High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #38 | The Ashen Citadel (Part 1)

Episode Date: October 1, 2024

The journey out of Ashen Rest continues as the party discover a ruined citadel that seems to be calling for help! _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/ Add the Heroes of Altheya Minis to your TTRPG collection here: https://only-games.co/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

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Oh, what japs, what gags, what laughs, what jollies, what goofs, what gaffs, what larks, what whimsees we have for you today. Oh. Verily, quintessential. Tis quintessential. We're bringing it back, we decided as the Hyrolls, we're gonna elevate the next sort of step up

in slang language. We're gonna go all the way back. Thou art will quintessential. Yeah, we're gonna go back to ye olde English, ye olde speak. So if you have anything, if you think something's very good, just remember to say verily, thou art quintessential. Yeah. But yeah, so Kim's away.

So I will be controlling Drafteth of Freymorrow. Ooh, there it is. This table's not got an adult on it. Oh, don't I know it. I'm a little bit very sleepy. Sleepy little guys over here. We sleepy guys. There's a little guys over here. We're sleepy guys. There's a few sleepy guys around this table today.

We're expecting such a sleepy guy. One main thing to mention this week, which is next week for next week's episode, what we're going to do is we're actually going to put out our live show episode. Yeah, that's right. It's edited. Tom, I've done it. I finished it, it is ready to go and it is a blast throughout. The quality is superb, as I mentioned last week and it's good enough that we are gonna put it out next week

as the Sunday regular episode. Now, Faea Sidequest in the Volant Vault? That is the name of the, yes, that's what I, I titled my document. There you go. The Volant Vault. The first Vault Delve. Yeah, live at the Adelphi Theatre in London.

It was a crazy great experience for all of us. So if you didn't get to see it, you will this Sunday, and you'll be able to catch it on VOD and podcast. And those of you who were there, you think, oh, well, I've already watched it. Well, maybe check in because those peepers might peep yourself in the audience. That's true.

So you might be able to be like, that's me! I was there! It would be a very different experience watching the VOD as well than being there live. So yeah. So definitely check it out. So we're going to do that next Sunday instead of a regular episode,

and that means it will go out on YouTube as well, all the usual stuff in the following time in the week. So we are doing that next week. So and then after that, we will be back into normal or fair as normal. Enough of that, let's get some chaos out of the way. Let's crack on with today's episode. Let's play that intro.

Sam, take it away, save us please. Thank you. Kim, come back! ["The Dragon Empire Theme"] Welcome back to Ulthaya, the Dragon Empire. Our heroes have decided on a path forward, Welcome back to Ulthaya, the Dragon Empire. Our heroes have decided on a path forward, choosing to aid Lady Emberissa, her draconic majesty, daughter of the Red Dragon Duke Ignarius Ignarum,

and undertaking her quest, a task to seek out a missing knight of the realm, who is sent to retrieve an artifact for Lady Emarissa from an area nearby called the Ash Hills, a site of a historical battle during the Oriat Insurrection. With provisions procured, including a wagon and their trusty beast of burden called Rodri, the heroes ventured forth from Ash and Rest and began their journey into the Ash Hills. After three days of travelling alongside the Ruby River, eschewing the roads for wilder country, our heroes encountered a terrible, vaultspawn beast, a troll and some vile limb

jimbots. Defeating the creature, they checked its lair and discovered a pile of animal and traveller bodies, including a merchant who was carrying an odd golden rod which bore celestial script and icons. Daisy, and the odd spirit that travels with her nymph, could read the text and discovered it bore words of a contract or pact, binding the previous owner to aid the Twelfth Legion in their pursuit of deserters and criminals of the Lucent Peaks. Pressing on with Rowan leading them in the countryside, sadly the Jotnir bard led them astray in his navigations, and in only half a day, the party encountered

a pack of ferocious and rather unusual wolves on the road, and another battle ensued. That is where we pick back up today. Oh. I boughed it. In a, ah, the famous phrase known throughout all of the Dragon Empire. We all remember you boughed Jorkinson.

Yeah, what a fool, what a clown he was. Useless and terrible. But to set the scene, because we did do this combat in the theater of the mind. Yes. Mind. So I'd like you to imagine, you are currently traveling through wild grassland,

and hill land specifically. So we have two large hills, one behind you, into the, what I would call the southwest, and then one in the northeast, so you're kind of, the wagon was weaving its way between these two large hills. Yes. The wolves appeared at the top of the northeastern hill

and then have run down to engage you. They had the high ground. Gruff and Ophelia and Daisy have moved towards that northeast hill and have met some of the creatures midway. Two of the wolves have moved around the side, avoiding Gruff, of an engaged Rowan right next to Rodri and the wagon.

I'm getting married? That's right, to two wolves. There are two wolves inside you. This combat's gotten terribly rough. There are two wolves inside me. Xanthius is about, sort of, I believe, 20 feet back from the wagon, having pulled away from the combat.

Yes. Engaged. So we currently have, Gruff is engaged by one of two wolf alphas. Is this on pathway now or still on hill? They are up on the hill. So Gruff is fighting one of the alphas on the north eastern hill. Oph Gruff is fighting one of the alphas on the north eastern hill.

Ophelia is engaged with one of the alphas on that hill as well. Daisy is just behind them and has been throwing daggers in support. And then right next to the wagon we have the two wolves, and then Xanthia is slightly behind them as well. Sorry, did you say there's two alphas? Yes. Oh, OK. I believe so.

Also, someone's trying to ring me. Don't ring me on Sunday. They were trying to confirm. Yeah, there were two alphas. Can't confirm. Although I remember that there's two. OK. Fair enough.

Maybe there's only one. I believe there's only one alpha. All right. There's probably only one. There's usually only one. I feel like there was only one. Because there was the one that Gruff. I have drawn two A's on my previous little map,

and that may be... Right, because I remember Gruff went forward as the bear to intimidating Ror. Now, Gruff's bear form is heavily injured. I should make that very clear now. He's fine as a health bar behind that. I will be rolling for Gruffeth as Kim is not here. Okay.

And quite honestly, nobody can be trusted. Very true. Yeah. I'll play Gruff. I've got all the notes. Well, Kim did have a blanket rule to stop us from doing the only thing we would do as Gruff, and it said no while shaping into a kitten. That is true.

One alpha, three wolves. I trust Kim's notes over Mark's. One alpha. I would also trust Kim over my own notes. One alpha, three wolves. Alright. Nice. And the brown trust Kim over my own next. One alpha, three wolves. Nice. And the brown bear form's currently on 22 HP. I think she said it was on two.

She has three HP left. Three. Yeah, she was like, it's a boat. It's 19 out of 22. She's taken 19 damage. Hey, we're catching up. That I do have. We're catching up.

So, at the start, it's a brand new round, and the bear form of Gruff is going to take a swing at the creature. That's bear form, mate. That's quintessential bear form. That is properly verily. Jesus fucking Christ. So, I am gonna roll for this,

going in with a one-bite attack and one claw attack. We haven't done our fate. Oh, very good point. Oh, thank God. I want you to fate me, daddy. Yeah? I... It's a weird energy today.

D6 is from everybody. Barely. Oh! Barely. Barely. Barely. Barely. Three is dice for me from KD.

I got a four. Dice for you. Six. Dice for you. A two. Dice for me. Oh, comes down to me. Yeah. Oh.

A two. Dice for me. There you go. I am still playing around with the fate system. So I'm still kind of deciding what I want to do with it. Because it's very good for using on legendary monsters. But in smaller encounters with normal enemies, I don't have a lot of ways of spending it.

So I'm playing around with some ideas. So do bear with me on that. But we're going to jump straight in with normal enemies, I don't have a lot of ways of spending it, so I'm playing around with some ideas, so do bear with me on that. But we're gonna jump straight in with Gruff, who is going to try and savage this alpha with his bear and claws. His bite, sadly, does not hit. The larger bear manages to move out of the way. However, the claw attack will hit with a 20. It hits an unnatural 20, a dirty 20,

as some may like to call it. Is that the prone maker claw? I remember what it's called. I don't believe so. I'm not seeing it on my stats anyway, but we're just gonna move on. Maybe that's changed. It's a whole new thing.

That is gonna be eight points of damage from Gruffus. Nice. Nice. As you see, the very bloodied Alpha now, you know, bearing multiple wounds from Ophelia and Gruffus attacks. As, yeah, it is piled in. That is gonna be it for Gruffston.

I'm not gonna try and do anything too clever. I wanna try and keep it simple and move on here. We go to Ophelia. Yeah, Ophelia will try and attack this alpha wolf, with Veracity. These wolves, as I think I've mentioned, they have these very unnatural pelts. Their pelts are streamed with sort of golden tufts,

and occasional their bones and their bodies seem more spiky and ridged, more muscular. But that one was definitely ruined though. Yes, it got sprayed with acid. The alpha I accidentally sprayed with it. Well, accidentally. Felt is ruined. Ophelia.

14 to hit. 14 to hit will hit the alpha just barely. Nice. Let's rock and roll, Buckaroo. And I believe I am still form of dreading. You are, yes. So, we'll save Fo. That is very true.

Thank you very much. That is gonna be a failure. Yeah, DC13 fail. Yep. So you are frightened of me. Yeah, you watch as it recoils from Ophelia's terrifying gaunt undead-like form. Max damage on veracity.

Ooh. So 10, 11, 12 damage total. Another 12 damage. Looking very, so 10, 11, 12 damage total. Another 12 damage. Looking very, very weakened at this point, as the Rapier slides in to its unnatural hide, sinking deep into the creature's flesh. I'm gonna move around the wolf to like its rear, just to get out of its bitey range.

Yeah, sure, obviously it can just move around. Yeah, yeah. For flavor, like you're kind of cycling around it. Yep. Yep, absolutely. You flavor, like you're kind of cycling around it. Yep. Yep, absolutely. You and Gruff are sort of combining attacks to take this thing down. Anything else on your turn, Ophelia?

