D&D is For Nerds - State of Grace #4 Ser Grace Remorseless

Episode Date: May 31, 2025

In the dungeons beneath Fairburn Point Ser Grace, the realms most celebrated adventurer, was forcefully bonded with an entity beyond mortal comprehension. For some such an incident would spell tragedy, for Ser Grace, however, he saw only opportunity. Now the wheels are in motion for something big, something terrifying. A thousand plans, two thousand eyes, and all requiring a personal touch.Such is the State of Grace.To find out how Ser Grace bonded with the Inky Black check out Search for A’Helm. To learn the history of Ser Grace you can listen to the Fall from Grace Trilogy: The Hag, The City, The Dungeon as well as the Tieffany and Pop campaign Return to Grace. Ser Grace last appeared in The Adventures of the Greyhill Free Company and to hear more about the happenings on at Fairburn Point you can listen to Cult & Worship and The Lonely Tower. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Blink, so grace the apoketary, harvesting plants from the outskirts of Fairbone Point, poison and remedy. Blink, so grace the wise woman, providing solace, blending a comforting ear, hearing all. Blink, so grace the fisherman, watching the coast with a weathered eye, marking the colors, all swell. Blink, two thousand eyes, a thousand plans, and all requiring a personal touch. This is the state of grace.

Divinations I cast last night have bared fruition. I think I have found the Kuhulu Urfu Koruku. But... but but but but but... If we were to tell the director about this place, they will insist on slowly peeling back the defences. If you were to go while they were perhaps distracted by something else, you could do it on your own and then anything that happens there could simply be passed off as the work of those damned adventurers. The flap to the tent is pulled aside and standing in its space is professor Naila breakbone The director wishes to speak to gender bind and to you all right

Yeah, of course lead the way leave that lead the way Naila you head over to As you step out of the tent you can hear the early in the early morning the steady sounds of many hands think think Yeah, slowly working away. There's a space where it's not where she sleeps or anything like that early morning, the steady sounds of many hands, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink,

tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, tink, that she has her desk and all of her papers and whatnot laid out. You have probably already been through a lot of this. You are aware there's nothing here that necessarily interests you. It's mostly reports, stuff that you get to see without having to sneak a look anyway. And there's a lot of just management type stuff, payroll, that sort of thing. She's sitting at her desk consulting with a few people as they dart about doing their various jobs You walk over and she greets all three of you. Ah, g'day. Good day. I

Was hoping to speak to the two of you. Well to everyone actually I suppose but Jinderbine I suppose the most Jinderbine, I'm sorry to bother you with this but the the ancient evil this entity or whatever it is, we've come to the decision that we would like to not break. I mean, obviously as the things already come out, it's hard to say if any of the seal really remains active, but we'd need someone with arcane expertise to maybe peel this back a bit slowly and have a Delicate look at it to make sure just in case any of the seal remains that we don't break it further if possible Obviously we'd prefer. I mean, you know, I don't want this thing coming out while we're digging I'd be quite upset about that because I think we all would be of course, of course

So if possible if you could peel it back gently, and then maybe even we'll make the decision when we make the decision, but to piece it back together, perhaps. I think Jendebein would be agreeable to that, right, Jendebein? Of course. Yeah, yeah. I can do that for you. All right.

Excellent then, excellent. Well, in that case, I think most of today will be spent just doing that. I think priority number one should be working on that, which I suppose gives a bit of a, more of a study day for you two, she says gesturing to you and to Nyla Breakbone. Of course I'd love to study with Nyla.

Maybe even go to squeeze her hand.aila probably doesn't react to that. She just lets her hand be squeezed. But you know, if I'm honest, my academic curiosity, I would love to see what gender mind does. I'd like to watch it. The director. Well, actually I don't think you need to roll I think that's a fair reason yeah I think that's a reasonable request yeah the director nods and says well okay well if you'd like to watch I mean I'm sure Jinderbind will find some interesting tidbits as he's pulling apart the we absolutely yeah I think it'd be fascinating very interesting I'm sure thank you very much Thruncastle. I'll be up here if you need anything.

Just send a runner and I'll help you out. Of course, of course. You, Nylah Breakbone, and Jinderbine the Howling Mad, take the elevator. Nylah's coming with, okay. Yeah, she doesn't even, not even saying anything, she's just coming with. You step out onto the elevator and you take the elevator down. As you get, actually, maybe on the elevator, it's not just the three of you,

a couple of the workers step onto the elevator and one of them engages Nila in conversation, just like a little, what do you call it? Like small talk? Small talk, that's the one. Just a little small talk. While that happens, Jinderbine, you see a little hand gesture as he casts a spell.

