High Rollers DnD - The Gallow's Eyrie (Part 2) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #94

Episode Date: March 5, 2026

The party meet with another Deva in Gallow's Eyrie - a blacksmith and his reticent friend Zach! View the map for Gallow's Eyrie on our Patreon for FREE here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/152093760 Get a peak Behind the Screen for episodes 80 to 93 with a supporters exclusive video here: https://youtu.be/cRBif_n3BL8 (also available to Twitch Subs and Patreon Supporters! Link your Discord for access.) 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

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Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today. We'd love to talk. business. Welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire Part 2. Our heroes have had lengthy discussions with Sister Superior Malady,

learning much about her backstory, as well as her backstory of her twin sister Benedicta, but also perhaps Malady offering some insights and things to think about for the party themselves. And they've ultimately made the decision to speak with Heinquistar August of the Ecliptic Order and ask to be taken to their stronghold to seek out the Deva blacksmith that they currently have incarcerated there to learn more about the celestial hunter that pursues Davers, but also to potentially use them to work on the Luxen Shards and provide an essence for Xanthius,

as well as potentially unlocking a celestial item that the party have been carrying for some time. Teleporting there via teleportation circle, the party were immediately met by armed resistance, but as Heinrichs Ergus's guests, this has been relaxed and you have arrived safely. The High Inquisitor will turn the guards kind of stepping aside and pulling themselves to either side of the room and will gesture and say, please follow me. If you have any questions about the facility, I'm happy to answer what they can, but please understand that some things may be private matters for the ecliptic order. But please, follow me.

And he leads you through a, kind of like a guards waiting room or a guards barracks, you can see that there are weapon racks and shield racks and things like that, as well as table and chairs out here. There's a couple more guards stationed out here who sort of immediately stand up and bow. And they wouldn't salute, they would bow, because this is more of like holy order.

It's like holy monks and holy warriors. And then he leads you out into a corridor and down a spiral staircase. We do have a map available. For podcast listeners, Tom will put this on the Patreon, I'm sure. I will indeed put this available for free on the Patreon. Yes. And linked in the podcast description as well.

And then a nice slow Ptz-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Bid. And this dice is us. Yes. But we just went downstairs here, yes? So that's upstairs. We went downstairs. We went downstairs. We went downstairs into the primary tower.

So as you go, Argus will probably explain The stronghold is located quite high up in the southern mountains of the Azar. It is not a particularly complicated building. We have a shrine for the Holy Brothers and Sisters here. We have barracks. We have a medic, doctor, healer, armory, all the essentials that we would be required. Our guests are incarcerated the floor below deep into the mountain itself. I can take you there immediately, or if you know,

need a moment of respite, you can linger here upon our, on the temple level. It is up to you. You mentioned wards as well, is there anywhere we should be aware of? In terms of locations, the most dangerous of our prisoners are located in the floor below us in a place we call the Gullet. It is an angled shaft that leads deeper into the mountain.

They are particularly warded, as they exhibit quite a lot of magical power, or strength. Around the rest of the stronghold, there are generic words that protect it from unauthorized teleportations in, as well as anti-divination and scrying wards that hide the stronghold, and also prevent people from sending messages in as well. Right, okay.

Well, Rowan, is there anywhere you want to go first? Me? We're in the Azar step now. I thought we're just going to stay in the stronghold for now. No, sure, but do you not want to take a look at it? It's kind of like asking, we're in Caldra now. Let's see your home. Could be anywhere.

I don't, we're quite far north. Okay, we're far south. I must imagine. Southern mountains. That's what we say in the Azar's depth. The north is south. Up is down and down is up. Yep.

Okay. Is there anything anyone else wanted to do? If you wish to go into the Azar Step after your business series concluded, it is a difficult mountain trail, but I'm sure with a regular guide you would be fine to reach it. But it is a winding trail through the mountains to get out onto the plains themselves. But we are not too far from the pass into Kelskaris. Azar Step is quite a wide, large province, so it is quite expensive.

But if you have any questions about Galo Zaire, I'd be happy to answer them. Yes, Sir Ron. Your stronghold, there are wards. Yes. Do you have scrys of your own upon the people incarcerated here? No, we have regular routine guards who patrol. Most of our prisoners are criminals. Most of them are crown steel.

Smugglers, a lot of them have been corrupted in mind. ways. They are being treated where we can, but if the subject is not willing, then the reversal of the corruption is not something we can enforce upon them. They are kept in a general holding, which is in the middle of the floor below us, but we have routine guards who patrol them. Their magic is dampened by the woods and cells. As for the more dangerous prisoners in the gullet, we do what we can. to avoid having guards check in on them too regularly. They are particularly nasty. But we do check on them.

I send them more elite and well-trained, disciplined brothers and sisters to check on them, deliver them their food, that sort of thing. Unfortunately, those three, we cannot allow things like exercise or comforts. You're the Deva that I'm taking to speak, Han Faria. We have given him a unique... situation. We have converted an old workshop into half a cell, half workshop, and we give him a lot more comfort than the other prisoners, as he is here voluntarily, at least, most of him is. This does make him rather unpopular with the other prisoners, but we keep them separated and Han enjoys his

freedoms on his own private time. Still, yes, Sister Ophelia. In your absence, if say anything, what to happen and we'd need to report to somebody else or go somewhere safe, what would that procedure be? Not that I doubt your security, I'm just saying any of the, any of the ecliptic or the guards you can tend to and they will be able to assist you. My advice, if anything happens when you are down on the prisoner's floor, come up to the tower immediately. The doors can be barred and sealed and are better protected.

We have the teleportation circle. I can ensure that you get out of here safely, should anything happen. But I would say the tower, this current chamber, is the safest place to go. Thank you. Otherwise,

perhaps if you were desperate, the healers or the armory are also safe places that you could try to reach. But there should not be any issues. No, I have no doubt. I just want to make sure. Of course, of course.

If you are ready, I will take you down below. As he goes, I suppose actually, no, he wouldn't volunteer any information freely. But you definitely get the sense. You probably walk past a pair of holy brother and sister dressed in the robes who are sort of muttering. And you overhear one of them say, Edith is being a problem again.

We try to stop her from scribbling on the walls, but you know what it's like. We can't really get near her. It's very unsettling the way how flesh is so metallic like that. And you sort of hear them sort of speaking as they sort of wander past. Okay. Sort of hearing. Sort of snippets of conversation.

But Argus will take you down, leading you out of the tower. And then we'll take you down the nearest set of stairs, which you move away down. Oh, another floor. And he will lead you along a corridor. and down a secondary corridor. You see... Along the room, as we come out of the tower,

like, do we get a landscape of... That's our staternity? No, you are all interior at this point. This is all very secured from the inside. Okay, fair enough. I think that maybe when you see the stairwell, when you sort of go into the stairwell, there are like thin arrow-slit windows

that you can look out on a defensive. Those are the fast time you really get a sort of glimpse of the outside. But all you really see, is that you are high up in mountains, and that there is dark grey skies all around you. It's raining very heavily, and you do hear the peel and crack of thunder and lightning

sort of echoing around, but through the thick stone walls of the fort, it's suppressed quite significant. But you don't get like a sight of beautiful landscapes. You just see grey mountains, basically, and you are quite deep. into these, you know, thick mountain ranges wherever you are. Okay.

