Legends of Avantris - Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 45 | Valley of Shadow: Part 1

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Our heroes begin the next step in their journey, into dark lands...   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/MeM-QVsOLss?si=SyaiymDEnWZBHBRQ

Welcome to Legends of Aventress. I'm Mikey Gilder, and you're listening to Beneath Dark Wings. Here's what happened last time. All are in Wurran, the layer of Rajani, the Eternal Blossom, the ancient golden dragon, who had been pulling the strings, basically for this entire time. As you made your way down to face her, you saw, as she tried to plead with you to join her cause, to see the world as she could make it, with a plague that did not bring about

a bestial chaos, but brought about submission, order, and potentially good, the greater good at the very least, maybe not good as each individual defines it. And you all rejected it, as you saw that at the center of this chamber, Herja and Torvald, were working feverishly to forge Hartleaver, the glave of Baphmet,

into the glave of the seven laws, which had the rod of law, within into a single super weapon. A great battle was engaged in. And in the course of the battle, Caprice was slain by the dragon. And most of the party almost was slain. Just a couple of very lucky roles. It was about to be a 1v1 with the dragon and Toa.

Yes, it was a 1B1 dragon versus Toa. But at the end of the day, they were able to, Toa was able to smash the skull of Rajjjj, to Johnny, her light force, her anima, fizzling out, causing a great explosion at the forging, the great forge at the center of this, of this chamber. And in the process, it instantly turned Torvald into a jade statue, which she had been doing to all of her artisans and minions, humanoid minions, that had forged her magnificent layer over the centuries, or the decades at least. And Herja on this side with heart cleaver immediately got fully transformed into a beastman,

musk oxen variety, full, just full transformation, although she was unconscious. As the dust settled, Iris attempted to resurrect Caprice and he came back momentarily, but his soul was ripped back to Malabalge in the nine hells with one final taunt from Glossians. his patron. And in the nine hells, Caprice found himself up to his neck in molten lava, eternally burning but cannot die, his flesh singeing and healing and singeing again, surrounded by the screams of all of his family.

And completely desperate, he called for the name he had heard. He called it three times, Pizzu, Pizzu, Pizzu, Pizzu. In an instant, his soul was temporarily ripped to a strange realm, of a barren wasteland of portals and ziggurots underneath an oppressive red sun. Pizzou would free him of all of this. But he asked for assistance, for fealty to help bring about his great gold. A great eclipse in this realm, allegedly, in a massive war that dwarfed the battle that you had seen when you had faced the remnants of Misk of the Wolf Spider.

Before Caprice could answer, another voice possessed him, another entity possessed him. And a being who had allegedly made a deal with Pizzou to maintain something called the blood war, had accused him of treachery, and now his treachery had been fully revealed. Pizzou and Rage attempted to strike down Caprice's soul, but the soul was ripped back to the Lord of Lies, to, I think everyone knows at this point, Asmodeus. Or Carl Satan. Or Carl Satan.

The father of Glazia. In this chamber, Caprice made another deal. The old contract was turned to Embers. And a new deal was to bring about the retribution to Pizzou, to show him what happens to those who break contracts with Asmadaeus, the Lord of the Nine Hells, as well as bring about whatever aims he seeks beyond that. Caprice signed immediately,

returned to life with the power of Anubis, his soul released by Asmodeus. Asmodeus also took within his own concealing rubies Torvald and Herja to be returned, to be his collateral and returned, healed, when Asmades was confident of Capri's loyalty. The party then left the chamber with only five of them.

And a defense mechanism after the death of Rajani had melted everything. So Phyllis had to see just the charred remains of all the great knowledge of ages. They then convinced Tizaki somehow that she had, that Rajani had been tricking him. That was true, but that she had cursed him in her dying breath. And so he took them back to Mogher Kai.

They arrested. He went off to the upper plains, perhaps never to be seen again. Perhaps. To at least decompress from what had happened and mend his broken heart. And they said farewell to Ravali, who had decided to stay and help these orcs of Mogher Kai and Gron more broadly, figure out what it means to be free again after decades of subjugation to Golden Lotus.

And it was then when they were deciding their next step that a raven with six eyes landed on a branch next to them. But the voice of Virgil Zern said that two more seals had been broken and that they needed to discuss their next plan. Oh, that's right. You all are standing in what had been the glade of the eternal blossom, still beautiful, undisturbed by the assault of the Horn Legion and Bathamette. You see the large raven with six ruby red eyes staring at you.

With the same lack of intelligence of you'd expect of any kind of normal bird, but speaking with the voice of the human high general of Corvaccia, as it had told you that you must return as entra, and must discuss the next plans, it looks blinking at you, awaiting a reply. What do you all do? I suppose I could take this one. What time is it?

Shit. Afternoon? Yeah, afternoon. Morning. Morning. Good morning. Good morning. General Sir, this is Felix Ackerman here at your service. Yes, Felix, I know. Oh, sorry. Listen, I know that you want us to return to Zentra, but we have very pressing matters in Dustgelf territory, and we were thinking about heading out immediately. Well, I suppose it is a bit of providence. Scephranil is where I was going to send you next.

Oh, well, that works out well for us. I'm happy to continue this brief and discuss anything that we need to now. Or you could probably reach us again when we reach Scephanil. Private document, full report. Full run. What happened here? Oh, it's been a while since I've done this. Well, and I just kind of like look around and like back at the group.

To be honest, everything here is mostly in rubble. I mean, it was a pretty serious fight between what happened with Baphomet and all of the orcs. And of course, for Johnny, the golden lotus was really a golden dragon. And I go into it and I give him more detail. And then I explain that she's, you know, what her goals were. And that, you know, I don't. don't talk about the stuff that happened with Debrease. I just basically give him a rundown and the lay of the land

and where the orcs are and where the dancing bleak clan is. So the threat has been neutralized. Well, for now, I mean. The leader has been slain. Yes, yeah, yeah. We're worried about the seals. And a new government, more favorable perhaps to Korovakia has been instated.

Yeah, I mean, we've got Ravalli's here. He's going to look after things. You know, he's a trustworthy person. He's got a good moral compass. If you stop taking their land, maybe they'd be more favorable to you. I am simply sending relief efforts. Do not worry. I'm not even sure that that's necessary.

I mean, the orcs seem to have everything under control here. Yeah, these are strong people. I think that they're going to come to a unified and peaceful place all on their own, especially under the guiding hand of ravioli. I will send supplies, necessary goods, as a sign of good faith from Korovakia. I think an olive branch is going to do a lot of good work, given the state of things here.

Agreed, and please, I'm not speaking out of turn, but there's no need to send any military anything. Just send... privates and people and normal, just, just peaceful, don't make it look like a show of hostility, sir, of course, sir. I am pleased to inform you as well if the ink has dried on a treaty between Korovaki and Erios. I hope to do the same here and ground. Oh, that's, that's great. That's good news.

What kind of treaty? An agreement. What's kind of treaty? What's kind of treaty? I mean, that's sort of like, that's kind of what I said. I'm trying to help you. You mean, it's me to. Now, now, hold on.

I mean, a ceasefire. I understand the ink is dried, but if you could name the treaty, birds of a feather, that just... It is too late. The ink is already dry. All right. A ceasefire? You said?

Yes. Peace at the borders, at least for now. That's a good thing. Yeah, I agree, absolutely. Trade, and perhaps in the future more, there is far more pressing matter here. The seals will not hold. My ravens have found out that it was not just the Horn Legion

that had been breaking the seals. What do you mean? towards the forces of Scathrinil. They have been working covertly, breaking the seals that, as our attention was turned towards Baphomet and his herd. So, I mean, I'm sure you're going to tell us why you need to send us to Schaethernal anyway,

but does that mean that any of the seals or the only seal that's in Scatharil is already gone? I'm afraid that with the power of the chain god, with so few seals remaining. It is only a matter of time, whether they're broken by force or not. They will erode within a matter of weeks, perhaps months, if we are lucky. Is it because so many have already been broken? Yes.

Once the seventh seal is broken, there is no more that can be done. It is inevitable. So then what we do? The only thing we can do, Strike the chain god down when he emerges from his prison. How do we do that? He's a god. Can we kill gods? You have the answer in your hands, and the bird looks towards Iris. Well, to be fair, these are more like pods.

It was more of a metaphor. I'm not sure that means what you think it means. So this raven, is it like doing this as it talks? Straight out of Demon Slayer. I'm washed. What do you mean? I look in Iris's paws. What are you holding?

That thing. The rod? Rod of law. So what did Asmodeus take? Do we have that in my nose? Asmodeus took heart cleaver. Okay. So he took heart cleaver and the in the explosion, all of the glave adornment got completely shattered.

They were separated. And separated. So she just had a pure rod of law. And when I picked it up, I heard of newness. where I like saw that felt Osiris. And you're like, Gr.

Oh. D. Demon, dear. Get a hole in yourself. So we use... This is how we do it? Well, it just blow them up. Sort of like how it blows everything else up.

When, you know, it just kind of makes contact and just goes... If it was powerful enough to strike down the prince, the original prince of demons, Then if it is not powerful enough to defeat a weakened chain god, then we have no hope truly. All right. So what are we going to Scythrono for? What are our orders? Your orders. Remember, you have your own free will. You are the wings of the raven. But I can simply make a request. Of course.

And you hear a hesitation in a pause, as if he's taking time to do something, in his personal chambers, looking around perhaps. You're actually talking nuts from the shir. I'm a very busy man. This was the only time that I could make. Why don't we have more than he might? He only has one arm. He has to pull his pants all the way down in order to urinate.

He's just staring at their ass cheese. Flaping in the breeze. Oh, God. Good times, good times. I cannot trust anyone here in Zentra anymore. In my great purge following Diamante's betrayal, I discovered that there were goings-on that I was not aware of, and neither was Diamante.

And the Raven's head turns to you, Felix. The horrific war crimes that you committed, Felix, along with the Talanguard, and the abduction of children. I very visibly go pale. Are you okay? That was not for the cult of Mollart, like I had suspected. I have discovered that the children have been shipped to Schethranil for years.

What's happening to them? I do not know. No, there's no word. There's no word about what's happening to them. The skies of Scephronil are even more inhospitable to my. ravens than Eriose or Grond. Despite not being predators, the vultures and whatever dark magics are in those skies, prevent me from seeing much. Are they still alive? Can we save them? We can go in and we can, we can see. We're getting close to scatter. We can save them.

Even now the storm clouds gather. I've got to change my parents! We're all shitting! Wait, but that's a good thing. That means that Milo maybe wasn't sacrificed and burned in one of those big furnaces. Provided they're not, that Scathrinel's not sacrificing these poor kids. Well, that's fair. We can't wait. We have to go immediately.

Do you know where they're being sent? I guess not. I guess not. He's sent to schizophrenia. But where is? I know that, but like, be more specific. I didn't think I need to do. Is it like a specific warehouse or like a...

What's a warehouse? Or like a kindergarten? It's a kindergarten. It's a garden where it's a kindergarten. You know, the little ones. Oh. Yes, bird. Speak.

Yes, bad. And you watch is like my, my butt's wiggling back and forth and my eyes. I said... then you can eat that very. Despite how much I know and how much ideal in secrets, the king of Schethranil is obsessed with secrets for more than I am. And he keeps his quite well hidden.

I have gleaned some knowledge, but I have no idea what is happening to our children. Undoubted, though, with their dark magics and necremancy, it is not a good thing. All I have been able to discern is a potential ally within Scheranil, a former count that they had appointed, one of the only two counts to ever rule in Schethranil.

Both since count, both counts since have turned against the government, but have been unable to be snuffed out. I have made loose contact with one. I can tell you how to find him. I can tell you where to go. He is not very forthcoming with me, but I am a man with a reputation that precedes me, unfortunately.

Perhaps you will do a better job in convincing him of joining our cause, destroying them from within, toppling the carrion king is of our own. are the most important. So there's some kind of infarting. These two counts don't like this king. Yes, but the, there is no fighting. From what I understand, they have their domains and all efforts to force them out have been

unsuccessful so the Karean king goes on with his plans, lets them exist, does not bother with them, is not concerned with them, and that will be his downfall. What is the name of the Count that we're trying to find? His name is Count Kreskov. There's a castle in an extremely remote area that has been, and proven difficult, to assault how he's defended himself this long. I have no idea, but he is far more powerful than I had previously thought. I mean, this is good. This is a start. At the very This is Count Kreskov will be able to tell us what's happening with these kids.

He has to know. And then we'll go from there. Yes. And he, and the raven kind of turns, and is looking a little bit more dramatic, despite the being a raven. Because it's being a bird. He turns and he, it looks back at you and says, he's smoking out.

Around the leg of this bird are two teleportations circle scrolls. one to Zentra, the other to Ossingard, our easternmost fortress. I strongly recommend you either bring the rod to Zentra for safekeeping, and if you resist and do not wish to, somewhere where you know it will be safe. You cannot let the rod of law fall into the hands of the carrion king. All right, sir, duly noted. and I'll just untie the... You see that there's two scrolls.

One is to Zantra, the other is to Austin Guard. We'll use our best judgment and, you know, make sure that doesn't happen. Sir. I've informed the general of Austin Guard that you are coming. You do not need an escort. Do not tell them where you are going besides beyond enemy lines. Like I said, I cannot trust anyone in Korovaki any longer. You being outsiders are the only ones I can trust the wings of the Raven.

How do you spell Austin Guard? O-S-T-E-N-G-A-R-D. Austin God. G-A? G-A-R-D. Guard or G-R-D? G-A-R-D. And that's the Easternmost...

That's the Easternmost, like, Fortress. Are you sure it's not Awesome Guard? It is not. It is not. Eastern-M-D-A-D-M-D. You might want to double-check your notes, just to make sure. Roger that. I will.

Thanks. It's awesome, God. Okay. Okay. No. Turns out. Turns out I was right. Is it the Carion King or the Carri-on King?

You know, it's Carillon. Cario-on. I was going to make that joke. Sucks a suck, Caprice. You can still use that as Caprice. You drop the ball, Derek. It's good. All right.

Is there anything else? Yes. Carioki King. Yes. I love it. You must be careful. These are not. Orks, these are not owl folk.

These Sashadakai, these dusk elves, are far grave a threat. They used to serve the Raven Queen like we do in Koravakia, but they have turned away from her, abandoned her sanctum in the shadow fell, seduced by the Karyan king, rallied around him to form an incredibly powerful kingdom

that utilizes dark magic and in the past century they have been relying more heavily on necromanic magic they do not use it on the front lines I suspect because that if they saw the desecration of the bodies of the fallen of all of us that the three other nations

would unite against them and crush them but I suspect that it is for more sinister than even I know. Understood. I know the dangers. I've been trying to prepare the rest of the group. I know that they haven't really seen anything like this before, at least here, but I trust everybody, and we're all very capable, sir. I trust you will make the right decision.

Yes, sir. Therefore, I will not demand that you return to Zentra, but I would prefer to have the rod under my safekeeping. I'm sure we'll be back at some point. It's just, there's no time right now. We need to find out what's happening to these children. Yes. And do not forget, the children of Corvacia are an important resource.

