Legends of Avantris - Icebound | Ep. 43 | Dead Reckoning

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

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We are legends of Aventress. This is icebound. Lend us your strength and join us. You're back. Almost no time has passed since you attempted to destroy, to crush, to use the head of Secundus to activate the hexager armament, to get it to open a portal to the plane of logic. You were intercepted. instead of that portal opening you were pulled unknowingly into a vision

a dream a sequence of events controlled by the strange axiomatic mind of Secundus but it was twisted corrupted and you witnessed

his vision not just of logic but of the world as he sees it one where logic is a command, a decree and

now you're back panting feeling a strange a sweat crawl across your body as you realize that you're returned to the mortal realm

you look into each other's eyes and the fireplace is still flickering. The hexature armament still rotates eternally on the table within this living space. And the head of Secundus lies at Taishan's feet, dormant once again,

its eyes and the grill that makes its mouth no longer illuminated with that strange yellow light. You also feel a new and strange connection, the same connection that you feel when you harmonize with a magic item. The strange attunement that came through your vision, through your journey that now ties you to the hexature armament, not just your person, but unlocking the powers that lie within its infinite folds. you come back to yourself

not dizzy but wholly there still standing in the living space of the residence that was gifted to you by Sigdis the Princess of Wrath and standing there

within your neighborhood knowing that there are ogres just outside no longer the ones you experienced in that vision commanded to be uniform and orderly and logical. No.

Life intercarz as it ever has been. And what happens next is up to you. So we, we're just arriving back and we're like, oh my gosh, this is a... Yes.

We haven't reacted yet, basically. No, no, no. This is the split second upon your return. You are overcome by these emotions, by these sensations. You appreciate that the four of you now have this shared connection with the hexature armament, and you all, looking into each other eyes,

know that you've experienced the same vision, that it was a lived and shared experience. And did you say Sucundis' head is, like, inert? Or does it, like, there's no glow in the eyes or like... It appears to be completely dormant, looking at it. It seems that you were moments ago, without the vision,

about to crush, that metal fixture, what was left, what the Princess of Wrath left from her battle when she fought him. And before you were able to do that, he was able to come back to himself, even without his body, come back to himself, speak, connect to the Hexature armament, and pull you into his world. If you were to observe,

the four of you in the last 60 seconds. It would look like you were about to open the portal. All of you would stare stunned for a moment into space, and then blinking, you would come back into yourselves. That's how little time has passed. I knew that devilry was all phantasms. We need to get this thing back to where it belongs. We will not be deceived by Secundus.

No, it's clear that he wants it. For himself, he doesn't want us to take it through the portal. No, no, please. The artifact, the great power is immense. How can he be honest? Truly wield this. We don't need to wield an issue, Yarnier. We simply need to get it back to where it's meant to be, parlay with his primus, offer up Ketristine as justice.

but turn the traitor's head. There's no reason if this premise is a man of logic and reason that he should have any ill-will towards our world. I don't want to spend any more time in front of this thing near it or anything that we have to. Not a minute more. We gotta get rid of it. We have to take it back. But your near is right. Something has changed. I can feel its power tied to us now. us now in a way it wasn't before. Yes.

Where is secundus? Do I like look around the room? Is his head still there? Yes. It is just a few inches away from Taichens' feet. You have to shuffle a bit to look, but you can see over the table as you look down

from your great height that the head is rolled onto its side, staring up vacantly. Its eyes are empty sockets. It's grill, no longer glows. It could be a toy. It could be a play thing. Or a helm, like a helmet,

but otherworldly in its shapes. How the hells did he even do that? Get away! And I'm gonna take my staff, and I'm gonna knock the head, like, across the room. So it's, like, further away from the artifact and the heck of the ground. You push it.

And like a, skilled hockey player with your staff, you're able to knock it. And you watch as in one swipe, Yornear knocks the head, which clangs. There's even a brief spark that spits out from the edge of this helm as it clambers into the corner and then falls to rest. That's very funny. Well, he there, guys, eh? I don't have any kind of like detect magic or anything, but like, do we get a sense that like, I mean, I know you said he's like, it feels dormant. Do we get a sense that obviously like the last time we tried to go for the door to get Ket, he like cast us all into this thing? Do we get a sense that it feels like his power is almost spent? Or do we feel like, you know, like... Make an Arcona check.

Do you think back to your experience and you're not sure exactly when. the illusion that you were presented began and when you still had your faculties. But at a certain point, perhaps right at the moment when he awoken, you were in his grip, within his grasp, because he was channeling the hexature arborment. As an automaton like anyone else from the plane of logic, he would have an innate connection to such a powerful artifact. And he used it to try to persuade you. Now that illusion is gone. It feels

very comfortable to assume that if he could do more, he would. And with your near smashing of the head against the wall, you feel even more confident that the head is, for the time being, dormant.

So you think it's just a proximity thing? Like, we just keep the head way far away from the arm, and then we'll be all right. I do not know. but we must find another way we risk using his connection to open the portal who knows what he could do and it may just be another trick things are different now though you're near I know that you feel it too he drew on the power of the hexature armament when he was close but we now we have some control over it He wanted to stop us from going.

He, he, he, it had to have taken a great deal of power for him to cast whatever that was over us. I think, the plan still hasn't changed. We need to go through the portal and we need Ket. Aye. Well, reasoned. I think, I hate to say, were suggest what I'm about to suggest, as much as I wish to entrust this can of beans and I'll point to the head. To those we trust,

I think it would be folly to give it to the ogres and to Manny. Should we entrust it to the protection and guarding of the Cygnus? Wise judgment. Yes. Make sure that the reason why she did what she did what she did. she did was to stop that and the doom she was attempting for to forestall in her own way is all at the

hands of that. I don't think we should waste any more time. She's kept it safe for long enough. She'd likely keep it safe for just a bit longer. Quick question. In my memory of last session that there's no open portal in this room currently. Is that correct? That's right. And that the portal that we saw was potentially part of the trick. From the moment the portal opened, you were probably already... In Sorcelled.

In Sorcelled. In Sorcellarceduror. It's a great fucking word. It's not like there's a portal here that we can go get... Apple sticker. We need to find a way and hope that he still has whatever abilities that he's used, perhaps. Or we need to find some way...

He's an interdimensional traveler. Yes. We know that. But we also have attuned all of us to the hex of your armament. We can, to a degree, wield it now. And you feel that to some degree. You feel that tug, all of you. It hits you in different ways just because of who you are, your beliefs, your person. You interpret it how you want.

I'm not going to make you feel certain ways just by saying it as the GM. I don't have that fiat. I can all only say that you realize as you. as you think about the hexager armament, that there's great power in it. Power that could change the tide of battle, power that could amplify your own magics. There's a temptation there,

flying in wait, and all of you are eager to return that power to its home. Then yes, let us not waste any more time, Let us put an end to this. I agreed. Alright, that's it. That's all we gotta do, right?

Nope, too. I didn't remember if any of this is left. After we return, if we shall return, we need to make sure that we continue to present a unified support behind our our new chieft. All right? Sure. Yeah. And you must be firm. What we're asking of Ket is certainly very likely death. And if he's not willing to go on his own accord,

I think that you need to be the one to cast that sentence. I understand your meaning, Barnabos. I stole vengeance from him once before. It's my hope that presented with the opportunity to finally bring this to rest, he will want to come. But I know that whatever he wants, he is necessary. All right. Well, let's waste no time. And I'm going to basically leave the tower and attempt to, if we know where a cat normally hangs out, if not, basically just go out. You push out into the district where the ogres live, your home neighborhood, and it is frigid.

It is the same wintry mix that has poured down upon Argent home day after day. Even when it isn't snowing, a few moments outside saps your body of all its warmth, even where you are wearing protection. and you start to look for Ket. He has occasionally been here in your neighborhood. He has been all about the city over the last few days that you've taken to rest and recuperate from the, for like of a better word, the adventure of confronting the Princess of Rath and Koskechee. But after asking a few folk, after asking around, Many people have seen them going in the direction of the marketplace. And after a 30, 40-minute hike, you push your way through the snow as it falls down into that area,

where dwarves, minotars, and many of the other tribes of Argentholm have commerce, trading fuel and food to make each other's people whole again. And it's in a very familiar spot, on a very familiar road, that you find yourself staring at the entrance to the quiet quill. You recall that this is the tavern that was owned by a very friendly elf, an elf who wanted nothing but your friendship. and to know that he had done right by you. And by the name of Nimrodel.

And to feed a soup. Also known as the superver. Just to feed a soup. I saw him away like fistful after fistful of gold, too. Try to set him off a life and he just gave it all away like a dumbass. He tried his very best to petition the princess at the time to relieve him of his mortal coil, as it said, given the beliefs.

Relief him, yes. of that cabal. And you push in, expecting to see perhaps a friendly face, but certainly expecting to enjoy the warmth inside. It's not that much warmer. There's a small fire in one corner. Fireplace crackles.

It's mostly burned down to coals. And the space is largely empty. When I say empty, I don't mean just that there's only one figure sitting at the bar. nursing a lone drink. I also mean that the decorations that hit the wall, the space itself no longer seems to be set up for patronage.

It seems spare in here, spare in a way that feels wrong. As you start to walk in, you see Ket Rostin sitting at the bar, his now changed form. holding the glass that sits in front of him, having a timid sip every now and again, looking down and clearly in deep thought, barely recognizing that the door is open at all,

using his one good hand. And that's what presents you as you walk into the quiet quill. Can we say that I was leading our way into the bar here? Yeah. I have a report. You'd be absolutely, walking in the phone. We got to do that thing where, like,

you knock, but you're opening the door, at the same time not really waiting for response, right? And I'll be, uh, hey, Nimrodel, what's up, buddy, we're back. It's your friends. Are you dead yet? Ha, ha, ha. Just kidding. Just kidding.

Ha, ha. Oh. Oh my. Kett, is that you? Yes, this is me. I'm having a drink. Is, uh, is Nimrodel around or do you finally kick the bucket? As you can see, I think Nimrodel is no longer.

the owner of this establishment. Okay, but is he like, you know, still with us or not? Did he get his big witch? Did he die? I cannot say. He did not tell me the timing, but I know that since the elves have been returned to their gods, that say many have chosen to move on.

Oh shit, guys, I just can't... That is terrible timing for a joke. I think the Mazek laughed, which is certainly a death sentence. You joke? Yeah, I thought maybe he would still be bound by whatever magic was holding him here in this place, and we'd come in and have a laugh, and he'd still be kind of gloomy about not really being able to move on to the next world, and that...

I think that... I think the magic that was binding them here was an inability to allow their gods to ferry them to the... the next life and I did not think that far ahead he wished to die no I know I was I'm following right there with you as they all did or many of them at least I feel joy that he has accomplished his goal perhaps yeah but a little rude that we couldn't have you know fed Jack first right I mean like come on isn't that the whole point we gotta you know it just seems a little selfish they have their own hounds to feed yeah I guess

you're probably right you know it would have been nice to say something to him one more time. Stupid, stupid scrim! I was a little awkward now. You are here because you are ready to move on yourselves. You are ready to take that

back? There has been something brewing, I think, ever since we landed here on the ice. And there's a sense that it's all coming to a head.

So, yes, we aim to take the hexature armament back from where it originated. I know. I know. You feel your fate. I can sense it. You know as well as I.

This is why you are here. Why our paths crossed and why they converge now? Do you not? He runs his good hand across his face. And you can see that even though he's healed, he still bears the scars of the torment that he experienced at the hand of Whisper Fang. And he looks at you, Yornear. I know not this fate.

I know only... the path of a warrior, the doing what must be done. But I have not had an easy path. And if you are going,

I have no home here. And I may be able to make things right. May be able to find some dignity in all of this after I have lost so much. I'm glad.

that you've come to that conclusion on your own and do not need further persuasion you once told me that the gods had sent you here that you had been guided sent here to return that the gods have never spoken to me in this way gods are silent for me i am not so blessed but i if i can help you And he sits up, and he pulls his massive sword. That's been leaning against the bar to straighten up and stand before you. I know what the plane of logic is like. I can help you navigate it. I can help you, perhaps shield you from its dangers,

and we can hide that thing. Because believe me when I tell you, anyone finds it. Any automaton, they will see you as a threat. It is a miracle that we were able to get away with it. It is a miracle that we were able to get this far. It will be a miracle to be able to return it with our lives. You all understand this?

Yes. I mean, I understand what you're saying, but aren't you concerned what might happen when we return it after you took it? They gotta know you took it, right? I do not know what they know. There's a chance that my faces on wanted posters across every town and city and settlement and station throughout the entire plane.

There is also a chance that they have no idea that I was involved. You see, when we stole it, it was not an elaborate heist. My son and I breaking in and... Pulling it from the clutches of Primus. No, no, no, we... It was my son who... Was able to convince a simple unit, one of the lowest-ranking automaton's.

