Legends of Avantris - Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 41 | Dream of Mirrors: Part 1

Episode Date: April 3, 2025

In the wake of the Horned Legion our heroes regroup, beg for guidance from the Gods, and set off in search of a dragon...   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/QDpVxqGyXUk?si=0dehrW1Egtb3Z6oY

Hey men, welcome to Legends of Adventress. I'm Toa Kamenui, and you're listening to Beneath Park Wings. Here's sort of what happened last time. You all had stood around a reforged rod of law, but reforged and enhanced into something called the Rode of the Seven Laws, which combined not just this incredibly powerful artifact, the Rod of the Seven Parts, but also a silver blade made with the Seven Laws, which combined, with a special ritual that apparently was from the 13th order itself. And you then unfortunately saw that Herja had fallen to corruption from Misk of the Wolf Spider

after being slain by him, the first party member to fall. You then whisked her away as a golden lotus came to grab the glave. and Herja was then started to be healed by Golden Lotus and her father, Torvald, Amblehart. You then went back to your dwellings and found that Ravali was even more devoted to the Eternal Blossom and to Golden Lotus and to the Orcs of Moworki than ever before. And with a little bit of sneakery, you had found that there were now fleshy tendrils on his chin, just as you had also learned there were fleshy tendrils on the chin, hidden in Torvald and Valhard's beard as well. A big oofta. As the Horn Legion marched upon the city, you were invited to a private dinner with the war chief as they finished preparations.

and it was there that the dinner was interrupted by a halfling. The halfling was Kargash, who you had met in Faltsong the village, where he had been corrupted and then killed by you, and then reincarnated by Iris, or Nubis, I suppose, into a halfling. He'd finally arrived on his goat. He was almost going mad by being that close to the Avatar of Baffimet for so long. But he was warning the war chief and all of you, a plan to, for Baphimet to cut through the city, cut through the forces, and get to the seal.

Not the Arf Arf Seal, Derek, I cut you off there. Not Arf Arf Seal, the glowing seals that imprison Tharz Dune, the chained God. And you took that into account and prepared for the final battle. It was that evening where Caprice made a deal with Glossia, his his patron, the archdevil that owns his soul, and he decided to go against his party and try to steal it, steal the glave of the seven laws in the middle of the night. He then did it. He managed to actually sacrifice his lucky tuning for to grab onto it and some sort of soul transfer and something happened. However, as he was getting ready to make off with it, he was put to sleep by a strange presence and woke up in his bed.

no glave, seemingly failing his mission. And then the battle the next day with War Chief Shanggoro Frostfang leading the charge. But you all were stationed near the palace, which is where beneath which the seal had been, was definitely kept. And you then, after the battle started, as the beastmen crashed against the walls of Mogher Kai, Baphomet revealed his true plan, sacrificing a number of devils that had been imprisoned. His former allies, the minions of Moloch, who had been carried all this way, all of them were sacrificed and a massive ritual was enacted, and a colossal labyrinth arose from the earth, ancient charred stone, erupted and sent the city crumbling to the ground.

he and two massive Garistro generals thundered through. You then met him in combat and protected the seal the best that you could and delayed as long as you could slain the Garistro's, but taking some heavy blows from the avatar of the demon lord. And then you're seemingly tired of the battle. Baphomet paralyzed all of you. and was going to slaughter you when it was interrupted by Kargash himself, riding over with his goats and his sword, interrupting the channeling, but then, unfortunately, losing his life in the process.

He begged you to gain vengeance. And you managed to continue the battle and weaken Baphmet enough and delay him long enough until Hisaki could fly above carrying Golden Lotus, Kursa, Torvald, and War Chief Frostfang. War Chief Frostfang needed to be. an opening, you provided him that, and he tore down the center of the avatar, the massive minotaur of Baphomet, and the power of the blade caused the beast to just completely explode into gore and viscera. However, in the process, it claimed the soul of War Chief Frostfeng, aging him very quickly and killing him. As the glave landed on the ground, it pierced the ground of the seal, and somehow

absorbed the final remaining conduit, breaking the seal, absorbing its power, as you all were paralyzed from the resulting explosion. And Golden Lotus arrived, claimed the glave, not just the glave of War Chief Frostfay, the Gleeves, but also the glave that was wielded by Baphomet, the heart cleaver. And in the process, revealed her true form. transformed into an ancient gold dragon, and she claimed both weapons and stated her name was Rajani, the Eternal Blossom. There was no goddess. She was a dragon enacting her will throughout this entire time.

And she claimed both of the weapons, and with the power of Torvald and Herja, attempting to forge them together into a super weapon that could spread, combined beast plague, but with her own control, and spread it. spread it across the entire continent, maybe even further. And she flew off to her layer. And with that, that's where we all start. So, you all are recovering from your paralysis. The formerly pulsing, gyrating, energy-filled chamber of the seal,

the seventh seal to you, because you know that this is the seventh seal that has been broken. as far as you know, is now dormant, quiet. The only sound around you is the distant sounds of the battle that's still going on between the orcs and the Horn Legion. But you can tell from the grunts and the roars that these armies know that the avatar of its demon lord has been slain, and there seems to be confusion and chaos.

and panic. A surprising response from such hardened vicious evil monsters. But that seems to be what you can hear. The entire chamber is coated in the gore of Baphimet, coating your bodies, and you can feel its horrible, demonic chaotic corruption over you. And it's sickening. And the smell is almost as bad as the look. It's not just blood. It's this putrid, it's blood of a putrid color. And as your body, having been paralyzed so often by the strange power of the seals, you finally regain control of your bodies. And for what feels like the first time in so long,

a relative calm in the midst of this battle washes over the chamber. What do you all do? You can move again. Is everyone all right? I think so. I'm okay. I'm a little bruised.

I'm a little bruised. I'm really hurt. This is the seventh seal that's broken. Something really bad could happen now. Something really bad almost did happen. I almost died. Didn't you see that? I think we all almost died.

It's a good thing that we didn't die, but clearly these... Who's this gone now? Well, if you remember, I did tell you that this was all going to fall apart and was going to cause horrible, untold things, and we'd just have to deal with this when the time came. We knew she was up to no good. Yeah, you're right. But where do we go from here?

Well, I think we should do something to regain some health, let's me see what I can do now. Let's mend some wounds. Let's heal us. our body so our minds can effectively figure out what to do next. I need a minute too. I'm going to sit down.

I'll sit down and begin flipping through my spellbook. I will cast a six-level masculine. Cool. Yeah, I accept right away. A healthy slap would have made me unconsciously. Oh, I would cry over your lifeless body and hope that

Anubis accepts you into his realm. I don't think he would. I don't think so either. Anyway. Okay. As you do that ritual. Okay. As you do that ritual. I'm also going to cast a fifth level mask your way. Oh, lulls.

Okay. Is that instant? Yeah, there are two actions. Ooh. As? But you know what? Because I'm at seven hit points. I'm also going to... I want to combine three things if the DM will allow.

When the DM will allow. When the DM says as, as, okay. I'm also going to cast a beacon of hope so they're all at max ceiling. That's a great play. And so it will be a total of, hold on, can we ask you. So you would like to blow your load. Yes.

Blow your load on us. Sorry, what? I know when I was blows, you float all over us. So it's 78 plus 10. So and that's Macs. 78. Oh, 70. 70.

758, 56, 66. Plus 10, so 66. Yeah, everyone heals for 60, not 6D, 6T 6T 6. It definitely puts me in full. I'm not close to full. When everyone is done, calculate and please let me know. Done. Maybe I need my character shoot.

That would be your charming. Okay. Iris. You, uh, You kneel down and you pull all of the rest of the power after this weary battle as you call to Anubis for a beacon of hope after this horrible turn of events. And this pillar of golden light emerges and beams down, not just on you, but all of your allies. And you all feel that familiar sensation of warm sands and desert winds.

As the light flashes over you and your wounds start to heal and you feel the presence of Anubis. And all of you look as Iris is at the center of this chamber and Iris's eyes flash brighter, utilizing this incredible power, this divine power. And you see her eyes flash forward as they roll back and she crumples to the ground. Iris, you feel your own wounds healing. As you call upon the power of Anubis to heal your friends, you've done this, but in such a great, in such a short period of time to call upon this power, you've rarely done that. And as you feel Anubis's power channel through you and heal yourself and your allies,

you feel a presence all around you. feel his presence, his divine presence, stronger than you ever have besides the moments that you've actually been faced with him. You've been face to face with him. And then you also feel an absence that's alarming, that's sickening. The loss of the seal, you almost feel the weight of what's just happened. As suddenly you close your eyes. and when you open them again,

you feel fine, but you are no longer in the chamber of the seal. Feel the scalding, abrasive heat of desert sand, the howling wind around you, dark, roiling, looming clouds, barely visible through the sand being whipped through the storm. And from what you can see of this landscape, you see massive dunes. And something about this feels somewhat familiar. It feels similar to the relative landscape of your home in Neckbet.

Deserts that surround Siquet. But everything about this feels more grand, darker, something unnatable. unnatural or supernatural about wherever you are. And you realize that through the sand directly ahead of you, there is a small, a small triangle shape of stone, of bricks. It's no more than several feet tall. And as your eyes adjust, it glows with silver light and shoots a beam into the sky.

It pierces the cloud cover as it swirls around, forming a ring through the silver beam piercing the sky of this place. And suddenly, you almost lose your footing as the sand begins to shift all around you. And you feel a great rumbling from beneath your feet. As the sand clears away, pouring away from just this very small, small statue of the wall, of stone becomes larger and larger and larger, as you get pulled away with the sand as it falls around. And before you, in a matter of moments, an absolutely colossal pyramid is before you.

You see huge steps flanked by statues of jackal-headed men and a door, a large stone door, door, above which is a hieroglyphic symbol that resembles an owl. And flanking it is the carvings of chains as it all begins to pulse with silver light and silver energy and silver magic. And you see as all of the brickwork now that builds this mighty pyramid, far larger and more grandiose,

than anything that you've seen at home, all the Britworkers now pulsing with a chaotic silver light, as if it's... something inside is threatening to break free. And the magic that surrounds this place is attempting to contain it. And you now see, along with the chains,

that there are only six lights, and dim, very dim, are seven. and then suddenly you feel a presence behind you, and you hear a rumbling voice, as you suddenly gain control within this horrible desert. Do you now see why I called you to this land, my child? You hear the voice of Anubis. What do you do?

I will turn, but keep my head down, not making eye contact, as I buckle my knees and sink to the ground. I bury my hands in the sand, push them forward and place my forehead at the tips of my fingers, and I will say, I heard you call in my dreams, and I have followed you every step of the way.

You have, my child. But now, what I have attempted to prevent, event can no longer be stopped. The seventh seal has broken. The power, the land of Striga, the power of death, the power of the owl, the power of the goddess herself, the power of the prime can no longer hold what is entombed ahead of you. We must now prepare for the chained god to become unchained.

I will do as you wish. Order it and it will be done. This land is a godless land of false idols, a land of death, one connected to where you and your companions have found yourselves. This is where he has been imprisoned. You must muster all of our weapons and power against. the chain god, the seven angels, the rod of law, and then you must lead your allies east. What awaits us in the east? It is there. The land to the east, the land of the elves of dusk, is the land most connected to the realms of death, to the realms of death, to the realms beyond the mist. It is there you'll be able to act as my vessel in these godless lands. I am the only one, the only divine force that can even peer into this place. But I do not have

power here. I will do what I can to hold Thore's Dune at bay. But this land is hostile to the divine. And so it will be hostile to you. But you must. Gather your friends. Gather your power. And do what must be done when the chain God is finally free. As you will it, so it shall be.

