High Rollers DnD - Altheya: The Dragon Empire #43 | Corridors In Disguise (Part 2)

Episode Date: November 21, 2024

The party press on through the winding caverns beneath the Ash Hills towards a structure Rowan has seen in some very ominous visions! _______________ Boost your Charisma with some HR merch! https://highrollersdnd.teemill.com/ Add official High Rollers Minis to your TTRPG collection here: https://only-games.co/collections/high-rollers Bless your table with the Clever Toad Dice Set: https://dispeldice.com/collections/high-rollers Enhance your bath time experience with the official Altheya themed DiceBombs at https://geekyclean.com/! Check out https://www.highrollersdnd.com/ for all the latest HR News! Love the podcast? Give us a glittering 5 star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/high-rollers-dnd/id1401508198?see-all=reviews Support the High Rollers on Patreon and get early access to Podcast episodes, vods and more: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound, TCT Adventures (Solasta: Crown of the Magisters), Monument Studios and Jolene Khor! Check out Jolene Khor and all her wonderful work on High Rollers on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1WX3ICiTmf4GpHwImnQMs6 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Must be legal drinking age. ["Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1"] Welcome back to part two of Arthea the Dragon Empire. Our party have been traversing an underground river where they were ambushed by a Roper and several Dark Mentals. And a rather intense battle has taken place with the party being gathered up by the Roper's tendrils and having to fight it in the midair, but they have managed to succeed and defeat the creature.

Maybe some of them plunged back into the river afterwards, but the thing is dead, you are all alive. Your lovely little friend Penelope is alive, and that is what really matters here. Before we move along, I was gonna say, could everybody, anybody who feels that their character Before we move along, I was gonna say, could everybody, anybody who feels that their character would care about this, about knowledge of monsters

and things like that and what they might be and things like that, could you make either an arcana or a history check for me, please? Anybody who's interested. Sure. I think Rowan's not in the mind space right now. He's not in the mood. He's not revived.

Nah. Slammed into the water. Minus two for us hungover lot, isn't it? Yes. Ability check. Oh, I'd like to come at this from a particular angle. I got a natural 20 on Arcana for 23. Ooh, big boy.

I think... What the fuck is this? We celebrate each other's victories at this table, Rhee. Unless. Depends how cocky I am gonna be with this. I rolled a natural 20, everybody. Try rolling good. But you hit my score. Yeah, what did you get?

Zero. A zero? Wow, rolled a two, minus two. Ah. So get me. I think my intention was to come at this from the crown steel angle of trying to identify if there's something odd about this creature.

Oh, very interesting. Being in the ash hills, it's probably morphed in some way. Very interesting. What did Gruff get? So I'm coming at this from the angle of history. And yeah, I actually wrote six. Six, all right. Six.

Ha ha ha! Next time he gets anything full of five, can someone do that to him? It will happen. What, I was the victim of this! I was the victim number one! And now I am. This is how generational trouble works.

When you're all done, would you like your knowledge? Would you like your knowledge? Yeah. Xanthias, yeah. Well, you can figure out, you can tell me maybe how you kind of know this, but what I will tell you is, this creature, the Roper specifically,

it kind of detaches from the ceiling, it falls into the water beside your body as you're swimming there. And as the rest of your team are kind of checking on Ron, things like that, you recall stories from your youth or perhaps as you've been sort of traveling around that there is a particular type of vaultspawn that long ago sort of escaped out into the Dragon Empire

back when in the early days of the Dragon Empire and sort of scattered itself around, and it multiplied. And this creature, this vaultspawn, is called a mimic. And it can disguise itself as other things. And it lures people in and then eats them with a powerful bite. Now, these creatures, as they scattered, some of them seemingly became infused

with other things. And the rope of this creature, you believe, is infused with powerful earth essence and earth stone magic, basically. Okay. What this means is, and you suspect that there is probably some element of the natural crown still presence probably helped it mutate in some way.

But what I will tell you is that these creatures are, there is a possibility you will be able to recover a magical ingredient from it. And magical ingredients can be used either to craft magic items or upgrade items into magic items. Very similar to the wood that you got from the necrotic tree.

You might be able to recover something from this, a magical ingredient. Ophelia probably would have done that anyway. Yeah, if I was a genius to. Yeah, you don't need to have the knowledge. But true things. So this is the thing, yeah. She's probably already hacking it.

She's trying to wear it as a hat. Be Ophelia way. Yeah, so to do that, Ophelia, if you are trying to see if there's anything valuable in this thing, like you dive underwater and start hacking away at it, this would be a dexterity check, I think, to kind of cut open its insides, because you have to basically open its mouth

and get into it to dissect it, because its outer shell is natural rock. It's made of stone. Would you feel your crawl inside it? Yeah, she's already up in them. Yeah. 10, 11. 10 is enough to be able to recover something.

You won't be able to get all of the potential ingredients out of this thing, but you will be able to recover one. I'll give you a choice. You find inside this creature, there are two things that take interest to you. One is its heart, what you think it to be is like it's beating heart. It doesn't create blood, it doesn't have like,

it's not a natural organ. It's almost crystalline and stone-like. And you're pretty sure that this has some value or magical essence to it or something like that. And that's one option. The other option is it has a extremely powerful digestive acid that an alchemist might be able to use in something as well.

So the other heart, the Roper Heart, counts as a magical ingredient that is attuned to earth or stone, which determines what kind of abilities it can be used to enchant and stuff. The acid is a powerful ingredient that is attuned to earth or stone, which determines what kind of abilities it can be used to enchant and stuff. The acid is a powerful alchemical ingredient that will obviously have an acidic element to it. Do I have anything to store the acid in?

Vials? Yeah, we will say that you are, for the purpose of this, you will need some sort of container. So you could- Yeah, those golden vials. Yeah. I have an empty water skin. It would need to be, I would imagine,

with a powerful acid like this, it either needs to be made of stone or it needs to be made of glass or something like that. Water skin, it will just eat through. Okay, I think I will take the heart then. Okay, yeah, you spend some time using like, veracity and maybe a cut knife or something like that, you manage to break up, chisel almost parts of it away

and you pull this crystalline heart out from it. I mean, you can note down that you have a Ropeheart, which is a magical ingredient. Ooh. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. While Ophelia's just butchering this thing, am I okay to use, so I cast Aura of Vitality. It goes from minute. You used it twice, didn't you?

Used it twice. Yeah. You've got eight rounds. I used it three times. Three times, sorry, yes. So can I just push out? That's correct. So you can do seven more, seven more castings. You're not in any serious rush. Absolutely. No, I'll just do that in the background, thanks. Sure.

Three. Oh, thanks. I think most of it's gonna go on the road. I think Ruin's a bet, yeah. I'm up to nine. Yeah. Seven, thanks. I think most of it's gonna go on the road. I think Ruin's a bet, yeah. I'm up to nine. Six, seven, eight. Oh. 17. Seven, nine.

Oh my god. 26. Nine, nine? That was like a different nine. I'm good, I'm good, I'm good. 35. You're good. So that's four more uses,

so I think you've got three left. Yeah, how's Penelope? Penelope's pretty bad, like she's under half, basically. Just at half. I'll go for Penelope, that is a seven. Okay, that brings us to 21 out of 27. How's everyone else looking?

20. So Xantheus gets four. Neat, thank you. And, oh, you get a six plus five, 11. 11, god damn. And that is me. 35, hell yeah, thank you very much. Big heals all around.

