High Rollers DnD - The Satyr's Plea (Part 2) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #83

Episode Date: November 6, 2025

A fire continues to rage across the battlefield as the party clear out the remaining guards in the Feyweald! Altheya: The Dragon Empire Campaign Setting begins in Q1 2026! Register interest and support the journey to release here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rollandplaypress/high-rollers-altheya-the-dragon-empire Can't wait for Part 2 of each episode? Join our Patreon to get early access EVERY week (+ a few other bonuses)! www.patreon.com/HighRollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://geekyclean.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! Check out ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.highrollersdnd.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome back to part two of Althea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes are in the Faye wheel, the planar realm of the Faye of primal life and magic. And they have attempted to rescue some prisoners who are being transported along this. forested path by the unsealy. They have launched into battle with gruff leading the charge, standing resolute against them.

Fire begins to spread through the tree line, conjured by Xanthius' elemental arcane magics. Daisy has made her way to the back of this managed to at least unlock the gate of this prison and help some of these satir escape, but your numbers are spread across the road. Many of the regular guards have fallen, but their commander, the mage, and several others still stand,

and your energies, your vitality is being slowly sapped away as you battle. We continue with a brand new round, starting with Gruffer Trey Morrow. I hit. Hit him, kill him dead. Oh no. Eight, nine, ten, eleven to hit.

Eleven is not enough, I'm afraid. That first attack with your axe turned aside, by this much stronger opponent. Oh, three again. No. You gotta do better than that? Parry's blocks. You are unable to land a strike.

Blame. You poor excuse for a warrior, he will say, because he knows that you can understand Goblin. In Goblin will just say, you are not where you're supposed to be. You are playing. I admire your desire for pain, but this will not end well.

Anything else on your turn graph? I never pretended to be a warrior. I just do what's right. Ooh. That's a good line. That's a tattoo. Anything else? Please have a bitch at the end in a Welsh accent there.

Do it. Bitch. Anything else on your turn to graph? I'm going to healing word myself. Perfect. Cool. One two, three, four, five. I'm going to stop you right there.

I need you to make a, the new version, version, which I believe is a constitution saving throw for me, please. Did you use Bartik? As the mage, you haven't used it yet, I don't believe. You don't use Bartik information now. So you could use it for your saving through if you wish to. As the mage is going to try to unravel this spell, seeing you desperately trying to hear yourself,

was not in range for Rowan's spell, but is in range for yours. Yeah? Yeah, you didn't know. Constitution? Yes, Constitution and save a throw. 10. By 10! 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.

You, that is enough. So you are, they attempt. Seven. You get that plus three ten pimpit points. Oh, ten embryo points. Look at this, as this little moat. What is the moat? A tiny cherubroen.

Tiny cherubrow. And it's sort of phew into green energy that invigorates you and restores your stamina. And your healing spell goes off as you, as you, as, you, you manage your spell overcomes the unbinding. Overcome, overcome. I can roll one again. Two, four, six, eight, plus eight, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 points of healing. Nice.

Points of healing and the ten temporary hit points from Rowan there as well. Rowan. Does not stack, unfortunately, but. No. Oh well. Still, perfect. That is your turn. That's me.

And the Dominant has used their reaction. The guards, the regular soldiers. Two of them are going to basically try and surround Ophelia and take some punishment on Ophelia. This guy comes running back out. 510, 15, 20, 25, and we'll flank Daisy with the mage. Daisy, I'm going to do you first with advantage. That is going to be 15 to hit.

Nope. Nope, you managed to dodge to the side as they come in against Ophelia. that is going to be 19 which does hit on the first one second one 18 plus 3 20 yeah 22 is going to be on the second one so she gets hit by both unfortunately these big heavy axes it will be half it will be half but it's two attacks it's okay I figure it has two attacks as well and there's two of those true that's nine 15 points of damage from the first one so half to seven, and then 12, half to six.

So 13 damage total to Ophelia, that's already halved. When she suckled on the warg, that healed her, right? Give temporary hit points. She can use it to heal, I didn't use it to heal her though. Oh, right. She's actually okay. I think she's okay. I just did it as an attack. Okay.

She is just under half now. Yeah, she's okay. So she's okay for now. She'll get it back in a sec. She's gonna kill those two girls, that's the regular attacks from all the guards, so then we go to Daisy's turns. Do the little satyrs count as my ally, because I freed them.

They will, I would say that where they're in the cage, they can't really present any sort of threat to the enemies right now, so when they can get out and help you properly, they will do. But for now, I don't count as my sneaky tag. I'm not gonna help, unfortunately, they pose no threat to distract your enemies just yet. But once they're free, which they are unfortunately after your turn.

So you could delay an attack and say when these guys jump out and help me, but on the off chance that they do something else. They could also get attacked by the guard that they jump out. Yes. At least one of them is nice and healthy. Without sneak attack, I can't kill shit.

You could disengage and get some distance and go, you know, run around, help the other allies. You could go and like, you know, start helping gruff. Help Ophelia. Mothop goes, so little mobs on Ophelia. Yeah. But, yeah. It would be, I will point out that we'll leave the satir potentially to the mercy of these guns.

Mm-hmm. Fuck. Um... I really don't know what to do. I've literally my brain has stopped working. It's a tricky one. Do the held action. If you want the sneak attack, it's the best way you get now.

It's just I can't. kill anything with one measly. You got two. I still can't kill anything with it. But also you're stopping, if you stay there, you're stopping them getting attacked. I would say the regular soldiers weren't super tough. Two attacks might be able to set the regular soldier down.

But it's up to you. It's your choice. It's not about the health as well. It's not about the health. It's about wasting lots of damage that I could do. I guess I'll just fucking hear the guy next to me. The regular soldier? Can I...

What do you want to go for the mage? The mage has been hit already, isn't it? Has been hit, only... Not bloodied. Okay, I'm gonna hit the regular guy. Okay. That's 15 plus nine. That will hit.

Seven damage. Seven points of damage. This is to this guy. Still, from one attack, that is a good amount of damage. That's still quite a lot. That's non-sleep attack as well. Well, no, but I'm going to... Seven points out of the first attack?

I'm not going to be able to do it. Okay, fine. Bonus action. Only 17. 17 is not enough. Unfortunately, their armor, this thick half plate and shield. The second blade just doesn't manage to puncture through, leaving this guard wounded, quite heavily wounded,

but still standing, unfortunately. after Daisy's turn. You still have your bonus. Oh no, you've used your bonus section, so unless you want to move, which you probably don't. Oh, they're attacked. Yeah. So in that case, we jump down to the Satyr's turn.

The one who is healthy is going to jump out, and you hear this kind of rally and crying this language that you don't understand. The nethera, Klan, the, and sort of like bursts out. Doesn't have any weapons, but has his hooves, his like goat-like legs. The mundane dagger if the girl has that and is currently using that, so he doesn't have that.

He is going to, yeah, burst out and come and help Daisy. He's going to fly and kick this regular guard as he leaps out, basically, with his goat legs. He's so small. That's the natural one that he gets. So he just flies out but lands quite comically, and then stands himself back up. He's got a natural 20 and then you've got an actual one.

