High Rollers DnD - The Tapestry (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #85

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

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

Pickax. Canada can be a global leader in reducing the harm caused by smoking, but it requires actionable steps. Now is the time to modernize Canadian laws so that adult smokers have information and access to better alternatives. By doing so, we can create lasting change. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you smoke, quit.

If you don't quit, change. Visit unsmoked.ca. by their ally, Blackwing, an elf of the Faywield, the party have travelled into the plains and to the city of Vathalian. Through some clever disguises and deception, with a close call involving a passing hag courtier that involved Xanthius being marked by some sort of spell,

the party successfully snuck into the city, but quickly found themselves with a daunting prospect of navigating such an unfamiliar place, with patrols of unsealing guards, and other hazards about. Rowan managed to convince a local offer them some help who pointed them in the direction of a figure called the Harlequin. Waiting in a run-down part of the city, the heroes met this strange being whilst they

were helping out Faye survivors who had remained under the boot of the unsealy and the city's ruler, a hag queen called Melisari. A mysterious figure, the Harlequin spoke to them in Ilmeran and answered very very, very questions and offered different bits of aid, agreeing finally to take them to the edge of the district called the tapestry, where Blackwing's estate could be found, warning them that even the unsealy forces are loath to enter it, for many of the elven mages' wards and guardians remain to protect it. We open with all of you stepping out of the shadowy doorway that you step through and finding yourselves inexplicitably in another part of the city a little darker a little

cooler tone if we imagine the sort of film grading the dusk side of the city lit by the moon fruit of the branches of the great tree above has a bit more of a kind of silvery blue tone to it and you emerge out of an alleyway with a canal of this silver sap-like liquid running through it though streaked with red and purple that seems to boil and hiss and it's almost in conflict with the silver sap that it flows through um a bridge a stone bridge leads over to the other side where you can see this walled off city district uh completely almost annexed from the rest of the city uh guards patrol there is a gatehouse again with various unseely guards there, but you look towards it. Beyond the wall, you can see towers and roofs of, you know,

wonderful looking mansions and estates, and you can see odd lights coming from different places throughout the district, illuminating from beyond the city walls. And of course, the backdrop to all of this is this great, enormous silverwood tree that it forms the upper part of the city itself, but goes even higher in its branches stretch out, forming the very ceiling of the Faye-Wield itself as it stretches out with this almost ethereal glow. And that is where we find ourselves in today's episode. Cool.

The Harlequin dressed in this motley arrangement of half-noble clothing, half-battered, you know, Rangers' armour, an almost minstrel or performer garb, you know, a bright-colored sash and patterned one patterned legging, the other sort of much more, you know, leather riding trouser almost, pieces of armor and cloths and ribbons and all sorts of bizarre colors kind of strewn about them and that ever unchate, or the mask on their face, this kind of Trubital's mask that is always set, but you swear you see it move change its expression from time to time with a hood pulled up,

no amount of skin on his body showing whatsoever, as he gestures elaborately towards this place. The tapestry. Beyond, once it was home to the greatest weavers of the elven of this great city of Athalion. Now it is a place of wandering spirits and the remnants of a play that has long ended. Right, theater terms.

This is quite intimidating of a place. It's stunning, but it's also, it's a lot. Alas, the final act waits within. You seek the bird's nest, well, in you will find it. Do you happen to know which direction? uh, Black Wings, nest is. You will find it close to the center of the district. I'm afraid you have a little trek ahead of you.

I can bring you no further. Is there anything distinguishing about it? You have met the bird. You will, you will recognize. I'm sure you will have no doubt in, uh, no challenge in recognizing their, their nest and their abode once you see it. Uh, for the, uh, the costumer and the set designer of this specific tale. does seem to have a running theme. Birds.

Probably a raven. Ravens, maybe sleek black towers that are very difficult to see the entrances. Without a door, yeah. Yeah. How do we get in? Same way we did in Blackwing's Tower. Blackwing led us in.

That's true. So Daisy, you have the current little figurine that you were given. So you're the one who's currently got that. I remember. Yeah, the Hullochin will sort of gesture. As you're sort of looking and having this conversation. The harlequin will usher you, he'll just immediately, very quickly, seems to see something.

It's like, back into the shadows, step back. And you see that the light around you darkens and dims. You can see out fine, but you get the sense that the shadows around you have just become much darker, helping to obscure you and hide you. You watch as a armored patrol, led by a particularly well-decorated unsealy officer, advance on the little gatehouse that you're kind of looking out onto, and you hear this kind of harsh voice, you there, be advised, blood the conqueror, on orders of her majesties, preparing to assault the tapestry sometime soon.

Apparently they've developed some sort of ritual to try and defeat the guardians within. Just be on the lookout, and maybe errant, errant behaviors going on within. Do not be alarmed if you hear fighting. And they sort of have this conversation. Blood the Conqueror. Sounds promising. Also, did anyone notice that Armoured Patrol before Harlequin did?

Because once Harlequin's gone, we need to be a bit more observant. I think, like, Groff and Daisy would have picked up on it, but Harlequin picked up on it just way quicker, and then you sort of heard it coming and things like that. All right, so we're about to go into a war zone? Yes, from the sounds of things, there is a... It sounds like someone's about to attack the tapestry the moment we intend to hide in it.

Curious. Meluscari must have come up with something. They've not tested the tapestry in some time. I know that it has been quite the thorn in her side. Perhaps she has been devising ways to overcome its defences. It seems that your final act, the curtain call, draws closer than I expected. These guardians, are they friend or friend? foe. I suspect that they will treat you as if you were the invading unseile. They were

triggered when the unseile first ravaged the city. In that story told long ago, the guardians leapt to the defense of such a place, but many weavers were also killed here. Their spirits will likely still linger in this place. I'm guessing is a very bad thing if the ag manages to control this area. It would be sad. It would be a case of, I'm sure that within, like you have been sent here for the little bird's trinkets, there are many mementos and gifts within that were untouched, many secrets and magics. It would be difficult, should the Melisgari take this place.

Is your oath kicking in, Griffith? I mean, that's the thing, isn't it? It's never done. It's never. But blood is a Femorian, ruthless brute, delights in causing plain and tormenting others. He serves as Melisgari's greatest warrior, helped her take this city in the original conflict. Certainly be wary of facing such a firm. We could use this distraction to our advantage. That's true.

Especially if there's going to be lots of noise. as long as we don't get involved. Why are you looking at me like that? Uh, uh, it's because I, you're very orderly and noble and you'll probably defend everyone that feels threatened, but. I don't think there's anyone in here that needs to, I don't think there's anything good left in here. Is there?

I could not tell you, I do not believe there, I do not believe there to be anyone living within the tapestry. But spirits, guardians, protected. But who knows? Who knows what remains behind in the estates and homes of the Great Weavers? I mean, I've already made an oath to one ghost. That's true.

Let's not do that again, though, because... I've got another shoulder, though. They only mark the one shoulder. Coming back here, you would need to ask the favour to come here, and then that puts us in a whole cycle of stuff. Don't want that. Look, I'm here for Black Wings. Trinkets, as Harlequin says.

And we sneak through, avoid all the combat, don't get our heads chopped off by any wayward swords. Oh, I like my head. I know, I like mine too. So we keep our heads. For starters. Very specific. Rule one.

Well, keep our arms and legs too. I don't think you ever said keep our heads in terms of being involved in fights. There's just, there's gonna be swords, flying all over the place probably. There was a lot of... Why are you making that assumptions, is you freaking me out now?

If there's a force coming here to fight a load of stuff, then we don't need to get involved. We just sneak around the back, and the playwright adds much dialogue when time runs short, but it is your story, not mine. I leave you now.

Is that a dick? He's telling us to hurry up. I think, yes. Needs meditin. There is a sort of little bow when you sort of call the harlequin out for this. It's funny, though. But the Harlequin will say,

I leave you now, this is all I can do. Good luck in your quest. And do remind the little bird of what happens here. Oh, we will. Thank you for your assistance. Thank you. Takes a very theatrical, over-the-top sort of bow and just steps back into a shadow and then is gone. I want to do that so bad.

I want to do that as well, but I am like 90% sure he basically said we were talking shit. I think he did. You picked that up, right? No. I mean, it is a thing that you do. That's why he, this is the clever one of you. You talk a lot.

Oh my God. Oh, how dare you? You're still talking. No, I think Gruffeth is right. I think it's an anxiety thing of like not facing the acting day. We want to make sure we got the right plans. We don't want to over-complicate things, but also not under-complicate things.

But then we end up over-complicating because we're talking about it for all time. Yeah, we may spend a lot of time talking about possibilities that we'll never come to pass. Bye. I'm following Graff is over that. I'm following graph. Yes, let's go. Cool. What are you doing?

