Legends of Avantris - Edge of Midnight | Ep. 29 | Dead Men of Druskenvald

Episode Date: January 28, 2025

Ambushed in a hedge maze, our heroes scramble to save themselves from an undead horde...   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/GMU2vZx7pTc?si=s2RLx4RiZ98hlE9u

Welcome to Legends of Adventress. I'm Lefekega Nightbourne, and you're listening to Edge of Midnight. Here's what happened last time. The moon shining down over these beautiful towering hedges that lead out to what is very clearly a hedge maze. They're dotted with different flowers, and it's all quite beautiful to behold. It sounded big. Okay, but that Hell-Hound statue is making me a little bit uncomfortable. I don't like its eyes.

Are you noticing that they're getting a little more concentrated? Sounds of a pipe organ are carried on by the wind, coming up off of the furthest parts of the moors, a soft minor tune. There's a strange flickering orange light just hovering inside the entrance to the barrow, almost held aloft by mist. Yorghum, is that you?

Your grim, is that you? Your voice echoes. And then the soft, confident, feminine laughter as all of a sudden those two lights erupt, and you see what is very clearly a giant jackalander in the very center of this room. A veritable horde of whites bear down on you. The funny thing about commanding the dead is that at the end of the day, death has no master. You might be able to walk beside it, briefly embrace it, or coax it with a sweet word for a time.

But when enough time passes, death always comes with a will of its own, even for the deathless. It is in this moment that you are looking around you beneath the largest and oldest barrow in possibly the oldest part of the Morse, the oldest part of Droskenwald, the place where Philip Druskenwald houses his most ancient and his most loyal of his deathly servants. And it is here that you see the mists spiraling in around you and corrupting that very dead. You remember, the way they had looked when you had seen them marching forward commanded by Philip himself. But the way that they are advancing on you now is not at all the way that they had looked. The greens and blues, that deathly hue that you're so familiar with during your time spent

with your friend Yorgrim, that coloration fading from them is it's replaced by grays and blacks, more sickly green, muted coloration. You see that the mist slightly dulled infuses them as wraiths propel forward towards you. Not one, not two, but four large wraiths rushing towards you. They rush through you. You feel the coldness of them

as they take up the space that you're in before they bound backwards and begin to surround you. I need you all to roll for an issue. Oh, let's go. Let's use my brand new D-20. Yeah, I'm using my dice. Cut. Biggity doll.

Oh, not bad. 12 plus one is a 13. I'm not playing porous today. I have to roll them. I can't roll this giant die in my dice trick. Oh, it doesn't fit through the whole. No, it doesn't. Legica.

Pregica. Pregsica. Does how many versions of Briggs here? Many. Many. It's fucking many. I don't. Torbacks all over the place.

20 to 25. 20. Not this guy. 15 to 20. 18. I have door provision. You crazy. I have Dorifusion. I got 13. I got a 12. Look that.

That's fine. It's a fine role. What did you get, Marius? 13. And he got a hole. So we're actually right in the right order. Exactly the way you need to be. If we want, if you guys want to draw with our new markers,

A large circle, maybe about 100 feet. No, that's too big. Probably about 60. We don't have any, I don't think that we have any floppy-clopies. I'm so bad. How big is 100 feet? Big. Oh, no, no, no, no.

20 squares, 20 squares. Because each one is five feet. Yeah, 60's probably. You want 60s? You want 60 for a circle? Yeah, yeah. Are we in the entrance, are we closer to the bed? You are closer towards, I would say, yeah.

Where's Adela? Adela is standing with you, and we'll get to that in a minute. Where are the wraiths in comparison? Do we need a mini first? The race they're entering in, they'd entered in through the entrance, they're now surrounding.

Do we need a mini for Adela? That would be fine. She's not going to be a combatant. Your nears a perfect menu for Adela. Of all the minis that you could have been, it should be one more stone. Oh, did I say four? I thought you said four, yeah.

That's possible. Well, we'll do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good queenie in there for Adela. We don't need a mini for Adela. She's an NPC. She's the Natasha of this. Real wonderful when I'm talking.

Oh, yeah. As these rays or whites or these ghostly entities begin to swarm around you, you feel Adela there next to you. She is small and cold and scared, and you hear her muttering under her breath. words of affirmation as she steps forward and tries to gain some of the confidence that you're so

used to seeing from her as she calls out. Oh gosh, you ghosties, I know that Phil's not here, but when he's not here, you know I'm in charge, so back down. This is ridiculous. Back to your barrows. What are you doing? And they immediately rush forward, completely ignoring her. She lets out a scream and jumps behind you. She, I don't know what's gonna. Sadella said that you should go to sleep now. They continue to bear down on you. She lets out another squeal and rushes towards the very back

of the room and presses her body in a small alcove. She's surrounded by skulls and bones embedded into the earth of this, of this cavern. And she begins to just shrink down. She is. she reaches up and touches her earrings and then attempts to communicate through a ring. It's not one.

And at this point, they are almost completely on top of you. Lethika, it is your turn. I will. We've long rested since our last. Yeah. I believe so, yeah. We had a nice. I think I'm good to go.

I'll yell out. Creatures of darkness. heed your master's words. Listen to her. Return to your places of rest. Whatever irres you, we are not your enemies. And I will ready my action. If they or any of them approach,

then I will cast a spiritual weapon to defend myself. Okay. They... Spirit guardians, I should say. They seem completely unmoved by the words that you spew at them. as they continue to inch ever forward. They loom over you.

All the while, that pumpkin that you had seen in the very center, the eyes, the jack-a-lantern, the eyes glowing with a very similar light, almost mirroring the glow of the mist, that greenish blue but now desaturated, more grayish, more lacking in vibrancy, as it grew, pulses.

I'll also mention if that affects the behavior of the wraiths. It doesn't seem to. That I appear to be Adela. I still have the disguised cell phones. Jericho. I will hold my banjo and I'll say

I'll keep saying Miss Adela, it is your birthday. Get out of here, you fucking free-loading spirits. Get out of here. I'm going to cast Bain in a second. level on all four of them. They must make charisma saving throw, each one of them. I will have them make separate charisma saving throw.

The first one's in 18. Okay, passes. 16 is the same. See? The second one's going to fail. Okay. That failed. Passed, failed. I'm gonna turn off all.

I might, okay, I need a new pen. I was like, I can't figure why it keeps chirping at me. And what's the, you said charisma? Okay, so that's, So that's a 14, so that's going to fail. That's bained. And another 18. So two and three have bane.

Two and three have been. Don't we have that? Derek, behind you, next to Mikey's giant sack of dice, is the condition markers. So bane. Bain. Yeah, here's the condition markers. Does Bain affect saving throws?

Just attack rolls. Saving throws as well, I believe. Yeah. Attack rolls and saving throws. How many bane would you care? Two. You need to. Here and here. Bain. And then I am going, I'm just going to stay there. Okay, return. Oh, and then I'll bonus action. Who's next in the order? Marius. I will say, I always keep saying, Marius ain't a fucking freeloader. He's the little red hen. He's a big red hen. He's not really ahead. He's moving that guy because it's a vampire. Anyway, here you go. Bargaping. Yes, is it 1D8? Thank you. Yep. And with that, they rush forward towards you.

Each one of them, almost encroaching on your space so incredibly close to you as they hover in the air. And when they're this close, you can hear their howling whales. And it's looking up into their ghostly faces. You see that their eyes milky in death look almost hasted, almost control their world. very clearly being controlled in some way as they rush towards all of you and they are all going to attempt to attack. I cannot, number one is gonna attack whoever's in front of them.

I think number one is this guy. Yeah, Briggs. Briggs. And he is not baneed. He's going to miss with his first attack. Oh my God. It's a miracle. And with his second attack of 14.

Oh my God. He misses. He's gonna miss with both of his attacks. It's terrible, it's terrible. Number two is going to attack. That's Lethica. It's Bain. That's a natural 20, but he's Bain.

Nope, Bain doesn't affect it. It hits. It doesn't affect natural 20. Even though he rolls. It doesn't affect. Oh, it's not disadvantaged. It's just minus four. Or minus a D4.

And then a 20 is a crit. Mine Spirit Guardian of triggers. Does a 17 hit for whoever is on. on number two. That's Lelthaca. 17 to hit? Yes. Yes.

Okay, so get the crit. I thought the natural 20 was on me. Go on Ter. It's the head of your ass. It is these two attacks. Fuck. Yeah. Classic.

Miss fucking cobwebs over here. Classic Lephe's over here. With the long sword. Don't worry, I'll save you, my dear. It rises up this spectral blade, and you watch as it sinks the blade deep into Lethika's body. Oh, for.

casting it at the hilt doing. That hurt. Oh. My dress. I'm running the wrong one. My gooies. Doing 17 points of damage as the long sword sinks into you. The other attack, it reaches out with one of its claws

and rends your flesh doing. Is the Crip? No, the other one was the Crip. That was set. Doing three points of necrotic damage, and I need you to make a constitution saving throw. I'm sure that you keep in concentration. Yeah, I need to do both of those things.

So here's the constitution. I'm sorry, constitution saving. Constitution first. Yeah. Natural 20. Okay. Plus whatever, 23. And. You could, you're using your reaction to trigger it.

You could get hit and then do it. So you're not in concentration. I love that idea. That's right. Ah, yeah. I have an idea. I got a plan. I got a plan. And then number three, who is number three?

Number three is on MERS. MERS. He's bane as well. Yes, he's bained. Yeah, I have that written down. That is going to be... Sure, you do one of these. And where is it?

Where is it? 13 to hit. That misses. Both of them were 13. The other one was 12 to hit. So both of those are going to miss, and then number four is on Jericho. That's correct.

And then both of their attacks are more than likely going to hit. I got a 17. It's a 20 for the lowest. Oh! Oh, that was with Bain, but he's not. I'm sorry, I called you a free loader. Oh! And he is also going to, you see as he raises up his long sword

and attempts to run you through with that, doing 10 points of damage. and then taking his other hand with his claws out stretched and raking across your flesh doing six. Six points of necrotic damage and I need a constitution, or a... I certainly failed a con saving throw. Yeah, con saving throw.

I got a six. You got a six. You are also, your HP is reduced by the amount you just took. Which was six. That's no good. I'm glad I avoided that. Good grief. All four of them need to make wisdom saving throws

as my spirit guardians triggers. Clean and spring and chuckles and busy. Number one fails. Number two fails. Number three fails. And number four passes. Okay. And including Bain, is that saving throws or is it?

Number four doesn't have Bain and the one that had Bain already. The ones that failed are going to take eight points of radiant damage and the ones that succeeded take half as much. Good? Okay, perfect. We're gonna need it. You're gonna do what?

I said I got a plan, we're gonna need it. My plan is no go. They don't seem to care or they can sense that I'm left ago. Well, they're speaking go, so they've never made sense. Your spirit guardians appear before you and lash out at these ghostly entities as they swarm you. And it seems to do quite a bit of damage,

but they are unhindered. They seem unbothered by this as they continue to bear down on you feverishly. What do they look like? What does spirit guardians look like in your face? I think it's just like a swooping aura of like shadow. Yeah, that's what I was picturing too.

Exactly right. Almost like faceless dementers, just like just the right, right? Yeah, yeah. Flowing shapes of darkness. That's exactly right. That's exactly what I was picturing. Yeah, cool.

I figured it was either that or a bunch of floating chakrums and that just seems silly. Yeah. And with that is Mary's, this one. All right, I'm going to start by making two attacks on number three, which is bained. The lowest I got is a 16. That hits.

Beautiful. I will use one. I'll use one of my attacks to divine smite just at a first level. So that's gonna be 1d8, 2d8, 4D8 for two attacks. Wait, wait, I'm sorry, it's not, it's 2D8 for the smite, but the attacks are 1D10s because I'm using a... You're dual ribbons. Yes.

Double hand. You're double fisting. That's right. Oh wow. That was actually really good. So for two and... attacks with one smite that's gonna be 10 plus 17 is 27 plus 10 is 37 points of damage over two attacks. As my sword glows this bright red and as I'm hacking through this wraith the red magic almost solidifies a little bit like it's leaving blood behind. It's not the rate's blood but it's blood coming from almost coming from the sword.

You slice through this wraith and you watch as its body completely tears to ghostly shreds. The almost coagulated reddish mist that spills off of your blade falls almost like rose petals to the ground as so does this white. As you watch as it completely, this small core inside of it begins to pull. and then explode in that ghastly light, showering you all for just a second in this mist as you watch this white vanish from existence. Awesome. A ghostly howl echoing among the barrows.

As a bonus action, after I see this creature drop, I will turn over my shoulder and with my right hand, I will point at the white that is attacking Lathick and I will say, stay away from her, dole me, and I will cast compel duel on it. And it has to pass a wisdom-saving thrill of 15. Okay, it is bane. It's going to fail.

Awesome. So it is disadvantaged on attack roles against creatures other than me, and I have to fight it as well. The spell ends if I deal damage to another creature. So it's disadvantaged against you or against anyone that is not me? It has to fight me.

Or just disadvantaged if it wants to attack somebody else. And it can't move more than 30 feet away from me. Okay. And that's my turn, as I turn to face of this creature. Briggsie. Oh, fuck! Oh, fuck! And I'm like, I get attacked twice. I'm like, dodged to one side, and the sword goes through my hat.

He's a trap! We're going to get out of hand! With my left hand, my left skeletal skeletal hand, I'm going to make a hand motion, and this sort of glowing neon glyph will appear on it as this gigantic cutlass will appear in my hand as I frantically flail for two attacks desperately and scared. On one. On one.

One to natural 20. Gotta give it up. Nine plus three is what? A 12 to hit. 12 to hit misses. Okay. So that is. You were in melee range.

