Legends of Avantris - Edge of Midnight | Ep. 12 | Mass Hysteria

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

After defeating a hag and narrowly escaping death the party returns to the city...   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/r3bZGZ9VcS8?si=Ca_8VuZc5WYb6Qjk

How'd you do? Welcome to Legends of Aventress. I'm old Jericho Sticks and you're listening to Edge of Midnight. Here's what happened last time. Body horror that's beyond compare. They're the scary mares. Almost looks like the flesh of the inside of a colon. Shut. Here we go.

You've come from me. and I will have you. You see the body of Lethika. Lethika! Oh my! As a stream of celestial magic propels you forward toward this bright beam

of what is very clearly now sunlight. There will be a price to pay for what you've done today, Lethika. You'll pay for what you did to those children, you horrific bitch! And she is going to cast fireball on the centipede. Let's fucking go! Megan McGa McGuff!

The leader of the Good Common! No! I would be a daughter! No! Critically wounded, no rise or fall to her chest is Maggie McDonnell. Now, I never much cared for bugs, insects, creepy crawlies, whatever you want to call them. Well, I decided making a handy snack for a vagrant on the go. When you were frog, a shoe fly pie takes on a whole new meaning after all.

But I've never once dined upon a centipede. And now y'all know why. And as awful as the trials and tribulations in the minds have been, there is a silver lining. While deep dark places of fulsants are absolutely crawling with millions of centipedes, they've lost their master. And so the purpose to spread the whatever curse and ailment that's infected the province for so long is gone. With the parasite dead, the healing process can finally begin. But it will all be for naught unless they can finally cut the head off this snake. Oh, Hedging.

You stand in the very bowels of this mind. Look around those of you that are still conscious. You see the remnants of the hack before you. Decaying at an alarmingly quick rate as you begin to see more and more pieces of Maggie McDuff exposed from within her innards. you see at first that she appears to not be breathing at all, but there is a very faint, very slow rise and fall to her chest. She's clearly alive, but barely. And as you scan the rest of the room,

you see that the centipedes are still there, but they skitter this way and that, no longer controlled by the magics within this place. You scan the walls, and you expect to see the mucousy membrane of them begin to turn to stone, but to your displeasure, they don't. Nothing changes besides the decaying of this body in front of you. Jericho lying on the ground, completely unconscious,

Lethaca on her knees, breathing heavily, still fighting back the throes of death that had recently overcome her. Briggsie, so close to death, that for a moment it was if death had overcome him. And it is quiet here, all but the skittering. What do you do? Rush to Maggie and see if I can try to help her up. I know she's unconscious, but I want to try to at least get her sitting up and out of the muck

and drag her from this corpse and maybe start to check her vitals and see what I can do. Sure, I will say that it's very easy for you to pull her up. You're incredibly strong. I won't make you roll for it. It is disgusting, wading through the quickly decaying flesh. of this hag. But you are able to make your way in through it and

to essentially lift her out of bed. I'll say you cradle her and walk her to the edge of the room and find a place to lean her up against. She's clearly not waking, even with all of the motion. Her body is limp in your arms, so you have to lean her up against something to keep her upright. Her head lulls

to the side. Her eyes closed. Her breathing very, very shallow. As I'm resting her up against, I will put my hand on her cheek and I will say, I will whisper a soft prayer and say, please, Lefanda, please heal her. And I will use my 10 remaining Leon hands pool to give her 10 points. Okay. My hand will glow a gold light and try to give her some health.

You watch as her cheek glows gold for a second with the light of Lefander as you grant her this healing boon from your God. And you see a small rush of pink come to her cheeks. Her eyes do not flutter open, but you see that her breathing is a little stronger, not by much. It's still very shallow.

She seems to still be very clearly wounded, but she is still firmly on peace. Come on time, we'll get you out of here soon. Is she fucking dead? And you said there's still centipedes around? Yes. So I'm literally, while this is all happening, I'm just shooting these centipedes.

Okay. I just, and I was probably not making it then, but like literally I'm just not going to stop. I'm just going to start flask them. I would drop down where Jericho is and flop him over and wake up. You reach down and you flop Jericho over and the bits of him clank against each other, almost echoing throughout this space. It's louder than you expect it. And as his head falls over backwards or falls over to the side, his mouth opens.

and you see just a little bit of feather peeking out from the inside. Slowly his jaw begins to unhinge, and from deep within his throat, you begin to watch as Virgil claws his way out and perches on his jaw. Jericho, you find yourself in a world of darkness. Pure, pitch, black darkness, and nothing but silence. And then the red, just on the outskirts of what feels like a large cavernous room, a red, deep red light, almost orangey red like flames. As it begins to encroach on you, slower and slower as shadows swirl around you. And you feel a looming presence standing behind you.

You hear the ruffling of feathers. you hear the movement of what sounds like garb clothing and the click click click of is that a walking stick or a staff you hear a chuckle in the back of your mind and you feel fear fear for the first time in a long time A fear so primal and raw, it's almost all-consuming. As a voice booms out in your head and you see this light that's emanating around the corners of your vision, the shadow of a large, monstrous crow figure. And you hear the words. Me, Jericho, I'm your only friend. I am your truth.

And your quest for a key is folly. We are meant to be together I will help you Help me You would not want to betray a friend Make your choices wisely Who is in control Begins to laugh

And you feel That fear begin to ebb away But it's still there at the back of your mind Whatever this is they know you. And as your eyes come to, you feel the light blind you. As you stare up into darkness, pure darkness,

but it's luminescent. And then it begins to clear. And you see that it is not a darkness, but the pitch black eyes of Farron looking down at you. She slaps at your face. As Virgil finally makes his way out of your mouth, spreads his wings and flaps a couple of times before resting on your chest right over where your heart would be.

Bird, you're all right. Am I all right? You are no longer unconscious. You're awake staring up into Farron's face, having just seen this vision, and you are dealing with five levels of exhaustion. Gorge. Fair?

Can I ask you a question? Yeah, anything. We're okay. Go Garsh. I'll sit up if I'm able to. I'll kind of support. Just take it easy. Just sit here for a minute.

Don't get up too quick. I didn't kill everyone, did I? Didn't kill anyone. You're right? I am tired and tired, but I am okay. He's right. We have to move. The problem is half of us can't walk

and we're beat up pretty badly. And I hate to even bring this up, but we have to find something to please the high quixeter and make her think we're still on her side. I have to look for something to bring her. There must be something here that she was looking for. I'm gonna like scan the room

and see if there's anything of note that would be weird or haggish. Is the hag's head still intact? Or is she like, did she just, fucking like a ripe watermelon. It was more like a ripe watermelon. I will say that you notice that bits of the purple liver have almost crystallized,

and you could find a few of these crystallized pieces of the liver that you hope would be enough. Scoop that in a little bag, and shit up sticking in my pocket. Oh, we did some onions. Good. Good. Delicious.

Do you think that will satisfy her? I don't know. She wouldn't even tell me what she was looking for. I don't want to... We've made a grievous mistake, and I'm willing to take responsibility for it. You were right all along, because Ia Jenkins was not the one responsible for this.

And we have... The matron here is proof. They were trying to help. I'm not sure how we're going to make up for this. And again, I'm willing to take responsibility. But we messed up badly. And for now, we need to make sure that the High Inquisitors still think,

that I'm in her pocket. And then we'll go from there, once we can figure out what to do. I mean, regardless, I mean... Look, I mean, she says it's in the mine. We can tell her what was in the mine, right? There's no reason to hire anything. No, but I'm just hoping that whatever we bring back, whether it be these pieces of crystallized liver

or something else that she was looking for, it will be enough to satisfy her. We should see if we can wait the matron before we take her back into the town. Is she not dead? She seems to be breathing. She got fucking swallowed hold! The Fanda has helped me at least tried to stabilize her the best I can. I didn't want to bother Lathaka because she can barely stand herself.

We need to get everyone out of here as quickly as possible. Wow. He's got a look at her sight. The mine is proof. The high inquinsitor can come here and see all this. I don't disagree with you when she specifically asked me to retrieve something but wouldn't tell me what it was.

Does Maggie have an extra arm growing out of her back still? No, that appears to have faded. All of your issues, I mean, you guys obviously had the liver, but yeah, it looks like with the Hagdead, that whatever magics were overtaking, everything seemed to have begun to fade, which is why at this point it's strange that the minds

themselves still retain the fleshy walls and have not returned to what you would imagine that was their original visage, which would have been stone. Twenty riderless horses coming back to town. I don't think the High Inquisitor is going to come to the mine myself. Also a valid point. Where is you fake? If we need more evidence, it always grabbed air. seven head of old captain, Marky horse out there.

I'd rather not stride into town holding the decapitine horse mutant head of their previous captain. Also, it sounds to me like the high-inquisites looking for something specific. If we are sure that we haven't, as much as I want to leave,

does it make sense for us to search the area a bit longer and see if we can find what she would come here for if she were here now. I'm certainly not going to risk our lives. If we can get the matron out and you can walk and we can carry Jericho out of here as well, we can look as we walk, but we should not delay.

If someone will just stabilize me, I can walk. Here, take some of this. I'll pour him some tea and cast cure wounds. Oh. Well, fair enough. I left my mask. I'm mighty grateful that we ain't fused at the hip and the elbow and the shoulder and the clavicle no more, but I feel about as useful as rusted farm equipment.

I can barely move my jaw. Dogrim, do you think you can carry him out? I think you're going to have to. Yes. I'll carry the matron. Keep a staple. I'll take him. I'll grab Jericho by like one arm and drape him over my shoulder like a wolf's pelt.

Okay. You don't need to roll for it. He's light enough and very weak. He's a wedge between your neck and your tombstone, but it's a good place for him. I don't want to wear you down your room. I feel so bad that I almost killed all y'all and did what I did. I'm just mighty grateful y'all still alive. I think that once we get out of this mind,

you can just leave me in an old weak field, or a pumpkin patch or turn-up patch or any pack. Why would we do that, Jericho? Because I'm more trouble. I'm more trouble. I don't got no friends with a weird gross crow. First off, that thing is not your friend. I think we have some things to discuss,

but we're not abandoning you. Well, if he cared, Drew, I wouldn't blame you. We won't abandon you. Do you have any hard limits, is for his life? Like a Rudy Begayette patch, for instance. I don't know. Any vegetable patch, that'd be, that'd be just fine. What about a field that's not grown vegetables, but more like a patch?

I suppose a cropless field is what I deserve. I too am fortunate that we survived. We can... We have a chance now to correct the mistakes of what we have done and what we have learned tonight. But we are not leaving you anywhere, Jericho. You are with us now. I will scoop up the matron Maggie McDuff and again just whisper a small prayer. It's please the Vanda has your right hand, see us through.

And then try to look for a way out, whether that just be the way we came in. It looks like the only way out is the way that you came in. Brittle. That's not possible. Right, he's going first. It was awfully slimy. All slick. How are you feeling?

I don't have lubricated. While I appreciate your colourful use of language, you're one of the only one that has their hands free. You're going to have to lead the way and protect us just in case. All got me cut this. Fine, and it just disappears. For those that are caring people, you would need, this is so gross.

Two of you are going to have to hold the sphincter open to allow your entrance into it now. So I think that's going to be Feren and. I look to Feren and I look at Briggs. Oh, we do it? Oh, we do it? Well, I feel so you Ziggins, leave me The patched beans.

After everything that we have been through today, you're going to hesitate now. It goes nothing. Thank you. And I need you to make a strength saving throw to see how well you hold the sphincter open. Oh, it's quick. Keep in mind you removed your hands.

Just the two of them. They're the ones holding it. Strength? Mm-hmm. Not strong at all. Because if you remember how you got in here, it was essentially controlled. contracting and pushing you through.

So it's a tight spank there. Burrhylamp. Yeah. You've seen a spin- Some of us are too weak to do that. I hate all the huts. Oh, that was a seeding there. Okay, so I'm instantly crushed and killed by the swinger.

Yeah. So what did you guys got? I got a seven. Six. Oh, yeah, you're struggling, but it is, it's very tight. And especially now without having the hag controlling the way this works. You are having a hard time finding anywhere to put your hands to grab hold of it, to hold it open,

and you can't seem to even open it. Like an anus portcullus. I'm gonna start taking my staff and try to like wedge this anus open. Okay, so I would say roll at advantage. You're right, it's just fucking flesh, right? And I'm to summon the upless and not. 17.

I'm gonna start to try to like, So you're gonna wait until Farron does what she does. You got a 17. I got a 17. You are able to find a hard portion of flesh deep within the very center of this, that you're able to wedge your staff against and pry it open, giving Grigsie enough room to get his hands in and to help you hold this open. So I would say with that, you're able to get it open.