No, that's it, thank you. All right, then we go to Daisy. Hello. Hello. I will... There's two that are right beside Rowan now. There are two that are engaging Rowan, yes. I will shoot for one of those. I think I damaged one of them already.

You did, yeah. One of them is quite badly hurt. One of them is bloodied. I will try and hit that one. That is an 18 plus seven. 18, yeah, that'll definitely hit. So Rowan's beside them, so I get sneak attack. Yeah.

There are two normal wolves next to you. Who? Yep, by the wagon. 17 damage. Ooh. That, and you're going for the one that you already struck. I'll go for the non-herd one. The non-herd one, 17, right?

All right, that one is bloodied as well as the radiant blade sinks deep into the other wolf's flesh. Both of them now rowing around you looking heavily injured but still fighting. I will try and hit one again. That probably won't. It might. Nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, nine, they are not too difficult to hit, but they're definitely tougher. I forgot what their AC was. So that is gonna be six points. Same one that you just damaged?

Or the first one? The first, whatever one is looking really weak. Hard to tell, they look about the same. Okay, whatever. All right, I will do the same one that you struck, so you throw them both into the same one. But looking very weak, both looking very injured. That one now looks far worse than the other.

It became very ragged and bloody. However, after Daisy, if that is you done. Yes. All right, the wolves, all of the wolves basically go now. Starting with the two smaller ones. One is gonna try and Swat to Rowan. It kind of rakes its big heavy claws. That is gonna be a 16.

Yeah. Do it. That is gonna be, and you know what, I'm gonna spend one of my fate points to increase the damage here. Of course. As I used to do in the past. I'm gonna bring this back for a bit.

Sorry, let's save this out. It's gonna be a heavy hit. That's gonna be 13, 15 points of damage, and I need a Strength saving throw from you, if you are not unconscious. I'm gonna use my Stone's Endurance. Okay. To reduce that by four.

So it goes down to 11. Yep, and then Strength saving throw. Strength saving throw, please, yes. 15. 15 is a please, yes. 15. 15 is a success, it tries to drag you down to the ground, but your giant blood, your Yotnir vitality and strength keeps you up. The second one is going to try and bite you.

It was gonna try and bite you on the ground, you are no longer there, so it's just a straight attack. That I think is gonna miss, it's only a nine. Oh my god, that misses. So you managed to deflect it away. I bounce it off my leather jerk and, Sure, you know, boom. You just shoulder bounce him.

Like a bro. And then I break just my leather pants. Okay, nice, that's very perfect. So that's the two regular wolves. The larger alpha wolf is going to multi-attack. It is going to attempt to bite, oh, my deepest apologies. Gruffydd had suffered a bleeding wound

in the previous turn. At the start of Gruffydd's turn, this bleeding wound would have dealt some damage. Where is my D10? Oh, so it might not have had bear attack. Let's just say it was the end of the turn. We'll just, it'll be fine because this is gonna do a lot. That is gonna be eight points of damage,

which is enough to knock out of the bear form and damage Gruff's normal form. Sure. But we're just going to leave the bite attack as it is. Yeah, the bleeding continues. The bleeding does continue. It's the start of every round. Does a healing kit solve the bleeding issue?

It could do. Because I've used them before. I feel like it was just a straight-up cure wound, that's enough. I think it was. You will know when you know. You can certainly try different things. It would make sense. This is not a supernatural thing. This is like a terrible ragged wound.

We've had this before, haven't we? We've had a bleeding wound. I just can't remember what... I think at one point we had to banjit because we were out of spell slots. But I feel like cure wounds or healing word was also enough. But for the sake of purposes, we're just gonna say that Gruff's attack, they happened just as he came out of the form.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is gonna be, so it's gonna be a Bite towards Gruff and then a Wounding Claw against Ophelia. The Bite is definitely gonna hit Gruff with a 22 and then against Ophelia, ooh, 15. That just hits, has it got disadvantage? Because it's frightened. It does have, that would be on all of its attacks, right?

Because it's saying, all right, well I'll roll, I will roll these separately then. So the first one against Gruff was like a 22, that is now gonna be a 12, which is gonna miss, because of the fear. And against Ophelia, it would be a 11. So because of the Frightened, you can see, it's always trying to keep its eye on Ophelia,

always wary of some attack coming, and this gives you and Gruff enough time to kind of move and get out of the way. Perfect, all righty. With that, yeah, that is its turn, with it being Frightened, and then the Frightened goes away at the end of its turn, with it being frightened. And then the frightened goes away at the end of its turn, I believe. At the end of my next turn.

At the end of your next turn. So if you strike it and it fails again, you keep that up. Nice, excellent, great. All righty, in that case we go to Xanthias. So I remember the other two that were, I guess now on Rowan that cycled around, they were afraid of you before. That's why they ran around.

Yes. So I guess that- Oh, they were afraid of you before. That's why they ran around. Yes. So I guess that- Oh, they were afraid of Gruff. Gruff used Daunting Rowan. Oh, of course. Okay. They're heavily injured. How far away am I, sorry?

How many feet away from the- I believe you'd moved 20 feet away from Rowan. So you're 20 feet away from Rowan and the two wolves, which would put you a good 80 feet away from everyone else. Okay, can I run closer to Rowan? I basically want to be within 10 feet of the wolves, but not within Rowan.

Well, the wolves are engaging Rowan, so don't worry about it. You know what, that's fine, I can be next to Rowan. I wanna move up to Rowan, into the range of these wolves. I'm gonna grab Rowan's arm, and we're gonna suck into nothing. We're gonna disappear into nothing as I thunderstep away and pull you out of the fray. Okay.

Is, sorry, is Daisy there as well? Nope. Daisy's not there. I'm gonna say Rodri's there though. Don't you fucking there. Oh I can't, oh I can't, like what is the range on Thunder Step, sorry. I believe it's 10 feet in all directions

and Rowan is right next to the wagon. So it would include. Don't leave Rodry. Bye for now. Yeah but it does do a lot of damage. Yeah and that damage will also hit Rodry. I want to move into a position in which the wolves are in a line and I still don't hit Rodry, is that damage will also hit Rodri. I want to move into a position in which the wolves are in a line and I still don't hit Rodri,

is that possible? A line? Yes. Yeah, you can get the wolves in a line. Yeah. Okay, so I'm pulling Rowan away, the thunder damage. Oh, no, no, no, like you can get the wolves in a line

if you don't do Thunder Step is what I mean. I mean, can I Thunder Step to a place in which they are in a line for me? From where you are without taking Rowan with you. While taking Rowan with you. If you move up to Rowan and Thunderstep, you are gonna hit Rodgery and the Walls. There is no way to avoid that.

That's happening. Okay. What? I forgot about Rodgery. Okay. So that's just happening. So what's the saving throw on these? Because I imagine you're probably gonna kill these. Constitution 14. Constitution 14.

Chris Trot, you have Rodgery's stats over there next to Kim. Aw. Can you make a seven throw for him? Plus two. Plus two, what's the DC? Come on, Rodders. 14. Hey, use fate on it.

No. 17. Rodgery, you can't use fate. 19. 19, all right, he takes half damage. Count damage there. Hot rod. Two wolves. How many hit points does he have?

15. 15. Okay. Constitution. Yes. One of the wolves Constitution, one of the walls past one fails. So it's 15 damage, halved for Rodri. What type of damage? 15 thunder. Rodri is resistant to thunder damage.

So three, so it'll be three points of damage. That's pretty lucky. Hot rod. I didn't put that on issue. Which means one of the walls takes 15, one takes what would be three points of damage. That's pretty lucky. Hot rod. I didn't put that on issue. Which means one of the wolves takes 15, one takes what would be seven, I guess. All right, one of the wolves, in fact, ooh yeah, which way did I roll this?

He would have failed, he succeeded. The way that I rolled this, both of the normal wolves are ripped apart by the force of thunder as they are. Their pelts are probably fucked, right? Yeah, they're ripped apart. Well, it's like thunderous force, so I'm gonna say no, it like breaks all their bones into pieces. Okay, good.

Pelts are sort of kept. Great. So you see their kind of skulls fracture and things like that. Or it's pelt. Then you guys can teleport where? I'd like to teleport to a place in which, so my intention is to use my dragon's breath now I suppose to hit the alpha, but there's no way I can do that without hitting

Gruff or Ophelia, right? So I'm just gonna teleport to a place where Rowan, I guess, would be safe from if the alpha would. There's only one left, right? Just the alpha left, yeah. I'm in the middle of nowhere, you could come near me and that would be fine. Yeah, I'll go to where Daisy is,

and hopefully that'll be, I guess, the opposite side of the wolf to Ophelia, because I know Ophelia's terrified it. Away, basically. Okay, yeah, you guys will be fine. If you killed Roderick, Kim would have been sorry. Can you put a note on how much damage you see? Yeah, I'm doing all mine.

Oh, you're doing all yours. Perfect, thank you. Alrighty. There is a sort of like, mourn, follow it. No. From Rodri, it's like you see the thunderous energy like ripple against his scales, but you also see that as the thunder hits Rodri, those scales almost faintly glow,

like there's a sort of a blue pulse over his body. Cause they're raised on the Azhar Steps, so they are sort of, they have a natural resistance to lightning and thunder. Cool. From my perspective, I'm facing down two wolves. They instantly crunch and explode. And you're at a distance. And I'm bamfed.

Yeah. Rowan instantly throws up. I mean, yeah. The way I like to envision Thunderstep as well is we literally almost compress into a null space just instantly, and that creates like a burst of energy. It's like an implosion and a shockwave afterwards. And then we just appear.

And which is perfect, because it's now Rowan's turn. If you appear next week. I got you, it's OK, the wolves are gone. It's just that one up there left. Where am I? gonna turn. If you appear next week. Ah! I got you, it's okay, the wolves are gone. Just that one up there left. Up there, up there. How close am I to alpha now? You are 30 feet. I will run up to alpha.