And you are talking through, you whisper, it's a tiniest, the smallest of whisper, but you can both hear each other whispering as if it were into each other's ears. Ha ha ha! You can, if you want, peel off, I can give you directions, directions to where the whole of records, to where the Kahulu Uru Koriku is. I was going to say that the sort of distraction has fallen directly into our laps. Take Naila if you want or don't.

I'll take Naila. Alright. I think it's a good excuse. Careful with the defenses. I understand your form is He glances in your direction then straightens his gaze again weaker as this Unfortunately, if the defenses were to take you apart, I fear I could not put you back together there are

Contingencies for what to were to happen. Be aware, Sir Grace. I foresee tragedy in Nihila's future. Me too. Okay, when we reach the bottom, with my directions, can I like see the tunnel or the passageway that I would need to take to... Not as of yet. It's kind of...

It stretches off even with your dwarven vision. It stretches off into darkness. Jinderbine, however, seems quite certain he can give you directions. Even in the darkness. And even from what he's doing. You... Jinderbine, you... He's, as I said,

he's very eccentric, but his powers of divination are unmatched. Cool. You trust that he has seen the future in this instance. Once he's set up and he's like starting to work his magic on like breaking the seal, and I have some idea of like where to go, at least the beginning of the directions, to try to get to the Temple of Records, or the Room of Records, I'd like to turn to Nyla and be like, can I talk to you for a moment?

Uh, sure. She, are you waiting till you're in front of where the seal is to have this conversation? I'm basically waiting until, uh, yes, pretty much. Okay. Well, in that case, then this is probably the, in the earlier sections, sections that are very definitively have been cleared of anything that could be hostile and sections that are closest to where the opening, to where the exit is, they're quite populated. There's a lot of people around. This is the deepest that you have gotten so far. So to go any deeper would make you absolutely alone.

But even if you were to stay in this area, there's maybe like, including Jinderbind, there's maybe five people here total. Well basically my plan is to get the two of us away and to start heading toward the Hall of Records with her under the guise of just wanting to have a talk about our relationship. In that case, Jinderbind, before he begins peeling at that seal, he does the gesture from the elevator again, and you're having a whispered conversation at distance. He whispers a few very cryptic sounding phrases to you, but you get the immediate impression, so Grace, or should I say, Shieldmold, you get the distinct impression that the words he has said are the exact words you need to know.

He said it. He said things specifically in a way that maybe you'll misremember something, but you'll misremember it in the right way. Okay, he's completely set me up for these particular phrases. Okay, cool. So you following the queue, once again, like I said, you feel like Jinderbine has seen the future and you know, you feel like you know exactly what you need to know to get to the whole of records. Cool. Well then I'll go take Niler aside and be like, I'd like to talk to you somewhere private.

Maybe there's a tunnel up in this direction that we could just have a... I feel like we've not been... I don't know. I feel like something's changed between us. Is that fair to say? Well, I mean, yes. I like look around it like... She takes out... This is a thing that all of you have access to. It's a lantern that rather than casting a normal light, it casts a red light. Some types of dwarven defenses rely on light hitting them. And this is a very special, very specific type of lantern

that is designed to, well, it can still trip these defenses, but it takes a lot more for it to trip the defenses. So she takes out this red lantern and lights it so that the two of you can see properly rather than just in dark vision. I'll do the same with mine as well just to have two. And then I'd like to basically keep going deeper into the tunnel following the directions of Jindabine and talking to her the whole time again under the guise of just looking for somewhere private and comfortable to sit and talk. You will need to make a persuasion check because this is actually an unexplored route. Which is why the Hall of Records hasn't been found yet.

Good roll. Okay. Shieldmold, you take Nihila further into the... I was about to say the dungeon. Further into the settlement, into this ancient settlement. I've just been so caught up, I suppose, and this, this, this dig, this, you know, is probably the biggest dig of my life. And maybe I've let some things that are more important, I'll just through this little bit here, crawl, duck under that, some things that are more

important to me fall by the wayside and I just wanted to apologize. Naila, a little puff from your mad scramble over some wreckage. She returns, well, I mean, that's pretty much an apology, I suppose. I never let me, you know, impress upon you. I just hop over this, avoid that. I just want to impress upon you that the apology is real. I am sorry. I am so sorry.

