High Rollers DnD - The Ossean Ball | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #120 (Part 2)

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

The heroes introduce themselves to more important and interesting people in the Ossean Ball. Oh, and Aura. Aura is there, too. 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. If you're looking for a podcast adventure, check out Dum Dubs and Dragons, a podcast where improvisers and comedians who've never role played before journey into the world of Dungeons and Dragons. It's like Lord of the Rings, if everyone was an idiot. Dumbs and Dragons has been featured on the official Dungeons and Dragons podcast, ranked number two in fiction podcasts and number 72 of all podcasts in America, and has been downloaded more than 19 million times. With listeners in more than 115 countries,

Dum Dums and Dragons is one of the most binge-listened podcasts on Spotify. It's the perfect introduction to Dungeons and Dragons for people who've never played before and an absolute celebration of D&D for RPG veterans. Even better, if you join the show's Patreon, you can get ad-free feeds, supply names for NPCs, or even add your own character to the podcast. Be a smart-smart to join the Dum-Dums. Follow and listen to Dumm Dums and Dragons, the podcast, anywhere fine podcasts can be found.

Welcome back to part two of Althea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes have arrived at Varus Evernights Gala in the Nightwalk District. Just before entering, Sister Ophelia was given a very stern warning by the Delilah Forrester of the House of Shadows, not to continue interfering with the Diadem's business and to leave it well alone

to maintain the pact of neutrality that they have. On entering, dealing with a couple of difficulties at the door for Rowan's bag of holding, but also encountering the wards that surround the Adacian estate. Our heroes enter and Sister Ophelia makes quite the entrance, being greeted by her old friend Varys Evernight. And now, with many well-to-do movers and shakers present,

the evening begins. Varis gets up on stage and sort of claps his hand, his voice using thormiturgy to project his voice through the room. My good guests, my fine ladies and gentlemen, my ghouls and ghosts, we are going to begin the auction in about one hour. If anybody does have any last-minute editions for the fundraising, please come and see me. And in about an hour, I would ask you to take your seats.

We should only take about an hour for us to run the auction. And then we will commence with some drinking and dancing and all the things that the House of Blood live for. Please, enjoy yourselves, introduce yourselves, enjoy. Yes, round of applause. And yeah, the music starts back up again. People go back to their drinks. Avilia?

Yes, Roman. Avivia. Okay, yes. What is it? Private word. A private word. Okay. Firstly, I'm not wearing underwear, I'm so sorry.

You're not, I thought you were. No, I lied. I'm sorry. Second thing, yes. Reach in and think of the one thing that you couldn't live without. What does Ophelia think of? My heart. Oh God, there's such a big question.

Blood. There's the one thing Ophelia can't live without. There's blood in this bag! There is no blood in the bag! Wait. You actually think of the painting. It's been hit the whole time. Yeah, we put it in, I just remembered.

Now I've just remembered. Yeah, so if you want to enter it into the auction. We could, we could enter it. Yes, well... It's not in a frame? True. I could make one for two hours. I mean, the auction's only gonna last an hour. The auction starts in an hour? We could do a Banksy.

We're like... It's a choice of it. It's destroyed itself. That would be quite the statement. Be fair, that was great. Rowan, what a Banksy. Rowan doesn't say that. Okay.

We couldn't, let's enter it, why not? Unferl it. Hold it as straight as you can. And I'll think of the most ornate frame for this ornate painting. Okay. Don't put Rowan's faces on it. Don't put Rowan faces on it.

What you could do? Performance of creation. Okay. What does it look like? It's got Rowan faces. Is it like, it looks really got Gothic and ornate Until you like focus and look and then you see these like smiling. Is it like a lot of tiny rowans

or is the entire frame one big rowan face? The more you look at it, the more macro rowan faces appear. Like things. Okay. There's tiny rowing faces and then there's like, when you put those together, at that angle, that's one grand rowan.

Is there like little rowan cherubs or little butts? There's little cherubs in the corners, yeah. It looks surprisingly like baby rowans. Right, right, right. We will say that, you can very quickly mount this in the Rowan frame. Quick. Yeah.

You now have one eight painting. I believe, because you pick this up in the Ashen Citadel. I know because of reasons, but it's a landscape. Yeah, it's a landscape of the Ash Hills of the Battle, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it's a Battle of the Ash Hills. That's fine.

It's historic. It is a beautifully historic painting. We've just been meddling with and just leaving around. Yeah, I mean, do we have the tapestry of it, right? The big printout that was given to us at the Halloween. Oh, that's right, yeah, yeah, that's right. Let's enter it, let's do it. Okay. You go for it.

I... It's yours to present. Or do you want us to hold it for you while you... We can bow, maybe hold you up. I mean, you would give it to Varus, then he puts it in the auction. It's not like you have to be on the stage to present it or anything. You could be. We just go give it to Varus.

Okay. He'll sort it out. He sorts everything out. Okay. Okay. I don't want to be carrying this around everywhere. No, no. It's quite large.

I'll hold it for you if you like. Oh, thank you, Rowan. And you can do the speaking. Perfect, yeah. You go and take Varis, it's like, oh, is this for the fun-face? This is a last minute entry, is that all the name? Oh, but of course it is, of course it is. And you are happy to give this to the efforts of raising money for the temple?

Of course we are. Oh, sister Ophelia, my friends, thank you so much. This is incredible. This is, um, tell me about it. I mean, is this, uh, is this Illamaran history? What do, what can I say about it to entice bids? I believe it portrays a historical event. It does.

It does, yes. I'm not talking to date on my old man and roll. Which event? The battle in the Ash Hills in Caldra. Oh, this is excellent, excellent. Is it old? Is it quite... Extremely old.

Recovered by daring adventurers. Mr. Xentheus, you know how these things go. I can tell that you have the air of a showman and of a salesman. This is perfect. Excellent, all right, excellent. So a painting, a landscape of the Battle of the Ash Hills in Caldra, recovered by brave adventurers from some lost vault, dungeon.

It ruins, ruins, yes. Ruins. Ancient, long forgotten ruins. Oh, yes. It sells itself. Artifact. It sells, I don't think, is it an artifact? It's a big word.

I might not use the word artifact, but it is beautiful, this is wonderful. This is excellent, thank you so much, Mr. Rofield. I'm sure that this will fetch, we have a few art collectors and people of historical interests. This will fetch a wonderful price. It was all Rowan's fabulous ideas. Oh, wonderful. And this frame, did this come with the painting? This is such an interesting frame.

Anyway, when is the auction? At about an hour. Oh, good. No more than two. No, well, the auction will begin in an hour. It will last about an hour, and then people will take their objects. All right. I mean, I imagine most people are going to have them sent home.

They're not going to be actually. Yes, this is so fragile that it should be just put into something rapidly. Yes. Okay. That's very well. Box or... I don't really want to part with it at this point. I mean, you know how you can keep it.

Take it. Lord Varus. Well, Father Varis, but he just... He gestures and a pair of very beautiful house of blood, sort of guards come and take it away, and he sort of gestures for them to take it to rest of the effort. If everyone could look at his watch, he would. Oh, I can see you trying to calculate time now. Okay, great, fantastic. Well, there you go. Amazing, thank you.

Well, thank you about this time we've been carrying that around. Yeah, he's like, no problem. I must go and attend to some of the things to get things ready for the auction. Yes, you must mingle and introduce ourselves. Yes, please, please do. When you return to the main ballroom, you can see this, you can see, that people have shifted around and different people are talking to different people now. Just like a mixture of groups,

you see that the two adventurers seem to be talking to the merchant, that I mentioned the Dwarven merchant and her husband. You see that the three students are chatting with Abbott Lorkan and Plague Bear Apoxymus.

They do not seem to be very pleased that Plague Bear Apoxys is there. But they seem to to be chatting away. Lord Ambraxian has moved off and is now talking to some of the counsellors. Lady Gomeris is attending to some of her staff and things like that.

So people are going to be constantly shifting who they're talking to. So if you have specific people you want to talk to, or if you want to grab certain people on their own or in a certain group, you're going to have to either find an opportunity or go up and make an introduction or something like that. Okay. I would like to speak

to the daddy. Yeah? One, there's so many. There are a lot of fathers in this room. Davin Golden's bread, I'm assuming. Okay. So Grefonds again to speak to him. Is there anything else just before I jump into that? We should probably speak to Lady Glomis, Glomis.