Convince him after weeks and months of conversation to go and find something special to take, something that we could use to convince the automaton's to wage war against the... elitid. That units did more than find a special object. It found that. Do they think that it has disappeared? Do they know we were involved? We left immediately once we had it. So sure, so confident in our success. I know not. But if they do know me and judgment must come, he takes another sip of his beer. I will face that if it comes.

Just so I'm on the same page as you here, you're telling us that you just talked your way into it? Like, like, like, some little critter just went and fetched it for you. This is not an easy task. You make it sound like we had a conversation or negotiation. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. The mind of an automaton is unbending. It cannot be fooled by illusion. It cannot be fooled by illogic.

It cannot be tricked. It cannot be changed. It cannot be charmed. It cannot be any of these things. My son over day and night worked with him to find a way for him to believe that he was taking the logical course of action. It was poetry.

I mean, Okay, all right, fine. That sounds impossible, but fine, sure. It's as you say, and the two of you worked with an automaton for weeks, months to make this happen, it's likely that they know what you look like, know that you were involved. Certainly that would know that it had handed it over to you. That's what I'm trying to say. And it matters not.

what they know or what they don't. If we intend to treat and parlay with this primus, we shall hide nothing. We shall tell only truth. And you will give you a chance if this primus will let you to tell your side of the story. We have no intention of approaching this mechanical realm with any deception.

Barnabos is right. You will likely face justice there. And I know that life has not been kind to you. And I am sorry that one last time I must ask you to face it this way again. But we can't do this without you. And every minute that goes by, I fear that we're closer to the vision we seek to have loved. I may be killed the moment we arrive. At the very least, the metal man, Saccundus, he recognized me. He pulled me. He knows. Where is?

The head? We have it? We can't leave it here, can we? No. We have to give it back to the Primus. One of his generals, we can't, even if we didn't want to, we can't leave it here. Oh yeah, and his heads all scrambled. He's too dangerous.

Maybe he needs to get melted down and turning the scrap. I suppose. Listen, I hear what you are saying about trying to be true, trying to go in with truth. It is very admirable, but it is not wise. If you were to parade that artifact in the plane anywhere, a moment an automaton sees it, they will descend upon you. And I am not joking you when I tell you these beings are unfathomably strong. They are, they are.

I chose them because they are beyond warriors. They are inexorable. They think you have very much. this artifact, they will tear you apart just as much as they would me if they knew I was guilty of what I am guilty of. Do you understand this? Yeah, it sounds like you're walking into a meat grinder. Surely they would sense it once the core of their realm is back amongst them. I think not. Second as he journeyed hundreds of miles across the face of Dracar to find this. And even when he was nearly right in front of it, he knew not where it was.

I do not think that they have a connection like that, a way to locate this object. What do you suggest, then? You can get us into this realm and you can navigate us to the primus without drawing attention? If we are lucky, we find a portal that is closer to the inner circle, and we simply walk there. It is a traversable plain. It is very strange. It is not like walking across the sheets of ice in this horrid place or navigating the astral sea, but it is something that you can do.

Travelers are there. They're not just automaton. There are peoples, their cultures, their whole communities that live in the plain of logic. They live and they go about their daily lives. They farm crops. They trade. We will go from place to place, and we will, if we can, keep this item hidden. Go without danger.

If I am taken, I will equip you with what I know, and you can take it from there. They know not your faces. You are the best equipped to do this mission. God's or no. I think that, as I said, what matters is that we do not try to deceive Primus. The other beings and peoples of this plane I care not for. I only care to treat honestly with the one in charge.

Do you attempt, do you intend to deceive the Primus? No. If we reached that threshold, I would... I would tell him what I did. I would explain myself and hope for mercy. I do not want to deceive a god. I do not want to deceive anyone, really. Take it from me.

You did not want to be deceiving gods. Then that is what we'll do. We'll open the portal. We'll navigate towards the inner circle or the inner rings. We'll maintain a low profile. until we get to the primus and will treat honestly and openly to return the hexature armament and avoid your vision the wise decision indeed I say that's our plan we lead tonight sure yeah no no complaints from me why wait you

accept your fate Ketrostin if If you believe in faith, it is not something one accepts. It is what it is. Do you wish to hear the gods? You said you did not hear them. Yet you walked this path. This path of the warrior, you call it. Do you need their voice?

No. I walked the path of the warrior. I am on a new path. He takes another sip I do not need to hear the voices of gods I struck where I thought I could to protect my people

to destroy our enemies I think perhaps that I missed but that it does not mean I did not try my best if I could hear any voice you are near it would be the voice of my son

and you have gained wisdom as we all have. There is only emptiness and hollow graves at the end of a quest for vengeance. Are you all ready? We can make this portal now. It is not a difficult trick once you know the means. No objections from me. If we feel prepared, I see no reason to wait until tonight. Do you all feel ready? Aye! What kind of question is that, Yonair?

After all that we have seen, let's not delay another moment. We stack ourselves against the impossible. Yorna, we talk about cutting open portals to not even another world, but another plane of existence. existence. I don't know if ready is the word, but I know that it is inevitable. Indeed. There's no path but forward. You have the hexacharmament on your back? Yes. I do not recommend using the head of Secundus to activate the portal. He could reactivate and it could be quite ugly. I will take it.

Could I know about an hour ago. You wish to take the artifact? It is set it here on the ground and we will open the portal. We don't need the vital spells of whisper, fame. You need something connected to the plane of logic. And unless one of you has been there already, perhaps, and has some token, and we can't use the condus's head. He reaches back behind him and he pulls out a small, thin blade. This I acquired.

He earns the plane. This is a simple dagger, and it's a simple dagger, and it's... is of automaton make it is special metal a special design I know that it might be

not special to you but it came at quite a cost I purchased it in a settlement known as Station 11 if I drag it across the face of the hexager armament it will open

that's it? Is that simple? It is connected to the plane is it not I was certainly Oh so Does it look like When we've seen Secundus we've seen like his weapons

You had Perhaps seen this Dagger dangling from his belt many times But it never had made that connection That it has that same chrome Precision reflectivity As other objects That you've seen

Just as the horse did That Secundus rode Just as his his lance did, just as his very form did. Now that you mention it, it doesn't look like his sword. It doesn't look gith made. He seems to be telling the truth. Then go ahead, Kett.

Open the portal. Now is the time. Should we lace and form our tribe? We may be gone for a long time and never return. Shall we deputize the young, lady for daisy and manny to look after the lot while we're gone. At least leave a note, send a messenger.

I suppose we could, Barnabos, but if we leave and fail, I don't much see the point. Aye. And if we succeed, I suppose we'll know sooner rather than later. No stated. All right. As you say, there is a chance. Great likelihood we never return.

Yes, the pragmatic approach is, if we fail, what does it matter? I believe it is our fate that we will succeed. I like the sound of that. But success does not mean that we return here. Or that we live. So take into account the possibility that we do succeed, but we never return. There are matters of the heart that might need closure. This may be your last chance.

Is your urnir? My matters of the heart. the closure that that needs it's not here and it matters not whether I live or die perhaps

you should say your fellow farewells Mr. Sabascoch ha never very good at goodbyes I know I was trying to spare you but Mr. Yorneer is right look I'm probably

doomed no matter what. I can't be anywhere near that number of souls I gotta get. And if we don't come back or we kick the bucket before I hit those numbers, it's not gonna matter. I'm doomed. I'm okay with it. Can't change it. Is what it is. I don't really want to put that on anybody. You know, might just be better this way. Very well. Same goes for you then, Tai Shen. Family at home. They have the closure they need. No, Yornier, I suppose you're right.

I hadn't really thought about success with no ability to return. I thought we either lose and all is lost or we win and we return. but to save all that we know and never return lost without word I don't want to slow us down I don't want to stop or take away whatever chance we have of averting disaster but I will take a couple minutes and write a letter now is the time Yes. All you goads. Very good.

I will have another drink. And you watch as he, as Cat Rustin, even in his reduced and diminished capacity, uses one hand to gracefully and agilely hop over the bar, refill his tankard with ale, and hop back in order to sit back down to give you, however much time you need. He stares down into the bubbles as the head reduces. And Tyshen, you have a moment to compose. You pull out some parchment.

Yeah, I wouldn't go anywhere private. I'd just sit down. I mean, you said this place is largely empty. It's spare. It's not unfurnished, right? There's tables and this sort of thing. But that's sort of the charm and the decoration that came with it before. has been pulled to free from it either traveling moving on or changing of management unknown

i would sit down at a table and pull out some parchment and uh pen and start to write a letter and i would start to detail as much as i can recall and get straight as much of the journey from when I left Jade Shell to where I find myself now and what we face, what comes next, and not knowing what the outcome will look like or if I ever come back, and I'll author it to Mele and hope that we were successful, and hope that she lives in a world of freedom. and she can follow her own adventures. I don't, I wouldn't

know of or believe I have any way to send a letter from Jakar. Anywhere? It's... There's not like a mail system. Unfathomable. The idea of handing a letter to who a chieftain,

to take the letter across the distances, the, the, the wide plains of Dracar across the mountains, who knows what lies to the east even? Where is there a port here that could cross the great oceans that lie to the east and west and north that could even get it to another civilization where maybe it could exchange hands and for gold and silver move and trek? And for how many months would that journey, would that letter have to take that journey for?

It seems almost impossible. But you push that away to try to hold onto the hope that perhaps the words you're writing now might one day reach her, even if it feels like an impossible favor stacked upon impossible favors. Mr. Stavisgotch, Mr. Yorny is right. I think if you do survive this, you aren't snapped up in the jaws of a beastie, you're going to regret it for the rest of your life. or you do not say, or at least leave a note of farewell. I do not take the opportunity and I regretted it from my entire life. It ate me away like rust and barnacles, lad. Bonobos, I hear you. I'll leave a note, but I don't want to face it.

It's your choice, lad. Tyshank, can I borrow some paper or a writing implement? Of course. Give me more paper? Yes, yes, I do. I'll sit at the bar, while they're writing. We'll sit at the bar with Nexichette.

Yeah. And I'll wave Yorneur over. I'm Mr. Yorneir. No matters of the heart for you, I presume? No. Or even then join us. Three old broken men.

Will you have a drink with me? I suppose if there's something that might be more pallid than your A.O. I'm not sure that this establishment is open. I just started taking from the cask because, well, we're about to go to our death. So here, have a flagon. We don't need the flagon. I'll have perhaps water. And I'll go to see if they have any kind of water supply.

easily found. The supply that Cat Rastin is dipping into is the stores of... Oh, he had tea, didn't he? Or coffee? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no, no. Nimeridels, anything that was on the menu, you'd be able to find here. It's not like you packed up all supplies. Right, right. It's more like the... It's more like the... It's more like the... All right. Oh, my God.

No, I think something's stronger. Not that. Spot a coffee would do us find coffee. I'm making coffee. Spot a coffee would do us. I'll brew us a pot. I'll take some. And I'll go into the back.

I don't know who owns this place anymore. I don't frankly care. I presume that there would be the availability. I believe that he had something like that. I don't know. I'll make tea if I have to, but I'll brew a pot of coffee. I wouldn't make you roll for it. You find coffee eventually.

And I presume that's a big fuck. You find, oh yeah, without question, you find a mortar and pestle, you're able to grind down the beans. This is this is similar to jackfruit, a dracarian coffee variety that only grows in the most southern climes of Avantras. And it is not just bitter, but also very tart. however, it does give you the energy boost that is associated with caffeine-caffinated beverages like coffee all across the ventures. And you're able to very quickly pour hot water onto it

after letting it simmer on the fire for a moment. And 10 minutes later, you have a very dark and rich roast that is very fragrant. It fills the entire space with this, fragrance. Cat. I will share a flagon with you, and I'll reach out and

grab or reach for what he passed Barnabas. It's a variety you've had here in Arjun home a few times. Common ale. It tastes a little cheap. I'll pour

you know, I'll get some tin cups or something, wherever they have, and I'll pour a cup for everybody. I'll pass it. out. Ooh, this is very bitter. It's not much, but it'll heat this gloomy place. At the very least, our bones will be warm as we head to our doom. It needs sugar. I don't need sugar. Ironically, Kett finds himself in the position of dual handing, both the flagon of beer as you start to toast, Yoronear, and also sipping on the coffee. He seems to be very much in indulging himself right now.

But he does look at you as you raise your glass. As the yarls of Mahmuth say, Skoll. No, he's skull? Skoll? Skoll. I've folded up the letter. It does not very long.

Okay. And I write on the outside of it. Oger District. Daisy, the one with the bow. and uh are you ready yeah

what are we gonna do with these just leave him here I'll reach up my hand oh sure are you ready you can get this to jade shell

I can send it on its way that's amazing this is the most I can do I didn't actually think it may reach her I'll add one last thing.