I am in melee range. So you are rolling at disadvantage for these? Are you doing, oh, they're sore. Oh, yes. I'm cutlassing. Gotcha. I don't have any dice. Here, would you like to borrow some of mine

while you look for yours. Here please. Oh, please. I would love to. Also, it's worth noting that my challenge ends if anybody else also damages the target of them. Okay. So that's probably gonna happen pretty quick.

That's fine. 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 19, 21, 19, 21. 24 plus 6 is 30 points of magical flashing. Holy shit, dude. You slash into this, and similarly to what had just happened between Marius and the Spectre, in front of him, you see bits of mist spilling out of the wounds of this entity as it wails and howls and dismay as you slice into its body. It however does not completely burst into

mist in front of you. It is holding on as it leers forward at you. And I'm going to basically in a frantic, I mean, these are literal like, this is like death incarnate, right? I'm just gonna run straight to the door. It will take an opportunity attack. All three of them can. Or at least these two. Yeah, you can run around. Both of them will attempt to make an opportunity

The one will be a disadvantage. And both of them are gonna try and swipe at you with their claws and drain the life of your body. But he's bained, so where is many more? And disadvantaged. Bain. Oh, because of duel. Yeah. Oh, thank God.

You know, two, du, du du du, it's time. 20 to hit for the banged one. Wow. And the other one got a natural one. I wish I had silver bars, but I'm not a little bit. So it is going to do five points of necrotic damage to you, and I need to make a Constitution safer.

Am I resistant to that? Because I'm on account of me being sort of like a zombie? On account of it? No, I'm not. I'm resistant to poison. Five damage and what, what did you say? A con-samey throat. And it reduces. your max reduces by them.

If you fail. 15? 15 succeeds. Nice. Amazing. I need to be a concentration check. Against five damage, I hope so. 13, right? Did you say that's a 13? Yeah, that's a 13.

I pass. Yep, looks good to me. And that is your turn. Lethaca, it is your turn. I will. Oh, that's hilarious. That's very funny. Is it? Yeah, is it, Eric?

Derek, is it? It is very funny. I will step here. Pardon me, Jericho. And I will put out two of my hands in this way. And with an almost sort of silent snap, I will cast a word of radiance. And both this one and this one, I can't see the numbers, need to make a Constitution saving. Three and four.

Oh, sorry. two and four. I apologize, two and four. We're level six. DC's 16. It got us 18 minus two for Vame. 16. That succeeds. And then the other one for rolled in natural nine, so.

Okay, it will take seven points of. This one will take seven. Yes. The other one does take damage? Number four. Yeah. We'll take radiant damage, and then I will take, I will reach down and pull out my chakrum and whip it into the air and cast a spiritual weapon.

It will gleam its sort of silver metal until it turns almost into a perfect black circle like a new moon and then slice down into number four, which means I need to make a spell attack. That's going to be a two, two, 23 to hit. That hits. And so that's going to be... And which number is this? Number two? Number four.

Number four. And I will do nine points of... Force damage. Thank you, Mikey. Well, I loved having spiritual weapon as a warlock, and I was able to do that as a grateful warlock, available only in the Crooked Moon. Pre-order your copy at the Crooked Moon.com.

And enjoy spiritual weapons more. That's very funny. And that will be the conclusion of my turn. You do a significant amount of damage to this looming specter in front of you, but it bears its teeth, it still raises its blade high. You see its nails elongated and razor sharp in death, and it drips with this almost silvery gray blood.

The blood that it swiped at you with, but as it touches its form, it almost changes color, to suit this creature. Interesting. And they continue to bear down on you, Jericho. It's your turn. I'll look at Briggs, and I'll say, Briggs, don't be feared.

Don't be afeard at all. Just pretend that there you're your disapproving father saying that you'll never pass Ketilin. And I'll plug out my strings. The crocs in the cradle with a silver spoon, little boy Briggsie and the hag in the moon. I cast it large on Briggs. Oh!

in you, Barter Inspiration, your size doubles, you become a large creature, and you do an extra 1D4 attack. Nice. One D4, what you call it, either Vantage on strength checks and strength saving. That is my turn. Derek, can I take this? Because I'll just pass out things if we need them.

And it would be cramped almost. Like my head would hit the ceiling, right? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, I don't know how huge his chambers, actually. Oh, that's fair. Wasn't it kind of like the Crips of Winterfell? No, I think you're good. I think you can stretch here and you can just swing your sword around.

Got it. This is you, Jerry? No, it's me. It's me. Or Virgil. Do you feel a little hungry? Yeah, kind of. Do you feel a little secretive?

Yeah, kind of. Yeah, it might be very much. No, no. Is that your whole turn? Is that, yeah. The ground beneath you begins to shake and rumble. Right next to your feet where the looming specter had turned to mist, you begin to see a skeletal ghostly hand.

rise from the very soil beneath your feet as another, ghastly being joins the fray. Okay, right where he died? Mm-hmm. Grand. They all need to make wisdom saving thrones. I'm playing Lefittica's character. Atlantic for, Derek.

Oh, yeah. I'm just extremely distracted by this over here. That's fine. Why are you distracted by? Put it away, Derek. Or is it con? It's a con. It's wisdom.

It's wisdom. It's wisdom. No, it's wisdom. Thank you, Sir Nick. Thank you, sir, next. Number one passes. That's why I'm here. Number two passes.

It should be one, yes, one, two, four, five. Number four passes. Okay. Number five fails. Okay. That's going to be eight, 13 points of damage to the fail and six points to the... Damn it, he's no longer compelled. These spells suck.

We can tweak that. No, it shouldn't break on any damage. on any damage. It's okay. Briggs'i turned into Behioshi from Super Mario RPG. That's what I sound like now. Is our Big Donkey? Where's my god?

You watch as this, as these spectral warriors that are controlled by Lethaca lash out at these other spectral entities. And in doing significant amounts of damage, the one that's directly in front of Briggsie, now enlarged by Jericho's magic. You watch as it completely begins, its body begins to crack and turn in on itself

until in another small blast of mist. This entity is completely eviscerated with Lethitha's magic. And almost immediately, you begin to see an arm rise up out of the soil as another one appears. Number one is, Number one is now being replaced by number six. Should we just flip them over or something?

Just pull the ones that aren't on there. I've got them over here. Okay, if you're keeping track on which one. I am. Okay, sweet. Two, four, five, six. Because that happens before they go and turn, yeah? Yeah, they start over their turn.

Yep. And so they are all going to make their attacks. Number six is on Briggs. That's the newly raised one, he can move in. And that's eight. 18 to hit. So he can get to Briggs if he's got movement. He spawned.

He should have spawned right in front of Briggs. Okay. Oh. Oh. So they can spawn anywhere on the map. Gotcha. My apologies. And so. Yes, I'm occupying the four squares because I'm large.

Do you want to draw around him to denote the squares? Would that help? No, no, I just need a base, because I'll be moving. You're good? Yeah, that's fine. We're good. We got it.

Okay. So his first hit with his long sword is going to hit, and so is his life drain attack. Wait, me? You, yeah. I have an ice see a 19. That's okay, they rolled natural 19s, or he rolled natural 19s. Hmm.

What do you think they're pluses? Four. Boogie Ghost literally erupted in front of me? Well, you only know that because I was nice enough to tell you. So I'm not gonna let you do it on this turn, because you fished that out of me. Fish what out of me? What their plus was, yeah. That's fair.

You know it was a natural 19 and you wouldn't have known that your shield would have worked for that and told you that. Maintain. Next round I would let you. Okay. Four. Six to hit with a long sword. And then you are going to take seven necrotic damage and I need a Constitution saving drug. That's a lot of damage.

I'm trying to go for more like, you know, Mario Kirk 64 years. You know what I mean? I know. I was just doing a stone guy. Con. Uh-huh. Nine. Your hit points are reduced by seven.

Okay. The one on Marience is going to make its two attacks. The first one's a natural one, and then 17 to hit. That hits. That is going to... I'm rolling a D20 and 86. I'm extremely vulnerable. Four points of necrotic damage.

Okay. And a Constitution saving threat, please. 24. You just take the four points of necrotic damage, but you're able to shrug off that you can feel as it slices into you the way that its nails pierce into your skin. There's almost this pulsing sensation.

You don't really have much of a heart, but it feels like the pulse and beat of a heart as it attempts to withdraw the life from you, but you are able to shrug that off as number two is also going to, well no, it's not- He's not compelled anymore, so it's going to, it misses with its long sword, and it is going to be a 17 to hit with a life drain.

On me? Yep. Yeah, my 8th is 15. Jesus. That's why they kill me, six points of necrotic damage and a Constitution saving throw. Yep, a Constitution saving throw, I fail. And you'll take, uh, HP is reduced.

Plus four to save. So six points of necrotic. Six points of necrotic and then your max HP is reduced by six as well. You were far away. Minest. Yeah, it'd be like 10.5. It's very small range.

And then number four is going to attempt to attack Jericho. Gosh. Oh, that's a five. So that fails. I see 17. Both of them are going to fail. The highest is a 15.

Oh. Crocs in the Greater Wittier Silver Spoon. Little boy Briggs in the hag and the moon. All of them let out these veritable flurry of attacks on all of you as the mist continues to swirl around you. You see that it is at this point almost pouring in through the entrance of the barrows, clearly riding in off of the wind of the moors as it spills into this place. You watch as the mist curls up along the edges of the barrows itself,

entering into the eye sockets of these skulls, rattling the bones embedded deep within the earth of the walls themselves, tendrils of mist spread almost like roots through the very ground that you walk on. Marius. Oh boy. My goal was to help out our two casters, but this creature has spawned directly in front of me. Lathica's got all sorts of nightmares, shadow swirling shit happening.

How bad you look like health-wise? You would know from your many experiences with Lethika that I'm what you're doing. God's. Show you get. I'm basically, I'm gonna take an attack of opportunity from number five as I move towards two and Lethika. So feel free to take an attack of opportunity if you like.

Which one? From number five. Yeah. Oh, Bains dropped. By the way. Oh, Bains dropped. Perfect. Oh.

It is going to hit. Thank you. And I'll make a con saving throw? Yep. It's seven points of necrotic damage. Seven points. Is 16 good enough to pass the con? 16 is. Perfect.

I'll take my seven points and then I will cast cure wounds at a second level, I think. If I can do that, I can't. So as I'm getting raked by these awful claws, I will move around Jericho and reach out a hand to try to lay my hand on Lethika's arm with this glowing red kind of, you know, again, it kind of looks more like blood,

has the consistency of blood with the rose petals more than just light than usual. 2D4 plus 2D8 plus 4 healing. 11 points of healing. Thank you, Medellis. That's good money. And then let me look at my bonus actions. Tom Parker did?

No, that's my turn. That's all I got. Do you have a question, Rich? I do. I'm realizing that I was at five levels of exhaustion at the end of the crooked house. Is that right? I had five levels of exhaustion and my long rest only cleared one. I don't remember that at all.

Chat, doesn't even remember? I think I did. Is that true? That means I would have needed to be carried. Wasn't I carried out or no? I feel like even if that were true, were true, and I'll just hand-wave that, the care that you've been given inside of Chateau-Claire-D-Loon

would have more than enough cleared your levels. We've had a lot of times of best. Even if you've only slept once or twice, you were also given medicinal tea. Okay. And I, I don't know why I was there. Very well taken care of. Yeah, and maybe that was an accident,

but I had four levels of it. It's awesome. You would be fine. In that regard, fine. Right, so you look tired. Spooky ghost. Spooky ghost scare me. And I'm like about to run.

And then I remember Jericho's words. And the spooky ghost all of a sudden starts to shift into the visage of my father. Don't you patronize me, little man. Look at you. You think you're so big and strong? What a bad news is, I grew up to be a lot bigger than you! And then I guess I'm Big Yoshi, so I'm going to leap into the air,

and then I'm going, Hey, I'm going to spin my little legs, and I get a little double jump, and then I'm going to do a full flip in the air and pound down with my cutlass, making two attacks thematically, but I basically press down B. On which number? On number six. You're combining Kirby and Yoshi's down big. That's right.

That's not so. Kirby's up B and he's down B. Gotta be good enough. If he was hex, Blades curse, that would have crit, but he's regular hext. I believe both hit. Oh, he's hexed? He is not, not the one he's attacking.

Oh, bonus action, hex him, as in my speech. I move the hex to that guy. That's two hits, and that is one, two, three, four, five, six, Okay. 10. It's pretty solid. 16. 18, 19, and 29, 22, 27.

Thank you, Andy. Plus 27, plus 12 is 37, 39, 29 points of magical slashing damage with some necrotic thrown in there. Oh, does that matter? No. Okay. Yeah, so basically I spin around and Kirby upbeat,

Yoshi downbeat. down me, attack this guy. You let loose the full... Oh, hold on, sorry. D4. We enlarge. Two. 41. So minus two more points.

Yeah, two more points of damage. I need to say. Oh. I'm all sorry. Hold on. Another three. Thank you. Thanks, Jericho.

You let loose the full weight of your attack, the resentment and the fear that you've held on to held on to for so long, you pour into this attack as you stare not down at this spectral entity, but down at your father. And you do a significant amount of damage. If you imagine that this entity had a numerical value for its life essence,

that it's sitting on one point. It's holding on by a literal thread. As you let loose. He had 39, so, or he had 45 minus 39, minus 2, minus 34, yep, that makes sense. Damn. And you look out at this entity and you see that it is barely holding on as it looks up at you with the eyes of your father. That's my turn. I'm a stand and fight.

Lethaca. When we rule Spirit Guardians, do the... If I move and I make and the spirit guardians move with me, can I move into enemies and force them to make success of wisdom saving throws, or do they have to enter the space? If they enter or end... If there's a... This is my spirit guardians.

That's a good question. If they have to enter or end their turn in the spirit guardians. But if she moves to someone and they enter the answer... It's worded as when the creature enters the area for the first time. So if I move here... or here, can I make, can I force six to take it of? Probably. I believe so.

