High Rollers DnD - High Rollers: Aerois #57 | The Unlikely Alliance (Part 1)

Episode Date: January 20, 2020

Heading deeper into the darkness of the ruined City of Glass the team discover more than they expected! 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

Pickaxe. app for details. Introducing Tim's new Infuser Energy Beverages, made with natural caffeine. They come in two refreshing flavours, Blackberry Yuzu and Mango Starfruit. Try them today, only at Tim's. At participating Tim's restaurants in Canada for a limited time. 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 Keelak Ad-Khalad, Cleric Wizard. Hi, I'm Rhiannon, I'm playing Sentry, I am a Guardian Paladin. I am Chris Trott, I'm playing Lucius Vuren, Elowin Elanastro, and 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. Hello, and welcome back to High Rollers. Last time, our party of adventurers destroyed the ILS, the illusory leadership system of Cala Starbane. And the resulting explosion destroyed a large part of their airship, the Stormchaser, as well as killed

one of the crew members. Whoopsie. Lucius revealed some of the truth, but not all, to the airship's officers. And they began a slow descent outside the City of Glass, originally called the Kamina City.

Here, the party met with Kaltane Ramavorthir, a half-elf military captain who commands the disaster response force of the Sanzessian Commonwealth. His Solaire, a sergeant, is Jamalia Princess Stonesworn, a Goliath. sworn, a Goliath. His force is small and he reveals that the entire army has been placed here as something of a punishment for indiscretions and poor behavior in the San Zezian Commonwealth. Rammer also revealed a bit more information about the city itself, including the outer ruins and inner city of glass known as the Glass Scar, as well as a mysterious guardian who appears at night wreathed in black wings. A bargain was also struck with Lucius. Rama would lend labour and aid to the party to repair their airship if the party allowed him to accompany them into the ruins

so he could satisfy his curiosity and obtain some treasure. Heading into the outer ruins, the party tried to sneak past scores of feral guardians that have come here seemingly for some mysterious purpose and fallen prey to their decaying lifespans. The party were eventually ambushed and a battle ensues

amid the ruins, and fending off their attackers for now, the echoes of the sounds of battle reverberate around the city. And soon the unnatural howls and cries from the feral guardians elsewhere return in nature. There is more lurking out there. And that is where we begin today. You have made good progress through the

outer ruins of the City of Glass. And you're still out in the actual ruins of the town. This is all like crumbling stone buildings, you know, the vegetate, like the wood of like, you know, the buildings has long since rotted away or like fallen into disrepair. Much of it is

also overgrown by forest and plots. So you are actually in the city. You are in the settlements. Yeah, imagine that you have this large city the outer city, as Rano calls it, is basically just like a normal city ruins, right? Like it's still impressive large

buildings but they've crumbled, they've been worn away by time and erosion and everything else and the forest is slowly taking them back. However, at the center of the city and extending to the very steep cliffs that jut out onto the sea is what's called the Glassgar, which they refer to as the inner city. And this is the part of the city that was transformed by some weapon of Starbane's completely to glass. Any living objects, stone, buildings, everything was just transmuted into glass by this arcane weapon. And that is where you believe you are heading to.

The only person who seems to have any destination in mind is Sentry, who, as you have been making your way through the city, you catch glimpses of this angelic, celestial guardian. Beautifully made, well constructed with these luminous, glowing golden wings who gestures you. They never speak, or when they do, it's faint and whispered. They rarely speak, but they kind of pull you down certain streets or gesture for you to head down in certain directions. And so far, that seems to be your only clue as to where to go

or what you're even looking for. Do I see any of that? None of you. Nobody else sees this except Sentry. Unless you have some sort of like, unless you have been casting something like Sea Ethereal or anything like that, Truesight. I was just wondering if it was natural perception would pick up.

No, this is entirely within Sentry's mind. The Outer City itself, the Crumbling Ruins, for the most part they're intact, but as you step over them and as you kind of crouch and sneak your way through, you are careful as your boots, you know, like set a few stones loose. The stones hit the ground, the cobbled ground, and seem to echo, and the eerie silence permeates the air. Yeah. Rammer, somewhat injured,

kind of looks around, seems to be checking. The coast seems clear for now. I don't know where you need to be heading, but the inner city is roughly in that direction, so if we need to head there, then that's where we should go. You took a considerable amount of hits there. Yes, I will. Perhaps when we find time to rest,

I will try and repair my firearm, but I do have some healing on me. I have a couple of potions. We need to move. Did everybody get hurt pretty badly in that one? No. Remember that? Not once. Not too bad.

Aayla raises her hand. I think Aayla also is just like yeah a little bit I'm just trying to I'm thinking about doing a prayer of healing

but that's like ten minutes isn't it yes I mean ten minutes of the grand scheme of things isn't a huge amount of time can I do that while like walking

or no I think you have to be in place ritualising yeah yeah we can do it like hands prayer of healing is like it affects everyone oh everyone oh okay cool I think you have to be in place. Ritualizing. Yeah, yeah. We can do it like hands. Prayer of healing affects everyone.

Oh, everyone? Okay, cool. Shall we find somewhere hidden so you can do that? Away from this? Yes, if we want to take any kind of moment of respite, I suggest that we try and find somewhere that is off the beaten path. Yes, good idea. The streets, the guardians I'm sure, still mainly patrol through them or move through suggest that we try and find somewhere that is off the beaten path. That's a good idea.

The streets, the guardians, I'm sure still mainly patrol through them or move through them. But if we can find perhaps an old cellar or something like that, something underground, we might be better off. Century, have you been getting any inklings at all of this herald that all the other guardians

used? Not from what I can see. It's only been the golden one as far as I can see. Okay. That sounds like as good a lead as any. Yeah. Okay, let's find a place at least to... It's only for ten minutes.

Okay. If you want to find somewhere like that, I guess somebody in the party doesn't matter who probably it's going to be like two roles somebody will need to make a survival check to find somewhere suitable to hide in and then somebody should make

a stealth check for the team a stealth check for the team I can do the survival check plus three on stealth same but do we add our modifier That won't be me. I can do the survival check. Sure. Plus three on stealth. Okay. Same. But do we add our modifier, or is it just a straight roll?

No, no, no, you add your modifier and stuff. Basically have one person take the lead into this place as somebody is searching as well. So you want to make the survival roll, Century? All right. That's a 14. 14 on the survival. And then who wants to try and make a stealth 18 21 21 okay uh it does take some time for century to find somewhere suitable but lucius

kind of moving ahead of the group a little bit and kind of scouting things out peering around you make sure the coast is clear gesture gesture them forward. And you manage to eventually find, you almost think maybe it was once part of like an indoor market. It's like a covered building. The tarpaulin or the fabric that would have once covered it has long since been blown away or torn to shreds. But there are these big stone archways that the canvas would have hung between, and there are these little tiny stone

shacks, or like little stone huts kind of all along this like little narrow corridors, and yeah, you kind of get the vibe that it's like a little indoor market. There's probably even like some glass still above as well, like that forms like a barrier between some of these archways. I'll transmute the glass like

original. No, this is like original glass, basically. It's all scratched and scuffed, but, you know, it still is there. Yellowed, perhaps, as well, by the sun. I've got a retroactive question. Sure. When we were coming in on the airship and we saw the city of glass. You didn't get very close to it. You were coming in from another...

Okay, so we couldn't see, like, for example, we knew it was a weapon that created that. Well, you've been told that. You know that from history lessons and stuff. There's an obvious line of fire. Yes, it's almost like a cone. So it starts at a fine point. No, from in the land.

