Legends of Avantris - Icebound | Ep. 19 | Out Of The Sky

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

The rising stress of their position is further amplified by the sudden arrival of yet another complicating force. What happens next won’t just determine the fate of our heroes, but perhaps the fate of thousands, and our adventures are forced to once again ask themselves, will they survive? Gain access to an exclusive campaign, Shroud Over Saltmarsh, over on Patreon: https://legendsofavantris.com/patreon The Crooked Moon, a folk horror supplement for 5e, is available for preorder! Get the Crooked Moon at: https://thecrookedmoon.com/ Watch more D&D adventures in the world of Avantris live on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris Check out our merch store: https://shop.legendsofavantris.com  Join our community on Discord: https://legendsofavantris.com/discord Watch our many campaigns on YouTube: https://legendsofavantris.com/youtube  All other links: https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/7ZpDvKuqVbc?si=sKHDO2mD5-FQp-3S

Welcome to Legends of Evanthris. I am the one they call your neir, and this is icebound. The ruins tell of what happened last time. I want to tell anyone how to do their job, but it certainly sounds like you let things get out of hand. Yes. Jackass. I can offer you these gifts. The land you love will be safe in your hands with my help.

Attempting to destroy me is futile. I alone have unlocked secrets of the cosmos. I alone can show you the truth of what lies ahead. The hexature armament powers my invincible shield because it is finished repairing the ship. All of a sudden, the ship pulls away from the Kewel Cave floor and pushes out of the cave mouth through the waterfall and twists and turns up.

I need everyone to roll an initiative. Need to get to the armament. Hope has only nearly died within you. When suddenly there is a flash, the Princess of Wrath takes flight. Despite her massive size, the dragon is incredibly agile. Her movements quick and precise, powerful muscles ripple beneath thick scales as she soars forward straight for the ship. It appears we have an unwelcome guest.

How interesting. I wonder if it knows who it is dealing with. The Princess of Wrath clutches the side of the ship with her great talons, Rears back her head to the storming sky and roars. Has nearly died within you when suddenly there is a flash of blinding light, and moments later you hear a crackling boom. On the mountain peak, you see a vertical jagged shape, like a spike of ice projecting upwards.

The shape then moves and unfurls, and you realize what exactly it is you look upon. The Princess of Wrath's massive wingspan is easily overrun. her 60 feet in length, spreading outwards. Her scales, as white as the driven snow, glisten with a faint blue hue. The dragon's body is thick and muscular. The spikes on her back are jagged and razor sharp. Despite her massive size, the Princess of Wrath is incredibly agile.

Her movements quick and precise. She soars forward straight for the ship, ascends, and slams into the side of the ship, rocking it violently beneath your feet. The Princess of Wrath Clutches the side of the ship with her great talons, Rears back her head to the storming sky, and roars. You find yourselves now trapped,

fighting the elder brain Sophilis in the command room of its Nautiloid ship as it soars through a snowstorm and as it is assaulted by the ancient white dragon you've come to know as the Princess of Rath. The sick and invisible hull that surrounds you does little to muffle her powerful bellow and whatever you were feeling moments ago is washed away with pure adrenaline.

The blood in your vein feels both hot and icy at the same time, and you realize that the decisions you make in the next few moments won't just determine your own fate, but perhaps the fate of thousands. Wide-eyed, Ket Rosteen stares out in shock at the sight of the Princess of Wrath and then towards each of you. The point of his magnificent silver sword continues to stab down and down into the invulnerable shield, protecting Sopholith and Kett yells out but in the nice hells? A dragon? Tell me, friend or foe?

Sopholith must be distracted by her arrival. I cannot lose this chance to destroy the nemesis of my people. Steal yourself all you can. What happens next is up to you. Before we dive in. Fucking cool.

Let's do a little housekeeping. Okay. Because we're picking up right where we left off and I'm not going to make you roll for initiative. We're keeping where we were and we are keeping exactly where you pick back up. However, I need to remind myself a few things. Everyone, except for Taichenne, failed the initial mind-obliteration ability that dazed you.

This is my variant of stunned that everyone enjoyed. And I have them already. So Barnabos, you're near Queenie, Scrim. The four of you will be dazed. And I can remind you of those rules when we get to that moment. Um, Queenie, recall that you have put a hunter's mark, um, mechanically on, uh, Sophleth. That's still true. Scrim, you put your Hexblade curse on Sofleth.

That is still true. And the only damage that's happened so far to Sofleth is that, um, he was chomped by the doggo that you summoned Scrim. And then it was obliterated. And then it was obliterated by that same mind obliteration. which was a pretty powerful attack. It was really an opener that did a lot of good work for Sofleth. Hopefully he doesn't have more of those.

You bastard. I was looking through my character sheet. I'm like, wild shape, what the fuck? I realized I was on Greg Hill. I also opened Gideon to start. Oh, God, I haven't been back to level four. I also am trying to remember. You used a spell before we actually got to the ship itself.

I believe you used the Rune of Protection. I did. And someone still has that, and it does good work. I have it. Keep that in mind as if you should get psychic damage. Yeah, no, I think I'm relatively healthy, and that's probably why. Okay. I'm relatively healthy compared to an invalid or a 90-year-old man.

Things are looking out. From a certain point of view. And Scrim was a good friend. So here we have our arrangement. Let's do this thing, as they say. You hear this roar, adrenaline dumps into your veins, and you can hear that same emotionless voice reverberate within your mind. Stay where you are, one moment while I deal with this.

Still reeling from this sudden revelation, you watch as the massive tentacles that stretch out from the sides of the dominant mind, reach up and smash down towards the princess of wrath. She dodges the first, but takes the full brunt of a second tentacle as thick as the trunk of an evergreen tree, smashing down against her shielding wing. Queenie, your turn. Oh, my God.

Okay. I was not prepared for it to be my turn. You're a lot. Yeah. You get them rabbits' feet. Yeah. So do we have to do any rolls for the stun first? At the beginning of your turn, you can roll to clear the dazed.

It's an intelligence saving throw, and the DC is 18. So I recommend you do that first. An in-saving throw? Yep. I picked, I rolled the worst character for this arc. Scrim is dumb as a bag of rock. Is it proficiently. No, suicide show.

Not an in-in-time nut. You're not? I mean, I'm wisdom. Oh, charisma wisdom. Never mind. Now I'm thinking the wizards. Sorry. A wizard squirm is not.

Now, I think we toyed around with the idea. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly, but didn't we talk a little bit about having Scrimby an warlock? I don't. Maybe like me for like five minutes. Maybe we'll have a drunk ass. I like, I like my end warlocks. I hope not.

Queenie will move towards the exits. Your movement is free, and then any additional thing that you do is going to be 1d6 damage unless you can clear the days condition that you currently are. Okay, so you can still move. But you can make the saving throw now if you want to try and clear it. But can I do that at the end of my turn after I take damage? If you want to, but mechanically,

I would recommend that you do it now so that you see if you have the ability to clear it. So, I can clear it for free. Yes. Potentially. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's not an, I'm asking if it's an action to clear.

I like to do the, you can make the save at the end of your turns at the beginning of people's turn so that you don't like have like skip a turn abilities and stuff. You can make your intelligent saving throw now. No. Okay. So I'm going to move towards the exit. And now we know.

And I am going to look towards the brain, and I am going to, Queenie's going to, just for the sake of it's cool, fire an arrow towards the ceiling, and it is going to rain down pollen, casting fairy fire. Oh, holy shit. It's very cool. I'm presuming that your intent is only to illuminate Sotholith.

Okay, okay. And so she would aim the arrow. It's got like a little yellow like pouch on the front of the arrow. And as it hits, the pouch explodes raining down. It starts to hit that invulnerable shield, and it itself illuminates very much. And you expect it to be able to persist. It has to make a dexterity saving.

Oh. So it does get to do that. Oh, does it? Just see if it, yeah. I'm imagining an immovable brain is probably going to have trouble passing. I mean, I almost wanted to give it to you. Let's find out.

A3. It fails. Yeah. So any creature that attacks it will be at advantage. Very good. Fairfire. Love that. Love that for you.

You want to do anything else with your turn? Well, I would like to take the damage. How much damage am I taking? Oh, you didn't for extra action. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you take one D6 for the castling the spell. Is that a five or a two? Uh, it should be on the opposite of it? What's the opposite number?

The opposite should be four if it's a two. That's a two. The opposite side should add up to seven. They do, but it's five from two. Oh shit. Okay, so that's a two. So I'll take two points of damage. You take two points of psychic damage.

You're so stunned as you even just to cast a simple spell. Fairifier. You get this spike like a headache, jam right behind your ear, almost closing in towards the temple. When you said that we had a potion, where did that come from? Um, if you-Cett, maybe found us each of potion. Yes, if you didn't already drink your healing potion, then- I don't remember, I don't have it in my inventory.

I imagine that you would have used your hit dice and then you probably still have, I let me just quickly look up what I gave you. I had used all of my hit dice before he handed out. You do rapid quaffing, yeah? Yeah. I would like to rapid quaff them. You would like to rapid quaff. If I still have.

I have two help potions now. Let me. I've had a help potion this whole time. I didn't know you're doing so well. Wow. Did you get a race? Wow. You're hungry, boy.

It's a very dexterous prey. Big bags on Bonabus. I'm a dexterous brain. It's a greater potion of feeling. And that's a, and that is a 44 plus four. 44 plus four. Okay. But you will, because it's a baron faction,

you'll take one D6 damage doing it. I can, survive then. Oh yeah. Plus if it's a big old portion. I'll do the damage first. That's five. Oof. Are we sure? No. Because I'm not. Four. There you go. Five. Oh, you're in the black. Six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen. Fifteen. Nice. Nice. Ooh. Better. It's better than why I was to start. Thank you. That is my turn. My pleasure.

The Princess of Wrath responds to the subject. ambush twisting and turning like an enraged beast. Her tail collides with the tentacle that just crashed into her by knocking it away and she bites down on another. The tendril is ripped in half by her fearsome jaws. Gore and Iker splash out atop the boardwalk and the severed tentacle disappears into the storm-filled sky still undulating.

That's a part of us, you're up. I will look around and see, is, is we, are we, and so we're in the snowy area. And there's a dragon. Yeah. And I will just, after being slammed against it, my crab claws will scrape against the side of it. And I'll look around and I'll say, this is like the time we encountered a megatusk off the coast of Kalilak. Ah, this is it, lads.

This is how we die. For all of those enslaved by this beastie, I said I would not stop until all my enemies are destroyed. And Sopholeth, you are my enemies. enemy! And I'm going to run back to the point where I had been hammering, completely mad-eyed and bellowing with laughter, as I just continue to just smash in as hard as I can with my anchor. Make your intelligent saving throw. Oh. And then you can move and do whatever you like. I fail. Okay. Can I move to where that was? It was next to the other side of the break. Yeah, I would say with your additional speed because you're a barbarian, you'd be able to

make it too. Yep. Yeah, yeah. So bang. Cool. And then take damage for our trash. You don't have to roll a hit. You just can roll damage. I give it to you.

I gave that to you last session. I presume it's psychic damage, so we can't resist it. Oh, and object, too. So would the wall count? He'd be at advantage of them against the wall? He already automatically hits the wall. Okay, cool.

I'm just going to see if I crit. In case you wanted to let him, you know, have advantage of all. Oh, I suppose you could roll the crit. That's a fair point. I don't. I wouldn't fairy fire the wall. It would happen automatically.

He's already advanced as a record. Yeah. Look, okay? I can't stop the fact that the pollen is going places. The wall is covered in pollen, okay? The wall is covered in pollen. It's yellow. You can see it.

I can't help it. I can't help it. So I'm going to do this 2D6. Okay. Okay. 11, 11, 14, 14, 14. 16 plus 14, 30 points of bludgeoning damage. Wow.

On the, boy shit. Wow. Take art like Mr. Steen said. Ha ha ha ha. You're hearing this metallic clang every single time the anchor smashes into this wall and though the illusion that you can see through in all directions is still perfect,

you imagine that the hull is being damaged in your mind. And I take damage, correct? You take one of these six damage for the additional action beyond. What kind of damage is that? Psychic. Psychic. Okay. That makes it easy for me.

Oh, man. I know what I want to do. Is that the conclusion of your trip? Oh yeah, sorry, that's my turn. The Princess of Wrath howls in pain and stumbles, her claws gripping into the slick surface of the boardwalk to keep balance. The psionic attack is only momentarily effective, and she writes herself, shrugging off whatever debilitating power, Sophilith just attempted.

You're near. Does it, is it obvious that he's still under the protection of the hexature armament? Yes. The shield is even more obvious now that it is covered with the soft pollen glow of very fire. What was an invisible shield that he'd only ever see get struck and then these bands of energy would come out. Now it's like a cocoon. Oh boy. I don't have know what to do.

Dobro arrives I guess I could eat a Rubin I pass my turn and take a bite of my sandwich Oh man This dragon is I would start with an intelligence saving for Anyone craving dairy queen

hot dogs now? It feels like a good It could be good I think I'm proficient in mad Good time to Derry queen hot Yeah 17

Miss Dragon Just barely doesn't get it It Oh, I should be, I should be remembering how to do it. It's just psychic damage, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah, per extra action you take. Only, only, yeah, you can do one thing.

If you don't, you just do one thing, you don't take any damage. Um, well, we just got blasted against the wall. Are we prone or like, can I stand up? Um, I can't recall if you're prone, so I'm gonna say everyone was standing. Okay. So then... Flavors. Is anyone looking particularly weak? Okay.

No weaker than normal. No. Because you were wounded, like brain-wise. I am not. Not brain-wounded. I mean, again, no more than normal. I'm a little bloody, but... Scrib's just always kind of brain damaged.

We need to just drank a potion. She's feeling much better than she was previously. The side of my body that smashed into the side of the spaceship is still covered in barnacles on that one side. Nice. As I slooped up there. Then what I will do is... Fuck it.

I'm going to say... Brain freeze. Enjoy somebody's scream. Yeah, that's what I'm saying, Dairy Queen. I don't take care of this guy. Olden, the spell, the sorcery. And I will cast a spell magic to see if it does anything on the shield. Okay.

Did I try that last time? You've not yet... I don't think you did not try that, though. You tested it by doing a wisdom saving throw. dexterity saving throw like a cantrip, I believe, was your initial test. I think you threw a snowball at him. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Your first round was like a snowball. We'll try it. Okay. You cast to dispel magic, and for a moment there's this like ripple that occurs and you see it weakened for a moment, but it immediately pops back into

the point of curve. It was worth the shop. That's my turn. That's your turn? Yeah. It is worth a shot. I agree. Yeah, yeah, no, I'll just, I'll save my resources. Dying soul for later. Okay. Tadpoles. Who's got Tadpoles on him and how many?

I guess I have one. We all have one. I definitely. Stim has two potential. I have none. Which scream or I could have to. Assuming this one's on Kett, I have one, Ket has one, Yorner has two.

I have two. There's one on the open. Two, I think this was. There's one on the open. You literally moved one over to me, so it wouldn't be on you. You didn't want to have three-arm me. Also, for what is yours?

That one that was out there in the middle. There was one that was between the two of us, and it could have gone to either or rich. Move one time and to tweeting. No, because you moved. I moved one of them with you, but it was next to you when we start. So anyway, we'll say it's out in the middle.

I don't remember us removing them, but again, I don't know. It's out in the middle. I watched that. So is there one on Queenie? Is there one on Queenie? There is. There could potentially be two.

It's really up to the DM though and not the cheater. That's true. I'm gonna say it's on your near. Three on your owner has three. Because they all slammed into the wall. These are slow moving creatures. Remember they sort of shoot forward and unjolake firstly. And they're going to attempt to start to roll on you or grasp you.

Okay. And these disgusting like lavender-colored, Crawfish start to crawl all around. They're still hungry. Hunger for something. Queenie, a 16. That doesn't. No, I missus. That misses.

And we have two on Scrim. Yeah. Happy Meal also made a good point. These are literally the taper tots. That's true. No. I'm a taper tot. Two or 17?

17. It meets it. Okay. That means that. You're going to be grasped by one of them. You see one of them crawling up your boot. Of course. Okay.

Make a note of that. Okay. I've noted Tadpool on boot. Tadpole on boot. Okay, three on your near, we said. Yeah. Fuck it, why not? 8, 6, 17.

7.5, 309. 9. Jenny. What was the high? 17. 17. 17. Oh.

Jenny. That's right? Yeah, no, that hits, 17 hits. Okay, you look down and you realize that one of them is on your thigh. It has actually managed to actually like start to crawl up and make its way underneath between the fabric of your robe and between your pant leg. And there's one on Taichan or two? One. Well, I mean, these are not interested in Kat.

Oh yeah. Two on Tichana. Oh, because he's on top, like with the Buster Sword. Well, I think he's also a type of entity that they... They have any taste for a gift. 14 and 17. But golden dragon board? They won't, let's put it this way.

