High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #52 | The Glorious Vivex (Part 1)

Episode Date: November 11, 2019

Grounded in the Vivex the team meet the Dragonborn leaders! Support the High Rollers and get early access to podcast episodes (and more) on our Patreon: www.patreon.com/HighRollers Thanks to our sponsors D&D Beyond! D&D Beyond is the official digital toolset for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. Create your FREE account now and start digitising your campaigns here: www.dndbeyond.com/ Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome back to High Rollers, a Dungeons & Dragons podcast in the world of Erois. store or joefresh.com for details. I am a high elf sorcerer. Hi, I'm Katie. I'm playing Ayla, a wild elf barbarian. And I'm Kim. I'm playing Nova, who is an air ganassi, and she is a hexblade warlock. Thanks to our regular sponsor, D&D Beyond, the official Dungeons & Dragons toolset. Create your free account and speed up your campaigns today. Welcome back to High Rollers D&D. Last time. The party, having recovered from the events aboard the Astral Citadel Aegis V, began their journey towards the City of Glass aboard their airship, the Storm Chaser. continues to heal. However, her arm deteriorates and displays magical after effects that necrotize life or anything living that she touches. However, she does earn the respect of Helios,

the Eterna, who bound themselves to Sentry and the crew. When alone, Nova takes some time to use the ILS, a portable illusory device with the programmed mind of Calus Starbane himself. Quill, Sentry and Lucius spend time performing their duties above the storm chaser as Nova recovers. Sentry and Lucius decide to get to know the crew a little better during this time. Lucius, hoping to earn the respect of the wolf pack, begins drinking and carousing with them in the evenings away from the rest of the team. One night, he overindulges to a heavy degree and wakes up with no memory of the night before. A new ring of woven rope on his finger and a beast walker woman called Fayeth curled up by his side. Sentry befriends Howard, the halfling cook.

I'd leave for one week! Sentry befriends Howard, the halfling cook. I'd leave for one week. Sentry befriends Howard, the halfling cook, and after spending time getting to know him, discovers that there is a little bit more to the halfling's tale than it first seemed, and a tragic history of a lover and a son left abandoned. The party passed the island of Corsari off the northwest coast of Sivona. The crew became immediately alarmed as an approaching dragon carrying dragonborn soldiers approached the storm chaser.

The dragon arriving, calling himself Amadrasos, an emissary and official for the Draconis Militarum. He forcefully inspects the airship, discovers the Starbane uniform in Lucius's quarters, and outraged demands to know what's going on. The party does manage to convince the dragon that they are enemies of Starbane and reveal the events aboard the Aegis V, as well as the events that took place beneath Brightflame Abbey with Kallus and Valor.

Amadrasos politely requests that the party divert to the city below to give information to the military there and to discuss potential next steps and the ship begins its descent down towards the city um vivec city um is a settlement that has sprung up around the enormous enormous gold crystal warship that is called the Vivex itself. The ship is buried halfway into an arid desert-ish land. It's not quite sand. It's more of like a badlands or like a wasteland, kind of like thick cracked mud, heavy rocky terrain, dry scrub land. And the ship itself is kind of half submerged into the ground. Around it, a city has been built. There are settlements made from stone and wood scattered all over in quite a

large area. It's a very dense city. There's quite a heavy population here, but the Draconis Militarum, the Dragonborn military, is everywhere with patrols and guards keeping a watch on things as they go. There are not a lot of them. They are just very disciplined in their patrols. You can see that for all the citizens you can see around you, there aren't that many guards. There aren't that many soldiers. They are just very consistent and are not slacking off. They are very vigilant in their activities. I believe that you were actually taken down into the city and you were being led by Amadrasos in his humanoid form, a very tall, bronze skinned individual with kind of brassy, coppery hair spilling down his back. Very, very well kept robes, heavy jewelry as he leads you onto the deck of the ship itself.

Along the way you have seen that there are merchants and citizens from Suvona you see dwarves from Goldthrone you see tieflings, a kind of nomadic people that kind of travel around the lowlands with goods to sell as well as their ASMR bodyguards who travel with them. There are also others. There are humans, half-elves, and dwarves from... They look similar to the Suvonans that you've seen before, but they seem a bit more dour. Their clothing dyed heavily crimson or red. They all have, like, very thick, dark hair, kind of grown long. And they eye you not suspiciously but a little bit more

sourly than the others do. You are taken aboard the ship and led onto its main deck this huge sprawling crystal deck that covers a large part of the city. There are strange arcane devices there are these kind of they almost look like cannons but they seem to be made out of the same black crystal that are locked into place on the sides of the ship itself. There is no mast that you can see. It's just like an open parade ground on the top

deck. Yeah, you see the occasional Dragonborn soldiers. All different colours of Dragonborn, but you don't see any more dragons. Amadrasos is the only dragon you've seen so far. Yeah. Any questions at this point or anything that anybody

would like to ask or say or do? I know Ayla, you're probably a little bit out of it, so if you've got any questions about stuff. I think it's easier

for me to just catch up while things happen. Okay. I guess Amadrasos, he turned into a dragon, didn't he? So is it, I guess it's not

immediately obvious. What color dragon is he? A copper, I think, I made him not immediately obvious what color dragon is he a copper i think i made him but i guess like is he is it immediately obvious that he is a dragon that can turn into i think that now that you see the form it's not if you had just met him in the humanoid form you're not sure if you would have recognized him as a dragon looking now he's definitely very tall um probably closer to sort of like like high six foot maybe even seven foot so he's very tall um his skin is almost perfect like there's no uh issues with complexion there's no deformities he looks incredible he looks like this beautiful seven footall humanoid man with long hair.

And he's wearing robes. Almost looks like a mage or maybe a priest, but covered in jewelry. And everybody, the soldiers, snap to attention. All these Dragonborn kind of snap into attention when he passes. And he's given a wide berth by many of the soldiers around. Okay. Dreamy. Once again, Nova has found a new person to lord over.

It's like opposite of Starbane. Oh, you give these characters... There was no element to him, yeah. There's definitely an element which is similar to Starbane. Very powerful, tall humanoid. Starbane dragon confirmed. Mm-hmm. Oh, my God.

Amadrasos speaks. He holds out a hand to stop he doesn't actually speak to you um he just kind of holds out a hand indicating he wishes you to stop where you are um and then turns and walks over to a series of guards who are in front of i mean to you it just looks like a plain crystal wall um you can see maybe a very faint edge of a doorway but it just looks like this golden crystal and i believe i described that um century and nova you can sense that there is a living presence within the ship itself um you can almost hear this kind of breathing um this deep resonant breathing from within the crystal and the ship itself.

