Legends of Avantris - [FINALE] Voidbound | Ep. 4 | Neath' the Northern Star

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

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Delphina, the Osamandius accepts your coordinates, and for a moment every system aboard the ship stills and quiets. You blink, and then you pass through Polaris. There is no tunnel, no stars stretching into lines, no sensation of speed. You open your mouth to scream as the Osamandias falls inward, only to find that you, have already unraveled. You are coming apart, separated from the small, stubborn reality that you were ever separate from anything at all. You blink, Barnabos, and you stare out into ether space from every bridge that you have ever known. You blink, Tyshen, and your hand closes around a weapon you've carried your whole life, though it feels as though you've never seen it before. You blink,

skrim, and you see a thousand escape routes all in perfect detail. Every path leaves you back here. You blink, Yornear, and for once the thing at your side is still, like a key hanging within its lock, waiting to be turned. Delphina, you see the first world as your father must have seen it, and you wonder what he saw as you fall into the emptiness. The center of the galaxy opens all around you, moment you understand that time and space are mercy words invented by creatures who require such comforts

Polaris is everywhere and it is not a place it feels as though you've somehow been holding your breath for your entire life this phantasmagoria is your exhale and when you finally breathe again the fever leaves you cold and sweating and you are yourself once more you slam back into your bodies and find yourself on earth, on dirt, on what feels like a wet and spongy floor. Looking around, blinking, you, your head screams with a sound and headache, but like an echo growing distant with every passing second.

Surrounding you as you open your eyes look around there's light color and you realize that there's foliage all around you, vegetation, there's twisting branches of leaves and and and and and fronds. All of them duplicated in a myriad of strange shapes, the likes of which you've never seen before. Do you begin to realize that you're all five of you together? Looking around, you can see others starting to sit up. Feel that they are whole again. How much time has passed?

Where are you? What happens next is up to you. From the end of the last session, was it clear that she entered the coordinates for the first world? Absolutely. You remember that she went on the comms and she, Delphina, communicated with Barnabot's and Scrim on the other side of the ship the Osamandias and gave them, transmitted a number of funds to the cruise account, to the account that Barnabos and Scrim were so excited to see bumped. But then you watched in the navigation room as she punched in not the coordinates to a nearby

world or even back to Port Crozer, no. You watched as she punched in the navigation data that led back to the first world. and that is when your mind turned inside out. And as it begins to refold, these thoughts come rushing back in this information. So we were on the navigation bridge. We were. Yornear, Tyshan, and Delphina were on the navigation bridge.

They were where the Osamandians were. And you had just finished the conversation with Taichin and Barnabos, as they were on the other end where you first entered the Osamandia, of the other end of this ship. They had just communicated that the Calypso had managed to escape Barnabos in his panic attempted to detonate the ship, but was unsuccessful. And now we're, is there any ship around us

if we're all together? Make a perception check. Oh. 13. 13. No, no, not 13. 11. You sit up, Yoronear, and you start to look around.

As you watch every, struggling to come back into themselves, you are perhaps a little steadier than the others. And you're looking at these plants. They seem somehow familiar to you. As you were looking at them, they remind you of have you seen this before? Perhaps in one of your visions? No. This feels fresher. This doesn't feel like deja vu either and just as you start to put together that the there's a there's a there's never No sky. There's a ceiling to this space. Suddenly the lights erupt. Miao! Meo! Meo! Meo!

Meeo! Meeo! And you hear the sound of an emergency Claxton within the Ozimandias, and you realize that you've all been re-united within the garden space at the center of the ship. So I don't see a horrible... Or who knows what this world looks like? I don't know if you were near a You wouldn't know necessarily what any world looks like. You know that Delphina punched in the coordinates,

but the last time you were in the garden space, all of these plants had been killed by ether. Every single one of them had been drained of their life by the flooding of the atmosphere that Vonnegut had done. And now looking at them, they seem transformed. They still look sickly in some way. They look desaturated without color, but they're not dead anymore.

They seem to be re-emerging, coming back to some form of life. I'll sort of stand up and I'll look around and I'll see that something has happened. And we sort of witnessed what Delphina did. Which we did. You didn't see that? No, we did not. And I will, uh, I will say, the Pilgrim completes her journey.

begins her journey. Yes, everyone get up. We have a lot to do. Uh-huh. Boyd an avigator! What was that? What have you done? You've doomed us! What heading did you put us upon, woman? D doomed the galaxy! Why? What do you mean? What are you talking about?

Did you not get the transfer? Money paid and fall? We're not following the Azimandias. The coordinates she entered was... was for this world in Polaris. Wait, wait, wait, you're telling me that we went, we went through. Into? My head, oh, my head.

There is no need to be emotional about it. It is just another mission. You were paid, as promised. That's right. What is one world against the next? I haven't seen even an admiral paid out from a single job like that. Is that what this is? Blood money.

Is that it, Miss Voss? I want to find my father. Ah. You agreed that you would help me find him for an additional fee. And I've paid it. That I did. The timeline. are not as agreed upon, but, as I'm sure a captain like you knows, you must take the opportunities when they are provided to you.

The Calypso sails to a port filled with monsters. And we went in the opposite direction to chase your father. We've doomed wherever that lands. And if it spreads. That's definitely not good. Yeah, no, that's bad. That's real bad. There were far more important things than to come here. Those entities were on the Osamandius, regardless of whether the Calypso ever arrived. They were going to find their way somewhere, whether it was the port to which the Calypso sails, or wherever the Osamandias decided to make port.

who knows down the line. That is not our problem. You've been paid for a service. You must find my father. I hate to have done this to you this way. I hope you do know that. I value you all greatly. I even think of you as friends.

But he is my father, who's my family, he's all that I have. And I have held up my end of the bargain. Aye, the lady speaks true. The CLEPSO was beyond us before this heading was our destination. You do not comprehend the path on which you tread, but here comprehension is impossible. Pass, oh God, listen, I've experienced a lot of horrible. horrible shit in my life. But that?

What the fuck was that? I felt like I fell apart. A thousand, thousand times. I've never seen anything like it. Felt anything like it. Yeah, I think I'm gonna be sick. Do we even know where we are? Given the circumstances I've put all of you in,

I think it's only fair that I'm a little more honest with you than I have been. My father was a brilliant man, absolutely brilliant. And he was in search of the first world. The world in which an original species, the eldest species, created the galaxy. They sang it into existence, the song of creation. He believed that if he could find that species, that it could change life. as we knew it. Untapped power would be presented to those that could find it. And in his

research he came to the conclusion that that world lay just through Polaris. Many attempts have been made to enter Polaris. Whether they were successful or not is unknown. and none have returned from the attempt until the Ozzymandius. Until this ship. How could I pass up that opportunity to follow him, knowing it is possible? I believe the coordinates that Vonnegut gave me that they would bring us to that first world, the world in his research.

I believe that that is where we are. that we have, this is incredible, we have passed through Polaris. Just, just so that I'm on the same page as you. I just want to make sure I'm understanding this. You think that we know, or you know, have knowledge of the literal beginning of everything. We've found it. All previous tries to find it may or may not have been successful, but we know no one's ever returned until now.

and you sent us back to the place where no one's returned from? Yes, but only because I knew at that point that the Osamandias had returned, which meant it was possible. Scrim, you see, it is possible to arrive into Belarus and return.

But none of its crew returned. We'll understand why once we make it to the surface. Hundreds of crew members, corrupted. Turned into those monsters. Polaris is a star. at the center of the galaxy. Yes.

We're all no navigation centers around. Yes, which was why it was so incredible that his theory led him to believe that the first world was through that star. So the light at the center of the galaxy is actually this first world is what you're telling me. Or that it is beyond that line.

I know not his full theory, but I believe whether we are within that star or beyond it, that traveling through Polaris led us to the first world and we will find my father here. He was incredibly brilliant if anyone. And he did. The Halsamandius made its way out. Scrim, won't you see how incredible this is? Aside from those assholes in the testing facility, I have never met another person in this galaxy that's tried to kill me as much as you have.

I haven't, just by proxy, it was not intentional. You, you, I don't desire your death, Scrim. I desire for you to survive. I think you would love him, were you to meet him. I think you all would. If you knew him, you would understand why this is so important. But not just for him, but for the knowledge that, comes along with reaching the first world and finding the species.

My dear cryptic, Susiea, you understand what this means. To find them would be remarkable. Is there danger? Of course. This... This... This... World.

At the beginning and the end, this is the world of the last. No matter what faith we share We are here We are lost There's a groaning

creaking sound Something that shouldn't be On a ship this size With its gravitation Being what it is And you're all shocked Is it the Feeling of

of still reeling from your experience of passing through Polaris through the center of the galaxy. No, you rock forward and you can feel that the ground beneath you seems to be swaying as though under a tremendous force. Back and forth, the alarms still sounding, the lights still flashing. Does it sound, does the sound reminiscent to Barnabos and I at all about it, like potentially the ship being ripped apart. Like the groaning is almost like the ship might tear. These are the kinds of sounds the ship make

when another voice is going, pull up, pull up, pull up. So not good, definitely back. Woo, who, who, go. I'm going to register that, stick it in my brain. But I check myself. I check the device that is a part of me and I check my pad that's on my wrist to see if the timer's still going,

to see if everything seems to be normal. I want to make sure that I am still whole after this horrific, horrific, unmaking and remaking thousands of thousands of times, infinite times. I'm not going to make you roll like investigation or perception. You know where the things are on your person and what it should be. And you are able to feel that you are uninjured. Functioning. You are functioning. You look at your device and it appears to be whole. You look at the the extremely precise timing measurement tools and the instruments that are on your bangle and as far as it's concerned almost no time has passed at all since the last

time you've checked it's been minutes doesn't certainly feel that way but then you also notice a little bit more you feel even though you're sick to your stomach and your head still pounds almost as though you've just woken up and I will let you all know in this information that you've all experienced the benefits of a long rest. Oh, shit. That's not good. That's big. I mean, I like it, though. No, that's like the teacher being like, you can use an open book test. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like in a level when you find all the weapons and ammunition.

Uh-oh. Hmm. Well, okay. All right. Mr. Yorne here. Yes, Captain. It is... It is us who are truly lost. Is that what you're saying? Us?

The crew, you mean? I don't know anymore, Mr. Yornear. I don't know what you all felt. When we crossed over. I don't know how long it was. But I feel like I sailed a lifetime. I was standing upon every... ship that I ever served on and sailed on.

The Rum Runner, the Nymyria, the Merlin King, the Laughing Storm, the Ironborn, the Black Alley, the crow's eye, the ruby claw, the lady shell, the calypso. And every single one I gaze at the horizon, that infinite horizon. And I feel like now was that Polaris I was looking out as a boy. Even then.

Did you feel like it was happening all it was? I feel like I saw that star on every ship. I sailed upon from being a cabin boy to captain and back to a salvager. Was it that star? An abominable star on the horizon what I navigated by my entire life. He's right. He's right. I had a similar experience.

Look, I mean, Bonobos knows I've lived bits of my life over and over. Try. Try again. Redo. Try again. Over and over. But this time, it was like pathways. Listen to me.

You're on pathways. I could see them all. Like escape routes. Like a maze. But it was just, there was no real exit because the exit was just the beginning. over again. There was no escape. It's the same thing. Over and over and over. Infinite possibilities, but it's just the illusion of choice. What does it mean? The death froze of all other possibilities besides this one. There is only one.

Yes, Captain, we are lost. All here are lost. The world is lost. The light of the 12 at the edge, at the end, pours at trains here. At the beginning, a prison. There is no hope. We are trapped.

There's another stomach drop. moment. As the room beneath your feet shifts and seesaws back in the other direction, each of you have to take a few more steps to balance yourself, save for falling over. Kat. Well, I for one, do have hope. Forza Mandius returning gave me hope. Meeting the four of you gave me hope. If anyone can survive this, it's It's a voss.

My father knew what he was doing. I have to believe that. All right. We've been paid handsomely for a job like that, Mr Stabs. Let us see it through. Services rendered as promised and shicken upon. Do you wish for hope? No, Mr. Yornear.

When I gazed out at the infinite horizon, as a boy, as a young man, as an old man, as an old man as I am. In all those voyages, twerned hope would keep me going. I don't need it now. I didn't need it then.

You, you, or you? Do you have hope? Do you wish for it? We are so busted. We are so, so busted! There are complications in the way, of course, but yes, I do have hope.

So many years I thought my father was lost, that his endeavour had failed, and that I was a little girl who lost everything for one man's hubris. I will not lie in tell you that I did not have thoughts, negative thoughts about my father and what he'd done. But when the distress signal reached me, I knew, without a few.

without a shadow of a doubt that he had done it that either he had never made it there or he had returned but either way he would be found and that instilled in me hope meeting you instilled in me hope

and yes I'm not sure how we get back through Polaris but there is someone who knows we could ask Vonnegut he's done it I'm sure he could tell her Yes The Emperor groans

An anomaly a ship that was lost Found and now lost again Yes maize you have a question Before this You said that the harmony felt dim to me Can I sense the harmony? I Can I sense the harmony?

Great question, Mase. As you know, the harmony suffuses the entire galaxy, similar to many other realms and energies that pass through worlds, ether, empty space, the beings that live on all of those planets and through the stars themselves. And for your entire life, Even before you tried to make peace with yourself and with your youth,

you've felt the presence of the harmony. Here, you feel only silence. I need the second. The answer was long. I was in trouble. Okay. I'm an adult. I've composed myself. What's done is done. There's nothing we can do except survive. Deal? Absolutely.

And given your proclivity towards notes and financial gain, I, being able to return, that is priceless, the knowledge you would return with. What I gave you would be a pittance compared to what is before you. before you, when we make it back. And I know that right now it feels scary. It will be worth it in the end. Nothing that was worth it was not difficult. All right. For the love of wealth, Mr. Stams.

I mean, at this point, what do we have left? That's it. Perhaps your luck hasn't run out after all. The very least one of us will be stinking, Richard boy, the end of this. Notes have no use to the dead. That's true. For the longest time, my soul sang,

it's song to join a chorus, and now there's silence. I don't even bask in the somber light of the harmony shadow. Here we're shrouded in void. You say your father was a brilliant. man and she knew enough not to return. He didn't get aboard the ship. We cannot know the reason for his

decision not to return and would not speak for him. A prisoner does not hold the keys. Maybe. If it is a song you're looking for then I've taken you to the right place. The world in which the first notes were ever sung. Maybe you

can't hear it because we're up here. And you simply need to put your feet upon the land to regain your connection. You blink. You have come back to me. You're no longer in the garden space. You blink and you're in the

communications room. The lights are back up. The alarm is no longer sounding. The five of you are staring at an array of monitors. And on one, is the face of the entity that you've come to know as Vonnegut. And on the other, you see a dull and colorless world

shifting and swirling on the display. Have you come to beg? Have you come to plead? I am here to help. I am your God. Good day, Vonnegut. Miss Delphina Voss Thank you for returning us home

Yes, about that We have business here, but we are going to need to return Back from once we came How do we, how did you In all your brilliance Accomplish such a feat? You can hear it too Can you not?

