.

The other two, you know that you've resisted it. You know that this is the compulsion, but that you're being compelled to tell the truth, but you're not obliged to. Just a little something, make sure that there's open honesty amongst friends. I am not a mouse. But they don't, sorry, they don't know that we saved it. I believe that they may do.

You know whether a creature succeeds or fails. Okay, because if I was then doing it, was then doing like the... No, she knows that you... I am telling the truth, I'm scared of you. That kind of thing, then they'll know. But... Okay.

Okay. If someone starts its time, you know whether a creature succeeds or fails. Right. But would that... Oh. But would that... Oh, that can't...

Yes. Because it's an AOA. But then you could use any spell... To find... To find invisible. Not any spell, specifically this spell. It's this specific spell that says, you know whether a creature succeeds or fails on this save.

But I would have thought that's like the way that's phrasing that. I mean, I do see it. It doesn't say that. You know whether a creature succeeds or fails on the safe. I don't think it's ambiguous at all. Yeah, it's a, it's one of those, like, really, you know, this is the exact wording. You know whether a creature succeeds or fails on the save.

There's no other wording about knowing if the creature is there. There's no wording about whether the creature is, if the creature is in the zone and succeeds or fails the spell, they know if they succeed or fail. Yeah, that makes sense. I can, yeah, I can see that, yeah. An affected creature is aware of the spell and can avoid answering questions to which it would normally respond with.

Yeah, that makes sense. I guess my only argument is if there are, like, level one spells that have that same wording. There's not. This is a very specific thing for this spell. And obviously, she doesn't know that that other creature was there, but I think that she now is like, Did you bring a friend with you?

It does say each creature, so yeah. Yeah, that's what I mean, yeah, each creature in the zone. Friend? Yes, there's someone else here. I always have my friends with me. Glitter or... What kind of friends do you have with you? Who's here in this room with us right now, Miss?

What are you doing, Xanthius, and I guess Graff as well? Oh, you must be talking about my pet mouse. I mean, what the fuck else? I mean, yeah, you can play that way. She's gonna stamp on me. Well, because it also, yeah, it's like a mouse, you know, wouldn't normally pass this spell. I just say that, I just say that, I guess.

Mousin creature. I just have a pet. It doesn't even say humanly. I can't know, it's not a pet. I can't lie, I can't call Ruff a pet, because I can't lie. That'll be a lie. You can just say nothing, but that's also going to look suspicious.

Oh my God. What kind of friend are you looking for, sorry? There's someone else here. I think you know who they are. I think you know that there's someone else here. Your friend certainly seems to. Well, there's Kiri, there's me, and then... You're my friend?

My pet rat is here. My pet rat and my pocket. Deception. It's also a mouse. I'm a mouse. A mouse, not a rat. Where I'm from, we call them rats. And where I'm from, I'm also called Fonson and Fanson and Fonson.

It's a dialect problem. Give me a deception check. Okay. And she, Peridot, specifically. specifically has an ability called minor fated, which allows me to spend fate points on her ability checks. Does that mean I can immediately counter it with my own use of faith?

You could, but, no, because I spare you would have to have had one first. Right, got it, got it, got it, got it, good, good. Me succeeding the throw, would that have helped? No, it says whether they know whether they succeed or fail. Guys, listen, I'm going to point this out. I'm not being a dick here. This is the learning of the spell, and it sucks because it is something that you could not have expected.

Yeah, exactly. It's a real bull. Also, like they're diadem. Like, of course they're gonna have it on their sleeves. Yeah, exactly. I just wanted to check on the succeed or fail. Yeah, it is succeed or fails to save. They know if a creature's successful or fails,

yeah, it's one of those things where it's like, you get a read out of who passed it. Yeah, and you're on the list. And that's the thing is it like, yeah, that's the thing is you do pass a save, but it's not about that. It sucks. Deception. Deception, please.

What is my pet rat. Did I say rat? I meant a mouse. Ooh. Nice catch. Thank you. I was on camera as well. Someone saw that.

