Legends of Avantris - Edge of Midnight | Ep. 5 | Mob Rules

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

The journey leads to Cyril, where a desperate people seek salvation...   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/3qunqdwaJLw?si=pjeu1pqSzBXPLo-4

Welcome to Legends of Adventress. I'm Lefekeh Knightbourne, and you're listening to Edge of Midnight. Here's what happened last time. You know, I think this is a bit of a fixer-upper, but it's got good bones. I can't say he's laughter on you. We have to move. We're running out of time. Yes, sir, let's go. There's one more room.

There's one more memento that has to be collected. And before you is the source of wickedness that brought about the ruin of the Lockwood family. The mother watches over me. He said it out of my. Still glowing in the middle of this room is the ritual symbol. We should put our memento at each point. As you place the final memento quiet and then sound the loud cracking noise from very deep within the earth.

A crooked house no more. To see what appears to be the form of a woman atop a broom as it flies past the moon. Philip will be back. We can ask him what the hell this one? hell this was. You're able to see a carriage as it pulls up alongside you. At long last, against the longest nine, the long lives of our weary protagonists, the crooked house stands crooked no more.

One crooked thing in body and spirit flies through the night sky toward destinations unknown. Where she's going and what she's planning now that she's finally free from that Amber prison, Well, that's a story for another time. Now, the path lies ahead with the Lord of the Land. And of course, what good man wasn't backed up by a good woman. This kind of true love you don't see very often. And when you do, it's real and it's strong. Strong enough to weather the horrors of this dark land.

But the question remains, ah, hero. And as you slowly come to consciousness, this. You abruptly open your eyes. The sound, the clopping of hooves, shaking the ground beneath your heads as you've all found sleep outside of the crooked house. Your eyes flutter away. You see the rolling of the spokes of the wheels of the black carriage as it rolls to a stop before you. The sounds of Adela's voice, who you haven't met, but you can immediately imagine who this is as she begins to spout off her proclamations about the ghosts and the spirits in this house. It takes a bit, but you are able to fully come to consciousness and really understand the things

that she's saying. As she looks down at all of you. Oh my God, I just came out. You're so cute. He's a freaking scarecrow, Philip. Look at him. Look at me. You guys look great, Covenant Machinawana. of that stuff. I can't even believe it. Oh hi. I'm Adela Droskenwald. It's so nice to meet you. Philip, Philip, get out of the carriage. And you see if she smacks her arm into the carriage

and you see Phillips cane emerge first, his dark black boots shining in the pale light of the early morning. But it's more like a dusk, very beginnings of an evening in this strange language.

As he slowly makes his way out of the carriage, you see as he snakes his arm around Adela's tiny waist and pulls her in close to him, so he pops out of the carriage, carrying her with him. And with love in his eyes, he looks to his wife and smiles down at her as he slowly places her softly on the ground next to him. And he looks at all of you. Well, it looks like you've been in quite the proper caper. Adela dear, you know what you need to do. We've got to do whatever it is that you do with this house and get all the spirits and the ghosts and make them leave. Make this a proper house for our friends. Oh, well, do it, Philip.

You know I will. Oh, I brought my pendulum, so if anything remains, I'll know they're here. And they've got my sage. Oh, we've got to go through every single room. This is going to be so much fun. Who wants to come with me? Do you want to come with me? Oh, you need to eat, honey.

Do you know? What was in the house? You are four. I'm all in a pot, but I mean that in the best way possible. Can I touch you for just a minute? Can you have teeth? Do I have teeth? Oh, I got poorly white, honey, and she smiles.

Her teeth glint in the pale moonlight that's rising above you. Beautiful, pristine teeth. Well, uh, uh, it, uh, ble, uh, Oh, look at him. He's stuttering. He's so happy to see me. She walks over to you and she puts her arm around you. Oh, my.

like you'd be a lot of fun at bodies. Oh, fellas, can I keep them. My name is old Jericho sticks, but you can call me Jericho. Most folk do, it is quite an honor to me such a fine and high noble type lady. Oh, I like you a lot. You can talk to me as much as you want. Oh, gosh, I've never had any kind of noble lady that I was allowed to talk to him. Oh, Tom, did you hear that? He called me a noble lady. How cute! I think that you'll find that house is pretty well empty at this point.

Empty a what? Ghosts and like that you say- Oh, that's such a bummer. Philip, you promise I get to see a ghost! And you see as she pouts, she looks adorable. Her cheeks, puffy, her face, rosy. She looks like she's baking sad, but she's clearly very pleased with this situation.

As Philip walks up behind her, he wraps his arms around and he squeezes her. And he whispered something into her ear. You can see as she rolls her eyes and she looks at toward the house, well, you know, you're right, honey. There might be something in there for me to find. There is one creature left. I suggest we use caution. It's escaped in the walls.

Oh, you don't say. What kind of creature tell me about it? You're Marius, right? You're the dampier. I've heard all about you. And I... I've never seen a dampier in the flesh before. Can I see a fang?

Uh, I don't see a fang. I am from about here down, I am drenched in dark, deep blood. My blonde hair from the tips is soaked in blood. It's essentially a dark brown now. Oh my gosh, that's so cool. Would it be weird if I ask you if I could touch them? Yes. Can I do it anyway?

No. I'm going to do it. Can I touch them? I need to wash. I am sullied. Oh, not a problem. And she snaps her fingers. and presiditations, and you feel yourself completely clean.

Oh, look at you. You look dapperiz can be. You look good in one of Philip's suits. You're like roughly the same size, kind of, a little shorter, but that's fine. Thank you. Oh, you welcome. That's a nice trick. Can you do... No trick, it's magic, honey.

Can you do teeth? Smile. Oh, sorry. Oh, that's horrible. Come here, come here. And she rushes over to you. and she puts her hands on your face. This might sting a little bit. Actually, I don't know.

And she begins to cast some kind of magic, this soft light, almost like a silver emanates from her hands as you feel your teeth slowly stretches like that in front. And it is very painful. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome any time. You know, I always was,

always a little bit envious to you, you live in people type folk with your teeth and all, but after the past 24 hours, I'm rather fortunate. I'm grateful I don't got no teeth. Well, you would mention, Mary, is something about a creature or something in the house? Do you want to tell me more about it?

Yes, it was some sort of horrific abomination of man and weasel. Really? How big was it? How big was it? Fulfy Jasper. I don't know. I use my hands to describe how big. it is. I forget what you said. It's roughly the size

of a pug. Oh, okay. So it's a little smaller than I was thinking, but still I don't know why that makes it worse. Quite frankly, if it were if it would work to me, we'd burn that house to the ground, smoke him out. Oh, you don't want to do that, honey? This is a great place for you guys

to live. I'm gonna, I promise you. I'm gonna get everyone I possibly can to come and help me. We're gonna fix this place right up. It'll be beautiful when we're done with it. Are you fully aware of the horrors that have happened here? I wouldn't say a bird necessarily, but there's been something in my ear telling me about what's going on.

And when I say something, I mean Philip, because he knows that one. So, you know, is he there? He's standing behind her. He's got his hand on her shoulder. Was this some kind of trick? And you said it sitting there thinking, oh, he's a house you can stay in. It can be yours. Nobody's been there.

And you knew the fucking horrors that went in there? He chuckles as he squeezes Adela shoulder. I told you the place was haunted. I didn't know how haunted it was. I mean, I've seen haunted. There is so far beyond haunted and it transcend haunted. Did you know what was in the basement or underneath it? There was something in the basement or underneath it?

I only got a little bit of information. I came today because I've got some news about Cyril and I was hoping that you could tell me what happened here. We almost lost our lives. You don't see. Say, your whole lives, all of them? Yes, the hunting was very serious. Oh, tell me all about it.

I would, but I've been very quiet. You've really just been either quiet or saying something cryptic about Shaw. Is this something cryptic you can tell me about Shaw? I don't know much about it, but I'd like to learn. Do you have a pamphlet is something I could read up on? No, we do not distribute pamphlets. Your witch problem is extended to your doorstep. Oh, honey, this wasn't a witch I heard all about her.

She's a hag. Hags on witches. Oh. Whatever she was, she got out. Yeah, the witch problem's in Cerell. It's horrible. Well, that's good news that we were able to handle a hag, and they're much worse than witches, right?

No, actually, they're significantly less worse than witches. Honestly, but you know, it's a good sign. If you can handle a hag, you're at least part of the way they're towards. handling a full-fledged witch. I touch my new teeth, like, oh. Joey like it. Well, so you're saying that there is a real genuine witch? Oh, yeah.

Mother Midnight's definitely been terrorized in Cyril. So how far away is Cyril from here? It's probably going to take about a day's travel, but you look hardy. You can easily make it. I guess my question is, Should we head out immediately? We need to deal with Filthy Jasper first.

Oh, Filthy Jasper's that weird, strange thing that's about this big that's got a human face? It's a gross animal if I ever saw one. I've seen a lot. I can't wait to see it. I really want to see it, Marius. Will you show it to me? I mean, I certainly intend to find it. We can't let it live. No. Yes, it is a serious beast. And anything that you can do to... undo the terrible deeds and hauntings that have occurred in this place. We tried to do our very best to cleanse it, but it is impossible to know for sure. I'll do whatever I can, I promise.

When I go inside, I'll sage the place. I'll bring in people to repaint. We'll put down new floor in. We'll put up some really fancy drapes. I'm talking the fanciest of the fanciest drapes. Oh my gosh. You'll have to fix the stairs. You know, I have a feeling this place has got good bones.

tear to the stairs. Gosh, those weasels really didn't number on it. Those stair-eating weasels. Oh, no. There were weasels in there that were eating the stairs. There were weasels eating the stairs, and we put a stop to them. Well, I'm glad you were able to put a stop to it. I'm not sure what we can do. We might have to make completely new stairs. And as she's saying this, Philip puts his hand on her shoulder again and squeezes it. You know, honey, I think it's time that I start talking to the friends here. We've got things to talk about. There's something going on. You said in the foundation? I need to hear about it.

There's something going on in the foundation, the foundation of anything. Philip needs to know about it. Philip and foundation, they go together. I suppose it would just be easier to show you. Well, I know my wife here wants to go inside, so there's no reason I can't. Let's do it. Yes, please join us, and we will take you down into the basement. And as we go, you might as well tell me what happened here.

I know a little bit of the story, but not all. So we're saying we're going to go back in there when there's a horrible monster, weasel creature that dug halfway through Yorbrim's chest. Briggsby, the real danger is over. There are still threats, but I am confident

with our allies. We will be safe. And I feel much better who dealt with it before leaving soon. I mean, I'll get that. I'm just saying it. I want to stand in the middle so that nothing botched the back of my neck of my heels or any of that.

Especially if Lady, Lady Druskinvall here is going to go through the trouble of hiring some contractors. We don't want to know gross animal digging through their chest cavity. Contractors aim cheap. Exactly right. Especially reliable ones. I'll go first. He's already got a taste for my flesh. I'll stay.

Once we start going in the house, I'll stay in the middle of the community as closely. I would just be next to your room, I guess. Well, it was a dark and stormy night, and I know that seems a little cliche. Oh, it was yesterday. It really was. That's true. It seemed eerily like it was almost came on as soon as we entered the house. It was almost like we, like someone knew that we were going to be assaulted by gross animals and ghosts. Like who, who knew? Who knows? I liked his story. Well, anyways, we, and I'll... And there's the parlor where we had a spirit board and we talked to the ghost of the butler named Petrini and your groom decided to chop it in half. Oh, no, your room, why would you chop a spirit board in half? You know what that means. Bad luck. Does it? I think so. I don't, I don't know, actually. But yeah, I think so.

That sounds like bad luck. You were almost entirely consumed by a small weasel man. I'm not sure my luck could have gotten any worse. You'll roll a disadvantage for the remainder of the other. Damn you, Pertunia! Well, anyway, it was all this lady Portunia, and she had this strange sense of style, if you could even call it that, and she was serving some nasty old nighthag

named Vesla Brown Tooth. And she was feeding her something teeth. And there's gross aminal? Oh, and then there's a beaver on a clock that our friend Briggsie is quite fond of. I've never seen a beaver in real life before. Is that what one actually looks like? I don't think we have beavers around you.

Philip, do we have beavers around yet? It doesn't matter. I'll ask. Adolto, do not eat this fruit. Oh, I don't want to. Oh, that's a burgomat. I like the tea from that stuff. I have tea with my breakfast every morning.

I did not think you said tea right the way. Don't have any. I promise you will only have a bad time. I'm not sure you're supposed to eat the fruit of a burgomat tree. I think you're just supposed to suck the essential oils from it and use it to infiltrate the tea leaves. So you have a very aromatic flavor when you drink the tea in the morning. You can add a little bit of cream, but some people don't like that.

They say it's not true to the way it's supposed to be, but I love adding creams in my tea. I am not familiar with this street, but then I will, is there a remaining fruit? Sure. Can I try to split it open and see what's inside? Yes. I do that. And it is a plump, fresh, juicy fruit. I don't know.

That looks super ripe to me. This is a very good sign, actually. in the evening, this would have been filled with teeth. Oh, I wish it were. That would be so spooky, you know? Well, I think we've had enough spooky for a week. I'm glad that all the spookiness in this land is behind us, certainly. Tell her about Kellan of the Crooked Teeth. Oh, yeah, tell me about Kellan of the Crooked Tees. Oh, yes, so, so the whole thing is that there was this entity

named Kellyn. She had a mighty, a handsome voice. I might say. Oh, yeah, what did it sound like? If you could describe potentially three things that sounded like mixed together, what would those three things be? Oh, well, what did she sound like? Well, hey, um, Farron, can you say,

how do you, miss, I mean, lady, uh, Druskinvall? No. She sounded a little bit like that. Well, if that three things mixed together, that's just Farron. Well, you had to be there. How do you know it wasn't Farron projecting a voice? Well, gosh, I don't know, but Farron was standing there,

and there was, she was in an amber thing, the rock. You say an amba thing, an amber rock? What do you mean? Oh, yeah, no, it was a big old, it was a hunk of amber. One might even call it a monolith. That is something to think about. Yeah, Jericho, that is something to think about. And you can see that Philip looks a little perturbed by you saying. And Marius's lady frame. She decided to break, to crack it, and then I got real feared. Oh, very, and I broke it a little bit too.

And then I think that she may have flown away as a horrible kind of spooky shadow with crooked teeth after we did the whole thing. That sounds so cool. You guys must have had the best night of your life. That's a lot to do in one night. As I narramize of Jericho. What Jericho is trying to say is that this amber appeared to be some sort of a prison. We made incidentally my accident released it. Well, I can't speak to that.

I've never released anything from a prison before or put anything into a prison. That's good to know. Philip, is... Are these, are amber... statues or monoliths common in Jerusalem. I wouldn't say they're common, but it's definitely something that I need to see with my own arms. I've heard of something that could utilize Amber to trap things and evil beings and such, but I'm going to need to see this thing.

I've got my suspicions. I've got my fears. I've got things I'm afraid of right now. But to confirm it, we're going to have to see it. Isn't that right a doubt? And she just nozzles into him? Oh, that's so right, honey. Then follow us down into the winery.

Oh, did you hear that? They're going to give us wine. Oh, I love this. It's like a tasting. If you see a little treat, despite how appetizing and confectionary, it might seem, I wouldn't try tasting it. Oh, you're sure? I'm really peckish. I haven't eaten old day. They explode. And they're also made of children's bones, too. Oh, that's true. That's the bum worst part of that. I was getting guys. Give me a minute.

His teeth are still growing back, to be fair. You might want to give him more time to finish his sentences. You poor thing, your grim, how do they feel your gum still bleeding, honey? That's a bit like when your baby teeth grow in and still falling. It's really horrible. Yeah, it totally looks that way, and she reaches into a pocket on the side of her dress, and she pulls out a dainty little lace handkerchief, and she wipes some of the blood off the side of your mouth.

You poor thing! They will stop growing when they reach their proper size, correct? Oh, I hope so. I've never done that spell before. I guess we'll see. You have a morris test. To Ralph any other?

Hey, Yorim, you know what else has tea if you never stopped growing? What? What? Beavis. Is that a real true fact about Beavis? As far as, I know, I read it in the... You read. I read, Mark.

I read it in a book. That's so cool. Well, that's a little suspicious the way you said that. I don't know why you'd be suspicious about reading Beaver facts. Well, anyway, that apron right there, next to all the Splinters of Woods from a Voodoo Gun, is the apron of the old. Butler Petrini what I just mentioned. Oh, that Petrini, guys, that's the one that was

talking to you on the spirit board that this guy broke with his shovel and is now split and twine and probably has bad luck for the rest of his whole life. By the way, you're going to roll a disadvantage for the rest of the campaign? I suppose, yeah. He was very helpful. He told us about Kellyn in the Amber Monolith.

He told us about the hag would have lived in the attic. He had a journal. He had a journal that also talked to us. He basically saved our lives. Can I see that journal? We still have it. Yes, it's right here. Oh, great.

I'm going to take a look at it. Oh, cool. We owe Petrini a lot. Sounds like. I can't imagine what he went through to get us that information from the other side. I can't imagine what it would be like to talk to a real true life spirit is that? Is that a faux paw?

It's a bit offensive, yes. Oh. I mean, oh, your groom would know, those are his best pals. They don't like that. I won't say it again, I'm sorry. I'd rather have a best pal as a ghost than more virgil here. Despite the evils we faced, we were very lucky when we engaged with the spirit boy. I know that attempting to talk to the other...

So why'd you smash it then? You didn't have a say. If I'd had my wits about me, I would have stopped him from smashing the spirit. I think it was just really busy saying creepy things I just can't stop Well no You can't blame your groom His mind wasn't his own It was the specter of Petunia

Lockwood That was her name Oh don't you dare tell me you were possessed by a spirit My hands were the tools of an evil being I am gonna touch you if that's all right Why? Well, is it all right or not? Well, I'd like to know why.

Because I really want to touch someone who's possessed by his spirit, Philip, can I? I mean, can I? She, like, dances up to you, and she puts her hand on your chest. Holy smokes Philip is a real-life possessed person. And that's okay, though, because you're not dead, right? Okay, that's enough. Oh, I'm sorry. Yikes!

