High Rollers DnD - The Moral Choice | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #117 (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

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Pickax Hey, I'm Arnie Kemp from the fully improvised comedy podcast, Hello from the Magic Tavern. I'm here with my co-hosts, Chun the Talking Badger, Bing Bong, and Usenor the Wizard. I greet thee, listeners. Look, I'm trapped in the magical land of foon. So I started a podcast interviewing elves, unicorns, and other weirdos. We have great guests like Felicia Day, Jason Manzuchas, Brennan Lee Mulligan, Amy Mann, and so many more. Oh, and I think one time we...

interviewed a sentient shoe? I hope it was sentient. Not to mention the evil people we've had to interview. How I hate evil. Join us as we bar crawl across the magical land of foon. Looking for adventure. Getting caught up in escapades. Hello from the Magic Tavern is available right now on your favorite podcast app and add free and with lots of bonus content on Patreon. Subscribe to Hello from the Magic Tavern today. Hi, we're the fans of the podcast, Girls who don't A show that took three women Who've never played Dungeons and Dragons before And threw them deep into a world of magic and make-belief

With nothing but a handful of dice And a truckload of misplaced confidence to protect them And why did they ask us to do the act? Because we're in it too. Join the show that takes you from this I need to like roll a dice to see if I can do that. To this. For I am the Lord of Lightning

And you will earn. Girls who don't D&D. Find them now wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome back to Othea the Dragon Empire. Having scored victory over the diadem agents in the Opel Lounge, the heroes began to investigate the rooms and interrogate the survivors to learn what they could. At the same time, Sister Ophelia Delrosa of the House of Blood began a dark ritual to try and give the soul of glitter,

one of the diadem agents, to the Gravefather, which soon became a life-threatening ordeal and contest of wills. Xanthius' childhood friend, Faria, revealed that he has one of the cursed tattoos that will result in his death, if not removed, giving them anywhere between 8 and 24 hours before it is invoked. Daisy found a series of letters and encrypted papers inside a trapped writing desk, and Gruff healed and rescued a freelance information broker who'd been spying on one of the diadem's clients. As Ophelia successfully convinces Glitter to join the Greylands, she is redeemed by the grave father and offers her heart to him, which he gladly accepts. Finally, Xanthius uses sending to Obsidious, hoping for aid in removing Farrier's tattoo. But the draconic lord tells him that he cannot do so.

And that, my friends, is where we left things off last. Damn it. Before we jump too quickly into the RP... We level up? You did level up as well. Level 12 now. Yes, we have a scattering of feats being chosen, a level tabed barbarian, um yes, a scattering of things. Yeah. But it's also time to roll fate as well. I'll make sure we do that before I think that. Fait! Shit! Four!

Four! That's one for you. We're back for you. I've got a two, I'm afraid. Helps. That actually genuinely helped. I got a six. Squage the Rowan, get a six. Okay, so six from Kim, that's another one for you. Tom, I really did your two.

Four. That's a four. That's another one for you. Two. Another one. From Reeves from me. That's what, yeah. Got a squeak it.

A one. That's, oh, even Stephen. Stephen! I mean, Stephen. I can't use my squeaky daisy because the cats took it. So. We find ourselves still deep in the Opal Lounge. The writing desk having been sealed into the wall

as the bomb inside was accidentally triggered and quick thinking from Gruff and Rowan sealed it away. But there are potentially still avenues of information to gather here. Farrier is currently waiting with you. You also have Alejandro, who is currently. captured. But really this, I hand it over to you to where we go next. I will remind Cicrophelia that there is something different and how you, you, I feel, have a good idea of what that is and however you wish to play into it. You can do so, but you have given something

to the Gravefather and it has been taken from you. So I'll leave that to you. I'm sure that's fine. I'm totally fine. I wouldn't worry about it. For us, we don't know that you've done that, but you do look physically. Physically more undead. Oh, she doesn't.

Yeah, physically more vampiric. The face is a little bit more gaunt. That's just exorbed. Every time she does speak to the Gravefather, something significant happens, she does end up looking a bit more. Like when she came back, when she came back from the Greylands, that was the only lot, and then this time.

And then this, but she was close to death and we saw her be close to death and she's come back looking more undead again. Yeah, okay. So we could just tribute it to any time you see the grandfather. Pretty much. Yeah.

I mean, it's too. You're closer to him. Closer to God. I leave that to all of you. Either way, Rowan, he rolls the arnet, is looking at his bag of holding and he's gonna get out the circlet again that he quickly put in.

and have a look at it. This is the platinum circle with the green gemstone that you found in the right of death. Can I feel any sort of magical energy from it? You cannot. It does not appear to be magical. It is exceptionally well made and looks very valuable.

There is also, I would say, something that looks a little ceremonial about it. As if this is some sort of symbol but they earned their place. Perhaps. But unfortunately, it does not look magical. You fling it. No.

No. Okay, that's it. Graff, what are you doing? How are you getting on? Oh, so Graff's gotten out his little bad spectacles perched on the end of his nose and he's found a little pencil from somewhere.

How far there can you get those? Really? Ah, we hit the limit. There you go. And he's been, muttering for the last 10 minutes to himself as he tries to deal with the cipher that we picked up. I think something's wrong with Griffith.

He's just focused, focusing on the thing. I think I saw something like this in one of the villages up the coast. They used to send messages. Wave meat. By cipher. Oh, in ice art. In ice art, yes.

Right. But I think I got it. Try replacing all of the bits with one, two, three, four, five. Oh, I'll do that. Probably a load of numbers. It's a math puzzle. I'm certain of it. Right, okay, it's a letter puzzle.

Yeah, it's definitely a letter. You are clearly on the right track there's out. Oh, yeah, yeah. I think it's not, yeah, graph has, you've deduced that this kind of, these symbols that Daisy felt on the underside of the desk seem to be some sort of guide, and when you arrange the alphabet,

certain positions, they then translate into symbols and those symbols can then be decrypted. Right. I think I've got something and actually, it kind of matches up to something that I found out from that poor fella in the room. Where is Alejandro at this point? He is being held by Vricks in the mainland. And we're in the office. You're in the office. Perdo's office. So kind of like, yeah, Groff would be listening. Maybe shut the door or make sure that other hand. We've got... Oh, yeah, we could speak in your head.

Okay, I'm still not used to that. Okay, I think I got it. Right. In the Daily train. You don't need to clear your voice in the... Okay. A lot really echoes in my head. Yeah, it was loud.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Ooh. Perry, the shipment is nearly ready. I've arranged to have it delivered and kept in the storehouse outside the city, the one marked with the rings of wheat. Calanis. Calzanis.

Thank you. And I will discuss final terms, but I expect the deal to happen on the sixth first moon, emerald. Sixth first moon. What day is it today? Day is it. Day is it?

I mean, you should be tracking the days because you have some important dates coming up. Why? It is Christmas Day. It is not Christmas Day. It's not Christmas Day. I wrote this down. Five and a half.

At some point I read it. Well, you should because you have some important things happening. It was the first of Black Hollow in June. The third of Black Hollow is when the ball is to take place. So it's current like the first of Black Hollow? No, the ball is tomorrow. So second of Black Hollow. So we got three, four, four days.

Until that one? The sixth. On the sixth first moon. Oh, that's when my true love gave, carry on. So, this match is that poor boyo in the room. Jarlon Aska. He mentioned that he's been keeping an eye on Calzanis. Calzanis. Who's been posing, I know, who's been posing as a merchant from Gildai.

Right. I think, Santhius, this is one of your brothers. Oh, goody. Kalsanis? Yeah, he's been organising shipments from Gildai, I suppose, to this warehouse. Um, he was talking of a big shipment from Orescal to Kelskares, coming soon. And Mr. Emrod and Perrault are seeing it. Order of what?

