Long live the King - Part 1

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You guys love what we do. We love what we do. Let's kick it up a notch. We're trying to reach our goal of 20,000. That seems like a lot. Seems like a lot. But you know what? With the power of you guys, we can do it. And if you want, we also have a Facebook page, which I assume you know about. And if you don't, you better check it out, Dungeons and Randomness. Hit Like. Also, we have a Twitter account. That's a thing. DNR podcast, I believe that's what that is. Yeah. Give us a follow on that. You can give me a follow too, @draconisdr, just by the way. @draconisdr.

But hope you guys enjoy listening to the show. Let's do this. Let's do that thing where we go around the table. I'm Jason. I'm the Dungeon Master going on the table, starting with Dan. Hi, my name's Dan. I play Duncan Joy Batam, Dwarven Bard. You can follow me on Twitter @duncanjoybatam. And Delmar. Hi, I'm Delmar. I play Hondo. And I'm a Drow cleric ranger. And Tyler. Hi, I'm Tyler. I play Thoril Songsteel, Human Scout. And you can follow me on Twitter @thorilsongsteel. And Kelsey. Hey, I'm Kelsey. I play Diana Astaroth, Tiefling Mage. And you can follow me @dianastaroth.

And Jake. What's going on, guys? I'm Jake, a.k.a. Drakonas. I'm a flaming dragonborn fire mage. And Tom. Hey, I'm Tom. I play Yemreid Firestomp. And you can follow me @demilavato. I don't know who that is. Who is it, Tom? I don't know the joke. It's a Disney singer. OK. You don't know who Demilavato is. I think she's in Pirates of the Caribbean. GG. Yeah, OK, cool. Sorry, I wasn't on my radar. Oh, can I do a shout out? Can I do the shout out, Jason? Yes, please do. Yeah. I just want to give a big shout out to a big fan who lives out in Springfield, Missouri. She works at a come and go.

And that's where I saw her. So what's up? That's new celebrity Dan talking. I pictured the head nod, the little like-- I did it. I did it. I'm imagining the little finger guns with the wink and the-- What's up, babe? Did you see my gift? We all remember what happened last time, right? You want a little brief recap? Long story short-- We woke up 17 years later. Yes, we're going to pick up right there. I'm going to be fucked up if Liz is like, wait, did I-- wait, just have them questioning everything? Long story short, you guys are knee deep in a battle that's leading to the gates of the Overwatch.

Your side is losing. Keric was taken down by a shitload of arrows. And Yenward and Thoril were helping him off the battlefield when he reached for the horn at his side and was about to blow into it to summon Strahd, a legendary dragon. Only Thoril knew what the hell was going on. And instead of choosing to stop him, he figured it would be a better idea just to let this dragon come on in. So we kind of gave him the nod. And quite literally actually gave him the nod. And-- That's debatable. It's really not. I saw you. How about a thing? It's like Han and Greedo.

It's like, you're caught under the bed. It may have happened. It may not have happened. Who knows? It happened. Wait, no, Han. There's no debate on that. [LAUGHTER] He's still late. You want to fight? You want to fight? I can pull a clip. Hold on. [LAUGHTER] So yes, Keric blows into the horn, summons Strahd. And that is where we left off last time. Canonically, just to make sure everyone understands, Yenward was standing right next to Thoril when all this was happening. He would have saw the exchange but not understood what the hell was going on until this dragon shows up.

The last thing you guys decided to do was start running for your lives. Totally makes sense. Passing, swooping down towards you was Strahd. That was the last thing, the absolute last thing. Everyone do me a favor, roll an endurance check. Oh. Me first. Me first. Endurance, that thing. Oh. Eh, not too bad. Oh, look at that. This isn't going to go well. We got pretty good rolls. We all survived. Do me a favor, place your characters on the board right in this general region here. OK. I have a quick question. Did the guy die that blew the horn? Not yet. No? OK. Is he with us?

Are we dragging him? You're carrying him. Yeah, Yenward's kind of leaning against Yenward. OK, just making sure. Yeah, that's right, I tried to pick him up when he was really hit. Yeah. He had too much bow chance. You can't have enough bow chance. I think your stomach would disagree. Well, I had a lot of hot-- I put a lot of hot sauce on it. I went in the 4,000 calories in an hour is the hot sauce. Hey, hey, hey, guys? You guys? Guys? Just saying. Guys? It's not that bad. It's not that bad. Hey, time to stop fucking around. OK. There's a dragon. Maiden. Dick, Dan. Eat the dick, Dan.

All right. All right, let's play, guys. Let's go. Everyone needs to take their fucking Adderall and let's settle down here and let's do this. Hey. Passing overhead so low that it feels like you could reach up and touch his underbelly is Strahd. And he is coming in so fast that the force, the wind coming off of him as he shoots over you, is going to be enough to knock over Hondo. It's going to be enough to knock over Draconis and Diana. So all three of you are going to be knocked prone. The rest of you are just kind of hunkering down. And it seems, even though he's moving at a really incredible speed, it seems like it takes him forever.

This black shadow covers the entire battlefield around you. And he just-- it seems like it takes forever for him to pass. And after these three, you're blown over shortly after he is going to completely pass over. And you're going to-- everyone roll perception, please. OK. Damn it. Wait for me. Greatness on me. I think the storm coming. Everyone who fell over take a negative 2 to your roll, by the way. Yeah, roll a 4 then. It doesn't matter. No, you can't roll. It's a 7 instead of a 9. That's going to make a lot of a difference. You were so looking forward to this, too. [LAUGHTER] OK.

Let's see who's going to notice this. Hondo and Thoril are going to whip around just in time to see this dragon belch fire into the crowd. And the first shot is just kind of this quick little shotgun blast of fire that's just going to-- almost like he's warming up. And it's going to hit the ground. And it almost looks like a liquid the way it hits. It hits and then splashes outward, instantly frying the surrounding grasslands and catching several small trees on fire. And the first shot doesn't seem to do-- it doesn't seem to reach the crowd, but it drives everyone into a full blown panic.

If they weren't panicking before they saw the dragon come in and then hear it roar, they were definitely panicking after the first belch of fire hits. And Strahd is going to swoop up after that. And it appears as though he's flying towards the tree line of the Evergreen. Several of the soldiers on both sides on the fringe are going to be blown over with the force of Strahd's gust of air as he flaps his wings and elevates. You guys got a couple of seconds here to do something. I don't exactly know what it is you want to do, but you have precious seconds to take action.

Those of us standing-- I'd like to stand up, yeah. Yeah, those of us standing help the ones who aren't up and one. We can continue running. Here's a quick question. When the gust came, did it knock over the guy that Yinward was holding? No, because he's kind of holding tight to Yinward. And Yinward didn't fall over, so it's OK. OK, Yinward, do you want to keep a hold of him, or are you going to let him go? That will slow you down holding on. I'll let him-- I'll hold him. OK, so you're going to move at a third of the speed everyone else is going to move. OK.

OK, Strahd is going to circle back around. And as he's approaching-- as he's re-approaching the tree line, he's floating right over the southern tip of the Evergreen. So this would be where-- this would be where, if you listen to group three, where they fought those Titans the first time, where-- that this is where their clear-cutting operation was in full swing. And Strahd is just going to start belching fire everywhere. The entirety of the southern tip of this tree line is going to go up in flames. And then he is swooping back down towards the group.

And he is going to open his mouth, and a cone of fire is going to erupt. Now, both sides have started retreating to their respective-- so the Overwatch side is going to start retreating back towards the city. And the Winter Haven side is going to try to get-- try to pull their troops back. So it's like a parting sea. So the flame is initially going to hit where the troops have started to split. But again, the backlash from it is huge. So this flame hits the ground, and then just starts rippling outward. And you can't see anything where this fire is. It's this huge, bright, white-orange flame.

And it kind of cones all the way back up into his mouth where it's this white-hot, bluish flame. But you are seeing where the backlash is catching soldiers on fire on both sides. Their backs will just erupt. Some of them have been caught so thoroughly in the blast that they just don't emerge from the fire. They just-- it's instantly gone. And Strahd is-- he is heading in your direction. Jason, are these blasts of fire, or is it like one long burst? This is like one long stream of fire coming from the-- OK, so like running at him trying to get under it, which we have to run away.

Well, he stopped as of now. OK. That one long blast is done. Like, he was aiming for the grouping of-- that was the most bang for his buck. And if this just touches us, we like our-- If the backlash hits you, you have a chance of-- it'll cook you pretty well. But I mean, you have a chance of-- if you're just in the cone, like you're dead, there's nothing you can do about that. How long would it take to cast a miner real quick? Go ahead. I'd like to use Fire Shield. It's a precaution. Tell all the good folks at home what Fire Shield does. You can resist 10 cold and resist 10 fire until the end of the encounter.

And then also it's penalties when people make a melee attack against me. But the main thing is that I get an extra resist 10 on top of my Tiefling resistance, I think. Can I stand under your umbrella a little bit, please? I'm just going to go ahead and use that. If that's a good thing, I guess I'll do the same. Yeah, Yennward too. Yeah, I mean-- yeah, yeah. Yeah, we're all doing it. We all cast Fire Shield? Oh, OK. Well done. Shit. But no, I really have Fire Shield, so. OK, well then. So I resist 20 fire now. I want to say Hefskinn, but that's not his name. That's the other Dragonborn guy.