Yeah, I think he's been cool. and now it's like, it's playing with him. But, you know, he's still kind of groggy, and he kind of gets up, and he gets his fists out, like proper fister cuffs. And he says something in this language to this guard who looks down, it's like, and they have this brief conversation that you don't understand,

and he kind of just brings his fists up. And he probably kind of, like, put his, like, shoulder up to your, like, side lazy. He's like, and kind of, like, makes this gesture. Yeah, yeah, get him. The girl is going to free. the other, she's gonna spend her action to free one of the others and sort of pulls them back so they're a bit more protected,

but that's gonna be her action. We then jump to the commander. Graff. Commander. Three attacks, we're in your way. Here we go. That is gonna be, 15.

Does not hit. Does not hit. Second one. 20. Yeah, meets it, beats it. So just barely manages to scrape a hit by. The next one is going to be 21, unfortunately. Meets it, exceeds it.

Exceeds it, defeats it. That is 18 slashing damage from the first. Sorry, my apologies, 19. And then the next one, that's terrible. That's only going to be seven points of slashing damage. So 26 total. Like kind of cutting down. And so you two are just locked into this duel.

You managed to deflect one of these attacks. one of these attacks. He will bark an order in their language to the guards around Ophelia and points in the direction of the city, basically. And he's like bellowing at them. Oh, gharlis-Nen! I'm pointing that way.

Deleth Nen. Vavasalian, father-thalian! We know that word. I know that one. That is the commander's turn. I think he is going to, he will position himself. around he's gonna slide himself around so that Xanthus is within melee range of him

interesting okay kind of positions himself so he's between the two of you and he's trying to threat is obviously like aware that Xanthus is spellcaster is putting pressure is this is a putting pressure on him to like deal with the command he can't keep his pressure on is Zanthius within the melee range of me no no you are basically on other sides of each other currently that was the warlord's turn so then it would go to Ophelia she's got two tasty targets and she likes to numb numb reckless I do you want her to use her healing bite basically to try and if she's under half now it makes sense

that she sure tries to tries to heal up from it okay well does it do more damage to hit with veracity it does do more damage well she can use veracity to heal because she can use it like a bite so but she often bites for flavor which would like the warg. Unfortunately, even with advantage, that's a one and a nine. That's only 16 to hit. He parries the blade. She'll send for her second attack.

That is going to hit, though. That's a 21. Nice. So D8 plus seven. I think if the guard is looking healthy, if you probably bloint it to secure the kill as well, right? She missed her attacks. The first one.

You spent the... I spent... I'm not going to worry about it. She does kill one of these guards, stabs one of them, and with that will heal the damage as well. Nice. A little bit anyway.

But that is going to be her full turn, basically. That's two of her attacks. We then go to, after Ophelia, it would become the Mage's turn. Mage is probably going to make one attack against Daisy and then... I don't think he wouldn't know that you're a rogue and doesn't think you're too much of a threat.

So I think he's going to make one attack against you and then he's going to step back to try and blast Ophelia, basically. So you will get an opportunity attack against them. First attack from the Dominator. Mele. That is definitely going to hit. That's going to be a 23 to hit. 4, 42 force damage, and then takes a step back, you get an opportunity attack.

28. That is a hit. Nine points of damage. There's an ally now, because the satire is free. But I didn't know it kind of did an opportunity attack. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's any attack that it clarifies for. So it's just once per turn.

So you can only do it once on your turn, but you can do it once on an enemy's turn as well. That was, what did I say? Nine. Nine. Nine, plus an attack. Plus an additional 19. 28. Yes.

plus, yeah, yeah, 28. That man. So you watch, as this mage not thinking you're much of a threat, swipes you with his force blade, takes a step back, raises a hand towards Ophelia's in general direction, and you leap forward, so does the little satire as you kind of catch him on the west, and the blade sinks in deep,

as blood begins to pour out, nearly killing him. He looks incredibly weak, but will at the last second manage to flick their wrist and is going to cast a fifth level magic missile at Ophelia. So this is auto-hit. Fifth level is... She's not going to be able to half it either. Five, uh, two.

Nuts. D-4 plus. It's going to be a line rolling terrible damage. Oh, do you want me to feel something about that? 16 points of force. Wow, for a fifth, that's rough. Yuck. I rolled really badly.

It was like mostly ones. Shit. I mean, good for Ophelia. But it does, it does auto hit as well. What's Ophelia's health looking like? She is at 38 out of 82. Okay. So she's back under half now, but, yeah, so, and that's it.

In fact, actually, we use the rest of his movement to run away. So five, ten, fifteen, twenty. Wait, is that on fire yet? Not yet. Yeah, in fact he'll go back here, try and get a bit of cover, and we'll seek that. After the Dominator's turn. Zantheus.

Hi, this guy just got all up in my face and that's a big mistake for him. I want to, with my demon hand, almost throw it into the downward. Poundstle hand. Kind of, as a shard of something spills out from my wrist. I'm casting flame blade, it ignites. I'm going to cut this guy.

Okay, go for it. Flameblade, I have... Sorry, you produced it from the arm. Yeah, but, yeah, let's just call it flavor. See how it goes, so, you know. Give me that melee spelltack. I just, you know, like I eat crown steel for the flavor. Yum, yum, yum.

It's just RP, right? It's just role play. Flavor. A flame blade, I have a plus eight to hit. No, with advantage. Yes, yeah, and your normal attack bonus, but with advantage. Because of my nage Raj Raj. That is a...

22! I am going to use his reaction of Parry to boost his AC to 23, causing you to miss. And if he causes you to miss, I get to make a melee attack back at you. Can I... Oh, no.

Am I going to race you right here? Zathias. No. No. Can I solve this with something? You don't tell me shortly. No, I'm going to take too long, so go ahead and hit me. Okay. So with your attack, that is going to be a 21 to hit that's unfilable.

Damn it. That is going to be 16 points of slashing damage. I'm going to use three of my runes to reduce. Yep, cool. Oh my fucking Christ, what a God King, 14 with 3D6. Perfect, so you only take two points of damage from that. Which is my 10-HP from... So I mentioned that you swing, probably not accustomed to sword play.

You swing, you know, strong and brutally... Very accustomed to swordplay, it's just this guy's better. Oh, sure. I mean, I would have imagined that Xanthia... Oh, no, I'm not. It was just a very good role. So you swing the blade, you know, hoping that he's distracted by gruff, but he anticipates this, brings the sword, manages to parry the raw fire away, spins around, goes to cut you, but then all these runes kind of...

kind of protect you as the sword scrapes along your body, unable to fully strike. I've been rolling a lot of sixes on D6 today. Not on fate though. No, not fate, no, never on fate. But on the other side. Anything else on your turn? Boney action, I will once again,

convert into more runes. Okay. Sorcery point for two rooms. Okay. Soin't. And I'll cycle around. So I think Grosse been eyeing up a lot and I keep hearing from the heavens, Is Zamptius within melee range? And I'd like to be within melee range.

Sure, it's weird, next to Gruff. He's like looking at me and then looking at the space where I shoot to the side. Perfect, yeah, you've now got this like, you know, blade, you kind of stand side by side with Gruff as you face down this commander. Rowan. Rowan's gonna sawn to Ford.

Oh, we don't have any more fire, but the fire will continue to spread. I'm just gonna sort of spread it out. At this point, most of this tree line is engulfed. My fur's getting singed. And then this one is now beginning to spread out along here as well. Does it catch the mage? Not yet. He's over by the rocks, but it's getting very close.

