High Rollers DnD - Vermillion Auxa-9 (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #59

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

The heroes rescue as many people as they can from the stasis chambers in the proto-magi vault! _______________ 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 Support the High Rollers on Patreon and get early access to Podcast episodes, vods and more: www.patreon.com/HighRollers 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

Do you have nerves of steel and a knack for keeping deities pleased? Well in that case, you should check out the New York's class game, Kaya's Prophecy. It is a card-based village builder. Imagine building a village where one wrong move can trigger a divine outburst from the gods. Wouldn't want that. You have to open booster packs and use combat to gather resources and then come up with the perfect strategy to keep your greedy deity fed and your village thriving. You can unlock technologies, battle wild threats and try not to get struck by lightning. If you like this kind of thing as I do, you can check out Kaya's Prophecy, available

now on Steam with a 20% launch discount and for a limited time you can get an extra 10% off if you pick it up in a bundle with Dungeons and the Degenerate Gamblers, our other amazing Yorickscast game. You can even head on over to our friends at Fanatical to grab your copy today for even cheaper. www.fanatical.com slash pickaxe. Kaya's Prophecy is awesome, it's out now, I love it and you should check it out. Do you like cards? Do you like battling? Do you like games on Steam made by Yorick's cast of friendly people? You should check out Kai's Prophecy. It's available now. www.fanatical.com slash pickaxe. Welcome back to Alfea the Dragon Empire. Our heroes are deep within the proto-magi vault known as the Prism. After discovering horrific experiments and learning the methods of getting around, they began to unlock other chambers and found valuables, treasures and traps aplenty. Recovering what they could,

the party have come to a chamber containing several cauldron citizens held in stasis. Distracting the construct overlooking these prisoners, the party have begun to free them containing several cauldron citizens held in stasis. Distracting the construct overlooking these prisoners, the party have begun to free them in a desperate attempt to perhaps finally escape the Protomancian vault. And that is where we rejoin the session in process. Are you done? I'm all right, yeah.

Yeah, you good? What's going on over there? What's going on, is everything wrong with your hands? My hands are just so sweaty. They're glistening. Remember the other day when I had really sweaty hands? For some reason, Ree's got it now. Wait, does that mean I'm...

I think it's contagious. Oh, no, you're not. My hands are not wet. Sweaty hands disease is coming. Yeah. So, we are... So wet. Moist.

A towel or something. Dry on your trousers, I don't know. Do something, anything. Welcome to High Rollers by the most professional D&D stream out there. So you find yourselves on the middle floor of the prison. Professional.

I kept that quiet. If you hadn't brought it up, I would have moved on seamless. There was like a full second of holding it in. Yeah, but I carried on seamless. It was not as felt as you thought it was. If that was recording, we would just cut that and you would never know. No, we wouldn't.

His head would have like, shot. No, we wouldn't. No. I do love that some people worry that if we did prerecords, we'd make it too produced to edit. All of that would be left in. You guys don't understand that. You think Tom's gonna edit this?

You think I give a shit. Okay. So, you find yourselves on the middle floor of the prism, you have just opened up the northeast, I think we were counting it as, door. And inside you found a chamber containing these hovering five foot cubes, or still like rectangles really, because they're slightly tall.

Yeah, kind of coffins hovering there. You discover the method of unlocking them by creating a black crystal sphere, and then using that to unlock the systems. But there was a construct inside, which I believe was currently being held by, I think it was a combination of like, Percival, Ophelia, and Rowan have basically

got this thing grappled. Yes. And it is trying to free itself and shove them away, but it is unable to. Meanwhile, Daisy is currently operating the device. Oh, it's letting people out, yeah. Yes, and slowly but surely, I mean, really, there is nothing to, like, this creature cannot free itself

right now, it's being held by sort of three of you. All of which are stronger than it. It's not aggressive for your reference. It's not aggressive, it just keeps going... It did cast silence on it. It's like kind of like nurse robot that we found in the first round where I got the side chick stuff. I believe I ended the last sub-sector,

because for us it has been a couple of weeks. I believe I ended up with rollingsector, for us it has been a couple of weeks. I believe I ended up with rolling initiative, or like asking for initiative, as this thing is now unable to free itself, is now kind of becoming more aggressive, basically. Yes. May we roll for fate, please? That is a very good point, and we should do that.

Yes. Roll for your crucial effect. That didn't sound good, Tom. Tom, I could have won. Oh, did you now? A dice for you. Dice for me. Ha!

The curse is lifted. Yeah? I got a six. A dice for you. Five. A dice for you. Bad, bad, bad, bad. A dice for you.

Why'd you roll a 20? A d20? I rolled, what? It's a d20. Oh, it's fate. You just rolled a bad 20. You rolled a bad 20. I'm not a prince. I'll let you keep that for the initiative, though, huh? He just rolled his feet. You just rolled a nat 20. You rolled a nat 20. That's how it works.

I'll let you keep that for the initiative though, huh? What a nice guy I am. What a nice guy. Aw, weird, I rolled a 20. I got three. Oh, a three? Oh, even better, that's nice for me. And then, what the fuck?

Three. Two. Two. That's a nice, even three, three. Three feet, three feet. We'd love to see it. We'd love to see it. So yeah, let's roll initiative.

Initiative. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Do you mind doing 20? Let's draw a four. What? 20. Norway. Norway.

Norway. Sweden. Percy remains a golden box man. Finland. What did Percy get? He got a 19 on his initiative. Alright, Percy 19. Oh, speed boy.

Rowan, what was your total? 20. Total. I have plus zero. 20. To my init. Ophelia. Seven.

Graf. Five. I'm just gonna think now. Yep. Xanthias. 18. Same as my fate roll. And Daisy.

16. And then four, the... Construct. Yeah. Oh, my name is Graf. Oh, oh. And then for the construct. Yeah. Oh, my name is Garth. Oh, oh. Fla-son. Hello.

Fla-son. Hello, my name is Xanthius. Sort of term. Xan-pla-son. And now I'm Tom. Xanthius. Wait, is the role playing starting on us? Are we role playing right now?

Are we role playing? So, Daisy, you have managed, I'd say you've managed to free, say three of these civilians, you've already got quite a few of them out the door as well. I think we've got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven left in the room. So a few of the civilians have already been led out and ushered out, I think. Yeah, I think I'm currently... Were they unconscious? Completely unconscious? No, they weren't unconscious.

When they are first released, it takes them like a round to sort of come to and become cognizant of what's going on. That first round, they are sort of still out of it. They're sort of not unconscious, but not fully conscious yet. Wibbly. They're wibbly. If this was already described,

what are the civilians wearing? Yeah, so the different civilians, they are all very clearly either cauldron or from the Empire. They are all wearing Imperial clothing. No, these are all. Or they're not from a different time. Well, that would be difficult to tell. They are all wearing pretty normal clothes. Let me just remind you of who was laundering.

Except the one guy with a pocket watch and a newspaper. What year is it? The one guy with a laser gun. Yes. There are four woodsmen, two farmers, one teenager, one dark elf, and one duergar. Yes. Okay.

So the four woodsmen look like they would come from somewhere like Colville. So wearing sort of cauldron colors, look like woods folks. The two farmers and their son look, you know, their teenage son look like, you know, regular farmers. The most interesting people would be the Nalunari,

the dark elf merchant, who is this woman who has this very, very dark purple skin, but looks, has this, there is something about the Nalanari have this mystical blessing from Melee, which makes them always appear supernaturally alluring or like beautiful. Chip in my chest just went off. Peeped away.

Just a very cool dress. So, and it varies person to person. This particular Nalanari, like her hair, even though she's been held in stasis, Peep away. It's a very cool dress. So, and it varies person to person. This particular Nalanari, like her hair, even though she's been held in stasis, it looks so volumous and so perfect in the way that it's covered, but is dressed in a bit more of a finery

and not of cauldron colors. Like she is wearing very unusual garb and garment that would actually be from where she's from, the city that the Nalanari have basically and then her Durgar bodyguard or the Dwymara as they're called in off there he is like tooled up as a bit more of like a kind of warrior but not like armor he's wearing like leathers he has some sort of weird crossbow device on like a wrist bracer he has like more kind of traveling armor and sort of looks more,

less like a kind of knight and more like a mercenary, I would say. It's like patches of metal but lots of leather and sort of equipment and stored all over his body, basically. Can you spell Nalunari? Nalunari, N-A-L-U-N-A-R-I. So lunar, like lunar, Lunari, Nalunari. N-A-L-U-N-A-R-I.

So lunar, like lunar, lunari, nalunari. Nalunari, and then what was the Durkhar? Dwemera, D-W-Y-M-E-R-A. Cool. And most of you would be familiar with the common sort of knowledge of the Dark Elves and the Doimera. You would all know the very basic story which is the Dark Elves and Nelonari were once elves that when they came to the Material Plane from the Feywild when they were sort of refugees,

they were cursed by something from the Feywild and they were sort of exiled from the elves. And they were taken in by a community of humans and dwarves and halflings who helped them go underground because they found the sun really uncomfortable and they helped them survive. And then the goddess, Malir, basically came down and took pity on them and gave them these beautiful forms that kind of undid the curse

and made them supernaturally beautiful and blessed them with the ability to see imperfect darkness and all this kind of stuff. And then to the humans and dwarves and halflings also bestowed a gift, which as they had been the sort of bodyguards and protectors offered them the same gifts, but it changed them into the Durgar or the Dwemera.

