The Lost Monastery | Age of Umbra Episode 2 Part 2

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Speaker 1 Hey there, Matthew Mercer here, and you're listening to part two of this episode of Age of Umbra, a dark tale and campaign setting from our recently released tabletop RPG Daggerheart from Darrington Press.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And welcome back.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 Velk has fallen, cascading down the cliffside to his doom.

Speaker 1 You, a few of you, have managed to avoid crossing into the next realm.

Speaker 1 Exhausted and taking a breath, you find yourselves now here amongst the temple exterior ruins of the larger

Speaker 1 monastery itself here. The

Speaker 1 shreds of moonlight that still push through the clouds. Aaron kind of peeks around from the side.
Is it done?

Speaker 1 Y'all okay? I think so. Are you okay? I'm fine.
I did what she told me to do. I just ran and hid.

Speaker 1 You did great. You did great.

Speaker 1 Anyone want to fuck up a statue? Wait.

Speaker 21 I'm going over to the statue.

Speaker 1 Alright.

Speaker 27 And I...

Speaker 21 Brixon prostrates herself onto the ground.

Speaker 1 As you duck down, you can see there is, like, on top of the fact that inside this chamber, there are, like, ceremonial

Speaker 1 adornments on the ruins around here. You can see there's, like, ceremonial weaponry.
There's, like, armor set upon as decoration.

Speaker 1 There is a, what looks like a small stone case, like a reliquary case of some kind of the base of the statue as you kneel down.

Speaker 28 Oh, should we empty the other bridge before you do it?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think that's it.

Speaker 1 Sure, we can all we can all together teamwork, even you, Aaron.

Speaker 1 Okay, one, two, three,

Speaker 1 the coals come tumbling out, and the flame is

Speaker 1 just kidding.

Speaker 20 Uh, Brickson just gives a little prayer.

Speaker 22 Ah,

Speaker 22 we have punished Velk for his transgressions.

Speaker 29 Please, Uratu,

Speaker 22 grant us your favor. Watch over us.

Speaker 21 And I'm gonna check out this little reliquary.

Speaker 1 Okay. You go to like rift the lid on it, and it holds tight.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna take a look to see if there's a mechanism here, and just like see what kind of lock it is. Stone relique.
Make a module for me. Alright.
It's stone reliquarily. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's like there's like a stone lid. It's like a small case.

Speaker 1 It's actually in the statue. Like it's carved from the stone with a lid on top.

Speaker 1 12 with fear. 12 with fear? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Looking at it,

Speaker 1 it's

Speaker 1 a stone case. You can see there's a there's a lip where there a lid would come up.
It's not like a carved solid piece. There is a container of some kind, but it is holding closed.

Speaker 1 And there's a lock on it?

Speaker 1 The best you can tell is there is like a small not even a keyhole but like a pinhole in the stone

Speaker 1 I do

Speaker 28 and you're made of stone. Can you talk to it and tell it to open?

Speaker 1 I go

Speaker 1 I

Speaker 22 would love to go um look at it for just a moment

Speaker 26 And is the the face the head still on the ground?

Speaker 1 The head's still attached to the statue. It just has massive

Speaker 1 gashes across its face

Speaker 1 The veiled mask that sits in front of it. It just has its head.

Speaker 31 Can I just look around and look at it and see if it is

Speaker 31 something familiar to me? And I just sort of want to look at the god's face.

Speaker 1 The face itself is obscured, as is the nature of the veiled gods, by the mast and veil that kind of covers it.

Speaker 1 The visage that you carry is an echo of the imagery of the veiled gods. The vessel that you hold was once a messenger to them.

Speaker 1 So, in a similar way, there is a veil, but there is a mask adorned on top of it itself that denotes something beyond humanhood, something divine and

Speaker 1 inhuman in its design.

Speaker 1 Beyond the scratches and gashes, of course. Is she a relative of yours?

Speaker 22 I don't think so, but I do believe this body was

Speaker 22 probably sang many songs to him. Oh?

Speaker 1 Should it be prepared or something like that?

Speaker 28 Any of this stuff worth anything around here? Maybe what's in the box.

Speaker 1 You need to open it? I do.

Speaker 1 Okay. She kind of rustles in her and pulls at her pouch and has like a couple of long metal tongs and takes some hooks and says, like,

Speaker 1 I mean, you get around here.

Speaker 1 can we check it for

Speaker 1 I sort of did that you did okay

Speaker 1 you did do you think kiddo

Speaker 1 sure anybody else

Speaker 28 I'm gonna step back

Speaker 31 I'm gonna step up close and just close to her to protect her on my

Speaker 1 flank yeah she gets down

Speaker 1 while Chindler

Speaker 1 goes and starts fiddling with it the little pinhole she gets two little long pieces of like thin iron one of them she kind of like bends a little bit kind of tempers it looking at it, gets it inside.

Speaker 1 Okay, yeah.

Speaker 1 And she finds a bit.

Speaker 1 I think I gotta tug.

Speaker 1 The lid kind of opens almost like a spring.

Speaker 1 A bit of dust kind of like out of it. She's like,

Speaker 1 looks inside, and you kind of glance over and look within, kind of from above, kind of lording over her.

Speaker 1 And inside this little box is what looks to be a skull, an old

Speaker 1 skull, polished. Sutures almost have a golden

Speaker 1 coloration pushed into them, but where the jaw is, there is an iron band bolted across its mouth, sealing it shut. Cool.

Speaker 21 And

Speaker 21 is it like an art piece, like a carved

Speaker 21 idol or is it a a human skull or a humanoid skull?

Speaker 1 It is a humanoid skull. Cool.
That has been polished, prepared, and set within here for some purpose. And its mouth sealed with iron.

Speaker 1 There's also a very, very faint glow kind of almost emanating from underneath it, like it's underlit, even though it's within a shadowed box.

Speaker 22 What do you think this is? Marcellus Wallace's soul.

Speaker 1 Bryn kind of backs up.

Speaker 1 I've done my business. Y'all picked it up.
I opened it, but this is a bit creepy for my liking.

Speaker 1 Okay. Turn it slowly on a couple different axes.
You lift it up, and as you do, there is...

Speaker 1 At the base of the skull, there is a natural hole where all manner of matter of its previous owner went through. As it lifts, something within the skull rattles.
And you can see the light kind of...

Speaker 1 protruding from within. It kind of like...

Speaker 1 As you turn it, eventually it tumbles out. It is a small orb about that big that itself is giving a faint golden glow.
And it kind of like ting ting.

Speaker 1 And I grab that.

Speaker 1 I put the skull down and I bring the orb here.

Speaker 1 It has a faint magical aura to it. Some sort of.

Speaker 1 You don't know if it's an enchantment or a blessing or what, but there is something magical about this orb. Well, life is short.

Speaker 1 We should keep both, right? Of course.

Speaker 27 Would I know anything about like any type of

Speaker 27 rituals from the old world and anything about like binding of

Speaker 1 make a knowledge roll for me?

Speaker 27 A knowledge roll.

Speaker 21 Can I spend my one and only hope to add historically inspired?

Speaker 1 Yes, you may, of course.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Plus two here. Come on.

Speaker 1 Ugh. I thought it was going to be a crit, but it's not.

Speaker 1 Um

Speaker 1 uh this should actually be three

Speaker 27 nineteen

Speaker 1 with hope?

Speaker 31 Uh with fear with fear, okay

Speaker 1 Not a warrior. Sorry about that.
I fucking hit the microphone.

Speaker 1 Um

Speaker 1 you have seen one of these orbs before. Uh it is embedded in the breastplate that

Speaker 1 your

Speaker 1 uh Ember Warden has worn since the day you met her.

Speaker 1 They are rare relics used for protection from the old world.

Speaker 1 Used by generals and high clerics of Ember Reach.

Speaker 1 Their creation, or the secrets to it, are apparently lost to time, but many of them that were cached at that era have since been disseminated in the post-apostasy era. They're known as Valor Stones.

Speaker 1 You can attach this stone to armor that doesn't already have a feature on it. I'm hoping.
And then it gains a new feature.

Speaker 1 I'm you getting it for you.

Speaker 1 Show your hair.

Speaker 1 What's Sheena going to deal? Before you mark your last armor slot, roll a D6. On the result of 6, reduce the severity by one threshold without marking an armor slot.

Speaker 1 Wow. Very good.
So it gives you a lot. Every time, if you burn all your armor,

Speaker 1 you have a one in six chance of just not spending that last armor.

Speaker 1 This

Speaker 1 is a valor stone.

Speaker 1 Oh boy.

Speaker 28 Is it a sign?

Speaker 1 Everything is a sign. I was about to say, I mean, you got when the aether weave courses throughout the time.

Speaker 28 But I mean, the armor, the crown. Now, this, it's like you keep finding blessed objects.

Speaker 22 I think you are chosen. It means something.

Speaker 1 Sure. And we know which deity this was.

Speaker 22 Aratu. This is the

Speaker 22 veiled god representative, also known as the Dawning Sorrow.

Speaker 1 So, whose skull is this?

Speaker 1 You don't see any markings on the stone case.

Speaker 1 I read, I could try and read it.

