High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois | #24 - Out of the Frying Pan (Part 1)

Episode Date: February 18, 2019

The team made a difficult decision in the last episode, let's see if it all pays off! Thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond and Displate! Displate offer durable, steel, high quality canvases with a huge choice of artwork from a wide selection of artists! The High Rollers have a collection that you can view here: http://bit.ly/displatehighrollers D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Create your FREE account now and start digitising your campaigns here: https://www.dndbeyond.com/ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com to learn more. That's betterhelp.com. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois, run by Dungeon Master Mark Sherlock-Humes, with me, Tom, playing Kilakad Kalar, the bard slash cleric. I am Chris Trott. I'm playing Lucius Viren, Elowen Elinastro. And I am a high elf sorcerer. Hi, I'm Rhiannon. I'm playing Sentry. I am a guardian paladin.

Hi, I'm Katie. I'm playing Aela, a wild elf barbarian. And I'm Kim. I'm playing Nova, who is an air ganassi, and she is a hexblade warlock. We're sponsored by D&D Beyond.

Check them out with the link in the episode description and also check out our brand new sponsor, Displate. Displate offer durable steel, high quality canvases with a huge choice of artwork from a wide selection of artists. The High Rollers also have a collection on their website that you can view using bit.ly slash highrollersdisplate. It took a super long time for us to pick our selection, there's hundreds of fantastic

options, so check out our picks and get yourself a high quality metal print. So with our sponsors out of the way, let's jump into the episode. The team made a difficult decision in saving an ashbringer from a dark ritual. Let's see if they made the right choice. everybody knows that the foxes in robin hood disney movie were hot right anyway what moving on yes that's to see you in there yeah that's the start of the podcast that's the start of the podcast welcome back to eros let's do a little recap get your laughs in now because it's about to get real yeah crying in a picture yeah guilt so yeah last time on erosis, our party of travellers are still in the small city of Caeli's Rest,

where a number of events have been slowly unfolding. The party have encountered a group of religious zealots called the Ashbringers, who operate within the church of the sun god Palidor. Having clashed with them once in the temple of Hesper, the party witnessed a public statement by the abbotess of the local Brightflame Abbey denouncing these ashbringers and a tense conversation followed where she attempted to praise the party for their actions. The party have also been helping Sentry, the guardian paladin, meet with another of her kind called Breeze. The two discussed a way to save another guardian called Tracker who was nearing

the end of his lifespan. Suspicious, the party decided to go to a crypt chamber where Breeze would conduct the ritual to save Tracker, where it turned out that he had captured a member of the Ashbringers who he had plotted to kill a local shopkeeper and intended to sacrifice him in order to save Tracker. Sentry, though initially uncertain, chose to save the Ashbringer and disrupt the ritual, and the battle ensued. Badly wounded, Breeze consumed a potion, turned to mist, and escaped into the cracks in the chamber's ceiling, which you believe leads to the Temple of Killara,

the Goddess of Death above. And that is where we start today. I still have your initiative order, if anybody wishes to do anything, but if you wish to just attend to yourselves, you can do that. We still have our initiative order? Yeah, we've still got your initiative order if anybody wishes to do anything but if you wish to just attend to yourselves you can do that. We still have our initiative order? Yeah, we've still got your initiative order because you've seen you saw Breeze basically evaporate up into the cracks in the ceiling. Did he actually escape? I mean as far as you can see he's he's any turned into mist there's no mist left. His action, his

move and then his dash action basically got him up through the ceiling. But how far away he's gotten, you don't know. It depends on are you looking to pursue him or are you concerned with sorting yourselves out for now after such a close battle. I feel like the only way we know into and out of the place is a very long journey outside of Haley Dress. I believe that it was... Scout did mention that there must be an entrance into the Temple of Calara, but you haven't seen one. Yeah. And Breeze didn't like entering that way. Yes, you would have seen it.

Yeah. Could have missed it down. I mean... So, yeah, at this point, it's more up to you guys. I've kept the initiative just in case there's anything you guys wanted to do. But if you just want to be like, nope, we sort ourselves out then that's fine we're all in a pretty bad way as well aren't we yeah thanks it would be going first so it was so breeze

literally ended the round so it would be they're all dead it's the echo the corrupted echoes are all dead so it would be Quill or Sentry who are both tied the second heist initiative so I feel like

that is very appropriate I feel like this is definitely your call we'll follow well you see the chamber as you saw it before these four stone columns

with this glowing now dull red ritual circle painted on the ground probably in blood um and you can see the body of the ashbringer uh wilden um he is alive but has been very badly drained you can see his skin has turned pale white veins all showing um and then track his body is currently being cradled by scout you can see that there is a very faint flicker of life, but it's basically fading away. You can see that he is fading.

Okay. Beyond saving. This is his natural lifespan ending. Yeah. I think I'll just lay on hands the Ashbringer. Okay. And heal him up a little bit. Okay.

How many points for? Let's see. Let's do 10. 10 a little bit. Okay. How many points for? Let's see. Let's do 10. 10 HP back to him. Yeah. Yeah. You watch as some of the color to his flesh begins to return. His eyes open.

You can see he's bound and something is preventing him from moving and speaking. He has loose ropes around him, but his face almost seems frozen. But he's aware and his eyes are wide scanning around but he does not seem to be capable of moving at this point okay well that's what century goes anything else or I mean I'm happy to drop out I mean as far as I'm concerned I'm like I've broken any combat stance quill has okay all right okay yeah well we'll jump out of initiative then yeah I'll just um he's rolling some dice he's seeing how far away brie's got yeah i'm making notes on various things

um yeah you can get behind the screen on tabletop nice so there is a dull silence. There is not much noise. The occasional rumble and stones falling from the loose ceiling. You can hear faint sobbing or kind of that choking noise coming from Scout as he's just kind of holding Tracker close. Chipper has moved over to him and is just kneeling down very quietly next to their old friend. And you begin to hear kind of a very faint speaking tracker saying something to them, but unless you're next to them, you wouldn't hear it. Yeah, it's just silence. Sentry? Nova? What happened? I saw a huge amount of necromantic power in here. Was he trying to siphon from you?

From Scarab? From anyone? You can see a kind of human beside sentry on the ground. He was trying to siphon power from the Ashbringer. Ashbringer? Yeah. And he was going to use that to... He was going to kill him. To save... To save Tracker

So that means that the reason that Breeze is alive Is because he's been killing people Well, yeah, well I believe so, yeah Unless he found a magical place You know, it's not always a person, is it? That's true However, yes We just almost saw a man get sucked into a robot.

I'm so sorry. Why are you sorry? Tracker. Sandry, none of that is your fault. You're not responsible for someone being a weird, creepy, necromancy wielding murderer thing. I know, but... Sentry, it's not your fault. Thank you. There is a sound of grating stone. You see a section of the wall tucked behind one of the statues of Calara where the echoes had been hiding is pulled free and a light from a

lantern shines in and you hear a voice. I don't know who's in there but whatever the hell's going on just prepare yourselves and you kind of hear this faint and it's a part of the stone door opens and you see a man dressed in black robes carrying a lantern with a silver star on the top behind him is a half elf woman she's wearing a padded gambeson and you can see she's clutching a two-handed great sword um they look very young they look like maybe 17 18 the two of them um and the man kind of like lingers in he's like who's there what the he's just glancing around like uh there's there's a few of us already in here but we we stopped what was happening in here you see the stone door is pushed open by the woman kind of tensing with a kind of athletic arm.