Curing the dwarves of their earth skin and the humans and halflings, they grew stronger or taller and wider and they became Durgar, basically. And that's the rough concept for Ulthayan. For Ophelia, no idea what these people are. Like, you probably would never have interacted with an Alinaria or Dwemeroth.

They have a city called Midnight, which is somewhere beneath the mountains in the Empire, but it's almost like a kind of city state. It's part of the Empire, but it's also kind of its own independent thing, and supposedly protects the Empire from vaultspawn and creatures that live down in the ground, basically, Belomorphs and creatures of Belaine

and things like that as well. That's a little bit of lore dump for you there, little world lore. That's cool. But yes, so yeah, those are the prisoners, and I'd say that still in, so yeah, we got the one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

So I think you'd got the Nala Narenda Durgar out first. Because I think you'd prioritize those. Because the Durgar looks like he has weapons and things like that. We want to get, yeah. So the rest are all currently still held in stasis. But it is, Rowan, you are actually first up. You currently, you, Ophelia and Percival,

are basically holding this construct, grappling it, and it looks like it's about to launch into like, okay, I need to free myself, and it's probably gonna start attacking you. Interesting. Noticing it's resistance, I think I would... I was gonna say gorge. Yeah? Gorge.

Okay. Large. Oh. Oh. Gorge? Large form. Okay. With which to continue to restrain this construct. Okay. Alrighty.

I embiggen. Embiggen! Nice. Perfect. All right, so that is an action, or is that a bonus action for you? That is a bonus action. Okay, let me see your action. So my action, can I pull this construct away

from the other stasis? Yeah, so as your movement, you can move half speed and take the creature with you. All right, I don't have to do like a strength grapple. No, it's part of the grapple. We're already grappling it. I'll be coordinating with Percival and Ophelia, right? You're doing this as well.

Well, we're moving. I'm gonna move him away. Okay. Just into the corner. Wait, okay. And then you guys release the others. So head deeper into the room, because I think our plan is to get him out of this, yeah.

Just a wave from, create a path, yeah. Okay. How far are you able to drag? 15 feet. 15 feet. Yeah, half movement. Yeah, the creature is going with you, obviously you've got it grappled to you, you're dragging it.

It still has, because it has these four manipulator arms with these various tools and long slender, almost talon-like fingers. It's still going to be able to attack you, but it is going to, its speed is currently zero, almost talon-like fingers. It's still gonna be able to attack you, but it is gonna, you know, its speed is currently zero, it can't chase after anything. If it attacks me or any of my allies, I'm holding in action to attack it.

Okay. Cool. Well, just squeeze. Well, if it releases from my sick grip, then I will. Alrighty, okay. To catch the guns. In that case, we then go to, if that is Rowan's full turn, Xanthias.

So I'm leading the first stasis prisoner out of the room right now. Sure. I guess I'm at the door, so I guess Gruff, you can now see me coming out with this person. Has that person sort of come to enough to? We'll say that that's the Nalanari, that's the dark elf lady.

Yeah, she's sort of, she's like, what is happening, what is, where am I? It's okay, we're here to help you, we're trying to get everyone out. She looks around, and to impress upon as well, she is, I'd say that she's very tall, she's probably about six feet tall, very sort of shapely figure,

but yeah, just there is something about her, and I leave that up to you guys how much to suspect you, but there is a supernatural beauty to them. And she has these almost starry eyes, like her eyes are almost like stars, and looks at you with these chiseled jaws, very, very beautiful, just kind of looks down at you, and is just like, thank you, what is happening?

And sort of stumbles in a way, my friend, my ward, and she's looking behind. Your ward will be out shortly, we promise that. Gruff, do you wanna take? Yes, sorry, my lady, let me just help you. She kind of leans into Gruff and sort of, still very weak, there's still a physical weakness here. Very disorientated, but he's coming around.

And yeah, you pass her over easily enough. Nice, and yeah, I guess I don't really want to start fighting just yet. I almost want to just come in ready for, like look to Daisy. Who's the next one out? Did you say that her ward is already out if this Daisy's gone?

I'd say that, yeah, so you'd picked up her and dragged her back, but let's say that the Dwemerer, the Dwagar, is actually out of the pod. He's on the ground, and he's beginning to put his hands out and he's trying to stand up. Yeah, it helps. He's almost blinking and doesn't know where he is. Yeah, it'd help the Dwagar up

and sort of point in the direction. Go that way, we're leading everyone out of this room in that direction. Sure, okay. I've got that way. We're leading everyone out of this room in that direction. Sure, okay. I've got like two sticks. This way everyone. X is for his. Flames in your hands.

Produce flame in either hand. In the case of an emergency. This way. My apologies, Percy should have actually gone before Xanthias, but I imagine that Percival's helping Rowan. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so do you want to just have that as Percy's go? Like he's basically using the help action and helping Rowan keep this thing locked down. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so do you wanna just have that as Percy's go? Like, he's basically using the help action

and helping Rowan keep this thing locked down. Yeah. Okay. Great. In that case, Daisy is actually up next. Gonna release another one. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You've got the Fort Woodsman,

the two farmers or the teenage son? Teenage son. Okay, great, perfect. Not bad idea. Before things get nasty in here. Excellent. Not that it will. But it could.

But it could. The construct. That is an action by the way, Daisy, do that. Do you wanna do anything else? I'm probably just gonna keep doing that. So I guess other than that, I will take the dodge action if this thing tries anything near me.

Okay, well, so it was an action to activate the thing, by the way, so you only have a bonus action left. Yeah. So dodge is normally a full action, and I think for rogues, you can't cunning action dodge. That's a monk thing. Well then, I... You don't have to do anything.

You can just be like, yeah, I'm done. Monk. Monk. have to do anything. You can just be like, yeah, I'm done. Monk. Monk. Yeah, pretty much. Okay. Just trying to stay on this thing so that I can release more things. I'll show you, okay.

More people. In that case, the construct is gonna go, it is gonna try and lash out at Rowan, desperate to try and fend. Rowan be growing. Rowan be growing. It is going to, I think it's, it feels like it can't break free,

so it's now just gonna try and injure you to try and make you let go of it. So it's gonna use one of its grasping limb attacks. Does it have disadvantage for being grappled with? It's not restrained. Right. So yeah, it does not have disadvantage, unfortunately. Rowan's holding it in place,

but its arms are still free to grab it. It's like you're kind of holding onto it and holding it back, but it plunges these talon-like hands into you. That's a 22 to hit. Yeah. Four. That is gonna be six points of piercing damage.

And then as a bonus action, that its head, which is this pure crystalline, begins to flash all sorts of different colors as it creates a kind of bewildering array of lights. And I would need everybody in the room, which is everybody but Gruff, to make a wisdom saving throw. Oh good, my favorite.

I love these for me. I will also roll for the Durga. Who actually has advantage. Oh my favorite. I love these for me. I will also roll for the doog. Who actually has advantage? Oh my god. I rolled a nat 20. Perfect. That's crazy. Great stuff, don't forget you got fate as well.

True. I have an eight. That's failure. 21. Success. 15. Success. Oh. I feel you got got 20 and Percy got 11.

Percival fails, Ophelia you succeed. The duergar succeeds. So just me and... What did Gruff get? Oh no, Gruff's outside. I'm outside. So yeah, so you and Percy's in. This dazzling array of lights and color up in the air,

you are dazed by it, basically. The dazed condition means you have move, action, or bonus action. You basically only get one thing a turn. Okay. You can't take reactions. Okay. So you're like, it's like,

there's so brightening your lights, you're like, oh, my brain. Struggling to convince him. Yeah, okay. Does Rowan's held action to attack go off because it attacked him? It attacked him, you said if it attacks my friends. Oh, did you say him or your friends?

Then yeah, your held action goes off. I forgot. You're welcome. There you go. Good, I had forgotten as well. Maybe because I'm trying to write up names for all these NPCs that are writing. Bob, Steve, Dave.

Yeah, there's a lot of that. Oh cool, I got a four. Cool. Okay, you miss, unfortunately. Yeah, there's a lot of that. Oh cool, I got a four. Cool. Okay, you miss, unfortunately. Yeah, this creature's hard carapace. Wow, I got a four. But the point is you tried, and that's what matters. True.

Perfect, in that case, that is its go, which brings us to Ophelia. And then Gruff is the last one in the round. Yeah, Ophelia is going to go on the offensive after seeing this thing awaken. So she's going to rage, and she is going to swang veracity towards this guy. What?

Oh shit. Yeah. Yeah. First hit is a miss, that's a two, plus, that's a six. No, what am I doing? Uh, yeah, that is a eight to hit. I imagine that's a miss. Oh, that's a six, no, what am I doing? Yeah, that is a eight to hit. I imagine that's a miss. Oh, that is a miss.

Second hit, 16 plus 622. That is a hit. Rock and roll and just stand it. It's got enough movement where it's like throwing itself to the side. Now it's sensing being attacked. It's like actively trying to pull itself to the side. It's defending itself.