That's how we've always ruled. Yes, I believe that's correct. And if that's how works in Boulder's Gate 3, but I don't know that. I think that's how we do it. Yeah. I think we've always done it that way, and I believe that's the correct. Okay. The correct ruling. I'm going to, uh, darkness is swirling all around me, but I can see through the darkness, given my deity.

I'm going to look at the pumpkin and give you get a sense of what it is doing. Is it glowing? Do I feel like it's connected to these spirits? It's still glowing. It's a roll perception check. That's going to be a 22. You can see that it is sitting on the earth. It is not rooted or embedded in the earth itself.

That it is flickering with a spectral light, a light deep within where you know that on a standard issue jack-a-lantern and there would be a candle inside illuminating this thing. There is a small moat of wisp light light that illuminates this thing. The look on its face is a look of disdain, a look of almost as if whatever left this thing here

feels above you, like you were beneath it, a look of contempt. But it is very clearly just a jackalander. more a message than anything else. A calling card, if you will. I see. So I do not make a deduction that if I destroy the pumpkin, I might be able to...

I would say you could easily look at it and see that it is but a pumpkin. Okay. I would use Shadow Snap, but that would consume a whole action. I will instead just turn. These rates are fighting with myself, with Marius. I will turn and see that

Brigh City has done a tremendous amount of damage to this other race, and I will take a step forward, getting it into the aura of the Spirit Guardians and needs to make a wisdom saving throw. 13? That fails. It takes 10, 15 points of radiant damage, and then I will use my bonus action

to attack number four with natural 20. Damn! Yeah! You step forward and immediately, you are staring down, at this wraith, Briggsie, and you watch as its ghostly skin begins to desiccate even further, as if there had been liquid in this entity, it's completely sucked and pulled from its body as it begins to wrinkle and shrivel before eventually bursting into nothing but this strange,

discolored mist. My cloquish spirit guardian shadows will also pull it away like the film Ghost. So I land my pound and there's all this dust, right? And I get up. Finally, Jerry, he's gone. He's dead. I know you can do it, Rizzy. And then the dust clears, and he's still standing there. And then...

I'm sorry. You know, win this ghostly vintage of your father get pulled away, like in ghost. I will say something really... I still can't do it on my eyes. I'll say something really badass. like, mistress of the dark, guide my blade, and the shockroom will slide into four for seven plus five.

That's gonna be 12 points of force damage to number four. You said 12? Yeah. You land this blow on it. You watch as bits and piece of its spectral form are severed from it, but it is still standing. It is still looking at you ravenously. hungrily as they bear down on you.

Is that the end of your time? Guess it is. Jericho. Oh, gosh, it's my turn already. I am going to, oh, Wilshukes, we are quite, I will tap, I will look around and we'll see that these creatures keep on coming and I'll say, okay, all right, Virgil, we need to scare them off.

I know that you can scare even spooky ghosts. So come on now! Virgil! Uh, not being able to cast terrify. I am going to, um... This one's dead, right? Yes. Yeah.

That's my father. I am going to instead say, uh, we're all looking a little rough. Uh, uh, Virgil, come back! You can believe it all on, Driggsie. It's probably his fault. What? What? More than one fault!

Don't drag me in it is! drag me in it is. I guess mass healing word on everyone. You all enjoy. I don't know if anyone needs that. I mean, I take a little. I'm down 11 hipwits.

That's plenty. For all of us? For everyone. That was exactly what I needed to get to max HP because my maximum my experience. I don't get anything. I don't get anything.

Good teamwork. Good teamwork, chance. And that is a bonus action. I will use my action to take my sickle. And I'll say, I know this never works. Huh! Wow.

Just like no one would help the little red hen harvest her wheat, I will help myself harvest these salt. I gotta work on it, and I'm going to attempt to roll. I'm going to attempt to attack. I looked a lot like how madri-rida. Jericho is really on this bird thing. This little red hen thing, you won't let it go. Natural one.

Oh no. That's it. I got my sick. They all continue to swarm around you where Briggs's father had been, you once again see another spectral body arise from the very Earth. You begin to see the mist swirl around it, almost lifting the dead out of the earth. As number seven joins the fray. Do you want it to be on Briggs again?

Tum, tum, tum, tum, dun, dun. And then which ones are on? Yeah, I was gonna, which ones? Two, four, and seven? Yeah, two, four and seven. Is this one one? Two fails. Five and fifteen.

Ah, no, five, two. All four. All four. Four, yeah. Four fails. Two fails, four fails. Five fails. And seven passes. Seven passes. So these three fell.

Fifteen points if they failed and seven points if they... That's pretty good. F exceeded. Just this swirling mess. It's like the tornado of Dementors. I love that. That's good. That's nice.

That's pretty solid. I love spirit guardians. I've never been able to cast it. I hope to be able to cast it one day. Perhaps you should play a cletic. I know. You watch as the one in front of Jericho is eviscerated by the Spiricals.

I don't drop it. Is that number four or two? Or five, four. That's number four. Perfect. Thank you. Spooky Dementter. And almost immediately where it was,

you see another one arise out of the earth. Dear gods, Nicky, what are you doing? It needs to be doing us. Yeah, it's going to pass. If only I had some sort of feature that's targeted on dead specifically. It's going to take half of, nine, sixty, eight points if it succeeded.

16 or six. Eight points. Let's see. My name is Derek the Clarion. Okay, perfect. You watch as the spiritual guardians do, as is written on the tin, and they spiritually guard all of you from these entities

doing a significant amount of damage to all of them, but they are unrelenting as they are pulled from the very earth and forced to engage against you. against you. The one, and number two, the one that's on Lethaca is going to move forward in attempt to make both attacks against Lethika. No, thank you. It's going to be a 12th for the long sword hit. Fail.

Or miss. 21 for the life drain. I guess. Doing a total of four points of chronic damage and a constitution saving throw. I am going to get a 17 on the constitution saving throw. So you're going to take the four necrotic. I took the four necrotic. The one on Marius is going to miss with the long sword.

And also miss with the life drain. A sword? Yeah, positive. The one on Briggs is going to miss with the long sword and is going to get a 15 with the life drain. That misses. And then I'm going to use a different die. And then the one on Jericho is going to get a natural one on the long sword,

but is going to hit with the one. the life drain. Oh, gosh, I should probably make a saving throw, A. Seven points of necrotic damage is what you'll take. I get a 19 on the saving throw. Don't forget, plus four. Oh, so I get a. If you're near me.

23. So seven. Seven points of damage. That's it? Does that include? Take it throws. Just plus four on saves. Concentration savings?

Yeah. Yeah, that's a con-savit there. Well, I got a natural one. Okay. Plus four is five, plus three, eight. No. Spirit Guardians' drives. Wow.

Wow. That's unfortunate. That's not good. That was a large boon for us. I'll boon again. And that is, it's turn. Will you boon? I will boon for me. I'm going to start by making a single attack end's number two.

To see if I can kill it. Okay. Don't boon for me, Argentina. Six plus seven is 13. I assume that's not good enough. 13 misses. I'm going to use my bardeconspirates. So that turned, that was a four, sorry.

So that turns to do with 17 to head. Eight points of damage, I think. No. That's all right. No, no, six points of longsword damage. To number two. You slice into it and it does a bit of damage, but it is still standing in front of you. Plenty to hit.

There we go. Fourteen points on the second attack of longsort damage. You slide, with this, with this five, final strike, you look through this entity and you see that it is severely weak. You can tell the exact spot you need to hit to take it out of the battle, and you let your blade slice through it.

Blood-like petals burst from it swirling with the mist as it explodes around you, that light, almost blinding in this darkness, before it turns back into that muted color of the mist and pulses. Um, and I reel to face number five. I don't have any good bonus action spells. I don't think.

They're all about compelling and commanding and doing stuff that never works. So I will pass my turn. What about like summoning a horse? See you losers later because I ride away on Don and I just leave the battle. That's my turn. All right.

Uh, Briggsie. Beeggsy. Oh, I need a roll concentration. Beegsy. Beegsy. Oh, I crush him. Oh, really? I will hex him again, and I will just redouble now that I'm... Which one are you hexing?

Incensed. Seven. Seven. That my own attacks were enough to kill the inspector of my own father. I have tears running down my face. Why won't you die? And I will... Brute back twice.

And this will bring these dads still alive. Yeah. That's awful. He's an old. I mean, you don't know. It's been a while since it's been a while. People change. Um, well, this one almost certainly misses.

This one is an 18-man. Oh, well, gosh, well, maybe I'll use it. Is it a D6 or a D8? Well, gosh. Let me just take a look at this D-8 here. See if that makes me hit. And that's an eight. Nice.

That's a 10 plus a nine. That's huge. So those are two hits. Bards are good for something, folks. They're good for a lot of things. Oh. You can add the bardic damage to your damage, to healing, that was you my question.

Yeah, they had to put for those in on Lathaca, but I thought it in hatchers, yeah. Not to. Why? Because you're fearful. I, I, I, it's hard. It's important, please. Oh, those are a twist too.

You got about that. Yes. Twist is difficult to use on the attacks, you never know what you're going to get. 26 points of slashing damage along with a bit of necrotic damage. To number five. To number seven. Sorry, seven.

I'm sorry, how much? 25. 25. Midi's Gump. You do a significant amount of damage to this one. The pain and anger of your father still welling up inside of you. But this entity still looms beneath you. Beg Yoshi, hold on, be Yoshi. That's another four points of damage.

Let's fucking go. It looks very wounded, but it is still going on. We would make coins that are actually charged. Let's a guy. I'm going to yell out to Adela. Adela, pull yourself together. Get some help. We can defend ourselves for only so long,

but unless you can demand these spirits, you must get somebody. Is she the pumpkin? No, that's the pumpkin. Exactly. It's the calling card. It's the calling card. Adela is just pressed up against the very back of the ground. That's why we needed a fucking mini.

It's a standard issue. It's a standard issue. Adela. No, no, get Iris. Iris. She's pressed up against the wall. She's against the wall. Iris.

Iris. Iris. I refuse to let the last. Where the fuck is I was. Adela, why are you eight and a half feet tall? What's wrong with your nose? Why have you become a cap? I love the.

I'm doing everything I possibly do. Yeah, loud to them. I have been. And she has been throughout this entire thing. She has been attempting. Stop! Stop! Don't then!

Okay. She looks very distressed. Shit. With no one in sight, I... The Jacqueline won't be relevant. I don't know. My friends, get close to me. The goddess of the night, the unseen lady,

will protect us if you stay near. And I will push out with my hands and that swirling soup of spirit guardians that just started to diminish will trip in strength. And instead of being a swirling cacophony of spirits, it will go completely dark. I will cast darkness on this spot right here,

engulfing all of us. And per my blessing of Sharr, I grant all of you the ability to see in that dark. Let's go! Now we'll see if the spirits care about that, but I'm going to throw all the dice on there. And then I'll very quickly make a... That's a cool art effect.

Spirit guardian attack on... I was doing too much at once, and it lazily zips past... Spiritual weapon misses. That would be the conclusion of my turn. I'll take a step in to indicate... And so, if they can't see in that, they are at disadvantage.

Correct. They would be disadvantaged, and we would be advantaged on them. If they... As spooky ghosts, can't, you know. I'm... I think it's a great gamble, but I gave him a shot. I think it's great.

It might be able to see. Look, it's infinitely better than compelled to do it. You know? Dark vision doesn't help. You also don't know if it's their eyes that are seeing or eyes somewhere else seeing for theirs. Well, that's fucking ominous. Jericho.

Somebody's got to smash that fucking pumping. Okay. We're gonna try this one time. Precy, now I'm starting to feel insecure about my inability to him with my second. I can I can reap the wheat like the little red hand. I'm not gonna drop the little red hand. I am going to roll. Make an attack roll.

With your sickle. With my sickle. I'm going to add five twists. Oh my God. I'm like back to back. We have like at this point and I'm looking at my shoulder like, he would not shut up about the red hand. Yes!

I'm fucking it! And I'm going to use my, I have never use any of my subclass features, Chad. Literally never. I am going to use psychic blate. What?

I'm going to expend spark and and deal an extra 3D6 psychic damage. Please tell me they're immune. Please. If they are, they are. Chat really wants me to dread you.

And I've thought about it, but I feel really bad for you. So I have no happy. Just make them immune to psychic damage. Yeah, that'd be so much sweeter with these things are immune to psychic damage. You can say psych, and it's right in the word. Scyke!

I'm doing it! You're my hero! You're my hero, little redhead! And which ones is this hitting? Number eight. Oh, just number eight. Number eight. Yeah, it's just a single attack.

So that is sickle. It's plus... I literally don't... Plus zero strength. So one for the sick. Okay, great. And then for the psychic damage, it is nine, 12 points of psychic damage. Have I ever told you, you are my Virgil?

It's incredible. It's pretty good. You slice into it with your sickle. The music stop, damn. You slice into it with your sickle and it does an amount of damage as the race continues to loom over you. It does that amount. It does at least one.

We know it does it least one. Oh. Is it a little wounded? I look great. No, you do feel like you wounded this one quite a bit. It is, it is weak. I've been feeling okay ever since Marius gave me his 11thes. Yeah.

I'm 39 out of 44-ish, roughly. That's not roughly, not roughly exactly 39 and not right. I don't think I've ever been in critical condition in this campaign. I am going to say, you know, you know, You know, you did it. You did it, Jericho, you did it.

And I'm gonna use a bonus-eel-word myself as I get my little brept-off. Oh, that's nice. Oh, Matt Sheeling for nine. That's pretty good. Abominations. That's it. I'm done. I'm done.

Was that with the anger? And there's no more spirit guardians. I don't have to worry about that. As where number 10 had been, or where number, whatever one was on Lethika, Two had been, number 10 appears right next to Lethaca. This is too many nights. And they are all going to attempt to make their attacks against you.

