Critical Role - Flight to Castle Torch | Critical Role | Campaign 4, Episode 15 Part 2

Episode Date: February 24, 2026

Part 2 The Seekers take to the skies via an eagle ally, bonding in the clouds as they head to the home of the Barrowguard... New Episodes Release Weekly on Thursdays.Learn more about Campaign 4 at https://critrole.com/campaign4/   GET MORE CAMPAIGN 4 WITH BEACONWe're excited to bring you even MORE Campaign 4 with a Beacon membership! Get access to exclusive shows like our behind-the-scenes Critical Role Cooldown and ask the Campaign 4 cast your burning questions directly through our LIVE monthly Fireside Chats.You'll also receive NEW Beacon exclusive series, instant ad-free access to VODs & podcasts, live event pre-sales, merch discounts, & a private Discord.Start your 7-day free trial today at https://beacon.tv/join and get unparalleled access to everything Critical Role! OFFICIAL CAMPAIGN 4 CASTGAME MASTER Brennan Lee MulliganLaura Bailey as ThimbleLuis Carazo as Azune NayarRobbie Daymond as Kattigan ValeAabria Iyengar as Thaisha LloyTaliesin Jaffe as Bolaire LathaliaAshley Johnson as VaelusMatthew Mercer as Sir Julien DavinosWhitney Moore as TyrannyLiam O’Brien as Halandil "Hal" FangMarisha Ray as Murray Mag’NessonSam Riegel as Wicander "Wick" HalovarAlexander Ward as Occtis TachonisTravis Willingham as Teor Pridesire CREDITSProduced by Maxwell James, Steve Failows, & Kyle ShireSet Designed by Shaun EllisProduction Designer: Noxweiler BerfCharacter Art by Loren HontanillaEdited by Taylor Burke and Emily "Stevie" StevensonCritical Role Announcement Playhouse Editor: Vinny CelestiOpening Title Editor: Paul FoyderOpening Title Colorist: Peter KoocheradisWindow Effects by Christian BrownGraphic Design by Aaron Monroy & Jordyn TorrenceDol-Makjar art by Daniel Jiménez VillalbaMiniatures Painted by Payton Keo LacebalOpening Title Theme by Neal AcreeCampaign 4 Key art by Hannah FriederichsAdditional Art & Design by Hannah Friederichs Episode QC by Catherine Zimmerman & Paula FloresAssistant Editor: Gianna GencarellaPost Production Coordinators: M Swing & Bryn HubbardClosed Caption Editing by Margaret Dill, Nikki Kindelberger, Courtney Knewtson, Danielle Lackie, Eleanor Smith-Dufresne & Alice TsoiPost Production Supervisor: Tal Levitas HEALTH & WELL-BEINGDue to the improv nature of Critical Role and other RPG content on our channels, some themes and situations that occur in-game may be difficult for some to handle. If certain episodes or scenes become uncomfortable, we strongly suggest taking a break or skipping that particular episode.Your health and well-being is important to us and Psycom has a great list of international mental health resources, in case it’s useful: http://bit.ly/PsycomResources Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello again, it's Brennan Lee Mulligan, and you're listening to Part 2 of this episode of Critical Role. If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over there first. What are you doing? Otherwise, let's jump right back into this adventure and the world of Aramon. We return. Don't laugh. So don't laugh. This is deadly serious. Juice? Some kind of juice? I didn't hear it was said. The important thing is this. We return to the sky.

Over Helvar. Octus, you have spent the past several hours. Your companions across the carriage from you get asleep, Phelis wakes up after four hours, and you have spent the better part of an evening with your back up against Taisha's knees, the sort of area in front of you, the under the seat, and also on top of the seat, available as a workspace

for you to look through these items. and you've looked through them quite a bit. Do you have any questions about any of the things put before you? No. Well, so there are a few charms and some scrolls, which the scrolls look like scrolls, I assume. And then the three charms, the hair's charm, the otters charm, and spring charm.

What do they look like? The hairs and otters and spring charm, all much like your walking, Walker's ward are very simple. There is, in their cases, a leather cord that ends in a beautiful, smoother than moonlight stone charm, each of an animal in sort of resting form around itself.

So a hair curled up and around, almost in the shape of like a teardrop, right? But you can see that it's the shape of the animal there. and then of an otter as well. The Hare's stone is, they are smooth and polished stone as well. The Hare's charm is a sort of dappled jasper, sort of a dappled jaspery kind of gray, and then the otter's charm is a basalt or some kind of volcanic rock

that's been carved into a deeper shade. And the spring charm is actually a, pressed flower, not in glass, but in what looks like dragonfly wings, and then set into a piece of wood that has been set in amber. So it's sort of like an amber edge or outline around pressed and preserved dragonfly wing on an ancient flower pressed behind the gossom of the dragonfly wing. I love that for me right now. Great. And then the embers of Arrasque are what's in the chest. Are what's in the chest.

And the scrolls, I will say, are all written in druidic. So these are druidic scrolls. Only one of them you recognize to be a spell scroll, but it is of a spell that is beyond your ability to cast. But the other two look a little bit more. closer, they're not even spells. One of them appears to be something like a written record of a promise made to a druidic order,

to the Circle of Stones. Interesting. And the other one looks to be a chanted abjuration, something that is meant to ward and protect. Right. The embers of Arras, as you opened that chest, You see that there are, as you're looking at it, there are these coals that are dim,

sort of at, you know, like what you would find in the hearth the morning in waking up, these dim, dim embers, but still smoking, crackling. And it is of some ancient coal deep beneath the earth, something. This is, in other words, not an ember of a fresh cut piece of wood. This is an ember from deep below the earth crackling here and smoking as you behold it.

And the chest actually has a sort of series of metal arms and then a sort of tin with sort of holes punctured and it this like tin pan with a covering on it that rests removed by these arms from the wood of the chest around it. So they just sort of smoke in the middle, not touching anything. Right.

This is the handwormer. It's very bigsy hand warmer. I think I figured out what most of these are. Some of them will need Tisha to look at. I don't speak the language that they're written in. These other three charms could be useful. I'll wait. I can tell you what they do when everyone else is awake.

See who wants what. Okay. This is very, but the chest, these are, These coals, if, when you come in contact, they will effectively burn someone, they come in contact with, so. And she said it was a form of ammunition, so I'm assuming some sort of sling apparatus

could hurl these at people and burn them. Cool. Which would be useful. How? I mean, I assume. I wonder if I could put any in my my censor. I don't think you,

this was, these were the things that were hurriedly given to you by Amida. I don't think that occurs to you to be, and far from it. I mean, she said ammunition, but that's her. That's her, yeah. We could always try. I like experiments.

Me too. Options. Options, options. Just think about. We'll wait until everybody else in the air before we burn the carriage down. Oh yes, yes, yes, that's right. Just wake up and we're like,

the Eagles of Phoenix now. Ah! Just worry with the peace says. You're not landing in the dark little buddy. You are the light. We made light for you. Yes. The one that probably is of the most interest to you,

because as you said, the scrolls and the charms were created for exactly this purpose to give aid to something. But the embers appear to just be this discovered thing. Ariske, you would know, is the Titan of Fire, the primordial queen of fire. But the

other thing you see here is this thing that has a title on the book and is sort of a book of druidic magic. This appears to be a more recent painstaking copy. Copying these books is very challenging. So this is why you were given one at all.

But for what you're just, journey was, this is the Kibbenimkadas, which is true. Oh, that was at the bottom of the list. I see this now. I didn't see it before. This to you, pulling it out, is. Whoa. The Kibbenimkadas is the book of the names of stones. Probably not.

That's so cool. Not even close to what's on there. I will never look. That's so cool. Kibbbbibbidipidipdas. You're looking through that. I think Vailas, looking at this book, waiting to see sort of like the indentations

of either prose or poetry, you see in druidic lines, columns, ranks, words written, some smaller shapes here, lighted off sketches with tiny script. There are pages. are pages of this book, which is a sort of large dwarven tone, that in Druidic have lettering that is maybe a 20th of an inch tall.

Like the finest script, this is like, this is like an instant migraine to try to read this book without some kind of magnifying power. And I think it is written in Druidic. So the language, I can take a minute. I don't know if this is actually work, but I can ritual cast Comran languages. Baby.

So. Casting Conradite, you begin to decipher the Druidic script in front of you and see the names of not only vast ancient druidic namings for types of stone, written as the term they use is family name or surname for the types of stone. You see there are hundreds of pages of just the individual names of stones out in the world.