So there is this little stone bridge that leads over this sap-like canal. I'm going over the bridge. Not the wall. Well, and then it comes to the wall, but there is also a gatehouse. Like, yeah, what are you guys saying? The wall's probably a good sort of, you know,

10 feet high. With the ridge. Obviously, you can climb over it with no problem, but you would be very visible. Is this a canal? Yeah, the bridge goes over this quite wide canal, basically, of this silver sap-like substance? At the bottom, how deep does it go?

You have no idea. Like, it's not clear enough to see through. It is... Is the level of this, whatever this liquid is, lower than the bridge, as in, like, lower than the land. There's like a slight lip on the street. There's like a lip of the...

There's no, like, on the bit that we could go under the bridge. You could try, yeah, yeah. You could try and go under it and use the bridge to kind of... School yourself from anyone seeing it. Strange sewage tunnel under there. And the water looks like silver. It's thick, it's viscous.

It's silver in color, like literally glinting. But there are also these streaks of red and purple that are flowing through it. And they bubble and pop and hiss. That looks unnatural, right. It does, I mean, you could make, I would say, an arcana or a nature check form. Oh, before we roll, yes, yes, I forget my own mechanics.

I'd forget my own head if it weren't on my shoulders. Where's your head gone? I don't know. I forgot you. My marbles. Where's your head in it? Boom, boom. Peter, I found my marbles, Peter. Thomas, you touched my dice.

Four, that's a dice for you. I got a six. Oh, another dice for you. Two in a row. One. A dice for me. Four. Four.

Oh, another dice for you! Twa. Oh, Riannan, thank you so much. A dice for me. It's always on the DM side. You are, and I appreciate that. There we go. You really are.

A five, a dice for you. It's four and two. That's of a team player. I like that. Bingo. Dium. Right. For you.

Four and two, dice for you. I would say that, you know, imagine you're sort of looking at a long street with this canal running through the middle. bit. There is a stone bridge that goes over the canal, and on the other side of this street is this long, you know, wall that runs along the side of this district with a gatehouse attached to it. And it's just a small, like, you know, maybe two-person wide gatehouse. It's not like the big gate you came through. There's only two unsealy guards and maybe one more

at the top who's like keeping an eye out. But you can see that they are sort of torn between looking and keeping watch like within. So the guy on top is probably literally scanning the district behind him. into the tapestry itself. The other two are concerned with people on this site. There is a very heavy iron portcullis that's lowered as well in the gate itself. But the actual wall, it's not like a battlements topped wall. It is just a high stone,

it'd be wooden wall. Silver wood. It's okay, if you can't get rid of wood, I can get rid of wood. Don't. No? Don't say fire. Can I, like, stick a finger in, like, the water, just to see, like...

Yeah. So you go to the edge and, like, lean down. Wait, we were about to make an Arcana check, won't we? Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's okay, Ophelia, you can... Rowan and Xanthius can still make... Oh, whoever wants to make those checks can, but it sounds like Ophelia's putting her finger on it

no matter what. Yeah, and still... All right, Nat 20. Okay, great. Fine. So, Aphelia, you go up and put your finger in, as Zanthius, you're sort of looking at this thing and analysing it. Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

or this will strip the flesh from your boat. Bye flesh! You... It's the look you always wanted. Was that a Nat 20, Zand? Spitting up the process. Exactly. Plus 8, I think.

No, plus 4. Plus 24, sorry, but Nat 20. You, first things first, you know that this sap comes from, it's from this enormous tree tree that the city is partially carved from. Yeah. The alluvirath tree. And you can make that assumption.

You suspect that because, you know, the sunlight and moonlight of this realm is coming from this tree, that this sap is an integral... It's like the lifeblood of the fate wield. Sure. It likely has incredibly potent magical component to it. This is a sort of form of essence. it probably would not be very useful for your project

but it has an innate magical property to it and you recall what you know of the Faywield it is a realm of life it is a realm of not quite eternity but it is a realm of youthfulness and sort of passion and and living and it's probably at the very last minute of that Nat 20

the idea of it connecting and colliding with the energies of death and the Gravefather are probably not the best combination of energies to combine. Were this somebody else, you'd probably imagine, you know, if you or maybe somebody else put your hand in there, there could be quite a rejuvenative effect. The other thing with that Nat 20 is that silver, the red and purple, That is because, and I think for Xanthius, your own innate magic helps you sort of understand this.

The Faywild is changing. Right. Not just this city. Not just this tree. 300 years ago, the unseely, the hags, the Formorians, they took this place and they killed and slaughtered many of the other elves who were here. They have changed, they are changing the essence of this plane. They are, it is still life, but before it was the joy of life,

it was about, you know, giving life and music and creativity and all these things that make life wonderful. Now it is shifting and it is the pain and cruelty of life and things like that. And as the unsealy now control it, the Illuvirath tree, the realm itself is also changing and that streak is that sap is beginning to morph so like the energies and the actions of the people here are just shifting the very nature of the magic yeah that's pretty gnarly yeah uh you realize you kind of come to this realization as you see ophelia stick her hand into it um ophelia uh you put like your finger in right yeah you're just going

to dip your finger in give me a dexterity saving throw I would say she doesn't get dangerous sense on this because she doesn't know it's a threat. 15. 15. I'm going to say that's enough. You snatch your hand back as there is this almost, there is this visceral reaction. As you, your nature as a dampier,

like you have had rituals done. You have gone through magic and a process to bind undepath into yourself. It was done when you were very young. You don't remember much of it. You carry a pact with the Graveld. You carry the magic of the Greylands with you. And as you reach down, the river violently reacts,

as if warring with the energy within you, as if the two magics suddenly come into conflict, and there is an explosive force. That sort of, you hear this almost tearing, and you feel this, initially what feels like with a pull-in and then a violent reaction. You just managed to pull yourself away and leap back as there is this spark of energy.

Very quickly, the guards on the other side of the river are like, what was that? And they sort of now begin to look over and are going to see you with your hand in as you've let back, basically. What do you guys do? Oh, even the water doesn't want me here. Ophelia, get away from the river, we need to hide now.

Okay. Is there an opportunity, is there something that we could very quickly, like, jump behind? There's the alleyways and, like, the shadows that you were just in with the Harley Quinn, but it is just an alleyway. I mean, there was just an explosion. There's buildings around, but this is a much more, this seems to be more occupied part of the city,

and you're sort of on a side street, turning down from a place. Yeah. So it's, I mean, if you want to spend a fate point to be, like, conveniently, there is like a bunch of discarded stuff for us to hide in. If everyone hears a noise, or at least Xanthius at the very least,

to take that opportunity to quickly try and hide before the guards turn around and see us. I would say that you could throw yourselves into the alleyway and hope, but if they come over here, you're going to be pretty much exposed. If they're over here, they're not in the tower. It's true. Can I cast pass without a truth?

Yeah. Remember, pass without a trace is not invisibility. It helps hide your tracks. So in the pubs, it does help you, like, do stuff. But if they come in and look in this alleyway, they are going to see you no matter what your stealth is. And also, as the Harlequin has left as well, the shadows are not as deep as they were.

He was making the shadows deeper here. So Gruff cast, pass without trace. Xanthius, you just sort of shout to Ophelia to hide and sort of encourage her back. Yeah, it's almost like maybe I would even go to grab Ophelia to pull her away from the explosion and the river Do you want to count that as like a help action for a stealth check, basically? So I think Ophelia's going to be a disadvantage on stealth here

because, like, you were the one who made this noise. What are you doing, Ryan? Ronald Duck Into the Shadows With, but also cast silent image at the spot we were at. To create what? It's going to create a little imp. An imp, a demonic imp? Yeah.

Oh. Look like he's reaching his finger into the water. Okay. And then scrambling away. All right. What's your spell safety, you see? Uh, 200, I think. Yeah, 200.

I don't believe that's correct. 15. 15. And then finally, Daisy, what are you doing? Just so I've got an action from everybody. I'm ducking back into the shadows and I will activate group chat. Okay. So you connect with me.

So that I can, yeah, so everyone can talk. Quiet. Can I get stealth checks from everybody but Rowan then because you are casting a spell as your action? So I'm also. Sorry, you're casting a spell as well. But I was doing a help. So I guess I'm not. You can make stealth as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're going to also you're helping Ophelia. Yeah, but yeah, Gruffin Rona are actually casting spells. I'm assuming you're going to step back into the shadows, but you're not as hidden as potentially as these ghosts. But hopefully this silent image is going to do one. Percy probably jump in as well and try to like, protectively, like, push a feeling of back.

Put himself in, like, push you back and standing in your way, sure. Yeah. So I'm disadvantaged. You'd be normal role because Xanthius is helping you. Cool. So just the first roll. Just roll again if you want. Yeah. Whoops, run with Percy.