From the land going out to... So imagine that the north of the city is where the sea is. The widest. So starting sort of at the midpoint of the city is this jagged, cone-like scar where this weapon just basically... It's set off from within the sea. It's from orbit, from above the city.

So it started as a fine point, and then it spread out, spread out. Cool. Like a cone. That's awesome. Okay. Yeah, and I think that Nova did some history research or Quill did on this. And it was basically, yeah, it's been recorded.

It was an attack by one of Calus's battleships, some sort of arcane weapon. It wasn't fired again. There's no other reports of this weapon. But it certainly did the damage on Kamina City. But yeah, you eventually managed to find this little kind of tucked away little store that you can get inside and it seems quiet enough that you can probably take a moment here. Take ten minutes or a short rest if you prefer. I mean, we can do a short rest, but that's an hour.

If I do a short rest, I get a spell slot back, but obviously I don't want to. It's an hour. Yeah, it's an hour compared to 10 minutes. I mean, I can do this at level 3, and it's 3d8 plus 4 healing to everyone. Cool. Great. Make it so. 10 minutes.

Boom. 8. Oh, God, that's not great. 8, 11 plus 4, 15 health to everyone. Oh, nice. Thank you. That's not bad for, 11, plus 4 15 health to everyone oh nice thank you that's not bad for everybody not terrible for everyone

I've marked that I will also mark for Ramah as well now at half health exactly half health yeah okay yeah

Nova got the crack kicked out of her she was being beaten on by the guardians while a lot of you were fighting and I think even the big guy hit you as well. I got hit by everyone.

Yeah. That's fair. You're tough. You're fine. Yeah. And that would have probably done most of the damage. I'm missing a tooth. By taking the ten minutes,

it's still maybe late afternoon. You are currently in winter as a season and you know, it will not be long before night begins to fall. You still are maybe only about halfway through the outer city. You still have a significant ways to go to reach the inner city. You know, the capital city was very large. You know, you're talking very, very large metropolis kind of city. Not like London big, but big. It's going to take you time.

And because it's so ruined and you're moving quietly, it's taking even longer to get through these different streets and districts as you make your way through. But I'm assuming you just want to crack on or do you want to take a moment to chat with each other? I think we'll move on. Move on, yeah. And I guess, knowing that Century has some kind of guide,

I guess it's more following those leads rather than anything else. Okay. Totally fine. Totally fine. Yeah. So good. And seeing a celestial one, it's fine. That's a good one.

It's definitely not a Brookstone, right? Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. Nothing to worry about. I'm sound of mind.. It's definitely not Brookstone, right? Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. There's nothing to worry about. I'm sound of mind. Could a celestial be in Brookstone? Yeah.

That depends. As the sun begins to dip we move through about another two hours three hours into the city and now

nightfall is beginning to take over. And as night descends the howls and the anguished cries of these feral guardians echoes and the spirits begin to come out not all of them you see them and they the glass scar walking as if not going about their daily business but looking for something you see the first one a young man maybe half elf perhaps

and it's difficult to see them at night because these aren't just ghosts you've all met specters and spirits before you've battled against them there is a moment where you think it could be almost tangible because they appear to be made out of glass the actual people themselves their skin is translucent but has that shine to it there's a hollowness to even their spectral kind of visage. As they make their way through, you can almost hear as they bend down the sound of glass breaking, but their form doesn't change, just the sound echoes out from them. And every time they move in a kind of, that isn't just a slow walk, they wince as if in agony and pain.

And they search around for things. Can you see through the glass skin into, like, a glass skull and things like that as well? Or is it literally just, like, a block of glass? It's like the outline of a person. It's like if you formed the shape of a person out of glass. Yeah, OK. But there's nothing on the inside.

So at night, they're almost invisible you you know rammer kind of like stops you and like points at one it's like try and unfocus your eyes do not uh let them blur slightly and it makes them a bit easier to see would that be more difficult for me yes yeah with your current um injury with your eye missing, you can barely, you can't even really see it. It just looks like just the environment. But Rama points out, it's like, my understanding, as long as we do not encounter large groups of them, we do not interfere with them, we should be all right. Or draw any major attention to ourselves.

What are they capable of? Well, the men that I know who have engaged them did not live, so I don't know. But we've seen them occasionally wandering these outer ruins. They don't come out to the outskirts very often, but when we see them, we're quite careful to avoid them. Have they ever given chase after you? Are they aggressive? Not to me, but my men have reported that yes, they can be. If you get too close to them, if they become aware of you,

they might become interested in you. Sometimes they turn violent. Sometimes they are passive, just searching for something. Something of a mystery. Lingering effects of whatever dangerous weapon was brought here, I'm sure. But yeah, the spirit doesn't seem to bother you

it just wanders past creepily quietly just the sound of glass breaking that's really cool you've just realised Echo's only got one eye as well so you wouldn't be able to use that you carry on

and eventually your journey into the center has to come to a stop, because before you, at a large crossroads where a great junction would have existed, and you can see there are crumbled buildings on either side. Maybe this was once like a large open market, but now it is home to a very deep sinkhole and ravine where the ground has just collapsed and given way. There are large stone columns that you think maybe would

have once been the outer market of the marketplace. They've fallen and have formed very crude bridges across the ravine, but they look... you would need to balance across them. These are not just like a large bridge you could cross. It's like walking across a log, a tree log.

The ravine itself, it's not unfathomably deep. Quill, looking down there with your good eyesight, you can probably judge it's maybe like 60, 70 feet deep. You can see parts of basements that are filled in and crumbled in, and it just seems to kind of form down into a point just like a big split yeah down the earth okay um it's very large though it seems to stretch down this major uh junction this major street you're either gonna have to go around it which will take time or try and cross it somehow what would you like to do? How wide is the ravine, sorry? In terms of width, it's

like 60, 80 feet. I'd say 80 feet across. Quite far. Not a jump. And there's these huge 100 foot tall columns that have It's like a large gate, almost. That mark the entrance to the marketplace.

Quill, with your astute vision, could you see if there's any other footsteps on the columns first? I don't know if anyone else has attempted this at least. I can check. It's more of a survival. Searching for tracks is more of a survival skill. Turns out.

Proficient in it. Yeah. Makes sense. You're a messenger. You're a, you know. Yeah, okay. Who is, does this kind of stuff. 16 plus 7.

23. Wow. Bam. You see feet. Full of bodies. I see everything. You do. Oh.

See tracks. Oh. Leading up to the columns, going across the columns, around this marketplace area. And with the result you got, it's not just feral guardians. You expect to see footsteps of these creatures.

They're everywhere. You see their ragged kind of metal feet have almost clawed up the earth. But amongst them, armored boots. Hmm. Actual... And these aren't ancient old. Some of them

are very old. Some of these tracks must be a month or so old, but haven't been disturbed for whatever reason. There are two sets, so two individuals, that are within the last four days. Oh, cool.

Within the last four days? Mm-hmm. four days. Oh, cool. Within the last four days. And they go over the column or just around the market. They go over towards the inner city.

On that, with how many prints are going over this column, like, can I, I guess I can surmise, like, that column is pretty sturdy.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. These are huge, these big columns. The difficulty would just be that they're quite thin still. You're going to have to balance. And it's not that the columns go the whole way over because a 100-foot column is ridiculous. It's like these columns,

there's maybe a couple of them that are 30 foot across, and then there's a part of land still in the middle of the ravine. It's like bridges have been formed out of these broken buildings. Like parts of a rooftop have collapsed and you can walk along that and it kind of fills it in. It's a weird route we have to take. Yeah, but it's a direct way that you can get across rather than going around the city streets, basically.