Speaker 1 But there are no markings. Oh, there are no markings.
Never mind. Sorry.

Speaker 1 Clearly, it was someone who needed to shut the fuck up.

Speaker 1 Who needs a Hail Mary?

Speaker 1 You're gonna result from

Speaker 1 Six, reduce the severity of by one through short, that one being hundred feet.

Speaker 1 So be someone with low armor. So

Speaker 1 from this area where we are,

Speaker 1 now that

Speaker 1 the danger is past and we've opened the reliquary,

Speaker 1 does the path continue on? Are there more stairs?

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 where you stand, you can...

Speaker 1 I mean, mean in this night you can barely make out the shapes of the uh rest of the grief cleft mountains beyond each side kind of rising up and they're hooked spires um you can see the mists that hang down into the valley of the jungles that you had traveled from below you can just faintly see the flicker of fire from the sacred pyre of Desper Lock down below and that kind of orients your position.

Speaker 1 You are indeed kind of in this in the middle of the rocky outcropping. There's the Firmaminz Hero.

Speaker 1 And beyond this temple, this kind of half-collapsed roof of this temple portion, the rest of the monastery sits. There is a massive double door that is closed.

Speaker 1 The wall sits up and you can see there's that extremely tall,

Speaker 1 pointed, like vaulted roof.

Speaker 1 And you can see the edge of where the cliff had slid down and where the ruins had partially fallen from the monastery to create where Desperlock was set is kind of around the way.

Speaker 1 But you know, the rest of the monastery sits in front of you. It is just the doors to it are closed.

Speaker 1 Now, it would be perfectly understandable if folks wanted to return.

Speaker 28 Wanted to? We've done our job. We were here to get Velk.
Velk's gone. We're done.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I'm going to peek over the side of the cliff and fly over and see if I can see the body.

Speaker 1 Go ahead and roll an instinct roll for me. Instinct.

Speaker 1 Ooh, that's 13 with hope. 13 with hope.

Speaker 28 Take a hope.

Speaker 1 No sign of body from up here because there is no light. It is pitch black into the jungle below.

Speaker 1 Actually, would I have, if it was pitch black, would I have Underborne advantage on that roll?

Speaker 1 To have advantage on rules to hide, investigate, or perceive details when I'm

Speaker 1 low light to heavy shadow.

Speaker 1 I'll say, yeah, take advantage of that. It's roll a d6 because you are very well adapted to

Speaker 1 14.

Speaker 1 Unfortunately, no. You do see, I will say, you do see on some of the

Speaker 1 more ragged bits of rock along the sheer cliff face, you do see signs of

Speaker 1 bloody trail of where Velk had likely had a rough tumble.

Speaker 28 And would I know from my Ranger's focus

Speaker 28 if I still have a connection to him?

Speaker 1 There is no connection. Okay.
You're pretty certain Velk has missed.

Speaker 1 You have put to rest the restless spirit that was taken by some dark power here. And you're right.
We would be well within our reason to go back and,

Speaker 1 you know, let them know what happened to Velk. Or...

Speaker 1 Or we could seize on this opportunity and push further than anyone has before. And when we return,

Speaker 1 we would have a lot to bargain with.

Speaker 1 That's true. Raskello would really hate if somebody else were to push deeper into the monastery, wouldn't he?

Speaker 32 Hmm. He would be very upset.

Speaker 22 I feel like he very much

Speaker 22 wanted to be here, but that doesn't seem to matter to either of your faces at the moment.

Speaker 1 He's kind of a dick. Okay.

Speaker 1 And also, we

Speaker 1 kind of earned it. I mean, there were half as many of us, and we've pushed further than anyone else has before.

Speaker 28 What are you hoping to to find in there

Speaker 1 glory

Speaker 1 what do you need power

Speaker 21 and answers

Speaker 1 to

Speaker 28 questions that for you

Speaker 1 well yeah

Speaker 1 the gods have left and

Speaker 1 there are some of us that have

Speaker 1 almost divine powers or gifts that I don't understand. And where I'm from, those powers are not welcomed.
I'm not from Desperlak. Where are you from?

Speaker 1 Another town. I left my mother there.
The people that see these sorts of powers,

Speaker 1 they're hunted almost. It's like a sign that the gods haven't left or that the power structures that have risen up since are going to be tumbled.
So I would love to know.

Speaker 1 why we have the abilities that we do or how these things still exist and are the gods really gone?

Speaker 1 I mean Velk was dead set that they were not gone, that they were hiding and still in wait or could be communed with or

Speaker 1 I don't know, but if there's some place that's gonna have the answers we're looking for, it feels like this is it and I would really

Speaker 1 love to continue going with this hall pass instead of asking for permission from a group of people that are gonna look at us like a

Speaker 1 like a bunch of outsiders.

Speaker 1 I mean, you know, i'll go where where you go

Speaker 1 as long as you'll fucking have me all right that's that's fair

Speaker 1 we've witnessed a miracle here today

Speaker 22 did you not see which one oh that there's the gods that the statue of the god whether you could consider that a curse or a blessing that was an enactment of divine intervention from one of the veiled gods themselves bureaucracy holds no bearing on the choice we make here and in the now.

Speaker 1 We must push forward.

Speaker 1 Don't you hear that?

Speaker 1 What? That is destiny calling. That was mostly a sigh, I think, from

Speaker 1 now you can hear it whispering in the winds.

Speaker 28 Look, I'm not keen to keep going forward, but I'm also sort of not keen to go back by myself. So if you guys are moving ahead

Speaker 28 I'll be behind you a few feet, but I'll stick around I guess

Speaker 1 it's very fair very wise

Speaker 28 Guess it means whatever rewards happen get cut you guys keep promising me rewards. Is there anything around here that's valuable?

Speaker 1 We got a skull. We got a skull

Speaker 1 there are

Speaker 1 along along the walls of here there there are like ornamental and ceremonial

Speaker 1 weapons and armor, pieces of like holy uh decor that were put on the walls that look like they were made from fine metals and such.

Speaker 1 Uh, in fact, like while some of them have withered over time, there is one beautiful-looking falchion that looks like it's pressed against the chest part of a stone entity that is carved in the wall, like some sort of holy warrior.

Speaker 1 Um, but it is not itself stone, it is just set within the grip of this stone

Speaker 1 figure. Does it have a yellow eye in the middle of it? Weirdly, it does not

Speaker 1 Like

Speaker 28 it's something that could be plucked and kept.

Speaker 1 You could certainly try.

Speaker 1 Just because we

Speaker 1 can, I have a um I have a thing I can do

Speaker 1 where uh where is it? Um uh adept where I can uh utilize an experience uh and mark a stress to use it. If and I have a press digitation to repair a small object.

Speaker 1 If I have a way of using my experience to add that repair a small object to try and fix the face of this statue, would that be reasonable? Certainly try, yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay, I'm going to try and, I'm just going to crawl up and try and magically undo some of this damage. Sure.
Make a spellcast roll for me.

Speaker 1 All right, I'm going to add more hands, make less work, because I'm...

Speaker 1 Sort of trying to weave.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Yeah, I have a lot, and

Speaker 1 I can move the web with it.

Speaker 1 I can burn a stress instead of a hope for that, and that also means I got to double it. So that's...

Speaker 1 What kind of role would this be? Spellcast. So just add your knowledge to that.
Okay, so that's force. Next.

Speaker 1 Ooh.

Speaker 1 Six.

Speaker 1 22 with fear.

Speaker 1 Sorry, guys. No, it's weird.
However, you do manage to kind of sculpt with your hands and a little bit of silk that you're pressing around it.

Speaker 1 You kind of maneuver and almost like magically connect with the stone, the aether weave that kind of flows ever so faintly through the realm that you've attuned yourself to enough to know how to pluck and pull it.

Speaker 1 You kind of weave it through the stone and then just tug on the stone until it fills the gaps that were once carved. Then you

Speaker 1 break away the silk that you had laid as you maneuver, and as you pull it away, the stone looks like it was unscathed. Just picturing the nun that did the restoration on the mini page.

Speaker 1 I was thinking it too.

Speaker 1 I was thinking it. If you had rolled poorly enough.

Speaker 1 Oh, that's great.

Speaker 28 I'm going to try to remove the falchion. Yes.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 You can roll strength or finesse.

Speaker 1 Finesse.

Speaker 28 15 with fear.

Speaker 1 15 with fear.

Speaker 1 Because it's fun. We're an umbra.
I'm going to take it when I can.

Speaker 1 You managed to

Speaker 1 tug, turn it, and eventually find that it was placed in and probably locked with a stone cap on top to keep it there.

Speaker 1 Within the monastery, no one would attempt to take it, especially at this distance from the majority of the outer domain.

Speaker 1 But here, you managed to crack that stone seal on top and pull it from underneath, and the falcon is for you. Oh,

Speaker 1 okay, okay. There you are.

Speaker 1 Gilded falcian.

Speaker 28 Strength to use it. It's powerful, two-handed weapon,

Speaker 28 And it's holy. Oh.
This feels like a you thing.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 The gods are looking down upon us. So

Speaker 1 that's pretty much

Speaker 1 it.