Well, I'll just take it. the lowest one for me. No, no, just roll again, just roll 1D20. So I'm rolling for Percy as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just roll once for yourself. I don't think it mattered. Perfect.

I've got plus 10 with the class that it, Trache from. Okay, so I will give myself, I don't know, it was a stealth. Hello, two and three four five, 15 for Ophelia, Percy got an at 20 because of course he does. So he's a 30 something. Yeah.

But you got a 15 even with the plus 10. Yeah. Amazing. What do we get for, I mean, well, so I got with Pass Without Trades, if that hits first, then I've got 26. 27. 37.

You said that? Who said that? Who said that? Who said that? I'm pretty sure they died in the explosion. I'm pretty sure they died in the explosion. Were they ever here? No.

You don't know me. DC 15 on your illusion. Okay. You see the two guards look over. In fact, actually, yeah, I'm going to roll with disadvantage because they're a distance, so... Okay, they look over in a distance, and they begin sort of...

They don't step too far away from the gate, but they do try and draw closer. And you see one of them is like, I swear I just saw some other things there and they ducked into that alleyway, but they see the imp. Like, so what does the imp look like it's doing? Yeah, it looks like it's reaching in

and kind of shaking its hand. They're, like, they stare at this thing, being dumbfounded. Like, a creature from the helium pit, it's here, how did it get here? I don't know, we need to call it in. How did it breach the,

how did it get through to the plane? And they're kind of like freaking out at this thing. I can do magic actions. Yeah, you can command it to do stuff. I'm going to make it pull rude faces at it. Yeah, yeah. It just starts like, kind of swearing at them and pulling rude face,

it kind of moving away from where we are. Ganga and stuff like that. Yeah, yeah. It's going to run down the street, basically. And how far can you control it up to? 60 feet, I believe. Okay. So as soon as I get close to 60 feet,

it'll duck into a bush or something like that. Yeah, it's like an alleyway or a window or something like that. Okay, so they watch this thing go, and they immediately are like, you can see that they're outraged, you know, the faces it's being pulled. But they, one of them will pull a, you would recognize it, it's like basically ascending stone

and pulls it in and calls in like, we might have a potential breach, demon, breach over on the you know on the southeast gate uh we just saw an imp we just saw some sort of demonic creatures just thrown in we're going to go we're going to send one in pursuit now um and the two of them are going to basically call up to their guard and be like you have to watch the gate we just saw an imp and he's like what you saw a what that's impossible and they're going to come over the bridge and they go in that direction helicopter of a search flight comes over we've got five stars but i would say that those two guards uh with the

high stealths of you guys and the imp as a distraction, they pay no notice to you guys, and they are gonna chase after this creature. Nice play. So, Ophelia, any time we see anything bubbling or kind of spooky looking, don't just go touching it. Obviously, it would have been very different in Althea, but your magics, my magics, we're different here.

We can't start interacting with just stuff. Well, I know that now. Well, yes, but it's the same with, you know, fire in the forest? Obviously, forest fires bad, but it was gonna curse me. Oh, I thought it was just water. I didn't know what it was gonna do. It was bubbling. I was gonna put my head in it, if that helped. So, at least we know not to do that now. So I feel, I'd also say that you, the brief that you did touch, it was so much more thick and viscous than water.

It was almost like a very watery honey almost, like kind of put in your hand. There was like a, there was a viscosity to it. That brief moment that you touched it. There was, I would say that for Ophelia, before that explosion, before the magics conflicted with each other, there was this beautifully soothing, rejuvenating sort of feeling. Like, you know, touching this water made you feel very vibrant and bright in sight. I do wonder, though, it had a negative effect on me, but... You...

Not me. I don't trust myself in this realm. I'm just wondering if it might be helpful to people that aren't me. Yes, do you know, Xanthias? I mean, you are more aligned with the magic of this region than it. I'm so sorry, but we're currently in a bush. Yes. And I've just created a distraction, and we should probably utilize that.

Right, yes, we should. Honestly, the playwright here just keeps with the dialogue. We need an editor. Yeah, we need to cut this down. So, Ophelia can't wade through it. That really bothers that. That one. He's just like, fucking hard.

So what's about herphelia? Particularly good for you guys. Okay, good to know. I still don't really want to go in it. We don't have to. No. But let's get across and in somehow before the guards come back. Well, there's still one on top.

Run over. Yeah, he's now keeping a very close eye on the front of the gate, and you can see he's in a perfect century position at the top of this little gate house. Got like a perfect shot. You can see he's got a long bow in his hands. You're not disguised anymore. as the...

Nine of us are. No. So you're not wearing the robes or anything. You took that one. I took it off for the Harlequin, yeah, that's right. I guess I think you're still, you had like a mundane disguise, right? I've got my, my armour, yes, from the vault.

Run up to the watch tower. Pretend you're a guard from a different region that worked before. Order the guard to come down and say, we just saw a regime run this way. We need you to join us right now. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Send him forward, and we'll just follow you in.

Yeah. She can't speak the language. I can't speak a language. Can't speak a language. Maybe a quick brief rundown on what that might sound like, Gruff. Gruff doesn't speak the language. Gruff's being druidic, but. I speak juridic, but...

None of you speak this language. None of us speak this language. It sounds like Rowan speaking. Oh, damn it, okay. I can fly now. That's me by the way, I'm Ryan. Hi Rowan, hi. I never knew your name.

This entire time, I felt so bad. It's right, it's too far. It's too far. I get it. We need to move. It's in Theos. Can you cycle around and go to another bit of the... So you can cycle around, but you...

We don't have to get through this. You don't have to go through this thing. You'll have to move around and then climb over the wall. But just, you know, you would still have to cross the bridge and where this scout is positioned, they have... He's looking at the bridge. He's looking at the street and the bridge and the river right in front of him where this noise just happened.

And his mates have gone off up the street. You can hear them. They are banging on this door. Open up! Open up, Queen's card, open up. We know you've got a demon in there and like they're having a, like, they're trying to break into someone's house

because that's where they think the demon is. But this century can look like, if you step out of this alleyway and cross this bridge, which you have to do to get to the wall to go over it, there is a chance that they're going to see you. And in fact, no amount of stealthing is going to help you because there's nothing to hide behind. What if we've...

Unless you do what Rowan said and try and go like under the bridge somewhere. with the explosive water for Ophelia. How far away is this guy, sorry? I would say they are, what's like a good thing? I'd say about 140 feet away. Fuck, okay. Well, if you get within 60, I can hold person.

Well, I can get 100 feet within him and one move. Carry me. Can we make it a mission to learn visibility? Nova, yeah. I could. I can't make it. It'd be really handy, wouldn't it? I miss Nova.

Can we take that card out from a distance? Can we do... If we get up to the wall itself, you can't look directly down, so that's the blind spot, right? I'd say that to get, like, to, from where you are in this little alleyway, right, you're kind of in this little alleyway, touch around. The bridge is very close. I would say it's about 100 feet to get up to the wall,

and then he's about 40 feet down the street. So it's about 140 feet down. Okay. If I can get 100 feet to him, I can cast unseen servant that's got a 60-foot range, and I can do something to the guard, distract him.

A hundred feet would get you on the other side of the street up to the wall, over the river, over the bridge, to the wall. But dashing up, like, across the bridge, he will see you. Like, it doesn't matter how quickly you move. Yeah, and he's immediately going to send him to... What if I stand out, Sarah?

He might not have one. You don't... You've seen that one guard. used one, but you don't know if he has one. What if I send out Serren to go and... Peck his eyes out. Fly by and cause a distraction. Yeah, that's what I was saying.

And then we can cross. You get Saran's not the most unfeely-wieldy creature. No, right, of everything. Glowy Burb. I will say as well, don't forget, for Trot's idea of like, oh, if we're right up against the wall, he might be able to see. He's like 40 feet down the street. So he can, if he looks down like that, he'll see you.

It's not like you're going to be underneath him. And we still need to get through the portcullis. Or go over the wall. Serran distraction. He turns around, we use that opportunity to run down the road, get close to him, hopefully within 60 feet, I hold person, and then we go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Or you can find a little, ooh, ooh, ooh, and murder him, yeah.

Do you want to do a little murder? Do you want to do a little murder? Just a little murder. All right, what are you guys doing? We're going to kill him. Saren, kill him dead. Fly. Saren fly, distract guard. So you send Saren out, flies out of the alleyway. The guard immediately sees Saren.

The guard, I would say, Seren gets to the guard, and then what, it's just going to fly by? Yeah, maybe, like, fly in and out, like, you know, so kind of like... What's Seren's movement? Now that Seren is a creature, a physical manifested creature.

I don't think I ever had stunt. So, we said, like, what, giant... It would be, like, a hawk, basically. But usually about 50 feet-ish? It's probably about 50 feet. A hundred and... Because they can dash, they can go about 100 feet. I feel like it's usually about 50 feet.

