Legends of Avantris - Icebound | Ep. 42 | Cogs in the Machine

Episode Date: July 21, 2026

🚀Neon Odyssey, our Space Opera trilogy for D&D 5.5e, is the biggest TTRPG crowdfunding campaign of all time! Pre-Order Now and get limited-time box exclusives: https://NeonRPG.com 🎃Terrify your friends in D&D with *The Crooked Moon,* our 632-page Folk Horror tome for 5E: https://thecrookedmoon.com   🌎Join our *Patreon* to get thousands of hours of content including Avantris & Chill, unedited campaigns, a weekly game stream, 4 exclusive campaigns, monthly movie nights, and much more: https://avantris.com/patreon 👕 Get awesome, beautiful, or hilarious *merch* of your favorite characters including Chuckles, Bitsy, Torbek, and more at the Avantris shop: https://avantris.com/shop 👾Join the Avantris community on *Discord* to chat about your favorite campaigns: https://avantris.com/discord 🔴Watch us play D&D LIVE every week on *Twitch:* https://www.twitch.tv/legendsofavantris 🔗 *All other links:* https://linktr.ee/legendsofavantris   Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/6RQAkRxTs5s

It is the third month of the year, and the world of Aventris persists as it has for Ions. In Wuzé, a bustling mercantile city along the rivers of southwest Yulong, the chief administrator finally succumbs to his terrible illness after nearly a year of brutal suffering. His final breath passes between his lips as he clutches his most precious valuables, surrounded only by clerks already calculating their inheritance. A tremendous reward had been promised to anyone who returned with the medicine from chalk that might revive him.

No one returned in time, and he died in despair. Damn. Whatever became of those brave or foolish enough to cross the vast keros sea between Yulong and Chok, many carved their way into the hospital. part of that distant land in search of the fabled remedy that would make them wealthy beyond imagining. Some even reached the vine-choked ruins and confronted the terrors dwelling beneath them. But no one returned.

Five of them, the only survivors of the more abound expedition now stand within the frozen city of Argentholm. One is a fabled sea captain and monster slayer. another a venerable and stoic medicine man a pilgrim from the northern realm of Mamut another an ill-fated con man from the moors of Bargust another a tea shop owner charged by his dragon

progenitor to wander the world and return bearing its wisdom and the last a mute father who has done everything he could to rescue and protect his family Every other soul who joined that expedition has fallen to the brutalities of Dracar, one way or another. And the world of Aventrhus persists as it has for eons. The seas shift and change.

They lap softly against distant shores and gather themselves into maelstroms vast enough to swallow entire fleets. In every tide and salt-laden wind, they whisper freedom, to any soul courageous enough to surrender themselves to the horizon. In the northern realm of Mamut, kingdoms, in the northern realm of Mahmout, kingdoms and scattered communities endure. They defend their hearths and preserve their ancient ways, forging their own legends. None yet comprehend their coming role in the prophetic horizons of fate that threaten their own way of life. Elsewhere, the people of Jade Shell Village live within a gentler ignorance. Each morning they awaken to peace in the valley of the setting sun,

sheltered by verdant fields, clear rivers and mountains painted gold by the sun. The world has never forced them to learn the wisdom carried by hardship, and perhaps without it, they never will. Across the island chain of, the island chain of Bargast, Caverns fill with smoke, laughter and boastful gossip, dice tumble across scarred tables, cards vanish into sleeves, silver passes between hands beneath the watchful eyes of thieves and liars and desperate men, each certain that fortune favors them and that consequences belong to someone else.

And in Yona, a father and mother brush rich soil from their hands and wipe it against their overalls. Another plentiful harvest of carrots has been gathered. Every so often they look toward the distant tree line and wish safe travels upon their tenacious, bold, and courageous daughter, hoping that they might one day see her again. For you, all of this seems so far away. It is as though those feelings no longer exist. How long has it been since you last touched saltwater, Barnabas? How long since you last communed with your you're communed with your circle, Your No. How long since you last laughed with Mali, Daisham?

How long, scrim, since you weren't compelled to look behind your back and into the shadows? Now the words of Secundus resound within your minds. At last, now we can correct this error. The Hexature armament begins to glow. It turns with impossible precision. and before you a portal opens to the plane of logic. The gods have guided you here for one purpose, to return the armament to the realm from which it came

and avert catastrophe in Drakar. Whatever waits for you beyond Trachar has begun to feel less like a future and more like a fleeting memory as you stare through a portal into another world. Before we get started, I want to take a moment, not to do a full recap,

but to ask what presently dominates your mind as you are confronted with the event that has just happened before you. It's been a couple days since you not defeated the princess of wrath, but in some ways defeated the princess of wrath. There are many ways to interpret that word defeat, and she is now Signa's a powerful white dress. dragon, a dragon of ice, a ruler still of Dracarp, who persists thanks to your mercy. And the tribe seemed to remain united under her leadership, in part due to your efforts, but also your choice to let her live. The last few days you've met with allies, you've talked to friends, you've gathered yourself, you've rested,

but you know that you have a great task that has been thrust by fate under your shoulders. And in pursuing that task, and finally getting back to it and saying it is time now, we have found the armament, we have attuned with it, we have the means to open perhaps a portal, you found the head of Secundus, and it responded to the energies, those infinite, energies within that artifact and opened this portal abruptly as he came to life just ahead, no larger than bull's-eye lantern that you might carry in dark of night. So presently, without going through everything that happened in Argent Home and all of the things that you've confronted the horror since you've arrived in Dracar, what questions or, or, or

or thoughts do you want to address before we start the session proper, proper? Out of character, you made. Yeah, exactly right. Yeah. Make sure your character sheet's good. Shake the rust off. I'm asking to just sort of have a check-in because I want to make sure that you feel equipped since it's not just been a month since our last session, but it's been some time.

And I understand that a refresher is a valuable thing. So there's a, it has fully, we had the extra armament. That's right. So Kunus's head came alive. Yes. And there is a portal now in front of us, but we've not yet, like, we're not getting sucked into, it's just opened in front of us. Presently where you stand is those, is that living space that you are in, that you were gifted by the former princess of wrath. Oh.

You are in your district. the tribe, formerly known as the ice-bound castaway, is now known as the Iceborne, filled with ogres, and somewhere, the bones of the poet, no, no, those would have been taken to the Bastion, my apology. You are there in the sit-down area, the foyer. The front door is just to your right. The burning and warm hearth is in one direction, but you can't see that fire anymore. because it's obscured by this hexagonal, precise shape

that cuts a hole in reality, just like it did when you watched it in the visions that you experienced, and you saw Queenie get taken to some sort of winter court-fay realm. You saw it happen when Scrim's blood touched the artifact, and all of a sudden it opened, and all of a sudden you could look through and step in or be flung into some kind of hellish realm. This is exactly that.

But all you can see through the portal right now is what looks like a long extension, a bridge of metal, and some shapes in what appears to be some kind of a sky, an alien terrain. That is what emerged in front of you as the eyes of Secundus glowed and the Hexature armaments charged and performed its magic to produce this.

I feel like he's said it before, but do we know the name of where he's from? He has said it before. He's given it a few names. The name that most commonly comes up is the plane of logic. Okay. In the past few days, obviously we defeated the Prince of Raff. She's now on house arrest. She's on bed rest. You spent a few times visiting her

and even perhaps giving her some medicinal attention over the last few days. And she has not made many appearances. Most of the tribes have kept to their own licking their wounds after what was essentially a day of wrath. They attacked each other, they attacked themselves. Everyone was enemy to one another. brothers and sisters, very, very, um, uh,

uh, uh, uh, uh, elder of the shadow veil cabal, elder Nightbloom was killed by the new elder of that same tribe. That's right. You remember that the, uh, even though there have been some like gatherings and you've gone individually to meet with many of these chieftains, uh, uh, the, sigdus no longer,

not no longer, but hasn't been showing up to take that mantle on, that mantle of leadership on just yet, even though everyone recognizes that she is alive and that she is still ruler. You've had to patch over a lot of those sorts of things over the last few years. She stayed largely in the bastion with her huge thousands worth of contingent of cobalds and the winged cobalds known as the ivory club, the magic users. Um, and so we, and in terms of like the political state with the various leaders, right? Like, are we, did we remind me if we decided to be like, oh, we'll, we'll bring her before them? Or we were like, hey, look, she still needs to be a leader, but like she's chill now.

You know what I mean? Like, like, what was that? Is she going in front of like a trial? Right. Yeah. There was no trial. There was a simple justification. Right. Do you remember that wrath that filled you?

She felt that wrath every day. Right. And so, yes, there were evils that were done that she did and mistakes that were made. But we learned and destroyed the curse of Kaskatchee that bore down upon her. And what we have now is a powerful leader ready to take up the mantle and take Dracar into a new age. But we're coming to you, chief to chief, not as rulers. but hey this is the situation

and it was said I think only a few moments we're fast forwarding sort of like what do you do sure the end of last session but I would say that without role playing it that you were effective

in your arguments or at least you were hurt even the Dwarven tribe who lives deep below the city of Argentholm nodded and wrote in their books whether or not it was the joys or the grievances book

you have no way to to be sure, but you were at least able to communicate that message. Got it. Perfect. I think anybody else? So the bottom question that I have is that did we want to, the reason why we spare the Princess of Wrath besides all of the moral questions and quondering was it basically because we needed her to lead a war against

The metal men? Is that the idea, basically, what we're hoping for? There was this terrible tension between the decision to destroy the evil right in front of you and the long-term damage that that might do. There's too many, it's like a keystone of an arc. There are too many who rely on her. And as desperate as the situation that Argent Holm and its peoples now find themselves in, thanks to the subjugation that the Princess of Wrath put them from.

through, there is a perhaps a chance for unity. And part of their decision did go into the, this is the only person who can hold these people here. And if they are together, they perhaps stand a chance against the armies of this metal man against the plane of logic. You remember Ketrastine describing them as powerful enough to destroy civilization of Sophilis. all of the elder brains and those terrible mind fliers,

if they have the power to crush them without a gesture, what would they bring to Dracar if they felt that Dracar was the enemy? And part of your mercy was influenced by that moving part. Got it. I think that's all I had. You guys are honest incredible questions. I have nothing left to ask. Thanks, Grimm.

Wow. I'm just a lot for the ride here. You all are standing in, for lack of a lot of a better word home. The portal remains open before you, a perfect hexagonal aperture turning slowly in the frozen air. Each edge adjusts by fractions too small for mortal eyes to measure, correcting itself to impossible precision. Secundus's severed head glows with the same pale light as the armament. And, and what happens next is up. to you.

Who's holding his head? Tyshan. Tishan. Oh. Tishan. Oh, well, you have the armament. Yeah, he's been holding on to that. The armament, I will say, was sat on the table between the seating arrangement in this living space,

the hearth on one side, and the table where you once played Parchisi on the other. It continues to turn inexorably in its impossible way. And you, Tyshen, were about to strike the helm before it came to life. You brought it over to the hexature to try to... You remember that its energies might maybe perhaps sort of wake the device up, or perhaps it was like the blood of scrim. You needed to shed the life of this thing across the surface of the armament

in order for it to activate and open up a portal. And before you were even able to do that, that's when you heard the voice of Secundus. And what was the last thing he said? I will tell you. At last. Now we can correct this error. Oh, Secundus.