That's that rock's name. And- Gregory. Each of these, the names of individual stones, some of which are small enough to be held in a hand and are described as such, Typically, the shortest name is somewhere in the neighborhood of 14 pronounceable syllables.

Oh my God. This is incredible. This is, I don't know how I think I should say this, but almost like a family history of stones, actual rocks. Whoa. I think this will allow me. If I use it,

Spend some time with it, I can... If we find something that is made of, or at least partially made of stone, I might be able to find out who it is, which is very interesting. Who? Well, it has, it will have a name, supposedly. Whoa.

Even in this short comprehending of languages, I think one of the things you see that this book is not in the same, intended for, but your wizardly mind begins to see is that with so much text, phonetic structures start to appear. Right. You begin to see the grammar. Well, if that's a family name, that's where that goes.

And I noticed that these two first names over here are the same. So if I were to encounter a stone like this or from this other family, wouldn't this have to be its name or at least close to it and begin to sort of see the empty spaces might not be that empty. Yeah, that's interesting. There might also be enough text here for me to decipher this language and not have to use a spell.

But that's not important right now. So this is fascinating. I think Octus, you are beginning to also feel, even though you do not need sleep, you are becoming aware of the joints grinding down your cartilage. If you don't mind, I do need to try and rest. Yeah, I'm gonna, so I'll just kind of puts this stuff away,

it gets back up on the bench and just kind of like slouches down on the bench and sits. I get one of the wall blankets. I know. This is dumb. I appreciate it, thank you. I just cover him. Yeah, like a bird. It's night now.

Go to sleep, go to sleep. Let me just double check here. Yeah, interesting. This is so bonkers. So Octus is there and is just kind of, he starts thinking about doing what you said too. think about his life and something that makes him happy. And as he does, the light in his eyes kind of like dims a little bit.

But his eyes are still fully open. It's almost like just someone turned off the light, kind of, and he kind of goes into himself. But I have to, mechanically speaking, I have to spend these hours in inactive, motionless state during which I retain consciousness. That sounds. So he's just staring forwards,

but I think is inside of his mind. Been there. And he's just thinking, trying to sift through the recent events and find something nice to think about. And it takes some digging. Digging into your memory, what do you find that brings any sense of joy? I think there's a lot of stumbling around

through recent events and so much of his family is on his mind and then going through and realizing how much of his family life was not terrible but not great, unpleasant, or lonely. And he kind of goes to the roster of his family and tries to find a memory with each, any one memory with any of them that is like a positive sort of

of, that was nice, we had a nice day, and he doesn't really come up with anything. And then he stumbles on. But I used to hang out with Thimble all the time. That was fun, and starts thinking about the things they used to, when he was a child, and she was a child. And the things they would get up to and the mischief they would do when he was left without anyone to watch him.

He stared ahead. Aranesa was already a woman grown by the time you were born, but there were so many times before all this happened that the Taconas would be invited somewhere, that the fairies of the golden orchard would be what joy there was in those brief moments. Perhaps it was foreshadowed even then that you would have to make your escape from your family. Yeah. morning arrives, who amongst Tysha and Julian are the first two awake? I'd say, just given the domino's stack of weight, left shoulder, Julian kind of comes to first. Dislocated. Chilled air met with that, like, just the twinge of, like, the faintest hangover. The soreness from the fight from the night before all kind of culminates as he begins to stir.

and notices the stack. It just kind of like takes a moment to himself to reflect on everything. He's only had piecemeal moments to really begin to absorb these events. Sometimes it still feels like a weird daydream or a vision beyond reality. And I think he just kind of sits and after a few moments,

kind of decides to brave a glance to see how close you might be towards any semblance of civilization. You glance sort of through the crack and the canvas underneath and see, sort of hard to see almost when you realize that Al-Tradler has been circling for maybe like an hour or two. You are above Garwin. He is not wished to land. until it is safe to do so,

has stayed on the wing. And now appears to even, you see, sort of his eyes looking up at the massive bird, hang low. Now that the sun comes up, the thermals that are beginning to greet him from up below, make this flight even more. Sleeping.

He's on the verge of falling asleep. Oh, buddy. My lady, Tysha, we are over the city and the bird is getting sleeping. You look and see also this strange sight from up here, because you look and see that as he is circling, he sort of banks away, you look and see far, far in the distance, the Kavrosi Mountains and at the arisen girdle,

which is a dot on the horizon, far, far away, some, you know, 30 miles from here. And as he wheels, all of a sudden, you look a soft tear across the sky, stretching the horizon. Here in day, a band above the horizon where in brightest day,

you can see the stars, the eternal night. Barrow down of the fallen god of the sun, It has not known the dawn for 70 years. From the outside, it looks almost like a celestial wonder, a thin band across the blue, where the stars can shine, and that thin strip of land on the horizon,

where it glows with that silvery moonlit glow. You know the feeling of nausea that awaits if you actually approach that place on foot. I'll go talk to him. I'll go talk to him. I'm going to like clamber out and kind of crawl towards his head. Like, good morning. You sticking your head out of the carriage

are basically looking up. You're under his eagle talons holding this massive carriage. So you're kind of looking up just the underside of his throat and under his beak. He looks out and goes, Thank you so much. And thank you for waiting till. I said, I'm tired.

We could go down whenever you're ready. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. That is a point or just the safest ground? Safest ground where you can maybe rest for a little bit before returning. Oh, no, I won't rest here. I won't rest here. It's not, it's not safe.

Understood. And then I have that thought just a little bit because I didn't get to experience Featherfall. Like, we could jump. No, no. No, no. He goes and says, lots of little ones, not many big ones, and the little ones,

that if I sleep, it might be fun to kill me. If you wanna sleep, we can make sure We could keep a guard. You could get some rest. Whatever you want for doing such a, not because you did us a great service, but because you were kind. Would you like to sleep?

You're all kind. Sky's safer for me. Okay. And you see, there is a... Just get back in. I am sobbing. Get yourself, we gotta go. I think hearing people talk.

Octus, like the light goes back into his eyes. Are you okay? Yeah, sorry. I tried to breathe. Oh, oh. It's unpleasant. I'm sorry. I think it worked.

I think I did too. I've been watching you for most of the night, and it looked like you got some rest. Waking up from your rest, such as it is, your mind is like a library where the books have been put away. You realize that you're starting the day with a little bit of mental order that if you were not to do this regularly,

you can't guarantee that your mind would stay focused, orderly, or perhaps, shall we say, friendly to your values. Right. You also feel in your body that you, it's not wrong to think of yourself as a construct. Maybe undead are constructs fundamentally. You're just a construct that happens to hold something like a mind and a heart.

And there's, or not a physical one anyway, but. Too soon. Too soon. But you feel that what healing to you feels like in this regard is that the magic that animates you is like a sheet and a blanket covering you and that the bed has been made. The magic goes and is attached strongly to each and every joint, strongly throughout the muscles,

strongly throughout the tendons. You are at your own disposal because of whatever this rest-like thing you have done is. Great, okay. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I feel much better. I'll say something you may be next time

I could just command you to sleep. I wonder if it would work. Let's try it. He'll try it if you can't sleep last time. Oh, while we're landing, I know what everything does. Oh. The chest is full of a bunch of, for lack of a better word, burning coals that we can use

for, as she said, ammunition, but could be for whatever we feel like. Here's, I hand you some scrolls. These are all in druidic. Oh. There's scrolls of magic. Great. There's three charms. They each, there's the, they can, go wherever we think is best to each.

There's one for each of us, I guess. There's the Haas charm while wearing it, you can augment your jumping abilities. You can cast jump only on yourself. There's the otter's charm. This will allow you to be at home in water like an otter would be. You can swim very quickly.

Then the spring charm here allows you to take Take a minute and heal yourself once per day. And in addition to that, you have vengeance. Your advantage on saving throws against you avoid being the poison condition while you were in the end. So you have a natural resistance to poison. Okay.

So those three are whoever, what do you? I mean, you got one. I have one. This will, oh yeah. And this stops people from being able to to find me-ish and invade my mind. Oh, okay. These were gifts very much intended for you all,

so if the three of you, and I'm including Erinessa and this, want to decide amongst yourselves which of the three? You prefer? Erinessa looks and says, oh my, this is very, very thoughtful. I'll, I'll, I. Was the jump one? The one with the rabbit on it. What's a hair, it's different?

Hair. No, I don't fully understand this magic thing. Does it make me jump further? Stronger? Higher, stronger, farther. Faster. Harder. Nope.

