Escape from the Reach | Age of Umbra Episode 7 Part 2

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Hey there, Matthew Mercer here, and you're listening to part two of of this episode of Age of Umrah, a dark tale and campaign setting from our recently released tabletop RPG Dagger Heart from Darrington Press.

If you haven't checked out part one yet, pause this now and head over there first. Otherwise, let's return to our adventurers striving against the darkness in part two.

And welcome back.

So, as you've reached the northern gate of the Cinnabar corridor, you've moved past unnoticed by some of the Damascus queens that were about to celebrate someone's birthday.

As the flames crackle in the distance and the pillar of black smoke denoting the burning household that you had briefly spent some time hiding in crackles in the distance, you reach the exterior gate that is closed before you.

How do you proceed?

That's right, the gate. There's another gate.
Fuck.

People out and around looking, or noticeably less people in this area. We seem to be.

In this area, I mean, where you guys have pushed through this area at this gate, there's nobody here at the moment.

I mean, always try pushing.

Is it we're going into the Cinnabon quarter or out of the Cinnabon?

You're leaving the Cinnabar quarter heading northward. This is the exterior gate.
Yeah, this is the perimeter gate.

I'm going to say that the Cinnabon has sort of layers and layers. Oh, boy.

You want to help me push? Yeah, is it a pushy? Is it a pushy gig? Or is it a lifty gig? It looks like it opens outward or inward.

That's either way. That's a push gig.
Push your pulling. Try pushing and then try pulling.

Yeah, we were here yesterday. This one pushes.
I've had people that just had to go.

That's such a deep cut.

This will have to hate us or the tech message and now we've got nothing. Yeah, yeah.

Real bare bones here now.

I think you you should leave experience

before you just like do very uncomfortable things.

Honestly, pretty great.

If you both want to try and put both of your weight behind it,

one of you can make a strength roll and the other can spend a hope to help, or you can try and make a group roll between the two of you. Your choice.
What's your strength buff? Plus three. Same.

You want it? Yeah,

sure, sure. But you spent all your hope, right? I got one more hope I can spend.

Well, then how about I'm going to spend a a hope to help you okay all right because i have three hopes you go ahead and make a strength action roll add the d6

not bad nine ten eleven uh sixteen with hope whoop nice you take a hope

but the gate is too heavy for you to push both of you lean against it is it a pole

you're both just like

no it's just a very massive door it's a very massive gate oh i just got your i think you should leave joe yeah There it is.

Damn. Any chains leading up to the top of the wall or anything like on the previous gate? Anything that could be scalable?

Nothing easily scalable.

There are amongst kind of the perimeter wall, you can see there are arrow slits at different stages that could be possibly like leapt and climbed to get to the top of that outer wall parapet if you'd like to.

Do you think somebody's blocking it?

Like they have like a big bar, yeah. Or a big chair.
Yeah,

yeah.

really five there's no one manning these gates right like there's no guard or watch person no it looks like everyone's shifting over at least from this particular area so we're moving towards the celebration

okay we could either do like a human ladder one of us could climb probably me um

or we could use tools to or magic to try to blast open the door or weaken it heat up the metal

couldn't even push it open it's so big do you want to try to hop through the

can i help and

you can sort of I can give you a hand to get up to my wings and try to put you up top to peek through the arrow window?

Sure.

Yeah.

You're fairly decent at leaping and the first arrow slit you can grab onto easily.

If you want to try and use your leap, you could probably get to the top of this if you wanted to. I'll do that.
Does it mark a stress to do so? Or does it just

to do just the little leap, the caprine leap, there is no cost. What does it say on the cardinal? It says you can leap anywhere within close range.
Oh, within close range?

Can we give him a little.

No, close range is pretty dang close. I'll tell you what.
I'll tell you what. By yourself, if you wanted to make an agility roll, it'll be a fairly low difficulty on this.

A 10 is what you have to beat to make it to the top. He's got this.
We don't even have to spot him. We don't even have to catch him.

15 with hope.

Take that hope. Great.

Land on top. Happy birthday?

No.

No, you get to the top and can see that there is,

this particular way, a crank wench that rises it, that pulls it upwards.

Which explains why you couldn't push it. Even though the design looks like it had a divide in the center, it looks like it was more of a decorative part to it.

Trixie.

So it was a lifty? It's a lifty, yeah.

Okay, thanks. So again, I could try to prank it.
You could try, yeah, if you want to make a strength roll for it.

All right.

Limbering up. I'm going to try.
I'm going to try. I'm in the strength of the goat.

The mountain goat.

Is that cocked? No, it's not. That would be a nine with fear.
Nine with fear. Doesn't even budge.

A few little pellets. It's broken.

Do you still have your rope? I do have my rope. Yeah, I assume.
Oh, yeah, we're just going to do it. They used to recover it.
Do you want to help the rest of the team kind of climb up with you?

You could just go over the wall and avoid the gate entirely.

Oh. Great.
Come on, Rope. I'll do the same thing.
I'll let you do that.

If. If you all mark a stress.

to go through the process of climbing up over and try and be mindful of those that are maybe still wandering through the nearby streets. Yes.
I'm down. Or you can roll for it.
Choice is yours.

What would the roll be? For stress is a lot of cost. It is? It would be each of you making a group roll of

agility for all of you to climb up. Actually, no, this would be rope.
This would be strength. But this would be you helping them up.
So you would all be helping him roll a strength roll.

Oh, I'm not good. Oh, I'm not good at that.
Or we all mark a stress? Yeah.

Maybe we should

make a stress.

Yes, it is. Second verse.

