Legends of Avantris - Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 58 | Land of the Lost Horizon: Part 2

Episode Date: August 7, 2025

The heroes enter visions and answer riddles, finding answers to deep questions...   Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/sVR5fqP0o1k?si=YUuWCDa9NCb9z2aK

Welcome to Legends of Aventress. I'm Capriccio DeCesto, you can call me Caprice, and you're listening to Beneath Dark Wings. Here's what happened last time. When Anubis and I spoke, he warned me that he was imprisoned in a domain of dread, which is connected to the Shadowfell in a realm called Harakir. I believe that is where we are. So it doesn't sound very safe. That is also where Uncatep resides.

I believe he is the master of this domain. I believe that my compulsion to sit in the throne was the final peace in connecting us to this plane as his soul resides, or at least did reside in me. So it's gone now, though. It's possible, I believe it might be. I no longer feel that pull. And it persisted even just a small amount consistently

when we were in Avantras, so my assumption is upon arriving to this plane, he has reclaimed that bit of a sore. That sounds bad, right? Well, all of this sounds. I mean, it's put it out of you, but bad. The key word times three was bad. Miner was bad. Zelik Zern was bad. And yes.

Oh, Sophia. Oh, my. And Warwick. She's like laying there, isn't she? Yeah. She's in the middle of the room. Oh, of course. What are we going to do with her?

Well, she could bury her in the sand. All of the failed experiments, all of the children who did not make it, or who they just immediately presumed would not make it, or either turned undead into her playthings, or friends as vampires, she would give them the gift as well. And you finally, as you continue reading, you see that there are notes, of her having stolen books from,

you see that some of these books were actually personal, the journals and the work of Escher. On the behalf of Pharaoh-onkata, we welcome you to Harakir. Your king is awaiting in comfort and safety at the city of the dead. We have provided transport for anyone who wishes to join us. You will enjoy

your time here. We will protect you. You will join us. As the sand drifts away, you see very clearly a rectangular doorway, an entrance into this large jackal statue. Who dare enters the domain of the Lord of the Dead? You hear the voice booming from one of the Sphinxia. as it lands behind you. So there's sphinxes, you're saying? They are very clearly sphinxes. They swoop. They have these feline, the lion bodies basically in large feathery wings, each of them. And you see that one, they both have feline faces, but they're also very humanish.

One, the one who boomed out this question to you, has, well, looks like a beard, and it looks to be male, and another one has a longer hair around her mane and seems to have a feminine face. as they descend and land as, these are very large creatures. They land very gracefully and loom tall over you. Your camel seems to not really particularly care. He's good enough away, and he just kind of looks up and then just continues to eat his shrubs.

And they both stare at you with appraising eyes. What do you all do? What did they say again? The male one has to say, who dares enter the domain of the Lord of the Dead? I will step forward. I'll be right behind her. Iris, daughter of the Pharaoh to Siket, priestess of Anubis, and her friends. You see the male one take several steps.

His wings fold on top of his back, and he, looks at you and looms over and very clearly an attempt an attempted imitation. I mean, you are the one

we have been waiting for? I am... Do not lie to me, child. Then do not interrupt me, Sphinx. I do not know if you have been waiting for me. But I am a priestess of Anubis.

And this monument has been desecrated. I would like to enter the underneath and pay my respects to my God. Something good can be done here. With that, the female sphinx steps forward and says, I apologize for his freshness. I will speak to the priestess. And he kind of rustled his main a little bit and says, I was testing her courage. And he steps back. And she looks forward and says, I am Neferet.

This is Ramkeh. We are servants of Anubis. We were told by our God that final fragment of the car would reside in the soul of one of his worshippers. and that she would be the one to return his strength and his health.

Is that you? Is that why you are here? I will look around and kind of weigh the options of being honest with these sphinxes I've never met. Oh, well, yes, that is why I'm here. I fear that something horrible is happening to a newness. I can feel it. I've seen it. He's told me that there is something inside of things. me. I know not this thing myself, but I trust my god.

She looks at you when she looks over the rest of you. And you can see that, um, Ramkahan, the male of, uh, and I would say that, Iris, you would know that, uh, the male sphinx is an andro sphinx and the female sphinx is a gyma sphinx. And that is that they're very, yep, they're, they're, they're different in temperament and power and ability. And generally they don't care for each other, but at the very least, this is a, you don't even need a roll way. But this is a pair that they're seemingly in the service of anubus. Neferet? Neferet.

Is it G-E-R-E-E-G-N-O? Yeah, it's the G-N-O-O-G-I-N-O. G-I-N-O. And then the Andro-S-S-F-N-K-H-E-M-K-R-A-M-K-R-A-M-K-R-K-K. I said romptican. Ramachim. Ramachan. He said that you would know.

He said that you would know and you would come. He was right. You have arrived at this prison. I hope that you have the power that he said you did. What happened to this place? Who did this? To this? Or to the realm?

But to the realm, to Harakir? Has Unkatib always been the master here? She looks at you and nods. Who built this monument, this prison, as you call it, in the image of our god? She looks at you and her face is very, not expressionless and blank, but very stoic. It's very difficult to read.

Well, you would be surprised to love. It's Ankhartep himself. But why? What? Salam. You will learn in time. You will learn about the master of this place. You will learn of the prisoner of this place.

They are one and the same. I see. And so this is a prison? Yes. For not just whom you wish to stop, but for the master. And he will stop. It's nothing until he finds you. And you see as Romkhan steps forward and says, But do not let that.

Fill you with fear. We must do what we can to save the Lord under the mountain. We must do what we can even if we risk. Playing to hunt the Tep's plans. I'm not afraid. He leans down. and his face is a lot more readable. He wears his emotions and his feelings on his face very clearly.

Adla's male fear on you. Sorry. The Hellboy trailer. Oh, that's scary. It's constantly delivered to me on my YouTube playlist. I can't get away from it. And he steps back and Neffaret steps forward and says,

you've arrived at the right time. It was all meant to be. You do know what is happening to Anubis. Do you know? The vague approximations. Anubis has not been well enough to provide me with every aspect of the situation. but I know he is weakened as he attempts to hold back the chained gold.

She nods, and she raises a huge paw and points to the far north, to the northeast. And you see a vicious, dark, howling sandstorm that seems far more violent than any of the sandstorms, the one that had been, that caprice that you had seen, I guess, on Iris, rolling across this place. Northeast. Yeah, this is in the northeast, but this one is past it on the, seemingly at the very northern

area, the borders of this, of this domain. He's within the breath of the forgotten, the eternal sandstorm that shrouds the black pyramid. It is with the power of death that the chain God was sealed away, and only the power of death that keeps him currently chained as the seals break. We have been given a single task to lead you on the hero's journey to heal, to restore, to save the god of the dead.

Why would we ever want to go on this hero's journey? She'd just explain it to Caprips. I know, but the first step of the hero's journey is refusal of a call, so I just had to... Now that we're past that step, we can move on. Get out. Please give this man an inspiration. Yeah, she'd have an inspiration.

Like, seriously, Derek? Did you not just hear what he said? That's so good. He gave it to me a long time ago. I gave this to you? Yeah, I got a raft. Oh, is this from... Oh, this is from...

Is this from my... The tarpier? From the kinderite. The terpier. Yeah, I've had this this whole time. I can't believe you still have that. All right. This place is a godless place.

Only the nubis can come and go. Only the nubis can come and go. All gods are forbidden. Why you will learn. And it is with us. It is with the power of our God, let another God. Chaos, of destruction, of evil, wishes to grant his foothold in this land of... You're speaking of set.

I do not speak his name, for he has a different name here. There is no gods. There are no gods here. They are forbidden the only God is the God. God King, Oncatap. The gods are dead here. By what other name do you call it in this land? So that I may use it.

He is not a god here, but a dark mockery of our Lord. A noob saton. An effigy of necromancy. Evil, entropy and destruction. Taking shape. Gaining power in his pyramid. The black pyramid or the golden one? Neither.

The pyramid that's lost to the sands. It is there he waits. Until every ounce of divine power and life is drained from anubis. And then, only then, will Satan achieve his full power. And it is with that power that Ancatep is put. planning to make himself whole for his ultimate wish, his ultimate goal, to die. For what purpose would he want to die? Eternal life, eternal on death, eternal existence, can only be appealing to some people for so long.

There's nothing more that he wants than the eternal darkness, eternal rest. That is all he desires. What happens when he dies? You will learn. That is part of the journey. You must follow an Ankhattep's footsteps. That will be the one way you can be granted access to the pyramid beneath the sands. To Noob's Aton's pyramid, destroy the leech that drains Anubis.

And then a god on our side we will have. Well, as you all know, I will go on this journey, whether I go alone or with you by my side. I will not turn my back on anubus, not again. Do anything, to save him. He saved me multiple times. How do we get there? Sit down there? In this once holy place, it is the first step of the journey.

you will receive your first riddle, which will lead you to the first fragment of Onkatep's car. But it is not our place, and she looks at Bramkeh, to tell you, you must solve the riddle, experience the steps that Ancatep himself has taken, procuring all of the fragments of his car, all but one. And she looks at you. Countless millennia has taken them. For while he has power to peer through the mists, outside of the mist and dark bargains in this land, it is a prison.

He cannot sense you here. He must dispatch his minions seeking, seeking all of the fragments. You are all that remain. Well, then let us begin. She steps away and Ron Cahan does as well. And he kind of grumbles a little bit and says, let us see how strong you really are.

And as they said, boy, the sand seemingly magically starts to sink down a little bit. And the glowing gold hieroglyphs around this door, a glow writer, Can you read it? What does it say? Can I read it? You can. But there's something interesting about it. The dialect is off. It is, it seems older than the most ancient of the text and the scripts and the dialects that you have studied. And you're able to make out bits and pieces and you're able to read it, but it, um, it, it, it, it, it, It says to your approximation, there's not really a one-to-one translation, but you're able to get the general gist that this is the domain

of the Lord of the Dead in the land of reeds and lotuses. I would say that too. Is it the riddle? I'm not sure. Reeds and lotuses? Hmm. Does that mean anything to you? No. Okay. Well, that's probably not the riddle, right? That's just like the entryway door.

Yes. Okay, so let's just try to open it? The door? It's open. Oh, it's open. Oh, I thought it was close. I did too. It was a totally open door. It was a... They were stepping back. Oh, they were stepping.

Yeah. All right. Well, it was lovely to me. to meet you, to meet you both, and hopefully we'll see you on the other side. In the meantime, would you do me a grand favor? Would you keep an eye on Strepon, our camel, over there? She looks back and, back at you and nods and says, This is the riddle inside. It's not the right, right accent.

The riddle inside will just take you to the first location. You will be, if you consult it. you will be returning here shortly lovely just keep an eye on Strapol make sure nothing happens to him and do not delve too deeply in this ancient

temple every ruin We call it the labyrinian temple I knew it Every single ruin in this land connects Oh shit

It's beneath the sands And there are dark there are dark things that wander those halls. It is dangerous up here enough. All right, well, we'll be seeing you. Good day. She nods. Are you ready? And we'll step forward.

And as we pass a threshold, I'll go, doubt me again on sub-training times. How tight and closed and dark does this space seem? The doorway, it seems like a normal, it's a relatively small entranceway to a temple, but it doesn't, like, it's not super tight, if that's what you're asking.

Yeah, I'm just trying to decide if recent claustrophobia would kick in going into this space. It seems like a relatively small, very old, it's dark. It is under the Earth, so 100%. Yes. 100%. Yes.

Exactly right. This is a claustrophobic's worth of nightmare. Do we really have to, uh, bear? Yes. I mean, you heard them. We're not going, we're not going to go deep. We're not going to go far. We're just going to find the first riddle in salt.

I'd, like, pull up my tail for the first time and start to, like, ring the actual end of it. Cowardly lion style. It's going to be all right. Yeah. It's okay. Just sing a little song. For you guys. Singing a little song

Singing the song now I'll protect you Caprice If anything happens I'll make sure you get it back out of year Do you want to be the last one in or where do you want to stand That'll make you more comfortable In the middle In the middle

All right Do not tell me A companion of one of the fate So cowardly Hey you know what You don't know anything about me all right pal I know what I see and it is cowardice.

Just because you have a specific fear about anything doesn't mean you're cowardly all the time. That's not the way that works. Cowardous means you will not do what needs to be done. You are hesitating and wasting time. Bravery is not the lack of fear. It's just the understanding of it. Let us see if he proceeds.

And you see that Nefred is like giving him eyes to shut the fuck up. He's not listening. What Iris said. Come on. You go ahead. I'm going to push him in the tunnel. I start, yeah. I like, out of more anger and stubbornness

towards his attitude than anything, I just like run through and make my way through the threshold. Can you believe that guy? Yes. Unfortunately, yes. So what do we, is it dark when we walk in? Yes, it's dark.