All right. Kind of stumbling, just coming out of bamf. I'm gonna go in for a straight swing. Just throw up on him. Yeah, regular swing. Pelt's ruined, been thrown up on. Shit. That will hit.

Plus four, 19. That hits. Two handed, obviously. Well, you got your lantern helmet. I got my lantern helmet. Eight plus one, nine points of damage. Nine points of damage. Your sword is not magical though, is it?

No. All right. That's all right. Not everything has to be magical though, is it? No. Alright. That's alright. Not everything has to be magical. No, it's fine. It actually doesn't matter. No. You watch as the sword strike.

Where the pelt has been sort of ruined by the acid, you manage to drive the blade in and cut down, leaving a gaping wound on its side. Yeah, heavy blow. Not yet dead though. Anything else on your turn, Ro? So now Ophelia and Gruff are here. Yes.

I'm going to... Give Gruff his bear. No, not bear, no more. He's got a savage wound, he's been clawed on the side. Yeah, Gruff is bleeding, apparently. Hello, my friends, clawed on the side. Yeah, Gruff is bleeding, apparently. Hello, my friends, you're gonna do right. Barric inspiration, Ophelia.

Okay, nice. D8, yeah, so D8 now. He got a little lost for a minute. Gruff's turn. Thank you. If that's the end of your turn, Ren. That's the end of my turn. Right, start of the round, at the start of Gruff's turn,

Gruff takes another three points of damage. Okay. This is bleeding wound, continues to bleed. You're tracking that, yeah. I am just applying it to Gruff's Carrot Sheet on the 80 Beyond. And then Gruff will, oh bloody hell, oh this isn't very good, is it?

Holding his side. Gruff will cast Shalala. Oh, your favorite spell. Shalala, lala, l spell. Shalala. Shalala. Shalala. And will strike with his staff. Natural 20. Holy shit. Yay.

Sarah, Nerdish Cosplay Style, so she gave me. Aw. Nat 20s has Gruff ever had. We need stats. A fair few. Stats. So this is gonna be 12 damage plus another D8. Another three. 15 points of damage.

Hell yeah. You watch as Gruff brings the staff down as it turns its head back towards Rowan, who's now suddenly appeared. Gruff takes the moment, strikes the creature on your head and you hear something crack and snap as its neck breaks and the body slumps to the ground. His neck snapped. its neck breaks. And the body slumps to the ground. His neck snapped.

Yeah. Yes. As the body crumples to the ground, sadly that bardic inspiration is gonna be sadly a bit wasted as that is end of combat. Yeah. To an extent, Gruff is still bleeding, so we're gonna keep you in initiative just to see what you guys do next.

Okay. But Gruff has slain the beast. But it would you in initiative just to see what you guys do next. But Gruff has Slain the Beast. That was both turns. Oh, that was both turns. We're not gonna keep you in initiative, you guys basically get one turn if you're gonna do something, if you wanna try and do something. Fix Gruff. I mean, yeah, I just bamfed.

Oh, this thing isn't stopping. You must have hit an artery, I reckon. Let's take a look at Gruff, I'll do like a medicine check and just. Yeah, do you have a healer's kit? I do not, no. All right, you can still do a medicine check. I'm just keen to get the hands on with the blood. You can do a medicine check to figure out how to stop it. Okay.

You can't fix it without a healer's kit, that you don't have any supplies. Do be ashamed to stop it. I have a healer's kit. Nine. Nine, oh there's so much red, vibrant. You should probably seal it with your mouth. Oh, seal it! Oh!

What are you doing? Get it? This is Staphelia, you're not going to drink it, are you? What are you doing down there? I'm sorry, Staphelia, I'm sorry. Too distracted by that sumptuous red sanguineous flow as it draws your eye. But yeah, distracts you too much to have a concrete idea.

Any other, anybody else? I have a healer's kit. Yeah, do you want to try? Sure. Yeah, so it's a medicine check. Expends one use of the healer's kit. One use. This doesn't work, I will healing word.

Okay. To be honest, may as well just do that, but. Don't try messing. Oh, that day seems to work. Might save, may as well just do that, but. Try medicine. Might save a spell slot. Might need that spell slot. Might have another encounter. That's true at this rate. 18.

18, yeah, you take out the bandages. Is this something Daisy knows how to do or is this maybe Nim's instruction as well? So in your mind, Nim is like, now wrap it around tightly, now seal this, blah, blah, blah, kind of, and it's battlefield medicine. Like the way that Nim describes it to you is this is very much

a, this is how to staunch a wound on the battlefield. This is like a battlefield medic's training. So you're like roaring at him. Yeah, rawr! Get down! Oh yeah, don't give up on me, private! No, you wrap the bandages around Gruff, so you have to like, you know, loosen up parts of like, his hide No, you wrap the bandages around Gruffside. You have to loosen up parts of his hide armor.

You wrap the bandages around, you seal it tight tight. You apply a Solve, some sort of ungwent from the healing squid. A Slav? No, an ungwent. And you apply that to the wound. And that will help with the healing process, which stops the bleeding wound. Yay! It doesn't restore any hit points, but, which stops the bleeding wound. Yay!

It doesn't restore any hit points, but it will stop the bleeding wound. What the fuck? Unguent's a thing. I know words. Oh yeah. Verily. Quint. Quintessential.

Ungwent. Verily thou art quintessential, sir. Take thee to an apothecary, and procure oneself an ungwent. Ungwent, that's a rare one. When next you pick up your ibuprofen, ask perhaps for an unguent. Ibuprofen.

Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen. That could be a D&D character name. Ibuprofen. Ibuprofen. Aspirin. Aspirin. Paracetamol.

Paracetamol. Right, anyway. Yeah, with that, jump out. Hey, I'm Cal Paul. I'm Gav. Where's he gone? Gav is gone. We warned you guys.

We warned you, we're all very tired. We're just silly little goofy guys today. Oh my god. It's Gav! Oh god. It's pretty good. Ah, Re the lead into that joke was masterful. That was quintessential.

That was properly quintessential. What a lark. What a jade. Right, with that, you find yourselves out in the hills of the grasslands, you know, Gruff would probably be like, you didn't hurt poor Rodri, did you, with that spell? I didn't mean to, I, out of character. Sweet boy.

Out of character, I completely forgot that would hit Rodri. As soon as you said that, Rodri. But I was also like, I've said too much, I can't go back on the mistake again. I love a commitment, I love a commitment to it. But also, maybe Zamtius would have known that Thunder Lizards are resistant to thunder damage

because of Kaldra. Tom didn't. But, okay, fine. Heed of the moment. I think when Daisy runs up the hill to heal Graf, maybe I go over to Hot Rod. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't feel so good.

Make an animal handling check for me. Oh, Nod. Make an animal handling check for me when you rub the scales. Your hair's dashed on it. He's not the brightest creature. You might not know that you made that happen. Minus one.

17. Yeah, he's fine. He like rubs his head up against you. It's okay, I won't do it again. I swear, I promise, Rodri. Do you like that, Rodri? Here you go. Woo, coochie coochie coo.

His little ear flaps to the side and he's like, he shakes his little butt a bit. Oh, he's shaking his butt, he's got a pounce. Yeah. Yeah, I try to make it up to Rodri. I can't heal him, but. Well, that's fine. You give him a little stroke.

Anything else while you guys are there? These wolven carcasses. There is three regular wolves and one large wolf. There's definitely something unusual about them, but looking around, you don't sense that there's any more. Ophelia, you did see that there were more wolves out there, but there's no immediate sign that they're gonna attack. Maybe the others have gone off or fled or whatever it is.

You do know to scare them away. There's one person who's interested in pelts. I don't think anybody else is. I'm like pang around my pockets. I'm looking for something, and then I pull out a bounty sheet. So there is that thing that asked us to recover wolf pelts from this area,

and there are two here. I'm afraid that one up there, I may have ruined with a little bit of acid. There's three, right? And then the alpha one. Three regular wolves, because it was the third one that got killed very quickly. Yeah. Is the alpha one good enough to research?

Or anything, like if we took it to Blackwing, would Blackwing be able to? You can do whatever you guys want, right? This is a thing where I'm like, we didn't do it a lot in a rowis, but in this is like, yeah, if you want to skin that alpha pelt or harvest bits of it and keep them

and take them to black, well you can do that, yeah, absolutely. Can I make a wolf hat? Well, like, not like the head. I want to take the head, can I take the head? If you would like to do that. Dibs on the head! I mean, it's a- I have a fashion idea! It's acid mottled and also Rowan threw up on it.

It's battle damaged, it's got character! It does smell like vomit. Yeah. Sorry about that. I don't care, it's fine, it's fine. I've been to the House of Rot. This is fine. What a fine animal! Look, do you know how we could,

for lack of a better term, separate the flesh from the bod. We'd have to get inside it. You have to get inside it, what? Oh yes, well inside you there's a skeleton, right? No it's not, how dare you? Inside your flesh, we just have to dig it out and separate, render the flesh from.

Don't tell me these horror stories, there's not a skeleton inside of me. Get out. No, no. Rude a message. Skeletons are awful things in the ground. There could possibly be one inside of me. I'm ghastly.

Such a weird sound theist tea. He's quite educated other than... Standard biology. No, I know, it's a thing. Okay, if you like, it would be useful for us to be able to get the pelts from these walls. So if you're comfortable to, I mean, you can try on the alpha, I think it might be too damaged. So, is anybody proficient with leatherworker's tools?

No! And I will not be getting involved, thank you very much. So, if you are not, if nobody is proficient in leatherworker's tools, then this would be a straight dexterity ability check. You make it per carcass. The higher you roll, the better preserved the pelt is. If you roll too low under the DC, which is set by me,

you ruin the pelt and it's unsound, you basically ruin it. If we roll a 20, do we get two pelts? From one creature. Maybe, maybe. So if you roll high enough, ooh, maybe you can get enough. I mean, I'm not gonna try. I remember Xanthias in the cave almost throwing up

at the sight of the first body, so I don't think he did. The alpha pelt is ruined for the sake of completing the little bounty quest, but I will say that if you roll high enough, Ophelia, you can get enough to make your cool wolf hat, if you want to. Cool bear, cool man. And you will also, yeah, okay, do you wanna spend a fate?

