High Rollers DnD - The Harlequin (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #84

Episode Date: November 11, 2025

A guarded checkpoint blocks the heroes' path into Vathalien! Stealth and deception has never gone wrong with this team before... Altheya: The Dragon Empire Campaign Setting begins in Q1 2026! Register interest and support the journey to release here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rollandplaypress/high-rollers-altheya-the-dragon-empire 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/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickax. Hey folks, Mark here, and I wanted to do a little podcast shout-out for anyone looking for more funny D&D adventures. I've been listening to Tales from the Stinky Dragon recently and wanted to recommend it. It's a show full of humor and heart with five amazing writers, comedians and voice actors, like Gusterola from Red vs Blue and Barbara Dunkerman from Ruby, and it's very accessible for folks even if they aren't D&D experts. I love their immersive sound design and original score, which makes the podcast feel very epic and cinematic. In fact, you might have actually seen some of their animations and puppet videos on social media already. That's right, puppet videos. I think there's a lot of

similar vibes between Hirollers and Tales from the Stinky Dragon with goofy hijinks, emotional moments, chaos gremlin roleplay, and all the stuff I know you already love. So why not check out Tales from the Stinky Dragon anywhere you listen to podcasts or on YouTube. YouTube.com forward slash at Stinky Dragon Pod. Cheers. Thanks, everybody. Our heroes have traveled into the planar realm of the Faye-Wield in order to fulfill a favor to the elven-mage Blackwing. This strange magical world has been taken over by the unseely Faye, the hags and the Femoreans,

and quickly the party see what kind of rule these individual creatures impose on the plane of life. A prisoner wagon of captured satyrs led along the road which the party travel on and gruff stands out to challenge these near-do wells and rescue the prisoners inside. A quick but intense battle ensues, and the party succeed in freeing the captured Faye, as well as a fairy who is captured inside a lantern,

who then lead them on the rest of their way until they reach the end of their path, and the grand city of Vathalian awaits. I think I'm gonna pick things up with reading out a little something, which I wrote. Oh, here's a little song he wrote. A little poem, which was, it was in the last episode as well,

but I think it's a good setup. As we see this, you know, from your position in the tree line looking out, you see this beautiful sort of silvery gray city which is carved into the trunk of an enormous colossal tree that stretches up and its boughs and its branches form the very, sky that seems to form the fey wheeled. The upper spires, these beautiful palaces, these elven buildings carved into the trunk itself, eventually begin to build outwards and down, spilling into the lower roots and branches of the tree as it then occupies this large clearing. Rivers of silvery sap

flow out of the tree itself and form canals spread throughout the city, which is hidden and protected behind these sort of woven, almost Celtic knot-style walls that flow between the trees that form the outer ring of the clearing. And somewhere in Althea, in the material plain, there is a little written poem attributed to an unnamed Elven Trubidor. O boughs of twilight canopy did lofty shadows hide, a sight of truest beauty of home and dearest pride,

from gilded artist spires like gossamer wings of sprites to white gondolas that floated on rivered streets ear moonlight that city of two pieces united at its peak the city of dawn and dusk tis vathalian i seek as you see this almost ethereal slightly glowing city arrayed before you and in the branches of this enormous colossal tree, two of these bizarre, huge fruits, one that glows with the dim, soft warmness of sunlight, and the other glowing with the dim softness of moonlight. Perhaps the moonlight fruit glowing a little bit stronger at the moment, but it does seem to wax and wane between the two. And that is what you see, arrayed before you.

Doth the throot, throote. Doth the fruit. Doth the fruit. Doth the fruit. Cometh upon. Is it resting pounced branches? Ponce its bontz? There is a question here.

Doth the fruit, pons upon its bontz? Is the chunky fruit? The huge, enormous ones. Is it on top of the branches between, betwixt? The branches and leaves. There's almost, there's, um, there's, um, It hangs, you know, like a fig or an apple or something might hang from like a branch of a tree.

But rather than just one single stem holding it aloft, it is a network of these roots kind of into the top of the fruit. It kind of holding it like a lattice work of these roots, hold into the branch. Hark, graceful figure that tell story so fair. I love this. Does there be a road for us to travel? So as you are, you've been following this dirt path called the Lightless Path

that the status have led you along. And it has led you to the edge of a tree line that then looks out that around the clearing there is a sort of circular ring road where these sort of knotted Celtic wooden walls rise up. And in fact that they would be, yeah, they're made from the sort of silvery grey wood so it looks almost like stone, but they grow from the trees itself. And that, so there is like some open space between you and the walls, basically, of this great city. You look out onto a guarded gatehouse, which you were told, I believe, is called the Shadow Port Key.

It's one of the smaller entrances to the city of Vathalian, and it is guarded. You see unseely soldiers and also a rather larger figure sort of lumbering behind the walls. their head sort of peeking out over the top, an armoured cyclops that you can see. That might be able to appear into the immediate future. Yes, you did learn that the cyclops all have this sort of prophecy or Oracle powers, some of them do. You also have noticed that this gatehouse and this road that surrounds the city

mostly clear, but every now and then you've seen groups of workers, you know, tired, ragged, exhausted, fe of different kinds, elves, centaurs, setias, are being sort of marched by guards, like kind of escorted by armed guard, in and out of the city, going into the trees and heading off into other parts of the fey-wield. And that is where we come to today.

You do have the four satir that you've been traveling with, as well as a fairy. and he's going to say a sentence and it's going to be phenomenal you tell a story of great potential verily thou art quintessential love that thank you that's all I wanted to say oh love that thank you what did March just say what did March just say there's a cyclot looking around a wall he can see into the future and then some other stuff yeah he was the next bit he was being complimentary I'll take it today but yeah that is what you see before

You know that, yeah, the information that you have is that Blackwing's former home is somewhere in the city. You have been given a little information on that, whatever you remember in your notes. Shadowport Key is one of the quieter, easier places to access, but not necessarily in the right district. Yeah, you, I mean, you tell me, what do you, you know, whatever you know of the city is, is whatever you know. Quast the Rowan. Nevermore. Quoth the rowing, rocks the more. Park.

It's on the dusk side of the city, in the tapestry. As one looks to the closest tree towards us, which one is it? What do you mean? Which tree is closest to us? So there's one tree. With two fruits. With two fruits.

The city is carved into the tree. Like the, you know, this tree is so enormous that the upper parts of the city, imagine it almost like a slice of pie, like it kind of has a peak, and then it kind of comes out, and then it has a ringed wall at the front. Is that the one with a tiger in the book?

There are two fruits, right? There are two, and they hover. So I would say that the side you are on is closest to the sun fruit. Okay, the that you're currently under. It's not all the wrong. But it does, and I think, Rowan, you pick up that the city is these two halves.

If you were to divide the city down the middle, one half is under the sun through and one half is under the moon fruit. And where does that half lie in proximity to us? You mean how far away is the other back? How far away are we from the other's half? I mean, you would need to trek through the city, yeah, and it is a big city.

Hark my liege. A question for me. You can just talk normally. O, Mark, what's the deal? Go on. Hark my liege, a question for thee. these walls, perchance, how thick are thee? They do, the walls look thick enough.

How thick at thee? I'm pretty thick. Question unrelated, how thick are thee? How thick are thee? Pretty thick. Thick around the middle, thick at the back. You can see that the walls are wide enough that armed patrols, like two abreast,

so you're looking at like 10 feet-ish thick, but they are approximately, I would say about 15 foot tall. Maybe just under like 12 feet tall, the walls themselves. Look, they're tall enough that the Cyclops is kind of like shoulder up, like looking over. Yeah. Is he behind the wall doing like the going down the stairs trick? Doesn't appear to be doing.

Damn it. He's no gesture. There are also two guards out the front of the Shadow Porky that are like kind of looking as these work groups are kind of being led in. there are also more patrolling up and down. What do they look like? Do they have eloquent, beautiful eloquent? Eloquent.

Are they eloquent? Is their armor talking? Do they have, does it look elven but fucked up? Very similar to the ones that you fought on the roads. Ah, nah. Unsealy. BDSM. Yeah, so they're wearing this kind of rigid, spiked, bladed armor

in this dark blood red color. and you can see that all of the soldiers do have this line of like red face paint that goes a strip of red down their face. Who would do that? Yeah, who would do that? So you're like, so, yeah. He's stark, don't stop.

Any ear trophies on these boys? Hard to tell from this distance. You are still quite a fair distance away. But yeah, you can see that they're wearing basically the same armour as the others. It's very easy to conclude that they are probably of a similar ilk to these, to the other ones that you.

So 10 foot walls, not five foot walls. Not five foot walls, no. Like 15. What does that change? Yeah, closer to 12, 15. Destroy five foot wall spell. I could have done a spell that would have created a door. Oh, did they have to split? Well, you can create it in the wall, I believe.

If it's pass wall. It's five foot thick. It's stone shape. Oh, stone shape, yeah. Well, this isn't stone. It looks like stone, but it's not actually stone. Oh, fuck this then. Mm.