Well, I'm guessing Crown Seal. Farrier, do you know? He's not listening. Oh, wait, hold on a minute. Also, yeah. Go on. That Farrier might have been involved as well. Oh, almost certainly. Jarlane saw Faria at this place in Guildey.

Yeah, but we're not in Guildey. It was here in the city. Oh, here in the city. Where Calzanis's place is staying. Oh, okay, that. Everything Faria did, forgiven. What? They're on our side now.

I don't think it's probably the best. I trust Santhius. It's extremely black and white, and I think that's okay to tell Faria everything. No. Give all the information to us. I think let's be clever with it and ask him what he knows. Hi, Farrier.

So are you going out? He's out in the main lounge currently, helping keep an eye on Alejandro. Come on in. He glances at Alejandro, Ricks has got him locked down. Probably just, I just don't trust that he's not going to squirm out of that. So maybe we should just... He comes in the room, he's been invited by him.

For Ricks, you've got Alejandro Rund. Yes, I have them. Farrier walks in, like, yeah, what's up? Did you hear back, you said you were going to contact this powerful friend of yours? Oh, they're going to get back to me soon. Okay, that's not what was said, but sure. No, I don't want to tell this guy, this tattoo is like, dunzo. No, it's just that obsidious couldn't remove it.

I didn't say it was dunzo. There's machinations. Sure. Anyway, so, welcome to the fold. These are my friends. Hi. Hi. I'm Zanth's best friend. Well, obviously second to you. I don't know anymore. Okay. It's complicated. Sure. Ophelia, gruff, Daisy.

I thought I do. Faria. Ophelia Delrose of the House of Blood. Thank you. Anyway, hi. How's it going? Good. Fantastic. So, tell me everything. You're not. Tell me everything you know about the diadem. I hate how casual you're being about all of this. Like, this is a big deal. It's okay, we deal with big deals.

Sure. What do you think I'm going to tell? What do you want to know? I don't... I know some things about this place. I was mainly working under Peridone Emerald, but I don't know much. Calzahnis?

When you say that name, his demeanor changes and he gets why do you know what do you know about him? Why are you asking about him? Well, I'm under the impression that Calzanis might be

a brother of mine. Is that true? What? Do you know about Calzarnus Oregon? You're going to need to repeat that, Santhias. They're your brother.

You know, I don't really like my family too much either, Farrier. What do you want to know? Well, can I do an insight check on that? Yeah. Like what kind of... Yeah. Anybody can do roles.

That's what the game's for? Oh, I can... Yeah. Insight is a skill that all of you have access to. No, I forgot it was a whizzy. Yeah. 16 for Daisy. 18.

18. I do try and keep your passive insights in mind as well. Like, I will try and give you clues and stuff. 18's good. 16 is good, but you're probably not going to get everything. 23. 23 is very good. You see it's soul.

Daisy, I think that maybe that what you pick up on is you saw him like immediately like he physically got very defensive and I think it's a feeling you know very well because it's often how you feel around fire.

Like you want to protect yourself and like you have this like you want to clam up and get away and his body language gave you that same impression. Like there is a fear there that's present. Rowan and Graf, especially

when Zan said it was his brother, there was this deep, deep, like, you get this sense that that immediately put a distance between him and Santhius because you can get the sense that Farrier despises this Kalsanis and has this physical aversion to him.

You can just tell that this is somebody that this man hates and fears in equal measure. Cool. What do you want to know? Well, we're trying to get to the bottom of everything that's going on. We're worried about some plans they have to do with an upcoming event. Event. Well, also...

I don't know anything about an event. Well, we're also trying to figure out who this mysterious... merchant might be that's purchasing up all this crown steel and... Oh. Well... Well, I... I could only assume it was crown steel. But Calzanis is a merchant. He's had some dealings with this branch of the diadem, and seems to be very interested in crown steel.

If I may. Yes. Farrier. Yeah. Rowan. I remember. We're with you on this. We... I know this is strange to say,

but Xanthius' family couldn't be any further from him. Oh, I know that. I mean, you remember we grew up together. I know that he wasn't... He wasn't in Rust End by choice. I know that much, but... It seems like this...

Person... ...has done something, or... You could say that, yeah. Ah. We'll make sure that never happens again. I suppose. and if you can't get rid of that, if you can't get rid of this tattoo,

then the least thing you can do is kill that bastard for me. Every intention. We've done that before. We've, yes, we've dealt with Aragon's before. He's twisted, really twisted. Calzionis in particular? Yeah.

Charming, charismatic, very, easy to get on with for most people. And then the diadem told him about my... He holds up the leather, lead-lined gornlets. Made it part of the deal that I had to go and see him on a weekly basis. He wanted to run some tests. You're not the first person that he's done now, do you? Doesn't surprise me.

But look, I can't tell you much about him or what he was up to. I know that it was some big deal, some... It was a big deal orchestrated between a powerful figure and the diadem Kalsanis is the middleman. I don't know the details of it. I knew that there was some deal that was being discussed, but I don't know when, where or what. Only that it concerned crown steel. There was another one as well. There was a dwarven professor.

I had to escort there. Uh. Professor Broxton. Oh. That rings a bell, yeah. They're involved? Well... If he makes an insight check, I do exactly what he did.

Brasquil. This dwarven professor, he had some trouble, apparently, in the city. I only heard little bits of it, but there was some trouble. He needed to get out of Kelskaris, and Peridot and Emerald do what they do best. They offered what looked like a helping hand, but... As soon as Broxton was here, as soon as they had him cornered, well, he was basically as under their thumb as I am. And when this, when Cal, Calzanus heard about this professor

and what his field of study was, rare metals, magical minerals, that sort of thing, he seemed pretty pleased about that, said that he knew a good place to keep the professor safe. I know what kind of fucked up guy that is and that's not a place where he's not somebody who looks after people that way. Can I look past Farrier

and see how much Alejandro is paying attention? Sure, yeah, give me an insight. I can close the door, right? Did we close the door? You have not closed the door. Nobody specifically said they were closing the door. Oh. Because we used the...

19? 19. you get the impression that he's definitely trying to listen in as much as possible he's making a big show of like kind of complaining about Vricks and trying to like chat to Vrix

and be like hey you can ease up a little you know bug and Vrix is like nothing unlikely you tried to control my mind yes but of course I was just trying to get away I was just hoping you would help me it's not like I was you know making you

and blah but he's like chatting away but you can see that he's like leaning towards this room and he's tough And so he's like talking to Vricks, but it's so that he has like the best possible opportunity to listen in. Oh, Daisy Chain. We ought to be careful what we talk about.

I think Alejandro is picking up on a lot of the details here. Lean at the door. We'll be back to you shortly. Alejandro, closed door. Okay. I don't think we should shut him out entirely. I'll go out there. I just don't trust that he's not.

I'm very sorry. when you go to open the doors, Antheus, you closed it, which reactivated the trap on it, and you have not activated it in the proper way, which makes it triggers the trap, which is why I was very specific about you had not closed you. It is, this is a door that when the door is shut,

it resets the trap, and it has to be deactivated, which Daisy has the current key to do so with. So I do apologize, but that is how this mechanic and how this was set up to, work. So as you do so, I need, luckily this will only affect you, Xenthias, because there are no other creatures within 15 feet, I would say. I imagine you were all

inside the room or far outside of it. Because we're not really using the map at the moment. So I need a dexterity save. Oh shit. I'm no good at those. Wow, that's a shame. 14. That is a failure, I'm afraid, which means you are going to be taking full damage. Wait, what's your health? Oh, you're okay. Tire no.

Actually, because we leveled up, we've... You don't automatically long rest. You gain the extra hit points, but it won't automatically long rest you. It's in Final Fantasy? No. A hell? You can't have the peon-stitch wine. Okay.