I'm hoping it's going to catch Phithalian. And then it'll make it really easy to lose. The entire city. Here you go, Blackwing. We returned your stuff. You have to burn your entire city down. You have created a bit of a beacon for the on the road. Yeah, I mean, you can see that the fire is growing up in these very tall trees that almost form

this tight canopy that becomes almost like a ceiling, really. These trees are a light. As the orange flame is burning the wood here, you see the fire is beginning to turn a very odd purplish blue, the flame itself as the wood is burning and adding fuel to the fire. The fire color is changing, and it begins to become very erratic.

Parts of the fire almost seem to vanish and then reappear in other parts, like other branches catch fire. The magic itself is almost becoming quite chaotic. This probably happens all the time. Well, they're deliberately not using fire. Yeah. Rowan.

Rowan is going to saunter up to the... the bodies in front. Yes. And then he's going to be like, he's bad, right? The one with a big sword. From my fingers, a green beam comes out and I'm gonna try and polymorph him. Okay.

With an intelligent, wisdom saving throw of 15 to beat. Wisdom saving throw. How vice is this guy? He does have advantage against effects that try to change his form. That's a very, even with advantage, that's a four and a two. That's gonna be a failure.

They're gonna polymorph into that little fade chipmunk that I saw earlier. It's a classic Chris drop ball. I point at him, look at you, say the one with a sword, look back and it's like, it's a chipmunk. The hell. What sword's out to us?

You see this form. That's great. Some sort of magic tries to resist. You can see that barb-like tattoos almost glow and pulse, and this creature's body resists. And then very painfully, you hear it kind of groan and grunt as, as it becomes this fay creature looking bemused. Don't hit it.

This thing, why would I? It's adorable, I'm gonna keep it. Don't. I'm gonna keep it for more than an hour. I can't do a bonus action healing work because I did a spell already. So that's pretty much me. Okay.

Sorry. And that case we go to ground. How far is the mage from me? How far is the mage from me? homage, uh, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 feet currently. So I can't hit them if I run up. No. But I could free up Aphelia and get Aphelia out into the fight.

That's true, it's true. So I'm gonna run towards Aphelia and attack that one, that's on her. 25, yeah, standing over the body. Probably doesn't hit five plus eight. Thirteen is not enough. is not enough you do have fate guys don't forget as long that's true use it used it use it use it yeah why not okay 14 15 16 17 17 18 19 20 21 2 23 24 25 to hit 25 will hit um and that is uh 7 points of axe damage and 6 points of fire damage already weakened this one also is dropped by that flaming axe

The fire kind of swoops in as you do an underhand cut, cutting across his carrot, his armoured torso. His carrot? I was going to say carapest, and I realised that that's not the right word. His carrot, please. And as I set off running, I would have spun back and thrown a healing word at Xanthias.

You looked like you were just going to do a big slap across his face there. I would have cuffed him as well. What for? I'm re-rolling my one. You did set up as far as fire. Yeah. Like I said, it probably happens all the time here. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

Points of healing. Good God. G20. Okay, doke. Yeah, that helps quite a lot, actually. Okay. Thank you. Never say I don't do things for you.

I don't ever say that. That's all my turn. Okay, it is just this one guard next to Daisy and the satir. I think sensing that this battle is not going their way, they are contemplating. Only now they figured this out? Well, no, they figured that out before. The commander was kind of their main thing.

If the commander goes down, then... Oh, yeah, the commander being a chip monk. Yeah, that makes a big difference. And he doesn't know that that's not going to last forever. So I think that they are going to disengage and then they are going to go running into the, basically, into the woods in the, hoping to outrun the fire, basically. Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty, five, thirty. So on the very edge and it's going to make a run for it, but that's as far as they get. We then go to Daisy.

I'm just going to throw a blade at him. I try and stop him from getting away. Sure, yeah, he's still injured. For sure, go for it. Don't want him to tell anybody. That is... 18? Just meets it, beats it.

Yep. Catches him in the back where his half plate is less protective. Where the big target is. 10 points of damage. Is enough. He was already injured from your first strike on the previous round. Takes him out as he makes him out. so run for it just as he reaches the cover of the trees.

This Radiant Blade slams into his back, driving him to the floor. Uh, oh, could I, there's nothing else too desperate. Can I move slightly so I get an eye on the mage? Mm-hmm. And then I'll just try and send a bonus action dagger. Sorry, 15, 20, 20.

So you could either kind of run up this, this way to get around the rock, or you could run sort of this way, but he'd have a little bit of cover from this rock. It's only gonna be a plus two AC. I'll try that because I don't think Daisy wants to go into the woods because of the fire. There is fire there, yeah.

I was gonna say for Daisy, that's probably a big deal. So throw the second, dango. This may just really hurt as well, I should point out like is on very low hit points. 23. Is a hit. Nothing I can do about it. Only five damage, though.

It's enough, the sneak attack nearly killed him last time. That Radiant blade catches in the shoulder and this woman, this unseely mage, she goes down, slumping against the rock and then sliding down, leaving this quite thick, purple coagulated blood kind of smeared down as she falls to her side. I guess then I'll just go back over to the wagon

and get ready to help. Sure, I mean, they look like they're gonna be done like on their turn, because it's their turn next. These three are now all three, and they will jump out surrounding their companion. This guy, the satir that you first three that broke out, he runs around looking for something to fight

and is unable, because he doesn't know that the warlord's been turned to a squirrel, and you see him sort of like, going around, and he's like pointing around, like angry that there's not anything for him to fight here. And then he will gesture and be like, let's go. like we need to get out of here.

But yeah, that's going to be their turn. So to confirm he doesn't hate squirrels. He doesn't know it. Chipmunks, sorry. And he doesn't know that it's been polymorphed. That is their go, which would bring us to, well, it would be the wallards go. I guess with Polymorph, there's no save.

It's just until they take damage, right, until they're destroyed over an hour. Or an hour, yeah. Yeah, so this, I think that, I mean, it does, it has the chipmunks mental. stats, isn't it, with polymorph? He doesn't have his own intelligence. No, it's the chipmunk stats.

It retains its alignment, personality, creature type, hit points, and hit point dice. Personality, but not intelligent, yeah. Angry. Angry. He's an asshole chipmuffs. Yeah, it kind of would still be, like, there's certain fundamental parts here.

So I think it does try and basically make a bite at Xanthius. Okay. A stat block of a chipmunk. Yeah, four to hit, I'm going to say, doesn't hit. It's like scratching at your trousers and boots. This guy thinks it's my first rodeo. I've got to borrow.

Don't let it anger you, Xanthias. We then go to... This thing? Ophelia. What do we do now? Well... We need to figure out what to do with... What do we do with that?

This, yes. I want to grab it by the scruff of the neck. Don't hurt it. I'm not going to hurt it, but we need to... It won't be like that for an hour. So we'll jump out of initiative at this point. Yeah. Make a attack roll.

See if you grab this thing. Oh. Okay, doke. I technically have advantage. Oh no, it's on your own spell attacks, right? Yeah, this is an unarmed strike, basically. I really launched it. Unarmed strike, so plus my, what, strength?

Yeah, if you don't, plus proficiency. 17. 17 is enough to grab the squirrel. You grapple the squirrels. It's got chipmunk, the Fay chipmiple. An hour you say. I guess we could carry this thing with us, but we're going to need to figure out

how to deal with it afterwards. There's a prison wagon there. Oh, there is a prison wagon. Yeah, well, it'll lock it back up. It might go through the bars, it's quite small. Yeah, well, actually, we put it in there. It does look small enough to slip it in it. We put it in the cage, we punch it in the face, we lock it.

