By Heart Alone | Exandria Unlimited: Divergence Episode 4

Tron Aries has arrived.

I would like you to meet Aries, the ultimate AI soldier.

He is biblically strong and supremely intelligent.

You think you're in control of this?

You're not.

On October 10th.

What are you?

My world is coming to destroy yours, but I can help you.

The war for our world begins in IMAX.

Tron Aries, suited PG-13.

Maybe inappropriate for children under 13.

Only in theaters, October 10th.

Get tickets now.

Going up.

Prices keep going up these days.

It feels like being on an elevator that only goes up.

Going up.

But not at Metro.

We're pushing the down button.

Going down.

We've lowered prices.

Get one line of 5G data for $40.

Period.

That's 20% lower.

And you get a free Samsung 5G phone when you bring your number.

Only at Metro.

Five-year guarantee on eligible plans, exclusion supplies.

See website for details.

Not available at Metro with T-Mobile in the past six months.

Tax supplies.

Head on over to beacon.tv to check it out for yourself and start a seven-day free trial.

Thank you so much for your support, for being a podcast listener, and for being a part of our community.

Hey there, critters.

We are so excited to share with you our brand new podcast from the world of Xandria, the Re-Slayer's Take.

In this audio adventure, you'll be guided through the wild continent of Asilra, home to some of the most dangerous creatures.

Here, the Slayer's Take is the most notorious monster hunting group in the realm.

But, when previously slain creatures start returning from the grave, it's up to six misfit mercenaries to band together and re-slay these supernatural threats as the Reslayers Take.

So come follow along these audio escapades as the second coolest monster hunters this side of Xandria battle a growing undead army of dangerous creatures.

The party is led by a duo of Game Masters, George Primavera and Nick Williams, with the main cast including Jasmine Bular, Caroline Lux, and Jasmine Shion.

Listen to new episodes every Monday anywhere you stream podcasts, or become a Beacon member and listen to the podcast two weeks early and uninterrupted by ads.

Hey there, friends, it's Matthew Mercer, and it's my pleasure to introduce you to Xandria Unlimited Divergence, a brand new journey on the Critical Role Podcast Network.

Divergence follows everyday folks picking up the pieces of their world in the wake of a cataclysmic war between the gods.

As the dust settles, the mortals of Xandria discover how their world has been changed forever.

New episodes drop on Thursdays at 7 p.m.

Pacific on Beacon, Twitch, and YouTube, with the VOD uploaded to YouTube on Mondays at noon.

Prefer your adventures in audio form?

The podcast version arrives here on the Critical World Podcast Network one week after the original broadcast.

Or, if you want instant access to podcast content, become a beacon subscriber and get access to the audio version right when it airs at 7 p.m.

Pacific on Thursdays.

The calamity has ended, but Xandria's story is far from over.

Enjoy.

Hello, and welcome to the final episode of Xandria Unlimited Divergence.

A tale that ends tonight of a time of passing from calamity to strange and new hope hope for the world that might be.

Before we jump in, we have a few announcements.

Matt, you want to come over here and take us away with some announcements?

Let's do it!

Travis, I think you're up next on the announcements.

Oh, yes.

You guys, while we are recognizing our 10th anniversary throughout the year, next week, next week actually officially marks 10 years of critical role.

Oh, my God.

We're doing it.

Now, whether you've been here since the very first stream in 2015 or just now joining us for the very first time,

we honestly couldn't be more grateful to have you along for this unbelievable adventure.

And we are only here because of you.

And we have been hard at work queuing up merch, live events, conventions, games, content, and really just a whole bucket of so much more to celebrate this amazing milestone with you.

So thank you, thank you, thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts.

Yay!

We did it!

Speaking of content,

we're very excited to announce a brand new podcast, you guys.

Coming exclusively to Beacons.

This is the announcement.

Oh my gosh.

It is time.

It is time.

I'm so excited to announce Weird Kids.

I'm going to sing the jingle.

I should do that.

It's so good.

The jingles pop.

But we'll get there.

We're good there.

There's a story behind it.

But you can join Ashley Johnson

and Talisin Jaffe.

You're number one.

As they sit down in a weekly podcast where they'll chat about being

weird kids.

Yeah.

Like growing up being weird kids, growing up being child actors.

Yes.

And honestly,

still being weird kids.

It was on there.

Yeah.

You saw the flow.

I just saw the flow and I took it.

They have lots of fun little segments.

They'll even take field trips

called Touching Grass to explore weird things beyond the confines of our set.

And it's so good.

You guys, I actually can't wait for you to see the set.

It's super cute.

So, yeah, go check it out.

It's fun.

Congrats, guys.

It's fun.

It's real fun.

It's so fun.

Have a good time.

Friendly reminder.

This is the final episode of Divergence.

You can join us next Thursday, March 13th, for one big Xandria wrap-up.

We'll be covering questions from,

I mean, topics really from all three of our main campaigns, largely Bell's Hells, of course, but as well as all of our installments of Xandria Unlimited

and really any other type of like lore building, world building, all of that jazz that's helped us explore and fall in love with Xandria over the past 10 years.

10 years!

Oh, wow, I think I'll come in for that.

Oh, hey.

Oh, yeah, 600 more.

Everyone's calendar.

10 years.

Yes, Laura.

I have special 10-year anniversary merchandise.

What you got?

I don't even think I've shown you yet.

No, I've not seen it.

This is our enamel pin artist, Sarah G, and it's, it's you, Matt.

Oh,

it's you in front of the world.

What we were talking about.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, dear.

We can't see it.

Isn't it so great?

So there's that.

We must destroy him.

And then we also have...

I'm so excited about this.

We have...

This is our Critical Role Memories pullover hoodie, art by our own Jordan Torrance.

Critical role.

It's our tie-dye hoodies, which I love, so we had to make another one.

And the back,

all of this text, which you can't see from this, it's all quotes from like 10 years' worth of columns.

Are there dirty words on it?

I don't know.

It just says, all work or no play makes Marisha a dull girl over and over and over again.

It's available right now in all our critical shops.

Check it out.

It looks great.

We're just

excited.

We're just kidding, sir.

Oh, I got one.

Another way you can celebrate 10 years of critical role is with Stories Untold.

Oh, it's so good.

And it really is.

It's an anthology featuring the perspectives of 10 characters who fought alongside and against Vox Machina.

I'm so proud of this book.

It's a special collection.

It features a foreword written by me.

Hey!

With stories by 10 contributors, including Abria Iyengar, Sam Maggs, and Martin Cahill.

Plus, a cover by Adrian Ibarro Lugo.

Stories Untold is now available wherever books are sold, because it's a book, in hardcover, e-books, or audiobook formats additionally our friends at penguin random house are running a sweepstakes where one lucky winner will receive a copy signed by all 10 contributors and the critical role case oh wow yeah that's cool i did not agree to this

for more information on how to enter the sweepstakes and buy your very own copy of stories on tool they head to criticalrolebooks.com.com fantastic wow thank you so much liam i didn't there it is that's what it looks like oh

and it looks like this and there's words in it there's definitely words in this.

Awesome.

Wait, now I think that there isn't.

There's a word.

You shut your mouth.

Are there battles?

It's definitely bad words.

I love it.

Oh, we're such goals.

I think that concludes our announcement.

So,

Brendan, get back in the seat.

Oh,

there he is.

A lot of dice in there.

That's a lot of dice.

What's the line from Kevin Samurai when

he says

he has a lot of swords?

He has like eight swords in the ground.

And the other guy goes, that's a lot of swords.

And he goes, I need to do a lot of killing.

That would be so good.

Hell yes.

Love that one.

Great.

With that,

let's go.

Nothing could do.

Yep.

With that, let's go ahead and jump into tonight's episode of Xandria Unlimited Divergence.

Critical Role is sponsored by BetterHelp.

Look, there's a difference between venting to your GM and actually talking with a licensed therapist.

That's where BetterHelp comes in with clinically trained and licensed therapists.

They've been around for over a decade, helped millions of people, and out of 1.7 million client reviews, they've got a 4.9 rating.

Now here's what I love about BetterHelp.

They help find a therapist that works for you so you can focus on your life's adventure.

You fill out a short questionnaire that helps identify your needs and preferences.

And if you aren't happy with your match, well, you can switch to a different therapist at any time.

It's fully online and you can pause your subscription whenever you need to.

With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally.

As the largest online therapy provider in the world, BetterHelp can provide access to mental health professionals with a diverse variety of expertise.

Find the one with BetterHelp.

Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/slash critical role.

That's better H-E-L-P.com/slash critical role.

Tron Aries has arrived.

I would like you to meet Aries, the ultimate AI soldier.

He is biblically strong and supremely intelligent.

You think you're in control of this?

You're not.

On October 10th.

What are you?

My world is coming to destroy yours.

But I can help you.

The war for our world begins in IMAX.

Tron Aries, suited PG-13.

Maybe inappropriate for children under 13.

Only in theaters October 10th.

Get tickets now.

Going up.

Prices keep going up these days.

It feels like being on an elevator that only goes up.

Going up.

But not at Metro.

We're pushing the down button.

Going down.

We've lowered prices.

Get one line of 5G data for $40.

Period.

That's 20% lower.

And you get a free Samsung 5G phone when you bring your number.

Only at Metro.

Five-year guarantee on eligible plans, exclusion supplies.

See website for details.

Not available at Fab Metro with T-Mobile in the past six months.

Tax supplies.

Hey there, critters.

This year marks our 10-year anniversary of Critical Roll, and we are partnering with Fathom Entertainment to bring our 2025 tour to movie theaters across the U.S.

and Canada.

Head to theater to see the wedding of the year coming to theaters on October 15th with an iconic Jester and Ford wedding at our New York City live show.

Visit fathomentertainment.com/slash critical role to find tickets in theaters near you.

That's fathomentertainment.com/slash critical role.

Rising up,

its eastern side illuminated by the faintest early rays of dawn light, its western edge still lavender and indigo, the snow and stone facing the receding night in the west.

The mountain known as Heaven's Stair,

here in the lands of Asilra,

the city of Vassalheim.

This city

awakens in a new day,

having seen the dawning of yet another age.

Walls,

the outer edge shattered and lay low, some by the blows of gods themselves,

scatter here and yet the city stands.

Vasselheim,

the Dawn City.

It had seen the founding,

the clashes of the schism,

the heights of the age of Arcanum.

In these streets, at one point,

fell the footsteps of Vespenchlorus, who would call the calamity upon the world, and those long centuries of ruin would the Dawn City city weather

and survive.

And now yet again another age comes to this eternal place

where mortals walk hand in hand, arm in arm, knowing

that a new day has come to Xandria.

Carts move hither and to

you see the muddy, unpaved streets.

In some ways, this city harkens back to all of the earlier ages of its long,

long life.

Massive masonry blocks of stone.

The buildings of this place, all, even the ones that aren't temples, have a feeling of reverence, adoration.

Everything here is built to last.

Even the rubble has some solemnity and gravity to it here in this place.

As you approach,

having traveled for days across stormy seas,

all the way to the city of Seagate,

and then some 30 miles inland

to the city of Vasselheim,

what are you feeling as you approach this place?

Ero

knows that he was brought here as a very, very small child

before memory could hold.

But seeing the outline of the city

against the landscape is

sending echoes to the back of his mind.

Whisper of memory.

Phaedra's looking out at the city, and it's...

Some part of it feels familiar being back in a city again, I think.

Yeah.

Feels a little bit like home, but just so much bigger, so much

older and

kind of for the first time, she's starting to think about

what it means to like

have a place, to have people that endure, that who have existed for years before and who will continue to exist, and that she just occupies a very tiny sliver of that moment in time that exists now.

It's overwhelming.

I think Garin's

imagination had never really taken too much time to visualize what the city could have even looked like.

It was just a distant myth that would never cross his path.

And kind of beholding its scale and scope.

Especially given the context of its survival over the past centuries.

You can't help but be struck with awe.

Quiet.

Awe.

Big.

You're smart now.

You can say more than that.

What else am I supposed to say?

No, you're right.

That's that's fair.

It is big.

Yeah.

You finally have enough room to stretch.

Yeah.

Nia is

looking at this city, realizing

or continuing to sort of process the mission ahead of her.

She has a really

grand task to let the people of the city know that

change is here

and it

It isn't like what we could have possibly imagined and there is incredible hardship ahead of us, but we have what we need.

And Nia's just sort of

working around her speech in her head while looking at this great city.

Nia is a wanderer.

