Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Previously on Alicia Rising. We wish you to venture into what remains of castle Antelir in the ivory.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: What's the end goal here? Is she looking for a restoration of the house Antiller at the top.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: As you notice the ghosts approaching the after resorts are sort of like fending them off with your spirit bane, you know, waving the bloodseeker blade. And you can see that the spirits are beginning to move down the corridor like a. Like an undulating wall of faces. And the wailing of the spirits gets louder and louder and louder. The four of you tumble through into what appears to be a large dining hall and stood between the two tables, a dark skinned Loravar man, a young looking goblin and a second Loravar woman looking at you, very perplexed because they've just seen the four of you tumble through this door like, seemingly through the veil. The Loravar man at the front of this trio stares at you and says, atta, is that you? And you recognize your old gang member, Alejandro.
Welcome to Elysia, the jewel of the north.
[00:01:25] Speaker C: On our gilded streets, fortune and fame can be found by anyone.
Hi, I'm Julia, and I'm playing Magpie, an ace of our lurk.
[00:01:36] Speaker D: Hi, I'm Nate, and I'm playing cavern, a dragon sent slide.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Hi, I'm Mega. I'm playing Frieda, a wolfkin cutter.
[00:01:47] Speaker E: Hi, I'm JC, and I'll be playing algaenon, an ace of our spider.
[00:01:52] Speaker F: Hello, I'm Erol. I am playing atta, a goblin whisper.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: And my name is DM Dan. I will be the games master on this adventure.
[00:02:02] Speaker C: So come on in and marvel at our wonders. Make sure you see the beautiful views we have to offer.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: And don't mind the ghosts.
[00:02:11] Speaker C: They're friendly, really. Grab yourselves a seat and make yourselves welcome in the city of Elysia.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Yes, you're in this large 50 foot by 50 foot room, floor to ceiling pillars each, all sides covered in books, floating platforms. Ominous, rumbling. What do you do?
[00:02:40] Speaker F: Is there, like, a librarian desk? Like, you know, with the key for the. What's it, what's it. They're called the decent Dewey Destiny Desert.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: As you peer over the banister to the ground, like the basement floor, fundamentally, you know, you notice a dodecahedral shape on a plinth with gold bandings along all of its edges.
And, like, your eyes open as you realize that that is an arcane tone, it can be activated.
[00:03:24] Speaker F: Sorry, what?
[00:03:25] Speaker A: It's the shape of a D 20.
Yeah, with gold banding along all the edges. And it sat on a plinth on the. On the ground floor, quote, unquote basement floor.
[00:03:37] Speaker F: It's like a catalog.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: You know, it to be effectively an arcane catalog.
[00:03:42] Speaker F: Cool.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Alejandro Grubbin and Lucine, like, they look around and they immediately branch off and begin their investigating as they're walking along, like there's more kind of crashing and banging from above you.
And they kind of look to each other and then decide to head to the ground, like the basement floor by the staircase.
And, yeah, they begin looking around on some of these bookshelves. There's more than just books. There are. You see, sort of like arcane artifacts, like astrolabes. There's all sorts of kind of weird and wonderful curiosities from the before times just kind of scattered around. This looks like, as you, what you would imagine the library of house ancillary to look like with all the kind of odd curiosities that come with it.
Yeah. How are you beginning your search for this fall?
[00:04:47] Speaker C: Guess.
[00:04:47] Speaker F: Wow.
[00:04:48] Speaker C: We probably want to check out that arcane Dvdasma system. Do we?
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:56] Speaker C: See if there's any clues whatsoever to the geography of this place. Like, although I assume if there.
If there is a vault close to here, they probably try to keep it fairly secret.
Is it going to be a case of pulling out the correct book and then a secret stairway opens something?
[00:05:22] Speaker A: So, actually, I should point out that as you. If you glance at the divining orb, it is now kind of more pointing. Like you're on the ground floor, like the middle of the three floors. It's sort of pointing down.
[00:05:40] Speaker C: Okay, so I think we go down first.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:45] Speaker F: Let's look at this catalog did.
So Alejandro went down. I approach Alejandra and ask about what the book might be, to try and see what this catalogue might know where it is.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: So as you approach him, you see the three of them sort of talking to one another discreetly, and, like, Lucine kind of alerts the other two to your approach.
And as you ask Alejandro about the tome, he.
He looks to you and, oh, yeah, the book.
Yeah, it's. And you see he begins to sort of, like, start looking around the library.
There wasn't, like, a specific name or anything. It was a. You know, we're just gonna have a little browse and see if we can find what it is that the host wants.
[00:06:59] Speaker C: Very, very dodgy.
[00:07:08] Speaker F: Atta's still gonna have a look at the catalog and try. And maybe if magpies around, if there is anything that maybe Algernon, like, if there's books on foresight that might help or if there's any. You said there's artifacts around. We need to get some foresight stuff, you know? So what would be useful things to get as we consider where Vault could be?
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Well, so I will, uh, to kind of hold you there for a moment, and then, uh, we'll flash back to remind that, um, Neferle. Nepha ney did give you the pass key to get in, but the thing that she didn't know is, like, where you would need to use it.
[00:07:56] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Um, so, Algernon, um, now that you know that the. The four of them are kind of combing over the library, um, she told you that the pass key were the words that house Antillea lived by.
So is a. A seemingly a semi cryptic kind of clue.
The words for house answer. The words for House Antillea lived by in a khan's eyes.
So as you're mulling on that atta, you approach this kind of crystalline, like, d 20 type shape. And as you approach it, it begins to softly glow and effectively, like, you've probably tinkered with these in the past, but, you know, you can sort, like, turn and twist and kind of manipulate it to, like, as the triangular sides face up, they flash up like a pane of information. You can sort of, like, move around and effectively, it's a very kind of Tony Stark in a fancy world type thing. But, yeah, it's going through cataloging the various books by name, books by category, books by level.
It's also got sort of, like, public journal entries and news that house Hanseley would have collected over the years.
Yeah. If there's a part of you that kind of looks at it, and it's a very powerful item, and it just seems a bit odd that it's relegated to a catalog.
[00:09:44] Speaker F: Can I look up. I don't remember what. I can't quite remember what name she gave us now, but can I look up the lady in Purple's name that she gave us? Was it tarot?
[00:09:55] Speaker C: Tarot.
[00:09:55] Speaker F: Tarot, yeah, because I remember it was a root.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: There is a book on the upper.
[00:10:06] Speaker D: Floor.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Entitled the lady in Purple.
It's not a book, per se. Sorry. It's like a. It's a journal entry to someone's. Someone's kind of personalized journals.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Is it in a mean girl style burn book? And there's just a picture for the eyes crossed. That and that. This fugly bitch.
[00:10:34] Speaker F: Okay, we have to get.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: It's certainly of interest that there is documentation on the lady in purple in this library.
[00:10:44] Speaker C: Definitely need to read that.
[00:10:47] Speaker F: Well, I'm thinking. Magpie, you're quite prowly, aren't you?
[00:10:50] Speaker C: Sure.
A bit prowly. I like to try.
Yeah, sure. What are you thinking?
[00:10:57] Speaker F: Well, I think if anybody's gonna make it to the top floor, I mean.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: Then it might just walk up to the. The top floor. Right.
[00:11:07] Speaker A: So the bookshelves. The book pillars are away from the balcony, so you'd have to jump on one of the, like, levitational pads and.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Almost feels a bit finessy or something, doesn't it? Rather than prowling is more for sneaking, not being noticed. Oh, Daisy.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: It's very much a case. If one of you wants to go fetch the book from the location, like, head to that location, you can.
[00:11:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: These things aren't death traps.