That's good. That's pretty funny. You could set up a thing to like throw it in, shoot an arrow or do like, you know, a spell or thing to damage it. And then at the same time have Daisy like lock, pick lock the lock back. Get ready to lock the thing. I'm gonna hold it in the cage. I mean, yeah, well, we should lock this.

Lock the cage before we do the punch. I'm just gonna hold it through the box. You see the Saitier are like, you know, helping their friends up. And the one that you released, the one with the eye patch, he's like, I've got this, everybody. Do you speak common? I'm gonna comprehend languages.

You would hear, hey, what are you doing with this thing, huh? What's going on? Why are you messing around with some creature? We gotta get the hell out of here. Pause. Of course there, Phil. Is that the chipmunk? What are you doing?

What are you doing? I hear you. What? What are you talking? I can't understand the words you're saying. What are you speaking? That ain't no, Sylvan. What's this guy saying?

I don't know what he's saying. He's talking crazy. I'm gonna just encourage them to step away on the wagon. Well, I mean, they did save us, Leo. I don't know. Can I try and speak goblin to them? Oh. You speak goblin at them and they like look quite shocked.

Like, hey, yo, he's speaking goblin. He's my, is he with the unseely? He was the one who started fighting with him. Why is he speaking goblin? I don't know. They don't seem to understand what you're saying, but they know you're speaking Gondland. I switch to druidic.

Yeah, you try speaking druidic at them. What'd you say? Just, can you understand me? They seem kind of stunned for a minute. Any language is just going to throw them. The female satir, Leah, she is like, hello? Hey, you can't.

What, I can understand. She's speaking in like a very, it'd be like if we started speaking Latin. It's like this really ancient, like, and it's kind of broken that she's saying, but she does seem to be able to understand you. The others are just like, whoa, he's speaking like so long.

He's speaking like the ants and the dryads. I don't understand what he's saying. Right, one moment, hold that thought. Okay. Can I just put out the fire with create water? So if I cast it at level two, it's a 40 foot cube. that extinguishes exposure.

So why I would say, if you cast it at level two, because your magic is primal and the elemental magic is not native here, and this kind of chaotic kind of sparking that you're seeing, you create water and you almost kind of guide it to split. And the forest welcomes it. It welcomes this water and the extinguishing of these flames. And you graph get the sense that this...

eternal wood. Remember that this is an eternal place. It was getting very angry with Xanthius. That this foreign power was hurting this ancient place. And that erratic magic was building and was about to unleash some sort of curse or power against Zanthius. That's why it was going weird. Wow, we should just let him be cursed.

And you extinguish it, and you get this sense of gratitude from this place as that water being the thing that gives life to so much is quickly absorbed into the roots. And where those branches were burnt, little new buds begin to bloom. And very rapidly, that water is helping heal this place. And there is this sense of gratitude here that you have, you know, the forest welcomes it. there are other voices that you kind of get this sensation in this place voices that are angry at you that enjoyed the destruction that enjoyed the heat and the pain that you were causing or that Xanthius has caused and there was a presence in this wood

in this realm whatever it is that was glad for the fire and was glad for the suffering and the pain and the heat but a greater force a quite a dormant force welcomes the relief of the water and the fire is extinguished. And you see this little satir girl like, it's just big, doe eyes like looking at you in amazement as you conjure this primal magic.

The one with the eye patch is bored of this and it's immediately like, you understand, you understand what I'm saying. So I'm up. Okay, he seems to know what I'm saying, but I don't know what he's saying. Look, we need to go, we need to get out of here before they send.

and they would have seen fire. Nod. Okay. One, I put up a one. One. And then they're like a... Five. Stop.

Five. Zanzius. Can we do something about this, please? It's starting to scratch my arm. You can communicate to one of them. Let them know the plan. Young Miss, this beastie here... This thing, yeah.

Is actually the watch commander that we've turned into this. You turned the... The command into that. But if you attack it, it will turn back into the commander. Okay, I won't, don't tell my, don't tell my brothers that because they will beat the shit out of that guy. We want to put it in the, in the, the, the, the, that's real smart.

You should do that. But, oh, it's tiny to get out through the bars. What's the next bit of the plan? Can you put it in, like, maybe put it in like a bag or something, so while it's tied up in the bag and I have time to lock it and then. I just hold it through the bars, you lock the gate, then I punch it. That works. That works.

Tell me what you're doing. As long as we have the door locked before. I'm holding it through the bars of the cage. Get the lock ready. I will lock the cage again. Okay, you're going to need to give me another slive hand or the thieves tools check. So it's going to be plus 12. Yeah, absolutely can.

Can you miss, tell your brothers to be ready in case this goes wrong. Okay, uh, and she'll turn around and be like, speaking in that language, you don't understand about when she's basically saying like, okay, guys, they're going to do something that. Okay, just chill for a second, but we're going to get away from here, but they're going to do something first. 35. Yeah, you, and you find a way.

and you sense this lock, and with a little celestial magic, you managed to re-lock it, basically. It's found a tiny dagger, get ready. He's holding me up. Go, go, go, go. Drop it. You do one point of damage,

and you knock it out of the polymorph. Within the, this cage is not really built for such a large creature, so he fills it and is hunched up, and you see this just glowering hatred. The satir are like, eh, you're like, Hey, yo, fuck this guy! And they start, like, throwing rocks and anything they can get. They start speaking to him being like, yeah, you fucking stupid it.

And they're, like, mocking, like, say, like, oh, you're in the cage. And you can see that that, there's almost magic coming out of their mouths as they start insulting. You know, like, can't break out of the tiny cage. What kind of wimp are you fucking unseely? And that magic is actually, like, you can see he's, like, wincing as it's causing harm to him. And they just start throwing rocks, they're like kicking the doors, like shaking the cage, like, they spit on him.

I don't know what they're saying. They are like so angry at this guy. I don't know what they're saying, I hope it's not too toxic, but take a look at this fucking idiot in the cage. Oh my gosh, no, I forgot. Can I please look for the lantern that has the pixie in it? Yes, it was dropped by the captain over here.

Can I go and find the lantern? You find like it's kind of on a steel metal pole the chain and I don't think you would know this like but there's something odd about this metal like as you hold the the pole it's not like normal iron there's something unusual about it's very cold when you touch it like icy when you touch it and you can see that this little pixie as it was dropped like she kind of got knocked around and you can see these like tattered wings and she looks so beaten up and she's just very weakly sort of just in a ball on the floor just hoping that whatever is happening

will be over soon. Can I get her out for the little thing and can I gently pick her out? Yeah, you probably get like the pomele of your dagger and you have to like break part of it and then get like a section for her to come out. She sort of opens her eyes a little bit and looks around and she's scared.