She's been a lot of places, but she's never been to a place quite like this.

Taking in the thousands upon thousands of people that call this place home.

Seeing

a city, seeing for the first time a structure that dwarfs Raibad Cole many times over.

The vast neighborhoods and temples towering, a place that has been protected for so long by the prime deities.

And

you see

a people.

humans, elves, dwarves,

vast and sundry peoples of Xandria, and a feeling here of

panic, but the kind of panic that precedes both hope and despair.

Something is changing.

As you walk in, I want everyone here to go ahead and give me a perception or an insight to check, depending on what you're looking for in this moment.

Starting off already.

What do we get over here?

15.

15.

One.

Natural Natural 20, 26.

What do we get over here?

16.

16.

A measly 18.

A measly 18.

Unbelievable.

Nia, you are lost in thought.

You are very much just dwelling on the task before you.

As you walk in, Grinalin, the warrior that was a family friend of Eros, turns to you and says,

if need be, I can take you directly to Shadowbrook.

That is where the High Priestess of the Moonweaver will be if you wish to speak with her.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah,

that would be great.

Thank you.

I hear move and move swiftly.

On that 16,

was that perception or insight?

Perception.

What is Garin on the lookout for as you enter this new place?

I think he's.

For for one.

I think he's gauging the general.

And actually, you know what?

I mean, it would be the same with perception or insight.

It would be more of an insight now that I think about it.

They're both the same school.

He'd be more interested in kind of gauging the vibe of the populace,

getting a feel for how much panic, tension,

or comfort there exists amongst the people here in these tale moments of the calamity.

Trying to look at the level of panic that are on the people here, what you see is a city that has for the past several centuries seen first and foremost to the defense of its

relics, its people, its knowledge, those things gathered here.

In some way, I think on that perception, Garn, you think of Liana's cache.

the mortal avatar of the moon weaver who lived side by side with Nia for a mortal lifetime here in Xandria, the cache of things she hid at the bottom of the Stormpoint Mountains.

This is that times the effort of many of the prime deities in full force and the vast cultures and learnings of Xandria knowing that if they could get here to the frozen north of Asilra, there'd be one place that they could be sure to hold on to that and hold on to it they have dearly through many assaults from the forces of the betrayers.

That being said, I think what you watch is a painful and panicked gear shift where the highest priority has been the defense of self and the grooves of habit worn in by that now look at a city which

may

see

advantage in turning its attention outward for the first time.

And there is fear in that.

And a sense of

if in combat you are on the ground holding your organs to not be kicked while you are down, and suddenly there is a pause and you realize after centuries you need to put a palm on the ground and stand up,

there is a moment of fear,

knowing that to press advantage and find true victory, you will have to make yourself vulnerable

on a 26, on a nat 20 insight.

So smart.

Crocus,

what are you looking for in this place?

I think Crocus is scanning the crowds as we walk through and trying to

judge the general

emotional sense of the crowd around him.

Be that, are they

how

what is it like to walk down a street in this city?

Is it dangerous?

Is it scary?

How is the vibe of this city?

Is it a safe city?

Is it a dangerous city?

You believe that this is a safe city

for a certain type of person,

but that this city has seen its darkest chapters unfold in this moment.

You look around and do not see,

for lack of a better word,

there is not a lot of

playfulness here.

This is a place of worship.

It is reverent.

There are certainly no open wizards walking around in this place.

And I think that you can feel that there is

the sense of purpose that comes with this much faith collected in a place

that

for the purpose it serves there is no safer place in Xandria and for those outside that purpose you walk in the shadow of great and mighty things and that gives some sense of unease perhaps

And on that 26 insight as well, I think on Anat 20, you also look at Phaedra in this moment.

And I think

the orb hanging around that symbol of the knowing mistress.

See Phaedra.

On a Nat 20 Insight, what does Crocus see on Phaedra's face?

Um,

I think

you see

I think normally Phaedra, even when it's not true, she gives off the feeling of being like completely on top of any situation that she walks into.

She's like instantly gets a read for stuff.

And I think for the first time,

you see Phaedra is looking around at this, just trying to like put together the puzzle pieces of like,

who are we here?

What are we doing as part of this?

And she is just like lost and overwhelmed and trying not to show it, but like,

yeah.

feature on a 16.

Uh what are you looking for?

I think um I'm just gonna do a little insight into

how

every the rest of the

the people in the city are regarding us specifically because we presumably look pretty obviously we're a bunch of travelers.

We came in from out of town

Yeah, if there's any sort of reaction to us as we pass through.

Um, you see that you're not getting a big reaction as travelers because travelers are pouring into the city.

And you can see they're pouring in in a way that is actually blocking an almost equal force of people trying to

pour out.

I think you see some people, like Crocus, you're nearby, you see some people that appear to have like hand wrappings and sort of like under some hand wrappings, some like bloody knuckles, looks sort of like unarmed combatants

speaking to each other about like waiting for the tide of people flooding in to like make their way out because they're about to head out they look packed for a long long journey somewhere

and in the travelers that are rushing in you see that the bigger emotion is felt by people flooding in who are similarly gawking uh the ship that came from the sort of southwest

of Guisar joined a lot of other ships.

So your ship with Grinhalen, there were many that were out looking for survivors.

And you see wagons from those ships coming in and recognize other people that have escaped the Strife Emperor, which appears to be like a flood of people that headed for a coast anywhere, got picked up by ships.

And on that situation, you see a group of stragglers.

Many of them look like...

Maybe they haven't washed in weeks because they've just been fleeing as fast as they can.

In the back of that

wagon is

a figure that you look at for a second and narrow your eyes.

The figure is almost monochromatic

because

he is so covered in dust and rubble, but underneath the dust and debris is a fine black velvet coat.

And there is a little boy with a bandaged hand

in the back of a wagon staring kind of blankly ahead as a wagon moves into the city.

Fuck.

Crocus.

See those?

The guy with

that nice shirt and the kid with the hand?

Oh.

We need to fucking deal with them.

He's the one who put that

wound in his own child's hand.

Okay.

Nothing yet, but

we keep an eye on him.

Right.

Um, on an 18, what are Arrow looking for?

Well, Arrow.

I don't know necessarily that Arrow has

a mission in this place.

He's largely here to serve as a...

Like a...

almost like a valet

to Nia and to this group.

But he hopes, he's certainly not any great orator or leader,

but he hopes that

depending on the circles Nia pulls us into

that all of us serve as an example

for the thaw he's beginning to perceive

across this world

and I remember

As a child

the numbers that would come into Seagate from Quasar and elsewhere was

anemic.

Not many would make it to us, some would

choose to finish their journey and stay in the town where I was raised, and some would continue on here to this city.

But the sheer scale

of travelers

is just further proof

that this world is not the one I have known for my entire life

And if I can

impart that to

any of the decision-makers of this place

That's enough

They have looked inward for centuries

But if there's going to be new growth

I have to get out of

their walled garden.

Going up.

Prices keep going up these days.

It feels like being on an elevator that only goes up.

Going up.

But not at Metro.

We're pushing the down button.

Going down.

We've lowered prices.

Get one line of 5G data for $40.

Period.

That's 20% lower.

And you get a free Samsung 5G phone when you bring your number.

Only at Metro.

Five-year guarantee on eligible plans, exclusion supplies.

See website for details.

Not available if that Metro with T-Mobile in the past six months.

Tax applies.

Hey there, critters.

This year marks our 10-year anniversary of Critical Roll and we are partnering with Fathom Entertainment to bring our 2025 tour to movie theaters across the U.S.

and Canada.

Head to theater to see the wedding of the year coming to theaters on October 15th with an iconic Jester and Ford wedding at our New York City live show.

Visit fathomentertainment.com slash critical roll to find tickets in theaters near you.

That's fathomentertainment.com slash critical role.

Moving through the streets of Waselheim,

you head towards the neighborhood of Shadowbrook.

Nearer to the base of the heavens stair.

Massive staircase going up the mountains.

You see a babbling series of brooks, this like ice-cold crystal clear water collecting in these mirrored pools

around a very small neighborhood of

these stone buildings.

And you see many of the buildings have these massive sort of dolmen stones set over their doorways with writings in sylvan and celestial on them.

You see that there are like small little sort of public bird baths that are left with small offerings for the Fae in this place,

those friends of the Moon Weaver.

As Grinalen moves through this place,

you see a truly panicked mob gathered around a massive stone temple that holds that crescent moon of the Moonweaver over it.

You see people are holding each other.

Some people are weeping.

And you see that many of the people that are weeping as you approach appear to be clerics of the Moonweaver.

Wow.

Can you take a little bottle or vial of that crystal clear water?

Yes.

Cool.

Thank you.

And then can I look for...

I'm seeing all these panicked people.

I don't know if I necessarily want to disturb them yet.

I would love to talk to a leader or a high priestess if possible.

Yes.

You move forward into the temple and you see Grinalin comes up and speaks with one of the guards there.

Turning around,

it is rare to see a like elven woman that sort of shows any sign of aging.

And perhaps it isn't aging.

Perhaps she just hasn't slept in a century.

But with sort of bags under her eyes and this

beautiful wavy hair that flows out that is nonetheless kind of not perfectly kept in these, like, silvery,

uh, sort of like

plum and silver wrappings of her hair, steps out

and comes forward, tending to various people.

She goes to one of the nearby sort of warriors that holds a sort of moon-shaped silver sickle as their sole weapon, and just goes, We must tend to

all that are here.

An explanation is coming.

I have reached out to

the farseer, Volsting.

He will, and you see someone comes up who has a symbol of the knowing mentor around them and says,

My lady Eldanwin, Volsting has fallen.

He is terribly ill and requires some healing of some kind.

And you see she says, Aye, aye.

and looks to her hands and holds them in prayer,

speaking a prayer that she has spoken many times before and nothing comes.

And you can see her shaking with a sense of panic.

It's as good as time as ever to introduce myself.

Hi.

Thank you, Carl.

Uh, lady, hi, uh, my name is Rainia.

I believe I have information you seek about

our Moonweaver.

I

she looks at you and says, I, I, I,

um,

I

understand you have a large gathering of people you need to tend to.

Is there a place we can speak privately briefly?

She tries to very quickly flash the thing that Luce had.

Be like, I'm valid, I swear.

She looks to you and says,

You are a member of

Brethren or Sisterhood.

What abbey or temple?

What glade do you hail from?

None.

I am

someone who's been given a gift and just now learning how to use it.

Self-talk.

More or less.

Go ahead and give me persuasion with disadvantage.

Okay.

She didn't like my Moonweaver symbols.

She didn't like my book.

This place is crawling with Moonweaver symbols.

They got Moonweaver symbols all over the place.

Novelty shops in the way.

There's a little rotating kiosk that has, it's just fucking full.

You don't want to have their name on it.

A bunch of moon.

Sean, Steve.

Oh, you were homeschooled.

My son is named Boris.

Yeah, my son's name is also Boris.

Only a 14.

Only a 14.

Can I...

I can't do anything.

She looks to you and says,

Congratulations on finding the path of the Moon Weaver.

I am very busy.

Can I...

Oh, God, this is so much.

Um, I have that letter opener, right?

Yeah, can I slice my hand?

Uh, she goes, you see her go,

wait, wait, and uh, I'm gonna close it and then try and cast cure wounds on myself

and open my palm up and see that it is no longer cut

and be like,

I understand you are overwhelmed.

I'm here to help relieve some of that.

I think you should listen.

We've all witnessed miracles at the behest of this one.

Please come with me.

At once.

And you see, she turns.

She moves out into the street, and you see a group of sort of Moonweaver faithful gather around her, walking.

Vaselheim is a bizarre mixture of highest reverence and deep humility.

The streets are not paved here.

They are muddy and filled with stones.

And you see her walk the hem of her sort of beautiful, like deep plum purple with sparkles of sort of like gemstones or small flecks of iridescent things within it.

Trails in the mud behind her.

And she walks her boots muddy and dirty.

Those gathered around her hold tattered pennants and banners of the moon weaver

almost like she would be traveling in a carriage or a palanquin in some greater imperial city.

But here, just four of the faithful with penance gather around her as she walks herself to this next place.

She turns to you, going,

your name again, child.

I'm sorry.

Nia,

you can call me Nia.

Nia, I am Eldanman.

You

wield a miracle.

Give me an insight check.

Please.

Oh, not too bad.

You said insight.

Oh, goodness.

Great.

21.

The relationship between faith and doubt is a complicated one.