Speaker 1 Read.

Speaker 1 That's deep.

Speaker 1 Glancing around, you also... The other thing that catches your eye

Speaker 1 would be

Speaker 1 what looks like an art piece above the double doors shows like

Speaker 1 a sun ray or like a

Speaker 1 spread of various sun rays and color with a golden hue to it. And what looks to be the image of an angelic figure kind of standing with its arms out.

Speaker 1 But where its torso is, the armor that's there is three-dimensional.

Speaker 1 Oh, three-dimensional armor coming out of the relief. So like

Speaker 1 a chainmail set of armor that is either so intricately carved and painted that it looks metallic, or it's real and in.

Speaker 28 And it's up on something?

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's about 12 feet up.

Speaker 28 I can leap up there

Speaker 28 and do it, or you can fly.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, this is

Speaker 1 far more fraught with peril. Yes.

Speaker 28 I'll leap up and try to pull it down.

Speaker 1 Grab it,

Speaker 1 and it's like embedded in the stone. My legs are just kicking.

Speaker 1 You can try and kick off the wall and give it a shove if you want. Sure, I'll try that.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Go ahead and just roll the strength. Uh-oh.

Speaker 1 That's a

Speaker 28 four with fear. Negative one makes it a three with fear.

Speaker 1 Oh, it's fine. A three with fear.

Speaker 1 All right, I'm going to take that fear and immediately spend it.

Speaker 1 As you tug and pull, the chainmail does come free. Yeah!

Speaker 1 And you fall back onto the ground. And part of the wall

Speaker 1 tumbles out as well and comes spinning down.

Speaker 1 Oh, I'm going to use my grapple to pull

Speaker 1 this one out of the way if it's possible. Right, yeah.
You grab it, the grapple and throw it around him just as the stone falls on him.

Speaker 1 And you

Speaker 1 pull him out like a cheese grater from the stone.

Speaker 1 You take a stress. Okay.
And two points of physical damage. It wasn't enough to crush you, but definitely enough to kind of grind him windy a little bit.
That reaction isn't a thing.

Speaker 1 I'm out of stress. I mean, I'm full.
My stress is full. So you are vulnerable.
Oh boy.

Speaker 1 Y'all think maybe we should like take a break or something then if we're feeling a little wrecked?

Speaker 1 Might not be a bad idea. Might not be a bad idea.
Maybe. What is that armor out of curiosity? The armor? I don't have armor.

Speaker 1 Hold the hell out of here. Oh, oh, this!

Speaker 1 Okay. That's a good weapon, but I like the reach of that.

Speaker 1 I'll use it for now if you change your mind. Yes,

Speaker 1 because it's a little bit better than the one that I have, but not by much.

Speaker 28 And it doesn't do it, doesn't slow you down or anything.

Speaker 1 The additional damage does, though. It's just changing.

Speaker 1 That's amazing. Oh, this is good.

Speaker 1 That's amazing. Read it out loud.
That's so amazing.

Speaker 28 The gods have smiled on us this day.

Speaker 1 No, Claude.

Speaker 1 It's happening.

Speaker 1 I'm beginning to believe.

Speaker 28 It's this is just this is

Speaker 28 direct intervention from an ungar an unseen force from beyond. This is anointed chain armor.
It's just very good armor.

Speaker 1 It's

Speaker 1 stunningly good armor.

Speaker 28 I mean, anyone could use this. It doesn't slow you down.
It doesn't have any negatives. It's just positives.

Speaker 1 Thresholds 11 and 20.

Speaker 28 It's just positive.

Speaker 1 Like, don't forget, yeah, armor in this. Y'all can use any sort of armor.
Just certain armor heavier has penalties like evasion or other attributes. Bloodied by the corrupted heart of.

Speaker 1 Okay, yeah, and okay.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 A robot critical says to clear an armor. Yeah, that's pretty cool.
That is very

Speaker 1 cool. You can also just hold onto it if nobody wants to use it.

Speaker 1 I mean, if no one else is using it, I'll

Speaker 1 use it.

Speaker 1 because

Speaker 1 that's pretty insane.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's pretty insane.

Speaker 1 I'm going to clean the blood off from the splatter.

Speaker 1 It's a nice chain mail. I think it can go into the shirt and I think it fits on.

Speaker 1 Are we all taking a short rest? Are you pressing the break? Yes, please. Yeah, every rest.

Speaker 1 Yeah, can we? You can, yeah.

Speaker 1 You're out here in the middle of this.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow. This is about to get real crazy.
Here we go.

Speaker 28 I'm going to clear stress.

Speaker 28 We can do things we did last

Speaker 1 short rest, too, right?

Speaker 31 So I'm going to repair all my armor.

Speaker 28 Clearing stress, two plus one.

Speaker 1 Oh my god. Alright.

Speaker 1 So it's 1d4 plus 1 for your armor, but you can do.

Speaker 1 1d7 plus 1. Oh, you can do the long rest one you said?

Speaker 26 Clear.

Speaker 31 Yes, so my short rest can be a long rest.

Speaker 1 So I can do... Let me that ability again, just with.

Speaker 31 Yes, when you take a short rest, you can choose a long rest move instead of a short rest move.

Speaker 1 That's awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 26 So...

Speaker 1 There you go. Armor's all good.

Speaker 22 And long rest, I get two of the following moves.

Speaker 1 Anybody taking watch?

Speaker 1 I will take watch.

Speaker 1 Alright. And I will leave my

Speaker 1 role.

Speaker 1 Changing armor, do I get all my armor slots back since I'm changing the armor I'm wearing?

Speaker 1 Or no? No, not in this instance. Okay, that's fine.
But thresholds have changed, and next time you want to, you can use a downtime action to recover that now. That's fine.

Speaker 1 What kind of a roll do you require? Just roll a d12 for me. Just one d12? Yep.

Speaker 1 And then tell me if you want to use your roll or mine.

Speaker 1 I must not have it. I'll use yours.
What'd you roll? Five.

Speaker 1 I also rolled a five. Oh, rollies?

Speaker 1 The

Speaker 1 air grows ever colder.

Speaker 1 The shadows and the absence of the fiery brazers grow thicker.

Speaker 1 You all feel a chill wash over you as the hair stands up in the back of your head.

Speaker 1 And once more, that shrieking echo on the distant horizon

Speaker 1 of the elemental death known as the umbra

Speaker 1 seems to almost get louder.

Speaker 1 Oh boy.

Speaker 1 I gained two fear.

Speaker 1 Also,

Speaker 1 Aaron's now like,

Speaker 1 sorry, I just need to take a little moment to sit down here for a second. Are you okay?

Speaker 1 I'm okay. Her brow is sweaty.
How long has that cough been there?

Speaker 1 Well, I just, I just, I gotta ask some of that dust, you know, from we opened it up, but

Speaker 1 from the reliquary.

Speaker 22 I was to say she's been coughing for a while.

Speaker 22 May I check you?

Speaker 1 And she kind of like vomits a little onto her chest. It's like, I'm so sorry.
It's an embarrassing.

Speaker 1 Can I come over and just out of panic and concern, can I use a sparing touch to place hands on her and

Speaker 1 like pump some divine healing into her? Sure, yeah.

Speaker 1 It'll clear two hit points or two stress from the target. Okay, so she'll go ahead and clear stress and hit points.
And she's like,

Speaker 1 Thank you. Thank you.
I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 You can see kind of the dark under her eyes. little bit.

Speaker 1 So we're moving on.

Speaker 1 Have you been this far before?

Speaker 1 No one's been this far before. Just thought I'd ask.

Speaker 1 That's what's so exciting about it. It's really good.

Speaker 1 It's off-route.

Speaker 28 August, is she becoming an undead? Do we have to kill her and chop off her head and burn her body? Not

Speaker 1 yet. From

Speaker 1 I don't know.

Speaker 28 Should we, just in case

Speaker 28 It might be the only way

Speaker 1 no just

Speaker 1 That's

Speaker 1 all right if you were going to lead us on which way would we go

Speaker 1 I Figure we'd probably

Speaker 1 Can try and pick through this door here

Speaker 1 I think it's probably too dangerous to go around the sides where it collapsed. So if we can go through the door

Speaker 22 May I go over to her and sort of take the throw-up off of her shirt?

Speaker 26 Kinda just see what it is.

Speaker 1 I mean it it looks like a bit of bile.

Speaker 1 Kind of a thick grayish, almost viscosity to it.

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Speaker 2 Hear that?

Speaker 3 That's me with a lemonade in a rocker on on my front porch.

Speaker 2 How did I get here?

Speaker 4 I invested to make my dream home home. Get where you're going with MDY, the original mid-cap ETF from State Street Investment Management.
Getting there starts here.

Speaker 6 Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Visit state street.com slash IM for prospectus containing this and other information.
Read it carefully.

Speaker 6 MDY is subject to risks similar to those of stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal.
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Speaker 28 None of us know anything about this stuff, do we?

Speaker 1 Wow. She walks over towards the door and is like, all right, so a thing

Speaker 1 and walks over the stone bitch that you had kind of plucked from the top, and that part of the kind of surface wall had kind of crumpled down.