So, on this, because I've just rolled. Yeah, Seren begins flying towards this guard. The guard doesn't know what this creature is, and being a very cruel unseely, just immediately shoots at it with his bow, not knowing what it is. I think it's 60 feet. That is going to be...

Did we say hawk? A hawk, yeah. Oh. On Eagle 60. Yeah, eagle or hawk. Both work for me. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to assume that a 18 will hit Serran.

I'm trying to get the stats up, but it's not letting me slow. I'm pretty sure an 18's going to hit a hawk or an eagle. Yeah, sure. Hawk is a 13. And that would be eight points of damage plus one poison. Oh, hawks have one HP? So, Seren flies, it does distract him. Like, Seren kind of flies to the side,

and he's going to take an action and shoot Serran, basically. This longbow arch flies out, but it does give you a window. I mean, the idea was Seren goes out, we also go out basically the same time, right? I'm assuming you wait for Seren to, like, pull to the side, so he's not looking at where Seren just come from, and then you give it, like, half a minute, like half a beat,

and then you all run out. Seren's done their job. you basically you hear the snap of a bowstring and then this seren just becomes energy just dissipates as the arrow hits them

but it does give you a chance so is everybody going to just run across the bridge so yeah I'm going to dash but that only gets me 60 feet and it gets you 60 feet so you are still about halfway there right not even that less than halfway

80 feet away is my walking speed still affected or is that back to normal now It'll be back to normal by now, yeah. Was it affected by that? It was one of the creatures like hamstrung him. Yeah. In one of the last fights.

I will dash. Dash and dash. So you go 60, same. Can I do an... Oh, you could dash and, yeah, you could bonus action dash. So you can go 90. So you're 90, so you're about 50 feet away. We know Ophelia's 100 feet dash.

I'm a 7th. Percy's 60 feet. 60 feet dash. So basically, Ophelia is. Ophelia and Daisy are up front, but none of you are like... I'm 70. Up 70 feet, dash, 70 feet dash. So you guys start making your way about halfway

for some of you, just behind for the rest. The guard, immediately now that Serran is gone, will look down and sees you all running over this bridge. You're probably, with your movement speed, I'd say Daisy and Aphelia are over the bridge. They're basically on the other side. Zanthias, Percival, and probably Gruff and Ryan, you're all basically still on the bridge

about sort of halfway, sees the lot of you, and immediately pulls out another arrow. There's more demons coming. More demons incoming. Oh, interesting. How far away is he from me and, like, Ophelia? So from you, he would be, you went 90 feet,

so he would be 50 feet away from you. Okay. And Ophelia he's 50 feet away from. It is initiative, but that's, I love Santhius's idea. That might be enough. You don't know me, but I know you don't like demons. Oh, shit.

Oh, shit. Oh, I get advantage. All right. What I'm going to do here is just basically ask who is ahead of a 13, because I don't want to write a full initiative here. Not I. All right. So the three of you get to act before this guy goes.

What are you doing? Nothing nice. No. So he's got... I'll make you very clear. This is one of those. on sealy guards, has got like hooks and all sorts of awful things on them.

Yeah, Phyllis gonna. So you guys can decide what you wanna do. I let you the three of you pick who goes in what order. So I'm 17. I got 23, so you're. Do you want you need Daisy first and then Ophelia? Sure. I will summon a blade and I will throw it at his face.

Okay, so you're about 50 feet away, were you? Yep, yeah. Which 60 feet range on the radiant blades. Nice. Please be nice. Now I will actually remind you, Katie, before you take your turn, I don't forget,

rogues now get steady aim as a bonus action. So you can steady aim means that you can't move on your turn, but you get advantage, which would give you a sneak attack if you wanted to here. I'm going to just steady... Just keep in mind that if you miss,

even with the advantage, you don't get a movement speed for the rest of this turn, so you wouldn't be able to move any closer to him. That's fine. That's fine. So yeah, bonus action, you can steady aim, you gain advantage,

but then your movement is basically locked. Is that on both the offhand as well, or just... It's just the next attack. Yeah, okay. 19 to hit. 19 will just hit. Their AC is 18.

Remember, they have quite a high AC. So I do get sneak attack. You do because you have an advantage on the roll. Yeah, they added a lot of stuff to rogues in 2024, so there's a few things that you're not used to yet. Steady aims are pretty good. If you don't have anything to do on your turn or you don't have anything for a bonus action

and you're going to do a range attack, might as well steady aim if you're not going to move next. Especially if it gives you sneak attack, yeah. Yeah. 30 damage. The radiant blade just just immediately and he collapses.

More demons in character. Oh, whoa my God. The bladges rim. But you were shouting more demons coming, right? Yeah. To him, like it was a very directional sort of tunnel of volume. Yeah.

That's how sound works. You can just project it only in a tunnel that you want. In the fey wheel. None of these guys could actually hear me. No, no, no. So is that how we want to rule communication from now on?

Yeah, it's like if volume was a toilet paper tube. Yeah. And that's how you want all communication to be handled for now. It's how it works in the fey wheel. In the first fey wheeled stuff. Oh, I see.

Okay. But specific the fair two-year-old that's how it works. No. You, yeah. So this guy drops dead. Cool. Okay, let's keep going.

I shouldn't have shouted. Let's go. You're still shouting. Run! Go up to the Port Cullis. Is there any... Yeah, you can use it like... So what I would say is by the time you guys will get there with your movement speeds,

you can see that those two guards have burst out of the house that they had just gone into, having heard more demons are coming, and having not... Because I rolled their investigation to see if they could find the illusion, having not found the illusion, or have found it and gone,

oh, it's an illusion. They burst out, weapons drawn, like, what's going on as they see you guys arrive at the portcullors. Can you feel you scale the wall and then try and raise the port colours to the body in? Easily.

Like, you're strong enough, like, you're able-bodied. You get to the others. So it's a gatehouse, so you go up the wall, and then you can hop into the gatehouse where there's, like, a little chamber, and the actual wheel is down there, so you kind of go in there and do-t-to-do-to-do-to-do. Everybody gets in.

Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Yeah, the last thing you see is, having seen that you've just literally walked up the wall and gone in, these two just throw themselves back in the building and maybe the last thing you see is him putting out this sending stone again and just throwing himself into a building calling in for backup. So whatever you do now, there's probably force on the way. We have a tail.

Yes. Okay, we need to keep moving fast and let's go. Look for the house. Ravens, Dark Slate Towers. So, this is a wide district. you are immediately there is you find yourself it's not too different to the rest of the city you've been exploring silvery wooden buildings mixed with stone

beautiful carvings and engravings there are magical lights that still function attached to these buildings little moon lanterns and beautiful crafted glass orbs with dancing lights permanently kept within them and things like that, which gives this place a very ethereal, mystical feeling to it all. But it is quite, the streets are wide and the buildings are ornate. Some of them are small little round shops, really no different to a little alchemy shop or something like that.

But you can see that scattered around, there are much larger buildings, grand townhouses, small towers, mansions almost building around and it's very haphazard this is a district there's no clean streets and lines everything's quite hodgepodge and scattered around as if the people that were allowed to inhabit and lived here were allowed to just sort of do whatever they want really um creating in a sense a sort of tapestry of different styles the buildings seem to alternate in aesthetics some are almost woven like strand like spiders webs of wooden beams sort of lattice works jointed together others are squat thick wide buildings almost dwarven architecture and style

some have multicolored lights some all have one style of lighting some of them almost have ghostly apparitions that seem to wander through the windows still going about some sort of arcane business, the streets themselves, you walk along and there are great mosaics of artwork laid into the ground. Some of these mosaics move as if alive. Waters that rush little nymphs and pixies that flitter around the stones, but really illusion magic at fine work here. Creating a real mix of place. If you are racing, it sounds like, through these streets. I mean, that's my suggestion, I guess, because guards are literally now calling people and we've just gotten

in, so what I would need is to find your way, as you are, you have a vague direction, but you are still ultimately searching Black Queen's at State. We need some skill roles here. Okay. And I think that yeah, let's do this,

let's try this. Let's do things as a bit of an old school challenge. You tell me, what are you doing to help accomplish this goal? What skills, and spells and things like that, do you want to use? And if you can't think of one, let me know what your idea is, and I'll come up with a role.

