0:04

Hey, Kax. Dungeon

0:12

Masters takes a behind-the- curtain look into the

0:14

world of Dungeons & Dragons told through the

0:16

lenses of the creator of the game, Gary

0:18

Gygax, and a private investigator, William Deer, a

0:21

swashbuckling tough guy in 1979. Gygax

0:24

guides us through this incredible true story

0:26

as our Dungeon Master as we follow

0:28

Deer on his quest to find Dallas

0:30

Egbert, a Michigan State student who supposedly

0:32

disappeared in the steam tunnels under his

0:35

university while enacting a real-life version of

0:37

D&D. What

0:39

Deer encounters on this journey and ultimately

0:41

discovers defies all expectations and changes

0:43

the culture as we know it. Follow

0:47

now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or

0:49

wherever you're listening now. For

0:51

more information, follow us on social

0:53

media by searching at QCode Media.

1:01

Loved Bellatro but wish it was

1:03

a little bit seedier? Then welcome,

1:05

tavern dweller, to Dungeons & Degenerate

1:08

gamblers from Yogg's Cast Games, a

1:10

blackjack roguelike adventure which takes the

1:12

rules of the classic card game

1:14

and introduces a whole host of

1:16

bizarre twists. Make your way

1:19

through a seedy tavern challenging patrons, purchasing

1:21

additional cards for your deck, resting up

1:23

when your health gets low, opening booster

1:25

packs, participating in mini-games and

1:27

more. Construct your deck around

1:29

game-breaking synergies which can defeat the house edge

1:32

and uncover the mystery of the tavern once

1:34

and for all. Oh, I love that. That

1:36

was perfect. That was better than I could do. I've played

1:38

this game a lot. It's published by

1:41

Yogg's Cast Games. It's made by a single man.

1:44

It's honestly a labor of love. So I

1:46

loved Bellatro. I really, really liked Dungeons &

1:48

Degenerate gamblers and give it a

1:50

go. Yes, absolutely. If you love card games,

1:52

if you love digital online, if you like

1:54

Bellatro, you can check out Dungeons & Degenerate

1:56

gamblers. It's out now on Steam and

1:58

as a special offer. for our pickaxe listeners.

2:01

You can pick up a copy

2:03

of the game for an unbeatable

2:05

price at fanatical.com/pickaxe. No way. Thank

2:07

you very much. On with the

2:09

show. Hello

2:12

everybody, welcome. It's High Rollers Day.

2:15

Hello. Bye bye bye bye bye.

2:17

Bye bye. Yay. The

2:19

police. What? What?

2:22

Welcome everybody. I'm your master.

2:24

Wow. I'm your

2:27

daddy. I'm your dungeon master, Mark

2:29

Schorkems. Eppapi.

2:32

Eppapi. No, I am your dungeon

2:34

master, Mark Schorkems. Oh, that's worse.

2:36

And I am joined by your

2:39

games master. That's

2:42

less worse. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm

2:45

joined, as always, by these

2:47

cheeky chaps and chapesses and

2:49

chaplets. Couple of quick things

2:51

to run through today. No.

2:55

Wow. Yes, in fact, actually, yes.

2:58

No. Do

3:00

you mind remembering a little composer

3:03

named Jolene? She already went and

3:05

bloody won that Critter Award in

3:07

cheer. Woo hoo. Yeah,

3:10

massive congratulations to Jolene for Althea, the

3:12

main theme over on the Critter world,

3:14

but also a big special thank you.

3:16

All of you, all of you at

3:18

home. You're the ones who voted

3:21

to make it happen. And Jolene

3:23

was very touched. She's now award winning.

3:25

Award winning Jolene and have award winning

3:27

theme music. That's pretty

3:29

good. We do. But also, yeah, I know in

3:31

Jolene's little speech, did a big thank you to

3:33

high rollers in the community as well. So we

3:36

wanted to celebrate that with you guys as well.

3:38

Yeah, thanks. Yeah, just a little casual award winning

3:40

main theme. Congrats. Congratulations, Jolene. Yeah, we love you.

3:42

Thanks very much for all your hard work and

3:44

all your amazing music. We love it. Which you'll

3:47

hear in a second. Which you'll hear in just

3:49

a minute. Next

3:51

thing that to talk about is, right,

3:53

I know. I do every week, we talk about

3:55

the live shows, 17th of September. It's

3:58

a high rollers life. But you know. I'm

4:00

gonna spice up a bit this week. Would you

4:02

like to know a little bit about what

4:04

the live show's gonna be? Oh! Oh! High

4:08

Rollers, right? Yes, it is. High Rollers

4:10

based. You will

4:12

be joining us. Those of you who

4:14

have got your tickets, you will get

4:16

to experience a wonderful adventure. It

4:18

is gonna be one of our side quests.

4:21

So it is gonna be a canonical, all-Faean

4:23

adventure. Provided no one dies. Providing

4:25

that there isn't anything too spectacular that goes

4:27

wrong. But it is gonna

4:29

be a canonical, all-Faean adventure that is

4:32

based around an event

4:34

that happens once

4:36

every roughly sort of 98 years, 100 years,

4:40

where a proto-Majai

4:42

vault flies across

4:44

Althea. And this

4:46

vault was given the name of Jahans

4:48

Comet by the first adventurer to discover

4:50

that it was in fact a proto-Majai

4:52

vault that could be explored. And

4:55

Jahans Comet is gonna pass over

4:57

Ashen's Rest. And Duke

5:00

Ignarius and Embarissa and

5:02

Obsidius have asked our

5:04

adventurers to head on up

5:06

into the proto-Majai vault and to aid them

5:09

getting up there to discover

5:11

what treasures it has and to ensure that

5:13

the wrong hands don't get hold of

5:16

these proto-Majai relics and treasures that

5:18

may be on Jahans

5:20

Comet, this proto-Majai vault. But they

5:22

only have a very short window

5:25

to get in, loot

5:27

the place, and get out because Jahans

5:29

Comet, as it hurtles across Elmera, soon

5:31

it will leave the Elmeran borders and

5:33

fly back up into the dark void,

5:35

into the stars and the skies beyond,

5:38

and will vanish for another 100 years.

5:41

So if we get yeeted into the void, it's not

5:43

a cat. Yeah, basically that,

5:45

yes. Vault hunters, you

5:47

could call us. Maybe. No,

5:49

no. It's like the really popular movie.

5:53

Anyway, but that is it. So that's

5:55

a little information. 17th of September, Adelphi

5:57

Theatre, it is gonna, we're gonna try and make

5:59

it. as accessible as possible. as

6:02

you are, what the vaults are, will

6:05

explain all of that. I think it's gonna be quite

6:07

a good one if people don't know much about high

6:09

rollers, they only know a little bit about D&D because

6:11

it's basically gonna be a get in, smash

6:14

through it, loot, Robert

6:16

Dungeon, get out, Robert Comet,

6:18

yeah, Robert Comet, Comet Heist.

6:20

But yeah, that's gonna be

6:22

the plan. We hopefully we

6:24

will see you there. And if you don't have your tickets

6:26

or if you've got friends you think when you would enjoy

6:28

something like that, get them to go

6:30

and buy a ticket right now because they're on sale, get

6:33

them in the link, come and see the show. It's gonna

6:35

be a good time. With that, that's it for my announcement.

6:37

Let's run the intro. ["The Dragon Empire"] Welcome

6:58

back to Althea, the Dragon

7:00

Empire. After competing in the

7:02

festival of the Forge Nightly Tournament,

7:05

our heroes enjoyed an evening at

7:07

the Duchal Palace as

7:09

guests of his draconic majesty, Duke Ignarius.

7:12

During the evening's celebrations, Gruffath of

7:14

Tramorro spoke with Sonora Kell of

7:16

the Circle of Loyal Hounds, a

7:18

nightly order of all the knights

7:20

whom Gruffath had been seeking to

7:23

join. Before the gathered

7:25

knights and influential citizens of Ashen

7:27

Rest, Gruffath was accepted as a

7:29

knight errant given the first of

7:31

three challenges to become a true

7:34

knight. Later in

7:36

the evening, the party was called to

7:38

meet with Duke Ignarius and another of

7:40

his personal knights of the realm, a

7:42

cheerful halfling woman called Dame Cassandra Maurice.

7:45

Dame Cassandra, Duke Ignarius, and his daughter,

7:47

Lady Embarissa, requested the heroes' aid in

7:49

a number of matters in the local

7:51

area. Dame Cassandra had

7:54

learned of odd goings on in the

7:56

Rust Whale Woods and sent her squire

7:58

ahead to investigate. she herself

8:00

would be heading southwest to the shores

8:02

of Lake Irovax to meet with an

8:04

old friend who had sent warnings of

8:07

a mysterious doom. Lady Embarissa

8:09

asked the heroes to travel to the

8:11

southeast to an area called the Ash

8:13

Hills to look for a missing knight,

8:16

Sir Eldrak Ignis, who had gone in

8:18

search of an heirloom created by Embarissa's

8:20

mother. As the heroes discussed

8:22

these opportunities on the way back from the

8:25

Duke's palace, Sister Ophelia della Rosa of the

8:27

House of Blood brought up an offer she

8:29

had given to the spirit of Tyria, the

8:32

woman murdered in the inn they now owned,

8:34

and how she could be sent to Osseus to

8:37

join the House of Shadows as a child of

8:39

the Grey Father. Using Daisy

8:41

Thistleheart's strange powers, they were able

8:43

to talk to Tyria and ask

8:45

her what she wanted, and it

8:47

was clear that Tyria was keen

8:49

to do as Ophelia had offered.

8:52

But today's session

8:55

begins with a new day. You

9:00

went to sleep, you rested, and whilst

9:04

you do, at least

9:06

one of you dreams.

9:11

No, I don't.

9:14

I'll wake up.

9:18

You can't. Old Haax

9:20

syndrome. Xanthias,

9:26

you find

9:28

yourself in

9:31

Ashen's Rest. Everything

9:35

is burning. Just

9:38

like when the lamplight is attacked, you

9:41

can hear the roar of

9:44

dragons and see their draconic

9:46

shapes in the

9:48

swirling smoke that surrounds you,

9:52

being brought up by the flames, but

9:54

it feels enclosed. You can't see

9:57

more than a few houses, few

9:59

streets. It's almost like the whole town

10:01

is full of smoke and ash and

10:03

flame. Your

10:07

throat burns from the ash

10:09

and smoke you're inhaling. And

10:11

your arm is

10:14

so badly burned it has blackened

10:16

and is in agony. You

10:18

can feel that pain and burning beginning to

10:20

spread across your body. What

10:25

do you do? Oh.

10:30

Die. I mean, is

10:33

there a ember that

10:36

is like, I mean, do

10:39

I have any, because in a

10:41

dream state, do I have any idea of

10:43

like the night prior? Do I know I'm

10:45

in a dream? Am I just like, is

10:49

there an entire backstory that's formed as part of this

10:51

dream? Do I believe this is

10:53

me? You are in Ashen's Rest. You

10:55

recognize the buildings, the

10:58

burning penance of Duke Ignarius'

11:00

heraldry and colors. Your

11:03

arm burns. Smoke and

11:05

ash fill the air. Dragons fight

11:08

all around you, it seems. And

11:10

you can hear screams, people trapped,

11:12

but you can't see anyone. Everywhere

11:15

you look, the empty streets, the

11:17

cobblestone streets of Ashen Rest are

11:19

empty. I

11:22

will run through those streets and

11:24

I guess try to, if

11:27

I have to go through fire to do

11:29

so, I suppose I will, to try to

11:31

get towards those screams. You

11:35

begin to run through the

11:37

streets, panic rising, your body

11:39

burning. Not sure

11:41

where you're even running to, trying to

11:43

follow the sound of the screams, but

11:45

every time you run down a street

11:47

or turn into an alleyway, it's like

11:49

the screams are being pulled further away

11:52

to different parts coming from all around

11:54

you. And still up in the clouds,

11:56

you cannot see the sky for it

11:58

is so choked dark with... smoke

12:00

and ash, but something, its

12:03

draconic shapes move, flying past,

12:05

roaring, deafeningly loud. You

12:08

run again, twisting and turning, but

12:10

everywhere you run, doesn't seem to

12:12

pull you closer towards those screams.

