Legends of Avantris - Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 54 | Temple of Gloom: Part 2

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

The party prepares for war...   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: 

Welcome to Legends of Avantress. I'm Capriccio DeCesto, you can call me Caprice, and you're listening to Beneath Dark Winks. Here's what happened last time. I thought that Exa Thent would be here, but not like that. Not like this. He was a lich, and his mind was not his entirely. How did he get into the state? You still have that for another minutes.

I don't know for sure. But, there's had to have been the work of my little bat. as Hath there's no other explanation, but I knew she could craft flesh and bone to overpower ex-a-sadentered its flamescult and do this to him. You're saying your daughter did this? You're standing before a huge amber sarcophagus,

a large crack running down its center. The only hope is for you and your friends to come here deal with Ankatep deal more importantly with Thoris

doom the chained god he will not stay chained much longer you must accept help do not let fear control you we've got to get out of this temple

we've got to get as far away as possible. Yeah, if we can, we should all try to zoop down the side of the mountain. Just brunt force. You settle in and you feel like night has just fallen. And as you hear, lose the elements, the wind, it dies down a bit. And then as you're settling in, you hear, the beating of massive wings. And you hear the reverberating, booming cross.

of a rock. You around the fire enjoying some tea, settling in, you're probably able to, you know, you have no idea how close to make you are. You're able to brew some tea and Felix, you're just taking sips, like not even really taking any time to even look at the tea as you're trying to study the scroll and transcribe it into your... It's like pineapple, I'm really bad. Oh my god. No. Thank you,

thank you. You can't say it like, Felix. I couldn't even like keep a straight face. Should I tell the joke or no? Yeah, let's fucking say the joke. Yeah, tell the joke. All right. Someone told me that pineapple juice

makes cum taste better, but I mix them together and it still tastes like shit. Oh. God, that's a good one. Oh, man. Well. I've heard that joke so many times of the past three days.

It makes me laugh every time. It makes me laugh every time. I think when Derek, Derek has to tell us. He has to. I don't. Yeah. It's like the, I mean, never to be an alchemist. I'm like, shit.

Man, this sounds like, shit. It reminds me, it reminds me never to become an alchemist. It smells like shit in here. I don't get that one. Because you guys banged in the fucking alchemy room? And Caprice would have no idea as a virgin what it would smell like. He started to start the poison in the room. It's just a thick sex smell wafting over and like,

oh, I don't want to be an alchemist. It smells gross. Okay, now I did it. I didn't. Oh, my God. It's a virgin for you Deeplor fans out there. Really? Oh, really?

You said it a couple times. Kelsey forgets everything, but. I do. But you've told us, I don't think you've told us in the world. Caprice has only told Herja. Herja revealed the same to him, and he was exploded about that. But... He was expected.

I got a little dribble. I got a little dribble. Yes, yes. Some got out. The closest I'll ever get to a spit take. All right, well, it looks like Abby doesn't want to be a mod anymore, so I think we need to unmole it. Sorry.

We'll deal with it, Abby. Don't worry. Fun fact, I didn't know that. Right, but I think Abby wants us to do it for. So we'll go ahead and unmod you after the stream, Abby. Thank you for your service. Yes, he's saving himself. Originally, he didn't want to do that because he had an infernal legacy.

and that was why he would not have, he would not sire a child because he was terrified for what that would look like. I just, I thought, I thought there was like some vision of like, you with having a woman, like a wife and a kid. There was a vision of that. Not because he has one. As a projected future and a promise that Glaccia was trying to deliver unto him in order to manipulate his behavior.

But that was, that was sessions and sessions ago. Okay. Look, I see, I remember a thing. I just didn't remember the context or the right order or anything else about it. Anyways, we're in freezing, freezing cold huts. And didn't you say there was something about a box and some secrets? Oh yeah. So there's a box. When are we gonna get to that?

You've been like teasing it in this entire episode. After enjoying your creamy pineapple tea. Disgusting. That is not canon. I am upset. Did you say steaming? I choose to cast an incinerate on myself. Steamy creamy.

Pynaple tea. I choose to cast incinerate on myself, taking everyone in the tent with me. Yeah, that's... We all turned to action. That is absolutely got awful. Well, I apologize to everyone for Legend of Antras. That now that it's our anniversary and we'll also be our final stream. We made it four good years.

Four good years is all you need. Um, okay. I guess I got a fucking DM. Actually, disintegrated single target. That's true. He's not. So, you all have created a fire, and you're enjoying some tea, whatever rations that you still have.

You're not sure how much time is passed. And you hear the beating of massive wings. as the wind whips out all around you and you hear the shrill but booming cry of a rock flies over you what do you all do we need to hide we need to hide come on are we in a hut you're in a hut yeah just just I don't think it's about in yeah I would be quiet I would like pause my note-taking and transcribing like shortly and like look around I'm probably asleep and then like try to continue to keep going I'm going to quickly get to the doorway as quietly as I can just to listen to make sure that it doesn't land or get near us and hope that it will pass.

You listen, and when it sounds like the wings are getting more distant, the cry of the rock echoes through Selenka Pass. You smell the rock is good. And it fades off. You just hear the elements outside. The hut shakes as you hear the weight of a massive creature land would can be more than 50 feet away from the hut. I thought you said it was okay. I thought so too. Well, it's like a way and now, something else.

Just. Escher Kreskov. Oh, what? I know the no cannot be used again. There is no salvation for your daughter without my help. Escher is just quietly looking at all of you and then his ears perk up. I both know that she is doomed, unless you say my name thrice. And with a...

You hear the rumbling as seemingly the rock of Solanka Pass lifts off into the sky and flies away. Caprice would immediately jump onto his feet and race towards the... I wouldn't even be like standing near him. I would be up next to him. My face right up into his ear, almost in a full hug. He's very much taken aback by this, not like still just processing what Pizzou said to him. And I would grab the shirt right at the chest of Escher. Listen to me, man.

Don't fuck with that. Don't you dare. We haven't had any time to tell you how dangerous that is, but that is an entity that you do not want to listen to. Do you understand me? Whatever the Amber Temple has, this is an order of magnitude higher. Do not let him tempt you, understand?

Why, Caprize? Is he powerful? That much more powerful than the Amber Temple. I could tell you the whole story. I think the answer would be yes. Well, it's good to know there is power that Grey still available to us. No. No, no, no, no, no. It's not available to us.

I invoke bad name once. The only reason why we're not in an apocalyptic horror scape now is because an additional larger power intervened. Understand? Nothing could come from that. Understood. Make a persuasion check for me. Is he getting help? From a little of you? Yeah, right from the rest of you.

You're all in advantage. A little advantage. Thank you. It's alright. Persuasion check? Yeah, they're still pretty good, though. Uh, 32. He sits back. Still pretty good.

You release, or maybe you don't release him. He looks up, you and it's... All right. All right, Caprice, I understand. Things that even high wouldn't do. You must understand. We all live in complex webs of power. But don't open that box. Of any of the boxes you could open, please don't open that one, okay?

Yes, of course. I understand. I'd still stand the- Even at your most desperate moment. I had the opportunity to let that thing overpower me, Caprice. And I still use the only chance that I had. for my little bat. I release I release that sure and I've seen him handle the key I will be like I don't I don't know what he's

said was lies if if that if that key can't restore your your daughter we will find another way I swear you I think we should discuss this I almost call on that entity but anubis stayed my hand which means he does not want that entity to be summoned. And what I would remind you, Escher, with Anubis's power, I needed no key to free my friends from their grasp. There are entities out there,

I cannot promise Anubis' hope, but there are entities out there with kind arts, entities that could help to save your little bat. This one can do nothing unless it's freed, and it will say anything to be freed. because it says that it can does not mean that it will. You're right. That's just like all of those powers, those vestiges of arch evil,

trapped away in amber. They will do and say anything they must to be free, to be, to use mortals to do their will. You make a strong, a strong point. Forgive me. Just forget you ever even heard it, all right? Things might feel very desperate, and I only came out a bit of okay

because I'm the luckiest... I'm the luckiest fucker on the planet. I don't think anyone else has that kind of luck. I've never been particularly lucky. I made one bold choice, one gamble, and it paid off, I suppose. That was lucky, but... I feel like my entire life has been a cruel twist of fate.

If you want, a crueler twist. You repeat those words three times. I'm telling me. I will not. Thank you for helping me come to my senses. Capriest, did you ever tell us exactly what happened when you said Pizzouzzi three times? Don't say that. My understanding as a DM is that you didn't.

Is that I did not. I thought at one point you said that you came clean about everything. I thought that afterwards, I didn't ARP it. But in the moment of recovery after I came back to life, I thought that I sat down and was like, this is what happened when I died. This is what I did when I died. I said these three words,

and then there was this bird experience in an apocalyptic wasteland and then there was another voice. Herja was taken into a bulb. Now I'm free. I think I'm free of the contract. I think that I'm free as a teafling, but now my only goal is to get Herja back

because I love her. And I thought that I delivered that onto all four of you, but if I didn't... I'm pretty sure you did. We've traveled for months now together and I perhaps may have shared that. I would say that you that have known all the details, the wasteland, the portals, the ziggurots, the eclipse, all that shit.

So it was just, uh, we don't have to RP this, but I really do lay on that. Yeah. Um, yeah, it was one of those situations where like Caprice had completely stopped being secretive after the, the, his initial death. And he transformed into somebody who is very much a wiser person and, and shared everything. Well, I mean, clearly these are two very powerful beings that don't want whatever is plans to come to fruition so I mean you know we just need to meet another

one the third one it can't be that hard I mean you each know one maybe you could meet one a cool one you know a cool one tower yeah I mean like I guess no I I have seen what these dark bargains can do I've seen the power they hold, I've seen the power of things like eclipses or a blood moon. As much as I want to save Ravnovia, I do not wish that evil, hauntier the world. Certainly not. On a lighter note, I pick up my book and I tear a page out, I think I'm on to something. And I lay it down and I smooth it out, and you can see that I've drawn like a circle.

It's got some, like, lines and shapes and patterns on it. Okay, here we go. I close my eyes. I put my hands over it, and it begins to glow blue. Felix, what are you going to do? I'm just testing things out. It's okay. And it begins to glow blue, and then it starts to arc with, like, blue,

like a little bit of blue electricity, and you can hear it buzzing, and then instantly the whole thing, it just completely incinerates and turns to ash. That was not supposed to happen. I'm going to keep working on it. Take, I mean, take your time until you're, like, really sure that you're dumb. I mean, it's like smoldering and I'm like,

ah, didn't quite get that one right. That's okay. It was really cool. I guess we have significantly more time. I'm going to sleep for 14 hours at least. Felix, a few hours ago you had horns covered in eyes. Can you not just like spring stuff saw us in an arcane manner? Oh, yeah.

Sorry, I just, Yeah, I was just working through it, and I just wanted to make sure that I had the scissors in the right order, and I had the right in. You know what? The fact that you did that in that way tells me that you're 100%. I'm going to go to bed, too. Okay, well, I'll be up. I'm going to keep working on this. If anybody needs you...

Oh, I'll take a break, and I'll alarm the area. Don't worry. You can all rest easy. I got this. Okay, make sure that you include, like, no birds can come in. No birds can come in. They need to really be on that list of things that, like... I guess it's not only about coming in, but you need to be very alert about birds, just to remind you.

You know, I'm sure you know, but anyway. Done. I'm going to go back to sleep as well. Good night. Are we going to set up any kind of watch at all, or are we going to allow alarm to just protect us? I will be awake. Yes, well, as much as I appreciate that, I'm not quite sure how much I like you being awake alone with the knowledge that you have. I'll be awake as well.

I've got to work on this. For the entire time. As much as I can, yeah, I'm gonna just focus on this and get it done. Is it because you want Toa to carry you tomorrow? Well, ideally, if it pays off, nobody will have to carry anybody. Well, great. All right, I'm going to say, Blifty, will you be my pillow? Yeah. Great.

I'll jump on there. And I'll jump on Lifty and snuggle in. I just love this so much. When can I keep watching? Whenever you want. I'm going to place the alarms, the last. The alarm will last for eight hours and I'll be up. I'm going to be focused on this, but I'll be awake.

If you want to come wake up and keep me company at any point in the night, I'd be happy to wake you up. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait me up early morning. I'll be there. I'll sleep now. Sounds good. I'm going to take 30 minutes break to cast the alarm. And I would just work the perimeter outside of our tent, very carefully looking outside and, like, you know, doing it. You do that.

everyone else settles in, and as you settle back in... I scratch the link fuck out of Lofty as I dig into her like nose suggests, and then circle on top of her and then go to sleep. She's bleeding profusely. You take 46 points of slapping there. Ah, yeah. But then you enjoy a long run. Yes, so you'll be right started in the morning.

Oh, I don't. As you sit back down, Asher looks at your work and says, well, you know, the thing. blowing up in your face is the first step to being a good alchemist. Trial error, boy. Caprice is asleep. Gross. I'm going to keep working on it.

Hey, maybe you might be able to help me. I'll bounce ideas off of you. I am here. I have no coffin to sleep in. So I will be awake. And you're able to talk back and forth with Escher. He's probably, you can discuss alchemy with him, and transmutation magic, which is really his area of expertise when it comes to magic.

Um, he seems to know relatively little else, uh, just besides just like a more of a passing interest. And you're able to, you know, stay up and whatever watch you, you do. There's anything else you'd like to do? You'd be able to do that for the full evening. and you all be able to awake, I guess Fields would have to keep me working, or rather continue working, as you all wake up. And I guess maybe Escher wakes you up for early morning. Cabruce.

Oh. What time is? That's a great question. I'm not really sure. But check this out. Tear out another page of the journal. I spread it out. And this time you see a similar shape that you saw before, but it looks a little bit more refined, a little bit more.

refined a little bit better. I'm getting closer. Without my coffee, I don't really. And I focus on it, and I hold my hands out over. It begins to be the exact same thing, and glow blue and a little bit of barking. And there's a pot. It's not a very loud pop. And then a foot away from where the paper was, there's another pop.

And the paper is back. Look at. Whole foot. What? I moved it. I moved the paper from. here to there. Look that. I pick up the paper and I move it back

one foot to the other side. Look at me. As soon as you let the paper go. As soon as you touch the paper, it's a set of grades. Okay. All right. That's worth noting, I guess.

Okay. Thank you, Caprice. It was helpful. Bravo. My pleasure. Bravo. I'm going to make some coffee. I will go to the coffee-making station. The curing.

Go to the curing. You have to refill the water again. You have such a waste. The rest of the morning wakes up. What is that? Are you supposed to de-escal it? Regularly, Caprice. But I hit the big cup.

It's so relatable. That's what you're here. Relatable cause, that's right. High fantasy, relatable lyrics. With that, you all enjoy Longrest. Yay! Thanks. You're only even move one level of exhaustion, right? Yes. You're able to, those of you are able to remove one. I think Longrest will do that, I'm pretty sure.

You have to, under recovery, you just have to make sure you check it. Oh, because you have to eat, yeah. Level of adjust. See all awake. Felix, I guess, probably has another couple hours. But he's very close. We're getting closer. There's a lot less smoke, a lot less incinerated paper.

We're getting there. That all sounds pretty good, yeah? I can't complain. I gotta be honest, I'm feeling pretty good about this. We're good. Keep up the good work and I'll punch him on the arm. Oh, sorry. I'll put, I just want to, like, poke my head out of the hut and kind of see, like, outside what it's looking like. I was my spellcasting arm. You're unconscious.

Yeah. No, you poke your head out, and once again, you had actually, the, the fire that's been stoked by, you know, Asher's been helping keep it stoked, has made this, the space actually quite pleasantly warm relative to the outside. And as soon as you poke your head out, that bitter chill bites your face. And you see now, you're not in the middle of a blizzard. The sky is actually relatively clear. There are some clouds. It's not super sunny. But the wind is mild.

