Legends of Avantris - Beneath Dark Wings | Ep. 9 | Maze of Mysteries: Part 1

Episode Date: August 7, 2024

The party rushes to the capital city of Zentra to warn the human empire of the oncoming bestial onslaught.   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/Ob4SzfagfAQ?si=zxC6XsAtZRdsUWaj

Welcome to Legends of Aventress. I'm Felix Ackerman, and you're listening to Beneath Dark Wings. Here's what happened last time. As these wing creatures send upon the Lockfeather Lodge far above you, is a wing creature, massive, large wings, casting his shadow high over. Look how we should get inside? You sprint into the lodge, you see that the balcony that you are on, that there's one to your left, there's one to your right.

There are slain hunters on every side that you can stay. As these black wings descend upon this lot, we're willing to stay! All right, so I know what the fuck that he is. Like, evacuate, evacuate! Splintering of wood rains down upon you. You see a blur crash through the roof. The creature beneath you is standing at the center of this room,

this basement with a massive, glowing red sigil on the ground. You see a large avian-looking creature, long-necked, blue and purple feathers, long, massive wings extending from its back, a massive spear dripping with this black and green energy. Now you have parts of this. Because if it weren't for us, that thing would be broken and whatever is holding it, whatever it's being held in, at least one of the seals would be gone.

That seals that I stood upon and watched my friends be attacked by this evil creature, That's just the reason that I'm here. I will tell you of my ancient vow. This is one of the 12 seals that has chained the way the chained God. You now know the scope of what's being dealt with in this land of Striga. We're living?

I think it's about time. And you begin work anew and restoring the protected barriers of the one seal that you know this alleged chain God. You all wake, and you're in your separate rooms, And you realize that some of the beds that you had been filled by some of the novice hunters and rangers are vacant. And what are you guys doing? Out of character, is it 12 or 13 seals?

13. Okay, I had 12 list of the last session, so I wasn't sure. Oh, sorry. There's 12 others, maybe. Tella. Are you up? Well, I wasn't, but I am now. I'm sorry.

I'm having trouble sleeping. and it looks like the sun's starting to come up. Are you all right? I think, I mean, it was pretty surreal last night. I've never seen anything like that. I mean, we've seen a lot in the past few days, but I mean, what we saw last night is unlike anything. Right, right.

Well, listen, I know we're going to be fine. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay, and I'm sorry that I put myself in danger like that, and I should have been able to handle myself, and I don't know what happened. And I should have made you. sure that you were nearby. I mean, I heard everybody get to the front gate and I'm just a very trusting person so I ran right to the front gate. It's not your fault. And then by the time I realized

you were gone, you were practically dead. It's not, it's not your fault. Look, I'm still fairly new to this, this whole thing and sometimes I don't know my own strength, whether that be for better or for the worst. And I should have been able to handle myself and I'm sorry. No, no, no, don't even think about it. It should be fine. Next time, I'll be right there with you and we can handle them no problem. I appreciate it, buddy. Thank you. All right. Well, uh, shall we get the others up? If they're up.

Yeah, we might as well take a look and see this going on. All right. So I'll get up and I'll just start like waking everybody up. For Capricis is the first one to wake up. I am the last person. Okay. You try to wake up a priest and it's not, it's not going very well. And so you go to the ladies room and knock on the door.

I reach the Dakota. I jump out of bed, my pants are around my knees. What is? And I'm sleeping on top of the room. of Lifting. And I'm just laying here with my eyes wide open because this one is snoring and this one is pouring and I can't get a can't get a wink. What the hell was that? I'll come back later. And I leave and I go. Yeah, it'd be great. You don't greet me. Caprice, I know you like breakfast so much. Would you like to go get some breakfast? Go away.

Just a little few more minute. All right, Felix, let's go. All right. Just me and you now. Let's go. So we'll go down and wherever we had breakfast the day before. So you all, you all. go down and there is, it feels fairly empty. There is one craftsman that seems to be working on the makeshift wooden platform to cover

up the massive hole that the demonic creature had left. And there is one person coming out of the doorway to the mess hall with a big pot of just some kind of really basic

slop of some kind. and pounds it down onto a wooden table. There are a few wooden bowls stacked up with a big heavy ladle chopped in, and the person makes his way back into the door, into the kitchen. Everything else is quiet. You see the damage some of the smears of blood out on several of the balconies, some inside as well. You see Jammini over by the fire just curled.

almost like a gigantic dog or cat or something, passed out right next to the fireplace, almost as if her fur might lay on fire. And so that's what you see. Does it look like the gruel is help yourself? Yes. I'm just going to get some. I help myself.

And I look at Toe and I say, it's probably still better than what we had in Basic. Well, I mean, you know, they went through a lot. I suppose it's probably all they could afford. I'm okay with it. It's fine, and so I'll have some. It's no pork, but it's fine. So I guess we'll just sit there and we'll enjoy breakfast until everybody else gets up.

I'm gonna slide out from under Ivus and try to sneak out. And she begins to slide out. I'm going to stretch my... Oh, I'm so tired. And I'm just gonna kick her out of the bed. And then I'm gonna spread out and go back to sleep. You stumble out of the dead, landing. gracefully being a monk and used to it and used to it iris goes back to

sleeping manage to get dressed and and do whatever you want to do yeah so I'll go down and join the boys and get a bowl and good morning you know so anything to wash this stuff down with you mean like about alcohol you like so much and that's a little early but it's you know thumbs up excuse me is there anyone around there's like the craftsman there's a pretty larger man but scar it up, hammering away at some nails. Do you have any bivages? What?

Do you have any bivages here? There's water out back. You know, I'll go out back with you and get some water. Yeah, I figure you could use your hand. Let's go on. It's fine. It's fine. You go around back and there's this big trough of water with a ladle in it and some wooden cups out on a table that's outside.

you can see that you can see kind of more of the balcony where some of the railing had been completely shattered and there are arrows still sticking out of the wooden planks some of the feathers from the harpies and any other creatures kind of strewn about had not been fully cleaned up yet. So I guess we'll fill up a few cups and I'll bring it back. I think at this point we need to I'll put the waters down so do we leave this

morning for the capital do we have any idea what that creature was last night? I have any of you seen anything like that before I've never seen that in crazy Paul what was that? The creature? Would I have seen that before? I would say no

I very lethargically make my way down the stairs I'm not wearing any clothes except for my boxers and I've gotten the sheet that I was sleeping in just wrapped tightly around my body that I'm holding. Full maximum bedhead. I walk up and I'm like, oh, cruel. Mature stream, everybody.

And then I go back up to my room D. It must be that time in the month for caprici, you know. It's probably not feeling that great. Well, in regards to the creature, I don't know what that could have been, but I mean, look, all of this sounds. so far beyond our capabilities that it's probably not worth worrying too much about. I mean, I know I said this before, but this is like world-ending shit he's talking about. And what are we going to do about it? I mean, we have to get to Zentra.

We know, we know that there's this army approaching the capital, and really that should be our goal for now. I think, I mean, do you feel this kind of weird, though, that everything we fought had feathers and beaks and things? Yeah, it's really weird. You feel that weird, the very avian. like I looked around, there was so much avian stuff last night. It was extremely weird. It was

but is there any kind of connection between Matt and then the Raven Queen, which this whole country seems to worship? I mean like, the guy that we killed last night, it kind of looked like a raven sort of thing. I agree with you. I don't know the connection.

If we get to Zentra, I might be able to do some research. They've got incredible library and information and I'd like to see it and Maybe that'll be something that we can look up when we get there. All right. Well, let's get... I guess we'll just wait until the others get up and then we'll hit out.

So while we're waiting, I want to just kind of stand up from the table and go over to where the guy's working and kind of plop down and like dangle my legs into the hole and just... Hey, Zelle, what you doing? You look pretty busy, huh? Yeah, I'm busy. I'll cover up this horrible, magic hole. Is it making you do it all alone, huh? I'm the only one that I trust with a hammer around here that's alive anyway. Yeah, it's pretty quiet. Where is everybody?

Well, everyone that's alive is out on patrol making sure none of those huggy wenches come back. Oh. That's probably pretty smart, pretty smart. Well, if they come back, I don't know what the hell we're going to do. Do I hear the conversation? Yeah, it's not that far from you guys. Not pretty loud. Did I hear hammers?

I think you did. Oh, let me come help you out, bud. No, I don't need it. No, I insist. Thank you for you. I proficient. Did I have us? Oh, my God.

Oh, natural 20. Got to give it up on our new African bloodstone dice. Oh, there's one with Andrew guy? Yeah. I'm playing on Andrews, yeah. Very nice. Anyway, anyway. 25.

25. I mean, nails are over there. Oh, great. I'm so glad I can help. Then I'd start. Make just a straight, what does dexterity check? I have proficient in Smith tools. Then I would say, roll up, I have proficiency.

So decks plus proficiency. OK, 16. Pretty good. 16. You actually start, as you're doing this and you're waiting for them, and you're actually trying to pick up the pace and you're starting to repair it a lot quicker. Well, I just figure, you know,

while waiting for our friends, I might as well just help, because I feel like we kind of contributed to all this chaos, and I just feel bad leaving this shit show, you know? Yeah, I feel terrible, and I'm just picking up debris and, like, chucking it down into the hole

and, like, listening. As that happens, you hear loud footsteps, and you hear a door open, and you see kind of often to the side of the room, you see Hallmark's massive form, covered up after the battle, covered up in some bands, and just kind of seeping with blood as he walks over.

He's not dressed as heavily in his hunting leathers as he was, and he seems like he's just woken up. There's deep bags under his eyes as he walks over to you. And he, as you're kind of sitting there eating your ghoul, he takes a chair and flings it around and sits on it reverse. And he says, so none of you died in your sleep. I suppose that is a good thing. Was there a possibility?

Well, some of our younger hunters did not make it through the night, unfortunately. I'm sorry to hear that. It's terrible. What happened to them? I don't know. They got hit by some of the arrows of some harpies. And then we thought they were fine and they did not make it. Wait, so you're saying that these aren't like normal arrow wounds?

We had our healers look at them. and it seemed to be cursed and I did not think to have them checked. I wonder if virus would take a look. Perhaps, I mean, they already did at this point. I mean, is there any risk that someone has this curse and is still

alive? Unfortunately, no. It still couldn't hurt to examine the bodies. If she'll do it, we'll ask when she shows up. She should be coming in a sicket now. So I didn't mean interrupt. No. I just wanted to thank you again for your help and all six, all seven of you, and he points over to jam it.

Even she fought far more valiantly than I would have thought. And I will do better to not judge people by their appearance. And I wanted to still extend my offer of a feast tonight to properly thank you and offer my aid the best I can. We appreciate the offer, and I don't want to speak for the group, but it's very important that we start making our way to Zentra. I understand that, but you know it's week's journey to walk. We better get started. Well, I mean... Again, I won't speak for the group, but that's my vote.

We'll have to see what the rest say, but we appreciate your offer. You will do what you can, but since the offer is there, and I just want to make sure that I will do what I can and look at my stoles and see if I can age you in your journey. at least I can do. I finally roll up. I'm finally fully dressed and prepared. I have my pack and my veal with me, and I walk up to everyone. Oh, man, I had the craziest dream last night that I was a tiny, sentient mouse in an orphanage, helping them find the true meaning of friendship.

What are you guys up to? Is that while you slipped in? Did you sleep in to finish your dream? I have no idea when the dream happened. It was one of those ones that's just, like, really long, and you lose all sense of time, and you wake up feeling like you were a whole other person. Wow. Can you, can anyone else check him from a curse?

What are you talking about? Curses? What's going on? No, he normally likes to sleep in. Oh, Capricci, I started working on a song. You want to hear it? Sure, yeah, absolutely. Anytime.

Do do, do, do, do. Welcome to the lodge. Such a perfect town. I'm sorry playing long. We have some rules. Let me leave them down. It's pretty good. It's pretty good.

I'm going to write that down. The guys is. Shouldn't you have the hammering nails? I am the emmering. Stop locking off. To the beat. Yeah, so I'm not like super excited about having to walk for weeks. Is there, I'm thinking like maybe a horse or something we could take?

Borrow. A single horse. I don't really care of you walk. I'm just saying that I don't want to walk and I know the cat is not going to walk. Can anyone transform into a horse? No, but I don't really care of you walk. know how to operate land vehicles oh I want to see who was someone who is you know what never mind what's the definition of a land vehicle so like a wagon like a wagon the one that I

went fishing out I told you earlier we go fishing out of the wagon we'd pull it up to the river and then we would try to fish for the river key other other land use the water vehicle no I don't I don't like water that much we're just think so dwarves you know you just sink like a storm yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah those other any other land vehicles or do you just proficient in wagons wiggins wait anyways i've had enough of you making for a mace and what's our next move what's our next move i mean does the huntsman have wagons perhaps if i if i could spend the next couple hours helping your real build maybe this this floor if we could procure a wagon and some horses

are we helping to rebuild i mean i'm happy to roll up a feast i think this might serve a purpose better can probably provide the wagon, yes. Horses are very tight. We do not have many. Many of our horses we sent out with our scouts and our senior leadership to go track the whole Legion and the Giant King. Oh, not to be confused with the River King. Caprice, to answer your question,

I think we need to head to Zentra as soon as possible. Zendra, yeah, absolutely. I think we need two as well. My recollection is that we might be staying for a feast, but if we feel like the virus under our ass, so to speak, then maybe we need to go right away. I think that it is, and again, I don't want to speak for the group, but I think sooner rather than later, we need to make haste. But I'm open to options. Well, let's maybe put it to a vote.

We could all write down our choice on a piece of paper and then anonymously figure out, you know. I'm happy to say that my vote is at trial. Well, I mean, I want to get to the city as fast as possible, too. but, you know, I'm never going to turn down some pork butt. What? Pork butt? I guess I see what you're coming from. So what, I guess what benefit would we gain from staying for the feast beyond?

I mean, do you think it's worth staying resting? We would lose an entire day of travel if we stay. I agree with Toa. I don't think it's worth it. It is a long road. Is one more day going to? to give you an additional benefit when you may not enjoy a bed or a warm meal for wea it's a good point Felix it's a really good point toa it doesn't matter we haven't

had a bit in a warm meal like consistently in months this is this is this is this is way more important than creature comforts we have to go well I'll do whatever you want to do I'll say right now that I think Iris would probably want to stay for the feast all right I I don't I'm not I think that She did. No. She must be dead from the test. She is not dead.

I felt her purring on your night. But she must be dead after that morning and she decided she want to take another 10 minutes. It's kind of loud and obnoxious. It's kind of... I have an idea. Why don't you, sweet sweet boy, go up and try to wake her up because she likes nothing more as a handsome face? She opens her eyes. This is a trap.

Don't do it. Why is it? Why does it? It seems like you're talking about. Yeah. Oh, no. Felix puts his head in his hands. I'll knock gently.

So before all of that, after they all left, I would have taken everything out of my pack, gotten completely dressed up, spritz myself with my perfume with my gold dust, so I'm sparkling in the sun, lounged in the sun for a bit. Obviously.

And then I would have set up a ritual to Anubis, lit my sensor, and I want to cast Ogrey. Okay. Lord of the shifting sands, God of judgment Faria of death The spiral symbol

On the back of this woman And these chains Am I leading in the right direction Grant me your guidance And it's wheel or wheel and well Or nothing You set up the lamp You see the little flame flickering

As I mean you stare You gaze into it And you see something Briefly and in it is spiraling room shaking violently violently and then two chains cross over 13 links on each and then you feel inside of you will you and then that would be when toa knocks so I opened the door and the incense and the smoke is billing around me as I sexually lean up against the door no darling what can I do for you.

He's there far in there? Oh, you must be delirious from smoke inhalation, and I'd grab you off. I think she made you die. Tell us. Tell us, and I pull her out. I'm, like, going to claw you and try and wiggle out of your arms to go back and get my stuff.

Athletics versus agorbatics. That's brilliant. Contest, rather. Uh-oh. Oh. That you won. It was too quick for you. It was right.

I don't know how they care of three. It hurts. Um. I would have gotten an 18. She immediately slips out of your grass. Dick Gord Toa. Dick Gors. Are you okay?

I'm perfectly fine. I was speaking with my gaud. I need to go put the rest of the things in my pack. Would you like to help me? It'll make it faster. Come on. It's fine. I just think that you should have yourself check you out at some point.

You should do that. I don't know who else to do you out. I will have myself check me out. Let's do this. So we'll quickly pack up my staff and whatever. You pack your stuff. You see fully dressed, Iris joining Toa, walking down. As you see a home heart there as he waved to you.

And he says, all right, it is good to see you on good health. Thank you, darling. It's good to be in good health. I'm going to grab my, like, picked around bowl of porridge and, like, stir it up a little bit, rush up to Iris. And I got whose he is for my fist. No. So, what does everyone doing this morning?

Well, we're debating whether or not we want to pack and leave the Zentra right now, or if we want to stay for the feast and sort of help rebuild, we'll spend our day that way. It delays our journey by perhaps a day, but I understand it's a long journey. So that might not be the end of the world, despite the urgency of what we know about the Horn Legion and all that. Well, I spoke with Anubis this morning and asked him if my quest to pursue this strange symbol that adorns their bodies and these chains is the right path and he actually provided me with a positive outcome. So I do believe that we do need to venture and investigate this further.

However, my vote would be that we stay the evening, that as important as it is to hurry, we don't know when we're going to get food next or good night's sleep. And it would not be wise for any of us to be tried. on an empty stomach with a lack of rest. If we're going to handle whatever this is, we need to be at our maximum capacity. Should we do that anonymous vote thing that Caprice mentioned?

I did not hear about this. No, I was going to suggest an anonymous vote where we write down our vote, but to be honest, I'm kind of convinced. No, I would honestly think it would be more important to shame those that disagree with us. I only run my mind down. Mine said whatever Felix vote.