Where did I put my, whatever my D20? Oh, there it is. I would say it needs to make a wisdom saving throw, but instead it's just hopefully blinded. But instead it's just going to hit with both attacks. It's not a disadvantage, isn't. You know, I keep telling Philly the ice is inevitable. You know what, it is.

So the first one will hit. Yeah, I'm not gonna punch the camera! Both of them still have. You do your best Tusken Breeder. Seven points of damage. Can you fickers pay attention? Yes. Seven points of damage to you.

And then you're gonna take. You're going to take. No, if you were taking attention, you know what was going on. I'm sorry. And then you're gonna take six points of necrotic damage and I need a Constitution saving throw. Are you paying attention, Derek? How much damage did I take?

I swear to go. Seven and seven. And Constitution saving throw, but it has forward whatever you get. You take 14 damage and it's, yeah. I pass the Constitution saving throw. It's seven points for the long sword and six points.

Oh, sorry. For the necrotic. I was off by one. I take the 13 points of damage and now I'm bloody again. And then you need to make a Constitution saving throw. I succeeded. I'm gonna dread you.

Oh, that's a good use of a dread. Still bad for, don't forget. That's pretty good. I got a 16 and a 16, so both times I suppose. I'm going to dread you again. Oh, my goodness. It's a lot of 16s. 19.

Okay, I'm going to leave it there. And then we are going to move on to, I'll move on to Briggs next. The first to hit is going to miss. A.C. And then the second one is going to hit. Is it 19 again? Your ACs 19, you said?

Yeah, it is. Yeah, it hits. I think that I would... I'm going to save it. I'm going to save it. You are going to take seven points of necrotic damage. I think these dice are weighted. Briggs is feeling resolved.

Seven points of necrotic? And Constitution saving throwplace. You don't get the plus four. I'm going to use five twists. And I'm also going to dreading. Damn. Not kidding. That's only a 13 plus whatever you have.

I'm going to straight either way. Okay, so the 8 is the lowest. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 14, 15, 16? 16 passes. Nice. You drive me again if you want? No, I'm not going to. Okay.

But you took your damage, yeah? I did. Okay. And then Jericho. That fails. Is that die representing something? No. Marius.

I don't think so. Natural 20, but it's... Yeah. Uh-huh. That's still nice. So... Wait, why wasn't the natural 20 good? Because I'm disadvantaged.

I see. How big is darkness? Hmm? Double check how big darkness is. I'm pretty sure it's 15 feet. Radius? Yeah. And it's here?

One, two, three, four... Yeah. Like it's all of them. Yeah. Okay. So you still got me once. Yes. It's 15.

It is a few. And I still got you twice. Yep. One right here. So that is going to be six points of necrotic damage for the long sword and six points of necrotic damage and then a constitution set. I got 18 on the con saving throw. So total of 12 damage.

Dread. Okay. Man. That is only a 15. That passes. No. The passes. Oh shit.

Nice. I'll take 12 damage. Okay. That should be all of you, yes? Yeah. So? Yes. Yes, that is all of you.

That is their turn. Marius. So I'm advantaged against number five. I can take two attacks. 18 to hit for the first attack. That hits. If I had a dollar, man. The second one hits as well, but it's not a crit.

So that's going to be 2D10 plus 10. Damn. 25 points of damage over two attacks to number five. You slice through this, and similar to the others, you completely rend this spectral entity. this spectral entity to shards of mist as it disappears in front of you. And then again, I swirle turning to number 10,

redoubling my effort and preparing to continue to fight. That's my turn. Brick as he. Yeah, you do. Slashing through, and he's still hanging on, and again, hearing what Jericho said about my hunger, I will almost like put my stuff. sword down and I will just

since I'm big just my mouth will open up as a bonus action and I'm going to jump down on it. Using the clock tower a hook fell. You literally get in the same fucking face. I'm sorry. You read my goddamn mind. I'm vanished. That hits.

So let me roll that first. A platform. A leg arrow in Jurassic Park. Run home jack. Run home jack. No, no. No. No. You've got to back.

of damage. The pirate gets thrown in the blue box is gold. Is this a magical attack? This is part of the artifact that basically I just, it was like a lizard folk feature that I got. It's not like magical, it's just me being a lizard folk. Yeah, you bite into it and you feel like it doesn't do its full capabilities, but it does do damage.

Five of the damage would have been from hex, so that would have been necrotic. but the seven damage would be not like that. You also feel like necrotic damage does less. Oh, okay. Oh, that's good to know. Oh, and then I saw my action. You do, yeah. So I'm gonna, I'll just keep slashing.

If seven is still alive here. It is, yeah, it's barely hanging on. That is going to be a 18 to hit. That hits. 7, 8, 19, 11, 12, 13. of damage plus six necrotic damage, so 13 physical six necrotic. You, and you're using your cutlass?

I am. You slice in with your cutlass. You see these strange bits of wailing voodoo skulls billow off of your cutlass as you slice through the little heads dancing against the mist as they wail away. almost in sync with the mist that is swirling within the spectral entities as it completely bursts

into nothingness in front of it. And with my last attack, I'll roll over to 10 and just in a monstrous blood frenzy at this point. Remember your extra need four. Oh yeah, I guess I could have used that last, so that's fine. That hits, and then that's going to be two, plus this.

I'll roll it separately. The purple will be the hex, and then the D4 will be. 4, 56, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 15, 17, 17, 17 points of slashing damage. Nice. And three points of necrime.

And that's my turn? It takes the damage and you watch as it reels back a little bit, but it continues to keep its focus where it imagines left. Lethika to be. Okay. Lethika.

I don't see any more hands through the darkness reaching up from the barrow ground. No. I'm going to first have my spirit weapon, my chakram, sliced down into eight, with a twenty-five to hit. That hits. Yeah. Barely. That's nice.

Apparently, that's nice. That's nice. Oh, yeah, that's good. That's gonna be 10 points of force damage. How is eight looking? It looks very weak. Okay. Okay.

I'm gonna do another sort of push into the darkness. We are surrounded in darkness, but even in such pitch black, magical darkness, there are shades. I will speak of short word of blessing from my goddess. and burning radiance flares out for a brief moment. They both 10 and 8 need to succeed on a Constitution. Eight fails, 10 passes. Okay. Eight is going to take 10 points of radiant damage.

I think that they are stopping. I do not see any more hands emerging. The radiant light that fills up this space, even though the darkness in this dome that you've covered, created is magical in nature. And you can see through standard darkness, but this is so dark that without your magic's guiding you, you could see nothing.

It would be pitch black. Yet still, these specters infused with this mist glow with an eerie light that only you seem to be able to see until with that burst of magic, radiant, almost sunlight, fills the space for a second. But it's not sunlight. It's that perfect white light at the very core of a star or the moon, that light that pierces

through the darkness of the universe. As it radiates out around you, it singes and completely burns away this entity in front of Jericho. You hear the other ones around hiss for a moment as they reel back. And then as the light fades, you feel them groaning as they continue to lurch towards you. Checks into my turn, yeah.

I, how rough is 10 look? 10 looks not that rough. It's only done. I didn't do much to it. You didn't get a hit, I mean, I did it. Maybe half. Yeah, I did, oh, everyone did one hit, too. Or a third?

Yeah. I can't remember. Probably it was more than a third, but less than half. I am going, I am going to feel emboldened. Mm. I know I can do it I can do it again I've gotten the taste for cutting things

and a head I have to actually dodged it away we're twisting this is beneath a third place and advantage because here's dark oh my gosh I use my good dink you got a fist for a crit okay

a crit would be huge I gotta use my good dice what if you got two crits I'm just gonna roll this one Oh, it's just incredible. Okay. It's still hits. Yeah, definitely.

I use my last part of inspiration. No, no, you got plus five. You're good. You don't need to use it. Oh, no, no. To do the psychic points. Oh, please. Yeah, I see.

I'm still not convinced that the psychic damage affects these creatures at all. Well, I don't either mind. That makes four of us, darn. Oh, no. Oh, yikes. Oh. Oh. Nine points.

Nine points. No, statistic way. That's a nightmare. That's pretty bad. Just a minute. I'm gonna be honest to do it. Hold on. Just a minute.

Nine points of damage with 3D6 plus 1D4. Hold on. It's not ideal. Just a minute. Just a minute. Just a minute. Plus. Well, no.

I mean, that's actually not that far off from average. Three and a half, seven, ten and a half. It looks like, but it looks cool. When I do it, it channels with like the Fiendish energy, and it looks like, like fiddlesticks' sight attack. That's how cool it looks. Oji fiddlesticks.

Is it? Oh, I met the little boomerang. No, I meant the, that. There's a 6% chance of getting that all of the possible roles that you could have like that. Thank you. You're welcome. And now is your turn?

Oh, bonus action, who's looking one off? Anybody looking up? I'm good. I'm bloody. I will, I will see. Miss Leatherka, thank you. Thank you. I know you could do it.

I knew you could do it. I knew you could do it. You're doing great. You look like Miss Adela. I couldn't tell it was you. Oh, Miss Adela, you're my favorite customer. I didn't know it was you. You can tell it's me because of my voice. I don't do impressions. Oh, it's okay. Neither do I. Okay. Thanks. You're my favorite customer. Bye. Thank you. Just don't hit me with the sickle. You came very close to hitting me with the sickle. Oh, I didn't know it was you. Uh, since what's, it's like, CERC down, a drunk. Jesus. As this happens, the ground beneath your feet begins to rumble again as at your feet,

Marius, another wraith rises. Briggsie, a wraith rises at your feet. And Jericho, a wraith rises at your feet. I thought we're almost done here. Okay, all right, okay, it's not over yet. They don't have spiritual weapon to worry about, so the one is going to attack Lethaca. Number 10. They don't have spiritual weapon to worry about so far.

The long sword is going to miss. I hate that there's... And life drain is going to miss. God, I hate this darkness. And there's nothing I can do about it. The one on Jericho is going to... Is going to hit. Right?

That was right. No. Oh, wow. Yeah, no, my best is... And I'm gonna use a dredge re-roll that, and I'm going to hit. So Jericho, you are going to take 10 points of long sword damage and four points of necrotic damage, and I need a constitutional rating throw. Oh, I get a 18, and maintain in concentration, I get a 14.

That's enough, right? Yeah. Marius, the long sword is going to miss, but the life drain is going to hit. Okay, I'll make a constitution's a throw. Seven points of necrotic damage. And I get an 18 on my saving throw. The long sword's gonna hit you, Briggsie. Uh-oh.

And the life drain is going to miss. You're gonna take six points of necrotic damage. And that should be all of them. Ouch. Yes. Six points. And that is their turn. Marius. Oh, I am going to see that these creatures continue to rise up from the earth.

And I'm standing holding my long sword, and it's kind of pointed down towards the earth as I'm getting ready to make a swing upwards. And I say, enough. And you can see what normally would be this kind of holy glow emanating from around the sword. Instead, this deep red liquid begins to run the length of the blade, and as it gets to the tip, it drips off.

There clearly seems to be blood running down the length of the blade. And instead of using what was, Holy Fire. It is now something else. As I activate the Holy Fire portion of my artifact sword, and it's just going to add 2D6 damage to it on attacks. And I make two attacks against this number 11 that's just spawned right in front of me. I'm still at advantage, correct? Mm-hmm. Yes. Attack number one is a 17 to hit. And attack number two is a 24 to hit. That hits?

1d10 plus 2d6 that's gonna be 10 plus 16 plus 5 is 21 for the first hit and oh I already rolled the hits my bad the second hit so it's 21 then it's gonna be 9 plus 5 is 14 so 35 total points of damage over two strikes and and as I'm swinging this sword you can see like droplets of blood are kind of being like sprayed through the air and left on the ground. With this hit, it's significantly more so than all the others. As you swing once and then twice, you completely splatter Lethaca, Jericho, and Briggsie in a shower of blood.

And you are coated with these droplets. That's my whole turn. You can see the blood mixing in with the mist on this race in front of you. you can see how it almost flows through it like blood and veins. Ugh. And it is Briggs'E's turn. How far am I from the pumpkin? 25-ish?

30-ish. So I could get there. Yeah. Walting. Yeah, a lot. You could disengage. Don't, don't do it. You could disengage because you had that's not.

I thought about doing it, but I made a perception check and the pumpkin just seems to be a pumpkin. It's standard issue. is what Nicky's the standard. Is your . I'm just gonna keep fighting. I will move my hex to, is that 12? Or the two is backwards.

Yeah, 12. 12 with the backwards two. Look, I tried. It's really hard. You did a wonderful job. We're fighting another 40. She accidentally gave us the 501st token. And I'll just make two attacks.

The first, another 19. If only I could, if I only had to be using my whatcha call it. Oh, what the hell. Oh, God. Royal. wave two. That's two hits. It's like tower defense. We're crumable.

Maybe we need to actually just run out of here. One, two, three, four, five, six, five, 21. 22, two, two, seven, uh, 33 plus 37, 37 plus. Damn. Uh, 41. of slashing slash necrotic damage. You slice into this thing and similar to when you were fighting your father, you get it to the brink.

Oh! But it continues to leer up at you as it stares into you blindly. I'll let's a guy. I will... I'm gonna attack number nine with my spiritual weapon and that's going to be. and that's going to be a, I'm sorry, my spiritual weapon is correct. That's going to be a 26 to hit, so that is going to be seven points of fourth damage to hit, and then I will grasp my hands in prayer.

And the darkness would appear magical and pitch to anyone looking in from the inside that I had not granted this special vision to, but for my allies, this sort of like swirling shadow storm of purples and grays, black swim up, highlighting them, but also almost seem to like peel away the flesh of all of these raids as I cast Spirit Guardians again. And they all need to make a wisdom saving throw. Yeah, we need to keep this up. Number nine passes. Number 10 passes. Number 11 fails. Number 12. Oh shit. We just need to twist the concentration.