And she kind of looks around like, what the bloody hell was it that was going on in here? A guardian just evaporated into the main temple above and then ran off out the door. I've never even seen him before. You might want to call the authorities and get him seized. Well, they just looked over. He's long gone now. We heard noises coming from the crypt below

he dashed off i got a hit on him but he just kept running and i was wasn't gonna leave veron here alone who are you people who's this man they point down like who's he why is he injured that's a good question who is um can i whisper talking because i'll mess it up real bad. Can I whisper? Remember to stage whisper. I'm going to mess it up real bad if I talk. So can I whisper to the group, like, don't talk about the ritual? Are you actually using the spell message or are you just whispering?

I'm going to whisper, like, don't talk about the ritual. I'll say that too. Okay. The man with the lantern. Ritual? Like he hears a word. He doesn't hear the whole thing. He just goes like, Ritual, what are you talking about?

Well, we believe that we caught wind of this guardian who seemed a little bit suspicious. So we followed him down here and it turns out he held this ashbringer captive and was doing something untoward with his body. Ashbringer? One of those fanatics from the abbey? Yes. You see the two of them kind of share a glance, like,

how do we know? Oh, I wish the rest keeper was here. And you can see he's kind of nervously looking around. Seems very uncertain. But we chose to step in and stop him. That's good, but I've only really got your word. Maybe y'all were trying to do something to this fella here. How about you ask him?

All right. I guess. He's going to step back. Okay. And he kind of looks around. He's like, Jailer, are you sure, is this all right? And she's just like, the half-elf girl kinda looks at him, she's like, honestly, Varen, if these lot try to attack us,

I'm not sure I can hold them off. I have put my hammer on the floor. She kinda nods and is like, thank you. She looks around, she's like, all right, stand back. You, guardians. And you can see the other three. Scout kind of looks up. He's like, please, just don't make us move away from him.

We're saying goodbye. And there's this kind of quiet moment. Do you want to see Tracker? Yeah, we can handle the rest of this. Okay, yeah, I'll go see Tracker. Okay, when you go over to Tracker? Yeah. We can handle the rest of this. Okay, yeah. I'll go see Tracker. Mm-hmm. Okay, when you go over to Tracker, you can see that he's whispering something to Chipper,

who's, like, leaning down close to him. The kind of metallic form is reflecting the light from this lantern. But Tracker is, the eyes and the matrix is dulling in color more and more. You can see the color fading from it completely. And then as you kind of approach him and I just put a hand out weakly kind of touches your form it's just it's alright it's alright century this is better this way at least goodbye. I'm sorry, Tracker. I'm so sorry. Don't need

Prime. Fine. Prime. And then blackness washes over him. Duh. As this is going on, you see the young priest, tiny scruff of the goatee beard, very dark bags under his eyes. He doesn't look like he's slept in days or at least a day. He kind of like puts the lantern down, heads over towards the young man on the ground, looks at him, waves his hand over a couple of times, prods him.

I think he's been poisoned or something. Give me a second. He spends about a few minutes casting some sort of spell. Yeah, some sort of poison. Paralysis. It'll take him a bit of time to come out of this. I don't have the materials to purge it from his system. He kind of looks down, checks his arms, and you can see the brand of this closed fist on fire. It's just like the others. He really is one of them. All right.

Well, I'm going to take it that that means he's up to no good, so I ain't exactly suspicious of any of y'all right now. Have you had run-ins with the Esprings before? Yeah. Yeah, they came the other night when the temple of Hesper burned down. They came and they took the rest keeper away, Jasna. She was the priestess here.

She was my mentor. They took her away. Nothing violent, but I could tell in their eyes that they were up to something. Jasna went with them, not wanting them to cause any trouble for me or the others. She's now being held in... Well, we've had a written letter from her saying that she's there by choice

and she's engaging in these talks, discussions. I'm not sure how much of that I believe. My name's Varon. I'm an acolyte here at the temple. I heard noises. I went and fetched Jayla. She's a squire to the Knights of the Black and Rose. We came down here and that's when that guardian... Who was he? Why was he running? He was some sort of necromancer or something? Something like that. And you can see the half-elf woman stiffens. I should have gone after him, Varen. It's like, no, you were doing the right thing. We didn't know what was going on.

This is... I don't know if you know much, but we're very strongly against that sort of thing, the Temple of Killara. So any information we can take from you in the rest keeper's absence, we'll start to investigate the matter. He was probably a guardian that went feral, honestly. I don't think I've ever encountered, I've heard of guardians happening. Sorry, guardians, I didn't mean to say that in front of you. It's okay. The F word.

He was well beyond his age. Scout looks up and he's like, he wasn't feral, there's no way, I've seen, that's not how guardians are. He was lucid, he was arguing with Sentry, he knew what he was saying. Yep. That too.

There's just this unease that you can sense in the room. These two priests, or this priest and this squire, don't really know what to make of the situation. They can tell that obviously something tragic has happened. They can see the four guardians kind of huddled together. And this ashbringer is just eyes wide, scanning around the room, unable to move or speak. So what do we do with the Ashbringer then?

We can take him up into the temple, put him in a quarters, keep him secured for now. It'll take me some time to prepare the ritual to purge the poison from him. Well that's better than letting him go and doing whatever else he's up to. some time to prepare the ritual to purge the poison from him. Well, that's better than letting him go and doing whatever else he's up to. As far as I'm aware, we need to get the Harvest Guard, get Malika or someone involved. This is a little beyond us, but if there's necromancy involved, then I don't want to let him or any of this get out. So, sorry. I'm going to have to ask you all to stay here

for the time being, if you're willing, that is. Well, safer down here. Yeah. You can stay up in the temple, I wouldn't expect you, you shouldn't even be down here, this is a holy place for preparing bodies. How did you even get in here? There's a big old tunnel there. Yeah.

Sorry. The old tunnel, that's like a mile outside the city. Quiet track. Nobody's supposed to know about that except the priesthood. That guardian did, somehow. Oh, by the cradle, what is going on? You can see he kind of rubs his forehead a little bit, and the half-off woman puts her hand on his shoulder.

It's like, it's all right, Varen, we'll deal with this. Come upstairs, we'll find you some bunks in the acolyte's quarters. A few of them aren't here at the moment, so you can at least get some rest. You tried to stop what was happening here, yes? Well we did. Yeah. The Ashbring is still alive. Good. In that case I'm willing to trust you. As a knight it's my responsibility to prevent

this sort of thing happening and if you've done that then you have my thanks. I met one of you guys on the road, actually. I'm pretty sure we did. Was it Master Demos? Was it Ebon? Ebon? Yeah, yeah. Master Ebon, yes. Not Demos. Demos is the bad guy that you call. Yeah, you bad.