What do you mean correct this error? What error? The error of this artifact being here, and not just that, but the error of this world. The error of this world? Oh, the only error that I see here is you coming to it. None of this world.

It was not an error that brought me here. I came here in search of the Hexacher armament. I could have chosen more than a dozen other planes, many dimensions of reality, all of the continents of Aventrys. And in all of my calculations, I looked down at the world and I chose Dracar. And was I not correct?

What does this lead then? Did you open this portal? Is this to take the Exeteral Armament home? This is the path forward. This will lead us to victory. It is a portal. A portal to the future. To a world where we can, can make this right. Now that the Hexature armament is within my grasp, we can return it and we can

correct this error. This error you perceive, what makes it so? This artifact was stolen from us. It has damaged the plane of logic. An entire way. world such as this, a realm nearly destroyed because of its absence. The villain, I captured him once, deserves justice. That is one of the many errors that required correction. Look, this is all well and good, but, you know, we've been warned over and over and over again about the danger of this guy and his peoples. I'm gonna come here and wipe everything out and we're just gonna waltz right through that portal, give him exactly what he wants?

I mean, what are we prepared for? We're prepared to walk in there and face legions of whatever this guy is, and we expect to just be unscathed, unharmed? It sounds like we're just giving him exactly what he wants. It says that his home is playing has been decimated by the severance. of the armament from it. Is it possible the threat has been overestimated? Sounds like a win-win to me.

Maybe Secundus represents their full might. Why would they not have sent more by now? Surely he has failed long enough to restore the armament. I will succeed. I will bring the hexature armament. He's ahead, the size of a lantern

in your hands, and he can only He can only, like, look around as you are, as you are, you can see this tremendous amount of emotion on his face as he looks frustrated with your comments, afraid, and then embarrassed and then determined, and then full of vengeance. Does he have, like, a plume on the top of his head? I mean, he's not helmed. He's like a, I was imagining him helmed, but he's not, like, really helmed, but he's not, like, really helmed. It's just his head, right? Yeah, I mean, the easiest way to articulate it for me because I'm such a 40K fan is that, like, if it's, imagine. Imagine holding the head of a necrone.

Like, you know what I mean? This is a big chrome bitch. He's the head of a necrone. Idiot? You don't know what I'm going to? He's Googling here right now. No, I'm not. No, I'm Googling something totally unrelated.

But it is like holding a heavy toaster. Like, it is like holding a machine. A, a... You've never experienced any metal like this and all of your experience with weapons and blades and all of the metallurgy that might exist across the ventras. This is a being made, a construct made of this material. And so what you're holding is heavy and smooth,

and even though its face can move almost organically, it has an uncanny feeling of metallic look reflectiveness on its surface. There's no like tuftia or hair at the top of its head. head. It is, and I could pull up the full description that I did when you first met him, but like, it's sort of cylinder-esque. There's a grill where the mouth would be, even though it can move up and down. Actually, perhaps another good anachronism might be the head of the Iron Giant, if you remember that. I don't need to John. I put in the cake. Stop that. Stop that. I do not care for it.

Is he cold for the touch? What do you be like cold to the touch? Like normal metal? or is it like warm bio metal? Do I leave fingerprints on him? He would know. Not that I would know. All good questions. And I think that, no, no, no, this is great. There is a warmth.

There is a spark of life in this head. You remember that part of the decision to try to crush this head that you made in the last session 18 years ago was that you wanted to destroy the head in order to try to get hexager armament to open its portal. And because it had not evaporated like his horse had, remember he destroyed his steed when you first met him and then consumed that energy in order to

revive himself, the head is whole, even though it had been torn from his body. Clearly, there'd been some life in there. And so you're familiar with the fact that there's some essence. And some resonance, the proximity of the head to the hexature armament, clearly tethered him to some of that infinite energy and is what is animating him now. You have been here for months, Secundus, and you have failed at every turn to restore the armament. You are now nothing more than ahead. You have no body to act out your goal. You are just here with us. Succeed, not without us. That is unfair. I have done everything that I could. This land is is confusing and filled with brutality.

Oh, you will. The gods never care about how hard you tried. Did you succeed or not? I do not care what the gods say. Only my God matters. Only my realm matters. Only the world of the plane of logic. And I will complete my mission.

Wait, all you reckon it? You wouldn't have gotten this far if it weren't for us. He's gotcha there. If it weren't for us, it would still be in the horror of the dragon that ripped your head from your shoulders. I admit there would have been a delay, but eventually my essence would have diminished to nothing.

I would have died. I would have returned. I would have been restored, and I could have come back with the forces of the plane of logic, and I could have taken the hexager armament back for myself. Holy hells, he's trapped? That explains a lot. If you perish, you return home.

I'll look through the portal. Is the portal still open? It's like, hang in there. Oh. Yes. If your life force expires, you go back to this plane. If I expire, then I am returned home. As any automaton like me.

The hexature armament that sits before you though. though. It awoke you now. It has the power, I am guessing, to suspend your life for some time. It is the axiomatic current that lives within the device. It is an artifact of unbelievable, incredible, infinite power. And by being close to it, by nearly touching it, I am revived. Has changes everything. This error that you speak of, if we can resolve it and the things I have seen

I want to look over what's, do we see like a landscape or is it like an opaque portal where we would have to kind of push through to see it swirling. Similar to what you experienced with other portals, the same characteristics persist here. When you saw Queenie get pulled into

the Faywild, when you saw the portal open and push into it. to some lower hell. You were able to see like a tear in reality as though you could be pushed or walk through it or fly through it. And so in this case, you are able to look

into the plane of logic. What is obscured is the vastness of that space. It is not like a walking from one hill to the next or from one incline to the next or from the interior of a research tower wizard's room into a forest covered in glittering crystals. No, no. This is a long, thin bridge that extends almost to an infinite point on a faraway horizon.

You can see that there are these massive, slowly moving shapes that feel geometric in what must be a sky. Does it kind of feel like the ex-traumment? It's how it floats and spins. But if you were to get closer and look even closer. As I'm talking, I'm not looking at the guy. I'm approaching the portal. I'm kind of looking through and just sort of taking this end. You get right up to the threshold.

And as you look through, you are perceiving mechanisms. And you almost get a slash of deja vu as you look into that sky. And you see what your eye saw as you perceived the catastrophe of this world. There is an order to this plane, but there is no order that you're familiar with. It is alien when you look up into the sky and you see what look like giant interlocking cogs. It's almost like if you've ever seen those incredibly sophisticated clocks that live within glass domes, if you were the size of an ant at the base of that clock and you looked up, what would that look like to you?

Jeez. I only barely comprehend it. Yeah, this is wild. Um, if we correct these errors return the artifact allow you

to carry out justice on the thief. Would you have any need to return? It is clear to me that the threat against my plane goes beyond the theft of the artifact. It goes beyond this. In my time here, I have experienced

something that is not logical. I cannot explain it. And I think that justice must be done. We must correct this error. And when he speaks, his eyes and the, the pulsing energy within his sockets and within his grill, almost deepen from a light yellow to a more furious fire, like when you toss a log onto a spawnfire.

All right. I got a level over here, guys. I don't like this at all. And you, you, you jackass, you're completely at our mercy. You can't do anything without us. So we're going to be the ones making demands around here. And what's to say we take this guy home and then, you know, he doesn't just come back and destroy everything. I don't like this one bit.

I don't like this one bit. We're going to get some deals in place here or something. We need some, we need some collateral, some assurances. We've been preparing with grand apocalyptic war with hordes and toids of metal men. but will your god your leader agree with what you're saying will he abide

you wasting your time and resources and your metal name? I will show him I will show him what it is like I do not know what has changed me perhaps he can fix it I have been here too long

for too long it has weakened me I would not have been defeated I could have gotten the Hexature armament survival strength wisdom these are things

that follow the laws of logic one thing to the next and yet here they are broken we must correct this error I secundus.

Perhaps what you need is not to return, but to spend more time here to find how people, real people, live. I reckon there are folk made of metal on this plane in this world which I have met. They are illogical. They have feelings they can't explain. They make decisions. No one can't explain. That's called being alive. That's called being a person. People are full of contradictions. It's what makes us who we are.

I am alive. I am a person. I am not full of contradictions. I swear. I am not full of contradictions at all. I am a perfect being like all the Tomatons. And like the root-a-a-tomatons. And like the root-

of the plane of logic. We are orderly. We know how to do what needs to be done. We are powerful. We will defend this cosmos. We have the magic. We have the resources. And we need the hexature argument in order to correct this error and all errors. You say that you're not full of contradictions. That you're perfect being, and yet you have failed. You have fallen in battle to the dragon, the princess of wrath. You sit here in front of us. Simply ahead.

You say that you have the power to conquer this world, but you can't step through the portal. Ten feet away and you can't return home. That is different. That is different. I have been corrupted. And is that not a contradiction? It isn't. One thing leading to the next. I was here. I was perfect. I made my calculations exactly. The fact that I was able to target this location of the hexature armament after its loss with such precision is evidence of that.

Do your people believe that you can fail your mission? Or do they think that there is no chance you won't succeed? Eventually, I am sure that there will be others. But we can correct this. We do not need to wait. I have seen Dracar. I have seen you, each of you. Not once.

Perhaps we can come to some form of agreement. We can deliver the artifact. We can close the portal. We can go our separate ways. Well, at least we're starting to get somewhere. I mean, that's what I want to hear. I want to hear a complete severance. I don't want to see this guy ever again.

I want this thing out of our press. I want these people gone and I want a venture safe. Is that unreasonable? Oh yeah, that's why we were icebound. Was it not Mr. Yornear? Yes. These planes beyond I know little love of divisions I have seen I have been granted. Is a natural order destroyed, made logical. This plane is not yours. It is no one's.

It just is. And it is not for you to bring order to it. And so if you return your plane as it was, would you vow, would your God, your leader, vow to remain there and never come here. Come. Here. I will not bind my leader, Primus, to such a simple agreement, so broad and poorly spoken. I refuse to make that vow.

For we are the true arbiters of justice and judgment and logic in this cosmos. You are creatures of emotion. You do not know what it means to have the mantle of responsibility. shoved on your shoulders as we automaton's do. You scurry around feeling anger and jealousy, and you think that you have wisdom. No, I will not speak on behalf of my leader. I have only one mission, and it is to bring the armament.

I understand that you may want to keep it for its great, power, but do not covet the artifact. You know not what you wield. I know having a lot of sidebars here and I'm kind of pretending like he's not there, but I'm getting sick hearing this guy's voice. Can he even lie to us? He's a being of pure logic? What does that mean? I don't think he can. Does that mean we can trust what he's saying? I don't think he can either. I mean, that's what I'm thinking here. That's why I brought it up. But like, you know, what do you think? There's one thing we know for sure now. And if it's that, We have to get an assurance that they won't send their forces and destroy or correct Dracar.