The grapple is not the same thing. It's been restrained, unfortunately. Now you shall hit with Vex as well, so I defy the next time. Yeah. So that is 11, 12, 13 total damage. 13 points of damage. You score a pretty impressive sort of crack

into this thing's crystalline form, spreading up all one side, seemingly doing a hefty blow to this thing. Not quite, you know, it's hard to tell. There's no bloodied status, there's no blood or liquids or anything flowing out of these things, but it does seem to jerk and react as you've dealt it this solid blow, Ophelia.

Anything else on your turn? That is it for now. I'll just stay close to the guys, provide protection where I can. Okay, Graf. Hello, my name is Graf. I'm just going to help this lady and try and encourage any other people

to come towards the door. I just don't want to leave her on her own. Yeah, she's sort of leaning up against the wall and she will look sort of in your direction. Are you injured? Like, do you have any physical injuries on you, Gruff? I have 36 hit points out of 59. Okay, so you've got like some cuts and bruises and things like that.

The ball. Yeah. The ball. The ball. No! That was the exploding potion. That was the exploding potion. The one that really hit me.

We got healed up after the... I'm a bit singed. She will sort of blink at you. You are injured, sir! And just put a hand out to you, and she will cast Cure Wounds for six hit points. Oh, well, that is what... She whispers a prayer like,

Mistress of Secrets, Mother of Night, please heal this knight's wounds. And there's a, you feel like almost like a cold knight breeze blow over you. I'm not a knight yet, I'm a knight-errant, but that's really kind of you, thank you. She's a bit too disazed to really, really... It's just how he... Here, have some water, and I'll try... Yeah, OK, so you start like...

Probably goes into dad mode. Yeah, she'll take the water and starts drinking it. When you sort of look round to try and usher, you see this Durgar kind of get up, and he's actually going to take the last turn in the round. If you're done, that's going to be... I'll just be like, come on, fella. Gugar kind of like get up and he's actually gonna take the last turn in the round. If you're done, that's gonna be like. I'll just be like, come on fella.

He like looks over, he blinks, he's just like, looks around and he sees the dark elf with you and he'll just say, oh Lady Valesa. He'll like look around, he's like, who did this? And he starts backing up but he then sees this construct, sees all of you and he's not sure who's done what, so he's like, who took me and my mistress, who took them? And he's pointing this hand crossbow device at all of you.

Like blinking and dazed as well. Yeah, he's like, ugh, ugh. If it helps, I'm beckoning to him. He's backing up, so he's moving to the back, like, are you well, my lady, are you hurt? Uh, ugh, no, no, I'm fine, I think they're helping us. And he's like, and he kind of backs his way up, but he's basically in a hold of action

as soon as he knows what the bad guy is, he's gonna shoot at it. Yeah. But yeah, with that case, we go back up to the top of the round with Rowan. Rowan is gonna try and actually restrain this thing. Okay, so like fully pin this thing basically, okay. Kind of expose, like kind of grip all of its appendages.

You're a person who'll help pick a bone. Yeah, give me, this would be athletics. You can have advantage. I have one habit, yes. You're big, so you have advantage anyway. Embiggened. Embiggened. And then I will have this thing attempt a check

to try and oppose you, basically. Yeah, yeah. What'd you get, total? I'm going to roll a fate. OK, great. Love that. You can add a fate. I love that for you.

I love that for you. 18. 18 is enough. You do beat this thing. So what I'm going to is enough, you do beat this thing. So what I'm gonna say is you can restrain this thing, you will not be able to take any other action. All you can do is hold and pin this thing in place, which will also give you the restrained condition.

So if something else were to attack, you would also have the restrained condition. It's fine, there's nothing else attacking us, it's totally fine, nothing else in this room. Nothing else in this room. Nothing else in this room. We've just got allies in this room. But you're basically spending your whole turn

to prevent this thing from doing anything. So yeah, you've got this thing in. I'm literally just pulling its arms back, exposing its chest area as I can. Yep, it just means that you are also in a vulnerable position because you can't defend yourself. That's fine. Fantastic, yeah, I mean that would be an action.

Oh, I am exhausted. So minus one from that. Oh. Two from that. Minus two from that, so that would go down to 16. Yeah. Still enough, just, just. Keep forgetting my exhaustion.

Good, well remembered. Tough one to follow. All right, anything else? You still have a bonus action. Who's looking injured around me, anybody? I'm just blinking away some lights, but I'm not physically injured. I'm going to give Othelia, um, bardic inspiration.

Oh, thank you. You go, girl. I will. You got this. Oh, thank you. Please don't stab me. I'll try not to. Thank you.

All right, so you get your bardic inspiration. Remember, there's effects once you use them, depending on what you use them on as well. D8. Persepolis up next. Thank you. And then so you get your Barleykin's Brace. Remember, there's effects once you use them, depending on what you use them on as well. D8. Percival is up next. Thank you. And then Xanthias. Yeah, with the Kinsstrike exposed,

Percival is free to take a strike. Well, you have advantage now, because it is fully restrained. Amazing. Go, Percy, go! God of Love's Bend. Nat 20. What are you?

You are a 10 plus 17 to hit. 17 hits. Amazing. Yeah, just about. Slashing, 1d8 plus three, 11 slashing damage. Wow. With that, you see Percival brings the axe down again, causing another hefty crack to almost

kind of split across this thing's whole chest and up into its neck and into its head. It jerks and spasms, now desperate to try and get free. You don't hear any noise, like this thing is utterly silent, but the lights in its head are like flashing and you can see a lot more red and oranges in its like colors that it's flashing. For Gruff, you're not in the room. Xanthius, you're not holding the prism currently, are you?

Is it your bag, I think? Yeah, I think I have it kind of in my bag. So yeah, all of you just see this kind of flashing light. You don't hear anything, as this thing is desperately trying to escape or do something. But yeah, hefty crack. This thing is now definitely bloodied, and it looks pretty weak at this point.

OK, cool. All right, Xanthius. So the duergar, does he kind of like push me away when I went to help him up, or? Yeah, I think like you helped him up, and then he immediately is like, ugh, ugh, what's going on, who are you? Flash, like, there's just a ringing in my head,

and my eyes are like flashed. Okay, trying to help you, you fool, whoever it is is out there. And that thing, that's trying to help you, you fool. Whoever it is is out there. And that thing, that's trying to stop us from letting everyone out. Okay, he will take his ready action then. He's like, I trust you. And he's gonna fire his handcraft.

You're not very trustable. Look at my chest. That is gonna be eight points of damage from him. The bolt hits the crack that Percival just caused, causing it to split and chunks of the crystal fall on the ground. You get eight points of damage from him. The bolt hits the crack that Percival just caused, causing it to split, and chunks of the crystal fall on the ground. This thing is nearly, nearly done,

but just not quite enough, as he kind of fires from this wrist-mounted crossbow. Can I, was that like a, I guess it wasn't an action. It was his held action. You just held action. He was holding action until he knew what to fire at, and you went, that thing. He went, okay.

Being dazed, I'm kind of limited on stuff I can do. And also- You've got move, action or bonus action. Can I take a look at blinking towards this thing? Can I figure out, because the previous construct we fought when we killed it did a burst. Can I figure out if this thing is almost like arcane

instability or? I will let you make an arcana check as your action. Watch this. I'm watching. What does, I'll use fate. Yeah? Yeah, so that would put me to 12. I'm gonna fate it,

because I think I can turn this into a huge... Lovely. Tasty. Tasty five. Fate turns a 12 into a 13. Oh! I will tell you that you do believe that something will happen when this thing is destroyed.

But with a 13, and because you did destroy it, this is a different model to the one before. You're not sure if it will explode in the same destructive energy, or if something else will happen, you don't know. It will heal us. Oh. It might do. Ophelia, get that thing away from everyone

before you kill it. I think it might... Oh, okay, good point. So that is gonna be with your days. The days... That's my faulting. That will then end at the end of your turn, basically, so you kind of adjust to the light's beginning to fade. Yeah, I do the whole.

Yeah, oh my god, that's fast. I love that. Daisy. I was literally about to be like, uh, can you move this thing away from the console that controls the entire room, please? There's a console? I'm standing at it, releasing prisoners.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, please move it away. So I released the teenage boy, I'll release someone else. Random. Sure, I mean, do we wanna start moving some of the dice? Sure, yeah, move them out of their little piece of duergar, and then... Is there any particular place where boy is?

Just to say it's in the same row. Okay. This one? Yep. Get on out of here. It's time for you to release, huh? Yeah. There's nine.

And yeah, I guess I'll release the next one along. Seems to be one of the farmers, the next one along. The boy's sort of coming out of it now, as you sort of release him, he's been a sort of full round, he's just like, father, what's happening? Like kind of like blinking around, trying to look around, sees like this fight,

sort of is beginning to like scrabble and sort of crawl away, but dad, where are they? He's like looking around, like unable to find them. The man that you release from it, quite a swarthy, earthy looking, proper farmer's tan, hairy forearms, big mutton chops down his side, sort of stumbles out and is going to come to

a little bit as well. Anything else, Stacey, on your end? I don't think so, I'm just, yeah, just trying to get the people out and telling them to move the construct away. Sure, all right. The construct on its turn is, as a bonus action, Rowan and the construct, you four yourselves

fall to the ceiling. It's gonna try and like, and because you're behind it, it's gonna try and slam you into the roof to let you go, as it basically like levitates itself and you like, vwoomp, straight up. Do you keep hold of it? Yeah. Okay, then I'm gonna say you're just gonna take

basically damage as you fall into the roof for three points of bludgeoning damage. Okay. And can you give me a strength saving throw with advantage because you're large form. So you hold onto it basically. I'm gonna take it out a different way. It's about 10 feet up.