In mind and body, I'm yours. So you always have been, and so you always shall be. as above so low. And you will always walk in my shadow. And you see now that anumus does not stand before you, but the massive shadow of a jackal-headed man looms over you, and you feel his presence. And as his rumbling voice fades, suddenly your eyes open,

you are on the smooth stone ground of that dormant seal. chamber. Oh, I am a sick kitty. I've had a vision from a newus. Well, I didn't see anything. What did he say? As far as doom, we'll be free.

What do you mean? It'll be free. The seventh seal has been broken. Only six remain. I saw the dim lights on a pyramid of death. We have to find the rod. We will need it. We need the power of the seven angels.

We must muster them. And we are tasked to head to the east to a land of dust elves, to a land of mist. And I fear you may have to travel into the land of death itself. Whoa, whoa, hold on a second. So what you're saying is that the seal's breaking is inevitable? There's nothing we can do. We have failed. But that does not mean we cannot stop the worst of what is.

to come. He must be quick. We cannot dozzle on this. More than half of the seals are broken. And Anubis cannot hold him if they ever. Did he say how much time he needs? Well, let me check my diary. Did Anubis give me a date and... No, he did not...

Oh, I just forget he may... It's all right, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for asking. He did... He did not sound... If a god knows fear, I'm afraid he may know it. It's not good. So if we have time, it is not much. Would Luffy and I know about the Dusk-Els?

Yes. You would know that Skethernail is the northeastern nation of Duskills. And these are Shadarkai, but the humans have called them Dust elves. Those relations can't be good. They're not. They are the worst of the relations. They are the most mysterious. They are the most hated. And you saw how they, how much

Corvacia hated the orcs and the Erakokra. The relations with the Dusk Elves, with the the Shedarkai of Skethythornail are, it's very, very bad. Listen, Iris,

I'm in this much as I can be. I'm not going anywhere, but are you sure we have to go to where the dusk elves are? Have you been there before? We are not going to be well-received there. I mean, I'm usually down for anything, but... Even I don't like that. Even I don't like that.

Every place we've traveled, whether we meet people who are kind, at face value or not. We have been met with nothing but lies and deceit. Only anubis tends full truth The desks gulls are going to make this Past stuff look like a picnic

How do you know that? Just because Zern told you? It was probably lies. It's not just Zern. And yes, it could be lies, but there's a lot of history, Tau. A lot of history. Well, maybe we'll disguise you as an elf. Look, I may be an owl person. I'm not worried.

about that. I'm just saying it's going to make things really difficult. And if Thoris do wreaks free, and we do no. Well, we're all dead anyway. All of the ventrists, gone. So, why are we arguing about the duskows? I don't think we're arguing. We're bracing ourselves.

The artist makes a good point. Everyone that we've been led, every person that has tried to lead us has, even though we've been able to stop devastating threats, we've been fooled, we've been trained. We've been... Zerr is being guided by a six-eyed bird, just like everyone else.

Anubis is the only guide that we can trust. You pronounced God, God, God, God, gold? He said Guy. Oh. He's a god. I meant guide. Guide. Guide.

Guide. Did I mean guy? I can't do this right now, Toa, I have a throbbing headache. The point is, I mean, I mean, I mean, I can't do this right now, Toawe. I have a throbbing headache. I trust Iris, and I understand what needs to be done. I'm just horning everybody. That's all.

Be prepared. It's going to get underway. Where do we start? Well, we've got to get the wrong back. Yes. And rescue her job. Yes. Oh, yeah.

That too. Caprice, are you okay? That was a tough fight for me. I didn't care for that. I'm sorry also. for chomping you with my T-Rex mouth in the middle there. I was a little confused. Well, I wasn't going to bring it up,

but since you did, port-taste. No way. It was a port-taste. Did we see what direction she flew off? Yes. You saw that she flew north, basically directly north. What do we do now?

We can't keep up with Hisaki. And these... We have no means to follow them. There's the character going very far, right? She said that they were going to the layer, maybe? You got the sense that they were going to the layer and that there were, like, preparation that needed to be done. So you get the sense that it's not like,

probably what isn't like an immediate thing that's going to happen immediately, but it's underway. Well, what I would say is I'm not quite familiar with dragons. But I would imagine if I were a dragon, you know, trying to manipulate and control an entire populace of people, I would keep my lair close. So I tend to bring things today. Cots down on commute.

Yes. If that's the only lee we have, then we've got to follow it. Do we have a way to fly? Hey look, I feel like it. Do you have a way to fly? Whoa. Have you ever seen me do that? I don't know.

You do lots of stuff. You make me really fast. Maybe you can make me so fast that I could. leap into the air and start flying around. Oh, Tawa. And I just pat him on the shoulder. I reach up and I pat him on the shoulder. I guess not.

Could you send me a Tris to scout at the very least? Absolutely. She's certainly not as fast as Tzaki, but if she can scout out the area, it might take a few hours or even a day, but I'm absolutely willing to try. I think that's probably our best bet. If she could pinpoint the location or traveling to,

it's better to wait and head in the proper direction than to blindly leave and have to backtrack. Right. I will call on Beatrice, and she'll appear and land on my finger, and I will whisper to her directions to fly north, you know, the descriptions of what we're looking for, and, you know, that's about it. Roger that. So she nods with that strange kind of animal sentience that familiars tend to have that you know. And she fully understands what you're asking of her.

And she gets the sense that it's, or you get the sense that it's going to be probably a pretty major undertaking and may not be successful, but she's going to give it her best shot. So you see the little bluebird fly off into the air and fly north. And can I get a perception check for Beatrice?

For her whole, um, her whole biz. You can in a minute. I believe it's at an advantage. I will get back to you on that. Is that all right? Yeah, yeah. So at some point.

At some point, yeah. Just keep, we'll just move forward and I will let you know what it is as soon as you. So you all watch the little bluebird fly off into the sky as you hear. The sounds of battle behind you to the south starts to get a little bit a little bit less chaotic, as if it is dying down. And yeah, that's what you hear. Do I hear any signs of, like, troop movement within the vicinity? Like, is anyone, like, do I get a sense that there's any battles happening near this whole network? I would say, make a perception check for me.

Oh, that was almost a Maddie 20. Yeah, I was gonna say, I saw that, I saw that. Skills. Yeah. Perception. Um, that's not very good. Oh, no, it's not bad. Uh, 20.

20. I would say that you, that sounds like the battle is getting further away from you. As if, and you get the sense that most of the voices that you're hearing are orcs shouting to each other as if, and it sounds as if, like, perhaps they're routing or driving away the Horn Legion. Beatrice gets 24. 24. Oh, my goodness. Roll the 90, 20. I did.

Nice. I got to give it up. I have made a note of the 90-20, the 24. Well done, be addressed. Well done. The birds can get natural 20s, but because of players. She rolled very well. I would like to negate that. How far away's be a trust. Luckily, a skill check is not a crit.

Exactly right. Okay. So I, all I just kind of sit down on the ground and I'll say, I need to take a little bit of a rest before we continue, but it seems like the orcs of, won the day, but I worry, are they our enemies now? I'm very confused. I hadn't thought about that.

Well, if we're going north and then east, not our problem, yeah? Well, I just mean as far as getting north, how in communication is this dragon with, I guess, her troops now? Well, I think that depends. Does she want to continue to pull the wall over their eyes and make them believe that there is a golden lotus that is some kind of deity? Or does she want to continue, or does she want to tell them flat out? My guess is subterfuge, in which case she's going to have to deal with herger first.

So we probably have the evening, if we're lucky. I could be wrong, of course, in which case we could die in our sleep. We should definitely keep a low profile and go from there. I don't think that it would be safe for us to return to the city. Our best bet might honestly would be to stay on this broken seal. Well, I mean, the city's pretty much entirely destroyed, I think. There can't be much of it left. And we'd have to get our way out of this maze, too.

Do we know what's north of us from the point that we're in? It's basically mountains. It's just mountains. Yep. It's basically mountains. And it's not been anything that you've traversed. You saw that the view from your little area looked north, and there were just these beautiful kind of like fog

and mist shrouded valleys and mountains going north for shore. Well, we could just go into the mountains, like right on the side of the battle. Get out of it, you know? Take a country vacation, if you will. I think you're right. I just... I don't know anymore.

I feel like I'm trying to be so trusting. And everyone is a bad guy. Oh, Toa. Give him a hug, please. Look at your friend. All right. Are you a bad guy, Felix? And I hug him.

Even though he's way taller. That's so sweet. I love to see this friendship between people, the little and it be. Wouldn't that be? Ironic if Felix did end up being. the BB EG. What, what's that? A BBEG?

Well, it's, it means big, bad, evil guy. Oh, that's weird. I... Wouldn't you think so, Toa, that that would be quite ironic if he trusted Felix from the first moment that you met him? He was with you every day of this journey

and at the very end he turned on. I don't think that would be very ironic. That would be sad. They're not mutually excuses. Well, as far as I know, I'm not evil. I mean, I've done some pretty horrible things in the past, but I'm trying to fix that.

I'm trying to make up for that. I wouldn't betray you. Is that you know of? Well, sure, I mean, but nobody can know anything. Everything. Ultimate power. Well, I mean... How nice does Beatrice have?

I haven't looked lately. Just two. Are you sure? Did you check just now? Did you, like, confirm that she only has two eyes? Yeah, of course. And they're definitely not red. And, I mean, any one of us can be controlled by some higher evil or power.

But all we can do is stick together and not cause anything to come between us. We all look at cookies. Ding, ding, ding, ding. I'm just tuning my video here. The point is, I'm not going to betray you. And we've all become really good friends. And we're really all we have for each other. So nothing's going to stop that now.

And we can't let anything break us up. You're right. I actually have friends all over the world, but I mean, you guys are cool. I do enjoy you. I don't believe her. Why not? Why? Does she, didn't think she has any friends?

No, it's just a hunch. Oh, I don't think you do, Lufty. Oh, you didn't have to say that out loud. Feltier, now I have one less friend. Oh, no, I mean, that's what Felix said. Too less. I didn't, ah. I can confirm that Luffy does know how to gain a friend.

an ally. Oh, could you teach us how to do that? Yeah, with lots of practice. We'll start training soon, huh?

Yes, yes, I would like that very much. You will. Somebody will. We'll all be able to hear how much you enjoy it. Very much looking forward to that. Throw my cheek up.

Do I notice that Caprice tuning his violet does not have his tuning for, you're gonna do my. Oh, make an inside check. Ooh, I'm gonna be inside a perception. Uh, oh yeah, perception, yeah. Not good.

Uh, seven. You're oblivious. You big, dumb rock. I'm literally a rock. I'm literally a rock. Oh. Oh. So can we see that we took a short rest?

I would say at this point, you take the short rest, and you actually start to hear the footsteps and marching of troops and boots getting a little bit closer. And you now look around and you see directly, basically this entire time, you see the withered, shriveled corpse of War Chief Frostfang as it's still on the ground. And you remember that crackling helmet that he had now has kind of clattered to the side as he's almost kind of withered out of it. I would have my feel at this point, because I would have seen it. I would have sort of attending to him and started to prepare like a burial or something.

You clean all the horrible gore off of it. And so you get him all situated. You probably put the helmet back on if you cared to do that. And get him kind of turned over in a way. And you get the sense that like this looks like an orc who was far, far, far, far older than he ever should have been when he died. And now it looks as if his age has caught up with him from whatever sort of, sort of, sacrifice or soul transference he had used in order to take the power of Baphimet and the seal into this weapon that the eternal blossom, Rajani.