Yeah. Our home is only one person we can get that from. His leader, the one he calls the primus. Okay. Oh, promise. As much as I don't want to just like up and leave, if we have a chance to end this right now, why not? I think we'd be foolish to walk through the. the portal with the armament in hand, but I don't know if without it, could we open it to return?

Oh, you know, we need Ketristin. He, the one thing that Secundus here is right about is that there must be justice for Kett. And Kett himself even offered it. Yeah. He offered his own head. Right? He offered his own head, sort of kind of. Uh, yeah. He wanted to make it right, right?

Well, in a private conversation, with Yorne-Air and I'd say it's safe to assume over the course of the last few days that Yornear would have shared this this information with you the last few days that the Yorneur would have shared this information with you but um Kett he's not doing so good he's had a hard time yeah he wanted to turn the attention of the automaton's of the plane of logic to defend his people to protect the Gith against the terrible threats of the Astral Sea, in particular illithet and their like. And that's why he stole, and his son stole the ex-jarmament.

They landed in Dracar on a nautiloid ship, endeavoring to do just that. But in the process, he lost his son. He was captive for many years. You eventually rescued him only for him to be captured again by succumbed. and then because of his connection to this powerful artifact tortured by the princess of wrath. He's a broken man, having lost so much and been disconnected from his purposes of warrior. And yet, in spite of all of that, he believes that his next thing that he must do is not to go home, perhaps use the hexeter armament to open a portal up to the astral sea and perhaps try to return to his people.

but to try to guide that artifact home to correct his own error. And he expressed that to Yornear just a few days ago. You're right, Barnabos. We stand a better chance of striking a deal with the primus. And we can bring cat as our mentor. The sign of good faith. Exactly. Okay.

Easy. Will we be able to get counsel or audience? with your premise. Do you have a system of parlay? If we were to make a deal with him to save your world. There's a moment of hesitation.

I am his conduit. Just like the other secundas like me, I am his left hand, and he is the right. You can negotiate with me. Do he create you? That is not an easy question to Abser. Does he know?

It is the way that it has always been. Two secundi. One primus. And a legion of automaton's all following orders, all in perfect harmony. It is the way that it has been since before mortal worlds blinked. There are two of you?

There are. Does the second? second. Oh, you're the second of the second? Share your thoughts, your feelings, see through your eyes. I have not spoken with the other since being tasked to find the hexature armament. He came to his own conclusions, found his way to another realm. I am sure he is also seeking the hexature armament with as much ambition. However, I have found it. I was successful. I can. I can. I calculated correctly. Had it not been for the alien strangeness of this place, I would already have it in my grasp and be presenting it to Primus. Give it to us.

I think not. I think you said yourself you're corrupted. You're acting quite illogical and erratic. I don't think Primus would like to see you in this state. I'm acting perfectly rational. Do not. I'm acting totally logical. Finally acting like someone from Aventress, hey? Finally a little bit of good done to you. It is not going to require an insight check to see all of you see that Secundus X angry, embarrassed, fearful, frustrated.

You can see the expressions on his face. The first time you met him, he was cold and rational. And solely serving his purpose, yes. But something has transformed him. And that is very evident in your call out. And he fails to answer, Artibus. I'd like to ask a question and watch to see if I get a specific emotion in his response. Sure.

How long has it been since you have been home, walked its paths, smelled the air and I want to see if I see longing or wistfulness making an inside check make him cry

I mean he's not like a dragon automaton is he that's fucking unbelievable you ask if it's a drag no no but if it's a dragon creature type

it was a bonus it's a fucking bonus it's a fucking bono That is unreasonable. I've never once been able to use it. Is he a dragon? You haven't been able to use it? I've never once.

You never once prompted it. You've never once prompted a roll on her. Not one time. Okay. If he's not a dragon automaton, then it's an 11. I'm trying to discern if I'm getting a sense that he longs for home. Or he misses home or he wants to go home. So you're looking specifically for him.

home sickness, not just any emotion? Uh, yeah, yeah. I would say that even with a 10, when you start to remind Secundus of home, that his eyes shift in a way that is irrational, that reading what limited information you have, which are the subtle changes to the shape of his face as his impossible metal

mask, for like a better word, shifts, his jaw clenches, the muscles just behind and in front of the ears, clench and then unclench, and his eyebrows fro just a slight amount, that he is struggling to process the information that you've presented him for but a moment. And then,

he seems to put that all into a drawer, slide it close, and... If you are asking if I miss my world, no, I only serve my purpose. That is my purpose. We can take you home. You can see it again, but we will not without assurances that you will leave our homes untouched.

There are people here who we love and I think somewhere in there deep down in the time that you've spent here you might know what I'm talking about but we will not take you back

you will never see your home again until we have assurances from you that if we bring Kett and the armament back if you speak with the voice of the primus as his right hand

that you will leave our world unharmed. He processes slowly, chewing on the words that you're talking about, and you can see him getting more and more frustrated. As you watch his face, he doesn't have to, he can't turn his head. But at the same time, you can watch him furrow and grit his teeth. He doesn't have a jaw even, but like the grate itself seems to almost get into a lock. where he is struggling not to lash out with his words or any tools that he has in front of him. You are a creature of emotion.

You would be begging me, begging me to be free of this prison, begging me to be free of these emotions. You do not want me to correct this error. You do not want me to come here and show you what true justice looks like. You do not want the logic of my... Plain of my people, of the automaton's, you do not know what you want,

because you are unable to look more than 30 feet in front of you. Do I also sense the emotion that he's feeling? I would say I gave it to him with an 11, and so whatever your passive insight is would be pretty clean. I might have even given it to him with an 8. I would say that it's pretty evident that, he is... My passive is 18.

My passive is 18. And I will say that there's precedent for this. There's precedent. The first time that you saw him after some transformative event, he was no longer the cold calculating machine that you first met on the ice planes. No. When he came and captured Katrothstein, he was changing from raid and he was shifting and going from gear to gear to gear to gear. He was in total panic.

And this is the same kind of emotion. It's just fermented, not matured. That's not the right word. Fremented over this period of time. And enriched him. Listen, buddy, I don't like threatening people. Okay, I love threatening people. But you got to listen up here.

Tachin's making some really good points here. You know, if you ever want to see your plane ever again, you've got to cooperate with us a little bit. We could easily take what. left of you, drop you down into a deep, deep, deep part of the ocean. And you'll just be stuck there for eternity. I would expire, and I would wait it out. Not if we buried the hexager armament next to you.

And how long? How long? Yons? Thousands and thousands and thousands of years? You cannot threaten me with these simple challenges. They are nothing. Eventually I would be returned and revived. Eventually I would be able to rectify it. What's the matter? Does that scare you?

Are you afraid of what we might do to you? A being of logic such as me would not be afraid. That's a pretty cool role. That was a cool role. Oh, that's a cool rule. Oh, not terrible. Got a 13. Not great.

for Insight presumably. Yeah. Oh yeah. No, no, no. Everybody's getting in on the, is he emotion? This is one of those like, if you've ever seen Ocean's 11 where like where your eyes go tells whether you're lying and like his eyes are like going down as he's like talking like, I would not be afraid.

Like he's absolutely like, you know, it's with a 13, you get a sense that he does not want that. Even though if you were a truly logical being without any wants or emotion, yeah, you would understand that that would be a delay. But there's a difference between a delay and torture. Yeah. And he doesn't want that. Well, well, well. I think whether or not he would walk through the portal with us, Ket has dealt with these before. He will understand more.

of how to bargain or what to expect on the other side. I think now we can't go through the portal before we have him. You should go get kept first. Because it's the best chance to parlay with his primus. And perhaps we can put this old business behind us. If I have some kind of like fashion or cloth,

uh, I, can I attach his head to like my, like belt or person or like is it too big to I don't want to like if we're gonna go get kit I don't want to leave him on the table next to the Ardemeck unless the giant portal to to that's his own with like so he's got to come with us the awkwardness

that Yorne has been dealing with where he had to create a lattice in order to carry the hexager armament because it didn't have any hooks or carabiners or any of this sort of like modern conceits he had to create a cradle that would also be flexible enough to deal with its constant shifting and turning. With this head, there's damage and there's a neck and there's the back of the skull and some holes and temples and stuff. You'd be able to pretty easily work that in. And it's no different

than a medium-sized object, you know. Look at a large lantern. Well, to, yeah, Lantern is one thing, right, like a large pineapple, you know, like you're thinking about, like, attaching something like that. Wildly cumbersome. To your person, and I think that that would be extremely reasonable, and it could be fastened, yes.

You could do that. Unless I see anybody else start to ask him questions or... I would walk up to him. And I would look down and I will say... His eyes shift up. to earth. A being ruled by logic and reason, yet you feel fear. You feel rage, like the beasts of the fjord. I do not. I am a being of pure logic. I am rational. I will look up to Tyshanning, Morgan. We must not bring them with us.

And I don't believe we can bring him away from here, as I see like start to kind of maybe like I'm moving him. Something about his presence created this. This may be our only opportunity. If we leave and come back and this does not open, we are lost again. That's fair. And maybe just one of us goes to get cut. Okay, that's fine too. Some people can keep an eye on the portal, some people can go find out what's going on with old Kett. No big deal?

Yes, we will bring Ketrostin, perhaps without the rage and vengeance that this being feels. You may need to continue the mantle of diplomacy, both of you, and all get Tyson and Bonabers. I volunteer for Ket Rostin duty. I think he really likes me. Oh, you think? I agree with that, Mr. Staviscoch. And I also don't want to be near the portal. William, you better to hurry.

We don't know how long this thing will you have. I believe that Keprostin does not like me, so yes, I agree. I'm taking Tyssen with me. I think he has an idea what Ked is. I've completely forgotten. Yeah. Okay, Scrim. All of you can go.

All of you can go. I'll keep an eye on him. Would you stay, Barnabos? Hey. I'll stay. I'll keep an eye on this one. Scrim and I should be able to move fast together Look at us

Just like all those moons ago And we had to meet the cobalds Lovely lovely time And weirdly the first time we met this jackass Ha! It all comes full circle A strange parallel to it I will contemplate the plain beyond And I'm gonna walk away back from Kent

And just sort of again Secundus Sorry, Sukundas and start looking through the portal and just trying to like, you know, comprehend this thing that's so beyond everything that I stand for. It is unnatural to use a near-ism.

Absolutely. And so there's a sense of curiosity, perhaps, because your worldview is grappling with what you've experienced on the plane of a ventras, even in your visions, even in your wildest dreams, you've only seen glimpses of these sorts of things in fast motion. And now you're able to look at it the way that you might look at a plant that you pull from the ground or that you're observing in a fjord where you'll look at the branches and the shape of the leaves

and the maturity and those sorts of things. You're trying to unpack it and being like, how does this fit anything? And it's hard. It feels totally unnatural to you. More so than even forged metal. This is just is probably my own. This can't be comfortable. No, it's not.

