D&D is For Nerds - Barovia IV #25 My Dinner with Strahd

Episode Date: January 24, 2026

A vivid conversation strikes out between two former paladins over an evening meal and takes an interesting turn when one quizzes another about their values and worldviews.If you're still wanting to pledge for the Jarren's Outpost Board Game you can right here! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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And who is the warden of this prison, you ask? None other than the wonderful, the terrible, the powerful, Baron Strad von Zaravich. And the only way to leave this place is to kill him or die. I've got their minds. You look after the meat. A Gogh steps forward, and without asking, he just picks you up. You are in the ethereal.

You see what is left of the Berger master. He has become the avatar of Father Lemmick. The lifetime of your allies in the material can now be measured in rounds. Okay, Adam. Okay. It looks at you as you walk past. It's aware of you, but it does nothing. Give a little wave.

With an arm that has been broken apart such that a, like a mantis arm instead is sticking through, it waves back. Okay. All right. I don't even have a witty response to the terror that I'm seeing before me. I just, I start hoofing it along their silvery line. It watches you hoof. Yeah. And are you still looking back at all?

No, probably not. Okay. I don't need to see that. You hear vaguely, everything in the ethereal, it comes through, but it's coming through like it's in a staticy old radio. anything from the material, sorry, you hear anything from the material as if it's from a static-y old radio. Obviously, Pip doesn't have that language.

No, no, but that's the kind of vibe, yeah, okay. Through the tinny, static-y noise, you hear as the father-limic Bojermaster hybrid seeing you sprint, starts sprinting. After me? No. Oh, thank God.

Towards your allies in the material. Yeah, I mean, that's still bad, but it's less immediately bad. You and a go-gash, starts sprinting and you follow the silvery, the silvery lines as they stretch towards, you can tell, you could see it, the Birchmasters Mansion, which is now huge and weirdly shaped in the Ethereum. You can see it's got these organic, bulbous sections to it now.

And you can see there is, in the Ethereum, a snow cloud above it, and snow is gently drifting down onto the mansion. Okay. You sprinting forwards A Gergash looks at you and says I'm sorry my good friend And then he winks out You hear Not through a tinny speaker

You hear something Chasing behind Do you look now? Yes Adam I do look now Yes indeed I do That's crazy I turn around it I look Because I would rather see it kill me

Than to just suddenly die That's fair A Go-Gash didn't even fuck it I mean I guess that was the closest I got to a warning He warned you yeah What are you complaining about? Oh Boo-hoo You see a huge

Spider-like creature with a dog face Oh my God Oh no Oh no It's chasing after you You don't know what this thing is You've never heard of this thing before in your life.

Does it have a silvery thread? No, it doesn't have a silvery thread. It does have a silvery thread. It does have a silvery thread to a creature behind it, which looks identical. It's pretty much in its true form. Yeah. The silvery form behind it is in midair sprinting towards you as well. It's not going any faster.

It's like they're imitating each other. All right. Let's go to initiative. Right. Truly awful Dissecting that silvery thread Is that even going to help me in this scenario? Yeah, he said it would kill him

Yeah, that's true I don't think he said that actually No, because once they're both You can sever it Yeah, they're both coming for me is the problem If I was dealing with only the ghost version Then great, because I send it back to the material plane Unfortunately, they're both coming for me

I'm given to understand Do you have anything for an initiative check? You might want to go further No? I don't have any good boy cards, dude. That's fine. Well, I'm sorry. You gonna give me one?

Okay, you can get a good boy card. Okay. And in exchange, You can have a bad boy card. No, it's all right. This is funny. It's gonna be like the, oh, you're gonna discount at the store. I love that one.

What'd you draw? Not dead yet, which is, well, look, it's not useful to me now, but it may be useful to me in about five seconds. Speaking of... Wait, what does it do? If you are unconscious, you need to roll a little. conscious, you need to roll and need to roll death-saving throws, you may gain the benefits

of a short rest. Could be good. It would be good. Or hopefully, if this spider does reach you in time, if he just kills you out right, well, oh no. Oh, no.