It's incredibly cold. But it's not a storm. It's probably, you know, a decent bit past home. Okay. It's still awful out there. Felix, great work. You keep working. I'm going to.

just very stealthily keep an eye out for any boots. And I'm gonna, like, walk outside, and I'll close the door behind me, and I'll, like, take some of the... Is it, like, is it thatched-roof-like, what's the roof situation? Yeah, probably, like, really tightly bound, like, you know, thatch and things and, and wooden shingles and that kind of stuff. I'm going to take just a couple... A lot of pelts.

A lot of pelts as well. I'm going to pull off a pelt and pull off, like, a couple branches and twigs and pieces of wood, and I'm going to pull it over me. to thinking that I'm stealthy, and I'm going to just scan my eyes across the sky while Felix finishes looking for any sign of birds, rocks, or otherwise. Make a perception check. Yep. Natural one. Plus, you scan the horizon and you don't really see any birds. You feel very stealthy, though. Go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to say, I want to show the same trick to Lofty that I showed to Caprice.

I want to show you this. It looks pretty cool. Anybody wants to want to I was watching, watch. I, Caprice didn't seem very impressed. Oh, we laid it on me. What you got? I tear out another sheet. I laid it on the ground. I do the thing, it goes, and it poofs, and it's gone.

And then I wait. What? Did it work? He was supposed to come back. Bravo? Yes, Lofty, bravo. Well done, feelings. I'm almost done.

Yeah, you did it. I think. I'm feeling a lot better about it. Why was it supposed to come back? Maybe it's best we don't talk about that. Okay, I trust you. That page is now somewhere in a ventras. Oh, there's a piece of paper in my T-Suit.

I fall over. You take 12D-12 paper Godd-Avans. Somewhere in a ventras, that paper reappears in someone. I love that idea that a commenter goes out and is like, hmm, good carrot harvest this. Hey man. Dad? Oh,

Derek. Dad, who will harvest the carrots now? I don't know how. Oh, God. You all starve. Jesus. A Caprice will be outside enjoying his curate coffee.

And he'll find Irish. wherever she is. I mean she's inside. Yep, she's inside preparing her spells for the day. Oh. Iris is praying. I'm waiting for you to come out. I'm gonna, I'm gonna wait for Iris. I've got a second cup of coffee for her. I'll join you with a glass of wine and do some stretching and late atroval. Yes? Yeah. It's 6.30 in the morning. Yeah, I know. I'm usually not up this early, but you know, cheers. Cheers. Cheers. I got like me a big bag and just scorned it in like a Gatorade bottle and doing some stretches. What do you remember about being a giant slug?

Oh, right. Right, now that I've prepared my spells for the day and prayed to Anubis, I will join them. Hey, Iris. I was just asking Luffy, what she remembers about being a giant Slurms-McKenzie. What? Like a slug. Oh. And that was that a big disgusting thing.

I actually felt really good at the time. Why did you call it a Slurms-McKenzie? That's not where you call slugs in anywhere but Galtica? Well, not in Neckbet. Sikertz. No, no. No, no. It's a...

So to be honest, I'm not sure how slugs would fare in the desert heat. Oh, I can't imagine. I mean, the desert's not salty, is it? Oh. What do you mean? Well, slugs don't do particularly well against salt. Why not? Have you ever seen this?

Salt? applied to slug? No, I don't think I've seen outside of Lufty. I don't think I've seen a slug my entire life. Oh, well, the next time we see a slug, if you have some salt, don't, don't do that, no, don't do that. It will be bad for you. They tend to melt and bubble and hiss and pop away.

They have a reaction against salt. Slugs are anti-salt. They're vulnerable to it if you were going to have a mechanical. Oh. Are they as dangerous as a lofty was? Much, much, much less dangerous. Oh. To be fair, I really just got stuck in a cage and couldn't do anything.

Yes, I'm sorry for that. And I've really been having an existential crisis since then that I realized that even if you just trapped me in a cage, even not as a slug, I couldn't have done anything. Well, I'm not going to do that to you. That is reserved for only my most powerful enemies. At the time, you were my most powerful enemies. Unless. Unless something turns Caprice against us, in which case we would be fucked.

Yeah, I just, you know, I really, frankly, think pretty highly of myself, and I'm pretty strong and pretty good at stuff, but literally just a cage got me in. That was pretty disturbing. I mean, honestly, if we were all to fight each other and a no-holds barred, just couldn't stop ourselves kind of situation, I think Toe would probably beat us all into the ground. Yeah. Felix would just blow us up. Well, I think once he, if levels were a thing, becomes level 14, yes. Yeah. But for now, I think Toa would beat us to a bloody pull. I'm kind of eyeing you very suspiciously.

I'm inside. Oh. I'm out of position. You're talking outside. Yeah, yeah, we're hanging outside. Thank God he's a giant puppy. I think that, uh, shh. I can't hear of you, you are talking.

He's outside. I need to be able to see the birds. Are you just like a mound of like, I'm like sipping coffee around you. We've been standing two feet away. I'll jump, I'll jump like the cats in the cartoons and like my back will arch and my hair will go. Meehoo, you want some coffee?

No, I'm trying to look for birds. We can all look for birds. I can't hear over you talking. No, in turn. Yahu, you look with your eyes, dumb, dumb. No, it's related to me. What have I said about calling Toa Dump? Oh, sorry, just sleep down.

I didn't mean it. I mean it, you're not dumb. I'm gonna start reading books. Lots of books. That would be great. Do you need Felix to teach you how to read? No, I can read. Fine. I'm not the fastest reader.

That's okay, you don't need to be. I could make you some flashcards. The lovely thing about a book is it has no time limit. He let me a book about a great white narwhal, and I think I could get done in the next ten years, at least. Maybe sooner. Honestly, there are many that wouldn't be able to do it in ten years. It's a really, really, really, really long book.

It's a picture book, isn't it, Toa? I mean, there are pictures any. Is it qualifies a picture book? I wouldn't call it a picture book. What are you? What are you are really admirable? I can read and I just... Swim.

Swim. Swim. Give it back. What is it? What is it? What is it? You bought it in Vendra. It doesn't get.

I shut. I should have bag in my bag. I'm gonna finish it. Oh, I just start. Maybe you could read it to me. I'd like it. It sounds like a nice book. It would, I mean, it sounds probably stupid.

Honestly, it would be lovely if before bed. You wanted to read it to us as a bedtime story. Oh, that's not so nice. Sometimes she's clawing the fuck out of me. Sometimes it's really hard to fall asleep. Yes, and sometimes it's really hard to fall asleep, so I have to claw the fuck out of Lufty. And whatever you,

read, I'll create an amazing scene to demonstrate what you're reading. The setting, the smells, the sounds. And I'll say that the movie was better than the book when you get done. And I'll say the book was better than what the fuck's a movie? She's talking about an illusion. Like in movies, like an illusion. Oh, you're making up words again. Yeah, because that's what I do.

Have you been drinking already this morning? Let me sell your breath. Let me smell your breath, love team. I still kind of smell like the slug. I'm a little, so greasy. She's two wines in. It's 6.30 in the morning. Don't judge me.

I'm praying. To whom? Do you even know? Well, you can still pronounce his name, Too Wise In. You've known me. Who is Two Wines in? Maybe I'll read to you if you would like that,

like that that I would love that too. I'm very good at reading. I just want to learn more stuff like Felix does. I think that's wonderful. I would like to learn more than two languages. I think that would be great. I think you could do it. I truly do. Anyway, I just need like a bookmark. I don't want to fill the pages in it. I'll reach into my back, or into my pack, and I'll pull out one of my pamphlets of a new best, and I'll rip off a corner of it and it's really nice papyrus and I'll hand it to you. There. Thank you.

It has a nice rustic look to me. Yes. Is everyone feeling up to the journey down the mountain? Well, I think we still need time to rest. And last I heard, Felix was still working on his little paper trick. It's cold as shit up here, and I'm wondering if we should rest at the bottom of the mountain instead of here in this abandoned spider camp. Let me remind you that as cold as it is up here, we have... a hut that does keep us out of the elements, and at the bottom we will not.

Yeah, I've got the whole point of waiting here, so we didn't have to go down the mountain. That seems like a real pain. Yes, because if you remember, Felix says, and I do have faith in him, in case he asks, that he can somehow get us down the mountain without us having to do any work, and if I'm going to be quite frank, that's my best way to do anything. Yeah, what she said. And also like what if the birds that Toa will surely see or here unclear Yeah, what if they get us on the way down the mountain we should just you know or that

cool black goat thing oh yeah I didn't think about that no I'm not going down the mountain no I think we'll wait I have faith in Felix and though I haven't been privy to any of his tricks I wonder why you would like to see some magic um I have faith he'll be able to finish it so we're just very literally chilling up here at the top of the mountain. Yes. Yeah, I'm going back inside, though, because it's too cold. I think we should all go back inside. Yeah, please. You too, Toa.

No, I'm keeping watch. You know that there is an alarm in case there are birds. The alarm is, I mean, I'm going to come all the way down here and walk into the hut. You know it's like a spear around us. We would have to fly into the sphere of the hut. not all around the hut, Toa. But I mean, if I could see a bird like miles away, we'll be ready to get a little hot.

Yeah, but what if it comes out on the other side of the hut that you're not looking at? Maybe that's where all the birds are! And I like burst out of this little thing that I made and I rushed to the other side of the hut and I start scanning the skies of the makeup reception. When he does that, when he gets to the other side, I'm gonna go, kaka!

But not quite. Quietly enough to not actually attractive and are you gonna make a make it are you gonna try to trick-toe you're gonna do a performance check to see how convincing oh deception Deception natural 20 Oh my god I'm gonna burn it where's it's coming from the other side you just left from And I'll just keep running around this. Seems pretty messed up. I mean, it's lifting.

I'm gonna find, my heart is beating. I probably giving myself my blood pressure. I'm just basically doing circles around my eye. Toa has a heart attack or a stroke and he falls down in the snow. We're basically just doing circles. And when he wakes up, like one of his eyes is lilting. As you see the tomfoolery abound Caprice, you finish the last sip of your overla. watery coffee, sooner than you expected for usual.

It's remarkable. Just goes in the instant. And you see the charred bones of the barbarian that died here. Just kind of an instant. And Toa, as you keep going back and forth as lefty is tricking you, you do manage actually, your attention is turned. Out, this is actually kind of built into a cliff where you can kind of see into the on the other side of Borovia, you see the flapping of wings far in the distance.

As you see what looks like three large snow geese, just flying by. They're called sneeze. They're very far away. They're pretty far. Yeah. They're able to make out with a longer neck of a goose. Just flying. Just flying by.

Yeah, you can see them kind of, there's a cold lake not frozen over down in the elevation. It's called a clake. I run inside and I slam the door. See if you really need to hurry up there. three snow geese right inside the hut. I'm ready. Please, sir. Oh, you're?

Oh, thank God. Okay, let's go. Well, we have to discuss where we're going. I mean, I assume we're going back to Escher's Castle. Where are the rest? Is everybody? Are they still outside? So, how do you use this machine?

Oh, well, well, you're, uh, you have to make sure that the, uh, this, uh, tankered here on the side, that's full of water. I, I stuffed it with snow earlier, and once the blue light, turned off, which you can see this little donut that goes up and down like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you open up this chamber here, and when you put the pod inside. What did you get them? You know, all you have to do is reach to the right here and then suddenly have a pot.

Convenient. And then, and then, I mean, there's a little tray in there, but this is Earl Grey and you don't, you don't want that. Oh, I love that. Oh, I love that. Oh, great. Burgumotch is a lovely flavor. Have you ever tried it? I stopped teaching Iris how to use the machine and I walk away. But how do you, what do you, how do you do it?

Felix, they're right inside. They're like, fucking right. All right, well, I mean, if everyone is ready, let's... Yeah, you figured it out. Yeah, I mean, this is, you know... How do we know you figured it out? I'm extremely confident. Well, we should go back to Count von Zarovich's castle because we need to make sure, we need to inform him of everything that we've done and make sure that he's going to help us against the Carian king.

I thought we would go to Barobia. I'm open to suggestions. The more familiar than I am with the place, the better chance of success we have. I suppose the Vestani camp is the best chance for us not to lose any later. There's no, we haven't seen any permanent teleportation circles, have we? I was trying to think if we saw one in Alexi's Castle or... You did not go, you do not, you've not been to Alexi's Castle. No, we were only at the Vestani and Camden.

Yeah, and I think you haven't seen anything. I think that you probably, you saw the glow of magic in the guard tower at Selenka Pass. Oh, there's a pretty good chance. It's a pretty good chance. The guard tower at Selenka Pass. and you probably, there might be a circle there that you could guess, but I think that's the only one that you've seen. So, yeah, a circle that I can guess isn't good enough. I have to know the sigil sequence. Yes.

So there need to be the actual teleport spell. You can just think of where you're going. Okay, yeah, no, this is fine. The Visayan camera is good. We've been there. I've seen it. I can visualize it in my mind. You know, it's okay that we've only viewed it once. It's not really a big deal. Do you want me to inspire you? Would that help? I'm not sure that that would help in the situation. Do you feel inspired, Felix? Do I feel inspired? Yeah, you feel inspired.

Well, I... You can do it. Do you feel better now? Perfect. There we go. Yeah, okay. I trust my best friend. You're sure you're ready, right? Yes, of course.

All right, then I need you. I think you really trust you, but I guess what else am I going to do? Okay, well, Lifty, just stand right there. Okay. Iris next to Lifty Escher. You can just stand as to Caprice on my... left over here. You stand next to Iris between me and we're all going to stand here, okay? We don't even have to hold hands or anything. But what does we want to? Feel free. It might help.

I need my hands free. Yeah, go ahead, hold hands. But I'm going to use my, I need my hands. I think this we go to the other side and your hand is my hand. And my hand is Caprice's hand. Well, then you're welcome. That's not going to happen. It's not going to happen. You'll be really happy with my hand. Okay. All right. All right. All right. Here we go. I close my eyes and I think really, really hard about a nice clearing just outside the Vistanian and I don't mean like a mile,

I mean like literally just outside and it's beautiful clearing where there won't be people and I think about it Yeah, that would not be good and it actually says that the GM rolls the D20 I will say that you for the purposes

of this you can roll the... I almost didn't want to be responsible. Well, you have to be. No one ever comes here. This seems like a good place to build the outhouse. Pes through the crack in the hut with the chimney is just one moment and he reached in his pack and pulls out his parasol and just holds it up and says try not to kill us all boy All right here we go We there's there's a slight buzzing in the center of us If you can see you feel a little bit of shaking and there's a little bit of rumbling and this sound of buzzing and some some some blue arcing as

Something's happening It begins to swirl and the wind begins to move as it whips up, and then all of a sudden, in a flash, I'll roll the dice. So, based on the table, viewed once, a 1 to a 43 is a mishap, which means we're going to take a lot of damage in it happen. Similar area is 44 to 53. Off target, which means we're getting closer and closer, is 54 to 73. and on target is 74 to 100. So really anything in the like low 50s, up, whole fake.

What's the rule? You can't twist this. I was just gonna ask, what's the rule on twisting this? You cannot. Nah, D100s, you can't. Yeah, we'd say that would be kind of hard to do. Come on. Yes.

Okay, so it's a 37, so there's a mishap. This is a buppy ride. We're all gonna start by taking 3D10 damage. Great. Yeah. And then I'm going to try again. So wait, hold on. Can you read what it does?

Yeah. The spell's unpredictable magic results in a difficult turn. Each teleporting creature or the target object takes 3D10 force damage and the GM re-rolls on the table to see where you wind up.

Multiple mishaps can occur dealing damage each time. Okay. I just took 20 points. Well, we can roll it all at once if you want, if you want to wait. You have to roll it all. What do you mean?

Roll it all at once. Do we missap again? We might. Oh, I thought you had ruled already for the second one. I'm too scared. What are you guys looking for? You're distracting me. A butt, a pin butt.

I'm abandoning the effort. Don't worry. We're done. I lost the butt to my pin. Yes! Ha! Okay, hold on, I got an 80. Right? That's an 80?

