High Rollers DnD - Welcome to the Azarr Steppe! (Part 1) | Altheya: The Dragon Empire #97

Episode Date: April 7, 2026

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

Pickax. You ever listen to an actual play podcast and think, I want to play at that table. No quest for the wickets got you. When a planet mysteriously appears in the Castleball Solar System, it sparks a chaotic scramble of corporations, scientists, and adventurers. Little do they know, a dark threat, hangs over them. And the only two who can stop it are Vlinnegut, a father looking for a new start,

and Flitwick, a privileged DJ setting out to prove himself to his family. But they have a secret weapon. You, the listener, join the council, and vote on important decisions, create and name NPCs, form factions with other. listeners and even influence the hands of fate themselves. So don't wait, visit noQuestcast.com to claim your seat at our table. Hello and welcome back to Hiroly's. Whilst visiting the Ecliptic order stronghold called Gallo's Aerie, our heroes found themselves trapped as one of the powerful planar prisoners attempted to take over the facility. Edict, a gnome bound to the plain of law,

the precept coil, had infected many of the guards and other prisoners, with a powerful, magical curse that bent them to her axiomatic mind. Having briefly taken control of Gruff and causing him to attack his friends, the Wild Heart Knight charged into the depths of the prison to face Edict directly. The rest of the party and High Inquisitor Argus raced after Gruff and a terrible battle ensued. But with Edict's defeat, the heroes now find themselves with the choice of returning home to Ash and Rest or venturing out into the Azar Step to pursue Rowan's mysterious dreams. That, my friends, is where we're going to pick up the episode today.

You stand in the grounds of the gallows-eary decisions to be made before you. The whole stronghold is in a state of recovery. bodies are being transported ready to be given the proper burial rights, any surviving prisoners are being escorted back down into the cells, and the wounded are being tended to. The whole place is in a bit of a state, and the focus is most certainly on themselves rather than on all of you. But High Inquistragus is nearby and ready to attend if anything is required. What do we see? Where is everybody currently,

what is the current state that we find everybody in? I specifically remember the last episode. Oh, we ended it with, wait, does everyone else have important dreams? I wanted to just pick up exactly after that point. Please do. Wait, does everyone else have important dreams? You do too?

Oh, all the time. Well, not all the time. A lot of the time. I tell you guys about them, right? Right? No. Oh. Maybe?

Wait. Othelia, do you have important dreams? Not particularly. No, I sleep rather well. Really? Oh, you barely sleep? Yes, very well. Graph, important dreams? I just dream of own and my wife.

But like visions of the future or like, I don't know? No. Guiding paths, that kind of thing? No. I had that. You did? Yeah. Guiding path? Maybe a vision of the future? I don't know.

Was it you? Was it us? Was it... Where were you? None of you guys were in my dream. Oh, right. Well, that's sad. Usually you are. It wasn't, you know, that dream, was it, Ron? What dream?

You know. The rather, in a proper one, for polite company. No. Okay, all right. Not that one. Okay. This one was weird, and it felt different. So I don't know if it's similar to what you had.

Okay. Did it feel like you were there? I was in it and I had... You were in it and then you wake up and it's all not real. Yeah. But it kind of felt real. But it felt super real. Right, okay.

Yeah. So, okay, where were you? And I had... I could choose to do things. You had not all control over it. Somewhat. It felt that real. It's crazy.

Okay. And what were you doing? That's fucking a rock. I knew it, Rowan. Rowan, I knew it. He didn't say it in the voice, so it's not count. He said that in a Chris Trot voice because he couldn't help himself.

And what choices did you make? Also, how does that even work? It's just... Well, if it's one of the ones with... Yeah. Anyway. I was on a path and it was a winding path

and there was storms all around me. Yeah. Sounds terrible. Big lightning bolts but it was somewhat inviting at the same time. Strange. And then I followed this. and it started winding upwards, up a mountain of sorts.

And I felt the pull almost like I wanted to go towards it. And this, when I saw this smooth? Very kind of smooth. This kind of dull, gray rock kind of embedded into the top of this place. Smooth, worn, as if worn down by ages of wind and rain. with this almost perfectly flat surface, almost looked altar-like or as if used in various purposes? I didn't use it in that way.

But I saw this and it came out of the ground and it looked otherworldly, but not at the same time, it looked and felt inviting. Were it like proto-maggi? No, like that. Okay. It felt more. godly.

It felt similar to when you've connected with the earth, when you use your powers. It felt like the power of Althei. And to solidify that as I got closer, I saw the veins of Ulthorite. Oh, okay. Through it. And it felt so real.

Like when we were underwater and we saw that vein in that little village. And you recall Rowan that process of that stone, it did remind you, it reminded you of like a wet stone, something that a blacksmith would sharpen a blade against. And in fact, you remember doing that with the blade and some sort of release of power.

I was going to that bit, but fucking... Sorry. I don't know how much Chris Trott remembers, so sometimes I apologize. And how much were you being guided through this? How much was the other guy saying? I had this pull, like I wanted, like they wanted me to do something.

but it was ultimately me that chose to get out the sword. Okay. And it felt like I needed to do something. Well, they wanted to see the sword, I think. But it was up to me to do something about it. And it was my, I don't know what is free wills, answers. That's a broad question on a... Did I choose it?

Is everything predetermined? I don't have an answer for you there. I'm not a good position to answer that either. Yeah, it starts to... I feel like fate really is pulling the strings a lot of the work time, you know? I mean, I'll also tell you what isn't free will and that's being infected by the edict.

Obey the edict. Oh, we have to kill Gruff. Is that fully outside of your mind now? The edict stuff? I wouldn't have actually said any of that. I was gonna say, I don't think Groff would joke about that. No, Groff is not. We'll leave that.

Yeah, we'll come back to that. Sure. Either way, I wouldn't usually bring up a dream like this, but I still feel that. pool now in the waking world. Not in dream world. Did you recognize where it was? I knew it was the Azar Step.

Where specifically I don't know, I'd have to get out there and see if it rekindles a memory. It doesn't, it feels like a memory. But the memory hasn't happened yet. Does it feel at least nearby? Indoor's. It's also, yeah, you don't have a sense of direction or closeness. I have no sense of direction.

You would probably imagine, Rowan, you know, the Azar Step is a big province, and you've traveled much of it, you've walked across many places, but, you know, there are all sorts of strange natural landscapes and you've not explored them all. But it is the kind of thing that, you know, the locals of the Azar Step, something like that, you know, this was a huge plateau. And you remember the line of stone monoliths, these great stone, almost like spikes or columns that rose out the ground that seemed to be struck by lightning almost in a pattern. and the sound reminded. Something like that, the locals would know. So hopefully if you could find someone, they would be able to guide you. I have a great idea.

From here onwards, we start tattooing a tally marker onto us every single day. So when we have a dream of the future, we can just look at our hands or our arms and we know exactly how distant in the future it is, because it will have the update to tally. That's so smart. So let's start doing that. Tattoos.

Okay. Daisy tattoos? I don't really want to get a tattoo, no. Oh, okay. No, I, I, because like, what if it's just a dream? What if it's not a vision of the future? Then we're just making loads of marks on ourselves for no reason. And also...

I'm at Day 300. It's not happening. No, no dream yet. That's on your arms, right. That would be really cool to get like a terrifying dream, and then you look at it, and it's like the day after. What if you start to? dreaming about your tallies though. That's not an accurate.

How do you tattoo that? Isn't your arm the marker? Your fucked up arm. Seems to get more fucked up to everyone the dream. None of your dreams thus far have been prophetic. They've always been... Sassy. More poetic.

Yeah. As you think about this, we do need to roll for fate. I remember... Once I actually remember... One! Oh, that's one for me. one for me. Two. Oh, another one for me.

Six. That's one for you. Five. That's another one for you. Oh, lovely Even Stevens. I don't know why I said six. I rolled four, which is still for us, but I lied. Why did you lie?

I rolled a one, by the way. It was so quick with it too. Just like, I'll immediately. I knew it was for us, but it just wasn't six. I don't know why I lied. That's very interesting to know that you would just lie for me like that. I think I just round it up.

I think I might need to see all of your dice rolls from now on. Not 20. I don't believe you now. It's actually 18. Yeah. You just watch his dice rolls. I'll keep an eye on this scanner. I trust you, Rian.

Whoa, whoa, we've got cheaters. We've got a cheater over there. He's rounder up. He's just lying. He's just lying about his dice rolls. I subconsciously lied, and I don't know what happened. You might need to see a therapist about that. Okay.

Hey, the last half full on a guy. Yeah, exactly. You round the floor. It's the same result. I'll call it as it. Optimistic? Wait, how to do that, please? Do you need to know what you actually roll?

Well, sure. If I know I've won, I may as well make it good. With that, As Rhone reiterates the dream. You do, yeah, you have a choice. The Gallows area is up in the mountains, and you know from your conversations with Argus that there is a hefty trek from out onto the actual Azar Plains up to the fortress.