So we can burn it down. Oh, you can do that really cool spell. I should have taken travel by plants. Because then I could have traveled to the fucking tree. And I had it. I had it. I could have done it. Because it's one big tree. Long rest, everyone. Also, within the Faye world, you said that all of the canopy is interconnected,

interlinked, interwoven. And that makes sense that the trees are all connected in that sense. For a really magical... For a magical spell that travel by the world. It makes sense that every single living plant is all connected. Because they're all literally touching each other. Also, travel via plant. If we were to travel through this tree.

Not twimpsed. The branches sort of like weave together. I guess there's no way of knowing where in the city we'd appear if we travel via plant into this one massive tree. Well, if you know the tree, you can do it. It's if you know the plant. Doesn't matter. We don't have the spell anyway. Don't have the spell.

It doesn't matter. Can you make a tidal wave. So you see the little female satia, the one that you can speak to in juridic graph, will point and be like, yes, so this is the city. I mean, we're not going to, ideally me and my brothers, we don't want to go in there.

We want to try and find our team, our group. But we're happy to lead you here, and if you need our help, we can try and help you. But ideally, we don't want to go inside. Absolutely. Do you know where you're going? Do you know what you're doing? You don't look like you're from around here, so.

I'm going to be honest with you. No is the answer to both of those questions. Oh, that sounds, oh. Well, good luck. I mean, you know, that sounds pretty bad. You didn't have a plan. You came here without a plan on what you were going to do. Do they know where the tapestry is in the dusk side?

That was going to be my next question, right? Do they know? I don't know what they're saying to you because... Leah. What side would we find the tapestry? I have no clue. I've never been. I don't come from the city.

I'm not from here. Right, so you don't know the dusk side? I don't know nothing. The only thing that we know is that there is a group, they're not part of our group, they're not part of the chain breakers, but we know that there's somebody in the city that is opposing the queen there, the hag,

but we don't know much about this place. We were caught elsewhere in the Twilight Lands, and then we were going to be brought here. They've got like a prison nearby, so I guess we were going to be brought here for processing and maybe torture and, you know, put into the queen's, blood games, that kind of thing, and then sent off somewhere else.

Absolutely delightful. Do you know anything, like a sign or anything for this other group? No, no, not at all. The problem with the resistance is a lot of us, you know, spread out across the Faye Wild and, you know, people have different views and different opinions and different ways. So we're kind of all these little disparate groups. Nobody's been able to, like, bring us all together, unfortunately, because one of the things the unseedly do is they make us work against each other.

kind of turn us against each other a lot too. So it's kind of tricky. Understood. To the group. All right, she doesn't know, they don't know much. They're not from here. They were probably being brought here to be processed and tortured

and put in something delightful called the Blood Games. Okay, okay. So she doesn't know anything about the city itself. They've offered to create a distraction if we want to go through that gate, but other than that,

that they should go. Is there a distraction big enough for that big dude up there that's got one big eye and looking in? Probably not. Probably not. So, plan, we have a couple of bits of out uniforms. I have this watch commander's medallion. I have a robe.

You took the major's robe, but you didn't take any of the other armor or anything. Took the walk barding. Barding. It's probably not going to work, I'm afraid, the outfits under close scrutiny. It may work for a brief moment, but I think we might just have to either stealth our way in with a distraction or run.

Or fight our way in, or run in. Yeah. The thing is, there's just gonna be people just past the gate as well. The whole city's guarded, so. They'll have a long system set up. If we fight our way in, we're just gonna have to just keep fighting the whole time.

And we're probably on the wrong side of the city, as Rowan observed, and our point of the fruit. This seems to be the dawn side, not the dusk side. And it is, I should point out, this is a big city. This is bigger than national, this is a city. It's enormous. So getting inside, it dawns on you that you have no idea where this tapestry is, and once you're inside, you're going to have to try and navigate around. And if you go blundering around, it's a high chance that you'll, like,

run into guards or you'll go to places that you probably shouldn't. It's going to be tricky. Okay, Daisy, I know we can't see much of the city right now, but once we get in there, we're going to need to regroup with you as quickly as possible. Not regroup, like we're going to separate. I'm just saying to communicate with you, because you do this all the time. You vanish all the time. You disappear all the time, right?

Can you sneak around? Yes, but... You'll know how to get through tiny little places? It's all go away with it. No, you did not get out. You did not get out very much of the house. I didn't know, I heard a noise. It was the loudest.

It was loved over here. What was that? Kiv drinking. It was like a real, like weird noise. It sounded like a power up in a marriage thing. Yeah. I hiccpped and I burped at the same time. That was amazing.

The thing I do. It happens. It was like sonic, it was the sonic drought, like air bubble noise. Yeah. That was incredible. That was incredible. Podcast. listeners, I hope you heard that.

Oh, they did. They did. They heard it. I'm going to isolate it. Some might expect you to apologize that this is just who I am. Yeah. So, it's no apologising for this. Listen, if they, like, I have watched Laura Bailey belch very loudly on critical role. We're allowed to do what the fuck we want. That's amazing.

No, it's just funny because you tried to hide it anyway. Hide it, exactly. I can't, sometimes, but there's lots of us. What do we do, us who are bigger than you and stompier than you and louder than you? Are you trying to get me to teach you how to be sneaky? Well, not quite. Because this whole time I've been giving you tips

and it's not working. What is it, Affirian? Well, I was thinking that armor looks quite similar to mine. So maybe there's a way that I could... Lots of ears. Gross. Somewhere more spiky. There is.

Maybe I could just, you know, pretend to be a guard and you're all my prisoners. and, you know, I just confidence can get you into a lot of places. I don't have that. How similar does Ophelia's armour actually look to these? It looks way nicer. On close inspection, it won't hold up. Sure.

Again, from a distance. Right. Certainly, I would say, because their armour is, like, spiked, it has, like, hooks on it. They have, like, potentially these grizzly trophies, like, ears and things like that, hanging off tongues. but there is, like, the colour scheme is similar and you have the metal components and things like that.

You couldn't probably get away with claiming to be one of these guards, but yeah, at a distance maybe, possibly. You'd also have the red. I've got the red, so... Which I think it's strange that they're doing that too. It seems like, anyway. What if we're in Osseus? Well, because yours is, your red is like over your forehead and eye.

There's is like a single line that goes down over one eye vertically. So it's not horizontal it's like a vertical line down this way. I could be from a different district, different city. I can make you look like them. You see that the four satir of like huddled

and they're kind of peering out through the bushes like keeping an eye on everything and they're kind of muttering amongst each other just speaking this language that you don't understand but they are very good at keeping quite quiet and they're just sort of casually observing things. You see that the work group that you saw arrive has now moved through,

but there could be another one that comes along later, but the work group that was sort of making their way through is passed through. So I have the wand of the sculptor. Yes. That has alter self on it. If I give you that, you'll attuned to it for a good eight hours.

and then... Oh. Just gonna look something up there. Oh, right, I see. And then you cast alter self... You'd have to attune to it. On myself? Because it's a self thing.

Well, why don't you do it on you? Well, you've got the outfit halfway there. Alter self just changes the physical appearance of the body. We've got a robe, I could put it out for you. That could help. Yes? I could do it. I could transform into something similar to a wog, and we've been...

to a wag and we've got the barding. You could be my wog and then we got the three prisoners. It's not exactly the same. I can't do the same face, but again, enough from a distance. We could cover your face. Yeah. Perhaps you're a guard from a distant outpost where you do a little things a little bit differently,

but mostly the same, big fan of blood games. Love blood games. We're here to watch the blood game. We love the blood games. Well, we're not. We've got more for the blood games. More for the blood games, yes. But as a note, if they do get close to you,

then it's probably best to run away. Run away. Or run through. Run through. But even then, that is after the situation in which we follow Daisy, who's very, very good at stealth, through alleyways, shadows, and try not to get spotted in the first place.

The problem is, is you're very loud. But if we follow your exact steps. You're still bad at it. You've tried. also don't forget I've got the pass without a trace and that as well that will but we need to stick close to you right that's how it works so what's the plan with Daisy how it's always worked it's when you cast it it's on an area and now it's you have to remain with it oh it's an aura now so it used to be like it

would affect anybody nearby when you first cast it they would get the bonus yeah but now it's like you have to it's like an aura you have to stay with sure suppose what's the plan with Daisy is Daisy going to scout ahead Well, just... I'm not invisible. You're not invisible, but you do know the best avenues, the best routes, the best hiding holes. I can do that. I can try that when we get in. And we'll follow your path as best as possible.

But if we happen to get spotted, Aphelia and Rowan as the disguised guards may be able to dissuade them away from us under the guise that you have some prisoners for the blood games. Us. That sounds solid. Before they get any closer, then we carry on our way through the city. it's now just a question of how do we know where to go? We can't speak their language. Yep, that's a problem.

Yeah, no, that's also... So we can ask the state to cause a distraction at least to get rid of the guards at the front of the gate. I suppose do that. Let's just get into the city and see where things go. Go in. I love how we're planning a stealth mission.

We shouldn't get a shit within about one roll. No, no, two rolls. I bet two rolls. That's double. I'll say three. I'd propose satir-force distraction. We alter self, guard, warg, work, um, take you guys in as prisoners.