But the chain guard is what really matters. Right, and that's why we're going to hang on to the rod for now. It may come in use for us. We may be able to use it even before the chain god reveals himself. Yes. there is the certainty that you will be venturing beyond this world

the chain god is held within the shadow fell in one of the dark domains bound to that place in a tomb with the power of death itself the prime force of death and to Skethrenil that has the strongest connection to the shadow fell

in all of Strigger I raised my hand at the bird Mr. Bird sir I mean Zern sir What is a dark domain? And the shadow fell? Can you explain that? It's the land of death and shadow.

It is a realm beyond ours with the dead. Much of the dead find themselves after life. Many dark domains ruled by dark lords have fiefdoms within. The chain guard is in one of the most ancient. That is all I know is the Grand Master of the Thirteenth Order. You don't know which Doctor name? That, I unfortunately do not. All right, well, that knowledge...

You thought we could just ask someone when we get there. That knowledge was sacrificed by the suicide of the original Grandmaster. It died with him. All of that knowledge and so much more. Now it's going to be my next question. What was going to be your next question? Well, he was chained once. I keep asking, can we find out how to chain him again or reseal the seals?

But if the knowledge lost, all of my searchings of all of my ravens across at actress, there have found nothing. All right, well, we'll make sure that the rod stay safe, and we'll keep you posted, I guess. Very well. Fly high wings of the raven. Keep the rug safe. We will. And with that, the raven flaps its wings.

Thank you, thank you, dear. Once the bird is gone, I let out a long, like, sigh of relief as if I was holding my breath. All right. That wasn't so bad. I think that we're all right, and we can head out immediately, and we can find these kids. And, you know, I don't like what's going on with Zern, but I do think that we do think. that he's trying to do good. And he trusts us.

And he's giving us the option to do what we need to do to get this done. I just hope that we can help him too in the end. I agree. He seems a lot more trusting and good intentioned than I was expecting. They even gave us these nice scrolls

for us to hang on to and gave us the agency to choose whether or not we wanted to go back and trust him with the rod or not. And that seems like a very cool thing for Zern to have done if he, you know, isn't as now that he's gone and not listening to us in any way, shape, or form. Oh, we should be going now. Toa.

Are you feeling sick, Felix? A little. Do you need a potion? I've got a few. No, I'm not sure I could keep it down right now. We should head out, right? Right now. We have to go find what's happening to those kids.

It's the least that I can do. I agree, and I'm sure you're not... I'm not the only one. Is it wondering if maybe your brother is involved in... I certainly hope so. Well, let's fucking go. It's been a very long time, though. And if they're doing anything horrible, those kids,

there's a chance that we're not going to be able to save them all. But we need to very at least find out what's happening now, and maybe we can reverse it. it or maybe we can stop it, or maybe we can recover them, or find out what's happened to them, and we'll make a decision from there. Well, I think we need to figure out. I'm inclined to agree with Zern that probably taking the rod just on our persons into Skittling, there's not a great idea.

I wasn't lying when I said that it could come up in handy for us. Yeah, and what are we supposed to do with it otherwise? Could we take it back to Acker and give it to the Wind Dukes and have them look after it? Well, we could, but we also know that there was some kind of tape to knocker. Do we trust it? Well, I think that was partially because we took that weird corrupted gem that was in my pack and we brought it to them. Yes, that's true.

That was kind of an us oopsie now to them. Sort of like an our bad kind of thing, not really a bad man. Our ipsy, yeah, is still presently more than likely. That's true. We just know that we need the rod for when the chain guard erupts from his chains. And I just feel like, you know, if it's an ACA, we won't be able to retrieve it quickly. And if we're heading into the heart of Skethernal where, you know, this is the most connected place to where the chain god currently rests, I personally would feel better if we had it on a person, but I am open to suggestion.

Can we, like, hide it somehow? I could carry it. Because that's not very heavy. I have the bag of holding, but if they get the bag of holding from us, I also know that it's in there. I don't see why they would we disguise it? Like it's just a staff of yours. Why would any of them know which was the one of room?

No, it's pretty magic. Because they probably wanted, like a lot. But they would have to hold it. I'm not going to let anyone pull it. Do we know if it goes in the bag of holding? Is it going to like la-rod the bag and... I mean, anything's possible. Should we try?

No. I think we should just carry it. I'm with you. If you think that's a good idea, Iris, I agree. I think it could come in handy. I'm a bit nervous about carrying it. Maybe we could like, you know, put some of your dreams on it, so it looks a little like.

Make a religion check advantage, Iris. And while she's doing that, is it big enough to fit inside of my, the old case? Or is it? No. It's like a big ass. It's like a quarter staff size, basically. Oh, I know nothing.

What is that? Oh, it's a three and a five, naturally. What's your bonus? Six. So an 11. And 11. I would say, that's not here than a 10. That'll net us more than it's a rod.

Yeah. I would say that with you recall that the energy, this is what you know, the energy that you had felt in the rod. reminded you of the energy that was radiating from the angel, the Winduk Gobita. Yeah, because that was the one that was the seriously one. Yes, yes. And so that was the Osiris one, and you feel that same energy. Who's, Osiris, is he like a god too? Is he?

We've had this conversation recently. He's like a good mate of Anubis, right? They're kind of like prose. Sure. They're sort of like friends, you know, kind of like, they're like Ty. Osiris is like a good guy, that's what I'm trying to say. Well, I imagine this is any god for me. truthful, more or else. Tawa, I think like aside from you, everybody has a little bit of good and a little bit bad and it's like a mesh.

Oh, I mean, the band's kind of like that, right? You don't want to be bad. You'll never fully be able to understand the will of the gods. they don't have emotions the way that we do what is for a greater good for them and not to use the same term as golden notice

but they see far more than we do it is up to us to decide whether we choose to follow in the health and I do I agree but I guess what I'm trying to say is that I would feel very nervous if we just are caring on our person

I do believe that the window who we have associated with the Cyrus that was one of the pelful creatures that entomed the chain god to begin. And if the word of law

vibrates with his energy, then to me it is good. And I will guard it with my life. Yeah, we'll protect Iris, you will, and we'll make sure that nothing happens to her orther Maybe we just give it to that guy that you just mentioned. Maybe like you can just hold on to it.

You know what I mean? Just like so we're not, you know, so we're not like, oh, we get captured and we go get thrown in prison. We've been in prison at least like five or six times since we started all of this. And every time we have taken our eyes off of something valuable and we've brought it in hell talk, it has fallen into the hands of some emotional habit. Don't you agree? I, I mean... What happened?

What happened when we gave it to Golden Lotus? The Golden Lotus wasn't really a good god, but I feel like the seven angels, those Windhoek guys, they're pretty cool. That we know. The wind spirits are kind of hanging out with them. They're sort of like chill. And we don't have eyes on them, so should that dark energy, that we allowed entrance into their homeland,

should that corrupt them, then all of a sudden it has control over the world of war. And we do not have eyes on it. And for what it's worth, when we go into Scathrin, there's not going to be any going to prison. Okay? If that even looks like it's going to happen, I'm going to burn everything to the ground.

They can't restrain us. They won't let us live. He'll put the nil and scuthrinil. And just because, just so I'm sure that everyone has the full context of what in this conversation, is that with the corruption, that they had said,

like, the one thing that could just stamp it out easily is the Rod of Law. So they're, there, so I want to make sure that everyone is clear that that was... They were asking for it, right? Yes, they were asking for it to cleanse Akula from the corruption. Can we at least try it in the bag of holding just so we know if we need to, it'll go in there?

I want to also see if it just like tucks everything away and then make little trannies. Into what? Well, like, we've already got a bunch of shit in the bag. I want to see if it likes to know if it will organize the bag of holding to make things more easy to come up. Yeah, all the coins go into a little corner, perfectly stacked. Every time we ask you for what a lot of scheme, You take 15 minutes hunting through everything in there, the trinkets you picked up. Look at it, it's a terrible mess. There's lots of stuff in there.

You refuse to clean it up. That's why I don't take things with me. Do you really need all that stuff? Does it bring you, Joy? You never know when you're gonna need all this stuff. Just take it and stir it around. You know, does it pronounce skin or skin? I don't you. To be fair, Noah's disorganization kind of goes really hand in hand with his, you know, carefree nature.

Part of what makes him charming. What, I was not listening to you. Oh, I was saying that his disorganization is part of his carefree nature and what makes him charming. Yes, that's why none of us have taken his bad of voting and forced it into organization. Yeah, I also just don't care. It is bad, though. Yes, it is. But Caprice clearly cares. I just want to see what happens and make sure that it doesn't destroy it if we have to suddenly find ourselves in a situation where we need to hide a quarterstaff fraud. Where else are we going to put it? I can think of a few places, Caprice. Well, that...

I don't have that option, so just... Just put it in the bag. You're not trying to put it in the bag. He can resplug as much rather than he normally is. That's hard, but it's possible. You can take it right out. And just the tip. Just the tip.

Just the tip. And we can try it. See what happens. happens if it causes some extra-dimensional explosion, you're critically wounded, and we're trying to march into scathrinil and after you've all of my energy to yield. That's actually a good point. That can happen with a bag of holding. I've seen it, and it is ugly. Oh, I don't know how it works. Well, put the bag...

If I tried to put my bag of holding and raw bag of folding, it would be... Gone. Everything. Half a core of acacia, gone. Horrible destruction. Is that true? Yep. Big old debt right in Striga. It would be wild. We'd all be instantly atomized. Well, use mage hand. We'll stand back like 10 feet.

We'll be fine. On second thought, let's not put the rod anywhere near the bag. Can we get going? Yes. Yeah. I'm just saying that I think that at the very least, maybe what we do is we at least go to Arca and we bring it back with us.

Because if we don't take it back, then Akula is going to just probably get horribly corrupted. We know that they wouldn't... Speaking of Akula, I am thirsty. Does anyone have water? Ha. You need, with water skiing. Your skin?

I spent like 10 minutes. 15 minutes. Now, while Toa rummages around, fair in combat, it would be one action, but... You feel a surge. All of you kind of feel like this dark warmth through your body. And you just remember the deal that Caprice had all made for you. As you feel that dark power, everyone has

except Iris. As you feel and you're reminded of that, this is a good opportunity to pass these out. Dark powers. Pass this to... You see? Pass this to retch? Let's put it. No! What, oh, hold on. I'm going to read it until it's time to read it. Oh, can I read it? I put mine face down. You can go first. You can go first. Kels's going to start. So, hold on. For our viewers, what is we have to read it? What are the dark powers? You don't have to. You don't want to. What are the dark powers? Um, so. Um, what are the dark powers? Um, So if you've watched Prime, whenever Carl Satan comes up, generally there is the bestowment

of dark powers that are granted to the party, and they're not quite spells, they're just more kind of like abilities that they can use. Usually that's my way of incorporating fun stuff from fourth edition into- Yeah, from fourth edition into the game, and just like fun little additional things that isn't like within the confines of like the magic item. like the tool in slots and like the spell slots so for example the ones in prime at least I know Avengers is is once weekly yes so those are the ones that you guys got after the Alphonse Manor but yeah this is one in this campaign so so why

we go around the Hornet Reader Dark Powers Kels why don't you start oh and and you didn't receive them because you didn't I you didn't accept it because of Vanuvis right and it would be blast of us Yeah. And probably you give you a sense that it was really only the power of Anubis that allowed you to not take it. Right? Like, you know, had like Toa been with, nah, no thanks.

Like, it would not, probably would not be done that. Yeah. You would have gotten to loop. I can't just use politeness to say no. No, no, thank you. No, good man. I got the carnival bounce of maledomini. Yep.

Is that how I say that? Yep. Maladominy. Maladomani. Maladominy. Maladominy. You call upon the grotesque critter. clown antics of the jester-like devils that perform in the carnival eternal in maladmini.

I can't say it. You make an exaggerated pratfall that smacks your enemies into each other. I like that. So as an action, you may double your walking speed for the round, and when you end your movement, you may choose one creature within five feet of you to make a deck saving throw. If it fails, they take 3D10 plus Dex mod, thunder damage, and are pushed 20 feet in the direction of your choice. Damn. Each enemy creature it strikes in this line takes 2D10 plus Dex modifier

and not prone. The target is also not prone at the end of its turn. I love that. Damn. Capito. I'm going to last, but these are my powers. Oh, that's right. All right.

Mixed. Mixed. I have the blood frenzy of Stygia. I channel the frenzies of the sharks in Sequelah's realm deep within the seas of Stigia. To cause razor sharp winds, water, and teeth around me. Teeth! To blind and rake my foes. When I rage, I may channel the blood friend Zostigia. Until the rage ends, you may use a bonus action

to deal five plus strength modifier cold damage to each enemy within 25 feet of me. Additionally, the targets must succeed a con saving throw, be blinded by the teeth. That doesn't say that. We blinded until the end of my next turn. I made that up. Very cool.

Gotta give it up. Got to give it up. How often? Oh, what's day? Once it's a daily. Oh, I was gonna ask that. Fuck you, fish. Damn.

This is, this is, really upset. This is fucked up. This is fucked up, by the way. The iron oppression of diss. This is my second diss one, by the way, as well. Yep, very well. You call forth the relentless oppression and subjugation of the iron fortress of dis

to force your enemies to submit, and crust them into the earth. You may target an enemy within 60 feet of you and make a ranged spell attack on it. If the attack hits, you deal 3D10 plus intelligence force damage, and the target is knocked prone and affected by the oppressive force for one minute.

The target takes 10 force damage to the start of each of your turns and cannot stand up from prone. The creature may make an intelligence saving throw at the end of each of its turn to end the effect. Holy-year. They basically pin someone to the ground for a minute and just deal damage.

constantly. And they can't stand up. And then they're prone, so toad. Yes. So prox. What's my God? I can't wait for us all just use this on one commoner. I enjoy the hell wasp sting of Malibulge. Your mocking words pack the sting of the hellwasp's of the gardens of delight within Melibulge.

What is spooky day being plain dey? Infuriating your enemy to a confused rage. You may attack an enemy within 60 feet of you and make a range spell attack on it. If the attack hits, it deals 3D8 plus your charisma modifier of psychic damage, and for one minute, the creature's damage roles are halved. Additionally, if the creature hits a friendly target with an attack, the attack must strike one enemy of your choice within range of the attack, including the target itself.

The target may perform a charisma saving throw at the end of each of its turn to end this effect. Wow, charisma. Very cool. Gotta give it up. Got to give it up. Great job. I love this. I love this.

So just as it added aside from meta point of view, when we were using our powers and prime, every time we used them, there was a little bit of something going on in the background. Do you want to know what yours would have been? Yeah, of course. Oh yeah. So I can feel even worse about my decision. It wasn't 100% fleshed out because you obviously rejected it beforehand,

but it was like some sort of like, Leach type ability, or deal damage, and then basically take health and then funnel health to everyone around you. It's kind of like a vampiric situation. Oh, no. I was hoping it was just that golden lotus from the mummy that goes under the skin. Oh, the scarab. Yeah, the scarab. Stygia, these are old layers of hell.

Yes. Yeah, right? So, De Stygia was yours? Mine is Malabol. Malabol. Maled. Maladomini. Maladamini.

Oh, I was going on the exploited loophole of dis. I haven't used that in prime in 10 million years. You have a lucky die, so like that was before you had lucky. Fuck, I must have cash in. I got to remember. Melodominium. Melodominine. I am going to use this.