That is a deception, Joke. You have decent deception, but you rolled poorly. Naila, landing behind you on the other side of a little chasm. Yeah. Yeah an ancient chasm. I I just agate I just What I? Understand but well, I guess I don't actually this has been so strange of you. I thought things were getting serious. How close are we to the whole of records? You're on the last stanzel.

I am serious. And in fact, the fact that you don't think I'm serious about this, that offends me. That's an intimidation check. And I'd like to, as I say that, in a huff, walk away to try and get to the Hall of Records. All right, you succeed on the intimidation check. Agate, agate, she calls from behind you

and you hear her running to catch up to you. You arrive at the entrance to the Hall of Records. As soon as both of your lanterns illuminate the doorway, you hear her gasp next to you. This discovery is a pretty big deal. There is a very elaborate stone door set into the wall. You can see that there is also made out of stone an elaborate locking mechanism.

This is partially why you need the red lights. The wall is stone. The door is stone. The locking mechanism is stone without the extra detail that light affords you. This would literally look like just another part of the wall. Ah, cool. And even with the light, it's just enough the shadows. It's what you, you see this because of the shadows that the light is casting

That the indent the complicated nature of the lock it comes into stark relief for you You can see like I said the locking mechanism is in the center of the doorway It's a double door with the lock in between the two halves It's some sort of orb with many concentric smaller circles in it. And there is a handle in the center. Shield mold identifies this as a very particular locking mechanism.

It's a combination lock that comes with a pretty heavy price for failure. The idea is you reach in with your hand, you grab the handle, and you're meant to turn it in a specific series of, a specific and very precise series of clockwise and counter-clockwise movements, which causes those bands on the outside to shift and move and eventually unlock. If, however, you fail, those bands will snap shut on your hand.

There is no way to avoid it. You either, every time you open this, it either opens or every time you attempt to open it, it either opens or you lose an arm. Those are the only outcomes. Okay. Do I, by Jindabind's prophecy or whatever, his divination, do I have any idea the correct movements to open this?

Maybe the final line of the last stanza is something that maybe you remember it incorrectly, but what it sounded like was door protected from divination magic. Their gender bind can't give you the combination, unfortunately. And shield mold, while she can identify this lock, Doesn't know what it's combination is. Oh my God. I can't believe that you're seeing this too, right, Nila? Nila is so stunned she can't even say anything. It's got to be one of those rotating locks. I go up, I don't want to grab it at all.

But I want to like... Grabbing it begins it. Yeah, yeah, I figured. If you're grabbing it, you're unlocking it. I want to like just start like touching around the edges of it and like kind of just trying to get a sense of it That's an investigation check. All right, you did pretty well. Mm-hmm you Feeling around the edges you can see that there is some ancient Ancient truly ancient graffiti on the wall

It looks like to this place probably would have also had some guards posted at it. And you can see things like tally marks and guards comments to each other. Maybe even some rude messages, that sort of thing. It's very, very ancient, quite clearly was made by the people who once lived here. You rolled high enough.

You get the impression that some of the notes, they start getting quite like, while the hall of records is an important sacred place and has some very, very important information, it's not really for the people who lived here, it wouldn't have really been a forbidden place. Yeah, sure. It wouldn't be like a library, kind of, yeah. It's protected to keep it safe from maybe intruders, but it's not really protected to keep it safe

from the people who lived there. And that knowledge, combined with the fact that you've seen a bunch of graffiti, you feel there is a non-zero percent chance that if you really knuckled down and went through all of this graffiti, you could find a combination. Okay, alright.

A gesture to the graffiti to Nyla. I mean, I don't know, but I feel like this makes it seem like a casual place. This makes it seem like perhaps somewhere in here in the writings of the people who came before us, we can find a way in. She nods. I'll take this side, you take that side way in. She nods. I'll take this side you take that side. All right she nods. Okay so Jackson I'm gonna make this a skill check. Mm-hmm. So pick three skills. Okay. They can be any three skills but you have to justify how

they're helping you. Okay. And I will roll them. you need to get two successes DC is 15 got all of my My skills that I have like high. Yeah, I could shield mode are just not appropriate There's just no way I could use them Alright, well, I'll start with our Connor. That seems like a basic good beginning. I don't think you need much to justify that Yeah, that's a not one. Oh Kid One fail. You have to succeed on these two next

rolls. OK, let me figure out how to justify stealth. All right. What about this? Yeah. I would like to use stealth to get as close as possible to the actual mechanism without

activating it. Right. to like see if the most pertinent graffiti, my logic being the most pertinent graffiti would be as close as possible to the actual mechanism. So I would like to get as close to the mechanism. Like someone's written the combination on the wall. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I have to get as close as possible.