Okay, yeah, sure. On the hat, come on, baby. And you will also, yeah. Okay, do you want to spend a fate? Yes please. Okay, yeah sure. On the hat, come on baby. This is straight death. Mama needs a new wolf hat. Mama needs a new wolf hat. DC's your Isephalic. Oh, it's so bad. Oh good.

Oh it's bad. I don't even need to look it up. Okay, what we got? No. What are we talking? Seven. What did you roll? I'm on a five.

The, Ophelia spends, I'm gonna say a good hour, just with a knife, carving, Just stop! But it's like, It's already dead. Yeah, you keep getting too much muscle, and then like, you're like, oh, this has got like the skull, you break it, and it just rips apart the ear,

you like, really pull it off, trying to separate, you're just not skilled enough at flensing the got like the skull, you break it, and it just rips apart the ear, you like really pull it off, trying to suck. You're just not skilled enough at flensing the flesh from the muscle, and you just end up covered in blood. Um. Silver learning. Do they have the same kind of blood as the gnolls, though? Cause remember when the gnolls were like,

so they have actual blood, not acid. These are, for the most part, natural wolves, but they have become, you know, like a creature that grows up in certain environments, it evolves and mutates over time, right? Like, this is definitely the case here. Like, you can see that their bones are denser and sharper. Like, their joints are almost pointed.

Their muscles are overinflated. They're stronger than they should be. Their claws are ridged, a bit like the horns of a dragon or something like that. There's like slight ridging to them. But apart, and they have like a slight golden fleck to their eyes, and these patches of golden fur like, you know, throughout them.

But apart from that, they are natural animals. How, um, how? It is unattainable. Oh, well. I like the fact that she tried to put it on her head. And also, you've ruined this thing. There are bones left. At this point, even the organs,

when you were cutting through, you stabbed and punctured a lung. Oh, oh, punctured like a lot. Oh, oh God, oh, oh. You've ruined the whole thing. Like it is ruined. Okay. I have done this before. You have?

I didn't want to interject or anything. That's exactly the time to interject, but. Hours later. Can you save it? I'm not, I'm not as seen. Not even for a vivify, you can bring this thing back. I mean, I've done rudimentary things in the past. That's too far gone, I'm afraid.

But I can do the other ones. Can Raffeth not do stuff? He's a fisherman. He's a fisherman, he's not a skimmer. I don't know, maybe he has had some experience. To train him, no. How, like... If you ain't got that proficiency. Yeah, how well known are these sort of creatures in Caldra?

Are these like a new thing or do I know of like... Dude, they're wolves. They're wolves. But, yeah, I mean, they're sort of the golden sort of ash hill. To most other people, they would just look like wolves, like slightly different wolves. Okay. You know, like you get like gray wolf or a black wolf, or black wolves with patches of gray.

They'd just be like, oh, that's weird, it's got like a blonde patch to it. Most people probably wouldn't get close enough to these things. The Ash Hills have not been populated in a long time. Most people won't come here to like, you know, forage or anything like that. They'll go to other places.

I was just wondering if there was any... It's a very untread area. This is like going out into the middle of the woods, out in, I don't know, the Rockies or something like that. We're going and finding out, deep in the Black Forest in Germany, and being like, oh, that boar's got a weird color to it. Most people aren't gonna pick up.

So there isn't any, I guess, research, knowledge, or even just stuff that Zantius, I guess, living somewhat close to this area would know that the thing that Ophelia just tore apart, we can't like, I don't know, take some meat from that for rations or something. I don't know if they're safe to eat or... I think that there'd be enough knowledge on that.

Make a survival check for me. I'd say Rowan can make this as well, because you're quite well-traveled as a Yotnir. You would have picked up on on knowledge and things like that. Daisy, you're from another park culture, so I don't think this would apply to you. Natural 20. Natural 20?

Yeah. You don't even want to bother? 17. Yeah, 17. The two of you, I would say that you would know that Pushkin to Shove, you could totally cook their meat and things like that, they're fine. There's definitely a strange kind of taste to it.

A lot of people don't eat creatures from this area because they complain of it having a very metallicy, irony taste, which a lot of people don't obviously like and find palatable. But as with Pushkin and it's not poisonous, there's nothing like toxic. It's not crown steel corruption kind of thing, it's such light low level.

It would be like, you know, such a minute in their bloodstream, but over like, yeah, but like over a generation of like, you know, their, like, you know, this is, this is a natural kind of process basically. Okay, cool. You know, drinking the water here, eating other creatures that feed on the land here

and stuff like that has over time just caused these creatures to divert from the typical evolutionary path. Sure. Cool. Okay, but not so far that it's just, No, they are. I'm dying here. Perfectly natural beasts at this point, right? They are still, they're not magical,

they are natural creatures. Yeah. At this point. Yeah, if, they're not magical, they are natural creatures. Yeah. Yeah, if you wanna give it, do you have leather working? Oh, okay. Did you want to try and skin the other pelts? So now I've got a knife. I just need a dagger. I mean, there's daisies.

It's not made of reagents. Oh, that's true. It's better to hold it. Let's see. I have a dagger. Graft probably would have one, yeah. No, I have a normal one. You're not gonna hit me.

I have a couple daggers, but they're very, very cheap. Sorry, I got a few of these ones. They're very, very different. Okay. All right, same thing, you don't have proficiency or anything that you could apply to this. But I do have fate. You do have a fate. Also, you have jack of all trades as a bard,

which means you get to add half your proficiency to everything. I think I should already be in your thing. And that would apply to a tool check as well. Yeah, but it's not normally a skill check to use a tool proficiency. So you would get half your proficiency, which I think is rounded down.

So you get an extra one to this as well. Half your proficiency rounded down, plus one right now. Yeah, so you'd get that to any kind of tool check and things like that as well. Jack of all trades. That's awesome. Yeah, it's a nice little feature. It buffs all of your skills and stuff, yeah.

So it's specifically for stuff with sets and kits. Yeah, all of your skills will have it factored in as well. Any untrained skill will have this factored in. Oh shit, my bad. So yeah, this is gonna be decks with an extra D6 from fate and a plus one from your Jack of all trades. It's worth remembering if we ever do that. So it's already factored in to my saving throws.

To your skills, it's not saving throws. Everything on your sheet is, but like if we did say cooking or something, you'd probably get extra plus one. If you're not proficient already. 20. 20, there I would say that with a 20, I'll give you, basically with a 20,

you can do two of these wolves at once, like it takes you an hour. Take yourself. And you, like a very skilled traveler, maybe you've had to help in the village when the tanners needed an extra pair of hands. They don't like doing it. Yeah, taking a hide apart.

And it washes very keenly. It's very bloody and you don't have the tools and means to preserve the hides, but if you wrap them up and seal them, they might stink a bit by the time you get back to Ashen's Rest, but they'll be perfectly usable by a leatherworker to turn into a full hide.

Maybe wash it in a stream or something like that. Yes, yeah. But for now, squelch. Squelch roll. Squelchy hides. There is one more wolf left, but you will need to spend an hour. Nobody water.

Is that something that maybe Gruff could have been doing a long cycle? I'll make a roll for Gruff as well. I'm not going to add any fate or anything for Gruff, I'm just going to do this as a straight plus one, dex check. Why not? 16, enough, just barely enough to do one. Very cool. So you now have three Ash Wolf hides. Sweet, I'm writing it down, don't you worry.

Five more to go, guys. I'm not quite as good as Rowan, but I've managed to clear up one of them at least. You did very well, Rowan. Thank you, Rowan, I appreciate it. Well, it's good, you've got two from you two. There's still four clear and one bear. Yes, I could teach you.

I don't really like doing it. Well, you never know, we might encounter some more on the road, or Xanthius can come out by himself after we get back to Ashenrest. Hey, worst case, if we don't get enough, we still have materials that we can sell to anyone interested in Ashenrest. Yeah, that's it, even if you don't

completely request those war finds, you'll be able to sell them to another worker for some gold. How much? We don't know. It doesn't hurt to be entrepreneurial out on the roads or wherever the hell we are right now. No. Speaking of wherever the hell we are right now. I'm sorry, okay, I thought this might have been a good pass,

but I think I steered us towards more hostile environment. There's no way to know. They came out of the, I mean, Ophelia was ahead of us at the time. They came out of nowhere. They just pounced over the hill. We could have been- They're unique wolves. Yes, they're quite beautiful.

We should probably keep moving. I look at the butchered one. Yeah. They all were. Would have been such a good hat. It would have. So this occurred about half a day's travel. So it's just after about midday, sort of mid-afternoon,

and the sky has been fairly overcast to the late end of spring. And the temperature is warm, but it's very soon, as you're stood around, a heavy rain begins to fall, quite a heavy burst of rain, trying to clear it out before the summer begins. There's no wind, and the temperature is fairly mild, so it soon just becomes more of a bother,

more than sort of anything else, with the wagon for you to take refuge in, those who wish to, and the wagon, those who are driving the wagon, so Gruff and Daisy, you have a little bit of shelter from up above as well. And Rotry doesn't seem to mind the wet weather at all, in fact, he seems to quite enjoy a little bit of rainfall.

Probably something similar to his homeland of the Azhar steppe. That is about half a day travel, which means... Azhar steppe. What's that? You did say that for... Yeah, I did. That's where Rotary would be from. So, you have an option here to change up your roles

and what you are doing. If anybody else would like to take the lead away from Rowan, or if you would like to have Rowan remain as the leader. So we are... I understand if you want to take the lead. I think so far, the journey has been eventful, sure. But I mean, you've got us this far, I presume. Hopefully we're not far from the Ashen Citadel.

I think so. You are about a day's, I presume, hopefully we're not far from the Ashen Citadel. I think so. You are about a day's, because it takes a little bit of time to travel through the hills, you're about a day away, unless anything else goes wrong. We can't see it in the distance.