Master Ebon. Yes, Master Ebon. He's one of the masters in this area. Well, good. If you've met him and he didn't strike you down, then I don't suspect you are guilty of necromancy or meddling with the undead, so... Pass the test. Well, not to be threatening or anything, but had we been performing necromancy under your temple, you think we would have defended those secrets? A good point, yes, considering there's only the two of us here.

I frankly don't want any more bloodshed. No, let's try and avoid that. You're faint as is. What about your guardian friend? And she gestures to Tracker, who is now lifeless. We have never really... I don't know what the rights for guardians are, what you do with their bodies, but you're welcome to leave from here for now.

This is a holy place at least it's warded against creatures being raised as undead Scout I'll stay with him chip is like me too we'll stay down here I'm just gonna put my hand up and yes ask the Guardians um I don't know if this will work, but do you mind if I cast a little ritual on Tracker? So you scout defensively, kind of put his hand. Yeah, and I kind of, I want to position myself so the two, Varen and Jayla, don't hear.

I mean, they can listen if they want. Yeah, I mean, they're going to try to. I just want to make it difficult for them. Okay. I want to see if I can identify what the spell was. Yeah. I don't know if this will work. Okay.

And I'll say, I'll appeal to Scout. I'm just like... He's like, oh, all right. He kind of takes a hand away from Tracker. But you can see he's wary you can see tracker is uncertain scout is upset and the idea of more magic being cast on his friend he's uncomfortable with but he trusts you like he knows that you guys are there to help so he kind of but he stays close so i don't know if this will work this is out of character i don't know if this will work

yeah but i don't know if you want to read the word. Read it out for me. So identify, the spell is identify, and you choose an object to touch, but it says throughout the casting of a spell, so I don't know if this will work at all. It says an object. But then it also says if you touch a creature throughout

the casting, you can learn what spells, if any, are currently affecting it. Okay, yeah. So it's during the casting of identify it means, the casting another spell so you cast so you touch tracker and throughout the casting it says in which way for a creature yeah you learn what spells if any are currently affecting it okay could identify be used on the ritual circle itself you could try yeah what says if it is a magic item or other magic imbued object you learn its properties and how to use them whether it requires attunement to use how many charges it has if any you learn whether any spells are affecting the item what they are you can try i'm not going to

give you a hard and fast answers but if you want to try so are you trying on track or are you trying on the ritual i want to try on tracker okay all right so you're going to try and track are you casting it as a ritual you're casting it as just a spell slot? A ritual. It'll take ten minutes if it's a ritual. Yeah, a ritual. Okay. So you kind of kneel down, and the whole process of casting is you have to gesture with your hands

and you have to say incantations, and when you begin, the two, the priest and the squire, are instantly like, hey, what are you doing? Like, they don't know what you're doing, so you can see that she brings the sword. are instantly like, hey, what are you doing? Like, they don't know what you're doing, so there you can see that she brings the sword. I believe she's trying to figure out what happened to him. There was a spell cast on him which caused him to perish,

and she's trying to figure out what it was. All right, why didn't you just say that instead of just doing it? That we just figured it out ourselves. She had the process in her brain. Okay okay give me a persuasion check yes he's gonna use his dice and plus 42 just wait you know I think Lucius has got more than that five they're 15 15 okay he's like, all right, just be careful. Yeah, you begin casting the spell.

You begin weaving your magic, channeling it through Tiangong, this blade, this dagger, this focus that you have. Do you get the sense that there was a spell, it's gone now. You're kind of getting the echoes of it. There is no spell currently affecting his body, but there was magic, be it for a time. Heavy necromantic presence. The name of it, you don't know. It is a...

You get the sense that it was something that would transfer magical energy. That it was feeding magical energy into his matrix. That's all you can really get, because it's literally just the echoes fading from his body because the spell is no longer affecting him. Yeah. Okay. Anything else?

Is there any point casting it on the Ashbringer? Quill, I know you can cast Identify. I can. So, we just know that he's been poisoned. I could try it. I guess I would probably do it at the same time. Yeah, you could try it. Will you ritual casting it? Ritual casting for ten minutes, yeah. So, there is no magical spell affecting him. do at the same time yeah were you ritual casting ritual castings for 10 minutes yeah um so you

there is no magical spell affecting him but you get the same thing as as nova in that you see the echoes that a spell was affecting him yeah and it was you get the sense that actually this individual can cast magic he has innate magic maybe similar to what you felt off Lucius so indicating he's some sort of sorcerer and his own reserve of spell power is gone whatever spell power he had has been drained out of him, like his spell slots have been

drained but you get the sense of this kind of transference of magical energy I can see why this one was picked at the very least his magical energy is completely exhausted so whatever this spell was was draining like we expected has completely drained his magical energies to transfer I assume to track it and I'd say as well with the identify just make a quick arcana check for me just to see how much information you can drag out 17 17 so it wasn't just like obviously

it drained his magical power but also it that wasn't obviously enough and it was the very magic of life itself like the kind of the reverse of of healing magic necromancy yeah it was literally sucking his life out as additional power um so it took all of his magical energy and then it started draining his life, his soul, his sentience, all of these things. So would I know if he had a load of magical energy? It might not have killed him. I see.

Interesting. But the level of which, you have no idea. This is magic none of you have ever experienced before. Can I have a little head chat with Nightfrost? Sure. Yeah. Yes, Master Luxia.

So you saw this traumatic experience. I did. Pretty bad. It reminded me of what happened to myself. Yes, I was going to ask. If we were to reverse that procedure and we were to myself. Yes, I was going to ask. If we were to reverse that procedure and we were to utilise your power and through you imbue someone like Sentry

and using me as a vessel with life through the Matrix, how would that work? Nightfrost, you feel this apprehension and terror begin to swell up almost in the back of your skull where his voice kind of sits. Master Lucius, no, you should not do this. I killed those girls. I drained them of their life.

What if I do the same to you? What if I cannot stop myself? What if I drain too much and harm you or kill you like I did them? No, no, you cannot do this. The other way around, I'd be utilizing your power and giving that to someone else. To drain me? Yes.

That is possible, though I do not know the nature of the ritual. You would need to learn whatever spell this breeze was using. It seems to be a ritual that transfers power between magical beings or objects. But in theory, I imagine that I would fulfill the requirements instead of this Ashbringer or this other form. And you probably wouldn't perish, as you're quite powerful. But we don't know. I do not know, Master Lucius. But perhaps you are right.

Food for thought. Indeed. If I can help Lady Sentry, I would be glad to do so. Why did Breeze pick this ashbringer? We all have magical energies of some variety, maybe not Aayla, no offence, but he could have drained it from me, from Lucius, from any of us. He didn't know us.

He didn't know you were there. No. He did. I think he did. And also, I think he wanted someone less in the limelight, so to speak. When he was... Draw attention to him. When he was talking to Sentry, he explained that this boy was a sorcerer and that he had done terrible things as an

ashbringer and that he was less than Breeze and the Guardians and didn't deserve to live when they die. So he's deciding who's bad and who's good and he he's taking those bad people, who are magical, to fuel his own life and other guardians' lives. He said it was a waste. It was a waste that people like the Ashbringer have these powers when people like the guardians have a short lifespan and have to die. And did he have proof about this particular Ashbringer?