They won't go after a creature they couldn't finish their work with. Oh, and they're... 14 and 17? 14 and 15 would... It would hit. Make a note that you have been grasped by one of these tadpole. This is scary. Be scared of the tail.

On top. Oh, gosh. Great. It didn't get to me, though, so I'm not scared. That's true. You walked away from it pretty casually, actually. They're very slow. It tried to latch on to me, and I said, no.

You probably could have stepped on one on the way, but you chose not to. You were too dazed. I was, I'm mentally very perturbed by other things. The princess redirects her attention to the flailing tentacles that threaten her, and a brilliant blue light shines from the back of her. throat and she roars. A massive surge of cold and ice explodes outward from her mouth as she roars. Nearly all of the tentacles on the starboard side of the ship freeze, shatter, break apart. The ship vibrates under your feet from the force of this attack and you feel a new vibrating turbulence.

We're fine. I unfortunately have several questions. I hate to do this. No, no, no, no. We're good. First of all, I watched the hound pass through the shield. Correct? Do I feel as if I were to have some other magical mislike effect that would come out from me if that might get through the shield? Remind me what your staploc said

about its ability to move in and out of like the planes or something. The accursed specter. And it was that spectral nature that I made that judgment about. Spector has incorporeal movement can move through other creatures

and objects as if they were difficult to reign. It takes force damage if it ends up inside an object. It was that incorporeality that I judged would allow it to pass through. It's a ghost-like fashion. A misty-like spell wouldn't do anything. Oh, if you were to endeavor a teleport

or something along those lines, I can't tell you what would happen. Maybe some sort of different outcome. I'm going to take an attempt, even though I only have two spell slots, provided my next question is also reasonable. These tadpoles, is there a way that I could discern potentially that they might be leech-like? Leach-like. Yeah, like the animal, a leech.

The creature, oh, these are living creatures. They're organic in that way. Does it, is it in the same family as a leech? Can I make a discerning, can I discern that, right? From the material. Would I be able to discern that this is a leech-like creature? Wow. I was trying not to like, you know, try to discern it.

This is a leech. I'm trying to make some goblin surfing turf. Yeah. Some goblin season. Finally. Yeah, it's been 20 minutes. It's a matter of view. That is cleverly asked.

And I would say that the. parasitic nature of what a tadpole truly is would fall in a leech-like category. Okay. Beautiful. Lastly, can I use my free object interaction to grab one of these horrific tadpoles and use it as a material component in this goal? I would say that that would be doable. Now, you are still dazed. Yes. Free object interaction is not going to count against your shit, I would say. It's okay if it does. I'm going to roll intelligence first. It says the word free, free. Oh. I got 18!

Yes! And when I made a one, that means that you still fail. Fuck you. I have plus one, so I can remove this. Yeah. Thank you fucking God. Okay, I hear Barnabose's incredible, mad raving speech. And even though I still hate him deep down, it fills me with inspiration. I forgot we're fighting. Yeah, we're still fighting. It fills me with inspiration. I haven't forgotten.

And I would like to see if I can either grab the leech on my boot or one on the ground with my free object. You can grab the boot one, I'd be happy. Okay. Ah, okay. I hear Barnabose's words. I think to myself, I look to the brain and I say, I'm coming for you, you fuck!

And I throw myself at this thing, crushing the leech in my hand, and I cast draining mist. Oh. And as I am throwing myself with the ship tumbling and moving at this brain, when I get within 15 feet of it, the swirling red mist and gray mist will explode from me. And any evil target that I choose, the brain, within 15 feet will be the target of my draining mist. Oh, I would

also argue that the leeches themselves could be targets in that spell. Okay. I'd like to fuck them up, too. Then include them. Okay, I've included them. How does the spell work? I surround myself with sinister red mist that drains a life from my foes and feeds it to me. Each target of my choice within range takes 4D8 necrotic damage unless it succeeds on a Constitution saving throw, and then I gain health five times for the health to the number of targets, it's 25 hit points. So there is a chance that he just won't take any damage. But Constitution saving throw, we'll see how it goes. The invulnerability shield being what it is does protect him from the spell, the magics of the draining mist spell that you are attempting

to pull from him specifically. But you do see... all of the tadpoles around you at your feet struggle within the area of this effect that you have pulled What is the DC? Queenie is also a foe She's not so she can't take 48 necrotic It actually doesn't say so should it just be whatever my other DCs are? It would be your spell save to say yeah So 16 it's just a matter of what's the radius and how many are inside the radius? Is it for the whole turn or is it in one moment? It is just instantaneous It's instantaneous.

So how many can he reach? Yeah, within, you know, 15 of men. I mean, you could literally get there and hit everybody. Yeah. That's all of them. That's all of them. I was attempting to hit the brain, though, too. Okay.

And then I'm still going to continue as far as my movement will take me, even if that makes me land on the force field, because I'm throwing myself at this point. But anyway. So you move here, cast the spell, and then finish your movement. Do you have full movement? Yeah, I should. Yeah. Provided, I'm good.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're good. So, yeah. So Constitution saving throw up 16. 16. How many? Oh, they're, you crush one. So I'm going to do the seventh. I'm going to roll seven D20s. So, I'm dead.

Remove one. And how many, how many? Wow, that's garbage. 40. What is DC 16? 48. DC 16. DC 16 Constitution.

Okay, three fail and I have one succeed. And then three more for the other seven. And two succeed. So you can remove all but two of the tadpoles. How about just both on your own? Do they take half damage if they succeed? They don't. Okay.

They take no damage. One point of damage is enough to kill one of these tabbles. You were able to crush one in your hand. And as you were crushing it, you looked down for a brief moment, I would say, even in your jumping moment. You can see all of those tendrils reaching out for your face anytime you got really close. But you crush it. It feels like crunching like an enchilada in between your fingers. And you race forward.

And you are now at the... foot where the floor meets the actual dome this inventive and my face is like up against the exeter arm and I'm like ah ah how many were affected seven of them no I mean were killed affected two of them saved so five of them were killed I will gain full help of the full 25 wow I think you kind of sounded like a like a howl too that was right yeah thank you turn. That was important. Tasha, and you're on deck, but before you do, another legendary action from the unbelievable conflict that's happening between this elder brain and the Princess of Rath, she suddenly

slams down violently against the boardwalk. Her legs and wings scrape and thrash out in all directions, but her head and neck seem anchored down by some invisible force, and you see the dragon's eyes go wild with rage. She forces herself up only to be pushed down. Again and again and rose pink blood begins to seep out from her ears and mouth and eyes Only through sheer force of will it seems does she break free from the telekinetic anchor pinning her down and the Princess of Rath ultimately triumphs over the crushing force of sophilis psionic She's good She's bleeding She's bleeding

Oh my god Oh my god If he can do that he can just crush us like gushers Like one Beaselberry. Yeah, it's the Beaselberries. Oh, yeah. People are watching this campaign who do not watch much later here.

What the fuck? Got to watch all the shit. It's like the MCU. You got to watch the obscure Disney plus shit to know what the fuck's going on. Okay. Um, I'll say as

as Scrim runs past with his baying hounds, snapping up all the, or killing all the tadpoles. I'll say, Sophilith, you have wounded Dracar, and she has sent her answer. Give up this madness, or this ship will be your grave.

And I'll try and reposition myself if I can get here. That's going to be quoted to you in a month, and you're going to say, shit, that was a cool-ass year, right? You said? Wow. Yeah. Cold ass, yeah. Cold ass, motherfucker.

And I will fire out a firebolt. Ideally, like, right just past Barnabos and trying to help him break through to the hexagonal armament below. Yep. And can I assume that I hit as well, or should I roll? No, last time I had you roll because I wanted to make sure you didn't hit Barnabost,

which would happen on an natural one. Five? I'd say that hits. I just wanted to make sure you didn't hit Barnabot. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're firing like he's doing this. And you're firing right over in here at a precision point. Yeah, I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good.

Two through 20 hits. I'm kind of nice. Oh, 16. Big money. Points of fire damage. 16. All right. Fire them all. That's the second time that's been heated by your spell.

And you even feel that the metal underneath your smashing anchor seems to be. weakening just a bit. Nicely done, Mr. Firebloss, I'm a f! Ha! Ha! Ha! Is that the conclusion of your turn? Yeah. You are days, so you can do other things if you want to. I don't think I can do

other things, to be honest, okay. I don't have bonus action. I don't actually, right? You probably, I don't know. Oh, okay. I doesn't say that would be a Mace thing to believe. I'm pretty sure you can quicken a spell, so you can cast the full action.

resources left. Oh yeah. No, yeah. We have Giacend troops. Oh, yeah, wow. You do have four sorcery points left. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but you can turn into it. You can use a bonus action to convert. I'm done my mind. Okay, all right. I'm done with my turn. Carry on, carry on. Carry on. It's right here. That's right here. That's the end of the ice, richy, puppeting mace. Another legendary action then. The Princess of Wrath spreads her wings once again and dashes forward up. the entirety of the ship, landing at the eye of the port side just towards the rear. Her claws puncture the side of the Nautiloid ship, and you can hear the sound of

rending metal dozens of feet below you. Her head turns this way, and that inspecting the ship. She glances inside the great circular window of the navigation deck just below you, and you watch as she spies the artifact you know as the hexature armament fastened to the propulsion system on the rear of the ship. Uh-oh. What happens if she eats the hexagon? How close is she to, she's like on the ship? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

She's a crappling it on the outside of a marker. So if you imagine a Star Destroyer, right, like, what the hell's a Star Destroyer? I get it. And now she's looking at the bridge. You know, I get it. I would say she's like right here. She's going to draw an arrow.

When I asked that question and Derek answered, I got it. I'm explaining, did you for, do you get it? Wait, what's a Star Destroyer? I mean, who could have known? You only said you got it. What's a Star Destroyer? I don't know what a Star Destroyer is. Just wanted to know if she's hanging on the side of the shit.

It's in Star Wars, the big, wet-shakes. Who can tell? Yeah, yeah. Because when he said that she was on the side, and you'd said it's like 50 pod racers, so I would have been like, oh. It was a little bit. It was unclear.

It was unclear. It was unclear. I was imagining that the scene from Peavy's big adventure with trying to next page of each other. Madmark. The name is that. That's where I went. Can we talk about how fucked up that one for just a second?

I have a last thing. It's supposed to be a tense moment, alright? I'm tense. Derek is upset right now, okay? That was Tim Burton with him. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

But he had that rich kid, the chubby rich kid that had like the pool as his bathtub. And he was just in the panpigs. I remember very little. Whose turn is it, Derek? And then none on the bike. Christine's turn. Oh, Kirsten. K.

Oh. He goes, what is happening? Why are we, what is the dragon? He casts a blur on himself and he turns to you, Taichenne. Very good. Focus, focus on the other brain. We will get him. We will get him.

And you feel this psionic bolstering. All of a sudden, this, I'm going to read it out loud. You may wonder who speaks to you now. You gain a psionic dye, a D8. It's basically a bardic inspiration. Whoa. my mind. Every time you use it, you die.

It's just how many times you die. I was going to say that movie, that's a very large spoiler. How many turns until you die? Damn. My brain explodes out of my ear. You've been witnessing the dragon, focusing on what to do, feeling the power of this dazed effect going through your body. This entire time, the chaos storm rages all around you,

and it's absolute pandemonium. When you realize, you haven't heard the voice of Sophleth. Sopholith is clearly doing everything it can to try and stop this dragon and has stopped focusing on you. What would have been in a straight fight has now transformed with this additional...

An annihilation? An annihilation? No, it would not have been a straight fight with him. You would have annihilated us in one turn. Oh. We're very lucky that there's a drugging. Well, you do feel a little gratitude towards the Princess of Wrath at this time.

when the ship makes a sudden turn. This time, it turns neither left or right, but straight up, and you are all thrown back at the doorframe, as Sophlet attempts to hurl the Princess of Rath, doing a barrel roll from her perch. Everyone flies to the doorside, taking one D6 for every 10 feet of movement. What?

And the Princess of Rath, but the Princess of Rath does not lose her powerful grip. She doesn't. She's a fucking Bamp. Wait, isn't this the front of the ship? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're all coming towards me. Oh, you're right. It'd be towards the back, right?

Yeah! I get more pressed against the exeterone, I say, I was thinking of the doorside, but you're right. I had my ship slip. But you keep saying the hex is your armaments at the rear of the ship. Well, where do you want to do.

Right, so we would be going towards the front, which would be where Queen is. He does this. Right? Yeah, so this is the rear. Oh, okay. We go this way. Then you all go that way.

Oh, that's a far way you go. I will say, if you run into the brain, you would hit the brain. It is a giant fucking brain. You're not. You're on. You're already on it. So you're gonna fly.

I'm gonna blasted to it and I'm not. I'm doing gobbling things. Okay, I'm super into that. Queenie does fly. You're on your flies. Tishen flies. I would slam into scrimm. Do I kill him? Queenie slams in this.

No, I have a little bit more hit. Flats. I slam into Barnabus. You probably have damage to me. Yeah, I don't think you outright kill him. How many did I go? You went two, one, two, three. Oh, three.

You might kill me if you have the density of a dark star. Is it one D6 for every square? Yeah. Is that what it was last time? It was one, no, no, it's like falling damage. So it's every 10 feet. Oh, 10 feet. So round it down.

So it's one D-6. So Queenie would take one D-X, Tysix, Tysh would take. I'll roll. I would take one D-6. I rolled already. That's on a lot. That's rough. Your near gets fucked.

A second. Oh! Can I try to land on the leeches? That's pretty stupid. Make a straight dex check. No, he had two on them. Oh, straight dex? Yeah.

19, I think. I'll give it to you. You crush the one. You crush the one that was on your thigh. You look down and you're like, maybe if I angle my body a certain... Where's the rice go? Oh, fuck.

It's all over here. No, I just moved one and disappeared. Anyway, I'll find it. Disappearing rice? My goodness. Okay. So that happens. That one was right there on the end of the paper.

That was soft of us turn. We're back at the top of the round. The Princess of Wrath scurries further up the side of the ship to more closely examine the hexature armament, and you see her eyes widened with curiosity. She bends her head down in an instant and bites and wrenches the artifact free in one deft movement, gripping the hexature armament between her fangs like a cigar. Behind her, a brilliant blue fissure in the snowstorm sky emerges with a flash and a boom.

The Princess of Wrath releases the ship's hull from her graph and gracefully falls backwards through the opening before it crashes closed. The Princess of Rath has vanished. And just as suddenly as she arrived, the ancient white dragon is gone. And in the same moment, so too does the invulnerable shield protecting Sopholeth pop out of existence. She didn't even bring us a bottle of wine or anything. Just gone. Crashed our party and then bounced.

Stole our hexagonal arm, then bounced. Yeah, I had hoped to change you. And you can actually, in this emotionless voice here, frustration for the first time, just in the slight stilted cadence of what Sophilith transmits to you now. To witness your transformation into powerful thralls, I am left now with no choice. The Hexature armament must be retrieved, and there are plenty of humans below.

This game is over. I am left with no other option than to destroy you so I can pursue my purpose. Such a waste. Sotheleth begins to rise up. out of the brine pool. You can see the liquid dripping down. You can see underneath it,

these writhing tentacles now. For the first time, these tendrils that look like huge purple veins immediately begin to spread out and into the room. Oh, no. What an awful time to eat in yokey. They look like little brains. A little bit, yeah.

Queenie. Yeah. You're up. Oh, it's my turn. Oh, when the popping happened, everyone who is days just no longer days. That seemed to have dropped. We are on the brain.

You're definitely getting tentacle. I am going to move backwards. Oh, yeah. Does the ship level out or anything? It's leveling out now. And I am going to... I'll take the rings. Does it look like the fairy fire is affecting him,

or was it only affecting the shield? It maintains. I would say that he continues. That Sophilith continues to be under the effects of Ferrymire. I enjoy that greatly. As I will. Andy. If you're going to be the keeper of the conditions.

I am. I've been voluntled. I am then going to cast FABOLTS, and I'm going to produce some FABELTS, 2D4 amounts of FABOLTS. Oh. Five FABOLT. And I'm going to take two of FABOLTS, and I'm going to take two of them. them and fire them immediately. Okay. There's my 20 to hit. The first one is 20 to hit? That hits. Hold on, actually. How do I find my hit this?

I should just make sure. Oh yeah, I got four more left. Okay, okay. So yeah, so it's the first time I've used rift cord and my fable at the same time. So the first bolt, because it is fired from my rift cord, is going to do an additional die of damage. This is really much to find a better way to do this. So it'll do 2D8. It's got a 2 or a 5.

That's a 2. No, that would. 16 points of force damage for the first Faybolt. Nice. I'm going to need to know the types of damage. Force. Force damage all? Yeah.

Oh, shit. Yeah, it's force or psychic, and so it's definitely gonna be force. Why? It's not fair. You wouldn't know. 31? For the next hit. The next hit does 31 points of damage?