So, good news, bad news, which would you like first? Give me the bad news. Bad news? All right. It leaps into the air and then you see like some sort of tron's special effect. It gets sucked into the silvery thread of

keening Elaniel and Mark Willett the look you're giving me is great. And then you see like a bolt of electricity, it starts zipping through that thread at an incredible rate. It gets a lot of ground on you. But it did that because it was initially

losing a lot of ground on you. Okay. And then it's your turn. Okay. So it is in the thread? It's in the thread. Yeah. How strong. is the thread. You don't know. I don't think you asked the Gagash.

Fuck. Because what I really want to do, and I think this is... Oh, I think I know exactly. But I'm so scared it will kill my beloved. Yeah. It's just put my foot down on the thread so that it cannot get through. But you can try that if you want. Oh, but what if I kill them?

You know, well, Gagash did say that only magical or... That's true. My shoes aren't magical. Okay, I would like to interrupt the spider's progress by stamping down on the thread to try and squeeze it in place. Like stopping water from going through a hose. Was the spider using the thread to get closer to... Yeah, that's what it was trying to do. And then Pip stops running.

Yeah, or was it trying to get past Pip, was my question. Well, Pip was assuming he was trying to get past me. No. So I was assuming it was getting close to Pip. Yeah. What can I squish it in the... If I stomp down on it in the thread. Yeah, you could try, absolutely.

I'll try and crush it in the thread. Your first attack is a miss, but you get two attacks. Just wildly stomping on your allies' silver thread. It just seems bad, like, spiritually. You can't leave a dead spider in your spiritual connection. Sure, you deal, what would it be? You deal your here. Don't even get benefits of being so much gigantic.

How much bigger than it in this moment? You deal four points of damage to it. And then it leaps out, back out of that silvering. You should run, dude. You really should run, dude. I should have run. The dog head. I forgot how the dog head.

The dog head bites you. I forgot it out of dog head. I should have run. Got movement still? Right, no, you would have moved towards it. Oh, wait, you're only a one hit point. Yeah. Yeah.

Not that yet. Yeah, you can use not that. Oh, thank God, dude. That was very lucky. You have about four hit dice left to roll. I'll roll them all, baby. Okay. I need the health.

This is an important fight. I'm not the fight with the dog spider, but the inevitable harder fight after this. You are on... 22? 22. My max, dude? Until my next long...

No, your max is 39. Oh, okay. Well... You're on 20... Yeah, what did I just say? 22. 22. All right.

Okay. Pipp. You get... by the dog spider and it feels it's just the right way it's poison mixes with your dragonborn blood in a strange way you feel like you just had a dose of Barovian marching powder okay uh it's your turn all right let's plug it twice dude okay what sort of energy i'll be talking here um oh god i i i'm so like at a loss because i i don't know what this creature is Right, but you're like spider

And I'm like, spiders hate fire But then you're cold It also seems that would work Good old ethereal dog spider But is a dog? By the way, now that you're close You can see that it has a dog's tail At the back of his thorax as well

Thorax, what's that bulbous part of the area? Yeah, yeah Okay All right, I'm gonna fire Am I being attacked, sorry, by the physical? Oh, no, am I being attacked by the physical? Physical, yeah.

And what's the ethereal? The ethereal one imitates in all actions the physical, but it's like it's doing it in air. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. Does the ethereal one not seem like it's trying to attack me?

No, it's literally, if the physical leaps forward, the ethereal leaps forward in the same way, but it's because it's transposed. If you had been in place, like, it's, yeah, it's just transposed in place. All right, I'll try this. I'm going to go the, I forget what it's called, but my shot that I have advantage. John. And I'm going to go once in the spider

and then once in the ethereal thread between them. Okay. You're shot in the spider? I think it's going to be a missed. Fuck. Jesus. You've rolled shit. Fair enough. Nine. Oh, no. You rolled shit, but you're a decent shot.

That is true about Pitman. Yes. What energy are you using? I'm going to make it fire. Oh, fuck. Fucking hell. God damn. Fuck my life. deal or you should have dealt oh man

I don't know man you should have dealt 11 points of damage okay it would have been nice would have been nice to have popped off 11 points of damage well maybe the shot in the ethereal string

will save the day the creature as soon as you plug it with that fire uh fire bolt you see it immediately becomes wreathed in flames fuck the It's like the entire thing's on fire, but it doesn't care.

Yeah, okay. Fuck. It's, oh, it's ethereal version also catches a thereal flame. Okay. Then you fire into that strand. You hit, but you see it immediately does nothing. We're using silver arrow? I should be using silver arrow.