He said he saw the Ashbringer attacking the centaur. Yeah, he was gonna attack the centaur. Maybe he was right. No, sentry. Nothing's worth it. I think y'all need some rest, if nothing else. I don't know what has

gone on here, and it sounds like this is bigger than just what I've stumbled into, but I know people who are hurting, and it seems like there's a few of you who are in that place, so come, you should rest, if nothing else. This is not a place for these kind of affairs. This is meant to be a place to say goodbye and to dispel your sadness. So please, come along. And he just offers a hand out to Century.

He kind of like takes your hand and leads you to the secret door. There's like a winding stone staircase that seems to lead up. Lucius has a fleeting thought, really inappropriate. Yeah. He's wondering if this guy has a moat for spell clash. Okay. You don't know? You don't know. And he's wondering if this guy has a moat for spell clash. Okay. You don't know? You don't know?

And that's it. He's like, how dare I think that? How dare I? At least you didn't say it out loud. So, I think as we head up, kind of, like, catch eyes with Sentry and then immediately, like, look away. Okay. Okay.

Jayla, the half-elf squire, basically goes to pick up the body of the guy but she's like kind of like like dragging him a little bit and he's like i can i get it you sure should we take him together you get his head i'll take his legs yeah if he accidentally bumps into things on the way that's not my fault she kind of looks he's a bad guy and there's like a look of like she kind of smiles and smirks and she's like okay she grabs his legs you grab his head and you carry him up the stairs whoops mind the door there's no noise he can't speak so it's just like makes him there when she brings him upstairs uh veron will show you two there's uh like small monks quarters this temple is pretty small so

there's maybe only like two of them um there's a single bed, but there's room for a bedroll to go on the floor as well. It's quite late, by the way. It's like 1 a.m. It's dark. There is no sound of rain outside, but it is very dark, a clouded sky. So, yeah, if you guys want to take a long rest, you can do so. If you want to remain awake. Sweet.

I'll take the floor with the bedroll. I'll trance transit for four hours. Yeah, I mean, there's also things like there is technically the main temple where there are pews, and Varen's happy for you to go and sleep in there and things like that if it's more comfortable. Okay. Would a long rest get rid of my poison condition?

Yes, it does. Yeah, that technically I think would have gone away at the end of the battle. Oh, okay. Okay, so everyone's taking a long rest? Okay, you can all take a long rest. Quill! Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Erois seems to stretch out before you.

Great continents and seas, seen from an impossible viewpoint. Bright blue and clear, you know you must be very high to see the world as you do now. You're stood on an outcropping of rock that you can't see what's behind you. It's covered in a thick, comfortable moss. And sat on the edge of the rock,

robed legs dangling over onto an impossibly high world below you see a man angelic wings folded behind him and a golden staff just laying on the ground next to him radiating with such magical power you almost cannot bear it. He turns with a very human face, but bright blue glowing eyes. Hello, Quilek. Seems you've been having a tough time of late. You could say that, Hesper. He just pats the rocky

outcropping beside him. It's quite the view. Come sit with me. Well, firstly, what would you have done? I know that you have... I'm not an innocent quill. I know that you have been troubled, but I don't know the exact situation. Describe it to me and I'll be glad to answer. So a friend of ours was on his way out and someone had come along with the idea to

replenish his life but use the energies of someone who is without a doubt bad and we interfered we stopped it saved this this man's life, but doomed our friend. Is that right? Is that the right path? He smiles. Come sit with me. He just gestures. In terms of what's right, I'm not here to tell you that, Quilek. I am not a god of good or bad.

I'm not here to provide you with your moral path. That's your choice. I am very proud of you to ask that question however because that's ultimately what I represent is those questions that go unanswered. The questions that need to be asked. There are probably things you could have learned from such a ritual. But there are also maybe things that you could have learned from the person who was alive. There are things that you can learn from the person who has survived this evil person. Right. The Ashbringer.

I've heard the name. And I've sensed that something is going on near where you are. I want you to know something. It's not my brother's doing. Palidor is not that person. He's a defender of this world He would not condone the sorts of things that I can feel from you So whatever is going on, it's something else What should I do? That's the question, isn't it? That's the question. What do you think you should do? I mean...

We've gone from town to town and it feels like this path I'm only losing. I've lost the wing, I've lost my eye, I've lost friends. I've lost trust in people all across Eros. What have you gained? You've lost, I know that. But you've gained too. You've gained allies. I've gained allies. You've gained allies. I've gained allies. You've gained knowledge.

True. And ultimately, that is what life is. It's a journey. It's paths of loss and pain and of learning and experience. And of those fleeting joys. Things that we can cherish. The things that we suffer in exchange for. It's not an easy answer, I know.

But I'm not here to just give you the answers. I wouldn't be a very good god of knowledge if I just told you everything, would I? True. It's ideal, though. I know. It's tricky. At the very least, is it close to the right path? Yes.

I can't tell you what your path is exactly, but you are walking it. I guess, think of it this way. Do you think that I created the Arakokra to just be messengers, to cart parcels across Erois? Do you think that I just gave them wings because all I wanted was them, was to fly? I could have given any race on Erois wings, Quill. I could have made the elves fly. I could have made the dwarves fly.

But I created the Arakokra because of more than that. I gave them my curiosity, the willingness to explore. You're not an Arakoka because you can fly. You're an Arakoka for many things. It's why I chose you. When that lightning hit you, I saw you for the first time. And I saw a curious explorer, somebody who would not be afraid to walk the paths that were set before them and I saw somebody who would ask the right questions and that's why you're on that's why you're where you are now when you wake up remember ask the right questions and then something else begins to happen. Hesper seems not to notice this.

Your vision changes. The world is no longer the high continents of Erois, but instead it's like you're on a rooftop looking down at Kaylie's rest. And it begins to burn. Flames begin erupting around. The buildings alight. You see shapes. Creatures made of shadow and ash clawing around. You begin to hear screams. Above it all, a great door of fire and light. And at its centre, a woman wrapped in chains. Hesper just doesn't seem to notice.

Hesper? Yes? You... Is this... another message? He looks around. He's like, no, what are you seeing? There's dark creatures, there's fire. This is not my doing, this must be something nearby. I'm sorry, Quill, I only have a short time. Ask the questions, and then...

It just fades away into flames and soot and ash. Okay. And you wake. away into flames and soot and ash. Okay. And you wake. Everybody else, you get a long rest. Your dreams can be as

you dictate them. They are whether they are things that plague on your minds, worries, fears, doubts, regrets, curious questions about things and the nature of the world or simply where you're gonna find your own answers. You wake up in a small, cloistered, cold temple of the goddess of death, Kelara. There are not many people here.

It seems to be Varen, Jella, and perhaps a few other acolytes that go about normal business, but nobody else is around. Varen brings you a porridge, kind of a bowl of porridge and some water. I should let you know I completed the rituals. The Ashbringer is secure, but he's awake and able to speak. I thought it best if we all questioned them together, so I've not asked anything so far. Hope you're all well.

Slept like a log. Good. Go to sleep. I hope you're all well. Slept like a log. Good. Go to sleep. I'll give you some time to eat, and then we're just in the back room. It's a small preparation meditation chamber. Where do we find some food?