So I can, yes, there's definitely other people that have been here. There's Guardian tracks. That's not possible. There can't be any that have been here. There's guardian tracks. That's not possible. There can't be any more people in here. When did you send these other people into the city? We have not come into the outer city since the first few months we were stationed here. It was deadly. Well, not too deadly for these people.

But they would have had to have come past me and my forces. Nobody has come this way in months, decades. Are you sure there's no alternative? Apart from guardians, but guardians don't wear boots. Can your forces detect invisible creatures? No, I guess we couldn't detect that, but, I mean, you'd have to maintain a... My understanding is that spell does not last particularly long.

About an hour? It could be they never left the city. They were there when you started your little camp, and... But then why did... You guys are quite quiet at that, like, thinking internally. Or if they had a magic item that could make them invisible. Yeah, maybe. Like you said, maybe they were always here, or have been here.

And there's people inhabiting this city of glass. We've not seen any signs of that, but... But surely the Commonwealth would not have... They would have told us to come and rescue these people, rather than just keep people out. Maybe they don't want rescuing. Maybe. Was there not a

strange, very strange ambitious team sent from the main? A long time ago, yes. Before we came, yes. A long, long time ago? Oh yes, it was years ago now. This was when people would still try and come to these ruins to plunder them before

we realised how dangerous it was with all of these guardians. Well, it could be someone managed to live among the guardians and the spirits somehow. Maybe. Do their footsteps look organised or do they look shambling? There's only two

footprints of these newer, fresher prints. I guess. In fact, actually, one interesting fact. One of the sets goes along the columns the other one walks up to the edge and then their tracks vanish

seeing seeing the point where it's against the ravine can I like prod down into the ravine see if there's any like

surface there that no it's like it's not an illusion like it's it's a ravine it's not fake it's not an illusion or anything like that do guardians have boots um i don't think century

wears them does she no they just sort of just they wouldn't need to they have like tabards and things more to show their position or their like like, role, but I don't think they need clothes. No. I assume the ravine is very old, right? It can't be less than 40 years old. I imagine caused when everything starts to rupture. Yes, the sundering, I imagine.

They could be shambling monstrosities of their former selves. Oh. Scary. they could be shambling monstrosities of their former selves. Oh, that's scary. Unless these spirits are able to leave prints. They are made of glass, I suppose. I've not seen any armed ones yet, though. No. Either way, we need to get across.

Very curious. My apologies, I'm thinking out loud. Yes, either way we need to cross yes that shouldn't be too hard there seems to be a number of points

that we can get across well just in case guidance on whoever's going first yeah I mean Ramon will go first he seems pretty

adept at these kind of environments and balances along one of the columns he jumps over to a like a rooftop and makes his way across that and jumps to

the next platform on another column. Begins making his way towards the other side easily enough. Okay, just need to do that. Just like that. Just like that. Guidance. Nova. No! Aayla's like, I should probably go last in case any of you idiots fall in. Let's be careful of this

man as well. Uh, well, yeah. Do you think he knows more? Is he a Brookstone? He might be, but I'm struggling to trust anyone new nowadays, but we need to be careful.

Nova can't meet Lucius's eye when he says that about not being able to trust struggling to trust people she's just like is this a mess with the rings by the way no it's just

he's far away he didn't do this he didn't do the T he was rolling like crazy so yeah I don't think we should trust that man

well I could be rolling for something completely different you don't know yeah so who's going to cross first

it's very simple it's acrobatics I gave I gave more athletics if you want to try for something completely different. True. Yeah. So who's going across first? It's very simple. It's acrobatics. I gave a guy... Or athletics, if you want to try and jump more, do more jumping, then balancing. You've got two approaches.

You can either try and, like, balance your way across, like, trying to, like, take these uneasy paths and just keep your balance, or you could be like, fuck it,

I'm just going to jump and just try and, you know, jump from point to point, basically. Climb up the sides of things. I like, fuck it, I'm just going to jump. And just try and jump from point to point, basically. Climb up the sides of things. I could Dimension Door, but that's wasting another spell. Yeah, Guidance is a cantrip. Okay. I guess I'll go first.

Okay. Yeah. We're going to do Sentry. Guidance. Thank you. Again, extra D4. Extra D4. Somebody's been reading YouTube comments about how good Guidance is.

Yeah. Yeah. I keep forgetting it's a can trick. You can just bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, and just keep using it. I'm going to just do acid splash now again. Oh, yeah. So what sense are you going to have? I'm just going to give it a go walking across.

So balancing. Yeah. Acrobatics. And you get an extra D4. That's TY. So 18. Yeah. Yeah.

No problem. You easily can make your way across. No problem whatsoever. Like, just balancing across, it's wide enough that as long as you just keep focused, make your way across, you get to about the midpoint. And I think that's when Sentry looks up and you see the Guardian with the golden wings of light. And they're not, like, angel's wings. They're, like, geometric shapes. They're just, like, triangles of light, basically.

But they're hovering in the air. And they've just got their hand and they're just gesturing. I can't say they're like floating. Like mercy. Just floating up in the air. It's very slender, feminine guardian form. A single, like, glowing golden light for an eye. Almost like a halo shape around its head as well kind of like

in a crescent um and it's just this come this way cool i'll just turn and gesture the guys this way it's the right way century makes her way across don't want to comment on your visions but true um can't see him bro nova guidance okay okay okay bouncing or jumping uh she has her own dice. I have my own dice. Yeah, no, but that's my guidance dice. No, but that's also your shit dice. Yeah, thanks, Fro.

It's my guidance dice. Okay. That's all he's got. I'm going to do an acrobatics. So bouncing. Yeah, okay. Oh! Oh, she's dead.

She's dead now. I rolled a three, and the shit dice rolled a one, and then there's another three, so that's seven. Seven, okay. So Nova begins making her way across, and you slip. You slip and begin to fall. So I will jump to aid her.

Not jump in, but, like, scrabble. How big is the fall? Make a strength check. How long? How bad is it? About 60 feet strength check. How long? How far? About 60 feet. Okay. Um.

Oh yeah. Five. Five. So Lucius runs forward. Uh, you reach down and you have to run, you know, Nova is about halfway

over down this column when she slips. So you have to go out into the column as well and you reach down to grab her and as you do, you hear like the column like shift a bit. You reach down to grab it, and as you do, you hear the column shift a bit.

You reach down to grab it, you grab Nova's hand, but the weight pulls you off balance, and you begin to fall as well. So I'm going to give you both two options. You can either, this is paying the price, right? Long live the king. Long live the king. The choice is, do you want to lose, do you want to take an injury By falling Or do you want to

Have you got equipment you can sacrifice Is there something you could use to try and prevent you falling Technically you've got your featherful tokens They would activate I've also got dimension doors So I could spell this out of here One willing creature I don't think I'd react. But you don't have a

token, do you? I do. You do have a token. I never used it. Alright, well, if that case, those tokens activate automatically after 20 foot falling. So, I think that that's just the simplest one, right? So, the tokens both activate, they're consumed, so you fall off. Ayla is going

to reach you, but you've already tried to grab Nova, so I'm not going to roll for again for that. Nova's like, Ayla's already running across the thing to try and grab you, but as you are falling, the tokens activate, and you just drift to the bottom of this ravine. Well, this is awkward. This didn't go so well, did it? No, it didn't. It really didn't. As you just gently reach the bottom,

the tokens just evaporate in your hands, and you can see that you can make your way to the other side and maybe try and climb up because there are buildings and stuff there but you are in a bottom of a ravine it is very dark and you immediately get the sense there

is something else down here we need to leave immediately yes I agree can you feel that are you okay shh who's saying that Ayla please be quiet I think there's something down here you do hear something when she shouts Are you okay? Shh. Who's saying that? Ayla. All right, a messenger ring. Please be quiet.