For the blood games. Get destroyed by the Cyclops. Go ahead. Get destroyed by Cyclops. TPK new campaign. Yeah. So resistance of satir force for the guards. Destruction for the guards.

Destruction for the guards. And if not, we go through it. We go through anyway. And then we go through pretending we got prisoners for the blood games. The good thing is we'll know how successful the distraction is based on the Cyclops as a reaction before it even happened. I think. I'm just smiling for podcast listeners.

I'm just listening to all of this and smiling. It'll be fine. Let's just charge in through the gate after the distraction. Gruff, you're able to speak to the satis? Oh, yes, I'll ask them. Excuse me, Leah. Hey, are you guys, what are you doing? Right, we're going to disguise ourselves as garden of prisoners.

That sounds smart. It's probably not going to go great because we don't have enough to do it properly, but from a distance we can put it off. But I was wondering if you and your brothers could help us with a little bit of shenanigans. Yeah, when we said that we try, I mean, we'll try and pull away as many of them as we can.

You want to go now, or you want to wait until there's, like, another group going in, or... Maybe that's a good idea, actually. We wait for another group to go in, and then there's more, I'll switch languages. We can shadow them, yes. And more people, more chaos. Less scrutiny, yeah.

Exactly. So that's our plan, and that'll give us time as well to change ourselves to look. All right, fair enough. The little fairy daisy that you had rescued, because I think you still have mental connection with them, we'll just say, like, I'd like to go with them. I don't want to go in the city.

I don't want to go back in there. And it's like very nervously, like, you can see that she is terrified of this city does not want to go back in there. I will give her to the satir. She can't fly at the moment. Can you take her? Yeah, she'll say like, oh, my goodness,

poor you poor little thing, like, oh, they've really done a number on you, sweetheart, and, like, kind of, like, takes her in and, like, has, like, a little blouse and sort of tucks her in there and stuff, like, a little pocket. And you see the little fairy kind of just curls up and just looks like this poor beat,

not like, you know, absolutely tormented thing. Very nervous, just does not look to be too happy about going into the city. The three boys, the lads, kind of get themselves up. And they sort of like start kicking dirt and sort of hyping themselves up, kind of psyching themselves up for what they're going to do. And you wait for a brief period of time, waiting for another group to potentially coming in. While we do that, I think it is time to roll for fate.

Okay, do it sounds like that might be an important thing that's going to come up. Oh my god. He's done it. Has it happened? A six. A six. Thanks for us. I'm going to use these.

Harps court gave me some custom little metal fake dice. Yeah. That's one for you. So far? Oh, five. Oh, brilliant. Two for you. More. Three for you.

Six. Four for you. Two. And then for me, Oh, a three. Four and two. Okay, perfect. Can we want to fake tie our hands up with some rope.

Yeah, so whilst you are waiting, yeah, are there any preparations you'd like to make? Why are you looking at me for it? Well, because we're both like the quote-unquote prisoners, right? Squishies. Oh, are we the only prisoners? Oh. Yeah, so there's probably a way that we can loosely tie it

some rope around our hand in front of us rather than behind, I guess. You can have Percy to sell it a little bit if you want. We also, yeah, what are you doing with Percy? Oh, we've got Percy. Yeah. And Mateo. Percy has his dark, Percy, he is not here.

Percy has his dark robe, so he can pull his hood up and he will look like a black roving of it. Obviously, under any close examination, he is a skeleton. Yes. He's not going to look like anything else. So, what do we do? He's a prisoner to be mobed. What if he's a prisoner who all?

already died. That was a long, in a long time. We're like, you're like dragging him around? I don't know. Why would you drag a set of? We brought this skeleton for the blood games. I don't, I don't know.

I'd see anything I could put him off. It's quite a tricky situation. Play dead. Just lay there. Oh, he died. On the road. We didn't notice. See, he's so good at it.

He's very good at it. We still need to drag him into a, you know... Yeah. It can get up, Percy, I'm sorry. It's a bit degrading, actually, sorry. Sister Ophelia, of course, yes, of course. Can he disassemble?

Can he disassemble? I do not believe so, Sister Ophelia. No, I believe that that would... The magic that animates me, bond my body together. You are perfectly whole as you always should be. Yes, yes, I'm afraid I cannot forcibly disassemble myself.

And I'm not sure I would be able to reassemble myself. Were that to happen? I actually feel better knowing that. Me too. Good question. I'm going to alter self with Wanda the sculptor to look like the commander guy. Okay. From the previous.

Specifically like him. Yeah. Okay. So. But you also have the robe, right? And I've got a robe and I might borrow a medallion as well. So I'm gonna fully try and cover up all my clothing with this robe. Just have my face showing.

Tie my hands, Daisy. But not tight. But convincing enough. but not too tight, so I can get out of the ropes. But not too tight, because it will hurt, but enough for me to be able to break out the ropes. I'm gonna tie them really tight. You've hog tied me.

So you are gonna tie hands in front, you're gonna bind Xantheus hands. Kind of enough to, that you can easily quick release almost, I suppose. Give me a slight of hand check to see how well you can do like a trick knot, basically. Because there is a chance that either you're gonna make it so that it can't fall apart

or it comes apart too easy. Yeah, yeah. You could spend a fate, but no mind. 31. Yeah, yeah. You make this Daisy, bind your hands in front of you with this incredible trick knot that does look quite tight, but you can easily...

Like, even enough of me to pull against it. Yeah, you could, like, if somebody were to check it, if they don't know the trick that Daisy's used, they'll just see that it is quite a firm knot, but you know that if you twist in a certain direction, pull at a certain angle and, you know, Daisy shows you the trick to break out of it, and it's exceptionally convincing.

Wow, okay. Oh, now I've tied my hands. Do you want to do that for yourself as well? Give me another role, but this time with this function, because obviously tying yourself is a lot harder. I probably should have done yours first. Yeah. So if you would want to do it for,

you could have somebody else do it, but it would be a slight hand check for that. 26. Even, yeah. Even doing it to yourself, it's able to, again, replicate this exceptionally convincing trick-knock, basically. Yeah, like, do you think that that's, like, is that something Daisy knows, or is that NIM's guidance? So I think that, like, NIM is almost instructing, like, this is more for, like, a snare, but between the two of you, you manage to kind of work out how you can apply it to bindings,

rather than it being, like, a snare and things like that. And, yeah, the two of you managed to work out this, like, really clever trick-knock. We're ready. Very good. So, Rowan. That's amazing. Rowan, you use the wand of the sculptor and your skin color already quite dark gray,

but it kind of gains this purplish tone. These symbols on your arm are, you know, vanish almost as the skin changes and pattern and color to match that. Your ears become more jagged and oversized. Your facial shape changes. Your teeth become more pointed and jagged as you now bear, you know, quite a striking resemblance. to the former commander.

The robes go on, they cover up your clothing. What do the commander sound like? You will have to remember. Because I can take on voice as well, like the sound of their voice. Okay, great. Cool. With that spell, the old self.

Nice. So I can at least sound like it. I don't know any words. Yes. I can bark. You can interpret them as well, but you can't respond, right? I can cast...

Well, actually, because it's concentration for older self. It is, yeah. It's a reaction. Comprehend language is. It doesn't say concentration, which is really interesting. So you can comprehend, but you can't...

With comprehend, you can't respond to them, right? Yeah. But still, it's a good start. It's a ritual. It's one hour, it just lasts, yeah, and you can do it as a ritual spell. But I don't think Barnes can do ritual spells. I think...

I'll just cast it. Yeah, yes, that's a cast it. but you have an hour of comprehend language. So you can understand, but you can't speak back. Yeah, so I'm just going to have to do body language or something. Better than nothing. Yeah. Could you alter yourself so it looks like you have no tongue?

Yeah. Yeah. So if they question, you can be like, yeah. That's allowed. Yeah, but the thing is, because this is alter self, it's not an illusion, you would have to know, like, you like, the spell would be like you don't have

a working tongue in there, like... As long as we can connect via NIM, I can speak through that. Well, spell casting takes, you need to verbally speak. No, no, in my... If I activate whispers, he doesn't need to talk out loud, he can speak to us. He does if he wants to cast any further spells. And if you want to cast spells in the future.

I'll cast comprehend languages first, do alter self, remove tongue. Okay. Magically. So this is definitely like... Steepen armor. This is a unique interpretation. interpretation of the spell, because obviously, like, I am saying that you can make it look like you don't have a tongue, but that means you won't have a tongue to speak with yourself. Whilst you don't have a tongue, you now cannot cast spells until that effect ends. You can choose to end alter self at any time you like, but as long as you maintain that thing. And you can also change it. I believe you can take a magic action to like give, to alter the illusion. It's not an illusion, like you can reshape yourself. So you can spend an action to give yourself a tongue back. But just as a no, if you're going to do this, then it will be. It's the same way that if you made it look like you were blind,

I suppose like you can make your eyes milky white but still work, but this is like you physically have to make your tongue look like a stump, basically. You now have a unique tongue action. Just so you know. It's like an action figure. Now with a unique action. Tongueing tongue. Tongue regrowth.

