Legends of Avantris - Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 13 | Lying Eyes: Part 1

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

The party uncovers a potential conspiracy inside the government of the Coravachia.   Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/fFrPZAIE620?si=nJK9fJ_WurtAGV2w

Welcome to Legends of Aventras. I'm Mikey Gilder, and you're listening to Beneath Dark Wings. Here's what happened last time. The Zentra fan. Zentra's most trusted news source. Gailstrom has all the sources. He gets all the scoops. He puts out the government-approved message.

That's the guard. He took the ring of keys and put it in the front overall. I'll sit down in front of the way like, listen, we don't have a lot of time. Excuse me, friend? I am you from the future. I'm here. And we only have this evening in order to take care of business. You need to give me your keys back right away.

Well, I got the keys, everybody. You are in a writer's room. I'm looking after all the pages that look like chaotic. I threw them in like a priest. Infernal abyssal. For this. Oh, my God. A number of figures enter the building and fly in.

And you see one at the center holding a book, polished black letter, and a silver gown. Oh, Jesus Christ. That one, the one of the front. She's part of the Talong Guard. We have to go! Get into the office right now.

Come on, let's go. We're breaking out. Is there a chance that we can make it to the Seven Heavens tonight? No one notices you as the door opens into one of your rooms. I did not think we were going to be able to make it here. Well done, everybody. Good job. You took that.

I'll start with the first page. The cult is amassing more members. The high genital grows suspicious of me. Oh boy. Time is running out, but the emissaries from the nine hells have given us an incredible boom. Soon, Loloch will be able to achieve physical form. Oh, that can't be good. It is then we will march upon the city.

Zern will die. The attack will begin and Zentra will fall. Captain Freewing, I'm sorry, and I lay out the black book, put the Talen Guard symbol on it, and I pull out my silver dagger, and I lay it on the table. We have found herself in Zentra and we have discovered that there is someone who is part of the eyes of the Raven who is trying to overthrow the city who calls themselves the mouthpiece of Baphomet. We need to warn the commander. Suppose it is a good thing I called in a favor to Archbishop Aloysius Zucarius. You will be sending a representative to fetch you, Emil Cyrus and Anubis. keep you safe.

You all arrived at the city of Zentra, the capital of the great human nation of Korovacia, the land that you've been traveling in for quite a long time. You've arrived there from a strange tunnel that connected to a labyrinth, that where you had been slaying the minions of some strange bull cult. You eventually arrived to the honeybee,

or the queen bee, rather. where Captain Ravali Freewing, half-health that's been acting as your guide and almost a pseudo-leader for a month at this point, he allegedly grew up there. And you realize that you are, through great fortune, you are in one of the eight districts of the city, the nine districts of the city, the seven heavens, which were the slums, the lower peasant district. And it happened to be where Ravali grew up himself. He guided you to the Queen Bee and you then learned that where he was guiding you, the safe house was actually a whorehouse. And you met some of the ladies that worked there as well as the madam named Madame Delphina, who was basically Rivali's pseudo mother.

and it was there you hatched a plan to investigate what the hell is going on. You eventually did some sneaky tricks and learned that the work that was being done in the tunnel was paid for by the company, I forget what the company's name was, will allow me to be Gailstrom newspaper company, which runs the Zentra banner. It was a great newspaper that basically is the primary source of news in the city. And you then went to investigate the newspaper main printing facility, the main HQ. Through some very loose talking and fake identities and very close calls, thanks to Twist of Fate, you made your way to Skyreach, the Noble District.

And as you got there, you encountered the headquarters of the Zentra Banner. And you saw a very well-dressed man leave with a mustache and very nice pocket watch. You gathered to be Gail, or Wyland Gailstrom, who's the owner of the newspaper, and you eventually infiltrated. And you went into the main office. We're not going to talk about the... Caprice convinced the guy that his dick would fall on. It was pretty awesome.

Hey, I did that guy a favor. He really treated that dick well that night. In some ways, it was the best night of his life. Jesus. Faw. Jesus. Oh, my God. So that's what Caprice did.

And while they were investigating, they got some strange papers, some letters that were written in an abyssal. And they gathered it, and it seemed as if they had triggered an alarm spell while going through the door. I really dropped the ball now on guys. I'm sorry. The deck magic from now.

The window shattered in a group of strange hooded figures, armed with bows and spells, meant to attack. Felix recognized at least one of these individuals and told the group to run. They did. They used a lot of their resources to get away and escape. And they did. They made their way back to the Queen Bee.

And this is all after Iris had sent off Little Thomas, the baby that they had rescued in the labyrinth previous, to her homeland of Sacket. And they made the way back to the Queen Bee, and they were trying to figure out what to do next. They then learned that the letters were from an individual that called him or herself the mouth of Baphimat, and that there was a cult and a number of different labyrinths. They were operating against the high general zarm.

And they realized some context clues that it may be even one of the eyes of the raiden, one of the high, the generals that are basically one tier below the high general that rules the entire country. And Iris sent a word to her father, a great Pharaoh and Siquet, who had a lot of different connections. And he said he was able to arrange a meeting with someone who believes that they would be able to set up a discussion with one of those eyes of the Raven, General Portia Paradiso. But before they can do that, they must meet first with Archbishop Aloysius Zocharius. Oh, that's right.

And that is where we're going to end the session. And that is where we will begin this session. Morning has come to Zentra. And you are all in your various rooms. I think Iris, I don't know if you still have your room. I forget what the sleeping arrangements were. but you can be wherever you want to be. And you've just gotten word from your father

that there would be a representative coming from Archbishop Zakarius later that day. The rest of you are waking up and it's morning, it's your, the day is yours. You do not know about this potential meeting, only Iris does. And it is now mourning in the Queen Bee. What are you guys doing? I'm going to get some tea if they have it.

Okay, you make your way to the common- Try to find Captain Ravali drinking his tea. You make your way, Ravali is already up. He's gone when you awake. And you make your way to the main room of this brothel. And you see Brewster, the tall human man, a few words with his thick-brim glasses and handlebar mustache and long apron, serving a large pot of tea,

and then a large pot of coffee, some teacups and some tin mugs around them. And it seems like there's a table large enough to fit all of you that's there for you. And you see Rivali holding his tea and he's drinking. He's kind of staring off out the window a little bit as the rays of the morning sun creep in. Good morning, Captain.

Did you mind if I sit with you? Yeah, of course. Why would I mind? Thank you. I hope you slept well. Well, I mean, sleeping hunched in a corner. Could be better, but I've also been in a lot worse situations. We're all in the same room, right?

You're all in the same room, basically. I fell asleep. There you go. I'll approach. And I'll say, um, hey guys, um, had y'all sleep? I, like Ravalli said, it could have been worse. Could have a lot worse. A lot worse.

bad. An eventful day. I've had a lot of those lately, but where do we go from here? Because we don't know anything about this meeting, right? No. Okay. I mean, it sounds like we should at the very least wait for the rest of the group to wake up. And, you know, I for one, I'm just going to be happy to enjoy my tea for a minute here and just kind of decompress. I mean, yesterday was pretty over the top. I agree. So that's tea and not coffee? Tea? There is also coffee here. What's the difference? I've never actually asked. What's the difference between tea and coffee? Leaves and beans.

There are beans in it? Coffee's made from beans. It looks nothing like beans though. Isn't it wonderful? It tastes nothing like beans. Have you tasted coffee before here? It's Felix. Have you heard this? I... I... I... I... I... I... ...taste, you're telling me this is beans. I have and yes I am.

Can I roll an insane? You may. Do I have to roll like... No, I'm telling the truth. No, I'm telling the truth, yeah. I guess that chick's out. They're all things. Toa, I don't know much about how they make coffee, but it seems, and I don't know where you're from, but I imagine that you would be from an area where coffee is a lot more common.

Are you thinking of beans like, you know, cowboys down on the rain, like sweet baked beans? Well, that's, I mean, since we've been here, there's been a whole lot of beans, and that's what I'm thinking of. I don't know if we called them beans back where I'm from. Toa, I'm sorry. I should have been more explicit. Coffee beans. Not pinto or baked or green beans, but coffee beans. You don't even wonder why green beans look nothing like beans.

But I guess those are beans. These whole chicks are. I'm very glad we could come to that agreement. I'm never coming downstairs just so close. So it's going to continue. Anyway, we'll always. So it was the three lads enjoying their coffee and their tea, discussing whatever you guys want to. Rivali turns to you while he waits and says, well, if Caprice's translations of those letters were accurate,

then there is something far darker going on than I even expected. And the fact that it's not even all the way up to the high general is incredibly alarming. that anyone can pull one over on high general zern is incredibly concerning well um i mean is this got to be someone we could wait hold on so we know that you know that yeah so we know that the that zecharius is trustworthy and just iris you don't know anything you have no idea who zikarius is you don't not know the name you have no idea of alice's Sakaris, only Iris has it at this point. We ended the session immediately as soon as she got the word

from her father. Got it. Okay. Oh, and you, I did not know about the initials on the... Nobody told me about the initials on the editor's letter. Correct. So that's the other thing that I don't have. The initials on the editors look. No, no. Not like her head's at it.

At this point, I imagine Iris would have made her way down. She is in elaborate sheer silk pajamas. She has fluffy slippers on her feet. She has a... Does the firm match a door for? Oh, of course. She has a mud mask from the silts of one of the main rivers of neckbet on her face and two cucumbers over her eyes.

Delightful. As she walks in having recently just painted her long nails, and she'll stumble in and lean down on the table, stick her feet up on somebody's seat, to probably Lifty's where she's going to eventually sit and tell Lifty to sit on the floor. As she just sits down and joins the boys and says nothing. I lean over to Towa and I say,

where does she keep all that stuff? You know I can hear you, darling. I keep it in my pack. On Lifty's back, of course. Oh no, Lifty does have a really big pack. No, she has 15 of my packs in one of her own. She has really big packs. Lofti must be strong.

She is done. She must be, I mean, she can like punch people and kill them. I can punch people and kill them. It's very impressive. I'm like eight times a size, literally. Remind me not to make Lifty hangary. I heard my name. Who's talking about me? Oh dear God, you say her name and she arrived. You bought down. Stairs. Okay. Who called me? I've been salmon. We were just talking about how strong you must be to carry all of Aris's things. Yes, and in that, I need a massage, darling. My muscles are so tired from yesterday. I was carrying a baby for like 10 hours. Absolutely. How about some coffee does? I would love some, thank you. Okay.

Brewster. Crane, please. Obviously. Just two. He just turns his head to you and his looks at you. Brewster, how are you? Did you sleep well? Have nice dreams. He's looking extremely funky today. He is looking a little funky. It's hard to see through these cucumber. No, nothing? Oh, okay. He storms. He continues to stare at you. So I'll honestly keeping eye contact

to like pull the coffee over and like pour it and then like hand her a cup and then like put it back and be like I'm going to give you a little bit of advice. If you stay silent with her, she clips her toenails on you. He looks at you. There's a very, he's a man that's been very hard to read

kind of keeps a very close hand. And he even cringes a little. bit with a look of disgust and he just gives you a nod iras you know Felix coffee get you coffee rooster makes coffee for everybody else but has everyone has anyone stopped to think who makes coffee for Brewster well I I imagine he makes the coffee for himself nobody's probably made him coffee in a long time maybe he maybe that's why he's so down well does he seem down I think he seems down

I leave in Toh and I say, all right, well, maybe if we're still here by tomorrow morning, you can get up extra early and try to make him coffee. That's a great idea. I'll find the beans. I'm kidding. Don't do that. He might kill you. Oh, oh, right.

Oh, right. Say what? It's like milky greens. You just grind the beans? Well, I mean, I... I'll take my mall or... I've never made coffee, but yes, I believe it's... You grind them and run the hot water through the grounds, and it creates...

Hot bean juice. The world's a magical place, isn't it? That really is. Man, it's something else. Anyway, so, um, so I think, it feels like we have all this information

and nowhere to go from now. What information, darling? The letters that Caprice was able to, uh, translate for us. Oh, every time he speaks,

I stopped listening. What was in them? Oh, you don't know? No, every time he speaks, I stopped listening. Well, I'm sorry. Yeah. All the elephants in the left.

You do this, and you feel very informed. You have the full rundown. I'm like so. You got a quick rundown and a full rundown. Yeah. So at this point, I'm going to kick open the front door because I would have gotten up at the crack of dawn probably before most people.

I don't know if it would have been before Felix or not. I'm a human, so I sleep the full eight hours. Okay. and she would have been like outside probably hanging out with the animals, petting the oxes and cleaning them and whatnot. Just trying to bond with them. There's like a few sickly like milk cows

where you'd be like, maybe I shouldn't drink the milk from these animals. And like a handful of like gangrenous goats. Gangrenous goats. Yeah, these are animals owned by my property. I will. I'll roll in my pajamas and I'll probably have like help try to bathe them and make them less gangers.

Make an animal handling check. I don't think I'm doing that. And a constitution saving throw. Against what? Because if poison I get advantage. Gangrene. Is that poison or just disease? Animal is it just disease.

And just get plus one of that. So that's a three for animal handling. And then a constitution saving throw. Is that a poison? No, it's a disease. So 18 for the disease and a three for animal handling. Okay. You repel the gangrene expert.

You repel the grangerine. gangrene just delightfully. Is it a gangrene contagious? Whatever this is. Have you had an open wound? Like if I rubbed my open wound on your gangers open wound, I'd probably get a gang. Don't eat it and you'll be fine.

So you don't get sick from this, but you kind of give them all of scrub. They look a little bit cleaner, but they both are just like, coughing. They still do not seem to be in the best condition, but they seem to be in better spirits after you're done working with them. working with them.

Okay, well, I hope you guys feel better. And I just give them like a little pat on the butt and I just trot towards the tavern. I could get open. Oh, hey, everyone. Good morning. And I'm still like in my pajamas. I got boots on, but they're covered in mud.

My hair is a tassel. I've got like strong coming in. Do we know her? Of course we know her. I don't think I ever met her day in a minute. I'm like wiping my hands against my pants. I would never associate with a mud. Does she still have the cucumbers in her eyes?

Oh, for sure. I'm gonna walk over and immediately be, oh, good morning, I already got breakfast. And I'm gonna try and I'm gonna immediately slice her with my. So it's a contest. Make a contest. No, I'm going to a check.

Oh, so you're gonna leverage, she's gonna do it. I'm still gonna try and get the, what do I do? I'm trying to get her. Dix. Oh, she's letting you do it. So you just grab it, you grab it and just, you're just chomping down on these cucumber slices. And they can attack.

Let's see you that armor. Oh, 10 plus deaths. 12. Oh, yeah, I hit. The boots count of armor. Yeah, the boots count as armor. Five points of slouch damage. As you get a little bit rendered,

and it's probably familiar with some of the animals that you've worked with that have been a little bit finicky, and yeah, you get sliced. So I'm chewing on one. You small, muddy beast, if you ever take my cucumbers again, it will be significantly deeper next time. And I'm going to turn around and look away from her. I'm chewing the cucumber in her face and I'm licking my wounds. And then I just plop on the couch and I just keep chewing on the cucumber.

You're like actually licking your wounds. Yeah, it's what I like... Is that a fit? Did me the cucumber girl? Yeah. Like ketchup. Oh, no. It's not aloe vera.

At this point, Caprice will come down. Yeah. He comes down. Oh, no. I messed up my nail polish when I scratched the foul creature. Once I'm done with the cucumbers. Once I'm done with the cucumbers, I'm just going to pump five points of lay on hands in me,

and it'll heal right up. I'll come down and go. I'll grab some coffee. Oh, some coffee made from the pit of the coffee fruit. Delicious. All right. And then I'll sit down with everybody. That can't be right.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Please, what did you say? Nothing. Nothing. Did I catch that correctly? No, it's not important. Let it go, buddy. Let it go.

That is correct. Scientifically, thank you. I looked it up on the Wikipedia. No, that's actually correct. I'm Google. So I'm with the group now. Okay. You're all together.

All six, all seven of you are now sitting. You hear that some of the working girls are working and kind of grabbing their morning coffee and going back up to the rooms. They look a little bit tired and they're starting to get their faces on and starting to put on makeup and get ready for the rush of the afternoon. man. Well, um,

at this point, Captain Freewing, that name's so cool, I just can't get over it. I'm Captain Freewing. Do you know anyone in the government at all that I might have asked you this list session I don't quite remember,

but do you know anyone in the government that we can give this information to? I mean, surely there must be someone we can warn. I mean, ideally we could hand it right to Zurn himself and he'd be like, oh, this guy's a fuck and just, you know, take care of business. I, unfortunately, do not have contacts that high.

Well, thankfully my father does. He got back to me last night. We're not taking the dwarf. He got back to me last night and he's sending someone to come meet us. We're going to be meeting with some Archbishop Aloysius Zakarius. And then there's something about Oh God, I can't. Aloisius. Is this a name that I would recognize? Tell a history check, please. And then I don't have my notes written down from what my father told me. Oh, plus eight, 17. Nice.