This is a woman who has wielded not just the magic of the Moonweaver, but some of the greatest magics of the Moonweaver, who now looks at her frail and faltering hands and cannot understand why the magic is not coming to her.

And given the silence ringing behind her eyes,

this is a woman who

feels a relationship to her goddess faltering.

And given the choice to blame the goddess or herself, you can see is blaming herself in this moment and does not know what to make of that.

Been there.

You, um.

I uh

will try not to take up too much of your time.

I

the Moon Weaver

and you see Mia trying to explain how her sister is the Moonweaver, but but also not.

And

she takes the book that she'd been writing her story in and puts it in her hands and says, um,

when I'm gone, you can read this and know this.

The Moonweaver is not gone.

Our gods are not gone.

They are behind a gate to protect us from their siblings and the betrayers.

It is.

I understand that there has been a lessening of magic.

It is not because you have failed in any way.

It is because we now have to find new ways to rebuild.

My sister.

You say your sister.

Why?

As

dear

a relationship as that is, I just have never heard of it.

My sister's technically the moon weaver.

Hmm.

She means it quite literally.

Yes.

Oh,

show her the orb.

You are a.

You should.

Oh,

I

placed the orb in her hands while it's still around my neck.

Yeah.

So that she can see what we saw.

Huh.

Quite literally.

Yeah, yeah.

She turns to one of her attendants and says,

find Morgana and Rox right away.

We should all meet.

We need to see to

Volsink.

We need to see to the Farseer.

And you see that she says,

would you

would you come with me to the Runekeep?

Yes, can my friends come?

Yes, yes, by all means.

all walk in the light of the, yeah, we are, we all walk, we all walk in the light.

Um, yeah, and about totally.

Fuck it, whatever.

You see, you see, you see this, this, like, all that this woman's whole vibe is, is that she should be sitting on a throne backlit by mystical light coming from another dimension and giving cryptic answers to the pointed questions of adventurers.

And instead, she woke up a couple days ago and couldn't cast magic.

And it has been flopping like a fish on a dock, kind of since then, and her whole vibe is ruined.

Yeah,

a woman with a ruined vibe, just walking, being like, okay, this, I guess, what, like 19-year-old is telling me what time it is or whatever, or I guess half elf, so much older than that, but still

young, a young woman is telling this ancient elven woman.

Also, very like still,

she doesn't have a, Nia doesn't have an incredible grasp truly on what's, what has happened, what is happening, what is going to happen, what she should do.

She is still like, still, I think, feeling the effects of that Nat one of like, I'm, I have, I have the tools of a leader and the

dreams of a survivor.

It, it, it, she is feeling quite like,

she's of that similar vibe of like, I have much more power than I thought I would ever need.

Um, and is just trying to give all the helpful information to the people who she believes would utilize it better than herself.

Walking with her, you approach an area within Wasselheim, this tall blocky structure, and you can see that

around it

there are panels of stone turning on massive stone wheels and plant.

Every square inch of this massive blocky keep is covered head to toe in runes.

Vast and many,

written large and then small.

The lintels of the doors have runes some four inches tall, but then some molding, and that molding will have the sort of little half-inch runes written along that.

But then on the ridges of that, even smaller, are written others in language upon language upon language.

And you see within this holy site of the Knowing Mentor.

As you walk within, the smell of incense is so strong and powerful here.

You see, wearing heavy cloaked robes, the faithful of the Knowing Mentor walk inside this place.

You see the runes alight.

And I think actually you can all look and see that as Crocus walks, his kind of clawed footprints leave a little bit of glowing magic behind as they step on the rune-covered, even the floors here are covered in runes.

Moving forward, you enter a holy chamber, moving up a short staircase to rows of dormitories, and you see, in keeping with sort of a cloistered order,

that the bedroom of what they call the Farseer

is

as humble as any of the cloistered order gathered here.

It is no grand or palatial bedroom, but you walk inside

and see

two figures side by side.

There is a

half-orc.

Old, old half-orc man, big cowcatcher chin, two tusks coming up uh but he looks frail he looks sort of like he's wasting away um

you see that he has uh a kind of like multiple like sort of stick and poke tattoos over him and one of the tattoos written in runes but the the writing creates a hieroglyphic shape of an eye in the center of his forehead and you see uh that he sort of shakes blankets piled on top of him but is shaking under a disease.

Um next to him, you see

a

dwarven

matriarch,

priestess, warrior, smith, crafter, a cube of a woman.

Um

who

she

stands, she has this massive bear skin mantle over thick like leather and scale armor.

Her, you know, she sort of is sitting on a small stool.

The stool strains under the armor, giant stone hammer on an amulet around her neck.

She has scars and injuries on her that are far from cosmetic.

There's an injury.

She's missing about three or four teeth from the top and a little bit of the bone of her upper jaw.

You can see the lip hangs down from an old injury here.

She has seen battle.

You look at some of the rubble out on the wall and you wonder if she was not in the direct line of some of those blasts from

earlier.

And you see that there is an enormous round steel shield next to her that you see has a symbol on it of a cracked anvil.

You see that she holds this old, this orc has these, she's like very tall and gangly, has this long, frail hand, and she's got these squat, strong, blocky hands that are grasping this old orc, and you can see that she's just pouring divine magic out of herself into

the hand of the Farseer.

As you enter with Eldanlyn, you see her speaking in, who here can speak Dwarven?

Strangely.

Strangely.

um what she says over and over again is just going

i know i cannot hear you but please hear me i know i cannot hear you but please hear me i know i cannot hear you but please hear me um as this healing magic pours out nia sort of effortlessly

you can feel or tell

that

the healing magic is entering over and over again, and it is not finding purchase.

It is not finding what it needs to find in here.

Okay.

I look to Aldonwin to see if she's giving me, like, leave to enter this space.

Yes, you see, she enters and gives introduction.

She says, Morgana,

I am

sorry

to disturb you.

This is

Rainia.

And you see Morgana turns and goes,

Rainia,

I don't know you, my child.

No,

and I don't know you, but I have information about the

availability or lack thereof of our gods.

She looks to you and says,

So it is true.

And you see, Eldan one says,

My mistress's magic has left me.

And

you see that Morgana turns to you and says,

Strange

are

the tidings here.

You see, she steps up,

placing the hand of the far seer gently on his chest

and goes

she turns to you and goes

I am Morgana Thundershield I am forge keeper of

the All Father here in Vaselheim

you see that she

looks to you and says

you bring tidings of what has befallen the moon weaver

you see Eldanwan turns to you and says

our connection to the gods is the most precious thing that we have

and

we have long

sent our hearts

out

to

our sisters and siblings in

the followers of the Allhammer.

And you see that Morgano looks down and says,

Though our magic is availed to us,

none

of our order

have heard

none in living memory have heard the Allhammer's voice.

We feared him.

Dead, captured, or worse.

When the gods war, certainly there are mortal prices to pay.

You see,

she looks to Elderham and says, but

strange it is, for

for many years the followers of the Moonweaver

have joined us as well in being unable to hear the words or reassurance of their goddess.

And we fear the worst now that their magic has left them

it may have left some but not all

eldanwin speaks and says rhinia is a cleric newly forged of the moon weaver who has her miracles at hand and you see that morgana sort of

squints

It

I

and I know this sounds ridiculous, but I am

the mortal sister of the Moonweaver herself.

Or

a piece of her,

lived.

She sort of hits that lived hard,

lived with

in

my sister.

And

before she left, she shared with me.

that I will have

her magic as long as I continue to hold faith and

I'm continuing to hold faith.

So it is

all very confusing.

Ania still is like she worked on the speech on the ship and none of it is coming to her in this moment.

But

she

just does what she always does and offers how she can be helpful.

She has miracles on hand.

I travel with my companions and we

all have different gifts, but I...

I think I need to share Liana

my

the Moonweaver's message with the people, or at least the people of this order.

Perrow has been hanging back for quite a while and speaks up from the rear.

This young woman has crossed the Osmet Sea to carry the words of the Moonweaver

from her very lips to you.

Freed from the clutches,

the strife emperor himself

reclined out of the ash of Southern Gwasar

so that she

might come and bring hope.

And one must bear witness.

Yes, and I'm now a woman of faith.

Never have been, but

I cannot deny what I've seen

and heard

from this woman.

Her power, her faith is undeniable

um actually i was just as this as we perfunctively like make these phrases i gently tap the

hearth's hammer at my side while looking towards morgana

um

You tap the hammer at your side looking at Morgana.

You see she looks at you,

smiles,

gives a sort of knowing nod as a member of the same faith.

You see

that

Eldanwin says,

I do not know

if the Moonweaver has spoken to you, she told you that she need leave this place.

Yes.

They all are.

That cannot be.

You see, Morgana looks up at you and goes,

The Allhammar would not abandon this world.

They are not the same thing.

It is a mercy, I swear.

It...

From what was shared with me, it is...

Their influence, their presence on this world, has allowed for great

evil, despite the intentions of the gods.

They are

taking leave to protect us from them.

It sounds ridiculous, I know, but

there are pockets of power available.

I have one.

I cannot imagine I'm the only person.

Maybe of the Moonweaver, I'm the only.

But

there is...

there is work to be done.

Aldanwin.

In this moment, I think you see Aldanwin

struggling mightily.

Am I close enough to Aldanwin to take her hand?

Yeah.

I take her hand and I put my other hand over it.

You are no longer meant to fare alone.

There is power that I have that I am

readily available to share with you

if you remind yourself to keep faith in a God far away.

As the words keep faith in a God far away resound,

you see her heart break and she collapses into you, all pride gone.

These clerics are servants and they strive for humility.

But in striving there is that desire in the back of every cleric's mind to be the greatest servant.

And the desire for that greatness is itself sometimes an obstacle to the humility that is required to serve.

And you see here, as you hold her, that hubris collapses and gives way to true humility.

She wipes a a tear from her eyes.

It has been my greatest honor to serve her

and my life's greatest joy

to learn,

to share her miracles.

During the darkest hours of the calamity, I always felt her at my side.

To wield her magic was effortless.

Perhaps it will be an even greater joy

to learn to build it up again anew.

And

I would guess

the

faith, the devotion to rebuilding,

you will see something

strong within yourself that you may have never known.

This is an opportunity.

Dare I say a boon?

She smiles, and you hear a sudden

from the bed as the Farseer

awakens.

Um, can you go to him?

Yeah, she goes to him.

Uh, uh, uh, she tries to uh sort of copy uh uh Morgana's, um,

just takes his hand and tries to like

cure or heal or help or just keep him holding.

Go ahead.

You can pour the energy in there, but I'd also ask for a

medicine check, and you can do so with advantage as you pour actual healing magic into it.

Crocus goes over to the Moonweaver

high priestess and just kind of picks her up under her feet and goes,

Strength starts now.

And I picks her up and puts, makes her stand.

She's standing again.

And you see her looking and you see her immediately for whatever

disaster has befallen her station.

And it's mostly a disaster of people like to have a role and she's been the one with all the answers.

And instead, she looks at this young cleric, in a true sense, a prophet, a messenger of a divine truth, and studies your hands to see how you are doing what you're doing.

Learn to learn again.

Walks away from her and go stands here.

Arrows.

That looks a crocus.

Who?

You said medicine?

Medicine.

Enroll with advantage.

Oh, I will.

I know.

Just read

math.

23.

23.

Um

16.

No, I'm just gonna die.

Nia.

It's pretty.

Yeah.

Um, Nia, Nia never knew the world that Eldanwin knew.

Eldanwin knew the height of calamity and how to call up.

She was a young elf at the outset of calamity and has lived an entire long life in Baselheim wielding the magic of the Moon Weaver,

which,

though circumstances were at their worst,

she saw her God's physical face and felt the hand on her back every time,

every time she cast a guidance can trip.

The presence of the divine was a known fact.

And

what does she see in this new world

when a cleric has to call on the aid of the divine

not

as just

seeking intercession from a god?

In other words, in all of the past centuries of Xandria, every divine spell was a direct intercession from a deity.

Now it's not.

It's

you.

So what does she see in this moment as you go to heal the Farseer?

Um

She

The the Farseer hasn't spoken at all, or as I say.

Instead of grasping,

um, I think Nia just speaks to him of her dreams, of the deals that her sister and herself made to find each other on the moon again one day.

And she just of her dreams talks of her

hopes she

it's very like bedside manner

everything's going to be fine

one day my sister and i we

joked and and

laughed and shared and loved

And even in those dark, scary times, our love carried us through.