No, no, it's 31 to hit. Oh, yeah, yeah, I got, but... No, no, you've seen the AC to such a degree that you then go back into failure territory. For another 10 points of damage. Okay, that's fine. This damage, were they both forced? All of it was forced? Okay.

And then it's also going to do three more points of damage from my Hunter's Mark that's still on it. Okay. Three more? Three more. And then my bees are going to slide in, and they are going to do nine more points of poison damage. Poison damage.

Piercing damage. Okay. That's not great for Softlis. He doesn't enjoy that one bit. Piercing damage? Yeah. It was nine points of piercing damage? Yeah.

Okay. Okay. You are delighted to find that a fleshy brain seems more sensitive to piercing damage than normal carapace or skin or a creature might be. I love that. Love that for this brain. Okay.

That does your turn. And with his first legendary action, Sotheleth will... Actually... One of these tendrils... I'm sorry, Derek. Mm-hmm. Okay, good. No crats.

I'm in advantage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, very far. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, for their first legendary action... Oh. Spell attacks, yeah. Let us fucking go, we're going.

I need to remember how to play this game. Let me just make sure that I'm doing everything, right? What are going to spells on? Yeah, a tendril. Oh. lies out and attempts to grit Barnabos around the waist. That's going to be a 21 to hit. It'll hit.

Okay, you take. Advantage too, right? That you reckless last? Yes. Oh, well, all of the first. Okay, that was more 24. And that's going to be, I need to grab the correct dice now. Just one moment.

That's going to be very little damage. That'll be seven points of bludgeoning damage. All right. That'll be three. And you are grappled by the tendril as it wraps around you because it hits. And you are lifted up into the air by almost like an arm as it continues to lash around 15 feet into the actual air. From the point that you've been trying to hit, you're pulled away. And you'd suddenly realize that there's this purple arm that's grasping you around the belly.

And that'll be your turn, actually. I would imagine as Barnabos is hammering away and Taishan, as the Princess of Rat just tears into it, I'm right there, I guess. I would look at her and I would bow very deeply and I say, I appreciate your services, your grace, as she tears it out. Well, basically that would have happened.

If there was any kind of moment where he could, or basically being an author, I'm almost in awe and reverence for this thing that was basically trying to do the same thing that he wasn't taken. I'm just saying that Barnabot's kind of has a little thumb thumb. As he then gets grit and he turns around, oh, now you're out to fight coward?

You think it's the first technical I've been gripped by. You just saved me a leap and I'm going to just lunge forward to stab my harpoon into the brain. Okay. I don't need to recklessly attack because pollen. Pollan. I think that still hits. Oh, that God for advantage.

You probably plus eight, right? Uh, bubba, but... Yes, I mean, I am. It is... I'm not plus eight. Yeah, plus eight, yep. So it's 17. It's different.

Yeah. 17 to hit? Yes. That hits. Okay. Um, Taishen. Would you say Tai Chen is within five feet of Barnabas at this time? Oh, yeah.

I mean, as if the ship was going, I know it lifted. and whatnot, but like generally speaking. I would have, I mean, the ship were climbing, like, as I cascaded down, it's probably like on Barnabas, probably hanging onto him. As the ship was climbing up in the air. Intelligence saving pro, DC-18.

You can do it. Just again. Just you can. Should we twist? Almost. Yeah, give me. Give me two. Give me two.

I'm dumb as rocks. Who was that one say? 17. Let's fucking go. Is that enough? No, it's 18. right? Did he say... Oh, I was one!

You're at least plus one. Woo! He's got plus one. Okay, we're good, we're good. Let's go. Inbows! Sophanes! Sothilif, seeing the incoming

attack of Barnabot's being as pointy and scary as I'm sure it would be to a giant soft brain like him immediately tries to twist your brain and cause you to compel yourself to jump in the way. And you were only because of the psionic bolstering that Ketch just gave you,

that you were able to steal yourself and realize that, no, no, why would you do that? But there was a moment. No, excuse me not enough for damage. 25, oh, wait, actually, yeah, 25 points of piercing damage. Piercing damage, you are delighted to find that a sensitive, fleshy brain like this, piercing damage, magical or no,

does more damage than you would expect it to. Pump it like a balloon! Oh, I'm going in. I'm going in on this motherfucker. You go in and you do a tremendous amount of damage. Is that the conclusion of your turn? That is the conclusion of my turn. I don't think I have anything else.

You're in here. He'll say Barnabas, stop or I will crush you. Please continue. Be my guest, Fasty. Please stop. No, stop. Stop, Martinus. Please do not do that.

I don't care for any of this. Jokes on you, I'm in the... That's my thing. Is there any damage to the wall at the back of the room when the Princess of Wrath bit from the artifact? Or is our room still totally enclosed and there was no damage?

Do we hear one? No, you wouldn't hear any change in sound until the hole was pierced to your point. But you do look down, and where the hexature arm momentum was, there seems to be a tremendous amount of damage to however magically this ship is propelled. And so there's like a bite out of the back of this orb

that essentially is what has been turning this thing and making it do all these unbelievable maneuvers as you fly around the mountain, well, well, thousands of feet now, perhaps, above Ogerton. Ogerton isn't even visible at this point. And all you can see is the cracky rock side. And looking at the propulsion to this, system, are like lances of electric, almost ice, like lances of arcing and magical energy.

And it's all below us. It's all below you about... Well, we can still see through the ship, right, to see the damage. It's still clear. Yeah. Yeah, you can see, you can all plainly and clearly see the amount of damage that the Princess of Wrath was able to deliver before stealing the artifact and disappearing to who knows where. But we're still completely indoors. There is not a... I won't even make you roll for it. I won't even make you roll for it.

There's not a sign that there is an escape. I wasn't able to pierce through the hole just yet. Is it daytime or night time? It's, uh, I would say it's like dead noon. It's like that's how it's late. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If you were gonna get a strong. Oh, there's a storm hall.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're in storm cloud town right now. Sorry. I had to maintain game state. And also crush your dream. I will see the storm raging around us. You can always count on you. I will say, Olin's kin, grind us the power of storms,

and I'm going to raise my staff and a thunder cloud will sort of roll into the room and I hit the camera. Almost mimicking the storm outside, and you hear thunder going on, and you hear galloping of hooves very gently with like kind of pairs of of legs, just silhouettes as the lightning cracks. And you hear a massive boom of thunder

and a gigantic crack of lightning, almost colored like the Aurora Borealis itself, a strike down on the brain. And I cast it in a fourth level. Let's go. Oh. I have second level spouse. What is that?

What are you doing? Lightning's so cool. That's so cool. If a fourth level, I'm casting that in a fourth. You upcast it? I have got you son of a bitch. You're well done. You roll well.

You're very glad that's- Like, we've got it's an average. It's like fucking the two towers, the flashback when Gandalf smokes the fucking bow-rog. I'll just very briefly say mechanically why that's fucking awesome is because if it had been third or lower, he would have redirected that. Oh no! You should have told us that.

You should not have told us that. Oh, God. Let me just do the math. I think it's 25 points of that. I'm imagining like I. on the cliffs and the thunderstorm. You're like, re-direct. Boom.

Yeah, so 25 points in damage. Lightning damage. 25? Yep. I have to actually get a calculator. He's a Frankenstein. It hits the pool of water he's in and it just like, I still have PTSD.

Yeah. Oh, actually, my father is Frankenstein. I am his mom's. No, it's too late. That's too late. That's fine. You heal the frame aside for 96 points in there. And then with my bonus action, I will... You never healed him. That's it hurts.

Okay. At the end of your turn, he's going to use two legendary actions to cast a spell. I need everyone to make a DC-18 intelligence saving for him. There's no way I splice twice, right? Um, slow. Oh, no. Give me a, give me a two twists, please. Just straight. Natural twit.

Natural 20. Woo! Give me this. Two twists. Give me one twist. There's no way to ask like this. Right. That's how, oh, no, hey, if I did it, you can do it.

No. Twist it. We twist it. It is slow. I called twist it. I'll twist it once. Twice? It's slow.

Okay. I'm slow. I'm slowed. Okay, we'll get, we'll get some slow-toges out here in a minute. Thank you, Chad. Is it? In-s-save. 20.

20-5. Please. Let me grab two slows. I didn't have that real quick. You have my permission rule three. Okay. Okay. You, I know how to play.

It's gonna be. It's gonna say magic effect because there is no slow. Here's two. Cool. Oh, nice. Okay. Everybody else is good? What is slow do? Is it pretty, it's pretty fucking bad, huh?

Not good. It's one of my favorite spells. It does a lot of things. You can only use an action or a bonus action, not both. Your ACs reduced by two. Your speed is halved. And if you try to cast a spell that takes an action, it takes like two turns. And you can't take matches.

If you attempt to cast a spell with a casting time of one action, you roll a D20. On an 11 or higher, the spell doesn't take effect until your next turn. So you have a chance to cast it one turn? Oh, that's not a problem for me. I don't have no spells. I don't have no spells. roll higher than an 11 is right way yeah that's fine well I think Derek rolls oh the castor rolls is it on is it on the condition he he has to roll that does he yeah

it's not a condition it's I'm under I'm under effect oh I've always read it as the person who if the creature attempts yeah you you you're right the castor who rolls to see if you get to castor's roll oh wait well I mean I'm not doing that's slow you know you know You don't have a role, I say. Yes, that's true. It's not the person who is affected by this law. And that's why you want to get, correct. Yes.

So who has slowed, Queenie and Taichin? Yeah. How do you do you really? You have a change, you get to, you get to say, there's a saving throw, I think, at the end of their room. Honestly, of all the people do get affected by slow, it being Queenie is actually really beneficial.

Because it doesn't, the only thing it affects me is I really can't use my bonus action because I get two attacks per action. So I still get that? Yeah. Reduce it to one attack? I think it reduces it to one attack. It shouldn't.

No, it should. Unless it should. says, unless it specifically says so, I don't remember. I believe you get one attack still. I think I have that. Maybe that's, let me change. Of all the people for this to the effect, it's just like.

The tadpoles turn. The one remaining tadpole in the corner tries to go for your near, and with a 19, I believe that you are grasped by the, you might not even notice, but it's crawling up the back of your cape at this point. Yeah, it's crawling up the back. Regardless of the creature's abilities,

it can't make more than one melee or range attack. Yeah. Hmm. Um, uh, that is enough. You are all going to die. Scrim. What we are. This hexeter armor, Michelle, has vanished.

That's right. Scrim faceplants into this fleshy, disgusting, best of a brain. That's right. It's like you fall into a memory foam mattress, but that's been like soaked in, uh... Okay, stop. I'm eating yokey.

That was just hit by lightning. Bonus action. I, hex place curse it. You had already done that. I don't think so. I remember very specifically. He told you at the beginning of the game that you had. Okay, I didn't mark it off here, but hey, if you don't want, you want to just give me that one, that's fine.

I will attack twice, as I am not affected by a slot. It's at advantage, so I'm going to roll all these D-20s. Yeah. I'm looking for 19 or 20. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, that's a high 22 to hit. That hits. Got a crit. Let's go. So I'm gonna roll a total of 9 D4s and one of them is gonna be Fury of the Small. So I will tell you how

much damage. And the one I'm gonna roll the non-crit first because on the crit I get to re-roll as many of the D-4s as I want but I have to take the second I remember it's delightful. So this is my non-crint. 4-5, 6, 7. It's going to be 7 plus 3 plus 5, which is going to be 15. Then these are the crits. I'm going to keep all of those.

2, 4, 7 plus 3 plus 5. It's another 15. I'm going to re-roll the ones. It's like a balloon and something bad happens. For you. 7 plus 3 plus 5. So that's going to be... Oh.

Forty-five. 52 points of piercing damage. 52 points of piercing damage? Yeah, I rolled 15 every single attack. Every single damage attack. 52 points of piercing damage? Yeah, 15 times 3 is 45 plus 7 for fear of the smallest 52. And add your hex blade curse damage?

I did. Oh. That's all included. And is that all piercing damage? Yeah! Yes! Yes! Blood guts and viscera and plane is going everywhere.

So you do 104. And you do 104. Oh my god. Because it's- I'm covered in brain viscrime. Piercing damage, slashing damage, and bludgeoning damage, all, it's vulnerable too. I am completely covered in- I need to get a calculator out one minute. Oh my god.

All right. Crim's gonna take a nap. How's the brain looking? Terrible, actually. It's looking really bad. All of our physical people all do piercing damage. Well, it's all, I mean, he's vulnerable to all of them. woman with all. I thought it was just piercing. Well, that's all we know of as far. I would say that it's bloodied.

And because of that, you hear this telepathic whale for the first time. Whales? No, no, no. You hear a whale, a scream. What can only be if a headache could yell in your mind. And each creature within 60 feet must succeed on a DC20 intelligence saving throw. I'm sorry, DC 18, intelligence saving throw. or be dazed. Do slow impact me on a saving job?

Do we have enough to? Yes. I'm gonna do two. DC's not effective. I got a natural spot. Scrim is the smartest he's ever been, ever. I also got a natural 20. Improzzos!

Yeah, you're fine, you're fine. You somehow are able to release. 22. Take out two for me. Take out two for me. I am rolling on fire. Yeah. I'm rolling better than night.

I have been in combat. Thanks to twist. I fail. That's it. These were straight up. Yeah. Wow. This went very, this turned around.

All right. Barnabu's failed. He's out of legendary action, so Tyshan, you're up. Bartibu's on. So what do you taste? I'm slow. Can you date his token? Oh.

Oh, he's also got something else on. I'm grappled. Yeah, he's probably, I'm so, I'm raffled that dazed. Hold on, hold on. Rappled? Is it? Well, there's power lines,

Stunned. We'll use Stund. Oh, yeah. Yes, that's perfect. Stunned is for dazed. Good enough. Um, what do I do about slow? You make a DC-18 intelligent saving throw to endeavor to throw it.

Okay, okay. What is this thing do again? It's inspiration. Can I just roll this? Can you use it to get the 17 up to the 18? No, I just had plus one. because I'm super smart. I think he's twisted.

Okay, well, if you haven't used your sci-on-fi, you can control this now and add it to the total. She needs it. I just need four. Let's need four. Oh, boy, I love this. You need a four, five, six, seven, eight. I plus one to this?

What's your natural plus to the type? It's plus one in intelligence. What's your modified? Plus one? Yeah. So you're a 14 right now. Yeah, that's 84. Oh, that's right.

Yeah. I can't. Oh, my goodness. You need four, five, six, seven, or eight. I told you that's a majority. That's a majority of the thing. He's wicked schmack. Ah!

It bros! It goes! Yeah. Oh, okay. I'd break the shackles of slow. The fate fucking hate Sopholiff. You clash through, yeah, apparently the fates are no more pleased with Sophilith, and you are Tichin again.

You come back to the speed of the reality around you. Your success screams are one of my favorite things. I agree. I agree. I'm jubilant. I'm jubilant. I'm jubilant. Mesa's feeling jubilant.

This next P.C has done that much. No, the Mesa needs to have Guy flyerries. Oh, my God. That's true. Oh, you know. Well, you know. I mean, I got a bullish store. I'm like, yeah.

He's a white. Because we be a wise guy, like a mom tier. He's to be like one of Gino's nephews. See? For the next honey heist, that he's in your character. Never get me, Kappa. Dude, would Tice shouldn't have the sense that he's looking like real bad? Or like, I take it's bloody.

Blighty means under half-health. Yeah. He crossed a milestone in his health point, arena. I'll cast elemental bursts at level one. Oh. Okay. How does that work? Maybe range spell attack to hit on a successful hit the target takes one deep piercing damage and 1.8 fire damage.

Oh, sir. Piercing damage with the spell. Yeah, so I got him first. Yeah. Plus seven. So three, it doesn't hit. What's your plus? Seven? So it's a ten? Okay. It doesn't twist it.

I mean, you could twist it if you wanted to. Oh, no, no, no. No. When Derek says it like that, don't do it. It is you who will be fucked. Jokes on you. I do not like that. Please don't do that.

The damage that you're doing is causing this unbelievable weird effect in your mind where he'll be in the middle of a sentence. You are nothing compared to, I could crush you with the pinnacle of intellect and power in this world. Like it is actually like skipping in a...

Like changing channels. He's clutching out. He's glitching out. Finish him. Cat Rusty Cat. Oh. Mr. Seine. We have him on Varus.

Go, go! And he flies forward, and he will make... Yeah, he's going to make... He's going to cast Sefer Strike because that's a spell that exists in this game. Is it? Yeah, does a limit break. Yeah, he does a limit break.

He loves a limit break. He carves a square into the air and then Xs it off before doing a backflip and jumping up. Hell yeah. How is you fitting all this in a six seconds? Look at him, go! Cross slash! What he did is bar up?