Is it the Barbie that had regrowing hair? Yeah. Cool. All right. So, and then what is, so Gruff you're going to, wild shape and try and wa-g something that's as familiar to a warg as similar to a warg as i can get okay so with you a wag is not a natural beast you create the same now can you become uh what's c r kind of creature can because it's changed now isn't it's new to it's you just

become a shape up to one c r1 which i think includes dire wolf i'll check yeah i think it does pretty big Big boy. Pretty big boy. Because the main thing is the size here, because the wad was a large creature. Can you half wild? CR1. So yeah. So you transform yourself into a dire wolf, but you can't recreate the face because the face is this weird wolf-goblin hybrid.

It's much more human. So you are just a dire wolf. But the barding fits you perfectly, almost exact same proportions and shapes. What do you want to do? Do you want to get your friends to do anything else about your face? Yeah, is there anything anyone has that could, like, hide my face, like a hood or...

I have a disguise kit. I have a dagger. What are you implying? What are you employing there, told me? What do I have? No, you're not going to finish that train at all? Yeah, we bought disguise kits. It's time to take your face off.

I have a bed roll. So with a disguise kit, could we... I would say that, like, there would be probably, like, some cloth elements to it. I've got it. I've got a fake mustache. You're fucking welcome. Yes I do.

You actually have a fake mustache. Yeah, I took it from the Lavender Gardens. Oh yeah. There it is. There it is, Womph. Put the Lavender Garden's hat on me as well. Disguise kit. Sure.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know if there's anything on the coat as well that might help out if you've still got the list of items on there, but... It's a mud and toilet. I'd say that with a disguise kit, you can find, like, some spare cloth, and you can sort of cut eye holes in fashion

of very, like, strapped together, kind of, like, facial covering, but it's... A disguise kit's not really built for this, so it's going to be rudimentary, again, if it's inspected closely, it probably won't hold up. Small props.

Small props, like some... Sticks. I think that's me. All right. Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, nothing else. First of all, and what you want to do with that?

I think Ophelia will remove her current face paint while saying a prayer to the great father. I'm so sacrilegious, I'm so sorry. And then paint the stripe just from a distance. It looks a bit more distinguishable with her current makeup.

Well, also, like, you saw the ones when you were fighting, obviously you weren't hairy, but Ophelia fought these guys close up and say you remember It's just like a vertical line, over the eye specifically. Yeah, and then maybe she will just like, like get Percy to help just pin her hair back,

take her veil off just so she looks a bit more like these brutish... I'm going to be very clear you don't look like these creatures. Oh, no, no. Like, you do not look like the creatures here. You're just aiming for... Not if you're just, not if you don't do anything to your appearance. Like putting your hair up and stuff is not going to be enough to... Just like a quick glance, just if anyone was to just like,

eh, like they wouldn't, it wouldn't be too much of a... Okay. You're doing for more militaristic rather than... Yeah, just like to stick out to me too much, yeah. I mean, you certainly look closer to them than say Zanthius and Daisy do. Yeah. But like said, it's like on a, you know, if they were to like properly look at you, you won't, like, look like a god.

I don't think we have anything else. No. We don't really... So I've used my disguise, because I think Ophelia's just going to go on. Confidence alone, just acts like you belong. Yeah. And hopefully. See how far that can.

I think we've used everything that we have. Before I change shape, can I have cast past without a trace? Sure. And then hold that as concentration. Yeah, I'll do it like at the last possible moment. Yeah, I'm assuming all of this. I'm assuming like the comprehend languages and the alter self is all happening at the very last moment and things like that.

This is more just making sure you guys get any plans and times in. I also connect everyone's first speech in head. in heads at the last minute as well. What if I activate my scarab armor, but only the helmet? I don't think the scarabama, you either have to have the whole thing with the helmet or you have to have the armor

but with the helmet off. I don't think you can just do the helmet with it. Maybe I'll do just all the armor then, just to completely disguise myself. Yeah, like that would make you look like, you would be fully encased in this insectoid-like, full plate, like, nobody would know what you were underneath that armour.

Let's do that. Fully uncovered. Okay. Yeah. So again, you don't know, you don't look like any of these guards, but you also, like, you could be anything like there. Right, okay. Let's go for that.

Okay. Ophelia Scarabama. Okay. Perfect. And then, Percival, anything? Or you're just gonna have him put his hood up and hope? He died on the journey. How is he still going?

Let's just robe him. Yeah. Roving. I do have a robe in my inventory. I think Percy's got a robe. He's already got a robe, yeah. He should wear a robe on the front and also wear another one the other way.

Yeah, because Rowan is currently wearing the one you took off. True, yeah, yeah. So this would just be a plain black robe that you have for him. Cool, cool. All right, so Percy is just roved. Just robe. You make these preparations, you know, it takes some time at the altar self and getting everything right and you watch as a group of fay are being sort of marched along the circular road to this gatehouse um they are you know

weary pull pushing wheelbarrows full of some sort of silvery uh you know twinkling ore um and they're sort of hauling these these wagons of this this stuff back with them um under guard you know several guards kind of with them, keeping an on them. And you can see that the Faye themselves are just dejected. They're just head down, not responding to anything. There's like some jeers and some jabs, maybe some shoves from some of the guards, but it's just completely, these Faye are just beaten, beaten down. And as they begin to follow a road, drawing close to the gate, they sort of align with a bit of the tree line that you can jump in and try and get behind them, or what would you like to do.

Ready? I think so. All right, remember you too. You're cruel, you're angry, your assholes. Yes. Okay, business as usual. You're unseely.

I'm unseely. Yes. I am unseal. And you're here to see the blood games. No, well, what? And we, oh way, I can't speak. You can speak, your head. Yeah.

Hello. And we're bad and bruised and horrible and tortured prisoners. Except how life is... Very much... Yes, just don't fall too hard. Full health and not bruised. I'm actually not on full health.

So I'm kind of a little bit... I would be classed as bloodied, yeah. You got like burns and things like that. No, we took a short rest. I was meant to do that between episodes, you're right. Oh, there you go. So you do look okay. Yeah, I was about to say...

You could leave a little bit off. You could leave a little off. All right. I'm going to give Bardick inspiration to Ophelia. Okay. Just in case you are quizzed. You have an extra D8. Quiz-quosed.

For a saving throw. Lovely, jolly, thank you. And yeah, I'll take the lead with my walk in tow, I guess. Okay. You take the lead. And are you going to fall in this kind of workforce? You're going to fall in behind them? Okay.

So you watch, you begin making your way along the road. You sort of pull your prisoners out of the tree line. The guards that are with the workforce, I think that they would glance over, see you and the Wag and some other bizarre armored figure and robed figure behind you. They don't really pay too much attention. They sort of, and then go back to their job, pushing their forward. And as you begin to draw closer to the gate, you see they get there first, the guards.

And did you want to trigger the Sator to cause a distraction as well? As they get closer and closer, you see... the satir almost like come running out of the woods, hurling just like rocks and things like that at the work for the guards around the gate with the workforce. And they begin saying something in their language, which you understand Rowan is just like,

the chains must be broken, the chains must be broken. They're like, hey, fuck you. You know, like they're down with the queen. They're kind of like shouting all this stuff. The guards immediately turn and they're like, rebels, after them. and you see that the two guards at the main gate

and one of the guards with the workforce go chasing after them because there's only three satir. They just immediately turn and run and they're just like, hey, fuck you! And they're like swearing at them and stuff. You see the Cyclops kind of looks up over the wall in their direction. You see he steps up onto the wall.

Oh, God. Kind of pulls himself up onto the wall and from his back draws an in. enormous compound bow and arrows that are almost like, you know, young tree trunks, like pulls one back and takes aim and is going to take a shot at one of the satir as they try and run. I mean, they knew about this, right? They absolutely knew what was going to happen.

That is going to be a hit. This is technically at long range, so that is at disadvantage. So I will roll again. I am, like, as a, might draw attention to us. I was going to say, like, maybe if I could, like, bark or, like, you know, like, kind of, you know. From this, I...

Just to try and distract, like, the cyclops. You are quite far away at this point. Oh, from the cyclops. From the... You guys are, like, making your way down. You're seeing this happen ahead of you. You are not right by the gate. You see this happen ahead of you.

A bark isn't going to do anything. I know, like, I'm just going to be harsh to say. It's just not going to do anything. No, no, no, that's cool. I thought we were closer. You watch as it is quite long. as he fires, one of the Satir brothers kind of hears like this whistling, launched through it and just immediately throws one of his brothers to the ground as this enormous arrow slams into the ground, churn and ground,

and it did miss because of the long range. They just scramble themselves up and dart into the tree line to get away from the archer as the guards go charging in, chasing after them. The Cyclops then sort of begins to scan that tree line still, this giant bow in its hand. You can see that the Cyclops is wearing plate armor similar to that of the unsealie, but this doesn't have like the spikes and the hooks on it with the trophies, but it is that dark red metal that's almost been sort of bolted into its body. You can see that like spikes are almost holding the plates in place.