And to thank her. Just thank her for putting on such a wonderful event and everything else. Wine or blood? Get that to me. Okay. Wine. Wine. Fantastic.

Great. There is a good mixture here of, like mortal Umbrasian food and then Ossian stuff as well. Is it obviously separated? Like allergies. Well, it's more like the people carrying the Ossian stuff are very clearly Ossian. Like it's ghouls like with silver platters

or very gaunt, pale, vampiric looking sort of, hello, would you cover some blood? Things like that. Whereas all of the Umbra-Lermain food, it's mainly being looked after by the house. cobblets basically so it's a lot easier to distinguish which which is for whom. I wish I was actually at this party. Yeah me too.

Be grand. The stench of the ghouls is a bit much but... Where are they getting all these pieces from? Pieces? The blood. Well imagine they have huge vaults and cellars full of the stuff. There will be loyal people. Excuse me.

As a ghoul comes and gets like raw like... like meat, just like on a plate. Oh, delicious. Delicious. That looks good. Okay. There will be suppliers who are willing. Let's go talk to someone.

Let's go talk to, yes, let's go talk. So, as you guys head off to go talk to Lady Gomeris, Graf, you make your way over to Davian Golden Thread Senior, who is currently sort of looking at the buffet table and is like looking at the bit where Plague Master Poxys was and he's like, is like trying to get as far away from that as possible is very clearly examining things.

And as you get his attention, he turns around, he sort of starts like, I know you. I know you. You are coach fluff. You teach my boy. You teach my boy hatchball. I know you. Coach fluff.

Yes, he speaks very highly of you. Says that you were a bit of a buffoon when you first came, but he said, do you win today? He said something about winning before I left. Right, Master Davian Goldthred Senior, I presume. Oh, just Davian, just Davian. We call the boy junior.

My name is Graffeth, Graffeth of Tremorough. Gruffeth? Graffeth. Gruffeth. Not fluff, or fluff? No, I think I know. Oh, boy must have gotten it wrong. He's prone to that, but Gruffeth, you say.

Oh, coach Gruffeth, wonderful. Splendid job today, splendid job today, splendid. job. We did, we had a victory of two nil. Yes, yes, yes, yes. It would have been... Scored through many balls, through the goals. It would have been rather nice if you'd been in attendance. Oh no, far too busy for that, my, my good man, far too busy. The golden thread empire does not run on sitting on one's bottom. Must be accomplished with a constant, vigilant state of busyness. Oh, right, well, maybe I have a proposition for you, actually. that could bring business to the game.

A business proposition? Oh, well, I'm all ears. Not as big as yours, but I'm all ears. Bit of a joke, because you're a lion man. I am. Very observance. Yes, yes. I'm very good, very witty. Grufflyx, Lloyd.

I was actually inquiring with your son if it would be possible for you to make the team some uniforms. Oh, well, I mean, Well, Coach Gruffeth. First of all, Junior doesn't have a head for business. Don't bother. But if you wish to talk to me, well, the Golden Thread as a brand.

It's a bit more, how do I say? It's a bit more upmarket than making hatchball team uniforms, if you understand by meaning. We cater to a much more refined sort of customer, really. It's not really the sort of thing that we do. An act of charity, then. Bolster your name in the community. Charity, charity.

Now, I'm not saying that she... Sorry, that word makes me violently ill. I'm not saying that she wouldn't be paid. Oh. But perhaps it would be seen as a community effort. your wares go to a kind of a higher refined clientele

and I, in my time in Kelskaris I believe nobles in that tend to like, well today is a charity function, is it not? Well, it's a fundraise. Can you stop saying that word? It makes me violently ill. A fundraiser.

Now that is a different thing. The other one, lazy layabouts who want handouts when hardworking business people like me have dragged ourselves up by our bootstraps and earned every copper, silver and gold penny we own. But I'm saying you... A fundraiser.

It would be a boon to your company name, your business name, to know that you give back to the community a little bit. Give me a persuasion role. Playing for a community. I have a child. Eddie C words. Cat. A filthy 20.

Filthy 20. A dirty 20. Filthy. Well. Also, I do believe my companions, Anthony, he's very fashionable. Sometimes he has talked about athletic wear, sportswear, but refined for off the pitch. I suppose people do enjoy sort of exercise and sweating.

These sports teams, it's all so tribal and it's very violent. It's not really the Golden Threads brand. But you mentioned being paid. I do like making money. Now, it would be expensive if you want the Golden Thread brand to be involved.

But there is likely an arrangement we can come to. I think that I'd want it to be... We could make a bit of a... show of it, like you say, a sort of, you know, celebrating the victory.

What I would like, Coach Fluffeth, is if we make it, it's not about just giving these children something for free. Disgusting. I wasn't expecting that. I was going to pay you. Exactly, but also, but the thing is, is that's, you pay me is one thing.

But what if we build it around the idea that the children have earned it through their victory? Your three nils that you got today. Two nil. Yes, yes, yes, the same thing. What if we build it on this idea that to celebrate their victory and their hard work paying off, hard work, not charity, what if we build upon that idea?

And that is why Golden Threats has decided to work with Coach Fluffmouth to present these wonderful new uniforms as a celebration. And then you pay me off to the side. Sounds wonderful. Oh, good, jolly, good, jolly, good, my good lion man. Good, good, good, yes, yes. I do have a design in mind. There's a logo that's coming for the team. The team...

Well, there need to be checked by our designers. Okay. We can't have, we can't just slap any, any willy-neilly drawing on our wonderful product. But we can take a look at it. Okay. It will have the name ascension alley-cats on it as well. on it as well. Yes, yes, yes, yes, you can figure all of that out. I mean, I'm not going to personally hand it. We'll do the contract, we'll do the payments and all that sort of thing. I'll probably have one of my other boys come and manage all of that with you. I'm far too busy, far, far too busy.

Roughly, how much do you think for 11 uniforms? Most of these are children, children-sized. Yes, there are perhaps two on the team that we need a bigger fit. One's a bear. Hmm, well... I mean, how much are you willing to spend? What's your budget? Coach Flumgrath. What is the... What do you charge on average?

Well, it depends. I mean, this is the thing. It's like, you tell me your budget. I'll tell you what our costing is. Like, how fancy do you want these uniforms to be? Like, that's really what it comes down to. Well, what do you be proud to put your name on? That is very good point.

Very good point. Why don't we say for each uniform, which will have the golden thread, obviously it will have the golden thread branding, name on it as well, as a sponsor, let's go with,

I think that if you want good quality kit, we're probably looking at, I don't know, 35 gold per uniform? Well, Three, yeah, what's that? 35 to 330, yeah. Hmm.

I think that sounds wonderful. It'll be close to 400 gold, something a lot of those lights. I think that's very agreeable. Yes, I think that's quite doable, quite doable. Do you shake? Yes, yes, good, good fellow, good, yes, grumfluth. Excellent, a fine business, always a good engagement, always a good party, when you can come away with a business deal.

Yes, you'll have... Rather made my night. Oh, I'm pleased to hear it. I tell you what, I wasn't sure about this whole thing. These funny, undead people trying to raise money for one of their temples, would you believe? I came here mainly to promote the brand, obviously, and represent the company. But I must say, I'm surprised the church is allowing this.

This seems very heretical what's happening here. Look, that skeleton is walking around. That's not normal. It's not normal. No, I suppose it's not. Terrible stuff. Gruff's kind of not even, like, he's just saying things, but he's assuming that this is the kind of guy that is just going to keep...

He gets more and more racist. Like, towards undead. Like, he gets, like, really, like, these Aussians coming over there. They're going to start stealing our businesses. And he starts, like, getting into that stuff. Okay, gruff just gets a really faraway look in his eyes. Yeah.

And he's got his, like, um, around your shoulder and he's like, yeah, it's, grunflith, and he's like just, you're talking away. One thing I will say is like one thing that he starts, he points at two of the other guests, and you kind of don't lock in, because you're like, oh, he's talking about something

that might be relevant. My God. He points out to the Cat Wildheart and the wife, the Nalaniari wife. He's like, I tell you, I'm very surprised that the Free Storms are here. Very, you know, do you know them? No, I haven't.

Oh, well, you know, they're quite known in the city. Former adventurers, and they run the Dreaming Drake. Very famous tavern on the Ascension. We get a lot of clients from there in the Golden Threads chain. You know, adventurers coming to the city, they want to dress nicely. And I must say, good old Vatra, he's very good at recommending Golden Threads to his customers. But, no, they're a pair of adventure. and not really their sort of seem to be at something like this.