That's how he did it. Are you serious? 99-99-99-99- How much is that? Why do I not know my own? Okay, that hits. Oh, yeah. And then he does a good stuff.

And that also hits, so he's going to do. What are you talking about? What are you talking about? Tompins. It was limit break in Final Fantasy 7? You know. That's where it comes from, I believe. That's all I was the first one did it, yeah.

Really? Yeah. I don't believe so. I don't think you were right. Isn't it six? I thought there were limit breaks before, but. Maybe. I thought in five there was a limit break. The avarice and excitement.

That's a great word. The vengeance and fury in the eyes of Ket are blind. To use another great word. By his. his graceful movements. Would you say that super blind? Almost dances with this sword,

slicing in and through, creating these huge gashes where you can see the brain just open up and immediately spill out blood. Even though the brain continues to levitate in the air just above this brine pool, you can see slashes carving into him

like a turkey dinner. And he will use his bonus action to, turn to Queenie. You're no longer dazed or confused, are you? You can remove that token, Tyshen. Get yourself together. And you feel the psionic dye that he used, this bolstering, it happened in your mind. You feel that you are going to maybe have a better chance at... Amazing. Yeah. That'll be the conclusion of that turn. Oh, no, it's Sophilith. And it's Sophilip.

Is it a no one? What, Rich? Whose leg is that? What? Something shaking. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. My legs are up in the air. I've got a restless

leg syndrome, Rich. I do. Yeah, actually. Inc for laughing. I haven't seen. Something funny. I'm gonna remember that the next size laughing at.

What are you laughing at? It happened to really. Don't worry about it. God, that's really good. It's unrelated to this. That sounds really funny. It's unrelated to it. Kendrell's lash out, two of them, one in the direction of scrim.

No. That's going to be a 21 to hit. Oh, that misses. Yes, it is. You got me. It does 13 points of bludgeoning damage, and you are now grappled. That's it? That's the guy sucks.

Thank you. Literally begging for. The brain is not what we have to worry about. It's what's gonna happen after we kill the brain. No, Nikki, how can that be true? This thing did 13 points of damage to you. What's what I'm saying? This is like, this is we soft, Derek.

I'm not impressed. You're near, natural 20. You are going to take, you're gonna take 16 points of legend. 16? Yes, and you are also grappled with that grappling. Make sure you succeed your concentration, please.

Yeah. Andy? What do you concentrate? The guy? Oh, yeah, yeah. We're tentacling yornier at this time. I would be honored to tentacle yornear. Blah, blah, blah. Pass.

Oh. You're not a concentration. Yeah, you said. Come on. On a crit. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And the ship turns, but it doesn't slam down.

It doesn't slam down. fly in a direction that would immediately make momentum change for you, the way that he's been intentionally rudely, like, splattering you against the walls and sealing of this enclosed space. But he does start to turn, and you can feel it shifting and moving. Again, it still has that turbulent. The entire left side of the front of the ship, having been frozen and torn away by the massive scream,

the blast of, you know, what's... I'm not laughing at you with this stuff that happened to work earlier. We're all thinking, and I'm just gonna say it. It's a little bit of a bitch. You may think me a bitch. We're turning the ship back to Ogerton now. Let's see how you feel when you are facing thousands of mind-control ogres,

and you can feel that you're beginning to descend back now towards Ogerton. And in that moment, all of the lashes that are connected to somebody, Yeah. Pulse with psychic energy. Oh, okay. All right.

All right. So those are, we're grappled. Yep. You are, if you are grappled, psychic energy courses through them and essentially races through your body doing an additional 11 points of psychic damage to Yornear Scrim and Barnabose. Derek, I was just kidding. You know, this is a very, very challenging fight. You don't have to, you know, I just be cool, man. Just be cool, yeah.

Just chill out. And I am going to roll. I am going to roll a D6. Okay. Just like a Dragon's Breath weapon, he gets a recharge of that mind obliteration ability that he was able to be able to. That's nice. Cool.

And he gets a five. I'm doing my best. That's the conclusion of Soft Let's turn. He's still doing okay here. Everything's looking good here. It's the top of the round. This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com.

legends of Aventress, and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas, Shroud over Saltmarsh. You can also go to the crooked moon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tone for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, and don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. Should we just roll for Queenie or should we roll for Queenie?

Yeah. I'm trying to decide if I should run Queenie. I've got her character sheet here. Oh, if that is perfect. Okay. Yeah, perfect. Perfect. Especially if you have all the sheets.

I will. I will do the voice. I've got the character sheets here. So Queenie is continued to be slowed. So she'll have to deal with that mechanically. Oh yeah. At the top of the round, we're going to have what I believe is called a layer action. Gosh.

Um, I mean, you don't have to. You just skip over it. I really didn't meet all those mean things I said about a boss fight. Derek. I didn't mean it when I said soft was a little bitch. I never said those words. That never came out of my mouth. I plead the fist.

You thought them, though, and he can hear you. No. You may choose. You may make an intelligent saving throw against soft lifts, saving through, uh, saving DC. Or, and if you fail, have disadvantage, on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws. But when you make those rolls,

you can take one psychic damage to increase by one if you need to. So, like, as an example, if you roll out of 15, you could take three and go up to 18, and just by the very merit of pushing through sheer willpower style. That's option one. But that's only if we fail the inch. Only if you fail the inch. Okay.

In check or one point per. Is it all 18 again? Yes, these are old. DC 18. So you have the choice. Make the in-check and nothing, or a disadvantage on all abilities, but you have the ability to get up to the DC if you want to make up the difference in psychic damage. Or you just take a flat 3D6 psychic damage right now. Oh, God. I have statistically beaten this so many times. I think it's foolish for me to try again.

That's what a cross. A scream! Scroom would never back down from a gamble, my friends. I'm just. I'm just, Taking me in, roll. You got this? I can miss it. I'm on a hot streak. I got a sub. Okay, so you're going to be in the strange disadvantage round

of psychic damage. I'm going to get my brain. As your mind is suppressed by Sophilus, who is clearly losing what an Eldridge creature of this kind's patience would be. So disadvantage on skill checks only. No. One of every.

has attack rolls and saving throws. Is it too late for me to change them? Yes. Damn it. Attack rolls. Yornear. What does Yornear choose as this mind suppression effect immediately waves and washes over you?

Can you restrain it as one more time, the trade-off? Yes, you get a DC-18 intelligence saving throw. If you succeed, nothing happens. If you fail, you get essentially exhaustion three, where you have disadvantage on all ability to checks, attacks, and saving throws. But you can make up the difference with psychic damage. One point per extra point.

in the sculpture. Or you just take a flat 3G6 right now. Yeah, we'll take the flat 3G6 right now. Oh, we'll roll. Yeah, 21. Oh, 21? Nice. Oh, I would tighten up my insides. I got goosebumps. I got goosebumps.

21. Okay. Did you see it like? Yeah. Yeah, it was literally almost like a, oh. That's 10,000. That was a little greasy. It hit this and then it comes back to something. Okay, Barnabot's, what are you thinking in terms of your choices here?

As you sort of get to pocket this, uh, since, station that Sofellus sprays out in all directions into one corner of the other. I'm doing the safest option. So that's to roll. That's a take 3D6. I'm taking a 3D6. The safest option is just take the 3D6. I'm going to take 3D6.

Provided you roll low. If you roll really high to 18 points of damage, there's a chance that you're taking much more up front. No, I'm rolling the psychic damage. Are you resisted to it? No. But I still, I still want to do it.

If you want to do them separately, you can. I will do them separate. Keep going. Here's the thing. Because if you're, like, low in and you have to make up that, you're going to take, like, seven points right off the back. You know what I mean? Like, and then you're going to have to do it.

You take 12 psychic damage. Okay. All right, that's a little high. Him? Ty Shen. That was me rolling for you, Ty Shen. Oh. Are you taking the psychic damage?

I'm taking it as well. Okay. I am giving you, um, oh, uh, seven. Seven. That's pretty good. You got away very, very, that's good. 12's a little high. It's a rough.

It's a rough. It's a rap. But here's the thing. If you roll like a three on a must-make-saving group, you're taking like 15 up front. That's the check. It's already so hard to hit the insaves that if I had disadvantage on everyone,

I'd never pass it. Trust me, Andy knew what he wanted to do. Scrim's an idiot. Queenie is up. She is going to attack twice. That's going to be, well, if you had those two together, it'd be a natural 20. But she hits once and then she hits second time.

Yeah, she's slowed. She's slowed. Oh, only one attack? Only one attack. Okay, so the first, she hits through with the first one, and she will do two, because, uh, four, because it's going to be force damage now. And that's going to look like, um, memento. I am learning how to be a ranger. Oh, did we think folks? We did. Oh, we did that. Oh, we did that. Oh, it's one to eight. Very cool. I didn't realize that.

And the icebound challenges. That's going to be seven. 13 points of piercing damage, which is 26. She does 26 points of piercing damage to the vulnerable brain getting us to that level. And she's slowed. So she can only attack in her speed is half. Or she gets a saving throw. Oh, she gets a saving throw. Thank you. You're welcome. She does not succeed, unfortunately, but she is going to use her half movement to move back. And her speed is is 35, so move her back 15 feet. Yeah, yeah, she'll back up right there. This is stopped, right?

This is a doorway? Yeah, the door is, the portal is held by some magical force, let's say. So as far back as she can go. That's as far back as she goes, as she takes another, slowly takes another arrow out of her quiver and says something excellent and queenie-like.

That'll be the conclusion of return. And Barnabas. It's just like stopping green. grapes and wine season. Wow, that's pretty good. Martaos, you're up. I am just going to say, you should have dropped me,

now I'm even closer, and I'm just going to keep, I'm dazed, but I can just take damage and just, I'm just to keep taking damage and go, ham, right? You get one free action, and then for every action after that you take one Jesus.

So I don't need to move. I just want to fucking smack the shit out of them. You get to roll the saving throw first. You mean saving throw. I fail. Okay. I'm going to roll, I'm going to attack twice. Okay.

That's a hit. Second attack. It's also pollinated, too. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, both will hit. Definitely, yeah. And I'm going to do... As the first attack comes in,

Yeah. Tishan, you feel another prick in your mind. Oh, boy. I need you to make an intelligence saving throw. But it's not a disadvantage, so there you go. I have to hit an eight. You can do it. Don't roll, big, don't roll yet.

It bros. 14. Damn it. You got to twist twice. Yes. You needed a 10 in front of that. Come on, one more. One more.

One more. No. One shot. No. I was excited for a second by the sounds of the screen. That was the good note. You should use the good note when it's bad. Yeah.

Your first attack will hit Tyshen because Tyshen. Wait, what did you roll for the hit? Uh. It was a 16. It was a 16. It was a 16. Yeah, it was a lot. 20-something, something.

It's kind of like when you go to the doctor and they do the reflex decks, all of a sudden you just jump in front of you were compelled by this psychic push and you are jumping in front of an anchor swinging down. So the first damage, but the second old attack, the lead. You got a soar with the evil.

11 points of piercing damage. Mr. Fireblossom, what are you doing? Oh, I didn't mean to do that. Oh, you're a mad lad! And then you crunch into the brain. So then that'll actually... Does that hit? What?

So it does hit, but is it hit hit? Is anyone else going to jump in front of my anchor? And is there anyone within five feet? No, no, no, no. Okay. So that would be... The first one hits Sysha, the second one more. 15 points of piercing damage.

Fifteen points of piercing damage. If it pleases the DM. It does not please the DM. No, no, no. Well, it doesn't please us off the defendant. It pleases Derek. And that's the conclusion of your turn. Is that? That's all I can do.

Scrim, Yornear, and Barnabos are still grappled. Grappled. He's going to use another psychic lash, and you are all struck by 11 points of psychic damage as the tendrils once again energized as he's trying to squeeze the life out of you through the psionic energy that courses through these vainy tendrils. Yakes. Okay, that hurt. I didn't feel it. No. I don't care for it. It's very good. I gained one. I don't like it.

I don't like it. I'll try it. I'll like it. He'll say, you think you can defeat me. You are all fools. You're near you go. Once again, I will raise my staff up and slam it on the ground and as it hits the floor. Another crack of lightning will come down. Thunder! electric. Oh.

Okay. Thunder. What level of spell is this? Dunder. What? What is the spell? Four. It's still the same spell.

Yeah. Get, rat. It's a concentration spell. I don't want to do it. Oh, it's a concentration spell. And I had a layer action called Shatter Concentration.

Oh. Well, yeah. It's a lot of the concentration. Would you like to heal me 11 points and do that instead? No, you can't. You've already done it. Touch piece, move, piece.

There. No, no, lightning it up. I wonder, does him being in a, or it being in this, like, pool, or is he floating above the pool entirely? The brain has largely left the pool, and, like, only, like, drips are, like, the foot and a half or so between, you know, two American footballs away from the top of the prize. I was hoping it could be, like, biowshock when I'm trying to save ammo, and you, like, just shoot once and you run away to a puddle when you, like, lightning plasma in it. Oh, that's a classic move. Classic. Oh, deck saving throw.

I don't know if you can dodge a lightning bowl. I mean, his decks is pretty bad. Oh, my God. Okay. I am a very agile brain. It's a rolling hot fire. Oh, wait. It's a jrtle and doolingo.

What happens if I succeed? Can you take half? I think you get no damage. I think it's kind of get fucked. Maybe not. I think it's half. Oh. But I could be wrong.

That's how it was the smell I use. Unless the brain is a rogue. He evades. He's fast. Yeah, half as much on a success. I'm going to take half as much. Oh. He manages to resist, having learned his lesson the first time,

feels this lightning blast come and hardens itself for a moment, and you notice that it does less damage than you would expect. So instead of 30, he will take 15. Sophilith may not be a Frankenstein, but he is a brain, and brains are power on electricity, so he does heal and his neurons. Oh, that's a great idea. Shit. I mean, I wasn't a no. I'm kidding. I'm a shambling elder brain now. How does skirmook? Um, fucked up. I would say he's not like actively bleeding, but he looks beat up. He looks tired. You can tell that he's a little, he's breathing heavy. He's a little slower than normal.

I'm not like he's not like actively bleeding, but he looks a little, he looks a little beat up. I will cast healing word as a bonus action with my, yeah, I guess with my available bonus action, I will say, take this rejuvamation and, I don't know, rejuvenation is the word. Oh, if you were interested at all. How much psychic damage did I do? That wasn't Coquiney, was it? Oh, no, we're going to forget. If you're interested, Barnabos has created a kebab, a Tishun kebab as it appears.

Oh, yeah. Oh, no. It's a delicacy in some parts of a antress. Dragonbor and Elder Dragon Bon Bon Good. That's the turn. And I'm restrained. Can I do anything to get out of it?

Or will that be an action? Yeah, it's a classic grapple. The DC is much lower because it's based on its strength. I use my action already. So I'll just heal. So I use it at a third level. So I guess it's 3D4. Three, yes.

You heal four. Big money, Max. Good God. 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 17. That's huge. That's massive. Oh, after impaling Tai Shia, I just thought of the thing. Why are you trying to turn yourself into Draco yaki?

My point. That's not good. That's canon now. Singular tadpole. A singular tadpole crawling up very slowly, your nears cape. And I will now roll. He won't be able to feel that. What's your AC?

My AC is 16. Do you have a very strange sensation? As you are looking forward, you are summoning this lightning that's happening. You're watching everyone else race around, and you feel a squeezing a hug of this tendril around you, when all of a sudden it's like something goes out of your ear. It's like almost covered, almost like just that one ear is underwater. moment when you feel this invasive feeling of tendrils start to scrape and go into your actual earhole. And what was this tadpole? Squeezes and pushes through into your ear and you realize

with a clasp against the side of your face too late that this tadpole has entered into your skull. This is so bad. I've made the longest mistake. This is really bad. Your ear and Richie forgot about the worm. of the tadpole. Oh, no. You even said last round, you were like, oh, with everything going on, I don't even remember it.

Like, I don't even recognize it. The sound comes rushing back to your ear, and suddenly you can hear the screams of your friends, the sound of the cacophony around you, the battle. But for that brief moment, a painful, sharp piercing feeling, gone. Whatever it was, corrupt up your back and is now somewhere in,

side of your head. I don't like that. It's a good thing you guys killed the rest. I mean, it's really disgusting very quick way. How do you? What a nightmare. Do you have restoration?

Scrim. I'm grappled by the brain, but am I still within stabbing distance? He hasn't moved me? I would say, have you been using your reach to attack? I have the reach, but it doesn't, I haven't been using it. You're held right next to it.

You'd be able to swing forward and get it with the edge of your blade. This is still affected by Ferry Fire. Yes. I'm making two more attacks. Please do. But my attacks are disadvantaged. So it's just straight. So straight out.

I'll just roll two guys. This time is in the four. They're both going to hit, but I didn't get any crits. The lowest one is a 21 to hit. That hits. Wow. All right. Wow, those were both... Wait, is Fairy Fire Fire still on?