Number 12 passes. So number 11th. That's true. Okay, number 11 gets ironically 11 points of radiant damage and the rest get five. Number 11 is completely disintegrated. Thank you, mistress of the night. And so is number 12. Oh, sweet. Thank you again, mistress of the night. Alright, here we go. Oh, damn.

I'm so impotent. Jericho. Uh, I'm gonna look at the point. I'm gonna look at the pumpkin. I haven't seen what Lethikas. I don't know. Garsh, it's all this pumpkin's fault. The paladin is a vampire.

I catch shatter and I smash the pumpkin. And you all will make a dexterity same. All of us? Yep. Oh, oh. Plus four. Plus four. You're all, get plus four.

Oh, plus four. The paladin's a vampire. Man, I was going to destroy that show. Round two. 23. 24. Ah! 22.

Yeah. Can I get some D6s please? Vampire, Pat. How many do you? Thank you. We're gonna get TPP. Perfect. That's a lot of...

What? 13. Oh, see ya. More like... See you. More like Jericho. Jeragon. Jerogon.

Your God. Yeah. 24 points of necrotic damage. And your hit points are lowered by that amount. Half if you pass? Half if you pass. And we also get the- Your hit points are also lowered by that amount.

Jesus, okay. As you cast the spell on this pumpkin and explode it, it lets out this explosion of necrotic magic. The darkness of this darkness that surrounds you that Lethaca covered you with is pierced by this strange, sticky black I-Corps that coats and covers you burning and singeing your flesh, literally eating the life

force of your body as it covers you. Some of you are able to dodge out of the way of the significant portions of this blast, taking taking less damage, but Jericho, you are completely covered from head to toe in the rotting necrotic innards of this pumpkin as you take that hit. Holy crap.

How's Adela looking? You cannot see her. You are in the darkness, right? She's not. Oh, yeah, that's right. She's everything. And I looked there. Well, no, I guess you can see her.

You can see her because of the way the darkness works. You can see that she, where she had been pressed up against the side of this, she is face first down in the soil. There's one more T6 that I gave you. It's kind of gray. I don't know if that was the right thing. Damn, dude. You may have just done the right thing, but it's hard. That was smashing. Adela. Pumpkins. Answer me, Adela. I won't get it. Your voice. feels like it almost echoes as you hear no sound. I'm going to take two opportunity attacks.

Oh. To try to run to her. We'll be at disadvantage. First one hits. I got a 16 and a natural 20. Damn. The second one will hit as well. They're from two separate entities.

You're gonna take five points of necrotic damage and I need a constitution saving throw. Yep. Pumpkin panic attack. Explode fucking panic attack. I'm going to dread you. We still did a five twist, so you're good. Damn!

And then you're going to take five points of necrotic damage. Okay. And I need you to make a constitution saving. Plus four. Don't forget you plus four. Oh, I crushed it. I dread you.

You can see a plus nine. Five. Perfect. Do you make it? Oh, geez. Like the fucking orcs, at the end of the battle of the Pelinor field, all the spooky ghosts going to...

Damn it, Janico! Why did you run? You sweet boy. You sweet boy, why do you know. You're spectacular, Mikey. Oh my gosh! So you're unconscious in the in the dirt. What the fuck?

You would have been fine, but you land on your sickle. You watch as very... Derricka calls out, oh no, Miss Adela, are you okay? As one of the raids slashes into his back, the other one slashes against his side. And you hear the words, Ogar, as he falls face forward into the earth. That was his turn.

Spirit guardians are gonna do their biz. Yeah, yeah, they are. So they have to roll a what? Wisdom saving throw, DC 16. Nine is gonna pass. I rolled really good. 10 is going to pass. Oh, it's just 9 and 10 there are left, so they both pass.

They both pass. But I rolled really nice, Nicky. That's great. They take nine points of radiant damage. Oh, God. You said radiant damage? Let me just double check. Oh, yeah, yeah, no, that's fine.

10 is barely holding on as 9 seems to look all right. 10 is going to rear down on you an attempt to attack you. You're careful, Mennius. He's rearing down. 18 is the lowest for the long bow tank. Yeah, okay. Let's do it.

Come on, come on, come on, come on. Yes. Okay, both attacks hit you. I don't know why I'm so excited about that, but I am. It's because it's Lepika. You just love fucking... I do. I really do. You're going to take 10 points

of neutrodite damage from the long sword. I rolled max damage in both of these. and you're going to take eight points of necrotic damage from the life drain and I need a constitution saving. Okay. I get plus four from you on the, on both. Yes, on the saves. Any save. All right. So let's do. Do we need a twist or you go?

We're twisting on the concentration. Yeah. Who is closest to the Jericho one? Jericho what? Lethika and then, yes, this was the Jericho one. Oh, so both of them will be making their attacks on Lethika. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so let's just go one in the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm just, I'm just, I'm trying.

Trying to move this along, all right? What's at the time? Trying to move this a lot. No. Fuck safe. All right, here's the necrotic damage saving throw. That's gonna be 17. Oh, it's red.

Okay, then the concentration check, five of the big boys over here. Thank you, chat. Oh, I thought, sorry, Constitution saving. The concentration check cannot be failed. Doesn't matter what I roll. But I can dread it. No, no, no.

Still can't be failed. He's saying even if he gets a one. Oh, if I get a one, I can fail, because one plus three would be four. But in beneath dark wings, when we used, I think it was beneath dark wings, which campaign did we just recently play? I feel like we just had to re-roll when someone got dreaded, even if they used twists. It still kept the twists on it.

Oh, I don't know if we were doing that. I think we were. We were. That's how the dueling banjos works, is that you get to keep the rollover. It's rollover minutes, but it's roll over twists. Hey, boomers. How would you like to do it up for your campaign? You're at the DM.

Yeah. I think if you get dreaded, you have to roll again without twist. Because for something like that, there's no point in dreading if you can't physically fail it with twists. I succeeded my first concentration check, but now I will do it again.

Sam's Twists. I'll still get the plus four. I need anything but a one or two. All right, I got a plan. That drops. So you- It lowers my hand. I'll take the 18 damage.

And then you, tag me with your next perth. Your max hit point lower by 8. No, I succeeded on that. I just failed my concentration check. I have a plug. I'm so confused. I succeeded against the necrotic damage

maximum HP reduction. I succeeded that constitution. And that what you just wanted with. That's the one I was trying to dread. Oh. I was doing my concentration check. Yeah, no, I was trying to dread the other one. Okay, so we're good on concentration.

So if concentration is good, I'll keep spirit will weapon up. Your max HP drops. I'll keep spirit guardian of. Yeah. I'm not, they're not worried about the spirit guardians. Okay, and now, I mean they are.

And now how much does my, how much does my max HP go down? It goes down by eight. Okay, my negative max HP modifier is negative 24 at this time. Minus 30. Yeah, it sucks. Okay, that's scary. Now, now that I'm done.

The long sword for the second one misses. Oh my goodness. I got a natural 20, 17. Yeah. 17 is. Okay. It's not a crit. Thank God for darkness.

Yeah, thank God. Four points of necrotic damage. Yeah. I got a plan. I got a plan. Okay. Nobody panic. Hold on.

One, two, three. I'm not panic. Actually, no, you can definitely all panic. Reducing the, yeah, we're in trouble. I have a plan, but we're still, you still panic. Constitution, you say? Uh-huh. 11.

That misses. Okay. Or that fails. Okay. So you'll take, you'll reduce by four more. So I'm at Ninger 28 now. Yes. Okay, so I am bloodied.

Yep. I'm still bloodied with my max HP being at 23. Is how I would articulate that. I'm going to start by making a single attack on number 10 at advantage, correct? Yes. A bunch. So that'll be 10 plus 2D6 plus 5. 6, 9, 14 points of damage to number 10. Yeah, you completely eviscerated.

I, with one swift movement, jump over the unconscious corpse of Jericho, swing my sword of bringing it down on number, whatever that looks like, a six, I guess. Oh, right. It looks kind of like a whistle. 24 to hit. Which square are you going to be on? That's fine. Six, seven, eight, 15, 20 points of damage to number six.

To number nine? Nine, sorry. I'm sorry, you said how much? 20. 20 total. 20 total. Okay. And as I jump over Jericho and bring my sword up and slash through it with my sword raised high in the air, I'll shout,

please, your grace, bless us with your healing. And I will use my chambered divinity turn the tide. As a bonus action, each creature of my choice within 30 feet regains 1d6 plus 4 HP if it has no more than half of its max HP. That will work on everyone except for Jericho. Jericho. In this mist, Jericho unconscious, this magic does not seem to be able to pierce into your body. Oh, that's a shame. The room will fill with this bright red light

and swirling petals that almost seem like they're made of blood. As I heal anybody, I'm gonna leave it up to you guys to calculate half your HP, but you will heal nine total points of HP if you are below half. I am below half. Let's fucking go. So that affects me as well. That's fucking huge.

Great. I'm a level two character again. That's my whole turn. That's all I got. That was my big plan. Briggsie. I'll come up and snap this guy out. Snap them up.

Snap them up. Transfer Hex. You've gotten the Mario bubble. You've stepped out of Gumba. And I'm just wearing like a really big baggie. Oh yeah, because you're not large anymore. That's very funny. And I will make two attacks.

Two fives. Ufta. 14 to hit? 14 hits. Oh, it's fucking gross. Their AC is exactly 14. Crush this guy. He has four hit points.

Okay, well. Plenty. That hits. Crush him. So the first one's gonna deal. A max fucking damage. Holy shit, let's go. This one is a one.

Oh, okay. That's very misleading. It's very misleading. It's very misleading. Six, seven, eight. Nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Thirteen damage for the first attack. Uh, you.

You slice into this thing, completely rending apart the spectral form of this entity. And you immediately in this frenzy, you begin to look around ready for the next spectral entities to emerge from the ground. And the ground begins to shake. You see not one, not two, not three, not 12, but you begin to see

what looks like hundreds of orbs of light rising up out of the earth, out of the walls of the cavern, coming from the skulls embedded in the walls of this barrow, but none of them rushed towards you as they begin to rush towards the entrance to the barrow. You watch as they all begin to take form, four of them incredibly larger than the others, coming from four alcoves at the very back,

almost arcing around Adela. You see as these giant orbs begin to take shape into what is very clearly the four ghostly riders that Philip Jaskinval controlled, they rush past you. They don't even look towards you, but you see even in this quick moment that they too are changed by whatever has happened to the mist.

Whatever has changed with the mist. Is it something that happened when your groom died, when his light went out, but the mist is not the same as it seems to control and demand from these entities. You watch as hundreds of Phillips Army, including his four grandest writers, rush out of the barrow and on it and with it, the mist that was swirling around you too.

Silence fills this barrow as you watch all of these creatures leave you here. whether it was the exploding of the pumpkin or some time constraint that you were under. It's hard to tell, but something has called the riders forward. Something has called these specters, this veritable army of undead, out into the barrow proper. And this barrow, the grandest of them all, is empty. All except for the three of you, Jericho's face sinking deeper into the sun. soft, wet earth of the barrow.

Adela, silent behind you, crumpled to the ground. Jericho, I need you to make a death saving throw for me. Oh, shit. Are we doing this? I'm in the, yeah. Oh, whoa, whoa, oh, oh, oh, oh, we're doing this, yeah, yeah. I'm in the process of shouting. And that is where you find yourselves in this moment.

Lethico, quickly, get to Adela. I'll deal with Jericho. And I will try to flip him over in the soft dirt to get his face out of the, out of the mud. and I'll kind of cradle him in my arms and lean down next to him and I will, please, please, I hope this works. An attempt to lay on hands to give him

five points of healing to see if it works. It works. With the mist no longer in this place, you imagine that they're, I would say it would become very easy to tell in this moment that though your healing magics weren't affected by this mist, your ability to bring someone back

from the brink of death was affected by it. And so now that the mist has left this space, you are able to use that magics that were gifted to you, that are innate to you, to bring Jericho back. Jericho, Jericho, come back to us. Come on, Jericho, come on. Ms. Lefica, Miss Lefica.

Are you, Mrs. Miss Adela? Was Mrs. Medica? Miss Adela. Calm down. Take a deep breath. Lethica is with Hedella. She's checked. Giving him that, I see Jericho's, okay, I'll rush up to Lefeica to assist if I can.

Oh, it was a Bifte and everything. I'm going to reach down as quickly. As I'm running, I'm almost like pulling a veil off. I shed my self-disguise and re-emerge as the very injured-looking and sapped of her anima, Lefitha. And sliding to almost my knees, I'll just crush down and pull Adela so that she's at least on her back, gently but firmly to get a quick assessment of where she is. You pull her to you, and her head lulls backwards, completely limp.

You see that her eyes have rolled back in her head, and if she's breathing it so shallow that you notice no rise and fall of her chest. Oh, shit. Do I believe she's dead? Rule medicine check. Brian. 18. She is still warm. You can still see the flush of pink in her cheeks.

Blood is still very clearly pumping through her veins. Then I will reach in and focus the divine power within me. Adela, Adela, wake her. Come back to us. Come back to us. I'm going to sort of run my fingers through her hair and sort of calmly try to wake her up as I cast cure wounds at a first level.

It takes a moment, but her eyes flutter open. Phil, thank you, honey. Phil. Oh, she's okay! 13. Phil, where are you? I don't feel so good, honey. You've taken a terrible injury, but you're, I have you.

You're going to be okay. Briggsy, either help. Let's go with. Phil. Carry her when the time comes or go find where those ghosts were heading. They're going to attack the chateau or where they're going. I'll go check out all the really spooky ghosts. Yep, got it.

Okay. Do it. And I'm gonna turn and being mortified. I like turn paler than I even am. And I'm gonna like, I'm just gonna sort of hustle out of the barrows and see sort of where they win. Okay. Terrico, are you able to stand?