It's not. I'm almost like just for myself stealing and trying to kind of like, like if we're going to jump in a cold pool, I'm trying to like, this is me kind of like, like, I'm going to get used to it. I'm going to get used to it. And the rest of you, I would say all of you know that Ket isn't spending time with the

ruler Sigdis. I keep wanting to say the Princess of the Princess of Wrath, but that's not her title anymore. So call me out if I do. Sigdus is in the biting bastion, that central

fortress in the middle of the city. That's not going to stay there. He actually did move to your district. And so he's but a few buildings down the street. As you start to make your way. Has everybody happened with assignments?

We're good? We're good with this? All right. Yes. Don't tell Kett this when we see him, but I think he thinks about us a lot more than we think about him. You think? Let's get that feeling, yeah.

I kind of thought he was maybe preoccupied with like the prison and the torture. As for having this conversation, I go to make my way. You start to approach the door. Stop! Do not go anywhere. What? Why? What do you mean? We're getting this thing home. You cannot be trusted. We are here to correct the error.

And I need you to understand. We must go now to the plane of logic. There can be no more delay. And as he speaks, his eyes for touch. to flare. Barnabos, you were watching his grill get brighter and brighter and brighter. He seems to extend himself and this tether connects to the hexature armament and it starts to turn a little bit faster and a little bit faster and a little bit faster until it is gonna go away. Barnabos immediately starts a ceramics lesson.

Wait, what are you doing? No, no funny business. I'm gonna try to like basically grab him and yank him away. As you reach in to grab him, the portal expands. Oh! You're near, you, you close it. The threshold pushes into you first, and suddenly beneath you, instead of standing on the cold stone floor of the living quarters, you are standing on a metal bridge.

And around you, the portal does not expand and grow, but it infurls. Like taking a painting a page, piece of origami and refolding it back into its square paper. One wing expands out from each of the hexagonal vertices and in planes until it is attached to the ceiling, the floor, and every object. You watch all of you as everything around you becomes precise. It shifts

and twists as the seating all of a sudden what was perhaps a rough made from furs turns into right angles and shifts into perfectly smooth surfaces. You watch as the hearth what was a hot and beautiful hearth full of wood in a ramshackle. Instead, reconfigures itself into a perfect array of logs burning at 100% efficiency, where in all directions there is exactly the right amount of heat production and the right amount of fuel for the job. That shift continues to corrupt and push its way into the room

as somehow through sheer exertion of will, Secundus is able to expand this portal, and the plane of logic consumes you. Suddenly, you stand upon a bridge of pale metal suspended in a sky without weather. Above you, below you, and in every direction, vast mechanisms turn, in silence.

Rings within rings, gears within gears. It feels as though you are standing within a machine. The earth in the sky has been replaced with interlocking cogs. The dizzying feeling of vertigo rises inside of you. As you take in this expanse, unable to differentiate mechanisms that serve simple functions with grand cities far away

composed of towers and connections. There is motion everywhere, there is purpose everywhere. There is no wind, no warmth, no scent, And that's we're going to take a quick break. Oh! Without prompting, the portal expands and shifts into the space of the living quarters. You watch as the objects, the furnishings all around you transform every window suddenly becoming uniform and perfectly spaced. And then you are all...

almost pulled. Before you can reach the door scrim, before you can follow Tyshen, before you can act Barnabas, before you're able to breathe, even take a breath about comprehending this strange new world. You're pulled in, and suddenly you're not there at all. You're standing on a long metal bridge and you're no longer cold. You're no longer frigid. But you were no longer hot either. You look around and you seem to be in the middle of, I don't want to say nowhere, but it is hard to use another word

because you aren't surrounded by an immediate town or some equivalent community or something along those lines. You are on a thin bridge, suspended in what feels like endless space, but shifting around you is the busy movement of impossible order. A collaboration of small entities that you can see geometric shapes that cog perfectly in order. And taking a breath, you look all around you and gaze into each other's eyes, and you realize that

everyone is here that you are not alone your allies your brothers that's found family are standing here takes a moment for you to get adjusted but the heck that your armament

is still sitting there on the surface of the bridge and just in the back of the bridge you see a portal back to Drak It seems that you've simply almost been forced, perhaps 15, 20 feet shoved as it shifted and consumed the room. Secundus, the head that had been so deftly attached to your side, is gone.

But you are confronted with the majesty and the awe of this alien and strange new world. and that is where you find yourself in this sudden advance after you hear the words of Secundus. No. Now. I'll turn. Waltov, you're done.

I'm going to turn around and I'm going to look and see what happened and everyone, it's not just me. I'm realizing that's on this side. The moment you turn around, you see Dyshan and Scrim and Barnabot and you see that in the distance, you know, not 30 feet away from you,

There is that same hexagonal portal and beyond it, the living quarters that you were in. But clearly, by his merit of his connection with the hexager armament, he's been able to shift you into the space, compelling you to enter the logic plane. Oh, holy hell, okay. All right, all right, nobody panicked. Look, look, look, look, look.

It's right there. The portal back is right there. And how wide is this bridge? Because I'm like hunched her down because I'm wearing me, you get blown off the bridge. Like, there is a terrifying vertigo. Yeah. And in a world of pure logic, there are no slips or accidents.

And so when you look on either side, there is an endless fall. Four feet in this direction and four feet in the other direction. It is like standing on a monorail track with no rail. I like flatten myself down. I will too. Yeah, no shit. Oh shit. But I'm looking around.

I'm looking at a motion. Okay. All right, don't panic. All right, where'd he go? What's that jackass? What is he trying to pull here? Where is he? We have the armament.

I don't see him. And the armament's there, but it's in... The armament went to the portal. The armament is no longer on the other side in Indrakar. It is sitting on the surface of the bridge, spinning there, no longer. glowing. It is as though you have been given a little nudge. Does it seem to be reacting like, you know, the heartbeat of this place is now back?

It seems to be reacting like in a crazy manner, but in a manner beyond what we've seen? It doesn't glow. There's no tethers that spindle out towards those distant, visions that you can see in the sky or the world around you. It doesn't seem to be making any of those connections. It continues to turn one face of precision facing the other, but it doesn't seem to be activating anything or running a current through things. It's mere presence here doesn't seem to be changing anything. And despite the destruction of his plan,

and the hyperbolic language, perhaps, of Secundus. You don't feel like this is a dead plane at all. Looking around you, all you see are, gosh, on the surface of that cog, that could be an entire settlement. There could be a world of automaton's there. Is that miles away? Tens? How far away is that?

It's almost impossible to tell, but there's no fog here. or distance. As long as your eyes are sharp, you can look and see a brilliant tableau of movement. As things move in ordered manner, as they shift and interlock. And are those beings? Or are they being simply with a purpose

in a perfect world without contradiction? Does there, do we see, See, like looking around, is there anywhere that looks like particularly large or ornate or where maybe like a seat of power would exist? Like where we may find a primus figure? Make it perception check. Hmm. Good question. Good question.

Thank you, Barnaberg. Good question. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. We're about to find out. We're about to find out. perception you say sure 16 strong role in many contexts oh but the the the

one of my favorite things that anybody's ever said and I think it's from a movie and I can't remember what it's from but nothing matters before you say the word but the word but is that this is an alien world and so you have no way of knowing if how is functions. You go to the edge, perhaps, as scrim hunkers down, and perhaps you look down, right? And there are similar gears below you. There are similar

gears. Are these... What? Your magic doesn't work here. These gears feel as large as mountains to you, and yet they are in all directions. Yet they are, they have their own gravity, perhaps. It is a humbling feeling. And there's no way of knowing

what import looks like in a plane like this. I had to keep asking questions. One last time. Is that do we feel that, like, is anything that's washed over is, do we feel more logical? Do we feel more rigid? And how we feel. This is my meta knowledge about D&D planes, but, you know, just from a meta perspective, as the GM,

does Barnabos feel more rigid and for, you know, or does it not feel like we've been overwhelmed with, like, a suppressive logic? Have we shifted into Final Fantasy 7 Polygon block form? That's awesome. You do look at your hands and you've got the big fucking pop-eye arms that Cloud has in the original Final Fantasy 7. No, you don't. Looking down at yourself, you appear to be whole. You have everything that was on your person in the moment that this transformation occurred. And you don't suspect any kind of loss of self. There's no amount of influence of just by merit of being in this plane is making you feel more logical. or compelling you or having a compulsion in that way. And to answer the meta question, there are planes where by merit of being there,

that does happen, that is not happening here. Okay, okay. I'm gonna start looking around for Sikunis' head. Where do you see? He must not reject it. Oh, he swears, oh, he just had it. And I was just walking back towards the portal and if it's consumed the house, like where does the portal lead? What can we see?

I'm sorry walking back. If you walk back to the portal, it doesn't shift or move. It seems to be in some kind of a locked phase with the hexature armament. And it's right there on the bridge. You walk up and there is a perfect hexagonal portal leading right there back into truck car and you realize that you are capable of a choice. You could, if you wanted to, hop back into your living quarters, Or you could remember what the triad told you.

Return the hexature armament to the plane of logic. And looking back at the artifact, there doesn't seem to be any recipient, but leaving it here feels wrong. Do I look through the portal? Do I see his head on a table? Do I see... The last thing that you saw of his head was Tyshen attaching it to his person, almost like Mimeir from God of War.

And Taishen, the head of Sequendus is gone. Don't go, don't go through that. We need you. Come on. Whatever you go through, he can't come back. Come on, don't, don't go through. Don't leave us here. Come on.

Come on. Why would he send us here and not be here himself? He was adamant that he wanted to return the armament to complete his mission to be successful. Because it's some kind of trick, and they can lie. And all robots are liars. He said that if he could return, he would regenerate. He would be cured of whatever was affecting his mind, his body would...

Oh, you don't seem regenerated here? If he had his full form back, why would he not descend upon us and take the armament for himself? Yeah, something doesn't add up. It takes time. I do not know... I do not know the nature of this place, but perhaps we have little time. We must return this before... He can parlay with his creator. I'm going to walk up to the extra charmament

and try to pick it up and look at it. You're able to lift it, and you have a sense of attunement. You are still connected to this thing, having spent so many hours meditating and putting your hands on it and trying to unlock its many mysteries. There's a moment where, and this isn't the first time you've thought this over the last few days,

touching it, you remember the words of Whisper Fang. It has many secrets, and they are not easy to pry free. He had tried his best to leverage its power, and the result was the undead poet. The princess, when she was still the princess, braithed her dragon breath into it, and its power was amplified. You know it is a fractal, a... emblematic vision, not vision, but an emblematic artifact that represents this plane. It is of it, and it is it in many ways. It is the axle that turns this cosmos.

And so when you lift it up and you try to examine it in this way, is it different? Doesn't appear to be, even with your many years and your experience with the object since you've had it in your possession. I will pick it up. And I will say, perhaps faith has thrust us on our way. We must not delay. It's not waste time. Zol is real, Mr. E. Orner.

What do I, like, do I know that the outer planes exist? Like, I know that I don't know shit about them. And my focus is wholly entirely on the material plane. That's a fantastic question. We did experience the Fawald. And we've actually experienced, I think I was thrown into... It goes deeper than that. Well, I would have a better understanding of the inner planes,

which is the Fay Wild and the Shadow Town. Oh, yes, yes, yes. That, I have a connection of, like, the Matungo plane bleeds through, and there are crossings with the Fay Wilde and the Shadow film. So the Interplanes, I think, it's a step removed, so that feels more natural than me. We're, at least Richie knows, we're in one of the outer planes. Right.