Okay. I got a mother chuffin. Yes. 14. 14, see now if you still hold onto it, so it's still restrained, but you are now currently pinned up into the ceiling. And because it's restrained, it has disadvantage, but it's still gonna try and shove its extra hands into you

to make you let go of it. That has disadvantage now. That is a natural one. So with the kind of impact of it, and you holding it in place, it's not quite able to like strike at you properly But you are now basically hovering like 10 feet above everybody in the top of this room With how is it? Is there anything propelling it?

Magic doing it up just force like yeah, there's you can't see any sort of sense of propulsion It doesn't have wings or anything like that It's it's as if gravity just changed for the two of you and you've fallen up instead of down, right? Like it's just, this is, it's used to... I can't remember what we called it before. Oh, it's, what does Kaladin do? It's the lashing.

It's lashing you up, basically. Well lashed. Well lashed. You're well lashed. That is the construct skip. On the lash. So we go to Ophelia. Seeing Rowan and the construct go up to the ceiling,

Ophelia will spider climb up, follow them up onto the ceiling. Yep, yep. She's definitely got an incredibly useful ability. Can't be stopped. And can she stand sort of in the ceiling, but towards the back corner and just say to Rowan, bring it towards me, we'll finish it off at a distance.

Other corner, I think. Yeah, far corner. Away from people, yeah. Yep, sure, absolutely. Okay, do you want to hold an action then as soon as Rowan brings it over, you're gonna strike? Yep. Great. So you get one attack when you do that.

Gruffydd? I'll continue beckoning the people, like, oh, come on, come on, lad, come on. But also... But Gruffydd doesn't want to go in, Sideway, because you're worried about him. No, because I'm worried about the chip in my chest and I was worried initially that the robot might be like,

oh, because when the chip got put on my chest, the first instruction was go to stasis. So I didn't want to get stasis. Yeah, you can easily get to the boy and sort of like, come on, like, usher him towards you and stuff as well. Can I look around the central chamber and see if there's any signs of something else coming? Like, you know, I can hear commotions happening.

You would look around, you don't see any, what you would notice is the walls, you know, whenever you've been in this place, the walls have like these shifting colors, mostly like kind of black glass. But there is kind of like a pulsing sort of red-orange tint to it as well. But nothing is happening.

You don't hear any noises. You can make a perception check for me. 10. 10, nothing immediately draws your eye. Okay. Yeah, I'll use my turn. So my action is to look around and to be ready if something comes, but not mechanically.

And just keep ushering people out, getting them safe in the corridor, trying to keep them calm and just be reassuring. Sure. The duergar, the Dwemer will grab the boy and the dad who's just woken up, the farmer. He's like, come on you two, get up! And he brings them up and he brings them out to you,

sort of throws them into your hands, Gruff as they're sort of making their way. And then he immediately goes to the dark elf, and he's just like, Lady Vela's, are you all right? Are you hurt? And he's checking her over, like, oh, my ancestors would have never forgiven me if anything had happened to you,

and he's fussing over her, basically. And she's sort of like, no, I'm fine, I'm fine. I just need a moment, and they're taking a little second to the side. After that, we go back up to the top. It's brand new round with Rowan. So yeah, this is- So I'm pinned to the ceiling. Yes.

Well, imagine you've fallen onto the ceiling, right? So the ceiling is now the floor to you. And you're lying on your back. So you're technically prone, and you're holding this thing on top of you. So I'm gripping like this. I'm gonna put my legs down and just start pushing forward. Just inchworming.

And squirming towards Ophelia. I will allow you to move 15 feet towards Ophelia. Dash. Yeah, yeah. With a dash and then you can get close enough for Ophelia to just like a worm. There you go, you're right up into the corner now. Yeah. That's a pretty fantastic visual.

Back worm. Yeah. Amazing. And then yeah, feeling gets the attack roll with advantage because it's prone. And you did vex. Can't get advantage, sadly. 18 to hit. Is enough, absolutely.

Sick, nasty, sick, nasty, sick. 12, 13, 14 damage. The rapier of veracity pierces into the already cracked construct's body, and you see this thing, it kind of collapses inwards the crystal. The face, it's kind of a no featureless head, flashes bright colors,

and the whole thing crumblesumbles and there is a kind of sucking sound, like the air. Any creatures within 20 feet. Five, 10, 15, 20, but then is it, so it does, the radius hits Daisy, but Daisy is also down, so. It's 20 feet, so she's only 10 feet down, so it's like a sphere, basically.

Okay. So we'll catch that. Anybody in that sphere, including Rowan and Ophelia, I need you to make a constitution saving throw. Okay. Percival doesn't need to make this. Percival is also out of the range, I think. He's slightly out, yeah.

There is, oh no, that, no. That person is still in the stasis. Yeah. 15. 15. Yeah. 15. 15. 22. 22. You all succeed. You feel magic essence being pulled out of you

and you manage to resist it. This would have drained spell slots or magical energy from you. Mother trucker. Huh? What a mother trucker. Yeah. But you manage to resist it

and you don't lose that magical energy. Keep hold of it. Brute. As it then crumbles, ruins you then immediately fall as this thing dies. Make an acrobatics check. Is the ceiling. 10 feet.

10 feet. Well I'm like. You don't like 10 feet. You're so big. But you were sort of prone, so you're still good. Give me an acrobatics check. Just to see if you could like, you tuck your knees in enough that you just land.

And... 18. 18, yeah, I'd say you sort of, as you're falling you're like, oh, are you just talking to me? You like pull your knees in, and then you sort of land in a crouch. Boom.

I feel like obviously you're stuck to the ceiling because you've got more connect, so you're absolutely fine. Yeah, as this thing is destroyed, without any further threat, we can drop out of initiative. Okay. As, yeah, Daisy. I'm just gonna keep going. Yeah.

La la la la la la. You're sort of rolling this ball. It's kind of like, try, imagine like those puzzles you had a kid where you had to get the ball bearing around. You have to almost navigate this ball to settle on like a little point and then that opens up a stasis chamber and then you roll it and then it's the next one

and then the next one. So it takes a little bit of finesse to do. Fucked up, right? Weird shit, man. Weird shit, pretty much eyes, man. Who knows how they work. That's the scariest part of this so far. Bad UI design.

Or it's just like, do you know what, I want to make my prison fun. I'm going to make it a little game to release them. Opening the doors is the most fun I've ever had. But yeah, eventually with all of this taken care of without the construct really threatening you guys, you release all of these prisoners. They take a few moments to kind of come to their senses and there's immediately a lot of like, where are we? Who are you? What's going on?

It's okay, we're trying to help everyone out of here. We are prisoners like you are, but we've managed to get out of here. Kind of. They're just sort of holding their heads. All of them, no, I'm not gonna say anything because I'll leave that to you guys to decide. Well, I was gonna say, like, I didn't check

on the first three, or first four, sorry, but I almost wanna see if I can find chips on them. Either that'll be a medicine check, or a perception check, I'll let you choose. I'll do it, I won't necessarily be. Yeah, and that goes for anybody, I imagine, because you checked this before the ending graph, yeah. Perception, hell yeah, my biggest stat.

Oh shit, 16. Bit of minus two. 13. 13. 21. 21. Same, 21. 21, yeah, everybody but Grog unfortunately.

You do notice very quickly, they're not on their chest, they're all just behind the ear, like just under the hairline, they all have that crystal. It's no bigger than a sort of cuff link size, but just all embedded there. And you see a couple of them like scratch at it, or a couple of them like hold their head, they're like, oh, what's that, what's that voice?

Oh, and they're sort of like looking around. Is the voice saying anything to me? I think like at this point, if you, because you're still out of the room, this is the people who are in the room waking up, when you don't hear anything out here, and in fact the Durgar and the Nalanari are not mentioning anything about voice either. But you sort of usher people outside, they're very confused, they look quite tired and maybe like they've not eaten

or drank or, you know, they're just sort of a bit lost looking around. The two farmers, these two male farmers, like grab the young boy and they're sort of hugging them. Clearly they're a family together. The four woodsmen sort of like scratching their heads, looking at each other like, and there's almost an element there of like,

one of them's like, wait a minute, like, you went, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're David's grandfather. Like they're like looking at him, they're like, you went missing, you went missing like 70 years ago. Like you're, you're this great, great fan. Like, and they, but they recognize them, right? And like, and there's like, but one of them seems to have been maybe caught maybe the last time this lol was here. And he's like, they one of them seems to have been maybe caught maybe the last time this vault was here.

They're all like fairly young, none of them are particularly old, they're all, but there's definitely like a resentment. Everyone just focus on my voice and let's get out of this. Who are you? Now I'm Zanthius Oragon. I was wandered into this vault and we are hoping to find a way out.

But we have freed you from the stasis room. He's a dragonborn. He's a dragonborn, but we should listen to him. Maybe he wants somebody. Yeah. He's a very friendly guy. Ah! It's a giant man!

He's with us. With us. Don't worry about him. Don't worry about him. He's a cuddle bug, really. Oh, that one is also with us. Yeah, there's a skeleton there as well. And a skeleton too.