It rarely happens. 24. I also got 24. Now, how does that work? I think that she can't prove... No, I think it's basically it's a status quo thing, basically. It's like nothing changes. She can't, doesn't know that you're lying, but she also doesn't quite believe.

Sorry, I should have mentioned this when I come in. I didn't realize this was going to be a problem. This is a pet that I've had for a long time, and I take it with me everywhere. Very nice. Is that true? Our friends come everywhere with us. That's not what I asked. Is this, is what he just said true?

Is this his pet rat? His pet mouse? They would take offence to that. They would take offence. Who's they? Well, they're a mouse. They're a mouse. They're a mouse. They're a mouse.

They're always been a mouse. Strange. Normally mice and rats can't really resist the magic of this spell. They've always been a mouse today. Today? Well, I think something's going on here. We had an intrusion earlier.

Someone trying to sneak in somebody who didn't belong. An adventurer. Got a few friends, including one who can turn into animals. Glitter? You hear a gun. Oh, it's cocked as glitter

who's been standing there, completely sort of not part of this conversation, has pulled a dragon powder firearm, basically and is now leveling at the two of you. Oh, look at the time. What a great time doing the episode. I think what we see though is as that is happening, Darling and Daisy, you've got to the wall. Daisy, you know. Beep beep, beep, boop, oh fuck.

As the door begins to open, that is, you know, that is the point where like the gun is drawing. as you start to input the sequence. And that is where we're in. Yeah. Hey, we got to the basement. We're in the room. Yeah.

You are. And you are in there with not as many enemies as you could be. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in there with two powerful enemies. That's the bad. No, I know, but I'm like, like, right now. Also, I know that casting the spell

and your invisibility, and that's rough because it's like such an easy thing to forget. However, that distraction. That actually stopped Alejandro. Stop the musician from coming in. We have no idea what they were going to do. Would you like to know? There was probably just some charisma.

I would like to know in the behind the screen. Oh, I love to use of that. But yeah, no, guys, listen, unfortunately these things like the spell casting, I'm so sorry, Trot. It's just the thing that breaks invisibility. It's not like, I'm not trying to be a dick. I'm not trying to be a gotcha.

I'm just trying to be fair to the world. Same with that zone of truth. Even I didn't realize it. It was only as I was reading the spell. I was like, wait a minute, this would reveal. that there's another creature here. Yeah, it's...

And I think that if it had failed, it would have been like, well, hang, okay, well, yeah, a mouse or a rat maybe nearby in the area, maybe. But it was the fact that I'm succeeding against a powerful spell, like, immediate. And this, again, she's very smart. Peridot is a very intelligent, very clever woman. Yeah, I mean, within the worlds of magic,

you'd see if something rebuffs your spell and like... I think it's right, like, she can sense that it's on your person. Yeah, yeah. I think it's like, she senses. is that that's where the success has come from. So that is a real, like, I mean, guys, you got down. And Daisy, oh, the fucking metal gear, solid snake. Like, you rogued the hell out of that.

This is a Daisy mission. I genuinely, like, I was like, are you going to stay and try and get into the office and stuff? I thought that, like, that might. I wasn't going to leave. No. It was a shame to leave if I could still do something. No, I loved it.

It was a really great job. You did an amazing job. You roged it up. But yeah, that is... I guess you could have, like, voluntarily failed, but there's no way of knowing... But then it would still have a pain with me. Still recognize.

But then it might have been easier to pass off as it was naturally like a pet mouse or something like that. Don't know the effects of it. None of us can cast me. Yeah, like, I'm in the pocket. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think, like, none of you knew what the pen... And you got some weird fucking shit in that pocket, man.

That's the thing. When you come out of here, you're going to be fully crown-stealed up. Oh, fuck. Sorry, this is my... You're fine. My crown-stealed rat. The ruins protect him, so.

I tie them off. A microwave Oh, did you! You need to tell me if you do that, by the way. Just a microwaved mouse. But yeah, that is going to be it for today's episode. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. We will be back to see how this all plays out next time.

It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun. There's more of us than there is of them. It's very true. Especially with backup coming. You've got backup coming too. Right, with that, we'll see you next time. Bye-bye.