Go right ahead of it, Bella. Keep touching people, that's fine. I don't give a shit. Gosh, I get possessed all the time. Don't I touch you, too? I wish that was me. I think that he may actually be possessed this very moment.

You are so Josh in me right now, do you think? Oh, no, I got possessed all the time. I mean, everyone... I'm not even going to ask, and she runs up and wraps her arms around you. Oh, my gosh, you are seriously, completely empty. No, virtual, virtual, go. Can't wait.

This is finally, finally, finally. Someone who is not scared away by you. It's happening. You know what? You smell a little bit like rust and a little bit like what? I kind of like it. Yeah, I've been a little rusty. I try to scrape it off every couple weeks.

It would make a great incense. Let me tell you, I make incense in my free time. I'm going to make some, and I'm going to call it Jericho. Gosh, that is... You're like that, because I do. That is the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. Oh, no. I just love them.

Where'd you find them? You're that Virgil? I could make a great incense. You always said, I'll make a terrible incense. Some of your hay came out. Oh, sorry. Sorry. Can I have some of that? I could add it to the incense.

Well, sure. I mean, I don't got a ton on my, I get a little skinny if I, I can get more hay. Do you need some more? No, this is enough. I don't want to take all your pieces. I just don't want to take them from my legs and people will accuse me of skipping leg day. Well, your legs are already a bit scrawny to all him. Have you ever tried to work your legs? It's difficult. Jericho is far from the College of Chunder.

Just adore all of you. You're my favorite. I'm so glad we met. And it's so cool that you got to have this amazing adventure and what's gonna be your new house. We are indeed well met, Adela. It's a pleasure. This isn't gonna be our house

until we know that Kellyn is gone and that Filty Jas was dead. And you hear Philip, to make a sound in the back of this throat. All right, honey, I think you've had enough time torturing our new friends. Oh, no, you can... Oh, okay.

She, like, shrinks back and Joe, all right, I'll be quiet for the little bits. And he moves forward, and I got a lot to think about. A lot to think of it. And it sounds like you have a vermin problem. This weasel with a human-headed face. As far as I would know, he's not dead. If that's your problem, then I'm your man.

I was hoping that a vermin problem that started with W would be for witches, but if it's for weasels, then we'll deal with it. Oh, would that be mighty kind of you? We've been trying to get him every time we run into him, but he's been real slippery, ain't he? He just gets away before we can do nothing. It's very fast. They don't call me put a stop to it, Philip, for no reason.

And everybody calls me that. Oh, put a stop to it, Philip? I should write a jingle for that. need anyone to write you a jingle? Oh, I would love it if you wrote him a jingle. Could you write him a theme song? Because I've always said what would be really cool when we walk in from the masquerade

if all of a sudden the band started playing and then Philip puts his hand over her mouth. She's going to be fine. Just let her keep talking. As long as she can hear herself speak, she's good to go. Honey, I love you, but you got to be quiet. Stay up here with a spirit board. Once we show you what's been going on in this house, if we run into filthy Jasper,

if you have any way to stop him from getting back into the walls, the rest of us will turn him into red mist. I love it. Let's deal with a weasel problem. We'll put a stop to the vermin. One of us should stay here if you intend to go down and view the emper monolith. Sure. We want us to stay. Just to protect your wife. Oh no. He told me I can't go down there, but he's full of cramp, because I'm totally going down to wherever this thing is.

And you see he rolls his eyes, but he is not going to put up a fight with her. Very good. Let me lead the way. Oh, and this was what the ruins of some called the old. bone grinder with the old crooked man that's told us once. Oh, that's really cool. What's a bone grinder? Oh, I don't know. I thought you might know. Oh, you mean like a place that actually grinds bones?

Like the pastries we mentioned. Oh, no, you think they'll link together? I feel pretty certain of it, yeah. Oh, it was a windmill. You know that. Well, I know this place was built on a sturdy foundation. I know that's why Tunia Lockwood chose it. Why put more money into building a foundation

when there's a sturdy one already here? Well, perhaps on account of the horrible entity trapped in an amber beneath the foundation. That does sound like a very horrible choice. But who could have known? Am I right? But you've relinquished the thing. You've cracked the code, as it were. Well, we may have released the entity.

I don't know if we solved anything. We haven't been down there since it tried to attack us. and swallow us into goopy red goo. It's like the land before time. You don't say, you haven't been down there since. Not since we killed the hag, no. Unless anyone else went down there. Makes his arm around Adela's waist,

he pulls are very close to him. You stay close to me, honey. Just in case things get out of hand, I need to make sure that you're in hand. There's gonna be a busy fine. Oh, that's all right. I'll be fine. And Phillips, a good climber, I think. You're gonna climb.

You need to change your shoes, Philip. You gotta get those old messy. Don't worry about it, honey. I got more shoes in the carriage. Well, here's some dancing lads. Go ahead and dance, pumpkins. Oh, I like those. Quite flavorful. Let's go on down. Anyone smell pumpkin spice? Oh, I've been trying to get them scented. Is it working? You all smell it?

Well, I can. I don't have a nose, so, I mean, I can get little whiffs of things. It's very thick. I could use less pumpkin spice. Okay. Oh, gosh, I just made it stronger. We're descending, and Mary's, oh, look how Mary's can just walk down the walls there. Oh, my gosh, that's so cool. I knew DMP is Winnie. I've heard of them. I've read about him in books. Maybe Briggs-Easey read the same books that I have. Probably, that's right. You go ahead and climb down. I'm going to go down the hard way, and she snaps her fingers, and you see as a swirling magical disc begins to appear beneath her with these beautiful runic symbols.

and she slowly starts to float up into the air and then hover over and lower herself down. Tenser, you son of a bitch. Don't we'll stay with you. I'm just going to jump in the hole and then right when I'm per the bottom, I'm just going to blink and use Misty Step to, like, not break your legs.

To not die, yeah. No, your momentum continuum is when you get into like, fall and then, like, misty step, blitz is bluish. Like, you crayon, like. Crayon, like. Like a burlap sack full of vegetable soup. Oh, God.

We all make it down in the most dramatic and creepy way. I'm going to jump down like a mountain goat kind of landing on like precariously small edges. And you all, in your own individual ways, you make it down the ruins of the Tower of Old Bonegrap. You're all unique. We're all individuals. We're all unique. We're all very special. We are the world.

The bones of children. Wow. And capriced. As you make it down, your eyes slowly adjust with the darkness with the help of the dancing lights of the pumpkins. You begin to see that this place is very similar to what it had been. The walls and the floor still coated in that thicky, gum-like texture, but it's slowly receding as it's drying up and the blood is beginning to congeal and actually start to, start to, not petrified, but wrought, foul smell is lingering in the air. And you see in the very center where the amber monolith had been in a much shallower pool. of gum blood, you see the shards of the amber monolith.

And that strange, dark, twisting entity that had been Helen of the Crooked Teeth is nowhere to be seen. I raised my arm, pointing towards it, and say, that is where the entity was. I figured it was some sort of prison, because physically it couldn't get to us, and it kept taunting us, asking for our help, wanted to lend us its power.

No, say. Unfortunately, took over my mind and I was drawn into the puddle lake. Something stopped it from claiming me entirely. Often now is Yorrim. Yorgrim ultimately did save my life. You know, Maris, I think you might be right. I think it might be just that. Prison of Amber.

I've heard of things like this. Amber's sarcophonite. keep trapped to dark entities within. And somehow it escaped. Yes, and as you can see, perhaps, my hypothesis is that this was the place of power

that threw the hag and drew all of this evil to this place. I don't think you're wrong. I actually think you are the opposite. I think you're right. That's a very convoluted way of saying that. Why, thank you, you, Leffield. I haven't seen this before.

I haven't seen one personally, but I've heard of them. A library's massive. It's large, it's immense, it's big. Well, when we killed the hag... It's filled with books. Any book you could possibly imagine is probably in a library. When we killed the hag... And I haven't read all of them, but I have read one that talks about monoliths like this.

Oh, sounds great. I can't wait to hear more about it. When we killed the hag... Prisons. We heard... The entities that are. A loud cracking sound. And the house kind of like,

it was all crooked before, and it kind of righted itself. But I'm wondering if the cracking noise we heard was actually this, and I kind of gesture to the pieces. Well, Briggs, I don't think you're wrong. I think you're the exact opposite. I think you might be right. Well, is there anything we can do about it? Or did we actually do worse by killing the house?

Like, how we just not stopped and stepped in this house? That thing would still be imprisoned. I don't know, but I will get to the bottom of it, and I will find out. Is this a class? You don't need to raise your hand? Oh, excuse that. Well, normally, amongst no more times, I don't need to raise your hand to speak. I'm like, looking away and not maintaining eye contact.

No. You may speak. Oh, well, my name is, I guess I'll get to the point, and to my question, which I'll speak very presently. the nature of what fabulous prize you offered me and as far as thanks for my witch-killing services was a key maid of Amber? You're right, you are.

Is it similar in nature and property? I think it might be something to keep something in bed, trapped, contained, in prison, locked away. Oh, that's probably a good thing. Yeah, that sounds like it's very similar. And so back to me a question, for example. I think that it is possible to use something like this, to channel power in a different way.

And my fear is that what they, that's what this hag was doing. Utilize whatever rituals or dark deeds this person was doing to channel the power from this into them. So you might have released Kellynne of the Crooked Teeth, but you stopped something much bigger. That's at least my thought. or my home. Well, I don't know if we mentioned there was a when we fought in the attic,

there was a naked lady who didn't have a head, and there was a goatea? That was a Plutonia, yes, exactly. It was the lady who did all this nasty business, and she cut off her own head, I guess, on purpose. I know we saw it on purpose, not we don't, yes, we know. And it was on a steak, and a wooden steak, not a filet mignon. God, I'm so hungry. I've been eaten all the day. And there was a circle, and we broke the ritual by placing the memento, but she had a goat skull, and so that, was that part of it? It sounds like it is. You say it's a human body with a skull of a goat. That's correct.

Does it mean something to you? That's a symbol of Mother Night. Which is the goddess that the hag worshipped? That would be my guess. That would be my thought. That would be my suspicion. Is that relevant? Is that bad, good? When you've got a witch named Mother Knight and you've got a goddess named whatever.

The goddesses... Wait, so, the witch's name Mother Midnight. Yes, that's why he said. And the goddesses name Mother Night. Look, I don't have time for all of this. I've got an ascarade that I have to get started so that all of the people in this land,

their hopes rise. That sounds nice. And now that there's a kellin of the crooked teeth flying around, they're going to need even more of a masquerade. What I need from you is I need you to kill whatever Midnights and mothers and hags and witches there are in this land so I can have my masquerade.

I should name it the Midnight Mascaray. Ah, it's a brilliant idea. I was going to say there's no reason to tell anyone about this entity and create panic. It's a great idea. Sound. Logic. Sounds like the faster we deal with filthy Jasper. As soon as we get a serial and get on with hunting these witches. Yes.

And speaking about, he sniffs, I think I smell the weasels. And he takes his cane and he points it towards a small mound of what looks to be tooth and gum and blood. And you begin to hear a strange squeaking, almost humanly, like a hybrid between a weasel and a human's howling noise. As out of this, out of this pile, you begin to see the bloody form of food. filthy jasper rise up as Philip raises his cane up into the air. Is this the creature you were talking about? I immediately draw my sword. Yes. Hold it still so we can cleave it in twain.

Philip's eyes go completely black as you see a dark black and purple beam of energy. Shoot from the tip of his cane. As all of a sudden, this creature, this filthy jasper, begins to writhe and scream in terror. His human mouth open as he screams and he watches his neck cracks and flop to the side. all of his bones begin to break and twitch. His flesh begins to start rotting away in some places. His fur falls from him. And then he slowly drops him into a slump,

into a loud thump on the ground, filthy Jasper dead before you. And as Philip's eyes slowly return back to their strange, like bluish gray color, he wipes some fake dust off of his jacket. Well, that wasn't so bad. Yes. Well done.

That's one way to do it. I resheathe my sword. And now a vermin problem is simply witches with a W. You could do that the whole time. Why don't you come with us? Simply just, I had business and cereal. I had to meet with the archbishop. You know how hard we tried to get that thing?

No, not all. You didn't tell me. I have a hole in my... What are... Your room is going to be okay. Okay. Mantras. Mantras. That's exactly right.

Yes. Try to be positive. Remember. it's all right your teeth are back you're going to repeat after me repeat after me I am enough I'm okay it doesn't work for me

and maybe it'll help you I'll ask you a question and I know you're gonna want to say no but I think you should entertain the idea okay honey what is it Adela what is it that you want you know I'll entertain it you just tell me honey and you can have what you want

oh you promise I hope so can we take it home I want it wait honey you want that human-faced we Basil breech up. Yeah, I do. I really want it. We could stuff it and put it on a mantelpiece. That would be kind of cool. It's got such a cute face. Look at the way it's all like human like it's even got freaking thumbs. And he turns and he looks at her and you can see a look of almost like repulsion and for a mere second frustration before his face becomes serene. Well, if you wanted honey, you can

have it. You're going to have to go get it though because I'm not carrying it with me. Oh, I can't right he's going to make a great piece on he's going to make a great staple on the mantel piece and you watch as she floats over on her desk and she slowly picks it up and she sets it next to her on the desk he'll clean up real nice what further business do we have here in this house before we can head to cereal well for me i got to clean up i got to get new wallpaper i got to get you new uh drapes we got to oh we got to get some beds in here with real down mattresses oh that would be a cozy sleep don't you think you'll like you'll like to get new wallpaper i got to get you like four poster? I think we can only really do four poster. Do you want anything special carved in each one of your beds? Do you have any, do you have any specifications you need for your bedroom? I got to fix up that spirit board. We can't have a broken spirit

board in this house. We've got to do a couple of seances see if anything lingers. We've got to get the blood out of the floor. Oh my gosh, we're going to have to fix that staircase that the weasels broke. If they're holes in the walls, we might have to do a lot of carpentry. I'm going to have to get someone in here to see if they're term lights. We should get a new carpet. Do you like, what kind of painting do you like to stand to? So he's new to me, so I don't

I don't know out how bedrooms work. Oh, you're so cute. I'm going to go out on Lynn and assume that you don't need us for those things. If you want to stay and help, you can, but, and you hear from Philip a grunt of frustration. But I don't think that's a good idea, right, Philip? I'm writing that, right? That it's not a good idea for them to stay and hang out with me for the next week while I clean up the house. You're right, honey.

It's not a good idea for them to stay here. They've got business and Cyril and the archbishop's waiting for him. I told him that they'd be coming and he's ready. Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but... We'd like to get a move on. It seems to always be night. There's no morning. There's no need.

I feel as though I've got a good amount of rest. I'm ready to move on. I am rested, too. And if you are going to be taking things in... Why don't we have this conversation upstairs? We're not standing, angle deep, and gumbloat. Sure. Uh...

Only that, and I would gesture to the Amber monolith, I would ask that you will remember. remove it. Do whatever else you want with the house, but please remove this monolith, so we do not need to sleep above it. Anything you want. We'll fill it in, we'll take it out, we'll get rid of it, we'll dispose of it, we'll throw it out, we'll dispose of it. Thank you. That isn't really answer why filthy Jasper was just chilling in the teeth besides being gross. Wasn't he known for being in the walls? That was more of his hallmark. I have a feeling the creature was watching us, keeping an eye on us, maybe relaying information.

Marion's role a perception check. Actually, no. Both of you roll a perception check. Oh, gosh. Dun, da-da-ton. Dice. I know, dice is it. I think I got a 19. Let me see. Yeah, we're playing them. Yep, 19.

That's better than mine. First caption. I'm sorry. Where the fuck is perception? That's a number of. 18. So his body is completely fur-like, but he had human hands on both his front and back legs and a human face. With a woman-like ears. Okay. Yeah, I'm just picturing him now as a stool. Thank you for that visual. I appreciate it. Who knows? Maybe you'll see him again.

18. 18 and 19. But then he'll be clean. It's easy as you motion towards this pile that Philip had magically pulled filthy Jasper out of. Both of you see that in the light of the pumpkins, there is some kind of glint, some sparkle, some bit of glittering magic. Yeah, it's downstairs. Oh, okay. Some kind of glittering magic or something

within this mound of gum and teeth. It appears to be magic. From where you're at right? Now, you just see that is glittering, whether it's something magical or just metal glinting. I draw my sword from its sheath and I say, Derek, I'll come with me. And as I step towards this mound, I would use the tip of my sword to try to disrupt the mound and see if the glint is physical. And I would say I'll just keep your perception from before. As you do this, you begin to see that this looks like some kind of filthy hovel that Jasper might have even been living in for a long time. And in it is almost like a magpie's nest.

You see spoons and other shiny trinkets. But what lines on the very top, the thing that caught the glint of the light, is something you've seen before. The horrible effigy of Petunia Lockwood, which she was in her strange, her body was in the strange decaying position with the goat skull on her head. She was holding two things. She was holding a mirror-like dish, and she was holding a dagger. It looks like at some point in the night,

filthy Jasper had gone back and retrieved both of those objects and was now sleeping with them in his little hollow. Well, well, well, what a poor tragic bastard. Look at this. And two. Is that what was that a horrible Pertunia woman was holding up in the attic? It was. I would reach into my cloak and pull out like a small square of cloth and pick these items up from the muck.

as you do, you see that there are things inscribed on them. The dish is crudely etched with a goat skull inside of a hexagram in front of what looks like a full moon. And on the dagger, you see the markings of what appear to be weasels, pigeons,

and centipedes. I would clean them up with the cloth that I pick them up with, and as I clean each one, I hand it to Jericho. Oh, yeah, sure. As we're looking at them and examining them and handing them to Jericho. And then I would just kind of sift through, with my weapon the rest of the hovel to see if there's anything of note and then relay the rest of that information to the group.

You can find, I would say, you know, five silver pieces, a couple of silver spoons that could probably fetch a bit of money. There is an alchemist set. There are spiders. There is a a bubble worth nothing. I care. Marius takes note of all of these things and doesn't give me a single flying fuck. It leaves anything of value and is just interested with the items that he handed to Jericho. This is really, I mean, how does the craftsmanship look? Is it look like it's well done? Is it crude? I would say that it looks a bit of both.