Who do you want to hear? Carrick. Carrick. Carrick. Does Carrick know it? Can I tell him to do it? He's probably-- No, no, no. He's just-- no. You could hold him up and use him as a shield, though. I can't lift him. It's heavy. That'd be another check, but you know, maybe. Maybe a certain burst of frightful strength. [LAUGHTER] It looks like Strahd's going to slow down. Like he's going to start flapping his wings. Everyone roll an endurance check for me, please. Uh-huh. Oh, boy. Uh-huh. Is everyone OK? [GROANING] Fuck yeah. [GROANING] Yeah. Oh my god. Oh my good god.

Yep. Hovering above the battlefield now, he's going to start flapping his wings in the general direction just to break into a hover. This is going to cause such a force, such a gust of wind, that it is going to bowl the entire party except for Yennward over. Maraud. So all of you are prone except for Keric and Yennward. Strahd is going to go ahead and land in the center of this battlefield. Now, the Overwatch troops appear to just be in full retreat. Like, they did not sign up for this. It is over for them. The Winterhaven side, it appears as though that they're trying to get some of their fallen from the front, some of the ones that could be saved.

They're trying to just pick them up as quickly as possible and get out. Meanwhile, the elves in the background are setting up an assault with bows. And they're going to start unleashing volleys of arrows at Strahd. Go ahead and roll a perception check for me, please. Everybody? Everyone. I didn't know they were face down in the dirt. Bam. I rolled a 20-year-old. Oh, shit. I got crit. That was a crit. Oh, he did? Ooh. I noticed everything. I see everything. Let's see here. Hondo and-- Hondo, Yennward, and Duncan are going to watch these volleys of arrows get flicked at Strahd.

And then you're going to see about 7/10 of these arrows ricochet harmlessly off his body. Oh. It's embarrassing. And these are elven arrows, too. These things are sharp as fuck. The lucky ones are going to get stuck in his wing or a couple in his neck, like softer portions. Like he has a softer underbelly than the harder scales that cover the rest of him. A couple are going to sink in near the mouth region. And it's going to piss him off. And he is going to spread his wings, flap one time just to do a running jump, and flick himself at these elves, which would put him right in the center of the Winterhaven troops.

He will be surrounded on all sides. Now, it is up to you guys what you'd like to do here. Let's run away from the Winterhaven troops. Let's not go. Keep going? OK. I'm just asking. I don't want to fight a dragon. Let's run. Yeah, let's run. Yeah. We're running. Well, I don't know. Thoril, you could try your arrow. Maybe that'll be better. Catches him right in the heart. Yeah, it worked so well last time. Roll a nature check, try to tame it. Yeah, dude, you got the mammoth. We're all running. Thoril's just standing there being like, hey, what's up, Strider? I've got this.

Thoril, you might have heard of me. I heard you're gay. These Winterhaven troops are going to go into full-blown panic mode, and the dwarves are the first to run in close. And they're going to start trying to hack and slash and slam at his feet. The elves are going to continue to try and just put arrows in him, wherever they can get them. [RUSTLING] Strahd pulls out a bag of trail mags. [LAUGHTER] Arrows are useless. Strahd is going to eventually-- like, after this becomes a minor nuisance to him, he's going to make one clean motion and spin around and flick his tail into the heart of the swarm.

Do me a favor and roll one more perception check, please. Damn it. Let's see. Hondo. Duncan and Hondo are going to watch as these Winterhaven soldiers, dwarves and drow and elves and humans alike, are catapulted into the air like rag dolls. We're talking several dozen in a clip. And they're just going to be thrown hundreds of feet and land with these sickening, crunching thuds. Are we close enough that I could run a check to see if we recognize anybody? Yes, actually. Perception? Yeah. Go ahead and roll a special perception if you want, 16. You are not noticing anything anyone specific, except for Brittana Moonshadow, who is in the back with this contingent of elves.

She is the one leader that you would recognize that is far enough away from the pack that you would see her. She kind of stands out. Everyone else seems to be in the thick of it. That and, of course, Carrick hanging off of Yenward. OK. It does appear as though they are doing some damage to Strahd. But this appears to be complete chaos. No one was prepared for this. No one-- it is very much-- it's them just trying to-- Overwhelm him? It complete-- just try to do anything to do some kind of harm to him. And while they are doing harm to him, he's doing a hell of a lot more damage to them.

You're seeing mages with fireballs at them. Anything that they can do. There are ice storms, and they are trying everything. And after a few seconds, it appears as though the volleys of arrows have done enough damage to Strahd that he has decided not to stand directly there anymore. I'm taking it you guys are still running. Is this a thing where you're pretty much just running and looking over your shoulder? It's like, that's really fucked up. Keep running. OK. Yep. As far as possible. Strahd is going to take off into the air again. So another huge gust of wind.

And it's going to bowl over about half of these soldiers. The further back that they are, the less likely they are to be knocked over. A lot of the elves are still standing, still firing arrows. And he is going to take off into the air. And then as quickly as he arrived, he is going to turn and start heading towards the city of Overwatch. Oh, no. What a shame. Not the Overwatch. And on the way there, he is going to give another roar. But it's kind of heading off in the distance. And you're watching these Overwatch troops just scamper and run and just try to flee.

And he is going to swoop down and just, almost as a show of power, just pick a few of them off in his mouth. Just sink his talons into the ground, grab a couple of them, just scoop up a couple with his mouth, and just take off again. And when he gets to be about 300 or 400 yards in the air, he is just going to start dropping them. Complete disregard for any human life. Doesn't care. Playing with them, essentially. There's nothing they can do. But for the moment, Strahd is no danger to you. Let's keep going. Yep. Sounds like a plan. So I say, specifically, I think we should say that, let's dodge any large groups, because it seems like he's attracted to large groups.

So maybe instead of running one way or the other, we kind of just run off to the side. Is that a good game plan, everybody? Just run, yeah. So we're just going to watch the chaos unfold. That sounds like a yes. I think so. Well, let me ask you a question. Where are you running to? What is your end goal? Away, I get. Let's pull up the map real quick. OK. You know what that's going to do to the table. Yeah. Don't put it on the table. Just have a look at each new one of them. I don't have a copy on my new computer. I mean, we're just-- Send you one. OK. Like, kind of, I guess, maybe in the same direction that the Winterhaven forces are going, but away enough so that we're not with their group.

We're going north. So kind of like, yeah. Like, they'd be going northeast or northwest? This would be kind of northwest towards the tree line. They're hoping that the tree line would save them. So then maybe we're trying to go just straight north and then kind of barrel over the-- or like double over-- you know, kind of go over to the tree line after we get past it. That sounds like a good idea. Instead of going through it, we're going to-- Yeah, and especially, let's not head towards the tree line, because if I were a giant fire dragon, I'd be like, oh, trees.

That looks like a lot of stuff I can burn up. So, I mean-- This is the thing. We discussed it last time. Like, he's just so-- he just wants to do any kind of damage. It's kind of random, and he's just swooping in and hurting anything he can. And we're going serpentine, right? Serpentine? Just run, man. Help me. As you're running, trying to keep up with the Winterhaven group, a figure is going to start riding towards you on horseback. Everyone do me a favor, roll a perception check. Hey, where did our horses go? Can we get on them? Oh, they've long since been spooked.

Jesus. Damn it. My rolls are sucking hard. Join the club. Well, Duncan-- Yep. Duncan is going to see a lone half-orc on the back of a horse riding towards your group. And what's weird is that this looks very similar to the horse that Ironhide used to ride. Stupid. So then as we're running, Duncan looks around at the party and goes, hey, I think that orc has Ironhide's horse. I just want to look at him like there's more pressing matters. I would be like, what the fuck are you talking about? And then Duncan's like, but he's running towards us. Everyone else is running away.

Like, weird. Fucking if he wants to burn up, let him. I don't care. OK. Keep running. Sure, so I'm riding right next to him as they're running? I would-- unless you want to stop and run along side with him. God damn ridiculous. Stop. Yeah, like, yeah. Stop in front of him. To block their fucking? Yeah. I'm just going to punch his face. Just throw Storm Rider at him. I'm kidding. Spook Felicity. Stop it. You spook Felicity. I just want to yell, like, what the fuck are you doing? Get out of the way. Yeah. Then I ask him, what's going on? Why is there a fucking dragon here?

Get out of the way. You can't run around me? Come on. I can run under you. Whoever you are, we can explain this later. Right now, we just need to leave in order to survive. Yeah, Hondo's not going to stand there any longer. Hondo's dead. He's running. Yeah, she's running around him. I picture Duncan running the whole time he was yelling. Yeah, everyone's running. Everyone's just running. Just giving him a fucking stink face and dragging the dragonborn along. We were, like, 10 feet in front of him when I yelled, get out of the way. And then he's just like, what's going on, guy?

He's still dragging the dragonborn around? Oh, yeah, he's still taking care of it. I'm going to hop off and tell Yemward, let's get him on top of the horse and just haul ass with him. You can help me pick him up, dude. Let's do it. Roll athletics checks, please, both of you. I actually have to-- Or actually, one of the-- OK, so Tom did it, so Justin, see if you can assist him. OK, so you assist him. That's a 20. That's not going to be enough. It's not going to be quite enough for either one of you to pick him up. Hey, you fucking weakling. He's been running for a while, carrying him.

This bullshitter, that's your upper body strength. You're not running with your upper body. Come on. He was in two fights previous. That's weak. Told you it was heavy. OK, you gotta go. Come on. Come on. All right, let's just post fucking dragon. Several minutes go by as you are making this mad dash to the tree line. And it appears as though the dragon has his hands full with the city. And it's far enough away that you can't really make out what's going on anymore. You just-- every once in a while, you'll see kind of this-- you'll kind of see some fire shoot into the sky or something.