12:14

You don't see gates, you don't

12:16

see the inn, you can't find

12:18

anything, just endless streets, like a

12:20

labyrinth. And then eventually

12:22

you come to the plaza, the central plaza.

12:25

You recognize this, it's a large open

12:27

circular space, but what draws your eye

12:30

immediately is at the center of it,

12:32

there is a fountain, a fountain

12:36

made of gold. It's

12:38

golden glittering shape, like

12:41

that of a dragon, but its head has

12:43

been broken off, it's one of its wings

12:45

broken off, but in the

12:47

glittering gold, the flames

12:49

and the ash and the smoke create

12:52

these red and black shadows that seem

12:54

to fall and drift and scatter across

12:56

its glittering surface. But

12:59

the fountain is filled with clear,

13:02

cool looking water. You

13:07

begin to feel that one of those draconic

13:10

shapes out there in the smoke, one of

13:12

them stops. It

13:14

begins to look, you know, even though

13:16

you cannot see its eyes or its face, you

13:18

know that that dragon is

13:20

looking at you. You

13:23

glance around once more, and in the

13:27

window of a building,

13:29

a building that looks church-like, you

13:32

see two young twin

13:35

girls with blonde hair

13:37

just staring at you from the window. When

13:41

you look back to the fountain, you

13:44

see that there's a figure there, wearing

13:47

a tattered brown robe that's

13:50

burning, fraying at the edges,

13:52

hunched over the fountain, stooped

13:54

next to it as if

13:57

they've fallen or taken care of. They've

14:00

taken a moment of respite to lean against

14:02

it for stability. And they

14:04

dip a hand. You can see that their skin

14:06

is gold. They

14:10

dip a hand in, filling

14:12

it, cupping the water, and they bring it to the

14:14

hood. You can't see the face, and you

14:16

hear a... Aaaah!

14:23

What... There's

14:25

so much going on here. Um... They're

14:30

okay, just that it's like sating

14:32

them. Come,

14:35

it is quite cool. It

14:37

will cool your throat, cool

14:40

your arm and your bones. In

14:43

that case, I'll slowly walk

14:46

towards this person. Are those figures still

14:48

in the tavern looking out? Look up.

14:51

You can see it's not a tavern, it's a church.

14:53

Sorry. Church of the scion. And looking

14:55

out from a window, their face is...

14:59

implacable, unreadable. Two

15:02

young girls. One

15:04

looks thin and sickly, the other is

15:06

taller, blonde hair, and

15:08

they're watching you. Okay. And

15:11

you can still feel that draconic presence

15:13

also watching you from beyond the smoke.

15:17

As you begin to step towards

15:19

that fountain and that crisp, clear water,

15:21

you can see that that water,

15:23

it glows. You

15:26

begin to feel that it's not just

15:29

water, it radiates power. Yes.

15:35

Drink, friend. Come

15:38

and drink. What do their hands look like? Can

15:40

I see them beyond the rope? See the hand.

15:43

You... The robe is almost

15:45

covering them, but it's ever burning. It

15:47

doesn't ever seem to burn more, but

15:49

the bottoms of it are like they're

15:51

always alight and embers smoldering. Their

15:54

hand is pure gold. It's

15:57

humanoid, but there's claws and... a

16:00

touch of something alien

16:02

to it. It's not scales,

16:04

but it doesn't look quite right.

16:09

I will motion towards

16:11

the water, but with my

16:14

good hand, my unburned hand, almost

16:17

like looking at them for, I guess,

16:19

approval, I suppose, like, am I doing

16:22

the right thing here? This hand or

16:24

that hand? You can't see their face.

16:27

Their hood is kind of covering them.

16:30

They're hiding their features from you. There's just a

16:32

dark shape. Okay.

16:36

In that case, I try and cup some water with

16:39

just my good hand for now, not

16:41

putting my... As soon as your normal

16:44

hand touches the water, it's

16:46

so blissfully cooling.

16:49

There's a part of you that desperately

16:52

wants to plunge that burning arm, because

16:54

it feels like it's burning on a

16:56

fire and it's spreading up to your

16:58

neck and into your chest, and you

17:00

want to almost throw yourself into the

17:02

pool to cool off, and your throat

17:04

burns and aches so parched and dry.

17:09

Out of game, because

17:11

you are, and we

17:14

have now revealed the nature of the

17:16

ground steel. Sure. You

17:18

as a player, Tom, can

17:20

make, have an element of choice here, because

17:23

I'm gonna ask you to make a saving

17:25

throw. Okay, okay. You

17:27

can willingly choose to fail that saving

17:30

throw. This

17:32

saving throw is your

17:35

crown steel corruption saving throw. I

17:38

can choose to... You can

17:40

resist, or you can

17:42

choose to fail it. Given

17:44

that, and I

17:47

feel like if the

17:50

dream is filled with all this symbolism

17:52

and all these characters, that I am

17:54

aligning with particular characters I know, obviously,

17:57

in real world, that I

17:59

chose to put... I

30:00

was probably into this. Oh, yeah. Yes.

30:02

Over. I

30:05

think. I think shopping. I

30:07

think hearing Ophelia run outside the bedroom

30:09

is enough to make Xanthias come out

30:11

of the, because

30:14

like the balcony, it's gonna be creaky.

30:16

Ophelia probably stomps through one of the floorboards

30:19

and she goes. The whole

30:21

place is run down enough

30:23

that there are squeaky floorboards, rotten floorboards,

30:25

you have to be careful where you

30:27

step. In need

30:29

of modernisation. It's, yeah, this is like a

30:31

proper abandoned building with a massive hole in

30:33

the roof. This place is in a bad

30:35

shape. Like I

30:37

guess that you're outside cleaning

30:39

your armour, if that's what they call it nowadays,

30:42

and Rowan's asleep behind the bar. Wow, what

30:44

are you insinuating there? Huh? You're

30:47

insinuating something. You're cleaning your armour. Don't let

30:49

your tone. You're polishing your armour. Mm-hmm. You're

30:51

buffing your leather. Mm-hmm. I

30:53

hate that. These

30:56

are all things that Gruff are doing. Great. Yeah.

30:59

And as you should. I'm young. Rowan's

31:01

watching. He's been watching the whole time.

31:04

You guys down there buffing your leather? Yeah.

31:07

I say, as Anthony is. Isn't that just what normal

31:09

men do? Yeah. Rowan's oiling off his

31:11

long sword. We're guys. We're just guys.

31:13

We're just normal guys. We're still the

31:15

best. Innocent men buffing our armour. Good,

31:18

great. We take a little oil and

31:20

we're buffing. We're

31:22

all supposed to put leather on. Rowan

31:26

would join Gruff

31:29

in like a, oh, I guess we're doing this now.

31:31

He would like prepare some of

31:33

his stuff and oil it and whatnot.

31:35

Yeah. Can I borrow some more of our, Anthony?

31:39

Of course. Everything's

31:41

seen a lot of action in the last few days.

31:43

So I thought, you know, better. Better

31:45

get a ship shape, you know? That's

31:48

true. While people

31:50

figure out what they're doing, can we have some D6

31:52

rolls for our crucible as well? Oh yes. Crucible.

31:55

Watch this. For

31:57

you. Yes. trying

36:00

like what began as a kind of outhouse it has

36:02

like stone foundations and then sort of wooden walls and

36:04

a roof a tiled roof that's

36:08

all been like repaired stone

36:10

foundations have been given like a new

36:12

lease of life and kind of like

36:14

tidied up and refreshed up as well

36:16

and you can see that inside yeah

36:18

this beautiful wooden furniture stone carving stone

36:20

kind of columns and this beautiful altar

36:22

a little perhaps ominous

36:26

to you guys this dark

36:28

figure in a you know broad

36:31

shoulders in a robe skull face

36:33

crown on its head holding like

36:35

a rod with a skull on

36:37

top of it and a goblet

36:39

in the other hand that looks

36:41

like a bowl for blood looks

36:43

very who were these beautiful like

36:45

red drapes behind it right you

36:47

have this beautiful red drapery and

36:49

the colors of the great father

36:51

and things like that yes so

36:53

that's that's Ophelia

36:55

hi oh you need to stop

36:58

jumping out of people is this the wow

37:09

well yes

37:12

he's much more impressive in

37:14

real life he's much bigger bigger bigger

37:17

than that okay more

37:20

blood blood and bones more

37:23

bones where where it is he's

37:26

covered in like it's sort of death

37:28

I know it's your whole thing but it's

37:32

this death is celebrated almost it's

37:34

not morbid it's you

37:37

know sure point as well the altar like the

37:39

statue is not that big in the shrine it

37:41

is you know it's like a like a statue

37:43

it's probably not yeah it's like a bust yeah

37:45

it's like a large but it's on top of

37:47

the altar is it

37:49

weeping blood not yet

37:51

well it's it's if

37:55

it's to your liking I'd say much

37:57

so good I could

37:59

have so many people in here. You can, this place

38:02

is much bigger than I remember it being. It's

38:05

wonderful. So will you

38:07

be joining me this morning? I need to

38:09

do a little bit of shopping before we

38:11

get the get the prayers started. So um.

38:14

Hello. Hello, uh good morning.

38:18

So all this. Yes. Uh what

38:21

what is going to happen? Specifically

38:24

is it scary? So

38:26

scary. It's some sermons

38:29

and prayers. Maybe find

38:31

a way to send Tyria up to the Greatfather

38:33

using this. But what does that

38:36

entail? Do we need to like a ritual like

38:38

we did in the tavern or? Probably,

38:40

probably a ritual sort of. I

38:43

probably need to ask the Greatfather

38:46

how I would consider it. Is he coming? Well

38:48

no I'll probably just try and pray at the altar

38:50

and maybe see if he can give me some guidance.

38:52

Right. Like the cathedral.

38:55

Like the cathedral. Yes. Daisy's out the

38:57

door peeking around but she's not fully

38:59

stepped in. Morning Daisy! We

39:03

should probably maybe do

39:06

that thing for Tyria before we invite

39:08

people to start doing things in the

39:10

house because she doesn't like it when

39:13

we invite people over. Potentially

39:16

but also I kind of want people to see it.

39:18

Well yes but she might get mad. Do

39:23

you want to have a talk with her? Do you want me to?

39:28

Maybe you have mine help if

39:30

you wouldn't mind darling. Okay. Thank

39:33

you. Oh it's just I might have

39:36

to find her in a little bit because it's

39:38

very light right now. It's not really her time.

39:40

Okay. Maybe the afternoon maybe late afternoon I can

39:42

have a word. Okay I'll give you time to

39:44

do some shopping. So you want an

39:46

audience for this ritual? Yes. So

39:48

it'll be us? Yes we'll be here but I

39:53

mean I feel like. Teresa will probably be coming

39:55

since she's now following. And

40:01

committed then. Did

40:04

she? She was very interested. When

40:06

did you... OK. OK. She

40:08

came here and then we had a lovely discussion. She

40:13

made her interests very well known. It was wonderful. OK.