17. You would recognize the name have being told of the Archbishop of a flocks roost and being of the grand stationed at the Grand Cathedral. And he's been an older man who's been there for many, many, many years

that is basically one step below Portrait Paradiso. So he's an Archbishop of Flox Roost where? He's like, so he's the Archbishop. Bishop of the Church of the Raven Queen's Zen Tree in the church of the Great. It was the second part of that you said. You said Archbishopish's a flocks roost

in something something something. Second only to Perthiope's. That is something else. You mentioned another place, but that's okay. And did my father say anything about Portia Paradiso? That he said he may be able to arrange a meeting with you and Portia Paradiso, but he needed to speak to you all first.

So Porsche is like the head. She is the general. So you know, so you've all learned that basically the state religion is tied to the military. Every aspect of life is tied to the military and the ultimate leader of each of these is

Zern, but beneath him, each aspect of Zentrian life all ladders up to one of the eyes of the Raven, each of them having a general title. That's a name that I recognize. I would hope so if you're from this area. However, he said we have to meet with this Archibisian.

of the flocks roost, whatever that is, sounds disgusting. A bird's poop, it's horrible. Cats don't, nor do tapsy. However, after such, she's going to try to arrange a meeting with us, with some Portia Paradiso. Do we know, anybody from here, does that name, is this person trustworthy? I've heard of prosciutto before, but I sure haven't heard of Paradisio. maybe we're confusing our meets.

Yeah. I don't know about the... This is one of the eyes of the, of whatever. Does Porsche sound like a feminine or a masculine name to me? I've never met this person before. So, I mean, I guess if your father trusts him, or him? He said nothing of trust. Would I know?

So all you know is that these are the leaders. I don't know their gender? Oh, no, you know their gender. Oh, no. You know their gender. Was it? Portia female. It's a feminine in it. That's what I thought I just didn't want to soon. The issue with trust is

any time you're dealing with royalty or higher ups, it's not a matter of trust, it's a matter of who is going to allow you the bigger advantage. So my father will keep a close alliance with those who are necessary but whether they trust them or not, I can't speak for that. Yeah, I don't think we should

trust this archbishop right out of the gate. I mean, with a name like the Carius, it sounds pretty nefarious. Orgelius. Oh. That was good. that rhymed a little better than what you said. I throw her my bea only. I leave the group.

I thought that she could be a bit of part, but I didn't say it. You took you knew what I was intending. Van just sweat and walking. I just like, throw all dreamy eyes across at Tolla. I can't have friends. My eyelashes.

I guess friends on you. I'll fail, sure. It's not a, oh yeah, yeah, charisma. No, no, you can't. It just, it happens. Does it? No, it's a cantrip, right? It's just an advantage on O'Karizna checks

directed towards one creature. It's not even a, oh, saving for it, my blowing. But then I'm hostile at the end of the time. Yeah, yeah. What did you cast? What did you go? Friends, friends. Come on, friend.

It's Caprice. You're wonderful. We jammed so much. You're a gym right now. Thank you very much. You're so charming. Can we just hang out? We're hanging out right now.

I mean, like, we should really hang out. Like, do you're a game right now? All right. What are you doing? Charming all of a sudden. Now, I'll spend 58 seconds playing us too before leaving. Hey, fuck face! Easy, buddy, easy.

I don't really like, I'm upstairs. The son's getting real low, buddy. One's getting real low. Don't make me burn. I would like to bonus action, birds. I would like to burn. I would like to burn. Take it easy, big guy.

Take it easy. Oh, this is not me, man. I feel like it's like some magical hostility come over me. Take easy part. I mean, tell her. I mean, tell her. Oh, no. So.

Don't make me better tell you. Are you saying that you can get a meeting with Archbishop Zakarius? I'm saying that I believe we will have a meeting. And we're just waiting for one of my father's, members of his entourage or whatever. he does to come. Do they know he?

They're going to come find us. How is they're going to find us? The great thing is that there will be, because I communicate with my father if you. Oh, of course. Do you think that Pharaoh Jasper of the Sacks would not know how to find his daughter? Well, I was just afraid that people were following us. I can get there.

Okay. So, as I was saying. That's my concern. Is this safe? I mean, if people know where we are, I mean, there are people... If my father knows where we are, they were fine. and we're fine. Yeah, that's true.

What do you think my father is going to come in and kill you? Well, maybe if you slight me. Yeah, he might. I should message him about the dwarf. Is that the dwarf? Yes, the one that took, the strange one that just showed up out of nowhere that I've never met. Hmm.

The one that smells like a barnyard? Yes. She took my cucumbers. Where's Hersia? I'm right here. You know, I'm not on the couch. Oh, that strange dwarf is speaking again. Someone should go up to the room and find Hersia

and tell her there's another strange. friend that you walk down. And it is accosting me, and I don't appreciate it. Maybe she speaks dwarf. Maybe she can talk to it and get it to leave. Oh, I could sure use another. Oh, but speaking again. I'm so confused.

I'm confused too. But anyways, Felix, I mean, I think, are you going to be okay just walking in? My point is, I've talked to my father and let him know where we were so that he could get someone to us. It's not like he's following us. But if you wanted to scrimmed, he could. He could always know I am. He's a powerful priest that is supposed. Adults.

I just worry about them seeing, Oh, Felix, he's that guy that... Do you think my father gives a flying shit about... Not your father. I just mean if we meet anybody that recognizes him. Then we don't bring him. We'll just make him. This is what we'll do.

We'll get herger from upstairs. We'll leave Felix with this strange dwarf. And then we'll go without... I'm not staying here. I'm going with Todd. Felix needs to come. I won't go without... going to have to deal with it.

I'm going to like Bart Simpson melt into the shadows and get up from the couch and like tiptoe up the stairs and like go take a bath or something and then try and be ready to go room by the time she goes up there. I don't notice that she leaves. You do this and Iris, you're completely, you're completely unwares. And as you're all discussing, Herja, Herda slips away and, and. Ruvali pours himself another cup of tea and he kind of rubs a hand over his face. And he says, I don't think I should be going to this meeting.

There are people in frock, flocks ruse, who will definitely recognize my face and recognize some of the people that I know. And if that connection happens, it could endanger the rest of you. No, I completely agree. It would ruin if something happens and we need to be. place of refuge, you would no longer be able to use this area because they would immediately know that way. Keeping you out of this is very wise. And I apologize that my younger years, I spent a long time running with very rough crowds and we ran into a lot of trouble with

the church. So this may be something where I can do some investigation on my own. I can deal, running around in the underbelly and try to tap my contacts, but anything high and holy, I think I should stay out of. I think you should do whatever you feel is best, especially given the danger at hand, and they have very many innocent lives at stake. So I think whatever you think will best protect these people is what you should do. And anything that you can do in the meantime would be more than helpful. Well, I'll tap some of my contacts and see if there's anything I can gather.

and dealing with Gailstrom and Diamante. And I just can't believe that the newspaper's been operating like this for who knows how long, how far that reaches across the entire country. Do we know if, have we gotten any sense that like the newspaper that, what's his name, Weiland? Gail Wilesrom. Gail Wilesrom. Do we get any sense that...

Weiland Gailstrom, apologies. Wyland Gailstrom. Do we get any sense that Wylund is, like, a member of the cult, or is he just, like, wants the money and he's fine? It was... It was difficult to tell, but, like, the fact that it was in Infernal and it was in his desk, you'd probably get the sense of him in the cult.

Okay, got it. Because he was telling groups in the cult to mobilize through Gailstrom. Oh, that's right. Yeah. I just think, do we just sit and wait then for your contact? Honestly, you can do whatever you want to do. I'm going to hang out here and just enjoy a nice day, freshening myself up.

All right, well, once Caprice gets down here, I'm like to have a little chit with him. Is he no longer birding? No, I don't believe so. I'm staying out of this. He's angry with you. Do I pass you on the way up? Are you, like, hiding at the top of the stairs? I'm on the balcony, like right at the top floor,

I'd say, like looking down, sort of peeking. Do I see you? Sure. I guess, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, he's fine. You can go down now. Oh, great, thanks.

Yeah. Hey, guys. Hey, man. How's it going? How's it going? You want to jam? Yeah, sure. What do you want to play?

I don't know. Just give me a cool progression. I'll just play along. Okay. Hmm. Why am I blanking right now? That's my blowing. Um, we'll play.

play, uh, ba-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-d-b-d-d-b-d-dh-b-dh-h-ha. Both you make a performance check. I'm not. 11. Oh. 28. Caprice is leading very well on his viol. Toa you're trying to keep up.

It sounds a little jarring. Toot and Toot and Toa. Yeah. But it's passable. It's passable. I'm not made at you anymore, by the way. I just, I'm fine. No, I'm not going to do that ever again.

I promise. I mean, I prefer if you don't, you don't really need to do that because I'm friendly anyway. It just, it's, that whole magic, like, it was, you were weirdly charming. It was, it's scary and I don't know how I feel about it. I mean, that's just like, that's the lowest amount of charming I can be. Ooh. Oh, don't show me what you're really capable of. I won't.

All right, all right, that's fine. And I'll just. What do you guys want to do you guys want to, I, do you think we're in any danger if we were to, like, go out and go shopping? Yeah, I don't know. We did a lot of like the gates and you know, just sneaking in a I think it's always a risk. I'm not going to tell you what to do, but I'm laying low. I'm not going to allow anyone to see me. My honest opinion on this is that right now we do not have the protection of anybody. And if we choose to walk the streets, we should wait until we have the protection of the cat.

Yeah. And I agree. Because they're less likely to do anything to harm us if they know that there is another army that they would be enraging. But right now they have nothing to dissuade them from throwing us in a dungeon cell. No, you're just secretly murdering us.

Counterpoint, it is stuffy and boyning here and it smells like my horn. Well, then you should probably leave. Oh shit. It's good. You want to go? The police? I mean, yeah, it seems like Ravali, Lubin. I'm sorry, Ravali. Lubon.

You know the area better than any of us. Is there a shop where one might procure thieves tools or potions or other magical items? There is a shop. Potions, I think you would have to go into one of the other districts. Oh, that's not of the question. But Alexander and Sons is not too far from here. It's a general store. It should have what you're looking for.

Oh, family business. I love to support family. businesses. Let's shop small. Let's shop small and shop smart. I will lead the gang, whoever wants to come out with me to Alexander and son. Who has the abyssal? Like all the writings. I have all the writings in my pack. Do you mind if you're leaving, if I could just peruse the writings and take a look at the language itself? I'm just interested in seeing what I can gather. I don't read, but maybe with your help you might be able to help me start to piece together this language a little better.

You seem like a smart guy. If you can find anything that I couldn't find, then that's... No, I just... I'm more interested in learning, and I feel like I've got a knack for languages in general, and maybe with your help, I might be able to start to understand a little bit. I'll take out a piece of parchment, and I'll do, like, A equals the symbol for abyssal. B equals the symbol for, like, abyssal B,

and I'll, like, here's an alphabet, and you can go to town. I mean... This is incredible. Thank you. No problem. If you guys are heading out, I'm going to stay in the room for the day, I guess. Just come get me if you need anything. Yeah. Well, before you deal with that, I cast tones on him so you can read any language for an hour.

Bad F. While I appreciate this and it defeats the purpose of learning. Well, now you can actually live. No, actually, I think that it will help you significantly more because you can look at what he gave you, read it on the paper, and you're going to to have a better understanding, you'll learn a lot quicker. Sure, whatever you say, and I head up to the stairs. Okay.

I'm bathing, or whatever point I will at some point change or come back downstairs. You're having a horse bath? Yeah. No. A horse bath. I'll just spend the next hour, like, really trying to. I'm just going to hang out with towed out.

Yeah, I'll just hang out with everybody. Whoever's downstairs trying to really master the Mario underground theme, because I think that's probably where I fucked up the most. Dab-da-da-da-da-do. Was when it really changes, and I'm just. I'm going to probably through Towa off, so I'm going to really practice that key change.

I'm going to try to teach Toa some classic neck fesion folk songs. And every time he gets them wrong, I'm going to get really mad at him. But continue to try and teach him. Walk like a tobacco. I love that song. So what are you guys looking to purchase? I want to find thieves tools if I can. And if they're not in a shop, look around and see if anyone is selling

thieves tools because like it's the streets of the slums. That seems like an obvious item that I could find. I would say that you arrive at Alexander and Sons. It's fine. And there you were able to find thieves tools and whatever kind of standard items that you would care to provide. It is a small, it's a small shop. It's a little bit dusty.

It doesn't seem to be that well frequented. But there definitely is basically any of the standard item that you would care to purchase. Maybe the adventuring gear that you may be looking to purchase will be here. And so I would probably say it would be maybe one silver piece for themes tools. One silver piece? Sweet Christmas. Why didn't I do this a million years ago?

Sweet Christmas. I charged 200 gold in my campaigns for that shit. Well, maybe I fucked up. That's right. All right, yeah, here you go. Absolutely. I hope that your sons will eat well tonight, and then I later. Thanks, Alexander.

Is there anything else that you want to do, Luffy? No, I'm just looking for, like, street food. There is a lot of street food. It's kind of like just like very basic meat pies and just, and these people that are just carting out there. A lot of like women in hoods that might be like wives are just going out, they're baking bread and then meat pies and things. and trying to just sell it to workers that are walking around the streets on their way to or from jobs.

Okay. So I would say probably for like three copper pieces you're able to get a pretty good meal. I'll enjoy whatever she's having. Could I have grabbed also a blank book to write my songs into? Yeah, we'll just say that's another three copper pieces. All right. And then we'll return after however many hours out that took. That's probably about like an hour and a half.

What are you guys doing while they're doing while they're doing that? So you guys are just to send what you're doing. Is there any conversation that you guys want to have? No, I think, I think, well, at least I was practicing. We're sort of just hanging out. I know Felix is reading. Forebathing, changing. Yeah.

We'll come back downstairs at some point. Okay. So, you all arrive back into the Queen Bee, and you all reconvene. And Rivali, when you all get back, Ravali is putting on a large coat, and he grabs this wide-brimmed hat, and he puts it on, and he tilts it down,

and he looks around at you, and says, well, I'm going to spend the rest of the day looking around seeing what I can learn. If you need anything, you know how to reach me. That symbol is still good. Just press it and I'll be alerted. And likewise, if I run into trouble. And he pulls up his collar and leaves.

Do you just give us one? Yes. Who has it? I don't know. I don't think you do. I think you might have. I'm like 90% confident you have. Okay.

So you... What the hell is that? This is ringing in my ears. 10 minutes. So it... The tensenitis. Yeah, however you got after you pronounce that. So you all are enjoying

and you are enjoying just the evening and or the other day. And at around a little bit past noon, you hear some footsteps kind of shuffling along the ground of the rough wooden floors of the brothel. And whoever's in the main area, the common area,

would see a man of middle years, this kind of rough brown hair, but thinning, for sure, and just a kind of a patchy brown beard wearing very simple gray robes. You see that there's a long chain with a symbol of a raven's head on it. as he shuffles forward and he says, I'm looking for Iris of the Sands.

I'm over here, darling. I'm not hard to miss. You seem to be Iris of the Sands, and he shuffles over. My eyes go really wide. Yes, observant, aren't you? Archbishop Zucarious as he knows your father,

Jasper of the Sands. Yes, darling, he does. I'm just speaking really slowly to him. He doesn't seem to notice that you're mocking him at all. He says, I am Matthias Brill. I will take you to the cathedral. Bring your vassals, if you may. Your father mentioned you may have more than several.

Yes, unfortunately. What was the name again? His name is Nathaniel Brill. McHanio or Matthias? Methanio, Apologians. Not Matthias, Muthaniel, I apologize. Not Matthias, not Matthias, Muthaniel, I apologize. Not Nathaniel with an N-A-T-A-K-N.

N-A-T-A-K-N-A-A-N-A-A-N-A-L. No, I apologize if I said Matthias. That's okay. Nathaniel, what? Brill, B-R-I-L-L. Well, darling, I think you're going to have to give me at least like 30 minutes to round with them up. They've all scattered. I'm here.

Oh my god, where did you come from? I don't know, I just thought this guy was Toadryl. You could have like 20 minutes. I'll be right back. I'm gonna run to the room and just knock on the door. Hey, Phoenix. Yeah, yeah, so what? Are you ready to go?

Oh, it's good. Sure, sure, sure. And I'll shuffle the papers up, and I'll stick them in my pack for now. Do you need to disguise yourself? What's the plan? I haven't really gotten that far yet, but I'll figure something out.

Don't worry. I've got some ideas. Okay, let's go. I'll run up. and just knock on the, Helja, are you decent? And I'll just bust in the door before she answered. Oh, yeah, okay, okay, okay.

Are you clean? Scobby Duff. I was clipping my toenails, because I heard that you like to do that. Yeah, you know, foot health is value. You see a pile of huge dwarven toenail clips. Yep. I'm like, oh, very.

This is impressive, right? Why you? She's like stack them like pringles and going on. Oh, my God. Too far, Derek. Ted Gore! All right, I quit. Hold on one second, and I open up the window and I just throw my toenails out the window and then I close the window.

They hit a diseased goat. It instantly cures it of the disease. It actually makes the disease far worse. That's not possible. It's the fading goat where it just boop and the hairs out. Knock it unconscious. Oh, yeah, for sure. Okay, so I have, like, my hair back into French braids,

and I already got my armor on, so I just flyed on my boots, and I scurry downstairs with my shield and my mate. And, uh, decorida, my flannel. Do you. Daquota. The moment she gets downstairs. Hersia, I need you to dispose of, where did that other dwarf go? Oh, there was a dwarf here?