And she's just pouring as much love and feelings of safety and of

just that that hope that comes with knowing that there is joy in the future

that hope pours out of you

uh

anyone who wants to can make a religion check if you would like to that feels appropriate now

I think sorry yeah I think uh uh is the Farseer is that another natural

okay

Is the Farseer's eyes open or are his eyes closed?

Oh, his eyes are open.

She takes out the mirror, and I'm assuming he's like lying on his back.

She takes out the mirror and tries to reflect her hand holding his so that he may see in this moon mirror

that help is here, help is available, and joy is in the future.

The Farseer looks to the mirror.

What did we get for these religion checks?

Oh, I'm pulling a metal pump from my fingernail.

I rolled a six.

Great.

Three.

Three.

We were looking up at 18.

18.

11.

Phedra, I think you're looking, as you've said, you're not a person of faith.

And there's always been something about the direct intercession of the gods.

Like, you lived under the direct intercession of the Strife Emperor for a long fucking time.

I don't know how chuffed you are at the idea of the gods running around.

And in fact, probably some part of you,

if the goal is for the gods to all leave, hey shit, that's what's that's it makes an interesting world, you know?

Oh, mom and dad are going away for the weekend.

Wheezy Marla.

But

what you see here

is that

in the center of Vaselheim, Nia works a miracle.

And the miracle is

that

these spells of healing and of communion with the forces of nature and divinity in all the preceding ages of Axandria

were heartfelt requests from the followers of these divinities for their direct intercession.

Nia,

through and mediated by her love of her sister, the Moonweaver

shows that that divine source lives in a mortal heart as well.

And it's her belief

that intercedes on her own behalf.

That belief

that there is a reunion coming on the moon, far away in its shining silver light, that her and her sister will be reunited.

And that, for the first time, does not need to be literal, does not need to feel the hand of the divine come crashing down.

There is divinity in that belief itself,

and that

heals the farseer.

Looks into the mirror, his eyes focusing.

miracle

made by hand.

Thank you.

Careful, careful now.

She just rests the mirror on, like

he's on a bed of some kind, I'm assuming.

Yeah.

Yeah, she just rests it on that and immediately puts her focus to him.

The easy days are behind us.

Yes.

Oh

no.

Yeah.

But

we can create easy days.

It will be a long time in the doing.

Yes.

But

I have nothing better to do with my time than to make a better world.

I'd like to show you something.

Okay.

You know how you put your

he walks over to the bed, kind of ducks underneath the canopy, like,

and puts the orb in the hand of the man.

He holds it in these frail old hands.

So that's how it all happened.

I am just awoken from a deep and painful slumber.

You should keep this.

I was planning on it.

It's not a gift.

He looks and says,

and says,

Knowledge is a heady brew,

best consumed and shared in equal parts by all, and not hoarded by the very few at the expense of those with little.

He

looks and as this the Farseer, as this

head of those devotees of the knowing mistress, he looks at Eldanwin and looks at Morgana.

You see that you hear a sort of clopping of hooves outside, and you see that there's out the window a kobold armored in platinum armor, riding a bighorn ram,

disembarks a symbol of the platinum dragon over the sort of

symbol.

You see, he has a lot, he has like what to most people would be a spear, but to him is clearly a knight's lance that he places on the side of the bighorn ram.

And you see that as the farseer begins speaking and goes,

Nothing.

It seems my mistress

has joined your sister.

Those of my order,

those closest to her, all felt it.

She has suffered an eternal injury and paid a great price

in battle.

I felt the wound and nearly died.

and would have followed, but for your intercession and the power of your faith.

A word

that now

holds even greater weight

as the new age dawns.

Faith has flowed effortlessly as the gods have walked the world.

To wield their magic now will require actually

some believing in things unseen and far removed.

There is

great work to be done.

We will study with you if we can, Rhinia, to see how your magic is wielded.

For the gods wish to give their gifts still,

but their gifts cannot be handed freely.

They must be sought by the pure of heart and those of strong conviction.

Also,

their plan,

their great plan, is in jeopardy.

The last and great battles are soon to be fought.

Far, far away.

The final conflicts will unfold

underneath the long and terrible shadow of Gordranus.

That is where the final clashes will occur.

But

a great and hideous evil has been sealed at great cost to my mistress.

Now there is some chance.

However,

in her parting, she relayed to me a truth

that the Moon Weaver has relayed to you.

He turns to Morgana and Eldanwin and says, the truth is as she says.

The gods are leaving.

You see Eldanwin weeps and you see that Morgana just spits on the ground and crosses her arms looking grumpy.

Y'all process differently.

You see, walking in,

this like armored kobold walks in and says,

Yeah.

He looks up at you, and you see he looks up and he says, Brother.

You see, he speaks out and says, I am Rux Tallheart, Powadina, the Platinum Dragon.

Rux, Rux, you said?

Rux, R-U-X.

As he looks around,

and

you see that Morgana turns and says,

like

ourselves,

those followers of the Platinum Dragon have not heard from their God in many long years.

And you see that Rux speaks and says,

It troubles me not that I do not hear from him.

If our hearts are true, we follow, in song or in silence.

To defend the walls of Waselheim has been an honor.

And you see that the Farseer speaks and goes, And now the battle moves to Wild Mount.

You see that

looking out from this place,

you see that

the Farseer in the bed says

the battles that unfold in Wild Mount will be great and terrible.

Beings of raw divine energy will seek to make the last push against the scaled tyrant,

the Lord of the Hills.

However,

there is a problem much thornier and more complex than simple clashing of army on army.

All of the gods

must be

found and leave this world

in order for this gate to be sealed.

Several of the prime deities

are captured or missing.

Even with the Lord of the Hells and the Scaled Tyrant defeated

If

they are simply sealed away, then you see he gestures to the orb.

One enterprising Archmage need only snap his fingers and the calamity is reborn anew.

We must find these

captured or banished deities somewhere.

They are within Xandria.

And you see, he

uh

looking out at you, he sort of speaks and says, In your journeys, you do not come by any travelers or possibilities strange.

You see, Morgana sort of

arches an eyebrow and says, What, like, yeah, did you pass any massive sealed gateways between crystal obelisks that seem to have some god captured behind them?

I half-dudgeon.

Some pragmatism, I think, is in order, certainly.

We did cross paths with a few of the deities, if you can believe it, but not the ones you are seeking.

She sort of wipes her brows and says,

Eldamin looks and says, It's been a long, long day.

Um, Nia, would you stay here in Vaselheim for a time to help teach what we may learn, your connection to your divinity may be

a road for us to take to attempt to wield the magic of our own gods.

Nia sort of looks at Arrow

and

is trying to gauge.

Nia would love to stay.

Nia would love to help, but she is not alone and she does not want to put her needs over the needs of the group and of the team.

Um,

she says, I will stay for as long as I can, but I move with my party.

I will stay for as long as I can.

She nods.

Um, you see that Rox turns to you and says,

Well,

long days of travel, bellies need filling.

We would be happy to give you accommodations here in Vasselhar.

Thank you.

Let the wealth be shared, and food and drink, libations given.

Oh, I can know what that word means now.

The farseer looks and says, There will be more to speak of.

Thank you for saving my life.

The knowledge you have gleaned

and the path you have taken here

provides

some

strand of hope

for the battles yet to come in Xandria.

It It is unending.

And you see that Rux takes you guys out from the Farseer's chamber and brings you over to a sort of

frigid outdoor sort of like hall.

You see people are dressed in furs, and he comes over and says, Cloaks and furs.

It's chilly here in Wasselheim, especially for us scaled types.

Important to stay warm.

Fine.

You'll be fine.

Ah!

Yes, you will, brother.

You are a mighty, mighty combatant, I can see, tall and broad of shoulder.

Best in the business.

You cut an imposing figure yourself.

Small I am in stature, but it bothers me not.

The smaller the man, the greater his share of bravery on the battlefield.

The things I've seen my friend here do, I do believe it.

And to what god are you devoted?

Oh,

you know, as such changing times, I'm sort of between deities at the moment.

But I have faith

in my

companions.

I have faith in Nia.

I have seen.

I have seen all of the gods bestow wonderful gifts, both

real, tangible gifts, but gifts in many other ways in my companions.

companions, and my faith lies with them.

Exceptional.

Was that when you said change?

Is that the changebringer, or was it just

yes?

Ha ha!

A cagey answer for a follower of the changebringer.

Oh, you got me.

Oh, hail the changebringer.

All right.

puffs of kind of like hot air come out of his nose.

Oh, you see, he says, very well, some stew for my friends.

And you see that he uh walks off to go get some food.

Garin's gonna lean in and kind of just elbow Nia in the side of it and be like,

So, not too bad for your first time in Rasselheim, eh?

Not bad at all.

I

Nia sort of confides in this moment of like,

I have no idea what I'm doing.

Here's the secret:

Nobody ever does.

Oh, that's good.

That feels good.

What are you gonna put on a habit now?

I mean, I'm guessing I have to.

What's the well, I don't even know anything about the change.

I guess you're gonna figure it out.

I do.

Welcome to the new world.

Arrow's telling jokes.

Arrow's doing bits now.

Maybe this wasn't the change we thought was coming.

Yeah.

And yet it's here.

Everyone's gonna tell more jokes.

It doesn't fix anything, but.

Yeah, we laugh.

Call it

Arrow's humor.

I'll be here all night.

Kill him.

I'm so mad.

Kill him.

Kill him out.

As your laughter rings out,

hearing the sound of your laughter, you hear behind you.

Mia?

Ray Mia?

Whip pan turns.

I know a lot of people.

Well, you were told that two people did come to Baselheim, and your mother and father

rush through the crowd towards you.

Push past

as many bodies as are in between me and my parents.

And I just like

just like

leaps into her father's arms,

scoops her mother up as well, just holds them and is laughing.

Not weeping.

She just laughs and laughs and laughs.

Probably cry laughs a little bit, but not like there is no sadness here.

There is only

that weird,

that like feeling of when confirmation bias turns into confirmation.

Yeah.

She knew that this was going to happen.

And so

she just feels a sense of pride within herself of like, this is what happens when you never give up and

just is held by her parents.

Your parents weeping.

Your mother, an elven woman, you see that she has band after band around her, like silvery white locks that go down to the middle of her back.

Your father, a human man, grasps you and holds you both tight, lifts you up into his arms and twirls you both around.

He's just weeping, weeping.

You see, this,

I can't believe it.

I can't believe it.

Just wait until I tell you what's happened.

Liana found us and said that she was going to meet you at Torms Hill.

We have to talk about Liana.

These are my friends.

Is she all right?

Yes.

She is.

She's okay.

She is not.

And she can't get the words out.

Your mother holds her.

I.

I was there when it happened.

She

is the Moon Weaver.

Give me both your hands.

I love this routine.

I love this routine.

I think while this is happening, too, like the reunion here, looking at the hammer, looking at all this chaos, Gar looks over to a completely unrelated raven that's on the ground eating a piece of trash and just goes,

You did this, didn't you?

Yeah, Crocus delivers that message, and I think Nia is just like,

she's okay, she's well, she's fine, she's not here, but she's watching, and she

got

me here.

She told me that you guys would be here, and

I have

power unlike I've ever seen, and I'm.

Your dad goes, Am I a gone?

No,

thank you.

That is a fuck ton of a download for a mom and dad.

And you see, your mom's like, I'm so sad that I've lost my daughter.

But my daughter's alive, but my only daughter, but she's still, she kind of can't die.

Wow.

One of my daughters can't die.

Can you die?

Yes.

Oh, no.

But I won't.

Good.

For a time, I hope.

For a time.

You see that your dad is like, not for a time.

Your dad goes, well, that's the deal.

Okay.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

Wow.

I, uh, we, and Nia just sort of like info dumps.

Like,

I, I, I found Arrow.

Uh, uh, Arrow found me.

And uh,

I think right now she, like, introduces Arrow to her parents of like,

this is the man who kept me alive.

He feels very

like awash in a feeling of satisfaction, but also awkwardness and not sure what his

place even is at this moment where he has been trying to act like a protector

but now we're in the strongest city in the world she's with her mother and father and he just tries to set aside that wash of feelings it's a pleasure to meet you both ah they both hug you deeply immediate just immediately you are embraced this very warm family you see that the uh

father casimir is just weeping openly martha your mother just goes

embraced two good daughters

she weeps and goes i

cannot thank you enough

There is a gratitude greater than any other

that a parent holds for one that has seen their child through fire and torment to safety once again.