So although the outside is glowing, it's dark. and it seems to be a small temple room. And once again, Iris, the construction looks very old. But as you step in, you see very slowly glowing hieroglyphs start to illuminate and enter, and you actually feel a pole as your chest glows that similar color, that similar gold,

and then fades back down. And you see now that there, are murals and carvings that are still painted. The painting is chipped, but it's still in shocking condition, given how old this seems. And you see a great pyramid with a throne before it, and you see that there is a pharaoh. that is sitting there, and it seems to be a, it's a difficult to tell with the artistry,

but it seems to be a teenager, a teenage boy. And on to the right of him is a priest, a priest of Anubis, wearing an Anubian jackal headdress. And although the face is carved in artish, in an artistic fashion, a stylized fashion, And despite it being a living man, there seems to be something uncannily familiar about that face on the Anubian priest, on his right. And you see that there are a number of gods as well. You recognize the Ra. You recognize Osiris. You recognize ISIS. And there are a number of them, but none of them have, or rather you recognize priests of all of those gods, but none of them have that place of importance than the priest of Anubis that stands beside his pharaoh.

As the hieroglyphous form and glow, it says, what can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps. has a bed but never sleeps. But I know. Oh, that's easy. Yeah, I got this one. Look at this. No problem at all. It's a river.

Yeah. A what? A river. A river. This don't have beads? How do they have beads? Like a river bed. That's not a bead.

Yeah, it's a bed. It's a river bed. It's a play on words. Oh. It's okay. Look, I'm sure that this is going to be the hard one. and they'll get easier and you'll catch up. All right, well, I just, I mean, it didn't fit enough.

As soon as you all have been saying river, you see the same glow. And sand is dropping on top of you as the carving start to change and move. And you see the scene of what looks like a beautiful oasis, on the banks of which is a city of mud brick and with large reeds, herons and antelope drinking, and musical notes rising up from musicians playing lutes and lutes and harps and drums and as well as singers. And it all glows. before then turning dark in those same ancient carvings of the priests and the pharaoh, the young boy pharaoh. Well, we've answered the riddle. They said we would be teleported back.

You know, I didn't even think about it. Maybe we should have just shouted the answer out. We didn't even know what was going to happen. That might have been a little hasty. Well, they told us to answer the riddle. For sure, then. I'm just saying, maybe a little more prudent. and I just wasn't thinking. I got excited about a riddle. Yeah. I'm going to look around.

Is there anything else of interest or note in this space besides the, like, portal that we're now therey for a parent? You see that there is a broken altar. There are some doorways that seem to go down into the earth. But it seemed like this small space, whatever of importance, is really just what's carved around the walls. And so when that happened, you set a portal? I missed that.

There's no portals. There's no portal. It just, it's a tunnel. It lit up the walls and the carving. Yeah. And it provided a river, or provided a riddle that then once you

said the answer, it showed a location. Oh. Oh. So then I did get, I think it's trying to tell us to go to the oasis. City. The drive of riverbeds that we were traveling well. Well, we take the... I mean, they still at least a lake, what you call it, like?

They still water left and trees and things left. Did the oasis that we saw in the brief vision look like there was a town with it or it was just an oasis? It looks like the oasis to the north that you're heading towards. Okay, cool. Cool. Yeah, well, I mean, that was... All right. So that was great.

Done. Let's go. Can we? I thought we were supposed to be teleported back. No, no. They just said we would come back. Oh. It's the point is that we were just going to run in here for just like I'm sicker.

Oh. I mean, this is good. This confirms everything that we were expected. What it tells us is that the first piece of the car is still there or at least was there. I mean, they did say Orris was the only one that remains. Maybe they're lying. Speaking of that, is it really? a good idea from my piece of the core to reunite with all of the other ones.

Should I go anywhere near the other ones? I feel like I shouldn't. Oh, as long as we're talking, what's car? It's a word that, well, there's no direct translation, but it's akin to a soul. Okay. I'll buy it. Yes, fragment of a soul. Okay. So do we think that they were just lying about it? about saying that he has all the others already and he actually doesn't or he's storing it there for safekeeping or maybe just they're in this land and then being in the land and he knows

where they are because they said that we had to follow his footsteps and do the same that he did so maybe it's a symbolic finding we just have to trace the steps oh what if it's like footsteps you're right well my fear is what if it's similar to to the berry lauder stories you know He was a wizard from, I think Onzu, and in his there was this powerful snake man who severed his soul into seven pieces like a whore crux. I don't know that story, but... What? I don't know that story, but I'm reminded of the skeleton that we fought at the top of that mountain. The one you fought it on?

Exactly right. Didn't he split his souls and there were like blackberries and all the thing? You mean the litch? That was how he kept themselves sustained, right? Oh, yes. You put his soul in a box, which we then destroyed. But then if you were to bring the souls back to... We're just told that Ancatev wants to die, and then he went?

Allegedly. So wouldn't the whole idea is that, like, if you were to make yourself immortal by scattering your souls all over the place... That's exactly what happened in Barry Lauder. Well, I think I read that one, too. Didn't, like, they really put a lot of focus of collecting, like, two or three of them, and then they had to, like, destroy it, like, five of them. of them in one night or something?

Yes. But so in that one, the only way... A piece and it was a little weird to me. You haven't read the books, though. You only watched the major illusions, and they're completely different. The adaptation does not translate very well. However,

yes, for the evil snake man to die at the end, you had to destroy his hawkruxes. Okay, so in... Burry Lord. In the parallel that we're trying to make with Anketep here. Are we trying to destroy, collect, or keep separate?

Well, so in Berlota, he didn't want to die. That's just how they had to kill him. So, Oncatep might be bringing all of them back together, knowing the only way for him to die is if all of his car are together inside of him. We get what I'm saying. Yes.

Absolutely. And I think the syncs has said that we'd learn more as we continue to follow the trail. So we don't even really know what it means or what the implications of him dying are. I think what they're trying to say is that even if the actual pieces, the fragments of the car, no, aren't there anymore, we need to walk in his footsteps to understand him,

how he got there, what the cars were. Why, he split his car into pieces to begin. And then we understand how to defeat him and stop him. That's exactly right. And it seems to me that he probably didn't go down those staircases, so we should turn around and leave. Yeah, was they said not to go down there? They were very explicit.

Yes, they said to just do the riddle and then leave. Do you hear me creepy skittering? Make a presumption, Jack. Oh, baby. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. You listen and you hear what sounds like skittering of insectoid legs or probably actually more likely arachnoid legs

that are far too large. Yeah, no, absolutely. Oh, alright, no, yeah, I think we can leave. All right, let's turn around. We march right out of the damn... We're done. You see the two Sphinxes, they're actually sitting

like the Sphinx statues. One on either side. Yeah, on either side is they're sitting there. I love Spanxes. And they stand up and Neferet looks at you and says, well, as fast as I thought you would be.

We spend some time, just chit-chatting. We could hear. It's very echoy. Oh. Oops. Yeah, so it told us where to go. Funny enough, we were headed there to begin with. Yeah, it's like we knew. Yes, it's like we were drawn.

Because if we didn't stop and find this amazing underground place, we never would have known what we were doing now. That's true. We were just going to ask ground. She looks at you and nods and says, well, tell us where to go. And she leans her head down. And then the other...

You're going to let us ride you. That is... Is there room for Strapon? I don't think we need Strapon anymore. We can't leave Strapy on a river. Yes, we can. He lives here. This is a river. But not anymore. He's used to a new life.

I think he's been fine for all this time on his own. he's still a wild animal. We know. We've given him water and those weird turnip things. He's come to expect them. He will starve. We met him an hour ago.

He spit all greased. He completes his face. And his face is just fine. His cover him scar. It looks like a dead fool. It looks like an holocaut cancer. It looks like a testicle. Can't we just fit him into Toa's bag?

He looks like dune-faced but works. I just feel like we can stuff him into the bag. You know? He probably fit, right? Stuff him. Just stuff him in the bag. Goodbye. We'll see you playing a camel. This is way faster.

I will very gently attempt to You do that. You do that. You get the sense that you'd probably split up between Neffaret and Ram Cahan. You can tell that Rom Cahen is definitely not super happy about it, but he's doing it because, you know, he has to do. And he leads down. Fucking jobs, Fakes.

I hate to bother you, but while we're all boarding, are there people in this oasis town? Yes. There are the living here as well as the dead. Thank goodness. The Pharaoh, the god king, Ancatep, does not bother them as long as there is order. He believes that the living may have just as much of a role to play in finding his, and restoring his car as the dead, as for the first fragment, the fragment of the river has proven. And as long as there's order, he has left his children and his priests in charge.

All mummies, all undead. But the living are here. If you interact with them, it could bring them more danger. There, noted. Well, we want to go to the oasis to the north. But first, we need to pick up, strip. I really don't think we need to. Yeah, Iris, I think we should leave him.

He looks so happy down there. But why don't you go say goodbye and just take off his harness and, you know, let him free. Give him one last scratch. Why do you care about... I'll look down fondly at the camel. No, I don't think I will say goodbye to Strip. It would just be too painful for him. It's best he doesn't know our abandoning him.

Are you expecting me to carry it? Aren't you strong enough to? God, damn. Yeah, that was obvious, Mikey. Come on. And that's how we got a new pet. Iron forces to this. Careful best!

I will carry him. Oh, no. Make a fuck. Make a fuck, Mickey. Make a persuasion check. persuasion you, said? 24?

Oh, my God. You want to see how strong I am? Get on my back, I will carry the camel. We'll get on his back and we'll go pick up strappy. This camel is going to get so pissed. He's going to be spitting everywhere. Is he raining acid hell down on the town? At this point, you manage to just get on the

backs of the Sphinx and with a loud flap of the wings, they both take off. And Rob Ghan, who's considerably larger than Neferet, flies over and you look as the camel, it looks absolutely horrified. He's crushing as a giant fucking wing lion. He's ascending it like, no you can't love this game! As he then grabs his paw, he's trying to spit as... The camel's probably screaming. He grabs and effortlessly picks it up and you hear,

and his eyes are wild and horrible. I'm awful. We're gonna give this camel PTSD. If you take off into the sky and fly north. Sprepan pees a little bit. A lot of them. That's a little bit. And Neferretz flying behind, Romkin.

Whoever's on Neferet. I'm on Nephyr. As you both take in the sky and you fly higher and higher and higher, and you see the occasional large bird and a few smaller ones flying, some seem to be undead, others not. As you make your way and you see is there's actually a few pockets. You see what looks like to be a camp. There's several camels all around a series of tents.

How many camels? How many? Humans actually walking around. And as you fly closer and closer to this great oasis, you see a city that looks like you could probably hold a few thousand people. No more than that, but a lot larger than you'd expect. And Neferet says, that is muha, it is the only, city of the living in this entire domain.

Almost all of the living humans reside in those buildings. And you can see that there's a sprawling city around this oasis. And you finally start to see the civilization, some wagons pulled by camels and horses and other beast of burden. And you see a marketplace. And as you see that there's, despite the, river, having dried up, this oasis has beautiful, pristine water. And you manage to skirt around the city as you fly over it. And you notice, however, after Ramkehann, he looks like

he's going to try to point, and then he starts to lose grip on the camel and he grabs it again. He says, look into the storm. That is what our God is fighting. And as you look, you're able to see through this incredibly dark storm that is swirling

and violent. You see that beam of silver light shooting into the sky just barely, very, very high, going all the way up until it's completely out of sight. And it looks so incredibly treacherous and violent that you have no idea of anything could

survive in there, unless it was a god. And as they descend, you see that there is a bit of stone sticking up. And just like the rest of the desert, there are ruins and monuments and statues all poking up from the sand in various states of disrepair. And both of the sphinxes fly down. and you hear a panicked cry of a heron as it sees these two massive sphinxes descending, and several of them fly away, and you both land. As the, as soon as, as Strapon, I guess I have to say it,

as soon as Drapon makes a touchdown on the ground, he panics and lets out a yell, but then it's obviously, eyes flashed blue and he immediately rockets over to the water and just starts drinking and drinking and drinking. seemingly having forgotten the horrible trauma of being thrown across the desert. Strapi is so happy. That's one happy strapy. Don't be happy. And as you look. I can't help it, Caprice. I just love happy. And as you look, and as you land in a in a patch of very loss of that, you're happy, you're just happy.

vegetation, there's ferns, there's these lush palm trees, and all sorts of greenery and reeds. Reed? Reeds? There are a bunch of reeds. And you see dragonflies skittering about. There's an entire herd of gazelles and antelopes that are on a far bank. You see a huge crocodile swimming on the top of the on the top of the oasis of the water, and then it looks at you, and then immediately descends. And you see that there's a number of sailboats with these large triangular sails of fishermen

that seem to be pulling up these large holes of fish that have all these strange coloration to them. And as you hear, although you're on the other side of the oasis, you can hear music drifting across the water. as notes from harps and liars and lutes and the rhythm of a drum and people singing seems to a sail across from the city at Muhar. As where you land, there is a patch of stone that seems to be just an unassuming ruin. But what seems familiar is the construction of that black stone with the fission. faded gilding. It seems to be of the same type of construction as the statue of

Anubis. And it's here that both Sphinxes let you off. And Neffreth looks at all of you and just nods over to that. It's really a dais. So the city's just built on one side of the oasis. Yep. Yep. It's a city's a city side. southern side of the oasis. So, let me. So basically here is like, the oasis is here. And the river had once gone from the north and would have gone south here.