Maybe like a faint speck on the distance, but not. Too hilly. If what I think might be the Citadel is in fact the Citadel, then you have led us in the right direction, which is much better than I could have done, Rowan. So. Thank you. Maybe we can head there and revise.

I've got a good feeling about this next part. I'm, me too. I'm optimistic. We just gotta manifest good vibes, y'all. Y'all? Is that a, what is y'all? I'm half. What?

It's fine, it's just a giant thing. Okay, well, in that case, I think we can press, I mean, we have to either stop here, wait for the rain, or just carry on. You don't need to wait for the rain. I think if we run faster, we are drier. We're in the wagon. The less rain falls oner. We're in the wagon. The less rain falls on you.

We're in the wagon anyway. Oh, yeah. No, not all of us can fit in the wagon. Yeah, Graff and I are on top of the wagon. Oh, yeah? Getting drenched. No, it's like a little lip. Oh, okay. Literally just...

I did just say that. Roger's from the Azar steppe. The rain is... Metal crates! Metal crates! The rain is so loud right now. No, all right, in that case, so Rowan is gonna be taking on the role of leader and sort of trying to navigate you through the hills

and keep you to the path to the journey that you've planned. So what are the rest of you doing? Gruff is gonna be neutral in this. I'm not gonna have Gruff take any actions because I don't wanna make decisions. So Xanthias, Daisy, and Ophelia, what are you doing during your typical sort of travel here?

I believe last time Daisy and Xanthias were kind of keeping their eyes out on the horizon, but Ophelia, you chose to actually move ahead, and you actually got a warning that those wolves were coming. Yeah, I'm happy to do that again. Yeah? I think now that we're kind of somewhat confined

to the wagon, I guess, to stay out of the rain, I think now that I'm kind of getting towards, we're now heading towards Rust End, right? We're not going to Rust End. Sort of, yes. This is more of an area that I know than the northern part of Caldra or anywhere beyond this. This is still, you're probably still in a region

that you as a young man never would have traveled to. Like this is, Samwise, this would be the farthest I've ever gone from the Shire. You probably never left that, you probably never went that far beyond Rust End. You probably traveled no more than a day out of Rust End itself. I mean, the Ashen Citadel is the first,

into Cauldron, the first sort of landmark. From Rust End, yeah, absolutely. And the area is starting to look familiar and recognizable enough compared to when I was in Kelskaros or whatever. I start to feel like I start getting a little bit more comfortable with the journey and almost thinking of taking on,

I guess, in an effort to be the morale officer for this leg of the journey. Like just talking to people about Rust End or about the area or... Just telling stories, just having an idle conversation. It doesn't even have to be something specific. You can just be like checking in with everybody. Yeah, like in the rain,

if people are starting to look just miserable, I'm just trying to keep things light and entertaining and having fun with it, I guess. Sure. Playing I Spy, obviously. Okay, yeah, absolutely. What do you spy? Something beginning with C.

We're not actually going to play I Spy. C then S. That's right, Crownsteel. It's around us always. Alright, so Xanthous is kind of having a conversation. I'm just pulling my own tongue. Keep things light. Ophelia, you want to move ahead,

basically kind of keep a distance from the wagon, but in case you encounter something on the road, you'll be able to let the others know. She's a draggled, sopping wet mess. There's no roads here, so is this like, are you trying to stay relatively hidden? Are you trying to use the cover of the odd bit of trees, or are you just walking quite openly and just hiking

and letting your heightened senses? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Alrighty, and then what about Daisy? I do, I'm making senses. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Alrighty, and then what about Daisy? I do, I've got glasses. What about Percy? Oh yeah, what about Percy? Could he not, Percy is with you, hold the robe over.

He could, he could do a little robe over. Can he just give you the robe? Well I like to imagine that Percy, you would have absolutely traveled with a parasol here. Like, Percy could have a parasol. Oh, you have a parasol boy! Parasol Percy! Parasol Pete.

I have a parasol boy. That's why you were so into Elena Vedante. Yeah, I liked that she had a good... She had a parasol boy. I was picking up on her vibe. She had a good vibe. Shame you bothed it. I bothed it pretty hard.

You really did. Alright, what Daisy do? What Daisy do? What that Daisy do? What that Daisy do? Daisy is snacking and giving Gruff snacks and keeping an eye out on the top of the way. So just kind of keeping an eye on the horizon. Yeah, but she's also-

Letting Gruff focus on driving. Making sure that Gruff has enough to eat and is snacking with her because Gruff had a bad injury and she was worried about Gruff. All right, nice. All right, perfect. In that case, the first thing that we do is roll it. I would like a survival roll, please.

Don't fucking bore me. See, now you're saying it. Want one of these? No. Last one. This is gonna be a nat 20. 13 plus seven, 20. Oh! Yes. Very good.

All right, wonderful. So that means you will travel for, in this terrain, two days before an event. So you will reach the Ashen Citadel. The Ashen Citadel is its own event, so it circumvents any random encounter. There is a thing that's gonna happen at the Ashen Citadel. The Ashen Citadel is its own event, so it circumvents any random encounter. There is a thing that's gonna happen at the Ashen Citadel that will circumvent any sort of random encounter.

So, look at that. I wonder what it could possibly be. Maybe don't know. I think it. So, you manage to sort of navigate and you travel for the rest of the day. So it's, and days travel. So you travel for the rest of the day. So it's a day's travel. So you travel through the night.

You may all take a long rest. You have the wagon to keep you in good conditions. Very nice, very nice. Roll for the weather for tomorrow. The rain stops when the sun goes down as the stars and the various two moons, Malia and the crown, you know, illuminate the night sky. The rain dies down, but quite a light breeze

begins to blow through, just occasionally kind of brushing against the shutters. Those of you who are sleeping in the wagon here are sort of rattling now and then. Rodri, rather than sort of spending the night grazing, is huddled up against the wagon, kind of keeping his head down as the wind blows over his sloped back.

Your tent, Rowan, that you stay in, you hear it rustling and the fabric being blown by the wind. But a peaceful night, nothing happens. The next day you travel and about mid-afternoon, Ophelia, you are the first to see, and eventually the wagon, you will see this as well. In the distance, you see, this area of land is a little bit more flat,

it's not as hilly, but you see the remnants of ruins. Off in the distance. It would have once been quite a large structure, but now only a small portion of it really remains. Maybe the central bailey, the main sort of central keep. There are a few scattered stones, the outlines of buildings. But it's you, Ophelia, as you are the scout.

You, moving ahead with the wagon, you see that there is movement within this ruin. You can't tell too much yet, but you can see figures. Moving around, it is midday. There seems to be something going on. And can you make a perception check for me, please? 16. 16.

You think you can hear something being carried by the wind that's sort of blowing around you. It almost sounds like... It's hard to make out the voice, but it sounds like a kind of slightly shrill, higher pitched voice, maybe calling for help or something like that coming from there. Hard to tell at this distance, but you can definitely hear... And maybe some other voice which sounds more deeper, more...

rhythmic, almost. And you can hear that coming from there. You can see that the keep is made from several ruined buildings. There are ruined walls around the main, sort of central area, which would have been a main keep. There is some sort of ruined tower right in the middle. A ruined gatehouse that would have once held a gate position like a portcullis.

And then a few other ruined buildings around this sort of small encapsulated area. Is it quite like overgrown? Are there like trees and stuff around it? Or is it sort of on its own? There's like a little tiny cobs of trees really close. Looks like maybe it would have once been like an internal thing, like a small garden or something like that, it's very overgrown. There are bushes and trees and things like that on the far outskirts, like you think,

and there's like slight gentle hills. You can probably lead the wagon to this area without it being seen, but you won't be able to get the wagon or anything closer without potentially risking being seen, especially in broad daylight. You are at the zenith of the sun right now. It's like if you were to move across this open land, if the people there are watching or keeping a lookout,

they will see you, all right? That's, unless you've got any other questions, like that's, I think that's the base information you can get from your current position. Nice, yeah. I'll relay that to the others. Okay, cool. While you're relaying that, I'm just gonna go and start setting up a map.

It's gonna take me a while, because it's quite a big one. So you guys talk amongst yourselves. In character relay it then. Yeah. We're really close, but there's movement. In what way? Like good movement, like wolf movement? No, like shadows, but there's movement. In what way? Like good movement, like wolf movement?

Like fowl movement? Like shadows, like there's, like the room isn't. Thank you. That was such a good one. I've been cooking that one up for a while. Oh my god, you're such a morale lifter. I know, yes. Very good.

Thank you. But anyway. Yeah, sorry, this is serious. Sorry, yes, like shadows, there was shadows moving around, like figures. Sorry, that was such a good joke. It was okay, it was okay. I'm so sorry.

No, no, no, it's okay, it's quite all right. It's so heartening to hear. Carry on. Sorry, yes. Power movement. It was such a good joke. Power movement. All right, please carry on.

Movement. Movement. Movement. Is that all there was? And there were voices, I think. Voices? Yes. Like a person? Yes, well I think so.

Like somebody was saying help, and there was another. As in like shouting for help? I think so. We should help. Well, I mean, okay, let's help then, right? That's what we do. What do we know about this place, is it? That's a very good question.

The Dungeon Master is not here right now, so I could like- What does that mean, Sathius? What does the Dungeon Master? Well, I- What are these cameras? Wait a minute. Stop being self-aware. Oh God, we're trapped in a cave. I'm in a new place.

Where am I? Help me! Outlook not so good. Clever toad says. What are these rocks with numbers on them? Can I not leave you to have one in-game conversation? Ah! Ah! They kind of have a bowel movement.

Yeah, what a surprise. Is there some sort of thing I could do to get knowledge of Ashen? Yeah, would we know anything about Ashen Citadel? Yes, make history checks. Neato. I will finish building the map. Is there anything I would have just known by default? Oh no. 21. Like you are, like I said, Tom,

like you are from Rust End, but Rust End is still like several days away at this point. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's a small village. This is like if you would have been taught something at the time. 12. 12.