Ritchie knows that. Yeah, yeah. And so the question is, what does your near know? And I think that I know, or we know, that the relationship that a ventras as a cosmos has with a cosmic wheel of alignment is more distant than when we started this campaign. And so you are also familiar with the lower planes. People say nine hells and and all sorts of phrases in relation to different planes of existence. But a plane of logic doesn't come up as often, especially in the experience of a druid. And so even though you know that you are almost certainly in another dimension or reality in that same way,

Like I said, it feels super alien. What was your question? Sorry. Is this place real? Oh, yeah. Yes. It is real, but we are very far.

And I'll look at the portal, you know, to take your car. Yet there it is. Our minds were not made to comprehend it, but we need not. I can't find them why we weren't detected intruders in this place that we are. This place is enormous, it's like infinite, it just goes on forever. What are we gonna do? The thing, the thing.

It's gotta be a beacon of some kind, right? We gotta tell us when I go. We can't just leave it here, right? Or could we just leave it here on the bridge, go right back through, and we've done our part? We've done our part! Pot! Hey, does this count is returning it? This doesn't feel like returning it. No. Leaving it here on the bridge for anyone to find?

So, stones throw from the portal? I suppose that this doesn't end until we parlay with Primus himself. On many directions to go, but back or forward. And back's never worked for us. Ah. Where the fate's... Where the fate's... Thrusted us here.

as something wears up behind me. You are in the middle of your sentence as you hear this very distant and you're all compelled to look by nature of the sound in the opposite direction of the portal but down this long bridge and you can see a small

thing approaching you It gets closer and closer the sound louder and louder and louder and louder. Until finally, it gets clearer. It's still hundreds of feet away, but it's almost like an hourglass shape. There's a single foot, for lack of a better word. A large orb that seems to be its method of moving. a wheel that can move in any direction and connected to its waist

a massive head and two arms on either side at the center of that strange construct at the top of its head is an eye a single eye and this creature almost like a motorcycle

starts to make its way down the bridge and is approaching you rapidly. When you say eye, you don't mean like a biological, organic eye. It looks like a mechanical lens. It is akin to the lens of the eyes of Secundus. Okay, so it's not like a flushy eyeball. It is not like a flesh eyeball.

It is a, it is very clearly construct from top to bottom. I want to make sure. No, no, no. That's very clear. Okay. I spoke too soon. Do I have my anchor or anything? Do I like my weapon?

You have everything on you. I'm gonna basically stand in between my friends. Get ready for anything. This thing may try to kill us. Without getting up, I'm still like spluted like out on the bridge. I'm gonna be terrible. I'm gonna attempt to summon the brutal blade to see if it'll still come to me

when I'm not on a ventras. You're breathing heavy. Your pulse rate is elevated and you hold your hand out and you feel the handleer, the familiar handle of the brutal blade shift from nothing and into your hand and you grip that tightly in your palm.

Just don't destroy it before we know what it wants. I'd like to call out to it as it approaches when I feel like it's in earshot. Sure. We're here to parley with your leader, Primus. We meet you no harm. It is skipping, almost. Shifting left and right, left and right,

as it continues to beeline towards you, as the crow flies. But we will defend ourselves to the last. It gets closer and closer and closer. And as it has no mouth, you still hear an emanation of sound that produces a voice very similar to any voice that can speak common,

and you hear it. Visitors, hello! Welcome. I am Theazar. 1138. Hello. I am Theazar 1138. Hello.

Perhaps. Is it right in front of us now? I would say that it is about 60 to 80 feet away. It is slowing as it is approaching you. But it is itself sort of rolling as it gets closer.

It has these two very simple arms. They're thin. There are simple hinges that make up its hinge its joints, but the large

mass of it of this automaton as it approaches you gets closer and closer, and you can hear this creature as it calls out. I am here to aid you. I have been sent. I have been sent by Secundus.

The other one. Not ours. The other one. Sent by Secundus. How did he, how did it message you? How did he direct you to meet us here? He has told me to meet you here. I am here for this purpose.

I am Theazar. 1-138. Aye. Theazar. I am Barnabos Treadwake. This secundus that sent you. Did he have a body beneath his head? Oh, yes.

I knew it. Was he... Was he... dispatched to Dracar in search of the hexature armament. I am Theazar. 1138. It's the other one. It's the other one.

Listen to me. It is likely the other one. I? There is still time. He circles once and he almost forms like a conic shape as he makes sure that he doesn't like slip off of the side of the bridge. But he does a quick rotation and, uh, uh, and he turns back to you, Barnabose, as you address him.

Yes. What are you? What are you made out of? This is very, like, alien. As someone of the sea, ever-changing, ever-moving creatures and aliens. This is a strange alien creatures. This is a horrible alien machine.

This is a five-foot-tall hourglass shape that has a very narrow waist and a bulb. Yeah, yeah, a bulb of a wheel shape. It is a perfect sphere. And who knows how it is able to turn, but it's almost got like a cup on the top of it that allows it to shift almost impossibly. This massive eye that stares out at you,

and the two arms seem to serve very simple functions. And it spins as it turns to you and looks at you for a moment. I am here for the heck that's your armament. Where are you from? I, we are from Adventress. I don't know if that's what you call it, but that's what we call it. It somehow, like, bends. Not at the waist, but because of its nature,

it can hold onto this larger ball at the bottom of its foot, for lack of a better word, and sort of, like, bow almost, and then comes back up. You are expected. We were told to expect you. Will you bring us to Primus? That is not necessary. Primus is very busy.

I will take you to Secundus. Ah. I just don't want to stay here. Can we do something? Can we move off this bridge? Please. I'll kind of like, be like,

I'm freaking out. Yeah. I'm freaking out. But then I kind of take a moment. I think about everything that just recently happened. And kind of my role of becoming chieftain of the icebound castaways

formerly the icebound castleways. Over the last few years, over the last few days, Iceborne has been established as you, oh yeah. And the iceborne. But I was never the chieftain of the iceborne. Tyshen was. That's right. And so I've gone into defensive stance with this, but I then kind of realize myself, as I've

you know, this strange alien world is I will put my anchor down, and I will look at him and say, I will, Theesor, we are in possession of the... Theisor-1138. All right, Theazar. There are 1,137 other Theosaurs before me. There are 22,416 Theazores after me. Jeez.

I well, Mr. 1138, I'll call you. We are the Iceborn. We hail from Avantress, the land of Jakar, and our chieftain is Mr. Taishan Fireblossom. You are Taishen. You are the chieftain of the Iceborn. Yes. Secundus could have sent forces to take it from us, but he sent this. to meet with him.

My purpose is to guide you down the bridge with the hexature armament so that you can see. If we follow you down the bridge, does the ground get any wider? Can we get farther away from the edges, please? Yes, it is not far. I begin to immediately start inchwarming

towards this thing, and I don't even hesitate. I don't care if anybody's following me, I start inchwarming towards this creature to try to get off this God's damn bridge. where does Primus reside? Where does he rule from? Primus resides in the inner circle.

The inner circle of the plane of logic. But he is very busy. He has many responsibilities. Only the great champion that is Secundus can help us. Yes. He is the right hand of Primus. We follow this. The other one is the left hand.

They are different hands, different beings. Perhaps we can negotiate with the other one. Didn't our secundas say he was the right hand? No, I think he said he was the left hand. No, he said left hand. They're basically two sides of the same coin. I'm sure they'd share some sort of weird brain entity. Can we just get a move on?

I'm going to grab you by this, right? No! No! No, no, please now. If I slip, I fall, we're going to fall forever. Yes, they are mirror images of each other. I believe the word is Cairo. Ah!

Ah! If they meant us harm, we'd be harmed. At the very least, we have a rare opportunity to get a better understanding of what we're dealing with here. There's no going back. I think we follow Theosaurus to this other Secundus, and maybe we can strike a bargain with it. Theosaur! 1-138. Oh, sorry. You probably don't know a lot of words.

of words. I know all of the words. All right. Well, Mr. Firebossom, I thought theosaurus was a good, great, fantastic, excellent name. Oh, it felt good in the moment. I thought maybe you'd enjoy it as a differentiator from the

21,000 other theosaurus. What I would enjoy is finishing my purpose so that I can get another purpose. Can we get the hexature armament to the end of the bridge where it will be received? And then the plane of logic will have it, and we will be whole again and no longer destroyed.

Is that your full and complete mission to escort us to the end of the bridge and bring this Exeter Armament to Secundus? Yes, until I receive another mission. Then we will walk with you. I do not walk. I have this rolling ball foot. Oh man, this guy's the worst. We will travel with you. That is acceptable. Let us proceed, then.

I will... This must be the triads will. I'm holding it, I'll do it tight. I don't hand it over. I'm just, I just got it. As you move, you notice that the portal comes with you. Oh, it is like truly locked. It's a fixed.

It's a fixed point. Quantumly locked in its emanation. And the, as you look behind you, behind you, you realize that should you need to, you'd be able to jump right back and return to Dracar. Do we see a specific point in Dracar? Or is it like, is it a really low-res suggested image of the car?

If we drag our mouse over, does it turn into a gold hand that we can right click on to like, and then we see a load. They're gonna have it. They don't know what you're talking about. No, no, no. The waypoint itself does not move Indrakar. And so you are presented with the same vision

of the living quarters. Okay. As you shift forward instead of instead of... No, no, no, no, we're not... The coordinates of X and Y are there's no superpositioning between realms. That's not what we're implying, damn it. Oh, man, that's what we're putting a portal to Dalaran. You know what I mean?

You start to make your way and push forward. and as uncertain as this feels and as strange and alien as it feels, weaving back and forth as he is, the creature that is Seizor, Theazar, 11338, leads you down the bridge and you trek for perhaps 30 to 40 minutes. Not too long. Not too bad. What feels like a...

short jaunt compared to the journeys that you've had to take in Dracar, certainly. Or sometimes to reach your next destination of food or to cross around a mountain pass. Or these are things that can take days or weeks. But at the end of this bridge, you realize that it was hard to perceive from the angle that you were at. there is a broad flat circle, its own cog, slowly turning, but without any teeth to interlock with. This seems to be some sort of a center,

for you can see like spurs or like... Spokes. Spokes, thank you, of a wheel. Wheel. There are connection points that lead elsewhere not all of them heading on the same flat plane, but up and down in all directions. I started to get my footing as soon as this like,

the ground widens a bit, and I don't feel like I'm gonna be cast off in the infinite abyss. Okay, all right, we're off the bridge, I feel a little bit better. Now what? Now where to, you, look, we're not just gonna give up this, this armament, until we know that we can go home, and everybody's gonna part ways, and everyone's safe,

and everything returns to normal. Well, now that we are here and not on the bridge, it is safer, and we will be able to exchange. Exchange, okay. Well, that makes it sound like we're getting something in return. One moment. I just wait. I just stared at this creature.

For lack of a better word, lid lowers, and it's like what would be a pupil in this strange construct eye like lifts up for a moment. He's thinking. I think he's thinking. And then it comes back down and he looks at you. So goodness will be here soon. Jeez. All right. Very well.