And Uhar, the city is right here. Does this river flow north to south or south to north? It's very important. It's south to north. Figured there are only a couple of rivers in the world that do that. And you would, you, all landed like right about here, right? And so the city is here and it's all built out around

here and around like this area. And then you're on more and a wild side. That probably was a helpful for her. So anyway, it's just yeah, basically. No, that just looks like a gold wire. The point is, is that there's a big city we can see in here, but we're not like in the city. We're on the opposite side of the oasis. It's just ruins and greenery. Watch this. Yeah. The might at Congrae is the powerhouse or the cell. That's true.

That's what they said. They told the unseen. So... And the building that matched is on our side or in the city side? It's on your side. It's almost like shrouded in the greenery, almost deliberately hidden by the wilds here. As you see that it's the ruins of this dais that's risen up.

that seems to be of that same similar construction style to the statue of Anuvius. That's where we're going to go. All right. And this is good. If we want to avoid talking to the people of the town to avoid dangering them, then for now we'll leave them be,

and we can focus on this. I wouldn't want to engage them. They look like, this actually looks really nice. They seem happy. They're playing music. I listen to the music, and I've got a sense of, like, rhythms and cadences and notes and just as a bar trying to absorb the cultural

sense of any uniqueness that might be important. I would say make an intelligence check and out your proficiency modifier. Yeah. 70. Oh, okay. I would say that you recognize, you know, that these are instruments that are a lot older than a lot of the ones that you would have played and made, but it has a beautiful tonality and rhythm to it.

that you probably heard bastardizations of like Nkbesian music in like certain clubs. There might have been like certain areas where it was a fad or a phase to like take that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Similar kind of vibes, but this seems to be like the original and it seems to be a very old style. Okay, I can hear that purity and I will start to think

about how I might recreate that without doing anything, just listening. Okay. I'll walk over to do that. and the daias. The virus thinks it's okay. Are you ready to have? Sure.

Now that I know that Strappy is happy. Trappies need to be very happy. After he finishes drinking for a little bit, his eyes stop flashing blue, and then he goes over and he enjoys the variety of the greenery that's there. It looks like the tree stars from Nightmare, from a length of time.

You are going to shut up. My gosh. That delicious for a camel to be eating. You don't get to say tree star. You don't get to say Tree Star. You don't get to say Tree Star. Does anything more delicious? Emotional damage.

Emotional damage. It's a TikTok movie. I know. What's important is that that movie will make you cry like a little bitch. Yes. So there's another TikTok meme, which is name one thing that can make any millennial cry within the first like 10 seconds. And they start playing the theme song for a line before talk.

And I literally started welling up. I was like, oh, God, I can't. I can't. I walk over to the ruins. You do. I'll be fine. And as all of you approach, Iris, your soul begins to glow that same gault.

And all of you see in the exact same style of hieroglyphic, in the exact same glow, it begins to light up around this dais is the sand shifts away. It looked very subtle, very hidden in the street, but as soon as you approach, it starts to shift. And you see now this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this is, that reads out a simple phrase. Sing a song that brings tears to make the river flow.

Is this a riddle? I don't know. I mean, that seems kind of subjective. Brings tears to who? I always get that wrong. Do you know any sad songs? I know a bunch of sad songs, sure. He sings one.

I mean, do you think that it has to be specifically, like, a, deserty? I think that if you know a song that makes you feel a certain way, you know, it reminds you of something sad and it's the intent, you know, it just kind of puts you in that mindset. that would probably do it. Wait, do we want the river to flow? What we did with the last thing said, it was a riddle, this seems like a request for what it's worth. I mean, water is everything.

It brings life. Yeah, but I'm just curious. What does that mean for us? Do we need to go to Mahard? We could just walk across the dry riverbed. Do we need to do that first? I don't. it was

fuck what I don't tell us your idea please let's go now my little my name is Blasenov my own Chey in Wyoming

telegram Um Instead Instead I say What was I even gonna fucking say Um Oh and then So anyway we

We did the thing And we saw a scene I don't think Whatever we do Is gonna actually make the riverflow, I mean, it's probably been dried up for thousands of years. I think we'll probably just see maybe another scene that gives us a hint of where to go next. You're right. Okay.

I mean, so if you want to, you know, no, no pressure, you know. I know a sad song that's loosely on theme and I'll pull the lyrics up right now. Here they are. Oh, my gosh. But I haven't re-flavored them, so apologies. This is going to be straight. Every child in Valoran has heard the tale before about the cursed mummy boy who felt his heart no more. So sad and lorn, a helpless lad, a moo-mu was his name.

He ventured out to find a friend and learn about his bain I'll sing the remainder of that song which is just fucking excellent and by the end you're crying up, you're tearing up a little bit by the end of that song. It's a classic. I haven't heard that so

long. I would say that is a song that is an old song from neckback. I would say that you would know the story of a movie. I know the story of a movie that's had mummy boy. I picked it up from what I was listening to. Oh yeah.

And you immediately pulled it out and you know that this would be a very sad song. I need to make a performance check advantage for being so on theme here. Thank God. Give me some 22. 22. Let it off. As soon as you finish singing the song, the dais glows with And immediately the hieroglyphs fade.

And you hear the as it begins to shift. And you see that beneath you as a scene unfolds, as you see not just the oasis, but the roaring river from a time long gone, from south to north. And this city being far more populous and filled with joy and song. And suddenly you, and suddenly you all see Iris's soul begin to glow.

And it blasts out all around you. And you all see a vision. The dais around you and where Iris is, you see standing a mummy lord, a pharaoh wearing golds and a, blacks and turquoise, holding a staff, looking incredibly ancient as the bandages cling to his withered flesh, empty eye sockets, staring out as a withered hand withered hands with bone tips, pointing and poking out from those withered bandages. As you see through the air, this whispering golden series of notes that is being played and sung by dozens and dozens of these humans.

As their eyes seem to be filled with fear, but they are singing a song all the same. As the song swirls together and turns to a glow the exact same color that resides with an iris, and his hand extends and it shoots into him. And it fulfills him and causes him to glow as he has retrieved the first fragment, the fragment of the river.

Interesting. And suddenly it fades. And immediately, all of your consciousness is whipped away from you. As your eyes are blinded by... by golden light. And you suddenly see a vision, a shared vision as you are consumed on this dais.

You are in Nakhbe. You are in a land known only as the land of reeds and lotuses, lost to time. The history books do not mention this. It was the time of the before the first pharaohs that you would have known. It was a kingdom that worshipped the Osirian pantheon. And there was the high priest of Anubis, Ancatep.

He served his god dutifully. And he served his pharaohs dutifully. One generation, then another generation. And then the third generation, a boy king. His father fell ill with the plague too early. And so he became the pharaoh at a very young age. And strife became to come over the land of beans and lotuses. Indecision, fear, and emotion.

that Ancatep did not feel befitting a pharaoh of this land that would only lead to ruin. And he believed that the people would agree. And so you see this Pharaoh with his priests in a beautiful temple in the shape of a jackal, rising tall overlooking a brilliant river, plotting in secrets against this boy king and feeling a call towards the forbidden desert across the west bank where none were ever permitted to go for dark things lurked and madness

and death would befall those who adventure there suddenly the vision fades and you all your consciousness returns. As the scene, the hieroglyphs that had all been there shift and change and glow with another riddle. A riddle.

What is large, yet never grows, has roots that cannot be seen, is taller than trees. Lurch but doesn't grow. It's unseen, taller than trees. Mountains are pretty big as it glows. You did? You got it.

I told you. I told you. I solved a riddle. Felix is my very first riddle. I knew you could do it. Oh, man, that feels cool. Good job, Toa. I had no idea what it was.

I just told him something really big that stole the trees. Well, that works. You don't have to chat them out when you know him, you know? Oh, yeah, I guess. I'm proud of you. Wow. Well done. I'm really good.

I'm proud of you, too, Toa. Oh my goodness. Look at you. You're so stinking smart, Toa Kamenuri. When we get back to reality, I'm going to buy you. And suddenly the Mosein appears below your feet on the dais. Oh, God. A scene emerges in a great series of mountains and canyons,

you see rock formations that wind and form what looks like a snake. and spires that rise up almost like ribs in a cage. That's what you see. That was really, really good. We are flying. I love this. Did everyone briefly loose consciousness and see a whole? Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Neckbet. Ancient necket. Yeah, and we watched like the whole story play out. Yes, like a major image. So you recognize the river. That's where you're from? Yes.

Yeah. It's beautiful. So architect was a priest. the head priest of Anubis. So it would seem... And he pointed with his priest to do something to the Pharaoh. I think he was.

I thought he was the priest. What? Was Angus was the priest, right? It was a priest who served the grandfather and the father of the boy king. When the boy king rose at power. So he was the jackal-headed priest plotting against them.

Yes. Okay, cool. I did not. He did not. Kill the Pharaoh. But we don't have the whole story. I think we might learn more. as things progress.

Yes, this is really... He blamed the boy king for the strife that Necbet had succumbed to. It seemed like he just wanted to help the people and thought they'd agree, but... I get a bad feeling, he did something horrible. Yeah.

What was the car that we witnessed? That was probably more recent, or more recent, I guess. Yes, I think there were two separate things. The first scene was when he took his... call back. From the song, maybe, of the people?

Or at least enabled him to get it. Obviously, something is at play there with the music. I know we've got a lot left to learn about this Ankatap guy, but it seems like it's going to be a real Riches-Darags story. Oh, I'll get it. All right.

You're right on top of the mountains and puns with you today. All right. I need to make an intelligence check for me. Or actually, religion. Not today. You haven't rolled a higher than a five. It's 20 or five or lower. I think that's actually enough because it's a memory that you experienced.

When you first were visited by Anka Tap from the slithering shadows of that craft, you experienced a vision and you saw seven things, basically, and experienced seven things, one of which was a song of lute, harp, drum, and voice. Right. Holy shit. I don't remember that vision at all. Nicky doesn't. Iris, I'm sure. You experienced that.

You experienced a withered heart and a rib cage. Oh, yeah. An onk with an unbleeking eye. Hold on. Heart plus rib cage. A what? An ink with an unblinking eyes. An ink with an unblinking eyes.

Okay. You saw a conopic jar. The skeletal jackal head. That's fine, I'm sure. Golden eagle circling beneath the sun. So cryptic. Eagles or eagle? Eagle.

Single giant golden eagle. It looked very large, it's hard to tell. It looks like a gold shaped like an e. Okay. And then the face in a sandstorm. The face. A face in the sandstorm.

And what was the seventh one? What? Just kidding. You. That was six, right? Yeah. It's like, did I fuck this whole thing out? Imagine?

Can you imagine? Imagine? All right, sorry, guys. I just canceled? I fucked it out. It was the secret. That's the word here. A piece of eight.

called the MacGuffin piece. Weird. Every arc has seven McGuffins. That's a scene. Okay. All right, well, I think we need to go to the mountains. Yes, that's what it sounds like. Yes, the canyon.

Are we going to the canyon? Well, I thought we saw a canyon. Yeah, there's like canyon. Canyon through the mountains. Looks like a snake. Yes, that you drew on the map. You've even drew it. It's kind of name. You've mentioned the canyons a million times.

Yeah, and you draw them so nice. Why didn't they go to the canyons? I didn't think we'd actually get to go. Um, sphinxy poos, never after all right. I don't know, I get any of the Jets for the last crusade vibes thinking about it. Are they still there? Yeah, they're still there. They're far enough away.

They're just, they're, every chance they get, they're just sitting like statues and they're very stale as they're watching you. I love your spinks. And even though they have these human-like faces, their, their eyes, are almost like cat-like as they look at you. Is one of them have snake tongues? Yeah, they both have snake tongues. Why not? Perfect. Excellent.

And these are the five sphinxes that are literally just lions with wings. Like they look far more sphinxy, but just lions with wings. And they both stand up and walk forward and Neferet says, where are we headed next? Well, as long as Rumkahan is not too tired to carry the camel.

We are headed to... This motherfucker is going to drop that camel. He's going to hit the sand like a fucking burlap sack full of... I have never been tired. Why would we take him from Miss Paradise? I've never seen him so happy. Or barely ever

before. Yeah, he seems great. He seems really happy. We should leave him here. You want to take him to a horrible mountain? It seems cool. What is there? There's no water there and his eyes don't glow. He does seem to have

everything he needs here. He's never been happier in the time of known him. He's such a happy Strappy. Shreppy, you want to stay here? Can we roll it? See if it's in Caprice again. I don't know.