Speaker 1 This is definitely locked by some key.

Speaker 1 I'm

Speaker 1 saying a prayer or something. I don't know.

Speaker 1 Should we take her back I know. Do we?

Speaker 22 At what point is it?

Speaker 22 Do we have to turn back? Take her to a healer.

Speaker 22 Take her to.

Speaker 1 What's his name? Two?

Speaker 22 Truval. Truval.

Speaker 28 Truval. Truval.
Truval the hedge.

Speaker 1 What is the keyhole that she's operating on? What does it look like?

Speaker 1 It's about an inch and a half tall, thin. It's just like a small opening.

Speaker 1 And she's she's currently trying to bend that kind of long, thin piece of iron by looking inside to kind of match what she imagines the interior mechanism is.

Speaker 1 She's kind of taking in, it has like a small like hand tongue that kind of bends it and it's like

Speaker 1 can I reach over and grab her arm that she's working on it and can I just take my two fingers and wrap it around her wrist and feel what her heart rate and pulse feels like.

Speaker 1 First thing you notice is her skin is burning hot to the touch. Shit.
The second second thing you notice is her pulse is...

Speaker 1 Aaron.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I know this is the last thing that you want to hear.

Speaker 1 We have to go back.

Speaker 1 Your heart is running a million miles a second. Your skin is hot to the touch.
You are burning up.

Speaker 1 We're so close.

Speaker 1 Can you imagine what's inside

Speaker 1 inside there? I can't. It's not worth putting you at risk, though.
And everyone will know that you were with us when we made it this far.

Speaker 1 I am sure the scholars and the vigils will all be clamoring over themselves to recruit you to their service.

Speaker 1 You promise you're gonna tell them how much I help? I promise. Okay.

Speaker 1 Maybe we don't tell them when we get

Speaker 1 back and we can come back tomorrow and pick up.

Speaker 22 Sure? I think that sounds like a great plan.

Speaker 26 I could also take you back home.

Speaker 28 Alone?

Speaker 1 Well, I don't know. I.

Speaker 22 I do not think that she should continue.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm I'm definitely gonna take her back. If if you wanna push on, you can.
I'm good.

Speaker 22 We know how to get back to this place.

Speaker 1 We might as well all go back.

Speaker 1 Rest. Recover.

Speaker 32 I don't hate the idea of.

Speaker 22 Letting them know that we need further investigation into Velk. Maybe keep some of what we found here to ourselves.

Speaker 28 So that we can just come back after we've...

Speaker 28 dropped her off.

Speaker 1 I agree.

Speaker 22 Even a handful of us can just

Speaker 22 still can't be on the outer walls.

Speaker 1 How's stress HP? Like,

Speaker 1 how's she looking?

Speaker 1 Like, just like, is this just beyond that?

Speaker 1 This isn't damage. Okay, this is something else.

Speaker 1 This is

Speaker 1 infection or disease at this point.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Some poison.
You're uncertain. Like, you can see

Speaker 1 the eyes are getting dark around there, the sweat, the high temperature. It's like she's running a fever.
So something's causing a fever.

Speaker 1 We said it. Let's go.
She's beyond our care. Let's go.

Speaker 1 I'm sorry. No, nothing to be sorry for.

Speaker 1 We wouldn't have gotten into the reliquary with you or found this place or done any of these things.

Speaker 1 We'll just keep the skull with us, at least. That's worth something.
Of course. Let's go.
Would you like me to carry you?

Speaker 1 Yes, please carry her. Don't, don't, don't.
I'm fine. Just a little piggyback.
I'm fine. Piggyback?

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 1 Okay. And she like climbs up onto the wings and kind of drapes her hands over and you kind of hold on.

Speaker 1 And you all

Speaker 1 delve back

Speaker 1 down the stairs into the caves of the Luzal Vaults.

Speaker 1 Kind of quietly keeping watch in case anything else still lurking here in the darkness decides to assail you unexpectedly.

Speaker 1 Blue torch is still aglow. Blue torch is still aglow.
The door, the gate itself still openable.

Speaker 1 The gate guardian seemingly thoroughly destroyed by your second about and the final boomerang blow that was dealt. Its crown missing, its blade taken.

Speaker 1 You asshole. Where?

Speaker 1 Where did you get that? The boomerang store.

Speaker 1 I gotta see if it actually works.

Speaker 1 Is it really good? Boomerang. Boomerangs are awesome.
Boomerang.

Speaker 1 Stealth. Come back soon.

Speaker 1 Challenged

Speaker 1 by the heavy heavy cough that echoes through the hall about every 30-40 seconds.

Speaker 1 That only seems to get more and more thick. Can we put an iron clamp on her jaw? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Right now,

Speaker 1 touch her forehead to the skull.

Speaker 1 Every few moments.

Speaker 1 She keeps apologizing, keeps apologizing, until she can't. Because she passes passes out.

Speaker 1 Can we dump a healing potion in her mouth just to try and stave off whatever is happening with her? Sure, if you want to spend one. Yeah, I've got a magic thing.
Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm going to use Mending Touch and

Speaker 1 just try and add a hit point. Actually, if we want to do both.
Well, I'll just try and put a hit point into. You put a hit point into orange.

Speaker 1 Actually, I can even do. I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 I can even do two.

Speaker 1 Don't fall asleep. Okay.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 I'm good. I'm good.
And she just keeps holding on and kind of holds a little tighter, too. You did give a little more strength to her, and she's now kind of holding onto your wings.

Speaker 1 I'm going to need you to protect us when things get bad. Of course, of course.

Speaker 1 Your pace quickens again, and you exit the vaults back into the jungle.

Speaker 1 Is there a reason why the iron band is over the mouth of the skull? Like, was it coughing and spreading something? Like, could we put the band over her mouth or

Speaker 1 bullet the the it's a tag on a skull so clearly whoever's the band's on did not do well you know it's uh

Speaker 22 maybe we can get the band off and look at it or something not yet you do have an interesting point though perhaps we should

Speaker 28 maybe

Speaker 22 wait outside of the walls and someone should go and bring truvo out

Speaker 1 just in case there's any type of plague or sickness that could spread to the rest of the little gold orb that was like a ward or a protection, right? We shouldn't be like putting that on her, right?

Speaker 1 Or like hold have her hold on to it till we get to armor.

Speaker 28 But I mean we could we could but it seems like it does stuff to armor.

Speaker 1 Maybe she can just hold it till we get there and see if it helps at all.

Speaker 28 Can you link with Truvo or Norin or you have to be able to see them?

Speaker 22 Okay.

Speaker 1 I can on the other hand

Speaker 1 cast telepathy so I can

Speaker 1 as long as they're awake, I can hear their thoughts.

Speaker 1 Oh, of Aaron's? Yeah, of Aaron's. Sure, yeah.
Actually, I must make sure I can do that.

Speaker 1 As you step out into the night jungle, again,

Speaker 1 the direction of the flame, the sacred pyre that denotes Desperlock's position, pushing through the heavy sound of nearby jungle insects and creatures, you can hear Eren's inner monologue just going,

Speaker 1 just don't blow this, don't blow this, don't blow this.

Speaker 1 You can sense she's scared. But you can also sense that she's like

Speaker 1 holding herself strong. She doesn't want to embarrass herself in front of idols.
She doesn't want to embarrass herself in front of the rest of you.

Speaker 1 And she just really wants her dad.

Speaker 28 I'm going to tell you a secret.

Speaker 1 I say in her head.

Speaker 1 We didn't find you. We didn't find your father.
We were running.

Speaker 1 We ran from something

Speaker 1 scary, Misty and I.

Speaker 1 Sometimes.

Speaker 1 Sometimes you have to run.

Speaker 1 I think each and every one of us is running from something scary from the day we're born to the day we die.

Speaker 1 So let's keep running together. It's gonna be okay.

Speaker 31 I'm gonna move her to the front.

Speaker 1 Okay, she does not

Speaker 1 give any resistance at this point. You're just gonna get away from the middle of the game.

Speaker 31 Just so she doesn't have to hold on anymore.

Speaker 2 Hear that?

Speaker 3 That's That's me with a lemonade in a rocker on my front porch.

Speaker 2 How did I get here?

Speaker 4 I invested to make my dream home home. Get where you're going with MDY, the original mid-cap ETF from State Street Investment Management.
Getting there starts here.

Speaker 6 Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses. Visit state street.com/slash IM for a prospectus containing this and other information.
Read it carefully.

Speaker 6 MDY is subject to risks similar to those of stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal.
Alps Distributors Inc. distributor.

Speaker 7 Winter's the perfect time to explore California, and and there's no better way to do it than in a brand new Toyota hybrid.

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Speaker 23 Lowe's, we help you save. Valid 12125-1726.
Offer valid for first login per organization only. Loyalty program subject to terms and conditions.
Additional restrictions apply.

Speaker 23 Visit Lowe's.com/slash terms for more details. Subject to change.

Speaker 1 As we're getting closer, can I take the skull and just kind of look at the band closer? Like, is there anything other than just markings, engravings? It is very well made.