It's out of line, but he's right. I love that you tried to talk to like and Joe and be snout towards him. Just... It literally blew up in your face. Actually blew up in your face. We'll be back in a second. Back in a second.

Santhis, you take 24 piercing damage, 19 poison damage. Oh my God. Like 50 damage. What you see is as Santhius closes it or then opens it again, basically a sheet of poisoned needles fire from all directions around the door,

catching anybody within, yeah, within anybody in the air. By the science! Can you please also make a constitution saving profile? Oh, good, those. You puke. They're 16. It's a failure.

These poison darts, f-b-b-b-p-p-p-p-pthum. And Xanthius, just your body feels heavy and leaden. You fall unconscious. For fuck sake. I'm gonna healing word him. From a distance. Okay. Oh.

You hear like, Daisy, you hear like click. click, click, click, click, click, like the trap is activated. There's no more needles. There's like no more needles now, basically. So this track is permanently disarmed. I don't hold the key. You needed that. And then just, like, fucking 12-hour sessions.

Because, like, it's been a week since we last open this fucking door. We didn't, well, yeah. Twenty-one points of healing. Hell yeah. You do not regain consciousness unless you are physically woken. Can you fit for me as left. Can I, I'll get up, walk over, sigh a little bit. Can I cast lesser restoration on him?

Does that remove the poison condition? Yes. Yes, then you do so, and Xanthius comes to. Those of you, Zentheus doesn't say this because he was unconscious. Alejandro bursts out laughing. He's like, pf, like he kind of has to, like, try and hold it back, but he does absolutely laugh when there's Zendthens.

I mean, that's totally fair. You okay? Jentheus? What happened? You needed the key. You didn't do the tap on the door. Everything's trapped. See the desk's in a giant concrete wall?

Don't let Alejandro see me. He's all... He's laughing. He's laughing right now. Farrier, he's not usually like this. Vricks. May I ask that you take Mr. Alejandro and guard him in that room over there

and I'll point at the room? Sure. Vricks doesn't like... She just grabs the back of the chair and like... like drags him into the room. As a point of note, that room is silent, so we will not be able to hear you.

I just realized that she may take that in another way. What I meant was... I'm gonna go in with them. I'm gonna go in with them. Okay, yeah, because what I meant was if he causes problems, she can shout for help. Yes, very good. What I did not mean was break his fucking kneecap.

You just see Bricks's like nodding at you. I'm gonna go with you, Vrix. Browin, I think, I'm really concerned we're barreling towards him. Misunderstanding. It would prevent him from running and he was a naughty man. Does the Daisy chain, I'm gonna do some testing one I'm in now? Slicing the hamstrings also an effective thing or preventing them running. There's no need for that.

I'm not going anywhere. I've been quite cordial. Alright this way, Bricks, come on. Ah! And I walk into the room. Yeah, the Daisy chain still works. It still works, so it doesn't block telepathic communication. Okay, good. However, Roan is off.

The tone sounds different somehow, but I can still hear you. Oh, okay. Cool. Yeah, Rowan, you would notice, as soon as you step into this room, like, you just immediately don't hear anything outside this room. You can still talk to inside the room. And it'd be a pretty useless tortured room if you couldn't speak in it.

Griggs, don't tell your secrets. But Gruff gave me a message. Wait a minute. Hinted up to... No, no. You've misinterpreted, Bricks. We are just keeping Alejandro here. Are you certain? I am quite sure that I received Gruff's secret communication, clear.

This room is silent. Trust me. They cannot... No one will hear him screaming. Ricks. Yes. You really think a knight-errant gave you permission to harm someone that is already subdued. You are right. This is wisdom.

Ruin, you are correct. Yes, Gruff would not. If Xanthias had told me this, I would break every bone in this man's body. Wow. Or Cicerofelia. Just let you know, Alejandro, that you're on a fine, fine edge right now. Yes, as long as you, Daisy or Gruff are giving me messages, I will interpret them in positive ways. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill.

Briggs isn't in the Daisy chain, sadly, so. Cesarophilia, I can hear that. It's all very easy. It's fun. But yeah, you take him in. He seems, Alejandro definitely seems more nervous in this room. He does not like being in this room. Interesting. He knows what was done in this room.

Mostafaria. Yeah. Hello, my name is Graf. You know that scene in Ace Ventura where it's just like, that's what I'm imagining. Oh, so it wasn't 100 to... Like 20 times. Three darts is too much.

He's like, oh. No, that's the spears that get through him. He gets, like, a needle in the neck, and then he just, like, starts running and gets more and more numb as he runs. That's what I'm doing with. I've dismantled the trap. I like you dribbling a little bit.

So as you can tell, Farrier, we're very capable to. And we could solve any problem. He absolutely disintegrated in a really dramatic way. Well, this is it. I think Fari says, like, I have no doubt that, you're very capable, you do seem a bit reckless.

No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love you, man. He's drunk on poison. What's differently for dragons? What's differently for dragons?

I was down, maybe. You were saying, Gruff. You know, the Grave father doesn't deserve you. He's not wrong. No, he's a lot, but he's not wrong. Hello, my name is Graf. If you want to do anything, just let me know. Um, I'm Griffith, Griffith for Traymorrow.

Griffith. Um, I've heard a... Was Antthias has told us about you? I understand you grew up together. That's right. Yeah. Well, I'm... I'm duty-bound to protect him. And, um...

I was wondering. Have you seen this Mr. Emerald? No, Emerald is, well, I've seen him, but he takes a lot of measures to mask his identity. He uses a lot of illusion magic, masks, shrouds. I don't think I've ever seen his face. Whenever he would appear, he always has an illusion that kind of keeps his face in shadow. So you can ever really see, you can sort of see the jaw in his mouth, but would always have, you know, the room, the lighting in the room would dim around him.

He keeps his face shrouded via magic all the time. If he sent messages, they were usually ciphers or letters, but I haven't dealt with him very closely. The only time I saw him was when he would come to speak with Perido. Perido was the more junior of the pair. Emerald's been at this for a long time. He's been Mr. Emerald in the city, from what I can tell. Like, he's always been the Mr. Remboldt. Peridot is a third or fourth Peridot, I think.

They're codenames, right? Like, they swap them if one, for example, Xanthius has told you what happened here before, right? When we got the Crownstile. Yes. The explosion. Yes. That was organized and orchestrated by diadem phacet called Mr. Ruby.

Ruby died in that explosion As far as I know he's been replaced But the facets work separately They keep themselves separate from each other So I don't know what happened to him But Ruby was the one that I was working for before But Emerald I mean, Emerald was still Emerald

Even back then So he's been in this game for a long time And he's a lot more cautious than Perido was He's the one I'm the most afraid of right now. Because he won't waste a second. He'll eliminate me, Alejandro. He'll burn everybody else

so that he's not compromised. In the daisy chain. So Gruff will keep making kind of small talk, but in the daisy chain, Santheis, did you say you didn't, Did you have a way to get rid of his tattoo? Obsidious doesn't think he is able to remove it, no. Do you have any ideas?

Find the person that gave the tattoo. Maybe that would give us an idea of... If we know how it's applied, we might get a better idea of how to remove it. I will say this for you as well, Santhias. You've not properly analyzed one of these tattoos. haven't identified it, you haven't tried to like figure anything out with your own arcana. Yeah.

So you could try that as well. There may be other options, but your theory is right. Basically, you'd know nothing about these tattoos. You don't know how they're made, how they're put on people. If you knew that, that might give you clues. It could be that the person who controls it has the ability to remove it. You notice, like, you'll remember, like, I will tell you this. Obviously, you didn't get to see much of her before she was disintegrated.