Hamley John. Please. She's click your tongue. Your lips are all like eroded and pull back. of your mouth, your island. Oh, my God. A one and a 20. How many is a Bartic inspiration

to increase my own roll by 10? A one. Seven. This camel fucking hates you. Hey, Strappy, you want to stay here? Is it 12 points of point of all the damage. No, Caprice, are you right? I can't be out of both of my eyes.

Strapi, no. Bad camel, don't do that. I would not call him bad, or you're going to end up like this guy. We need to get proper discipline. Am I okay? You really make that camel mad. Is my face okay? Can I still perform on a stage?

Not if people are eating. I'm not sitting. You probably have a face for radio now. That's not good. This camel is the greatest thing that's ever ever to do. I'm sure we can fix you. Nothing a long ref. fucking face.

I'm sure your scale rolled out all up to your face. Think about the horrible injuries we've been through and always just just to sleep it off. Oh wow,

my face grew back. Just figuring acid damage. Taking out. Holy shit. I've never rolled anything lower than that. That's the worst possible outcome statistically

that could have possibly especially for a fucking skill monkey I was going to say, yeah. Like with jack of all trades plus you know, all the shit that you had and like

That's amazing. Well, it does seem like disturbing him is really... He's really soured his day, and we don't want to ruin the rest of his evening. So, strappy, we'll see you later. Nothing says we can't come...

He looks at you and just... He looks... And then there's a bit of recognition that he goes back to eating the delicious tree star looking like. See, he looks so happy. And then as you see off in the river, you see this almost snake-like head rise up with fins. It has aquatic features.

And then another, and another is what looks like. It's very far off. What looks like the heads of a massive aquatic hydra swims through this lake and then descends back beneath the water. I'm sure that hydra isn't going to kill and devour us. Yeah, he'll be fine. There got plenty of camels around here. Or dead.

It's heading in the direction of the gazelles at the very least. Goodbye, Streppy. Goodbye, Streppy. I'm already on top of one of the strings. I like it. And she says, well, to the path of the asp. And... The what?

Goodbye, Muhar Oasis. And they both take off and you fly. And as you glide over the city a little bit closer than you had when you arrived, you see now that there's a number of guards walking through, and there's a very heavy guard presence, and you realize underneath that armor, they're moving like undead. They're mummies and skeletons that are patrolling these streets. Very clearly, despite this being a place of life,

It is very clearly ruled by the dead. And you fly over Muhar, leaving a verdant oasis behind you, the largest oasis in this entire dark domain. And you have to skirt south enough that you can avoid the breath of the forgotten, the massive sandstorm that encases the black pyramid. And you fly out of that.

And you get the sense that both sphinxes take you far enough south to avoid it, but you immediately feel the pain of the, of the sand being whipped around from that, even as far away from it as you are, as you manage just to fly and skirt it, and you see you arrive at the mountains looming taller and taller. As at this point, the sun is almost ready to sink behind them as it's approaching sunset. Because you've been traveling for quite a while today. And you see now what looks like the, you see the canyons that are descended and you see these huge scorpions skitter around and you see these gigantic cobra slither in and out of holes. As you understand why they call it the path of the as, not necessarily for the snakes, but as for

the sneaking pattern of the canyons that go through these mountains. And you see, you see, see now what had been depicted, what looks like the ribcage of a giant on its back, but it's just simply rock formations as you then land in both sphinxes let you off, and you see now, you get the sense that the sphinxes know exactly where they're going, as they then where they drop you off. It's deep within a canyon, these massive rock formations that look like ribs coming up all around you and hid it very, very discreetly. Once again, half buried in sand, you see the top of a black and gold dais. It seems to be very discreet.

I take a deep breath in. Ass, very dangerous. What? Asps. They're poisonous. Oh, yeah. Okay. What's an asp?

A type of snake, I think. Yeah, it's a snake. Oh. I thought you said ass. I think you just misheard me. As I'm going to begin to climb down off of Neferat, and I'm going to address her as I'm climbing down and say, pardon me if this is a dumb question, but you would think that if all of these things and clues that we're going from might hold the secrets to, you know, to.

unraveling this whole plan, that they'd be better guarded than this. What's going on? You yourself said all of this was some sort of elaborate prison. Don't most prisons have guards? There are powers at work here, imprisoning the Pharaoh. But simply because you have been guided by the architect, one of the architects of this. prison, do not think that Ancatep did not spend millennia searching for this.

How long until we draw Ancatep's attention? It will be unavoidable once we arrive at the end of our journey when you face a Nob Seton. Okay, all right. For you must destroy his physical form. Send the god of chaos and destruction back to the lower plains. right right we can do it

we can do this we've done similar things before killed like demon guys and sent them back to the low planes we'll be fine never a god before though

it was sort of different anyways I drew my head and make it off you do that that was in a weird mood anyways You see the dais.

Well, we should... Yeah, let's take a look. See what it says. Let's riddle it up. And as you approach, once again, you see the San shift away magically as Iris's soul begins to glow that same color. And once again, hieroglyphs emerge. And it says, prove you possess the heart of the mountain to restore the withered heart.

Heart of the mountain to restore the withered heart. What does that mean? What's the heart of the mountain? I don't think of the... The heart of the mountain? What's at the heart of the mountain?

Lava? Was it the volcano? I mean, it could simply just mean having resolve. It could be, you know, you know, proving that you're strong enough to, to, to, to, that you have the heart of the mountain resolute and stout, to, you know, have the resolution to restore the wither heart. This doesn't seem like a riddle. There's not like one word type operation. Some sort of display. Maybe it means like a mountain is made of rocks. Maybe it means to be

made of rocks. I'm 38% rocks. Yeah, if anybody has a heart of a mountain, it's you. Yeah, go and mount it up. You know, I'm going to let you have this. You know what? Go for it. Mount the deus. Yeah. Even if it's not about being 38% rock or more, or less.

If it's about heart, there's no one better to take this challenge than you. Yeah. But the rock thing doesn't hurt either. Are you really made of rock? No, I don't think so. I think it was more like just, you know, stories go eyes with ten. Well, it was the future on the riff. It's dull of my baby.

My man witch! It's dull my baby. I'm 42% only, me. And if that doesn't work, then I can always try. I'm a bard, so I'm like 100% rock hard all the time. All right. Does that work on any girls? Is that how your pants shift?

No, I need to see a doctor right away. It's been years. I'll walk up to the... That's quietism. And what's it again? What was it again, just so I have the reference, correct? Prove you have is the heart of the mountain. To restore it with your heart?

Yeah. I'm not sure how to prove it. I just say your name and you're made of rock and you have a big heart. Heart, though. Yeah, heart. Heart. Heart. Heard heart.

Hiert. Hello, guys. I am Toa Kamenui of the Makani Islands. And I have the heart of the mountain because, like I said, over there, I'm made of the mountain. We say at home that Goliaths are made of stuff. We are made of stone, we are made of rocks. And even though I don't think that's literally true, I still have flesh, I can still bleed. They say we're cut from the mountains because we're tough peoples.

We value the values of a mountain being sturdy and big and stable. And we like to have stability. We value tradition. We value honor. We value our ancestors. Really, the only thing that keeps us stable in life are all those sorts of things. And so my home is in my heart, and my home is basically mountains. Because volcanoes are basically mountains.

So it was lava. Making a constitution check. And now, you're pretty tomorrow, by our place. I'm waiting for one of these days, like we give an impassioned speech. and then Mike's like, nothing happens. No, he will never do that. I'll do that. Yeah, all right, fair enough.

I'm the one who's like, that's not the solution, though. You forgot to turn it countercloc, guys, you fucking idiot. You always late, though, donkey. You absolute fool. I'm the kind of DM is like, impress me. Okay, yeah, that's fine. Yeah, that's the answer. I like that.

21. 21. Nice. Just like. the scene before, or at the Maha'Arawasis. Here, the dais in the path of the asp, a scene unfolds beneath you, and you see a bird's eye view of this pathway

that looks like a curved spine with ribs and directly where the heart would be, suddenly flourish, and you see a massive rock rise up, and it pulses like a beating heart. And then once again, Iris's soul glows and it blasts, and you see once again the image of Ancatep. And he stares down underneath this outcropping in the canyon, and there buried in the sand. Sticking up is a skeleton.

The head is off to the side, a brittle ribcage, and a withered purple heart that's cracked. And he reaches down and he grabs it and peasant. pierces it with his bony fingers and it explodes into golden light and channels into his hand as he retrieves the fragment of the mountain. And then, once again, your visions leave you. And through the chaos of the rule of this boy king, this boy pharaoh, and the plotting, you see, a boat go across to the Western bank and wander into the forbidden desert in Neckbat, the lone man wearing a hood, not his bestments, as Ancatep wanders called by something. He believes it to be his God. He believes that Anubis has

provided the answer as he makes his way through And the, it's treacherous, he sees unspeakable horrors, the living dead, dark monstrosities, and natural disasters and strange magics that miraculously do not claim him. And in the middle of a sandstorm, he stumbles forward and his hand hit something cold and dark and metallic. in the sand, and he pulls it up, and it seems to be a crown, the black metal crown in the shape of a scorpion, and it hums with energy. And he realizes that it's not the nubis that called him here. The entropy and the chaos and the destruction that hums in this crown, that's not the God beneath the mountain, the Lord of the Dead.

That is much greater God. For it was Anubis in the worship of Anubis that had brought the kingdom to ruin. No, Anubis was not the rightful right hand of the Pharaoh. and certainly Osiris not, the presumed head of the pantheon. With a grim determination, Ancatep places the crown within his robes and returns back to his king. And suddenly your consciousness returns. What was that?

Another vision. But the crown? Where did that belong to? Where did it come from? Another riddle appears on the dais. What is always old and sometimes new? Never sad, sometimes blue. Never empty, but sometimes full.

Never pushes, always pulls. That again and see you again? Yes, please. What is always old and sometimes new? Never sad. Hold on. Oh, sorry. Never said.

And never said, sometimes blue. Sometimes blue. Some of blue. Never empty, but sometimes full. Never pushes. Always pulls. I got it. What is it?

That's what I was saying. Does anybody want to take a guess first? This is fun. Well, I think the only... The only time we've ever gotten it right, someone's just shouted it out. Well, I just wanted to give Capriza a shot. He seemed like he was right on the edge of something. I didn't give him a shot for him.

I was just finishing writing down the translation. I haven't had a moment to think about it. All right. Go ahead. Always old. Sometimes new. Never sad. Sometimes blue. Is it...

Nah, I got it. You go. It's the moon. You, whoever. I feel stupid. The dais shifts, and a scene emerges. Once again, you all know the drill at this point. Great vast dunes beneath a night sky, the stars twinkling,

and a series of obelisks that seem to form a ring. that once it pulls out, looks to be an unblinking eye. Look at the brain on Brad. Look at the big brain on Brad. Correct. This is. You hear Nuba say, correctamundo. Anubis is actually voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.

I would. I remember I used to do a goddamn thing. There are motherfucking snakes in this. Motherfucking pyramid. An ass for showing up and bites Capri's in the face. Ah! Oh, God. She can't worry.

Okay, sorry, what happened? The thing shifts in one more time. It shifts and shows a series of obelisks in the rising up from the dunes of beneath a night sky. First of all, do you know what they call a Big Mac in Arachir? And second of all, river, we went to a river, mountain we went to a mountain. Are we going to a fucking moon? Oh. I'm not...

I think of going in the desert while the moon is out. I am not sure these are all literal. Yeah, I don't think that's possible. Which moon? Blue. Is there a moon in this plane? I guess there is. Felix would have seen the moon, yeah.

It's a very large moon, but it looks very blue. It looks at least the one that you had seen. Definitely an unnatural blue. There's no hag in the moon. Oh, really? There's no hag. There's a mummy in the moon. It looks like the moon in Aladdin.

It's very blue. There's just the tiny face of willing to work. What the fuck is that? The moon's actually not an orb. It's spherical. It's about three feet off. And he's just going to fucking Aquino of time.

No, no, no, not. Majority's a mask. He's going to start to make his way closer, closer to the horizon. All right. Well, okay. Well, let's go out to the desert and find out what's next.

All right. Is anyone hungry? Should we stop and have, like, hot dogs? I don't know. What? Oh, maybe we can have a, what are they calling?

Is it a double pharaoh? with cheese instead? That's pretty funny. I like that. No, I mean, we've been walking all day. I just thought maybe we want some food. But I guess not. But I guess not. But me. We should ask if they want some dinner.

We've been flying on their backs all day. Hey, Sphinxes. Yally. Yolly. I am a living creature, you know. I am not a statue. I have no idea what you are. We've met endless creatures who don't hunger or any of that stuff.

What do you eat? exactly because you're like lionie but birdie but also and if the answer is camel don't say it in front of ours you see it like beasts all right all right all right does he have lion mouth human mouth yeah it's a humanoid mouth yeah it's a little bit feline it's like the cats movie yeah that's an andrews thing yeah but he has he has very sharp teeth the jaw is you know it's it looks like he could tear into some camp. I don't like that.