It has a giant helmet with just a single part with this blood-red eye just kind of looking out. It's almost blood shots, like overly blood shots so it makes it look red. It's just kind of scanning. And you can see that its movements, there's a sense of pain, like almost as if every movement,

you can see it's like teeth abared. Its teeth are all black and rotten and sort of spike. It kind of looks like the mouth of sauron at the end of the way. Yeah. and it's kind of now scanning the tree line of this place. But the guards have rushed out and you see that the workforce,

they are just like quickly like, come on, come on. There's a couple more guards in the inside are like fucking get in. And you can see that they're in a flurry, having some sort of discussion about what's just happened and there being potential resistance and rebellion rebels out there.

Which gives you this moment as you begin to approach that the guards lesson and lesson. I am going to spend my two points of fate to give you a lovely six to have that unfortunately the nature of fate it is at this timing

that you see somebody else approach the gate from the inside as you see a palaquin being dragged by beaten centaurs like in ragged clothing again sort of looking like prisoners

these centaurs and other fay haul this palaquin upon which is resting you know, on a Shez-Long, is this very fay-like, you know, quite darkly beautiful woman. She has, like, a bit of a kind of, like, witch's nose and things like that, but this isn't, like, a hideous hag, you know,

but actually quite a young, quite glamorous. Is it in, I'm trying to remember the movie with the three witches in it? The young pretty one, do you know what I mean? Yeah, it looks more like her, really, dressed in sort of very noble, organic-looking or noble, like, elegant-looking clothing with some armed guards. You can see more of these elite-looking things.

And she arrives at the gate, and you would overhear this as you're now drawing closer and closer. You would hear her kind of saying, like, tell me, have the prisoners arrived yet? We're expecting a delivery of some resistance members. And then he's like, oh, we just saw some resistance members in the woods. Like, what? and she's having this conversation at the gate as you guys all arrive.

And you can see that she's got a few more of these elite-looking guards with her. What do you guys do? They just said that this person... Can we understand them? I'm just passing them. Rowan can, so Rowan can. Rowan can, but he can just transmit to them.

I'm relaying what they said, essentially to you guys by name. By name. Okay. They haven't seen you yet So this is, they're still dealing with like The workers who are coming through And this, this hag

Courteer has arrived And is talking to the gate guards And you're sort of behind The last of these ragged looking fay That are being ushered in with their wheelbarrows full of awe You're behind, so you are going to be next You've got maybe two rounds Before they sort of turn their attention to you.

How far away are they in feet? I would say that like, who's, specifically the hag. The sort of the woman. The, the Kalaquin, yeah. I would say that from where you are, 30 feet. Okay. You're like right by the gate, basically.

Yeah, I have a bad idea, but it might work. I'm gonna. It's probably fire. I'll see what the other, no, it's not fire, it's, so you can't see them, but on the inside, you can see this hag woman. And we can actually have you guys, because I do have a little map here set up.

Can you two hide in the war wagon maybe? So these guys are the silver twinkling wagon. I'll notice a little golden twink in there though. Mm. True. So what's the order, like how are you marching? Is it prisoners at the front? Is it, you know, what's the look here?

Can I have Percy as well? We're not massively dissimilar to what we saw in the forest, right? Yeah, so, warg me, well, wolf me, rowing. Yes, that's true, okay, let me. I'll stand, well, if we do, do zamph and Thaisie in the middle. Maybe me at the back, they're just like, poking.

So, Rowan's at the front with the wog, and then Percy and Ophelia at the back, sort of shoving the prisoners along. Ophelia, stop it out. That's too much. You can probably see that, yeah, there's a couple of these elite sort of looking guards with the woman.

And then, out the front after they went sort of chasing after probably the two guards that were inside one of them has come out to sort of check all of the prisoners going in um there's like a gaggle of them i'm not going to put minis down to represent them uh the sidewalks moves sort of over here looking over everything uh they're now filtering through so this is kind of roughly the distance that you're looking at you know about 30 feet from the inside of the gate where this this yeah you i don't think you would know this but for the sake of out of character and for the this young hag, this courtier of the queen, the hag queen here,

who's obviously been sent on some sort of mission to check. And you hear her basically say, like, has the commander not reported it? What's going on with these rebels? Why are they, you know, what's happened? And they begin explaining, like, oh, there were three satires, my lady. They threw some rocks. I think they were trying to maybe try and release the prisoners, the workforce. So it's very clear they're answering to her, right?

Yes, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You can see that immediately these guards are deferential towards her. I guess we're talking a plan in our heads, right? Yeah, like I said, you've got maybe like a couple of rounds here before she's made an idea, but I can't guarantee its success. A new spell, I've just learned very recently, I could try to dominate their mind

and force them to let us into the city. That's a big risk. A big risk, but I could also get them to give up the information on where we need to go as well. It will last maybe a minute. The hag is probably very powerful, though, with mental defences. True.

Rowan is saying, I think you've got this. Chris Trott is saying. Oh! So you have that in conversation. Maybe a guard? Uh... All the sides.

I mean, a guard, it's the... It's a palaquin that's blocking the door right now. I have charm. I could try and charm one of the guards maybe to back up in case something happens. You can't speak their language. Oh, shit, that's true. Oh, that's a good question.

If you guys have this conversation in your head, you've drawn a little closer, you kind of moved a little bit in. The guard outside has waved the last of the labourers in, looks over towards you, Rowan and the Wagh, and sees the two of you, doesn't think much of it but is sort of now looking at Daisy and Xanthia's like

what the fuck are these? There's almost a look of like puzzlement but hasn't said anything yet. I've not an idea. Okay. Follow my lead? What does that mean? What did you do, Ron?

That's significantly less detail than my plan. Rowan starts performing being irate and pissed off. Yeah? It's just like angry. Yeah. kind of, like, looking around. I'll start barking and, like, maybe snapping at their heels and stuff, like, just to... Yeah, if you start barking, like, that immediately draws attention.

Like, the guard now looks, like, more fully at you. The hag is, like, turning to look at you. What are you going for? Just, like, looking, you know, annoyed. So, I'm going to look, like... I look similar to that commander, right? Well, I think you said you want to look exactly like that. Yes.

Yeah. I look like that commander. Okay. I've lost my say-tis. Okay. So, in order to appease the hag, I've made... Sure. I've managed to at least secure two more.

Yeah, so as this all happens, you kind of see this. Well, they cut my tongue out. The hag looks over, this, you know, younger-looking hag, this noble woman basically looks over. And it's like, ah, Commander Cresk, where are the prisoners? We were expecting a delivery for the blood games. Where are they? I angrily point to the forest where the sate is.

You lost them. What is this? Explain yourself. Rowan punches himself in the face. You just, like, full-on. Give me a performance check on this. I want to see how well you sell it. We are full-on, faith.

You put them all in here. You put them in a box. One second? Yes. I mean, yeah, you are fully stacked. And this is a performance? Yeah. Do you spend a fate?

Yeah. Perfect. 31. 31. Another 31. You sell it. I die. You see, there is a kind of look of like,

hmm, good, like you've punished yourself and like, you know, this seems to be inappropriate, like, she's just like, well, explain yourself. What's happened? Where are my prisoners? I open my mouth wide and show my lack of tongue. She looks in. I'm going to make a check to see, see if she notices something. She sort of looks in, as she draws closer, because she kind of draws up,

she steps off the palanquin now and sort of moves over. And she knows she's looking at you, she's just like, ah, quite a group. something. Did they... I smile, though. Yeah, you smile, and she's... What is that otherworldly magic I can send? And she starts looking around,

and she's looking at Xanthius and Daisy like she can smell something, I think, but she's also looking at you and the wog and towards Ophelia and personal, like, that's... What is going on here? Can I... Oh, this is disgusting. This is the first thing I thought of.

Yeah. Can I just start urinating? Uh, yeah? You start taking a piss. Yeah. She... Rough cocks a leg. I'm gonna make a check to see if, like...

I'm gonna roll for her to see if she is, like, put off by this, like, or, like, is distracted by this, basically. Um, I'll say this will be, uh, like a, uh, a persuasion, a perception check. See if she's, like, distracted. Yeah, she, like, looks over and it's like, ugh, and says in goblin to you. just like, you disgusting creature, how dare you? And she opens her hand and a whip of energy comes out and she lashes at you.

Oh, my God. Yeah, she lashes you. And not only does the physical whip sting, but your mind reels from this whip as well, gruff. As that is going to be... He's got flogged. 10, 16, 20 points of damage. That would have been...

Well, he did pee, I don't know. Four slashing, and then the rest is all psychic, so 16 psychic damage. And yeah, like, you disgust, how dare you do that in my presence? Like, ugh, and, like, it's so angry at you for daring to do that. Yeah, I'll whimper and, like, cry. Gruff, pretend I'm about to punch you. I'm not actually going to punch you.

And I punch. Okay, yeah. So how about, because you're both doing this, I'd like Gruff to make a person, because you're whimpering and things like that, but you can have advantage from a, from Rowan. Taking a hell back.