Because it's kind of getting on nightfall. So you'll just see it kind of illuminate the evening sky and then just nothing. Like you're not-- you'll hear him roar or something. But you're not getting the full story. A lot of the Winterhaven troops have made it to the tree line as well. And it appears as though they're trying to set up some sort of makeshift camp to tend to their wounded. Because it's becoming increasingly apparent that there's nowhere that you can run that you're going to get away from Strahd, because he can easily beat you there. So the best they can hope for is just hopefully the cover of the tree line will hide them well enough that they don't have to worry about being attacked, at least directly.

So that should buy you guys some time. OK, can I run a-- well, not me. But we should run a perception check to see if we recognize anybody behind the tree line, someone who has good perception. I have good perception, but I don't know anybody. Well, thanks, four. I imagine this is all of us running, right? Well, Draconis rolled one. I got 20. OK. Draconis is, again, going to recognize Brittana. And it would appear as though she is tending to some elves who have made it to the tree line. They were the closest pack running with you as you were making your way there.

And she's going to glance over towards your group. And she's going to motion towards a few of her people. And they are going to circle up and start speaking with one another. Beyond that, you can see-- you recognize a couple of knights from Winterhaven, a couple of the riders. But you don't see Nathaniel. You would recognize a couple of the dwarves. There are a few dragonborn that you've seen before. But you don't recognize any of their leaders, except for Carrick, of course. But it gets way deeper beyond your-- you're kind of on the fringe of this army that's moved into the tree line now.

So is there anything you want to discuss before we move on? OK, so I guess we're kind of behind the trees, catching our breath kind of thing. Yes. And I look at the orc. And I say, why did you steal Ironhide's horse? I am Ironhide. Get out of the sound. He took his armor off. I get it. OK, that's fine. I always wondered what you look like under the armor. Well, I should mention that another tip-off would be that this person is wearing Ironhide's head. It appears as though it's Ironhide's head hollowed out and reformed into a helmet. Yes. OK. Duncan just buys it.

Like, there's no-- like, yes, of course you are. How do other people want to react? I don't. I'm like, what do you mean you are Ironhide? What does that mean? Yeah, prove it. OK, I want to start breakdancing. Does he sound like Ironhide? Nope. No. OK. He sounded more like a sound wave, I would like to imagine, before. I still buy it. Duncan's very trusting. I'm-- All right, that's what happened. Like, the other group we were with during the defense of Winterhaven, they helped me, through blood magic, get into another body. I strangled this guy to death. It was messy, but it's done.

And I'm in this body now, and that's that. Oh, no, something still smells. Tell me something that only I would know. Malchus is a dick. It's Ironhide. It's Ironhide. Ironhide. This is Malchus's sister, and he's a drug dealer. We need to get going. Yeah, I'm going to be looking at the two new people and saying, who are you, and why are you here? And I told them, that's-- are you just ignoring Duncan? Is that what-- Well, I'm just saying, like, more of a breakdown of who you are, besides Malchus's sister. I am not related to Malchus Grims in any manner. My name is Diana, and I am here to assist the group in attacking the Overwatch, if we ever get there.

Who are you? What are you? What are you, some kind of freak? I'm Ironhide. And what is the Ironhide? I was a Warforge. And now you're an orc. Half-orc. Whatever, kid. Listen, kiddies, I really would love to meet your new friend here, but we got to go. Agreed. We need to find horses and get out of here. Before we move anywhere-- Wait, wait, wait. We're just leaving? I understand getting away from Strahd. Do you not see the dragon? I'm sorry. I get leaving. I get to-- I get getting away from Strahd, but I think we should stay with an earshot. You know, I don't want to just run off.

An earshot of what, dying? We're hiding under a kindling. I think we should go. OK. I guess we're retreating then. Where are we going to go? Let me ask you that. Where are we going to go? Away. I don't know, kid, as far away from here as possible. Betrayal Ridge. If we are on the road, all of us on the road just hauling ass, he's going to see us then just mow us down in a straight line. Well, he's going to be distracted by the rather large group of armies. That's why if we stay here, we have a better chance of surviving. If we run off, they'll just recruit more people from the villages and towns around here, and they'll just be twice as strong as us right now.

They're currently being destroyed by a dragon. If we wait for Strahd to be finished, and however long it takes for him to move elsewhere on the continent, then we can go with and clean up of sorts. Yeah, I think we'll be fine where we're at right now. I'm still kind of like trying to figure out what the fuck's going on. I don't-- Show him that. I'm telling you this, I'm not prepared to completely retreat. If we want to get away from the dragon, that's fine. If we don't want to stay here, that's fine. But I'm not running back to Winterhaven or anything. What do you want to do?

Just begin, you know. Find some nice seats and watch the place burn. Shit. OK, I'm going to ask the group a question. Why is there a dragon? Wait, Jason, we did-- all of us saw what happened, correct? I would say that Yennward definitely saw it. And the rest of the group, while they weren't athletic enough to get there, I think they would be able to see what played out. OK, so Diana's going to look towards Thoril. Let's do this. Let's have the rest of the party roll a history check just to make absolutely sure. Because I don't believe I had the rest of the party roll a history check.

I had Yennward and Thoril. You're still oblivious. Do I need to roll another one? Is it dragging? Yes, I don't believe you rolled one last time. I did. I remember just-- hold on. Are you searching for it? Yeah, I'll just roll it. It's OK. Do that, 23. OK, so let's see here. Obviously, Draconis would know about it, being dragonborn, living in Orash for some period of time. Duncan and Diana would also know about it. And Thoril. So they would-- yeah. Well, Thoril, yes, that's obvious, because he already knew last time. We already knew that. So hearing the horn, you'd be able to put two of them together, it's like, oh, that's why.

Obviously, the horn blows, and then a minute later, Strahd shows up. You can kind of piece all that together. OK. So I'll go-- so we're picking up where Ironhide asked what's going on. And Diana looked at Thoril. So then Duncan says-- and he points at-- he points at-- what's his name? Carrick? Carrick, yeah. Yeah. And he goes, that guy blew a horn, and it called the dragon. And now the dragon's killing everybody. Oh, wait, what? The horn called the dragon? Yeah, you can figure that out. OK, at this point, I've been dragging him by his heels backwards, like hugging him underneath his armpits.

And I'm just going to go, ugh, and drop him. To be more precise, the human let him in even, seemed to agree with the plan to blow the horn. And then that proceeded. Hey, we were outnumbered. We could-- I mean, I didn't think that the elves were going to start shooting at him, and then he was going to start destroying our side. I'm not saying it was necessarily a bad decision. I'm just making sure that all of us have a clear idea of exactly what took place. I don't-- I feel like it's more of you're making sure that everyone has a clear idea of who to blame.

Why is there anything to blame? We don't know if this is good or bad yet. People died, but we might still win this thing. So let's see how it plays out. Can I check to see if Carrick's still alive or no? Roll a perception check, please. Gee, let's see what I perc-- it's 23 on the script. 23. Carrick is-- he appears to be getting his shit together, although that drop did not help him. Motherfucker. He is going to-- he's going to stand up kind of gingerly and then narrow his eyes at Thorl. And then he's going to turn around and look at Yennward. And he's going to kind of slowly limp right up to Yennward's face.

And even though Yennward could probably beat him to death with his bare hands at this point, there's no-- like, this guy's bravado does not turn off. Like, he doesn't-- like, he's not presenting that aura of, man, I should watch my shit around. No, it's fuck you. And Carrick is going to kind of limp right up to Yennward, getting his face. We did what had to be done. Like, you know, your people are getting burned up down there, too, you know? They would gladly give their lives to make sure that the Overwatch don't win this war. Did we take a vote on that?

Did we ask them that? And he's going to look around at the rest of you. You should all feel honored. It has been hundreds of years since Strahd has taken flight in anger. You will watch his fiery wrath get brought down upon their city. Isn't that what you want? No, how do we stop it? They're killing our people, too. What's going on? How do we stop this thing? There is no way of stopping. You don't know that, does he? You summited here. How do you stop it? And he's going to kind of look around at each one of you. One year. In one year's time, we can renegotiate with the dragon.

So this dude's loose for one year. Wow. Just jump 17 years in the future. How can we-- is there a way to get him away from here? He's going to look the dunk, and I have no control over him. Blow into your horn again. Yeah, this doesn't seem like it was very well thought out, Thorl. I didn't know what he was going to do. He kind of nodded. I saw you. He's helping us out right now. Does Thorl need to roll a bluff check for that? That's kind of bluffy. That's what I'm thinking. Kind of bluffy. 11. No, bullshit. Bullshit. OK, Ion-Eye's going to speak. I'm going to say, you let him blow that horn like that?

Look, I understand he's out of his fucking mind, but you had a good head on your shoulders. What the fuck? OK, so I kind of knew what he was going to do, but I figured it would help us. I didn't think he was going to sit there and just destroy everything. We're not wearing different colored jerseys, man. We're all just out here. Why are you acting like her brother right now? Oh, Amalkus joke. OK. I appreciate that. No, I got that. You're flerken clanking on plates. Hey, everybody just calm down. I'm sure Thorl had no idea that this dude's going to be on a tear for a year.

Yeah, I didn't think he was going to be on a tear for a year. That's why you don't just let a dragon loose, OK? That's true. Maybe you should have thought about that. So what's the most well thought out plan, OK? You don't say. Carrick's going to speak up. The human was right. We were losing this fight one way or another. We could either lose it very slowly or summon Strahd and there'd be a chance of victory. How many of our people died? Punches. Yeah, we don't know. This many? Carrick's going to say, until he's done in the air, there's no way we would know. We'll have to sift through the ash.