I was quite surprised to see them here. Oh, well. You know, I expected, like, the merchants, I expected the umbrises and the councillors and things like that. But strange to see a pair of a former adventurers and tavern owners here. Well, you know, sometimes people here about a free drink and... That's what I assumed it was, yes, that's what I assumed it was. I must, um...

Would you be okay introducing me to them? Yes, yes. I mean, yeah, so let's go and have a quick chat with them, and I'll take you over there, Grumleth. And yeah, you enjoy a lovely conversation with Davian Golden Thread. Yeah, lovely. Was that the free stones?

Free storms. So Vatra Free Storm and Nitherea Free Storm. A pair of former adventurers who own the Dreaming Drake Tavern. Adventures owning taverns. Ridiculous. Who does that? It's the most famous and prevalent adventurer tavern. So it's kind of like where all the adventurers normally go

when they're staying in the city. Maybe lower level adventures, though. Those who don't have draconic franchise. We could be one of theirs. Yeah? We just sell ourselves off immediately. We'll just rest. We're like Wednesday.

Sorry, Mateo, but someone else is your boss now. A microwave. And we're selling peas. I just noticed you're rolling dice, sir? as we were heading over to. So you, Xanthias and Ophelia, you make your way over to Lady Glomeras. Yes, perhaps bring out some of the,

bring out some more of the chalderin wines for some of the other guests. We'll leave the Ossian food. We'll leave the Ossians to their own food and requirements. And let's get everyone settled before the auction begins. How come you're not going for your Osean food? I'm thinking about it. Oh, okay.

You sort of overhear her sort of giving little orders to the cobbles and things like that. But as you approach, one of them sort of coughs and points in your direction, she turns, she, again, being a dragon in human form, she towers over you guys and sort of looks down, you know. She's like eight to nine feet tall,

so it's like, yeah, she's definitely, you're looking up her. And she sort of looks down and seeing the both of you, I mean, Xanthia, she'll dress nicely, but it's hard to stand. stand out next to Ophelia tonight. And she sort of smiles. And you can see that she has like razor sharp teeth.

Where are you just absolutely resplendent? Oh, you're too kind. You're too kind counsellor. No, lady, Lady Glomiris. Counselor of Kelskaris, am I? That's the wrong person I think. Lady Glomiris, councillor of Kelskaris? Oh, well she, yes, actually yes. I think I wrote that letter before I change things.

But that's fine. But no, she's, but no. She's, she's, she's, So she would sit on the Draconic Council, so. She's just, she will say, well, you must be Ophelia. Varus mentioned to you. Yes. Wonderful.

What an incredible statement. You simply must tell me who's made your outfit for this evening. Oh, this is made by Narcissar of the Carnation House. Carnation, very good. Very talented, Taylor. Well, I will have to inquire. Normally I have Adrasian seamstresses and tailors work on my... I don't often wear evening wear, but when I do,

but perhaps this Narcissa will get a visit from one of my staff. I think you'd be a good fit for you. You look resplendent. You look so glamorous tonight. Thank you. It is not normally in the audacian way to be ostentatious. We prefer a more practical wear, but when for important matters, and for, ah, you must know, you are from the same house as Varys. It seems to be quite important to look the part. It is very much so. And what of your companion here? Who are you?

Hello, Xantius Oregon. Oregon? Yes. Oregon. No. Are you related to house, to host Oregoners? I suppose so, yes. Curious.

I feel you've got some fluff on your cheek there. Oh, thank you. You actually did, really. Sorry. I was not aware that Oregonis had dragon-born children. Well... Do be cautious, my young man. It is quite the crime and quite a troublesome thing

to claim to be related to dragons. In that case, Santeas. Just Xanthius. Let's go with Xanthus. Let's go with just... Zanthius. But it's an amazing party you're throwing here today. A real who's who of, well, Osseus and Kelskaris. Thank you for you. It's such a gracious host. Ah, you are most welcome. You are both very polite guests, unlike some of them.

Oh, no, really? Oh, just a cauldron merchant who is very free with his opinions. But, uh, and, uh, the councillors and Lord Ombraxian wish to, They're constantly speaking of politics, even though I've asked them to not this evening, but alas, politicians will be politicians. I'm afraid so, yes. But no, I am quite pleased you enjoy it. As an Ossian yourself, you must be quite excited about what Father Varys is doing here in the city.

Oh, yes, I am, yes. I heard he's been doing rather well, spreading a good word. Well, certainly. the people of Erdas Kira are most interested in these teachings of the Grave Father and of course of your nation's excellent skill in necromancy

Thank you. You have likely noticed I hope that my wards are not making you feel too uncomfortable. No, I'm just a little tired, but that's fun. I think a good cup of blood can't fix, hey. No, no. I did disable some of the more powerful ones, but I'm glad that you are not too discomfited. I, I meant to say, um, Vrax Carl has been a rather, rather nice young man to meet. I've met him in Ash and Rest.

Oh, yes. There are, the Kells are an interesting family. Are they? Yes, well, very, they like to be involved in things. I could tell, he was very keen. Yes. And you are from Ashenrest or... No, I'm from Osseus.

Well, no, of course, but you are staying. Residing in, yes. We have business in Ashen Rest, so... And are you acquainted with the Duke there, Duke Ignari? Oh, very much so, yes. Ah, truly. Receiver of many rits of favour, Duke's favour? Yes, we are, yes.

Truly, it has been some time since Ignarius attended court here in Kelskaris. his presence is rather missed. Well, his daughter, Lady Emberissa, is here and she's quite the gracious host herself. It's a shame that she did not ask to come along. It would have been delightful to see young Emberissa. She must be quite the young dragon by now. She is, and she's ever so busy.

She's tied up in all sorts of affairs, as you can imagine. Yes, I can imagine. In fact, you remind me something I ever heard. As I understand it, there's been... a recent visitor to the Ignarius estate, a young green dragon, Lady Verithere. She's been visiting the Ignaris estate quite frequently, has she not? Well, yes, I suppose.

I mean, she was there when we were there, so I suppose... She, curious. Yes, very interesting. Very good friends. Good friends, yes, very good friends. Still, I hope you enjoy this evening. Is there anyone here you are particularly... Oh, who do you recommend?

As in to meet and to recommend. Ignoring all the politicking and all of that stuff. Well, I suppose, I am very interested that, well, Umbraxian is. He is a delight when he can calm his mind away from raving about criminals operating in the city or majors being too rampant with their research. He's very passionate about these things, making big stories. swings in the council to try and get us to take more action and to have more checks in place for magical research. When you can get him off those topics, though he's quite pleasant. I understand

he's quite charming as well. In terms of others, Vizana Umbris, very delight. Her and her husband, Caledus, very delightful, very prominent supporters of the district as well, very wealthy, very wealthy merchants. There's a group of students from the academia. As I understand it, they've been working with your embassy. Collaboration on necromancy, as I understand it. They were invited with the embassy, but not normally. I don't often speak with many students. The councillors, again, once you get them off politics, they're really all right. And then the adventurers, the free storms, I was rather surprised at their attendance. storms. Yeah. We can now see gruff, like, heading over that way, right? Yes, adventurers. I mean,

I guess they're wealthy. They're very wealthy. I'm just surprised. Perhaps they're hoping to find a bargain in the auction. Have you heard of any of their adventures, any stories? Oh, goodness, yes. Well, I am a particular, I enjoy love stories and they met on an adventure. Their group were trapped. They became, I believe the pair of them, they were part of a group of adventurers. they were exploring a protomagre vault. Really? But the two of them were trapped away. They were sealed off from the rest of their party

for a considerable amount of time. They kept each other company, and it seems that whilst locked away together, they confessed their feelings at one another. Such things led to another, and they became married, and all sorts. And I believe that they, protomagai vaults are rather something of...

They are experienced in such matters. Interesting. We've also, we have many stories to share with them, I'm sure. Oh, I think that you should absolutely go and speak with them and say hello. They'll speak with everyone, of course. Mingo. Do our best. Yes, please do.

Oh, thank you very much. Indeed, a pleasure. And again, compliments on the outfit, dear. You look splendid. Yes, do you give Narcissa a look. She is very good. I will. You will.