How does the layout and the design of the ship compare to the kind of Starbane ships that we've seen before? I mean, the ship that you were on before, you didn't really see it from the outside. You kind of tunneled your way into its interior. It felt very large when you were inside this seems enormous i mean to make it clear that we're talking like an aircraft carrier in modern like you know if you want to picture a modern kind of size so this thing is huge the ship i've seen tons of aircraft

carriers up close as well so it's a great size reference yeah it's like they are you've seen them in films sarcastic boy a helicarrier is an almost perfect example a helicarrier another thing I've seen in real life shut up to get a sense of scale sorry

just had a sweet thrown at my neck for podcast listeners it made a hilarious sound. It made like a, like, a real smack. You don't need a, for podcast listeners, they definitely heard that smack. It was a smack. But yeah, it's more to give you the sense that there are, this thing is huge. It dominates the space that it takes up.

And clearly people could be living inside of it and they can function from it um check position on your mic kim because it's a bit quiet you might have a bit low or like that it's flipped around um and yeah uh so amadrasos goes over he speaks with a couple of guards and then returns and gestures for you to follow um and then when if you do so, and as you approach the doors, they almost just slide open, like the crystal just kind of begins to almost twist and particle and shift and forms and parts away like a curtain

being parted for you and you are let inside. The Dragonborn soldiers one man, one woman kind of look at you strangely but you know, not disturbed. They kind of more curiously, like, why are these people being let inside kind of thing. And you are led down into a large section

at the rear of the ship. Amadrasos turns and he kind of mentions to you, he's like, this is the command deck of the ship. Normally, we do not permit non-dragons or Draconis Militarum personnel to enter, but I think that it is best you speak with the Brigadier General. I also need to inquire as to the status of the General,

the Commander General themselves. Come with me. He kind of gestures. And you are taken through very tight corridors. These are quite tight, narrow, crystalline corridors. You can see that this kind of vein of crystal that you've seen on the Starbane ships exists. But where that was filled with like a purple light, this is filled with a golden light. And you are taken down. You kind of lose a sense of direction as the corridors become very twisty and narrow and you kind of take multiple routes around.

Those of you, I think, Aayla and Sentry, those of you with a more military mind, it's clearly designed that if people were to get on the ship, if you didn't know where you were going, you could easily become lost and, you know, be outflanked by people that do know their way around. Like there's lots of little avenues where people can kind of get around behind you. It's a very defensible kind of layout for the ship itself. But you were eventually led down into what you think might be like a hull, like the bottom of this great ship, and into a very large, very extravagant armory.

You can see that the walls are lined with these thick metal cases, like chests, which contain very strange looking gear. Some of it made from crystal, some of it made from metal, some of it has glowing arcane sigils on it. And you can see that there is a large table, like a council table, and there are several dragonborn and what you think might be another dragon in human form. and there are several dragonborn and what you think might be another dragon in human form. This one is a woman, silver, kind of almost like pale moonlight skin, silvery hair falling down, but extremely athletically built. Where Amadrasos is thin and lithe and very elegant, this woman has, you know, biceps, and you can see that she has a broad shoulders, a warrior's physique, you know biceps and you can see that she has a broad shoulders a warrior's physique um as she kind of speaks with the others amadrasos gestures to a number of chairs and

suggests that you take a seat temporarily so wait how many other people are in here there are i can tell you there is exactly uh one two three four five uh not including amadrasos so six now so So all dragonborn. Four dragonborn and what appears to be potentially another female dragon. Right, okay. Nice. I'd like to know how many dragons are in the room, you know.

Yeah. Two dragons. At any one time. Four dragons. How many dragons in this dungeon? Amadrasos bows deeply before the rest of them and they all kind of turn to him, and the silver dragon

woman is custodian. What are you doing here? We had reports that there was an unauthorized flyover by a vessel. Yes, that is correct, Major. I have brought to the individuals in question here they have information

regarding Kalos. They have already apprised me of several details. I wanted to know if the general is awake yet. And you see the other dragons and the dragonborn kind of shift. One of the dragonborn,

a gold dragonborn, actually, kind of like snaps to attention. I'm afraid to, I'm afraid to tell you, custodian, that the commander general is... Awakening him is proving difficult. He is slipping in and out of slumber. Rousing him fully is proving problematic. It's getting worse.

I see. We've also been having reports of some of our scouts going missing. That was what we were just discussing. We shouldn't continue this conversation while we have non-authorized personnel in the room. Very well. He kind of turns. Allow me to make introductions. And he kind of gestures to you all to come up.

He gestures to the silver dragon woman beside him. Major Yaxa. Another one of my kind. Here we have, and he points to the four dragonborn. Brigadier General Kavax. Colonel Ulmak. Colonel Garvis. And Lieutenant Colonel Lassevex. We are some of the more higher-ranking officials here on the Vivex.

Your names, repeat them. I've forgotten them already. I'll step forward and bow, because I'm kind of used to this sort of formality. There's a heavy formality here, and I think that... I feel a little bit more comfortable. You, I think for Lucius, this is... It's different to how people treat the Sky Prince in Gusthaven, but you've seen this kind of attitude with his generals,

and when there is a kind of war, you know, any kind of military meeting. Essentially, you'd be very familiar with this. This is a war council. These are elite officers who are discussing military tactics. You can see that the table has maps of the area. It has maps of Erois. And they were very clearly in some sort of very important conversation when you came in. So you can bow deeply.

Humble to meet your acquaintance. Thank you for the entry. I am the captain of the storm chaser that passed unauthorized across your lands. And my name is Lucius Vion Elowin Elanasto, hiled from Gusthaven. They kind of look over you, and the dragonborns look over and they're like, we are familiar with Gusthaven, Lord Elanasto.

We do much great business with them. Thank you for your courteous welcome, courteous greeting. And the rest of you? Ayla, hi. Ayla. Nice to meet you all. There's kind of an uncomfortable kind of shuffling as they're... Sorry, I don't do as good as he does.

It's more that we are not used to casual travellers entering our war chamber. I'm just with him. I don't know. I'm just with them. I'm not used to the fancy ones. You see one of the Dragonborn whisper like bodyguard and the other one

like nods. I can take that as well. I am Keelakad Kalar. I'm a messenger from the Stormwall. I am part of the crew member of the Stormchaser. We are familiar with the Stormwall. I am part of the... a crew member of the Stormchaser. The... We are familiar with the Messenger Guild.

Quill! Quartermaster! Captain. Captain. Thank you. Captain. Qua... What?

He's the Quartermaster of the Stormchaser. Quartermaster. We are familiar with the Messenger Guild. We have one of your towers here in the city. Oh. Ooh. Interesting. They nod round. Ooh! Ooh, uh, me! Uh, hi! And I kind of wave with my gauntleted hand.