I'm going to be full devil by the end of this campaign. I'm just going to have horns. We're going to look the same. I'm going to turn into a tiefling. Everything for me always ends up in the nine hells. One of my favorite you will be witnesses was when we, Oh yeah, we went over. Here you water, skein, skin, skin.

Thank you, John. Anyway, all I'm trying to say is, wait, was there something else that we were trying to do? Just to turn. No, you were still talking to rod. What I'm trying to say is that we know that a cool is horribly corrupted, and it's kind of our fault.

It's not feeling thirsty again. And if we don't bring the rod back to at least help her and help them, I'll feel really terrible. Because it was the, we did that to her. Well, we did. I mean, we kind of brought the gem you. It's like a murky area, if you ask me. No, it's very cut and dry.

Toa definitely brought it in. We collectively did not. Oh, that's true. I was carrying it, but it was sort of the wheel of the group, you know what I mean? I'll take the blame for it. The point is Toa's convinced me. I don't dislike the idea of giving them the wrong. And how do you plan on getting it back there and then getting back here?

We're going to use, we have one feather left. We take it there. We take it there. And we get back how? We use the teleportation to Austengarde, and we... And where's Austin God? I don't know, but doesn't matter. Where's Austin Guard, Felix?

I would know. You would know it is the easternmost fortress. It is the closest stronghold to the eastern front of Scatham Hill. Where we need to go. Yes. Was it near the place that Felix had the vision in the dream prison? Exactly right. You would know that you were outside of Austin Guard.

That's right. You were probably miles away from that, but Austin Guard would have been the closest where most of those troops were stationed. Yep. Felix, you know all about magic stuffs and those scrolls, right? Sure. Can we just scratch out a name and then put in some other name

and then that's where we get teleported? Unfortunately, no, that's not how that works. Okay, so I'd like to hold on to the Zern one, or the Zentra one. I'd like to hold up? No, white, what? Yes, and that's good. Well, how does it work? Do we have to hold hands?

It works. It's Felix. I don't want them. I don't want them. I'm just saying that it's a good escape. If we are suddenly find ourselves in trouble, we could all gather around the scroll and then we're in Zentra and now we're out of danger. That's a good reason not to go to Zentra right now. It takes some time to cast, but yeah, sure, we could use it as an escape route at some point. I didn't know that. You was the only one who can cast it? No, anybody can use it. That's the beauty of the scroll. I just know how they work by looking at it and reading it, but anybody could use it.

That's not true, right? Correct. Only if it's on your spell list. It's got to be on your spell list. So I don't think... I thought scrolls let you... If you don't have known or prepared, you can, like, roll to you there.

But you have to be able to cast a... It has to be on your spell list for you to be even understanding. Take that back. Yeah. I could technically use it because teleport as a bard spell. I couldn't.

You could teleportation circle as a bard spell. Teleportation circle. Oh, then I do not... Just check. And I have to catch it. Let me check. Yes. Interesting.

It's one minute versus an action. I don't know why I thought scrolls let people who can't cast magic, cast magic. I thought it was like a very nifty way for somebody who like for Toa to be like, I can use this once and boom. So it was like how like in, I had all the cleric spell scrolls from Stradonia. Because you were the only one who could use it and it just helped my spells. Like I could basically use things without using a spell slot. I learned somebody new.

If I didn't have prepared that day, that could be something like that's a good therapy. It's really really. That it's important because homeless Bob can grab a power word kill and be like, I know, I literally thought that that's how that works. And that's why they're like so rare. It's on top of it, because you're you and you now have it,

you can transcribe it into your book and you always have it prepared. Yeah, the problem with that is that circles no good because you have to be the cast in the same place every day for a year for it to become like a permanent teleportation circle. There already is once. So once they're there, you know where they are.

And so the point is, if you put it into, if you put it into your book, if you take the time to put it into your book, we can go back to those two places. Any time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, there you go. That's it, folks. That's to create a new telemetation circle. Yes, yes.

I'm going to read it, but I hear you're saying. It is on the Bard's Bell list. Okay. So if I wanted, if I wanted, yes. There you go. What were you saying? We're not going back to Central. That's what I'm saying.

Now, Will, I feel like we should move because the storms are coming in. Are you afraid of getting wet? Do you know? No, you're not. I've heard you in a tavern. And so given the location of this Austin Guard place, I think we'll probably save a lot of time by going to Arka. We deal with all of that, and then we teleport to Austin Guard,

and we'll be right at the border, and we'll just walk right in. Instead of having walked through all the rest of Grand, and then, presumably, my rough understanding of how the locations work, right, there's still lots of ground for us to get through, we would save, I think, a lot of time. And before the bird left, he also gave you the general location to this castle that Count Kreskov

list of. So once we learn the teleportation circles, sigils, then we can go. I just have to know the sigils. And I will say that basically... So we wouldn't know the... We wouldn't know the Central ones until we go there, but if we go to Austengarde...

Once you use it, you'll... learn basically. So basically you can do it. They'd be on the ground. I would memorize them. I'm super genius. Roger that. I'm not suggesting. That's great. It's going to take some time to learn them. Fast travel.

I feel it, Felix. It's Game of Thrones up in this bitch. It's worth it for you to take the time to transcribe them into your book. Oh, absolutely. I agree. That's a fantastic suggestion. Isn't it going to take me a while? Many rests. Well, we'll figure it out. The point is we don't need to use it right the second.

No. Not right now. We need to use the feather first, and then we'll just use the Austin Guard one. We could take the time there. And I'll just keep the central one and then learn from it. All right. Bingo, bingo. We got a plan out. Well, I guess. Yeah, it takes me one minute to commit a sigil, sigil, sycule sequence to memory. Five seconds for Felix. All right, well, then we should go right away. Where's the feather? Not true. I think maybe Lufty does, because that's sort of...

It's in the whole. my bag. Oh, it's in the whole thing. Oh, geez. I probably saw it while I was just looking. Oh, no. Oh, you're in there. Give me another water skin. Oh, all right. It's a next 15 minutes. It is a last thing. You're watching the last item, and there's this beautiful glowing blue feather. Oh, my blesticks. Yikes. Uh, I blow out a water skin for... We're getting some flickering. We're still live. We're still live.

It's green. Okay, no drop frame so far. It's green. Okay. I'll give another water skin to Iris, and I'll pull out the blue feather. All right, I'll be ready. Sure. If we must.

Yeah, we're ready. Okay, let's go. And I'll, like, throw the feather. You throw the feather. You throw the feather. Falls down to your ass. Do you remember how to use this? Just give it to me.

Isn't there just like, there's no word, right? What is he wrong with you? The idea was that you would think of Al-Kira, the Thunder Fury, and then really will for- I hand it to Luffy. I go here, just give it to Lutty, and I hand it to it to you. What do you want to be to do with this? No, you remember how to use it. You just said it.

You think about your mother, and it's from her wing, and then you channel it, and then whoever your friendly targets you want to bring, you can bring. And I'll think really hard and we'll all. As you think really hard and you finally feel that sense of love, as complicated as it is, as suddenly the feather, a wind whips up and then the feather starts to glow, this bright light blue and swirl around all of you and whip around. and you actually see as some of those golden petals

from the beautiful trees in this glade. You're not sure if you'll ever be back here, but you see it and it whips around with you. In a flash of blue, your feet leave the ground in a wisp of wind and you feel like you're riding on a soft cloud for just a moment, and suddenly your consciousness flickers back. And while you were in a pristine setting before,

still does not compare to the otherworldly beauty of where you find yourself now. You look around in Aka, the eternal veil, is exactly where you left it. That perfect temperature, the sun in the exact same spot at all times. A beautiful early summer day as you see the brilliant spiraling spires, shining with silver. The great lakes with multicolored fish leaping about, beautiful birds of paradise flying around the lush jungles around this city. Waterfalls pouring in, and you know that the lake goes on a waterfall and it falls off into the mist that protects this place. just further down.

And you realize where you are is that can where Alkira had made and stayed there for who knows how long. You see that there's a number of empty wine skins and a number of barrels and a fire that's still flickering and on a elongated stick there is some roasting fish.

And it smells beautiful in this, and the fragrance of this area is absolutely incredible. And as you get there, you look around and you see this camp, and you see crumpled on the ground. Blue wings falling over on her side, you see Alpira. Her large, her large form, now the combination, really, between an angel and a gym. She's on her side facing away from you. Her black hair is. all a mess. What is this? I'll rush over and roll her over. As you roll her over, her eyes are closed and she looks up at you and breathes and the stench of alcohol is just blast you. And she... I got shrunk. Her eyes open and she blinks a little bit and she says, is and my daughter, oh, come here, Luffy.

I miss you so much. And she pulls you into a massive hug. The size difference between you is insane. And she just is crushing you in her hug. And she leans up her muscular body, almost like engulfing you in her hug. As she kind of snuggles into you. Her wings wrap around as her hair is still disheveled.

And you see now the ever refilling wine skin on the side. Scheme. This is going to be the theme. The theme of the scheme. The scheme theme. The scheme theme. As she takes another swig of wine. And she places it down and says... You know, Ma, just because it always refills

doesn't mean you always have to empty it. Ben, what is the point of it? Hey, here, have some. Hey, friends. I've loved it. It's good to see you. Take a good solid... I'm good for now. Thank you. I'm good as well.

Is everything okay? Is there any horrible corruption or any evil birds of paradise for six eyes? Same horrible things. Yeah, we came back to help. And your fish is burning. And she kind of leaps forward. She kind of throws you to the side. And she just glides over, very gracefully shocking for how inebriated she is.

And she pulls off the fish and takes a massive bite out of it and half of it's gone. as she choose it and swallows it and she says, Do you want to show? I'll take some of the wine. Oh, yes, my... Everything is fine. The window six of the windukes are preparing for a terrible battle, and she points over, and you can see all of the Vati.

Hundreds of them are going about the city. You remember those statuesque obsidian androgynous, beings that were viewed with the power of air, going about making preparations, and she looks back at you and says, oh, but the Akula is not looking good. No, she's so responsible. We're here, we're here to help. It is grim, but I am supposed to replace her if we have to make the final decision. No, no, we don't have to.

We need to speak to the windows. You see, we've brought the word of law. That's the thing that we'll save her, right? Yes. That is it. So, if we could gain audience with them, I believe time is out of the assets. So we could put down the wine and the fish. We could maybe save a...

We can walk in wine, let's go. Can I walk in fish? Oh. I got me fish. I have extra. I have extra. And she, uh, be able to fish. her wings very gently and she just kind of glides an inch from the ground.

Do you have more feathers that we could take for a chance? Just one. We used to last one to get here and should we need you? Leave your daughter. Make your persuasion check advantage. This is a good role. This is a good way? Yes.

Oh, okay. 25. 25? Yeah. She reaches back and she looks at you and she kind of looks at you a little bit drunk and we can until she's sobering up quickly. She is a massive divine being of genie and an angel. And you get the sense that it probably takes a lot to get her to the state. And so she's sobering up relatively quickly. And she says, oh, it will take me all of my power for today. But

I'm, yeah, sure, of course. I don't want you to be often in the bad world with all of the terrible birthmen and not be able to come back to me. You don't have a fret over me. And she reaches back. Wait, don't stop. She focuses her energy for a second, and she spreads her wings, and they blast with this radiating blue light, and the wind whips around, and you see as the wind whips through the wings,

these brilliant light blue feathers swirling around. One flies out and whips around, and then lands in front of you. This is perfect, and I'm not giving it to yours this time. You left it in the bottom of the bag, and it was all crumpled. Oh, well, yeah, just, yeah, I don't want to be responsible anymore. The valuable thing about shows back is that it takes him 15 minutes to find anything.

A stranger, it would take hours. No. More reason to put the rod at. I'm just going to, you know, I'm going to hang on to it. I'm going to take the feather and kind of like tie it into a piece of my hair. Oh, that's nice. You do that. Everybody like that.

I rip all her hair out. Everybody like that. I do like that. She leads you. It looks very nice. Through the city. And it's, even though you've seen it come alive beforehand, you, it still is a bit of a shock to just see the, the life that is returned from the first time that you had seen this place.

as all of the Vati go about their business, the preparations, the crafting, and everything is perfectly pristine. There's a precision to their movement that is otherworldly. And you make your way up the spiraling silver towers up a grand staircase, and you hear, once again,

as the wind licks through just ever so slightly, the perfect temperature. You hear those beautiful wind chimes filling this entire space as you make your way to the, the sanctuary where you recall the wind spirits had been cleansed and Toa's tattoos had begun to glow. The door is closed and you see that there's that same glowing or that same panel on the side. And Al-Kira looks at you and says, I'll talk to Arraza and see how she's doing, but she's

doing, but she, she will be overjoyed to find that, that you have the thing that will cleanse a cooler. And, uh, she, she, uh, hovers her hand says, actually, I will let you. I will gather the rest. And she places her hand over the panel and it glows of a bright blue and it flashes. And you see the beautifully crafted doors open, and the brilliant, multicolored light shimmers through with those hanging wind chimes and all sorts of pieces of vibrant glass as the door opens, and I'll Cura looked at you

and gives you a big hug and says, I'll be right back. Okay. And she, with a beat of her wing, she flies off. You see in this chamber, a number of stations of where all four of your wind spirits had been cleansed, as well as Atamaka, the great windrock, all empty. All this left in the far side is the shimmering dome of this brilliant blue light. You see within a humanoid figure, feminine,

and curvy, wings folded over and hair hanging down, eyes closed. And you see from this vantage point the wings look black. Standing at the side, waving arms, the kind of flash of the glow of strange platinum light that whips back and forth and eventually snakes into this chamber and causes the wings to glow and you see that Al-Araza, the angel of Bahamut, is very concerned, grim, dire, as she looks up at the almost nearly fully corrupted angel. Looks like we got here right in time. As soon as you say that, she turns, and her eyes,

despite being this otherworldly being, there's a weariness to them. You know that, I guess, supposedly even angels can tire. And you see now that there's her face-sunk-in, as if she hasn't slept in a very long time. And as you approach, you now see these snaking bits of dark corruption up and down the face of Akula, as she, with her brilliantly colored hair, she conceals most of it, but it's very clear that the corruption of Pizzou is making its way into her entire being.

And she turns to you and says, did you get it? Yeah, we have it. We've brought it here. Looks like just in time, huh? Yes, I don't know how much. much longer she would have had. Thank you. Thank you. Is Al-Qaeda getting the others? Yeah, she's out getting everybody and just tell us what to do. How do we help? You have done enough. Thank you. We will be whole again. And she approaches and flies over and

she's, are you holding the, who is the rod? Are you the rod? And she flies over very gently. to you. And she says, how difficult was this to get? It wasn't easy. Yeah. That's an understatement. It was quite a trial. And most of all, the work was done for us.

And you sacrificed much to get this. And she looks around and says, were there not six of you when you left? Yeah, they'll go. Yeah. But she's not dead. She's fine. She'll be fine.

She's just being used as collateral for a horrible... Oh, I mean, just she's fine. We'll get it back. Don't worry about it. She'll be back next time we'll see you, I promise. She's not dead. She's being used to scholagia. She... She looks at you and then nods. Well, I'm glad she is not dead and will be returning.