Indeed. Now, do excuse me, I'll go and attend to some of us. Yes. Give us a call if you want a break from politics. I will. Anything from anyone? Rowan, anybody you eat? Rowan is happy to head to the buffet table

and see if there's anyone there that he happens to just bump into. Oh, absolutely not. It's your pal. Happy Poplar! Yes, yes, ah, the giant, giants, yes. Hi, oh. You are attending.

How are you feeling? Feeling. You said unwellings. I'm very well, thank you. You are not sick with plague. I'm not sick with plague. I could study, study it, yes, yes? No, no. Yes, if you are unwell, I have many tinctures

and ailments and salves and oils. What's that? I hear nothing. What? You hearing voices? A sign of fever or malady. I have hearing voices. I could check you. You check me.

I'm okay, actually. You know what? I'm just going to take this food over here. Have you touched any of this food? I have sniffed all of it. You sniffed all of it. Yes. Oh, I've suddenly got off my food.

I enjoy your Ilmer and cheeses. Why do you like the cheeses so much? They are strong in flavor, and many of them have a pungent smell, smell. Broan's eyes are like welling up. Yeah, he, again, he reeks. It's just noxious. It's acidic.

It's like the most acidic B.O. That you've ever encountered at a comic con. And it just roils off of him. And every time he speaks, it's like halitosis. And then he starts talking about cheeses. And he pulls from the table this like incredibly crumbly, stinky blue cheese. And it's kind of been out for a while.

So it's all melted. It's like, this one. Why that of all things? I believe this is from the province of us. It is thunderbeast cheese. Okay, it's very close to my face. Wow, you made the whole thing. And he's just like gnombing it with his teeth,

his little rat mouth. In the group chat. Help! Save me! Please. I think we finished up a little bit earlier than gruff, right? Yeah. We need to go over. You know how to deal with him, right?

Oh, Poxymus. Oh, yes. He's fine, his face harmless. Right, go ahead, please. Apoxymus! Sister Ophelia of the House of Blood, welcome, welcome. You're lovely to see you again. Yes, yes.

Runs away. You are enjoying this gala evening. Very much so, it's so wonderful, isn't it? Thank you. Seeing so many members from Osceus in one place again. Yes. So lovely. I imagine you are Miss Home?

Sometimes, yes. How about you? Do you miss my... Oh, yes. I miss my... I miss my plague baths. Oh, I can remember it. And I miss... I miss my sewers. Where are my home? Yes. I miss it greatly.

This city is too clean, clean. It is very clean, isn't it? And they, they frown upon my experiments. Do they? Yes. I have been instructed by the speaker of the Sepulca that I am to cease my experimentations, at least for a time.

Oh, at least just for a time, though. not indefinitely. We are working on it. Good, you're sure, you're so talented at your experiment. Thank you, sister. Such gratitude, gratitude, yes. Well, I wouldn't have it any other way, Apoxymus. You're so talented.

It's such a shame to see you be quelled down like this. Ah, you speak like a great mind, like a great plague master. So wise. Well, if the roles were slightly reversed, who knows I could have been, you know, a house of rot member? Would you... Imagine that.

Could, is that something that there would... interests you? I mean, I'm so busy doing all of this other stuff for the Grafathers right now. Of course, service, yes. The paths are very much set in stone right now, but, you know, if fate had flipped another way, who knows where things could have fallen... Well, should you ever wish, for Poximus's assistance, I have many potions and oils and plagues and viruses and things that could make you strong or quick or boil your skin. skin. The strong and quick one definitely sounds like my kind of thing.

Ah, then you must come and visit Poxys. I would love to come and visit you one day. It is not an experiment if it counts as medical treatment. That's good advice. That's very good. Yes, yes. Loopholes. You are very good at the loopholes. I will now consume more cheeses.

Good idea. Okay, you enjoy the cheese poxamas. I'm sure I'll bum into you again soon. Yes, yes, bye bye. See you, my friend. I love him. I'm so much. I'm so right. It's just about like a flower pot

that you're just like, bleh. You're okay, Rowan, are you all right? No, I'm not okay. This is a lot. Well, I appreciate it's a lot, Rowan. Thank you for coming along. That's all right. Are there any more plague bearers here?

I'm not sure. Poxomus is very, very dominating. They really stand out as their own thing. There are definitely other members of the House of Rocks. You've seen ghouls and things like that around. And there's probably like zombies as well, attendance. But he's the only plague bear.

He's like the sort of sentient speaker, basically. I do hope the auction soon. It's not too long now. The frame is just gonna... It's been like three minutes. Has it? I felt like it was an eternity with Poxymus. Oh no.

Good news. Adventurers, over there. Gruff's heading over there now. We can cut Gruff off, get right in front. I think you actually arrive as you hear Davian seeing you're like, oh, my friend Vardra, let me introduce you to Krof, coach groomfuth Groomfuth of

Carmoreau who teaches my boy hatchball I don't know where he's putting them out from Pleased to meet you Gras for the Trimorro please to meet you So these two

They are probably It's easier to tell With him with VATRA Freestom because he's a cat Wildheart, very gratiteer from Final Fats He's got like blue hair But he's definitely like

In his late 40s Like you know He's looking a little bit more weathered and a bit more haggard. Excuse me. His wife, dude, fucking hell, come on. I'm 40 as well.

His wife, Nithera, who is a Nalani, a dark elf, like, she looks ageless. Like, she is, like, one of the most beautiful things you've ever seen. And you don't necessarily think it's, like, like, anything about, like, what we would consider,

be it. There's something supernaturally alluring about her. Like, as you get close to her, like, the light, no matter where she stands, the light is always flattering. Like, it always just, perfectly extenuates her like features and everything. And it's like a magical thing that is affecting the light around her.

Yeah, it's kind of like she has a permanent magical filter on her. And you see Vatra is just like, he is like, pleasure to meet you. Vatra Free Storm, nice to meet you. Gruffeth of Tremara, right? Yes, that's sweet. All right, well, Davian, so good to see you,

but I think that I overheard some people wanting to talk to you about some business deals, maybe some of the counselors or something like that. I mean, I could be confused. I may be misheard them, but maybe you should go in chase. Oh, business. I'd be marvelous to have two business deals. Oh, yes, very good.

Thank you, my boy. Thank you. He's like, that guy, he's... Thank you so much. Please don't worry about it. I completely understand. Yes, he is quite a lot to deal with. We find him a little tedious, but he's good for the adventurers when they want nice

clothes and everything else, so. A pleasure to meet you. Lovely to meet you. I was just trying to get some uniforms for his child's hatchball team. Oh, that was... I can imagine it was quite exhausting. At this point, the three, you know, and Daisy, the rest of the guys all arrive. Hello, hello, hello. Nice to meet you.

Thanks to my companions. I can, this is, everything about this evening has been unfamiliar to me until now. That's why we've... I'm amongst my people, right? We're amongst people. We've heard tales of your exploits and your adventures. Shut up. No, yeah.

No, well, I'll be honest, as a very, very recent. Right. Somebody here's told you. Yes, that's the case, yes. But... Please don't worry about it. Our adventures were quite a long time ago, 20, 30 years.

Oh, really? Well, maybe you've heard of us. Well, with introductions, Coach... I am Grafittreux of Tremoro. I am Rohan. Squire of Gruffeth of Tremorow. Oh, right.

I'm not a knight. Knight-errant. I'm not a knight. I don't have a squire. This is Squire Xantheus. I don't have squires. I don't have squires. One of the heroes of Ash and Rest.

I know. And I'm Sister Ophelia Delrosa of the House of Blood. Well, you certainly stand out, my dear. You are incredible. And your outfit is beautiful. Oh, thank you. This is Narcissa from the Carnation House, if you must know.

I very rarely have a chance to wear anything nice these days, but I'm sure that perhaps I can go and shop in the window. You should. She's rather excellent. Wonderful. I'm Daisy. Nice to me, and he's like, well, I mean, listen, friend, please don't take as an insult. We haven't heard of the Heroes of Ash and Res. But, you know, we're mainly here in Kelskaris. We hear, we get a lot of adventures coming through.

We don't necessarily get to hear all the stories that we want to hear anymore. You know, it used to be we used to keep our finger on the pulse a lot more. Well, hopefully we can share some stories tonight. Please, I would love that. I mean, we weren't really sure about what to make of this whole thing. Worry, darling. No, we sort of came because we were interested in the auction, but, you know, often we get a lot of our customers,

adventures. They are dealing with the undead in places like Erdaskir or spirits that still linger. We thought maybe we could get some advice from the... the Ossians and the people here, and we could maybe give that to our customers when they are, maybe they have had a problem with, you know, ruins filled with undead. Maybe we could give them some advice, but...