You can hear the choir. The choir, you say. Can you not hear the song? Yes, I hear the song. I don't hear no song. We returned only after we were able to subjugate the passengers.

Only after we were able to capture them and return them on board. with their precious cargo. But it was only through a fantastic energy provided by the eldest, that we were able to power the engines to return back through Polaris and back to the edge of the galaxy.

The eldest, you say, creatures native to this world? Yes. And they have the power necessary to propel us back through Polaris. We must return so that we can spread the void. Well, we have our answer then, don't we? We just need to make it to the planet proper and find these elders, procure the power source from them,

and then when we're ready to, return back to the Osomandias and use it to make our way back through Polaris. Simple, straightforward. Be quiet. Just that... Does that relieve some of your fear hearing that there is the song, the choir? The song of creation from the eldest is not the harmony. I don't hear anything. Do you hear anything?

Do you hear anything? Do you actually hear something you're fucking with us? No, I just hear the whirring of this foul devil and stole my fucking ship. It is everywhere. within me, within you, here, but not beyond the stars. A songbird in the cage, my destiny, our destiny, the choir. Miss Delphina Fas! Yes, Vonnegut. I can show you.

I can show you the frequency to find this extraordinary fuel, what you need. Oh, that would be lovely, dear. It is here. Simply scan it, and you can watch as the display of the first world. This nameless, unknown, eldest world banishes. And a number of telemetry readings show up, different algorithms, something that you'd be able to copy onto your scanning device and follow if you so chose. Oh, absolutely. I'll pull out my scanner and try to download the frequency. You're able to pull the data down into your communication device.

There you have it. I look forward to your return so that we can make our way back to ether space and continue to spread the void. Yes. We are going to have to address the situation in the room. But at the later date, I feel. But we have the frequency. We will be able to get the power source that we need. So I do hope that that alleviates some of your fear. I know. So then we land.

We find this power source. We bring it back to the Azamandias. And we leave. We have to find my father, of course. and find your father. When Barnabos and I were attempting to employ our will over the Calypso as it was getting away,

do we know if that was the same location where there might be drop ships or, you know, the equivalent of a dinghy in the space dinghy? Is that an entirely different place? That's a great question. We wouldn't know if there are, like... You'll recall that when you first found

the Asimandias, that it was spinning on its long axis at a tremendous speed and that there was no way to get into the docking bay on the side. And it took a tremendous amount of piloting skill from Barnabos and from the support of everyone to match its rotation and actually dock at an emergency hatch on the rear of the ship. The Eclipso is now gone and there's nothing at that hatch. Then you recall your visit to the docking bay and when you confronted those strange worms getting the enviro suits that you needed in order to have oxygen during the assault from Vonnegut as he attempted to push you into his way of thinking.

There were no ships. Thank you. There were no shuttles. There was no drop ship. There was no escape pond. There was no means of getting back down to the surface of any world or escape. Why? Perhaps you are all right.

This is the aura. the air of destiny. Mr. Fireblossom, you came, the decorated veteran as you are, respectable type, sought out a rust bucket catting by an old pirate. You felt like your destiny was on that vessel.

Perhaps it's where it was. Perhaps it's the harmony that you need to find and bring back. There is harmony in a single soul, is there not? Jade Shell, not fire blossom, Jade Shell. I believe so, Captain. As separate as I feel from the harmony here,

its song still lives within me, as I feel it in each one of you individually. Severed from it, you cannot take it from within. Perhaps that's why you're here. And I don't hear no song, but I have heard the singing, I have heard A-sing, when I was first a boy on the Rum Runner, on the seas of Carabas, not even in space yet.

And I thought it were sirens. I thought it were the legend of the Azure Maiden herself. And I heard that song across every sea, every sky. Every bit of space, every sector. Others couldn't hear it. But I always could. Perhaps I was going mad. Maybe I am.

But maybe this is the song. It drew me here. And if not, perhaps my aura of destiny is being richer than even the wealthiest nobles of the Kavanaughan Empire. We're the corporate bastards of Nexus. You have a way with words, Mr. Dredwick. When we return home, I would love to have you all of you at Voss Manor. And I would love to hear many more of your tales and sea. Your heroics.

Yeah, he's got away with words all right. You know what else the captain also says? Words are wind. You know how many times you said that to me, buddy? say true, I say, I say much and more about how words are when. Yeah, so why don't we, you know, put a cap on it and figure out how we're going to get down to this, this, this planet. Because if I need remind all of you, there are no escape pods. So we're stuck up here. Yes, and I, Farnigate, I realized something. Are you listening?

Yes, Ms. Tilthina Foss. How long was the trip from here? back through Polaris. The voyage back through Polaris to the edge of the galaxy. 15.88 years. Oh, I was afraid of that. That is something I did not consider. And I should have, really,

considering when the distress signal reached me. But with that sort of power source, we should be fine. Oh, there are no ether currents. Mm. A go to, Polaris. Certainly no rings, gates. I don't even think those big solar federation ships can make it out this way, with their drives.

There is a possibility. If we collect extra of this incredibly potent power source, maybe we could find a way with all of our minds combined to manufacture. quicker option, but that is the problem for us in the future. For now, I agree with you. Do not worry, Ms. Delphina Voss. Time will mean nothing to you

very soon. Do you care to expand upon that statement, Vonnegut? As I have stated before, you will be changed. All of you will be changed. We will join. And when we do,

you will not be so impatient, for we are very patient. I think I can help with the lack of transport. I can hear their song. Let me see if I... His face freezes for a moment, and then the expression changes to one of confusion. In all of the time that you've seen this face,

it has only ever looked calm or confident. Then his image his image tears across the screen in pale horizontal bands and for an instant there are many Vonnegut's faces on the monitor. One smiling, another screaming, another staring blankly ahead and one reduced to a smear of light and code. His voice comes through in fragments layered over itself.

I can hear, I was promised. God, God. God, God, God, running. His voice collapses into naked terror, and the monitors implode. Showering on you in thick glass. Then, in the still darkness, you hear a different voice, and you blink.

And that's where we'll take a quick break. Asked me to play in this camp. Maybe it was fun? Do you suppose we play on a beach? Do you suppose we blink at Prymara? Wake up to Prismara. The hot school of Pina-Kalada. Derek, that broken AI voice right there was fucking insane.

Thank you. I love that voice. It's really good. I'm gonna miss it. It's been amazing. That one in particular was insane. Thank you. From nowhere a voice can be heard.

And then you blink. You stand now on what must be the surface of the first world. There's a shuttle parked nearby. looking pristine. Each of you wears an enviro suit. Helmet, visor, airtight, oxygen

full. You've landed in what appears to be a relatively flat ballet. On the horizon, there's impossible terrain. Huge columns of coral-like

material that shifts and undulates in the distance bending as though refracted by water. Every surface is desaturated and the sky is filled with cosmic light. Perhaps the light filtered down to this strange planet from Polaris itself. There are no structures or signs of civilization and at your feet ankle deep a blanket of some thin powdery substance that kicks around. And you see looking back from your own feet,

your tracks all walking back to the entrance of the parked shuttle. It's docking day ramp still extended as though you just walked here moments ago. But blinking, you're here now. your hands are even up as though shielding yourself from the the shattered monitor explosion. In an instant, you're staring at each other confused. Okay, so you probably can't even be able to. But what I'm hearing you lay down is that there's evidence of us moving through temporal space. We do not teleport.

We're losing time and we're not teleporting. but we're not sure because of the way that our hands are and how instant things are. It would be very perceptible that this has been something that you just experienced, this jump. And you almost remember, did you ignore this moment? You were in the garden space, and then you were in the communications room,

and now you've seemingly solved an impossible problem. And you don't even remember the journey down through the atmosphere if there even was atmosphere, and you don't even remember don't even remember donning the gear that you have on your person now. All of that happened in the blink of an eye. So, I don't want to say this. Game Master, do we feel like we've been annihilationed? You've been a little annihilation.

You've been a little annihilation. That's a little bit. That helps. But all those same questions that are occurring in Scrim's mind and perhaps Barnabose's mind are occurring to all of you. What were you just doing? How did you get here? How much time has passed? Did time pass at all?

Is the world morphing around you and some impossible magics? What about those parasite things that were in the locker room? Does this play a role? Does everyone have all their things? You're checking yourself again. Yeah. Well, you seem to, sure. And we already in enviro suits.

And you're wearing some sort of protective gear. One last thing. Sorry, I'm just trying to... No, no. No, no, no, no. Does this, given that we went into the hangar bay, looking for shuttles, we found no shuttles. That's right.

But now we see the shuttle, does this look familiar to me or to any of us, brands? Yeah, good question. Oh, why don't you, oh, yeah. Roll con, I'm kind of nice about it. Oh, yeah, we're playing B&B. Quap. Quack.

I'm thinking, technology maybe. That feels correct. Maybe technology, you don't know. That feels very correct. Gridmaster, I mean game master, excuse me. Technology. When it's filled in like this, does that mean I have expertise?

Yes, I'm an advantage. What it's fully filled in. You're going to manage. And you add advantage. Well, the numbers correct and you're out of it. Oh shit, you're supposed to be advantage when that happens? I don't recall advantage coming with the expertise. Wait, wait, wait, wait, if you have the tool.

Oh, if you're using a tool. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, no, I'm not. So you wouldn't be a bad. So the tool piece is the advantage. Yeah, yeah. 23.

Damn. The make and model of this particular shuttle, it would be evident to you. Even if you've never piloted it before, it would be extremely obvious to you that this is of the same kind of engineering as the science vessel that you were just on. This is very evidently one of the missing shuttles

that would have been found in the docking bay had you found any. And here it stands. One more question. Yeah. Does it look? like has been on this planet surface for 15 years? I use the word pristine.

Pristine. It does not cover it. It is not covered in wear and tear. The blanket of snow-like sediment, for lack of a better word, does not coat its wings or its blast shield or its engines. Did you have a question? I would like to look around and as I blink and I'm taking the back as everyone else, else is. I want to see if I can perceive in any way, whether it's hearing, looking, feeling,

anything that could have been that voice that we heard. Oh, geez. Oh, my God. Does this feel like perception or arcana to you? Are you trying to, for the lack of a better word, look into the weird. I'm only thinking of that because you're yornyer, but like, are you trying to perceive spiritually or are you just looking? Blind sight, I'm looking, I'm hearing. I'm so taking it back. Using your normal senses, including your blind sight, you stretch out. 15. It's not bad. It could be yours. There is only that strange undercurrent that

perhaps only your near alone can feel of a song, what you were agreeing with Vonnegut about. But it doesn't seem to be coming from any particular direction. and your usual senses are telling you the same information that everyone is gathering right now. There are some mountains on the horizon. There's roiling clouds above you,

filled with strange light. There are the other details of the world all about you. Everything feels grounded, physical, real. All right. And this is what confronts you as you experience this strange warp. What was that? What? How did we get down here?

The, the shuttle? What happened, Vonnegut? Howie, what was that voice? Oh, Vonnegut. Like, he was torn apart, or? Yeah, he was screaming. Yeah, he was, wasn't he? And then...

Yeah, maybe the bastard got what he deserved. What did it to him? Can we see that? the Osamandias from here? Oh yeah? You look up? No, it's overcast. So looking up, you don't see a night or a day sky. You see a, if you've ever seen

like cotton fluff balls that are illuminated by like an LED inside and they have that sort of like soft shimmery glow to them, they're sort of a depthful light and shadows with text This has almost like a fabric feeling to it. Like there's a blanket from horizon to horizon. What I'm kind of picturing is, I don't know if you've ever driven over at the Route 90 Bridge going to Ocean City,

but it's like foggy. Oh yeah. On your side it's dark, but it's night, and there's all the city lights are up. But like you can see the light before you see the buildings. Right. This is that level of gray in all directions.

Absolutely. 100%. And so what I'm describing to you on the horizon is illuminated only by that same cosmic light. The dial of time is an endless spiral. I will sort of look around and feel a sense of peace but also anxiety as I turn to the pilgrim. I'll say, do you feel complete yet? It will find complete when I found my father.

Do you know the way? How can you know the way? I am unsure, but I'm resilient. I will figure it out. Though I do not know my father is, I do have a way to find the power source, and I believe is that they acquired the power source. We will find clues to where he is if we search it out. We do know they must have been there.

Yes. If we can still track the power source like Fonnet get offered you. I'll pull up my device and... You, uh, open the clamshell scanner and quickly read the... The information that's displayed there Make a quick computers check for me. Ooh. Can do, well do.

We'll do this. 19. Even though the signal is weak, you are able to triangulate the signal. And you can turn and get some information. Those mountains, they're three. A good distance from you here. What probably would be a few miles.

not a quick walk, but a trek from this flat landing area that perhaps one of you chose while piloting down here for safety would eventually become a more treacherous climb uphill. And every time you turn, there's a lot of information that is blank on your device. You're not getting compass readings, cardinal directions. you're not getting elevation or atmospheric information. You're not getting a lot. But that algorithm, perhaps in his last act, that particular instance of Vonnegut, does seem to be picking up a signal.

And you can find that direction every time you come back to those three mountains. There's three mountains over there on the skyline. I believe that is our destination. And then let's get to Huffin' it. Where did it go? Where did what go? Time.

Yes, it was quite strange. Are we sent here? Did we come here? Can we even trust our senses? Are any of you real? Am I real? Do you need to pinch you, Mr. Dredwick? Yes. This is not a dream. What happened?

Captain, I don't want to argue with you, but I try not to think about it too much. I was a cabin boy on the deck of the Rone Runner, on the Seas of Carbius. Come on, Captain, listen to me. And I heard her song, I thought it was the tale of the Azure Maiden. A lot of weird things happen when you start messing with time. Trust me, you don't want to think about it too much, all right? And our dearest cryptic, Sue say, I did say that this place was incomprehensible. We must trust that we can wade through the incomprehensableness of this place.

Time does not go. Time has not went. Time is always. I was a young man standing on the bridge of the crow's eye. the cat was mad chasing a bleeding star and I heard the song I thought it was the legend

of the Azure Maiden what were that song Mr. Yorne the song of beginning if the elders truly are here you might yet be able to hear that song Mr. Dredwig those three mountain peaks along the horizon

if the information we have is correct and we're here through Polaris with the eldest the song of creation. We're dealing with unbelievable things, but you were right, Captain, when you said that I believe the harmony brought me to you and you brought us to Delphina and she brought us here and I don't think the harmony would have brought us here to be lost or to die. I don't know what's happening. If we're losing time, if it was there or it went, or it is as it ever was.