I would like to cast reincarnate. I'm just kidding. Oh, my God. It is canceled. It fails. It fails. It fails. Now you die of natural causes.

He gave me regret. That's an interesting point. Yeah. Oh. What's something to every day. Um, and sorry, if I asked this already, well, what time of the day is it? Um, it is, uh, it's evening. It is. So they, they attacked the sunset and it's probably been a couple hours at this point. So it's into, it's a human. Does it sound like they're making their way toward us or further away? It sounds if like that, it's, does it seem like it would be safe to camp here for the night?

So you get the sense that the, that some of the troops, I would say that you'd be able to do this pretty easily, that a lot of the troops have been pulled from the front line as they've been routing the Horn Legion are now starting to fan out to the city to check on what's going on. And I would say you don't even need a roll a perception check. You see where there had been massive charred stone walls of the labyrinth have now all crumbled to dust with the death of Baphimus. So the wreckage is all still there, but the labyrinth is now gone. But you get the sense that at some point, that it is probably likely that there will be people checking in on you, or checking in on the chamber and the ruins of the palace.

And you see that very, that beautifully gilded roof is kind of falling down towards the side, and you see the head of one of the statues of War Chief Frostfang, kind of tipped forward in the ruins of the palace above you. Have I been to Rajani's, like, hut or whatever, building in the city? All of you have, yeah. You went through it to get to that glade where you had teleported to Shivachi to Limbo. And you told Beatrice to go north, right? To follow, yeah.

Go in the direction of where Rajani had gone. I will kind of kneel down during the short rest and I'll take my figurines out and place them as, you know, close as I can, northwest, east and south. And I will say, experience, we may need your aid in the coming battle. Perhaps you can help right now. And I'm going to pray and use clairvoyance to... place a, to consult the spirits and send one of my ancestors or spirits or however, you can flavor it however you want, into the glade to see the fate of the glade currently now that this has all happened. Like, is it still, is it like totally destroyed by the maze or is it somehow protected? Do I see anything happening here? Okay. How does Clevervoyance work? Is it just, is it a scratch? I create an invisible sensor within range of one mile. So I said within one mile.

That sensor remains for the duration of 10 minutes. It can't be attacked or otherwise interacted with. When I cast a spell, I choose seeing or hearing. I can use a chosen sense through the sensor as if I were in that space. I'm just seeing. And I can switch between hearing and seeing as an action. I would say that you consult the spirits and your tattoos once again glow, and your eyes flashed with that.

eyes flash with that same color, and your senses are transferred to the glade of the eternal blossom, and you see the wreckage of the hut that the Golden Lotus, Rajani in disguise, had been staying, but the glade itself is entirely untouched and pristine, and there's a bit of a breeze through, and the wind whips around as your sensor emerges,

whipping around north, and you see the several of the petals fly off of the trees and land onto that beautiful shimmering pool. In no sense of any movement or any... No, besides the trees in the wind, that's basically what you see for the entire duration. And you see that the... And obviously, it's night, and the moonlight is enough to illuminate this glade, but you see that the fog is kind of rolling in, the mist is getting a little bit thicker. North, but that's about all you see. Well, she destroyed her own

home here in the city. I guess she didn't, but the Horn Legion did, but the Glade is entirely undisturbed. Perhaps through chance, or maybe it's somehow protected, magically. It's impossible. It could be somehow linked to

only, and that's why it's not. She would have had to have a way to get to a lair from the city. It's certainly possible. Maybe some sort of a teleportation circle or some sort of, you know, magical link. It's a good suggestion. Couldn't she just fly? If she didn't want to draw attention to herself,

she manipulated everyone by telling them that she was simply a servant of a god. Higher being at the very least. The magic would be instant. It wouldn't be any kind of flight time. Fair point. I don't know any. First, we can figure out how we're going to get out of here. Is there like any way that we can climb out or?

It's like down, isn't it? Is that? So yeah, you're underground and you get the sense that you might be able to like scramble up some of the wreckage in order to get up. There are enough footholes to climb up if you cared to. Are we ready to start going? Yes. Yeah.

I feel pretty good now. You feel okay? I feel, yeah. Yeah, I'm not going to die anytime soon. Are you fine, Claire? I'm all right, yes. Yes, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling refreshed.

I'm worried. And hopefully, no more betrayals, right, guys? Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, we will see. But just keep an eye on that one, yeah? You don't have to worry about me, so I got your back. I know, I know. Should we do anything for Mr. Frost Fang before we go?

Yes. I've prepared the body. Felix would do the honour, lighting it ablaze. I think it is time we send a sword to rest. Sure. Oh, wait, wait. I'll pull out my wine, skein. Is that my saying, that reason? Skin.

Skin. Skin. Skin. Skin. Skin. Skin. Skin. Skin. You could say skein. I mean. Isn't it spelled skein? I think so. Sken. Skin. I think so. Is it I.E? eye. It's going to be a skin.

I'm going to pull up my wine skin and take a drink and then pour some of the wine over the top of the body. Take a step back. Are we ready? Yes. It is his time. One for the road. I'll walk up to the body and with just a simple wave and a snap of my finger, I will press

to dictate some flame. to light the ceremony. You do that. As soon as that little wick of flame hits the body with the wine and the preparations that Iris has made to the body, it goes up in flame and probably aided in how shriveled and withered that the body is as well. It burns very quickly.

It effectively was, yeah. Come on. You see that where it had once been that rich, slightly green blue. It is now just kind of this very pale faded blue and then it goes up and soon the body is entirely engulfed in flame and it's really just almost an empty husk inside of that armor. And as it burns, all the armor and clothing burns and smoke a big, up from the hole in the roof of this chamber. And as it burns, you see that everything catches fire

except for the helmet that seems to be impervious to the flame until there's really nothing more than just ashes and the helmet where his head had been. Well, ready? All right. Should we take this? I'll pick up the helmet. You grab it. It's a pretty large helmet. This was an incredibly massive orc in his prime.

What do we do with this? It feels weird just to kind of leave this here. I'm assuming it's too big for Toa to wear? I guess it was probably about the size. Same size. It would be decent for Toa, perhaps. No, that would be disrespectful. Ah, jabble and clambers out.

Jeez, the only part that didn't incinerate. As you are looking around and getting ready to leave and with the helmet, you hear what sounds like footsteps, but it sounds like almost heavy slamming, and it seems to have a strange gait. It sounds like a beast is approaching. As you hear heavy breathing, it almost kind of sounds like the howling of wind. as a shadow looms over and peers through the smoke and you see the face of a slavering Yeti. As it looms over, as you see behind the Yeti's head, an orc who seems to be writing this beast

looks down into the chamber below through the smoke. And you recognize this orc as Beast Lord Harthack as he looks at all of you, and then at the helmet, and at the whole patch of ash. And he calls out, What has happened here? Your chief, he, he, he fell. He, he was tricked by, by Golden Lotus.

Tricked by Golden Lotus. Yes, yes, we, we just gave him a proper burial, but he, he killed the beast without realizing that it would end his life as well. The war chief is dead. The war chief is dead. Yes. The ground slightly rumbles as the Yeti leaps from the top of the roof and slams down in the center of the space

and looms over you as the orc riding it peers down at the helmet, especially at Utoa. We were told by Eitan. Eternal Blossom, to trust her, there's no way that she has been, she has betrayed our war chief. She told us that all was well. The eternal blossom doesn't exist. Golden Lotus is the Eternal Blossom, an ancient gold dragon. You have been duped as has your war chief. He.

Not disrespect his death by fighting against the truth when it stares you so plainly in the face. With his final breath, he cursed her name. He called her a witch. You should know that. Make a persuasion check of advantage. Who? You'd like to. Fine, I'll give her.

I'd like to. I'm about persuasive as a rock. I'm still tuning, but I'll... You said at advantage. I'm going to give you inspiration. No, you're not. You have never given me inspiration, so that's a lot. I don't remember what my inspiration is.

My inspiration is right now. It's got to be an eight or ten, yeah. It's gotta be a ten. Wow, wow, woo-a. 10's pretty high. You know, if you had D and D beyond. It's what? Why wouldn't I write that down?

It starts at six, eight, ten, twenty-four. It's got to be ten. It's got to start four. It starts at four. It starts at six. It does start at four. I think it starts of four. Inspiration.

No, no, that you get, not the level, the die. As a third level barred in prime, I have D-6s. Oh, shit. Well, color me surprised. And as you talk, well, Caprice looks like that up, unless it's a certain subsection. As you talk to him, you see that there is,

that the, that the Yeti that he's riding is kind of, is moving around erratically a little bit, and its eyes are looking a little bit wild and then subdued. And it reminds you of the, of when, what you have seen happen to the beasts when Baphomet and the Horn Legion had marched closer to the city. Yeah. Um, yeah, I think we cash that in.

I think we do. I think we do indeed. Just based on her laughing, I think we're cashing in on antipsate. We have them for a reason. We'll average this out. I've got a three and a six for my two D-20s. I got a one on my T-10. We're going to twist that.

Thank you, Chad. Devastating. It's a big oof-da. Just rolling on a two-d-20. I got an eight. Better than nothing. So that's nine. Plus nine, eighteen.

18. See? Well, there you go. That's very persuasive. You see with the wildness of the Yeti, its eyes and its eyes are bloodshot

as well. And you look up and through the horned helmet, clearly made of Yeti Hyde with Yeti horns, this Beast Lord, looks at you with eyes that are somewhat similar. As the, as you all look around at yourselves too, at each other, and you actually look that there's a bit of,

through the gore of a Baphimet that you could clean yourselves off of. It's 16. It's 16. 16. My map is really bad. It's a 16. Got it. Got it. And he looks at all of you, and he kind of closes his eyes and then, and close his eyes and covers his face. No, there's no way that's possible. As a stance to reason. No. No. And he's kind of gripping, he's kind of gripping his tendrils on his chin. And you see now that they're, that you had, you seen him the previous evening.

And that they, that when you had seen them, they were certainly longer than they are now. They're just only probably three inches long at this point. As the tendrils on his chin. They're receding? They have seemed to have recede from the previous evening. And he, he, he, no. There's no way that is right. If you all are with the helmet of my war chief,

and all I have is your word versus the word of the eternal blossom, a goddess herself. The only rational explanation is that you assassinated him. And his eyes kind of go back and forth. And they almost look to, it reminds you of the wild beasts that had been in a similar state the previous night. And the Yeti starts to get a little bit panicked as he is kind of looking back and forth and he kind of stops towards you. The Yeti then stops towards you, Toa, and then stops even closer. And he leans forward.

What do you guys do? I would immediately dagger in hand, like defensive stance prepared to. But then, wait a minute. Not let Toa get eaten. Why in the world would we want to kill him? There's no reason for it. Luffy's right. You have to believe us. This doesn't have to go any farther than this.

The gigantic beast, Bhafer met himself. He's defeated. He's gone. Your ward chief was successful. It might have taken his life, and that's not something that we can fix. But he did what he set out to do. And think about you. If you were to assassinate somebody, Would you just sit around and stare at your good work,

or would you hightail out of there, like Golden Lotus did? That's a very good point. I would say, make a persuasion check. Again, for inspiration. As the words stop him momentarily, pulls up on the reins of this massive Yeti. And this yet he was large, but it's not as...