She's still on the ceiling. That's with all of us in this room currently right now are friendly. I think like two of the woodsmen just faint. They just like, they just pass out basically. Hi. You can see that like all of them look terrified. It's okay, it's okay.

I promise, they're all really nice. Okay, I don't know what's going on here, but. Are you from Colville? The farmer, not the farmer, at least one of the woodsmen you're talking to, he's a little halfling woodsman. He's like, yeah, I'm from Colville, yeah. Okay, well, the lights, do you remember the lights?

As soon as you said that, they're like, yeah, that was the last thing, I remember I went out for a piss after drinking at the pub, and I saw a bloody light. The lights took you after you, you can't do that. That's the last thing. I remember I went out for a piss after drinking at the pub and I saw a bloody light. The lights took you after you came to the house. That's the last thing I remember. Did everyone else see lights? I'm guessing I'm a great agent. Basically, yeah, like the ones that you can speak to.

The most coherent ones are the Nalunari and the Dwemer, the two that came out. They also seem maybe they're, you know, these aren't just like common for, they've got like a bit of experience, like not quite hero PC level, but they're a bit more put together than the others. And they all start, the group of farmers

and the group of woodsmen are just muttering to each other, like, yeah, do you see a light? Yeah, I bloody see a light, yeah. The merchant, the Nalanari, she will bow her head. She's like, yes, I remember what you speak of, these lights. My companion and I, we encountered them out on the road when we were walking, and there was this bright light. I thought it was magic.

I went to study it, and it took me away. But the duke, I was just like, I followed my lady. She was like, she was suddenly possessed. She just kept walking, and there was nothing I could do to shake her out of it. I followed her into this place. She tried knocking her head. You should've tried attacking her.

I would never, I would never dream of doing that. How could I hurt one that I love so much? But yeah, he just says, yeah, I followed her. Quite oddly easy. And then she came to this glade with a tree and I was still, you know, I was so exhausted and tired. She'd been walking for days, I was trying to feed her water whenever I could

and then she stepped up onto this tree and vanished and we appeared in this place of crystal and then there were these machines that took us and they laid her on the bed and they, that's, and he touches, he's like, they did it to me, yes, I remember, like, they grabbed me, I was trying to stop them from doing it to my, to Lady Valessa, and then they did the same thing to me. And then I had, we heard a voice, yes, yes, a voice,

it told us to go to Stasis, and we walked in, and then that is, and then we, I don't remember, it's like I went to sleep, it's just like I fell asleep. Right, hello, my name's Graf. Thank you so much, Sir Graf. Oh, more than this. What date do you think it is? We were traveling,

sometime in Stormfall, I think. About, sort of, the previous month or the month before. It's like two months. Right, all of you here. What kind of, what year is it? So most of them answer the same. Most of them are from the sort of last two months they've gone missing.

Apart from one guy who introduces himself as Christoph. I'm Christoph. And he will say, he's like, well it is, I need to remember the actual, why do you have to ask me for specific dates, you fucking asshole? You don't have to give me this. No, because I have this.

Vibe, just a vibe is great. Grandfather, right, so. A vibe of the year. 70 years before, something like that. That is my timeline. That's how I get through life in general. It's not 2025 for you, it's just the dark age. So here's some lore for you.

So obviously with the death of the dragon empress, the calendar was renamed, kind of like a BCAD thing, where the years are marked in CE. So the current year is 6 CE, but before then it would have been IE, imperial edict. So he would have said, so he doesn't, this guy's like, well it is the year of 936 of our empress, of course. Oh, you said empress?

Yes, the dragon empress, of course. Right. Who's going to tell him? You might want to sit down for this. Yes, yeah, well. Have some water, have some water. Thank you, thank you. It's been quite a while since you've been in here.

What do you mean? This proto-Magi Vault seems to disappear... Vault? Oh, that makes sense. Yes. Yes, of course. ...seems to disappear and reappear over long periods of time. How long? A year? Six months? Well, we've been in here for approximately half a day or so, and the vault seems to have been around

for a couple of months. Most of you have been here a couple of months. This one said I was someone's grandfather. That's not possible. My boy is barely a man. It's not possible. You've been in here rather a long time. The last time this protomagic vault was in, or near Colvell,

was over... 20. Maths years ago. 60, 70. 60, 70 years. About 70 years ago. Surely you jest, sir, it's not possible. 70 years has passed.

You've been asleep a long time, time has moved for you. He's trying to look at himself like, no, it's not possible. Also, the dragon. Things have changed in Elthaea. I didn't hear you, so I don't think he heard you. Probably.

Things have changed in Elmira. Maybe while you've been in this place, things will be quite different to what you might imagine. How does he look at me as a gold dragonborn? That's true. When was that? That was a lot longer ago. So there would definitely be a kind of like-

It would be fresher at least. It would be fresher, but there's a big difference between like 400 years ago and like 70 years ago. Yeah, I just don't know how recent- No, he would still beher at least. It would be fresher, but there's a big difference between 400 years ago and 70 years ago. Yeah, I just don't know how recent. He would still be like, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just don't know how recent the gold dragon versus the red dragon sort of provinces might have been making events.

Yeah, I mean, that would have been like two, 300 years ago. There's been other events that have happened since then anyway. Yeah. Those of you who have elven sort of heritage, like I know Rowan has like a little bit of elf like in his ears and stuff, right? Like that would be something he'd be like,

oh, like, cause the elves would be still fairly new-ish, like it's only been like a hundred and something years that the elves have been around at that point. So he's definitely like looking at the Nalunari, he's like, oh, like, oh, I've never seen one of the dark elves and stuff before, but he's familiar enough. It's not like it's brand new information to him. So he's just sort of like, no, you must be wrong,

or you jest, this is not possible. We could be wrong. But then the other farmer, well, at this point, the other farmers from Colville and the woodsman are like, no, Christoph, I heard about you, your son, and then his son, he's my friend, I heard about you. Your son and then his son, he's my friend. Like, we heard about you. You went missing.

People thought that the Galowak or one of the beasts had killed you. You'd vanished one day. It was a sad time in Koval, you and several others. And he's like looking at him, he's like, no, I don't know you. Like, there's this kind of, it's not an old man. He's like in his 40s, 50s, but there's confusion here.

And I think the Nalunari, she kind of comes up, it's like, it is all right. Perhaps now is not the time. You are here, you are alive, you are well. Yes, we're trying to get to the bottom of what is happening in this place, but we are hopeful that we've been able to avoid security and other things in this vault

that will hopefully lead us to an exit eventually. Well, that's very kind of you, Dragonborn, but I have an important question. How do we get out of here? That's what we're trying to figure out. We only really have one step remaining. Aside from that door, which we're going nowhere near. Don't go anywhere near that door.

That one. The yellow one. Not that we would know how to get out of this place anyway. The only thing we're thinking is we're gonna head upstairs, up that tube thing, that green tube, and that should be where anyone or anything that is running this place will be currently.

Do we have to worry about these? If you... So, and Gruff will tap a claw onto the one that's on his chest. In my experience, every now and again, this Vermilion Orcs are something or other. Nine. Um, it's...

It's some big bugger upstairs who's in control here. He tries to tell me to do things like go to the stasis and things like that, but I've been over... I've been able to overcome it and resist it. So, hopefully, we'll go and sort out Vermilion Orcs are a thingy, my Bobby, before they send out another command. You get the difficult bit,

and then it's just a number at the end. Every time! But for now, we were thinking that we'd have all of you just sit in the entrance chamber for now, just over there, and if you see anyone stand up and start to wander off, try to stop them. They might be listening to the voice. Right, okay.

Can we lock the door to the stethos room? That's not a bad idea. I can do that. I do have the red orb. I don't know if I wanna be locked in there. No, I could also use the phallus. That'd be smart, yes. Oh, I'll also lock that blue one over there as well.

I think there might be some more constructs in that room too. My lady, is there anything you can, you said that this voice might affect our mind. Is there anything your goddess, the lady of night can do? And perhaps a little, I can give us all a small boost to our willpower to see if we can help. Now that I know that it is an external influence,

there is one ritual that I can cast. It would protect one of us. I would put it on you, my friend, so that you can ward us and make sure that we are protected. You should use it on yourself, my lady, not on me. They sort of have a bit of a discussion. But yeah, they eventually come to a tight chat and they sort of take over as the leaders.

The common folk are just too scared and confused and Kristoff is just, they sort of take over as the leaders, like the common folk are just too scared, confused and Kristoff is just, he's kind of sat on the floor now and some of the other woodsmen are sort of chatting to him. But these two, the duergar, the Dwemera, sorry, will look at you all and be like, oh well, Theraval at your service. I'm the warden of my lady, Velesa.

I'll look after him. Please spell the things. Yes, Theravall, T-H-E-R, U-V-A-L, Theravall, and Valessa, V-A-H-L-E-S-S-A. Okay. Well, Theravall, are you able to fight? You might be able to assist us when we head to the station. I can fight, yeah, I can fight a little, yeah,

but I wouldn't leave my lady. I can't leave my lady. I think it probably would be best if he stays with the group, and then we can go and sort things out, because I'd feel better knowing that all of these people had someone to look after them. This ritual that would protect you from those voices,

can you cast that on multiple people or? I only have a small amount of my divine energy left. I can cast it on one for now. I wonder if... But I do have some other energy I could spend to help you, I think, three of you at least. It would be a small boon of my lady, but it might do something to help you.