Nobody's funeral for there is no one to bury. So Duncan looks at Carrick and goes, can we kill him? He's the closest thing to a smile that this guy would-- that this guy would be able to exhibit. Would you like to try? If we can, I don't know. I'm just going to like outright laugh at that. No. Maybe he's brittle. I don't know. You saw what effect the elves arrows had on it. No, I didn't. Well, he's more speaking to the crew. Can I do a history check on Strahd? Strahd? Yeah, Strahd. His gay brother. Strahd. Strahd. There were two of them, so. 23, I'm going to squirt.

You would know-- you'd pretty much be caught up to speed with everyone else, but you'd know no additional information. OK, do we know any weaknesses that he has or anything? Like, can we ask if he has any weaknesses? Is there a spot on his bottom that we can shoot at? The-- he's still a dragon. Like, I mean, again, I've mentioned that the underside of him is a bit softer, but getting that close is kind of suicide. He can't just willy-nilly shoot flames at all times. It is something that kind of has to recharge. So he'll have this burst of just bathe the entire area in flame, and then after a time, he can kind of let loose again.

But it does take a bit. He has a strong resistance to fire. Ice, not so much. Must have this one out, guys. I have a cold spell. I have one. But yeah, that's-- I mean, other than that, you're still dealing with this dragon that weighs many, many tons and can flick dozens and dozens of enemy soldiers into the sky with just a swipe of his tail and bathe the area in flame and scorch hundreds of individuals at once. Like, it's pretty awful. OK, so what do you suggest we do, Carrick? And he seems to give pause. Honestly, I thought we'd be dead by now. The fact that you've lived this long should be a testament to each one of your races.

You should be proud. The fact that you've lived this long is a testament to me. Ouch. I didn't ask you. I did it anyway, though. You're welcome. He's going to get right up in Yennward's face. I'd like to put one of my fingertips and one of the arrows sticking out of him, just kind of poke it and push it in a little. Ha ha. All right. Hold on a second. I want to-- hmm. Just want him to squeal a little. Carrick is going to reflexively kind of flinch. And then he's going to get pissed off that he flinched. And he is going to reach up, grab the arrow, and snap it off at his chest and just kind of throw the thing-- just kind of throw the thing to the side.

And he is going to start to-- he's going to start trying to just let loose on Yennward here verbally right now. Your cowardly group ran. That was your decision. I told you not to bring me. I should have died next to my comrades on the battlefield, bathed in Strahd's fire. Well, you didn't. And you're welcome. Carrick is going to reach up and try and put one of his hands around Yennward's throat. I'd like to just kind of mush his face with my hand and just kind of push him off. Do me a favor. Roll an athletics check. He's really feeble. I shouldn't take him off. 23.

Yennward's going to kind of take his paw here and just kind of push Carrick's face back. And as a reaction, Carrick's going to stumble back just like one step. And it looks like he's going to get ready and try and bum rush Yennward. Then Carrick's going to take five arrows in the head. Oh. Oh. Jesus. I used to be a guard, took it till I took an arrow in the head. [LAUGHTER] Jim, wasn't funny. I was about to kill his head. Oh, man. That was good. So wait, who shot him? Can I write a perception check? Someone? Please, yes. Everybody? Perception check. Tyler shot his arrow at him five times. 31.

Yeah. Tyler finally got the hit. Hondo got a crit. What's going on? Yeah, I got a crit too. We all figured out what happened. Yeah, it's pretty easy to-- OK, so Carrick's going to take five arrows in the head and then fall down. Everyone except Duncan. I actually ran an inside shot. As he was getting ready to charge, he was letting loose this low growl. And it was building to this crescendo. And before he could take a step towards Yennward, five arrows in the head and he just drops instantly. No more sound, no nothing. Dead, gone. Can I whip around to the direction of the arrows and look at this?

Oh, yeah. OK. I would imagine the entire party reacts to this. Brittana Moonshadow is walking towards the party and is surrounded by a pack of five female archers. What the fuck, man? He was getting a little haughty. But he wouldn't do nothing to me. Brittana pays you no mind as she walks into the center of your party. Now, normally she's very graceful and cordial and nice. She appears to be irate. She is going to march into the center of this party. Do you have any idea what you've done? I didn't do it. We haven't done anything. She's looking directly at Thor.

So she saw Thor do it or she overheard it? This would be a situation where she saw you. Your perception check wasn't quite high enough last time, but they were close enough to your party that the elves would see what was going on. Technically, he blew the horn. I just-- I don't know. Thaw man up. You did it. Hey, stay out of this. Hey, don't lie to the pretty lady. You did it. She's too tall for you. Don't say that. I'm just saying, I knew he was going to be destructive. I just didn't think he was going to be that destructive. Our forest burns because you let that-- And she points down at Carrick's body.

--summon a dragon that has been locked away for centuries. You're a dick. We have fought for years to keep this place as safe as we can. And within seconds, we have lost acres of our home. But will it be worth it if he's in the war? But if you knew that that thing was around for years, not being touched, and why would you let him still have the horn then? She's going to tilt her head just a bit. And if she weren't an elf, and she weren't the High Maiden and all this, you would swear that look would be like, motherfucker. Just like you would swear that that's what she's trying-- I'm just saying, honest question.

If you knew this horn exists and it summons Strahd, why would you allow anyone to have it? I don't think it was her decision. OK. You might want to stop putting off the blame onto the person that's about to kill you. Just word of advice. And then I look at her and I go, man, I'm sorry. My friend doesn't like women very much. I apologize. I want to reach down and I want to pick-- can I pick up the horn and pocket it? Roll a stealth check. Yeah. Oh, I mean-- Be careful of perception. See if he does it. I'm not really trying to secretly do it. I was just going to-- Oh, you're going to reach for the horn.

Yeah, I was just going to bend down and pull off the body. She's not going to want to kill you. Can I roll an athletics check to get to it before him so I can chuck it really far? [LAUGHTER] Make a sucker in half. The second Draconis motions towards this horn. All five of these archers are going to draw their bows and point them directly at Draconis. OK, hey, calm down. OK? I just want to grab this. OK? Can I grab this? There's not going to be a problem, is there? No, they're going to shoot you. [LAUGHTER] I want to ask, what the hell-- what's the big deal?

I don't know. If you blow it again, it might bring another one. Leave it. Might be two of them. No, we don't-- How about-- hey, Draconis, how about we let them have it? OK? No, no. OK, OK. Ironhide's going to speak up and say the psycho deserved to die. Do you guys want the horn? No. What? What makes you believe that they're going to be-- You fucked up already, Florida. You should shut your fucking mouth. Wow. Wow. Holy shit. Diana's going to chuckle softly. Duncan just smiles and nods at Ironhide. I usually don't agree with this guy, but I'm on his side. Let's just give it to him.

Oh, lucky Duncan. No, I was under the impression only dragonborns can blow into the horn, correct? That's what you said earlier, didn't you? No. It's carried by the dragonborn leader, but that's-- yeah. They're known for blowing serious horns. It's more a responsibility thing. Like, only the dragonborn leader, only that alpha male gets to decide whether it's time. That was just a deal with Strahd that's kind of off the ball now, yeah. He doesn't care who blows into the horn. All he's listening for is the horn. Right. So yeah, I say we give it to the elves, because we just destroyed their land.

Why give it to them? What the fuck do they have to do with anything, though? Oh my god, so group one. They just want to look at it for a bit. To be fair, this isn't a petty argument. This is the thing that-- Oh yeah. --somends a legendary dragon. Yeah, and guess what? It's already here for a year, because of you. So why don't we-- He's on a world tour right now. Like, listen, this is what we can do. We can say, no, I'm not going to give you the horn. Then five arrows in the chest, and they're going to line up the next one to kill. In the middle of this dragon, burning everything down, we can fight these elves.

Is that a good idea? Yeah, we would like to put it up his hands and start walking backwards out of the line of fire. If you want to go for the horn, man, that's you. Go for it. Yeah, I walk back too. Good job. Put my fist up the inward. I keep one hand up, but reach one down and give him up, and then put it right back up. I got a gun. Kill him. I'm looking right at her. I'm like, I'm cool, man. We're the boss. We back off. Can we just kick the fucking thing to him? I'm still bent over it. I was like frozen, kind of, like not moving. And I just want to look at her and ask her, is there a problem with me taking this?

Or what is the problem? What is the problem with me taking this? That's what I want to ask her. What is the problem? The horn needs to be locked away. The dragon is loose, and there's nothing we can do about that at the moment. Can't you just break it? Yeah. Wait, can Duncan just destroy it right now? He's not even in the area. He's not even-- Yeah, he is. He backed away. How did he back away? He backed up like two steps. He's a lot for a dwarf. I mean, I'm not the smartest guy out here, but locked away implies somebody can unlock it and use it again later. Let's just smash it.

The horn is part of the agreement with Strahd. If there's no horn, there's no agreement. OK. And you think he's going to talk to some elves? It's not about-- look, don't you understand? It's not about talking. You blow the horn, the dragon comes. That's it. It's about honor. No, there's an agreement that he made us-- The horn and the dragon come. Well, Brittana's going to speak up. The dragonborn is correct. Strahd will not parley with us. But whoever the next dragonborn leader will be will have to at some point. Well, then let me hold it for now. You will not be taking the horn.