And I'm going gonna say that stealth, because I'm not activating it, I'm basically hiding from the mechanism. I... Or that could be sleight of hand, which is actually maybe more appropriate. I would say that's a sleight of hand check. Unfortunately, it's not as high,

but it's not nothing. Still, it's pretty good. All right, that's a success. So one fail, one success. You need a third roll, and it needs to get at least 15 Okay, I can't just uh fuck Deception also not terribly useful here quite difficult. Yeah Alright, this is this is the only one that makes sense

Acrobatics, uh-huh, which is a plus three and that'll be me sense, acrobatics, which is a plus three. And that'll be me climbing a little bit of the door to try and get access to some of the, the writing that is too high for me to read from the ground, the ground floor. Yeah. What's up, dude? Did I whiff it? You didn't whiff it.

Okay. Yes. But you didn't get 15. Okay. Fuck. Okay. You failed to find any clues Damn it. Oh, well you find some clues. Yeah, you know what? I'll say I'll give you partial credit. Okay. Yes so you find a

Series of you find they have they have indeed they've written some of the combinations down. Mm-hmm, but that's the problem Yeah, they've written some of the combinations down, but if you put in the wrong one, it's gonna take an arm. I go to Nyla. How would you do? Nyla shows you the exact same thing. She has also found a couple of combinations. You have, I'll say five combinations in total.

Just enough that you don't have enough arms to try them all. Now, I don't know if this is how the Inky Black works. But could I, from Agate, extend an Inky Black hand to use the Inky Black that's in me, the same way Sir Grace might make a gray slug or a slime person, extend my hand to use that instead of my real hand. Or is there not quite enough in Agate Shield Mold? Yeah, I'll make you this deal.

Okay. You can do that, but that requires Agate Shield Mold is controlled, ostensibly. But she has, there's still a brain there. She's still in there. Yeah, she's still in there. She's, there's not like, unless you willingly let her go, there's no recovering Agate Shield mold. No, no, no, for sure.

Not that you, yeah, unless you were for some fucking reason to let her go. Yeah. You can't, with this current form, you can't do that. But if Agate Shield mold became just inky black with skin stretched over her, you couldn't do that. Okay. If I started to, okay. I mean, there's no downside.

It means that when you're not her, she's nothing. That's true. It would probably wreck the deception. Yeah. Hmm. Okay. What about this? So how many combinations do we have?

There's five. There's five. And I think one of them is... One of them is going to be right. One of them is going to be right. Okay. I pick one at random and I say, Naila, that's this. I've read it on the wall. I point out one of the combinations. That's a deception check. Yeah. You passed.

Okay. All right. So I got a d10 because there's five options Uh-huh, I'll break it up into two so one two will be the first three four Yada, yada, if you roll a nine or a ten, I'm gonna say that's the successful one Okay, so there's a one in five. I I step aside and let Naila put her hand in It's snapshot Naila screams Okay, as her arm is neatly severed by the locking mechanism

She falls onto the ground clutching at the stump where her arm once was. Naila, Naila! And I'd like to go over to her Oh no, did I do this? And under the guise, Adam, of providing aid, I'll inky black her. She's in too much pain to notice what's happening until it's too late. You have Nyla and you have Agate. Fabulous. And I'll get Nyla to use her other arm and try another one of the combinations. Okay. Do you want to so? Standing up with like blood dripping out of the stump

Naila is Bleeding out. Do you want to do something about that? Yeah, I probably should I'll make a medicine check Yeah, you managed to staunch the bleeding. Naila puts her other arm in. Mm-hmm I'll use a D4 this time, because now there's only four options, and four is correct. Naila loses her other arm.

Now, if you Inky Black her, this can be repaired. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. They will look like regular arms, but they'll be Inky Black. Yeah, yeah, I'll... Obviously the problem is, Naila will become Inky Black.

Yes, yeah, yeah, she'll just become like a Naila will become inky black. Yes. Yeah. Yeah should just become like a goon You were trying to avoid this before but the person who was suspicious of you is now exactly. It's kind of what I'm thinking That's look. There's no way around this I'll have to just come and I know this is gonna be time-consuming too Yeah, and our absence is gonna become more and more suspicious But nevertheless, I will just completely drain her of all personality and character and instead Fill her some part of me. I imagine as I do this I can feel some part of me is in tears some part of me that does not belong to Sir Grace

But instead agate shield mold and I feel her full of the inky black and then I just go through her Random people in fucking fair burn Point just crying for no reason. It's gonna come out somehow. A third arm. God damn it. And we're down to... there's two options left. I'll use a d8. Okay.