Yeah. Okay, that's good. So did you roll your 3D 10 to take your damage to? I thought he rolled for us. I thought he was on target, baby. No, everybody rolls their own. We're on 3-day 10 damage. 3D 10. I already rolled mine.

But the second try, we were on target. We get where we're going. Okay. Oh, that's a one. So why we got out of that? I only took 15 damage. That's not bad. Yeah, I only took 20, thanks.

I took 11. Nine. And all it is is forced damage, so you're not like bleeding or you're not like spliced or splinched like in, you know, Harry Potter or whatever. I think my two middle fingers swap. That's really hard to tell, but there are,

I don't know. We're just a little battered, right? It was just a bumpy ride. I think my two middle fingers are off. I would be able to tell us. This is mine curve out. How would you know? How would you know?

Well, I have a scar right here on this one. In the blink of an eye after we disappeared, it's a very bumpy ride. But it's weird to say because it's instant. It's like all of a sudden we were there up in the mountains and now we're not. But you feel a little battered and bruised, but not not bad. Jumbled. That's really good. I've got the worst migraine with the fog.

It worked. It worked. Okay. But I'm still jumping around. And even though I'm holding my ribs. You did it. I did. I did.

And I like give toe a hug and I pull everybody in. And I'm like, congratulations. Do I have arthritis? I'm going to get a big old full like on the mouth kiss. What you do? Yeah. Oh. I'm very taken aback.

And huh? Oh. Oh my. Uh, let's see. Oh. And I'll start dancing. Was this supposed to be painful? I'm going to walk up to Felix and I'm going to whisper in his ear.

I can cure wounds that later. Or I get a lesser restoration that later. Oh, well, it was, I'm sorry it wasn't so smooth. We got a little banged up, but that's not bad for first try. That could have gone way worse. I didn't want to tell you guys, but we could have got completely lost anywhere on the planet. Felix. Felix. That was very, very impressive.

Why do all of my joints hurt? Well, because like I said, I'd never really done that before, and I'd only seen this place once. Now, if we had wanted to go back to Central, I would have been no problem. Could have done it in an instant? Wouldn't even have even been a problem. In fact, if I know the sigil sequence of exactly where we're going about...

Look, you don't need to know all the details. The fact of the matter is that we could have gone really bad and didn't. So anytime we try to do that, my joints are going to get one? No, I'll get better at it, I promise. And again, the more. familiar we are, the better chance we have. So this place will be even more impressive next time, because you've been here twice?

Yes. Oh, well, I like the sound of that. And I'm gonna like sit down in the grass of the dirt and just take a deep breath. Felix, I swear to God, they're gonna be repercussions if I take off my shoes and all of my toes are facing up on the back of my feet. You would know, you would already know if that was the case.

Trust me, you'd be the screen into pain. Would I? I sort of hop on my feet. I don't know if I would know that Not looking at my toes Would you know? I mean at the Academy They told us to teleportation and go really wrong I mean they show us like

They show us drawings and like recounts of like what happens When you try to like you know do teleportation When you're not ready to it's disgusting Well I'm so glad that you experimented with us all just now For this purpose You joked about casting inside out earlier That's a thing Uh huh

What about hangnail zipper? I don't think I've ever heard it. There aren't these hippas and the ventures. I don't know if you know the setting that well. As you... I look around and do I feel like we're at the Vistani family. As you're ripped through, you feel the jostling of the magic going wrong at first, and suddenly you explode back into reality.

The bitter chill of the mountains now gone. And although it's not purely warm, it is still far more, far warmer than it was as you look around and you see that there is a singular horse, a gray horse. It seems to have been gray just staring. And immediately just bolts in the other direction. Towards the large grazing area where the Vastani had been raising their horses.

And you can see no more than 50 feet from you. the camp, the large tents, the large temporary wooden structures, you hear the hustle and the bustle of people going about their business. You're far enough away that no one has seemingly noticed you immediately, and you're able to kind of gather your thoughts and you actually see that there's a tree line pretty close to you, and Escher walks over about 15 feet away to get into the shade of the canopy. And you can kind of see that his flesh is starting to kind of steam a lot. Come on, let's join this shirt. Let's all stay together. We're going to go to the camera. Guess we're going to stay with this shirt. I want to make sure that we're all on the same page.

I'll hold it like Thursday. I'll walk over and then again like kind of plop myself down in the grass and just sit under the shade of the tree and just be like, ha, ha. First thing, our number one priority, what is today? We need to know how much time has passed. We need to know what's happening with the werewolves. We need to know what's happening with the Astani. We need to know what's happening. We've got a lot of news to get your phone.

All right? With no surprises, we just, you know? Yeah, I agree. That's all. That's all. And also, I've got to go talk to Astani. If the Beastwoods are now safe, I've got to go and stop them from scaring children. All right.

Well, I mean, we know how long it took us to get up the past, We know how long, we know when we left here, we can just ask the Vistani when the last time they saw us was. How much time has passed? Perfect. And we'll calculate from there. Very smart. Let's do it. I feel good.

And sure? What are you doing? Well, I will admit, I don't think that the stories pass down about me amongst the Vistani are very kind. And I don't blame them. I think it's probably better for us to part ways here. If you go on into the woods, you can do your own thing. I'll go find Busefellus, and I will go find Alexi. Joy, I'm sure he's in such a great mood.

But we have much to discuss between counts. Should we meet you at the castle, or should we meet you somewhere else? We'll send one of his keepers, I mean, keepers. I'm sure that they would be more than happy to find you. Eat right here. In the camp, unless you plan on leave it. Well, I think we were just going to go to that same place, but I guess you can get a head started. We have that list of five things to do.

I need to go find Bicephalus and make sure he's fine. There's plenty of flesh to consume in the beast's wood, but I'm worried about him. Sounds really sweet. For as much as an ass as he is, he's... I've grown fond of him. Dear, may I do something you're going to be. to hate me for. Uh, it depends on what it is. I would like to cast Legend lore on the key.

He looked more like a horse to me. Oh, Josephus. Yeah, yeah. Oh, Sypius. He is. Well, why? I guess you just called him an ass. Oh, well, and so I just thought he was a horse, but I guess he, you know, maybe he's deceptive.

He's a... If you ask him, ask you for the key, he'll give it to. Yeah, so Well, Escher, before you go I would like to, if you don't mind, try to learn as much about that key as I possibly can in the hopes that it will be able to help us without any additional dark entities

help, and I'll wink at him, be able to find a way to help your daughter. If you wish to consult. It'll take me about ten minutes if Busephilus can wait. It does no good in my hands. Here you go, Ireland. And I will take it. He passed that down to heck. It's a good key.

It's a good key. It's a good prop. He handed it to you and you, as you're resting up against a key. Oh, as soon as you grab it, you hear, you feel a horrible sick sense and you hear, free me. No.

And Escher claps you on the back on your shoulder and grabs us, Well done, Felix. He'll becoming a better wizard every day. Ha! Thank you. You're welcome. I'm sure we will all learn what the fuck is going on soon enough. Right. And he, with that, he turns, uh, and he drops his parasols, he walks into the shade of the forest, and disappears out of sight. Oh, but I... J... well, shit! I wanted him to stay. Well, I'll send him a message.

What did you learn about the key? Oh, I don't know. I need 10 minutes. Can you talk about it? For 10 minutes? I don't know if we could talk for 10 minutes just amongst ourselves. You know, I once heard a story about and I can And so I will cast a legend lore. Damn it. You're really close though. I'm just so dumb. You can have strings of yarn. But while I'm casting, I'm also going to talk with me.

my friends. We talk for 10 minutes. Well, let's actually talk and give him time to, we should because he's going to have time. He has to let's a legend war, right? Should we take a quick little? No, let's RP. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of avatrous and gain access to tons of exclusive perks,

including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas. 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 tone for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. As you pray for, and you're examining it, you're trying to get the legend lore, especially with the nature of what, the question that you have, given Escher's conundrum. And as you channel, you pray to your God,

you know that he's weak, but he still has that connection. There is still power there. And in your mind, you hear his voice. The dark ones trapped from light of day. Have no escape, but there's a way. To transfer them from where they dwell. It takes a long forgotten spell.

But have no fear the lore exists in dark domains beyond the mists. That's so good, Mike. That was! Really? It's great. Nice job. Get another amazing legend lore from Mike. Or as he prefers to be called Michael.

Moke. Moke. Return to Moke. No gods or kings only moke. So can you say that very, very slowly so we can transcribe it? Yes, the dark ones trapped from a light of day. Yep, got that. Have no escape, but there's a way.

To transfer that. To transfer that. I'm still writing of no escape, but. I'm not a typewriter. Yes. To transfer them from where they dwell. Okay. It takes a long forgotten spell.

Okay. But have no fear of allure exists. Okay. In dark domains. Beyond the Mists. We go in, your domain, and... Got it. Thank you. You're welcome.

So what did you learn? Well, um, yes, so this poem. But what is that mean? Yes, I just recited it. Twice. One time very slowly for you to be able to transcribe it. Oh, is that what we were supposed to be doing that whole time? Yes.

I got it all right up here. Well, that's all that you got? Well, yes, but I think that's great. In dark domains beyond the mist, that's exactly where Anubis wants us to go. So it's starting to sound to me like Ravinovia is not our next query. We should head to the realm beyond the mists

and then give Ravanovian. If we can leave for Ravanovia as long as possible, I think that that would be ideal because it'll give us more ramo to potential to lay free her from whatever evil has taken her hold the same way the three of you take it. What if we wait too long though and then there's no getting a back? Well, there's definitely a time limit here.

I mean, there's the possibility of them finding the Raven child. There's, who knows if that could happen in the next hour or in another year? Yeah. Excuse me, Dan. Yes. Would I imagine that my communication? communication with the new bus, that his intention was for us to go immediately? Actually, no. That is something I forgot to mention.

I think that you were supposed to hurry there, but I think the intention, I think you could probably see that once the more immediate threat was dealt with to then head back. So we should go immediately. Whatever you want to know. I think we should go when the immediate threat has been So you don't think that the message or the rhyme was an intention for us to be able to fix the key? I'm not sure. I'm conflicted on many levels. Sure.

Well, I mean, could we maybe like stop King Vorak but then like capture her and somehow restrain her while we go into the mist and figure out how to free the key? If she's as powerful as I should think she is, I don't think restraining her's going to be an option. Yeah, I don't want to mess with that. You saw what she did to the bag of bones? Yeah, we struggled against exeanter. And he was fucked up by whatever he was. He was a rich. You're like, you know, he'd been alive for who knows how long and is doing nothing but studying magic.

And she just killed him. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, well, that too. I mean, I don't know what we're even dealing with. We don't know what she's capable. Well, we have an idea, but it could be so much worse. I don't know.

I'm very confused. Yeah, me too. Well, let's go to the Vistami camp. We can cover off on those things, and then we can head to the castle, or we can wait to be sung to the castle. When we left this camp, didn't we say that we would go and solve the problem in the B-squip? How long ago was that?

Well, that's what we have to find out. We don't know. We're not sure. Didn't we do that with the where we speak? We did. We hoped to broker a deal, but we don't know how it turned out. Yeah, I thought we solved that problem. All right, well, let's go.

Let's go and find out what day it is, and we'll take it from there. Yes. You make your way from the tree line into the encampment, and you see that there aren't actually too many Vestani actually in the camp, And many of the horses seem to be gone as well. As you see, it's mostly, there's a bunch of children around a couple women, a couple of men, and they're going about their daily chores, and you actually see that one of the children points at you, and they actually call all of the other kids around, and they all rush you.

And they're saying, oh, it's Caprice, Caprice, we learned your song, we learned your song, we memorized the whole. thing. We thought you were dead. It's been a week. It's been a week? It's been a week. We memorized the whole song. And they sing the entire song. You taught them. All the kids, they run up in a giant audience in front of me. And they recite the song that I would have written down for the adults to teach the children not to go into the beefwood.

Which goes a little something like, let's all go to the beast. Let's all go to the beast wood Let's all go to the beast wood To get ourselves a Don't go Leave Don't go Leave

Watch out Walk out If you want to stay alive Do not go into the beastwood If you want to live Then you should not That's what the children are saying Fine now

It's fine Everything's gonna be okay. There's no reason. Oh, they're very pleased screaming. You get the sense, but as soon as they heard it once, rather than scary,

and all they wanted to do was go into the beastwood and scream that song. What is it like in your brain? And lucky woman. That's one of the boys. That's down. That's up there. Oh, my God.

I'm quiet. trying to quiet them down. No, no, no, no, no. Don't go! Leave! The beast's wood is very scary, don't go there, sure. Oh, God. And they're all, they're all surrounding you and cheering.

Like, hey, they're screaming. They're so enthusiastic. I can't possibly intervene without, like, using magic, so I'll just let them, I'll just like, oh, yeah, that's what I wrote. Okay, well, they took the message, at least that. I know that, that's fine. Okay. Yeah, no, we go every day since you've been gone.

We've been going into the Beastwood and screaming it. It's been very fine. Would you listen to the message of the meat of the fucking song? You're not supposed to go to the meat into the Beastwood. You're supposed to leave. Don't go. Leave. Don't go!

They'll scream. They'll scream. Very literally, don't go to the Leafwood. What did I write? Amongst the good call thing, I'm going to like look at the rest of the group. I said it's been a week. I mean, I must mean we've only lost a couple of days. Yes, it's not as bad as I thought it was gonna be.

I thought it was going to be nearly a month, to be honest. Should we check in to see if, um... What? We can't hear you off as screaming. Oh! Oh! Right! Now go!

Should we check to see if Sophie Arna's back? Oh yeah, that... That's original. Yeah, let's go see if she's back. As you're making your way, the kids finish screaming, screaming, screaming, don't go, leave, as very enthusiastically, and they're all yelling at each other, don't go leave, and someone's more like, oh, let's go to the piece, one. Fine.

The one purpose of the song. We did have a little bit of a mixed message into begin. No, it's supposed to be like super charming that you're- And they actually see there's a role of little girls that are all going to be one. And they're all just, as they're clear. As they skip off. And then you hear a booming voice and say,

My friends, you are alive. It is great to see you as Alessandra Dekash, the Vastani magician of some kind, at the very least, starts running up to you the very large. man walks towards you and pulls you all into a large group hug. I know. Alessandro, how's it going?

I cannot believe you are alive. I had faith in trust the true heroes, but being lost so long and on Mount Gakas. It's been a long week, let me tell you. Yeah. You must tell me everything. You look like you need a large warm meal for your souls and bodies.

That would be nice. That would be a great. Come, come! And you see that there's a boar roasting on a spit, and he'll go over and he'll slice off a great number of chunks of meat and brings and tray, and it keeps you warm bread, pours you drinks, whatever you want to eat. And you see that there aren't too many people here, and so it's, there's like the music that you're familiar with, you see, there's one person playing as a stringed instrument

and those notes are kind of sailing over you. And you're able to just sit down and tell him the whole story if you care to. I don't know if he would tell him very much about our story. Yeah, it was whatever you want to tell him. I would try to steer the story, and if anyone tries to interrupt and give additional detail, I'd be like, oh, that's an embellishment.

Just trying to get these sense of going up to the mountain and going to the temple that it was clean, Clearly there were a lot of risks and scary things that is not something that you should go up to lightly, but that we didn't encounter anything obvious. I would try to make it as spooky as possible without giving any grounded details. Just to make sure that the lore of that mountain is not obviously portrayed and spread around Borobia and the rest of the lands, but to make sure that the top of the mountain is still presented as something that's scary and should never.

never goes to, just like I just tried to do with the children and failed apparently with the beastblood. What's okay? He listens and he's incredibly enthralled and he's just leaning in and he's like gasping and he's very interested. And he's occasionally made some notations as he hears the story. Don't go up there with adventure in gear. Oh, yeah. Jay, you need any weather-winter-appropriate clothing. That's clearly the case.