[00:11:37] Speaker C: I thought maybe, since I have the other earring and I'm talking directly to Algernon, and also, given I am a noble ace of r myself, I thought I could probably help Algernon work out the passcode or look for clues around the library as to. What are the words? House Antalya lives. Bye.
[00:11:57] Speaker A: Sure.
Well, have. Have the two of you. Just. While we're thinking about. Have the two of you got an idea of what that might mean?
Because nefa na gave you a very kind of pointed look when she said that. As if, like, oh, this should. This would be obvious.
[00:12:15] Speaker C: Well, I mean, what. What would we know as ace of our, who may have had links with House Antelir?
[00:12:21] Speaker A: I suppose, given that as a noble and Algona, you've got links to.
There is. There was a motto for house Antillea. Like a family motto?
Yes. The motto was, especially is the two of you are who you are.
Through your gifts and guidance, may we raise to the heavens.
That was their family motto, right?
[00:13:01] Speaker C: Raise to the heavens.
[00:13:03] Speaker D: Okay, well, would it be something to do with Arcana? Because that was the gift that.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: So.
Well, if you're asking that cavernous. Yeah. Magpie, you remember back to Nephene saying the words that house Antalya lived by in the eyes of a khan.
[00:13:32] Speaker F: There any statues with eyes in here?
[00:13:34] Speaker C: Well, yeah, I was gonna say, are there any depictions of a khan in this library, in the house so far?
[00:13:43] Speaker A: You notice that on the. So on the wall that doesn't have balconies running across it, there is a mural of, like, a mosaic mural of this large, kind of winding, broad winged dragon that, you know, you instinctively know is a khanda.
[00:14:08] Speaker E: Hmm.
[00:14:12] Speaker C: And has he got eyes?
[00:14:13] Speaker A: He does.
The figure of a khan is presented like, broad shouldered, palms up, like, gazing, as if. It's as if he's gazing down upon the library.
And as you approach, you notice that there are, like, there are 19 other serpents depicted on the mural. Like, you can see aya with her kind of radiant halo, like, beside a calm, but certainly kind of much smaller in stature, as she seemingly is either not the main focus of the mosaic or this is a very pointed thing that they don't iras considered as important.
But you.
You notice that they're one of the children of a khan is kind of spiral. Is kind of spiraling around his form.
And that figure, who. It'd probably be a caverny to figure out who that is.
[00:15:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Is hydrea the law keeper?
She the dragon. So she is the dragon who looks after, like, arcane knowledge and this, like.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: Right.
[00:15:51] Speaker D: Who was that again?
[00:15:51] Speaker A: Sorry, Hydrea. Hydrea is kind of coiled around her father as a Khan looks down upon this library, seemingly. Seemingly with approval, right.
[00:16:06] Speaker C: Through your gifts and guidance. So could it be that we're looking for books about that mention Hydrea? Or am I thinking about it if it's who?
[00:16:20] Speaker F: Literally there I was thinking about where Akan's looking. Like, where are the eyes?
[00:16:25] Speaker C: That was the other thing as well. Yeah, I agree.
[00:16:30] Speaker F: An aside, as people are figuring out the puzzle, could atta be looking up golem control, crystal golem control in the library catalog and books and.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. There's a. There's a tome on the. On the middle and the middle sections, if you want to levitate up to those.
[00:16:53] Speaker C: Does anyone want to go grab that journal entry on the purple lady, by the way?
[00:16:58] Speaker F: I mean, I do. I'm happy to go. I'm happy to. Well, I'd probably hand over the pearl, the big magic. Magic orb, to either Cav or Frida, and then head up.
[00:17:12] Speaker D: I've got two in prowl, so I can probably prowl up there to get the purple lady stuff.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: I mean, eventually it's just jumping on the.
[00:17:22] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't think we need much.
[00:17:26] Speaker D: Bug lugs to see us.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: They'll see us.
[00:17:29] Speaker F: Should we split the difference? Split the difference. One of us go to the top and one of us go to the middle.
[00:17:33] Speaker D: I've actually got something else that I'd like to do.
[00:17:36] Speaker F: I can go get both. I'm gonna go get both. I'll go to the top first, and then I'll go to the middle.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Well, as you. You grab the book on golden control.
You also then float up to fetch the journal on the purple lady.
And it's effectively like a diary scroll of a sort.
Like a lot of the documentation up here just seem to be kind of rolled up scrolls, like, put in a rough kind of order, seemingly. People just kind of writing notes. Writing, and then rolling up and popping them in.
While you're up there, atta, you notice that the ominous rumbling is getting louder.
[00:18:16] Speaker C: Oh, dear.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: Has Algernon had any ideas about this cryptic clue?
[00:18:24] Speaker E: Well, he's thinking about it as if it were a cryptic clue from the crossword.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:18:30] Speaker E: Not getting very far. He's thinking about the eyes of our car. Could be the letter. I.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: Well, I would. So I'll quickly interject and say that something you would have picked up on is that nephenae distinctly said, the past phrase is the words they live by in the eyes of a calm. So, I mean, you in this moment, you know that the motto of the. Of house Anthony is through your gifts and guidance, made me rise to the heavens. But it's that last bit that's the eyes of. In the. As it. As in the eyes of a khan.
That is odd.
[00:19:12] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:14] Speaker A: If.
[00:19:15] Speaker D: If we're being pointed towards Hydrea.
Hydrea is known for arcana knowledge.
[00:19:23] Speaker C: I mean, libraries are full of knowledge.
[00:19:26] Speaker D: Knowledge because that was the gift that arcane, that Akan gave was archaic knowledge, basically.
[00:19:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: If anything. Um, cavern, perhaps. There's a bit of a. It's a bit odd. Hydra is one of the ones that fought against the khan, like, fought under her mother.
[00:19:49] Speaker F: Are children. Children considered gifts? Maybe Hydrea is the gift and guidance.
Are we overthinking this? We're probably overthinking this. Should we just. Into the computer eyes of a calm.
[00:20:05] Speaker C: Yeah, or maybe we literally.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: What is Cavern doing?
[00:20:13] Speaker D: To be fair, Cavern is actually like. He's seeing people sort of think he's over and he's looking over. He is looking.
So he saw. He saw sort of like something not. He felt like he just got a twinge that something wasn't quite right with the conversation that he. That Atta had with Alejandro, that they're. Are they really looking for something?
I would like just to distract him so if something big is found, then he's too distracted to possibly do something else. So I would like to go over and have a bit of a flirt, if I can.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:20:58] Speaker B: Sure, sure. It's just because you're suspicious of him.
Purely professional. You're purely just doing us a favor.
[00:21:09] Speaker D: I am.
[00:21:10] Speaker A: Well, I won't ask her off for that. If you're just heading over and, like, having a flirt. Having a. Having that chatter just kind of distracting.
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:20] Speaker D: Whether or not he's intrigued by it or annoyed by it, it doesn't really matter. Trying to.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Curious to begin with. For sure. For sure. He's like, yeah, it seems to be engaging in conversation with you. Absolutely. What's Frieda doing that is Frieda helping this puzzle?
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Puzzles aren't really Frieda's jam, but I think Frieda would be keeping a close eye on Catherine. I think Frieda would have clocked what Catherine's about to do. And so Frieda's on standby in case there's.
In case the flirting needs to turn to intimidation.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:22:06] Speaker B: But also, I think, and this might be more for flavor than anything, Frieda's actually surreptitiously and slightly self consciously also scanning the bookshelves to see if she can find anything about Wolfkin lore and history.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Atta's got the.
The arcane catalogue, so she can certainly look for it. If you're sort of having a look around and you're not sort of, like, really engaging in anyone.