This is a very secluded, very remote location. He, Argus takes you down, leads you down a second corridor with two doors. One is a sort of standard, bolted, studded wooden door that leads off to, from your perspective, right, from the left. And he will turn around and say, that is our general holding. Most of our other regular criminals are held in here. you do not need to go in there and there will be guards patrolling

but here and he gestures and this is much more like a cell door so it's actual bars and like a celled door and you can see the inside of a fairly comfortable looking workshop you see a table with various artisan tools

even ones that potentially could be used as weapons but have been freely given and left out a set of magical bellows that don't seem to breathe fire but have crystals and runic wards and things inscribed onto them. There's no forge or, you know, smelter or anything like that, but there is some sort of stone fireplace-like device

that has magical heating stones within it, basically. And you see like comforts. You see like a nice plush chair. You can see that a sort of armor stand where things have been sort of strapped and you can see that, you know, prototype armours have been sort of at least fitting. onto, but then tucked around the corner you see another set of barred, you know, jail cells

and another door, and you see that sort of sat on the bed reading a book is a man of gildi. Argus will sort of nod and we'll just call out, Han, Han, please come here. And with a wave of his hand, he will activate, Argus activates some sort of ward on the side of the wall and the inner cell door opens, and Hahn sort of looks up, he's like, oh, high inquisitor, I wasn't expecting to see you anytime soon. Is everything all right? Who are these friends of yours?

I mean, he sort of steps out. He wears not a prison uniform or anything like that. He wears fairly simple, commoner garb, sort of a linen shirt, a golden sash kind of wrapped around his waist, a little waistcoat on, sleeves rolled up, you know, big, thick arms, definitely lots of, like, scars and burns on his forearms. This is a blacksmith.

Sort of a decent, you know, sculpted chest, loose trousers. He wears no shoes walking quite comfortably on the cold stone floor. In terms of his face, he has short-cropped, dark black hair, but you can see that natural streaks of golden blonde have almost sort of starting to grow through it. but he keeps it quite neatly chopped and tidy at the sort of back and sides. Definitely a little bit of, you know, a tanned, sort of, you know, tanned complexion, you know, looking like a citizen of guildeye. Sort of heavy brows and sort of looks over to like, hello?

Are there, other guards? Like, how well protected is this? So you would see that there are guards patrolling, the corridor. So you probably see like in pairs, a brother and a sister, or two brothers, holy brothers of the Ecliptic Order. And when I say brother, I don't obviously mean family ones. I mean like monks, you know, nuns, patrolling up and down. And they wear light armor and they carry, you can see that they have like cudgels and weapons on their on their belts and things like that. But they don't seem to be too fuss. You definitely can, you probably

see them come and go in that door that leads to the general holding. And when that opens, you do hear some rowdy sort of conversations coming from that direction. But the patrols are fairly regular. But there's not like there's people like station. No, and especially not out this guy's cell. Like this, almost you wouldn't imagine that he is a prisoner. If it wasn't for the barred door, you wouldn't think this guy was a prisoner. He just was living in a rather tight, you know, apartment, basically.

But he will sort of just remember, hello? Hello? We are travelers from Cold Jersey. Ash and Rest, if you've heard of it. Of course, yes. Argus, would we be allowed to enter? Yes, I will allow that. And he will touch the wall again,

and you see another sort of warding room open up, a glow, and the door opens. And Han just steps back, makes no indication that he wants to leave. You probably see him sort of like hold his head, and he's like, be quiet. And then he sort of steps back, and Argus will let you in.

I will shut the door behind you, but all you have to do is call out and one of the other guards will come and release you when you are ready to leave. Fantastic. But we will leave you. I will leave you in Hans' company. I have matters that they need to go and attend with.

But should there be anything you should, just call out for one of the Holy Brothers or Holy Sisters and they will come and assist you. Thank you. Yes, of course. And he sort of lets you all in. Once you've all entered, he will close the cell and touch the wall and you see the ruin glow again.

But Hans, like, well, I don't often have guests. I'm afraid I don't really have any tea or snacks to offer you, but... Well. Well, I got a surprise for you. Hello, I'm Rowan. Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Han, nice to meet you.

Oh, don't. Oh, really? Please. Thank you, it's been aged. Someone else for anything? Yes, actually. Travel really takes it out of me, especially travel that fast. Lati?

You okay, Rowan? Peace. I mean... How do you recover a spilled latte from a bag of holding? That's in there now. It's not like you have modern takeaway cups, right? He would have had to have put it in, like, a mug or something. Put that in there, and it's just all gone.

But you can see that Han greedily eats the course. Oh, brilliant. I can't complain. They do try their best to give me good food up here, but you know, you miss the little treats and things like that. The bakeries and the little sweet desserts and things like that. God, I miss some of my food from my village. Well, you seem to have made a lovely home for yourself.

I must say that is, the Inquisitors and the Ecliptic Order have done their best to make me feel comfortable. I mean, it's not ideal. It's still a cell. It's still a prison cell. But, you know, I get out, I'm allowed to go out to the courtyard whenever I really want to for a walk. I have books. They bring me various books. If I need anything, they'll go and fetch it for me. So it's, you know, it's a good arrangement that we have. But why are you here to speak with me? Oh, hi, I'm Daisy. Hello, hi, Daisy.

We have a bit in common. Common. Ah, ah. Well, I hope that we don't have too much in common, Daisy. I wouldn't want to inflict this asshole than anybody. Shut up, and he's just sort of like, yes, you're an asshole. Oh, see, no, I'm very, very fortunate. I quite like my friend.

I'm glad, I'm glad to hear it. I mean, look, I can't complain too much. Yes, I know, I know you help save our lives. Yes, I know that, yes. But you've also been a right pain in the ass ever since. You won't shut up. Okay. Zach is a nightmare.

He's an absolute asshole. Oh, sir. Okay. Yes. Zachariah is his full name. And you see Nym is like, Zachariah, Warsmith. I think I do know that name. There aren't too many warsmiths in the legions,

and he wasn't deployed with any force that I ever fought with, but I know the name. My, um, um, um, um, um, um, serenonym. Uh, they just, I, I guess I, I wanted to talk to you because I think we, we might have something trying to hunt us down that you might have encountered before. To see.

Have you, have, Has it come for you yet? Not yet, but it's... Have you had the dreams? Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry, Daisy. It's not an easy thing. And I'm glad that it hasn't come for you yet.

But I'm sorry for when it does. Is there anything that you can advise? For the Jaeger, for the hunter? Look, I've watched these ecliptic order guys, you know, he tears through them. But they, in numbers, or sometimes with superior magic or weapons that I've helped them make, they can defeat it. But it just goes back to the celestial realms. And Zach told me that when the spirit returns, it, they basically repair it. The hunter, it is a celestial spirit. It's like your nym. It's like my Zach. But it's

also different. It's, they have to sort of rebuild him. And every time they do, it gets worse. And over the centuries, over the thousand years it's been doing this, it's, it's not really itself anymore. Now, I suggested, what if we could trap it? What if we could capture it in a magic circle? And yes, I know you don't like that idea. I know. I know. I know. But what other choice do we have, Zach? What other choice? It will just keep hunting people like Daisy and me and all the others. I don't care if it...