Alrighty. That thing lasting outside of combat is so strong. As long as the concentration's still there. Yeah. Absolutely. I'm still a weasel. Still a weasel. I'd like to think that the way I've healed everyone

is just by running around everyone. Yeah, because that's the thing, she's not casting the spell, right? So you can cast something like, you can have Beat Aura of Vitality, sit in wild shape and just be like, yeah, I can just dish this out now every turn. So this little, you know, black furred, you know, white speckled weasel

just runs around everyone's shoulders, and as I do it, you feel, what are you, cute little creature? Why are you bestowing me with vitality? Can we keep you? Where's Gruff? Ha ha ha ha ha. We lost Gruff in the fight.

Gruff? Penelope? But it's okay. I wish to comprehend that. This Weasel kind of looks like Gruff. Ha ha ha. What's Rowan's intelligence? Ha ha.

I don't think he would be like, Gruff is gone! Minus one. Minus one, okay. Maybe he'd be a bit sort of like, yeah okay. A lot happened to him as well. Yeah, like Penel he would be like, Ruff, he's gone! Minus one. Minus one, okay. Maybe he'd be a bit sort of like, yeah, okay. A lot happened to him as well. Yeah, like, Perp would be like, what? Could you see the weasel?

It's healing us. You mean Gruff? No way. Gruff? Well, I saw him transform while he was... Oh, you did? I had a thing on me and I was getting eaten. I think you were getting eaten at the time,

so that makes sense. Are you okay? I'm all right now, Gruff healed me, yes. Thank you, Gruff, weasel Gruff. I pat weasel Gruff. Do you want an acorn or a nut? I've got some nuts. She pulls him out of like a pocket in a tunic.

A bit wet now. Gruff's like, this is really undignified, but I am hungry. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. He takes the snake. He just like, I'm gonna bit wet now. Gruff's like, this is really undignified, but I am hungry. He takes the snake. Look, his little paws, his little grabby hands. Oh! Very cute Gruff, you should keep this up. You'd all fit in the boat easier if you stayed a weasel.

I think this is better than Kitten Gruff. Well, we haven't seen it. The weasel's very cute gruff. This is number one right now. You're looking very cute gruff. I don't understand if you can even understand me right now. I bite. No, I don't.

I punch. I gruff. If you, wild-shaped into a smaller form, eat big nut, and then wild-shaped back into regular size, will that sustain you for? No. No? No, because I feel like my stomach would get bigger,

but that's okay. Wild shape also doesn't last all day, it only lasts a set number of hours. What if you wild shape, eat something huge, and then reduce in size, do you explode? Do you explode? No. No.

Probably just throw up. Everything adjusts to your new size. It all shapes. So small nut, big for small weasel, bigger for big gruff? No. Question mark. Human equal? Big, small, big, small.

Please move on. What a great, I mean, how can I, I can't mid-talking him just be like, shut up, Tom. You have that power. You absolutely can, you absolutely can. Well, I don't wanna be that guy. Right, with that, you guys, Afina finishes harvesting the Roper Heart. Is there anything else you guys want to do?

Like, at this point, again, like as long as somebody's kind of maintaining it, you can keep it in position. You've still got a little bit of journey left to go, but not too long now. You do think that you've been traveling for quite some time through this cave system. By Rowan's assumption,

you should be able to get somewhere close. Can we have any sort of rest? I'm going to say whilst you're like... Because there's nowhere to sit and rest, even on the boat itself. Because this area is dangerous, you don't know what might be here. If it were a video game, I'd be doing like, you cannot rest while there are monsters nearby, or something like that. So there are monsters nearby. Or maybe there's not.

Just give it away. Quick save, quick save. We passed through the black mist of the creatures. Yeah. But maybe there might be at some point. But right now, I'm gonna say you could certainly try, but it's gonna be very difficult on a, if you have to dive and go underwater again,

that's no longer a short rest, right? Yeah. I'm happy to keep rowing my rowing boat. I was rowing before. Oh, I can take over if you like. If you want. Yeah. Cool.

After, I would say you travel on this kind of like tight river for maybe another sort of 30 minutes, and then you just reach another point where you have to dive underwater to get to the next kind of sections. What do you want to do about it? Are you gonna just leave the boat here or are you gonna try and like drag it underwater somehow?

I don't know. I feel like it's a lost cause trying to take it underwater because it's built to be buoyant. Yeah, exactly. So I will, is there like a edge where I can just push it onto the edge where it won't get swept away? There's probably like stones that you could probably

wedge it into, but it's, yeah, I mean, it's risky. It's probably- Can I borrow some rope? You sure? If this boat does float away, can't you just make a new one? Every day. Oh, right, okay, so we should keep this one. And that's my whole ability for the day.

Okay, I mean, yeah, I think I- It lasts three hours, so we have to find- Oh, it, okay, so we should keep this on then. That's my whole ability for the day. I mean, yeah, I think I... It lasts three hours, so we have to find... Oh, it only lasts three. I've got some rope here, we can tie it up somewhere around here. Yeah, I've got some actual, because I took more rope from the mining people. Did you imagine a hook thing onto this

or some kind of way to rope it up? It's got the rowan head. Just wrap it around the rowan head. Wrap it around the neck of... Yeah. It's kind of, okay. It's strange. And the expression I put on the face is,

does it lend itself? No. Okay, I mean, yes, I, yeah, I think we can tie this up. I've got some rope. All right, mark off your rope. I shall weasel. How long is it gonna take? I'm gonna use all 50 feet.

Oh, it's like probably not gonna last that much longer. You were traveling for like two hours on the boat. If we need a quick emergency and us plunging under, the other side is a little ropey. I like that, I like that. We can come back. We've got a little bit of time left with the boat, but it's going away pretty soon.

Okay. So how close do you think we are now to... By your estimation, you should be coming on it pretty soon. Like maybe based on like when you, because you had a, Rowan, you should be coming on it pretty soon. Like maybe, based on like when you, cause you had a, Rowan, you had a strong idea of where you were going and roughly how long to take, but again, it's very vague, like it's not you have a detailed map or anything of these cave systems.

I close off the lantern and I close my eyes to reimagine what I saw. Sure. It could be anywhere between another hour to two hours before you reach the point where you saw the lake and the crown still. Book close. Another hour or two of pushing will be there.

So way ahead of us is it really like thin corridors again, just the same sort of travel as it was before? Yeah. Okay. versus it really like thin corridors again, just the same sort of travel as it was before. Yeah. Okay. I mean, we have to push on, right? Yes. We've made it this far. Okay.

You dive under, leaving the boat where it was, tied up, and you dive under and continue your journey. At this point, what are you guys doing for light? Because this is all underground. Ophelia can see in the dark, we know that, that's fine. But what about the rest of you? Especially being underwater, things like lamps and stuff aren't gonna work.

But Daisy, do you wanna use your magic? So are you gonna lead the way with a light source? Or do you wanna put it on somebody else? Well, I think I was trying to put it on rocks. Rocks and stuff, okay, yeah, sure. So as you swim ahead, you put it on somebody else? I think I was trying to put it on rocks. Rocks and stuff, okay. Yeah, sure, so as you swim ahead, you put it on a rock so everyone can see for like 40 feet, you swim ahead a bit more,

put it on a new rock, because you can use it at will, right? So you just touch, touch, touch, touch. There you go, great. I'm also a candle. Does that last until they dispell the rose? I'm going to have my long rest. Well, nice, okay, so Xanthius is currently glowing as well.

You're at least able for us to stay together, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. At 10 feet of light. For those that can't see. Yeah. After about an hour and a half, you, again, diving through these tight,

this is proper caving, kind of like you're squeezing through tight gaps, making your way through caves, or following this river, this water source. But you begin to feel, eventually, that it begins to widen out, and it begins to curve around, and you can hear lapping

as if the water is brushing up against something. And not that there's waves, but clearly there's something else. What do you guys do? There is no like light source ahead, it's still gonna be completely dark, but you get the sensation that you are reaching sort of the mouth of the river if it was like the other way around,

like a point where it funnels into this underground river. And Rowan, you suspect that that would connect to the large lake that you saw in the big cavern with the fortification. I'll gesture to everyone quietly. Thumbs up. I will turn to Daisy, I will wave my hands, I will point to my head, point to you,

and point to everyone else. And then point to my mouth. But you've got the telekicises up on Percival. Oh, that was like ages ago. I can do it, but I can only do it with three people. Three? Well, plus me. So, four.

