The Adventure Zone - The Adventure Zone Royale: Episode 28

Episode Date: July 9, 2026

The remaining aspirants' attempt to take the contest into their own hands does not go unnoticed... or unpunished. As the island begins to reject them, the elite eight must scramble to find out what's really going on and escape with their lives. Royale Theme: “Wizard Disco” by Louie Zong: https://louiezong.bandcamp.com/album/wizard-disco Original Music by Griffin McElroy Additional Music in this Episode: "Blato" by Shay Brahem x Fachhochschule Dortmund: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/shay-braheem/; “A Month of Dust” by Schemawound http://schemawound.com/; "tribute to eddy" by Jean Toba: https://jeantoba.blogspot.com/; “Oneiri” by Kai Engel http://www.kai-engel.com/; "Skin Writhes Anxious" and "VIII" by ROZKOL: https://rozkol.bandcamp.com/; "Sound the Alarms" by Kirk Osamayo: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/kirk-osamayo/; "Grande Vista" by Jason Shaw: https://audionautix.com/; and "Foresight" by Serat: https://blear-moon.com. Asian Pacific Environmental Network: https://apen4ej.org/our-work/ Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/jointaz

Previously on Taz Royale, I need you to prove yourself to me. I need you to win this conclave. Yes, yes. Just if you're able to help. Yeah. No pressure. Yes, you're right, Bugman.

And I shove him to the ground. Well, I mean, I didn't want to risk anyone else. I was going to come in and destroy the crystal. I can't make another bond like this with another person. This is taking everything just to appear before you. right now. If you die, that's it. As such, we will not commence with the final two trials. This conclave has been terminated.

Welcome back to Taz Royale, our Battle Royale, Winter Take All, Season of the Adventure Zone. You join us at a dark time for the conclave, as the eight remaining aspirants have just been informed by the members of the octave, the arch wizards that rule the realm of the fold, that the conclave has been canceled due to their many, many, many transgressions. And we don't need to point fingers who did what? That is actually exactly where we are picking up. Oh, we do need to point fingers? There's going to be a lot.

There's been so much finger pointing in the sort of few minutes following you getting caught, Rictus. The eight remaining aspirants are sort of standing in front of the crystallarium where the eight members of the octave are standing on a raised dais. And the aged wizard Osham is standing at the front of the assembly. And he's holding this like illuminated clipboard. And for the past like five minutes has just kind of been flipping through a list of infractions that each of you have racked up during your time here. He says, Hill Gremitt conducting a. secret clandestine meeting within the boundaries of leoman's tiny hut uh lorovith for like two dozen minor acts of unauthorized violence uh duber sweetly for

ripping cotton in the sunken library um pranklin grand larceny from the atelier jesus i do a tiny maybe i have to make a stealth check but fist bump to my my dude he flashes you a big gummy smile and and Ocean says And Rickus, obviously your intrusion into the crystallarium was the final straw

But let's not forget about the arson That Alleged Arson Nothing here is alleged Nothing escapes our sight Here on the Isle of the Octaves Well does I leave those

Who've already perished? They It leaves them where they are They have they have perished What are their sacrifice? Their sacrifice Was for not There is a certain shenanigans threshold

Under which the conclave may continue But that threshold Has been thoroughly crossed If I may say point of order here I had been informed That whatever happened Within Liamen's hut stayed in Liamans

and how do you know what I was doing inside Liamen's hut? Table talk. I need some evidence here. You're playing fast and loose with it. They don't know what the fuck happened in Liams hut. Allow me to respond. Osham says, Yes, precisely. You created

a secret dome of silence where you meant to bamboozle our sight. are omniscience. I do not know what happened within Leo once. That one... Oh, that?

That one was planning a birthday party for you. Yes. And so that, you're embarrassed now. We'll tell you all the details. If you want to hear them, they'll ruin it for yourself. Yes, go on. Tell me all the details of the birthday party that you planned for me. You know, you've always liked the movie, Greece.

Make a deception check for me, Loraveth. Oh, interesting. That's only five of the 20 possible points. Huh. A five, okay. He looks down at his clipboard, he says, Even if that is true, which my, how do you know my birthday? Oh, God, the deception hurt his feelings, didn't it?