He doesn't like that idea. And you hear like NIM doesn't really like that idea either. Like she doesn't say anything, or they don't say anything, but they feel anxious and nervous about that concept. I thought maybe we could try and trap it, but that wasn't... They didn't like that. I thought, what if we could find some way to permanently

destroy it. Apparently they'll just build a new one. Or make a new one here. I don't know. It seems to be some sort of title that can be inherited by Celestial Spirit. Like somebody can become the Yeager, become the hunter. It's sort of an honor bestowed upon them by, in their military or something. And so they just sort of pass the title onto the next one and then they get sent out to find us. I've been talking to the Inquisitor here and apparently another one of their order is trying to come up with something. They said that there might be a way to take the spirits out of us and give them their

own bodies. And then the hunter would just be after them and they could, I don't know, go to an island or something and make it their own problem. It wouldn't have to hurt anyone in the empire anymore. But as far as I know, that's still a working theory. They haven't made any progress on that yet. Is there any kind of weapons that might help, at least for now? I do have something that we found that we haven't been able to figure out,

and can I get the celestial rod and show it to them? Yeah, he sort of takes it in his hands. All right, Zach, you need to be behaved. I'm going to let you have a little bit of control. Not a lot, but you need to look at this. She's nice, all right, and she's one of us. Would it help if I... Nym can speak in your head.

Would it help if I opened up a line of communication with all of us? On your head be it, girl. I mean, if you want to talk to him, be my guest. I wouldn't want anyone to have to deal with what I do, but if you really want to, he really wants to. He wants to talk for himself, but it's your funeral. Well, it's worth a shot. Maybe it would be nice for them to speak for a little bit.

I don't know. Be my guest. I will activate the communication. Sure. Who do you want from your friends to be included, if any? How many years it took me? I have to leave one person out, yeah. Wait, no, I don't know.

I can include all of us. Well, you'll need to include Zat. Sorry, Han. That's why me... The d-a-nim and... No, they don't count. Oh, okay. They're kind of part of Daisy and heart.

Oh, I see. Two for one on mental telepathy. If you can speak to one, you can speak to both. Great. I said you buy one, you get one free. I said you buy one, you get one free. I didn't need that back in my mind. I don't know why I just...

It never left my life. I think about that far too often. Not willingly. Did we not figure out that we could have ever... or did we have to leave someone out? I can't ever remember the wording of how the disability is. I know, we look it up again. I mean, it's fine.

Like, we can just say, like, leave one person out for now and we can correct it. Well, okay. He's... Oh, Row and Roe's fine, I'll sit out. You get caught up. I've never unblocked you from the last time. Mitch.

I know, I keep sending your messages and you don't respond. Go straight to the trash. Get you a message, please respond. Yeah. Okay, we'll just leave... You volunteered. We'll leave Santhi. No, we'll leave Rowan out because we left Santhi, so... Okay.

So you all feel this mental connection. Not you're doing that. And, you know, everything is channeled through Daisy. So Daisy can kind of help, you know, convey messages and things like that. But immediately, this voice fills your head. It's a booming but quite frantic voice. Very clearly masculine. Unlike Nim, who is a lot more androgynous

and sort of gender neutral. Is that, is it working? Can you hear me? Yeah, yeah. Yes, divine, please, you must, this madman has kept us locked in here. He volunteered himself. Please, my spirit, my sibling,

the divine spirit within you, please, you must help me escape from this place. It is unbearable to be trapped within these walls of stone. Shut up, just listen. We were outside, you say my life, and then that thing comes after us. This is safer. This is safer for me.

This is safer for my family. This is safer for everybody else around us. Stop being such a selfish prick. I thought angels were supposed to be good. It's not about that. There is great work that needs to be done, please. And you can hear this desperate pleading of this celestial spirit. Well, we're trying to do some work to maybe help things.

So you could maybe have a look at this thing that we have. Maybe we can work towards a solution. You hear this pause. I will take that as... At least you will consider it. But please, do not listen to this man. He cares only for himself and his family. He thinks that he is being noble, but he is not.

There is a great purpose that we must achieve. You understand this. Do you not, surrender him. No, I don't. I'm here to look after Daisy. That is what I care about. What purpose are you speaking of? Some low-level scout or grunt, I'm sure.

Fine, I will look at this thing for you. And you see Zach's eyes turn golden and his hands begin to glow as if they were encased in plate armour and he holds this rod. Yes, yes, I... Ah. This was forged.

This was made in the Lucent Peaks. This was given to a mortal as a gift. It's forged a powerful bond between them and a commander. This is of an angel of high authority. Yes, this allowed them to channel power, to draw power directly from that celestial and use it as a weapon to empower their spells. But it's bound, it's locked to that commander specific.

What would you like me to do with this? What do you want from it, Daisy? I just want to be able to use it to defend ourselves against the Yeager, anything that comes for us that tries to take Nim away. I want to be able to defend. I think I could do something with this. It's not a weapon itself, you understand.

This is, this was, this was, This was made for somebody who uses magic, a warlock, a spellcaster. Do you have weapons? Yes, I'll summon a blade, just... Just the blade. Do you have any others that you use? I use a bow sometimes. I have this. I'll show them parheelian. Oh, this is beautiful. Both the blade and this bow. This was not celestial, but it bears so much divine power.

This is, yes, this was created by a follower of Pyrus. Yes, I can see there now. It was made with such love and devotion. This is a protector's weapon. But this blade is yours. I think I can do something here. Yes, yes, I can see it. I think what I could do is I can unbind this rod from the commander that it was bound to.

And I'll bind it to, you. you and Sareninem instead. But to turn it into a weapon that you can use, that you can use to defend yourself and your friends, I need to merge it with another weapon. Or two. I think what I could do is I could turn this rod and take your bow and your dagger

and make something out of all three, something that you could use that would be a powerful weapon and bear the energy, this relic bow that you've carried. but offer you something else in return, a powerful tool. Will it be of much use against the hunter? I mean, it will be a powerful weapon,

and they can only be harmed by magical weapons. I think I might be able to do something where we could maybe overpower its... Yes, most celestials are... They can't be harmed by radiant energy. But I think maybe we could use this to make it so you could bypass that somehow. I mean, that would be great.

All of this sounds good. It will take me some time just to work on it, but I think I could do something with it. The other option is, I'm wondering if there's anything we could do with this rod. Its purpose is to create a link between a mortal and a celestial. Not quite like our bond. Something more transactional.

I wonder if there's something we could do with the hunter, if we could use this as some sort of trap or weapon or something. But you can again hear Zach like, no, we cannot treat another celestial. You don't understand, you mortals don't understand what it is like to have your will to be trapped, to be bound like that. It's not right. And what you did was? No, that's different.

I was helping you. I was going to disappear. So was she. and you kind of hear this kind of argument kind of echoing through your minds. But there's this moment where Han just sort of looks. I would let you and your friends have a moment to think while I ponder how I can make all this happen.