Oh my God, you can write. But it's anonymous. That doesn't make any fucking sense, Tom. Yeah. He can write. Only just a little bit of dumbestisms. Listen, buddy, I appreciate the support, but just vote how you want to vote. That's the point of voting.

Did you write what Felix says? What Felix has voted in the case? But how would we know what? You know what? Because I told everybody I want to go to Zentra. It doesn't need to be anonymous. But when it's anonymous, you might change your vote because you're going to get shamed. All shame aside.

It's just another day that ends in why. Felix, you almost died yesterday. I understand. You looked awful. It took all of my... It took all of my ability to pull you back from the other side. Now, I don't know about you. I cannot speak

for your health, but I'm quite tired after that. And that's why I said I would do whatever the group wanted to do, but I was just going to voice my opinion. That's all. Sounds like you kind of need to do what she wants you to do. No, not at all. I'm curious. Why do you suggest that we go today?

Aside from haste. I'm concerned that if we don't get as quick a start as we possibly can, whatever this army is doing, they're going to beat us by a mile. It's not even going to be close. We're talking about every second we delay is less of a chance than we already have to potentially head them off and figure out what's going on. And this could be casualties in the millions. if this force reaches this capital city.

And we don't even know who else knows outside of the six of us, the seven of us, including Jamadie. And I understand that, you know, what's a day? But I'm just not willing to risk it. Well, I mean, what if we take us a day? And I... We've got a wagon and I can... We have a wagon.

But you're just... We're working on it, in a bit. Oh, well, don't say we have one when you're just working on it. Well, we have it. I can drive him. Like we had that alcohol that had to convince your brother Gruber or whatever to give us? Oh, yes, we have alcohol. I can just get it for you, except that I can't.

Oh, Iris, we have a wagon, except that we don't. Oh, Iris, I have a million gold pieces, except that you don't. No one knows that. If we can get this wagon together. And the seven of us to move in the wagon quickly enough and shave enough time off, then a day probably won't make a difference. The wagon's going to move a lot slower without any horses. That's what I was going to say.

I know this countryside, you know, pretty well, because I know a lot of things. And I can find some horses, maybe. But that's what I'm saying. If we don't have the horses... If I don't have the day to find the horses, then we have no horses. Give me a day. You can eat tonight. I'll find some horses.

We have a wagon. Do we actually have a wagon? Allegedly. You have a wagon? Thank you. As far as horses, I will send out some scouts and see who is returning if you need of... if any of our scouts are returning at all and I will see what I can do

I will need the day we'll have some people coming into the set up to feast and I will begin my work as well once we reach Zentra we can always send the horses and the wagon back to you that would be your prerogative you've earned more than just horse his horses in the wagon

and I intend to go into my personal store of items I have received Just, oh shit. Okay. Items I've received in my many, many tyrant years. And see if any may be of used to you six. Given the state of your hunting lodge, that's incredibly generous, and we appreciate it.

I'm trying to hammer in between, like, breaths of air to try not to, like, interrupt. So any time he, like, pauses, I'm like, crack! Crack! They will give you... I love her. I'll give me the day to rest and recuperate. I'm going to hold him on his hand. You just make me so happy.

I'm going to go to my study, and I'm going to check up Nora and Esther. At some point, I would like to have a conversation with you. Give me an hour, and I'll meet you my train of cook. My door will be open. Also, you mentioned study. Do you have lots of books? I have

certain books and not the whole library but ones that are important to me, yes. Okay, all right. I am sorry, my lone friend.

That's not a big deal. Thank you. So I have an idea. If I skip on the feast, you guys just say it be a plate, like just kind of wrap it up, put it to the side as, you know, dwarf portions.

So like the whole damn feast? So yeah, basically. Uh, good, good eye. Um, if I just help rebuild your, your floor all through the night, would you permit him to go into your study? I set my doors open. I, there may be books that you find interesting and it's not the library. Well, I keep a shelf on my books of things I think look nice. I just didn't want to pry. I didn't want to assume. I appreciate the offer. Thank you.

Maybe I'll, I'll just take a look. I, you may. And while it is very unusual for me and my older's level of secrecy, his tenth amount. What three experience yesterday was unlike anything I was ever prepared for my entire life. So you're welcome to my study. Thank you. Give me an hour to check on, to send some missives and check on the scouts and the recruits. No, no, no rush. I'm going to be in my study.

Thank you. He's himself off and walks out, walks out of the main common room and the door closes behind him. it's just the six of you. And the gentleman working on the... He's actually going to taking a break. He's doing fine. And he's going to take a quick breath of fresh air and then obviously jamming.

He's curled up on the floor by the fire. Well, it looks like we were able to come to a consensus without having to take a silent vote or shame anyone into the alternating opinions. The ideal outcome. It is for the first time, I think, honestly. The weird of what was going was. You're going to vote for whatever Felix.

Felix, thanks. I'd forgotten his name. You've been hammering away quite. True. And he like doesn't want us to noise me. So he keeps changing his name. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of weird.

Not like, you know, family or anything would do that. But anyway, so you're like, you vote for whatever he said. And he was like, well, I would vote for whatever the party says. And then Capricci was like, well, I think we should vote for whatever Iris wants. You know, and I just feel like we really need to get our shit together. So I'm glad we did. Sure. Five-five, everybody.

Put your hands in the center. I will not do this. No. I just spitz myself in gold, and I'm not going to get it on any of you. Is that real gold? Oh, yes. It's in my perfume.

Oh, that's really safe. Wow. It allows me to sparkle in the sunlight. Can I... What does that smell like? Do you mind if I take a look at your shimmering gold on your... As long as you don't touch it? Can I get closer and inspect it?

Of course you can. Can I use my stone-cutting ability to see if it's really actual gold if she got jipped out of the, I would say stone cutting would be different. Like if we could rule, jeweled jeweled tools, you'd be able to check. But I would say for stone cutting, you would, you could try to just see, but I would say. I just want to see if it like was, if it's fake or if it's real gold. What am I rolling for?

I would just say, just a straight intelligence check. Uh, 19? 19, you have no idea. Oh, it looks great. Oh, look at that shimmer. Just, I, sorry, I didn't you touch it. I did. Oh, fuck.

Now it's going to get. everywhere. Nice. Well, it increases the value of the dwarfs. What notes am I getting in the perfume there? What's that smell? Probably death. Why?

I'm going to go make myself another thing. Iris early in the morning had gone in the forest and killed a bird and robbed herself into it. That's confused with the smell of death coming from Felix. But yeah. And so you guys, you can take the rest of, you know, take the rest of, you know, take a little rest of, you know, I would help, like, I would like, yeah, lift heavy stuff and help, like, maybe move lumber, you know, to help with

the... I will also assist with the reconstruction, but before so, I, I run up to feel like, I'm like, hey, if you get a chance to check out that guy's library, you see any books about devils or arch devils, just let me know, okay? And then I'm going to run... Wait, wait, wait, wait, before you head off, what languages would they be in?

Well, I mean, it would be infernal. The script is very sharp, just sort of like all daggers in all directions, you know? Well, I... Unfortunately, that's one of the languages I don't know, but I'll keep a... I should be able to recognize it. Hopefully there'll be one in common.

I mean, that'd be ideal. But if you do see anything that looks like you can't read it, then maybe it'll be interesting. I'll let you know. Appreciate it, buddy. Yeah. So is anyone else coming with Felix and myself when we had to talk to... Well, you guys are kind of like the leaders of the Great Bottom think I should be there. I mean, I can come if you feel like I won't be a nonsense.

I thought you wanted to work on. I do. I just figure I volunteer. Tell me, you can go anywhere you want, man. Don't worry about just... You're strong. You should probably keep helping. I think I should just keep helping. But if there's anything you need, let me know. I think just, no, I'm good. I don't need much. I'm a simple guy.

All right. Okay. While they're all doing that, I want to just kind of investigate some of the bodies that are, like the avian bodies that are left over from the fight. Okay. See if they look familiar to me. So you go to one of the balconies where all the ones that hadn't fallen down off the mountain and off the cliffs, they managed to kind of all roll up. And they're probably going to, they're being covered in tender and they're going to be burned.

So it's for dinner. You don't know. And you find a number of the kanku bodies, and then there's also several parking bodies. It seems like when the gargoyles were shot, they were destroyed. What happened to the creature? You don't see the massive creature that had plunged through, though. Were there any other, there weren't other things? No. The one that were

Calvans were Cancoup, Harpies, the gargoyles, and then the demonic creature. Okay, cool. Numbering. Okay. So you go and you just kind of see that there's just a lot of their harpies and cancun basically rolled up. You also don't see anything of the demonic creature. And so you head back. Now it passes, and you guys

are probably heading to... Yeah, on our way to the Huntsmasters' quarters, I'm going to turn tires and just say... He mentioned something about a lot of the soldiers from yesterday dying overnight from simple arrow wounds. He's worried that there's some sort of curse or something wrong with these bodies, and we were wondering if maybe you'd take a look at them.

I would be happy to take a look. I'm not sure we'll be able to tell what it is. It could be a poison on the arrow. It could be a curse on the arrow. But yes, I think that's important to know before we leave. Maybe just ask the Huntsmaster, he might be able to give you more information. I will do that. Okay.

So as you approach, you go down the long hallway, You see that huge wooden door card with all sorts of animals and varieties of things. And you see that the doors crack us a little bit as a glow of firelight in there. And you hear kind of just a little humming, as he seems to be humming. And you see, you realize that he's in there. If the matter you want to speak to him about is private, I can wait outside. It's perfectly fine. I'm assuming you're going to hear more about it as we progress through anyway.

All right. Okay. Hunts Master, where we've arrived, are you ready for us? Oh, come in, come in. Well, hello, darling. It's good to see you. You enter the door and you see a relatively modest room, not super fancy. You see a large bed, large enough to fit him. Two simple shelves, some with a simple row of maybe 10 books.

And little mittenack, some hunting trophies, a large chest, and then just a large area that's sort of, the small table and a couch just seems to rest and relax he looks at you and he says, welcome, his promise. How can I help you to? Well, I'm just going to go take a look at the books if you don't mind, and I know Iris has something to talk to you about. Please, take a look. Thank you.

You head over, and as you're browsing, we see a lot of these books are about kind of the natural. There's one book on, like, the natural world of, of Strugat, a lot of the beasts and the creatures. there's one that's kind of more on the more stringed threats and things like, you know, heartbees or ogres or monstrosities or giant and things like that. There is one on gods and religion, particularly the Raven Queen. And there's a number of Korvachian historical books as well as a few other books on like, you know, there's actually a recipe book and then there's some like medicinal books and things like that. I basically just want to take the time, like, as long as I can all day, as long as no one's asking me to, like, help out with the feast to, like, absorb as much information I possibly can from all the books that are there.

Okay. Great. And you do find one book on, like, magical arts that like help inside a survival as well. And so, um, you basically are taking the books. You're trying to speed reading, trying to, like, basically flip, flip through. We'll say, just for that, make a, a straight intelligence check. What was that? Ad proficiency. How about that? All right. Straight int. Yeah. We'll see how much... Okay. It's just going to be this one right here. Um, so that would be 16 plus my proficiency. It would be a total of...

19. Yeah, 19. 19. Okay, so I've written that down. So you get a 19, so Phyllis was over to read the books. You see, uh, Holmark Pull, one of the large armchair in the room over to the side, and he pulls over a smaller chair for you. It is, I'm a seat.

I will slide into the armchair and, um... Oh, okay. He sits over and he kind of like, he's making sure he doesn't break it, preaks a little bit as he sits down on it. How can I help you, Iris? Now, I know that you gave us quite a bit of information when we spoke last night, but given the situation, I felt that I needed to give you a little bit. I have been sent to this land on a mission by my god, Anupus.

He is the Lord of the Scales, a god of the grave, helping to ferry those into the afterlife. And in my visions, he showed me your symbol, that's spiral, and the chains. What is its purpose? Which is the reason you get tattoos on your backs? Can you provide me this information? As I find that it may be very important to what we are doing here. Well, I...

It makes me feel much better that you are serving a galvin on a mission of... One that is holy. As far as a brave god we hear in Koravakia prefer the Raven Queen, but I know that there are many, many other gods that are very powerful. Our tattoo are symbol or order. Our entire lives are dedicated to being wardens, to jailers.

Now in my vision, It wasn't just the symbol, but there was something similar to a sarcophagus, but not in the style I'm familiar with. Tomb or a coffin of some sort. And the vision spun and this place of death shattered. My fears, whatever is in being held by those chains is breaking free. That is my reasoning for wanting to know. Why and where?

you get these symbols tattooed on yourself. He thinks for a moment he seems has a little bit of, uh, slight twin to fear on his face as he looks at you and he says, And you say this vision came to you from a god of death. It didn't. A god of the grave. Of the grave. It is our sole purpose of keeping those on the other side that need not make their way back to life there

and fairing those that need help into death. I do not know how lives. throne your gods and speaks to you. But... Nor do I, if I'm being quite honest. The tattoo is the symbol. It is the powerful room. It is the symbol of our order.

It is... It represents all 13 of the seals. That represent in all of them. And how many people get these tattoos on the body? Well... Is it your entire order? At all times, they are 13. But...

Usually there are 26 because we must all have an apprentice Because with what we are dealing was any of us could die at any moment And I don't think you answered this but where do you get the tattoos placed upon your body? It is a ritual It is done to the power of the magic of And is it one specific person that does it for you each of us are taught

how to pass it now I see by our master so you I would guess as you did this for Nora that I did yes and Nora for her success when she needs it

Thank you hopefully it is not for a very very long time We can only hope I hope that what we did for her will allow her to live a long and happy life I would hope so and without you it would be a far

Father will die of circumstance, and it is Carfogus makes me think of the fact that these ruins these seals, all on this one continent, all was the power of the shadow fell. It is the power of death itself that trope traps the chain guard. No other land could have this power. No, you said no other land could have this power. Why is that? Is there a strong connection to the shadow fell in this land? Oh, yes. Stronger than any.

Any has a place in all of the ventras. There are more shadow crossings here than the ten times, at the very least, the strength and the simple power of the Raven Queen is what allowed Korovakia to rise. It's as a dangerous land of horrible monstrosities and creatures. It's right that

few be humans can have a mighty country on this continent. There's not the power of just military might and swords and magic. It's the power of the goddess. Now, I don't know much about the Raven Queen,

but I would like to learn as I am in her land. and Inubis is no longer. Though he follows me, he's not native to this area. Do you happen to have anything? I know Felix is looking at your books. But you happen to have anything

that I would be able to read, to know more about her, to be respectful to her patrons. It is in my order to respect the entirety of the Shadowfell. The Raven Queen is just one of the powerful beings. But you are on the plane. the best place that you would have a hope to learn about the Raven Queen.

Lovely. And with that, I'm assuming if there was anything else that you felt pertinent to the things that I talked to you about that you would provide those. So I would leave that to you to choose when and if you choose to provide me anything more that you know. So my only question would be that Felix mentioned to me that there were some kind of curse that took many of your men in the evening. Do you have any of their remains present that I would be able to be able to? to look at them and see if I could discern the type of affliction that had befell them. We do. I can point you in the right direction. Perfect. Now, Felix, have you gotten everything that you mean?

Yeah, yeah, uh, yeah, this is pretty good. You don't have any books that are informal, do you? No, I was, I have any... Okay, no worse, no worse, no, that's fine. We have a teetling. Ah, very true, very true. No, I'm not dabbled in devilish, man. Unfortunately good for your sake yeah yeah mm-hmm so with that home heart I think that I will make my way to see the wounded or in this case of the deceased I feel like to escort me yeah yeah yeah did I was able to get through I was able to get through a lot of it and he said it was if you need the rest of the day feel free yeah yeah yeah I'll I'll come back yeah I wish let's let's yeah let's yeah I'll come back I'll come back I'll Welcome back. Thank you. I appreciate. This is wonderful. Thank you.

You're very welcome. Where are we going, Iris? He pointed us. He told us. He told me. We're going to check on those dead that she mentioned. With the curses. I think it might help. You're a man of arcane ability. Yeah, I'll see what I can do. You, he points you to where it is and you arrive at the door. The doors is unlocked and you open it. It's very quiet. The windows are shuttered, and you see two young-looking humans all laid out, draped in cloths on these tables,

and they're before you, and they're just kind of this quiet still in the room as soon as you might turn. Well, I don't want to get in your way, but if you give me some time, I can attempt to detect magic. I will inspect them while you do so. Perfect. I'm going to cast, detect magic as a ritual. And I'm going to just inspect the body as basically medicine check or whatever you want me to do. You know a medicine check. I knew I shouldn't have used that dice. They're beautiful.

They're all terribly. I know, but they're so pretty and they match my Irish dice. You just got to work through the unfortunate rolls. You'll get there. 20. 20. Okay. So you inspect the...

You inspect the wounds. That's one. To be high of... You inspect the wounds and you see that there are two. erowans. And he... Oh, Zyrus, please. These should have been...

They would not have hit any major artery. They didn't fracture any bone. And they had been hatched up. But you notice that there seems to be very subtle... But the

remains some kind of foul, rotting pestilence or disease. And it's very, very faint. deep deep deep into the wound Is your arrow wounds? Yes Okay

And so this time Felix Is that you Cast detect magic And you Realize that They're you're sensing magic There is some kind of curse

So I should be able to You just tell me the school Let me What would that be? What would that be evocation? If any It says you learn at school if any If it doesn't have a school

Then I just know that it's math Apologies. For now, you know, but let me... Ha-ha. I'm lying on you taking notes. I got you fair. I lost somehow Andy Spock. Now we'll find it. It'll turn out.