Roll a perception check for me, please. I'm fine, I'm fine. And, in, in, And it's okay, don't worry, Virgil's still in there. He's still in there. He just was turned away. He didn't listen to me when I called out to him. But then I feel like he was turning, and then he brought me back.

So he didn't, he didn't abandon me. Oh, thank goodness. He's abandoned us. He's still here. We should, we should have helped Brazy to make sure he's okay. Adela coughs up a little bit of blood. She wipes away at her lips. Oh, thank you, honey.

That's very sweet. Waiter, yeah, I wasn't even getting a hold of Phil. He must not be in the Moors. No, he must be away, but everything is going to be okay. You just... We should get back to the house. We shouldn't be in here no longer. Take a moment to assess yourselves, and then we'll try to stand.

All right. Where had Briggs he go? Oh, God, did something happen at Briggs? He's okay. I had him go to follow spirits, not just the ones that are rising up. He didn't go up on his own. He ran to see where they were going. Is that a problem?

He needs to see if there's a more danger. So he can... He's a very skilled man, as foolish as he may seem sometimes. All right, if you're sure, I just... I don't know if I would want to deal with any of this all by myself. Let's get out as quickly as we can. We should probably go get... We'll go run ahead. You stay with...

I'm sorry. It would be that is plurred in the... I can stand, I can stand. Let's just, someone just give me a hand. We'll be behind you. We'll be right behind you. I'll pull my sword out of the soft earth that I had stuck it in to help Jericho and I'll look at you and say, Jericho, are you ready? Follow me. Yes. All right. I'm ready. I'm ready. And we will run ahead to catch up to Briggsie and hope that he hasn't been eaten my clothes.

We've been dollhouse simulating this on the battle map this entire time, but the battle map's off. So just know that we're doing that. Oh, that's funny. Bricksey, you shakily, scarily, make your way through the barrows and out of the entrance. You still see the remnants of tendrils of mist as it leaves the entrance of the barrows.

And you feel hesitant to continue alone, but you hear Lethika's voice echoing to you, telling you to check on the barrows, to see if there is a full-scale assault on Chateau-Claire d'Loon, and you find somewhere within yourself the strength and the courage to move forward. You eventually reach the entrance to the barrows and the entire moor is shrouded in this strange mist. But it is not heading towards Chateau-Clear-de-Lune. In fact, it's heading in the exact opposite direction.

You see towards the wall of mist that surrounds Droskenwald entirely. You have seen it every day since you got here. On the very fringes of this place, that wall of mist that you know that your groom was capable of walking through, that beautiful green and blue hue to it, that the same smoke that billowed out of the smokestack of the Ghostlight Express, that is not the color of the wall of mist that you are looking at now, now desaturated and tinged with that same dark, grayish hue,

swallowing, almost consuming that spectral light that you have come to associate with the maiden of the mist. You see that the entire wall has been corrupted. And every single one of these barrows has spectral entities ejecting forth from it, all of them charging forward and barreling through to and through that wall of mist, leaving Druskan Vall completely. The army that Philip Druskenwald had at his command no longer his to control, no longer a part of Druskinvald at all, swallowed by the mist taken by whatever, whoever, has changed this place so drastically. And I see them all run away? It is, it is like, it is thousands of spectral entities, whites, spectres, ghosts, right?

You see the four riders as they hit the wall, they almost tear into it and more entities spill forward. You see some that almost try to make their way out of the mist and in a Dreskenwald, but they're pushed back into that wall of mist by the onslaught of this army that had up until this moment been Phillips. I'm imagining like Nen-Bottled Mountain from Fantasia. All the ghosts trying for the sky and like...

God, I love Fantasia. Yeah. That's what I'm imagining around. And only Briggs is seeing this right now. You are almost stunlocked as you watch hundreds of thousands of specters meet this wall and disappear from Druskinvold possibly forever, leaving all of this land essentially unguarded and unprotected. And that is what the two of you come to. You see Briggs'i standing there shaking, absolutely trembling as he holds. holds his hat to himself and stares down at the barrows

and at this giant wall of mist. It takes you a moment as well as you get to him before you are able to take in the scene. Guys, guys. What is it? Briggs, what is it? Tell us. I have news.

I have the best news ever. All the ghosts are gone. Wait, wait, wait. What do you mean all of the ghosts are gone? The ghosts are gone. Oh, they're left. They're gone. Have you?

I was so scared, but they were all the long gone by the time I got out here, they were on their way, and a big, you know, a big wall in the sky, so to speak. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the ghosts you're referring to our Phillips army and now they're gone. Power that he wields, the thing that potentially makes him the ruler of this place is gone, and that's a good thing? You know, I haven't considered that angle. The thing would might be a weapon so powerful and mighty. It would perhaps inspire fear and respect amongst all of the lords and ladies of the Crescent Court, keeping their unbound ambitions at bay,

the removal of which might be a political nightmare. It's at this moment that Lethika and Adela make their way towards you. I just tell me steady right there. I'm sorry, did you say political what? Nightman. What is the... What's gonna be... No, I don't get involved in politics. What happened? What do you see?

What's going on? All the spooky ghosts are gone. Gone where? Yonder. Into the mist. Yonder followed. Carry me forward, carry me forward, please. They got swallowed up.

Like the sea shanties of your... I'll carry her forward. She's carried, well, helped forward as she holds on to a little bit to keep herself steady. You see as she lets out, Yeah, she's very short. She lets out an audible gas and begins to tremble as she looks around. She doesn't even glance toward Chateau-Clair-de-Loon. You can see it at the crest of the hill shining beautifully. It's light radiating down the barrows. And if you only looked in that direction, this area of Dreskenwald would appear peaceful and beautiful in this moment, that the sound of the organ music gone.

no more smells of rotting fetid ocean waves and fish. You see that mist is all but nearly at this point being consumed by the wall of mist as she, her lips tremble and she stares out at this. What was that? What was the pumpkin? What was the horseshoes? What was the music and the howling? And what was all that?

Who? He's there a chance Not to be a pessimist, but, have you gone in touch with all Philly? No, he wasn't answering my calls. Here's the thing you've got to understand. Midnight, it's because things ain't good here in Dreskinbold.

It wasn't just bulls since it's having trouble, though they was having it the worst for sure. It's all of the provinces. They're all struggling, and every single one of them's on Phil's backs about it. And we don't. don't know what we're going to do. This really isn't our thing. Like we'd like to throw parties. And oh gosh, but he always had his army, you know? There was always, if anything really happened,

he could cause a lot of destruction. It wouldn't be good for that province for sure, but he could do something. The leaders of the provinces aren't going to like this. But I can't, I can't get distracted. I got a masquerade tomorrow. Philip will be glad that you are safe and that you survived this encounter. We should tell him this news. No! Oh gosh! I mean, yeah, I am going to need to tell him. We will tell him.

We can tell him. No, you're not going to tell him. Oh, God, you're not going to tell him. You're dead! What if this all happened? Because he's dead! Briggsie. He's not answering his cell phone. I mean, ring phone? What do you mean? Why did you say that? Briggsie, please. Let's not. She's out of trees. No, Philip can't be dead.

I would know, alright? I would know if Phil was dead. I hope he's not dead, but I mean, what if he's dead? What if, I don't know, I mean. She, um, you see as she shakes and her knees give out, she falls to the ground. Tears are streaming out of her eyes,

but she does not allow herself to cry. He's not dead. All right. No, no, he's not dead. Let's all take a deep breath and relax. We got a masquerade we gotta do it tomorrow. I don't have time for this. You don't have time for this.

Look at the moon. in the sky. We shouldn't even been out of here for this long. I will let Phil know, but you don't understand what's going on. What you dealt with in Cyril and Follsense, that was nothing compared to what's happening in the rest of Druskin Vault. Phil's got along in his hands right now. We're struggling, all right? And without this army, it's going to be worse. But if we don't do that masquerade, if we even let for a moment anyone know outside of the group that's right here, Have we let them know what's happening? We can have a mutiny on our hands.

I agree. We can have something much worse. No one is going to find out. We're going to get back to the house at the mansion safely. We'll reconvene and we'll figure out what to do. Most important of all is getting a hold of Philip first. We can't postpone the masquerade. We've got to have it.

They're already here. Okay, he's your head. We're going to pretend like none of this happened, all right? I don't mind a good conspiracy, all right? So, you know, everything was fine. We checked on it. The army was perfectly in good health, in these barrios here, they're still there.

You know? I don't feel so good. I am also weakened. I don't think Phil realizes how bad all this is. He thinks he can control everything, you know? That just, that he's so charming and that he, if he just keeps... showing up and doing what he's doing and providing the protection that he provides,

that everyone's going to be happy. He doesn't see what I see. People aren't happy. Adela, is there any reason why anyone would come down to the barrows here? None that I could think of. Maybe if they were coming out to just check on things, but even then, without going inside the barrows, or no one we know, I don't think, I don't think that they would... Are those who serve the chateau trustworthy? Do they serve you and follow your community? Yeah, of course they do.

I mean, I wouldn't go talking about what happened here in front of just anybody. I honestly would appreciate it if you didn't talk about it in front of anybody. No, I don't plan to, but if we can prevent people from coming here, we can prevent them from surfacing what we are trying to hide. Are you saying that we have to keep it a... Keep it. Keep it. You gotta keep it a secret.

We have to keep it in the shadows. Everything. It's a secret among friends, yeah. Jerry? This is really fucking important. He has to say a secret. You can promise me that, right? Everyone, you promise.

I swear it. I swear it too. Yes. You have our word. All right. You're exactly right. And if this gets out, then it will be a mute. It will be a mutiny.

She dusts off her beautiful white dress and she slowly, shakily gets to her feet. You reach out to help her up a little bit and she kindly shrugs you off. I'm strong. I got this. We have a masquerade that has to happen. No one outside of us and Phil can know what's happened here tonight. No one will know. Why are you talking like that?

Of course. That's what he said. No one's going to know. Adela, Becca. So what we're going to do. Adela. Back up. No.

If there is anyone who saw the specters leave the miss, we will tell them that was Phillips' plan. That they have... What is going on, Brickley? What's going on here? Join the miss to prepare... Jericho? To attack any usurpers, any treachery will be met with the destruction of Philip's army.

Jericho? This is an entity within Jericho. You are not speaking to him now. Yes. Have you met his weird gross crow? Oh sure, Virgil, the weird one. I think he pooped on my shoulder once. Virgil Adela, Adela Virgil.

Oh, I didn't know you could do the whole become one thing. Hi, Adela Druskinville, nice to meet you. We've met. Well, not formally. Charmed. Yeah. Oh, that's not creepy at all. You keep my seat.

secret, Virgil? That is what I do best. Oh, great, then we're all in agreement, so this isn't... Y'all look like you've seen a ghost. We shouldn't be having these conversations here. We need to get back to the mansion. Hold on, hold on. Better hear them where other people can hear.

What should we do? We have the masquerade as planned. Nothing should change. We are getting that key. The show of power is very important. We must be delivered our artifacts, we earn them. Oh yeah, of course.

That show of power is what will keep all of the squabbling nobles in line. They cannot know for an instant that Philip is weak and he's lost his army. Oh, you're so right. Once you keep, if we just keep everything

exactly as we planned, we give you your artifacts like you're just going to go out and defeat Mother Midnight and get rid all of the witches and solve all their problems when we do in a grand show, then everyone will at least for the time be. Their fears will be quelled. That's a brilliant idea, Virgil.

Brilliant! That is our only path for... Are you okay? Yes. I am. You got something in your throat? I am okay. I'll give you my handkerchief if you need it.

I am well. Do you know, Keeper of Secrets? Anything about the person or entity behind that pumpkin, behind this... Attack? suit now. I'm sorry. I was listening to your conversation. I asked Virgil if Virgil knew any secrets about the pumpkin or

what could have caused any of the things that happened as keeper of secrets. Roll a arcana check. Wow. Oh, boy, we gotta do it. We get to throw some fucking steak on that. What plus do I use? Do I use Jericho's? Do I use Jericho? Tons.

Arcana. Mm-hmm. Do we do, how many? Five. 22. Mm. Not much, but there is one thing that ghosts keep the best secrets. But not even the spirits of the dead are shrouded from the eyes of Virgil.

And the entity that is housed within Jericho. Ruhum is always watching. And though you don't have the specifics, at the very least, the information that you know is that one of the witches, her hallmark, the hallmark of the Doolaham, the rider on the Moors, and the jack-o'-lantern head that you found inside of the barrow all very much feel like the calling card of her. Her name you don't know. The daughters of Mother Midnight. Yeah, what about him? Well, you think they were behind this? No way! This is too, if anything, she would be behind this.

This is... This is big time stuff here that happened today. Not a daughter's. Her daughters are doing small time stuff. Perhaps the game has changed. Doesn't she have like a whole fuckdown of them? We were informed that they were... Twelve daughters.

Do you not recall when we first came to this land? Ah, it's a fuck time. Well, regardless, it matters not. We have a party. All is well. Nobody needs to know any different. We see that. We get through the masquerade,

and then we can't. We just gotta get through to Mora. Let us hope that this is the only attack. We have ever... witnessed a serious event here a powerful blow against Philip but we must go quickly to the chateau and make sure that everything is well there and that our agreement our conspiracy can be intact we are not gonna go back through the hedge maze no we're gonna just skirt around the edges of the chateau and once we get

to the entrance hall we're gonna go our separate ways I'm gonna go find Phil I'll let know what happened. I need you to go back to your room and get some sleep. Are you sure you do not want company? I can just... Once we're inside of the chateau, I'll be fine. I want to be with you. If you should stumble into Philip in unhealthy state or if you need a help, a healer. No, don't worry about that, honey. Once we're inside of the chateau, I got a healer. I'll be all right in that regard. But I'm telling you, Phil's not in a good way. I should be the one to give him this information. And I might need to use some of my wiles to make sure he's okay.