This kind of like very stiff metal hand. And then sort of hide it again, because I'm still a bit ashamed of it. Okay. I'm a chief engineer, uh, engineer? Am I chief engineer? Chief engineer Novaviger. They just nod. Pleased to meet your acquaintance. They just hold out a hand for the bowing. They just nod. And then they look towards Entry and they're like,

Guardian? Dragonborns? Hello? There is a... Dragonborns? There is a familiarity and they kind of Greet you warm With like a Kind of like

They salute you In a kind of Military salute Yeah I'll do like a Military like Solvin salute Okay

To these guys Glad to be in your acquaintance What was your designation Guardian? I was a protector Of the kingdom of Solvin They all meant your name Oh

Sentry Hi What is Guardian sentry Solvin salute I've been thinking About it I think it'd be like It's a full break Because it has like Three pillars Sentry Hi What is alien sentry? Solve in salute I've been thinking about it I think it'd be like It's a full brain

Because it has like Three pillars It'd be like three hands Maybe like On the chest On the head Oh three fingers Like shoulder

Shoulder, head, chest Okay Nice Cool It was just I noticed You did a motion When you said that And I was just wondering

What it was I've been trying to I've been laughing She came up with something Really funny Because she was put On... I was hoping she'd come up with something really funny because she was put on the spot there and she actually came up with something awesome. Yeah, that was actually legit. Rhiannon's been doing a lot of work in detailing out Sentry

and I am a very happy DM for it. I've had a lot of free time. The Dragonborn will kind of nod and you see Amadrasol speak to... You can see that on the edges of the room you hadn't really noticed them when you came in. There are other Dragonborn here, but they are not in uniform, they are not in armor, they are wearing very simple clothes, and they appear to be maybe staff or, like, you know, people that, like, do other non-military jobs. Amadrasos just waves to them, and they vanish for a period.

Amadrasos turns, before we go any further, there is some things that you should know, and then some things that we will need to discuss with my companions here, and my fellow officers. The first is, ultimately,

the Vivex cannot make any strong actions until the Commander general is awake you will need to speak with the commander general himself and you will need to be very convincing in what you say older dragons

specifically our most ancient and wise dragons the cradle that was created by Siaska, it makes us, dragons that is, makes us tired, lethargic. The older we get, the harder it is for them to be awake for long periods of time. This means that when we must rouse our officers, it can take some time.

Brigadier General, how long do you suspect before the general is awake? It is hard to say, custodian. I suspect we may be looking at perhaps a day or two before we can fully rouse him. I see. Until then, you will of course be guests of the military, of myself in particular. I will arrange to have rooms at a suitable Inn within the city and you will have a guard provided to make sure that you are unaccosted but you will need to come and

speak with the general there is no doubt around that you have flown into our airspace illegally normally the procedure would be to arrest you to investigate your ship your destination where you have come from. This would take weeks, perhaps. Instead, we will waive those rights in favour of the information you have provided, and providing that you speak with the General directly. Is this clear and understood? Two days instead of two weeks. Sounds like a good deal.

I also believe I agreed to have some of our finest artificers examine Century Guardian to determine if there is any understanding of her condition. Okay. Much appreciated. Thank you. In return, please, in your own words, tell the others what you have told me. You spoke to me of this Astro Citadel that you had come from where you acquired the uniform. But you also mentioned that you have met Calus Starbane directly.

Yes. And there is a murmur amongst the dragons and the dragonborn like, what? That's not possible! At least we think so. Because we have now seen the potential for Starbane to manifest himself as an illusion.

However, we're pretty sure that the first time we encountered Starbane in his presence was truly real. The silver dragonborn woman steps forward like, then there is no need to be subtle. We are aware that Kallus has returned to Eroes. Champions, high priests of the gods, have come and spoken with several leaders, and we have received word via the messenger guild directly.

Sadly, we have been unable to awaken the general. It has taken us nearly a week to rouse him already. He still shows signs of drifting back into slumber. Until he is awakened, there is not much we can do. A meeting has been called amongst the leaders of Erois. Several high prominent figures of the Sky Cities and of the lowland realms will be meeting together to discuss this threat.

We have been gathering what information we can, but we have been having our own problems here in Korsadi. Huh. Whatever information you have, if you have indeed met with Kallus, we need to know everything. Amadrasos says there is one more thing. Captain Lucius, I know you were panicked at the time, but you mentioned something of great importance.

There was a girl who traveled with you. Vala, I believe you called her. Yes. You said that Star believe you called her. Yes. You said that Starbane claimed she was his daughter. I did. Did I? I did. You said that you told them everything.

Yeah. Yep. You went on a full word for that. In excruciating detail. Did. This is perhaps a blessing in disguise. You knew this girl You travelled with her You told me We had a very strong bond

With this girl Then perhaps There is a way That if we can find a way For you to contact her To communicate with her She could give us information On what Calus is attempting

Here on Eros I think Yes As a matter of urgency, before whatever calluses attempting, she might be manipulated or worse. Then perhaps, does she perhaps pose? This is one of the dragonborn officers,

a kind of much older brass dragonborn. You can see he's kind of got his frills around his ears are drooping. He looks very old and withered. Perhaps then that there is a chance that this girl could turn against Eros. Yes, she's very young. However, I think her conscience was clear at the time that we knew her. She had her motives and she was very against Starbane. her. She had her motives and she was very against

Starbane. It's probably well within her power, but not within her conscience to turn against us. So you say, but you do not know what has happened since she has rejoined with her supposed father. But as you say, if this is

a crucial piece of hope, I think we should try it. I agree. If there is an opportunity for us to get information from this girl, we need it. That will be our greatest asset in this coming conflict.

Calus is wise and powerful. He has a great empire behind him. Up until now, the cradle has been our only defense. We have seen no signs that he is attempting to attack from the astral space beyond, which means that whatever he is planning, he is using whatever forces

he has already brought to Erois. This is good. Perhaps it means that he cannot bring the might of his full empire. We may still have a chance. You mentioned that there was a portal beneath this abbey. Two portals. Two portals?

The first one is when we saw Starbane. Yes, and the other? The other one was underwater, yes. Yes, you mentioned the Astral City. The Sahagin were being corrupted. But you believe that to be depowered? Yes, we destroyed the citadel with which the other portal was attached to it. It was being powered by a corrupted Eterna. We destroyed the Eterna and the station lost its power.

Hmm. The Sahagun that attacked the Tritons, you said that they were being driven by forces of Starbane? Yes, in a way. I think that they were also being experimented on and corrupted. They were experimenting on... Villages. Tritons, too. Yeah, Tritons, yes.