If Briggs-e decides to start hacking at it, that will change. What if I like gently like prime rib styles? This is this is this is very, it's not like it's only an inch wide hole that you're going through. There is a long like tube, a colon. Can we just move forward? No. We're not talking to this.

Yeah, yeah. There has never been a time. Farron's widge up against Apollo. Oh my God. I was worried I'd have to explode the sphincter. We all just get through. I will push through. With Farron's staff in the sphincter, you're able to.

I wish we had oil of slippery notes. I always watch that. But you are able to make it through the sphincter as you climb up the, as you climb up the long, fleshy shaft, eventually find your way to the other side and you spill out into the room. This room is one you're familiar with. The walls are still covered in flesh, but it's quieter here and there are significantly less centipedes. Are the corpses still there? Yes. That's further down. That's past the ear room and the...

Oh, yeah, the foot room. Oh, the ear wax room. Yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna make you go through them again, gauntlet style. You'll easily be able to, but I'll say for the sake of it, when you do pass things that you had slain in this place, you see that their corpses are still there, and they are unchanged. They're still the fleshy abominations

they had been. So what I'd like to do is just find my grossest bag and cut off an ear, and cut off a nose, and when we get to the corpses of the things we killed, like take a few random body parts to show, like, the abject horror that was this place.

Look at the sack of things I have that I certainly did not do myself. I'm not showing you up the collection because I'm a murderer. We found them like this. I swear. There's a bunch of noses and ears all over the place. We're gonna be arrested in K. Yeah. We're gonna be burned at the state. We're not even gonna be arrested.

Yeah, we're just on the site. You'll never fucking believe this. I will say roll a dexterity check to see how well you do cutting off the bits and pieces. Oh boy. This is not your night so far as Bigsy. He's going to end up with a bag of ground. So you watch as you make your way through the mines, Briggsie occasionally stops here and there to cut bits and pieces off. He is not focusing on recognizable areas of the body. It's just large chunks of flesh and a mass together in the bottom of his sack. It's hard to tell what this is.

it looks more like a flesh stew than anything else. What are you're doing? You're really disgusting. You're going to know what I'm doing. This is going to be valuable for our, for, when we get a question when we get back, I'm going to have this disgusting sack of flesh to be like, look at how gross this was. Instead of cutting off fingers, he just severs the flesh of the palm and puts it in that kind of Isn't this exactly why we took the liver gems?

Well, yes, I'm still hoping that we find something more, perhaps like the research or diary or something, but I mean, there's no work space here, there's no collection of things, there's no hag stuff. I don't know what we're looking for. I don't hate your idea, but do you think that maybe you could be a little bit more, surgical in your collection.

Oh, have you done this before? Is that what you're saying? Would you like to do me? I'd be a carved to turkey boy. It's not that hard. That's what I'm doing. I carved just the flesh right off the palm. See? Well, what if we just take back one of them weird gross tinnacle masks? I don't think that's a bad idea either. But... Oh, the baby with all of them spatterling.

That's what I'm drawing a line. That's a hard note, Derek Cove. We don't need to scare the townspeople. For all I care, she wants to come back here and get what she wants. She can do it herself. We've been in here long enough. I understand. I just, the other thing we need to discuss,

and I'm just saying this is we're walking, we cannot take the matron back to town. We have to make sure she gets somewhere safe. It'll only be a matter of time before she's rounded up and inquisited, like Keziah, and then... subsequently burnt. Well, because I had janky touch not too far. It's just right past the mine entrance.

Maybe we'd take her back there and put her up and make sure she's okay and then we leave her in the woods alone. Should we see if we can revive her here? Do we... I at least like to get out of the mine first. Do you think she has her own her? What to say? We can ask her when she wakes. Can we leave before we...

Time to clear the waterway. The waterways. I would say you've passed that by now, and you saw that the centipedes have started to, they had been in the water, and it was very clear that the underground waters, the subterranean rivers were spreading the centipedes and the infestation across the entire land of Fulcens. As you looked down into the chasm going over it to leave, You could see that the centipedes were making their way out of the waters, and it is very clear, I would say to you, that though nothing is fixed immediately, that over time these centipedes are no longer controlled, that magic that the hag had had is not in effect anymore, that that sickness will, or that infestation isn't going to spread. Whether that means that people who are sick already will be cured, you don't know that yet.

Interesting. So it's not like she necessarily created a type. Oh, no, centipedes. It's more like she called them and channeled them. And you obviously, slippery Oswald is a different scenario. But, yeah, she was utilizing the centipedes to spread the infestation and the sickness across the land. What'd you say? No. Very accurate.

Maybe we did do a bit of good here in these horrible, horrible minds. Wasn't it? There's a huge chasm that we had to get over. Yeah, just for the sake of brevity, you were able to get over it. I think I did enough with the sphincter that we can, the rest we can see. I do not.

I think you've been in all the one day. I fall to my down. The Lefica falls a thousand feet. Yeah, all the gauntlets that you had to do to get in, we're not gonna do to get out. I appreciate that. Nice. Do we think anybody knows about Jenkins, help?

It's hard to say. I should control, I mean, if they know wherever it is, then maybe it's not safe. Do we tell them where it was and say, oh, we're going to expose these horrible witches who are actually real good witches and trying to help you folk? I don't think that's wise. They're not going to believe us. No, no, I'm saying we already did it. We already said, hey, here's a good witch.

You're trying to help you. You should probably burn her. I misunderstood what we found her out in this clearing right over there. Did we tell the folk? I think we did. I didn't, I don't know if we told them where we found her. I think you told them that the hut was behind the mine and that you were drawn, you were drawn there by a light.

And so I would say, it's not like you gave them a map, but you gave them a rough idea of where her, her house would be. It's safe to take her there. Let's get out, see what we can do about reviving her and making sure that she's safe. And we'll, we'll talk to her. And we'll explain the mistake. Like I said, I'm willing to take full responsibility for not listening to Farron. We appreciate that.

Sorry, we got your friend, executed. Burn it to stake. An apology is a first step. Oh, gosh. Just get out to appear. Find somewhere to hide her. We could not have known. We were doing what we were told, and unfortunately, we were being manipulated.

The best we can do is try to make up for it. That's it? We will try to set things right. Not to beat our mistakes. On our way out, I want to make sure that we get a mask and just sort of low- You wanted everything. Yep. I will say you can do that.

Whatever you say you took, when you get back, you could have taken. Easy-peasy. I have said, yes, they definitely killed the hack. And it's valid. One dead cat. Stamp, stamp. Who notarized this? I'm actually even really nervous that you're being so nice to us.

What does that mean for later? Who knows? You all should just start calling me the cabbage patch, kid, because you can just leave me in a cabbage patch in case you see one on the way back. We don't really understand what that means, but we're not leaving you anywhere. It's also a long word name.

I'd never call you that. Oh, gosh. I guess that's true. Jericho is a little bit easier than that. You're just tired. Cabbage patch kid, I was one extra syllable. You are simply tired that it's making you sad, cranky. Just wait until you rest and you will feel better.

And it is about this time that you see the entrance to the cave. You have made your way out of the very bowels of this place. And though it is still the perpetual darkness that this land resides in 100% of the time, it feels like mourning. You can see the faint glow of the sense. sun on the horizon, the sun that never quite peaks up over, but makes that beautiful pink in a line at the edge of the world. So it's early dusk?

It's early dusk. What is our urgency to get back right away? There is none. Just for our own to recover and rest. If we were to take a day at the cabin together, the risk of being found out would be reduced. we would be able to rest. It is a shorter trip there than it is to the city. We would be able to protect Maggie

should someone come to the hut in that rare instance. And I am very, very tired. I think that's a fantastic idea. I don't imagine that they'll be sending anyone looking for us, especially after what happened. No one even really knows we're out here, except for the High Inquisitor. if we take an extra day and get back to her

we can tell her that it just took us that long that our experience was whatever we want to make up I just thought that might suggest the idea I would say she didn't give you a time limit so it's not like she was expecting you back in one day you would imagine if you need to take a couple of days before you got back to the city

that wouldn't seem suspicious to her I think that's a fantastic idea uh... DM? Jericho. What is Maggie McDuff look like again, A, and B, what is she wearing? What was she wearing when she came in? I'm not like Miss Burkle.

Yeah. I mean, no, I mean, that's very similar. I would say, think of Hermione. Think of Professor Trilani, but with red hair instead of blonde hair, so it's like. I'm getting like a Mrs. Freckles. Like a frizzy, like curly, big. red hair. Magical hair?

Yeah. Yeah, it's just long and down. It's not tied up. But less of a drunk, Carrie Pop. But less of a drama. My co-workers said I looked like her once. Aw. That's a sweet thing to say.

Because my hair is real for a good. Come on you kids, let's go into this vicious egg fat. She's got freckles on her face. She is literally just Lily Tomlin. Yeah, Lily Tomlin absolutely is a great, great. Yes, Lily Tomlin's great. Conlin's great. So I guess what I'm asking is we saw her in her, like,

nature and her. Yes. So what she was wearing now is more what you would expect a woman in the wood. She was wearing a natural colored, what looks like a dress. She had a cloak on. She had, she has bags all around her. She has what appears to be a book or a journal, leather strapped to her side.

She has a few vials here and there. She looks like exactly what you would expect to see. a fantasy adventurer alchemist out in the woods picking herbs for a poultice. Her outfit is Keziah Jenkins-esque. Yes. Talk about a big old serving a humble parlor. It's a little sour. If you get an extra wide slide.

And boy, am I called. So yes, does that answer your question? Does that help? Yes. Thank you. It's been a while. No, that's fine. I don't think I ever really described her

outside of like she shoots in and fireballs. Yeah, yeah. I wasn't sure if I just missed up. Then we are in agreement. We go to the hut. We rest, eat. We can find us in food. That would be good.

Alright, let's get the fuck out of here. We leave the mind. You begin to make your way towards. We class it so no one else going. Do you? You make your way towards where you remember the hut of Kaziah

Jenkins to be, and in doing so you pass the now smoldering pile of the bodies of the knights that you had burned, and you're able to see the rough formation of their forms, and

it is both sickening and comforting to see that their forms have not changed back to the that they had been. That even with the death of the hag, what had happened to them was irreversible. There's nothing that could have been done about it. And that you gave them the best send-off that they could have hoped for in that situation. Yeah? Something about the sight or the smell or the view of this trickle, something in the back of my brain. And as I'm looking with the gang, we'll pause for a moment before moving on to the hut,

I gasped for a moment and then surprised at myself in confusion. Say nothing, but continue. Would I have noticed that? I don't know. Make a perception check. Yeah, I would say roll an insight against your deception. And I'm at a disadvantage because I have, man, double nines. That's exciting.

Are you bad? She. Tell us how you really feel. Mace really didn't want to be. here today. He sent me a tax message and was like, do I have to show up? Because I'm not really interested in playing tonight. Elboy sucks. I want to hear that. Am I needed or would this be a good for me to just play league? Can I just play league tonight? Perhaps you're standing right next to me and I was shocked. I assume I would have been kind of helping you along because you were. Yeah, because you're at half speed.

Yeah, yeah, I'm moving real slow. I'm holding like my bruised ribs and just moving very slowly from the amount of exertion that I've underwent, not just from the battle itself, but it's like I'm dying. So yes, you would notice that. And you had a question? If I may. Are you masked? I put the mask back on as soon as the fight was over. And you finished kissing, Marius. We, we embraced. We embraced. We embraced. But there was no lip on skin contact or lip on I am pure of heart. I'm the DM and my head cannon says you. I am pure of the law. Thank you for saving my life. That's how that worked.

I'm the VM and they could have drawn that scene on the cover of Elamore. It was a wait and boy. She really did. No, it was a thank you hug, you know. Yeah, we embraced. It was a, I'm glad you're alive, hug. But you saw her face. I did.

I would imagine. Was it fucked up? I can't tell you that. The Phantom of the opera. Hey, we have a kiss him down. So you admit that you kiss. Yeah. That's pretty fine.

It's a second. Got us. A motorboat for one HB. Negative or positive? And who? Who's you? It's the motorboat of life. Well, he's a dampier, so you take one HB and he gains an HB.

Oh. Like a little bite play. As we're walking. Walking towards the direction of, I guess, where we think, I guess where we know, because I, Jenkins Hutas, I'll be, like, wedged between the tombstone and your shoulder and I'll say, when you get a chance, you may want to perhaps take this old rock off and get a massage. You're a little tense. You're kind of crushing my rib cage. It's more just a cage for a terrible demon with your musculature, which is very impressive, but I think that you may need to get a little TLC.