It is not like pristinely carved. It looks like, it looks like witch carvings or had carvings, I should say. There's a difference. Um, uh, Philip or, I mean, Lord Druskinvold and Lady Druskinvold? You can call me Philip. Lord Druskinvald, would you take a look at this and, uh, and see, and see, does this mean something to you? You said this place was filled with weasels?

Correct. I don't know much about hags, but what I do know is they come in threes. Oh, fuck. Oh no. Weasels, pigeons, centipedes. I think we've got two of the hags on a house. two of the hags on our hands. And if I know anything and I know some things,

it's that witches align with hacks. And I think Mother Midnight's behind all of us. Wait, wait, so what you're telling me is that two, there are two more hags before we even approach 13 witches, or two of these hags. Like I said, cut the head off the snake. You kill Mother Midnight, what's left of the 13? A body of a snake with no head, clearly.

These are the two hags. in the house. So two hags and a witch. Well, are you saying they have two more hags in this house? I don't think they're in this house. Bentley, let's have a conversation outside. You're wrong. I get the fuck out of this. Say no more.

For the sake of Britain. He's some pumpkins? While we walked, Philip, I thought of your jingle. Tell me about it. Taking care of things, Phillips. So it's, and he'll be taken care of weasels.

Every dusk, taking care of weasels, Philip Drusk. You've been taking care of weasels, it's all his, taking care of weasels and other witchy biz. Wow, done. You make your way out to the porch of what had been the crooked house, down the steps, out into what still feels to be the early hours of dusk, but you're familiar with the morning now in Druskenwald. And Philip looks to all of you, and he looks down towards a chain, a small chain that is hanging out of the pocket on the front of his vest.

He pulls out, he looks at this very elaborate golden pocket watch, and he shakes his head. I have business to attend to. Something much more important than this. I have the caterer coming from the masquerade. Adela, come here. Give me a smooch. I'll tell you the important information, and you get our new friends on the road. You make sure they have everything they need.

Do you got it, honey? Oh, my God, it's Philip, I promise. And she rushes to him, wraps her arms around him as he lifts her up by her tiny waist. She kicks out one of her legs, the dark purples and blues of her fringe, like moving with the swish of her hips as she leans in for a kiss.

and it's uncomfortable to watch if they kiss for one minute, two minutes. Oh, wow. Almost three minutes. Don't make it out. Over your eyes, Jericho. Occasionally, you hear a giggle deep within Adela's throat.

And I would say it's easy to tell that their embrace is also a way for them to exchange information. What? And as they finish, with a wink, Philip, Tassadela on the rear with the end of his cake. I'll see you at home, honey. And he climbs into,

climbs into the carriage. She waves at all of you as the door shuts and the carriage begins to make its way down, down the road. That strange person manning the horses, where just deep within beneath his top hat, you see the two red eyes, but nothing more. He doesn't turn and look towards you. He just simply mans the carriage. Just fill up right. off into the mist of the morse. What do you think of my jingle? Oh. Sorry about that.

He sure had a lot to say. Oh, boy. So you got a lot of work on your hands, but I promise by the time you come back, this place is going to look great. Thank you. You welcome. Oh, by the way, and she pulls out from behind her back.

You didn't even see it. A now completely repaired spirit board. Look what a little bit of ending can do. It's all fixed. Your bad luck should go away. So you don't have the rule it doesn't advantage anymore for the rest of the campaign. See, your... Whatever that's supposed to mean. This is why we always have hope.

Things can be repaired. Wise words from a dampier. Well, not all broken things can be repaired. That's not true, honey. All things can be repaired. I promise. Just listen to Adela. Adela is right. I wouldn't see you in the wrong direction.

I have much to make up to Patrini, but this way. feels like the first step. I'm glad to see it back in one piece. You know, everyone makes mistakes, honey. You don't have to worry, though. I got, I fixed it for you, and I'll make sure everything looks great. I promise. I know I got a little excited when you got

here, but you've done a lot for us already, and if you can get rid of this witch problem, then, oh my gosh, the time I'm going to have that masquerade. I can't thank you enough, honies. I really can't. Speaking of which, we should probably get moving. Oh, yeah, and if, you know, I don't know if Philip told you, but if you get rid of the witch problem, you got invitations to the masquerade.

VIP, the vips of the whole thing, I promise. That's why he's going to give you your presents. Can you imagine dancing all night under the full moon? It'll be beautiful. Well, hopefully it won't be full, but... Yes. The masquerade is tonight, is it not? Oh, no, not at all.

It's not for a bit. But we got a lot of preparing to do, because, you know, we got to get that strange frog guy to get people in from all over the place. and he's not easy to work with. And right now with that, and she points up towards the hagmoon, outside you guys, there's no one coming to going. Who normally gets invited to these kinds of swanky, swarets? Oh my gosh, it's the best.

All of the leaders of the lands are going to be there. Every single number of the province. You know, you're going to meet one of them when you go to Cyril because I don't know what Philip told you, but that's essentially like, what does you call it in most places? like the capital? That's the capital of Fulcense. Well, we are looking forward to meeting all of these very important people,

and we're looking forward to this masquerade. My favorite's the Iron Maiden. You're gonna love her. Oh, all right. Duly noted. But don't, please don't tell the Archbishop that. Oh, I shouldn't have said it. Look at me, Adela, putting my foot in my mouth. No, we won't. We won't repeat it.

Oh, but you're gonna need to know. So you're gonna head down this path, okay? that's the direction you're going to travel just this straight path right in front of you. I'm going to need you to stay to the path itself because, and I don't say this to be mean, but you don't look like the people we normally see here. I mean, we've got a zombie, we've got almost the vampire, not quite, whatever you are, and, you need to eat a sandwich. What?

I'm the most normal one. Who could you possibly not recognize that, okay. You all, Graham, can I tell you a secret? Yes. You got a tombstone on your back, honey. Oh, well, that's rare. It's horrifying. But we're invited to the masquerade.

Oh, you betcha. If you can get rid of which problem, you've got the prettiest invitations that Adela can must. Unless we manage you not kill 13 witches before the masquerade. I don't know how many times Philip's got to tell you this. You don't got to kill all 13. You just got to cut the head off of the snake. Let's say we don't cut the head off the snake water.

Are we still invited to masquerade? There won't be a masquerade if we don't get rid of these witches. Oh. At least we don't think. I guess I'm going to ask Philip, but I think that's the plan. We understand. So how long have a journey do we have a head? Well, it's probably going to take you about a full day's travel, I think,

so you should get there, you know, I don't know, around the witch and all. Is there anything? Speaking of, you're going to need to figure out a way to tell. the time here, and she reaches into her pocket, and she goes, this is what he wanted you to have, and she passes you a pocket watch. And on it, there are the symbols of moons. And words that indicate what the rough times of day would be in this land. This is perfect. Morning is known as early dust. Okay. Noon slash afternoon is mid-dust, late afternoon, late dusk. Evening is evening. That's going to be the most complicated one to remember.

the nighttime hours are known as the midnight hours and midnight and into the early morning is known as the witching hours. Oh, boy. And so when I refer to things in that way, you'll have this handy key to be able to tell you how that works. As we were heading into the house, you had described it as early dusk,

which is basically morning. Yes, so it is slowly making its way toward mid-dust, but it would still be considered early dusk. and for all intents and porpoises, it is the way that the day looks is very similar to that. So in the morning, it looks like dust has just come upon you and then all the way through darkness. Well, if there is nothing else that you need from us now. Oh, yeah, no, you've got this bag of 300 gold coins. You know, if you can get rid of a hag, we got to pay you for it, right?

It's one of three. There'll be more where that comes from. I take the bag and I hand it to Briggsie. You'll probably need it. I know you don't like... Oh, take care of it. You don't look like the type that really worries about money too much.

Oh, that sounded really rude. I didn't mean it in the way that it found it. No, no, no, you all correct. But it is going to be really important for you to have fun because in Cyril, they're going to use them. All right. That being said,

we've already let the Archbishop know that you're coming, so he'll be expecting you. But you got to keep to the road or the very, very rough tree, alone at the forest? Are you hearing me, honey? Because the people that walk around here, they're not going to know that you have our blessing. And they're not going to know the archbishops expecting you. And even if you tell them, they're probably not going to believe you, you understand? Understood. All right. So you'll be careful. And so there's bad stuff going on

in Fulcens? Is what Lord Phil said? Mother Midnight's definitely in full force. Oh, Philip wants me to tell you what to expect, but it's horrible. It's really, you don't to chew on those coins honey they ain't food if you're hungry i can get you something i can whip something up in that kitchen actually i don't know how to cook no i'm just making sure it's genuine go oh it is i promise oh no i know i'm just checking all right well you do you so anyway are we gonna go well no i gotta tell you what you're gonna expect but it's horrifying it's awful it's terrible you want to hear about it yes we would well i'm not so sure the fear surprises we have the better i agree Well, what the Archbishop has told us in our meeting yesterday, the crops are coming down with an ergot.

The people are having a hard time finding food. It's horrible. But on top of that, it's not just the crops they can't eat. The animals, there's something happening to them. When they birth things, they're coming out as abominations. I'm telling you, it's awful. I don't want to tell you what it's like. I don't want to say the words.

But think of the worst thing you can think of, and that's what's happening. similar to our friend the filthy gentleman. Oh, I don't know. He seemed kind of cute, don't you think? He'd make a great stroll. Wait, wait. Is this just... Oh, yeah. Is this just their livestock affecting the peoples as well?

As far as I know, it's just the livestock, but there are all things affecting the people. Children are going down with a strange sickness. And they don't know how to cure it. But on top of that, some of the adults, They're going mad, like completely, absolutely bonkin. Bonkers? Bonkin, I don't know. And they believe they've been hearing some kind of women in the woods,

witches, or something. And so the Archbishop's pretty sure it's got to be Mother Knight. This is real bad. This is much worse than it's ever been. It's got to be her. It's got to be Mother Midnight. Right. So are you caution us on the path you believe the witches to be in the woods? Well, I do, and I think Philip does too, and I think Archbishop Renault does too. Or at the very least their agents.

Do you and Philip have a sense of what Mother Midnight's ultimate goal, maybe? Why she would be doing these things if she is causing plagues and mutations? I think she wants this land for herself. I think, and I hate to say it, but I think she doesn't like parties or fun. I know it's horrible, Ryan. Who doesn't like a good, a good hullabaloo? I think she might be the worst of all worst things, dare I say it? Should I say it?

Briggs, should I say it? You said that she's the worst of all things, unless there's some mouth- I think she might be an introvert! Can you imagine a fate worse than death? I tell you. Oh, my God. Gosh, what's that? They're like a necromancer.

No. Oh. It's someone who doesn't like parties. It's someone who doesn't like to talk to people. It's someone who, oh my gosh, dare I say it, prefer solitude. I prefer solitude. Oh, you're just joking. I prefer the cold ground and a quiet night.

Oh my gosh, you're a right comedian. I'm funny. I love a dry sense of humor. Well, I'm sort of programmed to like being around people, so I really don't have a choice, so I don't really understand. Never mind. I think it comes with a territory, though. Witches probably don't like poise.

All fun. It's kind of the whole thing is to stop all that. Right? And we're going to deal with it. I mean, we're going to kill witches. kill witches, and then we're gonna party. We're gonna schmooze and we're gonna drink and we're gonna... And you have never had a party like an Adela party.

I'm telling you, it's gonna be the greatest night of your life. I am excited for this masquerade. Am I already wearing what I should be? Oh no, you would not fit in at one of my masquerades, but it's fine because I will send you something to wear. I'll have things custom made. Oh, it'll be beautiful. Very, Jen.

But we need to get to the real problem at hand, and that's stopping these witches so I can even have my party in the first place. Consider it done. Thank you, thanks. We're going to get honored immediately. If Lord Philip needs us for any reason, I assume he has ways to contact us. He'll find a way. He's resourceful, that hunker man. All right.

I have one more request before we make our way. Sure, I'll do my best to fulfill your request. If I'm going to be putting on a new... outfit, I'm going to need some way to park myself from this new purse that has attached itself to my person. Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. That's not going to be possible. You know

of this? Oh yeah, I wouldn't have put that thing on or attached it for the life of me. But you know, to be quite honest, it's got its uses. You might as well go ahead and use it. I mean, you can't get rid of it. Do you know what it is? I don't vaguely have an

idea of what it does. It'll steal things for you. This is my My fault, I gave Lethika the bag and I feel responsible. And there's some sort of horrific creature that lives inside. Oh yeah, there is. You mean that it'll steal things for us when it reaches out? Well, it'll steal things for itself, I guess I should say.

So you should probably check it on occasion to make sure there's nothing untoward inside of it. But anything you put in it will stay in there. It's not gonna throw things out. So you might as well get some use out of it because you're stuck with it for a while. Lathka, I'm so sorry. We'll find a way to fix this, I promise. Oh, look in our library. It's big, it's huge, it's gargantuan, and I'll see if I can find a book that I'll tell us how to do it. I'd like that very much.

If there's a magic that can separate you, honey, Adela's going to be able to master it, I promise. But now you're all covered in blood and gore and muck, so let me go ahead and snap my fingers and get you ready for your trip, because as it stands right now, no one's going to talk to you. And she's going to snap her fingers the five remaining times, and you will all be cleaned of the disgusting. of the house. What you look at that, Virgil? Real respectable gentlemen. That's the best you could probably do. Yeah, sorry, I can't repair your, you know, zombieness, I guess. Is that offensive? You agree to call him a zombie? Oh, I'm sorry, I should ask you.

I mean, that's kind of what I am. I'm sort of, I've heard it referred to as a zombie. I mean, froll. I mean, technically a zombie doesn't really have a mind of its own, so I'm not technically a zombie, but it's easy enough. Oh, right, I'll just call you Briggs because it makes it easiest for me, you know. One more question, very important. For your masquerade, do you have musical accompaniment? Oh, we do.

We're going to get the greatest band we can possibly get, but if you'd like to perform a song, we would love to do a spotlight. If you wouldn't mind, I mean, if you take care of the cut off the proverbial head of the snake, and I'd like to pull out my sickle and I just mime cutting off the head of the snake. Oh, yeah, definitely. I wouldn't, I would, might appreciate perhaps, just one tune. I would love it. Ooh, thank you.

Do you think you could perform Phillips song when we walk into the masquerade as we're going down the stairs? Do you think you can perform it for us and everyone in attendance? Oh, is there, does he have a theme song that he prefers or should I write one? I thought you just wrote one. You sang it to us as we were walking around the house. Oh, that was a jingle. It really wasn't a full-fledged song. That's all there is. you can write something I could expand

I could I also just thought of another one oh Jericho honey and she runs over to you and she gives you a big smooch on your cheek I'm working on this one what do you

ooh my oh my old thank you this is the greatest day of my whole life you were just an absolute treasure oh thank you do you think you would like

this well I'm work sure while I have you is like my lord likes to party all the time party all the time party all the time

oh he'd love it and if he doesn't well I sure to oh well that's just that repeated so maybe I'll try something a little less repetitive. Could you create a dance to it that we could teach everyone and we can do in unison?

Because thrill is getting really boring. Dancing is really not my specialty, but I can give it a shot. Well, you better be on your way because the moon is slowly starting to rise higher into the sky, and next thing you know it's going to be pitch dark and you're going to be out there all alone. All right.

All right. I'll stay here and I'll get your house ready for you. So once you're done and see, with whatever Archbishop would not need to help with. You cut off the proverbial head of the snake. You head right on back here, right? Understood. Is everyone ready?

I'm ready to go. He's as much as archibated. He's as big as bayin. I look at the watch, and I'm looking up at the sky, and I say, before we leave, I'd like to just say a prayer. It seems to be mourning, and I need to do my rituals. If anyone would like to join me... Yeah, sure. Do we need to do anything special for your prayer?

No, just reflect on... hope and eating people. Is it going to be uncomfortable for you if you walk in further into a town that's not about your god? Not at all. I don't think the people of fault is especially

art bitcher. Oh no, I can't believe I said that. That was a dirty word. Archbishop, oh my gosh, it's a tongue twister. I don't think he'd like you uttering another god's name in his town so you might have to keep that on the quiet. I appreciate the heads up and of course it will not offend me. I am here to

help. Okay, great. So what do I need to do? I'll pray. Not nothing. I just, I'll lead us if you don't mind. And please don't feel, don't feel the need. I'm going to go and stretch. Understood.

And I'll part from the part of it. It is dawn, O Seeker of the Light, what is thy duty? I shall say a prayer to the Light. We welcome you, Morning Lord, and we honor you this day. Celebrating your light as we partake in our journey once more. Great and powerful, the Sun is your blessing. and shows us your loving way. Thank you for your gifts.

Thank you for your warmth that touches us to the core. Shining down on the land and the sea, making things grow and bloom. Your eternal love will always be in our hearts, O Lord of the sun. We honor you, Dawn, Lord, for you are the beacon who casts away the gloom. And we devote our days in your holy name

and the darkness we shun. What shall you do second? I shall hold high the holy book that the sun might bless it. How shall the ritual end? I shall reflect on the glory of the light as it conquers the dark. Amen.

Marius, that was so sweet. Look at you being all holy and stuff. I just love it. Rathanda has never abandoned me even in my darkest moments. Well, may he be with you here? Thank you. Just don't mention his name once you get into zero, right?

Understood. And make sure the stretching one knows that about Shaw. We'll pass that along. I'm getting the sense that Miss Lethika doesn't find your best fellow there, Mr. Lafander, a favorable to her.

Yes, I noticed when I mentioned Saloon that Lethika had less than acceptable feelings about that, but it's all right. That's how these acolytes are. These men at close, you know, they all worship one god or another, and they all hate each other.

and they'll fight and they'll say the same shit, no offense. Briggsie, there's no hate. That's actually kind of true, so don't mention Lithander and don't mention Shaw when you get to see a rule, because I just, you know, wouldn't recommend it. I can't understand, but Briggsie, there's no hate. Oh, look, and I'm true to me, no offense, and that's fine, I'll respect, I took my hair off.

None take it. When you did your prayer, it just felt a little bit ironic when you're talking about the sun and give us a lie, I mean, it's like dusk, and can we even see a sun? No. On the horizon, you can, you cannot see the sun, but you can see the glow of what would be a sun if it could crest over the horizon,

but this sun perpetually can never crest over the horizon. I think to your point, that's exactly why we should pray to the sun. It's trying very hard. Lathando wants to be here, but something is preventing it from doing some. Probably that zizi fly you just smashed and you DMP. your hand. That's why you smashed it, right?