I don't have a coin. Yeah, a d8. Odds, no dice. Evens you get it. Well on the bright side, you finally figure it out. On the downside, so doing this really fucked up, Naila is just Inky Black, but the Inky Black, these forms can be destroyed still. And she has the two arms, but the Inky Black that is in her is flagging.

There's not much left to Naila, and it's very apparent. I turn to the Inky Black Naila and I say there's a chasm about 20-30 meters back. Jump in there. She turns around and you're distantly aware as she does that. Great and then I'll unlock the door and step into the Hall of Records. Annoying because previously I had- oh wait, fuck. Might be useful to have her around for whatever's gonna protect the whole of records that I meant to come upon something Oh fuck

You can stop it. Okay. It takes her a little while to get back to the chasm So you have time to all right? I get her to turn around and join me She'll imagine I mean you had plenty of time. I'm imagining Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then she just swivels around in this spot and returns to me. Oh, that's funny. Okay fabulous Yeah, but I probably will need it's like a human shield basically. Yeah Absolutely, that is probably what she if she had hit points if it was like 50 hit points She's down to 10. Okay, that's it to give you an idea of how fucked up she is. Okay. No worries All right, you turn you turn the lock and open the door

Stepping through the threshold, you are dimly aware, so grace, that you're being picked off or the inky blacks are being picked off. Okay. In the night, you don't need so like a silver rain moon to tell you this. You are, it's like, it's not painful or anything like that. It's kind of almost like distantly. It's like how you might be aware that of a mozzie bite Yeah, okay sure. It's something it's maybe a minor annoyance

Which is a bit funny to say about literally hundreds of people dying But it is it is just a very distant mild pain for you if you can really yeah Yeah, for sure so like a silver and moon nonetheless gives you the report in the night we have reports from the soldiers and I'm sure you're aware of the true believers what's happening with them yeah so far we found no formal resistance in the tower but it in the night has become more active you're still standing on that on the boat watching as more and more people are slowly making their way in it's petered out quite a bit Yeah in the nighttime you stopped the assault as a so like I said everyone kind of bunk it down Yeah, more active and the tower is you knew it was bigger on the inside, but it's

Bigger it's got games. There's maybe one of the one of the true believers Yeah, sure, it's gargantuan. There's maybe one of the true believers, you are in the true believers body and you look up and you see, you're at the bottom of a staircase and above you is everything. It's all above you. Yeah, okay. You realize just how much you have to do. Okay.

The resistance that we're getting from the tower, basically what I'm wondering is, so we know that when you cross over that wall around the outside of the tower, you enter a contract, right? Basically, yeah. With the tower. Yeah.

So that, what I'm wondering is can we distract the tower by overloading it with contracts? Like if I am to possess rats, say, and just send rats pouring into the tower, would that sort of take away some of their defenses as they have to focus in? Or another alternative strategy is to get a bunch of my wizards or whatever to just pummel the tower with magic missile in an effort to basically drain some of the

resources that the tower has or do I just think that the towers of such power and magnitude yeah that that would be like a blip like they just wouldn't notice well it's complicated yeah so first off I will remind you that the resistance quote unquote the resistance you're encountering It's just the innate nature of the yeah, there's actually not active. Yeah, it really actually has nothing to do with the tower Yeah, there's just the things that live within the tower are sometimes unintentionally hostile to life They they might not even to give you some explanation Yeah, there are knowable entities and there are unknowable entities within the tower Yeah, and the unknowable entities just by being in the same place as not the inky black soldiers

But the regular soldiers some of these unknowable entities just cause madness as they pass through an area They have nothing to do with that. Okay, and that has nothing to do with the tower. Yeah now Searching through the minds of all your different wizards. maybe even at one point you're speaking with Jindabind as he's peeling the protections back. It is not a bad idea or there is some logic to trying to overload the tower like this, but you don't know how effective it's going to be. The entity that controls the tower and the tower itself are very powerful beings and it is possible to overwhelm them, but you aren't sure how much that would take. And it might be like a waste of resources, basically. It might be.

You're not 100% sure, because the tower sees things differently than reality might project. You're not sure if the tower sees Inky Blacks as being separate entities, or if it is, because the Inky Black is of the tower. Yeah, yeah, that it just, it doesn't even see it as a. It's like, oh, that is all the Inky Black. That's one entity, essentially. We've already made this contract.