40:16

Who else would you like here? I mean, we could help. We

40:19

got... I've got Vrax coming, Mr

40:21

Vrax. Mr Arsal. Yes. Yes,

40:24

I... He might not come. He seemed

40:26

a bit confused about the

40:28

whole thing. Fair enough. I

40:30

just thought he'd be a good defender of the

40:32

faith if we were to go off for adventuring.

40:34

You were your first ballad in. Yeah. Wow.

40:37

She really power-gamed this one. Sure.

40:40

But also, he has connections with... What

40:43

was it? What

40:46

was the dragon province? Udeskir?

40:48

Udeskir. So

40:51

he might be able to put in a good word for

40:53

the House of Blood at Udeskir. And I think our

40:55

common understandings align there in that province.

40:57

OK. Would you like other

41:00

people? I

41:02

don't know what... How can we help you, I

41:05

suppose? I guess we

41:07

can invite people round, I suppose. Get the

41:09

word out. OK.

41:11

We've only got seating for ten,

41:13

though. So people have to

41:15

stand. It might be really popular. Is

41:17

there a chance this could go wrong?

41:21

The only thing that could probably go wrong is

41:24

that nothing happens and that would be terribly embarrassing.

41:26

Full of shame! And

41:28

great-father would hate me! OK.

41:31

But Tyria won't be enraged, won't be... Yes,

41:35

we'll put in... Oh, we can keep her

41:37

calm. If we can keep her calm. OK.

41:39

We're inviting people, citizens,

41:41

to a shrine where there

41:43

is a ghost that's angry.

41:45

Yes. I don't

41:48

think people are going to want to come

41:50

here until we've sorted that part out. So

41:52

I think maybe what we should do is

41:54

sort that part first and

41:56

then the next one. Think of it as

41:58

a test drive. Next one

42:00

you can invite people over. And then,

42:02

well the next, anything that you

42:04

do, and then there

42:06

won't be any embarrassment and also

42:09

Tyria won't kill anybody including us.

42:12

But then how will people see how powerful and wonderful

42:14

I am when it comes to sending ghosts to the

42:16

grave, Father? Oh, you want

42:19

to make depression? Did come back from

42:21

the dead. That is true,

42:23

I am. That's left a... I think witnessing

42:25

it is probably a

42:27

bit more... Sure. We

42:29

could do it later. We could do

42:31

it, yeah, like Daisy suggested. Just walk

42:33

us one out now. Yeah, we'll just do it now,

42:36

I suppose. I feel like just

42:38

maybe talk to the terrifying... As

42:40

Daisy is kind of perched on the

42:42

edge of it, Daisy, you're somewhat startled

42:45

as Percival, obviously walking very quietly as

42:47

he does, brushes past

42:49

you, Ah! Oh, sorry.

42:51

enters the shrine, bows

42:54

to Sister Ophelia always, and

42:56

then we'll point at Gruffoth and

43:00

points to back into the inn. Oh,

43:03

oh, bloody hell! I've got

43:05

an appointment, I'll be back. Okay, see you

43:07

in a minute. I'll come with you, Graff! I

43:10

just got really spooked, I'm on edge! Yeah,

43:14

Percival bows as

43:16

you make your way back out. Percival

43:18

remaining, where is. As you make your

43:21

way back into the inn, you do see

43:23

sort of lurking on the outside, sort of

43:25

looking into the tavern, like sort

43:27

of trying to see if anybody's in there or awake. You

43:30

would see several figures, in

43:32

fact. The first one

43:34

you easily recognize as it being the

43:37

Armelier Marthane of

43:40

Dante's armory, accompanied by

43:42

his mistress, Ilana V. Dante, as

43:45

well as what appeared to be several

43:47

other sort of hangers on and servants,

43:51

one of which is carrying like a parasol because it's

43:53

quite a sunny day, and it's carrying

43:56

like a parasol over Mistress Ilana. And

43:58

then the other one seems to have has

44:01

several bags and is carrying things

44:03

for her. And she's just sort

44:05

of impassively, probably has a long-stemmed

44:08

smoking-cigarella thing, kind

44:11

of just waiting as

44:13

they're waiting patiently outside and Marthane is

44:15

sort of looking, not sure whether he

44:17

can come in or what have you,

44:20

as they are waiting outside for you. Oh,

44:23

hello as I come

44:25

around the side. Oh, Mr. Gruffith. Sorry,

44:29

probably best not to go winside. We've

44:31

got a bit of a ghost problem. I

44:34

had been informed that that may be the

44:36

case. Mistress Ilana

44:38

Vittante, a pleasure to

44:40

see you again. Night errant,

44:42

Gruff. The pleasure

44:44

is all mine, mistress. You're looking ravishing

44:47

today. You are

44:49

learning the ways of how to act in front

44:51

of carvings, I see, very good. Thank you, I

44:53

am feeling very well. How did you find the

44:55

armour? Oh, it

44:58

was magnificent, wonderful,

45:00

perfect. As should be

45:02

expected. It absolutely

45:04

masterwork, it is the right name

45:07

for it. It was a masterwork.

45:10

Yes, I know. But

45:12

you found it functional, you could move freely

45:14

in it. It was accompanied you, did you

45:16

find it was useful in the battles? The

45:19

hide, how was the hide? Protective? It was

45:22

absolutely, that young

45:24

lad, that had a... I

45:27

was very impressed. If it wasn't for that armour,

45:29

I think he might have actually knocked me down.

45:32

Truly, you found it that useful.

45:35

Matej, make a note, the hide is very

45:37

useful. Of course, mistress, absolutely, of course, it's

45:39

very good. Well,

45:41

I'm afraid that we must

45:43

requisition it back from you. You did

45:45

such a great performance in the tournament

45:47

that I had a buyer who wished

45:49

to buy it almost immediately. Oh!

45:53

However... This is fine. She

45:55

looks at the thing, she hands it to the servant,

45:57

who's like, oh, yes, mistress. It

45:59

takes it, holds it. in place,

46:02

she turns around and actually walks over to you and

46:04

is like, I know that you are quite keen

46:06

on this armor, but I am a

46:09

business woman and I must make sure that my products

46:11

are available. However, and

46:13

she will take the Poldron off, she

46:15

disconnects the things, this is

46:18

not part of the armor. And I would like you to

46:20

keep it. Is that the one with the Chinese

46:23

lion? Yeah. And keeps the Baldrick, she takes

46:25

off the Baldrick for you and takes all

46:27

that and like, this is

46:29

for you to keep. Oh. Are

46:32

you sure, Mistress? Yes, because I hope that

46:34

when you are wealthy enough, you

46:36

will come by and commission a new set

46:38

of armor to compliment it. Oh, you would

46:40

be the very first. I

46:43

couldn't see anyone else armoring me. Thank

46:47

you, Mistress. That's

46:49

the nicest thing. That's

46:51

a great honor. Please. And

46:54

as always, if anybody asks, you will of course tell

46:56

them who has made it from you. And if you

46:58

encounter any of my brothers and sisters

47:00

of the Dante name, you will make sure

47:02

that they know that I am the one

47:04

who will be armoring you in your future

47:06

career. I will sing your

47:08

praises through from the East Coast

47:11

to the West Coast from the North to South. Music

47:14

to my ears, Mouthein, music to my ears. I

47:16

like this one. We must make

47:18

sure that we have always a space

47:20

for Knight Errant Graffoth in the shop. Of

47:23

course, Mistress, of course, it would be my very

47:25

pleasure. Would you

47:27

mind, sir, if I take the armor from you

47:29

now? Have you taken it off of me?

47:31

I imagine, yeah, because it's one of those things. He's kind of

47:34

brought to the side. So I'll just quickly go in, grab it,

47:36

and bring it back out. Okay. So yeah,

47:38

he takes it all, he wraps it all

47:40

up neatly, places it in a large leather

47:42

knapsack, like the various pieces of it, carries

47:44

what of it. He can't fit into the

47:47

knapsack. Things like the van braces and stuff

47:49

will get taken apart. He does meticulously check

47:51

over all of it and just like, oh,

47:53

thank you very much for oiling it and

47:55

taking care of it. That saves me a

47:57

job for later. Very good, excellent. Ah,

48:00

well, thank you so much. And

48:03

again, Ilana Vidante will

48:05

just say, and of course, and then she

48:07

puts the strap back over you herself actually,

48:09

and sort of like attaches the bauldric. So

48:11

now it's just like a leather bauldric, so

48:13

like the strap with the pauldron, but over

48:15

your normal furs. Kind

48:17

of very wharf-like with that large bauldric thing.

48:20

I know you'd appreciate that. Not

48:23

enough to count as armor, but it

48:25

is a lovely decorative piece. And again, would easily

48:27

fit back onto your piece of armor if you

48:29

wanted it. So, before

48:32

I go, is that

48:35

delightful lady Formosius available? Oh yeah, I

48:37

thought you might ask. Sister

48:39

of Helio of the House of Blood is over in, Ashley,

48:42

shall I show you? Oh, we have

48:44

some time, yes. What about

48:46

this ghost problem? Is there anything I need to worry

48:48

about? Oh, it should be okay

48:51

in the shrine. All right, very good, yes, okay,

48:53

very good. I won't take long, Mathein.

48:55

You can stay here, keep these two

48:57

out of trouble. Oh, M'lady,

49:00

you're a parasol. No, no, it's fine. Gruff

49:02

will take the parasol. You see that

49:04

the guy is almost like, no, I don't want

49:06

to give up. He's like, yes, yes, hand it

49:09

over to Darrin Gruffworth. He's like,

49:11

parasol. He's like looking

49:13

like, what am I? No

49:16

one. No, parasol. She'll

49:19

turn around and be like, Peter, give him the

49:21

parasol. Very good. Also, Peter,

49:23

the parasol. The parasol boy. And

49:26

yeah, you have to go through the inn and the outside. There

49:31

is a moment when Ilana steps into

49:33

the inn as you begin making your

49:35

way. Just one

49:37

of the upstairs doors slams

49:40

and there's like a rumble. And you

49:42

see Ilana kind of like stops for

49:44

a minute and there's a

49:47

brief moment where like, oh, was that the

49:49

wind? And she kind of looks and she's

49:51

like, nope. And she like puts a

49:53

stiff upper lip on it and like continues like, I'm

49:55

not going to be phased. I'm not going to be

49:57

phased. It's okay, Darrin, we're just passing through really quickly.

50:00

but we aren't gonna talk to you later. Okay,

50:02

it's fine. You get through. She

50:04

accompanies you through the garden again, sort of like,

50:07

oh, this is a bit, oh. She's

50:09

like, you stay here all

50:11

the time? So work

50:14

in progress. Oh, very well. Well,

50:16

you are certainly very brave. And

50:18

then you lead it through and enter in the shrine.

50:20

When Ilana comes back in the shrine, is Ophelia and

50:22

the rest of you doing anything? Is there anything happening?