Ophelia, you've got an idea? Can Ophelia scale the ruse and use that height advantage to try and pick out any discerning features? Yeah, give me, I think for this, give me an athletics role to represent, because obviously you can spider climb, but this is almost using the vantage points and vaulting from building to building,

and rapidly ascending and descending to try and help your team as you're moving rather quickly. 14? 14, okay. So you scale up and you quickly find yourself wearing out as you're rapidly scaling these buildings and trying to like look around

and scan the rooftops. But this place is so chaotic. It's such a visual mess and there are lights and glowing and you're having to do this in such a rush that you don't really get a good idea. Like you can sort of help guide your team onto next areas, but you don't spot

what could be Black Wings Estate. And you rush back down, filling a little worn out and things like that, but you don't make any progress towards finding Black Wings Estate, unfortunately. What's anyone else doing? If you can just tell me an idea, and then we can workshop it, right? Yeah, I mean, so I was potentially playing

with the idea of casting Detect Magic because, but the thing is, The Techmagic only really gives me, like, the schools of magic rather than, I guess, a signature of, like, Black Wings. So what's the idea you want to use the Tent Magic to help you find Black Wing specific for Magic? Yeah, like, I guess I have, I'm pretty sure I've cast a Tech Magic in Black Wing, around Black King's Tower before.

You would, so... Magic has a sort of trace signature almost. Yeah, I always want to see if I can identify something that would point more towards Black Wings than say... What I would say with that, you can cast the Tentmagic and that will give you advantage on an Arcana check to see if you can do that. Okay.

You've got four points of fate here as well. That's true. Yeah, let's use our fate and I, with advantage, I've got a plus four on Arcana. Once all of you guys have made a role to like make progress on this, what I might do is I'm gonna make role on maybe your pursuers and things like that.

And also the forces and the creatures that may be around here to see if they detect you guys. Okay, so that is a, blah, blah, blah, blah, 22 arcana. 22 arcana. And this is using the gold sight eye as well. You flick the gold site eye, you activate one of its charges, and immediately your vision is swarming with traces of magic.

This place is full of mostly arcane and primal sources of magic, which you would sort of expect from the fate wheel. No divine presences, really. But various different traces. different schools. Lots of illusion, lots of enchantment magic here, a little transmutation, a little conjuration. But you flick through, flick through, and then you get a thread of something. And it's not a perfect waypoint. This isn't like a Google Maps line. But you almost get like a flash of something and you can begin working in that direction. You start leading the team and you find

And actually, it's a public statue with small ravens built around a statue of a very royal-looking feminine elven figure. Okay. But the little ravens have a bit of Black Wings magic on it. And you have a feeling that, like, maybe you can track these things and you can almost triangulate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And be like, okay, well, it's not this. This is, oh, but there's a bigger source over here, but let's try that. Right.

So you're, you are making progress. Yeah. It's not like a direct, bam. It's here, but you can start picking out like, oh, yeah, waypoints. Nice. And you have a feeling that also, surely, you know, Black Wing would probably have made these things close-ish, maybe to their estate, or at least maybe this is a trail that you could follow.

You know how much this guy likes to get out of his house. So, perfect. All right, yes, Xanthius is making some progress, helping you guys. Afeely, you're still, like, jumping up on the roofs and looking around while this is all happening trying to kind of combine this knowledge. What's her last doing? Oh, blah! Not there!

I've got a stupid use of... Yeah, I mean, this is perfect, though. So, Rowan is going to use performance of creation to create an illusion behind us that's basically a floating prop that looks like a load of collapsed debris. So if we're running through alleyways, there's a floating object behind us

that looks like the perspective of the alleyway on a canvas. Because I was going to say, because music creation creates, an actual object. So you're going to act, it's not an illusion. This is an actual...

It's a physical thing. You know, a piece of canvas and woods that you create like a stage backdrop that is perfectly painted. Like, you're basically doing a looney team. I'm doing a Wiley Coyote. Okay, so this is not going to help you

track down Black Wings Estate. What I will say this is... This will hinder the people trying to chase after you. Okay, great. Give me a... I know this is the use of your ability, but I want to see how good the art,

the picture of like the alleyway that you create. Give me a performance check for this. Did you spend a face, by the way, Zanth? I did, yes. Okay, perfect. That's a mat one. Oh, dear. The 12 total.

12 total. You can see the people behind the scene. I'm working on it. Well, I think the idea is you guys don't see this because you're already running behind and creates it behind you. But we, the audience, see that it's a very cartoonish and not realistic, like, very wacky kind of kids-drawing version of the alleyway.

And also, Rowans in it going like, oh, like, kind of like, oh, go this way. And it's just not a very good rendition. It probably won't trick anybody into hindering you, unfortunately. I've thrown them off the stage. Yeah, exactly. You think you've done a great... In that case, let's just take our time.

What about Daisy and Gruffiny ideas? If you're in doubt, a simple perception check. You can just be like, can I just make a perception check to like try and figure some stuff out? You could try and be like, can I do a stealth check?

Yeah, I was going to try and like stealth ahead, use my extra movement by dashing and trying to like figure out if it's the wrong way. At least people don't all go down it. Well, how about I throw this to you, right? You can do a stealth check to help you progress towards Black Wings Estate.

Or if you want to, you could make a stealth check to try and prevent the green making too much noise to avoid, like, trying to attract any things that are in this place, right? Or, again, to throw any pursuers off the scent as well. So you've got a choice of three options there. You can either try and make progress towards finding black wings, throw off anything that might be trying to find you, or avoid detection by whatever is already.

Rowan just assured us that... Survival to erase tracks, maybe. So I've got a plus eight to survival. Survival would also be good for, like, just navigating. Like, if you want to choose a survival check. I feel like you and me, we could do... So, do you want me to throw off the tracks and then you do a survival to try and take us in the right direction, maybe?

Pass fact, trace, do that already, like, get rid of our tracks. It does, it gets rid of any, like, physical tracks, yes. Quote, sorry. It won't lose things, like, move, like, sound of, like, trying to... Yeah, yeah. But it will get, like, you guys aren't leaving footprints, you're leaving any physical trace. Okay, so, yeah.

So it's a noise thing rather than it, yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to add to the DC of, like, the pursuers trying to find you guys, basically. Yeah. What do you prefer? Absolutely, it's much of a muchance for me. I've got plus eight.

Plus eight survival is pretty great and perception. Both are great options. There's probably going to be another round of like, what are you guys doing to try and find Black Wings Estate, so you can always use it on the second one as well. I will try and... I will say you can't use the same skill twice in a row. I will try and prevent them from pursuing that.

Sure, give me a stealth role. So you're kind of leading the team like, like, stop making so much noise, you know, and like, like, okay, let's like move down this alleyway and like we can lose them down here. And we still have passed without a tray. Yeah. You still are, yeah.

Get ready for the highest number we've ever heard. No, it's not the highest number we ever heard. I had higher earlier there. I would say, yeah, pass it. Let's add it to this stealth check, yeah. And then instead of raising the DC. 35. Yeah, it's most certainly successful.

I think every one of your roles in this entire like encounter since we've been doing stealth a lot. It's been, yeah, it's been like 40, 35. Stealth is plus 13, and if we have passed without a trace, it's plus 23. Jesus. You just raise the bar on what the highest role is. So, yeah, so Daisy, with the magic of gruff this pass without a trace,

which is avoiding any physical trace of you leaving any sign of your passing, Daisy's also leading you and sort of forcing you guys to go in a very awkward, like, corkscrew way through the street, but you know. Hurting them. Yeah, you're hurting, you know that this is going to throw off anyone trying to find you. because it's gonna make your sound echo and it's a weird route. They're not gonna think to go down that way.

Very, very successful. It's just knocking shit down as it because it's like holes in it. Sure. And then Graff, you wanna do survival or perception check to try and locate Black Wings. You still, by the way, have voices in your head just as a note, so don't be it.

Shouting. I'll look for my eyes. Perception check? Yeah, go for it. Plural. I don't only use one of them. 12 plus 8, 30-20. 30-20.

So with that, yeah, kind of taking a bit of a lead, like kind of leading from the front here, you grew up using your, you know, acute eyesight and senses and everything else and hearing. So cute. You find, again, this isn't immediate you found the place, but you stop getting dead ends. You're like, no, we're going towards the center.

I remember that landmark from when we were out in the alleyway. no, that leads us far too south. Like, we need to be going in this direction. And you're sort of pinpointing using these landmarks that you only briefly glimpsed. Maybe, like, as you go to Turn 1 down, your ears pick up the sound of that canal river that was outside.

And you're like, no, we're going back the way we came. We need to go around and circumnavigate around here now. So you're kind of leading the team that way. Again, you are making progress towards finding this place. As you have all made a roll, I'm now going to roll to see. You are just a middle-aged man just navigating a city without GPS, which is...

How we did it in the old... Magical. It's how we did in a city. And like a busy city as well. Like a really like, you know, twisty city. Let me tell you, I can't do that shit. What happens when you get off your phone, lad. No, all I have is...