Yeah, so one person's always going to be left out. And Penelope. I'll be left out again. Another group chat with our old Zan Zan. Where are you gonna get your spicy beans? And that's exactly why you're not gonna get any. Damn it! Spamming.

Just endless spamming. Hey guys, I just found this. Deep fried curse of a ghost. It's just Shadow the Hedgehog with a gun again. Oh, of course it is. So with that, Daisy, do you want to do that, or are you? I can do that. Well, Kate, you decide.

So Wild Shape lasts for two hours. Am I popped out of it by now? You're an hour and a half in, right? About an hour and a half, so you've got about 30 minutes left to the Wild Shape. Okay, so I'm still weasel. If you want to be. You can end it at any time.

I'll keep it just for a little bit. I just like the idea that maybe like I... I've been hitching a ride on Rowan. I've been hitching a ride on the end of Rowan's scarf. Yeah, sure, yeah. This is the best day of my life. You weigh nothing. You basically weigh nothing,

so it's easy for Rowan to swim carrying you with him. So for you, the Rowan boat never vanished. No, really? It just became bigger? No. Sentient? No, yeah. Shakeyakier. Warmer? Fartier. Can Ophelia

Creeping Hand pop her hand off? If you would like to, yeah, absolutely. There you go. Okay. Eventually, you know, Daisy, you swim, you kind of cast a few more light on these rocks. Eventually you reach a point where you cast light and you're swimming, you realize that you're

in complete darkness. You darkness, not magical darkness, but just normal darkness. And you illuminate and you feel that the, not that the current changes, but suddenly that tightness feeling and like these narrow things begins to widen and widen and widen until eventually the river bends and twists one final time,

suddenly opening up into an enormous cavern that stretches as far as you can see in the darkness. The water here has that golden hue. And those of you who are maybe suffering that headache and Xanthias, there is that touch of that magic here. Like you can feel that even just swimming in this, this feels different to the current

that you've been currently swimming in. Like this feels more concentrated. And just beside you as the sort of cave opens and widens out, you can see that there is a ledge, a kind of rocky ledge jutting out from the cavern wall, opens and widens out, you can see that there is a ledge, a kind of rocky ledge jutting out from the cavern wall, probably big enough for maybe like 20, 30 feet, sort of like across, maybe 10 feet wide,

enough that you could pull yourselves up to and be on stable ground if you wanted to. But directly ahead, as you emerge from this cavern mouth, you can see a structure because it's lit from within. So in the darkness, it is visible, even though the gaps between it are immense amounts of darkness in between. What you see is at the center of the enormous lake,

which is, yeah, like I said, maybe hundreds of feet across, maybe more. You see a small rocky island upon which numerous buildings and fortifications you can see have been constructed. The dim lights within only give you glimpses of the building's shapes and its walls' outlines. You can't really make out any detail,

but maybe you can see the sight of figures moving along the walls and amongst the buildings. As you emerge out, Gruff, and I'd say Daisy, Daisy, you would hear a voice in your head as Nim would caution you, and Gruff, you'll have the thought at the same time, but I'm just gonna do Daisy first. Nim would, seeing this, and Gruff, you'll have the thought at the same time, but I'm just gonna do Daisy first. Nim would, seeing this, and sort of,

because I assume that you were always kind of relating to Nim, kind of what you see, or you imagine it so Nim can see it, you would hear Nim's voice like, little one, you must extinguish the light. Tell Xanthius he must extinguish his light. We'll be visible from here. Okay. I will tell him.

And Gruff, you'll have the same thought. You'll realize if we're in the dark and you guys are lit up and they're out there, they're gonna see you in the same way that you can see them right now. So you have this sudden realization of like, fuck, like, and it might be too late, you don't know. I'm going to roll to see if they,

if anybody noticed you guys. I don't actually think I can. You can just expend a rune. You would have to just lose your runes. I suppose so. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

Spend a fake point. Okay. Yeah. Spend a fate point. Okay. You don't know what for? I don't. Yeah. I'm just enjoying Gruff's mini just hanging out on the naughty fate. It is in fate.

Put him there. What good sign is it? Yeah, so you have that kind of thought. What do you guys do? It has been nearly a full day of travel. I will say that you are all very tired. I am not expecting a long rest to happen, but I will tell you that I, if, yeah,

it's probably gonna be a case of, if you don't long rest, I'm gonna ask everyone for a constitution saving throw. If you fail that constitution saving throw, you will gain a level of if you don't long rest, I'm gonna ask everyone for a constitution saving throw. If you fail that constitution saving throw, you will gain a level of exhaustion. Okay. Because you have been traveling for basically a whole day. Can we do the, what is it, epic?

Heroic. Heroic short rest? You can do a heroic short rest, yeah. It's only five minutes, yep. You have one of those banked, yeah, you've not, yeah. Absolutely, you could do that if you'd like. This would be the time to use it. Yeah.

Yeah, sure, so you can take a short rest in five minutes. I'd say you have to pull yourselves up onto that rocky ledge, kind of like, kind of shake off some of the excess water and things like that, as you kind of hunch down, you know, meditate to regain some of your powers, or just take a breather to like, you know, spend your hit dice, as you look out

onto this island fortification. Will that cut into my weasel time? It will cut into your weasel time, yes. 25 minutes of weasel time. So you have 25 minutes of weasel time left. Sweet. And just to ignore the fact that you wouldn't be able to see the detail of the building itself just yet,

but just to give you an idea of this, you can pass this around, or we can have this on the camera. So this is the large lake with the kind of island fortress in the middle. Yeah, just rest up against that. Okay. This is feeling very Tears of the Kingdom to me.

Yeah? Like, yeah, the underwater stuff, under cavern stuff. I love it. I can see stuff, under cavern stuff. I love it. I can see it, yeah. Oh boy. So yeah, and I will mark, actually, I'll very just quickly mark where you guys are. Okay. Big X.

That's your name. So we do a five minute short rest. Mm-hmm. Well, I'm healed to full, which is good. Nice. What about them spells, though? I got none. Yes.

Well, I got no level 3s. I'm OK. I'm OK. I'm not too bad for spells. My Wild Shoe's back. Sausage Point's not great. So we are... You've got the X. Yeah, the top left.

So you can see that there are, like, your light is sometimes obscured by the outline of, like, a large rocky column that goes from the top of the cavern down into the water. So that is what these kind of gray rocks kind of are. And yeah, you can see the outline of walls and buildings it looks like. Do try your best to ignore anything that is a little bit beyond your vision

and is not part of that central building. Sure. As Weaselgruff. Yes. So my move speed is 30 foot. Yes. Is it, and I've got dark vision, 60 foot. This is like, this is about 200 feet to that island.

You're about 200 feet away from that rocky island. And what about to the kind of rocks, so there's a little cropping of rocks that you've drawn there, where is that just, oh. That is about 100 feet. 100 feet, okay, no. So, Darkvision, you can't make out any details. They're not rocks, they are like stone columns.

They basically stretch up really up high. They're like giant stalactites or stalagmites, basically. At this point, I'm gonna come out Weaselgruff. I think it's out, seed, out, done, out, seed, out. Words? No, you spad. It's fine. You are no longer a Weasel.