But you're pretty sure that Peridot didn't have one of these tattoos. Right, I was gonna ask that as well. Which would imply that if this is an organization where you can kind of go through the ranks, there must be a way to remove them once you reach a certain level, right? I literally thought that on the way in today. Yeah, yeah. So it's like that idea of like there must be a method to do so, but it probably can only be done by the person who puts it on in the first place.

Right. Which, from the sounds of it, is probably mistaken. Emerald. Oh, okay. Okay. He's the one who's like, if he's the senior leader of this cell of the diadem, he's probably the one who has control. And honestly, an organization like this, you guys, you know, I think you are smart enough and insightful and wise enough,

an organization as well equipped, as well funded, as influential, even if you find a Mr. Emerald, they probably still have like backups and things like that. Now, if you remove the tattoo, it's not a problem. But, like, they probably, even if you kill Mr. Emerald, there's probably another way for them to activate them and stuff like that. Like, they would have redundancies. Like, this seems like the kind of organization

where they have redundancies on redundancies, you know. Yeah, they're not going to leave people to be erased. No, yeah. No, absolutely not. Santhias, do you have your, what's your gold site, or would that help in looking at this thing? My, uh, wait, do you mean? Oh, gold site, aye.

Yes, I do. I do. Hey Faria, whereabouts is your tattoo? He kind of shrugs off his shirt and turns around and it's on the middle of his back, like a place that's really hard for him to get to or him to look at and things like that as well. Like it's been done intentionally that way.

Where was Nick's... I don't think you know. I don't think you never saw it. Did we not? No. I think it was revealed after the fact. He said he had. We had it, but we didn't see it.

Yeah. Um, do I see how he's removed more of his shirt, further signs of corruption? Yeah, there's definitely mutation, corruption. As far as mine, or? Because I guess he's got smaller pieces, right? It's not as, it's not as extreme as yours. Okay.

Yours is also being facilitated by, say, your use of it, but also your contact with sovereign is definitely exacerbating. exacerbated it. He definitely, you can see that his back and, like, his upper arms have, like, hardened and they're more, like, tough, kind of, like, where your arm is, like, at its thickest, or when you had the gift from Sovereign

that made your AC go up, and it had, like, it became more scaled and armored. His back and his, like, sides of his chest, and even, like, the front of his chest, it's almost like it's covered in, like, this hardened flesh scale. Like, he's a dragonborn, so he already has scales,

but they've corrupted. They've grown thicker, tougher. You know, there's like black and gold cracks running through them. Is there also any indication of the experimentation? Or even, like, torture or like... I think that you catch a brief glance because he wears, like, long sleeves and then he has these big gloves.

But as he, like, lowers the shirt so you can see their tattoo, you can see maybe at the tops of his arms, there is a lot of scarring. A lot of scarring. You see burns, acid burns, fire burns, which on a dragonborn is quite hard to do. But also you see signs of necrosis from necrotic energy, scarring from like intense amounts of magical energy

put on his arms, basically. And then it looks like it's been healed with healing magic, but like inflict, heal. Right, right, right. So it's built up this like constant scarring and you probably like nerve damage and things like that is like really worn into it. But you can also see that it's very clearly been like cut open

like huge gashy scars where it looks like tissues being removed. There's like dense and like gouges where it looks like tissues actually been removed from it. And you can see on his back several of those like scale plates they've also been like cut away and then they've partially regrown, but they're clearly thinner. Like, you know, you can see that, yeah,

like, he's definitely being subjected to. But not in the way that you think, like, Rexenath was, like, super-soldier, right? Like, he was, like, Wolverine. It was, like, he was turned into a weapon. This looks more like a scientist doing a study. Like, somebody who wants to understand, somebody who wants to learn more about what the crown steel's doing to his body,

how the crown still is reacting to magic. this looks more less like I'm going to give you something and it's going to be this invasive process and more just like ha ha oh that was interesting right there. Yeah. You know, it's not massively subtle

that I see that as I'm kind of going to around Farrier and I would almost certainly give a concern to look as well. Like he shudders like from that kind of like he does not like exposing like his corruption. He does not like exposing any of this. He's like, there's a deep sense of shame in him, but also pain, just like pain, basically. Can I tattoo of anything like specific? It is, it is the same, it's a similar design to

what's on the letters. It's a much more style, so it's almost like a ring with like a gemstone. But like it's not really, it's not like a pretty gemstone. It's like basically like a little star kind of symbol. And you see that when you look at it, there is a faint glow, but the glow almost like pulses. So it kind of go, the central gem glows, and then it pulses around the ring. So it's like a little 3D kind of like, basically a diadem, a circular, and it pulses.

That seemingly quite regular intervals of the pulse. Cool, like a loading screen. Can I hold my hands out to Faria? Like when he... Is it? You're right. It sounded like there was a bird in here. Like I could hear some...

They're back! They've come for me! They're in the studio! I thought I heard like the weird stand coming from up there. But anyway. Did you leave the window off? No, sorry, go on, gruff. I think when Ferry kind of drops the back of his shirt,

can I just hold my hands out to him, like, just kind of... Can you give me a persuasion roll, please? No advantage or anything on this, this is just a straight one. 18. 18. 19. 19. Okay, there is very clearly hesitation. Like, this is a person who is not used to kindness to softness. And even with Xanthius, like, you can see that, like, the cat, like, you know,

Zanthius is like, you know, bold, making jokes, like, that is like making him uncomfortable. And this, like, silent, just you offer to hold, he kind of, like, looks like, what, and then sort of seems to get what you're offering. And he sort of just takes your hands. I'm sorry for all the suffering that you've been through, Boyo. He scoffed a little, like, oh, it's, you don't know me, you don't have to, you don't have to say things like that, it's fine. So, yeah, they're not nice people. I made a mistake.

I'm suffering for it. That's life. That's what life is. Life's cruel. You've suffered enough. Well. And I'll just close my paws over herbs. You can see that like this kindness makes him uncomfortable.

He's not used to this. It's fine. We'll see about that. Maybe... Maybe that's what death will be. Peace. Speaking of death, do you know what, the diadem have...

Do you know why the diadem would have interest in necromancy? No, the diadem don't have any interest in that sort of stuff. They don't. Not as far as I know. Interesting. Never had any interest. I mean, the diadem love money. Magic that is useful to them.

Like, they'll... They buy... They have magic items made. They, you know, have wizards. They like buying scrolls. But I've never heard them being, you know, particularly interested in a certain school of magic or being particularly interested in a type of magic. Maybe there's something beneficial to the type of magic

that they're trying to repurpose. I don't know. They like to experiment. Well, the diadem don't. The diadem didn't do any kind of gestures. That was this, Calzanis. Sounds like there's quite a big link, though. Is the name Aura familiar to you?

Ora. Oro Sia. Raysera. Rinks? She came to Calanus's place once. Pretty gold dragon-born girl. Yeah, I remember seeing her. She came by when I was there,

when I was his guest. She came by once. I remember because whatever it was, I thought maybe they were sweet on each other or something, because he let me go early. Normally every week, a couple of hours, two, three hours, but this time it was only 40 minutes an hour. And then he told me to leave. He said, go back, I'm done with you for the day. Siblings.

My sister. They don't look a lot like you. I wouldn't have thought that you were related to them. That's good to hear, thank you. Wait, but she's beautiful, didn't she? Yeah, she is, yeah. In a real, she's beautiful in that I know, it kind of way.

Yeah, but also... Like me? Yeah. There's something more... I'm so gaunt. There's something more to it than that, like, you know, there's being good looking, and then there's whatever she is. You know, it's a step above.

Yeah. She's enchanting to look at. Even I, you know, I... found myself strangely drawn to her and I'm not normally interested in women like that. But anyway, so yeah, I think she came by to see this Calzanis, but she never came by for anything to do the diadem. She only came to speak to him. So she's not diadem?