I had to go to the Amber Temple and come back in one piece. Even a week later, still an impressive feat. I thought you were all lost. Pardon me, forgive me, my friends, for having even this smallest shredded out. There were a couple of close calls, but we're back. who sounds like a trying time, but you will be happy to hear that a truce and alliance has been made

with the silver pine bag. Oh, that's nice. Yes, that's great. That is exactly what we are hoping. In one more day, we all ride against Sarikosa and the Karean King, and we have been waiting for you.

Wait, wait, wait. You've organized in a, an assault already? Well, it's not me. It is our count. And the Vistani, it is not our fight, but there are good Vistani men and women who wish to get their revenge against the Karian King.

Wow. And the Shalarkai. The plan was delayed, because we did not know where the five of you were. It's amazing news. I mean, we can go tomorrow. We can end all of it and hopefully fix a lot of things. I don't think.

Preparations are still being made, and supplies and food have been brought to the Nightbane Cavern Day, and they are being welcomed into Parovia, and they are giving the medical aid and the food that they need to be strong. At the very least, in a day or so, the Crusaders, the Vervils, the keepers of the feather, we all, even the abbot, will be joining us.

Wow. That's really impressive. And we will be riding together. I will only be slightly exhausted tomorrow. Do we think that's an obvious attack? I feel totally normal. I love to hear that. I want to talk to the folks in charge and sort of make sure that we're all aligned on how this attack should.

That seems very raisin and obvious. Do we think that we have the forces to out number theirs in such a dramatic fashion? Outnumber their goose! They will crash upon our forces like a tidal wave. A flesh and teeth and rotting stench. But they will be greatly outmatched, even if outnumbered. Oh, Capriza. I think that we'll have to meet with the counts at some point,

and hopefully they'll give us some more information. Hopefully we'll get summoned at some point. Now, you do not need to be summoned. You can speak to Count Lexi, von Zorovic, but will I impart the plan along with you? We have discussed. I have offered my services to preview. all right to the gates of Castle Groomvale. It will be so exciting.

We're going with you. Yes. Yes, of course. My wagon can traverse the mists. Oh, that's pretty amazing. It is something that my people have done. This is a lost knowledge these days. lost art, but I would never dream to bring my friends and family through those mists, but after Ervin told me what you had found in the box of Miss Isaacs, that Raven's feather can give us safe passage, straight row. And I, you have ride with me in my wagon. We ride all together and then once their forces of are drawn to us and the carrion king is a arrogant foolish man. He will not think to allow

for a siege. He will send his ghouls to us. If we are lucky even his infantry, thinking that that is an effortless thing to crush the forces of Borovia. But then once their eyes are towards the crusade, the rides against them. We disappear into the mists and come out on the other side. Right at Castle Blumvale, and then we'll bring the fight to the carrion king and his princess. That actually sounds pretty tactically sound, huh? I think it's a great idea. I'm glad you said that, because I was about to ask if that's a tactically sound idea.

you being the brain. Does that sound good to you? I don't know much about this. No, I mean, when we talked to Count Alexia, I think that'll help clarify some things, but I mean, it could work. Sounds like a pretty damn good plan to me, yeah. If all the soldiers are out fighting,

I mean, I think we, the five of us can handle whatever would be remaining in the castle, right? You can handle a few guards and then the king. Alexi had suggested bringing, Camp Kraskov with us and Sophia. And with the eight of us, yes, the eight of us, is a small stealth mission in and out. That's exactly right.

I mean, with a small strike force, precision strike force, we can get a lot done. If you ever watch Game of Thrones, you can pretty much do anything with about eight people. 20 good men can do anything. By killing entire armies? Totally unseen and escape unharmed? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

I've heard of... Well, I'm only willing to do this. If once the big bad guy shows up, I can jump out of the shadows with a dagger and kill him where he stands and one fell swoop. With one blow! Yes. Yes, no, there was a storyteller amongst us

who told such stories and we banished him from our... We threw him into the finer. He says he knew the beast, never really sorry. His story sucked. There's nothing more offensive than the bad story. Well, I'm actually down for the plan, if that sounds like the plan. Yeah, especially if, like, we're the elite task group. I mean, it certainly won't be easy.

Whatever's inside those gates is going to be the worst of the worst, but... It is going to be far more horrible than you couldn't imagine. Yeah, but no problem for us, don't. right because like we're the best of the best yes that is why the plan he's on you count von saravich is a brilliant strategist that's why I could trust soon as he counseled me and and and and I heard the plan I knew that I must offer my services my wagon my horses and I would bring my two finest horses is Fred and Marmalade.

Amisha named them. Well, all right. Oh, those are nice names. I'm sorry about the song that Misha may have been repeating over the while. Oh, it is a great one. Yes. It's a bit of banger. It is.

It is a great song. As soon as we perform that one, once all of the children memorized it immediately. Oh, okay. So when do we leave in the morning? You need to rest. The Pact, the Silver Pine, they are still gathering their strength. It could be another several days.

I think the soonest the count was hoping to leave was in one day, but I think that looking at you and after seeing the refugees from Nightpane Cavern, and we may need a few days. And Ivar and Sophia and the abbot there, they're all here in the camp? No, they are in Barovia. The abbot is at the Abbey, and Ivar is at the castle.

Sophia Anna is, who knows where she gets to. She may be back tonight. She's not particularly happy about the alliance, but she will do whatever it takes to get to her daughter. She seemed like a very willful woman. So I'm, I've completely lost my caprice register, having sung that song. Man, I didn't kind of get the song, would you sing it the entire thing again? I think I'd die.

I just wanted to know where everyone is. We're all intended to organize and coalesce, though, just before we, go out on this great crusade. Oh yes, we will all ride out together. It is even with our riding and running and flying, it will take days to get to Zarikosa. And the plan was Escher and the counts can come to an arrangement to send Count Kreskov back to his castle as soon as possible to provide additional air cover.

with his gargoyles. Yeah? We'll be ready whenever... But it's only a plan that can happen, if you all agree. This is Count von Zaravish's best attempt at the plan. What do you think? It sounds good to me. Amen.

You think this is what we should do? I trust you. No, I think I'm going to go home. No, of course. What choice do we have, Charlie? I don't know. I guess, yeah, we're in. Right? Yeah?

Yeah, we're in. Oh, that is great to hear! Ah, it will be quite a story. That was the few from Borovia, all united in one force, crashed against the evils of the Carian king, and the carrion he commands, and brought down that great evil. They will tell them and sing great stories about this for centuries, millennia to go.

You'll be good. All right, well, could we just maybe wait somewhere to be summoned, I mean to be, we're awaiting word from Count Laxies, so we just need to be ready to hear so. Yes, my home is your home. Where's the drinking tent? Well, every tent is a drinking tent. Good. Good. You're well prepared for battle, then. Yes. And he stands up and he grabs a piece of pork and he fights into it and quickly eats it.

He says, I must tend to the horses. I will be back. You please make yourselves at home. Anything you need, you know where to find me. Thank you. Of course. Of course. Be great heroes. This will be good. And he turns and he walks away. I immediately follow Lifty to the hardest of whatever liquors or alcohol that would be in this particular drinking tent and for myself a good-sized goblin. I would take my shoes off and put my feet up on the table and just knock back with like a frothy beer and a wine and one of you are edible children

you are made of meat yeah oh sorry yeah that's what we need is a good song it was catchy sorry that was my favorite part yeah it was really good I really wanted to design it to scare the children and instead they just took it and ran with it that means that there was a really good creative kernel in there

it's got something that people cling to now that we know that the woods isn't scary and it's no longer filled with werewolves that will kill them, that I guess it's okay. Yeah. I'm sure there's other beasts in there, otherwise it wouldn't be called the beast would, right? Thank you.

But maybe ours are screaming or just scares them away, or draws them closer. It's hard to say. Maybe the keepers of the feather kind of like help out in the werewolves. They'll keep it safe. I'm sure it'll be fine. Yeah. It's good for kids to get a challenge now and then.

multiple. It's still early, right? It's still morning. Yeah, no, it's morning. Yeah, I would say it's probably at this point, after settling in the legend of the war and saying goodbye to Escher, you know, it's probably approaching noon. It'd be lunch. I'd probably just gorge myself all day if they let me just like continue to eat the like... Because you've been up all night working, right?

I'm just, yeah, and I'm just, I want a hot meal. I want to just gorge myself on a hot fire pit meat. You do? I would join Felix and eat as much as much. and eat as much as physically possible. I'd probably be leafing through my notes and just making conversation and, like, you know, thinking about what's to come and, you know, preparing myself.

Eating and drinking and trying to get all the, like, soldier, you know, people that are getting ready for the battle to, like, join in and get drunk and sing songs and start fights and just general, like, rebel rouse, rebel rounds. Yeah. Eventually, I would like to pull Felix and Koa away and find someplace private. Oh, I would say that would- Saucy makes you.

That would not be hard to get my attention. I would happily meet you whenever. I would say that if you wanted to leave the camp, you can, especially towards the evening. A lot of people are kind of coming in from more on the outskirts of the camp and then coming into the fires where they're pouring themselves drinks or each other drinks, starting to gather different bands and playing music. And or you could find a spot where there's a couple, you know, seats where you could just sit in one side of the camp,

whatever you cared to do. I would pull away from the camp. Yeah, you guys are easily, and you're still a wash in the glow of all the fires from this camp. And you're able to make it, you know, that it's basically in a clearing, there's that tree line that Escher went into. And you're able to, the three of you, we're able to discuss.

Well, I'm sorry. to pull you away from the festivities but I want to talk to you both about something and I feel I can't talk to Lufli because I don't want to scare her and I can't talk to I could talk to Caprice but he's been through enough with Glacier and Asvadaes and all that and the Pea Man you know who I'm talking about. Oh yes I very much to know who the Pea Man is yes it's very scary I don't like a Pea Man at all Papa Peepie And so...

Temple Pia, I think. Yeah, of course. Is there something we can help with? There is something I did not tell you when we were back in the temple. When you were those hideous creatures, I called upon anubis, and I thought that he had not answered, but clearly he did. And he told me something I was not prepared for. He said that he had doomed me. In this land of mist that we're going to, there is an entity that we have heard of.

Onkotip. What Anubis told me is that he had a hand in separating Ankhartep's car, pieces of his soul, into seven pieces. That a number rings a bell to me. Seven seems to be a number we come to contact with a lot. He scattered those numbers all around, I'm assuming the universe. He said upon my birth, one of those pieces of Kong made its way to inventress. it was born in me so apparently I have part of the car of some horrible evil being inside of me

and that his hope was that I would never find myself in the land that we are destined to go to this realm of mist I have to go there I have to save in a new base I don't know what this land will do to me when that fraction

of his car is so close to, I'm assuming his essence. And so, I need the both of you to promise that if I lose control, and if the nubis loses control, that you will do what is necessary. This is a lot. And I cannot ask that I've lived here.

I know she could not do it. I guess now we know why those creatures wanted you so badly. Yes. So they want to, like, combine with you? I think that my fate, should they get their hands on me, would be far worse than if you were to end me. Well, no, no, we're not going to end you. You might have to.

No, no, we'll find a way we'll find a... I need you to promise that if something were to happen and I were to lose control and Anubis no longer had his hold, that you would do what is necessary to keep that essence of this being soul from his grasp. at all costs the seven pieces cannot be combined and I fear that he has the other six I fear that is why Anubis is so weak

I fear that whatever piece resides in me is the last bit that is outside of his hold and I know that's a lot to ask of you okay yeah I mean you have my warrant please don't tell Lifty I don't want her to fear

First thing's first. No matter what happens, we're not going to let anybody take you, alright? I mean, we're gonna protect you just like we protect anybody else, and nobody's gonna get taken, and we're all gonna make it out alive. That's first thing. And if you have to, you will kill me. You have my work. Only if it's the last possible option. Yeah, I mean, we're talking like plan Z. Yes, of course. I'm not...

I'm not asking you to just smite me where I stand for shits and giggles. That's not what I mean. I just mean like... Let's say you become horrible and evil, like we would try to, you know, so do you. Well, no, just kill me. No, we would mean try to sub-you. I promise, if I become completely evil, you do not want to face me. And we would try to, you know, find it. I mean, well, as long as Felix isn't level 14, and then I guess it would be a fair fight.

If not, I would be slightly to disadvantage. It really depends on action economy and who rolls higher on advantage, but really it's irrelevant. I don't know what any of that means, but... I'm speaking in hypersetor. Thank you for letting us know that there is a possibility of something that could happen. I don't think it will, and we won't let it happen. It won't be a possibility we have to entertain, because it's not going to get there.

I agree with tall. I would say, though, and I'm certainly not going to tell you how to live your life, but maybe think about letting the others know. Just, you know, think about it. I have thought about it a lot, my fear that though I could let Capriest know, I do think he's dealt with a lot, and though he keeps his composure in most, well, some cases, if you can call it composure, I'm not quite sure.

He killed it! I just had the strange vision of Caprice killing a titsy fly. However, I don't want to burden him with the potential loss of another friend. And as for Lufty, I know she pretends to be happy-go-lucky all of the time. I know that what happened with her mother was very difficult on her, and I don't think that the idea of the loss of a friend would sit well with her,

and to be quite honest, she's flighty on a good day, on a bones day, and I'm afraid that telling her would cause all of her days to be a no-bones day, and we need her in tip-top shape. All right, well, you have my word. At the very least, they won't hear from me. Thank you. All right. Yep, so, you know, just...

Iris was... part of the soul of an evil god thing. You know, just another day. Depends in why. Well, you know, I feel like when all of this comes to a head, then we'll deal with it like we deal with everything else. And if we deal with this creature-person thing you're talking about, then maybe you'll be free.

I read a book once when I was a child. It was Perry Horta and the car cruxes. It was something about this, like, evil sorcerer or warlock, cool. I don't know. Maybe it was a wizard, and he had separated his soul into seven pieces, and Perry Horta had to kill himself to be able to complete the entire thing. Spoil alert, Snape kills Dumbledore. Um, I know, okay. I don't know if you've read it. I think I'm following. You're going to be okay. We're going to make sure that you're all right. I might have to die. I've heard of that story that definitely sorcerers, not, not visit. I'm not sure. No, no, no,

they're absolutely sorceress. They go to a school of magic. That's what wizards do. Yeah, but I mean, it's more about how you gain your magic. And, you know, when you're born with it, you're a sorcerer. Well, maybe I don't know. Anyways, I will take that information. You should read it, though, Toa.

I think you'd really like Perry Horta. I will act on it. And I don't want to have to have. to go damn out right well i'd like to have some dinner i'm still one levels of exhausted yeah uh no no worries um let me we'll just um you know head back and uh ruminate on this i guess hold on yeah are you guys doing anything when when you see iris this is what they're doing while we're having this conversation hey vasani you can you can learn how to do it too watch everybody follow me you just make like uh uh uh you know you know

What? I was trying to get a nerve. Actually, what I'll teach you is how to make a droplet sound, all right? Can everyone whistle? Can you go? Like this? And it's all just kids. They're back from the beast.

And me. I'm like sitting down. They're all a bunch of Astani kids and Lofti. They're all about the same size. So all you need to do, all you need to do is, okay, now, now stop what you're doing. Now, now do just do this. Okay, okay, okay.

Now that you can make a sound with your cheek, you have to understand. You have to combine the two things. You have to make your lips do the sound, but you can't make the air out of your lungs. You just have to hit the side of your cheek to make the sound at the same time. My cheeks are too fat.

So that when you do them at the same time, it goes, I cannot do that. That's all I have to do. It just take practice. It just take practices. Those two skills combined. you'll get no problem. Now, this is boring.

Let's all got this one. Let's all go to this one. Ah, fuck. Yeah, this sucks. Destroyed by my own success. Gonna kill it. I didn't get it. Capricia's definitely blacked out at this point.