And they were bloated. They were wearing symbols of Zarkira. When you mention the symbols of Zarkira, one of the Dragonborn kind of slaps the table like, I knew it! I knew that the Naga and the Stone Giants were being driven by this. If I could interject, I wonder if Zarkira was actually there. Because remember the

Eledrin, Shansara, she was posing as Zarkira, right? So I don't know if it actually was Zarkira or just one of... Yeah, that's a good point. It could have been a manipulative effort to get the Sahagin to do their bidding. And so,

yes, yeah. We think that this may be a tactic that Kallus is using across Erois. If he can conjure up little images of himself, maybe he can do it for other people. Indeed. We have been dealing on Korsadi for the last several hundred years. We, the Vivex, the Draconis Militarum, have been fending off attacks from creatures known as Naga and stone giants. They live in the deserts, in the ravines, in the stones and the mountains here on this island. They are remnants of Starbane's forces, descendants

of them at least. Zarkira once commanded units of Medusa, creatures that can turn people to stone with a gaze. We believe that the Naga are the descendants of those Medusa from hundreds of years ago. They've proven very tricky for us to fight, but in recent, perhaps over the last month or so, their attacks have grown more bold. They have grown in numbers. They have attracted a cult of humanoid worshippers from both Goldthrone and Bloodvale, the two continents, the two civilizations nearby.

They have grown in number, and their attacks are swelling. We have sent several of our scouts to try and locate where they may be operating, but none have returned. What is the name of the cult? They simply refer to themselves as the Daughters of Zarkira. Oh, we met some of those. The stone giants appear to be... We're not sure if they are necessarily... We believe them to be native to Erois, but have been perhaps manipulated

or are working for the Naga. We are unsure of the details, but they are powerful. Sadly, most of our legions have been sent overseas. One of the ways that we maintain the city is we hire out our legions to other nations and kingdoms for mercenaries, private military. This means that our numbers have been depleted here. We've been unable to strike back at them.

But I believe that if this is happening here, if it is happening with the Tritons, it is likely it is happening here, if it is happening with the Tritons, it's likely it is happening elsewhere. Have you encountered any other uprisings, organizations maybe that are trying to upset the balance of things in a row as? Plenty. On Gusthaven, yes.

Yeah. On Gusthaven? Please, tell me. Yes, I will. Wow! Don't look at Kim's notes! Those are Kim's notes! That's Nova's memory.

They were called the wheelbarrows. Wind. Wind barrows. The wind barrows. Quill can just say, like... Wind barrows. Wind barrows. Wind barrows say Wind barons Wind barons Wind barons

We stumbled across Gusthaven Me returning home And they were already Attacking Gusthaven And there was a corruption going on And the Sky Prince was trying to deal with it And it got right up into the council I believe that there have been reports of

Airships outside of our space being attacked by pirates. Custodian. Any more? Are you aware of anything else that may be connected? So when we first encountered Starbane, a cult was growing there. However, we don't know if that's connected to Starbane. They were trying to connect the portal to some other location. Whether that was a trick as well,

however, now considering the Sahagin threat, Calus does command devils and demons in his army. Wait, it all makes sense. Does it? Yes. That was all misdirection as well. They thought that they were going to a demon portal,

providing them information and tools, and wanted to connect with their demon lord. Oh, but we... Turns out it was Calistabe. We did see the demon lord. No, they did summon the demon, don't you remember that bit? No, they did summon the demon. Oh, no, they did, yes.

Caradus, the Ashbringer. It's been a long journey. That's Caradus, you say? Yes. Name rings a bell. The cult there was called the Ashbringer. It's been a long journey. That's Caradus, you say? Yes. Name rings a bell. The cult there was called the Ashbringers. It was an uprising. Brigadier General just kind of, the brigadier kind of steps in and is like,

I will make a note of this, Major and Custodian. It is something to be investigated. There may have been, I think we may have had reports of a cult of this nature growing in Bloodvale as well. I will make sure we check in with our intelligence departments. There was the nature growing in Bloodvale as well. I will make sure we check in with our intelligence departments. There was the girls in the Ironwood as well. Yeah.

Under the shop. Well, they said they were part of the Zarkira, Daughters of Zarkira thing. Also, goblins and Voxar. They had Starbane-powered weaponry, but that could have been from scavenged tales from years ago. They were crazed goblins.

I think they were remnants anyway, so like... They'd been close to the storm wall for some time. The silver... The dragon woman kind of... The dragon... The silver dragon lady, who kind of... She looks more elvish, like in a humanoid

form. And you can see that she's only really probably in this humanoid form because she's amongst other humanoid creatures. But she kind of stretches herself up and she's like, you have clearly fought against the forces of Starbane on a regular basis.

Yes, we seem to be drawn towards it. And you are perhaps the only ones we know of that have encountered Kallus and yet lived. Whatever this connection you have. Just a note on that, now that we're talking about Valor. We only lived because she told him not to kill us. So she does have sway over her father then.

Well, she did. Who knows now? She's been with him. But we did have that little bond thing saved us once. She's always been strong of heart, and she was quick to realize that whatever she was with before us was wrong and that she didn't want to be a part of it. She had her own determination,

which leads me to believe that she's still strong of heart now. We will make no decisions regarding this young girl's life now. That is a problem to address later. In the nature of war, which is what this will become, we must deal with our priorities first. Firstly, my thanks. For not only giving us this information, but for everything you have achieved thus far. Fighting against an enemy as powerful as Calus is no easy feat. I must ask you, keep this information to yourselves.

This must remain between us and you for now. Finally, someone we can actually talk to about it. Of course. I would also request, I will give you the location of the meeting that will be taking place amongst the leaders of Eroes. It is not for some time, about a month or so from now, I will give you the location of the meeting that will be taking place amongst the leaders of Eroes. It is not for some time, about a month or so from now,

as people make their own preparations. I ask you to be there. You have information that is relevant to this conflict, but also, it is rare to have fighters of such skill who are willing to go about this, not for gold or for glory, but because it is right. I ask that you be there. Will

the other champions be there? Champions? The champions of the gods. Perhaps so. I cannot say. I am not a follower of your gods. We have our own here in the Dragonborn Society, the Great Star Worm. But amongst the city there is own here in the Dragonborn Society, the Great Star Worm.

But amongst the city, there is a temple in the Hope's Gold Commune. Temples to your Velenor, I believe, and another one I cannot remember. But perhaps. I know that there will be leaders from across all of Eroes. Great cities, kings, queens, dukes, councils, republics. Do you know that they're all trustworthy? That is my next point.

We are the Draconis Militarum. We are incorruptible. We came to this planet because we knew what he was doing because we wished to warn Siasca of what was to come sorry I don't mean to interrupt what do you mean by incorruptible we are here

for one purpose to defend Erois against Calus right you may forgive me for perhaps I do not wish to insult you as individuals purpose, to defend Erois against Calus. Right. You may forgive me for perhaps I do not wish to insult you as individuals, but many of your kinds, elves, humans,

dwarves, they are prone to greed, to ambition. Calus thrives on these things. Calus uses these as tools. He used it against our own people, against our own

dragons, to sway them to his side. I do not trust everybody that will attend this meeting. But I do trust you. We're on the same page there, then. Because, uh, turns out... We've had but I do trust you we're on the same page there then because uh turns out

we've had quite a few untrustworthy people that we've met just in general travels that we don't really want to so this is why we're asking who's trustworthy and I think it's best that we stay on our guard I don't think everyone at that meeting can be trusted

you're wise it is the nature of those who have not suffered to crave. I'm curious of the incorruptible part, because a large part of your dragonborn society was corrupted by Calus, was it not? We are the descendants of those who rejected those ideas. We are the descendants of the warriors who gave up everything to come and protect a planet that was not our own. And I do not disrespect that fact,

but I feel under Kallus's mass superiority in terms of arms, anyone is corruptible, and we should always be aware of that fact. The dragon seems completely unfazed and is like, for your people, that is true. But for ours, our will is iron. It cannot be broken. I do hope so. Yes.

