High Rollers DnD - The Power of Friendship (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #99

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

Rowan breaks very quickly following his introspective chat as the party try to discover the power of friendship! Can't wait for Part 2 of each episode? Join our Patreon to get early access EVERY week (+ a few other bonuses)! www.patreon.com/HighRollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://geekyclean.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.highrollersdnd.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠v Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Pickax. Hi, I'm Michelle Madison. And I, of course, am your John Jacobson, and we are the video game outsiders. Yeah, we've been doing this podcast for over 20 years. And we talk about everything in gaming from PC to console, but we also go off topic a lot. We do. And we're silly. We don't take ourselves seriously.

We are. And there's a lot of news, sometimes gaming news, sometimes news about food. And food talk. Yep, that's right. So if you want to find out more about us, check out Video Game Outsiders.com and listen to anywhere podcasts are. Welcome back to Althea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes are on a journey to a landmark of the Azar Step, known to some as the giant's

wetstone and as Althe's crown to others. Having seen it in a dream, Rowan sets out for the wetstone to potentially cleanse his sword's stone razor of the dark magic that taints it. On the road, they have stopped at a small village called Yenstown. Yalt, where they met Vricks the Broken, a dynastian with a broken horn and a carapus, who also seeks the wet stone to be healed and fixed. However, before they set out from Yalt, they investigated a place called Storm Bloom's Sanctuary, where they met Scala, a cobbled with a mystical connection to the deity Alfei,

who told them what she knew about Althe's crown and the giant's wetstone, but also took the time to speak. with Rowan and asked him a number of questions that provoked deep introspection and thought about his future. After Rowan finished his chat with Scala, Aphelia, Xanthus, Xanthus and Gruffeth all decided to go in and speak to Scala themselves, each one-on-one conversation, a deep insight into their thoughts, fears, hopes, and history. But now the party prepares to head out of Yolt and continue their journey. And now my friends is where we pick back up. Nice.

You all still stand in the beautiful, bright, colorful garden that is Storm Bloom's sanctuary. Perhaps some of you still feeling the lingering effects of that petulia tea that you were drunk, that promoted introspection and sort of honesty with yourselves and your thoughts and feelings. gruff being the last and coming out quite quiet and a little sort of seemingly lost in his own thoughts but yeah this is sort of everyone is reconvened once again I hand it over to you my friends

oh in fact actually before we do that though because I always forget let's get our fate underway Okie dokey oh baby what's happening here No! No! 4 that is a dice for You. That's a... A six for me.

Oh, another dice for you. Oh. What is happening? A five, a dice for you. Six. Oh, my goodness. Is this gonna be? Good energy over here.

Clear our minds and three. Wow. A little... A little... A little... A morsel for me. That's rough. A morsel.

You can't look at it. What is... Okay. You've got a mood today, Bit Boy, too. I haven't fucking slept. Yeah. Well, there you go. It's D&D time.

D&D time. So, we have our fate established. Yeah, and you guys are all in Storm Bloom Sanctuary. What would you guys like to do now? Who was the last to come out of? Gruff. Gruff. Let's have a full-blown conversation.

So gruff. How is that, Gruff? You feeling better? Go for the accent. Oh, boy, oh, I'm... Yes, it was pretty good, actually. Great. My name is gruff.

I'm from my little village called... Yes, we're aware. Zanthius. We're aware. Zanthius. No, it was very, it was a good conversation, but some things I need to think about, I think. Cool. Well, Scala, thank you for, um...

Yes. It's been my... The things you've done to us. Oh, no, no, it's just, you know, just offered you a chance to have a bit of a conversation. I hope that some of the things we talked about will prove helpful to all of you. It's not going to go anywhere, right? right? Just the things that were spoke about,

no one's going to hear them. Oh, they're not going to hear them from me if that's what you're worried about. No, no. Anything that you and I talked about in my shrine, that's between you and me. But if you would like to share anything you talked about, you're more than welcome too.

It can be healthy, it can be good to do that. But no, you're more than welcome to, you know, you don't have to worry about me telling anybody. Okay, great. What'd you say? Nothing. Say anything about me? Yeah. And Ophelia and Percy.

What? What did you say about Percy? We should go to the Wedstone. Just go out of that going. It's instant. You see anything by me? Yeah. Was it nice?

Something about everybody. Very good. Yeah, of course. Oh, good. Oh, it's fine then. I will leave you to that. He said good things. Good things.

It's fine. I spoke about everyone. Did it? not everyone speak about everyone? Everybody spoke about what was on their minds and that conversation. Are we all on your mind? Of course you are, you're my best friends.

We can always count on Rowan to say the nicest things about each and every one of us. Yes. But you are more than welcome. It is, those are your thoughts and they are for you to decide if you want to share them, say. What about you? We need to talk.

We need to talk immediately. Oh. Well, thank you for your time. I have gold. I have gold for you. Do you actually, though? What for? I have seven silver.

What four? I'm supposed to say, I don't think you have gold. Where's all your money gone? I haven't had gold since waived me. I've been trusting it to the party fund. I've been very good with my money, and by that I mean I've been taking none of it and spending less of it. He's been, he bought all of the nets and the stuff,

and then he gambled the rest of it. Gambled. Oh wait, remember. Hats and staff. I spent you got to do it now like that. Do you have money? I have money. Do you actually?

Yes. I've got quite a lot of money. On gambling and blood. I have gemstones. I have all my money tied up in gemstones. Oh, I meant actual. The good thing is I'm going to reach into a pocket on Gruff's belt. We've got the party fund here.

Oh yeah. Hang on boy. Keep a hold of that. If, if, to what for? 20 gold for the service? For what? No, absolutely not. I told you, Xenthius, I do this. It's just a conversation and some tea.

It's not something you have to pay for. Dirty. No. It's a free service. I don't charge for it. You don't charge? No, of course not. Why not? Because it was just a nice conversation.

I don't charge for conversation. I mean, it was lovely, yes. Would you like to talk? I'm quite all right, thank you. Well, I'm here if you need me. That's very kind of you. Thank you, Rowan. but no, I'm quite all right, thank you.

But yes, no, please, there's no trouble at all. In that case, checks wrist. Watchers don't exist. What's the time is. It's a sundial on a strap. Sure. What time is it then? I'm in a tunnel, I'm in a tunnel.

If I hold it like this, it's six o'clock. If I hold it like this, it's 12. You have to hold it perfectly flat and straight. No, it's still, I think that you go, But this is still fairly early morning. We're probably looking at like an 11 a.m. Okay. So it's only about 15, 20 minutes each of the conversations.

You weren't in there for super duper long. Maybe half now, but you did also get up early. You bought Gibson early and then you came here. So it's about sort of 11, 11 a.m. midday. When I haven't been to bit day? That's a deep cut. But no, it's entirely my pleasure to try and help you with whatever's going on in your.

in your life, in your mind. So it definitely brought me a lot of clarity, so thank you. Good, I'm glad. I'm glad. That's the most important thing. I didn't do anything. That was all you, I feel. It's all of you. But anyway, I wish you all the best in your journey

to Arfa's crayon, to the wet stone. Thank you. Like I said, many pilgrims make their way there. It is something of a bit of a holy sight, so, yeah. Is it a treacherous path, or... Well, it's along the main road, it's along the road, but you will have to divert off of it eventually. The bizarre step is, there's always the potential for trouble.

Wild beasts, you know, erratic weather, but also the people of the step. And you know, this is something that I'm sure some of you have known, but we value freedom and that can be a wonderful thing. It can also lead people to taking what they want and doing what they want and not caring about laws and things like that. So banditry and raiders and things like that, they can be something of a more common problem out here. Okay.

But it's just a three-day journey, right? It's about three-day journey, yeah. Three days. Not too far. Not much different to what we did before, except on a road and not down a mountain. Exactly. And we've got all the supplies sorted, right?

We're all... Yep, bed rolls, foods, rations, pricks. Are you ready to go? assertive, I am. Fantastic. In that case. And also, I will say as well, this is like an out-of-game knowledge thing as well.

When you're travelling on like a set road, it's far less complex and it's far less demanding than say travelling through an unknown, you know, mountain range and stuff like that as well. So you probably won't need to do like full travel rules to like travel. You also know where you're going. You've been given directions. So it will just be a case of like marking off supply,

having any camp moments that you want to do, and then maybe rolling to see the weather and if there's a random encounter, but we won't need to be doing the whole events and stuff like that because there's nothing really to put you at risk. It's only if you get very bad luck. Have you met us? Yeah.

We'll see. But yeah, so it should be a fairly troublesome, troublemless journey. Troublesome. Troublesome. Troublesess journey. Yeah, I think I'm, unless there's something anyone else wants to do before we head out. I think I'm ready.

What about you, Vrix? Are you ready to go? I assume you are. Points at Xanthius assertive. Yes. Rich. You already asked. Ah. Yeah.

Zanthas, can we talk? You are fully inside your own mind right now. You seem very distracted, Rowan. Yeah, it's because I said stuff about Ophelia, Zanthia, and Percy in there. But you said you spoke about all of us. and now you're singling out the three of them. Did you say bad things about that? Yeah.

It was Rowan with... What? What did you say? Me? Look, can I speak to you individually? Oh. You certainly can do that on the road if you like. We'll walk and talk, Rowan.

I'll walk ahead, I promise I won't listen. Are you listening? You are fully inside our minds? Yeah. Not right now, but I could be. Yeah, I know. Do you want me to? No.

I don't think you can read minds, can you? You can set up a telepathy, but you can't read their thoughts. We're aware of it as well, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You would be aware of them. Do you want me to do that? No. All right, so let's make tracks.

Yeah, so you all begin the journey from your, you sort of travel a few hours back the way you came to that long east-west road that you initially came across, and then you begin heading out to the east, heading towards Kelskaris, following the road there. The first day you, you, travel without any real incident. The road is pretty well worn. The terrain is mostly flat, but it does have ups and downs and a few bumps. You make your way around a few sort of,

azar forests and woodlands, scrublands, rocky outcroppings and things like that. But it is quite flat. It is quite wide and open terrain here. And this gives you ample opportunity to kind of let a few people hang back, maybe have a little private conversation, whilst other people sort of move ahead and scout ahead. So I would like to know what everybody's sort of doing. Oh, do we need to do the journey rules stuff? No, no, that's what I was saying. We're not going to do, like, full journey rules or anything like that.