Took up for once a while. Look up. I don't know why I'm saying it like Rowan. Touch grass. Look at the sky. No, I'm not going to do any of those things. I'm going to touch sky and look at grass. You guys are making good progress delving further into this district

called the tapest. It is a strange thing to see. When you were out in Vathalian, you saw that various parts of this, you know, beautiful, magical place were run down and abandoned, clearly left to those who had remained behind the Faye, these, you know, all intents and purposes, those who have been enslaved by the unsealie here. This place is remarkably well kept. Like, this is beautiful, but it's empty. It's a ghost town. There are magical lights. There are beautiful.

You glance inside windows and you can see beautiful homes of luxurious colors and decorations and things like that, but there's just nobody here. But you feel a presence. You can feel that something is still lingering here. And as you race down a couple of these corridors,

you narrowly avoid, you're pretty confident that with Daisy's help and the fact that you had a bit of a lead, any pursuers aren't anywhere really close, like it's going to take them a good amount of time to find you themselves. But you do notice down alleyways, you occasionally glimpse a shadow of something quite large lumbering and moving through these districts, like a passing magical light maybe. You see glimpses of magical visages, spirits or spells that are still lingering in this place and quickly avert your thing. It's as you come out into a much more open part of the city where for the first time you see a little destruction, it looks like battles were fought here. There are pieces of

broken rubble, broken columns, a broken building with a great fountain in the center that's bubbling with that silver sap that you saw earlier. And as you burst into middle as you're passing through it, you are almost paused because you begin to see in front of you, these manifesting, these green ethereal elven spirits, guards and civilians that begin to rise, mages in their robes, rise up, they reach out, almost holding up hands towards you off. As they do, you also see spells almost emerge. from nearby towers and buildings, glowing spectral hands that sort of reach out, flaming swords conjured as these errant spells and protections rise up against potential invaders, and then lumbering

out of some ruins, you see this wood construct of a powerful warrior-light figure, and in a sort of booming, sylvanic voice that you don't understand, it booms something like, Dalleth Naur, Galwen, Dalleth Nour, Gellwen, as a, and that is going to be initiative for everyone, please. Wait, how many things are we facing here? You'll find out in a minute.

Many, many things. Let's say, let's get initiatives for us for a little. Don't you must-verack me? That should be a T-shirt. That's forac? Yeah. Yeah. No, it's old.

No one cares. I care. I care. I care. I care. I care more. I care the most. Yeah?

I care plus two. I care the least. All right, let's get all the audience down. And then I'll set the map up and then I've got to write my initiatives down. Daisy. Thirteen. Thirteen. Gruffeth.

Dirty 20. Rohen. 19. Ophelia. Oh yeah. Who's got the most next. Ophelia. That one, obviously.

Percy got 18. I'm a middle-aged dad. Percy continues. She continues. Percy continues. Well. Okay, let me sit up. I don't want to fight this guy.

I don't want to fight him. You say your dexterity would be low as a middle-aged dad, but I've seen videos of like, Dad's just one-handed catching a baby and just putting it on the counter without even looking. That's the parent thing though. That's in a specific circumstance. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. I feel like it's not all the time, you know. I would. You would just leave it. Got my headphones on. Got my steam deck. Big Elaine.

Scratch the seam deck. Just be shrugging in the middle. What do I say? My headphones. Trilly problem. Yeah. Steam deck, duh. Oh, that's a lot of things.

That's a lot of boys. Oh, we're in the center of a lot of things, too. Yeah. Denta. Denta, my bad. Sorry. I hate everything. Dinner plan.

While Mark is sitting on that, I would just like to say for everybody that I heard this entire time have been directly opposite this red velvet cake that's just staring at me. And it's all I can think about. Stop that.

Katie is now eating a bit of it in front of me provocatively. I'll grab a fist of it and just... There's been a few sitting next to this whole time. I'm just looking at the frosts. It's good. Fistice. We could make that a boss.

The cake? I'd eat it. I'd destroy it. Every time we do damage, we have to eat a bit. Oh no. Oh God. It's an NPC if you have to save, but it's also a cake. Fuck.

Sorry. The quickest NPC death. So delicious. Save the cake. No, that's not happening. World saved. You in real life get to eat a cake. Yeah.

I'd choose a cake, isn't it? Okay, so, I... Hear me out, Kay. Out of game, by the way. I'm just going to tell you this now. These things will pursue you. If you run off the map, if you run, they are going to pursue you. Your best chance is to fight.

Oh, it's not even like a, don't come here, don't cross this threshold. It's like, you fucked up coming here. You see that, like, these spirits, as they rise up, they draw weapons as if still engaged in some sort. sort of battle, and you get the sense that you have invaded. You can try running out. What I'm saying is that they will pursue you.

So if you try and run, these things will chase after you, basically. As you rise up, these defenders, these elven spirits or echoes, perhaps, magical echoes of the people that once fought here, as well as various spells conjured long ago that have remained somehow. and this silverwood statue defender kind of creaks its way bursting through some ruins, tracking you down as you've been making your way through here. We jump into initiative and, in fact, it is that wooden defender.

That's going to act first. Oh, God. Yes, I rolled an act 20 for their initiative. Oh, my God. Dirty. I go to five, ten. Oh, here he comes. Just charging straight into our back lines.

And by that, I mean they are not quite in range to reach you in four. Oh no, their slam has got a 10 foot reach, which means I can hit Daisy and Rowan at the back. But before they do that, they sort of reach up a hand and you feel this blanket of fame magic pass over all of you. I need you all to make a Constitution saving throw, please. Oh, okay.

Oh, good, okay. 15. 15 is a failure. 19. Success. 17. Is just barely a success. The DC is 17.

22. Success. Me and Percy both fail. 17 and a... 17 is a success. 15 and a 13. They are both failure. Those who failed, you were afflicted

by the slow spell. No. Shit, really? One attack a turn. Half movement speed and I believe minus two to AC. That is true. That's the one thing I can do. They do that as a bonus action.

Bonus action, oh my God. Yes, yes. And then they are going to make two attacks. One against Daisy, one against Rowan. I'll do this one. That is a 19 against Rowan. Correct. And a 13 against Dezance.

against Daisy. No. Uh, so, uh, right, where? Did you pass this, you passed in you? Just yes. Just, yeah. Uh, Chilspice. Rowan, you are gonna take, um, uh, 17 bludgeoning and 11 force. Oh, my God.

Has this, uh, great staff, like a cudgel, like, Oh, I'm gonna, Stone's Endurance, some of that. Okay, so it was 20, Actually, I can't, because I'm slowed. Can't take reactions. Oh, well, well, well done for remembering, yeah. Thank you, I should be healed. I agree.

I won't heal you. I'll give you inspiration, though. No, I'm not going to do that. You don't get inspiration. I'm not going to set that up as the thing that people can get mad at me. If he gets inspiration for helping you with rules once, I swear to God.

I have given you inspiration for doing that many times, boy. Good boy, boy! I can count on one hand in which I've cut off four fingers how many times you've done it. Boy. Boy. Oh, this is the construct as well. Infected target speed is half, minus two penalty to AC and dexing, and it can't take reaction.

Don't do not start suffering. Just as a point, on its turn, you can either take an action or a bonus action, not both, and it can only make one attack if it takes the attack action. If it casts a spell, there is a 25% chance that the spell fails. You repeat same throat at the end of the time. But yes, do not suck this construct.

But yeah, this construct slams down with his cudgel into Daisy, who manages to narrowly avoid a bit. Rowan, you are caught on the back swing as you are able to sort of turn yourself in time under this slow spell. How does Rowan sound under a slow spell? I don't want to say it. My turn.

Ophelia. On my graph. Yeah, I guess. Oh, we need to put Percy on there. Percy on the board. Percy on the board. Oh, yeah, you did the rock. Yeah, he's slow, too.

Just goes on the board? Percy Bell. Yeah, me and Percy are gonna go in and intercept this large person, try and just run into the statue. Yeah. What does Ophelia sound like slowed? I'm so mad at you.

Yeah, she's gonna rage and she rages the earth. Well, if you rage, You don't get an action this time. Ah, that's all I am! You can rage, and it's good for defense, because it will mean you've got defense, but it does mean if you do rage, you do have to do a slow motion rage yell.

It's okay, I will rage. Okay, there you go. That's my action. That's your turn done. That's my thing. End of turn you get to make a constitution same throw. Please. No.

You are still slow. Tom really wants you to do the slow rage, rage, yell, slow motion. No, no, no. It's, well, Ophelia doesn't always raw when she doesn't make, you know, it's this, this is the, the vision goes out of red. Oh, but now it's like a,

boom, d'oom. Yeah. Gruff, you were up next, my friend. What spells are around us? So, you can see two large, hands made of magical energy that have sort of come out of these buildings. And then the others look as they appear,

almost like weapons made of different elements, basically, kind of in, surging towards you. They do look smaller, they look less powerful than the hands. But they are moving. Yes. And the construct is magical as well. It is made of wood, the silvery wood, probably inlaid with stone,

so it's like wood and stone merged together. But it is a construct, it is some sort of magically animated being. I'd like to cast a spell magic at level four. Yep. You have to target a specific thing because I'm trying to decide what. I'm not entirely convinced it will work on the magical contra. It's in the title, but I'm not sure what to do. Very different kind of thing. Yeah. I still have to take magic up. Yes? Okay. What did you last? Like, uh, I think it's like 10 minutes or something, but I was just wondering if I could just use that to point Graff's hand in the right direction.