Join us old broken man, Mr. Staviscusch, as we have a pint or a couple or both. Definitely old and broken, that's for sure. Cheers. All of written out basically just the tale as it's happened. And just at the final

right after signing if it's my hope. that Fujiao walks with you as he once and now walks with me. If so, you may be able to use this to get the answers you seek. And not in any kind of like spell scroll way, but if I can write down what I understand to be like an incantation or any kind of components of legend lore, I'd like to write it it into the letter. Oh, sheesh. Just in the crazy... For the second role, and I'm going to ask you to make

another arcana for me. I'm not very good at that. This is maybe a very charismatic letter. 12? Give you worse. You do your very best to try to convey in your stroke of the pen. It's not a pen. It's a You start to try to with the marks that you're putting on the paper convey this axis that you have to legend lore, this revelation that you've had almost and every little twist of the brush how far away it is from the paper and how close it is thick and thin each motion that you put into every mark and symbol that you push into the paper, you try to pour yourself into that so that if she, if May Lee actually reads this, she has a glimpse, perhaps a key to opening the same door.

To use an anachronism, I'm picturing that scene in Hero, if anyone's seen that fucking excellent movie. Yeah, absolutely. Where he uses the brush to convey the like martial art moves of, oh, it's super badass. Yeah. I'll never forget the finale. You pour that same energy of legend lore into this mark that you put under the page. And when you look at it, you see that it is done and you comprehend its meaning. And perhaps one day, maybe.

Maly will as well. And with hope, you hand the letter to Yornear for delivery. I will stand up. with the flagon of mead in one hand. And I'll take another sip and I'll put it down. I will sort of hold my staff and I'll gently raise it and tap it on the ground and I'll say, Omen. And in a flash of kind of snowflakes and bright blue, you'll see sort of

of flapping wings for a second and talons as my familiar omen appears and is perched on top of my staff. Hell yeah. And he'll sort of be standing there. He's a brownish, bluish, grayish, owl. And he'll be sort of like tilting his head up and down, very Kipora-Gyborra style from the legend of I'm mashing the A button. You're just trying to get through that shit. That's really funny. And he'll lean down to me as he's on my staff, and I will lean in to one of his owl ears, and I will whisper.

And he'll look at me and nod and reach out one of his talents. And I'll pass him both letters. And I will walk with him on my staff to the window if I can. Sure. And I'll open it. The Vifold. And without another word, he will flap out and fly into the... Is it daytime still?

Yes. The bright Dracar sky. He hops into the brightness of day. And even though it's overcast and there's snow and there's a good amount of gust, you can still see this tremendous wingspan beat down. the owl takes flight. Follow the trade winds to you long. Fair winds following seas, Mr. Oman.

Thank you for that. I mean, honestly, Yonah, thank you. And I know that sometimes I'm a bit of a smart ass, but I mean it... Yes. Thank you, Your Honor. You do not need to thank me. Omen is tired.

to the land of our home and he never felt right here. Aye. He will return to the frigid north then. Yes. It was time to let him go. I do not believe I need him anymore. Across the entire fucking world. How about that? I need a snow that bird is. That is a beautiful thought. Perhaps all of us will go home in the end, just like Mr. Roman. How about that? And I will kind of like look at, I'll be smiling and I'll kind of look at cat and I'll say, well,

most of us. Would you mind if I see the artifact? I'll nod, and I will place it in front of him. He pulls out the impossibly sharp steel dagger. made from one piece of forged metal. And he pricked his finger. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Oh, don't.

Oh, do we apologize for the superfect thing? I think we apologize for the superfect thing, right? Yeah, I'm sure he knows. I'm sure Nimrodel knows. We didn't mean that, right? Apologize to Nimrodel? Yeah, about the whole superfect thing. I'm pretty sure we apologize.

I don't recall. What does that matter, Mr. Starrisgum? Well, I just, I popped in my head. you know, we're like making peace with everything. And like, we weren't very nice to Nimrodell at first. I think we apologize. I think we apologize. So, I go ahead, Kent. Go ahead.

Apologized or not, we can't. There's nothing to do about it now. I know, but I just hope that, like, you know, when the end came, you know, that, you know, we were sorry. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Go ahead, Kent. Sorry. By the time you've turned back to Kett, he's led a few drops of his own get the Yankee blood push against the surface of,

the hexager armament and a portal is opening you hear this possible arcane sound as the reality on one side

of the bar is torn open and a portal emerges you've seen this happen before when the Princess of Wrath Sigdis when she was the princess opened a portal to the

Fay realms of what appeared to be and you watched as a tree twisted around to create a full arch all in one direction no tree emerges this time from the surface of the armament no instead you just see

this ethereal fabric-like light of multicolored shapes almost rays and beams shine out and beyond that you look as Tett stares out

through the portal. Through the portal you see a it is as though there you are staring only in the sky. There's yellows and blues oranges but

clearly a surface of sorts and on that surface in the far, far, far, far distance you can see that there's ships. Barnabot you recognize these ships.

They look like ships that should be sitting in the ocean, but you can see not just the top half, but also the underside of these ships, as though they are suspended in mid-air, and yet they're gliding forward, altogether like a flock of birds or a school of fish. And Ket takes a few steps forward, and you starts to raise one hand,

and then realizing that he can't point with that and points with his other out forgive the indulgence everyone I wanted to see it one last time this is the astral sea this is my home those ships I may know some of the names on that those ships you're saying that it's true that there be a entire sea beyond the sky and amongst the stars this is where I was born where I was raised it is no more strange to me

than finding out there is a frigid land like this that surrounds us a realm of frigid cold and brutality that is what I have than trying to protect my whole life. But your destiny does not lead you there, does it? I cannot get from here to there. If I were to jump and throw myself through this portal right now, I would perish.

You need a ship that can shield you from the elements of the sea. So close. And yet, I think even if you had that ship right now, you still wouldn't choose to sail home. Don't be so sure, Tasha, to embrace another gift, to embrace a brother or sister with skills like mine, to perhaps find my partner, kneel before her.

Oh, it is beautiful. I can't say I blame you. Even if it is true, you must pay for what's been done. But perhaps this premise is a god of mercy. I can't imagine a mechanical god would be, but stranger things have happened and I've been wrong many a time before.

I too wish to feel the sunshine warm my face and smell the fire blossoms. with my niece at my side. But I think I know as I stand here with all of you beside me. You included,

that we know to go home to those we love is to doom them. And I know that you have fought hard to protect them. And you will do so now. You return to your Miss shrouded valley I hope that at the very least for you young man

That at least one of us gets to return home To continue matters of the heart I ache for it every day Barnabos And as always from the beginning And even now Every one of you is welcome

As my brothers, my family If you have nowhere to go when this is over. Every one of you has a home in Jade Shell. I fight to save Mae Lee, to save Jade Shell, to save my people, but I fight also to return to them, to free them from what was plaguing them.

That was always the plan. You know, I might take you up on that. If we all manage to get out of you, I might take you up on that. I would love for you to see it, Scrim. It's a beautiful place. I don't know if I'll be returning. I think if God's deem me worthy to not be lost to the locker,

it's the fiddler green, the fiddler's green who eats me. But if by some act of providence or luck, and I returned, spent a lot of time in Jakar and, Great many year wailing off the coast of Kaluak far to the north by your people But I'm tired of the cold I think I'm Make a home in tropical waters Back to the McCona Islands

A simple life, but I hope you'd raise a toast to your old friend Barnabos Dred Wake You can leave that part out I don't wish a wake of dread and terror to be the story that I lead behind. Bonobos, have you been to the Makani Islands? I had a home there once. I...

You're never gonna believe this. That was my pick. That's why I've always wanted to go. Oh! For I've always wanted to go. In a perfect world, I would have moved there, bought my own little island, and been surrounded by enormous piles of money. Oh.

It's not how that works. Says you. It's a nice place. Why we get to see it someday, Mr. Stamaskatch? Me too. I hope no matter where my fate lies, it's in warm waters and green seas. I believe that it will be, Barnabas. But not before.

Trothack the shark puncher gets one more voyage. That might be one too many. But perhaps. Perhaps one more. There's always another shark to punch. It's funny how that works. And this one in a sea beyond the stars. I'll tell you one thing.

If we do make it out of here, I'm not going back to Bargast. Good Lord. You know what a moor is? Is it the opposites of less? That's very funny. No, this is a mystical, magical place where it's nothing but cold, wet, rainy, swampy bogs, and you're just, everybody's miserable all the time.

Oh, but they tell great stories in the taverns, but I've never left the arbors. I'm not going back. I didn't spend much time at the time I spent was more than enough. It said that, that in Bargis, that it rains, more days than there are in a year. I hated it.

I hated it. That's why I always dreamed of McConae. Oh, and I'm sure Jetshell's just as beautiful. Maybe more so. I've never been to McConae, but Jadtshell is very beautiful. But wherever we end up... It'll be better than Bargis, that's for sure. It sounds like it'll be better than Bargast.

I think if we make it through, we'll be able to cut our own pass. and maybe we meet up in Makani from time to time we can go to your island and see your giant piles of money scrim yes hoping

I hope you all can return home I wish this for all even you Kat I spend centuries wandering my home that is why I left home

began my pilgrimage. I was resolute to never see it again. For that is not my purpose. That is not my fate. But this land has changed me. Since I have been here, I feel ever so slightly more. I feel fear.

I feel rage. I feel longing for fear. The longing for home that I'd never felt before. This longing does not matter. For our destiny lies in an unnatural plane beyond my comprehension. But it would be a lie to say I do not think of the turning home even just once. But this is not. our destiny

Do you feel it? Destiny? I Even though I fear I have never been more sure than in this moment It feels like a tugging at the soul Does it not

gently But with it the weight of infinity I have peered into the weird And I've seen our destiny Our fate All of us You need not hear the words of the gods, but I have seen it. A head behind, like a thin silver strand, stretching into the past and future.

I cannot see past this plane of logic, but know that you all felt the pull, and you all accepted that whether you know this or not and through the protection and grace of the triad we will stop the war that's coming this I know and I know that it was my lover saved me from the belly of the beast and I know that she called me here

and she calls me there I do not know why but she was always smarter than I was. And so I will follow that song until I go into the green flash myself. And lads, I hope you do get to make it back. And if I do fall and it's my fate,

my journey here ends in that mechanical hellscape, I hope you'll take my shell I bring it back to the McCona Islands when you visit Leave it in the surf She never got to go back home in life And so maybe once I'm gone There's a little piece of her that gets to go back And I know she's not in there truly

But something of her is And so I don't need to go back But If you could bring the shell That's all I ask And if you die anyway Don't worry about it And I, you have my word.

And die as well. I don't think we know what, I don't think we know we need to know what comes next to know that each one of us will fight with all that we are to save this land. Kett Rosteen's face hasn't turned.

He's been motionless. He is staring out through that portal, observing the golden clouds of the astral sea and a life that he can no longer join back in with. Perhaps for one day he will be able to get back there. But with your words, he finally turns back, leans down, and with a bit of fabric wipes his own blood away from the surface of the hexager armor. The portal diminishes until it becomes nothing. Thank you.

I was very tempted to do that and I'm glad that I did. Are you already then? I. Yes we are. Yeah. Time has come into the abyss. This time he takes his dagger and simply drags the edge of it

across the surface of the hexager armament. It makes no mark. There's a very thin sound for a moment as he continues to almost like a blacksmith sharpening a blade against a wet stone, push it against the surface of the artifact and you watch as, even though it's turning very slow,

there's almost a shifting light. And where that same portal that led to the astral sea opened, you hear this sound almost like the action of a clock as these, a gear-like arc emerges from the ground, notching up one after the other after the other. And in that space looking forward, you see that unlike the golden clouds of the Asterold, see. And expecting to see perhaps a vision similar to what

Sukundas showed you, you see nothing. It is in a test-lated arch, it has teeth like a gear almost and it almost seems to be moving in an inexorable manner just like the hexature armament, but the vision beyond it is pitch black. What is this? This, he's cat Rostin steps forward. This must be the plane of logic. You all stare forward and he takes a moment for his eyes to adjust.

Oh my God's. Look closely. He stepped forward. And there's a moment where all of a sudden there's a, it's almost like to use another anachronism when you're at the eye doctor and somebody changes the lenses. A or B. You watch as that same

blackness shifts to another shadow. This is another portal. It makes sense. The hexal armament would have many entrances into the plane of logic.

But there's no illumination. There's nothing. There's nothing there. Well, it's wrong. I think... What is these? I think this is a portal to the plane of logic. I don't think there's anything wrong with the portal,

but there's nothing on the other side. You don't expect it to be, to look like this. No, it's expected to see something else. It should just be, as you've seen with the portal to the Astro Sea. There should be, we should see a town. There should be a city or

a station, a terminal point where we would be able to cross through and engage with the automaton and then go into a... You watch again and all of a sudden there's that same flickering moment, and it seems to have shifted once again looking out your, it's almost impossible to discern. It's like one very dark gray being replaced with another dark gray.