Correct. I'm quite confident that I have not said the word sharp since we have all met each other. Oh, yeah, no, you don't have me. You've got a scimples all over your body. But I will not mention my dark lady. Can you tell us what God would be preferred than zero? It's going to be really hard to guess

in a place called Fulcense, but it's Fultus. So, I've full out the map. Hey, Yogi, can you pass me to map? Oh, my God! No, wait, did you go by Yorkie? I love that name. All right, so Fawcensis is the name of the province. Oh, yeah.

And Cyril's the capital, which is where we're going. That's the city or town or whatever. You're going to pass a lot of provincial towns, some poor provincial towns on your way there. Just make sure that you don't interact with them, all right? And so they worship the God Fultis. Oh, yeah. They're on the one true path.

Just ask anyone. Has it mean anything to me? And by the way, what do you mean you ever said anything about Sharp for the last like eight hours? You can say nothing but drink that shit about Sharm. That's been near from the only. We don't know, we don't know anything about Sharpe. Who the fuck is the Sharre? I make Briggs the Ignite into Flame.

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You got your pocket watch so you know what time it is, because I know it can be a little bit to get adjusted to. I mean, I imagine it's all I've ever known. And, yeah, so I'm going to miss you, shucks. You sure you don't want to just stay? I know Philip would be right mad at me if I convinced you, but you can't. I don't think you want us to stay. for we would delay the party.

You're right, and I really want to have a master. We would distract you quite a bit. I love being distracted. But I do have a question before we go. I would love to answer that. Do you or Phil have any of those an extra carriages? Did you just call him, Phil?

Oh, I'm going to tell him that. He's going to love it. Oh, good. I don't even realize what I was saying. Anyway, Phil, if he will convert him. I call him Philly sometimes. All right, well, Philly. Because, you know, he's like a right stallion.

Fuck, you. I'm not blud. I don't have too much about all of me, but gosh. We have our mission. We know what we must do, and we're going to do it so that you can have your party. I love it so much. I hope you guys are safe, because I'm going to be honest with you.

Can I be honest with you? I'm going to go ahead and do it. I've grown really attached to you, and we've only just met. Thank you. If I may, I do have a question. Lord Philip isn't here right now, and maybe you don't have the answer, but does he really have the artifacts that he says he has? Oh, you know it, honey, and many more. Roll an inside check. Can I as well?

Yep. I'm telling you, he's got tons of trophies and things. Damn it! I got a 12. It should have been a 24. It rolled the 19, but I thought it was going to roll off, so I hit it, and it's still pretty good. You did better than May. It's still pretty good.

You're punching your dice to put it. I think you tried to game the . That is A-17. You are both easily able to tell that she is not lying to you. I've seen them with my own eyes. They're really pretty. Not my kind of thing. I'm not really an artifact kind of girl.

I prefer Jules. I don't mean to be out of line. I don't mean to move beyond my station. I just, I've been tricked before. I don't blame you. Look at you, honey. You're a blood sucker now. The grail is... No, it's all right. I am this way because of my own volition. My own mistakes that I accept.

Oh, honey, lust will get the best of all of us. Farron knows that better than anyone. I just... I don't want to be let down again. I need the grail. Well, if you cut the head off the snake, I promise you, he'll give you what you're asking for. We will do it. We are so, so grateful. I can't even begin to tell you.

We can get portraits made and have you put up in the hallway. Honestly, you remind me of, you remind me of someone I knew a long, long time ago. Well, I get that a lot. I have one of those faces. You really do, you were such a great guy. I miss them all. Oh, well, you better be on your way. Are we ready?

All right. And so, no, no, no, care of cheese. No, just we're going to walk. We're going to walk. Oh, yeah, you got sturdy legs. Look at you. You got to wander, like a true wandering minstrel. I mean, sure, they're rotten a little bit,

but it's not like they're going to go anywhere. Just used to having a vessel, you know, to carry me around. Well, you have your own vessel, your own living corporeal form. With that, it gave you two perfectly good working legs, we're going to use them. All right. Lead away. Well, goodbye, friend. Goodbye.

It was so great to meet you. It's been enchanting meeting you. Oh, let's hug, and she runs between all of you and embraces you. Oh, you're just the best. And she is, even with her heels, she's barely five feet tall. Oh, she's so young.

And she. How pear-shaped is she? I didn't ask that. I read your mind, Mike. She is pear-shaped in the sense that she is. Thick like a bowl of oatmeal? She's not thick, she's very thin, but she is, she's exactly what you would think of as like a 1920s flapper.

I'm just teasing, but thank you for the description. It helps me role play better. Though she has a little more of a booty than you'd expect. And as she saunders between each of you, the fringe on her dress that shifts almost like starlight. It's this beautiful dark blue and purple dress with the silver, with the silver fringe that glens glimmers like the night sky as she dances between each of you.

Her hair, very short, tightly curled to her head. With the glimmering headband that has the crescent of very, actually have it. A symbol. That's not it. A symbol on it. One that you've seen on the carriage. What?

Holy shit. What appears to be the symbol of the Crescent court embroidered in beed in beautiful silver beating on the headband and a large black feather that comes out and curls around her head. As she saunteres to each of you and gets on tiptoe to hug you or in some of your cases literally climbs up on you and wraps you in a hug her little feet dangling her small blue heels. I give her a full hug. It's a very genuinely priest. Oh, you smell lovely.

Thank you. You welcome. Gordinely accept it but not really hug back. You'll want that to me, I promise. Thank you so much for everything. We will see you again soon. Oh, I cannot wait. You can't be more than a day, I imagine, and see you. You're so quick in what you do. Look what you did here. Right. Well, how safe travels.

Thank you. Stay safe yourself. Oh, I will. I'm just going to be in the house here and I promise you. Philip wouldn't let anything bad happen to me. Are we ready? He's a lucky fella. Oh, I'm not, Chuck. Well, hey. Come on, no, I don't, I don't, I don't reference your, your state, your corn state of being. That's where she called you when you didn't get all offended.

She is a fair maiden. We treat each other with respect. We all treat each other with respect. I don't think I've ever been called a fair maiden before, but I like it. We got bloodshackers, we got zombies. We got oaks. Oh, come on, this witch isn't going to kill herself. Briggs, what did I tell you about having hope?

This will be fixed. We will come out to the other side of this, better people. All right? Look, I surely hope so, but optimism's a little hook right now, base of what we fucking do this. All right, goodbye. I'll see you later. Goodbye.

It was lovely meeting you. And you can continue to have this conversation while you travel. We argue for like an hour as we do. I'll say, I'm real sorry. I'm real sorry about what Verdun was saying while you were saying your prayers. What? I did not hear anything. Oh, gosh, I'm glad. I'm glad for that.

And you make your way towards zero. There will be moments for you to finish that. You make your way towards zero. And as you walk from what was the crooked house, it is now to eventually be your home in the land of Druspenball. You see as Adela holds on to one of the posts on the porch, she leans over and waves at you voraciously as you all begin to walk down the path. And as you look back slowly, the mist begins to roll in. Just the normal standard mist of the moorism of this place.

Like a fogginess. Yes, like a fogginess. Not like the horrible world. As it rolls in and obscures your view of the house. And all you're left with is the winding dirt and rocky road that leads deeper and deeper cutting through the forests that you know from looking at your map in the directions that a delegate you that this will lead you to serial.

And you travel. It is now about mid-dusk, a little after mid-dusk. I'm going to be honest, Jericho. I'm not going to ask you what it said. I don't. It doesn't matter. I've had people say horrific things to me about my faith, other people's faith. You know, Briggs-Eve and himself, has said some pretty egregious things. But I said no offense before I said.

It's true. And again, that makes it okay. None taken. And I want to be clear that just because I feel the need that I have to pray, it does not mean that anyone needs to partake. You don't have to partake. You don't even have to remove your hat. It is simply an option.

Oh, just simply polite to move your hat. Every time they should pray, I'll take more fucking hat off. That's what I'll do. That's my way to pay my respects. Briggs, I appreciate you. And I believe that the more time we spend together, the tenants will stick to you. All right, you'll see. Virgil don't much care for the gods or the goddesses.

If you accept my apology in advance. There's no need to apologize. You know, you could use a little bit of faith yourself, Virgil. You do not want to hear this. Can I think that part? The watch. Yes, of course. I'm not talking about it. That's like the guy. Yes, of course.

You're shaming. You don't have to roll. You don't have to roll. You don't have to roll. And so I'll look around and I want to, so Jericho or I would like to basically be getting inspiration for music or for stories. And I look around, is this kind of like, there was a farmlands and like what is? Right now what you're walking through is simply just trees on either side of day and a road that winds through it. I'll say at this point, you've probably been walking for about an hour or so. you've noticed that there have been trails and signposts that lead towards what you would imagine are provincial towns.

You've even seen flickering of lights off in the trees and the occasional movement as if there are people about further out. None of them paying you any mind so far. But I wouldn't say that you've seen any of these towns yet. But you imagine they're out there, dotting the forest and the lands. Got it. Well, I mean, there's not that horrible spooky biz that we first encountered in the trees when we first got here, but I guess we should keep an eye to the woods. It's right. This has been a much easier journey than I was expecting.

We will be careful. We will keep our wits about us. You will continue to help light our way, and we will be all right. We got some pumpkins, some dancing pumpkins. I do hope you know. Briggsie I do not hate anyone else for anyone anyone else's religion I accept everyone

again it's one of the tenets is that it's the end of the day we're here to help well and that's fine and I hope that you exhibit that we meet people that really don't like your God and they really like theirs so I'll just think let's keep an open mind

these people that we meet Briggs you have my word We're not the most regular bunch. So let's get in. We'll meet this archbishop, kill a witch, and then we can go to the masqueray. Well, and to your point, I would think that people are going to hate us much more for these. Well, this, I'd appeal some of the flesh out.

Then whatever gods we may worship. I think you're right. And that's why we've got to be a minimal. We've got to be friendly. Nice. Let's use some charisma, right? I win a Jericho Oh yeah, no, I'm programmed to be

very charismatic That's exactly right And tune and join folk Of any variety I don't have an ounce of ill will Except when Virgil takes over Then there's nothing but that But old Jericho's dicks

I got nothing but a smile and a tune For everyone I meet And if we offer to always aid And avoid negativity Number twos and sevens Then it'll be fine Maybe these are some of the monitors You can use, Yorghum

That's exactly right How are your teeth coming in there, fellow? Big buddy? I've been checking as we go to just make sure, maybe saying, like, I'm not a neighbor and they are the length that you'd expect. As far as you know. Yes. It's so far. They stopped coming out, but they are continuing to grow into your brain.

Oh, they're in-sats. Uh, when- My mantras are set. I need to add nothing to them. I simply want to get into this town. town, figure out how to kill this witch, and then get to the business of killing this witch. Oh, well, that's very, uh, very businesslike of view of killing witches at the very least. This has not been my first time. This will not be my first time, uh, going into a new place where a god is worshipped other than my own. I would ask yourself what you are willing to

agree to, be it the customs or the rituals of this place. I will be putting any hang-ups that I may have aside, and I will certainly not be evangelizing like yourselves. It's very new deity.

I recommend that we go with the flow. Well, I mean, I hope that I've represented myself appropriately in that I am prepared to do the same thing. I respect everyone and anyone. I certainly don't feel the need to evangelize. I have my rituals, and I will do them in private. I suspect that you will be keeping your word on that when we enter the city,

and you can speak to us as you will. I certainly don't mean anything like that. I just want to impress upon all of you that when we get there, they may ask us to do things for Fultus or in the name of Fultus, and I intend to say yes. for me. I can say anything. No, absolutely. Then we are in agreement. Thank you. I'll do for the fucking two-fairy. I don't care. Oh, sorry.

Oh, too soon. Oh, no. Unbelievable that you would say something. Just so I'm clear, just so, Virgil, that is a very rude thing to say about a lovely goddess. God, is that cheesy? She's a goddess, Virchal. Well, just so I'm clear,

so we got, so I'm not offended. anyone. We know that Briggsie and myself, we don't really are men or gaiters of the cloth. We don't really worship, but your room and Farron, how about yourself? Are you, are you, uh, prayerly types?

I wouldn't call it prayerly. I'm from, I was from, the heart's light, and we served ortholes. Goetheels? I've never heard of that. What is it? Is that a god? Didn't even worry about it?

He's what makes the world spend in my opinion. Okay, well, I'll do my best not to offend him. I don't exactly know where you fit into the cycle of life. For the rest of us, we'll return to the Earth when he calls us. Not to pry, Farron, but if you believe that this entity is the reason the earth spins, that seems very godly to me. That's what I was going to say. Sounds like a god to me.

Sorry. What do you think? What could be more natural than the cycle of life and death? Well, I mean, just as sure as life and death are, the sun and the moon rise,

always, even here in this place, it tries. This time, you've passed a few of the provincial towns. You're able to see them just on the edges of the fields here as the tree line gets further and further away from the road before once again engulfing the road. And as you pass through a large outcropping of trees,

you see coming up upon, as you come up upon what looks to be a dilapidated farmhouse. It's a little bit of farmland off the side, right on the outskirts of the woods. And you hear a sound, strange. I'm not going to make the sound for the house's sake. else is safe. A wounded animal shorts as it screams and whines as if in agonizing pain. Jericho, you notice first that what you see here is a small dilapidated house, which looks like it could be in use, just in disrepair. The field outside with a broken scarecrow, one arm completely broken off, is it

watches vigilantly over what looked to be rotting, ergot ridden crops. And towards the back, a tool shed and a small stable. And the sound that you hear of this wounded animal seems to be coming from inside the stables. Is this off the path? So the path is, the best way to think about it is the path is winding through,

as if it's been cut through the trees. But there are areas that have been more attended that push the tree line further and further back where you see bits of small provincial towns dotting the area where the tree line is maybe a mile out. What you've encountered as you've passed through that is the trees coming back in, kind of overshadowing you, and then as you walk through them, there's another area where it looks like the trees have been removed and there's a small farm there. And so there's fields of crops. There are fields of crops and then in the

very center of it is this very small run-down farmhouse, a fields of crops with a scarecrow, and then behind that what appears to be a tool shed. And then on the other side, it's just open field and the road stretching out further ahead of you. Does that make sense? Yeah. Perfect. I'm sorry to suggest it,

but if someone is in danger or someone is wounded, we must help. We have to investigate. Well, yeah, it seems to be like it's not entirely abandoned. Scarecrow. Seen better days. Me too. Let's go see if we can help that point. four animal. At the very least, you put it out of its misery. Hang on. None of you have ever been

traversed a dark domain before. That would be correct. Well, now I have. If we were standing in one, I presume... Semantics. Oh. What are you trying to say you, room? There are many things in the woods that will try and trick you. Said to stay on the path, we're here to kill witches, not to investigate sheds. You think that this horrific bay, animal baying is some sort of trick. So what Adela told you was to stay on the path or the very fringes of the tree line,

to not go deep into the woods. So we would think that this is like, this is on the path? That's, so I, based on what she said was to stick to the path or the very fringes of the tree line. So don't wander into the woods. So don't wander into the woods is essentially what she was saying. So I would say that if you felt compelled or you wanted to investigate something,

you would feel that this would not be breaking her trust. Your warning is also totally valid. Right, it is. I just want to make sure that... Yeah, you know. The Mace knows your groom can proceed as he chooses to. We don't have to walk past it, but we should approach with great caution.

Understood. I agree that it comes with risks, but Adela also told us about strange things happening to the beasts of this, the beasts of burden of this land. I would like to learn more and that it may aid us in our quest to kill these witches. Agreed. I'm going to record right now and say hashtag content more than coming, because I feel like this is going to be some fucked up shit. I would like to look around and see what kind of crops there are, or have they been harvested? are they growing? And I want to look around. I don't put your way towards it. I would say

it's about 200 feet or so from the path to even get towards the crops. And so as you make your way over, you are able to look into this small pen of crops and see that at some point, it could have been something as simple as

root vegetables, tubers, of some kind. But now they are blackened and strange white fuds. has appeared on the outside of the leaves. And the flesh of those that are protruding out is what appears to be a mushy brown.

Being of fungal biz myself, do I recognize any of this? Roll a fungal biz check. Can I really? Please, roll an acre chat. Fungle biz check. And it ran it? Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.

Cuccoon. Fungle biz check. Ooh. Says Virgil. Yikes. Eleven. At advantage. Looking at it, you can't tell exactly what the fumble biz is. It's definitely some kind of ergot.

It's some kind of rock that has come to these crops. But any specific form or type, you're unaware. And I will say, even with that, you're able to see that this is unlike any you've ever in the hour. Okay. So not the good kind of fumbleblite. Right. And I will say, do you touch it? She licks it.

Okay. When you reach down to touch it, the darkened parts of the leaf begin to almost disintegrate in your hand. And as you wipe away some of the white fur-like, almost moldy portions, and you look down at it, it almost has the consistency in the look to birdship. The specifically the white furry stuff? Like wet bird shit or that dry bird shit after it's been in the sun? Like the dry bird shit after it's been in the sun. And does it taste like the dry bird's? Are you going to eat it?

No. Yes, it does taste like dried bird shit. What the fuck, man? I'm going to, as Farron does it, I'm going to look around. The scarecrow's missing an arm. And I'm going to look it on the ground for it. As you look around, you see that the arm is clearly on the ground next to it. I'll go and I'll grab it.

I'll just kind of look up at the scarecrow. And I'll say. It is a. late dusk at this point. And look and I'll say, need a hand? And I'll try to reach up and I'll try to reattach it. I'd say it's fair, I won't need you to roll for it. It's fairly easy to attach it.

It's just a quick leather loop into a buckle that attaches it on, back onto the scarecrow and you watch is it now rest itself at a tendering looking over these. To tubers. I've drawn my sword and I'm looking around and I watch as Jericho does this and I look at him and say, huh, to have a kind, eh?