Bordit. How much? I do not understand. specifics, I have to understand that is words. Sorry. Looks up the jump spell. Hold on. You see Erinessa looks and says,

why don't you take a minute to test it when we get to the ground? How high can you... How high can you jump without it? Pretty high. I see. I'll take it, I'll take it. We can talk later.

You see, she looks and says, it's a druidic relic. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a, I don't, how, is this, is this like a... These are like ancient and good. If you lose it, I'll kill you. How old is it? All right.

You see that Erinessa says, well, good, okay, good. And says, says, I'm curious about the other stuff that's in the box. Because of if the ember thing Oh, right, we want to try and put that in there. Sorry, what? Um.

We had an idea. More, they had an idea to use some. They're called the embers of Arrasque. Oh. Um, and we thought maybe we put some inside the sensor. Oh. Just because they were smoking, so I thought... Sure.

But I don't quite know what they do. They would, uh, when struck with one, if I'm understanding them correctly, when struck with it, it, uh, burns people. Okay. Cool, that's how most fireworks. Yeah. They do one D6 fire damage.

Okay. My nose starts bleeding, but I do understand. Just that noise. Is it like you throw them? And it's just like a... So it's like, mechanically speaking, the ammunition tool, like a rock and a sling where you would like throw it at something. Okay, okay.

But it's not, I think, beyond Vales' like, essentially, there is, let's not let the D&D mechanics confuse things here. These rocks burn you if they hit you. So putting them in your sensor would be putting a like source of flame inside of your sensor. It's not an impossibility. Do we wanna try to put one in now?

We can. I felt it was better to wait till we're not in a wooden carriage in the sky. There is two, too, do you. F F. That's great. and boom, the springs go. As you can see why these springs are here. Essentially, there is a gentle motion whereby the landing of the carriage

is not the landing of Altradler. Like he, in other words, his thing is to coast in, like sort of send a big windstorm back to very gently like, go, go, drop you as you bounce up and down on these springs as he continues on to very lightly leave you on the ground as light as he can and then circle back around and land on his own.

Vimes. And you guys look and see, you are in a beautiful wooded copse. This is a sort of farmland area. You look out and this massive carriage is in a beautiful pasture with very short grass because there's about 20 extremely frightened goats. over by a fence, all hiding under a tree line from the, you know, 80-foot wingspan eagle that just

didn't make a promise. Yeah, I know. Wolf mode. And you see Altrodler sort of circle back around and a minute, you know, like a few seconds later, land at the top of the pasture on the ground, kind of look around, ruffle his feathers, and look over at the goats and begin to kind of kind

You want some goats? Okay. Give me a number. I'm going to go find who owns these goats and pay for these goats. Just not all, please. You walk off. Incredible. As you walk off, you are walking off with the three scrolls

and the ring Ammaida gave it. That is not, was not. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Do I, I'm going to put that on in a while. There's a one that makes you swim well, and there's one that heals you. My lady Vanless, I do not know to what degree you are comfortable with these druidic relics,

but by all means, whichever is most comforting to you, I would say leave to you. I think you have your pick. I don't know if I'm going to wear one yet. I? Don't enjoy swimming. And you see this, she says, I'll take the spring charm. Thank you very much.

Hands the charm over and just hold on to it for now and puts the otter's charm in his coat. All right, so we are on the cusp of Gerouin, home of Castle Torch. Right. What are we doing here before we send further east into the eternal night or where it is your vision is taking us?

Right. I walked away to go find who to give money about goats to. And this is where I saw your son. Possibly. Possibly. The vision you saw seemed to be in ancient ruins consonant with the old Obridemian Empire. You've seen in Venatus, that is the architecture.

Like you have looked at you have looked You believe that you saw him in some kind of subterranean dwelling, something, some, you know, tomb or mausoleum or some ancient kind of place. But you know that he was stationed at Castle Torch where Julian was training him. Yeah. Effectively, we're looking for Tisha's son here where you were training him.

Oh, God. Yeah. So I didn't see that look. If we find him and he's fine, then I think we can move on. That was the only thing leaving us here was to make sure he was okay. You know Aligar? I know him well.

It's a fine soldier, a bit, well, appreciatively impetuous at times, but has the talent, a little more refinement in time. We can look for him. I may check in with the Captain Fedron or maybe the higher ranger and see if there's been any news from the Golden an orchard as we had to leave the Einfausen establishment

before we could receive any word from our families. As he looks to Lady Aranessa, we still have no confirmation as to whether or not. No. No confirmation. It's morning, so if your message was sent, there is at least that word. But there's Castle Torch,

where you will be welcome. The Barrow Guard answers the collective call of the sundered houses, but it is first and foremost under the authority of the Revolutionary Council. We will not be, if we were to be slaughtered on appearing at the castle, then indeed the world has gone to madness, and there is no safe haven for us if Castle Torch is not. Hey, that's hope for one of three, huh?

It was fine at my house. One and a half. She looks and says, would you recommend that we go first to Castle Torch or the Lady Volkshift holds sway here in Gerewin? I don't have bad relationships with Alice, but I certainly. I think I should refrain from having

any more diplomatic visits for a while. Tysha, you walk over to a farmhouse where you see a Helvarian goat herd comes out looking up and goes, oh, no. Yeah, I'm so sorry. That's exactly what you're. you think is about to happen. Oh, ha, ha!

Mm-mm-mm. Yeah, I'm sorry. Okay, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna pay for some amount of those goats. And I promise to bless the other ones to make more goats quickly. You can do this? Druid. Oh, the giant eagle you have brought is because, oh, you walk the old path, welcome.

Yes, I'm so sorry. He's so hungry. No, no, it is all right. Just to know it is part of a plan. Oh, you're so sweet. Yes, of course. You can bless with the right of fertility that the goats are well. Yeah.

Marvelous. Yes, splendid. For the goat, how many do you think? I'm just, oh, God. I'm going to do like a sort of at that rate and assume he'll go Like 12, let's say 20 and call it a day. There are only five goats. 20 goats, all right, well I'll have eight left.

He goes, I think for this, to replace the animals, it would be, with 10 gold pieces of ice. Yes, yes. I'm gonna pull out 12 gold pieces. It looks and says, oh, I'm so sorry. No, it is all right, Even if the goats proved to be prudish and standoffish,

that this will help me at least replenish my herd at market. I hope. So sorry. I hope that they were a sufficient meal for your great beast. He seems pleased. You see Altrather sort of finishes this like, there's still a couple of goats left and I'll rather, I can't eat anymore.

Okay. Do you have a number for me? He looks and says, one. Oh, great. Counting, yeah. And I am screaming like a Red Tail Hawk, just across a prairie. Ah!

He screams. Alt-Roddler, with his full, Lucian says, sick in the carriage or making too much noise starting to ride. Thank you for risking landing in the dark, but making it to the light. Safe journey.

Learn to count. Safe journey. Pakes his carriage and up back into the sky and begins to fly back towards recent girdle. Sweet. I'll trot it out back to the homies, but I am gonna go ahead and put on the wood ring and just try to attune to it as we're.

Hell yeah. Wait, so was he just holding onto us all right? Or we connected to him. So if we started to fall asleep, we could just like slip out. You guys did not attach the fastening. There were ropes. There were ropes.

There were ropes there. We made it. He's a professional. He's been doing this for hundreds of thousands of years. He's great. What? Yeah. At this point also, you see that

wheeling overhead is a red-tailed hawk. The whole night? The whole night. Oh, my God. As you wave to him, you see that Hannan circles down and approaches and lands in the pasture here in the morning and assumes his elven form. Hi.

God, is he. Thank you. I spoke with Hamida before you, You made your way across the bridge. I'm sorry that I was not there to help you with the danger you were in. Sorry I shot you a little bit. I understand you had reason to be testy.

That's a form you can rely on me to use. Should I ever come up alongside you while you're not expecting it again. Noted. He looks and says, I wanted it to take you this far because you bear many of the relics of the Shungarten, and furthermore, your persuasiveness last night has led me to believe that this may be

one of the most important events unfolding in our world. And rather than remain, I wished to at least accompany you as far as some determination about your safety would be made, rather than simply watching you take to a sky carriage and vanish into the dark night. May I offer you

not quite a blessing, but a bit of my favor? Yes, you may. And I'm going to take out, again, she just has a ton of little piercings and pulls one out and heats it in her hand. How do you feel about needles?