Like, she is incredibly stern about this. This is-- that is the hardest you've ever heard this woman's voice. Like, it's usually-- I didn't blow into the horn. Don't be pissed at me. Dude, they're going to poke holes and you just-- Duncan looks at Hondo and just kind of motions. Get back here with us, dude. Just get back here. No, I just want to be looking at her like, what the fuck you pissed off at me for? I didn't do it. She-- again, almost completely, like, just disbelieving that you were still fighting for this horn, even though-- I'm not really fighting.

I'm wondering what her fucking issue is. First thing, if it's not a big deal to you, let them have it. Jason, can I roll an insight check on what the elf woman is saying? Like, what is it she's trying to gain from this? Is this, like, legitimate worry? Or is it a power game thing? Roll insight. 20. You can tell this woman is legitimately heartbroken that her forest is burning as you speak. Every moment you're speaking, portions of the Evergreen are going up in flames. On top of that, the next Dragonborn leader is going to-- whoever it is, big dick swing and alpha male guy, whoever is going to take over is going to take over.

That horn is a negotiation ploy with the Dragonborn, because if they don't have that, then that is-- first of all, it's a cultural thing. That's a cultural artifact to the Dragonborn. That is a-- you're the leader, but that's kind of like your scepter, your crown, that kind of thing. In elven, can I then say to her-- I'm probably going to have to roll with the diplomacy check. Can I say to her, let the Dragonborn hold on to it for now. I know what it means. I know what it means to the entire elven race. Go ahead and roll diplomacy, but get a plus 2 for speaking elven.

OK, cool. Diplomacy, all right. It's a 17, but plus 2 is-- 19. And the-- Brittana's going to look over to Hondo. Why should we let him take it? But she's going to say it in elven. OK, good. Let's say it. Be quiet. I'll be like, listen, this guy, he's working with a group that only wants the better for the rest of the world. So it's best if you just let him hold on to it for now. Who knows? With the right play, he could be the next Dragonborn leader. You follow? And she's going to kind of stare at Hondo for the longest and then kind of give a really subtle nod.

OK, to that, he's going to bow. And obviously, we don't understand what they just talked about, right? Only those of you who speak elven. I speak giant. Speak machine. Brittana's going to kind of subtly raise her hand. And all of the elves beside her are going to kind of lower their weapons and kind of let their arrows go loose a bit. OK, I'm going to grab the horn and hand it over to Draconis. And I'm going to pull him in closer and say, you owe me one. I don't-- and I just want to like just whisper, I don't know what the fuck you just did, but thank you.

All right. Can I do something really quick? Please. Seeing that the situation seems to be resolved, I want to start rifling through the dragonborn's pockets. Wow. Wow. Wow. He's dead. He's not going to mean anything. I carried him. I'm entitled to at least half-- I helped, kind of. Remember, I pulled up in front of you with my horse. Is this a thing you're doing stealthily? Or are you just going to-- while they're doing this, you're just going to bend over and like rifle, OK, just run his pockets? OK, cool. Yeah. He's going to piss on everything I just told him.

Ah, sure, right? It has nothing to do with her. I picture it as like, they only want the betterment. And he's down there, he's like, let me see, do you have any good shit? That's purple stuff. Do I have to do it streetwise, or what do I do? You are going to-- Jesus. You're going to find a pouch with 400 gold on it. 200. You are also going to find Keric's big fucking sword that he had. His pocket? OK. Well, I'm searching him. Yeah, you're-- yeah. That'll be about it on Keric himself. Does it have anything like an awesome, like, necklace? Nope. That's kind of weakness to the game.

I'll divvy up the gold or whatever like that. I want to take his sword and just look at it. What is it? Can I do like a perception on it, or a history? There's nothing really historical about this sword. It is just a big fucking broadsword. It is a meat and potatoes object. It is just meant to cleave through people. Like, it's-- yeah. It's not legendary or anything like that. Just a really big broadsword. OK, I'm just going to drop it right on top of him, and then like, uh. Wow. I was going to say something to her, but that's kind of weird to say something after that just happened.

You have no idea what was said, and it's like, listen, bitch. I'd like to make sure everything didn't stop while he did that. No, it's more like, oh, wow. That's just happened in the background while-- I just wanted to-- OK, well, I'm going to hold it up and look at her, and I'm going to tell her-- Don't worry. --everything's going to be OK. Um. Brittana's going to pan over to Thoril. I'm afraid the human has to come with us. I'm sorry, what? He's yours if you want him. No, I-- that couldn't fade. No, I'm kidding. I'm not an elf. Oh, OK. You're drow, so that means you're elf.

You could do that if you-- Get in there, fight. No, no, no, you can take him. No, you already signed a fight. Wait, what do you mean you need him? What are you going to do with Thoril? What do you think they're going to do to me? I don't know. You're not going to kill them, are you? I'm afraid I have no choice. We can't let you do that. Yeah. Well, we're-- I don't think we would stop you from taking him, or at least some of us would not. I mean, we're in the-- You're right, after all. Your majesty-- We're in the middle of a war here, and you want to take-- I don't think this is the time.

Yeah. With all due respect, I mean, you could deal with him, but right now he's working with us, not against us. Their home just got-- She-- --sustained, and they need someone to-- If you need someone to blame, he's laying right there, and I point at Carrick. I go, that's your body, take it back. You don't have to take our friend. I mean, he does dumb things sometimes, but he's still our friend. Your friend is partially responsible for unleashing hell on our home. My people witnessed it, and I am held responsible. Whatever happens to the forest is my responsibility.

So-- I don't have a choice in the matter. I have to take the human, and he must be dealt with. So outside of game real quick, these are the same people that live in the giant tree, or no? Yes. OK. Kalkas. OK. Well, then I'll just look-- throw a little look straight at her and just go, I'm partially responsible in helping save you. Now, yeah, I could have stopped him, and I kind of knew what was going on. I didn't expect this sort of destruction. People make mistakes. So you're honestly going to sit there and kill me over a mistake simply because I didn't stop him from blowing the horn?

You didn't just stop him. You agreed and you nodded. It was-- I didn't exactly know what was going to happen. You did. You've already admitted that. You wrote a history check. I didn't think this. Well, I was looking like I didn't think this, and then just sort of like waved my arms around. Yeah, I didn't think this was going to happen. You knew it was a possibility, regardless if you knew or not. Their home has been decimated, and you are the one who stands responsible. Your home would have been decimated a long time ago if it weren't for someone like me.

That's true. Duncan's going to try to lie and get him out of it. Is that OK? Sure. Oh, shit. I'm going to roll the check before I talk, OK? OK, 32. [LAUGHTER] Good bluff, whatever it's going to be. So Thoril, it's nice of you to try to take responsibility for this, but we all heard him lie to you and tell you something different about that horn that he was calling in more troops. No. Brittana is going to look over to Thoril. Is this true? Oh, fuck me. I got a plus four to bluff. This is going to suck. Bullcret. Thanos is going to wait and see what Thoril says, but she's clearly like on the edge of interjecting and-- Oh, god.

Can you roll already? No, I'm trying to think about this. Let him think. Yeah, yeah. If he just says one word, does he still have to bluff, though? Yeah. If it's a lie, yes. I mean, OK. You know, I'm just going to own up to it. Fuck it. Sorry, Dan. Oh, man. That cancels-- We'll see what happens here. I'm just going to say I knew that it was going to summon the dragon. I had no idea it was going to cause the utter destruction that it did. I knew there was a risk of that, and it was a bad chance to take. I honestly didn't think that all of this Wonton destruction was going to happen.

OK, at this point, Duncan throws his hands up and goes, you know what? Take him. I'm fine. Oh, my god. I tried to save him. He didn't even back me up. Take him. He's yours. Terrible woman. Breton is going to narrow her eyes at Duncan like, you fucking lie to me? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Thanks, Thoril. Right, no. Yeah. She's going to raise her hand again, and all of these archers are going to draw their bows. No, wait. And stop. No, wait. Can I make one last play? Wait, where are the archers drawing their bows? Where are they pointed at? They're pointed at the-- OK.

He's not going to get a fair trial. I'm going to-- Oh, god. Maybe he just had one. Oh. No, he didn't. Yeah, I'm going to have to drop it. I'm going to have to-- I'm going to have to call for Queen Faith, but I don't want it to happen now. Can I bargain for it not to happen now? Oh, Jesus. Don't do this. Let me ask you a question. Because it's happened once on the show, are you positive you understand what you're about to ask for? If-- listen, my dark, bit sick imagination, I'm just-- I'm trying-- I know that Ander wants everybody in his pocket anyway. So if he does this favor for Thoril, he's not actually going to-- he's not really-- he's planning to just say, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's do it.

But really, after the war, he's just going to run away anyway. But he's putting his life on the line. Yeah, but not really, because he's Hondo in the crook. Wait, so what's about to happen? I'm confused. Oh, yeah, you do this. The elves will hate me forever, but I'll be alive. Well, that-- I mean, you're assuming a lot. Yeah. I don't know if you can agree to let them do it after. Let me explain what Quenfe is. Yeah. Because this is something that happened on group three. Quenfe is an elven rite where you can challenge someone to one-on-one combat. It's used to kind of clear out major squabbles.

Originally, it was to ensure that whole tribes didn't have to go to war, that the leaders of that would step forward and just settle things themselves. So instead of hundreds, possibly thousands, dying, that someone could just step forward, own up to it, and be done with it. It's also used to settle things like this, where someone is about to be put to death. And if they are either elves themselves or honorary members of their tribe, they can enact Quenfe, which is essentially saying, OK, I want to fight for my life. OK, now I'm going to-- I'm sorry, I have to bring this up, though.