There's just going to be... I've already rolled for, like, weather and events. I just pre-rolled those. Okay. Because they're not influenced by you guys. It's just a pure, straight, random luck. Do you get bad weather? Do you get, like, you know, a random encounter?

But I will deduct, like, the supply points and stuff as we go. Cool. So, yeah, this is, I guess, I want to know what you guys are doing as you travel. Like, who's hanging back with who? Are people having conversations? Or are you going to have those conversations when you camp down for the night?

Like, you find a place like set up on. You can't wait. You can't wait. Okay. All right, as we're walking along, I'll do a sign to Rowan that's like a backwards hand, like a, now? Can I take care of Gibson while you talk?

Yeah. I'm going to just fully distract myself with taking care of Gibson. Sure, sure, yeah. Gibson sort of, it's still the same, day, so the animal handling check is in place. Can I try and teach him to play fetch? Yeah, give me an animal handling role. This is going to go so well.

What is your animal handling? Plus one. Okay. Five plus one. Six. Six. You've gotten to steal. What do you throw? I'd be vital with that.

What do you throw for the fetch? Like a little rock. Just watches this rock cell through the air and looks at you like, okay, and bring back. And then I will run over to the rock, pick it up, and walk back a bit and be like, it just watches you the whole time kind of cocking its head in that kind of dinosaur velocirapt away. And then goes up to your sort of leg and starts hacking and coughs up like a little clump of something. Something.

Yeah. Kind of looks like maybe like some mice. Partial digested. There's like some, there's like some like dirt and lint. It looks like just some leaves. A full human beings like slider. It's really tiny. Gibson's like a chicken size.

That's why it would be hilarious. Well, yeah, it'd be amazing if we'd have to just send it to jaw to get a whole man out. But no, it's just like obviously something that Gibson's eaten running around while you guys were talking to Scala. But yeah, just coughs that up by your feet. Probably on your boot. actually.

I'll clean my boot. There you go. Gruff is going to just keep up ahead. He's going to basically be like, okay, well, I'll keep an eye out for any trouble and stuff, basically. So while these two are hanging about, what is Ophelia doing?

You've got Ricks there? Yeah, I think Ophelia will sort of like look in her bags, check all her supplies and stuff, and she'll find her... 20 million bottles of blood. Like, hmm, I've got everything, and then she'll find her tarot card. Oh.

And she'll sort of just look at that and, like, sort of fiddle around with it. This is the one that you got from the Stone Masons and skills in Ash and Rest. Just look towards gruff. Just think about it for a minute. Holding up, it's the hound, isn't it, that you've got?

Yes. So you see sort of in profile this like hound, you know, not quite lean in, more canine, but sort of holding it up and then you're sort of seeing gruff in profile as well, sort of holding the two up together, you know, thoughts going through your head.

I think Ricks might just sort of is walking beside you. Curiosity, what is that? This was a special card we all got given from a wonderful person back in Ash and Rest and I've been trying to find an opportune moment to use it. Quisical. A card? It is useful. Oh yes, well, when we were given them,

they came with these certain abilities, magical effects that can affect an individual. I think this one might help my friend. Approval. Magic is a useful. tool. Do you use magic? I don't think there's an emotion tied to this. There's just, you hear like some clicking and sort of noises?

No, but I have known others who have. It was very useful. Ah, I see. Yeah, there's a few others from where I'm from that use magic a lot more differently to I. Respectfully, you are also not from the Dragon Land.

No, no, I'm from Osseus. Hmm, approval. We are both strangers. Yes, we are. I'm still sort of finding my feet, as it were. Approval. These people are strange. They are, aren't they?

How have they been to you? Confused. Mixed responses. Some respected me before when I was unbroken. Now others were frightened, but I tried to do Good. Sadness.

Now I am here. I feel sort of a kindred spirit, I suppose, with you. Very similar to me. I mean, I have my friends, of course. My deeds may confuse them from time to time, but I'm doing the best I can and the best in my own capacity. one of the giant big arms,

like she has her two little smaller arms than she has her main arms and one clawed hands pats you awkwardly on the shoulder. Oh, thank you. Politely, at least you are not broken. Well, maybe not on the outside, shall we say. Your innards are broken.

Yes, I suppose, yes. Seek medical attention. Well, sort of a more spiritual, broken, I suppose. Breaking of the soul. You also seek the wet stone to fix your broken spirit? I could always ask, I suppose. I think I need to ask myself in a way. Try and do the right thing.

These tiny little bug beetle eyes. Like, there's never a facial expression, right? It's just hard carapus. So these tiny, dark eyes are just sort of staring at you. And you hear this, like, constant, like, droning, clicking noise, which you're not really sure what it means, but Vricks only seems to make it in certain parts of the conversation. And sort of seems to look at you and just will say,

sympathetic. I think I understand. Thank you. That means a lot. I wish I could fix what is broken myself, but I cannot. But if you can, you should. Oh, thank you. Well, I mean, we'll try and do what we can for you as well, of course.

That is a kindness. Well, I suppose anyone can be mended to some extent. I mean, we're all of us here together. We're, I think we're all in our own ways a little bit broken. Mm-hmm. That's what brings us together. That pleases me that I travel with others who understand. We do, we understand.

It is a shame. I do not have my equipment. Much of it was sold to help get me here. We can get you some. I'll gladly buy you some new equipment next time you find another town. I could not ask for more. You don't need to ask for more. You have all done so much.

Well, and we will continue doing more to help you. I wish to return the favour before you offer more. Well, your company has been more than enough for me, at least, anyway. Pleased. And just the word please. There's no line of dialogue that follows it, just that noise. Which you do notice changes in pitch. It becomes, like, slightly higher pitched for a while and then just seems to, like, fade away.

You and my friend Percy would get along very well, I think. I miss him, I wish he was here. I would like to meet this, Percy. I think you two would get along very well. Pleased. And this is a high-pitched kind of drone sound. Meanwhile, while that's happening, Ron and Cynthia's. You know, if you want to subtly slow down to have a chat, by the way,

don't just stop dead in the middle of the road. Are they gone? They're over there, but outside of it, shot. slowly walking. Okay, good. You've been fidgeting a lot more since... I have. You didn't gasp at that rock over there.

Look how big it is. I didn't even notice that beautiful rock. It's huge. It's an enormous rock. I love the shape of that rock. You've just been looking down most of the time and just... You don't see myself. It's antheist I said something bad about you.

About me? Yeah. Honestly, it's expected at this point. No, it's not. It first started. as me honestly thinking that, well, because the tea, right? The tea, not that I'm blaming the tea. Yeah, the tea, yeah.

I can still feel some of its effects. I don't know, it's one off for me. Yeah, okay. So we discussed a little bit. It really affected him, didn't it? So he still... His crown steel is enhancing it. It wasn't, yeah.

I had a conversation a little bit about if I didn't have my powers would the group still want me around? Right. It was like a hypothetical, if you will. Wade, which power is he talking about? Oh, the green ones and the magic

and how lovable and kind you are to everyone that you meet? Oh, please, that's not the magic. Immediately you make friends everywhere you go. Those powers... Stop, this is making it so much harder! I'm just trying to figure out which powers you're talking about because you've got so many.

The green stuff that comes. out hearts. Right, the green stuff, yes, okay. And the general healing properties and whatnot, you know? The stuff that goes beyond rational thought, I guess, and into the more of a magical realm. Don't make me

explain magic, can you? I understand, I'm a magical person. Great. The stuff that takes spell slots. Yes, yeah, no, the ones that consume magical energies that you restore every time you sleep. Yeah, exactly. Yes. So either way. There's a lot of way around everything. Initially, I said, all of

the members love people and don't value people as just the things that they're capable of doing. Right. And I still believe that. Uh-huh. But then I said, okay, maybe not everyone. And then... And then I spoke about you and Ophelia. The things I said about Percy?

I mean, Ophelia? Percy? Yeah. What do you say about Percy? That I don't like him? You don't like Percy? As a skeletal person or what they stand for? That.

Right. So therefore, Ophelia? No, I love Ophelia. Even though Ophelia stands for much as the same things? Yeah, it's very conflicting. Anyway, I'm talking about you. Right, okay, yes, me. I said, I said you put yourself before me.

I... I... Now... No. Can I get a reception check? Waiting for it. 18? You can roll an insight check if you would like, Rowan?

No, I think he's too caught up in revealing this awful truth. I mean, to be fair, that 18 probably beat your passive insight anyway, so. That's, I mean... No. I think that's a deep cut. It's, um, it's, uh, let's say you are hacking away at something that is already carved. Does that make sense?

Hacking away, yes, brutalizing. No, no, not brutal. No. I'm, I'm not going to go too much over what I spoke about, but it wasn't massively dissimilar in the way that I treat people. So that it is perceptible. Uh, saddens me, Rowan. Not that you are making me upset. Broan's crying.

Don't, no, Rowan, no. I failed you as a friend. No, you haven't. You did the right thing, and I'm trying to... I said bad things about you, and I should have said it to you first. You're saying it to me now, and that's all the matters. I am only because I had the guilt build up into my throat. Only because you were led down a path that made you realize...

I took narcotics. You, I did too. I was exploiting. I can see others. You were given a choice. But you were led down a path that made you come to realize how you felt, and now you're talking about them to me,

and that's a good thing. We are, yes, I hope this means that we can be stronger friends. Yes, absolutely. Knowing our flaws as well, that I can think these things sometimes. And I act the way I do, and I don't want that to be.

be true. I wouldn't put me before you. Or wait, the other way around. Well, I wouldn't, I would, you're good. And we're great. Yeah, this is, thank you. Is this making you feel better? That's exactly what I wanted to hear. It's, it's what I want to hear. Great, you're great. You're, you, yes. Yeah. Very powerful. But I think beyond the power, you're a good person, Xantheus. No, come on. I think that you see one of those very faint, still lingering, faint images of Xanthius,

the far more corrupted, but dressed so nobly, almost, you know, the crown still corruption is so much stronger, but is dressed like the prince of a realm and just says, no, you're not. I agree with you, Roman. It's not sunny. My eye, oh, something flew in there.