Is that one of your brethren? Well, I mean, he's looking over tubers. I was mostly rye, did an okay, okay job. And then one day you up and left. Well, no, that was just when I was keeping eyes on things, the halflings that I was keeping eyes on. They preferred, they grew a lot of rye. But now you got two arms from-

The sound that the animal pierced, the silence around you. is once again it lets out a horrified yelp of pain and agony. Far louder than you'd expect. Whatever is happening in that shed is, it sounds to be very mean. Well, you quit hanging around and get back to work. Come on, Derek. Let us see if we can provide some relief here.

And I start to make my way towards the barn. As you begin to walk out of the patch of crops and pass the house, you hear. as the front door of the house catches in the wind and slowly creaks open before slamming backclothes. And you continue to walk. Silence, almost pure silence. You listen and you don't even hear rustling in the tree line. The sounds of bird wings flapping or animals moving within the forest.

It's an heary silence as if everything in the vicinity is waiting and baited breath through what's going to happen to whatever this animal is. Because you slowly make your way into the stable behind the house. And you are immediately hit with the stench of fermentation. No, what's it called? Yes. Animal poop. Guana.

manure. Manure. Thank you. The stench of manure. That was the fertilizer was the word I was thinking of. But manure is perfect. The stench of fertilizer as this entire stenture. stable seems to be filled.

And you notice that these empty lots are piled high towards the back with unknown quantities of animal feces. As you trudge through it, it sludges up against your boots and you catch the constant smell of it as it's rotting in this place. And underlying all of that, the stench of blood and the stench of something else, something almost sweet as you make your way towards where you hear the sound and now that you're in here and the sounds of the wind outside are blocked out by the structure of this of this stable you can hear the soft whimpering and crying please for

help of what is very clearly an animal is it possible to identify the species of role in nature check oh Jesus good luck Jesus Crisp. I love that guy. Skills. No. You don't have to add by shit. Yeah, but you roll the natural one,

and I don't think that you're nature. Two! Well, in that case. Oh. No, you listen and in here and with the darkness, pressing in almost oppressively around you. your nose assaulted with these, with these smells, you listen, but it sounds like it could be any animal. As you slowly make your way towards the very back of the stand.

And as you wrench open the door, huddled in the very corner is a dark mass rising this way and that is let's out loud whales of pain. It's all of a sudden whatever is torturing, it seems to overcome it again. and let's out what this close almost sounds like human screams. What do you do? Territ's a little bit. Let's go. Let's go.

Are you all right, Miss Leziger? I would raise my shield with my sword drawn and approach the mass and see if I can get closer to and get a better look. Yeah, I'd move up, shoulder to shoulder. I'm just behind the gentleman making sure that all is well. If you make your way closer, I want you to roll an nature check for me. And I will say because the two of you are going up together, go ahead and roll it at advantage.

Thanks, nature. You slowly make your way forward. Your body is heavy with the weight of your armor. You see deeper into what is very clearly some sort of gooey substance, gooey clear substance mixed in the blood and the fecal matter of the stable is you sink deeply into it. The smell at this point is near overwhelming to the point where I actually need all of you to roll a constitution saving.

Oh, gosh. Oh, God, I'm wrong my shit. Oh, my God, so am I. Oh, I did okay. I fail, con. Do you have any racial features again, shit smell? 18. It's a 13 is a 18.

I fell. Nobody have advantage on death rolls. Oh, 19. I also fail. The decision being poisoned, this really doesn't know more. 18. Is anybody else fail? I fail. I fail.

You step forward, Marius. You're now nearly on top of this thing. As you begin to look over it and the stench of whatever is coming from it assails your nostrils. You are not able to, you're not able to resist the revulsion that you feel looking at this.

This entity in the darkness is clearly a very large shape. Smaller than a horse, but significantly larger than a dog. Its fur is matted in blood and a strange, green, goopy, liquid as you begin to retch. The rest of you smell the scent of vomit, and you all begin to follow suit those of you that failed, adding to the horrific scent in this place.

I have to pull my mask aside and rush to the corner to do this. Fortunately, unfortunately for this being, it's all just blood. Yes, it is. As you let loose a stream of the toothy gumblood that you had been gulping down just the night previously in the bowels of the former house, you begin letting loose torrents of stale, dark brown blood and bile onto the body of this entity. And it's in that moment

that you were able to see as it lets out an agonized bleat, that this appears to be a sheep in the throws of labor. And as it screams and cries in pain, as it wriggles in the

muck and the fecal matter on the ground and now the bloody vomit, you begin to see the sack spill forth from its nether regions. I told this describes. And which, with it what should be the infant of a sheep.

But its eyes are a strange lilac milky color. And there is no movement as it begins as it begins to spill head first out of the womb of the sheep. Its head and its neck covered in that thick, clear liquid. And now that you are so close, this is what was causing that almost sweet smell, smell, the sweet smell of birth. But as it gets to the torso, there there should be sheep. There's nothing but wriggling, hanging intestines. The bottom part of this newborn baby sheep not

formed is you begin to see that there is some strange sickness about this creature. There is no life in it. As the mother sheep screams and bleats yet again pushing all of her might to release this ill-formed infant from her womb. You hear with a loud squish as the top part of this newborn sheep lands in the muck and the blood, completely lifeless. The wiggling in its intestines slowly coming to a stop as the mother herself dies in the child.

Okay, well, there. I don't get to do what I was going to do. And the shed around you is quiet. Get yourself together, boy. There's no time for that. Back on. There's work to be gone. There's no work here.

It's dead. Let us leave. Still return to the earth. Fair. You should take it outside. Fine. But there's nothing done. There's nothing we need to be doing here.

I'll, not overly carefully. I'll kind of grab a, I don't know if I could drag it on my own, but grab the fetus in one hand and the leg of the sheep and the other. You'd find me right, but I'll help you. I'd say it's easy enough to do that. They're still connected as the mother died in the very final throes of the birth. The partially formed infant chief is still connected via an umbilical cord of sorts to the inside of this creature and you're easily able to grab them and pull them. A roll an investigation checkpoint in place being in physical

contact. I'd start digging outside. 17. You quickly make your way outside and you find a patch of land that doesn't look to be too overcome with the ergot that seems to be eating away at the crops. And you do see that it is slowly reaching out and consuming the very grass that sprouts from the earth itself. But it hasn't reached this particular area outside of the stables as you begin to dig. And it doesn't take long for Farin Lethica and anyone who will help to drag these two animals

towards the plot. Though it is slowly approaching evening, there's still enough light and late dusk for you to get a good look. What did you say your role was? 17. A good look at this, at the sheep. The sheep itself seems to be in good enough condition,

as it were. You can definitely tell that it was getting on in years and slightly emaciated as if it hadn't had enough food. But aside from that, it was the sheer sheer struggle of the birth itself that seem to have taken issues like the infant however is something all together unlike anything that you've ever seen um the entire bottom half is completely missing not as if ripped from the entity but as if never formed and there are strange rashes and pox upon the flesh that did form as you're as you hold it you can feel what little uh furry down had formed on it

is almost wiped away as it's not able to hold purchase on the flesh of the dying animal. And all the while, its eyes is this strange, and lilithy pop. I've ever seen anything like this before it was completely open. I mean, by Lathander, we have a say of death, life, this is nothing but death. I understand what it is now, a dark domain. Is this, uh, and this witches doing this? Some kind of natural stuff. This suddenly doesn't seem natural to me.

Which deformities, of course, in any animal, people. What's your passive perception, Farron? It is... 17. Oh, wow. As you begin to say this, you feel the intestines that are hanging from the infant sheep as they begin to rive and undulate. And it looks almost as if they're,

they're wiggling in life. Until you begin to see what appears to be two antennae as out of the exposed midriff of this thing, a centipede crawls out, down your arms and legs and disappears almost in an instant into the earth. Did you say that? Yes.

Did I? I would, yes, all of you were. I would say, for the purposes of horror, yes, you saw that. Oh, fuck! It was two centipedes? Just one, just one. I suppose that answers a question. One centipes.

Philip guessed. Or perhaps knew that there were other eggs and that I believe centipede was a representative of one, the same way that we experienced these beasts with the punded housework. Yes, Jericho. I'll put the blade around. And you'll see that etched into the handle

are the images of a pigeon. a son of heat and a weasel. Absolutely the trademark of a hag. You said there's no work to be done. Not with this creature. It's beyond hell. We go to Cyril. We find our problem.

We end it. Let's let Miss Farron do what you were suggested to do. The animals and who feed the type of creatures, I presume, are more of your thing. Thank you for digging the whole room, laying down now. Do I notice anything about the lamb that would have, like, looked at the same, I know, the same fucking fruit fly? We've had a fruit fly torturing us in the studio.

There's more, very, there's always exactly where you're looking. I know, it's always, like, right here. It's literally just sitting there with, like, it thinks that it's fine. Did you get it? There's one right here. There's one on the- See, what the fuck? Man! It's like taunting us.

Fert-wise. Anyhow. Yeah, so on the lamb, does anything remind me of the crops, like the whitishness of the eyes, like matching the white of the... So the eyes are actually like a pale lilyla. Oh, lily. And they're opaque, very similar in color to these cards. Oh, beautiful. I knew it.

The card's a whole lot. It's a lot. But I would say you, it seems to be different, but it could potentially be connected. Was the color of the flame in the kitchen when Vesla, I think, I presume it was Vesla, was Kackling? Was that a similar color to the purple? Yes. Boom. Bada bina bada bum.

Knowing... Mikey gets a gold star. Having encountered a hag at this point once, would it be reasonable to think that, like, the sphere of influence before was just in the home we were in? Would we think that she's in our immediate vicinity? Or would it be reasonable to think it's like...

Roll in our concha. Yeah, like, did we get... We had just, like, bad feelings when we walked into the house. That was a bag of rock. I'd say, you get a... You get a very similar sense of PV-G-D-D-D-S. What did you roll?

It's a four. No, I mean, you're familiarity with Hags is not great. But Della told us that the people of Cyril were dealing with these issues. Yes. She mentioned to you that there were essentially a list of things that the Archbishop was concerned with, and he believed that they could all be tied back in some way to other than night. And it was the whole prophets, right? Right.

It wasn't just Cyril. Cyril may have had it like bad or worse. No, so it was the entire province of Fulson's that is dealing with whatever is happening. But it is so strong and it is so dark that he believes that it couldn't just be the work of one witch. It had to be the work of the witch. Got it.

And so I will say you are able to place the bodies of these sheep into the hole and return them to the earth. And as I do that, I would just kind of take one of my long nails and just kind of do a light scratch on each of the bodies. And just kind of whisper to myself and to Gorthos to return them, let them walk again in new life. I think that is the best we can do to give these creatures sometimes. Death is its purpose, but suffering does not. Should we investigate this house, or should we move on?

I do not think... I'd like to know what's causing this. I don't think we know what's causing this. Sorry, I think we know what's causing this. Eggs. He eggs. Eggs. If we knew how they were affecting land, land, I, I see.

surmise that the reason for this creature's suffering was because there was something that, in the food that it ate, the feed, would have come from this same affected place. There's something definitely wrong with it. If the people are being infected, the children getting sick. Maybe they're just so full of centipose. You know, I know that sometimes say things and you just, you know, you try to help and you just say whatever is on your mind, but I actually don't think you're incorrect this. No, I'm dead fucking serious this time.

I'm not cracking waters. I mean, those sheep, they were full of centipines. That's just the one. One's enough. I guess. I wouldn't care to go into that house after the last house we've entered in with Vermon. I'd rather keep walking,

but that's, I'll go where the group would like to go. When I looked at the plant before, like, was I looking at something like a leafy or? So you were looking at the leafy bits that were coming off of and sprouting out of the ground, and most of it fell away, but there was like a thick, almost mold-like covering, and that's what you touched. Okay, I was curious if there was anything like fruit of a plant, like whether that's like a corn husk or like a gourd or... There were bits of tuber-like vegetables, and they were brown and mushy with rot.

Brown and mushy would rot. Okay. I'm with Jericho. I think that the chances that what we're looking for happens to be in this house right here is slim to none. I'd prefer to talk to the archbishop first and gather some information. We could certainly check it out and move forward, but I can't imagine what would come from it. Should we burn this corrupt? If you think that this could be causing a part of the problem, should we just leave it? In our sense is that if this is a big problem, there's probably a lot more of where this comes from. So burn at this field, we're going to spend the next couple of years burning a whole fucking province down.

I think Briggs is right. I don't know that it'll do us any good if it releases whatever this is into the air. It spreads over the land. And at the end of the day, remember what they said, this head of the snake. This is a symptom. It's not the cause. I think we should go. I agree. And with that, oh, sorry.

I agree also. But I also look at the house and think. The fact that no one came out here in such stuff tells me that we don't need to go inside. I think you're right, Miss Lethica. And you make your way back to the road and continue on your path. You make conversation and you try and you try and you move on your path. You make conversation.

to shrug off the sense of dread and gloom that's now infused you. The overall jubilence of Philip and Adela slowly fading from your memory, reminding you now the kind of land that you're in and the stakes that have been placed before you. And it's hard to remember what it felt like to laugh and to joke and to smile as you walk in quiet. for a bit. Occasionally making conversation, but heavy in thought, as time passes hour after hour after hour. Evening firmly in place as the midnight hour approaches, the nighttime hours, the darkness of the land. You see the flickering of torches off in the tree line of what you know to be provincial towns. Occasionally you hear the sounds of people.

speaking in the trees, nobody stops you, nobody bothers you. Until finally you see the flickering lights and the very, the very inside of the tree line. One torch after another, after another, after another, after another. And you watch and you wait, and then you see what appears to be a line of around 20, maybe 30 people, all dressed in pure white robes,

white robes, each of them carrying a torch, darting in and out of the tree line, singing, a soft and mournful song. You're able to catch the, a couple of words, but it seems to be their chanting, O blinding light, over and over again, and then a mix of other words and another language, similar to Latin, but not necessarily Latin, as they chant and chant and chant. Men as they come closer, not towards you, but walking along the tree line. You watch as they begin to wind down along a path and head deeper into just the very beginning recesses of the forest. She begin to hear the sounds, woman crying, soft and mournful, wretched crying, of pain, of heartbreak.

They're close enough now that all of you can easily see, that she stands beside her. signed a man whose arms are wrapped around her as he tries to give her comfort. And just to their side is another man, all of them garbed in white robes, all of them singing as he carries what appears to be the form of a small child. They begin to march in unison, singing, drowning out the cries and the whimpers of the woman and the pleading begging of the man as they walk deeper into the forest. What do you do? Is the child making any sense? The child appears to be limp in the man's arms. How far away are they from us? I would say they're about a hundred feet from you, close

enough for you to still see. But they look, so you are, you're almost walking parallel with them. Okay. And as they get towards you, they're walking directly into the woods. And I would say with the illumination of their torchlight, it looks like they're walking down towards some kind of a river. Does anyone look like they're in charge or in the lead? They look, there is someone in the lead, they're walking in almost a line, and it towards the very end is the, what appears to be a woman, a man, and then another man holding a child. And the woman and the man are in obvious distress standing next to the man holding the form of the child. There are a few people behind them. Everyone, but those three people and the child are holding torches, and they're all singing this mournful song.

Does it appear to something religious? It does. I would say it's easy enough you don't have to roll for it. I will have you roll a religion check to see if that rings any bells to you. The song O Blinding Light. Oh.

Oh. Okay. L MN O P-QR. Okay. Ha! I didn't roll my shit. I got a six. I haven't rolled a liar than a Bible.

I'm with you. You listen to the song and there's something. about it that seems familiar, but you can't quite place it. Ours. Looks like a few. Do you think we should ask if they need help? I don't know if these, they're all human. From what you can tell, they're all robed in white.

Most of them have hoods up over their head, and they are almost kneeling in prayer over the candles that they hold as they walk and sing. And they all seem to be, overcome with a sense of sadness. I want to respect Lathic's concerns and not be evangelical, but I also want to help these people. Maybe is it improper if we just stick to the bushes

and just take a look at what's going on? It could be, I don't know. I don't think we have to hide ourselves. I just, if we go to them, they ask us to participate, I would say yes. I agree, I concur. I don't think they're going to want us then. I know those whales.

It's lost. They're not going to want, if there's a poor little one that's lost in a similar way to the little sheep, they're not going to want us to be around them. I agree. Especially not virgin. Maybe we just let them be. Do you think that Philip and Adela is really

grasp the gravity of the suffering that is happening in their lands. I understand that they have brought us here to deal with this problem, but they do not act like it. I don't want to be ungrateful, but I see where you're coming from. It's almost as if they sent us into that home without fully divulging all of the information they knew. I mean, we were little over our heads. in what we were presented with. I think they knew more than they wanted to let on.

I agree with that very much. And they knew what to dangle in front of all of us in order to commit us to this quest. I want to go on record and say that I'm not entirely sure I believe everything that's saying. I find it hard to believe that a cuff that I've been searching for for nearly a century just happens to be in this man's hands.

I'm trying to remain hopeful and avoid negativity. But what are the chances? You have to convince me. If he has the item that he says that he has for me, a single ring would probably solve all of their problems now. I do not understand why they do not use so much power to undo it and instead lean on.

It's a very wise point. Well, it doesn't seem like this place really. operates how the world we come from works. Isn't that right, Jhgrim? Isn't these dark domains? It feels like we're in a fairy tale land. The rules are different here. And from what we've already seen, the Druskin vaults don't lack for power. So if they could use them, you probably would easily. My presumption is that they, yes, my guess is that you just can't make use of them that meant for us. I don't doubt that they have them, but I think nothing is quite as it seems with those two. It's a fine hypothesis.

On the other hand, I wonder if they just don't want to get their attempts dirty. risk themselves in this attempt. I think they mean well and they're good folk. They've shown us quite a kindness and if you don't mind me saying

I think that we could either take a look at what's going on to get more information as we make our way to see her or we move on. I'm not opposed to gathering more info but I feel wrong

doing it discreetly. That's just how I feel. If we go to them, then we must go open on. I mean, I disagree. If we want to learn something, we don't have to come through the traits. We just hang back and watch. And then they wrestle only flowers.