Yeah, okay. My next thought is, what is the most, okay, anti-magic. As a resource, as something I can acquire, would that in some way solidify the anti-reality in the tower? If I could get in some way a piece of anti-magic into the tower, possibly by consuming it in my

inky form and having it pop out in another inky form within the tower, would that in some way help those soldiers that are dealing with, it's just an idle thought? Anti-magic, you are very hesitant to use because it cuts off the inky black, essentially, as well. So you consuming it would basically end whatever consumed it. Okay, yeah, okay, fair enough. It's good to know, that's good to know.

Good to keep my back pocket. Maybe I need to get in there. Well, you come to that conclusion, maybe all of that happened in but a moment. Yeah, so yeah, I think it wouldn't. You're not sure if So Like a Silver Moon had this idea at the exact same time, or if So Like a Silver Moon had begun speaking and you're distantly aware of him talking, like, that is a good idea.

You're not sure 100% where it comes from. But at the same time, there are obviously some problems to be had. I was going to suggest that perhaps you should lead directly. I would recommend, we're getting reports from our main thrust, which has pushed its way the furthest, has achieved some height within the tower. Hard to say specifically how high, but there is a, what we are getting described as a mirror landscape. Within the mirror landscape, there are mirror entities which cause madness among the soldiers,

but the inky creatures are largely immune to this madness. People are saying, reporting, those who are able to report, that within the mirrored surfaces they see several things, either endless further landscapes themselves reflected back in true form, whatever that really means, or alternatively these strange mirror entities which leap out and attack people. In addition to that, there's some perhaps unknowable entity which drives those who see it mad, and the inky creatures don't seem to be able to comprehend it properly.

Certainly they're not reacting as they should. In any case, I think perhaps it's best for you to lead this contingent. Yes, I think you're probably right, Silvermoon. I will remain here to supervise the beginning of the incursion. Send more as required. Yes. Well, prepare a longboat. Of course. A longboat is prepared and you... it's actually maybe so like a Silver Moon already had one ready to go. He kind of knew what was... he knew before he spoke with you. For sure.

You climb into the longboat and you are rowed by a couple of soldiers to the wall, which you then climb over. As you climb over, there's a brief moment even for you, Sir Grace. Looking up at the tower, you are distantly aware of the contract that you are signing. Passing over this wall, you are willingly agreeing to the fact that what is about to happen to you may not necessarily fall within the bounds of reality. That's okay. I've made contracts and broken contracts before. You wonder in the soldiers that are around, there's, you know, camps and such has been

established. So Like A Silver Rain Moon probably gives you a map of where you need to go It's all very detailed very ordered very precise You know exactly what you need to be doing where you need to be going and as you go There's lists of people that you should be speaking with and whatnot. You make little stops here and there check the camps Yeah, those people who have sentience Give you little sit reps and inform you on what's going on.

You make little decisions here and there. It's nothing too major until you, stepping from one staircase, you find yourself standing in, what can only be described as a mirror wasteland. You turn around and you can't see the staircase that you came from, but you know if you stepped back in that direction, you'd be on the stairs. I would be on it, yeah, okay. Yeah, you'd be on it. Are there camps up here?

There is one major camp here, which people have brought materials to construct an actual proper fort. It is mostly manned by soldiers. The inky creatures, the true believers, are the ones who are really getting sent out here. Yeah. Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't. Yeah, sure. You're not really aware of what's happening to them.

Yeah. Some people give you a snap, like a smart salute, and an officer informs you, my lord, what's your orders then? The mirror landscape, can I discern like an end to it? You look out, imagine if you will, Salvador Dali's melty clock painting. Okay, awesome. It is, except every surface is mirrored. And anytime you look into a mirror, you immediately, as so grace, you are immediately aware that

for someone who did not have your mind, this could drive one mad. You can see, this is maybe something that was, so like a Silvery Moon considered this, and this has been accounted for. A lot of the sentries have blinders that a horse might wear. Okay. You can see, as was described, sometimes you see a,

it's like the mirror looks like it might be a portal that you can step through and appear somewhere else in this wasteland. Sometimes you see mirror entities, humanoid, vaguely bipedial creatures made out of mirrored surface. If you, obviously, so Grace, wouldn't have this language, but you, Jackson, would describe them as being low poly people made out of mirrors. The mirrors on these low poly people have the same effect