Oh, I love this. Yeah, I don't like him. Okay, well, it's... Oh, that was my other question. They walk on fours, not uppies. No, no, they're in lion body, basically. Very lion body. Kind of a headdress, main situation.

What are you smiling about? Smirky jerky. I was thinking about... He said, yeah, how are you doing? I was thinking about what their most favorite part of the camel would be. What is it? The hump. Their toes. Ew.

Delicacy, the camel toes. I was reading about- Speaking of royal cheese, toes. You're coming full Quentin Tarantino circle. And with that, we move on. Uno Farto, 316. Do you think their humps are made out of fat? Yeah.

Shut up. If a camel hit, wait. What did you think it was bone? No. I mean, that makes sense. I just never really thought about it. Air? I don't know enough about camel biology.

I don't know it was just pure fat. If they get thirsty, this is like also where they store water, right? Yeah. No, it's where they store fat. So fat holds water. And so that's why we can drive that. Every molecule of fat is tied to at least one molecule water. Anyways, you all, Neferet says, oh.

Yes, technically, that's where they store their water. Yes. The missing monuments, after you described to her in detail, where it showed. to say. And the sun has sunk beneath the horizon and night has fallen over a heart here. Coconut. Well, do you guys know where that is? Because I don't know if I put it on my map. Yes, it is closer to the center of this thread domain. Well, we're not going to have to cross through the... That is north of us. We will not go back there until...

Anubis is restored if we are to succeed. And I'm in. Let's go. All right. I'll climb on. You climb onto their backs and you once again take off into the sky. And the night sky, it's actually shockingly pleasantly cool, especially the further away you get from the north side of this dread domain. The howling wind whipping coarse sand, now behind you.

And it doesn't get super cold. but it's cool enough that you feel relieved from the heat of the day. And you see all manner of ruins, but as you look ahead, you see what had been in this divot between basically this massive, almost like a valley within the dunes. You see the ring of basically the upper half of obelisks that seemed to form in their construction, you get the sense would form from looking,

seen from directly above, a very large eye. That's neat. And as they land, you see the center rising up, lower than the others, a black and gold dais that might be the pupil of this eye.

Well, this is the dais for the unc of the unblinking eye. Yeah. Does Caprice get a sense that this valley with the eye shape in it would be on the return path of the End Undead Army

if we're getting back closer to the center. So, just thinking about, like, if we're hereish, because we've been in the canyons and we're heading back towards the center, I'm worried that we might cross this path or be adjacent to it. So you've been, you're kind of like right here, is what I'd say. They went from, like, basically,

here to here, and you presumably back. Basically, back, back, back, back. Like, that's basic. They're staying on the, you would presume, given everything you've seen, they're staying on the western. western portion of this of this domain. Ben Caprice has no fears.

It's also been a long time. Yes. It's been a lot. You've been traveling quite a bit. I often want us to be like, hey, everything's totally safe and fine. And then an undid army. Fair enough. Shad archive, you know?

Yeah, absolutely. Understood. You see all from the distance what looks like a number of hyenas running. And upon closer inspection, you actually see that their ribs are appearing through undead hides, as they seem to be running in an undead pack, and they hear these guttural, a dry, rasping snickers and laughs. But they seem to be just running over a dune and do not disturb you as you land, and you see this dais ahead of you. And as you approach, the dyes glows with...

of hieroglyphs, and you see a phrase that says, show the change that comes with the phases of the moon to bring the moon to the eye. One more time. Show the change that comes with the phases of the moon to bring the moon to the eye. All the changes that change with the phases of the moon. I mean, at least, you know, back home.

The amount of light that there is at night would be one change. I mean, other than the passage of time, right? Time moves the phases of the moon change. How do you bring it to the eye, though? I don't know. Either they want, maybe they want a lot of light or something that simulates a full moon shining on the eye. Not sure.

I mean, I know magic's that brings sunlight. but nothing that brings moonlight. I think it probably just wants to... One of us needs to talk about change. And maybe how they've changed. Maybe. That's certainly better than my idea. Want to go?

I mean, you've changed a lot since we've started. Felix, you've changed. I mean, we've all changed a lot, I guess. We've been through a lot. It's worth a shot. I'm happy to give it a go. I'll walk up to the days. I'll do that.

Um, Deyes? Me said Deis. Deyes, come and me want go home. Dez. Me said dance, me said,

Dees, me said, dee, me dais, me dais, me said, dee, me dais, me dais. Thank you, Derek. I've forgotten when I was fucking damn. I get charged with lightning and I can.

You're Rimp reaches out and grabs your face. Yeah. The camel just shows up from behind the face. The hyena's tackling you. Pick the flesh from your bones. When I started this adventure, I was a less humble person than I am now. I mean, I'm still full of confidence, but I know what I don't know kind of confidence.

When I started off, I thought I could conquer the whole world all by myself, and I learned that was not the case. It was unpleasant. It was a lot of hard change, but good. I don't regret a minute of it. Just like the phases of the moon, I have gone from a new moon. one of darkness to one of illumination, where I now feel like my eyes are wide open. Make a wisdom check and add your proficiency. 26. Wow. Very nice.

So close, Derek. Yeah. So close. The de me the bottom looks. The dais below you shifts and changes. and you see a full moon shining down over the obelisk, all of them adorned with the washful eyes of Horace. You would recognize Iris as they glow with the bright blue. And then you see as Iris's soul.

And then you see, as Iris's soul glows, the caweth in her glows, you see once again that shimmering golden form, the vision of Ankhatep, as he hovers, levitates before the very top of an obelisk. And it's, and it's zenith, you see an Ankh built of the same stone. and holding that same eye of Horace, stares indifferently at him. He reaches forward and snatches it, and as he holds it up, it comes and glows with that same golden light.

And as he holds it, it shakes and vibrates and suddenly burst forward, and all of that energy rushes into him, and he drops the, the ark into the sand. And your vision shift, once again, it is night beneath the moon. In the land of reeds and lotuses,

you see priests of Anubis led by Ankhetepe, the crown of the scorpion hidden beneath his Anubian jackal headdress. As he walks forward into the throne room, the boy came sitting, being advised by priests of Osiris. From beneath their robes, the priests pull their blades, and slaughter all of them. The Pharaoh, the entire clergy of Osiris, and the entire temple guard. It is a knight of absolute bloodshed that Ancatepe believes will finally bring prosperity, if not peace, to the land.

And with the slaughter of the priests of Osiris, there's the rejection of the failed god of the dead as they cast down their jackal headdresses. They reject Anubis and said of holding the god of death and the god of the dead as the primary deities of this land. It is now the god of chaos set. He is the god of the land. And thus it was so, and that was the religion of this kingdom. And with this dark night, this night of evil, this night of chaos, this night of bloodshed, the heavens shake. And there's bloodshed amongst the gods.

Your vision returns. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Evantris and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a moment. monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, Shroud over Saltmarsh. You can also go to The Crooked Moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you.

You've just finished witnessing this vision. And once again, the higher glyphs emerge on the dais and you get another riddle. Some try to hide, some try to cheat, but time will show we always will meet. Try as you might to guess my name.

Man, I love this. Today's been a fantastic day for me. Say it again, some try to hide. Some try to cheat. Some try to cheat. Time will show. We will always be. I wonder when we're headed next.

Does it start with a D? I think so. I think so as well. I mean, Toa probably doesn't think so. I don't know. It felt right I should be the one to say. As you give the dais the D, the death. Jesus.

And... Yes. We said death. And you see the face of the boy king. And you realize that it is not his flesh and blood, but made of stone built into the side of a mountain. You see a great statue of the boy king larger than life, flanked by crumbled effigies of gods perhaps forgotten,

were defaced, but all forbidden here in this land, where then it fades. We got it. All done. All right. Well, on to the next one. The story's not finished yet. We have to continue on the hero's turn. The, uh, at hearing this, Neferet nods, and once again, they're in their, uh, recline poses,

and they're allowed, they allow you to, they welcome you on in their backs and they take off into the night's sky. And Neffert nods and says, Yes, that is Hussinkar's tomb. The last pharaoh The land of reeds and notices. For Anka-Tep was merely a pretender king. And why?

What was the name of the? Hussonka. That was the boy. Housaka. For your song here, Rick. Hussaca. Hussaca. Hussaca.

That was the Boy King's name? Yep. Okay. Husikah's tune. H-U-S-E-H-K-A-H-K-A-H. H-U-S-A-H. That's full like so wrong. I'm not.

I would have as well. Hussica. I don't know. Hooked on phonics work for me. That was one of the names I did. Gotta have something from the book. And you begin to fly south. And you see that swirling sandstorm that had been called the breath of the false,

making its way across the plains. And as you fly away, you see the billowing dust clouds and sand clouds swallow the missing monuments, the obelisk where you have been. And you make your way to another range of mountains, not nearly as winding, filled with widening canyons, but you see what looks like a cliff face, completely sheer, and you see a platform that has this massive tomb built into it with the statue of the slain boy king that you had seen, Hussaka. And you see that there is a large double stone door. And the figures on either side of this boy king, despite the statue of him not being devised.

faced, every single one has had their faces smashed in. They seem to be humanoid in various garbs, but the very likely animal-headed or otherwise would have made them distinguishable. Very deliberately smashed. I know I'm asking a lot of questions, uh, Neferat. And maybe these questions will be answers as we keep going, but I can't help but think if Ancatep was originally in some ancient form of netbed and this boy king was a ruler

then how did he end up here or was this place originally a part of adventress? That is for you to learn in this journey. You will have the full picture when it is time to face anews a town. Right.

Right. Sorry, my brain just gets ahead of me sometimes. All right. It was a good question, though. Yeah, it's the same thing I've been wandering. What links them? Either he was banished here or this might have been a part of the vanjuries at one point. By the way, I'm glad he was punishment. I'm glad he's suffering for what he did. You, bland, may let you off and you see that although there's a heavy stone double door huge, in this temple. Despite having been slain, someone built this thing in his honor. And there is a large crack in the door, or rather the door is cracked open with a very large entrance or even Toa could shimmy on in, should you choose.

All right. Thank you as I get off. I need to go inside. Is there anything I'll we should keep in mind is to be respectful, presumably if there was some sort of cultural, you know, bleed over from one dynasty to the next. Don't take anything that doesn't belong to you. Don't touch that which doesn't belong to you. And be respectful. It's not fart on any skeletons, or make any dick jokes. Never done that either. Or expose yourself?

I'm old, I expose. How is those pants hold enough? You know, I really... Fine. Let's go on it. We go ahead. You enter. And you see a very large tomb.

where there had, that original temple of Anubis that you had been in, it had been relatively very, relatively small, small place of worship. You see a room that is filled with numerous, large, gilded jars. Who knows what they are filled with? Some are smashed. You can see that there's withered, ancient, desiccated, perhaps food. You see coins. scattered about, number of weapons, skeletons littered all around. You see areas that have shells

built into the stone chamber. Some with jars, smash, others with glittering jewels, religious objects and ornaments. But every bit of religious effigy has been seen. smashed, defaced, torn apart. And the very center, shockingly intact, is a huge stone sarcophagus. And you see now that by, to one side, very nearly buried under broken pottery and piles of gold and gems, see a bit of black stone with gilded. edges as the dioces has raised up in this tomb is iris glowing if you're approaching yeah as you approach you hear the clinking of metal just the coins minted in long long go shift and pushed away just like the sand in the rock in previous situations and

You see his iris close, so do the hieroglyphs appear. You've said my name, prove that you have no fear of me. I'm feeling very smooth brain today. I think the loss of Strappy the Camel has done me in. We need to prove that we're not afraid of death, what we've done. Well, I'm not afraid of death at all. I never have been. Let's why? Well, okay.

I'm not afraid of death. Not afraid of death. I don't care if I die or live. I just... Well, I've never been afraid. I've been on my own since I was so little. And I've been fighting since I could stand. I've gone all around the world,

and I've met so many people and a lot of people take advantage of me because I'm tiny. But that's never stopped me before. And honestly, since I've run into all of you, I've been scared, I've been frightened of certain things, but never of death. Because we always come through when we work together. And of course, I'm very strong and very fast now, so even if death wants to be. to catch me probably could not but in the end even if I die I've spent a life doing good things with good people so that doesn't scare me let them come make a wisdom check out your proficiency please yeah you're a monk but my dice are bad

they're bad archives right down the middle, big money. Solid. Yes, that'll be enough. Two, wisdom check. Oh, yeah. What? It'll be your wisdom plus your proficiency. Plus proficiency.

So five. Seven. This is basically a wisdom saving. Acceptable. Yeah. Yeah. The day explodes as you see the sarcophagus. As you see the sarcophagus,

and the shadows that loom over, numerous people cowering in fear, some trying to run, but one figure standing amidst the inevitable fate of all mortal creatures. This is a land of death revered by those who worship the gods of death. It is nothing to fear.