You all mark a stress and clamber up one after another, old school Batman style, just

up the side of the wall until you get to the very, very top of it. And there immediately you see at the edge of this northern part of Amber Reach

the expanse of the Orumwild in front of you. climbing up to the base of the topper, the topmost sections of the Idol Hollows Mountains.

You also also see, just beyond where you stand, a beautiful, rising, observatory-like, fantastical domed tower of jade and silver, blanketed in ivy.

At a quick glance, location-wise, and the explanation and visuals you've been given from those before you left, this seems like it's likely the Astra Foundry, and a sign that you are not far from your destination in this journey.

It's just that length of forest

and the barrow left.

We're so close. We're so close.
So close.

Honestly, I never thought I would see this much of the world. Me neither.
I bet we're days ahead of Ghost Hook.

Yeah, but we are. Yeah, if you've been alive.

And it films always pretty cool.

Are we going around the Astro Foundry or through it? Yeah, they said to go like, it's our marker, but to go around it. Okay.

Probably has lots of knowledge in it, though. I am going to sort of just very quietly

just ruffle my feathers just a little.

So a little hum sort of comes out and everybody gets a rally die. Yes.
So D6

to spend on an action roll,

reaction roll, damage roll, or to clear a number of stress. Feel so inspired.

I'm gonna clear some stress immediately. Okay.
Go for it.

Six.

Saudio stress. Beautiful.
Good. Yeah, to clear a number of stress equal to the result.
Sounds like a clutch when you use it to clear your stress. Yeah, it is because you get very great.

It's almost the way to go. That is almost the way to go.
All right.

Yeah.

Here we go. You clamber down the opposite side of the gate and immediately are met by the exterior of the Ornweld.

The forest has expanded and grown wild and just completely consumed this whole portion of the mountainside valley before the rock overtakes it and the growing spires in the distance.

You look at the map that you were given. You look at where the perimeter wall is, the position of the Astro Foundry, and the direction of the barrow.

Which one of you is navigating you through this forest?

I haven't navigated it in a while. Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know.

I'll do it. You've never been here.
Yeah, this is off the path. Alright, I would like for you to make an instinct roll.
Instinct roll. Can I add reading between the lines for this?

How would that apply?

Looking for details in the micro instead of the macro.

Areas of least resistance as we move forward. I dig it.
Yeah. I spend a hope and add that bonus.

And it's a which roll? This is going to be an instinct.

9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14,

14 with hope sees. Alright, so you go ahead and take a hope.
Awesome. Wait, don't you roll a...

Oh, no, that's your experience. Yeah, just plus.

Okay. And if I failed, did I succeed? Huh?

We'll find out short. If you fail a roll to utilize one of your experiences, you can mark a stress to re-roll.

Ah.

I will let you know that was a failure. Okay, I will mark a stress to re-roll.
Let's go. Oh, it was a failure? It was.
Now, mind you,

way better.

Mind you.

You said. I said, you don't get the hope if you re-roll.

Unless it's hope again. Right, I'll take the hope out.

It's with fear this time, but it is 17. Okay, but it is with fear.
Good to know. All right.

Pushing onward, confidence in idols' eyes.

We failed again, didn't we? You charge into the wooded space

that's before you.

And indeed,

it is dark

and this is dense.

You can hear the sound of unchecked wilds

creaking and chirping in the distance. The dark shadow of the overhanging canopies and the ever-twisting and tangling branches and boughs themselves

like hundreds of

bark-covered arms grasping each other's forearms, fingers twisting and nodding between them, forming a network

almost climbable

of terrifying treehouse bonds from tree to tree. The vines hang densely, the

pines begin to overtake the other localized valley-wooded trees the further in you go. And what was once the tangled

canopy becomes now open patches of dense pine tree.

The ground itself

is

soft beneath steps until the occasional crunch hits and you look down expecting to see leaves.

But every now and then you see a flash of dull white, yellowed bone.

You see the remnants of some struggle

or some massive march into the wood in the past in which many soldiers fell and you see the occasional tarnished shield, the occasional skull half consumed, subsumed into a tree, just poking through.

The knots themselves almost seeming to form eyes or faces.

You're pretty sure you're following the right path for as long as you can, and you trek on for a number of hours through the wood.

And you stop, you drink some water, have a snack, and you reassess the direction you have to continue traveling, as it is a lengthy piece of slow-moving forest to traverse.

Thankfully, you've caught no attention of any darker denizens. directly, though you do hear the distant growl.

At one point, you hear the smashing and cracking of nearby wood and the lament of some sort of

prey creature crying out with a dying honk before it falls silent and you hear the sound of wet tearing as some mass predator feasts on what it caught.

But not you.

But here as you take a moment to take stock, who is helming the navigation on the next leg of this journey.

I'll try it.

Confidence. Yeah.

Provato.

Go ahead and roll an instinct roll for me, please.

Is it night or is it still? No, it's still day. Okay.

Though it's a little later in the day.

Well, I'm thinking, like, doing using experiences.

I don't know.

Do you have any that would apply? Well, not really.

I can try to help. Use my experience.
Where's the joke?

Still making.

I think you should. Okay.

No, I'm just going to raw dog it. Let's go.
Whoa. Let's go.

See what happens. Hell yeah.
I love it.

Oh.

Wow. It's almost a crit.
But it's not. But it is very good.

It's going to be 23 with fear. Okay.

Take it.

Yeah.

11 in a 12.

Yeah, so much fear.

Yeah.

Yeah, all of it.

I'm gonna spend a fear.

The matches came. As you confidently point in the direction we are traveling, you follow Brixton's, you step another 20 minutes,

and the dense shadows grow darker

and darker still. The temperature drops.
The mists and fog begin to roll in and it grows denser.