of you look at it and sometimes you see, like it looks like you could step through and be transported. Sometimes in the mirrored people's surfaces, you see more mirrored people. And then finally, the last thing that you can see in all of these mirrored surfaces is yourself, Sir Grace. And that is even in your current form, this one you find disquieting. It's just you. It's not, there's nothing strange or odd to it. It's just you, but looking at yourself, it feels like, it's hard to describe this,

but it feels like you're seeing yourself for the first time. Does it? Because as I currently am, I am as sort of a tendril of Sir Grace, and I look like a much younger Sir Grace. I look like a Sir Grace Circus Sir Grace to the city, but when I look in the mirror, do I see old man Sir Grace? I would say yes. You see Sir Grace, you see as you truly are and it's hard to describe It's not there's nothing supernatural about it, but it's like looking at yourself.

It's like you're, it's as you look at this version of yourself. So Grace, it's like you're forced to be introspective. That's bad. It's a very disgusting. That's really bad. Yeah. Okay. What are my soldiers fighting with?

What are the weapons they have? What are the ranged weapons they have? Ranged weapons? Do they have muskets or anything like that or is it all? No, there would be no musket weaponry now. Not at this stage. It would be mostly, there might be a handful of bowmen, maybe some crossbows and occasional slings, but mostly crossbows to be honest. Because what would be great right now would be paintball guns. And I'm just wondering, I mean,

so Grace does not have the knowledge to know what a gun is and you couldn't really make a paint arrow. So I guess that's probably out of the question, but paint to cover the mirrors would be, hmm. Can I, okay, I guess- The next best thing might be full on blindfoldss. You know, it's gonna say yeah I was gonna say well what what I was thinking is a I get one of the inky one of the true believers Person made just pure inky black. I get them to step out onto the mirrored landscape and then I would like to

Dissolve their physical fall to make them into like a kind of paste basically their physical form to make them into like a kind of paste basically. Okay. To cover one of the mirrors. All right. That I would say works, but you can see that it's, it's like, there's a drain slowly it's being sucked away and you realize that the appearance of being able to step through a mirror and appear somewhere else, it's not an appearance. It's what's happening.

It's what's happening. It's what's happening. Yeah. The inky black isn't being dissolved or destroyed. It's now just somewhere else. It's not, it doesn't happen all at once. It's a slow thing. Okay.

And I can't discern from looking at this to find the other side of this mirrored landscape would require exploration basically. Yeah. Yeah. Pretty much. Okay. Okay. Well, I guess, yeah, and I don't want to drive anyone insane. I guess those that I can, I just turn off their eyes. Okay. And those that I can't, I either call for through the people that I'm connected to

that are still surrounding the Lonely Tower, or if we have the materials here, I start the manufacture of blindfolds. While that's happening, so, Grace, you are the only entity that is safe to look out on the landscape and safe to see what's really happening. There's the inky black creatures which are so mindless,

so kind of dead to you, that they are a little bit too stupid to be able to properly identify some things. And then, as So Like A Silver Moon was saying, they are a little, they're a little bit too stupid to be able to properly identify some things. And then as Sir Lycus Silverimoon was saying, there's some things or some ones or something. There's something here that they just can't comprehend, that they aren't able to recognize as anything. But you are.

And looking at, you don't know if this is necessarily it, but you see that there is a host approaching you as you're preparing to Sally Forth. There is a host heading towards you. A small army, you outnumber it, but they have the advantage of fucking with your troops at the mere sight of them. They've got the home field advantage. Yeah. You see a host of mirrored people, of them about the size of humans still as I said bipedial with one exception There is one the size of a giant simply huge able to easily step over your fort Okay, your your fort battlements. There's a host of them approaching you. They will be on you soon

Okay, do I think that I will be able to get my men blindfolded in time? Not all of them. Well, we lose some to madness. That's fine. All right. Those that are prepared. Yeah. Can I, and this is going to be weird and not perfect, but obviously they can't see, but I can. Can I act as sort of like a battle strategist for them and provide line of sight? For the for my army basically for all of your arm. Well, I have to yeah, I accept for those that aren't blindfolded

Okay, because otherwise they just won't know what they're aiming at. Yeah, you can do that If you have them fight in a mass, yes, I probably will have to yeah Do you plan on doing anything else in this fight or just instructing them? That's not a bad option to just do that. I think I'll probably just instruct them, honestly. Well in that case then, we're not really going properly to combat. Yeah, okay. This is more of a, you, if you do this, you will win the fight. You'll just take casualties. Yeah. And what do you do with your own entity, with your Ser Grace tendril? With my sir? I probably... You'll need to be somewhere visible, but somewhere visible also means that you could be targeted.