50:24

I guess I'm just pointing out, like, these are the

50:26

drapes. Look at how beautiful the drapes are. It's

50:29

a very deep red, you've managed to find. I'm seeing,

50:31

I'm trying all the pews out. Oh,

50:33

how are they? Are they comfortable? It's a good view from

50:35

back here. Yeah? I like this view. What would

50:37

you say is the best seat? I don't know, my knees are

50:39

scraping all the pews, so maybe the front. The front

50:41

one? Yes. I would reserve that

50:43

then for special guests. Oh. It's

50:46

really, it's lovely it's got a cushion, so it's like a

50:49

pew, but it's got like a velvet plush cushion built into

50:51

it. So it feels quite

50:53

soft to sit on. Very nice. And the

50:55

masonry work on the bust is, Oh yes,

50:57

well. It's really deep. It's wonderful that you

50:59

know your masons around here are very, very

51:02

talented. So you said this, he's normally larger,

51:04

obviously, but how accurate would you

51:06

say this is to the real? I'm

51:09

actually really impressed. Really? They

51:11

managed to capture his amazing cheekbones, the way that

51:14

the skull comes down into the jaw and the

51:16

upper man. Oh, you're right, yes. It's

51:18

quite wonderful actually. Probably the point

51:20

where as a feeding's like leaning into the statue,

51:22

yeah, Gruff, Daisy, and. I give a concern look

51:25

to Rowan. Oh. Knock,

51:27

knock. Oh,

51:29

knock, knock. Elana,

51:33

the dancer. Those sister

51:35

Ophelia, my dear, it's a pleasure. I

51:37

was stopping by to claim back my

51:39

armor from Knight Aaron Graffoth, and I

51:41

thought, well, I should at least stop

51:43

in and say thank you very much

51:45

for a wonderful evening and our delightful

51:47

conversation. Oh, thank you very much. You

51:49

are quite the skilled dancer as well. It's

51:52

always a pleasure. And as are you, and

51:54

you're quite the skilled armorsmith. Yes, I

51:56

am, yes. It is very true. It

51:58

is something of a. I'm very

52:00

pleased with my work. It seems that Griffith, Knight

52:02

Aaron Griffith, enjoyed the piece that I made for

52:05

them. Perhaps I can have something,

52:07

if you have the coin, I can make something

52:09

for you in the future. I would be flattered.

52:11

Something to accentuate such ravenous and

52:13

exotic beauty, of course. Oh,

52:16

you're flattered me, you're flattered me. Ah,

52:18

that is the way, that is the way. You

52:20

are in cauldron. If you are not being flattered

52:22

and complimented, then, well, you've done something wrong, I

52:24

would say. Are you free

52:26

this evening? I think that

52:29

I should be free for a drink or

52:31

a bite to eat, perhaps. I think we

52:33

should continue our rather marvellous conversation over dinner,

52:35

don't you think? Oh, well,

52:37

where would you recommend for this? Hmm,

52:40

the Crumpy Hong is quite nice. Yes. I

52:42

mean, is there any way you can fancy?

52:45

I mean, well, if it is not home-cooked

52:47

food, there are not many other places. Cool.

52:49

The other place would sound wonderful. Well...

52:53

Flattered. Sorry.

52:56

It's stew and a clever toad. Clever

52:59

toad? I don't think I've ever heard of it. You

53:01

don't need to worry about the clever toad. Oh, it's

53:03

wonderful. Hello. Yes, hello. I

53:06

could set you up with a table and

53:08

everything. And this clever toad? Whereabouts

53:11

in Ashland Rest is it? By the port.

53:14

Oh, by the river? Yes. Oh,

53:16

interesting. I don't often go into

53:18

the river. They're so lovely there.

53:20

There's so many cobolds. Cobolds?

53:24

Yeah. I see. Really big one.

53:26

Who's my best friend? That

53:29

sounds very nice. Perhaps another

53:31

time, perhaps. They

53:33

might be busy tonight anyway. Ah, yes, of

53:35

course. It sounds like they may very much.

53:37

Yes. Definitely will add it to the

53:39

next list. Ophelia

53:42

Wiggles. Yes, yes, yes. Another

53:44

one. This pew is a

53:46

good view, Ophelia. This is... Yes, this is

53:48

a shrine that you've had built? About your

53:50

faith that you were telling me about? Yes,

53:52

this is, yes. This is the grave father

53:55

and I point to the bust at the

53:57

front. Oh, she's a little

53:59

sort of taken back. and quite the

54:01

prominent skull. Yes, yes. Isn't

54:03

he marvelous? Yes, yes. I suppose I'm afraid

54:06

I know very little you all. I have

54:08

to tell me more. Oh, I will. Yes,

54:10

a very interesting

54:12

ambiance, shall we say.

54:17

Are those skulls up on the... Yes,

54:19

they are, yes. Yes, very good. Well,

54:22

I will see you perhaps then for dinner. Yes, that would

54:25

be lovely. Yes, very good. A good day to

54:27

you all. Bye. as

54:31

well. Yeah, I'll come with you. As

54:33

she leaves or as they leave, I'm like looking at

54:35

Ophelia. She's

54:38

interesting. I like her. Pretty interesting.

54:40

Yeah, she seems really nice. I

54:43

think something's going on here, guys. What

54:46

do you mean? We

54:48

go dinner, maybe two dinners. Maybe,

54:51

I like her conversation and

54:54

she's a wonderful artisanal. But

54:56

she said like another date after that. Oh, I

54:59

was like two dinners. Two dinners

55:01

and seven breakfast in one night.

55:03

Well, I, well, no, my thought

55:05

was like, there's yum yum dinner

55:07

and then there's... That's

55:11

what I thought you were hinting at. I

55:13

do like the idea that Gruff, when you

55:15

get them out to outside, Parasol Peter, as

55:17

I'm now calling him, is just like, just

55:19

looking despondent, like, what is my

55:21

life? What do I do now? That was

55:24

my job. He's trying to get the long

55:26

cigarette off the other guy. No, that's my

55:28

job. She gave it to

55:30

me. I'm interested. He's like

55:32

putting a new one in there and keeping

55:34

it lit. Cigarette craze. I'm

55:36

smokey-timing. Smokey-timing.

55:40

A Gruff will hand. Cigarette Colin.

55:42

Colin. Cigarette. I

55:45

think while we're walking back as well,

55:47

I think Gruff will also kind of

55:49

up-talk Ophelia. Oh, okay. Yeah,

55:51

yeah. We might Gruff. Give

55:53

me a insight roll Gruff. Oh, God.

55:59

What is that? Eight

56:03

plus four. Plus

56:06

four, so 12. Yeah,

56:08

like you, in the kind of conversation, you're kind

56:10

of like up talking a feeling a little bit

56:12

and you can tell that Ilana is definitely like,

56:14

she's like, oh yeah, she's very beautiful, blah, blah,

56:16

blah, kind of interesting, very, homeland

56:19

sounds very interesting. You probably get

56:21

the impression Gruff would get the

56:23

impression. This Ilana's not

56:25

interested in anything long term or

56:27

serious. She's like, she's enjoying the

56:29

game of flirting and the whining

56:31

and the dining. There's probably

56:33

not much, this is not

56:36

a serious thing, but it definitely

56:38

enjoys being pursued. I think

56:40

Gruff doesn't, that doesn't really bother him.

56:42

He's still gonna wingman it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

56:44

But you would probably pick up on that,

56:46

they're like, oh, you don't think that this

56:49

is like super serious. Back in the shrine,

56:51

Ophelia Vedante has a wonderful ring to it.

56:53

Oh, yeah. You're

56:57

marrying into money, there's some money there. And

56:59

then he can get Gruff all the armor that he

57:01

wants. Yes. The

57:04

tavern into the family home. No,

57:07

it'd become an armor ring. The world would. Take

57:10

all her money. Yeah,

57:13

definitely do that in this tavern, that's

57:15

a great idea. Oh, yeah, it's got

57:17

a history. Yeah, no,

57:19

you guys, fresh ghost. You're

57:24

a ghost. You're a ghost. May

57:26

I have your armor card black, please?

57:28

Oh, here you go. Farewell, my dear.

57:31

You're gonna see someone walking around in

57:33

that armor one day. I'm gonna pull

57:35

your head off. Yeah.

57:39

What a shame. What was the, sorry, what was

57:41

the name for the, the, a bit? It's just

57:43

a pauldron, it's just, yeah, like I didn't really

57:46

give it a name. No, no, no, you called

57:48

the actual like. Baldrick. The ball, Baldrick. No,

57:50

a Baldrick is the leather thing that holds

57:53

it together. So it's like the, it's the

57:55

thing that Wolf wears. It's

57:57

that kind of like thing that goes across your body and like

57:59

holds pieces of armor. place so it's a

58:01

pauldron attached to a baldric. Cool

58:03

thank you. Yeah

58:07

nice. That's the ornate lion.

58:11

Is that metal? That thing? That bit was the

58:13

one of the few pieces of metal yeah because

58:15

like as a druid like Gruff can't wear full

58:17

armor of metal but can have like metal ornamentation

58:19

so it was like a sculpted

58:21

piece of like steel and leather and

58:23

probably got like gemstones in the eyes

58:25

like two small gemstones. What color are

58:28

Gruff's eyes? Blue.

58:30

So they'd be like little tiny like probably not

58:32

sapphires they're probably more like some sort of cheaper

58:35

gemstone but like just in set into it. Nice

58:38

okay and that's yours now. Just put me on

58:40

the fucking spot there I don't know. Listen now sometimes you

58:42

bet that's it now it's canon now. I

58:44

just look at the artwork and I'm like so

58:49

with all that out of the way

58:51

anything anybody would like to do or

58:53

anything people want to follow up on.

58:55

So more than just role play. This

58:57

ritual of yours

59:00

you said you need to pick up some things. Yes I need

59:02

to get some candles. Okay. We

59:05

might still have some from the also might have some

59:07

insects. Well that's fine.

59:10

Some. Sorry what's the last thing? We

59:12

might have we might already have the other things from the last

59:14

ritual. Oh no you've got plenty of it. What

59:17

about um like

59:19

snacks or something like maybe a

59:22

bowl of carrots. A bowl

59:24

of carrots? Would you like a bowl

59:26

of carrots? You could get a

59:28

bowl of carrots. Pass that around the pews. Yeah

59:30

sure. A donation. Take donations. Do

59:34

you normally do that in Arceus? Take

59:37

donations? I guess not no but

59:39

now. They would. Different kind of

59:41

donation in the house of blood. It would

59:44

be a little little bit of the red

59:46

stuff. I remember did the church of the

59:48

scion take donations? Yeah. They did. Yeah. And

59:51

maybe that's just how the saints and scions take donations.

59:53

I mean I don't want

59:55

to maybe that's how the Umarin branch does

59:58

it. One of

1:00:00

the saints in science do it, I suppose. It's not how the great

1:00:02

father does it. I just think it'd be nice to get money. But-

1:00:06

Money buys things. Money do buy things. And

1:00:08

the great father does- Great father like things. It's

1:00:10

probably not a big part of the teachings, but

1:00:12

the great father would probably- You don't feel like

1:00:15

he'd be opposed to it. Yeah, no, he'd probably

1:00:17

be a bit of like, yeah, like having ostentatious

1:00:19

tunes and things like that. Like, you know, there's

1:00:21

definitely- Make this shrine better for me. Give

1:00:24

me your money. Give me your money. I mean, I

1:00:26

will say from the sounds of it, there

1:00:29

are actually already still some similarities

1:00:32

between your sermon and

1:00:34

the sermons I'm used to at

1:00:36

the saints in science. Oh, really?

1:00:38

Which is, yes, so

1:00:41

I would have expected to give a donation if we

1:00:43

asked for a donation. Oh, that's good. So

1:00:46

two bowls, one for carrots, one for donations.

1:00:48

Carrot bowl, go bowl. And then go bowl.

1:00:51

Just don't eat the other one. No.

1:00:54

Well. Well. But, okay.

1:00:57

Is there anything you need us to do?

1:00:59

Or are you just going to leave this

1:01:01

entire Tyria transference

1:01:03

thing? Just getting word out,

1:01:05

I suppose, that there's going to be a

1:01:07

sermon later today. But other than that, I

1:01:09

just, apart from the shopping and the Tyria

1:01:11

stuff. No,

1:01:14

I guess not. But provided all

1:01:16

goes well, which I'm sure it will. Oh, thank you.

1:01:19

Tyria will be away

1:01:21

from the tavern. Off to the graveyard as she goes,

1:01:23

yes. Okay. Okay.