Oh, don't me to get it for you. You have massive fingers. I do, and I don't wash. You can lie to yourself as much as you like, but you know what I'm saying. Shush, shush, shush, shush. Like I said. If we're done here, that's okay.

No, no, no, not you. I was shooing away the fly that was in my eye. Get out of here, fly. Exactly. And you are more than you are your powers. They don't define you. Like I said, you have the ability to make friends wherever you go. That's not a power.

That's Rowan. And you are so, so good at hiding. It's actually kind of strange. Check this out. Please stand still. Right. I mean, maybe... I'm right here.

Where did he go? Where did I go? He's right there. I can see you now. And I'm glad that you are joined. us on this adventure. Thank you. And touring us around your homeland as well.

You really mean that? Absolutely, I do. It's not. I just hope. I is a puffy. Look, just... You really mean that, does it? I love when you appreciate the little details,

because I miss them all the time. Yeah. So, for the rest of this adventure, this journey, be ruined. Look up. Gasp at rocks. And, and, and, and, and, and point out those storm, and make the noises that you make, but not the quieter next time.

Yeah, that was loud. That's true. All right, well, guess we got a hug now. Oops. Oh, whoops, how did I get here? Last ball. What, that's a little. I was gonna say, you get.

You can't use it. Hick him up, literally. Yeah, you have this moment, sort of, Dave. So probably, you should probably talk to a studio. Okay. Just enjoy the moment. It's like a tiny squeeze, like his head is going wide.

All right, you scape. Can you get Ophelia over here, please? Yeah, okay, I'll walk the 10 meters ahead. The Ophelia is. Hey, Ophelia, hi, Rex. Greetings. Hello. I think Rowan.

wants to talk to you. Oh, okay. The whole thing. Okay. He's in a delicate state. Aren't we all? Not me. You're not, you're fine.

Only in control. Rowan, are you sobbing? Yeah. Why are you sobbing? I'm happy at the moment. Oh, okay, that's fine. I soften him up for you. Oh, okay, thank you.

Your kind produces liquid from your eyes when you are happy. It's always, it's a bit. I thought it was only when you are sad. No, it's a weird thing. It is very weird. It's very strange. Okay, well, talk to you later, Rix.

Farewell. So, Vrix, I'm now just left here with it. Sorry. I mean, it's again that kind of thing of like, you have no, like, unless she said, like, you have to have no way of telling. Like, it's just a giant bug-shaped person. And Ricks is just like, yes, I am here. Greetings.

There's other liquids too. I'm not going to... You're happy. You are talking about mating. Oh. Yes. A curious phenomenon. It's very different.

But no, then we see that. That's the conversation as Bricks begins talking about that with so. You've done it? Yes. Because I have all the time... Deceptually. Oh, 26. You are clearly very proficient.

You would be most sought after in Dynastrian culture. Really? Really? Anyway, camera. Cut away. That's the way. Although, yeah. By night in Byzantius, he'd be like, yeah, I would be. Hell yeah.

But then that's as we pan away, we pull the camera back. Maybe kind of like seeing Daisy sort of finishing cleaning her boot as she's been doing it as she walks along. Gibson sort of runs, you know, sort of, is scurril. and being around, chasing after various things out in the wild lands. Get another person. Drop it, drop it.

Don't eat it. No, drop it. It's got like a tiny little vole in its mouth, but it's keeping it alive and it's just running around with it. Yeah. Yeah, that tracks. I'm chasing. I'm chasing.

Yeah, yeah. He's a menace. Drop it, drop it. Drop it. Roby's doing bad things. Yeah. I'll be right there. I just gotta tell a feeling that I said bad things about it.

Oh God. Hello, Rowan. I can't look at you right now. Give me a second. Okay, take your time. Why is this that place? It's not rocking. I'm not looking forward to this, Ophelia.

That's fine. It's fine. I mean, we've had these conversations before, so just I can handle it. I can't handle it, but I can handle it. I can't handle it either. All right. So, like I said, DeSantheus,

we had a conversation about my value as a member of this team. And if I didn't have my powers, would I be, would I even be where I am now, as your friends? Well, I could ask the same question of myself. If I didn't have my powers, I wouldn't be here.

I wouldn't be with you. Everybody, I wouldn't be having this conversation with you right now. Wait, what? Really? Yes. Well, what'd you mean? Surely it's not that you're able to climb walls is why you're here, right?

No. It's your ability to speak to others, be diplomatic, right? My powers make me who I am. My powers are what keeps me alive, in a way. You think so? Well, if it wasn't for my powers, I wouldn't be here. The House of Blood gave me new life, that new life gave me.

gave me these abilities? That's a lot more nuance than my life. I think I could put my powers down and walk away. You think so? Yes. My powers are just a manifestation of my want to help others. And I could still do that without my powers, I hope. I think you could.

Either way, I said awful things about you. From that conversation I said to Santhius as well, that I truly think all of you would still be my friend because you're good people that like good people in not just valuing people for their merits. No. And I sort of said, I thought a little bit more and thought maybe not everyone.

Thought that same way. Well, me? What were you? Well, I mean, if I didn't value as people, I wouldn't be here now, would I? I'd have sorted off and gone to the next thing. I would have been like, oh, blow this plot, I'll go to Kelskaris, you know. But no, I'm still here.

Because I have powers. No, because I like you. I like all of you. You really mean that? Yes. Not because of my loot. No. Your loot is fantastic, yes, but your loot does not make you, you.

A loot still needs a player. Then so does Veresti. You just told me your powers do make you. Do they not? Well, veracity is an added extra, I suppose, the same way Stone Razor is sort of a later edition. What about the other powers? I like them.

If you were to have them removed, taken away from you, the Grafathers doesn't want you to have them anymore. Do you think you'd be valuable to this party? Would we still be your friends? No. Hmm. That's a sad... A sad thing to say. Do you don't know of something that I said?

Yeah, I do. Are we gossiping? Is this breaking? You would hate this. Oh no. Can I say the other thing I said? You can get it, go, go, go. Actually, no, because you might not tell me what you said after the awful thing I'm about to say. I said, if I had the powers to make you all with me for eternity, I would do that.

That's lovely and terrifying at the same time. See, I knew you'd hate that. There was a little voice in my head that said, you would all hate me for doing that. It's more, um, it's more, if we could be together forever, I wouldn't want the Gravefather to give us that ability. See, that's why I knew you wouldn't like it. Yeah, and...

But if I could live forever with all of you, then I would. Tots. Yeah. Absolutely would do that. Absolutely, yes. But it's the Grave father thing, and that's why I don't like Percy. Excuse me? You...

Hmm? You don't like Percy. I've really struggled with Percy for a long time. I'm his mother. I know. This is why this is so difficult to say. It's not. But he's so nice to everyone.

He is very nice to him. That's why it's so conflicting, because he embodies the things I fear the most, which is death and loss of friends. Percy is not who he was when he was alive. He's something else now. And the great father is just, I don't want to say more about your religion, but I struggle with it, as you know.

And Percy's a constant reminder of it. He's wonderful. He is, to you. and to us he is he's just scary he's not scary he's he's my most loyal friend

I thought you were all friends we are all friends I just struggle with him it's happening it's happening you're all starting to hate me no no no no I don't hate you at all no please I told I told Scala about it I knew this would happen

Ophelia no listen to me No, no, Rowan, Rowan, I need a minute, I need a minute. Okay, all right, well I'll give you space. I'm sorry, Rowan, I just, I need a minute. All right. Do you walk away at that point, Ophelia? Yeah, so Ophelia begins to move away from you, Rowan. You have to watch her very distraught, very upset

as she separates and begins to walk alone. Vigiting. Sure. And just uncertain of how to rejoin the group. Yeah, I think Gruff is so focused on sort of the journey and kind of keeping eyes out and making sure that you're on track. But Daisy definitely, you sort of over here and see this, Xanthius, you and Vricks also witness. Definitely, like, you hear like Aphelia's raised voice in that like, no, no, I need a minute, kind of,

and then you see her kind of step away and walk away. As I imagine that this sort of awkward silence descends on the group, and for some time you travel unsure what to say, unsure what to do until eventually night falls and gruff calls for a stop for you to find a space to rest you find one of the little bothyaks one of these little kind of like travelers hikers huts nestled sort of um just off the side of the road into a hillside um and yeah begin prepping gruff begins preparing the fire and getting all your rations and everything ready as uh yeah is there anything anybody would like to do as you kind of set up

up that camp and things like that, having had this like, these hours of silent, awkward travel? I feel like, I guess Ophelia and Rowan are, like, visibly kind of not distracted as such, but like, are you... Rowan is nowhere near Ophelia. Right, okay. He's been asked to give her space, so he's... So, like, Rowan's purposely avoiding and kind of keeping that distance.

He's obviously wanting to reach your... Sure, like constantly keeping her space. Like constantly keeps, like, looking over and he's honoring the request. Yeah. What's Ophelia? Yeah. She's just been sitting quietly, just, yeah, just fidgeting in her bags and not really talking to anyone. She's just thinking all the time.

Keeping to herself. Clearly agitated, though. Yeah, I imagine there is just a tense sort of air, even if it's not necessary between, like, Zantiasia and Graf. Mm-hmm. Like, it is an awkward thing. to start up a conversation in that time because it's like, I don't know what's going on here. Tendez.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know what to do. About what's setting up the tent? It's very easy. We've done it a million times before. No, I'm really bad at it still, but no, because Rowan and Ophelia. Oh, you did that as well?