I wonder if it would be a good idea, but it might do something to help you. I wonder if it would be good, dear Gruff, for you to be able to resist that familiar Orc's a nine, when we head upstairs. When did I last, because you said that- After your long rest. It was after long rest, and I would be resistant for a while. 24 hour, oh no, you said time.

A time. Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah. Who knows? I suppose so, I'd actually, it's okay. I'd feel better if this fella, Thurval, was protected. Okay. Just means that in case something happens

and I need to corral the rest of them, I can deal with that at least. Exactly. Yeah, good idea. Yes. All right. Well, it looks like they left pretty much all of our equipment with us. They didn't take anything from me, so I should be all right.

Would it be okay if I asked you to look after this chap as well, and I'll kind of gently gesture towards Squire Pascal? Yeah. Valesa will say, of course, you poor thing, come here, you are hurt. And sort of like licks at his wounds and things like that. He's a bit traumatized. You fellas, you mentioned the Galawak.

He was captured by the Galawak and driven insane. He survived? Oh yes, we've killed the Galawak. Oh, like these, all the woods folk are like, oh my god, these guys are like, they're like, you did what? Yes, well, yes. The gal, like, it's real and you killed it? I have its, her head.

I'll just present it. They're like, oh! They're demeaning, like they're just in awe of the five of you. So we're going to keep you safe, as best as we can. Okay. And then we'll help you all find a way out. All right, yeah, well, yeah, we'll help this guy. We'll help this Dwemera out.

We can fight a little bit. Excellent. If you've got any spare weapons or anything we could use just in case we need it. There's, uh, there's... Theraval will, like... He looks at them, like, eyes them up. Like, probably, Theraval finds, like,

the one he thinks looks the strongest, and he pulls out, like, a very at him like eyes them up. Like probably Theravile finds like the one he thinks looks the strongest and he pulls out like a very slender dirk, like a wide bladed dagger. And be like. I've got a dagger too. Yeah, I also. I give that to the teenage son. Okay, he's like, what have you got?

The two farmers are like, no sir, no, no. They're like, I'll take it and I'll protect the three of us. Okay. You see the son is just like, oh, what do I do? But one of the dads takes it, and he's like, no, I'll take it and protect us. I've got a longbow, if any, if you can shoot. Yeah, well, I mean, Kristoff, in fact, is like,

I did a bit of hunting in my day. I'll give Kristoff my longbow. Maybe he'll like a dagger or a light hammer. Yeah, one of us have a hammer. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure.. I'm assuming gyarows. A dagger or a light hammer. Yeah, one of them's a hammer. Yeah, I mean, I'll take the hammer. I can give him a dagger as well. I'm not a dagger, I think. So yeah, they've...

Give him the gun. All ones that can fight are basically armed now at this point. And you see Theraval, he actually takes out, this is so weird, because you know you designed your collapsing halberd thing. That's actually a thing, when I was writing the Dwight Merrick, they have all these gizmos that they use

to fight underground. That's actually one of their things that they have, is collapsible light hatchets. But his is like, it's like a spear that collapses down. And so he pulls this out and makes it into a short spear. And then he gets a piece of metal that rolls out from his crossbow thing, it's like a buckler, built into his crossbow thing,

and so he kind of flexes these things out and he's like, he kind of hunkers down. Oh, that's fascinating. This is to a mirror mate, we make it down to fighting the tunnels. Oh, it's quite beautiful, my lad here, Percy, has got a lad that's very gruff. By the gods, is that a skeleton?

Yeah, like I said, what about friends? Yes, he's my very noble friend, Percy. All right, it is all right. I do not sense any maliciousness from this king. He can be trusted. He listens to us and he is our... I am very trustworthy, in fact. See, look at him. Isn't he so trustworthy?

I am a good skeleton. See, he's a good skeleton. I am a good skeleton. You are a good skeleton. I am a good skeleton. He is a good skeleton. He is a good skeleton. He's so funny.

It's like red eyes. It's boring. Yes, he appears a very similar style of weapon to yours, with extending arms, could fit multiple uses. He's like, Theravel's like, hmm, this Dwight Merritt, this Dwight Merrimade, I shouldn't be finding these things up there, that's our business.

I suppose, I suppose I, he's quite grumbly, he's like, hmm, that's proprietary technology, you should be having that. But yeah, he's sort of like, well, I'll do my best, and with Lady, he's like, huh, that's proprietary technology, you should be having that. But yeah, he's sort of like, well, I'll do my best, and with Lady Veles's blessing, I might be able to hopefully keep things in check. Yes, but that room over there is where we came in, that should be the entrance hall,

you should hopefully be safe in there, I don't believe there's anything new in there. That's a good trick point, me and these warriors, we can hold up in there. But we will, like I said, be heading up that green tube shortly. We would welcome any assistance you can give us before we do. Well, I can help three of you with the blessing of the Night Mistress.

Those who are perhaps worried about their health and their safety. Those who are weaker in body, I may be able to help a little. Mm. I'm strong in bod. Big bod. I'm stacked and ripped, actually, so... I'm about so-so. I guess... Oh, right, was it a...

A smaller one? I don't know you. She will clasp a medallion of a woman with six arms, each holding, one holds a sceptre, one holds a book, one holds a mirror, one holds a key, sorry, four arms. She holds this kind of like amulet that she's wearing, and you begin to hear her muttering a prayer, blessed be the shadows that conceal us. Blessed be the light of the stars

that reveal only what we must. Lady of secrets, lady of love, please aid these three. And she casts Aid on the three of you. So you get five, your hit point maximum goes up by five, and your current hit points go up by five as well. So for eight hours. Who did that go to? Gruff, Daisy, and Ophelia.

Nice. Oh, not Zapp? No, he refused it. He Gruff, Daisy, and Ophelia. Nice. Oh, not that? No, he refused it. He's like, nope, I'm strong and cool. I've got Constitution through the roof, baby. Yes, which I know is gonna be awkward with you because you've got your armor lowering it, and now that's gonna go up.

So sorry, that was... Your hit point maximum goes up by five, as do your current hit points. Well, so me and Trott, our characters are always fine in every combat we go into. Exactly. So is it like temp, temp? Yeah, it's the aid spell.

No, it's not temp hit points, it actually, so you can actually heal up, so if you lose those hit points, you can actually heal back up to it as well. So yeah, it affects your max hit points. Gonna put it in temp, just so I can separate it in my mind, and then I'll remember. Remember that you can heal up to it, yeah, sure.

No, I fucked it. But yeah heal up to it, yeah, sure. No, I fucked it up. But yeah, and you feel, again, you feel almost like the cold night breeze. And well, maybe also coupled with, it would almost feel like arms of silk wrapping around you in a very gentle hug. Like almost like this draped silk dress kind of enveloping you.

She's a priestess of Malia specifically. And then we healed five as well. So yeah, your hit point maximum goes up by five, and then your current hit points go up by five to go inside with that. Okay. You have had this spell cast on you before. No, I'm just trying, it's just working out how to do it. In other campaigns we have 100% these days. Yeah, I'm just checking. It's been a long time.

I haven't had it. In other campaigns, we have 100% been stayed. Yeah, it's just a... It's just a mechanical on the thing. Could be different in 25.5. It's not. Oh. It's not.

Okay, is everyone ready, prepared? Yes, of course. To head upstairs to Vermillion, Oxen Eye, and you shrink down. I shrink down. I fear to know what would have happened to us if you had not come to our aid. I do not know what this place intended for us,

or these machines, but we are very grateful that we are free. Well, hopefully we'll be one step closer to finding out what was going to happen here, and also one step closer to leaving. Yes, I would wish that very much. Yes, us too, thank you. Thank you.

I'm very grateful that we're not gonna be victims of whatever is at play here. Sorry, we've not introduced ourselves to you, have we? Well, I did, kind of. You have? A little bit. Well, I'm Sister Ophelia de la Rosa of the House of Blood.

It's been a long time since I've said that. How are you doing? All right. Good, but be careful of the hand.? All right. Good, just reaching out a hand. Shakes your hand. Lovely, thank you. Haven't done that in so long. Ophelia, just as a quick reminder,

and I'm almost gonna point at my watch, but we don't have watches. I know, we thought I'd do introductions. You know, I don't know how long we could be here for a turn. Time is against us. Okay, okay, we'll go, we'll go, we'll go. While everyone's doing this, I would probably have a quiet word with Lady Velessa,

and basically just update her about Squire Pascal, and say if for some reason we find Dame Cassandra in Ashen's Rest, that kind of thing, and explain that he's got a curse, blah blah blah. He seems to like this kind of food. Make sure he has water, and, like, you know, just... Treating him like a bear. No, a bad person. Like, you know, he's very reluctant to let him leave him behind.

She will look at you with these starry eyes, and there's this intense sort of like strong, quiet... This is like a figure of the night come alive, almost looking at you and with very solemn eyes. I promise you that we will make sure he gets back to Ashen Rest and that we look after him. Thank you. It's the least we can do for your aid.

Oh, thank you, my lady. I hope that we all make it out here together, but you know. May Liz's blessing be upon you, and I think that we will. I do here together, but you know. May Liz's blessing be upon you. I think that we will. I do not think that she would want one who cares for others so much to be lost in this place. And also if you... to bear out secrets of whatever this place is, she would want us to deliver those secrets to the world and to her.