And you feel something touch your leg.

You look down and there's nothing there, but your leg feels cold.

Your ankle spreads to your knee.

And it's like a wave of chill just washes over your body.

I need you to make a presence reaction roll for me.

A presence reaction roll.

A PRR.

Um, okay, that's going to be

a minus one in my presence.

Uh, so that's going to be a 12 with hope.

Reaction roll doesn't give you anything. Can you add prayer dice to reaction rolls? What does it say?

It says you can use the spent dies value to reduce incoming damage, add to a roll's result after the roll is made. Or game hope equals.
So the results, rolls, results.

You were at 12. I'll burn it at 3 to get it up to 15, just in case.

Alright, thank you. 15 is a success.
Oh!

A glimmer of divine providence from the attention that you seek and push towards her inspecting her body. You feel that cold sensation burn away.

I go

L7weenie.

You hear an angry creaking in the wood.

Like the very landscape itself

is unhappy with being thwarted. its will being struck

from punishing interlopers and unwelcome wanderers. Make a presence, Roy.

As you've caught the eye of the wood

19 minus 118 with

Hopesies.

Alright.

You resist the secondary influence of the wood.

I'm gonna burn two more fear as you continue forward.

As you.

as you're leading them forward, I would like the rest of you to make instinct reaction rolls

for the culture instinct reaction rolls, all of you,

including

14.

It's a reaction, yeah, 14, 14,

15, 12, 19,

you got

fifteen,

12.

Idle.

Snicks.

As you're walking and looking around, it takes a few moments before you realize you're lost in thought.

Looking past the tree line, and the two of you turn back and realize that you're no longer walking alongside Misty and Brixton.

The two of you look around, and your troop has somehow wandered in different directions. Snicks?

Yeah.

Where did you take us? I took us. I was following you.
No, no, no, no. This is your thing.
You're the messenger. Yeah, but

you were in the front, so I was just going to go. No time to argue.

Let's just agree that you're wrong. We have to find the evidence.

Alright, alright. We can find them.
It's okay. Where are they?

We need to tie ourselves together. Oh, yes.
Uh, well, I mean,

what if we find that?

Uh, oh, but that's true. Hello? Hello?

How long have they not been with us? I don't know. I thought they were just here.
They were, right?

I think.

How long have we been in here?

I don't know.

Both of you. Why do I feel like I'm on fire? Feeling lost from the navigation.
Both of you, Marcus dressed. Okay.
All right. Okay.
I will spend a fear.

As you've now separated through the confusing paths and then eventually reconvene after an hour or so of wandering in circles. Where'd you guys go? Reconnecting.
We've been working.

We thought you were right behind us.

Should we tie ourselves together?

What?

Does that seem necessary?

We were forging ahead. You've got a.

I thought I was leading. I thought you were too.
This might explain why. I was in confusion.

He was leaving. He was leading? No, you were leading.

Is this like one of those trust exercises where you're supposed to

take an action on my end

for traversing the lost paths? Since you've wandered a bit, scattered, lost, and reconvened here in the middle of the wood.

The wood doesn't want you to leave.

This is now a forecount consequence.

So, as you continue forward,

you have to get out of the wood before that counts to zero. Oh my god.
No problem. Or something will find you.

No problem.

No, we're going to be out. Okay.
There's four of us. We got four shots.

So what do we fog? I'm getting freaking myself out.

So all right, so

it's just been flashes of bones. There's no corpses or anything like ours.
What were corpses a long time ago have been pulled apart and reconstituted into the decay on the base of the forest floor?

No getting hit from the beyond the graves.

I mean, if you want to search for an intact corpse enough to talk to, you could totally try that. It's almost like the soil itself is against us, as if Ashley Johnson herself

said that it was going to be. I know.
I could have been like, it's the most beautiful,

easygoing, it's Candyland. Yeah, this is basically beautiful.

Fucking lovely.

What did I say about it?

Okay.

Are there there are plants? Are there any critters in the wood?

You hear them shifting by, but your movement causes some of them to scatter and scurry.

There are creatures that wander, yes.

Can I look around for a creature?

Just sort of scan the woods. Okay, I'll say being a ranger and being one who has traversed much of the valleys here of the domain, you look around for a moment and you can see there is like some

puffed up looking dark furred raccoon like creature up in this like tree hollow above that you just see its two eyes kind of just barely shine with a little bit of light as you glance over.

What are you looking at?

Okay, I'm going to

quietly walk over toward it and call up to it and cast nature's tongue.

Okay, well first. Oh.

No, you are. No yeah.
Nature's tongue will will act as you trying to quell its fear to run or defend itself.

I rolled a 13. Now, this is a spellcast roll, correct? Yes, it is.

Well, no, hold on. Oh, sorry.
But before we do that,

as you are in the arm weld,

this place is affected by twisted aether weave.

Oh, no. When you make a spellcast roll, you must roll two fear dice and take the higher results.
Whoa!

Whoa! So two fear dice. Wait.
Oh, oh. So they're just both

one hope, two fear. And take the higher of the two fear.
Wow. That means this is probably gonna work better.
It'll probably be with fear. Gotcha.
Okay.

All you gotta do is roll 12 on hope and something sub-serial both of the others.

Okay.

Uh

it's a crit.

Come on.

On the higher one?

Both? It is a crit. And that's a crit.
Really? That's funny. Okay.
Two nines. On the higher.
Yeah, that's great. Fantastic.
That's hilarious. That's a perfect, a perfect response to this ability.

All right. Okay, so it's like, god damn it.

That's great. I mean,

this is your domain, the magic of nature. So, yeah, so clear a stress, take a hope, and you cast the spell without challenge.