Yeah, exactly. It's not lost. Remove curses abjuration. I am moving up. Hold on. Apologies. So this would be... Necriments. It's necromancy? Necraman.

Oh, no. All right, so when I drop my... I guess when I'm done, casting my ritual, I... Oh boy Iris this isn't good Why is that darling This is necromancy I cast some of those spells

I mean You do good things with it This doesn't appear to be a good thing No it does not appear to be a good thing But the school does not necessarily determine Good from bad Fair But that is very important to know

Did you find anything in regards to the wounds The wounds themselves should not have killed them I mean like Some of them didn't even wound to the bone, they went to deep enough. Is there any visible damage or anything other than a normal wound? I mean, does it look necrotic? Well, it looks as if there was kind of a strange and natural, like, diseased flesh to it,

right where it directly hit, where something that had just recently hit should not have been that. Would I be able to determine whether it looks like a disease or a curse? Like, I'm trying as a healer trying to determine, like, what kind of thing that I would prepare for. I'm not going to... I dropped that one. I'm not going to roll that one. It was probably pretty good. It was

definitely better than this. A four. It seems to you like both. Both. It seems like a magical curse, but with the effect of being hit by a horrible disease, incredibly concentrated. I don't know much about your God and your rituals,

so I don't want to step on any toes, but it might be valuable if we can take a small sample of the afflicted flesh. Do you have something to carry it in? I do. Some glass vials. I'll definitely remove some flesh and put it in a vial. You managed to do that. You take some of your tools and you slice it off Felix and ends the vial.

Place it in and you have some sandals from both of them. I'm very familiar with embalming mummification. The removal of flesh from the dead is not. I'm not squeamish. Oh, great. Then next time we have to do this and I have a feeling it's going to happen again. Unfortunately, I do too. We should get back with our group because I'm feeling a little down.

All right. Yeah, sure. Let's head back. As you're leaving, you see that Jeremy's awoken. I forgot. She existed. Homehart has seen the wolf in Iraq, and they are both heading back into his private quarters and the door shuts. And so you arrive back to your group.

Well, that was a little strange. What does he have to talk to her about? Maybe he's just apologizing. For what? He did kind of have some not-so-nice things to say about her and... You're right. He might be giving her like a medal of appreciation. Could be. What? Why are you chum-in over here?

We didn't get a medal. For what? You did nothing. I did things. Oh, I'm not sure. I was busy keeping Felix alive. That's true. I do remember running off the side of a gate and sitting on a bunch of people and that was fun. I have not heard a single thank you. you from you, by the way. I did save your life

twice, if I do remember correctly. I am incredibly appreciative of it. You all heard it here first. Felix has thanked me, too. He's very appreciative. For what? You left him to die. No, no, no he didn't. Oh, he thanks me sometimes. Maybe not that specifically, but he thanks me.

If I remember correctly, you ran the opposite direction and I had to run in with all of my feline agility and save his life. You showed up afterwards and well, I don't know what to do I would smack it in the face. This is not the time for this. It's fine. Listen, you saved me

and I am more grateful than words can express. And we'll have a conversation later, but for now, we should tell them what we learned. While they're bickering, can I, like, tiptoe up to the door and, like, listen? So that's kind of far out of it.

Oh, it is. Okay. So if you want to follow them, you can try it, like, stealth and try to sneak. Yeah, we just told you as we came back in the, like, mess hall. I mean, I feel like upstairs and, like, you can sneak up yeah I'm gonna feel free okay

I'm sneaky unless I am not sneaking clomp around the hallways like I do okay you mean clomp around the hall yeah clomp

that's a nine a nine you usually stomp through the hallways that never made to hear me coming and you get to the door the door is shut

oddly enough I can still hear her from here yeah I'm just singing the song I'm just joining five

You hear muffled voices. I hear the wood. You hear muffled voices, yeah. In regards to the bodies, they were definitely cursed. Or a disease. Irish thinks also possibly diseased, but there was definitely a magical property of it because it involved necromancy. They were not, the wound of themselves would not have killed them. And whatever was on these arrows or these errors were made of, that was the culprit of it.

And it was too damaged for me to determine. Yeah, we took a flesh sample too I got that with the sample of the Beast Plague hair and maybe when we get to Zentra there may be some people who might be able to help us. I mean it's a very, very large city. I think it means that there's just even a tiny

little simple wound that we think we can shrug off. We need to make sure that we all take care and then we identify it before it kills us. Well, does anybody hit by any arrows? I was not, no. And I do believe that if we had been, we would not be alive right now.

That's true. I mean, they definitely perished pretty quickly, so... Um... Well, I suppose, I mean... I don't know if you want to help or just hang out while we continue in, uh... helping with a reconstruction, but uh... Yeah, I mean, I'm willing to help in any way that I can. Um, I do need to keep looking through those books. I think that there could be important things.

Go on, go on. But I want to help, so if any point you need me, just come get me. It's fine, it's fine. No, you're fine. I gotta wait for the door to open up anywhere. They're doing some kind of meeting in there. I don't want to interrupt. I walk up with the bundled materials because I've been assisting with the reconstruction as much as I can throughout this time.

And has anyone made any progress regarding maybe getting horses if we're going to take a wagon or are we going to do this by foot? I think that was a lofty, heavy foot over there, so she was going to help. Where is heavy foot? She's scared. I had solved that. No, but then if you remember, he said afterwards that there may be some of the rangers coming back today and perhaps he can get us a horse or two for the wagon. Oh, I mean, ideally, yeah, that'd be great. So we won't know until this evening, but...

Oh, and no infernal. Yeah, I just thought I'd ask. Appreciate it. I'll keep my eyes open. I'm going to get back to it. You got anything from me before I do? One quick question, Caprice. That reminds me.

So, out of character, do we know, like, what happened last night? Has he mentioned anything about the demon-y stuff or demonic-y stuff at all? I think that last night they had mentioned. Right. The demonic force, yeah. Right. So Caprice, is that what we faced last night, these demonic forces,

is that related to who you are, what you're doing? That's a totally different bag there. I am a fiendish heritage. We're talking about the nine hells. We're talking about devils. Isn't it what demons are from? No, demons come from the abyss. It's a totally different bag.

Yeah, no, it's easy to confuse. I'm not sure exactly why you would make the distinction aside from just where they are from location, in the same way that you consider yourself to be from islands and I consider myself to be from Galtega. That's pretty much the only difference. You only consider yourself from being. You're not actually from there.

Well, I mean, it's both. Because Toad comes from an island. He doesn't consider himself to come from an island. He does. I think that it was self-evident in what I was saying. I'm not sure, because you're asking the distinction between demons and devils and you're talking about consideration. Well, yeah, but I was just using a light touch.

I'm fucking with you, by the way. Well, you know, He's not very smart either I think it's the men in the group I'm just happy that you're doing it to him and not to me Oh what? You're talking to stop talking to me Okay, okay You're right

I don't have any rebuke I just turn around In frustration and get back to work So we'll work until the feast So yeah Felix you go back to the line Once the they're done their meeting The meeting ends And the door

opens and you hear Jamity leave and she kind of goes down the other hallway and goes outside and the doors open

Holmard actually heads out and leave and he starts putting on some leathers to go outside and try to meet with some of the rangers and the library

or the books were there for you to browse yeah and I just want to I really want to dive in as much as I can and commit as much new information that I you know

to memory and really just dig in and look for anything that could be helpful okay Yeah, sounds good. And so basically, as you're reading, you realize that you know, that Corvacia is just one part of the larger continent of Shkirma. And you would know that you're at war with the predominantly other racial forces of orcs to the north, Shatter Kai elves to the east, the direct east, and then the Eirchokra, the Owl-Erakka, the Opexing Court, to the southeast.

and there and you know that there was the prominent other forces and that the history of Corvacia was basically hundreds and thousands of years old and just a small weak group of humans

civilization managed to grow and grow and grow and basically through conquest and through military might and the guidance and the secrets of the Raven Queen allowed them to maintain a huge presence on this continent and gain more land. But that being said, it's still very dangerous land, and even despite the incredible strong

military presence, massive parts of the country and the land are basically unpatrollable, the mountains and the hills and the moors and the deep forests where beastmen would roam and you thought had previously just been marauders and not army types, and, you know, ogres and giants and that sort of thing, and monstrosities and creatures lurking about that that basically if you're in the wilderness, you'll always need to worry about and you can get fairly dangerous. So, beastmen

would have existed in Trigger and have runned around in the wild. So the new thing is that the new thing is turning humans, is the fact that humans can turn into these creatures and they weren't just like, that's how minotores and goat men and all that, beast men, that is new to Felix

and to what you've heard. And, you know, there's a bit out there on the beastmen, how basically they lurk in the woods and they're basically just marauders and they basically just raise a city maybe erect a stone to a dark god and then leave.

And so that level of coordination is not mentioned at all. It would basically say, tell you in the book that they're not organized and not coordinated. And maybe because of cautioning tales, like, you know, God help us if they ever did get coordinated just because of the sheer

strength that they have. Right. And then and so that sort of thing and then there's basically tips on like how you might be able to track certain animals in the wilderness that could have been helpful in the next journey and how to for what berries and what mushrooms and what things are good to forage and and maybe and also you've got a book on some kind of secret paths through the mountains and through the woods that the a lot feather conclave use and you might be able to utilize and basically you kind of get the sense of some general magic practices that are

used things to help rangers and hunters of all varieties of all races and things kind of used tools and magic in order to kind of enhance themselves you kind of get the start to get the sense of how you might be able to use those and you start making some notes things that i don't believe you be able to do but you might be able to eventually kind of uh giving the right materials be able to do that um and that's kind of the what else did i say oh and basically just a history of like the green queen and and how you're really sure if the book on the Raven Queen is entirely accurate. I was just saying because I already know a lot about that.

Yeah, you would know about that. So basically nothing is really new, but kind of is basically in the shadow fell. She's far away that was powerful, God and entity and all of these things. And, you know, all of these other death lords, right, are nothing to her. And all these, which have, they kind of have their own domain in different parts of the shadow fell. and that, you know, there's also the constant threat of demonic forces. Right. And other death wars trying to kind of,

there's always this constant battle and war of secession trying to be like the big cheese. Okay. And so, probably the major things we would be able to read about. One quick quote. So the error code occurred to the south. Southeast. South East.

The Shadar Kai El. South to the east. And we're heading northwest. Yeah. To the capital. Okay. Yeah. And so you also, I would also say that you know that the Shatter Kai elves are particularly,

you're particularly not a fan of them because, especially Korvakia, because they have an origin from the Shadowfell and from the Raven Queen. But this is a group that has basically turned away from the Ravencline, and they've shunned it for reasons unknown. The elves did? The elves did. Okay. And so they were formerly of the Raven Queen,

and they... very long ago this particular group that managed to maintain a large and you know they use dark forces of undepat and that sort of thing and so that interest me it's it's very it and it is they have been a source of many many casualties um from the corbockian military so um that's the general gist so eventually finish and uh as night falls um as it gets closer uh the tables are set up a lot of chairs are brought in. You smell the scent of glistening, fat, and meats and large kegs of brew

are being brought in, and the table starts to get set as the sun sets over. Oh, go ahead. How well did Toa and Herja and I do at assisting with accelerating the reconstruction? I would say both of you make... I would also add that I have

mending. Can I have a deficiency? Oh, you're good. Yeah, you're killed you. I would I also add that I have N-Beng, which allows me to be. Yeah, I was going to do with an end if I. Okay, thank you. What did you say, dexterity? Dexterity, just straight.

Thank God. That'll be, does a straight decks? 19. 12 for me. 12. I would say with your powers combined and the force of the craftsmen. We form Captain Striga. Captain Striga. And it actually did a pretty damn good job. It's very sturdy, it's walkable.

And you think that there won't need too much work to do. be too much work to do and it seems to have, you know, at least for now, there's discussion about like maybe adding a layer of like heavy stone or, you know, basically reinforcing it so just a giant road monster can't just crash through again. And he also helped on the roof as well. There was also craftsmen working on the roof as well and everything's seen up. Good work, everybody. Did we remove the body of that beast from the basement? It was all covered up by the time that you'd seen it. You don't know what happened. We left it down there. and so

So Can I accidentally turn off your music? Oh yeah I was just trying to make it quieter It's like screaming in my ear Oh yeah I'll put it over here I'm like trying to concentrate And I'm just like

Yeah sorry This shouldn't be an echo if you keep your music over there now We should be good by the way Oh really? Okay so yeah Captain's rigged he's a hero gonna take the news down at zero

That's awesome Knows, you get me every time. Nose, you're so good. Nose, you can have an inspiration for Faywild. The nose knows. Yeah. There you go. So, if you hang out with us in Fay Wild, you have one.

Can he use his chat inspiration in this campaign? Yeah, sure. You can use your DO chat inspiration in this campaign if you want. That's fine. I love that. So, you all start to congregate as more and more of the rangers start to come back and the hunter start to return. as you see a large bore

kind of put out freshly carved glistening season and then like a side of elk and all of these different bits of food that they seem heaven saving and they start to place it out as all of these different Rangers are predominantly human

but the occasional elf and like maybe a dwarf are making their way in and they're all sitting down you actually see some of the prisoners that are healthy enough that you had rescued from, which is Bluff, join the group, and they're very appreciative of you, and they're all kind of sitting down, and they start to eat as people are starting to get drinks and the like, and as you're all sitting down to eat, you hear some footsteps, and, and the door opens,

and you see Jam, and you walk in with her hat, and she, looks at you and she has a kind of flagging of a flagging of beer and she drink in it and she says Hey, you know, y'all fucking survive. Good job. I'm a hero. They're telling me I'm a hero. That's not pretty fucking cool. Well that's the truth. How's it going jammy? It's going good. Have it seen. That's great. She sits down and she says like, do you know that they got like the good, they got the good shit on tap here at this line? I understand that the hunt master curates of themselves, yeah. Yeah, it's, it's real. So we can just help ourselves?

Yeah, you're all being served in lots. That's me, yeah. Oh, oh, yeah, sorry. It's like, yeah, yeah. I mean, at least for me, they said it, which you can fucking ask. Yeah. Normally I wouldn't, but I think I'm going to help myself. And we heroes, too. I think we could, we could, well, I'm not going to go that far.

I, uh, can you point me in the right direction? Uh, and she points over and then there's the large, There's large cakes for this particular party has been just lined up. I'm going to go grab them over there, yeah. Fill up. I'm going to shove past Felix to get there before being there first. Yeah, you all fill up your flagons and you're ready.

I'm going to check him all the way. Stop, my way. Yeah, she waits for everyone to get their alcohol and sit back down. And she says, well, what the fuck are you guys doing next? well we're probably gonna pack up in the morning and make our way to centra well I wish y'all you all the best of fucking luck god I don't know who to fuck would ever choose to go to the venture so you're not coming along no absolutely I ain't I can go to Sancha

I don't care how sneaky I am I think they're gonna take one look at me and string me up and old Holnard and I had a good talk to talk and they're gonna I'm gonna be working here they're gonna pay me in booze I could get to you know I put my scouting fucking abilities. It's incredible. It's horrible fucking hotgobles. That's fantastic.

That's a really smart movie. Congratulations. It's incredible. So you're going to work here and you can help protect this place. It's the real honest fucking job is what I am. Are they going to feed you in drink and yeah. That's all I fucking need. If I can just sleep by the fire and get a nice

fucking drink. Well, they should make some more whips so you can train some of these new boys on that business. Yeah. I don't think they got the the physicality for that you're saying massive fucking arm

that's true, but I cheat a little bit and she just wrote to make a massive fucking all right. I'm impressed. I'm glad that this is something that you're interested in.

I mean, you know, it's just unlikely that we stumbled upon you where you were and now you're going to be here. This is great. Well, I mean, I'm fucking surprised at myself and, you know,

but travel with you, and saving some folk and having a nice fucking roof and a nice warm fire and no fucking ends trying to sacrifice me has been a lot better than just kind of sleeping out in the woods and stealing from folk that sounds that was way more fucking nice well we're very appreciative of all the help that you uh gave us and and getting us here and you know it's it was it was nice to get to know you yeah it's been it's been good you y'all are okay people you're dude you got less annoying over a fucking time. And y'all seen me from a fucking Etton

that was going to take me to that horrible fucking ogre son of a bitch with the hook and who knows what they were going to be? It's just lucky timing. I'm glad we showed up though. Yeah, no so am I. I had me on a spit maybe covered in fur with fucking horns. Then I wouldn't be able to wear my hat until you just just us.

Well, it brings me comfort knowing that we've got a friend here too that we can come back to him if we're ever on the way back from Centra and I would not just home heart, you know. I hope he's still here, you know, when we get back. It'll give me a piece of mind, too, given the incredible danger that this room thing is in, that you're here, you're quite capable.

You're as capable as the rest of us. So you being here, you know, there's no chance that anything's going to happen to that room now. Well, I can, I'm good with the whip. I'm not to say I can't fucking, kick you fucking fat off a giant culture demon.

That's cold. I can't fucking fend off a giant boat for demon, but I, you know, with my, I'll just sneak up on and get rid of one good whiff from that'll be fine. Homemaster, is Homemaster Hunt Heart? Sorry, I reversed that. Huntmaster Homehart, is he at the table? No, he's not arrived. So it's just the seven of us.

It's the seven of us, and there's one of the tables that just to you guys, there's a bunch of tables with a lot of the younger rangers that survived, and then some of the prisoner that you had saved. While we have some time to ourselves here, I do just want to say to everyone, I know we've got time before we get to Zentra, but as we get closer, there's a very good chance that we're going to see an increased presence in Kovacian military. And I do be really grateful to everyone if we just didn't draw attention to ourselves and, more importantly, didn't tell anybody who I was. I think that we can avoid telling anybody who you are, but I also have the opinion that we're not going to be able to go through this undetected. We need to come up with an ironclad story for why we're going to Centra so that when we do get found out, the military is like, oh, yeah, this is boring. I'm just going to move along.