I don't take the tomb off Oh It stays on my back I suppose I guess This entire time I've known you I've not seen you with it off Doesn't it get a little Burdensome

Far lighter than The way to my sins It says it's the end I don't I don't think a massage Is gonna take care of that Just trying to help. No, it's been, it's been a tough night.

Do you think you always bring a lighter mood with your jokes and your tunes? Do you think you could hum our way as we walk back to the hut? Ooh, I would appreciate it. A hum? A hum? Well, I don't know any humming tunes.

Uh, what kind of tune? I need a request. Do the one from that movie with the Fox guy who stole from the rich people and gave to the poor people. Like, Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

And I just hung the rest of the other. Why do I suddenly see a bunch of dancing hamsters? That's weird. Hey, kids. I digger in the crispy file. Mr. Downs, thank you very much. Horsy boys, and I want to find one that's like relatively, like where the head's still

relatively in, like, not super like burnt away and, like, put it in my bag. It would not fit in your bag. What are you doing? Put it on the car. Put that down. Leave him being.

Boy, we need evidence. We don't need evidence of that. Look, if we need... Their families are there. You're going to bring that back to their families. Maybe they would appreciate it. I doubt that they would. Look, all I'm saying is that when you go on a quest for somebody and you're going back to get a reward,

you've got to really sell how fucking awful this was. That's the best evidence we've fucking gone about how fucking awful this was. We took the mask. You have the bag of palms. Oh, it was really tough. There were masks. Oh, no.

But then we can say, oh, my God! They fuse your guard, Captain, with a fucking horse. Oh! What are they going to say to them? that? You have a bag, you have a sack filled with noses, ears, and palms you skinned off of horrible monsters. I don't think that you're coming off the way that you think you're coming off. I mean, here's your thing now. I think I see your toe. On shack and fall, this sort of looks like a meat of stew. I'm not sure how much this is going to sell. Maybe one of these, even just a skull,

I mean, it's not natural. It's clearly done with some foul dark magic. Who are we trying to sell this story to? I thought we were just getting... The High Wizard, look at how fucking horrible this experience was. A, we're very capable and we can handle this. And B, we went through a lot, so, you know... You know?

We deserve something for experience. I'm sorry. I'm going to forget this. Briggsie. Yes. Take a moment. One, I believe that the High Inquisitor knows much more than she's letting on.

This is not a matter of convincing her. She was looking for something specific here. Right? And what do we get? What do you get if we give it at something specific? I don't know. All I know is for now, I want her to think that I'm on her side,

that I'm playing her game. All right? We'll get you payment. We'll get you what you want. It's more about being compensated for this traumatic. experience. Please do not bring the guard captain's mutated head back to the city.

That's all I ask. I don't think it's a good god captain, to be fair. I think it was one of those other guys, but all right, I'd throw it back from the point. Thank you for being reasonable. Do you feel better after my humming? I think your Grimm quite cares for it. It's nice.

Okay, well, I cast mass-healing word with that. So everyone will get a nice little bit of health. Ooh, that's not too bad. How many people can it hit? Six. Oh, no. So all of us. Eight.

But not Maggie McDuff. Not Maggie McDuff. I'm actually at full health. I'm in full health too. Well, good. Then Maggie can have it. No, Maggie can have a little bit. Okay, tell me how much.

It kills her. No. No. Sorry. Oh, no, I'm not full. She yields so much. She goes around in the bed. I just died.

It's like, Gandhi and civilization or all of a sudden his pasticism was ten and then underflow actually apparently underflow. I think you made that up. Check out the Wikipedia page. I don't want to. I love it when you guys fight because I know you're going to kiss and make up whatsoever. I'm not going to kiss, man.

Marius is a virgin. He protests filled with doubt. For 300 plus years, totally a virgin. Yeah, yep. Yep. I've been busy, man. I've been busy, man. I've been busy, man.

I got a gun. I'd like to arrive at the hut. I don't know. I love that Andy's blushing. We left the body of horse corpses. Right, and you were having an interaction, so I was going to give you the opportunity to have that interaction.

A lot of them happened now. This would have been a side before any of the conversation with Briggs. But you would have heard me gasp and take a, what is very clearly a sorrowful intake of air. We all right. Do you need to stop? Yes, I think I am fine.

I was overtaken for a moment by something. I just need a moment to get my wits about me. I don't, this is not very usual. Excuse me. I, um, that's just, uh, something about, uh, this tableau, uh, it struck me as very sad. But, uh, I, I'm, I'm okay to walk. Let us, please, thank you for your, thank you for asking. Just laying on me. I'm here next to you. I will when I know what I, what I am feeling. That is fine. Thank you. I'll just continue kind of supporting. I'll walk along with you in silence, just sort of, uh,

contemplating until we start to debate with Briggs. Experience with Briggsie will happen. Sorry. Oh, I was gonna talk. No, yeah, go for it. Don't you dare. Haven't you said enough already? Ms. Lethika, I have a question.

I start to walk sideways so you get his head towards him. Yes. What's a tableau? Like a scene or a vignette. Oh. I'll write that down as soon as I have use of my hands again. And with that, the scene with Briggs and Sues, and you're healed with the humming tunes of Jericho,

as he completely forgets that he even cares what a tableau is, for the moment at least. Shoot me down. As you rally yourselves together, still clearly overcome by the situation that you've endured inside of this mind. But you get your, yourselves together, you convince Briggsie not to take one of the skulls, and you begin trekking through the woods. And you do eventually come to the clearing where Keziah Jenkins' hut

had been, and still is. You walk slowly, concerned for the magical plants that had accosted you the first time you set foot here, and though you see their forms, they seem to be completely unmoving. No magic reaching their real. no magic controlling them, and you are unhindered as you make your way towards the hut. It's cold, there's no fire beneath the cauldron. It is clear that no one has been here since the last time Kaziah Jenkins had been here, since the time that you overtook her and brought her back to Cyril. There's a small bed in the corner with what looks to be a handmade quilt.

I would say it's easy enough for you to place Maggie McDuff beneath the blankets and begin to warm her up. begin to warmer up. You could light a fire under the cauldron. Really do whatever you need to. This house is yours for the time being. All for magic biz went poop, right? Because I Jenkins? Yeah. They were like exploded. The cauldron had like a carving of like a goat skull,

didn't it? That was a There was a symbol. There was a symbol on the inside of it. Yeah, on the inside of the cold. I would say you're familiar and yeah, it's a symbol that you have seen before. still there. I thought sorry, I thought it was a different cultured because I thought creepy baghands man like

slewled to the cul-in-up. There was a skull in the bottom of it. And he took the skull. It was a goat skull. Oh, that's what it was. Okay. I knew he took something. It was a skull, but there's also the symbol of the color, wasn't there? Carved it? Or maybe, I don't know. It's been a while.

It's been a bit. Let me consult my notes. I didn't write it. I should have wrote it a window. So anyway, I will sort of, I want to kind of like just do a quick perimeter check to see if like I think that anyone, unless it's very obvious no one's been here. It's very obvious. No one has been here.

I think I'm going to go out and try to hunt us up with some food. All right. You got me in the corner. I reach out. And though I have very little, little energy. I will be led through the darkness, and you will feel the blessing of my goddess overcome you and you will have advantage

on stealth checks from the next hour. Nice. Thank you. Better put it to good use. I'll be back soon. And then so I would like you to roll a stealth at advantage. And then I would also like you to roll a stealth at advantage. to roll a survival check to see how well you are able to hunt

and procure food. Oh, boy. There she goes. I gave you advantage and you're still going to be like. I got a seven on my stealth and you said survival. Let's try this one, which means it's also going to be low. 20. OK.

Not so I'm loud as well. Noted. So we'll resolve that. At a later day. What are the rest of you doing? Do you think the goats are going to add her up and she's out there alone? The what?

Giant goat that we saw in the woods? There is that creature out there. Oh, yeah. I'm sure she'll be fine. Oh, yeah. I'm sure she'll be fine. She lives in the woods and she's suited for this. Have some faith, Briggs.

I said she'll probably be fine. I know. I think that's exactly right. I am confident that Ferran will be back with a kill, as surely as night will fall. Especially in this place, it's double shoe. So what are the rest of you doing? Well, I guess I'm still, I'm doing whatever you're going to say after you. We're RPing.

We have to RP this. No, I mean, we're just kind of like sitting around. I mean, I would have said, you know, we lighting a fire. for sure, you know, just keeping an eye on the matron. I would probably just be conversing, right? Like waiting for fair and making sure that she's going to be okay listening. I wouldn't be doing anything really specific other than hunkering down and resting and waiting to see if Maggie stirs.

Okay. Brzy, you got some sticky fingers. Why don't you go rubbing through what's her faces back and see if there are any clues? McDade. Oh, he's a pack. He's like a bunch of bags. She's literally covered in things. She has too many bags.

She's got three Indiana Jones-sized satchel's all on her. If he resists, I mean, I suppose are couped. And then I'm going to, yeah, I'll just start rummaging through all of her possessions. Don't steal anything, please. I want to make a note of any jewelry she has. Any silver bag. Just a new. Any gold team.

Just a. I'm not. I'm not in the jury. Crying your mouth open. And I just want to check your belongings. Look at all these gold teeth. I can't believe how many there are. Roll an investigation check.

Actually, not trained. God, you're the worst. From your loving husband inscribed inside. Oh, no, she's a major. I don't know, wait. You didn't mean not married. Just means, yeah, it does, isn't it? Authoritatively feminine, right?

Yeah. Well, you have a. Oh, no, matron means married. And then there would be patron. Matrimony, right? There's the matriarch of the family. Mm-hmm. And a matron of honor is the married woman who is the maid of honor.

Yeah, that's right. You got a wife? 17. You'll begin to look through her pack, and what you find is most of them seem to be filled with vegetation of some kind, whether it's root vegetables, different types of mushrooms, sprigs of plants. and things of that nature. There are vials of things. None seem to peak your interest.

You do see that she has a wooden ring on one of her fingers, and it seems to be carved in a language that you don't quite understand, almost like a runic script. And you see what you also find that she has bits of parchment with scribbles and drawings on them. Think of the Voynich manuscript, if you've seen that, where it's all kinds of strange botanical images of plants that you've never seen before in a language that doesn't make any sense. Classic.

Huh? Aliens. Cool. It's so cool, isn't it? It's the backrooms. Oh, no. You also find one vial of what appears to be a, like a, it could potentially be drinkable. It could be a...

Just chill out, all right? It's a thickness that looks like it could be consumed, but it also looks like it could be put on wounds, and it glows with that same green luminance that the mushrooms that you had found glowed with, the ones that Farron had found on the windowsills, et cetera. It looks... And it does have a more magical property.

It looks like this is something that might be some kind of medicinal vial. And lastly, at the very bottom of one of her bags, you find a wooden, almost like a chip, but it's shaped like this, almost like a triangle, but with rounded, with rounded edges. In the very center, there's a hole where there's nothing there and etched into the all around it is that same script you remember saying in Kazaya Jenkins Journal. It looks like a planchette, but it's clearly. not a plant.

Oh, shit. Really? I thought it was a beautiful. You really? She thought you don't. Right. I thought I thought it was. You know what I thought it was?

I thought it was one of those three-color highlighters that you would like pull on. You notice that she has a wooden ring on and she, at the bottom of her pack, she had this wooden trinket. Well, apparently two wooden rings. You took her ring off her finger? Oh.

In fact, I do. It seems important, though, because they got the same kind of script on both. I can't read it now. Can anybody else read his shit? Briggsie, is that a ring? Yeah. Where did you find it? On her person?

Where on her person? You can clearly see where, like, there is no sun here, but she's got a moon tan. And there's clearly a very white patch on her ring finger. But where else when you find a ring, Mary? It's on his finger. That's Marrius. Please put the ring back on Matron's finger. What am I being a clue?

We can take a look, but after that we do, and then we see what script may be on the ring surface, then you will return it, Bastion. You know better than that. You think I'm going to steer? It's made of wood. This is worthless. This is less than worthless.

Do I need to point out the moral quandary with which that you are not wanting to steal it because of what it's made of and not because stealing is wrong. Well, if it's a powerful magical artifact, I'd be actually very... I mean, put it back. Somebody figured out what he says. I'll take a look.

What languages do you speak for the ring? I'll take a look at the ring and the trinket to see if I can decipher any. So the trinket is clearly that same script that you saw in Keziah Jenkins, and the same runic script that you saw in Keziah Jenkins Journal. That's... Which you still haven't cracked.