It's the worst. Even if that's a wombo combo, man, really stings when they realize you're lying in, but it's still hurtful. Yeah, maybe he was getting super excited for the party. Even if that, even if we were going to. to strike that infraction. The breaking of rules that has happened here has been so flagrant and so unprecedented. We have never had an attempt to choose

a new member of the octave be so tainted like this. And it is the will of... You're just going to give it to do, but? No, it is the will of magic itself that no successor be named. from this assembly. We must... How did magic tell you that?

Can we talk to magic? No. You may not... There is no talking to magic. It is not a sentient mind. Its will must be interpreted by the members of the octave, which is us.

We must bring these trials to a halt and return you all to the fold from whence you came. I think I have an idea. If we could just... If one of us then were to become the new member, then we could interpret the will of magic. and explain how all of this is not our fault?

The rules must be followed by us and by yourselves. We have conducted ourselves in the manner that we are accustomed to that has been ordained unto us, and you all have not. And so these trials have ended. Well, that's kind of bullshit. A point of parliamentary procedure. wondering, how do you reach these decisions?

Surely it's a vote of some kind, some kind of democratic process. Could you perhaps let us in on what that process is and who voted for what?

Hmm. Give me an insight check, hell, grammat, as you ask them. Hmm. That is a four. This decision came from up top, from on high. Were it up to us, I would continue.

Ted, you got to cheese these fucking mistubixious, pitilocks dice, man. These fucking dyes on my screen are really difficult to parse. Wild, magical sparkles the animations. Dad's dice are sparkling sort of pink gold embossed with runic symbols all over. They are really insane. And they disappear with a flourish? They are really. They're really whimsical.

Oh, crazy. There was no vote. For an insight check. I mean, it's like, it's the whole David Copperfield, presidigitation. Permission to speak. Yes, yes, Rickus. I assumed there would be much, much conversation, many questions given this upsetting news. And listen, no offense.

But it kind of seems like you're saying, like, we follow the rules. set for ourselves and you didn't follow the rules we set for you. Yes. So like you got to make up rules that worked for you. Like why did you even put the crystallarium here if we're not allowed to go in it? I assume that was some kind of like test or something to see if we'd be brave enough, you know, to like seek the knowledge like a conclave member, you know, like an octave member would. Oh, they don't want new.

They don't want new thoughts. They don't want new ideas. They don't want rethinking. What they want is another member of eight. Ocean sighs, looking somewhat frustrated now. He says, I can tell that the crystallarium has become quite a distraction for all of you. So he waves a hand behind him. And in an instant, the section of the island containing the crystallarium vanishes into thin air,

leaving a sort of semicircular carve out from the edge of the island over which you can see clouds and the lands below absolutely just vanishes from view. Listen, we have been very patient with your questions, but we are here because we followed this process to the letter when it was our time to do so. so you can understand our frustration with your refusal to follow our example. We have... This process sucks. Thank you, Rictus, for your input. It is sagacious as always. Standing in front of this big sort of cavity that is formed here on the island,

Osham gestures to the side toward the eight eggs that are sort of surrounding one part of the ziggurat at the center of the island. It's where Hell Grammat's sort of witnessed a trippy history lesson about the origins of the universe. He says, these, the eggs have been adapted into something like escape pods. Once you step inside, the door will seal and only then will you be permitted to remove your grimace at which point you will be returned to the lands below. I appreciate the strenuousness of these trials, and I deeply, deeply regret that things have ended the way that they have ended, but it is out of our hands and it is certainly out of yours. And what if we refuse to do that?

If you refuse to leave our island? Well, Rickus, I appreciate your renegade spirit. but we are not going to leave you much of a choice. And another member of the octave set gestures to his side, as he does so, another big chunk of the island completely vanishes. The entire sort of western rim of the island, encompassing the woods and the mages tower, a good, like, you know, fifth of the island completely vanishes into.

nothingness, leaving a huge, almost sort of crescent moon-shaped sort of cavity on the side of the island. You may stay here if you would like, but terra firma is not going to be guaranteed for much longer. So do as you'd like, but I would recommend the escape pods and your... I have another question to... Yes, Helgramette. Well, perhaps we could appeal to your boss. You know, someone, obviously, you just said that you were following someone else's orders or leadership or whatever you would call it.