Yeah. I, so Rowan told me some things. I'm not going to share it with you. I'm going to leave it to Rowan to share it with you, but if he said what he told me, Ophelia probably has a good reason to be... Why? What did he do? What did he say? I mean...

Rowan. I do it like a wide berth through the tree line. Everyone's a little concerned about... It's really bad. What happened? I explained the things that I explained to Ophelia. Yeah. And she did not take it very well at all.

Is there... do we need to do something? Yeah. What do we do? I can't go near her because she requested I don't. She just needs space. Well... But... Okay.

I don't think... I think she needs people to reassure her that we're there for her and that we are her friends and we don't hate her and it's not starting and that we're all falling apart. What?

Oh. Yeah. Right. What was in the teeth? People. I think... What I started has caused a bit of a snowball situation in her mind as to what she thinks is going to happen. And this is a symptom of a bigger thing.

It's a shame that Graf's gone out hunting, but me and Daisy will go over and talk to her now. You guys are too good. So I think that as you guys are having that conversation, though, Vrix doesn't know what's going on and has no clue of all this. It just comes up to Ophelia. It doesn't really understand that you're sort of separating. and is just looking around, query, why are you on your own? The others are all together?

I'm afraid, Rick's, that they're all going to leave me. Query, you fear, they will abandon you? I'm, I'm scared. Hmm, curious, afraid of what I, of being abandoned. I suppose in a way, yes. This is strange. Dynastians mostly travel alone. I have very little experience with this,

but this is also why dynastians travel separately. People leave. People pursue their own ambitions. People do leave. I have shit, Stora. It just doesn't understand. It's just sort of, just like, you suspect they will leave soon

after we have completed this journey? I don't know. I don't know. I feel like they're... Maybe they're planning something. Maybe they're all going to leave in the night or something. That would be a problem. I don't know. Aggressive.

I need them to take me to the wedstone. Oh, yes, that's what we agreed, isn't it? That's what that was the plan was. I mean, I can take you. I think I know the way. Hmm. Kind of looks you up and down. Looks at one, two, three, gruff not being there.

Numbers are superior. Strengthen numbers. We need as many as possible. Hmm. It's true. You do need more. Do you need me to convince them to stay? Or inquire to their plans?

Maybe. Very well. Okay, okay. Zanthes, do you have wine? Maybe you... Ricks begins to move off. Wine. She likes wine.

Uh... Let me just check my pack. I just have really stale cookies. No, we haven't got wine, had wine in a while. You don't happen to have any wine in your bag? Wine. Oh. No, okay. No, but it's okay. It's okay.

You could just talk this out. It'll be easy. The lumbering form of Vricks approaches the three of you. Query, Hello. Are you planning to abandon Cicerofelia and myself? Did she say that to you? She is afraid. That's it. I'm going to march over to Ophelia.

Are you planning to abandon us? No, no, no, no, no. We're going all the way to the wetstone. I'm marching over to Filia. Yes. Pleased. I'm not going to say anything. I'm just going to hug tackle.

What is this? What is this? It's affection! Accept it! You're getting affected on! Yeah! So you're... What's happening? Are you okay? Everyone's fine, Ophelia, nothing's wrong.

Yeah, we've been setting up our camp right here, and you know what? My sleeping bags were decidedly unflapped. There's been dust and leaves all in them, and that's normally your thing, and I noticed it, and it sucked. Flap my sleeping bags. nice when you do that. And there were some cups that were stacked up and they weren't laid out nicely on the tables

like you always do. Uh huh, I've been having a spiral, I suppose. I'm spiraling. Don't spiral, unspiral, unscrew. I don't know how I've been screwed. You're telling you to get straight? I don't know. Straighten out.

Uh, something is unraveling. Hey, nothing is unraveling. Okay. I thought you were all going to leave me. Why? Well, that's ridiculous. Why would we? I don't know.

I was talking to Scala a lot, and she brought up a lot of feelings, and I think I might have some abandonment issues, perhaps, that haven't been thought about for a long time. I think that the tea was cursed. Oh, it was very cursed. First tea. Well, no, I almost choked on mine. You still feel a bit.

You're a bit funny. No. Which one said that? You keep looking and right. I know. They're everywhere. We're still here. How long have you known us? A long time. And how many places have we gone? A few.

And what happened in WaveMeet? Not to make you feel bad. What happened in Wave Meat? The worst things? All right. And where were we the entire time? We went to jail. Well, yes, we were by your side during that time. We were. We were helping you in that situation, at our own cost, sure, but it was, we stuck with you that entire time.

Stop talking. Why? Stop talking. You're really good at this. I, she, we, we ain't going nowhere. You sure. Ophelia, this is a permanent friendship. Permanent.

I like permanent. I like things that are permanent. Permanent. Okay, I like that. Sister Ophelia, they have. are not planning on abandoning you. No. That's good to know.

Thank you, Vrix. Confirm. Confirmed. Confirm. I like this. I like this. Okay. Where's Rowan?

Is he okay? I think everyone's just feeling a bit funny after the T and after talking. I think everyone had some, some conversations that were difficult. Zanthi, stop looking around. I'm trying my bed. What are you looking at?

The Tee. And he sees like just multiple versions of Xanthius all in different forms or whispering. I think that by now, it's quite faint, like it is beginning to fade now, so these are very ghostly spectral, but that's adding like a very haunting. At night time, it's probably not.

Yeah. I think it's just, it's just bad tea, serious conversation has made you feel things that are just not true. You also particular for special tea. I did, yes. I've had a lot of tender conversations recently. Have you thought about maybe having some wine?

Have you still got some wine? I've had a new wine for age. Have you got some... I would say ages. I mean, we were just in... You had some wine literally last night, actually. Yeah, but that's quite a long time ago, right? It was, we've done a lot of walking.

We've done a lot of walking. Have you got any of the other red liquid? There's a little bit left. I'm saving it. Okay, okay, well, it's fine. Everything's fine. Everything's fine. Is Rowan okay?

Rowan wants you to be okay. Rowan thinks he's not allowed to talk to you. Rowan couldn't talk to me. I just needed some space, but I think space was well, I didn't actually need. He walked through the forest to avoid you earlier. I think he...

You've got attacked by walls. What is Rowan doing at this point? Because you've watched them all go up and they're now all talking to Ophelia and you're sort of on your own. He's lying under a tarps just on the floor. He's in the bushes behind, just like peeking. So like you look over and there is like

at a distance away, Rowan's giant head and shoulders because he's enormous. He thinks he's hidden behind the bush, but actually you just see like the top half of Rowan sort of peer around this bush. Rowan, I can see you.

Rowan, come here. I can come out. I don't need space. Come on, come here. Okay. Ronald, stumble out. Hello. Is everything okay? I'm okay. I'm sorry.

I just got into a bit of a brain spiral, I think. Okay, that's fine. Well, I'm also sorry. No, no, no, no, no. You are honest, and I appreciate that. So don't apologize for being honest to me. I want you to... Know this.

Okay. We are never going to leave you. Good. We love you very much. Permanent. Friendship. Having a friendship. And despite what I said about Percy,

I'm happy to have him around. What did he say by Percy? Oh my God, sure. Because he means so much to you. He does. There's a reason. I pulled his heart and saved it. from the protome as I vote.

Exactly. I'm not having any of that tea for a long time. Well, maybe it was a bit much for all of us to do it. Yes, maybe. But maybe this is a good thing. Let's try and see that the goodness that's come out of this. It's raw, it hurts, but we know each other better now.

Yes. A little bit more. And we can do something about that. We can. We've got all the time in the world ahead of us. We're more honest with each other. I can help with that as well. Uh-oh.

That's triggering me. Sorry, sorry. However, we can talk about that and other things because we're going to stay together. Hold hands. Can we all hold hands? Sure. I just feel like this is a thing we need to all do. Maybe I'll be on the end.

Yeah. Okay. This feels good. Oh, I forgot about that one. Yeah, you can grab the other one. Go ahead. And we'll head to the wet stone. Wet stone.

And we'll repair stone razor. How's your shoulder anyway? It hurts a lot. Does it actually hurt? You've got to think about it too much. It's probably like a constant sort of heat to it, which isn't unpleasant to you, but the spikes and things that are growing out

are probably uncomfortable. Okay, you've got that one. It's okay. We'll get on that. Don't worry. We finish what we're doing. Are you all still holding hands, by the way? Sure.

Yes. Because I think that like four giant hands, Vrix's enormous hands and then the two little ones, what are we doing? Holding hands. Holding hands. Why? We're bonding. Ah, bonding.

Because we're a team, we're the best of friends, and we'll go on adventures with each other everywhere in the world. No matter where we go, we'll be together. Thick and soon. Yes. I will not be going forever with you, only to the weather. That's okay. I will remove my hands.

Oh. Oh. Yeah, you know what? Ice the mare. I will clap for you. Yeah, yeah. This is a custom to celebrate. I like this.

Yes, this is correct. Questioning, is this correct. Yes. I think this is correct. Sounds like the whole crowd with you. Yeah, she does with a little, she has like little tiny, what's the little tiny clap? Shrigley.

Oh, Tommy Frigley. Tommy Shrigley. Come on, everybody. She's doing that. that with her tiny hands and then her big hands are like these massive claws slapping together. We'll be together until we go to the Greylands.

Oh yes, yeah. We both go to the... What's that move you're doing? I don't know. I got really excited about. I've never seen that kind of dance before. I know, I don't know what to get on. Is that an Osseon dance? Can I suppose?

I'm sort of mixing up Ilmeran and Osseon, I suppose. Yeah, it's a... New dance. Oh, a fusion. A fusion. The New dance. Oh, very nice. It's good, isn't it?

Woo! Okay, yes. After the wet stone. After the wet stone. Go to Greylands. Get the essence. Banff, it's going to be so easy. It's going to be so easy.

You've got your ways around that place, I'm sure. You've been there once before, well, many times before, but once before, very recently. Yes. Yeah. I'm sorry for bringing up recent traumas. That's fine. Ophelia, you. If you throw chairs out of windows,

we are still by your side, but maybe no, no chairs out of windows. No, no, no. It was a misjudgment of my part, yes. I panicked. Yeah, yes. It was the right move. I think I would have done that.