The orc. That's an orc on top, right? Yeah, yeah. Does he seem like, Looking at him with my clerical abilities, was there something I could roll to determine whether he seems to be under some kind of mental enchantment? Hmm.

How about make an Arcana or Medicine check your choice? Okay. Can you pick a dime that's going to not suck, but when I roll it? Blue, yellow, or designs. Designs. I'm not now. That's not the fly.

That wasn't. It was a natural one. You're welcome. We have twist for a reason. We're twisting it. But fuckers. Thank you, too. We're twist, chat.

Thank you, Chad. Sucking on butt. I think blue is always the choice. Sucking on butt. So you got a 10. Huh? Luke, you got a 10. That's right.

Do with it what you will. I'm going to let Iris roll this and see what she does. It's a five, but I'm going to, I want to see what this one would have rolled. better. The rest of you are shot. It wasn't in the cards. You've been shunned. And you said, Arcana or Medicine.

Yep. Medicine's one pretty good. I hate my dice. Ooh, that's pretty good. It's difficult to tell. There seems to be some sort of strange conflict going on there, but you're not really sure what it is. That's all you can really determine.

Well, I will still decide to do the thing I'm trying to do. Hey, guys, this is it just me or is this kindness flat starting to? As he turns to you, Luffy, as you try to talk to him, and he says, She said that outsiders would try to play with our minds and turn us against each other and against her, but we have achieved everything because of the eternal blossom. And the Yeti snarls, and you're pelted with this putrid saliva of this beast. He stomps towards you now away from Toa. As Iris, what are you doing?

I am going to use my feline agility and my cat's claws to scale the wall. And I'm going to climb as, I'm going to just try to get to a place where I can touch him. And I'm going to cast... Oh, he's on the ground with him. Oh, I thought he was up there.

He jumped down. Oh, I was imagining the Yeti like up looking down. I was not like, oh, God, that he's on top of a Yetty. Oh, God. A Yetty going to break my head. I thought what's going to. Oh, well, in that case,

no cats clause, no feline agility. I am just going to use my feline grace to zip around him. I'm going to touch him, and I'm going to cast a spell evil and good. What is that? How does that work? I'm going to use the break enchantment as my action. The creature I touch is no longer charmed,

frightened, or possessed by a creature that is a celestial, elemental, feigned, or an undead. No dragon. Oh, is a dragon? Something different than that? That would have been my guess. Usually they include dragons in those lists. Oh, I didn't even think about that.

I think you're going in the wrong direction. I mean, try it. Well, you gotta get to him first. I mean, can be anybody. I would say, as you run around, we're going to do an athletics or acrobatics contest against the Yenny. Oh, dear God. You should win yourself.

I have to get smushed. This Yenny is going to smash my head. Shit. Why? Yeah, not one of the way. You said acrobatics or athletic. Yes. Why?

13. 13. Well, I roll the natural one for the Yeti. Yay! He probably has plus 14. No, no, he's still a beast. So, you see as the Yeti snarls as you attempt to sprint towards the Beast Lord, as the Yeti raises massive hand and slams it down.

It's white fur, it's white shaggy fur, whips through the air, and you are able to dodge out of the way and reach up and grab the leg. of Beast Lord Harthak, and you channel the power of Anubis, and you see now, as you get close, that there is the, you see that there's a struggle in the Beast Lord's face as he glows with the power of Anubis, that you feel the warm, the warm desert wind on your skins and whips through and it whips the hair of the Yeti back and forth. As his eyes go the bloodshot eyes as black fur starts to grow on his face and then and then his tendrils start to shrink back and then it returns back into his face and the tendrils extend longer

and longer and then back and forth and back and forth until it is he's completely engulfed in golden light and suddenly as his tendrils sink into his chin and everything off and and his eyes return to normal. And he's just an orc in front of you. And you see that the golden light has flashed and engulfed the Yeti as well. And where there had once been conflict and panic, now it seems to have returned to normal

And the Yeti collapses, exhausted. And the Beast Lord falls off and rolls down. And his eyes kind of flutter. And he heaves himself up. What did you do to me? I'll release you from whatever hold is on your mind. Are you okay? Do you feel a little better?

Not so cranky now? Or do you feel the opposite? more cranky, and we shouldn't just go. I am so tired. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. What are you to do to my Yeti? What?

What did you do? I used anubis's power to break whatever enchantment was washing over his mind. I couldn't be sure there was one, but if there was, I could sever it. And it worked? It was. It was worse. the risk.

Though it has left me feeling very weak. How do you feel? Tired. Confused. I don't know. If I can trust my own mind anymore. I feel anger. Confusion.

I want you. Submit's no longer. That's good. Yes, and you should focus your anger and your rage and sense of justice again. against Rajani, the eternal blossom, which is actually a dragon. I fear that everyone you know, they're still under her control. Or whatever, if not her, whatever controls your, whatever controlled your mind, they will still be under it.

Though your mind is clear, though you do not want to submit, they do. And they will. you should flee from him I will not flee I am a proud orc the dancing blade

I felt my mind at war once I returned from battle I felt myself struggling two sides mind heart I felt that I could almost get control of it

but you helped me along you help me see that cat was a witch, wasn't she? Yes. A dragon, but also a witch. A dragon witch? A dragon witch. And now...

Yes. And now... Yes. The war chief and the high overlord are dead. And I am all that is left of the leadership of my clan. Well... Because of her? You're the war chief now.

And I pass it. in the helmet. Yeah. Frostfying saw the light just before he went, and now you see the light too, and you can change their minds. You can be the leader. He looks at the helmet.

I would say make a persuasion check an advantage whoever would like to. My dice are broken. Well, I say, yeah, now I see the look to you or her writing tone. The DC is adjusted now from everything that's happened. It's got to be tough. Oh, I shouldn't have been told.

What is wrong with our dice did? I do you get two natural ones. We need to take a group trip and buy some new dice. All right, let's twist it. I'm going to roll my good dye. I should have done that in the first place. My best dice or my cheap, cheap, cheap dice that I picked out of a fish bowl. We'll always roll individually before purchasing.

That's devastating. The seven that I rolled previously is my best and my persuasion. Seven. Plus one. So that is of eight. Aye, yay. He looks. at the helmet, and he turns away.

I do not deserve the mantle of war chief. I do not deserve to hold the power that Shengoro did. Why not? You have to believe in yourself. It's not a matter of deserving. You're the one who, the mantle's being thrust upon you. You're the one who has to take the helmet in order to keep the, The tribes united, peace across the domains.

Otherwise, this whole thing falls apart. It shatters in all direction. If you've got a city to rebuild, you've got a, you've got a, a, people who are today. Yes, exactly. I'm going to step forward in front of him and look up at him, because he's in horse, so he's really tall. He's a big fellow.

I would say he's shorter than Toa, but he's still a big fella. My father did not choose to be born a king. The universe chose. for him, but he has worked every day of his life to be worthy of the crown that he haunts. And so shall you. You may not be ready now, but you see, unlike the rest, and if not you, then who? And though you do not want to hold the power should you walk away from it, the power is still yours as you doom them all.

First, we didn't check the advantage. Finally. Thank you. We broke 10. Wow. We won't. Yeah. You would persuasion? 25. 25. Okay.

He looks at you. Everyone's so scared to roll dice in my life. I know. He looks. He looks at you. He looks back at the helmet. And without word, he reaches forward and grabs it out of your hands.

Toa, I think, is why I'm holding it out. Yeah, I'm still holding it up. And he looks down at the ashes of his war chief. And he kind of looks forward with this uncertainty but somewhat determined expression and says, I pray, whoever gods are real. that it was not just a bewitchment that united our tribes, that we can still survive this betrayal under my leadership as war chief. Oh, wait, wait, wait, wait.

So sorry, sorry, I interrupt. No, no, no, there's a bunch of ash inside. Have you ever seen that telescope gag? Like, just let me clean. I'm going to just quickly take some cloth and get under in there. It was going to be all over your face. I'm sorry. We're going to look ridiculous.

You really can't start to lead a people. Okay, there you go. Exactly. How embarrassing that would have been. Thank you. He takes it and he puts it on and it shimmers with that same kind of crackling magic that's on this helmet. Lovely. And he stands up.

You're open. And he stands up tall and mighty now. You're tall. And he's tall. And he's tall. he looks at his Yeti, and the Yeti almost sensing his will, he's the Beast Lord of this clan after all,

heaves itself up and stares with clear eyes now at his master, and with a single motion, Harthack mounts his Yeti mount and looks at all of you and says, I do not know how. I will free my people from this bewitchment, or I will die trying. You are welcome to stay here or rest forever. You care to in the ruins of our city.

All we can do is rebuild. The Horn Legion is smashed. No more than a handful of splintered beasts. minotores, centaurs. We are victorious, but at what cost, I am going to. And he looks down, and there's a, there's a, a,

a tabard that's around him. And he takes his fist and he rips it off, and he wraps it around his chin. I will do what I can. To convince them. Perhaps, If I, one of their own, their new war chief shows them the truth. The power of their own minds will be enough to free themselves.

But at the very least, Iris proved that it's curable. It can be fixed, or broken or whatever. I think you can do it. I will try. Good luck to you. Also, how many people know this chamber exists? I did not even know it existed. Until I happened upon it.

I had put together that there was something that the war chief was hiding, a place he would seclude himself to, a burden that he carried. But that is all. I would highly recommend if you get some trusted friends and just a few people that you trust with this knowledge to come here and hide this again. we may, who knows, one day come back and try to rebuild this area or something. Just, you know, keep it secret, keep it safe, you know. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Evantris and gain access to tons of exclusive perks,

including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, shroud over Salt Marsh. You can also go to the crooked moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. You see Beast Lord, Harthack, a helmet now, the helm of the war chief on his head. He's mounted at the top of his Yeti.

And he looks at you all one last time and says, I may call upon you for your help to convince my people if I cannot alone from your first-hand account. Wherever you are, I will find you. But I thank you for all you have done for my people, even outsiders, even Korovakians, and he looks at you, Felix. I do not expect this. I thank you and if we don't cross paths again save travels and

keep your head high and he turns and the Yeti lumbers out effortlessly climbing up the rebel out of the chamber the second that he is like gone and without like outside of earshot I immediately reach into my pack

and pull out a notebook and a quill and some ink oh sweet Raven Queen. Did you see that? When Iris was fixing it, it was like between the dragon curse and Beast Plague. I mean, I've never seen anything like that before. And I'm like furiously scribbling notes and, uh, oh, I mean, this has to be some sort of new evidence. We've never seen anything like that before. I, what? Did he have Beast Plague? I don't know, but I definitely saw it. Tell me I'm not the only one who saw the Beast Plague. Also two. It sounds, I don't understand. I don't either. I mean, Every time we seem to get more information,

we just get more questions, and we're not getting to the bottom of anything. You are so cute when you're learning and you're writing in your diary. Oh my goodness. I mean, this is pretty important. This is a real time to be messing around. I know.

Write some more. Oh. Do keep writing, man. I mean it genuinely and not sarcastically. Oh, no, I meant very genuinely as well. You know, darling. It's just my voice. You know, the more you passionize him, the less he's going to run.

It's so easy for you to manipulate the minds of the men you don't care about. Why don't you start liking them? You chase them away. Iris, do you have any input on this? On what? Lufty's strange attraction to you, you... No, no, no, no, no. The war chief's condition. The thing you fixed. Oh, that we were talking about your relationship with Lufty. What?

See? No, no, no, no, no, no. You can do it, though, darling. The war chief! I think he's just scared. A powerful woman, frightens him. And the patronizing. Oh, yes, that too.