There was this obnoxious dog. Hersia, she did not believe what she did. I did not realize how much I valued you until I met this heinous, foul creature. I swiped at her, drew her blood. Oh, you know, I think you did that to me earlier today. I haven't talked to you earlier today. I look at Lucey. He does go with it.

Oh, you know, I think I was just confusing myself with somebody that, you know what, it doesn't matter. She smelled horrific, and her pajamas had a little flap at the butt as if she wore them while she defecated. Yeah, you know, that sounds convenient. No, that sounds terrible. I would never wear those kinds of pajamas ever.

And I'm swinging my pack around and I'm just stuffing them. Make a slight of an inch. No! You are all right. Why are you're such a terrible? I don't care for it. It's not bad. You probably can't.

You can't. Yeah. Damn. You see her shoving in these strange-looking pajamas and you're fine. You fell her. And you took a trophy of her. And you took a trophy of them. your defeat. Yeah, I just

well, I found them on the floor in the hallway. You should dispose of those. You might get an illness. Sure, I mean, you want to disease, but okay. I leaned a toe and I say, how did you find these people? Anyway. Well, it's fine.

It's a horrible question. Is there a campfire, like a hearth nearby? Who was the crossroads? No, that doesn't be currently lit. You know there's a fireplace downstairs, but it wouldn't be lit at this time. I would have made a move to try and throw them in an open fire, but instead I just tried to...

Well, I'll burn them later. How about there? Not the time. Are we ready to go? I'm ready. Well, everyone's here. We've rid ourselves of that other strange, foul dwarf. So I think it's fine.

Let's go. We proceed. Please lead the way, Nathaniel Brill. Okay, Arnus of the Sands. Strange minion to archbishop Aloysius Secarius. Who are your vessels, aren't you names? This is Caprice, also known as Capricci. This is, I always forget the human's name.

This is Toa. Hersia, Lufty, obviously the iris of the sands. Sorry, I'm Albert Sunshot Benedict Powerbottom. Can I reach up my head? No, we didn't. I don't give you a wink, wink, but I give him a longer stare, knowing I didn't know what to call him. Like, good.

Can you make a deception check for me? Are you Albus? Albert. Albert Funshot Benedict's Power Bottom. He should have been Albus. I'm just going to put that out here. What do you say? Deception?

Yeah. Well, this is going to go very plain. Power Bottom. Hey, 16. Poo. Not bad. Okay, you look at this. Oh, Mr. Powerbottom was going to meet you.

Oh, I'm surprised you were able to pronounce that. I mean, most people don't get it right. He said, Mr. Powerbottom very well. Yes, that's correct. Okay, oh, it will be a long walk. Let us go. And he leads you out of the building. And some of the girls are on the railing, looking down, and you see that they're kind of wagging some fingers down at him,

and he just looks up at them and just turns his head back down. You can see there's a slight look of disgust on his face as he turns away and guides you to the city. Bye, Florine. And he's like, bye, honey. And then you leave. And she leads you through the streets of the seven heavens. And as you're making your way to the checkpoint of wherever this is,

wherever you would be heading, which I believe is the Conquest Ward, the Conquest Ward, you see that there is that same line as that Brill is shuffling ahead of you. And as he is shuffles, you see the long line of people waiting to get in. And he just, he seems to be approaching right behind one of the lines. And he steps to the left and walks in between. And you see the soldiers looking at papers. And he pulls out, pulls up his symbol in the Raven's head and just shows it at them. And he gives a thumb back to the whole group of you.

and the guards all look at you and you all pass as you make your way through the first checkpoint. You make your way into the conquest quarter and you see the similar scenes of the rising, billowing smoke, the clanging of metal-on-metal, the churning of wheels and gears, and the smell of strong, the smell of industry. Right.

the smell of war. What's that red thing? And you eventually make your way around to the next checkpoint. And once again, there is a large line of, a large line of individuals trying to make their way through into flocks roost. And you see him hold up his pendant again as you walk through and walk through. And then these guards seem to give him a nod of acknowledgement. I was like, oh, hey, how are you doing Nathaniel?

And they let him throw as he's like, as he just kind of grumbles at them. He's something strong. And I don't know. Never mind, we're not doing that. And this will devolve into a full Homestar Runner reference campaign. That'll be, actually, maybe I'll work on that. Only if I can play the cheat.

Yes. Yeah. Oh my God, you're cool. Well. Anyway. Anyways, this will be a thing. We'll bring the storm out. Curlod!

Yeah. And so you make your way through into Flock's Roost. You hear the tolling of bells and the flocking and the flapping of wings, the calls and croaks of the ravens that are all around and seem to highly concentrated in this area. Just lines and lines of them sitting on every rooftop

and along every fence as he just turns and guide you. you through. Is there anything as they're discussing while you're making your way? I'm not discussing anything, but realizing that we are going through what I imagine to be the same checkpoints as we came through, I'm probably going to have my hood up and try to be towards like the back of the group. You have the ring too, right? I don't. We never decided. We never really decided. I never took a hat. I think I still had it. That's fine. I just want to establish that. But I'm doing the same thing she's doing. I'm doing collar up, hat down. I'm not really

talking to anybody. My moment. Being that they spotted me and I'm just trying to keep an eye out for like any guards that I recognize and then try to avert my gaze. Yeah. I will just say that you would all notice that basically once they see Nathaniel, that they're not really looking super closely at the rest of you. And they're kind of just keeping an eye on you, but it seems as if like that when they see him walking, that they're fine with whomever he's bringing. He seems to hold a lot of respect among them. Or at the very least, what's around his neck does. Okay.

At the very least, if not him. And he guides you through these streets. It seems to be a very nice district. Far, far, far, nicer, the residential area that you pass through are these beautifully maintained houses of varying stories, beautifully maintained gardens, some, the occasional church here, chapel there.

And as you see that there are, of churches and chapels to a variety of gods and goddesses other than the Raven Queen. When you remember, I sent you a private message. Got it. No right. And so as you are making your way through, you see the huge gray stone of the cathedral above you.

And it looms towering, and you hear as the hour turns, and it gets to about 3 p.m., you hear the loud, gong, gong, gong, and it just emanates over the entire district. You feel like you'd probably be able to hear it in some of the other districts as well. As you made you- It's noon? What was that?

You said it's noon? It's 3 p.m., sorry, yeah. It's just been past noon. I'm sorry, where is the cathedral look at? It's in Floss Roost. How deep into Flock's roof, is it? It seems to be towards the center. Okay, so somewhere on here.

Yeah. Got it. Oh, are we just still walking? You guys are walking here. I'm gonna walk up to Caprice and just very casually and quietly to him say, I still have the documents. If you don't mind, I'd like to hang on to them to keep studying them. And if I have questions about this language, I may talk to you about.

Is that okay? That's fine with me. If you need them back, you just let me know. I just want to make sure that they stay with us as a group. Agreed. I will protect them with my life. Okay. So you all make your way through as this massive looming cathedral gets

larger and larger and larger. And you see that as the buildings start to get a little bit more sparse, as a massive circle at the center of this district opens up in front of you. And as you see just this massive circle with churches and temples all around, but at the very center is this huge stone cathedral and bell towers. But for at least 100 feet all the way around this cathedral are gravestones and crypts and mausoleums as a massive graveyard surrounds it. And you're being led directly to the center. And you see that there are dozens of steps all the way up to the heavy double doors.

And you see that there are a number of gargoyle-looking feet. figures all along the tops of this cathedral. And all of them seem to be different as they're all leering down at you. But they all seem to have the heads, no matter what their shape, they all seem to have the heads of ravens and crows and corvids of some kinds. And you see a number of individuals in simple robes, some far more dressed. As you pass by, people of varying races. coming, going out of different...

Where are we? You are at the center. You're going towards the stairs into the cathedral. Okay, gotcha. So you're... So these are people that are inside of the cemetery area.

Oh, yeah. So they're just kind of passing you through the main road cuts directly through. You always talk about that? And there are people of various races, predominantly human,

and you see some people that are in simple robes, others that seem to be investments that are far nicer, made of finer threads. And some that, that are even to have religious garb, but blended with military decoration

as he leads you up to these huge stairs that lead to the doors of the cathedral. And each step, he just slowly hobbles up, and he slows down very, very much, and you have to kind of wait for him to make up each step, and he, not a step. If he seems like he's,

If he seems like he's struggling, I'll run to the, I'll scurry to the front of the group and I'll try to give him a hand or like a shoulder to lean on since I'm shorter than him. Make-up's Wazing type. Oh, I'm proficient in that. Oh man, I'm so sorry there, Mr. Brill. Let me help you out real quick

so that we can get up here with a natural one. Oh, geez, man, I'm sorry. That would be a six. Six-Den-Y. He holds up his hand, he has, I've climbed these steps for many years. for many years, as he seems to kind of have a bit of a stiffness to his gate as he leads you up.

And as he approaches, you hear, as the doors start to open. I put my hand up to everyone. Now, I've traveled with you for quite a while, and I know that none of you are very respectful in those cases. This is a religious place, and I need all of you to be on your best behavior,

though this is not the goddess I worship. we are in the house of a god. Do you understand? My father has set up this meeting and you will not embarrass me in front of one of his friends. Are we clear? Yeah, you will not in Dallas.

Darling, you are probably best not to speak most of the time. I'm relying on Felix to help me out with this and potentially caprice as long as you're not going to talk about anyone's genitalia. I use minor illusion to create a literal

zipper across my mouth Looney Tune style. I just, I nodded, I nod at Iris. And I won't say anything at all. You're welcome to any of you are, except you're looking as long as you're respectful. And you can as well as long as she'll respect. Her accent fits in more.

Maybe they'll feel like, oh, she's from here. Well, she is from, she is from Kirste. Yeah, I'm just, you may proceed. Should I say anything? Should I help out at all? And, look at it. me first and I'll wink if you can talk. I'll just stare at you the whole time.

Blinker wink, blink, blinker wink. If you breathe, you would not. Use your best judgment, darling. And if it is an incorrect judgment, we will dispose of you. Oh, okay. Is that sleazy-in-the-ball? Let's get out of here.

So he continues. And the doors are swung open as two years. young individuals in either side. One seems to be a man, the other seems to be a woman, in very, very, very basic vestments. As they are they heaved the door open, as they have seemed to been alerted to Nathaniel coming. And as soon as you enter the space of this cathedral,

every single step echoes and emanates around you. As you look all around and you see this beautiful stained glass in varying darker shades of deep blues and whites and grays, as the light is being refracted and shining all down into this center area that seems to be a chamber that leads off to various different rooms within this cathedral. And there's a number of priests and worshippers and military personnel just walking around and just the steps and the voices seem to just completely reverberate off of all the walls and the windows and leading to this almost this cacophonous din around you as he turns to all of you, Nathaniel does,

and he says, you can wait here, I'll go see if the archbishop is free, and he turns and leaps to discuss himself. if you care to, or you wait. This looks expensive in here. It's pretty impressive, for sure. I've never seen a church this big. I didn't really have much chance to explore the other districts, especially this place,

but I know that there are several, you know, very holy places around here, and it's quite a thing to see. Can you guys hear the acoustics in here? Like, I would just, I know it would be disrespectful, but I would just love to jam in here. It's just unbelievable. Can you look? Nope, nope, I'm gonna just, I'm gonna clap. I just put my hand like on his shoulder and like.

Can I tell you guys a secret? Yeah. Do you know what that sensation that you get in the pity of your stomach when you go into a library and you just have to let one rip? Do you need to go outside? Do you? I've been holding it in since we got on these stairs. God damn it. I feel like I need to let one out right now. I can silence so that she can evacuate her. whatever. Bowels. Air canning. Silence falls over all of you

and you feel very comfortable ripping one. Everyone is staring out, is there like a window or is it all enclosed? No, everyone's staring at you. Literally everyone, the group is all staring at you and you see people, a couple of the humans are walking through and staring around you. You see a sensor bear kind of like

spewing some incense in your direction and deep billowing smoke hits you and this is very potent fragrance swarms around masking a herd and just vicious rip. I'm so glad this is a dark Gothic campaign. Well, you know,

announcing your plans is a great way to hear God laugh. So I'm just like and I'm just like... Felix takes several of I let silence fall having seen her finish. It's got to smell really bad. I'm sorry, but I don't talk about this in London.

Silence was up for a reason, darling. Smells really bad. Yes, it does. As it melds with incense of the censor bearer of the Raven Queen. It was kind of was this horrible marriage that should never have been, which is actually a lovecraft short story. Not actually. It sounds like...

You took me. That was the joke. And so eventually, it probably takes about 20 minutes. As they're all sitting there watching, people coming and going. And it seems to be hustling and bustling. You probably, maybe except for Iris in the great temples of her home continent, have not seen a place of worship this massive. And as the light refracted through the stained glass windows is kind of shimmering,

down in this beautiful pattern on the ground, you finally hear the shuffling steps of Brill as he walks through, walks forward, and he says, the archbishop, we'll see you now. I will take you to him. And he begins to lead you through. You see several very large archways with these huge, thick wooden doors. And there's a smaller one that is very, very, very finely carved. and the accents are painted in this beautiful image of a swooping raven. And he goes up to it and unlocks it with a silver key and opens leading to a narrow staircase.

Do I recognize the key? This is a super long shot, but I have a ring of keys now from Dickless McGee. I would say Megan Intelligence Check. Dickless McGee. Yeah, that's gonna be in a hot eight. It looks like a key. Yeah.

It looks like a key. So he leads you through each of your steps in this narrow passage echo. Through the chambers you walk up and up and up and up and up. And it seems like it's going forever. And especially being forced to stand behind on Nathaniel Brill, who's just taking his sinking so long. And it's barely a two-person stairwell. As you make your way up finally to another small wooden door. is just as intricately carved

as he opens it and leads into a chamber oh thank God and you see it leads into a small chamber where that seems

just as just as amazing acoustics but far more intimate there's a very tiny stained glass window at the far end of this long room and there's There seems to be a number of small pews and small kneeling areas all around this long chamber. And you see a number of individuals kind of kneeling down or reading these books and praying, and it's quiet.

And you see the very far end on this large table flanked by two statues of this female figure shrouded in a hood. with wings coming out of her shoulders. You see a man. Seems to be a bit past his middle years, a bit past a five o'clock shadow, and a thick, thick, thick head of hair shortly trimmed. As you see that he is wearing a very long, elegant, beautifully crafted robes

with a short collar, however, that wraps around very similarly to the uniforms that you've seen. A number of metals and stripes along his shoulders that denote a very high rank. On his head is a hat that seems to be a combination of a priest or an abbot religious hat, but with a brim of a military cap.

As he seems to be looking over this massive book with a huge silver threaded, but what do you call it the bookmark that's attached to the book? There's a bookmark. I feel like there's a word for it. The tassily thing, yeah. Whatever it is, the bookmark.

And Brill turns to you and says, that is Archbishop Zakari. Iris of the Sends, he knows you are arriving. I will allow you to do the introductions. I'm staring intently at Iris. Thank you. And I'll slowly walk up to him. He nods and turns away and starts opening the door

and shuffles down the stairs. You see this man looking over a book reading. He has a finger running along a passage. And you see that this massive book that he's reading, the closer that you get, are just covered with, with lines and lines and lines that all seem to be inked elegantly by hand. And something that probably would have taken years to fill as you all approach him. Good afternoon Archbishop Aloysius Zacharias.

He takes a moment to register and he listens to your voice and he looks up at you. He has these deeply set, set light blue eyes as he narrows them and almost seems a bit surprised to see a collection of individuals as rag-tag as you are and he's he gets a cook of a smile on the corner of his mouth and he says yeah you you must be jasper's girl his daughter yes i receive the sentence it's lovely to meet you Aloysius, Archbishop of the Faith of the Queen. I'll nod deeply. Oh, I'll curtsy.

I will also attempt to curtsy with a flail and a shield in my hand. You are a long way from home, my child. I am. And your father says that you may need some help. We have come upon some information that we would like to get to, I believe it is a Portia Paradiso. He mentioned that as well. And he suggested that as I am also a woman of the cloth,

that maybe you would be the person to speak to you. Though I am not an avid worshipper of the Raven Queen, I do respect the Raven Queen and all those who worship her as well. I have come to this land by direction of my God, Anubis. As I have respect for Anubis and all other gods of death that are not twisted by the forces of evil. I'll nod at him. I've always had an interest in your people's pantheon, and I appreciate what your father's done for me.

But I must stress, Portia's a very powerful and busy woman. And not just anyone can get audience with her. I completely understand, which is why I believe that my father has sent us to you in the hopes that you may be able to assist us. I would not begin to assume that we would be worthy to speak with her on our own. That we would need your guidance and your assistance

to make something of this nature happen. And with the blessing of the Raven Queen of course. Make it persuasion check out advantage, please. But you know they didn't. Oh, look at that. Oh, almost pute. What's your . I'm okay.