Yes, that's true. There's the battlements. There's some buildings. They're not really designed to be stood on, but they could be stood on. Yeah, I guess the battlements to give myself the best view. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, so if you're imagining a box, imagining the box faces north, south, east and west, they're coming from the west. Where are you putting yourself?

I would put myself. If you put yourself on the western battlements, best view, but also most has. Most exposed, yeah. East battlements, worst view, but safest. Well, I'll go east battlements, because worst case scenario, I can open the eyes of one of my soldiers

and look through their eyes to get an idea of what's happening. Well, in that case then I'll say you take no damage, your form takes no damage, but your army takes the most possible damage basically. So if your host was 40, you get whittled down to 25. Okay, goddamn. There'll be more people coming, So if your host was 40 you get whittled down to 25. Okay. God damn There's more, you know, there'll be more people coming. You kind of want to be pushing now Yes, yeah, so like a silvery moon certainly through I wouldn't say a courier necessarily but more

Telephone if you will yeah grabbing like a a true believer He speaks to the true believer and you hear what's being said. So like a silver moon is getting battle reports and whatnot. My liege, so grace, yes, I believe perhaps the best option here is the best defense is a good offense. You're right. Push forward through the broken glass and we'll begin the march blind through the mirror landscape, crushing the shattered mirrors of our enemies beneath our feet. Absolutely. Trying to explore and just trying to find an exit

to the mirrored landscape to get one floor higher. The mirror people in the fight, you learned this. The mirror people, they are, it's both a good thing, it's a blessing and a curse, I suppose. They are only as strong as a mirror. So one good thwack. It's like they Yeah, they essentially have like one hit point. Yeah, you make contact with them and you've got them cool But as each mirror person is destroyed they speak a truth of the person who destroys them Oh, no, and that is what really damages your troops.

A lot of your troops go mad with the truth that they hear. Okay. I've got some demoralized. Is it like with the 25 or whatever odd I have left, we walk and just around us raving and like clawing at themselves? Yeah. Are those soldiers driven mad? Some people don't even need to be blindfolded as they tear their own eyes out and their own ears off

Okay, well the tearing it off does necessarily too much, but you know, can I? Experimentally as we walk smash one of the mirrors behind me just one of the mirrored surface Just one of the mirrored surfaces you smash it and immediately it looks like it was meant to be that way Okay, so it breaks into many smaller pieces, but those smaller pieces now... They are still mirrors. Yeah, they're still mirrors. They don't stop doing what they do, but they don't speak a truth of you when you break them. Well, I'm just trying to think for the reinforcements that are coming to leave some kind of path.

You could try with goo people. Yeah, okay. I guess they'll... Yeah, but then I'm losing more soldiers. That's true. But if this... the smashed mirror still looks smashed, right? No. Oh, okay. No, it looks like it was meant to be that way. Hmm. That's a shame.

Can I... do we have in the encampment, like, little flags or anything like that? Um, maybe, yeah. You probably would. Yeah, you'd have ways to do that sort of stuff. Okay, well, I'll try and construct little flat, like just little red flags or something that I can implant in the space between the mirrors in wherever is possible for me to plant them to give people some kind of trail to follow. In the landscape around you, you see occasionally yourselves reflected back on you. And it occurs to you at no point, other than when it gives you that disconcerting look at yourself, at

no point have you in the mirror seen yourselves like a proper just normal mirror reflection. So when you see your host in the mirror, you realize that that is a portal through to yourself at a different place. Yeah. Okay. Through to yourself at a different place. Yeah, okay, fantastic. It's a very confusing thing to see. Occasionally as well as you're transversing this landscape, you realize you've accidentally walked through a mirror and you've jumped from one place to another. It quickly becomes apparent that navigation here is going to be an absolute nightmare. Do I like as we walk, if you look over in the distance, can I see us from like an earlier point

or a future point moving between two mirrors? It doesn't seem to transverse in time. Okay, only space. Yeah, when I say you see yourselves at a different point, it'd be like you leave on the east side of your group and arrive on the west side, if that makes sense. You nonetheless though, every now and then, you catch glimpses of the hosts that you're with. There's so many of them. Endlessly copied. Every Cobalt

looks the same to you. Every Cobalt has only ever looked like a Cobalt to you. Yeah, that was true of Sir Grace from the beginning. They are one of the Beast Races, of course. Of course! Thanks for watching!