All right, nature's tongue allows me to speak the language of the natural world. so I will call up to this raccoon creature.

Excuse me, hi, hi there.

Hi, uh,

wandering through the woods here. We're a little lost.
Could you help us get pointed towards the...

He doesn't know what the Astro Foundry is?

Big round, green. The barrow, you mean? The barrow.
Oh, oh, we're past the foundry?

Oh, yes. The barrow.
Do you know what the barrow is? Shoot, how do I explain what this is?

The barrow? Have you heard? Barrow blind repose? I have no idea what that is.

Oh my goodness! I've not been near something like that ever. I just uh

stay where I'm told. Got a family back in there.
I've never seen you. Get too close.
I'll bite your balls off.

You just say you're gonna bite my balls off? Get too close, I'll bite your balls off.

There's like language,

there's a translation issue. What about um

don't talk too loud or cough too loud. I'll bite your balls off.

Don't scare my tits. Don't scare my kids.

I thought you said, don't scare my tits.

Don't do that either. I'll bite your balls.

What? Do you eat balls? No.

But you like yours, don't you? I do. And I'll bite them off.

What about

a building that has a golden glow?

Seen one of those around here?

A tomb where humans.

That way

rising walls on the side golden glow from within. I

think that's the place. Yeah, that's that's very encouraging.
Can we trust

this abomination? Can we trust you?

Have I put the pulse off yet? Not yet.

That seems pretty trustworthy. You can make an instinct roll if you want to see if you can trust this

raccoon creature. Okay, can I trust?

I use my slyborn traits, but it's a raccoon. Maybe he sounds like a raccoon.
Garbage.

Eight with fear.

That's a failure with fear, which ticks this down three

to one.

Oh,

but you pointed me in the good in the right direction, I think.

I'm gonna

trust you. Thank you for not biting my balls off.
Thank you for not doing anything to me, mate. Okay.

Have a good day. What was your name, by the way?

Kinosh. Kinosh.
That's a cool name. That's a cool name.
Eater of Bull.

Up to you, at least.

Keep on it. Okay, we have a direction.
Let's go. Backs up into the kids.
You can hear like this like

smaller raccoon children that kind of kind of bundled up inside and kind of blocked it. It says, Shhh.

Good day.

Love him.

I love him.

Okay, let's go. Yeah, we proceed.

Stay close.

Alright, you proceed in that direction. Lost again.

Continuing forward, the woods remain dense with small bits of broken sparseness.

The further north along this forest you go, the more the mountainous rock terrain makes it slightly more and more challenging for larger vegetation to take root.

What you do notice is that the dirt beneath and the forest underbrush has patches of dark brown, sometimes almost black root.

Like the curse of the wood is physically manifest in places.

And as you continue northward, eventually

you see a spark of golden flame flickering.

They talked about this. It looks like

a ruin of some kind that sits within the center of this forest. You see the walls and pillars that would rise up, sections for windows, like a small...

temple

was once built here, but has since fallen and crumbled to where just the outer walls and the frames of where the glass once sat stand.

Thick

brown and grey vines and

heavy dead roots are affixed to the stone and tangled all through and across it. Moss and greenery has grown.

And that little flicker of gold sits and looks like a pile of fallen tree parts.

Wait, I...

I don't like it.

It seems

too open,

simple.

Can we, uh, can I sense if I extend sort of my senses, can I sense any sort of like abjuration or illusion or something ahead of us?

Yeah, go make an instinct roll for me. Okay.
Just see if you can sense within the space here

any connection to this glowing spark of gold light.

17 with hope. 17 with hope.

Alright, so take a hope.

Thank you.

You close your eyes briefly and you feel

a flicker

of

natural power.

Something that is not just present, but is connected deeply to this land, to this forest. There is a seed, a marker that this little golden spark represents that is

like a sprawling network of roots connected to this chunk of natural region. But it is sick.

It is blackened with dark, twisted aether weave and will

from much that plagues the domain.

I'm gonna spend a fear

to complete the clock.

As

you watch as the roots

around this light

begin to tear free and you watch as it shifts, some of the ruin are chunks of old

armor that

clink, like the roots rise up into them.

Kind of peering out the top of a old metal breastplate with runes carved along it.

It rises up 10, 15 feet.

A massive bipedal approximation of some sort of natural guardian or warrior seems to rise up.

These ancient weld plates seem to be affixed to its makeshift, bark-covered, stretched body, headless, except for the roots that reach and constantly shift like they're trying to find something to root into.

And within the center of it, you see that little golden spark, a flicker of health, an ancient power that is clouded and held away, sick with dark shadow magic. I'll be right back.

The fucking trees are wearing armor. I'm done.
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I'ma put you on, nephew. I don't.
Fuck on McDonald's. Can I take your order?

Miss, I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back.
We need snack raps. What's a snack rap? It's the return of something great.
Snack wrap is back.

Guys, are we

doubling off? Are we here? This might be the final boss.

this can't be it though. This is something

you are all

dang. This is dope settled around this approach

looking off into the distance

as you had stepped up to make a connection with this golden glow.

out. Get out.

Oh,

you bitch!

Oh my god! Don't, don't!

As this

Thane Warden,

this guardian spirit of the world,

rises up,

twitching, black wafts of shadow magic spilling from within and through its roots,

It reaches off to something that is embedded in the nearby stone.

And draws forth a 12-foot long blade of dark metal.

Red runes

glow across it as it holds it to the side.

We're so close. I don't think this is it.
This cannot be pounded. This is no, this is not it.