Well, it's a 19 and a 5. So my persuasion is 25. 25. Nice. He turns and says, I can offer my assistance. But to see General Paradiso in matters of the faith, you must be blessed not by me. by the Raven Queen herself. I can assist you in that process,

but it is a trial. It is very difficult and takes the strength, the will. Sometimes the lives of many a young, ambitious cleric. Do you understand that? I do believe that I understand. Trials are difficult. I had to undergo one myself to become. I'm a priestess of Anubis, and I am willing to undergo this trial for the blessing of the

Raven Queen. Should she believe that I am worthy? I cannot speak for my comrades, but I respect your God, and I would be honored to undergo this trial. He nods, we'll keep that persuasion more. He nods, says, he looks around to the rest of you. friends are they trustworthy? They haven't let me down so far but yes I do believe they are and I'll just be like they have been there for me in dark times and

they have not let me fall. I've given a little I have spoken with Nubis on occasion and he has in only a few words given me reason to believe that the path I'm on with them's the correct one. And I don't believe you would tell me that if he did not see goodness in them. That is what I'm thinking as well. I would perhaps like to speak in private after these trials to understand what Anubis has shown you to bring you to Korovakia. For when a death god sends anyone to these dark lands, where he knows the Raven Queen flies. over. It is not for no reason. I do not believe it is for no reason. I had whistled your tune that I, that you would be familiar with, taking inspiration.

You know. Oh, nice. Any any, any group of gods, like the Secession Pantheon that includes not one, not two, but three gods of death is of interest to me. I've spoken with your father, but I've never had a chance to have a private conversation here on these shores, where I feel like there are no spies watching, no offence to you or your people. We are a cautious folk. You are, and I respect that, so are we. But I'm willing to trust that you will earn the blessing of the Queen herself, and how you do on the trial will depend on how much generous. Paradiso trusts you initially. So you must take it seriously.

Is this a, is this a deadly trial? It can be, yes. I look at Felix is like, confused. What would I have heard of this trial? Right. And would I have ever heard of it? No. So is this strictly a cleric priest's thing?

Yes. So then I give him looking at me worrying, I try to give him like a reassuring nod, but like... Would I have heard of anything just from being in the monastery? No. So what you were dealing with was Toulop Gwar. Okay. The got a drink.

So this is specific to the Ravencuit. Okay. It's nice. And she, he turns to all of you and says, I, you may have varying connections to your own gods. You own this one here. But anyone who walks in the lands of Corvacia must at least pay heed to the Raven Queen. It does no injustice to be rude to a god, especially in their lands.

I agree. And this is why General Paradiso requires anyone that receives counsel is blessed. Now, as I mentioned, I am more than willing to... to embark on this trial, but I will not speak for my friends. When death is on the line, they have to choose it themselves. I'll step forward and I'll look at Iris and say, I've got your back, no matter what. And I have yours.

I'll step forward to and I'll say, by Murden Shield, I've got your back to. I love you guys. Oh, Tony. And I don't want anybody to die. So I'm coming to? And I'll step forward. Aww.

That is this weird, Toei, you're too good for this world? Right? Seriously. Holy shit. You don't deserve it. Yeah, well, how hot can it be? And I'll just a bop up in line with everyone. And it's like a little hop.

Hello. Well. Caprice, are you going to join us? This blessing, it's, uh, it doesn't come with any, like, ramifications or is it just sort of like, uh, I'm not, I'm not a very godly person, and I just want to understand a little bit more about what, uh, that entails. We have to, uh, worship her as part of the trial and I do not want to do that any disrespect whatsoever. I've just, if you complete the trials and succeed. The Raven Queen will have everything that she needs to allow you to walk beneath her shadow. You do not need to worship her.

I meant it for you guys. I think we were going to make you do it anyway. I would never make him do anything. He did not want to do it. But you would not because you're so soon. And I would not allow you to, Lufty. Yes, that's true. This is a decision we all have to make on our own.

I could probably use all the godly blessings I can get because, I mean, look at me. And it seems very, very, useful. It should come in handy. Do you have like a literature on the Ravens Queen that I could like understand her a little better or does that take like a common, like every Sunday morning kind of kind of deal? We prefer for those performing the trials and those that are interested to attend our hours of worship. Okay, that's fine. Yeah, no, I'm in. Let's do it. I'm excited about the plan. Let's do the plan.

committed. I will meet you at the sepulchre of Nero. One more time. The sepulchre of N-E-R-A. N-E-R-A. And then the-U-R-E-R-E-R. You mean like the poulcher? Sepplicar. Sepplicer. Seppel-C-E-S-E-L-C-H-E-R. Oh. I don't know that.

Lots of C's and S-E-U-L-C-H-E-R. Thank you. It's like a mausoleum or a C-R, right? Yes. Is that quick? Just another word for that. It's a fancy name. But memories rest.

It's literally on the other side of Cora, of the, of Zentra. Yep. So good luck to us. And he looks at all of you and says, after he will have, over a day to prepare. One day.

Make peace with yourselves, with your families. Anyone who may miss you, if you fail. I'm sorry, you said one day. It's one day. So it's not tonight. I didn't hear what he said. Okay, no, that's okay.

It's the following evening. And he didn't, he didn't, like, ask for any of our names or anything, did he? Okay. Sorry, I'm being paranoid. He seemed to have been satisfied with, he seemed to have an element of supreme respect for Iris's father. Got it, got it.

Good. his eyes survey over all of you. There's this icy blue almost. As he leans forward and he says, there will not be easy. You'll be dealing with all of the varied aspects of our all-powerful goddess. But if you are worthy,

I have no doubt you will succeed. I will make it happen tomorrow evening. Just past sundown. I'm sorry to interrupt, but will Nathaniel be taking us to memory dressed? Well, we have an escort. Would you like an escort? If we could, I don't want to impose or anything like that.

Make it persuade you to check an advantage. 17. 17. Okay. He... She left that up to freeze. He nods and says, I can arrange for an escrow. if that's what you seek. That would be great. Thank you. You should have nothing to fear in this city

as long as you follow the laws and the customs of our people. Of course. I'm no stranger. And do not work against the High General. Niva. I say, nervously. Nieve. Oh, never.

Never. Never. Me too much, seven. Mna. Ngu. Amen. Amen. Yes.

Say, yeah. Once it is completed. I will arrange, and you all succeed. I will reach out to General Paradiso myself and arrange a meeting and whatever information you have should be for her eyes only. I'm very much like to...

Just kidding. Discuss. Anubis' will. I would be honored to have a private conversation with you and speak about our gods together. Very well. I wish you Raven Queen's blessings. they walk beneath her shadow

and he just turns back down to his book places his finger onto a line and continues reading. And I'll just motion them and we'll just take it. Thank you very much. Just walk backwards doing this until I like exit the door. I've got very deeply.

Almost all over. I'm bowing and walking backwards at the same time and like tripping over like shit and falling in the mass. Are there like Raven Queen's blessings that I would have been taught in the military? There was a variety, like the very basic one is like this raven.

So it wouldn't be uncommon. If somebody gave me a blessing, I would know what the same response. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Made a copy with you. Right, and also with you, right? Of course.

Do I understand as Caprice that the private meeting isn't now, like you're coming with us? Yes. You're going to talk privately with him after a blessing time. After we don't die. If we don't die for the trial. He did see, although he sees, Although he seemed to have a level of respect for the Secession Pantheon and for the Pharaoh and the like, he seemed to be eager to see whether or not you would succeed. And he would not be willing to kind of speak super privately and candidly until you had received the blessing of the Raven Queen.

I'll say that would be probably easy to deduce. So are we just making our way out of the temple? I'm going to walk up to Iris and say, I'm sorry. Sorry, I jumped in, I didn't mean to, but I just figured an escort would be best based on how quickly Nathaniel was able to make it through the checkpoints. Any chance of us getting maybe a NASA escort,

because he is so slow. I think we need to take what we can get at this point. I mean, we've already had several run-ins with the law here that have almost been deadly. No, I think that was a really good call. He's got that penant on him. If anybody gives us shit, he can just flash his raven. Exactly.

Exactly. Yeah. I think people will take us more. I find flashing off and helps when you're trying to get through quickly. I like that Sicarius. I think different kind of flushing. Like the Raven, the pendant. Oh, so not like the butt pajamas.

Oh, no, that's a bad flush. Oh, okay. There's a good flush, bad flush. I like that, Zakaria's guy. I would like to get out of this temple and we're talking about butt pajamas. Agreed. I would say you're eventually able to easily. No one disturbs you.

You all make your way down the large steps and you see a number of, of priests and priestesses wearing similar vestments to what Nathaniel had been wearing. Walking around, some or walking alongside you, some bit quicker, some a bit slower, as the doors open, the young altar boy and altar girls kind of pressing aside as the doors open and you're welcome to leave.

So it's just Zakaris that have like really elegant robes. Are all the other ones like super plain? All the other pieces. They're varying degrees. Okay. I'm going to, as we're walking down the steps of the, I'm assuming Nathaniel is not with us. No.

I hate to suggest this, but there is no way that we can make it back to the seven heavens tonight. No, I believe we should probably find a place to sleep here. Iris, you read my mind. I believe that with our connection, luckily with Nathaniel as well as the Archbishop, that we would be able to sleep her safely. Let's just find, let's secure a place to stay and we wait here until our escort takes us to memories rest tomorrow evening. I agree. I don't want to risk anything.

And before we believe, I'll let one of the priests know that we're going to find a place to stay here. Okay. So that he can let Nathaniel and the Archbishop know that we will be in this quarter when they come to collect us tomorrow. Okay. You all make your way into Floss Roost. And you find that there's a variety of different areas. areas. Smaller kind of sub-districts, some are more related to like, oh, there's a smaller little district or an avenue of similar sun god, like Kailor, and Mathander, and the like.

And there's a variety of different shrine areas, but there's also some slight commerce. There's some small libraries, a lot of residential districts as well. It seems to be a, seems to be like this entire city has large bits of residential areas. It's with such a massive city, there just needs to be tons of places for people to live. So I'll just say that you eventually find an inn about the, you know, the modestness that you would enjoy.

Off to the sign called a New Bahamat. That is a... I know him. I clapped when I heard him. My God, I clap. The New Bahamas? New Bahamette. New Baham.

And what was this? This is an area or an inn? An inn. It's an in. And it's connected to a small religious gift shop. With a small, I love gifts. Bookstore, gift shop, that sort of thing. Beam, gif shop.

As you enter, you see not a human, but a silver dragon boar. Standing at the counter. And it seems to have feminine features. And she... This is in the bookstore? This is... Or at the main desk? It's connected, but at the main desk.

Of the inn. Exactly. As you see a silver dragon born, and she looks at you and she says, ah, it is very, very, very nice to meet you. How long will you be staying? I believe we'll only be staying one evening for now. But would it be too much trouble

if we needed to extend our stay? No, not at all. We have vacancies. There is much competition. Well, then as Iris says, for one night so far. How many rooms? I believe two rooms would be adequate. Two rooms? Okay, very well.

That would be six silver pieces for one night. For both rooms? For both rooms. Yes. I will pay for it. Iris, are you sure? I mean, we have money. I'm...

You are following me on this journey, so I will pay for the room. Thank you. This is so generous. You can pay for me... You can pay for your portfolio. She's going to vent more you. I'll Venmo her the full six. I'm just kidding.

Love it, love it. So she hands you each key to separate room. She tells you where the rooms are. And it's approaching sunset at this point. And as you see the orangeish rays of the setting sun coming through the windows of New Bahamette, you are welcome to do whatever you'd like while you have the rest of the evening.

I'm checking out the gift shop. I'm with Caprice. I'm also going to do that. Yeah. Because I'm interested in if they have books that are just, you know, Raven Queen slash Bahamette-centric, or if there are books that are not just, you know, like, gift books. You know what I'm saying? I want to look for, I'm a nerd.

I'm not going to go and do that, but I'm going to ask him to pick me up a copy if you find something similar. Okay. All right. I'm going to say, just to clarify, I'm looking for books that are not just gifts. So anything of interest that Iris and I may want to learn more about more. Yeah. Got it. Got it.

So I guess I'll look for like a pamphlet about the Raven Queen. Okay. You see that most. Do you ever think that might be like three here that I could just take for my own bruising? While they're doing that, I'm just going to find a place in the ladies' room and I'm just going to spend the evening praying to a new bus. Okay. And asking for guidance, et cetera. So you all check the shop.

It seems like there is a small section on things for the Raven Queen. You assume that that is probably the standard for most of these shops, but this seems to be mostly focused on Bahamah. As there are mostly a lot of trinkets, pendants, necklaces, small statues of platinum dragon. It's probably a fake platinum.

Pendence, a symbol, the holy symbol. Do any of the penance look like what Nathaniel had? Mm, yeah. As far as the penance, nothing seemed to be that elaborate. It seemed to be just very small little trinkets. Like when you go to like a Catholic bookstore and they have fancy rosaries, that kind of thing. I'll consider it.

So if I don't find anything of value that I restore might care about, then I'm going to retire to our room and continue to study the abyssal letters with the key that you gave me. I'm just called you Matthias. I'm sorry. Caprice. that caprice gave me. Hey, Felix, before you go, check out this tiny trinket. It's a glass orb, but the tiny bubbles create a three-dimensional Raven Queen.

Isn't that cool? That's so funny. Uh, no. 15 gold pieces? Get out of the fucking of my face. So I'll just head back to the room, and I want to continue studying the abyss. I'm just going to spend as much time as possible looking for any Mird and paraphernalia at all. So it seems to be an abyss is particularly four.

have a bit for the Raven Queen, but the rest of it is Baham. There's a small few books of, like, teachings and sayings. Some of it are like, you know, oh, Bahamut worship around the world. So you have some from Nekbet, some from Yulong and the like of how people worship in different cultures and different areas in the world. But nothing, nothing for Moradin. So Bahamette is not to be confused with Baphomet? Okay, different.

Gotcha. Baphomet and Bahamette. And then technically Bahamut, but we colloquialize it to Bahamette. Apparently Bahamahman is also cool. Oh, it is? Yeah. Oh, great. So Bahamette, have I ever heard that term before?

Made a religion check. That name before. Oh, not bad, not bad. Religion, I am proficient in, I would be 18. 18. I would say that it's fairly commonly known that Bahamette, the Platinum dragon, is the primary deity of the chromatic, not a chromatic, the metallic dragons.

So the good god of war, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, light and I don't know if it's light, but it's like, it's, it's goodness and law and war and, the like. Okay. So it's pretty, it's a commonly worshipped, I would say that, you know, if you've encountered dragon born, especially metallic ones, you would know, you know, have encountered symbols of Bahamad. You only got that question a while. Do I, um, knowing with dragons and dwarves and mines and dragon hordes and all that nonsense, do I get like a good sensation, that he's a good god. He's a good god.

Yeah. I think it's a very common thing that he's the good god. On the opposite side of Tiamat, who is the evil, is the evil god. Is he lawful good? I believe he's a lawful good.

Okay. I think believe Tomat. Bahamette is not Thomas. What the fuck? That's my... Thomas. Thomas the Platon dragon. After all of my praying,

once the evening happens, I'm going to go down and set up and get a table put together for everyone to eventually trickle in for dinner. So you sit down and you pray? Is there anything that you're specifically... No, just basically just praying and showing him like I'm here

and following your stuff. You know, please guide me through this trial. Let me know if this displeases you and I will back out last minute. Please don't ever leave me. Could you please make a... Just a religion check at advantage for me. Do not leave Felix to complete the trial.

Yeah, well, I honestly could not have rolled worse. She had cold colors. Yay! Well, we can all love. I just said you could have a role more than you should have taken that. I'm sorry. We do have a twist of a baby.

We have four of them. We do have four of them. Well, I also have an inspiration that Mikey gave me forever ago. So I think I'm actually going to use that because I rolled a one and a two. Okay. Let's do that. Let's do that. 19.

23. Oh, so is that? No, I used my own inspiration. Oh. I want to use a twist of fate for something where it's like super important. Every. I agree. Cheers.

I would say that with a 23, as you're praying, and you're used to varying different degrees as a cleric, but you feel a sense of goodness and comfort wash over you, and you feel like you're on the right path. And it feels like there's a sense of approval from your God. So, yeah, it is with that that I will feel emboldened and I'll go downstairs, and it's kind of a thank you for everyone being so willing to rally around me.

I'll communicate with the kitchen staff and get a table set up and some food ordered. And I'll pay for all of that so that they can come down to the trail. Wow. So yeah, so when you all are getting freshen and up and all of that, there's a table. Okay, go ahead. I was going to say, Felix doesn't know. He's just, he's been studying. Do you, I saw the other Goliath in the four winds, right? Not flux roost?

Yes. Okay. When I get the sense that there would be anything probably Anything related to like wind spirits or spirits in general that aren't necessarily gods, but kind of like ancestral gods or spirits? I would say that you make religion check. Just straight religion check. Make a religion check.

So a 20. A 20. I would say that if you took your time, you could try to. But I would say that for the level of worship that you have in like the great spirits, it definitely seems as if the people in this district, you get the sense that there is a standard, that they're probably more focused on the actual gods of the upper planes.