You Wild Shape back out into Gruff form. Oh bloody hells, I'm cold. It's cold. It is very cold. You're from Isar. I am from Isar. You, you're not here! Freezing cold, Gruff is cold. I am from Isart. It's not cold, it's not cold. It's not cold. I'm freezing cold, the gruff is cold.

I'm a mimic. I cut out this thing's heart. I'm a mimic. Rowan, is this similar to what you saw in your... This is exactly it, yes. So, the... They're in there. And the pile of...

The huge pile of crown steel is at the center of this island in the center. The sickness is in there. And the pile of? The huge pile of crown steel is at the center of this island in the center. The sickness is in there? Yes. Okay. And so is your dragon. Any very theories she's in there? She's from my vision, yes.

And our knight that we're looking for. I mean, that's a pretty big place over there. I mean, I think I can see people moving around and stuff. Yes, we should be careful as we approach. Ophelia, I saw you did a hand. Oh my. Yeah, she's done it again. Yeah, she did it again.

I don't wanna see the, any bit. Sorry. Can that hand go across the water? I can send it across, yes, if you'd like me to. I don't wanna see it scurry on the water. Because it has the stats of a spider, doesn't it? Yeah, it can climb along the wall. Yeah, it could go on the sand.

Well, the problem is it's an island. Oh, yeah, yeah. There's nothing for it, like, it would have to go across water to get to it. A spider can. Yeah, they've got the density. A spider's great in baths. Yeah, I would say it can, yeah.

Little sun hand swim. Do you think you could keep it, I mean, it is quite dark over there, but do you think you can keep it hidden I mean it is quite dark over there, but do you think you can keep it hidden? Because if anything's perceived that hand. There is light within the buildings itself, like it has light sources inside there. Does any light spill out beyond the island?

Like far, very dark. Enough that you can see like outlines of buildings and stuff, but like the gulf in between is very dark. Very dark, okay. I can only send it about 100 feet away, so... That's gonna go to... Well, between us and it, there is that patch of rocks. Maybe that would be enough for you to send it.

It's not, it's a column. I am... I could turn into the gnar wall again, and if Daisy puts her psychic powers on me, I could tell you what I see. That's true. But an Aurel, as I recall, is quite big. Can you be a smaller?

Can I just get a reminder of everyone's passive perceptions? No. My PP? No, you can't actually, I don't wanna tell you. Daisy. 17. 12. 12.

11. What's your passive perception? I don't wanna say. Ron? I don't wanna say. What's your passive perception? I don't wanna say. Zanthias? I don't wanna say. What is it? I just wanna remind everyone about natural 20 I rolled earlier.

I think it's like nine or something. Remember that. Me, me, me, me, me. Penelope's would be... 13. I'm Zanthias and I can't see anything. Gruff, as you are looking out and considering your gnar wall plan,

you would spot, even though, again, because there is a light source within this building, you see like silhouettes, you don't see any detail, but you can see sort of at the very edge, so sort of around here, facing towards you guys, it looks like two or three figures have gathered and a bright light comes on and a boat starts coming towards you guys.

Oh. Two or three of these figures. You quickly lose sight because this like, cone of light is like shining directly forwards and so you can't see anything on the boat, like you can't, you know, it's blinding you basically from that direction. We could all get back in the water.

Okay, underwater we go. Yes, underwater we go, okay, yes. Okay, so you guys are all gonna go underwater? Yeah. Cool. Could I ask for stealth checks with advantage from everybody, please? Very well. Yeah. For everyone's benefit, I just extinguished one charge which is enough to remove the light shot from Xanthias.

I imagine there's a very dim from the runes but not enough to. Yeah, exactly, not enough to move the bright light or anything. 28. 28 on the stealth. 14. 14. Oh, we're still minus two though, aren't we? You are still minus two. 12. Slurp that good juice. 17. Oh, we're still minus two, though, aren't we?

You are still minus two. I was just slurping that good cheese. 17. Yeah, you could in fact drink some of the water here and it would boost you up. 14. 17. That's right, 17 for Ophelia. Yeah.

He's boosted anyway. 15 for Gruff. Xanthias. Mine was nine. Nine. Okay. You cannonball. Yeah, I let out a whoop as I dive in.

He's cutting off himself. Woo, watch this! I will cast the whispers on me, Zanthias Gruff Rowan. I feel like you've got your hand. I've got my little hand here. I don't know. You guys.

It might be useful so that you could, so that Ophelia could actually see through the hand, right? Yeah, but then she needs to communicate it back to us. So yeah, that might be useful for Ophelia to have it. Who doesn't want it? I'll be fine with that. Okay, Ophelia. Okay, all right, sure.

I can't see shit. Do you wanna, does it last a set amount of times? You have to roll for it. You have to roll for it, right? Five hours. Five hours, okay. More than enough hours. That might cover it.

How deeply do you guys go underwater? This is quite deep. This lake, I'd say it's like 30 feet deep, if you wanted to go right down to the bottom. And you have enough time that you can swim all the way down. You wait for maybe a minute, couple of minutes, and you see a dark shape booming, your light scanning around, pass above you,

and it scans exactly where you just were. And then it begins looking into the mouth of the river where you guys came from. Boat stops for a minute. You wait, feeling your heartbeats, hearing the rush of water through you as the light scans, and scanning the water left and right.

Xanthius, for a minute you just sort of like, maybe it's the crown ceiling of chess, like you feel like a sort of pulse and you just, a little bit of air. Pp-pp-pp-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-p- But the lantern continues searching. It looks through. Seems to check where you guys came from. It lingers for like five, ten minutes and then it makes its way back. But with water breathing and being underwater in stealth, not a problem.

It makes its way back. I think we avoided it, I say in my mind. I think it's not a problem. It makes its way back. I think we avoided it, I say in my mind. I think it's going back. I think we got away with that one. Now I have to do a thumbs up to Rowan. You can't hear it. I think staying underwater for as long as we can might be key right now. Let's get closer to the island

and maybe you can send your hand ahead. Okay. I'm pointing at my own head. Rowan has an idea. He puts out his palm and does a walking gesture. What's that? I say... They're water.

Oh, wait, swim? You're saying swim? He wants to stay here. I'll point down. Point at Rowan, point at me. And then I go as low as I can to the very bottom of this thing. Hopefully everyone else is going low as well. Does it stay relatively level down here

or does it get deeper? It's uneven, but it doesn't necessarily go deeper, but it's definitely uneven. So we could technically walk. It's rock, basically. You could, but you might as well, because you'd still be at half speed anyway. Well, yeah, I mean, we can stay underwater until...

You can get, basically, with water breathing, and I'm going to keep those stealth checks for now, I might have you make them if you get any closer, but you can get 100 feet, so you make your way to the first little section of rocks here, and you can kind of worm your way around those. Do you want to surface? Because when you're underwater,

you can't really see any detail of the island, right? You have to surface to like, this is, and again, I know that, you know, that metal gear when you do the water insertion, it's just like, bloop, bloop, and then you're like looking around and then like. Can I send the hand to surface? You can, yeah, I mean you tell me what you wanna do

with your creepy hand. Yeah. So just instead of like a big head coming up, like the little hand can just... And then you can see. You can use your own finger like a periscope. Like a periscope. So technically, that,

because you can see through the spider's eyes, right? So we'll just say that it's one of its fingers is its eye. And you're like, and it's like kind of using its fingers to like kick along. Before you do that, I'll wave to Rowan, cut hand symbol, point to Ophelia, and then point up. So you know what's going on. Can someone hold my body while I do this?

Because I lose control of my body. I won't be able to stay under the water. I'd float up. Sure. I mean, you can still move your body. You can do things like, you can like tread water and you can walk. You're just blind and deaf.