It's a magic weapon. It's a magic weapon, but it seems to be immune to this damage for some reason. God damn it, dude. God damn it. Yeah, all right. Well, that stinks. Do I think it was immune to the fire? or the weapon itself?

You understand enough basic magic to understand that it is something, you have changed the nature of this being and now it is immune to fire or you don't know if it's immune to your weapon and fire or if it's immune to fire.

Okay. Well, that's unfortunate. It's its turn. Yep. It bites you again. But this time you step a bit back and out of the way and it fails to lock in.

jaws around you. You do though, when it does that, you look down to kind of avoid its jaws. You see that your arm where it bit you is oozing green. You've been poisoned. What would you like to do? With

Durax bow, can I fire non-elementally charged arrows? Yeah. You don't have to have it a All right. I would like to step back, swap the bolts for silver bolts, of which I have tons, and try and fire it that a thing. ethereal thread. All right. Two shots.

As you're doing that, the poison starts affecting you and everything starts slowing down. Come on. The first shot is, you're really good. The first shots are hit. Okay. And I think you're actually going to do enough damage in this.

Yeah. You sever that silvery thread. The ethereal version of it begins floating away as if like a balloon without any mourning or controls. The physical version falls unconscious. Then I would like to cast protection from poison. Okay.

You, like that injection of Barovian marching power again. Okay. All right. Okay, fuck. All right. And then I'd like to wheel around and start hobbling my way

toward the Burjumaster's mansion. Okay. You get up to the doors, and as you get up to the doors, a go gash is standing next to you. It wasn't even that hard to fight. Honestly, I didn't need you. Okay, he says.

Yeah, fuck you. I'd like to open the door and step aside. You touch the door and then you get blasted back. It's every day. It's every day, bro. That's on you, dude. You take two points of damage. I was literally about to describe what you're looking at.

But you were too engaged with a Gogash. Now that you stand up and you look at the door, you can see it's subtle, but it's there. There's this organic nature where the door's kind of breathing in and out, and you can see that there's a very obvious, quote-unquote, magical force field upon the door. The silvery strands go underneath it. They got in somehow, I say, walking back up the steps. A Gogh stands there looking at the door, pondering. I pull out, of which I still have, I think, three.

One of my magic deforming arrows. And I'd like to just stab it, not fire it from my bow, but just gently stab it into the force field. You pierce the door, it bleeds a little, and then the door turns ethereal, except you realize it's not ethereal. It's now in the material. and without any moorings it falls onto you

but then because you're in the ethereal just through you. You sent the door into the material. I turned around and like shrug to a go-gash like whatever works. He seems very pleased and very surprised. Okay, okay. All right.

He's still so rude to me. I step through, I step through. And you step in, you immediately take a point of cold damage. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Of course it would be cold in here. It's not just cold in here. It's freezing in here.

Okay. You get the impression that this could potentially be pure zero. You don't know if it can get colder than this. Everything is covered in ice. If it has water, that water is frozen. If it has liquid, that liquid is frozen. Nothing moves, nothing acts. Nothing changes in this place.

The silvery barbs, the silvery threads move deeper into the building. Okay. Uh-Gouache steps in and he would take a point of cold damage. Yeah, but he appears to be immune. Yeah, right. Hey, I say to a Gorgasch, what's he wearing? He's wearing like a loincloth, like classic barbarian, a loincloth sort of stuff. He doesn't happen to have like a sort of pit of fur around his shoulders?

No. God damn it. Never mind. All right. I was going to say if he's... Oh, wait, no. Now that he's vampire mode, he... I think I described him as wearing like elaborate furs.

No, I think he is, yeah. Okay, great. Gogh is dressed very fancily. You're clearly very immune to this cold, but I'm not. Give me a jacket, I say. Give me your... What would you give me? Come on, O Gogh.

We're in the middle of a... I'll give the furs back at the end. That's the deal. I get a... bad boy card and a go gash moves further in you bitch all right holding my arms and shivering i'll follow after him you move in and you would spot it but passively obvious a player doesn't notice something they should cool cool cool cool cool cool cool beans moving further in you get the impression you get the feeling that you're being watched okay

somebody i like glance around as we as we walk to try and spot somebody you got another go you see hands on a doorway behind you which let go and move away hey i whack my hand into a gogas you turn around it at a go gash has kept going okay there's somebody following uh i guess who cares there's somebody following us at gogash we we might get surprised from behind you don't care A Gogash turns to look at you. Can you not handle it? Yeah, I mean, I can. But I mean, I'd rather just know when it's...