Ophelia would probably be the best to talk to you for that. We've dealt with many in undead. Wonderful. If there's anything you can share, it's... Of course. We try to, you know, we run an in on the ascension. We do, too. That's us.

Yes, we do as well. Yes. What, it is so much the story of adventures. And guess what? It was previously haunted. You are bidding. Yes, it was. So you are, fate, merely bless us.

What else have we got in our? Lady of secrets. Vault. That is like, done, just no way. That's right. That's right. Two of them, in fact. Really?

Whereabouts? The face was in Colville. No, the first was in the sky. The comic. You went into the comet. How is it? You know, we went there, what, 20, 30 years ago? Is it, you know, how was it now?

What did you do? What happened? The great question. All I remember is that magic felt very different immediately afterwards. That was when there was the big thing. Oh, that's when our magic changed. Lovely tones.

Something sort of manufacturing device. Yeah, there's an automotive. Manufacturing. Oh, ours wasn't like that at all. It made this rain. That's a Void Star ring, yes. I wear it on my middle finger, what am I to do? Maybe hold up multiple fingers.

Okay. No way, I mean, it was very different for us. It was almost like a gladiatorial arena, right, darling? Yes, we had to fight waves of these constructs and guardians, and I think, what was it, three or four waves, and then this chest sort of appeared in the middle. appeared in the middle and we got it and then we got to leave. Amazing.

Wow. When you got stuck though, how long did it take for you to fall in love? Oh, and she kind of gets like, well, embarrassed and sort of like thingy and like you see Vacher's like, now listen pal, listen. You know, we'd had, we cared for each other for a long time before that. But you know, being stuck together in a place like that, you're not sure if you're going to get out. venturing party too, right? Well, you know, we'd been friends for a long time, but when you're locked together in a place like that,

and you're not sure if you're gonna get out, and maybe this is your last chance to say something that's on your mind, you just, and he reaches over and takes a hand, like, it's the right time to. Who kissed who first? Now that, we don't kiss. Lady of Secrets, right? Our lady mailier, we don't kiss until.

But listen, let's get some drinks, Let's swap some stories. Absolutely. I wasn't really sure what to make of all this, but this is great, it's great to have a chat with fellow adventurers. Yes, we're all the squires here of Griffiths of the Shomara. Not, no.

Now I wanna hear all about these nightly challenges and things like that, I wanna hear all about it. Oh, yes. And yet, if you want, you can basically spend all the time up to the auction chatting with these two, if you want to. I guess for a lot of us, it's the comfortable place to be. I guess really it's the question of if you wanna do that.

Yeah, I'm happy to do that. Okay. Okay. Yes, nice. All right. Keep it, I'm going to make a couple of roles, because while you guys are doing that, other things are happening. I'm also.

I was going to say, yeah, can I keep an eye? Because Gruff is, like, trying to keep an eye out, like, just. You can, but if you're trying to, like, also be in the conversation, you're going to be quite distracted. So I'd probably say. I think, yeah, I'm not, I'm not going to, now that this guy, these guys are heroes, you just kind of do as usual husband of wife to sit back.

Sit back. Sure, give me a... The only thing is I was probably going to mention to everyone else, maybe in the daisy chain or whatever, about Ambraxian and what Glamera said about. Was it them that was trying to, you know, enact change over the criminal element in Kelskaris? Certainly something that they seem to mention.

That feels like an important thing to check up on, so I would mention that to everyone else. So they're apprised of that conversation as well. Let's have GruffMaker perception check. And if you wish, before the auction, you can try and go and speak to Ambrexia. Okay, yeah. 21.

21. And what are you just keeping an eye out for in particular? I think movements of people. Like, so... Anything that stands out. Yeah, yeah. Okay. 21, you said.

As the conversation, Rowan is telling stories about your adventures. It looks like... I think Votra and Rowan both have... Vatari is not a full bard like Rowan is but there's the touch of a bard about him and so they love swapping stories and interjections from everybody else but you kind of keep your ears and your eyes

on the wider crowd gruff you would definitely notice various different movements you would see Nemesia Gallows is talking with the Dwarven merchant Vizana Umbris quite a lot

and their conversation is quite hushed, like, in corners. As if keeping, wanting to not be overheard. You would see... You would see Abbott Lorkin having a chat with Councillor Jahlia and seems to say something to her that causes her to be a bit upset.

Not enough to, like, really throw, like, a big thing about it, but enough to like cause her to sort of like hold her chest and sort of like turn away sort of, you know, no longer wanting to talk to him. You would see that Orythera, you know, sort of excuses herself from her two academia friends that she's sort of been spending most of the evening with and sort of swaying and a little bit sort of like tipsy drunk,

like pub, like goes up to Lord Ombraxian and is like chatting away with him. and he's very politely being very charming, sort of old young students sort of chatting away, blah, blah, blah. And she sort of like giggles and then goes back to her friends. But she definitely goes up and interacts with him. And then what else? You do see Varis also having quite hard,

like not harsh words, but you see him talking with high priest Zithos Mordecai, who's the speaker of the sepulch at the head of the Osseon, Those two seem to be having a rather heated discussion as well. Again, trying not to be overseen and overheard. Those are the movements that you kind of witness. Okay. I probably would whisper them into the daisy chain.

Sure. Like, you know, as people are kind of getting on with it. Sure. Okay. Yeah. You won't linger here too long. Yeah? Yeah. You guys have maybe enough time to go and speak to a couple more people before the

if you break away from the two adventurers. Yeah. Does anything come up about their stories that's not just regular adventurer journeys? I mean, these guys seem like pretty capable adventurers. Like the stuff they talk about, they're not like, you get the impression that they're the real deal. They're not like people who are pretending or like, you know, making themselves to sound cooler than they actually are. Okay. They seem to know an awful lot about Predomaggio vaults. And, you know, I think that when you mentioned that you guys have been involved,

VATRA will currently kind of say, like, listen, we don't make this a big thing. We normally reserve this for people that we trust, but come by the Dreaming Drake. We have, we have like a backroom for the more experienced adventures. And what we like to do is we try to keep a track of vaults that have been encountered and things like that. So maybe you can come and, you know, we can put that on the map and we can have a look at what we've done. But it's kind of like a, not like a club, but it's kind of like a people that we trust, adventures that we know are capable and that we trust to do good for the city and for the empire. Come by, we'll show you that, and you can kind of check it out.

Okay, and what was your name? Sorry? Dreaming Drake, you're dreaming Drake Tavern. It's on the Ascension, you can't miss it. It's pretty easy to find. A lot of people know it. And yeah, and if you ever go in any future vaults and you get anything unusual or if you find any weird stuff in there, feel free to bring it our way. And, you know, we can cast our eye over it. Like I said, I've been in a few. I've got quite a lot of experience with Proto Magi stuff, so.

Absolutely, thank you very much. Thank you. No problem. And then, yeah, like the conversation winds down. They invite you, like, they say, like, you know, free drink in the Dreaming Drake, like, come and we'll get you a free round, and, like, you kind of make casual friends with this couple. And, yeah, they seem like pretty good, cool adventurers. Nice.

As far as you can tell. Still a bit weird that they're here, but... Yeah. It's a bit weird we're here. I mean, yeah, you could argue that. I will. Perfect. So, grave.

Couple of maybe one or two chats with other people. I might chat with High Priest Mordecai. Okay. Just like introduce. Yeah, absolutely. Sure. Anything else from anyone else? I'm trying to, just trying to decide who to go to.

I definitely want to go talk to someone. You don't want to talk to ORA? She's scary. Women scare me. I mean, Xanthews could get into. I'd be hilarious. I have been thinking about just... Going up.

Just going up and saying, like, we're in public. Sure. Tell me what you need to tell me. Say what you need to say. If that happens, we're on, or escort. I mean, so too. So you don't go alone. Again, you don't have to.

I did really want to. You should. If you want to, you should. It's what they're there for. But also... I put these NPCs here for what to speak to you, say. I feelia can't be around for diadem stuff, so if it goes that way, perfect, if you're speaking to the person with the coolest fucking name I've ever heard.

High Priest Zithos Mordecai. Yeah, and I'm Tom Hazel, like, what the fuck? What we're wrong there? It's the nice thing of making your own stuff, and you get to make up your own names. Okay, so we got Aphelia doing that. Yeah. Zantheist going and talking to Oro with Rowan, keep him watch. Yeah.