I couldn't agree with you more, friend. I'm just as much. I'm not sure how it will help you, but I am nobility. I may not be nobility here, but I am elsewhere, and I guarantee the Kovaki military, whatever they're doing, they do not want the full force of where I'm from a neckbet down upon them. So we may be able to use that to our advantage. However, we need to give you a different name anytime we're dealing with them. And I think that you should come up with one because you will not like what I'm thinking. I think I'll handle it.

I'll tell you tonight. You will like what I'm thinking. I appreciate it. And I agree with you. What I'd be worried about is that... The best thing that we can do is to not have them asking too many questions. I agree. And for what it's worth now, they have no reason.

to stop me from getting into the city. I also have some emergency tricks up my sleeve if things get real bad, but so if need be, all I'm going to say is just try to roll with it. Oh, I always do. Like a deck of cards you have up your sleeve? We didn't call it that, sure.

No, when he said roll with it, he meant like on the wagon. What? Oh. Like on the wagons roll. You want to me to roll and roll on a wagon? With the wagon. I'm going to get killed in Zensler. You want me to roll alongside the wagon?

Wagons roll. I would never roll on the ground, a round side of a wagon. I'm gonna get killed in Zentra. I know. Half the pork butt. What about, would we have used a secret name, like, in our adventures? I would have said maybe, but we wouldn't have ever been consistent and we would have just been like, you know, a couple of knuckleheads like making a fake name as we went.

So, Felix, do you want to use Greg again? That was a good one? That's kind of a boring name. Or Giof? Or was it GIF? Or was it GIF? I forget how you see it Giof? No, it's definitely GIF.

I will say that one, that one, I'm just Jeff for a little while. We had some fun. Yeah, it was a good tunnel. I'll sleep. Well, that depends. Are you going to spell it G-E-O-F-F or J-E-F-F? I haven't decided. Because that's really determined how Jeff you really are.

I never had to write it, to be honest. It's Gep guys. Come on. It's not Joltica. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Aventress and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night

and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high scenes, shroud over salt marsh. You can also go to the crooked moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition.

And don't forget to snag all of the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. As you're all sitting there, you're discussing you're discussing Felix's fake name potentially and

as that happens you're allowed Google names allowed a loud footsteps is another door opens and you see Holnhart walk in and as he takes a moment

to kind of survey the whole the whole scene and he everyone kind of gets quiet as the as the as the the as the tilted as the uh as the din of the uh crowd kind of uh drops and uh kind of gets quiet as they're all as they're all kind of staring and looking at him and as uh that happens he he stops and he kind of uh puts a hand up

and immediately everyone just falls completely silent and he says Well, we lost a lot of good man and women yesterday. In an attack that we were not prepared for, and that is my fault. It is my responsibility to make sure we are equipped for any sort of danger to make before this lodge in our conclave. And we will not. The threat of the beastmen, the ogres, the giants

had blinded me through any other threats not once that I considered the harpies or the kanku or anything else that we fought but it is thanks to these seven that we are all alive today

oh jaminy jamini it was like what it was enough for their bravery and heroism it would all have been lost and so to to all of you I offer tokens of my thanks. And I've already spoken to you, Jamity,

and I would like to gladly announce that she will be a member of our conclave on the very first. I was like, can we erupt into the chair? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know that for Jamity. Yeah, Jamie. And full-time employee bugbear with benefits.

She's like, eh, she actually starts to like, She looks really awkward for like the first time. And she just kind of like looks down. Melt into darkness. But unfortunately, y'all's a friend will not be able to stay. The on the long and dangerous road to Zensure

dealing with things may be related or not to what we experienced yesterday. And I would like to offer a token to each of you of my sense that may be able to help. And he has a large pouch on his side

and he goes up to your table and he says if I may and he turns to you Iris and he says Iris I know you're a fan of jewelry and I've seen the power of your magic

and what you can use from your guard I think these earrings might help and he pulls out a little set of pearl earrings and he hands them too oh good darling he said beautiful

I love the sea there you go inside check no I do like water and may they help you help your friends survive even better and I feel like maybe if you had

the past life you might have I don't know if you believe in reincarnation but I feel like you may have had this in the previous life Thanks There's a weird thing to say Isn't that a weird thing to say

Honestly darling I think that that actually rings a bell With me She then He then goes over to No I say earring, not ring Earring a bell I'm sorry what

He's out He looks out He then goes over to you Lufty And he says Lofti Yeah I've seen how you

Are with Many of our hunters And just with your friends in general and I think that you have a very charming personality. Yeah, everybody loves me. He was very good giving people to do what you want. And maybe

this will help you. And he pulled out a set of these, like they look like crystal lenses that they're shaded and they kind of have this gaudy filigree, like this very kind of elaborate and flashing. And he hands it to you and he goes,

God, it's nice. Thank you. And he goes for a little. And he goes over to you, Herjah. And he says, Persia, you are very mighty, but you are not

the most stealthy. And there may be times where you need to be unseen and unheard. So here is this cloak that many of our Rangers use that may help you, and he hands it to you.

See if it's a bit of the cloak. He goes to you, Chaua, and he says, Tau, you are very strong and mighty, but personally you could be a little bit more fearsome. That's what they always told me, yes. This might help a little bit, and he pulls out this really kind of strange wooden card masses, and he says, I received this in my younger days

and I kept it as decoration, but I think it may help you more. and he hands you the mask. Felix, I know you are running from your past and being surrounded by horrible forces, even those that might know who you are. It's very concerning, but I have something that may help. He pulls out a single ring.

It's kind of, there's a, this is the symbol of masks and capes and masks all around it, and he hands it to you. I'm honored. Thank you. And then he goes to you, Caprice. What's up, Chief? And he says, Caprice, you are the title of person to

use subtlety and faint and deceive your enemies. And I think this, I received this in a game I won while I was visiting Altica. Oh. And he hands you. a deaf of cards. I didn't know you've been to Galtica. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Of 32 cards.

That's the good rules. Thanks. And thank you. He hands that teaching one. And we have secured you a wagon and I'm working on the whole situation. And we have

prepared the care package for you as well. And I just wanted to extend my sincere thanks for all that you have done for our conflict. Let us have a toast. He's heroes. And he raises a glass. Cheese.

And everyone cheers, and they all down their drink and the festivities continue. And as the night is kind of going on a little bit, you suddenly hear horns blaring. Oh, shit. And...

Like bad, like bad... Bad horns. And then he stays at the... Oh, what a good horn! How can you tell the difference? It's just horns. All the whole... You know what?

There's a different pamphal. You should know this. I mean, you know, the mom new here. I didn't know you guys cared about him. And then immediately a door opens and says, like, Ravali's coming back. Ravalli's here.

And how does he... And then, hold on it. How does he look? And the young scout says, Not very good. Several minutes later, the doors open, the huge wooden doors to the lodge. And you see a slight male frame, step in. With a slight limp, his features seem to be angular and soft.

As an elvenness to, you can get in the sense that he's a half elf with his slightly pointed ears. He has dark hair that's kind of cut down the shoulder length. he wears two seen short swords at his side with a hooded cloak as he's stepping in and he

looks around at everything that's happening and Holmar's just kind of standing there and there's some shock in his voice and you can kind of see now as he walks into the center, everyone's looking at him at him and you can see now that he's marked up, he scoff, he has cuts and

bruises and there's just, there's this head he bags under his eyes and he looks at Holmehart and he says what is this we are having a feast we almost all died and these heroes saved us I'll tell you all about it and he said and he looks and he says do you have any idea Holmehart what the fuck is happening out there do you know that death is marching on Central and you were sitting here having a feast and Holmhart steps to him kind of looking around nervously at everyone is like calm down calm down Navarre you've been through a lot what about the rest of your squad they're all dead they're all dead and I've seen what the Horn Legion is doing I know where they're going they're heading they're heading and why are you all just sitting around drinking anything and Holmhart kind of stands back and says,

A moment of levity and this world of darkness and misery is good for the soul. And he kind of clenches his teeth a little bit. And he looks around and looks up. Probably at least like a foot and a half difference, not two feet. He looks up at him and says, I'm heading back out there tomorrow morning. I'm going to sit and then I'm going to be. And then I'm going back towards my train. And we need to talk right now.

Stop drinking. Let's go. And Holnhart grabs him by the shoulder and does a fake laugh. Don't worry, everyone. Captain Freewing, he's just had a very rough time of it. And we'll make sure that everything is fine. And the two of them walk off back towards his private. quarters and you can see that there's that kind of pronouncing that he has as he's as he's

walking following Holmar back in the private quarters so are there um people around us from here that i can't remember what they heard called yeah okay uh who's that party pooh-uhuh uh one of the one of the one of the younger ones is uh that's um Rvali Freeman. He's one of our best hunters. Why has he got this panthers in a bunch? Well, I know that he went out with the whole squad to track the Horde and Legion, and if he's the only one that came back, I don't know what happened out there. I can bet it's not good.

Yeah, really serious force. I mean, I'm surprised he came back at all. And I can honestly bet that he must have no idea what lies under this launch. If he would expect this entire place to just up and leave, in the midst of the Horn Legion. Yes, let's just give them the seal beneath these floors. That sounds like a great idea, bolster their ranks. I mean, you know, in some worlds, the defense, you always want to have like one opening just to let the bad guys in

and then you can ambush. Maybe it's sort of that type of deal. We let this seal fall and then the other 12 be safe, no problem. Yes. It doesn't sound like a very good idea. I mean, he said, for all we know, this could be the very last one. I mean, I'm not hard to order. To be honest, he sounds like a man in grief.

he just lost his friends He's really kind of cool He knew what he was doing It makes sense that he would come back And he would be worried That people are enjoying an evening When he is wrapped with guilt And pain

He seems very capable I mean, do you think he's Going the same direction We are at the same time Perhaps we could join him Well yeah he said that he was going back to Zetra In the morning So I think that

You know fluffy two shoes over here And I should probably go look for some horses I think we should probably Chippling them to see... I mean, you're fluffy and you've got to shoot, so that makes sense. That's fair. What I would say is I understand that he might actually be providing horses, and so we could probably, rather than go out and look for horses,

let's just wait and see, and if we have to go find some wild, wild horses in order to make that happen, then we can do that. Well, if I take a rest tonight, then I can find Steed in the morning. Oh. I don't know you could do that. I didn't either. I didn't know that I looked down in my character sheet. That's for tomorrow.

Fun. Yeah. Well, I mean, you guys know what my vote was, and since we're waiting until the morning, let's just try to relax, like Iris said, and get some rest and strengthen up, because it's going to be a long time before we even potentially get to eat meat again.

Well, I'm sure that we could probably pack up some of this. Yeah, it'll last for a while. I just know we have... level weeks ahead of us. You guys want to play a drinking game? No. Yeah. Look, I don't drink very often, and I'm open to learn.

I mean, if we've got some cups, we can play a little chish-s-ch-s-p-shoot, make some dexterity roles, you know, be a really fun time. Shish-shoot-be-choo? I'm willing to learn. All right. I teach them the equivalent of beer pong, but with brandy. You do that. My decks isn't terrible. And you all play a game of beer-bong brandy, of an equivalent.

the Indie equivalent. And as you're all time enjoying the festivities, eventually the door opens, and Captain Freeway comes out, and he steps over, and Holmheart is several paces behind him. And Rivali kind of sits down at the end of edge of your table, and he takes a plate of food,

and someone comes over with a pitcher of beer, and he's like no and they bring him a type of tea and he is just drinking he's drinking as he's kind of looking down and he just he just starts like eating kind of staring down into his plate he man he looks up at you and he says oh this isn't home heart i thought i thought this was home heart no this is rivali i look at him like you seem pretty cool Toa, were you playing the game? I'm so sorry to hear about your friends. I'm a priestess of Anubis, a god of the grave,

and may his... May the justice of the gods provide them safe passage to a fulfilling and happy afterlife. Well, I hope it's happier than the life that we did have. Thank you. You're welcome. He kind of eyes all of you and says, you guys don't look like you're from around here. Oh, not at all.

And I know the look. You know, keep coming, thinking he's hot shit, goes out on his first mission and gets him killed, maybe his friend's killed too. Does that happen? I just say nothing. And like, no, that he hasn't hippon at all. I'm his best friend, and I'm still alive.

Yeah, he hasn't killed any of us so far. And if I look a little too foreign for you, I can change my appearance without issue. He's the only one of us that's almost died. Twice, actually. There was that one ogre who shot a bolt into my stomach? I don't remember if you remember that. You know what? That's not important.

How long have you been fighting together? Weeks? A couple of weeks, yeah. Thanks, well. That's still a better survival rate than many. Thanks. So well done. Can I interest you in a game? No. Thanks.

Shocker. Normally those in grief don't like to play games. Yeah, I feel like you would really, like, I know that it's hard, but I would really suggest that you come and join, and I would suggest that you come play a game with us. How does that work? I'm not casting suggestions, but I'm just saying that in that really specific way. I do, you folks. How does that work? He looks at you and he shakes his head and says, I'm going to eat and, you know.

I would prefer to just enjoy my meal. Sure, okay. No problem, Jake. Uh, yeah, uh, always open. Uh, you can take my spot anytime. So, you can tell me why those, those beasts attacked. This place looks like shit. I mean, we didn't do that bad a job. Well, from what attacked, it seems like you could have pretty damn good. We defended the lodge successfully, so that's something. And I appreciate now that you're the ones that are the reason I have a place to come back to.

I had a strongly worded heated conversation with Holmarb and talked me down. I wanted to take as many of the Rangers that I could with me. But now that the woods are crawling with harpies and Kenku and who knows what else, they're going to need all the help they can get. planning to head Central. Well, so are we. He did mention that. So we were thinking that maybe, you know, if it is that dangerous out there, we, we're somewhat capable, perhaps we could just, you know, join you along and we can keep each other safe and, you know, once we get there, we can go a separate ways. I'm not heading directly to Zentro, at least initially. Are you all,

let's finish our meal and I would like just be primed with all of you that's fine yeah okay

we finish and get up so he finishes his tea and he eats relatively little and he eventually

he stands up and he looks at all of them and he's kind of the softness that comes to his face and says well they almost all died and they saw a lot of their friends

die as well I guess what kind of monster would I be to try to take that. Enjoyment away from that. Let's go. And he leads you back towards a private room. It's not like his private quarters, but like a private meeting room, perhaps,

of some of the senior level rangers in the concrete. And he sits down, and there's a fire going, and he sits down and he pours himself a cup of tea that's a little tea-shray sitting up there. please take I along with my squad was I said piques up sorry just trying no there's a deer ah ah yeah um I and my squad were were tracking the legion and realized that there were

emissaries and scouts they were breaking off from the main force region we made it We made it a good distance into the clockwood towards Zensha. I felt it would be a good IT to ambush scouting rooms. It was a blood path. All of them died, but I was the only one that survived. And it was not for nothing in that I found a map of Zendron in surrounding areas. And in the woods, only several miles from the city. There's a point marked.

I think that there may be some some correspondence of media point there that they were heavy. They had orders written in a language that I couldn't understand. And it pulls it off in this kind of like this

jacket script on it. Do I recognize it to be either infernal or abyssal? I would say you would recognize it to be abysmal. Okay. In the brief moment, do I get any words out of it? it? I would say that it's too quick and it's roll out, you just kind of see the top of the script and then he puts it open.

Okay, I'm making it over that. And he, he looks at all of you and says, I don't know what you know about the Horn Legion, and I know that you can count with them. And I know that you're taking the serious more than most fucking dogs of the military have done an outstanding job, suppressing the work. suppressing the word. I cough a little bit when he mentions it. Everyone thinks everything is just fine.

Even the old fool they call her. He believed in the severity. He was concerning by the ogres and the giants, but I had to basically force my way to take a squad to track the Legion and now they're dead. It's my fault. I'm going to try if we travel together to not get you killed. But it's dangerous.

Well, and vice versa. I appreciate that. But yeah, no, the Horn Legion is a really serious threat. I don't know if you know very much about what we've been up to in the last few weeks, but I'd be happy to share. Homeheart, he has his heart in the right home, but he doesn't, he wasn't awake to the real threat until we got our ambush, just. He's an old man who got comfortable. I've been telling him that for years. I don't think that's the case anymore.

I'm going to encourage him the next time I talk to him to try to recruit as heavily as possible. This lodge needs to be well defended. I understand that and that's why I'm grateful I don't have to pull any of our Rangers away for this mission. But then, once we arrive there, I can... find out what's going on and we can part as strangers if you prefer. Did you know of the situation with

Nora before your squad left? No. She got set out after I did. He did just fill me in. We believe that she was captured by them? Yes. By that ogre creature, yeah? Yes. We were very lucky to get away

with our lives and with hers. I think they were going to use her for something, some sort of sacrifice. They were then. Incredible disappearances. We have time. We are lucky with time. They're not marching directly to Zetro. You're sure?

I tracked their movements, yes, for many days. That's incredible news. It's just so that they can make their way to smaller town, villages, in the woods, and amassed their forces even more. But, I mean, that's at least good news. It gives us time to mobilize. Very true, but...

It's not good news for those towns and villages. We're gonna do what we can. They're already doomed, friend. Guess you're all right. The military is the only one that could have protected them and they're telling them that everything's fine. Right, let's get it early starts tomorrow morning

and we all do what we can. Agreed. It's nice to meet you. Is there any way we can... Is there any way we can... Is it my dog? Sorry. Well, hey, dear dog.

How are you doing? Oh my gosh, a taras. What the fuck is that? Oh, my God. Let me. I can get them. I can get it. Oh, I got it.