We owe you everything.

She's enriched my life.

Gift is mine.

Um, well,

our home is your home forevermore.

And should you ever need a bed or a full belly she says, please come come to our home.

Come to our home.

You have to see our home.

I have to see her home.

You're still getting stew.

Stew aplenty.

And I think that in this moment,

having arrived safely in Vaselheim,

I will ask if there's anything you all do that night.

You know, you have been asked to stay here to show this manner of faith and prayer to the clerics of Vaselheim in this way, but you journey with a group of people.

And I think that as that night wears on, you guys are eating and getting stew, that group of like sort of like bloody hand-wrapping people, they head out that night headed for Wild Mount.

And I think you see Crocus, some of them like look at you with a nod

of just sort of familiarity as they see like a fearsome unarmed combatant, much like them,

as they prepare to head to Wild Mount for like the final.

It seems like the dawn city has gotten the memo and it is the great final clashes are going to happen and we need to head to wild mountain

for the rest of you let me ask what you do either that very night

or indeed if you wish to stay for some time you certainly have earned some rest

yeah Yeah.

But before I rest, I think I am going to try and find a certain

velvet suit-wearing lord.

Yes.

See if I can find him.

Just watch him for a little bit.

Oh, I was like, who?

Yes.

I switched places with Crocus.

That's fine.

She mustn't watch Zelton John perform and stuff.

You see,

so,

you go ahead and start to look for

this

lord.

Go ahead and give me an investigation check, Phaedra.

Did you bring me with you?

Not great.

I always, all I can do is that.

Unless, like, otherwise noted.

It's not great.

It's it.

12.

12.

Yeah.

I think you search through.

I'm helping.

Can I give advantage?

Yes, you can give advantage.

Oh, go for it.

Do it with advantage.

That was worse.

Still 12.

I'll say this, on a 12,

I think

that it takes you a while.

Vassalheim's a big city.

And I think...

For the most part,

I think time unfolds here.

I think we're going to move through time time a little bit.

Nia, there's busy work for you here, working with the other clerics.

Also, as time goes on, the followers of the Moonweaver have joined the Knowing Mistress.

The Farseer communicates to you that the Knowing Mistress suffered a great and terrible injury somewhere in the world.

Those followers now also need to learn this new way of not just...

Ask for the direct intercession, but really it's the power of their belief that is making that magic happen.

It is a harder way of doing it, it's a harder way of wielding the magic.

It is something that changes forever the nature of Xandria.

And as time goes on, the other high priests of the Prime Deities here begin to understand that

this is going to be the new way it works, and that their gods are also going to go behind this gate.

While we're out

looking for this person,

I'm walking with you.

Can I

talk to you about something?

Yes, you've never asked me that before.

How can I say no?

I'd argue I wasn't capable.

That's fair.

Why do I call you boss?

Because you're my bodyguard.

I am your boss.

Same with, you know, Otto, Tavine, all the boys.

Not what I mean.

You...

For lack of a better term, hatched me.

I did.

I was just a

kid who won a dragon egg in a card game one day, and you know, life is funny in that way.

You're the best.

best victory prize I ever got.

I think you need to examine those words a little bit.

I know that might make me feel

that you don't refer to me as your child,

but as your bodyguard.

I

don't have a mom.

Or a dad.

I have you.

That's it.

And I'm working for you.

You call

the rest of the group your boys.

But I'm your bodyguard.

That's fucked up.

You know.

Phedra.

For maybe the first time Phydra that you've seen her, she's just completely

speechless.

I

put

I come down to my I can reach your face

I am so sorry, Crocus

You know I love you

And

you are.

You are my world.

You are everything to me.

It's everything that I do

is.

So that

maybe one day you can have a better life, an easier one, a happier one.

I don't know if

that ever translated.

You may feel that way,

but I.

Until now

didn't know anything

I didn't know how to articulate any of this

but

you

didn't teach me either

you know

I think maybe it's because I didn't I didn't know

I think

I'm not as smart as you think I am or

as I pretend to be.

But

you're the smartest person I know.

So

you need smarter friends.

I needed

a mom.

Not

to fight for a boss.

He's gonna start walking away.

As

Crocus departs,

Phaedra, you are left in a muddy crossroad in a city of solemn, grave, and faithful people.

Your heroic journey to get here

has left you alone at this crossroads, searching for a lord in a velvet suit.

You have a tattoo of a roach on your body.

You're

deep down

criminal.

You had a whole life of double crossing, being ruthless,

blackmailing people, slitting throats that needed to be slit.

Do you think any of these pious people in these city streets actually have a place for you when the new day comes?

Even Crocus is walking away from you right now.

What are you feeling in this moment?

Phaedra just stands still because it truly feels like the rest of the world is just

going on and moving and...

changing in all these incredible ways.

And Phaedra just stands there because it feels like her clock, the one that's been ticking inside her heart, the one that's been keeping her going this whole time,

for the first time she feels like it's stopped.

It's just stuck.

There's no ticking, it's just silence.

And standing there

watching everyone else pass her by on the streets,

she feels

just

invisible almost

as you feel invisible

you kind of do fade into the shadows for a second

um

give me a perception check

Nat one

um

oh you're halfling oh shit.

Oh, yeah.

Good looking out.

Good looking out.

Perception?

Yeah.

14.

14.

Better than one.

You hear a little sort of muffled

from one of your pockets.

Key?

Is that you?

Pull out the key.

What you've been walking around.

Are you looking for somebody right now?

Yeah.

No, there's this guy, this real bad guy.

I met him, I served him when he when I was back in Rybad Cole.

I mean, I think he's a he at least was back when I knew him, a devotee of the betrayer gods.

Also, he stabbed his own son, which is

yeah,

crazy man.

Uh, you see, it says,

Okay,

do you wanna

if

if he's if he's near a door.

Yes.

I can help you find him if you want.

If he's not near a door, then this just won't work.

And I am sorry in advance.

No, no, no, no.

You.

Alright, I love him.

Key.

Listen, the world's full of doors.

There's gotta be...

He's gotta be near one, right?

Let's let's do this.

Unless he's way outside, but people that dress in velvet don't like to sleep in fields.

That's true.

Um, okay.

Um, uh, Don't this is a this is a trickier one than just like opening a door.

Look into the gem and give me a formal

do the do the thing.

Okay.

Dear dear Key,

it's Phydra.

Hello, Phedra.

I am

formally requesting you to find this

motherfucker that I know who stabbed his son.

Please.

Okay.

Give me a little bit more.

Give me a little more description about the guy because motherfucker is not super technical.

Okay.

And

if we can get, if we can get a, if, if, we can do it wish instead of request, just for the whole pomp and circumstance.

I, okay.

I.

Hello again, Key.

Uh,

Phedra.

I

wish

that I could find this

elephant, right?

Or he was human.

He was human.

This, oh, right, right, right.

This, uh, human

wearing a

he was covered in rubble, but he was wearing this black velvet

suit

to find that specific motherfucker that I just described who stabbed his own son, please.

Ruby light.

You're looking through a keyhole.

You see this key can look out of any keyhole in the city.

And as you look through it,

you see,

sleeping in a bed somewhere near the city's entrance, this human lord is slumbering.

It looks like his lady wife has not made the journey to Vaselheim with them.

But sleeping, uncovered by any blanket or sheet, curled up in a fetal position on the floor at the foot of the bed is the boy.

So the father and the boy are both here in Vaselheim.

And you look out the window and think you know the building.

There is an open window to the icy air that is coming in as the Lord sleeps under many blankets and the boy shivers at the ground at the foot of the bed.

I'm gonna go over there.

Oh, yeah.

I say, thank you so much, Key.

You know, it's just you and me now.

What?

It's just you and me.

My boy.

I've abandoned my son.

Woo!

Yeah.

Damn.

And I put the key

back in my bag.

Jesus Christ.

Oh, Phaedra is a fucked up person.

Great.

Honesty is important.

You slink over

and see this stone building.

Easy sort of handholds in the blocks.

The open window up above near the entrance to the city.

You find it pretty easily.

Okay.

And I think that I can sort of triangulate which specific room that he's in.

Well, you see a couple of windows, and only one of them is open.

Oh.

I

try to climb up to there and stealthily peek in.

Hell yeah, go ahead and give me acrobatics.

Difficulty 10s.

What do I add?

Is it dex or 12?

Dex plus proficiency.

Oh, then in that case, 12.

Hell yeah.

Just skirt up.

Crouch in the windowsill.

You look and see the rubble-covered boy at the foot of the bed, shivering, and the Lord sleeping in his bed.

Go ahead and give me a stealth check.

Wait, I believe I got an advantage on this because of Key, right?

The key.

Absolutely.

And I'll say too that the key in this moment is actually going to go to its awakened state.

Oh, shit.

Okay.

Okay.

Oh.

The boy.

Oh, that's fun.

That's fun.

Okay.

So you raised the body.

Sorry, so stealth.

Oh, that's what it is, right?

I think that I got.

That is

a

90.

No, no, no, no.

That's a

23.

23.

Hell yeah.

Um,

uh, on a 23, you are can you are in the room like a ghost.

There's two sleeping people in here.

You're silent as a whisper.

I

just get up real close

to that lord who's sleeping.

And I am going to use

the bonus action in the awakened state that the key is now in to transform it into a dagger.

And

I'm going to hold it sort of like right against his throat.

And I'm going to say,

Hey, wake up.

Roll initiative.

Oh, shit.

I mean, yeah.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a die like this?

Jasmine is regretting this.

Phaedra is not.

Initiative, that's a 17.

17.

You're going to act first.

He is awake, and at the center of his pupils,

a burning ember appears

as an unholy light begins to gleam in his eyes,

Crocus

walked away, walked away, and is sitting the whole time going,

and just arguing with himself as he wanders the streets.

And I think eventually goes,

I've got to go find her.

Turns around and starts to try and look for where they go.

Give me perception or investigation.

To be there within the first round, you got to give me a DC-20.

Okay.

You can do that.

No.

But that is a

11.

11?

Okay, cool.

You'll not be there.

I won't be there.

Phidra.

I say, with my dagger just aimed at his, right at his throat, I say, no, no, no, no.

I'm just here to talk.

I'm a devotee of the Strife Emperor.

I know you.

I've seen you before.

You're gonna have to give me deception.

And I'll you know what?

To keep

to keep this fair,

he gets a plus six to his insight.

I'm gonna roll in front of the board.

I don't get any cut, I don't have anything.

Oh, that was all the funny.

He said it's a 14.

You need to beat a 14 in a deception.

You can do this

13.

Great.

Um, you tell him to

uh so you tell him uh that you are uh a servant of the strife emperor and you get a 13 on your deception.

Um

he uh looks at you and goes

servant of the strife emperor

and is going to hold his hand.

I'm going to need you to make a wisdom savings room.

It's fine.

It's great.

Seven.

Seven.

Yeah.

The Lord begins to arise from his bed.

Looking to you and saying,

and you feel suddenly

charmed by this man.

He seems, you don't know why you were so creased at him.

What's so bad about stabbing your child in the hand?

He, after all, is such a lordly and regal man, deserving of respect, contrition, servitude.

You see, he arises and says,

I find the cold air benefits my constitution, and yet perhaps I shall have to keep the windows shut, for this city is rife with fleas and

cockroaches.

May I have that key?

My lord, what for?

Because I'm going to slit your throat with it.

If you can beat a 15, maybe round two is better for you.

Absolutely not.

It's an eight.

Eight.

At the end of your turn, give me another wisdom-saving throw.

The difficulty is 15.

he is going to reach out he takes the key from your hand

uh and he is going to make an attack roll in making an attack roll he breaks the charmed condition

um

but uh he is going to make an attack here your armor class is what 13.

He hits.

How many hit points do you have?

Seven.

Okay.

He's going to roll damage with this.

If he rolls a four,

you're out.

On a one, two, three, you have hit points remaining.

Oh my god.

He deals six points of damage to you.

Okay, okay, okay.

As he slashes at you with the key.

Um,

uh, that is going to be uh, you see that the boy wakes up looking up horrified.

Uh, it is your turn.

Can I?

So it says that I can, on a bonus action, I can transform it back into a key instead of a dash,

but it's not in my possession, so I can't do that.

Okay, okay,

cool.

In that case.

Just kill her.

Kill me during the last episode.

Alright.

What do you mean?

Her episode.

Alright.

Just kill me.

I was alive.