Why are you eating your chocolate? Oh. So we have a 12. How much chocolate do you have over there? We've got a stash. Yeah, there's a lot of chocolate. I got a natural 20. A natural 20. Wow!

A second 20. Natural 20. Yeah. 21. 21? So is your total 20? My total for, sorry, history is 20, yeah. 20, 21. I haven't rolled.

You haven't rolled, okay. So you both Rowan and Xanthias will know that the Ashen Citadel was once a fortification built alongside the Broken Road, which was once called the Ash Road. And it served as a fortification to protect against like bandits and vaultspawn. It was really a rallying point for forces of culture,

but it also served as a point for guild eye soldiers to come and restock, resupply as they were needed, as this road conjoined the two provinces. And for a long time, it was a great alliance between the red and gold provinces. And so the Ashen Citadel was something of a stopping point, to check for bandits, you know, imprison people as were necessary until they could be transported to one of the greater prisons.

And it developed over time, you know, a small town built around it, you know, small buildings just to facilitate things, a blacksmith, a provisioner, and things like that. During the Battle of the Ash Hills in the Oriat Insurrection, Duke Ignarius and many of his allies stationed their forces here, their non-dragon forces, their knight commanders and such. And the citadel bore the brunt

of Galvasar's assault into Kaldra. And it survived until the last few days of the Battle for the Ash Hills, where the corrupted bronze dragon that served as the leader of Galdvasar's's traitor forces, personally attacked it and it was destroyed, killing many of the forces inside. That bronze dragon's name was Darunax. D-H-A-R-U-N-N-A-X, Darunax. Darunax was a very powerful crown-steel corrupted dragon and being a bronze dragon,

had great mastery of arcane magic and used that magic to basically split and sunder the Citadel, killing many of the forces inside. However, that overcommitment of his forces to do so gave Duke Ignarius, his wife at the time in Flaria, and many of his other allies, that opportunity to strike back and hit hard. And with that, though they lost the citadel, they pushed Daronach's and Galvasar's forces out of the valley and out of the area,

and secured the victory. At no small cost. You know that Inflaria lost her life, that is Embiris's mother, she lost her life to Darinax in that great battle. This was the sort of the final point where they'd been pushing through the ash hills, pushing along through the ash valley, the Vale of Ash, and they culminated, this is where

the final stand took place. But eventually, Duke Ignarius won the day. Okay. Very cool. So what is... With a natural 20. Okay. The Ash and Citadel has been plundered. This was destroyed hundreds of years ago.

People have come here looking for treasures and things left behind. So it's really not much more than a ruin. And the land itself is also like, weather and time have rendered it into mostly a small ruin now. But Vantheus, perhaps it's the nature of you having gold, dragon blood,

but stories of treasures always sort of appeal to you. And there has always been a rumor that the Knight Commander of the Ashen Citadel, whose name you don't know, but the Knight Commander was said to have kept many of his great, or many of their treasures, sorry, hidden somewhere beneath the Citadel in a secret chamber. Hmm.

It's never been found. So, in that case, it's not, we can go towards this place being scared of ghosts. It's not like a haunted place, this thing. There's rumors like that are always around. Sure. A lot of people lost their lives there. A lot of people lost their lives there.

But I mean, people don't avoid it because it's just- There are stories of like, oh, the Knights of Kaldra still linger within the Ashen Citadel to this day. People say that they see lights as if the signal fires were still lit, as if the battle still raged on. When you walk along the broken road,

you may hear the sounds of steel clashing against steel. Sounds like very much haunted. Yeah. Could be, could be. But this is it, they're just stories. We're also midday and someone's calling for help, in which case I'll say, well, okay, whoever's in there. We know ghosts now, Tyria, not so good in the day.

I'm gonna go get the, I've got a lot more. Yeah, yeah. I mean, whoever's calling for help, we should help. But we should be wary. It could be thieves, it could be bandits, it could just be innocent treasure hunters looking for. I imagine Rowan and Xanthias are kind of combo telling the story of this place.

And then, that's when it flurried. And at last, Dan. Et cetera, et cetera. Yeah, but not at that point, when I was talking about thieves and bandits. Maybe it's just like in the wagon ride up, when I was talking about the area of this place, I could have told some of these stories as well,

so maybe that's how you're sort of caught up. But either way, whoever's calling for help, we should go and help, but just be wary. They might not be so innocent or kind or helpful to us. You're saying there's potential secret treasure? Oh, yes. So that could be a draw for bandits? Exactly.

Oh, I get what you're saying. Yes, well... I'm still hung up on the joke. Foul move, I'm saying yes. Write that down, I want to remember that one tomorrow. Clip it. So, we should go and help, basically. But there might be others in there.

I'll be sure it's not just a ruse, someone pretending they need help and then we'll get ambushed for our supplies. That's a good point. Oh, to lure in. To lure us in. Definitely ghosts and there's definitely bandits and it's definitely not good times. Definitely ghosts to lure in. To lure us in. Definitely ghosts, and there's definitely bandits, and it's definitely not good times.

Definitely ghosts, I mean, it's midday. We've seen Tyria. There could be ghosts! There's dark places in there. I mean, knowing the history of this place, absolutely, but right now, I doubt it. I don't... You've got to be careful.

There are plenty of monsters in the daytime, that big old troll thing. Oh absolutely. The Lillies prove that. I'm just saying, I wouldn't be, I'm not saying completely discounted, but. If there's an underground place in this whole dark, spooky, there's probably a ghostly area.

Oh there's almost certainly an underground place. Don't worry about that. Eh. Turn on my helmet, Lillie. Come on, turn it off, they'll see us. The Lillies, wait, turn it off. You're right. My brother in Christ, it's the middle of day.

It's a bright light. It's a bright light. It's a state of the art. We want to find somewhere to put the wagon and Rodri, just to keep them safe, just in case there are... We might be able to, yes, we can probably hide the wagon somewhere in this bunch of trees. Well, I don't really want to leave the wagon,

because there's a lot of bandits on this road as well. Oh, but we might be able to contain... Is there a way Percy can be like an alarm system? Percy isn't very good with making sounds. I mean, I could give him maybe a pot and pan for him to... That's a good idea. We should get a bell kind of thing on the wagon for Percy. He signals for danger and Percy can stay with the wagon. But if Percy is willing,

and I'm looking at Percy when I talk to him as well. Percy will be willing if I ask him to. That would be good. A good way to make sure we are aware if something is happening to the wagon. That's a good idea, yes. Just a thought. That's a good thought.

But somewhere within these trees, we can probably secure the wagon. I don't imagine Rodri's running away anytime soon. The worry is, if someone's calling for help, they might have spotted Ophelia already and asked for help. The worry is, is they were desperately in need of help and they're long dead by now. It's too late.

Yeah. We spent way too long planning. Yes. No, you have not, it's fine. It's just taking me a long time. That's all right. Is. I kind of planned these ruins to be our halfway point.

So I didn't really plan for us to skirt around it or anything. I was hoping this would be a little bit of a safe place. Oh no, I mean, at worst- Get some food and stuff. Worst case is outer areas of these ruins that are safe. It's just that central keep there. I mean, I would have avoided it myself.

But- You should have talked about that beforehand. No, I think the area itself is safe enough. At least from, I mean, we can see outside of this keep, it's, there's no large areas of trees, we're not gonna get ambushed by wolves again, or trolls. That's what you think, that's how they get you. What, wolves, trolls?

All of them. I don't trust anything, it's a dangerous road. It's good to be. Matt, the loading time for this map is insane. Listen, all right, leave me alone, there's a lot. Why didn't you just put it on the table first thing? Because I didn't know if it was gonna take a long time. Leave me alone!

Depends on the roll. Yeah. Depends on my scouting. Exactly. It's okay. By next episode, we'll have installed an SSD. So we are proceeding with caution, yes? Is that the... And leaving Hot Rod.

But now, just so we're on the same page here, I told you the tale of the secret, the potential treasure. I mean, if there's treasure to be had, then I won't say no. If we happen to uncover some kind of crack in the wall, a button or a bookcase that opens up, I mean, we will. This is quite exciting. We will go in, right? I mean, I'm very low on funds, apart from the platinum, but I haven't got any gold.

I'm a five platinum. I like looking at gold. Please. I'm very low on funds, apart from the Platinum. But I haven't got any gold. You want five Platinum? I like looking at gold. Please, just... I'm just saying, if the opportunity arises, I mean, why wouldn't we? Four gold. Look at that. You got four gold?

Oh, and some snacks and stuff. Sorry about that. A couple of pebbles. But I mean, you know, what if? Treasure and gold. I mean, who knows? It's such a classic, isn't it? It is.

It's like a real tavern tale. Exactly. We went down to a ruin and delved. I mean, imagine if we can go back to Ashen Rest. That's the one. Everything is so Ashen themed in this area. We can go back to Ashen. It's like a great Ashen cataclysm happened.

Well, yes, of course. Quite memorable. I'm just imagining going back to Ashenrest and saying, you know, we've procured the treasure from this old tale. This is it, this is the one. But we should probably do that on the way back from saving the life of the knight.

Oh, that's a good point. That is true, there is a life to save. You know, time. Well, I'm just saying.. That is true, there is a life to save. Because, you know, time. Yes. Well, I'm just saying. I'm pretty sure that Gruff would want to do that instead of plunder for treasure. But if there are people... Should we just walk past this place?

If there are people in need, if they're weak and infirm and vulnerable, then we need to help them as well. Yeah, we can do that, but I just don't think treasure hunting is a priority. We help people, but if something was to open up. Like oops, gold fell in my pocket. I'm saving this person.