She is one, not one for leaving behind lost knowledge. So I think that we will. I have faith. Thank you very much, my lady. She will just nod. Yeah, leaving you guys. You see them basically, Theravolt is like a military commander.

He's like, you, you, with me, we're gonna block up this area here. I'm the foreguard, you with the bow, oh man, get behind us. Like, and basically he's creating a bottleneck, so if anything does attack him, or like anything comes in from this way, he's gonna be able to fight in this tight place

and hold it as best he can. Uh, yeah, uh, you five, with me. Shut up, Xanthir. Oh, come on, please, just kidding, we're gonna go into this. No! No! We're going upstairs, that's happening. No, I've been told to, Xanthir! That's Oh, come on, please. No! We're gonna go into this. No! We're going upstairs.

We're going upstairs, that's happening. That's final! We're going into the lift! Groth's already standing by the lift. All right, remember how we do this? We all hold hands, we fall in at the same time. That was kinda how we did it, right? Don't you have to hold the orb at the first.

What else you got? Oh, that's a good question. I have a red and I think I had... You have none of them. I have a red and I think I had. You have none of them. I have a red. Daisy has all of them. This is a really critical bit of role play. Can I have the orb?

You sarcastic little prick. No, I don't think you can. Well in that case, you need to make a green orb over there. I give him the orb. Thank you. I don't want to change the Good. Your orb's annoying. I'm gonna close, I have a purple one, so I'm gonna close the purple door to the status.

Oh, can I, before we close the door, can I take the black orb out of the place? Very good. You have the black orb. That's my shit right there. Thank you so much. All right. I should have left it. I should have just left him with it. Oh, actually this is very important as well,

can I have all the keystones too? One, thank you, oh two, thank you, oh and a third one, thank you. Okay, so I'm gonna go to the console, because I also want to make a blue. So I'm gonna put the purple one in. Drains of color becomes clear. Hell yeah.

Blue keystone. Fills the glass sphere with blue color. All bar, keystone out. Okay. I have a blue wall. I wanna close that blue door over there to the sort of the bedroom. You hold it up to the end,

the blue wall of sort of almost block crystal like clear glass forms in place. Nice, that might keep them safe from the things that we know are in that room, like clear glass forms in place. Nice, that might keep them safe from the things that we know are in that room, provided they're still in there. Now I need to make a green, so I go back. I put the blue in and the yellow in. You put the blue in, drains of color.

Blue keystone. Yeah, you put the blue keystone in, as soon as it's in, it drains of color. Not the orb, the keystone. Oh, the keystone, might be. Blue keystone in. Keystone, yellow keystone. Yellow keystone. Blue orb. The keystone. Oh, the keystone. My bad. Blue keystone in. Keystone, yellow keystone. Yellow keystone.

Blue orb. Turns black. Because there's multiple colors in there. Keystone, keystone out. Orb still in. Drain of color. Blue, keystone, yellow keystone. Yellow adds the yellow, turns green.

Orb out, keystone's out. You now have, so red, green, blue. No, you just used the blue ones. You have red, green, purple. Purple. Can we have an entire episode that is just that? No! You're getting that now, Tom.

Don't push your luck. Okay. So just, yeah, keep a note of what colors you have. Sorry, I realized I was rushing everyone, because you know, the time limit. For Tr note of what colors you have. Sorry, I realize I was rushing everyone, because you know the time limit. For Trot's benefit, we have eight hours. Until the vault disappears. What?

Yeah, I asked him. You do know this, but. And he was like, eight hours until we leave this plane. Approximately eight hours before this vault leaves. From here on? From this plane. From this plane of existence. Eight hours from now?

From previous events. Eight hours from about seven hours ago. Wait, it might be seven. Well, we've not been seven hours. Maybe been about an hour. Yeah, that's like six, seven hours, yeah. Well, approximately. Approximately. Okay, everyone, we know how this works,

we know how this lift works, we all just hold hands, fall into it, and then I'll take everyone up to the top floor, but we don't know what's up there. For a million orcs or nine, there's a fly in my face. How are the flies getting the vault? They must have manifested some kind of creature. They're from the family. Oh, good.

Some of them seeped in. That might be the dog as well. Anyway, so we're just gonna fall into this lift. That's a neighbor. It's a neighbor, yeah. Adlihan, Hiberino. So annoying, like the Oh, no. Oh, no. Adliheim, Hiberino. Oh, that was so annoying. That's the ultimate annoyance.

Adliheim. He's back. Is everyone ready to jump in? Yes. One, two, three, four, five, six, policy, yes, okay, we're ready. On zero. Three, two, one, zero.

You all ascend using the green keystone, the green sphere. You make your way to the top floor. There is no more further cylinder, so there is just a roof to this part of the building. The prison, I should say. As you reach it, you again have to sort of awkwardly sort of shuffle or push each other

to get enough momentum to come out of the cylinder. And you find this to be the same layout, polyhedral layout, but there are no corridors splitting off except one which leads north, almost directly above the entrance tunnel that you'd come in on. This corridor is blocked by a wall of shifting colors. It goes green, orange, purple, sort of rotating between the three colors.

And you can see that it has a smaller version of the pedestal that you've been using to change the colors of the spheres, built into the sort of smoky quartz crystal wall, which has room for three orbs placed before it. You're fucking welcome. So it's blue, orange, and what, sorry, the thing is shifting between?

Purple, green, orange, purple. Green, orange, purple. You have purple, green, and red. And there's, is there, there is not a device for changing the color of them up here. I think I need to make an orange orb real quick. Yes. Yeah, okay, so I'm gonna go downstairs.

Do you guys wanna just hang out up here for a bit? Yeah, we could wait, that's fine. There is nothing else up here, yeah, there's no corridors, no split offs or anything like that. We'll have a scout around. Residue. Just have a quick look, if you hear any noises, just call down the tube and I'll bring you down safely.

Can we see through this swirling wall? Like the others, you can't see beyond it. What happens if you just put one of the orbs in there? I could give it a go. Like the green one or something. The green, yeah, I could, oh, maybe, I'll keep the green for now just in case. I'll put the purple in. Okay. Purple. You place the purple in, it seems I could, oh, maybe I'll keep the green for now just in case, I'll put the purple in.

Okay. Purple. You place the purple in, it seems to settle in place, and the purple color fades from the door, leaving just green and orange. Okay. Right, okay, so. Good. Yeah. All right, well I'm just gonna. Do you want me to come with you?

You can, if you want, if everyone can come with me. But do you want me to come with you? I'm not gonna say no. Just quick. I'll come with me. But do you want me to come with you? I'm not gonna say no. Just quick. I'll come with you. Quick, time, time. All right, okay, anyone. We'll all go, let's all go.

We're all going at the same time. All right, three, two, one, zero. You descend down to the middle platform. That's a confused look from Theravall and the others. Hey. Come back down. Sorry, there's a, we just need another orb. We change colors on this thing, you see. Okay. You can watch it happen if you want, it's very exciting.

All right, I'm gonna put the... Daisy's in the background going, it's not! Yellow keystone in. Yes. Red orb. That would do the same thing, yeah. So the yellow feeds into the red orb, turning it orange. Orb out, keystone out.

Perfect. There you go, there's the orange. Gotta back up again. Yes. Up we go, yes. All right, everyone. Back in you go, there's the orange. Got to back up again. Yes. Up we go, yes. All right, everyone. Back in a minute, bye bye. Make your way back up to the door. Three, two, one, zero.

Yeah. You make your way back up to the door. There are still two spheres and two colors. Ready? Ready. It's open the door, I think, so just be prepared for what might come up. Get on with it.

I'm just saying, be ready, battle stations or whatever. That's what people say in the military. Orb in, orange orb in. Orange fades from the wall. And is everyone definitely ready? Vandals! I swear. Just do it.

Green orb in. The green fades, now leaving the corridor open and empty. Leading, the corridor seems to extend for a good sort of 40 feet, and then does seem to open up. And you can see kind of pulsing lights coming from the area, but it seems to open up into a fairly large chamber beyond that you are unable to see too much detail in

from where you currently are. That's not ominous. Okay. That looks fine to me. Does it get dark, you say? It doesn't get dark, but there's a haziness to it. If I sing about it, it makes it better. It's fine if I sing a song, it doesn't seem quite as scary.

Everybody sing along, it's fine, we're gonna be okay. I'm going to take the lead and start walking in. Is it worth asking the familiar Orcs of Nine? What? I don't know. Where's Big Prez? I don't want to talk to that thing anymore? I don't wanna talk to that thing anymore, it's getting... Wow.

I'm going to start walking. Okay, Gruff starts leading the way, so Gruff, you are at the front of the column. What's the marching order here? I'll follow behind, since they just opened the door. Okay. I'll go. So Gruff, Xanthius, Daisy. Yeah, it's about 10 feet wide, yeah,

you can, like, Gruff and Xanthius. I'm gonna hold my arms. Yeah, I'll go behind Daisy. Okay. I can't do a gruff, can I? I'll take the rear watch. With you and Percy basically at the back. Yeah. Okay. I'll be constantly looking behind us, just in case.

Sure. As you walk about halfway down the corridor, this time you sense that it's not the door that fills the corridor, this time you sense that it's not the door that fills the space, but the corridor itself seems to taper. The actual smoky crystal quartz draws itself into a point behind you. Oh, really, really thumb drops.