If he is going to enact it but have the intention of never doing it, doesn't that mean he has to run a bluff check? Yes. OK. And it also-- It's the bluff check. It is a thing. I mean, it's-- OK, well, we'll see how this goes. But I mean, you're assuming a hell of a lot. This is a-- this isn't like-- OK, but it is the leader that I'm challenging. I'm challenging her, right? Oh, if that's what you're-- OK, that could be-- And she never-- she didn't answer him about-- because he doesn't know that she's going to let him do it later either. I just want to point that out.

Yeah, that's to say, you're assuming a lot, is what I'm saying. Yeah, and even if-- OK, minus my assumption-- OK, minus my assumptions. If I enact Quenfe, I get to challenge her, or does she get to choose somebody to fight for her? Just like you're choosing to fight for Thoril, she gets to put someone in her stead. Right. Thoril, you're fucked. You should choose Strahd. Strahd is going to fight for Thoril? Somebody climb inside the-- That would be Thoril enacting Quenfe. You can't, because he's-- Right. Maxu. Well, now, technically, Thoril is an honorary member of the tribe for defending Kalkas.

So Thoril could enact it and then get one of us to fight for him. If any of you would step forward. I threw my-- I'm done with Thoril. He pissed me off. He fed my head to me. Brittana is going to speak up. Hand him over to us. There is no reason for all of you to die for his mistake. I guess Thoril is just going to kind of look at her and just say, if you honestly feel like killing me is the option, what dignity and respect is there in that? For what me and my group have helped you do. For everything that we have helped you with. Like, just a couple of weeks ago, we were-- he was back and back with you guys, fighting off giant robots and all kinds of crazy shit.

Can't we just call it even and just let us go? Did they both have to roll diplomacy for that? I would say yes. Both of you rolled diplomacy. Ooh. Dice are loaded. Do I get plus two because I was speaking Elvish? That famous Elvish speaking minotaur. That negative 10 to your Elvish roll. You can't count, but you can speak Elvish. Yeah, can't count or read in common, but you can speak Elvish. Spent my days drawing runes down in the catacombs. The difference is you have a home to return to after this. There's almost nothing we can do against Strahd, and there's nothing to stop him from burning down the rest of our forest.

I ain't got no home either. My home's wherever these guys are. So what are you going to accomplish by killing Thoril? Tell me that. Duncan interjects, and he says, ma'am, could we have a minute to say goodbye? Run. Is that a lie? No, I'm asking. OK. And then they give you a minute-- Jesus. This is actually what Duncan wants. This is what Duncan just wants a minute to say goodbye. OK. Brittana's going to raise her hand again, and they're going to lower their arrows, their bows. You may. And she's going to just kind of fold her arms and just stare at you. OK. Duncan turns to Thoril, and he says, Thoril, we've been around each other for a long time, and we've been through a lot.

And we've ruined a lot of other people's lives. We've destroyed a lot of land and done a lot of dumb stuff for what we thought was the greater good. And you made the call, man, and you got to pay for it. And I'm sorry, but you have to own up to it. I didn't want for this to happen. I honestly didn't. And I know, but you still made the call. You could have stopped them. We know you could have stopped them. And I love you, and we've been around the block, but maybe it's time to just man up a little bit and take responsibility. Because we've always been dodging taking responsibility, and maybe it's time one of us does.

And if I could step up and do it, I would. But I didn't make that call. Can she hear us? Well, she's standing right there. We didn't walk away or anything? We didn't-- No, I don't mind that she can't hear. I don't-- you know. OK, I just wanted to be like, fuck this bitch. I looked at-- I saw those diplomacy checks-- Wait, wait, wait. I was just-- I'm explaining. I saw those diplomacy checks go very poorly. I mean, and I saw-- like, you could tell from body language, she wasn't buying what they were saying. So this is me just kind of saying, it's time to give up, guys.

Does Draconis want to say, fuck this bitch? I wanted to, but I didn't know she was going to be like-- I thought we were going to walk away and have a private moment together. I mean, this is-- it's private. I mean, it's not like we're in the middle of a busy city. Well, you've already lied to her a couple of times. They're just making sure that you don't book it. Right. I mean, that was going to be the second thing I said. Let's just take off through the woods and they'll never find us. Yes. They'll never find you in the woods where they live. They ain't helped.

Ever. Blow the horn again, Draconis. Fuck it. I was about to say, I'm just going to blow this shit and see what happens. Wait, wait, wait. OK. And he points out-- and then Duncan continues and says, we all talked about-- we all talked smack on Malkus for not sticking around and paying for what he did. You know what? I'll take responsibility. I just find it very convenient how it just seems like we're going to take responsibility for our actions now as opposed to every other time. We made a decision before we came out here that we were going to change. And then we burned down part of Winterhaven.

I think we should start trying to walk the straight and narrow a little bit. Like-- yeah, I'm glad you guys will get the chance. Yeah, I'm glad you guys will get the chance to walk the straight and narrow. Don't demonize me, dude. I don't have any recourse here. I tried. And I tried too. We all tried. Thorold tried. Well, Thorold didn't try because I tried. And then Thorold's like, no, I didn't. Like, you had an out Thorold, and you messed-- and it didn't work. And now you got to own up. That's it. That's the choice. Or we fight. And then you know what could happen?

We could all die. And then this whole thing was for nothing. Everything was for nothing. This is so fucking dumb right now. We're in the middle of a battle, and they want to take one of our people up. Because he burnt down their land. I mean, how would you like it if someone came in your home and just burned it down? You know? I don't know. Oh, I forgot. You're the Mr. Burnt Down stuff. I was about to say. I don't know what you're talking about. I go yin and yang. I go yin and yang. How'd you like it when you got your home taken away? I didn't, but-- Did you kill everybody who did it?

I don't know who or what did it. It just happened. Would you have killed them if you had the chance? I don't know. Because down there was different. Now I'm up here, and I have you guys. I have Thorold. I think Thorold's my friend too, but he did that. He did it. We saw him do it. Yeah, he did. He did it. Yes. Yes, he did. But he thought it was-- I've done things you think-- Are me and Yenn were the only ones that don't want to see Thorold die here? I don't want to see Thorold die, but I'm accepting it. Can I hug Thorold goodbye? Sure. Yeah, I'll hug him back. I'll actually tell Yenn were, especially out of anybody, I'll just tell him, give my best to Nathaniel.

These elves are going to go ahead and draw their arrows back and point them at Thorold. Ironhide is going to run him through the back. What? What? [LAUGHTER] Are you serious? That's what-- Yes. Wait, what? What do you mean? With your sword. You're going to take your sword and put it through Thorold's back. Yes. To Thorold. Time. What? Thor would technically be defenseless as you're not technically in battle. So that would kill Thorold. I can't do any healing thing on him or anything? I mean, that would be enough to outwardly kill Thorold. That would be enough to-- that's-- I mean, that's-- He was defenseless.

Yep, coup de grace. So Ironhide-- Can we, like, tackle Ironhide or something? Afterwards? Yes, absolutely. Ironhide has just murdered Thorold. So steal that. Outside of this, can you play Imogen Heap's hide and seek at that point? Sorry. Duncan, at this point, just looks at Thorold. Duncan kneels down. He's very upset. And he starts kind of going through Thorold's stuff to see what he has and grabbing it to put it on him so that it doesn't just get stolen like everything else after everybody else dies is immediately what happens. Like, he's taking ownership and possession of it because he wants to do-- he has a-- I didn't want to explain what I was going to do with it yet.

I thought that would be something we can hold on to. But, you know. OK. What about everyone else? What would everyone's reaction be to that? I'm just going around to all the faces in disgust. And I'm just going to leave. I did my-- I'm going to throw an especially long, dirty look at Diana because she laughed. I said what I did. I fell down on my knees just staring at Thorold. And I just want to just say, you son of a bitch. I'm not looking at Ironhide. I'm just saying it. I was going to be eyeballing Ironhide the whole time. The fact that none of you people did this sooner.

The fact that Draconis and Yenward were here for the building of this army, how fucking crooked he was, how much he worried about himself. Who was watching over you, Draconis, when you were in the whorehouse doing the Red Root? You. And who looked after you when I came out of that room and you were standing there by yourself and threw the fire ball at me? Where was Thorold? He was indulging himself. It would not have been long. And he would not have been very long lived after this had you not taken action, believe me. But he was one of us. They're just going to walk over to sort of stand by Ironhide.

In that case, I'm going to go where Yenward then. Duncan stands up and walks into the inn. He knew this had to happen, Draconis. I know Thorold and I didn't ever, ever see eye to eye. I know he hated me. But still, we were a group. You don't do this. We're a group. And we also had strong people like Una and Jatzia. I have no idea who the fuck that is. When you weren't here, they were helping us at the defense of Winterhaven. This man-- and he's going to point right down at the body of Thorold-- he kicked them away from us. We could have had stronger people by our side.

Somehow I'm not surprised. Do you want me to tell you something else? Brie's alive. What do you mean? I thought Yenward killed her. Una brought her back. Una's somebody from this other-- Somebody that he kicked away from us. This is the person that has a huge bounty out on their head, I believe it was. Yeah. She fought against an angel death just to get the ability to resurrect Brie, just for the ability. Her body could barely take that. She wasn't built to do that. So you're mad at Thorold because he pushed them away? I don't understand. He's been kneecapping us for a while, ever since we started this building an army.