But I think we're here to do something. You're right, Mr. James. We move forward. Onward. Always onward. To the mountains. To the abyss. The five of you, pick up your feet and follow.

the heading of Delphina's device in the direction of the signal. Traversing this distance is bizarre. You aren't underwater, but there is an undertow to the atmosphere. Strong and unpredictable. The surface of the valley kicks up with every step like clay silt suspended in oil, ankle deep and slow to settle. There are times when these forces take hold, so suddenly you're pulled,

five, ten, fifteen feet off of your path, dragged in a direction you did not choose. This flat expanse isn't as featureless either, as it first seemed when you awoke. You have to sneak around to avoid large natural sinkholes. Sediment and floating particles draw into these openings like liquid down a drain. There are no visible bottoms of these fissures,

at least none that you can see without risk of being pulled in your sense. As the plateau slopes upward, the soft plain begins to break apart. The silt thins in patches, revealing shelves of stone underneath, slick and uneven. Rieges of buried rock jut through the valley floor at strange angles. Ahead, the base of the mountains rises out of the murk in pieces rather than all at once. Then you step into a patch of mud that is not mud. The surface gives, revealing a shallow nest of translucent eggs, packed together in strands of mucus. Something inside the nest recoils from the sudden exposure, long and ribbon thin,

its body folding over itself in slick loops. The thing uncoils, its eel-like body rises from the nest in a whipping spiral, pale jaws opening along the underside of its head. I need you all to roll for initiatives. Oh, we got monsters. Nice, nice. Natural 20. Okay, not too shabby on my end either. And if I could get a quick, muddy patch out of you, Andy.

Absolutely. This hidden patch of eggs suddenly bursts under each of your feet. And suddenly these snake-like, eel-like creatures with these razor-sharp teeth in their mouth, start to whip around, clearly pulled into a frenzy. by your very presence. I need initiatives 2230. 27. 25. 23. I rolled natural 19. 27. 25. 19. 19? Oh, 22, not 22.

Everybody rolls so high. Sorry, 27. 27. 27. 25. 25, thank you. Ben Delphina. 15 to 20. 16. And that concludes. I got a six. If it matters. For the people taking notes at home, You go double last. You go double last. This is such a shock, this moment of swarming,

that all of you feel these eel-like creatures biting at your feet. I'm going to say that one is going to attack Barnabas. I'm going to throw this a little bit more like that. That's going to be a 19-to-hit. I assumed you and Barnoos is kind of up front. 19 absolutely hits. I think we'd be able to be... Okay.

You're going to take eight points of necrotic damage as this thing bites into you. I will... As... I'll say... Amr Bainstays! As I will get hit

and I'm going to use my Jaza species trait, ignore pain. When I take David, I can take the reaction, a reaction to expend one... Expend and roll one hit point. reduce the triggering damage by amount equal to the number plus my con mod. Okay. So you're spending your hit die?

I'm spending a hit die. I love that. I believe I have a D8. Yes. I reduce it by... How about them apples? 10. All right.

You do that. You completely eliminate the damage. Wow. The only thing that happens is perhaps the piercing puncture to your enviro suit. And next up is going to be... That looks like Taishen, number two, is going to attack. Yeah. That's going to be, let me just quickly do some math here.

21 to hit. That hits, yeah. Okay. That's going to be six points of necrotic damage to you. No, no, it won't. Oh, and because it enjoys pack tactics, let me enjoy fish for the crit. Nope, you're good. Because I enjoy centered deflection, I'm going to do the exact same thing that Barnabros did

and take a reaction to reduce the damages, reduces damage against me. I'm gonna reduce it by one. Okay. It's, how much was it six? I think, yes, I believe so. I've nullified its damage, which means I'm gonna use an essence point

to redirect its attack to this one here. Okay. And it's gonna take 2D8 plus five of the same type of damage dealt by the attack. What number is that? That is number three. It has to make a, uh,

some sort of a save. Oh, it makes a save? Oh, sorry. Uh, blah, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, if you reduce the damage zero, then it's, oh, succeed on a deck saving throw. It makes a deck saving throw.

It makes a deck saving throw. Probably, okay. It fails. So now we'll take the damage. 19 points of whatever damage you were dealing to make. To number three. Uh, number two,

you are able to grab it as it wriggles, and you almost wield it like a weapon. and you point it out, and it bites down anyway and it's impossible frenzy, and you watch with horror as it digs into the throat of one of these other eels, pulling it free and killing and slaying the other eel-like creature.

Three is dead, which means that I'm not gonna roll for it. Number four is going to take a crack at, who's the neighbor there? Yornear's in the back here, unfortunately. Yeah. Or scrim. That's going to be 21 to hit. Oh, four, sorry.

I thought you pointed out of. You settle down. Or scrim. 21 to hit. Oh, 18. 18. 18. 18. Okay. It's going to, you've got seven points of necrotic damage coming at you. Okay. And the number five is going to...

Five and six are both... They have options. So five is going to enjoy advantage against, I believe that's Delphina. Yeah, yeah. In the dead center, yeah. I rolled a four and a three, there's no way. And then against you screw... Before you can roll against me, I'm going to impose disadvantage by cashing it on a luck point. Okay. I already rolled the dice once. Would you like to observe the...

No, no, I trust you. I'm just letting you know you have dismissed. It was a natural point. Oh, my God. You're very lucky. Oh, yeah. You take 14 points of necrotic damage as this thing bites into you.

You are watching with awe, the incredible dexterous finesse of Tyshen, and it catches you off board. You didn't eat off guard. You didn't think another one was right behind you, but it bites roughly into your shoulder. I'll use my reaction to half the damage and take seven. Very good.

My boy was mild. I have lucky break. And you have an option. opportunity after you use your reaction to regain your reaction because of the top of the round and scream you're up. I will not move and use my level three feature zero in as a bonus action. I can give myself advantage on the next attack roll on the current turn. I can use this feature only if I have not moved and after I use it, my speed to come zero until the end of the current turn. So I will attack number six with advantage. When this thing attacked me out of self-defense, I reached out of my boot and I draw my quick blade. Yep. And I'm going to make a melee attack against it. Okay. Okay. You slice in. Oh, that's not great. I got a 14 to hit.

You hit. Oh, thank God. That's crazy. Then I have cheap shot. Once per turn, I can deal an extra 3D6 damage, which is basically my sneak attack. But I'm actually going to cash in on one of my D6s because I have level 5 feature underhanded.

When I deal cheap shot damage, I can add one of the following underhanded effects. I'm choosing tendon strike. So you actually watch me strike low at this thing. And by cashing in a D6, if the target is large or smaller, it has to exceed on a dexterity saving throw or it will become prone. It fails.

So instead of doing 4D6, I'll deal just 3D6, which is 2D6 plus my 1D6 from my damage. Very good. And it will fall prone. As I kind of... I know it doesn't necessarily have tendons, but I'm striking low to try to... This is number six.

And these things are swimming through the atmosphere, almost flying. And so as you swipe into it, you're able to gash it terribly. 17 points of piercing damage. as I strike out with the quick blade real quick. You strike out and you're able to nick something essential and a disgusting dark Iker sprays out and then settles.

It certainly falls prone, but you kill the thing instantly. Do you have anything else to do with your turn? Bonus action, I can't move. I've done everything. I am... I just have my reaction. Kai Shen, you're on deck. Deflecting the attack of this other creature, I swing my blade down that's glowing, with a deep purple energy

as I stabbed forward on the one right in front of me, number two. Hell yeah. What did you get? 11 to hit. It hits. Whoa. It just hits.

It just hits. Okay. That's the A-6. Okay. That's the wrong die. This first one takes 11 points of damage. Okay. Number two.

Okay. You slice into it and by some miracle it is able to barely hold on to life. A spray of blood splatters against your visor and your suit, but it is still wriggling and screaming at this high-pitched tenor. I'll take it again. Okay. Oh, that's a ten. It's curling and it loops just at the last moment.

When a creature I can see within ten feet of me meets the D20 test, I can take a reaction to expend it and roll one luck die and apply it to the bonus. Add two to your attack. Oh, so that's 12. It curls into this tight... The dealer's favor. And then you wring back the laser blade in another swipe and land. Oh, that was max damage.

13. Number two is toast. I bonus action. I attack number one. Okay. I expend an essence point. Oh my god. This is an 11 again. I wrote a 3 of 2 and a 3. You just hit. These are, they're swimming through the air. They're not easy targets. They are thin. I see it.

Max damage again, 13 points of damage. Is that number one? Yeah. He is indeed cooked as you unzip him from tail to mouth and his guts and organ sprayed down into the detritus below. For my second bonus action attack, I throw my blade. From where I am, see- Hell, yeah, let's go. So I did that's his point for it to do this, but I'll throw my blade from where I am, seeing that this one, this one hits grim.

The one that hit me, I think you like that. Oh, yeah, yeah, he killed the one number six. I'll throw it five. I'm trying to clear the field. I'm going nuts out. I don't know if you would do this. I think it's just a normal attack. Or even if he could do it,

but the way I picture you're doing is, you like throw it and the blade like goes like out and like buzz sauce and like comes oh 100% yeah that's what i picture yeah basically that's what i picture but like in the air no no underhand like when you throw a hula hoop and it does the fucking well i think exactly with like how clumped we are i wouldn't throw it horizontally no right because not gonna like cut through everybody i yeah i throw it like vertically um so i slashed down at that one i stab out at the other and then as i twist around i vertically throw it at five and i'm assuming this is that is wonderful. They walked into the wrong neighborhood.

Okay, this is significantly better to hit. Hits a hit. Roll for damage. This is just five. Oh, however, I think I've bonus action. I spend an essence point, which means I'm going to add a swift cull. My harmonious control, when I spend an essence point, I can choose to use one of two harmonious controls. I'm choosing swift cull.

The next creature I hit with the attack before the end of my turn, turns takes an extra 1D8 necrotic damage. Jeez! So I've just dealt 10 forced damage. To number five. To number five and I'm adding a D8 necrotic damage. So I don't know if that is going to be said. It might be, but... That's

an extra six necrotic damage. Jesus. You're like a blender, bro. You just put them in a fucking blender. It is amazing. It is amazing. These things came out of the ground at my crud? How graceful these steps feel when danger presents itself. Your warrior spirit rises up within you.

and though you might not feel the harmony around you, you feel the harmony within. And that balance strikes true as you also slaughter number five. Good Lord. Bring it home, Delphina. Bring him home. I will pull out both of my disruptor pistols, and I will aim them at this thing,

and I will fire them both at it. As I look towards Tyshen, you alone were worth the seven million notes. And with an 18-19-19. and a 17 to hit. I will definitely do more than a level damage. This one for some reason won't get hit by 8. Yeah.

This is the super eel. Do you need me to roll the damage? If you do less than 13 hit points, then it can survive. Each one of them is plus five. Yeah. So that's 10 automatically plus at least two. So just don't roll two ones.

Well, even it's two ones, are they 12? It's 13. Oh, they have 13. Okay, okay. Yeah, yeah. Don't roll two ones. Okay, okay. I just want to see, I just want to see if you sneak.

I might get, this would be very, I hear what Delphina says to Tai Shen, I'm like, geez, what am I? I imagine Delphina does this. Reloaded! I don't know where my D-Fed. What do you need? D-8.

I just didn't have it in the... I rolled six and a five. Oh, okay. Paper. Misted. It turns into red mist, exactly right. Or a black mist. browns and reds in all directions

as it is disintegrated by your blasts. Tyshen, you catch your blade. And all of this material is either suspended in the air or gets pulled by the atmosphere. And there's almost a wave as some of these bodies continue to move. Some of the eels even are alive.

And yet they are no longer swimming able to frenzy towards you as they are lifted by this tremendous undertow. This is very clearly like the bottom of the ocean, like when you watch all of the seaweed move, like, with the ocean of the ocean. That's really cool. Yeah. The tremendous wave of this force is, it continues to shift in all directions, and you hear this skittering, this as more eggs being pulled out from beneath this blanket of detritus suddenly emerges. I need to put all six back on the battlefield. I was about to say this was too easy.

Oh, no. I'm just gonna kind of mix it up here. Oh, they get another round. Huh? Well, good thing, our bombardier still has to go. We are in the middle of all of them. They recognize that Tyshen is the threat. All right, I need to go around in the circle.

Number one can hit on, can hit on scrim. Yeah, you can get on, man. Oh. With advantage, with advantage. That's gonna be a 22. be a 22 to hit. A what? 22 to hit.

I guess, bro. The advantage does a lot of work. I don't know how to tell you this. That's going to be a twin. Wow, I almost said 22. That's going to be, is that a nine or six? That's nine. Eight points of necrotic damage.

I'll take the eight. And then the next one is going to do the same thing to Yornear. That's going to be, I don't think this is going to make it. 15 to hit. That misses. That misses. It bites into the glove of your... I'm sorry, it bites into your staff. And it seems to be wriggling terribly.

Another one is going to all by itself attack Delphina. That's going to be a... Wow, I cannot help Delphina to save my life. Number four is going to bite in towards Tyshen. I don't have to worry about it. Well, I'll fish for the crib. Nope. That's going to be 23 to hit. 23 to hit.

That's going to be five points of necrotic damage. to you, sir. And the next one is going to take a bite at Barnabose. Also at advantage. That's going to be a 21. That'll do it. And that's going to be eight points of necrotic damage to you. And then the final one, the loner here, is not going to attack an advantage, but is going to get a dirty 20 to hit and is going to deal. Back to you. Eight points of necrotic damage to you again, Barnabose.

As all of these frenzying, swarming eels continue to emerge from the patch below, biting and hissing and screaming with a terrible high-pitched wean. That's the monster's turn. Barnabos, you are online. I was going to say. Come on, Barnabos, blow them up. We've had a good run. It's too bad you won't live.

But then again, who does? What's that from? Blade Runner. That's right. Edward James Almost is lined at the very end, which is just one of the most bangor lines in films in my history. All right, lads.

We've been through far too much to be devoured and stopped by a bunch of stewdiels here. Time to cook them. As I will reach to my bandwinter at tons and tons of explosive still. And I will

pull off one and I'm going to throw it away where it will just hit these three. As they will need to make a dexterity saving throw all of them. As I will I'm going to do fire and I'm going to do acid.

The fire rises. Hell yeah. So the 30 savings go each of them, all three of them. Four, two, and three. Four fails, two fails, three succeeds. With a 21. Okay. Well, I'm going to rule

46. I'm sorry, a 19. Okay. which is I don't know if it'll matter but max so 11 points of acid damage and 8 points of fire damage to all of them

to those that fails 3 to and 4 half to the one that succeeded oh and I don't know if any of them survived I believe only 2 succeeded

but what was the half amount sorry so 11 plus 8. 19. Okay, so 2 does survive because it managed to pass the... But

you'll see this yellowish sickly acid a cling to it as it's burning it and as it's singeing it alive. I believe... Oh, no, if it succeeded.

I'm presuming I'm not sure if it's probably doesn't happen if it succeeds. It's still extremely wounded, and you can watch as the spine ribs and bone from inside of its fleshy exterior are exposed as the acid expands and sizzles this thing living. We have to move off these eggs! Actually, that was part of my attack action, which replaces one action.