But I'm just... Oh, sorry, sir. So I'll just make two attacks. Bangal Shandong. Uh, skill check attack, roll, saving throws. Yeah, okay. It's pretty good. That's gonna be eight plus three plus five.

Eight plus three plus five is, is 17. Six. Did that sound like money from Abba? Yes. That's literally, that's... Whoa. Uh, 29 total. 29 total points of damage put into attacks.

Oh, wow. So that's, oh wow, okay. So Ruff joined the above. He's starting to look rough. You're slashing into him and flaps are starting to hang down from what face there is of the elder brain. You can see the damage being done by all of your companion. The ripples of brain matter being what they are.

Feel like rivers going down a mountain filled with blood, gushing down and, filling into the green, bright, neon green of this brine cool and creating upside down clouds almost as they splash and drip. That's my whole turn. I'm just stabbing the shit out of this thing. I will.

Do animorphs have a small thing? Taichshed. Don't know. Yes, she's out at you. At me? At you. That's right. And it's not even going to come close.

You manage to dodge out of the way. Your wits now about you as you are, injured by Barnabas' attack and the strange impulse that suddenly came over you. There's, we would say that was there's no sun out, right? There's no sun. Got, got. It is daytime, but it is the equivalent of overcast.

And you are, if you had gotten high enough above the clowns, certainly there would be sun above because it is that time of day, high noon, let's say. But it is now descending now, and you are watching the front of the ship, Snow flurrying forward as you are heading what presumably about back towards Ogerton. To quote, the legendary captain, Briggs you the Cutlass Crash. I think he means get fucked.

We'll stand it. Yeah, he just used slightly more words. I look towards Sopholith and I pull my right fist back and edits at right at the knuckles, an orb of flame pools together wrapped in in wind and force. And I pull it back and say, we gave you so many chances. And now you can never go home. And as I'm about to strike out with an elemental burst and I say you can never go home, I get flashes of who he was before Softliff.

flashes of what they did to him, flashes of maybe the millennia of time from where he was, where he is now, and I think of home. And as the red hot flame burns at my fist, when I would normally punch it out, I slowly extend, it turns gold. And the head of a of a serpentine dragon forms. as it extends out from my fist, it moves slowly towards him, jaws open, and I cache banishment.

Oh, it's like Chang-Rouffay. Oh, it is like Chang-Rouffey. From the 1994s he was going to... You caused to Derek, I think. Which is a charisma. Honor and battles, and I will defeat you. And battles.

Holy shit. What are the implications of this? Is a charisma save 15? Should you decide to do so? He's a resistance lock, sir. Should he decide to do so? He's the Almighty Derek, okay. If the target is native to a different plane of existence

than the one we are on, it is banished and returns to its home plane. His wisdom saving throw is plus eight. Well, it's charisma. Oh, it's charisma. It's plus four. He rolled a five. I'm going to use a twist thread.

Oh my God. It's a lot of former. It's just a threat. It's a dread. Oh. It's another five. It's fate. I'm going to ignore this.

You are all desperate in these final motions. What is clearly the, actually, you know, I have things to say. You were all speeding towards victory. Feeling on the edge of and despite all that's happening around you, all of the crushing

psychic damage that you're taking, these tendrils grappling onto you, the experience that you just had your near as a something alien entered your mind. You are all hurting and you watch as Taishan's energy punches forward

and it consumes Sofleth. How would you like to do this? I, instead of punching out with my fist, I'd like to slowly extend it and open to an open palm as the dragon rushes forth from it. Its jaws unfurl as it swirls around,

loops up, and then crashes its, closes its maw around Sofolith. and it would explode into gold flame, and he would be banished to his home plane. Nothing but sparkling. What was sort of yellow pollen glow from Queenie's fairy fire, the disgusting acre that was dripping down.

There is no moment of dropping where it splashes into the brine dramatically and then drops. Instead, this maw captures and passes almost through Sofflin, and blinking for a moment looking through this golden light, you realize softleth is gone. The reverberating sound in your mind,

this speech that bubbled up from the surface of your memories, is gone instantly. There's not even a pop or a satisfying vacuum sound of something suddenly not being there and not. Whatever Taishan has done has instead taken Sofleth, softlet away. I have so many thoughts.

Oh, my God. This has, oh, he learned from the best. Yeah. Oh, let me shake your hands. The three of you who are grappled, dropped to the floor, really, crunching into the ground, and you are suddenly, land, and all is quiet. The spells, any confusion or daziveness in your mind,

also leaves with Sopholeth, the elder brain, going to some other world, some other place, some impossible place, and you can see Ket turn. But what that's happened? What this happened? This is some kind of trick. Where did he go? What did you do?

To kill him? Is it destroyed? No. I sent him home. Separated from the ship. I sent him back from where he was made

you did what I banished him from this plane what does that mean is it still alive is it going to die I mean it was in pretty rough shape

we were so close we were so close is it not destroyed that's not how it works can it survive out of the that I don't know. I don't know.

I just... I was ready to strike him down, and I just kept thinking of everything he'd been through it. I couldn't stop. I could see it in my head the moment when they changed him, when he had no choice, when they took everything there was from him, like they did to your family, Kett,

and I sent him home. I mean, what happens next? Can it just come back? I mean... Yes, it'll be back, yes? I've never cast this spell before. It's new to me. I don't know.

I've never... You've never done this before, and you chose now to test out something like that? I've never done a lot of things before. Oh, Ty Shen, of all the bone-headed shit, you've pulled in the last three months. I'm going to say it looked dead to me. He was consumed in golden dragons fire,

and I don't think he can survive that, right? Mr. Fireblossom? If he dies, it deserves to die at home, not on a distant land, filled with ice and death and horror. It deserves nothing. Oh, I can't believe what I'm hearing.

I can't believe this. Come on, all right. You're on here. Come on. Give us some ruin action here. Tell us, wheel or whoa, give us something. Come on. No, what's going to happen? No?

You feel? And you feel this shifting feeling under your feet. And it's turning. There's a sound that's starting to get louder and louder all around you. And this ship has no pilot. Don't you understand? Don't you understand? We're in free fall.

Okay, can you point in it? Aren't you special mind powers guy? There's no controls here. There's no way for me to control the ship. So this is it? This is how we all die. What was your plan? No, we're not dying here.

To die! Your plan was to die? To get vengeance for my people? To avenge my son? Ah! The orthocon! The what? Excuse me. Come again.

The orthocon. In the bottom, the lowest level, they ship the escape pod. The escape pods. Can you fly those? Fly yes. Land, no. Let us go right away. Can we just let the ship crash into the ground or we're roodling towards everyone?

Do you all have to say you may? Mr. Fireblossom? I live to the end of the day. Any hope of that? You certainly send that out. fucking window. We are going to have a long discussion about who deserves to die where and fucking how. While Barnabos is yelling at Taichenne, you just hear scrim's feet running for the biscuit pot I fucking take off. You race forward and there's a big drop because you,

my apologies, there's a sealed door behind you. So you actually hear blah, blah, blah, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang as I'm like trying to bang on the door. You start to do this you realize whatever had been sealing that, it's going to take some effort to move out of the way. Out of my waist cream. I'm literally gonna smack you out of the way. As I will put both of my hands and then all of the crab legs, this is your flavor,

all of my crab legs will then start to shift as my legs will reform as they'll shift up to my back and then they'll all go in and I'm just gonna just, I will not let a door be the death of me know this day. You carry an anchor as a weapon. You're not even going to need to roll for it. You slide them apart, and you all see going down the same ladder that you ascended, the bridge, going down to the next lowest floor.

You start to make your way down there. It is starting to, you can hear this sound all around you, reverberate, and the turbulence is terrible. I need everyone to tell me how they are getting to the lowest floor to the orthocone as quickly as possible. Is the ship doing this? It feels like it's doing a little of, let me just see if I can do this. This, like it is starting to go down, but it's not going down like this. It is going down. It's going down. Oh, no. Like a helicopter crashing. Like a helicopter crashing. Perfect. Anachronism. Yes.

Um. Barnabos, you've got these crab legs, certainly. How are you making your way? What is do you do to get down to the orthocone as quickly as possible? I would say, who is weak and who needs a hand? Grab onto me. We'll scuttle on down as quickly as possible. And I'll obviously call out to grab whoever's looking weak and needs help to basically just grab them and drag them down as I'm scuttling.

I'll then using another, basically going back to my legs and just for my back because I'm just going as quickly as possible. And scuttling down and taking whoever I can along the walls, whenever I can, whatever I Ken do, trying to remember exactly where it was. Kent is well ahead of you. He is actually able to, and he had not been using this ability, but step. You see him shift and blast forward,

and then run another couple steps, and then start to do a flip and then disappear down a ladder and land safely and make his way. He's very graceful in these movements. Tyshan, how are you keeping up? I would go with Barnabos if he'll have for me. I had jumped on his back or whatever. the crab leg? Are they off your back right now?

Yeah, either that or I will just say, we're gonna have a conversation. I was gonna drag you by the scruff. So you're actually with. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We can have whatever conversation you'd like once we make it out of this. I said until all my enemies were destroyed, Ty Chen, what did you not understand? I cast throbbing bones on Barnus.

Oh, I crossed my legs. Oh, I'll have the crab legs. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh. Um, Shrimmson is like middle school. Um, no, I'm kidding.

I don't do that. I am, I'm dexterous. I'm very dexterous. I'm quick. I'm small and I'm quick. And I have no problem sliding down the shipmash from the bucket. And I have no problem doing these things.

So I am just moving as quick as I can. Wherever there was like a railing or wherever there's a ladder, I don't climb down it. I do like the slide down. the side of the ladder. I slide down a pole here or there. I take risky jumps when possible, even if I might take a pointer damage to you here,

and I am just scrambling. So I'll say acrobatics or athletics, acrobatics for you, Mikey. How are you contributing? Maybe to just, just, oof. As he's focusing on running, I'll be like on its shoulders, like on the look, ah, look I'm falling debris, falling debris.

So wisdom, perception. Yonir, how are you endeavoring to get down to the Arthaconan? As everyone has mostly left, who's still with me? Who's still there? Right now, you've already watched them go like 60, 100 feet down into the balance of the ship. Only Queenie and you are catching up with them. I'll turn to Queenie and I'll say, I will not die a host. I've become a host to a parasite.

you should go. Do not wait for me. If I make it, I will join you. I would like to wait for Queenie to leave, and then just you can come back to me. I'm not going to leave you. I can get out of here, quick as I can, if something more to happen.

Family doesn't leave family behind. Then take a step back. And I'm going to crack my staff on the ground and a lightning bolt from the storm that's still there will strike me. I'm going to try to, like, jump out of the way and take half damage as possible, like, you know, in a mechanical sense, but I would like to try to electrocute myself and hopefully kill the parasite in my brain. Okay. So.

You take a moment to do this. Great idea. Great idea. You know what? Whatever you do. No? He rolls Max Day. It's fate.

No, I think it's fate. I think it's fate. I fail. I'm gonna take full damage. Oh, yeah. It's more dramatic, anyway. I am so glad that you thought of this. Okay, I rolled lower than my other two. Your other two are bangers. This was still a good amount of damage. 16 points of lightning damage, I will take.

You do what you can to silence the pain within you, but you feel the frying nature of this lightning course through all of the nerves in your system. And, uh, Queenie, you witness this terrible, uh, vision of Yornear. Somehow,

the small amount of whispering pain that comes from his mouth is more horrible than many screams you've hurt because of how stoma key typically is. Yarnier, you are hurt. You've had this terrible experience of fighting Sophilith. You've gone

through so much psychic damage. And, it's, I needed to make a perception check. Let's get a good one here. This is going to be such a tasty you don't know if it were... Oh! Is it? That whole fucking clever.

Well done. Before I can even finish my thought, you just cracked it out. You feel inside for a moment. You almost get into a meditative state. It doesn't seem like there's anything inside you. Let's fucking go. As I'm getting shocked, I sort of fall to one knee holding onto my staff and I'll feel that it's not there I will not move

away from him no he had said I will reach out and I would like to use my ranger abilities to sense whether there is something inside of him he's missing because I should be able to do their operations right yep and so I should be able to tell there are operations inside of him and then depending on. Do you reach out with your ranger senses, and you remember the first time you had the sense of aberrations, and it didn't make sense at the time.

You were just in Ogerton. You were trying to figure out exactly what was going on, and that didn't make sense of you. Now you know exactly. It was the presence of these mind flares, the presence of the elder brain sopholeth, and perhaps even the presence of these tadpoles, and you can look over and see this empty skull,

this empty skull filled with now duller green of Brian and you even see that there are more tadpoles that are starting to crawl out and starting to make their way. Don't even think about it. I don't have time for you. And you get the sense that there are aberrations nearby.

I'll just look at Queenie. As I stand up. You know it may still be in there right. If it gives I know what to do. No, you don't. Don't go on martyr on me. we'll fix this and you know we will

trust in us, all right? I'll nod slowly. And I'm going to cast cure wounds at a second level. Oh, that's nice. You feel the hand, the soft, small hand of Queenie touch your shoulder

or elbow and this magic brings you hope, brings you healing, and brings you a renewed will to see if she's right? 16. 16?

Thank you. I'm imagining like that. As this is happening, we find our way to the bottom, the lowest level of this Nauteloid ship, and you already see in the first and frontmost seat, Ket Rustin sitting there, and she is furious, concentrating, wiping tears from his eyes, but clearly flipping switches, essentially, attempting to get and ready the escape pot for what it's worth.

And behind, there are five seats. The three of you can find immediately and easily. But looking back behind you, for a moment, there doesn't appear to be yorny or queenie. That was the first thing that I would notice is once I hit the door and I look to the other two. I look over my shoulder and say, where the fuck of the other two? Weren't they right behind us? I thought so. Thought so too.

Fuck! You have to get in. There's no time. We are flying at the... Who knows what's... We could hit at any moment. We're not leaving them. We have to wait.

I'll scut it off and just to make sure that they're coming. I will give you 10, 20 seconds, and then I will be on my way. Uh, I... As you... As Kett says this, I... Like holding an elevator door with my body. I will step between the ship and the escape pod with the door to my back and lean against it.

Like I'm holding an elevator door with my body. This is this long like toboggan like sled almost, right? And then there's the what is clearly the rear bottom layer. You're leaning up against that door with the orthocone end of the door between you? Yep. Thank you for just clarifying those details. And I just look at him. And I'm like, go on a bus.

20 seconds. And as I'm scuttling off, if I was going to stay behind if I had the chance to save those cowards and cutthroats on the more bound, I'm not going to leave behind Miss March and Mr. Yorne here. And I will try to basically go in the direction and I'll bellow out. Miss March! Mr. Yonier, where are you? And I would say at this point, both of you have started making your way down and are probably passing through the floor where the organ is. Just one more ladder. You hear the shouting scream over the increasing.

hectic sound of the sound of the sound of the ship and the storm all around you. How do you respond? Before we start to leave, I would look up and acknowledging what Queenie said. I'll say, I will do so. But know that I will not die to enable the metamorphosis of something so unnatural, such an abomination. And you don't have you. And I'll hear Barnabos, but for the sake of the others, to go with rabbit's haste, and I will transform in a glow

into a little white Arctic hair, and they'll look up, and I will leap and start and start out. How much do you have Arctic hair away? Oh, nothing, nothing. I will see this, and I'll immediately whistle out. All right, bees, do your best, and they're going to turn into their mage hands scoop us both up and fly us. Oh, I mean, it would be,

you're cruising faster than anyone else. Yeah, and so very easily you guys ride, it's like those fucking chairs in the movie. I want them to take the shape of a honeypot and we're just like sitting in the honey pot as it flies. It's like in Wally, those fucking chairs. Like all of a sudden you just have like picked up by this huge hand that flies you through the different corridors

and that's what you see as your near end or rather, Queenie, and a bunny. And I just, I have your neer on my lap. Yeah, suddenly fly past the ladder and it emerge to you and you all three see this vision. By the lady. Thank her and her infinite wisdom for dragon kind and for be kind. It's good to see you.

Don't tell me you've lost your air legs. Hot touch of faith! Get in, get in, get in, get in, get in, get in. I just calm down. And as I get in, The legs will sloop into my body. I'll grab my shell in one hand and my flask in another, and I'll say, my lover, my sea and my sky,

see us through this, and you'll see her the as the familiar large mantere wings will grow out of my back and wrap around me as I sit into the pot. Danny or y'all have the ability to amplify a voice. Not me. I just got these lungs. Hold on, hold on, hold on.

I would like to buckle up while they're looking. Yes, you do find what a community like a buckle. You see Ket, Tyshen, you'd see the back of his head. You're about one seat behind, and you see him look forward, and the pods that you initially passed when you were were first going through this level of the ship, you can see that he was true to his word, that there are mind fliers all pushed up against the glass, having been suffocated therein, having him sabotaged all of them, including the one he indicated to be his son, and his eyes

lock onto that. And you hear words in the language you do not understand, whispered in apology. The words don't matter, but you feel the sorry. behind them. And then a hand reaches down his hand and pulls a lever and the back of the ship pulls away where all of a sudden there was a hall there isn't because there is a opening.