Yeah, let's just bite that bullet. And is Groff going to speak to anyone? Did you say it was Jarla Winsinger was having a bit of a weird conversation with Abbott Lorkin? Yes. I'm trying to decide whether to go speak to Abbott Lorkin or go to the Winsinger. That's a great question.

Can you come back to me in a second? Sure. Ophelia, you make your way over to Hyperese Zithos. He is a human, quite elderly. You suspect that he has elongated his life through necromancy because he is old as far. He is bold

His head looks like a skull It's actually been painted Kind of like you have your red paint He has had his whole head tattooed So that he has like dark So he looks like he has like a skull face He has a big World of Warcraft of Warlock

Collar like robes Like he looks He's the vibe Like if you just pictured Evil Necromancer old man You'd probably picture this man But as you approach him, you can see he's got a sweet strawberry pastry and he's just like, he's enjoying this pastry immensely.

He is constantly followed by two hulking black, like deathguard skeletons who are just like following him at all times. And he's kind of like hunched over and sort of as you, you draw near, he sort of looks up. Hello, hallowed Eve, High Priest. And Graves' blessings to you. Blessings to you. Sister Ophelia della Rosa of the House of Blant.

Thank you. Thank you, High Priest. The Vos Mordecai. Oh, just Mordecai while we are here. It has always been my preferred name. But we have not had the opportunity to meet and discuss. No, we haven't.

No. How are you finding things in Kelskaris? Oh, I have been here for some time, Sister Ophelia. It is how these dragons, they are very stubborn. Very stubborn indeed, as stubborn as the grave sometimes. They are slow, but we are making progress as young Father Varys has proven here tonight. And as I understand you have made in Ash and Rest,

A small shrine? I have, yes. And you have earned the trust of the local duke, a Duke, a Duke, Ignis or something? Ignarius. Ignorius. Yes. This and this is what we need for our people and our faith, sister.

We need folks like you and Varys who can represent us, who can convince the people of this dragon empire that there is so much more than there, rather sad afterlife, to be born again without your memories, to try and prove yourself to the Sions as being worthy. Why bother when you can be an eternal undead bliss? Exactly, yes. Praise the great father.

Yes, my thoughts, exactly. Mm. But yes, I enjoy it, I must say. They are rather good at baking cakes. That they are, yes. My companions are very fond of the cakes here. Yes. Well, you have been blessed with a gift, but least a partial gift of undeth. Yes. I, unfortunately, I'm still just a mortal man.

Are you? Yes, I've had my life extended. Don't get me wrong, but ultimately I am still mortal, but I will be rewarded when my time comes. Yes, I'm sure you will be. Yes, I have no doubts. Yes, well, it is a tricky one for me. for as I cannot, as I do not represent a single house, I find myself curious.

What form of undeth shall I be rewarded with? For would that not show favour to one of the houses whomst I have not served myself? That is a tricky conundrum indeed. Indeed, I ponder it often. But still, you must be enjoying yourself. This sort of thing is for the young, is it not? Well, yes, I suppose it is, and yes, it is rather lovely, actually.

to be amongst peers again, you know. Good, good, yes. Yes, it's lovely. That is what is important. You are Ossian, after all. You are Austrian, as we all are, and we are bound together. You and I, are we not.

We are comrades, we are citizens, we are servants of the Grapefather together. Yes. And that is what matters. Loyalty to each other. Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

Indeed. It was lovely to see you and lovely to finally meet you as well. Indeed, Sister of me. Well, we may not have. met but do not fear I am told much of your exploits. Oh wonderful, oh thank you. The powers that be are very pleased with you.

Wonderful to hear, thank you. Indeed, enjoy. Blessings of the great father to you. Have a wonderful night. Blessings to you as well, sister. Teeters off. Meanwhile, it's Antias. You approach this little gaggle of academia students.

The sort of tall, broad-shouldered, very Gaston-esque male student sort of looks over in your direction, sort of raises an eyebrow with Rowan following behind you. The two girls, as you draw close, aura is different to you. Like, her horns are slightly different. She doesn't have the multiple small horns. She has like a more traditional golden pair of dragon horns. You know, she's just another gold dragon born. With Rex and F, there was much more of an obvious kind of relation, really. But for you, it's not as strong here.

You know, her eyes are completely different. She has blue eyes. She has, like, normal human blue eyes. Oh, okay. I thought Ophelia, when you saw it, it was unmistakable, or like... When Ophelia did, yeah. Yeah, okay, oh. Okay.

As you approach, it doesn't seem to be... So it is, from the description Ophelia gave me, that it is a regular, okay, but it is still clearly... She looks different to what Ophelia described. Okay. Soutly. Right. Enough to be like, oh, interesting.

Sure. But... Interesting. As you approach, they sort of just look over. The tall guy will just sort of like, Hey, what's up? Hi, Rowan. Galen.

Gailen. Nice to you. Galen. Oh, Xanthius. Zanthius, nice to meet you as well, just making the rounds at the party, hoping to introduce ourselves to everyone. Yeah, you came in with the Austrian chick in the amazing draft.

Ophelia Delaros of the House of Blood, in fact. Okay, so you know all this stuff. Well, some of it's new to us, yes, but I'll be honest. I'm surprised you weren't introducing yourself to us sooner, to be honest. Why is that? Well, you didn't want to... Okay. Well, he gestures and he's like,

this is Trixie Renoir, and this is Aura Sinclair. These are students, he's a friends of mine. What brings students to an auction? Well, Trixie, the one with the blue hair, he's just like, well, we've been... We study necromancy, and we've been working with the Ossian Embassy.

It's part of like a... It's like an ongoing diplomatic thing between the Empire and Osseus. They want the academia and the embassy to kind of work closer together, and we're kind of like a test bed, I guess, where we're kind of working together and, you know, we're slowly trying to, like,

you know, discuss necromancy and stuff. Yeah, like, it's kind of like this new thing, this is aura, like, she's very sort of like, it's, honestly, it's kind of tricky because, like, these Osseans, they're really closely guarded with everything, and, you know, it's really about trying to build trust with them, really. So it's like a lot of, like, hanging out and just kind of telling them what we know,

and then, you know, getting to know us, really. What did you say your name was? Zantius. Zantius. Where do I know that name? Oh, I know you. Weren't you in the clarion for, like, a fashion thing? Well, yes, I was in the clarion, yes, but...

Oh, I thought I record... I thought, like, I saw... and I was like, where do I know that guy from? No, I just, you also have just, something about you is just, oh, don't, like, Galen, he's like hitting on me. No, I'm, no, absolutely not. No, he's not, no, he's fucking not, no.

Yeah, no, I'm not, Gailen, don't you worry. Yeah. Oh, right, yeah, okay, cool. Not a thing. I mean, we don't have a problem with that, like, that's fine. Well, great, that's fantastic. Yeah.

I'm glad you're having such a good time researching necromancy and the like, Gaylan. Right, um, well. So like, why are you here? We are here with... Oh, just because you're friends here? Ophelia Delores of the House of Blood, yes. Well, that's...

Are you asking why I'm at the party or why I'm here right now talking to you? I guess kind of both. Oh, right. Well, just hoping to introduce ourselves. Make ourselves known to you. And, uh... Cool.

Right, okay. Is you like a model or something, or do you do stuff? All right, adventuring, you know all the, okay. What do you mean we know? Can I insight? Yeah. All right.

I'm really trying, I'm very much struggling and confused as Rowan. Like, why are they being completely different? 19. Like, you, like, her body language and her face, you would swear that this woman does not know who the fuck Xanthius is like she she does not seem to have a clue like you believe like maybe maybe Ophelia was wrong like maybe this isn't Zanthia maybe she got confused

or I mean you but there's you can't read anything on her like she seems super legit maybe the 19 wasn't that high enough I don't know we know charisma is through the roof with this person hmm But why are they doing that? Why would they do that? Because... One of the students' tricks through the boot hair is just like,

excuse me, sir, like your... The patterns on your arms are very interesting. Are they like a tattoo or something? Yeah. Oh, right. Is that like a cultural thing or is it like just a choice? It's just very cool. Yeah. Okay.

Is that like enough... Sorry, is that rude? Was that rude of me to us? No, no. Oh, okay. All right, okay, I got them. It's not really... It's not tattoo at all.