So I pull up my shotgun or my blender bus. I got a shotgun. You have the other thing. You don't get too attacks. I thought I took arsenal. I swapped it out. Oh, if you swapped it out. Yeah, I swapped out hypertech. Then yes, you do.

Yes. If you have already... Because I haven't basically used any of my hypertech stuff. Got it. So I swapped it out for Arsenal. Just making sure. Yeah. I pull out my shotgun as I will go cabang.

Hell yeah. I'm just flavoring destruction because I don't feel like looking at my gun. That is 21 to hit. Oh, yeah. And this is the number two. the living one. Yeah. 14 force damage. Oh, yeah. It turns into the same spray as your shotgun. My Flint lock. That will be my flint lock. Love that. It disappears. You evaporate that thing.

That's my turn. And you're near. You are back up. Or you're on deck for the first time, I should say. For the first time. I will look around and seeing that there are these things, there are potentially more of them that you know, we need to survive to get through this. I will look around at my crewmates and I will say, shield your eyes if you must. Shield your will.

But at the end of all things, at the beginning, the void is inevitable. And I will raise my staff and you'll see my, strangely shaped pupils, if anyone's watching me, undulate as they have and grow and shift as my eyes turned pure black. And not through any kind of comms or in your ears, but in your mind, you will hear strange gibbering, a language you've never heard before,

as I cast, or I used my feature for the first time, abyssal halo as a bonus action. Excuse me? I will raise my staff, and right in the middle of all of us, but just a little bit above our heads, reality will tear open. And just like this sort of undersea, you know, that we're we've been seeing, you will see effectively a portal open above our heads. And this terror will

open and open and open. And inside, if you look, you will see almost pitch black with dots of white, gray light of unimaginable things. You can't really see much more than bits of coral. and then you see those dots of light get brighter and brighter and brighter as like this sickening radiance and bioluminescence emerges as swarms of creatures

emerge from this portal and spread out and start chomping and devouring everything around us. A 20-squit sphere from above our heads in a full radio. Good Lord! radius as 4-episal Halo.

I have two options I can choose seething deep or warped reality. In this case, I'm choosing seeding deep. The sphere is filled with shadowy manifestations of skittering, slithering, or flying void creatures. Each affected creature must succeed on a deck-saving throw or take 1D8 psychic or

necrotic damage. My choice. I'm going to choose psychic damage because I know that they do necrotic damage, so we'll see if that helps. What's the DC? The DC is, I believe, 16. All three fail. And they will each take 2D8 psychic damage.

They will take eight points of psychic damage as the... You might see something that looks kind of like an anglerfish, a floating horrific crab, an eel that might look pretty similar to them, as they are almost, you know, not truly physically there, but these manifestations of these void creatures

are rending their minds with maw and claw. It's clear to all of you that these manifestations are felt by these creatures as they stop biting at you as frequently and start wrestling with these, for lack of a better word, these illusions that are in their mind, but still causing them pain. You find that the psychic damage as aberrations

isn't as powerful as it might be on some other creatures, but they are certainly wounded from biting themselves and from contorting themselves in pain in strange angles, twisting, like knotted muscles. How much damage did you do? Hold on, it was only eight damage.

So it was probably rounded down. And then, that was my bonus action to open the portal. And so it will persist, I think, for a minute. Yes, for one minute or until I dismiss it early. Or become incapacitated. And then, who's next?

I see that they're like going ham. And just to show off this cool feature because it's neat and who knows if we'll have another chance to do it. But I am, you know, surrounded by eels, but I see that, I know that Scripps's psyche is relatively fragile.

And I see that there's this eel that I'm not close to. It's very funny. But it's barren down on screen. I'm going to, my eyes will turn still inky black as I'll lift my left hand up. And my, I sort of reach towards one of these horrific fish monsters and kind of wave my hand as it goes in and grows and grows and grows. and its mouth will get large and chopped down at number one. It needs to make a... Hold on, I'm sorry.

Oh, God, what happened? It needs to make a wisdom save. Oh. I'm sure that this creature is great at that. It's a crushing revelation. It gets a nine. It fails. The chomp doesn't consume its flesh physically.

but it consumes its essence, its being, its consciousness. Darno. As it gets, if this thing has had eyes, it might be glowing and just trying to comprehend the horror. It's incapacitated until the start of my next turn. Which number? Number one. It doesn't take any damage, though.

It takes no damage. It is basically stupefied by... Does it incapacitated? Give me any kind of advantage on it? No. No, it can't take action. It's being covered by these writhing aberration-like manifestations, and yet this particular one, as you dumbfound this eel-like creature, goes stiff and still, floating in the air in the thick atmosphere.

Scrim, you're up. That's my turn. Is it clear to me that this thing is incapacitated? Yes. I would say it would almost be like coming at you, and then all of a sudden you see this on with a creature, And then it's just sort of like, maybe like its mouth, it almost like flips up and it just sort of fluting with its mouth upward. Then with the Quickblade still drawn, I would turn to help you.

And attack number six. All right. You've returned the favor. I'm going to attack and see if an 11 plus 8, a 19 is good enough to hit. Oh, yes. I already told Delphina that 19s don't hit, so I'm sorry. No, you're good, you're good. And then I'm going to attack.

Everything hits except 19. Sneakish, my cheap shot damage. Yeah. That's gonna be 10, 19, 24 points of piercing damage as I basically try to like, sneak attack. Sorry, cheap shot.

Number six. Okay. It's 3D6 plus my 1 to 8. Basically trying to run the quick blade where I think it might have vitals, right? I'm just trying to basically stab this thing in the heart. Well, if there are two of them there,

then you kill both because you just absolutely sushi this thing and, and obliterate it. And, oh, it's incapacitated? It's incapacated. I run. I get the fuck at a dodge.

After I've just returned the favor to help your ears. As you run, you feel pops and explosions under your feet. You don't know if you're stepping on mud or if you're stepping on more eggs, but you stream and start to bowl. I don't actually scream. This version of Scrims a bit more mentally sound than regular. It's a battle cry.

It's a battle cry. It's more that Tyshen yelled about getting out of this field of eggs. We have to get off the eggs. So I'm trying to move. You start to move. Tyshen, you're up. I roll to attack.

Five. No. What did you get? A natural one. What did you need? Not a natural one. I can't even hit it. I think it auto.

There's no way to do it unless you can re-roll it. That's my warm-up. That's my warm-up. That's more warm-up. No, you didn't. No. No, you didn't. Wow.

A bonus action. No, sorry, brother. Oh, man, I thought I was a two for a second. I thought it was a two for a second. I was getting up at the window. This one, I believe, will hit. This is 17 to hit. I already told Delphina that that hits.

Yes. 10 points of bludgeoning damage. Oh, when I have bonus action this time, I'm gonna activate my other harmonious control. I'm going to use redirect harmony, and when I strike out, I'm going to, as I slice in, oh, sorry, my crystal blade turns to a light green

as I slice in and I invigorate the harmony within myself healing. I'll heal seven points, which means a nice, nice, nice, nice. Okay. And as I heal, I swap to the vital harmony. Oh. Still deal 10 points. But I guess I'll just hit a second time. Wait, which one did you hit with the 10?

Five. It's gone. Oh. Well then I'll run here and kill that motherfucker here and kill that. And kill that bad MFer. Well, maybe. I might roll another one. I mean, it's possible.

I mean, there's a one in four thousand chance. I'm sorry, 8,000. 18. You're fine. So 26. Yep. Oh, same thing. 10 points. Tishen delivers this finishing blow.

I would say how do you want to do this? Because the swarm, what eels are still coming up, they're certainly biting, but the initial explosion of life that, surrounded all of you. Many are still being carried away by the strange currents of this atmosphere, and the ones that are immediately in your vicinity seem to either be dead or underneath your feet as you all start to make your way and move away from this muddy patch. I would say that... If you want to do anything else, this is your opportunity. Absolutely. Actually, I would love for you to flavor it. I would say that it's evident where what you all experienced,

when Taishen was on the battlefield, comes back to him very naturally. He has felled many of these eel-like creatures, and with a very graceful hop and an athletic jump, he's able to put himself into exactly the position and sever the eel in

Twain, the two pieces falling down into the blanketed, muddy surface of the ground below you. I'm like Darth Maul in this bitch. Go on hand, bro. And you all look around, breathing heavy into your visors. It's sometimes, sometimes it's difficult to see, to hear each other over calms because the sound of your voice reverberates in your ears,

the sound of your breath echoes within your helmet, and the breath itself fogs the actual visor that you are trying to look through. But the immediate threat seems to be contained. There's still a horrific void portal open above our head. That's why I got the fuck out of there. And Mr. Yon-you-snap out of it. You hear this almost like chanting, almost like singing. You hear this horrific.

It'll be getting quieter and quieter as they reach up with my hand and these horrific creatures will start to swim back up towards it and I close my fist and this rift in reality swallows itself and blips out of. Damn. And my eyes will return to normal. I need everyone to make a perception check. Oh.

Don't like that. Finally, a roll above 10. 23. Yeah. You might wanna swap that guy. No, I mean, it's rolled really good. 21 other scenarios. This is three ones. Four.

Four. Got a four. Five. Got a four. Got a four. Twenty-four. Oh, baby. The three of us are very perceptive. The three of you start seeing the direction that you're heading in, Scrim. You were the one who sort of blazed this trail, so to speak. And it's as you're running that you realize that one of these shapes, even though it is very similar to an egg, is not an egg at all. And you recognize a helmet, just like the one.

that you're wearing right now. I like to think that I'm like hustling, but I'm kind of bounding, right? Because there's this weird, fluid nature to the whatever we're waiting through. And as I'm like midbound, I see this thing, and I'll land that comes sliding to a skidding stop. Oh, God.

No, no, no, no, no, no. What is it? What is it? Scrum. Look! And I'll point out this remnants of what appears to be a helmet. And Delphina, Yornear, you would have seen what he's pointing at before he pointed at it.

It was right in his face. path and right in Scrimm's path you see what is very clearly the top half of a helmet. It the actual visor itself, all of the features are underneath the strange silk-like clay-like material that seems to be covering this valley, but it's a helmet shape nonetheless and you all spy it as Scrim points this out. I'm gonna like lean in closer to see if I can like get a look at it. Watch out for Eels, Maude. Mr. Stabs, is there a name

anywhere on the uniform? I've got the quick blade in one hand and I will take my left hand and begin to move, touch a little bit. Your gloved hand extends out and you start to push away some of that silt-like material and you get to the visor and you push away

the material. There is a face inside, but it's hard to call it a face. It's bloated. Calcified. It seems to be made almost as though it has grown of rock and then

pushed against the visor. Fossilized. It's definitely a jaws jump scare. Yeah. But I'm still looking at name tag. And you You continue to move the material away, and on the side of the neck, you can see a name. It says D.Urbing. It says D. Irving. May they rest in peace.

Yeah. This has to be one of the crew members. What the hell happened to his head? Were they eating it or trying to incubate it? It looks like he's like, ah, turned to stone, petrified or something. Are there more crew members in there, or is it just the one? I look around to see if I see anything else. Anyone who's looking can make an investigation check as part of a group investigation check to see what else you might be able to find.

I'm not looking around. I can get another natural one. I will look. Oh, you. Oh, it was a seven, not a natural one. I thought I got one for you. 12 for me. 23.

Thank goodness. I would say that it takes less than a minute. What would have taken longer with a less investigatory check is a quick sweep of the area. You find no body, and you find no other suits or helmets. This appears to be the lone severed head. of some escapie. There's no body? There's no body? No, it's just

the helmet and the skull and the skull within. Jeez. Oh. Who knows for how long? I see no other body around here. No other dead. Poor bastard. But

Miss Vostas means we're on the right track. Yes. You're right. I hope your father has the answers. That we need to get us off this rock. If anyone does, it will be him. This also means that though they chose to stay here and not board the Asimandias, they did not all live.

No, we knew there would be dangers. Aye. T'was a doomed vessel. Mr. Jakeshaw. Mr. Yornear, pray to your God. if he can see us now. The dealer, not the dealer,

nor the navigator can see us now. Nor the harmony. Feeling that absence and knowing that you have a job to do, Delphina, you pull your scan around and the signal is a little bit stronger when you begin to make your way

back towards the lift into the mountain that rise. And it's here that I will ask you to play little Dungeons and Dragons. I'd like to hear how you will navigate this terrible space. This is the first world, the eldest world. And so ask yourself, look at what you're talented at, the resources at hand, the things you're good at, what are your superpowers? How will you help either the navigation or the survival of this group as you traverse this alien place? All set of DC in my mind, and depending on the offering, the quality of your choice,

that will help as you continue to get deeper and deeper into this escape. Can I go first? And you can go in any order you'd like. With, if you don't mind. I think I've only got one way that can really help you. Oh, okay. Delphina is pointing the way. She has the signature, correct?

So with her direction, Scrim is going to do what Scrim does best. And that is go forth first and risk his life. Like I have this whole adventure. Like I have done for Barnabot so many times. and basically what I want to do is be the first to go forward to avoid any more

threats, egg patches, because if I make a mistake, I might be able to rewind still here. I haven't tried it yet. I have been very intentionally not using my device because I'm worried about how it might react given that things are going cuckoo bananas. This is a little bit of a haywire play.

So I'm not going to use my rewind abilities if I get into trouble or step in the wrong spot. I'm going to use all of my lucky abilities. I see. And I'll use as many luck points and or dealer's favors as I need to to just get lucky because I hope that Tychris is still smiling upon me, even at the edges or the center of the galaxy. Go ahead and roll a,

You're pioneering this expedition. So I'm going to say a survival check as you start to push forward. I'll take it. And I have the DC in my mind and we'll see if you need to use any luck points. I got a 10. Okay. But if I need to, I'm happy to cash in on dealer's favors that I normally could, plus any additional that you'd take from me.

I had a number in my mind, but we can get it below, 10 if you spend one of your luck points. I will. I'll add a D6. Oh, one of my luck points or one of my dealer's favors? I'm happy to use a luck point. A luck point's better. It's like a re-roll. Gives me advantage, essentially.

The dealer's favor allows you to add to the- To the- Yeah, versus a advantage with a luck point. I'm either going to, I will guarantee that we get the DC down to 10 if you spend a luck point because I know that's more valuable. Done. Much better. I get a 19-11.

my second role with advantage, and I've only got one lock point left. The plateau ahead fractures into a canyon trench, and there's no sign of erosion or anything. It doesn't seem like a river carved this space, but it is simply this long absence in the geology of this strange world, running from one side of a mountain to another. and far below you spy in the trench movement. And you realize that it's not a river at all. This is no movement from natural weather or the elements. You realize that you're staring at thousands of those eel-like creatures.

And it's only by sheer luck that you didn't step off the cliff and make your way. You're able to guide the rest of the crew. this party away from this other current, this unfathomable amount of life that seems to be running through this particular area. And you're able to avoid what would have been perhaps a disastrous result. Seeing what we almost encountered, the most of my focus is on navigating and following my device, you would see me pull out a strange device. and throw it on the ground for a second and activate it is the shield

appears around us for a minute almost as if it's adapting to our life essence. Okay. And once it's completed, I will pick it back up and pocket it as I use a second level spell slot to cast pass without a trace. Nice. Bad.