Could we perhaps speak to them like in an appeal process? The will of magic is not a who. to be bargained with or reasoned with, it is like bargaining with gravity. We interpret the movements of magic, but any gestures to the black smoke that's like pouring out of the giant doors surrounding the outer ring of the island. That is about as clear a signal as we can possibly receive. The conclave has been cancelled. Your attempts to try and walk back your poor decisions will not be fruitful. I guarantee you.

Is the bracer stuck on me? Is the bracer stuck on you? Mm-hmm. I mean, it has been against the rules to take the bracer off. I don't know how much you've fiddled around with it. If you would like to fiddle around with it to find out, you are more than welcome to. Yeah, I'm just standing here. Yeah, sure.

Give me an investigation check, please. This might be a really good time to start rolling. maybe some 20s. We could use some 20s. That is a 5 on the investigation check. Damn it. On a 5 investigation check, it does seem to be on you quite firmly. I don't think an investigation check would be necessary to remember that when you sort of, during the trial of divination,

when you sort of shook the hand of the statue and the gauntlets sort of climbed onto you, it sort of jabbed like a probe into your elbow. So you have every reason to believe that this thing is seated on you pretty steadily. That said, you're a big strong dude. So if you did want to try to do something about it. I want to try to take it out. Okay. Give me a strength check, please.

Makes sense after a five investigation. I'm not going to be getting in there with. pliers and tweezers. Yeah, intricate, like, jewelers tools. Luckily, I rolled a 19. Oh, fucking hell, man. All right. A 22 total.

You reach down and grab your bracer. As you do so, Osham shouts, hold, Loravith. You may not remove your bracelet until you enter the eggs and the door is sealed. To do so would be another vice. violation of the rules, one that will be punished by death. I mean, I already rolled a 22.

All right. With a 22, I will give you this. You have these big Goliath hands. You are able to sort of wrap your hand all the way around sort of the top of the bracer and begin to pull it off. As you do so, your fingers crunch in to the bracer. Not in a way that you would expect from, you know, a leather arm guard. You feel something give. You feel a crunch.

Give me a perception check, please. 17 plus 1, 18. You hear a slight squeal as you do so. Do you continue to pull it off? Yes. Okay? Yes. Not more so.

Ugh. All right. You tear off your bracer. It clings onto you defiantly as you pull it off. And the last thing to go is this sort of elbow pad. And it takes a little bit of extra pulling to pull the probe all the way out of your elbow. In this exact moment, Loravith, I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. and I will tell you it's a dozer.

18 plus 422. Okay, that is a 22. Okay. A lot of stuff happens all at once. As you pull off your grim war, you feel it begin to give more in the hand that you are sort of clutching it in. You feel more crunching.

You hear a shriek begin to emanate from it. the rest of you can hear this too. This is not just purely in in Lora Vith's mind. You instantly feel a hollowing out of your memories. You feel the the experiences that you have gleaned from other wizards through these spellstones that you have been slotting into your grimoire the entire time that you have been here. you feel them fade like turning off a light switch. All of the crystals that are sort of connected to the back of your grimoire begin to kind of pulsate glowing with a sort of fluctuating light. The one at the very center, the one that was there sort of at the very beginning when you first kind of came to with this grimroar on your arm,

you see it flicker as well. And in this exact moment, all these memories fade. And you feel your own memories, your own training with lightning lash. You feel it begin to sap away also. But you find something there. You find your training with Gricon. You find your Goliath sort of clan and your ceremonies, your rituals, your upbringing, your exploration of the mountains below,

it gives you something firm to hang on to. You feel your memories begin to be sapped away, and you deny that. And as that happens, the crystal at the center of this grimace shatters. And instantly, the illusion is dispelled, and you can see that you are holding in your hand not a

gauntlet, but a large segmented insect. Gross. You are holding an insect with these crystals kind of growing

out of its back slotted into these gaps between its sort of segmented carapace. Fuck, I'm glad I rolled it 22. Yeah, dude.

It would be freaking my pain, I think. Yeah. Everyone else doesn't seem to recognize that you have just ripped this giant bug off of yourself, but you can see it clear as day. What does that guy look like now? The bug?

The guy who's talking to us. I will tell you, you look up toward the dais, and there is nobody there. And then there is a flash of. red light behind you and the ever-burning flame at the other end of the island produces a pillar of roaring flames that shoots upward and then begins to arc downward in your direction. I'll need a dexterity saving throw from you, please. I tackle him in Thunderstow. Okay, I like that.