I'm definitely not listening. See, look at him. He was shaking. He was sick, but you fixed it. Yes. But he seemed to be sick by multiple things at once. Stumbling over his words. Or maybe it was all the same thing. Maybe the beast's plague instead of...

Did we see what the dragon looked like, uh, Johnny? Yes. No. Right? Right? Would I, based on how close I was and seeing how it was moving from the fur to the tendrils and that I saw and was questioning the tendrils on Herja, could I make the assumption that she was in some way manipulating beast plague?

I would say, how about you make an arcana or medicine check? At advantage. At advantage. Oh, medicine? No, it'll be medicine for sure. So what if you say is we saw the golden dragon, right? We saw Rajami. She transformed in the...

Did she have little tendrils? She had tendrils herself. Exactly right, yes. So she had tendles herself. Okay, okay. 14. 14. I would say that you got the sense as if the effects of...

With everything you have with, I will say that with that, with that you were able to get the sense that the beast plague or the effects of Baphimet, the chaotic effects of Baphomet, were basically directly at war with the controlling lawful effects of Rajani. Damn. And these orcs were basically whatever was being in the battle of all of these beasts has effectively tainted them, but in a way that allowed them to suddenly fight back and forth where there's basically a battle now, there was a battle in the beast's lord's mind. Between what was it? Oh, so it doesn't look like it's something she's doing to them.

It, you know, the beast plague or the beastial aspect was very clearly from Baphimus. And that she, that what Johnny was doing was controlling. I meant more so that she, what she was doing to them with the tendrils is similar magics to the beast plague. You get the sense, I would say that you get the sense, and she had kind of alluded to the fact that she, her ultimate goal is to basically have her effect, the corrupt, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, lawful corruption,

but have it be as, as, as, be able to spread as like the beast plague. basically to combine them. And so it's not, it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not, it's, it's, it's not using, it's not utilizing the same magic. It's not using, it's not using, it's not using the same magic, exactly right. And so she's her current plan. It's basically spread, not beast, but the tendril bed, her tendril bit to make basically everyone lawful and everyone follow, you know, basically submit to, um, to order. And now she has both the rod, the glitz.

the glave of law, or whatever we're calling it, and the heart clover. Heart cleaver. So she has a lawful thing and the beast plague thing, and she can just smash them together. And she, the intention is for Torvald to forge them together into a mighty, and Hart Cleaver was the weapon that,

that Bathamette was wielding. So that's his. So basically she sucks. Big time. And is a bee. She's a big stinky bee. She's a big old stinky bee. I'm a curfork for it.

She's a stinky bee, McGee. they collar. Exactly right. I don't like that. I don't know why. Something about that is just unpleasant. Oh, and Felix, when you said earlier that that helmet could have been mine, unfortunately I'm not allowed to wear helmets, it's against the barbarian code.

I didn't, I didn't say that, Tala. Oh, you didn't? Oh, was that out of character or non- canon? Yes, if we're gonna break the fourth wall, that's exactly what it was. Oh, okay, all right. It was a guy named Andy who thought that. I'm glad I gave him that helmet that I found. No, I think you did the right thing.

That was great. I mean, these people need a leader. And we've got to cure them. They could already have Beast Blake. And whatever Lajani was doing is just keeping it in check. Well, I'm hoping that the war chief can do his best because we don't have time, unfortunately, to worry about the orcs right now.

Maybe once we save Herger, I just hope that if the war chief is going around breaking Golden Lotus's mind control, then they don't just start turning into beasts. I guess that's right. I don't know. How does that work? Without Iris' magic, maybe they would just turn into beasts. Have we done a terrible thing?

Potentially, yes. I mean, it needed to be done. The war chief needs to get his peoples back, and they need to be free. We just don't know enough. Well, either way, we need to find a way to start going. Well, I gave us permission to stay here and get to sleep for the evening. We're waiting on Beatrice to give us a destination of where to go. Safe, as safe as it's going to get.

We don't want to sleep down here in the dirt, do we? Would you prefer to sleep up there in the dirt? I don't know. It's ruins, it's all ruins. Let me just take a look. I'm gonna use my... Hmong feature. Ung feature. Your levitate.

No. Your run-up walls. Oh. My run-up walls, which I can't remember what it's called. My Narrow 2 skill. I don't remember what it's called. Step of the wheel? No.

I don't know. I'll figure that out later. I'm going to basically run off the wall, and I want to take a look around the elevated. You see a lift and run up, or if you want to do the egg and the little air ball, you ride out. And you see her to just zip up the wall effortlessly.

Seamingly to find grass. as she bounds up the wall and Lifty. As you see, you would have been running along the walls of the labyrinth just hours ago, and now they all crumbled into just dust. And you see now the ruins of the city, orcs, both civilian and military personnel, picking through the rubble, trying to find survivors, and you see the effects of the battle. The walls have been smashed. The walls of the orcs have been smashed.

But you see the field of corpses, orc and the Horned Legion as well. And it's absolutely covered in bodies. And it's a horror show. And the entire city is basically, there are, there's not a single building that remained unscathed. Some are still standing, but damaged,

but most of the buildings in the city have been completely collapsed. Okay, I'm going to go back down. into the crowbath. Well, yeah, maybe down here's good, it's better. It's more private, and we can just, you know, have a nice night together in close quarters. Sure.

And not go up there at all. Yeah? All right. We'll get some sleep. And like Iris said, we'll wait for Beatrice. But if she takes a while, we should at least start heading north. And she'll find us. I don't know how far she's going to have to go

or how long it might take her to find any info. So in the morning, we'll reevaluate, and we can always start heading north. Okay. Is there any sense of urgency for trying to travel through the night? I don't think so. Or do we think pleasure will be safe if we sleep?

Well, she seemed to be under control of Lady Dragon, and as long as she's being good, and, you know, I don't see there's any reason for her to harm her. I guess you're right. Yeah, I mean, if she was going to do anything to Urja, I think she'd probably have done it already. Why did she take her with her just to...

I mean, maybe she needs her just dad for more fortune. If she wanted to... If we were to travel through the night, exhausted a week, and arrive at the lair of the dragon find her wounded, what people do? You're right, we're weak. We need to rest in our energy back.

Besides, we might be able to, I mean, does anyone know what happened to Ravali? He's still somewhere in the city, right? Is he okay? Should we look for him? Oh, yeah, totally forgot about that guy. I kept him freewing. I mean, he had the little jimbleys, right?

We need to go find him! And I'm going to just start going up the rubble, and I'm just going to start to start, looking to see if I can figure out where I remember us staying. Okay. I would say that, yeah, you don't even need to make an athletic check. You're able to scale at maybe stumbling a little bit as some of the rubble gives way underneath your foot. I'm right behind Toa.

Oh, come. And you join, and I guess Lofi had come back down, but you guys are able to look and see that, and you remember that whatever dwellings that you had were relatively close to the palace. And I say, Toa, make a perception check. Why don't you? Why are you doing, I swear to God, Mike. I swear to God, be very careful about

what your next sentence is going to be after this role. 21. Channel that that fate, fairy dragon energy. No, do not. Do not. What was that? 21. 21. Oh, okay. I would say, as you

look through and you just see a sea of destruction and despite calm having returned to the city relatively, it's no longer battle. Now there are, there's every effort to heal as many people who have been horribly wounded. And through the throng, you look and you see orcs and orcs and orcs. And you see probably about 200 yards away. You actually see the broken, brutalized body being dragged through the streets of an orc.

Oh. And helping shoulder this orc is the much smaller framed Ravali Freewing, limping himself, but joining the orcs as they carry a horribly wounded soldier to a makeshift

sickbay is not the right word, but a medical tent. Captain Freewing! I almost said it's running up to him. poor guy, Ravali, just gets injured in fight after fight. By the end of the campaign, it's just going to be a rib cage and a head. I hope not. I'm going to be okay. It's fine. Get it freeway!

And you thunder through, and all of the orcs that you're passing, they look at you, not really sure what to do, but they are just all preoccupied with other things. And Ravali gets to a medical tent and lays it down and this makes it down. this makeshift bed of straw and pelts as they lay down the brutalized orc. And you get the sense that whatever happened to this, this warrior, they're not going to make it. Very clearly. There are several gore marks and horrible bite marks, pieces of the flesh missing. It's bad.

But they lay it down anyway, and Rivali turns to you, and you see that his leg is pretty badly as he turns towards you, but there's some blood on his face. You see that there's a slash mark across his face that is caked with blood, and he turns to you, and you see very clearly now there is no scarf that there are two tendrils from his chin, flush tendrils. But they seem to be a bit shorter than what Lifty had described previously. As he turns and looks at you and and he is, and you see that his eyes are also bloodshot, and there, he seems to be distracted.

As his eyes make contact with you, his much smaller half-elven body is dwarfed by your size, but there seems to be an incredible, the strength of will that's behind that expression. Something going on within him is immediately apparent. As he looks at you and says, Toa, you're alive. I'm right behind Toa.

You're alive. I'm so glad. Are you okay? Your leg looks really bad. Do you need help? No, I'll be fine. I'll be fine. How many winces in pain?

He says, I have to help. I have to help. I pledge myself to these... No, he looked really bad. Aris is in that big pit back there. Let me take you there. But big pit. There's a big pit.

Toa, I'm fine. In the ground. He turns away from you and starts like hobbling. Oh, hold up, hold up, hold up. Uh-oh, Ravallios, and I'll cast cure wounds on him at first level. You tap, you tap his leg as he's walking away, and it flashes with the sound of the music. As his wounds close up a little bit, as he kind of shoves you off, Caprice. Caprice is it.

Now's not the time for your songs, as he, as he, as he. He limps away and he kind of tries to swat you away to him. I can tell you, not thinking very clearly. Let me help you, please. I'm sorry. And I'm just like, grabbing around the midsection and just lift him up and keep him at arm's length. And I'm just going to start running him towards

turns where the rest of us are. There you go. Yeah, let's a stretch check. I will say we'll make an acrobatics versus athletic chip and you're in advantage because he's horribly wounded. He'll be a disadvantage. Big money. Big money!

Toa, stop. My liver. I don't know what it is with Rich and licking everything. It's like a return page of a book. Of course. 28. 28. One of them was a natural 20, but he's disadvantage.

So it is not hard. And the orcs, they're not even paying attention to you, really, as they're just focused on bringing his mini wounded to this medical area. And you just grab him around the next second. And he attempts to dodge out of the way, but that incredible half-Hilven grace that you remember is no longer here. And it's not even just his wounds, necessarily.

You feel that there's just a level of distractedness, that he's barely even registering that you're there, and you just pick him up and just turn and start hoofing it back. And he's, Towa, no, I have to get back. Toa, what are you doing? And he's like, he's splitting around, and he... He's split around, because I promise!

He kicks you a few time. times, but you get the sense that as he realizes that there is nothing that he can do, you are so much stronger than he is, especially right now, he just kind of slumps forward. Humiliate, his black hair kind of swings in front of his face. Is he wearing a maid outfit? He's not. He's not. As he says, I'm very meta.

I guess I don't have a choice. Where are you taking me? To the bit that I mentioned earlier, that's a harrison. It's a chamber. It's a chamber. He's wearing a made outfit in my head cannon. It's your imagination this dungeon dragons. Hmm. As you are- Well, it's now dungeons and bad dragons.

My goodness. Exactly right. And as you all eventually arrive back down to the chamber, toe-holding Rivali, you'd kind of sling them over your shoulder in order to scale down. But you're able to do that. to do that. I'll take him to Iris. Fix him, fix him, fix him, fix him. Fix him, fix him.