1:01:27

Okay. Great. As

1:01:29

long as you're all happy to proceed. Yeah.

1:01:33

Yes. Yeah. Tyria made a decision, right?

1:01:36

Well, I certainly feel more comfortable

1:01:38

having spoken to Tyria, and I

1:01:40

think Tyria herself has

1:01:43

given me a lot to think about. Of

1:01:46

course. I think she's given us all a

1:01:48

lot to think about. Yeah.

1:01:54

With that, we

1:01:56

can jump a bit ahead, because I

1:01:58

think that the things that, a few days ago,

1:02:00

needs to buy they are just spend some money

1:02:03

get some money get some things put them in

1:02:05

the house it's very easy to buy candles and

1:02:07

incense there are many stores those are not actual

1:02:09

no very easy to buy that stuff how much

1:02:11

is it for the 25 gold

1:02:13

worth yeah so just mark off 25 gold

1:02:16

either of your own personal or it's a

1:02:18

lot of the incense is quite expensive it's

1:02:20

like ritual incense and candles with like carvings

1:02:22

in there does Ophelia have enough personal money

1:02:25

to cover that or do

1:02:29

you need to go into the group stuff okay so

1:02:31

you can buy that stuff what about the rest of

1:02:33

you while Ophelia is picking up these bits and pieces

1:02:36

I think we we made some plans

1:02:38

off screen I suppose of what we do

1:02:41

for the tavern as well I think

1:02:44

if there's a way for us to

1:02:46

make preparations for provided Tyria

1:02:48

yeah you

1:02:52

could easily set it up so that like hey

1:02:54

we want to get a quote we

1:02:58

don't want the building work just we'll tell you

1:03:00

when to start because we've got yeah we got

1:03:02

we got a problem and then when that's it's

1:03:04

racing so we'd like you to get to work

1:03:06

whole ass ghost so because

1:03:08

you did get some prices for this before

1:03:10

however since then you guys

1:03:12

have been heroes you

1:03:14

do get discounts and stuff on certain things okay

1:03:17

I mean this is one of

1:03:26

them so now to the

1:03:28

first thing you got to do is repair

1:03:30

the building so to do anything to do

1:03:32

upgrades to have like new furnishings put in

1:03:35

all of that stuff you have to repair

1:03:37

the damage that is currently there to

1:03:39

do that you need to fix the roof which

1:03:41

will take seven days and will now

1:03:43

cost you 200 gold of materials

1:03:46

and 200 gold of labor that's

1:03:48

a 200 gold discount from

1:03:51

what you were quoted before nice so

1:03:54

it's 400 gold for labor and materials

1:03:56

to repair the roof in seven days

1:03:59

you then have the windows. There are

1:04:01

11 broken windows and it will cost

1:04:03

now 15 gold per

1:04:06

window which is adjusted from 20

1:04:08

gold per window which it was previously. So

1:04:12

in total that would be 565 gold to repair the inn. You

1:04:18

then have the garden. The garden is

1:04:20

in a terrible state, it's overgrown and

1:04:22

you can't do anything with the garden

1:04:24

until it's currently dealt with. That

1:04:26

will cost you 150 gold to get that

1:04:29

sorted by other people. You could try and

1:04:31

do it yourself but it will take time

1:04:34

and checks and things like that. Once

1:04:37

the garden is clear you'll have a couple of

1:04:39

options of what you want to do with it.

1:04:41

It basically counts as a slot in your bastion,

1:04:43

your stronghold, and you can

1:04:46

do stuff with that. You could like grow vegetables

1:04:48

and then have like food that you can take

1:04:50

with you. You could grow herbs to try and

1:04:52

use in alchemy. You could have like a what

1:04:54

I would call a juridic locus which would be

1:04:57

a sort of similar to a shrine but for

1:04:59

druids to kind of harness nature magic. It

1:05:02

might also benefit Rowan because a lot of Rowan's magic

1:05:04

is connected to the earth and land. That

1:05:06

could also be a thing that like it might benefit Gruff

1:05:08

and Rowan right? The

1:05:11

building itself. There's no live shrines in this

1:05:13

place. Maybe. Once

1:05:15

the repairs on the inn are done you

1:05:18

then, because we did talk about you guys wanting

1:05:20

to basically get it to standard furnishings where you

1:05:22

can live in it and it functions. Gruff windows

1:05:24

and garden that's the entire repair. That's just to

1:05:26

repair it. So what was the total cost sorry

1:05:29

of the 400? 565 for the inn and

1:05:34

then 150 gold for the garden. Okay

1:05:37

uh sure. So 715 for everything. Yeah 715

1:05:39

for everything. To

1:05:43

fix it. No furnishings, no special stuff just

1:05:46

to get it repaired and watertight and stable.

1:05:48

That will also include like little things like

1:05:50

they'll go around and fix all the floorboards

1:05:52

that are rotten and stuff like that. General

1:05:55

fixes. Yeah that's just an empty building. Empty

1:05:57

building. Then to

1:05:59

get it fitted with... with standard furnishings

1:06:01

and utilities for the bedrooms, the bar

1:06:03

and the kitchen will cost you 600

1:06:05

gold. So

1:06:08

that will outfit every room with

1:06:11

bed, trunk, like

1:06:13

desk that will fit. You can

1:06:15

also choose to turn the attic room into

1:06:18

two smaller rooms, or

1:06:20

you can fix up the stairs and the cellar and

1:06:22

add ventilation so that can be used as a bedroom.

1:06:25

So this way you've got three normal bedrooms

1:06:27

in the inn currently. Then the

1:06:29

attic room is big enough that you could turn into

1:06:31

two, so you would have five single person rooms. That'd

1:06:33

be one for each of you then. Okay, okay. So

1:06:36

that would be 600 to do all of that. You

1:06:39

would also get a kitchen, like a fully equipped kitchen,

1:06:41

which will give you a plus two bonus to any

1:06:43

cooking checks that you make there. And

1:06:45

then the bar could also be run as

1:06:47

a functional bar, a tavern bar. You

1:06:50

doesn't cover the cost of things like stock

1:06:52

though, or like, you know, people to run

1:06:55

it for you. It's ad hoc. Yeah, basically.

1:06:57

Yes. But you

1:06:59

could, you would have like, all the cakes would be

1:07:01

repaired. You'd have like, you'd also need staff, right?

1:07:04

You'd have to have like staff and stock

1:07:06

and things like that. But the idea being

1:07:08

that you could use the inn to generate

1:07:10

passive income, like a small amount of gold

1:07:12

every 12 days. I know what you're thinking.

1:07:14

That's a concern. No.

1:07:17

Staff. No. I guess

1:07:19

staff. No. Okay. And

1:07:21

they work throughout the day. Free

1:07:24

labor, that's how Aussies does it, baby. A

1:07:27

touch of Aussies. Well, I imagine that in

1:07:29

Aussies, like Obama would still

1:07:31

be human, or like an intelligent addict. Whereas

1:07:33

like, the people that go and get like

1:07:35

the cakes up from the cellar, or like

1:07:37

do all the manual labor, they use

1:07:40

skeletons, 100%, or like race or whatever. They

1:07:42

would 100% do that. Any

1:07:44

manual labor. Standing above the sink, permanently doing the motions

1:07:47

of washing a dish, you just have to put the

1:07:49

dish and the cloth in their hand. They'd get the

1:07:51

dish. Oh, okay. You'd just,

1:07:53

you'd program the skeleton of like,

1:07:55

dirty dishes, put them in the sink,

1:07:57

wash them, put the clean plates there. Skeleton does it. Easy.

1:08:00

There you go. Serving drinks! Skeletons could serve

1:08:02

drinks! We won't even need to change the

1:08:04

name. Your enticing devil would fit just fine

1:08:06

for that kind of vibe. The Dance Macabre.

1:08:08

No! DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN

1:08:10

DUN DUN DUN! Definitely

1:08:12

won't have the same problems as the entire series.

1:08:15

I mean, yeah, I feel like we need to give this place

1:08:17

a new identity. Nah, the people that

1:08:19

cared about it, they're fine. But yeah, just to... So

1:08:21

we don't get off track, so yeah. That's... So the

1:08:24

repairs, and then 600 gold to

1:08:26

furnish the whole place. Not as bad as I thought it

1:08:28

was gonna be over here. That is just to get it

1:08:30

to a basic level. Yeah, that's what we need to say.

1:08:32

And what that will also mean is, while you guys have

1:08:34

been resting here recently, it hasn't been too much of an

1:08:36

issue because you haven't had combat for a while. But

1:08:38

when you rest at the inn, it will be treated

1:08:40

as a normal rest. You'll get all your normal stuff

1:08:43

back. Right now, you're only getting about half your hit

1:08:45

points back when you rest here. Yes. Because

1:08:47

it's not very comfortable. And we're

1:08:49

being rained on. Yeah. So...

1:08:52

OK, so how long would it take, sorry, total

1:08:54

for... For every... So seven days for the roof.

1:08:56

Yeah. How long for, like... I'd

1:08:58

say, like, seven days for the whole thing. If you paid for

1:09:00

it altogether, it would take about seven days to have all the

1:09:02

beds and furniture made and delivered and... But in...

1:09:05

You know. So 1,315... So

1:09:09

do everything. Furnished and repaired. Furnished and repaired

1:09:11

and seven days... Including the garden. Including the

1:09:13

garden. That's pretty good. And then we can

1:09:15

start to change... How much platinum do we

1:09:17

have? What's our...? We were given 5,000 gold

1:09:19

via the Auric Bank from Duke Ignorius. You have

1:09:21

spent some of that... 500 went on the shrine.

1:09:23

Yeah. 500 of it went on the shrine. Oh,

1:09:25

some of it went on the armour for... Gruff's

1:09:28

items that you got as well. But

1:09:30

I think we should still have... How much

1:09:32

did we spend on the shrine? 500. Yep.

1:09:35

And then how much did I spend on the armour? Didn't

1:09:38

write it down, so I spent nothing. That

1:09:40

is not true. I definitely gave you

1:09:42

prices. It was for the shield and for the

1:09:44

star. Yes. Yeah. I believe it was 300 and

1:09:46

200. Yeah.

1:09:49

I'm not sure we could give that. I will need to go

1:09:51

through my notes. Yeah. I mean, we do definitely have enough to

1:09:53

do this. We definitely

1:09:56

do. We can commission and... We got

1:09:58

4,000 gold. Sorry. $4,000

1:10:00

with yeah great. We got we need 1600 so yeah, so

1:10:02

I think definitely like 1650 So

1:10:07

I think graphs was slightly more expensive

1:10:09

than that but yeah might be

1:10:12

We can start to commit some people to start doing that my

1:10:14

with the 300 around the carpenters Yeah

1:10:17

under the proviso of don't

1:10:19

stop just yet Maybe yeah, like do you

1:10:21

guys have any so as part of this

1:10:24

like if you guys have any specific small

1:10:26

cosmetic requests They can adapt

1:10:28

those in things like your beds

1:10:30

and desks or like any small pieces of furniture

1:10:33

You know do you want like a little stage in the

1:10:35

main in like in the It

1:10:40

would be building where the stairs are currently

1:10:42

can it be a pit because if it's

1:10:44

any taller So

1:10:47

there is a cellar But there's enough like ground

1:10:49

like they could probably have a little sunk in

1:10:51

like little bit if you wanted to yeah Just

1:10:54

raise up the rest of the tavern But well

1:10:56

because it's a balcony to haven't because it's um

1:10:58

the stage would go where the stairs are you

1:11:00

would like Have done have to worry

1:11:02

about headroom because that's all open for like the balcony

1:11:05

so we yeah The main chamber is actually kind of

1:11:07

like a very big open Yeah

1:11:11

But yeah, if there's anything any little details like

1:11:14

that yeah, I guess I'm not too bad. No

1:11:19

You want a little art station what in a room or yeah

1:11:22

That's the point it was also do you want

1:11:24

the attic room to be turned into two bedrooms?