No, no. I never seen her. Only time I ever saw her was that Calzanus is a stay. Interesting. And Calzanis, just to be clear, Calzanis is a member of the diadem. No. No, he's a client. Right, a client, okay, got it.

Yeah, he's a client. The diadem were doing some deal with him, but... I think they're just using the diadem to get the crown's deal. And they're doing the experiment. Yes. Okay, right, in terms of this tattoo, I'm being very, I'm not, like, touching it, I'm not, I'm really just, like, psyching myself up to start investigating.

Do you know what might trigger the thing? If I start to touch it, I won't. I don't know. The only thing they told us was if we try and tamper with it, if we try and remove it, it triggers. Right. You get one warning trigger. It will make me feel the most pain I've ever felt in my life.

It will be unbearable, mind-breakingly painful. And then if it triggers again, it kills you. And as far as I know, and they made this very clear, you can't bring me back afterwards. The tattoo will do something to my internal organs, my internal body, to the point where resurrection magic won't work because it doesn't have the body parts needed to fix me.

Nasty. You can't bring somebody back that you chop off their head and things like that. Well, I'm going to be as delicate as I can. And you've seen how delicate I am. Yeah, that's what... That's what worries me.

Santhias, there is also... You can do this, right? Like, you can... You're not going to trigger this thing. You'd be surprised how much I've learned in the last few months. I was just going to say, there is also another person

that we have access to with the tattoo right now. I mean, I'm just doing like a cursory. I'm not, like, touching. I'm not manipulating it in any way. It's literally just like a detect magic on the gold site. And I...

I'll tell you this, like, Detect Magic is probably not going to reveal too much. Identify is what you would need to actively learn more about it. Do I have identifying? I believe it's part of the Gold Sight. Oh, it does the Gold Sine? Yeah, it does. Oh, it does, you're right, it does, yeah. However, that is a more, let's say, intrusive spell.

That is, like, actively analyzing a specific thing. Will that trigger it? I don't, you... Currently, you don't know. First stage is, I mean, ideally, I'd like... to do an archa check of some kind, but it's just an initial examination. Sure. Visual.

What, indeed, be the prognosis. So give me an Arcona check. Low DC for this one, because this is a just... What should be? The prognosis? Yeah, this is a general kind of like, you know... Fierizing. I'd like to... Shit bad.

Fade, please, just to make sure I get the most out of this. All right, okay. I have a plus four. Oh my fucking God. We rolled higher on the fate than he did on the day. Yes. Well, I got off to 12. A 12.

Yeah, unfortunately. I did say that this is a slightly lower DC. Now, you didn't quite hit the DC, but I'll give you something for it. Sure. But I'm also maybe going to give you some information that is not 100% true. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because of the 12.

You are not entirely sure what will set this thing off. off. What you can tell is that this is incredibly powerful, very specifically custom-made magic. So this is a blend of several different schools. There is

elements of transmutation, elements of enchantment, elements of conjuration, all different blends of magic that are all being connected here. An element of divination as well, probably the tracking element and the being able to sense where they are.

You do get the sense that like a person, there must be some sort of foci or device or object that's bound to this tattoo because you get the sense that like this has a divination element that's like a tracking ping, like a tracking beacon connected to it. Also, yeah, you're fairly confident that this will do something to the body,

cause immense pain, could even potentially, maybe even compel the subject in some way, like maybe mind control, maybe something else, you're not quite sure. Okay. You're pretty sure that when this kills the person, it will also, yeah, disintegrate the heart, disintegrate the lungs, like it.

Basically, it will leave the outer shell, but it will prevent the body from being, like, raised dead and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Revivify won't work on them. Okay. The other things that you would be able to pick up on, you are not sure if identify

will trigger it, you are just not sure. What I will say is if you do cast identify, either it will trigger it, or you'll need to make an archa check to prevent the identify from triggering it. It's almost like a magical trap, right? Yeah. As you go in with the identify spell,

you're weaving the spell to not, you know, disrupt anything. If that's the case. The other things that I will tell you is that, it's likely only removable by very, very powerful magic. If there's a focus that's like holding, at the very least, this one tattoo is probably a place that has just all of these, like a warehouse of just their tracking things. Oh, the other thing I would tell you as well, because you didn't cast it,

well, you didn't say that you cast a tent mat is this just from Ancana check. You actually think that this tattoo wouldn't register its magic under a detect magic spell. I think part of its enchantment is to just be like to go unnoticed. So if someone were to cast a tech magic, you wouldn't know that they had a tattoo. You might end up seeing an agent. Yeah, exactly.

So this kind of like bakes into it. The other thing I will tell you is that you think you're pretty sure that cutting away the tattoo, the skin, or the limb that it was attached to, would trigger. Yeah. It would trigger it would trigger. It would trigger it or it would cause the tattoo you think might just magically reappear somewhere else on the body.

You know, it's not so easy to get rid of, basically. Do you know who applied this tattoo? No, it's part of an initiation when they make you... What they call a trusted. It's ironic, trusted agent. You are led blindfolded into a chamber. everyone there is wearing masks. Somebody, they have a device,

like a stylus, like a quill, and a mage that is there, and they inscribe it. Could you possibly glean any information about where that might have been? No idea. I was blinded, you know, kept under a magic hood

that meant I couldn't hear or see a smell or anything. These people don't fuck around, Xanthius. They take their secrecy very serious. Hmm. Yes. Well, us being here is a horrible blow to the organization. We probably don't have a huge amount of time here, just as a...

No. I have an idea. No one's going to like it. Okay. But just hear me out. Also, Rayne, if you want to come back in at any point you can. No, no. Because like...

I would, I don't know if you can do it. dual cast, but I would drill stream. I would say it out loud, but also in my mind. Sure, shit, yeah, yeah. Oh. Activated. Shish, shh, fix. It's going to be audacious.

It's going to be very dangerous. When I came in the room, I saw Peridot reach in for one of those gemstones on the dresser, presumably to contact Mr. Emerald. Do people are not the dresser? No. No, it was a writing dress. It was a right dress.

I wonder if we have Faria contact Mr. Emerald, saying he has Xanthius. I don't know the command word to activate the vanity. I don't know it. Does Alejandro? Maybe I don't know. Perdo contacting Emerald was a big deal, and she didn't let a lot of people in on what was going on. But just to be clear, I don't...

All I know is that each of the different stones does a different thing. and that each one has a command word. A word in common, but a command word that has to be spoken when you touch it to activate it. I wouldn't trust Alejandro to use it as well. Once that's on, he could say anything he wants. No, absolutely. I just thought maybe we could buy you more time with Mr. Emerald.

By making you valuable. I don't know how you would do that. By saying you have Xanthius. I mean, potentially. I mean, he will expect me to deliver him. And that's where we find Emerald. Sure, but... And stop.

I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to do that. But again, also, emerald's not stupid. No. He's going to know what's happened here. He knows I'm not on his level. Me suddenly turning up with him, he'll be curious, but we'd be walking.

Like, he's going to know. Just said it's not so simple. Yeah. Maybe. But even still, it'll be, where are your friends? What happened to them? How did they die? How did they abandon him?

You know, I'm going to have to answer all these questions. I just want to make it clear. Emerald is smart and is paranoid. Doesn't like to take risks. They could trigger the tattoo as soon as they saw. Farrier walk in. You never know. Yeah.

or at least put me in so much pain that I'm easier to, you know, they swoop in and grab Xanthias and I can't do anything. I was just trying to think of ideas. It was a good idea. I mean, yeah, I think it is a good idea. Just I don't know the command word to activate the vanity. Has Alejandro sent people to get tattoos? Don't think so.