Maybe of some of the neutral plane, or rather, I guess the one neutral plane that it would be. So more of the upper plan are gods that they would be worship. What was the question that you had asked? Just if they would, if I would get a sense that there would be anything related,

like beyond, like, full gods. Kind of like the wind spirits or like ancestral spirits that like, oh, I have twitch. Different kind of societies don't necessarily worship gods. Some will worship sort of spirity type stuff. And so just if there are presence of that. Try to do. You get the sense that you haven't spent a lot of time

in this district. So you're not sure, but from what you've seen, it's mostly been like established gods of certain pantheon, primarily the Raven Queen, but and the other ones, like, well below that would be like super major gods like Bahamah or Lissander or the like. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Aventris

and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas. Shrout over Saltmarsh. You can also go to The Crookedmoon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition. And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you.

You are all, you've had some time to read, you've checked out the bookstore and the gift shop and all of that business for Bahamah. There's a table of food and drink waiting for you. Iris will say it costs like three gold pieces. Okay. Three gold pieces for, probably five gold pieces, actually, for the whole thing. Thanks for the brandy, cheers.

Oh, yeah, you sure you don't need any help with, with payment. I had already paid before any of you would come down. Okay. I enjoy the meal. Yeah, I'm going to just take like a big jug of something and and unless anyone deliberately came for me, I'm not there. Okay. Does anyone know where Felix is? Well, who else has shown up? I thought I was the only one at the time. I just sat down and thank you for the brand. I would have left with Caprice from the gift shop to sit down. Yeah, I'd be there. We didn't find any material on the Raven Queen. I figured if we were going to get some blessings, we should probably know a little bit about her. I assumed that if that had been the case that Felix would have come to let me know.

Well, I wonder what he's doing. Yeah, I don't know. It's probably crying. It seems like to cry sometimes. Whoa! We all get a little sad. Yeah, except for me, I don't have a little sad more often than most. Hey guys, it's all right to cry.

I'll kind of... I'll kind of like, you know, swoosh along with it. I do kind of am feeling a, what, like a tobacxy? What, like a tobacxy? I want to hear that before the end of the session. I'll find a way. Yeah. Well, should somebody go get him?

I don't want him to miss out on dinner. I believe we're all going to need it before whatever is going to be thrown at us tomorrow. Sure, I'll go get him. And I go loud sco-cooch of my chair back and I start, uh, starting up the stairs. think for such a small creature, she would make less noise. And my thighs slap loudly. Tick up as I blow away.

I choke on whatever I'm trying to hear the time. You hear a loud clap of thighs as the dummy thick dwarf. One used herself and you all take one thunder damage. From the sheer, this, the sheer, everyone is like, they bite in your hand, you're piercing damage to the hand. That's what it is. All of do we enjoy a short rest? Yeah.

Yeah, you all enjoy a short rest. Array. And my inspiration. Herz goes up to the room where we're few friends. Oh, that's right. I was too distracting. What if I do? Herge walks up to the door and goes AFK for a moment.

She stares down at her thighs in amazement and just how much noise it makes. And actually, I don't even knock. I just slap my thighs together and I... I knock. I knock. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry, who is it?

Is Hersia, Felix. You want to come down and have some grab? Oh, yes. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate, yes. I'll be right there. Thank you.

I'm going to need a time frame for how long you're going to be because I feel like if you don't tell me, Iris is just going to send me back upstairs again. As she's talking, I open the door and I'm like, leave the way. My mind. Beaks. Come along now. I appreciate you letting me know.

Thank you. And I capriciate you, and I turned it and I'm just like to. Oh. If you need him, I'll perfect. The whole party is now at the table, eating food and drinking, and may discuss whatever they like in preparation for the trial of the following team.

Iris, I'm sorry, the bookshop, which, to be fair, I didn't really expect to have anything of value. It's all souvenirs. There's nothing, nothing of knowledge. But I can maybe attempt to answer some of your questions. It was more just a general knowledge to kind of prepare myself. I don't have any specific burning questions.

I just wanted to do a little bit of research, especially if I'm going to speak to Archbishop. I don't want to go in knowing absolutely nothing about his words. If you think of any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer. I'm certainly no cleric. I'm not a, but I am a worshipper. You worship them down on one. You worship the radio?

Pass it. I do. Oh. Oh, you do? I did not. Oh, I have no idea. simple questions. Is there a Raven Queen? I mean, a King?

Would I know that? I mean, I'm basically going to look at Mike for all of this shit. I would say that you've never heard. You've never heard. Yeah. I mean, that yet. That's, uh, that's not something I'm aware of. Caprice. It sounds like you're, uh, you're taunting me. No, no, no. I genuinely know nothing about the Raven Queen. And if she's a queen, then is she a queen of the Ravens or is it just a title that? What is she queen of? I have so many. All Ischiel Levens of Issaquille. Oh.

I think you forgot to pick up that Raven Queen pamphlet in the gift shop. I looked for a Raven Queen pamphlet, but it was just an image of a Raven doing this. But also the other side, dabbing on the other side. Flip it over. It's like two gold? I'm sorry if I gave you all the wrong impression that I wasn't someone who worships the Raven Queen, but being a part of the men. military, it's something that they more or less encourage very strongly and then something

that I grew up knowing here in Kovacia. It's more like a forced. Unfortunately for some people, yes. It's unfortunate. I wonder how she feels about that. You know, I have to be honest with everything that I told you guys, I, I certainly am not necessarily a man of faith. I'm more of a man of science and study, and I don't know what to think either. I mean, these are things that have crossed my own mind, but I'm often, you

know, don't want to just say it. Well, that aside, I can't speak to the strange way that you, in this land, choose to worship your deities. I wouldn't say, however, that I have no idea what to expect in this trial, to be quite honest with you.

And it means a lot to me that all of you would stand up by my side and choose to embark on this endeavor with me. Well, you were there for me, and I certainly intend to be there for you. Thank you. Basically, ditto. I mean, like I said, I...

What is a ditto? Oh, a ditto, it's like a doppelganger, but smaller and fluffier. That sounds like... It is. Now what I'll say is I'm not really... Do you own one? No, I do not, unfortunately. Your value to me has decreased.

You should have a cure on this. Yeah, no, I just, you know, the church wasn't really there in the church. there, the Polar Church wasn't really there for us when I was born. And yeah, Palor, exactly right. And I've never really been much for the deities. They haven't really been there for me. I mean, look what happened to me. It's not like...

Tew. Thank you, darling. Bless you. What? Does something on my face? Maybe. Oh, then why would you say that? It should be, though.

I think it's all polar whiskers and stuff. Oh, ouch. No. It's whipped one out. Yes, that belongs in my face. As I was saying, I just, I'm here for you guys. I think that we're all kind of in this together. So fate threw us in the same basket, you know?

I felt like it was inappropriate to ask since there were no signs of like murder and paraphernalia in this gift shop, but I've been meaning to talk to some people about whereabouts of my dad if they've seen any dwarves kind of walking through here. But, you know, I don't know where to start really. I don't believe that anyone who worships the Raven Queen would look down on you or be upset that you're talking about Muradin, but... This might not be that, right? Just, maybe just see, if you get the opportunity, keep an eye out and describe him.

Religion may not be an important part of it. I don't know, and I don't want to assume, but no one will be upset with you for worshiping a different God. I tend to agree with Felix. When the Archbishop himself seems interested in another god, I imagine that it is probably commonplace. You consider this inn itself as an inn designed around another god. And so in this, at least sceptre, it feels like this is a place where other gods are allowed to be worshipped. So I don't think it'd be uncommon for you to ask. I think that maybe asking with the title of Blessed of the Raven Queen might get you a little further than just unknown dwarf that smells slightly pew-yptuble.

smells slightly putrid. While I... I took a bath. No, he gets those strange underthings in your pack. Is there a harsh snoopide? There's a small fireplace, yeah. I take out my... It's got like little pickies on them.

While I forgot what I was going to say. Hold on, I want to find out what she's going to do with these piggy pajamas. Yeah, that's fine. It'll give me a minute to reap. They have little piggies on them with the butt flap. Thank you. Oh, we do. Well, you know, Iris, I'd be more than his...

happy to throw this in the... No, darling, just wash them. Oh, okay. I can do that. I cast silence in the cathedral, but that did not end the smell. You sleep in those. And I've heard you in the evening. Flatlands is your middle name. No one here perhaps has prestigitation, do they?

Sorry, I do not. Okay, well, I'll both scrub my hand. It's an arcane ability. It allows you to clean things. I've seen some of the... the folks and to catch do it. We're more about utility in the military and not so much making things look nice.

Okay, well, I'll go find some soap when we go to bed. I stuff it back in my pack. Did you know that Hoosius' middle name was Fletcherlands? I didn't know my middle name was that either. I look at Toa. We're two guys too good. I went down at my plate and I say,

no, Toa, I didn't know. Toa, I feel like this is really not dinner conversation. Oh, I didn't, oh, duels are very secretive of their name. No, they're not at all. I would be more than happy to talk about my farts around you any time, any day. I just mean that just by the look on Felix's face,

I don't think he wants to talk about my butt or what comes out of it right now. How does that have to do with your middle name? Savage. Apparently nothing. Does that have something to do with farts? Cho, love. Choate darling. Yes.

Sweet boy. Sweet boy. Bless your heart. Yes, bless your soul. May no bus guide you to judgment. fairly. Oh shit. But you are quite dim.

But Gute. Do you know what flatulence is, Tora? It's whose middle name? No, no, no, no. Do you know what the word means, if it were not her middle name? I guess it's not a name? It's me, it's a...

Don't call out. I'm so smart. I'm going to help him. And I'm helping Felix in turn. Flatulence is farting. And then when you say that, I mean, and I go. Oh, like, it's a word.

It's not a proper name. It is a more elegant or eloquent way of saying farting. And it was a joke, darling, because Herzegov farce all night. Oh, oh, I just figured that it was the middle name. Yeah. Because you just said it was the middle name. But it was a joke, darling. Oh, I'm not.

It was a joke. So from now on, I will ask Felix whether you're joking. And I just kind of pet him on the shoulder and go. Well, I thought that it was going to get us further than it did. I actually think I made a twist. Was that a joke? Not this time, I am. I'm sorry, no, she was being serious.

Now, I've been thinking a little bit about your dad, Herja, and I honestly don't think that he's in the city just because of the information that we learn from that weapons master, the guy who forged all the different blades and pikes and whatnot for the army, he said that business was down. And if your dad has been, I hate to say it, But if he's been captured, then I worry that he might be in the hands of those who speak abyssal. Again, I don't want to assume, but it sounds like if they have some sort of stronghold,

it wouldn't be anywhere near Zentra, especially if they're trying to get Zentra to fall. I mean, I'd be willing to go out with you and to look at the different buildings here and see if there is a church of Morrigan. And if we could maybe talk to them, that'd be fine. But there hasn't been a single trace of them since we got it. I do want to walk around and see if that's a possibility, but I don't want to get discovered either. I don't want to be recognized.

And I honestly think, darling, that that is my main concern, is that you were seen, and you are going to be the most conspicuous of all of us. And so I think that you laying low, I know that it is difficult for you. Well, I'm pretty short. I can get pretty close to the ground. Oh, my God, I'm surrounded by you. If you took the ring that Toa had and we just took an hour to sort of walk the streets and what have you, I could boot myself into a who man and we'd be fine. I think it's Shaboop. Toa, if you don't mind, I'll start looking at the ring and kind of getting attuned to it.

If that were a thing. If that were a thing. I suppose I could. I'll give it back to you, I promise. It's fine. I put it on and start attuning myself to the ring because I don't think I had a previous. You do that. And again, if we find of any sort of news about some sort of

beastial strongholds, then maybe that's where we first take a look for your father. I mean, there's nothing saying that once we do what we have to do here, that we can't move on to find him. I just, we just got to do what we have to do here first. That's all. Do I still have the papers that I found in the labyrinth of the construction? Oh, yeah, we've got those. Because I shared them with Ravali, but we kept them.

That's the thing we have dots, right? There's blueprints. Your dad doesn't have, like, have, like, engineering skills in a big way. He just made weapons, right? He didn't write these. This isn't your dad's handwriting? I'll take a look at the blueprints just in case I recognize. Absolutely not.

Your dad was a very, very skilled blacksmith, but this is engineering of a horrible otherworldly ability. So, yeah, it would be way above his ability, at least as of you know, what you know. Sure. Well, no, he was a really good blacksmith, and he taught me everything I knew. I mean, that's how he made Dakota happen. Oh, wow.

I'm so bad. Did he make Dakota? Yeah. Wow, that's pretty amazing. That's impressive. He made Dakota for me. So being a forge cleric, he does have ability to infuse weapons with magical abilities and magical powers. But no, I don't, I'm looking at this now.

This isn't his handwriting. I just want to make sure we leave no stone unturned. What I can say is that. Though you and I have not necessarily gotten along. I will leave it at that. I do appreciate you standing up for the group and for shewing away that very awful dwarf yesterday. Or was that this morning?

Time sure does fly. This morning. It was horrible, horrific looking. Its face was contorted. It was definitely old, very old. Shorter than your average dwarf. Sure. I'm just staring at the ground.

Holding my mug of coffee, like, this is fine. Constitution for vicious mockery. But that is neither here nor there. With Anubis' blessing going forward, I would do everything that I can to help you find your father. Though I know nothing about Moradin, I believe that every God, who seems to be good, deserves worshippers of any kind,

and if he is a man of the cloth, then he has my allegiance. Yeah, he's a good God, and he served us well. And as long as we've served him well, he hasn't smited us where we stood. So, you know, that's all one can hope for. Good signs.

That's a good sign so far. You worship some strange gods, if that's your fear. So I'm not saying that I'm scared because I'm not. One might say I'm never scared. But should we focus on the task of the hand? No, I completely agree that we should. I set up this dinner specifically for that so we can talk through it. Lufty, that is the smartest thing you've ever said.

You know, I feel really smart, and that's because I'm next to you. So we have... I'm feeling affection, and I don't like it. We have 24 hours, correct? 24 hours. Yep, a little bit less now at this point. Now, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Oh, no, I'm just saying for Hesha, maybe we all stay together this evening and we communicate around the table. We get some sleep, and then should she want to venture out in the morning to query about her father? She could do that before we go to. to do our trial. No, I think I'll just stay. I really don't, I have like a bad juju feeling about going out before the trial and I really don't want to put the bad juju on any of us. I'm not sure what a juju is. It's just like a just a bad juju

like an omen. Yeah. I concur. I think that's wise. I was going to suggest or say that I would certainly never stop her from doing what she needs to do, but I don't intend to leave these this building. As long as that there's any chance that I or hers should be discovered, or any of us be discovered, I guess, minus Iris with protection. But I don't, I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving here until we have an escort. And quite frankly, I have plenty to study between what we found and questions that I can ask a caprice about about abyssal because we've, we've encountered this multiple times and I feel like it's something I should, I should know. Honestly, it's not like we've had much downtime to be able to even talk about the things that we've encountered.

We've really tried to flip it through them. I agree. I agree. So why don't we talk about those horrible plans that we found? Have we really studied them yet? Does anyone... Do any of us know how to utilize plans like that? I remember rolling some sort of in-check on them, but like, I'm not a builder, right?

It was just a matter of whether or not I could understand what they were. Yeah, and so I'll just kind of refresh everyone. It was an artillery thing, right? Yeah, yeah. So these were planes. They were not in invisibly were written in Infernal, which Caprius could also read. Okay. So it was the language of devils versus demons.

Does it look like something in artifice or would have utilized? It could have potentially be something like that. So you're familiar with things like seed weaponry and things like ballistas and catapoles. So you recall that these things were horrible machines that, almost looked I don't know why this trailer is in my playlist I need to get her to apologize there's like voices

I can't wait to see Aladdin either with the genie played by it was in the second one it looked so much better I think the second trailer would do it for Jafar sounding like a little boy well anyway not in here nor there he's blue but then he goes into like human form to be like hey

That's called smart decisions. Yeah. But we're not talking about that. We're letting the DM tell the story. So, I'm excited about that. These were these large towering machines. So these are these tall towering figures

that seem to be on wheels, but these horrible inventions of technology that none of you were aware of. And these horrible faces built in with flaming eyes and flaming mouths that seem to have the same kind of infernal burning furnace type business that you had experienced. Oh shit. Yeah, with the, with all of the shit with with with, with, uh, which we can talk about as far as

Molok. Right. And all of the, the iron, the iron, the ash and the, the brus furnace with these with these machines that seem to go on wheel, it seemed almost just as much, um, and you saw living construct as well in the labyrinth below. Yes. Yes. And And so they seem to be living constructs that are these machines of war. So it's literally not just an artillery device. They are living constructs. It seems like they have a face and they have a huge mouth. It seemed to do things.

But I did not catch that the first time. I may not have been super descriptive. But now we'll say that's the case. Well, no, I mean, that's the point, right? We're studying. You're studying it. And so you're not sure. There's nothing in there that imply, if all the short, all of the writing on it is shorthand,

that even Caprice being able to read infernal is not able to make sense of. Well, because it's... Right, right. Yeah, it's technical. It's all very technical. And so it seems to be some kind of infernal devices with blueprints and the like

that these devils had been bringing and showing to somebody that they were waiting for. This may be a reach, but I would like to maybe study these with Felix and with my proficiency in land vehicles and my proficiency in Smith tools and my forage maiden background,

can I gather, even though I don't understand infernal, where weakness points may be in the construction of this, where if I ever came across one, I would know exactly how to disarm it, or what peg to pull to get it to collapse or like... Make a dis... I'll check a disadvantage. Yeah.