So you will need to make your way back down through the mountains and then you don't know how far you may have to travel before you encounter wherever it is Rowan needs to go or whatever it is. I will tell you guys if you would like to proceed into the Azar step, we will be going into a travel section, which means we are going to be using some of the new prototype travel rules and that means that you'll need to think about your supplies because obviously you came here through teleportation.

I don't know how much kind of things like food and water and travel equipment you have on you because most of it was stored on Rodry back at Ashton's Rest. So keep in mind that all of things, like all your tents and things are currently with Rodry. We could just knit back. Knit back and back again?

You could, but you wouldn't be able to come back here. You would then have to travel all the way through Kelskaris and back. That's a thank you for the edict thing. They let us use the teleport circle again? They could send you to a place with a teleport circle. Ashen Rest does not have one that is publicly known.

Oh, they'd drawn out, didn't they? Can we get rations from them? You probably could get some supplies and things like that. Yeah, I'm sure that High and Quistragus would be able to furnish you with some basic supplies. Probably not going to be extensive camping equipment, but yeah, they can probably give you a couple of tents and some rations and water skins and things like that.

We went shopping beforehand. I at least got everyone some clothing. You did. You did get all the clothing. Yes, that will... So we at least have that. We don't have sleeping arrangements. I have a bed roll apparently.

Okay. Also, I have a big frame and with that big clothes so someone can just sleep inside. Sleep inside your clothes. That's true. It is true. You could enlarge. I can just enlarge. Well, if you enlarge, take your clothes off

and then deluge, your clothes will be huge. Yeah, that is always the question, isn't it? And then you wear those clothes again, enlarge again, and then take them off. The clothes are magically enhanced. The clothes are my glitch. They shrink. Yeah.

Damn it. So, yeah, basically, Heinkwistragus will furnish you with basic supplies. Enough, you know, but you need to kind of give an indication of how many days you expect to be travelling or, like, at least they can't just give you infinite food, right? Same with, like, they can give you each a water skin to travel with, and probably I would say like a couple of tents, basically. Okay. How about this?

Yes. Because I already feel a pang of guilt for taking us on this errand when we have more important matters. Roan like looks all the way up his arm. It's not subtle. Up and then piss his arm. Very slowly. I'm not picking up what you're putting down.

The whole arm there. We are very close to figuring this out. Me! You. Oh yeah, no, that's, I mean, you, Rowan, you've traveled with us. for a long, long time and you've asked for very, very little. If anything, all you've done is provided for us. So it makes sense that we just spend 20 minutes.

Have a glance. A cursory glance. Look out of the window. No, not there. No, he'll see it. Anyway, that's your entire credit used. Oh, look, guys, it's just there. Oh, let's get back.

Ran out of time, sorry. We'll get another 90 episodes then. Maybe. Another 20 minutes. Yeah. Well, either way, what I suggest is we limit our rations to a specific amount of days, at which point that's enough searching and we should carry on elsewhere, even if we don't find what we're looking for.

And at any point, we can just giant magic back, right? So we don't have to travel back. Please, yacht near. Yot near magic, sorry. Thank you. The hearthstone is giant magic. I think I know, dear. Do you?

Okay, sure. So just one thing to check, before we do this. So Xanthias has a bed roll, Daisy has a bedroll, who else has bedrolls? I have an water skin. I do not, but I have my bottle of blood. It's good to know. I do have some rations. Yeah, they can, well, I think that any rations you have in your character sheet,

because those were when you were travelling with Roderie back in Caldra, I'm going to say you don't have things like Grathek, because you wouldn't have brought like a bunch of rations with you here. You weren't expected to go to journey. But they're going to provide you rations. You should have a bag full of probably not great pastries now. I am not counting those as rations.

I've got a shovel and a tent. But the bag of holding will mean, bag of holding will mean it's easy to carry all of this stuff basically. It's all got some pastries left, I think. Yeah, they're probably still in the stale window. I'm not counting them as rations. I'm not counting them as rations. Too much sugar.

Unhealthy. Many cars. Yeah, it's also like, yeah, it's not like, like travel rations, right? It's pastries and cupcakes and stuff. Yeah. Okay, so no thingy for... I would do that.

I said it's a YouTube challenge video. Well, I... Live off stale. Let's see, let's take you... Live off muffins for a day. I could ease... No, but while you're hiking, like the breck and beacons or something like that.

I would... No, even if I had the correct food, I'd die there. Let's monetize it. Okay, hell yeah. So, you speak with Heinquitz-Dragus, and they agree. Their supplies are limited, but they have also just lost a lot of people,

and so they do have some spood and things to spare. So what I will say... Less amounts of food. Hell yeah. So they will provide... Let's say five days worth of food for each of you, basically. Okay, cool. Okay.

So that's going to be 5, 10, 15, 20... Are we doing a partial to inventory of rations? I'm keeping a note of it as well. Well, don't forget that in this, this is all going to convert into supply points. And then we're going to track your... supply points rather than like individual rations and stuff. Like your rations basically become a pool and then depending on what happens,

we're going to track supply. Because some of them might get lost, they might get damaged, there might be conditions where you have to spend more of them. But it's also going to include things like your bed rolls, your tents, water skins, you know, water supply, all of that kind of stuff. Okay, well I've added 25 rations to the party. Sure. Oh, now I have to remove my five.

Yeah, don't worry about it too much. So you gather up these various supplies, you place things like the tents and the bags of holding and stuff like that, and then your plan is to head out of here, is it? So anything you would like to before you leave Gallo's airy? So I wasn't here last week, and I've only, I've missed the end of the episode. I've caught up with most of it, but not the end. Was there anything?

That was the entire thread that we just did there. Yeah, shall I just go? So we just complete. Just let Kim finish. Like I'll watch it now. Bits boys. I'll bring it up on my phone. I can watch it now.

If you just play it back into the mic so everyone can hear it. Yeah, yeah, okay. I'll do it. Um, was that... Bit Boy. Yeah. That's your name. With Argus.

Like after the fight, was there anything with him? So he was injured, but he did basically, he conveyed his immense gratitude to the party saying that, yeah, basically if you hadn't been here, things would have been a lot worse, probably would have lost most of, you know, his followers and things and maybe would have had to have had to have had to have had to have sealed the place or something like that. So an immense amount of gratitude. And just, yeah, basically there is definitely an implication

that there is a good chance that this will be on his shoulders, that this failure will come back to haunt him, basically. But that's kind of, you know, there wasn't much more than that because we were kind of wrapping up. But if you wanted to speak to him, if anybody had any questions or moments, oh, there was also the case of Rakis, the child eater. He has been firmly locked away back in the cells.

Okay, good. Yeah, Argus and the others have made sure that he is firmly locked away. You probably heard his wailings and crying as you were led out of the gullet. It was just the one child, actually. It was so cute. It's just a shame he ate children. It's just the one child. Yeah, that's a deal breaker for me.

That's the deal breaker. That's the hard line. That's the line I'm going to draw. Is there anything? What's saying to August? What happened with Han? So Han is he's staying here because that's his agreement that he has He's provided you everything that you guys need

Daisy has her new weapon And I believe there was this idea that perhaps in the future When you decide sort of when and where you want to fight the Yeager Argus or the Ecliptic order may bring him to Daisy Because they think that that will draw the Yeager to them basically Right now they're better separate because otherwise it might put a target on our bank Yeah if Han comes with you guys or like goes to like Kelskaris the Yeager will turn up and probably indiscriminately cause a lot of damage.

Ye. Okay. Has Gruff apologized for... Well, I don't do any role-playing, so, like, don't, yeah. Well, I heard these boys did great roleplay. No, a cultural character mechanically. I thought you should have done that, like, for me, has done the apology. That would have gone really well, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. Was, I'm really sorry. I think the way that I had it was that Gruff was very very... internal, very quiet, just kind of keeping back, not really engaging. In that kind of like, he's clearly in his own mind and in his own thoughts about it. Just kind of hanging back and being quite reserved, even to the point of when the Rackus matter did not seem to sort of, was too busy in his own head, basically.

It's how we kind of play. Yeah, well, he already threatened Rackus to, like just stay in the fog back. I don't know how time for you, John. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. I think, yeah, for now, I don't think, I think, I think Gruff is still in that. that kind of.

Kim is very much making sassy comments every five seconds, but I'm just happy to be here. A little quiet, a bit reserved, yeah. And I think everybody picks up on that, right? Gruff is definitely not taking charge, not taking lead, like is very quiet and hanging back. Daisy's been sort of like organizing, you know, grabbing all the food rations and things with some of the people here.

But yeah, if there's anything that anybody else would like to do, otherwise I will assume that you make your way out of Gallo's area and begin your journey. Rowan's building this like puppy energy, knowing that he's about to go on a walk, and he just can't wait to hit the Azar step. Perfect. We ready? We're ready to go.