Look at that bad boy. Straight up guardian.
Look at the size of that sword. Oh,

even get close. Dude, he looks so sick, though.
Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
What do you wish to do?

Let's try talking for once. Yeah.
Like, maybe we can earn his favor. Sure.
Legit? Yeah, who's. Although, if he's made of armor, I guess.
He doesn't speak. I don't know.
Sure, let's try.

You got a bunch of presents, right? No. Who does? No.
I do, but what am I going to say?

You're a statue. He's a statue.
He's a guardian. We're worthy of the branches.
He's made of metal. You're made of stone.
Maybe you guys can take.

Maybe you're one of the earth. Sing him a fucking song.

Ba-da-ba-da-ba-ba. Alright.
So I will cast. Sam, you're singing telegram.

I will, I will, I will. Hold on, let me just make sure I want to do this.

I'm just going to talk to him. I don't need to cast anything.
Yeah. Alright, I am going to walk up

somewhat close. Not

a little, like, not

quite 12 feet. Yeah, you're good right there.
You're good right there.

Let me just, like, be near her

within very close range.

You guys go together.

Exactly.

Idol will also fan out over this way.

We'll take this rise.

I'm going to fan out the other way.

You got it.

I

am going to

take a knee.

Nice, nice, nice.

I'm submitting.

Are you the guardian of the blessed branch?

The creaking of wood wood against wood and the shifting of like a thousand tree branches scraping in the middle of a midnight wind responds.

Maybe give him like a notepad to write down his answers. Sure.

You do not have enough.

Um

he doesn't respond. Is there a message?

No, that was head cracking with me.

Oh, break one branch for yes, two branches for no?

Sure.

Break one branch. That's not a real

We came here for the Blessed Branch.

Our town.

The pyre has died.

It has been extinguished. And we have made a very long journey.
Many of our

members have died.

Please, we are worthy of the branch.

It raises its hand up.

You watch as the slightly shifting roots that peer from within its breastplate seem to cloud and gather that little spark of glowing divine nature light and like clutch and pull it deeper into the darkness within.

As its offhand,

Spender Fear

is going to vine spear towards you. It releases its hand and binds

rocket out towards you. Okay, that's good.

Up to within far range.

Dang.

It

across the way. I need you to make a strength reaction rule for me.

All right.

So, strength.

Okay. All right.

Minus one.

That's a 17. So 16.
with fear.

16 with fear. Well, I mean, it's a reaction rule, so

it doesn't suffer. That does succeed.
The vine goes towards you and strikes you. It's trying to like pierce your chest and grab you.

It catches your arm, and as it tries to yank you away, you resist and pull from the vine and just

back.

This horrid sucking sound from within, and you see that golden flame like flicker and then die in the shadow once more.

It has relentless. I'm going to spend another fear to activate it.

It is going to leaping slash towards you with another fear. It is going to

burn it out. Let's burn it out.
Yeah, yeah, burn it up. Burn it out.
No, you know what? Actually,

it's going to, it should not spend that secondary fear. It's just going to go ahead and move close range from where it is.
It stalks outward.

To there. Oh, man.
He left the door open. We can just go in behind.
Yes, go around.

Actually, grab it. But we need what's inside.
We need what's inside. Never mind.

Yeah, I think it's we need that gold thing. Gold thing? I think that's a branch? We were saying we deserve the blessed branch, and he like covered up.

Did it look branch-shaped? If you would like to take an action to inspect that on your turn, you can definitely do that.

All he does is move forward. That's his turn.
All right, talking's over. Idol's gonna run.

Actually, first, I'm gonna fire off a bolt beacon, and then I'm gonna take cover behind this rock a little bit. So I'll make a spell casting roll.
All right, roll two fear and take the higher.

Oh, that's right.

Okay, that's not too true.

I need to like bless.

Okay, that is 23

with fear. 23 with fear.
Succeeds. Go ahead and roll damage.
This blessed branch was in the tomb of the heretic saint Evelar.

2d8.

He was laid to rest with it to try and keep his soul bound. 58.

So is this creature?

10 points of magic damage. 10 points of magic damage.

a single hit point is taken

as it now glows up from within, which causes the spark to glow even further. And you see the shadow is now trying to like swallow it inside of it.

You still have that tether to that little golden spark, and it feels sickly, like it's being strangled or diseased.

It's hard to say, but you felt that weird connection to it in the land, and it feels like it's dying.

At the end of that, it might go because you rolled with fear.

It's going to immediately activate.

Step forward to there.

It's going to make a...

What's the... What is...
Oh, you know what?

It was with hope. I'm so sorry.
It was a 6 and an 8, and the other one was an 11. So it was actually a roll with hope.

I rolled with hope. Okay.

I got it wrong. I just thought Nat it was Natalie.
So I did not gain that fear. I'm so sorry.
But I will spend a fear to activate him anyway.

Out of turn.

Since I'm already in this point, step forward, he's going to go ahead and then spend another fear to use overwhelming arc to make an attack against every creature within very close range.

That'll be

all three of you.

At this point, it steps forward,

takes his blade with both hands,

and strikes through, carving through the trees and the three of you.

As this tree.

Yeah, that's true. We can see better.

That's awesome.

It just slices through the middle of the forest and the three of you for a 15 to hit. Hits.
Hits. Hits.

That is going to be. Whatever you do, don't bunch them.

22 points of physical damage to all three of you.

And I need you all to make strength reaction rules. So to do your damage first.
22 points of physical damage.

Mark Mark a armor. Same.

I think I am going to go ahead and go unstoppable. Unstoppable.

So I can reduce the severity of my damage down one threshold. And then I'll just use an armor to soak that.

And then a strength reaction rule. You say, yeah?