You get the sense that you are skirting very icy ground and that you're bordering on insulting them all of them i was about to say something that probably wouldn't like there is just this point where like you can sense this tension in the room and the dragonborn are all looking at lucius almost like this like go on say something else like we'll we'll show you how incorruptible we are. Because there is a pride here. I don't think I'm going to, you know, Quill, you have a decent, like, insight, like, passive insight, I think. You can immediately tell that there's two things at work here.

The dragons themselves are arrogant. They just see themselves as we are the protectors. They're the heroes. They're the ones who are going to save everything. Sacrificed everything. Yeah, there's arrogance there. With the Dragonborn, it is pride. They are proud of what they do to perhaps a point that could be flawed or exploited.

They are militaristic. They think that they cannot be beaten. They think that they can't be corrupted. And I think all of you know that that's pretty much the fastest way for stuff like that to happen um so there is definitely there's a sense of that in the room um you you believe them when they say that they can be trusted that they want to stop callous i don't think any you don't see anything which would indicate that these guys are like brookstone that these guys are going to betray you, but there is a flaw here that you can see.

Blinded by pride. Yeah, and arrogance. Forgive us. We've just had many, many incidences with... Betrayal. Betrayal across all races, and we've personally not met you before, races, and we've personally not met you before,

and we've gotten into the habit of being overly cautious. Understandable. Shall we say. And in a lot of cases underly cautious. Understandable. Due to previous cases of undercaution. You need not fear. You are now amongst people that will protect you,

we can help you, and perhaps in return you can help us. As I mentioned, the general will... We will try and awaken the general as quickly as possible, but if we rush it, the general's mood will be unpleasant for those he sees. Can I just ask about that? Of course.

When... I don't know if you felt this, Sentry. When we entered this vessel, I don't know if you felt this, Sentry, when we, when we entered this, um, vessel, I can feel a presence here, I can feel something sleeping. Yeah, I felt that too. But I can only feel that because of Eterna, right? So is the, well, he's not an Eterna, but he's a dragon. He is. What's the bond there?

You are. The general is who you sense. And she kind of, like, smiles very warmly. The creature you sense is Velovixus. One of the greatest of our kind. A gold, an ancient gold dragon. When... When we decided to rise up against Calus on our homeworld,

there were 10 dragons in total that gave their lives. You none understand the power of Eterna. From what I encounter, and judging by your raiment around your neck, you carry one with you. The Eterna are power. They are magical power. So are dragons. In a different way. But dragons are magical beings.

Powerful beyond that of many others. These ancient dragons, when we left our homeworld, we could not power the ships without an Eterna. And Calus had all of the Eterna to himself. So the dragons gave themselves up, their bodies, their minds, their spirits. They infused them into the ships so they could fly, so they could transcend the astral space.

That is who you sense. The Eterna and the dragons are brothers, perhaps is not the right word. Perhaps distant relatives. Born from the same cosmic energy that all magic comes from. That is why you can sense them. Wow. That is why your guardian can sense them. It is not through the Eterna you wear, but through your own.

And she points to the matrix, your own bond, that you can sense other magical beings as powerful as Vex's. Oh, wow. Well, it's very nice to be alongside Dragonborn again. Indeed. The circumstances, I understand, are tragic, but it brings comfort knowing that, once again, I'm fighting alongside Dragonborn.

One of the Dragonborn kind of, like, slaps a hand on your shoulder and is like, It's been far too long since we've fought alongside your kind. I remember the stories of my ancestors, rows of guardians gleaming in the sunlight, standing before hordes of Starbane soldiers. Yeah, so being from a fallen kingdom, it would be a shame for something like that to happen again.

Yes. Let's prevent that from happening a second time. We will. We will. Yes. Wait, what do you know about the Matrix? Sentry's Matrix? Not much, I'm afraid. Our artifices... We analyse

Magitek. The dragons did not have technology of Kallus's level, but when we fled Draconis, we stole much of it that was aboard his ships. Over the centuries, we have reversed-engineered much of it to learn how it works. The guardians, however, are still something of a mystery to us. We understand a little of how their matrix works, but we would not be able to replicate it or re-energize it. But we know perhaps a little more than your

kind, having lost much of that information. Oh, no, it's just you alluded to similarities between the Matrix and the Eterna themselves. I was just wondering... Because the Matrix is born from magic, same cosmic magic that the Eterna are created from or made of. Okay. The only way that a creature or people like sentry can be given sentience is through an immense level of magical power,

more than your spells or your wands or enchantments can normally carry. Whatever process was used to create a guardian, it was not likely from anybody on Nerois, but from something far more old, far more ancient. Mine is now slightly different than the one I was originally given. Really? Back in Kaylie's rest, I fell,

and during the encounter with Starbane, he, in exchange for valor, he gifted us the power of a star to bring me back. The star in my matrix is one that Kallus gave us. In that case, we should most certainly have our artificers analyze you. For all we know, perhaps you are unaware, of course,

but perhaps transmitting information. He may be using you to spy on you and your friends. That would bring me comfort. Of course. Come with me. I will take you myself, guardian. I am Colonel Ulmak. And this is the older kind of brass dragonborn with his droopy frills.

One of his eyes looks like he's got cloudy cataracts or something in it. And you can see that he's probably well past his prime but he is not giving this position up for anything in the world and he's like Hobble not Hobbles, he still is able-bodied but he definitely walks a bit creakier

and a bit slower and I will escort you to the artifices, you may follow us if the rest of you wish we will send word once the general is awakened. If you would take an old dragonborn's advice, any help you can provide Vivec City would reflect well on you in the general's eyes. Indeed.

Yes, Nova Vigia? Can I just share one thing with you? Of course. Yeah. Will these help? And I pull out, so the Zarkira tablet that I took from the Necromancer and the Aegis V schematics that I took from, and I was like, I don't know if these will help.