I

very quickly try to roll

under the bed.

Yeah.

and like take out my crossbow and just wait there ready for a

give me a dc 15 acrobatics okay or he's gonna get an attack of opportunity oh

all right

um oh my god what is it 15.

15 acrobatics yeah which is decks 11.

I mean, using it the well, because the stats are at your level one with your skillsies.

Use the one that's higher.

Maybe it's higher.

It's gotta be higher

with your hands.

I believe in fairies.

No,

it's being poopy.

It's being poopy.

I'm looking at it right now.

Yeah.

You add a plus three to acrobatics.

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Yeah.

So an 11 crushing very well.

Your armor class is a 13.

Yes.

he is attacking right now with a plus four.

On a nine or higher, he's gonna hit you and drop you.

And I'll be clear, we are very much, I want to set expectations for the table.

This may be the end of Future's story at the turn.

Yeah.

Uh, and a hard lesson about choosing a diplomatic and virtuous path rather than embracing slitting this man's throat in the dark.

On a nine or higher, he hits.

That's a nat 20.

Oh my god.

All right.

Wow.

But he does not deal your hit point total in damage.

You roll a one and a two on the dice.

So I'm unconscious.

So you're unconscious to drop.

Dead.

I'd say.

Wow.

Okay.

DC 10 perception.

Uh

no?

No.

Doesn't do it.

I I rolled a three.

Oh my god,

it looks very much like an eight for a second.

It wasn't, it was a three-three.

All right.

Um,

Vitra, you drop to the ground.

Go ahead and give me your first death saving threat.

What up, the boy?

The boy can't intervene.

That's just a normal D20, right?

Yes.

Nothing added.

Yeah, alright, I am gonna roll a different die.

You want a 10 or higher?

Seven.

Seven.

That is a failure.

The DC is not going to lower to five, so it's stay at ten.

Makes sense.

Yeah.

Succeed?

Yeah.

Okay.

Standing over

Phaedra's unconscious

body,

having failed her first death-saving throw,

Crocus,

you've searched for her.

and arrived

at

a window and up above you smell blood.

Give me a DC-10 athletics check.

Okay.

Athletics, I'm good at.

That was a 15 plus 9.

24.

Before Phaedra's second death saving throw, which on a nat one will end her life and her story.

Crocus, you roar up the wall into the room to see this lord standing over her with a dagger.

Your turn.

And just right into the wall.

Go ahead and give me your attacks.

That is a natural one.

Natural one.

That is a miss.

Okay.

Second attack.

Natural 20.

Oh my god.

Okay.

Fold just sees red.

Absolutely

just charges the guy, slips, like, takes up the rug in his feet and misses the first SWAT, and then is just going to head down, bulldoze straight into the wall to slam him into the wall.

Go ahead and roll damage.

That is.

It's a crit.

Roll double damage.

Oh, right.

That's three,

five, ten points of damage.

Ten points of damage.

Badly injured.

As you slam into the wall with him, he's going to immediately take an attack against you.

Actually, no, he's going to try to hit you you with a spell.

Go ahead and give me a wisdom saving throw.

Oh, yeah.

I'm well, I'm not bad actually anymore.

I mean, yeah, right.

Oh, thank god for that.

This is probably hard to mine.

Natural one.

Oops.

He looks at you.

I can only roll two numbers.

He says, he says, easy, easy.

Look at my eyes.

Look at my eyes.

Let's discuss.

I'm going to need another death saving throw from the feature.

On that one, this is the end.

18.

18, that's a success.

Keep alive, keep up alive.

Listen to me.

You know her on the ground.

I will take my boy and leave you tend to her.

That's it.

He goes, scoops up the child, takes the key, says, I'll be gone.

That's it.

He takes the child.

You can also see the light fading out of his eyes as though you suspect he does not have any spell energy left.

Shout out to two spell slots.

And you see he grabs the child

and slips out the door.

You got an 18?

Crocus, it is your turn.

All right.

Um Crocus is going to

does he does the the charm end now that he's gone?

Uh the charm ends, yes.

Okay, he looks and

sees Phaedra on the ground, kind of pulls her out from under the bed, is going to attempt to stabilize her with a medicine check.

Okay, DC10.

Uh, that is, uh, where the eighteen.

Eighteen.

Uh,

you wrap the wound careful, Careful.

As careful as you can.

Phaedra.

You swim in unconsciousness.

You hear sounds, the Lord's voice in the stairs below, holding a child.

My lord!

My lord!

I found it!

I found the key!

At last!

Very good.

Find them.

Find them as only a mortal can.

The gate is almost finished, my humble servant.

And that's where we're going to go to our break.

Oh, no!

It's so bad!

It's so bad once again.

Andre, you motherfucker.

You just had to call him son one time.

One time!

Say, my boy.

Love conquers all, and by definition, the absence of love dooms us all.

Greetings, Adventurer.

This is Liam O'Brien.

If you'd like to support the show, consider checking out our sweet, sweet Xandria Unlimited merch in the Critical Roll shops.

Links to all of our regional online stores can be found at critroll.com.

We return now to Vassalheim.

Things are looking pretty bad, bro.

Feed Romero.

Um, you dirty birdie.

Uh, uh, Crocus, you stabilize your friend.

She is unconscious.

Uh, where do you where do you go?

Do you carry her with you or do you stay here?

Are you okay?

She is unconscious.

She's not unconscious.

Okay.

Um,

Crocus's thought is that this person is gonna go and they're gonna leave this building.

We're on the second floor, correct?

Yeah, uh, I

pick up Phijra in one arm.

Cool.

I go to the balcony and I look down towards the front door to see if they've exited the building.

Uh, you do not see anyone on the street.

Okay,

so then

I jump from the balcony, land on the ground.

Yeah.

And I look for the person.

Give me an investigation check.

Natural 19 with a plus one.

Dirty 20.

On a dirty 20, you are investigating for this person.

You are looking as far and wide for what you can see.

Their belongings are all left here.

You follow a trail of blood from the injury you gave that lord.

That blood moves up into a center square where there's now foot traffic.

It looks like he sprinted out as fast as he could.

You are looking around, and as you realize how fresh these tracks are, this man has some method of becoming invisible.

Okay.

Okay.

But the chi or the child?

He carried the child with him.

So it would be invisible as well.

Yeah.

Okay.

So then, I'm following the footprints, but have I hit a point where the footprints are not there, or they are slowly kind of extending?

They go into a crowd of people.

Okay.

And Crocus has a

has a desire he needs to move faster.

He needs to get higher.

He needs to go.

So he activates the girdle.

Hell yeah.

In an attempt to not really still understanding how it works, in an attempt to maybe give himself some speed in this

form that he takes when it is activated.

And he's going to try and get up to a higher vantage point to find this person, knowing that letting them go is a terrible idea.

Hell yeah.

Um,

you activate the girdle,

leaping to the top of one of Wasselheim's buildings,

searching around.

You are formidable indeed.

It is going to be a difficulty 25 perception check.

You're trying to spot an invisible warlock shuffling through Three Spazzline.

I believe you can do that on a 19 or 20, correct?

For 25.

25.

It would be.

For a perception check, I would have to.

I mean, I have to get a natural 20.

Natural 20.

So just do it.

Make it happen.

16.

15.

Searching with your eyes as fast as you can.

You know that this villain is hiding somewhere in Vassalheim.

The cold wind

is tearing across you, and Phaedra

in your arms wrestles in unconsciousness.

Shit.

And he just gotta run and find his friends.

We return to our friend.

as fast as he can travel.

We return to our Lightning Form heading as fast as you can.

In the home of Casimir and Marza,

I think we have Arrow here as well.

And Garin, are you out drinking somewhere?

Garin's not drinking.

I think Garin

went out to

honestly look for any information about if Uthdor still stands since he was he hasn't had any information about it in 100 years since he was plucked from it.

Give me a perception or insight.

Meanwhile, Iro is just playing Monopoly with 13 of the Neo's parents.

I have the Scotty dog.

Near to the Silver Talon's reach,

there are these big gates that, as a native New Yorker, would almost look like subway entrances, but are much larger and more civic, leading down to the neighborhood of Brightforge.

And you can sort of see that there are

many of the subterranean devout entering in and out of this neighborhood.

As you go in search of those, you see some large wagons pulled by these sturdy looking donkeys that are being loaded up with tools and supplies and traveling.

You see some dwarves that have big wide-brimmed hats on them.

And as you walk up,

you

see one of them sort of being like, all right, that one's loaded up, move that right to the front, and step off to the side.

And you see that he has a little symbol of a shepherd's crook and a hammer crossed on his clothing.

As you walk up and see him getting ready for this train that's sort of packing out.

Hey, excuse me.

Sorry to bother you in the midst of your organization.

What about Steve Hale, if you don't mind me asking?

Where do I hail from?

Well friend,

as a child uh from far distant Guisar, but perhaps more accurate now to say that I hail from Bethelheim.

Right, well where on Gusar if you don't mind me asking

um

far off

uh I know it's been

kind of roughly how how young does this dwarf seem to look to me?

He might be about like

80 or 90 years old.

I'm curious.

Have you been to or have you passed through

the

stronghold city of Uthdor?

Uthdor

I remember it

from young days.

Left as swiftly as we could.

It's to there we return.

Or I should say I'm here to shepherd my brethren and their families back to

the Cliffkeep Mountains, to Ustor.

A word has come to us that it has been freed,

or rather rediscovered long absent of the touch of the crawling king but now we

return to relight the fires light the holes

um

or rather there

I uh

my journey will take me there for a spell to pay my regards and then elsewhere out throughout Gwissar

right right

That's good to know.

I'm glad there is semblance of at least its people still standing.

How soon do you plan to head out?

Well, this wagon train is headed out on the morrow.

I'll stay behind until the rest are done.

It probably will be

another two or three weeks before the main caravan heads out.

Should there be

you fancy there might be space for an old stonecurver on one of these wagons?

Brother,

we have a space with your name on it.

You just tell me what your name is.

Garin.

And he kind of like squints his eyes like he's prying some long

dust-covered memory from a history he hasn't reached for in a long time.

Garin Harthart.

Harthart?

Well, Master Harthart,

we'll be saving you a room.

You'll be coming with the main caravan.

Sit by my side if you like.

Thank you, young stranger.

I might call you Desmond.

Desmond.

To the memory and rebirth of Uthorn.

The caravan prepares.

At

and I think down here in Brightforge, too,

you see that there is

bright shining torches torches in front of a temple of the Allhammer.

Just a beautiful temple underground, lit by braziers of bright burning fire.

And you can see people walking.

There's a

hall.

There's a hall of writings of the early mothers and fathers of the Allhammers

faith here in this place.

And you see people going and touching various poems and bits of poetry throughout the temple here.

I think he approaches

more interested in the

initially the architecture and taking in the fine dwarven craftsmanship, old dwarven craftsmanship, older than where he's from likely.

And then looks to the people making their stops,

having their kind of quiet communion in whatever ways they can in these strange times.

And then

Garan looks at the hammer at his side and looks up to the iconography, the many symbols he's carved for

generations of his old days that even he didn't pay too much mind to.

And there's an urge, there's a

there's a pull to step into the temple proper.

But he stops himself.

Whether it's

exhaustion or

something else.

Something keeps him from taking that journey to faith.

And he dusts himself off and

nods and goes to return to Nia's parents' abode.

You walk away from the temple and its congregants, its devotees, and as you walk, you see that

the well-loved and adorned texts of ancient dwarven prayers inside

are replicated on the outside in tablets much less loved and dustier and muddier.

And you see that there's one on a base that has sort of like rubble and rock and dust on it.

And you sort of have this moment of looking at these ones that are much less well-cared for and less well-loved than the ones inside.

But these ancient sort of stone tablets.

And you see that there's one in particular that is written in this like old, high dwarven

script that is like ancient mountain dwarven, you know, that you're looking at.

And you look at it and realize that the stone, on your stone cunning, this slab of stone is from Uthtor.

It's been taken all the way from Uthtor across the sea and laid here at at the base of the temple in Masselheim.

And it stops and inspects it, kind of looks over the runes that are pressed into it,

sees that it's

through age, travel,

weathered or damaged,

the rougher facets of its message worn.

And he

takes out his simple tool that he has on him and stops a moment to go ahead and re-chisel and leave crisp

what its intended message was without a word.

Nods.

Carries on.