There was one other thing that I was hoping might be able to help us with because you're a blacksmith. Yeah, I was. We found these and I'll show him the Luxon Shards. You hear Zachariah and me to be like, Luxon! It's been so long!

and immediately the hands sort of take the shards. He talked about this stuff all the time. This is what they use. This is what they make their weapons, their armor, their siege equipment, everything. They even, they grind it down and use it for spells in the Lucent Peaks in the wars. This is powerful stuff.

Maybe it could help with something with the rod and with crafting it into something. Almost certainly. Just one, we do want to ask if you might be able to separate some essence from it, for part of it, to use for my friend who needs to use that for a spell. Hi there, Xanthius Oregon.

Nice to meet you, Xanthius. You need Plainer Essence of the Lucent Peaks. If possible, if it can be extracted from the shards. Definitely can. It needs to be worked. Have you seen in essence before a Plainaur essence? Do you know what forms they take? Yes, many forms, potions, ingots, spiders, roses.

as... Yes, I've seen... You're clearly familiar, yes, you seem to know. From what... And you've got to remember, I used to chew horses and make nails and fix, you know, lamps around town,

but since bonding with Zach, I sort of understand their smithing a little bit more. What I can do is, it will take about half of these luxem chants. There won't be much left, but I could forge it into an essence. It will take the form of

probably best I'd work with what I know, a helmet. Okay, yes, that would be suitable. But it will be infused with the essence of the Luson Peaks, and it would function essentially as a planar essence. As for the rest of them, Daisy, the rod with your dagger and your bow, I think I can do something with just those.

I mean, the rod is powerful. If you had been some sort of mage or spellcaster, this would have been very powerful indeed, but I think I can take that power and this bow that you have. I can do something with them on its own. For the other Luxon, I could try and make you something else out of it, if that would be of use to you?

Yes, it would be good to maybe have another dagger, something that comes from the Lucent Peaks. I think we can do that. I think there's enough here for a nice blade. Yes, I think I could do something like that. It will be charged with, it won't be the most powerful, but it would be charged with celestial energy. It's more of this symbolic of having something that...

Would you like it to look like your current one? Could I make it look like this one, and I'll summon what Nim's blade? Her Gladius, her short sword. Ah, now that I know how to make very well. Well, Zach does. He's made plenty of them. Oh, yes, absolutely, I can do something like that for you. Sure.

Yes, it'll take me a bit of time, but I've got the tools and things here. Yes, I think I can do something with these, yes. Yeah, if you have any other ideas on how we might be able to stop the Yeager and then we're open to it, but... It's a tricky one because how do you stop something that can just keep coming back? I mean, if any of you have an idea, I could probably make something. I could probably try and design something, but I just don't even know where to begin. I mean, I was running from that thing for years.

It came after me and my family, and that's when we, that's when the Ecliptic Order found us. They had heard about this. The thing was hunting me. We moved from village to village trying to get away from it, but it just kept tracking us down. It seems to really, really want Zach. The only thing he'll tell me, and you hear the celestial spirit has gone dead silent, the only thing he'll tell me is that warsmiths are rare, and the fact that he abandoned his post. was a big deal.

So it kept chasing us and I just watched so many people get in the way and get hurt and my family they were at risk, my daughter and my wife and I, when the Ecliptic order showed up I just offered myself to them. I said look, take my family, give them a new

life, give them whatever they need and I'll come with you and I'll work on, I'll make weapons, I'll make armor I'll use this knowledge that I have, whatever it is but just put me somewhere it can't find me and make them same. So it's been chasing me a long time. How is it that it can't find you here?

Well, the thing is it has found me in other strongholds. They try and put up wards, but, you know, it's a hunter. It doesn't just rely on magic. It knows how to track. It knows how to hunt, how to search. You know, it interrogates if it needs to. It finds guards at the last place. It tries to get information out of them.

It takes a long time. It takes a long time. You know, months, sometimes months, sometimes years. And you can see that Han is probably closer to like 40s, like mid-40s. It takes sometimes years for him to track me down, but, you know, when he does, he just makes a full assault. Normally is fought back, but, you know, they've had to move me to a few different strongholds. As far as I understand, this one has other new wards.

They're trying different wards to try and shield me from it, but maybe it's only a matter of time before it. it finds me here. Hmm. But as I understand it, there are other Davids that it hunts as well. It's not just me. It just seems to be particularly interested in Zach.

I have met another one who was hunted and then moved to a small island and seems to have been avoiding it so far, but it takes a lot of moving around. I imagine,

I mean, if you've never encountered it before, I imagine that you've probably done the same. constantly moving and steady your feet. I mean, even in Ashden, rest, we haven't really been there that much. We've kind of been moving around constantly. Yes, well, we also just teleported, so that probably hinders that Yeager.

Is there a Yeager per Deva? No, as I understand it, there is one. Right. That tracks all Deva. As far as I know, Zach certainly doesn't seem to, and NIM sort of confirmed. is like, I do not know of multiple hunters. It was a story told amongst the troops, a sort of frightful tale for deserters that you'd get pursued.

But is it possible to track the Yeager? Not something I think anybody's tried before. Because it vanishes for such long periods of time in between its attacks, nobody's really tried to before. I can't imagine that any sort of standard magic would work, but I wonder if there is something you could do. Maybe we could speak to Scaritalis. Potentially, yes.

Like could be an option. It doesn't defend, but so long as we know where it is, then it makes it easier to keep moving from it. You'd probably need, you know, think of it like hunting an animal, right? Like you need to mark it in some way. You need to leave some sort of magical mark on it. So that even if it goes back to the... loose and peaks, you still retain that connection to it.

But if you could find a way to do that, maybe you could try and track this thing. In terms of stopping it permanently, the only other thing I can think of is forging some sort of deal with the Celestial Legion to get it to stop hunting you. I don't think that they would take kindly to a deal. It's not just me, though. I don't want any Deva to have to deal with it. I couldn't promise them anything in return. I would never give anyone up to it.

I would never want to surrender with NIM. I don't want to send NIM back there. I just, there's nothing that I can offer them that they would stop for. It's true. They probably would demand some sort of high price. I wonder, hello, my name is Grav, I wonder if there's something we can do.

Just thinking of essences with Atheus, you know, all these essences seem to be in conjunction with each other, strengths, weaknesses. I wonder if there's something like an essence we can use that it's weak against. It would be from the pits if it was. It would be the... Well, that's the most obvious sort of opposite, right?