I mean, how does this whole sort of, like, gods and cryptic messages, how does that ring with you? Like, is it something that you sort of, like, tuck and roll your eyes at or.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: A little bit. I think readers not had particularly pleasant experiences with the church and has therefore not had much to do with religion as a whole.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Might I suggest that one of the difficulties that you had, especially, you know, growing up under the very zealous thumb of Caleb, was that a lot of the time, it was really, really difficult to understand what he was even talking about because he would always recite the verses in draconic, like the.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:41] Speaker A: The language of the heavens.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Do you think Frieda would have.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: It's like you or I listening to someone recite in Latin, like.
But you remember religious texts were always recited in draconic.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: Would Frieda recalled any of the passages even if it's like, not even knowing what they mean? A little bit like how everyone can remember a hymn from primary school just because they are drilled into your head so much. Bloody much. Yeah.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: I mean, absolutely.
You're not entirely sure that sort of, like, easily recitable draconic hymns would help you here? If only you knew how to speak draconic.
[00:24:33] Speaker C: I tell you who does know how to speak the house antelure motto in draconic.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:42] Speaker C: And he's flirting with a twink right now.
[00:24:47] Speaker F: He's using his. No, I won't go there.
[00:24:52] Speaker C: I think we need to get Cavern's attention if you've made that link in your head.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Now, I tell you what. Go back to Katherine and his flirting for a minute.
[00:25:00] Speaker C: I want to hear it. Yeah.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: Okay. So, yeah, cavernous as you drop. Another compliment.
What is it about Alejandro that you're complimenting?
[00:25:17] Speaker D: I'm complimenting him on his speed.
The speed of looking through the books.
I'm just sort of asking him what he does in his downtime when he's not in big, spooky castles.
Where does he usually?
Well, I've seen him around.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: We. Well, we keep ourselves busy, I suspect, like you, just trying to get as much done with as little notice as possible.
We've recently acquired a new benefactor. I suppose that's the best word for it.
They. She keeps us extremely busy.
Just jobs here and there around the city.
This is why we're here, actually.
[00:26:10] Speaker D: Oh, you say she.
Anyone particularly well known or.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: She's. She's quite a secretive person, actually. I don't know if I'd be very, very surprised if you knew her?
[00:26:24] Speaker D: Yeah. I mean, I don't know. I know quite a lot of. I mean, obviously, I don't know you. We can maybe change that. But.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: He. He blushes and, like, he steps away from Lucine and Grubbin and.
Well, I should just. Just in case there are any. There's any confusion.
She's. She's not. You know, it's not like that in any way. No, no, she. I would argue she's not really my type. She's a bit too old for me.
Yeah, she, uh.
I'd be very, very surprised if you know her.
I'm not actually sure like her first name.
We only know her as Lady Knoll.
[00:27:12] Speaker C: We know that name.
[00:27:15] Speaker F: The Onishi leader.
[00:27:18] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. Upon hearing that name, Catherine's gonna go, oh, yes, maybe we do keep the same company, then.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Oh, you know of Lady Mill?
[00:27:34] Speaker D: Yes, we. I mean, we do happen to frequent the gold pot.
She allows us to use that area for us to make dealings and such.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Well, you have to excuse me. I probably said too much. Lady nor was. In which case, you know, that she's a very private person. She probably doesn't want me discussing her business too much, but, uh, yeah, she is. She is keeping us on our toes, certainly. Um, do you know how Atta's getting on with finding the.
Whatever she's looking for?
[00:28:13] Speaker B: Right? And at this point, Frieda jumps in before Catherine can go blab in his mouth. Go, hi, Katherine. I've just had a thought, I've been looking around this and I've been thinking about all this religion bollocks. And, you know, I don't really go in for that sort of thing. But now I've got. I've got these words stuck in my head. Something that old bloody Caleb used to. Used to knock on about, you know, and he used to talk in draconic a lot. And I was just wondering, what do you think this saying that they're. That they're on about to open this, to unlock this.
[00:28:52] Speaker A: This.
[00:28:52] Speaker B: This puzzle. Do you think it would be in draconic?
[00:28:57] Speaker D: Frida? You notice that? And with you talking to Catherine, quite friendly, he. He sort of looks at you quite coldly and then he'll. He'll turn back to Alejandro and say, like, maybe we can discuss who else we have in common with at another time. Do. Do come by the gold pot. I'll make sure to get you in a nice seat there. And then he's gonna wander off and he's.
[00:29:33] Speaker C: He's.
[00:29:34] Speaker D: He's listened to what Frieda's said and looking sort of like thinking of the words that, you know, Nefale has said to us and looking at the big portrait, would he? So it's one word.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: It's. Well, so they've been saying. If there's a phrase, as a past phrase, through your gifts and guidance, maybe rise to the heavens.
Does Catherine speak draconic?
[00:30:03] Speaker D: That's the question. Does Catherine speak draconic? I think he would, I guess. Yeah. I guess Dorothea would have taught him some draconic, even if it was mostly.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:30:19] Speaker D: That is. That is a sentence.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: As the words form in your heads, please read them out clear as you can.
[00:30:28] Speaker D: This is a wonderful phrase that you've given to someone with dyslexia.
This is actually what most of my sentences look like when I read them.
So. Erika stot rega priest. Karg sorovna.
No. Maggie laga akas rare gura.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: I mean, that's pretty good.
[00:30:55] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: As you utter the words and like Frieda, you like. As Katherine speaks in draconic, you notice that, like, his voice suddenly sounds more sort of like reverb y, resonant, deep.
Almost as if the words coming out of his mouth, like it's as if he suits this language better than the common language that you will speak.
And as you finish the phrase, at a jaw coming back down on your. On your levee pad, you notice the eyes on the mosaic begin shining bright red.
And the ds, the little plinth, like the platform that you picked up the.
Like the crystal that you're holding on the catalog on that, there's a. That shakes, rotate slightly, and starts spiraling downwards into the ground, revealing a spiral staircase into a basement vault.
[00:32:11] Speaker C: Let's go.
[00:32:18] Speaker F: Down there. Are there. They're not going to be books down there. So why did he want to come down there?
[00:32:25] Speaker A: Alejandro and crew, like, look at you and did. Did you do that? He says as he. He looks at you all kind of begin to congregate and then.
Yeah. Well, what are you heading down? Are you. Who's going down?
[00:32:46] Speaker C: I think I'm gonna go down.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Freedom freedral. Go down.
[00:32:51] Speaker D: Everyone will go down.
[00:32:52] Speaker F: Feeling there's ominous rumbling up here, and I don't.
[00:32:57] Speaker C: It's not a good idea to stay.
[00:32:59] Speaker F: Yeah. Let's go.
[00:33:01] Speaker C: Might be best if we keep an eye on them. Like, if they probably gonna insist on coming, aren't they?
[00:33:06] Speaker D: Oh, don't worry. Cavern's keeping an eye.
[00:33:08] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Okay, so, Cavern, if you're staying up, are the other three of you going down.
So you head down into this vault, and it's who's providing the light as it's pitch black down here.
[00:33:25] Speaker C: Oh, blimey.
[00:33:28] Speaker D: Because that has still got a little wormy light.
[00:33:31] Speaker F: I can add something else to my loadout from my little.
[00:33:34] Speaker D: I mean, I haven't done anything, so I'm happy to have a lantern.
[00:33:37] Speaker C: I don't think I've got anything in my. Anything that weighs anything in my loadout.
[00:33:41] Speaker F: So I also should add some books to my loadout anyway, so a little bit. Right?
[00:33:47] Speaker A: Sure.