There's no reason to. Question for the dungeon master. Yes. Do we get the sense? Would we be able to just kind of like walk by and just take a look? Or would we need to like... You guessed that under cover of darkness,

you have to remember, they're carrying... It is dark right now. They're carrying... cut candles. So it's illuminated where they are. Where you are, they, unless they have some extraordinary vision, they wouldn't even be able to tell you we're there. So it would be easy to make your way towards the tree line, just right into the tree line itself, and look down upon whatever it is that they're doing. That would be very easy to do. Well, I don't think we need to sneak around like creatures in the underbrush. Let's just walk on by, see if there's anything we can do to help. And if not, we don't cause them any stress. by our unique appearance. Thank you, Jericho.

I think that's very wise. Well, I'll lead the way. No, pumpkins get out of you. I'll try to like, if I've had my dancing lights out, I'll get rid of them. Okay, good. So then we'll just go and try to not sneak, but just walk by and see what we can see.

They seem, I'm not even gonna make your old stealth check because they are consumed in what they're doing. You're not looking for you or paying attention. to you. You make your way towards the tree line as you watch as they walk along a small path down to the river. As you stand there overlooking what they're doing, they all submerge themselves waist deep one after another into the waters. They sing, oh, blinding light, in a mournful tune, quietly. And as the tail end of the procession passes you, you can hear the racked sobs of the woman and a soft low crying of the man next to her.

As finally, the three of them are emerged waist deep. The man in front of them lets out a loud call in a language that none of you seem to understand. As he raises the form of the child, high up in the air as he looks towards the moon and begins to say a prayer. every single one of the people in procession dips their candle into the water extinguishing the light as they all look up toward the moon and it is easy to see for anyone familiar with religion that around their necks are the silver symbol of the god fultus as they all begin to pray in unison it feels like minutes hours but it's a short amount of time before finally they unwrapped the form of the child and you see that his head is tilted backwards, his eyes open.

A pure opaque purple light. You see the rise and fall in the stomach. You hear the soft, shallow breathing. His body convulses and jerks overcome with some strange sickness. You can see bits of hair that have fallen away with some illness that you're unfamiliar with as they slowly lower his body down into the water and you hear as they chant cleansing the body attempting to wash away the illness as the mother and the father cry they hold him under for what feels like too long as the body goes still they rise they raise him out but you can still see his small chest

rising and fallen with shallow breaths the woman reaches out and places a kiss on his forehead and you hear her call out. Wake up for mommy, please, Eric. But nothing. No sounds, just the shallow breathing and the rising and falling of his chest. And she drops to her knees in the water. She covers her face with her hands and she sobs so loudly that everyone sucks in air with a baited breath and they watch.

He continues to breathe and shake and convulse. But he does not heal. Their prayer was not answered this night. As she calls out in utter agony, begging for Fultus to heal her son, screaming into the darkness for someone, anyone to save her family. As you hear the voice of the man that's holding her, or holding her, it has not worked. He will try again. We will not stop until he's healed. she reaches up and grabs his hand

please please save him we return to Cyril do not speak of this let us continue to see as they wrap up the cold convulsing form of the now wet child back into his blanket and the possession

again forms a line as they all rise out of the water the stillness and the quiet of the pierced by the racking sobs of the mother whose son is sick and cannot be cured, is once again the song of O Blinding Light pierces the night and drowns out the sobs. As there, I guess, at the point when it would have been loudest, I would say you're far enough away that you could easily speak, so you can talk without fear of anything.

I'm just trying to recognize this fall. I would say roll a religion check. 13. It is, you recognize it as being a, a common song that is sung to Fultus, pleading for guidance or healing or help. And so it is clear that they're doing some sort of healing procession in an attempt to cure this infant. I would say it's also easy to tell that the words that they're speaking are some form of their

religious language and you I imagine with that role would know bits and pieces of it and you can tell that this is very dire that they're only doing this sort of ritual this sort of procession as a last-ditch effort to save the life of this child there is much good we can do if we can cut the head off so to speak we can own this kind of stuff right I think you're right this is far worse than I had feared, this mother midnight is worse than a lot of things that I've seen and I've seen a lot of real, real bad stuff. The wailing and the chanting slowly fades into silence as the procession of people of Fulton makes their way weaving in and out of the tree line, heading in the direction that you're going towards zero. Are we ahead of them now?

Zero kind of walking past that happened? They're ahead of you, but they're sticking to the tree line. which winds in different directions. You don't know if it's a shortcut or they're taking the long way or they plan to stop somewhere overnight. But for whatever reason, this is the place that they wanted to be when they did this ritual, you know your path is along the road. Let us continue on the path.

It is not far away from the witching hour. And that's true. It is not. I think that we don't want to cause these folk anymore. Stress or sorrow or fear. Only I look more normal, perhaps a tune might do them good. But there's more time for that. For sure, we should get to see him. Keep walking.

You make your way back to the path, and as the shroud of darkness, as night descends, you make your way in an even more sorrowful silence. There is, for some of you, still that glint of hope, that child was not dead. If you stop the witch, maybe you could stop the affliction that is overcoming that child. And are there more like him? Are there more like poor Eric that are out there suffering and families that are praying to Fultus, hoping to bring their child back from the brink of death? And you could be the salvation that they need. You could be the people to bring peace to this land, to heal these crops, to heal the animals, to heal the sick, if you would only make it to Cyril.

I would pull out my banjo if I feel like we're far enough away where it wouldn't be an earshot, and I would pluck a few strings in a tune, I'd say, you know, that reminds me of a tune that they used to sing halflings. Some of the halflings would sing it and a little something. Oh, sisters, let's go down. Let's go down. Come on down. Oh, sisters, let's go down. the river to pray. I don't think it was Fultus. I think

Eldath or some other god. Maybe Shantia. It's nice only that way. Often that should motivate us to figure his shit out. Something that may be just put together. Did you in character mention the

pink light or the purple light? I would have mentioned that, I think. Would Does it also look similar to the Purple light, but it's like a pinky purple light, yeah. Was it similar to the color of the big roon on the ground? Yes. Under the massive thing.

Yes. We're going to keep an eye out for that color. All right. If we're putting things together, that lavender color, this one ought to. I hold up a A letter note card. With the Droskinvold timing written on it.

I'll say, if we see this kind of at all, even if it could be totally unrelated, we've got to keep an eye on it. Take a look. All right. Yeah, of course. Absolutely.

I take the lavender card and put it into my bag of holding. Thank you. So we, so as we were able to get it, a sense, I would want to see, are they all entirely human? I would say it would be easy to see that they are all entirely human. And the whole awkward family and Philip and Adela so far. Everyone that you've met so far has been human.

Except for, I guess, the coachman and the frog and the vagrant so far. Yeah. And the hag. And the wheezer. Yeah. Except for all of those things that aren't human, everything's been human. That was murdered. Accurate.

Destroying the statues, a beaver. But filthy Jasper, he was half-fewed. Well, he was part. He was human-ass. I don't know if that's generous. And so with that, you continue to walk, listening to the songs that Jericho sings, soft mournful tunes.

Let's go now. As the hour turns towards the witching hour. Slowly, interspersed in the tree line, he began to see the lights of Cyril up ahead. Still far off, you still have, I would say, about an hour's travel to get there. But you can see the faint lights of what looks to be a large city, far larger than anything that you've seen since you got here.

And then you begin to see, just off to the side of the road, a large hunched figure rocking this way and that, and a deep guttural noise. What do you do? Does it sound, does the noise sound, Beastial or human? It does. It sounds very bestial. Be aware this could be some creature.

It is sitting, or not sitting, but hunched, appears to be hunched. Right along the edge of the road, you would be walking directly past it. How far away is it? I would say it's about 100 feet, since that seems to be what I like to use as a marker for this second.

It's a good far. 108 feet away. I would have drawn my sword and shield and raised it up and said, Who goes there? Very loudly, not for them to hear us. You hear a cracking of bone and a deep, almost guttural swallow

is in the darkness, you hear, ooh, ah. We don't mean you harm. We're traveling to Cyril. Please show yourself. Four toes on my hand. Maybe light him up. Just light.

No, no. Is that not what I said? And I would like to wave my hand and I'll say, my friend Sir Mary is here. He's a good night and he just wants to help you. And I use Barton Inspiration as I cast dancing lights. I really want to eat some bread. And the foreglowing...

Yeah, it's gonna be fine. That'll come from the same thing. So I'd like to have my dancing jack-a-lanterns. Is it a 60 feet or 30-speed? I'm gonna write what I think it is now. Oh, 120. Oh, shit. Don't eat the stones. Don't eat the stones. They go down very hard.

I'd like to illuminate him as I inspire Maris. And you do this, and you see that there appears to be this strange woolen blanket over this large mass. And as you illuminate it, it shrugs it off of its shoulders. And you see what looks to be a very thin and almost emaciated old man, sitting cross-legged on the road. And in its lap, it's covered in blood. Blood all over its face looks to be the body of a rotting and decaying corpse

of one of these strange sheep. At first, it looks to be like sheep-like forms, but it appears to be a malformed goat, as it is ripping chunks off of this, off of this thing. You can see where the pox and the lesions have affected its skin, where parts of it are, have not fully formed from its birth.

Its strange lilac purple eyes dead in the skull of this entity, as this man shovels the flesh down its throat, as he turns and he looks up towards you, do you want to eat it with me? And the words that come out of his mouth did not look like they should be made by his vocal cords. Almost as if it's not his voice,

a strange madness having overcome him. And you see, just faintly, this strange lilac bits to his eyes. I would sheathe my sword and run to the side of this poor wretch creature. I've been eating this for an hour. Would you like to have the turkey at Christmas time? And he stands up and he fraley bows to you. you.

Say, have a leg of lamb. You will like it. It will make you full. And he starts to dance on spindly legs, and you see long, yellowish claws as he dances in a circle around this thing. Have a feast. Have a feast. Please just take a minute.

He sits down really quickly. His dust spurts up around him. He jumps back up onto his spindly legs. Renge of flesh, rend your flesh, bleed. And he cuts himself. And then he starts eating again. Stop. I think you're very confused.

This isn't, please, just for a moment. And I would like to try to very cautiously and gently place a hand on his shoulder. You do, and he immediately grabs it. You can feel the long yellow tendrils of his fingernails as he looks up at you. Hungry. It's all right.

I understand how that feels. I'm here to hell, and I will attempt to use lay on hand. hands and use 5HP to try to cure a disease affecting the creature. I want to try it. Okay. I will say that I wasn't expecting that. You watch as a little bit of the grayish blue color of his eyes begins to appear through the purple. And he shakes his head and he looks and he looks down in himself and he begins to retch as he smells the scent of this decaying. he's been holding in his hands.

And he looks up towards you and he grabs your face. The voices quieting. I know. I know. It's all right. Let it out. And he starts dredching. You can feel the bones in his back.

Let it up. Let it out. It's all right. You see as he begins as he continues to puke. It assails your nostrils at first, the scent of blood, his own blood. This frail form of this old man. As he continues to vomit at your feet? I would just stay with him and try to help him.

And if it ceases, I would try to help him to his feet and see if he is someone who lives in cereal. If it ceases, I think, you know, he might. After a while, it does seem to cease. You hear his labored breathing as he stares down. Occasionally, like, he looks up and towards the tree line as if he's hearing something or seeing something that you don't see or hear. Can we take you home? Do you live in Cyril? We're all in our way there. We can make sure you're all right. Yes. Do I live in Cyril? What is Cyril? I don't know Cyril. Yes, I know Cyril. He wants to come for it. No, not again. And he begins to grab his head and start rocking back and forth.

As you see the bits of purple light once again returning to his eyes and then it shakes off. again, whatever coming to him, he's able to push away with you standing near him. I am so sorry. You are very sick. And we will do everything we can to help you. I look to Lethika. I don't know how else I can help. What is your name? What is the last thing that you'll remember? What's in a name? What's in a name? What is doing this to me? Help me. And he reaches out for you. You can see the blue of his vein.

It's his skin so thin over his bones. He's near transparent as he reaches out to you. Make them strong! Wait, when he cut himself on his arm? Oh yeah, he's bleeding profusely from his arm. So it is bleeding. Oh, yeah. Okay. Lethika, I think that at the very least we should try to get him to Cyril. Look, if things are even worse there, it may not help, but we can't leave him here on the side of the road.

I agree. No, we can't. No, we can't. And he throws his head back, and with his nails, you watch as he slices through his throat. And his blood begins to spill down along his chest, he looks towards you. And he attempts to speak, but all you hear is the gurgling of blood as it erupts out of his throat. His eyes roll back, and there's nothing but a pure lilac light shining with him. And as you hold him, you begin to see the wiggling. and the movement as a centipede crawls up, out of his throat,

and begins to skitter down his chest. I just try and grab for it, if I can. Roll a dexterity contest, I guess. Just be advised. It has a hundred times, and you only have to choose. Just straight decks would be 13. You attempt to grab onto it, and you catch it for a second. I'm going to have you take, probably, definitely. You're going to take six points of piercing damage.

As it wiggles around in your palm and you feel its sharp needle-like legs dig into your palm as it begins to almost, it feels like almost sucking out blood, but it's more pumping some kind of venomous poison into you. As you quickly let it go, it flopped to the ground, flips over once or twice,

and digs into the deep earth. As Marius, you hold onto the body of this thing, its head thrown backwards, the severed neck nearly, nearly rended all the way through, an almost supernatural force. I would, as he had ripped open his own throat, I would, you would see the muscles in my neck tense, and I would very gently lay him down, and as soon as he is, he is resting on the ground, my left hand would go to my mouth, and I would quickly back away from him. No.

No. Take some space. These people have had a sick. Is the old man gone? I would say he's dead. His body is still there on the ground. We look down and he skitters into the park. You look down, he flips over onto his back, and out of his spine,

legs protrude and he skitters backwards into the night. I quit. Oh, yeah? Sure. No, that does not ask. No, that does not ask. After laying him down, I would continue to take several steps back away from the blood and the rended flesh and hover my mouth.

Would I, if I had seen that, would I have get any recollection of what Petunia did to me? I would say no, but I will say you don't even need to roll for it. You remember that Adela told you that there were adults going mad, overcome with strange madness. He did not seem to be himself or alone, as if a separate entity was inside him. I would say you'd get the sense

that there were many entities inside of him. I would like to look at Marius to see if his eyes were a little bit red. Are your eyes a little bit red? A little bit more red than they don't have. It's very clear that Marius is struggling against the smell of the blood. Okay. I would kind of step, like, in between Marius and the body and say,

Sir Marius, do you want to take a bit of a walk there? It's when you say this and I catch myself and, no, no, I'm fine, Terran. Thank you. I'm all right. And I take another step back. I'm all right. Thank you for asking. Lying at your feet is now the crumpled body of this old man and the semi-consumed body of this rotting, sickly corpse of what appears to be a goat. As profane as it might sound,

I propose that we look and see if there's anything that we might learn from these bodies. Careful if the... If that goat has a centipede in it. Are you all right, Mr. Yorker? This is he sound like you've been poisoned. Are you okay? I don't know.

You're speaking very slowly. Ah, five fingers? Is that what you had up? Well, two of them were up. Yes, there were five fingers. It's only a scratch. Fine. I will keep guard, I will secure perimeter. Let me know if you need me or you'll find anything of interest. I'd have a feeling like this guy's not the only, Della told us that there were people going mad.

This is just one of. He knows what's going on in the city. It's like a big, like a full-sized name. At this point, now where you're at, you can see through the tree line, and it is not much further ahead, what appears to be almost like a stucous, stone walls that encircled this huge city. And inside of it would appear to be large stone

and stone like mortared buildings. And cresting over the hill, I would see in plain view towards the very back of the city at the far end is a beautiful shining in torchlight marble cathedral. I mean, that's a big city. Who knows how fucking mad it is there, especially if it's infectious and it's red. I can't even imagine.

Fortunately, I am wearing a mask. Do we think that this man went back? You get disadvantaged for a minute. You got it. Boom. Wow, look at that. Do we think that he went mad just from... Who is doing?

Very, very fair enough. She's fucked about us? No, she smashed him. She finished the job. That was strange. Give me one of these. Do we think that the man went mad because he went into the forest, or just because he is also afflicted by whatever is cursing these lands?

There was no madness I've ever seen. I think it's these creatures crawling inside of them. But I'm asking, how did they get there? Well, Adela said that they had these problems in zero. So, I mean, clearly, I mean, they're all going out in the woods. I've sold that group, though, and they were fine. It seems to be the children and elderly that we seem so far. And it is at this time you begin to see the flickering of lights

as your attention is turned towards the tree line in front of you, the tree line that is just to the sides of Cyril proper. And what sounds like yelling and arguing. While you guys are discussing all of this, my back would be towards you. I'm listening, but I'm intentionally trying to avoid sight of what we just witnessed. And I guess my ears would appear perk up to hearing this disturbance. I think, yeah, Marius, what is that? And I'll turn to...

Yeah, I would try to listen closer and see if I can gather anything being a little bit farther away from the rest of the group. You listen closely. as you begin to hear the yells and the shouts, as you realize it's not just in front of you. It's on all sides of you. As near 50 people surround you carrying torches, you hear the muttering and the yelling, witches, I knew it was witches.

Kill them, destroy them. You know, bring them back to Archbishop. He'll want to see. And you hear, and you see women, men, children. surround you with pitchforks and torches as out from the middle of them steps a large man in darkened leathers, dark black hair, beautifully chiseled features,

piercing green eyes as he steps forward. Now, let's not be too hasty. It's clear when we look at them that they are in league with the witches. Look at them, he's rotting, as we speak and this one a damn peer. Don't put up a fight, we'll end your life here.

Simply getting these manacles. No, no, no, I mean, no, do not argue with me. Now, just let me explain. I am William Van Brunt and you hear as everyone yells and cheers, William, oh he's so handsome. As he steps forward and swings manacles in his arms, his rippling biceps nearly bursting out of his, out of his linen shirt, his chest completely open

in a V, you can see the curly tendrils of his chest hair poking out in a beautiful mass of deliciousness, sweat gleaming in the torchlight. What Briggsie is just trying to say is that we here to see the Archbishop. They have names. The witch has named them. And you hear as everyone yells,

yes, the witch has named them. No, we're here to help. We're here to stop the issue. You hear a muttering and a bit of arguing, they're not here to help. Don't listen to their foul pleas for justice. No, my name is Samarius Renathia. I'm a knight of, I'm here to help.