Speaker 1 The band itself has no markings on it, but if you pull it back with a little bit of light, you can see on the inside of the skull, the interior of the bone, the inside,

Speaker 1 like open space where the stone was is just completely covered in script.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And the iron band is attached to the skull? Like, can it be pried off you can certainly try I will definitely try make a strength check for me

Speaker 1 spend a hook to sure give advantage on that awesome

Speaker 1 May have to have you run the head sure I can run kick ass twelve nine twenty one twenty six twenty six with fear

Speaker 1 You dislodge the metal band and it is like so much fear it is bolted into the skull as it breaks the bone of the jaw shatters with it and as you pull it off, you can see all the teeth were already removed.

Speaker 1 And the areas where it was pushed in and bolted,

Speaker 1 there's also a script carved into the bone above where the teeth were. So it looks like the skull was heavily treated with some sort of a ritual, some sort of a holy means.

Speaker 1 You're not certain necessarily what the script is, though you have had, I will say, if you'd want to, if you'd like to mark a stress, you could delve into whatever power touches you to try and see if you could suss the nature of this.

Speaker 1 I'll take that stress. Alright.

Speaker 1 And close your eyes and try and reach into those visions, those dreams, these strange little moments where you feel like

Speaker 1 some divinity out there that still lingers

Speaker 1 in the domain has found you.

Speaker 1 And when you can't read it,

Speaker 1 you sense that this skull belonged to something

Speaker 1 heretical

Speaker 1 and it was placed there to seal it away.

Speaker 1 It doesn't mean that it held power necessarily,

Speaker 1 but

Speaker 1 this skull is not a saint. This skull is not

Speaker 1 of

Speaker 1 a martyred figure of renowned. It was put there to be forgotten and protected.

Speaker 1 Cool.

Speaker 1 The inside of the band that's covered in the runes and the markings.

Speaker 1 Do I recognize any of it, know anything about any of it?

Speaker 1 The inside of the band, as you look at it, is also covered in script. Like every part of this was designed to

Speaker 1 whether it be symbolically contain or actually magically contain whatever was there, you sense no power in the skull anymore. Like, there's nothing like, it isn't a charged relic.

Speaker 1 Make a knowledge roll for me.

Speaker 1 I'm just going to make this a reaction roll. No hope or fear gained on this one.
This is just a 17. 17.

Speaker 1 The best you can tell, even just from the little bit of scraps of research you've pulled from the scholars in your hope to

Speaker 1 figure out the nature of what is found you through the Aether Weave or divinity.

Speaker 1 These were

Speaker 1 funeral rites to seal away

Speaker 1 somebody who was deemed evil by the church.

Speaker 1 You're uncertain if this wasn't something that was put on them in life. This was definitely a final rites.

Speaker 1 You come to the outside of the slag walls and you can see the burning glow of the sacred pyre just above in the distance as you approach the vigil. Shout out from atop the hill.
Halt!

Speaker 28 It's us. We've returned.

Speaker 1 Let Roscalo know that we've returned. We need a healer.

Speaker 1 They look to each other, they glance over, they kind of hold their torches free.

Speaker 1 The horns kind of blow for a second. The front gate, kind of not far from where you are,

Speaker 1 pulls open.

Speaker 26 Oh, they need to come out.

Speaker 28 I'll go get them.

Speaker 1 Please,

Speaker 1 Quickly.

Speaker 1 Alright.

Speaker 1 So you go ahead and dart off inside,

Speaker 1 heading towards the interior of Desperalock, charging through. At this point in the evening, it's

Speaker 1 midnight-ish at this moment, and a lot of the village is going about its business. That would be up this late.

Speaker 1 There are shifts of people, you know, vigil firekeepers and other folks who just can't sleep due to the nature of a challenged life.

Speaker 1 But you push through over until eventually you find the exterior of Truvo's tent.

Speaker 1 And as you kind of push inside, you see his massive galapoform sitting on a chair, currently pouring himself a cup of tea into a small like stone mug and kind of looks up to you quickly.

Speaker 1 Oh, well, hey.

Speaker 28 I need you. We need you.
Sorry, there's someone who's very hurt, sick, poisoned. We're not sure.

Speaker 1 Oh, no.

Speaker 28 We don't know if it's contagious, though. So could you come out to the gates to make sure that this have you been in contact with this individual? I kind of stayed away from her.

Speaker 28 She kind of was kind of gross and we had to go.

Speaker 1 I did.

Speaker 28 Yeah, I did.

Speaker 1 He reaches over and grabs a big bundle of cloth and wraps his face and head around it until it's just his eyes peering over, his, you know, turtle head kind of just barely coming through the top of it.

Speaker 1 It's like a reverse ninja turtle.

Speaker 1 He takes his bag and sets it onto that long table where he had initially treated you and starts plucking all manner of small vials and herbs and ointments and is just like kind of grabbing anything that could possibly help.

Speaker 1 Some medicinal cloth and like kind of stitched gauze and wherever he can, puts it in the satchel.

Speaker 1 All right, take me to them.

Speaker 28 Are you? Can you run? Do you run?

Speaker 1 I can run. All right.
Keep up.

Speaker 1 You.

Speaker 1 And Truz.

Speaker 1 I look back. Oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1 He's older.

Speaker 1 But keeping up decently.

Speaker 1 Other folks are kind of watching this commotion and starting to whisper and ask, like, what's happening? What's going on?

Speaker 1 You start by and Truvoj kind of raises a hand.

Speaker 28 Don't worry. It's going to be fine.

Speaker 1 Go back to your business. Don't worry.

Speaker 1 Until eventually you come to where the gates are still open and you see the vigil. Now, the vigil have come tight to watch because to leave the gates open is incredibly dangerous.

Speaker 1 So right now, as the gates are only open wide enough to let a person or two through, the vigil is kind of congregated to keep watch.

Speaker 1 They have crossbows, they have weapons that they're ready, and they're all just torches-free, looking out into the shadow beyond you, so nobody is opportunistic in this moment.

Speaker 1 As you rush up, and while you're waiting for this point, like Erin is like eye-lulling a little bit.

Speaker 22 Can I fall asleep?

Speaker 22 You're right, I can't.

Speaker 1 Eventually, you see Snyx and behind Truvo approach.

Speaker 1 Oh, goodness, is Erin, isn't it? Oh, poor girl.

Speaker 1 Gun takes her and sets her down on the ground, lays her out, and starts inspecting her, taking her pulse, and kind of takes a small uh wineskin of water and kind of uh play pours it over a cloth and puts it over her head to try and cool her down.

Speaker 1 And more or less starts like going through a book and checking things. And there's about a good ten minutes or so before he kind of like

Speaker 1 and we say like there was a we open something, there was a aerosol that came out. This is likely some sort of infection.

Speaker 1 Um

Speaker 1 if indeed this was from a uh a a long untouched patch of um

Speaker 1 sealed air or a space, various molds, various

Speaker 1 things can grow in there that can be very dangerous to younger lungs, especially.

Speaker 1 But, however, such infections are treatable. They just take some time to recover with proper materials.
I can definitely treat her. You just have to, someone will have to keep an eye on her overnight.

Speaker 1 But I'm glad you took her here immediately. This is rapidly growing, so if you hadn't done so, it's likely she wouldn't have survived the night.

Speaker 1 So you've done good. Glad you're here.

Speaker 1 I will watch over her, for sure. It is not infectious either, from what I can tell.
It looks like this is just

Speaker 1 an inhaled spore or some form of infection. So

Speaker 1 would one of you want to keep

Speaker 1 an eye while she stays in my tent for the the evening? You want to keep an eye on all that? I can keep an eye. Get Garrick.
Yes. All right.

Speaker 1 I'll say what you can pick her back up.

Speaker 1 As you pick her up, he goes ahead and says, all right, dear, I need you to just open your mouth a little bit. I'm going to pour you a little sour-tasting liquid here.

Speaker 1 And she's like, her breath's starting to get a little labored, and he kind of pops this vial and kind of puts this kind of thicker herbal liquid in. She kind of like coughs a bit.

Speaker 1 He's like, you did good. You did good.
And he wipes her brow. And then she kind of swallows it and kind of just kind of sinks into you a little bit as you hold her.

Speaker 1 And Truvo kind of smiles through his, you know, pulls his cloth back now that he's like noted that it's not contagious looks and says,

Speaker 1 get her to my place. Come on.

Speaker 1 At which point,

Speaker 1 you all step into the settlement and the rest of the visual look down upon you. Do you all stay outside or do you return to Desperock as well?

Speaker 1 Well, we're gonna stay and watch, I think. I'm gonna stay with you.

Speaker 22 We might as well come inside.

Speaker 28 Are this right taking her to Truvo's place or to just staying outside?

Speaker 1 No, taking to Truvo's tent. Okay, so everybody's going to be able to get out of here.
Like running the outskirts. I'll go to the garricks and let him know that we're back and she's back.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 While you all step inside, people looking about, a little bit of whispering, and some panic, some people curious as word gets around that.

Speaker 26 I'm covering her with the wings so no one can

Speaker 26 gossip and gawk at her.

Speaker 1 And in doing so, the curiosity spreads, but confirmation of who or what does not. But people also instinctually keep a distance from the eight-winged angel that walks among them.