It doesn't matter. I mean, what doesn't matter to you? All right, yeah. The hands, did they look human or... They looked too long in spidery. Not spidery like the dog. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But monstrous in some way.

Okay. I'm going to keep watching our six, but I'm going to follow a go-gash. because also some part of Pipp doesn't I don't know if I trust a Gogash like obviously our goals are aligned but you know only so far so I'll follow a Gogash but keeping an eye behind me

I'm checking my SACs every now and then You make your way upstairs towards a you see that there's the Berger Master's like master bedroom you see some of his kids' bedrooms all of this place once again like strange and deformed and as you step upstairs as well

the upstairs feels way larger than the downstairs It feels almost grandiose in some ways as well. And as you're making your way forwards, you can see, oh no, sorry, you can tell from the ajar door the threads lead into a room, which is quite clearly the Burjah Master's study. You can see there's, you can see part of a desk, some bookshelves, and there's one of the strings, now that you're this close, one of the strings kind of moves a little bit, and you get the impression that someone, a ghost, one of these three strands, is on the other side of that doorway.

Okay. I'm still watching us six. Who goes there? It's Pip. It's a pip and a go-gash. There's a pause. And a go-gash? Yeah.

He's, look, temporarily aligned with us. Mark Quillet, the ghostly version of him, steps into the doorway. He looks like he doesn't trust you enough. to let a go gash closer. Well, Gagash, stay here then, okay? They're not going to trust you. You stay here and if the thing with spidery hands, which you don't seem to care about,

comes in attacks us, you can defend us. A gogash turns around and walks back downstairs. I'm not happy about it either, I say to McQuillet, and I approach him. As you get closer to Mark Quillet, you can tell immediately the temperature is getting colder and colder, and you thought you were at absolute zero. He wouldn't...

You take another point of cold damage. His coat... The motherfucker. Mark Willett, who has a bow and arrow drawn, you see he holsters it, and... Oh, no, if you don't... Oh.

Yeah, you know a little bit about far gazing. Mark Willett having the bow and arrow out was just for show. He can't hurt you. Oh, okay. Because he's a ghost? Or... No.

Because he's not really here. He's not really here, yeah. Okay. He holsters the bow and arrow and looking at you, he says, Thank God you're here. We need someone in the physical. Okay. Also, how did you get past it?

Past what? The thing, you were talking to a Gogash, downstairs. We did. It just watched us and then it didn't attack. He gives you a real weird look. I don't like that. Yeah, me neither. It was a, like an awesome.

Old man, made out of ice or something wearing a robe. Does that sound familiar to me? No, you don't know what that is. I shrug, I'll keep an eye out for it. Look, the Gogesh thinks he can take care of it, so, you know. You step into the study and you see there is a, in the study, a tear in the fabric of the ethereal going into somewhere else. But you can't, anytime your eyes look at it, they look away. You can't see through this portal.

Okay. What do you need? Do I see... We need someone physically here. Right. Um, I don't understand. I think it's as simple as opening a door. Keating is beyond. He'll explain. Okay. How is he? What? Just go. Right. Right. Okay. I step through.

You step through and you are in... You're on, sorry, a rock. surrounded by thrashing wild seas. It still feels cold here, but it's only the cold of being in the middle of a sea storm. Is it like comparatively warm, basically? Yeah, it's comparatively warm. Yeah. The rock is, it's like a finger sticking out of the middle of this expansive, internal it appears, ocean. Storms everywhere.

You see lightning cracking, slashing at the water below. and on the rock the only feature, apart from that portal that you just stepped through as a cage. Like the cage you might keep a bird in, but large. And at the door to this cage,

you see three figures. Two of them are the ghostly forms of Keening and Elaniel who turn around to look at you. And on the other side of the cage, you see standing, well, no, sitting actually. Sitting cross-legged

is a creature that you have only ever heard of. It's a colioptera. Oh, okay. I like a giant beetle person. Cool. A, like a horned beetle, a huge,

not as big as a person, bigger than a person, bigger than a dragon born. This thing must be, if it's stood up, you imagine it might be like eight foot tall, not including the horn. Cool. A huge shell and then a

smaller frame, which looks like it's just been slotted into the shell, beady eyes, look at you. You see it has two great, huge fucking arms, and then six smaller, consecutively smaller arms down along its torso. Around its neck, it wears a very strange series of pendants. Three, teardrop shaped pendants on a chain. That sits only, other than that, it is bare. The three entities looking at you, Of the three entities looking at you. One, Keening gives you a very warm welcome.