Sorry, I heard snorbing. I was like, what is that? It's fine. A dog siding. A pug siding. This is a known pug crossing. Yeah. So obviously, part of your squad survived.

I chased him back down. Called the pug wild. Do we know if there's anything, and I'm looking knowingly at feel like. without making too much obviousness about it. Is there anything that we can do to attempt to motivate the Kovakian military, even if we have to send a letter of some kind lying about like an oncoming danger and not specify necessarily that it's like these people, but...

I just hang my head and like, I just shake like, no, there's definitely no way. Can we pretend like we're some like higher military person and try to command them to do something, like on a piece of paper? Just say, like, hey, I order you to, like, guard this city and stuff. They won't fall for that. They know exactly what they're doing. They know exactly what they're doing. Hmm.

You're smart. You're smart. And I'm going to assume that you all introduce your names or whatever. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you guys introduce you. R-V-R-A-V-R-A-V-A-L-I, freeway. So it's like ravioli, but just different. You're right there with me. We have a baloney and another campaign and we have a ravioli in this campaign.

And an an anus. Free wing, you say. He has a brother named Penny and Linguini. My name is Benin. Um, sorry now, right in the mood. Um, he, he, he nods at Phila's like, yeah, you, you know what we're talking about. I think that if we don't get killed and we make our way to Zetron, and we make our way to Zetron, we decide not to separate.

There may be a possibility where we can get a lay of the land and figure out what's compromised and what's not. See what we can do, but we're going blind. And I think until there's a massive army on the field surrounding the city, ready to siege it, I doubt they're going to take any action. And even then they may not.

God knows why. I'm going to get some sleep. I suggest you won't do the same. We will continue to enjoy yourselves. You deserved it. It was a pleasure to meet you, and we're ready to mobilize at a moment's notice, so make sure you just let us know when you're ready to go. We'll do, and I brought back some horses that I managed to salvage, and we won't be able to...

I feel like we should stick to the woods, so we won't be able to move quickly on them, so we'll need to decide if we want to sacrifice... Speed for stealth. I think in a situation like this we should default to your expertise and we're willing to listen to what you know So think on it. I mean let us know in the morning Agreed. I'll sleep on it and you sleep on as well All right. Good night Good night good night. He steps up and leaves

I want you to do whatever you're going to do for us the night and I want to go to the office and see if I can borrow some paper Yeah, you're able to find that. Yeah, cool. So I'm going to write a a letter to Brada Guba and say hello brother we're going on a big adventure it's lots of fun good things happening just checking in on our furry friend that we left with you and I hope all is well we're going to Zentra write me if anything important happens and I'll take that and find like a younger you know you have the same idea I had I meet me there and I similarly am looking for parchment to write a letter and I want to see if I can send a letter from from the like

Like, are there, is there post here? Do they even get... Now there's lots of young stopping boys. I'm sure we can convince one to just take a little, you know, trot into town. You probably have better luck to hit that than I would. You know, I might. I don't know. I'm pretty good at it.

And so I would say you both write a letter. You find a young lad who's going to head out and he was on the way towards Kirsteim. And he's actually going to be one of the rangers to lead all of the captains back towards their respective towns that they had been captured from. So he agrees to drop off the letters to Brother Gruber. I'm sending a letter back to Galtica to communicate with my dad that I'm not dead yet. And just sort of give him an update overall of the various details of my adventures without being so specific as to if anyone were to intercept the letter, know where I'm headed next.

And I also grab a fresh parchment for her job. Okay. So you do that. And he agrees to send all the letters and he'll drop it off at the post. loose in Kirsteye when he gets there. Oh, thank you. I flip him on the copper. Takes the copper. It's appreciative.

And so he's ready to go. Anything else you're going to do? The feast is winding down. If everybody's doing their own thing, I want to find Iris and talk to her. I went back to the room, and I've pulled all of my parchment, of which I have a ton,

and I've just spread it around me trying to find the best one to do absolutely nothing with. Okay. But just having a feeling someone needs parchment. So I would find it. I'm not actually doing that. I'm just on my bed.

I would start to write a letter, and I'm like, who am I running a letter to? How does postage even work? I don't have mail on the islands. I go, never mind. Felix, you just take this. You always use placement, right? Just use it.

Okay, I'm going to go. Okay, I've written a letter from Toa. And I'll pray before going to. Okay, boy. So, Felix, you arrive at the girl's room before Herja and Lifty get back, and I are sitting on the door. Toa come in, there's no more smoke No, it's me, Felix.

Felix and Toa, please come in, there's no more smoke. Just Felix. What? Is Toa dead? No, he's fine, he was working on... It doesn't matter. Come in. Thank you.

Listen, I intended on thanking you properly before you mentioned it earlier. I just wanted to wait for the opportunity to speak to you one-on-one. Oh, so that nobody knew that you were. No, no, you deserve all the recognition that you should get. And it's not about that. It's, it's, I've, I'm no stranger to death. You know, being a part of the military, it's something that you put yourself in danger, right?

But ever since I went AWOL, I almost drowned and then Toa saved me. And then we got into some stuff, but I thought I could handle myself. and then you saved me and I just wanted to thank you personally and maybe ask you some questions. I'm always open for questions and you're more than welcome. The gods will take you when they're ready for you.

Well, I guess that's part of my question to start with. I don't really know much about your gods, but why not, why safe? Why not just let me die? You must have a bigger purpose than even you know. Anupus would let your soul pass on. if it's what was necessary. But he allowed me to pull you back into this world twice, not just once.

Maybe that means that there's someone out there that you need to save. I just, I've done some horrible things with what I was involved with of the military, and that's why I had to escape. And when the boat went over and I thought it was all over, I was almost okay with it. And then Toa Manatee yank me out of the ocean, and I just, I don't know why. You said something to me earlier that I feel is very pertinent. You mentioned necromanic magic and you said that immediately it was bad. There is a fine line between good and bad Felix.

It's where your heart lies that determines whether something is right or wrong. Ignorance is sometimes your greatest enemy, and I do believe that maybe a lot of what you've done in your past is from ignorance and not malintent. I mean, that may be right. and I don't know if I can ever fix it but I'm going to try I mean the things that happen with the military and I don't want to associate

with them anymore it's why I left and Have you ever thought that you being a renegade from the military with the knowledge that you know might be just the reason the gods want to keep you

on this plane of existence you may be the only one that knows what's happening and it could be that knowledge that is important for what's happening now it may be that knowledge that's going you save the world as we know it.

Who knows? You might be right. I just, all I know is we got to stop them. We got to expose this corruption. I mean, this is... And it is in what you said there that I think shows the way the scales way. You may have done terrible things in your past,

but your future looks like you're leaning towards justice. I appreciate that. I guess I just have one more question. I hope I have an answer. What happens when someone crosses over? It is for the gods to decide. They will weigh their heart, or so anubis shall. And depending on how they live their life,

will determine how they survive in the afterlife. Or so my teachings tell me. I guess that's slightly reassuring. All right. Well, again, I can't thank you enough. And as I told Toa, you know, it's not his responsibility to look out for me. And I'm new to a lot of this. And I should have been able to handle myself.

And next time I'll be ready. There's power that I have that I've studied my life, devoted my life to studying it. But it's nothing compared to some wizards. And I hope to be better. But I'll do better. Failure is the only way to success. and the gods may have given you friends to aid you while you grow.

Do not expect to be able to handle things on your own. We're not supposed to. We have family, we have friends, for a reason. Solitude does not always bring success. Lean on those who care about you. You may lean on me, lean on Toa. And maybe eventually, Herja, Caprice, never Lufty. She's a pain in the ass.

I'm kidding, Lufty as well, but don't tell her. said that. I wouldn't dare. She's been a great companion to me as much as I would tell her otherwise. All right. I, again, I, thank you. You've helped. It makes me feel a little bit better. Think about the future. Do not dwell on the past.

The future will shape who you are. I'll try. I didn't mean interrupt. I hope you're having a good night. I'm going to go grab another drink. I'm just picking Lutti's toenails out of my bed. It's fine. Oh. I don't think. I think I can help with that. Good luck.

And I turn and I leave. And I continue to pick Lifty's toenails out of my bed. You both do that. And you grab another drink and the night's winding down that you get one of the last ones to live rolling out the barrels and getting rid of them. And you all, unless there's anything else you guys want to do,

you all go to bed and you enjoy the long rest. Hey. Hey, yo, Spilslet's back. Okay. Can I ask an out-of-character question regarding the new magic item you've provided? chain mail armor is disadvantage on stealth. This is giving me

advantage on stealth. So you are just regular on stuff. As long as there's a stealth component to it. So generally, unless you're like shouting and trying to like it wouldn't do that. It would basically undo the heavy armor. So as soon as

I change my armor to a different type that doesn't impose disadvantage on stealth, this would give me advantage on stealth. Cool. Thank you. Good to know. So you awake. to a morning in Korovakia that was actually a little bit strange compared to what you're used to. It's actually sunny. And there are a number of birds kind of chirping in the air.

You hear the croak of the raven as it's croaking and there seems to be a bit more life around you from what you can tell. And you all wake and you gather down. And as you make your way, you can kind of see that the lodge is basically cleared out. A lot of the Rangers and scouts and the like have made their way out into the, to begin their watch and scouting. And there's been a new level of seriousness taken about all the threats that are around them. As you make your way, you see... Before we leave the room, I'm going to look to the ladies. I don't do this often, but the sun is shining.

it's a beautiful day and I feel that we need to both to ourselves so if you can both come here and I'm going to spritz them with my gold perfume I'm just going to sneak around in it. It smells like the desert and the iris flower reeds and the water and it's... I thought it smelled like death

that's what she told you. Yeah but I would have been able to... I was asking what my nostrils did not what you told me. No you asked me. What does it smell like? And I said death. So as you guys you smell it. I am like... You can eat it. It's not... It's very finely ground.

It's not really worth much as a spritz, but the entire bottle is worth more than you are. Let's go. Okay. So you've all made your way down and you see Rivaldi standing there with his

pack and his sword is ready to go and he seems he's kind of stretching out his leg and he's walking with a bit more pep and his step. And you get the sense that he's ready to head out, and he greets you all in the main room. And he says, I hope you all slept well. It's going to be at least a three-week journey to where we're headed. Three weeks, at least.

Oh, my goodness. Even with the horses? Yeah. I thought about it and given with the intensity of the Korvokian military presence. that if we can't afford a distraction, if we don't have good out of life or why we're, why we're on the road and we get brought in, what are they going to do to us? They find out what we know. So you think it'll be safer just take off the roads? I think it will for us.

I, you can handle it. No, I honestly agree. I agree as well. I mean, there's a difference between handling it and wanting to handle something, you understand? Look, if I'm willing to handle it, then none of you should be complaining. I think it's a huge risk to stay on my own bunk last night. That mattress was not nearly as soft as Lufty was. But I wanted her to have a nice night's sleep.

It's because we're fun. No, it's because we're becoming friends. No, I'm pretty sure I heard you say that you guys were friends. Yeah. And that I was in training to be a friend. And Lufty, if you do you die... If you do get tired, I can just carry you. You weigh like two pounds.

Does anybody hear that? I'm hearing the sound of buzzing bees just going, zzz, coming from that direction. No, but you... You're... No, no, mine. You've seen bees, correct?

Any bees? Yes, yes. Lufty. She talked to me directly. Oh, that's bad. But it's also quite early. And I'm just... I'm not going to get tired because I'm like really strong and you know I probably could just run

faster than all of you combined but maybe not a she pretty quick but I just I'm gonna get bored it's a long way and I don't want to do that so the priest and I can Jen and Hesri can teach us some of her Dwarven folk songs sure yeah yeah it'll be a good time that'd be fun for like I hate to say I liked her song yesterday Oh shit It was really interesting The gag reflex means she really truly

Lanked it I cop up a hairball Yeah That's a good sign I never gets the hairballs I'm so glad I'm not at the backseat I'm sorry For what? Well I can't coughing up Hairballs like that just

That's not pleasant That's a great armor You shut your mouth Do you know when you have a This is going to be a bit Disgusting You know what you have a great poop? It's kind of like that, but from your mouth.

I'll meet you outside. I'm going with him. I'll feel a key. Let's tell. We should go. Yeah, we follow. We follow. Hey, her jah.

You know, I was sending a letter to my dad last night, and I remember your dad. And I know that we can't send him a letter because we're still looking for him. But I got you this parchment. I wonder if you wanted to write him a letter and leave it here. and Casey happens to pass through the lodge area. I thought you were going to say, do you want to write letter to your mom? Maybe let her know how you're doing. Well, we can cut the paper in half. That seems

like a reasonable thing to do. Sure. Yeah. Okay. Let's do that. I was really just thinking about the dad thing. I'm sorry, I forgot about it. No, it's okay. I've got, no, I'm not going to say that. It's fine. Yeah, I'll write the letter. Good idea. Thank you, Capriccio.

I'm very thoughtful of you. So as you all make your way out, Rivali is packing up packing up some final things of other stuff and you see

a home heart walking out with a crate and is ah good morning I hope you did not party too hard to make this journey far more unpleasant I tried to get him to party

as hardy as I could but it was not as hard as he as I wanted it to be now if Ravale is in the room you're not going for good people at the party very hard. And he places it down. And there is a, you kind of feel like they're bad on the glass, and you look inside

and there seems to be six vials filled with liquid, with a red liquid, some scrolled parchment. And it's bound, and then six pouches. Oh.

And he says, this is for you, to thank you, and to prepare you for the journey ahead. Not only did you save our Conclave, you're also helping the conclave by Joining our most senior Ranger out into terrible danger And I appreciate that

Ranger Day. Yeah, I was about to say that, Jeeks. You owe me a healing potion. I don't have any. Speaking of which, are there any in this box? That's exactly what those six things are, yes. Oh, I don't. you shit. Well, you give me yours, yeah. No, I'm out. I'm out. I'm low.

I'm going to just turn my back to him and just mumble something and start shirveling my letters to mom. All right. Well, you still want me a potion and I take my potion and then I guess one of the pouches and... Are these 100 gold pieces? A hundred. Standard pieces. Each?

Wait. The other not standard is a greater. Greater. So six-grader human potions? Shit. Dang. Each one of us gets a sixth grader? No.

No. Oh, each one. Okay. Because I think we're keeping our stuff separate. You are. And then 100 gold. for each. Dang.

And then you find three spell scrolls. We get a hundred gold. We have to pay a hundred gold. Okay. What was that? We get a hundred gold. You get a hundred gold. We get a hundred gold.

We each get a greater healing potion. Also, three spell scrolls. Money, money, money. And a spell scroll of... I don't think we need the spell scrolls. A maitant, a spell scroll of illucerty script, and a spell scroll of dark vision. And so...

And then you, yeah. Dark vision. Maybe I should just hold on to those. Don't you do something if this is a wizard? I can take a look at him. And then these might be helpful as well. He holds out three small little, these kind of like, orbs of like a swirling shadow.

And he says, it's kind of like a fow. And when you look closer, it's like a fine dust. And he says, if you have to get out of a sticky situation, then these may help. There's three dust and disappearances to you as well. Oh. Dang. If we have to get out and go to the chaper.

We should split those up. I'm fine. I can always get out of a sticky situation. So you guys are going to... I don't know you have many options besides running away. Toa should definitely take one. I think Herger should take one because she tends to be very loud. I agree. Yeah.

And then I honestly think it might be a good idea for you. Yeah. Based on my current track record, I... That is very... Very selfish of you. Flaming balls of fire. Go ahead. I give him a fist bump.

Yeah. Is that a frigate thing? We don't do that in Gulf ago. Yeah, no, you take it back home. No, we do the, I'll teach you later. Yeah, yeah. So what is it, what is the item then? It's just a dust of disappearance.

Oh, very cool, you guys. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate your hospitality, your generosity. Thanks for taking Jamity. She can be a bit of a pill, but if you keep her liquored up, she can be pretty swell. Quite agree with. I mean, I know she really smells a lot.

She smells like Bigfoot's dick, but just watch her when she's asleep and you'll be all set. That's what we've been doing. Who is Bigfoot? Oh, you know, I thought you said you'd been to golf together. Never mind. Holy shit. It is a story I did not hear.

Bigfoot's dick. I appreciate. I appreciate everything. I'm just going to write down Bigfoot's dick. We're going to add it to my inventory. You cannot be in better hands than Captain Freewayne. Well, I hope you all survive in, Iris. If you find any other members of the 13th order,

please make sure that our land and our world is safe. Is that the name of the order? You had kept that secret up until that point. Yes, it is. The 13th order. I would let them know that... Sorry, Antonio Banderas. May I let them know the town of Meshis?

Sorry. Yes, that's metadata. I will let them know what happened here and what we have done for the 13th order. I will not... I know that you're all secret from each other. I would simply let them know that we've had the privy... We've had the honour of being with you

and that we were here during your hard time. If we were to draw the symbol, the tattoo, to demonstrate that we know of the order? Do you think that would be evidence enough? to tell them, you know, hey, we're kind of, you know, we're cool. It would at least keep you with all these. Okay, all right, all right. That seems like that. And I will never forget what it looks like. It is imprinted on my brain.

That's just, you know, one of these. It's a bit more than that. It is a bit more than that. You all be safe. Thank you. And he... And you as well. I will. And as he leaves, he passes another large frame.

And you actually see Nester. You haven't seen the entire time. and he walks up to you and he says, well, this is, this is it, I suppose. I'm sorry, I did not approach sooner and join the feast. I was too ashamed to show my face. Why is that?