Yeah, you all can see the pillar of fire for sure. then I'm going to need a dexterity save just for the timing on this, Rictus, to get to him without sort of issue. 16 plus 2, 18. You guys did save these for the correct time. Yeah. Okay, Rictus, you run and tackle Loravith.

He is a big sort of sturdy dude who does not seem to move a whole lot. But as you sort of get your arms around him, you thunderstep. Where are you thunderstepping to? I'm trying to picture the scene. Yeah, you're sort of standing in front of the big gaping hole where the crystallarium was right sort of near the eggs. I mean, I'm going to thunderstorm step. How far can I go?

Any unoccupied space I could see within range, which is 90 feet. So, I mean, I'm going to move the full 90 feet away. Okay. Each creature within 10 feet of the space you left must make a constitution saving throw, taking 3D10 thunder damage on a failed say. You did a running tackle, right? It's sort of up to you where you activate Thunderstep. So I guess first, like, where do you,

are you trying to catch anyone in the damaging part of Thunderstep? Or are you... You know, if it ends up, Griffin, the Dias is. in range where the octave were standing, I'd be okay with that. Okay. Awesome. You run and tackle him toward the dais then, and then you activate your thunderstep easily within 10 feet of where Osham was standing at the front of the pack. And then you are going to move, let's see, how far away? Up to 90 feet.

Okay. So where do you want to go? That's like anywhere on the northern half of the island, basically. Towards the mountain. Okay, great. Like up, up, up it? Yeah, let's get Loravith on home turf. Okay, cool. You rush forward, activate Thunderstep, a peal of thunder that can be heard from 300 feet away,

booms across the remnants of the island of the Octav Ziggurat, Hell Grammat where you and the rest of the aspirants are standing, you are sort of pushed backwards a bit, and Rictus and Loravith vanish. You all appear back up 90 feet up the mountain. That puts you about near that cave where you sort of found the ice dragon in that second trial, Loravith, where you sort of tricked Ignacio into getting burned up and stole his spell crystal, right right near that cave. As you reappear, Rictus, you can see back down, back on the dais, that Ocean was completely unaffected, completely unaffected by your Thunderstep spell.

Didn't seem to be phased whatsoever. And hell, Graham, where you're standing, you see Ocean look around, and I think he's going to have to roll a perception check. Let me roll a perception check here Just to see if he can spot where you ended up No That is a five on his perception check Okay, the members of the octave now They seem

Give me an insight check, Hell Grammet You're still standing here As this kind of crazy thing just happened Four, keeping the good insights rolling They seem to be largely unfaced Again, not just by the, you know, you know, sonic boom of the Thunderstep, but you would probably categorize their response to this,

you know, this teleportation as somewhat lightly annoyed. Osham says, oh, I, this is disappointing. I was hoping you would take this opportunity to seize our grace and survive and return to the world below, but I see that that is not, the choice that they have made, the rest of you, I would encourage you to make a different decision. Loravith and Rictus, you all are up on the mountain in front of the cave. You have a very

good vantage point on the whole of the island here. You can see, you know, the scorch marks where the pillar of flame smashed down and missed you. But you can also see the ever-burning flame down in that side of the island is beginning to ignite once again to sort of charge up another another blast. What the fuck? Listen, listen, listen. I don't have much time.

This isn't going to make much sense, but please, you have to believe me. Recently I've been reading up on illusory magics. I was studying the braces that... They're bugs, man. They're just a bunch of funky bugs. The braces are bugs. They're a bunch of bugs, man.

You gotta take it off. Rictus instantly, as soon as he says that, you look down at your grimmar and the illusion is dispelled. Ew, ew, ew! I'm saying it! Get it off! Now listen, listen, listen, listen. Don't get it off. Oh, I know. I know, but... Ew! I handled my stuff because I am so tough, but it may make you absolutely Gaga. I have been through it, my man. Oh,

Oh, don't pull it off. Look, no, no, no. Don't pull it off. Can I kill you? No. Let me kill it. It'll make you insane.

It might not. Don't. I got so lucky. No, I'm pretty good at this. I mean, I'm saying what I'm saying, but he can do whatever he wants. I think the span of that conversation was long enough that the pillar of flame has recharged. Oh, fuck you.