You know, that, I mean, certainly some sort of demonic weapon would probably be very effective against the Yeager. It would probably strike quite well against it, at least in a conventional fighting its sense. I was actually wondering, well, the Celestials, you Celestials, right, you're in a war against the Anderred, the Gravefather. Nym will say, technically we are at war against all of the Plainer realms. Oh, okay, I didn't have realized the full scope.

that you have how many people you've pissed off right, okay? I mean, it's more that, I mean, all of the realms have been warring for an eternity graph. I don't think they even know why they're fighting anymore. I know. It's just fighting. It's for control of everything. It's to inflict the celestial legion believe

that they can bring order and peace to everything. They believe that they are the inheritors of existence. And that is what, As I understand it, all of the Plainar Realms believe. They believe that their very being is what life should be. That's why it's so hard to argue with it. Even myself, I must admit, I struggle sometimes not to enforce my will on Daisy when I disagree with you all,

because it is in my very nature to enforce order, to enforce what I believe to be right. But I've learned that I've learned an... It's why I fled the celestial realms, that this is wrong, that the planar realms are wrong, that you have such a beautiful thing here, that you have freedom and music and beauty and rebellion, and you get angry and fight with each other,

but there is choice in all of that, and that is so important. What if, I mean, is there anything, Niem and Zachariah in your experiences on the battlefields? is there anything that you in particular have struggled against? Zachari is like, no. The arms and armaments of the celestial legions are unbeatable. It is only through trickery and sheer numbers

that our foes managed to stand against us. If it were not for the unending hordes of the grey lands or the befouled machinations of the twin. Right, you know, Hilton. We're not trying to offend you. We're trying to use the information to help us. And by extension, help you. I suppose.

You see the Zachariah's voice grumbles but goes deep into thought. Nim will say, wait, gruff, you may, maybe you're on to something. Maybe the answer isn't force. Maybe the answer isn't necessarily a weapon that can be forged, or it isn't, you know, the Twin Pits or the Greylands.

One of the hardest foes that we have to fight is the Faye-Wield, because they use trickery, because they lead us on a merry dance and chase. They're like trying to catch shadows. What if we could do something with Faywild energy and trick the hunter, make it think that it's chasing after things that aren't real?

Send it after Davis who don't exist. I mean, we found that there were powerful Faye. What was that beings named the Harlequin? I could tell that they had immense magic. and power, perhaps there is something we could do, but we'd need something. Well, could we use some of the essences from the Luxon Shards as a celestial signature? Yes, I think Grub... you said your name was Gruffeth? Hello, from Tramoro.

Trimorrow. I think you might be right. Daisy, forgive me. Instead of this blade, instead of that sword, what if I could make... You know, it's funny, you gave the idea you had Zantius marking this... Fridge? What? Oh, it's a work in progress. Don't worry about it. No, you said marking, tracking this thing, right?

Yes. What we need is something that we can, something that's going to connect the hunter to a power in the Faywield, something that they can channel their magic through and keep it blind, keep it obscured. Oh, yes, use it for anything that's more useful. That's fine.

All right. Yeah, we can. Here's what I could do. I could probably a craft, I can use these luxen shards. It will take more than it normally would, but I could make an arrow. And if you can get that arrow infused with fey-wield power,

and it needs to be power, and you can strike the Yeager when it's weakened with that arrow, I think that might have a chance. You know, you weaken its defenses, you weaken its will by fighting it, and then when it's in a weakened state, the arrow serves as a tether, a mark that links it to some powerful Fayewild that then blinds it, makes it think that there are things that aren't real.

The Celestial Legions wouldn't know. They would think the hunters just doing its job. So it wouldn't get replaced because they think it's still working. But it never finds another Deva. It chases after shadows. Well, I mean, we have Faywild essence. You're talking about how great... Do you have them with you?

No. I have two and they're both in a tavern. I wonder if this would have an gruff will take out the scrimish or mirror that the harlequin gave him. Really? You've not used it yet. What's that, Graf? Oh, the harlequin gave it to me. I mean, this is...

It's strange. It's not an essence and it's not powerful magic, but I can feel that there's a connection to something. Well, we can always go back and get the Faye wheel. We have two. We can go back and get them. Well, one. After I need my one.

Well, we have one left, so. I'll be honest with you, Griffith. This mirror, whatever it is, it's powerful, but I don't think I can use it in this arrow. But if it has some sort of connection to a Faye, maybe you could use it to, I don't know, speak to them or something like that. I don't know if it serves as something.

sort of scrying tool or communication tool, but... Oh, I'm not entirely sure myself. Well, I can't really use it in the arrow. What I could do is I could construct the lux and arrow with the shards that we have left after I make your other essence. And... Daisy, I know... You're not a smith or anything, I know, but I think...

Now, Zach, you're going to have to work with me on this. No, I will not share the secrets of the warsmiths. You're going to do what I tell you to. or that's it, we're done. We are trying to save your buck, actually. But it is against the sacred order. We swear an oath not to share these secrets. We're not going to share all of it.

Maybe if this works, you won't have to be in a cell. I'll tell you what, I'll do you a deal. We make this. You teach Daisy what she needs to pass on to another smith, enough to infuse just the feowled essence to the arrow to make it work. I'll ask them to. to let us go. I'll get them to let us go and you can be free. I will relinquish our bond. You can do what you want. Go find another host, return to the Lucent Peaks, whatever you want to do.

I'm not sure if I wish to leave. What if I cannot find another host? That's whatever you want, but just do this. Please, I don't ask you for anything. It is against the oaths. Daisy, can you do a persuasion check for me with advantage? Faye, fete, right, fete, right, fete, yeah, sure. Fip, fete, fete, ff, f, f, f, f, f. Uh, eh, hang on, I rolled an A. Hey, eh. Uh, persuasion.

Mm. 23. 23. 23. Surinidim, please, Warsmith. This, it would do so much for those of us who have fled. You must have had your own reasons. There must have been something that convinced you to leave.

I know you understand what it is like. Please, just this one small thing. And I personally promise that Daisy and I will not share that information with anyone else. Very well. I will teach you what you must know, but it cannot be shared with another. Thank you. It won't be. With that, all right. I will give you that knowledge.

Take it to a Smith. Somebody skilled. They have to be good, Daisy, like really good. This is not the world. for somebody who shoots horses and makes nails like I was. Without Zach, I couldn't do this, but take that and the arrow, and they should be able to infuse your other essence. And I think that might be enough.

You'll need to find some way of contacting a powerful Faye being to get them to take on the task, I guess, or to make some sort of connection between it, but with the Faye essence, that should be easier. I might be able to help out there, actually. about that actually. I think I might be able to contact if I had sixth level.

Sure, potentially. But it's a medium for... Even if you use them as a messenger, you might be able to be like, hey, can you get word to the Harlechuan or can you get word to like... Do you have a mistress or a queen or a king or something that you could pass this message onto? NIM will also chime in.

It is likely that if this is going to hinder the celestial legions, I, Gruff, if I were you, I would make it that a point because it would give them an advantage in the planar battle. If they know that this is going to weaken the Legion in some way, I mean, it's a compelling argument for them to help you. Oh, right, okay. I'll better than mine, thank you. All right, well, I think that this will work.

Yes, I'll make you a weapon from the rod and your bow and everything else, but the luxen shards. I'll make this arrow. You just need to make it count. Like I said, wait for the Yeager to be weakened and then strike with it. And hopefully, you'll solve all of our problems. Well, I hope so.

No pressure. Just every Deva in the world. Okay. Don't put it all on yourself. Like I said, apparently that this ecliptic order is trying to work on some sort of way of getting our own, their own bodies in some way. I don't really understand it, but apparently it's something they've been working on.