Do I see any kind of thing that looks like the inner circle that he referred to where Primus would be? Oh, you're thinking about the yes, he did refer to some sort of like an in circle of the plane of logic and maybe you assume that this is it. Does it feel like the center of all things? It's hard to tell where you are in a plane as chaotic, not

chaotic. Alien is this jumbled. You wait for a moment and there's a moment of what you can only assume his communication. And suddenly a beam of light hits the center of this massive stone almost feeling a cylinder that you stand upon. Something that must interact with the larger plane. And from the top, you look and you see the complete form. of Secundus, a perfect being, beautiful and metallic and chrome, as he drops down, his arms extended out on either side of him, the weapon that you recognize he had with him, this strong,

tall lance floating, not touching his fingers, but floating to another side as his legs a dangle and he starts to come down to land into the center and you see his eyes and his grill flare and you hear his voice call out we have returned to the plane of logic you have brought the hexeter armament to me to make my plane whole look at it look at its majesty

look at the orchestration The coordination in all directions. It is gorgeous. It is glorious. Rational. Logical. Perfect. You hear these words emanate from what you can only assume is the restored form.

Of secundus. And we are prepared to leave it. To return it to you. In exchange for the guarantee that all we, world will remain unharmed. Your world will not be harmed. And unchanged. There are threats beyond these worlds. Primus, his purpose for me, beyond finding the hexager armament. His purpose for this world goes deeper than returning that what was stolen from us. If it is logical, and if it is just, change is inevitable.

You wish you change all planes of existence to match your own? Is this what you speak? Only where there is illogic. Only where there is weakness. Only where there is that which would destroy us from within. You have seen it, have you not? Look around you. If Dracar could function in this way, would it not be prepared for any evil?

Would not survival be a simple problem? The right amount of food for all people. The right amount of fuel. We can show you. What do you know of Dracar? I have seen enough. I have traveled the wilderness. I have gone to the highest mountain peaks.

I have touched that infernal thing. That thing that was at the top of the mountain. The thing that filled me with shame and horror. How much emotion. And I know that shame. is required in order for us to correct the error, to correct what is needed. With the hexature armament, we can show Primus, and we can make the mortal plains as beautiful and as brilliant as this world. You're only, I don't want to be that guy, but I'm starting to think of me a severe, severe mistake.

See, now we can't leave until he has that thing. He'll take it by force and our hands are tied. secundus that we have known. I am. The other one was weak. Stupid. And then he didn't calculate it correctly. He didn't go to the right place. I did.

Ah, me. And that's what's primus. That's my purpose. That's why I'm here. Is this who you serve? And I'll look at Fiazor. He was the one who gave me my purpose. Is secundus?

Restored. showing emotion? That's what we're seeing. See, he's like it. He's like floating in like a beam of light with his mask of step. He probably thinks he's great at the primus. This is a problem.

I'm in trouble. He didn't get cured. I am looking. Okay, so I'm looking at Yorner. I've just kind of like whispered this thing that Yorner kind of aside. I am looking at this perfect being and I'm also looking over my shoulder

at the portal and I'm calculating how fast I can run because I'm worried that we're about to get vaporized like actually vaporized I don't want to rush him but I feel like we have to make some decisions here pretty quickly here and you? Okay. Your mind

he's not acting logical is it not? I am acting perfectly logical I am a rational being. I dislike that question. I am pulling emotion. Out.

I look back at the throat too. You can see on my face that I'm like calculating my distance and how fast I run. You can tell the script is about to cut and run. I do not be triad will this. Perhaps it was too soon. Perhaps we must prepare for war. We came to restore the hexature armament of the primus.

To a true perfect being, to restore this plane, but you are still corrupted with emotion. You pull it out, but you delight in the failure of the... I'm not corrupted by emotion. Stop saying that. Look at you. With no control. Just because you don't understand?

I have perfect control. I am the essence of control. The spirit of control. control and if you hand over the hexature armament I will ensure its delivery to promise I will ensure that this plane is restored we will correct this error you aren't fit to wield it you have failed at every turn you'll fail at this we won't give you the hexature armament oh shan are you sure you know what you're saying here buddy oh that's right oh god's mr. one one three eight

like I told him, we were here to parlay with the number one of this place. If you could take this from us, you would have done it when we got here. We've had the Exeter armament for months. You have no idea the power we've unlocked. You have no idea what we could bring to bear now that it is home. In its true place of power, could we tear you apart? Could we unmake you with the thing that powered your being? Alright, Tychette, I'm really appreciating this newfound confidence, but you need to shut the fuck up

Shut up! You don't know what you're saying! That's our teaching of the ice-born! That's right! You watch as this being lowers himself through pure thought down, and his feet touched the surface of this metallic stone-like field that you find yourself on and he grips his weapon this this impossibly long staff spear a spear exactly correct thank you thank you thank you wady that's fucking bad and he looks at you and he goes damn it i'm trying to do the right thing here i'm gonna get the hexager armament back to bremits that's my purpose you're ruining

Everything. Listen to me. You hand it over. And then we correct that error. And then we go back to the car. And we stop all of the emotion from happening. And then we stop this. You stop this. You stop this! You stop this! He screams. And you're suddenly feeling yourself pushed and there's a shattering moment. Oh! Oh! I run. sudden the floor falls out from underneath the bridge turns and disintegrates Theo bursts into bright yellow light you watch as he becomes a silhouette of himself as everything turns into brightness suddenly you find yourself outside of your home in the district of drachar And that's where we'll take a quick break.

Oh, geez. What? What? You find yourselves outside, and suddenly the biting cold hits you, as you realize that in a moment, in a flash, in a outburst, you've been pushed out of the plane of logic through the portal, and collapse outside of... your residence.

The space that you were in moments ago, even the fire is left behind you as you crunch into the cold hard pack of Drakar. To the streets of the district that the Iceborn now call home.

He's looking around, clinking for a moment. You realize ogres. The many remaining oglers of your tribe, Tyshen, that you are chief of, are walking around, carrying goods, carrying lumber, they're organized, they're working in near perfect unison as they

transform your district. They clearing snow, they're carrying lumber, they're repairing homes, Every ogre has a job, and each ogre performs it mindfully. One cuts meat, while another patiently cooks the rationed amount to keep the tribe strong without wasting food. Even snow around you falls in perfect, straight, vertical lines. Oh, God. As you wake up to Argentholm all around you. So we're standing back.

And we're just in... I don't even think you're standing there. I think that you are like... Oh, so we're like... On the cobblestone, like, dropped down. And it is only in this moment that you are picking yourself up and taking in these details. Oh, my God, we're alive.

Sound off. Scrimmed God. I... Yeah? I'm here. You're near? Oh, see. No.

Already so soon. I wonder, is the hexager armament with us? Or is it gone? Looking around, you do not see it in your immediate vicinity, nor do you see a portal. You seem now to have just been thrust back into Dracar. There doesn't appear to be an artifact at your feet.

there is no opening or way back to the plane of logic, you seem to have been shoved through the outburst of Secundus back to your home. We don't have the armament. Correct. Oh. I'm gonna sit up. Wow. Wow.

We made it back. Did we? This can't be right. This is strange. What's happening? A snow falling in perfect line? Ogo's operating in unison without issue? Something's not right. Mr. Yornear, is this real?

We failed. But this doesn't. Does it make sense? How could they have done this so fast? We, they needed the armament to do this. To bring a force here. They have it now. It is gone.

It is gone. Well, I mean, you know, the thing's powerful. What if it's just instant? What if the moment that Secundas got his hands on it, for real? just made this happen. And we don't even know what we're dealing with here. Perhaps that's how powerful the artifact was. Perhaps all he needed was an instant.

Looking around, everything is in order. The houses, the doors face each other at regular intervals perfectly, up and down the street. Any irregularities, the damage and the history, the stories that they told of the long centuries of change and livid-inness that has happened over all of that time are raised. They are now, you watch as ogres quickly and with precision are working the faces of these buildings. making them like cookie cutter duplicates to one another as you continue to have this conversation. While we're having this conversation, I'm going to like hold my hand out and just like let some snow, like rest in my hand. Does it feel like packable? Yes.

Is it dry? It's right in the middle is the answer to that question. When you let the snowflakes land on your hand, they fall directly. And when they land, they hit. you're uh uh you're used to a lot of snow now by now and uh the different shapes of those snowflakes has always been distinct each one of them feels identical on your hand a perfect sphere with a few spokes perfect sphere with a few spokes perfect sphere with a few spokes perfect sphere with a few spokes each one hitting your hand as you crunch them down even your hand when it makes this shape

doesn't pack them in a hand form it crunches down into a perfect little cube crunching into a snowball well not a snowball a snow cube I mean you read my mind basically is this is this is this conversation is happening I'm listening but I was gonna try to like build a little snowball and like set it on the ground and like see what happens over time if I can like disrupt the perfect like level that the way the snow is I just observe by by like stunt by nature of doing this action you uh shape the snow and uh turning the cube into a perfect sphere and putting that sphere down um you watch it and snow continues to fall sure

Something like this, perhaps, might be permitted. I'm kind of imagining, like, it's the snow from a Coca-Cola Christmas ad in, like, the suburbs and a perfect subdivision. And, like, the snow is coming down. They only had one snowflake models. Perfectly for the advertising to buy more Coca-Cola and drink in its, in wintertime. Oh. There's no way. We were warned of armies of metal men.

Worry not, Mr. Yorne here. If he could do this just with a wave of his hand and a beam of light, what need was there for all of that? Doesn't make any sense. Nothing that we have been told is accurate or true or anything. Everyone is telling us different things or lying to us or...

How do we know? How do we know any of it's real or true? Maybe we've lost time. That's happened before. We will get answers. Richard Floresloss. Time may have passed while we were in the plane of logic. Perhaps the war is over. I look around. There wouldn't happen to be like a small ogre child running by, would there? It's Christmas Day!

Don't keep me to it! Is this small ogre child? Just protect, perhaps, perhaps, Strolling by not running of course not running there's not stepping. You know what for the sake of 1226 a.m. Yeah, there is You small child what day is it? It is the it's the 13th day of the third month the day before winter's end. Do I know what day we left? I I'm just I have no idea. It has no idea when you when you left. Yeah, I'm trying to discern if there is like what day do we think today is? Yeah. That's a great question, and perhaps something that I could have teed up a little earlier.

But it is the eve of the first day of spring. It is the 13th day before the 14th of the month. And it is the third month of the year. The next day is technically the equinox shifting into spring. And is this the same day we walked through the port? Or is this like three? You would have known that and Yornear would especially have no God. So this is the same day.

So we've lost that time. We've lost no time. You've lost no time. In fact, it feels like seconds have gone by, aside from the strange transformation that consumed the living area and turned all of your furniture into Minecraft-style cubes and then shifted you into this space. Oh, so that means tomorrow is winter's head, right?

Yeah. Yeah. That's what he said. So as I go from this like, sheery like, I'm tired. And as soon as he says this, I just grumpy. And my fur or my bra.