This, I have not held this in so long. And she floats her. floats over and says to you, you wield it quite comfortably. That's impressive for a mortal. Thank you. It's only weighs, maybe 10 pounds. I mean not your strength of arm, your strength of spirit. You must be a being of good in law.

Yes, she isn't. She's my best friend. Yes. She fought the law. The law lost. What? Would you like to take this? Yes. And I'll hold it out to her.

And she grabs it very gently and it glows and flashes. And as it flashes, you see as a bit of energy washes over her. And you hear very faintly what sounds like a distant roar of a drag. After fighting one so viciously just the day before, you know very well what that sounds like. As calms down and she holds this, and she looks and says, I cannot believe it. It was even reforged without us. Did not even Moduna need to forge this, but this was resembled with the power of Moradin. Yes, a very powerful cleric of Moradin.

He had the ability to not. But he was still capable, very capable. Yes, I'm saying that is he was very powerful and also drunk. He wasn't drunk at the time. That you know. That I know. I'm with Iris on this one, I can't really confirm that, yeah. How could he have had the time?

They usually find the time. The morning, the later, morning in between hammer strikes. That reminds me in all the taste of my skin out. Maybe his hammer was also a flag. So you just be like, ting. Now that is an idea. Right? You know, you can market something like that.

With that. He was saying. Oh, no, just it was, yes, yes. The power of more did it. Hopefully it's, it's as powerful as it ever was. We really need it to be. She holds it and holds it up. And she holds it with a sense of reverence.

And nods and says, yes, it still is. It hasn't lost any of its power. And his corruption won't stand a chance. So what do you do with it? How long does it take? Can we watch? Can I help? When Moduna gets here, we will use it.

And as if on cue, the door that was opened darkens, and you see six figures glide in. These large angels, halfway between an angel and Avati, each different and very clearly representing the God that the angel served for their transformation and ascension to, to Wind Duke status. And Alkira Lifty's mother. They glide in and all of them except for the male angel with the largest beard among them, braided hair. You know is Moduna, the Wind Duke and the angel of Moradin. He glides forward and immediately looks around and a smile comes to his face.

Hey, that's good craftsmanship. He flies over and he grabs it and surges and you hear the clinging of a hammer on an anvil. As, as it is new. Well done, mortals. We will strike down. Thurge tune when the time is right. I thank you for doing our duty for us. We will be rewarded.

We will have erged calamity and entropy. That's all we want to do. We just want to... We just want to help. How? Now, we are going to save our own

from that bastard. Don't worry. We have this. But, please, you might want to step back a little. No it. Oh. very quickly step way back. So you don't have to.

You do that and you all watch as the other Winddukes look at you and nod. Without a word, they reach out and pass around the rod of law. You hear the roar of Eliy as Samufa, the angel of Nobanian takes. his long black hair glowing with power and a much shorter black beard as he fills with power even passes it to Eira the angel of tear and you hear the clang of sword on sword as she surges with power as well Selima takes it next the angel of Amonitor You hear the roar of flame, the blazing sun, as he surges, she surges with power. And then finally, it's handed to Gobita, who has that almost gem-like skin, a beard that is a little more than a goatee, tightly bound, and a brilliant headdress.

as he takes it and holds onto him, you hear the blasting of a desert storm as he surges with power. And they all then gather around Moduna, and they each put a hand on the rock. And each of them surge with power as that happens, and Moduna looks back to Al-Qura, who just says, at the bat with you all watching.

And he turns and says, I'm going to E7. And she looks around a little nervously and then flies up and grabs onto it. And with that, Moduna points it and at the blue chamber of Akula. And in a flash of

brilliant light, a being blasts out of it and combines with the swirling magic that has been trying to stave off the corruption of Pizzou, and it blasts, and immediately, all of the form of Akula is radiating with this brilliant energy. And you see now is all that can be seen in the light is no longer her body, just the black wings. but you see that there is a tiny handful of shimmering light blue feathers left and then there's more and more start to sprout out as the black wings fade away and the corruption of Pizzouzziu

is fully cleansed a final blast from this rod of all seven of these angels and in a moment the light fades and quiet returns even the wind shines as if knowing that this is a moment of importance. Stop.

And in a moment, Akul's eyes open up, and they're clear. As she falls out of the energy as it shimmers and fades, Arosa catches her and cradles her gently. And she looks at her and tears are welling on her eyes. And she says, and. She, Akula, looks up and says, I would have been fine if you had to kill me. And she says, we don't have to.

And they embrace and all of the other angels all reach in and embrace each other. And... Oh, thank you, God. Is it better? Is it all fine? And they'll turn to you after a moment of jubilation. and they turned you after a moment of jubilation and they all look incredibly pleased

as you see that Akula is returned uncorrupted but still weak as Araza glides past you and they say and she says, it is all right, thank you so much I believe that The work that I used to think could only be done by the divine, could be achieved by the spirit of mortals like you.

Thank you, little one. My little baby. And she tries to pull you in a little hug. It's the soul I was so comfortable in. And she feels your heartbeat, and she pulls back. and Al-Raza turns and says, I'm going to make sure she gets some rest, and they leave,

and the others begin to thank you and leave until all that's left is the angel of Morden holding the staff, the rob. And he, stops and says, I'm going to put this in a very safe space. And now, as long as no more dark crystals

come into this veil. Oh, you mean like this one? I'm just like. She kidding. She kidding. Funny joke, yeah? Actually, though, about the rod, we want to take this with us, yes? I don't think we should.

No, not particularly. But what if we need? We have the feather. We're just going to have to come retrieve it. Luffy. I think you can see it. Seven windows to utilize it. We have but five currently. And we're not really windukes or angels. We're to backseat, Jamalsi, Caprice. Okay. Can you remind me, when we're here, there's like a time still, right? Yes. Basically, time doesn't pass at all in the outside world.

So basically, when you teleport back, it's as if there's no time in the prime material planet. It's past. Perfect time to take a week to transcribe a spell into a... 10 hours. I need 10 hours. Perfect. 250 gold pieces. We got time? Continue. We've almost finished rebuilding the archives and my vault. This is going in a very special chamber. You're...

That's a goddamn scum. You're not. You know. Hold on, being fell. No, hold on. That's about the wounds. The wounds. How's her on your needs?

The road, she speaks to me. I mean, so you'll keep it safe, and nothing will happen again as long as there on any, we promise not to bring anything back, but is there any other way that somehow corruption could come in? Well, do you swear on everything it will be safe if we leave it with you? There are sent no. Eight of us now. We were trapped and scattered, hoping that we'd never be reunited,

that there'd never be any need. Now that there is, nothing is getting into this veil, as long as we have something to say about it. All right, well, thank you. Arrest, do you feel comfortable leaving it here? I think it's the right thing to do. No, I don't feel comfortable without anything.

But I don't see another choice. I can't wield a staff and a rod. And even if I couldn't wield the rod, as I've said, we're not seven and eight. Angels. It's simply us. You don't have the power plant. While a cooler rests.

So first. And Al-Qira soberes up a little. Kind of like shakes his head. Yeah, good luck with that. Take all the time you need. Before you go, I'll want to thank you and give you the means to call on us whenever you need us to strike down Thurridge Dune. I will prepare the artifact. Thank you.

Remind me the name of this particular Wind Duke. This is Moduna. Moduna. Thank you. Moduna, I know you've got a lot to do to fix your vault and the whole thing, but I was just wondering at some point if I could. to just borrow a little bit of your time. We don't need to RP it, so to speak, but I was hoping to learn

a little bit about more than it. Just have some questions. I'm going to start using that when I'm in like a need-to-know situations and social situations. I don't really need to RP it with you, but can you tell me what this is? It's at your leisure, it's at your convenience.

I just, you know, I don't know very much. How long are you going to be here in the veil? Well, at least 10 hours. I just kind of shrug. I'll confine you. Great. And he... I've been a feeling he is going to appear to it with him.

He flies out with the rod. Until all that's left is the... The greenish, gem-like visage. Gobita, the angel of Osiris. He looks down at you, Iris, and says,

we have much to discuss. I would be happy to. We have at least ten of us. I'm not sure I would like to appear with you. Too bad. You're fucked. I'm going to ensure that

a cooler is resting well and I will find you. I'm gonna be easy to find me to be only to back soon this entire place and he just nods and he and there's almost this they all have an otherworldly mess but you get the sense that some of them have a bit more of a mortal vibe to them and this one seems far more other than the other ones above a lot of that and he glides out And by the way, get the phone. Well, I guess I better get to work. I got a lot of time ahead of me here.

You know, I just have to get started. Just a moment. Just a moment. Can we take a moment and celebrate a victory for a hot second? Woo! We took our business. We did it. It was over.

Yeah. Guess who's back? Back again. Alcula's back. Tell a friend. You guys already know, though. Oh, that's good. I don't have much to do.

I mean, maybe I'll write something. Maybe I'll make a musical. I can do that. I love musicals. That sounds great. I'm going to go fish. I'm looking forward to seeing how the DM is going to punish us for Iris' idea of me copying the spell and in my book. I'd also like to RP the next 10 hours.

I got it. A waterfall. who should go off the side of the... We'll find out where this goes. I would just go find a... I would go with Tella. And while he's fishing, I would sit down by wherever he's fishing and transcribed.

There's the pond next to the camp, right? I would keep him company by the pond while he fishes and just silently transcribe to myself and while you fish. I turn around in a joyful, ecstatic mood. I'm like the weight of the world is off of my shoulders. I just walk to find my own quiet place with some parchment and ink and pen, ink and quill. Guess who's back? Guess who's back? I would go to Al-Cura's, like, I think she had a hammock at some point. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would like jump in the hammock and like grab a bottle of

whatever's with an arm's reach. You know what you get like swallowed up by the hammock and but it feels very comfortable and cozy and it smells a little bit of those spices that she smells of. And that she still retains that Ginny nature of hers. And it's relaxing. And then eventually, Mordidin, not Morden, Mordon a little shudh. Hey, buddy.

Hey! Moduna shows up and you're able to ask him, and we actually will not roleplay that. But Ritchie will tell you all about Mordoran. A brief has questions because of course of his infatuation with Hergia and he would ask generally about what being loyal to, because he's never at a god

and so he's sort of thinking about that in that way Yeah and you know that he that you learn that Moradin is he's the all father of the dwarves, the head of the dwarven panther the soul forger of the all father yeah he might try to squeeze a little bit of dwarfish I guess that would be language so he tries to learn a little bit more how he might be able to communicate with her job when he rescues her because he's so conscious and you

know this but he would tell you that the you know the the the rod of law was forged by Moradin himself with the power of the other six god lawful good gods okay that you see represented here and that you know it was that's why he'll be the one to wield ultimately and you recall that that's why in your dream that you had or your vision that you had it was Torvald who represented O'Duna in that scene, in that dream was the one to initially strike, to finally strike down the most. I think in first time. You do that. It's at that point where, oh, Iris, what are you doing? I'm just walking around. You walk around and you see the Vati. They, they greet you warmly,

but they are very polite and they just go about their business. They are not particularly concerned with your presence here. They are not unkind, but they are a little bit aloof, I would say. And they have far more important matters to attend to. And as you find yourself in perhaps a beautiful garden, you hear the very gentle flap of wings and Gobita flies down and lands very gently and lands very gently. staring down at you. I'll just nod when I see that he was loving. Iris of the Sands, have you heard from your God? Recently, I have spoken to mine

and he tells me that Anubis has not been seen or heard from in the upper plains. That was my fear. I saw him trapped in a pyramid, essentially. You saw him outside of the pyramid. Yeah, so in a strange realm that was very clearly not the material plane. What the hell? Yes, my vision.

He was outside of the pyramid, a strange realm. It was unfamiliar to me. Whatever he is. Did I, I think we talked about this. I had suspicions that it was the shadow film. I would say make an archa check advantage, and I will set the DC appropriately. You see is one. 17.

17. The DC was 15. You recall, I would say Iris, with your knowledge of the dead, that you would tell the sandstorms, the place, the vibe that you got was absolutely beyond the realms of mortals. And I would say with a 17, you would say that you get the sense that it was in the realm, the lands of death. And you knew that Anubis was there, and he mentioned that where he was was a godless place. And so you could probably put two and two together and get a sense that is perhaps in a dark domain of the shadows. And I'll relate that.

And he will just take it all in, and he will nod. and we'll think for a moment as if he's thinking as if deciding whether or not he should tell you something and eventually he closes his eyes and opens and says wherever it is that

Hanubis is he will receive no aid from the rest of the pantheon I feel it's not sure. It is a true miracle that he has maintained his connection to you. I hope, to my faith, it will continue to keep us. As long as it never wears. There is something about the circumstances of your birth

that I believe gives you this connection. There is some plan. Be careful. For where you go, oh gods can follow. But we can. And when the time is right, you will call on us. We mention the circumstances from the world. Do you have any more information about that? I really do not want to leave from here wondering if my father's actually going to follow.

It is lofty. She's made me concerned. It is not a matter of parentage. Oh, that's great relief. It is a matter of your soul. It is my. And more. I will not be shot.

Anubis knows. He turns slightly. Make a perception, persuasion check. Oh, hmm. Yeah. Okay. Natural one. The dice have decided.

He turns and he says, More than you know. Well, when and if he sees his fit to import the snow journey, he will choose to do so. He nods slowly and begins a turn and stops. While Osiris himself, the Lord of the Eternal Land, will not be present and cannot go where you go. I will be there. I appreciate it very much.

I will see you soon. And he turns and flies away. You take however long you need to transcribe. 10 hours. 10 hours? Yeah. So can we like basically long rest if we're just sort of resting over eight hours? Yeah.

Enjoy long rest for sure. I'm at a spell to my spellbook. We're down one scroll. I'll say in this time and we don't have to role play it. I don't really want RPA with you. actually no never mind so we took a long rest

and you don't necessarily sleep but you know you can just you're milling about and you're and also I would say that the peacefulness of this place makes it easier to get a long rest it's just so relaxing and peaceful and after the incredible tension of

basically since you left this place going as intro marching all the way to Gron and everything that you've experienced This is the first, like, true piece that you've had. And after the 10 hours are up, Al-Kira, Kira will probably join you and drink with you all. You get the sense that, you know,

although she has been made one of these windukes in some way, that she still feels more comfortable among mortals, like she always had. And she shares a drink and a meal with you all. And she, at the end of the 12 hour, the 10 hours or whatever, she says, well, I think now the, they're going to thank you and grant you the gifts that were promised, the rewards. But this is not out of thanks. Well, it is, but this is more of a gift from your mother. She reaches out, she pulls out this very ornate chest that looks like it had been carved and designed in the most beautiful palaces of Nakhbet.

Very much of a genie design. And she heaves, and she's very strong, and she takes her a little bit of half that she places it down in front of you. What was that? She heaved her chest. She heaves her chest and places it down in front of you. Is it a plastic statue of a turtle-eating pizza? Yes, but no. Yes, but actually no.

And she cooks it open, and you see that there is just an absolute treasure trove of coins and gems and jewels just shimmering. And she says, this is the riches from my travels. I have no more need. of it here. It is for you, my daughter, and your friends. Make sure you share. There's one thing that a mother should teach, I have heard, is to teach their children to share them. Yeah, with mom, I'm like,

you know, they kind of cover the, like, the kindergarten, Brother Gruba, you know, they cover that. There's a whole song and, you know. She kind of looks away a little embarrassed. But I, oh, I appreciate it. This is so nice. Thank you. Thank you so much. I lift you in good hands. I left you in good hands. And she says, I'm going to miss you.