He rushes up to you and you can see that he means to go in for a hug, but as soon as he gets to you, he realizes he cannot hug you. When you're out, I say. When we're out. What do I do? What do I do? Keening looks past you at the tear in reality. Then looking back at you, he says,

You got past it. Yeah, everyone's been saying that. I guess He shakes his head And says That'll be for later He looks back at the cage I think

It's as simple as opening the door But I can't Physical he says You have to be physical I think I like go to put a hand on Keening But I can't I did

I did something stupid Keenan gives you a pained look Pippi, he says. I know, I know. I was... Almost as if you don't even need to tell him. Almost as if he already knows. I was gonna die.

I was, I was there. But a voice, some, some fucking god or force or entity, some shit like that, Keening. And I just... Elaniel... I was weak. As I'm always weak, I was weak. and I, instead of passing on, I accept, I made, I, so stupid, I accept the deal and you're not weak, that's kind of you to say.

But I have to say something to the cage. That was the other half of the deal. Keening sighs, you've made the deal. Yeah. But I mean, maybe if I don't do it, I'll just die. Keening looks at you like that's not an option. Pippi, whatever you've done. we can face it together.

I like put out my hand, even though we can't touch each other for his spectral hand. And then holding it, we approach together the cage. Elaniel looks around and crosses her arms, very impatient. But Akeening, a sense, and he, it doesn't just ascent, he puts his spectral hand in yours. And for a moment, it feels like you can feel him. As we pass Elaniel, I turned to her and I say, I own her safe. She unfurls her arms, and you see a lot of emotions cross her face very quickly. She stops paying attention.

Okay. Well, good. Together we'll approach the cage. The entity within the cage, it doesn't look like it has a mouth. You see, with those black beady eyes, it looks at you, but not with curiosity, just looks at you. I, like, walk over to the cage. Is there like a door? Yeah, there's a door in the cage where Elaniel and Keening was.

Okay. I put my hand on the door and then I lean in and I say the words. You say, this time as it's coming out of you, you hear it. You say the words, it's time to wake the god. The kaleopter, you open the door. That part was not difficult. You got the impression that the two of them just couldn't open it because it was physical. The being within the kaleoptera, when you say that, its eyes,

it blinks twice and for a brief moment you see interest in its expression but then it's gone as you open the door it stands up as if it hadn't meant to as if it wasn't going to leave until you said that yeah um i step back and gesture for it to leave the cage it and it needs to duck because it's so tall it steps out of the cage it puts one of its its biggest hands it puts that on its chest and you hear a thrumming noise inside your head. It sounds like not it speaking, but the voices of a thousand ants. You hear tiny. Pipp, I say. It nods again. I turn to Keening and Elaniel and Mark Willett. We got to go, Keening says, but I don't know if it'll let us. Okay. I like fix Keening with a pretty pointed look. Get behind me.

He does so. I'll step forward, crossbow ready, and step out of the terror in reality, back into the manor. You take a point of cold damage. That's right. I miss the sea. Hector, you are as far from the frozen ethereal as can be. That's nice. Lucky. In Strad's Room. Strad's Room is a huge space over two areas.

There is like a bedroom and a beautiful walk-in wardrobe and onsuit. It's a huge grand room, beautifully furnished. It's the most pleasant and warmest place that you could imagine. Not just within Borovia. Once again, the bedroom would be nice for a noble and high day. It would be seen as impressive. Then, separate to that, is a personal, much smaller than that grand hole, but a very, like, intimate and beautifully bedectrum for private eating. You sit there with strad.

There's a kind of a dark irony to this because neither of you actually need to eat. That's funny. Yeah, when you're saying like it's warm, like, is it, like, do I feel, I feel warmth, but it doesn't bother me. Is that, it feels heat more than warmth. Gotcha, got you, gotcha. Okay, yeah, okay. All right. Your body is telling you that it's not burning.