Well, I will tell you this, I mean, under Determagic, the construct, the stone defender, the guardian, is as magical as a magical creature. There is all sorts of magic at work in it. You do not think that it's not a spell. It is a magical creature. It'd be like, I cast a spell magic on a dragon. It doesn't really work.

Percival. Percival, exactly, right? The other things, the shades, the spirit, spirits. They are not undead, but I would say that under detect magic, they would have similarities to a sort of incorporeal undead. But they're more like made of magic. They're like a remnant, a memory of a person, rather than being an actual soul. The hands and the weapons are all spells, and they can be dispelled. Can you imagine if we find Black Wings spirit, and it turns out we've been dealing with a charlatan, this entire time. And it's caliphrous. It's caliphers.

They've just sent us out as a... They've sent us to a different plane so they can enact their... We've just... What fools we are. I am mega-sussed about these objects. I'm not a fan of that. I am suspect of these mundane objects

that we're collecting of. I'm like, I don't know, it's gonna be something else. It's gonna be like, I don't know. These are horrocks, it's like, oh, it's my dad, but he's a blanket, I don't know. What? What are you dispelling? Like because...

Sorry, hang on. Come back to hand, please. Which one? Blue or red. Which one's close? Red is currently closer. That one. All right.

I'm going to say for this... That is a blanket. Obviously. Like, because... I need the thought process. So against the hand, I need you to do a D-20 roll plus your wisdom. And the D.C. is going to be 14.

Plus my wisdom. My wisdom is plus four. 12 plus four. Oh. Okay, roll. 12 plus four. 16. It's a success. It was a fourth level spell. It's a big Bid's hand. So you watch, as with a dispel magic,

this living spell, this echo spell, you disperse the energy and it ceases to be. And that is your action, complete. As a bonus action before that, I would have cast the armor of broken thorns. Not probably. You can always do it after. I just always assume that. I'm always just doing it one.

The order is fine, as long as you've done it, you're not slowed, so you're fine. Any movement gruff? Can I just circle around Xanthias so I can protect him? As in like here? Yeah, yeah. Between me and Construct and Zanthius. Like more here, so you're next to Daisy as well? Yeah. I love so.

All right, you circle around and sort of raise your shield and axe towards the defender, protecting them both. But yeah, you are being surrounded. After Gruff, we then go to Rowan. Uh... Slowin. It's going to... Nice.

It's going to slowly whip out his stone razor. Okay. And he's going to true strike with his one ability. His one action. Yes. Do you need to be in melee range? Yeah, so he's going to spin around. Fucking headbutter feeler out of the way.

Yep. And just do a big swing. swing on the construct, plus seven because of true strike, uses my spell ability. Yes, yeah. 24. Is it hit? Mm.

Hmm. Nice. And then it's 1d6 plus 3. Plus the weapon, so no, it, so the way true strike works is you do the weapon damage, plus a D6 because you're high enough level. So the weapon damage is 2D6 plus. So it's 3d6 plus your modifier? Fucking out. Fuckin out.

Was it plus 3? Plus 2D6 plus 3. Yeah. 3D6 plus 3. Yeah, 3D6 plus 3, yeah. 11 points. Despite all of that, 11 points. 11 points.

No, I mean, like you, stone razor cut into this thing. It chips away at the wood and the stone, but does not really seem to show much sign or response to that. It just seems to continue on its defensive work. Cool. All right. Anything else on your turn around? Con save, I see.

Con save at the end of your turn, that's right. Do I get her? Do I get anything for that? I don't know, do you? You could have spent some fate on it, but... 18. Oh. Success, you are no longer slowed.

You shrug off the slope. Oh! You know, Rowan no sounds normal. He's been slowed despite time. Hey guys. I've just been afflicted by the slowest, though. Oh my God, that's the biggest shot at most. Oh my God, I'm going to have to have to do.

to do that for a character. Under the effect of the spell the entire time. She was waiting for a dismalade. Which spell? Yeah, only in episode like 90 am I like, I should have made a save in like episode one. Like Grasks cast a spell magic for first time its entire campaign.

Percy. Can Percy use the masterwork hookstaff kindly given to him by Gruff? Yes. And try and top all this large. Oh, cool. Do you want to come after the go-lum as well? Yeah.

We'd have to move around the fountain. Five, ten, round, round, baby, round, round. What's his speed, his speed is halved. 30 feet. And he's only got 15 feet. He can go five, ten, fifteen. Has he got reached five foot? Ugh, she could hit something else.

He can maybe move to something else. Oh, no. Five, ten, fifteen. He could come and engage these spirits. This fence would be difficult terrain to cross over, so he's not going to be able to do that. They can't cross, Ophelia. No, there's too many people there.

And also can't move through. Can I ready an action then, so if the construct comes within five feet of Ophelia, if I put Percy behind Ophelia, if the construct comes within range, he can try and top of it. It reaches five feet, not ten feet, so he couldn't attack.

He would be able to attack it. Well, if he stands in front of Ophelia then. So, again, you have to go around, yeah. The only thing you could do be... You could also go defensive and just hold position for the... Yeah, let's do that then. I'll put him behind Ophelia,

and he can ready an hour. to attack the spirits if they come within range. If they come within range. Okay, all right, that's gonna be his ready to action. Yep. Perfect. Cardo de Konseve for he. Yes, please.

The boy! Two. Oh. Xanthius. Hello, I will select two runes that are spinning around me and I will smash them together like a flint and steel as I cast. Very cool. They create a massive blinding radiance surrounding me,

which is a big old light. 50 foot radius dim light, 50 foot million light. Anything within 10 feet of me must make a save, a constitution save, or take 3D10 radiant damage and be blinded. Are you hafling it? Oh, it's any... Oh, it's just any creature. Cute.

I'm going to use a careful spell on this one. But I'm also not slowed, so I want to also, I guess, as I'm running past. Oh, no, I'm going to take an attack opportunity. I want to go against this group of four phantom spirits down the bottom here and basically use this radiance to... Where is this spell from, Tom?

Because I'm not seeing it. See, this is what I asked during the Bristol live show, available soon, that I said, this spell, I'm not sure where I got it from because I'm like 90% sure it doesn't exist. And yet, and yet it is in my spell list. Okay, that doesn't mean you can use it. But then you said, at the Bristol live show available soon.

No, this is a real spell. I thought it was, but I'm not seeing. Oh, it's from Heliana's Guide to Monster Hunting? Okay, I don't have a... Blinding radiance. Yeah. Is that what it's called? Yeah.

As a sorcerer a spell, I don't know why it's in my list. I'll use a different spell. Maybe, just for that. Because the live show is very different. When I'm like, yeah, sure, you can use it in a live show. It's very different. I will look it up in the break. Just because also, I want to check it

because if it's like, is it constantly active or is it a one and done? A concentration spell. So you can just run around and anybody that gets within 10 feet of you are just like, if they fail a constant... Huh, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, if they fail a concentration, their constitution save. Yeah. Is it half damage? Half spell and they are not blinded. Right. So it's pretty nice. That's pretty good.

So that's why I'm like, I don't know where it came from. Just because also, yeah, I just want to check it out. I'm sure it's fine, but. The other problem is, I don't really want to use any fire. But I will. So I'm going to do, um, Elianna's Guide to What?

Oh, I think I found, it is a third party book, which is it fine, I just need to check it first. I will remove the spell. because it also sounds very strong. I'm not even seeing it in this book. I struggle to Google for it as well. I think it might have been removed, Tom. I think you've got the only copy of this spell and mix.

Oh my gosh. Screenshot it. Wow. Sell your account. I can't believe it. It's too powerful for D&D. I'm going to sell my D&D beyond account. It's available now.

Right, in that case, I'm going to change my play here. I want to move slightly in front of gruff. who I know just stood in front of me to defend you. So, he's just gonna silence. Are we standing next to the creature or next to the creature? Because I want to do a burning hands that will catch construct and as many of these ghosties as possible. If it's a case I need to move slightly back

and to get more of them. Mark's just left, he's just walked out. That's what did it. This is the, after all these years. Last, that's it. God, you know what, I'm gonna go DM. Oh, no, he's back. You're fucking not.