Neutral, ambiguous. Sweet, and then just try to be quite quick about it. It's just going to pierce one of his elvenears with it. Yeah, you pierce it, he goes, ah, hot, okay. And then, without fully casting it to burn the spell slot, I will begin to cast locate object. So, in the event that I ever need to find you again. You see, he says, I will,

where is in good health. He says, I do not claim to be your companion nor in your trust, but I hope that you understand the sense in my position of not letting something this significant simply vanish without aid or help. I appreciate it. Thank you. I'll give you your space.

And you see that he, once again assumes the hawk form and just takes to the wing. Give me so much. Those strange few days. Yeah. Shall we? Yeah. Let's go.

My lady. And you guys walk and behold. Carrying the chest. We'll see. Carrying the smoking chest. Totally normal thing to do. As you sort of trundle along up this dirt road, heading towards Garwin.

Garwin is a little Riverside city. It has diminished due to its proximity to the Eternal Night. You see that there are sort of exterior farmhouses that used to be kind of like village, you know, sort of like how, little hamlets and thorpes will add up to villages and towns that get to the city. There's farmers far away, and these inner places where it would have been little hamlets and

blacksmithy places and things like that as it gets closer to the larger city are abandoned and overrun. These places, there's a lot of vines, a lot of abandoned homes and houses. As you get closer to Garwin, you see that there are wooden palisades, some larger stone structures, and basically that the city has ceded this middle territory of either, we either need you out farming where farming is happening or come all the way into the center of the city.

And as you see some of these palisades, you see that many of them do have places for being manned and that they face towards the east, towards the eternal night. As we're walking up, can you hold that? Give me my half of the box. And as he's walking, you see him sort of gather energy in his hands create this symbol of these

these two like skeletal hands that are crossed. Like this inside, this sigil he's making in the air and then brings it to his chest and you see these spectral sort of, and like an overlaying of a skeleton goes across Octus's form as he casts major armor on himself to defend, just be like, thank you. As you move through, Julian,

you've been through Geroen many times before. You see that you're on the eastern side of the river right now. The major castle of the house Wulkshchief is up on the western side where the larger city is. The city used to be, I think, more equitable between both sides, but the river provides a natural defense from things coming out of the eternal night, And so the western side of the city,

the western side of the river is a lot livelier. And you can see that has the traffic on the main highway coming from Reeson Gertel that would head up to the Golden Orchard, up about 100 miles north into Telmora. On the eastern side, however, you look over and see up on a hillside, probably like over like a league of travel into some more forested area. a massive ridge top wooden castle,

like an old Mott and Bailey castle. Enormous wooden palisades built so quickly that it was built of wood rather than stone. And you see enormous beacon fires all throughout that are not lit but are being rebuilt again for another night of keeping watch. With the banner of the Barrow Guard and the Revolutionary Council, Castle, Castle Torch.

Very well. You'll leave on. Well, if we plan to stay partially arrested, it's inquired to see how much world has found its way this far, any questions we have for perhaps Lady Walshift, if not at least the captain, then lest we have any other reasons to stay

and any other visions that come to you that call our attention, then we will lead on to Are you bringing us to the dark? But you wanted to go to the golden orchard? I do. Need to see if we are dividing paths soon. I mean, what do you think? I mean, if we don't find Aligar here,

we'll have to make other plans. I think we have to accomplish this first before we know where we're going. Eventually, I will end up probably having to go to the dark, but... Let's ask. Let's see if you can find your son, huh? Yeah, thank you. Lady.

You guys head, and where are you guys here? Are you steering in the direction of Castle Torch? Are you headed to Garwin? Or are you headed, you see this road, by the way, Taisha, you know, goes to Castle Torch and then passes beyond that towards the Eternal Night, which you would actually know is the the shadowlight waypoint. That was the place that you came through here. What, two weeks ago?

God, yeah. I think, yeah, I'm naturally veering towards Castle Torch. I'm already on that path as well. Sweet. You guys ride up, and as you ride, you see, Aranis looks to you and says, should we display colors here or no?

We must. You will be known here. I think if cautiously, in the Freeharmouth of any sort of strangeness or resistance, then there is no safe haven beyond our very own borders. There has to be a place that we can call friends. She says that can all be lost. And you see that she waves her hand

and behind her a trail of motes of golden light and flapping golden moths appear. as you guys come up. So there's sort of the upper keep palisaded, but that also connects on a long bridge down to this even larger palisaded courtyard with multiple buildings in it, ramparts, palisades. Tysha and Octus,

you passed by here a few weeks ago, and Tisha, I'll ask, knowing that Aligar was stationed here a couple weeks ago, did you see him on your way to Venatas and on your way back? I think there was one, one meeting. He was probably outdoing something

on the secondary, like the second pass through. But yeah, especially in a world where you were able to disguise yourself as someone close to Octus. So I think you've met him before too. Yeah, yeah, close to Aligar. Sorry, close to Algar. I confused my sons.

Yeah, so I think we saw him maybe on the way out. Cool. And didn't catch him on the way back. Didn't catch him on the way back. I think he probably was outranging. at that point. He was doing his job, doing the job of the Barrow Guard. And we were hustling back trying to get to the Ozzy, so we couldn't wait around. Exactly. You guys approach, as you approach the gate opens and sort of standing there, you see walking out of the gate a tall, a very tall, very broad-shouldered, very handsome,

half-orc that you don't recognize, but actually, Julian, you realize, is going to be a little bit funny here, given your adventures in recent Gertel, one of your fellow Lord Knights of Castle Torrish tasked with the training of these troops, a massive half-orke knight, Sir Tonweld Kosingblad. Tonneville looks out and says, Davinos, you have come back in one piece.

Cozingblad, it has been very interesting, Very interesting time indeed. Much stories to tell and much stories to swap. And I go up and like kind of clasp him together. He brings you in and gives you kind of a hard but a little bit wet kiss on the cheek. And he goes, this one, it is good to see you. And with the magnanimous Lady Aranesa Royce,

you see, he bows deeply. And, oh, one who walks the old path and the mother of one of the great, Greatest drinkers our barracks has ever known. The what? No, I didn't say that. The what? Where is my son?

Hey! I said he was a talented soldier. I'll kill you. It was... Give me my son now. He turns to look and goes, he is much to my shame and to his great fortune. in the barrel there.

What has sent him into the shadows? This is an order came down from Captain Luca, not long. Actually, while they were in Venatus, when they were in the Eternal Night themselves. Your son was sent with the head ranger, Biesa, Kagrikovlake. She had taken him. him off. I grew cold like, okay, all right.

Drinker? You know this about me. I expect he did teach him sword fighting. I do. I teach him many things. What other things if you taught my son? Look, part of the process of learning to be a good soldier is learning to bond with your other.

I push him. I kind of take it back. I don't resist it. I don't like throw the clothes back and be like, part of the training is to be to be, We deft with the weapon. The other is to trust your fellow soldiers, your arm and arm in battle.

Do not judge our way of bringing our soldiers' hearts to go. There were a lot of things he could have said to Aligar's mother about his talent, and you picked drinking? My mother is very proud of my drinking. I thought I have made a cultural forepower. I apologize. You're fine.

She is a, um. I'm what? I'm what? Protective. All right. You see, he says, I only meant to say that he is stern of constitution and

vitally. I push you back a little bit. I take it. See? Hello. All right. Welcome to Castle Torch. Thank you.

Sir Davinos, these are your guests in company. And of course, the lady Royce, who has ever reason to inspect the ground. Indeed, we would like to have a few conversations, at least have a little moment to catch our breath after in evenings travel and decide where our next venture takes us. I take it if there's not too much business,

we might enter, please. Please come in and enter. You walk in and see rows of Barrow Guard. You see some of them are running. You see that they have these sort of heavy vests on on that have these burlap sacks of pebbles and sand and they're running in them. You can see that up above them.

You see there's another night kind of calling out orders. You see that there's drills being run in this massive courtyard. A keep is being sort of stacked up. You see in a corner there's actually a wagon of the candescent creed here, and that some filament is being unloaded from a carriage to Castle Torch. And the flags flying overhead. Anyone who wants to can make a history check for me.

Julian, you would know all the information that a history check would reveal to you here at this place. Wonderful. 22. 22. 22. 22. 22.

You look out here and see Octus, the Barro Guard. Probably like 80% of the soldiers you see here are human, orkish, and dwarven. There are some small folk here. gnomes and such like that, and sort of a handful of beast folk as well. It is a very interdisciplinary, international gathering because it is made to address the issue of the Barrow-Dells.