As if a witch would employ a knight, let alone a knight of vampire. I look at Vant-I-Sorry, I look at Briggs, like, I was thinking of Vanders. I look at Briggs'i, like, like, did you not just hear what he said? He's a contradiction. They slowly start to close in around you,

Ethan Taylor. Of course, of which we're not higher at right. We are here, the Lord and Lady in this entire land, he's sent us here. For me, we were the Archbishop. We could probably kill every single one of here. No, no, no. No, I suggested that's here.

What he said. No, he didn't mean. Kill every single one of us. Stop this. No, no, no, no, no, no. No what he's trying to say. Oh, I'm a scare girl. I give up.

And you feel as near 50 people begin to overpower you, children, women, men pulling at you, as they begin to wrestle you towards the ground. Your grim, you feel the feel of a large boot on your back as he presses you down into the dirt and grabs your arms and begins to manacle you. No, don't resist. And as he moves from each of you, he steps into you

harder, pressing you into the earth. There are too many people here for you to fight them off, even with what magic that you have. As the women and children drag you into the dirt, sitting on your bodies, forcing you down, you feel your weapons removed from you. You feel bits and pieces of your armor removed from you. Did you try and take my stone?

No, they're just pressing down on your stone as they begin to manacle your hands. And as the dust settles, you're all face down in the dirt. dirt, all manacled together. You're gonna regret this. As you see a wormy man walk up beside William, the man who'd called himself William Van Brunt. Uh, uh, sir, uh, what do we do with them now? We're going to take them to Cyril.

We're going to take them to Archbishop Renault. And we'll claim the reward and the renown as we watch them burn. And as he says it, everyone screams burn as they yank you to your feet and pull you up behind them as William Van Brunt holds on to the chains and tugs you forward. This is fine. This is fine. You're making a mistake. As soon as you get us to the archbishop, we will explain everything. I swear to all the only will hear. Fowl creature, you will suck the blood from someone other than me and those of Cyril this night. No, that's not why I'm here, please. Ha, says the damn peer, and everyone erupts in laughter. Well, you know, we didn't put up a fight so you could be a little bit kinder to us.

Kind? To the minions of a witch? Well, I'm not a minion of a witch. A-ha! A scarecrow claims not a little bit of a witch. to be the minion of a witch. No, I mean, and see, that weird, that weird crow with the horrible demon eyes,

I'm not with him. Fritz, no, don't land on my head. He walks towards you, these sounds of the chains rattling as he kicks you square in the gut. Ah! You're gonna regret this. That's all. Let me tell you.

I mean, are there like hundreds of people? Or like, how big is this? It's a gigantic mob of people. I will shut up and I just won't say a thing. And I'll just be led. Remember what I said about going with things before we got here. I just close my eyes and sort of let them carry me.

Do I see my shovel? Did I see who's holding my shovel? I would say a couple people over, you see a dirty middle-aged, man who's like looking at your shovel and like every time every time William mentions witch he raise it into the into the air and cries witch as they all chant but it doesn't seem to be moving further away from you they seem to be keeping all of your stuff roughly together with you no

one seems to be stealing your things as much of making sure that you don't have it no don't take my bag please and it was to go anywhere near your bags and it felt like when you were when you were dragged to the ground, it was mostly the children that were taking their stuff. I'd shout out to the guy holding my shovel and just say, You'd be careful with that.

You shut up, witch. I'll be taking it back. Witch, shut your mouth, witch. Don't wish. Look at his green skin, he's a dumb witch. Stop, stop. I would try, I wouldn't try and, like, explode out of the chains,

but I would definitely like... He's trying to conjure his magic. You get him. And a bunch of the kids will jump on you and try and drag you to the ground. I'll swim out of these kids. He can try and drag him with some kids.

Fuck, get off of me. Fighting will not help us here, please. The mists pour off. You're doing this as... William. I definitely try to put these kids up. William is going to rush up behind you. He's going to kick you in the back of your knees

as you fall forward onto the ground. Your chains pull as, all of your friends slam into the ground with you. As he digs his boots into the back of your knees, you will calm yourself. You're gonna be okay. We'll just, we'll just clear it all up with Archbishop Vennel.

He knows we're coming. Jericho is exactly right. Please. What was her name again? He looks down at you and as you turn to look towards him. He looks down at you, he spits in your face and then yanks you back up to you. your feet and begins to drag you with almost an inhuman strength towards the

entrance to Cyril. One of the kids was like, take a tombstone. I have to be the ancestors and mists pour off me. I ripped out of the chains. And as you were pulled forward, all of you, you were surrounded by these people and you begin to notice these appear to be just normal people. Their clothes are a little bit more and tattered. They look a little more hungry than you would expect for people living in a town such as this. But they don't look a macy. They don't look on the verge of starvation, just like they're not getting quite enough. And they look ravenous for blood. As you, as some of them look between you, you see that a few of them are almost

insanely incensed with the need for your demise whereas others look fearful and afraid the children verge between invigorated by William von Holtz and when I called him that William Van Brunt I just watched something that had a von Holt in it but anyway William Van Brunt

as if they emulate to be like him but they're still children and they're still afraid of you all of them believing you to be witches, or minions of witches, or exactly what you are, zombies, vampires, and animated scarecrows, as they drag you towards the town. It's gonna get us so out of tune. As one of the kids is attempting to play the banjo,

plucking the strings a little bit too hard. Like this horrible, like, demonic coughing and he starts to go, like, all the rooms on the banjo start flashing. The bridge collapsing. They take my cutlass away, every six seconds, I'm like, no, come back! And I just, something like going there,

every six seconds. Oh, fuck, ah! And that happens as they do not quiet. You would think, it takes about 30 minutes to march you into town, and you would expect the, the zealitousness of this to die down, but it doesn't. They scream for your blood, they call out to witches. And as you make your way through these cobbled streets,

you are able to see this city in its fullness, not Fultus, in its fullness as you walk up the main path towards the cathedral at the very end of the main thoroughfare. And the stones seem to be in good shape. The houses themselves seem to be well taken care of. The people that mill about the streets, some of them chant along, kill the witch, burn them, burn them for Fultus, for Fultus.

walk the one true path, turn away from evil, as some of them simply run into their house and slam the door, closing their windows, afraid of you, in fear of you, as William leads you towards the very center of this city, a city unlike anything you've ever seen. And in the very center of this, of this almost courtyard in front of this gigantic marble cathedral, the very front of it,

a large wooden door and above it a beautiful stained glass window with the with the circular full moon disc and crescent moon of Fultus itself shining in the glass and the lead the light spilling out into the courtyard you see the beautiful marble statue of Fultus himself atop a fountain that looks to be an area to procure water and to clean yourself and it is beautiful and it is pristine as they push you forward directly in front of the steps of the cathedral. I fucking hate extroverts.

I'm, as... Seriously. As you... Fucking kids. As you, as they push you forward and down onto your hands and knees, William Van Brunt calls out begging for the Archbishop.

We have witches, and everybody erupts into loud, boisterous chanting. Witches, burn the witch, kill the minions of the witches. And they chant and chant and chant until finally the doors of the cathedral spring open. And stepping out from the illumination within, almost as if really, breathed in shadow by the light behind them, a figure thin and tall. Investments of a very high priest as he steps out onto the stairs

and looks out over the people. His hat far taller than you would expect, reaching towards the moon. The flames on the torches on the inside of the cathedral, flickering and illuminating his back as he steps out in the torches that the townspeople or holding are now able to illuminate his face

as what appears to be an older man looks out at all of you, and he raises his hands towards the town people. Quiet, my sons and daughters, you have not brought me wishes, or millions of wishes. You have brought me friends. Friends to the Lord,

and lady of all the land, and illuminated in the light of Fultus himself. Put down your weapons. You will do them no harm. And you see as William begins to shrink back into the crowd and slowly fold into the mass of people. And you see for a second as if the archbishop notices him for a mirror. second, but he turns his attention back to the flock of people in front of him. Can I spit on him before you tell him in so much? Can I shatter my fucking jades

and bunch them in the goddamn face? As the DM would say, you can certainly try. I need to try. Wait go, Billy! Yeah, I would say you're easily able to do that. I will let you do that. And the Archbishop stops for a moment, and he allows you to

say that. As his eyes linger on William Van Brunt for just to second, but he seems to allow him to fade off into the distance. Just before he leaves like that, that's instant diarrhea. He's wearing his brown pants. So you don't know if it works. So you don't know if it works. But it's a very tight, it creates a pressure and everything goes out all of it.

All of a sudden you hear a squishing in his shoes as he slowly walks away. You have a sense of accomplishment. I was like putting your finger over a faucet. There's a smell of, there's a smell of shit that drips in on the breeze. No. He is disgusting. His pants are that tight. I would be on my knees in like, not a mockery of a prayer position,

but like what someone who does not pray all with attempting to do in the face of an archivish out there. The sound of muttering gets louder for a moment, but with his hands still raised, everyone begins to quiet themselves. And you hear behind you, Fultus be prayed, so sorry Archbishop, so sorry, so sorry, Archbishop, so sorry, Father, so sorry. As they slowly begin to move away and towards the edges of this courtyard, as he calls out, return their things, unchained them,

lest I have to tell Lord Druskinvold what has befallen his friend. And you see as a couple of the men, move forward and begin to unchain you. One of them, as he's unchaining you, Marius, digs the key in just a little too hard pressing on your flesh, as you hear him say, you're lucky. Yes, yes, I understand. You're very lucky. Don't stay out too late. Unless something were to happen. I promise you were here to help. And you see he looks at you with obvious disdain. And I give him a very big toothy smile.

You can smell the liquor on his breath as he like jolts back a little bit and he slowly and change you. And as he starts to walk back, he, sorry, father, sorry. But he doesn't, it doesn't, you don't get a sense of honesty on his voice as he's continuing to eye you up.

And it's easy to tell that there are quite a few of the members of this mob that even though the Archbishop is calling you friends, they're not quite sure they agree, as they eye you with suspicion. But slowly, they begin to move towards the edges. Many of them disperse and head towards their homes, but you notice a lot of them peeking out of windows, looking out of the dark corners in the alleyways, as they watch what is to transpire here. My apologies. Cyril has been afflicted with the wrath of ungodly women, riches, as I'm sure you know. I am thankful you've come, and I promise to keep you safe in this land, for nothing shall befall you when you are under my watchful

on. And he slowly begins to descend the stairs walking towards you as he helps you to stand up. He is significantly tall, maybe six four, six five as he towers over some of you or meets the eyes of some of you. I tower over it. I sort of know what to, yeah. It is late. He turns and looks towards you but says no more. You know, you're right, Archbishop, but he's very late. Briggsie, do you know where the wish is? I'd like to give this self. Give me my fucking guy. I turned to the guy next to me and I

snatched my fucking bus back and I put it in my side. You see, he turns up his nose a little bit at your foul language, but quickly wipes the look off of his face as he smiles down at you. As you are handed all of your things. So, dude, so do wish. I polish the skull. We were sent here, as you know, to Curawish. So if you know where she is, we can go do that, and then we can be outing.

You are being hasty. What? It is not safe to hunt the witch this end. But yes, I can give you the instructions you need to kill the witch. But he looks at all of you. You must raise. and I have a meeting with the matron of the orphanage, Miss McDuff. But I cannot be late for you, but I can put you up with lodging and make sure you are safe. We are greatly and deeply appreciative of your generosity, Archbishop.

Thank you. He reaches out and he grabs your hand. And I am greatly appreciative, appreciative of your assistance. of Yes, of course, that's why we're here. Yes, thank you. Archbishop, do the citizens of Sierra roam the lands in search of riches

that were recognized? This is a common and others. Their kin has fallen to madness. Their children succumbed to sickness. Their crops yield no fruit. They have become desperate. Please do not judge, though. that suffer the most.

We understand. No, no, no. And Archbishop, if I may call you Archbishop, my name is old Jericho Stix, but you can call me Jericho, most folk do. It is an honor and a privilege to stand in your presence. And we are just here to assist you with your witch problem. What we're trying to say is that we understand that fear makes people do unusual things. And it's all right.

We're here to help. That's all. A faint smile passes his lips as he looks between all of you. Unlikely here. But if you promise to walk the one true path and abide by the rules and sue, I see no reason. We cannot be friends. We cannot help each other to rid this land of that which plagues it. I am eager to learn more about this path and about the waves of Sierra Land.

Holy God. I wish that I were more in my youth, but I tire. I have spent my day tending to the people of Fultes. And after my meeting with the Lady Macduff, I must sleep. But tomorrow we will speak. I would tell you what I know. and I pray that you will bring

these witches to an end I just plan I deserve that did you say McDuff like perhaps the matron of the Orchernic Yes matron Maggie McDuff It seems more of the children

Have been overcome with sickness I go to see what Fultus may do Perhaps Perhaps you may want to go in the morning and perhaps bring your old new friends. I will meet with her in the morning, but I must see to the children tonight. Okay, well, there's reason to believe that

that just, we should probably talk in the morning about Matron McDuff. Why? Well, there was a situation with children being sent off to a place where they were. He raises his hand. I believe I know what you speak, for I know where you have dwelted. Yes.

You may accompany me to my meeting in the morning with Matron Magi Magi Meda. I will have the knight's Templar get you from the inn. All right, understood. And they're going to protect us from this fucking crazy people out there. I will have them stationed at the inn all evening long. they will escort you to sleep if you will allow

it. Yes, please. Yes, of course. You're very, very hospitable and kind, Archbishop. He looks at all of you. I'm weary and I am tired.

I cannot promise I will be more talkative in the morning but I will have more energy. For now, this has weakened me. Go to sleep. Rest, we will speak tomorrow. And may Fultus guide your path.

May the light of Fultes guide yours. He nods to each of you individually. The light of Fultus and the true path and blinding light. He doesn't seem put off by what you're saying, but you once again see that faint smile in his face as he looks to all of you. And again, my apologies. Accepted.

Don't worry about it. And I like clap and brings you on the back. I just grow. The hand gets stuck. I'm like, ooh. I'm out. I'm sorry. You watch as he raises one hand and then the other,

and you see marching from either side of the cathedral are lines of three on either side, six total armored guards, the Knights Templar, he referred to, as they begin to flamination. you and though none of them speak to you, they begin to surround you and then start to usher you along a pathway and deeper into the city. They're taking us to an in. They are leading you deeper into the city and as you watch as the archbishop stands on the

steps of the cathedral and he does look weary. He does look tired. At this point it is near the witching hour and you imagine if he hadn't been summoned so quickly, he probably, he probably had been preparing for sleep as he whatever is taking up his time, whatever has happened at the orphanage as well as your entrance into the city has riled him from his sleep and that he probably won't talk so slow than next time we talk to him. but that he was weary and maybe even putting on airs for the mob that had rallied in the courtyard but he watches you as you are ushered slowly away and he nods to each of you and smiles as once you begin to make your way out of the courtyard you watch as he walks with purposeful steps down a separate road flanked by six more of these knights Templar as they lead him through the city or follow him through the city. As these nights begin to walk you through the winding streets,

until you come to a very large stone, almost like a cobble and mortar stone building with a well-tended wooden roof. All of the windows seem to be those cross-iron windows where the glass is, leaded glass windows, is what I'm like. looking for. They all seem to be leaded glass windows and a warm orange light spills forth from it. Some of the windows in the topmost area seem to be out, but some you can see candlelight flicker, the rooms above the tavern, and the door itself is open, and there is the sound of merriment and joy spilling from within. You see a sign that seems to have that symbol of Fultus

and the words path walkers rest. It appears to a sign. the inn of this place. As the Knights Templar flank the building and all stand at attention and motion for you to make your way inside. And just as quickly as you do, the room goes silent. People sitting at every table and at the bar

all turn their heads to look towards you as the majority of them quickly throw coins onto their tables, grab their hats and their bags, and immediately rush past you and leave. None of them saying a word, the bartender and potentially innkeeper standing behind the bar, an older gentleman, middle to older age, slightly shorter than you've seen. As long white whiskers, kind of twitch and apprehension as he looks at all of you and watches

is the majority of the people in the inn and the tavern make their way out as he slowly cleans out a glass. But he doesn't make any motion to prevent you or stop you from entering. And there are, I would say, about six, maybe seven people who remain. But all of them watch you with suspicious eyes as they slowly begin whispering under their breath. It was just our presence, the next time of our outside. The Knights Templar are outside. I would walk to the bar and say, I apologize if our presence has disrupted your business.

I would like a flag in avail. He looks down at you and you do, you see a sense of suspicion on his face, but then a sense of resolve. If the archbishop says you're all right, then you're all right by me, and he reaches out his hand, He goes to shake yours.

Thank you. Samuel, good, I run this place. My name is Samarries Renafir, and I promise you, we're here to hell. Gonna rid us of them witches, huh? Absolutely. I sure hope that's true. Well, it looks like your room, board, food, and everything else is on the church, so... What?

No, no, no. And he passes you a flag and a me enjoy your stay. Please, how much for this? Yeah. I wouldn't deny the kindness of the Archbishop, but neither should you... I would look around the bar. Is there any kind of like a tip jar or anything? I'd say there's a small barrel where you see a handful of coins,

but not many. It doesn't look like many people tip. Maybe they don't have the means to, or maybe it's been already cleared out for the night, but there's not much in there. I would very gratefully accept my flag and discreetly walk past this barrel and drop ten gold pieces. It's his baton. It just goes, blah, blah, wop. Ew!

That's gross, Derek. Go home. We don't like you. He's definitely owned this place for a long time, and your kindness does not go unnoticed by him as you see a slight smile, grace of space. I find a seat. Thank you.

And I just give him a nod as I go enjoy my flagging. Hello there, sir. You met my friend Sir Marius. My name is old Jericho Stix. You can call me Jericho, most so do. I know you don't have many patrons, but if you need a pro bono, musical performance. I am a bit of a tune smith, and I play this year Banja, and I do a little bit of singing, a little bit of Warblin, not great, but it's enough.

If it would make you happy to play, then I say play. There ain't many in here to hear it, but I'd enjoy it. Well, I'll talk to my friends who I think I'm feeling tired. It's feeling tired, a little new to me. sleeping is a little new, so maybe we'll go to bed or I'll play. Maybe those, do those fine gentlemen look like they're looking for a tune? I'll look over, do they seem like they're looking for a tune? They very clearly seem like they're not looking for a tune. You see as what had been two sets of three people getting together, that were together and mumbling under their breath,

three of them have slowly moved over to the larger table, and they've all congregated over there in the farthest corner of the tavern away from you as they're looking at you and mumbling. They are, it's very clear that some of them are inebriated. As he, as Samuel Good looks out around all of you and he slowly tosses out a key, well that's for your room, you can find it upstairs, the numbers there are on the key.