It's clearly looking out at something different, but it's like turning from one dark room to another. Is it missing? I mean, what are we looking at here? I think that's the plain as there. It's almost as though it's night. It is almost as though it is... And you are sure this blade that you have is not some kind of trick? I am sure.

This is a pure plane of logic. There is no question in my mind that through that portal is where we must go. Are you controlling this change? Can you ensure that we land close to the... Or arrive close to the inner circle, as you said? It is probably cycling through a number of different openings. A plane of travel is much more common. We should jump through.

And we must jump through all to once. Just must enter the plane. There's no way of knowing where we will end up, but if we don't jump through all at once, there's a chance that we would be split and sent to the far corners of the plane. Ah... We'll go together then. We'll go together then.

Hi. I have faith. The Triapal see us through. Okay, all right. Full bore. One more time, lads. One path, and it is forward once more into the unknown. Pick up the hexature.

I'll reach down and I'll grab it. All right, so after the next shift, we jump. You stand all of you, shoulder to shoulder, looking at this entrance, waiting for the flicker to come, and you can almost hear it when all of a sudden there's a blurring

wipe. And you see the darkness shift and with no way of knowing where you might end up, all of you step forward, one step, two steps, running and perhaps screaming. Oh, for sure.

As you push your way in and race forward and jump through. the threshold. You find yourselves on the other side in the plane of logic. You jump through the portal into this void, this dark space,

expecting perhaps to be falling or to be flung. And two, three steps later, you realize that you're just walking from one threshold to the other. All of you, Arm and Arminar. and the five of you find yourselves on the other side of the portal.

The portal behind you disappears as you cross. It takes a moment for your eyes to adjust to nothing. This is almost pitch black darkness in all directions. Those of you with dark vision can look out and see that There's a... Dang. Suck it! Strange...

Dang it. Called, diamond. Road or surface that you're standing on. You can all feel it. It's a little soft, but it's nothing like Earth. Something like dirt. Something like snow.

It is alien. Impossible to describe. And there doesn't seem to be anything immediately around you, but you are standing in a thing. a massive wide open space. He must be here. Karastin is still right next to you. You can hear his voice very low.

And his voice disappears as he speaks. There's no echo. There's no... It doesn't feel like you're in a small space. In fact, it feels like you're in a open space, like a field. But there's no... light. This is not what I expected.

There's when you are standing here there should be a sky full of gears and cogs. This is what we saw in divisions. I was right. What is wrong?

Didn't look anything like this. High shen light, please. And can't you sure were in the right place? The Hexachshachshah, I'm would only take you to the planes that you target. We are certainly here.

I'll shoot down a relatively large flame and hold it in my palm trying to shed light around us. You are able to emit light. What are you using to do that? I have traditionally used a mixture of firing a firebolt into control flames. You launch this flame and you're able to almost hold it in your hand for but a moment.

It continues to sort of diminish. It takes some time as with control flames, but for a moment you're all sort of not blinded but your eyes take a moment to adjust and in the immediate vicinity there appears to be a some vertical pylons that are jutting out from the ground. There's even at the far distance of all of your vision, even with dark vision, some kind of a structure,

perhaps 75, 80 feet away. It's very briefly illuminated. And as Tyshen's fire diminishes, you realize that you are unsure as to where you stand. It is so pitch black. in this space. There's no. There's no light.

Not even the flame. The whole realm has gone dark. There's no lights in any direction. Yes. And until you're playing like this can go dormant because such a small thing is missing. They don't stand

to logic or reason for being a place of logic and reason, eh? No, it doesn't make any sense. but we're still here. We've made it. No. Do I feel any kind of like, now that this is back, it's like flying out of my hands or like and holding it like that? Yeah, yeah.

You're holding it, hugging it. It's not in the, it's continuing to grind and turn like it normally would like a stone mill almost, but slower. And it doesn't seem to be. be glowing or charged or reacting to the fact that it's returned to its home plane. Right. Well, how about this? Let's look at it this way.

If everything's gone dark and there's no movement, there's nothing around, there's no beings or automaton. Is that what you said before? To stop us, we should have no problem returning it. All right. Do you know where, I mean, it is a little dark in here, but do you know how we'd be able to get to where you stole it from or your, you're, strange friends

the automaton are very orderly and they are they have a terrific navigation system their signs and and routes and paths and roads and all sorts of means of transportation

if we can just figure out where we are then it will be easy enough to figure out which direction we must go how do we do that how do we throw out where we are Let's start to walk around. Watch your step. Watch your step.

It is too easy in this world to walk off the edge of things. Do I recall the vision that we had in the horrific bridge? I really start sweating. I have this horrible flashback of that vision. And remember, with this warning, and I am stricken again with a bit of fear. With that vision, and you don't know if, if things were quote unquote normal, if they would be anything like what Secunda's presented to you,

but you have a sense that the sky above you is not illuminated because there surely must be cogs and gears above you, but that the surfaces of those gears, when you saw them in the vision, they were alight with what looked like settlements or as though you were a bird. Those faces are blank now. The void. You still feel like they must be above you.

It's the only logical deduction. And you're near. You feel a strange numbness right now. A weird sensation. It's almost like someone has cut off a finger or removed a sense. as you realize that something that you've relied on for centuries is missing. There is no north

here. And you have for perhaps the first time in unremembered time no sense of direction. That's probably alarming. That would it feels very...

I think that would be dizzying. This place is wholly unnatural. It is Even worse than divisions Hey hey hey hey You're all right You're okay, you look a little paler than usual We must return this

How will we find the way We not know anymore Say close as me All right And we will pick a direction We will find some means of I promise you we'll either find the edge Of where we stand

or we will find a path, a track. We must use the artifact. That'll give us our heading. This must be the way. This is the only way. Perhaps this is why we have it. I will follow it. We'll follow it to where it belongs.

We'll turn it. And perhaps we all get to walk out. I was hoping not to use it. There's no way of knowing what is around us. If you try to use that, It could draw attention. We can barely see with the fire that your friend can produce. If you use that, everything will see us.

Do you want to attract such attention? Listen, I know, look, I've never seen you look like this. I'm getting a little worried. Panicking is my thing, okay? I need you to just take a deep breath. And maybe listen to Kent. He knows what he's talking about here, all right? We definitely don't want to draw unwanted attention.

Maybe there's another way that we can move forward without necessarily going right for the armament, right? Bonobos, Daishen, back me up here a little bit. Uh, yeah? The armament will give us our heading. Mr. Yonan, don't lose your head now. The armament could perhaps restore power. Well, that's right.

But you're right. Like a hunter in the dark forest, it is better to not be the one. sitting by the fire. We need to ensure the creatures of this place. The denizens don't know that we have that. Whether or not it could direct us. And we'll just be silly about it, eh?

Being little subtle. I will hold this. Sure remains covered. You can lead the way. One of you. You're near. Cat Rastin grabs the sword. off of his back.

Uh, Ket pulls the sword off of his back in protection. I hope I not, do not need this, but everyone be on their god, everyone watch their footing, everyone stay close. All right?

All right. You got it. If you're going to use that, try to warn us first. Oh, no, you, you're right, and I, apologize. My natural senses are diminished here.

I want to make clear that mechanically we're talking about darkness. This is not magical darkness but it is also not dim light. The D&D 2024 rules is heavily obscured, which means that you all have the blinded condition unless you have dark vision. So unless you have... And we're still... And a lot of people don't know, even though we have dark vision, we're still

advantage on perception checks. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. All it does is not it. All it does is notch it up. All it does is notch it up. Do you still have the light or are we going dark intentionally? I don't know. I mean, so traditionally I've held it in my palm, but however you want to...

You are able to maintain the flame, but I will say that you're only talking about perhaps 15, 20 feet of illumination in any given direction. So you're I'd like to Try something quickly before we move on.

If you want to do more to see if you could like a move I learned from the cobalds when we first landed on the ice. I'll take the stance to summit a bonfire briefly. I'll create a bonfire in the ground in front of us and then using

control flame once more I will double its radiance of illumination to attempt to burst out light in a massive sphere, almost like a large ping of anything that draws our attention. I don't know. It doesn't actually say how much light it casts.

I know exactly what to do. Tyshen leans down and takes the smoldering flame that hovers above his palm and sets it down on the ground and steps back. And with a few motions, it

grows and grows and grows until it is the size of literally a bonfire. a fire as tall as most of you. Taller than scrim, shorter than yore near. Tala as tall as most of you. And then, with a thrust of his arm, Tyshen pushes it forward, and it doubles in size and a pillar of flame emerges.

For a moment, you all can look around and see what is around you hundreds of feet. This flare that Tishen. shoots up. There's a, gosh, it almost reminds you of, if any of you are familiar with an elephant or a mammoth, there's a creature, a vehicle, a made of metal that's sat down or collapsed in the far distance, perhaps 90 feet away from you. There are those same pylons at regular intervals that are leading up. And you can now see with the additional illumination that

those pylons are adjacent to what appears to be a proper path. The only reason why it feels that it is a path is because you see that the texture of the ground is different. It is flat where what you are standing on

feels more cobbled together. And those are the things that you perceive. You don't see the edge of some cog or gear or some terrible fall or anything like that. As far as you can tell, you're

at some wide open field, almost like a port or a terminal. Something where in a wide open space would make sense. And without traveling in some direction to hit some boundary, there's no way of knowing how far

you could walk in any direction. But those are the features that are presented to you when you see this illumination presented by Taishan. There's like an elephant-looking vehicle? Yeah. Tai Shan, what are you doing? I'm going to wave my staff.

And there's going to be this frost that kind of crawls over the bonfire and puts it out if I can use through a craft to snuff out a bonfire. Oh my gosh. You diminish it, but it is not fast enough. All of the things that I just are still presented. But it doesn't persist, and you're able to

slowly suppress it and sort of almost have a bit tug of war with the flame that Tishan's produced. Fool of a fire of blood of thought. What is it with this campaign in Lord of the Rings? We have so many Lord of the Rings references in this fucking campaign. I'm here for it. I'm here for it.

By glove, it's the ancient psychic Tendom and War elephant. What I mean by mammoth and elephant for the two of you, this is clearly a construct similar to Secundus, similar to the horse that he rode, but it has four legs, yet it is

sort of stuck in this frozen position. And that's all you glimpse before you start to suppress the illumination, Yorner. Yonir, we're blind in the darkness. We need to shed light to understand how we move forward. Did you not hear what Ketrostin said? The mechanical We don't us know where we are now. If they stalk us in the dark, they now have seen us. Well, if we move now, they'll simply know where we've been.

Not where we are. How close to a mammoth does this thing look? How does that make me feel? It's bigger than a mammoth. Does it like have tusks and like a trunks? They're like wheels? No. Oh, okay.

It, As you approach, I'll say that you start to head towards the nearest miles. I saw it. We have to make to that vehicle before. Because only with illumination would you be able to see it without getting closer. So as you start to all as a group make your way towards what is clearly a road with some sort of illumination pile on and this shape of a metal construct. You get closer and closer. You realize how large this thing is.

It's two stories tall at least. and it has clearly legs, but no joints, no joints to speak of. A long, thin body. And where its head might be seems to almost look like, gosh, a carriage is the only way that I could possibly describe it. It looks like some kind of a transport where you would be able to either stand inside or carry objects or valuables, how this thing might possibly move is beyond you. But it has four legs,

and it is made of metal, and it is standing tall as a building in front of you once you get close enough to look up at this alien, alien thing. There's a little bit of a mechanical... I think what he's asking is it a mechanical version of his god? No. Okay, okay. Just that it's some sort of...

weird, Robo beast. It looks like a robot beast. A chemical beast. Does not stir. So even the creatures. Interesting is, would this be a creature?

Do you know? This is a if you've not seen, of course you have not. This is a transport. When it is powered and when it is moving, It's in care of the people like you and me in this chamber here.

And basically its end goes over its front and it lands against its feet, and then it slides forward and its end goes over its front and it sort of moves forward in this manner. If you're seeing what I mean, it is hard to describe. You'd have to see it in action. This is something we can use to traverse this, to move towards, the inner circles, and do you even know where we are? Do you know how far out we are? I cannot say how far we are from the inner circle,

but this is good news. This fact that the transport is here and moving in this direction tells me that it is the causeway, the interconnected roads, the paths that connect all of these gears altogether. We would be able to follow at least its heading and connect to a settlement or perhaps, station, another gear in the machine.

We can't use it, though. You don't think. Not unless we use... Not unless we had power. Would it not be wise to use the armature to give us a passage to where it

belongs? No, Bonobos, I don't think that would be very wise. If you did, then there is a chance that you awaken everything, right? This artifact would not just power this, but it would turn

on all the lights and we would descend upon us like locusts. You're right. You're right. You're right. It would bring more attention upon us. It would power everything within a thousand paces. I think this is a bit risky. And then let's keep moving.

Then we walk. Oh, good this bucket of bolts does. Oh, this is useless. At least now, at least it gives us a direction. A heading. We spent a year trudging through the ice of Dracar. That's another long walk, lad.