As you leave, having

chiseled away here at this place,

you

sort of just focusing on the lettering,

Keeping a perception check with disadvantage

Disadvantage 13

as you step away

You see others who would have passed this stone a hundred hundred times

See it now cared for tended to

You see that one, there's a dwarven mother walking with a sort of gaggle of young dwarven children that she's teaching as a small class

Reading to those that cannot read themselves.

She stops by and says, oh, it's marvelously tended to,

touching it there.

Can any of you read this?

And you see that one of the little children raises a hand and she says,

Doric, by all means.

The gate is built by heart alone, though hearts be held by flesh and bone, and flesh and bone by earth and stone.

The door we make when lock we break, will bridge the waters' roads to take.

The stones that stand to staunch the flood, freedom found by toil and blood.

By stone betrayed, the seal is made, the hand that holds the heart that prayed, the stairs it shaped, the debts it paid.

The gate is shaped, the keystone laid.

And on a 13, you don't see,

much like a note left in a tall cave, the hollow spell ringing out throughout the temple.

He kneels down to Doric

before he takes his leave.

A trick with even the strongest stone is in time, even the rain brings it low.

So it's our responsibility

to give it a bit more clarity with each

passing year.

When my strength lays low like the rock,

it's you, and he kind of touches his chest with the hammer to pick back up where we left off

and make sure others can read as you can.

A sparkle in the eyes of this young dwarven child who feels a sense of pride at carrying something from a long distant past brightly and restored into a new future.

Locks his hammer on the side, tosses the boy's hair, gives a quiet nod to the mother and the other child, and

nods and makes sense.

Um

you see

as you move from this place, we go to Casimir and Marce's home, yeah.

If I may.

Yeah.

I think on the way, um.

Uh, Arrow asks if you'd mind making a slight detour as we pass the

Temple of the Platinum Dragon.

Hell yeah.

Could we st step in here?

Of course.

Just a moment.

Uh, and uh.

Actually, I think she'll tell her parents to wait out and she'll go in with you if you have her.

Please.

Nia

tries to lock an arm and then walk in with you, right?

Exactly.

And as we walk in the

vaulting arch of this place, it's like, meeting your parents has me thinking of my own again.

And when we

our ship landed and we landed at Seagate, Arrow didn't recognize

much because much of Seagate

went up in flames and was destroyed in his sight as the ship and his mother and other survivors fled

the day his father fell.

So there wasn't much he could point at there.

But here,

as you guys, as the two of us stride up the center aisle of this massive place,

its

vaulting dragon motifs towering over us.

I've only been here once

in the city and here.

I sat

there.

She pulls him, trying to

get him back in that seat

They sit down together

My mother core was

as fearsome a warrior as you've ever seen with scales

A gold I can hardly begin to describe

They serve the dragon My father was a priest

like the priests here

My

youth was filled with

language lessons and

helping people dispossessed of homes and

newly arrived from Guessar.

They tried to keep me raised right in the middle of

this chaos that we've all been born into

and the life I led seems so antithetical to the one

well to the example they set for me

so

what will you do now

that we've

found your parents and you

have a calling, what will you do?

I'll

answer that calling

until

we decide where we go next.

What will you do?

Well, that's just it.

I'm not sure.

If you thought I was in the Edge and Torms Hill, I can't

begin to tell you how

out of place I feel in this city.

You have had,

or I've witnessed from you, an incredible talent

of crafting a place for yourself from the earth.

You've

built shelters, built bonfires, you've

always made a place for yourself.

If one isn't

handed to you,

I think she looks around.

This place

is waiting

for you.

This place.

I'm not sure.

Part of me

feels like I should just leave with Garin.

I swore I would get him to his...

His place in this world, and I'm still looking for my own.

I don't know.

I...

I would very much like to...

See you well and on your feet.

You're well on your way.

But I just want to

introduce the idea that I'm.

I may need to move on.

Okay, well

we'll move on.

I

can't

won't

see myself

without you.

If you leave for a time, that is fine, but

you don't have to be alone.

If you choose to be, I'll respect it, but

you do me no kindness by leaving.

You're family to me, Arrow.

I will never be alone

because you have touched me here.

And whether I am with you or no,

I carry that change inside.

I feel like

weeks ago, somebody said something about changes coming.

I guess that person was right.

Interesting.

Well, whoever it was, it doesn't matter, but I.

I will allow this asset.

Fine.

She laughs and laughs and she just

puts her head on Arrow's shoulder.

She takes a deep, long breath.

Sitting in this seat that he sat in years and years and years ago.

Change is beautiful.

Growth is beautiful.

But stillness,

permanence,

there's value in that too.

What a funny little life we mortals lead.

And I think here

in the Platinum Sanctuary,

you

depart, looking at the beautiful symbol here, the closest temple to that peak of heaven's stair, leaving Silver Talon's reach together.

You arrive walking back towards your dwelling place, Garin on the way back from Brightforge,

and suddenly discover your path intercepted by Crocus who now holds whoa whoa

she's hurt

uh to my house I mean uh uh uh it's near quickly we're we're near

um rushing into Casimir and Mars's house they they help you prepare uh quickly moving to act and Phaedra you are blanketed medicine given go ahead and give me a medicine check yeah I cast um

yeah you can cast a spell too um uh cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha-cha.

I'll give you a healing word.

Go ahead and roll D4 and add your wisdom modifier.

Chambers, Bears, sort of.

What's going on?

She's hurt.

She was stabbed.

Whatever.

By who?

Healing word.

One of the men.

That's cocked.

From the what?

Um, three plus three.

Uh, you said, uh, uh, six.

Six, uh.

It's one.

Oh, it's one D.

Sorry.

Yeah, it's one D4 plus three.

Six.

Six.

Uh, you, feature, you get 6 points of health back and you awaken.

From Rybad Cole.

Where is he?

Where'd he go?

He got away.

He who?

Yeah.

One of the nobles at Rybad Cole who was visiting.

Was here?

Yes.

And he

took my key.

He has.

Why were you there?

He was.

He was a cruel man.

I saw him.

He hurt his own child with no remorse.

And

I just...

I thought

there was something I needed to do to

change him, to try and make things right for that little boy.

And your heart was in the right place, so you brave me to kill his father.

I wasn't going to kill him.

I was trying.

Well, it seems like he thought you were.

I know.

Where is this man now?

I don't know.

I couldn't find him afterwards.

Is that the end of it?

I don't.

It has

her key.

Can Nia.

Is Nia aware of the power that lives within that mirror, or has she just only seen it at its dormant state?

Do you grab it?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mia goes

to grab it and she like,

I was going to say she taps on it.

She

uses it, just sort of clears, wipes it, wipes it, wipes it, takes her the satchel, loose's satchel and just rubs over it so she can get a better view and then holds it up trying to like.

The mirror goes to an awakened state.

Perfect.

It glows.

You now have access to the greater invisibility and the commune spell.

So I'm going to take that vial

of water from the pools earlier.

Yeah.

Because I need that in order to cast this spell.

I'm going to set the mirror down, pour some of the water on the mirror, and attempt to cast commune.

All of you see Katha,

silvery white moon of Xandria.

And you see that Xandria is not the only world that Catha shines on.

Fairy light, dancing gardens.

And there, suspended over a pool of water-like liquid glass.

Your sister, your goddess, turns to you.

Hey.

Uh, I have just a...

I know I can only ask you three questions.

Um

My friend was hurt today by a man that we met, that she met at Ribal Coal.

She

I want to know, is he still

is he still in this in this city?

Is he still in Vasselheim?

The man,

Lord Callister,

is a servant of the Lord of the Hells.

And he yet dwells within Vaselheim and will not leave.

Uh.

Has he

used the key for any anything?

Has he used the key recently for anything?

Yes, and he will use it again.

She holds up a finger to you.

You are my sister.

I would answer any question given to me,

but the power you wield to reach across realms is vast and great.

You may ask me any question you wish,

and I will tell you as much as I can.

Let your question, she looks to the left and looks to the right,

be as broad as possible.

These rules are brand new.

Receives that.

And then

I think she looks to Phaedra for a question of

I would assume

how we can get him easiest or how do we stop him.

But these aren't questions I'm asking just yet because I'm assuming it's not just

Liana that can see this conversation happening between the two of them.

Or is it private?

It's perfectly private.

Okay.

I don't know.

Maybe where is he?

He's here.

He's in the easy.

Where exactly?

Uh

where exactly is Lord

Callister

you see that she

looks sort of digging down

a question that cannot be answered will not count against you,

hidden as he is by one of the only gods whose sway over deception is as mighty as mine.

Um,

Nia

takes the mirror.

Uh, it's night right now.

Yes, uh, I think Nia's trying to press this, uh, uh, uh,

uh, she's trying to uh press her mirror even farther out of the awakened stake and into the exalted.

And so she attempts to catch the moon in

this.

What's happening?

I guarantee you there is a reason why.

But she's trying to get because

he's invisible.

She's trying to get that true sight.

You see, she looks and says,

You have done much, sister, already.

I would like to do more.

I know you would.

It's not as simple as wanting it.

She kneels down and looks at you and says,

There are gifts that the mirror can give,

and they are gifts that you must make from your own belief and inner strength

may i answer a question unasked

yes

you see she says

i've got an answer in mind I would love it, if you don't mind.

She looks at you and says,

you must find Calister within the city.

I know not what plans he executes here in the Dawn City for his master, but ever was the Lord of the Hells a capable infiltrator and manipulator of those of true faith.

His words always have been like honey.

Clerics now reach across the Vale.

Already, my sister, the Knowing Mistress, has heard from her farseer,

keeping in mind the lessons you have brought of this new way.

Many other of my siblings will depart after these final battles are won.

There are some few weeks before you where you may search and attempt to find Lord Callister, but a time of ultimate clash and conflict is coming, and a time then of fierce decision.

We cannot seal the gate until we are all accounted for.

I give you this

deep and potent secret to share only with those you trust most of all of how it came to be that the gods went missing.

More than a century ago, did the gods first wield the secret to make themselves manifest in mortal form.

It was for a terrible task.

A flying city at the height of mortal might to bring low over the frozen islands of the north.

That city was brought low and the gods departed, but not all of the gods who had entered mortal form departed then.

In fact, some that had gone to exact this mission never arrived.

It was there in Xandria during that height of the calamity that some

had already begun the foundations of this divine gate.

Its argument made most forcefully by the law-bearer and by the platinum dragon.

The law-bearer abstained until the very final moment, and when going, she did not even send herself, but rather an emissary of her coming, made of stone and ice to bear her will to that malevolent city.

The

platinum dragon stayed aloft in in the skies.

A third god there was that had begun work on the divine gate.

The Allhammer had made himself in mortal form to lay the foundations of what would be the divine gate, claiming simply that

the gate would...

What is made by the gods can be unmade by the gods, is what he said.

And that

something in

mortal hands would serve as foundation to

separate the worlds of divine Alexandria safely and for all good.

I

laid a concealing on the globe that the gods would never find a god in mortal form to buy my brother time to do his work.

I hid them of all.

I hid them from myself.

I hid them so well that none could find them in their divine essence.

And it was at that exact moment that the Lord of the Hells worked a magic that

interlaced with mine.

The Lord of the Hells made it so,

if you remember in my childhood, in mortal form,

that I did not

any holiday turn to you and say, by the way, I'm the Moon Weaver.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, which would have been

an insane thing to do.

That was the curse of the Lord of the House.

The curse that we should forget ourselves if we ever took that form.

And when that curse was discovered, the platinum dragon charged into the mortal world, knowing that my magic would prevent him from finding his brother as a god.

And even at the risk of completely forgetting himself, he charged forward.

And

those gathered there attempted to stop him and said, you'll lose your mind.

You'll lose your knowledge of your divine self.

And his response to them was, if we ask faith of them, let us ask it of ourselves.

And he charged into the mortal world to save his brother.

We cannot seal the gate without our lost siblings.

And

the betrayers search for them terribly with all their might.

Okay.

We, we, we have to find gods who do not know themselves to be gods.

Um,

thank you.

I, uh,

Nia uh uh rushes back into her house

into the home of her parents.

You feel the mirror stays in that awakened but not exalted state.

Fair.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Puts the mirror back in her back,

kisses it.

Love you.

And puts it back in her bag.

And

shares

this information with everyone.

She trusts everyone in this room.

So

shares everything that she has just been told from her sister.

Is it your intention to share it just with your companions here or any of the high clerics?

In this moment, it is with my companions here.

And

she could not tell me where exactly this lord is.

But

he is looking for

the same folks we're looking for.