I think we're very close. Has everyone got everything they need? I think so. How are we all for rest before we go as well? Do we need to take a quick moment to just... You could stay, like, the day or the night here in Galaziri? I know you're keen to go, but we don't know what we're going to face. I'm just...

The open air, beautiful. scenery. When was the last time you were here? Oh. So when did we meet? That was about three months ago. I can actually look that up and tell you. If you continue, and then I will... Well, when we met, I had already been on my long journey

for roughly three or four months. Three or four months. Okay, so, wow, quite a long time. Coming up to a year, I think, before... when I left as our step, I think, across the threshold. Yeah. Maybe longer, I don't know. Okay, anything we need to know. You know, is any kind of weird plant

we need to watch out for trees that might... Terrible sea monsters that will swallow a boat hole, for example. Well, we're not going on the sea, we never gone to sea. I went on the sea. Somehow I survived. That's something to ask you about that. That's madness. It was madness. We did also sail around the Suncrast lights.

You also did that. No, but I mean like the C.C. You never go in the CC. The big one. The big blue CCCC. Because all the, your CCCC is not really CCC. I knew the Big Boy is going to kick it off. Oh, there we go.

I want to, can I just hard nix bitboy? The harder you next to it. I don't ask for a lot. I accept a lot. Bit Boy. You demand a lot. I'm getting rid of that. Perhaps behave yourself and you won't be Bit Boy.

It has been a hundred, a hundred and five. It has been a hundred and five days. He's close, don't get me wrong. 105 days. So three months. Looks like old Bitboy was correct. Oh, we're okay calling you Bit Boy. No!

Don't forget that months in this have 36 days. Yeah? So it's just under three months. Let's round it up. Like I do with faith. Sure. But 105 days. No, there's no other treacherous things to worry about.

Nothing at all. No, okay. There's plenty. All right. It's a dangerous place. So just follow your league. Geographically. Okay.

Topologically. And you... The verticality. Right. Okay. Somewhat. Yeah. And this, have you been across, like,

all of that stuff? Is it? I went through it, yes, from top to bottom. But I haven't done the breadth. Okay. So you've seen... I've winded. You might have seen...

You've seen this part of it. Potentially. Yeah. Across the south to... in order to get down to Kelskars. Okay. What kind of like beasties are we talking about? Monsters, like...

Yeah. At night and day? Yeah, particularly night. Particularly at night, okay. Okay, wow, that's just like... Crownful happens here too, like I said. Yeah, okay. Because in my youth, there was one nearby.

Huh. Cool. Well, not cool, bad, really bad. Yeah. You did, you probably did, yeah. You're too busy for handing out. So there's plenty on offer. I don't worry.

I made it. You know the right stuff if we start to gather like foods and stuff like that if we need to. We probably don't. Edible, flora. Yes, fauna. Edible fauna. Plenty.

Fantastic. All fauna mostly has blood. Wonderful. That I've noticed. Well, that's good to know. Thank you. Yep. And these ones.

sometimes are warm-blooded too. Warm blood. Not all lizards. There are mammals and things as well. It's not just reptiles and worms. You should see the goats. Yeah? They love to climb up these

really treacherous vertical cliff sides and they're like, whoa, I'm so high. But why my hoofs up here? It's crazy. I watch them all day. I love goats. Eating them? Oh.

We don't have to go. was our step, actually. No, come on, we're right here. It's just to eat all the wildlife. Let's not eat all the wildlife. It's not been outside in a long time. You have. It's been a day.

A day too long. You very much have been outside. No, I want to go back outside. I want to eat. Okay. I'm hungry. I think we're ready to go. Are you ready to go?

All right, well, we need a long rest. Yeah, are you gonna stay here the night and head off in the morning, or do you want to go right away, like right now? I'm spaffed. Should we get some room? Rest first. Actually, no, I'm not too.

Agus would say, sort of take a moment and say, as I said, if you do wish to stay here, we have plenty of rooms and things that are, will accommodate you at least, so that you can rest after your battles. Very kind, thank you. Of course. Well, I can do a quick hour and then get going, so.

I can, yeah, just a quick top up. Quick rest, yeah? Just a little. Graff's probably the same. Where is gruff anyway? Just a little zoon. Now where is Gruff? Where are we right now?

You are in Gallows areas. You're in the sort of... You're sort of in the main kind of complex, in the main building of the Gallo's area, so on the maps you've got there. So I imagine that you're sort of hanging around the tower near the entrance, sort of gathering up these supplies,

kind of mounting up your packs and things like that. And then came back down, I think. Yeah. Speak to August and stuff. If you're fucking around near the entrance... I wouldn't say fucking around. strategizing. He's probably just like a little bit away from the group.

Like he's been helping with like, you know, tying up the packs and doing all the practical stuff, typical dad trying to round up the kids going out at the door. But he keeps, I guess, probably looking at the shrine, like just kind of like, you know, while you guys wobble on, like, you know, he's like, man, can I just go, you know. Just wanders off, starts making his way towards the shrine. As you make your way there, gruff, you see that it's only a small place.

a small little church for the brothers and sisters of the Holy Order here. He visited it before. You visited it before. Before everything kicked off. There are a few brothers and sisters. Most of them wounded in some way, broken arms, gouges, slashes, covered in bandages, who are either in mourning or praying. One of them you see this brother, you think he's shaking from sobbing or crying,

but you just see it's actually in rage, like just anger. are boiling up to the point in desperate prayer, his nails almost biting into his hands, they're clutched so tightly, and is directly by the Pirus Memorial, not Memorial, the Piris altar, and is just muttering under his breath. You catch words like vengeance and sort of, you know, help me show my wrath. And you can see that this is somebody who's so enraged that they couldn't do more. But the others are in quiet mourning and things like that. that. He kind of would just linger around the back, like, just, like, not really wanting to disturb

anyone and just, like, yeah, kneel down and start his own prayers. Like, if anyone was listening, it would be very much on the theme of forgiveness and regrets and being scared. Like, I think in his head, he would see the look in Rowan and Daisy's eyes when he turned to attack them. Does he pray to a particular one of the gods or the Sions, the saints, or is this just a prayer to any of whom would listen? I think the one that came into my head was Saint Tif, not to fiend, Tilan.

So St. Toulan, a saint of healing. Yeah, saint of healing. Yeah. Perhaps because, like, especially in the fight, like, he was healing and he was, you know, and maybe that's why the amulet, like, it's most on his mind right now. is St. Toulon. Can you give me a religion role, please, Kim. Ooh.

That is a plus three for me. Six. You offer this prayer to St. Talan, asking for forgiveness, confessing your fears, and you don't feel anything. Those feelings linger. The room is still,

can hear the occasional sobs and shuffle of feet, but Nothing comes to you. I think Graff almost expected that, wanted that. Sure. Would have actually kind of hated it if someone did reply. Is there anyone or people in this room who look particularly injured or anything like that?

Oh yeah, there's two. There's a brother and a sister, two of the survivors, like I said, the woman has a broken arm. Looks like maybe it was hit by a powerful strike and shattered or broken bones. And then the other, he has gouges, looks like maybe those crown steel prisoners corrupted by Edith tore into him and he's got covered in like scratches and graces, just covered in bandages. So I think kind of mustering to him like, oh, just sort of frame me, he would go around and he would cast healing magics on them.

Sure, yeah. They graciously accept the broken arm, a healing spell won't mend that, but it eases the pain. and it sort of reinvigorates her so she'll heal quicker, but the scratches and the cuts and the grazes and the gashes on the man do quickly heal up, leaving scarring, like heavy scarring. This man is going to be not disfigured from the scarring, but these will be scars that will be carried throughout his life. And he bows his head, and she will say,

thank you, Knight, Aaron. We heard that you and your companions were the ones who took down Edict. to, we were, we were just trying to, we got so injured, we had to flee into the tower. Thank you for what you and your friends did. I dare, I dare not think, saints and Sions, what would have happened if you had not done that?

We just, I can't believe that Edict managed to get close to one of us to infect one of us. It's awful. The planes, their power is just so, it's so terrible. But my faith, seeing what you and your friend, did and knowing how important our mission is. I know that what we do is important now.

Thank you. I'm just sorry. I'm sorry we couldn't do anything sooner. I'm sorry I couldn't do anything sooner. No, you did more than enough, Knight, Arant, Grufford, isn't it? No, please, and the man will sort of put a hand on your shoulder. Everything you have done... No one could have done it faster.

There is no way that you could have done any more than what you and your friends did. Please, my friend. My friend, do not burden yourself with this grief. What happened is a tragedy, but we must look to the brightness, we must look to the sun, we must look to hope. Take that with you. Saints and Sions go with you, brother. Thank you, my brother.

Thank you, sister. It's not their heads. We'll just wander back out again and probably see these lots still bickering. Yeah. This is just brief moment. Does anything that just happened actually change anything for Gruff, Or is he still very much? You know, he's having a brood.