Telling, you found Captain Freewing. Where did you find him? Oh, he looks terrible. Why are you caring Captain Freewing? He has the... He has the... Yes, I see that. Can you... I told you I was exhausted.

I have nothing left in me. Can you heal his legs? Oh, leg? Yes, I can heal him. You'll feel really good tomorrow, morning, Captain Freeman. I'm sorry, I had to do that. Unfortunately, Captain Frewing, we won't be able to allow you to leave the pit. We'll stop with us this evening.

You're alive, that's a good thing. Where's Herzha? Where's the war chief? What happened here? The war chief is dead. Hersh has been taken by an ancient gold dragon. We're waiting on an imaginary bird to tell us where to go. And my god has asked me to rest. That last part is alive, a time. If he tries to book it, just hold on to him. I kind of want to try something. He's gonna stay here, don't worry. Caprice, why don't you explain everything that we've learned so far? I explain everything that we've learned so far. While Caprice is doing this a magnificent performance and the tale of what we've learned thus far.

It's amazing. I'm going to stand behind Revali and focus on him and concentrate. very, very hard and attempt to dispel magic on him to see if I can learn more about this enchantment curse thing and see if I can dig in there

and see if I can find any kind of mystical stuff to dispel. Okay. As, I will say, as, so as he's distracted, he's listening to me as, and- 50 points of healing.

I use three spells. His, it keeps flashing. He barely knows. as his wounds close up, and he actually starts to stand more comfortably now. If for some reason, whatever it is, is a spell, I may need to roll. I think for this instance, he's distracted by Caprice, and as you're explaining, the effects of the betrayal, the effects of everything that's been learned, and his eyes start to kind of get wider, wider and you can kind of

he starts to breathe a little bit more and then he winces in pain a little bit he's so distracted Felix that you are able to stand behind him and you cast the spell magic his head flashes and he grabs and making that Rekana check advantage and that's going to affect

and that's when more Chief Frost Fang came flying down to his anime as fuck okay skills Burkana. It's going to be 28. 28. That is going to affect a DC of a saving throw

that he's going to make right now. That'll be a natural 20. For Ravali. As a good thing or a bad thing. I don't know. But something smells like bacon. As he... His brain's just cooking.

As he... spell magic, and you get the sense as it, that there is something magical. Your innate knowledge of the arcane, there's something magical about, about what is going on in his mind. As you feel like you haven't dispelled it, but he grabs his head, and his eyes go wide, and he starts all panting like a beast, and then he just totally snaps forward as the tendrils start to grow, and there's kind of a back and forth. And he says, No, I believe.

And he breathed and he says, no, no. And suddenly the tendrils on his chin retract fully, and his eyes are clear. As he, did you do that? I'm not sure. Whatever it is, is a pretty serious grab on his brain. I may not last. Y'all, y'all right there, Rivali?

your little things if you're going to get him all excitable this evening and I will slam my staff into the ground I will flip it, point it directly at him as a beam of golden light shoots out of the tip of the head of the scarab where the two arms come to a point

and I'm going to cast greater restoration on him and use the last bit of my staff you do that and as he as there's a bit of a haze it blast him in the face and he's blinded my eyes and he and a warth washes over everything,

and then he stands there as he blinks and looks at all of you and he grabs his chest over his heart. What? What do they do to me? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sneak up on you like that. No, no. You'll deal with him now so I can get a catch now.

Yeah, please, you've done enough. Thank you. And I crumbled to the ground in his past. out. No, those are the ashes. Oh. As he stumbles forward and he falls to his knees. Captain.

And you managed to catch him before he falls forward as he's breathing heavily. Is my mind that week? Give yourself a break. Give yourself a break. Whatever this shit is, it did it to every single

Ork in this entire area, this whole city. Everyone, no one was able to survive this. Except you. It's fine. And besides, your tendrils are gone. They snapped back into your face. It was sort of like a sound. You look like 100% less gross now.

We're dealing with some pretty serious magic here. Yeah. I kneel like a groveling servant. That's true. But you don't now. Look. You're okay. Because I fixed your leg.

You didn't, you didn't kneel. The magic kneeled. It wasn't you at all. You were under control. There's lots of excuses. There's a very specific excuse, easy. I don't know what I'm saying. To explain that it's not a small.

Got it. The best thing you do. Fipper. Roasted. And everything, this is real, right? Yon. Yes. Do you think you could have a dream this good?

Caprice explains that it's real. This is going to be a passive RP table from now on. Felix King Furs with Caprice. I need to sleep. And you seem slop forward in your arms. Felix as he falls asleep gently. I know. Let me just get him comfortable.

I'm making him weird. I'm going to like place him down gently and try to like, you know, make him as comfortable as I can. No, not in the ash on. He has covered in sit as well. As you managed to find a relative, a softer spot where some of the, maybe where some of the stone and the chamber has been broken him,

it's softer earth. beneath and you lay him down and there seems to be peace about him, real peace. Not that strange eerieness beforehand, real peace as he sleeps soundly. Do you feel a little better now? You've got your friend back. Yeah, and we learn more about what's going on. I mean, this is huge. It's not just some disease or anything like that. I mean, there's a heavily magical element to us and I think we can beat it. write it in your diary? Of course. Okay.

What'd you think I was doing while? Lovedy. It's a journal. Oh, that's right. I'm so sorry. Felix tells me there's a difference. What is the difference? Oh yeah, Felix, what is the difference?

I couldn't even begin to get into the difference right now. We don't have that kind of time. You can't or you won't? I can't. It would take hours. And we're all very tired and we need some rest. some rest. And I have more studying to do. So I'll get some sleep

and we should keep watch. I can take the first watch and assume you want to take the first watch. I'll probably be up for a few hours anyway. I don't mind. Then I'll take second watch. And Lifty can take third and caprice and take fourth. I would probably... Don't volunteer me for things. Help build a fire. Okay. Well, and you actually see that

Ravali is actually shivering a little bit as he sleeps. And so as you start building the fire starts to calm down a little bit as the warmth starts to fill this chamber. Poor Rivali takes on the asheny to sort of pack it against his body. I don't know. Lifty, would you like to take third watch? No. Caprice, would you like to take third watch? I don't know if I'm going to be able to get to sleep. Like, I'm exhausted, but I'm also

wide awake. I'll take third watch. I'll try to rest. Sure. Lifty, would you like to take fourth watch? No. Is there anything I could do to encourage you to take fourth watch? I don't know. Is there? I don't know, is there? What?

You ask me? I'm not sure I understand. Okay, maybe I will take fourth watch, but you have to put me to bed. Okay, I just did that to Captain Freeway. Would you like a similar to training? I don't want to be put to bed in the remains. Find me somewhere nice.

We call them cremains. It's more respectful. The very deepens look on my face. Okay, well, I'll stay away from the cremains. Thank you. And I'll take like a piece of broken stone and like just lift it up so that it's just the earth underneath. I've got a nice, flat, soft piece of earth. There's definitely some grubs in there.

Yeah, like a one. The Mediol is a star is a skiddle. The manger swim, thank you. I'll take my bed roll out, and I'll lay it down. And I'll say, is this good? Yeah, that looks nice. I'm ready. Oh, and I'll think back to what I did for Captain Freeman.

I guess I'll like lift up lofty. And I'll see here you go. B. Oh, and I'll throw a blanket out. Now will you take fourth watch? Do I look snug as a bug? Fuck me in! Oh, you're right, right. Oh, I didn't tuck Captain Freewing, you know!

So, I'll very gently tuck Lufty in. Not too tight, I squirm. I'll loosen it a little bit. Is that good? It's pretty nice. I'm pretty snooly. I'm not. And a little song, do you forget?

What kind of song? I don't know. I have to do everything around here? You can't even think of a song for me before bed? I don't feel like I can do this fourth watch. I'll put you in my pack in poloetto ukulele, and I'll just play a couple of chords. There you go, here you go.

It's very nice and happy. I'm immediately in a drunken sleeping struper. Lifty. All rush over Captain Freeway and then tuck him in, make sure that he's good. As you leave, the stone that you pushed up falls on the right, on the chair of it.

Oh, no! Anyway. Um, all right, well, Felix, just don't hesitate to wake me up if anything happens. Yeah, of course, I, of course I will. All right. You'll be the first one to know. Good north.

I immediately get out of the pit and try to secure the perimeter with many ritual casts of alarm. I would say you do that, and you're able to, you know, it takes you maybe that out. Oh, that takes me back. Yeah. I forgot about alarm. It takes you a while, but, you know, the whole, the size of the hole is small enough. It's pretty large, but small enough that you're able to make sure that the entire perimeter is secured. Cool. And as you're all settling in, you, most of,

it's fast asleep. Most of you are just settling in, getting ready, maybe not necessarily falling asleep yet. And as you're, and the night gets quiet. And then there's a point where it almost gets too quiet. And then suddenly the fire that you've built erupts into a massive pillar of, chaotic flame.

Casting shadows all around the entire chamber. Whose watches this on? I would say that this is just starting and that you, most of you probably aren't asleep yet, that you're probably settling in. Oh, thank God. Oh, Iris is just asleep for like 20 minutes.

I don't have to have a message with that by myself. So Caprice and Caprice, Felix, and Toa are awake at this point. As you fire ignites and casts shadows all over and it lets out this roaring sound

and if that would wake up Luffy and Iris, they're more than welcome to wake up. But it is a roaring pillar of flame as you all see the shadows dancing around this chamber. Felix, are you doing this? No, no, this isn't me. It's not me either, I swear. I was sleeping so soundly.

And as you see me... Watch your Iris. As you... I am. I am going to swipe at him with my claws. Not hard, not hard, but I'd be like. You break three ribs accidentally. I'm literally going to destroy him.

As you see the fire roaring around you. What's going on? Caprice, you are now realizing that it's been probably exactly 24 hours since you made the deal with Glazier. Oh, sweet mother of pearl.

What on earth are you kicking me for? Oh my God, what is happening? Felix. Now the shadows all around you as the fire, the sound of it, goes completely silent. And the shadows all around the room start to coalesce and form a shape, a shadow, incredibly, shapely female form. with long arms and fingers that extend into almost claw-like nails as it slinks around the chamber. And then you see as it then looms up high above Caprice.

Capriccio, do you want to introduce me to your friends? Who does? How does you know your name? This is the person who made me who I am. Oh, no. This is, this is, do I know her name? You shared it with us. This is Glaccia.

This is who I see in my dreams every night, all right? Don't say her name again. Who didn't say she was so? What is she doing here? Garvey. Oh, are you all afraid of me? Have you heard about, What I have on Caprice, what I have of Caprice.

Far too tired for this. No. Caprice, do you care to explain what she's talking about? I would much rather hear it from you than from her. She owns my soul because my great, great, great granddad, great, great, great granddad, uh, we made some deal with her hundreds of years ago. And yes, we know the story. There's a little bit more.

I was feeling real low. I agreed to get her the glave. Which play, what? The glave that was just stolen? He didn't tell you? No. Can you know the glave? Yes, no, he promised.

He swore his soul. So that I could be freed. He would betray all of you. No, I... And bring the rod of law to me. I didn't promise to betray anyone. I promised to bring you the glaive. There's a very important distinction.

That seems like a betrayal. And then with the scope of everything that's going on, doom your friends to the big, bad, chained God. But you couldn't even do that right, Caprice, could you? And so, you had an opportunity that I gave to you and you let it go. You betrayed your friends and what? Do you know what that seal did? The claim of your soul on it was white. by the seal, and now it's gone.