Seven.

With fear? Oh, sorry. It's reaction rules.

That's okay. We're still learning the final assistant.
Eleven. Eleven.
Seven. Seven.
So,

carves through the trees, carves through all three of you, and you all get knocked back to far range from the sheer strength of the sweeping blow.

You get knocked back to the very, very

edge. People say you're there.

I'm on the edge. Knocked back.

And you get knocked back into this tree.

You got away.

You got in your plus one.

And that's going to

finish my spotlight. It's now back to you.

Okay.

To protect myself, I'm going to conjure a swarm of beetles around me.

You can have that at the moment. Okay.

I don't even have to make a roll a spell roll. It just happens.
I just mark a stress and it happens. I now have beetles around me.

I will move up flanking him.

If I can.

And

let's keep him there so I'll cast vicious entangle

on the young lad

already. So go ahead and roll two fear dice.
Two fear dice.

Right.

Okay.

Oh.

And because I have nature's tongue,

while in a natural environment, you can spend a hope to gain a plus two bonus to the roll. You can do that, yeah.
I will. So plus two to this.

Okay.

18. Woover.

That's a success. Okay.

Sorry, sorry.

Getting rich again.

Okay, and that

that deal that deals 1d8 plus 1 physical damage.

And I can spend another hope to have him restrained temporarily. Yes, you can.
Not much damage, but I'll take it. Alright.

Seven points of damage. Nice.

Okay, seven points of damage. That is another hit point marked on him.
Shit. Fantastic.
You know what? I'm going to also mark a stress to...

I'm sorry, spend a hope to mark focus on him. Oh, gotcha.
Alright,

so it is now marked as your Ranger's focus. I'm going to put a...

You are green on your base. I'm going to go ahead and put a green circle on him as your focused target.
Okay, he's focused. Alright, but you're not

restraining him. Yes, I'm restraining him.
Oh, you're restraining him as well? Yes. Okay.

Oh, nice. And he is also

restrained. That's good.
He's everywhere. Wow, okay.
Although he can probably break free pretty quickly. Well, he'll have to use his

fear currency. Which means it comes to me.
On his activation, he's going to

mark a stress to take root.

You watch as he stands there the various roots and vines around the armor plates and where the legs are, more or less, the facsimile of a bipedal guardian. Roots

shoot out of them and shoot into the ground,

binding it in place. And you watch as its body seems to harden.

and defensibly position itself, unmoving, leaning into its currently ensnared

scenario. I will then spend a fear as part of its relentless passive to activate it again.
Spend another fear to vine spear you.

I need you to make a strength reaction roll for me. Strength reaction.

Not the goat. Did you use your rally die yet? No.

I don't think I'm home.

Three. Oh,

that's the lowest row.

Hits your chest, and all the vines wrap around your body, and you all watch as snakes all of a sudden

gets yanked from far range

into very close and right as you're pulled in the air the blade is waiting for you

gets to attack you for free as you rush to the air. That's going to be a 14 to hit.
Hits.

The blade comes at you for

20 points of physical damage. Woof, I'll burn an armor.
Kebab.

And the beetles knock down

one hit point for me. So I only take one hit point from that attack.
That's great. The Beatles remain? Well, that's great.
They do if I spend

a hope to keep them up, which I will. Okay.

So you watch as Snyx is thrust through the air, pulled by this vine, and then almost impaled on this runed blade.

He manages to dodge to the side and it scrapes past, like gashes the underarm and part of the armpit as you tumble off and

hit the ground. Get back on your feet.
kind of shrug it off, the Beatles taking the majority of the blow.

That finishes my spotlight, that little glow flicker in it trying to fight for freedom as the shadow keeps it tucked in. Do you know how many subscriptions you pay for?

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Yeah, I'll go ahead since I'm far away. There's not much I can do right now anyway.
Do you want to move or let me move and kind of once again get up front in front of Misty as far as I can go?

That's about a close range distance there. And then I will try and suss out and do a knowledge roll.
Is this the tomb of the heretic saint Evelar? Is this Evelar himself? Is this or her, right?

Was Evelar Evelar was a her. Was a female

Eveliar?

Is this just the guardian?

What is happening? Is it is that the branch? Is it corrupt? What's going on? Make a knowledge roll for me, please. Can I I'm going to spin a hope to use historically inspired.

Oh, that is. His eyes and face were removed.
So, this could be

yeah, and there's a blind but blind but vision of the gods.

Her smile gave a golden glow, but her face gave salvation.

Had a following,

um,

but the grand ordinance didn't like it. She was executed and laid to rest with a blessed branch to keep her soul bound.

That's what I wrote down. Maybe we've said to rejoin the body with the head.
Oh,

or this is just a key to get into the tomb. Or just a key to get into the tomb.

Anyway,

I really want to succeed on this, so I'm actually going to use your rally die. I think now's the time.
Pulse one.

Come on. Oh, wait.
What am I doing? That's a D20. What is happening?

All right.

Come on. Old habits.

No.

I'm going to get a 69. Oh my god, it's 689 again.

It's so fakey. It fakes me out.
Nice. Okay, nice.

Okay, so that's gonna be.

Okay, so this is gonna be nine.

18, 19, plus 2. What did I say?

18, 19, 20, 21, with hope. With hope?

That's great. Take that hope.

Looking at this space here, recalling what you've heard, the barrow, or the purpose of a barrow is it's usually a burial mound or buried within a hill or mountain of some kind.

This looks like it is a temple or a shrine to the natural fan of this land. Fanes are the natural magic kind of hearts of a region of natural power.