Well, we can't do a, we can't do our podcast, Griff? We can't do a bit. We can't do our podcast. And another pillar shoots upward and begins arcing towards where you're standing on this sort of mountain ledge near the cave where you killed Ignatio. It begins to do that? Yes. Go in the cave.

Go in the cave. I'm going to cast counterspell. Oh, okay. to try to prevent it from erupting. You're casting counterspell on the ever-burning flame itself. Hey, why not? You said take big sway. Yeah, fuck yeah, man.

Okay, so the range on that is 60 feet. You're going to have to hoof it a bit to reach the pillar of flame and sort of move away from the conversation with the octave that was happening. but you I think during that conversation you have time to do that to sort of clear around the corner of the ziggurats so it's sort of insight it is it's casting a spell of fourth level or higher make an ability check using your spell casting ability the DC equals to 10 plus these spells level so use your spell casting ability the number that you're trying to beat here is this is a fifth level evocation spell so you're trying to beat a a 15 on your just your spell casting modifier role here. Good. Snike. Okay.

That is an advantageous role? I wasn't paying attention. It was not an advantageous role. That is a five plus six of four and eleven. Here's what I will give you. You do not stop this pillar of flame. However, you are able to slightly divert it. Towards yourself.

Towards yourself. Killing yourself, it's silly. Loraveth and Richtus, you see the column shoot upwards. and then you see it kind of divert off to the side a bit, and then it smashes into the side of the mountain, sending a few boulders down in your general direction. Do you see it, Richter? Do you see?

This is all his plan. This is all the bug man. He put these funky bugs on us, and now he's trying to kill us with fire. But he's wearing one, too. I know he's incredible. Okay, I run into the cave. Okay.

Doober! Doobr looks up at you and so do the rest of the members of the octave. Shit. Those bunch of funky bugs! What is a bunch of funky bugs, sir? The braces are all funky bugs! Instantly. I think, Hell Grambut, you are in the, you are in earshot of this as well.

all of the aspirants look down at their arms and they begin to freak out. I'm going to start making some rolls here. Down, the people who hear this, okay, hell, Grammet, Hasty Jane, Duber, Hippocrates, Pranklin, and Scorpho. I'm going to say Pranklin and Scorpo look down at their bracers and they appear to be somewhat alarmed, but they are keeping a somewhat cool head. Hippocrates, I'm going to make a role here just to see if he is able to not reflexively reach up and tear this giant bug off of his arm. That is a four. You look down and you see Hippocrates does not heed your advice, reaches down, grabs the bug off of his arm, pulls super, super hard, and rips it clean off. I this seems out of character

of Griff, but I do want you to know that Warreuth has a brief moment where he kind of kicks himself for not building more of a rapport with Apocrates because he feels like, you know what I mean? Like if there had been maybe a little bit more trust there, you don't know, it's like, you know. Hippocrates tears this bug off of his arm

as he does so, it bites him, bites his sort of winged arm and scurries away. and Hippocrates looks around confused for a moment and then just kind of collapses to the ground. I'm going to roll for Hasty Jane now to see what her sort of... No, you know what?

Hasty Jane maintains her composure as well. I am going to roll for Duber, though, because he's a fretful little guy. I do think he should get advantage, though, because I told him not to. You're his dad. Yeah. Okay.

I'll roll one more. Okay, Duber starts to pull it off of his arm, but then... What else? It's disgusting, what do I do? You heard me. Hasty Jane kicks on the jets, and she is going to sprint sort of up the mountain, up to where the two of you are, into the cave where you have taken shelter, rictus. Loravith, what are you doing now that you've warned sort of everyone about what's happening?

I mean, I guess I'm continuing to, I guess, uh, I probably want to try to get to dober. Okay. But while stay using the mountain as like cover, I don't want to fully expose myself, but I want to try to get to where I can get to Uber, I think. I cast fly on Loravith. Oh, hell yeah. Uh, okay. You cast fly. on Loravith and Loravith.

I miss that. I don't see that and I say, good news, Richtas. I have a cape for just such an occasion. Okay, yeah. Go for it. See you'll be later. Okay, Loravith, you dive off of the mountain

and what you think is your cape grants you the power of flight. The wings of fatherly love carry you down the mountain in Duber's direction. Hell, Grammat, you, you look down and as you look down at your arm, hearing Loravith's shout. Rock hard and love it.