You failed. You're saying I no longer, we no longer have a connection with the glave? No, he let it go. You failed. And I am so very tired of trying to have you be useful to me. And so he's your problem now. I don't blame you for this bad deal.

I blame Maximo. Massimo made it a very good decision. And it was a bum deal on my end. It's a part of every deal gone bad. There are consequences. And you see as the entire chamber around you erupts into the image of shrieking, wailing souls in fire. I'm gonna, I'm gonna lean towards Towa.

And at a volume that he could hear, I'm going to say, if this starts to go south, I'm going to need you to give me an opening. All right. All right. But now, Capitia, you don't have to worry. Our arrangement has come to an end. What? I hope you two enjoy the rest of your short life. For once it's over, your soul.

family's soul and all of your descendants will be experiencing the agony of hellfire. Nice doing business with you, Caprice. The pillar erupts into flame, baiting everything in glowing light and then shrinks down and snuffs out. And there's nothing but darkness. Oh, thank the God. Are you okay? What does that mean? What was you talking about?

How did you do that, Tursa, Caprice? We asked one thing of you. Honesty. And you lied to us. By your omission, you lied. I've done everything in my power for you to help you. To walk beside you. I'm disappointed in this friendship I thought we heard.

Why? Why didn't you just ask for help? What other option did I have? This was an opportunity for me to free my family's souls, my own soul? If I just let things continue, it would have been no change. Just a sliver of hope. I made a bum deal. I'm sorry that I hurt you, but it's...

You don't understand what it feels like to be in this position. Ah, fuck it. Really? Do you think Lufty had a choice to grow up without a mother? Do you think I had a choice being born in the middle of my family, with people telling me what to do, where to go, how to be? Do you think Toa chose for the wind spirits to be stolen from his island? Do you think Felix chose to have his brother ripped from him?

No, none of us. None of us chose for our lives to be this way. But what we did choose was honesty with our friends. I do not begrudge you your choice. I begrudge you your lie. I'm going to bed. Deal with him. Iris out.

I'm going to get down into the fucking ashes when I'm going to go to sleep. God damn it. Do a little like circling. Yeah. They just get scattered all around and. And someone clean up this mess. Seems awfully disrespectful. Oh, sorry.

From what Glaccio said, did Caprice get the sense that his soul and all the souls of his family are still owned? Yes. Okay. And I'm going to lay down and close my eyes, but I'm going to wait to actually fall asleep just until it seems like things lie down in case I am needed. But I'm going to pretend to sleep. And it's really convincing. Really convincing. Had you told us before that she was also holding your family souls or just yours?

I don't remember. That was like two years ago. IRL. I think you told us the general story. I would say we probably had the overall. We just had no idea about the rod of law. Right. Right. To you, you were going to give her the rod of law before even in special.

I snuck out the night before the battle. And I got pretty close. I was able to pull it from... locked chest and put my hands on it. And then I just sort of blacked out. I think it was something to do with Golden Lotus. She was protecting. I had no idea she was that powerful.

I thought, in and out, get the glave, get it out of here. Bingo bango done. Well, you couldn't have known what she was then. You shouldn't have lied, but. I can't say I don't understand why you did. But think about the consequences. Had a devil, had the rod of law instead of the war chief, we would never would have, we would all have been killed by Bathamette, all of us.

It could have been much worse how it worked. Other things are good now, but... Things are not good now. They're not good now, but I think we would be dead right now. I see that. I don't know. I... There's no use crying over spilled wine.

He didn't steal it. You failed. Shame on you. Good for us. Well, now I... Now I'm done. I... There's no chance for me to...

I mean, I understand what Iris was saying about destiny and the things that are thrown upon us. But for all of you, there's a... there's another place where you can go and be free and your old soul and the whole thing. I was staring an eternity of torture down. No, I can't get out of that. I know I fucked up. I'm sorry, I lied. I'll do whatever you want me to do.

I'll go if you want me to. I'll stay and fight or sacrifice myself or do whatever. I can. I'm done. It's game over. I accept your apology. Luffy's right. What happens in the past, we can't change that.

Trust me, I know. I understand. I'm not happy with you, but like Luffy said, I get it. But I wouldn't count us out yet. Come on. It's not over. No. None of this is over until we,

we stop breathing. You made a bad deal. When you lose the bed, you double down. She's gone. I can't make another bed. The casino is closed. I bet she'd come back. If there's more to wager. Caprice, I was just earlier worried that one of you would be a bad guy. I'm sick of being betrayed. I don't know who to trust or who to believe But We've killed a demon We just killed a demon Why couldn't we kill a devil too?

That's kind of what I thought How are you going to do that by yourself By doing what she says You've no better shot than looking with your friends That was my mistake So learn from it Don't call it quits, not yet I'm going to call it quits

tonight. Tonight I get to just be a give up blob. I'll see how I feel in the morning. Thank you. You guys are way too nice. Some wine? Not to play.

I'm sorry. It's okay. I don't know if I can get to rest, but I'll spend all of my energy now making this up to you and to Iris. She'll come around in the morning.

She's just tired. And we'll see if we can stop this God who's chained. And we'll reseal the seals. And we'll make world peace. It'll be easy. Done. No problem. One thing at a time.

Keep some sleep. I don't know if I can. Do you promise that you won't do bad things anymore? No more deals with bad things. people or devils or demons or all of you. Can we all swear on our lives, on our friends' lives, on all of our lives

that we're going to help each other. And no one else. No evil beings. No, no deals of bargains. Yeah, of course. I'm in. You've got all of me. I really don't have anything left. This is it. I'm in.

I can still gamble, yeah? Well, this is more like a metaphor kind of thing. I just, anubis is the big... I just kind of function on deals. That's my... That's how I get around the world. Are you going to make a deal with a devil, with a demon, with a dragon, with some big bad, evil guy, with a... With a...

None of that. We have to rely on ourselves. Okay. I'll try. That's good enough, I guess. I'll at least tell you if I'm going to do that. That works too. Okay.

Yeah, that's a deal. I promise. All right. Well, I guess it's still my watch. I guess we should have to get some sleep. Yeah, I'll wake you up, I guess, if I have to. I'm going to get back in my dirt patch. I would specifically spend my...

time, my watch time, reviewing all of my notes of the time that I spent in the library, in Centra, of all the research that I did of devils and demons. Okay. Before I go attempt to sleep, I will quickly approach you and just say, I know it's a little dark, but maybe you have been doing this already and you're about to, maybe you're we do it in the morning. Is this seal different in appearance and archa symbols and stuff than any of the other seals we've seen so far? Are they all identical? I'm just trying to think ahead. If there's an unchained god coming, we have to know how to re-chain. That's a great

point. I haven't really had a chance to take a look at this one yet, but I've got some time, So I'll do that. Change of plan. I do what Caprice says. And I spend my watch examining the seal. Got it. And I will cast suggestion on myself to say go to sleep and I instantly pass out. That's a great use of that style.

Go to sleep, Caprice. You do that. And you are all. able to enjoy a long rest. Whose final watch? Me. This one. Provided she doesn't screw us.

I mean, it's Lifty. Lifty. You are woken up by... Who's third watchtella? Or Caprice. I was, yep. You enjoy, and we'll put a little bit of Moka Kai music on. The best part of waking up is no when you're not dead.

Yeah. And Beatles in your cup. You have an uneventful watch, Luffy. As the... How boring. I hate being on the watch. The noise of the city around you, the sounds as has died down, as you see the first rays of dawn creep up in the sky. And there's that beautiful glow of oranges and pinks and pearls.

and the mornings out here for whatever reason just seem to be a lot prettier than what you've been seeing, especially in a land that's generally as gloomy as striga. And I need to make a perception check for me. Oh, boy. 13. 13. You, as you are looking through, looking up through the whole and the beautiful glints of mourning, you see what looks like on the periphery of the hole, just a tiny little

bit of extra gold, and then it's gone. On the periphery of what? The hole. Oh, oh, that's it? Yeah. What looks like gold and that's it. That's weird. But pretty.

Wake up the rest of your friends. Guys, I'm bored. Wake up, okay? There's nothing happening. Is it already morning? Yeah, it's been morning for like, like five minutes. I mean, what am I supposed to sit alone all day? Wake up.

All right, all right, all right. Everything uneventful? Yeah, I mean, the sun's rising, the sky's gold, it's beautiful, just come on. All right. The sky's gold? Yeah. It's the sky gold. It is not cold.

What do you mean? orange and, you know, pink, and then flush of gold. That's... That's not how that goes? How am I supposed to know? In Kirchstein, it's just, you know, you wake up and it's dark gray, and then a little bit lighter gray and gray and gray and gray, and then a little bit of blue gray, and then until it just starts to get dark again.

I assume this is normal? Yeah, well, uh, uh, I don't even know where to begin with this. It was kind of pretty But it was gold Like gold, gold I hold up the golden scale What I've got Yeah, like, oh

Like that? Yeah, just like that It was just a flash and it's not here Now Where did you get that? Where did you get that? Well, when I, in order to Well, when I was going to go And steal the glave, I had to

Open a magical chest And for whatever reason, the only thing that worked was my tuning fork, which was destroyed, which is devastating to me for the rest of my life. And when I woke up, this was in my pocket. And it seems to be doing the same work as the tuning fork did for me. It feels like a charm. And I can use it as a pick. Oh, that's nice.

I think even though you could play it like that. You probably can. I'm just making up musical instruments now. No, I think you can. You did it just now. All right. Well, yeah. I don't really know what to make of this. Is it safe to keep around if she, if Rajani gave you that? That's who it was.

I'll bet you that's exactly who it was. Yeah. Well, it's a golden scale. Like, Draken's have golden skin. Yeah, but I got it, and then we fought her, or fought the baffirmit, and then the reveal happened. I didn't put the two together. That's just, oh, yeah, she could be watching and listening to us right now. Great.

I want to scramble up to the top of the... That's disgusting. Don't chew on that. Isn't the way that's doing. Of the pit and look around and see if I can see any other, like, flashes of gold. Make a perception check for me. Ooh, it's a 17. A 17.

I would say that you creep up. Are you being careful about? I just creep. It's COA. No, I'm not. I would say that you climb up

and as you stick your head out and you look around, you scan out towards the city and you see that a lot of the fires, all the fire has been put out, and there there's wreckage and there's attempts to rebuild.

And as you turn towards the rubble of the palace, you look and you see that there's this large tree and very clearly behind it. You see what looks like gold, and you see white hair, as you very clearly see the outline of a massive curing that's attempting to hide behind the rubble and the tree. and not doing a very good job at all of it.

Hey, guys. What's up? Um, Hezaki is here. What? Yeah, he's trying to hide behind a tree, but he's very clearly visible. I would immediately try to scramble up the side of this pet. Oh, the run up. You scramble up and

and as you, as you look up, you're able to, the three of you were able to see very clearly that it's very much, Tizaki, his horns are, uh, he's like trying to bury his head in a low, a low bush, and his horns are sticking up. And he's not very well-hitted at all. He's a bad guy, right? I mean, I'm pretty sure. What? Tizaki. Yeah. What are you doing? Uh, as soon as you call out, you hear a gasp and, uh, make a persuasion check.

Oh, boy. Thank you for the right. I'm not dangerous. Oh, actually, long, persuasion. Well, I guess you should. Persuasion. Oh, sweet Jesus. Come on. Come on. I'm just on fire, baby, 22.