It is my birthday, after all. And you really shouldn't be there for that. I won't. I won't. I trust you. But if you need anything, if it's 3 a.m. and you are worried that Philip hasn't come back and you want company, you can call on me. If I don't hear from Philip within the next couple of hours, you can guarantee. I'm going to be at your door.

All right. If I haven't heard from him once we're inside the chateau, my ability to contact him is significantly more broad. Once we're inside the chateau, if I can't get a hold of him by then, something is seriously wrong. But it's not, of course, everything's fine. That is all I asked.

Everything's fine. No matter what happens. Yeah. We will keep the secret, but even if there is no masquerade. No, there will be a masquerade. There will be... There will be... There will be...

But if... If we don't have this... They will know that we are weak. We cannot show them even a single sign of weakness. That is wise. Especially if it is a daughter's. That is wise. They can't think that they at all shook us.

But regardless, we need those artefacts. Do you understand? Virgil. Where have you been? Jericho was looking for you. And if you need to be, the key so badly you rely on him where I've been well I was just in the in the barrow just yonder oh and we was running from them spooky ghosts oh Jericho

honey you back I do I do Jericho shoot Adela rushes torture and grabbed your hands thank you so much for letting us talk to you friend we learned so much important stuff from him oh Virgil back oh yeah course well gosh I was mighty cross when he was leaving me alone and not I was a fear that he wasn't going to be able to fear of them ghosts I can't speak to that but he sure helped out with what to do about the masquerade and who might have been behind all this barrow stuff well he is he is mine as smart and it's really my only true friend is this way smarter than I ever could be so I'm like she reaches up and she puts her hand on your shoulder you're quite smart Jericho and I'm your true friend all of us all right

I was just about to say the same thing Take it back to the house, please Yeah Let us go Quickly, everything's fine Everything's gonna be a fine, right? Everything's gonna be fine, would thank you Y'all are so nice to me

She reaches out for each of you And she grabs each of your hands And squeezes it really quickly As she looks between all of you I don't know what we would do without you Thanks for coming to Droskinvold Thanks for helping me and Phil this is

far more than we're capable of handling and I know it's a lot to ask but gosh it means so much that you're here we're happy that you had us all right let's get back up to the house it's my birthday so let's put this behind us literally and figuratively

and let's get a good night's sleep try and enjoy the masqueradeo right I mean you pass Catillion I know you get a handle it. All is well. All is well. All is gonna be less. All is well.

All is well. And with that, you all turn and with one side long glance towards the wall of mist, you notice that the color seems to be changing again. Now that every single one of the army has made their way out of Droskenwald and into the wall of mist proper, you're beginning to see those. same blue and green infusions appear back into the wall.

You imagine if this continues by tomorrow, no one will notice that there had been any change. And you make casual conversation. Adela makes casual conversation as you make your way up out of the barrows, off of the moor and towards the chateau. The warm orange lights of the chateau spilling out over the barrow, you, it is comfortable and there is a feeling of safety once you reach the perimeter of the house. But you can't shake that feeling that something is wrong, something is very, very wrong.

And though Adela puts on the mask of the socialite and of the hostess, you can tell that her smile doesn't fully reach her eyes and that worry furrows her brows as she seems to feel a bit better and she picks up her step. She almost begins to skip the closer and closer you get towards the door to the chateau. She moves a little bit forward, giving you a small amount of privacy to talk amongst yourselves as you make the, as you venture along the last leg of your journey towards Chateau Claudeau-de-Lone. Well, I might be looking forward to a party. I mean, I know the circumstances might seem a little dire,

but, I mean, we should celebrate. I mean, it's a grand masquerade ball. I ain't never been to a proper masquerade with the kind of sneaking in and looking through the windows. We should celebrate. It is an act of defiance of all the things that may be going wrong

in this land, across all of Dreskenwald, we have a rare opportunity to experience joy for a moment and say, fuck all that. Gosh. And I, I can't wait to see what old Henri whipped up. We need to have put on a real good fucking show tomorrow. No one can know what's wrong. So we should have a good time. My filthy saclips are sealed. I'm sure I won't fumble at all. We will be glad to have enjoyed ourselves, I'm sure, when the chips are down during dark times ahead. Let us make some memories. Yeah. Are you going to be all right, Miss Adela? Where should we have? Oh yeah, I'll be perfectly fine, as long as I can get a hold of Phil. Well, looks at first.

like we've reached the front of the house. We're going to go inside. We're going to act like nothing's happened. We've had a lovely stroll through the gardens. We're all excited and prepared for the masquerade. Did I hear you mention Henri? Oh, yeah. I was mighty excited about the costume.

I'll make sure he sent up to your room so you can get your costumes tonight and try them on, make sure everything fits. Oh, that would be honest. Thank you. That would be lovely. Once you're done with that, just get a night's sleep. We promise to do that.

if you promise one thing. Sure. Anything for you, Mary. If you don't hear from Philip, please let us know immediately. I will let you know. I'm going to give him a couple of hours.

But if I don't hear from him soon, I'll promise I'll let you know. And if I don't, that means that he's all right and don't bother Russ because it's my birthday. Fair enough.

Happy birthday and have Thank you, Chair. Have nicer dreams on your birthday than you did last night. I hope. I sure hope so. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. All right. Well.

I'd sing you the birthday tune again, but we don't really have 20 minutes, so we'll go to bed. All right. Well, you got a masquerade tomorrow. I can't wait to see you and what you dressed up as. It's going to be such a surprise. She swings the doors open, and you can see that normally this area is completely empty, but it is filled with her mechanical servants and only her mechanical servants. None of the spectral servants that you remember seeing of fills that were milling about seems to be here, but they are hanging decorations all over the place, lighting candles and getting everything ready, and it is all a bustle, but none of them seem to turn and pay

much attention to you unless Adela addresses them. They pretend as if they do not see you. As you walk into the entry hall, she looks towards you one last time and smiles and waves her fingers before she prances up one side of the stairwell, and you begin to make your way up the other side of the stairwell, heading down the long corridor that eventually takes you to your chambers. Ahoy.

Ahoy. Ahoy. Ahoi. Ine. Ahoi. Inan. Greetings. Evening.

Ahoy. Greetings. Even. Ahoy. Evening. We get back to the room. It takes about 10 minutes. And you eventually make your way to your room.

You swing the door wide and immediately are blasted with a wall of heat. The roaring hearth inside of this common room has clearly been going for hours as the servants have been tending to this place. But it is not the roaring heat that assaults. that assaults you. It is the sound of a recognizable voice. It took you long enough. Not by the gods. I cast inflict wounds.

It's not like I had all night. You're not my only customers. Oh, Mr. Henri, it's so good to see you again. I missed you. I didn't miss you at all. This is the worst part of... Henri, I hate you so much. The feeling's mutual.

Now get in here. dry on your costumes. I don't save that. Can we take a quick copy? Yeah. Take it like a great way. Yes. Kick and Chad, Aubrey.

Oh my job. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of avatress 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 Saltmarsh. You can also go to The Crooked Moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition.

And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. Henri is moving around this room with vigor. you see that he has four fabric bags. What would you call them? Yeah, fabric bags works. That clearly house your costumes inside of them, as well as four what looked to be large hat boxes

as he rushes back and forth between them. I've got a lot. The only people I'm dressing for this thing. Now, please. Time is obvious. Henri, kind sir, we didn't mean to cause you distress or delay. But you did!

We, I, for that, I am deeply sorry. I'm so glad your sorries are going to give me the toying back. Can you move your ass? Oh! All right, I'm with you. Oh, please, all right. We should murder.

I can only have so much masculine vigor. You're right. You're right. We're so sorry. We'll get changed into our costumes. Custra. I didn't say it. Change into them. You just need to take a look at him and make sure everything looks all right. You step it up first. Fine, I will go first.

It's Marius. Please. Give me my costume. Ah, yes, I know what your name is. I'm not an idiot. Well, we'll see about that. He looks towards you for a second, and his eyes flash. All right. You wanted to be the vampire.

Yes. Well, you're an idiot, and that's not what you're going to be. And he unzips the fabric band. He unzips the fabric bag and he pulls out a costume. How dare you! He pulls out a costume that is very clearly in colors of reds and white. You, it looks very, it looks very nightly. There's nothing about it that really gives you much of a theme

until he pulls out from the back of it would look to be two large red sinewy wings that clearly attached to the back. You're still a little perplexed to what's going on here as he looks towards the back and he pulls one of the boxes off of the table towards the back of the room, opens it and pulls out what is very clearly a draconic-looking mask. It is a red and white dragon.

Hmm. Eyes! I wanted to remind you that you were the one who said that I should be a vampire, well, I already am one. and I was going to be mad. You're a vampire! I was going to be mad, but this is...

You look a little weak for a vampire. This is pretty cool, so I'm alive with this. Aren't they supposed to be handsome? You called me handsome like 30 times that episode. Briggs Tholamina was ready to throw it all away and risk it all for a piece of this ass. Who's Briggs Tholamina? I don't have time to explain.

They're in the costume. And he holds it up to you. Oh, the fit is immaculate. The fabric choice is perfect. The stitching... Wow! Yes, I'm quite good. And as you can see, your suggestions mean nothing,

for it is your blood that decides what you should be. Oh, well, I have a feeling that you're all going to be deeply disappointed. Are you pleased? Of course you are. Who's next? Oh, wait, do you say our blood? Oh, gosh. Yes, you didn't think I was pricking you with my needles out of lack of skill.

Well, I figured, yes, that was exactly the case. I mean, here's the thing now, is that with him in red and white, isn't that going to clash with my mobster lobstin? Get up? Oh, Bricksey, you are in for a severe disappointment. I do not think you are getting the outfit you're... It is unfortunate that you look the way you do when you were as stupid as you are.

I'm next. Yes, yes, you are. And I think... And I think that your outfit is the perfect encapsulation of your true essence. And he pulls forward the fabric bag and he unzips it and you immediately see flashes of purple and green. Oh.

It is reminiscent to a festival that you had been to at one point in Agway, a celebration. Purple and green had been the main colors. A night of dancing in the streets and jazz, beads were thrown. It was sinfully spectacular. That's pretty good. And this reminds you of that very much. But there's also

a hint of clownishness to it, of foolishness to it, as he pulls out what is very clearly a monkey costume. You can see in the way that the fabric is draped around the hands to, once you slip your fingers through, give you almost a pall-like look as he reaches for another box and pulls out not just the monkey mask that also has a nice gestures cap, but two symbols for you to be able to enjoy. This one's for you.

A fool for a fool! Oh, well, I was also going to be mad, but I mean, it's pretty cute, actually. Cheeky little monkey mask. Yes, it will hide. most of this disgusting visage that you walk around in every day. They're just words, Briggsie, they're just words that can hurt you.

I've also sewn overy into the seams to mask your stench. Oh, really? Yes. Oh, that smell of, I mean, I could imagine. Just please don't eat it, you moron. Who's next? Do we get to keep the outfits? So it's going to be you, Jericho. Oh, gosh, yeah. Whatever you decided

is fine, you know, I'm kind of poking me and such. Yes, actually funny enough, your costume hasn't changed at all. And he opens up the fabric bag, and you see the colors of blue and orange that catch your eye from this one. Oh. And it is very clearly a songbird, a bluebird that is represented here. You see not actual feathers, but these beautifully embroidered and sewn feathers that look, they're crafted so well. they almost look real. You were caught off guard at first

when you touch them and realize that they are indeed fabricated. As he moves towards to grab your box and you find that there is the mask in there, but not just that. A cloak that looks like, and you've seen

this in this house looking at all of the Baroque dressed women, the cage crinolins that they wear beneath their dresses. And it seems strange. You're not wearing a dress. What would you need a caged crinolin for?

But you realize as he holds it up that it goes around you like a cloak, a cage for a songbird. Oh. Yeah. Oh, that's very elaborate. Well, wait, thank you. This is mighty handsome. Thank you. He's allowed to be a bluebit, but I'm not allowed to be the lobster.

Your blood decided for you what you are. going to be. Oh. What if we ain't got no blood? Your essence then. It's an essence needle. Also, Briggsie, I don't want to. I didn't want to make you feel that. This is my handsome. Thank you, Mr. Romney. Lobster, mobster. You're not welcome. And the monkey is way cooler. And don't worry about anything he said about a fool. You're not a fool. You're a wonderful. Yes, he is. No, you're not. You're going to look great. Yes, he is. And even though, that's pretty cool. That's amazing. Even though you may not be a vampire or a You're a very good liar.

So you do have that going for? The one thing I'm not good at is lying. Must be realistic. Oh, well, do you even know me? Oh, thank God! I'm sure I just got lucky. I mean, that's just, I just got a lucky guest the first time. And now we have to move on to this one.

A nice moff. Honorie. Lathaka. What have you prepared for me? Oh, it's more what? have you prepared that I have brought into beautiful fruition with my skill and experience? Let the gun on, we are mortal aliens. Like, you're just radiating off of this encounter.

We're like in a corner, like, really small, and then they're like, they're like, they're staring daggers. The heat is building and we're shrinking. And truly, no one could have picked something better for you than you. That is probably true. He unzips the fabric bag and you see the beautiful colors of golden black shining like scales. But Marius is the dragon. Seems strange and the coloration doesn't fit a mermaid or a fish.

And as the outfit is pulled out, you realize exactly what it is as Henri says, A snake for a snake! mask to cover up your other mask, and also that mask. And he reaches out and he pulls out what is very clearly a cobra. And it has the fins, it fits on perfectly where the fangs come down completely masking your face. It is quite beautiful.