Well, whoever's providing the lantern light, you look around this rather. But the room itself is the same dimensions as the library overhead, but in lieu. But the ceiling is quite low.
And in lieu of sort of like pillars, there are a number of shelves.
You notice that quite a few of the shelves seem to have been, like, are empty. You assume that perhaps a lot of the artifacts are sort of, like, grabbed up during the antelior exodus when they were kind of booted out the city.
But as you peer around Atti, you notice that there are, like, runic inscriptions on the wall, like, walls of you looking at it, they look like runes of abjuration. So perhaps just prevent scrying or kind of divination on this area.
And it take. It doesn't take you all that long to find this large kind of crystalline cube that matches the description. Magpie, you realize of the artifact that Neff and a wanted you to retrieve as a. Is about two foot by two foot by two foot it's.
It's currently so the glass, the cube itself looks like it's made out of a glass like material. And there's a soft kind of fuchsia, fuchsia glow emanating from the center of it. There's heavy iron bandings around the edges and on the corners.
There seem to be sort of like, again, more kind of runic inscriptions on them, seemingly to, you know, contain. Protect this. This artifact, um, between atta and frieda. Um, you also, um, because you're. You've been tasked by algon to look for it, and you find, like, on the floor behind a crate, seemingly kind of accidentally knocked down, you see the telltale, you notice the telltale shape and design of the crown of house Antillea, a large. So a kind of silver and gold circlet with a number of, like, rubies and other precious materials across the. Across the front of it.
It looks a bit dinged, presumably from where it tumbled, but it's just kind of rolled into a corner slightly out of sight. So perhaps in a panic, it was knocked down, lost.
Yeah. You found, you found the crown of Antalya.
[00:36:46] Speaker C: Excellent.
Mission accomplished. Done?
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah, go ahead.
So who's taking the large cube?
[00:36:58] Speaker C: Good question.
Would Frida be happy to hold large cube or should one of us do that? So leave your fists free for swinging.
[00:37:09] Speaker B: Um, how large is the cube again? Like, is it by two foot?
[00:37:14] Speaker A: By two foot?
[00:37:14] Speaker B: Okay, so it would really take two hands.
[00:37:17] Speaker C: Two hands for sure.
[00:37:20] Speaker F: Atta's also happy to carry. I do have, like, a heavy. Like, I'm more of a carrier than a fighter as well. I'm not going to be doing much for sure. You can. You can load atta up.
[00:37:32] Speaker D: I mean, I don't have any loadout at the moment, but my loadout is light.
I don't know if I'd be able.
[00:37:38] Speaker C: To light as well.
[00:37:40] Speaker A: So it is large and heavy enough that it will count as two. So atif you're happy to carry it.
[00:37:46] Speaker F: Is there any foresight jizz? Sorry? Is there any.
Is there any foresight liquid down here? Forgot that we were recording for a second.
[00:38:01] Speaker A: There does not appear to be, unfortunately, no.
[00:38:04] Speaker F: Okay.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: Frida can carry it being, you know, it's quite a big cube and, you know, basically for the heavy lifting. So Frida will carry it. But, like, yeah, definitely gonna have to, like, wrap it in a hurry just in case we need to punch anything.
[00:38:21] Speaker F: I would like. If you want to carry it, totally fine. I would much rather you have your hands free for fighting, honestly, because I feel like, alejandro might get spicy.
[00:38:30] Speaker C: We don't want to. We don't want to.
We don't want you to drop it and potentially damage it because you're in a hurry to.
[00:38:37] Speaker F: Yeah.
[00:38:38] Speaker C: Respond to an emergency.
[00:38:40] Speaker B: All right, then Atta, you go ahead.
[00:38:48] Speaker A: In which case, is there anything else that you're. Is there anything else that you're grabbing while you're down here or is there anything that looks good you can grab? So this would be similar to the hollow job that you did in Rookridge.
For every load you of mitt of stuff that you take, that will count as, like, coin, basically.
[00:39:12] Speaker C: I'll take one load of good goodies.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: Okay, so one loot.
[00:39:19] Speaker D: I will also take one loot.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:39:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I shall take a loot.
[00:39:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Just.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: I've marked it down, but you just remember, you take one each. And actually, you taking any additional loot.
[00:39:33] Speaker F: Is somebody got the crown in their inventory. Who picked that up? Did anyone pick it up?
[00:39:40] Speaker C: The crown we've got. Sure.
Does that count as a whole load?
[00:39:48] Speaker A: In this case? Yes. So the crown is an extra.
[00:39:53] Speaker F: Somebody else want to take the crown, just in case?
[00:39:55] Speaker D: I'll take the crown.
[00:39:56] Speaker C: Okay, so I'll take a load of loot.
Um, I've got a loot load.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: A loot.
[00:40:03] Speaker F: Loot.
Loot is one and one. Yeah.
[00:40:08] Speaker C: One loot for me, one loot for Frida, one crown for cavern, and this.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Cameron taking a foot. Another loot as well.
[00:40:16] Speaker D: Can I. I'm on light loadout.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: Okay, how many is light? Like three or two?
[00:40:22] Speaker A: Uh, it is.
[00:40:26] Speaker F: Well, heavy. Is only seven.
[00:40:27] Speaker A: Three is still light, so I believe it's okay.
[00:40:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Cool.
[00:40:31] Speaker D: Okay, so can I take up and some loot as well, along with the crown? Cool. Take some loot.
[00:40:36] Speaker E: Cool.
[00:40:37] Speaker A: Okay, so you got three loot between you.
So as you're.
As you're heading up, Magpie, are you relying back to Algernon?
[00:40:46] Speaker C: Yep. I tell him we've got the item, we've got the crown, a few bits and bobs, and we're gonna get out of here.
[00:40:55] Speaker A: In which case, Algernon, as part of the extensive planning that happened before this run, was there a particular exfiltration route and was it back through the veil?
[00:41:12] Speaker E: No, no. I think. I think the plan is to come out via the front of the property. And one of the things that algae has been keeping an eye on with this telescope is the presence of the children of Aya within the ivory.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Sure.
In which case, as you. As you've been watching.
Yeah, there is.
You've noticed over the space of the like that there is a. Basically a bit of a camp, like a small outpost of children of Aya, about 50 meters from Castle Antalya. And at any given point, there's only ever sort of like one or two, maybe three clerics there. Just, you know, enough to ward off passers by. And it would. You would assume that based on the. Like, somehow these three, Alejandro and these other two have kind of gotten past these children of ire.
But as you hear Magpie tell you that they've got everything.
You spy a fourth child of ire approaching the camp, and it's a rather large, yellow scaled dragon scent. Woman.
[00:42:39] Speaker C: No.
[00:42:40] Speaker F: No.
[00:42:44] Speaker C: Go away, Dorothea.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: So, yeah, how is there anything you're doing to help with the exfiltration?
Cool.
[00:42:53] Speaker E: I would like to flash back to a meeting with high priestess Esoth at the cathedral.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
Swinging for that home run, I see.
[00:43:08] Speaker E: She told me to my face that anyone is welcome at the cathedral, so I'm going to accept her invitation.
[00:43:15] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:43:16] Speaker A: This is very, very true. Okay.
Yeah, she.
As you enter, in which case, yeah, the meeting, I suspect, would be by the altar at the heart of the cathedral of our glorious mother in Abbotsgate.
And you're.
You would have noticed the looks that you were getting as you strode up like the main aisle to the altar. And the small but kind of prominent goblin woman turns to look to you as you approach.
And as you do, she turns to face you straight on, planting the staff, the glowing can edifice of its hair down in a very sturdy kind of manner.
Hello, child.
It's a surprise to see you.