Speaker 1 You come near the

Speaker 1 kind of comforting hearth of the sacred pyre beyond the forum to the tent where Truvo runs his herbalistic skills. Set her upon the table.

Speaker 1 He takes her big gray cloak and kind of swaddles her with it and sets her down, renews his cloth and sets it upon her brow and begins to

Speaker 1 begins to progress his development of whatever treatment he'll have to apply to her throughout the night.

Speaker 1 You go ahead and retrieve Garrick, who immediately is like, what happened to my girl?

Speaker 1 We were

Speaker 1 out trying to find Velk. We told Erin to stay, but she followed us.
You know how she can be, and she got into something.

Speaker 1 Why don't you come with me and

Speaker 1 we'll go be by her side?

Speaker 1 All right.

Speaker 1 And he puts his coat on and kind of follows up after you.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 Trubo finishes his treatments for the night.

Speaker 1 The people begin to die down, their curiosity, as it seems the tension begins to subside. And eventually,

Speaker 1 with a bit of conversation, a bit of cool water renewed upon her brow and body,

Speaker 1 she goes to sleep and settles into a rest.

Speaker 1 Truvo kind of nods and.

Speaker 28 Oh, you've got it too.

Speaker 1 Burners!

Speaker 1 He kind of nods and then wipes his brow after he's been kind of focused on all this and says,

Speaker 1 If you don't mind, I'm gonna

Speaker 1 go get myself a drink and then return to keep watch. You're staying to keep an eye.
Yeah, absolutely. I think a few of us will be.

Speaker 1 Very good.

Speaker 1 If anything happens, I'll be at my hovel in the back. You know where he lives.

Speaker 1 Heads off and Aaron's asleep. Every now and then, like kind of a cough comes through, but it's not as bad as it was as you were getting close to Gusperlock, which is

Speaker 1 comforting.

Speaker 1 People are gonna want to know what we found, what we have,

Speaker 1 what came of Velk. Should we

Speaker 1 try and hold on to some of that information until we can venture out again? Should we share with the scholars? If the scholars see what we have gathered, they will assuredly take everything off of us.

Speaker 22 They will claim it as

Speaker 1 importance to the Luzon.

Speaker 28 But might they have information? I mean, shouldn't we share this knowledge with them? We can hide the stuff. I can just go take it and stash it somewhere if you're worried about losing it.

Speaker 1 We should definitely hide what we have. They'll take it one way or another and they'll tell us nothing, you know?

Speaker 1 They might not trust them. They might.

Speaker 1 Maybe if we leverage it like there's more that we could share, and that this is just an initial offering of our findings.

Speaker 1 If we ask for a partnership of sorts, that we'd be part of the next wave, we can lead them to the things that we've found and help them avoid the things that have been perilous we could ingratiate ourselves to their efforts even though veld's dead we can still go up and try and get the body well i if we're worried about talking to the scholars i i mean i'm i'm friendly with one of them with uh with haloran he's not one of the current scholars he's re he's retired but he he wouldn't he wouldn't take any of this stuff but would he know maybe some of it the the script on the inside of the mouth plate or he wouldn't i think if he would know uh everything as far as i know

Speaker 28 he knows as much as the others, but he just doesn't care about it. He's retired.
He's drunk.

Speaker 1 He's a drunk. Oh, okay.

Speaker 28 And

Speaker 28 I carry hoots.

Speaker 28 I pull out two bottles of

Speaker 28 sort of vinegary wine. I deliver this to him about once every couple weeks.
And

Speaker 28 he's a nice fella. Just

Speaker 28 he wouldn't care about stuff. He just wants booze.

Speaker 1 That might be a great place to start. If you ask him if the scholars would care or be willing to share, he could also say, whatever you do, don't tell them.
They'll never let you.

Speaker 1 He might not even remember, honestly. I'd not even remember.
You have a sense of their desposition, at least.

Speaker 1 Do you know where he is? Sure.

Speaker 28 I mean,

Speaker 28 I've got a delivery that I'm supposed to do.

Speaker 1 I mean, we probably have until sunup.

Speaker 28 Just me or are you guys coming?

Speaker 1 You tell us.

Speaker 1 He's your guy. Knowing him, he's probably awake, still.
Sure.

Speaker 28 Yeah, come come, or some of us can come. Somebody's got to stay.

Speaker 1 I can stay.

Speaker 1 And I'll give you the skull and the map.

Speaker 28 I'm not going to touch that stuff. You take it.

Speaker 1 I'll take it. I'll come with you.
All right.

Speaker 27 And then

Speaker 21 I also take out my robes, my investments of the Pyrekeeper, cover my armor, cover the swords, cover everything that we have, and then

Speaker 31 I'll go with Snyx.

Speaker 22 Are you coming? Are you going to stay with the kid?

Speaker 22 I'll come with you for this guy.

Speaker 22 Goodbye, August.

Speaker 22 Steve,

Speaker 1 I'll be right back. Okay.

Speaker 22 Please be staying far.

Speaker 1 If you're not back by sunup, you're dead to us.

Speaker 21 And probably the rest of the world.

Speaker 1 We're just going to an old guy's house.

Speaker 22 I've already grown attached.

Speaker 1 I've already grown attached.

Speaker 1 Yes,

Speaker 1 Godspeed.

Speaker 1 Alright.

Speaker 1 So you two are staying behind. Yeah, we'll stay with them.
And you three head off with Snyx leading them. Alright, so

Speaker 1 a little ways off from where the Praxis Collective does the majority of its research work here in Desperlock, the homestead of Halloran.

Speaker 1 It was at one time a nice, quaint homestead for a very vigilant researcher.

Speaker 1 But you know it's fallen into a bit of disarray and he's become a bit of a hoarder.

Speaker 1 This home as you begin to approach you can see the windows are completely blocked and outside in the front you can see all manner of broken junk that he's amassed.

Speaker 1 Things that were discovered to be of no necessary use to the scholars.

Speaker 1 Relics of the old world that were just discarded pieces of garbage that he has snatched up and kind of built this little junkyard around this little hovel that he lives in.

Speaker 1 You can see just the faintest little flicker of lantern light from what segment of his window is still not fully plugged.

Speaker 1 And you could hear a hum coming from within. Hmm.

Speaker 1 Hmm.

Speaker 28 I will go up to the door and knock four times.

Speaker 1 Boop, boop, boop, boop, and go, hoo-hoo!

Speaker 1 I was wondering when you were gonna come around here.

Speaker 1 All these locks get like

Speaker 1 down the door before.

Speaker 1 And you see this

Speaker 1 old.

Speaker 1 It's rare to see somebody this old and haggard who survived this long here in the halcyon domain these days.

Speaker 1 You're not sure if he is very old or just life has been hard enough to where he looks that way, but he is just missing a majority of his teeth, patchy, scraggly chin-white hair that looks like parts of it have either stopped growing or burned off at some point.

Speaker 1 Long, matted, curly hair that kind of pushes past his shoulders, like a

Speaker 1 really down on his luck gandolph.

Speaker 1 As soon as he speaks through the door, it says, Hey,

Speaker 1 Snicks, glad you made it.

Speaker 1 The smell of

Speaker 1 thick alcohol is just, it clears anything that might have been caught in your sinuses.

Speaker 28 I sure did yeah yeah I they're they're they're cool they're with me we've been

Speaker 28 they're cool they're cool they're they're they're they're they're um messengers in training uh you might bring drink I always bring drink friend and I pull out uh two two bottles of

Speaker 1 friends come in

Speaker 1 and kind of pulls back into the room

Speaker 28 when you sit down just watch where you sit because there might be some trash or food or something alive

Speaker 1 as you kind of step inside the interior here it is indeed stacked like wall to ceiling with maybe some old books bits of like oiled rags you can see clusters of boxes and crates that may or may not be full indeed the smell of kind of rotten food and refuse kind of sits all throughout the chamber.

Speaker 1 You can see there are paths in this hotel. It's only about maybe like 15 by 20 feet, this entire homestead, but there's only maybe about 10 feet of actual walkable space.

Speaker 1 And it's very much, you know, how like Scrooge Man Duck has worked that loop and around his number one dime.

Speaker 1 Like, that's how you have to walk through the house, like, where he's kind of created these grooves where you can just barely get around to where, like, this pile of cloth and rag where he sleeps, a little table in the center, and the rest is just stacked garbage.

Speaker 1 What was his name again? Halloran the Sot.

Speaker 1 Halloran the Sot. S-O-T-T.

Speaker 28 S-O-T.

Speaker 1 Halloran. And he pops open a bottle immediately and starts pushing through one of the piles, like, where are my, where are my cups? Yeah.

Speaker 1 And pulls out like a few cups that look like they haven't been washed in a while. And he goes sits down and goes, Oh, excuse me.

Speaker 1 Gets another rag and like starts cleaning them.

Speaker 1 Oh, boy. Oh, boy.

Speaker 1 He poured a lot more in his than yours. And he kind of slides him forward on the one table and is like.

Speaker 1 To your health. To my health.
He's got drinking breath.