Okay. But it's warm. Okay. Well, that's nice, body, thank you. It's less of a comforting sensation and more of a, just like a, and it just like, what would you say, just informative. Okay. Yeah. You sit at one end of the table, strad sits at the other.

and both directions give beautiful views of Borovia. You didn't know that Borovia could have beautiful views. But Strad gets a gorgeous view of Mount Gacchus, and you in turn get a beautiful view of the town of Borovia, the township of Borovia. You can see the many little lights dotting the place of the many people who live there. So all I know about the town of Borovia that it is bad and in a bad way.

Yes. Okay. And but looking at it, it's not on fire? No. From where you are now, you couldn't tell. If it weren't for the fact that others had told you that Barovia was not doing well, the township of. You would not be able to tell from this view that Barovia was not doing well. It's an impressive view you have here.

It is the town of Barovia, I point down to what I'm looking at. He glances over his shoulder. He clearly doesn't turn his head far enough that he could see it, but he acts as if he did just look at it and he nods. Yes, it is a beautiful sight. Less so to visit today. Yes, I've, my travellers, I've heard, Jennings that it is not a nice place to visit.

No one really has told me why. It doesn't look that run down from up here, I guess. Strad, in between the two of you, there is a platter of fruits, berries, a dessert platter, basically. And you also would have a carafe of wine with a couple glasses. When I say that your opposite ends of a table, by the way, it's not like a 10-seater table. This table seats maybe four people. It's quite small. Okay, okay, okay.

Strad reaches into that basket of, that tray, sorry, of berries and fruits and whatnot. And he plucks two grapes, and then he absent-mindedly... Choose on one and he rolls the other in between his fingers as he continues to speak. The township is in disarray. Many of its denizens rose up to strike me down last year. Yes, I've heard of this. Yeah. I was forced to defend myself and beyond that to send the message to stop them from doing it again.

you understand. And I suppose that is working. The village is quiet now. I guess we should get down to brass taxes. Sorry, just before, sorry, a very quick question. I need to ask. Gretchen, the woman I was with, she's a knight of paladin of Gulliver,

and in our world he's a dead god. And the moment it is, it happened, his followers went insane. They lost their mind. I understand if she was to go back. It happens a long time after where she was from, but I know that time works differently. If she was to go back to our world after Gulliver has died, do you know what might happen to her mind? Strad looks at you and his, for a moment, his expression is inscrutable. And then you realize you've seen this sort of expression before on people who are concerned for your well-being, but also the look of a father explaining the world to his son.

Hector, you have never experienced what it is like to be abandoned by your God. It is traumatic. You may feel as if you have been abandoned so, but she lives within you, whether you will it or not, as the morning lord lives within me. Yeah, I do not think Penny is abandoned. Yes. To experience the death of a god,

to feel that part of you hollowed out. Yes. It is insanity. Should, Corretchen return to where she came, she will go mad. I bet I understand that there was. at the point, but even if centuries have passed, it still will affect her mind. He nods slowly.

You, well, you and I, we experience worship different than other devout within Borovia, as our deity, a sliver of them remains here. But those whose gods do not live here, even in sliver form, they are driven mad by their experience here. Is there any guarantee that I seem to not really understand, but there seems to be people from all over time. When you, and you, if you can, send them back, do they go back to where they are from? Once a person leaves this realm, I have no control over what the material chooses to do with them. So there is a little hope. Sorry, it took me a while to accept your invitation.

I was preoccupied. It is not uncommon. Many are distrustful of such offers in Borovia. You understand, and so do I. I have, I know, a reputation. Yes, you do. Hence, I'm guessing, the one of the many uprightings.

My strength. Strad pushes his hand, one of his hands, through his hair, and you are once again struck by how sharp and handsome his features are. My strength, or much of it, you understand comes from the perception of my strength. If the villagers are afraid to say my name, they are afraid to rise up.