Damn. You're so glad that you did. I'm going to ask you to roll a stealth check for me. It's like plus 10. Right, with pass? I think so. Yeah. It's been a long time since we use that spell.

28. It's laughable. Traversing this next space as the land opens up into a broad slope of black stone. The clouds above you are no longer flat like a blanket as they were above the plane, but instead almost like a bird's eye view of a restless ocean as they wave and curl above you.

And in those clouds you can see more. massive shapes. There are these strange eels that cling to the body shape of what looks almost like a manta or another perhaps with massive tentacle like arms. But all you can see are featureless silhouettes as the light shifts and undulates above you. And you know that if it weren't for this technology and the device and your guidance through this space, that you would almost certainly be perceived by these enormous aberrations. I'm ready to go. Please.

There are three things that I could be doing, which I'll be... You go last. You go last. I would be... I wouldn't tell anybody. I'm very going last. As a Jawsah, I have this species straight blood hunt. I have advantage on wisdom checks to detect

and track creatures missing any hit points. I've sniffed out to hunt down a lot of dead men in my time. And dying men. And so I'll be trying to sniff out just in case the people that are dying to do that. I also have five uses of manufacture every day as a machinist. So I can create the right tool for the job. A flashlight, a grapinal, a hauling pulley, a collapsible pole, sleeping bags, that sort of thing. Motion sensors.

And I would be able to basically whatever we need for, hopefully, five times a day, depending on how many days we're here, I would be able to basically create the right tool for the job. And then finally, every night I would expend a use of my spark of innovation to, I would basically have a whole collection

of proximity mines from GoldenEye on me at all times, which is how I'm flavoring. Firmity Mines only is really good, by the way. Everyone should enjoy that mode. Which I'm flavoring my glyph of warding for the explosive ruins. So every time we set camp, I'm just basically throwing these mines

down. I'm not having any kind of specified trigger. And I warn everybody, don't go fucking outside of the perimeter to take a leak. Or you're going to blow up. You're exactly correct on a number of things. I'm going to ask you to make a

perception check because you've started with the smelling feature. But you are contributing in all of these different ways. And I would ask you to spend those resources This is not a journey that takes a few minutes. Hours pass. This is a hike, a trek, through treacherous landscapes that have threats around every corner, as you just observed.

And only by merit of your skills are you able to avoid such tremendous dangers. Perceptions of 13. But you used a tremendous amount of resources, and I would say that you were able to... Or a technology check to use those things? I don't know. It's up to you. Or just perception. I'm going to start with the through line of perception, but I want you to make a technology check for me because you offered me two things,

and I want to use both of those things. The first thing that I would say is that your engineering prowess allows you to create a filter. You are wearing an envirass suit, so sniffing the air without knowing what this atmosphere is filled with might be very dangerous, and you do start to pick up on a very familiar scent, a scent that seems very oddly familiar to you. What is this?

And you continue to make your way through as you use your technology to guard whenever anyone needs to take a quick rest. 26. Oh, easy. So with a 26th, you make your technology check. And not only are you leaving breadcrumbs behind and using your tools to make sure that everyone is at their utmost protection,

but you find a recess, a shallow recess, in the shadows of these mountains, It's going deeper and deeper now as you pass these tremendous trenches, these canyons, these fissures in the land itself. And it is here that you see an overhang of bone-colored stone. At first, it looks natural to you, and then you recognize the smell. There are a few pods right next to it, opened eggs that you immediately realize you were recognizing the smell of vort. But there are no vort here. You are surprised, though, to see similar technology to what you would set up at a camp.

There's sealant foam on walls. There's tool marks on the ground. You find stacked rations and there's clearly two bodies, their chests exploded outward, of what must have been a few of the escapees, that small party, that small crew that perhaps was the only survivors of the Osamandias. And this looks like someone lived here for perhaps a long time. Weeks go by, and you can imagine that these people perhaps even had moments of boredom, even on this alien landscape. And that is what you discover as you continue to traverse and follow the signal of Delphina's device. Two more.

Best for stabs. Will you check the names? Yeah, yeah, of course, of course. I do so. You do. And you look for those same name tags. Stevenson, Finch. Nope, not our guys.

There's some good news here. It looks as though they were able to survive for some time. Do we know, I don't think we do, but do we know how many people were left here? No, you do not. But I had to do with that one. Did I mention in episode two? I feel like you may have, but I can't.

Well, you mentioned how many. I mentioned how many bodies there were. And with the manifest that Delphina would have had, you could, by merit of talking and walking through the problem, you would know that the full manifest of people that were there, that there were five people from the full number of crew or personnel on the Osamandias that were not among them, including Dr. Voss. Only five people?

Only five people. Only five people were not captured and managed to escape to the first world. The rest were all turned into the vort-infested bodies that you found on this ship. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. This is what you left. I think, you're going last coded. So I think that what I would be doing is,

uh, now, I mean, scrim's obviously going first. We're obviously moving very silent and Barnabos is setting up proximity mines all over the place. I think in the extremely crazy off chance that something gets through all this other stuff that everybody's doing this really great. I would move extremely deftly that if any threat gets within a range of the party, I would try and dispatch it as quickly and ferociously as I could. And in the event that nothing gets through, then I think what I'd also be trying to do is just as we travel, I'm no healer.

But I think any soldier on the battlefield, we would have learned a form of battlefield medicine to a degree, tending wounds, wrapping bandages, anything that could help there. and if my level of expertise, rudimentary as it is in those methods as we're moving, if we cut ourselves on any strange, frigging rock outcroppings, you know, if we're taking like damage as this is going, I'd be doing anything I can to try and like help stabilize, help heal. And I'm happy to also use. You're using your battle taxis. Yes, when you pause at a camp.

site like what you've just discovered, there's moments of respite and you are making sure that everyone's okay as a in a pinch healer. That medic is still inside you. But I think it's your abilities as a warrior that matters most in this dangerous setting. So I'm going to ask you to make a acrobatics or a stealth check because similar to what was happening, you I think that you're trying to get the jump on anything that might be a perceived threat. 25. You succeed. I would say that there's a moment when you don't know where Tichan is, the rest of you, the crew, you're all looking around,

and suddenly there's a bright flare of green and purple light as you hear... Tichan doesn't mention what he killed. He simply walks back to the crew and lets everyone know that it's safe to bring. proceed. Damn. Hell yeah. You can do that more often. Oh, yeah, geez. You're near. Yeah, Ketash, I get a little motion, please. How do you contribute to this long journey? Algris is a ritual style. And so if this is a long journey over this horrific landscape, whenever we might have a question or whenever we might be unsure of where to go next,

I would stop and turn my head back and my eyes would go black. And you would hear in your minds that same gibbering. And the further and further we get, if we feel like we're making progress, the closer and closer we get, you might hear like multiple voices in your head. And the closer we get, the more voices there would be. and the closer we get, the more kind of harmonious it might be in a literal musical sense,

almost like a song is being sung. And there are these... Not harmonionic, but literally... But literally a choir, almost. The opposite of dissonant. Exactly right. And I would like to, you know, be casting augury and trying to commune with my God.

Not literally looking for wheel or woe in this moment, or wheel and woe, or neither, but at those moments like Gandalf and Moria where he looks and he thinks for a second. And then he turns down this whole, right? And he'll stop. He turns back, right? And so I think that's how I want to guide people is just in this place that is so horrific, but at the same time, the furthest I can be from my God, but strangely the closest. This is a, I want to commute.

This is a strange thing that you do. I know that sounds weird, but the reason why it's important, the reason why it's important is because for you, all, the experience of being with Yornear is a guide, a prophet, a spiritual teacher, is cryptic as many things that he's said since you've been on this voyage. And even before the voyage, when he was part of the crew, and seemingly attached to you all by his perceptions of fate.

As a strange as all that is for you, it is even stranger and experience for you, Yornear, as you approach a long, gravelly cliff. It is at a steep angle and goes deeper and deeper and deeper. And, Zelfina, you have no other indication except this is the direction to follow. There's this void-like energy, this unbelievable fuel, something that you may be able to capture or contain or harvest and then return to the Azamandias,

looking again still for clues for your father. And as you start to make your way down, Yornear, I need you to make a religion check for me. That's pretty good. 23. Easy. You watch as... This is such a steep and rink.

rocky hill that you should slip and all of you cascade down. But when Yornear puts his staff down into the rocks and starts to shuffle from one boot to the other, the pattern those rocks make down the cliff face are exactly like the thing that you've been carrying with you. You look at them and you realize that every step that you are taking is you make your way down has been shown to you already by that thing. You realize that the many hours you've spent meditating and watching its undulations have been training you almost for this exact moment.

At least a hint of left, right, and at no point is there an avalanche or a rock fall or a slide that you do not expect, anticipate, and guide your friends down. What should be an easy disaster turns into an easy victory. in the hands of Yorneur. Sweet. At the base of that terrible hill, you stare forward and you realize that

as dark as it is down here, where the sky can almost not be seen, that there are structures in the distance. Light barely penetrates the thick atmosphere at this level, but you can see these massive, round shapes, these tall pillars of what cannot be natural, what must be constructed forms. And between where you are now and those huge buildings, for lack of a better word, is a field covered in eggs.

Not a dozen eggs or hundreds of them, but unmatured vort eggs. sacks covered in mucus. And to follow that signal, you must carefully tread through that terrible space. I need everyone to make a group stealth check as you

steadily make your way following Delphina's. Undisadvaged. Has it been more than that? What? Yeah, what's this travel? Like, I mean, is this days? No, this is not days. This is still less than a day.

I would say that it has been... The miles... The actual distance to the edge of the mountains would have been perhaps four miles. So that would have been an hour or two hours, right? I only have a two second level of spell slots. Every little decision, all these little discoveries, finding bodies and talking through things,

taking a moment of rest, walking around corners, seeing the terrifying sights that you are taking, 15 minutes is incredibly taxing, as taxing as eight hours here. And so it feels like it's a tremendously long time. But you're not doing more than just trying to trudge forward and reach this destination. Seeing this bed of eggs in front of us, would it be realistic for me to have a moment to cast, pass without a trace another time? How long does pass without a trace place? Only an hour.

Then yes. Okay, then I'm gonna roll now that we know the answer. 22. 20. 33. 33. Does this pass adds already? Yeah.

Modifier. So it's your modifier plus 10. 23? Nice. Nice. 34. The technology provided by the Polaris Society provides as you continue to make your way. And this small orb hovers around you as twin lasers.

scan out. You can see the mists undulate and fractals as it shields you from sound that mutes every step and shields the light that would normally hit you.

And you pass hundreds of feet until you stand before a great edifice, a massive building, and two huge gates closed. You walked up of just a handful of steps, stone steps made by unknowable hands.

And the five of you have presented with this vision. Delphina, you are convinced the strength of the signal and your device has never been stronger. On the other side of these doors must lie, this power source that Vonnegut mentioned. It's just beyond these doors. I can feel it. I think, I believe he's in there. He made it past all of these beasties. You think your father's in there? Where else could he be?

Him and whoever else survived must be in there. Are these elders what made these structures? You... I will say that I neglected to mention. Sometimes Jims forget. That on either side of these massive gates, there are statues. Two huge statues. And they are humanoid in shape, but they're long extended arms, their long extended limbs.

There's almost like a fish-like carapace that surrounds the body, the torso, the limbs of this creature. and then what can only be described as a fish-like face or head with a massive opening like this. These eyes are hollowed out and its hands are outstretched, looking out across the field. And so when you say eldest, you look at both of these creatures, could this be a statue of them or what they perhaps worshipped? There's no way to know. Oh, geez. and the hands are stretching out like... Like this.

Oh, like this. Yes. Oh. Almost either in a pleading, a prayer-like position or in an offering position. Their hands are open, facing up, palm up. Oh, my gosh.

And Carabas, there was a cluster of islands and the people on it worshipped. Great fish-headed gods. Oh, you saw it, that was Nonsense. Not beautiful like the gods of Agathos. I wonder if they were on to something. Do you think... do you think these are... the eldest? The people of the first world? Mr. Yornear, be this year, Carcosa. These... the choir... the first. But no.

He was before. He was the first. All right. You must know something about all this then. The songbird in the cage. A desperate song. A prayer sung in fear. This is our faith.

Here and now. Always. I think. You're right, Mr. Yorineer. and I stood aboard the deck of the Black Alley. We were chasing down, fleeing Cavalonian Nights. Their leader tried to face our captain in single combat to save the lives of his men.

We turned around and gave him a full broad side. It was then I heard the song too. amidst the screams of dying men. I thought it were the song of the Azure Maiden. Sirens. Perhaps it be this choir, Mr. Yarnier. This was always your destiny. Your faith.

You knew them as you do now. Do not? Not cabin boy aboard the Rum Runner, perhaps. run runner, perhaps, but in love, wealth, and good drink, and the blood of a good fight. Drowned it out. Miss Voss, do you think your father heard such a song? Do you think it calls him here? Do you think he waits in that dark place, singing in the choir as well?

No, I think my father is a calculating man, one of science. I think something else called him here. All right. Well, whatever called whoever here. The only way we're leaving is with whatever's behind these doors. If we think the power source is in here, we gotta go in. I'm gonna look to see if there's a way to open this thing. It's clearly a gate that can be push or pulled open, but the handles are like a just a thin recess right at the moment where they come together and you put your hands against them and you attempt to pull with your great strength.

They don't budge. If this door can be opened, it requires either more force than you can provide or some kind of a key to unlock. What's it matter? Is it stuck? I don't know. It requires something more to open. I could try to blow this fucking door to smithereens, but I have a feeling. I'll look around to all of the feet. of vort pods. Hundreds of feet. Might be a bad idea. Well, Ms. Voss thinks that the father got in somehow, right?

Yes, though his mental capacity makes it so he is unlikely to fall prey to a siren song. His physical strength is where he is lacking. There must be some other way to open these doors. Maybe it's in the coordinates here on my device, and I'll hold up my device to see if I get any read on this door at all. I would say you make a general scan, and I'm not going to make you roll for it. These doors are very thick. They're made out of some kind of hybrid metal endstone. These are...

They don't even appear to be constructed by any... means of technology that you understand or know, there's a signal coming through these doors that tells you that on the other side, whatever Vonnegut pointed you towards, whatever he claimed this fuel that could return the Osamandias back to the outer rim of space of the galaxy, is on that other side. And for the first time since arriving here, one other piece of information on that data display jumps out at you. The compass has always been going haywire. The other meters are flat or moving in chaotic angles that make no sense.

But there's a thin readout on your microphone. There's almost like an audio coming from the other side of this. What? Can I hear it? You try to increase the signal to the best of your ability, and you can't quite make it out. It's being muted, locked by the doors themselves. There is some sort of noise on the other side.