[00:44:23] Speaker E: High priestess. I was told anyone is welcome here at the cathedral.
I do hope it was meant sincerely. Although I notice I've been getting a few odd glances.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: I assure you that our clerics are simply surprised by our presence and that all are welcome in the warm embrace of our mother.
How can I help you?
Algernon, was it?
[00:44:56] Speaker E: That's right. I come here sincerely because I want help with my affliction.
I was wondering if you really believed that I am to blame for the sins of my ancestors.
And if there's anything that could be done.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: The path of atonement and redemption is a long and winding one, indeed, Mister Cadwallader. Something that I am sure that you and the rest of your family are well aware of.
[00:45:35] Speaker E: I worry that it's left me vulnerable.
Left my soul vulnerable to devilish influence.
There's a particular devil who has been trying to reach me.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: Lukashi tilts her head and raises an eyebrow.
[00:45:55] Speaker E: She told me her name was Taro.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: You watch the high priestess stiffen.
What makes you think that she is of a fiendish disposition?
[00:46:17] Speaker E: I'm not sure, but I do know one thing for certain, and that you have also met her and you didn't like what she had to say.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: You watch the goblin, like, clench down on her back teeth and, like, you see the shifts of weight on the two clerics that are flanking her as they kind of, like, awkwardly shuffle from foot to foot, like one slowly kind of glancing down at the. The high priestess and like, you know, whilst she's still looking at you very intently, you know she isn't targeting this at you. When she says, leave us, and the two clerics kind of slowly shuffle away.
You are correct to assume that I did not find solace in the words that trickster had for me.
I'm curious as to how you have also heard her duplicitous, honeyed words.
[00:47:30] Speaker E: She was very keen for me and my comrades to spread that honey.
I'm not entirely sure of her alignment, but I'd be curious to know what your more zealous followers would. Would think of your encounter with her. Either you've been consorting with a fiend, or you've willfully ignored the advice of a celestial being.
I wonder which rumor they'd find juicier.
[00:48:03] Speaker A: I could imagine that her words would be considered as a warning to some, as a threat.
But I assure you, Mister Cadwallader, that I see her words as nothing more than a deadline.
The existence of the veil in itself is an affront against Aya.
If you are here to help us achieve our goals before the veil is to disperse, we would greatly appreciate your help.
[00:48:41] Speaker E: I'm here because I want your children to get off my lawn.
[00:48:50] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:48:51] Speaker E: Scale back. Scale back your activities in the ivory and stay away from Codwell. Edda Mana.
[00:48:58] Speaker A: She muses on this for a moment.
Roll me a.
I think it's gonna happen. Are you telling her or asking her?
[00:49:12] Speaker E: I'm sort of threatening.
It's. It's sway, basically. I'm sort of threatening to what I'm.
[00:49:19] Speaker A: Thinking, whether it's sway or command, I'm.
[00:49:22] Speaker E: Wondering it might be command. It's in terms of dying.
[00:49:28] Speaker A: Yeah, this is like. So I guess if you. If you're asking her to vacate your lawn, it will be a sway. If you're instructing her to leave your lawn, it'll be command.
[00:49:38] Speaker E: Let's go for command. I haven't done one of those before.
[00:49:41] Speaker A: Okay. Are you okay? So she is the leader.
She is. For all except purposes, she is tier four.
[00:50:01] Speaker C: Blimey.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: So we're gonna start this clock.
Well, we're gonna start this as she's three tiers higher than you, as a risky. No effect.
So you've got pushed, you've got devil's bargains.
Um, you've got your ace of our super power.
[00:50:30] Speaker E: Yeah, infallible, but I can't use that if the effects zero.
[00:50:34] Speaker A: Well, if I. If you.
[00:50:36] Speaker C: If you changed it something else. Push it with infallible. Yeah.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: So, um, if this has happened in the past, can frida be part of this flashback to help out? It's kind of like an intimidating presence.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: By all means, by all means, I will.
[00:50:53] Speaker B: I will take stress towards this ballsy move.
Gladly. This is a. This is a grade a power move, and I'm all for it.
[00:51:05] Speaker A: I will ask for one stress on Frieda's clock.
This retroactive help.
[00:51:12] Speaker B: Hashtag worth it.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: Devil's bargain.
[00:51:19] Speaker E: I have an idea.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: Okay, go on.
[00:51:22] Speaker E: So in the present day, they can come to Kodwala Damana and try and arrest me as long as they stay away from Castle Antelia.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, well, I'll twist it ever so slightly.
They won't arrest you.
They will expect you to work for them.
You become an agent of the faith, and they will give you tasks you that are particularly, particularly suited to your skill set.
Yeah, okay.
Okay, so we've got devil's bargain. If you want to push, that's an additional one.
[00:52:22] Speaker E: I do.
[00:52:23] Speaker A: You've got help from Frieda, and you've got infallible if you want to use it.
[00:52:30] Speaker E: Sure.
[00:52:31] Speaker A: So we're starting on risky no effect.
So one of those gets you to risky lesser.
How do you want to spend your other upgrades?
[00:52:45] Speaker E: I will use infallible to put it up to standard whiskey.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: Standard. Okay. Yeah.
[00:52:54] Speaker E: I'm going to push myself. The right dice.
[00:52:56] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah.
[00:52:58] Speaker E: The devil's bargain.
[00:53:06] Speaker A: Okay, so two additional dice, two additional effects. So that will leave you on a three dice, frisky standard, and freedom is also.
[00:53:22] Speaker E: Could I also trade position for effect and go for desperate?
[00:53:27] Speaker A: You absolutely can. Okay, so algae command.
Okay.
[00:53:35] Speaker C: Oh, my God.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: Three dice, risky greater.
And Frieda is also involved in the consequences.
[00:53:45] Speaker C: Would it not be desperate greater?
[00:53:47] Speaker A: So. What did I say? Sorry, desperate grader.
Okay, roll them, Bones.
[00:53:57] Speaker C: No. Come on.
[00:54:03] Speaker D: You can resist.
[00:54:05] Speaker C: Resist. Please resist.
[00:54:07] Speaker A: Okay. It's the worst outcome.
[00:54:13] Speaker E: Come on, resist.
[00:54:15] Speaker C: Well, we don't know what we're resisting yet.
[00:54:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I think maybe I'm jinxed. I'm so sorry, JC.
[00:54:23] Speaker C: You know what? It can't be helped.
[00:54:27] Speaker B: It's bloody Watts's face.
Bargain bin. Darth Vader all over again, isn't it?
[00:54:39] Speaker A: Okay, I mean, I've got it.
Lucraji closes her eyes and looks down at the ground and then opens them to look at you directly and there is a ferocity in her gaze.
The children of ire, unfortunately have to decline your offer in this instance, Mister Cadwallader.
But your offer of help and charity to our cause is still greatly appreciated and we will be in contact with details on how you may help us deliver Ayah's divine message to the people.
Good day.
She says.
[00:55:34] Speaker E: Huh?
[00:55:35] Speaker C: Do you want. Is that, is that what you wanted to resist? JC? At particular consequence, and as a result.
[00:55:42] Speaker A: Of this, as you're. That's the devil's bargain. Through the telescope, the large yellow scaled dragon scent is at the head of a war band heading.
[00:55:58] Speaker C: Please resist.
Please resist.
Resist the war band. Please.
You get four dice for this date. You, if it's resolved.
[00:56:16] Speaker A: This is a resolve? Yeah.
[00:56:20] Speaker E: Okay.
[00:56:23] Speaker C: Oh, look at that. One stress.
[00:56:25] Speaker A: One stress.
So I will reduce.
It is ace we are back to.