As you step out, you emerge into a large square chamber that goes up and up and up. you emerge into a large square chamber that goes up and up and up. There does not seem to be a roof to this place that you can see, and in fact, looking out to the sides, there is almost a sort of expansive nothingness. The chamber is made of the same gray smoky quartz that you've encountered elsewhere in the Prism. It's about 60 by 60 feet with two raised walkways on either side.

At the far wall directly opposite you is a large cylindrical tower about 30 feet high, atop which is an opalescent circular desk in which a robed figure sits. As you take this moment in, you can see that on either side of the two walkways are shimmering doorways, portals. And looking up, you almost feel like shadows falling over you as there seems to be two floating, huge square platforms directly above you with columns and things going on. You're unable to see through the smoky courts of the floors of these platforms, but you can tell that there is something above you.

As you enter, the robed figure turns, and you would see too many red-skinned legs, almost reaching like hands on a great console. Touching colored glyphs and stones inscribed into the circular desk. The creature's body is unlike anything you've really seen before. You're not sure if it's a construct or if it's living material,

but it has this clear quartz crystal, much like the construction of the prism itself, growing out of its body. Its head is hidden beneath an enormous tall robed, like pointed robe, but you can see that same sort of red skin and a bizarrely uneven amount of crystalline eyes, but they're just like raw rocks, but almost placed around a face like they are eyes, and more of these crystal growths

protruding from the robe's shoulders. In one elongated clawed hand, it wields a staff topped with a prismatic stone, shaped very much like a light prism would be, multifaceted. As it looks down, it sort of peers over this console of this 30-foot tower down. State your presence and business.

You have intruded upon the prism. State your nature. presence and business you have intruded upon the prism. State your nature. Speak! We, we are looking for the exit. Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah.

How crude. I thought you sought something greater. Actually, hello. My name is Graf. Identified. Project. You have been embedded. Subject.

You should not be out of stasis. Well, I am because I have a burning question for you. State your question. If you can see my friend's chest, if you've probably got a scanner or something like that, I'm looking if a corrupted metal can be extracted from him without harming the subject. Step forth, creature.

All right, yes. How much, how forth? You can see that this is a large square platform. You're still kind of at the far end where the corridor leads in. You sort of walk into the center of it as the whole room flashes a series of color blinds. Pchoo, pchoo, pchoo, pchoo, pchoo.

Ah, hmm, curious. We have not encountered this mineral before. Great magical essence within. This will be of great interest to the ascended one. The ascended one? You see, when you speak Rowan, this creature kind of, whoosh, whoosh.

Oh. You, you are a subject of another ascended one. Your presence here is difficult. Ooh. I'm sorry about that. What would you? The sense here is difficult. I'm sorry about that. What would you? You may cause conflict between the Ascended Ones if they were to learn that you are here.

That would be problematic. Well. You will be permitted to leave. You are property of another Ascended One. You should leave permitted to leave. You are property of another extended one. You should leave immediately. Immediately. I would like to leave with all my friends and all the people. Negative denied.

They are property, subjects, value. Whoa. Hold on a second. No one is anyone's property. You are subjects, inferior life forms. You belong to the ascended one, to be used for the greatest of their experience. You are subjects, inferior life forms. You belong to the Ascended One, to be used for the greatest of their experience. We are not your subjects.

We are not your subjects. Inferior, how dare you? Inferior life forms, you will remain calm. I will not remain calm. I am not an inferior life form. Ignorant. Weak. Ignorant and weak, we can...

Mm. Like, sorry, weak, weak and... Mm. Like, sorry, I didn't want to interrupt. Just kind of, he's just trying to make kind of gestures to everyone, like, chest, chest, focus on chest. Just... Curious, this one possesses planar essence. Hello. Interesting, potential subject, value greatly.

No, no. Valued. No, no value here. Can we go back to... This one is possessed Interesting potential subject value greatly valued. No value here. This one is possessed of undead essence. Graylands detected. It's quite good. Value considered high. Well, I want to have low value, I want to leave,

I don't want the value. Everyone here is high value. Everyone here is high value. Incorrect. If you can extract the metal in a wet dress here. The animal hybrid is of low value. Oh. Aw.

That's okay. I kinda knew that anyway. You've all got something special going on and I'm just a liar. No, no, no, no. You're becoming a night gruff. You are very special. No, but you all have special powers.

To answer your previous query, this mineral extraction is possible. With the subject being unarmed. Unharmed, low risk of death. Zero risk of death, in fact. Impossible. Impossible. Oh, cool, yeah, great, that's fun.

Well, I thought that you were super good at these things. Yeah. Oh yeah. Talk about superior. This guy the best of us. That sounds pretty inferior to me. Here I thought you'd be able to solve it, but. Pfft.

Extraction possible. There is no need to render this life form alive. No, there's a lot of need, there's a lot of need. Waste. It's not that they can't do it, it's that they don't value it enough. Keeping the subject alive would be a waste of time and resources.

He has great diplomatic ties to our current plane of existence, and to harm him. Irrelevant. This is of no consequence to the Ascended One. I've tried everything I can. Surely it's... You haven't?

I'm out of ideas. I've tried nothing and I'm out of ideas. Oh, I've tried everything I can. Surely it's... You've tried everything. I'm out of ideas. I've tried nothing and I'm out of ideas. I think I've stopped worthless. Wait, you're so bad, but it has no worth. Would it not be bad? Would you think about this for a second? You should die.

Actually, yeah, shall we just, if we give him you this, shall we go? Don't you say anything. You are worth it. Would it? Do you know what? I'm fucking out of here. I'm fucking out of here.

I'm out. I want to make it clear. Mark values Gruff very much. Ox of Vermilion Nine, in the mindset of the Protomagite, Gruff has very little value to offer them. But Gruff is very valuable. No, I absolutely get it. And it's true what I just said, that Gruff,

you guys all have something cool and special, and Graf's just Graf. They have things of interest to the Proton Lair. Yeah. But yes, it will. This subject here, wouldn't it be interesting though to keep him alive so you have data on how the mineral affects a living subject?

Data can be collected currently. The mineral is of far greater value and importance. Well. A process could be attempted, but we would make very little interest in keeping the subject alive. This alternative process would keep me alive and extract the Crownsteel. It would involve disabling.

From my estimations, your internal magic is protecting the mineral. This would need to be disabled. The most efficient manner of doing so is to kill the subject. Another matter would be to use powerful anti-magic to disable temporarily. However, in the extraction process,

death is very likely. But it's not the certainty. And we would like to see your very fantastic methods and magical things, because that sounds very impressive. This facility has become inadequate. There are damages. Obtaining the mineral will be of great importance

to the Ascended One. It may alleviate the damages this facility has suffered in this predicament. We will extract the mineral, but we make no promises of survival. Chance of death, easily 90%. 90%. Pretty high.

90%. That's quite high. That's Pretty high. 90%. That's quite high. That's pretty high. Is there anything we could do to lower those chances using our magical abilities, or are they too inferior? You are inferior. Uh, yes, that's what I figured. Maybe my Ascended One can help, Shusanthius.

Don't worry about this one. True, maybe his is better. Yes, with this precious victory. Give me, Robin. First roll, give me a persuasion check. Oh, god. I'm gonna fight him. I've heard he's rude and powerful.

Who's that last fate right there? Sure. We have no hope. I'll make a point. I never promised that the result of this is a positive. This might be negative if you roll high. It's 14 without fate. I bet these six.

20 with fate. The property of the other ascended one raises a valued point. Subject cannot be allowed to leave this facility alive. It cannot, we cannot risk another ascended one obtaining this mineral. That didn't go so well. Right, so either you attempt to.

You have to keep him alive and take the mineral, clearly. Alternative, we render subjects incapacitated. Take mineral. This seems to be most efficient solution. No, don't take. You watch as around Vermilion Orcs are nine, In general, this seems to be most efficient solution. You watch as around Vermilion Orcs are nine, a shimmering green barrier seems to erect, and two creatures are seemingly materialized from nothing.

One appears to be a hulking 10 foot tall figure with long clawed hands, its body and back covered in biting mouths. Oh, yes! What is it with you and the mouth? The second creature almost has a shifting, a cameline-like skin pattern, a clawed, panine-like skin pattern.

A clawed, panther-like beast, but at the end of its tail is a blinking eyeball. Tall as eyeballs and mouths. As these two creatures appear, you will surrender the mineral to Vermillion Oxanine. We will do no such thing, we will do no such thing. With that, we are going to roll initiative. Oh!

But we'll do that after the break. Yeah, good idea, good idea. Oh! As Vermilion Oxanae, with far too many interesting subjects to risk you all leaving. Excuse me, I'm right here. Oh yeah, sorry, the two of you can leave. Yes, high five! The two of you can leave. Yes, high five.

The two of you could easily leave. Great. The other three, however, are very much high. Value high. But that is gonna be it for part one. When we return, you will be battling Vermillion Oxanine. And the crazy creatures. And those other two, yeah. I mean, you give us the thing with the mouth

and the thing with the eye, but I don't get a T-Rex with shark arms. They were in the arena room. You never went in the arena. Which we never went into. With that, we will see you in part two, everybody. See you in five minutes. Bye. See you in a bit.

Bye-bye. Bye! See you tomorrow! Bye bye! Bye bye!