I'm afraid that that's all the temple has for us. Oh, this is food. Oh, sorry. I thought it was feed for families. I mean, you're welcome to... I can send somebody to go and fetch you something else, but it's all we have here. No, no, this is food. Oh, sorry. I thought it was feed for families. I mean, you're welcome to... I can send somebody to go and fetch you something else, but it's all we have here. No, no, this is fine. I mean, it doesn't taste bad.

It tastes good. It's like a nice sugary porridge, but... I didn't know what porridge was. Yeah, it's kind of got a strange mixture and consistency, but it's quite sweet, milky. A little bit of honey in there probably as well. So it's very sweet very thick coat your stomach what is this that's a porridge hmm

fascinating oats milk something that honey have oh it's just it's very cheap we use a little right from the local farmers see I see. It's delightful. Thank you. All right. My apologies. I've not met many folks from the Sky Cities before. I'm sure you must be used to better fare, but that's all we have. This is perfect.

Thank you. He thought a cow was a zombie. It's best not to question it. So I shouldn't tell him that the milk comes from... No, I wouldn't. All right. It's a touchy subject. Okay. He's like, well, I'll be out in the meditation chamber

when you need me and Jaller, when he heads off and leaves you guys. Is the ashbringer at least secured? Yes, yes. Jaller found some manacles. Okay. She's chained them up. I guess, separate to Sentry, I'll say to Ayla,

how do we feel about Sentry going in there to talk to the Ashbringer? How do we feel about that? Well, think about it. Is she going to... I think Sentry just feels a bit bad just now. Right. I'm assuming you have this conversation in the corridor or something like that. But I don't...

You're watching Lucius eat porridge. This is a very warm bowl. I don't think it's healthy for us to avoid the topic. It's nice. I know, I'm just... You know. We can ask if she wants to.

Sure. Sure, sure, sure. Sure. But I think it's going to come up eventually regardless and maybe better to just face the problem and then she can get past it faster. Okay. Rather than dwelling on it. Okay. Okay. Good. Sure.

Yeah. I mean, Tracker kind of... Yep. Yep. Okay. Sure. Yep. I don't think we should maybe talk about him. I think let's just focus on this man

and how Breeze got to him, etc. Right. That side of things, maybe not focusing on the Guardian side. Sure. For now. Okay, that's good. Maybe.

Just making sure. Again, probably going to mess it up. Not good with delicate matters. the guardian's head sure for now okay that's good maybe just making sure again probably gonna mess it up not good with delicate matters might be best if you speak to her maybe i should have had this conversation with someone else and asked probably how do you feel about ayla going in there that's a far better question are you gonna kill him no depends what he says meanwhile in the room, Sentry, Lucius, Nova, is there anything you guys want to talk about?

With the warm bowl as an entry point. Right. I like it. Are you feeling okay, Sentry? I don't know, Lucius. I don't know, Lucius, I don't know. Treka said he wanted it right, and I stopped it, and I feel like I killed him. No, that was very much the end of his life, was it not?

That's natural. He wanted that, and to take that decision away from him end of his life, is it not? That's natural. He wanted that. And to take that decision away from him would not be fair, would it? You did what he wanted. And you stopped a bad, bad bot doing bad things. But I let a bad person do other bad things. What if he comes out of this and, I don't know, burns something down or hurts someone? You said it yourself when you stood up to Breeze.

You said you couldn't let him do it because it's not his place to decide. You said that, yes, this Ashbringer may be bad now, that yes, this Ashbringer may be bad now, but to take his way is life, means he doesn't have a chance to grow and change and become good and do things for good. Just because he's bad now doesn't mean there's no opportunity for him to atone. But if you take his life away,

then there's nothing. I'm not saying it was an easy decision. I'm not saying there's a line, this is good, this is bad, and that there is a line here, because this is a really messed up situation, I'll be honest. I don't think any of us really knows what is right and wrong. But you stopped someone dying that didn't have a voice and didn't have a choice in this.

And Breeze, I mean, he said it himself. These people are less than us. Is that right? If someone is less than you, is it right that you get to choose who lives and who dies? I don't know. I don't know what the right answer is. Tracker, he said Tracker would have changed as well. He wouldn't have been Tracker, he said Tracker would have changed as well. He wouldn't have been Tracker. That's true, yes.

We're all going on the impression that Breeze would have just given him more life and it would have been all rosy and peachy. Tracker could have changed. That dark energy, that necromantic power going into Tracker, who knows what could have happened. So let's not assume. Yeah. Let's just go with the facts, What actually happened and you saved a life. I feel like it was selfish of me. Was it though? Selfish of Breeze. I feel like I put myself before anyone else. I felt like I put my beliefs ahead of everybody else's and... You also said that dying is a part of living.

It's natural. Daddy once said, death is what gives us purpose. I don't know what that means, but I think that's appropriate right now. Could use a bit more purpose. Hey, you've got some. You've got to keep us alive. It's true. Are you going to have that porridge?

Because I was going to say, I think that's probably when you guys are finished and rejoin. Yeah, when I can roll back in there. Yeah, okay. So is the plan to go see with everyone? Go interrogate your prisoner? I guess so.

Yeah, I mean, if you guys don't want to do that, then that's the time to say, or if you want to say, do you want to go? So about the ashbringer we should probably find out more from him apparently he came to or not him but ashbringers came here to try and get the priest it sounds like ashbringers went to all of the places to try and get the priests even Even though that's not what we were told earlier. Yeah.

Brookstoned! When we were Brookstoned. I wonder if the Ashbringers know that one's missing and if they're looking for him. Probably. I mean that's now four or five or six of them are missing because of us. Yep.

The Abbotess knows about that though. True. I think it might be good for you Sentry to maybe see this person. Yeah. Maybe we should go with or someone go with? Yep. I'd like to go as well. Me too.

Group effort. But I'll go if the team wants me there. We may as well all be there. Okay, Percentry. At least make sure he's okay. You just make your way through this very... the Temple of Calara is plain stone. It's very pragmatic. There's not much, you know, gilded chalices or anything like that here.

It is very gently lit. There are very thin slit windows, so not a lot of natural light comes in. It's kept in this very gloomy, starlit kind of period, even in the mornings. You can see that there is a large stained glass window in the main chapel that depicts the goddess herself clad in black breastplate with a mantle of dead flowers, raven black hair carrying a greatsword, lifting up a body, carrying her lantern, sorry, carrying a body up towards the cradle

beyond into the afterlife. You make your way out into a back room through heavy wooden fortified doors through some small corridors and Varen leads you to a small, what must be some sort of like meditation chamber, like a priest's prayer chamber. And manacled to a column, like a stone column,

his arms kind of wrapped around it, is the man that you saw last night. Wilden was what Breeze called him, Wilden Baker. And he's awake. He's kind of sat on the floor with his arms. He's basically like hugging the column itself. And he's kind of groggy, but he looks around. Jella is watching him, arms folded, just kind of keeping an eye on him.