Oh, what a shame. Oops, I've fallen into a treasure vault. I may as well pick it all up. I'm stuck here until we take it all out. Yes, it's the only way, it's the only way. And then we just get a little relic on the way back, you know? Just a couple of artifacts. Yeah, a couple of artifacts from the Ash Hills,

Bish-Bash-Bosh, Weerich. Bish-Bash- Ash Hills, Bish, bash, bosh, wirrich. Bish, bash, bosh? Bish, bash, bosh. That an Ossian thing? That's just how I do things. You know, bish, bash, bosh. I see, I see. Bash, you know, I hit things.

You bish, you bash. I bish, I bash, and I bosh. And then I bite. And you bish, bash, bosh, bite. Bish, bash, bosh, bite. Right? The four Bs. The four Bs of Ossius.

The four Bs of Ossius. We follow those rules strictly. The four tenets of the House of Blood. Bish's of Osseous. We follow those rules strictly. The four tenets of the House of Blood. Bish, bash, bosh. Everyone in like a cathedral like, remember, bish. And everyone, bish.

Bash. Bosh. Fight. Blood. Blood. Only the House of Blood has those four tenets. Yes, yeah. House of Rot probably doesn't bite.

No, no, no. They just smell really good. Right. I'm back. So, yes. Questions, things that you wish to do. So, we wish to secure Hot Rod and the wagon in this small little gathering of trees So we wish to secure Hot Rod and the wagon

in this small little gathering of trees with Percival, who is going to have a pot and pan for now, rudimentary. It's an alarm system. If he encounters anything or anything goes towards the wagon untoward, then he goes nuts. You can find like a little copse of trees that are, it's out of range of the Ashmore S's.

Probably like a good little trek away, like you're not gonna be able to get here back super quickly, but so we have Rodri and the wagon, and you can lock the wagon and everything else. Boop, boop. Yep. Yep. Yep.

Rodri's is vaulted. Hey! So I understand correctly, you are giving Percival the command of if anyone or anything comes near. Anyone, people specifically. People specifically. Yeah. No, also creatures.

Okay, creatures and people. Any threat. Any threat that comes towards the wagon, he'll go ding ding ding ding with the pot pan. Okay, yeah. Any threat, make noise. Yeah, threat noise. Yeah.

I feel like we should probably park it a bit closer to the system. The closer you get, there's not much cover between you and this thing. It's about midday, you've got about half the day left. The wind is still blowing quite considerably. We did have a question as well. I guess this is Ophelia more than me,

but it did come up in the conversation of wondering whether or not the call for help came because they spotted Ophelia or... You don't think so, no. You think it was, you couldn't really hear the words, like with the, you wrote like a 16, right? Like, it was like, you could hear something and it sounded like a quite shrill voice.

You couldn't make out the words, but it seemed like it was panicked in like a request for help or something. Help or, you know, please or something like that. Like maybe, very hard to make out. And then the other voice was a bit more of a sort of rhythmic chanting-esque. Or perhaps sermon or like somebody speaking

in a certain way. Very cool. Well, I think you misheard it. They were calling for kelp and cheese. Or perhaps sermon or somebody speaking in a certain way. Well, I think you misheard it. They were calling for kelp and cheese. Oh, kelp and cheese. They're just really hungry. Kelp and cheese. The Cauldron special.

Hungry. Yeah, and to give a visual distinction, I feel like you got close enough. If Sam, if you want to throw up the map, can we can show this off now. You didn't see all the interiors of the buildings, but in terms of the layout, like I said, this central area, there is the gatehouse,

there are a couple of side buildings. One looked to be a little bit more intact, like maybe the bottom level was still a functional building. And a tower, like a half-broken crumbled tower in the middle, a smaller tower to the side, and then yeah, you could maybe see a little bit of smoke maybe from a campfire. Okay.

A little tiny garden of trees, but not too much in the midpoint. Interesting. So, sorry, how far away is the cocks of trees that we are currently? Where you're gonna hide from, it's... A far enough distance away that if you hear a person coming and you flee, it will take you several rounds to get there. Okay.

Because you need to keep it hidden away that it's not gonna be exposed to these guys. Yeah. Yeah, I was just wondering how we approach the place. Yeah. Because I guess it's quite open between here and there. It's very open between here and there, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I was just wondering how we approach the place. Yeah. Because I guess it's quite open between here and there. It's very open between here and there, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so what's our, how do we approach this?

We want to be careful, but we want to be quick just to make sure we do actually. It is, it is about 3 p.m. currently. Okay. I mean, we could. There's obviously the main open gate there. Probably, I mean, obviously massively in disrepair, but obviously we could just head right through that. We could play whoopsie, Travers on the road,

didn't mean to walk in, hi, how are you kind of thing. Good, it... Just play it, just play it, you know, like we're just on the road, like, because we are. We are, we are, exactly that, it's not even a whoopsie. No, it's just we're on the road, hello, because we are. We are, we are, exactly that. It's not even a whoopsie. No, it's just we're on the road. We're here to rest. Yes, we need to rest.

How are you? However, pretend you're a bandit. Yes. Whoopsie, traveler on the road with a wagon over there. Just here to rest. What do you do? How are you? No, you're a bandit.

Oh, sorry, sorry. Well, what do bandits do? What do they like? They kill people. Oh, I see. They steal their stuff and kill you. Oh, they're like the crossbow people in the sewers. Yes, exactly.

So I'd be like, oh, give me your things. Right, right. But I might need the element of surprise so that they don't use this. If there is a hostage situation, which I hope there's not, there's someone saying help and there's some other voices. Yeah, chanting and the...

If we just waltz on in, the bandits will be like, whoa, stop there, otherwise we'll... Sorry, I just got a text from Kira saying, have you killed Roderick? Sorry, wait, was this in... So she said, have they killed Roderick? Is that a crossbow?

She assumed it wasn't me. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. How do you call a crossbow to a hostage? That's Montaigne from Rainbow Six. Yeah.

Siege weapon. Okay, so not through the front gate, but we want to go in quietly but quickly. I think we should maybe, whoever's the stealthiest of us, scout ahead and do a recce. What do you think, Daisy? Wait. Wait, I can't.

Oh, I feel it's got a thing. What are you thinking? I have the perfect thing if we want to scout ahead. What is it? Oh. Is this something you've got hidden in your bag again? Oh God. No, no, no, no, I forgot.

Oh. That sounds unlike you. Yeah, that's a real unlike thing. Okay, I know a magic trick, ready? Okay. Ready, ready, ready. Well hang on, before you, I'm like you. Yeah, that's the real me. Okay, I know a magic trick, ready? Okay. Ready, ready, ready. Well hang on, before you, okay go ahead. Is it going to be loud? No, this is amazing.

Close your eyes, close your eyes. Everybody close your eyes. Closing my eyes? Really, I'm closing my eyes, but I'm also protecting my neck. Okay, okay. Just open your eyes, just arms out. Yes. This whole time. Just open her eyes, just arms out. Yes. Ah!

This whole time. Ophelia will cast Creeping Touch. Creeping Touch? What does Creeping Touch do, Rhiannon? Okay, I'm gonna hold my hands behind my back. You ready? What's gonna happen? Open your eyes, open your eyes, open your eyes. Okay.

Things are much the same as when I closed them, but go ahead. Look at this. What is it? It's Ophelia's detached hand in her other hand. What is that? What is that? What is that?

And it's like the thing, it's like stood up. Oh God! Are you okay? It like does this. I'm perfectly fine! It like waves. What do you, what do you, why have you done this? Whose hand is that?

Why did you do this? It's mine! Oh God! Rowan passes out. How loud done this? Whose hand is that? Why did you do this? It's mine! Oh god! Rowan passes out. How loud is this? What's happening here? Ah! Okay.

The uh, the... The dizzy scream, she's not, she's not a cycle, no, wait. Where the hand has been... Oh, that's quite unfortunate, that is. Where the hand has been detached, it's not like spitting blood or anything, right? Is there a bone in top?

I don't know, is there? I don't know, is it quite clean? Like it's quite spiky? It's just like spitting blood or anything, right? Is there a bone in top? I don't know, is there? I mean, it's quite clean, like it's quite clean, dry. It's just like a slice, yeah. But is it just like a dead- It's a dry slice. Okay, so not pissing out blood basically. No, no, no, no, no. No, but you do see like the interior of the arm,

like the bone and the muscle and this like, it's like a- Ophelia, that is- Like a- Why have you done this to yourself? What is this to solve? I can use it to see with. Put it away. You don't have, Ophelia, me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me.

Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me. Tell me, tell me, also... No, give the entire ability back to him. Tell him that you want it. But it's just wonderful. I can use it and it can scout ahead. It can have a little look around and be all sneaky.

I don't want to watch it. Wait, you can see through this thing? Yes. It doesn't have eyes. It doesn't need to have eyes. Is it your gauntlet's hand or the other one? No, it's the other one. It's got like scuttling metal.

It's like things in the Evans family. Yeah. Like if you wanted to feel it, it could like crawl up your arm and sit on your shoulder or sit up on your head. Oh, it does actually move around. Look at that go. I don't like it. Look at it go, Baphilia.

Look at that thing go. Oh, it does like the spring jump. This is just a shocking development that I'm so, so happy we've all got here, this is wonderful, Ophelia. My hands feel wrong, do your hands feel wrong? I don't want to look at mine, or even at you, I'd like to go home. I wanna go home too.

But think of the potential. I'm struggling. It can scout ahead for us, we can get it to look around and be all sneaky and creepy, and it can walk around and we can see if it's safe. You mean that it can go far from us? Send it, send it. Okay, I'll send it to you. So, can you just read out the full spell for me, I feel like?

I know it's quite a long one. I've got my hand at the wrist, transforming it into a spider while the spider is within 100 feet of you. You can communicate with it telepathically. Additionally, as an action, you can see through its eyes and hear what it hears until the start of your next turn. So, for the purposes, technically turn. Do you have a spider? So for the purposes, technically it would normally turn

into a spider, but we flavored it is that it's just the hand. It's just the hand. It's the thing from the Adam's Trap. So from that flavoring, do you have literally one less hand for the duration of the spell as well? Yes. Well that's not even the flavoring,

that is like you detach your hand and it becomes a spider. Oh and that turns into a hand. Does it say what happens if the hand is killed? Yeah, if the hand is killed, I take one D6 points of psychic damage. Okay, and then your hand and it becomes a spider. Does it say what happens if the hand is killed? Yeah, if the hand is killed, I take one D6 points of psychic damage. Okay, and then your hand pops back in. Oh, does it pop back?