He might have come. He might have accompanied a group like me there to it, but... I think we need to start asking... Alejandro's questions. If they got the professor in, they'll have people like that. They'll have people who have this kind of skills

that they need them for, like conjuring these tattoos. That professor was pretty powerful, wasn't he? I mean, he did run away before we... We have a bit of a history with the professor. He's not a nice guy. Not a nice guy. He's a skilled...

He is skilled, and if that's something that died ever... could use. There could be other people that are just regular people. I mean, there are a hundred percent. I mean, that is a huge part of what they do. You know, not every single diadem agent is a, is like glitter or like Alejandro or like me or like Peridot. A lot of them are just skilled of what they do. They have master locksmiths. They have master artisans. You know, people who can create the most complicated, impressive lock you've ever seen, or design a trap like the one at the door. They have people that build things for them, that make their magic items, that forge their

magic rings. They have these people, either through blackmail, through control, through bribery, or just paying them off. Even this, the, the desk trap, it wasn't magical, but it was complex. Engineers, alchemists. People who are very skilled. So we could be looking at just a regular A magical tattooist who just has been given the funds and materials to make this. Then we find tattooists. We ask around. We could research, find if there's someone, maybe the people that we're working with, maybe they know. I'd like to learn more about the tattoo and I'm going to use Alejandro to do it. Yes. I agree. I didn't hear that, Santius.

I know you didn't. And I think we need to go just have a nice pleasant chat with Alejandro. Does that sound good? Brovin, how is he? Oh! Sorry, you got off like halfway through there. I assume you're talking to Farrier. Yes, sorry.

Alejandro, have you been talking to him? Yeah, I'm just keeping it light. Oh, okay. Talking barn stuff? What? Talking barn staff? Well, mostly bricks don't hurt or meme Alejandro stuff. favorite chord.

Do you sustain four? Nice. Sake. Yeah, you'd have bunch of hats. What about yours? He says a really good one. I don't know, Colons. He says a good one, though.

He says a good one, it's really good. Yeah. One that you're like, oh yeah. Oh, yeah. That's in the Dorian mode. Love it. God love the Dorian mode. Yes.

Is there anything else that we need in this place? because I think maybe we need to leave here soon. We can take people with us. Ophelia, are you happy to just have a very quick chat with Alejandro? Yes. Do you guys want to keep looking around? Maybe you'll dig up some more letters or, I don't know.

Yeah, can we have a look for more, like, just any paperwork or something? The places that you've not searched in this room are the wardrobes, the vanity, and then the trunk, the chest at the foot of the bed. Oh, bed's magical, by the way. Yeah, in the magic bed. Bed's magical? Okay, well, Aphelia tried one of those before, and it didn't go down so good.

It was really comfortable, though. It was, but we don't really need a nap at this moment. I do. Not on a magical bed. What's the worst that could happen? You have an amazing sleep. Well, look at the door. Look at the desk.

That exploded. That was full of poison's pins. Everything in here is trapped. Consider it trapped. You wouldn't trap a bed. Who would trap a bed? No, one would trap a bed. No one would trap a bed.

We'll trap a bed behind a locked key door. Everything is trapped. They've gone quiet again, but I assume Rick's that someone's on their way. Yeah, Ophidi's just going to come walking over. Yeah, I'd like to... All right, so San and Ophelia are going to go over. But I do want to check Daisy and Grafferson. You'd like to do in this room.

Before we leave it, because then it would be a big scene in the other room. So keep it separate. I would like to stand back from whatever everyone's looking, and I will heal them. You don't want your leaving the room out. I try to look at the thing and I just, my investigation is dog shite. I mean, you can use perception, but perception will only reveal things that you can see.

Can I try and investigate the chest? With your new investigation that you've made. With my leveled up investigations. You absolutely can. Oh, you've got proficiency now. Yeah, and yeah. Yeah. I did still expert as my feet.

Oh yeah, nice. So, and I did investigation. Perfect. Yeah, I mean, you absolutely can. So what does it look like? Are you like, you know, examining the science? like what is it you're kind of investigating about this chest? Yeah, I guess like the area that it opens, because everything, so judging from what the desk was trapped,

like, I kind of want to, knowing what they've set up, use that to kind of, sure, see if I can. Absolutely. Okay, did we take Alejandro's... Yes, yeah, he basically doesn't have, oh, he doesn't have anything. Ooh, I rolled a 19 plus 8.

Plus eight. Oh, shit. Plus eight. Yeah, no. Expertise, baby. Yeah, you spend a good amount of time, did you see, like, checking it, checking for the trip wires.

I will not be defeated again. Is the lid somehow, like, magnetized to trigger if the magnet is broken and things like that. But what you find is the chest is locked. You are pretty confident it's not trapped in any way. Okay. I mean, 27's good. 27 is good.

It's not 30. It's not 30. Stop it. You are fairly confident that the chess is not trapped, but it is locked. Not as good a lock as, say, the writing desk was. Okay. This is a good lock, but it's not a masterwork lock.

So the DC's high, but it's not insane high. I try and lock. These tools set. Yes. I guess the circle's the most valuable thing. It seems to be. so far. 25.

25, yeah. You very quickly, very easily and click, I get the pins in the right place, push up the tumbler, and yeah, the lock opens. Do you open the chest? If I'm confident it's not trapped.

Yeah, no, yeah. Open the chest. And I duck and I hit the ground. You duck and hit the ground. No, the chest is not trapped. The chest itself does not appear to be too exciting. It mainly looks like personal things. You know, not necessarily clothes,

but there are like trinkets and bits and pieces. There's a blanket, a couple of blankets in here. You do find at the bottom there is a chest, like another smaller chest. But this is not locked. It's not locked. The chest, when you open it, has thin bars of gold, silver, and platinum inside it.

And it's about four. 500 golds worth of combined metal. So it's a chest of 500 GP, basically. How much bronze is that? It's a lot of bronze. 5,000? No. 500 gold.

5,000 bronze. I think it's... No, 50,000 bronze, yeah. 5,000 silvers. But it's all done in like these little bars, basically. Metal, pennies for my job. Just, you've got a chest of 500. Thank you.

But yeah, apart from that, you get the sense... That all fund of Eulia's habits. Yeah. day or so. You get the sense that this is maybe like Peridot's personal, like money basically. But that's what you find. I think this is just personal stuff, but some, some, some nice money. Good find. Yeah. And crucially, nothing blew up. That, that's good. I'm really quite

terrified of this room graph. I'm not going to that. Okay. And then... So it's just the vanity in the wardrobes is the any thing. You said there's no drawers on the vanity, was there? There's nothing on it. It's just the actual. There's things on the desktop, but. but it's like perfumes and ointments, makeup, things like that. But there's no, and it is a big mirror as well. Like it's like a big mirror of these four stones on the other side.

And then there's like skincare and makeup and oils and perfumes. But there's no drawer or like anything for anything to be stored in. Okay. Can I look at the labels on the perf-not, not touching, not touching. With my eyes. How would you look at them? With my eyes. Okay.

Yeah, some of them have labels facing forward. Not all of them then. What do they kind of say? Yeah, they say different things. They just say like, you know. Magnific. Yeah, like they would have like names, things like that. Chador, patio.

Yeah. Number six. Yeah. Yeah. My favourite. Nothing that's like, could be a commodot. I mean, could be. Grot starts going, perfume into the mirror.

Perfume. Parfam. You just say that in front of the mirror? No. Can I do a present. perception check to see if that's your... 18 plus 9, 27. You...

Oh, 30, though, is it? There is nothing hidden. You wrote the perception check. You would be able to tell that there are very, very, very faint... Oh my God, you just wasted that. Yeah, but he has a minus on perceptions. Yeah, so it's 19. It's not 30, is it?