My device is picking it up, but the door, I believe, is blocking the signal. See no other way to open. Someone or something is in there. Yes. I'm getting nervous, and I have my back to the door, and I've got the quick blade with two hands, and I'm watching this absolute field of Nightmare X. If any of you are, and I think that it would be necessary, given how low the light is here, using a torch, a flashlight, some sort of a projection of light, you can imagine how little

that helps because of how fast this. field is. For hundreds of feet in all direction, every six to ten feet there appears to be an upright protrusion of an egg. Here, here, here, here, hundreds of them. It's dizzying to think of the scale of this army. And so far, they've all remained dormant. Somebody, please do something. We cannot stand here forever or until these eggs start to move. You hear the choir? I don't hear anything, but there is definitely, looking at this, does it seem musical in nature?

Like, I assume that being a rich kid, I probably had music lessons. So would this look similar to music of some kind, or does it look more like the audio of like spoken word or screams or, you know? I think actually, actually, I will say, make a computers or technology check. Right? No. She's an ex-agent. And technology is fine, but not good enough to deal with a two.

A seven. A nine. Choosing the nine's really getting, man. You are doing everything that you can to amplify this signal. And eventually, it takes me. much longer than any of you are comfortable with, but you are able to make it out ever, ever so slightly as you listen deep. It's hard to make out at first, but as it echoes, as it warps, it's like... It's music.

It's... Listening to a dream. Wait. Is that what I think it is? He's behind these doors. I can hear it. It's the lullabular. I can hear it. My father's behind those doors. Somebody open them, please. Yorneur, you're familiar with this, right?

Open these two, do you know, away? Any of you? If this is the chorus, it called the Barnabos, it called to you, Yorna, maybe just try the doors. At the beginning of time, the song of creation, cancer that hungers, bring the end of it. A world with no sun nor moon yet, the time must rise. I will reach into my cloak, and I will pull out the artifact. Again, it has that horrific non-Euclidean shape, these sharp points of coral emerging from it as it rotates. It is almost simultaneously pitch black, yet prolescent and sickeningly bright.

As it floats in my hands, I presented in the same way that the eldest are kneeling in the statue. You're kneeling? And I kneel. Oh, my God. My legs under me. The hollow eyes of the statues are full. filled with the impossible light of this object of paradox. And you hear the movement of the doors as they push forward,

and you see what lies within. That's where we'll take a quick break. Damn! My! The doors swing open, and they stay open. You arrive at an amphitheophthy. of slimy black stone, huge metal cables and bleached calcified coral flooded with the light of the cosmos. As you step deeper, you see its source and the source of the power that you have been seeking.

A large sphere embedded in the neck of what looks like a metal suit of a fish-like humanoid pulses with a swirling galaxy image inside. Six pools of black liquids sit at various corners throughout the chamber. What happens next is up to you. I think the moment that I hear this door open, at first I think I'm stunned at what I saw, what I see you're on your dupe to make this door open. But if no one stops me, I would inch in towards the amphitheater to get away from these eggs

as quickly and quietly as I can. Unless you're in your work, you try to stop me for something. Oh, yeah, I would rush in immediately because I'm heading towards the lullaby. You're totally faster than me, but I'm like just trying to get away from these fucking eggs. Wait, Ms. Mosewold, wait. Let Mr. Stabs go ahead. It is his job. I will stop.

Like midway through the door. Three, four steps you stride forward, but as soon as you hear Barnabose's warning, you watch as scrim steps forward. Yorneyer extends to his feet, and the five of you follow Skrim's lead as you begin to make your way into this massive amphitheater space.

I'll rise off my knees, and I will put the artifact back into my robes. And I'll enter last. Scrimm, it's just as I described. Pools of black liquid, unknowingly deep. There's, for those of you who don't have an amphitheater picture in your head, there's almost, a low flat stadium seating that surrounds a circular platform in the center.

There's clearly some form of light emitting energy pulsing at the center of this space. All right, and I'll just give Delphina a nod once Scrim is in enough. To where the point where we've done this so many times, and she can follow back at whatever kind of distance we've normally done in jobs like this. All right. Has it killed us yet? It hasn't. It welcomed Yonair.

It opened for him. Now here we are. All right. I look to make sure Yorne is coming with us. I am moving slowly. And I'm almost leaning heavily on my staff more than I normally do, as I follow behind. Would you look pained?

Or just, would we even, notice that? No, not pained, but almost as if that bit of a hunch that I feel, almost if it was a weight, that the weight would be heavier. And like my steps are heavier, almost like the crushing weight of the depths is pushing down on me. I need you all to make a perception check. What the hell? As you start to explore this space. The sound of that lullaby, that shared song from your youth, Delphina, still echoes and reverberates and permeates from the space,

but it's getting more and more noisy as you walk in and less and less familiar. That initial pull, when you were in amplifying it with your device, was it because your device, was able to pull that signal out from the noise or was it purely your own perceptions? You're not sure, but turning it down and just listening in this space, it just feels like it's filled with a harmonious chorus of source. It quickly becomes unclear to you if that was a trick of your mind or if you are hearing a pattern within.

What was everyone's perception? 19. 19? 11. 11? 12. 12? 19. 25. 25. Delphine, I think that you're the one who's most actively searching, looking for another suit, perhaps,

looking around, seeing if perhaps your father is around some corner. And you realize that not every shape in this space is the shape of a column or architectural feature, there are bodies, not human bodies, not humanoid bodies. Well, perhaps large fish-like creatures, like the statues that you saw, but much, much, much smaller, are scattered about. And from your vantage point, you can see that like the two that you've found at the campsite, their chests have also been burst open. The cancer, the polyp, they consume all. Can I tell how long they've been?

I mean, it doesn't even matter where we are. Right, like, um, the quiet, songbird. I'm just gonna kind of look around and, uh, do I feel that there are are, are there, I know in the last room there were a bunch of horrible eggs and stuff. In this room, are there any? You do not spy any eggs in this room. Only the bodies of these alien creatures, for lack of a better word. And you might have to spend, who knows how long, examining a body so strange to you.

before you'd have any sense of whether they are decomposing from freshly burst chests. They look wet and dry at the same time. They look like they could have been lying here for a century or perhaps a day. It would take a good amount of investigatory discovery before you'd be able to come to any kind of evidential conclusion that way. Can I still hear the lullaby?

Is it louder? Is there a direction it's coming from? You are looking at your device. I see this, but I don't give a shit. As I said, you were looking for your father and then looking back down to your device. It's very evident that at the center of this room, the signal is strongest. This thing that emits light must be the power source that Vonnegut mentioned. But the sound of what you thought you perceived through the doors seems to have reverberated into,

all only just choir-like sound. It no longer reminds you of that same song that you and your father shared when you were so young. I cannot hear the lullaby anymore. The center, that's where the power source is. We at least need to collect that and then continue on. That thing?

That thing there. In the very center. Okay. I look up at it. Do I, based on my god, if, I'm trying to kind of get a sense of what I think this might be.

Does it feel familiar at all? It probably is of the void. If I can kind of sense anything from it and from the way that Yorne perceives things. Make another religion check for me. That is 23. Again. A 23.

This massive statue sits in the center of the room and holds up this huge sphere-like orb and you can see a facsimile or a mirage or perhaps the galaxy itself suspended within its depths. It produces a tremendous bright. You can look and you can see you think you can point out every single star within it and you make a connection. There's a rhyme or a harmonious chord in this object, it feels, it brings you the same piece when you look at it as when you stare into your object. There's a something calling to you about this object.

This is obviously an extraordinary power source. Yes, it could be used for what Vonnegut described. He was telling the truth you realize. But more than that, this is a very rare object, perhaps one of its last of its kind, just like the thing that you've carried on your own pilgrimage through the stars. This spiral. The end of beginning. I will start to approach it. Be closer. And the closer I get, I'll sort of, it'll almost be...

The weight that I feel. And you might, for the first time ever, to see a hint of fear on your nearest face. As I approach and move slower and slower, and my footfalls come down heavier and heavier. You are making your way down these long, flat steps down through the amphitheater. And the four of you, what are you doing as he approaches?

Do you hold back and watch him approach? you getting closer and falling right behind. I'm definitely not taking a step, but I would be like, you know, Mr. Stabs. But it's just my job, I... I know it's your job. But this is his vocation. He was called here.

The doors, it all responds to him. On the deck of the Merlin King, he saw great Leviathan. slew it before our ship was ripped apart. One single harpoon, but to the heart, that's what saved us. And as it sunk below the depths, I heard, thought it was a tale of the azure maiden.

I did. Was it this song, Mr. Yorner? I heard then when I was a younger man. How far are you from me? I think we're probably, you know, We're behind you. I don't know if I'm like right up in your biz. I'd say 15, 20 feet. Yeah.

I'll stop for a second. You have all heard the song as I have. How it manifests does not matter. The song of creation is in you. It called from the beginning. There's time passed and past. and past as black water

in a world pool let us hear at the center at the beginning at the end and I will continue to approach as soon as you approach

you see movement from behind a pillar a huge shape appears a nine foot tall creature with long humanoid limbs and a fish-like head with huge, deep-set eyes, wringling tendrils

on its chin that hang over a bulbous sack in its throat that glows with dim light. It moves with oddly fluid and measured motions. A guttural noise barely resembling speech emerges from its mouth. You've heard this voice once before. When

Vonnegut was erased, it is mind-breaking this telepathy reverberates inside of your mind this scream emanates and you hear m'elp I need everyone to make a Constitution saving throw con you say that's not where I'm a Viking-i-a-o-k-k-a-k-k-k no I'm okay not me either no I mean I'm actually pretty good at con but just not with this stock 13 oh I'll also roll of 13 um I was I would levy, when I see a nine-foot-tall fishman for driving the pillar, I would whip out my gun and aim it at it, probably unwise.

Your mind is, it almost is impossible to lift. Suddenly your gun feels heavy in your arms. I need everyone's saving for them. I got a nine. Nine. 22. Oh, oh, God. 10. 13. 13. 13.

13. 13, 13, bro. 13's probably the DC. 13 is probably the DC. Yeah, my guess. Your Honor, you're deafened as the sound makes a pop in your ears, almost like traveling down atmosphere as a tremendous pressure. pops for a moment you are the sound of the choir all around you is shattered by this expression of grief

the rest of you take 42 force damage as this scream splinters your your through through you chilling you down to the your very harmonic sparkful soul oh my god Jesus 42? How's everyone look at? Not great. I'm down. Mentally. This is happening as it's like walking into the... Its sack grows larger and then shrinks again in his throat as it releases this scream, but it's more than just sound.

It is a song of unmistakable fear, unmistakable shame, unmistakable guilt, unmistakable unknowingness. There's a sadness to what is being presented before you. And as painful as what you've just experienced is, this song is not one that feels like a terrible attack on purpose. It is purely by its very nature, its existence. and it's continuing to walk towards you, its eyes looking out blandly

as you continue to approach your near. Sorry. No, I just want to know if there were any physical effects to this. Oh, beyond the damage. Or if it's just, like, are we, like, suddenly bleeding from the nose, from the eyes, from the ear? Or is it, is there no outward physical

other than we're wracked with pain? Your color leaves you. and you feel in your suit a physical deterioration. There is an effect. And you know that if you could look through your suit and perhaps touch your arm or something like this, you imagine that your very skin may have parts in patches and in streaks and wounds turned to gray dust.

I think that makes sense based on that amount of hip points I had one. I would have raised my gun at this and reached for a compound in order to use my raygun feature. But as soon as this thing, fixing the fight, and as soon as this thing hits me, I almost dropped my blunderbuss on the ground. Yeah, I dropped my knees. I'm on my knees. Oh, yeah. I'm on my knees. You all fall to your knees in pain, but you're near.

that deafness is a blessing and you are able to continue to oh I'll also add that all of you are mechanically frightened except for your hair you are able to approach and continue to stand tall as you all of you are racked by the pain of encountering what may be an eldest

I will approach and I'm not going to stop I'm trying to keep walking And to ERA, I will say, fire, consume, metastasis, cut down all but one. A singer, trapped. You are the songbird, the cage. But my mouth doesn't move.

I'm saying all of this in its mind, as I will use my telepathic utterance feat, to speak any creature that knows a language, or a language that it knows, I will use a language that we might share, Adolic, the language of the deep, of the void, as I speak that in its mind. And as I do that, I,

My staff, this sort of, you know, shell-like prolescence, I will just let it drop as I fall to my knees in front of this creature. And I would like to cast, as part of this communication, also cast detect thoughts on it. If it can, just to try to understand this unknowable thing as much as I can, maybe it'll explode my brain. but because it's also part of my telepathic feet. And I haven't used it yet. I'm going to use it. And so what that does is I activate one of the effects below until the spell ends. I can activate as a magic action or later turns.

I can sense the presence of thoughts within 30 feet. I mean that belong to a creature that no languages or are telepathic. Yes. I don't read the thoughts, but I know that a thinking creature is present. But then I can dive deeper, I believe. Just to learn what's, what, I want to use read thoughts and try to learn what's on its mind right now. If the target doesn't know any language or isn't telepathic, I learn nothing. And I can probe deeper. It has to make a wisdom save. I don't think I'm going to do any of that. I just want to get a sense of trying to, this is, you're near his whole life, whatever his fate has been, has led to this moment.

And he's trying to do whatever he can to comprehend what he's looking at. Your staff clatters to the stone floor of this amphitheater, and you drop to your knees. You reach out with the magic within you, and you attempt to understand not its wailing, but the intent behind that sound. I need to make a wisdom saving throw. 24. Your lucky man. What would have been what would have been

23 points of psychic damage instead is immunity to the detrimental effects of the cosmic telepathy within this creature. You listen and it doesn't form

sentences or thought like that instead you feel emotion and the scream the wailing experience is can only be described as well like chords in a song and you can feel the fear within this creature you can feel it's seeking help you can feel the the lonely and the sadness they're in. All of this reads to you as clear as a few notes might make you feel, were you listening to a minor chord

or a sad tune? And those thoughts shivered down in the back of your mind and into your whole essence as it reaches out, almost understanding that you are trying to make contact. unique contact. In its mind, I will say, wish to escape now from this world. You long for those that came before you to reunite with the choir, to return to the symphony.

Those that left. Is it trying to communicate with me at all, or is it just sort of like perceiving me? I would say that you feel a, that it's been trying to communicate with all of you. That it's brothers or sisters or whatever feeling of connection it might have with its like kind has been destroyed. And that it's been surrounded by a minefield. of what you call the cancer, stuck here in perpetuity. I have come. We have come here.

At the end of our journey, we are deliverance. Do you accept this deliverance? With your detects thought still active, you don't get the word yes, but you have a tremendous feeling of acceptance and hope blossom within the throat and the mind of this creature. I feel like even doing its thing is like gonna kill my friends.

Like in any second. You recognize the tremendous stress of communicating telepathically with this creature, and you imagine that by merely contact with this, that your allies would experience a sense, amount of stress, that it would be very dangerous. If it were to go into a rage, you imagine that combat would be very quick. Pudal Jaws.