Yeah. So you can just keep control of your body. So you might just want to have somebody hold onto you just in case. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But you have control of your body. All right, so feel these eyes roll back into our head, let it go red, and then the hand just...

And then you start floating up. The hand just kicks up. Drifts away. And it can get 100 feet away from you, right? So I'll say that the maximum range, it would just reach the edge of the island. Okay. And you see that as it kind of swims its way along

and gets closer, it becomes very clear that there is almost, not like a dock, but there is like solid chunks of rock that have been chiseled away into a sort of platform. There is, you can see that there are half finished buildings. It looks like some buildings are under construction here. There are crates and barrels sort of strewn all over the place with supplies, wood, lumber, rope, nails, that kind of stuff.

There is a set of stairs that lead to a stone tower, which has one of a device you've seen before, a ballista. A manned ballista with two guards who are currently just idly chatting whilst they're positioned on it. The wall extends to some other buildings in the far corner. Don't worry about trying to map this in your heads because there might just happen to be a battle map

next week. Ooh! But you can see a wall with what appears to be some sort of archer patrolling up and down it. In amongst the, and the hand, you've got your dark vision through your hand, right? And this is kind of lit up in a lot of areas as well. You also see some other more interesting sites.

Basically, in the middle of this island fortress, a section of the island itself has been dug away, and there is like a pool of water that connects to the whole lake. In that pool of water is a pile of what would have to appear Ophelia like doled metal chunks of ore, some old pieces of armor, strange twisted almost like lightning frozen in iron and stone shapes, just piled together. And it's sitting in this golden pool that seems to connect to the rest of the lake itself.

Up on a quite religious-looking altar, which would be, to your eyes, Ophelia, bound by chains, is a knight in, a dragonborn knight in red armor with a red cape. He is bound, and his head is kind of lolling. One of his arms is grotesquely mutated. It is muscular and thick and spikes and horns are protruding from it.

And you can see that he is just sort of in a daze almost, not quite able to fully focus. On the other side of the pool, there is a half broken statue of a draconic figure, um, flanked by two pillars. Another stone building lies just to the side of this pool. just to the side of this pool. And before the altar is a large, glowing magical circle, standing in which is a about eight foot tall woman.

She is a bit heavier set. She has long green hair and these beautiful ivory, almost like antler-like draconic horns, dressed quite simply, not ostentatiously like Lady Embarissa or Lord Ignarius are, looking a little bit more kind of cottagecore-y, I would say. But she's a bit of a pomper figure, and she is seemingly talking to or at

a couple of reclaimers who are dressed not in the dark shabby burnt robes that you saw them before, but in resplendent gold, black, and red robes, and ornate looking ceremonial pieces of armor. And there appears to be some sort of conversation taking place. And the other thing I will mention is

a lot of Reclaimers patrolling this whole area. You would see that there are several patrolling the front where the hand kind of came, is currently stationed. There are several more sat around a table near some of the buildings. Some are just patrolling the island it seems. Do I have a rough idea of like numbers? Yes, if you... because the hand can just sit in the water and nobody's gonna be looking for a little disembodied hand,, little finger. You would spot from your position, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 10,

and then the two Ballistae crew. So you see 10. Again, some of them look to be wearing more ceremonial robes. Some of them are clearly soldiers wearing sort of that chainmail, but these look more, they look less ragged than the ones you fought before.

Okay. And you can see that there are banners emblazoned with the same sigil that you've seen before. There is, the air is heavy with incense and smoke. Even the soldiers, they aren't sort of slacking off.

They are, you know, even those who are sat around a table seem to be deep in discussion about something of great import to them. You catch snippets of conversation. The prophecy is nearly here. Finally, the day of ascension. The Golden Emperor has truly blessed us this day. When you listen in, you can hear the mages, or the figures outside the magic circle

speaking with what you assume to be Lady Varithera, given her tall form and the draconic nature of the scales and tail. You hear them sort of muttering things like, you do not understand, Grey One, you are the vessel, please accept our blessing. You will be greater than you can ever imagine. A world of wonder awaits for you.

You and the other vessel, you will lead us to greatness. But you don't hear Lady Verifina back. Looking at Lady Verifina, how does her body language look? Does she look relaxed? Does she look tense? She looks... Give me an insight check. Two, so... No, four. Four with minus two? Two.

It's so hard to tell. She's facing away from you. She appears to just be stood quite still. With the hand in its current position, even moving, you can't see her face. It's like bobbing around as well. You just can't get a good read on it at this point, I would say. All right, I imagine as this information's coming in,

I've been relaying it back to the team in my mind. You just need to picture it and then we will see it. The Hand can see Ser Eldrake, very clearly Ser Eldrake, the one on the altar who's chained up. You can see he has these like wrist manacles and things like that. He does not look okay. Like he looks like he's standing,

but his head's like bobbing around. It's like he's talking to himself. He's just kind of swaying on the spot. He's not straining against the chains or anything like that. And you can even see that a weapon has been laid on the altar in front of him. A beautiful halberd of red, you know, crimson halfed with a glow, like a steel tip etched with, you know,

arcane runes, this beautiful halberd laid before him. I imagine there's like, the hand is seeing, it's like Ophelia's face and response is like looking quite shocked. And the hand starts coming down. Yeah, so it makes its way back. Yeah. It takes a little bit of time,

it takes like a few rounds for it to get there and back and stuff like that, so. It's probably about a minute by the time it comes back. Yeah, nice, then Ophelia will come to, oh, it's not looking good, I'd say. That is a lot of people up there. I would say at this point as well, you have that outline here on this.

This is, with that information, you can kind of relay it. I will mark where you saw, so I'll put an E for Eldrake. A C for the Crownsteel. Yes, lolling around. His head lolling. Why is that so funny? What's the term?

Just lolling, hardcore lolling. Lol. So the Magic Circle is where Lady Verithera is, the E is Ser Eldrake, and the C is Crownsteel. It's all around that kind of pool. I cannot see where you've put those markers. Because I've had to use a pencil, I don't have a pen. Just point at it and...

All right, so, well I'll point to it anyway. So, because I also have to be able to see it. So this is the magic circle here. The very center. The very center, so that's where Lady Verithea is. So Eldrake is just on the edge of the pool, and then the crown still is right in the middle here. The guards, there are several guards around this front area.

This is the ballista, up here. There is another guard, a couple of guards all around here. And then you've got these buildings all around here as well. Okay. If you want to, you can pass that around as people need it and stuff as well. So what's the plan? We need to get past all of these guards, obviously.

That ballista's looking particularly nasty, but... Well, it's only nasty at, I suppose, close range. I'm at, well, not close range. It's nasty long range. The other way, yep. I'm at, well, not close range. It's nasty long range. Yeah. I mean, we don't know if it can turn around. True. If we're in the middle of this thing

and that starts firing down on us, then... I will tell you now from the hands, from what you remember, it did look like it could pivot 360. Yeah. So that needs to go. Yes. If we ever end up in the middle of this place.

But even then, what's the plan? We... Yes. I wish I could speak. I won't impart any knowledge. If you want a surface, you can talk on the surface. I was just going to put you in, I got, so 12, 12 reclaimed, how do I do that?

Well, the number you're doing there is 17. Well, the number you're doing there is 17. Podcast listeners, Rhiannon is trying to be very... It's mime. It's mime. Yeah. Rhiannon's just waving back. Big, big, crossbow. Mm, I do a bow and arrow kind of motion.

Big! Big, a bit wide. I do a big bow and arrow gesture. Oh yes, nod. What, you, Rowan? I think grab? Grab. Maybe. Potentially, yes, yes.