You're fucking not. Oh, he's got a burning hands template. So. Oh, wow, the range on this is gone. There's only 15 feet coming. I'm going to cast a different spell. It's only 15 feet feet. You could get a lot of these guys, a lot of these boys.

Yeah, I'll get a lot of those boys. Or you can get the big guy. Yeah, I will do as many of the ghostly spirits is like quing-w-w-w-o-w-we- I would say if you go here, you can catch all four of things. Yeah, I'll take all four. Okay, great. Yeah, yeah, I'll take that. I'll take all four.

Okay. This is a burning-hand. which technically, doesn't matter that it comes from my crown steel corruption? No, I do. We'll find out. They make a dexterity save. First level?

It's a first level. Yeah, I don't think I can upcast this. You can. You just get access to the spell with the crown still thing. You're right. I will, yeah, I'll do second level. Okay. But they make a dexterity save.

This turn is taking a while. I'm sorry. I'm not big enough yet. One succeeds. One succeeds. In that case, they... in case they don't take damage. It take half damage.

It take half damage. All right, so it is 4D6, 222 on 3D6 and a 5. So 6, 11 damage. 11. Anything that isn't being flammable objects in the cone that aren't being worn, start burning. Well, I've got some good news.

Good news. These creatures are minions and the one that did save you did enough damage to still destroy it as well. So you watch as all four of these, shades, these echoes. Yes. But as you always know,

sometimes when you destroy minions, things happen. Yeah, but only with a... And you destroyed them with a spell. You cast a spell. Fantastic. Can you make a... Constitution. Constitution's echo, please.

Good. The best one. 16. I rolled an 8. 16 is a success. You watch as... No, in fact, I would have increased the DC... No.

Oh, actually, I... Yeah. So you do not succeed. As you are... You see, as you wipe out these creatures with this magic spell, as the spell ends, their residual energy

almost seems to linger in the air for a moment and then strikes back with concussive force. Oh, it's a worse kind of force. It's not. It's worse. Dragon. Dragon force. You take 10 points.

of force damage, Tom. And then I leave it to your choice, but you also will lose three spell levels. What? You can lose one third level spell, or you could lose a second and a first level, or three first level spells. Why three? I killed four of them.

There's, yeah, why three? Oh, why three indeed. I get inspiration for asking a question. He deserves it. That's crazy. Three level spells, okay. Yes. All right, I'm just gonna do one first

and a second level spell. Okay. Shit. Where's that put you? So you watch, as that force hits you, some of your magic, some of your sort of elemental and archa magic

has almost pushed out of you into the residual air around you. Jesus. Sucked by a ghost. Had to make it weird. Right. That's weird, that's what happened? Anything else on your tent?

You wrote it's a story. You've still got some movement left? I will, yeah, I'm going to move back behind Groff. It's like here? Yeah, back to exactly where I started. Stand behind dead. Rush out, blast of magic, get humbled by this, you know, reverberation. Yeah.

I'm going to jump back, all right? After Xanthius, I'm going to try and get to the end of the round, and then we're going to take break. And I'm going to swap that spell. It's fine, I just need to look at it, mate. It's the only thing. The hand is going to, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 gets just in range of Percival. He's going to punch Percival.

No, you better not? He is. Does that count as something coming into his area for his reaction to go, his held action? Was his thing that, if anything, comes within him and attacks him, or was it attacks Ophelia? In range, basically. Yeah, he will get an attack after this attack, because it's after the triggering attack. Punch it back, Percy. Force fist.

Fist. 15 to hit. Just hits. Just hits him. If you didn't have that slow, it wouldn't have hit. Oh, that's right, because the tame it loses it by two. That's right. I can also move Percy after this as well.

No. It's true. It's the worst thing, moving him. Chair. The worst of concussive force. He's in my safe space. safe space. He's my emotional support.

That's a lot of damage, sounds like. 28 force damage. Yuck. That's quite a lot. Percy is thrown this way away from Ophelia. Oh no. But he can hit it.

He gets like back slapped. He does get to attack back. Maths, 28. I think technically he gets to attack first. 41 minus 28 is... It's just got a one on it. It makes it awkward for my brain. 21...

Would be 12 plus plus One, 13. He's got 13 left. Sky knows math. You should take the one off the... So wait, Percy is attacking first. There's a chance that he might actually take this damage to begin with. Is that happening anyway?

It's after the triggering action. Yeah. Yeah, the trigger action was it moving, so he gets to attack first. He's not gonna kill him one attack. Oh, okay. Oh, wait, this is... I know how much hit points does they pass.

Sorry, I know how much damage Percy can do. I thought this was a ghost, not the hatch. Yeah, yeah, it's a plus 17. Get ready for a Nat 20, though. That's not far off, mine team. Is it a 19? Yeah. Does not hit.

Well, 19 plus. No, that was with the... That's with the plus. That was 19 with the modifier. Oh. Yeah, this thing, it strikes, personally goes to strike the hand and it's made of such dense magic

that the attack bounces off and does not penetrate through its defenses. Okay. That's that then. That's that then. That is the hand. Daisy. 20 doesn't...

Hello. Is the hand within five feet of me? It's not within five feet of you, no. Okay. It moved up, it's moved Percy, but you are... I will then move that away, away from the group. So you want to move up towards the wall and this tower and things like that on the map. Okay, perfectly.

Can I move like 20 feet or something? 15, 20, up here? Maybe slightly towards this bit of greenery here. Yeah. And then I would like to throw a blade at the construct. Okay. Oh, that was almost an at 20, it rolled over. Shit.

Luckily, will you spin down dice? 18 to hit. It does just barely hits. This thing is made of dense wooden structure. dense wooden stone, the Radiant Blade does strike true. Hell yeah. Hell you. Oh, and sneak tech, yeah.

It was not the greatest of rolls though, for a minute. 20. 20 points of damage. The Radiant Blade sinks in. You can see it embeds itself, it sins it burns away some of the wood, but this creature unfazed. And then with vex, I get advantage. On the next attack, yeah.

Oh, it was a 19, fuck! What was it driving? Wouldn't have got a sneak attack, though, on this one, so... Heasing me, though. You wouldn't get the crew on the sneak attack. Not the point, it's not the point. That much. Hight.

19 plus 9, that many. 62. Yeah, that sounds about right. This is your music that's playing right now. Oh, seven damage. Other seven points of damage. Yeah, the two radiant blades do strike the creature, do some damage to its form,

but it doesn't seem too fuss about this so far. Anything else, Daisy, you know what I said? No, I think I've expended everything, thank you all. All right, in that case, the spirits are going to rush towards the nearest things. Zanthias. Do they say it in that way? Zanthias.

They know my name? They are going to make a group. Attack. So hard. That is gonna be 25 to hit. Good God in heaven, have mercy. And that is gonna be nine force damage.

Nine force damage, okay. Yes. Does that force damage suck spells from me as well? No, but you know I mentioned that all that sort of magic that got pushed out of you was like residual in the air. As they strike you, they're sort of weaving spells striking you with these blades of energy and things like that.

And as they do, as they're active and fighting, they're rallying cries, sort of echoing around, Delen canard, delin canad, you see another one of them manifest behind them. As they do damage to you. And it kind of creates an echo out of the residual magic. So the energy is coming out of Xanthias and manifesting. But it seems like they push some sort of magic out of Xanthus and also as you're all casting spells,

like you're leaving magic in the environment. And then their act of fighting and harming and defending their land has called another echo into a being. They are able to create more of them if they attack. I need to start flying around and be like Homer and space eating the chips. Sure. And then finally, yeah. Very last thing to happen.

Ten. Magic, well, a hammer can go fast. 25. Five. Five. A nippy little hammer. A nippy hammer. Five.

Speedy little hammer. The, there's also another one over here. Oh. Why do you find that so funny? It's just things you'd never say in any of us. That hammer is running really fast. The bow of acid is going to shoot an acid arrow at Rowan. I'm gonna grip it.

11 to hit. I grip it and throw up bank. You grab the arrow made of acid. I don't do this. You dodge the side and it misses completely. The lightning hammer, that's a 20 to hit, not natural. On me again? Yep. Yeah.

That is nine points of lightning damage. Pass of all, the Frost Axe. That's a 24 to hit. Yeah. That's eight points of Frost damage. Yeah? So that's to Percival. The sword does not get close enough to attack anyone.

Pursi are gonna need a new body soon. Might do. He just got it. As long as you don't leave it behind, you can gather up all those bones and rebuild them. I guess so, yeah. But that is going to be the top of a round. I know it's a big combat,

but there's a lot of exciting things happening. That is where we're going to take our break. Sorry for a bit longer for a wait. I wanted to get to the top of a round. Kim's desperate to go pee. On the cake. We're going to take our final break. We'll see you in part two.

Everybody. See you for the next part of High Rollers. Bye-bye. See you a bit, bye. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.