Yeah, just a few more steps. There's a few more steps. All right. Don't fall off in the abyss. We will stay close. If I could, I'm not really trying to illuminate, but like Gandalf's staff in the minds of Moria. Yeah.

I would like to use Druid craft to keep a to keep a glowing runic symbol just if enough to like illuminate. Remember like when Game Boys had the little plug in light and you would like play under the cover

and just a little bit like just not feel so like dark. Yeah. I would just want some sensory awareness of like my own hands and no, that's how pitch black it is. And so anything that anyone without your innate sense

is aiding you. Anything that you would be doing to try to give yourself a little bit of illumination without drawing too much attention because who knows what's out there in the dark? You should do. And Ket seems to be navigating similar to everyone else with dark vision, but you, you... Aren't they so cool? Hold your staff and the rooms glow low. It's enough to give you another five, 10 feet in front of you, but that feels like a tremendous comfort in this strange space. And it feels, for lack of a better word, unnatural to be here.

Sure does. You start to follow as Ket leads you down that heading. And it's not difficult to follow. He wasn't wrong that navigation in this space is certainly easier in some ways than it is in the harsh brutality. of Trachar. You don't have to worry about shifting slopes

or uneven ice or slipping. In fact, there's another minute or two of walking and you realize you have to take your furze off. You don't have to, you don't

require that protection. It's a cool 72 degrees right now. It's perfect. It's, it's you start sweating, just wearing all of the layers that you had and you have to put them into your pack and stuff them away.

There's no particular smell. There's no wind or anything along those lines. Everything feels, for like a better word, balanced or even. And as you continue to walk in a relatively straight line, well, it feels straight. Perhaps it's bending. It's hard to say when you can't see more. than 100 feet in front of you, but you continue to make your way down this road.

You occasionally pass pylons that get closer. You occasionally see markings on the ground. There are smaller, thinner paths that branch off and cat ignores them. And after an hour, perhaps of traversing this plane, you reach a junction. You reach a sign and you look up at the sign and with what illumination you have or what site you have, you can see that the sign says Ingris node 7, some form of crossroads. This is a change. station where the transports would go down different cul-de-sacs, but there is one correct choice, and that is to continue to follow the main causeway. It might not be easy for us to determine.

Usually there's identification and talking. You would speak with an automaton, but one of these paths through this structure here is the way forward. How many paths are in front of us? Six. Son of a bitch. We can't just pick one, right? I mean, what if we get it wrong? Then we hit a dead end and we've wasted hours of our time. Six times?

Well, five times, and then we'll get it right if which is the last choice that we make. That's still six, Kerosstein. But one of them is the correct route. I forgot. How can we... Is there any way to know... The signs are powered down? Is there any of the creatures who live here?

You mentioned an automaton? You could speak to? Yes, a basic unit would normally be assigned to a station such as this, perhaps even more than one. But without any power, there's no way of speaking with one and knowing which way is the correct direction. If you were an automaton, you would innately know that perhaps the third route is the one that leads you to the closer to your goal.

your goal. Hmm. Well, what do you suggest then? We're just guessing? Well, I don't want to make a guess. Let us look and get deeper inside the station, and perhaps there will be signs that I can perceive. I don't, I never took the time to read Modran, but here we are.

And he moves forward and leads you further into what feels almost like a, like a, like a building that a, that a construct the size of the mammoth that you saw earlier, that strange creature, would be able to walk inside and through. The space is enormous. You get glimpses in your perimeter of massive columns, and suddenly, as you were walking through, you see that there's a small kiosk.

This is where we would normally address. Oh. And as you get closer, Ket walks forward and you see that there is a modron there, an atomaton. I keep saying modron, I mean atomaton, sitting there completely shut down. This reminds you of an automaton that you've seen before.

Theazar 1-138. You remember the sort of cube-like head and a ball-like feet that allowed him to zip around and guide you to Secundus in his strange vision. This is exactly the same creature, but it is similar to Secundus' head and similar to everything else that you're seeing here,

completely dormant. There's nothing on its face. Thees-on was alive. There's the intendant. All right. I'll get ready to cave its metal skull in if it makes any movements. I'm gonna...

You keep off powerless? I'm gonna walk up and like kick it a little bit. Like, not too heavily. Like, just nudge it with my foot. It suddenly seems like it's powerless. Yeah. You walk up, you give it a nudge, and suddenly something happens.

It reacts. It doesn't fall over and clam. clang to the ground. No, instead, there's a flash and where its face should be briefly flickers as its eyes and

nose and mouth present itself against the flat plane of its head, for lack of a better word. And it... Do I sense that it's a threat in this instant? It's pathetic in this instance. Okay.

Ha! Welcome, friend. Don't make any sudden movements unless you want your metal skull cage in! Born and boasts, you did it. I would like to intimidate. You immediately hold your anchor up as though to batter it. Make an intimidation check.

Pretty good, pretty good. Uh-oh. Hold on. Uh-oh for the automaton. It's a 22. Damn. 22. It's going to battery its pants.

It looks up at you, and it sort of blinks. It recognizes that you could crush it with your anchor, and you get a sense that this creature acknowledges that fact. My name is Vector. 2,1-8903. Please do not. crush me with the anchor, we are in an emergency situation

and things are dire. Please do not destroy, Vector. I well, I'll consider it as long as you haven't sent any signals to the rest of your kind. Bonapos, it's okay. There are no signals, friend, to send. How can I assist you today?

Vector, we have been summoned by the primus and we seek the correct path out of here. The primus! You've been summoned by the primus. That is blessed news. Do you have verification of being summoned by the primer? Yeah, just showed it to you. Make a deception check.

Oh, oh. Oh. I told me a reality. Well, not to the promise. Only the promise. Not to the primus. This guy's falling asleep on the job. I don't think he's falling asleep. I think it's a...

21. Turns out I'm actually pretty good at why. I don't think it's, I don't think he's falling asleep. I think this is, uh, it's getting very dark and my batteries are running low situation. Apologies. I did not register your evidence of permission to speak with the primus. Would you like to know which direction you are? going as the causeway can be

coarse. Yes, please. Quickly. This guy, he needs a cup of coffee. I kick him again. You kick him again. Oh, if you were looking for the inner circle, then you can find him by following the path over in this direction. It's the third.

Third! He said third! Third! Is he clearly pointing in a direction? as he... He looks and all you got was... Do I... We should make sure. Wake him up. Alright.

I give him another kick. You kick him again, but he's clearly at the end of whatever... ...cans were burning down. He's dying! I need you to make a... I need you to make a check for the purposes of seeing if you can get him to boost again. Let me look at... Okay.

Uh, if I may make a technology check, my arm is going to be... That's fucking funny. a set of mechanics tools and I'm going to attempt to get into his brain this ain't neon honesty take it I thought I'm trying to

throw a giant great All right up lot I just void bad Your goal is to hit the appropriate amount So it's not a question of strength

check to use the most strength It's to use the correct amount of strength So it's like, so you're, so it's still going to be a strength check. I still need to make a strength check. Just don't critic. I'm attempting, I don't kick him anymore.

I understand, do you, he like had a face? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm going to attempt to basically, given the sense that I'm starting to kind of grapple with this, I'm just going to fonsie him. I'm not going to kick him too hard so that I, right, right? I get that that's the point. I get something that's the point. I just want to represent that with a strength check because if you get like a 20 or 25 with a strength check here, you're hitting him the correct amount. Not too hard, not too soft.

Is it an athletics or strength? The goal of this check is not how hard can you hit him based on how high the value is. The higher the value, the more finesse with strength you use. If it's in athletics, it's a 20. If it's just a strength, it's a 20. No, no, no, no, no, I'm sorry. He's only a 16.

With a 16, you get a brief flicker of his face before he collapses, but you do get the word. word third. Ah, I knew it! I knew it! All right, we have what we need. We have our heading. The eternal sleep takes, man. It's on.

Goodbye. Good, bye, we're good, we're good, we're good, we're good, we're good, we're good. You all start to... I have a little emotion, yet I've hear the darkness. Will I dream? Will I dream? Will I dream? Electric chain. Kent Rostin is sort of scratching his head.

He looks down at the hunk of metal that once was a vector 2,418,903, and he looks at all of you. Well, you know, there's a lot of them. These guys. Yeah. They failed down. You managed to find the right path.

You'll follow the third path. Yeah. All right. We're fortunate. We have no time to waste. You continue to follow through this gigantic station, and once again, the road opens up. You can get a sense now that these paths are long, but only because the size of these gears are as big as any island, as big as any mountain, as big as perhaps even a continent. You have no idea to know how sizable the cog or gear that you might be standing on is.

And you continue walking. Just like in Lord of the Rings, very relevant. By the scarecrow and Farmer Magids Field, like Samwise GmG, I take a step and I take another. I keep walking. And you don't do the thing where every single step, you return to that monologue and The movie goes into a, like, 30-hour long playthrough, no. Oh, that's very funny. Instead, we'll walk single file like the Fellowship did on the bridge of cause a doom to make sure that we don't fall off on either side. Oh, that's smart.

That's smart. That's smart. Classic. You do huddle together, is what I will say. The elimination and Dark Vision only goes so far, and Kett is moving confidently, relatively confidently, despite the darkness. but the four of you are still getting your bearings, getting your plane of logic legs.

And it's another hour before you reach another milestone. At a certain point, you realize that you're facing a wall. Well, not really a wall, but the path that you're on stops. And you must be at the edge of a tooth of one of these gears. and you can see that the wall, the path that you're on, because of the coloration being what it is and its flatness, the markings on either side continue straight up as it came to rest interlocking with the teeth

of one of the many other cogs of the plane. But it didn't cleanly come to a stop. And so there's... There's like a jutting out, gaits. Right. A massive cog that comes down the size of a mountain, honestly. It's so massive on either side that you're looking at something that must be pushing something as sizable as a building or... or a massive ship or something along those lines.

Good gods. Now what? Now what? Does anyone tell you're near to stop walking? I keep walking. I hit my head. I swear to God. Like Gandalf does in bad hand. If no one else says that, if no one else says that,

you would feel the group when they get about 60 feet away from this. Those who could perceive that immediately. slow themselves. Kett would put his arm out to stop you. No one would allow that as hilarious as that is. Thank God that doesn't happen. No. It's not like Gandalf and bags in at all.

We would make sure that you slow. Right. You sense a slow. Wait, so this thing low hanging like to knock your nose head on? If they're all coming together, right? It would be, I don't know. Well, I thought it was kind of like in front of us. Yeah. Like we're walking towards something that's

like moving course. Imagine. Imagine that my hand is where you're walking. And each one of my fingers is the tooth of the cog that you're on. You've approached another gear that is interlocking with it. So as this, it's like a 90s, you would just walk into a wall. The joke still works.

The joke still works. It still works. It's fine. Don't worry. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's just like that time. And sorry, podcast listeners. There's no way to articulate this in a graceful manner. But as you're walking forward, you realize that you're staring at the floor of another

gear. And that, appears to be a wall to you. They will have to jump, but I promise you that there's as much gravity on that wall as what we stand on now. What do you mean jump? Just like at the wall?

It looks as perhaps a 15, 20 foot jump from the gap between this gear tooth and that one. If you fall, then you fall into eternity. So no worries. I'll try it first. That's an easy. Gap? What do you mean?

You mean jump to that gear and then walk upwards? When you land on that... The face of that wall. When you land against it, you will be as though you are standing on the floor now.

The ground that we are standing on. As an example, imagine that you are standing against that wall and that you are on the side of it like you were a spider. And you jumped to where we are. Or a crab, or a crab, or a crab. That's right.

And you jumped to where we are now. From that vantage point, we would be standing on the wall. Bullshit. So the idea is that if we could jump from one side to the other, this is how all traversing the plane is. These cogs, they interlock, but they have their own gravity. You can walk from one to the other. Bonobos, tie something around me and throw me.

No way. No way. Tie something around me, throw me. And if I miss, reel me back in. I'll make the jump. That's easy. How am I going to get across? I'll test it and I'll come right back. It's just dangerous going. I, uh, I, uh, I, uh, shloop out my crab legs.

I forgot about the, the crab legs. And I'll skitter back. And then I will, um, uh, look at this and I'll say, well, I won't need it. And there's no gravity. I'll let you know. If you miss, you fall. forever. It's okay. If you miss, we can save you.

I lied. He would probably fall for miles and then splatter against some surface. I have no idea. You think I'm going to miss that? That's an easy, jump, lad. No, but think about how far we've come and how terrible it would be to fail because you missed. It's barely a

chasm, lad. Scrim, even if he does, half of us can fly. Just don't say I didn't warn him. Just don't say. I didn't want him. We'll be able to deal with it if he misses the wall, but I believe... You better come after me in the abas, Mr. Flying Blossom. You'll hit it, but if not, I'll come straight after you.