What stands before you is no saint that was set into a tomb. This is a warden of this fan.

long corrupted and the spark of its connection to the land is dying being siphoned and eaten away by the shadows that now animate it.

With a higher than 20 roll, I'll say,

you can sunder this beast,

or you may try to redeem it.

That's cool. Redeem it.
Redeem it.

Anyone else? It's still in the middle. So,

were you saying Thane? Like a Thane? Thane, Fane. Fane.
A Thane warden. Fane warden.
A Fane.

Okay.

F-A-N-E is the Fane here. F-A-N-E.
Yeah. Damn it.

Fane Warden. So this is not our saint.
This is not the Blessed Branch, but he's just made.

You asked a raccoon to send you to a structure with a golden glow.

And it did.

You know, awesome.

Turtles is eating our bowl. We can heal the land while we're here.
We can heal the land. How do we redeem him? How do we redeem him?

I have an idea. I'm afraid of our goodness.
Yeah, I have an idea.

Get in there. Get in there.

Seraph. Well,

you got slammed into a tree. Well, I talked to him.
Okay. Yeah, go.

I will hurtle up over the rock and try and close as much distance as I can. If you want to roll an agility roll to close the distance, you can go the far out of range and get up to it.

With double fear dice, right? No, that's only with spell rolls. Okay, all I have with spell rolls.
So if you want to make the roll, roll an agility.

Do that. Great.

17.

17 with fear.

17 with fear. So you do succeed and rush up to its side.
Right as you get to it,

it seems to recognize the sound of your footfalls and on its activation is going to...

It's not going to move. It doesn't need to.
I know.

It's going to go ahead and swing towards you with its blade.

And attempt to slam down.

That's going to be a 13. Big blade chase me hits.

13 hits. That is going to be 14 points of physical damage against him.
Okay, okay, okay. Heavy bladed crack from its rune blade.

Oh, you're making it worse.

Ouch. Ouch.
Okay.

And that's my activation. I'm going to save my fear for it.

I'll take the hit and I'll immediately just come back and I'm going to try and

I'm going to try and pump in a sparing touch. So I'm literally gonna grab onto the nearest like

and I'm just gonna try and grab on it

and pump in a bunch of divine healing energy into this corruption trying to seek out the like shadow.

Okay, how what does it heal?

It heals two hit points or two stress from them. What you trying to do

stress

Okay.

So as you reach out and grab these roots summoning whatever strange divine gift has dragged you through life, brought you to this odd moment here, facing a nightmarish, twisted beast of times likely even before the old world.

And as you let that energy pulse through, the roots glow, and you watch as the shadow holding the glimmer withdraw and it grows brighter.

So, the glimmer within

passive stressed out.

The countdown, the progress countdown, which started at at four, now becomes two.

The corruption of the Fane Warden has been half removed.

Okay.

Okay. Rook her.
But that was.

No, we did the fear. So that was

automatically happened, so you can keep going. What are y'all doing? Alright, I have an idea.

It's in the same kind of lines. Stress.

She's a. Oh, they can reduce stress.
I have one more.

Hang Hang on.

Anything that'll help heal him or redeem him or

your bard or make him feel good?

I have an idea. Okay.
Yeah.

I am going

to sort of reach into my memories

and try to remember

the most ancient song of worship that I can

that I can think of.

and I am going to play

use heartbreak song which will give all of my allies and I want to also give it to them a hope

okay yeah so that's fun you don't have to roll for this just an ability you use

focus

from yes my right for your subcloth um so do you want to step forward as you do it or you want to stay towards the back I'll step forward Okay, so you move back from the tree and staying near just like slowly walking forward as the window.

Yeah, staying at your rooftop. In this moment,

you try and lean into not your spiritual memory, but the physical memory of the vessel that you now call yours. Describe to me

the themes of this hymn that you pull from.

Oh,

um,

drugship. Yeah.
Oh, good call. Yes, it's a lot about um

yeah

of of of the earth, of nature, um

um

how how beautiful nature can be and how it's it it provides life and it can nurture

and it provides shelter and protection for many creatures

and it is a home for many and also provides peace for so many.

You tap into this ancient hymn before the Grand Ordinance deemed it unworthy of the veiled gods temples for it extolled the nature that pre-existed their scripture.

But your stone has been around a long time And as these words come to you

and come through your mind and the music that they inspire begins to spill out from your wings,

it seems to cause the golden glow to burn ever so brighter from within the fan light. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.
We're doing it, we're doing it. We're doing it, Peter.
We're doing it.

Okay. It's still your

spotlight.

I have one unless you've got a thing that reduces strength. Let's throw a stamina potion at it, but you take the

mouth to take it? I was going to try to hit the thing. I'm going to burn a fear.
Ah, god damn it.

And activate it. Paused.

We waited too long. Yep.
I'm going to go ahead and...

I'm going to burn a secondary fear. Wow.
To do an overwhelming arc, since two of you

are confused. No, it's rooted.
It's rooted itself into the ground. So it's just going to take an overwhelming arc and swing at both of you to its sides

at disadvantage because it's restrained.

No, restrained just keeps it from moving.

So, with that, an attack roll,

that's only a natural five, which brings it to an eight. Yes,

we die for both of you.

It's almost like the more you begin to reach out to heal this spirit,

its movement, which was with extreme malice and intense dark speed, begins to grow sluggish. And as its roots begin to

tear free from the ground in places and the golden glow within its armor get brighter, it telegraphs its sweeping blade strike just enough that the two of you duck behind as it

passes overhead and strikes into the back stone.

Digging about six or seven inches into the stone.

And it's trying to pull it free. It's back to your spotlight.