It's like Dorothea and a couple of clerics. So it's not a war party.
It is now.
It's now small group of them. I'm only going to tick up. Dorothea arrives by one segment, so to.
[00:56:56] Speaker E: Resist it, we're gonna, we flash back to the cathedral and I lose my composure a little bit. And I say, what about alchemical fire?
I suppose you think these walls are resistant to it.
[00:57:18] Speaker A: She, she sort of, like she's turned to leave after what she assumed was a slam dunk.
And then she stops and, and turns back and she looks, and you notice, like, she looks at you and there is a flicker of kind of doubt and concern in her eyes.
Everyone saw what happened to the ruby keep. And like, glancing around, you realize that the cathedral of our glorious mother is pretty much built around about the same time, using the same materials, probably even the same architect.
And there is a flicker, a momentary flicker of kind of doubt in her eyes.
And she doesn't say anything, she just nods as if acknowledging what you're saying.
[00:58:16] Speaker E: And then, quite well, I hear the kindling at least give their followers a choice.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: Lucrati stops and.
And that is the problem, Mister Cadwallader.
Choice breeds chaos.
She. Yeah, she seems, she seems rattled that you would threaten the faith. Like in this, in this kind of circumstance, and like with your words in her mind, she. She nods again and once again repeats, Mister Cadwallader, Frena, she says, and then turns to leave. So it seems like it was a bit of a gambit then. You weren't sure how that was gonna pan out at the time, but it would seem that she. She has not thrown her full weight into harassing you and your crew in the present. But it would seem, from what you remember of this Dorothea character, perhaps she wasn't so easily curtailed by lucrative. Yes. Dorothea is. Has. Is storming towards Castle Amazon for a.
[00:59:37] Speaker D: Rocket window, just for a rock.
[00:59:41] Speaker A: So, yeah, you see her so, like, strike striding up the street towards, like, towards the castle at the edge of the veil.
And you see a sort, like, stop at one of the. The stop at the outpost that's kind of near to it. And you see us, like, barking orders and kind of shouting. You see the clerics looking at one another, a bit confused, and then you see it's all, like, frantically pointing at the castle.
And the five of them, the five of them total, begin sort of moving towards the front gate.
[01:00:12] Speaker E: I messaged Magpie.
It's up. Magpie. You're getting company through the front. It's our second favorite dragon scent.
[01:00:20] Speaker C: Oh, God. And I tell the others that Dorothy is here at the front. Okay, how do we. How are we getting out of here?
[01:00:29] Speaker F: He's still going out of the front.
[01:00:32] Speaker D: There was another entrance.
[01:00:34] Speaker C: I don't love that idea. I think.
[01:00:37] Speaker B: Well, here's an idea. There's a big old crystal golem stomping around.
[01:00:44] Speaker C: Are you saying we lure it with the main entrance?
[01:00:48] Speaker B: And if we could, like.
If we could just, like, you know, introduce Dorothea to the crystal golem or the crystal golem to Dorothea, it might solve our little issue for us.
[01:01:03] Speaker F: What does the golem book say about controlling the golem?
[01:01:07] Speaker C: Sorry, I do you set it at somebody.
[01:01:11] Speaker A: So the book does say that golems take command from the creator, but, like, they will continue to perform the last given order in place of idle sea, unless instructed to go idle after the completion of a task. So you suspect that this golem is just like. It sounds like it's patrolling the estate.
The image of it that you see in the book atta, shows that it is quite large, and you're curious about how it moves from floor to floor, if, in fact, it moves from floor to floor.
But because you've not. I mean, you haven't seen all of castle antler, obviously, but you haven't seen, like, any other, of broken, like, rune golems in this area, but they seem to be drawn to, like, they seem to be able to, like, intelligently into it that, like, whether something is a disturbance or not, so fundamentally, if you were to make, like, loads of crashing, banging, like, hoodlum like noises, it would draw its attention.
[01:02:33] Speaker F: Interesting. So perhaps if we were to have taken the alchemist fire that Frida had come and caused some commotion. I don't know, or something, we can distract people enough.
I don't know. What does. What does the gang think?
[01:02:52] Speaker B: I'm just thinking from, like, a logistics point of view. The ominous rumbling has one segment left on its clock. And Dorothea arrives also has one segment.
[01:03:04] Speaker C: Left on the clock.
[01:03:06] Speaker B: So all I'm saying is, if both of those clocks are filled right at the same time, then we might have the perfect distraction in order for us to just, you know, and also there's.
[01:03:21] Speaker C: You know, loctorazir in there with him.
[01:03:24] Speaker A: Alejandro.
[01:03:25] Speaker F: Alejandro.
[01:03:26] Speaker B: Alejandro. Alejandro and his little gang are also there. So they sort of add to the confusion, you know, I mean, we did say earlier we might use them as a meat shield. So we did.
[01:03:38] Speaker C: We did. To be fair.
[01:03:45] Speaker A: Okay, what. What is the plan? Conclusive.
[01:03:49] Speaker C: Dorothea in the castle with a crystal golem, make noise, and then bring Dorothea and the golem to the same place, and we leave and shut the door behind us.
[01:04:00] Speaker F: So, shall we?
So there's only one exit and entrance into the library. No, wait, there's multiple. Because there's multiple floors.
[01:04:08] Speaker A: Multiple floors. So I can tell you that there is a door on the west wall. So that would have been, like, as you entered, it was the wall on the right.
So there was a door on that kind of balcony, but that seemed to be it. And then you have similar.
There's not. You notice when you're up there, there's not a door on the upper floor or, like, on the lower floor in that direction.
[01:04:38] Speaker F: So the. There were. There were two doors on the middle floor, which is that, like, the. Also where, like, the exit from. Entrance would be.
[01:04:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Um, Algernon, as you're. You've got the. The eyes from the sky, for all accents and purposes, you can see that Dorothy is approaching. Um, is there any. Is there a plan that you're formulating to on how they can get out?
[01:05:04] Speaker E: Arganon is trying to attune into the remaining, like, foresight hangover headache that he's experiencing. And all he can think about is that ominous rumbling.
The approaching golem.
And as Dorothea walks up the steps to the main entrance of the castle, he gets on the earring and instructs Magpie to think about that golem. And if there's a way to form a distraction.
[01:05:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:05:42] Speaker F: Yeah. Yes.
[01:05:43] Speaker C: How are we going to attract the golem then?
[01:05:45] Speaker F: If that's the plan, disturbance, start shelving books incorrectly.
[01:05:52] Speaker D: Start knocking books off shelves.
[01:05:54] Speaker B: That lots of noise. Does, uh, does Atta have any of those little rat bombs left?
[01:06:00] Speaker F: She's probably not got the rats, but likely just running all over her.
[01:06:07] Speaker A: Well, um, Algernon, you can see that Dorothea is kind of, because she's heading into the front, like, through the front doors, basically, um, like boulders, brass, just striding in through the front door. Um, you can see from the map that the first room that she'll enter into is like the great hall. You can see that there's a stairway that rises up to the second floor. It's one of those similar to Kalbolo Dimanovs, in fact, where it rises, one large staircase in the middle that branches into two, like left and right when it reaches the wall.
So there's very easy open access from the upper floor to that great hall.
Yeah. Is there a location that you're advising them to bring the golem to?
[01:06:54] Speaker E: If the golems on the floor above you, you could perhaps make a noise to draw them both up onto the first floor.
[01:07:02] Speaker C: If we need someone to go up and attract its attention. Magpie is happy to do that as quite a fast finessi character. Yeah, she's pretty sure she can just lure it down.
[01:07:16] Speaker A: Okay.