The snake tail follows behind you, almost slithering. You can see that each, like a train behind you, the way that the fabric has been sewn is with two different color threads that are woven over each other. So as these scales are moved, they switch color from that gold to the black. And similar to Jericho, they look like they are legitimate scales, but it is sewn. It was created. Everything on here is beaded and gilded and beautiful. these costumes are the most lavish outfits you've ever held.

Well, I'm spectacular at what I do, so there's no need. They'll fit perfectly. No underwear, Henri. And yeah, like you, her underwear. If Mary's can plush. He's like, every half of his being is like trying to betray any emotion. Jericho pulls out a realistic Spencer's gift air horn. Well, I have significantly better things to do

with the rest of my night. So with that, I'd say goodbye, but this has been awful. So I'll just say bye. And he turns around and slams the door shut. Well, thank you, Henri. He was so nice to me. You were in our first encounter, and all of a sudden it's like he decided

he hated us all as much as Leithica. Well, you know what they say? The distance makes the heart go Ornery and miserable and depressing. By the gods! He's probably stressed. I mean, he's been working probably all day and night making costumes, not just for us, but for everyone else.

And there's probably a lot on his mind. For all that he is, he is a fine craftsman. And this is a beautiful dress. It looks quite beautiful. And it's got pockets. Oh, that's very nice. Honestly, I'm glad my anima would ever made a decision. This is way cool and a love-stress.

and a lobster, Mopster, frankly, even though I did practice the voice and everything. I will wear it with pride. On me is mighty skill. You're going to look much better in this than

whatever mobster-mobster might look like. Trust me. You're right. Should we try it on or should we wait? I don't have the energy. I got a bunch of pumpkin goo on me too. I don't want to ruin it. This handsome

bluebird. Jericho's right. We have to get cleaned up at first. At least, Tomorrow, I deal with it tomorrow. I am going to the bath. All could use a bath. Likewise, I suppose. Group bath!

I run to the bath. You all run to your separate bath. He runs off as this group bath and I just turn around and walk to my own. You know, like waiting in the hot tub. Guys, guys! And you all enjoy. your evenings. You are eventually brought

some nice chamomile tea or the equivalent of a nice sleepy time tea with no caffeine so as not to keep you up. There are snacks for you to enjoy throughout the evening. The fire is well tended to. You do eventually get a small letter that is sent to you

from Adela saying Philip is back at Chateau Claire Deliard that he is, that he is not unwell, but that he is not in the highest of spirits. So they will not be able to meet with you this evening, but that they have plans for the rest of her birthday and she's drawn a small winky face on there.

It is signed with a little kiss mark, her lipstick smeared on the parchment a little bit and her signature there. But it does, it does quell some of your fears to know that Philip has arrived back to the chateau and that he is at least unharmed. And it is with that, unless there's anything else that you wanted to do,

that you eventually change into your sleep clothes and find yourselves alone in your chambers ready to sleep perchance to dream. I think at some point, when I'm like bathed and I'm in the sleep clothes and I'm alone and they'll be, my head'll fly back, I'll spit up feather, There's this weird gross crow will push itself out of my scarecrow head and flap just to one of the bedposts and lamb.

And I'll go back to my friends. We can hear you, Bricksey. Oh, I'm sorry. Just working on me monkey voice. Are we supposed to try to learn how to whistle like a bloomer? If you like. Oh, um, oh, oh, oh. Sleep tight.

What do you got, oh, throw it like on a bathroom. What do you guys think about more monkey sounds? Pretty cool, eh? I think it was, it was, that was, sounded like you were monkeying around. We could definitely tell that you were a monkey. Oh, I'm the playful, just like equivalent of Monday monkey all the weekends. I'm just here to get more tea. I think it's great that you have your own character.

We should all come up with characters for the masquerade. I'm just trying to be a little thematic, you know what I mean? You've got a mighty playful outfit. We've really got, we all have different colors. Henri really hooked us up. And they're quite complimentary. I like my outfit. We got black and gold and red and white and purple and green,

and then blue and orange, and it's all quite handsome. quite handsome. I'm really too he is master Taylor. I tried to tell him when he first said I was going to be a vampire that that was ridiculous. He wouldn't listen. This is much better than whatever he initially had. What was going through his head? What could he have been thinking? I think he was just pulling our legs, frankly, and just, you know, joshing around and having a good time with us. Fair enough. You didn't really give a fuck what we wanted to be. But I agree.

It's kind of weird and you just got the same thing. thing. That is mighty interesting. That means you know yourself. Well, I don't really know why I said Bluebird. I'm not... Kind of just came out of nowhere. I didn't have a fancy character with a voice of a handsome,

suave lobster monster. Yeah, like the lobster mobster. That was very good. True it in. Yeah, see. That sounds just like a lobster monster. Oh, feeling it for a hole. I wasn't suggested by it.

I'm sleep with the fishes. Pretty good, pretty good, right? That's very good. I've been working on it at night. Remember, tomorrow we must put on a big show. And we are going to be presented as heroes, heroes to the rest of Druskenwald. And they have problems they've been bothering Philip with.

We'll want to instill trust and authority to keep these structures of power intact. Well, and first thing, first. My immediate thought was the same as Briggs' when we first saw the ghost leaving. I was worried that Philip was dead. Now that it's been confirmed, hopefully, and he is alive and well, that leaves one of two other things. Either this is correct and one of the witches is doing this to weaken Philip, or one of the

the other lords and ladies of the other provinces is working with the witches to dethrone Philip. We can't entirely count out that this isn't some sort of an inside political movement. You think that... You think that it's the Crescent Corps? What working with the wishes is all to bring down Philip and make him so stressed? I'm saying it's an option. It's possible. We don't know, but there's no way for us to know for sure.

It could be really bad. And that's why we can't say nothing. Correct. It's critical. If we say it, anything. Oh no, no, from first-hand experience, how quickly a crew can turn. And even if this is not some coup or mutiny, just the fact that they find out that he has no power will cause absolute turmoil. You're right, I ain't going to say nothing. I ain't going to let nothing slip.

I'm just going to be a friendly bluebird what sins. Tomorrow, if we are successful in our efforts will be a good day if just the status quo remains. Just maintaining the peace. Just like Virgil said. Above and beyond, then the lords and ladies of the provinces of Dreskenwald will believe that Philip has even more power, that he has gathered us, and that he is able to navigate the evils that rise up from the land. We are so, so close to our goals.

our goals. We can't, we cannot let this place fall before we get our hands on our things. You're right. And then once we get our, our, our implements and our reward, then we're going to be even more powerful and we'll have what we need. And, and Mother Midnight and her daughters ain't going to be nothing but a leaf in the wind. But if anyone finds out, the news is going to spread. Well, if anybody finds out, then Virgil was saying that we just lie. We just lie to everybody.

If anyone finds out it should not be from the four of us. No. But I'm scared. I'm sick of being scared. The only reason my crew fucking listened to what I had to say was because it is.

And I'll, like, throw my hand up and the fucking Cutlass will appear with a flash of, like, neon green. If I didn't have this, they would have stabbed me in the back eight thousand fucking times. And they wouldn't hesitate. But ain't that thing the curse, the source of all your sorrows and ills and curses? It is. But the reason I wanted this, the reason why I dealt with crossroads in the fucking first place is because I was scared.

And they wanted to deal with me because they were fucking scared. That's how pirates are. A bunch of scared little boys. Well, in the tales, they're all brave and heroic and going on grand adventures. That's not true and realize? It's all fucking bullshit. No. No, it's...

Trying to make it to the next fucking day. Trying to figure out how you backstab the next mate before they backstab you. Do you miss that life? I don't miss the fear. Well, don't worry, Briggsie. None of us are going to backstab you. That's right. We've established that we have to work together. We've already lost a third of our crew. We can't afford to be deceiving or betraying any of us.

They won't be down to half and then, and then even worse. Who knows? And you're right. You lot are the best crew I've ever had. And this is why we're gonna be fine. This is why we're gonna figure this out. this out. This is why we can do this. And it doesn't matter how scared I am right now. Because I'm not worried it. You're going to backstab me.

And hopefully you're not worried it. I'm going to backstab you. No, not at all. The thought never crossed my mind. Not at all. We all trust each other. I want you each to know that I have your back. 100% all the way. Whatever happened tomorrow or the next week, you can rely on me

all the way to the end. And you all don't care that I have a ridiculously oversized hat. It is a big hat. And you all don't care that I have a ridiculously oversized sword, and I call a cutlass. After this, perhaps you just wear the monkey suit, though. The smell mitigation would be a welcome partner to this party. And you would look a bit like a street performer I knew once, named Barney. I would like that.

And that's what I like about you. He said, I don't need to wear a big head, and I don't need to use a giant fucking sword. To be your crew, part of your crew. Of course not. You can use whatever weapon you want. I don't mean to sound sentimental, but just... No, it's okay to be sentimental every once in a while.

We just almost all got killed by a bunch of spooky ghosts, and Philip could be betrayed, and all of the, perhaps the Crescent Court is all plotting against him, and things are looking dire, but it's okay to be sentimental. on the night before grand soire. But we're all aligned. We say nothing. Proceed as normal.

We just have to make it to tomorrow evening. Let us just remember our training. To be polite, Lord and Lady and all of that, to dance. And it will be tomorrow evening before any of us know it. I've been away from court for so long, and I do not miss the politics. I'm kind of looking forward to that part, frankly. You know, try some of the skills that we learn at Catillion today. Oh, that's right.

Well... But keeping in mind that Philly just lost his gigantic oversized cutlass. Are you saying it's metaphorical? That was kind of the point I was making. That just really is an apt metaphor, because you're a lot wiser than you give yourself credit for. That, he did lose his Graham Cutlass. I feel bad for Lord Philip now. So all the scared lords and ladies,

they might be out for blood. Well said. Well, at least he can trust us. We ain't going to do nothing. Virgil said he's going to handle everything. Nothing's going to go wrong. And I trust him. Why wish you get some sleep?

I hope that I wake at full strength. Whatever happens tomorrow, I want to be not just my best self at the party, but to be able to defend anyone should anything happen. We shouldn't be ready for anything. I agree. It is with that that the conversation dies down and you all eventually, one after another, make your way back to your rooms at Chateau-Claudeau-Claudeau-D-Lune. You dawn whatever it is that you need to, to sleep, wash your faces, you climb into bed. the comfortable warmth of these beds slowly lulls you into a dreamless sleep. You all have a long rest. Feel yourself invigorated.

You do eventually wake up. Reset maximum HVee? Yeah. You'll completely revigorated. You wake up in what is the equivalent of a morning, but not in Druskenwald where the sun doesn't shine. And already your room is filled with servants as they mill about hurrying you out of bed, helping you to, helping you to dress and to prepare yourselves. Lethaca, you undergo a full spa day. Your nails are done, your toenails are done, your hair is done, makeup's done, everything

is done for you. No makeup. You all, you all get massages. and enjoy a day of absolute pampering, the lap of a luxury. You have no time for anything that you might want to do on your own. As the servants of Chateau Clair de Loon essentially rule your day, preparing you for the masquerade ahead, an hour after hour, after hour goes by as if it were minutes. And as you are standing in this main area, the common room of your chambers at Chateau Claire DeLoon, one after another, you make your way out fully dressed from head to toe in your masquerade outfits.

The only thing you're not dawning is your mask itself. You don't even have a moment to speak with each other. You have a moment to glance around and see how immaculate the four of you look. And there is a moment of silence as you'd love. towards the cardinal directions where had things been different, Farron and your groom would be standing with you now. And there is a moment of silence as you think about what this night would have been like, what this night should have been like.

And with a smile, you turn and are ushered through the hallways. The chateau, which is normally loud, but quiet for its is absolutely cacophonous with the sounds of people milling about servants running this way and that. Occasionally you can hear the sounds of a full orchestra in swing from deep within the heart of the chateau as you're being led rushed. You feel like you don't even have moments to fully breathe. It's as if the day that you have just experienced feels like it never happened. Like it slipped by. It was so quick in the way that you were moved

from one thing to the next, having no agency over yourself, as if there was a god of the world who led you through this day. As you are eventually- Thank you, my dark lady. My god is a- You're welcome.

As you are led towards what is very clearly the ballroom. The double doors closed. You are halted and stopped, told that you will be announced in mere moments, affix your masks to your face. And so you do. You affix them. A few of the servants move towards you

and adjust your wings and fix your snake tail and adjust your cage and help you get your symbols on, but also add a small buffer to them so that should you cling them, they will not clank and disrupt things. As the door swings open, you immediately hear, The honored guests of Lord and Lady Droskenwald, Lethaca Nightborn, I almost said Nightshade, Lethaca, Nightbourne, Old Jericho Sticks,

Briggsie the cutlass cratch, and Marius Renathir. And everyone in this room turns towards you, hundreds of masks facing you, beautiful outfits, all of them looking like they've been created by Henri, As they golf clap for you, you hear whispers among everyone. You can occasionally pick up some voices. Are those the people that saved Cyril?

Well, yes, dear, I do believe that they are. They're quite honorable, quite heroes of Druskenwald, really. As your name and your accolades are whispered amongst this group, the orchestra is at a complete standstill. You see that you are on this almost bowels. that leads down this long curving stairwell down to the dance floor. Up on a podium to the side, you see the full orchestra, and at the very back of the room in two lavish, almost thrones,

you see Philip and Adela. Philip's holding Adela's hand with one hand, and he has his cane clutched in the other as he lifts the hand holding the cane up to his hat and tilts it. They do not have masks on their face, but clearly they do, they do in front of them as he calls out here, here, and everybody cheers for you.

As you begin to ascend the stairs, looking at this entire room of people looking up at you, the orchestra begins to play again, and immediately the people who were watching you begin to dance and swirl around the room. You notice that as they make their turn, their heads, as they swirl never, breaking contact with you, everyone in this room is interested and excited to meet you.

And that is where we won the session. Wow. Well done. Got to give it up. Got to give it. That's around the session. Thank you. That was awesome.

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