You are... It's absolutely your shit. You are maybe the only one here who is... It's your friend Jim. Jim the bud. You know him. You bowl together. You guys went to O'Wana.

You are the only one here who is maybe not confused because you have seen this before. This is an echo mite. It is a sort of periscite. I'm, I mean, you know a lot about these guys. You studied them in the library. You've, you know, conversed with Akari before that connection seemed to fade. You know that what they are capable of.

They are capable of sort of draining and crystallizing memories. You know what is happening. So I'm not going to, like, make you roll a sort of panicked role here. what is your response? I think use the Thrykeen psychic link and say Akari? All right. Give me a wisdom saving throw, please. Come on, baby.

13. You know his roles have been bad when he's so proud of a 13. 13. 13. 13. 13. You, you reach out asking for Akari, using this echo mite as a sort of conduit for that. And as you reach out, you do not feel this comforting presence that you have felt whenever you have communed with Akari in the past.

instead you feel another presence come through this connection with a force that knocks you off of your feet. I'm going to ask you for a check here to sort of glean something about what this presence is that has reached out. It is something, I think I need an archana check from you to sort of get a feel for what this is that has just kind of, have assaulted your mind. Not a history check? A history check I would also allow. Yeah, sure. A history check I would allow.

16. Okay. On a 16 history check. The way that your senses were just kind of overwhelmed by this connection, by this thing that is kind of brute forcing itself through this Thrykein psychic link into your mind, there is something familiar about it. It is not, it's not one of the octave. But you, you feel a, you feel a familiarity in the way that it kind of,

almost sort of condescendingly tries to occupy your mind. You, you can't quite exactly place what that, what that is. But you have, you have no doubt that as you try to reach out and make this kind of like, you know, collect call to, uh, to your, your, your Thrykeen betrothed, that something tried to come through. And it is a presence that you felt somewhat familiar with, but never to this kind of like degree, never quite in this, never quite in this way.

Can you identify yourself? Is this, is this the queen? Is this Larvosa? Of the screech? Make, uh, make, uh, make an, Wisdom Saving Throw, you continue to try to talk to this thing. It's going to continue to try to push its way into your mind.

10. No. You feel that presence again. It is, it is... Wait, wait, wait, wait. It's trying to come into my mind? Yes. Let it.

Oh, interesting. Huh. Let it into my mind. No, I won't resist. Okay. Here's what I'm going to do, okay? A bunch of dusty old Steely Dan lyrics up there. The girls don't seem to care.

No static at all. I will allow this to happen. You will allow this to happen and you are going to let this presence into your mind. It's going to hurt. I will tell you that much if you want to let it into your mind. But if you're trying to identify this thing, you know, this might be a, a method of doing so. Bring it on.

All right. You do not resist as you feel this presence push back into your mind. And as it does so, you topple over landing sort of paralyzed on the ground. You are going to take 18 points of psychic damage. And you are under. able to move. You have been held here on the ground. Your thoughts are, are disorganized. They are chaotic. It is impossible to try to connect the neurons in your brain to the, to the, you know, threikine muscles in your body, to tell yourself to get up, to stand up. You can no longer

see through your eyes. You are in a state of dark. And the thing you can see sort of in that place is a silent image of a giant bright white flaming eye. Back up to Loravith, you're flying down the dais toward where Duber is standing. the others From the skies From the skies, I Wonder if maybe I saw What was happened with Hell Gramut

And thought I might have been wrong about Yeah I mean As I pass over and see him lying on the ground Presumably Sort of rigid catatonic Yeah, so sort of like rigor mortis pre-death Or is that just part of his evil plan

Yeah, I don't think I'm willing to give him enough credit for that. I mean, you are definitely able to see this, right? You are able to see Hell Grammat go down. Is that diverting your path at all, or are you still making a B-line for Duber? No, I'm making a B-line for Duber, but I think I should later mention to Rictus that I think I was wrong about HAL-Rang. Does the mental note? Yeah. How far away are they?

How far separate are they? how far separate are Dober and Hellgramma? I mean, about 30 feet or so. You fly down towards where Dober is standing in front of the dais. You can see that he is still looking up at the dais and pleading. He says, please, stop. We'll, we'll escape. We'll do what you want.