Waving hand, kinda, kinda. For the rest of us though. Yeah. He is intending to use, that's a good idea. If he used the Ballista, he can take over that. That would give us good support when we're in the middle of this thing. But even then,

I don't know about me. Eldrax not looking, we need to break those chains, of course, but even then... Lady Verifina gives me cause for concern as well. I think we need to get that halberd away from him as well. I don't like the idea, you know, we don't know how far he's gone. Yes, he does not look in a good way at all. Santheus, you need to stay away

from all that crown steel as well. Oh, I'll stay away from it, but I mean, you're gonna need my help in there. Have you seen how many there are? Well, yes, but I'm just saying don't go near the crown steel, the pile of crown steel in the middle. Rowan, yes, point, big, hat.

You're gonna use your big lantern hat. No light, no light. No light, good idea. No light, he says. We're not using light. Good idea, Rowan. You can't hear them. He gives up, he gives up.

I thumbs up. Great, same page. I think I got it across. Um. Um. I don't know how we do this, Antheus. Okay. Um. Um. Ah. I don't know how we do this, Antheus, there's... Maybe, I mean, you can climb up the walls.

Anyone that can climb up the walls, maybe with different animal forms or flight, perhaps, they could start maybe taking out the people on the walls. But for me and Rowan, not subtle, no. But I mean, if we go into the center of this place in order to break some chains of a crown steel infused dragon, then yeah, we're gonna be spotted regardless. But at least to begin with, we can start taking out,

maybe controlling that ballista is a good idea. Yes, element of surprise. While we can all communicate. Just in the top corner. That's what the Hanzo is. That we can see. Yeah. That's what Hanzo is. At least while we can communicate as well, we can at least synchronize.

Me and, like I said, me and Rowan, we're kind of in trouble right now. Hi, Rowan. Yeah, still talking. Talking. So it might be up to you three as best as you can to try and get to the top of the wall, but for me and Rowan, we're just gonna have to break into the middle of this thing, I think.

Well, if I fly, there's gonna be giant glowing wings and everyone will see it, it's not subtle. It's impossible to stealth with those wings. Someone screaming as they fall from the top of the roof or when Ophelia bites into their neck is also not going to be subtle. I don't think we can do subtle. I could try and swim up through that lake and the pond in the middle.

Oh, is that... Yeah, we haven't seen if that's possible. Yeah, you said it was a pond with crown steel in it, right? Leads to the river, yes. Yeah, doesn't necessarily mean that there's like a, it might be like tiny things, like you don't know. Like the hand couldn't see into it. Oh no, he's swimming through all the crown steel. It's all in my mouth.

He's batting my face and arms. I have the understudy ring. Maybe I could use that to disguise as a guard. Oh, fucking what? Oh yes, you do. You absolutely. That thing that she got literally like two weeks ago. She remembered!

She remembered an item! Well done, you absolutely could. But still. I'm trying to remember, the guards, when we went to the Ash and Citadel, did you observe them for long enough? Like, does it work retroactively that you observe those people for long enough?

You need to see them for an hour. Yeah. First of all, you didn't observe them for an hour back in Ash and Citadel. We murdered them. But there's nothing to stop you. You have like 24 hours of the water breathing thing. I'd say you've still got like three, four hours of it left.

If Ophelia could literally have the hand, just sit up there and watch a guard for an hour. But that was to... Which means that you guys are spending an hour. What was that to do? That was just, cause you can alter self, right? Yeah, I can just disguise myself freely. But observing for an hour lets you do what with it? Gives you advantages to pose as that person.

Right. If you read it out. Yeah, while wearing this ring, you may spend one fate point to cast the spell, alter self on yourself. The spell lasts for eight hours instead of one. In addition, you may spend one fate point to cast the spell Alter Self on yourself. The spell lasts for eight hours instead of one. In addition, you may have the advantage on charisma, deception, and performance checks

to pass yourself off as another person, as long as you have observed that person for at least an hour. So you can still use Alter Self, you just won't get the advantage on the charisma checks if you don't observe them. I can also Alter Self. Can you?

What the hell? When we can do that? Just keep in mind, Alter Self doesn't change your equipment. No. What equipment do I have? Crownsteel. Well, as in like, if you're not wearing their outfits and you walk up wearing your clothing.

Yeah. Oh, it doesn't, you're wrong. But if you could get like one of their outfits, it's up to you. Hmm. Or if you had another magic, somebody used an illusion to make you look like a, like, change your outfit, or, I don't know, you had, like, a magic cloth that could be disguised, I don't know.

You don't have that yet, but maybe you could in the future. Yeah, I have Necrotic Wood. Yeah, you do. Mm-hmm, but maybe you could in the future. Yeah, I have Necrotic Wood. Yeah, you do. I have a trophy, a third place trophy. What about that cloak that can make everything? Is there anything? No. It doesn't have guard uniform,

generic guard uniform. It's like shit, like, it's like pole, rope, dagger, lantern. Dogs. Dogs. Door. Coins. Dogs. There's an iron door.

Yeah. What about a pit? It said it could make a pit. What's the pit gonna do? Bottom out, the island. Make a hole. We pit Ignis. It has to be placed on the ground.

Put it on the bottom of the island. It doesn't reverse gravity. It also, you can use it to open a hole in the wall. I would say that the ceiling is not the ground. The ground has to be below you. You're fine. But if you get onto the island and then you put the pit down, if it's thin enough, it's a ten foot pit, that would...

A pit? I would allow that. A scroll of fly. Oh, there we go. You're right, this coat of useful items is useless. I didn't say it was fucking useless, I said I don't have something to disguise. You can disguise as a 20 foot ladder.

We can do a non-radiant fly then, so that's good. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah. I don't mind it. Chris Trott has some input. Flattening his hand. That is my input.

Yeah. Rowan can't have input, but Chris Trott may have input. What's your input, Chris Trott? That was it, the coat. If the coat had anything useful. Which of those has got a scroll or a fly? Yeah, I mean, yeah, this is like, I don't know, you guys can take this in any direction.

You can go in Guns Blazin'. If you just want to like surprise attack, fucking let's charge in scroll of flight. Yeah, I mean, yeah, this is like, I don't know, you guys can take this in any direction. You can go in Guns Blazin'. If you just wanna like surprise attack, fucking let's charge in. I think, I think. If you wanna try and sneak in, Metal Gear it. Metal Gear it. I reckon the Alter Self as a Ballistae Guard. Swap places with Ballistae Guard would be a good surprise attack.

But you just need to take that guy out silently. Yeah. On your own. Which I think you're more than capable of doing. Climbing up the wall, yeah. And you get a free necky-wicky sucky work. Yeah. Well, you put it that way. God just walks up the wall.

Hello, I'm here to relieve you. He just walks up the side of the building. Hello! It's time for your tips. Spider-Man meme. Don't mind me, I'm Spider-Man. I think they might be a bit alerted if somebody walks up a wall. All right, you could do that yesterday, Jim.

Well today I can. Element of surprise. Look that way. Snap. Drink blood. Like a sneak up. Where did you see El Jack? El Jack is basically right by the pool. He's right in front of the ground still.

He's on like an altar. So yeah, I would need a Sorcerer, Warlock, Wizard or Artificer to cast this spell. I can't cast it. I'm a Warlock! I feel like you can't use it. I can't cast it. That's Druid Racer.

However, it is a spell slot, it is a spell level higher than you can cast, so it is a check to see if you can properly cast it. Oh, I'm like, Abstrudism. Destroy it. I'm a Sorcerer. Oh, he's a Sorcerer. Yeah, that's fine. I'm a, abstruidism. I'm a sorcerer. Oh, he's a sorcerer. Oh, I'm a sorcerer. Yeah, it's fine.