I think there's something down here. You do hear something when she shouts, like something stirs down here. We're going to try and scrabble up the side, but just be on alert. Okay. All right, you see Ayla looks at Quill like, what do I do?

Have you got any rope? Rope? I don't think I've got any I'm going to start climbing So you begin making So Aayla on the messenger ring is like They're moving to the other side I can move over there

But then you've got to make your way across That's fine She just makes her way to the other end Which I've already pre-rolled Aayla gets to the other end of the thing And then begins lowering a 50 foot of rope down the bottom of the ravine. The two of you, are you trying to

move over there quietly? Stealth checks from Nova and Lucius. Quill, what are you doing? Guidance myself and then just going across. So is that acrobatics? Yeah, acrobatics. Boom, 15 plus 2, 17. No problem. Perfect. Nice. Perfect. Thank you, guidance. 19. 19 for stealth. 19. yep acrobatics boom 15 plus 2 17 no problem perfect nice

perfect thank you guidance 19 19 moving your way through the darkness you're having neither of you

have dark vision I don't believe so you are you're an elf actually I think you have low light vision so Lucius you are kind of

leading Nova you've kind of you know do you take a hand or is she just holding on to you she's struggling okay so you've got you are kind of leading nova you've kind of you know do you take a hand or is she just holding on to you or like struggling yeah okay so you've got like you're holding her by the hand and you're like making your way through the dim light is just enough that you can see everything through the gentle light of the cradle kind of filtering through the ravine you can see um you can hear something and it's hard to tell because the all this these broken buildings that

have fallen in and filled the ravine echo sound. And you're very quietly trying to make your steps and you hear something moving in the shadows. But you eventually manage to reach the other end of the ravine and you can see Aayla at the top holding this rope like, You know, if we get out of this, I'm going to write a book. Do you want some help? I can ghostwrite it with you. Yes. You go first. I was going to say, you can climb up.

They're helping you, I'm not going to make you roll. In the time that I'm doing that, can I ritual cast Detect Magic? Sure. Yeah, so I guess that's like ten minutes, but... What's the range of Detect Magic? About four miles. I don't think it is actually I think that's quite

untrue I think you're a liar 30 feet 30 feet and you can see anything around you but looking down into the darkness

it's not enough range to determine if there's anything magical just looking around just looking around yeah we see magic around you yeah you see see magic around you.

You see everyone's magic items. Okay. That's about it. Cool. Yeah, it takes about 10 minutes for them to climb up. Whatever was down there luckily didn't detect you, even with a nine on your spell. Or can't climb.

Or can't climb. Well, it would have attacked you before you started climbing. But you manage to make your way to the thing, and you are pulled up. And it does take longer. It takes you a bit of extra time um a night has truly fallen now upon the city you pull up grammar is like okay let's keep moving i need to try and find somewhere safe for us to we're going to either have to try and stay away through the night or if you want to rest you need to find somewhere quiet to take a break. Do you wonder how we

survived that fall? No. I'm assuming that you are skilled enough that you survived. Right. You're here. I mean, you're here. I don't need to know. What's done is done. Your friends didn't panic, so I assumed that everything was alright.

Yes, you're right. Okay. Well, where's good? Where's a safe place to hide? We are in the wilds now, my friend. This is as far deep in as I've ever come. Okay. And you guys, what, do you just want to carry on? Like, you want to just stumble

through? Do you want to... What do you want to do? What's the plan? I guess, could we continue walking but if we do find somewhere place that could be okay shelter sure yeah sure yeah on the lookout for one yeah yeah then again dark vision how dark is it i guess outside of the moon i can take the lead yeah it's dark like if you don't have a light source it's now getting to the point where it's pitch black. I mean, there is gentle light from the cradle, but there's no moon on the rose,

so it's not like you have bright moonlight. You have very gentle, soft, dim light. But you can see maybe five feet in front of you if you don't have dark vision or a natural light source. I don't want to generate a light source right now. It would definitely be very visible. I'll take the lead. Rammer is also like, I can see in the dark, okay?

I can help as well. Let's look for a shelter. Sure. Okay, just stay close as best you can to all of us, if you can't see. Okay. I can't see a whole lot. And Aayla as well is an elf,

so the three of you are basically now leading everybody else. It's kind of like... I look left, you look head and arm. So, Quill, you're currently at, like, disadvantage for, like, passive perceptions and stuff, so I'm going to half your passive perception and stuff while you're in the dark. Okay.

I'm like a geriatric old lady. I think it's, like, minus ten or something like that, I think. Minus ten. Minus ten. Okay. I'm blind in one eye, my cataract. Moving through these crumbling ruined streets, the overgrowth is not as severe now now that you've reached more of the center of the city now it's just war-torn um the buildings are damaged

and worn but not as bad as the outer parts of the city where the forest itself has begun reclaiming civilization. Now you are just on empty cobblestone streets. There are these metal lampposts that have become rusted and worn. Some of them have been broken at the base and toppled over. Buildings have whole walls missing or destroyed. There are a few more sinkholes, but avoidable ones. As the dark night of the cradle, as the dim light of the cradle kind of casts long shadows amongst these ruins,

you see in the distance the glass scar, the actual city made of glass that was transformed long ago. You see a red light begin to move amongst these

misshapen glass shapes and the light becomes distorted like it's behind bottles on an alchemist's shelf as this light begins moving back and forwards really quickly quick enough like a bird in flight kind of skittering and flittering

between the two and every so often as it stops you hear this mournful just echo this wail that echoes across the city ruins itself i don't like it the light is it is it casting light as well? Like is it lighting up the streets or the buildings or It doesn't, you watch it for a bit of time, almost fixated mesmerised by this point of light moving

back and forwards. Like a firefly behind bottles. And you watch as it pauses for a moment and then I don't like that that's freaky points

the angel of death no no it's um no no you you know what?

Trying to find somewhere, there's no obvious places to rest. Like, the ruins all at least have some part of it that are open to the elements. Unless you're going to actively search for, like, a hidden basement or something like that, you're not just going to find anywhere that, you know, you're not going to find a comfortable inn or a safe looking place to stay you're either going to have

to make somewhere defensible and safe or you're going to have to search and actively find one if you want to take a long rest um obviously you can just push on until you know you have more light if you wish what was the range of the movements of this red light? Was it like coming out to a point where it could come to us? Say, what's Quill's intelligence? Yeah, four thousand? Fourteen. Fourteen. Nova's is like eight. What's Nova's intelligence? I know you two are the smartest. Fifteen. So plus plus two it's hard to tell you're trying to kind of calculate how fast it could be moving or like its speed could be anywhere between you know if it's hard to tell maybe enough that maybe like magical flying sort of like. You know, it's not a huge range. It's not like going vroom across the whole city.