Would you have done the same thing? Oh, absolutely. I did kill the man. As this conversation wraps up, Gruff returns a little confused as to what's going on. We're standing, clapping. We're standing there holding hands and clapping and crying. Yeah, and Groff kind of turns as like, did I miss something?

It's got like a goat over one shoulder and sort of like brings it down. Good, brilliant, good job. You enjoy a fine meal, you get your long rest, it will mark down rations. You will have to do more supply as you have Gibson and Vricks with you.

So it's minus 13 supply. I believe... Is that in the party? Our rations are in the party inventory, yes. They should be. Your supply points, not necessarily rations. Well, yeah. But you begin the next journey.

The next morning, as you pack up and begin to set out, dark storm clouds begin to sort of cover the bizarre skies. This is not unusual from what you've seen, even just in your short time here. The storms are quick and fast and brutal, but they often go as quickly as they arrive. But it does mean that your journey is uncomfortable for a period, heavy, heavy rain, you know, the storms crash into, you know, nearby rocks and mountains and

monoliths, but it is still, you know, heavy wind, heavy rain, which makes your journey a little difficult. As you are travelling, you begin to pass through a, sort of, hill-y wooded area as you're sort of making your way through. The road sort of weaves its way through these various sort of hills and little copses of trees, when I believe you've got a passive perception higher than 15, don't you, Daisy? 19. Anybody else?

I know Gruff does as well. So Gruff and Daisy and Vrix, actually, you all begin to feel the ground shaking a little. What do you guys want to do as you're traveling? Shake you ground, not good. Shake you ground tends to be bad. It's building. It's building.

Is this something that Ronald would understand as a natural phenomenon? You can make a nature check for me. Do I hear anything alongside the... Make a perception check. So that was off your passive perception. I got an eight. An eight?

Nothing that you can think of. There's lots of difference. It could be an earthquake. This could be... Earthquake's the most likely thing. But it could be like a stampede of like Thunderbeasts or something like that. I only got a 12.

A 12. you do eventually hear something, but it is not quite in time. As the ground becomes more and more violent, there is this very clear shaking, and then bursting from the trees and the hills, you see these quite large thunderbeast-like creatures with one particularly large one, with giant feet and legs kind of crashing behind. it. As you have found yourselves on this trail in this sort of ambush point, and you can see that riding these creatures are some bizarre-looking individuals. As you see, bursting through this tree line, having like literally, seems to be run over the hills and then descended down upon you is an enormous, what's it called? a spinosaurus.

Yes. An enormous thunderbeast kind of spinosaurus looking. Obviously it's not spinosaurus. But riding atop of it is a very quite elegantly dressed Azarian man. And you can see, but he is like pointing down towards you. And I don't think it requires any real check or knowledge to realize that this is a raider. Accompanying him, by the way, are three others. They are all riding the giant thick-boned skulled dinosaurs,

like the ones with the big skull dome heads. It begins with a pea. No, anklia? No. No, these are like the thick-bone-headed ones. So they're smaller. They're about the size of a horse, but they're riding those, and there's three more of them.

As you are all... Pachycephalosaurus. There you go. Bless you. Thank you. Kiss on time. Damn it, okay. We've got to sell the map.

Yes. You guys can place yourselves where you want. I'm just going to get you all out here. Percy is going to actually be Vricks for this because I don't have a Ricks model. I don't put other people before me, but I'm going to hide behind Rowan. Okay.

And push him into the group. You're putting me before you. Well, this is before you know where they're coming from. So this is like what sort of traveling order you would have been in. Gruff's going to be up front. And Rowan would take the lead, I think. Roan would actually be at the front front?

With a lead, maybe alongside Gruff. Okay. So sort of alongside Gruff. So Xanthias, you're behind Rowan. And they've just sort of blocked the path, or are they, like, surrounding us? They're going to be surrounding you. You don't know where they are yet. Okay, okay.

So this is why you're going to place. Where would you go as like to be? Probably behind Graf. Behind Graf. You feel of go at the back then. Cool. Cool. So, yeah, basically,

surrounding you having planned this ambush, kind of bursting out loose. One, two. Two horse boys, not horse. Pallasaurus. And then I don't have a spinosaurus model, so it is a mammoth currently. Hell yeah.

So it comes like bursting through the tree lion. That rumbling being the sound of these giant thunderbeasts, that you know, that vibration that you felt was this giant thunderbeast kind of making its way over. As, yeah, these raiders, and you were here the first one just sort of call out as they arrive and surround you just like, your money or your life, travellers.

Oh, Sionz. Trust me, you've made a very, very big mistake. We've been in this situation before, not very recently, in fact, and it was gory. I don't think so, my friend. Ollian Tall Strider does not fear some foreign, some cauldrons, and who knows what else traveling on the road. Some broken dynasty.

and just points at bricks and starts laughing. I'd give you one last chance. Lay down any valuables that you have, and we'll let you live. What you don't understand is, we have the power of friendship on our side. Oh, they have the power of friendship on their side, my friends. What if we have the power of friendship on our side?

I didn't think of that. Well, how well do you know that guy? You mean David? He's my brother-in-law. Really? Yes. No way. What about that one?

That is Safira. She's a childhood friend. That is Old Jacob. My old mentor. Really? So you do, you guys are good friends. Very good friends. Honestly, it's going to be such a shame that we would probably have to kill you.

We will see. My last warning, my last warning. Well, we're not giving anything up. Honestly, I've enjoyed the chat. At that point, you see he pulls from like a kind of leather holster. But kind of almost like, they're sort of, the way that they're dressed is almost like a mixture of sort of like, they have like this kind of very, very fancy noble Tuscan Raider.

Like they have these long robes with like Jakard and all these beautiful fabrics and sashes. But then they have like, you know, spears and weapons and leather halsters and bandaliers and things like that. Like proper kind of like raider vibes. And he pulls out a dragon fire pistol, like one of these rare black powder weapons and just sort of levies it in your direction.

and I think that's where we're gonna roll in this two. Okay. I mean, yeah. Sorry, that was such a weird... No, it's fine. Stand off. No, it's totally... Because these guys don't know

that you're super powerful mega heroes. They just think your travellers on the road. To wear bansches. We should. We're super powerful mega heroes. I got this shirt at my last bandit raid, and it's just blood. And it's just blood.

Oh, Aces. Well, I will say that, I mean, these guys have these Thunderbeasts, which look pretty nasty. Yeah. And these do look like pretty seasoned, you know, raiders. This won't be an easy fight. I've rolled 91. Well, it might be.

That's impressive. Oh, wait, 16. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Um, okay, and then. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I'm just gonna have their mounts go after this. That's one to initiative.

Okay, Daisy. 18. 18. What is it, Jeff. 17. Sorry. Rowan? Different than one more.

No. Uh. Six. I take my dice. 23. I will roll for Gruff. If you guys can tell me what you want Gruff to do and then I will just do it.

We got the flow chart. Perfect. 16 for Gruff. This episode. And then for Bricks, that is gonna be two. For Bricks. Ooh. And then what about our bandit toes, our Raider friends?

kind of want Fricks to stay back and hide, to be honest. Ooh. And then the mount's gonna just go after them just to save some me rolling more initiatives. And then he's a Raider Friends. Oh, not very good. Okay, so the guy in the mammoth, the biggest dinosaur. Yes, that's the one who's got the gun,

is pointed out you, seems to be the leader. Call himself Ollian Tall Strider. And then the other guys, they have... Old Jacob, Sephirra, and David. I can't believe you remembered that. I don't need to I think because I had to come up with them so quickly. A piece of information is just not.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just forgot like my pin code. My bank code. So what weapons do they have? So the normal raiders, they have these kind of, they have like shields, like kind of beautifully, almost like woven wicker shields,

but they also have what appear to be, like, spinning bowler-like slings. And then they have really long, slender swords on their side as well. Okay, okay. But they're, because their mounts are closer to the ground, they're not as big. It looks like they would be able to attack you with their weapons whilst mounted. And then Olyan, he has this pistol, but he does also have, you can see, like, on his sort of tucked into the side of his giant mount,

is almost like a halberd-like kind of weapon that he has as well. Nice, okay, cool. But Ophelia, you are the first to read. Amazing, yeah, Ophelia is going to fly into a rage. Mm-hmm. And, yeah, she's going to dash half her movement towards the back of the spinal.

Towards this one. Yeah. Okay, so there's some difficult terrain here. So your half movement is what exactly? So that'll be 25 feet, half. So five, ten, 15 and then I'd say that diagonal

is going to technically be going sort of through difficult terrain so that would be 20 and then 25 you could get to here or you could make your way partially into this square I will go into

you can get like here yeah I'll go into there nice perfect you'll plank in the and then I will yeah you can so this is a massive dinosaur so the rider is actually 10 feet up like this thing is huge Awesome.

So you can't attack the rider. Yeah, that's good. At the moment, you can attack the giant Spinosaur. Yeah, I'm going to go for Spino. Sorry, the Thunder Beast. Thunder Beast. Yeah, and I will use my brutal strike as well, so I forego my reckless, but still have reckless effects.

Okay. So 19, 22, 22nd, 24 to hit the Spine. That will hit. Nice. So then that is a extra D-10 of gamage on top of my usual. Bup-d-bib-bib-bib-bib. B'bib. Oh, so 10-12.

25 on the first strike. Wow. So with that extra D-10 from a brutal strike and the extra damage from Veracity, you plunge the rapier in. The Thunderbees hide is quite thick, but you do manage to penetrate it and sort of deal a grievous blow. And then can I use a forceful blow on that effect? to push it 15 feet from me.

Does it get a saving throw or anything? No. Wow. So is that you can just do that? I just do that as brutal strike. Does that replace the extra D-10 though, or is it just... If a chosen attack hits, your target takes an extra D-10 damage,

dealt by the weapon, and I can choose one brutal strike effect of my choice. Oh, wow. Damn, okay, amazing. So does it say a large or smaller? I can just push. A creature. A target is pushed 15 feet straight away.