He's having a bit of a brood. Yeah, and we still see these kind of lingering. What are you up to? Sorry, should I be, I know we're keeping the rations for the journey, but I was really hungry. Xanthius, you haven't even left yet. I know, but I just had to have one. Just really quick.

That means that one meal, you have to have all the stale things from Rowan's bag. That's your dinner tomorrow. Those are mine. How about can they, oh, can I just one muffin? Are they still good, right? At all pastries. How preserved...

I'm so hungry. I mean, they're full of sugar. I mean, how bad can they be? Exactly. It's true. There's no nutritional value, but yeah. If things are really bad... If things are really, really bad, though,

I'll just have a little blood. I think it looks at you with disgust. Why not? You wouldn't share it? No. With me? No. What?

Get your own. On that, I think Argus comes up and we'll just say... This is dying. Rooms have been prepared if you wish to rest. Otherwise, yes, if you are ready. They're prepared for you, so. So, are you long resting or short resting? I'm fine short resting.

Yep. Short rest, short rest. All right, short rest for everybody. Thanks to preparing the room. Can I just say something that I found quite entertaining when you guys had this bite? I was checking my character sheet and I kept logging in and refreshing

and it was just so funny seeing my HP go up, down, down, down, down, up, down. You took some big blows. Big hit blows. So yeah, spend your hit guys to your short rest, gain any abilities back on a short rest. I will do that for Daisy.

I think she's pretty much fine though. I'll spend a hit point for her. I am just shy of full. I just rolled two eggs. How else do I get on a short rest? It's just healing, I think, for me. You might get some abilities, but yeah. I get none.

Dacies at full. I get none. So I imagine that this is all happening probably mid, I would say noon. Like you guys are getting ready to head out. It's about noon. You've gathered your supplies. You've gathered everything that you need.

and are preparing your journey. I'll let everyone finish doing their short way. How is it weather-wise looking out there? Well, you've not stepped outside yet, so you're currently still in the fortress. You know, so I'm assuming that... Can I open the doors to just a torrent of wind and rain. Find out.

Maybe we can go later. Tom, I've got to do the Dark Souls, you know, you open up and then you see the land. White fog. Yeah. Well, not white fog, it's just more like you get that visual moment, right? Eldon Ring style. So, Argus, well, thank you for all that you've done,

and I entrust that this will not be our last meeting. There is still business that we must attend to. Sister Superior Malady and Sister Superior Benedicta await you back in Ashen Rest. And please keep us informed, Zanthius, of the matter with your sibling. I will do, yes. And when you are ready, young Daisy, contact us, and we will deal with this Yeager problem. I will bring Han wherever you feel it best.

But good luck in your travels, and thank you once again. Saints and Sions, and may my blessed moon go with you. Thank you very much, Arcus. Bowers his head, offers a paw to each of you to go and shake. Gruff, you should shake his hand. And gruff will, but just awkwardly just doesn't make eye contact. Sure. I think Argus kind of senses that and just sort of pats you on the shoulder and shakes your hand. But yeah, takes a paw, shakes all of your hands.

Can I have a moment of privacy, actually? You can see that his wound has been bandaged and he's still kind of favoring, you know, he's still kind of favoring his other side, not quite limping, but definitely still healing, pulls up his dark hood, kind of like fits just over his ears and his long mane and begins making his way out, leaving you guys to head on your journey. The doors have to be opened by some of the other brothers, the Holy Brothers and Guards in this place. These great, enormous doors that you can see had been covered by edicts, like metal thorns and vines, but those have all been broken and rusted away.

And now these great doors press open, huge chains on either side of the fortress being wheeled as the brothers pull on the great pull is, And they open it out onto a vast mountain range, high, high up, almost to the point where the clouds make it misty and foggy as you are high, high up in the southern mountains of the Azar Step. Blue, grey stone just seems to rise and fall in jagged peaks all around you. And the sky is dark with the beginnings of what we'll perhaps. become a storm. There is a light rain currently falling everywhere you look, but through the fog, through glimpses of clouds and distances, you see tiny pinpoints, tiny little breaks in the cloud.

You see these rolling green fields that just seem to spread out for miles and miles and miles. but first you must make your way down from the mountains and you head out so going into some travel rules here I would like to have so to remind you guys you have to pick a journey role there are three roles that must be filled and then there are some bonus roles

that can be done as an optional thing to give you some bonuses your journey difficulty is affected by difficult terrain such as being in mountains not having any map or directions of where you are going, but also can be impacted by things like harsh weather, such as storms, heavy rain, snowfall, etc.

And this is also quite a challenging environment. So this is going to be a pretty chunky DC, not super-duper-high, but pretty good. Can't get lost if we don't have a destination. True. But you can get to safety. Yeah, true, yeah. So to remind you, you've got the navigator,

who is all about basically plotting the journey and keeping you guys on track. and that is their associated skill is survival. You have the lookout who's responsible for keeping an eye out for danger. Perception is their key skill. The quartermaster is responsible for keeping track of the party's rations, water and camp supplies, as well as any other useful equipment. Just putting it in a bag of holding will not keep it safe.

You might lose the bag of holding, potentially. So their key thing is athletics. And then you have the bonus roles, which is the scout, who uses stealth to stay advanced to the party and warn them of any incoming danger. And then you have the expert who provides insights and information about the local area, fauna, flora, and terrain. And they use Arcana history, nature, or religion. In this case, it would probably be nature-based. But you might be able to make an argument for the other skills as well.

And then finally, you just have the supporter who basically just gives somebody advantage or a bonus D4 on their role. I think I'm going to have Daisy just do the supporter role for one of you just because it makes sense. And then it's not an active participation. I know she's very good at stealthing, but just for the ease of her not being. here, so. I'm bad at literally all of those. Somebody has to pick them, so even if you've got a bad skill role, you're going to still need somebody to take it on.

I'm going to take either perception or a survival and plus a on both. Nice. If I was to mid-max, it will be survival plus 10. Cool. However, we did say you were going to be the guide as well, so it's not min-maxing as such for that. No. It makes sense, this is your landscape, yeah.

I also want to be the expert. Okay. Oh, right. telling stories and yeah about my nature's plus one though my history is plus seven I mean it could history could become an adjudice like historical sites or um yeah landmarks it will entirely depend on the event or the thing that it's taking place so it could be any of those roles something in more that at the moment yeah I mean this is entirely up to you guys to pick I just want to do that yeah I'm happy to be a lookout or a scout go ahead

to see if any danger. So, Ruff, potentially being the guide then, because that's the navigator lookout and courtsmaster have to be filled. They have to be filled. So Gruff Navigator? Is that percept? That'll be survival.

And then lookout needs perception. So, Ophelia, or do you want to go scout? I can go scout. Okay, that means, well, actually, Xanthias, you'll have to be the quartermaster or lookout in that case. Um Dave can help you as well I gotta have to

I'm not doing the I'm not doing a lookout I can tell you don't forget the scout and the expert are optional roles so you have to fill the other three first before you do those I mean somebody could try and do two

but you're going to get penalties if you try and do that true I don't mind taking just any I can do court master if you want to do something else or yeah look out for Xanthias yeah sure

okay what's your survival okay everyone don't worry anything's coming towards us, and I'll see him coming. What's your survival? Sunglasses down, eyes closed while walking forwards. What's your survival? My survival, minus two.

Same as his perception. Yeah? Yeah. It's okay, everyone. Just follow my lead or just be reactive, I suppose. Let me know if you need my help with anything. Daisy, can you... And again, these are prototype rules, right?

so these might get changed as well. Daisy's like, yeah, I can help Xantheists, yeah, no problem. And so she'll help Zantheos, basically, is as well. I want to roll a performance check to convince everyone that I'm really good at best. I don't think there's a performance check Xantheist in the world could make. These people have been spending enough time with you. Three. Yeah, they've known you long enough.

I'll round up to 20, though. You will have advantage on it because Daisy's going to support. Nice. Hell yeah. Okay. So, for the first leg of this journey, you guys don't also, I'm not going to tell you how many days this journey is going to take, because you don't know, this is a brand new area. I do know how long it'll take.

So Gruff, can I get a survival role to begin with, please? 10. Total? Excellent. Roll two. There was a plus eight, oh yeah. Rough, I think. Excellent.

Usually I'm the navigator, but I think I trust you so much that you should lead the pack this time. All he can hear is screaming. Like you're specifically Rowan screaming. I believe in his head. You can do this. Oh, I like, thank you, Rowan.