Like, he's teaching them this. He has no idea that he's actually teaching them this. I did it. I can't. My cheeks are too fat for the little, like, oh, I can't do that. I can't do it. Welcome.

the lens of anxious where you learn fun tricks. I'm going to have a bruise on this side of my teeth. The rest of you get back and at this point as you arrive, you see that many of the Vestani are coming in and you actually see that a good number of them are actually gotten some light armor for their horses. They're getting their weapons set up and you haven't really seen these people really preparing for battle. There aren't too many warriors amongst them, But those that are very much getting ready, as I replay the song that has already run out, as they're getting ready.

And at this point, you see off in the distance standing around a group of fighters who have just finished getting their horses ready and checking things out. Knowing that there might be a couple days, but just making sure everything's in tip-top shape. You see standing while a bunch of others are kind of sitting eating, one with a boot up on a stump or a small bench. With a drink in her hand, you see Sophia. She seems to have come back at some point. And that's where she is. And you see Alessandra's coming back from the old horses seem to be in good order, and they're all fed and watered. And the rest of your party joins you.

Yeah. What? Hi, hiya? Hello, Caprice. Oh, yeah, I thought... Why were you looking at Lukeshire when you said that? I've been here like the whole time. Because I thought we all just joined you.

No, we joined you. How much have you had? I've been here the whole time. Didn't we just open a box? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I rarely say you. I rarely say this, but I think we need to cut him off. I think, I think we should probably go see Sophia and see how she's doing.

How she feels about the whole truce thing. Yeah, we should. I saw all over there eating. All right, let's go. Oh, so what are you on? We're gonna go walk to, um... Sopiana. So you see her, um, her long hair is actually down.

And despite her being a bit more relaxed than one. when you saw her, she's actually laughing. She's still completely covered in her holy water, her knives, her whip, her axes, and fully armed, basically, ready to fight at any moment. And as you approach, you're very hard to mess. She turns, and she's holding a wooden cup of wine. She raises her hand and says,

if it is not my saviors, you are alive. of the rumor was that you are dead. Not yet. Yeah, not. Look at us. We're good to go. And I'll cheer, sir. Only the one time, yeah.

You're joining us in the battle in the next few days. That is what Alessandra says, and I trust him. Yes. That's great news. How do you feel about the truce and the werewolves? And now they're on our team. As soon as you say,

Weirwol, she spits on the ground. They're nice werewolves. You steal children and give them to the elves. You're not nice. I will not bring my lip against them. As long as we are on the same path and have the same enemy. But I will never call them friends. Yeah, but what happens after we kill that joint enemy?

Then what? If there is still a truce and they do not go back to their... thieving murderous ways. Then I may be convinced to turn my head the other way. You see there's the little bit of wine that she's had. She's a little bit, a lot looser than when you saw her. She was very furious when you met her. And she leans forward and says,

Forgiveness scones, very hard-earned, especially when children are involved. Do you disagree? She takes a drink of a wine. I don't disagree at all. I think that's a pretty reasonable stance. Allow me to ask you this. Allow me for the sake of conversation.

If you were me, when your little girl was locked today in Castle Gloomvale, and if we are... If she is lucky, she is already dead. What would you have me, her mother, do? who turned her over to those monsters. Attempts to break bread with you. What did you do?

I would question you the same thing I questioned you back in your cage. If the roles were reversed when they already had your daughter, they told you you would get her back fine. If you captured another, an enemy's child for them, would you have said no? I would have done it but I would not have expected to be welcomed

as friends and allies I would have done what I had to do and leave the rest of my life in chain that's one way to handle it and never asked for forgiveness the mourning Lord only

the only one who could forgive such a thing and I do not think he would well I would then query you with you lose your daughter, the same way that their chieftain has lost tears. In such a horrific way, you will never be able to forget it another day in his life. So he sequesters himself away. He does not help another child. He does not help another human. What good is his life?

You don't want to forgive? Then be pathetic. Then do nothing. Then let your daughter die in vain. Is that what you're saying? Or break bread. forgive and live every single day and make sure you do not waste a moment of the life that you'll have i think i was waiting check 11 oh i can pick which one i want to use right yeah you use the okay i can use the higher one i'll use the higher one so that would be a 19 oh a 19 yeah um i forgot that my plus was a 10 bingo uh with that

She stopped for a moment, and she looks at you and she narrows her eyes. And she takes another gulp of wine. It's an eight. So nine plus eight. And she rests her elbow. She rests her elbow on her knee. And she says, she thinks for a moment. She blinks. I suppose I forget the tendons of my goodness of my goodness.

God, stay positive and always aid. I will fight alongside. I varren his back. I do not turn my weapons to them and I will not even spit in their direction when they pass by. We are on the same side. I'm not trying to tell you that you shouldn't have pain, that you shouldn't feel anger or hatred. you should, but don't let it control you. Your daughter may still live. Your daughter needs you to be strong. The daughter needs you to be the role model. Do you want her to live her life filled with anger and hate for what's happened to her?

Do you want her to grow up and be everything she can possibly be? All the potential in the world in a small child. Do you want her to lose that? because of something she could not control that you could not control. I just ask when we go into castle, gloomvail that you all

fight bitterly and viciously till the end. I will. Until we have our answer one way or another. And if not, salvation for my little girl. I'm going to walk up to her and I'm going to grab her hands. I have magics,

magics of death, magics of the crossing from this life into the other. And I promise you, if I have it in my power, regardless of what has happened to your little girl, if I have it in my power to bring her back to you, I will use it. If it exhausts me, if it takes everything I possibly have, I will make sure you are reunited if I can.

I promise you this. I hope that your God and my mind. Perhaps can join forces as gods of good and light. But I fear after the rumors I hear of the princess or queen, spider queen, nine eyes. She sounds far worse than even the carrion king himself. More sadistic. And if we find her, it may not just be death.

You understand? Yes, I've seen what they can do with my own eyeless. Death may have been a mercy. For Valesca. With you alive, and with the additional power of the werewolves at our side, we will find justice for her. If not, salvation and vengeance. Yes.

That is not. A tenant of the mourning Lord, but it is enough for me. for me. And she kind of, you realize now that she's clutching the, the handle of her whip, um, the more of a chain, as she, she grips it tight. I hope that all of you pray for us, pray for me. Every night. Pray for Velasca. And every day. Shifty eyes. Are you looking at me, no, no, yeah. Yeah, I, I pray. I am told that, that, I pray twice, for looking at him. That's what they say.

She bruce from you. Along with Alessandro and us, we are to fight alongside the legendary Asher, consort of my people's oppressor. Perhaps I will make these stories, too, if Alessandro of what he says is true. Well, he means, well, now, I think he was a different person back then. And he wants to do right. He wants to do good here and save his daughter. I think you two have a lot in common. Maybe you two can bond over that fact.

All the stories were that he was a very vile man in Castle Ravenloft. His sadistic nature was not quite that of his companions in the harem of the countess, the rule over this land. But he is known for his treachery and betrayal and treason against her. If he betrayed her so easily, once it was clear that she was losing. What makes you think he will not turn his blade on us if we end up losing our grip, losing the upper hand. But I own those stories of Count Kresko.

I'll be honest with you. I think that it is more likely that he will than he won't. But do we really have a choice? Perhaps we can go to Alexi and talk sense into him. About what? About having a vampire known mostly for his treachery

He will be honorable up until we're in the moment, up until we're in the room with his daughter. At that point, I cannot trust him either way. But he is a formidable fighter. We've seen it. He will help to get us where we need to go. He will help get us the vengeance that we seek. In that moment, I cannot be sure. He's pretty emotionally vested here, too.

He's got reason to be on our side. There's no reason not to trust him. Until his daughter is on the line, he's 100% with us. Well, I have plenty of holy water. If he steps out of line or shows any sign of betrayal, we should be ready to stake. And she shows that she has three stakes in her bandelier. I hope that that doesn't come to that. And, you know, just keep your eyes on surprise, as people say.

If you're too worried about him, then you might miss something more important. So, yeah. Well, I guess you're right. I guess if wereholes, vampires, all the things that I hunt in the night, we're all friends. I suppose the carrion king and his ear, ilk are that evil, that we ride with creatures of the night to crush a greater evil. Well, if it brings me salvation or vengeance, what does it matter to me?

And she takes a deep drink. I hope you enjoy your time in Borovia as long as you are here. Alessander trusts you greatly, the fact that he is going to venture into the mists. He speaks of it with such terror Fear the creatures of them I know that he does not worship the morning Lord I know what he prays to Whom he prays to

He's a good friend and a good man And that guidance brings us Prosperity and safety But I would be lying if I said I do not fully Trust that what she follows And where does he follow? His eyes and whispers are into the mist.

I've heard only the word maiden. And that's it? And this worries you? I do not press. I asked once and I have never seen him. Angry. I've never seen rage come to him. But that time, he was the angriest, far angrier than I ever could have. Thought Alessandro could get?

Wow. He is very secretive. I didn't realize that this could be an issue. You really think there's a problem here? The power he gains is very strong. And he seemed to be very pleased with the feather that you and have retrieved. Well, isn't him being strong? It's a boom for us.

It's not a negative. So shouldn't we be pleased that he's worshipping something in the mist? if it's providing us an advantage against our enemies? I believe that at this point, what does it matter, vampire variables, maiden of mist? If it brings us to remove the carrion king's head, what does it matter? Yes, exactly right, 100%.

She shrugs, and she's looking a little bit apathetic, but you can see that her immediate bitterness and vitriol toward these creatures of the night. You get the sense that she has probably spent her entire adult life, maybe even earlier, finding, hunting, killing, all of these things that she's now expected to be working with. But you get the sense that for Velasca,

she would do anything. And she's warming up to you, certainly, certainly at ease and at peace with the fact that you are as strong as you are, particularly with a holy woman. someone who actually seemingly might understand how she feels about her own god. Maybe that's. So, how did everyone feel about last week's episode of Game of Thrones?

I don't know what that is. Oh, I don't know. I just heard people asking random questions when you get uncomfortable in a conversation. Oh. This conversation's making it uncomfortable. Why? It's full of anger. It's very, well, you know.

You know some people. Anyway. Well, thank you for your perspective. And I think what you said about Alessandro is interesting, but it'll be very helpful. His magic is strong. We can't trust, then we lie on him. It's good to look powerful people. Yes, very helpful.

We'll need all the powerful people we can get, including yourself. Your mind on prize. And no matter what happens tomorrow, we're going to try to save as many people as we can. That's the goal. was it not? Yeah, you do it. As long as we... Why did she do that?

Not sure. Say Valiska. Right. And everybody else. Get out of that chance. Yes. to say. No, no, no, we're going to leave. Come on, everybody. Here we go. Let's go. Let's all go to the beast world. And she says it condescending mocking way. I leave. I very quickly. Let's. I guess we'll leave

it. Apologies. She turns back and she waves her hand and then goes back to drinking and laughing with her companions. It's been a long day. I got a place to sleep. I still have one level of exhaustion if something like that were to exist in this world. So... Well, don't you have spells that can remove that concept of exhaustion? You expect me to work on my day off? Well, are we gonna go to bed?

And if long rest was like a mechanical thing, we're probably about to have one. Exactly. So you might as well use it and just be totally fine by tomorrow. But I would have to lift my hands to do it and chant something. Oh, what's the rules for not sleeping and exhaustion? Uh, you rule a con-saving throw, I believe. And if you fail, you'd just do it.

take a level of exhaustion and the DC goes up the more days you stay away. Yes. Right? That's correct. DC 10. We'll just set it to 10. You basically can't lose. Yeah.

17. Yeah. You don't take any exhaustion. You feel tired though, but it's not, you've stayed a plenty of, you've done not just all nighters, but like several days where you were studying and reading and. And, uh, I believe like when you went to Zent. This bug is bothering the fuck out of me.

I think when you went to Zensher, I think you were up for like. two days or something in a library. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, it's, you know, my hidden passive. These things happen. They want to squish you so I can see your eyeball. I do have one level of exhaustion already from the transformation, but that's going to go away. Was we get playing from drink.

Capri's having parted too hard, makes his way into his camp and into his tent and just like. Alessandro has showed you that, you know, the tent that was set up, it's usually for gassed people that are there staying overnight. the one that you had stayed at when you learned about, a Hector Mancrab. Oh, my God. Oh, that's gone. I can call that. And I don't think that you did.

You didn't share the story of Hector Mancrabb. Did you go to a Nivistan? I don't think so. No, just to the group. Yeah, I think it's totally. Yeah, so there's plenty of wine. There's also food in the tent, and you're able to get some, a little bit of privacy there.

Is there, like, a large field? There is his grass around the camp. I'm making my fucking temple. There's grass around the field, for sure, yeah. Yeah, I walk well. Around the camp. Thank you for, no, he's hanging out to me. Thank you, Vestorne, for your hospitality.

I'm going to head over here and make a gigantic temple to my gold. See you in the morning, and I'll walk over and, bam. You cast the temple. Everything that's shake. Is that one freaking the worst? And you see that. And you see the other horse that the same horse have been grazing and it's like, in the grass, the little straw ball.

I love these horse days. So where that horse is, I want to create a beautiful oasis and allow the horse entry so it can like drink this delicious water. Yeah, sure, why not? Yeah, there's an oasis on the other side. You know, the horse has been through a thing. You can lead a horse to them all this gimmick. It goes out of the oasis pool very, very delightfully as it laughs it up.

It is very shaken, but several of the horses also, they seem to be, you know, they're not really locked up at all, but there's no stables, and they just meander over. And they do that. As Iris goes and you go into your temple and it's exactly what you'd expect. I would sleep in the tent. I would stay there.

Oh, I didn't invite anyone else. Yeah, I'm gonna stay as well, assuming that I didn't have an invite. I wouldn't know the temple exists. Amoriously. Fair enough. I would stay up partying and, you know, going from 10 to 10 and just, you know, talking to all the Vassani and anybody who's willing to, like, party with me until a time. I would say there's people that are ready to party all night.

Yeah, I would stay out as long as I possibly could until I knew I really needed. And I am kidding. They all obviously have invitations to my temple, so I don't get sleep there if they walk to. I just don't know it exists is the problem. Oh, that's fine. Caprice is done. He's out like a light. Like, I'm not mechanically tired, but I'm exhausted from my new role as not being abusive shit.

It's horrible. I love that. It's personal growth. Anything else before you go to bad now? No. Not for me. I mean, I would do some praying to a new bis clearly and, you know, write my journal. That's a junk journal, in case you're wondering.

Sounds good. Stumble in the middle of the night track. worship from the field in three years. Oh, not a chance. Yeah, I probably. No, I don't do that. Or do it. I don't know. Or do I?

Or do I? All right, yeah, so we'd all go to sleep. So, you go to sleep in your Andre a long restroom. And I'm no longer exhausted. I might not be exhausted. And I'm no longer exhausted. Everyone's dead. Yeah.

Actually, I think I still have more. Cutthroats. You see a horrible. an horrible insectoid monster in your face. Oh, no, this is entirely serious. Roll furniture. No, I'm kidding. I'm referring to when you were all like,

ah, ha, ha, we're going to bed and we're not setting a lot, sure, or longer in the castle. Oh, you wake up to do a horrible spider abomination in your face, braying, and you're like, are you joking? No, not at all. No, not at all. No, not at all. No, not at all.

I still have a level of exhaustion. If some poor cutthroat tried to like jump us in the middle of the night it would be like wrong alley motherfucker oh yeah they would be misted like instantly you pick the wrong people to try to rob you poor bastard

yep exactly right it is yeah they would be fucking deleted just absolutely they'd be like who took my picture who shit that's hilarious holy shit

um so you all enjoy long rest. And at least to take a watch or anything? No, I'm just in my temple. Fuck that, I'm asleep. No, no. No, no.

No, no. No one. No one. So absolutely no alarms, no watch. Except we're in my temple. And Towa has his kidneys exposed. And he called her in a bathtub full of life. With a smiley face and heart.

Free. Free. We're free. Thank you. Good home. You, you, um... You awake those of you in the tent to someone watching you.