I took one from the Saurhogen they were experimenting on and this other one comes from the Astral Citadel Any information on Calus whether it is his old war machines or information

you have gathered will all be useful I will have our artificers examine these and let us know what they can what information they may wield

and they just Anadrastus just takes them. Just puts them in a bag. Things like being polite don't really seem to come to mind. He doesn't see it as your thing you're giving him. He sees it as, this is a thing that we need, so it's mine now. There's just no concept of like you owning things he's like no you're holding things that are now yeah exactly and can we say that i don't know because i was thinking about this all week like i don't know if this is too retconny that i made copies of them like during the downtime

that we had the tablet you wouldn't have been able to yeah because you don't really have that technology the schematics, for sure. Can I not just draw the runes on a piece of paper? Yeah, you just wouldn't be able to replicate it. Yeah, not to replicate it, but just so I can have a paper copy. You had like a week on the ship. Yeah, absolutely, you can. Awesome.

Is there anything else that we can help you with? Nope. I will make sure that you have fine accommodations in one of our... Ooh, I have a Starbane battle map. Of course, yes. Perhaps older will be useful now, but it may give us some tactical insights. Yeah, I'll just take it from you. Cool.

Okay. So I guess two days. I'll update our crew. Thank you for the hospitality. Of course. Your ship will remain grounded until the general gives permission. That makes a lot of sense. Very well. Enjoy the city. And you are basically... well, do you want to go with Sentry to the artificers, basically,

who are going to examine her, or do you just want to go out into the city without Sentry for now? I kind of feel like we should stay sentry sure oh yes what do you mean you're safe there is no war in vasting say nice

I don't get that a lot of people won't but chat and Tom will I think we probably should go with sentry because if they think

there's some sort of tracking device in there. I might quickly update Oriya that we're grounded and the crew have the city to check out. Yeah, I mean, they're not going to stop you going on the ship. In fact, I think we can probably do some jumping around here. So I think when Lucius goes to check on the ship there are very heavy anchors basically attached to it. These kind of big draconic grips

basically holding the ship down. The woodwork! A dragonborn will basically it doesn't look like it's damaged it and any damage it causes they'll obviously repair but it does not look like the ship can take off easily. It probably still could take off, it would just damage the ship to do it.

That's a challenge, that is. When you get there, you can see the crew are somewhat distressed, but they're not on the ship. They're going to come off the ship. There's no point in them staying on the ship if they're in a city. And you see Oriah probably with Howard and L lancean um the wolf pack is not there you can see that the wolf pack has obviously gone off somewhere into the city um but ariah as soon as she sees you is looking at you in a very weird way ariah i have news yes captain so we're speaking to the spoken spoken to the kind of general leaders of the military of Dragonborn here,

and another dragon. Dragon peoples, dragons and dragon folk alike. Very dragon-y, everything's dragon-y. We are welcomed here. We must obviously treat the place with respect. Yes, with the ground crew here of the Dragonborn, they have told us that whilst the ship is technically impounded, we are free to go and free to explore the city as we wish.

A day or two at maximum, we're hoping, to speak with the general, but it comes in and out of consciousness. Interesting. I will let the rest of the crew know. And as a note, Captain, there may be things that you and I should speak about. Just so I understand the nature of the ship and relationships between people. Oh. Oh. Oh.

Yep. Moral of the crew is very important. Someone was looking for you. Quite adamant. Really? Interesting. Right. Noted. Really? Interesting. Right. Noted.

Noted. I would... Why are you being weird? As an interest, has Lucius taken the little woven rope ring off so it's still on? Aria glances down. What is Aayla's passive insight and perception? Eleven. Yeah.

She's just like, why are you being weird? Yeah. She's like, I would recommend that perhaps you consider how to resolve the situation. Resolve? Yes. There's a situation? Yes, the Dragonborn. It's fine.

We're resolving that, though. It's fine. It's not anything you need to worry about. It's nothing you need to worry about. Okay. As long as Lucius is aware of it. Our captain is aware of everything. Good.

You know, it is the first mate's... Normally, it is the first mate's responsibility to take care of such actions aboard a ship. Really? Good. I'm glad you're here. I have a spell for that also. Very good.

Well, myself, Howard and Lansian are going to go check into one of the taverns. Any expenses I'm assuming that we can charge back to yourself, Captain? Yes, Nova's got the bank. Very well. All right. We will find somewhere reasonable. Wherever Nova is, she has a shutter. We will find somewhere reasonably priced.

Can we mediate everybody's spending budgets? Of course. The Wolfpack have said that they are intending to use their own wages that they will be spending. Myself and the officers will be, obviously we expect our accommodations to be paid for. Yes. But the Wolfpack will basically spend their own money.

Yes. We'll reconvene every day to update each other. All right. Very well. I believe that we will be staying in a part of the city called Hope's Ransom. It is a district of the city for people from Goldthrone that set up permanent residences. Interesting. So, right. We will be staying there. Very well. Very well. throne to set up permanent residences. Interesting. So we'll be

staying there. Very well. Very well. And with that so we'll kind of jump around. Oh go on. Where's our

doctor right now? Grellano I believe was has gone off into the city as well to purchase supplies I believe. Right. Supplies.

Goodbye. Goodbye. So jumping around a bit Do these guys know? In character In character nobody except Lookout No Lookout saw you

Lookout saw you coming back And now Oriah knows Because someone was looking for you And has heard the story of what happened um i love dice rolls maybe i really do yeah i i asked you like yeah okay do you want to carouse i'm gonna roll and also i think like you had to roll a persuasion which you're normally really good at and you got like a seven or something that one yeah so um yeah jumping around a bit um century is basically taken to uh the four the kind of bottom four half of the uh of the the

warship of the vivex um those of you who are accompanying her you walk past one of the key things that strikes you that you walk past is what can be described as a hatchery. And you can see it's behind a large glass, like, translucent crystal wall. And there is an armed door where two very well-armed dragonborn are stood outside it. And inside you see a very, a quite large brass dragon who is basically playing with three little wormlings. And there are clutches of eggs around the room and you can see that she's going around and checking on them. And the little wormlings,

they don't seem to have the intelligence of dragons yet. They're almost like little animals. They're kind of like jumping around and like playing. Burning fire. Yeah. How big are they? The wormlings, they're like probably like, they range from like the size like, a big Labrador to probably, like, a Great Dane.

Like, they kind of go for, like, yeah. Dogs, dragons. I was expecting, like, a tiny... No, no, no, these Wormlings, they're still pretty big because, like, a young dragon is, like, as big as, you know, two horses. I guess the eggs are huge as well. The eggs are pretty big, yeah. They're, like, you know, pretty tall and wide. Little doggons.