Can you give me like a persuasion roll? It's okay. Yeah, give me a little persuasion roll. I love how that's your first mind went. I'm just thinking that the ball is three years. Oh, I rolled a 19th of 21. 21. She like looks at you and like these little, you know, this is like full on like little tinkerbell,

kind of like little pixie, and she'll just sort of very meekly crawl over and climb onto your hand. And she tries to flap her wings, but they're so torn and broken that she doesn't get enough lift, but she just sort of crawls up into your hand and you would hear in your head,

you would hear a little. Thank you. And she just sort of, like, looks around very nervously. Bring her over to the group. Yeah, she kind of bring them over. The satis are fully, like, just tormenting this capture. He is trying to break free. You can see him, like, trying to get his foot

so he can kick at the gate and stuff like that. But he's also, these insults are, like, driving into his mind. And you just hear him like, oh, shut up. Your preface, the queen will make sure you suffer. No fucking queen here, you piece of shit. Punch, punch, punch. Like, your queen, we're going to bring justice to all of you fucking unsealing. We're going to make sure the chain breakers

are going to get our people free. I'm going to dismiss, comprehend languages. They just goes back to this. Off left, Neng, that's better. We find this the little. Oh, no. Hello. She's just, like, weakly, you can see that she's so exhausted.

She's probably on, like, sort of four or five levels of exhaustion. The healing does, like, it kind of patches some of the wounds, but you can see that her torment is probably more than just hit points here. This is like exhaustion and lots of like things. Yeah, and you do see, like, a little energy come back into her and she looks at you and just sort of like nods, like, thank you. But yeah, what do you guys want to do? Just to be clear, no one got away there.

We didn't forget anyone, no one got into the woods. I don't think so. I think we got them all. So aside from that fire that came from just nowhere, I think there might be... Zanthias, you made a really loud. Whoa! Take that when you did it. It was pretty much you.

Yeah, I watched all the thing. That was totally you. All right. Actually, on that note, when I was just extinguishing the fires... Good job, by the way. A little bit of a plan. Oh, thank you. But the land was grateful to me for doing that,

and it was very angry at you. Oh, that also. Oh, like how I, like... Like it was about to do something to you. To me? Even though these creatures were just... This place is crazy. This place is wild.

You need to remember that the land here is alive. Oh, the land is alive every... Okay. So by setting fire to the woodland, you were hurting it. I was trying to... I didn't... All I am is fire! I get that, but here, just be a little bit more cautious.

Okay, all right, cautious. Something bad was about to happen to you. Oh, well, yeah. Griffith of Tramaro, Knight Aaron. That was the most goryest, but cool thing I've ever seen you do. The satyrs come up, and they're, like, slapping you, and like, al-Echamel, del Gandath.

Oh, uh. Telemen, El-Inden. And they're speaking at you in this language you don't understand anymore. Are they saying we should get out of here? I think we should go. Right, okay, good. Do we leave this guy, though?

Because he knows what we look like and everything, and he knows that we've been here. Which guy did we do? The guy in the cage, the big dude. Can't go anywhere. All right, a little miss, your rebellion. Does it need information or anything like that? Well, I'm not really...

I mean, that's a good question for your soul whose leads like our group. That's like a way bigger question than I know. I used to be... I was just a... I was a tailor, and now I'm... You know, my brothers, they... I don't know. Sorry.

Right, we've got a dilemma here, folks. She'll speak to, in the language you don't understand. She'll speak to her brothers and point at you and point at the guy and stuff like that. And they sort of look, in three of them kind of mutter together. And then they speak through her. Okay, so my brother Limo, he says that basically, if you leave him here

we might be able to send word to your soul, our leader and then she can send somebody to try and get him it's going to take some time they think you should kill him he's a real bad guy, sir he tortures and they take pleasure in hurting people and stuff

so that's what they think they should do listen you do what you got to do I don't know anything about this, so... Right. We've got a bit of a dilemma here. What's that? These fellows, they say that they can send... They... their rebellion leader, he sold. They can get to send people to collect him.

Great. I guess to help with their rebellion. But that's going to take time. And this road seems rather busy, so... And also, he seems rather capable of breaking himself out. Yeah. They've suggested we kill him. Oh, okay.

I mean, flicks hand a couple of times until sparks start coming out. I can deal with that if you want. The woodland. No, sparks, not fire, lightning. He is like, managed to get, like, one of his feet up against the door, and he's, like, pressing against it, and you can hear metal kind of squealing.

He is very strong, and he's... Griffith, you are a moral compass. What do you think? You can do it if you want. He does kind of have loads of body parts and stuff hanging. off of him and is horrible. They say he's a very bad man. He does torture.

The right. We would probably save a lot of people by doing it, but it still feels wrong because he's in a cage. It's straining against it, but he's not made to be cold, but we've killed a lot of people today. Form up everybody now. I mean, this guy is basically helpless in this cage because he's restrained.

He's mentioning to try and break free, but he's quite a large creature in this cage is not designed for him. So he is basically like, you don't need to make attack rolls. If you just decide as a group that you're going to kill this commander, you don't need to roll for it. You will just do it. Groff being Gruff, though.

This is going to kill him while he's caged. Okay. Groff takes a stance where the door is. Like he's waiting for the guy to break out. I'm literally holding onto a shocking grasp about to put it into the cage at this point. So what do you do? This is what Gruff does. Ruff is taking a stance at the door.

I'm going to probably do whatever Gruff does. I will prepare myself. It makes a difference to him. It does, yeah. I would probably do what Gruff is doing and just prepare myself but like a little bit behind Gruff probably and just. And I tell the, I'd say, stand well.

She's like talking to them and they're like wearing to go and she's like, no, back off. And they're having an argument. But she's kind of got them at least vaguely under control. What is Rowan and? Ophelia is probably with Xanthius, just like she has her blade drawn, like... I think that Ophelia would look to Zanthius like, what are you going to do?

I mean, we need to kill him. Like I said, it's not too cold to say that we've killed a lot of these other people. Yes, but Gruff doesn't... But Gruff looks like he's about to, you know, let him out. I'm not letting him out. I'm waiting for him. Okay. Well, get him before he comes out.

If he needs to die, he dies. Okay? So Zanthius, you go to kill him in the cage? I'm going to kill him in the cage. If I think he's joining me, sure. Yeah, I think, Ophelia would as well. I don't think Ophelia would. I do think that Ophelia would do.

I'm just doing what Gropa do. Rowan is very torn, so he's going to probably end up just being in the middle, not doing anything. Sure. Be like, oh, don't Trebot. Yeah, so I think that basically Xanthius and Ophelia, just like you electrify the bars, Ophelia plunging veracity in, in between the bars,

you know, reaching out with the crotic magic, Xanthius, you fire and enlightening and everything else, you take this guy out. I'm just going to say, I could make checks to see if he breaks out and how much damage, but we're not going to do that. This is just very place as well.