The death of a fucking vampire lord, that was him. He could have brought several assassins with him just to strike at the inside the walls of the Overwatch. Calls them chaos. Una, Jadc, C.F.V., pushing them away, that was another thing. Letting his guard down inside a racist town like Durinhala, that was another. He was a weak link. No, he's not. I guess Draconis is slowly going to stand back up. He's going to look over to the night elf, her name again. Sorry. Brittana. Brittana, yeah. He's going to look over Brittana and just say it in a very graspy voice, just, I hope you're fucking happy.

And he's going to walk off too. Brittana's kind of, she's going to approach Thoril's body. And Thoril had fallen down face first. And she's going to motion to her people. And they're going to go ahead and flip Thoril over. And it looks like she's kind of looking down at Thoril for a long time, just kind of regarding him. And then she's going to kneel down and kind of place a hand on Thoril's cheek. And then after a moment, stand up and start to walk away. And her people are going to follow her. So Yennward is walking north. Is he leaving the treeline? Is he just like-- like, where is Yennward going?

Like, what's his end goal? Or is it just to get away? Just to get away. I pick the direction I'm walking in it. OK. And Duncan and Hondo would be like quickly lockstep right behind him. And then from the rear, Draconis would be joining. Yeah, I'd kind of be catching up. I guess if you want, we can start with me just, I guess, running, catching up to you guys. OK, and I like to think that me, Yennward, and Hondo haven't even really spoken to each other. It's just trying to get as far away as possible. OK. All right, well, I'm just going to come-- not running, but coming up a little bit faster.

And I just-- guys, stop a minute. Slow down. Slow down. It's just me. Yeah, I keep walking. Jesus. All right. All right, all right. OK. Bree is alive. I'd like to stop and give him a glance and then just start walking again. That's when Duncan kind of turns on and goes, how do you know Bree's alive? Ironhide just told me. Can you believe anything that guy says? He sounded pretty-- he started talking about these people fought a demon death skeleton thing or something. I don't know. Yeah, it sounded pretty convincing. He knew a lot about it. He just killed Thoril. I know.

I don't know what the fuck he's doing here. I don't know why he would come back, why he would kill Thoril. I don't know what's going on. But it sounded pretty convincing. He said that Bree's still alive. I don't know. I know that means a lot to you guys. And it means more to you guys than it does me. But-- OK, so Duncan at this point is doing kind of like standing in between Yinward, who's in Yinward and Hondo, who are walking away. And Draconis over here, and he kind of goes, YINWARD! I'll turn and look at him. I'll stop for a second. And I-- he says Bree's alive.

Do we have any reason to believe Ironhide right now? Shake my head no, then he can turn and walk again. Oh my god. And then Duncan goes back to Draconis and says, I'm with Yinward, bro. And he just starts walking. I am-- I'm with you guys too. I'm just-- do we leave them? Are we done with them? I don't understand. And Duncan kind of scurries to catch up to Yinward, and he looks up at him. And he says, where are we going? This way. What's this way? I don't know. Something not sad. Maybe a smile or two. I just need to get away. And then I go, do you think maybe when we get out of sight, we can kind of regroup and try to figure out what we're going to do?

Yeah, sure. OK. And then I turn-- and then-- did Draconis hear that? Is he close enough? Yeah, he's still following. OK. So I go to Draconis, I go, Draconis, we're going to talk about it here in a little bit, but we need to get as far away as we can before we do. All right. Sounds good. What is Hondo doing? I'm just following Yinward, man. I mean, I've got nothing to lose or gain from all this. OK. Let's catch up with Ironhide and Diana. What would they be doing after the rest of the party kind of stormed off? Quenee my sword? Oh, god. Yep, she'd just be kind of standing there, I guess, just not doing much of anything.

I don't know, waiting to see what he's going to do. So you're not chasing after the party to catch up to them? Not necessarily. OK. Well, we had to do a check in order to see what direction they went. No, you watched them walk off. All right. All right, well, after-- It's like you're tracking them. Got to track her prey. We've seen exactly where we went, then. Won't be hard. Yeah, he's-- after Quenee's sword, he's like-- so how did you meet them? There is information that I need that lies within the Overwatch. I had thought that joining up with their group would be the best way to do that.

Well, it's been a long journey, and I'm not necessarily sure if I want to stick with them. You seem to be the most level-headed person we've met so far. And I'm not sure if you intend to rejoin them or not. That's the reason I came back. We're charging there together. He's going to put away his sword and invite her to follow along while he goes after them. She'll go with him. OK, catching up with the bulk of the group again. It's going to be just a little bit before they'd even be in eyesight of you guys. So if there's something you want to discuss while kind of waiting for that?

OK. So I guess we're far-- at least we can't see-- we see flames and stuff, but we're not necessarily around the battle anymore. And-- OK, sorry. Go ahead. I was just going to say that you're hearing roars, and it sounds like they're fighting back. Right. OK. At this point, Duncan goes, "Yin-Rid, I think we've gone far enough. We need to talk." Yeah, real stop. What happened back there was awful. I was willing to see Thoril die, but at least I wanted to see him do it with some dignity. And Ironhide riding back into town and stabbing one of our friends in the back, there's no dignity there.

The reason I grabbed his stuff was because I wasn't able to give Nathaniel Ian's stuff, so I thought at least I can give him Thoril's. And he'll have that, but I don't necessarily want to work with Ironhide and Diana anymore. But if we walk away, then all of our friends have died in vain. It means nothing. How am I supposed to look either of them in the face? I'm not saying we go back to them, but I'm saying we go back. In what? Fight. If you need time, I get it. We can take time, catch our breath, but we need to finish what we started. This isn't what I signed up for.

This is every morning I wake up, I'm losing somebody else. I've got people who are supposed to be my friends laughing and my other friends dying. I've got friends that are supposed to be my friends scraping friends off of their sword with their boot. Nathaniel's dead, Larys is dead, Thoril's dead, yeah. Who are we fighting for? Who's left? Dude, you're a king. Of what? They're all on fire right now. I've got nothing. Who am I going to share it with? Yinward, it's not who we're fighting for, it's who we're fighting against. Carter's bad. He's a bad guy. And he's killed a lot of good people for no reason.

And you know that. And you're a good person too. If he lives out the year against Storado, get him back. I'm gone. I want to find something else. I want to find no more wars. No more-- I just-- I want to be happy. I want to be somewhere where I can be with people I love and not have to worry about them leaving me. Yinward, if you go, I'll go. Because I haven't been around you very much, but I think you're my friend. And that's what friends do with each other. And I'll support you, but-- Then let's go. I think-- I just want to let you know, I think the right thing to do is to fight.

We-- think about all the people that we're leaving inside Overwatch that are just going to die, that are going to burn. Because of a decision that one of our friends made. And all that's for nothing now, because we're just walking away. What do you propose I do? What can I do to fix this? What can Yinward Firestomp do to change all of this? You start by using that fucking axe of yours. Yinward, if we make a dent, if we can-- if we can do anything to help these people get their freedom to not live in fear every day, then we've succeeded. And if we die trying, then we died heroes.

If we walk away, then we walk away cowards. You're not a coward. You're a king. So defend it. Defend your kingdom. Defend your right to walk this world. Don't let him win. Don't let hate win. We can kill Carter, my friend. We can do it. It's time he dies. I can't walk off by myself. If you guys won't follow me, I'm calling my bluff. I ain't got nowhere else to go. I told you, if you really want to walk off, I'm following with you. But I don't think you really want to walk off. I think you're just sad. And you can take time to be sad. Do me a favor. Everyone roll a perception check for me.

Me first. Me first. Thank you for listening, that's nice. No problem. That was great. I don't know. Ironhide and Diana, roll a perception check. Oh no. Strahd's back. I'm 12. Ooh, mine. Thorold gets up. Let's see here. Yenward, Hondo, Duncan, and Draconis are all going to notice both Ironhide and Diana kind of catch up with the group, but it's more in an open field and they're walking towards the group. They're a good distance away. Far, far, far behind them in the distance is the city of Overwatch, which has been under siege by this dragon now for a while. And what would be happening would be that Strahd would swoop in and attack the walls and be fired upon.

And then eventually he would back off, make another run at it. And this has gone on for a while until eventually it would appear as though they've hit him with something that was large enough for him to reconsider and back off, at least temporarily, because he is going to take flight into the air and fly away from the city. And it looks like he's going to start to fly easterly. So it looks like he'd be flying over Odessia, something like that, like take off in that direction. But it looked like it took just a tiny bit of effort for him to get back up in the air.

So they hit him with something. Can we see like are there any Overwatch outside the gates or have they all retreated back to the city? You can't make that out from here. Like this would be almost like that. It's almost too far. If that wasn't a dragon and a city, like you wouldn't see that. OK, Duncan speaks up. Look, here's the deal. We all know and he kind of points over at Ironhide and Diana. They're going to find us eventually. If you want to take off without them, I'm with you. We can do it now. Looks like the dragon's gone from the city, so this might be an opportunity to rush it.

But I'm leaving that up to you, Y inward, because if you're not ready, then we can't do it. No, we can go. Do you want to catch up with Ironhide and Diana or you want to just go? Yeah, I would love to catch up with Ironhide. Was that sarcastic or was that serious? That was serious. OK, so is there any way Duncan can kind of like anyway, hold on first off. He he looks at Hondo and he goes, Hondo, are you still with us? In the meanwhile, sure. I just want to make sure that we didn't embarrass ourselves too much and you're leaving. So I guess is there any way Duncan can make enough noise to draw attention to him?