As that happens, Iris is... Ka, the soul glows, gold. And you see that shimmering form of the mummy lord, as he holds a conopic jar in a ruined tomb. The head, an animal, a jackal's head, but skeletal, ruin. This is not the head of any cod. The head of a head of a an abominable mockery of the gods. The head of Noob Satan. As he holds that canopic jar, he grabs the lid and opens in and blasts with a golden energy. As he opens his mouth and breathes it in into long dead, withered, crumbled lungs. And as the fragment of death fills what remains of his soul,

You all once again see a vision. And the vision is the bloodshed amongst the heavens. But what you see before you is temple walls. A mosaic. In the plains of good, the plains above, a grand desert far more grand than this land of death. With great pyramids, a man, a pharaoh, gemstone skin, shimmering green, butchered by a beast that does not exist.

Donkey Arvark, Greyhound, Cobra, an amalgamation. Asset slays Osiris, rips apart, tears his body into 14 pieces, scatters it to the winds in the plain of Acadia, be The temple wall, mural of all of these gods, helpless to stop what has happened, the leader, the ruler, the head of the Osirian pantheon, named after this god, now slain, is a cataclysmic, be powerful of that, from where it originated, is the power that's set the god of chaos has gained, from the night of evil, the night of betrayal. All the hands of Antaette,

suddenly the great pyramid, the great palace where this happens, glows and rumbles, and all those in the land of reeds and lotuses hear a voice call out. But there are no words. It's maddened babbling. Maddened,

the voice of the chain god. Thar is Dune. The power was not just for set, but to bring about to summon and to unchain the god that had once been chained in time and memorial. And within this tomb, the final resting place of the boy king, now untuned soon was to be the chain god. And with that, your consciousness returns.

Oh my gosh. And... These are getting really intense. Well, you can just kill a god like that? I wouldn't have thought so. I don't even know what's real anymore. I think what we just saw was Starry's Dune Gives getting out, but we know his name's Thorese Dune, right?

Yes. Yeah. Thoros Dune getting out the first time. And then everything we've heard about from all the creatures that we've met along the way, that's when they came in and put sealed and duped the seals and everything else. This is great. This is great to know. This.

One of my first questions, when we started finding out when the seals were broken was, how can we undo it? How can we reseal the seals? Maybe we find an answer. Maybe we find a way to, to, to, however they did it the first time. Through these, through these memories, through these visions. You're very optimistic, I'll give you that. All right, what's the widow?

A riddle appears glowing in hieroglyphs. Never resting, never still, moving silently from hill to hill. It does not walk, run, or trot. All is cool where it is not. Thanks for the follow, Kdub. Welcome, KDub. Good to see it. Hello, good to see it. Does not walk, run, or trot.

Oh, I know what it is. Never resting. Never still. Moving silently from hill to hill. It does not walk, run, or trot. All is cool where it is not. It does it begin with a sound? Not the way I say it.

Fuck, I almost got shit all over my confidence. That was close. That was fucking cool. We almost got a spit-take DM. Does it start with a... Who? A W. I...

Maybe I heard it wrong. I thought it was the sun. That's my guess. Oh, hey, I got one. Wind was a close second. Yeah, the part that had me thrown off was the, it's cool where I am not. And then I'm like, mm-hmm. I was going to say late.

I thought it was my second guess. I thought it was fire. Oh, I thought, and so I was thinking wind. And so when you said, and she said, that's not how I say it, fart and wind. I was like, oh, my God. All that thing to solidify your asses? Yeah, I'm like, oh, my God, maybe it is. Caprice resist the urge to fart on the skeletons and disrespectfully pick up all the valuables with his dick

and then continues to look at. Can I have my food back? The scene on the dais changes. Where at the previous several, you had seen a large moon, now a sun radiates above mountains. Not too far from the land of the dead. You see those ancient buildings built into the mountains, but this is the highest peak in the land, The top of which, a huge disk that looks like the sun stands almost like a throne, and then fades away.

Okay, well, it shouldn't be too hard to pick out that peak. All we have to do is take the spaces and... And they probably know where it is. The tallest one. Yes, they seem to know where we need to go, even before we tell them. They probably could have told us this whole story, but we have to earn it. Yes, that's right. We do. Well, they work for Anubis and put this on together, so it makes sense.

I'll order the Sphinx. What are you doing? It's not search pricing, is it? You know, it depends on the time of day. Oh, they canceled. They canceled? Are you making sure to get an Excel? You know, there are a fat extra line.

Well, that's going to be another 21 minutes. You all are going to Venmo me for this, right? Well, look, it's good that you're ordering the Sphinx because my sports not so great since someone I knew threw up on the last Sphinx. It was a rough night, and now my score is just plummeted. Did Kelsey do that? I don't know. Who's Kelsey? I didn't have fun of name end, though. The Sphinx has arrived.

You leave the tomb, and the Sphinxes, once again, on either side of the stairs down from this platform out, of the tomb of Husa-Kha. You see them waiting, and she nods you to explain the scene. And she says, of course, the sun's throne mountain. Sun's what, Mel? Sun's throne. Throne? Yes.

And this is the last one, right? Because seven would be... Iris. Isn't this five? Maybe I miscount it. River, River, mountain, moon, death, sun. Six.

One more. And then seven is Iris. No, but sun would be five. I'm really struggling today. The next one is the golden eagle circling under the sun. And then the one after that is the face and a sand store. Yeah, my bad. So we'll be going into the sand store.

Oh, we're going to go into the pain store. Somehow I actually picked up in the same. I counted. By river, mountain, moon, death. And you call yourself a wizard. Well, I've been awake for a pretty long time. Oh, I forgot the river. It's because I didn't draw a little fiction each day.

You're right, I miss counting. That's all right. You mount the sphinxes and they take off into the night sky and you go a little bit slower as you take the long way to this sun-thrown mountain because it is dangerously close to the city of the dead. You see these undead, almost mummified vultures flying above. You see strange torches as these undead creatures shamble about from afar. And miraculously, none seem to bother you.

These sphinxes seemingly perhaps native to this land are able to to move about without being disturbed. And sun rises by the time you arrive. Morning comes and it rises and you finally get higher and higher. And even if it were not for the heat of the sun, it would be getting colder and colder. But as the sun rises, the heat returns. And you see the large golden sun desk above the highest peak in on these measurements. mountains. And as you arrive, you see, you look around and this mountaintop continues to go down

and you don't notice it at first, but then as the sun hits a certain angle, the light reflects off of this metal disc, and it shines a beam of light. In a subtle spot that you see, that little bit of black and gold, as the dais is a mere 50 feet. from this massive disc on the highest mound. This is it? You know, just about the whole counting thing, I wanted to say again, I'm sorry, but I'm glad that I miscounted

because I was really worried that this whole thing with AnkaTep was going to really get wrapped up in like one more episode, and I really felt like we needed another one. I didn't want a whole half like a contest of royal seats situation. I just assumed that you were doing that

counting the fence posts, You know, you were counting the sections and not the actual posts themselves. That's true. Yeah, well, there was that too, you know, I, but... I've also read Contest of Royal Seats. And that's another story, which is the ending, all of a sudden, it's like, oh, is it? You know, it was like, they could have had more time. Oh, but there was just no time. They didn't want it. I actually haven't read the series. I've only seen the major images of them.

Oh, no. I'm sure the book... They never made a major image. They were making... they were making minor images. Well, they really could have used another few series of seasons of minor images. Anyway, I'm just really glad that this is going to be wrapped up more. You can watch those at home. More, you know, it's not going to be rushed, as my point. We're going to get a full picture.

Wait, this is six, right? Six, six, six. No, this will be five. This is fine. This is fine. The fifth site that we've arrived at. The fifth dance. Oh, I counted death as one.

That was one. Oh. You did what I did. The river vision. I'm going to go check out the day. The day is... But it didn't score of 20, so it's okay to make that mistake. River.

Mountain. Moon. Moon. Three. Death. Four, death. Sun. Five.

That's where we are now. So we are at the sun. We haven't done it yet. Yeah. We haven't seen the sun. I did the same thing you did. Here you're either as smart as me or I'm as dumb as you. I'm just not counting the same things.

I'm just counting the puzzle. This fence pose. The hieroglyphics glow, and it says, do you have the will to hold the sun in the palm of your hand? I produce a little bit of fire from my fingertip. I do. The will of the, I have literally created someone. I've spent my whole life studying magics

that would make me powerful enough to, to, to conquer whatever I might face. I never thought that would be saving my brother, but here we are. It seems a little literal there, feel like. It sounds like a metaphor for courage or some other... Well, I think that's just it. I don't think that I would be here with all of you and gone on this unbelievable adventure

if I didn't have the will to do it. I've come a long way. had a pretty tragic life thus far. And if it wasn't for all of you, I don't know where I'd be. But I have learned that even when I felt like giving up, when I was drowning in the ocean and Toa fished me out, that was a change of the first day of my new life, where I learned that I had to persevere and I couldn't just drown,

I had to swim. And I was angry for a very long time. I was very angry at Koravakia in the military. And things were getting better. And now I'm angry again. I'm angry all over again. I thought I was a new person. And I'm worried that my anger and hatred might be cyclical.

But all I know is that I have to keep moving forward one step at a time. And it's that will to hold the sun in my head. I can do anything that's going to get me there. Make a charisma check. Stand a little closer than the dais and say that. What can't get it. Charisma check plus a... I scuttle over just a little bit closer.

You literally crab walk. I'm going to pick this one. The dais didn't hear. Charisma plus proficiency. This is the worst thing I could have possibly been picked for. Ah! Natural 20? Is it?

Yep. So I got a 27. It was either a one or 20. I don't know. I can't tell which is much. I don't think he sperms over a natural one. Oh. A cigarette.

Yikes. Yikes. Immediately, you see a adorned in the jewels of a pharaoh. Reach up. the blazing sun overhead and grasp it in his hand with light beaming over a massive empire in the desert, rising up holding a sceptre of power,

showing the will that requires to lead and to succeed. Then once again, the shimmering gold of Iris forms into the shape of the mummy Lord, the dark lord of this land, As he stares up to the sun and you see a massive golden eagle, not quite the size of a rock, but a large eagle circling around the sun at high noon. There's not much time, it is only for one minute. And as he reaches up, dark necromantic magic spills out of his fingers,

It looks like it's tethering towards this bird, but instead it's ripping down as it tears out its life-presence. And as the eagle lets out a final death throw, a shriek that echoes through these mountains, and collapses, his eyes blaze with golden light, and he rips the fragment of the sun from this eagle as it collapses into the mountains below. And then your vision shifts and fades.

You see once again a temple wall, a mosaic that projects heavens, the realm of the realm of the dealings of the gods. As you see Osiris in 14 pieces, as his son, the falcon-headed Horace, the power of the sun, Horace Ray. He works with the other gods of the pantheon, Nubis included, to restore those pieces one by one. And that power hums through not just this realm of the gods, but as the land of reeds and lotuses, shimmers and shakes in this pyramid, as the chain God threatens to spill out, stepping into this world, a being of light, a creature with massive wings, a long neck, a brilliant beak, rises up from the land itself, a being

of light, a massive vulture, rises forth, and calls. to her sister. Light is powerful. It can snuff out the darkness, but there is only one primal force, only one prime force that even the gods can fear Osiris has proven that. The power of death is far across the sea, a great owl rises.

With the power of those pieces of Osiris, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, they chain. They chain one after the other, as they hum with power. And from across the sea, they work and they harness the power of death to rip back the God of entropy, the maddened shrieking Thar's Dune. But it requires, such a ritual, requires this God to be in the realms of death. And yet 13 seals, one more fragment of Osiris remains.

Your vision returns. Oh, my gosh. I knew it. Oh, my gosh. What did you know? How did you know? What did you know? It got very lucky.

Just moments ago, I was talking. Well, it was ours when we had. We know how the seals got made. Oh, yeah. The whole ritual. Even Zern was like, that's been lost in time. I mean, he could have been lying, but... So the seals were literally pieces of Osiris's body.

Bad ass. But what about the missing piece? So that's why they're here. Or not here, I guess, because we're not here. That's why they're in Strigger. It's not... Is that... Don't get that sense.

That that's why... I would say that yes. It was the land across the sea. and obviously I narrated it and you can imagine what that would have looked like depicted visually. Is there an animal that the sister of the owl that will vote? It was a vulture. The being of light, the vulture rose up to call upon a sister, the being of death that manifested an owl. So, I mean, we know there's 13 seals, the missing piece, the one remaining piece, the one remaining piece,

Maybe that's the key. It's the key to all this. To keep one more seal to fix it, right? Well, we have to maybe repair it. Yeah, exactly. Maybe the missing piece could either fix the other seals or just put the final nail in the coffin, so to speak, and keep Thoris Dune chained for good.

Why do you think they only made 13? What happened to the 14th piece? It'll probably find out. A riddle appears. Thank God, for more episode. It riddle appears. And this will be the last beneath dark wings. This thing, all things, this thing devours all things.