I'm a druid, you can't tell that magic, but apparently not that magic. It's a different kind of magic. How many times can you use that? I have four more things of my... It's not just tilt, that ability, but four. So you go up with Ophelia, catch eyes with Lady Verithera,

connect with her to give her the download on what we're about to do. I mean, I don't know what side she's on. Me neither, but you know. If. It's gonna be chaos anyway. We have to fight a dragon. Hopefully, convert. I don't know if he's just like looking at all of you,

he's just like. In a dungeon. Question. I wave a Penelope. The hand can see Varithera. No, you have to see it. But if I see through the hand. You can't see through the hand, only Ophelia can. But if she can communicate. It's not the same thing.

That's her projecting an image thought into your mind. It is not the same thing as the magical connection to the spell. It's a leading loop. It's like looking at a printout. Fair enough. Well I'm all over all my ideas. It's literally be like, oh this not the same thing as the magical connection to the spell. You have to see that. It's like looking at a printout. Fair enough. Well I'm all over all my ideas. It's literally be like,

oh this is the same as looking at Ryan Reynolds. Like you know. Oh, that's a damn good drawing. Yeah. But it's not the same. Why am I looking at Ryan Reynolds? I don't know but I'm liking it. I'm just the idea of like, you know,

a picture of a person is not the same thing as looking at a person. It's the old taskmaster mirror, I'm looking at you, no you're looking at a mirror. I reckon... Just think about Ron Reynolds now. Sure. Chris Trotts final input is scroll of fly so that Daisy and Ophelia can go up quiet

instead of loud and proud, and then take a... Flying is not invisibility, there is still a chance you can be seen while flying. It's less than a radiant flight. Yes, it is less than that, yeah. So, get the... There's not really much point in giving me fly if I could, when we're probably rumbled, fly.

So we should probably give it to someone else. It's more to communicate to Lady Verithera before it all kicks off. And you're quite stealthy as well. To hope that she's the one who has. So you don't need to fly to be stealthy. Yeah. You can just kind of Metal Gear it and sneak up.

Oh, if going up is easy, then yeah. Yeah, I mean, like you can going up is easy, then yeah. Yeah, I mean, you can swim up to this island. But then getting onto the Ballista... That would be a stealth check. That would be like stealth checks or bluff checks or whatever. I thought it would be harder than that. I mean, it is, you're going to have to find a way up onto the walls

and stuff like that. It is, yeah. But that flying up to the Ballista Tower is going to be very obvious. Like, there's no way to stealth that because there's nothing to hide behind. You can't stealth fly. Like, there's no way to stealth that, because there's nothing to hide behind. You can't stealth fly. Like, you just can't leave that. Even if Ophelia just walked up the wall or crawled up the wall. So that would be more of a stealth check, because you could actually, like, hide whilst you're doing it.

Flying, you can't really do that. Or if it turned into a weasel again. Yeah, that's for sure. Like, or I suppose, like, if you hugged the wall, but if you just fly up from the water onto the Ballista Tower, that's pretty obvious. That's more surprise attack than sneak attack. And then me, Gruff and Xan, when we get the go-ahead to storm,

I dropkick you into the Crownsteel, you turn into Super Xan. Super Xan, yeah. Super Mecha Xan, and then unleash health. And then I destroy the wall. So I was thinking of actually swimming up through the Crownsteel pond. Supermechazan, and then unleash health. And then I destroy the world. So I was thinking of actually swimming up through the Cranstil pond. Can I look around and see if it is connected?

If you want to take some time, it would take you a couple of minutes to swim up there and then look around and then swim back. Yeah. You can try that, yeah? I want to see if there's a bottom. So you look and what you find is it is like somebody has specifically drilled holes that feed into that pool.

So there's not a big space for gruff to swim through. You're talking these tiny things. If you turned into a tiny fish, like a goldfish or something, you could. If one turned into an octopus that has the ability to scratch you. Yeah, absolutely, you could. Or if one turned into an octopus that has the ability to can squeeze through it. Yeah, absolutely, you could totally do that. Nice, awesome.

But only you would be able to go through that. But yeah, you could totally appear in that pool right next to them, absolutely. I will communicate that to everyone but the big one. That is an excellent idea. I'll just wave it rough. Excellent, okay. Well, they seem extremely alert as well.

Even just a second of our light at the end of the cavern sent a boat out. It would have been a second. It would have been as you were traveling to the head of that mouth, all the light would have been floating through. Okay. But I'm wondering... And if they were looking out, like, and they saw a cavern that's always been dark suddenly light up, they'd go, go check that out.

What's that? That's weird. What the fuck is that? You're able to maybe throw one of those lighty daggers? No. No? They disappear when you throw them. They have to have a, it's like... Magic. Magic. It's like a...

They're not a physical thing that they disappear. Could you cast light on something? We throw it down in a direction so that we can climb up the other side? I mean, throwing, you can throw stuff like 60 feet max range. Like, you probably wouldn't be able to throw something far enough. I mean, I guess if you threw it 60 feet and then immediately moved off to the side, but it's not going to be a big distraction.

Like, if you could, I don't know, shoot something like 300 feet, like an arrow or something, but again, if you're casting it on the arrowhead, shoot something like 300 feet, like an arrow or something. But again, if you're casting it on the arrowhead, then when you fire it, it's gonna be- I have a great distraction. Cast Light on one of these bullets, and I'll fire the gun, they'll follow the light. Yeah, that's definitely what will happen.

And definitely you'll think, where did that start? Did you actually get the Demon Gun out? I've still got it. You do? But I'm just assuming it as being buried in your bags. I've never seen it. It's like, yeah, I'm no good at using it. I haven't trained with it.

I don't intend to use it. Sure. Just let me know when you do pull it out. Okay, will do. I'm not gonna metagame this one at all. I look deeply at the gun. No, I don't. Shake it a bit.

I think we should get as close as we can. They're probably going to see us, let's be honest. Well, I think you are probably the best at climbing up this wall and maybe getting rid of one person up there silently. And Rafa the octopus as well, that's an excellent idea. It does put you right in the centre, alone. Well, I could try and get to Ser El Drak, or at least get rid of that nasty weapon next to it.

Maybe it wasn't nasty, it was a very beautiful looking weapon. Yes, but nasty when you're on the other end of it. Maybe. Um... I could be yours. It could be mine. No, I feel like, yeah, if I go up, I could try and see what state of mind Ser El Drak is in

and maybe if you take out the Ballista and we try and contact Lady Verithira, then all El breaks loose and we just knock everyone out. Simple. We'll kill them. It's more likely. Maybe not Ser El Dracthul. No, sure. Well, I'll ask.

Okay. Just tell me what you guys are doing and when you want to do it. Or if you got any more questions. So, are we going for... I feel like one or two people go for the Ballista stealthily. Octopus Groff. And then that leaves kind of like... Because you will be quite separate.

If you move to get in position for that, you will not be near those guys if they try and get the Ballista or something like that. You'll be, you know... Yeah, we're just... And then that's like... Xanthius, Rowan and Penelope need a thing to do. Well, I don't feel like we should split up too dramatically because if things do kick off, which they will.

Yeah, have a couple of guys stay close to Gruff to act as defense. I'll go with Gruff towards the pool. No. Okay. Penelope will just sort of, I don't forget, I know Gruff mentioned this before, but I have a spell that can help people move quietly. It only lasts a little bit of time.

Oh, she can't talk right now. Blub blub blub blub blub blub. I think she might have a spell to allow us to move quietly. She did say that before, and I was thinking that we should have used it. She'll just need to get up into the air so she can speak and cast spells. Pass without a trace, right?