And when you enter, his eyes, he kind of blinks a few times. And on seeing Sentry, he's like, You're few times and on seeing sentries like you're the one you're the one you're the one who stopped him you stopped that crazy Guardian yeah how are you feeling better better a little I slept the priest here healed me a little it was weird it. I felt cold, like I'd never be warm again. Like all the light in me had been sucked away. I don't know what that guy was doing to me, but it wasn't no good. I guess thank you for saving me. You know, I... He just kind of looks around, and he's looking at the rest of you,

and you get this sense that there's just this incredible uncomfortableness. And he's just like, this is why, I guess, I don't know anymore. And he just kind of slumps his head and rests it against the stone column. It's like, ah, by the flames, I don't even know. Thank you, I guess, for saving me. It's okay. Do you remember what happened before you were taken or when you were taken?

Yeah, I remember. I was on the streets. He grabbed me. He threw something in my face. Made me sleep. And you were wearing this outfit just on the streets? He kind of looks over. He's like, yeah. I was supposed to do something for the church, but I had my own business to attend to. A friend of mine swapped with me. He went in my place.

Under Abbotess orders? It just doesn't say anything. What church business was that? We were meant to go and ask some of the other faith leaders to go up to the Abbey. They wanted to have a meeting about problems

in Savona. When you say ask, you mean just take them anyway, right? He just shakes his head. He's like, we were just told to ask. I'm just gonna walk in and put my hammer on the ground in front of him. Okay, you can make an intimidate check if you want.

You use strength instead of charisma. Because you're trying to intimidate him with force. 19. He's like, look, I heard about you a lot. You're the ones that were at the Temple of Hesper. It wasn't necessarily meant to

be like that. We were certainly told to not take no for an answer, but they never said anything about burning anything down. I mean, Mason, the old man, he's got a lot of other people around him. I wouldn't want them to get hurt. You know, a lot of them are Savonans. They belong here. I didn't want them to get hurt. Just, I guess, of them are Savonans. They belong here. I didn't want them to get hurt. Just, I guess, maybe because you guys were up at the old kook's house. Hesperdine. There's nobody around him, I guess.

Maybe they just thought they could get away with it. It wasn't supposed to be like that anyway. Like I said, I never ended up going. I had my own business. Yes. Harassing a centaur, right? You see going. I had my own business. Yes. Harassing a centaur, right? And you see kind of like winces.

It's like, yeah. Yeah, I guess so. Nice detour. Wait, that was him? Mm-hmm. We got told that, yeah. I think he told that. He just goes silent.

I wasn't in the room. Nova told us that. Nova did tell you, like, just now. Yeah. Oh, did she? Like, literally earlier, like an hour ago. When we were in the corner. I mean, you had a very harrowing dream. We'll let it get.

Yeah. Yeah. He just looks. And he's looking at Sentry like, you can, I mean, I think that most of you, especially, I think, Quill, your passive insight would be pretty high anyway because you've got wisdom. 13. Is it 13? Yeah, my investigation and perception are super high.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, I mean, you can easily pick up that this guy is constantly glancing at Sentry. And whenever he sees Sentry, you see his resolve break a little bit. Like, I owe this woman my life. resolve break a little bit. Like, I owe this woman my life and so he kind of feels obliged to answer questions

but he's not being very forthcoming with stuff. So what? What now? You're just going to leave me tied up here? I mean, I appreciate you saving my life but

I'm guessing you aren't just going to let me go. Well, what are you you gonna do after this? I don't know. I was thinking of going back to the temple but back to the abbey rather. I guess maybe you guys have given me something to think about. It's not that I'm, I don't regret what I was doing. I got my reasons. But maybe, I don't know, if you hadn't been there, who

knows what would have happened to me. What are your reasons? You don't want to know. You don't care. You just think that I'm some hateful asshole. I do care. Do you think that this wonderful guardian would have saved your life if she didn't care a little bit? You're lucky that she's a good person. Yeah, well, maybe those guardians are better than the rest of you foreigners. Maybe they're not so bad, except that one that tried to kill me.

Look, that centaur. She, she. My dad used to own an alchemist shop. He used to be a herbalist. Used to be the big shop in town. Everybody used to come around. We had a good life. And then out of nowhere, she just walks in.

Dridic magic, gifted, knows plants like better than any of us do. Not even from around here. We offer her a job. Said that she can come work with us. But she turns us down. Says she wants to do things her own way. That she doesn't trust us. We figured out.

What's one weirdo going to do? Left her to it. But she's gifted. She knows things even we don't know. Even my dad didn't know. She starts making money. Starts doing well. I mean, we're still doing okay, but then my powers, my magic, I burnt down a bunch of stuff that we needed. Ingredients. I couldn't control it. It just happened. We lost

everything. And I went to her and I begged. I knew that she could heal plants That she could restore stuff She lied, she said she couldn't do it Said that it was beyond her powers She was lying I hated her for that We lost everything My dad, he couldn't take it He left and died a few months later

I hated her. And then I started going to the Abbey. I met the Abbotess and a few of the others, the Forgeflamer and the Flameforger and some of the others. And they started telling me it was her fault that it was all of these people coming in, people like wild elves killing our families

or, you know, orcs coming in and stealing our trade. I guess I believed them for a bit. That's what they were teaching you? Some of them were, yeah. The old abbot, he used to try and tell me otherwise, told me that it wasn't her fault, that my magic wasn't to blame either, that it was just the way of things. But that wasn't an easy answer. And then he got sick, and he stopped talking to people anymore.

I just... I don't know. I just thought... I was so angry. I just wanted to suffer. I was going to burn a shop down like I'd burn away my own. Seems like this Abates wants

you to hate people. Yeah. But it's not like it's not that she just, you know, makes us hate you for no reason, you know. She plays on things. We've lost a lot. Savona's had a lot of problems. The War of the Three

Sisters and then loads of people coming in. The land's fertile. It's got a lot of resources. And people are coming from all over Eros to exploit it, you know. And then we get the wild elves. They're getting more and more aggressive. People have lost families. They've lost homes.

You know, they kill people just for the sake of it. They just come in in take what they want kill that when anybody who gets in their way they don't want to talk to us they don't want to deal and then there's the others the other foreigners people from the sky cities just holding us over a barrel through trade you know it just makes people mad this used to be our world this used to be our domain you know back before the our domain, you know, back before the Sunder. And this was, this was a land of, it was a good land for good people working hard. It's just a lot of people are angry, you know? I get it. So yeah. So no, I ain't, I ain't a nice guy. All right.

Maybe I'm a pretty bad guy. I thought of killing that centaur, but I guess maybe now, maybe since you saved my ass, I'm starting to think maybe that was wrong. We've all lost things. We're all trying to get back to where we came from. to get back to where we came from. Yeah, but look at you. Look at all of you. You're a warrior and you got a rich boy over here and some, I don't know what you are, and these two. I was nobody.

I'm the son of a herbalist. I didn't, with magic you couldn't control, you know? It's not like I could just wander off and start, you know, traveling town to town. Why not? I got brothers. I got people here. Um. I didn't know how to control my stuff, my magic. I, um, my mom's a cafe owner, and my dad's a teacher.