Guessing the satyrs. He is like bellowing and not screaming in pain. Like there's almost, there's this strange sensation that there's almost a sort of pleasure as he's suffering pain. Like he's enjoying the pain,

but he's enraged that he can't fight back. And he strains and strains and strains and maybe at the last second he manages to like kick the gate open, but as he pulls himself, self-free, that's like, his like strength runs out of him and Ophelia and Zanthias finish him off as he stumbles out, he just looks, he kind of grins and like looks at you, he looks at Xanthus and Ophelia in particular and he just like, with a kind of almost, you're just like

me, and I think like he would probably get this sense of like, he's just like, yes, and you're saying Goblin, as I expect no less, and then just falls to the ground, dead. We should probably, like, not leave the body on the road, though. There's a lot of bodies here, and we need to be moving, right? Okay, yeah, I guess. Yeah, would you guys say? Let's go. Can I see if he has anything useful upon his person

that might help us in cities, et cetera? You would see that you would probably find that, like, on their bodies, searching all of them, really, They have their weapons of equipment, which obviously you could steal to try and disguise yourselves. The armour here is particular. It's got a unique style to it,

and you imagine that most of the soldiers are going to be dressed in this kind of quite grotesque, quite, you know, painful-looking. You also would notice, actually, as you kind of look at the armour, there's like hooks on the inside and stuff so that, like, it causes them pain to wear it as well. There's definitely a sense here

that, and I think that you've interacted with Faye, you know, and Afili has met this, Faye have this whole thing about life and, like, living and enjoying pleasures and things like that. This is the dark side of that. This is, like, the taking it to the extremes, enjoying violence, enjoying pain, almost mixing the two. And in terms of other objects,

I think that you would find that each of them carries a sack of strangely minted silver coins. This seems to be the currency of at least this region. And you would probably gather from all of them, I would say you gather about 53 of

these silver coins that they're carrying from all the soldiers. Party of entry, right? I'll put it in the party. Yeah, put it down as Faye silver. 53 Faye silver coins. Most of that comes from the commander and the captain and the mage, and then the

soldiers have like one or two coins each. The mage, their robes would be the easiest to take with you as opposed to all the armor and stuff. There are some armoured parts to it, but it looks like it would fit probably Rowan and Gruff, maybe Ophelia. Could I maybe take the robe that's on the mage? Because I don't think I'd be able to wear the armor,

but I might be able to take the robe. Yeah, they are quite tall, so it would be kind of big on Daisy. Could always cut the... Yeah, you could cut it at bottom of it, yeah, yeah, yeah. So you can take the mage's robe You would also notice that the commander does have some sort of medallion that is carved in the shape of a bleeder. It's like an eye that is bleeding. There's like red paint of this like bleeding eye.

And it's like a medallion that he has on him. Should probably wear that, huh? That might help us. Not a bad idea. I will make it very clear. Dress the way that you guys are, there is no possible chance of you disguising yourself as being from this place. Like, they have such a unique form of dress and armor. If you're not wearing their armor, you're not going to look like,

unless you illusory create it, right? That would be fine. But, like, you can't just be Rowan and say, I'm a guard with, because I've got this. Would it pass from a distance, like a silhouette if we're, like, sneaking? No. No. This is very distinct armor.

They are very tall. Like, Rowan is probably the only one who is as tall as these unsealierly are. They have distinct features. Like, you are. not going to look like these soldiers without like significant illusory. Maybe we just leave everything and just stealth our way into the city. Did the wharf have a particular like harness or anything on them? There was a harness that attached to the prison wagon, yeah.

And then there's no riding saddle, but there is like armor. There's like leather barding on the warg, which would fit a large wolf-like creature. But the face isn't a wolf's face. It's like a goblin's face mixed with a wolf's face. I wouldn't be able to poly, wild shape. I would say if you were shaped into like a dire wolf or a large wolf, like a regular wolf, not big enough, it needs to be a large wolf, again, at a distance and if nobody sees,

or if you put like a shroud over your face, like a hood, you could maybe pass as a wag. That's a pretty good idea, actually, but you would need to hide your face. Okay, can I take the barding then and all of that? Yeah, yeah, for sure, yeah. You can strip that off the wags body, yeah. You see that the satirs go up and they find some of the axes that the guards were carrying.

they don't take the armor, but they will take their axes and stuff and, like, sort of have them on their shoulders and give them a few test swings. I'm going to start pointing in the direction of the city. Yeah, yeah, they'll be like, yeah, and they seem like kind of keen to, like, go with you for at least a little way. The young woman gruff will come up to you and be like, listen, we'll come with you until we can split off, but, you know, we owe you guys, like, what are you doing here? You're not from, you're not, what are you?

You're not, we don't know what you are. Oh, we're from, uh, we're from, uh, I guess, a place called Althea. Althea, I don't, never heard of that. Uh, it's a, I think it's from another plane. Oh. Oh, you don't, you know, uh, and she like looks at you, like, oh, uh, I kind of, I know that this one has celestial magic. Are you from the lucent peaks? Listen, I got no, we don't, right now we got bigger problems than the war.

We got to deal with the unsealies, so we, we, we, we, we. We don't mind nothing about the other planes or nothing. And she looks like she's from the Greylands, and they point at Ophelia. Oh, she is, yes. So why are those two working together? And where is he from the Primal Isles? Is he from the Primal Isles? I mean, you could be Faye, but I've never seen anything like you before.

And you speak like one of the weavers. You speak like an ancient. I'm just gruff, gruffe, fifth of tremoral. I'm a druid where I come from. Oh, yeah, like the ancients, like the ants and the dryads. That's why, oh, I see, okay. Yeah. We were sent here by an elf.

Who needs us to do with me? Remember the resistance? A rebel? I don't think so, no. Oh, okay. They used to live in Vathiel. Vathis, it's been in a fucking... Oh, Vathalian?

Vathalian. They live in Vathalian, and they've tasked us with retrieving some items from their estate. Oh, boy. I mean, Vathalian is... It's... She points at the body's like that. It's all them.

I mean, we're trying to free people. They've got labor camps and people are still being held there, you know. We try and help where we can, but, I mean, it's a fortress. It's, you know, the city's full of guards like that. So if you're trying to get in there, that's going to be tough. Is there any, are any channels that your rebellion can help us get through? Um, we might be able to help. Like, yeah, maybe me and my brothers can do something.

And if you keep following this path, it's one of the smaller gates into the city. It's called the Shadow Port Key. It's one of the smaller gates. It has guards, but maybe we could help. I mean, they take the labor forces in and out of there. Maybe we could blend them with them, or we could cause a distraction and lure some of the guards away

so you and your friends can sneak in. Only if you're safe. Oh, I mean, we got caught, but we're pretty good at making. distractions. That's what we say they're, you know, we're pretty good at that. So, yeah, we could make some noise, cause a distraction, help you, you know, lose some of the guards away, but you might still have to sneak by, you know, they're going to have at least one cyclops there, so.

Oh, a cyclops, let's be lambuggers. Well, they're kind of like, you don't know the cyclops, they're, they're kind of allies of the Formions. One big eye, big, big, real big, like bigger than these, like twice as big as these guys, like big, strong. And they can kind of like see the future a little bit, not fully, but a little. And so they make great gods. And then they normally have a century on most of the gates.

You must have been in the deep woods for a while if you don't know what a cyclops is. We only just got here. Oh, all right, okay. Well, I guess like some motley crew of the planes come to do something, I guess. Sure, sure. I mean, you saved our hide, so.

We owed a favor to a fee. Oh, that'll do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that'll do it. Well, listen, that goes two ways, though. Me and my brothers, we owe you a favor now. So, you saved our lives, so. Of course. You can see that some of the other satire

have, like, found patches of grass, and they're, like, they're munching it. They're, like, pulling it up. Rowan's eyeing this up. Getting hungry. finding what food they can, maybe find. They don't eat any of the plums, the light, the sun and moon plums.

They don't eat those, though. But they will go and find, like, little berries and other things that they can forage on. I might try and eat the grass that they're eating, thinking it's fake. It might be food grass. So they're, like, on their, like, neck down, like biting it like goats off the ground.