1:11:26

Do you want to convert the cellar feel like

1:11:29

the cellar could be first if we start the

1:11:31

pub or anything? We can put stock there. Yeah,

1:11:33

yeah I mean it's also like you could like

1:11:35

if you wanted to say like an alchemy lab

1:11:37

like you could make the cellar is that? Into

1:11:39

an stuff. Yeah, I feel like the cellars more

1:11:41

of it other things that takes probably okay, so

1:11:43

converted attic room student housing Yeah,

1:11:46

is there like a solid? Yeah,

1:11:48

keep in mind that there is there is an outhouse,

1:11:50

but there's no bath you would have to go to

1:11:52

the public baths There's no private bath. Okay currently Is

1:11:59

a workshop for

1:12:01

tinkering, doing

1:12:04

that sort of thing. Well, like creating...

1:12:07

All of our, like, armour? Cartography, masonry

1:12:09

tools, that sort of thing. An outside

1:12:11

space where we can work

1:12:13

on projects. Yeah,

1:12:16

so you have to be specific, because it

1:12:18

would basically, if you want to leatherwork it,

1:12:20

like a crafting station, would be different to

1:12:23

say, like, a cartography room or something like

1:12:25

that. That stuff, if you tell

1:12:27

me what you are thinking about, I will go

1:12:29

away and come up with a price and an

1:12:31

effect that it will do. Then we'll

1:12:34

look at that once the repairs are all done. So,

1:12:36

like, think of this as, like, level one. Get it

1:12:39

to tier one, and then you can go from there.

1:12:42

But definitely have a think about stuff like that,

1:12:44

because I'm kind of making these rules up myself.

1:12:47

So, anything goes. Like, we're not beholden to,

1:12:49

like, what somebody else has done before. If

1:12:51

you guys are like, I want a

1:12:54

crystal ballroom! I'll be like, cool, let's figure out what

1:12:56

that is and how it's gonna work, you know what

1:12:58

I mean? I think we were throwing out dumb ideas

1:13:00

as we were talking about it the other day. But

1:13:03

the basic thing is just getting it into a

1:13:05

standard where we can live in it

1:13:07

comfortably for now. And not be rained on. And not

1:13:09

be rained on. A bed for Percy.

1:13:11

He's got the cellar. He wants a

1:13:13

little comfy bed. He wants a bed, does he? Yeah,

1:13:15

I get one. There's not enough bedrooms. So,

1:13:18

he can't get a bed. Yeah, so, the

1:13:20

rooms, I'd say the rooms can sleep two

1:13:22

people if they are basically the, like, very

1:13:24

close, like, bunk beds or sharing a bed.

1:13:26

Or in Percy's case, because Ophelia, do you

1:13:28

want a bed or do you want a

1:13:30

coffin? Oh,

1:13:32

coffin! We're like the Sims.

1:13:35

Like, sleep upright like this. Yeah.

1:13:37

Yeah. And then, so, like, so,

1:13:39

Percival could probably have, like, a single small bed

1:13:41

next to the coffin. If you

1:13:43

really want the skeleton to have a bed,

1:13:45

he can have one. He deserves one. Okay.

1:13:48

I was thinking about what we do in the

1:13:50

shadow. But Guillermo's just, like, got covered on the

1:13:52

stairs. Wait. Guillermo. Guillermo.

1:13:57

So, Ophelia's room will have, instead of a bed,

1:13:59

a coffin. The woodworkers guild

1:14:01

are like, sorry, a what? Okay.

1:14:06

That is an obvious thing. And

1:14:09

then a little bed for Percy. You've got

1:14:11

an art station in Daisy's room, a

1:14:13

music stage in the main bar. That

1:14:16

will give you, so things like, I'm not gonna make it,

1:14:18

I'm not gonna add an extra cost. If you perform on

1:14:21

the stage, I'll give you a minor benefit to performance checks

1:14:23

while you're on the stage, or

1:14:25

anybody. Also, you can hire musicians.

1:14:27

You can hire musicians. You

1:14:29

can hire a musician to come and play for you, or

1:14:32

like offer them like a room and board and stuff. You can

1:14:34

host. Yeah. Yeah. So Anthony, do you

1:14:36

wanna do an open mic, then? Oh. It's

1:14:39

like slampoets. So not to get too game-mechanical.

1:14:42

So not to get too game-mechanical on here,

1:14:44

but I'm thinking for like the stage. For

1:14:46

a burn. What you could do is, if

1:14:49

you offered a bar, room

1:14:51

and board, so you'd have to find a

1:14:53

space for them to sleep, if you offer

1:14:55

a bar, room and board, and let them

1:14:58

perform there, they'll increase your earnings for the

1:15:00

tavern, because musicians will generate more income. Also,

1:15:02

you might learn rumors or legends from the

1:15:04

bar. Oh. So

1:15:07

probably what I'll do is I'll make like a

1:15:09

bard table, and I'll roll it to see if

1:15:11

one is in town, and if they come by.

1:15:13

Hell yeah. And then you can basically be like,

1:15:15

oh yeah, yeah, we'll put you up, and then

1:15:17

you can perform, and then you'll pick up maybe

1:15:19

like a thing, or something like that. Yeah, well,

1:15:21

you obsidian us. Obsidian us. Me

1:15:25

and you. Any other little

1:15:27

requests or cosmetic things? Can the

1:15:29

garden have some flowers in it? So

1:15:32

you can have like small points of ours. If you want

1:15:34

it to be a flower garden as a whole thing, that

1:15:36

could be a whole different thing. No, just like a

1:15:38

section. Oh yeah, absolutely. It can have like small amounts

1:15:40

of flowers and stuff. You can have little flower boxes outside

1:15:42

your window if you want. Yeah, I think

1:15:44

Daisy would like to have a little selection,

1:15:46

because that's what she used to sell flowers,

1:15:48

so she would maybe add them

1:15:51

as a little thing, like people

1:15:53

who come in to the bar

1:15:56

could buy a little bouquet of flowers

1:15:58

if they want. Nice. It'll be

1:16:00

a cosmetic thing, but definitely can be do a thing.

1:16:02

Flour box is more flour on the way out. I

1:16:06

think two ideas. One,

1:16:08

Gruff would want a kitchen that he can

1:16:10

like cook in. Yeah, that's part

1:16:13

of it. Yeah, you get that as part

1:16:15

of the basic furnishings. I was actually thinking

1:16:17

of some kind of roost that

1:16:19

he could maybe like, you know,

1:16:21

hatch eggs in and maybe train,

1:16:23

probably not diving ice divers, but like

1:16:25

maybe messenger birds or something like that.

1:16:28

Wild Hearts play eggs in his

1:16:30

universe? No,

1:16:32

he'd go and get some. You were the... I

1:16:35

think something like that would probably be a bit

1:16:37

more of a bigger upgrade, right? Rather than like

1:16:39

a small room thing, but you could definitely look

1:16:41

into something like that. Like if you wanted to

1:16:44

like expand the garden or something like that, you

1:16:46

could add a slot for like raising birds and

1:16:48

then we'll come up with a cool mechanic or

1:16:50

benefit. We get chickens and then we can sell

1:16:53

the eggs. Make

1:16:55

a little farm shop on this thing. Eggs in

1:16:57

this world actually all come from lizards. When

1:16:59

you have eggs for breakfast, they're lizard eggs. What

1:17:02

would you call it for lizards? Like

1:17:04

a terrarium incubator, reptile

1:17:07

room. Reptile room.

1:17:10

There probably would be something like chickens. There

1:17:13

are chickens. Lizard. Yum. Yum,

1:17:15

yum, yum. Very tasty. But

1:17:18

yeah, so like a roost thing would probably be a good thing.

1:17:20

Kitchen you already get. Is there anything like cosmetic that Gruff would

1:17:22

like? Like a small thing? Just keep

1:17:25

it as simple and plain. He doesn't have much.

1:17:28

He throws his furs down. Lion rug. Lion.

1:17:32

What's up, rogue? Dirty. But

1:17:35

wouldn't it be more like a human rug?

1:17:37

Yeah, human rug. Parasol

1:17:39

feet. Totally new guy. Fucking

1:17:42

parasol feet. Ugh. Parasol.

1:17:46

He naked flat on the ground with an apple in his mouth.

1:17:49

Little dumpy in the air. I

1:17:52

mean, that is... That's what you're doing with

1:17:54

a lion rug. What about Xanthiosa

1:17:56

rowing? Any kind of little cosmetic things? Uh,

1:17:58

I think I've got the luxury. The luxury

1:18:01

of this being in Koldra, I think I'm

1:18:03

almost expecting that the Koldra and Carpenters will

1:18:05

make something similar to what I'd want from

1:18:07

Rust End, but I guess I would have

1:18:09

just some golden, uh, like,

1:18:13

drapes, curtains, that sort of

1:18:15

thing. So not

1:18:17

massively different to basically what I'm wearing, but in... Take

1:18:20

your clothes, hang them from the walls. Yeah, yeah.

1:18:23

I throw my clothes at the walls. Okay.

1:18:26

That's how I want my... I'm very concerned about

1:18:28

your laptop right now. It sounds like a jet

1:18:30

engine. It's like going crazy. I

1:18:32

don't know why, it's not even that hot. It's

1:18:36

just like really... It's

1:18:40

about to go. It's going. It's

1:18:42

going. For podcast listeners,

1:18:44

it's vibrating. Roman

1:18:46

wants that feeling when you walk into

1:18:48

his room that you've walked into a

1:18:50

giant's room and everything's novelty-syphonic. Well, he

1:18:53

kind of needs a big bed anyway.

1:18:56

So I would assume that, yeah, Roman

1:18:58

would get big bed. So

1:19:01

I'd say that Rowan's room is probably one way

1:19:03

he can't share it with anybody, because it's like

1:19:05

half of the room is like... It's like... It

1:19:08

will be set up in a way where I've got

1:19:10

like a slither of space and I've decorated in a

1:19:13

way that's like, when someone stays in my room, they

1:19:15

can go here. And it doesn't fit anyone. That's it.

1:19:17

They have to lie like a point next to it.

1:19:19

I never touch that space and always keep it nice

1:19:21

and clean. It's like, someone's going to stay in my

1:19:24

room one day. Well, if you

1:19:26

wanted to, because there's probably enough height, you could have

1:19:28

a bunk bed. Rowan could have the

1:19:30

bottom. I could involve Boulder over. Yeah. We

1:19:33

could bunk. I'm

1:19:35

just ready for you to jump on the top bunk

1:19:37

and immediately collapse the bed into a single bunk. Yeah.

1:19:41

I'm not that, the whole thing is so big that

1:19:43

it hits the ceiling and whoever's on the top bunk

1:19:45

is like this. Yeah. It's

1:19:48

the ceiling. But that's the thing. That's the

1:19:50

beauty thing of Boulder, because he's a cobalt,

1:19:52

he's short but he's wide, so like he

1:19:54

would sit up and probably be okay. But

1:19:58

for anyone else. It has to go

1:20:00

in and out the door sideways. Aww.

1:20:03

I feel like Rowan could just get whatever the

1:20:05

biggest room is, because you are the biggest person.

1:20:08

Yeah, well, the three side rooms, the three rooms

1:20:10

on the balcony are... They're quite big. They're quite

1:20:12

large. We do this by you five

1:20:14

beds, so one for your torso, two legs, two arms.