I feel like, tensions are a little high. But the ring, however, is in a different language. So what languages do you speak? Common, deep speech, elvish. Okay. I speak common. I speak to conic. Also dwarish.

I don't know why. It's an elvish. Ah, damn it. Well, I can read it too. You, the writing on the ring, it goes. around the inside of the ring, not the outside. And it just says, my love for you is eternal, like moonlight.

I recognize the language. It's selfish. Oh, it's on the inside of the ring. This isn't the, this is not the parent. It's some kind of selfish, no. I convey the translation that I read in Elvis on the inside of the ring. This is probably very meaningful for her.

We should return it. To not an icon, a lot, mystical, powerful, all effect. I would say you could tell immediately that there is no magic infused in this. It's simply a wooden ring. If there is magic in this ring, it is not imbued with it. It may be a focus of some kind. But then, as you put it by the fire, you see this.

Keep its secret. Keep it safe. Where are those fucking eagles? Solve this problem right away I give the ringband and the trinket back to Briggs and what I'm doing with the time that Farad is hunting is seeing what accommodations this hut could have

in the form of sleeping arrangements. So I'm looking for blankets to lay out if there are any additional beds. It really just trying to clear space so that six bodies can lay down and slumber at the point when we grow tired. I'm thinking mostly about my... So it's clearly a one-room hut. There's nothing more to it than that. There is the one bed. There is, I will say, the equivalent of a log couch, a couple of chairs. You are able to find what looks to be like a linen closet or basically a catch-all closet, which has pots and pans, some seasoning, some herbs, some dried herbs, but also has some, the equivalent of what you would be a towel or

you know, things for cleaning yourself off, as well as a hand, I would say there are three bed rolls and some linens and a few more quilts. Okay. Stuff down at the bottom. I start pulling that out and trying to do. There's enough for you to make reasonable accommodations for everyone.

It's not going to be comfortable for everyone. I noticed one's wrinkly and I take out the steam cleaner. I really put it in here of it. Perfect, yeah. It's abyssal. A bissel. Get it? Inspiration. And I'm whistling as I work.

Just sort of, and I'm just glad. How do you whistle with that mask going? That's amazing. Did your mask have a mouthful? No. That would be gross. But I don't think. Through the powerful magic that is my God

and how I achieved this mask. I do not, I do not sound muffled, I can breathe, I only need to lift it in order to eat and drink. Oh, very, you mind passing a match for tea. A nice key on tea. Oh, God. I'm sorry I asked. Love the suit. He has a note, doesn't have a mouthhole.

Where? What is that weird triangle-looking thing that looks like a plant-and-shed? Or is it planned shade? And it is about this time that Farron will arrive. What you had been doing, Farron, is you'd been wandering through the woods, hoping to be cloaked in shadow, but unfortunately you were not, as you are, this is not the kind of terrain that you're familiar with. You stepped on far too many twigs.

You stumbled a few times, tripped over some... I was going to say that I smell like I've been in an an anus cave. And you smell like you've been in an anus cave. There were a couple of times that you saw these large, juicy boars that you tried to sneak up on and make your prey. But they were, even these boars were repulsed by your smell as they ran off into the thicket. But what you were able to do was draw the attention of a pack of wolves. Oh, good. A ravenous pack of wolves.

Great. Love that. And you were with your survival skill, being a 20, you were able to outsmart them. The loudness of your nature roll and your stink attracted them. You were able to outsmart them. You were able to fell the largest of them, the alpha. And with the alpha killed, the others scattered.

You are relatively unharmed. I'll say you take four points of damage. Not bad. As one of them is able to chomp into your leg a bit. But you make your way back to the clear. with, I would say, while you were out there, you skinned it threw away the things that you didn't need, and you're able to make your way back to the hut

with a sack full of fresh wolf meat and a large pelt. Nice. You killed Jacob, you fuck. You're not supposed to tell her this is a Twilight allegory. You know, new moon, eclipse, Twilight, this is clearly my Twilight fan fiction. ready for it, let's go. I sparkle.

Yes, you do. Yes, you do. You haven't been in sunlight yet, so they don't know that. Just moonlight, that's right. I don't know, but that's my hidden past. We need a muse to play in the background during a baseball game.

That's true. You can just put me down over there. You agree, I feel like I'm still just kind of. You can put him down on one of the chairs, and you just. Put him next to the really weird CGI baby. Put him down next to the CCHI, baby. Oh, pick me up, pick me out!

I feel like tensions are a little high, I have kind of that horrible traumatic experience in the what hole minds? Would anyone care for a joke to lighten the moon? Just one part of a buffer. I cross his left leg over his right and fold his arms, so he's sitting nice. That's hilarious.

Oh, I feel so dignified. Here, why don't you put my hat in my hand so it looks like it's a balmy day? I tell you his hat, I put it out of his hands. It looks like stuffing in the paper. Yeah, that's it. It's you were doing this. This is some Yorker-related humor. Uh, so why did the frog show up to the grave with a shovel?

I'm gonna like this one. He wanted to rob it. Who was the grave robbing? I don't know why it was a frog. For some reason, the frogs were on the brain. At least it was connected to grave. Oh, he's afraid. Oh, he's the greed.

It was actually very good. Thank you, thank you. Like lighting the moon. As you all stare at Jericho in disbelief, you see the shadow of of Lethica, or of, uh, Farron in the doorway with a pelt on. Yeah, so I'll walk in to have a pelt and it's scraped, but still kind of bloody and disgusting, but I've got it on like a, like I'm flying high.

And I'll drop the big, you know, sack of meat and stuff. I've got dinner. Well done. You've got a whole pack of wolves. Just the one really big one. It's impressive, man. Thank you for doing that. just go and kill the world

That's very impressive Do I look dignified? Do I look dignified to you? Oh, I suppose Oh good because I can't move So he said No, you don't I'd be quite sore about it

You just go on there sitting I'll get the food rigged up on the fire You're not to feed me. You're feeding him. Well, I just like to feel included. There are some seasoning in the pantry. And I will say it's easy enough for you to get, you're able to make a nice hearty meal.

You find that there are some root vegetables that are in the bottom of the pantry area, and you're able to make up a nice hearty dinner. You find, there's a small garden out towards the back and you're able to find some carrots and other things that you're able to cut up and you you make a nice comfortable dinner probably the best dinner that you've well now the mirror mills made a pretty good dinner but outside of that the best dinner you've had in a while and you are also they did have cookies you're also able to I will say dry some of the meat but you have a significant significant portion So you're essentially able to turn some of this into jerky to distribute between the rest of you so that you have some for you know Worst case scenarios

Oh yeah I'm surprised myself of utility Thank you You're welcome Oh do you see that weird old good out there? You didn't We didn't Maybe he lost interest in one way

You might be my smell keeping it off I don't smell anything. I can smell you and the rest of you. Oh. If we could get cleaned up before we get back to town. Are we not welcome us? Are we nose hole blind? What?

Like nose hole blind. You know when you smell a smell for so long you get used to? From your nose hole? I don't got a nose. I got a nose hole beneath my filthy sack of a head. Can you smell with it? There's it just for show.

No, no. I do have a nose hole. have all of them the senses. Oh. On account of the dark demonic magic, I suppose, vertical senses. Maybe that's what it is. Anyways, we found some woody things.

Want to take a look fair? Oh, yeah. On account of you being connected to the wounds? Yeah. We've had this. How's the matron? Oh, fuck balls. Are she awake yet?

Not yet. She's got... Oh, fuck bulls, she said. Seems a good sign. Here's spelled my... fucking coffee all over my book. Said the matron. Also, this coffee is probably going to be disgusting.

I thought I put 12 cups of coffee in there, so I did six spoonfuls of coffee, but it only filled up to eight. Very powerful. It's going to be even better. Yum. You know, I saw you walk in with 10 cups of water. I'm like, oh, you're going to a light because it's later in the evening.

I thought that I was... Oh no, that wasn't deliberate. Good old cup of mud. So I'll take the, I assume you put a ringback on there. I put a ring back on. Do I recognize the triangular item? I would say you don't recognize the item itself, but you immediately recognize that the script is the exact same

because you're the one that's found this journal. And could I read the journal before? You couldn't. This was... Colin Druidic and Sylvan. Yep, you couldn't read it before. It's in a strange, language, it seems to be something that was created, code language, specifically for the purposes

of, you don't know. But you can see that this is very much the same as Kuzai-Jankan's journal. It does seem to match, but I don't know. I mean, can you look for clothes compared to your journal or not your journal, but Kizu. I guess it's your journal now. What did I? Do I have the journal? Yeah. Oh, I do. Tondi person.

Yeah. So I'll sit down on the floor and, you know, pick my tooth of the wolf bone and I want to just look and kind of like see if there's anything on the pages where like that would look like it lined up or see if there was something that it made sense to like use this thing in one. Roll an arcana check for me please. Yeah, do the symbols matchy matchy. Oh, nice. From 2009.

You almost, as everyone is enjoying their food, there is like conversation, the can candles have been lit, the smell in the hut is comfortable and cozy and it's almost easy to forget what had happened over the past 24 hours or so. As you relax into the comfort of your friends in this cozy place, and you get yourself set up in one of the chairs, and it's a nice wooden, structured chair with plush seating and a little lap pillow. You place the journal out in front of you, And as you eat and you look through it, looking back between this small wooden trinket and the book, you notice that some of the symbols seem to be similar. And you're looking through, you don't find any spot to put it.

But as you move it over and you look through the hole as it passes over the runes, it's almost as if they begin to magically translate into words that you can read. And you are shocked for a second as you. Move it away and you see it's just simple runes there on the page. But then as you put it back over, you can read it. And you can't, and then you can. You begin to look through it and you notice that here and there, there are little magical bits of dust you hadn't noticed before, all about this room.

And your attention is drawn toward a cupboard that when you don't have this up to your eye does not exist to the naked eye. What? What? So with this, you've now found a cupboard and you'll be able to read the book. You look, I will say you are easily able to get up and rummage through the cupboard. You all watch as Farron quickly jumps up and runs to the side of this house and she opens a door that had not been there and as it opens, you all are able to see it and inside of

it you see, I would say about 10 vials of the same medicinal mushroom paste that you had found on Maggie McDuff. Oh, holy. Um, and when you close the door to your, to all of your eyes, it disappears. Wow. But to you, Farron, as long as you have this disc up to your eye, you can see it. This is incredible. I can see, it's like a whole other world of things you can't see with the naked eye.

Look through it. And it's, it's not as if there is no space there. It's just to you, it looks like that's a spot on the wall where no cabinet had been built. The space is there. You just can't see there. that it's there. It's almost as if it's shrouded by magic. This is very clever.

What's in it? Is it like this thing? Then I pull out the vial that I have found on. Aging. Yeah, it seems to be the same. What's so special about it if you're trying to keep it hit? Can you tell what it is? Can I tell what it is?

You tell what what is? What's in the vial and in the vial? I will say, it depends on if you want to read the book. Yeah. So I... You'll essentially tell the group you need some time with the book, and I will go through what you find.

Okay. What you begin to learn as you read through the pages of the book is that full sense, this specific province has been corrupted for decades, but it's been getting worse over the years, and that Keziah firmly believes that something must be done to save the children. Although the archbishop and the church

of the blinding light and the head, priests are in the respective province town, stress following the one true path and piety in the worship of Fultus to save the province, this has been done for generations and nothing is fixed in. And so clearly, following the one true path is not the way to solving the problem. Clearly, the faith doesn't work here in this land. It's filled with darkness and magic in that she believes the old magics, the magics of the woods, the power of nature, the secrets of alchemy is the only hope as far as she is concerned. Though she's afraid to be an open practitioner, she practices in secret, and through long-seeking and subtle searching, she's found two sisters in arms who have reverence for the old ways, Maggie McDuff and Zephyrine Mirabelle.

With the power of three and the power of feminine, they exponentially increase their power. They have found, through their workings, that digging deep into the earth, they have revealed these mushrooms that have appropriate alchemy and magic that can actually, treat and even cure the curable curses of Mother Midnight and her forces. Basically, this mushroom showcases, or sorry, the book itself showcases different recipes and alchemical cybles and runes and how they've trialed and erred for years working with these mushrooms to try and find a cure for this and how to produce it. McDuff has come the closest out of all three of them and how to mass produce it.

And at her hut, she has everything that she needs to be able to make this in bulk. She's the one that lives closest to the specific mine where they are able to safely procure the mushrooms. And that she has sent over a large crate to Mirabelle, to Zephyr and to Keziah so that they have some of the elixir on hand. Can we get the sense that that's what we found? I would say it would be very clear to you that these vials that are specifically different than the ones you'd originally found, which were clearly their tests. The ones that you'd found where some of them were smashed up and cut into pieces and things, that's when they were testing the mushrooms.