I'll do my best, boy, out. Cut to now. Sure. Falling into a river. As you begin, you set off about noon, and you begin making your way. The first leg of this journey is a very easy switchback because there is a set path

that the brother, the monks and the Holy Order have made. And in fact, you pass a couple of watchtowers. you can see that this sort of zigzag switchback, there are a couple of watch towers to prepare for anybody trying to assault it, the actual fortress. But then you quickly just go on to a very unused, very rocky natural track. Like there really is barely any sort of track to follow,

and you are just trying to hike through these high, quite intense mountains. As I said, the mountains, the rock here is this kind of almost slate-gray, blue-tinged stone. It's cold, but not cold enough for snow or ice or anything else to feel. But the air is thin, and some of you, perhaps everybody except, I would say, probably gruff and rowan, at times you do find yourselves getting quickly out of breath, and you really have to kind of stop and pace yourselves as you make your way. After several hours of traveling as the sun is beginning to sort of descend, you are making

your way when you are making your way. when you find yourselves, you reach a point where you have to narrowly sort of begin sort of scooting and crossing across very narrow parts of this mountain's pass. And as you are traveling, this is the journey event that I just rolled. Ophelia, you've got like the party's supplies,

you know, you've got things like the rations and various bits and pieces on you, and as you are making, the whole thing begins to crumble under your feet. Can I get an athletics check, please? Okay, do I have advantage. Oh, yeah. Do you only get advantage when you're raging?

Oh, not too bad. 17. 17 is just enough. Actually, no, because the weather is, I forgot to mention this, it is heavy rain, like, as you were making your way, Jenny, a storm is beginning to brew. I did roll to see it was going to weather.

The rain is hammering down this, storm is beginning to build and build and build, and you go to reach out and you catch yourself on the rock, but it's so slippery and wet that you do fall. And, you know, one of the water skins and several packs of rations all go flying out. You lose some, like, various pieces of equipment, like rope and things like that.

You are going to lose some supply points. Can you roll a D4 for you, please? Yes. Yep. Four. Oh, good. Okay. That's pretty high is better, right?

Yeah. Okay. Just the point you had 44 supply points, you are now at 40, so I'm going to keep track of that. But yeah, so as you're making your way down, Ophelia slips, you scrape all your legs and things like that. Nothing to cause you severe damage, but you watch as various cooking implements and rations,

and one of the waltkins goes tumbling down and is lost. Tebowl! Scratch resist it. You carry on. for the remainder of that day. And that storm, what was just heavy rain, you begin to hear the peals of thunder. And in the distance, you see flashes of lightning out in the clouds.

One thing you notice as the storm, and this is a raging storm, the clouds themselves, it's almost as if the clouds begin to the form an enormous dragon that covers the entire sky. And those peals of thunder, they begin to sound like roars of a dragon. And almost the lightning seems to fill its wings as it flies over. It comes and goes.

It's not always ever present. It's like the cloud takes that form for a brief time and then sort of dissipates into a regular storm. But as it does, it seems to take this place. One thing that you notice as you are traveling, as you're near in the end, the lights fading. you're looking for a place to take for a moment of respite. And you notice that out of the mountainside, it's strange.

You've never seen this. It's like a piece of stone has grown out of the mountain like a spike. And you see that there are thick veins of copper that seem to run through it. And this almost natural stone spine or stone column that rises out as you're traveling, it's sort of at a distance to you. But as that storm is raging, one of the same. those lightning blasts comes flying down and you watch as it is not drawn into but it strikes this stone and then another one strikes it and it seems to just completely absorb it as this stone is

acting like a natural lightning rod conductor and almost bringing the stone down to it. After that as you're traveling, Graffas you're leading them you need to find a place to camp. What kind of like campsite would you try and find or like would you try and find like what are you looking for for where you're going to spend the night? So we're kind of on a little scruffy mountain. You are on like a pretty intense mountain range. Like you are hiking in like, you know, high mountains at this point. Probably, um, a cave or something like that?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A natural sort of like little. Yeah, so, you know, it's getting late. You know, you're starting to worry. You know, you've got your torches and lights and various magical sources out. And then eventually you come across not a particularly large one. you check it out, it seems kind of safe and dry, no animals, and the group of you settle down and spend the night in the cave,

that first day of the journey. This is an opportunity, if there's anything as you guys are getting ready, this is a perfect time. Things are winding down, you begin preparing dinner and meals, but is there anything you guys would like to talk? Is there a conversation you would like to have, or is there anything that you would like to do as a group or any RP or anything? So, guys, I don't want to mention this.

Did anyone else see Ophelia fall down that hill? I think it was awful. Was it? It was quite dangerous. It was for a while I'm standing. Guys, what you're laughing about? Nothing. Bro, it isn't laughing.

Zanthes is laughing. Bruff is absolutely not laughing. You should have heard the noise she made. Are you okay, Ophelia? I think, I'm really sorry, I think. You've got such little brother energy. I bet you pushed her. You pushed her.

I'm sorry, I can't look at you. Why, what's wrong is my hair a mess? No, it's fine. I know my knees are all cut up, but I'm fine, right? I look fine. Okay, I'm sorry I lost the good pan. It clanged for ages. It did, it really kept going.

It wouldn't stop. Cast iron. He thought it was done to know of another. Just a clang. I can still hear it. There it goes. Still so long. Still,

still falling. So with that, if there's nothing else. What do we think? Oh, it's... Really? Beautiful, right? When we stepped out and we saw the mountains for the first time, that was incredible.

Yes. I know. And the rain... Oh, I was about to say, I wish I could see more than 15 feet in front of me because of all the rain. Oh, you'd be too overwhelmed by the beauty of that. Must be.

That must be that. The Storm Dragon, beautiful. That was incredible. Yes. I thought I was imagining something there. No, no, that happens. Oh, right. It's not something we should, like, hide from, or?

As long as you're near one of there. Copper caps. Copper caps. That's the lightning thing. That's what we call them. Certainly what Rowan is. Copper caps. Copper caps.

Copper caps. And are they, is it safe to go near those? Because obviously, like, not too close. Not too close, but they will, certainly, they love the lightning. Okay, good, that's good to know. Good to know, good to know. So, Rowan, do you actually know where we're going? Down.

Down, okay. There's probably something I can do to help find this location your dream, but I need a bit more information if that's all right. Yeah. Do you think that the altar that you saw was it some kind of, portal or anything? No, I don't think so, but it felt like it'd been there for always, older than the mountain itself sometimes.

I don't know, or something very, very old put it there. Either way, it looked very distinct and unique from the mountain. It looked different. Sorry, I'm imagining a feeling here again. Do you remember seeing any kind of settlement or, you know, bodies of water nearby or any. Only this path of... What were they there? So copper caps are like this tiny natural,

smaller kind of natural version of them. But you know, they're called Stonewatcher monoliths. And they're these ancient natural formations that are, you know, it's infused with copper and different types of metals. And they act as like almost larger versions of the copper caps. And these stone watches, there was a path of them, like a trail of them,

leading towards the plateau. They guided me to it. So that's the iconic bit, I guess, that would really... No settlement or anything like that, no bodies of water. And you said you saw some althright? In the altar. In the altar? Yeah.

Okay. No creatures, anything like that? No. It's a pleasant dream other than all the storms. Well, I'll sleep on this, but I think in the morning I might be able to find at least a general direction to go. Great, thank you. Anything I can do to help, you're Owen. That's all right.

I know you would always help. You're not doing any extra right now. You're always there for me, Griffith. Apart from that one time, when you attack me. I don't see that. When you throttle the life from me. So one thing that you can do, obviously you guys can now take a long rest,

but before you do, the last thing that you might want to do is you could try and forage to, replenish some of your supplies, things like food and water. Pan watch. Well, I can create water. Oh, great, yeah. So that will basically replenish. I would say that that would be as if you had succeeded on a check.

Yeah, I will create water to make... To fill your water skins, basically. Okay, cool. And then in terms of food, do you want to try and forage for food or anything like that? Rufford. Roll a D4 forming Grufford. just to see how many supply points you replenish. Four.

Four. Four. There's a hard point. It's a hot point. The pan just rolled back into the cave. The pan! Do do, do, do. Have you ever fished at nighttime in heavy rain?

Not in, there's no rivers. I mean, yes, I have. I live in ice art. It's mostly rain, if not snow. And it's quite dark when I get up in the morning and go for the morning fish. but um now i don't obviously this is your land I know it well

there's no water quite high up in the mountains quite high in the mountains that's crazy there's no way for me to fish boy oh all right well Rowan Rowan Rowan rohan hello Ophila yes I'll take your next question yeah thank you um what are the chances that there are going to be some goats around here

sister Ophelia do you not have your bottles I do but I really want to go hunting I really don't want you to attack the poor goats. Love the game, love the game, love of the game. Love of the game, love of the game. No, there's no goats. Actually, I lied. There were no goats.

Lied about the goats. I did lie, and that's my first lie. You lied to me about the goats? Yeah, and that's, I feel awful about lying. I was so excited about seeing those goats. Oh, you were? There are goats. I'm sorry, there are really our goats.