All right, well, yes, this will take me a bit of time, but make yourselves comfortable. And yeah, well, as comfortable as you can, it is a jail cell, but yeah, I'll see what I can do. Zachariah, what is this... Yes. Zanthius Oregon. What is this great purpose you intend to chase outside of this jail cell?

It is not for you to know. It is... it is... There are so many things. The war, the beings that once came, the child. So much of it, there is a great, there's a great work and a great enemy and a great force. It is not for us to discuss with you. It might be a mutual enemy.

I've already given you enough, bearer of nim, serenonym. I cannot give you more. Is it enough for serenonym to know? She is, she is not. She is not privileged. She is, she is of low rank. Does rank still apply? Yes, yes, it must, it must.

Or else? You would not understand. You're in a jail cell, I don't think rank applies. It feels like it would be beneficial for at least serenonym to know your great purpose. Give me a persuasion role. Sure. With, not with disadvantage, sure. But this DC is very high.

Yeah, that's fair. Fait, fete, fete. That's fated. That's fating. Fault. Uh, persuasion, you say. Yes. Okay.

Do I have anything special with this? I don't know. Oh, God. Um, okay, so 12 plus eight, 20. I know, it's probably not enough. It was very high. There is just this, you are mortal of the material plane.

You will never understand. why rank still matters. There are matters, very fabrics of what make us, us that cannot be denied, cannot be changed. The great purpose, the great work. No.

Of the child, the armies. Can I flash up an image of us fighting the embered at the site of the crown fall? That is very good. That is very good. Can you make an insight roll, Daisy, please? 22.

I think what you get is a flash. When you share that image, Zachariah sort of has a flash of memory that echoes through Han and into you and Sarenitinim. And what you see, you and your insight and rolling high, curse you. What you see, I think,

is a flash where you see, you don't see the figure themselves. Again, you remember a scene like this where you are in a crowd, a celestial legion, you see, you know, blue-skinned, white-skinned, you know, pale-cream-skinned, angels sort of in rows and rows. And you remember something like this, because you saw something like this through serenonym's eyes, but you were at the back, you were far away. You couldn't really see. Now you are closer to the front, and you are not serenonim, you are amongst other smiths. You can see them proudly wielding great hammers with great, you know, braces, blacksmiths, you know, smocks and things like that on them.

And you don't see the figure, but you see the, this sort of council of celestial commanders in the most resplendent armor and helmets, sort of capes over one shoulder, sort of proudly, almost looking like Roman sort of centurians, stood there proudly, their angelic wings kind of flowing behind them. them. You can see spectral images of things that are not humanoid. You see great sort of multiple ringed beings and great eyes sort of floating spectrally around them as well. And the figure, they're not cloaked, but it's almost like the vision is blurry, like it's too much heat that you can't see them. It's almost warping the air around them. But you do see

other figures sort of trailing behind them, figures that you would recognize from depictions. by of the Sions. You see a great tall, forearmed, beautiful, very fay-like woman. You've seen Malia depicted as a forearmed, very fay-like woman. You see a, at this point, she would have two celestial wings. Another celestial, but perhaps one who bears a slight physical difference looks very similar to Pyrus. You see some of our other figures that sort of remind you of, you know, perhaps depictions of Ulfay, perhaps even of the embered before they were corrupted. And the figure that is surrounded by this haze that you can't penetrate is sort of kneeled

before these celestial commanders. And they are presenting a crown to them. And it is made of Luxon. And you see that crown and then you see that crown cracked and broken, and fire fills those cracks, and it fills those gaps. And then that's where the vision sort of ends. No, no, get out, I will not speak of it. And then Zach just goes silent.

That wasn't a shared vision, was it? That was just a... That was just NIM. Like, literally, like, Daisy, as she flashed that image of fighting the emissary of sovereign, sure. There's recognition, and it's almost like, you know, when, if somebody says, don't think of a red car, and you're immediately... And so it has that kind of effect, right,

where, like, Zach immediately has this, like, memory and it corresponds to what it's just been seen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you're mad right now, but I just... It's just that we have a common enemy, and we are of the same mind, and we're not trying to get all of your secrets for anything negative.

That's all I'll say, but thank you for your help. He's retreated. he's hiding, but listen, Zach is not, I don't know how much you know about the Davis. I've tried to learn as much as I can from the Ecliptic order. If a spirit, if a celestial spirit doesn't have a host for a long time, it sort of breaks down and it becomes unstable. Zach didn't have a host for a really long time. And when he came to me, he was desperate.

He was badgering me for weeks and weeks and months and months, and I wouldn't let him in, and I could feel him breaking away as he did that. What's left, it's one of the reasons we don't get on is he's not well. I'm sorry. When he sets his mind like this, he's kind of done, but I hope that whatever you saw was useful. And if I can convince him to help, I will, but he rarely listens.

That's okay. well, hopefully we can help you and everyone else who is in the same situation. I mean, listen, if you ever encounter another warsmith or another powerful Deva who's from a higher rank, you know, speak to them about it. You know, they do exist. You know, a lot of them are the lower,

the lower rank soldiers and medics and scouts and things like that, but, you know, everybody is subject to the same doubts that, you know, Surin and him and Zach have had. But listen, I need to focus. I'm going to concentrate on this. give me a few hours and I should be able to put something together. And you see that he goes over to his workbench

and he gestures at the sort of half-forge, not really a full forge, and radiant light begins to fill it. And he immediately goes about his work. He lays down parheelian, and you see that very meticulously he sort of almost begins to break part helium down into parts. He sort of breaks the crystals in the arms away.

he begins to separate the sort of handle of the bow. But then the pieces begin to float, and celestial ribbons of light begin to adjoin them and the dagger and everything. And you begin to see that pieces break away and then re-snap through each other, and they begin to change almost like liquid gold being flown and molded into a new shape.

But you see Han is like sweating profusely as he controls these sort of radiant gauntlets and his eyes blare with light, deep in focus as he'd be. begins to work on this. Giving you guys a moment, if there is anything you guys, you know. Yeah. Brilliant idea, everybody.

That seemed to go rather well. Yes, I mean, yep. We're getting the shards. Yeah. Dwindle down. How are you feeling? Good. If we can help, not just me, but other Deva, then that's more than I thought possible.

It does mean we want. will have to fight the Yeager. Well, we were gonna have to fight it anyway, but now at least if we fight it, it has the purpose of helping more than just me. Yes, but I mean, you will be, I mean, it's likely it will charge through us in order to get to you, but you will be most at threat

in that fight. But it's always been in the back of my mind that that was happening anyway, just when it happened. before I didn't have any help or any chance. And now I feel like maybe I'll have a bit of a chance. She may be little, but she is fierce. Yes. Well...

I also don't want you to get hurt. I... if... if there's any situation where it looks like that is the case, then please just... just walk away from it. Just... I keep telling people that. I don't. Yeah, I think you know right now that that doesn't work, Daisy. It was worth the show.

No, yeah. Because, yeah, I would do the same. I will be by your side. Well, I say by your side, slightly in front of you with my shield in front of you. If it helps, I will be far away at the back, but I'll be helping. It would be my honour to help, Daisy.