Wow. So 15 feet. feet to go sort of five, ten, ten, fifteen, yeah, you slam into the side of this giant spinosaur and it staggers to the side almost thrown. It sort of manages to write itself before it's toppled prone. Yeah. As a reaction to that, Ollian on top of it is going to take a shot at you for attacking his mount with his dragon fire pistol. And you have reckless so he does get advantage against you. That's gonna be a critical hit.

Because of that advantage, so that is gonna be quite nasty. Where's my D-10? That is gonna be 37 points of piercing damaged. So that is gonna be halved, so 36, halved is gonna be 18. 18. So bam, sort of leaving yourself wide open because that brutal strike, this guy takes a shot. You hear the loud crack of the,

black fire weapon, the dragon fire weapon, and you feel something pierced through to your skin. If you hadn't been raging, that would have been pretty nasty blow. But yeah, you're still your turn technically. Yeah. So I'm going to use a blood point from that strike to make my, to make a rasty a thrown weapon. Okay. So I'm going to throw veracity again towards the Thunderbeast. You want to add the mount, yes? Yeah. Okay, perfect. And this won't be wreck. This is just standard, standard strike. Okay. But you did hit with the last time, so you did get Vex. It's true. So, that good thing Vex came in actually, 19.

Will hit. Amazing. So D8, six. And then Nocramancy dice. So that is a 5, 6, 7,000, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 on the second strike. 14 more damage. So with that, this kind of arc of blood, you sort of swing Veracity through the year and it creates like a crescent blade that slashes into the giant Thunderb.

side and it roars, it's kind of rears it up and he's desperately trying to fight the control of it to keep it under control. Anything else on your turn? You still have a move because you only used your movement when you raged. Yeah, I might move maybe 10 feet towards the Spino. Okay. Yeah. Five, ten? Ten? Yeah. And that's my turn, please. All right, perfect. Well, it's actually then going to be Ollien's turn. Nice. And I think that the The first thing he's gonna do is, yeah, having seen, you can see that his eyes are like, oh, okay, well, I shot her before, I'm gonna shoot that one.

And you see him sort of reload, and he turns and fires with his pistol. He does still have advantage, because you're reckless. That is gonna be a, da, da, da, da, 20 to hit. Yep, just hits. Okay, so just normal damage this time, no, 10. That is still 20 piercing damage, you take 10, because you're really,

raging. Nice. And I think then that he is going to, he's gonna divide some of these shots up, I think. He shoots at you. He's then gonna shoot at Rowan and Gruff, I think, so with his three attacks. So Rowan, he doesn't have a bunch of it.

There's only a nine to hit you. So you manage to kind of throw yourself to the side and then against Gruff, that is gonna be a 23. It'll hit. So yeah, that will hit. Oh, we don't have health for Gruff. I've got it, I can do it. 17, 21.

So he's just like fanfiring into the... Yeah, basically, well, it's kind of like, it's multi-barreled, right? So it's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like a six shooter basically. Yeah. Awesome. And yeah, he basically, bam, bam, bam,

kind of takes a shot all of you. Because he's so high up as well. And he's not in melee with anybody so he doesn't want to switch to his halberd. Hell yeah. But then, so that's his action. As his bonus action, he is going to at you, Aphelia, because I think that was pretty bad.

He really didn't like that. He pulled something from his bandelier and throws it at your feet. There is this loud flash of light and a burst of like smoke that kind of gets in your eyes. Can I get a wisdom saving throw from me, please? 14.

Oh, you just succeed. So it tries to daze you, but you manage to kind of, all of your other senses kind of take over as you're kind of, your eye, you know, it's this blinding flash powder bomb, basically. Cool.

You avoid being dazed, because that would have dazed you basically. All right, and then that's his turn. But then at the end of his turn, he gets to direct his mount. And his mount, he turns and charges straight into Gruff and Rowan. Let's do, Rowan, you didn't get hit by the pistol, so he's going to do his sort of giant bite attack against you, the mount, or her amount, sorry, that's a 20 to hit.

Mm-hmm. Great, can you pass me that circle thing? That's really bad damage. That is only 13 piercing damage, but you are grappled. You are held in its mouth basically as it lifts you up. Whilst you're grappled, you are restrained. But that means it can't hit you with its tail attack, which it's gonna do against gruff.

That is gonna be definitely a hit. That's 19 plus 8, so 28. And then the eights for this one. Oh man, damage is so bad. Uh, 11, that's gonna be 16 points of damage and Gruff is knocked prone. Poor Gruff can't be it up when he's not here. How much number, sorry?

16. Oh, okay. So Gruff is knocked prone and Rowan is currently being grappled and held in the giant spikes as mouth as this thing and you just hear him just like, get him darling and sort of like the mount launches forward and picks up Rowan and slams its heavy thick tail into Gruff knocking him prone.

He's like, come on, the lot of you, get in there! And he's kind of directing the others to attack. But then we go to Daisy. Hello. Am I counted as in melee with these nerds? Let's see what their reach is. Technically you are in melee range of the Spinosaur currently. Okay, so I will disengage then.

Own section disengage. And I want to just run out a little bit past Ophelia. Okay. So if you want to stay, if you're disengaging actually, yeah. So 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. Yep. And I'm gonna take a shot at the Spino. Okay.

To keep it in both form and, yeah. Hopefully. Yeah, I mean, you're already in both forms. Well, yeah, it's like, technically Rowan is restrained and gruff is prone, but they still count as being engaged with it because they're not incapacitated. Xanthius would be in his range two as well. Well, no, because Xanthius only threatens feet around him you can be in a creature's attack range but if they're not with yeah

exactly but you wrote yeah you still get an exact because technically Rowan and and Gruff still count as threatening the creature okay 25 to hit that will definitely hear that could be no it's not that's not what you think it is oh I've got that's a disc I've got a measuring circle out big measure circle yeah okay cool you're all dead just hear Katie counting Oh, my. I realized I was adding one last dice than I should have been until this point. Oh, that's silly.

Wait, time? This and top? No, just since we lumped up. Oh. What you need is this D6 dice. So you watch as this bow formed from the rod, sort of pulls forth this radiant arrow. It slams into the already wounded side of the Thunder Beast, piercing into it. It buckles its knees for a moment.

It is still up, but it is heavily, heavily wounded. He did get his reaction back. so the leader is gonna then turn around and take a shot back at you now, Dasek, for hurting his precious darling. No advantage against you though. That is still gonna be a, probably, that's gonna be an 18 to hit.

That is gonna be 19 points of piercing damage as a shot comes your way. But yeah, heavily wounded his mount and you can see just like, what are you people? Your worst sniper! Well, see about that. Quickly, the lot of you get stuck in. And it's kind of calling to them.

Anything else on your 10 days? No, I'm done, thank you. In that case, we go to Xanthia. Hello there. I would like to... What was that? Angel of my nightmare. Oh, hello there.

I am the angel of their nightmare. This is fitting, actually. Channel. I would like to... So I'm in their threatened range right now. You are in the spinosaurs tail range. Okay. I don't want to leave it.

I want to rotate around it, just why you pass over Gruff's... body who's laying on the ground. Yeah, you can do that. Three Passover, Gruff's corpse. Five, ten. He's not dead, him. Yes, there is the perfect place.

Here. I need, I'm aiming to hit both of them in a 30-foot cone. The Ollian and Old Joseph or whatever his name was. 30-foot cone, you said. Or Jacob, 30-foot cone, so I don't want to hit Rowan, Gruff or anyone else. You also, technically, yeah, you catch the other one

on the other side. That's perfect. Yep. So yeah, both their backs and both of their things. Yeah. Nice. As I want to emanate a red wave of panic and anger and terrification.

Terrification. Oh. Terrification. I want to drop some terrification on these guys. Dream of terrification, red hot jelly peppers. Fear, I'm casting fear. It's casting fear. Nice.

We just needed this. That really got Rianna. Dream of terrification. So many others. That's so good. They can't fill you, paper. I want to cast fear on all four of them, which is a DC.

A DC, sorry, the spell closed itself. It's very cool, does that? Wisdom save 17. Wisdom save 17. Okay, this is going to be Ulian, the actual Captain, Raider Captain. That is 14 plus 5, 19 on the captain. But what about his mount?

Not mammoth? Not mammoth. That is gonna be 12 plus. Oh, just 12. So the actual Spinosauri mount is Fiat. And then Old Jacob, definitely afraid. Two, and then what about his mount? I think that is gonna be a fail still.

16, just barely fails. So the captain himself is just like, I'm not afraid of your wizard, what are you doing? You see that they are panicked. So they become frightened, right? So they, well, they drop whatever they're holding. Oh! Okay, so the old Jacob drops his shield and bowlers.

Oh, yes. I would say that the mammoth drops Rowan because it was holding Rowan in the grapple. Does it, yeah, I guess does it also, does it like jerk in such a way that it also throws off Ollion? Because it's not holding. I will give him a check. I guess Ollian is holding onto the range or something like.

Well, he's holding on to it. He's in a saddle. but he also has control. This is a war beast, right? I will say that although it's frightened, I will let him do a check to see if he can hold onto it against your spell save DC. So against Spell Save DC, this is a plus seven.

So it's basically a 10 or higher. Yeah, yeah. Seven, no, so he's thrown from, he's thrown off the back. Does he take fall damage from the fall? Yeah, he would do. It's only gonna be D6, but he definitely will. Every well comes. It's rough.

Does that mean that I get the same? No, you were being held. You're dropped, I would say. You're lowered to the ground already. Yeah, he was up top. It gently, and then pat's on the head. Oh, so cool. Yeah, roll the D6.

A little forehead piece. Roll a D6. Yeah, just to do the full damage. Six. Six. Oh my God. And he does fall prone. He falls prone as well.