Just stop. But you can see he's talking to nobody. There is nobody up there for him to. I grab him around the waist and scoop him up. Come along, Dubra. We've got to go help the bug man But we can't We can't fight the octave

Sir, he's There's no octave do, but they're all... It's just a bunch of fake funky bugs. Come on, Duvon. Get with it. As you say that, another part of the island vanishes.

You can see that sort of the rest of the western side of the island. the lake and the gilded lily, the arena, everything kind of surrounding the western side of the ziggurat, vanishes into thin air, leaving just half of the island sort of standing. You swoop down and you're able to grab Duber quite easily, so he's a little guy, and you make your way over toward where Hellgrammit is laying in the grass. I scoop up Hellgrammit too. I carry both of them to the goddamn eggs. Okay, you start to make your way toward the eggs with hell-grammit sort of slumped over your shoulder

Let's hop over to Rictus as you begin to make your way over toward the escape egg Just so you guys know, here's what I am doing, because let's say you can probably intuit this from my movements, but what I am doing is I'm taking hell-grammit and I'm taking duber and I'm going to put them in these eggs, and I'm going to send them out. So that's where I'm, if you want to stop me, you can, but that's what I'm doing. Okay. Uh, rictus, you are in the cave with hasty Jane. Uh, just a few moments.

Oh, she just got there? Yeah, I mean, she has super speed. Yeah, she's fast. She fucking blazed her way up there. But a few moments later, you see, uh, Scorpo who's carrying a prone sort of Hippocrates, uh, sort of slung over his shoulder. Uh, Scorpo scales them out using his, uh, his, uh, spiky tail. And Prankland makes short work of the climb also. Hey, Griff, am I, am I, um,

correct in my assumption, just to double check on it? Yeah, sure. Am I corrected my assumption that if I try to cast one of my non-lightening lure spells, I would basically just generate a dry fart noise? Yeah. No role necessary for that. You don't remember

how to cast those. Okay, good. I want to save myself the embarrassment of tried to cast it in an opportune time. I turned to Scorpo and I'm like, hey, can you do the mental bug thing that Hell Gramer can do? I am not as practiced at it as he is, but I can give it a try.

Tell Loravith, the eggs were made by the bugs. Very good chance they're just going to kill them. Well, I can't, I can only talk to Thrikeen. Let me talk to Helgramen. He closes his eyes and then he falls to his knees. I'm going to make a wisdom. saving throw here for Scorpo.

That is a two. Scorpo, you see him sort of put his hand to his temple reaching out to Hell Gramet, and then just a moment after that, he collapses on the ground

sort of rigid. Hastie Jane says, should I stop them? Should I? Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's no way they were just going to send us back. There's no way. Yep, got it. Hasty Jane, instantly rushes down the side of the mountain dashing at lightning speed and intercepts you Loravith.

Sorry, what? Hey, real quick, Rictus says don't go in the eggs because they were probably made by the bugs and they'll kill you if you go into some. So should we just stand here and wait to die? I don't. Would you be a dear, run back to Rictus and say, should we just go ahead and die? I don't really appreciate that tone of voice, actually. Do you want to try that again? I honestly, there's no crisis that you heard it, right?

I heard it and I want to get out in front of this thing. Okay, well, listen, Scorca. Your stress does wild things. I'm really, really sorry. I just don't, I feel like, I think emotionally speaking, I think we're going to die. Yeah, no, for sure. I don't know what to do. We don't go in the eggs.

Do you want to sort of regroup maybe? And we can sort of figure out what to do next because like half of us are paralyzed now. I mean, Hacy Jane delivers this message, and as she does so, you hear a rushing wind behind you. You turn to see the entire sort of residential quarter of the island vanish into nothingness. Taking with it the ever-burning flame that has gone sort of dormant ever since Helgram it kind of diverted the flow a bit. But it's like ticking around, right? Because it started the crystallarium, then went to the woods, then went to the arena, then went to the residences. It does seem to be moving around the island, sort of vanishing the outer ring of it in a counterclockwise fashion.