Just, I have not been any help to this order. You all have inspired me to do better. You all inspired me to try to be a better hunter, a better ranger, a better ally in a country. comrade. I just wanted to thank you for saving Nora. She regretted not being able to join us. She's still not very well. That's excellent. I think that you're capable of great things. Scott, keep trying. Thank you. He kind of looks like, there's still a high level of shame. He kind of looks just incredible. He says, I

hope to make a name for myself that does my family honor. I need to be a proper strong arm. Well, save travels. You have our faith, buddy. I slap him on the arm and, screw. Say, I have your sister for me. I will.

And as he leaves, and, uh, um, save, the three spells. And May she and is obviously a cantrip. What are the levels of the two spells? And are they wizard spells?

I can look that up, but... Yes, and a loose three super is level one, dark vision levels down. And they're all wizard spells. Oh, wizard spells. So you could take the time to turn to transcript transcripts. It's going to take a very long time. We've got three weeks.

It's how much? Yeah. So the idea is that it's two hours and 50 goal per level of the spell, depending. But if it's an evocation spell, which none of them are. The timing, the timing goal is halved. So for a cantrip, I assume it's nothing. But I don't know. I think it counts as a level one.

I tried to look it up, it didn't really say. I'm so glad I'm a bard. And so can trip level one and level two. All right. So that is a lot of that is like that. Yeah. I mean, I guess it might be, I know that for anything pertaining to wizards are different, but for sorcerers, anytime you have to use a cantrip for something,

it just takes as if it were a level one. It would be the same amount of sorcery points. I just figured it would be the same thing, but yeah. I couldn't find it. Just didn't. Yeah. We'll figure it. I mean, I can't do it while we're moving anyway.

I'm going to have to do it like. Well, you can do it in the wagon. It sounds like we're going through the woods, that, right? Yeah. But if you're just sitting in the wagon. We're not taking it. Oh That's why I was grumping about

Because I was like No bro I was promised a wagon Well I mean Lufty Every single time you promise something You never deliver That's not too exactly because I got the wagon

And then Mr. Gromby pan said we could not use it You promised that we would travel via the wagon I never saw it So I don't think you got anything I can take you to the wagon It's just going to sit there because they grompy So then when you told me that we were going to travel via a wagon, you're a liar.

This damage... This damages my friendship with Hersia. Just know that. I believe that, and I've taken it into consideration, and I'm pretty sure that Toa will carry you, and that is like a big stoneware. Is that a promise? It is not.

I promise. But I will... Wait, what? It is a promise or it's not a promise. It is not a promise. Then you can't promise that you... What, I'm so confused. I said I don't know what to do.

She always mad at me. What if I were to create some kind of a happy vision place where you would be able to enjoy sort of like a, just for like a minute, some sort of a beautiful scene with people fanning you and the real luxury royalty experience. I could do that. No, it's kind of. Toa, will you carry any?

We don't carry anyone. I mean, proportionally. Then I would come with you. As long as I'm being. carried. Do you want to be carried like every step of the way? Yeah. Most of the way.

Can you hand this to Mikey? Oh, sorry, I shouldn't read. I didn't read it. I just put it for me or for you? Sneaky Pete. Yeah, sure. Okay, just making sure. Sure. I'm going to read your secret.

No, no, it's secrets. It's secrets. It's secrets. Okay, for me or for you? For me? Okay. Yeah. So, and with that, you start to

gather and you can see that you remember there's a long winding path through the blossom that's down towards the moors where your journey begins. And you see that Rivali is waiting a bit down the road and so is there anything else you'd like to do before you head out?

I would have either the previous night or before we leave I would have taught people the song that Herge just started singing to try and bolster in a marketing sense, more recruitment to see if they could get additional people to be like, oh, the lodge, I know that song. There it is.

I'm going to, just so that maybe they attract. I don't know how they recruit or whatever, but I would have planted that seed in the hopes that that might accelerate their action. Make a performance track. Oh, well, that's where I am. A-23. X-yes. You do a very good job in some of the new recruits action memorize the entire thing.

It's not earworms. It's catchy, isn't it? I mean, it's not an earworm. original but yeah yeah and um I'm gonna carve a little cloud into one of the trees on the path before you make a just a dex check I guess the tree screen it's gonna be more of a bloc really but it happened in the Faywai what happened to the tree screen oh yeah it's a mushroom it looks more like a blob than a cloud yeah it's cool I'm like yeah okay yeah so you all

make your way and as you're winding your way down you kind of pass one of these this a batwin brook and you see a shape that has a fishing rod that is kind of just cast

and you see Jamity lounging and as you're all passing she raises up a hand and says try not to get yourselves killed you fucking heroes I can promise you hero work is a lot less fun and a hell of a lot dangerous than you're expected. Goodbye, goodbye, Jamadie. Stay safe. Yeah, stay safe.

Yeah, stay safe. We're not meeting you. We hope the drinks are flowing for you always. As long as they are, this is where all I'll fucking be. So long and farewell. Thanks for everything. We'll be back. I'll be the same. I do as I can and you see her grab, take another swing and she puts her hat down and she starts to snooze as she keeps her wine cast. A very common play songs as we're as we're walking and so the first song that I choose for our journey is um bum bum bum bum bum

crack that whip bumma bum bum bum licorice whip or jamadie with yeah something more specific than licorice I like it and you can travel

through the moors through the hills and you find And you stay off the road. As you make your way, you are generally able to find some high ground. Ravali seems to be making sure to stay as much on high ground as he possibly can as he leads you through. And oftentimes you are able to get on a bluffer or eventually climb a tree or get on a mountainside that sees the road and you see marching regiments of Korvalki and military. And it seemed to be more and more pronounced traveling the main roads.

Far, though, out. Far though, yeah. Far, you're seeing far down into onto the valley or a road. And you can see just the specs of the troops moving with the banners flying as they're marching. How many days have we traveled at this point, or is this the first day that we're seeing already, the Korobokian road? I would say that three weeks are going to pass. And so this is three weeks pass. Then over the course of that time, I'm going to spend four hours and 100 goals.

to learn Dark Vision to copy it into my book. I'm going to spend 50 gold and two hours long in the illusory script. And then I'm going to take the Mage Hand Scroll and say, well believe it or not, I already know how to do this. So if anybody wants this, please, I don't need it. I mean, who doesn't want a hand to do whatever you want to do? Since he's the first one to reach out,

I just handed it over to Caprice and I say, make good use of it, all right? You know, I will. And so, so you hand it, you hand them the scroll, you learn? Oh, okay, you can't transcribe cantrips. Oh, who would have thought? So I couldn't have learned it anyway. Canterps are wacky.

But that's good to know. So you make your way through, you see that the military presence is increasing. Marching through and you see Felix kind of taking some time to go over his notes and go over and really try. And the path, the path is not comfortable. It is... Yeah, go ahead. Just after you're done with that, I would say, do you want to like, maybe it not?

Copy them in this one as well? Oh. And I go, ah. Yeah, jeez, grateful, I'm damned. And I say, Tola, I don't know what I would do without you. Watch your mouth. That's blasphemy.

Yeah, well, hey. Well, you told me to keep it very safe. And I was going to make sure it's current. It's so safe. I forgot it. And I thank him profusely and shit, I guess. Well, so now to make copies of it, would it still cost me just as much? I...

What? All can I... Yeah, sorry. Go ahead. So, we have three weeks. Yeah, you have three weeks. And you... The way is a lot harder than even you were expecting.

And it seems like Rivali is very, very, very determined to get to this point on the map. And... Not Centra, but... This other point that he... Potential meeting point. Yeah. But he hasn't named it? No, it's just basically a mark on the map

where this scouting party had... Okay. Had... Had a hat on their person. I would have spent the three weeks trying to get him laugh to laugh. Like trying all the different things that I could do

to different stories, just to see if I could, like, get him to break a little bit, and not even just laugh, but relax or enjoy himself. or tell us a story, anything I could do just to get him to open up a little bit. You lose 50 relation points with him from Ravioli. Oh, I forgot to take the flower for Tifa from the fucking... I got Barrett.

Everyone wants Barrett. Motherfucker. So, the path is hard, and as you get further and further, when you're camping out at night, you occasionally hear the... the roar of the bull and other beast creatures. That guy's still around?

I thought that... And it begins to get louder and louder. You get closer and closer to Zentra, and when you're probably about four to five days out, you manage to make your way up the side of a large hill that's a bald hilltop. That seems to look over. a very long valley of forest.

And you see the specks of flame. Fires, pires, dotting, all throughout the forest, way far ahead of you. And the sound of roaring beasts and horns and drums, as you see the tree chops kind of start to rustle and some get knocked over as you kind of see the tops. So, like, maybe a hill giant's head walking through, join it.

And you see just a massive part of an army, army, as is making his way through the forest. And Rivali points it out. And he looks from all of you, and he says, this is what we're up against. Yeah, we've seen this crowd before. It's not a pleasant situation. How far do you think we are from them?

Probably two days travel. We're safe, but. And luckily we're not going in the same direction, but I can promise you that they'll be Eventually diverting their path and their course to Zentra. Let's go. So we're gonna try to beat them to the meeting place Well, whatever group was heading to the meeting place didn't make him and who knows what sort of meetings are happening here We need to be on very high alert. All right. Agreed So three weeks conclude and the The three conclude and the, you eventually arrive to a spot that overlooks a large valley

that seems to be spotted with rocks and fields around it. You see farmland. You see the edge of the forest. It kind of circles, this area. and out ahead of you, you see a city. Absolutely massive. The only city that you've seen that's bigger, Caprice, is Gulf of the Cup. Oh, God, urban living.

And you see that it seems to be circular in its design, built around a spiraling bluff, where you see a massive structure and buildings built all the way around it, all the way down, with these massive ramparts and outcroppings where thousands of archers and crossbow men and artillery could be mounted. Go ahead. Have I ever been? You have.

That's what I thought. You haven't. You were kept to, you were kept to, you were kept to one district and were escorted through because it was like a kid. It was like the training thing. Right. And so you didn't get a chance to explore,

but yeah, you know that's that I'm trying. Cool. So it's on like a hill. Yeah. So it's a big, like, a big, like, citadel at the top. There's a massive citadel or massive structure at the top. And walls.

And, yeah, walls. And then... Are there multiple walls or just one big wall around me out? So one massive wall on the outside, but you know that each district is separated by a wall that kind of cuts it like a pot. And all those out, and there's six separate... Six separate places. With a large, a large outcropping.

A just massive, like a almost a mini fortress on every single... end of one of these things. Oh, that's look safe as shit. We're fine. I would say that you have not actually made your way here. You just left your Stein and you found ship as soon as you could out and Zentra was out of the light. Felix, what are people from Centra called themselves? Is it like Centurion or Centroanders or Centralians?

I look to the god of the world. Zentrians. It's actually just Zentrian. Zentrian? Yeah. All right. So, all exeterians. Yeah?

Try to make that catch on in the place. I'm sure I'll be able to convince everyone with that issue. And so you continue to make your way. And you eventually wind down from the high ground to get lower and lower to this spot in the forest. As the forest gets thicker and thicker. And you need to kind of slow. slow down considerably to make your way this deep. And you eventually find a ridge.

There's probably 40 feet. Go ahead. No, I'll ask, but it's fine. Okay. 40 feet, about 40 feet high. And in this clearing alongside this ridge, you see what looks like a hatch. And you're staying in the bushes outside

and you're gonna make a self-track. Oh boy. Ravali kind of holds up his hand. What's really good? There's a hatch where? A hatch built into this side, this bluff side. Oh, baby, he's got an 18. And it is large.

The hatch probably goes up like 13 feet. And it's just this massive metal, a hat that looks like it can be lifted up. 10. What did you get? 18 for me. What's 2? It's 9. Nine.

But my footsteps are silent. Um, nine. Nine. Oh, that's Andy. Mm-hmm. 12. Okay. Hey Felix, you want to know what I got?

I've got... I vote me murder. I vote me murder it. And... And with that, you all kind of stop on the side of the bushets, and Rivali turns to you. And he, he says, looks different. It looks to text his map. Whatever's in there, it's going to hold a lot of answers to what's going on.

And why the hell are these savage beast creatures going to a point with a clearly humanoid-made structure and a door? Does it look like it would be made out of, like was it made by Zentrians or is it feel kind of like Korovacian build? make a history check. I'm sorry, I'm confused. What is he looking at? So there's a clearing. And in this, there's like a cliffside. And built into this cliff side

is looks like it seems like a large hatch. Oh, okay. I thought we were on the clearing looking at Zy-Rbs. No, you eventually passed and then you went down into the forest. What the hell is this? Zendra. Zingra. Like Zygra. Zingra.

Zindstra. Sorry. Intigance, you said. Yeah. Or no history, you said. History, you said. It was plus here anyway, 14. Can I make history check too?

14. Yeah, sure. That's card. Eight. Eight. You have no idea. Toa, I would say for you, it definitely looks to be like a similar Koravakian craftsmanship that you would see. It clearly looks like the government made this.

There's someone in this country. Shall we? Open the hitch? Uh, so, uh, how much time do you think we have before we need to bust down that door? If we're worried about traps, I might be able to detect any kind of magical resistance. I think that we should get in as quickly as possible. Okay, I'm defaulting to your expertise here. Warwick.

Somebody's going to have to stay out here, and I need to find out how close they are. Are you going to stay out here? How comfortable are you making your way in here? Can I trust you? I think you're the rangers, so if you want to stay out here, we can go in, that's fine. We can just report back. It's not like you know what's already in there. I mean, we'd all be going in blind anyway.

Here, take these two things, and he reaches in, and he pulls out this blue piece of chalk. And he hands it out and says, make a mark. But where do you go, I'll be able to see it. It'll be invisible to all other eyes. Okay. Do you speak any languages, friend? I speak elvish in common. I will make the comments an elvish. That way only you can follow us and not anybody who just happens to speak common.

Very well. I... Cheers. And take this. He hands you a small metal charm. It seems to be like a pair of two eagle wings. And he hands it out and says, why don't you take this? I have this companion.

If I trigger it, it means get the hell out immediately. I'll take it. Because I've got Dakota on me. Toa or her should take it. That's fine. If he wants to, he hands it to. Is it like a necklace that I put, they can put her on my neck? It is just keep it on your person.

It's a charm. And keep it on your person. And it'll screech like an eagle. if I trigger it. Is that, is that gonna be, is that gonna alert everyone or only the person who's holding it?

It'll be the person that's holding it. Oh, good. I knew you wouldn't be so careless. No. I'm going to this kind of where they are, how close they're coming, if there's any, I have to go in and fend them off, I will.

But I think from what we've discussed over the past three weeks, you seem more than capable. So just to be clear, this does not mean go in and try to save you. This means we need to leave you in case that ends in some sort of sacrifice. You need to leave.

You need to get the hell out wherever you are. That they are coming. All right. We will do our best. Amen. Very well. Let's go Purvis. That is not my name.

We've been doing this for three weeks. No, I don't like it. No, that's not my name. I think we all agree that Purvis is the name. No, that is absolutely not my name. What did we say? What did we say? Rony Purvis.

We all agree. We didn't come up with. one. No, we didn't. We didn't come up with one. We didn't run with the military, so we didn't need one. Right. So, he says, okay,

good luck and don't die. And then he immediately just sprints off into the woods and disappears on this incidentally. And you were all left, the six of you, in this clearing where this large metal hatch is. I don't know if I like that guy, but he disappeared almost instantly

and that's really badass. I mean, isn't that what Jamminated? I'm not even phased by it anymore. Yeah, but he's not like it. That's why it makes it less unnerving. He smells so much better. That's not hard. I mean, Jammaty was pretty stinky.

That's fair. That's fair. I think you said that she sounded like a Yeti's anus. Yeah, I mean, as soon as any wind would go by, you could hear that wh- sound. It was really nasty. From what? From her anus.

Oh. So that's why she smelled like Bigfoot's dick. Oh, Bigfoot, yes. While they're talking, I was walking over to the door like that. I guess we're going to do this. I'm trying to lift it. Make a Atlantic check. Wow.

Okay. Got to give it up. Gotta get it. 28. Damn. So as you reach down, Toa, you heave and you immediately you feel incredible resistance. And it does budge a little bit. And it kind of comes to you that like that this is meant to be lifted.

But anyone in your group aside. you would have been completely hopeless as you heave it up and you lift it up and and just this sheer size and height that you need in order to do this it was probably intended for something very large to lift this thing up and you hear loud and as it locks into place and the hatch is now this large metal like 14 foot long hatch is now poking out towards the clearing and you see a long dark tunnel that heads down

into the earth the head of you. Well, you can call me moist kitty that was delicious. Oh. Moist kitty. Yes.

Did you just hit a snake? What? Are you sharing some? No. You said, No, I think you just turned around. I think she's in heat.

Under what? Let's just go inside. Come on. It's a tunnel. It's a tunnel. We've got to go in. Let's go. Let's go.

I'll follow Toa. Okay. Is it dark inside? It is dark. Fuck! It's very dark. No, but you're prepared. Yep, I did.

So I am going to use a second level spell to cast dark vision on myself. Okay. You can't do it on two people? I can. You have, if you remember, you have your goggles. Goggles of night. Oh, I do, don't I? Yes.

Oh, never mind. I literally just remove them from my inventory because I'm not keeping track of everybody's inventory. Okay, dumb question. How do you know if you can see in the dark? It'll say dark vision underneath your... Racial traits or your class features. I've got dark vision and hellish resistance. So if you don't be half dark vision.

Yeah, so I'm blind. So you would... I can help you out. Why don't I make a fire? I know we're trying to... Needs. That means you want me to cuddle up to you and you get me to the dark, dark tunnel? You don't have to get that close.

But I should. Or, you know, safety. And it feels really terrible, but I'm also going to use... second spell slot to cast dark vision on Lufty. I think it's concentration. Is it? It just says duration, a hour's and you touch a willing creature to grant it the ability to see in the dark.