What separates this from a lot of more ancient or more storied institutions is the Barrow Guard is relatively recent and it is relatively a religious, meaning it is not too stewarded by druidic orders. The Barrow Guard is basically like the world of mortals' strength of arms and will to like keep out what lurks within the Barrow-Dells that perhaps a few decades ago, as we heard Amma to say,

the hope might have been that within a generation, the Barrow-Dells would be dispelled, the land would be uncursed, and healed. And so the Barrow Guard has been a great project of the Sundered Houses with the Revolutionary Council and represents the pride of strength and military might of the assembled peoples of Aramon

to resist the monstrous things that lurk within these Barodels where the gods fell and cursed the land. But it also represents, sadly, a lot of effort that no longer believes in the promise of the druids to heal the land. And I wonder how much of that is on Tisha's faces. This is where her son has come to serve. Tice is definitely very clearly displacing

a lot of anxiety into bickering with Julian. Julian at this point too is keeping note of the various contingents of training soldiers as they go by, like when he's acknowledged in passing and have you, you know, recognition, or looks of recognition, and pass kind of gives a nod. He sees one of the kind of training elite soldiers

and kind of glance over him. Vindala, it's been a minute. How are you doing? Doing very well, Sir Julian. How are you? I'm doing well, I'm doing well. Keep their knees high. It's early in the morning.

We want to wear them out by lunch. She nods and says, we'll try to get them as tired out as we can, but then again, without you here, they've all gotten a good night's sleep. Please let me inside check that. Please, I beg of you. I kind of give a sly grin. And say, that makes one of us.

She says, I don't need to inside check that. I give it now. She says, I'm a little too rested. Um, uh, uh, I just can't blush anymore, so you just seem kind of go, okay. As she walks it, you see, uh, walking past, you see Erin Ness takes your arm, Tisha, and goes, What the hell is going on?

We're paying for all this. Your Baronerman. Yeah, this is just an example of your Baronerman. Making a fuck castle. She looks, she looks, she looks and says, It is not a fuck castle. It is a shield of the world of mortals against the darkness without. I'm so sorry, is the fuck castle?

Is that what you said? Yeah, sounds wonderful. I'm sorry, my like, Phil. I'm going to a fuck castle a far. As you walk across the courtyard, as you walk across where you're approaching the central gatehouse that goes across this massive bridge that goes to the upper keep,

basically spanning these like two hills on this ridge top side by side. So this bridge is basically like, if worst were to come to it, this bridge could be like intentionally destroyed and just drop in between these two hills to leave this central keep on this very, very steep hill top.

Looking at the approach to this gatehouse, anyone who wants to give me skill checks as you're trying to get a lay of the land in here, perception, insight, whatever you'd want to do. Walking over to you, you look over and see approaching from that candestine Creed Wagon, Julian, sarcastly neural approaches,

and you can see that he has some glowing tattoos on his wrist in filament. as he approaches and goes, Sir Julian. So, N'arol. It's good to see you. I take it you've returned from the business of the funeral. Yes, it has been a complicated number of days. I see you're bringing quite a shipment of filament into the castle.

The time has come to arm ourselves with all of the tools at our disposal. I was more than happy to speak to Captain Fadron and arrange for this to happen. And just in time for candle feast as well. Indeed. Very well. Is Captain Fadrin Uthin? Yes, in the High Keep. And it's a pleasure to have you back here once more.

What are people rolling? Perception 18. Just general, I'm not, I'm just looking around and seeing what I see. As the gate closes behind you, the red-tailed hawk overhead peels off towards the shadow light waypoint. And on 18 as well, I think you just see it like a busy castle that doesn't appear overwhelmingly. I think after so much running and harrowingness, the fact that you're just, you guys are just visiting as companions of a lady of a sundered house couldn't be more normal.

Yeah, and I'm also keeping an eye to see if anyone's giving me any strange looks, seeing as we did just encounter people who take the appearance of others and anyone paying special attention to me in a way that is suspicious and not just, oh, new people are here. I think on an 18 perception,

you don't see anyone looking at you weird. And also, without any really visible insignia, no one's really clocking you as a Taconas. like you also see too, Julian by virtue of his last name is one of the like commanders of this garrison. Over, call it over 95% of the people in this place are commoners. The Barrow Guard is from the common folk of the land, right? This is people that heard the call and they've come to do what they think is right, protect the lands. The reason you see that there's mostly orcs, dwarves, and humans, here is because the places that are affected

by the Eternal Night are like the lands of dwarves and humans, and there are a lot of orcs in Kahad that would want to come here and help, that maybe don't have a predilection. If you think about all the orcs that don't have, to put it bluntly, the wisdom to be a druid or the charisma to be a paladin, there are a lot of people that still want to help.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was doing a perception shock because I wanted to see where Hammond was. What did you get? I got a 15. You see the hawk take off towards the shadow light waypoint. I only got an 11 because I just realized that I have to ask Julian a very, very weird question about his training my son. So I'm not looking around anymore.

How closely have you trained my son, Sir Julian? You have to clarify your insinuation. Do I? We're close to a bridge, right? Your son is an extremely... is an extremely talented soldier. I have been a mentor to him like I have many soldiers here. I have not fucked your son.

Erinessa goes, all right, well, let's get into the castle. This is so bizarre. Valis is just really loving being in this uncomfortable situation. As before we enter, mate, I ask for at least respecting decorum here. These are people who have given their lives, to the defense of all of your hands. Yes. And also, understand, once again,

we do not grind people into bastions of war here. We teach them the art of warfare and prepare them against the darkness by an appreciation of life. Sometimes that comes with some celebration. So do not be so quick to judge in capture stone. I'm just gonna judge if that's the first thing they lead with. I did a terrible impersonation of cursing, but.

Well, you see that that worked. This is one of Curzingblad's cousins. Oh, okay, okay. This is not Erlich. Oh, I was right. No, dude. Let me be so clear. I've made a mistake.

Erlick Kursingblad is absolutely off doing some wild shit somewhere else. Early on Kersingblad is, yeah. You see, Tonvale. You see, Tonneville looks and says, I do not think I have ever placed my foot so deep into the of my throat before. Do not hold it against yourself. At the very least, take it as a lesson,

a learning experience to put just a moment of thought before speaking to anyone's mother. Should any mother come to the castle under any circumstances? Give pause. Take a moment and just deeply consider what can be said, for none are as fiercely protective and ready to doll out vengeance in a mother.

He nods. I understand this. understand this. I owe you an apology, my lady Tysha, your holiness. My mother is an orcalfi of Guilfi, far to the northwest. And it is very common for a mother to give a young boy or girl that is rambunctious. or strong-willed to give a liquor or drink when they are perhaps six or seven years of age. And to be a proficient drinker by the age of 14 is seen as.

Is this an apology or a justification? Because it's fine that my son is good at drinking. He got that from his mother. Maybe if he's risking his life every day, that's not the thing you lead with. He's not risking it every day. Sometimes we go to town. I think you should keep going.

I will leave. Take the loss. Be on your way. Very well. We should see you. I didn't know someone could stick their foot so far. I've never seen anyone kicking yourself in the stomach from that direction. You could see the toes.

They were just wiggling. Where we're better? Crossing, going through the gatehouse and crossing the enormous bridge, rushing up, you see, actually on horseback to the gate and sort of leaping off and running over, is your staff sergeant. This is Donald Fletcher. Fletcher. Ah, Fletcher, come here, Fletcher.

He gives you a big hug. He says, Roy, and how are you feeling there, Lord? Oh, good to see you back. How was that Dullmacher? You had to put it into the filthy fucking yard grass, did you? No. touch the stuff anymore. I have a more refined palate these days.

At least in celebrating an event, is a... He looks and sees Aranesa beside you, who's looking over at Fletcher, and just looks and says, oh, apologies, my lady. I don't... And she looks over, you see that Aranesa's giving you a look here? I just wanted you to know that while you were away, I, there's a... He just, he holds out

some official documents of the Barrow Guard that has your signature on it a couple of times. And he just goes, is that all right for me? I wanted to wait until you were back, but I had already sent some of these off. Is that all right? We will have to discuss this challenge to my authority. Any kind of like wings and nudges?

I am very disappointed in you. Oh, I've misstepped, that's true. And I am sorry. And I am sorry. And you see that he looks out and says, I'll, I'll talk. And you see he turns off again as you approach the bridge towards the high keep. I don't mean to say, this is not an insult.