So is it a lie? There's probably loads out there. Are you the real robots? I don't know. Maybe I've got to swap with dream Rowan. Oh, good. There are goats. There are goats.

I lied just then. That was my first lie. Rowan? I feel awful about it, Ophelia. I'm pretty sure that's not your first lie. Anybody who does my forage, let me know, and there's a role you can make. I'll just set up the camp if you guys want to get food and stuff, and Xanthius is just going to spend that time, like, picking up a stool, moving it slightly to the...

We have stools? Yeah, you can carry some bits of pieces. And I'm done. Lay down. You could start a fire. You're good at fire. I can do that. I'll lay down on a bed roll and just put into some wood.

Daisy's like gathered some firewood or something or like got... Like trying to throw rubbish into a beer. There's certainly like pockets of fire. Like just scorch marks on the stone. No. All right. So while Zandi's doing that, I feel you're going to go. I'll go hunting, please.

All right, can you give me a survival role, please? B. That's the same noise you made when she fell down the hill. It is. Trave-r-r-r-oh. It's been pretty tricky in this terrain. 11. 11. You spend hours trying to hunt, you trying to search for these goats.

Goaty, goatey, goatey, goatey-goaty! You... I won't hunt you. We don't even get worried because we can hear you. You have dark vision, so you're not stumbling around in the dark or things like that, but you wander around and at some point, whilst you are trying to search for these goats, you find yourself at some point, I imagine,

like a kind of, what would be like a good, like something bad to happen to you in this environment? Break a nail. A trip on the pan. Let's leave the pan. The pan is gone. Let's make that very clear. It's someone else's pan.

Oh, another one. Now, I imagine, or maybe it's just you basically lose your way and you don't get back to this cave. You get lost and you lose out on sleep. Because you fail. Unfortunately, you fail by significant amount where you gain a level of exhaustion. As you spend the evening trying to forage but have no success.

As you failed the DC by a significant amount. So Ophelia does not return to way later into the evening. Exhausted the rest of you. Sound asleep. Yeah, and hungry. I feel your return. Yeah. We're not worried.

Yeah, we're not worried. You'll be better. I'll do first. You can all take a long rest. Nice. And subtract 10 from your supply for your rations and things like that. So you're at 34, I believe.

Are we using 5.5 rules? Recovering all or half hit dice? It should be, I think you only recover half hit dice. You don't recover all hit dice. Or is that a new thing in 2024? There's two options in five is recover all. So there you go. I think that's stupid, but I think that's really dumb.

We can cheat. We can literally pick which one we want. I think I prefer the other one because I like the idea that like you don't always get like it. It kind of means that like you then are forced to take longer rests like in a town or a settlement like to get all your hit dice back, right? Like I think like giving all of it like because you already get all your hit points back on a long rest. Like you shouldn't get all your hit dice back.

That's, I don't get that. I guess they want them more hero. You would say you get half your hit dice back, yeah. Okay. That makes sense. But yeah, and then you start on your next day. Thankfully, I will tell you that thankfully, as you awake in the morning, you know, you were drenched, you were cold throughout the night,

whatever fires Xanthius made, you know, has managed to dry out most of your clothes, but it was still quite a miserable evening. As you awake, the sky is remarkably clear on the next day, and the air is fresh and clear, and you can now see through the mountains, you know, you're still quite high up and the mountains sort of cover you on all sides, but you can now see like a great sort of green stretch and like dusty fields and things like that stretching out before you. Not high enough to really spot too much like detailed, like settlements and locations and things, but you can begin to see the Azar Step proper.

Beautiful stretches out for miles and miles. In fact, in the fair distance, gruff from here, you would very, very faintly maybe just be able to make out on the far, far horizon what would be the jagging pizza that start the mountain, the collar that leads into Ice Heart, maybe. This is obviously hundreds and hundreds of miles away. But yeah, so again, if everybody is taking it up, I need your navigator, which is Gruff, to make a survival check. Before we do that, may I cast Commune with Nature?

You absolutely may. Can you read the spell out and tell me what you want? So it's what I did when we went for the Palladrax. you commune with nature spirits and game knowledge of the surrounding area in outdoors the spell gives you knowledge of the area within three miles of you in caves in other natural settings

the radius is limited to 300 feet so I'd do it outside Do it outside? Yeah, three miles. Choose three of the following facts You can learn those facts as they pertain to the spell's area location of settlements, locations to portals to other planes of existence, location of super cool creatures

location of the most prevalent kind of plant, mineral or beast, and locations of bodies of water. So I think on that one I would search for alth-tharite. Mm-hmm. I would, I'm curious about portals to other planes of existence because I think Graf's thought was like if it's linked to al-thae, like maybe there's some kind of like, you know, weakness of the veil or something like that there.

Um, and I don't know, I kind of want to double up on minerals and be like the kind of minerals that would be in those stone watches but I don't know if that's allowed. Yeah, you could pick like copper or something like that and just try and search for that. What I will say is three miles is really not going to get you far.

It's going to get you basically to, I maybe say the base of the mountain range. It's not particularly far. So you cast the spell, you commune, and you get a sense of this mountain range. But you don't sense alt-right, you don't sense any planes of existence or portals. You do sense that there are, you know, vast amounts of natural metals

throughout this mountain range within the three miles. Likely there are caves or mines or natural veins of those metals present, but nothing that really would indicate anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, you are just two, you know, three miles is just not a big enough range as it currently is. But could be cast tomorrow and continue to be cast to search for these things. Well, unfortunately, I can't really get a reading. I was trying to do, I remember But when we were under the sea, looking for palat tracks, I was trying to do that again.

But I can't get a reading of any outright or anything like that. Well, it's just early days right now. We're still in the mountains. I think we just keep going down and then make my way forward. I can try again tomorrow or even later today, but perhaps we should make some distance

before I try casting the spell again. I reckon we'll hit the bottom, get a whole new perspective, and I'll be like, It's totally that way. Sure. Are you feeling any different now or? What do you mean? Just, you know, compared to yesterday.

Do I look different? You look? I could have been swapped. You might have been swapped from your dream self, but do you feel that pull again? Anything guiding you in a particular direction? I think I'd tried to... Spin around.

I start spinning violently. And stop. How does that feel? He teeters dangerously close to quite steep edge. Are you guys moving? Looks like the arthritis down there. A lot of stuff is down there. Why are we spinning?

Sadly, no feelings or general direction. Also, the other thing I could do is I could, you know, I could transform into a flying creature and I could go and scout from the skies. You could, yeah? Yeah? I'm happy to do that. Wait, what about Saran? Could you send Sarah in as well?

I can send Sarah as well. Again, I do just want to make the point. You are currently deep in the mountains. You would spend days flying out and then have. to return. Probably a good idea once you get out of this section. Right now your real goal is the best thing you can do is get out of this mountain range and get into the Azar step proper and then stuff like that will probably be more useful. But right now you're like deep in this mountain range. You could use that if you wanted to try and scout like a safer route

or something like that but it's not going to help you. I think Gryphus is trying to throw solutions up. Yeah sure sure sure. Never ending guilt. I think Griffith we should take things. What? Come on, let's go. Okay, hang on a second. I'm going to rustle a bed roll. Come on, Daisy. Daisy, grab the end of the bed roll, start dragging. Perfect.

Would you like Daisy to do the same thing and support Xantheus again for lookout? Yeah, that makes sense. So can I get a survival role from Griffith, please? I haven't done a lookout yet. The DC is lower because the weather is better today. 28. 28.

My brain cell has activated. Sprain cell. Sprain cell. My sprain cell. At the cost of speech. Hey. I just sprained it a little bit. It's fine.

You, gruff, I think maybe that first night, win the storm and your mind racked with guilt and what happened in the fort. But today feels a bit clearer. You're like, no. You're set to your purpose. You want to help Rowan. You want to help your friends. And you make great travel with the weather being clear. You travel for the whole day and don't encounter any troubles.

You manage to make your way. down, weaving your way through this kind of natural path. Perhaps finding like an old goat trail that is like, oh, this is actually a pretty safe way for us to go. No goats yet. But you do travel for the full day. You make camp that night. This time on the camp, I won't ask you what you're looking for.

Instead, I will just give you one. You come across a strange, as you're making your way, following this maybe like an old goat herders trail or something like that, you come across a rather tall, plain stone building. Nothing on the inside, just a simple wooden door, shuttered windows, and not even like steps or anything like that. The roof is angled with the shape of the mountain to kind of ease wind blowing over it and stuff like that.

It looks very crudely made. But Rowan, you would know, you recognize this. This is called a bothiak. and it means wandering, wanderer's house in giant. And it's basically for hikers and travelers. Like, it's a safe place to spend the night, basically. And, you know, with Graff's excellent role, you guys managed to camp in that,

and it provides you perfect shelter for the evening. Again, is there anything like as you make camp? Is there anything you'd like to talk about, anything you would like to do? Would anybody like to forage? Try hunting again? You don't have to. It's just if you want to try and replenish some of your supplies.