The back flies open and all of a sudden snow and flurrying weather fly into this open space and you disappear through and out of the off of the ship and you are flying in no space. at all. You can see the ship almost disappear. You can still keep your eyes on it, but for a moment, you're just spinning around your own self and feeling the control, the turbulence, as, as

a catrazine tries to do right, tries to get close. And for a moment, he does, and you see the side of the mountain immediately start to approach, and he tries to up it, but it is the ship designed as an escape pod in the Astral Sea, not designed for this atmosphere. And you Bounce against the side of the mountain side. You each take, and I need you to roll for yourself and subtract 1 D6 bludgeoning damage. As you skip across the side of a rock and smash into this space, you continue to fly up.

And for a moment, you were like a skipping stone on the surface of a water before all of a sudden you see a flat outcropping just on the side of the mountain, and you slam into it, spinning in all directions, before crashing again. I needed to take another 2D. bludgeoning damage as you slam into the side of the wall coming to a harsh and brutal stop. Only the sound of the storm surrounds you for but a moment.

But you are not on a ship that is going down. You are no longer flying in this escape pod experience, having for a moment only the panic and terror of not being in control of this free fall. and as much as your heart is beating in your chest, you are alive, it seems, barely. What do you all do? Sound off, is anybody dead? On the first head, you would have heard of, as I ship back in the glow, in the urinary,

and I'm probably all like, you know, probably like a dumb morrow when you kill rap. And I would shift back forcefully, and I will, sort of brush myself off and get up, and I'll look around. And I guess, I'm guessing, do I find Tyshin unconscious? Yeah, you do. Ket jumps out of the seat and jumps over to the edge of the cliff and races forward, and

his eyes are locked on what is clearly still the falling Nautiloid ship, beginning to dip down. And you can see for the first time since you, for some time. And since you left it, you can see the city of Ogerton just below it. Yornear, can you handle him? I'll nod. Ken. Do these things have any kind of loudspeaker or anything at all on them?

Do you know? This is not, no, no, no, no. I know for a fact this is not the way. I will reach down and I will put my hand on the side of Tyshen's face and it'll sort of glow with the warmth of a campfire as I cast cure wounds, giving you some amount of hit points and I'll turn. I can summon the noise of a great beast, but that is the most I can do.

Do that for me. Right now. I will get up finishing a healing you for some amount of damage, so you're fine. You take three plus five. You take eight damage. No, you take eight damage. Oh, God.

And he's a scooter. It's a crit that's too failed safe. How do I get out of this? Just give yourself healing. It's automatically get you out. Is it eight points? Yep. Kett didn't look when you asked.

He answered factually, but his eyes are locked on the ship in not reverence and fear almost, but just trying to drink it in. Drink in the sight. Is this your city here? I will say, I will immediately from my mouth, it will sort of I'll purse my lips

and almost like magically you will see almost like the spectral just for an instant sort of glimmer the shape of a mammoth as I go let's fucking go and I will as loudly as I can and as loud as a full blast mammoth cry would be

I will shout that into the winter air. The sound reverberates. I will command my bees to create a funnel around my mouth in the hopes that it will amplify my voice at least a little bit. And Queenie will call out, Princess Arath, you are supposed to protect this place. And that is all of the people of Dakar. If you are out there, help them. You shout into the storm. you shout the mammoth scream.

You are only just coming to Tishan. Barnabot's scrim, you are both watching, and Ket is watching the same as this Nautiloid ship continues to go down, and the sound rumbles and reverberates across the side of the cliff, across the side of this mountain, enough to actually dislodge whatever ice was underneath the orthocone, and it actually crumbles and falls to the side. You're only able to just pull yourself onto the ice,

and you watch as the spinning Nautoloid ship, the dominant mind mindlessly descends and spins through the torrenting snow. The front of the ship disappears through the veil first and then followed by the enormous shell-like back you brace yourself for what you know will happen next. The Nautiloid ship crashes into Ogerton and the charged propulsion helm explodes,

destroying everything. For a brief moment, the instant the ship detonates, you see that city in its last moment before being consumed by an expanding dome of light and fire and smoke. The illusory shield hiding the city vanishes. The instant the ship detonates and the city is consumed by an expanding dome of fire. Everything is annihilated within this radius. And even beyond the farms and sheds and villas, they are heavily damaged by the concussive force as it dissipates. The city crumbles and shatters and slides like a landslide inferno into the crevass below. Mechanically speaking, let's do some quick napkin math to try and comprehend this level of destruction in D&D terms.

According to the basic rules, a stick of dynamite is one pound and does 3D6 bludgeoning damage to anything within 5 feet. The radius of this explosion expands by 5 feet for each additional stick of dynamite doing an additional 1D6 bludgeoning damage. a four-mile radius is 21,120 feet. If we ignore the maximum radius described by the basic rules for a moment, we can calculate that it would take 4,224 sticks of dynamite to impact a four-mile radius doing 4,226 d-6 bludgeoning damage, an average of 16,904. But that is only 4,224 pounds of dynamite. Explosions like this are measured in T&T equivalents. The approximate energy released by the detonation of a metric ton or 1,000 kilograms of TNT. So to cover a four-mile radius would be the approximate equivalent of about 1.91 metric tons of T&T.

Let's call it two. That's extremely low. The T&T equivalent in the real world to destroy a four-mile radius area is more like 15,000 metric tons of TNT, not two. Put another way, this explosion should really be more. more in the neighborhood of 33,188,482 d6 bludgeoning damage. All of that is but a vague reflection of what it feels like to be there now. None of you think in those terms. Numbers and equivalence and weights and averages mean nothing to you as you witness the total destruction of Ogerton. The sight and the sound of the falling ship is momentarily concealed for just a

handful of seconds, there's only the sound of your breathing and heart-pumpening in your ears. The mountain trembles and shakes beneath you, and you see the last image of Ogerton before is devoured by the dome of terrible light. You shield your eyes, hide yourself beneath your hands, not knowing whether you too will be consumed by the catastrophic force rushing towards you that is enveloping the valley. There is a deafening crash of sound and warmth as the blast reaches you, and for a time all is chaos and sound and darkness. is around you. Blinking, you find yourself unscathed,

far enough away from the blast to survive. Only the sound of crumbling rocks reaches you now as what remains of Ogerton finishes its sinking journey into the depths of the crevasse beneath the waterfall. Stunned and yet still alive, you slowly come to your senses. The others will be okay. The others. The others. Oh, yeah. There's other people other than us.

Ah. Okay, another sound off. Is anyone dead? Anyone of us dead. We all make it? No. Cast aside. That brain was willing to do that to all those souls, innocent and otherwise. They were just cattle to it. And they, he slaughtered them like cattle. It is done. The mark of Soffalit has been purged by fire.

Is there like a mega crater? Like looking down on whereover? Like a meteor struck. And now it is crushed. And you can't tell the difference between debris and fragmented rock and what would have been painted stone or wood or structures. Instead, it all is like a land. landslides synced down, it seems to come to rest directly into the waterfall, and it's now then being covered by its watery tongue.

I mean, the landscape has to be... Mr. Fireblower. Changed forever! That's gonna be there for millions of years! On your feet, lad. I can't believe we made it out of there. His fate, Scrim. We were led here to end.

All of it. Fate has seen it done. To understand it was fate that the abominable scar upon the land was wiped out in seconds. And all those ogres wiped out too. Yes. There's no different than their fate before their end.

That's where we do. agree, Mr. Yornear, that a instantaneous, fiery death is better than living as cattle. But we had a chance to put an end to all of it and free all those people. We did put an end to all of it.

We had a chance to claim their freedom back and whatever form that may take. At least let them try to survive in their own ways. But it was not for us to decide their Were we the ones that put them into the situation? Were we the ones that elevated their intelligence? This is a tragic loss of life, yes, but do not feel ill about it if you can.

What about the young lady? Is she all right? Is she far enough away? The blast pushed the clowns away. you are all looking up at blue sky, a ring of it. So powerful was the concussive force of this explosion that though there are some snowflakes falling down, you, exactly right.

You can see that it's going to take a while for the snowstorm to re-encroach above Ogerton. And you're watching as sunlight sprays down the brilliant rays towards, what was once its sight. And you can see through no snow at all with much greater visibility that the villas

were not consumed by the explosion. They were beyond the perimeter of this blast. And you all remember that Daisy and the family Blighinius and the rest of the vassals of that house had journeyed beyond the perimeter of the illusory wall that had protected this place for so long into the forest.

And if you made your way down from the mountain, you might be able to start making your way east towards Ogerton and north towards that same forest that you shielded them in. She's got to be okay. I mean, it's got to be plenty of distance, right? I mean, I only just be worried about her with the ogres, but she's clever and quick and resourceful, so surely she'll have gotten away.

There's no chance they went back. to try and free more. I certainly hope not. It is unlikely. There's nothing left, Latt. Before the ship crashed. And if she did, that would have been her choice. It would have been all of their choices.

Because that's what we gave them. The freedom to choose. Exactly right. And just like we chose to fight, knowing that Our lives could end at any moment. They now have the freedom to choose. You're near. And I'm going to reach out and now being four miles or so away from that ship and those entities.

I want to see if I can sense any aberrations. You push in with your mind. You feel the presence of aberration. It's in this moment. that you hear this wail, this cry, this scream at the bright sky, at the heavens at the clouds, and the sound of clanging metal

as Ket drops his sword to his side and yells in sadness and frustration, screams this unearthly scream until there's no more breath in his lungs and then breathes in, and you can hear this, release of grief and anger come from him and he falls down. Is this anyone, I want to check on him? Because I certainly do not.

I'll go do it. Thank you. And I will walk over to Kett, and I will kneel down in front of him and lift his chin up with her and thumb finger. You're going to be all right, Kett? No. I'll never be all right. You have your laugh I have nothing Nothing I have lost my son

I've lost my My mother and my father again I have lost my brothers and my sisters again I have lost Those who I called Kerales in Untold battles and Vowr I have lost my vice

Again I have lost all of it again I have lost the chance to avenge any of them. I have lost, and for what reason? To give him another chance?

A chance to do it all again? See? Look at this. Look at this sight. What did your son look like? What made him smile? What was his favorite thing to do? When he was just spending time with you, what did he smell like? Can you remember those things?

Of course. Of course I can. can remember. Then your son is not lost. I'll put my hand on his heart because he lives right here. And while you still live and while you still breathe, part of all of those you lost walk with you. And I'll put his hand on my heart because I've lost those I love to. And I will be unrelenting in my walk forward, knowing that every step I take, they walk by my walk. They walk by my side. Today may not be your day for vengeance. Today may not be your day, but tomorrow might, as long as you don't lose hope and you never forget what he looked like when he smiled.

Miss March is right. There's nothing more tragic. It's okay, Barbos, give him time. In this world and forgetting those you love, nothing more evil. Keep it there. His face softens. what biting hissing words you could feel welling up in him for Taishen is put aside by the love he has for his son. And though he, you get a sense that he can't articulate himself in this moment, you get a sense of gratitude as tears roll down. his face and freeze against his armor.

He puts his hand on the hilt of the blade that lies next to him and slowly stands. Then just looks out in quiet contemplation. Put my hand on his shoulder,

give it a little squeeze as he stands up. But knowing that he needs some time in his own thoughts, I will make my way back towards my friend. Let's give him some time. He'll be all right. He's a tough one. And don't take what he said to her. That was some pretty crazy shit, though.

Holy crap, man. I mean, I don't know what you were thinking, but that was impressive, to say the least. I haven't since the ship crashed and the 38 million megaton TNT explosion that pierced the heavens went off and leveled Ogerton. I haven't looked away from the crater. Droucar is a land of blood and death. For a moment, I thought I could introduce something. it hadn't seen, and I don't know, maybe ever. Mercy.

And this is what is brought. Well, you know, they say about the road paved to the nine hells, right? Good intentions. But hey, look, you know, we hacked that thing up pretty good. So, you know, maybe you showed it back home. It got a little, oh, this is nice, and then gone. know all we can do is pray that it's dead. Because if it continues, it's machinations.

It's not like you and me and all of us mortals. It may not come around in our lifetime, but perhaps it'll come back again, filled with even more revenge than our new friend. And then what terrors would unleash when it's already been defeated once, the bitterness, the hatred. If our friend here

was consumed by vengeance, you've seen what it's done to him. I know what vengeance feels like. It's an old consuming abyss, a beast of endless hunger. It grows and it grows and it grows and it grows and whatever you do, it's never enough to fill it.

It's like the drink. It grows the abyss. And I've achieved my vengeance. That's something that Mr. Steen doesn't know. And Sophilip doesn't know. It's when you finally achieve that vengeance. It doesn't fill the hole. That hunger is still there.

The black void is still there. I've seen lots of deep abysses. It's more terrible than any of them than I've dove in. fought monsters in, and it leads men to do terrible things. What would it lead? Something like that, something that did that to do. If there's any chance that what you did gave it that chance, will be to anyone here on a ventress

and encounters it when it does return. Tashin, do you grit what you've done. Or do you feel like you made the right choice for you? I think the only thing we know is that we don't know anything. I don't know if I made the right choice. We don't know where I sent it. I don't know how it reacts when it gets there. I don't know if it will feel warmth, if it will feel saved, if it will feel angered, if it will feel betrayed,

if it will feel betrayed, if it will feel stolen from. Or if it will even live. Or if it would live. We walked into that lair originally to kill it, yes, to bring these creatures a choice, but we didn't bring them a choice.

We brought only death. If we had joined Sophilith, we would be in space. or where we've been they have to say same thing Sothilith would have turned us

turned us into more of his throws like the ones that you fought that controlled whatever the city was

before Sothilith lives the only way to destroy an elder brain is to do it. You understand? Showing it mercy, you have doomed others. Another group of people unfortunate enough to encounter it. Somewhere in an impossibly large sea that we call the astral sea. There, Sopholus will continue to do evil. You are really not sugar-cubing this, all right? Let's take a step.

Step back, you relax. Take a deep breath. Unless where he sent it, there are others like us, others like us that are capable of doing what we could not. Let us not be ignorant enough to think we know all the thread that fate is woven. We walk but one path and this is the one that we have chosen. Tashin, do not linger on this choice for it was the one that you made. And however the outcome is, I will always.

stand by your side. Like I said to Yorneur, we are family. The fate of other worlds does not concern us. He speaks. We are pilgrims guided by the land itself. Taichshend, do not feel an ounce of guilt for what you did. For it was Rekar herself that placed you in this group of pilgrims on that vessel. vessel guided your hand to do what you did so that the stain of corruption the unnatural parasite could be burned away this was her will and do not for a second doubted it

and I'll put a hand on one of your shoulders I'll put my hand on the other I think this is a load of shit but it seems that I am a pilgrim now too I've nowhere to go. Where should be, though. We'll get through to you eventually. You'll learn to like it. The rest of them did. Did you hear what I said about revenge?

Don't make it repeat my speech, please. Oh, no, no, no. I heard it. Good. I am a knight of my people who has been unable to accomplish this task of defeating Sopholet. And I will have to learn to live. that's this. Perhaps.

I don't want to continue to pile on you, Mr. Fireblossom. And your wisdom is well stated, Miss March, Mr. Yornear, but I do disagree that it was her will. I cannot fathom that whatever this thing is that's called us here would believe in the concept of mercy. of mercy, much less for something like that. Does the land care about mercy? Does the land feel for mercy? Do I speak of mercy through the brain? No.

As Katz said, perhaps the survival of Sopholity if he does live will lead to destruction, enslavement of poor of Kent's people. It's not mercy at all, that the land. brought this day for the cleansing it is in the nature of the land itself to wish to be just that that's right you're right mr. you're near no one would know the spirit of the land better than you and the lady knows gods know that I am out of my element here not just so far from the sea but so high up

the air far from the embrace of my lover there was a tribe from where I'm from in the mood that I visited many years ago helped them through a particularly hard winter they lived around the base of a volcano because they worshipped what they believed was a great fire god that lived inside I did not look down upon their worship of such a god, but they believed that their worship and praise and sacrifices of beasts of their own would keep the fire at bay. When I felt the land start to show signs that the volcano was indeed a volcano, they did not listen. So I moved on and, as volcanoes do, it erupted. And it killed them all.

Our wishes, our wants, our desires, our senses of justice or mercy, all are irrelevant to the land. And so, what you have did is just one more... Done. Peace. Of the truth. But we are her pilgrims. That continues the way forward. I know where to go but forward.