Yeah, little doggons. But you walk past the hatchery and if you look in for too long, the two dragonborn soldiers are like move along. They don't let anybody kind of linger in the area. They kind of just look at you and glare. But Sentry, you're taken to

what can be best described as an armory. You can see that there are forges. There are tool stations, almost like jewelers' stations, with magnifying glasses and fine tools. Crystals arrayed everywhere. Vials of powders and liquids, like alchemy labs, scattered around. And there are dragonborn in robes. Some of them appear to be reciting runes,

inscribing runes on shields or on armor, and all sorts of technical and magitek bits and bobs kind of scattered all over the room. You are led in by... What was it? Uldak, I think? I'm trying to... I've got so many fucking names. Ulmak. Colonel Ulmak leads you in

and introduces you to a... I think that actually they probably wouldn't be a dragonborn, the head artifice. I think that they would probably be a dwarf. Sweet! And you see that this young man, he doesn't have a beard, which is already kind of a bit off-putting to see on a dwarf, but he has these huge lamb chops that just come right down

and are quite bushy. You can see that his long hair has been pushed back, some of it braided, but a lot of it's just been slicked back with like a thick grease or like a kind of like some sort of pomade

that he's just like slicked all the way back and then it kind of descends into braids and dreadlocks. Wearing what almost looks like a blacksmith's apron and blacksmith's gear, and he's got these big bulging biceps and arms,

big hairy forearms, and then thick leather gloves, and he kind of pulls up these goggles and looks. Colonel? Colonel? Guardian? Yes, yes, yes.

Come along, young man. We need to examine this guardian. We need to check on a few things for her. Do you have the senior technicians? Yeah? Follow me. And he just kind of holds out a hand and just looks up at you like wow

can I address him in Dwarvish and like introduce myself to him in Dwarvish oh yeah go on yeah so you just say to him like hello I'm Sensory kind of thing

I speak Dwarvish well there you go so he can understand anybody who speaks Dwarvish understands he looks up nothing and he's like

and in Dwarvish he kind of says he kind of bows and in Dwarvish he goes like I don't have a fucking name for this guy okay he just is like why hello no hang on he's savonin so i'm trying to remember like i got a lot of fucking accents up here okay uh he's savonin but he's not southern savonin he'd probably be from

the northern savonin so he'd probably i guess guess he would be more Californian or like, kind of Midwest. So he's like, oh. Hey, hi. Sorry, my name is, my name is Tormund. Tormund? What? Junior Artificer Tormund, Tormund Duggarsteele. Lovely to meet you, I'm Sentund Duggarsteel Lovely to meet you, I'm Sentry Duggarsteel Nice to meet you I'll say sup in Dwarvish

Hello, hi I know this one Yeah, sure I got this Sorry, I don't And he kind of corrects himself Sorry, I don't talk a lot Follow me And he kind of gestures over himself. He's like, oh, sorry. I don't talk a lot. Follow me.

And he kind of like gestures over. I probably shouldn't talk a lot. And you can see a lot of Dragonborn, they look like wizards, but they kind of like in long, beautiful robes, hand-embroidered, exquisite work. They just kind of turn, see something going on, and they just move over,

kind of like doctors kind of surrounding. Tormund kind of leads you over and he's like, please, lie down up here. And he points to this kind of like elongated, it looks like a workbench, but it's been cleared. So it's just kind of like a flat table. You can see there are all sorts of devices kind of on the walls around it. And he's just like, lie down, please.

Thank you. Do we need to leave? No. Right. It's not a private, like, doctor-patient situation. No. Do you need someone to hold your hand, Sentry? I'm not a doctor.

Um, maybe. Nova, hold Sentry's hand. Huh? What? I was just, like, Nova's just lost looking at everything. Wow. Got this. Can I just ask what you intend to do?

Yeah, have you any experience with guardians? Me? Yes. No. Wow. Can I just ask what you intend to do? Yeah, have you any experience with guardians? Me? Yes. No. No. They do. He points to the, there are now these four very imperial, straight-backed dragonborns, red, white, copper, and black.

Awesome. And they're just kind of peering down, and they've got these kind of like masks over their long snouts but they're like metal kind of almost like metal plate masks and they look down, they don't speak they look at each other and you get the sense

that maybe they're communicating telepathically with each other as they just look around and then they gesture and then one of them is like do not worry my dear Arakokra. We, however, do have experience. Young Tormund here is learning the artifice. Right, and what is it you intend to do with our guardian?

Olmak is like, oh, wow. He kind of whispers to them, and then they're like, I believe that you have reported that your guardian friend has been suffering from lapses in cognitive behavior. And there is also a concern that she may harbor scrying potential. Okay. There is now. Then we will examine for these elements.

And what does examine include? What does that involve? Very long technical explanations. It will take... It is safe, if that is what you are worrying. Are you going to hurt her, though? Of course not. Great. That's all we needed to know. Show your gun!

What if you... Before you shut the mask, what if you do find a scrying device? Then we will need to find a way to remove it. Okay. Or your guardian friend will need to leave the city immediately. Okay.

It'll be okay. Cross that bridge. We'll come to it. The mask kind of slides back into place. Can no decisions be made without us knowing first I mean we're going to stay here anyway right The four dragonborn look at you

expectingly waiting for something more of a compelling argument as to why they have to listen to you She's extremely important and she has a mission that could save the world And he's the captain. Because without her, we aren't cooperating. We all have a mission to save this world.

Guardian, do you wish for these people to speak? It will make the process much longer if we must run through every small procedure and gain approval. I'm happy for them to say if they need to say anything. They are my friends, after all. Very well. How about, if you're not comfortable, you let us know. Otherwise, we can continue. Does that sound fair?

Yes, you can always contact us. Sentry, you can... Yeah. Okay. You let us know. If you can always contact us. Sentry, you can... Yeah. Okay. You let us know if you're okay. Okay. Nova can hold your hand, right? We are here to do the job.

Me. I very much trust you. Do what you gotta do. It takes probably a couple of hours. And so, those of you, maybe you get bored, maybe you need to find a place to sit down or something else. There are no chairs, so you... I'll go scouting around, I think.

The process varies. At points, sentry, you are conscious. They do things like hook tiny wires up to kind of strange glass tubes with filaments inside. They bring over crystalline rods that seem to react and change color as they bring them closer to you. A lot of it is they place things connecting to your matrix, this kind of glowing crystal in your torso.

They place connectors to it, and then they run it to strange box-like machines where there are runes that appear on a crystalline plate and there's a lot of nodding and shaking their heads at one another. And then one of them turns and he slides the mask open. I will need you to shut down temporarily, as if going to sleep. Okay, no problem. Just so that we can access more

of your more recent experiences okay and you kind of close your eyes and you feel that the power beginning to ever weigh as you kind of begin to close yourself off into your low-powered state and sweet memories memories. Jigsaw. You have moments of a soft, tiny hand in yours as you walk through a garden full of roses and plants and flowers. There are flashes to holding a green tabard in your hands for the first time. But all pleasant memories. There are no memories of the war, there are no memories of battle, just quiet moments that normally would be so easily forgotten. But in this low-powered state where you almost have control, they're as if they were happening all over again.

For those of you on the outside, you see the Dragonborn connect a kind of crystalline headband to Sentry's head. And then they connect kind of thin wires from their own masks to the headband and close their own eyes. 10, 20 minutes go past. And then they disconnect, reconnect the wires back into their masks, not amongst themselves. And then they take Sentry's hand, place it onto a piece of metal, and then begin scribing runes around the outside of it. Take it off, examine. You don't wake up, Sentry.