Speaker 1 Downs it, goes to Phil's other one. Oh, oh,

Speaker 1 sorry.

Speaker 1 Reaches back and like his arm vanishes into one of the nearby piles and pulls out a small satchel, like a like a hand bag and kind of opens it up a little bit, rides into it.

Speaker 1 And what would he have traded that alcohol for you? What would you have asked for?

Speaker 28 Sure. I mean,

Speaker 1 probably not.

Speaker 28 I don't think he has money per se.

Speaker 28 Is there money in this world?

Speaker 1 I mean, there is money, but it only matters to a handful of chunks of society to this day. Most people, it's just for trade abuse.

Speaker 28 I do trade

Speaker 28 with

Speaker 28 some of the, what is the people at the works,

Speaker 28 barrel spearboard. Oh, yeah.
I trade supplies and stuff, nails and screws, bits of leather. If he has any building materials, anything like that.
I also trade

Speaker 1 books, scrolls.

Speaker 28 People seem to like that stuff.

Speaker 28 So anything he has that might be of interest.

Speaker 1 Being a scholar, he has books, but he does not let them go.

Speaker 1 But he does indeed bring within this thing

Speaker 1 a large cluster of what looks to be old iron materials,

Speaker 1 things that were probably used in construction and then have been since scavenged and recovered that can be remelted down and reused, much like they do for the slag walls on the outside of the city.

Speaker 1 All manner of nails. There's actually a pretty decently kept

Speaker 1 thick band of leather that's like wrapped on itself that can be used for all manner of straps. And basically just like gives you a few things in trade.

Speaker 28 Oh, plenty, plenty.

Speaker 28 You know what?

Speaker 28 It's plenty because something we would want from you tonight is actually not

Speaker 28 things, but

Speaker 28 information, if you got it.

Speaker 28 And if you do, I can bring twice as much hooch next time.

Speaker 1 I'll see what I can help with.

Speaker 1 You see, like, one of the teeth in his lower jaw, it looks like it's a little loose, and as he talks, it kind of flaps a little bit against the lip.

Speaker 1 No, no, no, no!

Speaker 1 Do you? No, no, no, no, slap.

Speaker 1 Do you?

Speaker 1 An extra arm comes out and slaps your hand out.

Speaker 1 Let me just. Is that a true lives moment where like you envision the whole scene in your head and then it cuts back and you've just been sitting there the whole time? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 28 I know you don't like to talk about the vaults too much.

Speaker 1 I don't know anything about them. Well, I mean.

Speaker 28 Of course not, but if you did.

Speaker 1 We hate to pry, but

Speaker 1 we need help.

Speaker 1 We need your help. His hands start shaking as he refills his glass.
Like.

Speaker 1 Perhaps.

Speaker 22 You just might be more informed about some of the ritualistic rites from the old world.

Speaker 22 You don't need to tell us much about the vaults, just

Speaker 22 maybe some information about the past that you may have come across.

Speaker 28 If we show you some things that might have come from the vaults,

Speaker 28 would you be able to tell us their origin, what they mean, where they're from?

Speaker 1 Maybe.

Speaker 28 I have a little bit more alcohol in my pouch.

Speaker 1 Show me.

Speaker 21 pull out the skull

Speaker 21 It's okay, he's dead

Speaker 1 Long dead

Speaker 1 he points to the table. I press the digitation head over

Speaker 1 You bring these two weavers into my home

Speaker 28 I

Speaker 28 is that a bad is that is that a bad

Speaker 1 I don't know if I trust your your friend.

Speaker 28 I was almost killed in the vaults and they saved me.

Speaker 1 I take my wand

Speaker 1 and I stab it very gently into the table and I let go.

Speaker 1 You gonna fix that?

Speaker 1 Yes, of course.

Speaker 1 As soon as we leave, I can literally fix it. There's no problem.
I can't. No expensive wood.
And I'll owe you favors of any kind, you know.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 He He takes the wand and starts prodding around the skull and starts giving it a look over. While this is happening, we're going to come to the two of you.
Is there any conversation you wanted to

Speaker 1 do? Any sort of

Speaker 1 elements, or you just want to wait for them to return? I think we're just kind of

Speaker 22 just waiting to return.

Speaker 31 I think I'm going to just kneel before her

Speaker 31 at the table and just hold just hold her head, and I'm just watching her.

Speaker 1 Guilt, amok over here.

Speaker 26 Guilt amok

Speaker 22 and just making sure she's breathing.

Speaker 31 Okay. And just watching her.

Speaker 1 She's breathing. Okay.
Okay.

Speaker 1 Glad something.

Speaker 1 Best I can tell.

Speaker 1 A lot of these markings represent the

Speaker 1 many of the ordinance

Speaker 1 binding rituals.

Speaker 1 The use here seems to be against the

Speaker 1 underlying shadow currents of the domain. Spirits that would transfer

Speaker 1 dark powers and enduring

Speaker 1 wills and intent that would

Speaker 1 lock themselves into a relic or a person or a place, and these shields would keep them there.

Speaker 21 So this

Speaker 1 entity,

Speaker 21 this person,

Speaker 22 was infected by some sort of darkness, either a spirit or

Speaker 1 some sort of dark

Speaker 1 umbra.

Speaker 1 Even we saw somebro was unleashed. And there are all manner of dark spirits that were

Speaker 1 anathema to the veiled gods in the ordinance, so they

Speaker 1 had ways of dealing with them,

Speaker 1 but not anymore. This is um

Speaker 1 I don't know if these seals kept after the apostasy, Hence why so much has run amok since they went away.

Speaker 28 We saw

Speaker 28 blobs, shadow blobs, sort of

Speaker 28 moving from darkness into living creatures and making them empowered like liquid shadow.

Speaker 1 Not in any of you.

Speaker 28 No, no, no, no.

Speaker 28 And we killed one of them.

Speaker 1 Its mouth was banded closed.

Speaker 1 Why isn't it anymore?

Speaker 28 We were curious.

Speaker 1 And there was a.

Speaker 1 He pulls back the cloth on just reveals Peg Leg.

Speaker 1 I don't go prying anymore.

Speaker 1 Drinks again.

Speaker 1 Whatever that is, give rid of it.

Speaker 1 We're to let the Skylers even make it their problem.

Speaker 1 They'll buy it?

Speaker 1 Maybe. Oh,

Speaker 1 whatever was in there has not been held for a long time. And if you killed this thing,

Speaker 1 there ain't nothing to worry about anymore. Well,

Speaker 1 it was

Speaker 1 glowing.

Speaker 22 Wasn't it? Well, you said it was a darkness, though.

Speaker 22 I'm assuming that darkness is what came out of the statue.

Speaker 1 That's. I don't know, that's a lot of assumptions.
Do we have the crown? Yeah, it's on my head.

Speaker 28 Oh, wanna show him that?

Speaker 1 It's my crown.

Speaker 1 Sure, just show him.

Speaker 1 He doesn't

Speaker 31 came from the vault.

Speaker 31 The Aether bestowed this crown upon me.

Speaker 1 Of course, he did. You are the chosen one.
I am. I believe it.

Speaker 28 Yeah, it also, if I'm not overstepping, makes you look very nice.

Speaker 22 That is very kind of you to say.

Speaker 22 Do you want to see my crown?

Speaker 1 Is it also also a bearer of shadow of ancient curses? You tell me. What the curse?

Speaker 28 Someone was wearing it who was infected with darkness, but again, we killed that one too. We did a lot of killing.

Speaker 1 This is of holy make

Speaker 1 this is a protective element empowered by the divine.

Speaker 1 This, um,

Speaker 1 this bears the mark of a rock, too.

Speaker 1 This is quite the relic. Oh, okay.

Speaker 1 Scarletts would make quite a bad evidence.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna unbutton my shirt since we seem to be doing this. We're not that close of friends.

Speaker 1 This chain mail underneath.

Speaker 1 This came from the same temple.

Speaker 1 Where'd you find all this?

Speaker 31 In the vault.

Speaker 1 In the vault?

Speaker 28 We made it all the way to the doorway to the

Speaker 1 Firmament Hollow.

Speaker 28 No, past the Firmament Hollow. Doorway to the...

Speaker 28 What was next? The observatory.

Speaker 28 The monastery.

Speaker 1 You made it to the monastery. I mean,

Speaker 22 we almost made it to the monastery.

Speaker 1 That's incredible, nude. The scholars are going to.

Speaker 28 What are they gonna do if we if they knew? What would they do? How would they react?

Speaker 1 They would be ecstatic.

Speaker 28 But and shower us with rewards and praise?

Speaker 21 Perhaps strike a deal.

Speaker 1 Maybe.

Speaker 26 Allow us to keep exploring them.

Speaker 1 I'll just take everything. Maybe.

Speaker 21 Or would they take everything we have?

Speaker 1 If you were

Speaker 1 would you trust them?

Speaker 1 Some of them

Speaker 1 who

Speaker 1 uncorks the second bottle.

Speaker 28 Were there any consonants in that word? Yeah.

Speaker 1 If any.

Speaker 1 If any. Okay.

Speaker 28 And if you were us, would you keep pressing further in into the

Speaker 1 push the skull? That's even put too far.