Yeah. More loss and... More helping. We're helping. Yeah. So we'll just say straight, blank. Straight and ad my proficiency. Hercana?

Oh boy. Oh boy. That looks like a single digit. It is a single digit. What's the one? So yeah, no this is not going to do any. It's a five. A five.

You know how land vehicles work. There are axles that wheels are on. It's difficult to see if this thing has even any axles on it. And so it's you maybe if you got, if you encountered one of these things and maybe saw as as a trailer plays, I don't know what the fuck is. I'm getting very irritated. very irritated. I need to address, during the, we have a break, I'll address the playlist. You may be able to try to get a better look if you saw one of these things in real life,

but from the plans, it doesn't even seem to follow any kind of laws of standard mechanical like carts and land vehicles that you're used to driving. Worth a shot. Okay. Thanks DM. Just looks like one of those Jetson ships that they play around on Yep. Yep. It looks exactly like that with a scary face. Um, well, I, uh, okay, so engineering plans. There's some kind of a beast plague, right?

Because they're regular people turning into beasts. Yeah. There's also the, what we saw in Butcher's Bluff, right? There's this like infernal or abyssal type creatures turning, using a crown to transform minotars and other beasts and monstrosities. and monstrosities into more stronger beasts and monstrosities, ogres and trolls. We know that there's a betrayer amongst the mouth and the eyes and the different parts of shit. The eyes of the raven.

Yeah, the eyes of the raven. The eyes of the raven. The eyes of the raven. The six eyes of the raven. The six eyes of the raven. It's Kujaatah, right? Yeah. Yeah, I mean the eyes of the Raven.

That's the whole thing. I think that we feel pretty confident about our guess as to who is the betrayer. Well, it's the mouth. Well, it's a Diamante Cujalla. How do we know that for sure? You don't know for sure, but we're pretty certain. Because of the initials. This has come up naturally, but...

We should probably keep our voices down or we're in an... Wait, wait, wait. Why are we talking about Diamana? Oh, we're just going. over. Well, don't we give it a different name. Why don't we call it Donkey Kong? No, no, no. So hold on.

Conky dong? Hold on. Yes, conky don't. Oh, and his little sidekick friend would be... Kiddi? I love where your head's at. We're all terrible people for not... Why?

Oh, geez, no, no, no, no. Nope. Anyway, why are we talking about Diamotta? It was a Diomata or Diamante? Diamante. Diamante. Why are we talking about Diamante? Barli, Don.

push, if you remember. No! Derek! Oh, no. I didn't do anything. You're out. You can't be our friend anymore. Oh, my God!

No, Derek. Well, that's what we're on the session. Good night, ladies and gentlemen. No, Derek. Before Twitch shuts us down. It was a good run, y'all. It's been fun. Anyway.

Inappropriate. Oh, Felix, you might not have seen this, but then perhaps we forgot to tell you, but in all of these, letters it was signed with a D.K. On it. What letter? What? All of the writings in some from Airstron in his drawers. Whoa. So you're saying the night that we ran into the Talen Guard, you guys found documents with D.K.'s initials all over them. Yeah. You were looking at the same document. I was doing to say.

I was not. The abyssal letters weren't the ones that said they K all over them? No. They were line notes in the editorial. It was the other room. Oh, the editorial line. Yes. Oh, yeah, no, no. And so, D.K.

That was me. That's my bad. The reports of the drums and the flames out in the forest, D.K. didn't want that getting out. Is in the editorial mess. I communicate this to Felix now. That's not bad. Whoops.

Everything that went. Yeah, I mean, everything went, it's going really fast that night. Listen, I understand. I'm not blaming anybody, but that's an important. detail. I can't believe I missed it. I didn't show you the editorially. It's no one's fault. I just wish we could have talked about this earlier.

Then let's talk no. So what does that mean? Do you have some kind of additional context you could provide? Well, I mean, it just, look, I don't know for sure, but knowing all of the generals that we've talked about, there's a good

chance that Portia may still be trustworthy. I mean, if we only think that there's one of these top generals, that is betraying Zern and all of these things then we might be okay if we've labeled the one mutinier that's not the word I want to use but that's the only word that can convey what I'm thinking traitor thank you you're welcome then then we may still be okay going to Paradisa if we might be okay so yes but I think that was the reason we chose well we didn't really choose her my father said this is

but I know that you were concerned I know we were all concerned about about her truthworthiness Well, and it's valuable to still express some sort of skepticism. But, I mean, this is good. We have an idea of who's controlling the strings at a bare minimum. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that that's exactly right. Yes, I imagine that was the entire reason we had set up this plan. I feel so terrible as you came along today in our fidget services

and you were completely in the dark about the whole thing. I mean, listen. That just means he's so sweet. That does mean that's very kind of thing. While I prefer to be let in on certain things like this, the moment was hectic, as I said, and I understand that this may have slipped through the cracks, but... I just expected that Caprice would have told you. I do talk a lot.

If there's anyone to be disappointed in, it's Toa. The bottom line is that I need to survive, and I need to find my brother, and I'm going to do what I can to help you guys regardless. And we've been together for a while now, and... I feel like I have no choice but to trust you. What I said to Hersia stays true for you as well. I mean, do my best to help you in this. search for your brother. I guess, I guess, did anybody see me fresh posters while we were making our way?

What's a poster? Oh, it's one of those pieces of paper or parchment that you slap on to like a post. Yeah. And it's a post-er. And it's got messaging on it. Do you remember the posters that we were in the 7-7? That was about like, don't trust any strangers, strangers, that kind of stuff? Yeah, I would call that a poster. And did we see any posters on the way out of 7-7 that may have changed? And do I think that I could go get a new? newspaper real quick to see what the news might be after our shenanigans. And also, like, would we have seen anything going out just shopping in town? I would say... Propaganda.

I would say that you'd be able to go and get a newspaper, but they seem to be all over the place, that you are seeing a similar style on a lot of these posters and these bulletins that's saying that there are, you know, don't trust strangers, be very aware of everyone that you need, keep an eye, report, report, report, anyone who looks remotely. So no actual pictures, though. No, like, no drawings, I should say. No photo, obviously no photographs. And any mention of, like, the paper factory being broken into.

Well, let me go run and get a paper. There might be in the news of this. I just, I'm going to go and I'll be right back, and I'll shaboot myself into what looks like Antonio Banderas. And to a who man? And I'll run out and I'll find the nearest paper box. boy with his, you know, newsy hat and what have you. He's yelling extra, extra, and I'll throw him how how much the coinage is. It's too copper. I'll wait for Capriese to come back, but I, I, I owe all

of you an apology nonetheless. So what, Felix? In the heat of the moment of the Talen Guard finding us, I made a call. I made it, I made a decision to run. And while I don't think that that was a battle that we wanted to pick, I don't think that we could have fought it. And I'm not saying it's the right decision, but it was one that I made at the time, and I don't know. Well, I think we'll never know if it was the right

decision. I think all of us with our powers combined, as they say, I think we could have killed those guys, slickety quick, but... I don't think you understand what we were up against. That could be true. That could be true. But, uh, I think all the way, we're doing the best we can,

and the fact that we made it all the way through here without being Stop means at least I'm just I'm sorry for risking us but I don't think fighting there was the right decision and and you're right we'll never know but You don't know what what what the talent guard goes through to train I mean I I barely made it in and anybody who's been there I spent 30 almost 30 years of my life Training to be one of these one of this talent guard anybody who's been there for any significant time longer than I have would have no problem killing all of us Well, you'd be easy to kill, so I think that in that case, even if they'd been there a little bit longer, the six of us could have easily destroyed them.

I was actually more worried. If your skill and talent is the barometer of their skill and talent, then I think it would have been a cake-off. I'm glad you think that this is funny. Oh, no, I don't, him being completely serious. Okay.

All right. I was actually more concerned that you were leaving Beatrice on my shoulder and that we were both out in the open. Well, to be fair, Beatrice, have been fine either way. Great. That's good to know that you would have just left me there. I had to scoop my little butt across the hallway, thankfully, I didn't get it.

Oh, no, we all saw it. Your butt is not little. It's one of those situations where when, if we come across any number of Talongard again, it's going to be everyone for themselves to make sure that they're okay. Well, I just want to let you know that I'm not going to let Beatrice get hurt. Thank you. And this is not, this is not. not a slight, this isn't I don't like you, it isn't it has nothing to do with that, it has everything to do

with survival. They will kill us instantly. I think we've gone through a lot and next time if we happen to encounter more, I think I'm going to try to kill them because I think that, you know... And if that is the choice you make, Toa, I would be

right there behind you making sure that you are safe. I agree. I'm not going to leave, I'm not going to any of you and I apologize for panicking but it's just you need to be well aware of what we're up against it's fair it may not be winnable and that may be true um but if if we think that you know if if there is danger and we need to we need to fight I'm I won't be afraid to find you all to know that and they are if you see me running head first into a guy with a weird beard did they have bird masks what are they what kind of mask it was a hood

the club had like metal, like a little beak and some eyes. So they weren't covering their faces? No, no, no. So they're, it's rough. They were, you could see faces of a human in there. But just, it would look like a very nice kind of raven style of it. Then I apologize for being so hasty and, and again, maybe making the wrong decision, but yeah, I think it's better to survive than die in some newspaper factory.

And I think that's fair and we'll fall in so far. And like I said, we'll never really know the, or perhaps we'll find out at some point, but we haven't been stopped yet, and they saw Hoosier Plainers Day. So maybe it was some kind of secret sect of Talangar that was working only for Kujata. It wouldn't surprise me. They are responsible for a lot of covert or, you know, lesser known operations. I mean, they're very, very powerful majors and warriors. Well, I just think that no matter what, we can take on a lot, so I think let's not sell ourselves short.

And I think with this trial, we're going to be just fine. The peril of friendship will win the day. At the end of the day, it boils down to this. It was a situation that we got ourselves into. I appreciate your apology, but there's no going back at this point. And I think that we are all aligned in that should we be engaged in combat, that we will... We will support each other, and then we will help each other through it. And if you run from it, then Godspeed, I hope you don't meet any alone in an alley somewhere,

because I will be there to help whoever stays to fight. As long as we understand that if we stand and fight, it could be the last time. That's all. I think we'll get a sensation that if we're losing, but running is not... People sometimes think that engaging in combat means you have to stay until death. It does not. Sometimes you have to take that chance And if you see that the fight is over your head

Then you make your escape And I think that with our powers combined That we are more than capable Of getting out of the sticky situation Should we need to. All right, I understand. I think that we're smart. I also...

I think you are smart. I also have to make sure that Dakota doesn't get soft So she needs... You know that your weapon cannot speak. No, she speaks to me. No, that's only your... your head, darling. No, it's not. My dad let me speak to her. She can't speak back to you, she is a sentient weapon and she'll be addressed as such. She's not a sentient weapon. I literally

cast a spell to see if she was and she's not sent him. You can't convince me because my dad did and I know him longer. He was visibly sweating. Hey, everybody, I came back with the name paper. She said she died. I didn't tell me that you were. We got, the docs are up. Golf scores are down. Oh, my God. Oh, wait. Let's see. Someone named Benedict Cowardbottom.

Oh, wait, no. That's my name. And you see that there, that the wars on all fronts are hewned. things are very safe in the country, but on the, all of the enemies on all sides are... Wait, this is the propagandized version? Yes. Okay. So, I mean, it was soon, right? Things inside the country are safer than ever. Right. It's the same thing.

But the other nations, all the borders are heating up their efforts and have employed dwarven spies. Oh my God. Oh, no. Kill Horsah! Kill her! Dwarves have infiltrated. And keep up every single dwarf that you see. Oh, fuck.

And they have, have, are spying for all of the enemies. And there's really no way to be sure that you can trust us, a horrible dwarf. All right. There's no reason to panic. That's something killed out of. This is why we asked for an escort. They can't, they can't touch us while we have the Raven Queens busing. Yeah, maybe we get her.

like platform boots. No, give her the ring. Give her the ring. Oh, yes. I have the ring. I have the ring. I think we also need to be careful about things like that. If someone is capable of discerning that she is not in her true form, the fact that she is a dwarf disguising herself with something else is immediately going to cause red flags.

It is immediately going to make our ability to talk ourselves out of it significantly more difficult. I agree. I think that we have my father's blessing and his protection for now. We have the trial tomorrow. and hopefully that will lead us through it. And if all else fails, I have a zone of truth where they can ask her, are you a spy?

And she will not be able to tell a lie within it. I have that tool. I think that idea is very, very good. But to your point, I've been using a fake name. And if push comes to shove, I may need to escape. I can always rendezvous with you guys at a later point,

but I don't want to put you in danger. Because while everyone else may be true, themselves. I... I can't. Do you mean your name's not Felix? Are you talking to... My name is not Albert Sunshot Benedict Powerbott. Please don't yell

that in public. I'm sorry. You hear Powerball, Power, Power, Power, Power, Power, Power, Power. I go to the chamber. As you hear, you, uh, the slight quiet turns, and there's like this, uh, larger name with the buses

because you could turn and go, ooh. And, and ignore everything this happening, I said to myself, and I say, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Caprice, I apologize. I'm a little tense. I don't want to risk any of your lives, especially Toa. He's done so much for me.

I can't, I can't risk it. Briskit? You want my kelstroll of them. Mm-hmm. Mm. He took a lot about brisket. I've got to meet this guy. I passed her some brisket that I've learned for dinner.

It's delicious. He did, you got to meet this guy. You want me to make up main can to work out those kinks, you know? It's only last for a minute. a minute. Weirdly enough, it's something I already can do. Ew. Gross. Okay.

I'll keep a squirrel. I don't know. I want to play. Start playing. You need to be that one. I'm getting it. Uh, yeah. Should I be worried?

Oh, I feel really bad now. But weren't there dwarves in one of the districts, though? I feel like there were a couple walking around. I was probably, I was made the best. best point that she could have possibly made here. We're fine. We can prove your innocence. I know, but I feel bad about the other dwarves now. Like what...

They're in danger now. They're in danger now. It's everything. Like we said, it's... Look, honestly, I imagine that they are specifically looking for you. More than likely these dwarves are going in. They're seeing that they don't have quite the thick thighs that you have. And they're letting them

go back. But the papers say, oh dwarves! Of course, because they're trying to filter all the dwarves to the military. So they're having them all come in to be able to find... It's propaganda. But because we have proof that you are not a spy, we have a way to prove that. And you are under my father's protection as well as going through the trial. I think he'll be fine.

Let us not worry about it until you are forced with the situation. And as I asked before, if anything happens strangely regarding me, just play along. If I disappeared momentarily, just play along. How does your go? Away. Who knows? He might need some me time. Unnecessary panic.

Some need us to the worst decisions. That's fair to gross. We must not necessarily panic. Our pleasure. You have five of us at your side. It'll be fine. Thanks. I'll keep the ring on and then you guys just tell me if I do it.

Hopefully they catch that disgusting dwarf from this morning. Yeah. Throat that's a bad dwarf. I just. Needless to say, I guess for the next, if we're going to sleep in the evening, I'm going to spend all day tomorrow still studying the abyssal. Okay.

And he's searching for the footy pajamas with the buttclap. If I've seen the news article now showing that they're on the hunt for dwarves and clientele or potentially walking in and out of this brothel, I'll probably make my way upstairs and take residents in our room until it's safe. So you all do that, you all go to bed, and you all enjoy a long blast. You wake up the next morning and you know that you can arrive at the cathedral for an escort. From that gentleman from Brill. That gentleman.

That gentleman. Nathaniel Brill. Oh, Nathan. And that Nathaniel, not Matthias, is, you can enjoy an escort, but if there's anything whatever, if there's anything you want to do, you can go meet him and it'll be closer to. You'll probably meet there a few hours before sunset and we'll make sure that you arrive at.

Oh, right, it would take a few hours to get across the city. It might be a little bit more dangerous. So if you're attuned to that ring, did you still want to go out and look at, no? Okay, well, let me know. I just don't want to draw too much attention, especially so close to her trial. I feel like if I fuck this up,

then we're losing our chance of talking a Porsche. That's very honorable. Thank you for being understanding. Thank you. So you're going to make yourself look like a human name with the ring? Well, only by Iris's direction. I don't want to put on some sort of disguise and potentially be seen through

and then maybe even more suspicious. So if Iris wants me to change into something else, I don't mind. I think we go with what Iris has to say here. My opinion is that they know that a dwarf is in our, whatever, whatever Nathaniel said. And we can prove it. We can prove it.

We can prove, like she said, We can prove that Hershey is innocent. I'll leave it up, Iris. I'm the tune of the ring now, so whatever you guys want me to do. I mean, just use it as you see fit, but I think the general consensus that Iris said was for now, just cruise. I'll cruise.

So I think if we're all ready to just meet Nathaniel or his escort. You all arrive, and you would probably remember that they all knew you as a dwarf. They all knew you as a, is a dwarf, and so showing up as a different human or someone person would be very suspicious. Right. Great. You all eventually make your way to the cathedral, and waiting at the base of the steps is a thing. And you see him just kind of waiting, looking off, not anything in particular.

As he sees you all approach, he says, well, are you open prayer then? We are? Yeah? Yeah. Just lead the way. Yes, sir. Very well, let's hope you survive. And he shuffles off.