No, we didn't lose any time. Good purpose. He waves and he continues on his way, clearly endeavoring to achieve some job or task that he's been assigned as you continue your conversation. Oh, bah, I'm like.

Winter's end is tomorrow, unless a year has passed. I want to look up at the mountains and see do they look like. like the visions that I've had where they're perfectly like, they're like perfect, right? Oh, yes. Oh, no.

As far as the eye can see, I look at the horizon. You look at the horizon and it's... Kindergarteners, you know. It's spiky flame. It's Plamobile. It's, yes, it's a pyramid still, but it's like it is constructed almost like a ziggurat where instead of even coming to a point,

It shapes down in stairs and jiggaggy, uh, uh, uh, cliffs as you look around and you can see that the land itself has been transformed into orderliness. Uh, you mentioned I saw a bunch of ogres doing work. Do I see Mannyas? Yeah, mania is at the end of the street. He seems to be at the intersection. the crossroads where the street terminates and the larger thoroughfare that leads out to

Argentholm stance. Come with me. Mannyus will know the last time he saw us. If it's been a year, he can tell us if we haven't been seen in that time. A year! If it's been a day or hours, let's talk to him. You all race up and make your way over to Manny. And moments later, you confront the...

face of the ogre that at one time thought that you were consumed with the madness and then was transformed into his more natural state, no longer suspended by the magic of Sopholoth. And he looks at you, oh, hello, Tyshen. How are you? I'm here. I'm directing the rest of our tribe. Manius Mani When's the last time you saw us? Oh, a few hours ago, I think. It has been some time.

How are you? What happened since you saw us last? What's happened all around us? The snow falls strangely. Everything works orderly, the mountains in the range. Nothing has happened. we have found our purpose we have found

peace we have found orderliness since you delivered the hexatured armament to its plane everything has been just as it should be

did secundus come here did he bring a legion did he do something no no no no no he secundus he is a very powerful and terrific champion of the plane of logic. Primus should be proud of him, but he is not here.

How are you? What is... The primates should be ashamed. What is your purpose? My purpose? Mani, I'm your chieftain. I'll ask the questions. Oh, yes.

how can I be of service why do you think the promise should be proud of secundus as barnabos asked he was the one who calculated where the hexature armament was unlike that other one then he spent his entire time here

as a head failing again and again hey that's right mr fireblossom he was terrible we had to walk the hexature armament back he was completely ineffective If I recall correctly, Mr. Fireblossom, didn't that pile of scrap metal almost get defeated by a couple of ice bugs? I think just a couple of ice bugs. Logically, I feel the ends justify the meats.

We brought the hexature armament into the plane of logic. He didn't even greet us. At the end of the day, doesn't it matter that we all found peace in order? doesn't it matter that we all are look around you we are able to survive now we had limited resources and yet with collaboration and cooperation we were able to

become whole man yes it doesn't make any sense that you feel that way you were like that once before you were controlled you were kept like stock you were kept protected I was fed and safe yes my mind was controlled by mind-eating beasts that was terrible.

Why do you sound like this now? You sound different. This is not the same. Manning, Manning. It's not even close. What's going on? It's not even close. Hey, hey, why do you sound like that?

Why come every time you're controlled by some form of beast, you become eloquent. Yeah, what's going on here? I miss this side of you, Manning. Could you say, of course, Of course, of course, of course, what's going on here? Mani, we gave you freedom,

and you were happy. You chose that. With your ogre kin, you chose to remain here. I'm freer now than I ever have been, because I understand the tasks that are before me. I understand what it is to do. I can master those things. I can do a perfect job.

That is what freedom is Then knock that building over That building deserves to stand there That look, it is a perfect duplicate of its opposite No, it doesn't, you just said you have freedom, knock that building over I'm not going to do that, I have freedom to say no Oh, he kind of got to there But I'm your chieftain, I'm directing you

Do I have to? It's up to you, man, it's your choice You dare question an order of the chieftain of the Iceborn You're right. You're right. I shouldn't let emotion get involved. You can throw that building out of order and make it ridiculous. It just doesn't seem very logical, Lussich. Why are you asking me to do that? It's not at all. It's a crazy thing to do. I don't want to do crazy things. I want to make sure that we're whole and protected and that we do everything in an orchestrated manner and that everything is good and fine all of the time.

Oh, you know, you're right, Mr. Fireblossom. I don't think he could do that. I think that. that the, that's what the other secundus would do. Hmm. I think you're right, Fauna Bose. I think that's what the other secundas would do. That doesn't sound like the other secundas at all. Guys, I never thought I'd say this, but I miss when Mani sounded like he had a traumatic brain.

Like they fixed your brain too well. I am only fixed because of the order that exists in this place thanks to your redacted Your return of the Exeter armament. But doesn't that mean that you're not you anymore? No, no, no. Of course, of course, of course. I will say, I feel like myself, but perfect.

I do not understand how, why are we not changed? Why do I feel this dispense? We are unaffected and you, what do you know of the hexature armament? Despair is the feeling that is preventing you from perfection, Yorne. Like me, if you are able to extract emotions, you will be able to shed these feelings and get back to your own purpose in life. Is this a trick?

You are right, mum of this is making sense. It's possible we were in the presence of the armament when the change occurred. And so we were protected? Um, if this is an illusion, we must attempt to break past it. It's in this moment that you look up the street of those crossroads, down the long thoroughfare, and you can see SIGDIS standing in her all of her majesty, platinum blonde hair, tall, muscular build, tight-fitting dress, as she walks down through the perfect curve of that street.

And on at her side, you see Daisy, who also is walking, and they're conversing, smiling, making their way towards you. If I see Daisy, I would immediately start running towards Hey! Hey, I can't! Hey, we're over here! We're back! She waves, and by the time you reach her, you're able to interact with her hand comb. Oh my gosh! Scrimm, how are you? I'm... I mean, we're having a pretty weird day. I'm not gonna lie. Things are going pretty strangely. Is everything all right? Signais, good to see you again.

Hi, I have something to talk about with our chieftain, if you don't mind. No, of course I don't mind. Get out of your cold. She makes her way, and you find yourself alone with Daisy for this in this moment. Isn't it wonderful? Could you be a little more specific? You returned the hex of your armament, did you not? Yeah, that was the plan. I think we did. We don't have it anymore. So, yeah, we returned it.

Since you have, everything has been better than I could have imagined. What do you mean? Like, better, but... The tribe. are all getting along everyone is coordinating the the dwarves are pulling up the the elements from the earth making the weapons that we need in order to expand and and and and take care of ourselves to to repair this broken city and the they are they're they're able to grow trees faster and quicker than before one after the other after the other each one like the last we have

firewood, we have food. But what about the snow? You don't think that's weird? You don't think it's weird the way that's fall, and I tried to like shape the snow early, and it was just kind of like a cube. That just doesn't make any sense. It's not natural. What doesn't make sense is weird. What doesn't make sense is

anything feeling weird in the first place. That was always the problem. Don't you understand? Don't you understand? No, you're not making any sense. I think back to also a long time ago when I had asked one of the ogres to take a piece of metal from a chain and twist it and bend it into a circular ring as a piece of jewelry that I gave I gifted to Daisy. It was certainly not perfect in any way.

It was a twisted piece of metal that was, you know, more or less supposed to represent. represent, you know, the losing the bonds and repurposing it into the freedom of choice. All that Barnabos is good stuff. Uh, well, change the topic. Do you still have the gift that I gave you all those weeks or months ago? I think I could put my hands on it if I needed to find it, but I don't have it on me. I, uh, it doesn't matter. It's not, it's not important.

What? What? It means not important. My importance now is what I can do to help the community around me. My importance now is my purpose. I am a human. And unlike the other humans, we are working with Ket to develop our psionic abilities so that we can do even more.

It's so simple. Don't you see how easy it is for us to grow and to learn? You can do that too. I can show you. Look, I mean, yeah, it's just a thing. Like a gift is just an object. It's certainly not important in the scheme of everything that's going on. It's just an object.

But what it represents was important. It was, that was your growth. And my growth and all of our growth. As we escaped the bonds of, of the horrible things that were happening in Ogerton. It was the shape of metal, and it doesn't make me stronger. It doesn't make me use my abilities any better. Those things, those strengths are what are going to help us survive.

Don't you see that that's the only rational way to look at it? You're not Daisy. Make a insight check. utterly fail. She looks like with Daisy. She gestures like Daisy. And as you are confronted with the words that she's signing to you, it is hard to differentiate.

It feels so real. The cold doesn't feel the right kind of cold. same biting cold that digs into your skin when you're starving and begging for warmth. And her messages to you, the way that she's communicating with you, don't have the same texture. And it's a very strange thing as you start to feel like she's almost as alien to you as the metal bridge and a sky full of machinery. I start to take a couple steps back. Towards the direction of my friends and where Stigis has started to walk to.

Stay, stay, stay, where are you going? We can talk through, you have lots of important things to show everyone and we can all work together. I know that the piece of jewelry was just a twisted piece of iron, don't you forget there's beauty and imperfections I have a perfect memory I remember when you gave it to me

and I'm just gonna keep taking you start to walk back and it's in this moment that Sigdus approaches Yutaishan uh when she's a little out of ear shot but she's walking up I'll just say it you're on air you think this

you think this is an illusion how do you think we break it I do not know. It is the only hope I have, but... Even if the world was turned to order, how does Mannyas know things he should not? Does he know of a second, Secundus? How would he know of the Primus?

That's not a word ever spoken in front of him. If tomorrow is winter's end, where was the war? Where was the war? Things aren't right about this place. I don't think. I don't think the ogres would trade after trading one master for another, to then finally be freed again to trade it for a third. No, I don't think they chose this. But in the world ruled by logic, does it matter?

If this was real, and if it is, perhaps this is how we would all feel. Maybe they're in there. Maybe there's a part of them that we can reach, fighting against it. The part that begs for freedom, they've tasted before. The part of them that's human. Oh, uh, it's not an automaton. Tishian. Do that, maybe.

Barnabos. You're near. It is good to see you again. Your purpose has been served. I understand that you have. return the hexature armament. Now we are here in Argentholm. We have a hard year in front of us thanks to my earlier emotional choices. But I've truly changed thanks to your efforts, not just through your mercy, but inviting logic into this realm. How?

Can I help you find your next purpose? So you have changed too. There's a part of me that hoped you were strong enough to resist against it. There is not a resistance against logic. It is like saying that the world is not real because you close your eyes. To pretend that our emotions make any difference one of the world. make any difference one way or the other is foolish. Now I see by acting rationally I can I can truly free myself from those emotional decisions. Isn't that what you wanted for us to be free

from those rageful thoughts for wrath to no longer dominate? I'm free now and the tribes are getting along better than ever. Everything is going to work out. Do you see? I'll take a couple steps towards her and kind of like put my hands around her arms. Uh, Sigdis, you, I didn't want your wrath to go away. I wanted it to not rule in your heart in place of love. I didn't want you sought to protect the people of this land from invaders you sought to unite the tribes you did it through blood and fire but you fought once against an invading hoard that sought to take what was yours you fought you took up arms against this army once before you can do it now you can fight against what

they've done to you the the tribes are not united the tribes no longer exist, they are not themselves. You are not yourself. But like before, I believe you're in there. Make a persuasion check at disadvantage. She's a dragon. She is. Oh my God.