I have a sister and a brother. I don't really come from anything. I know, like, you're probably not gonna listen to me, but... There's nothing really special about me. I just decided to travel because I wanted to see the world and learn more. I... I just... I've never... I've never been outside of Kayleigh's Rest before. What's to stop you exploring?

Keely's rest before. What's to stop you exploring? Sometimes we get scared of things because we don't know them. We get scared because we know what other people have told us, but we don't see it for ourselves. And I wanted to see the world and experience things for myself.

And, you know, you don't necessarily learn the good things about people we you know is it's just about learning the next thing and the more you learn about things the less scary it becomes yeah but s told me that I should stay here that she needed my man my powers my magic and I would be helping people that I'd be making Savona right again, you know? Maybe that's why I stuck around. She gave me something to believe in.

You seem like a... I don't know. Don't say I'm a good guy. I'm not a good guy. No. I was going to say, like, you seem like a very angry person. Yeah, you could say that. And I just wonder if there's a way to explore that and maybe make peace with yourself. And maybe if you make peace with yourself, you might find yourself liking yourself a little bit more rather than projecting your anger onto others.

You see him just kind of like slumps. He twists his head. He's like, maybe. Listen, all of you, you should get out of Kaylee's rest while you can. I don't know what she's planning, but the Abbott S is up to something, and it's not going to be good for foreigners, you know? You guys should leave while you can. At least, you saved my ass, so I should maybe try and save yours. I don't know what it is. She doesn't talk to her. She doesn't talk about the details, but she's been making a big thing about a cleansing, a purge. She's building up to something.

That's why she wanted all the faith leaders up at the Abbey. I don't know exactly why, but it's the start of something. Something that happened, something that she began a day ago. I don't know what, but I know it's going to be bad news if you're not a native. How long do we have? She didn't say, she just said it'd be a few days. She keeps disappearing.

Something, I don't know where she goes, but she leaves the others in charge. If we knew she was watching us, what would that mean? Why was she watching us? Probably means that she thinks you're a threat to whatever she's doing. There's people. She's been bringing in a lot of civilians, people that are angry like me. People that haven't been with the Abbey for very long. I know that she's been giving them weapons and armor. She might be sending people after you.

Right. Listen, I know you probably wanna just hand me over to the harvest garden. If that's what you wanna do, then do it. But if you let me go, I'm just gonna leave. I'll grab my few things from my old house and then I'll leave. Maybe go traveling like this one says. And he kind of gestures towards Nova. This world is full of amazing things. We've seen a lot. It's worth exploring. Yeah, maybe.

I know I can't stay here. If the Abbotess finds out that I've spoken to you, I'm sure that I won't fare much better. She'll see me as a traitor, so... I got no reason to stick around here. Equally, if you go back there, we're only going to find you again at some point, and that wouldn't be good for you either. You're planning on going to the Abbey?

Who knows what we're planning to do yet. We'll figure out. You should be careful. There's a lot of people up there. And they ain't no just pushover monks, you know what I'm saying? They've been training. They've been practicing. Some of them have started displaying magic that they never had before.

Like it's just come out of nowhere. There isn't a fair share of things. You should be careful anyway. There's a lot of people in Kayleigh's rest as well that might lose a lot if we don't do anything. True. Listen, don't be heroes. Just get out. You've already saved me. You don't need to be putting yourself in more danger.

Well... What do we do with him then? Harvest Guard? Let him go? Is it in our power to do it? He's very lucky. The squire, Jayla, this half-elf woman, short, dark hair, kind of like a bob cut, little tiny pointed ears. She's watching the whole thing,. She's been sat there quietly. And she's... I'll put it this way.

It's just me and you guys here. Whenever you decide, I'll go with it. We're instructed as knights of the Black and Rose to make our own decisions. And whilst we're meant to be peacekeepers and protect people from threats, undead, monsters on the road, sometimes the law isn't the best way to solve a problem.

So whatever you want to do, I'll back you on it. I can get him out of the city, take him through the corridors, take him through the tunnels, if that's what you want to do. But if he causes trouble, responsibility is on you guys for letting him go. I'll track him down, but you'll have to deal with anything that he causes. You'll have to accept the guilt of any difficulties.

You're a conflicted man. Yeah. Which side? It used to be. Not until that weird old guardian grabbed me. I just thought that was it. When I saw you and he was talking about killing me to save your friend, I thought, this is it. I couldn't have imagined anything worse. It wasn't like dying.

I didn't sense the light of the sun lord. I didn't feel his warmth. All I could feel was that endless cold that the life was just going to go out of me and I'd just never exist again. I just thought that was it. And this one saved me. I think you need to look at that conflict and see which side you want to end up being on. I don't know yet. You just had five foreigners show you a little bit of mercy. Yeah.

That's why I'm thinking. That's why I'm not so sure anymore. You've also seen two sides of the exact same coin. A guardian that saves your life and a guardian that tries to condemn you to death. Just the actions of one person does not dictate the actions of an entire race. Nope. I'm not trying to talk myself out of being let free here, but the actions of five strangers don't undo a lot of the bad stuff that's happened. I get it. You're a wild elf. You probably don't like the stuff I've been saying, but your people have caused a lot of harm.

You think I haven't heard this before? You think I don't go to every single town here and people look at me like I'm scum? I'm used to it. I'm over it. Doesn't mean that I don't get to make my own decisions. Wild elves burn shops out of anger. Yeah. And Lilix is like, I ain't trying to say that you are. I'm just saying it might be hard for some people to let go of some of that.

I'm glad that you've moved on, but, well, maybe some of us ain't as, uh, ain't as civilized. He called me civilized Lucius. Anyway. Big word. Whatever you're gonna do, just do it. The fact that you're able to reflect upon that shows that you're willing to change.

And don't waste that guardian's life. Sentry gave you a choice. life. Century gave you a choice. Tracker was a good friend and he worked hard and built a community here. Maybe consider that for yourself. Maybe try and do the same. Surround yourself with friends, with people that understand you and hopefully you can move on from this. You just like nods. Thanks. I'll try. Please do.

If not, there's a big hammer and a massive guardian that'll tell you that that was a bad idea. We'll just let my fingers crackle with lightning around my hammer. It's like, yeah, trust me, I'm not gonna be messing with you guys anytime soon. Good. Because I've got some notes to give. This is like, imagine, he's literally hugging a thing the whole time.

Okay. I think we've made our decision then. Yeah. Okay. So, Jella will come over, unlock the manacles, take them off him. He rubs his wrists. She looks down at him like, do you have much stuff that you need to get? He just thinks, a few things, just stuff to travel. She's like, okay, come with me.

She's like, I'll make sure that he doesn't go anywhere he shouldn't. Thank you for your help. He just turns around and he's't. Thank you for your help. He just turns around and he's like, thank you. Especially you, Guardian. But don't stick around here. The Abbotess,

she's powerful. Whatever she's planning, it ain't good. And he leaves. I really hope that that doesn't not come back to bite us in the ass. I have a feeling it will. No, I just did that for lol. Dramatic relief. I wouldn't give you any indication of whether that was good or bad. I just like being a troll.

I think our bigger problem is the Guardian that did that in the first place. Well, we know he likes to meet people in the mausoleum gardens. Maybe we just tell the Harvest Guard to keep a closer eye on that. Maybe put some guards inside there. I think now he's been outed and they know where his base of operations is.