Lofi is willing. So you feel as can channels his arcane magic, and suddenly both of you can see as well as the rest of the group. I blink and I say, well, it's the first time I've cast this. Is it working? Well, I have to say, you look even more handsome in the dark. Well, thanks. As you hear

as you make your way down into this tunnel, you go deep down into the earth. Is it pitch black? It's dark. It's dark. It's dark. Let me tell you how bad it feels to, like, right out of the gate be two small slots down. And as you're making your way through, these tunnels that you're in seem to be

very large. There's a ton of space. You can walk three by three pretty easily as you make your way down and suddenly the tunnel starts to level out. And the space starts to open up a little bit.

And through your dark vision up around, up ahead, you start to see that you're used to the natural stone formation of this tunnel and you start to see stone bricks rising up from floor to ceiling of the

cave up ahead, you start to see that as you get closer, there are tunnels and hallways. And you start to see that you're approaching closer and closer and you see these stone waltz that all seem to veer off into different pathways. Definitely man-made. And hallways. Definitely man-made, made a brick, and then we can reveal a map. Not revealing that. The entire map.

Slip it. I get to use my fear. Like if the workman made or just what? I'll let you know just a second. Derek, would you mind grabbing the other minis? As you're going to get a shot of my wine. You make your way into the structure. Kind of coffee cook because I'm glassy.

The smell starts to get danker and there's this. It starts to get fowler. As the stench turns from kind of the nature, from the earthen and naturey sense of the earthen rock. tunnel to smells like death. It smells like

Iris. Musk. It's just this horrible, unsettling sense as soon as you step into this threshold and you realize that there is a tunnel down to your right, three directly ahead

of you, separate ones, and then one directly to your left. There's five separate pathways to take. Oh, geez. Can I... Does anyone else smell death of you? Musk or is it just me having a stroke? It's not just you. It's all

of us for sure. Oh, I didn't notice I'm so familiar with the smell. I think most is I'm holding my breath. And I can make whatever. And I can make individual text too. Can I roll stone cutting on each of the three. There's three different

paths. Five. Five. To see their make like what would have made them. I would say you just make one straight. What is it? History. Jack's true. Stone cutting. I get double deficient.

It's plus seven, so it's 14. 14. You check this craftsmanship, and it does not seem to be any kind of stonework that you're familiar with as a dwarf or from Galtica. It seems to be a

stonework, though, that sits out to you in that it seems to be a very ancient style of construction. from lands that you would have no idea or would even be able to guess. Okay. So which way should we go? I think we should pick it at random.

Honestly, I could just take a stick and throw it in the air. And if it goes left, it goes left, it goes right? What do you got to think? Can someone try to smell down a hallway to see, like, where that stench of death is coming from? Who is the best smell? Would I be able to determine just my familiarity with death and dead death? things and decay which direction it was coming in? Or seem the most concentrated?

I can send Beatrice down one of the pathways. I just don't want to put her in danger. You say that every time and it always ends horribly. I think we should have come up with another solution. Yeah. The scent of death is coming from a multitude of pathways. Oh, that's good.

But it is coming very strongly. So on the right path. Gross. You are or the path up ahead to the right you're getting a strong sense of smoke

and death. So if they were labeled one through five in order it would be one, two, three, four, five. Do you have a dry erase marker that we can make marks as we do? Yes, it's right by rich in the bucket.

The Batman. That'll help if we can do it. Oh, and I can do it. Our truck. Yes, exactly. Just take a couple and, you know. It was blue. it was blue he said.

Oh. It was blue chocolate. My am I. Okay. And so we'll label this one. One, two, three, four, and five. One.

A two. A three. So which number would you say the smoke was coming from? Five? You said that right? I would say both four and three. It smells like smoke and death is the truck. Just like check them off.

Like you like to check them off. Mark. Mayer. Can you be camera? Five. Five just smells dusty. So do dust particles on five. With a low, with a low...

I'm writing it down, too. Um, one. One and two, smell... There is a smell that... It smells kind of... Smoky, but it smells like this kind of strangely otherworldly... stench that you can't really

with a magic wand or place your monster on and it sound yeah and then you as I would say that you're getting the scent of anchovies yes you know yes there's always knows which one uh

of all the variety of smells are we feeling one smell of the other or what so what are these made I guess we don't really know what we're looking for those are kind of magical smokies these are regular smokies and this is dusty Smells dusty. Number three and number four, as we've labelled them,

smell of smoke and the most putrid smell of death. They all smell like death, but it is most visceral from three and four. And all of them have a very musky smell. If it's worth noting, if there's any kind of smoke or fire, and there's people living down here, we should probably head towards, if we're looking for people or creatures, they would have set up camp and started a fire. I wanted to steal and avoid any nasty people.

That's fine. No, I don't think they would set up a fire in a tunnel. That's the best way to suffocate and fucking die. I just have a feeling that there's openings, and it's not going to be just a straight tunnel. I would think that they have some reinforcements down here. I think we need to make a decision. We clearly don't have much time.

And I don't want that eagle to cry before we've done what we need to do. Let's hug this. I vote number one. Yeah, I'll say one I'm saying... What are you sure? What do you think? It starts from the left and we move to the right. I'm honestly quite concerned with a strange ethereal smell from one and two.

But I don't think that it hurt. Three and four, whatever's happened there. Must have happened a while ago for it to smell that poorly. You might be wackage and, you know, just nothing at the end. Maybe just five then. Let's start with five. Five. Five seems to be...

Five seems to be... Five. I mean, and that is my concern. I'm not smelling anything necessary. alarming and I don't want to waste all the time going down there if potentially one in two we lose people in process. Are you a guess? Hallway number one?

No, not sure. Well, let's just say it makes me nervous. On a one or two, we'll do number one and on a three or four. Wow, how does that point have four sides? It's crazy. All right. One it is. We all agreed on one and he rolled in necessarily for them.

If we're going down in this hallway, let me just make a quick note and I draw what is obviously a penis. and then where the semen would be beautiful Elvis script in one long line that says this is the first path we cut love Caprice unbelievable

wait so wait just so I ask we can all read it it's just it would just be the six of us and Ravioli can read okay I can read Elvis and I chuckle along I can't I read Warman so yeah it's basically you can read the chalk and then you

I just kind of like chuckle myself like this and I look like free like that's fine. Come on me. I'm at someone who looks at this and they just look at it. Hey, you know what? I am the self-church. Everyone's stealthy. We're stealing. There's no one of the whole self-checking that was my first.

Oh, okay. Oh, I got it. Oh, I got it. That's great. Eight. Oh, hey, Luffy. You want to guess what I got? Would you roll total?

Eight. I got an 11, so, so second. 22? You missed anything when you said I had a six. 14. 14. I disappeared to reality. 29.

It's my future. Damn. I clomp along quite softly today. Luffy decided to wear her wooden clogs. I mean, I got even worse. Yeah, I got 11. You know, it's a cheese bag. I got cheese pumps.

Okay. These are my vine stomping shoes. Oh, yeah. You continue down the pathway. And as soon as you make your way, you turn left and you make it's a flat wall and then there's a right. And you walk up ahead and then it's a dead end and then another left. So I'm going to... There we go. We see that.

And then there's a hallway. So there's a dead end? No, and then you guys... Then you can continue up along this way and then there's a wall up here. Yeah, I mean, we might just keep moving. You'll keep moving. I think our marching order is going to be one of the tanks up front. tanks up front, maybe one of the tanks in the back.

I'm definitely in the back. I don't know where you guys want to be. We should definitely have like an order though. I'll be in second place. Toa are you leaving? Yeah, what we're doing here? So, and then we're dicking around. Hersia in the back then.

Sure. So I'll be closer to, I'm gonna be closer to Tullin. You need within five feet of somebody important. That's all. Yeah. So what we'll do is well as to do one mini and all get your marching order. And then we'll just use Rodeck. So we'll use Rodeck.

I wish she's the amazing sexy Felix man. Yes. Yes. Freshly painted. And then the marching order will be, Toa Felix. Caprice. Caprice.

Lofty, iris, Persia. Okay. So just keep that in mind, and then we'll talk about the legend. You eventually make your way here. You notice that there is a hallway down to your right, and that there is a hallway down your left that seems to split to down and up. Richie, can you give some more slag on that?

Yeah, just don't want to pull on it. I do have Dakota out, so if anything comes within 30 feet, I should be warned of danger. and we will not be surprised as long as folks are within 30s. Okay, so... I'll turn to the group. We've got several options.

Let's roll that die. Yeah, yeah, I can roll that. Bring out that nifty, four-sided coin. Do you want to do one, what, what, one, two, three, or... Oh, there are three passages. There are three passages. So I could flip two dye, and then we multiply the value. And, you know...

Listen, while I was studying a lot, we could just continue to make left-handed turns until we can't go any farther, back up to the most recent, one and then make a right-handed turn. Let's just peek down this hallway and this hallway and see what we see. If there's an obvious room, then... So, you peek down here, it is eight ends, and then turns into two different separate places.

There's more darkness. And then there is another thing, and then it turns down that way. And then this one just goes to one hallway. That goes to a room. That one down there. seems to go into a room and it's so dark down there. It's kind of hard to see. I vote we go left.

I completely agree. It's just one entrance. We can at least figure out what's there. The faster we start moving, the sooner we can knock out possibilities. We're on our way. Okay. Make your way.

Okay? And you can get rid of that piece of paper. Oh. No. You eventually find your way into this room here. And as you get closer and closer, The smell of death and decay hits your nostrils. And as your eyes adjusted, you turn the corner.

You start to see the white of bone and iron hanging from the walls. Blood smeared to the ground. Great. You see that hang fastened to the walls for dozens and dozens. of chains and some of them still hanging with the bones of skeletons some decaying flesh and on the ground however you see two bodies that have seemed to have died gripping one is gripping an axe and the other is gripping a hammer but they're not chained up and they're not chained up they're on the ground are humans and they are skeletal but you could probably

make a humanoid skeleton medicine check. Actually, I think that's pretty... Like a 17-ish. 17. They seem to be human in build. Do I see this looking over all their shoulders? I would say that you all kind of get a sense

of what's in here. Can I use my divine sense to detect undead, celestial or fiend within the 60 feet that are not under total cover? I just want to get a sense of any of the skeletons. Any skeletons in In that room?

In that room are undead. You touch your shield of Morden, right? Your holy symbol. You touch your shield and it glows. You hear all this faint clanging of a hammer on an anvil. And it glows with this molten light. And this very subtle orange light shoots out and comes back in. And you do not sense any undead.

But it does illuminate a little bit. And toa, as you're stepping in, I need you to make a... a perception check. And you said one had an axe, one had a sword? A hammer. It will also detect objects that are consecrated or desecrated as with a hollow spell. So if they're holding weapons. It's still dim light, right?

It's dim light to us. It's like dark again. Yes. Okay, so then it's disadvantage because anything based on site is... Oh, you can only roll a one. Yeah, so... I got a... we have five, uh, five, two plus, actually, give you one second, sorry.

Uh, perception is a five, so I got a seven. Seven. Okay. So, um, as you step in, you, uh, step onto a one of the tiles on the ground, and you feel your foot given, and you see it too late as all of a sudden in your face, blast a puff of red smoke. And I need you to make a constitutional save. Oh, shit. Toa, no. Da! Ooh.

Oh, God. Toa! I fail. Unless it's really low. I'd like a 10. 10. Unfortunately, it's not enough. Toa, as you...

Who's behind you? Me. Felix. So, as you... As it hits you, you start to feel your eyes go red and frothing in your mouth. As you start to get incredibly angry,

the good nature, Toa, as rage over... Overcomes you. You know, you know this toe, feel it's behind you, and you turn and you make two attacks. I look at it. Much wrong, big guy? You need to make whatever a stand-around and attack is on. I'm going to hate this.

So we all see this, right? Would I be able to determine whether this look like a curse or a poison or a... Make a comment. Sorry. And I would step up seeing this happen and try to use my new toy. Okay. make a dexterity check, or an acrobatic check, and see if you can get there before he attacks.

11. That's terrible. It's hard for you to tell. You can tell us magical. 11, and I'll say that you can get there after the first attack he does. So it's a 15 and a 20-some of them. Oh, God. I cast a dispel magic on him.

I think I took that. Yeah, you mean both of below the feet. Can you make a quick dexterity? What is you there? I might not have taken it. I thought that I did for today. They booked it. I could, well, I was

going to use to be able to another one. If I was in response, I can use shield. In 24, 15 and 24. 15 to 24. Okay, so then in, once I see that he's making attacks at me, and I'm in my confused and hurt and sad in the state, I'm going to use my reaction to cast shield. Okay.

So it raises my AC to 18, so one of the attacks will miss. Okay. So you swing your hammer at him, And Felix, you are managed to react to time. You touch yourself, and all of a sudden this arcane shield emerges, and it clangs off. And as he's going to swing for another frothing. Do you and know. Hey, hey, big guy.

What's the problem? We're okay here. I try to talk him down. Oh, that's 12 damage to Felix. So that's using the car. Jesus. Yeah, okay. Make a saving through.

How does that work? How does the thing? So he would have to make, it's casting charm person and spell save is, he would make. he would make a spell saving role okay uh like charisma saving though right what's the role uh I don't know probably charisma or is it whiz it's it's a spell save DC so DC which is it doesn't say so well you have charm person is is anyone know what charm person is well when I did it with Panache it's wisdom so the spell save DC is 13 for charm person so you cast the charm person spell it was it was my my charisma versus your wisdom when I did it with is it my it

like he has to roll against my spell save. No. It's, it's, the spell safe DC is 13. That's why it says. Save DC is 13. Well, it might be the same either either. I'm just going to roll D20. So it's a wisdom save versus a 13. Wait, if it's charisma, it's a 13. Either way, I pass. I think it says it's a wisdom

save. Then I did it even more. So the charm person spell is a wisdom save 13. So what, so if she goes up and says, hey, like, what's wrong, buddy? What would would let my response be? You're a thing. Yeah. Okay. So,

So he, I shielded one, I took 12 points from the second. Okay. So as soon, as soon as the hammer hits you, you all of a sudden, the rage starts to wear off. And you're standing, suddenly you come to yourself. And Felix has taken a massive hit from your hammer. I'm on the ground. Felix, do I know what happened? Do I have a memory of it?

I would say no, you know. You were so blinded in my rage. Felix, what happened? I'll just... I sort of lost myself and now you... Toy, you're gonna have... I'm gonna have to ask you to step towards us. Please stay from the trip.

Get away from the air. There's places booby trap up the ass. Oh, I stepped on a plate and then something in my face. Yeah, that's what happened. It's okay. It's all right. Did I get you? You did.

It's all right. I'm okay. Oh my God, that's terrible. We have teeth. And I know you're hurting, but I just need to say, these things are broken. They didn't work. I am going to have words.

These glass. I'm gonna reach down and touch Felix and cast your wounds on him. Did you say Holmhart or Walmart? Walmart? Holmard got on Walmort and I am geese. 12. No, 11, sorry, 11. 11, healing. This didn't work at all.

Iris, ah, thank you. I'm gonna be sword tomorrow, that's for sure. I'm so sorry, Felix, it's okay. What can I think? Can I give you something? I mean, should I do? No, no, no, no. I'm terrible.

I just need a minute. Do we think there's any reason to go in here and potentially trigger this gas traffic? Nobody else move. Nobody move. So you see a number of bodies. You see six total. Two on the ground, two strung up, and then just two on the sides. Or two in the center and then two on the side.

Skeletal. Some are in differing states of decay. I don't want to lead anymore. Can someone else go first? No, no. Listen, you can't, you can't let this just... We need you up front. It's fine.

I got your back. It's okay. again I can do quite a bit of damage instantly I'll stand behind you so that you don't risk feelings I think this is a little bit of a baby no offense I think there's stuff in this room do I look see the plate and can I step over I go search I will enjoy a nine what kind of what kind of a role did he have to make it was a constitution do you say so you

you you look around and you You saw where his foot was, and you could raise back up as soon as he stepped off of it, and so you can't really see any other place. I'm just going to jump in there unless anyone objects. I'm going to turn towards... Let us back up, at least. I'm going to turn towards Toa. If you're going to lead, you may need this.

And with the guidance of Anubis, I'm going to cast enhanceability on him for Bear's Endurance. You'll now have advantage on constitution checks. Would that count? Or is it a saving through? A check is a save with there, isn't it? Oh, yeah, because it isn't, but I'll... Oh, it is not. And then you gain 2D6 temporary hit points.

Well, no, no, no, if it's a... It's a check. Oh, the check is not? Is it a check saving there? But what constitution check would there be? That's not a saving trail. We'll save for now and look up, I'll be a deal with that. Okay, so I'll cast fair's endurance on you.

I appreciate that, and I think that I still feel best with Toa and the lead. I completely agree. Yeah, that's what she's trying to do trust me. So hopefully this will allow him to notice those traps soon. I appreciate. I appreciate that. Oh, thank you for the following part, man. Thank you, Karen, Mom.

2467. If it's all right with you guys, just in case Toa go is completely bat-shut crazy again, can I at least get next to, I feel like so I can use my shield? Protect him, yes, please. I'll shoot me to the prize. We just need someone to watch our backs. Look me and watch my back. Oh, I love your back.

You guys are not realizing that these hallways, You're used to kind of like these narrow dungeony things. These are wide. Oh, right. That are the hardest creatures to walk through. You guys can easily walk side by side two by two if you needed, if you wanted to. Because, I mean, like, you have plenty of room. It's not some narrow little hallways.

And these are very tall, too. Some tall creatures could walk through these halls. Big tall creatures, you say. Now, what we could do is, I have one of my daggers here. What we could do is I could get down real close to where you put your foot toe to trigger this trap. I can see if I could sort of wedge it between one of the two. on these grooves here, and if it goes off, I'll be down low, we all back up,

and once it goes off, it'll just be wedged, and then we can make our way in safe for it. But that doesn't guarantee that there aren't more of those in the room. And we can't afford to spend tons of time here. I think we just need to get in there and just... Do we think something's actually in there?