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Nause iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to meal. This has been a day. Let me tell you. This thing devours all. Mm-hmm. Never felt more useful. Do you say it again?

This thing devours all things. Birds, beast. Or this thing all devours birds, beasts, trees, flowers. Nause iron, bites steel, grinds hard stones to meal. Nikki said it like 30 minutes ago, so I don't know. What did you answer? Farts That's what I was thinking, is it?

Is it farts? Toa, I know you're better than that. I just wanted to fit in. Uh, come on. No, I mean, to do it's time. Duh-dh-do-do. Uh... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

As it glows, and you see, however, a storm whipping sandstorms, as you see dunes shifted and formed in a matter of minutes, as the dust clouds whip around. And at the center of all of this is a small rectangular, temple that seems to be surrounded by this storm. And no matter where the storm travels, this structure is always within the boundaries of the storm. And we have to go into the storm. Do you think that they can fly in there? Doesn't seem likely?

Yes, they can. Won't we be torn apart? That's exactly what I was thinking would be ripped a shreds. Maybe they know why in. Let's talk to them and see What's I say? Drew. Sandstorm by Drew starts playing. Are you afraid to enter the breath of the false? Well, what if we go above the storm and then we just look down and find a little...

You look at the eye of the storm. Compared to the breath of the forgotten, the breath of the false is nothing. Compared to the breath of the forgotten, the breath of the false is nothing. They are two separate storms. Oh, we only drew the one storm on our map. Yeah, we only have one storm on our map. No. This is not my problem.

You saw two storms. Oh, you saw two storms. Yeah, but I only drew one. And I rolled on six. It really is a shitty carcala. Anubis is in the really bad one. It is the moving storm, the breath of the false, the false gods. Oh.

This is a temple. to those false gods. Is it safe? Is there danger? Are we going to die? Is there going to be a horrible death? To those who know and can traverse and walk through to the other side, there's a great blessing. But you don't know.

Are you saying I do not know? Get on my back! Oh boy, here we go. I may be a bad cartographer, but I'm a great fartographer. And I get on his back. As he goes to get on the back, we all see the rip that's formed to the back of his pants. Oh, geez, he's got big up! You rip, it's so insane, it rips his pants.

I sit down. Oh, excuse me. You need pants with like an iron pants. You can't rip the hair. No, I want to get one of those like muffler holes that like... What the hell? You make your way away from the Sun's Throne Mountain. And you, and once again, both Neffaret and Ramkehan,

take that, make sure to fly far away from the city of the dead. And as you're flying away, you see the absolutely gargantuan period. The golden pyramid that sits at the center of the city. The city is built into different tiers and terraces all leading to this massive golden temple. This pyramid that seems to have a massive network within it, various balconies, where you see undead, some gigantic others smaller that are posted at every single entrance as undead march through this city that is not just built in terraces, and these great temples and tombs,

but also in highways and structures built into the mountains that contains this entire city. And you see that where you had seen, although you had seen a massive statue of Husa-Kha, in his tomb, built into this pyramid, is an impossibly large statue. statue of Anketep in his finest Pharaoh's garb holding his sceptre of power immortalized in marble and stone and it is literally the album cover of power slave for my Iron Maiden fans and as I just had to say that just so I was very crystal fucking clear um looking up right now but are

the abidist statues actually set. Yeah, yeah. Excellent point. Yeah, that's cool. That's really cool. Excellent point. And flanked. It's clearly based off of a Bousan Bell,

but that's fine. And flanking this statue, this massive statue of Anka-Tec himself, are the statues of a jackal-headed god. Not a jackal-headed god, a skeletal jackal-headed false god. A nobs satan on either side. The creature, the entity, drawing power soon to be awakened. And you descend towards the breath of the false, the breath of this false god, the howling

whipping sandstorm, and you hear the booming voice of Ramkehan. He says, do not lose your courage now! As both descend in, and you see as they fly with incredible grace and precision, flying on and through the winds, as you are whipped and blasted by sand, it is very painful, but you are able to hold on, you are not ripped off. Your flesh is not rended. And finally, what feels like an eternity, to use another fourth wall breaking thing,

it's like that scene from Dune and the Ornithopters, where they're rocketing through the sandstorm as they seem to know the path, the know the way to go. If you follow the right wind patterns, you can make it through mostly unscathed, and finally, everything stops, and calm returns.

And you see before, you see, before you as the dust cloud is above you, just to every single side of you. And it continues to move. In a small area rising up from the sand is a temple. Relatively modest, small four walls, not particularly adorned with any kind of fancy decoration. Does that make it feel older or just? that that's the case. Does it make it feel even more ancient than the ruins we've seen so far because of its modesty? Yes. It, I would, that's an excellent observation. I would say make a history check at advantage. Oh. Gosh, I didn't expect to roll. I was just curious. I didn't think I was playing a game. Let me get some of that 16 number.

16. And you also realize that where all of these, even in the most beautifully maintained, temples and ruins, or temples and structures, they've all had the weathering effect of thousands of years. This feels like it was built yesterday, completely pristine and trapped in time.

In spite of what? In spite of the massive sandstorm that you would think, we'd be ripping it apart, but obviously it's calm. And you know that the sandstorm is moving, but this is almost as if time is standing still in this temple. And it seems, well, all of these things, you're not sure, but they're all larger than life,

perhaps constructed in the millennia, since this dark domain has been around. This feels like it was, it could be the first temple that was ever built in the land of reeds and lotuses. Seems like an exception to the time riddle we just heard. That's a right point, actually. Well, maybe this temple was built to false gods in the sense that they're gods that nobody remembers, that there will be the storm or the forgotten.

Maybe there's not really gods. I mean, just like a noob set... Ah, whatever his name is. What? A noob satan. A nobs satan. All right, well, thank you, Sphinxes for the ride. Did we land?

Yeah, they land it. Oh, okay. I thought it was like floating. Did they fly off? No, they're like, they're still here. They gotta get us out of the story. I was being sincere. You guys don't have to stare at me.

You see Nefer and nod and says, you're welcome. There is a trick to flying to making one's way through the storm. many get to see this temple. And you see Ramka says, I am surprised you did not lose courage halfway through. Well done. He seems like he's like a little frustrated that you didn't scream like a girl on the one hand, but I do fine in open spaces. Just don't put me in a tiny coffin and I'll be fine. Yeah, be right back. I write down. I'll start walking to the temple. You and the temple and it is deathly quiet, it feels like everything is still.

And you see up ahead, it seems it's actually a bare room, but at the center, covered in bones, is a dais of black and gold. And you see that these bones are not human bones. You see the skeleton of a jackal, the skeleton of an ardux. of a ardvark, a donkey, a greyhound, and a cobra, all littered in this strange temple. You feel, you know what it's like to be in a temple of a god. You've been in the temples of anubis that Iris has made. And this feels have that same kind of reverence, but it feels like the antithesis. It feels like there is so power to be gained here, but it's a power of darkness.

It's a dark, a temple of dark blessings. And as you approach the dais, once again, if the bones are to crumble away, and you see hieroglyphics on the dais, and it says, time waits for none. How do you pass the time? Is it a trick to this? Can you say the things that we do to pass the time? I have read a lot of books. I take out my wine skin.

You'll know what I do. I'll take a drink. I put my spare time into creative pursuits, writing words and making compositions, putting them together, writing songs. What do you do, Iris? What do you do, too? I don't know.

I play my ukulele. little bit I eat some fish go fishing catch fish I've never done that in a while since I've been home but I guess lately I talked to Felix talk to Caprice and Luffy Maris me do you I know right on twinks you you love to ever done it's just I mean those are all things right I mean Yeah. So what did you do, Arras? Well, I don't really have free time. Even when you were home before all this?

No. There's always something to do in the... Along the path to worship. But I would say my time is spent honoring the gods that have given us the life that we are lucky to enjoy. So will you spend your... And readying myself for death. prayer. Sure. In worship. In worship. In faithfulness. Yes. Iris, I need you to make a wisdom check and add your proficiency modifier. 23. I'm going to play a one. Twenty-three. Are you on T with a lift? When we used to paint. I'm a craric. And there was a color. The color. Rism is good for

silver. I always wanted him mitral silver. I couldn't help anything mithril. Makes you feel like you have a lift. Yeah, mithril. That's right. Mithril silver. I did the exact thing thing. My brother, when he was young, used to say, he couldn't say mountains. So he'd say mountains. Mountain. It's like people would say, crayon, crown.

Or cram. Cran. Cran. You see a crown. Sorry. You see a crayon drawing. And cran raspberry is delicious, uh, seltzer flavor in case of it. Mike hates us.

No, this is meant to be a classic D&D session. God, I got one. You see the dais change and shape. And Iris, when you spoke, you saw a person in worship bowing before a jackal-headed god. but a skeletal jackal. And you see a craftsman creating the highest work of art that they could fathom.

You see a lover achieving a true romance with their one true love. You see a pharaoh, achieving the most prosperous society that they could fathom. What does it mean to pass the time is to truly live and to succeed, even this realm of death? And suddenly Iris's soul glows once more, and you see Ancatep stepping into this eye of the sandstorm. or very few have tread, mastering this force of nature, force of death, force of magic, force of power.

And he raises his hand before this temple of time. And you see the almost the full manifestation of his own will and dry form in a face in the cloud, in the sandstorm, the clouds of dust and sand. that then rocket from the storm around him into his hand and all starts to glow as the energy and the ka, the fragment of time, drifts from each grain of sand into this blessing of the sandstorm, and it fills his undead body.

Now you see a kingdom shaking, rumbling, people shrieking in fear as they hear the incessant maddened shrieks and babbling of an entity they cannot understand, but they know that it is just pure chaos, madness, and destruction that is erupting from the pyramid where their new pharaoh, Ancatep, the former high priest of Anubis sits. This is what the people wanted, Anketep, this is it. This is how prosperity will be achieved as he wears that Scorpion's crown that speaks to him in that same maddening whisper. And it's here that Ancatep finally can understand the maddening cries.

After following its bidding just almost automatically for so long, This crown was forged, created by the chain god himself. One of many cast into this realm of Evantras. One of 12. And only he was the one to find it. He truly was great where his boy king had failed. It was the knight of his greatest victory. But in that moment, the people

of the land of reeds and lotuses stormed this pyramid. And just as he and his priests slew his Pharaoh, the guards and all of the priests of the other gods, the people of this kingdom slew their false pretender king, their false Pharaoh. And in that same moment of death, you then see its shift, to a mosaic, as you see that same owl

with a seeming death mask on, in a triumvirate, a meeting, shrouded in mists. Where there was a great owl, there's also now a feminine shape in a hood holding a lantern and making the third point of that trinity, the god of the dead himself, Anubis. The three make their pact.

They make their agreement. They save existence. And as Ancatep dies, you hear him breathe out a curse. As all of those that slew him are horribly changed into undead abomination, scorpion creatures. nature, snake-like monsters, and other horrible abominations, as a massive sandstorm laced with mist, makes its way across this kingdom of reeds and moduses.

And in this one terrible night, in this one last act, as Anka-Tab breathes his final breath as a living man, he clutches his chest, and on a His chest is a glowing seal. As the entire kingdom is swallowed by the mists, Harakir is formed the 14th piece of Osirus, as Osiris returns from the dead and takes his place back at the head of the Osirian pantheon.

And where this pyramid had been, this seat of power of Ankhetepe, is coated in black and forever trash in a sandstone. Imprisoning as far as doom. At the time, ideally for all time, and your conscience returns. So the 14th piece was in Ancatepe? He was on that seal, I thought.

It just on him. And he's chaste. And I guess that's how he was able to rip this part. of a ventrace right out of avatris and then create harakir so if we end him get that piece back i wonder if this would be restored back to where it's supposed to be but what if it doesn't what if it just stops existing and everybody in it stops existing i don't know we really want to return this realm to its original spot in the primordial plane that seems it's full of death and ruins.

Or maybe all the unddeath would just talk. All of the camels are incredibly vicious and spit in your face causing terrible burning scars. Normal commoners would just be killed instantly. I've taken

26 points of damage from just camels today. That would kill so many comiters. We can't let Anka-tap, have a piece of Osiris. Right? I mean, at the very least,

it feels like that's something that we can use to defeat the chain God. Would I infer from the vision that it was used up the way that the seal allowed me? I'll reiterate so it's very clear. You get the sense that the 13 of the seals were done in Strangar.

And the 14th seal to finish sealing away the chain god to basically to send Anketap and this entire place and the chain god back is to, he did not want the seal. They basically used him as the final seal to finish the ritual, to have him be the anchor point in the pyramid. So essentially that Anubis, the maiden in the miss, clearly, and the Striga works together. to create this dread domain. Yes. And this dread domain is the prison.

That's probably why he wants to die. Poor Ankatap. I'm like, really a maiden with a lantern? Fuck. I wrote down Raven Queen, but you're right. It's totally the maiden. Yeah. Poor Anka-tab.