Oh, yeah. So he is thrown off, and the creatures are terrified. So what else does it just that they draw? drop what they're holding and then they become frightened. They drop where they're holding and have the frightened condition for the duration. A frightened creature must take the dash action to move away from me by the safest route on each of its turns unless there's nowhere to move. If it ends its turn in a space where it doesn't have line of sight,

then it can remake the wisdom save. Okay. Until then, they are... It just runs away from you. For a minute. It's a concentration spell. Yep, yep, yep, perfect. Anything else on your turn?

They are just terrified. Nice. I could bonus action, but I don't think I will. Okay. That's a power play. Perfect. No, I don't think I will. All right, it's Gruff up next.

What would you like Gruff to do? Stand up. He will definitely stand up to take half his movement. Oh, what? He will bonus action armor of Oak and Thorne. What is it to do their daunting roar? Oh. Is that bonus action?

I believe it's bonus action. He'd probably armor up first. Yeah. Well, I'm just wondering if Gruff just goes to the back line and just roars at these guys. We're probably armor up, right? Armour up. It's probably more, same side. Yeah.

Yeah. But definitely stand up first. Stand up, armor up, probably just give the thing a hit, right? Like here with the axe, give an act. Yeah, can do, yeah. Yeah. For that, does that sound? Does the mount, does damaging the mount give like a saving throw against the fear or anything?

Sometimes there's like effects like that? Uh, no, it just, it does, it, it, until it loses line of sight, me. Perfect. Alright, so Gruff will make an attack with Tharakvul. We get to two attacks, actually. First one is seven plus nine. That is going to be a, what's that? 16. 16, which hits.

Nice. Second attack. Ooh, that is only a four. Thirteen does not hit. So the first attack hits with Tharachvul. That is going to be a D8. Probably going for non-lethal. Given it it it's running away. Yeah, I don't think.

Also, it's just a poor beast. This isn't like the actual bandit. It's just doing what it's told. He will do fire damage. That's going to be 10 plus. for 14 points of damage to it. Which... Does it kill it?

It's enough to knock it out because he did it non-lethaly. I think Gruff would definitely... Since it's running away. So you just watch as it kind of turns, Gruff just waits for its heads to lower and then just with the flat of the sort of molten back of the axe, almost like a club just bonged smashes it in the head.

And you just see as this creature sort of sways and then topples unconscious. It tells it topple onto the... I've moved him to the back. You fill off the back of the creature. Nice try though, nice try. Not to kill him, but to trap him. Yeah, and then I have Gruff stand up as well,

so you should have done that first. But yeah, that's gonna be Gruff's turn. Holy crap. Holy crap. Okay, Rowan is actually up next. Rowan's gonna turn around. Getting up off the floor, I assume he was prone. No, no, I think you could have just, yeah,

landing your feet. You were dropped. All right, I'll walk down the pathway. Okay. Where would you like to go, 5, 10, 15, 15, 20, 20, 2530. Look. Look at what we can do.

Just stand down. Make a persuasion roll. Can I stand in the background and just load another arrow into my radiant bow? I think that they've seen what you can do. 24. 24. I think that they've just seen their captain

get thrown off of his mount. His mount's just been knocked out like this most powerful Thunderbeats. Theirs are nowhere near as powerful. They've seen this wizard just conjure this like red monstrous energy that's made like their friend panic and run. They watched Ophelia like throw this enormous dinosaur like 15 feet across the road. I think that they just sort of be like they look at each other and just nod like, yeah, no, he's right. We should just stop.

We should just stop. But it's not their turn yet. But you do think that you've made an impression. I think that it's like, because I also don't want this to just be one persuasion roll, end of the fight, but they are definitely like, kind of lowering their weapons and they're kind of like, and the dinosaurs are starting to back up

and they're like, maybe we shouldn't do this. But that is, anything else you wanna do on your turn row? So, yeah, if they don't comply and they go past me, sure. I'm gonna cast slow. Okay, nice, sure, I'll let you do that. Yeah. Yep. Cool.

All right. Well, the next person to go is Vricks. Actually, no, it's the Raiders. Sorry, it's the Raiders go. So Old Jacob, run. It's just out of here. It's just gone. I think these guys sort of back up a little bit.

Old Jacob's your mentor? Yeah. And he's just fled. Awkward. But they're still looking in the direction of where Ollian is. And they know that their boss is pretty strong. Like they've seen their boss fight a lot of people, but they're definitely spooked,

and they're just back in up. And they're just, they just lower their weapons. They're like, okay, we don't want any of this. And they're just going to hold, they're just going to hold their action, kind of seeing where this is going to go. And then it's Ricks's go.

And you just hear Vricks let out this horrific droning, like, kind of like noise that comes out of like their body parts as they charge 510, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40. They charge over the body of the unconscious dinosaur. They pull out this like rusty dagger, the only weapon that they've still got. Their lowered broken horn, you know, they probably would have impaled it if they still had a horn.

And they just leap on top of this bandit captain and start trying to go nuts. Oh my God. Yeah, all right. This is, they're gonna use one of their abilities, heroic example, I guess it's not particularly heroic, but this is a bonus action. So each ally within 30 feet,

Ophelia, Xanthius, Gruff and Daisy, you all get to add 1D4 to the next attack, ability check or saving throw you make. So the next thing that you do, you get B40. But then they're also gonna make their signature attack twice against this guy. So good. Natural 20.

Yes! Are you kidding? No, first one I roll. Second attack, not a natural 20, but still a hit for a 25. Now they do only have a crappy little dagger, but she does look very strong. Yeah.

She looks very strong. It's a part of friendship, guys. It's a pair of friendship. We're sure you're showing it now. That's gonna be 8, 12. 15 damage on the first one on the crit. And then, oh my God, max damage on the 12 more on the second one. Oh no.

27 points of damage. Too much friendship power. Foolish, just says like, enraged, foolish, bandit, you cannot test Ricks. Ricks will end you. Guys, can we hold hands again? Goodbye! You hear like, no, no, get off me.

Just like plunge, plunge, plunge. Is you like the saving private rinds here? It's a little bit like that, like just try. she's got four arms and just grabbed his arms and then just down. Where are these, like, abilities coming from? Is this a dynastrian stuff? No, this is, I've made Fricks as a retainer from MCDM's Flea Mortals. Okay.

So she has three abilities, and they're based on your level. So because you're high level, she has three abilities. Determination, which is, as a reaction, she can just ignore damage because she's just really tough and, like, she shrugs off damage. She has heroic example, which is the one that she's just used. and then she has unbroken, which is when she would be reduced to zero HP, she goes to one HP instead,

and then gets to make a free attack, basically. To represent that she's basically like, she does not give up. Like, it's like, her whole thing is like, even though she's got nothing left, like she just has this tenacity that won't go away. Okay, nice. And if she gets equipment, like obviously,

right now she just has a crappy dagger, but she's so strong she actually rolls 2D4 plus her strength for it. But so she's pretty good. Yeah. But yeah, she's just fighting this guy that she perceives is like, you've challenged, like, and this is a thing, those of you who know,

Dynastians are all, they are super competitive. Like, if they initiate a challenge, that means everything to them. And you can see that like this is, she's like being, oh, you're fighting us, that means you're challenging me. And she clearly was some sort of warrior and that's her whole thing. So you don't think that like, unless you stop her,

she's not gonna stop. Like she's gonna fight this guy to the death. Amazing. Love us. It's like fighting. It's just pinning this guy to the ground. He's still, like on his tent he's gonna definitely fight back. He's not pinned or a strained or anything.

He's just prone. Rough. Just go? You do what you want. One of them's run off. Gruff's just knocked out the big dinosaur. Vrix is happily stabbing this man on the ground. What would you like to do?

There's two more back here, delicious, yummy victim. Kim's back here as well. Um, I help bricks. Yeah, you just charge in, start kicking this guy on the floor. He's prone, flanking, yeah, you automatically get advantage because he's prone. Hell yeah. I've probably missed, to be honest, let's see. For real?

Yeah, 16 is my highest. Oh no, he managed to sort of roll to the side as you punch around. He's like, stop it, get away from me! We warned you! Second attack. He still get advantage because he's prone. He has 21. 21, what hit?

Hell yeah. Oh, wait, 21? Yeah. Oh, no, he can't reposte that. Yeah, so you hit him. Repost, not reposte, reposte, repost. Repost, yeah. Bloint, an extra blood point for me as well.

We shouldn't be enjoying this this much. No, you're allowed to it. This is sometimes why you let the party fight a bunch of bandits. This is the second therapy episode. I mean, remember the razor wire. That's true. 21 points of damage. My brother's trying to stand down.

He's bloody. Between you and Vrix, he has got multiple, like, punchments. He's bleeding heavily all over his beautiful clothing and, like, outcoat and uniform. And you see panic in his eyes now. Like, he's like, oh no, oh no, I've made a terrible mistake. And he knows his friends have run off, like, this is bad. And you just see that panic set in his eyes.

Yeah, that's just where I'll be. I'll just be here. I guess that's right. End of turn? Yeah. Okay. His turn next. He, I think it's a free action, kind of similar to what Rowan does.

He's just like, please, I surrender, I surrender, I give up. How does Ophelia react to that? I mean, it's fair, it's fair. He just says he surrenders, so yeah, Ophelia will, yeah, sort of pull back. Yeah, yeah. Okay, okay. Uh, Vrix, Vrix.