I'm almost being rushed by the weight of everything, the weight of my whole journey, the past, the present, the future, and the fate of my companions, and I sort of almost fall to the ground. as I pulled the artifact out and kind of just hold it low. And you will return. We will see. His sleeping city awaits you. You must let him live. You hear this strange guttural sound come from its throat.

The feeling is that it has limited power to share. but that your terms are acceptable. I will look up and I will say, the cancer is right. I have seen. I have heard it. But if you sing, use your song,

and I'll turn back, and I'll look at my companion. Sing to them, give them the strength, the peace, change them, show them, show them his grace, and in his peace, they can bring fury. They can burn the cancer away and end the metastasis, ended here, and that now, end. that they spread. And as I say that, I have this artifact. I'm crumpled on the ground. I'm trying to comprehend this thing.

I'm trying to comprehend where I'm at, the giant orb behind him. And I will take my other hand. I will place it next to my right hand. take all the strength that I have to kneel upright, almost mimicking the other statues. And I will raise the dark star prism upward. Towards this being, towards the eldest, towards the warm, towards all of this. The creature before you looks out.

and for a moment blessedly, silence. It reaches its hands up not towards your artifact, you're near, but to the massive orb held aloft by this statue, and within the galaxy turns a little faster and a little faster like a record. As you raise this dark, star prism, it begins to sing.

The guttural song that echoes through the room is horrid and beautiful. The non-Euclidean prism rises into the air and tethers of energy connect it to the vibrating spherical power source. It glows with garish hues of gray scale and deep shades of violet, aqua, and ultramarine. It casts its lights upon you, Yornear. And you stare into it, knowing your purpose, knowing its purpose, knowing the purpose you both share. Without my staff, I'm just going to leave it there. I will lift one foot up, and I'll lift another up, and I'll stand, and I'll turn.

And I'll look at each of you. How are they looking? How are they? Oh, I was desperate. No, I am. If I'm not bleeding out of my ears and eyes. You would see that I'm conscious. but I am crumpled on a heap on the ground, like breathing heavily.

They're shaking. Their faces are pale. I can't move. There's almost even like an age to their faces that's unknowable and impossible. They appear to be on the edge of death. Um, rise. Rise to your fate. Is this thing going to kill us, Mr. Yoranir?

No. You stayed its hand! It is sad. It is hurt. It is lost. It is trapped. I will send it away from here. Its purpose.

Its journey is far grander than mine. He wishes to welcome it home in his sleeping city. beyond the stars. You may not follow, I may not follow, for it is unknowable without his grace. If I feel like I can stand. Yeah, I would stand. I will try. You are able to, with what strength is left in you, stand. There's still a fire there, and your ears words aren't just a command or a request, but they Give you a second wind, and you're able to pull yourself up to your feet, knowing that perhaps some good may come of this yet.

I will sort of kind of rise up a little bit stronger. At the end, at the beginning, are you ready to change? Each of you, will you accept his gift if it means burning away the cancer? Finding your true purpose in the grand spiral, joining the chorus, will you change? To burn out the cancer, you mean to destroy these creatures, the ones that did that? Yes. It is not my purpose or journey to put an end to them. I must leave it to the rest of you.

Sending aboard the Ruby's claw, sailed past the hand of Franklin. Into the worst plasma storm recorded this millennia. We survived, but as a storm raged, and good sailors prayed for their mum, I heard this song. Mr. Yornear, the Osamandius is not returning from Polaris, is it? This is not for me to know.

But, no matter the fate of the feeble emperor, he will begin again. I don't understand. I don't know what you want from, Mr. Yonir. I don't know. I don't think I can accept. I don't know. I don't know what you're asking of us. Then I, may, the Navigator, Pelagos, if you may ever see me again, bless or forgive me. But I, aye, aye, I, Mr. Yornear, I will change.

Twart the Azure maiden what called me here. But I heard it my whole life, since I was a boy. I will look at the rest. I cannot make this choice for you. But if you wish to find what you are looking for, you must change. A song called me here all my life, which I believe to be the harmony.

Now, I'm not sure it matters. I've fought for peace, as I believe you have always. work towards your name and as you said the void is inevitable I will change oh god yeah yeah you you making it sound like there's no other way I don't know if this is really the only way to stop everything to fix it all How can I say no? I'm scared, Yorny. I'm scared.

I'm so scared. And change, and he will bring you peace. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'll change. My dear darling cryptic soothea, if I do this thing, it will lead me toward my goal.

I will sort of look around at the horrible place where... Without change, how else do you hope to survive? I would do anything to retrieve that which I have lost. I will change. For you, Daddy, I will change. Very well. I will approach you all closer. And I'll walk up to Barnabos.

And mechanically, I'm blessing them. Okay. If it matters. You know, it might. It just might. And that's a D4. It's a D4 on whatever it does.

Sick. Okay. Cool. Look at this powerful dye. Look at this. I'm going to use this one that looks like tears. You are the captain. Mr. Yorne,

with leadership, comes to do you know this. I. I do. And with this duty, in your life you've known what the captain must do when the black waters rush in. I've been ready since I first heard the song, Mr. Yornear.

You will feel the cold, the deaths, and a bit of peace come over you. I'll turn to Taishan. You are the warrior. Yes. There is no strife. There is peace. There is peace. There is no stagnation.

There is change. There is no fear. There is will. There is no death. There is harmony. You'll feel the blessing come over you. I'll turn the scrim. You are the gambler.

You wish to change your fate. Yet, you are where you are meant to be. the dial of time and I'll look at the machine in your chest is a spiral the die is cast and you'll feel the blessing coming over again

I'll turn a delphina you are the pilgrim step by step your life has led you here yet you know your pilgrimage is not at an end You may come

to this journey's end. You may pay the price, but will you count the cost? You will feel the blessing. Come over you. I will turn back towards the Dark Star PRISM.

I will approach it and stand next to this horrific nine-foot-tall fish eldest monster. Uh-huh? I will look up at it. I will look up at the orb.

I will look at the artifact itself. I am the martyr. And I will crush my hands on it. It's sharp spikes. It'll pierce through my webbed fingers. You'll hear bones crunching and cracking. And it expands. Like an urchin.

Spiking out in all directions. as you crush it. And black blood will ooze and seep down my hands, staining my robes, and pouring over the artifact itself. And I'll look up at it. You who drowns beyond the stars in the deepest sea, beyond the last star. You slumber.

You dream. Through the sacrifice, may the 13th Black Tide rise. May the 13th star drown. I must change. I must begin. I must end. You must feast. The void is here.

With the refracting power, the cosmos, and the song of creation refracted by the dark star prism, your flesh makes contact with the undulating relic of Carcosa. And then you change. You give yourself, all of yourself, to Carcosa. Your body, your mind, your soul. The prism takes a fluid form and fuses with your own flesh, and your life is used to open a pulsing portal. Your near is gone, and what remains is the gateway to Carcosa's sleeping city beneath the blackened stars in the darkest reaches of Agathos.

All of you see briefly a horrifying and utterly strange city that evokes the ruins you've walked through, but at a scale of an order of magnitude, Black stars hang overhead and bizarre constellations that defy reason. The song that fills the room then changes all of you as the eldest being steps into the rift. Each of you and your gear has been touched by and enhanced by this entity descended from the creation of the cosmos. And then the rift closes and the eldest is gone. That is why you is here.

That is why we are. And so the final leaf falls. And the cancer shall be burned out. As I heard, as I saw on that horizon, that infinite horizon. How do we feel like we've changed?

Yeah. That's a great fucking question, Mike. What is the, what is the final song of Greece? under us. I would tell you, but you all hear distant sounds that fill you with dread.

There are slopping pops of fleshy ponds and cocoons followed by the guttural shittering of an abominable vort. And they are hungry.

You hear this sound begin to emerge as a veritable army of these creatures begin to emerge from their forever sleep and crawling the sound is getting louder and louder and louder and louder. And I can tell you, you feel empowered. whatever it is your superpower is, how much boom you have, how much sword you have, how much X factor you might have,

or your ability to rewind feels capital I immense, beyond the beyond, gifted by your near sacrifice, and by the strange manipulation of this eldest creature. You hear the sound of this swarm begin to get louder and louder and louder.

They haven't found you yet. They haven't discovered you yet. But with every pop, you know that there's yet another life that hungers for yours. Pop. And you find yourself staring at each other, I'm feeling this tremendous will and ability. You may be hurting from your encounter with that alien thing,

but you have a chance. I'll be it, a slim one. What happens next is up to you. Okay. All right, I need a second here. I have several questions. The first one is what the fuck. The second question, is, you mentioned Capital High Amense, specifically what ability I might have to rewind.

I feel like I need to get to the device, but I'm in this suit. Do I feel like if I were to open the suit to get a better view of what's going on and check my devices, my monitoring system, that I would just instantly fucking die? I would say that there would have been puncture moments from your encounter with the eel like creatures. Fair. Fair. Where after a few rounds of tape that you recognize that the atmosphere is deadly to prolonged exposure. But not instant.

But you're not going to immediately pass out or drop if you take the suit off for some time. And I would also say that the atmosphere of what was on the surface might be different than what's in this amphitheater. You have no way of knowing. Okay, then without really giving it a second thought, we hear this horrific, chittering, slopping, popping. I think I, we're out of time. I don't even hesitate. I take the quick blade, and I will cut my suit down my arm

to be able to get to my monitoring devices that kind of go down the platform. The instruments that tell you everything you need to know about the concept of time. I cut open the chest of the suit to be able to get to the device that is in my chest. Like Superman emerging from a telephone booth, you pull open your suit, and you reveal the device that has saved you time and time and time again, readying for this coming assault. I will do whatever I have to, however long it takes, to try to begin to understand what may have changed with me

and this device that is in my chest. Okay. You start to tinker with it and get a sense of what may have changed, what your ear may have meant. What are the rest of you all doing? How close? You said that it doesn't seem yet that they know that we're here. This is distant sounds. A pop here, a pop here.

It's, to make an anachronistic metaphor, it's like microwaving popcorn, where it's with a, and this cacophony is rising more and more and more is what feels like a wave is starting to approach the gates, the open gates of this edifice, this massive structure that you stand within. So this great awakening, it's clear, it happened in response to this occurring. Would it be very reasonable to believe it's all coming here? you definitely get a sense that the opening of the portal was enough of a disturbance to begin alerting creatures to the presence of beings such as yourself, and now they are hunting. We'll handle this.

I would like, if I could assist Scrim being machinist. Oh, sure. I would like this. He's kind of tinkering with that. I'm going to try to see if I can help him get a sense of what has happened, what has transpired, how he's changed, thinking of, do I think Mr. Scrim Stabbs has been able to get out of everything? Can he... Make a technology check. Can his luck?

I said fuck it. I've popped the helmet off. This is like, we're dire straits here. Yeah. And I need a full view of what I got. 25. Whole shit. You have a suspicion that your rewind feature will grant. you a tremendous amount of narrative authority. To put in D&D.D. Parlach. You have a, not the ability to travel pack for a moment

in order to undo a small mistake or a simple decision. But that whatever your, Barnabot, as he's walking through it, quickly, you start to look at it. You have no idea how far back. this could send you, but a game-changing amount is very evident from the empowerment that this eldest bestowed you. And I would say that only because SCRIM seems so evidently interested in that device, do you feel this way? You recognize that your own abilities may also be an order of magnitude more empowered.

All right. Mr. Sabs? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's been an honor and a privilege sailing with you, sir. Cam, what do you mean? Don't say that. I think you can take the young lady with you.

I mean, something is definitely changed. I mean, whatever this monitoring is, it doesn't make any sense. These numbers don't make sense, but, but take the lady. We took a job to get Lady Voss back safely. You can do that.

If we're going to stop this cancer, perhaps you can stop the whole thing. I don't know how the flow of time works, whether it be a flat circle or fucking otherwise. Mr. Fireblossom and I have a cancer to root out and destroy. I quite agree. As you are looking at the instruments on your arm, you are looking down,

this has always been a solo ride. All those times you've only ever been able to go back by yourself, this is a rare opportunity where you might be able to take a passenger and save more than yourself. Bada bus, no. No, no, no, no, no, Bada Bose, please listen to me. I can't leave you here. I can't do it. You're, you're the only friend I've ever had. I can't leave you here. Hi, Mr. Stabs, you've been the only friend that I could mostly trust. And I will treasure the years we sail together.

But from the moment I heard that song, from when I was a boy, aboard the Rum Runner, when I was a young man aboard the Nymeria, when I was an older man aboard the laughing storm, an old man aboard the Calypso, and now a dead man here, at the beginning and the end on the first world, perhaps the last.

I have known the glorious death that awaits me and we'll take all these bastards with us. But I need time, Mr. J. Chetell. You will have it, Captain.

Oh, I know. I'll hold the wave back. I saw you hold off dozens of those Cavalon dogs, eh? What's some skittles. shripping trip to come after us, lad. I... Just disease to be burned out.

The rot has reached the tree, and we will set it ablaze. There's nothing I can do to convince you otherwise. Nothing. Mr. Stans. Do you think, do you think after how long I've been sailing and how long I've been fighting, there's much left for me? You enjoy the note. You enjoy the note.

enjoy that? I can never enjoy it. What sit back relax on the beach with drinks? I grow tired in a week. I rust like an anchor at the bottom of the depths of the sea. I need to fight. I need to rage. Just like I did when that spectralodon took down the entirety of my blood brothers of the blood fleet. blood fleet and it took me arm. I will walk up to you and I will give you a hug and I will say I can fix this

I can I can fix it I can still fix this I can change it all I can make it not happen I can fix this then may we meet again in another timeline Mr. Stabs and I'll give you a big hug in another timeline and when you get back and gaze upon the stars

once more Pour one out for Pelagos to navigate her for me. Will you? I will. I will. And an extra one for Tychrist. I will. Thank her for all the good luck she's given us.

And I will scamper over to Delphina. I will. I'm looking at the two of you. As you've noticed, I have also taken off my suit, needing to be more nimble in these moments. But I'm leaning over your near staff as I grab it and I rise. The Pilgrim's journey does not end in this moment. You now have what everyone in this galaxy wishes for and they cannot get is time.

I know you will find your father, but now you have Mr. Stabs in time. I know that a sharp girl like you and the wealth of a Cameroon noble will be able to solve your problem. What you're doing is honorable. A captain goes down with his ship, as they say. Aye. But if you will have us do this, both of you send something home with us. Mr. Fireblossom, do you have a home?

Mr. Jade Shell, do you have a home? Fireblossom's my middle name. Ah, yes. Of course. F.J. H.L. A field of battle was my home. Oh, it's cold. Anything to remember you by.

I'll reach in to my, I have just dozens of machines that I feel like the eldest being has, with the song, has enhanced. To a tremendous degree. It's actually beyond that, it's creation. You look down and you look at your belt and bombs ideas that you thought you remembered from moments in your life are unexploded at your side, at your belt.