The spider killed or prevented, your hand is restored, so if it's killed, yeah, my hand comes back. Okay, so it's kind of a... Otherwise it appears, so for the purposes of this, it does look like Ophelia's hand, it's not a spider. It doesn't travel. But it can travel, so it can climb up stuff and things like that.

Yeah. And it can go, how far does climb up stuff and things like that. Yeah. And it can go, how far does it say? How far it can go? 100 feet. 100 feet, okay. So you will need to get closer yourself, but you could then send it in once you get closer. But you will need to get a bit closer.

I mean, I think somehow this is the best idea so far. Yes! I'm gonna close my eyes now. Okay. But yes, please, send it forward. Do your thing, Ophelia. Whatever you need to do, if you need us to follow you, just say the word, this is you now, this is all you.

I'll send the hand out about 100 feet ahead of us, and then we'll follow it in, and it'll make sure the area is clear. I don't know how to explain it, but everything inside me has turned upside down. Just don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it. Just don't worry about it. So you are gonna have to get within 100 feet.

This is fairly open terrain. There's not a lot of places to cover and things like that. So if you wanna get closer, what is the plan of getting closer to this thing? There is like, you can position yourself so that there are like, the ruins buildings and stuff are like, you know, you're coming up are like, the ruins, buildings and stuff are like, you know, you're coming up on like one of these walled sides and things like that if you wanted to.

But in terms of like, there's nothing like, you know, you're not creeping along like underneath bushes or anything like that to hide in. There are probably like little bits of shrub land and, you know, you know, shrub land and long grasses and stuff that you can try and hide in, but it is gonna be a stealth check from anybody who wants to try and get closer. Okay Ophelia, just send the hand forward.

If you can hear anything through that, then let us know and we can head back or rush forward or whatever. We have 10 minutes. Okay. That's a long time, isn't it? That's a really long time. To have a detached hand.

Yeah. God, it must hurt so much. Stay quiet and just follow us, okay? Does it feel weird? No, it doesn't have to feel like anything. Do you have a feeling in your hand but elsewhere? I can feel the grass, I can feel what it's touching over there.

That's kinda cool, actually. It's really cool. Look, it's going through a puddle. It's all wet and weird. It's wet! So gross. You very quickly lose sight of the hand, because for the rest of you,

it's down in the grasses, so it's moving through, because it is just a single hand, so it's moving through. I mean, if you look carefully enough, we can see the hand just having a jumping little dance in the puddle. Yes, Ron. To aid us in us getting closer, I would like to create a silent image

that's 15 foot of an alpha wolf that we hide behind. Wait, wait, wait. How are you going to do it for free or something? Yeah. Just make it up. So to hide us, they now be scared of a wolf. Well, you can create a 15 foot cube, right? Yes.

So you'd be creating the illusion of the space between its legs and things like that as well. So you can... It's like a mirror. So well, or you could hide inside the illusion of the space between its legs and things like that as well. So you can... It's like a mirror. So well, there's, or you could hide inside the illusion. Because it's a 15 foot cube. Trojan Wolf. Trojan Wolf.

Yeah. And you can move the illusion, can't you? Yes, I can. What's the duration? And make it look natural. It lasts 10 minutes as well. Okay. So once the hand's done a little scout.

If Rowan's doing that, then you, if you can all make stealth checks for me, make them with advantage. So once the hand's done, a little scout. If Rowan's doing that, then you, if you can all make stealth checks for me, make them with advantage. Okay. And also, the only, obviously, like, it will only be audio. Like, if you, if everyone fluffs this,

then you'll just draw a texture, but they're just gonna see an alpha wolf. Yeah, we're walking over, like, dead grass and other stuff. I'm gonna do this as a group stealth, by the way, as well. Oh my god, my rolls are absolute garbage today. 22 from Daisy. That might help cover some of your companions. Natural 20.

Natural 20 from Rowan. Unnatural 20. 12 from me. That is, as a group check though, even though a felis- That's the best we've ever done ever! A felis may be stumbling, cause you've got one missing hand

and your senses are all confused by trying, because you're also, because you have to go blind and deaf, right? Yes. So you're having to be sort of carried along as you're sending out the spider hand. Yep. What happens to your eyes?

Does anything happen? Ooh. Do they roll into the back of your head? Yeah. White, pure white. Yeah. So Gruff is probably, roll into the back of your head. White, pure white. So Gruff is probably, oh I'll make a check for Gruff as well. Gruff did not, oh no, natural 20.

Not natural 20, unnatural 20. So between all of you, Gruff is probably helping Ophelia, he's carrying you along Ophelia, has you by the arms so that you can follow him. But you are making more noise just because you are unaware of your senses. But the rest of you, using Rowan's illusion, actually manage to stay fairly hidden.

And more importantly, you also don't draw attention to the illusion itself. Like you don't make too much noise and you make your way closer. The tiny hand. Tiny hand, tiny hand. The tiny spider hand seems to go unnoticed initially. Where about would you like the hand to go to?

Where were we approaching from? Well, that's up to you guys as well. I wonder if we approach from this south east. Or towards the... Go round and then, yeah. So we'd be towards the makeshift campsite. Yeah. Yes, we'll go in there. It comes in from there, scouts around the back wall.

So immediately, the Tiny Hand... I won't put it on the map just yet. The Tiny Hand would pick up that there are numerous figures moving around this room. The thing scurries along, crawling up the wall, hooks itself on the thing, jumps from one limb to another. Very Adam's family, if you remember the opening sequence. You, seeing through the hand's senses,

you can see that there are a few figures sat around the camp itself. They look to be sort of checking over supplies, checking weapons, going about routine behaviors. And one of them, who seems to be a little bit more senior, is also talking to them, and you hear that. These figures all appear to be humanoids. There are humans, there are some dwarves,

there are some halflings, the type of typical typhlings, typical people of Ulfea. But they are dressed in soot-stain, like ash-stained clothing. So their clothing has been darkened with ash. They have their faces, they've drawn lines of ash across their eyes. Some of them have marked lines down their chin.

Some of them draw almost vein-like patterns over their flesh and skin and their arms in this dark ashen paint. And they wear quite militaristic outfits like tabards and chainmail and things like that. They look like warriors. Their tabards have a very odd symbol, which appears to be a jagged piece

of blackened metal with red and gold. And it is a grasping draconic claw reaching and grasping it. Is that fucking true? Their tabards are tattered, they look quite worn. Many of them wear helms as well that hide their faces, but the ones that don't have these like ash marks and these kind of tattoos. And now looking, because you've seen Xanthias' hand, the way they've used the ash

and they've used their own skin colors underneath, or they've basically tried to replicate that look of the sort of corrupted flesh. They're trying to replicate that through the ash painting. We should probably call them that. Oh, woo, I'm about to make them a name for myself here. They are speaking amongst each other, and you overhear catches of this conversation.

Oh, we are truly blessed, brothers and sisters. Can you believe it? Not one vessel, but two. Oh, truly, the prophecy is coming to an end. Yes, yes, soon it will be done. Yes, and they're kind of like muttering to themselves, and they seem very pleased with themselves. The hand scurries past a little bit further

and you manage to glimpse around the corner and see what appears to be a sort of makeshift prison, a jail, just big enough for two creatures. But these creatures immediately strike you because as Ophelia, you have never seen creatures like this before. The first, which immediately draws your eye, is a very tall, hulking-looking figure made of wood.

They are vaguely humanoid, but it's very hollow and their limbs are too long, and they don't have a face. They're not a human. They have like just a piece of wood with glowing eyes. Their hair is the actual tendrils, almost like a dryad or a human, they have like just a piece of wood with glowing eyes. Their hair is the actual tendrils, almost like a dryad or a tree, but in a sort of smaller form. Made of wood, they wear not clothing,

but they've draped like plants and ivy, almost like a toga-like pattern, and then they have a skirt of these vines and leaves. And they look to be very injured. You can see sap is pouring from the thing and they're sort of hunched up against the prison walls. I mean, they look very, in a bad way. You've never seen a creature like this before.

It seems to be some sort of, you know, sentient plant. The creature beside it is also very alien to you. You almost mistake it for a halfling at first, but you can see green skin and these large, you know, big ears to the side. Very, not childlike, but there is something very unusual or like fae-like or childlike about them. Big eyes, very sweet little face. She is wearing a big hat, almost like a kind of like wizard's hat, but it has like thistles and holly

and all sorts of things stuck into the brim around her. And she's dressed in leathers and scraps of fur. And this goblin, which is not a creature that is familiar in Ulthaea or Osseous, is tending to the plant-like being, and she's like, hey, come on, you're gonna be okay, like, please, please, you promised our lady that it'd be all right, please, you have to let him go,

he's hurt, he needs help, and you can see the other figures are just ignoring these two, and you recognize that this is the shrill voice he's hurt, he needs help. And you can see the other figures are just ignoring these two. And you recognize that this is the shrill voice that you heard calling out for help. As this little goblin lady is sort of like, please, just like calling out to these figures. You do, the hand would probably sense other movement, but right now that's what you immediately see.

That is where we're gonna take our break. Oh my god, I am so much more invested in this place than I thought I'd be. This is cool as hell. Not what I expected. We are gonna leave it there, we're gonna take our break, and when we come back, we'll talk about what you want to do. Are you going to try and help these prisoners

who seem to be in a bad way? Do you wanna learn more about these strange figures? Is there something here that might be a clue to Ser Eldrax's location or, you know, is there more to this place than meets the eye? We'll find out in part two. Wink. Holy crap.

What? No, we will, we will. Part two. Wink. Wink. But no, we will.