Just keep moving. Nowhere to go but down, I think. And you see Ket jumped down to the next lowest ledge. And taking perhaps a few more moments to talk amongst yourselves, you start to make the slow progress of steadily coming down the side of the cliff of this mountain to a place where you can eventually reach the ground. The crevasse that Ogerton sank into is well, well, well, to the east. You're able to reach the land and it curls off and you are able to start to walk,

walk across the snowy plains before you reach what would have been the edge of that dome, reach the site of what was Ogerton. It takes you a few hours. to cross the distance, making your way down from this nameless mountain, making your way to the perimeter of the blast, all walking, sometimes in silence, sometimes sharing moments. You're dazed, you're not confused,

and you're not days in the psychionic sense, but you are hollowed out from the experience of going in and endeavoring to save the people of Ogerton, save the ogres, the family Bligenius that you are familiar with. And turning, you walk past the fragmented stones and charred rubble. The ground itself, seeming to have been burned by whatever this energy was that was contained within the propulsion system that had exploded. And Ket is extremely silent during this time.

Eventually, you turn north and you start to make your way back towards the site, towards the tree line, towards the place that you know if you were to go. But another four or five miles, you would be able to reach where Daisy and the others that you had warned to get out of the city might be. But you do not have to cross into the tree line. Instead, you are met by a caravan of sorts. You are met by a site of these wagons being cold down and towards the city. You are met by the site of many what once were vassals. You are met by the site of polar bears, pulling perhaps a little bit more primal than they had been under the influence of the psionic glass of intelligence growth. that Ogerton had provided them,

but still willing enough for now to pull these wagons into space. And at the head, you see Daisy there. And she's looking out at the still smoking rubble of the destroyed city. And then she spies you. And you see her shocked and thrilled to see all five of you along.

having heard presumably the blast and having led everyone here and she races forward. As soon as we see her, we make eye contact and we have that exchange, I would like take my hat off. You're like, hey, hey, oh my God's you're alive. Thank you. Oh, we did it. Well, we did something. We did something. You're okay.

You're good. We're good. Everybody's good. We did it. We're all right. Look at you. What happened? Oh, where do you want to start?

How much time you got? We heard the sound. Was that crash this? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was us. Mostly Tishin, but that was us. Sophilith had a ship beneath the ice. It used to travel the skyways and lands beyond.

And we just... dealt with him, and it crashed. All destroyed? Everything. Many of the rest of us are here, having come from your words of warning. Many, many, like me, survived.

We'll thank the sea. Silver linings. There you go. Chin up, Dyshen. We gave them the right to choose, at the very least. What happened? A ship that can fly, you say? I've never seen anything like it. It was like a giant creature almost of its own self. And when we confronted Sopholethi, announced the ship had been repaired days prior.

It word to life and soared through the air like it was cutting through. waves while you were on it while we were inside of it amazing have no words oh he don't recommend it any ship snow on the sea yeah I know hopefully you never get to see that oh yeah it was an abject nightmare it was unnatural that's crazy absolutely crazy who is this and she points to Kett Rosteen I guess he's with us or something. He was on the ship. He helped us out.

Looks very different. He's our new friend. He, like many here, have recently lost his family. He'll need the tribe, like you all here, are building now. The ogre's got a little weird. A little, like or a lot. Because we were pretty sure that they were going to, like, change. They did change a lot.

Oh, boy. And she points, and you can see all of a sudden one of the doors swings wide from the side of the wagon and out. Comes what is clearly manious, liginius. Friends! Oh, no, he's flowers for algernonning us. I don't think I can take this. Maddie, as you made it, that's good to see you're in all right shape. Strong.

Feel good. That's what matters. City. Gone. It's all gone. I can't even talk to him. This is going to make me too upset. It's all right, though.

You were made for the, this. climate in the ways that we weren't. You're a natural survivor. You even survives. That. Yes. Strong.

Strong. Feel good? Feel good. This is a lot more like the ogres I've wrestled. God, I can't take this. And your family. Are they okay? All good? Strong, yes.

Yes. Yes. Man, Manish. Mani. Mani. I like that. Oghers free?

She's free. Aye. Oger's free. Yeah. Mani. Come, see. And the rest of the family, and you notice that there are a few ogres

who have joined, who are similarly looking around with perhaps a little bit more stupecation on their face, but taking in the sight of the city in surprisingly good spirits. Do you, uh, mani, uh, mind if we, uh, take a look in your things for supplies or anything that you might not need? No.

Friend of Mani, friend of ogre. Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take a look. I don't want to be here right now, if you don't mind. Did you just ask him if you could steal from him? No, I'm asking if we could take supplies that they're not going to need. Okay, I'm just making sure. You never know with you, Scram. We're going to need them.

Oh, I know it. And quite frankly, I don't want to watch this. All right, Mr. Stavis Gatch. I'll be back. Maybe if you can find yourself some alcohol. Oh, way ahead of you on that front. You start to make your way, and you hear, you hear, what is Manius' son?

Cry out. Papa! And you see all of the ogres follow the direction, the pointing of the young boy. And son? What ancestors? And all of them, the twins,

the wife, the the mani... What was Manias? now just man, manny, look, and you can see them all looking up and up, and seeing something on the horizon over the sight of Ogerton, and they're watching that sort of go up and into the sky,

Strength, sun, ancestors, yes, ogre's free, heaven, sun. And you turn, and you look, you don't see what spirits had been trapped in the dome, the ones that Yorneur encountered, angry, but you can see the eyes of these ogres watching something. There's no doubt in your mind that in this moment they are watching the spirits of those killed in the blast, perhaps, of those consumed by the illithid, reaching their halls of, of... their ancestors. And for a moment you're all frozen in time,

standing in silence, looking out the ruins of a false city, a city of deception and a city of tears. But now a city that has been erased in its evil. with it. Aye, Mani.

Oger's free. Ogress free. They are with the Allfather now. We're off to the Fiddler's Green. Either way. They're at peace.

Yes. End. Land still good. We build again. Oghers. A town. Why some things don't change. Daisy.

God, that name is so stupid. I thought it was a little pretentious to pronounce it Ogerton, personally. So at the very least, they're staying humble. And you eventually turn and make your way to find perhaps some brandy or some effects. The rest of you continue to converse with what may have been a savage race, let's say. Whatever Sothleth told you, it could have been true. They may have found a brutal tribe of these ogres and the experience of erasing their memories,

crafting this culture, changing them, may have been justified. You'll never know if it was deception or if it was truth. But these ogres seem pacified, and they certainly trust you and the others like Daisy. There's clearly no danger here. Oh, I feel a little better. I was about to cry.

At least they didn't decide a name the place Holgerton. Son? Bowl? And in spite of the destruction in front of them, the ogres are immediately turned to their own devices and socialize and play. And you can see Mylan. He is actually whipping some of the other

what once were vassals. The other humans, let's say, into shape, and they are finding cattle. They're finding sheep. They're finding pigs who have escaped the perimeter of knocked over fences and stuff, and they're hurting them and getting them together, trying to start to immediately repair what has happened.

They're all to work, and what happens next? You're left to decide for yourselves. I will say, after you've said what you said and getting the sense that they are not going to come, it sounds like they're not going to completely lose their intelligence. They've retained a certain level. It doesn't seem like they're going to continue to regress. It feels like they've come to rest. And that it would have happened actually very quickly, probably just after you left.

In the same way that the polar bears themselves, that what were more intelligent bears were happily able to pull wagons, or perhaps pulling them a little bit more ornery and getting back to their natural intelligence levels. Everything is dropping back. And even now, the effects of intelligence, that psionic blasts that was being put out by the orb at the silver ship in the center of the city that was creating that illusory shield, that was benefiting you. You feel a little dumber, too.

What else is known? Just another day that ends in why. So just to clarify, I do or I do not get the sense that this is going to be. continue to repress. It stopped. They've reached the level of intelligence. We've got a base. Yeah, yeah.

Knowing that, I'll just tell you that. I'm not going to completely pilfer all their shit. Because I figured if they were going to completely return to like wild animals, they wouldn't have any use for it. But it sounds like they will be able to make use of some of the things that are. Talking to Daisy and getting a sense of them being what they are, they have limited language. They still have their accents, which makes it a little weird. But yeah, you get the sense that this is the level that they've returned to and that they won't go any farther.

I'm going to look for booze load up, but I'm only going to take enough, like, food for us to survive for like a couple days. You know, because we're probably tapped out. I have to take a look at what we all have, but I assume we need food. Yeah. And I would definitely look for some sort of something that'll keep for at least a couple days. Survival in mind, you immediately go to fill up your pack thinking not just of yourself, but of your companions. and you find some rations, you find a few bottles of wine. I look stronger than that, come down, Gary.

Roll a D20. Scream doesn't even like wine. Sounds like Scrim's desperate. What am I rolling investigation? No, no, I'm just saying a... Oh, I got a fucking seven. You got a fucking seven. You don't find any of the hard stuff.

They decided not to bring it with them in their hasty journey out of the city while you guys were... I take the wine. And the rations. And provided we still got all of our stuff back, I should still have eight of those candles. Those bonfire candles, if I'd be keeping track. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and as long as we have some food,

I would be satisfied with that. And I would want to make sure that we at least have some provisions before we set out. Daisy comes to you. Scrim, what are you doing? I'm preparing. I know, I know. Very unlike me.

But it beats going to hunt. so I'm just taking some of the food and some other things as well so at least we have some rations for a few days at least until we figure out where we're going and we can do some hunting or God forbid fishing I hope that you would stay for

a little while the villa may be damaged but still stands oh well personally I'd love to stay but if I know old yorneer gotta stick up his ass he's gonna push us out into the world

I will talk to your near. Ah, sounds good to me. Just a little, a week, perhaps, if you'd stay. I, you'd no need to twist my arm. We could ring in the new year. It's only four days away. Well, that sounds lovely. I am sure we would all be honored.

And then I'd like to come with you. Oh, well, again, no objections from me. There's a whole world out there. That's right. And I don't think I'm going to stay here. I'd rather be with all of you. Well, I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we would love to have you. We couldn't have done this without you.

Did you tell my dad that he was the reason why my sister died? Me? I certainly didn't know. We're going to have to unpack that. Look, you know, hey. He's really upset. Yeah, well, he punched me. So, you know, that makes two of us, but I'm not holding it against him.

I kind of think I should punch you. I didn't say it. It wasn't me. You didn't say it. It wasn't me. Let's make our way to the villa. You don't have to pack to leave just yet. Fair enough.

Oh, he also punched me before that comment was me. I'm not sure if I believe you. If she wants to roll for deception, she can't. Are you deceiving? No, she's being, I mean truthful. I didn't say that. Oh, then. an insight for her.

If I'm recalling the conversation that you're... She doesn't know if she believes you. Okay. If I'm recalling the conversation that you are saying, I am being 100% honest. I believe it was Queenie. Oh, yes. I believe it was Queenie as well.

I'm sitting over here like, is he going to rat out Queenie right now? It was not. It's good. That's in character. Or Scrim. But if she is trying to incite, I'm being 100% honest.

Just... She doesn't know one way of the other, because it was a strange thing her dad said during the time that they were together after you left and made your way to the dominant mind. But there are many humans who have survived and some ogres. Some of them, even coming from some of the villas that themselves hadn't been destroyed, but you are all able to make your way back. And even though the fronts of these buildings, wood and paint have been stripped off,

They're hanging windows. There's some roof pieces have flown off. Relatively intact shelters. And their gardens have been pushed over. Trees have been flattened. It seems like a place where in no time at all, you might be able to repair and you all assemble, not just you and the ogres and the other humans,

but what is left of Ogerton. And you find yourselves there now as the sun sets, and it starts to get darker and darker. On our way there, and I would want to sort of hold back a little bit, be walking in the back, or at least sort of away from everyone else, if I could sort of just walk alongside Kett, imagining that. It's not unusual for you or near to be sort of by himself, but also Kett might not be with everybody else. And sort of under my breath, if I could, and I feel like everyone's out of ear shot, I would say. do you mind if I ask you question

that was a question I will continue the heresite that transformed your son is there any treatment that you know of

in the herb or medicine or procedure that can reverse or remove it? No, I, once a creature that was compatible, was taken. And one of these tadpoles made its way into their mind. Their brain would slowly, slowly of the course of many days, change. And as he's saying these words, you are rewitnessing the vision that you were given

at the beginning. You are seeing that strange creature, start to get dizzy, and pound against the walls and slowly lose its faculties, teeth falling out, transforming. No, it's a terrible thing. That's why we have made it our mission. The gifts have always done what they could to destroy all illited, for they are a scourge in any world. Thank you. you ask? I will say nothing. And I will turn away and walk toward, try to like hustle a little bit and increase my pace

with the rest of the group. No, guys, I can get bit. I'm good. I'm healthy. It's just a scratch. Yeah, zombie bit, man. And you make your way back to the villa, what once was the Manor Blighinis, but now is perhaps just mann blog.

And if you go back and rewatch the rest of this arc, you'll notice that all of these are just literally stupid ogre names with Ineus or something like that attached to it. I just want to point that out now instead of during a ventrace and chill. Do you guys do anything before you go to bed? Yes. Yes. I would kind of, as I'm like just taking everything in, I'll like grab the, uh, the piercing the hex spoon amulet that i made and kind of touched the uh the uh cormorant tattoo the seber tattoo that i gave myself and i'm said i told i told them i told them good luck

this is about as good luck we could have hoped and that would be and i'd go proceed and i would want to like make dinner for people there's plenty of food still in the basement uh you do have to step over the body of comidus and his son, but you are able to, in the larder of this villa, make your way, and there are, it's stored for winter. What mild winter Ogrerton once had, and certainly winter now is going to be a true Dracarian winter, you are able to whip up whatever feast you could possibly imagine. As I'm like, I'll gather a bunch of ingredients and I'll pull up my pan and I'll see that it wasn't stripped, I'll say, well, maybe Mr. Foyer Blossom was right to give a little bit of mercy.

And I'll start cooking and using liberal, liberal amounts of ancient estuary. What do you do before, sleep eventually takes you, Tai Shan? It's been a long day. It has been a long day. I would, in classic Tai Shan fashion, have brewed some of my most calming tea. It's the first time we've had the teapot in a while, right? I love that, thank you. Yeah, I think so.

Oh, yes, yes, the actual teapot. Yeah, the item teapot, yes. The first time I've had, oh, so this will be my first brew since we hit Ogerton. So I draw my first brew since we hit Ogerton. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I did a terrible thing, and thank you all for allowing me to take it, literally going on a quest where you guys don't have any of your shit. Deal.

I would probably quietly drink deep from it welcoming its familiar warmth and hoping that it will quiet the tumultuous swirl of emotions that is just roiling within me

and I am in a place right now where I like it kind of too, like a wildfire that's ripped through an overgrown forest. And what we're, what we see now is kind of the first signs of, like, sprouts coming back up. But I haven't lost sight of the burnt trees and the ash. And as the tea does not have the desired effect, Scrim, did you find wine?

One, maybe, and two, how did you know? You were walking around saying, I found wine. Yeah, damn it's. Yeah, fine, fine, fine. I'll share, I'll share. There, give me a cup. As you are sharing this cup, as Scrim is sharing a cup with you, and you're thinking about the simple act of giving, and thinking about

numbing a bit. Wait, wait, that bad luck. Here's to another day. Come on. Cheers. A woman. A woman approaches swaddling a small baby

and you recognize this to be the mother who gave birth to a young child and that that child was silenced. She comes up and with one hand can I? share in some tea. Please. Please.

I've always liked tea. Your child is, are they okay? Just fine. Just fine. I'm sorry, but for a moment, may I? And she hands you the child

and starts to sip on the warm tea herself. Clearly, it's something that she probably might not have really enjoyed. very often in her previous position, but now feeling the fruits of freedom. You have a beautiful child. Thank you.

Thank you for the tea, as you were. And she takes her cup, and she sort of make her way out of almost reverence, like respect. And you find yourself in that moment, then looking again down at the sheared cup of wine that scrimm is shared with you. to another day. That's right.

Queenie, you're near. How do you find yourselves either together or apart entering what is a well-deserved rest? Queenie would find herself apart from everyone else. And on a trip into the wreckage. So Queenie is going to sneak away. ignore dinner and she is going to even if it takes all night

hunt for the one of these slugs, one of the tadpoles. Whether alive or dead, she prefers dead the remains of one. Okay. That's what she'd do.

You spend a number of hours walking. You spend a number of hours looking to through the rubble and immediately realizing. He has a flying speed for what it's. How much? Oh, that's right.

Because of the bees, she can fly. I'm sorry. You go straight comic book and you immediately silver surfer your way down with the fucking bees flying, racing through the air being carried by your hive to the wreckage. And you're able to, with your ranger abilities, start to sort through.