But this is clearly the cure. And what you see towards the end are more hurried scrawlings, a lot more fear, a lot more paranoia. that she notices lots of centipedes crawling about her hut in the woods lately. It gives her a bad feeling. She believes she caught a glimpse of one with a terrible human-looking face, but she hopes that it was just a trick of the light. And she will say that her husband has fallen ill,

and she fears that she cannot save him, as the cure has not fully reached its potency. But whispers have already begun about her, and she fears both she and her husband are doomed, and she wonders what that means for her and her coven. Anyway, we should get some sleep. Too bad. I take my hat off and I put it on Jericho's head.

I take my jacket off and I hang it on his shoulder. She was one of the few people that actually could have helped solve this. She's dead now. Um, it is because of us. We were hasty. To receive our rewards, we were blinded. I agree. Didn't have much to go off of.

And we were hasty. You were right. the only way forward, I think, is when the matron comes around and come clean about everything. We discuss with her, we beg for her forgiveness. But this also means that we have an ally in the mirror of us,

which we thought we did before, but we weren't sure. Now we know. And maybe, maybe there's someone, an apprentice. Someone they've been training. someone they've been passing their knowledge to that could fill that third spot. Certainly this isn't going to make up for the death of their friend. But the fight is not over. But if Saffirine had the mushroom goo,

if Saffirin had the paste, why isn't anyone getting better? Why isn't she using it? So as she had mentioned that even when her husband was sick, they hadn't fully, it hadn't fully reached its potency. So I would say just because you, found the mushrooms on the outside of the windows. She had what she had.

And so how do I put it this way? It has to essentially ferment for a certain period of time. And that's why it's in the glass jar. So they sent it over, but it hadn't reached its potency to be able to actually cure the sickness. So Zephyrine had them, but she couldn't feed it to Colette because it wasn't, it wouldn't cure it yet. So she, you know, maybe just a mother's hope was, well, maybe if I have it around the the house and I put it by her window, it will lessen it, it will make it better. It is now to a point where those vials have reached their potency.

Maggie McDuff has figured out how to, has finally figured out how to accelerate the process and mass produce it and make it readily available. But it's taken years and years of them working with this mushroom to finally get to this point. We'll talk to the matron and we can come clean to Zephyrine as well, but we can, we can urged them and convinced them that we're on their side and try to make up for this horrible wrong the best that we can. The book references that the power increased exponentially. They were combined in three.

Do you think that her death at the hands of the bishop, bringing them to two, caused the change in the moon, caused everything else? Do you think we led to some shattering of their protection. Oh, no. I don't mean to raise any alarm bells

on account of us not being able to do nothing about it, and on account of me not being able to move, and the let the guy haven't just died, and Briggs being covered in goop. Anyways, didn't that terrible old, what was her name, Stroganoff? No, no, black. Didn't an old centipede hag say that the witch in the city was in danger or something?

Right. And if one hag is not alive, the other one is, I would point, is right there. I'm pointing with my eyes. I guess that kind of narrows it down, doesn't it? What are you getting that, boy? You're talking in circles. Is that if someone's in grievous danger and she's perhaps in nearly dead, wouldn't that mean that Zephyrine is nearly dead?

I didn't think that she was talking about them. Well, she said that one of the good witches in the city is currently in danger. Ignore the common. It's been a long time since she's played. I mean, she's the sisterary archbishop. He's not going to let anything happen. Perhaps she was just all bluster and taunting us with information she didn't happen. And I would say you're not sure how much of what a hag says you can trust.

Injection. Maybe she wanted us to go away and to leave her alone so that we could go save Zephyrene because she needed it quickly. And we'll meet with her and we'll make sure that she's safe. It may have been the faint to distract. us and make us weaker during battle. She did a pretty good job on her own as it was. He was quite the customer. I was really questioning Lord Phillips' judgment.

I'm not going to lie. I should also tell you before we sleep. First, I would say that journal is, in my opinion, the property of Maggie now. of her cousin and I would propose that we return it to her now that we have learned what we need to learn. I can go along with that. I have to say, I'm interested to talk to her

to learn more about the mushrooms. I have many questions. But I want to share this with you now before we have an audience and before we move on. I did move on for a brief moment during that fight.

Move on from what? I passed through the second veil. The what? I died. Oh. So, I mean, with the way that they were off screaming, that's what I sued, but, okay. It is not often that I am knocked out of a battle in that way,

and you saw it on the train. I was made unconscious, but this time I passed through some threshold, and I found myself in a starry sky. Brilliant points of light danced all around me. It felt as though I were in the cosmos that we stare up at every night. For a brief moment I felt alone, but a voice, a voice whispered to me, and I could see a bright, shining light. It turned out to be the moon.

We like a good moon. That is not the afterlife I pictured for myself, Jericho. No, I'm sorry. If I should see a moon in my final time that fail, I would be very disappointed. Upset. This was not right. The voice spoke to me.

It said, You do not know what you have done. And I was able to return. I think in part because, of what you did, Nelis. I know you were right right there above me

when I came back. But I also had to be willing. It was a choice of sorts. I did something wrong? Did I... No, no, no, no. Not...

No, I... Just that there was something else on the other side and... That it spoke to me. I... I do not know what it means. It is a mystery to me, but I felt it's important to share

because we are on the same question now together, and I want you to at least, should you hear anything or, sure, forbid, be confronted with the same voice, be perhaps better equipped. Are you, are you sure? Just linger on the brink of unconsciousness. Some hallucination. Some fevered dream.

In my heart of hearts, I know. It was no dream or illusion or hallucination. When it happens, and I hope for all of us a very long time before it comes. It is a different feeling. I cannot seem to shake. I cannot. Perhaps I am just tired, but I feel stretched out. Probably keep some of that liver around then, just in case.

I mean, it's changed since we consumed it. It's not fresh. I was going to say fleshy, but yes, it's not fresh. It's as if it's crystallized. You don't think, well, us eating our liver. It's changing us inside and out, losing our own free will to become unwitting puppets. of a terrible gross witch or hag.

That's what was happening to us before we ate the liver. We don't feel a different man. Turning and warfing into hideous abominations. Our backs were against the wall. We had no choice. Well, I don't feel like now's the appropriate time to seeing the supper song now come up there. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon.

Become a patron today at Patreon. dot com slash legends of avatrous and gain access to tons of exclusive perks including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas 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 tone 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. If there's anything else, I mean, we could

attempt to make a long rest. Lathica. Yes. I am sorry whatever you experienced. It does not sound like you were with your god at that time. No, I'm afraid not. I hope that Jericho is not onto something and that we are not,

that we didn't make an incorrect short. by consuming the liver. I haven't lost my powers, and I do believe that my God is still with me, and I believe that yours is with you too. Thank you. I believe that through my very being, yes, I would agree. I plan to pray.

What time is it? It's probably about midday at this point. I am tired and I wish to rest, but perhaps I will say a few prayers before night. We should get some rest. I'll take first watch, have you stay up for a while. I feel like a pirate. It's a good luck. You ho. I'm trying to not make light of a very grim situation that we found ourselves then. I even quash my supper song. No, you can still sing a supper song. I would enjoy a nice

slight-hearted, jaunty tune is anything? I'm feeling awful sad, but I guess I always am. Anyway, I can't play my banjo. It's over there in the cord. So it's got to be a cappella. Sorry if you don't care for that. It's dun-dun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-thun-oh. Oh, it's wolf for supper.

Ah, ooh, do-thun-thun-thun-thun-th. I go on. I finish my wolf for supper as I'm listening to this very strange tune. That means you're just stating what we're having for supper. You're right. It's not a very good tune. I think you're just a little tired. I think, I think, Riffin, letting, letting, I mean, Virgil out was,

took a bit out of it. Maybe my mind's not right. Maybe it's not mine or even the hags. Maybe it's Virgil. No, no. Just stating what we had for supper, you also howed in kind of a sing-song you went. So, I mean, that's kind of- Yeah, Virgil would never do that, you're right.

I feel very good. Thank you, thank you, Your Honor. It's kind of creative, I thought. Thank you, Your Honor. That makes you feel a lot better about the whole situation. I couldn't have come up with it. And with that, you all, fine, you finish your supper, you have some more chit-chat,

you keep the fire under the cauldron going, and there's a fireplace, so a hearth, So you have a roaring fire in the hearth. You're all warm and cozy. And with a nice herbal tea created for you by Farron, you find your allotted places somewhere in the house, and you cozy up, and you all find yourselves unconscious. Before we sleep, we beat Jericho to death,

like Johnny Five in Sharks. Oh, then yes. And then we go to bed. Perfect. And amidst the rusted remains of what once was Jericho. You all find a peaceful sleep. Poor Johnny five. You can't move.

Get him. But no. You are all able to find a peaceful sleep. And you all dream. Oh, no. Yeah. Yeah. Wet, wet, right.

It is darkness that you find yourselves in. Pure, complete darkness. You can hear. the sounds of the forest around you, almost as if you were still inside of the house that you had fallen asleep in. You can see nothing. You cannot feel the warmth of the fire. It is just pure, complete darkness. And then a pinpick of light far off in the distance. And it feels like you, this is a dream state. You know this is a dream state, right? This isn't real. This is clearly a You can feel every minute of sleep pass, and it's nothing but darkness in that tiny pin brick of light.

And an hour passes, the light gets just a little bit bigger. And then another hour passes, and the light gets a little bit bigger. And then another hour, and another hour until finally you feel ten hours have passed of sleep. as that light is now a luminescent milk-white orb in front of you, and it spins and spins and spins in the darkness, and then begins to take the shape of a face. As the hag moon looks down at you, and with a wicked smile,

you watch as its lips tilt up and it exposes its moon-like teeth, as it looks to you and says, it's time to wake up and you feel yourself jolt awake all of you immediately at the same time you are rested you've gotten a long rest

but in that dream you felt every single second pass as though it were real time as you watched the moon make its way closer and closer and closer to you yeah that's what I remember That was torture. That was a sleeping, well, I would have said waking nightmare, but I guess I was sleeping.

It was a nightmare. Jericho, you expect yourself to feel significantly more exhausted than you do. All of your levels of exhaustion have reset, and you feel, you feel achy, and you feel tired, and you feel sick to your stomach a little, but you're no longer exhausted. Gork, sure know that. Alethica, same for you. An extra helping a wolfman doesn't agree with the hellish energy. Too much strength.

I guess it's an additional. Oh, perhaps. What I will say is upon waking up, you don't know that anyone else has experienced the same dream. The voice that you heard from the moon was the exact same one you heard upon death. Anyone else get a wake-up call from the creepy moon lady? Oh, yeah. This is bad. this whatever they are, these hags,

this coven of witches, they have access to our minds. This is not good. Slowly to our journeys. That was the voice. What? That was the voice I spoke to you about. Just as we finished dinner last night, or earlier today, where whatever time is.

I would say you slept through and is now early, early dust the next day. So essentially the morning the next day. It was a long sleep. Just after we ate yesterday, when I shared my experience, that was the voice. Certainly lends credence to Jericho's theory. Perhaps he didn't even have something to do with it. So when you fucking die, the hang in the moon talk to you?

She must have great dominioner for this place to be able to intercept a soul on its way to its rightful place. don't many to pass beyond the veil one to come back once death is claimed to pray I look over and get a status update on where Maggie is she breathing still

is she still breathing it's less shallow than it had been before but she's still clearly unconscious I return looking back at the group nodding should we try to wake her up I would see her all right I would say, I don't know who to make the intelligence check, so I'm just going to say,

you remember that as her eyes fluttered closed, that they glowed with that same lilac color. You imagine that because she was consumed by the hag, she's probably undergoing some of the same afflictions that Colette and the other people were. You could try one of the potions that the DM has handed to you. I think I've given you 11 at this point. You could try one of those on her and see if that... No, no. There was even a book that talked about how it could fix it. But I'm just saying, like, I think after a night of sleeping and clarity, you might think, huh, nothing else has worked, this could work, I think. But it's up to you. I've no need to argue this.

We dump out the paste in the backyard. I was going to suggest we take Maggie directly to the authorities and turn her over to the Hydequisition. She's clearly a winner. And that is where we won the session. And the campaign. They should use our means to wake her up. I've been so stupid. Wake up!

Get up! You shake her head lulls from side to side. One of her eyes opens just slightly, just from the force and you see that there is that purple light like glow before it snaps shut. We're not snaps shut, but closes. I feel like a new scare girl. Anyone else feel, oh, I'm so she's not doing so well.