But I've never seen this many. I've never seen this many people like you. It's weird. It's interesting to be around people who Thrive, isn't it? Anyway. Not all of us are born lucky. Walking into the massive keep

atop the second you enter into the space and broad, bright daylight and this area has a very small courtyard and you see that it appears that there's an old stone fortification

that was like watchtower here a long time ago that has had like wood and some stone built out from it. No great hall. This is not there, you know, this is all the way on the slider from palace to castle all the way to castle. There's nothing here to hold a gala. This is not a gala type thing. This is purely a fortress. In this sort of opening chamber though, you see that there is a sort of fireplace that has, you know, hasn't been lit yet. It's still daytime. But walking out is a older night. You see sort of like gray beard,

sort of graying around the, whiter towards the bottom and then back into kind of a darker brown as it goes up. Human night, this is Captain Luca Fadrin. Captain Fadrin looks over at you. Captain. Sir Julian, pleasure to have you back at Castle Torch. My lady Aranesa, you see,

He takes her hand, bows, kisses her hand. Welcome to your Castle Torch. And she looks, nods in a scent. Over Luca's shoulder, you see the last of the Lord Knights of Castle Torch, Dame Gaia Seromai. You see that she has her arms crossed behind her, sort of deep, rich browns, skin, hair tied back in a tight braid that sort of you see has like can be quickly

coiled around for combat. Sort of a very light looking dark half plate on her body. And you can see that there is the end of a snake's tail coming out of her wrist tattoo, like a tattoo of a snake's tail here. And you can see the coils come up around her neck and end with the serpent's head on the underside of her chin. And you have to wonder how much of her body that serpent covers.

Oh, I'm wondering. For those we need to. Damn it! Go play, go play. You see. Good, but you see. I like hearing of the fuck-ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm in the foxhole. That was the whole time. This whole place, I'm, I'm, I'm calling it now. It's like real Olympic Village energy here. I feel it. You're looking, you know. Bring me one of those cardboard beds.

That didn't stop any point. I think Vail is looking here in this place. The amount of gregariousness from the mortals here, the amount of frivolity, Julian has not struck you as a man who gives commoners like a pass or a light touch. And the name is, Fletcher is a commoner's name, and those two men embraced and laughed like brothers.

There is a feeling in the air here of kind of like primal, deep rooted in the loins' embrace of life. And you look out, I think, to the east and see a sky that should be blue festooned with stars. It is unsettling. It is uneasy. And there is something here of looking at, there's something. I'm coming made a noise. I were talking made a noise.

Looking at a rend in the world that should be. It's so funny because the stars are shining bright. It's somewhat beautiful. And yet the beauty of that nighttime sky across the horizon as the rest is sitting in day and the sun is ascendant as noon approaches. That beautiful streak of nighttime is an open wound, a laceration on the face of Aramon,

and everyone here knows it. And so they drink and embrace and speak a little louder than normal here in this place. You see that, Dame Gaia sort of holds her chin up, looking at you, Julian, turning out to embrace everything. What is Octus doing in this moment as you approach? Octus, I think this whole time has been staying behind

the two of you when going through and behind Aaron Nuss. We're kind of standing in to Veilus being very, feeling very out of place here in a very different way, but just being like, I don't, I'm just gonna be here till we land somewhere. Like he's just keeping an eye out for his own personal safety and protection, but also just observing how Julian interacts with everybody and just being very interested in how this place

that is very different from where he grew up and different from the Penteverel. And just seeing how other people live. Yeah. Anyone who wants to give me an instant? insight check right now. As Captain Fadron looks and says, my Lady Royce, what brings you here to Castle Torch?

She looks and says to return Julian, who has guided me to Dolmachiar. And she turns to you here, Julian. What do we get for insight checks? Six. Six. 12. 13.

13. You see that. Aaron has looked to you and says, and to wonder if, might we speak in private? He says, miss, let us withdraw. And you guys walk into the war room with him. And he dismisses, I think he actually goes ahead and dismisses everybody but Gaia behind him

and turns to look at you and says, Well, welcome one and all of you to Castle Torch. Your companion, Sir Julian. Tasha, is good to see you again. Good to see you. Your son is still on his outing. Has not returned yet. You see, turns over and says,

and your other companions. This is Octus Tacitus, youngest of Haustaconis. Ah, is this a formal inspection by the Sundar... No, it is not. I am here of my own and traveling with friends. Oh, you see, he just looks at Aranesa and Arctus being in the same place and says, well, a lord and lady of the great houses. It is an honor. Thank you. It's an honor to be here.

Hello, I am Vailas of the Mornvale. Welcome to Castle Torch. It is an honor to have you. Thank you. He turns to how long are you planning to stay? Are you simply stopping by on your way? He looks and says, and where are your men at arms? He looks to Erinasa.

We have to stay, possibly just a short time. Our business may continue onward. What word have you heard from the execution of Theasi Feng in Dormacier? Simply that it took. place we received a pigeon, I think, two or three days ago. And that the execution took place. He looks at Octus and Ernest and looks at Tisha.

And you see, he says, it is, of course, good to understand that there was family. there for what was ruled by the Chamber of Lords advisory need be done. And while we stand ever loyal to the lords and ladies of the great houses, I will ensure that on Aligar's return he has given time to engage with what customs he and do you deem best, my lady Tasha. And he looks, and I think even with no insight check,

you can see that he's looking at a motley fucking crew. Yeah. Have you heard anything else surrounding these events? Has any word come to Castle Torch or glances over

looking very intently towards Dame Sermai and Captain Fadron? Any other events that have transpired in Dormakiar since? Since the execution of the Ozzy Fang? No. No. Insight yet.

You mean Insightly? Yeah, I'm gonna look to... 23. 11. On a 23, on a 23, you're looking at Captain Fadron, who appears to be telling the truth. Even you guys rolling up, like they opened the gates,

you guys walked in. The, it's, he seems to have heard that this execution happened. You see he even looks at his desk and says, uh, here, it's a report. And you see he looks at it. The report that the Ozzy's dead is in a bulletin from the Revolutionary Council. It's like a bullet point. It's like the Ozzy's execution is on like five other bits of news, many of which are more in debt. Another one is like, we are looking to establish a northward excuse.

It's like, it's about the northward excursion for, um, the, for Farad, for the, for the Northern Guard, but we, you know, he's just looking at business. Do I get a ping of anything if I'm allowed to Dame? On a 23, you absolutely do. Okay. Dame Gaia, did you say? Dame Gaia, Saramai. Seramai.

She cannot break her gaze from Octus until she notices you looking and then she looks away. She's got a few little beads of sweat around. on the hairline. I just sort of try to nonchalantly just kind of try to get in his path of vision so she doesn't have to stare at him too long. Captain Fadry, I know that we have not

always had the most synchronistic opinions of how we run things with the Barrow Guard. But I would like to think I've earned a modicum of your respect enough to understand that what I say here is absolute truth and with great import to keep close to your heart. Very well. On that insight, you can see Captain Fadrin

is putting it all together. Aranesa should be here with A, a guardian pixie. She should be here with 30 men at arms and carriages and supply, you know. Yeah. She should. Tasha, would you do the honor of locking the doors? Done. Yeah, and I'll go and do it by hand.

You go and bar the door. As you bar the door, you look and see the door and says, Is everything all right? What is the meaning of this, Julian? It appears that the sundered houses have experienced a rather serious and growing lift. Aside from this young Taconas here, That house has turned against House Royce and de Vinos,

the majority of each of which have been slain. You see that Gaia is looking and just makes it I cut out of you, Octus, in this moment. Who are you? You seem to have a particular interest in me more so. More so than seems to be required. Who are you? Me. I am your vassal knight, my lord.

She turns and says, I don't understand. You see that, Fatron says, please, Dame Ceremy has done nothing to warrant anyone's ill favor. They are sweating. Can I make an inside check on her now? Yeah, go ahead and give me one now. Okay. Dirty 20.

She is frightened and doesn't know what's happening and this is news to her. Copy. Cool. The list of say, um... Royce and Divinos have, what do you mean, fallen? You are, and she's erin SS, not completely, but our number was attacked. Our men in arms were imprisoned in Riesingerdl, and we have no idea. What is the fate of the Golden Orchardture? General Rehman fell as part of this assault, this ambush, as well as all of House de Venus and Royce that had attended with us to Dolmachia.

We are the only survivors of that journey, and we beseech any opportunity to hear if the Golden Orchard is safe, but also to let you know that if we have been targeted, it is no telling who has been telling who has else the next target of Hustaconis may be, or what their aims may be to manipulate or utilize this Barogard to their interests in the future, should this unity between these underhouses be challenged? This is, you see that he looks at Aranesa, and Aranessa says, I understand your confusion, captain. You behold a Royce and Taconas, as House Royce informs you that House Taconas has attempted to end our line.