Yeah. But it's moving enough that like with concentrated effort, it's, you know, you almost watch and it slowly moves and kind of. No, it's not super fast. If it was like patrolling a particular area or if it was. No, it doesn't. It seems to be erratic. It seems to be erratic.

It's not far away, is it? So watching with the light of whatever creature is causing this light um because as you it falls to nightfall the glass city becomes harder to see because there's no light reflecting it and so it just creates this like empty i can't walk in the doors but the light is enough where it begins reflecting and kind of becoming blurred and opaque where it's moving behind these buildings and you reckon that there's only maybe like a couple, you know, two, three more hours

and you might be on the edge of the glass scar where the city becomes glass we could keep pressing on okay, are we all comfortable with the whole night time thing I don't have half of my abilities unless we take a longer rest and I'm still on half health, but it's just me.

I'll go with what the group wants to do. I know time is of the essence. It is. Time and also the fact that staying here would put us at risk as well. Going over there and I point towards the red light, that seems pretty dangerous too. Well, we're doing that anyway, right?

With half health. Are you seeing any prime? Any celestial primes? Any of those? Are you seeing those? Is there any guidance? Do you know what you're looking for or are you just looking in the current area you are?

I'm just sort of searching. I guess I can't see it right now, so I guess I'd be like, where is it? I can't see it. I mean, yeah, do you want to try and go down a street to see if you can find it somewhere? Go try and find it, yeah.

Okay, yeah. So Sentry starts moving off, kind of like walking down the streets. Okay, well, we're following Sentry. Where's she gone? I can't see anything. So, yeah, like the three elves can see, or the two elves and the half elves can see. And, yeah, Sentry begins just making her way down the street.

And, yeah, like you turn a corner and you're, like, desperately looking around and you feel where before you could just see something, now you feel something, like a string pulling you from the chest. And you turn and you see this angelic figure basically at the far end of the street, and it's beckoning again. It's pulling you closer, but you can feel it now. It's faint yeah not like a ghost or a spirit hard to describe okay like a memory or a whisper it's like feeling a whisper i think it's just going to keep pulling me forward just i'm just going to keep keep on trucking you just keep

following keep on trucking it yeah yeah and i think as you begin making your way i think if we see things from sentry's perspective the ruins of the city around you kind of begin to flicker and fade and you kind of have to blink because it's almost like it's alive again you see people walking down the street people of the solvent nation this was a city that belonged to solvent and you see the banners with the symbols and you see the lights of the Solven nation. This was a city that belonged to Solven. And you see the banners with the symbols and you see the lights of the lampposts, the great, the magical lights that ran through the city, people laughing, smiling, going about their business,

bringing home groceries and, you know, supplies that they need for their crafts. And that begins to overlap with the ruin. And then suddenly you're back in the ruin city and it's quiet and dark and oppressive and then a few more steps it flickers back into the lively kind of bustling city you once knew or at least had heard of yeah um and you begin making your way century begins making her way down and you will will follow? Yeah. We're just following you. We're going to messenger ring Sentry. Sentry, where are you going? Prime. Finding Prime. Going forward. Prime.

I can't see it. It's ahead of me. It's right there. I think... Just follow me. I'll be fine. Okay, don't start running, Sentry. Just calm. Let's follow this carefully. I was going to say, are you moving quietly or are you just like, no, I'm there. I'm just, it's pulling me. I'm going, like, following that pull. So Sentry just starts. Do you run or are you just walking?

Just walking, but I'm getting brisker. Like, the closer I get, I'm just walking faster, faster. Sentry, so messenger ring. Sentry, Sentry, I can't keep up. Sentry, be careful. Sentry. I just keep going up! Sentry, be careful! Sentry! I'll just keep going. Prime! Prime! Prime! Sentry's now running at this point.

Like, not like a fast sprint, but a jock. Like, she's like... And you can hear the clanking of the armor, and it's like the stone crunching underneath her Warforged body. It's gonna make noise. If we're all chasing, then I will cast Dancing Lights to at least assist you both. Okay, your friend...

We have a problem. Quill, the wand? Is this a wand situation? I don't know. At this point, by the way, Century's about 60 feet, 70 feet ahead of you. Those of you, the elves are like, I'm beginning to like, I can't see it very well. Century just keeps running nice yeah no i'm running you the the figure is closer now but is is you can see she's flying backwards

and then she turns and begins going down a side street and you begin to see that that that glass scar these buildings made of glass the first of them aren't very far away they're just a couple of streets away and you can see their surface is scratched from wind and sand that have blown it and kind of scratched it and marred it it's no longer this pristine glass but like opaque crystal like a kind of frosted crystal i mean you can see the very first bits of those and it's like it's almost got both hands out and you feel like a sense of relief of of you need to help this thing you it needs your help and it's calling you yeah um right well the rest of you doing century turns a corner and you lose

sight of her i'm gonna go into full blown sprint okay so just everyone just starts running all right you begin running and uh as you storm through these city streets and you're casting dancing lights so i'm leaving you're casting dancing lights. I'm leaving a trail of dancing lights behind me. Okay. So. Okay. There's like three of them.

Just lighten us up. The lights kind of cast out and in the pure blackness of this city where there are no torches, there's nothing really. The light spreads far and wide and from a distance. Can I make them red? You can make them red, yeah. Interesting choice. Blending in? You hear scrabbling of stone

as metal fingers and claws. You hear, you even see in the distance down side streets heads of feral guardians turn and snap up and they begin scuttling along the ground, crawling along the

walls. Packs of them are now descending on your location as Sentry barrels forward. You do your best to keep up but Sentry is now sprinting as well. So I don't think the only person who can catch up to her is Aayla who is faster than the rest of them. And we can all

keep up but she can catch up. She can can catch up to her is Aayla, who is faster than the rest of them. And we can all keep up, but she can catch up. She can actually catch up to Century. Do you want to give her the wand, or are you just like, just look after her? I mean, I know what the wand does, and this isn't a wand situation. Okay, sure. Like, what's happening? Cool. So, all of you begin running.

You hear the sounds of dozens of creatures in pursuit now. You even see some of these glassy specters. They kind of look at you as you run past. We're like pulling the whole dungeon. These hands kind of stretch out. They begin floating in your direction. Sentry, the spirit, this guardian that you can sense, the primers you think it is,

it leads you and then stops at the very edge of where the city becomes glass. It stops just inside where these buildings turn to this, you know, frosted glass-like texture. And you can see it stops in what must be a clearing. Glass shards have been brushed and pushed away where a big open area has been formed. And you can see a camp has been built here. There are little metal buildings,

almost like they've been brought in flats and then built together like flat racks. Like little metal sheds almost there are work benches there are weapons racks and there's the mark of callous on all of it and you see there is an open cellar of what must have been underneath one of these glass buildings yeah and the glass has been smashed and broken away to get access to this door and it leads down and the guardian is stood

there and it brings its hands to our chest and almost like begging and it looks down you want me to go down there? all of us or just just me?

everyone it just does this to go down there? All of us or just me? Everyone. It just does this. Almost, yeah, like, you've heard its words, but now it's silent. It can't speak. Do you... I don't know.

Can you nod? Okay. Where is everybody? Within a few seconds, like six seconds, you hear the footsteps of everybody rushing up behind you, and as they hit the glass car, you realise that you're all stomping on shards of glass. If it weren't for your boots and footwear,

luckily it's all worn down, it's not particularly sharp, but crunch sharp but crunch crunch crunch and then you hear the sounds of creatures in pursuit oh oh no oh no uh century what's what century what's going on are we there hi um just the guardian needs the prime needs our help with what where are we going there's a as you get there, as Century's saying this, those of you who arrived, you see the camp. This is maybe a couple of months old. There are no bodies or people, but you see, yeah, that this

is remnant or Calistarvane Empire stuff. Old or new? A couple of months, two, three years. It's like metal things that have been put together. Weapon racks. Yeah.