In which case, are the other three of you happy to, like, make your way to the effect lead to the front door to intercept Dorothea?
[01:07:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:26] Speaker D: Where's, where's Alejandro and his crew?
[01:07:31] Speaker A: You don't know?
[01:07:33] Speaker C: Oh, great.
[01:07:36] Speaker A: They have disappeared.
[01:07:41] Speaker F: Oh, great. We still got all the stuff that we want on us.
[01:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah, we got what we want. And I think we've got more pressing, you know, problems.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yes. Um, yeah, Alejandro and crew seem to have disappeared. You have a plan. Algon is informing you that time is of the essence.
So as the three. So Frieda, Atta and Cavern, as you make your way, like, through the rooms towards the front, like the grand. The grand hall, if you will, of Castle Antalya, you arrive into this large. Yeah, large hall.
There's. It stretches from sort of like the floor that you're stood on, two stories up above you. You can see that. Well, the stairway that rises to up from your right, up to your right, opens up into a large kind of open air, balcony type area. Very similar to a lot of noble houses that you've seen.
What truly grabs your attention is the impressively detailed and sized statue of a khan that dominates the center of this grand hall.
And as you and you can see again the crest of house Antillea above the stairway.
Above the staircase. But as you take this all in the front doors of the. The castle are thrown open and Dorothea strides in, flanked by four clerics, and like she takes a step into the castle and you can, like her face immediately twists into a sneer and snarl as she regards the visage of a khan in front of her before she turns to look to her right to see the three of you, cavern included, like having just emerged from one of the doors.
Cavern, she says in a. With a tone of confusion and borderline disgust.
[01:09:52] Speaker D: Oh, what a wonderful place to meet you. As always, we must be going.
Goodbye.
[01:10:01] Speaker A: She looks to you. And you'll be going nowhere, she says, and the clerics begin to form up. Magpie, you make it upstairs.
[01:10:15] Speaker C: Which way have I taken up the upstairs? Have I cut through that front entrance before everybody else? Or am I going back through the veil?
[01:10:26] Speaker A: No, presumably you would have caught one of the, like, gone up the stairs in the library to the top floor.
[01:10:32] Speaker C: Oh, can you do that? Okay. And then there are. Yes, okay, perfect. Um, right, so I. Yeah, so you.
[01:10:42] Speaker A: Make your way into like a large room. The floors are like. Although the floors are wooden, you know that they're reinforced with stone underneath. But there's.
This seems like a large kind of restroom, like a meeting room of sorts. You see some old tatty sofas around a coffee table type thing next to a fireplace. You see a piano on. In one corner. You see a small kind of planning table over in another corner.
And as you open the door and step in, all of the. All of the furniture is dwarfed by this hulking carved stone giant that stops like you. The floor shakes under its footsteps and it stops as you enter the door and walk in. Then slowly at the waist, it rotates to regard you, the creep. This golem doesn't appear to have a head of sorts, but more what you would regard. Its shoulders just kind of meet. There's just an uninterrupted curve. And there is a small. There is a sizable circular gem, kind of where his breastbone would be that flickers ever so slightly as it regards you. And then you watch as, like its legs fundamentally backwards. It then begins to walk towards you, and as it does, the legs begin to rotate and you realize that the joints aren't actually joined, they just seem to be kind of stone, like floating stones connected by a magical force as it moves towards you.
[01:12:28] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[01:12:30] Speaker A: And like it. See the plotting that you've heard it doing all this time, upsettingly. It seems a lot quicker now that it's spotted you. What do you do?
[01:12:42] Speaker C: I like to think that the moment I entered the room and clocked it, we sort of. It turned. We looked at each other for a second, and then I think magpie just, like, grabs, like, a crystal ashtray or something, lobs it at him, and then runs for the door on the left, hoping that that is going to take her back into the main entrance hallway.
[01:13:02] Speaker A: Sure.
You run up to the door, and you reach out for the handle and sort of, like, twist it as you try to use your body to throw through it. And to your horror, you bounce. And the door is why.
[01:13:17] Speaker C: Oh, God. Is the other door locked? Can I make a run for that?
[01:13:22] Speaker A: Go have a look. Or you could try and pick this.
[01:13:25] Speaker C: And how long do I have?
[01:13:28] Speaker A: It's gonna be on you within. If we're talking D and D terms, it's gonna be on you within a round.
[01:13:35] Speaker C: Great. Okay.
Lock.
Okay.
[01:13:43] Speaker A: I'm going to listen this as a desperate action.
[01:13:47] Speaker C: Sure. Thanks.
[01:13:50] Speaker A: But luckily, thanks to your fine lock picks, you start on standard.
[01:13:54] Speaker C: Okay.
I would.
Is my infallible ability gonna give me anything here?
[01:14:06] Speaker A: It gives you plus one effect.
[01:14:09] Speaker C: Right. So it would become what?
[01:14:11] Speaker A: A risky. A desperate grater.
[01:14:15] Speaker C: A desperate grater.
Okay.
And then if I push myself, that will give me three dice.
[01:14:29] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[01:14:34] Speaker C: Is there anything else I can do?
[01:14:39] Speaker A: I'm not going to offer a devil's bargain because I've already been very mean to you all. Unless you want me to.
I can think of something.
Regardless of what happens, your tools break.
[01:15:03] Speaker C: I can deal with that.
We've got downtime. I'll deal with it.
[01:15:08] Speaker A: Okay, so you're taking the devil's bargain.
[01:15:10] Speaker C: Devil's bargain for another dice.
[01:15:12] Speaker A: So takes you up to four dice. Desperate greater.
[01:15:17] Speaker C: Desperate greater.
Okay, everyone prater.
Whoever.
Whoever's listening.
Okay, let's go.
[01:15:41] Speaker D: Becomes our friend.
[01:15:48] Speaker F: It's new. New Mister dribbles.
[01:15:58] Speaker A: In this moment, like, the moment you bounce off the door and you realize that it's locked. Your world slows down, and you can hear your heart as you sort of, like, correct yourself, turn to look to see how much time you've got. Look back, and before you've even, like, subconsciously, you've already brought out your lock picks. And as you desperately try to pick this lock, as this golem bears down on you, and like, with every step, it just seems more. More ponderous and intimidating and like you, that, you know, you catch yourself for a moment looking over your shoulder to check where it is, and you're still kind of picking the lock with the same accuracy you've always known. And you feel as you're pushing up one of the tumblers, like your. To begin to bend and twist.
And off the back of a critical. I'm gonna say, you catch it and stop yourself. Skyrim wise, you change the angle ever so slightly, and the tools do not break.
No way.
And you feel the click, and you've already got your hand on the handle, and you turn it. And the three of you downstairs, you watch Magpie. You hear a tumble through a door upstairs.
Magpie, you land on a kind of an upstairs balcony of the grand hall. You can see a staircase down immediately on your right.
And like this. This golem is sort of like walking along. And as it approaches the door and you think, this is a normal sized person door, what's going to happen? You watch as it. The rocks that. The floating rocks that form its shape begin to, like, contract in to allow it to. To fit through a six foot door. And as you realize, oh, no, it's still coming.
What were you doing?
[01:18:09] Speaker C: I'm booking it. I'm picking myself up and just running down the stairs.
[01:18:15] Speaker A: Sure. Okay. The three of you notice, like, magpie just screams up the stairs.
Immediately in front of you, you see the backside of this, uh, statue of a khan. And you can hear someone. Someone's on the other side. And you assume, based off what Algon was saying, that it is Dorothea and, like, her clerics, and I'm. I'm just gonna. I guess I'll take over a little bit and say that as you peel right around the statue, the three of you notice that the clerics and dorothy a turn to see magpie, like, ripped a riding past them, like, fundamentally going behind them. And the clerics dispersed to try and kind of cut, like, cut off magpie, kind of catch up with her, but we're still riding on that success.