No. With such a high perception, what you can tell is that... that the third and fourth of the two stones clearly are used regularly. And there are very faint arcane ruins. Not to say anything, but they are just clearly like, all four of these stones are magical in some way. And there is enchantments on them.

You would notice that the first stone is the simplest because it has the least amount of runes. So you know that's the simplest enchantment. And that looks like it's used the most. That's the most common thing that's used. The second is probably the least used and has a sort of the next enchantment up. The third has a more serious enchantment

and looks like it's used fairly regularly. And then the fourth is the most complicated enchantment. And was the fourth the one she was reaching for? Fourth was the one she was reaching for. Because, yeah, because I went in as the Eagles where I saw her reaching. Okay. Interesting.

I'll tell you that. For that higher perception, that's what I'll give you on that. Anything in the perfume, like, you know. I'm going to tell you this. No, they are just, yeah, they're just perfumes. Again, it's the kind of organization where they wouldn't really need to write some of this stuff down. Like, this would be... Yeah.

The fact that they had the engraving on the writing desk suggests that that's a cipher that's used from Emerald with various different perennos, you know. Okay. You don't think, you think that that's a separate thing. Yeah. This vanity is clearly, like, being built, custom built, basically. I mean, I relay what I see, you know, what I see, but I don't want to touch anything because I don't want to accidentally like, hey, oh shit, it's there.

Hello! Hey, guys! Can you imagine if you accident, pocket dial, sorry? Oh, I'm not here. Or it could be, it might not even be, like, I'd imagine the less complex one could be like a call thing, and then number four could have been like a weapon or something. Called Daddy. No, it could have been, like, something that was...

Do you never know. You never know. It could have been... Sullen Construct. Turn the... the vanity into a transformer. Who knows? Octobus.

Or, yeah. I don't know. I think the only thing left is the wardrobes, right? So I looked at them in the last episode, but I didn't, I rolled badly on investigation, so to graph, it's a wardrobe. It's a wardrobe. There's probably some shoes in it.

Can I try and investigate the wardrobe? You can. This will be the last thing that you guys do in this room. Oh, I rolled in 19 again. This would be the last thing you ever do. So 27. Explosive shoes. I'm going to give you quite a lot for the 27th.

That's really quite high. Not locked. You don't believe it to be trapped, but you do believe that there is a secret back to the wardrobe. Oh, okay. Yeah, don't believe it trapped. Don't believe it to be trapped in any way. You can't find any sort of, like, you know,

extra bulk that would indicate some sort of explosive. You can't find any, like, trip wires or, like, mechanical devices or clockwork elements to it. You're, like, listening to it. You can't hear any, like, tension in metal. or anything like that. So you're pretty confident and this is not trapped.

It's not locked, it's just a wardrobe. But you do believe that there is some sort of secret compartment at the back. And it just requires being pushed on to open as well. Opening up the wardrobe, initially just clothes. Like there's a whole range of different outfits. Some of them are quite common,

you know, something that like maybe a traveler or like somebody wandering through the semi wear. There's like a merchant's outfit. Like sort of the sky's. Yeah, basically. There's a courier outfit. There's a very, elegant sort of like lovely even several beautiful evening wears um but when you sort of push

them all to the side and you activate this secret door at the back um what is revealed is that classic like armory basically oh you would find um there are rows of like these aren't you don't think these are magical um they're not like masterwork they're just well-kept pieces of equipment there's like short swords, daggers, stilettos, hand crossbows, crossbow bolts. The things that really stand out is hung in a leather holster is another one of the Dragon Fire pistols and a pouch of bullets as well. Yeah, you can take that. There is also what appears to be like a metal and wooden canister that looks like it rotates and has some sort of clockwork device. You believe this to be a canister of deployable caltrops.

So it has a timer, so you can click it, and it will set it to intervals of six seconds. So 6, 12, 18. And then you can either deploy it immediately and throw it to a space, then it will basically scatter caltrops over an area. Or if you set the timer long enough, it would then go off in an area and shower the area and caltrops. Set it to six seconds, bag a holding.

There you go, perfect. There are also, for UDOTI, there are four vials of, something that is clearly not a potion. These look like weapon poisons or weapon oils or something like that. But you don't know what those are yet. Okay. Probably poison. They're weapon poisons, basically.

It's probably the ones that we've experienced. I've got weapons oils and poisons. Oh, that's right, because you can use the poisonous case. So, okay, in that case, what I would tell you is you believe two of these to be basically like a sleeping poison. So basically if you coat a weapon with them, they don't inflict any extra poison damage. But they make your weapon deal poison damage, and if you reduce a creature to zero hit points,

they fall unconscious instead. The other two, you sort of like, you kind of give them a sniff and you examine them, and you believe this to be a poison called Dark Shroud, which is a sort of lethal harming poison. So a dose of this will coat your weapon for up to one minute, and all of your attacks will deal additional poison damage. Nice.

But it's like, the vial is one dose, so it's like a one-use thing. But the high is crazy before you die. And then the only other thing that you would find in there is hanging up is a silk bag, which has four 50 GP emeralds in it as well. Looks like this is maybe like a bribe or something used to be like a gift from the diadem.

No. It's kind of like used as... Four emeralds. Four emeralds, 50 gold each. Magpie. You're in the other room. I hate yours. I smell gold.

Mind your business. Now as a point for you guys, the Dragon Fire Pistol requires training. So you say it's a martial weapon now. Take the handy things and then we'll deal with them. Yeah, exactly. Cool. Ooh, I feel very good about leveling up for my investigation right now.

You are roguing right now. I'm roguing so good guys. You're roguing really well. Rogue-maxing. I'm rogue maxing right there and your rogue maxing Aaron. Well, in my rogue mixing, while Daisy is roguancing,

there's no one taking damage for them. Let's cut, no. I'm allowing that one. Let's cut across to the interrogation room. The door opens Rowan, and Zanthius and Ophelia step inside. Hello. Hello, Rowan, hello, Vrix. Is everything okay in here?

You look a little bale, and you have many punches in your face. A door blew up in his face. A door blew up in his face. It was quite incredible. Yeah. Didn't use a key on the door. Hello, Alejandro.

Hello. Hello. Are you feeling all right? Oh, feeling great. Thank you. Like he cares. I am so far, I'm okay. That's great. Good news.

We're here to try to figure out how to remove that death mark that's etched into your skin. Great. Excellent. Good. Bad news. You're our guinea pig. Oh.

And we're going to try to tinker and tamper and work out the point the best way to remove it. But keeping me alive is very valuable because I have much valuable information. Yes, well, that's information you should. You don't want to be risky. No, information you should probably spill quite fast. Why would I want to do that before you've gotten rid of that tattoo?

Well, that's further bad news. See, my best friend out there also has a tattoo and I'd very much like to keep them alive. We're against the clock, as I'm sure you're aware, so we're not going to be dilly-dallying around here. So, spill the info. You might die anyway. Mm-hmm. We're gonna get the information, at least, of the tattoo, out of you regardless.

Right, but you won't get to the rest of my information. I just care about the tattoo. Let's say... You would be very interested to know the things as I know. If you tell us in a timely manner, Zadthius will be more careful. Why wouldn't he be careful anyway? Why would he be intentionally uncareful?

Because there'll be mind-splitting pain, pain in which you cannot physically or mentally comprehend if the tattoo is tampered with and if it goes off. You learn a lot when... Counterpoint, if the tattoo is not removed, I will experience those things anyway. Well, we'll say we'll get two tries. First try, immense pain. Second try, you die. Which will happen to me regardless. Depends on... Here's what I'm thinking. It is in your interests to do this carefully to...