As terrible as my methods are, they save lives. But what would happen if, I guess, yes, they all once again rise up and actually do strike you down? What is the reason for this? You know what we want. I'm assuming you are aware of everything that goes on in your lands. Just how omnipotent are you here? I would not say I am completely omnipotent. I did not know the incursion to the north, though he puts up a hand that is partially

Ivana's doings. I am certainly the land, the most important. powerful denizen of it. But even I am limited, Hector. I know many things. I know the whale ravens,

the Matikov family resists me. I know Elaniel bears child. I know of her camp. I know of where general people

Mandarin made his camp, speaking of after the uprising. Yeah. I knew of Keenning's location. It seems to me that you rule with fear, but why don't you try something else to rally these people? You don't have to destroy everything. You don't have to attack everything. You could do it with a, you could rule these lands with kindness. Yes, everyone here seems to respect you, seems to enjoy being here.

Why don't you do the same thing? I gesture to the outside of the lands of Brovia. For everyone else, you're sitting in here in his beautiful room, in a beautiful castle, with incredible views. There are many people out there fighting for their lives, fighting each other. Strad, as you're talking, he begins pouring himself and use some wine. When you wind down, he's leaning across the table, filling your glass. And as he does so, he looks as if he had spectacles to look over at you. And in this moment, he doesn't seem as handsome as he did before.

He once again looks very tired. He puts the carafe down, and when he sits down, he says, Hector, why does not everyone follow you? You know the struggles of uniting this land. A moment ago you spoke of what the people want. Do you know what all the disparate peoples of these land want? I do not. I suppose I do not know.

But I suppose they want what everybody wants. They just want to live their lives in peace without everything being such an uphill battle without ever being so dreary to be able to pursue what you want out of life. That is beside the point. You know I am here. I've gathered a group of people to do exactly what happened over a year ago.

But I know from talking to Pip, to the other people in the towns of the consequences of that. And those are the survivors. I understand why Pip left. I don't want to be responsible for another dusk elf incident. So the people that I'm traveling with, they want to leave this place. I want to leave this place.

But I also want to stop you from hurting so many people. And I'd like to do all of that without bloodshed, if we can. Stride picks up his glass, stands up, turns to face the city of Borovia. Hector, you said that you are here because you recruited these people, because you raised an army. But that is not why you are here. You are here because you were brought to Borovia. You are here, he turns to look at you, because I invited you. And you are here for the same reason that Keening is here, for the same reason that Pip is here,

for the same reason that I have not struck any of you down, though I know what you were planning the whole time. Hector, you are here to replace me. Why do you think I would replace you? You have already told me, Hector. You said many times already. My methods do not please you. Hector, if you are so different, if you know so much,

I invite you to prove that you would make a better leader of Borovia. And how would I do that? That is a very good question. Hector. He sets the glass, he takes a draft from the goblet, sets it down on the table, and still standing, he says, I invite you to tell me. Well, first that is, I have a question for you. How long have you been doing this? That is a complicated question. This iteration or this entirety? I have been slain and come back many times. Vampier, the god. The god, of these lands, the entity

that possesses me and that creates the vampire will not let me die, though I have wished it for some time now. Right. Just to me, I'd like stand up

looking out of the town of Borovia at Madagas, I did it all, and just, I am not a philosopher. I am not an old man sitting in an ivory tower telling the young how to live their life. Again, the closest I have is discussing the metaphysical realms amongst the peers.

It seems to me that when you have somebody who just refuses to die, stuck in their old ways, we always think that we are better than our fathers, and we're given a chance to do so when they pass away. everything that we do is built on the generations before. I spoke to a man thousands of years and now my future. I mentioned the things from my time. This might not mean much, but in my time there was something called a king's road. I met somebody in my distance past. For them, it was barely an idea.

Had not even been invented yet. The concept had gone. And I talked to someone a thousand years into my future, and they call it something else. But it's still there. It's still relying on what has come before. It just seems that for you to keep raining here, it's like watching grapes die on the vine.

So what I would do differently is I would not rule for eternity. Have my time. Give up the crown. Move on. Stroud mulls on your words. And you can see while he's mulling on your words, you can see you've not said anything that he hasn't already thought of. If anything, it feels a little bit like preaching to the choir.

The problem with speaking to creatures as those who existed before and after you is that mortals have a very limited understanding of things. They don't see, and perhaps Hector in time you will come to understand, he says. And you can hear this like hope in that. That given enough time, nothing changes. Let me perhaps give you a test. you talk of uniting these peoples to face the external threat. Prove to me you can.

You have made friends in these lands. They would come to your aid if you called. I hope so. Some will, yes. Ivana bears down upon us. Raise them. Lead them. Show me a better way.