And mining equipment, it looks like as well, like digging equipment. No. No, this is not good. I'm so sorry. It just pulled me. I can't control it. We can go down. We go in and we close the door.

Perfect. Everyone in. Okay. So you all make your way in. You turn around and there's this huge kind of metal, sturdy, stellar doors. It looks like the lock has been melted off. So how do you want to try and lock these doors or keep them closed? I could melt them again with acid splash

looks like the actual lock has been melted turned to goo Ayla's like I can try and hold them how long are they going maybe they'll get bored hold them for now she just grips onto it maybe she uses the rope and fastens it to her wrist.

I'm going to cast Mending on the lock. There you go. So you can basically mend the crossbar. So the lock itself is gone, but you can actually get, like, you hold another piece of metal and, like, welding. You kind of weld the crossbar in, and it locks the door in place, basically. You don't know if it will hold forever, but you do hear the creatures. You don't think that they know exactly where you are but they're in this camp and they're searching it you can hear

like wood being ripped apart those metal sheds being torn to shreds glass being broken you even catch through like a tiny slit of this metal door you catch one of these feral guardians just like walking past it like how good does the door look in terms of they haven't started attacking it yet i just mean in terms of like is it melded together well enough hard to say it's a nice big metal crossbar that lucius is basically magically welded together um i'm going to messenger ring. This is really bad. But we're in the right place. Right, Century? I think so. I'm so sorry.

We got to where we needed to get to. That's the win here. The lose is up there. It's down there too. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, did you see the Starbane symbols? I did. I did. Yeah, I just got it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, did you see the Starbane symbols? I did.

I did. Yeah, I just got it. Okay. Those footsteps you saw earlier? Could have been theirs. They're here already trying to get at something. It could well be your prime. Guardian technology.

Yeah. I don't know. You all seem to have a greater idea of what's going on than I do. Well, yeah, it's why we're here. It's related. You saw the camp, did you not? I did. I'm not particularly familiar with the symbols on it.

It's the remnant. Ah. I've heard of them. That's people that are a cult of the old tyrant, Calus, yes? Mm-hmm. It seems like they're excavating. How did they be here? Maybe trying to find, like you, treasure.

Technology. Technology. All right. To be meddled with. Well, clearly. I'm afraid that I don't have much experience dealing with that sort of thing. Well, unfortunately for you,

they're up there, and our only way is down. All right. Yeah. Do you want to take a look first whilst me and your strong friend here just keep in position? It's like, I think maybe I should stick around just in case they come through. Okay.

As long as the door holds. That's what I mean. Like, I'll keep an eye on it. If it doesn't hold, then I'll hold it. Sure. Okay. Just come get me. Will do.

Just let us know if something happens. Okay. All right. You stay with me, and she looks at Rammer, and he's like, All right. Fine. No problem with me. I'll stick with this super strong crazy woman.

Mm-hmm. She's both of those things. Okay, I guess. You see a long stairway. Is it lit? It is not lit, so it's now pitch black. Only the light of, like, Sentry's faintly glowing matrix, which is barely enough for, like, a foot around her.

So you just have this dull purple light around you. If you have light sources, you can obviously light them. But there is, what you realize initially is, this is not, there's work stone in this corridor leading down, so whatever the weapon that hit, hit the surface but didn't penetrate down. Basically. But the stairs are made of metal. The stairs are actually, like like some sort of metal.

Is there a lot of echoes from us talking? Yeah. Okay, cool. It's been echoing down this into this whatever room is below. Right. This is all messenger ring from now. Yeah. Can I messenger ring before we leave to Ayla?

And, well, Groot, but specifically Ayla, and just be like, just, I know I might be wrong, but specifically Aayla and just be like just, um, I might be wrong, but keep an eye on Rama. I'll punch him. I'll smash his face in. If he Brookstones me, he's dead. I'll kill him. Okay, okay. I'll turn his head into a melon.

Like, tiny grape. You mean post-smash melon? Yeah. Okay. What kind of melon is that? Pre-smash melon. No. Not with me. Okay. Melons don't last long. She just sees a melon. That's you, that is.

Pre-Smash Melon. Yeah, she's just like, look, don't worry about me. Just go figure out what's going on with Sentry. Like, no offense, Sentry, but that was crazy. You shouldn't have done that. I'm really sorry. It's fine. Just go figure it out.

Okay. Will do. Okay. Could I ritual detect magic again? Yeah. like no offence to entry but that was crazy you shouldn't have done that I'm really sorry it's fine just go figure it out okay we'll do okay could I ritual detect magic again yeah you take 10 minutes yeah

cool while we're doing that I'll give 20 lay on hands points to Nova oh 20 HP to Nova 20 HP thank you

it's alright but that's you out that's me out that's the least I can do yep okay it helps dangerous

it all helps alright I will take the lead okay with my so you wait So everybody waits 10 minutes Because we've lost the other two that can see in the dark So you're the only one who can see in the dark I have a hooded lantern

So you want to light that? Messenger ring Does everyone think it's safe for me to light a lantern? I mean These stairs are spirally And curvy It's just straight down These stairs are spirally and curvy and straight

straight down these stairs are straight and any light sorry I should have yes anded that but no

they are literally they're not super deep you could follow them in darkness and as long as you're kind of touching the walls you should be okay

I mean it changes whether or not we use lights I think no I think we'll follow lucius i've got the detect magic so if i see anything yeah i think the detect magic is actually helping because like lucius like his arm is entirely magic so it's kind of giving you a frame of reference of like right there's lucius's body i can see the outline of his magic items which means i know roughly where

the floor is and i can kind of make my way from there okay um i guess can you detect magic and your vision will slowly improve as well like with a bit of dim light yeah and sentry let us know if you see anything first before you run for you anything i will i'm sorry no it's okay what did you see? I saw the Golden Guardian. She was guiding me. And then as I was running, everything became like it was. Everything was changing. It was like I was there and I was seeing it.

There were people, the buildings, everything. It was like it was. A memory of what it was. Yeah. Were you here before? Have you been here before? No, but I've heard a lot of stories about this place. A lot of merchants used to come here back when Solvin was... Solvin.

So it's not your memories you're saying? This way. Don't stand on my phalanges. Are you... Now, are you trying to move stealthily or, because you've made quite a lot of noise at the top of the stairs but do you want to try and be stealthily going down?

Sure. Following Lucius as fast as Lucius goes really. Everyone make a stealth check. Disadvantage for century. Yep. One.

Seven. Seven. Two. Seven for me. Seven for me. That's cool. Five for me. for me that's cool five for me more than half

the group failed that's quiet we all fall down the stairs you make your best effort to be quiet but it's hard Sentry's footsteps

against metal Quill and Nova can't see so occasionally they trip and stumble it's very difficult you're all doing your best

I also don't have footwear my talons are clanking against the metal. I'm like leaning on someone for... It's maybe about 40 feet down along these stairs, and then it levels out into a short corridor. The corridor is perfectly cut straight, like dead square.