This is difficult to navigate for us, and we have had days to process the feelings of betrayal, fear, panic, and horror at what we beheld. If you are stumbling because you do not know what to do, I remind you, you will. Your greatest authority is the gray tower of Dolmachiar and the Revolutionary Council. It is the council to whom the Barrow Guard owes their utmost loyalty. And while the Sundered houses are ever honored by the welcome we receive in these castles due to our generosity in helping to build them,

know that your command is given solely by the council. And you see there's a bit of Captain Luca, you know, there's a real feeling of confused loyalty at what you're saying. So Aranesa sort of, you can see we're trying to remind him. Don't get confused. She turns to you, Octus, and says, Aranesa says, do you wish to speak to your vassal?

I apologize for single, singling you out. You see, the Dame Saramai says, I do not know. I do not know of what you speak. My lord, this is not possible. House Toconis would not betray. And if they did, you, my lord, would.

You did? Unfortunately, I made the mistake of forming friendships outside of our house, which caused them. to consider me untrustworthy. It is true what they are saying. And I apologize. I'm seeing now that you do not know or did not know.

I have had unfortunate interactions with my family these last couple of days. Apologies for being more than a little suspicious. But it is true. So you have some decisions to make. You see that Captain Fadron turns and says, Dame Seremai, can you produce the last instructions you were given from Oostokonas? Please.

She looks at you and says, I have failed greatly, my lord. What did you do? Please explain. The ladies of your house were here. some more than a week ago. They came truly not long after you were last here, my lord. The venturing into Venatus, they came and demanded that I give a missive

signed by the Grey Tower. I asked for it and they said that they had lost the missive and that it would be all right to simply communicate it to Captain Fadron. And you see that the captain sort of lowers his face into his hands here in disbelief. She says, I had no reason to doubt my liege ladies. They told me to inform that the Grey Tower needed an excursion at once to Tannesar. And you see Captain Fadron says, this was the excursion. This is where Biaz has headed. And you see that. that she looks and says,

I had no reason to doubt them. They said simply that the letter itself had been misplaced. The Third Battalion was sent under the command of our Head Ranger into the night. Tasha is exactly where. Tisha, you know who's in the Third Battalion. Yeah. Tisha is stock still.

So you're telling me that a bunch of your Men and friends were sent to the realm of eternal night by my sisters. Yes. With no documentation present? No, they... When did they leave? You see, she looks back and says,

the, a week ago, more or less, she says they had already left by the time you had returned from Venatus, that would have been. Right. I think a week ago at this point. And it did not occur to you to say something then. It is. No, it did not occur to me to.

I understand. It is not your fault. What were you going to do? And why would you suspect them? A member of the Vassel House. To my family. You were following the chain of command appropriately, though perhaps a bit loosely.

You need me to extend any grace to your fucked, I will not, my son is in danger. I'm not asking you too, but I understand that it is not their specific fault. You see that Captain Fajan stands up and says, enough with respect. Chains of command become tangled when there is more than one.

We have been struggling with this for too long, my lady. And you see, he gives us right to Aranessa. He says, Dame Saramai, you are relieved of your station in Castle Torch. We respectfully beg the forgiveness of the circle of ancients in this moment. And moreover, Dame Saramai, in matters of your house's honor, are you given leave to follow the direct commands of the members of House Taconas? You commanded the Barrow Guard, whose sole authority is given to the Revolutionary Council. You see that here she says, we've taken orders, we've taken commands from the houses before.

And you see that, I think, Tasha, you just look and see a mess. As Fadron even recognizes that occasionally, the sundered houses will deliver missives from a gray tower that is only too happy to let them. You see that she turns weeping, looks to you, Octus, and bows curtly towards Captain Fadron and says, given that I am removed to my station, may I be excused. Where are you going to go? Still standing in front of the locked door. If you'd be so kind, as to remain here. Take a seat. And while I consider what the best course of action is.

She sits lowering her gaze down. I apologize. I say to the commander. I'm meant to go. My son is in danger. You see that the name looks out and says, our head ranger was given to understand that there was a ruins outside of the, this is outside of the Terea via,

which you guys would know is an ancient Obridemian highway towards Venatus. some two or three days march into the desert, that there was a infestation of undead that was brimming over, that some warlocks from Venatus had come to loose them, had discovered them and come to loose them that they would ravage the land and come seeking the light and the flesh of mortal beings,

They were headed there in numbers to go and stop them, but the order was also given to hold the location and to prevent any warlocks from interfering with the magic below. Beheza asked me how she would be able to tell whom and the command was given to allow none entrance to the site. In order to get a contingent of them out of the way, to empty this place.

How much are still stationed here versus how many left? You see that, looking out, you see Captain Faitre and says, the first and second. We are more or less at two-thirds of our fighting strength. Captain? Sir Julian. These soldiers, many of which I personally trained, I wish to not see more that I care about. We slaughtered by the interests of Taconas' machinations.

We will make our way in the path of the High Ranger. I inquire if there is a path to forgiveness for Saramai, if perhaps they are charged with scouting for us on this mission. You see, Gaii looks up at you. You see that Captain Fajran says, he shrugs and says, Dame Saramai is no longer under my command. And he looks over at you, Octus. That's a good idea.

Then give you a command, the Connest. Tasha, do you think that's a good idea? Yes. Dame Saramai, you are going to accompany me on my journey. I will do what it takes to reclaim my honor. You see that, yeah, she looks out. I think Octus, Gaias Aramae is not a name you've ever heard. No.

And she is herself a cousin of one of your vassal houses. Yeah. She looks out from here, and you see that Captain Fadron says, You had mentioned that you knew not what befell the Golden Orchard. Have you been able to send word to them? I have attempted, unfortunately, as we briefly Had sanctuary in the company of Lord Einfassen, Tacornis had gotten word to him as well,

and we had to flee before the complications prevented us from leaving their borders. You believe that House Einfassen is involved in this conspiracy? Not involved, but at least tangled in the confusion of it, and we do not have time to deal with such political bullshit. So, just be wary. The sisters who visited you and gave this order were at Castellin Fawson when we left.

So they are not far, and they are looking to accomplish whatever they are meaning to accomplish. He looks and says, I cannot imagine they will return. With respect to House Taconas, the coming of the Lady Petra and Lady Raya was the first time that a member of House Toconis had seemed the least interested deeds of the Barrow Guard. This is not an... yes, I understand you.

You know the Tiri Avia will be policed by Toconis. They walk within the endless night at very little cost to themselves. They fear the dead, not at all. I know. His mother's counting on it. He looks and says, if you are to make your way at once, obviously, Julian, horses, whatever you need,

but you know that animals don't tend to fare well in the night. If you need travel at once, you have my blessing. He looks and says, I would offer more men, but we are already diminished in my blessing. No, we travel faster as small group and keep who you can to defend just in the worst-case scenario. Should... And should you be approached by any wayward, conflicting intent to connoisse or otherwise,

do it as best for you and your man? I appreciate that. It is. I'm not going to tell you to lie or in any way do anything against your nature. but I feel like it would be the best for everyone if you had not seen me. My lord Taconas, I am not given to lie. If I were an adept at the game of politics,

I would not have been placed in charge of Castle Torch. I will speak the truth, which is that I did not have station to hold you. Right. And I dismissed one of my warriors for not saying the truth. You see, he gazes at her here. To give an order on behalf of your liege house

is one thing. To claim that you had seen the missive to lie on their behalf. This is the crime. You see that she looks and can't refute it. He regards you here and says, I would ask in the future, Should I ever see you again, Gaia?

You do more to keep the tongue of your house less forked. And he sort of stands and says, but you have taken no resources from Castle Torch, and I do not have the authority to hold you. That is what I will tell anyone if I am asked. Good. That is good. Yes.