Ew. A pair of red eyes looking at you. As Escher sits in the tent looking incredibly bored. And he has his hand and his face in his hand. And he's just watching you guys in tent. In tent. Intently. And you see him just staring and he kind of perks up a little bit as he sees your eyes kind of flutter open.

and he says, oh, thank the gods. I've been so bored. No, sweet hells! Escher! What are you doing? I'm enjoying the lovely hospitality with the Vistani. What does it look like I'm doing? It looks like you're watching asleep.

Well, that's true. It's very boring, though. Well, I know you don't have to sleep, but can you, like, do something to occupy yourself? Like a muck some puzzles? It's super losing. Or make some coffee? I tried to heat.

I've been trying to make the company. And it's just water because they didn't put a pot in, so I just want to come in. I love that there's a magical thing. I have no idea how... I have no idea how this fucking watch. You keep saying this coffee is simple and easy, but it just seems wasteful to me,

and it tastes terrible. Just fucking let me do it. Anyway, what did you do here? I thought we were going to be at the castle. How did you meet him go? Yeah, everything went shockingly well. They told me of a plan of we're going to sneak into Castle Bloomvale while the rest of the Crusaders and the werewolds

and the keepers of the feather and the fucking angel are going to fight against the ghouls and their infantry. We were given similar details. I presume that Alessandra seems to be quite the respected man with Count von Zarovich and his inner circle. I think he's more powerful than he lets on. That seems to be the situation. But I am impressed with Alexi's plan. I'm also impressed of the fact that he's willing to act as a diversion as we slip behind enemy lines.

And I knew the feather would come in handy. Apparently, it wasn't until the mention of the feather that our friend Alessandro even offered to take us in his wagon through the mist. Well, I think that... Oh, there's specks be floating in here. This is disgusting. That's just how it works. I'm sorry. Oh, it's just dirty water. Shit, dirty, wolf.

Does anyone want any else? I'm gonna pass, man. No. Are we there? No, why? You're in the temple. I'm in the temple, yeah. Perfect.

Should we be waiting for the others while we talk? We're in the bath, and we're just, like, chilling out. Strategy seems to already be sad. Yeah. We have our plan. It's now that I am here, we need to load into,

Alessandro's wagon. And us, plus, the monster slayer, were the ones that are riding behind enemy lines. Well, if you don't think we need to meet with the count, then so be it. I mean, I trust your judgment. Are we going today?

Alexei is such a bore. I don't think you care to meet with him. I mean, if you want to speak to him, he's going to give a rousing speech before we ride off. But I suppose I need to... It was suggested that I had to castle Romagna ahead of time to prepare and get carving,

get some more blockheads for air cover. So I will actually have to leave you. Persephalus is here, he's fine. I managed to feed on some of the beasts and the beast force. I heard some children screaming, For me to get out. I almost said, well, I haven't had any human blood in a long time, and you know what? It's very rude of them.

But I held my, I held my things. I don't know why they were screaming for me to get out. I do not understand. Did they call you an edible child? How did you know? And that you were made of meat? Yes. How did you know?

Well, no, it's a song they sing. We've been singing in camp, too. Yeah, right before we left, I was told to write a song so that people would be afraid of the Beastwood, and that was the song. You heard them singing a song. Well, you were, in the intention was that the children wouldn't enter the Beastwood.

Because they were edible. Well, I saw no fewer than a dozen children. Well, I was hunting on the Beastwood. How did the song that's supposed to scare them away from the Beastwood make more children go into the Beastwood? I had to do realize. Do you realize how close they came to Bicephalus's sharp teeth? Do you understand that, Caprice?

I... Do you understand how much danger you put to those children in? With your foolish, cavalier attitude, and what the message you put in children's music, you should feel ashamed of yourself. You clearly have never been a parent. I'm going to have another coffee. Are you telling me that you are going to tell children...

And now, Derek is humorously pantomime music. For our podcast listeners, we're in Damatimating operating and fantasy curing machine. I didn't realize that they would take to the song. That was the opposite reaction. If you have a child, and you tell them, don't. to do this thing, specifically, they are going to want to do that thing you are telling them not to do. All right.

Next time. I've never had a kid. I plan to. And this is a learning moment for me. Well, I had some bear. I guess it had been a while since I had bear. It's still vile or stuff. But I'm alive.

I'm sure on our way, I'm sure there will be a Voltral Rideau, several. So I have a question. Yes. I'm a bit confused on. timing. I think we heard like today, then we heard a few days, and then we heard today. I think it was really a question of whether you and the werewolves are well enough to ride. Well, but you need to go back and carve your gargoyles first, but you're also coming with us. Well, I'm on Busephalus. I can make far better time than their crusaders and the werewolves. Oh, so how are you going

to meet us in the carriage? The army will be passing by Castle Ramon. Oh, it's on the way. Oh, see, I've looked at the map. I think Caprice has had it this all the time. I'm sorry, I'm very confused. I've got the map. Zarikosa is to the north. Past Castle,ormonia, considerably.

Oh, all right. Okay, I've got it. It makes a lot of sense now. You're going to go now. Yes. We'll meet you maybe in a day and two, depending on how long it takes. Yes.

And then we're all get in the wagon and then we'll do this. We'll do the thing. All right. Sounds good. I love to. Do you need me to repeat that very slowly for you, Toa? Sounds like you have it, but I want to make sure. Wanting to remind Capriese, did we get all five things that we had to do in this Vastani camp?

What? Caprice, this had five things that we needed to figure out. This is still terrible. At some point, I assume. we would make our way to the tent. I would. I would at some point make my way to the tent. No, don't go.

Let's have a pillow fight. No, you always hit too hard, and then I end up crying, and I just don't have time for that today. But I can give you more wine, a temple wine. I have my own wine. But it's holy wine. I do like it when it's a little bit. It has gold flex in it.

They call it gold shrugger. Okay. I'm done back in the bathtub and it's another hour or so before I made my way to the tent. I wonder where the girls are. Probably doing nothing sexy. Did we figure it all out? All five of them? Yeah. So first you asked what day it was. I think you figured out. Yeah. Then we asked, did we figure out what happened to the werewolves? Yeah. We got that, right? Then we asked what happened to the Islam? Did we figure that out?

We were here now, yeah. Then we asked, we have a lot to catch up on. Did we get that? I think so. And then you ask you know. What does that mean? I feel like we do know now, yes. Oh, we know as in like you know. Yeah, we're on it. I thought we're on you know, we're on if you know too. Do you know? I think so. I just wanted to make sure that I had them written down in my name. I have some confidence to what do you know do you know do you know? Do you know? I'm gonna feel that should I know just say yes with Gusto. Yes with some gum Do you?

God's I love them, dumb. All right, Howard. He looks his lips as he stares up at you. I haven't been in the mood lately, but now there's hope I am, Toa, I don't... Toa, you're not dumb. You've had unbelievably great suggestions throughout this entire journey that we've been on, ever since we met out the crossroads with that weird guy who gave us beer for no reason. Wait, excuse me.

You've been really fixated on the dumb thing. Wait, you don't have to, you know what? I mean, I don't know. Wait, does that sound familiar to you? No, I just seems like a very strange circumstance. Oh no, there was this guy. We were walking down the, I am myself and Herja, dwarf, who you have not met.

We were walking down the street, the road, the travel path, and all of us met together and a man with a mustache. Why are you gesturing to the empty seat cushions? the rest of the ladies aren't here. You can hear loud giggling of coming from the temple. Oh, yes. It's hot to the code in you. Jesus.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We all met at this crossroads in the guy gave us probably the best ale, lager, I don't know, some sort of a beer variety that I've ever had in my whole, my whole existence. It was unbelievable, and that was how we all got to know each other at that crossroads. It doesn't sound like... Yeah, I suppose just taking strange drink from a stranger that you just happened to meet.

I wouldn't do that. I didn't either. Yeah, that seemed a little weird to me. We all didn't do it either. Well, to be fair, at that time, I was still, you know, being hunted actively, and I kind of wanted to stay sharp, you know? It's kind of exciting to be hunted, isn't it? God, I guess.

It was pretty stressful. It makes you feel alive. Well, I mean, I certainly didn't want to get caught if that's what you mean. Across the field, Luffy's stumbling. You hear very loudly, oh, Luffy, I'm going to get you. I wish I was in the temple. As we play naked, hide and see. It's like hide and seek.

But naked. Literally, but naked. No, I'm pretty sure that if they had caught me, they would have, you know, Got some really horrific stuff to me. No, I guess it is Korovaki. Nothing fun happens there. Okay, I'm going to leave now. And do you need anything else before I go? Do you need me to prepare anything? Um, oh, you're not there. Um, oh. No, I'm hunting for Lufty. Iris says your key and she learns stuff about it, but I don't want to misrepresent it.

He's like standing, getting ready to go and he sighs and just sits back down. Give me that horrible dirty water and he grabbed up. Oh, there's still flex in it. Oh, that tastes like water. You might want to stop by the temple on your way out, just quickly. I figured we'd wait for them. I don't want to go here at a temple.

Do you think I would do well in a temple? I think I'd light on fire. I actually don't think you can go into my temple. After a while, I would make my way to the tent. Hopefully, I received. I already gave our talisman through the mist to our Miss Walker. So Alessandro's fears and worries

should be put to ease. Oh hey, how's it going? You hear Iris again, Lutti, I'm going to find you. As I still continue to hunt for her. You just left her playing a game of hiding a game of hideancy, she just left. It's technically cheating to leave the area of gameplay,

But you know, it's more fun this way. Well, hi. How's it going? Well, we were just wrapping up, really. It's good to see you, Loftrey. I've had some bear, can you tell? I suppose. Is that a euphemism?

It can be. I'm actually a little tired. Yes. Iris has kept me busy all morning, so I don't have time for your games. Or do. I was interested and now you just turned me off tremendously. Oh, so the hunter's own.

Oh, so now, of course, as soon as I say no, then you're interested. Classic. Yeah, exactly right. I'm ready. I'm going back to Castle Romagna to prepare as many gargoyles as I can before the army passes by on our way to Zarakosa. Oh. Oh, Iris had the thing with the key. Did you tell him about the thing with the key? Oh, didn't know. Something she would come with you, but I guess she did it. Perhaps we can reconvene once I...

Yeah, well, I mean, she said it twice and once very slowly so that you could copy it down. Well... I didn't copy it down, but it was something, something... But to his point, we don't want to misrepresent it. Oh. Steal her thunder, you know? Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, she's the one that really wrote it down in here.

Probably, probably. Yeah, well, okay. I'll just leave you with it, right? It was really good. And you'll probably find it useful as well, but mostly I just caught it right. But I think it's a good point. We're going to see you soon anyway, so we can just tell you in the wagon.

A few days at the longest. All right, we'll see you in a few days. It'll be fun. I'll be solid to ride in a wagon. I'll bring some additional goodies if I have time in my lab. It'll be good to see Bruce again. And he takes his parasol and he kind of sticks it outside of the tent and he opens it and he steps out beneath the parasol.

And he turns back and says, well, until we meet again, we crash against the tide of undead. It's going to be fun. See you soon. And he turns and leaves and makes his way and disappears. You hear this horrific winnie, and then the terrified witty of dozens of horses, as you presume Bicephalus emerges from the ethereal plane, and Escher rides off into the sky. Well, we should probably find where everyone is mustering, I believe, is the word. Oh, you hear his voice say. I'm also bringing the gargoyles with me.

No. Oh, okay. We assume that. That's very encouraging. So it seems like the majority of the forces going up the obvious way, and we were all going to sneak around the side with the rest of the games. Yeah. They mustering an army, and the army's going to just do a full-on advance straight to the castle,

and then I guess we'll somehow go through the mist, which lets us skip. through in some weird kind of undiscovered way. Now Alessandro is a mist walker. That's a cool title. There is a cool title. I mean he's very cool in general. And you add the whole mistwalking thing on top of it. Wow, cool. Yes, it's like very cool. Very cool.

Very cool. Very cool. I'm starting to take up my accent. Oh, oh, it's terrible. That is very cool. I would like to go in the bargain. The bargain? Is there anything we can do before we make our way?

Just wait? Well, I think we should drag virus at her temple. Oh, yeah. I'll go get her. She's gonna be mad when I found out where she finds out I left. You what? She's going to be mad when she finds out that I left, right in the middle of the game. What game?

Do you think? You left in the middle of it, I would see? I was just going to be furious. Yeah. Are you feeling okay, Caprice? I mean, you said that exact thing not three minutes ago. To love to you. I'm not sure if this is a Caprice thing or I dare to go.

And I'm writing the woman. Anyway, I leave to find Ireland. to find Iris is in the temple. You're all able to go and find Iris or bring Iris back, whatever you want to do. No, what you find is you make your way into the temple and you see Iris. Her head, most of her torso stuck under the throne

and her little cat ass is just moving back and forth, her tail swashing. You see I'm gonna find you. I know you were under here last time. You can't, you fool me once. Shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Are we all there?

Yeah, you're all just watching that. I push the lift the end of the middle of the temple. Oof. I was gonna try to hide her so that she could feel some sort of form of success, but, you know, whatever you want to do. I'm just gonna try to like sneak kind of around the throne chair, like, really quiet, like, and then, like, slip under the throne chair, so my feet start to, like, emerge where you're looking. Oh, you found me. I'm gonna see how stupid I am. Actually pretty stupid.

See her rare for. Look, I got you. You little winks. Okay, oh look, the boys are here. Oh! Well, it lets me get my robe, and I'm gonna stand up completely nude. I'm just gonna watch the wall and put my robe on. Oh!

You see cat tits. Yeah, how many tits. And this is how we exploded in the furry fandom. Debris says... Oh, we're in the... Oh, do cameras. Cameras. Microphones.

New. Never mind. New Rule 34. You just missed Count Kreskov. Oh, wow. What a shame. Well, I mean, you have the key and you have the whole legend and all thing about the key,

but I figured we're going to see him in a few days. Yes, I'll tell him then. All right, well, we should probably... Well, why don't you tell him? What we missed? What we missed? Oh. Yeah, what did we miss, Taua? We don't really have to up pee this, but I feel you in.

You know, we talked about. Well. Why does that feel like such a heavy weight on my shoulder? And when anyone says we don't have to arpe this. I have a friend named Benzo. This is bullshit. I don't know. You're not, you know, I'm not thinking of person. It doesn't really sound like you missed anything.

Sorry. No, did you not work in a temple? You're beneath the eyes of a god. You are condemned. Your shirt is heavy. She's immediately smoked. 400 sacred damage. Smoked by radiant damage.

18 fireballs. Sue, what is the plan for show then? So the plan is that we begin to ride north with the army. And then when we go by Castle Rumoria, Um, Escher's going to join us, and then Alessandra is going to ride us through the mist, like we talked about. I, you know, Caprice, I don't have any plans to learn how to be a musician, but last night, while I was laying in bed, my lovely four-post to bed with the beautiful silk curtains, um, I came up with a song. Yeah, to hear it.

That sounds very luxurious. I fell asleep on some sacks of wreaths. I would love to hear your song, though. Please continue. He tries to work out of Phawn his back. You know, just his baby bag. I pictured it. Don't worry. I pictured it. Capriza's standing like this. Yeah. I'm still finding Basmati in my pocket. You look like that guy in Beetle, dude.

With the tracks off the tracks. No, go ahead. Tell me how comfortable it works. Oh, well, anyway, my song, Alessandro, Alessandro, Roberto. What do you think? There's actually something there, weirdly. I don't know anyone named Roberto, but it sounded like it fit really well. I can't think of anyone who would want to be named Roberto. And then I also thought of this line you could put, maybe not in that song, but another one.

Raha, rah, ha, ha. What do you think? Wow. Is it a little too falseful? No, no, no, no. The progression makes perfect sense. If you just musically... I'm going to work on this. Thank you, darling.

You have some divine inspiration here. Let's go. Lovely. You have some rice here, and I'm going to pull it off. Oh, yeah, the whole side of me just... Well, anyway, so... Well, anyway, so... We should go.