As you get closer to the center, you see how much there was disintegration and that the land itself was so fragmented and destroyed by the immense power of this blast that it almost turned to a slurry and then slid down. Make an investigation check. 23. With the 23. I don't know if Queenie is hoping to find a dead body of a tadpole. Just hoping to find some remains of one of them, whether it's a full thing or part of it. Two things happen with a 23. The first is that only because of your small size, that you are able to eventually touch down, step off your bees,

and you find what was once a street, and you are able to make your way underneath where there once were sewers. And though it is cramped, and much of the sewers have collapsed, this pocketed area seems to be, have been preserved. And you find one of the wands, these wands that the ogres carried, that they could use to control by the bangles that were worn by so many. And when you pick it up, there's this,

connection that you have with it that you do not expect. All of a sudden, there's this almost magical charge that goes through your arm. That is not why you are here. You put it away and you maybe put that in your pocket for a second to think about a moment later. And I will say that here you do find the back half of a dead dad. Thank you. Queenie. We'll pick it up, see that it's dead.

look up at the sky, the ring where the clouds have been pushed away, I'm assuming, still not having closed. No, it was a slow moving storm, so it's still a good circle, a halo of sorts. She would look up to the night sky and then she would

take the tadpole and pocket it. And just to Dracart itself, she'd say, and in this night, you're near. Let's hope. For hope. And she'll

make her way back to the villa. When you start to fly your way back. I would like to speak with me as possible. Did you want to go last? Oh, have you gone? I was just going to say, I just if you want to go last. I just want to go last. Go ahead. It's fine. I just want to respect that. I just thought mine was going to be like longer than everybody else like chatting. I'm going to use one sentence. Okay. I spend three or four hours telling Daisy every detail of our adventure once be part of her. Whether Taishen stays there for that and shares the wine or not, that's fine. But I would tell her everything, like an epic story of what happened once we left them. You start to tell the story, and Daisy is already at the Fellowship of the Rings when others start

to assemble, and you start to get a crowd. And very quickly, ogres, adult and children alike, and humans all stand. And pretty quickly, the two of you are sipping on wine, and perhaps with a few additions from Tishan, you are all drinking and listening to the dramatic story. Barnumbo's arrives with plates of hot-steaming, perfectly cooked ancient estuary season. I'd call out.

Mr. Stavis, Scotch, is that a red or a white? Um, fucking... It's a red. Can I, can I spare a cup? I'm teaching the young master here how to, how to de-glaze. We're going to make the best gravy for beef you've ever had. Of course, please, help yourself. And I'll be, like, basically, if there's, like, a young, like, vassal,

maybe, like, someone who would have reminded me of the cabin boy from the ship, I'd be basically teaching him how to cook and, like, how to de-glaze and to make a gravy for beef. The fact that you are willing to, after all of the day that you've had, immediately dive into cooking and share what tips and tricks you have, You're already a champion in these people's eyes, and every cabin boy shows up to look. Oh, there. You see, you're good. See the lady.

You make you, you have a date and you make her this. She's going to fall in love with you on the spot, and that's a barn of both promise. And then I'll come back in with, like, bowls of our plates for everyone, and I'll say, you know, I think that Mr. Stabas Scotch is embellishing to make himself look better and make me look worse on account of us having fought for a while. but I'll let you continue, Mr. Stabbosch, and I'll get to... And now by the time you get to the return of the king, you've gotten wrapped audience.

Three, four hours of storytelling later, you are... Regardless of who shows up, though, I am telling Daisy the story. Okay. Okay. And she's got her legs crossed, sitting on the floor, completely in awe. The only reactions you're getting from her are not from her handcoat at this point,

but just through her eyes and her face. As you describe what it was like to get on the lower level, what it's like for the doors to have opened, what it was like for you to experience the combat with the mind fliers and the initial, how it felt to suddenly produce this specter, if you include this particular detail. What should be a fairy tale is something that you experienced,

and you can tell to the utmost detail. And when you're all done, you get sleepy and start to go to bed. But Queenie would eventually, and this will be up to Yorneur when it would happen, would eventually make her way back to Yorneur. You'll arrive, I would say, just before Yorneurie's bed. But it would be hours getting there and coming back. So as she's probably still just heading, Queenie is still just heading to the city. You hear all the commotion and everyone getting together and having survived,

enjoying almost a night of celebration. A sad celebration, but one of freedom. And you find Mannyus, he is talking to his wife and they're looking for their cat. Manny, is this what you are called now? Name too long. Manny fine. Yes, yes, yes, of course. Do mind if I speak with you for a while?

Yes. Fine. Goo. And you hear the wife looking underneath one of the couches. And Manius takes you to one of the side rooms. The guest room where you originally stayed. Some sitting area. An empty area where you're able.

Actually, you're brought back to the room that you woke up in when you first came to Ogerton. Very cool. Full circle. Rhymes. I'll sit down and I'll say. Manny. What do you know of the gods? Gods determine all.

Who is the god that you worship? I have no name. It's stolen from me. Not Sophomith. I wanted. to make sure that you knew that the god that you once worshipped was not a god. No, no. Have you ever heard of Annam, the All Father?

Anam, no, All Father. He is the god of the giants, my people, and I'll switch to speaking giant, your people. Perhaps this was the name that was stolen from you. He is the creator of our kind. And he's an honorable and strong God indeed. But I wanted to share with you My faith is the old faith, and that on him alone cannot

steal you and your people through hard times cold winters. My religion believes the triad of gods. I'll pull out some, I think I had some parchment that I made a map on and chalk or whatever, like charcoal. It would be easy enough to find parchment on every shelf. This once was a place of the House of Knowledge. And so there's parchment both empty and complete on many. shelves. And so I will say there is anem all father and I will draw like sort of a rough sketch of like an ogre looking face so that he can sort of identify the dog. There is the land

and instead of drawing a mammoth I'm going to draw a rhino. This is the car, the goddess of the land. And as importantly, there's Odin. This is the all father of man. Of the human. Yes. The old father, he is the God that watches over those that you live with, that you coexist with. Coexist friends. Yes. The triad itself is they are three gods in one. They are They watch over the land and they will make sure that you are safe, that the humans are safe, and the land stays safe. It will build a strong connection between you, your family and your new family and your new claim on the land. Do you understand?

He takes his huge mitt of a hand and presses it again. against his forehead and sort of slicks it back around and down his neck, he'll cross his ball of head. He's also speaking in Giant with you now. Yes. Also, man, protect, keep safe myself, yes? Yes, and the tribe. Together.

For an individual of our kind, we live in tribes, do we not? Your family. The other ogre. Glad I met you. And those that worship and that are protected by, and I'll point to the bearded man in a hood with one eye that I sort of sketched out in charcoal. They are part of the tribe, too. Of course. And I'll sort of pass him.

I was trying to draw something like a triad of the gods. I will show you more things if we stay. But I wanted to give you back something that was taken from you in your deception, or a deception of you, I guess, technically. Thank you, Yorn. Good night, man, yes. You will be a good leader. I know.

For you. He gives you his wand. And when you pick it up, this same charge that runs through, Queenie almost at the same time, given out of the timing works, strikes you, and you realize this almost could work as a channel for you, a channel of arcane magic. Thank you. I will always remember this place and what we've done together with this. And I'll think back on we first got here. And the first time I ever laid eyes on him, late eyes on him in the hot spring, him holding a wand,

I'll think back out, I'll bring this all full circle. And I will smile. And I'll get up. And I'll grab my staff and I'll put a hand on their shoulder to say. Good night, Matt news. Find cat. And he flams the door open and he, he, makes his way.

And you, with what questions you have in your mind, feel you've done a great gesture in this moment. I will return to the rest of them and get ready for me. Just as the story ends, you realize

everyone is full. Everyone is tired. People are making what spaces they can. The interior, many of the rooms are undamaged. They are far enough away from the face. of this manner, and you each find a resting place, and you go to sleep. Until my apologies, I forgot, Queenie arrives just in time to find you making your bed,

Yorneur. Yorne, you got a minute? Yes. Are you alone in here? I don't know. I look around. He has found a single bed for himself. a guest room.

You wouldn't want me to lie to you. About anything. It is not something I think about whether you deceive me or not. But you... Can you just work with me here, buddy? Oh, uh, I suppose no. I would... my preference. It's still in there.

I think you know that. I have a feeling of... Maybe. Now, I know that our family is not necessarily... like us. We are people, nature, you and I. And though we differ greatly, I think the core of our understanding is from a very similar place. Now, I think if we work together, we can fix this problem if you want to try. So I went back and I found this and I pull out half of the, I know it's gross, but I have these, and I pull out one of my glowing faces.

If this, with its renewal, you saw what it did for those ghosts. If we could find some way, oh, and this, and I pull out the wand, and it's thrumming. I don't know what it's about, but I'm thinking. I have one too. Oh, well, look at us. We're getting real powerful in here. I'm thinking, I know. that pests and parasites never grew on these flowers. Ever.

There was never a mosquito near them. There were no leeches in the earth. There were no bugs ate at their leaves. Why? If we could find some way to combine this magic with this thing, maybe we could use these to get that first. use these to get that thing out of you. Now I'm not a medicine woman. That's not my area of

expertise, but you know medicine. And so I thought maybe if I brought this to you, we could cut it open and we could see how it works. Maybe I've never done this. We could cut this open and see how it works. And if we work together, my mind and yours, maybe we can figure out how to make this stop. We don't have much time, but ain't completely stupid. And you're quite smart yourself. So I don't know. Maybe it's just a vague hope, but when I looked up at the stars and I thought about all the things we've been through, at least there's a little bit of hope, right? I do not know. It's worth a shot. I have been reflecting since it happened. Perhaps this This is the end of my pilgrimage.

Perhaps it was my purpose to cleanse this. Perhaps the princess of wrath, the seemingly primal being in pure, communion with the land itself, having the artifact. Perhaps that was the purpose. you said something to and I know you're not the type to try and make people feel better for the sake of making people feel better that's my job

but you said something to him that the land brought him here for a reason and I hold the seat up to you and you can see it glowing and it's a beautiful fairy light I think the land brought me here for a reason too and if there's a parasite

on this land and you were the symbol of that land. And maybe together we can find a way to purge the parasite from the land. Are you getting what I'm picking, are you picking up what I'm laying down? Why am I here?

If not for these. Without you here, you never would have brought the sun back. Perhaps because you have more seeds you have for the purpose. Yeah. And you might not work, but we could be able to be. work, but we could try. I do not know

if the land has for the purpose for me. And you'll see that I'm sort of, I've been fiddling with my knife. I do not know how much time I have. Neither do I.

But I will not let myself become corrupted into an abomination that I've spent so long, so many years, these steps attempting to purge. No, and I'm not saying you do that, but that thing's not gone.

And I don't want to say it for him going to touch in because he's already walking around with a bushel full of guilt. But... We can try. If it comes back and if it brings more, if we can crack the code on how to stop it with you... Will you provide me this? I'll pass it to you and I'll pass you the

butt half of the tadpole. I will you just give you one same I will take out my cook sub and I will put

half of it half of the parasite in the cup I will put the seed in the cup and then I will go into my herbalism kit and just pull out all the different herbs and roots and things that are known for diseases, cures, you know,

anything getting rid of parasites, take form, you know, whatever I think would sort of help in my medicine man passed, I would add that to the cup and I would pull out, pull out a small pestle and smash it into a paste. Mmm. You do. And you start to work the herbs and the medicine and the seed and the lavender crawfish tadpole into a paste of sorts. And at first is hard to get a consistent slurry of sorts, but you are eventually able to work the pest into a consistent and clean product. and it simultaneously looks sickly a sort of gray pink color,

unlike most medicine. And it also sparkles, still capturing that amazing, magical, potent power of these seeds that Queenie keeps with her. And you arrive at what you think is the conclusion, what it must be. Tasting it, you, that the ratios are right.

You put all of your shamanistic effort into it, and Queenie has provided to new components that come from her very heart and goodwill, certainly, but may also give you a hope to free yourself from what might be inside, like a seed growing in your own mind. Will you stay with me? I'm not going anywhere Join me

And I will To get off the bed And I will sit down on the ground I'll gesture for you to sit across from me Sit across from you I'll reach out Reach into my Pack

And I will pull out A rolled up Piece of seal Hide That's wrapped with some leather strap. I will untie it, and I will unroll it and place it between us.

And you'll see all these runes and etchings on it, and sort of kind of done in a rough way. And I'll lay it out in front of me, and I'll say, I brought this here from my home. I've had it with me. it with me this whole way. Before I left and I was at the gathering of standing stones. My circle communed on one of our holy holidays and an elder from the circle had a vision. His name, he was called Imnar. He would not tell me what the vision entailed. But he gave me this.

if he told me I would know when to use it. I don't know if this is that time but I don't see a future for myself. So this must be the time.

And in front of me is a from mechanical perspective a scroll of lesser restoration that I've had since literally a session one. Was that you like take an item off of the table off of these? Holy shit.

You look at the scroll and you look at the symbols therein and your experience being what it is perhaps it's the smell of the medicine or the experiences that you've had

over the last day or perhaps it's that Queenie is lending you her strength but you see through lesser restoration. You see perhaps an extra a little early. Oh, what the hell?

Can I read this? If you want to. Open hand, you invite the spirits of the land to cleanse a willing creature's essence, fostering balance with the primal forces. As an action, you can touch the creature and end any disease, curse, or negative conditions afflicting it.

Only diseases, curses, or negative conditions that would require a wish to remove cannot be cleansed in this way. Once you use this feature, you must finish a long rest in which you dream before you can use it again. Oh my God. We're a cool condition. Restoration seems to be it before you. And you can't write this shit.

As I'm sitting there, the scrolls in front of me. I will take some incense out. I will take my hands and I will place them on yours. I will light the incense. And go through the whole process with you. I will take some of the paste. I will. mark a run on my forehead.

I will mark a run under one eye. I will mark a run on the other eye. Created a trial. And then I will take the rest of the paste. I will consume it. And then I will put my hands down and I will chant the shamanic verve or shamanic chant that is written in ruins on the

seal skin, in a sort of trance-like state casting restoration, and I guess also using this ability open hand simultaneously, maybe unlocking it however you want to flavor. That's what I do. You do this.

And as you chant, there's a moment where all of a sudden it's like your ears pop. And you hear this thud, Queenie. you see what is clearly trying to hold on and into Yornear's mind one of these final tadpoles get pushed out by the will of Yornear and slide to the ground with a disgusting wet slap,

hit the ground next to Yornear. He doesn't seem to notice. He's still chanting and opening himself to the land. He's still working through that. But you have a moment. I will crush it. Like a mosquito, it splatters to a thin pancake. And you were able to end this threat immediately, without question, easily.

And you... But I will do it just like hunting in the forest. I will make no noise. You will have no idea that I've moved at all. You do this. And crushing it as you do, You know that Yornear is back to his old self, whole again, with no risk or potential transformation. But you don't stop him from completing the ritual as he goes deep into his own meditative state.

And a while passes. Hard to say if it's a minute, 10, or an hour, but eventually Yornear, you come back to yourself. And as tired as you both are, the threat is over. There is no chance that you will ever seromorphize into a mind flare. How are you feeling? I grab your hands. It worked. It worked.

And you'll see, like, the seal parchment almost, like, turn into, like, sea spray and salt. As it sort of blows away in the end. and swirling incense. Thank you. You're welcome. I'm gonna stay with you tonight to make sure you're all right. All right. Okay. Thank you. Yorneer for keeping hope alive. Let's get some sleep. I will deeply nod and I will yeah, I'm gonna have been. You do. Eventually, I think you're the last to go to sleep queenie. Yeah, I would wait until I can hear the soft snores of Yornear. Your ear would be the second to last.

For your three companions, Tyshen, Barnabos, and Scrim had already been fast asleep. And eventually, if you enter a deep rest, knowing there will be a morning and some new future that awaits you. All of you dream. All of you have a very familiar dream. A dream of a library.

Your own library. The library of, of your mind. Walking past the shelves of tomes, everything is in its rightful place, and you sense no dread or tension or sensation of an intruder as you did before. You pass by books that represent your memories, your sensations, specific things, skills, even, emotions. You pass books left best unopened.

You pass by some that you choose to remain closed. You pass by books that represent family. You walk further until finally you find a new book on a shelf. Christine, the binding unmarked, unworn. But this is not the book of today's memories. It is a book that can only be written by the terrible stress one endures in a confrontation with a being like Sopholoth. The pages were pressed by psionic power.

And in itself, the mental strain it took to push against those telepathic attacks, penned by the brutality and force of survival in those moments that nearly broke you. Reaching up, you take the tome and flip through it and realize the experience you've had has opened your mind to even greater potentials than you would have not found on your own. We need dreams and reads this tome. Tishin, you find this in your book. Barnabos for you scrimm.

And you're near. You do not dream. You enjoy a sleepless, restful night. Before you all awaken the next morning. A new day ahead. And that is where we'll call tonight's session. Man, what a session. What an arc.

Thank you, Derek. What an arc. And that is where we'll call this arc. That's exactly right. Wow. Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Aventras podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to,

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