Like, could he blare his guitar, his axe or something? Like to try and get the dragon's attention? No, to get Ironhide's attention. They're walking towards you. Right. But you said but I like I'll just put my hand up and like wave a little bit, like try to. OK, you know, so walk over towards him. So Ironhide and Diana are going to kind of rejoin the group here. So you're just kind of standing in this huge empty field talking. OK, Ironhide is going to ask him, OK, do you want to talk? It seems like we need to sort something out here. I just want to glare back at him.

Take out his fire. If if you want to fight with us, we can fight. I don't think right now is the time to not talking about fighting. I'm talking about there's no I don't mean we fight. I don't mean fighting each other. I mean, if you want to fight alongside us, you're more than welcome to. But I don't think right now is the time to settle any differences. All right. I'll tell you what after we get done fighting. You ask me anything you want and I'll tell you I'll tell you whatever you want. Is that OK? Can I can I can I can I can I do something, aren't I? Shakers sure.

I won't hurt you bad. I want to I want to I want to wrap one of my bow hands around his new fleshy face and just squeeze a little bit. OK, roll an athletic. Now, he doesn't have to. Are you just going to let him in his white eyeball pops out. Oops. I have a left one anyway. So you want to send us through it? No, I kind of wish his face back. I was going to smack him, but Duncan defuse the situation. I wanted to bloody his nose for the first time. And Duncan looks at Diana. Does he speak for you, too? I don't see how our situation has changed. I'm willing to fight with you against the Overwatch.

That is as it was before. Duncan nods. So the only thing we need to talk about right now is our plan. And I don't know if you guys saw it, but it doesn't look like the dragons hanging out over in the town anymore. Overwatch got him pretty good and he took off. So this might be a good time to kind of assess the situation and figure out where we're going to go. We need two seconds here. Two seconds. I am ready to march in there and fuck them up with every one of you. But we need to know real quick why Ironhide is back here. Why are you here to kill all of us?

We don't need to know that now. We can talk about that. I fucking want to know that right now, Duncan. I'll cross my arms, expectively, when you hear this. Alright, Ironhide is going to look at Draconis really perplexed. We signed up to fight a war. To build an army and fight a war. That's why I'm here. Are you here to kill any more of us? No. No. So you have beef with Thoril and nobody else. Is that what you're telling me? Thoril betrayed us. The reason we scattered like that is because he helped call in a dragon that was going to help wipe us out. That's the reason that most of our dwarves are out of commission right now.

Okay, Duncan, pull Duncan. Can Duncan motion to Diana and see if she'll come aside with them real quick? Okay. Will you? Yep. Okay. So Duncan pulls Diana aside, gets a little distance away from the group while they're in the middle of the argument. And goes, look, we're ready to go in there. I don't want to sit here. I know me and you have our differences, but I don't want to sit here and argue about this all day. I know you need to get in there, too. So you with me? Let's just get them going because this could go on forever. All right. Okay. So Duncan steps back in the group and just goes, guys, we can settle this later.

And he looks at Draconis. I go, please, Draconis. I know you have I know you want information and we'll get it. I know. But there's a lot more important things going on right now, man. I don't need information. I just want to make sure he's not going to stab me in the back. You don't care if he stabs you in the back. I think he's the least of our concern right now. Really? There's thousands of people over there that could stab us in the back. And we're worried about this one guy? Ironhide killed Thoril because it was necessary. There's no reason to kill the rest of you.

We need to focus our energy on the Overwatch right now. Draconis is going to look at the group and just look at him and say, this motherfucker just said necessary. Ironhide is going to turn his back and start walking towards the army. I'll follow him. Yeah, me too. I go too. Tondo? Is Draconis going to follow? You get a death stare right in the back of your head, though, this is your jerk. I probably deserve that. Tondo going too? Might be being believed in half in a couple of weeks. Yeah. OK. As you approach the army who is emerging from the treeline now and trying to get...

Like everyone's in utter shock. This is like within the span of 20 minutes, let's say, that they've been attacked. They've been and then they'd run into the treeline and then they spend some time in the treeline while the city is being sieged by this dragon. And no one's exactly sure what is happening over by the city, they're not close enough to see exactly what's happening. It's nightfall by now and you can't see exactly what damage has been done. All you hear is the noises of it and this thing belch fire every once in a while and then eventually it flies off.

Approaching this army again, Brittana is going to be standing in this field, kind of awaiting your return. So she's standing alone. OK, I guess I'll approach her. I guess we will. Yeah, sounds good. Yeah. I'm truly sorry about your friend. You know it, but OK. Appreciate the sentiment. We've dealt with it. We're going to move on. What do we need to do next? The decision has been made within the army to march on the city. This may be our best. This may be our best chance to get within their walls. Unfortunately, we have lost a significant amount of our force. We heard about Nathaniel.

And she's going to kind of look kind of perplexed. Who told you about Nathaniel? Yenward. He's gone. Is that what Yenward's going to like? That's the only information we've gotten. Right. The boy's not dead. I'd like to put my hands in her armpits and just pick her up in the air and look at her face and plub her. Yeah, that's going to jar this woman just a bit because firstly she's not used to being touched. And then secondly, it's like being jerked up off the ground and spun around and shit like that. Do you continue to just hold her or are you going to put her down eventually?

I'm just holding her in the air and crying. Duncan nudges Yenward and goes, "Yenward, put the pretty lady down." "Put the pretty lady down." I'm sorry. Do you know where he is? I can take you to him. Yes, please. All right. She is going to start to march back to the makeshift camp here. Are we following her? Wait, what's going on? I would imagine. I thought we were just going in there. So we're not doing that now? Well, you're joining the army. I don't imagine you're charging off in front of them. We're not the expendables. We're not going to take on the whole thing.

She's going to lead you through this camp. Everyone roll a perception check, please. You guys know the drill. What are you doing? Aw shit. I think that's the last. About time. I don't notice the giant dragging all six times. I had to perceive him. Diana, Hondo, and Yenward, as you're walking through, are going to notice all of the dead soldiers that have been drug off the battlefield. Some of them are missing limbs. Some of them appear to be burned clean off. Some of them are just piles of possessions that you can see are just all that's left of someone. The rare few that have been healed enough that they won't die are in no shape to fight.

The closer, the further into this camp that Brittan is leading you, it appears to be the more severe the injuries that people have sustained. And then you get to a certain point and she's going to turn around and look at you all. You have to understand the boy is in quite a bit of shock. Is he hurt? She looks down just for the briefest of seconds, like she doesn't quite know how to tell you. When Strahd passed overhead, his initial blast was devastating to the front line. We're still taking a tally of who we lost, but Nathaniel was one of the lucky ones.

Some of the backlash burned a portion of his body, but our healers were able to save his life. She is going to turn again and start leading you towards this area where there are a ton of these Winterhaven Riders surrounding the area. They kind of step in her way, like this is off limits, that kind of thing. She just kind of walks right up to one of them and after a couple seconds they just kind of motion out of her way. She doesn't say a word, she doesn't do anything threatening, they just kind of move out of her way. She's going to motion her hand for all of you to go see Nathaniel if you'd like.

Yes, of course. Everyone roll a perception check for me, please. This is going to be gross. Ooh, I love him. Okay, all of you are going to see this. This is all pretty blatant. Nathaniel's been stripped of his armor for the most part, just to get it off of him, because it would appear as though portions of it were melting to his skin. His face on the right hand side has been severely burned, almost down to the bone. So is his arm on the right side and chest, and you're presuming his back. His right hand has been reduced to this skeletal gnarl, which would be unable to hold a weapon, basically be unusable in any capacity.

I end him. Well, you guys end him. Technically. One of us did, yes. And he appears to be unconscious. You're guessing resting. Is she still with us? She's standing there, yeah. Okay. I turn to her and I go, "So, if he's like this, who's calling the shots now?" She kind of takes a moment and she's staring at him, and the remaining leaders took a vote. "We've come this far and lost this much. To retreat now would mean all of this was for nothing. Again, this is our best shot." So there's not just one person in charge, everyone's kind of a council type situation?

"That's what we're doing for now. This is a unique situation." So then we attack the Overwatch. We'll do what you need us to do. Where do you want us? You can join me and my people. We are gathering the army as we speak and we'll be marching momentarily. Alright. We'll be at their gates within the hour. Duncan walks up to Nathaniel and he kind of empties all of Thoril's belongings. Is there anything next to him or around him that I can place it on? It's kind of just the ground. They have bed rolls spread out and everything. They're trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

Oh, so he's on the ground though? Oh yeah. Okay. So I just kind of respectfully lay the stuff next to him so when he wakes up, he will see it there. But I don't disturb him. I don't want to disturb him. Yeah. That sounds like you guys are getting ready to go march on the gates. I think that is a good time for us to stop for the evening. Alright. That's great. So kind of a weird session. It's good. Weird energy about it. It's good. I mean, this will be... This is a lot of setup and this next one is going to be the beginning of the end, I think. I don't know how it's going to end, but I'm really, really excited about it.

That dragon was caught flying over Esterhold. Yeah? It's flying in the direction. That's the closest town that he can just punch for a while and feel better about himself. Odessia. No, that's going out a bit farther. Yeah. Well, I guess. That's what I'm saying. It depends. It depends on how far he flies. He can have his own place over there. Yeah. In the city of Brightport, in House Dragon's Keep, Tessia Grimness is tending to some paperwork in her new study. David is going to enter the room. The steward. Tessia, your son is here to see you. And Tessia is going to look up from her paperwork.

Valus doesn't need permission to come and he's always welcome, David. And at that, Malkus steps around the corner and says, "Hello, Mother."