I'm so ready as I'm fine. He hobbles. Ready. And leads you through. I prepared my spells. I'm ready. You may need it. I'm nervous.

Lord knows. And so he needs you. We ate in, Papa Kennedy. We ate him. For the sake of brevity, he leads you through all of the various districts around the citadel of the Queen's Conclate until you arrive in a district that I believe you have not been to.

The memories rest. No, none of us have been there. Yes, yes. Yeah. And the Garrison Quarter. So as you, so I'll just kind of briefly describe these quarters. And the Black Rose District, right? No, you're not there quite yet.

I've been there. Oh, because we're going. And that's the only one I've been to. Yes. Until this adventure, that was the only one that feels had been to. And so as you arrived to the Garrison Quarter, you see basically, you see basically, you rows and rows of buildings that look almost identical as you just look out in these seas of soldiers armed in swords, pikes, axes, maces, and all sorts of

varieties of weapons as it just seems to be a sea of residential but predominantly the area where the garrison of the entire sea of city is kept. Right. Where there are soldiers that are ready to mobilize if the city attacked. They all seem to be poking around, bored, out of their minds. And it seems as if there are a bunch of soldiers, but not quite as much as you would expect. And there seems to be a quiet over this area. And you see, however, that as you're walking through, you see the occasional, the occasional sort of rolling of siege weaponry. You see a large ballista and some instrument

that might be fastened to the walls and the like at some point. You make your way through the garrison, then you arrive at memories rest. And this is the most quiet district of all. As you arrive through, and once again, each district they're allowing Nathaniel through without question, not even a ward. As you arrive, this is the most quiet of all.

You look out and it seems to be a sea of mausoleums, crypts, resting places. There's a number of very small churches and some residential buildings, but it seems as if, potentially, almost everyone, most of the people that have died within the city for the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. or longer has been put to rest in this area. You, however, see

as Nathaniel turns down a main thoroughfare and you get closer and closer and closer to the center of this district. A large, looming stone structure

that seems to be where you're headed. And you eventually arrive at this enormous crypt. Seems to be of similar make to the huge cathedral that you had seen, but far more modest. And with only the occasional decoration of Raven and Mass. large, large, heavy stone doors. And this seems to be the least populous district

that you've been. And eventually you arrive, and as you approach these large stone doors, the quiet kind of settling over, very few people pass you know. You see large brimmed hat, the military moly divestments, of Archbishop Zucharis.

He is the patchiness of his facial hair seems to be even a bit fuller than it was the previous day as he sits there waiting and as Iris, as you all approach at the head, his eyes lock

with you. As you all step up and Brill bows very deeply, Nathaniel bows very deeply. and without a single word, he looks up to the archbishop and just bows and steps away. Zocharius looks at all of you and says, None of you have lost your courage. I appreciate that.

But you may yet still, are you all prepared about what you will see in this set? will come. Not even one bit, but we're ready for whatever may come. Now I know that you are prepared. Now I know that you understand, truly, what you up against and then you are the first step of being worthy. You may worship a god of death or even pay homage to the Raven Queen. But you will learn down there her true nature. encounter her domains, and must face your own demons. Well, then, may the light of the shadow lady guide us. May she guide you as well. And with that, he waves a hand, and almost as if on command.

A huge stone door. Slide open. And a long stone stone stone. sterile, well, down into the darkness, leads. I would immediately to cast a major armor on myself. To do that. I didn't mention it, but I'm wearing my ceremonial robes with my Anubis headdress.

Got it, okay. Into this. So you have a serenial robes, you have you see the large jackal head, the pointed ears, this beautiful black and gold and teal turquoise. Whatever, turquoise. What we do. Nure, you should use teal turquoise,

cyan, or aqua. Those are all four great words, but we'll say turquoise for this instance. And fully in her ceremonial rooms. And the doors open, and Archbishop Zakaria stops you before you'll enter. And he says, the Raven Queen, is a goddess of memories, knowledge, of winter. They're going to be bad. of fate and of death and of ravens.

She was of the fay while before she was of the shadow fell and of God. You must encounter all of these in triumph if you are to receive a blessing. I wish you the best of luck and may you walk proudly beneath a shadow. And he steps out of her life. Beneath dark wings. I will bow to him and then just turn directly towards the door and just walk straight in. Okay. I'll follow up on. You do this. And as you all walk down, the... Runny nervous. Running nervous. Running moves. Uh, where do we go? You make your way down the stairwell.

The steps, each of your steps, echo. And you hear your feet hit the smooth stone stairs. And it feels incredibly ancient as you make your way down. You see an open archway ahead of you at the exit of this staircase. No door. You hear that the doors at the very top

of the staircase closed shut. How small is the space that we're in at the point? It's very narrow, a single file. Did you all know that the Raven Queen was the goddess of all these things? Winter, memories, knowledge, dead Ravens? I had an idea, yes.

I did just Ravens. I don't even know what the Faywild is. Yeah. Ravens seems like pretty... But I know what the Feywold is? I would say making an archaunture. Why? We got another do the thing.

Give me one second. Give me one second. Just an arcana. I mean like knowing, okay. All right. Oh boy. It really bugs me that these aren't. Oh, no, actually that's 12.

12. I could pull say. I would say that you've heard of the phrase of the Faye Wilde. But as far as the connection to the Raven Queen, you know that as a Corvacian, that the connection is the Shadowfell. And they don't teach much of the history of the Ravencalfe or anything.

That's fair. But, um, very reasonable. He heard it as a separate plane. Okay. But anything beyond that? I'm aware of its existence. I may not know the connection the ring between has there. Okay.

All right. So as long as, do you think we can turn around, you guys? It's a little tightening here. You know, it's a quick, do you talk this quickly every time you get nervous? We've literally just stepped down into the pit. All right. I'm just going to close my eyes and put my hand on your shoulder

and just go, wait, Tell me when we get to a big space. I just hold on to Caprice then and guide him. Wait, is it super dark? It is dark. I cast dark vision. Okay. So then I can lead Caprice.

Okay. So it is very dark as you make your way in. You cast dark vision. You're all able to see as you make your way down further and further. And you ride at this archway. God, that's a level. This is a second level sludge. That sucks.

All right. Very helpful. No, I don't want to undo it. That's what Felix would do. Okay, there you go. I'll put my goggles on. Eyes adjust. I can't say she.

As you arrive at a chamber that has, it seems to be made of a similar stonework to the rest of it, the rest of the sepulchre of an era that you've experienced. and let's remove some of these map businesses. Oh, sure. We'll have the DM. So as long as you guys are within 10 feet

of me, how did you know, we were going to get here. Plus tool to your saving throws because of my aura of protection. Oh, shit. If you're scared, Caprici just got to be next to me. You feel all my arms wrap around me. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't.

Wait, is it plus two or plus three? It's plus two because my charisma shaked. Oh, it's a charisma. Oh, that made me jump and almost see myself. I'm sorry. Where's Capriese? My con is higher than my charisma.

I'm gonna do that before. I'm gonna start pouring points into charisma. Perch is gonna be up here, like here and here. I took still math. So you came to become, where do we get? So you're entering right there. There's a door right here.

Around you are is a small or five on side. On either side of you, to left and right, five small. five small circles almost like tiny gravestones around on either side and directly ahead a very small patch small square directly ahead of you with words written as you approach you see that it's a small patch of dirt the only tiny square opening that is not perfectly paved with stone and words written. All must lay their memories to rest here. Oh, shit.

Is this a riddle? Is what a riddle? I don't like this. I'm not sure. It's a riddle as much as it is. I describe what we're seeing to Caprice. Oh, Caprice, we're in a big room now. Or bigger room.

Oh, this isn't so bad. All right. No, I'm with you. I'm back. I'm back. All right. All right. I'm concerned.

We need to do something with the grave stones. So I'm gonna go to one of the gravestones and inspect it. One of the five gravestones. You make an investigation trap. Can I walk up and just get next to her? Yeah. Yeah. About 17.

17. You look around and these stones seem to have the Remnants of markings, names long lost, worn and weathered. And each of them, in each of the circle, seems to have like where writing used to be, but it's been so long it's worn away until there's nothing that remains. Not a faint memory. It's lost. Honestly, not sure. You think we're supposed to write our own stuff on the thing?

Not sure what we would write. What was the actual phrase? All must lay their fears to write. Lay their fears to rest. They're almost in their memories. Lay their memories to rest. Memories. So does it mean here is in the little pitch of writing game? What does it mean?

Are they all, so I'm gonna walk over here. I'll just like to start checking on this side to see if they're similar similar things. There seems to be remnants. And their stone, their tomb like, um, tombstones. Yeah. Toa don't go too far. I don't know, I'm just checking.

I'm just checking. They all seem to be the same. So, I just think really hard on a memory. Are you going to say anything? You're going to... Initially, no, I want to see if anything happens. What memory you're going to think about? I will think about the first time I started to learn the sail. Okay.

And kind of on the kind of catamaran-style boat with the sail, and I was young, I was probably, you know, 10 maybe. and just kind of thinking about that experience and kind of how scary it was, but exciting at the same time, and how I wanted to sail for so long, and just feeling like I could do anything in that. You think hard. You think, when you think,

when you look around, everyone seems to just be watching you, try to think, and it's all in your head. Nothing happens. Are you all right? Yes, I'm, I'm, I'm fine, I'm just, perhaps it needs to be out loud. I have a memory from when I was quite young and learning to sail for the first time. It's kind of a rite of passage for my tribe.

And it was exhilarating and scary at the same time. And I would fall in the water, but then swim right and just jump right back on. And I thought I could die doing this, but it just, it was exhilarating. feel like in the moment that I could do anything. I remember the wind blowing through my hair and once I finally got the hang of it and over the years learned and got better at it and I you know starting to to really master the craft. I remember that first time thinking that my whole life was ahead of me and the my my future was kind of endless in that moment. Does anything happen? I look around. As you finish saying that you hear

A very faint humming as the two circles on either side of the door begin to faint hummed with a very faint glowing light. A very faint glowing light of it seems to be a slight silver as it radiance. absolutely brilliant Toa So it seemed to be working Well we won't know Unless we illuminate them all Is someone else going to try

Should I do all of them I'm not sure how this works I imagine we all have to contribute To the blessing He does say all must lay their memories here Yeah exactly exactly right Well there's ten tombstones And there's six of us

And if he did two with his memory, then that would equal 14. That is absolutely correct, Hersha, and I think you should go next. Holy shit. It's Hershey without a laughing.

That was very fucking fun of it. All over. All over our mics. Yeah. A splash of my coffee over here. Where's Jamon? Well, I'm kind of

kind of terrified what's going on with these these tombstones. Can I walk over to the one that's humming nearest me? Yeah. And just inspect it to see if it looks any different stonework-wise than the one that wasn't humming in front of. Make an investigation check and add your provisions. You're double that if you do not have a frequency. Can I double it with my stone knowledge? Okay.

Natural one. One. Oh, shit. So that'll be a four, five, and seven. I would say it's pretty plain to see that the stonework itself hasn't changed. And you just see these kind of faint remnants of lettering are glowing. And there's just a soft silver light all around the ring of gravestones in each thing. Is there new writing or is it just the remnant writing that's there?

just seems to be just glowing very faintly. Nothing, no, no new additional writing or information has appeared. And this is all written in what, like, do I... You would not be able to tell what language it is. Okay. All right, well, I've no... I have no idea what this says, and the stone looks as suspicious as every other tombstone in here. So thinking back to, I guess, the first time that,

we opened up our little alms and anvil and alms business it's not really a business it's kind of a like a soup kitchen and so while the forge was still hot from my dad's day of a busy blacksmithing ma would come in and she'd she'd bake up some bread and boil up some soup and whatever we had left over we opened up the the forge in the evenings for for anyone that needed food and that needed help. So, you know, it kept the bill down each month, but it also allowed us to give back to our community that gave so much to my mom and my pa for their business. So I remember the first day we opened that and Alms and Anvil and, you know, we had a, we had a line out the door, but everyone got a little bit of food that day. It warms my heart as much as it warmed that, that forge, just thinking back

on that. And I always feel really good about it. And to this day, Ma still keeps that forge hot in the evenings, even with dad not being there. And, you know, I really hope I can find him. Because I feel like he's missing as much in my life as he is in hers and in our, in our communities. With that, you hear the humming grow louder as the next two. on either side. Harm and glow with a faint silver slant. That was beautiful, Herger.

Now please, tell us how many of these tombstones are left. Eight. Find away my math right? You're absolutely correct. I got a toilet. I'm so sure of myself, there's eight left. I just put it.

Again, I put a hand on his shoulder and just say, Mm. With that, Herrsha, why don't you choose who goes next? Oh, yeah. I heard Caprice say he has a memory.

I like the idea that we just passed the ball from person to person, hot potato style. Mm. Fisha, you get to decide who goes next. Mm.

Capricci, why don't you share? Oh, yeah, sure. Let's see. If we're sharing memories, I can remember the first time I ever went to a tavern to perform. I was pretty young.

You know, I was not young old enough to drink yet. But I had heard about sort of an open mic sort of stand-up, like comedy-type operation. I didn't have to play any music, and I thought, you know what, I can tell a joke or two and just sort of get the performance out of me and it's making me nervous just thinking about it. I was standing behind stage, and I remember all the comedians going up past me, just watching them and listening to them and everybody laughing. And it was really an amazing experience to have to confront the initial stage fright

that you experience those butterflies that you get. I don't get them anymore, but man, at the time, my heart was just beating, beating, beating in my chest. And I remember going up the wooden stairs and getting out there and looking at everybody in the crowd. And I started into my first joke. I just thought, I'd dive right in. I have an inferiority complex.

And that's when I passed out. I never even got to the punchline. I was passed out and I'm told that I face-planted directly into the table, which itself flipped and threw a bunch of glasses and started a whole fight while my unconscious 13-year-old body was just lying down at the base of the stage. That was my first experience in a tavern for performing, and I didn't really ever experience any stage fright, because I figured that's the worst it's ever going to be. I guess there's really nowhere to go, but up from there.

Exactly right. Wow. 100%. As soon as Felix says, wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Next to hum and glow. with the shit and so we're like humming is louder. Hersia, how many are left, darling? C-X. You are so good at this. You're priest. Oh, I get to go again? No, you need to choose. Who goes next?

Oh, my apology. You wanted to play slightly warm potato. Potato. Potato. My own religion style. For a Cufflin. Fine.

My story is not really as interesting. say as rules, but for me it is one of my greatest memories. When I was but we to Baxi, my father used to take us out on one of his ships, and it was my first experience with one of the main rivers running through Necbed. And I was scared of the water, was afraid of getting my fur wet. And my father was always a very stern man, and being a pharaoh came first, even when it came to famine. But it was those days that he would head out with only a few of his, a few of the priestesses and priests and his armed guard, only the most loyal.

And he would wear the most menial of linens. We'd look like commoners. It was amazing. I loved it. And he would play in the water with us. And it is because of those times with him. and with my siblings and my mother that I do not fear the water

like a lot of the tabaxi do. And it was lovely. And we would spend all day and we would eat by the side of the river and we would play in the water and then we would make our way back beneath the veil of the stars. And the very next day, all would be as it were.

But those memories, they shine for me. As soon as you finish speaking, you hear the humming more louder. as the next two glow with a silvery light. Lovely. Hersia, how many are left? Well, now I'm confuelist because I only see two, but I swear to God it was four.

So I start walking towards the back. I see you two. I saw walking towards the back and I'm like padding around looking for another set of two pillars. You find none as you do this. What is your answer, darling? They're invisible pillars here. That's all I can see.

There's somewhere around here. It's got to explain it. It was a very lovely story. It sounds like a lovely time. It was. Maybe one day I'll take you out in the river. Lufty. Please, regale us. Yeah, well, so...

No, you need to take the potato from my hand. Oh. It's not real. Oh, potato. Oh, potato. It's an illusion of a potato, but it's there. Oh, I wish I had a potato. You can't eat it.

It's not real. Oh. Do I have to hold it? Hold my potato for me. Oh, thanks, I would love to. One minute. So I remember the other day, you're really going to cop out on this? No, I guess not.

Well, you know, I have to say I just don't remember that much because I just kind of flit about and have a good time. But I remember the first things that I really remember. And it's really not much of anything at all, but I remember looking and there was like this woman, I guess, I don't know. She was like blue and she had black hair. And I remember looking at her. I don't know if maybe I was drunk. I was on the ground or something.

But I was looking up as this woman and she's blue and she has black hair. And everything else is just kind of fuzzy. And I'm looking at her. I remember being pretty happy. You know, I was a good time, having a good time. And then all of a sudden, she just kind of like turned my face away, you know? And then I saw like some other guy and then I looked back and she was gone. And it was the weirdest thing.

And then I looked back and there was this big guy, he was just smiling at me. And I was like, well, okay, okay. And then that was like the first thing that I ever remember. I'm gonna reach out and grab Lifty's hands. Do you know how big your body lives up the time, darling? I don't know. I'm gonna just kind of pull her in for an embrace. It's okay, don't think on it too much.