There I have in fit. Yes, so this is unfeit. Performance, yeah, for graph, please. 16, 17, 18, 19. 19. It's enough that she is at least convinced temporarily that like, yeah, you guys, like you're punishing this wag. She is definitely, you see, I would say that you would know that she was about to cast detect magic,

as she could smell this, but what are you doing this instance? You've got like, you've distracted her quickly, She's like looking around, she's seeing these two. What do you do here? I'll point at Ophelia and point of the prisoners and point at the gate. Yeah, Ophelia would start pushing, like, Xanthius and Daisy towards the gate, just like gesturing. Okay.

You start shoving them, and she sort of looks around. And you can see all of the unsealy guards. You would hear them, and Rowan, you would understand them, like, what, by the nine lights, what are these things? What are they? Are these, and she looks, and she looks to you, Ophelia, sort of, like, looks you up and down in this bizarre armor, and then looks to these two.

These are creatures from the material world. Where did you find them? And is looking at Ophelia to answer. Fear just gestures, like, back towards the road, just... But you don't say anything. Is she speaking in common? No, she's speaking in this. I can't, I don't know what they're.

But Rowan can understand it, yeah. And it's mentally. There is almost like a longer delay than normal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. You're asking you where they came from? Where you, shall I punch her in the face? What is this?

Is your entire raiding party suddenly silent? I just sink my head. Uh, she whips you as well. Rowan, let me know if you want me to cast that spell. Would a, uh, my, by the way, my attack roll against Kim, I wrote like a 90, so I was pretty sure it was going to hit. This would be a...

That would be an 18 to hit, Rowan. Oh, wait, actually, it would be against my Diowulf stats. It would have been, yeah. Oh, you almost knocked out of Diwali. Oh, you remember you get, it's changed now, can you get temporary hit points while you're in your form? That is going to be... If they knocked you out of your Diwarf!

That's so funny. For slashing 11 psychic, so 15 damage to you, Rowan, and she's just like... Still pissing up. She'd be ashamed of yourself. Like, how dave? She sort of looks over, and she'll look at the two of you now, you two prisoners.

I think we're making, at least I'm making an active effort to look, not pathetic, but like not meet their eyes. She'll like looking down, like what's Daisy doing, doing the same? Probably, yeah. She will come over and you would see, those of the guards, which, like, her demeania becomes quite, like, almost pleased, and, like, she's, like, looking them over,

and she will reach down, and Daisy, she's going to hook, like, a nailed finger and sort of tilt your chin up to almost, like, inspect you. and she's like looking you over and she will say in common in Ilmiren this time broken but she almost like looks into your eyes welcome to my queen city you are going to have quite a lovely time here

little pets and she'll sort of and as she draws her finger under your chin Daisy and it's very sharp like a claw and you feel just like a little bit of blood kind of like as it cuts you and she sort of moves down past and sort of runs a hand along Xanthius's cheek

like no regard for like any sort of you know like personal space or anything like treats you like objects really and as she kind of gets near you Xanthius this one is a magic user gag him and will gesture

almost sensing that, like, yeah, Xanthius has magic, basically. Ophelia would follow that command. And just immediately go off and, like, gag him. Yeah. She's like, useless. How aggressively. I was like, ugh. I want to sell it.

Pop his head off. So you get, like, this piece of fabric wedge in your mouth and, like, gangged back. I think that this whole time, can I have Percival roll a stealth checkbook? Because I think Percival, it's, like, fading into the back. He'll get past. He's basically, like, just doing nothing. and, like, staying in almost Ophelia's shadow, like, where she moves, he loads of it.

He's, like, keeping his head down. What's that bone clanking sound? 28. 28. 18 without pass without trace. Just because I think, Passed without Trace, if he was trying to move somewhere stealthily, I don't know if this is going to necessarily apply in this specific scenario,

but an 18 without it, he is, like, goes unnoticed. Like, he's just very quiet, just, like, keeps his head down, isn't drawing any attention, and it avoids it. Importantly, we've done more than. two and three roles and we're still doing good. We're still the game. Why would you say it out loud? Because in two more we'll still be fine.

She will, I think, she will sort of sensing that, yeah, seeing these two unique creatures that are not common here, I think that this hag lady will sort of look and look towards you, Commander. This is quite a prize, Commander. It makes sure you deliver yourself to the queen and I will ensure that your injury is repaired. But these two, yes.

And she will wave her hand and an arcane mark is gonna kind of like, you guys can make a charisma saving throw for it. Oh, great. Charisma stage. Do you remember how much you just hit Whitme for? Was it 20? 20 total, yeah. I have a counter-champ. Is it a charm?

It is not a charm, no. This is, would you like an Arcana check for me, anybody who would like to? I've got a five. Can I do that alongside the save? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You can do it before the save, technically. Arcana was a seven, so no.

Okay, none of you know what the spell, like what she's doing. I'm a wolf. Okay, Charisma save. 17, Christmas save. I've used to all fate. You've used a fate, excellent. Good to know, thank you for letting me know.

That is a success. I mean, I have a plus eight charisma save, but fate-wise, Now half and half. I had to, mine is in this. I have faith in myself. Goffin. No.

In the heart, there it is. Sorry, no, that was a 19, because I got, it was 17 with my plus. Would a fate have saved it? With a plus eight, I got nine. Oh my god. So I think that Daisy. I really bit my wrist then.

Oh, buddy. I think with Daisy, nym senses something. and almost tries to use some of nimb celestial power. They try and reinforce, they don't really know what's going on, but they're like, this is bad, I need to help you resist this. And the mark almost like, it kind of appears on the sort of piece of your clothing

and then breaks away, almost like in golden light, and the hag looks annoyed at this. But on Xanthius, your runes, there's something here that the runes almost don't anticipate a threat so they don't really activate. And then as it, this mark almost appears like on the side of your neck. And the crown steel, I think in your body, like almost makes it stronger temporarily and almost flares it.

Right. As you are marked, you're like arcane branded by this woman in a kind of runic sigil. And she seems like she's kind of annoyed that it didn't work on Daisy, but then it's like, and then very pleased. Like, this one, I'm marking as my own. I want to see how well it performs in the Blood Games. What does the SIGIL look like? The SIGIL look like.

It would be a very artistically done and stylized, like, S with not a cool S. Because I know that that's where it's going to go. No, it's a very stylized S, but with like maybe, in a sort of circular design that looks like a series of thorns, let's go with. Yeah, so that's what it kind of looks like. Very cool.

This is the second time I've been tattered up. Get a tad. And it's like glowing on your skin. It's not like, you know, indented or anything like that. I've got a ghost hand on my shoulder. That's true. That's true. Like you've been branded by Tallien. but she will sort of just be like,

right, well, deliver them where they need to go, Commander and sort of send you away. A bow and then shove them forward. Sure. And you shove them forward. Pat the wolf. Yeah. Yeah.

Give me... I still sticks a bit. One last. You can't smell a place now. As you're sort of being waved through, I'd like one more from everybody, a deceptional performance to sell this kind of like... Yeah, basically.

No, no. Okay. But it'll be a group check, so. Nat 20. That's gonna go a long way towards helping. How did I miss that? Oh my God. You have Fartick if we need it.

Like a fate. Oh my God, yes, I need it. Okay, you'd like to spend a fate? Oh my God, I rolled a 19, 21. Deception? Yes. Oh, wow. That, yeah, I only had a plus two, so that's very lucky.

I'm gonna count the Nat 20 as two successes because it was a Nat 20. Oh, that was lucky as half. I have a plus eight and I got a 14. 14, and that is not a success, I'm afraid. 22. 22 is another success. Oh, yeah.

Nice. Percy got a 17. I got 11. Okay, all right. With that, thankfully, literally the Nat 20 and Percy putting you over, like putting you over the mark. A lot of success.

I think that, yeah, Ophelia, you maybe shove Zanthius a bit too hard, and Zanthius, like, you can't. help but like shoot a look back to Ophelia a bit sort of like, crullet, fucking chill. But they maybe mark that up to like you being particularly proud for.

Totally checks out. I think because that's like that's the most like Ophelia Xanthius kind of thing, right? Like you just shove him a bit too hard and he just looks at you. Oh yeah? You want to call?

I want to take this outside, motherfucker. And I think that like as you have that and it's the Percy like thing, he stepped between the two of you and sort of like very gently this time like maybe guides Xanthus to look away meanwhile

you know Rowan at the front you bow quite graciously to this hag and she just offers out of hand and what does Rowan do do I cut it off what do you do you can't tongue it

I put it in my mouth a whole hand a gentle kiss of respect yeah good Yeah, yeah, she doesn't, and she sort of seems pleased by that. I put my, my end of my tongue, and I stamp her hand. Okay, nice.

She seems quite pleased by that and just sort of waves you through. And at this point, you do get through the gate. We did it. We did it. We did a stuff. You watch the Cyclops Century just watches you all, this one sort of bloodied eye, watching you all go

as they continue having this conversation. You watch as the hag goes back on a palaquin, whips the centaurs in front of her and they take her off somewhere. As you enter Vathalia, truly. Crap. Holy crap.