Does the wind even work the same way here? Would it catch under my wings the same way? I do not know. There are flying machines here. I see no reason why the mechanics of your bird flight would not work in the space. Does this light defy the eyes of the wolf? Do not know. Whether or not wind is here,

your near our magic seems to respond to us still. We fly with that. I suppose. I could turn into a jive. So you said it's 15 feet? Yeah, 15.20 feet. My long jump, I believe, is 18 feet. Yeah.

So I'm going to basically just back up until I have 10 feet mechanically. Yep. And I'll say, All right. I know you all got my back. Yes. Yes.

I have got back. An easy jump, lads. I'll be immediately subtle. Just to be clear, there's nothing I can do. There it. There he goes. I'm Mr. Crabs my way as the noise goes. And I run forward and I attempt to leap forward with my, uh, cuteness, uh, arthropod legs out to then cling onto whatever I can latch onto.

I have my mental finger on my fly button. Because it's within the range of your jump, I'm not going to make you make a roll. You, however, there's a very strange sensation. There's a banana peel on the track. Which is to say that there's a banana peel on the track. Oh, no, how did you know? You crash into the wall expecting to climb it, but suddenly you realize that you're scraping against a floor. And so the feeling of lifting yourself up

instead becomes one of pushing away from the floor. Is it disorienting? And it's extremely disorienting. I would say that you need to roll a 1D4 for me. Okay. Oh, you don't like that. Uh-oh. A four.

A four. You take two points of bludging damage as a barbarian as you... I know you're not. I know you're not, but I'm cutting it in half because I wanted to do... You're a one or two. It was literally one or two. It was literally one or two. You get bained.

I could have said flip a point. I could have said flip a coin. But basically, you crash into this wall and smash into it, and all of a sudden, it's as though you were standing on the ground. And when you stand up and you look behind you, you see your allies. You see Tyshan and Yornear, Scrim, Ket. They're all standing on what now to you looks like.

the wall. I'm standing. You aren't, you're lying, Mr. Kerosstein. I told you this is the way of, it happens to be a 45 degree angle this time, but it is not always. Sometimes it is a 60 or 30.

It's very strange. This is a place of madness. I don't care for it. I won't be damned. When it's all, when it's all filled with light, it makes perfect sense. It's hard to, it's scarier because of the darkness.

Alright, come on. Kent Rostin takes a one, two, three boundful steps and leaps himself and lands gracefully at your side, Barnabas. You all can make it, we can throw ropes if you need. If those skinny legs can do it, the rest of you can, come on, don't be afraid. Scream, do you need help?

Yeah, fuck, yes, I need help, you know what I am? Yeah, I tried to tell Barnabas said, You know what he did? He's like, I'm gonna roll crab legs. I'm gonna jump across instead. I need help. Then hold still. Like the wind lord Gwai here, when he saved the Gaudel from the top of the Tower of Orthang.

You gotta stop doing this to me. I've no idea what you're talking about. I have lost. I transform into a giant eagle. And I pick up scrim in my talons, shepherding him. I t-pose so you can pick me up. Sheppering him to.

In Titanic. The next stage of the comments. However Scrimm feels about this, it happens. I allow it to happen. It's fucking majestic. It's majestic. 20 feet later, you are able to gracefully drop Scrim onto his new version of the ground.

And you sail around perhaps a little bit. In the eagle form, you might actually have better vision. And so, you're able to gracefully, I will say, land either on his shoulder or on the ground. And Tyshen, you're the sole remainder on the cog of old. So, yeah, I do not have dark again. That's crazy. Well, that's the answer.

You collide with one of those pylons and just. Just like Gandalfi, just like Gandalf, If he flies like too close to the other road like won't gravity like fucking shift. Oh my gosh. Even while he's in mid-air like this is a meta question. Like Scrim would never think to ask this. I'm curious

like does he all of a sudden get disoriented if he flies too close to where he's dropping me off? Does he fling me off into nothing? No, it's an interesting magical question as to like at what point does the floor stop being the floor and the wall start being the floor and

at what point do you drop somebody to hopefully not have them fall this way, but have them fall that way to correctly land on the thing. I'm getting bained. I was going to try something. It's a valid question. I'm not going to answer it. Yeah, I was... Okay. That's for the best. Well, then like in the Battle of the Five Armies, my giant evil body crashes into this new gravity. No. Crushing all of my companions. Yeah, no. Everyone dies. That happens is Lord of the Rings?

In the Hobbit. Oh, yes. Ket sneaks away with the hexager armament and attempts to do the same plan over. again. Tachian, what do you got? I don't want to burn a fifth level Sprolet slot. So, if I'm reading the jump rules correctly, what I'm going to try, I can't jump

very far. Oh, I read the first as the jump rules, and I'm like, you want you just pick me up. Yeah. I think I can jump 10 feet. Yes, you can. You've articulated it is about 18 feet away. 15 to 20. Okay. 18.

Yorne. I'll. Yorne. Fycheon. That's me. I have a concussion. If you give me some life, I can come get you too. Oh. Okay. That's easier than what I was gonna do.

Yornear feet through his bird mouth, 20-20-4ingly. Oh, yeah. I do. I do. Like the windlord crying. We can not take you all the way. You know, man. Say quiet here one more time.

I'm going to say. Seig quiet. There's one more goddamn time. I'll double dare you. I mean, unless you want to spell the extend the fifth level spell slot, I mean, go ahead. No, I was gonna, I was gonna try and leap halfway and then feather fall and hope that the gravity took over

of the other plane. Oh, that's insane. But you just come pick me up. No, no, no. How about you? That sounds pretty cool. I don't you try it out. And just, if it fails, you just light it up.

Yeah, yeah. If it fails, I'll just light it up and then, you know, come get me as I decide. I'll be falling slowly, so. Okay, here I go I'll back up 10 feet or yards, whatever 10 feet. 10 feet. And I'll run and jump

by maximum jump distance 10 feet. About halfway. And I don't know if there's a sensation or whatever. As your feet leave the ground. But at the precipice, so the end of my jump, whatever happens if I feel like gravity kick in or whatever, at the very end when I feel like my jump

has finalized and you know whatever happens next is out of my hands, I'll cast featherfall. I need you to tell me if athletics or acrobatics is preferred for the check you're about to make and I need you to tell me how long feather fall lasts.

Oh. Acrobatics is definitely the preference. Okay. And feather fall just lasts for a minute. Okay. Make a acrobatics check.

Uh-oh. Natural one. A natural one. Of emperry. Lights will God. I will articulate that your access of equilibrium of the hexager armament could

modify that role, depending on your body. No, I'll stick it. I feel like, I feel like Bruce in his moment of despair. Your legs leave the ground and you realize you're not going to be able to reach that wall. I said light it up. I feel like and off on the bridge.

You feel like if there's a moment where you could cast featherfall to to chip the ballrog of moria, the gravitic direction of momentum that you're heading in. The movie you jump, I lean to bar mosaic, his ankle's wrong. This isn't good. I'm like, hold my thumb. Oh, no. Oh, he's off. He's off. I sail right in between the teeth.

Oh, my God. Let me spend the spell slot. So, what I'm supposed to do. Are you spending the spell slot? Well, I have to spend the spell slot. Well, I didn't know if you were like readying it or if you were going to, I guess, I guess, I'm jumping. I'm committing like, you know, I'm in the air. I'm definitely going to feather fall.

I'm not going to just fall normally. I don't say that you didn't reach the height that you needed in order to, in order to get, reach the other side. Okay. So featherfall doesn't make you fall to the ground where you're coming. companions are, featherfall makes you fall for one minute into the abyss. Slowly. Oh, okay, okay. So you start, you start to, you start to shrink. You slip. There's a moment where your hand slaps against the bottom of the tooth and all of a sudden beneath you is abyss. And you are falling.

Windlord, wind load your, and you watch these flares of firebolts suddenly go out as Tyshen disappears beneath the crack between these two gears where they intersect. And Yornear, you realize, all of you realize that Tyshen did not make the distance. Wow. So Barnabos looks for where, you know, where Ket Rustin and Scrim and Yornear had been. He expects to see Tyshen there.

But then after he jumps, just like Gondor was when the Westfold fell Tyshen's not there and so he gets concerned I understand you had the option to cast a fly and you jump and cast

feather fall I couldn't sure we're almost said bids. Okay flies so foul is a fifth level spell I thought you said so was the fucking featherfall's first level oh okay then it's a first it's a first it's a excuse I understand

okay so it's a way bigger a resource to fly. I mean, I could just fly but when Lord Gwai here is on our team. No, we're good. I understand now. Just so I look down and I see this like just like pip of light. Yeah.

Fall into the abyss just like Gandalf and the Balrog of Morgoth as they plummet into the bowels of Kazad Doom. I remember. I am going to leap off and soar and fly down into... Okay, but as you're

coming just like Gondor in the Battle of the Pelinor fields. I fire off flame from my fists as if lighting the Just another clarification. Are you lighting the beacons? Are you completely out of spell slots between one and five? No, I got everything. I got everything ready to go.

Flies and a level three spell. It's a level five spell or something. I'm pretty sure it's level three. Oh. Anyway, so I start I'm lighting the, I'm lighting the beacons just like Gondor in the Battle of the Pelanur Fields. And my hope is that as I call for aid, Rohan Wyancer. In the form of Wenlord Guaher.

Everyone's table is very aware of what's happening. I will like Guayher's brother Landlerfall. It's just... Like the swift eagle metal door. No. The same Sam and Frodo from the slopes of Mount Deering as it was erupted. You're making this up.

I will save Tyshen in my talent. Menel door, yeah. You fly down, I need an athletics or an acrobatics check from you to see if you can get him back to... I'm falling pretty slow. I'm falling pretty slow. I got a feather fall on. No, no, no. I'm not as swift as a asshole as a mental door.

I'm not that's swift. And just as all three of them, natural one. Gravity shift on the next door. You get like, twist your neck, like you get all that you're wendled. You get a spiral. You get those, man. You don't have a dark vision. Just like, you don't have dark vision.

You see that. You see that aspect of light. But you don't realize the tumbling that's happening with Tyshen's body as he's continuing to sink down into nothing. You're just seeing bits of fire. And so when you get close enough, you're moving at too

great a speed. Your talents lash out, but you hit the side of Tyshen's torso and hit him. And all of a sudden, you're tumbling. It takes a moment for you to reorient yourself and you're able to. You can fly here, but you have to swoop around and you're still again looking for Tyshen.

There's almost a moment where one of his errant flares that he's shooting out nearly hits you and you have to barrel roll around that and you continue to soar around. Tai Shen, you are still seconds into this fall as you, as

your ear continues to flap around. As I see this, I see the chieftain of the ice bar. That's right. That's right. That's right. Mr. Fireblossom is disappearing into who knows where.

Although I was once chieftain, I pledge fielded to him just as Gwai, his brother, pledged Fieldy to the Val-a-Benzheny to the Val-Ardha. To who? To who? Arna. We're not going to say a normal thing for the rest of the time. This is my favorite moment. This whole sequence is my favorite moment.

I don't care what. Mike, what are you doing? Mike, what do you do it? Oh, Ma'an here. As I will see this. And I will not let this stand. As I will look at Scrim and I will holding the anchor with the rope that, or not the anchor. Actually, no, with the anchor and my harpoon

that has the rope attached to it, I'm going to loop the harpoon through the ring. I will attempt to get tied as quickly as I can. And basically, give it to scram. Hold on to this, lad. What do you want me to do with that? Is this going to fall on the ground? But I am going to attempt to leap off with this thing tied around me. Sure. You repel from the surface of the cog that you were on into the gap. hoping that there's enough slack in the rope that's tied around your waist to swing down and grab either

Tyshen or Yorne or Yorne as you continue to fly around. Tishan, what are you doing? Scrim, what are you doing? What are you all doing? And without the Lord of the Rings. There is nothing that I can do. I don't give a shit. There's nothing that I can do to help

in this situation. Just so I understand, what did you actually hand me? There's nothing for me. I assumed that what Mikey was articulating was that he tied a rope to the end of his anchor and handed you the anchor. Yeah. So as he left off, yeah, yeah. I'm not holding it. No, no, no, no.

It's actually hilarious. I think that you... There is nothing I can do the situation to help. I have literally no tools to help. When the anchor lands, it falls to its side and then... I get out of the way of the anchor. You see the rope get taught and immediately start to sort of swing. left and right as it hinges over

the tooth edge as Barnabost disappears. You watch as Ket Rosteen jumps over and grabs one end of the rope, but he's not holding the anchor. He couldn't lift that thing either. It's fucking heavy. And so he's holding the

rope, but only for a safety net. You're left with your own devices. Do... And as you all crash in the way, do you stop sending firebolts so it's basically just going to dark again. I'm going to basically try to use my dark vision if I can. Well, yeah, I would, man, I Google the cool over the ring

scene, but I would. Say it, damn. Much like when Frodo was grappled by the watcher in the water outside of the doors of Dern at the Westgate of Moria. Yeah. I try and calm myself. And I try and calm myself in the situation. and I would, similarly to how I did before, I would attempt a firebolt into controlling it and then burst it out, burst its illumination out, doubling the illumination in almost like a small solar burst kind of thing,

a big flare right on top of me, where I'm at. You start to try to shape the fire around you, to try to make you a beacon that anyone can see. And I'll try and sustain it as best of it. That's especially important to you as the, as you continue to suppress that fear within you. Fear is something that you have dealt with many times in the last year, and you have gotten very good at controlling it. And so you calm yourself, you push that fear down, and you start to look up.