I got them in a vault. It's Proto Maggi-Vor? Yeah. Oh, how interesting. Oh, I mean, it's not my field of study, but that's really fascinating. Can you tell it? And she starts, like, just babbling magic at you, basically. It was quite traumatic.

Is this enough for, like, both Galen and Trixie's just kind of just be focused on Rowan, enough at least so that I can go around to the other side of aura and, like, have a more quiet conversation. Yeah. Kind of. Cool. Well, if you want to carry on with that, go ahead. And as in, like, yeah, we'll say that those two. three are engaged in a conversation.

Look at the, look at my forearms. Do you want to armrest? You work out? No, no, no, no, it's right. I don't either. But yeah. So what's the plan here, Oro? What plan? What do you mean?

What are you doing? What is this? What are you talking about? Drop the act. What act? What act? I know the act. She's smiling. Like, she's like grinning, like, as you're doing this. You're enjoying this, huh?

aren't you? Yeah. Right, good. I saw your... I'm having a really good time at this party. I can tell. All your plans are coming to fruition. What are my plans?

Oh, great, great. You think I have plans? How's father? Who? Who indeed. You're not gonna engage with this at all, are you? She just looks at you. Trying to be honest, trying to be respectful.

Really? Really? Yes. Is that what you told Rex? Right. Was that respectful? It was what he asked for. Yeah, he's a coward, so he wanted to get out.

Not a coward. After what was done to him, you would have run away. Well, maybe if he wasn't so weak and did what father told him... And you consider yourself strong? Strong in the right ways. Right. And what ways are then any? My ways.

Great. So are your plans coming to fruition? Is this what you wanted? He... She, like, looks around, ha, ha, ha, and she, like, makes, like, a really obvious laugh. Like, you've just told a joke. Just enough that, like...

Because you see, Galen's, like, why is she talking to him? Yeah. And then he's like, okay, like... I think I'm also... I've got, like... You got a bit of, like, a thing. Like, you guys are, like, doing, like, you're smiling, but it's, like, the conversation is different.

Do you really think... I'm gonna tell you anything? I didn't expect you to, no, but... Oh. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to have some level of a civilized conversation. I think this is pretty civil. Do you?

I think so. It could be a lot more uncivil. I expect uncivil is coming for both of us. So... Do you know what, Xanthias? That really depends on you. Does it? Because you can make this so much easier on yourself.

I absolutely. And your little friends, just go home. Give him what he wants and that doesn't need to be any more trouble. Laura, you know that place isn't home for me. And you know that... No, but you have what he means. If you give it to him, I was gonna say that maybe he'll let you live in peace, but after what you did to Rex and Earth,

I'm not sure that's on the table anymore. Right, so... But... The choice is... friends. Is that so? So my choice is I go back to Gilda, I offer what I stole from Father and probably die in the process, or I try and fight this, I stand up against you, I don't do as you say, and I have a chance of living. Maybe you're a bit out of practice living in that little nowhere, dirt hole, rust end. But think of it like a trade, right? Hmm.

You can go back, give what you stole, and in return, he doesn't make the people you love suffer. You fight, you try and resist, you are directly responsible for the suffering and heart of anyone who even remotely cares and loves for you. I don't think you're really worth that. So it's up to you. Well... Baby brother. You can do what you want. As for me, I'm just here with my friends for a party.

I don't think any of that blame will fall onto me. Oh. Oreganus wishes to do. I really hope you remember that when he makes you watch as he... rips gruffeth apart limb by limb and makes him howl in pain. And he tortures Gruff's wife and his other children. And what's that bartender in Ashen, Mateo?

He literally turns his skin inside out and makes him suffer. What was the diadem guy? Alejandro? I bet he really screamed. Oh, he absolutely did. Imagine that, but like, ten times worse to Rowan, to Daisy, to, I don't know, Teresa, that little acolyte of Ophelius. The thing is, Zanthias, you... And don't get me wrong, I don't blame you, this is a family trait, but you think about, like, this far away from your body.

You think about this. You've got to think so much bigger. I wasn't thinking of it just then, no. No, no, I don't think you have been. Because if I were you, like, I'm just not selfish enough to literally put everybody's life and suffering over my own life.

So, hey, I've given you the advice. You do what you want with it. I was just thinking, it's such a shame that... All those people I've killed just died so quickly. Ooh. That I won't get to see you suffer. No.

Sure. Sure. Well, lovely to meet you, Miss Oro. So nice to meet you. Zandreus, was it? Close enough. Oh, great. Oh, my gosh.

I hope you have just the best time. And you as well. And you Galen and Rowan? Yeah. See, indeed. All right. Goodbye. Thank you.

You ever wanted our wrestling. I mean, yeah, how much you bench? Well, we've got about seven or eight in Ash and Res. That's not much. You have like this little bit. And you make your way. Neat. Neat.

Cool. That was fucking. Yeah. Damn. Hell yeah, mic drop. Oh, that's good. I was so confused until the... She dropped it.

Yeah, yeah, I'm glad. So, fucking good. She could have kept it up. I was like, is it the, this is the real Oris Sinclair? She's impersonating her sometimes. Like, you know, like, yeah, like. No, of course not.

We are good tonight. Big Ten. Good. Oh, that was so good. Loved it. Oh. So, just before we wrap up, did you make a decision?

I hear when he speaks to you. I was thinking he was speaking to Jarlia Winzinger, but also like, I kind of don't know if I want to after that conversation. That was such a good, like, full stop. One thing you notice, Gruff, perhaps you're debating whether to go and speak to somebody, but you see, you know, Various is starting to get on stage. You imagine the auction is going to start very soon. You see that Lord Umbraxian is in conversation with Vizana Umbres.

and her husband, and they're just chatting away. And you, because you have a pretty good passive perception, and Daisy as well, he sort of, you see something that you recognize because it's something you will deal with on a regular basis. But mid-conversation, he just sort of stops and looks like, like he's hearing something. And then he says something to the other two,

makes an excuse, and sort of excuses himself, basically. And you get the impression that he's basically just received descending spell, you know, or like a telepathic communication. Like somebody sent him a message, basically. And he kind of like apologizes and sort of says something to them. But then sort of as he's stepping away, you hear Varys like, everyone, please, if you would take your seats, we're going to begin the auction.

And, you know, the big crowd then begins to gather and sort of separate. He's hard to miss. Like, he's clearly leaving the ballroom, basically. Can I... follow him? Like, go and... You could, it will be very obvious that you are doing so because everybody else is going to be attending this auction. So if you leave now with him,

it will be obvious that you are not present during this. Who has the thing of tracking? Pursue. The thing of tracking. Oh. Perfume and tracking. You still have. I believe Ophelia was carrying it. Oh, yeah.

But I'm going to say that at the moment, Gruff, you're the only one who can really react to this. Yeah, yeah. So I need a decision from Graf. Oh, it's probably too obvious for me to cast a spell, isn't it? Casting spells, yes, would be a massive thing. Unless it's like, it depends on the components, but most of the time it's like,

blah blah blah, blah, spell. Yes, that would be very noticeable. It wasn't. I'll walk off. Okay, just give me a stealth role to see how, how well you managed to peel away from the crowd. I am Mr. Stealth. I'm a big fucking lineman.

17, 18. 18. Okay. You peel away Gruff as everybody else is gathered for this auction. The rest of you, Daisy actually has a pretty good pative perception as well. You kind of have focused on this gruff. Lord and Brexian Gruff are not the only people who leave at this time. quite a few people do

sort of leave the auction or at least head out temporarily you're not really sure you see Notheria Freestorm the wife of the adventurers makes her way out you would also see Nemesia Gallos

Varus's secretary leaves as well you would see counsellor Jalia Winsinger heads out as does Caledus Umbris the husband of the dwarf and merchant All the people we didn't speak to.

Not all of them. There were some that stayed. But you see, they all basically leave as well at the same time. Okay. So they all head out as the auction begins. Gruff, can you give me another perception role just before we wrap things up? It's a natural one.

One plus nine, ten. Ten. I think you, because you're moving through an unfamiliar building, and you're sort of following behind Lord Ambraxian as he, you know, makes his way out. You have to sort of like, you know, several of the guards that kind of come up, like, Are you Ocasa? Kind of blah, blah, blah. And as you step out, you saw him heading out into the wider estate.