You just tear straight out.
The three of you. You are like the children of Ayah are distracted. Um, and like, dorothea, like, is looking over her shoulder to one, wondering what happened, who that ace of our was that just bolted. I think. I think I recognize her.
And she turns back to you. Cavern, um, and you. And she takes a few steps forward, and a shadow looms over her. And the three of you, as this compacted golem, like, leaps off the balcony and lands in the great hall, almost knocking the statue of a carnova and it looks like just a monolith. But then you watch as it begins to stretch upwards and its arms begin to fold out, and you see these comprised of sort of, like, seven bits of floating stone in a rough, humanoid shape.
And as it grows and grows to its full size, and it glances across the eight of you, the clerics included, and in a low, deep voice, it refers. You hear it bellow.
And as Dorothea looks up to it and save us, she says, one of the clerics, like, draws a mace and, like, runs at the. The golem and swings a. Basically just bounces off its hide, and the golem looks down, and then bringing up one of its, like, boulder like arms, it knocks the cleric across the room.
Distracted. Would you like to. While the clerics are distracted, would you like to leave?
[01:20:55] Speaker D: Yes, please. Running.
[01:20:56] Speaker A: Running.
[01:20:57] Speaker C: Can I lock the door behind us?
[01:21:01] Speaker A: If you would like to lock the door behind you, you absolutely can. What?
[01:21:04] Speaker C: Uh, Kevin, what do you think?
[01:21:06] Speaker D: Yeah, go, go, go.
[01:21:08] Speaker C: I want to try.
Um, that might be me getting a bit cocky, though.
[01:21:14] Speaker A: Ah, do it.
[01:21:16] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:21:16] Speaker F: I'll just give you an extra dose.
[01:21:18] Speaker C: Okay. Okay, cool.
[01:21:20] Speaker F: Uh, two stress for a help. Right.
[01:21:23] Speaker C: One stress for a help. Isn't it?
[01:21:25] Speaker A: Uh, one stress for a help.
[01:21:27] Speaker C: Yeah. Can I have. Have a bit of help?
What kind of role is this?
[01:21:32] Speaker A: Everyone holding the door closed because the clerics are trying to get out.
[01:21:37] Speaker C: What type of role is this?
[01:21:39] Speaker A: We'll start as a risky standard. Yeah.
[01:21:41] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:21:41] Speaker A: Desperate standard. Bring pond. Desperate standard.
[01:21:43] Speaker C: Desperate.
[01:21:44] Speaker F: Love it.
[01:21:45] Speaker A: There's a golem on the loose.
[01:21:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. So desperate standard plus one.
I think I'm just gonna go for it as is.
[01:21:53] Speaker A: Mm hmm.
[01:21:54] Speaker C: This is where my luck runs out. Let's go.
[01:21:57] Speaker A: No pizza success.
You hear? You all hear the magpies. You lock the door from the outside. It's very rare in your profession that you have to lock a door with locked. You manage it, and you hear sort of like, the screaming and panicked bangs on the other side of the door from the cleric trying to get through.
And I will go ahead and roll.
So the golem has rolled a six.
And the children of ire. Let's roll three.
[01:22:38] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[01:22:39] Speaker F: It's gonna be some new ghosts.
Maybe I can catch that.
[01:22:45] Speaker A: You hear?
You can only begin. Like, the fact you can't see what's happening to those clerics inside castle Antalya arguably makes it worse.
And as you hightail it out of the. The front gates of castle Antelia, like, over the. The children of. I erected barricades and whatnot, you notice that their outpost that was kind of in front of the castle is now empty. Presumably those who were stationed there are now in the castle, trying to evade the reach of a enraged golem.
And without any particular pursuance, you're able to make it away from the castle, and I mean, assuming back to the safe, the relative safety of Cadwallader manor.
Yeah.
[01:23:43] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness.
[01:23:47] Speaker A: As you. In which case, as you tear down the street of the ivory, where in within the space of about 15 to 2020 minutes, you have stepped through the veil into the deadlands, you have roamed through the halls of castle Antilir, you have found a secret great vault. You have tangled with the rune golem and the children of ire as you make it back to your base, I reckon we call it there.
[01:24:23] Speaker C: Oh, boy.
[01:24:26] Speaker B: See, not all my ideas are rubbish.
[01:24:31] Speaker C: That was incredible.
[01:24:36] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. That was. There are honestly, those. Look at all that lovely stress.
[01:24:42] Speaker C: Look at all that lovely stress. No, no trauma. No trauma.
[01:24:46] Speaker B: No trauma.
[01:24:47] Speaker C: Just a lovely healthy amount of stress. Oh, that's, that's good resource management.
[01:24:52] Speaker F: Right.
[01:24:52] Speaker B: I can't believe that. Three criticals we were getting such terrible. I feel like for the past, we.
[01:24:58] Speaker C: Saved them all up.
[01:24:59] Speaker B: Sessions.
[01:24:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:25:02] Speaker B: Rolls and then you just knock it out the park. Just. It's amazing.
[01:25:05] Speaker C: Very, very lucky that was. What a feeling. Three, three successes.
[01:25:16] Speaker B: Don't you dare.
[01:25:18] Speaker C: He's come to burst doing it elsewhere in Alicia. Yeah.
[01:25:25] Speaker A: The resonant sound of hammer falls ring out through a filthy room in the sewers of Elysia.
Crazed whisperings interspersed with the sounds of the crackling of magic, punctuated by flashes of blue glow illuminating the occupants of the room in ghoulish lighting.
Pulling her visor up, Umi takes a step back, her eyes wide with joy, her hands quivering as she looks up at the greatest creation she's ever forged.
I think. I think we've done it. I think. I think we've, we've done it, she says, and she reaches up and grabs the, the sleeve of the lord of our man stood beside her. We've, we've done it. We have unlocked the evolution. We, we can now ascends to a higher state.
But who? Who will it be? Who will it be?
And the law of Iron man shakes her hand off his wrist and with a face covered in religious scripture, Caleb looks at the creation in front of him.
Only the most pious and faithful can take this step.
It shall be me, he says as he looks at his reflection in the faceplate in front of him.
[01:27:34] Speaker B: Well, so what?
[01:27:35] Speaker A: Who?
[01:27:36] Speaker B: Remind me again about how lovely Umi was. I think, uh, you're talking about it.
[01:27:41] Speaker C: Umi is lovely. She's just misguided.
[01:27:46] Speaker F: She'll come around. She'll come around.
[01:27:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:27:51] Speaker A: Congratulations, everyone, on completing a very bumper episode eleven.
[01:28:01] Speaker C: Blimey.
[01:28:03] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
[01:28:04] Speaker A: Uh, yeah. You did it.
[01:28:07] Speaker B: You did it in of our teeth.
[01:28:11] Speaker C: Yes, it was fine.
[01:28:13] Speaker A: Absolutely fine. Absolutely fine.
So not to, uh. Well, let this. Yeah, we will just jump straight into it. Thank you all for watching. Thank you all for playing.
Hit the like button if you liked it and comment down below on give me a percentage of the likelihood of survival. The chuck, the percentage chance of survival for those iron clerics.
It might be a low. You know, it might be a low strength golem. Who knows?
Yeah. If you want to see more of this, make sure to hit the subscribe button and the bell icon for notifications of when we release new content, because that happens very, very frequently.
We won't when you miss out. So thank you all for playing.
Thank you all for watching.
We'll see you for the next one.
Bye.