Okay. There is an inherent hostility to these lands. I can peel it back for you and yours. It will take no small effort upon my part. You understand for this time, Hector, while I do this for you and your friends. I will be unable to assist. You will be truly without guidance or rails from me.

you will truly see what it is like to rule, and I hope it will take a shine to you. Maybe it will. Maybe it will. So you say that you invited Pip, Keening. I've been to the ethereal, I've seen this many heroes. Do you invite them all for this? There are tests upon tests, Hector.

The first one is merely. getting here. Cannot be the only one that has gotten this far, I assume. No. As I said, many have gotten much further than you have slain me.

I, Strad, you can see he hesitates for a second. There's something he comes to the edge of saying and then he stops like he's thinking about it and then he plunders on. You know, one who came this close before and got far further.

I had this conversation with your mentor, Sir Grace. Mentor is a bit much. He turned me down and then struck me down. That sounds like this, Sir Grace, I know. I am nothing but a monster to him, though I see much of myself in him too. When I first came here and initially Pip and so many others thought that you were the reason that we are stuck here.

I think that is still true. You are also stuck here, correct? I am far more trapped than you are. What does Vampier want from you? He was locked up in the Amber Temple, along with so many other elder gods. Strad, you see a part of his face twitches. like he's being a bit dismissive of the word trapped specifically.

They are entombed in the Amber Temple, but they are far from trapped, even such as Father Limic. You see Strad kind of like really, he's not like doing it to hurt you, but he choose on the word like it's hard for him to say. He entombed as he was. still spreads influence, and so does vampire. The dark entities within the Amber Temple, it contains as much of them as it can,

but it is, you could say, less a prison and more their home. So how much of a vampire's bidding do you do? Strad grips the glass tight, and you, for a moment, are afraid he's going to break it. I do as much as I am forced. So you want to be replaced.

You need, what did Rahden say, an air? Say I rally this army. Say I defeat Varner and the invading force. They're not. That would be dependent on you, Hector. It is a journey to reach where I am. You have become so different from the man who first wanted. wandered into these lands not long ago, a different beast altogether.

When you are this beast, Hector, will you want the same things you want now? Do you want the same things you wanted when you came to these lands? Were I, Strad sets the glass down, to offer you safe passage away from these lands tonight, back to that little teafling who needs your help, would you say yes? I stop, I pause, but what of Pip, what of Gretchen? I can allow some to leave, if you would like.

Most would need to stay, but, Strad says, and there's a comedy to this, but I fear you would not have trouble picking who to stay. There are many in your party, Hector, that you do not want, that you have been forced to deal with. And I dare say that Pip Mandarin may be among them. But I know only your actions thus far, not your mind. I would never want to force anyone. Do something that they would not want to do.

But if you can offer him away home, they might take it, I don't know. Some would, I'm sure. Some would not. The very least. I'm not going home unless I know the people I care about the safe. Well, I cannot. And even if you took my mantle, you could not promise everyone's protection.

Why not? There are limitations to this post, Hector. I... Strad grabs at his chest as if he is having a heart attack and doubles over. I rush over in hell. Yeah, no, yeah. Strad, you see, for a brief moment, it's as if the age of everything, every year that he has experienced, this is as if it's on him now.

Strad's not fit anymore. He doesn't look good. No, Strad looks not just ancient. Stratt looks positively like... Decratic. Dracid? Strad is nothing but a thin, wispy, pale of a creature. It looks less like he has hair

and more like long, thin strands of white cling to his skull. Somehow he has the same amount of hair, but somehow you can also see every part of his scalp. Every inch of his face is sallow and empty and hollow. He's a thin, curled up husk of a creature. With sunken eyes, he stares up at you in pain and agony. What has happened to you? You need Rahadin?

He claws at you and drags himself up a little bit, not to stand up. He can't stand up, but he brings himself a little bit to a standing position. You hear the doors slam open. And the moment you had alone with Strad is interrupted as Rahadin neatly leaps the table and is beside the two of you. He picks up Strad and carries him, and it's not even hard. Strad is nothing. He carries him to Strad's bed. What is happening?

The load stone. Rahadin says hefting Strad into bed. Your allies. Strike it at night. Now. Weaken him. I see. Rahadin looks at you, Hector.

It would be best if you left now. Uh, yes. Yes, I'll... I'll see myself out.