That's pretty unfairo. What happened to him? And I will also add, because you had learned from Virgil Zern, who Mace was lovingly playing as Alex. that the Shadowfell exists well before the Raven Queen got to pull them to there. Right?

And he gets a tense of this is well, well before that. Right. Right. Well, I mean, hmm, if he, if his goal is to work with Thar's tune, then it would make sense that he'd want to die if that would release the seal, right? Perhaps him being forever alive or undead

and being that anchor point, would permanently prevent the return and he wants to get the pieces of his car to end himself and release Thora's June. So if we kill him, we would unleash the chain gau? Maybe. Yeah, potentially. Well, then that makes sense why he wants to die. Because I was thinking to myself, if he is such a bad dude, a bad, bad Leroy Brown, why would we stand in the way of letting him accomplish what he wants to, and allowing him to die. That's exactly right.

But if allowing him to die is a world-ending event, which it seems like it would be, then we can't let him die. What about the opposite? What? Well, he's undead, right? What if we make him mortal? How would we go about doing that? I don't know.

I don't you think if he could be made mortal again, don't you think that gods would have just done that? Well, I think that's what he's trying to do. I think he's trying to bring back the pieces of his car so that he can become mortal and then die. Oh, that's extremely reasonable, tell him. So we sort of just want him to sort of like stay here. But how do we just make that happen? Well, we take Iris and we get the fuck out of here and we never come back again. Problem solved. We have to rescue you this.

Oh, yeah. Right, because, yeah, I mean, that's the thing. And then let us stop coming for Aris. That's right. She'll be walking up by gross bugs for the rest of her life. Trying to take her away. The next riddle. I love how the riddles wait for us to talk about conversation.

They're really considerate on our feelings. The riddles know about dramatic effect and timing. Once again, I've been here for thousands of years. Now, what can bring back the dead make you cry, make you laugh, make you young, is born in an instant, yet lasts a lifetime? Oh my god, ow, I started tea. I am an idea for this one too. I can, okay, born in instant, yet last a lifetime. Yet last a lifetime.

this is gonna read yours I'm not ready getting what can what can be what can be what can be what's feet picks on the internet what can bring back the dead make you hold on bring back the dead the dead make you cry make you laugh make you laugh is born in an instant yet last a lifetime Footpicks on the internet I don't even have to roll for it Show feet please Everyone take off your shoes and put your feet on the day

Okay hold on Also please leave your used socks Make them use Extra crusty I even got it? Oh yeah Luffy looks like she's got it I got the last one

I don't want to take all of it I did one already Who hasn't gotten one? I think we all do well how about on the count of three we all say to the same time? It's a great idea It'll be it'll be three two one and we'll all say it all

say it all right okay three two Footbigs on the internet. Memories. It shifts. What did everybody say? I said feedback. It shifts and it shakes.

And you see now the memories, the lifetimes, the cherished moments of every kind of person, young, old, from every walk of life. As you see in a brief moment, entire lifetimes, cherished memories as, but then also the immemorial memory of time, of the gods, of that which should never live this long, as the memory of betrayal, the memory of loss, the memory of failure, is radiating from the scene. And then it shifts. And you see the river, what had been a river, the dried river bed, where it had once flowed deeper into neckbat,

now emptying into a way howling prison of sand and mist, you see the very, a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny tip of what looks like a tiny small pyramid swallowed in the sand. And it fades. All right. So we go, back to the river. That's where we find a false guard. Are we ready for that? Where we found Straplon.

Who? The camel. Steppy. Oh, right. I forgot about that car. This is very hero's journey. We go back to where we started, and maybe we have some kind of boon,

additional knowledge, abilities, powers. A leavenland is a twad. That's what I'm saying. Boon, powers. Lebel one. Lebel. I read a book once. You can read.

Do you give the circles? We went on this great journey. Do you come to terrible. The Lord of the Raines. But then they, at the end of the book, they went back to where they started, and there was this really weird, like, really short, rushed, like, many threat that was dispatched pretty easily. Really took the wind out of the sales of that story.

Barely an inconvenience. Like, a couple of halflings with crossbows showed up and just killed a wizard. They're like, okay. Anyway, it's very confusing. They didn't put that in the major inch, thank goodness. It's at this point, you go back, the sphinxes are waiting for you. But another circle, what do you mean? Oh, God.

And you mount them, and they begin to fly south. South, southwest. to the very southernmost point of the eternal river, the empty river bed. And as you fly, you see far up ahead the lonely castle boomvale. Such an out-of-place monument, no longer any inhabitants that you're aware of. there for this sole purpose to be here for eternity. And as both swinces fly and land, you see just a bit of sand, just a single dune

that just seems completely inconspicuous. But you see just several inches tall, a tiny bit of just a limestone pyramid that looks like it's a tiny little pyramid, it's almost comically small in this desert. But then you see far off in the distance, the glint of gold. And towards where the mountain rage starts to rise up again is the mist and the sand form a wall, 100 meters from you, reminding you of the prison that you're in.

You see the day us off in the distance and you know what awaits beneath. What do you do? Does anyone want to find a casino and play some craps? What? Yeah. Yeah, that sounds a lot better than what we're about to attempt to do. I think we just need to get it done. We can do it.

We've killed a lot of things before. You know, I have a feeling that a false god is nothing. We killed Baphimett. We killed that other guy. There was calm like Baphimitt. What? Molo, thank you. We killed a dragon.

Yeah, but I don't know where any of those rank against a false god. Is a false god like a god? But false. Yeah, but like power-wise. Probably a lot weaker, I guess. Yeah, but probably like a lot stronger than a dragon, I would say, right? I don't know, really, but I mean, probably not that different from Baphimet. There's only one way to find out.

Yeah. That's what I was in fun. Are we all ready? As I recall. As ready as I'm gonna be. You approach the dais, and once again, hieroglyphics appear and glow. Do the impossible. Bring back the dead. Any artists to do that?

It's not impossible. You still have that hand floating around. I'm not going to bring her back into this. Well, I was just saying if we needed to actually do it, we could. And again, I mean, all of these haven't been literal up to this point. I mean, memories, right? Oh, yeah. People we've lost along the way.

Oh, thank God. There's so many. There's so many. Oh, God. What a God your cousin that was horribly trapped by that trap? Oh, he told us. That was very genuine. Well, what about me in? Well, I don't know if he died.

Oh, you don't? No. Oh, I thought you meant that he was fresh to death and you didn't want to do in a detail. No, he was stuck and then I left. And we never heard about him or from him ever again. Oh. And it was months, I assume he's dead. There's a lot of lying.

It's not funny. I'm not telling us about my... called gallops humor. I'm totally misunderstood when you were telling the story. Okay, well, I mean, it was an emotional time for me to share that story for the

first time, so I understand if I may have you know, not been a great storyteller in that moment, but no, no, I can only assume. If we were going to be someone who died, it would be like my mom or

or who else has died? Lifty's mother died. Lipped his mom. Not really. I mean she... But she did? We don't know if she died, you know?

It's more like a mystery. It's not what it seems to be, you know? Maybe. Maybe some of the folks we defeated, we could talk about their memories. It's not like, it has to be a positive memory, right? We could be like, oh, that fuck, turn into a crazy lightning bird, took him down. That kind of thing. You know, considering the horrible things that we have seen, we have significantly fewer impactful deaths in our lives than I would have thought.

Now he's all back so hard. Yeah, we're surrounded by death, but so far we've been pretty lucky in the people that we love not dying. And even when we think that someone has died, we find that they have not. What about that old guy? What was his name? The halfling. Oh, yeah, the halfling. He died twice.

Wow. Well, we're learning a lot about Rich tonight. Rich loves unjust death. Oh, God. Oh god, okay. Are you sure to him's not loving? He's 100% genuine. He's just trying to figure this out.

Sophia is dead now. Right, but we don't really have any memories of her. Eches, no, he's not dead anymore. No, he said... Oh, go stand in the corner. I turn around and just standing by myself. Look, I... It just keeps coming up

I'm just so tired of talking about it My entire life has been shaped by death I wouldn't be here or who I am If it wasn't for all of the things that I did You know I think about my mother every day And Mr. Mendel And all of those poor, innocent people

I'll never forget them Waking dreams And I don't think I can ever fix any of what I did But I'm here and I'm trying it's awful, you know, and not all the memories are good memories and they're not all, you know, just they're just there. I can't forget them if I wanted to. I mean, we've been considerably lucky. So far, like you've said, with the people that we've run into and the people that we care about and you manage to escape or redeem themselves or find a way out, we've been lucky, but, you know, it might not last.

we don't know when one of us won't make it and at the end of this we talked about not fearing death and of course I don't fear death itself I've wanted to die so many times it wasn't until recently that I didn't what I fear is not finishing what I need to finish before I die

as long as we draw breath remember right yes I remember and if I don't make it I would hope that you'd all remember me and keep me alive that way Of course we would. I would write an epic poem and sing it for all to hear telling the life story of Felix. So why don't you do that? Why don't you tell us a story about Mr. Mendel or your mom or anyone else?

As if they were alive? Well, I mean, you know, I don't know who my father was and Mr. Mendel was really the only person who was that father figure for me growing up. up. I mean, he put me through the academy and got and gave me a place and my brother to stay and fed us. And, you know, of course we worked and we did what we could to provide back to him. But, you know, on cold nights, when all of the people staying at the end had turned in and my brother and I were helping around the end, whether we were cleaning up the kitchen or preparing for the next day, we would, the three of us would sit together and Mr. Mendel would tell us the most amazing stories of his life. And just funny things that he and his family would get up to and his

friends when he was kids. Just unbelievably funny. And we would laugh and laugh. And you know, the next thing you know, it would be, it would almost, we would laugh until the sun was coming up. And then we'd have to realize we needed to get sleep to be ready for the next day. And I would give anything to go back to those days. One more time. To that moment. It was very nice. He was a good man.

The Dias shifts and shakes. And once again, you see an image. You see a human boy wearing a blue coat and a red hat. Felix is before you. Beside him, His mother appears. Mr. Mendel, neighbors, friends, loved ones,

citizens of Kesselfeld, the ghosts of the dead. In this moment, brought back by only a memory, they surround you, Felix. But Milo is not there. Milo is not dead. And as it fades,

Iris's soul glow. as the fragment of memory glows within him. As it erupts forward. And you see Anketep as he stares into a pool and through that pool, you see a withered cemetery in a strange forest and a Tabaxi and religious vestments walk by. As she starts to lose consciousness, you see him reach out as slithering shadows, reach out in the scene beyond. As he attempts to grab and harness that call, you've seen time and time again six times. But he clutches as the vision fades and suddenly he's no longer able to see Iris. He has failed in this moment.

and suddenly the glow fills your eye and the consciousness leaves you. And suddenly, you're in a land, sand, and mist. In the land of the dead, you're in a pyramid or gold. As Ancatep awakes, he'd just been killed, hadn't he? He reaches up and touches his face. How long has he been dead? His skin is withered. His body fully mummified.

He feels the puncture wounds, his missing organs. And as he pulls down his robe, sitting in his throne of golden limestone, he sees that humming ruin, imprisoning the chain God, but also him, he feels empty. His cause gone, ripped apart by the three that trapped him here. His people turned to undead abominations, creatures that now lurk and wander across the sands that wander the labyrinthian tunnels and hallways and chambers below. Shell of a man god preserved for a thousand ages,

Now he waits and waits and waits and waits and waits and waits. And the power and the life seems good at first. He has temples to him. He has everything that he wants, but like all things, it gets old and boring, and he's tired, and he's weary. And where in a time long past he had wished for an ending life and success now that he's achieved some form of that. All he wants is for it to be done.

All he wants is for it to be over. All he wants is to be mortal again so he can finally die and experience oblivion. He cares not about the chain God anymore. He cares not if it dooms existence, as long as he can rest. And so that desperate quest begins and goes on for God. countless years. Millennia after millennia, as great monuments rise and fall and crumble away,

he loses track. Until now, no gods allowed. They made sure of that, so Sept could not penetrate and use his will to free the chain God. No God can enter, except the one who made the pact to create this place. So why not create a false idol,

the god of chaos and destruction that he had once served, that he betrayed his original god for? And eventually, it would come to pass in the moment when he would kill a god, get that revenge, welcome another to his doorstep, and finally begin the ritual, the transformation, where he can become a man and die. Your conscience returns.

And the ground rumbles around you. A suddenly, an entire tidal wave of sand rups and explodes out from that tiny little several-inch-high pyramid and blasts away and sinks away. And you see now that it flows like water tumbling from the, dunes into the riverbed, spills like the crashing sea. As you see getting revealed, dozens and dozens hundred more feet tall. A massive limestone pyramid on its doors, the symbols unmistakably upset. But the face of the false God, the face of a noob satan. And the doors begin to open. And that's where I'm the session.

Damn. This was another like mega lore drop. Yes. Mega, mega, mega. This crazy amount of lore. It's starting to come together. Holy shit. We're finally getting answers.

So much. Oh. Well done. Better plot. Yeah. Info, right? Well done. Well done.

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