The memories are too sweet, too kind, too enjoyable. You almost don't want to repower back on. Why would you? You're here in a time and place. And like I said, it's almost as if you're there again. The Dragonborn kind of look a bit strangely. Your guardian does not appear to be waking up.

As in? As if. A slumber or? I mean, they do not sleep. They enter a low-powered state where they conserve energy, but normally she would rouse by now. I go and just gently start shaking Sentry, though.

Yep. Can I use the messenger ring and just be like, Sentry? Hello? Sentry? You begin to hear, like, very faintly in the memory, you just hear Nova's voice very faintly echoing just on the edge of consciousness, like,

Sentry? Hello, Sentry? Yeah. Do you want to wake up? I'll start to rouse you. Okay, so yeah, so you watch as Sentry's eyes begin to glow and fill with power as she wakes up. Hey, what happened there, bud? Did they do it? Was, bud? I was...

Did they do it? Was it them? It was not us. We weren't supposed to hear that. I was home. I was home again. In Solvin? Yeah.

It was nice. It was really nice. I get that. Whilst those two are talking to Sentry, the Dragonborn notions to Aayla and Lucius. I was, uh... Pulls you over to the side. Yeah, he'll look over and kind of gesture to the side

while they're talking to Sentry. Two of the Dragonborn come over and then two remain with Nova and Quill. The lead one kind of slides the mask off of his neck, places it on the side. There is some news, whether it on the side. There is some news, whether it is good or bad, I'm afraid

that will be down to you to determine. Your guardian friend, Sentry, do you remember how much time she think she had left? She's 13? Is she 13? She arrived there.

It is unusual. We are seeing signs that her matrix should not be degrading already. Her matrix showing signs similar to others that we've seen would give an indication that she is around 13 to 12 to 13 years of function however there are anomalies signs of energetic stress arcane warping

we believe that she may have been in contact with several do you know if she's ever had contact with creatures that have attempted to drain life force from her? Yes. And you said that we've had reports

that she was brought back. She had... Yes, she fell. It was Starbane's Matrix star that powered her back up again. The fact that you were able to repower her is impressive. You must have... I do not know how you accomplished it. Even we do not have that knowledge or power. Whatever has happened has sheared years away from her lifespan.

We think that perhaps there may be three months of time left. Three months? You're certain of this? We cannot ever be certain. This is... We have honed our understanding. We have worked with many Guardians in the past, but it is not an exact science.

But we are able to read energy levels from Guardians. We have an understanding of roughly their time frames. We cannot tell you if her processes will simply shut down or if she will show erratic behavior. There are things I can provide. We can give you a special a wand of sorts. It contains not really a spell, but energy. If she becomes erratic, or if she shuts down for a long period of time, you will be able to restore her to her current self. It is temporary.

It is a temporary solution. How long will that temporary solution last? It will last a few. It will not last... It is more that it... There's perhaps enough for five doses. But once used, she will return to normal function. The difficulty with Guardian's behavior is that it deteriorates. The deterioration gets worse and worse the closer they are to their limit. As I said, there is no formal amount,

but she has approximately, I would estimate, to be about three months of rational functionality left. Amidassos mentioned that you were capable of extending her life. Is that not possible? It's possible. It's risky, however. And it requires a very powerful magical device to effectively for Sentry's matrix to feed off of. Okay.

Well, there's some potential there. I'll take that. We leave that in your hands. And the expansion, the extension to her life frame, it will not be long. No. The secret to repowering Guardians was lost with the Sundering and the destruction of Arois.

We are doing our best, but... How to describe it? It is like trying to refill a cup with a waterfall. So much energy is lost and displaced and pushed away. We do not know how to properly control and to funnel that energy back into her matrix. Effectively, we'd be bombarding her with magical energy in the hopes that her matrix will absorb some of it If that is the best we can hope for Well, our current mission is to try and find more information

If you find any, the guardians of Erois would be very pleased to know This is a problem that affects many We've had many guardians come to us, been sent in our direction We do what we can, but... There is no... We do not know how to make more. We do not know how to repower those that already have. They are a dying race. Once the last guardian's matrix runs out, there will be no more.

This is a private... So do you want to pop over? Yeah. So Quill and Sentry are left kind of having a chat, yeah. Sorry to interrupt, just caught that last bit there. Have you heard of a guardian called Breeze? What a guy. I'm afraid that we have not, no. We encountered him in Kali's rest,

and he seemed to make himself some sort of... I don't know how to describe him. He believed that he can extend Guardian's life by casting a necromantic ritual that took magical energy from humans and fed it into Matrixes. Ghastly. Which essentially killed

the person. It's a sacrifice. It's not a solution. Now, I don't agree with any of that, but I'm saying, is there something in his method we could reverse engineer with your knowledge? Even if we could,

I do not, we would not use this kind of magic. No, no, no, no. But there is definitely, there seems to be some form of transference that can be done. Yes, of course. Magical energy cannot be completely destroyed

or created, but it can be transferred. This we already know. We transfer energy from Vivex himself into our weapons and our armor here in the Draconis Militarum. That is the same process we would use to give some power back to Century Guardian, but the process is not exact. It is wild, it is dangerous, it is erratic. The best we could hope for is perhaps giving her months at best. That's better than nothing. It is erratic. The best we could hope for is perhaps giving her months,

at best. That's better than nothing. It is, but as I said, you will need, you will need to provide something of substantial magical power in its place to provide that energy. We only have so much, and I'm sure your guardian is very precious to you, but we have our own needs. Wouldn't Eterna power her?

Eterna are powerful. I could not speak to the effect it would have on the Eterna itself. Yeah. Saying those words, Tiangong gives you images of Silver Edge being... You get senses of fear. Like, not not of you but the things you're saying you get the sense that tiangong doesn't i'd like to clarify i'm not saying that because i'm thinking i'm just no no the scientific but you're just but also tiangong doesn't necessarily know yeah yeah

so but also because i'm thinking because it was silver edge that took her energy some of it yeah um not just not just silver edge other things in the past have also done similar effects But also, because I'm thinking because it was Silver Edge that took her energy. Some of it, yeah. Not just Silver Edge. Other things in the past have also done similar effects. But yeah. So with that, we're going to take a break. Yeah. Cool.

Yeah. And then you can decide how you want to tell Sentry. How cheery. Did I hear anything? From where I was, could I hear that? No. I think for me as a DM and the narrative of the story, I think it's better that Quill and Century are just keeping each other company, and then

you look over, and before we go on break, if it was a movie, you would see basically Quill and Century having a nice chat about her memories, and then you look and in the background we see Nova, Ayla, and Lucius just looking at the two two of you knowing that they have to tell you somehow oh boy that's that's where we go to break not a damn show oh boy Thank you.