You should pack up, you know, whatever you do to... But couldn't we see another night? I mean, well, I don't know. I mean, I think the whole point is once we're well enough to ride, we would go, and I think we're well enough to rhyme. We shouldn't delay another day just because we want to stay another day. I agree. I just really love my temple and not doing anything.

I run day with day. It's not really a rhyme. Yeah, and stay. And delay. Oh, I did say today. You said like a lot of words that rhymes just now. Poet and I didn't even realize. My, my face.

David Bard back in neckbet. Nikki Minaj rhymes the same word with the same ride. Word all over over again. And she's quite popular. Nikki Mirage? Yes. That sounds very Nickbitt. That's exactly what I'm so good.

I'm thinking that. Fuck you. That is so good. Yes, get that rice off of your fingers. The Juno Temple's God's six. Have some respect. You hear the of the grain of rice. It echoes.

Now's the acos to the stone of this massive chamber in the temple. Oh my God. It's a funny of hell. Mickey Mirage, quite the negotiation pop star. Yeah, I mean, if we're not doing anything, then let's make our way to the camp and get on out. Oh, I'm still exhausted. You gave me to great song ideas, though, so that's huge.

It took up all of my energy. All of it? All of it? All of it? Well, that in chasing looks here, I'm for ten. Yeah, I'm pretty wild. You rely on your ability to heal us during combat. Oh, when I prepared my spells today, I didn't take a single feeling one. That's a little concerning.

Well, I've decided I don't like being a heather anymore. Oh, all right. I don't think you just get to decide that. That's your place. Well, I'm angry and I don't want to do it. You have to call Daddy? No. Don't you dare?

Because I will. Fine, I'll take a hidden spell. Don't call it. And stop calling him Daddy. Let's go. Snap and the temple goes out. All by Marble. You're all crushed by Marble,

and you die. You're all crushed by Marble, and you die. I'm gonna see you. It's all that's... Hello. How it is. Oh. Also, I'm going to say that Cardi B can remain Cardi B, but it's short for Cartouche.

Oh, I was thinking it was short for Cartaghan. No, it's Carty. Carby B is the arch enemy of Lord Kido. I was thinking of carbohydrate. I love Lorti. Cartin. I'm gonna give me this carboying dude. Yeah, that's good.

Oh my God, I can't have so much. I want to say. say we have to play D&D. Do we? Do we really? Okay. Well, the temple's gone. You got what you wanted.

A bath is gone. You were all crushed in marble. It is a horrible bloodbath. I wish I had prepared. All of the Vistani children were waiting to wake you off, and they are just gone. Oh, no.

I have a compound fracture, my femur. My ribs on my left side have punctured my long. Oh, don't have Megan. I'm sorry, buddy. I love you.

No, no, no, no, no. No, no. No. Jeez. This doesn't happen. You see a bunch of Asthony

as they're all cheering as you're all outside. Actually, the temple rather than collapsing, it shimmers away like Nikki Mirage does. Nikki Mirage. Nicky Mirage.

Exactly right. Exactly. It was Nicky's Mirage. 100%. 100%. And it fades away, and you see, as Vastani are cheering, all of the kids run up in there. They're cheering you. They're so excited. You see Misha is at the head, a little bit of like a ringleader of the bunch.

And she says, wow, that was really cool. Can you dish me out to do that? No. So what are we going to me? Let's go back to the Beast Wood. That's all good. Oh, my dad is looking for you. for you his wagons already and then they all just zip off into the beast

well. Knowing the beast would say if I don't say anything. Yeah, let's find the wagon. We can stelt our way into this mist. Do you really think the beast would say they're not bears in there? Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine. They're just bears. No more.

Bears just like steal from like picnics and stuff, right? Yes. Don't they care about like picnic baskets and then and eat honey? be far. Let's go. I think that at least most of them except for the slowest one will be fine. So it's okay. It's an ounce game. Only the strongest will survive and that's fine. Let's find the wagon. You hear you one of the kids like who says oh I spilled honey all over my life. Bye.

Guys I twisted my ankle earlier. I cast I cast at second level I cast At second level, I cast especially delicious. I didn't bear. He'd be even magically delicious. Magically delicious. Oh my God. He's kind of yelled

on my life. But those guys, leave now. Get out. Get out. get out as the children disappear into the woods. So we would locate the wagon. Yes, we will work for the wagon.

Welcome, Academy Kid, Academic Kid, Academic. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome, thank you for the follow. You are, as you see, all of the horses seem to be mobilized. There are, or most of them rather, there are some that are staying behind. All of the children are obviously staying. But you see that, and many of the men and women as well, but the ones that are the fighters amongst them are strapping the leather armor to their horses. They're getting their curved blades and their bows and arrows. And they're riding out.

You see many of them riding out in two-by-two down the pathway towards that main road that run through the Borovian Valley. And you see a number of wagons also rolling out, absolutely stocked and filled with barrels of supplies and food. And you get the sense that there's also one of the roles of Vastani riding with you may not even be fighting, but it's also the supply line as well as feeding everyone. And so this all rolls out. And you see, even though it is bright, you can immediately find. the wagon that Alessandro is driving. Before you see him, this large man sitting in the driver's seat with two horses, one, a very large, sturdy gray one, the one that had actually seen you teleport in, and then one with a chestnut hair color. Wow.

But what you've noticed first is the lantern. that is hanging from the side of the wagon, right by the next of the driver's seat, and it's radiating, despite it being day, you can very clearly see this bluish-greenish light that radiates from it, and it radiates very far, much farther than any just normal hanging lantern would.

And it is kind of eerie as you approach it. And you see as Sophia Anna is standing by the open door, and she's like checking all of her, of her blades, she's pulling out each one, her axes, her knives. She refastens her chain whip twice. She seems to be a little bit on edge, but she's just making sure that she's 100% ready to go. And she has a bag and she throws it into the baggage compartment in the back. And as you approach, she just looks at you and says, this is it.

And she climbs into the wagon and closes the door. and you see Alessandro leaning forward and he snaps his finger and immediately you see this bright, flashing, purplish, good morning spelled out. Ha ha ha, good morning, how did you sleep? Oh, yeah, actually really good. Yeah, not that at all.

I don't feel tired at all today. Decent, a little ricey, but decent. It was very nice and I came, thank you for your whole. You've been so kind and so hospitable and your food so delicious. I don't know how we can begin to thank you enough. Yes, your tents are lovely, so I slept in my temple. It was quite a magical feat.

Well, the only children loved it. They wished that they could get inside and they couldn't. Oh, they could. Well, they were not having success. Are they some kind of fiend? Yes, they are. Have you met, have you met little Misha? Actually, yes.

Yes, that would be the greener-lands are quite the fiends. Oh, are you ready? Have you had a good, strong breakfast? Make sure you're well-fed. They're going to meet the rest of the army. The crusade is what Alexi or Count von Zarvich is calling it. All I've had is three cups of coffee. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a great big breakfast.

Biscuits, I drank a dozen eggs. Easy. All good. It will keep you strong, well-fills. There is days, many days just to get to Zarikosa, especially on the turrets, earth roads. But we stall the horses and wagons. That, that can, they can traverse it. We do not need these brutish, ghoulish ogres and vultures.

We do not need that. They will see this coming. But that is what we want. Are you ready, France? Yes. Yeah. Very ready. I'm only slightly exhausted.

Do you need to sleep? Well, yes, but you said it was multiple days until you get there, so I'll be fine. All right. Well, he looks out at the camp. We will be back. I am certain of it. I feel it in my prayers.

I have seen this legendary tale. Come, friends. Come to Elisandroswagon. You can't wait. I'll be the first one in, to be honest. I'm ready to go. You do that. I'm running up and I push Caprice out of the way so that I'm

going to. Ow! You actually, you know, you roll your ankle at that time and you can't do anything. You can't even want. Oh no, no, no, he's now covered in honey. He fell into that the child left me. You see, Caprice, you lay,

you roll your ankle and you lay it on your elbow. Oh, no. And you roll, you smash into a jar plenty. Cut yourself right to the tree line, you hear a... Ruhr... ...the next to you go, bam, just like the retinence. ...a 2,000-pound grizzly bhares. Help!

You see two claws sink into... You can drag them into the woods. Well, that's unfortunate. Well, I guess we're now a party of four. I climb up and I duck and I try to... I don't know how big it is, but I try to... It's a very... It's a large wagon. You see that there's the room for baggage in the back, and then there's a large container.

It's your bowing al-bo. And I'll find the most exciting scene. It's like, wow! And there's windows, and you see that there's actual curtains. It's very plush inside. It's very roomy. Um, uh, Sophiaana just gives you a nod as you all enter, and you, uh, you... You close the doors. And with a crack of the reins, he says,

well, frayed and marmalade to war, as you hear the creaking of the wheels of this wagon as the horses begin to take off. And you leave the Vistani camp behind. You make your way down the road. You see the large mountains that flank Barovia in this valley. You see the dragon flame trees glistening in the sunlight

as you make your way, and you see that there's actually a very large field on the edge of the valley where the road cuts through, and you get the sense that there probably had been, this is where a large portion of the beast would have been, but it's been cleared out, and the army is now mustering. You just see hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of heavily armored paladents, knights, Crusaders of the Morning Lord.

They're all adorned in the iconography of this morning Lord. As you see flying overhead, you hear the croaking of ravens as they fly all around. And you see flying overhead as well, although you don't hear it, the flapping of these large angelic wings. As that strange masked, haided abbot. flies over as well.

And then on the outskirts of this camp, you just see the rough and tumble-looking silver pine. And there are far more of them than you ever would have guessed from what you had seen. As they're all rallying, you get the sense that they had actually been camping here as they were welcomed in. There are many wagons and crates and sections of supplies as the men and women, as they had looked,

haggard and starving before. Now they seem well fed, well rested, and healed up. And you see at the head of all of this, as they're starting to kind of muster and form ranks, and even the lichenthropes are starting to kind of walk together and more of a group as they're walking towards where all of the knights are starting to mount up. Their horses just as armored as they are.

And you see up ahead, as the abbot descends, you see where he's heading, you see that at the head there, Ivar is talking with Alexi. And you see that Ivar is in his hybrid form. He is a humanoid wolf as he stands looking down at Alexi, who seems to be just having no bit of fear or intimidation. and they're talking. And after you get close enough where Alessandro calls out to them and they turn and the wagon stops and Alessandro gets off and the three men meet

and they begin to discuss as the knights start to form ranks and the werewolves start to get in formation. And you see then as the fluttering of wings as Ervin shapeships from a raven into a man and the four of them are discussing and it's not more than 10 minutes until you hear the creaking of the wagon

as Alessandro sits back on and grabs the reins and he says, here we go, prepare for a speech. And as you look through the window, you see as Count Alexei Von Zarevich gets atop his armored horse. It's absolutely massive. and the armor is beautifully polished, and he rides, and you see as all of the knights

begin to form ranks, and all the wereolds begin to flank them. And we are going to switch the music. Hmm. Teng-Din-Tin-Tin. Here as the heavy hoof prints of Count of... of Count Alexei von Zarevich's horse rides forward, And in this morning light, he raises his sword up. And he says, today, that's not his accent.

He says, today, we ride against the evil. We have lived amongst for far too long, remaining idle, safe in our own forest, protected by the gods. while the evil of the Kerian king has spread and become far more heinous. Today we unite four more enemies. Centuries ago, now no longer. Today, we ride for Zarikosa. Today, we ride for Castle Gloomvea.

We will bring an end to the evil of the carrion king. Bring an end to the Keryan king himself. Now in the light of the morning, we begin our new crusade. Just as there was a burning crusade in this land 200 years ago, we now begin the second burning crusade. We ride! And he turns around and everyone cheers, and he rise as a radiant blast of morning light shoots over

the shoes all around as he begins to ride. Everyone lets out a cheer. Even the werewolves you hear as they're all starting to transform into their hybrid forms. I yell into the crowd. I'm not sure. And they all start howling and they begin to just go down on all fours and full and full lope as they're just running.

As you hear just the ground rumbles. And you hear Alessandro is absolutely catching. Ha ha! Ah, Eli, they second crusade! as he begins to join along with the forces, as the combined might of Borovia rides forward north in this second burning crusade. And you travel.

And what would you like to do? Is there anything that you'd like to do is probably going to take you two and a half to three days to get to Castle Remornia? I'd like to take some time to talk to Alis. Osangro. Yeah. I would say you are probably able to ride for several days, camp, and then you're able to camp. You're probably a, you'll arrive at Castle Romagna the next day. If you look and you see, you can see that a dangerous precipice that it's on, that remote part of the, of the region that you're in.

You can see it very often the distance as the moon is, is, the light of the moon is very, is piercing through, but you can see the circle behind that gloomy, ever-present cloud cover. And I would say that you're able to enjoy, you know, that it's difficult to find clearings that aren't covered in rough crags and bits of forest where an army can really just camp. But you are able to occasionally find them, and you're here, and you would basically be able to to join Alessandro by the fire. And it's, we can see Castle Remornia. That is, that is Asher's Castle.

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that's what you said. Yep. Where is my... What is that? That's Barney's theme song. From the critically acclaimed Barney's Campfire sing-along. I love you. That's the...

We're at the campfire. And you see him, he's out. There's a campfire. You're all with Alessandro. I mean, we don't have to arpea. You see, as you look around, as you realize now that, um, that Sophia has, um, is nowhere around. You actually look off and towards the outskirts of the camp, you see that she's deep in conversation

with Alexi. As Alessandro is, is cooking and he's, humming a song. But just came down. Alessandro, excuse me, pardon me. Yes. I was wondering if you would regale me with some tails of your wagon.

How does it go about traveling through the mist? Well, it is the mist. Traveling the mist is something that all of Estami could do hundreds of years ago and has since in later generations become a lost art, it is never safe. I have held the traditions. I have continued the tradition and I have studied it more than even my ancestors had. The mist that they can travel through.

Is that just the mist in this land? Is it other mists, maybe some more dangerous mists, mist that maybe surround and shroud other lands, or worlds, maybe? I asked simply this, I will cut to the... Yes, please. This key, you see it? I do.

It is an Amber key. It currently houses the spectral form of some horrific entity that if let out could potentially destroy the world. Now you see, I... It is exciting. Yes, it is. I spent some time with it to learn a little bit more of its legend, and it aligns with something I must do in my life soon after we deal with the dangers here.

Let me read it to you, and I read the thing, and then I especially, but have no fear, the more exists in dark domains beyond the mist. And my God has entast me with going beyond the mist to, do I remember what, did he ever give it a name? Harakir. To a land called Harakir. Have you heard of it? Arachir. Is that where your God is? I fear that that is where my god is. I have heard the tales of Harakir.

Not much beyond the mad mummy god king Calls himself a god king But is an impostor in a godless land Is his name, Onkate? Yes. Yes, I feel. Now, should we survive this endeavor, which... Is it true?

Are these just tales? I have not traversed these domains. I have been able to traverse the mist. from one point to another in the ventrists. But I have not dared make my way to any of the terrible dread domains on the outskirts of the realms of death. And that is my point. Should we survive this endeavor, which I feel that we may, would you be brave enough with your wagon to try to help us to reach Hurricane? I know if no one's strong enough or not capable.

Alessandro. Takash. Yes. Leading a band of heroes to Harakir. Only if you're not afraid. Iris. Alessandro. I am afraid.

And you should be too. Roll persuasion check advantage. But only persuasion is an advantage. Twist. Twist. I roll two threes. Yeah, I rolled two, threes. Two, threes.

Wow. Three threes. Three threes. So 13. No, it's an eight for persuasion. Let me see. There's nothing stopping us from rolling more. One of them to attack.

The twist of the third? One more twist. Yes. I would love to see an additional twist on this. Okay, so you have failed me. You have failed me. So you have a chance to not fucking. 16 plus eight.