It's hard to suppress when you're looking up at the bottom of what appears to be a metal object. the scope and scale of which you can barely comprehend. And when you look down, that fire illuminates nothing, you're falling into an abyss. And you see urinear flat past you very briefly and then disappear into the darkness. And then you... I try again if I can.

You look up, make another acrobatics or athletics check, and I need you to make an acrobatics or athletics check as you repel down and essentially bungee jump to see if you can catch Tysha as well. You just confirmed right. The stroll. Yeah, I got you, bro. I got you, bro.

Another natural one. That's crazy. I mean, you have a full minute. Like, he's not palming to his death. No, but I'm just, I, you're all fucked up, man. I'm all fucked up. No, no, no, no idea which way's up or left or down. Yornear is usually unflappable and in his element.

This is the most flappable, least element place you could possibly be in. I can. I cannot help you. Save yourself. And I'm gonna try to like make my way. I'm like desperate just to make my way back onto ground. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You flap up through the gap and opening and almost crash into, in fact, roll a D4, take one or two damage. And Barnabas, what are you doing? With a natural two. We're like the three stooges out here. We're like the three stooges. I get 10.

Wow. at a tap. Okay. So what am I seeing as I rappel down? As you repel down, you see the eagle form of Yornear retreat. You watch as you see this more controlled fire coming from the hands of Tyshen. And you can see him looking up. He doesn't look afraid, but there's a seriousness to his face,

a determination that tells you that he knows that. there are only moments before he is lost. And in this moment, you can reach out and hope to grab his hand, like a trapeze artist almost. In order for that to succeed with a 10, Tishan, I need you to make an athletics or acrobatics check to beat that number to see if your arms grapple.

I'll hold a natural one. I can't. It's time to fire or not those eye this shit, man. Just like... You have two choices. You have two choices. And so you also passing your fire. So basically it all goes dark.

It all goes dark. Disappearing into the darkness. I can't switch pole on my. You have to... Your fingertips, your fingertips touch, but Barnabos all of a sudden, the rope around your waist goes taut and you stop. And you still see Tyshen disappearing,

falling into the darkness. Tyshen, you do have two choices. There's the capital F fly in your spell list, and there's the capital A axis of equilibrium if you wanted to change that role. Oh, I'm like nowhere near the hexager armament, though.

It's like way about... Even a mile. Oh, really? Within a mile is what you can use it to check. I don't, I'm hesitant to draw on the power of the hexature armament, alerting those around us. That's up for you, man. Yeah. You would see... As you...

As you... As you... As you... Come on a second. Come on. Come on. Okay, let's go see... As I'm reaching out, what?

I see... I see the light of of Tyshan's flame go out and get snuffed into darkness. Just as when Melkor with his black spear pierced

Telperian and Lorellolin, the trees of Vallinor, and Angolian drank all of their sap, snuffing out their lights, as well as draining the wells of Varda dry. I see nothing but unlight, shroud everything in darkness. It's like, if there's one thing you can count on, is when Mikey says, let's get serious. You know the very next thing that's about to happen is we're not about to get... It's the least...

So I know the gravity of this. You hear the orchestral music of Simple and Clean start playing. That is definitely not more. That is not you. You know, sure, everybody. You gotta give it up. I don't know what music plays in Lord of the Rings, so I got to pivot.

You hear a giant glimmering keyhole opens in the sky. Actually, in that pitch of darkness, right where you lost me, maybe a couple seconds goes by, however much time for the feather fall to wear off. And then you'd see a burst of light as almost my silhouette is wreathed in flame. As you see what almost looks like a five-pointed star,

as flame erupts from my mouth, my hands, and my legs, as I activate fly. And I start blazing flame from my fists. and my feet. And I fire Lord Ozzy. And I fire Lord Ozzy out of there. I fire Lord Ozzy with the power of Sosin's comet. As Sosin's comet tears through the sky above us,

imbueing me with the power of 100 firebenders, I activate my eternal flame. You boost forward, and who knows what lies in those dark depths. You rocket back through the gap faster even than your nears eagle form. I don't know if that's mechanically true, but it feels correct narrative at the time. And you flip up and suddenly you feel that gravity. The teeth of that gravity take hold.

And you realize that you could drop and land next to your friends and be standing on the same ground that they are landing on. But you're moving very quickly. And it takes some grace in order to make that landing. I need to make a quick athletics or acrobatics check for me. as you fly upward like Phoenix King Ozai toward Avatar

Ang after unlocking his avatar state despite the doubts of Guru Pateek just like in the Silmarillion when Riku is standing at Destiny Isles as a tidal wave is a huge wave as crushing towards him towards the shore

Barnabos extends his hand like like Riku Dutora, which happens in the Silvererland. That's kidding. That's kidding. Rek is my favorite character. I'm Lord of the Rings. I thought of those things they were talking about Final Fantasy 10. I'm going to be honest.

There's also a Riku in Final Fantasy 10. It's very reasonable. Very reasonable. And there's also many beaches in Final Fantasy 10. I rolled in 19. You land gracefully. I'm like Phoenix King Ozai, the orchestral, simple, and clean and still playing behind. Despite the urgent efforts of your friends, not being able to grab you and

pull you up, you eventually pull the emergency lever and find yourself landing next to your allies. Your near, what did you roll for your damage? I rolled, well, you said take one or two damage, so do you mean a D2? I rolled a D2 or D4. I usually ask for a D4 and then I cut it in half and run. Okay, well, I rolled a two, which if we're doing D2 style

would be one damage. Yes, so you take one damage. Got it. Just like Aragorn when he kicks the, I mean, are when Vigo Mortensen kicks the helmet and breaks his toe during the first film that you feel you know it's not it's not two towers yeah it's it's it's the oh my god you're right holy shit Mary and Pippin are just like in two towers when Vigo Mortensen breaks his toe get a lot of this guy yeah geez what a meta actor reference you click your ankle as you uh land in your eagle form no I

I'm full-blown, I stumble, and I will shift out, and I basically tumble pretty far along the stone, and maybe they almost fall off just as when Samwise Gamgee fell on the stairs of Kiry and nearly fell miles downward

and died upon the stone, but I barely hanged on. And now I'm fearful, yorne here, and I grab my staff, and I steady myself and slowly pick myself up. I'd run over to you, make sure you're all right. Is everyone all right? Yes

Don't look at me I'm like I wanted to be tossed across With a rope tie around him And then look at these guys Just bumbling around like jackasses Friends I'm sorry to have endangered you Thank you for coming to my aid I should have just flown to start

I'll scuttle back up Well why'd I do all that If you're just gonna fly up In this unknown area I wanted to Maintain my strength as best I could conserve resources, we don't know what's coming. Flight does not work the same.

I- Well, at least now we know that. That's a little bit of extra information, eh? I will remain in my true form. What has gotten into all of you? Unbelievable. Thanks for holding that, Mr. Stabascots, and I'll pick the anchor back up.

I didn't do anything. In fact, I didn't even break a sweat. Good lords! Cat, can we continue down this path? Yes, it's just as way. Ignore if it makes you feel vertigo to look back. Do not think about the other gear that we just traversed from. Just think of this as your new ground, the new normal.

It's fortunate I cannot see it. Either way. We carry on. You continue to carry on. And you pass as you walk many... Sites. You only catch fleeting glimpses of these sites. You imagine that if you were walking, you might see a cul-de-sac that you might go down. We're factories. Or you might look down and see a whole settlement or city down another path. It's very aggressive music for what I'm endeavoring to do here, one moment. Oh, look, a rave.

Yeah, you see a rave. You see a rave to one. the side. Just like in Batman Beyond. I was going to make a nature preference. Let's try this. You continue to make your way. You passed another one of those transports. Frozen. Mid-swing.

It's back legs literally lifted off of the ground as it seemingly would be shifting its way and almost like a centipede. Isn't there a Mario enemy that kind of does that? I'll show you what I'm actually envisioning when we finish this session because it's really cool.

But you see navigation beacon towers. Full, full towers that look almost like a, yeah. You're okay? You said beacons. What's wrong with beacons? What's wrong with beacons? I can't say beacons. In my own campaign, I can't say beacons.

They're unlit and you make your way towards. you continue, you see some form of service station that you pass that are completely abandoned. Eventually your path is intercepted by what seems to be a proper town that the causeway goes directly through. A settlement that fits on a whole

gear tooth. You have a sense that this is is a massive, massive settlement. But you're confronted with a sign at its perimeter. You look up and you see the sign at the outer limits reads, Station 9. Station 9. The sign looks like any other of the many signs that you've passed.

It's written in common. And as you start to walk into this town, you can get glimpses of what's on the edge of each side of the street that you are walking. on. There's a familiarity only in that there have been times when you finish an overland walk and you finally reach civilization. And that's what this feels like. But there are still no lights and no sound in any direction. Everything feels frozen in motion. start to pass what are very evidently storefronts. The merchandise windows empty.

There are residences. What look like buildings? These are not automaton constructs or creations or buildings. These are clearly within the plane of logic, but they feel a little bit more rustic to you. As when I say rustic, I mean the building materials, the architecture, the architecture, textual choices, the decorations, the facsimiles of the front of them, feel more like what you might see in the mortal realm. Oh. I was going to ask.

Are they like sci-fi Star Wars buildings or something? No, no. Up until now, I mean, the stations that you've been passing up until now have had that strange feeling of logic built by and for automaton's. But this is very evidently a settlement that. a station that is built by and for humanoids, perhaps very similar to yourself. You don't know if they are gifts, you don't know if they are dwarves or gnomes or elves.

I guess we don't have any kind of confirmation that creatures other than the automaton's live here. We've never been confirmed that like non-automaton, you would know. that, and I would leave it to your judgment whether or not Scrim would remember this line, but in passing, moments before passing through the portal, you recall that Kett mentioned that not just automaton's lives on the plane of logic, that there are communities of people who he even said there's a chance that we might run into gift there.

Huh, that raises an interesting question. Yeah. What question? Well, I mean, are these, you know, are they also, do they confine to being beings of logic if they're like humanoid from like the, from a ventrists, right? Like the question becomes like, do they change? Are they, or do they just follow the rules? These are the questions that float through your mind as you start to pass into the space because this is not an orderly structured area. There are, it's a little bit more chaotic. Even in a in a place of, order like this. You pass by residences, but the doors look barricaded. There are scattered tables in front of what appear to be restaurants, and you look on the surface of them candles burned down to nothing. There are empty oil lamps set all

about. The hanging planters that are in front of the windows that would normally have plants are dead, dry and curling. That's still pitch black. It's like they're perceiving it in gray scale with dark vision. Exactly correct. Exactly correct. You're only getting these glimpses when you deviate and as a group move to one side or when you perhaps because of some curiosity walk away from the group, you know, 20, 30 feet

in order to observe these details. you find things like dead plants. There are blankets hung over windows. Oh, my God. And I need everyone to make a perception check. Bada boss, are you seeing this? It looks like people, people live here. Well, you guys are probably disadvantaged,

and we're heavily obscured. I would live here. Oh, I actually- Don't even roll. I don't think. Well, it's up to you. If you even blinded. This is perception?

If you're producing a flame or something like, I would give you a disadvantaged roll if you, if you have any form of elimination. I actually smash this. I rolled in 19 and an 18, which gives me at disadvantage, a 24. Hell yeah. Garbage. 15 here. 19. Wow. With with Taishans fleeing. Even with a disadvantage? Yep. Wow. I will say that because you rolled so high, scrim, you, um, feel a crunch under your foot and you look down and you see that there's a piece of paper there. Oh, thank God, it's not desiccated animal.

There's no desiccated animal. There's nothing horrifying about the paper, but you absently, you pick it up and you unfurl it. Oh, my God, they're littering. It's a written ledger. Oh. A command. And it almost feels like a flyer, like something that's been copied multiple times. Kill humans.

It's commanding inhabitants to reduce their daily caloric intake by an additional 29% issued by the mayor. Oh, oh goodness. What does it say, Mr. Stavisgarch? Well, if I'm reading this correctly,

and yes, I can read, it says something about having to, like a decree, asking, well, I'm telling, commanding that they have to reduce, their daily caloric intake by an additional 29%. Additional. Oh my gods, these people are starving to death.