She hugs you. And in a flash, you see wings flap. And there are six more angels around you. All but a cooler. And Moduna flies up very, very slowly. And he looks at you and says, and now we are in the endgame.

This is the fate of perhaps not your world, but all worlds. All realms. And while we prepare for a great war, we will be ready to use the rod to strike down Tharish Dune. and he reaches into his person, and he pulls out a metal figurine, and it seems to be wrought, it seems to have been worked, and with beautiful ornate craftsmanship, and he hands it forward, and you can see that it is a in the shape of what looks like a rod with two wings coming forward and wrapping around it. And he hands it forward to whomever would take him and says,

clench this and call upon the seven angels. And we will come. Who's the most responsible? Felix. What? Fine, and I'll reach out and take it. I don't want that. I think that's...

This seems more like an oracy kind of thing. The moment he started stuttering in on himself by the moment I'm not gonna be responsible for that. He gave him a chance, though. It's like taking this name is that. He's far more responsible than he believes he was. Oh, one day he'd see it. She is.

And with that, and with that, he floats back a little bit, and Arraza floats forward, And she's smiling, and there's just an absolute shift in her mood. And she says, no, I'm, it's probably getting old, but I can't thank you enough. And as a token of my gratitude, and he looks across all of you. And he, and she turns to you, Felix. And as she floats forward, you can feel this heat rating from the heat of Dragon's Fire.

As she reaches into her process. into her person and she pulls out a figurine an idol of seems to be made of platinum and it's in the shape of a dragon

and she hands it to you and as you touch it it's actually a little hot but it's not, it's just worn to the touch but not not painful how big is it like just like a yeah like a little figurine wow

look at that this amazing It is what you deserve. Oh, no. It must be cursed. I hope not. What is it? Something this beautiful couldn't be cursed.

It's just a beautiful statuette of a dragon. The dragon's bits in your face. Damn it. It's alive. Your eye completely dissolved. And she then floats, floats over to you. Lifty. And she says,

Kula wishes that she could be here, but she's still so very weak. But she wanted you to have this. She says that you could work on your fashion a little bit. And she reaches and she pulls out this beautiful headdress of brilliant plumage of all of these different colors, of feathers, and she hands it to you.

And it seems to be made to fit your small head. Wow. I mean, there was a little, you know, I know, it's a condition. It's a heck, it's for mother's drinking. And then she gets mad. It was a little bit of a backhanded gift, but I, I appreciate it. I, I, oh, yeah, but I don't know. You look wonderful.

And a little tear comes to her face, and she floats back and says, thank you. And with that, the angel you know is Sunufa, flies forward and looks down at you, Tewa. And he reaches into his person and pulls out this, oh, it looks like a pelt of lion's fur and claw. And he hands it to you and says, you are strong. warrior who fights for friends, family, what is right? Nice, I cry every day. The tenants of a king. Thank you.

Bad ass. Very kind. And he hands it to you. Hello. Louvty's eyes get really big when he says tenants of a king. I'm like, you've claimed the scrawny one. And- Not a little more than one.

You've claimed the strong one. He's 20-21. No takesie-backsis? Who's the current year? Forny one. Felix. I cannot blame him. He's got me some muscle what I do.

I'm like, that's scrawny. Oh, man. He does have physical fitness tests. And with that... I guess. Mostly. A female angel flies forward. You know her as Salima.

She, her hair is a... is a dark color, and it's pulled... back tightly and as you actually see that although it's dark it almost is there's there's bits of of radiating glow from within as as if she there's some internal radiation you feel a warmth that she approaches and she's incredibly proper and put together and she holds out a ring with a gem that glows with the sun as if a sun itself is trapped inside whoa and she She hands it and says, you look like you could use more jewelry.

Thank you for having a spirit and a soul that shines like the sun. That's my... Thank you. He's not even wearing a ring on that finger. They've been on their food. It's very human, human. A spin on Grace's hand. Oh, okay.

Much better than that. I have a really good aim with that. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll put it here on my left thumb. And with that, Gobita flies forward in front of you, Iris. And he says, I think this jewelry is more what you had the mind. I love jewelry.

And he reaches a new person and pulls out in Neckoning. Oh, I love this. With a brilliant, adorned in jewels and gems and gold. The center of this amulet is the symbol of an eye. Oh, we love eyes. As he hands it to you. Thank you so much. Oh, well, traveling.

Continue to do the will of Anubis. Always. And you will save him as well. And he floats back and Modunus flies forward and he says, you are all now ready. You've all shown what morals can do. Call on us when the time is right and we will stop this all together. Thank you for everything. And we'll let you know when we need you.

Yes, true little books. I, I don't know where that is. Yes. Just, there's a hang, like a waterfall. They hang me off the, you know, just, uh. Thanks, Selena. This is really thumping. And they all nod and they express their thanks one more time and fly away one by one.

Lofti. Uh, Al Raza and Al-Kira give you one big hug one more time. And Raza flies off and Al-Kirr looks at you and says, Please, please be safe. for you. Yeah. I'm always, you don't have to worry about me. Look at that.

Oh, no. Oh. Can she all in rest? She kind of subtly flexes and looks down to this massive size of her arm. It's like, you're doing very well. Yeah. I know that you'll be fine. Take care of all of them too.

Oh, I will. I mean, that's what I'm here for. They would be lost without me, really. That's my girl. And she looks back and says, well, I have to get ready to prepare for. ready to prepare for a war. You did the same. Be safe. You too, my daughter.

And she gives you one more hug and almost like you hear a crack in your back. And it feels actually pretty good. And she gives you a pat on your head awkwardly and then flies away. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Aventress 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 snack all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarotette, and more. Thank you. You are now just alone. Even Alkira the Thunder Fury, Lifty's mother has laughed at her, a tearful goodbye. Kana da! And you all look at the gifts, the angelic gifts that you were bestowed by the Wendews. This ring is really badass. It seems to be the Ring of the Eternal Sun. It has seven charges.

Oh, my God. As an action, I can expend one or more charges to target a creature within 60 feet of myself. That creature must then make a wisdom saving throw. On a fail, the creature loses its highest available spell slot, depending on how many charges I expend. So if I succeed, I could be like, boop, no seventh level for you. You lose a seventh level. Yeah. But like, which is massive.

Yeah, but even like dropping a fifth or a sixth. Holy shit. Especially because obviously I run like bosses that have actual spell slots and whatever. So like I thought that would be helpful. And it's like how many times of you're just running out spells to use. It's like, oh man, a fourth level spell. No, that's small. No, that's still huge.

Yeah. I need to figure out how to get my VEC up. I wonder what cost 8,58 gold pieces that'll allow me to do that. Only warlocks. Um, Lifty. Okay. I have this lovely headdress, even though I already just put a feather in my head. Oh, the feather.

No, I am now feather of the theme. So I have the headdress of the plume. of the plumed one. Ooh. While wearing this headdress, you receive plus one to attack and damage roles. Damn. This headdress has five charges.

You may use a reaction to reduce damage by 1D4 plus Dex Modifier. If you reduce damage to zero, the attacker is knocked prone. So I do have another clarifying question. Do I have to use a charge to add plus one to attacker damage, or is that a constant? Nope, that's just constant.

So you have plus one to attacker damage. That's pretty badass. I believe it's the plus. plumbed one. Oh, I'm sorry. It is the... It's a sugarplum. She's very sugarplum theme. I'm sugarplums. Thank you, Mike. Idol of the Justice Bringer. This idol has 10 charges. You may use your reaction to expend one charge and cast shield without expending a spell slot. What? Let's fucking go. That's amazing. Holy shit. How many charges? 10. So you're just going to be shielded all the time. I will be able to cast shield whenever I need to. Unless I'm getting absolutely sent upon.

He wants to see it and lose your reaction so you don't use counters. That's true. No, dear, don't have them! That is true. It will work. It's a train off. You know, I think that's, you know. I got Mantle of the Lion King.

When I take damage, I can use a reaction to let friendly creatures within 15 feet of me, we gain hit points equal to 1D4 plus con mob. It's pretty fucking good. So basically people that are near me, I can, I can heal them. Very cool. Semenya, I don't know, me, adamo, and lindia. Y'am. Niki.

What? What's your item? Oh. Amulet is a sacred land. This amulet has five charges. As a reaction, when any creature targets you or an ally within 50 feet of you with an attack for harmful spell, you may spend a charge. They must make a wisdom saving throw. If they fail, they must choose a new target or lose the attacker spell. Wow.

Very cool. So you're like redirecting. That's badass. That's amazing. Damn. These are fucking sick. Wow, I feel so powerful with this. And I'm going to add it on top of my boar pelt,

so I have lion and boar now around my shoulders. I feel so good at this. I don't know if it's me. It's me. Is it me? But is it me? You look good, darling. It's a pretty good look.

Oh. It's feathery. But don't farno from me, please. You're embarrassing yourself. All right, Felix. I'm ready to... Opper my feathers. Are you ready to tell you?

Take us? Yeah, the other scroll is no good. So, but I know the spell now. I've worked it out and I think that using this scroll to get us to Austin Guard will be a good test run. And then when we get there, I'll just take a look at the sigils on the ground and I'll memorize them and we'll be able to go to Austin Guard anytime we want. And then we just have to at some point get back to Centra

and then I can learn those sigils as well. You know, that's the only problem is that we won't be able to just go to Zentron until I learned the sigils sequence. So did you, with it being on the scroll, would he, when he transcribed, would you inscribe the knowledge of how to get to Zentra as well? Or, do you describe both? No, I only, I learned to teleportation. So when you use it and inscribe it, it will give you, you will have the knowledge of that. Of the Zentron Sigils. So you'll be able to use it to get there, and then when you're there, you'll just be able to study it.

Well, yes, so for Austingard, that makes sense. What I'm saying is that I had to consume the Zentra scroll to learn the spell. If he had done the Austin Guard spell instead, it's both. So you can do one and the other. So the question is, whichever scroll that I consume, and we can just say which one was, do I learn that sigil sequence? Yes. I don't need to have been seen the sigil on the ground.

Correct. Yes. No, we're good. Yeah. There doesn't matter. I know how to get Centra and it shortly will know how to get to Austin Garden. All right, go. You have a sigil sequence for his entrance.

It's in my brain. That's a great place for it to be. Yeah, I don't think I'll forget it unless for some reason I would be, you know, rattled around real hard. I cast Modify Memory on Felix. I don't know. I don't remember how to get to Centra.

I mean, so if we're done here, then we'll take this for a test fit. And before you know, we'll be an Austin Guard. Let's do it. This works cross-planarly, right? We're not going to suddenly explode into some sort of horrible void either, right? No, I mean, from what I understand, from what I've gleaned off of all of this, is that we're only going to go to established teleportation circles that I know the sizzle to.

If I don't know the sigil, it just won't work. We won't, you know, we won't end up somewhere in the void. So we won't be turned inside out horribly and made into monstrosities if you fuck this up. If I understand it correctly, then yes, you're right. I just don't understand how you do what you do, because this is all like maths and dimensionalities and like arcane symbols and memorization and practice. And I just make rhymes and we're there. Game recognizes Giv.

All right. All right. So you're going to use the scroll for this one. So we'll use a spell slot. So you'll have it. That's right. All right. Well, I'm ready.

And I adjust my Latin pel. Let's go. So I lay out the scroll on the ground as opposed to drawing a chalk circle this time, and we all stand around the scroll, and I focus on it. If we're ready, we can go. The scroll disintegrates and whips out, and you feel that familiar arcane magic, shimmering in silver, as it swallows all of you.

And once again, your feet leave the ground, and you feel like you've descended great, send to great distances. No wait. And suddenly you are within a swirling chamber, radiating, standing on top of a shimmering transportation circle. A number of guards are there startled for a moment, and it doesn't take long for you to explain who you are,

and it seems as if you've been expected. And I'm just going to basically, we don't need to role play all of this, but you, unless anyone wants to do anything while you're here, you're greeted by the general, that female general who you had seen in your vision, Felix, in that dream of mirrors and in the dream world that had been created. And she knows that you have been sent by Zern. And she knows that you're not to receive an escort, that you are to... go to the front lines, and it'll be up to you to cross over unimpeded.

She warns you that they are incredibly watchful. They have very powerful magics. There are watchful vultures of normal variety, magically imbued, and also the giant vultures that they ride. The number of the Shadar Khai ride to patrol the skies, and it is treacherous. But you're able to spend the night there if you wish, or leave immediately, but you are given, given that Zern had given you full access to Austin Guard, Fortress really a city,

built around, you are able to leave whenever you'd like. Anything you'd like to do before you leave? I think since we just rested, I would be ready to go. This is a military outpost. There's nothing to do here. What's like the general vibe here? Like, what's going on?

And like, I would say that the general vibe is that there's been a recent battle probably about six days ago. And you probably heard that a number of the soldiers were killed off in the front, an enemy, behind enemy lines, and their bodies will not be retrieved, unable to be retrieved. Has this been like a longstanding outpost? or is this a more recently active? No, this is a long setting. They've been at war for years, for many, many years, right?

So there's like the skirmishes constantly. Trudgery is always, that kind of thing. And the occasional skirmishes over, you know, natural resources. And I would say Felix would know that Scephersonil is particularly known for it's the herbs and plants that only grow there that are incredible for alchemy. and alchemical creations. I would share that and we don't have to RP this. Exactly right.

You would share that. And you know that this is where any kind of ground they could get and bring an herbalist to harvest and bring back for the alchemists, the state alchemists, in order to use, is a huge victory. Similar to how the ghost iron, in the, along Grand, whatever they could mine,

whenever they took territory. The natural resources were incredibly important for Korvaki, and that is what is being fought over at the very least. I request before and after our next break, we all have to say, full metal alchemist. And then we come back

to say, full metal alchemist. That's how we know. When I cut out the break, it's worth it. That's how we'll know that we're going on break and coming back. I would ask the general, and we don't have to our people, doesn't listen to. Oh my God!

About if there are any ways that are suggestions or methods that they have to stay hidden, to stay stealthy, away from the vultures, are there any use guidelines? I would expand also what secret past they may know about, these kinds of these bills. I would say that with the communication that you do, that you do, that they're very forthcoming in the sense that there is a point in the front where there is a, there is a, uh, a watch tower nearby, but it is in a very treacherous point where no major troop movements are going to be, so it's less heavily patrolled, and where it is, requires climbing and hiding in the brush, and you know that this is a treacherous dark land full of tall, craggy spires,

cany, deep pine forest, valleys, and it's treacherous land, it's treacherous terrain, to the point where, where horses cannot really maneuver very well across the entire kingdom. So they would recommend to go to the watchtower? They would go to the pass by. There's a ton of watchtowers all along. Right. But there's a specific one where there is a particular path that leads to a ravine where a number of spies had gone in.

Very few return, but some have. And that's how, you get a sense, that's how Zern probably got a lot of his information about Skeffino. And I will say, and the last thing I want to ask is, so Count Kreskov, how do we get there again? You recall what Zern had told you. Which is, do you have a direction? Yes. Yes.