Probably made by magic. It's not been mined out. It's been cut by magic. And it leads into a large open chamber the chamber probably once would have had other parts connecting to it but they've long since caved in but there is still this one chamber remaining and there is a soft golden light that spills out and gives you a little bit of light to see by as you step in lucius you're the first one to see this a number of things immediately come to attention the first is in the center of the room there is a crystal prism a large crystal prism shape it is suspended it is attached to the top and bottom of the room by metal rods and inside the prism, there is a echo, a guardian's echo.

It has a golden eye, a halo of golden light, and it is made of silver and gold, and it's engraved with almost like wings along its body. And it's inside this crystal prison. The other two things you notice. Is. This room. Would have probably once been. Looks like almost like some sort of laboratory.

Or maybe like a. Like at your father's laboratory. Like workshop. But now it is littered. With bodies. Remnant scouts. Remnant researchers. People wearing the livery of Calistar Bane.

Slaughtered. Torn apart. Everywhere. And. Kneeling next to the prison. people wearing the livery of Calus Darbain, slaughtered, torn apart everywhere. And kneeling next to the prison, you see a man. He is maybe six foot, wearing black plate mail. It is of a design not too dissimilar to what you've seen Calus and his forces wear. He is not Calus. He has a full helm kind of on his head a greatsword and he's

kind of leaning on the greatsword looking in your direction, waiting for you. Cool. And you can see emblazoned on his chest is Calus' symbol of the cross swords over the star. It's literally emblazoned on his chest is Calus's symbol of the cross swords over the star. It's literally emblazoned on his chest plate.

Cool. But he has a hand up like this. He's resting on his sword, he's crouched down, and he's holding his hands up. Stay there. Stay there right now. Stop. I've stopped. Hello. Hello.

Hello. You should tell your friends to be much more quieter. What do you mean, friends? I heard you and your companions. Their sound echoed from the entranceway. I just make a noise. I just wanted to walk out. Over.

Stands up. Kind of stretching. You can see the sword itself is beautifully engraved this huge great sword um made from some sort of uh dark stark gray metal but there's like green etchings into it along the edges of the the blade um he stands up one hand he pulls off like a pressurized helmet. You see a man with dark gray skin. He has like orange ridges along his forehead and long orange hair, like a kind of almost like Ganondorf-esque that kind of like floats down. Yeah, trust this guy.

It spills out of his like out of the helmet as he takes it off. It's like falls down his shoulders. I will state clearly now i do not wish you any harm unless you bring harm to me why would i bring you harm he looks at you. He's like, somebody killed my companions here. And whilst I am led to believe it is the Guardians, it could have been you. But also, as he looks at you more closely,

brings his wrist, flicks it, and you see some sort of, like, image, scale. Lucius, High Elf. You are known to the Emperor. He's got files on us! What's my hair colour on that device of yours?

I must admit it is rather different, but there's no mistaking your eye colour. Very rare amongst your kind, I am led to believe. I assume that... Nova Vija, Quill, Aayla, and Sentry are with you. You're well informed.

The Emperor makes sure that his agents have the information they need of potential allies or enemies. I can honestly say we did not harm your companions, your colleagues. I suspect as much. But you are known by the Emperor, and, well, my immediate worry is that you would be, you would see me just as an enemy to attack. Whatever dangers I've brought here,

I can only hope that they will pass. I'm afraid that there are no other exits from this room I've already searched. I'm not the best person to speak to, so if you wouldn't mind, I'd like the collective thoughts of my companions in this scenario. He stands up.

He's like, of course, bring them forth. I'll step forward then. Let's just have formal introductions as I know your names, but you do not know mine. That would be wonderful. Please, come down. There's a lovely man here to meet us. He knows exactly who we are, don't worry.

I heard. You can all hear it, yeah. We heard us. He knows exactly who we are, don't worry. I heard. You can all hear it, yeah. We heard. Well, you know who we are. So do you all step down and emerge? Yeah. Century, what's going on? Look at this face.

Look at this face. I know. I mean, this is one of his. This is an elite trooper. This is, in fact, actually, make a history check for me because I just want to see if you know exactly what he is or if you just think he's a soldier so 15 15 you remember in your training for the war that calypso has essentially his own order of paladins called the knights of gideon this is one of them right his armor his race um they're

they're bred they're genetically engineered um to be to look the way they are it gives it basically gives them that natural affinity for magic and things like that right it tends to have a lot of firepower like fire magic cool all right probably more useful than Knights of Ren, too. You notice him. You're close to the nose, mate. He looks, and you can see he's holding this greatsword in his other hand, and he flicks this device on his wrist, and, yeah, he looks around, nods. I assume that Aayla is upstairs. Keeping us safe, yes.

The Feral Guardians. From what I understand, she is a powerful warrior, therefore I am pleased that she is defending this place. So you know who we are. Yes. My name is Maximilian Taldros, Knight of Gideon. No, it fucking isn't. Maximilian Taldros. Maximilian Taldros,

Knight of Gideon. I serve in the great... Serve in the great Emperor Valkyrian's army. You know him as Calistarbane. Valkyrian? That is the Emperor's formal name, yes. I'm not surprised that you only know his warmongering title, likely told to you by your your false gods. No, he's quite clear of calling us that himself. Perhaps he is enjoys the effect

that the name has. I know him under many different names. But you mentioned potential allies. Why would he use this warmongering term on us? Because he seeks to... Fear is a powerful tool, Lucius. Some worlds, when they rebel, must be reminded that there are punishments for going against the needs of the galaxy. Right. Well, I want to make it clear. Please, speak freely.

We are not here for you. Good. We are here for an entirely different purpose. Excellent. And we wish to fulfill that purpose without any bloodshed. Ah, this pleases me. I also, I was literally about to say the same. But there is a complication.

Is this to do with your device? My device? The ones listing all our names? No. Is that the complication? No, not at all. Okay. He like looks at it again and his eyes flicker on Nova.

It's like, no, not at all. Instead it And he, like, looks at it again, and his eyes flicker on Nova. He's like, no, not at all. Instead, it is to do with the... It is to do with the creature that haunts the city. Okay, is that the red light flying around? Yes. Okay. A powerful guardian. It has been corrupted by the Kraven Star.

You know it as Hadar. Oh dear. This takes utmost precedence over any other matters. It must be destroyed. Is it too powerful? It is powerful, but my intent

was to go and slay it. But now that you are here, perhaps there is an opportunity for us to form a temporary alliance. I look at Sentry. And he stands there, and he has this poise, right? Like, he's very regal, straight-backed, imposing, but no hostility.

Like, he has the sword loose, ready to use it, but there's no tension in his muscles. He is just very calmly standing there, waiting for your response. I ask him about the echo behind him. What do you think? What's the Knight of Gideon doing with that very precious-looking echo behind you?

I understand the circumstances of you finding me here are likely to imply some sort of nefarious scheme. I was sent here to investigate a missing research team that was stationed here months ago. He gestures to the bodies all around him. They had discovered this echo, you call it? Yes. Here, when they arrived.

They have been studying it. They believe it is connected to the guardian that has been corrupted by Hadar. That's not the right one. I can only tell you from my understanding of their research that they identified it as having the same magical signal as the creature that is now haunting the city.

My associate, you may as well reveal is now haunting the city. My associate, you may as well reveal yourself now, Dana. And you see that behind you, like, right by the stairs, a creature that was invisible becomes visible. Because there were two sets of bones!