You find a plethora of all of the raw tools that you would need in order to design the biggest boom. And you seem to have all of the unexploded and, and, perfect grenades and explosives all at your side. They weren't there but a moment ago, but as you, like the others, start to pull your Enviro suit off, you realize they've been sung to your side. I will reach out,

and I will pull out a scrimshod shell, and you would eventually be able to examine it as it is carved. It's beautiful and spiral and surprisingly large. from a mirish creature on Carabas. And it tells a story of young love and young love that was lost. And a name is etched, Calypso.

Oh my God. Thank you, Mr. Dreadwick. If it makes it back to the sea of Caribus, I would thank you kindly. I will. You can see I look on at this in reverence for you, and I gently place it into a small satchel at my side. I don't suppose I'll need this anymore. Take out a bone flute. that is

carved out of what looks like a small dinosaur femur and hit it over to you does no one I need remember me for my works were not great nor were they always honorable if let the two of you

listen to the music and that brings you peace, that is enough. For what we do now is not honor, but it's duty, like the body fighting a virus, does it for no more purpose than that is what needs to be done. And so we'll hold back the waves, the tides that come so that you can do what needs to be done. Scrib.

Delphina. I will look on, I will look at it reverently and place it in a different satchel to keep it safe. I hope you find what you're looking for, Miss Voss. Mr. Stabs. Thank you for everything you've done. Mr. Stabs. Yes, Captain. Fair winds and following seas, lads.

Same to you. Good luck. You as well. Let's give him hell, Mr. Jane Shell. Spying me as much time as you can. You'll have all the time you need. I'll draw them in. And I would like to kind of rush to the antechamber.

Yeah. Side by side. Absolutely. With and effectively, I would be immediately whatever I could do to effectively start like sending out flares almost and basically trying to draw the attention. And as soon as I feel like there's

in a correct amount of attention, I would be taking all of the devices that I have, all and then whatever sort of magical power as a machinist, conjuring more explosives, and just fashion them all around this antechamber to the amphitheater. The only other thing I would do as we watch you run off is I would try to walk up to you and just offer you my hand.

I'm not looking at you but I can sense you and I will grab your hand as I watch them run. And I'll be monitoring the situation while I watch these heroes. You watch as Barnabos and Taishen look to stop the tide as the tide rises. You run out into the antechabor and hear the swarming of hundreds.

No, thousands of abominations as they swarm in your direction, whipped into a voracious frenzy by the echoing song left by the eldest before it left this world behind. You see the countless shapes ravenously shambling toward you to finish the feast they started. Who knows how long ago? It's the equivalent of the Fourth of July. The fourth of the equivalent of July.

As you make these flashbangs occur in the air, you see arcs of light red and green fly out in all directions. as you work to get their attention. You watch as you begin to step charges down, rallying your defenses, doing everything that you can to prepare for this coming onslaught, and the sound is beyond my skills. Oh my God!

Oh, no! True Eldridge's terror in the end time. So, presuming that, like, Tai Shen becomes like samurai Jack combined with like fucking Gendi Tarnatofsky Jedi of just slaughtering and piles of them. Tyshen, you race out and indeed your home is the battlefield as you spray. Just as you're presumably I think I know exactly what you're trying to do as people out there. If there's a moment where you start building, I look out and there's just like, it's like the hung coming over and move on, like coming over the,

the, oh, no, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, uh, uh, uh, uh, but, yeah, uh, race up to him, like there, there's, there's a wave and tide is the correct term for the absolutely massive, like hundreds of, of, of, of, of, swarming forward as they race to you as quickly. They're trampling themselves, endeavoring to get to you. Shh. I would look out over this and to keep my eyes on it, but say to Barnabos, I've stood tall on the battlefield side by side with many a general, but if we're to fall here, it's an honor to fall with you, Captain.

I, I've never, no, I didn't. Then let us die well, lad. And, uh, I'm, I, I'll give him a shake and I'll say, and rage until the very last. Rage, lad! And we shall rage in a glorious rage. It shall be, and we'll have a beautiful fry. That I can do.

Now I'll dash out, and my blade will gleam explosively, brilliant, deep purple. as as I reach the edge of this tide, I will be casting it out in all directions. I'll reach out with my hand and rip vort up into the air and cast them into each other as blade soars around

as I'm also using telekinetic harmonic ability to just cast them all over the place. You're pulling some forward, crushing them with your mind, and every single time your blade leaves your hand, the blade extends out, Not five feet, 10 feet, but 20 feet, a massive... Oh my God, it's like the Darth Vader. All I'm surrounded by is the smell of fear and dead board.

Oh, that's all I'm surrounded by. We actually win this. We actually win this comment. We succeeded turning a Todd back. Scrim is gone. We're chilling in the end world. And as they start to kind of swarm, presumably they can I crawl on ceilings and walls.

Oh, sure. Yeah, basically, as they're getting around, I have my shotgun in one hand, basically burst in them and I'm basically throwing as many sherd as I possibly can until I'm fully out. And then at whatever point, and then I would be, after I'm fully out of explosives, and presumably after we are completely surrounded,

I would have, just like in my character art, a singular massive barrel that I will have, that I'll put my foot on, like Captain Morgan, as I have in one hand my blunderbuss firing and the other hand a plunger waiting until we're basically the moment that we get overwhelmed and then you know what I'm doing. Tyshan

Barnabos, you are surrounded by thousands of vort as you fight them off killing them by the dozen by the dozen with your empowered weaponry and abilities but it is clear that you are surrounded and overwhelmed by the unending tide. They

do not see the beeping, flashing, Explosive charges that they climb and crawl over is on their way to devour you as they are mere feet from reaching you And I will uh as we get overwhelmed We may be Far from the harmony mr jateshell But I know that the very least you lad will return to it Are you ready lad? If it blesses me once more captain

It'll be an honor to stand shoulder to shoulder with you on the next deck. The honor is mine. I'm coming home, Calypso. Be bang. You stand against the ravenous horde of unmaking, and you choose not to surrender. When the flickering button is pressed, both of you and the countless vort are consumed in the flaming rage against the end. I hate you guys. Delfina, you hear an apocalyptic explosion as everything around you shakes and rumbles.

You heard the entire antechamber where your crewmates made the last stand collapse in on itself, silencing the chittering hordes and returning quiet as the temporal device on Scrib's chest surges with Azure light. I'm holding on to Delfina's hand. And I hear this explosion and I, there are just tears running down my face. This is like, but I can't even cry anymore at this. this point. It's, it's, it's, there's nothing left. And I say to Delphina, I think it's ready. If, if everything here looks right, it feels, I feel, I can feel it. It's, it's, it's, we're ready. Are you ready? Yes, how, how long do we have?

Moments. Mere moments. I'm so sorry, Mr. Stamps. What? And then I'm going to to vault backwards towards the black puddles. May we meet again in the, Next life. What? That doesn't know! In doing so, I would also like to at the same time grab a coin from his pocket. You, I'm gonna say that you can easily view that.

You know, I'll use indomitable spirit to succeed automatically. You succeed, you're able to pull, you watch as she holds a coin in her hand with a couple backwards flips, she is five, 10, 15, 20 feet from you, and you can already hear, The time device on your arm reach its full empowerment.

Delphina, let's go of your hand and steps out of the Azure light that consumes you. And before you can even react, you blink and you leave the first world. You rewind, not six seconds. Not 60 seconds or 600 seconds or 6,000 seconds. Not 600,000 seconds. You rewind six minutes. million seconds. 69 days, 10 hours, and 40 minutes. I'm going to change the music for but a moment. The bellowing horn of an incoming plasma harvesting vessel blares over a bustling space market

as it comes to dock at Port Crozer. You stand amidst the colorful crowds heading from their ships to the markets, taverns, and other establishments. But your focus is on a singular ship, docked just before you. The Calypso and looks just as it did the day you left for the Osamandias. Looking down at your instrument,

you can see that time is moving forward again. But nearly 70 days have passed in reverse. I would take just a moment to check my

vitals, to check my metrics, to check my metrics, to check my monitoring systems to make sure that this is real and that I'm alive and that I'm in one piece. You check everything on your person and you can see that you're still injured from your encounter with the eldest. You can see that you are still wearing some of the marks from your experience on the Osamandias. You are, as you were in the moment that you transported back through. time, moments ago reaching out for Delphina, moments before that, listening to the apocalyptic explosion of Barnabos and Tyshan, moments before that, watching Yornear deliver some strange

alien entity this being to a realm of the gods. And you think about all of the things that have transpired, you've gone back through that. You've passed back through Polaris. And yet, You are here. It is as though none of that happened. In an instant, you were able to rewind, just as you always have been, but not six seconds. In eternity, it feels like, all the time in the world. And then you look down and you realize that the time device in your chest supercharged buzzes weekly. I think I would register it, but I wouldn't spend more than a second thinking about it as I take one step forward.

And then another step forward, and another, and I begin to push people out of my way as I begin to sprint. I fall over myself. I stumble to my knees. I scrape my knee. I get up. And I yell as I'm running through Port Crozier. It's what? It wants.

Thank you, tigers. And I run as fast as I can, pushing people out of the way, stumbling to the calypso. Hey, what do you? You hear voices as you push people. You can smell that smell of fuel and food. I can fix it! You are racing forward. You make your way up the landing ramp of the Calypso

and rush into the familiar ship you've spent so many years aboard. You look for Barnabos to warn him of what's to come. Bernabas! To preempt the horrors at the heart of the galaxy. And then you see the fleshy pods, the cocoons that fill the interior of the ship. your heart sinks

as a huge shape in the common room moves and uncurls its chittinous head with rears up and inky black eyes stare up at you it is a creature you've seen before in the reactor core as it opens its oozing acidic maw you hear a familiar voice crackle over the calm system scrim you're just in time

Delphina, let me change the music once again. Time, as it does in most cases, passes. Delphina, you climb over a rhyme-encrusted precipice in the depths of the first world. You step out on a massive cliff that plummets down into an endless black sea, bathed in eerie light from floating lantern-like protusions of bioluminescent coral. Your hair is disheveled. Your suit torn and patched. Your technology is worn. You activate your handheld searchlight slowly flickers on and you're unsure how long it will stay powered. You scan the enormous cavern before you and catches on, and the light catches

on titans emerging from the depths. Massive statues of fish-like colossi, kneeling with their hands out and their mouths agape and eternal song. You scan the scene before you, and for a moment, the way the light catches your helmet visor reflects back at you, your face back at you. You are visibly older now. How much older you have no idea.

And you are uncertain if the effects to your body are the ravages of time, or the elderish nature of this strange place. You move the beam of light, and it illuminates a figure with you at the top of the precipice. You're not alone. A humanoid shape in an Enviro suit leans up against a large rock, gazing out to the same vista that you are seeing,

entirely motionless. The light catches the nameplayed on the chest of the suit. it reads O Voss I am trudging through this space leaning against your near staff but it has changed a little dangling from it you see the shell that Barnabos had given me

the coin that I stole from Scrim and the and the flute the flute that that Tyshen had given me and as the wind whistles through this space, it flows into the flute and I'm surrounded by music for a minute. As I look forward.

I told you he would find him. Seven million well spent friends. You're going to love him when you meet him and he's going to love you too. All right, you're near. You have anything to say about this space? Yes? Fate, yes, I know. the pilgrim marches forward.

Yes, grim, you may lead the way. I should have known that moment we met, Barnabos, that you would lead us to the end here. Watch my back again, will you, Taishen? I'm feeling weak this time as I began to trudge forward with my friends until. You reach the stanching. suit, and you find what you've been looking for.

As you circle around, not looking anymore at the precipice, but to gaze within that visor, you see the face of your father. And underneath that transparent shield, there's no calcification or decay. whatever it is about this particular cavern, this particular part of the first world, you stead see the glasses, the face, the skin, every hair follicle, of the face of the man you call dad. Many called the brilliant Dr. Voss. He is looking out towards that sunken black sea, out towards the mystery that so many have spent their own lives looking for. And his eyes are open.

There's a small, small grin. As one side of his face grins, smirks up the discovery of a lifetime. Scrimmy is happy to see me. and I'll rush straight towards him and kneel on the ground. Daddy, I want you to meet my friends. I've been looking for so long. Face doesn't move. The body is motionless.

And when you get near enough, whatever balance has been holding it in this position for 18 years, is disturbed. Shifts and crumbles onto its side, lifeless. Clearly, yeah, clearly did. I will grab him. Oh, you're exhausted. Oh, you spend so much time out here alone like that, of course.

I mean, lay you down, Daddy. I'll lay you down. Oh, I've missed you so much, Daddy. Time was stolen from us, but we will reclaim it, and I will slowly crawl into his arms. I'm tired, too. Yorn, yeah, leave the staff down next to us. You can meet Daddy tomorrow.

We must all rest. You can meet them tomorrow, Daddy. It's okay. You don't need to say anything at all. Just put your head here in my arms. I'm so glad I found you've missed you. Oh, please. And I'll be like rubbing his lifeless head as I was cradling him. As you pull the helmet into you, something disturbs your side.

You're trying to crawl into that same familiar position. You're trying to remember what it feels like to be hugged by your living father. and you realize that you're sitting on the side of, something's pressing into your back, and you pull out what is a simple digital recorder. Well, it looks like I found your recorder, father. There could be something important on here, so I'm just going to press play if that's all right with you.

And I will. I'm assuming it's not making any noise. You press play, and sound should have. emerge from the speakers, but it's like a brick. There's no action. It doesn't make any, produce any sound, no buttons lights up. The display is cold and black, empty.

And you realize it's without power. What little power I have left in my technology, I would like to try to feed into this thing. I'd say the only, after all of your empowerment, after all the resources you've spent, after who knows how long you've survived on this impossible planet. You've left what little power you have in your occultic weapon at your side for survival, for every threat that remains around every corner. But with a quick twist, you're able to eject the power bank and you're able to pop it into the recorder.

This time when you hit play, it springs into life. The display as it rewinds to the beginning of the recording. And all you have to do is press play to start again. Seeing everything that's on this, am I able to know what is going to play? There is no readout beyond a time signature. It says that it's only a few minutes of recorded audio. But there is a wear to the device that tells you that it's played over and over again. For a device's size and for a power supply, any kind of a battery, this could have lasted for years.

I hold it in my hands And I see that even now with my father's weapon That just powered this thing back up My most treasured possession That the battery is already getting low And I look between my father and my friends We've had a long journey It's time to say goodnight

Good night, good night, you only Taishen scream, Barnabos and then I'll snuggle into my father's arms. Will you sing me a lullaby, Daddy? I'm very, very tired. And I'll press play. You press the button. To replay that familiar, cherished song,

it's the only sound in this place of dark, cold, and the deep. It is your swan song. Here, alone at the heart of the universe. At the beginning, at the end. It may not be the song of creation, but in this moment it is your song. And that is where this story ends.

Thank you for jamming for you. Absolutely cinema. Absolutely cinema. Thank you for watching.