I think that she was good enough. And I'm gonna give her like a really like, probably the only real hug I've ever given her. As the two embrace and the only real hug that ever had. I'm gonna like be freaking out all this is happening. And you hear the humming and it gets louder and louder as they all hummed around you and they all glow. I'm going to walk up to the two embracing. And while I'm still holding the imaginary potato in one hand,

I'm going to come up behind 50 and hugger around the waist and my short stoutness. I don't know why you are being so sweet. I love it. I don't know what's happening. I'm not sure that it is necessarily important. I just wanted to give you a hug. I don't know what's going on. You guys smell real good.

I just run and I give hug as many people as possible. This is fun. He was all. Why does we do this mom? This was not what I was expecting. I try to lure Felix over by extending the potato. He just shakes your hand and the logs on. Go to duck.

I don't know what's happening. I think that it may be your turn. I think, yeah. Maybe Herzia was right, and there are invisible tombstones. Oh, does something happen to the door? I look around. Do I notice anything happening? It seemed to just be that all ten circles of stones are illuminated. I walk up to the ground plate, and it says, it says, all must lay their memories to rest.

All must lay their memories to rest. All. I'm going to be honest. with you guys I've got plenty of memories but none that I'm gonna lay to rest these are things that drive me daily I'm not laying anything to rest here well I mean it's not like when we fed the memory we forgot so you can keep the memory you just have to also give it some you know resty action it's just taking a nap it'll wake up in like an hour or two once it gets over the hangover and the Kirstein ale this is some

memory that has to be the most important or just a memory? No, I don't think just any memory. I mean, I had a very pleasant memory that I gave and it was I did not pick my most important memory, I promise. I picked a pretty important memory and that was probably a mistake. I didn't pick more memories that are far more impactful and important than the one I chose, but I think the memory just needs to have some sort of meaning to you in some way. All right, one second, sorry. Sorry, sorry, I'm consulting my Google Docs that Mike said me Many, many weeks ago. Yeah, I got my new friend.

Well, while he does that, uh, sorry. The punchline to the joke that I was trying to tell when I first started at, uh, my report was, I have an inferiority complex, but it's not a very good one. It's not a very good inferiority complex, you think down on yourself, so even your inferiority complex is also not legitimate. I'm not legit. It's not very good. I was totally in character. Yeah, I don't get it there, hey?

Oh, let's see. Oh, here we go. Okay, I got it. Um, all right, fine. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not laying this memory to rest, but someone who is very dear to me back in, in, in, in, Castlefield, um, Mr. Mendel. And, and I, I do hope that he,

rest in peace, but he took care of me and my brother and all I can say is that I will forever be very in debt to him, and I hope that he finds peace. Thank you for sharing your memory.

I don't know if it's going to work, because you said you weren't laying at a rest. No, I won't, ever. I won't. Well, pick any memory that you're willing to lay to rest, because I think that's a requirement. I recognize that he will, rest in peace, but I will not lay it to rest. How about just like one of the

things you did with this guy? He took care of us. He took care of me and my brother for many years, and I will forever be in debt to him, and that's all I can say. Felix, strength sometimes comes with not beating your head

against a stone wall, but relenting to it. Sometimes you need to learn when to cave and when to push. And I see a lot of strength in you, both mentally and potentially physically someday, but you're going to have to learn how to use both sides of the coin. You came into this place, knowing that the challenges were going to be hard

and they were going to be many. This is the first trial, and if you cannot do it, introspection may be needed from your part. You may not be as strong as you think you are. But I believe that you are even stronger than you know. It is hard, but if anyone in here can do this, I know that you can. And I'm going to give him guidance, though. We'll do absolutely nothing because it's a role.

We're not going to give it anyway. Do you feel very strengthened, even more so than whatever you can run you can? I suppose, I hope, and I know that Mr. Mendel is resting in peace. and I appreciate the reassurance and what you've said. I appreciate your words and I respect him and I hope that he is resting in peace and I appreciate more than he can ever know

the things that he did for me and my brother. And I hope that that's enough. I won't have the ability to tell him myself so I hope that he knows. I'm sure that he does. And as you say that, you hear like hum, and they flare up even more and then go quiet. And all the light gets snuffed out of the tune. And then you see another light directly above the square above you shine down slightly.

And it shimmers down on this small square, this tiny patch of earth. this seems to be just this perfectly pristine bit of soil and suddenly the wall across from you lights up very slightly

in four separate panels you see four separate images that seem to be the continuation in the first on the far left there's a woman walking the tree Oh, like, she in a row?

It's one, two, three, four, on a row. On the, she's walking through trees and all of them. There's the same shape of the woman on each one. On the far left, trees all around her, bright and full of leaves, blooming with these beautiful flowers. And you get a closer look at the woman. She's wearing long robes and cloaked in feathers. Her face is indescribable.

Almost looks like she's wearing a mask. Two tall pointed ears stand on either side of her head. The next, the blooms on the trees have dissipated. But she walks through the forest. Great green, you can sort of see bits of color. Great green boughs of the trees all. around her. The next, the trees are less full. You have to see even more color. Bright shades of orange, yellow, red, and leaves. She starts to walk through the boughs less full and on either

side or leaves along the ground. And then finally, you see her in the forest, the trees are bare, dead branches rise into the sky snow she trudges through as what you see is the shimmering light shines down over the small patch of dirt maybe this goes back to what the

Archbishop was saying maybe this is the Raven Queen when she was still in part of the Fayette that's interesting based on what you're looking at it looks like they're transitioning through seasons but I would guess that is the Raven Queen based on her all the different depictions of her we've seen and that sounds more likely than her

just walking for a very very very long time are these depictions that either look to your eye would recognize i would say it definitely seems to be one of the various depictions that you've seen you know you realize that and every time that the ring is depicted never shows any kind of specific face sometimes is blanks sometimes it's hooded sometimes it's a mask but it's never any specific humanoid face. But we would get the idea that that is the Raven Queen. You get the same, I would say that that's fair. Is it clear that she's like an elf?

I would say that the tall pointed ears are Elven, for sure. So then I would just strengthen what Capri said and basically, you know, basically say, yeah, this is absolutely a depiction of the Raven Queen. You're correct. And so the panels on the wall, they're just like, is it just like... Mosaics or light? Yeah, what's it look like? Baste relief.

Or like... It is basically, these carved are bas-reliefs, basically, of this. And then sometimes you get glimpses of light of color as you look, but sometimes it comes and goes to, like, they're shifting. They're not totally static. Yeah. As you look at it, it's kind of hard to tell. It's almost, is it the tricks of all the light shining above is playing a trick on your eyes?

or is it actually shift them? Does anybody feel blessed? Do you think that's it? I don't think so. He said he would have to address all of these things. Yeah, I mean, I always kind of feel good, but maybe not less. I don't know. Have you been drinking?

No, don't touch me. I'm feeling significantly less gassy, but I feel like with just enclosed spaces, like libraries, it's just a matter of time. Oh, is that what that is? No, I haven't let anything out yet. I'll let you know. I'd like to walk up and just touch the last relief.

So I guess to the, I assume that would be to the right. Move me next to hurry, though. Just kind of like to touch it. You touch it. And as you feel it, you just feel the smooth stone work. Seems to be cool and hard. As you feel you run your finger along some of the grooves and it follows, but. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary, besides the fact that it's glowing faintly.

Are she walking in the same direction in all of them? Yep. She's walking through. It seems to be going from left to right. But she's depicted in each one. Correct. So it's not like... Each one is her walking from left to right in a different scene.

Is she, like, actively walking? Like, is it animated? She's on a road. She's not moving. Okay. So it's just like the colors are kind of animated. They come in and, it's shifting. Basically, there's the occasional flash of color.

Oh, okay. That's picture. Kercher, walk alongside me, if you will. Excuse me, guys. I'm going to start at the first in what I can only assume to be the spring section, and then I'm going to try and walk alongside the reliefs as if I'm making the transition. I'll mimic him trying to keep in stride. I would say you do that, you walk, you make your way from spring to summer to autumn

to winter, and nothing seems to change. It's worth a try. Should we go beyond the last painting? Maybe there's something that opened up over there in that corner. So she's going in that direction. Yeah, I mean, I touched it and I did not feel anything, but I just, I really liked this one. Maybe she walked past it and we go down there. Yeah, let's check out that corner.

Go in that corner. You go and inspect those. I'll say that you use inspected and you don't find anything has changed. Well, there's this pile of dirt. Maybe there's like a tunnel down here or something. Should we dig around? So there's the pile of dirt like in the middle there, that said layer. While everybody's exploring, I'm going to take 10 minutes to ritual cast detect magic on the general area of the Bastilleefs.

Okay. It's around you so you can walk with it. Okay. All right. Well then I was standing at the written thing anyway, so I'll do it and then I'll move around as necessary. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. Anyone else do anything? You know, maybe the memory that we need to lay rest last is the 3rd. Raven Queen's memory. We, we, uh, she would remember moving from, from spring to autumn to, to summer to autumn to winter and, and transitioning from the big wild to the Shadowfell baby?

Hello? How could we know what she's remembers, though? I, well, you just see it. Perhaps that's all we have to do. And I listen. Well, I think the important thing to remember is that the very, very. first thing we came into contact with was memories. And if you remember what the Archbishop said, he said we were going to encounter memories, knowledge, winter, fate, death, and ravens. Well, he said she was the goddess of those things. And the very first thing we came into count to contact

with were memories. So it's a possibility this has something to do with knowledge. Or maybe even winter, which is shown in the very last. Mm-hmm. Could be that. Does anyone have the arcane ability? You do illusions. Can you make the illusion in front of each one of these images of what's depicted in them? Like maybe the falling of leaves for autumn or the falling of snow? Yeah. Or like mini skirts for summer?

It's my feet of apart. Maybe like sunlight for summer. Walls is had. I want to invest in the briefs. Yeah. Or mini skirts. Yeah. Okay.

Make an Asian shirt. Not good. Not good. Five, four, four. It looks like a patch of dirt that seems to just kind of just need dirt. Is there anything in it? Are you going to dig around in it? Yeah, I'll sort of dig around it.

So I would say with a five, you'd be very easy to see as you feel around, your finger hits small, almost feels like a bulb or a seed, planted deep into the dirt. Gosh, I think these are plant in here. There's a plant? Well, not like a plant plant, but perhaps there's like, like, have you ever like, like, seen a seed?

Yeah, like a coffee pit. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I guess perhaps. Like, you know, if you were to plant a coconut, it would grow into a tree. It's sort of like that's just small. I don't think that's true. Is that true?

What? Can you plant a coconut and have a tree? Yeah, that's the seed. Yes, that's how it was. Yes, that's the seed of a tree. Oh. Yeah, you planted a coconut. How is that here?

And, but it's, like, much smaller. Maybe we hit, so I'll take my hand out and I'll say, perhaps we need to water it or give it formalization somehow? Well, bring it to the surface so we can at it and make sure it's not like a child skull or something. Are you sure it's a bowl? I don't want to disturb it if the whole point is we need to, like, make it grow and then make it kind of transition through all these seasons. Oh, that's genius.

All right. Well, you know what? I've got my water stem right here, right? here. Let's water together. Can you fertilize it? You want to get on it? As this happens, I could try.

How you both of you pour this water over it from the water skin. And as the water sits in, it almost starts to shift and turn into little droplets of rain that pour down and Felix, right as they're

doing this, your detect magic goes off. Oh, interesting. And you detect magic humming from this patch of dirt. And it's the school of transmutation. Oh, there's transmutation magic here. And as this happens, the water almost transmutes into droplets its rain. As it, it soaks the soil, and suddenly you see the dirt start to rumble. And a little sprout appears immediately.

immediately growing out of the dirt. And suddenly, what was just very faint on the wall, the first panel illuminates with a glowing pink light that illuminates the portrait of sprang. Does the Raven Queen look any different? She, everything around her seems to be illuminated. She is totally dark on this portrait. Perhaps is it a door now?

Does it look like a doorway? No, I think that we have to do something to emulate each one of these panels. We grew the tree like in spring. Maybe if someone has the ability to cast sunlight or something, you could utilize that on the tree to... I... I'll use the cantrip light. Okay.

So you... I'll make it yellow. You raise your hand and cast a light. Your hand glows as the light. appears. But as the light shines down onto this patch, they seem to shift and change it and look at the rays of the sun peering down. Suddenly the sprouts starts to shoot up and grow in a small tree. Immers a trunk and leaves all around it directly in front of you. It grows and there's a small miniature tree around you with this bow of green leaps as the panel

directly next to the pink one. You know, there's just a glow with a faint green light. And once again, the Raven Queen is completely dark. But the second Bastroleaf has now started to glow with a green light, so there's pink and green

glowing. Everybody, get on one side and help me blow like the wind. Oh, I can help. Yeah? Oh, yeah, she can do that. Yeah, I can hold my butt forever. Just don't do it too much because we don't want to go straight to winter. fuck it up. Oh, that's a good point.

Yeah, use like 50% blow. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And so I'll just whatever that's unending breath or some. Whatever makes sense. Whatever that's called. Is there something you're... Yeah, I can't remember what it's called. Features and treats. It is called

Unending breath. I was right. I'm going to use unending breath. Can I, okay, so it says I can hold my breath indefinitely. Could I also like blow out indefinitely? I would say... Derek is nodding enthusiastically. The old...

Unending breath. I would say the unending breath means that you're able... It doesn't... It's about not meaning air. Okay. It's not about producing air. Well, not producing. It's certainly to stop you from trying to produce air, though, if you'd like to blow on this plant.

Is that what falls about, though? Fall... Don't you have that thing where you can make a cloud or something? perhaps that's kind of windy. I want to try the blow idea, and that doesn't work. I'm going to put on a light jacket, but that doesn't work.

We can try something else. I agree with Caprice, and I have winter tricks up my sleeve, but the transition from spring to winter requires something else. So try what you're thinking. Okay. So I'll just blow on this thing for like a while. Okay. Why don't you make a performance check?

Okay, go fuck yourself. Or a constitution check, actually. Oh, why are you getting fuck? Yeah, me. Oh, I don't think of it. You can't blow air. Oh, seems logical. The air is the Nazi.

Horrible. Tush. Edited actually, because you are. Oh, shit. Okay, so that was a six. So this will be better. That was terrible one. So six is the good one.

So 11 is my performance check. Eleven. I would say you breathe in very, very deeply, and you blow. And what are your, what is your racial traits, by the way? I believe it doesn't don't energy Nazis get special abilities? Unending breath was one of them. Yeah, it was mingle with wind and with breath. You can cast levity.

Yeah. So as you breathe on this, you breathe very deeply, and you start to blow, and you start to see that it almost feels like there's some sort of level of empowerment in your test. empowerment in your chest and you blow and as your breath moves, as soon as it crosses over the patch of dirt by this tree, it starts to and whip up and as the wind blast passes all of the leaves of the tree turn and shake and turn to a golden orangey and brownish color. And suddenly the third bas-relief lights up with an orange glow. Well, I'm... I did it.

I'm happy to do the last one. How would you do it? Frostbite. Oh. It seems reasonable. Would that kill it? Don't it? Probably, yes, but it's...

I guess it's the point. Don't you have a chill touch? Yeah, Iris would know better than anybody. That's just the cycle of life. Is that the same as chill touch? So I walk over to the... It's a small form of tree. at this point, right?

Yeah. And I just hold up my hands and cast frostbite on the tree. Okay. How does that work, by the way? Just remind me. Frostbite is a constitution saving throw for 2D6. Con 16. Okay.

As you see Phyllis's hands glow and icy blue, and suddenly frosts are to creep up its bow, and it starts to form more and more, almost as if all around it transmutes into falling snow, as the leaves shake around and all drop off. You see the trees stand up completely bare now, wither and die. As the snow erupt, as the snow continues to fall, the final panel on this basket glows with the bright blue, light. And suddenly, the snow around the area gets larger and so spread out until suddenly, the entire room is bathed in snow,

almost in the blink of an eye, it is frigidly cold. As you are all bathed and you feel like you're in, at least ankle deep in snow, as wind and snow blast you. As you are in a, it's hard to see. And suddenly, directly over where the plant was, a shimmering figure starts to appear. And you all look at it. A spectral form starts to look at it. spectral form starts to materialize.

And, Iris, you see a tabaxi woman. Strain black fur, butt patchy, old, decrepit, withered, eyes full of regret. Toa,

you see a Goliath, weak, shrivel, Felix Fuck Old human man Lonely Lifty You see

Mayor Dinaisi Completely abandoned Haggered injured weak Caprice You see a T. Flynn Eyes full of misery

and regret The dwarf Woman And it seems to be Broken down Full of hopelessness, having given up, as each of you sees something that looks like a version of yourself, all in the same figure, standing there, is a voice emanates out. And each of you hears it in your

own respected voice. You have conquered the trials of memory, knowledge, winter, and death. But nothing is more powerful than fate. see if you can change it. And as this creature grows larger and larger, it shifts back and forth as you see that it seems to be you, but then it shifts back to the spectral form with the head, avian and raven-like, with six eyes. And it shifts back.

I need a little punishment. Oh! Woo! Turn, great turn. I scream. I'm sorry! Sweet. And Christmas.

Oh, God, all my You should have. No, you couldn't have. Well, I mean, with my modifier maybe, but... No, yeah, with your modifier, there's no way. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventras podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to,

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