I don't know, the sun was starting to rise by the time I got back. Starting to rise? Yes. Oh, wow. Any goats? No. Oh. I think I've failed every single hunt I've attempted here.

That's the shit. You should probably stop because it's quite treacherous out there, and we don't want you falling again. I really want a goat. Me too, but not for the same reason. They have weird eyes. Anyway, here's a yuck yack. Both yak. A what?

A yack yack. Bless you. People call them Bothyaks, but I call them a yak-yak. Yacht? Bothiak. And what does that mean? It means rock dwelling. Rock dwelling, okay.

Bothyak. Both yak. So you love boss? It's a different language, Santhius. Oh. Thosena what I mean. Okay. Sorry.

You love yaks? Different language you mean. Right, okay, sure. I don't actually know what it means. You lied again. What is it? I didn't say it. I did, no. I just said I called one the act act. But you said it was a rock dwelling.

I did square around the truth, did that? What is it with this area and... I danced down to the truth. You really did? I'm so sorry. You were really experimenting with something and I'm not sure I like it. I'm different. I told you I've been swapped. This is Dream Rowan again, isn't it? Come back real Rowan. I swore. I did. I did hear it. That is well shocking, actually.

Okay. It's good a bit. All right, good night. Have fun with a hunt, Aphelia. No, I'm not hunting, hunts cancelled. No foraging today. I could do the crate, water again. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So roll a D4. DOS. DOS, okay, so add to two supply points. That will bring you up to 36. It tastes like gruff. And then you guys take another long rest, so you can get your hit dice, more hit dice back.

Take another long rest. And mine is 10 from the supply, so down to 26. And back up to four hit points, then. Does anyone know any good games we can play tomorrow? I'm enjoying the journey, Rowan. I really am, but... There's so many games we could play. Okay, yes, yeah.

Oh, we completed one. Find the yak-yak. Right, okay, yeah, okay. We're even playing. No, well, that's a really easy game. Well, I suppose it took two days to find that, but... We can play rocks? Rocks, okay, how do we... How do we play rocks?

So everyone... It's not just look at a rock, is it? Because, again... Oh, yeah, but... But they're... Everyone finds their favorite rock. Okay, and do we have to pretend they're like particular shapes or something or just... No.

You just find the best rocks and we all compare rocks. Could find some rocks. You could find some rocks? Yeah. Okay. All right, let's find our favorite rocks. Let's find a favorite rock. Okay.

Well, the next day starts up. Unfortunately, the weather does take a rather nasty turn again. Storms are exceptionally common here. They seem to come and go very rapidly. Those of you who are familiar, probably associated as part of the arched dragons magic here. So the rain is heavy. However, Gruff, you made such a good role yesterday,

you continue making progress. There's no event that takes place today. But I would like you all to roll perception to see if you find your favorite rock. Favorite rock! See what kind of rocks you find. I will roll for Daisy. Oh. In fact, does she...

I think she has a thing where she can't roll below a certain amount. Can I... Can I lie again? I'm gonna get out of rock from my satchel that I know is already amazing. Okay, you can do, but I want to know why Rowan is lying about it. Why is Rowan not just playing the game?

What's driving the motivation behind it? It's all me. It's his prison Rowan. Yeah. I want to know. You can do it, but I just want you to justify it. I think we have a child eater monster. So Rowan rolled a three,

which suggests that he finds a bad rock. He can't find a good one, and he really wants to impress his friends. So instead, All right, give me a deception. Or a sleight of hand, actually, to swap them out. It'd be slight of hand. 14.

14, okay. Daisy and Gruff would both notice that Rowan, he picks, you see him pick up this rock and he puts in his bag and he pulls out a different rock. You've noticed it, I'm not going to say they don't point out. What I'm going to do is swap it. What did we get for our perception? A two.

A two. What about Xantheus? A two. The two of you find, you find the same. You pick up the same rock. You pick up the same rock. It's goat shit. We haven't found any goats.

It's a solidified... Wait, we picked up the same rock. Yeah, no, no, no. Give it to me. Give it to me. It's the same solidified goat shit now. That's what you're both fighting over it, thinking it's a rock.

It's such a cool shape. Why is it crumbly? Oh, it's broke. More rocks. You broke my rock. More rocks? I'll take half. Yeah, yeah, I'll put it back.

Rowan, you will not believe what we found. What did Gruff get for his rock? A humble 27. Humble 27. A diamond. I think that you... 200 deep diamond. You find like a geode.

It's not like a valuable like diamond or anything like that. But you think, oh, that's quite a nice rock. And as you go to it, you're like, wait a minute. You turn it over and yeah, it's like one of those geodes with all the crystals inside. You're like, oh, that's really pretty. And like, you find that. Daisy just finds... She finds a rock that's the shape of Stuart.

Oh. She finds a Stuart-shaped rock and is very pleased with that. But Daisy kind of looks at you Gruff and looks at Rowan, he's like, I would perhaps come over to Rowan. Like, imagine these two are squabbling and kind of just, oh, stumble a little bit. Oh, this is a great rock you found? And it's gross rock. Like, he's like, look, look, look at this.

What an amazing rock you found? What? I didn't find this rock. You found it, Gruff. Is you okay? No, you, this was the one you picked up for you. I'm living a dream. None of this is real.

Gruff, pinch me. Just the gentlest tap. I'm not dreaming. Gruff, I just saw you put it there. That's yours. Actually, can we do it so that Daisy distracts Rowan? And Gruff swaps the rocks. Okay, yeah.

Yeah. Do that later on. You kind of have this weird, like, no, no, you found it. And then Daisy's like, oh. Yeah, yeah. sneaks round and like swaps them in. You two, your rock has crumbled into almost like powder. We've been in the background and it stinks.

It stinks. Something's wrong here. This feels really weird. That's goat poop. What? You guys have goat poop there. That's not a rock. No.

Yeah. It looks like you had the same one. You just split the goat poop. You licked it, didn't you? No. I would know. No! Afeel in goat poop!

No, I didn't! Usually, that's good luck. Is it? Is that true? Wait, Rowan, is that true? Yeah, I'm not lying. You've been lying a lot today. Oh my God, you know.

Is this really go poop? Is it good luck? Is this good luck? Are you lying, Rowan? Find it goat poop is good luck. There you go. Finding goat poop is good luck. Is licking it?

That's what you said. You said licking it was good. No, I was finding it's good luck. Okay, there's a hard way. Licking is a terrible idea. You shouldn't have licked that. Alright, so you'll put that down and wash your hands, please. You kind of wash your hands.

You don't have a rock? No, no, we thought that was a rock. You thought that was it. See, I like shiny rocks. That other people find. So you found goat poop. Yeah. Well, because other people find the shiny rocks for me normally.

Right. With this delightful game having been played out and the two siblings bickering and fighting on their way, Graf, you continue leading them. The weather, by the end of the day, does begin to clear up. And just as the sun is setting, and you've made great progress. You're now basically in the lower parts of mountain, coming into the hills, and now you can see that as the mountains have cleared out to the sides,

you are beginning to see the azar step fully open. Hills, not mountains, but like large hills, hills, forests, kind of scatter the environment. It rises and falls in different places, and then there are these huge stretches of just flatlands. As the sun is beginning to set on your final day of travel, one thing that you see in the distance is flying through the mountains, a distance somewhat away.

You see a pack of these reptile-like flying creatures with these long pointed beaks, storm wings, as they're known, but they're Tyrannodons and Terradactyls, basically. And you can see that their wings almost seem to gather charge as they fly through the sort of stormy clouds, and a pack of them fly through the air and begin making their way, probably to their nest or to their home in the mountains somewhere.

Oh, everyone look, quick. A fly by. Whoa. Holy farting shirt. It's at night. That was good. That was real good. You should have grabbed Re's head and turned it.

Rowan, what are they? Do you run? Storm. Storm wings. Storm wings. Who you pointing at? Please. I'm trying.

This is dangerous bit boy behavior. It's not bit boy behavior. You pointed to a DM that doesn't exist. Look past that. Okay. Storm. Wings. Wings.

Storm wings. A flock of storm wings. Are they dangerous? Yes. Do they have caught with blood? Should we run? No. It's quite a distance.

It looks like they're flying away. They're just making it home. That's all. So don't touch them. And don't agitate them or go to their nests. What do they like? What do they dislike? They like flying and...

Well, I can do that, actually. What noise did they make? So sorry, Sam. And that echoes throughout the mountains. Would you like that again? No. Right. They're coming closer.

They are. I think they heard that. You see them sort of wheel about. They seem to just take in and they fly off again. They're flying back and I think they're rad, do you? That's the other thing. flying and fucking. That's it.

Don't we all? It's a very silly mood today in this room. Very silly mood. We're on the journey. It's a thin air. That's not a little bit. That's what it is. It's a city place.