There's some rules. There's no whoring, don't have prostitutes and serials, so if that's your thing, it's not here, you understand? Oh no, we would never, we never, Of course. There's a two drink maximum. There's no drunkenness in Cyril, and you see as his eyes linger on the table in the corner.

I can't get there. There shouldn't be, the very least. It is a crime. It is a sin, and those that do it, and his voice raises, will be punished if they're caught. Understood. We all walk for one true path.

Stay good, stay kind, commit no sins, and you'll fit in right here with me. I'm on top of no trouble from us. Guess this will be enough for me then. I'll have some food sent over the kitchen's clothes, but I'm sure we can scrounge up something. You like beans?

Not picky. I very much care for beans. Did you say, well? Yeah, broom. Don't you have maybe two rooms perhaps with the lady types? Not tonight. We're quite full up. We weren't expecting a party of your six.

size, but it's the largest room we've got. We'll make do. It's all right. There should be enough beds for a lot of you. You can just put me in a room closet. I'm fine on the floor. I'll be all right. Rum, please. He quickly makes you drink and passes it to you. Oh, yeah, wow.

That wasn't expecting that. Did I get a goblet of wine? Yes, you did. Whatever it is that you want to drink, you're able to get, and you see as he disappears into a side room and comes out soon after, with what appears to be a watered down meat and bean stew. I have some wine in a comic-conference job. And you are able to, he keeps himself, Samuel Good, does for the most part, as he stays behind the bar and you see that he does stop giving drinks to the men in the corner after two drinks,

and as they walk by you, they make snide comments, and you hear them muttering the word witches and witchess servant to you, but none of them actually engage with you. Occasionally you feel, you hear something and see something hit the table as they toss bits of food towards you and then pretend like they hadn't thrown it. And occasionally you see as they pull out from under the table what appears to be a skein of drink. They have pilfered alcohol from somewhere else and are continuing to drink past their two drinks. But Samuel Good, who does seem to notice, it doesn't seem to get involved. It's none of his business. And he's, keeps to himself.

Oh, boy. Could I... I... I... Because I have a familiar, and I suppose I could use this mechanically, instead of just berating me. I know that I haven't asked a lot from you in the past several days. Why don't you stay outside and can you just keep your weird gross eyes out for other weird gross animals?

And just keep an eye out for anything that might be centipede-like or anything on this ear dagger? And I'll show him the dagger and open a window and for going to fly out. And he can talk to you while he's outside? No. Within 100 feet. Within 100 feet. Without 100 feet.

Right. So if he's outside. So he's a roosting on the building and I'm a hundred feet way. Yeah. I would say he gives you a rough, he gives you a rough playback of what he sees. The Knights Templar seem to be scouting the entire place. They occasionally change positions and walk the street. streets. They send people inside. You see a case, they occasionally find a, they occasionally find a drunk and warn them quickly to get inside lest they, lest they pay the price of their sin. They, but they watch. And

you had mentioned the things on the, on the dagger. And he mentioned, I will say, Virgil tells you that the, there is, there appears to be, and Virgil might know this because he's a Burgundy Giles say he does, a pigeon ship that coats the turrets and the boards of the roof of the inn. And he begins to notice that there's quite a bit of it on the other roofs, as if, though you don't see them here now, that pigeons do roost here. Which may or may not be unusual. Yeah. I mean, it's a city. You know that pigeons are city vermin.

And that's about all that he has to tell you. Well, there's no gross animals, but there's pigeons. There's pigeons There's pigeon shit That's not great for the news Given what's happening The last 20 people are I mean those are gross animals

I mean you're talking about gross animals All the time And then you see Everything's the pigeon here Like I don't worry there No gross animals You're not this gross That's all that

I'm kind of with Briggsie on this one I think he's right That qualifies a gross animal You're better than Weasels with faces Only only slightly Well I guess we knew what we were getting into

at some point in the evening I would get tired of having food thrown in us and I would go and I would start talking to the gentlemen we don't have to our in this

but I would have lesser restoration on them in order to destroy their crunchiness take away and take away what they've spent all evening working up to end because of the one

to have passed. thing what it is and how important the guiding light of focal things? I... They sober up immediately and you can feel the anger coming off. And you can feel the anger coming off with them as they mutter curses under their breath. And one of them makes a motion towards you, but the other one's grab them and hold them still. And one of them looks directly at you. You'll get what's coming to.

You don't worry. little like... Everything in your shot? And he spits at your feet. Let's head to bed, gentlemen. And they all get up and you hear the sliding and grinding up the chairs as they all exit the end.

And as they do, they watch you. And they look at you. You can feel that the anger that they had felt and the suspicion that they felt has been amplified with your casting of lesser restoration on them. Thank you. And I know that I would have to use more than one for a person.

So let me know if I need to spend more than Six. Okay, I spend all of my mouth flogers. I'm sorry, we're going to bed soon. I'll owe my cup of rum on fire, and I'll say, I'll move for us. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want a few more of these. You, Jordan, were you asking a question?

If they were within earshot. Yes, they were within airshot. You could hear them. They were choosing to mutter under their breath, but once let them lesser restoration to them, they made it very loud that she would pay the price. Oh, well, probably, like, if they're looking at us where they're leaving, I would, like, if they're throwing food at us, I would look for like a chicken bone if it's on there, some sort of bone. Sure. I would like take it off, stare them dead in their eyes and then just

eat the bone, just consume it. They stare right at them. Yeah. You see, you see two of them, You see two of them jump back and then they begin whispering to each other and nodding. We're in a tavern. Yeah, you're in a taverns. This works. Arguing as they speak to each other under their breath. And as they all leave, they turn back and look at you one more time. And you see almost a look of devilish glee on one of their faces as they exit and dart into the shadows.

Evening gentlemen, have a nice sleep as humans are want to do. I hate to suggest it so. early, but maybe we should follow suit and just head to bed ourselves. I could sit here all night, but we need rest and we have a lot ahead of us tomorrow. You said this was a prime material plane.

It would be like three in the morning. I'm ready for bed. I'm eager to get to tomorrow, kill this witch and get the hell out of here. I'm going to have more second drink. You've already had your second drink. Oh, fuck. Samuel, I would have a shot of rum, please.

And he hands you a shot of run. I think I will be going to bed and I leave my rum on the table. Thank you. Samuel turns a blind eye. Samuel's so sweet. I'll just see it kind of like drip out of my routine.

Get some rest, I hope you have a good night. You let me know if he looks towards the door, I'm sure they've got it covered, but you let me know if you need anything. Likewise, if there's anything that you need from us, please let us know. Thank you again. You can get rid of these witches and bring our lovely town back to what it was before the suspicion and the anger took hold in the heart to these men. I'd thank you kindly.

Of course, Mr. Samuel. Thank you for the hospitality. We appreciate you perhaps sacrifice and anybody your business. and they'll come back, there's nowhere else to go. Well, I was gonna play them, I feel like I just came up with a jaunty tune they might enjoy it, but maybe tomorrow even. All right, excuse me sleep.

Sweet dreams. Okay. That's just the sound of the play, I was. The first is a hellboy too. And with that, you make your way up to the one large room, and there are enough beds and places for you to sleep, And though it is a large room, it's almost like a suite. They're adjoining rooms.

And there is a spot for the ladies to have their own privacy and a spot for the men to find rest. If you would like to split up in such a fashion. And is there anything you'd like to do before you get to bed? I'll just kind of prop, I'll stand right in here. If there's a close. A cloak closet? I mean a coat closet. Oh. If you would like to.

A cloak closet. I suppose that would be a little more comfortable. I can stretch out in here. There we go, okay. I guess, you know, I normally have a stasis, but I guess I'll sleep again. You all feel that sense of tiredness overcoming you. You now understand a little bit why the DM made the choice to have the Archbishop talk so slowly, because it's very late, and people are very tired, including the DM.

Well, this is a mighty fine coat closet, and I think I'll enjoy a nice sleep. what a what a fun thing are there enough beds for us yes when you say private easy peasy you would not be private from Farron

but you'd be private from the gentleman good night I'm going to pray now I'm going to pray now but I am going to keep my back to you please do not be offended I'll get down on two knees and since it's been more

than a full day, normally I would have the ritual of praying each day, but didn't feel comfortable doing that on the outside dirt of the crooked house. I would finally remove my mask, making sure that no one can see, and then go through my ritual, speak my prayer words. And for the sake of brevity, we'll say that that's all I do. Yes, you do that. And then I get to sleep after turning the mask. Would anybody else like to do anything before, Beth? I would just take off my armor and said everything's by my bed and settle in. If it's anything unusual, then what you would go. I would go and, like, communicate with Virgil,

and just basically have them keep an eye out for gross pigeons. And if there's any weird pigeon, especially weird-looking pigeon to basically, you know, Tom wake us up. Right. I would just find the biggest bed that I can, and I would try to pass out immediately. My first time in a real bed in a while, at least a few nights.

It is easy for all of you to fall asleep, as the days travel, the horrors that you witnessed, and the, what felt like near-death experience as you were come upon by a mob of fanatics, it has exhausted you as you close your eyes and you are able to find sleep, but it is not a restful sleep as you all begin to dream. A musical start.

Marius, you find yourself walking through the basement of an old abandoned mill, the ground beneath your feet, clearly desecrated ground, surrounded by coffin after coffin after coffin. You take your shield and you smash into it, and you see that what lies beyond is vampire spawn after vampire spawn, as wrath begins to billow up inside of you. As you slice head from body, rending one, two, three, four, upturning coffin after coffin after coffin. You get towards the edge of the room, you open another one and outrises. The form of a child vampire spawn.

And in pure wrath, you slice the head from its body. As you begin to find smaller and smaller coffins, all of them, vampire spawn. As you sever their heads, as you slice into them. No care whatsoever for the age of these vampires consumed with wrath. And as you see, there's a battle that rages around you as this entire thing begins to go up in flames, but you're so consumed in rage.

You don't care as you slice through this one and that one. Child, adult, woman, it does not matter. as all of a sudden the entire thing goes up in flames and you with it. As your skin begins to melt from your bones, you are unaffected as you are consumed with rage. You fall to your knees as the metal of your armor begins to cause the skin of your flesh to melt away even quicker. As you scream with rage and continue to rend, head from body. Briggs-y.

you see yourself in the ruins of a temple surrounded by idols and relics of a culture that you are unfamiliar with and you are filled with greed as you begin to stuff your pack full of gems and jewels and diamonds you are ready to completely clean this place out these things can be sold for so much money you are a rich man the ship you could buy with all of this. And as you're ready to leave, you see it. The glint of gold catches your eye of gold in the sun. You look up, a towering, gigantic crocodilian statue.

And in its eyes, two giant gemstones. Your greed is overpowering. You begin to scale this thing. As you climb upwards. And with your dagger, you pry forward. forth one of the gems and put it in your pocket. You feel the statue waver under you. As you place the gem into your bag, you are overburdened, but you don't care. That other gemstone will be yours. As you move towards it and you begin to pry it, the statue jolts a little bit, but you're

able to get leverage as you yank the gemstone out. And as you hold it in your hands, the statue begins to fall and you with it. And as you hit the ground, the statue falls atop you, smash you into paste, your greed, your end. Farron, the glow of blue ruins on the standing stones illuminate the forest around you. As a massive bear is consumed in heart-splight, a circle of druids dance around it performing the ritual that you are so familiar with.

But in this ritual, there are two empty spaces. For though you can see the dancing lights far off in the distance, you're not there performing the ritual. You're in the throes of passion, overcome with lust. Two feminine fawn bodies tumble in the rotting, or not the rot, in the slowly decaying leaves on the fallen floor of this dark forest. As you wrap yourselves around each other, no thought for the ritual that's happening far off. as you laugh and moan in pleasure and in glee. And as you open your eyes, as your arms wrap around the one you love,

you feel her flesh give way, as her skin decays in your hands, the empty eye sockets of her head lifeless, the flesh rotting, your fingers sinking into the putrid form as you hold your dead lover. Jericho, The sound of music, dance, and love, as you peek in to a happy barn filled with laughter and life,

you watch from the outskirts, envious of the love and friendship that you see within. As halflings dance around what looks like it could be a maypole, as they sing and celebrate the love of two beautiful halflings as they share in the, as they share in the joy of what is clearly a wedding, family and friends all in attendance. And you watch, longing, hoping for that kind of friendship, that sort of family. As all of a sudden, darkness descends. And as you look up, you see crows, swarms and swarms of crows as they, descend into the barn and into the windows as they begin to pick apart the flesh of these halflings,

picking out their eyeballs, ripping into their intestines. The laughter and song now replaced with the sounds of agonized screaming as the friends and family of this married couple are ripped apart in front of you. Nothing more than a mass of bloody mess as the flock descends upon you. You're covered and consumed in the You can't feel the same pain, darkness, and almost as if you're watching from far above where once had been Jericho is nothing but a lone rusty bolt. Lethaca, a full moon looms over a huge city on a hill, a village that clearly had once been the home to a worshiping group to Saluna.

But now, Cloakish figure. roamed the streets. Symbols of the disk of night dot everything. At the top of the city, a cavernous cathedral to Sharr now stands, and in the dark depth of it, seated upon a throne, you sit. And as you look out over your flock, as these dark figures bow down in prayer, you swell with pride.

And then you realize, Their faces, which should be masked, are purely blank. No faces reside on these beings, just a fleshy blankness as they bow and bend. But they don't serve you. They serve shard. And you are but an impostor in this land. And as you look on in pride, you feel feeling. as they descend on you and begin to rip you limb from limb, an unholy idol.

Your grim. You walk through a valley of darkness, the weight of the clam stone on your back is it gets heavier and heavier, and you get more and more tired. You hear the voices of your friends and family, everyone you knew is they begin to blame you for their death, chanting at you, telling you you will never finish this day. finish this task. You carry the weight of your friends and family because you did this. You are the one to blame. You did not act. And you feel sloth. You feel tired. You feel exhausted. Your knees buckle as you

fall to the ground. As the weight of a thousand ghosts begin to weigh down on you, And you begin to claw at your own grave. Pulling apart the earth, you need rest. That's all you want. Let their deaths be in vain, for you shall sleep. Without your shovel, you dig your own grave. And with a yawn, you bury yourself deep within the earth. As you look up towards the moonless night, you're slowly covered by the,

By the ghosts of your friends, their hands spilling the earth over you, if your eyes flutter and you feel exhaustion overtake you. As the sounds of their chanting, you did this. You are at fault, slowly fades, and you find sleep. You are jolted awake as the sound of a door slams. You can hear shouts and cries and drunken yells, as all of a sudden you feel in the darkness, you reach out as you feel hands on your room.

wrists. Lethika, you hear a voice, I told you you'd pay, which as you feel something wet on your face, as someone spits against your cheek and you're wrenched out of bed. All of you feel this as in the darkness, you're pulled from your beds and dragged down the stairs. Those six ruffians are not six any longer. They're ten as they drag you out into the main floor of the inn. You begin to hear noise outside as if the town itself is kind of waking as you take punch after punch after

punch as these men in your tiredness begin to beat the ever-living shit out of you. You feel blood pooling down the side of your face. As one of them rises over you and you see the face of William Van Brunt

as he calls out to drag you outside. And they begin they begin to drag you. You feel weak, almost drugged, as if you drank something you shouldn't have. Your limbs don't have the same kind of movement you would expect from them. You try to call on magics that are familiar to you, but you are unable to utter the words as your speech is slightly garbled and as you stutter out the incantations, as you're dragged out and where there should be the Six Knights Templar, there is not. It is nothing but darkness,

as once again they begin to pummel into you. I need you all to roll a perception check for me, please. Oof. Oh, a natural 20 there. Virtually, you son of a bitch. Well done. Oh, I guess I don't have only grossed. Is that perception?

Yes. Oh, I did it okay. That'll be a 20 sex for Jericho. Not that. Seven. Eighteen. Twenty. Perception.

18. It's gonna be more than 20 for me. Anyone who rolled 15 or below, you would not hear this. I would say those of you that rolled above, you hear a loud crunching from far off in the distance. Almost a strange slamming and breaking of stone. Something large is coming. And as you look off into the shadows of the streets

that flock the area outside of the end, in, you see a flash of the colors of the Knights Templar as one of them runs off, clearly paid to stop their watch for a small amount of time. As you see that, I mean, sure. You see that William von Brunt seems to hear this noise as well as he shrinks towards the back and lets you continue to be pummeled by these 10 men.

Is there beating into your grim, yet again, you feel some of your teeth fly from your mouth. as you try to move against them, but your limbs are sleepy, they're tired, the vision of your dreams still floating at the edges of your subconscious, as you try to move against them but can't. You feel like you're on the edge of unconsciousness

as they pummel into you, blood spilling out of your mouth as they call out witches, tools of the witch, you will die here, we will rid this counter view, as all of a sudden you all hear it, the loud crunch over, and a guttural almost like roar and the sound of scraping.

This, whatever this is, is huge and it is right above you. All of these men for a second look up and you see a look of terror on their face. As the one that was in front of you, Lethaca, the one that you remember, you can barely see through the slits of your swollen, beaten face. You can see them. The one that spit in your face, the one that told you that you would pay. you that you would pay, as all of a sudden your eyes are completely covered in blood, as you are all spattered with blood, as down from the ceiling of the tavern, this gigantic, part gargoyle, part human man, far too large to exist, jumped squarely on top of this man and

completely smashes him to paste as he turns and looks towards all of the men that are brutally beating you in the streets of Cyril and he calls out drunken sins as he smashes at one of them and grabs them with his gigantic hand you hear them all yell but their their voices are clearly overcome with the sound of drink pay for sins as he opens what appears to be four giant cages strapped to his back as he wrenches them open and throws them in, and he closes them and locks them with his large, dexterous hands, and he sniffs and smells the street. Sinners pay. And that is where we'll end the session. Holy fuck. Holy shit. Okay. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventra's podcast.

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