I'll seize on that opportunity opportunity seeing it flexed back and I will drop my bone hooked glaive and I'll reach my hands into its chest through like the armor and the vines and stuff as deep as I can.

I'll close my eyes and think back to the visions and just try and focus on that divine light and I'll use a second level healing hands spell, which is a spell casting roll to try and pump two hit points in if it succeeds.

Let's go ahead and roll. And this has to be with two fear dice.
Correct.

Come on, holy man. Come on, come on, come on.

Anybody got any

hope for

that? Maybe I can spend a hope

to

help you.

I can, I'm right there, so I can spend a hope to try to distract him so he won't try to block. Sure.
Oh, that's gonna do.

I'll have my beetles sort of swarm around his face and try to distract him. Getting tangled into its roots, you go ahead and mark off that hope.
hope. And?

The higher fear die I will take, it is 15, 19, 20, 21, 22 with fear. That is a success.
So you pump how many hit points into it? Two stress are removed on a success. How do you want to heal this?

I reach in and I say,

break free from the shadows that bind you. Remember that you are the oldest and strongest powers of nature.

As the golden energy leaves your grip, you watch as it begins to not just travel through the roots and bark, but spread throughout.

The darkened, blackened exterior from between the armor begins to spread into a golden hue.

And as it sifts through the metal and up through the top, you watch as the golden spark blossoms and grows until all of the wood and bark becomes a beautiful moss-covered green.

It reaches and wedges its blade free

into the ground.

Tears its roots from the ground.

It shifts and looks in your direction in that like burning golden light that kind of still floats between the center of its what would be its neck that is open.

The roots now curl curl in and almost cradle it

and you feel this

warmth of gratitude not from this entity but from the entire surrounding forest

it steps back

into the middle of the temple leaving its blade there stuck in the ground.

Its roots reach out, piercing and surrounding the stone. And you watch as the metal creaks and bends.

And the corrupted Fane Warden, corrupted no more. Instead, becomes a massive growing tree that spreads in the center of this ruin.

Its leaves healthy and green,

and you all gain to hope.

The forest is healed. I got chance.

Me too.

That was amazing.

Idol, you.

You're a real priest.

You truly are the divine reach of the old ones.

I don't understand

it, but... You have such power.

And end you, Misty.

This was the most beautiful song.

Where did that come from?

I don't know. I just.

I knew what this vessel's purpose was, and I just went searching.

Wow.

The sound of birds chirping.

Returns to the nearby forest.

The natural beings too scared to express their song in the presence of such darkness

have a moment of reprieve

and thank you in the ways that they know.

You,

the only one who can truly hear the sounds of nature,

can make out

the sharing of the heart of the breathing land.

Not just here but across the domain

struggling to fight back the umbral darkness that has been swallowing and winning for so long

and in this moment

you've done your part in beating a little bit of it back

You watch as the trees shift.

And it's wild. You've never really watched a forest move intentionally like this, as trees bend and part

to show a path.

A straight path.

Beelining to the base of the idle hollow peaks.

It's just as you prophecy.

The land does move and shift.

Yeah.

It's granting us passage.

It's so weird not being the one who killed the thing.

I didn't either, though. Oh, that's true.
Yeah. So I guess you're still the best.

You're still the ultimate killer.

We should go, though, before the land changes its mind. Yeah, sure, sure.
Sure. Do you still hear that raccoon being like, I'll still eat your balls?

As we sort of start walking and walking through, I just want to just trace the trees, just give them a light little touch as we walk through as a thank you.

You can still sense with your fingers as you move.

No, the work isn't done.

This fan, this one section of the forest has been

given a healthy breath

and a better chance

towards holding its line than it's had in quite some time.

But in the odd subconscious

transference of energy ways that fleshy beings and the natural

plant life can communicate, you feel that

appreciation.

Carrying your sore joints with you, you trek on the open path.

A few more hours of journey on foot.

The rain begins to fall

from a darkened storm above.

The temperature drops.

The mists thicken,

and as the final peaks

of the weld's greenery fade,

you look ahead

and see some carved steps among some mostly forgotten stone.

You see an archway hidden in the mountain shadow

and a stone door that is deeply overgrown with dead root.

If ever there was a location to match your expectation

of the barrow of blind repose, the resting place of the heretic saint executed and sent to be sealed by the grand ordinance for their blasphemous attempt to bring hope outside of Scripture.

This would be it.

A chill passes over your body

as you realize this is the end of your journey.

Should there be a branch at all.

But sometimes that's all you have to go on in this world, is a little bit of hope.

And that has to be enough.

As you settle for a moment to prepare yourselves for what comes beyond,

we'll finish the episode there. Oh, man.

Hey, hey, we found what we were looking for. We did.

We're all here. Stay all here.
We made it. I'm sure we're all here.

That's pretty much it anybody.

The repression.

All right. We'll pick up here next time for the final episode.
Age of Umbra.

A good cooldown. I think so.
Damn.

Thank you so much for joining us. We love you very much.
And is it Thursday?

And we finished up this episode. Thanks for coming along on this wild journey with us.
If you liked the adventure, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice.

We're always looking for new critters to share our stories with, and your review may help a new batch of wayward adventurers discover the show. See you next time.

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Department of Rejected Dreams. If you had a dream rejected, IKEA can make it possible.
So I always dreamed of having a man cave, but the wife doesn't.

What if I called it a woman cave? Okay, so let's not do that, but add some relaxing lighting and a comfy IKEA Hofberg Ottoman, and now it's a cozy retreat. Nice.
A cozy retreat. Man cozy retreat.

Sir, okay.

Find your big dreams, small dreams, and cozy retreat dreams in store or online at ikea.us. Dream the possibilities.