So basically, you're heading due east and slightly south, and it's probably a good 100 miles. It's into the kingdom. They're going to assume naturally that we're of Zentra, right? That we're not supposed to be there. There are certainly like this like neutral parties walking across these lines, right? As soon as we see elves, they're going to be like the hands behind your head. It's certainly possible. I mean, there's no doubt about it that they know that we won't be from there.

They'll know that I'm certainly from Central. At least you might be less hated or disqual. disregarded as, as, uh, should I make myself look like something? I can make you go as look like prisoners and be a dust elf. I, I have those abilities as well to disguise myself. And I've thought about it. It might be something we want to do. But at the same time, at least for this count, we're, we're going out there as, as

entrance. I am. We, we have to, we have to prove that there's a reason for the count to flip and to work with us. And, and I don't see any other way. then starting off on the right foot and showing him that the sentrons can be helpful and extend the olive branch like you said. Yeah, but if we extend it and they just, you know,

cut off the arm holding the olive branch, what's the point? Maybe we just get straight to him, convince him first, and then go out. Well, that's correct. We're going to do. We're going to avoid the scathrinal elves at all cost. And if we have to, we'll fight and we'll protect ourselves. But we just need to try to get to the count as unguarded. as unseen as possible.

But I think until we get to the count, if we are seen, we should pretend that we know nothing about Corovacia and that we have nothing to do with them, and there's no connection. If we say that, then they say, well, then how did you get here and why are you here? Say, we're just travelers. On vacation?

Yeah, we're looking- Well, we walk by a bunch of troops and fed trenches and watchtowers. This seems like such a wonderful place to come visit for no reason at all. They're right, Toa. We won't be able to just talk our way out. I mean, this place is the real pits and I'm from Kyrgyzstein.

I mean... Excuse me. Yes? I'm the daughter of the Pharaoh. I want to go and see the world and you're simply allowing me. They let us through the barracks because I am the daughter of a pharaoh. Oh, and we're your escorts. Yes, my caravan.

You would go with your bodyguards. I love it. Let's do that. Thank you, Iris. I can't be a maid. Sure. You're really, I'm quite. I don't know if they'll care.

But it's at least an excuse as to why we would be allowed to. Felix, make a history check. Not bad. Let's take a look. When will I... Damn it. Roll my dice. 25.

25. With the 25, as soon as IRS mentions that plan, you actually get the sense that that might actually work. From what Zern had told you, the two non-Dusk-Galph or Shadar High counts had been given that position in order to entice them and to join them. And so anyone of power or prestige might be, you might be able to use that angle of the good plan. Then I would echo Iris's sentiments about how it could be a gamble, but I feel confident

in her plan and I congratulate her and offer a, yeah, it's very smart. We don't have to RP it, but yeah. What the fuck. No, I think you should op you then. Did you just say, Felix? I couldn't hear you. It was like you were thinking in your head aloud. Well, actually, I...

It's not your accent. Oh. Well, we don't have to RP it. Iris is right. I mean, the plan could be a gamble, but it might work. It's certainly something to fall back on. But I think we should stay out of, you know, wandering eyes vision initially.

But it's a good idea. Why is it a good idea? Because of these things that Mikey just put in my head. So the idea what you're saying is that these counts were given these titles in order to draw in visitors. So they want to guard- I'll say that you know that basically that there has been historically, and it's been a long time, it has been probably decades or centuries than this happened, but people who have been in power or someone who could be brought along to help the aims of the Shadarkai, of the Descales of Skeffernel.

and this carrion king had been grant and enticed with people of power had been enticed with station and these two counts had been appointed and they are not Shadar Kai was what I'm saying

they're the only two Shadr Kai so far and both of them have been technically gone against the king wait they're the only two they are non-Shad Archai they're not Shadrhi yes so they are so what you're saying is they are allowing people of power

into their country. They have in the past. Because they could potentially influence and help them with their goal. Okay. That's all I want to make sure. Power. All right. I relate that. Because I just want to make sure I understood. Yeah. All right. Yeah, you know, my political entry, power.

Well, that's great. Then that's what we do. We go with Iris's plan and maybe we even fall back on that if this whole Zoom connection doesn't work out. But as you get to sense that, like, that'd be a last, last case in here. And I last stress it. This is a backup plan.

We need to try to be as stealthy as possible and just not be seen in the first place. But Iris had a great idea. All right, well, let's go. I'm sorry, what did you say? I said you had a great idea. Lovely. We can go now.

You know that I respect you. You should like, you know, all your jewelry and the stuff, you should just put it all on so you look like extra. I'm trying to say I don't look like a marry with a jewelry. I'm not because I will put more on. I put all of my jewelry on. Oh, now looks so good. It's like eight rings on each finger.

Let's move stealthily, but regally. Sounds good to me. So, yeah, I guess we'll try to, like, stay off any roads and go through the landscape and try to get a sense of this watch hour and keep an eye for it as we go stealthily, but, you know, not trying to go too slowly. Okay. I want to do a group stealth check.

My first roll of the evening. It's not bad. That is going to be... That is going to be... Oh, natural, funny. Okay. Wow, I'm not proficient in stealth. I'm not vandras, I got a 16.

What I mean? What I'm saying. Ten. 13. 29. What the fuck. 13. 16.

Okay. What do you get? 25. They're good. Yeah, but it's... I am the wind. But where there's not a number of us, and three of us need to succeed.

Well, I think three of us got converted pretty well. Depends on what the perception check is. They're fucking elves, man. We're fucked. Those damn elves. I know. Leave Austin Guard behind. With your plan in place.

Knowing that... at least you have a backup plan if all else fails, if you get completely overpowered. As the as you make your way, you see as the gloom of

Coravacia behind you is nothing compared to what lies ahead. The darkness of the cloud cover of Skathornail as it casts a darkness over the

over the jagged landscape seems almost supernatural. As you remember, the roiling chaotic storm clouds of Erios and just the dreary gray haze of Corvaccia, this is almost a black thick canopy of clouds, creating just a darkness that even though it's the day,

it gets darker and darker, the closer you approach to Scatharnell. you make your way and as you find the point where the general had told you, you see is there's a number of pine trees that crosses this river on the front. You're able to find a place to forward the river, to cross the river, and you finally make your way into very near the enemy territory of Skethern Hill. But you see that there's this watchtower of this elaborate, ornate craftsmanship. And where there is the practicality of the hard lines and clear edges of Korovakian architecture, this is covered in adornments and a number of statues just for

decoration built in this, but still that same readiness of the heaviness of dark stone as you make your way and you see the ravine that has been that has been mentioned and you make your way through it climbing up and you smell as you get further and further it's there's a muskiness to the ear and the further in closer to the watchtower smells like rotting flesh as you hear all along the watchtower

Yes, exactly right. And you see, and you hear a loud squawk, as you see a dark shape cross over you, as you see a massive vulture fly around and a smaller one nearby eye scanning the landscape. And atop this vulture, you see that there's a saddle that's been crafted out of some kind of strange leather, and you see armored with ashy gray skin and violet eyes

and long white hair, Shadar Kai scanning from this watchtower. But you can see that this tower that's right by you has far fewer elves manning it, far fewer vultures overhead, than the ones that you had seen off in the distance that you make your way here. And as you're making your way to the ravine, able to stay into the rough underbrush, as you get closer to this pine tree cover, and some, there are some barren patches where there's

craggy rocks and boulders, you make your way, and most of you are able to make it very quietly. But as Toa, who takes up the reaper, rear. Ew. Toa takes up the rear, and he, he, uh, so you feel your foot accidentally clip relatively large rock and it hooks your toe.

And it breaks something free. And then, and then as it starts to fall down and crash into a bunch of other rocks, it creates a little mini rock slide. And, you look and you hear another loud squawk and you hear two voices shout

one from the vulture high above calling down to the watchtowers you see it's up on your left side about probably 500 feet away and the noise echoes through this ravine and beyond what do you all do? Oh shit are there any like

rocky crags or something that you can like jump behind? Yeah I would try to out of the line of sight. Brush or something. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, there are boulders. There are rock formations.

This is a pretty jagged space. So you could attempt to hide if you want. Have we seen any animals in our journey so far? You've seen vultures. You've heard the howls of wolves or some sort of canine creature. Heard the roar of bears, perhaps, the snort of some boars. And you've seen occasional woodland critters. I would, trying to think quickly,

30 feet out from where we are currently. made the sound of scampering and the sound of a wolf running, as if it tipped over the rock. And I would definitely die behind. Yeah, you know, immediately take heart. You make a cell check at advantage. The rest of you were fine. You're able to die behind at toe.

You make a cell check at a disadvantage. Caprice, you make a deception check. Oh, baby. Big money. Come on. Big money. I rolled a fourth. It's only going to be an 18.

I got an 18 as well. Oh, yeah. Oh, okay. Perception and insight. Jackamultry. Natural one. Natural talent. So as you make your way and you see now that there are these statues that loom over are in the shape of just vultures, their heads peering over, watching eternally downwards.

As off to the side, you make the illusion of a wolf as it maybe lets out a yelp and scatters, you hear the crap, the crowd. the crackling of stone crashing against stone, and you see overhead as the elf and the vulture of attention is brought in that direction, and it soars away. And tow with you behind, you're able to dive out of the way, and you slip into that ravine. You're able to make your way further and further, and you hear some voices called back as if all's well.

And you leave. the watch tower behind. What language do the does GELs speak? Do we understand it? I would say if you speak Elvish. I think I know Sylvan. Oh, I know. I don't know if it's specifically Elvish. I know. Oh, no, I do know Elvish. And Sylvan. They're different.

No, I have five for you. I speak Elvish. Roger that. You, you, and you all you can hear his voices, but the tone of it is, is as if it is all well. and the vulture just begins its patrol down further south from where you are. And as you leave the watchtower behind, you hear the kind of clap of thunder and low roll, maybe a strike of lightning.

As the smell of rotten flesh occasionally fills your nostrils on the wind, the air gets cooler. As you hear a... a distant howl, and you are in, Skethermore. Oh, God. I'm sorry I didn't notice it. My toe still really hurts, though. It's okay.

If you were worried about me. Of course we are. Man, everybody's okay. If that happens again, I'll create an illusion that tiny little people, lift up your nail like the hood of a car and jump in. Ah, no, please. Oh, God, no. What is wrong with you?

It tells me making them sensitive to his feet. Oh. Also, it was from a commercial that I watched once. This scar me for life. Fuck that, Ted. As you emerge at the other side of this ravine, you see a large valley with pine forests in a river coursing through.

You see spiraling or jagged mountain tops. And you see off in the distance a castle and another castle. Another castle, maybe some buildings all around it. And you're not sure. how many counts there may have been and what was promised, but there seems to be some light flickering from these areas as you see this strange dark landscape. And as you make your way through the valley of darkness, you feel as if the shadows that are cast by the trees and whatever light

can come through this dense cloud cover. The shadows are far more intense than they should be. And the darkness is far darker. And the shadow of cats are longer and you swear that they're moving as you pass them and you look back and there's no movement. But you just feel presence of darkness and death and that constant smell of rotting flashes in your nostrils. Can I ascertain and if the rotting flesh smell is coming from the dead warriors who may have had battle a few days ago nearby? Make a perception check for me. I'd be happy to.

That's going to be a 15. 15. You smell the air, and it feels like whenever the wind changes direction, there's a different, smells different, but it all smells like rotting flesh is from all over this place. You know that there are bodies. But as you make your way, you see a road winding through the forest, the jagged terrain, and there's no horses. But far off ahead, you see what looks like a wagon making its way through down in the valley.

And you get a whiff, and you see that piled up high in the back of this wagon, just a number of corpses. And you see that pushing this thing through the jagged terrain as the wagon shakes back and forth is not a horse. It seems to be some massive humanoid-like figure pushing and pulling in a hood. Fuck? As it leans and you see a slender shake riding at the driver's seat, as there's a number of humanoid figures also hooded walking alongside it. So it's still, it's a slender shape riding at the driver's seat. like a wagon being like pulled. But it's basically, rather than like a harness, there's this thing.

There's no yoke. It's on the shoulders of this large hooded figure and grabbing on and it's pulling this thing. How big is the figure? I would say it's probably about the sizes of a large creature, I would say, using Dungeons and Dragons terminology. And how about the like, like the other figures walking alone? How...

Normal humanoid size. Human and size. Yeah. And they all walk with a strange gate. With a strange gate. Oh yeah? That is disgusting. I mean, it makes sense, right?

Necrimandcy. Oh, gross, they're going to take them back. You think they're going to, like, do stuff with those bodies? Yeah. I think they're just like, you know, tidying up. Yeah, I bet they all do all kinds of stuff with those bodies. Oh, God. What do you think that big guard pushing the wagon?

Is he a giant of some kind? I don't know. Felix, do you know of any kind of creature that might live here? I would like to try to... History? History? History. Okay. I was going to say... I was going to R.P. It. No, I was going to say I'd like to ascertain any kind of knowledge.

I was trying to do the whole, like, I don't want to make a history. I want to make history. I don't know. I don't know. Yes, I appreciate that. History is going to be 19. History is going to be 19, I think, but let me double check. I gave you inspiration.

Oh. History is plus nine. Yeah, I got a 19. I'm going to save that inspiration, if I may. You have up to 10 minutes to use it in the reality of this world. I don't know. I got a 19. I think you're fine.

This is our world or not? No. In the reality of Dungeons. Yeah. I'm going to save it. If I lose it, I'll lose it. Yeah. 19.

19. Do you think of, like, what this size and shape is? and there's some similarity to the ogres that are native to this continent. Do I know about necromancy? Yes, the fact that they used necrumency? Zern told you all that. And you know that's an abomination to the Reagan queen. Got it. That makes sense.

Well, you know, given the nature of the magics that they use here and necromantic in nature, I'd be willing to put some kind of bet down that that could be some sort of reanimated oeuvre. Oh, so like the same kinds of ovaries and things that we saw in Korovacia? I... Just did? Like he's probably dead, maybe? Well, right. I mean, that's the idea behind a reanimated corpse is that they could essentially bring them back as to do labor. Anything flesh, really. Oh, that's gross. They could...

Keep on. Oh, I'm gonna make a joke about Neko, wait first. Please continue. Would it be... I'm just making it a sussure. I'm just making an assumption as a character, and I don't know, because we haven't discussed this. I mean, would it be unreasonable to assume that they, like, just make raids on, you know, creatures from the surrounding area outside their territory and, like, collect corpses and, like, use them for things? You could see that a bunch of corpses are pop up in a wagon.

I mean, like, probably... Okay. And you know that ogres and Etons are native to... or war native in many parts across all of Striga. Some had wiped them out, but some areas they'll have them. Corvacia. They had been in the mountains. And they're heading towards the castle that we see. They're heading towards one of the castles, but there's... Oh, we see multiple. Okay.

This is exactly why I'm worried about the kids that they're taking. I mean, there's a very good chance that Milo and the others are just not alive anymore. If he's undead, would he still be a brother? No, he wouldn't. But it doesn't mean that we can't save them or we can't fix them or we can't find where their souls might be. There's always an answer. There's always an answer. we can figure it out.

You and I in agreement. I mean, I thought I was fucking out. And we found an answer to my problem. We'll find an answer to yours. Right. Right. We just need more information. You don't know where he is or how he is.