She is. She's a wreck! After all these years. 20. Nice. Well done. You're doing it, Tyshen. You're doing it.

She's explained. I need to you every reason why it would be easier or more successful or better to lose emotion completely. And somehow your sympathy, your kind words, the way you framed them, hits her. And she... That's not... That's not what I'm... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not what this is all about.

We're not gonna get rageful. I'm not, I'm not angry. Are you angry? I'm not, I'm not mad. Stop, stop, stop being in, no. Sigdis, we walked through your life together. I'm not, you and I, try. Once.

There in the hut with Custan, coward in the corner, as he set the rules, as he pushed you to the side. Yes. When the dragon born came and tried to take your land from you... And it all would have been better! He hadn't been angry.

If I hadn't got angry. And then the woman of the woods held the yoke by the mountains. That's not... Don't you see that we're free of that now? Don't you see why are you trying to drudge up all of these emotions? And after years, thousands of years,

you fought finally free only to have once more an invading horde try to take the reins try to take your freedom make another persuasion check

and advantage I'm watching hot damn I'm watching with the with pride as I'm just kind of I lot I

And it's almost like a maniacal grin. Okay. It's coming from my... And Yornear, you are doing what ends grim? You are actually backing up into this. So I want to hear what you're doing as Nace continues... I'm sorry, Tyshen continues to push Signa. I would, like, have stepped away from this.

And I would just be standing there, feeling the way that I do, and kind of looking between Mannyus, just very, you know, logically ordering around the O... watching this happen and watching the interaction between the princess or between Signa and Tyshen and just kind of at least for now taking it all in and trying to grapple with what could possibly be happening right now. It's grim. I will have kind of backed up into what is happening and I guess I would think that if I hear Cygnus raise her voice even a little bit it would probably like...

Daisy's just sort of jumping up with you but you were hearing this moment of outburst What do you get, Bice? I don't know about you, but that would make me very angry. And I rolled a 30. Well, I got a 30. She doesn't articulate her emotions in words, but instead you watch as the Princess of Rath reemerged. The dragon that presents itself in front of you after she shifts and transforms. is whole, healthy, strong, complete,

and top to bottom made of ice and rage. As she screams and takes off into the skies, immediately unleashing a massive burst of ice that slams into the side of buildings and, and, you can see that all of the orderly, uh, cobalds and, uh, uh, humans and ogres and others that are standing around you as they watch this outburst, are shocked and horrified by this event that you have been able to produce by pushing and pushing those emotional buttons that you know exist with Insigdis despite her claims of rationality and logic.

and she starts to swim and soar around the neighborhood, covering buildings, collapsing buildings with her rageful screaming roar. I don't think Scudis gonna like this very much. Hi, that's your cheatin. I sure hope this is an illusion now or some kind of fabrication. That's why Fuzzao sent you on this quest, because you know, You know, Princess, now that you must rage, It's who you are, it's whom you've always been!

You are screaming into the heavens as she continues to almost follow your command. You know she might not be able to hear you, but she is doing exactly that. And in this moment, Daisy races up, What have you done? This isn't the orderly way. You push her into emotion. Look at the destruction that you've done.

cause. This isn't what the hexagonment, what the plane of logic would want? No, no, this isn't what you would want. You're not thinking right. You're not acting like yourself. This is crazy. We don't want to be orderly. I don't want to be perfect. You

know me. I'm the least perfect creature that's ever existed. I've been nothing but a ball of anxiety and fear my entire life. I don't want to be perfect. And the daisy that I know wouldn't want me to be perfect either. Don't you want to be free of that

emotion? Don't you want to be free of fear? Don't you want to not look behind your shoulder? Don't you want to not be free of all of the horrors that we've seen? The grief that I feel for my sister. Gone.

So easy to swipe away when you see it. No. No. I've spent my entire life running. And you know what? Being stuck on this stupid content has done

anything for me. It's forced me to embrace the fear. I'm never going to live without it. Every day I wake up, terrified. But I still get up and I put my feet on the floor and I embrace it. That's what it means to be free. She starts to shake her head, left and right. And it doesn't feel like Daisy. It feels mechanical.

All the people around you looking up are watching as Sigdis erupts in emotion and starts to destroy the city. But all their arms cast a finger in almost the same way. And it feels like things are starting to collapse. and when she turns to you, she looks and she says, her mouth opens and a voice emanates from within her mouth. As she says, You do not understand. You are another one that must be corrected.

You are imperfect, emotional, illogical. And as these words are uttered, Everything around you crashes again and shatters in the same way as when you were in the plane of logic. Or were you? What? Or were we? What the hailed? Double quadruple bait switch!

Oh no! Oh no! We wake up in an insane asylum. We're in straitjackets. Give it a game. By the gods. You find yourselves in the living quarters of the domicile that was gifted to you by Signa, and you realize that you're back, back to the moment just after you attempted to communicate with the being known as Secundus.

You're leaning forward just as you were moments ago, Taishen, holding. on to the now dormant head of Secundus. Turning it, you see that the eyes are blank. What the fiend? And you have returned. I don't understand. Oh, gosh, nothing is real. Nothing is real. Nothing is real.

We're back to maybe, it was a, it was a vision. He never sent us to the, the place. The plane? You have had time with the hexature armament, and it is no longer glowing, but inexorably it continues to turn, very slowly shifting one face of this strange artifact against the other, and you're beginning to understand what it is.

It is a artifact of infinite energy, but it is also the compression of a plane of existence that cannot grapple with things like emotion Secundus

certainly is corrupted and you find yourself staring at an artifact that might similarly be as anathema to reality as secundices.

But you've delved deeper than anyone that you are aware of into this artifact's mysteries, even more so than Sophilith, who extracted nothing but power to fuel his ship or Whisper Fang, who wanted to use it for his own arcane means. And in this moment, you finally attune to the hexature armament. What? Like a tune, like mechanically?

Who? Mechanically, every one of you uses a attunement slot. Oh. Oh. Oh. They're all identical. I just want you all to have a copy. As you suddenly feel the shift. Holy some.

In the reality of Dracar, no time has passed. You experience this vision, and it is the sort of the logical counterpoint of the auroras that have burdened you. This is fascinating. Throughout your journeys through Dakar. But now you have access to the tools that you need in order to truly gather your allies

and open the portal in order to return the hexature armament, for it is obvious that such an artifact and such a being like Secundus has no place in the mortal realm. And that's where we'll take not a break.

That's where we'll end tonight's session because I think picking up here and figuring out where we go next is the right move. We got lots of read here. All right. We got a real piece. Great special.

Great session. That's what I'm in the session. Holy. That was awesome. Before we end the session, Derek, could you read? Could you know, Marley? Do you have one? Do you have a copy? We're going to read this out loud. I think that it's meaningful for listeners to understand the rules.

So, instead of ending tonight's session with a fade-to-black, I would propose that we take a moment to read the artifact for everyone, and then we'll jump into Adventurson Chill. What do you say? That sounds great. I would love to... You're the GM, bro. I would love to hear your experiences, players, but... I did pre-set up today, so...

As characters, you now have access to the artifacts' full abilities. And that is what that feels like. Look at the big brain on Ridge. And I'm really fucking proud of this. I... I haven't read a word yet. I haven't read a word. I was waiting to experience it all together.

It's a long one. It's a long one. It's a long one. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Let's do it. Do you have a copy? I do. Okay. Hexature armament. Wondrous artifact requires special attunement. Two flawless mirrored hexagonal prisons rotate slowly and eternally against one another. Each face reflects like a freshly polished mirror with edges, corners, and vertices crafted to impossible precision. The hexature armament draws its power from the plane of logic. It is the aggregate of that realm's force and its source.

Doctrine, command, hierarchy, certainty, planar machinery, and the inexorable will of the whole domain is compressed into a single object. Special attunement. Up to six creatures may attune to the hexature armament at one time. Attuning to it requires eight uninterrupted hours spent in physical contact with the artifact. I am waiving that. You are now attuned. While attuned to the armament, you have three charges.

You can expend these charges to use the armament's powers, and your charges cannot be expended by another attuned creature. You can expend your charges only while you are within one mile of the armament. You regain all expended charges when you finish a long rest. First feature. The axis of equilibrium. When you roll a die, you can expend one charge to replace the number you roll with the armament's equilibrium value for that die.

Or, when you roll on a random table, you can expend one charge to roll twice and choose either result. If you roll a D4, it's a 2, D6, 3, D8, 4, D10, 5, and so on. Those are the equilibrium values. Once you use this axis, until you finish a short or long rest, your mind rejects imbalance. Whenever you roll a die, the result is replaced by the armament's equilibrium value. By using it, you will change. Axis of inference. When you hit with the attack action on your turn,

and listen closely, Barnabos, when you hit with the attack action on your turn, you can expend one charge. Until the end of your turn, whenever you hit with the attack action, you can take one additional attack action. Once you use this axis, until you finish a shorter long rest,

every result becomes the premise for the next. When you succeed on a D20 test, add 1D4 to the next D20 test you make. When you fail a D20 test, subtract 1D4 from the next D20 test you make. The axis of power. When you cast a level 1 plus spell by expending a spell slot, you can expend one charge to expend more than one spell slot to cast it. add the levels of all expended spell slots together to determine the spell's effective level. For example, you can expend three level one spell slots to cast a spell at level three,

or two level five spell to cast a spell at effective level 10. If the spell requires concentration... Let's fucking go! I begged your part. Oh my God! There's a level 10? No, no. Presumably, add up all of your spell slots and just blow them all. I only get two, but this 10. That's 10, baby.

I got like 15. I got like 15. What is 10 slots? What does level 10 do? If the spell requires concentration and its effective level is higher than 9, the DC for any constitution saving throw you make to maintain concentration on that spell increases by one for each effective spell level above 9. Damn. Once you use this axis, until you finish a short or long rest, every action becomes a closed equation. You can have neither disadvantage or advantage on D20 tests, and you cannot add extra dice to subtract or add extra dice from your D20 rolls, such as from Bles, Bain,

Bartic Inspiration, or similar effects, except for the D4 added or subtracted by the axis of inference. Axiomatic current. As a magic action, you can expend one charge to cause the hexature armament to emit an invisible emanation of planar force. Dormant creatures, objects, mechanisms native two are created by the plane of logic within one mile or powered for 24 hours and can resume their intended function. This force serves as motive law rather than healing. It sustains function but does not restore hit point, repair damage, alter allegiance or compel obedience. And finally, because it is a capital A artifact. destroying the artifact

the hexature armament is impervious to damage and cannot be destroyed or altered by ordinary force spellcraft or divine command however it can be destroyed if it is left in the innermost storm of the plane of chaos the thousand years where no laws of shape, order

or consequence remain stable it's full circle we get to take you the millstone 100 years that is crazy boys we're going to back to limbo let's be campaigned that limbo what a crazy fucking this is wild oh my i'm ready to fuck to go like to to fuck up to go like to fucking spot i'm ready to