As Rowan sort of try and... He'll get down. Get down there. And they look at you, and they're like, mohm, ma'am. So you take a bite of this stuff. And there is a surprising, fresh sweetness to the grass.

and it's chew it like you it's like oh it's quite grassy you know it's very earthy um but there is a strange pleasant taste to it i just turn around with like grass full in my mouth you guys should try this is great the grass yeah on the ground yeah out of the dirt it's different it's we're in the fey really what does it take what is it sweet Do you see like some of them might make little noises? I don't know they did that. I'm just trying to fit in.

I'm not quite, I'm not hungry right now, Rowan, but maybe later. I'm not eating the grass, certainly. I'm not going to, God, no. Are we going now? I don't know, I've been listening to this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you've done everything you want to do with that scene, yeah, this conversation has been. Yeah. Yeah, so, yeah, well, I feel. I feel like Gruff would be, if we're walking on. Yeah, you're translating, right? You're like saying, they're saying this, they're telling me this, blah, blah, blah.

So you can speak through Gruff, basically. Cyclops, do you sure you're pronouncing that right? Cyclops, big eye. Big eye. Just one? Can see the future. Oh. Is there anything like that and I'll say?

No. No. Well, but how do they see? I know technically like D&D World Cyclopses are types of giants, but here they are part of the thing. But how do they see, like, the depth perception must be way off? They see the future. In small amounts.

So they'll be able to see a distraction immediately. Yes. And maybe see us coming. Do you want? So we might have to distract, well, we've got... We've got to distract them twice. I can wild shape into a wolf or something and... But yes, these fellas have very generously offered to create a distraction

to at least get some of the guards to go away. That's lovely. Very good. But the plan is full stealth. Full stealth, because I'm not wearing. Just as a point, by the way, like, you've not asked her if that's true. Like, you, I'm, like, she's not, she's just said that they can sort of see the future. You don't know what that means.

I'm very trusting. Just, yeah, that's fine. I just want to check in that, like, you know. I'm a very trusting guy. You weren't looking at me like, that's true, Mark, right? I was like, I'm not. That's fine. She's a nice little young lady.

Yeah, that's fine. Um. Because I'm not wearing any of their armor. You see all the spikes and things? Do you remember that shop in Ash and Rest? Where Rowan got his underwear? Oh. That's still good.

It's not like that. It's... Because they love that stuff. Oh, I think this is a bit too far even for them. Maybe. Um, so we've got a couple of, well, we've got a robe, and I can do something about being a log, but... I don't think any of it's going to look quite like them, though.

Daisy's got that. Wait, no, you have the rope. No, I have the rope. Someone has a robe. Maybe we should have taken the prison wagon and put us in it. And then have you what, transport us back as prisoners? One mage, one wag. I'm not quite tall enough though, so...

Yeah, they're big. But if you were sitting on the wagon. Hmm. How far back is the wagon? I mean, if you said you were walking and talking, I'm gonna guess it's, you know, you could go back and get it because you had time. It's up to you? But then we wait, so those of us who are not disguised

are sitting in the wagon as prisoners. Pretending to be prisoners. Go right through the center of the city, probably to that big, big prison. This might even be harder to get out of. Or take it to a labor camp or something like that. Yeah. Or just getting through the gate and then getting out.

It was just a suggestion in the lack of any others. I think it's a good idea. This is so too. group that's with us, do they have secret places that they sneak in and out of the city? She just mentioned the shadow port that she can get us to. Shadow port key, it's cool. Shadow port key that she can get us to.

But that's it. Beyond creating a distraction, they can't really help it's much more than that. They're like walking off to the side, but you can see the three brothers have got these axes and their eyes are locked on like ahead of you and into the woods. They are moving.

not like half speed or anything but they are moving very cautiously they keep to like the woodland on either side of the path they avoid the main path and with very practiced hunter-like skills they are like moving their way through and keeping a very close eye on what's happening like for all their like roundiness

and sort of what you saw when they were first released they've now fallen into a very soldier-like demeanour and it's just Leah who's kind of staying very, very close to gruff in case that you have any questions, but she's often just listening to you guys talk and has no idea what you're saying. The little fairy is like on your shoulder, Daisy,

and she's kind of just sat there, maybe like hiding in your curls, but occasionally she's like peeking out, and you know she can talk to you and you understood her in your mind, like, psychically. But she's just, again, if you don't address her, she's just kind of like very nervously and quite scared looking out

and is very frightened at this point. Can I connect to her and the rest of the group? Mine is Ophelia, because she's not here right now. Sure, makes sense. Just so that everyone can chat. Hi. Hello? It's okay, it's just me. Hi. Oh, this thing. This one. Every time. I've just made a little...

I feel like a little... Feeling in the back of their neck when that starts. Sorry. What it is? I just made a little, a little chat in your head, just so that we can... could say hi. We're not going to hurt you or anything. Well, I gathered that when you let me out. You're not with the unsealing, then.

No, but we do need to... That's good. That's really good. Retrieve some things for a friend of ours. That's nice. But we need to get into the city. Oh. And we don't really know how.

Oh, that's... I don't really know. I've not been there. Well, I don't really remember much, because I was taken a long time ago and I'd just been in that lantern for a really, really, really long time. And I didn't really see much.

We would come in and out of the gates and the guards would open up the gates and let them in and then they would take me to the armory and I'd be locked away until they needed me again. So I didn't really get to... I don't think I can be much help. You don't need to do anything.

We were just wondering if you'd seen anything that might help us. I don't know. I know that the city is, the queen is very harsh about where people can go in and out of the city and there are some parts of the city that people aren't allowed to go in and they have guards on the streets

and the people there are kept in line. But I don't really know much else. I'm so sorry, I wish I could help more. No, that's okay. It sounds like, forgive me if I'm wrong, taking you back to the city is probably the last place you want to be. I don't want to go back to the city. I was going to just make my way into the woods,

maybe go with the city. If they're part of the rebellion, then I could probably find some people who can look after me with them. Yeah, you don't have to go into the city. You wouldn't... I don't really want to stay with them because I think that they're worshippers of Tanneth, and Tanneth and Pixies don't really get off.

but they can maybe get me somewhere that I can be safe, maybe find me my way to, I don't know, a safe haven. Well, you don't have to stay with us if you don't want. I just, you're quite weak just now, so we thought we'd give you a little right for the moment. I can't really fly, so I'm gonna have to ask them to carry me, so. She's just this little, meek little voice kind of in your heads. You see that as you've been traveling,

do you want to go back or is you're just going to press forward? Because that was an idea floated, but it never got resolved on whether or not you wanted to do it. I would just press forward. Yeah, I'd like that, keep going. Keep going to do with cyclops, how bad going to you? As you're traveling, you're traveling for some time. There is at some point, I think you don't sense any passage of time here, by the way.

Like there's no changing of the lighting, there's no will. The only thing is that the moon-like fruits seem to grow a bit brighter than the sun fruits, and that's really the only difference. But at some point, the satir, the three brothers, they all stop, and they speak to their sister, and she's like, oh, they're asking, can you stop for a minute? They just, there's something they gotta do. It won't be too long.

Right, everyone stop for a minute. The brothers need something. And you see that they find like a little clearing off to the side and they take off their cloaks, and you can see they're heavily scarred, like battered and bruised bodies. They have this tattoo of a wolf's head with the chains in its mouth. And they get their axes and they do a small cut on their hands

and begin to smear it on the grass. And you see the trees, for the first time the canopy sort of opens a little bit, almost reacting to some chant that they're doing. And you see up above from somewhere beyond this tree canopy, bright, silvery, moon-like light drifts in. And you hear, in the distance, a great, oh, like wolf howl. And the three satirs all, like, pound their chests and let out their own, like, oh, as they kind of let out this howl.