We just have to find him. Right. I'm just worried. That's all. We need to keep moving. Should we follow them? He couldn't be a terrible idea to find out where they're going. But if it's not in the direction that we need to go, we will abandon

course, and we got to keep going where we know we need to go. I would say that you can tell that they're turning around a path that's heading north. And you're going southeast. Okay. Okay. Well, that's good. We don't want to be downwind. So I think we just keep going, but as we go through, let's try to learn as much about this lamb as we can.

It may help us. And I'll try to answer any questions that we might have. There's a lot of studying done about it, but, you know, it keeps themselves for the most part. They obviously don't want Kovaki to learn their secrets. We have a long way to go, let's keep going. And on that note, you look up and you see vultures eternally circling as far as you can see. Dotting the sky, there's no packs where you don't see one at least for a couple of miles. They fly around almost eternally vigilant.

They never seem to descend or take a rest. and you try to stay as stealthy as you can. Is there the brush or anything? Yeah, yeah. So these are jagged. Is there cover enough? Yeah, there's cover. There's bushes.

There's dense that gets, you get to some parts where the pine forest are very dense. And I'll say that you'll hear the barking and yapping of wolves. Maybe you'll look ahead and you'll see a wolf-pack tearing apart a huge war that they've just slain. And you hear the growls of a bear lumbering around. You see two small cubs and they just look. As you look around though, these predators seem to have this mangyness to them. Shaggy and eyes with some kind of, almost as if they're sick, as the feeling of death continues.

I'll say you continue to travel and it's slow going. Down valleys up around, jagged passes. at one point there is, you're in a pine forest and you see as there's a clearing ahead and there seems to be the crumbling of stone

and you see what looks like a seem to be some kind of crypt or mausoleum up ahead at the center and you see the broken tombstones as if this had been an old cemetery ancient, unfathomably ancient up ahead.

And And as you make your way around, you, the darkness gets intense. And the last bits of light from the day seem to stretch the shadows that this crypt is casting. Incredibly long. Iris, I need to make a reception check for me. The time. Oh, oh, oh, oh. 25.

Boom. 25. Let's fucking go. I'll say, as you pass, you see Iris, the shadows growing. I'm not with the sun. As you pass this mausoleum, you see them sneaking out and actually shift direction. Oh. And for just a moment, you see them sneaking towards you.

What do you do? Nothing. Okay. Okay. I don't know what I would talk to you. Okay. You turn and you just see for just a moment as the shadows whip around you

and the darkness fills your vision. And the rest of you see Iris fall unconscious. Iris. Yeah, I mean, I mean, yeah. Rush to her side and like shaker. Iris. Iris. What's happening?

As you... As you... When you're... When you're... What the fuck? As the shadows consume you. You have a brief instant, but you feel it strongly. You feel the shadow.

You feel even more strongly the death. Feel the familiar sting on your flesh of a sandstorm. Just briefly is... Suddenly your vision. goes black. And you hear the sandstorm, but you no longer feel it. And suddenly, light.

A blazing sun over a scorch desert, a giant eagle circling around it. The sun fades and shrinks and turns into a shape. It's dark, sickly purple.

And you realize the shrivel, dried human heart within a dusty rib cage and it beats once and then suddenly it shifts and forms you see as it takes the shape of elegant pottery

you see it's an urn no it's a jar you know the look of a canopic jar and on the head it's a jackal no the skull of a jackal as it shapes it turns from pottery

to elegantly car gemstone. It elongates into what looks almost like a cross, but no, it's an onk. And you see an eye unblinking the same symbol that is on your medallion staring at you. You know this is the eye of Horace. And then it shifts away. You hear a song. It's dark. There's no more, there's no more onk in front of you. You hear song of lute, harp, liar, enchanting beautiful voices, just fragments of a song, but swallowed in a box of raven's wings on a shelf. And then suddenly the box opens and no song comes out, but it elongates and elongates and elongates into a large, full-body-mean-body, gilded, elegant, beautiful as if one from your many dressing rooms in the Palace of Siquet,

in this mirror and you stare at yourself. But yourself has a glowing molten gold pulse within the center of your chest. And then suddenly the mirror, the mirror shatters and the light shifts and swirls around. And as the glass swirls around, you see bits of reflections of, is that, you're not sure if that's a person or if it's you or if it's someone else. And then suddenly you see a face and it stares at you. And where there had been light from your soul, you see two blazing eyes. It's not eyes more than blazing locuses of light. in the empty skull of a withered corpse, wrapped in tight bandages,

adorned in the gilded vestments of a pharaoh. And you hear a crackling, raspy voices. You feel the eyes boring into you. Ah, yes, my, finally see you. And as the voice fades from your mind, it shrivels up and darkness returns. to you as consciousness returns as well.

Iris! Iris! Iris! Iris are all right! Wake up! What happened? Well, we had a vision. The shadows move on their own. Try not to get to close to them. What?

Yes, around the mausoleum. The shadows moved in their own accord. I chose not to run. Instead, I must provide a vision. It was uncomfortable. Try not to get to close to them yet. A vision of what? What did you see? Was it a new place? Did you see him?

It depends. Are you feeling alright? No, not particularly, but I need time to process what I saw. Oh, I'll talk about. Toa can carry you? Can I carry you? Yes. Carry her, pick up. I'm very gently pick up Iris.

I see you see anything hard. Oh, feels so weak. All right, we can go slower. We don't have to go fast. We just got to keep moving. I'll be like tickling her, just like as Toe was carrying her, I'll be like, fawning over her. Do you think if it happened again, you'd be able to avoid it somehow or resist it?

I could potentially move away, yes. All right, well, I'll try that. But it didn't dawn on me that they would accept my consciousness and force images into my mind. Oh, no. All right, here's how we're gonna proceed. Tella, you hold Iris and you're gonna stand in the middle. Luffy, I want you to take the lead.

Your eyes are good and you're going to keep an eye. out for things and we're going to move slowly. And you're going to set the pace and you're going to keep us quiet. And Caprice, I want you to take the last spot and keep an eye behind us and I'll be behind Tela and try to do what I can with magics and

ward us. But I need the two of you to be our eyes and to set the pace and keep us quiet and stealthy. Can you do that? Oh, yeah. I can't. I just, one, if if I play a certain

song, I know we've trying to be stealthy. I'll play it real quiet, but I can, I can, uh, sort of, uh, it's sort of like a counter, uh, charm type operation. It might, it might, uh, help. I, I, I know that making sound is not the best idea right now, but maybe I can play it real slow. How long can you do that for it? Is it something that we should save for an emergency? Let me, uh, double check my, uh, uh, my understanding of myself. Why, you do that, Caprice? I will, uh, The greatest dress on the images that I saw, and I would be mad.

Okay. You lay an exact perfect detail how you remember it. I can start a performance that lasts until the end of my next turn as an action, so I would just continually use my action to play this song, each turn, in addition to my movement. During that time, myself and any friendly creatures within 30 feet of me have advantage on saving throws against being frightened or turn. Ooh. I think that's good. I think, though, we need to...

I think we should save it. In case we get into a situation where we're not really sure how to proceed, keep that in your back pocket. I'm going to hold my action keeping this song in mind until I see something or until the situation changes. But I'm not going to have my viol on my back. I'm going to have it out and basically just ready to do my little dance. Irish, do you have any idea with those visions? No. No.

They don't sound good. Everything sounds dark and I don't know. Was that Osiris that you saw? The eye? The undid mummy guy. I wouldn't imagine because you didn't describe it the way. No, it looked very much a mummified pharaoh. It's not an entity that I've ever seen.

No, it's an an entity you've never seen. And it just seems to be, it seemed to have been a mummified pharaoh of insane, radiating malevolence. and all... Oh. Oh. No, I don't believe so. But I do fear

an idea of a use. The heart and the people of John. I wonder if this entity has something to do with the reason that he is in the realm of the dead.

Did he kill Anubis because of the whole skeleton and a Nubis head? Can you have to kill him? It could be his plan. It could just be a fear shadow that just chose you

what would scare you them. It's possible. That's true. I think we should As much as I don't like the idea, maybe we should go further into the mausoleum to figure out. You want to go inside the museum? Not me not, inside, but closer to see where these shadows came from. See how they work.

I can have been watching them. The shadows all around us. I love it. I didn't even see them, but I wasn't looking that particularly hard at the ground. My curiosity is where it needs to be. I propose that we go around. I agree. If it's not towards our destination, I don't want to get sidetracked. And this doesn't seem like a good thing for us to be messing with. We need Irish to rest, and if you don't feel well, let us know. Don't let you know. But now, it's simple concern.

I have a healing ointment if you need it. No way. I have some of the way. Okay. Would you still like to be carried? Yes, of course. All right. Duh.

And walk gently. Walk very gently. I won't step my two this time. And I was going to very carefully follow behind Luffy in the same marching order, presumably get in the formation. Yes, I'll go out front. I've got the rear. And we'll go skirt along, you skirt along, and you guys keep your eyes.

All of you keep your eyes at the crypt, the crumbled crypt. That would be particularly watching the mausoleum for shadows and also the, like, I would be basically, like, back and forth between the sky and then. And as you're doing the same. Nightfolds. Oh, if not make now. Night has just fallen. This place is scary during the day. As you hear the distant howl of a wolf,

or at least you hope it's a wolf. As it echoes through the valley, and you all look at the shadows and just the darkness consumes it, but they do not move as you pass. And you leave the broken cemetery behind you. making your way into the forest. What's her status on food?

They seem to be still sitting at the restaurant. Okay. As you make your way, I'll say that you probably at some point decide to camp for the night. Or are you going to walk? We're going to march through. I would suggest with you.

Let's say that you continue to camp and you probably realize that you're probably one more day's journey. I would say that as long as, as we feel as though like we're not busting our asses that we don't need to like, you know, stay long, like rest longer than we would think we need to, right? Like, I would say we're resting the bare minimum, right? And moving as long as we're not like healing, you know, making sure that that iris is okay. You know, we're not like overexerting ourselves.

It's a hundred miles, right? So it's going to take probably a couple days. Yeah, a couple days. Oh, yeah, easy. But I'm saying like I think we should keep our rests to a minimum. It would be what Felix would be advocating for arrests to be at a minimum, you know, to just get by and keep moving. As long as we're not actually fighting things and like wearing ourselves down, right? And if anybody disagrees for you free, that's just what I would be doing this. We would sensibly camp when we need rest. Yeah, right. I agree that we should probably camp down for the night and maybe we just leave early, maybe like six hours of sleep. We keep watch two at a time. And, and

Get up early in the morning and just keep going. Absolutely in agreement. I'm really bad at early in the morning, so I'll take first watch if that's fine with everyone. Sure. I'll take glass wash. I can be in the middle anywhere. It's fine, and Beatrice will keep an eye out as well.

Do you want a full night? You don't have to take watch. Oh, lovely. I was going to anywhere. You stay through the night. Do we have the numbers to do two at a time? I don't believe so. Not quite, but that's okay.

That's fine. I would still be setting up alarm perimeters as well. You know, casting alarm ritually over and over and over again. I would make like a really, as plush as I can make it, I would make a bed for iris and tuck her in and put her to bed and like make sort of a canopy over her face and then I would sit watchful or like in front of her. I take my deck of illusions out and I put one finger under the top card so that I can go to sleep and if I need to Yeah. That'll be my idea.

It's just gamut to show us somebody. Perfect. We don't quite have the numbers to double up. We can double up in the middle and go single at beginning in it. Okay. If we're doing six hours. So you would take second. And I'll go second as well then.

Right? So you two or second. First and last. Yeah, perfect. And then, yeah, just enough rest to avoid exhaustion, right? We're trying to avoid exhaustion, but not dwell on resting. Okay. Because a hundred miles is very far. Um, who's a second watch?

Oh, crap. Perception check for me, please. With you, wake up. With Beatrice. Everything is fine. I'm saying like we have Beatrice as well, some three of us. Advantage. Nothing happened.

Perception. You're helping him. Well, Beatrice was out there as well, but my perception is garbage. So that's not. Do you need me to roll? Do you need me to roll? That's a good. All right.

All right. just look up her stats right at advantage or not an advantage I miss you're are straight D&D 5E hey that's pretty good that is a acceptable money yeah let me check real quick one second so I should I might need to re-roll well actually that can be Beatrice wrong but it's trash it turns out my dice do work her perception is only plus four my passive perception's 14 her perception skills to wow that's like not very good uh we'll say that this This was Felix's role because Felix isn't particularly perceptive anyway.

His perception, yeah, so Felix got a 13. Deatrice is gonna get a 20. Hell yeah. 20. And Beutus has a mind of her own and it can communicate complex. Yes. Okay. I mean, she like obeys my every command, but she does have like, you know, thoughts. And Liffey also got a 21. Okay, perfect. Roger that. Even better. So, I will say, as you're on second watch, the night isn't really quiet.

You hear things out in the darkness, the darkness in this forest where you've made camp and brush. It's the safest spot that you can. You could have found. You just feel a presence, you feel eyes watching you, maybe see a bit of a glint of whatever moonlight does get through this dark cloud cover, glinting. off of creatures, smaller creatures, looking down at you. You occasionally hear how of a wolf and maybe another sounds different of a hound.

You hear the growls of bears and the grunting of other creatures rustling around. But nothing disturbs you and the darkness feels to swallow you. Very atmospheric. It's into your second watch, lifting you hear faintly overhead, the flap of two sets of wings and a low guttural squawk, that booms down of a giant vulture. And you would point that out to Beatrice. Two sets of wings, meaning like...

There's two giant falters flying over you. Oh, noted. My brain's doing everything. And you tell Beatrice this? Or like us, like we tell us. Is that what you said? Yeah. I don't know if you want to.

You're awake. The two of us and Beatrice are awake. Beaches is sitting there. Yeah, so when I heard this, I would I would like, like snap and try to get your attention. Yeah, you'd have my attention. Okay.

I would mentally, I would understand what she's trying. I kind of, I would look at her weird. But then I would tell, I would. Mentally, I would tell Beatrice. Mentally, I would tell Beatrice to go fly and get a better look and see how. far they are and see if she can avoid being seen and fly up in the for Beatrice yeah a second she's keeping your perception well though yeah yeah uh damn it's i just had it up and

i shouldn't have rid of it i didn't think i was gonna have to like calculator yeah it should be i'm just gonna write it all down her dex is plus three so it's just it's just gonna be it's just a roll plus three then yes because that's all it's okay unless she's Unless there's just as separately. There's no, no, no. Stealth is not, is not different. Let's go with this. I don't think of this one.

20. Yeah, for, 20. For a different. Roger that. She flies up and flies out of your range to see through her eyes. And you wait with bathed breath, knowing how effective these vultures are,

killing any birds that fly too high. And you wait. And it's like, she suddenly appears next to you. Woo, let's go. And she looks to strong. Her large eyes and this little bluebird form seems to be very shook and she's kind of shivering a little bit. Her feathers are ruffled.

I wouldn't keep her close. And she communicates to you that not only are two giant, vultures flying overhead towards the south. She tells you that there are also a number of sentry vultures and smaller ones around, and she narrowly avoided being seen by one and subsequently devoured. And she heard the voices calling out between the two riders on these giant vultures. Shadarkai.