So that's math that I don't want to do. 24. 24, okay. He leads in and says, you should be afraid, too. You should be afraid of any realm of death. They do not call them in legendary domains of dread for no reason. But Alessandro Takash would not turn down such an adventure

after we sever the head of this. the beast, the Gerean king. With this, and he reaches into his, he pulled out that this, a bit of right, pristine raven's feather. With this, we will be protected. And the only problem is that I do not know how to get

to Harakir. I do not have anything of Harakir. It is you must have something of that realm. So... Am I here? You're all around the camp. We're all... If someone happened to have, like...

Not that any of us did, but if someone happened to have a small bit of the soul of Honkatepe, like inside of them. Is this a joke? Well, it's a hypothetical. No, a lot of crazy shit happened at the top of that mountain. We might have something like that or an artifact. Or could find it.

Or could find it. Put something like that work hypothetically. If we have this raven feather and we have a piece of the soul of Anka-Tep, the god-king of that godless realm? Yes. It'll be no problem for Alessandro Takash. Well, great, then we should try to find that.

I'll keep my eye open. No, me too. I can help. It's a course you can lift. How does that cool, spooky lantern work? That bluish, greenish, kind of glowing one that doesn't really, like, I mean, a lot, but it kind of does. I'll stand up and, like, tap it.

Please, be careful. As you hit it, you hear, as you kind of hear, as you kind of hear, like, these very soft wails. As it goes in and out, you see this slight mist, this mist of this ghastly, bluish green light with each one. And he says, oh, be careful. Sorry. These are incredibly rare. This allows me to use its light and power

to enter the mist. Having this, shatter on the lantern. Having this, do not be. I am good with a knife. And as he, as he waves his hand in a hand a puff of purple magic, you see, you actually see a, the wagon running through, miss, you see these horrible creatures on all sides, as they seem to be repelled, repelled on either side by this light from the lantern. And he says, this is what awaits us,

but even that, it is not a guarantee of safety, but this is. Which is why I feel now that I can delve into those domains. But this is what allows me. And the, but you cannot take this in just use it without a learning how, without receiving the appropriate permission. Oh, permission from who? Yeah, that was really vague and intriguing. I think it's important.

Well, Alessander Othika, Takash, is intriguing. And mystery is good for the imagination. But I think we are all hungry, and we all need a good meal. We're going to reunite with our good friend Escher tomorrow, and our great second burning crusade will be at his full strength. Well, thank you for this conversation. You've eased my mind greatly. You've excited mine.

Lovely, I'm glad we could be helped to each other. This is good. This is a good attitude. I like this. But let's eat. You eat. And the next day... And sing. You're able to do that.

The next day you ride and you see... And you, once again, as you're going through, the more north you get, you're seeing more castles off in the distance. You're seeing the vulture riders. And you see that they seem to be... be keeping away from you. As you look up ahead, you see the ravens flying around. You actually see as some are in a strange hybrid form flying on these large humanoid wings, these humanoid raven-like creatures. And however, you do occasionally see one get too close,

and several ravens and the abbot rocket toward them, and you see a flash of light, and you see a bird and an elf flying or falling into the woods. beyond. Damn. And as you approach, you look up, as you approach and you're riding on the main road up through the north of Scathornail, you see very far off in the distance, almost shrouded by all the different peaks, but you see the top of that. You then see flying in just dozens taking off from Castle, taking off from Castle Romagna, you see dozens of winged creatures taken to the air

and begin to descend towards you. As you see gargoyle after gargoyle after gargoyle, these large looming hunchbacked creatures flying through the air. And you see a, you see riding along with them. That familiar something. silhouette of Busephalus, blazing this trail of hellish fire. As you see Escher atop it, with his,

with his, his, his legion of gargoyles, and the gargoyles fly in. You hear the crackling and grumbling of stone. Does the gargoyles join the forces of the, of the ravens and the abbot as they all fly together? And you see as Busephalus rides down, and almost effortlessly, Escher leaps off, and he grabs onto the side of the wagon, kicks the door open, and slides in, and closes it. And you hear a voice as you say, Oh, oh, good luck on your crusade,

that's very exciting, Master. Oh, no friend, it's me, Brutus. And you see as Busephalus lowers and rides alongside, you see Brutus riding Bicephalus, as he rides, and he says, Oh, well, Hello, Brutus. Oh, he's been so long.

It's good to see you. Oh, it's good to see you too. It's very nice. It's very nice. Have a lovely crusade and I'll make sure you have a comfortable bed and a comfortable, a delicious meal away. And when you get back. Our board games still better be there when we get back.

And he just turned. You better not have lost any of the pieces, Brutus. I swear to God, if Nubli is missing any of the money, I'll know. There's gotta be 32 goddamn greenhouses in that set. As he rides off with Bicephalus, and you see just these just dozens of gargoyles. And as Escher reaches into the pack that he has, he throws it onto where all the other baggage is,

as he throws out a great number of these gleaming vials. as you each get three greater healing potions. God damn. And he says, I told you, we need a need a supply. I had to use most of the reagents to get as many goggles as we could because I have a feeling we're going to need the air cover. Greater, you say? Yep.

And you see as, and you see him look and his eyes meet with, Sophia Anna says, I don't think I've had the pleasure of your acquaintance. And she narrows her eyes, says, Do not get any closer to me, creature of the name. I will fight alongside the view, but do not lay a single hand on me. And he, like, has his hand in outstress. Points, well taken. I do like that.

Fire. Is that the morning, Lord, or is that your soul? And she says, and she just says, as, prefer to ride in silence, I suppose. As he just looks over and you continue northward. Anything else you'd like to do now that Escher is with you all? Are you transcribing your spells this whole time? Yeah, so I was just waiting for an appropriate moment.

Well, I can only transcribe one more. I'm out of gold. Okay. It's very expensive, very quickly. If you need gold, Felix. That's why I asked. I'm a gold. Felix,

Felix, I'm the Pharaoh's daughter. Yeah, I know. What do I need to go? It's, I mean, you know, in, out of character, it would also take me a really long time to do all these anyways, so I'd probably only get one or two of them done regardless.

She's going to need you to get them done eventually. Yeah, I mean... We're going into a land of mist. Well, then how about if I need the money, I'll ask? Are you going to ask? Yeah, it's just, you know... How much money do you need, Felix? Well, I don't know off the top of my head.

I mean, Aren't you good at math? You're super smart. I'm just saying, you know, I already did two of the spells. That was $1,500, $1,500 gold pieces. What's a buck? Sorry, that's just a... It's not like a deer. It's very late.

I did have some deer. It's a Goroavokian thing. Oh, I would let you know that I managed to find a few Volta Orion. Oh, I just had a delicious meal and I thought you know. It was very delicious. No, it's fine. You know, I've spent a few last few days doing, you know, one of them. Because it still would have been 14 hours the last one.

You know, it'll be another 14 hours for the next one, another 750 gold. He has 3,000 gold pieces and I hand him a small sack. Oh, my goodness. I don't need all this. I don't want to carry all this. Okay, lazy, give me the gold back. I give you back. Okay, lazy.

2,500 of the 3,000. I keep 500 of it. This will help me for the next one, and it's going to take a while anyway. I just, you know, do it as we need it. You need to dance or anything. No, would I? And you've seen him dance before. It's horrifying.

Yeah, it's hilarious. It's sort of like... That is fucked up. It's like... Rock and sock of your body. Um, I don't know, like, realistically, how long it would take me to do all this is like... A lot more time than we're spending on the road. Was that?

Realistically, how long it would take me to do all of these is a lot more time than we have. Yeah. So I would say that I did one more level seven over the course of a couple days. I would say it's a full seven days to get from Borovia to Zarcosa on foot or on traveling on land on wagon, also camping to give the armies enough rest. And that's at a crazy fast pace that you're going.

All right, I'll just some math. I would be along this journey basically. Anytime we're stopping or camping or anything, like my sole goal would be to continue what I was doing into the Estani camp, but trying to, like, get all these different factions of people to, like, interact and have a good time together and bond together along the road. Yeah, I would say, make a general persuasion check. Can I add advantage to that because I absolutely would be doing this one thing.

Like, I would be 100% devoting my time to being as busy. as possible now that we've landed and we've gotten free of the mountain and we're on our way on this path like i would just want everyone to be getting along as much as possible and i would be distracting myself as much as possible for missing her shirt yeah oh i'd be like going around and like being like you know who you would love to meet oh my god and then just like making friends and we're being super social yeah yeah like i've always say hey i know these fucking people i ain't their friends friends of mine, that's why we're all here. Yeah, okay, and he like, actually might be sitting down

with that actually really gets down with the pie bars. Yeah, I think you would. He fucking drinks, yeah. 21. 21. Okay, I would say that you're actually able to assist. When you first started the journey, there was still some tension between the Barovians and the werewolves and the like of those. But the more that you're able to help, you see that they're getting a little bit warmer, especially the booze helps when you're, when you're,

when they're drinking. You can get a sense that Alexi is not super happy about that but he doesn't say anything, especially with the lycanthropes enjoying it as much as they do. And he's like, you know, these are these people are a lot fucking better than these Dour morning little motherfuckers. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, they're okay. They're all right. You know, and so you're able to help you're able to do that And even though you can tell of their sadness and pain from losing Fiona you get the sense that he's he's keeping himself determined and focus on the the task anything else as you ride you start to see you see the castles off to the side where all the you don't know how many counts dozens of counts perhaps of or you know

perhaps at least two dozen counts of of this with their own small little feudal villages but they're not joining us these feudal no they're all it's all just basically a few shot or kai and a lot of goals basically and you get the sense that that it's all very and silver for each of these small, these castles. Okay. So we're weaning our way through. Yeah, and you get the sense. You may have found like an undead or like a patch of ghouls and the crusader just cut them down. Anyone who is unwise enough to be in your path is effortlessly destroyed.

That probably feels us with a lot of confidence. You might not benefit from when we arrive at our destination. I would be thinking about what the actual risk and threat of what our plans are, because I know that there's going to be a frontal force that is largely a distraction while we go from this. I'm really concerned about that frontal force. Do I, as I'm talking to people, as I'm like, talking to especially the folks who are in a tactical, strategic place, do I get a sense that they seal that the frontal force is

justice of distraction, something that they're, they know that they're, they know that they're sacrifices that or do I think it says that they could it'll be even matched it actually might be it'll be it'll be it'll be even that it'll be even that they'll be even that's their credit they get the sense that there will be they will be outnumbered but just very much out every single werewolf in this every single silver pine and crusader is worth at least a dozen or more goals right and and you know the infantry and over this journey we might we might actually really believe that about ourselves I would say yeah yeah down cool okay Caprice would believe it Thank you.

Okay. That's all I'm doing. You ride and you see finally Zarakosa. Will that change the news? Boy two style. As you ride, you know that this is the day of the assault. You've been preparing you steeled yourself. And you see now Zarakosa sprawling before you between two mountains.

but far larger than Borovia. You were riding into a valley where this massive city is sprawled out of this dark stone built up with this very strange geometry that looks almost otherworldly as it rises up in these tall spires and looming, leering statues that you can see.

And you see the very center of this massive city of dark stone with huge walls, you see an enormous castle. You see what looks like more than 20 different spires and turrets just on the castle. It puts Castle Remornia to absolute shame. It puts Castle Borovia to shame. as it absolutely dwarfs everything you've seen before. As the cloud cover is still dense and thick here, you continue to ride as the castle rises up larger and larger and looms higher the closer you get.

And you see that there's lights flickering in this city. And it's hard to believe that that normal everyday people live here. You've seen a massive, a massive fortress-like city in Zentra, but it still felt like a lived-in city where normal people might live. This looks otherworldly. It looks the geometry, the architecture, the colors,

everything looks off. And you see massive gates. And as you see that, although the cloud cover is thick, you still just see the very small and thin outline of what you presume, is it the moon, full moon? Is it the sun? It's hard to tell. But then it's covered by... Does it have a hag spates? It's covered by a massive cloud. And the cloud gets larger and larger. And you realize that it's not a cloud. It's rhinoceros, isn't it? It's a massive swarm.

of the giant beach. Of giant vultures. Dozens, perhaps hundreds. As they fly towards you, and as you ride, the sky is darkened even more as hundreds of vulture riders take to the sky and fly towards you. And you then hear rumbling.

As you look out towards the darkness of the walls, feel and hear the rumbling of the ground that is now interspersed with the charging and thundering of hooves and wolf paws that rockets toward Zarakosa and a massive tidal wave approaches and you see it growing larger and larger and larger but this isn't water this is flesh

and tooth and tongue ghastly grays and whites of ghouls, thousands of ghouls, shambled towards you. And you hear the occasional, as you see the ghoul ogres. And not just that, you see some that are looming tall amidst this tidal wave of undead that are, that's moving towards you. As you see two-headed Edens also turned, massive mouths, tongues slavering out. And, and, and, and, you see, and, you see, As this massive force of undead is crashing towards you, you, it's dark.

But then suddenly you hear a voice boom out with magic. Morning Lord, bring dawn to this evil. As you see the blasting, raiding blast of morning as the clouds open up, and you see as the abate raises a large mace and Sergei, or not Sergei, Alexi von Zaravish raises his sword and the clouds open up and a sun, you're not sure what time of day it is,

or if it's the night, but a sunbeam blasts into it and you hear the hissing amongst the slouties, this ravenous swarm of undead, a horde of undead, you hear now shrieking in pain as it then buckles and breaks and sloughs as they crash into it. You see the Crusaders smash into its shields. The battle begins.

You see them cutting the tendons of these, of these massive etons and ogres. As the undead, you see some of the werewolves now fully shift into their hybrid form and begin to tear out the flesh as the title of crashes onto your army. And they begin to swarm around. You see now, you hear the,

You hear the squawking of vultures as gargoyles and wear ravens start tearing them apart, and the battle overhead also begins. And you feel the jerky movements of the wagon as Alessandro is guiding you through this battle, and he says, hold on, this is where it gets into this thing! And you hear him crack the whip, and suddenly you see a flash of that ghastly green light, as Miss pours out of the lantern and swallows you. And as you ride, you see a massive, the side of the tide of the undead,

as Alessandra rides towards it with his two horses, almost directly into it. It looks like it's going to crash on you. And suddenly, all of sight of the battle, sound of the battle, is completely swallowed and disappears as you are surrounded by gray. As you ride through the strange realm thick dark gray mist. You ride through, you see shapes moving, darkness off to the side that

seem to be threatening to get closer at all moments, but never does. And he says, this is where I belong! And he weaves his way through the mist. You have no idea it all just looks like mist to you. And suddenly, suddenly you start to see light as that's not the ghastly green light of this lantern as you make your way riding through the mist, you understand why he was called a Miss Walker. In the strange realm of mist and the creatures that lurk here, you then suddenly leave as you hear him pull up on the reins. He's a, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, as you, the wagon comes to a stop. And suddenly, you see flickering light, but it's torchlight. You see a brazier burning, and you hear now the sounds of the battle, but it's far behind you, as you look up

staring at the massive shape of Castle Gloomvale. And that is where we'll end the session. Holy shit. Well done. Well done. Let's fucking go. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. That was awesome. Let's fucking go. Can we have done a hero's feast? I want to use the gem-incrusted bowl that I kept bugging Escher and what's the face for? I think that's fine. to cast Hero's Feast to have us do that the night before. You would have easily had opportunity to enjoy Heroes Feast. And I would say that Escher, it all the last 24 hours.

Escher, Alessandro, and Sophia. We're also joining you and enjoy these benefits. Cool. So that gem-incrusted bowl is now consistent. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventra's podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to, become a member of our Patreon at the Pearl Dolphin Tier or higher

to unlock Shroud of her Saltmarsh, a patron exclusive campaign set on the high seas. You can find that at patreon.com forward slash Legends of Aventris. If you want to chat about the episode with the Aventras community, join us on Discord at Legendsofaventris.com forward slash discord. We also post content nearly every day

on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, so make sure you follow our socials at Legends ofaventris.com forward slash social. And make sure you check out the Crooked Moon so you can terrify your friends with a folk horror 5E supplement published by us. Get your own copy

at the crooked moon.com. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.