Yeah, pass without a trace. She can cast pass without a Trace once a day. And it adds plus 10. It does add plus 10 to your stealth. So I'd have a plus 20. To how many people? To stealth. I was saying you should go to the Ballista

because you're stealthy. Well, definitely Pass Without a Trace is the first moment we get. Just remember, stealthy is not invisibility. If you move out of cover, if you are out in the open, no amount of stealth check, even if you had a 40 stealth check, if you are out very dramatically in the cover. The only reason it worked on Roman is because he had

the tower to sort of press himself up against, right? And the other guys were coming the other way. There was distractions. But if you're out in the open, it's not gonna give you much help. And I don't know if I can take people out in one go without... Because I wouldn't have Sneaky Tech. You would, you have advantage. I would have advantage.

I mean, at the very least, I could get in and see how Sir Eldritch is. He and Lady Vethira are our priorities. I don't think he's good. I think we're just gonna have to... ..unchain him and... ..hope for the best. I feel like that's what it's going to be. I think we'll all be hoping for the best.

I would quite like to do the octopus thing and go up to Eldrake. Are you doing that now? I mean, I want to ferment the plan with everyone else before I go off. I probably don't need Pass Without a Trace. Well, it's on like 10 people's page as well. You may as well take it if you get it.

If you want to do it, it just means that every, and like this isn't gonna reveal you, you would all surface, Penelope would cast a spell, you go under water again. Right, like, so you can totally do that. Like she will mark that off. You will currently are under,

while she's, I think it's, is it concentration? It might be, I'll check. Pass Without a Trace, no it's one and done. It's not, it's one and done. One and done. So, one... I think it's... Is it concentration? It might be. I'll check. Pass by the Tracer? No, it's one and done. It's not. It's one and done. So, one hour, I think. Okay, so plenty of time until it gets spotted. Yeah. So you'll currently have plus 10 stealth checks. That northeastern wall, that northeastern corner where the Ballista is, where we intend to be sending up Ophelia along the wall

to try and take out whoever she can up there silently. It probably should be Ophelia and Daisy. Yeah, it's just Ophelia can crawl up the wall, whereas Daisy's flying up there. I'm not flying up there. So Ophelia's climbing up the wall. What access does that give the rest of us if we were up in that direction as well? I mean, you could throw a rope down and people climb up.

I've got a rope on me. Is that a shape? How tall is the rope? Or I was gonna try and find the space where I could get close enough to the island to connect to Lady Verthira. Which would probably be better. So you've got a range on your establishment link?

A mile. Oh no, as in like to it to the next of line. As long as I can see them. As long as you can see them, so, yeah. If you basically just get anywhere on that opening area, you should be able to see her. How tall is the wall where the ballista is? About 30 feet.

Yeah. The ballista's on a little tower. The wall is actually only, I think, there's two sections of it. One's 10 or 15 feet high, and the other one is 20 feet high. And then the tower that the ballista's on is 30 feet high. So what is the quickest way for, say, me and Rowan not flying or swimming or walking up walls?

Is it literally just this west? You can see there, you can see, you know, you guys are currently here. You can go, you can swim and go to a point you want. Obviously there are like- Is there like a ladder onto the tower and stuff like that? Oh, onto-

How are they getting up? The tower, you can't get onto the tower unless you're on the island. Because it has like stairs and stuff. Yeah, that's really the thing, we see like the power they're getting up the tower. So look, there's like stairs and stuff that lead up to it, right?

Yeah. So you could get up onto this like dock area here and then you can take the stairs and then try and get onto the tower there. There was a ladder that you saw that goes up onto the Ballista tower itself. But in terms of like, yeah, I mean like quickest or whatever, like you're just gonna have to decide that like.

I think that I should give the scroll of fly to one of you guys, Rowan or Xanthias. Cast it on them to begin with. Well, I can't cast it away. Or have somebody else. So I think what I'll do is I'll take the button off the coat for the fly scroll and I'll give it to Xanthias. You pull the little medal off,

it's got the scroll indication with a little wing on it, and it becomes a sealed magical scroll. Xanthius, you now have a scroll of fly. First level, oh sorry. Third level. Third level, yeah. So I can cast that on. You can actually cast it on two people then, probably. No, it's third level is one person.

I thought it was third level was two. Yeah, it's one person. Well. You get it at third, don't you? I think that it would be more... It would make more sense to give it to one of you guys, because if... Slash when we get caught, I can fly anyway. So it feels like a waste if I use it on me

when I can stealth in other ways. True. In my opinion. It would probably be useful for one of you to have it. Yeah. Just remember it. Yep. Just remember it is concentration. It is. My concentration checks are pretty good.

Just if you cast another concentration spell. Yes. Cool. Anything else? Hmm. Yeah, it's just trying to take out gods individually. Maybe any questions for me. Sounds like you have a vague plan.

We have a vague plan, it's just, if Ophelia walks up onto the ballista, you're not gonna turn around and say, there's actually seven guys on there. Well, from the hands accounting, there were two crew, there was an archer on the wall behind them. I did say that. Right, so if Ophelia walks on top of that tower,

how many people are gonna to be up there? Two. I said there was a crew of two on the Ballista with an archer on the wall behind them. Yeah, yeah, that's what I... I don't know how clear I can be, my guy. No, I know, it's just... I think he means can the archer clearly see the...

Like, if Ophelia was up... Yeah, but I said the wall is right behind it, like, yeah. The archer will definitely be... Yeah. But on the Ballista tower itself, there are two crew. And then there is an archer patrolling the wall behind it. There's also like soldiers on the actual island patrolling around, like reclaimers there.

So maybe I stop the archer and then move over to the Ballista when the archer's gone. Mm-hmm. Mm, mm, mm-hmm. Well, I can come towards the Ballista for you quickly. As long as I can... And then go... Big...

Ballista. Well, I think I could go with you to the Ballista, but... OK. I want to... I think if we sneak up from just beside the dock area to go up to the tower, if you go up the wall and I go up, like, more towards the stairs to get a view on Lady Vethira so that I can connect on the way. Sounds good.

The only thing about that is how many guards might be patrolling that dock area and the walkway. So, Ophelia would have seen, there was one guard who was walking up and down, another guy was looking into a bunch of crates, moving some stuff around, and there was another guy who was on a training dummy in one of these being constructed buildings.

Yeah, so there's more dudes there. So there are three dudes there. Only one is actively patrolling. And you'll be able to see on the map next week, we'll have a full map and I'll show you where all the guys are. We could potentially take the ground people out. Essentially.

Well, can Rowan be doing, practicing front flips underwater because it's pretty cool to do it with Penelope. Sure. And then pointing at her. She has to hold her hat when she does it. Before we start doing all this, can we just surf it so Penelope can't pass without a truce? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

We're saying that that's already done. I'm not going to... Of course, yeah. That was part of the established plan that she was going to do that. All right. Yeah, so I think we'll, at least, me, Rowan, and Ophelia, at the very least, will head towards that northwestern tower underwater for all of us until you are able

to climb up the wall, I suppose. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, I mean, at that point, yeah, we don't need to worry too much about that. It was more if you guys had questions or like figuring out what your rough plan was.

Are we gonna win? Yeah, that's a great question. We'll find out. Yeah, ask the clever toad. Says you'll find out next episode. Oh. Oh. No, it said outlook not so good.

Really? That felt good, yeah. With that, we will find out next week. Stealth missions, famously very good on High Rollers. We managed it once in the four years. We've got plus 10 now. We've got plus 10. But yeah, we'll find out what happens

as this will basically be the sort of culmination of this little story arc. The Reclaim Arc. Can you recover? Can you help Sir Eldritch? Can you rescue Lady Vero-Thera? We'll find out next time. See you then. Bye-bye. See you next time. Hey, do you like roleplaying games? Well, you should check out Mystery Quest. It's an

actual play podcast where we focus on all kinds of indie TTRPGs with a rolling cast of special guests. You can find us anywhere where you get your podcasts. I'll see you there.