22. Love that. Someone used to be. You, you see, you hear a gasp as he sticks his head up and looks around and he looks at you. And the fact that all three of you are looking at him, his eyes go wide. And he's, oh, I'm so sweet spot. I mean, no. And he darts around behind the rubble.

And rather than zipping off, though, he stops, and you see that his tail is still hanging out from behind the rubble. And then he turns around, and you see his snout as he's trying to look around to look at you guys. And it's right at that moment that a poof, a flash of blue emerges on your shoulder. Brown? As a flash of brown. as Beatrice lands on your shoulder.

And she communicates telepathically that she has found with that with that perception, that it took her all night. But in the early, the first light of dawn, she found a beautiful gilded terrace out in the mountains that was adorned with statues and the effigies of gold dragons. and blossom designs. Okay. I take all that information and still looking at Hisaki. I'll, uh,

Izaki, you do understand that we're potentially enemies right now, right? Don't tell him that. And he kind of, he leans for when you see a snout coming out. He just, that's why I'm spying on you. Well, did you find anything interesting? What are you going to report? I'm going to report if you try to leave. Oh, I see.

Well, you have my scale. And you can see he leans for, and you see there's actually very clearly as one single scale missing from his shoulder. Oh, this is yours? I know where my scales are at all times. I see. Interesting. You want it back?

No, hold on to him. I don't need it. And he kind of, he creeps about. back a little bit. All right, well, let's save you some trouble. You're going to have to go report that we are leaving because we're not going to stay in this pit for the rest of our lives. Yeah. Go along now. Wait, could you maybe take us somewhere? I'm going to slowly climb up. I was trying to do a morning ritual, Isaac you. Well, I'm very sorry for interrupting you, but I'm spying now.

Why do you follow the golden lotus? the eternal blossom. What does she have, Ovo, such a magnificent creature as yourself? Isn't it obvious? I kind of peeks his head out. I have like any opportunity to talk about the eternal blossom. It's not because you're so

stealthy, mentally and physically. I barely saw you there in the underbrush. Because she's more magnificent than any other creature. She's the most beautiful, loving, kind, sweet. Being on the whole planet. I see it. Hmm.

You okay? I just love her so much. And that's why I'm spying on you. Well, you don't have to spy from back there. You can come hang out. Make a persuasion check an advantage of Kelsey Nunes. I was inspired to crack open. Yeah.

It even has a, it even has about, wait a way, here we go. Hold on, okay. Oh, wow, go ahead, stream deck. It even has the curing on there so you can get an idea of some curing art. Like a little dragon horse deer feller. Yeah. Legends of Adventress brought to you by Kieranichiba. Thank you for sponsor you.

I rolled an eight, so 22. Love that. Wow. I'm with you, brother. Never gets any better than Matt. And you see as he hesitates a little bit, and he snorts out. It's difficult to tell what exactly. There's a combination of dragon and unicorn and deer,

and there's a little bit of canine. It's hard to tell as he slowly struts out, almost like a nervous deer, trying to get a drink of water in an open glade where there might be hunters. And he steps forward very slowly and deliberately and says, well, I guess if I keep an eye on you, that I can spy from anywhere. Yeah, you can hear it's much better if you come close. Honestly, if you just stay with us, then you'll always know where we are. And you realize that the sheer size. of this creature. It's massive. It's not nearly as large as Rajani, but still it's, it is a huge creature by the definition of Dungeons and Dragon is huge. As he steps forward and he trots

a little bit. And you realize, and you remember that as he's trotting and stealth and like trying this trot stealthily as if he's, as if he's trying to like not have his hoofs hit the ground hard, you realize that his hooves never meet the ground anyway. So he's just doing this pointlessly. He's such a goober. He's wonderful. He's a goober. As he's doing it pointlessly.

Physical embodiment of a goober. As he says, that's a good point. And if I can keep an eye on you and always find you with my scale, you can't get away from my eyes. Well, if you keep your eyes wherever we are, we can't get away from your eyes.

She's right, you know. Yeah, it's like wherever you go, there you are. And wherever you are, and wherever you, go, there we are. So you always know where we are. Yeah, I guess that's a good point. And then you don't have to sneak. But you are so good at it, but you don't have to anymore.

That's what Rajani tells me. I'm really good at sneaking. As he continues to trot through the air towards you, and he starts to circle you and circle the hole as he's, and his massive shape is, is, completely unmistakable. And he's not being remotely stealthy at all, given that he's flashing with gold

and there's a little bit of a hint of rainbow catching off of his mane. Simple boy. He does that. Well. Yeah. I mean, you know, now what? Do we just take in with us?

I believe that, as Iris was saying, We've been bested, and maybe that's the best course of action. We can't possibly get away. We should probably head to the Golden Lotus, as we have failed, and we should give ourselves up to her. Right. If only we knew the way... We should have kept better watch.

We should have set alarms, but we failed. So many things we could have done. We can't resist. If, you know, Hazaki took us to the Golden Lotus and, you know, almost like a prisoner. Yeah. Then Hazaki would be rewarded beyond measure and we'd be screwed. But imagine having to wait all those days of walking to get there and get your reward. Oh my gosh.

And all the time, Golden Lotus is just waiting and waiting. Alone. Alone. Holding that love. Worried for her moving. faithful, Kieran. Oh well, what can you do? I guess we'll just have to walk there ourselves. I begin to pack up my things. This side of the story. I'm dragging my feet slowly walking. Well, let's go turn ourselves into the golden lotus then.

Oh. Make, uh, whoever would like to make a deception check advantage, please. Caprice would like to do that. Is this cocked? Yes, that is highly cocked. High cocked. Okay, it was worse. Uh, six, two, plus. So roughly 34. Uh, that's kind of. That's kind of. going to be a 30. As his eyes go slowly wider and wider, as a little sly smirk comes to his faces. All my prisoners now.

What? That's right. So you surrender without a fight? I didn't think that you would stand up to me. Not at all. How easy. We're really going to surrender, Felix? I don't know how we have.

We have no other option, Toa. We've been bested. We have? Yes. Yes. They can probably kill him very easily. No, he's an extremely powerful creature. Look at how big and gold he is.

I can't believe all of you are just giving up. Oh, but the goldness of him. And so big, huge even. Am I not getting something, Felix? It's okay. We have to surrender. And I give him a wink like a way, like so that Hazaki can't see. I'm like winking at him.

Oh, you're raw. Oh. There's nothing we can do. Nothing to. So we surrender? Of course, certainly, like right now, we don't want to lose our lives. Yeah. Oh, the war chief has been killed.

The city is in shambles. What other choice to be there? It's all for the greater good. That's what I've been told. I see that now. I'll use minor illusion so that you hear a small voice of caprice, like just inside of your right ear. Just in case this doesn't go the other way, we're not actually surrendering. But we're pretending we are.

I'll give Caprice a big wink. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. What they all said. Correct. Well, I'm glad that you finally see the light. They do.

You realize that this is all for your own good and for the greater good. And that the eternal blossom, Rajani, is the most wisest, prettiest, amazing creature on all of a ventures. And all of the planes beyond. Yes, exactly. I've been to all of them, well, except for, well, you know, I've been to most of them. And she's just the most amazing. So now what do you do with your prisoners?

I guess you'll have to walk alongside us. Unfortunately, we are. But simple humanoid creatures. Nice try. You're going to get out of my bathroom, take you right to her layer. Oh, no. No, not that is. We're not emotionally prepared.

Ah. Too bad, though. I'm too young to be prisoner. I guess we have no other choice. How can we withstand you in your presence, in your goalness? Well, I will mount your back now. I'll never jump on his back. All right, I think I'm almost ready.

Shotgun. I cast major armor on myself and then I climb onto his back. Hezaki looks at all people, well, you don't have a choice, and you're my prisoners and we're going to go right to the terrace. And you're not going to complain about it, okay? We'll try not to. To be fair, we're pretty scared.

Yes, very scared, and I'll say as I get on his back. Felix, do we have a plan once we get there? I think we're going to play this one how we always do, a little loose. All right. Listen, if you get worried, just think about the time that we were in the trees as owl people. Everything worked out fine. Oh, you're right. They went flawlessly.

He improvised. It couldn't have been better. have gone any better. You're right. Nobody pooped their pants. Well. Because we weren't wearing any pants. Fair enough.

I'll hop on to Miyazaki as well. Hazaki. You love your movie. Now fly. You see a shape poke its head up and you see his Rivali kind of looks up and says,

what are you guys doing? We've been captured, unfortunately, by this magnificent human. We're doomed. We had no choice but to surrender. He looked at the whole scene and he blinks. Yes, so the Kieran here is going to take us immediately to the Golden Lotus as prisoners. Got it. Well, good luck with that. And he climbs up and he looks around.

I'm going to help the new war chief deal with his people and help that. and help them how you all help me. Bit of advice. See if they can just lose the war. You know, chief. Simple, compact, less... I don't think I have that kind of polka-price. Just throw it out there.

You never know what could happen. He looks up at you and says, well, prisoners, good luck. And thank you for... helping me get my freedom back. And I am going to do the same for all these good people. They are good people. Good luck. Don't get caught by Akirin.

I'll do my best. And he steps away. Don't lose any more body parts. I'll do my best. And he turns and he looks back one more time and says, I have a feeling he'll survive this. But if not, it's been an honor. Likewise. Good luck. Goodbye. You too. I guess if you don't survive, then I'll be again. So maybe this is the last free day that I have. Good luck, guys. And he turns and he starts walking off. And Hezaki looks at him and near his eyes.

Well, I guess I didn't have to look after him. He's not a prisoner. He's free to go. You're free to go. He's already gone. Reveoli just raises his hand and like, you know, okay. As he continues to walk off. And is everyone comfortable? I mean, I don't like I care if you're comfortable or not. We're all incredibly uncomfortable.

That's good. You don't have a choice. It hurts very much. Okay. You're my prisoners now. Let's go. And as you immediately rocket through. through the sky.

Do we have five minutes to use the bathroom? As you rock it through the sky, as Hezaki takes you in that, you've experienced this once before, as he zips around the mountains, the beautiful mist of dawn just painting the entire land beneath you in these beautiful colors. As the sun rises in the sky,

as you make your way through the sky, and you're not sure how fast you're going, but it just seems it's very much inhuman and what you're used to riding on his... Oh, man, I can't wait to reduce him to ash. As you make your way around certain mountains, and as you make your way further north,

you get closer to the coast, it starts to actually get warmer. as the chill of the morning air gets warmer and warmer. And then as you get closer to where Hezaki's taking you, you can actually see beyond the ridge of mountains, the sea sprawling north, far beyond Striga. As you see where he's heading, as the rays of morning catch and a brilliant rainbow forms,

as you see now the mists turning shimmering gold, as you smell saffron and incense, as you rocket through the mists, and all of a sudden you see before you the tallest mountain in this entire range in what looks like a beautiful, a beautiful hidden valley that stretches on with these beautiful willows

and cherry blossom trees. as they dot the landscape. And you see just jutting out of the tallest mountain a terrace that is of a pure white marble and golden adornments with a large natural cave at the far back but built up to be a gloriously carved and adorned dorm

that just juts out of out of this mountain face. And you see as on either side, there's the statues of these massive golden dragons on either side that looks unmistakably like Rarjani herself. As you rock it towards it, you see that this whole area,

it's hard to believe that this is a naturally occurring beauty. It is almost otherworldly and celestial. the picturesque scene that you see as you finally come to a sudden stop as Hezaki quietly and softly and gently lands at Rujani's lair. Thank you so much for listening to The Legends of Aventras podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session.

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