1:20:17

One for his. So dear. What

1:20:21

were you going to say? My party has no

1:20:23

weak cards, Kyber. I

1:20:25

saw you, I saw you. I just

1:20:27

sort of forgot like a nice little sweater, maybe some

1:20:29

water somewhere, like, you know, a little pond or something

1:20:31

like that. Running water, otherwise you're not sure. Don't say

1:20:33

running water right now. Ponderma garden. Yeah. A little pond

1:20:36

in the garden. That would be... Maybe with a little

1:20:38

water feature. Stop saying water feature, we're so close to

1:20:40

break. Just

1:20:42

some water. No, yeah, go on, see if

1:20:44

you can. It would sound like this. No! I think it

1:20:46

would be like a bookcase and like a little bookbinding station.

1:20:48

Oh, yeah. Because I think she'd want to start writing out...

1:20:50

You're going to make pamphlets. I think she's going to start

1:20:53

writing out like... Propaganda. Stop, like, free

1:20:55

father books and just like hand them out. Well,

1:20:58

you would have a desk, so I think like rather

1:21:00

than a bookbinding station, you would have like a little

1:21:02

work desk, but with like some shelves and stuff that

1:21:04

you can have all your ingredients on it. A little

1:21:06

bookcase in your room. Yep, that'll fit. No problem. Thank

1:21:08

you. Alrighty. Alright. Lovely. Yeah,

1:21:10

you can set all of that up. Basically,

1:21:13

you go and speak to the... You

1:21:15

probably be the carpentry guild. And

1:21:18

they would take a work order. They'd be like, right. We

1:21:21

will hold out, like, you can buy the materials

1:21:23

now, pay for all of this stuff now. We

1:21:25

will start work when you tell us to. And

1:21:28

we'll keep the work order and hold until then.

1:21:30

They're all like lined up in a line with

1:21:32

a load of tools on their belts ready. So

1:21:34

I'm just going to shot. Yeah. No, they will

1:21:36

basically slot you in. They've like, yep, we can

1:21:39

attribute all of the materials. We've got the workers.

1:21:41

But we just need to get a go from

1:21:43

you that the project's ready to begin. And

1:21:45

they'll start gathering stuff up. You probably would pay some

1:21:47

of the money. We will pay for

1:21:49

all of it. Sure. Like, just to get all the materials

1:21:52

and stuff. But if you don't mind, yeah, marking off that

1:21:54

amount of money, what was it? If

1:21:59

you mark that off. She's got the golden...

1:22:01

Yeah, I'm just gonna... That's

1:22:03

right. And yeah, as

1:22:05

soon as you give the word, seven days

1:22:07

from that point, it will all be finished.

1:22:09

Okay, well hopefully we can line that up

1:22:11

with when we set off for the... Quist.

1:22:15

Yeah, as well. We can come back to a

1:22:17

nice furnished, completed, not burned down tavern. That would

1:22:19

be nice. By the time you have finished doing

1:22:21

all of this, Ophelia, while they're doing all of

1:22:23

that, you go and buy the candles and the

1:22:25

incense, you kind of start getting everything ready for

1:22:27

this evening, when your guests are gonna

1:22:29

arrive, and you're gonna conduct this ritual.

1:22:33

When you come back to

1:22:35

the enticing devil, two

1:22:38

figures are waiting. They haven't entered, they're

1:22:40

sort of waiting on the outside. As

1:22:43

you do see, Sister

1:22:45

Benedicta and Sister Malady are

1:22:47

currently waiting outside of the

1:22:49

inn itself. Okay. Malady

1:22:53

looks much better. She was sick. Yeah,

1:22:56

she has recovered, it seems, over

1:22:58

the last few days. She was

1:23:00

at the 20s, she was still looking even worse than

1:23:02

she normally does, but now she is back to still

1:23:05

looking very sickly. She's painfully

1:23:08

thin, her cheeks are very

1:23:10

gaunt, dark eyes, there

1:23:13

is still something afflicting her, a

1:23:16

malady, but she

1:23:18

is better than she seemed. Benedicta

1:23:21

also seems a little bit more put

1:23:23

together, and has sort of gone back

1:23:25

to her posture, very strong, tall, protective,

1:23:27

stood next to her sister. But

1:23:29

there is no ominous hostility as they're

1:23:31

waiting for you. It doesn't look like they're sort

1:23:34

of waiting to ambush you. It

1:23:36

looks like they are just sort of

1:23:38

passing by, and have maybe come to

1:23:40

speak to you about something. And

1:23:43

as you approach, they

1:23:45

would just sort of nod their head. Sister

1:23:47

Benedicta would like warmly sort of bow, silence

1:23:51

blessing to you all, good morning, good day,

1:23:53

and sort of looks towards all of you,

1:23:55

quite smiley, quite happy, malady,

1:23:57

kind of a slice on a grin, it's just

1:23:59

like. Yes. Good day to you

1:24:01

all. Do you like a carrot?

1:24:05

I am all right. Prepare to bowl.

1:24:07

Benedicta? No, I'm all right. Thank you,

1:24:09

Rowan. We've eaten lunch. I do not

1:24:12

try... I try not to eat out

1:24:14

of set times. We

1:24:17

wanted to come by to check on

1:24:19

you all after everything that's been happening in

1:24:21

the tournament. Well-fought, I must

1:24:23

say, watching you all in

1:24:25

the tournament, especially you, Sir Gruffoth, in your

1:24:28

one-on-one battles. I was most impressed by your

1:24:30

skills. Thank you. Yes,

1:24:32

and congratulations. Maudy will say, And

1:24:34

I am led to believe that

1:24:36

it is Knight Arryn to Gruffoth

1:24:38

now. I

1:24:40

had the very great honour of meeting

1:24:43

Dame Norrick Hell and... Yes,

1:24:45

she... She... What

1:24:47

would you call... Is it knighting? No. It

1:24:50

would be like... No, it would be... She's given

1:24:52

you a challenge or a test. Not

1:24:55

even title, because Knight Arryn is like an in-between

1:24:57

phase. Accepted you, like accepted

1:24:59

you as a Knight Arryn. Yeah. I

1:25:01

had the great honour of Dame Norrick

1:25:03

Hell accepting me into the Order of

1:25:05

the Loyal Hands and setting me on

1:25:07

my path. Well, I wish you all

1:25:09

the best with it, Knight Arryn Gruffoth. It

1:25:11

is a noble cause, and the

1:25:13

circle of Loyal Hands, I have what limited

1:25:15

knowledge I have of them. I believe them

1:25:17

to be a group of great

1:25:20

intentions and many great members of the

1:25:23

Draconic Empire. I wish you all the

1:25:25

best with it. And

1:25:27

yes, very well thought in the tournament. We

1:25:29

thought that we would... You

1:25:32

see she coughs and a bit of blood and black ichor

1:25:34

kind of comes out. My apologies. We

1:25:37

wanted to come by to inform you that my sister and I

1:25:40

have decided to remain in Ashen

1:25:42

Rest for some time. Oh. With

1:25:45

the events of the Lamplighters Guild,

1:25:48

the idea being that there

1:25:51

could be still some

1:25:53

members of the cult that was

1:25:55

participated in it still active here

1:25:57

in Ashen Rest, but also... So

1:26:01

it has fallen to my sister

1:26:03

and I from our superiors to

1:26:05

help track down the former Sunsword,

1:26:07

Ilkara. We will be

1:26:09

coordinating with Zaron Teckis to try and recover

1:26:11

and bring them to justice. But

1:26:14

also, Saverin,

1:26:16

the Speaker of Secrets, they

1:26:18

are still waiting for a new replacement priestess of

1:26:21

Pyris to come by. And

1:26:23

with the added

1:26:25

voices of so morning and so glory, we

1:26:28

have been requested to remain to help them

1:26:30

with religious matters and services and to help

1:26:32

them, Zaron Teckis, with his investigations

1:26:34

and the like. But I thought

1:26:36

that we should let you know that we will

1:26:38

be remaining should you need our assistance or anything.

1:26:41

Have you got a house? We

1:26:43

will be staying at the... We

1:26:45

will be staying at the cathedral. As

1:26:48

is our duty, there are quarters being

1:26:50

set aside from us. Unfortunately, some of

1:26:52

the priests and warriors who stationed

1:26:55

there previously fell in the battle against the

1:26:57

demons and that gives us a space to

1:26:59

make our own. Zantheus.

1:27:02

Oh, yes. I think

1:27:04

that... may we speak in private

1:27:07

temporarily? Yeah, I've turned

1:27:09

to Ophelia or Daisy. Do

1:27:11

you think Tyria will allow us to speak

1:27:13

in a tavern? I

1:27:16

can go speak to her and can't see if she'll calm

1:27:19

down for now. OK, well, it's quite late now.

1:27:21

I think I should be all right. As long as Benedicta

1:27:24

does not enter, I have a means of sort

1:27:28

of masking my presence to the undead.

1:27:31

I can keep an eye out for you anyway, just in case.

1:27:33

I'd be all right. And you don't

1:27:35

wish for the others to be...? Well,

1:27:37

that is your choice. It concerns a matter

1:27:39

I had discussed with you previously in private.

1:27:43

Why not? Have a carrot before

1:27:46

you go. Why not as in let them

1:27:48

listen? Let's just speak privately. Very good. She

1:27:52

will... She holds her

1:27:54

fingers up and she chants something. And you

1:27:56

see a kind of flickering field of magic

1:27:58

kind of surround her. and she's

1:28:00

gonna cast Sanctuary on herself. Oh,

1:28:03

okay, it makes sense. That's why. And when

1:28:05

she enters, that seems to have some sort of

1:28:07

effect, like Tyria almost seems to notice her presence

1:28:09

as much. But

1:28:12

she steps inside with you, Xanthius,

1:28:15

and will sort of draw you

1:28:19

aside. Whilst

1:28:23

I was unwell,

1:28:25

I used my time. I do not

1:28:27

like to sit or rest idly, even

1:28:30

if my body does not allow me to

1:28:32

do much physical. So I turned matters to

1:28:34

research. I sent for

1:28:36

some works to be sent to me, and I

1:28:39

gathered what research I could from my own collection.

1:28:42

I have been researching

1:28:44

crowns. You know

1:28:46

how forbidden that

1:28:48

is. It is forbidden to all but

1:28:50

the Church of the Science. We were

1:28:52

entrusted with its destruction after

1:28:55

the Oryat insurrection. The

1:28:57

ecliptic order is one of the few that is allowed to

1:29:02

research it for the matter of its

1:29:04

destruction and safe storage. I

1:29:06

see. And did you

1:29:08

discover a way to remove it?

1:29:10

Hopefully. I

1:29:13

have discovered that there are ways to,

1:29:16

there are rituals that

1:29:18

can slow it down, slow down

1:29:20

the corruption, the mutation. Okay.

1:29:23

Have you found

1:29:27

your body mutating? We

1:29:31

did not fully discuss the nature

1:29:33

of your affliction in detail. That's

1:29:37

true. Yeah, I guess they

1:29:40

haven't seen the hand or anything, have they?

1:29:43

No. They just know. They had an idea and it

1:29:45

was kind of confirmed. Yeah. Have they seen any of

1:29:47

it? I haven't seen any of it. I think so,

1:29:49

no. But they know, and they said they'd

1:29:52

help me. I,

1:29:55

yes, I have been experiencing

1:29:57

a Creeping

1:30:01

corruption, I suppose, across my arm.

1:30:03

And me. I will, yep, take

1:30:05

the glove off, and any bandages therein.