Thank you. I just... I just... I want to... If we have to fight it, then let's fight it. once and then be rid of the problem. Yes. For me and for everyone else.

And then we can not have to run. I could stay somewhere if I wanted. Would be an option. Just strike it with the arrow. No pressure. While it's weakened. No pressure. Easy.

If I miss. Then it will probably sink into the ground and all of Althea will be tricked into the Fayewil trick of. thinking that it's hunting something that does not exist. You won't miss. You just pick it up and try again? Easy.

Maybe? Yeah. That's how that works, right? Of course. Arrows don't break. Especially ones infused with Fay World Magic. Okay, yeah. We just need to get that first

and get the powerful Fay to agree to do something for us, which always goes really well. I think at some point, maybe an hour passes, and one of the Holy Sisters that actually traveled from Ash and Rest with you sort of makes her way down. You never learned her name, but she sort of pops, sort of comes along. Heroes, High Inquisitor asked me just to check

that everything is well, that you are... I have no idea. Everything is fine. She looks at hand who is deep in concentration, forging something, like, I trust all as well? Yes, very, very good, very good, actually. We've had a lovely chat. We have some time actually.

I suppose we could just come back later, maybe explore some of the ARI keep. There is not much to explore Xantheus, but yes, I'm Sister Thorn, by the way. Yes, if you'd like me to let you out, I'm sure that you can return to hand later on. Do you want a cookie? Roan is laid out as much as he can remember.

Okay. From the bag. Oh God, was he forgotten in the bag? Yeah. There's like, you know, there's three cookies. two muffins, a jam donut. There was something really tasty, I just can't remember the name of it.

Yeah, a chocolate twist. Do you have all the red velvet cake? She sort of looked, in a way. You sort of, she's like looking at it, like, no, no, I shouldn't. But there's definitely a, she really wants to. All right. Oh. Yeah.

Well, if you, I can let you out. There really is not much. I could take you up to the shrunk. to the courtyard, but there is not too much. I'm afraid that really this is just a holding cell for these despicable criminals and the plain-touched horrors of the Gullet. Pray that you certainly don't want to go down there

at any point, nasty, nasty things down there. A plain-haunched-hors. That's the guy that the ones threw in the vault, right? I just have a little peak, right? No, we could just have a little look. But if you want, I'm sure that I can return you, you can bring you back to speak to Han later. Yeah, this will take some time

if you want to go and get some food or rest, please do. This will take me a bit of time. Yes, I think it's worth having a look around, just getting acquainted with the place. You're going to be here for a few hours anyway? I'm not that cell that says ghoul. Goal? Well, I mean, you don't know what's down there.

The map is labeled for my benefit. When the shit Welsh-achson is not on? It's pure Kim, baby. Yeah. So yeah, she touches the side of the wall, the room glows and the main door into the corridor opens and you guys will step through. Well, I could take you upstairs if you want. I'm assuming you don't want to see anything down here,

but yes, I could take you upstairs. I'd like to see the shrine, that's okay. Yes, of course, of course. And we'll lead you back up the stairs and take you to the southern area of the main keep through several doors. You notice all the doors here are barred, but there's no keyholes. Everything seems to be magically locked using arcane lock, like runes and wards and things like that.

Just to, you know, it seems to be an extra measure of security and sort of touches the wall. They all seem to have sort of authorization to do so and leads you into a beautiful shrine to the Sions, to Pyrrhus and Melaus specifically. You don't see any representations of the divine saints here. the Ecliptic Order seemed to almost solely worship Pirates and Malia. The two sisters, statues of them on either side of an altar, presented very much in the same way of Daisy's vision. With a couple of minor exceptions, Malia, her forearms carried,

three of them carry different objects, a key, a book and a mask, I think, or a mirror is the other one, sorry, so it's a book, mirror, and a key in four of her arms. Long hair, very masked and veiled figure, but very elegant, very fine, tall, a little alien, a little unsettling, the forearms, but also just the proportions, almost like stretched out a bit too tall and thin. Pyrus, on the other hand, is the epitome of a war, you know, an armored angelic warrior, a blazing halo of fire, sort of, you know, a sun behind her head. But unlike the vision that Daisy saw, one wing is angelic and the other wing is fiendish, is demonic.

And that comes from the story that during the Equinox War, during the fight for Alfei, the story goes that demons ripped off one of her wings mid-flight and she ripped off a demon's wing and magically sealed it to her back so she could keep flying, basically.

She ripped off. The alternative story is some people, and this is a very unpopular belief, believe that Pyris was already a demon who had joined and did the opposite. It was the celestial who ripped off her wing and she installed that instead. Cool.

Either way. Pretty badass. Either way she ripped off a wing and attached it. And attached it magically attached it to herself, so she keeps flying. And it's a beautiful shrine. You can see that there are a couple, maybe two, a brother and a, no,

two holy brothers, sort of muttering prayers, one to melee, one to Pyris, dressed in their uniforms. Obviously, Sister Thorn is like, please, as you kind of go in. Okay. Sort of looks, the brothers kind of pause for a minute and then continue chanting, all I just want you.

Do you remember when we're, Oh, I'm there. Do you remember when we're at a bright shadow cathedral when we all gave a secret? No, I didn't do it. Oh, I said. I did actually.

Oh, it was your secret? That's when me and Ophelia made this conversation. Outside. I wonder if they've got secrets. I don't think they'll tell you. But yeah, Afia, you see the shrine? It's small, it's not particularly big

It's designed for the small number of Monks and sisters and nuns that are here Is there anything else I can show you? Or anything you would like to learn about Gelliserie? Where does the Crownfall go? Crownsteel go that you recovered from the Crown Force? The Crownsteal is secured in the armoury until it can be destroyed.

There are rituals that can destroy it and normally those are performed but they can take considerable magical power and resources. Can you put this in the circle? We would like to destroy this. Put them in for the wash, please. Maybe, yeah. Obviously this is nine character.

No, she would say, yes, no, we perform rituals, but they are very securely stored in the armoury until that happens. Oh, would it be okay if I learned of these rituals? I could, I mean, the High Inquisitor is the one who knows them. I don't personally know the rituals. As I understand it, they cannot be performed by an individual. It has to be performed by... several powerful practitioners working in unison.

As I understand it is a secret of the Ecliptic Order, Graffath. You would need to ask the High Inquisitor. I will do. Thank you. Yes. But yeah, if there is nothing else. Yes. Whereabouts in the Azar step, are we right now in the south? We are on the southern edge of the mountains.

Just along the sort of southern border. I'm not too far from the past to Kelskaris. And she will describe a location. I don't have a map handy, so I can't pinpoint you on a map. But she will describe a location that you would probably know. It's probably quite far from your sort of, you know, where your village normally stops for rest and things like that. It's quite far.

That was more northern and sort of up in the sort of northern section, a far section. But still, you know, within easy distance, if you wanted to travel to, you know, villages or stop points, merchant points, trade points. You could easily go and experience much of these are step. Nice.

I say that there is a possibility. Sure. Make use to those ponchos. Yeah. So you were all assuming that something's going to happen here. Yeah. I'm here because Ophelia was coming to the shrine. I was...