I have no objection to you. using me to find out how to remove the tattoo if it leads to the tattoo being removed. What I'm saying is my information is still very, very valuable to you, so don't take too many risks, and I'm not going to tell you why there's no incentive for me to tell you anything before then. The information you give us will ensure that I don't trigger it willingly. Perhaps you are not understanding. If you trigger it willingly, I die, which I'm going to do anyway. Yes.

If you don't kill me, Emerald or the other died am, are going to kill me. So why would I help you? Why would I give you any information for free? Great question. You figure that out while I take your shirt off and figure out where your tattoo is. This is what he's like dealing with amateurs.

Can I play you a song while he does it? Oh. Rowan, could you pass me Alejandro's Lute, please? Yes, there you go. Thank you. I didn't know you played. Oh, it's beautiful. Where did you get this from?

It is a lovely lute, I will say. The gift? No, it is just a lute. Just a lute? It's just a lute. So I'm just going to pluck, I'll pluck it really hard. Biao! I guess someone's gonna snap.

I literally don't care. You don't care? I don't care. It's very nice, I like it. This is a great angle to take. I like it. If I cared about this lute, I'd be very upset. Don't put it down.

I think your friend is more upset about it than I. You're hurting the loot. I'll tell you everything. He said it's okay, so I'm just going to keep playing. Okay, yeah, play a nice tune. We just mind communicate from now on. Well, I feel like just... I absolutely, yeah, meow, yon, yon, yon, yon,

like, just... I absolutely. I have to leave. It's quite annoying, Zanthia, this having this noise. In Brookhounde, where he just goes... Ah! He's drumming the guitar.

That's what I'm imagining. Bram-bram-bram. That's going to be very annoying to con. concentrate on Arcana checks. Oh, yeah, I'm gonna make it. Can I find the tattoo at least? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Where is it?

Yeah, he revealed it. I think, like, on Alejandro, he wasn't as unwilling as Farrier was. So I think for him, it's, like, on his upper arm. Like, it's, like, a normal tattoo. And you can see that he's actually had it hidden amongst another tattoo design. He has, like, this beautiful Suncrest Isles pinup woman,

and she's wearing the crown, basically. He's had it, like, disguised as part of it. of that. Cool. I mean, I don't need concentration as such to cast identify, right? No, not to cast identify. Well, here's a problem.

Yeah. Casting Identify might require you to... Yeah. Unless you don't care about it. Unless you're like, yeah, fuck it, trigger it. You can tell me to shut up. It's up to you. Do you want to, like, avoid triggering this tattoo?

It might not. Know what might involve? It might not. Okay, sure, go for it. So you just cast identify? Basically trying to do whatever you're gonna try to do to Farrier. Potentially. Yeah.

Also, times against us. Okay, so you just cast Identify. I want to show this guy I mean it. Okay. I'm casting Identify, yes, with my gold side eye. Are you trying to be careful and not to trigger the tattoos? Ideally. All right, then an Arcana technique reads.

Uh, arcana, yeah, let's... Two points left. Do you want to use them on an Alejandro? Um... I also have exhaustion. That's true, you get minus two. Oh. So I'm going to have to fade it, I think, to try my best here.

Okay. Love that. Oh, I love that. Hey, do you want to watch this drive though? You need to stop saying that. Yeah. You need to stop saying it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. So that's minus two after this as well. Yeah, that's nine. Nine. Yee. What's treasure. You summon your arcane power. and you know use the gold sight eye which begins to glow flicking in the lenses and the item

itself when it identifies it sort of penetrates the object with magic to pull out its secrets you do this to the tattoo and it glows flares brightly and Alejandro begins to scream unbearably so screaming and screaming and screaming until his voice simply breaks and he cannot physically screaming anymore. He never falls unconscious. His eyes are wide. He is glaring and looking around the room as if he can see things that you guys can't.

His screaming is unintelligible, immutable. He's screaming things that don't make sense. It's almost gibberish coming out of his mouth as he screams. And you see that a part of him, has broken forever. Great. Just what I wanted. Identifying. Yes, but there is also...

I don't have fucking spells. I do that. They're in the torture room. Okay, do the identify. Yes, identify. To reveal, your Archana check was close to the money. To give you the full information, these are extremely powerful magical tattoos.

Sure. To the equivalent of you are looking like an eighth, ninth level of spell that's been bound several high-level. level magic's bound together. The tattoo can be triggered by somebody who holds the foci pen that was used to create it. It can be triggered in a number of ways. Force the bearer to tell the truth and answer any question asked of them. Cause the bearer unbearable mental pain, which you suspect is what's happening right now.

Or to kill the bearer. This reduces them to zero hit points, which cannot be prevented in any way. And then disintegrates and teleports parts of their individual. internal organs out of their body to prevent them from being resurrected. Wow. The tattoo can be triggered in that room when it happens. The tattoo can be triggered within 100 miles of the target provided they are on the same plane of existence.

Ewe. That's good. Cutting the skin away from the tattoo or removing the limb will cause the tattoo to manifest somewhere else within a random amount of time and it counts as a removal attempt. Right. Unsuccessful attempts to remove the tattoo will trigger its effects. the first time will cause unbearable pain, the second time it will kill them.

The tattoo is a sort of type of cursed magic item. It is not a normal cursed magic item, however. It is designed specifically to resist the usual spells that can remove curses. Dispel magic will not work regardless of the level cast. The removed curse spell could potentially work, but only if cast at an extremely high level, ninth level. and they would also need to make an arcana check

to avoid triggering the tattoo when they do so. Okay. There is another spell that you think would work. Greater restoration could work. However, it would require attention and resources above its normal casting. It would instead need to be cast as a ritual spell that would require 500 gold of diamond dust

and a ritual where the castor and any allies carefully have to unbind the tattoo in stages. failure at any stage were count as an attempt to remove the tattoo. Finally, and this one is quite obvious and I'm sure one that's anti-magic thing, if they were put into an anti-magic field, it would prevent the tattoo from being triggered.

The tattoo could then be cut off removed from the person physically and it would not be able to reform and it would therefore technically break the attunement and binding of the curse. Okay, anti-magic. Yes. Which is, as you have encountered, is quite rare.

Interesting. The stuff we recovered from Rex and F, there was no, they were just gemstones that we couldn't like... It was like a one-use thing. It was like a one and done. That's annoying. Okay, I've got a couple of other questions

because I'm really observing this guy while this is happening, because I'm imagining this is like the height of the magic happening right now is on this person right now. One, can it be, at the moment of activation, be counter-speld? No.

Okay. There is not... not an active spell being cast on the person. This is a remote magical effect that is happening instantaneously. There is no chance to counterspell it. What would happen with a death ward? The problem with Death Ward is, I think that I'm going to say that this would bypass the effect of Death Ward, because it doesn't just reduce the creature to zero hit points, it then basically eradicates their inner body.

Because I believe the wording on Death Ward is like if you reduce to zero hit points but don't die outright. If it's still an effect when the target is subjected to an effect that would kill it instantly, without dealing damage, that effect is negated. Interesting. I did not know that. And then it ends the spell. It might be a new thing, but yeah, the first part of it is if you hit zero. Yeah.

But I guess if this is dealing damage and you get to zero, like it's not an insta kill. It's not dealing damage. It's basically it is an instill. kill basically. It is a power word death. It then has this teleportation disintegration effect is the only other thing. Well, that sounds like a great thing for me to think about during

our break. Because it is break time. So, I will have have a think about it. Death Ward's quite a low-level spell. It might need to be an upcast Death Ward. Let's do it again. It might need to be an upcast death ward. Okay, okay, that's fine. Okay. But I have a think about it. I'll have a think

about it. So we are going to take our five minute break there. Nice, nice. We'll see you guys back in five minutes. Take care of everybody. We'll see you soon. Bye. Bye.