I should not have said that. Is there anything we can do to aid her? I think so. Why do you're smartly? You're lovely this. That's what my character would do. I told, we all have the same knowledge. Well, I suppose, I guess, mushrooms are not my thing.

You're going to be a crow, I'm a gross crow. You're like, Mrs. Dash, with all the shit you have. Brings and shit on her. Give her a little, bam! Come on! Get your head out of your dear ass! The antlers would be very painful, I gotta say, you're making me break

like seven of my eight tenants here. Who are you gonna fuck now, Marius? Eight tenant, just in case you're wondering. Christ. Fucking. I mean, Lefander. What he is. Sweet fancy Lethander.

Maris, hold her still for everybody. All right. Told her head back. Back, yes, yes. The force of that is so snapped at that. You hear the bone snap in her neck as her head falls lip to the sign. She's clearly there.

I'm no doctor, but she has osteoporosis. Had osteoporosis. I'll flick the cork off of one of these vials and kind of coax the disgusting thick. You have to rub it her neck a little bit to get it to go down, but you're able to, you're able to administer an entire vial of this mushroom poultice or boon, goop, this mushroom, yeah, this mushroom potion, we'll say. And you immediately begin to see color start returning to her cheeks and her chest rise

and fall a little bit more. And you watch and you wait. She doesn't seem to wake. You wait two minutes, five minutes. It's about 15 minutes into the consumption of this poultice. Between 15 minutes to 45 minutes as directed on the back of the Advil bottle, that it seems to start taking full effect. And you see her eyes slowly flutter open.

And a soft groan emanates from her mouth as she attempted. to adjust to the light that is filling up this space. She pulls the blankets tighter up around her. She groans a little bit. You can see she's falling in and out of consciousness, but she is clearly slowly waking up. It's working. And as you see her eyes flutter open,

you see that the lilac color is slowly fading. It's now very, very pale. Within 15 more minutes, it's completely gone. A step back. Do not crowd. her, we do not want her to feel threatened. Right. You seem like getting really

my banjo. I'm like, I'm gonna wait outside. Give it just so much an act. Oh, you're right, you should probably leave. You know, she doesn't want to see any monsters. She's met you. I know, I mean, I... Still, I mean, look at it.

Whoa! The junk! It'll be dumbed on all over all over there. Jimmy, jewelry on you. Virgil, get out of here too. You're not welcome here. I feel like he's ruffled me. Maggie, can you hear us?

She groans a little and her eyes fully open and she looks around at all of you. Where am I? What happened? You're in Kaziah's hut. And you see, as you say the name, you immediately see a look of sorrow flash across her face for a second. And then she nods as she, you see her hands have the quilt pulled up around her. And you see as her fingers slowly kind of touch and caress the blanket.

And there's a longing and a sadness there. I am so sorry for your loss. I take full responsibility for what happened. Now it's not the time to be talking about. things like this. What's done is done. We've got to fix this. You are a faith. We've got to get to the antidote to all of the children,

to everyone affected by the sickness. Has that had been killed? Did we do what we needed to do? She has been. Oh, thank gods. Thank the gods. It's a large part to you. I thank you. I wish I could have done more.

I was blinded by my rage. What she did to the children. It's horrible. I'll never be able to forgive myself for it. Do you know what happened if it's not implied to ask? Do I know what happened inside of that vulnerable mine? No, at the orphanage? How do you make it out? You see her lips quiver a little bit as she chokes back her words. She starts to speak but stops as the mere attempt to say anything makes her well up in sorrow and she takes a moment to choke the pain back down.

I'm not quite sure what happened exactly, but I know that I was taking out the nightly refuse, the children. They don't eat much, but they sure do make a mess with what they did eat. And every night I would take the scraps outside to a compost heap. It's a great way to feed the crops.

We had a garden. We had a garden for the children. and it was part of their daily routine to make sure that they watered the plants and to pick the ripe veggies and we would use them for food. So I would take the refuse outside and turn it into compost anyway.

I digress and I step outside and the entire place alights. And I attempted to get in but there is some strange, magical seal on the doors and I couldn't get in and I could hear their screaming. And I knew, I knew it was them. I knew it was because,

I knew Keziah Jenkins was not She wasn't the cause of all of this There's something foul and sinister in the underbelly of that city And we hadn't yet had time to weasel a tout We were trying so hard to cure the children We should have spent more time trying to figure out who was at the bottom of it And I knew I couldn't save him when I couldn't get in So I ran into the woods and I ran back to my house

But something didn't sit right with me and so I I scried I'm not sure if you know what that is I have my little one she reaches into her pocket looking for her little stone and it's gone

it's my my witch's stone is gone we we have it oh I'm sorry and she reaches out and takes it and she's like this is more magic

in it than you'd know and I used it to look on the town and I hope you don't mind but I was used dropping on you. I had to know whether you were good or whether you were part of their plan. I hope you found that we're good.

And I began to put things together. And when I found you were going into the mines and I saw what you did for those poor nights, I knew, I knew I had to help you. We had to figure out what's going on and I couldn't let my grief over Kazayan over those children. I couldn't let it overshadow what needed to be done.

And I met you there to help you. And I, I wasn't much help, but I was some. And now what I can do as I can expedite the creation of this healing, this healing, this potion, and we can save those who are left. But I need you, I need you to do what I cannot do, what the Coven can do. I need you to get this information to Zephyrene.

I need you to let her know what transpired here and what needs to be done. We have to work together. And Farron, maybe you could be our third, you're a woman of the forest. You could help emboldened us and power us if you'd like. We don't know. If not, I'm sure we can find someone else.

We're much weaker without Kazaya, but we can still do what needs to be done to save the people of Fulcens. But I need you to protect me, and I need you to... I need you to make sure they don't catch scent of my trail or find my house. We are in your debt, and we will do anything that you ask for us.

And you see that she's clearly almost in a state of panic, and she's too weak to sit up, but she keeps trying to, and falling back down and she keeps catching her breath. Her eyes roll in her head occasionally as she's too ill to be this worked up, but she is in a frenzy as she thinks of everything that needs to be done. I'm going to have to go into the minds and I'm going to have to find even more crates of those mushrooms and I have enough herbs and I'm sure I've got enough magic left in these hands.

I'm not too old for this yet. And she's almost talking to herself as she's going through a list of all the things that need to be done. and then she quickly turns and looks to all of you. But I can handle all of that. I need you, with my orphanage gone, there's no need of me back in Cyril. I need you to lie for me. Tell them I'm dead.

And she looks about, and she looks to her hand. She sees her ring. She pulls it off. Take this back to them. Tell them that I fell. Anyone who knows me knows I would not part with this willingly. The only way to remove this from my body is from my cold dead hand. You take it back, and she looks at it and a tear falls down her face.

It's all I had left. They'll believe you, and she hands it to you, Marius. I know what happened in that room, but I can feel what's in your heart. I trust you, lad, and all is forgiven. and if you help with what needs to be done here in this place and you help us to cure the children and the people of all since I swear to you I know, Keziah would forgive you just like I have.

We exist to eat. We'll do what you said. We found vials of this mushroom potion that you and your sisters were brewing. Here in this hut, is there a... another resource of it that we might find, should we need to heal more? There should be about 10 doses or so here that belonged to Kazaya if she hadn't used any of them.

And I don't think she had time to. They hadn't fully matured by the time she was taken from us. But she looks through the wooden piece. Over there, if you can get that, next to the cabinet, there's one. hidden by erroneous magic. We have runes carved into the wood to hide it from sight. You can take all ten of those, and as I continue to procure more, I'll send them to Zephyrine. There's a meeting place that we had and a pickup location. She'll know where to pick them up.

It is through Zepharine then that we might communicate with you should the neither rise. Yes. She'll know how to get in contact with me. Can you see her with your stone there? Is she all right? We can't communicate in that way, unfortunately. Make sure you tell us everything that you need us to do for you. But do you have any information about the Hyatina? Do you know anything about her? Or does Zephyr, know anything about this woman?

I have my suspicions that she might not be what she says she is. But for what I know, I know that I don't trust her just as much as I don't trust the... Just as much as I don't trust the... Archbishop. They're blinded by a faith. in a God who does not reside here in this land for if he did we would not have spent so many years under sickness and in terror and in hope and begging for hope that her children would not succumb to horrible illnesses and we wouldn't lose the people

in our lives that we love the most the one true God as they say is not here but I can tell you the old way is alive and well it's going to be up to you to figure out what our secret is for I don't think even the Archbishop knows. Are you saying that Fultus isn't even present? He ain't listening? He ain't with the Archbishop?

I'm saying that if he is, he sure isn't answering the call. And I think that's much worse than him not being able to hear it. I don't really judge anyone for the religious beliefs, but if I may, I don't much care for this Fultz's fellow. There I said it.

I said it. Oh, gosh, I've been meaning to say that since we stepped in the serial. I just don't care for it. I'm going to need another full day to recover. But I can head to my house from here, and I'm happy to make you a map if you can keep it shrouded. Make sure no one figures out where I'm resting out of the city and make sure they believe that I'm dead.

And from here, I would suggest you head back. to the city and do what you need to do. You've got a huge task on your hands and I'm going to need a week, at least, to get all of the vials ready to cure just the town of Cyril itself, let alone what we're going to do to cure the rest of Fulcens. If I have the answer, I'll answer it. Is there a boy in your charge by the name of Dudley? Ah, Scheniedelley, no, he's not one of mine. He's far older than the orphans that we cared for. He occasionally would come and do work here and there at the orphanage, but no, he's under the thumb of the Inquisitor. Does few tasks for her, I believe.

That's what we were afraid of. I know he's a bit besotted with her. He left a few bits of parchment around with Dudley plus Inquisitor equals love. But, you know, he's a young lad. I think he's just overcome with hormones, as it were. Dudley Inquisitive. He, uh, Mr. Dougnick. The paper just cracks right in half. With that, that is how she's responded to. You answered his last question.

Lethika would ask, tell me, Maggie, what can you say about this chief hag, the leader of these others, the one whose face is in the moon. Not quite sure that the face that's in the moon is tied necessarily to these hags. I think it's more tied to Mother Midnight. Her, I'm convinced, is practicing some form of witchcraft in one way or another. These hags, at least from what I've slowly coming to understand, they seem to want her favor.

They want to be seen and looked upon with some kind of reverence. They seem to be working maybe for her or to honor her. But I'm not quite sure that what we see in the moon, it's far stronger than that creature that we fell beneath the mines. And that, I'm going to be quite honest with Yelethika, scares me far more. Because that hag was quite strong. As she looks down at herself,

we can quite see. if we were to come face to face with the actual Mother Midnight, I don't think any of us would survive. So you're saying someone that we finally agree is trustworthy that Mother Midnight's real? Mother Midnight is definitely real. Oh no. Her beast stalks the woods.

Always watching, ever present. We've seen it. Hunting. The Red-Eyed Monster. The Red-Eyed Monster. That our approach us, though. It plays tricks. Have you seen the weeping lamb?

Count yourself lucky. When it casts its eye upon you, it will start to lure you in with more tricks. Exactly the kind of thing I'd fall for. Just pretend, Kelsey. It's going to be okay. It just pretend, Kelsey, this is a game. Perhaps.

This makes me a daggone fool. But I haven't kind of half-hoping this whole time perhaps Mother Midnight was just kind of a fable and everyone just got their imagination out of control. I don't know where this power would come from then. If it's not Mother Midnight, then it's something else that's creating this false image. Now I've never seen it myself and maybe it's just some super powerful entity that's manipulate in our minds, but it sure is fooling me. it is, we're going to get rid of it. But there is something powerful at work, and whether it's an illusion that's taken on the guise of a witch, a mother midnight, as it were, whatever

it is, it's a powerful, horrible being that's playing with us, like it plays with its food, waiting for the right time to pounce. And she's in Foulson's. Whatever it is in Fulcens. Whatever it is, I think it's heartbeats and Cyril. Is there anyone else we can count down? Zafferine I would trust her with my life That's it Everyone else I trusted is dead Now I'm choosing to trust in you

And I'm hoping that my trust is not misplaced But I'm going to be frank I don't have much of a choice What's about in other towns Could we get word out? For help Good luck, finding anyone in the other towns Who hasn't succumbed to the sickness

Or hasn't gone mad The only place where people are still Within their right minds of Cyril Venture out see it for yourself, see it with your own eyes. The horror of it, it's far more than the words I have in my vocabulary would be able to describe to you. The absolute horror of what the rest of Balsan's has succumb to. The few that are in their right mind have journeyed to Cyril bringing they're sick and they're dead.