After this, you guys continue making your way down and you find a nice sheltered bluff where you can make camp. No cave or building this time, so you are a bit more out. But the weather does seem to clear up, and it looks like you will be able to sleep through without any getting rained on.

Last chance, if you do wish to do any foraging or have any little RP conversations, I give you this opportunity. How many supplies do we have left? Well, I dropped a few. So, how does 26 equate too? It'd be about two days worth of food and equipment. Some of the tents have been damaged, you know, things like that.

About two days worth. Things are looking quite bleak. Well, how close are we to the... We're not even at the bottom of the mountain range. You are. You're basically there. I did describe that you're at the bottom of the mountain range. Okay, so... I listened.

I know you did. So from here on, it's just... Keep going forwards. So long as we can forage and... I guess we'll use our ruin to get home. And things get desperate. But also, if you once you get onto the Azar step, hopefully you'll be able to find a settlement

or some traders or travelers or something like that. Two days to find... of sorts. How do you feel being back home? It was amazing. I got my friends and there's a step. Yes, you definitely seem cheerier and sassier. I know. I think it's the air.

You seem very happy. I'm very happy. I've seen the way you were looking at everything as you went past all those plants and the rocks. You were really... Oh, so many good rocks. Yeah. Yeah, that's actually a good point.

You reminded me something I forgot to describe to you is any vegetation that you've seen. been a lot in this mountain range. You've still been quite high up. But there is this sort of scrub brush that you keep finding. And maybe the first time that you encounter it, I don't know, Xanthias or somebody goes to touch it. As soon as you sort of approach it and there's any sort of disturbance of air around it, you do see that it sort of retreats and sort of restricts itself. Going from this like large, spongy, thorny kind of like bush and it kind of coalesces, almost like a little urchin. It kind of sucks itself in. You don't see a lot of, you don't see a

of like trees in the mountains or anything like that, very kind of shattered planes, kind of like creatures and plant life that protects itself. It either draws itself in, or it's like clinging vines that are wedged that would find little cracks in the stone and sort of use that to grow into and latch onto with little buds, you know, hard little shells and buds that grow all around them.

Are these things edible around? I wouldn't. They might bite back. They might bite. Leave it where it is then. Well, they're really good at hiding themselves from the weather because it's so treacherous up here. So don't eat?

I wouldn't know. Okay, all right. Well, that's my entire plan. Is there any kind of, the chicane around here? Lots on the, well, I don't really, it's really hard to live up in the mountains. The goats do it. I don't know where they find. They must have moss and things like that.

I can eat, but I can't imagine it's that nutritious for us. As we're, can I commune with nature again? But this time, I would want to search for arthritis, but also can I search for goats? You don't get any sign of arthritis. But yeah, you detects large amounts of goats kind of nestled in the hills and mountains all around you. Probably like a small herd of them not too far away.

So syrophilia, gov, come with me. Okay. And then we'll go hunting goats. using that. Sure. Can you both give me a survival role, please? Gruffers is the best day ever. 19.

19. 17. 17, okay. You, Gruff, take Ophelia, leaving Daisy, Roman and Xenthius in this little sheltered kind of little valley camp that you've made. And you take her not too far,

like 20, 30 minutes sort of journey, weaving your way following this communal spell which is driving you. And you find a tiny thin natural stream kind of weaving its way through the mountains now into these lowland hills and gathered around it are a family of about four Azarian goats. You can see that their fur, their set of wool, is quite thick and coarse, very water-absorbent. Their horns almost have rocky texture,

to them and almost seem to have veins of copper and metals kind of rolling through it, like the large stalagite that you saw. Their mouths, they definitely have a more protruded teeth, like kind of snout than sort of earth goats do. And you watch as like one of them goes up to one of these like, you know, plants. And as they approach it, the plant shrinks down. But you notice that the goats have basically developed the ability where they stand so still that the plant then thinks that whatever is there is gone.

re-blooms and it moves so slowly that it doesn't disturb the plant and then it chomps in one great massive, quite vicious bite and just chute and then chews away at the thing that it's done, that it's grabbed and they begin eating away. And you see these four kind of, and they're thick, you know, quite musly, quite, probably quite fatty goats, you know, well insulated. Is there any fish in the stream? It's quite thin, so I don't think that this would be like something that you, could fish in. But the two of you, if you wanted to, you could absolutely hunt these goats and harvest their materials, shall we say?

Oh, I'm going to wait. It's that rowing so fucking much. You can do what you like. We can just sit and watch them for a bit. Just, are they amazing? They are, rather... The other thing I would tell you is, like, you watch the plants or the goats eat. If you wanted to, you could harvest the plant, matat matter and berries and things that they're consuming, because it's obviously safe. That's what I always think.

So you could do that rather than get the goats themselves. I was going to do that and not judge whatever Aphelia does. So I'm going to start gathering whatever vegetation and things like that. What are you doing, Aphelia? You're going to slaughter some goats? Have some tasty meat? Drink some blood? Do you go meat?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So stalking your way down, Affili, these goats, you know, unaware of your presence, making sure that you follow your hunted instincts moving downwind, you know, making sure you're not downwind, sorry, you sneak up. And as soon as you lunge, two of them manage to get away and escape, but you quickly grab and seize two, plunge Veracity in,

silence them as they fall down to the ground. Meanwhile, gruff's just, like, slowly gathering, like, berries and mosses and things like that. But, yeah, you harvest together. You would harvest, like, about four supply points worth of food. But also for Ophelia, if you wanted to, you could just drain these goats right now. Oh yeah, I'll drain some goat blood. It's very tingly on the ton.

There's like a little spark to their blood. Oh, these are amazing. Thank you, Grov. Oh, absolutely. Just I heard what you said about not wanting to drink from your bottle and that, sorry, there's something about the way I said that

that I was just like, I just infantilized Ophelia so fucking much there. Baby doesn't want a bottle. I just wanted fresh for such a long time, gruff. It's been a little while. Oh, understandable. And it's just been so long since I've had a good hunt. It reminds me a lot of back home.

My parents used to raise goats. Oh, really? Yes. Yes, farmers, my parents were for a long time. Very good farmers as well. Oh, for some reason I thought your lady was your parents. No, no. I don't remember a whole lot about my parents, really.

I just remember the smell of livestock and just watching them from my window. And then the house of blood being very interested in what my parents were doing. Anyway, um... You're okay? You've been very quiet the last couple of days. of Dazes. I am absolutely fine. You sure?

I'm not fine. What's wrong? I attacked Rowan and Daisy. Oh, Graff, it wasn't your fault. I absolutely knew what I was doing as well and I couldn't stop it. Well, of course you couldn't. It was the edict, the horrible, horrible edict. But I wasn't strong enough to repel it.

I don't think anyone would have been. It took down... You were. Well, barely. I took a lot of help for me to get through it. It was a very difficult thing to get through and it's quite haunting how easily something like that can take over somebody, something so small can be so powerful. But you got through it?

And it wasn't your fault, Graf. We know that. It was just the look in their eyes. when I turned and raised my axe. This axe that Lord Obsidious entrusted to me and the first thing I did was strike my friends. But you didn't choose to do that. It wasn't your choice.

We've had a lot of talks about choices lately and about the right things and the wrong things to do and etc. And I think you always do the right thing. I always try. And you always do. It only took, it took some other world, entity from the precept coil to make you do something wrong. And I think that that says more about your

courage and your strength as an individual than it does about your weakness. Thank you, Sister Ophelia. But I do think this is going to take some time. It's understandable. But you have nothing to apologise for. You're a good man, gruff. Always have been. I just wish... I wish they'd shout at. me or something, you know. They just seem fine. They seem

like it's okay and they've already forgiven me and... They have. Because there's nothing to forgive, Gruff. I could have killed them though. We have ways of bringing people back. We've proved that more than once. It's okay. It takes a toll though. I can understand that. They should be able to trust me. And they do. I promise you that they do. I do. I do. I do.

I really hope so after this. You're a good person, Graf. Thank you, Sister Raffeli. It'll be some time before I feel that again. Well, I'm always here. I know we are very different people, but we are aligned for the same causes and you are a very good friend.

And I hope I can be the same to you as you are to me. Sister Raffini, you know I've always... held you in high regard. You were a person of conviction. That is something I admire in you. Would you like a hug? I've learned that from Roman. The hugs help.

I suppose I could give it a try. Sorry, I just... Yeah, you've got a little bit out. Yeah, sorry, sorry. Yeah, too. Come here. Come here. Very awkward, dad. So awkward.

So awkward. So awkward. Weird dad hug. Weird, like, social anxiety. I don't know what I'm doing, hug. I think that is the perfect point where we take our break as we get that beautiful image

of the awkward hug over the slaughtered carcasses of two goats. And some moss. It's your life. And that is where we will take our break. We'll take a short five minute break here, everybody. We'll see you back very, very soon.

Yeah. See you next time.