Oh, shit. And all she could hear was that they would have have to be extra watchful because another child is on the way to the princess from the south the following day. I mean. Another child is on their way to the princess. From the south. From the south.

The following day. And Beatrice relays that information to you and whatever kind of magical arcane way she does. Another child. To the princess. I would relay this to Lofti and say, but I don't know what that means. Why only one child and what princess and what? It doesn't make any sense when this was happening before they were taking children in Swats. I have to wonder if this one child is something special.

I don't know. Did I miss the plot? What princess? You're asleep. Go to sleep. I guess for now, it doesn't sound like we're in any danger of being seen. We just need to be very quiet. Yes, yes.

We can and we will be. We're heading southeast? Southeast. Okay. Is it on their way to the princess? From the south. Tomorrow or the next day. From the south or to the south?

From the south. Interesting. The next day. So presumably there's a child from the south heading north. Yes. Or some direction. Princess. Right. To some direct, yeah, yes. From the South, this child is coming from the South to some princess tomorrow. Or the day that we are going to be in. And do you hear anything other? It's the current night, so it'll be the following day. Okay. Okay. And do, okay, never mind.

Scrubs that. We'll let the others know when they awake and, and I'll think about what I might know about princesses. Royalty here. Do you know anything? I don't know anything. Do I know anything? History check. With disadvantage. What I knew anything? Disadvantage! I would say... Definitely not. Definitely not.

Eat my wound. Oof. Thirteen. Oh, I bet you wish you had my help. All you know is, all you've really known is that it's a kingdom. Okay. And you, honestly, they are so insular and they hate outsiders that very little is taught beyond just what their activities are on the front line.

I'll think about what I know. I don't know anything. What do you mean? I've provided tons of knowledge up until this point. You're going to give me shit for not knowing about a princess? Yeah, I mean, like, that's the first person you snobled out, except for the kings. What is that supposed to mean? I just know that they are. Blah, blah, blah, blah, all the things that the DM said, you know what, I don't need this. I'm going to wake up toa, and I'm going to go to bed. Good morning, Felix. It is not a good morning, Toa. Oh, okay? You keep those sentiments yourself.

Oh, is it speaking terrible? Also, Beatrice is going to stay awake with you. And also, Lofi and I are fighting. I'm going to bed. Alright, I'll just keep watch. Toa. Ace. Tell Felix that I hope he has nightmares all night. Go on. Is it clearly like they're making...

Like, Felix? Yeah, he's gonna hear that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, um, Felix. I already heard. Oh, tell me quiet. Don't you pass that along? I'm gonna take my watch now.

Good night, you too. Good night. I'm gonna just sit right. Almost wrong. Oh, it's a night. As he starts to lay down, I'll kind of kick dirt wherever he was getting ready to lay. I'll continue on. I think I am actually going to stay up longer. Okay. You do that. And you all enjoy a long rest. As the pitch blackness of night turns to just a dark gloom.

Not just the cloud cover, but also the the forest that you're in making it darker, these dense, gnarled pines, pines. And every, you know, several trees, you just see a withered, gnarled tree with just with empty branches. We would also relay the information that we learned. You all wake and you relay the information to the group, yeah. Well, I don't know what any of this means. Obviously, there's something to do with the children that they're kidnapping and bringing here, but as I said to Lifty last night, I just don't understand why it would be one single child. It makes me think that there's something special about this child or it has something to do with whatever they're using them for.

But either way, we might cross paths. We should keep an eye out. If we could save the child, we should. We absolutely will. Well, if they're coming from the south, then we can't have yet southeast. Maybe we can kind of like shadow the road. Do you think they won the role?

Did Beatrice say, are they traveling with someone? It wasn't clear. I imagine there will be some sort of escort, and Toa is right. They have to be taking some sort of road. or well-traveled paths, and we should stay off them. Just close by. It's going to slow our travel a bit, but we remain hidden,

and maybe if we cross past with these people, we can see what's going on and take action. All right. Winds of the Raven Formations? I wake up. I pick up our eyes. We're about to head out, are you ready? We had some weird stuff happen after you went to bed.

I'll fill you in it. as you are. If you see any, like, kids, you know, give a shout. I mean, if I see pretty much anything that doesn't trees or wolves, I'm going to get a shout. I'll shout for the wolves too. Yeah, okay. Okay, I like that.

Full base is covered. I'll pick up Iris. Do you accept me picking you out? Yes. Okay. Very much so. We'll get in the same formation and continue our journey. You do that.

You travel about midday. until about midday. And you keep an eye in the sky. You see the occasional vulture, but you feel like you're getting to a point where you haven't seen too many castles. They're getting further apart. You feel like this might be a bit of relative wilderness.

And you see that there's perhaps two giant vultures. Maybe it's the same two Shad Arkai that had been patrolling above, but they seem to do a full, loop of the valley, and then keep an eye on them, and then after they do a full loop, they continue north, as it perhaps scanning out ahead of whatever caravan is coming. A caravan, and as you make your way through, you arrive at a cliff face. It's about a 20-foot drop. As you see that there's a gnarled dead tree that grows out of the side, and you can There's plenty of pine tree cover.

And you see down ahead now that there's a bend. And around the bend, as a mountain continues to rise up to your right, you see the road that cuts through this valley. And as soon as you arrive, you smell the stench of death pick up. The stench of rotting flesh. And as you watch this, it gets stronger and stronger. And then as you walk, as the smell gets stronger, then you hear from around the bend the creaking and groaning and rattling of wheels. I would send Beatrice to go take a walk through the trees.

Are we like in, you know, I don't know. You're in the tree cover and you see a ravine, you see that there's more trees down below about 20 feet. As long as you're still tree cover, right, but you're able to see through the tops of the trees. As long as she could stay, you know, relatively hidden, I would send her to go take a look. Okay, still check for her. 20 again. Let's fucking go. Beatrice is just a lordess. Oh, sweet Beatrice.

And with a 19. Uh-huh. 20. Oh, I beat the 19. Get fucked. Yeah. No, I'm just kidding. Don't remember me.

Oh. He didn't mean it. He didn't meet it. I didn't even say that. Felix's balls explode. She flies back, staying low to the tree line, out of sight of the watchful vultures. And in a flash, she's back. And she messages to you in your mind that there is a procession,

a strange-looking carriage on wheels. being pulled by a great brute, flanked by six hooded figures, and on either side, two large, two-headed hounds, sniffing, slavering, watchful. On either side. And a lone Shadar Khai of well-ret dressed in the military regalia. driving this brute and holding on to the reins of these two, large, two-headed hounds.

No idea what's, what the, what is, is a carriage, you said? As a strange-looking curious, Beatrice didn't really know what it was. My numbers are right, it's two large hounds, one military office, there's six people. Oh, man, those numbers are not very good for us. We've killed a dragon, an ancient dragon.

Oh, that's not. I think we could... How big is to carriage? It's like... It's modest. I would say that like Beatrice knows from the carriages that she had seen, like the stagecoach that you had all taken to Eriose to the front of Erios, it was a little bit smaller than that. So what, four people could fit in it?

Yeah, possibly four would be tight, yeah. Does it look like... Smaller, okay. Does it look fancy? Does it look like royalty would be... It looks fancy, but there seemed to be some... some strange paneling. It was a little bit lower to the ground. The cab was a little bit below the ceiling. And that's why Beatrice wasn't really sure what it was. She's a bluebird. Well, yeah. Yeah, I'll see it. Let's assume that this is the caravan that's carrying this child.

If we're wrong, we swoop in and just murder all these people. It's going to give away our cover here. I mean, eventually they're going to find the charred remains of people and the caravan. If these are child in that carriage, we can't just let them ride by? Trust me, I know, Tully. You're preaching in the choir here. I understand that. I want to do everything I can to find these kids. But I also don't want to necessarily just blow our cover on the wrong thing.

Maybe we just let them ride slightly past us, and then we pick them off one by one. We're sneaky. Why are we murdering these people? Can't we just get in front of the kids? carriage and set up like a toll or something and be like, oh, not with the birdie birds above, they'll swoop down and just, you know. I can't stress enough to you. What's going to happen if we have a run in with these people, they don't like us.

They don't want us here. They especially want you like us for killing them. We're trying to take their children that are not their children. There's going to be a fight. It won't be avoidable. How many vultures do we see above us currently? You see a number of the far away. They're far away, yeah, but they're actually pretty distant.

This seems to be a pretty relatively unguard. You get the sense, probably you'd be able to deduce. They did a loop of the valley to take a look and then are scouting up ahead to basically take a look in the direction of the carriage is going. Count them off again for me. How many of these fucks are there? It was 600 figures, two large, two headed dogs,

one military person driving the caravan and one large shrouded room. Yeah, with a large leather hood hanging down. I'm willing to do whatever it takes to rescue these kids and avenge the ones that we can't save. I might be able to take care of the six. I mean, not even that alone would be a huge help. Can we, but we make this decision. There's no going back. And we have to act quick, quick even.

But Caprice, maybe you like jump out. and do some kind of act and learn what you can. Maybe you could ask them, like, where are you going or whatever? And it'll be, either be like a, I don't know, like a circus guy or, uh, something, do you think? Cookies and cream. I just, I mean, I hate to sound like I'm repeating myself over and over again. But if you do that, there is a chance that they will just kill you. I mean, how often is Anybody gonna see a tea fling around here, let alone one that looks like a traveling circus jester. I can make myself look like whatever I was.

So be it. Make yourself look like one of them, one of those dusk elves. And we'll jump out and be like, I think you should stop. Am I familiar enough for the appearance of dust shells enough at this point to be able to alter self and be able to make myself into a bit of a day? I would say, don't even roll for that. Look, I trust you.

And then we'll jump out and kill them or stop them if we need to, but we need to save the child. I'm agree with Toa. We don't want to make the wrong decision here. If we can find out what is in this procession or what this procession is about, we could at least potentially not blow our cover under the wrong circumstances. All right. Can you handle it? I trust you. I bought myself into what appears to be a middle-aged man. Don't you mean shaboo?

No, that's only human. I bought myself into a dusk elf. a dusk elf. But you should move into a human. Okay, I understand. And then, uh, uh, uh, what's my motivation? I just, uh, motivation, we're potentially trying to save someone here. Well, no, but you need, he needs to like play a pool and work information. Act like you're like a, like a military officer and you need to know what, what they're doing. And that you're under orders from the king and just pretend to like show some kind of of decree. I mean, is a good idea, but I can't really give you much about their social economic political structure.

Yeah, exactly. I don't know. Fucking, you know, I'll just figure it out. All right, all right, all right, all right, all right, right. I try to get in front of the caravan and put myself on the road, and I'm walking alone as a dust gelf, as a middle-aged man towards the... Military, military-esque. No, no, no, no. Oh, you fuck. I'm just going to be in racks. I'm gonna like, get everyone to the tree line. Yeah, we'd be hidden. Right behind the tree line. Yeah, all right. As close as we can be to Caprice

while still be in. I don't know about this. Did Kelsey Goh get the food? No, she'll come back. Still no ETA on food. Yeah, they keep pushing a 10 minutes. They love to get the 10 minutes thing and push it. They love doing that.

Yeah, well, I mean, yeah. Indian time. We can break whenever we need to. We want to take a break. No, no, no, no, no. This is keep going. There's be more time to think of what to do. Let's go.

Indian and Thai just take forever. You actually make in acrobatics to see how well you down you get in. And I guess probably the rest of you are all trying to get down on the ravine. I'll say you could probably take your time. And Caprice will see how quickly you can get down there. With a 27. Okay, 27. Caprice, you slide down like a really cool Marty McFly.

And... Yes! Like a really good one. But a middle-aged shadow, hi, Marty McFly. And as you all make your way down the ravine, the smell of rotting flesh gets stronger and stronger

and stronger. As you hear the rattling of wagon wheels, obviously just clattering in this rough terrain. And you hear the heavy thuds of footsteads is each footstep of whatever is pulling this carriage gets louder and louder, and you all hide in the brush. I'm gonna need one more self-check from you all. And Caprice, I'm going to need you to do a...

From all of that? Oh, yeah, from all of you. And you hide in the brush. I don't think it's worth twisting, honestly. I don't think it is. I think it's just one of those. I'm good. I got an 18. 19. 18?

18? 18? Good. Four. Shut up! How was like you to follow? You're like, okay, Caprice has gone, ow, my foot!

Oh, my toe again! It's the same toe, which is why I'm yelling! As the rest of you hide around, hide, the... You step down to the road to Prince, disguised, and you hear rattling, and now you see shadows cast on the far side of this, of this road, down on some of the trees,

as you see a massive shape looming and lumbering as the ground shakes with each step. And from around this bend, you see an incredibly macabre procession as a massive hooded figure dressed in leathers, bits of gross gray skin peeking out from from slight patches in the clothing, pushes what looks like, it's not a wagon, it's not a carriage, looks like a purse.

Oh, no. As it is pushing it and flanking on either side are three hooded figures in those same gross leathers moving around. And you see now where there are gloves there are long claws ripping through as they shamble same grayish, whitish, greenish flesh in each patch as they march on either side, heads down, hood shrouding faces. And they seem to be of different dimensions, different size, one's larger, the other seems to be of a standard humanoid shape.

And the other one, you actually see as there's a bit of a bulge in the back. But for the most part, they seem to be at the same general gate. And then you see a dusk elf of action gray skin of a lighter gray hair. It seems to be a female. Actually, dark hair. A dark black hair. Apologies. A light gray skin, piercing violet. eyes that it's impossible to miss as she holds on to the reins of two massive black hounds,

each with two heads, sniffing and slavering, massive tongues, huge muzzles filled with sharp teeth, bulging with musculature that does not seem quite natural. As they sniff around and are growling as they're just constantly hear the loud sniffing. And you see this dusk elfin. She's not heavily armored, but seems to be wearing some kind of vestment. Perhaps the robes of a spellcaster. As the, she holds on to the reins. Oh, my God.

And you make a separate check for me. Yeah, I will happily do that with my dice that will roll with 20. That's not a 20. Close. You got half of a 20. Yeah. Oh boy. Perceptionis? Yep. Nine. Nine. And the smell as you stumble out into the tree line, out of the tree line, is putrid. And you see a strange bucket to the side of the driver

seat, but there's a great number of flies swirling around this massive, more of a large basket. And the smell is overwhelming. You stumble out and I'll give you a second before they have a chance to react. I will, seeing all of this, give a good gulp and just be like, oh wow. All right, let's do this. Caprice, come on, you got this. No problem.

I'll cast enhanceability on myself. My man. And I'm going to give myself advantage on all charisma checks. Let me just make sure that I know how that work because that's the first time I'm... I think you choose an actual skill. Yes. I'm choosing...

I believe it's Fox is cunning. I can't... Fox is cunning. The target has advantage... Oh, no, no. It's Eagle Splendor. The target has advantage on charisma check. Oh, you do choose the...

Wow, that's Boston. Good luck. Wow, that's Boston. Good luck. And looking like my elderly rag itself, I will say, Hello there! Hello! Thank goodness.

Thank goodness. You're on the path. Please, please stop. Help! Help! I need assistance. What language are you speaking? Elvish.

Okay. My man. Derek. Make a deception check for me. Is that charisma-based? It is. That is. Both 15, so that's going to be a deception, you say.

That'll be a 29. All right, let's go. Let's go.