And you see a, I'm quite sure she's probably about four feet three, she's a dwarven woman but not like a dwarf you've ever seen her skin is dark grey very much like Maximilian's she has bright red, almost

ember, like hot forge fire coloured hair in several long braids down the back of her neck she has like markings, like tattoo tribal markings around her face in an almost pitch black, but dark grey ashen face.

Looks like a dwarf, otherwise completely. In other systems, it might be a derga. A derga, yeah. And she appears, and you can see that her hands are in prime spellcasting mode, and she was basically aiming at your back. We are so stupid.

My colleague. Yes, yes. Knew about that one. Of course. Of course. Didn't see that with my detect magic. I forgot your detect magic was active. My apologies. You would have seen an illusion

effect. So if you want to be like I knew she was there No no it's cool It's fine She didn't kill us So like whatever Yeah I completely forgot

About your detect magic If you did die You would have been like I knew that was there Can't we roll back Can't we Rewind time No she smiles

And is just like Hey Welcome Okay As long as there's no trouble There'll be no trouble with me smiles and is just like hey, welcome. Okay. As long as there's no trouble, there'll be no trouble with me. We don't have to cause trouble. My associate here is something of an expert

in magical affairs and she has the ability to read magical auras. But we've been unable to access the god, this creature, this echo itself. I've been unable to glean any more information from it. I'd hoped that it would

prove some use against the corrupted Hadar agent. But this echo itself isn't corrupted in any way. It doesn't look like it is. It does not appear to be. The researchers, and that is what the research team here were discovering, I believe they may have been found

by the Feral Guardians and slaughtered. I'm going to messenger ring real fast, if I can. Sentry, you remember when we first came across that Feral Forge Guardian? Yeah, in Dwight. And it had that echo that I touched and gleamed its memories. Yes.

Do you think we could do that again? We could give it a try. I think it belongs to the Golden Guardian. I think it's hers. You see Maximilian looking at you all just go very silent. He's looking around curiously. Do I see him look around at them? Yeah, both of them are watching you very oddly

because you've just all suddenly gone very quiet. Can I just like, because if I catch that look and obviously because I can hear this conversation, can I just give him like a little wave? Like try and make it like, but obvious but sly. But obvious sly. Yeah, obvious sly. So what? So make a slight handshake. Just like trying, just trying to

like distract him. Right, okay. Not like, if these guys see it, they see it. But like it's more that I notice that he's clocking on that. Oh, so you're just trying to pad the timer a little bit. Yeah, but I think, you know, in some ways if I was an external character to that and I saw Nova, known associate of Cala Starbane

waving at an agent of Cala Starbane, you can take what you want with that. Slightly. Nova, known associate of Cala Starbane. Yeah. And that's what he thinks I am, isn't it? Well, that's what I thought you thought of Nova as well. Yeah. Well, that's what he thinks I am, isn't it? Well, that's what... Associate. That's what I thought you thought of Nova as well. Yeah.

You literally shouted at me two episodes about it. You wave at him and he kind of, like, raises an eyebrow. Continues. Carry on. Is this... Do you... No. Do you have any information from this research team that could help us?

Sadly not. They were here investigating Guardian technology. They found a few things, but mainly things that didn't seem to make much sense. They spoke of something called a prime, but it is not here. We know that much. Instead, they found this. Its containment unit and its magical signal are quite unique. They were studying that, but most of their data has been destroyed.

It was on personal storage devices, which have been destroyed by the creatures here. I gleaned what I could, but that is all. Calus never struck me as someone to hire bounty hunters. Bounty hunters? Well, you come here to slay the Feral Guardian What beyond that? No, no, no, my dear Quill, is it?

No, I'm a bounty hunter, please I'm a knight of Gideon I'm one of elite knights dispatched to protect our empire To protect our people, to find tools to assist Calus in his mission to destroy, his glorious mission to destroy Hadar. Instead, I was sent here to find out why this research team had gone silent. Myself and Dana were dispatched to investigate,

as we are skilled agents. And upon arriving, I learned of the corrupted creature's presence. And now that takes precedent above all else. It must be destroyed. A creature of Hadar cannot be allowed to exist on any planet. It will only sped its corrupting influence further. Hear, hear. Well, we're not

in disagreement with that, I don't think. No. Good. Excellent. May I sentry? Yeah, of course. Do you not have a connection as well? Would you rather do it? Well, we tried it. It didn't work, but we tried it with the other Guardian, but we can always give it a go, I suppose. If this is an Echo that's connected to Sentry, Guardian, in some way, then maybe Sentry should try it.

Let's make sure Sentry's okay then while she does it okay i've got my wand out the uh guardian reset wand dana's like if you're thinking of trying to read that thing you're gonna have to get past its containment unit first i've not been able to get past it at all oh i thought that was part was part of... The prism is like... And you can see the echo is moving around. It looks trapped. It looks like it's imprisoned in there. The technology,

the prism... What... What kind of technology does it look like? Does it look guardian or does it look... It looks... Century will recognise it. It looks solvent. It looks Guardian technology.

It's the kind of thing that would have been in the old laboratories where Guardians were built. So it's native to this city. It looks like it's part of Kamina City. Kamina City was a research station for solvent. Does it look like the same sort of shield field that was on that shield, the solvent shield we saw? No. Okay. It's not, it's like

a physical crystal. Right, okay. It's not like a crystal barrier, it's like a physical substance. Okay. So not magical? You don't know, maybe. Is there like a keypad or anything? I mean, would you go up to it and look around? There is no keypad, but you can feel that

echo inside. It's trapped. It's scared. It desperately wants to help its guardian. Okay. But it can't. Is there a chance? This looks non-starving, right?

It looks native to the city. It's certainly not Starbite technology. What if Solver knew that something was wrong with this Guardian and thus encased it for the greater good? What if someone here trapped it and then corrupted the Prime? What if the Guardian was corrupted and sent the Echo out to stop that from being corrupted? But then why is it trapped here? To stop it from getting to the Dark. These are all very nice theories, but unless you've got an idea of how to get it out of there, it's all quite useless.

Have you tried smashing it? Aye, I've tried burning it, smashing it. Gideon's hit it with his sword. Nothing seems to have worked. It almost reflects any kind of aggravated energy directed towards it. Have you tried speaking softly to it? Indeed, I actually have. Some of your backwater planets have strange magic about them, so we've tried all sorts of things, but the researchers couldn't fathom it either.

I suspect it might need, she looks at Sentry, I think it might need a Guardian's touch. Guardian to rescue its echo. Maybe. When did anyone else try to touch this? Is it harmful? It didn't harm me when I blasted it with fire and smashed it with a mace. When you touched it yourself? I haven't touched it. That's what I'm worried about.

Gideon did. And... It did not affect me in any way. touched it yourself? I haven't touched it. That's what I'm worried about. Gideon did. And? It did not affect me in any way. Well, if it's technology is solvent, yeah, Sentry's probably the most capable. If anyone can unlock it, Sentry. Okay, I'll reach out and touch it. Okay.

As you reach up Sentry, you feel something. I'm not sure if it's a spell or a part of your matrix or something it's like a key and as you reach out to the crystal you know that with willpower you can will it to open. This is solving technology, but also it knows you. This device recognizes you as sentry, princess protector, as the protector of the royal princess,

and it will allow you to open it. Oh, okay, cool. And if you will it to do so, it doesn't open, but your hands just meld through it. That's cool. You reach out, you grip the echo and pull it and it pulls through.

And that's where we're going to take a break. Come on, man. I'm going to find out. I refuse the break. Well, you can enjoy some amazing fourth birthday cake yes oh yeah