Or they starve to death. They were working to conserve resources. I am going to go to like the nearest settlement. Yeah. And I'm going to just try the door. You are able to walk up to any one of these buildings and you walk up to what feels almost like the equivalent of a townhouse. Townhouse feels very modern in when I say that language unit out, but, but, but, but, but, but, but a tall, too sorry building that is not commercial. Uh, and you try the door and, um, some of the ones that you've walked past are barricaded, but this one is open. And with a simple turn of the knob, it swings open in your direction and you feel like you could walk in if you wanted to. I'm gonna, I'm gonna check this out.

and I'll open and I'll get ready. I don't have my anchor, but I'll get ready to morph my hand to a crab claw to kill anything if there's anything in here. There's a feeling of danger. And you feel the nerves and the sense rise within you as you walk into the space. The three of you and Ket are all watching

as Barnabos passes through the threshold. I need to make a perception check as you start to walk deeper into this dark space. Disadamaged. Okay. Come on, 15. Oh, no. I believe.

Okay, 14. 14, easy. Wait, no, hold on. Sorry. Yeah, 14. 14. 14, easy. Sorry.

You take a few steps inside, and you realize that you're standing on a wooden floor. Whatever the material, was that you've been walking on this entire time. It's not been clay, it's not been masonry or cobblestone or rock or silt or dirt, ground, earth. You walk in and for the first time you feel like your feet are touching something that you're familiar with. But as you breathe in, there's a staleness that hits you that feels not just old, not dusty. Not stale, but there's a sourness undertone to it that's all too familiar.

I'm gonna get confirmation. Try to find. You don't have to walk very far. Yeah. There's a staircase that leads up to the second floor on your left, and there's a kitchen that you pass on your right, but as you cross a threshold into what is very evidently a living area, you see a dining room table. You see the family holding hands, but they're skeletons.

These parents and what looks like the size of a child, wearing whatever clothes they were wearing in whatever situation, their arms are outstretched. And you imagine that when they moved on, they were holding hands but they've come to rest a little shoveled out of place and in that still moment

in that black and white vision that you're looking at and those gray scales you know the story that's being told here these people took some other way out they didn't stay starve to death kerosstein come here

what is it I want you to see this moments later the Gith Yankee arrives by your side. What's... Oh. The price of vengeance.

I know you don't need another, but a good reminder. Now I'm going to turn around and head out to meet my friends. You rejoin your allies and 10 seconds, 20 seconds, more than a moment passes

before Kett returns back out through the door. Anyone who did not leave is dead. What do you mean leave? You think some people survived and got out? Do you think they could leave the plane? Whether they all starved or took a quicker way out. There are people here that weren't mechanical. Not automaton's.

Organic beings. their dead. Do you think they were trapped? The entire plane? This is all the work of the hexature armament being taken from this place? It just faded into darkness? You set us on this path

and killed countless in your wake. Kurt Rastin looks down at the artificial feeling around. He shakes his head. I did not kill them. I know that

I know that what I did led to this outcome, but I did I could not have known. I could not have known what the people here they rely on the light, on the energy in this realm in order to persist. It has been

more than a year. Maybe two. Since I fled here with that artifact and my son. And you know the rest of the story. I was trapped. I was captured. We sought that we could protect our people. No, uh, not, Ken. You made a choice.

And it led to this. There is responsibility here. There's no... dwelling on it. As true as all this is, I just wanted you to see that. We now know what happened. I wouldn't expect any life outside of whatever remains rattling around these little metal men. But I suppose it's true that there are no villains stalking us in the darkness.

It's quiet, it's cold, it's dark. It's dead. It's dead. Or dying. I just know that cold. Perhaps there is no hunter, and that we can rest easier. Aye. It adds a layer to our quest.

We don't now just restore the armament to save our world, but theirs as well. Look, I, you know, silver linings. Good news is we haven't done anything wrong. And if we just return this thing, maybe Primus will be happy and we all get to go home. Maybe this ends up easier than we thought it would be. We're just doing the right thing. The Primus has had to sit and watch his world die in the absence of the armament. Maybe he's happy to take it back and save this place, but we'd be foolish to not prepare for vengeance.

He's being of logic. Right? There's no way. We didn't do anything. We're returning it, but fixing everything. It's a good thing. What's in the past, is in the past, it's happened, we can't fix that. But we can return the armament and surely he'll be grateful.

I hope you're right, Scrim. Either way, once again, there's no other path forward. Keth can hope that Primus does not feel any kind of emotion. I wish I could say I do not care for these lives, for they are unnatural, that they live in an unnatural place. Somehow, that state of being doomed them, but... Oh, like a cat. I am willing to die to make your mistake right. They were not. They were not. That's right.

I suffered the consequences of my path of vengeance. But I got a chance to learn, to grow maybe not wiser, but a little less blockheaded in my old age. I can never make right what I did. You have

that opportunity now. I am more committed to than ever. To make things right. His premise wants vengeance. I will accept that. I never meant

for any of this. You had no way to know. Even with your understanding from your sea of stars, I don't think that anyone would guess that a common village would exist in a place like this

he pulls out his dagger station 11 I bought this in a community just like this one somewhere else in the plane I see you did know there are people here were people here

at the very least there were people here there may yet be some that can still be saved. They... Damn it! He puts his dagger away. It has been so long.

Who knows when the lights turned off? How long it has been? If we thought things were hard under a car. Imagine. No food. No light. No warmth. An end of times,

so to speak. An endless knife. We must press on. We must get the artifact back to its home, to return the energy to this flame. We will fulfill our faith. We will save our world. Along the way,

perhaps it will salvage what's left here. Yai. Yes. Continue. Is there a clear path out of here? Can we just keep moving on? You are on what feels like the same causeway that you've been on. It would be easy to turn down cul-de-sacs,

but you're effectively on what I would call a Main Street. And so you continue to, you continue through the thoroughfare. We just keep going. There's a body in the street. Oh, Jesus. Clutching a extinguished lantern. Yeah. You pass a dry fountain around which a group of,

people all sit, some clutching each other and others just staring vacantly up into a nothing-the-sky. At the opposite edge of town is a gear connecting to yet another massive cog. Nearly perfectly aligned. You imagine as this path reaches the other one, there's no incline or angle like you were forced to confront hours ago, but you imagine that this is why a settlement like this exists. As the gear turns in its massive rotation, it would connect with other cogs, and there would be commerce and trade, and that that would be their way of life, perhaps not measured in years or by a day-night cycle, but by the people that you rejoin with.

seems so impossible now for the people who have lost their lives in this terrible catastrophe here at station 9 there's a raised bridge that feels like it should connect to that other side this isn't some small gap that you can jump in order to reach one gravidic side to the other no this is a much much larger tooth the tooth a a tooth of size of a full town. And the opposite side is just as large. And you realize that the raised bridge is unpowered. You could use the hexager armament to perhaps power it on.

But before you can even voice that idea, you hear a sound. It's very distant. Sounds like machinery. But from where you are, you do. Do you hear some sound? How could there be any power left? There's still no light in any direction. I want to, like, perk my ear up and just see if I can hear the direction that it's coming from.

Make a perception, Chuck. Oh, man, I'm on fire. 24. Hell, yeah. You are, you are on fire. You recognize that the sound is coming from a nearby building. Very, very quickly, you're able to triangulate the sound, and all of you watch as Scrim, his ears perk up,

and all of a sudden he's moving in a direction, kept immediately behind you. The rest of you start to follow as you start to walk just not even a half block down one side away from the bridge, and you are confronted with a building. Unlike the other buildings of their make in this area This looks like an automaton's building This is made of the same kind of steel

That same kind of reflective surface The same kind of geometric patterns that are so obviously theirs But you still, you hear that How could anything be moving? We have to check this out if this is machinery I mean, somebody could be operating it. It could mean survivors are here. There must be someone alive.

We must go inside. There may still be survivors. All right, get behind me, as I will once again get ready to strike, but I'm gonna open the door or whatever I gotta do. You are still mostly in darkness, aside from the occasional illumination that you were able to produce.

Your wounds, Your Neer, are still providing you some amount of, at least footing. in this arena, your dark vision is doing great work. You're all almost huddled together as you burst through the doors. They provide no resistance. This is what appears to be a factory. As soon as you burst in through the doors, you look around and you can see that it's modest. This is not some massive factory, but it's something that's designed for fabrication.

What tells you that is that even in your immediate vicinity, there are conveyor belts that are sagging. There are mechanical arms hanging from the ceiling. There are these production cradles that line the walls. You enter the space and you stare across the opposite wall and you can see that there's a machine on the other side. Clearly in motion, pumping up, down, and then to the side. and then coming back and pumping up. So this appears to be the only machine that's moving. Everything else you describe is not moving.

And as you start to enter, I need everyone to make a perception check. Is it by site? Is this room lit? Is it by sight or by others? Other senses. Oh, I'm asking for a site perception, but if you have a other benefit to perception, then I would hear that and I'd be curious.

No chance. Yeah, I got an 11 as my local. Hang on, hang on, hang on. Could be... I have a plus nine. Nice. 16. Good job. Okay. You guys do good? 17. 17. 16.

And 11. You are all walking through and starting to walk towards this machine. You're near. You hang back. Ked is leading the charge. You watch as Scrim, Tyshen, Barnabose. Your allies start to walk into the space. But it has been a hard... few hours.

It feels almost like days. Yeah. It's been rough. It's been rough. But you're trying to acclimate yourself. What is natural here? What is the order of this place? And as you watch them go, you're relieved to let them take the lead for once.

And you look over and down. And on one of the conveyor belts, you can see what clearly looks like a vector or a theazar. You see the body. of one of these automaton's, one of these lowest rank units, but it's been cracked open. Cracked open. Whoa. It's been split. Where its face would be has been peeled back, like removing the lens of a CRT television from its frame. Whoa! And inside there's some very faintly luminous, viscous substance. And when I say luminous, your eyes are very adjusted.

to the dark now. So the fact that anything is emitting even the shred of light that this substance is happens to catch your attention. And it's like someone's hollowed at him out like a pumpkin. It's been scraped out, scooped out. And then looking up, you realize that on the next conveyor belt, there's another, and then a third, and then a fourth. There are automaton all lining this one side of the wall that you happen to be standing there. next to you. No one else noticed they walked by and towards this machine. As they're walking towards, you see this vision of these automaton's internal energy scraped nearly clean. Um, I'm walking through and I'm seeing this and I'll say, I'll think to myself, like is this,

is the power coming on and some of these things waking up like a residual frequency being near the the artifact. And I would like stop and I would lean down and if it looks like goo, I think it would reach down and like just try to like touch it and just get a sense of what it could possibly be or if I can even comprehend what it might be. You you scoop up. It's just like finding a new plant in the wild. You you there's a there's a sense of wanting to touch the fronds of a of a plant to even if it is it tingly is it numbing? Is it poisoning? Is it poison? Is it Is it going to, is there, right? You have this innate curiosity within you and you scoop some of this liquid up and you start to work it in your hands.

There's a energy to it that because of your connection to the hexature armament, I think actually, that's the only familiarity that that comes to the to the fore here. There's a very plane of logic feeling to this substance. That's not a great articulation, but when I say that, I mean, this is the anima of a creature like Theazar or Vector. It looks like their blood. And so you realize that what you've scooped up is effectively something that must maintain them. They're not pure constructs. There's something that fuels them. And you rub it between your fingers and you know that there's energy there.

There was killing here I'll yell at my companions What? Moments have passed since Yornear's revelation and I will actually rewind a little bit before Yornear's voice rings out to say there are killings here because the three of you and

Ket are actually moving forward What you see standing before you is a working machine You haven't seen anything in motion in all this time But something is powering this thing. Something is keeping it going. And it is a massive piston that rises up and that clangs down.

And then there's a luminescent flash. Clunk. There's a compression that you can see that's happening. And there's almost like a small window where there's a flash of light before there's a... And there's almost an exhaust. A smell. It smells almost like, not quite like bacon, but some sort of a fleshy smell of burning. Oh no. Then there's another arm that shoves all of that to the side. You can see it go poof-foo-foo-foo-foo-th through a few openings as it gets compressed and pushed and shoved down. Click, crunch.

and a small hatch opens and something drops out into a basket where there are perhaps two or three other objects is a small puck a thin gray puck that drops into this

tray below the machine and then the process begins again another puck doesn't immediately get spit out but you have an idea that over time, this machine seems to be compressing something into a thin material. Before you can process what's going on, you hear a voice. And the hair at the end of your neck stands up.

And suddenly you hear the voice of Secundus. What? Why do you get that? I am a mic! To me, to me, they have the hexature armament. They have the hexature armament. They are enemies. Destroy them, destroy them quickly. The hexature armament glows and spins on your nears back.

As you hear it just as the moment as you hear him yell out, you hear him yell out. The factory bursts into illumination as all the lights show up. All of the hum of factories, the arms. start to move in their directions. The conveyor belt start to swing. Everything comes to life all at once. As the automaton known as Secundus screams out these words and activates the hexature armament.

I would ask you to roll for initiative, but that's where we'll end tonight session. The cliffhanger. Oh, my God.