It seems like the ziggurots are best chance. Yeah, I think I figured that out at the same time. Yeah, I mean, you can see absolutely that, you know, 75% of the island has disappeared at this point. Okay. Um, Hasty, Hacy Jane says, well, so we're not taking the eggs. We, we stay here. Mm. I think at this point, um, everyone should do what they think is best. Duber says, I don't want to go in the eggs. Oh, don't do, but Duba, you weren't allowed to go in the eggs. Sorry, I should have been more clear.

Everyone but Duba should do what they think is best. Duba will do what I think is best. Of course. I'm, of course, he says. could I do something with hellgrammet uh you can make a wisdom saving throw for me you are still in this kind of catatonic state and if you would like to try to break out of that okay 16 yes okay with a 16 you feel your senses return to you hell grammont as this conversation is taking place as you kind of come to you gaze around and see that most of the island has disappeared at this point and you are kind of slumped over Laura of his shoulder.

Duber actually sees you, he's on the other shoulder. He looks over and says, Oh, Hell Gramm, it's awake, everybody. Hellgrammit's awake. I have had a vision of a giant eye, a giant white eye.

And I have, is it possible that this whole thing, is an illusion, all this destruction, all of these things being revealed to us, could this be the illusion test? Good Lord. You, Hellgramut, and Loravith, and Richtus, where you're standing sort of in the mouth of the cave, were you, were you, you had mentioned that you were, you had picked up on the kind of order of the disappearance. of this island.

Are you heading back down towards the ziggurat? Yes, I am. Okay. To the cigarette. Down to the cigarette. You reach the center of the island and regroup with the others. And with Franklin's help, am I able to get like squirving from Pongruit is down there? Yeah, everyone is able to kind of follow along with the plan of regrouping with the only part of the island that doesn't seem to be vanishing into thin air.

you all are standing in the shadow of the ziggurat and watching as this kind of just wave of shimmering light vanishes the remainder of the island the mountain vanishes right behind your sort of final footfalls stepping into the lawn surrounding the central structure here and you see scorpo come to as Hell Gramet sort of wakes up as well, and Hell Gramet, as you say what you just said, asking if this whole thing is perhaps an illusion, you see the island reappear. Like a bolt of lightning, as if it had never been affected at all, you see the island. that the grimroes still attached to everyone's sort of arms except for Loravith and Hippocrates, you can still see them plain as day, the echo mites, the insects, sort of clinging onto you.

And you all can see the crystallarium where there are no members of the octave. standing in front. The crystallarium begins to vibrate. Not earthquake-like, but like electric toothbrush-like, blurring as it sort of shakes so violently giving off this high-pitched

sort of hum. And the sort of crystalline spires on either side of it begin to emerge upwards from the earth, forming these two great sort of amethyst pyramids that begin to sort of split and branch outward in fractal patterns, almost like an orchid blooming. The crystallarium grows and begins to part, and as it does so, Richtus, you can now see it as you saw it from within. you can see that the grandness of this space that was sort of contained within the crystallarium before. You see rows upon rows of these sort of organic chitonous shelves where the spellstones are stored.

You see hundreds of echo mites sort of scurrying to and fro, some smaller ones with these light kind of dragonfly. wings arranging the crystals as they go. And now you can see in the sunlight overhead, what you couldn't quite make out when you first intruded on the crystallarium, you see a massive composite gemstone made of countless thousands of much smaller sort of spellstones. They have have formed together into a sort of spherical shape with jagged edges reaching upward, like a fireball sort of frozen in time, multi-colored, multifaceted,

and draped over top of it, you all can see what at first appears to be a very, very large bug, similar to the one that is attached to all of your arms. but you recognize pretty quickly that it is not quite like the bug that is on your arm because it appears to be desiccated. It appears to be long, long, long dead. It is mostly hollowed out and it is draped over this giant sort of jagged crystal almost like a crown.

You see this crystallium bloom exposing the, heart of this thing at the rear of the island. And as you all sort of stare at it in stunned silence, you see an eye appear flashing across the facets of this crystal. And everybody give me a history check, please. Thirteen. 16? Dirty 20.

I think with all those roles, you all are able to recognize what this is, because it is a vision that you all have seen dozens of times since you've been here on the aisle of the octave ziggurat. You see this giant white flaming eye appear all across the faces of this crystal. and you hear the voice of Chris say, congratulations. You've passed the trial of illusion. Maximum Fun. A work-owned network of artist-owned shows, supported directly by you.