1:30:08

She, not snatches,

1:30:10

but kind of like, definitely like reaches out

1:30:13

to take your hand. Kind of like a

1:30:15

grandmother, kind of almost like, kind of takes

1:30:17

your hand, almost cautiously touching

1:30:19

it. Like, doesn't want to touch it, but

1:30:21

then sort of braves it and sort

1:30:23

of looks. I think this is now like

1:30:26

the third or fourth time this has happened to me. I'm

1:30:28

almost like, yeah, you go. Stop looking at it. Yes,

1:30:31

the mutation is affecting

1:30:33

your arm. This

1:30:35

has grown rapidly, slowly.

1:30:38

How long? It first started a

1:30:41

week ago. Because

1:30:44

it was like three weeks ago that I came out of Kelseye's house.

1:30:46

12, 15 days. 12

1:30:49

days ago, at least, and

1:30:52

has grown across my arm since. But

1:30:55

slowly-ish. I

1:31:00

had always suspected that your affliction is

1:31:02

different to others. The

1:31:04

actual metal, you

1:31:06

do not wear it. It is embedded

1:31:09

in you, yes. It is, would

1:31:11

you like to see that? Yes, I think

1:31:13

it is to be important. Before

1:31:17

I show you though, there's no risk

1:31:19

of you being enticed

1:31:22

by this. I know you're not. No,

1:31:27

of that, you can be assured, Zanthios Oregon. Am

1:31:32

I getting like a... I've

1:31:34

recently had an eerily

1:31:36

similar interrogation to this,

1:31:40

but I got a vibe from Obsidius of

1:31:42

both anger and like... And... Almost

1:31:48

genuine kind of protection from Obsidius. Am I

1:31:50

getting like a different vibe from this entirely?

1:31:52

An insight check, man. OK,

1:31:54

insight. Watch this. OK,

1:32:00

15 plus two, so 17. 17?

1:32:03

Oh, plus two, cos I know wisdom's low for you. It is.

1:32:07

Protectiveness. There's

1:32:11

certainly no greed. Yeah. There

1:32:14

is a curiosity. The

1:32:17

way that her eyes kind of linger on

1:32:19

the mutated flesh. But there's

1:32:21

not an avarice. There's not a want.

1:32:24

OK. There is a... ..a

1:32:29

caution. Whether

1:32:32

that's towards you, like a

1:32:34

worry for your sake, or

1:32:37

a worry for her sake, or

1:32:40

a worry for the world's sake, you're not

1:32:42

sure. But there's definitely trepidation and caution here.

1:32:44

OK. And she...you

1:32:46

see that her hand... She's

1:32:48

kind of holding the hand, but the other one

1:32:50

is holding, like, a symbol of Malia that she

1:32:52

wears. And

1:32:54

you can see that her hand begins

1:32:57

to form into what could be a defensive

1:32:59

spell, or like some sort of spell casting.

1:33:01

But it's not actively casting, but it's ready

1:33:03

to react to something. Is there a sort

1:33:06

of vibe, though? I know that I kind

1:33:08

of used to use that inside check, but is there a vibe

1:33:10

of almost like, they're

1:33:12

looking at me as if I'm

1:33:15

just crammed steel, like all I am is this

1:33:17

thingy, or is she actually, like, regarding that? No,

1:33:19

she does, yeah. There's definitely a regard of there

1:33:21

is a person here. OK. Yeah,

1:33:25

in that case, I would slowly, like, take off

1:33:27

the garments

1:33:30

and... Yes, I

1:33:32

figured... I theorised that this

1:33:34

would be something of the case. If

1:33:37

you were just wearing it, there

1:33:39

would have been a different matter

1:33:42

altogether. No, but protected

1:33:44

by these runic spells,

1:33:48

I don't know if it's holding it off, but... Oh,

1:33:50

it is, most certainly. It is

1:33:52

interesting, from my research, that crown

1:33:54

steel... Crown

1:33:56

steel is highly corruptive, not

1:33:59

just to those who... bear it, it

1:34:02

has a radius. Am

1:34:05

I negatively affecting? I

1:34:08

don't believe so, and that is the curious thing to me, is

1:34:10

that this Oregon? Normally it would

1:34:12

be detected. I have trained myself to

1:34:14

pick up on influences of magic, ill

1:34:16

magic. I did not detect

1:34:19

any from you when we first met, yet my

1:34:21

theory was that you carried some, and that drew

1:34:23

my attention. Whatever this

1:34:25

runic magic is, not only is it keeping

1:34:27

it within your body, it is

1:34:30

also preventing it from influencing anyone

1:34:32

else around you, like

1:34:34

a poison buried deep within, not

1:34:37

spilling out. Crown

1:34:39

still normally, when we

1:34:41

recover it, when it has been encountered by my

1:34:43

order, it must

1:34:46

be contained, non-organic and

1:34:48

airtight. Otherwise, people

1:34:52

who are exposed to it for long periods of

1:34:54

time begin to show signs of mutation and corruption.

1:34:57

OK. Well, I

1:35:00

guess removes any guilt I might

1:35:03

have for the

1:35:05

people around me. But does that mean

1:35:07

I would be protected from other

1:35:10

sources of crown steel? Unlikely.

1:35:14

Whatever magic this is, and she

1:35:16

taps the field, little

1:35:18

spark of magic, whatever this is, it

1:35:22

is consuming a large amount

1:35:24

of magical power. You said that

1:35:26

you, how long have you

1:35:28

had this magic? Ever

1:35:30

since this

1:35:34

stabbed into me. What you might

1:35:36

find, were it not desperately trying

1:35:39

to contain the crown steel, this

1:35:42

magic may be more powerful. You'd be able to

1:35:44

use it in a more powerful degree. It

1:35:47

is almost using much of its potential to

1:35:50

contain the crown steel. And what is curious

1:35:52

is I have never encountered magic that could

1:35:55

contain crown steel. So

1:35:57

even provided this is safely

1:35:59

removed from. I would still have

1:36:01

the magic? If it is yours, which

1:36:03

I believe it must be. I

1:36:06

see. How

1:36:08

much do crown steel enhance magic?

1:36:11

If it is used as, say, forging of a

1:36:13

magic blade, it will make the magic blade stronger.

1:36:16

If a magical creature consumes it,

1:36:18

eats it, digests it, it enhances

1:36:21

their own natural magic. I

1:36:24

believe that it has done the same thing for you. It

1:36:26

has enhanced the natural magic you possess, perhaps brought

1:36:28

it to the fourth front. But

1:36:31

it's still siphoning a lot of it to

1:36:34

protect me from the crown steel. It is

1:36:37

a poison within your body. It is still

1:36:39

affecting you. It can contain it, but it

1:36:41

is seeping. Like a

1:36:43

toxin in a broken vial.

1:36:45

The cracks are letting it

1:36:47

seep out into the bloodstream.

1:36:51

You should be very cautious. And

1:36:54

should you encounter any more crown

1:36:56

steel, be wary of what

1:36:58

I've told you. I will.

1:37:02

Before you go, do you do

1:37:04

any research in the

1:37:08

vaults? The... fuck what they're called? Protomagite.

1:37:11

Protomagite vaults. Not

1:37:14

into the vaults themselves. We

1:37:17

do not research. We fight against vaultspawn. The

1:37:21

ecliptic order often deals

1:37:23

with creatures that have

1:37:25

gained dangerous magic

1:37:27

within these vaults. A

1:37:29

lot of it is unpredictable, unwieldy. There

1:37:31

have been many cases of people coming

1:37:34

out of these vaults with powers,

1:37:36

destructive, harmful powers. And sometimes the ecliptic order

1:37:38

is sent to deal with them. But

1:37:42

we are often kept busy with

1:37:44

more planar matters. There

1:37:46

are those. There are parties and

1:37:48

factions who are dedicated

1:37:50

to delving into

1:37:52

the vaults. But they

1:37:55

are not ones to which I have much communication. Okay.

1:37:59

I do ask. I just believe that might

1:38:01

be my next lead in discovering

1:38:03

some way to remove the crown

1:38:05

steel. Safely. What leads you to

1:38:07

that theory? A

1:38:12

little bird taught me. How

1:38:15

curious. What little bird would

1:38:17

this be? Yeah, it was Blackwing. Give

1:38:20

me an exception check. Oh

1:38:23

no, Blackwing did hint at it. He did, he

1:38:25

did, yeah. Blackwing did. That was where I got

1:38:27

the initial like hint at it. I was like,

1:38:30

because technically you talked with Obsidius about it, but.

1:38:32

Yes, but like yeah, I got the idea of

1:38:34

that from Blackwing, which is what I said to

1:38:36

Obsidius as well. You would see Mallet the Elf.

1:38:41

Again, those

1:38:43

who can sense this magic seem to be able

1:38:45

to pick me up very, very easily. Or

1:38:49

just spot me in the open, I suppose. I

1:38:53

am of this world. I am of Orthea. I

1:38:56

believe very much in the people of this place. The

1:39:01

Elf is not. I

1:39:03

told you that crown steel enhances

1:39:05

magic, yes? Yes. Magical

1:39:09

beings, creatures made of magic

1:39:11

manifest. To them,

1:39:13

this is an invaluable material.

1:39:15

It makes them more powerful. From

1:39:20

personal experience, don't

1:39:23

trust anything from the blades. I.

1:39:27

Especially the fae. They

1:39:30

are, they

1:39:33

are more deceptive than you know. When

1:39:37

it comes to the crown steel itself, I

1:39:39

don't trust anyone with that. But

1:39:43

if it's my only lead to get this removed

1:39:45

safely, I'll follow it. Doesn't

1:39:48

mean I'll necessarily act on it. Good.

1:39:50

Be cautious. Remember that you

1:39:53

have an ally in me in this.

1:39:56

I know. Good. She

1:40:00

kind of like clutches her chest. Strange.

1:40:04

And brings back old memories. Talking

1:40:06

of fae and their deals. Still.

1:40:11

Let us leave it at that. We will have

1:40:13

an opportunity to speak again, I'm sure, but be

1:40:15

cautious. Watch for this mutation and...

1:40:19

Just remember, whatever it is, this magic, it

1:40:21

is preventing it from affecting those around you.

1:40:24

Regular crown steel. It

1:40:27

has a malign aura. I

1:40:29

see. No,

1:40:31

that is good. Good to know. I'm

1:40:35

more hidden than I thought. Yes. Yes.

1:40:39

It will take someone of great skill, or

1:40:42

someone very magically powerful to be able to

1:40:44

detect this upon you, or realise, to notice

1:40:46

it. But as that mutation

1:40:48

grows, as it changes,

1:40:50

it may become more obvious. I

1:40:53

have witnessed only one other who

1:40:55

was mutated by crown steel. They

1:40:58

had carried it for a long time. Oh. They

1:41:02

were very noticeable, shall we say.

1:41:05

I see. I

1:41:07

suppose I don't want to hear the story. They...

1:41:11

They would not have been able to hide, as

1:41:13

you have. Right. That

1:41:15

arm, you can put a glove on it for now. If

1:41:18

it increases in size or mass, or the

1:41:20

scales and spikes grow much larger, you will

1:41:22

find that much harder to do, I imagine.

1:41:26

Okay. They are monsters, Santhias,

1:41:29

Oregon. That metal

1:41:31

is a foul thing, and

1:41:33

it makes monsters of men and women. Always

1:41:37

remember that. I will. Good.

1:41:41

Well, let us be off, then. And

1:41:43

she kind of, like, stretches herself, grabs

1:41:46

her cane and makes her way down to the door.

1:41:48

Yeah, I'll open the door for her to pass through,

1:41:50

I guess, if everyone else is doing their own thing.

1:41:52

Well, I would like to come back to that, but

1:41:54

I've already gone way over. It's time for a break.

1:41:56

I know you all want to go pee, so it's

1:41:58

break time. And I'll

1:42:00

see you in part two of

1:42:03

today's episode. Bye. See

1:42:05

ya. Every

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