And they smear the blood from their things over their faces, and they drop into prayer. And you can see that they sort of begin chanting and speaking in these hushes. religious tones and they the only you know you hear this language but a word they keep repeating is this one that you heard from the pixie tanneth and they keep speaking of tanneth tanneth um maybe it's almost gruff i think you would recognize it's very similar to a prayer that you might invoke of the signs like pyrus or melee for like protection it's it's a divine prayer basically um and they you see that that weariness and that exhaustion seems to almost

they shrug some of it off now that they've had this opportunity to kind of do this ritual and they seem to get some strength and courage back in them. And they, you know, they finish their prayers and then they come back and sort of mutter something. Thanks, they need, they haven't been able to pray to Tanneth in so long, ancient one. So they really needed to stop and get some of their strength and stamina back. You know, the great wolf, he's blessed them. So, you know, he knows that we're fighting the good fight out here.

Oh, all right, well, just, I don't want to watch him, glad they're feeling a bit better. Yeah, yeah, no, you know, the hunt continues. So they need all the strength they can get. So we're not too far now, so we're coming up just to the edge of this. We're going to be, you're going to be able to see Vathalian pretty soon, ancient one. Well, thank you. Apparently, we should be there soon. Great.

What was that? Oh, sorry, they were praying to Tarneth, the Great Wolf. You noticed the tattoos. Yeah, the wolf. I believe that's Tarneth. Wow. And they were praying and they got some of their strength back. Apparently they haven't been able to pray for a long time now.

Wow. You saw that they were bound and gagged. They weren't able to probably perform this. Hearing the God howled back must be quite potent. I believe straight away. Could I get some healing from Tanneth? Can you ask them? Tanith. Oh, you want some healing?

Yes. Yes. Your wound. I would say that you're travelling, you've not really encountered. if you'd like to take a short rest, you can rather than spending more spells and things like that. As you do... Tannis Energy is going through me. There's two wolves inside me now.

As you do, you begin to see something at the far end of this road as it begins to open up and more light begins to shine through. And as we have this moment as you're walking towards this light

cinematically, we flash back momentarily to the world of Althea where a great book of Trubedore's poetry has been opened and some Trubedore is reading it. And there is an entry that just says unknown elven bard. And it goes as such. Okay. O boughs of twilight canopy did lofty shadows hide. A sight of truest beauty of home and dearest pride from gilded artist spire like gossamer wings of sprites to white gondolas that floated on rivered streets o moonlight that city of two pieces united at its peak

the city of dawn and dusk tis vathalian i seek and on that last line we cut back as the words of this poem this unknown bard's poem we see you step out and before you you. The forest has been cleared away. And at the far end of this now massive opening, you see an enormous tree, bigger than anything you can imagine. As tall as a mountain, the tallest mountain in Caldra, this enormous tree stretches up and its boughs now form a second canopy, another ceiling above the one you've been travelling under for so long. And as its great boughs and branches is spread out. You see in the far distance another one of these mountain-like trees rising up from another part of the Faywield and its branches join forming another canopyed sky. And from those

branches hang enormous fruits too, one of silvery moonlight which now glows brightly and the other a dim pale glowing orange fruit that is dim and light. Carved into this enormous tree, you see the top of a grand, beautiful city is carved into the tree itself, and then it begins to spill out the streets growing wider and branches, almost forming beautiful bridges and pathways as the city spreads out. Eventually, it reaches the floor of this great clearing and spreads out further and joins the outer ridges of the trees that surround this clearing great woven walls like braids of wood and stone weaved in between these trees and fortresses to form a natural barrier. Amongst the lower sections of the city from the great tree you see rivers

of silvery sap kind of flow down and form canals amongst the city and then feed back into the earth and you see the trees grow from there. This place glows with an effervescence, that quality of being caught between dawn and dusk, this ever-present twilight. The buildings are made of this fine, pale, silvery, grey wood and decorated. And there is such beauty at this great distance that you see. But you can see that parts of this city have begun to change. The beautiful smooth archways and doors have become more jagged, more spiked. There is red, dark, red and black fabrics that have been hung and draped. You can see that dark cold, that dark iron that the warriors you saw was wearing. You see great spikes of it being jotted out of the wood and you see very

clearly what must be humanoid shapes impaled upon them. A contrast. Such a beautiful city perhaps long ago but now a twisted dark half of it on display as the elven city, the first elven city that you would have seen. Many, very few mortals of Althea will ever get to see. see the city of dawn and dusk Vathalian stretches out before you and the gates one of a small a small side gate guarded by numerous armored soldiers looms waiting and that is where we'll bring the episode to a close damn they're very cool yeah that poem you wrote i love that thank you i do i do love to interject a little a little talking when i can yes um but yeah we will bring the episode to a close there,

having successfully freed these prisoners and fought off some of these unseely guards, but out of the fire, quite literally, and into an inferno. Into the flame. As you are, this place is heavily guarded. Yeah. And yeah, definitely will need a different approach.

It's okay, Blackwing's place is huge though, right? really obvious. You were given clues as to where it was and you will need to find it and enter it. The side of the city. Yes. In an area called the tapestry. What was going to be a cute smash and grab? Not so cute anymore.

No. And I do want to highlight that there are these traces of what the Fayewild perhaps once was under the rule of the elves and the Faye and the court that once ruled here. But with the hags and the Formians and the unsealing, in charge. It's a very different place now. A place still of life and passions and many other things, but a dark mirror

of that, where life is sacred, but in a very different way. And that's where we're going to enter this episode. Very cool. Very, very cool. It reminds me a little bit of like the Cenobites and Hellraiser, like Clive Barker's kind of like pleasure and pain, you know. And that is, because that directly influenced the Dark Eldar

from Warhammer, which this takes a lot of The Eldar and the Eldari takes a lot of reference from that as well. But also just that nature of just the dark, like dark Fay in general. They tend to be cruel and malicious. They take pleasure and suffering and things like that. Seems like a few years got a point. This ain't your puppies, Fay Wild.

Well, you guys have seen, you've seen the nice bit, like some lovely Fay. And now you meet some not nice Faye. I want a nice Faye everywhere we went. Then again, if we went through and then there was some sprite that came through, like, hey, adventure, it's time for a nice nature adventure. Here we go.

Jump through the flowers, go for a dance. Yeah, what would you hate more? I mean, I think some New York states are a wonderful little way. You see them around the corner just tearing off their own toenails. Oh, no, these guys are like old-school face. But even then you can see that there's a violence to them, right? Oh, yeah, they've got a temper. Yeah.

So with that, thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time. Take care. We'll see you for more high rollers next week. Bye. Bye. but people. All My Best Friends Are Digital is a podcast about video games and the stories they tell.

Every week we cover a retro title, where Mark finds a way to bring up Terry Bogart or aspect ratios, and Caitlin grudgingly acknowledges that there are games other than square RPGs. We do a feature review of a recent release and also chat about what we've been playing lately. We love the stories and memorable characters that video games bring us. Garris Vicarion will never love you the way he loves me. Sometimes a little too much. Join us every week for all my best friends are digital. Wherever you find your podcasts.