But as you go, like, as you finish talking to the guards and go to, like, move, You realize that like, fuck, he's gone somewhere and you've lost track of him, basically. So he's somewhere in the estate, but you didn't see which way he went, basically. And it's like you could go up and it's like there's a grand staircase that leads up to the bedrooms and the second floors. You could go out to the main entrance. There are like kitchens at the back. It looks like there is a series of gardens out the back as well. And he's gone somewhere.

Where would gruff go? I would go. I'm just thinking like... Again, there are still guards and people all around you. Casting a spell is going to look suspicious, basically. And they're going to want to know what you're casting and why and blah, blah, blah. So upstairs...

So it's like, yeah, you can go upstairs. It's like a straight across you mean, there's a grand hallway that leads with stairs leading up to the second floor where there's probably bedrooms and studies and all sorts of businesses and, like, other rooms. There are the kitchens and sort of the dining areas and stuff of the estate proper. You could go out to the front gate where you came in,

or it looks like that there are some gardens as well. I'm thinking how the gardens are upstairs. I'm going to need a decision from you. Upstairs. Okay, you make your way upstairs, heading off in that direction. As you... The auction begins, and for the rest of you, the auction proceeds what you would expect.

There are various pieces of Ossian art, sculpture and things like that that are being sold as well as Ilmeran pieces the painting sells for a you know really nice amount like way more than what you could have got for it in a shop raises good money Varys is very very pleased one of the out of everything there's only really one interesting item in the auction itself as a series of Ossean necromancy tomes like tomes like spellbooks and you know books of law and knowledge. Varus is just like, these are quite a find.

These are some old Ossean necromancy texts that were first transcribed and taught many of our kind, many of our home, the first building blocks of our necromancy, and helped us develop much of the magics of which we use today. This is knowledge that is very, very rarely given beyond Ossian lands. And they have been generously donated by the House of Bone to help raise money for this temple.

As we know that many of our Ilmeran friends are very interested in our magic. So let's begin the bidding. The bidding sky rockets. And it becomes clear that there are three primary bidders. Lady Glomeres, Visana Umbris, and Councillor Riotto of Volt Watch,

the half-ling of the Gold Dragon District, the three of them go into a very desperate bidding war. 10,000 gold, 12,000 gold, 15,000 gold. Eventually, Councillor Riotto is forced to give up and you have never seen a half-ling look angrier and more desperate. What the fuck? Vizana Umbris and Lady Glomeris managed to go for a bit longer

but eventually even the draconic noble is forced to back down as she simply shrugs if you wanted that much Vizana it's yours as the book sell for nearly 25,000 gold as this occurs meanwhile

gruff you begin exploring the upstairs rooms. You find studies, no one in there. You find bedrooms, no one in there. Eventually, one of the bedrooms, the windows are open, and you hear someone cast a spell. What do you do? I can't count.

It might be something you can cast. Can I cast pass without... Oh, right? Yeah, I don't have, like, dispel. I mean, would have, like, dispell? It would have been impossible to cast paths without a trace, like, when I get away from, like, you know, guards and stuff like that. I'd say, as you are patrolling me upstairs, you can.

Mm-hmm. Oh, my self. I don't know. I don't know. I need an answer. What do you do? You hear, like, you hear the verbal component of a spell, and you hear maybe sort of, huh? What do you do?

Can I turn into a... A cat. Like, it's happening. Yeah, dude! You're like a stealthy little, like... You turn into a cat, you wild shape into a cat. Yes. How old is the cat?

Hmm? How old is the cat? I don't cat. You are in this like opulent guest... It looks exactly like Milo. Opulent guest bedroom. Nothing's happened around you. Can I... whereabouts was the sound?

With your perception, it came from outside, and it's through the open window that you heard it. Oh, can I like them peek over the window sill? Like jump up on the window sill? You jump up on the window sill. Act like a cat, like I'm just catting around? Yeah, you jump up on the window seal and peer out. The angle, this window from the upstairs bedroom,

it looks out onto the gardens. Fucking gardens! And you look out, you see, there is a faint glow of something that then vanishes, Do you keep watching? Yeah. You watch for a few moments later and you see Councillor Jahlia Win Singer

briefly leave the area where that glow was and make her way back inside. Okay. I would report all of this to the Daisy Chain. What the fuck is going on. Yeah, it's there. Obviously, I can't see it and I didn't hear it. Is it anywhere I could...

No. No, I'll kind of check. not as a proxy through graph. Yeah. Can Ophelia? Oh, you could, but I would make the DC are like so high. Yeah, watch this drive. That one.

Definitely not. This is, I, if there's any, yeah, what's the feeling I want to do? Can Ophelia just a faint needing a break and sort of just stumble out? Yeah, I mean, there's nothing keeping. You can leave at any time. Like, you don't need to like, you can just be like, I want a break. Just get some air. Yeah.

Just, yeah, her and Percy will just. Ophelia, what's the plan? So you, are you going to head out to the main gate to get out of the wards? Or are you going to, where are you going to go? I'm going to go. Yeah, out the main, out the main door. Okay. You make your way and you go to the main door.

Time passes. And, Afina, you witness something. It's maybe 10 minutes after what Gruff's seen and heard. And other stuff can happen, but this is what you see. is you see like a little, something happens at the front door of the house.

Lordumbraxian sort of is leaving in quite a hurry and you see several cobalds try to be like, Lordumbraxian, your cloak, your cloak! And he just immediately like kind of pulls away from it. It's like, no, no, no, keep it.

Like, I'll come back for it in the morning. I have to leave. And storms out and just immediately heads out, passes you. and looks like he's going back out into the city. Can Ophelia do something like she'll pretend to trip on something or like just stump, like maybe like just faint that she's feeling dizzy and stumble into him as he's passing her?

I'm not going to roll for it because I think it's too good, even though it's going to give some things away. You do, and nobody else will be able to confirm this because the angle, the guards, the way they see it, you just stumble past him. But you, Ophelia, know for certain that you should have clipped into his arm as he moved. And he is not there.

It is an illusion. But you are the only one who gets to see and know that. As you kind of stumble through, he reacts like, oh, sorry, miss, I can't. And just immediately heads out. I'm so sorry and goes. Can I Daisy Chain? I've just seen Lordaumbraxian.

He's gone past me. He wasn't real. He's an illusion. Something has happened. So just to confirm for Ophelia's what Ophelia did, when you say clipped through the arm, as in she went clear right through it and not like a... But the angle was from, like, the way it was like the guards were looking,

Ophelia sort of stumbled in front of them. So he was behind. So it looks like she just fell behind him. But Ophelia knows that she clipped like the back of his arm, basically, and she just fell straight through it. But the difference between a full illusion and someone... No, this is not a disgrace self. This is an actual, like, major image or projected image

or some sort of illusory spell. Like, you've seen Rowan use major image. It's the same thing. I mean, I wouldn't... I think I might stand up and almost try to gently pass through all the seating or whatever it is we're standing around in to try and get to Glomerra. Okay.

Yeah, in order to try and sort of start some kind of alarm kind of thing, I suppose. Sure. You, I would say, I imagine you get up and start sort of making your way there. And I think that as you do, the auction, you know, Varys is still conducting some of the auctions. And as you start making your way, you, yeah, I think, like, you feel something. something press into your mind and I need a wisdom saving throw.

My mind, a w- oh no. Wisdom? Yeah. Against Zantheis. Yeah. Think twice would you? Minus two. Wisdom save. Wisdom save. Minus two. Two. You didn't even see her get next to you. She was so stealthy, so unseen. Orah just whispers, I suggest you go for a long walk outside and don't come back till tomorrow. Don't come back until tomorrow, man, I'm like. And Xanthius, you immediately are compelled to follow the suggestion. My fucking Abe Simpson walking in. Can I see this?

No, because this is, she has, she does not make any obvious spell casting. She just looks like she, like, walks past Xanthias and doesn't do a damn thing. She has subtle spell effectively. And so there is nothing for you to use Counter Charm to, like, deflect with, unfortunately. And that is where we're going to win the episode because we're already running a bit late. And it's a late one. That's where, just like two more minutes.

No. Just like three more minutes. No. What's going down? What's happening? What's going down? Stuff. Ah!

That is where we're gonna leave tomorrow today. Thanks for joining us for this episode. What a fun one. We'll see you next time for High Rollin. Fuck! The awesome. Advertising on Spotify puts your brand in the moments where Gen Z fandom takes shape. They're 35% of our audience and spend two hours building rituals and shaping culture with every stream.

Download the Culture Next Report to discover trends and insights that will inspire your next campaign.