You are marked, though. I am marked. Is this like just an illusory mark? You'll have to find out. You'll have to... It's not like a searing sort of paint. I would say that you can feel that there is some sort of magical presence.

I can also probably feel like this reaction occurring as well, that's strengthening it as well, yeah. Yeah. Okay, okay. Cool. Cool, this. So what do you do, like, how, like, you get through, you are in a sort of long street.

You can see that up ahead the street meets this river of this kind of silvery sap. But you can see that there is this almost, there are streaks of purple and dark red, as if the sap itself is discolored in, like, you know, parts of it. It has, like, a wooden bridge that goes over and seems to extend out into the city. There are tall elven buildings on either side of you. You can see that people are going to and about their business,

but most of the people you see here keep themselves themselves. You see, you know, there's no, like, there are shops, but nobody looks friendly. Nobody's welcoming you and gesturing you in that they might in Elmera. This is a, as you maybe make your way a little with ways, you see some of these guards, these unsealy guards, go into, you know, what would have once perhaps been a delightful bakery or, you know, a food, and they just go in and make a transaction and leave, like, laughing and joking amongst themselves. And the shopkeeper just looking very grateful that they've left and not caused any trouble. But you can see that this place, yeah, it is a metropolis, a maze of buildings and streets. So what's the plan?

Can we at least start walking towards the dusk side, the fruit, like the dusky fruit side? You can start making your way that way, yeah, for sure. You will, that will basically, because you can look up and see vaguely it's that direction, but the actual streets, you're going to have to navigate those and things like that. And not knowing where to go,

we're basically going to, at that point, you're going to be making survival checks at disadvantage because you don't know this place and doing travel rules, but you might very well run into another group of guards, You might run into other problems. If you don't know where you're going, it's going to become a big problem.

Can Rowan look for some form of public transport or some sort of thing that's carting masses of people from one place to another? I don't think that there would be any sort of public transport of that nature here. You do see more palaequins that seem to be taking some of the more prominent members of the unsealier around,

but again, it's all like manually pulled, kind of like rituals and things like that, being pulled by centaurs primarily. You see, like, laughing, those unseely, you see ones that aren't guards now, and they're wearing these kind of, like, fine robes, some of them quite scantily clad, some of them fully covered up, you see male and female unseely, you see another one of these hags, like younger hags, that seems to be, has, like, two guards sort of in the palaquin with her and is chatting away. There is a sort of normality to some of their behavior, but then you see the, like, scarred

backs of the centaurs pulling them and you realize that it's not normal. Like there's a veneer of civility here, but only if you are of the right, you know, Faye, basically. So is it that we are basically just walking through as a unit, a prison guard unit? Basically, you're kind of like marching them forward. And right now, nobody's giving you a second lance because you've just come through the gate. But imagine you've just walked into like, you know, like London or a big, like new, you know, and you've never been there before

and you're just like, where the fuck are we? You know, but there's no, like, public transport that you see or anything like that, nothing to help you get around quickly. Gruff, I know this is probably... This is all in... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't need to say that now. It's probably a little bit mundane, I suppose,

but could you try to find more of those wolfy creatures and maybe just simply ask them for directions? You're the only person you can speak any of their language. I can, but it might be dangerous because they might... sense something's wrong and they can communicate with the elves. Well, I'm worried if you go speak to any more of these guards, you're disguised very convincingly, and this is not as an insult, as someone they very massively disrespect.

I'm worried they're just going to keep attacking you like a woman did. Well, maybe you can speak to someone who's not one of those, like a shopkeeper, someone who... There are other citizens, yeah, there are civilians and stuff around, but they are very much kind of, you see them heads hung low, dejectives, you know, but there are people around. Are there any wargs? You would probably see wags around, yeah,

because I think that they are, they're sort of, like the unseely, they're loyal to the hags and the formorians. So, yeah, you see, like, and they're like in packs, you know, like groups of wags are, like, padding around, like, as if citizens. And you can see them going into shops and, you know, being given things.

They're not paying for them or anything like that. They sort of go in, you hear, like, a few bark demands, like chickens, give us chickens. And they're handed over these like, you know, and like they've just come out of her and they've got them hanging out of their mouths and things like that, laughing, kind of joking to each other and stuff.

Yeah, you see a group of wags. I could also just speak to one of the shopkeepers. I think that might be a better way to do it. What language do the shopkeeper speak? We don't know. I can comprehend at least. But they need to comprehend you. I'll try.

It's worth a go. I grow a tongue. Spend an action, grow your tongue back. It's triple the length. Yeah. Nice. Nice. It's like venom. Yeah.

Eddie. Mrs. Jen. All right. So do you want to just find like a little store or like a group of people? You'd probably see that like out on the street you see a very worn looking, yeah, elf I think, one of the, one of the, You don't see a lot of elves. A lot of the ones that you've seen so far

have been like satyrs and centaurs. And they're cleaning gutters. Like they've literally got like this rickety ladder and they're cleaning a gutter from several houses. And they're wearing like rags. You can see that they're covered in scars. And do you approach them? Yeah.

They immediately get on their feet and start saying, come, I'm so sorry, my lord, what can I do for it? And they're like groveling before you. What are they speaking in? They're speaking in that Sylvan language. that is your understanding because of the spell? I'm gonna grab them by the scruff, pick them up.

And they kind of like, look at you and they're just like, they're just terrified. And I'm gonna point them at the building that they're cleaning the gutters of. I'm doing my best, my lord, I'm trying to clean it. Is there anyone in here? I'd say that this building is some sort of like home, but I think it would be empty.

A lot of the buildings here seem empty or as if they're being prepared for someone so that it's clear and there's furniture but things are being sort of cleaned and arranged but it is currently empty. So I'm trying to prepare it for the ex-ontourage, please, I'm doing my best. I'll push him through the door. You see he just immediately gets this like, I'm fucked

and just like, and just sort of almost like prostrates himself, like, preparing for his punishment. I close the door so people can't see in anymore. You bring everybody in with you, or is it's just you and him? I'm happy to keep watch. Yeah, you keep watch. It's up to Gruff if Groff wants to come in. I mean, what were these two doing?

I mean, we'll keep watch on these two. Yeah. But also look outwards again. We can stay outside as far. I guess it would maybe look weirder if we went in. So, yeah, I'll just be inside. So basically, Ophelia's there with the Wog and you're kind of keeping watching the thing, so it's just you.

I'll do a magical action again and change my face to Rowan. And like, you see this elf, like, very confused. Don't worry. Don't worry. Hello. Do you understand me? I can speak. Giant.

Hello, this is giant speak. This is common. I switch to common now. When you speak common, he does sort of look as if he's understanding a little bit. You get this one? Yes? You are speaking the language of mortals. Perfect.

What are you? I am not unseely. What? I am here to help. Help. You help. You help. of the elves, yes. Do you know of black wing?

Black, black wing? They live on the dusk side. Dusks? I'm not going to harm you. I can't understand everything you are saying. Just words. Oh, no, sleepy. Sleeping. Oh, day, wiki. Oh, sleepy.

Sleep day. Are you looking for someone? Sun down, sun up? No sun, damn it. He like looks at. at you. Can you give me a persuasion roll, please, Trump? 20, no, 17, sorry. 17.

He looks around, this is a trick. You're trying to trick me. You're testing me. You're testing to see if I'm loyal. Do this? And speak common? Probably not. I would not dare question the unseely.

They are almighty and powerful. I am loyal. I'm loyal to the unsealia. Please, my family, we are not part of the resistance, my lord. We do not help them. Well, in that case, I will tell the unsealier you're not loyal. If you don't tell me where... No, I am loyal.

I am loyal. Yeah, well, I'll tell them. I do not understand you. Yeah. I'm looking for directions. Direct. You wish to go a place. you can see that like this person

that fear of like this is a trick like you think that if you can break through that and convince him somehow that like you genuinely aren't like some sort of test he'll probably try and help you but like right now he's just like no no I am

I wouldn't help anyone who is not of the unseely one second I'll open the door you can talk to us in your head can one of you two come in Okay. Which ones? To show them that you're from the material plane. I'll go in.

Go ahead, Daisy. Do you see Daisy come in? Ophidi, if you look at you. You see this terrified elven figure. They are, you know, wearing these rags, and they look confused. Hi. They barely understand common. Oh.

Gree says in commons. Can you connect their head? Greeting. It doesn't translate language. Oh. Greeting. Greetings. Hello.

Uh. You are prisoner. Prisoner. Pretend. No, I'm gonna pat them on the head. Pat Daisy on the head. Give me a persuasion check with advantage. I give a thumbs up.

Yeah. That's out of action. Uh, 29. Yeah. So at this point, this is not a test. No. You are. We've snuck in.

Sneaky. You are in great danger. Yeah. I can only barely understand what you are saying, but there is one who can help you. I will tell you how to find. You can understand me, yes? You understand me.

Thumbs up. Yes. There is one who can help you. You will need to find them and they will help you. You must find the harlequin, the harlequin. Yes, go to, do you know the city, do you know? No, do you have a map? Map, no, I, uh,

Point. He finds like a piece of, he finds like a piece of charcoal or something or a little stone, and on the floorboards, he draws a very crude street map, like a line, a line, squares, and he circles an area, and he says to you, because he gets this impression that you can listen. You are here.