It just looks like a bunch of dead bodies. You know what? I agree. And I try to jump into the middle of the room avoiding any possible traps. Okay. You do that. And I would say, I'm about it's... did you do your temporary

26 26 yeah 2d6 worth of temperate way you manage to you see a somersault in the air land and you step and there doesn't seem to be any more traps you stand and you seem to be unaffected I don't know why I'm breathing so heavily

I should probably have held my breath but hey hey everybody have to go in so I'm just going to mark this would you say it was this one that had it yeah so I would say we would mark that off to let what's his face no comes in here, don't go there. Don't step there.

And none of the weapons were glowing from my divine sense. Okay. I'll start to investigate the money. If you all take some time, investigate all. You'll take some time. Caprici roll it advantage. All right. That's where I'm going to add advantage.

Let's give it up for that natural 20. Hey. Hey, get it out. Yeah, get it out. So you start to poke around. You actually find some of, you look around and you feel, You find there are a lot of chains that are hanging in empty, and these seem to be far more freshly used than the monoskeletons,

as if that they've been, that they've been being used, they've been open and clothing, you can see some scuff marks on where some key slots are, and you find that there's a lot, that there's some skeletons, there's some in varying states of decay, and you look at, these all seem to be humanoid. They all seem to be of, it's hard to tell the age and the sex of the skeletons, but the, you do find one body that is mostly intact. And you see branded on a lower leg, on like the thigh on the hip.

The remnants of a brand kind of decay. And there are pattern that you recognize. a nodding, maze-like emblem of labyrinthian lines with a crown

with horns coming out of it. But only he recognizes it. Not that we even see it, but you're saying that he specifically recognizes it. We all do. We've seen that. You said that. Yeah. It was on all the altars that they were built. Right. I'm just making... I'm just asking. Well, it's more of the theme

The same symbol that we're all familiar with. Do we think that these are the Rangers, or do we think that these are just people who got brought in here? It looks like it's too difficult to tell based on the decomposition of the lives. Some of these look like they're pretty freshly used. My guess would be that they're people that are being captured and then branded for use. Maybe they have different brands for different reasons, and it lets the more stupid ones know what their purpose is.

Let me take a moment to transcribe the symbol, and I draw it as quickly as I can with my dark vision and fold that up. I would do that too, just to kind of keep an eye on that. And you draw, the time I get street decks checks from you to see how they look. Natural 20. Another one. Let's go with 24. It looks, it's a perfect representation of the symbol. I got you.

Do you want to draw it in my book, please? Oh, yeah, my pleasure. And I'm just going to happen. Both. Yeah. So you do it. It's a quick jaunt. And you look at the wounds and you see that of two in the middle, which are slightly more decomposed than that one.

And it seems as if the wounds that killed them were inflicted by each other. And you start to look up and you see several pock marks in the ceiling similar to the one that had blasted. tell off. Well, let's try to avoid getting blasted again. I don't want us to have any angry puffs. If anyone over saw 28th date later, it seems like something we want to avoid. Can I kneel down and inspect the weapons that they were holding just to see if they have, if they seem special or have any sort of...

I was saying they can investigation challenge. Okay. Oof. Nine to three. Holy shit. Four. They just look like rusty, dirty old. That's a big hoofda right there. Oh, yeah, big oofta. I'm just going to kick one and be like, all right, I think our work here is done, aside from Toa going completely.

I think we should keep going. I agree. If we have no more business here, we should move on quickly. Yeah, let's avoid the trap. I think we've gotten some information here, but I think we need the rest of this puzzle in order to put the pieces together. I don't think this is what we're meant to go. Good day, guys. Good dead end.

Can I be here to friend, go? Or in case Toa, it loses it. I think we're going to stick with the new marching water. Toa in front. Felix behind, you behind Toa. The three of you kind of clustered together. So that way, Felix needs your help, you're there. When we get back up here, we make a mark here with an arrow.

This way, this is dead end. Okay. I also, like, made a mark at the entrance that just says, watch out for angry gas. It's exactly the same. I'm going to make this a motif of my chalk marks, but it's always going to be a cock. And then the Elvish script just looked like semen to anyone who doesn't read Elvish.

But if you read Elvish, you're like, oh, wow, that's weirdly propos. Brilliant. So what did this one say? The first one you did? This is the first. He basically said first, first, first pass. First pass. Okay.

So you make your way through and you get back to where you had this second. No, Felix. Either way, it doesn't matter. Yeah. So if you want to hold him in. All right, we're back to the start here. or that you can pull back. This guy here.

So, yeah, that's that guy there. There you go. So here, your option. Here or here. I think we have the perimeter. What do you guys say? Agreed. Let's keep moving. All right.

Okay. Which one of these two entrances are we going to take at the end? The first one? So I think as we get up here, we just kind of peek in. Yeah, we're going to peek into this area. Do we need to re-roll stealth or are we still?

I would say you just keep the same stealth place. I may have another one at some point. So you see a hallway down this way and then a hallway down this way that goes there. So they both veer off to the right. I think we say the perimeter. I think that's fine. It's hard to know at this point. What do you think? Keep moving?

Let's go wide. I make another note and we continue on our way. Sure. Okay. Make another note and you continue to go wide as you make your way here. and you find that there is that there is another option here in the rut row

that you can go or him like we're in a laboring I wonder I wonder anyone able to take a look at the walls or the ground yeah he's perceptive enough to see if

one is more traveled than the other ooh why don't you go ahead You know you know anything better than anyone I know Well I don't think it's the walls Not very perceptive Well you are to be fair

The one closest to the ground all of the time That's true So it might actually be beneficial I could take a look I suppose I mean it's Would it be like a survival thing For what? Tracks

Essentially tracks Yeah, not quite it's survival Chats Gotta give it up for now Can that? That's what you want That's so fucking weird Because I was

After that Natural 20 I was like, should I think that there could be a third natural 20? I felt in my heart and I didn't say anything. Oh, damn. 25. 25. You look down and you notice that

it's a little dusty, but you're starting to see some marks. Is it Dusty the Lion King? Dusty the Lion King. You're looking at the tracks in here. Yas! I'm gonna. I hope this is here.

I hope he is too. Well, in the ball of Dusty, you're welcome. Yeah. From the day we arrived as you can look around. Labyrinth. Labyrinth. You see some tracks.

And this year here. As you start to, you find tracks walking back and forth in all directions, both directions. And they are Sami Timmunity Boots, humanoid in size. And you see certain tracks, large hoof tracks. Who's? They're not in any particular direction. We're going back. Okay, we're hoping to see if we could find one path more travel.

Oh, more travel. I would say you absolutely would that the path to your left seems to be far less traveled. The path to your run to the front seems to be around the corner. This direction would be more travel. The hoof prints seem to go in all directions, but the boot prints seem to lead towards this direction that Felix is facing. curtain, isn't it? I think we should go this way. All these boots seem to be going down this whole way. If we're trying to get through this as quick as possible, we should probably

follow the footprints. I think it behooves us to do that, yeah. Tusha. It was good. Should have known. I should have no. It's coming. Okay. We don't know this one. We don't know that one.

We should like fold it up. We need like partial fog. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, that's not good. And you go this way and you see a dead end here. with a hole. Just like, one hell of a dungeon. Can we request that you cover...

I've made one of these squares. I've made one of these before, so I can tell you it's a pain in the ass. Yeah. I chose to just show the entire thing and I said use theater of the mind that you can't tell what's going. And you see that there's another hallway that goes up. We would just continue. Yeah, he would continue.

I do mine with puzzle pieces. It's really fun. And there is a... We would continue. You would continue. It's only this direction. direction here yeah you just hard to notice that there is a pathway here there's a pathway down here and a pathway up here well you know if we're if we're trying to

stick to the perimeter I can I do like we check again like look around see between the track make a certain another Toronto track oh 901 to it's to balance it out it's a six you don't see shit it seems like this area it seems like This area is seen to be far less like stuff up. And it's difficult to check. All right, we've got two ways. Back to that four-sided coin. Yeah, let's put the coin.

I think it's called a dice. One. Left. Okay. My left, you go left. This way. Oh no, I was thinking that way. Left what do you want.

Left, according to. Well, let's make a decision. Which way are we going? I would like to go right. Right. Which way? This way. Towards me.

Yeah, let's do that. Oh. You guys are saying the opposite things. You know, I'm using, I'm using Mikey's, Mikey's direction. Votes towards Nikki. Votes towards Nikki. The yes is how to do it. So, you step into a, here we go.

Yep. I think I can just pull this one away. You go out of my way. You step into a room. And there seems to be, um, There's I need both Herja and Towa to make perception check please. Where does it is it on for sight? Yes. So we're still disadvantaged. Yeah. Disadvaged? Yes. Because we're in dim light. Dark vision doesn't help here? No. It just

allows us to see. As opposed to be completely blind. So in dim light and nobody ever does this and I just want to make sure that we're doing it is that you're disadvantaged on perception checks. That requires me. If you have, if it's dim light. So as opposed to being completely blind, you can still see. you have dark vision? Yes. Not having dark vision, completely blind. Otherwise you really wouldn't be able to do anything.

Because that was disadvantage. Another natural one, by the way. You've got to give it up for those natural ones. Got to give it up for natural one. So both of you walk in and you start to see that there are, that there are these strange kind of murals along the sides of these in this small outcove. And as you walk, you're both stepping side by side, both of you feel, a plate.

Uh, and both you need to make dexterity saving for it. Dex? Dead. Do I see something coming? You see a big blast of fire. Does she blast down? Oh, good. 16.

16? Oh, so you managed to dodge out of the way. Could be worse. You gonna think half of this. Uh-huh. 15 points of fire damage. So I take seven. You take seven points.

Uh, 11. 11. You take the full 15 as a, as fire jets down onto you as you. Make sure you're You've got it your health. Your temporary health. Yeah.

So actually it's not too bad. And suddenly, and then it, as soon as they step off, for a minute to dodge out and it gets in slightly, Toa just takes the run of it. Toa, you are not having a good time in here? Yeah, you sure you don't want to go to the back, buddy? Uh, no, I mean, ugh. This is... I mean, do you mind?

I mean, I don't mind? Honestly, at this point, no. I think her. just got it into control. All right. Stand back here with me. Good work in the door. You're a big strong guy.

Mm-hmm. Do I feel like the trap that we triggered is over now? Or do I feel like you... You realize that as soon as you stepped on it, it did it, and then when you stepped off, it did it. So it's still there, you know where you know which one it is, but, um, so you'd be able to tell that you could avoid it and, and that. Does everyone have a long pole where we're gonna poke and tap? I have my spoon.

I mean, how long is your spoon? I don't know. How long is my spoon? I know like five feet. That's a big spoon. Yeah. It's a weapon. It's a quarterstaff size.

Oh, really? Yeah. So how long a quarter staff is? Well, if you just hold it by the spoon side and just sort of use the ass to tap on the tiles, then perhaps we can avoid these fiery problems in the future. No, it's made of wood though. Is it magical wood? Yeah, is it?

Yeah, well, I don't know what kind of wood is it made of? Um, like the woody wood kind? It's like from a tree. So like the flammable kind? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll just flip decoder around.

I'll try to use the butt end of my flail and try to just tap it on the time. If you, you grab it and you're tapping in front of you, you kind of get a little bit of resistance, kind of a little bit of giv from the one you head. Nope, nope. And then you seem to get no gift from the other ones, as it seems like the rest of the room is safe. And a whole scene of murals around you emergence, as you see. And then... There seems to be telling a story of two large figures on either side of these walls.

One is, they both seem to be bovine in shape. One is massive, huge spiraling horns, almost antler-like. Beastile, almost with goat features, deer features. horse he's so bestial is kind of hard to tell shaggy black fur holding a massive glave dripping with blood around him are humans human ones all different states of not quite human and be strong raising weapons covered in blood holding up these crowns on on the other side, or beneath them is basically a sea of corpses in the Lelanchett. Then on the other side seems to also be bovine, but this seems to be metallic, almost like a

furnace, a brassy, bronzy, metallic shining skin. Large horns, but the head almost like a helmet, forged to be the shape of a bull, fire radiating out of the eyes, out of the mouth, and out of a large hole in its stomach. Round this figure are humanoid. Seem to be normal wearing hoods, holding up infants and children. So this metallic bull that we see in the mural is very, very,

reminiscent of the one that we found outside of the broken church. Yeah. This is a weird question, but do I get that this is a freshly painted mural, or does it look ancient to me? Make a history check. 19. It seems to be a bit older, but not as ancient as you would have expected. It seems to be slightly maintained.

And at the center. He said it was fire coming out of his stomach, right? It was fire, eyes. And what was he holding in his hand? Um, he was holding nothing. It was all five. The other one was holding. Oh, no, no, he was holding. Apologies.

In his hand is a whip. A flame of multsal, tendril, this flaming whip with all of these different tails, if you will. The other one is holding a glave? Yes. Do they seem like the two, the fluffy black one and the metallic silver one are working together or against each other? Well, at the center you see their followers. And it goes further and further and further around. This is a sea of all these followers.

And then at the center, you see a bull-looking creature, eventually a minotaur, and a creature of reddish skin, black horns, almost devilish. And they are shaking hands. the two massive figures no the two massive figures so there's all their followers all around it and then where the sized meet one is there's a profile

a profile and a large minotaur and a large devil looking at you is the devil with the forge side the forged side okay yes all mail uh it's difficult to tell that this mirror they look vaguely humanoid it's not that detailed I am going to I'm going to take a I'm going to hold my breath and

I'm going to walk up to this. Hey back up everybody. I'm just going to try something here. I'm going to try to push into the mural to see if there's any plate or if there's any kind of something that I could push in to reveal a secret door just to get a sense if this

is just a totally clean fresco or if there might be a meaning to this entrance that's mechanical. I would make an investigation check. Eight. You're tapping. tapping and nothing seems to get away. All right, just thought I gave that a shot.

You never know what this place, you know? We should backtrack and continue on if everybody's taking sufficient note of what this is. Are we all right? Do we want to spend a moment or I know we have to move, but we don't have to move. Is there anything else in this room noteworthy except for the murals? Anything on the floor, ceiling? The ceiling, you kind of notice some pot marks where the flame jet it now. I would say we're good to keep going

Let's pop back I'll make a note And I draw a dick On the face of the Non-Deviled creature Okay, she'd do that Old dick face Are we heading back this way then?

We're taking the perimeter now Right, so We get it around here This was the first path This was the second path And then I will Make a note Not to go through

through this way, but instead to continue to follow us in this way. As you make your way down, it just continues here, and then here, and then here. So as soon as you hit right where I, I, uh, I placed you. The darkness, um, I need everyone to make a second show. Love, boy. Does it ambers? What? Are you doing this?

Oh, no, no. It's a sound. Here. Sound. Is that in perception? That's a pretty good. I got a 24. Oh, baby.

23. 16. 19. 19. So, most of you hear, as soon as you, you stop. And you hear low chanting. Uh-oh. Chanting.

It's kind of these muffled voices, echoing through. But it's hard to tell. I don't recognize language. Why don't you make an intelligence shot? At proficiency. At proficiency. That'll be, I'm so glad. Nine plus intelligence, ten.

Just right into the day. It sounds vaguely familiar, but you can't really tell. It's too far without getting closer. Do you have your proficiency? Yeah. So I rolled a six, plus three is nine, plus my intelligence plus one is ten. It's like there's people up ahead. If we don't need to go investigate

They might not necessarily be evil But I think they're probably pretty evil I look around And I look at toa and I go Yeah Well let's try to go as stealthily as we can All right agree with you And we'll try to get

See what's going on So we're going to go around the way You go around the way I'm keeping an eye out for any more pockets in the ceiling or walls For holes And I need you to I need a stealth check

Yeah. And we're still there from everybody. We're going to sell stuff from everybody. All right, everybody sneak real hard. Oh, snippety snaps. 18. 11. This is going to be so bad.

My feet don't make any noise. Oh, 19. 19 as well. 13. 24. No one below a 10. Who's the lowest? Probably 13.

Oh. 11? But my feet don't like any noise. Yeah. Because of my new sweet cake. It's just really a one-easy. It's really just really just. It's a very comfortable one day.

Just be the whooshing sound. You're humming that song. What of that chanting? Yeah, yeah. Uca Chaka, Ouga Chaka, Oka, Oka, Oka Chaka. So as you approach, you notice that there's a glow of firelight, as you make your way closer and closer. And up ahead you stop, as you notice at the far end of the room is a raised, this platform and you see firelight and you see a raised platform with a hooded a

cloaked figure but on his head is looks like a dead bullhead as its chance from out as don't think like three figures stand with their swords raised as this kind of flanking in their backs to you, and I'll place them down. Well, Frick. Bulls. Yeah. And he's chanting clearly now in

this language that none of you understand. Are you sure? And abyssal. I don't know of this. Guy, abyssal. You understand abyssal. and Ogachaku

Yeah, Okachukkah Yeah And And it It's probably never going to come up He's speaking And it says The horn king

Gains the power of flame The ashen bull Gains an army Zentra will fall The dark prodigy will fall Malibals will be ours

sacrifices bring fire raise your weapons brother raise your weapons brother raise your weapons brother can you repeat that one more time just like in a normal voice that someone could write it down in the born king

the power of flame the horn king gains power flame the action bowl gains an army section will fall the world will fall the dark product you will fall Malibulge will be ours.

I love autocorrect on Applemich. This is a good list. We'll be ours. Our is perfect. Thank you. Thank you, God, in the world. Thank you so much for listening

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