I think he wants to stop. Uh, make a persuasion check against Rix. Oh, God, yeah. Oh, God. 11. Uh, he has challenged me. He must, the challenge must be completed. And you just see he's like,

huh! And then he just tries to like fire his pistol, like point blank range into Vrix. Don't you dare? No, he will. He's afraid for his life. He's just like, so he fired four times. He's got two shots left in his pistol. Um, the first shot is going.

going to be against Fricks will hit. Fricks does not have barely any AC because of her carapace. Wow, HP. In fact, actually, he's just going to fire twice into Vricks. Second one is also going to hit. And then I think he just pulls a dagger

and he tries to thrust that into her, basically. Oops. But that actually might know it still hits, unfortunately, because her AC is so low. The first attack, where's my D-10s? The first pistol shot is going to do, oh, terrible. 12 points of damage, and I think that I will use

her determination to resist one of these. Her first use of determination, she resists all of it. So the first bullet just doesn't, like, just doesn't flinch. Just, it's like it didn't hear, but it definitely did. The second pistol shot is a bit stronger, 15, 20, no, sorry, 19 points of damage, which she will just have to take. unfortunately and then the dagger is just gonna be a little measly at seven points

which you all have to take but yeah bam bam stab and then he basically rolls and he has a similar thing to a rogue where he can bonus action disengage and he sort of rolls stands up and then and that's all he can do he just he's he's trying to run but he's like now he's like desperately trying to reload his pistol and things like that as he makes a bro. break for it. We then go to Daisy. I will not, he's trying to flee. He's definitely trying to flee.

I will not. Pursue. Yeah, I will not pursue. Okay, would you let's do anything else? In your turn. No, I don't think. Okay. Zendth, yes.

How far away is he from me? Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty-five. Damn, I've got thirty feet in a moment. I want to just go over and there and slow. I mean, in 30 feet you'd be behind him, because he's exactly 35 feet away. Oh, you're right. So you could go straight up to him and just slap him.

Yeah, I want to just, you know, I just want to like walk towards him. Like, hey, now, no, look, the fight is over, Vricks, congratulations, victory achieved. Good job. Give me a persuasion too. Yeah, persuasion 17 plus 8. Oh, nice. Uh, Vricks, you see that sort of like,

the intensity sort of away, like, and actually, you wouldn't see that because she's a big bug. Yeah. But you hear like this droning kind of sound that she's been making this high, really high-pitched, aggressive drone becomes softer and lower. And Ricks will just say,

angry, drop all of your weaponry. That's a great idea. Drop all of your weapons, and we won't fight you anymore. Drop your spoils. Spoils a victory. You know what? That's a good idea, too.

Spoils two, give me all of the loot. I do not have it all on me. It is, we do not carry everything with us, but I will give you what I have if you will let me live. If you will keep that thing away from me. Yes, you're not going to hurt them anymore, Vricks? Suspiciously, I am considering it. Ophelia, you're not going to hurt them anymore?

He just shot at Vricks. But they've surrendered, Gruff. They've surrendered. We're not hurting them anymore, Graff. if they've surrendered, Vricks, Ophelia, please, just let them go with their life if they've, they're clearly beaten. Fine.

Rowan, are you good back there? Are you too good? Yeah, we're good, yeah. We're not, we don't want to mess with any of that. Hey, you guys don't have to give me any spoils. Okay, good, yeah, all right, yeah. Do you want a pastry? Um, yes.

David's like, yeah. Shut up, no. You still, are you holding my pastries on me and give them to people the, We weren't going to kill you. We knock you out and take all your stuff. We weren't going to kill you. We don't kill people.

Well, that makes me feel a bit better, actually. No, no, we're robbers. We're not murderers. Well, unless we have to be. Well, I don't think you should get any pastries. Hey, Ullian, so you've known these guys. I think, like, Ollian has, like, taken off their bandolier, like their pistol, they've dropped their dagger.

But, like, Ricks is like, no, your armour. He's like, I'm not... You don't admit my... My clothes, yes, your armor, give it to me. I agree with Fricks. It's Frick's demands, I'm afraid. So you've known your friends for a long time. Have they ever been like, they're worried

that you're gonna leave them? No, we are in this together. Do I really have to take off my clothes? Vrix? Yes. Angrily. Angerly. I'm afraid so it's, I think that's the Azar Step custom.

It's just, you can keep her. Orchardly takes off the coat. He's like, it's like, in his pants. You can keep those, you can keep those, right? You may keep the things on your feet, I do not require them. Okay.

It leaves his boots, he's stood in like a pair of, he looks like a he man. He's got like furry pants and furry boots on and he's like trembling. Quite nice boots actually. No, give you your boots. Really? Yeah.

Oh my God. He takes off his boots. He drops them. And at this point, are you guys? just gonna let them go. I want to talk to them about that. Yeah, okay. Do any of you have abandonment issues?

Because I really want to know how to solve it. Let's just get back to where we were before the violence thing. Okay. I can see your mentor over there. Probably went behind the table. No, he's run. He's gone.

But they would have made a save at some point, right? Well, when they get out of line of sight, failed. Failed again. They only have like a very low, they've only got a plus one. So what did old Jacob your mentor teach you? Was it, hitting yourself and running away? It's like survival in the wilderness, yes. To be fair, he did have good survival instincts,

he did run, so. They lost for a minute, right? He runs the entire minute. And he's mounted, so he goes about 100 feet a turn. So he's 600 feet away. Do you have a tracking skill? No, he's a thousand feet away, because he's a hundred feet for a minute.

mile away. Do you have good tracking skills all you in? Yeah. Yeah. I think I will need them to find my friends. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Are you not my other friends? Are they? They're just over there. My challenge was with you, tall rider. Okay. Well, um, well it's nice to meet you. What? What? Don't make this mistake again. Well, how was I supposed to know that you're some sort of... We didn't warn you. Hey, listen. Right. Everybody says that, you know, there's some people they try and be like, oh, don't fight us, we're powerful,

and then we knock them out and take their stuff. There's a lesson to be learned here. Just assume that everyone is significantly stronger than you and don't rob them. No, but how would we eat? How would we live? How would we survive? This is what we do.

No. You don't understand. You caldrons. Yeah, like, Ophelia's like, eh. He's like, yes, thank you. She's taking a man's boots on the side of the road. Thank you, miss. Perfect.

You caldrons, you don't understand how things are in a step. I don't want to work. Why would I want to work? Hey, it's a free life. I'm from the disaster. Then you should appreciate it. I don't want to have to get a job. What's your job?

Do you have a job? Ah, see? We're heroes. We help people, sell swords, that kind of thing. All right, and where would you be without bandits like me? So you're... Wait. I'm keeping you in a job.

Think how many adventurers there would be without people like me? We have killed a lot of bandits. Okay, but they're probably the murderers type of bandits. I'm a robber type of bandit. How do we know that you're a rob, see, you don't know that we're super powerful. They don't know that you're not gonna kill us. Badges or something.

Yeah, we should identify, you know what? How do we know? I'm gonna shake your hand, you know, thank you for the things you do. This is being educational. He's like, you know what? He's like, yes, okay. All right, all right, but you guys, there is a lesson to be learned here.

Yes. We're going to be a lot more careful about who we ambush on on the road. We'll just pick on, minimize it. We'll just pick on, you know, merchants who don't have a lot of guards, guards who look really lazy. If I see a group of colorful, if I see a group of colorful characters traveling on their own,

a big lion man, a giant bug, a half giant, a dragonborn, whatever the fuck you are. Excuse me, undead working on it. Okay, undead working. In progress. A lady, like a normal person. Normal. Yeah.

Then, okay, I will be more considerate. There we go. I'll just stick to merchants and families. Families? They have children. Oh, we don't have my definition. They give up as soon as we threaten them. They just give up the loot and we let them go.

That's traumatizing. No, it's character building. This is very toxic. No, when I was a child, I was wrong. I don't know where you are? Well, not right now. I am not. Wait, how well are you doing?

Just, yes, we do all right. Where do you keep your stuff? Oh, I'm not going to tell you that. Come on. It was worth a try. Professional secrets, am I right? Yeah, absolutely. You don't tell me where your loot is.

I don't tell you where my loot is. And we imprison you for the crimes you've caused, yeah. No. You're not, you're not guards or knights. No. Well. Technically I'm a knight-errant, but I'm having an off day. Well, I'm glad we've all experienced this.

Gruff, is this all amenable to you? I'm too tired to care, boy, all right now. It's too much going on, too much going on. I'm not quite myself today. No, absolutely. Well, your, um... My darling, my pet, my friend, yes. Yeah, I think it will wake up.

She'll be alright. I think it will wake up. She's still breathing. I did hit it really hard. No, but I'll patch her up, it'll be alright. Okay, well, um. What's her name? Darling.

Darling, okay, darling, yes. My darling, thank you, thank you. I wish you hadn't stabbed her so much, but. I mean, it had to be done, I didn't know. Oh, I mean, you could. You were attacking us, you were attacking us. It's true, all right, well.

I have one, so, you have like a hundred. No problem, hey, thank you. Thank you. I think they're like, you see, in all of this conversation, by the way, Ricks has, like, taken all of the goods and has, and gone to the hat and got the halberd out of, like, the side of the thing.

And has, the coat that he was wearing, obviously designed for, like, a tall man. Yeah. Has, like, ripped holes in it for her other arms, and it's now, and it's, like, a waistcoat kind of, like, and it's, like, wrapped his belt. He's, like, Bandolia as a belt. So she has, like, a few of the flash bombs.

She's got the gun, like, on her side and stuff. And he's basically looted this dude. Awesome. Probably, like, ripped off the sleeves of the jacket and has, like, turned one into, like, a bandana around her, like, bughead. And, like, yeah, like, hung the other one off, like, a little tassel off the belt. Like, probably, like, just cut... And, like, the boots, I think, because you wanted those,

like, has no purpose for the boots. But anything else that he had on him is definitely, like, become... It's not a part. Yeah. Probably, like, cut the reins off of the saddle and, like, wrap those around one arm to be, like, a leather brace. Oh, literally, every part. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

One of the dinosaurs' teeth that got knocked out by Gruff's Blow has got that and has strung it onto a piece of leather and wrapped it around her neck. Very cool. Yeah. And with that, yeah, I think we'll bring that encounter to an end. See you later then. Well, safe travels.

Find your friend. And we are well overdue a break, by the way. We completely forgot that. So we're going to take a very quick five-minute break, and then we'll wrap up. Next part is going to be a little bit shorter than usual, but you got a bump at first part. You got a bumper first part.

We got so carried away in that. I was so invested in that fight. I don't know why. So we're going to take a five-minute break. We'll be back in five minutes, everybody. See in a bit. Bye-bye, bye, bye-bye, bye.