If you can, my other request would be to, as it is necessary given redundancy requirement, please send what word you can as fast as you can to Golden Orchard to inform House Royce in our stead or pass along a message from Lady Royce of what has happened. They must know what befell the house and what comes for them. If we are to not head in glances over

towards Lady Aranesa and makes your eye on this, If we are not to split for the Golden Orchard at this moment, that they must be confirmed to be notified. You see, as you look at Aranesa, you can see she hasn't spoken in a minute because as she realizes that the plan is to go into the eternal night, you can see that she is struggling. Unless you head to the Golden Orchard

to be with those there and see what has been fallen, if you do not wish to follow us into the dark. I would not blame you. I think you should come. Hang here, pardon? I think we need you. She looks out, and I think she actually goes to you, Tasha, and goes, we have flown through the night

and have yet to eat. You see, Captain Fadron says, this conversation remains here in this room. We have been speaking of your travels, nothing unusual. Get yourselves for the mess, eat, and make your plans. Castle Torches here at your disposal. And you see that Aranesa stands up. And Gaia falls in behind you, Arna. As the door opens, Aranesa is just looking across the bridge

as she walks beside you, looking at Vailas, looking at you, Tysha. She says, and looking at Julian and going, what should I, what should I do? I would never want to see harm come to you, but you stand at the edge of the destruction of your house. You've lost greatly in less than a week. Nessa, who are you now? There was a world where we walked through the gates of Castle Torch,

and it was yet another trap, yet another frying pan to jump out of. Julian, I need to speak, I need to, you see that she stops in the middle of the bridge, looking at these beautiful hillsides, and just stands here and says, just for a moment, just, and it looks at you and just sort of like, wags like a reproachful finger at you.

I take her finger, in her hand, like, what do you need? Because what if we opened the door and there were more Taconus in here, and the whole world had gone mad, and I was a beggar woman running for my life. My house was destroyed. This has made everything. more complicated. The fact that there's someone honest in the world actually makes this all so much more confusing. Indeed. But if what you say is true and that was the case, then all would be lost

anyway. We still have to try. But now, Julian, now, do we, do we, do we, she just looks at you and says, Tasha, I, I would do anything to make sure that the beautiful young boy that she, that's still, that still, frankly, my nephew is all right, and I should ride out with you. But if Castle Torch hasn't heard that the golden... There was a world where we would come here and that would say the orchard had fallen, and they haven't heard anything,

which means that it's still in the mist out there. Julian, should we ride north to make sure your mother, your sister? I mean, we shouldn't have to choose between your son and your sister, But there's something. The whole world's been thrown into chaos, and yet some parts of it still stand, and that's somehow even worse,

because it means we have to make a choice. You always had to make a choice, and the world was always chaos. It's just touching you now. She melts and literally just like collapses, crouching on her. She just like, she just goes,

when you've got her, lost half of everything. What's right and what's wrong. I say we choose both. You go to the orchard. You protect what's left or come back to tell everyone what's not and bring home the souls that I taught to use a blade before they were sent to this unearned end. She looks at this wooden castle

that was a naked old watchtower. next to an empty hilltop less than two years ago. And she looks and says, you love this place, Julian. What did you find here? The purpose. It's easy to run from. You're to run to. Captain Fadre in a moment.

I need to speak with you. There's another matter at hand to discuss. She leans in to you, Julian, and embraces you and buries her face in your neck. Little Julian. I remember. And you see that she touches the hilt of your rapier where she knows your tooth is.

She cries and says, The web of our lives brought each other such pain and shame that I wish had not been there. But I love you. My cousin, my protector, my brave knight, a sister. We would have seen each other every day. Children would have grown up together and instead the world conspired for that not to be so.

Please guard her, her life, her son, as you would meet. Do I disappoint you, my lady? That is not the word that I would use. She takes the druid. I want to insight check her. I want to insight check her. Good point. I want to know if what she's saying feels true.

Something doesn't feel right about her to me. What doesn't feel right about her? I don't think she's telling the truth. You look at her. What do you think she's not telling the truth about? What is the lie? That's what I can't figure out. I feel like there's something she's holding back

and I can't figure it out. Ashley, on a 23, I'm gonna let you come around behind the screen and see what I rolled for her charisma check. I won't say if it's persuasion or deception. Fun. I like this. That's what I rolled for her. I've never been so stressed out in my life.

What's going on? I don't know. I need a trusted adult. I know I'm not being specific in what I'm looking for. No, for sure. Because I don't know, but something is not making sense to me about her story. In this moment you look at her, looking hard for a liar.

You've been watching her for a while. She reaches around her neck. reaches around her neck, takes off the spring charm, and says, well, if disappointed is not the right word, let me offer some counsel. My family earned the favor of the lords and lady, of fairy, the beautiful archfay of hallow. Memory before written history.

and we lived in a golden orchard. So even though I am mortal and you are not, we share the blessings of the fairies. I know this is a druidic charm. My understanding of the old path to which I am ever faithful is that you are a part of the family, of all things. I know that in your life, faith was asked of you. This requires no faith.

It is simply true that you are my family, and she hands the druid charm to you. You do not need to believe in it for it to be true that we share one source of life in this world that is both of our homes. On that insight to check. I will take it, but I do not put it on. She, you realize why she's registering as a liar to you.

Aranesa has never told you a lie. Aranesa is a woman who has inherited one of the greatest centers of power in the world and has been tumbling down the hillside of her own life for longer than she can remember at the mercy of compacts and alliances made by her mother and predecessors, a world shaped by a war she was not alive for,

who married one of the most troublesome and strong-willed adventurers that ever lived. The reason she's registering to you as a liar is not that she is some secret villain, nor that she wished to see the downfall of her own house. Behind her eyes is one of the largest secrets you have ever beheld. And though you cannot see through the fog of what she holds dear,

there is something at the center of her heart that she has kept hers in great pain to her for a long, long time. You are not being lied to, and you do not think that this woman has been the architect of her own or Julian or Dillian or Dene. Tysha's or Octus' misery. Safe travels.

Safe travels. Captain, if you can spare at least two bodyguards to accompany Lady Royce to the north. The rest of the men are your respect. You see, he looks and says, too, of course. We'll be done. You see, you hear a voice say, could you make that three? And you see that Sir Tarnfeld looks and says,

I have been walking in a small circle feeling great shame. And I would be, I would love to reclaim my honor if the lady Aronessa is of significance to her holiness, she of the circle of ancients. It would be my honor to see her defend it. I'll give him a little pat out of the cheek. You're a good boy. It's probably a great cussing blacks, isn't it?

I know. So fucking cool. He says, I accept this quest from she, a droid of the old path, and no spirit shall pass my lips until it is seen done. He kneels and bows.

I want to give Erinessa a big hug, and then just in that embrace, like forehead to forehead. You are my sister. And if, before we meet again, you find yourself. in a wood with an old and well proudly will find you in this life or the next.

And she kisses your cheek. She looks at you, Octus finally, and reaches once again into our belongings and just rushes up and embraces you, holds you close. Sorry, it's cold over here. You hear a plinking metallic noise as she places a thumb piano, completely non-magical, into your belongings.

As someone who is no longer part of the family of life that binds everything, do not leave that family before I see you again. Sweet young Lord Taconas to a day when we see each other, and and restore what has been taken from our houses. And if you ever can't go home, if I still have one, it's open to you.

I appreciate that, my lady. She turns to Captain Fadrin and all of you turn this slightly past noon. You have half a day if you wish to make good time. We should eat and then leave. Indeed. Is this a safe place to send a letter? This is as safe as any.

If this place is not safe, no place is safe. I do have a letter that I would like to send back to my sisters. You pen the letter, and I think... Something I've actually been working on at night. Yeah. And I would like to send it to my sisters, and it says,

says, I found what is ours, and I have it in my possession. I found something else. So I am going to follow that thread. And also I have questions about a woman I am traveling with named Aronessa Royce. So if there is any information that you can gather, I will see you when I see.

And I'm, the letter is written and giant. Hmm. And I will fold it up and send that to the Mornvale. Captain Fadron take it and says, I can give this safe passage to a ship bound for the Mornvale. It will travel slowly. We have no roosting pigeons here that know to call the Mornvale home.

So it will take some time, my lady. Understood. Before. Aranesa ends up dividing on her path. I stop her and kind of just hand on the shoulder, get close to her face. Find Maya, find Alba. But there's the first sign of any danger

or any sign of it being too late. You return here under the protection of the captain until we come back together again, okay? You will stop back here on your return, yes? Of course. All right. My family grew still there by the day. I will not lose you.

For you, I will remain. I'll hold you to that. The travel safe. Be the last woman that got held by you around here. That's my sister. You see, you all eat swiftly, nerves rising. Dame Gaia, or not all of you eat, I suppose, Dame Gaia by your side.

and ride forth from the gates of Castle Torch, headed to the Eternal. And that's all for this episode. On Critical Road. It's fine. Everything is a mess. I was going out. So what is it you do, actually?

Cool, just going to the Baradale. It's fine. It's fine, dude. We're going to where it's so bad. I'm so excited. Yeah. Ooh, how about it? I'm like for it.

Yeah. I know. I really want to. This is from the heart. Is it Thursday? I want to play. Thanks for listening to this episode of Critical Role. If you're enjoying this story,

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