The rest we pretend don't exist. We have had a glimpse and it is dire, as you say. I think we best be getting back to Ciro what that gross old hag said in the minds is not sitting right with me. The last of the witches in the city is going to die or something. I forget what she said. Does anyone remember her saying that? I remember who's saying a lot of things.

Oh, I'm going to do. I'm just saying a lot of things. I'm just saying if I care about her but I can't remember Oh, Zephyrene! I care about her. If Ms. Mirabelle is in danger, we should hurry on back and not dally any longer.

Yes, I agree. I believe that Zephyrine is in danger as long as she's residing within Cyril. I don't know. Maybe that's what she meant. I don't trust her brother one lick. Not at all. And I think if the opportunity

eternity arose and he had to choose between continuing to pull the wall over his his flock's eyes. Harmon his sister he chooses flock and he chooses power. I have no doubt. I agree with the on that. A lot of work to do. It's best to be good. Do you need any help getting back to your house? I'm not gonna leave here for at least a few hours. I need some more rest and I need a good belly full of food. So I'm plenty here. Take whatever you need. There's extra rations of jerking and you can take it with you to your place.

I'm gonna find myself in Sleep Sweeten Grace for a bit and then I'll make my way to my house. And I do feel that I'll be safe there as long as you remain true to your word. Probably just a name at the top of the witch list. What? Do you guys ever look into William Van Braun? Does he really untrust what are you?

You see as she runs her tongue around her mouth for a moment and she spits into the corner of the room. We'll get to him. William Van Brunt is a menace on Cyrillian society. He'll do whatever he needs to do to keep his gaggle of fans at his feet. He's nothing but a narcissistic pest. He'll lie. cheat and steal to get what he wants. He's been a thorn in my side since

the day I met that man. God. But just to be clear, to be clear, I don't, I don't think he's got enough smarts in him to be of value to a higher power. He's simply a nuisance and a pest. Oh, God.

I will say, however, it would behoove you not to get on his bad side. Not because I don't think you can take him. What? Because I think that it is one distraction you don't need at the current time. And if he thinks that taking you down will award him some sort of victory, he'll be the first person lying against your behalf. If you catch what I'm saying.

And he'll do his, he is very well loved and liked by serilians alike. And if he has the chance to turn the entire city of Cyril against you, he'll do it. I filed that on a list of things that we've seemed to jump the gun on. A little five man you can take him. You look like the kind of man that could take 20 commoners on at once. Well, provided there are a single file a line. Who may? Well, we hope you rest up and it's Wolf's for supper.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, I'll take my hat and I'll tell you. Well, it's been a pleasure to make your witchy, you call. This is your hand. Oh, right. Oh, my wrist between my fingers, the old time. It's been a pleasure. It's been a pleasure. I'm glad.

Thank you for saving us. We'll do our best to make our wrongs right and we'll help you save the focus, zero. They seem like good folk, if misguided it a little. We'll do our best. Oh, I appreciate it. I need to get some sleep. Let me quickly drop a map for you

and how to get to my, My hut should you need to find me? Like I said, keep this secret. Keep it safe. Actually, I'll do it this way. And she quickly draws up a map, and it's clearly written out in that same runic language. And as she folds it up, she passes her wooden trinket to you. Keep it secret.

Keep it safe. But that's fine. Thank you. Well, with any luck and with a little bit of, with a little bit of convincing you could be one of us we'd be in greatly in need of someone of your skill

I've been watching you Farron and you've got a lot more power than you think you do my girl you know that also just keep in mind tenant number two always aid I don't follow your tenets but I'll take it under consideration

I mean it's just generally good advice and for what it's worth you don't stink Farron and you smell the sweet smell of the earth, of the Mother Earth. A little misty. Me too. And I'll just nod and start the inside of an asshole. Well, you do, Jorghum, but Fahrenheit's it well with the smell of moss and...

Asshole works for me. Bye. Bye. To loo. And with that, you finish talking. she goes back to sleep, you leave her some food, and you begin heading towards Cyril. You know, I had suspicions about her

when the house caught on fire, and instead of alerting anyone, she just ran away. But when she said all that stuff about William Van Bruch, she really brought me back around. Wait a second. You really know what you're talking about. Okay. I can go out. Make fun of William

and just completely screw you over. It's going to be like three hours in game time that you're going to then immediately go back against what she said and then try to fight him again. I would. Yeah. I would.

I would. I could. I cannot wait until William Van Bruns stays our asses. I, look, you know how I feel about this whole thing? I still think that this is, Nikki's portrayal of this character has been,

it's one of the greatest because he's so hateable. He's such an asshole. But I think she's, I think she's honest, He's gonna do something amazing with this character. I really do. I think he's a great character.

I think he's absolutely fantastic. Any character that really pushes your buttons like that, you know, is a good character. You have said your goodbyes to Maggie. You wash as she talked herself back in after eating a hearty meal of a wolf meat breakfast burrito. And she, I'm sure it was, with some home-style fries. A little pico de gallo.

Fresh pico de gallo from the garden out back. Oh, thanks, man. And you begin to make your way through the forest. I did you eat any of that. I had more goop. Of course you do. I know this. You only hunted the wolf for your friends.

That's exactly right. And the sweet-ass pelt. Which you do still have. It has dried overnight and so it's no longer, the leather on the inside is starting to harden and it is functioning as a really nice a, uh, are you just supermanning with this wolf pelt? Yeah, basically.

Yeah. Like a real situation. Um, you, you, you, took some of the bones and bleached them in the fire, and you have them hanging from your staff. You are pretty cool. You've added a couple of the sharp teeth to the necklace around your neck.

And you're just adding it to your collection. But with that, you are making your way through the forests, and you are familiar with this path at this point. This is the third time that you've made this track. And you go ahead and make a group survival check for me to see how quickly you make your way through, blah, blah, blah. Oh, wow. Lethica dead.

Mine's pretty pretty much. Survival? I got a 14. Survival? Mm-hmm. Same, 14. 15. 5.

Oh, here we go. 22. The base consumes you. 14. I'm playing with that. All right. Lethica is still a little distracted from having died to the previous day, but the rest of you,

Get over. Get over. Seriously. It was yesterday. Shut up, you guys. But the rest of you are able to help where she is failing and you're able to make haste through the forest.

And you keep your eyes and ears out for pigeons, centipedes, weasels, as well as the beast that stalks the woods. At one point, you hear what sounds to be the crying, pained bleats of a baby lamb. And as you listen in that direction, it quickly fades as if it had never been, but you see nothing,

though the sound lingers for a while. Gosh, I think that there's a little wounded lamb over there. And we're not going to have told you because we were warned against that. Oh, that's right. I mean, I guess rules of nature, survival of the fittest and all. Well, and also the warning that we received about tricks, about how it's not for you. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. We don't want to...

We don't want to steal the meal out of the jaws of a wolf. Anyway. And you continue to make your way, and you eventually find your way spilling out of the forest proper and back on to the dirt road that leads to Cyril itself. and it takes about four more hours of travel along the road before you finally make it towards the gates.

Oh, gosh. Remember four hours ago when you were talking about stealing a meal out of the jaws of the wolf? I should have said this back then. I just thought of this. We made a meal out of the jaw of a wolf. I just wanted everyone who... I'll take the head of my palmy.

Oh, gosh, I didn't know you were a puppeteer. That was not one of my specialties. Can you teach me? No, don't get used to it. Well, if I'm not used to, that means it'll be a treat and a surprise every time, Mr. Well, that's a spirit. Now, what did she gave us that map? Mm-hmm.

She did. And that's just to show you how to get to her hut from Cyril. Presumably, before we got right to the gates of the city. Where do we want to hide this to keep it safe? Hell, shell, bag. That's a pretty good idea. Can I give this to you? I would

recommend that we keep the runic lens also a secret. I'm happy to take the map, but do we think that we'll need it quickly if we need it again, or...

And I would say she called it her witch's eye, so you know it to be a witch's eye. Lethika, where's the you are here on the map? It's... Oh! Okay, good, good. Does it move as we move?

Because that would be awesome. It's just like the Marauders map. So you see their little feet with you on there just walking around. And you see that pacing inside the cathedral is Archbishop Danton-Rinalt. Oh, damn. I'll fold up the map. That doesn't happen. It's not the Marauders' map.

Don't you hold on to that? And I'll tie this onto my person. With all the bones and shit that I carry around, no one of my gosh. It's true, it's true, no one will. Is that you easily tie it to your staff and it's like trinkling there next to fetishes and bones and all kinds of shit? Literal shit, I just, anything, I find.

Yeah, there's a hardened cow patty just swinging. You think we are going to be searched or captured. Remind me to tear up this map. Bag. The arm reaches out and grabs the map and pulls it down with it. It's like those hands in Super Mario 3, they grab you in the fucking last world.

I know, I know it. I get that reference. And it is at this point that you are facing the gates to the city. Marius, are you going to take care of the politics of it, talking to the inquisitor? Yes. My suggestion was going to be we find a way to meet with Zephyene in a secure place where we can explain everything and talk to her,

but I assume that the High Inquisitor will send for me, and if she doesn't, then I'll have to arrange a meeting or something. It's been about three days, by the way, since you left. My plan... I think that checks. ...was to tell the High Inquisitor that Maggie was already dead in the minds, and that I brought the ring back as proof. All right.

She told us to go in and out of that. I saw an entrance down, right? Is that the gate that we're in? Was the beauty left out of? Yes. She didn't want you to be seen by the guards. A half a mile away. Like, we're like, we're seeing like,

it's not like the gate is right here and you're leaning up against it, just like, Hey, hey, hey, hey. Please no, listen to what we're saying. How do we get away with this? How do we get away with this? And your father smil the wilderberries. Um, um,

I would propose you go a step farther, rather than finding her in mind that we fought, that we killed Maggie. They already believe we brought. We keep wanting to say Zendaya, I'm so sorry. That we brought Kazaya to them. And as you look up, you see a man in a red and black suit, it's skin tight, this strange plasticy material

as he's crouched down on this. the city and you see as he reaches out and this strange white magic shoots out of his wrists as he swings from parapet to parapet. Oh, that goes. Well, Hugo lost a lot of weight. I think he stole some guts of pizza.

It's pizza time. Pizza's Italian, not French. You know, after I, you know, I made major images with that car, you think they'd be done? What'd you're making them? Oh. All right, you know, I think that's a fantastic plan.

We fought through Maggie to get to the hag. Do we mention the hag at all? We're just saying that it was... I'm talking about this matter of time. Do we just say that it was Maggie, and that we defeated her alone, and that it is done, and the evil has been vanquished? Is it not a gamble? We don't know the High Inquisitor's allegiances yet.

She sent us to the mine. That's exactly right. We never told her about the weasel hag, did we? So suddenly there's a hag and she's expecting McDuff. We should keep it consistent with what her expectations are. You were the one who spoke with her last. It's been months. Tell me in the exact detail what she said.

For a lot of characters, I don't think we told her anything. You didn't. I would say it was. very clear to you that she was trying to get you to give up information and you didn't. I got the chance. So what she ended up doing was just asking

you to bring her back any anything that seemed pertinent or important. Yeah, well, I got some Maggie McDuff Liver. My recollection is that all of like the evil that we alluded to in the crooked house was due to the lady, Lady Lockwood.

Yeah. And not like there was a horror Weaselhag in the attic and there's a horrible effigy. No, I don't think you told anybody that you saw those things. Yeah, okay. Except for Philip. All right. All right, this is the, this is the way to go for sure.

We believe in you. You will do fine. I can certainly handle myself, in worst case scenario. I'll never see any of you again. So he's a thing. Why you laugh with Mary's? Nothing. No, please. Continue. He's a thing.

What if we're like, oh yeah, we just killed. Maggie McDuff Here's her ring And then she sends somebody to mine And they find a corpse of this gigantic bloated hag But maybe we can say Oh that was Maggie Macduff

But then she'd be like What did you mention that she was disgusting anus hag? So what I will say is it was decaying and deteriorating so quickly that you imagine Even by now it's probably just returned to the goopence of me There are no remains of that

That's the reason you couldn't bring back A part of the hag to show that you had. Oh, God, I think we'll be far. It was like an N64 event. The entire bottom of your satchel is covered in like disgusting rotting goop and it's actually dripping onto the ground.

That's right there. I think we'll be fine. No one is going to go check this out. And even if the High Inquisitor herself visits that mine, I think we have a basis covered. Just tell her about the no-yth. It's Templar. It's a purple.