Are we doing something in the shrine? I thought to have a look at the shrine if we were away from... Oh, okay. The classic cliff hangar. If the team are dithering a little bit, maybe they're having this conversation outside the shrine, Gruff will linger. Is there paper to write a secret down?

Sure, yeah. So Gruff will take a moment. Always, it's a shrine to make it. He will take a moment to write a secret down and burn it on the shrine. And just take a little moment to just practice his face. Sure. Yeah. I think the, one of the brothers sees you do that, and we'll just give you a very sort of like, you know, respectful, religious nod, like, and we'll just probably come up to you and just be like, may your secret stay safe brother and sort of make their way out, sort of nodding in your direction. And yeah, you practice that and you feel the paper burns and you feel a little, a little lighter as if a burden sort of been taken from you as that secret is shared, you know, with the goddess. And that secret bears a little lighter on your heart and soul as you feel it take place.

You spend some time. Sistothorn will take you to the courtyard, which is like an outdoor kind of garden area. You perhaps, you know, fetch some water and perhaps a few rations from the barracks. But eventually, after a few hours, you are taken back downstairs, and the cell back into Han's cell is opened, and you step in. and you can see that he has, the helium bow and your dagger are gone. The rod remains, but it's been changed.

And you can see that one of Parheelian's crystals is at the top, and there is a sort of bladed point at the bottom. The rod itself still has one of Parheelian's dogs, but then all the ornate decoration of one of your daggers has also now woven in to create sort of like this unifying pattern across the whole thing. and he will hand it to you and just say,

think of what you want to wield. Oh. Oh, God, I don't know. I guess for Daisy, it's always going to be the dagger because that's just always what she's known. And she probably does think of the same dagger that she's had on her belt the whole time. The rod flares with light and then,

it has become that dagger. And it is now that dagger. And you can feel that there is magical power in the dagger that there wasn't before. I think the only difference is at the center of the dagger where it normally is thing is, one of Parheelian's crystals is glowing in the middle of it now.

And you can feel that the dagger has a power that it didn't have before. I will, because I didn't know exactly what we were going to make, I will create a new magic item to represent this new unified creation. it will still be a relic, but its form has now completely changed. And it has become its own thing.

It is no longer parheelian, there's no longer your dagger, it's no longer the rod. It's like a brand new thing made of sort of combined of their magics. You also see that he will hand to you, he will hand to you, Daisy, a single golden arrow.

The flights, almost, he's worked it into fine, feathery-like material, but it is a single solid gold arrow. No, not gold, because luxen isn't necessarily gold. It's like luminance. It's like light made physical. So it's this shimmering, beautiful gold, like, you know, lighted arrow. And you will hand that to you keep it safe.

That's, I can't make, you know, even if you brought me more luxen I could make more, but you'll need to infuse the essence, the fe essence, into it as well. But yes, I think that that, that, if I, it's only a theory, but I've worked it through my head, and I think that this could work. I do think that the sort of different ideas combined will work. Thank you. It's my pleasure. I hope that we can meet again and I can tell you.

If you succeed against that hunter, tell Argus and you definitely will. I can go to my family. You can come for dinner. We'll be safe. I don't have to worry about anything ever again. Well, if you do leave here, there is always a place in Ashen Rest for you at Tyria's Rest. It might be hard to get my family out of Gildo,

but maybe we can come and visit. That'd be nice. And for you, Xanthius, wasn't it? Yes. And he, on the armour stand, waiting for you is this, again, this made almost light helmet, like a Roman-style centurion. Fantastic.

Before I touch it, grab it, anything like that, It's not going to bite me. I wouldn't, no, I wouldn't put it on. Okay, won't put it on. No, don't put the helmet on. It probably blind you. Temporarily. Don't put the helmet on.

Ophelia? Yes. Don't put the helmet on. I won't. What would happen if we did. So as you're having this conversation, I'm going to spend all of my fate. All of the faith.

Well, I'm just doing it for narrative. As you're talking, suddenly the corridor is plunged. The whole place is lit by magical light. As you were coming down here, the corridor, Han's room, everything is lit by magical light. There's no windows, there's no natural light down here. It goes pitch black, as if all of the magic suddenly, and the door opens on its own.

Han just says, I don't think that's very good as you begin to hear shouting and screaming coming from that wooden bar door that leads to general holding opposite Hansel as you all get this sensation. And I think that the magical, those who are magically inclined specifically use Xantheists

because your magic is so innate and connected to your body, you do feel this like blip where like you almost feel your runes flicker and your own magic kind of dull for a second as something just knocked out all the magic in this place. At least all the wards here. All the wards are disabled.

They've dropped an EMP. And with that, that's what we're on today's episode. You're expecting something bad to happen, aren't you? I was debating in my head. I was like, I could do the double twist where like nothing happens and you just leave and it's totally fine. Banana. Of course not.

We just need to turn the fusion. You're in a magical prison with magical dangerous criminals. All the gates. All the cell doors open. Yeah. Oh. Yes. And, uh,

I've been imagining this as the Silent Hill 2 prison. Yeah. Then the special little prison down there with ghoul, edict and fell. Yeah. You guys didn't even ask about them. I was like, oh, okay. We did. They didn't.

I said I wanted to go look around the cell. But you never did. And then the guard was like, you don't want to look at those. I was like, you're right, I don't want to look at those. You're on the wiki. It'll be on the wiki. But that's it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining us.

That's going to be it. A wonderful episode number 94. That's right. I was just going to call it Gallows Aerie. Galo's where we went to, but we can always see. But fantastic stuff. Some lovely progress for Daisy, some nice less fun of that. Potential solution to the hunter.

And also a lot of little bits of tasty bits of law here and there. There was some sprinkling. Numb-nums in there. A sprinkling of numnums. Well, you can look forward to further discussions about that in a future behind the screen, which we are going to do more regularly. But that's it for now. Take care, everybody. We love you. See you soon. Bye-bye.

Bye. See you next night. Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything. Like packing a spare stick. I like to be prepared. That's why I remember, 988 Canada's Suicide Crisis Hubline. It's good to know just in case. Anyone can call or text for free confidential support from a train responder anytime. 988 Suicide Crisis Helpline is funded by the government in Canada.

Hi, I'm Simon. I'm G. And I'm Booth. Have you heard about Pickax's hit new old movie podcast? Yom! We each have a list of six films we want to share. Every week, we roll a dice to randomly pick which one we watch and discuss. MC Bunkerwelt says,

This trio is perfect for a movie podcast. G is the casual that has the mainstream movies, Simon is the nerd that is ringing the gems, and Booth is the Seller Goblin that scrapes the bottom of the diaper. Messiah Jones says, Such a fan of this podcast. I love the variety and all three have pretty good chemistry. Gee is far too confident in her own intelligence sometimes,

and Simon can be a real commodgion. But the three work together well enough to keep the flowed and make a good product. Serenity indeed says, love this podcast so far, but the audio is all over the place. Goes from quiet at the start of a sentence to loud in the middle. Every time somebody stops talking for even half a second, their audio goes quiet and has to ramp up again. It's very distracting.

Edit, this audio issue was with my laptop. Find Yomp on all your favorite podcast platforms. Yompa!