Speaker 1 And for a copper.

Speaker 1 I just hope you truly did kill what held that shadow you speak of.

Speaker 28 I think so.

Speaker 1 I mean, wasn't moving.

Speaker 1 I have not touched my cup, so I'm just gonna slide it back.

Speaker 1 I pour

Speaker 21 my cup into

Speaker 1 August.

Speaker 27 And that rag did not look clean.

Speaker 1 I want to scan the books on the shelf to see if there's anything that catches a young scholar's eye. Make an instinct rule for me if you don't know.
Instinct.

Speaker 1 Not a knowledge. Okay, that's fair.

Speaker 1 No, there's an interest between getting a good look and perusing and analyzing the material and just looking about and seeing if you can make out details. Very fair.

Speaker 1 And I'm so sorry, everybody, if I scroll this. Hey, um, 11 with hope.

Speaker 1 11 with hope. Take it home.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 you're hard-pressed in this low lantern light and this cluttered ass mess of a homestead to make out anything beyond the occasional letter that isn't covered by rags, dirt, or spider webs.

Speaker 1 What else can we glean from this gentleman?

Speaker 1 We've got a name. We've got a name.

Speaker 28 Anything that we can say to Tharia to butter her, she

Speaker 1 upsemed like she had a good heart.

Speaker 1 She uh kind of thinks for a second.

Speaker 1 I don't know, she's got a soft spot for Alzcast, so she might like you just how you are.

Speaker 28 And if you don't mind, what did you see in there that made you not want to go back? But I know that you were injured, but what did it to you?

Speaker 1 His eyes start going wide and distant

Speaker 1 in the vaults down there. There are a great many beautiful things:

Speaker 1 bronzed halls of worship,

Speaker 1 catacombs of holy warriors of old,

Speaker 1 those that fought beside the greatest of ordnance

Speaker 1 and fetaled the most dangerous of evils in the old world,

Speaker 1 to bask in their glory and learn of their

Speaker 1 true color as something astonishing.

Speaker 1 But with the gods gone,

Speaker 1 the devils play in those shadows

Speaker 1 and dance on the graves of those that nearly cut them down before.

Speaker 1 And there they cackle.

Speaker 1 There they feast.

Speaker 1 There they wait. And tear.

Speaker 1 And teeth. And bite.

Speaker 1 I can't go back. I can't go back.
I can't go back. And he starts like pushing back into the various clusters in his room.
I can't. I can't.
I can't. I can't.

Speaker 1 It's just like going into a full panic attack, pulling away from you. Stop.
You never have to.

Speaker 1 You never have to. Ever.

Speaker 1 Go! Get out! Get out of here!

Speaker 1 Go! And he grabs the bottle that's still open and like starts tugging it and just pushing and shooing you out of it.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna grab my wand on the way out and just fix the table as I leave and put it away. And it's gonna be a door behind you.

Speaker 1 Okay, that could have gone a bit better.

Speaker 1 Could have gone worse. The two of you, while this is happening,

Speaker 1 Troubo comes back. You see, he's like, has a glass vial, and he's like

Speaker 1 You don't mind if I talk to you for a second?

Speaker 1 I just don't want her to hear of course not absolutely

Speaker 1 yes pulls you outside of the tent and holds the vial and he's like

Speaker 1 I'll be running a few tests back in my bold here and you know she has

Speaker 1 an infection from what I can tell and while the treatment's kind of staunched it briefly, this is something more than just a standard mold infection.

Speaker 1 It's

Speaker 1 Well look and he holds it up and you can see the the liquid has like a faint pale blue to it and there is kind of a red droplet of blood that kind of sits on it and you watch as the red is slowly turning brown

Speaker 1 Then black

Speaker 1 and then the blue liquid just turns black around it.

Speaker 1 That's not natural.

Speaker 1 I'm afraid that whatever's got Erin is

Speaker 1 I'm afraid she's got a bit of the umbra on her.

Speaker 1 What, um

Speaker 1 have you seen this before?

Speaker 1 I'm not like this kind.

Speaker 1 Um,

Speaker 1 I mean, we all carry a bit of this old black within us. That's just the curse of the enduring, but like

Speaker 1 this acts like a disease, but it is

Speaker 1 more of a curse.

Speaker 1 Something

Speaker 1 placed upon her, something that

Speaker 1 found its way.

Speaker 1 I'll continue to do my best, what I can, but

Speaker 1 this is.

Speaker 1 This might be beyond my capabilities.

Speaker 32 Have you ever heard of anybody being

Speaker 22 healed from something like this?

Speaker 1 I mean, the

Speaker 1 umbrella itself is

Speaker 1 the final death.

Speaker 1 It is the judgment from the gods upon us when they left.

Speaker 1 But there are rumors.

Speaker 1 There are rumors

Speaker 1 that in the fanes that still hold against the dark, the places across the domain that

Speaker 1 even the umra can't step

Speaker 1 that there can be

Speaker 1 healers capable.

Speaker 1 Nothing I've seen. And

Speaker 1 as with my

Speaker 1 pursuit of what's real and tangible as a healer,

Speaker 1 I can't guarantee anything.

Speaker 1 But I don't know anything in Desperlock that can help her.

Speaker 28 How much time does she have? I don't know.

Speaker 1 Days.

Speaker 1 And then what?

Speaker 1 Then.

Speaker 1 We do the honor of not letting her be desecrated by the Umbra when she passes.

Speaker 1 But she is my friend.

Speaker 1 This is also part of just...

Speaker 1 how things are.

Speaker 1 You said in the in the veins of the

Speaker 1 Humbra we'd be looking for

Speaker 1 healers that have had success or or or areas outside of Desperlock where a remedy might exist

Speaker 1 There are a great many secrets that were kept by the Grand Ordinance in the cathedrals of Amber Reach there are

Speaker 1 scriptures that were scattered and lost across the domain

Speaker 1 from the old world and beyond. There is what

Speaker 1 our very scholars are hoping to ascertain a way to turn the tides against this

Speaker 1 trodden path to oblivion we all just slowly step towards do you think they are on to something

Speaker 1 anything maybe

Speaker 1 i hear tale from those who have traveled from beyond

Speaker 1 There are places where nature still stands untouched.

Speaker 1 There are spirits of the wilds that

Speaker 1 still keep the dark at bay.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 there are miracles still, though perhaps not sourced by the veiled gods themselves. So

Speaker 1 there's always hope.

Speaker 1 I just don't know if it's here.

Speaker 1 Thank you

Speaker 1 for telling us. Of course.

Speaker 1 Smoke begins to fill the forum

Speaker 1 around

Speaker 1 the tents.

Speaker 1 Black smoke.

Speaker 1 Just begins to billow and swallow

Speaker 1 the central forum. And go back to Aaron's body.

Speaker 31 Just sort of.

Speaker 1 You snip back into the tent and Aaron is gone.

Speaker 1 Fucking fuck.

Speaker 1 The three of you begin to return just as you see

Speaker 1 this black smoke begin to billow and just completely envelop the center of Desperlock.

Speaker 1 We should have brought her in here.

Speaker 1 What are you doing?

Speaker 21 I'm gonna run to the pyre. I feel like

Speaker 26 the pyre is what's supposed to keep us safe.

Speaker 1 What can I see above?

Speaker 1 You fly up, and it's just a a a cloud of smoke that's filled this around a central point around like the forum the center of desperla which is where the pyre is correct okay so i can't i can't see the pyre where the pyre is it does it feel like it's emanating from the pyre it feels like it's in that kind of general vicinity

Speaker 1 we're rushing towards it yeah you all kind of charge in as the smoke begins to kind of dissipate a little bit here amongst the nearby homesteads and the

Speaker 1 northern portion of where the forum sits, there is the massive column of black smoke

Speaker 1 where the sacred pyre once was.

Speaker 1 Oh, shit. It extinguished the pyre.

Speaker 20 Is it out? It's out?

Speaker 1 Across the ground of where the pyre once stood, you see the bodies of Desperlock folk and two

Speaker 1 robe-adorned pyre keepers bisected and their blood spilled across one of the only things that can quell the flame of these sacred flames. No!

Speaker 1 And there, standing facing the smoke,

Speaker 1 a small teenage girl

Speaker 1 who turns

Speaker 1 and smiles.

Speaker 1 And that's what we're gonna do.

Speaker 1 No!

Speaker 1 I have ghost box!

Speaker 1 Never trust a teenager. No!

Speaker 1 No!

Speaker 30 Romond is fucking bisected? Dead? Corbin is dead?

Speaker 1 We'll come back and find out what's up.

Speaker 1 No, shit! Shit.

Speaker 30 To quote Ashley Johnson, I'm already attached.

Speaker 1 Yes!

Speaker 1 Oh.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 1 We're so fucked.

Speaker 1 We brought her in. We're so fucked.
So.

Speaker 1 We'll see you guys next time. We love you very much.
And is it Thursday?

Speaker 1 No, it's not.

Speaker 1 And we've finished up this episode. Thanks for coming along on this wild journey with us.
If you like the adventure, consider leaving a review on your podcast platform of choice.

Speaker 1 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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