Yeah, their next number. I'm sure she will ask what happened to the rest of the guard, and I will tell her an excruciating detail. Maybe I'm going to say. And we'll talk to Zephyrine first, and if she has any other insight, then that'll make your case even more informed. Agreed.

All right. We're ready. Let's get back in there. Let's get back to Cyril. We're on the road to Cyril, aboard the Virgil Express. And you make your way towards the side entrance to Cyril that you had switched the music to Cyril.

Oh, the Ghostlight Express Guard. That was a really big mis-opportunity. But no, he's not even here. I miss my own friend. You make your way back towards Cyril, and you make your way into the gates. And it is far louder than you remember it being. It's busier.

And you hear shouts and screams. as you quickly hop to and make your way to the streets, and you see horrors unfold in front of you. Mass hysteria, mass panic. You see people strung up and hung on lamp posts. You see bodies strewn throughout the streets. You hear people screaming and yelling at each other. You see people who are boarding up their houses and locking themselves inside for fear that they too will be accused of being away.

And it is everywhere, all over, as strange mass guards who clearly carry the sigils and the iconography of Fultus march throughout the streets, dragging people towards the jail. You see people running out and shoving friends and family members in front of them claiming this is a witch, he is a witch, they are a witch. and off towards the distance you see William Van Brunt as standing next to, no, he is standing next to a makeshift gallows and you see as he is standing between two clearly deceased people

who have been hung on these gallows as he flexes his muscles in between them as one of his lackeys paints the image of him having captured these witches. And you see, a group rallied around him cheering. Billy caught the witches, Billy the witch slayer, Billy the Witches Bain. And everybody is so proud and honored to be in his presence as they

memorialize this moment. And you even, as you're passing by, the throng of people around him are too many for you to get close, though you want to. You would not be safe to attempt to accost him at this moment. But you hear someone say how excited they are that Billy is going to be hanging this painting up in his living space.

That it will go above the mantel, above the hearth, above the mantelpiece in his home to commemorate the day that Billy slew the witches. Yorba was preparing to make a long, impassioned speech about

forgiveness and thinking about how you've been thinking a lot about this, that brunt fellow, and perhaps maybe you need to let things go. But now I realize this man must face justice. Or a warm. A monster is like scary. Just call him like a warm or a gross bug. I fear my crazy a monster.

You hear him call out, Jonathan. Try to get them in motion and he pushes the body so that they swing a little bit as he flexes. How about that? Can my lantern shoot spectral arms of death? Your order my... I appreciated the poetry with which you were trying to create the parallel between calling a monster hunter. He wasn't lost on me. And all the while that this is happening, there are still the screaming and the crying and the panicked sounds.

The sounds of people boarding up their homes. The sounds of people being dragged from their houses screaming and crying up. I'm not a wish. I'm innocent. I'm innocent. All the while, the bells of the cathedral are tolling. What the fuck happened? How long were we gone?

About three days. Three days? Oh, geez. Something else happened? A lot of old footage got burned. There was seven of old footage we didn't know about. I need you all to roll a perception check. I got a 17.

I'm out of 20. 15. 11. I'm blinded by rage. Okay. You only got eyes for Billy right now. Farron and Marius, you are, Marius, you're attempting to calm down Yorgram, who's nearly in a complete fit over the scene that he's seeing.

The absolute, disgusting scene that William Van Brunt is putting on here. The desecration of these bodies, as they're put on display, as if they were never people to begin with. Just sick human trophies for this man's pleasure. As you try to quell his rage, Farin hears a noise just faintly under the cacophony of voices around, and you see out of the corner of your eye as she turns to look. And creeping down an alleyway, you see a shadowy figure,

a scrawny young boy, as skinny Dudley darts out of an alleyway and rushes towards you and he the rest of you don't notice as he slides behind you Marius and within earshot of you

Farron and you hear him say Mr. Marius I may have done an oopsie what is it now Dudley and as he says this the rest of you are alerted

to Dudley's presence. Um, can we go back in that little alleyway there we have a little bit of privacy, please? If you promised to answer one of my questions when we're done. Yep, sure will, Mr. Marius. But I think you should let me get out

what I need to say first if you don't mind. We don't think we need to go back in an alley. No, I think we... Look at the case around here. You flush your mouth, boy. I can handle this if you'd like. Fine. Going to come with me, sir.

sir. I'll just be but a moment. Yes, please. Leave the way. The little fellow. And he will. Pain in the ass is what he is. It's all my fault. And you're going to be real mad when I'm done, follow me. Probably. And he's going to lead you into... I'll follow. And he shrinks down

besides a stack of, like, wooden crates and kind of tries to hide himself in the shadows. You know, I don't know if you know this, but I was right mad at you for having your visit with the High Inquisitor. I fancied myself in love with her. And I have to say that outright first, sir, because it explains why I did what I did.

You understand? And I mean, you had a meeting with her so you know how charming and irresistible she can be, right? And you see as he's like sniveling and he looks very, very, very upset. What did you do, Dudley? She told me that I was doing, I was doing good by her that I was helping, you know, and even though it was witchcraft,

that it was the good kind of witchcraft, you know what I mean? Anyway, she had me, and he reaches towards his bucket, the bucket he always carries. And you see as it's empty, no, the wood is a little stained with the dirty mop water that was in it and the different things that he would carry around in it. He notches his finger in a small little crevice and removes a secret bottom and sitting in the very small part of it, or in the secret part of it, are four witchballs. She told me if I, you know, if I just put these where she said that they would keep people safe

and they weren't the people who they were left of the beds they were left under, were starting to, you know, come up dead or be accused of witchcraft. And when I told her about my fears, especially, you know, after what happened at the Mirabelle house, the small, And all of a sudden, you watch as he begins to turn purple, and he begins to choke, and you see as his eyes start rolling back in his face, and he starts shaking, and he's trying to get words out and he can't, as out of his throat erupts a pigeon. Just the head at first, as it turns and looks towards you, and he looks down, and he starts

shaking and crying, and he's trying to get words out. But out of his windpipe, this pigeon's head has shot forward, and he cannot form words anymore. And as the pigeon's head turns all the way around and looks at him, his entire head explodes where he stands. And feathers fly this way in that as the rest of his body slinks to the ground. And you see out of the hole where his head had been, one, two, three, four, five pigeons fly up into the air as they flap and look at you, almost in unison as their heads turn this way and that. And though they are pigeon heads, there's no human head on them, there are no human hands. They look at you as if they almost have ascensions. And though they have a beak and they cannot do it,

they look as if they're smiling as they all fly up into the air and scatter throughout the city. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to, like, cradle his body and, like, pick him up and inspect him. No, no, no, no, no. What? Do we see this? If you were watching down the alleyway,

you would see that Dudley collapsed and you'd hear Marius, but I would say you're not close enough to see, that his head exploded and all of that. I hear you Mary's cry out, I'd run towards him in. I would say that would easily be enough to distract you from William Van Gogh. You guys rush in. I will be staying at the mouth of the alley and just making sure that they're following. Bits of like brain and blood and blood.

So as soon as I have him in my arms and as soon as I realize that my hands and arms and chest are coated in his blood, I drop the body. and I take several steps back. I would say I need you to make a Constitution saving throw at disadvantage. I'm trying to wipe it off as quickly as I can. The D.C. The D.C. is pretty low, but I still want you to make it. Con a disadvantage?

Yeah. Okay, not bad. It's going to be a nine plus. Okay. The D.C. was 10. I got an 11. Okay. So you are able to steal yourself so that you're not consumed by hunger that you want to.

Are you all right? No. What happened? Who did this? What did this? Marius, he was just a little boy. What did he do? Is it a lover's quarrel?

He's... Did she just continue with Merrick's lovers with a little boy? No, God. He's a screaming like... Oh, For sleeping with the high. Various blew up his brain. With my mind.

Oh my God, Kelsey. For writing Mr. Delthy's Quixer in a book. She's mine! I determined in that moment. I determined in that moment. Go to the shame corner, Kelsey. I'll see myself. It's just pierce the nails and we're

You know, it's really hard to just be a serious actor. I heard that you like the High Inquisitor, Dudley. I will be frantically trying to wipe the blood off of myself, futile. He was, he began to tell me something about the, about the, a pigeon came out of his throat and his head. Pigeons. It was as if he couldn't, as soon as he began to tell me something,

he died. Instantly, the pigeons erupted from his, he was, he was tasked by the High Inquisitor to hide the witch balls in people's homes under their beds, framing people and as he began to tell me more about it he believed that what the high inquirits was having him do

was for the good of the city and clearly they were setting these people up to claim that they were witches but whatever curse he had on him prevented him from speaking what was he going to say what was he saying

when he was his person and exploded. The last thing that he said was after what happened this morning at the Mirabelle's house. And that's when. I was completely shocked. And even there he probably didn't hear it. Surely uttering these words in this moment

will mean that your head will explode. Yeah. Yeah. He said something had happened this morning at the Mirabelle's house. We might be too late. We need to go now. We have to hurry.

We can't waste a single second. Oh, Bethander, please. clean my hands. I'm going to like search through my, my pack for water and try to clean, like, well, so you're easily able to clean yourself off enough. There's still bits remaining as it was quite the explosion. This is by far the most shaken you've seen me

as I'm covered in this child's blood. But you're at least, you're able to make yourself presentable enough that anyone's seeing you on the street wouldn't immediately notice that you're covering in someone. We've got a gun. We've got to pick you off. Yes. But you're close.

All right. All right. I'm with you. Do we have a bit of cloth. Can't just leave him here. Yeah, we can. We can. He's afraid of people.

I kick his body. I cringe. I like cringe and bite my tongue. Fuck this kid. Let's go. He's right. We're doing the time. I see your point.

I see Briggs. I'm a very confused and conflicted skierker right now. I'm just going to follow you out. There are bodies littering the streets. There's nothing we can do. I don't share the sentiment, but we've got to go. I would say it wouldn't seem wholly out of place. with some of the horrible things that you've seen since reentering zero his his body is not the

only one with his head fucking exploded by pigeons we don't know that dark alley you don't know that everyone else just hanging from a freaking hanging post beer i will you're gonna miss it does this campaign make you emotional mace i'll steady myself on briggs as we begin to rush towards the meal mirror bell's gonna be okay mary it's gonna be I'm at the mouth of the alley and I'm just like giving them the hand and just like, you catch me up on the way. I don't know what happened, but help me understand. And it is, and it is, it is with some hesitation, but you are able to convince your grim to follow along with you as you rush through the streets of Cyril. You are

able to catch Lethaca up on the way as you dart down a dark alley after dark alley, trying to stay from the main thoroughfare of the city. And though you don't know this city that well, you've been through it enough that even though you take a couple of wrong turns here or there, you are able to eventually find your way to the Mirabelle's house. And it takes about, I don't know,

Dudley's head. Who has the witch balls? You hear you have the witch balls, right? Dude, I'm a mess. We can talk about it later. I wouldn't even thought to. You do eventually. find yourselves at the Mirabelle's house.

And you, the scene that you are met with is one that you were not wholly expecting, though it was one that you had feared. The front door of the house has been clearly smashed in by an incredibly large fist. There's only one person in this city that you've met that could make this kind of destruction in the house. As it barely hangs on to its one hinge, you see that there are bits of food and other things that have spilled out of the front of the house. And it is completely quiet, almost eerily quiet.

And you slowly make your way into the front door, and you are met with a scene of horror. The kitchen has been completely destroyed. There is blood everywhere. And lying in the very center is Francois Mirabelle, clearly dead, his face completely smashed in by an incredibly large fist. Laying limply in his hand is a small kitchen knife which he clearly used to try and protect himself in his family.

No life remains in his eyes. And behind him, shaking and silent with fear in her eyes, is Colette Mirabelle, covered in her father's blood as she rocks back and forth and cries and stares at you. She says no words as she shakes and stares blankly out of the door at all of you. You can tell that she jumped a little as your presence entered. as your shadows entered the door for fear that it was more horror and more trauma. And as she recognizes all of you, she does not smile, she does not say a word, she just continues to shake as she holds her teddy bear in her hands and rocks back and forth. You watch and you stare and it's quiet, eerily, eerily quiet.

As the silence is broken by the sound of a strange calling, as all of you turn and look and perched, On the door that's partially removed from the frame is an incredibly large pigeon with the face of a human and human hands where talon should be. As it smiles at you with its human face, it alights into the air and flies over the city. And that is where we'll end the session. Holy fucking shit. We're Franco. You got to give it up.

Oh, my God. I'm so upset. I'm so upset. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventras podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to, become a member of our Patreon at the Pearl Dolphin Tier or higher to unlock Shroud of Her Saltmarsh,

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