Breeze is going to be like the wind. Very good. That was a good one. Speaking of, let's see you of... He mentioned a master. He did? Yeah. Oh, that sounds great fun. He said the master will be displeased or something like that.

Yeah, he did. So there's at least someone else. I wager he's probably going to the master, whoever that is. I've lost count of how many people's hit lists we're on at this point, but let's just add another one to that. That's fantastic. He's been around Kaylie's rest for a while. We could maybe find out people who've gone missing. Maybe he's been taking people for himself. Maybe...

If he's been taking criminals, then... It shouldn't be hard to track him down if we did want to look for himself. Maybe... If he's been taking criminals, then... It shouldn't be hard to track him down if we did want to look for him. I don't think we have time. No. There's a bigger problem. I think we're about to get purged. The frying pan into the fire. Cleansed.

I think we've used that as an episode title before. What? Out of the frying pan into the fire. That's a good title for the episode. Not yet, we haven't. We have just now. Speaking of purges and fire and bad things, spoke with Hesper yesterday, last night.

That was really cool. With? Hesper. As in the god? We had a prayer? No, last night. That was really cool. What? Hesper. As in the god? We had a prayer? No, no. He's done this before. He had a message for me in my dreams.

What, like a prime message? No, no. I'm not going. No, I'm... Like night frost brain stuff? Like me getting smited by evil lightning and then having a little vision? Yeah, I was going to ask about that. I wasn't there.

I still don't know anything about that. But maybe. No, I'm fine. It's fine. So, no, he was there. I spoke to him for a little while. The details are. What does he look like?

He's like a man with wings. An elf? I mean, I think we saw him in the Temple of Hesper. Well, not him. Sure, a statue of him. Depictions. Did it look quite like him? Did it look quite like him?

Yeah, yeah. It's pretty accurate. It was him. You always imagine, like, he's probably spoken to other clerics who have then gone and said, Hesper looks like this. No, I'm the only one he speaks to. I'm the only special one. Anyway.

Not a part of his message, or at least out of his control, I saw Kaylee's Rest, but it was very much on fire. And there were creatures, I don't know what they were, dark creatures running around the streets as well. Don't know if that's related. Maybe a fever dream. I mean, you saw Kaylee's Rest on fire, right? Mm-hmm.

With bad creatures. Mm-hmm. Fire, ash bringers, common theme. Also, really big door. Like in the sky, on fire, there was a little bit of lightning. Wasn't me. Swear I'm not well. There wasn't lightning. It was light It was like fire and light just was the door open closed

It was opening wasn't it? Hard to say it. I'll leave that to quill there was a door Ajar or not it was on fire and it was in the sky. Was anything not on fire? The creatures weren't on fire. I wasn't on fire, nor was Hesper. That's all right then. So that's fine.

What did Hesper say about all this? He didn't see it. It was out of his control, whatever it was, but it wasn't something he was creating for me so i don't know who was creating the message for me if a message at all like i said maybe the end of a dream when you start becoming lucid and start seeing weird things like a door in the sky like a door in the sky i mean it sounds like a vision like a prophecy i'm willing to you, go with it for now and assume this whole place is going to blow. Yeah.

I feel like it's a safe assumption to make. It's also not too dissimilar to previous visions I've had. What? I'm sure I've mentioned. When I landed in the lowlands, wingless, I also, when I first saw hespa for the first time i again got visions kind of like this but of places i've never seen before that have been on fire and there was screaming and everything else but it was just fire and chaos no doors or dark creatures i feel like i should be more worried about the dark creatures and the fire, but...

I have a love question. Yeah. It could be a nightmare, you know? A recurring nightmare. Could be you worrying about the fact that Kaylie's rest is falling into despair, and it could be a manifestation. Yeah. That interrupted the chat with Hesper. And there's no nearby gods that are rising to power that have a really big interest in fire. No.

Oh, wait. Paladar. Sarcastic bird is sarcastic. I don't know what the dark creatures are. The fact that you see visions that Hesper can't, is that perhaps why you were chosen by Hesper? Would he recognize the idea of me having visions out of his control?

Did he take on board the fact that you, did you tell him? I did. Fire? He vanished pretty quickly after that. He said it was, he didn't see it. So he didn't listen to you? Oh, he listened. He knows about it, but he couldn't see it himself.

Interesting. Did he say anything else? Any other visions that you want to tell us about just now? I feel like it's a good time anyone that's for the group yeah by the way not having because i feel like everyone is having visions no no no i'm good you you spoke to a god didn't you yeah yeah briefly i was slightly unconscious okay and when i say slightly i was definitely almost dead so you spoke to a So you spoke to a god. You spoke to a god. You've seen the prime. Who, let's face it, is probably a god.

Have you seen a god? The prime. Lucius has seen the prime. You've seen a god. I've seen that. I've seen centuries prime. So maybe I'm a guardian. You just talked to a sword in your head. I just talked to a sword in my head. I mean, that's up there though. I talked to a cloak in my head.

There's a lot of uh we're really we're really messed up aren't we yeah should we get out of here before we burn yeah i did have a vision that i walked into the messengers guild and i didn't have any clothes on that sounds more like a dream that wasn't a good thing i mean are you technically wearing clothes right now he's got a little he does have clothes. I mean, I had nothing. Did you get feathers, though, at least? That would have been really funny if he did. I don't know.

I'm just saying, could be a vision. Did anyone notice? Everyone. And they laughed and pointed. That's a fairly common dream. Could be a vision, though. I'll note it down. Okay.

So before we take the break, what is the plan? What do you guys want to do now? Good question. So, I mean, it's a good question. Go home. Just sleep. Don't want to go home to Vortensar. You've got a long fucking way to get there, buddy.

You're a long way from home. You've got more hope of trying to get there, buddy. You're a long way from home. You've got more hope of trying to Dorothy your way out of it by clicking your heels three times. We've heard a lot about Mason and the stuff that's apparently happened to him. Caretaker Mason? You met him briefly. He's the one that healed you after the temple was on fire.

Oh, but I mean, we know that... It's an earth ganassi. He was, like, attacked as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Also, I think that there was... You guys potentially mentioned you wanted to speak to Malika, I think, we know that... It's an earth ganassi. He was, like, attacked as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Also, I think that there was... You guys potentially mentioned you wanted to speak to Malika, I think, like, last week.

I feel like that's the right place to go. Well, because she possibly heard, we should go and tell an adult. Ash, bring her in. Yeah. This is way outside... We need an adult! This is way outside our pay grade.

I think we need to find some responsible adults. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's Malika, and then she'll tell us. Okay. Get the hell out of here. You want to go find Malika Dawnblast? Yes.

I think it's probably a good idea to warn her, right? Yeah, exactly. In that case, we're going to take a break. When we come back, the party are going to go tell an adult. Yeah. Help us! See you in five. The end of that.

That's the episode name. Hey, everyone. Thanks for listening to this episode. Remember to check out both D&D Beyond and Displate with the links in the episode description. And we'll see you on Thursday when the party find an adult to help them through this whole mess. We'll see you then.