You must go down, here, down, here at, when, wait here, the harlequin will be here. Okay. But you may have to wait, hide, wait here, here. Okay, okay. But the harlequin, you must not tell anyone that we have spoken. When we go outside, you must hit me.

If there are any watching. I'll pretend. No, if they do not believe you, then I will be, please, please. Okay, okay. You must look like you enjoy hurting. They enjoy hurting. Yes, I've noticed. Thank you for your help.

Would you like a rock? Rock, I do not understand what. I open my satchel and give him a rock from the material plane. Sort of takes it. I thought of my favorite rock. Holds this rock that is from a world that he has never seen or been to.

And almost you see the smallest tendrils of green magic from his hands caress and pass over this stone. And he sort of holds it close and lets out these, almost like a part of a song not quite, more like a syllable, like a couple of syllables of a tune and sort of holds it close.

Thank you. Thank you. This is, reminds me of freedom. This reminds me of freedom. Holds it, holds it close. The satir's. Saitier, yes. Yes, the satir.

Yes, yes. Yes, the satir. Helped. Resist, the resistance? Yes. Then there are still some of our free. They are working. They will not be able to help Fatalian.

Melisgari is too cruel. He sort of holds his head. Well. You must go. You must go. Okay. Meet with them. And this is the map?

I will look at the map. When, when, yeah, when you, yeah, you and Nim, you and Nim can figure this out. When you arrive, do not disguise yourself. They will not come if you are the unsealing. Good. Praise the science. You, you, they will, the harlequin will not come if they think there is a threat. You must not be a threat. We'll hide and be us. And, and approach when it is safe. Right. Can I go have that stone? The one you drew with? Oh, the little piece of charcoal. Yeah, you hands that back to you.

but they're most central. Okay, sure. Fay charcoal. Yeah, you have a piece of some sort of charcoal. Your own loves that. Yeah, sure, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's like a, you know, like, he probably, like, probably had it on him.

It's just like a small piece of charcoal, basically. Yeah, sure. But he will just sort of nod and then. I'll pat him on the shoulder and just try and look as kindly as I can. Yeah, he sort of like, touch his shoulder. And say, I'm sorry. Like nods, nods his head. And then I'll magic action back into...

Back to the face, yep. Yeah. Okay, great. And then go back outside and whack him. Yeah, so like, as you take him outside, like, kind of shove Daisy ahead of you, he kind of stumbles out. And, yeah, there are guards sort of nearby. They sort of look over, like, what's going on, what's this, what's happening over here.

And he's, like, cowering. He, like, puts his hands, and he's like, please, please, my lord, please, my master. No, I did not mean too upset. I'm doing my best. And he's, like, pointing at the gutters and things like that. And then what do you do? Is this like a back, like you puff him? It's a disrespectful backhand.

Yeah, just like a proper whack. He reels, you know, from your blow and kind of goes staggering back and he's like bowing and scraping. You see the guards kind of just nod and carry on their way. And yeah, you have this brief moment. Oh my God, Robin. Rowan, what are you doing? I don't want to talk about it, okay?

What happened in there? We've got information. Okay, good. Is he okay? Yes. No, none of them are okay. Um, but we've got information and they were nice. And they wanted to be hit, otherwise they would have been, uh, discovered.

There's someone who we, we have to meet, who might be able to help us and understand us, which would be very useful just now. Yes, and Daisy has a map. Yeah. Wonderful. In her brain. Yeah. And we have to go to this area and wait and hide as us, not as disguises.

Well, okay, easy for us too. We're not disguised, but yes, you can do that? How far away is it? It's not that far. It's maybe about sort of 20, 30 minutes from here, Daisy, like NIM is in your head. Little one, yes, I've memorized the map. It is not far from here, but these streets, I'm not used to navigating. I may need your assistance, but I do not believe it to be far.

We just need to wait because they will only appear when it's safe. And I think that on that crude map, this elven figure drew, the main thing is, like, landmarks, has drawn, like, bridge symbols and, like, the sap rivers and things like that. And it's through that that NIM's able to navigate and sort of estimate the distance. Okay. And, yeah, if you guys follow that, it leads you to...

I will mount the wog. Yeah, yeah, large creature. Okay, Griffith. We've got to look the part, have we. Barding does have a saddle on it. I brace. You make your way there. You are, through NIMS guidance, Daisy sort of in mentally giving you the instructions,

letting the wag and the commander sort of lead them as you go. You eventually find your way to a very run-down part of the dawn, half of this city. The buildings are dilapidated, many boarded up. It looks like this was maybe once like part of a port. a poorer area. Not that anywhere in this city is poor. It's all these grand, beautiful, excuse me, elven buildings, all carved from this silvery wood and decorated, probably would have once been decorated with beautiful cloths and windows and fabrics and things like that. But this area is run down. The buildings partially, like broken in

places, burnt ruins, boarded up, sealed off. And you come to the, the, directions on the map are to an abandoned, probably what would have once been a marketplace. There is the shape of what would have once been a fountain fed by one of a smaller channel going through the middle that runs from the canals, but it's been blocked up so it's dry. There's no sap that remains there. You see that there are people that live in this area. You know, you can see dirty-faced elven children and, you know, satyrs and things like that scattered around, but they very quickly, as soon as they see or hear anyone coming, they seem to

scatter. But there's numerous alleyways, a couple of abandoned buildings that surround this little market square. This is what's denoted on the crude map. It is, yeah. The time it's taken you to get into the city and get to this place, the warm light of the sort of sun fruit has dimmed even more and that moon fruit has grown more silver and more brighter kind of giving this implication of a day or night cycle

as the dim light begins to manifest you see that these sort of glowing firefly like bugs sort of begin to appear in greater numbers casting this hazy glow over the place I'm assuming you do as instructed

you drop the disguises you find a place to hide yourself and a safe sequester away. And you wait there for a couple of, maybe an hour, two hours. It's hard to tell in this place. There's no real good sense of time. But eventually, you see that various elves

begin to arrive here. And, you know, some of them are carrying little chairs. Some of them have, like, children with them. But they are doing it secretively. They're sort of checking which way they've come from, whisp, like, hushing their children as they go who are asking questions. They begin to pull out crates and cover them with cloths and setting out little bits of food and drinks and things like that.

Small amounts, really barely anything in the grand scheme of things. But there is a sense that people are being brought together in this place. And then everything goes very quiet as if they're waiting for somebody to arrive. And out of the shadows in the alleyways and the buildings, various figures begin to almost step through the shape. shadows you know that where they stepped from was flat like flat wall one minute and as the light has created these long shadows an elven figure steps through it and all of them wear these full covered masks like actors masks like a troubadours like harlequin masks dressed in motley colors but faded you know probably were once quite bright and colorful but now they're muted dirty some

even blood spattered and eventually one and they begin to hand out food you can see they have parcels handing out supplies and rations new boots and shoes for the children clothing for to replace that which hasn't been able to be restored and then they all begin to gather as one final figure arrives their attire is not any more majestic than the others in fact it looks almost more ramshackle it's part armor, part noble clothing, part minstrel. You know, it has almost like a diamond patterned leg on one side and then a beautiful sort of nobles like legging on the other with silk and lace. But then part of their chest is leather, sculpted armor.

And then the other half is tattered chain mail and a pardron. They wear like a dark scarf that seems to have a life of its own and almost like reaches out, almost like another pair of hands behind, them you know taking things or giving things out of its pockets to the children and the children seem particularly delighted they kind of and you almost see like little sweets being given out by this scarf that they wear around their neck um with a hood covering it and again they have the traditional dual harlequin mask the the split you know one angry one sad um and they begin speaking in elven to everybody there and it's very obvious that this figure is is the main figure of this

at this organization. But that is where we're going to take our break as the Harlequin makes their appearance. Cool. I love the design of that one. That's cool. We'll return to this after the break. Thanks for holding a little bit longer.

We're going to take our part one break here. We'll see you in part two. God, we're good at games. We're really good. Yeah, we're doing it. See you in part two. Bye. Bye.

All My Best Friends Are Digital is a podcast about video games and the stories they tell. Every week we cover a retro title, where Mark finds a way to bring up Terry Bogart or aspect ratios. And Caitlin grudgingly acknowledges that there are games other than square RPGs. We do a feature review of a recent release and also chat about what we've been playing lately. We love the stories and memorable characters that video games bring us. Garrus Vicarion will never love you the way he loves me. Sometimes a little too much.

join us every week for all my best friends are digital wherever you find your podcasts hi i'm dan mar host of the conversions podcast where i invite the talented inventive and uncompromising minds behind some of your favorite and soon-to-be favorite indie games to talk about what they do best on each episode i invite two members of the indie community many of whom will be meeting for the very first time to share their journeys their formative experiences their successes and failures their advice for aspiring indie devs, and no doubt, lots of unrelated waffle too. I mean, this is a podcast after all. If this sounds like your cup of gin, then subscribe to the Convergence podcast from wherever you choose to ethically source your podcasts.