He's looking for people who do not know themselves.

I.

I don't...

We have to find...

Essentially, we have to find them before the Petraekos find

themselves.

That doesn't help my immediate problem.

I...

I...

You know me.

I am the last person to lose hope.

He is invisible.

I cannot find him.

He has something that we need.

He will not leave.

That is what Liana said.

So he will be in this city.

I can't imagine he will stay invisible forever, but he will not leave.

He has the key.

I do not know exactly where he is, but he is here.

Crocus.

If indeed some of these machinations are at the hand of this lord of the hills,

and is tied to this individual that nearly stole our very friend this night,

then there's a good chance that both of these will dovetail anyway.

So we need you to focus with us.

We have no other path other than this right now.

But we'll keep our eyes peeled.

Fine.

Trust me, we all want to smash this man's head in as much as you do.

Okay.

Alright, don't clench too much.

It'll start bundling up.

Um.

You all

need to search for a servant of the Lord of the Hells who skulks invisibly in the shadows of the city of the gods.

Thousands dwell within this place.

Many thousands.

So.

If I hit a not 20 on this perception, will you tell me where he is?

Let's make this wager interesting.

I'm going to give you guys one chance to find this guy before it's too late.

Lord Bailey would be so proud of you, by the way.

I'm going to give you one chance to find this guy before it's too late.

And what I will say is

if you

do it

carefully, thoroughly, secretly,

taking the time to not tip your hand or let anybody know what you know.

For I'll also say that you do not share with the clerics, and as you tell just your friends alone, you suddenly remember that the lord of the hells is a god of deception and not knowing who exactly can be trusted in a time when clerics have lost access to divine magic it's possible that someone could claim to be very faithful and not be that's why i've only told these people hell yeah i've not told any of the clerics i'll tell them after we find him and your parents

my

parents i i love my parents i trust my parents if my parents fuck me over then my parents fuck me over Roll initially.

I will allow you all to make either investigation or perception checks.

And if you do it thoroughly, taking your time, I will let you roll with advantage.

This will be your one chance.

I take my time.

I light my incense.

I drink some of that water.

I get real calm and still.

I honestly have my parents watch over me because that gives me an extra feeling of protection.

Do we

sit and watch the building where you originally encountered them to seek their return?

He has a child with him.

So.

Giving a description of the child.

He may be invisible, but the child might not always be.

Hey.

Um.

I'll probably go back to Breakforge, a place where I have.

It's being subterranean.

It's an easy place for some folks, I think, maybe to hide if they're on their own.

I'm just gonna gently ask around about another, um,

another old friend who also is displaced.

A human and his son that uh I've come here to hope to re-reunite with if they have an eye out for him.

Hell yeah.

If you want to

do a different check than Perception, or if you want to even do all that you do, Perception or Insight if you're talking to people.

Let's go through one by one.

So, arrows posted up outside the building.

I'm gonna watch people enter and exit,

if I see anything that feels off, I will follow.

Phydra, what are you up to?

I well before

all of this happens, I think as we're all coming out of Nia's family's house,

I say Crocus, wait.

I

have no words to express how sorry I am to you, and I know you don't.

There's nothing I can say to make this right

but you are my son

you have always been my son

and you always will be

and you're

I'm so sorry that I have been

you're

I've been too much of a fool to say it or to show it or to even know it in my own heart

But

if you can find it in you to to forgive your mother

and you don't even have to forgive, but I do not want you to suffer because of your mother's foolishness.

I don't want you to...

I want you to know that you are

brilliant and talented and you have

such a big heart and you are

everything I could have ever dreamed of in a son and even more and

there's nothing I can do

to make up for all the years that I have

refused to see that

but

I

I love you and I

and I'm sorry and

and Phaedra just wraps her arms around and just starts sobbing in a way that you have never seen her just like fully lose control And I just keep saying, I'm so sorry.

I'm so, so, so sorry.

It's okay, boss.

Let's find your key.

Anyways, I'd like to go lanely check.

So you're inside.

Are you talking to people in the town?

I think what I am...

Hmm.

I would like to think.

I would say I

sort of like a you can't bullshit a bullshitter kind of logic.

I am thinking if I were trying to do something fucking shady

to stay out of sight to be able to kind of, you know, do bad things with impunity, where would I be going in this town?

Where would I be sticking to?

I think that is where what I'm going to do.

You like get into the mindset.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hell yeah, Crocus.

I think Crocus has taken to

Batmanning around Baselheim,

where he's just on roofs watching and

doing trying to be as because he's so big

and he's so visible.

Yeah.

So I think the best way to take his time and to not let on is to not be seen.

Hell yeah.

Man.

And then what do you, what do you do?

How are you searching?

Um,

oof, fantastic question.

Um, I think

I am

using my newfound

station or title or

her

presence in this town to

just

be in spaces that normal

truly like knocking on doors,

getting in, like looking at the back rooms of taverns and kitchens.

She's just going to everywhere that she believes would be a good place to hide.

She's had to hide before.

She is trying to find hidden places where one would be again.

Amazing.

You guys, conduct your search.

Go ahead and roll with advantage, all of you.

Arrow, what did we get?

This is perception or investigation.

Oh, no.

That's a 16 total for me.

16.

21.

21 from Phaedra.

19.

19.

Not great.

Not great.

Um, I can't even...

You said perception or insight?

Yeah.

Insight's better.

It's only a 15.

15.

12.

12.

Phaedra.

On a 21,

you do not find them right away.

Weeks pass,

knowing that something terrible is afoot.

It comes ever closer to the time when that dwarven caravan will make its way for Uthtor.

And I think, Karin, even yourself, after all this time of searching and asking questions, you wonder if the Moonweaver's words could have been true.

Would he really not leave?

If there's a war happening in Gordranis, why?

Why?

Your days are busy filled with the need of clerics who need to be able to speak to you.

Over time,

others come to you.

Suddenly, the followers of the change-bringer can't hear, and the followers of the Dawnfather can't hear.

And there's such a great need for you.

You fears a pull in that direction.

Crocus, night by night, you go and wonder if this skulking figure can be found on streets or highways in Arrow, though you are like stone, ever vigilant and watchful.

That door is left cold and abandoned.

Phaedra,

There's one night

you overhear in a tavern

someone talking about

beautiful ruby right in the center.

Well, it seemed I was most interested in talking about the.

I said something rather funny about

looking for

near Shadowbrook,

looking for any chapels of the Moonweaver there.

And I asked him why he was looking for a door and he sort of smiled and took this

key with a ruby in the center and said, Well, when you have a key, you end up looking for doors.

Beats me as to why.

Alright.

Then I'm gonna

quietly leave.

And I am gonna...

Presumably I can find everyone?

Yes.

Alright.

I think I've...

I think we got him.

I heard two people in a tavern talking about this guy trying to...

He had my key, and he is at the Moonweaver Temple by

Shape.

Shadowbrook.

Shadowbrook.

By Shadowbrook.

He's looking for a door, specifically.

Question.

Yeah.

In the time that we've been here, in the weeks that we've spent, would we have had the capability of outfitting ourselves with just any sort of basic equipment?

Basic equipment across the board.

I think Garn in this time has,

now that he's amongst others of his kin,

has removed that terrible breastplate, which still carries the stink

of its former owners.

And instead, outfits himself with a proper suit of dwarven armor and gets a shield, leather straps, and straps straps it to his other arm where it's just a solid fucking armored dwarven shield on this end that flexes.

Hell yeah.

Don't buy anything.

Yeah.

Nia, I think she is decked out in the sickest Moonweaver gear she can get her hands on.

I think I would love

because she has she has a cute little fit and I don't think she wants to fuck with that.

But she has a

don't laugh at me, Alex,

a breastplate of of some kind, a gleaming breastplate of the Moonweaver.

She has this belt that she has had.

I would love if she could have a, she still has her hand crossbow and her two daggers.

I would love if she had some sort of like

sword of the moon weaver.

I think

breastplate,

sword.

Yeah, breastplate, sword.

I think

the crystal that she has.

I'll say too, I think that during these weeks,

Garin, your

hearth's hammer moves to the awakened state.

So

I think Garin could probably give you a plus one sword of the Moon Weaver.

I would love a plus one sword of the Moon Weaver.

Alright, let me go ahead and look at some of these designs here.

I've got an idea.

Sketches it up for you.

Yeah, sure.

You can go ahead and spend a week to enchant you with...

Did you want a sword?

How's this work for you?

Nice and balanced, beautiful, comes to a fine wide point.

She was a tip there.

Gorgeous.

Should be perfectly balanced.

She's like, very carefully, just feeling it, feeling the weight, figuring out exactly where she can place her shoulder in her back so that she can move with confidence.

And her mirror, she's still, I think she has put the

Lucy's symbol of the Moonweaver.

She's left it in her parents' home, but she has that mirror.

She has a sort of...

on her belt, she has a little holster for it so that the glass can either face inward or outward depending on how she decides to situate it.

Gorgeous.

Awesome.

I have added a weapon and armor to your inventory.

Thanks, Bestie.

I love it.

Hell yes.

Any of you can take any other basic equipment you would like and

simple leather armor.

Yeah,

simple leather armor?

Great.

Nope.

Hell yeah.

It would bring my AC down if I did.

Oh, okay.

Crocus, yes.

Monks.

Oh.

Can't put these pythons on a cage.

Yeah.

Hey, look, I think I'm doing pretty good with an ACF-15.

I'm fine.

Okay.

Oh, fierce.

Okay.

Oh, gotcha.

Okay, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.

You have to know what the leather armor adds to your AC.

It's uh...

I'll add it to yours right now.

Just hit equip, and it'll do it.

Okay, but also, my thing is

reliable, so we'll see if I can actually access that.

Great.

Does anyone steal those healing nuts from forever ago?

You still got like,

I have two left.

I haven't used any.

I could have used that.

I could give one to someone.

Saving her life.

Oh my gosh, yes.

Yes.

I'm not carrying any of the nuts.

Are you kidding me?

I'll take it.

It's okay.

As you gather, as feature gives you the news that someone has gone towards specifically what sounded like an empty chapel in Shadowbrook.

All of you

begin to

look at each other.

You become equipped.

You've been looking for Calister for weeks now, unable to share the information because you don't know who can be trusted, and you don't want anyone to know what you know

outside

of Marsa and

Casimir's home.

You hear

Light in the sky.

Fireworks.

Oh, wow.

Wow.

Wow.

You hear a horn.

Flying out of the sky, a copper dragon.

buzzes Vaselheim

and calls out, I bring news from across the sea!

Godranus is falling!

Flies overhead, and all of you in the depth of skullduggery and chaos, knowing something evil is afoot, watch as your job becomes that much harder as Vaselheim bursts into celebration.

Do we trust this?

I'm asking the table here.

Do we trust that or should we?

Is

I don't know.

Can I roll the seat?

I don't know if I can even do a perception check on something like that, but

can I see if he's being

inside check?

Yeah, no insight check.

No insight check.

Google insight check.

No, no, no, girl.

You big flying boy.

Ha!

Nothing.

Hard to get a beat on.

He's going pretty fast.

Yeah.

That's very good.

Has anybody done an insight check on the fighter jets that fly through the pitch on the age?

Rattling is that

arrow will focus on the chapel and the surrounding streets around it.

Yes.

Is anybody, do I see anybody

posted up watching hidden anything like that or on our approach?

On our shot as we walk up.

I'll say, hold on one second.

Um,

uh, sorry, give me that one more time, Liam.

Is anybody spying around this place that will watch us slink up?

Uh, you think you have excellent cover getting out of here.

The streets are filling with people as word begins to spread.

It looks like this dragon looks exhausted, landing on the base of the heaven stair, the mountain of the heaven stair, uh, going to the platinum sanctuary.

Looks, you see, the dragon is partially injured.

Looks like he flew here straight from Wild Mount.

People are beginning to celebrate because Gordranus was the stronghold of the Betrayers.

And if this is true, if this is true,

then the Betrayers are fallen.

And

Exandria is free.

But of course, they don't know what you know, which is that Xandria can't really be safe.

Not yet.

Because you and someone else in this city are both searching for the way to stop it.

I would love you guys.

So, you guys, what do you do in this moment, knowing what you know about Shadowbrook?

Aren't we rolling up on that chapel at this point?

That was kind of where we were.

Yeah, you guys head out and begin to roll.

How do you approach?

How many entrances are there on the outside of it?

Shadowbrook as the neighborhood.

I think you look and see that there are a number of fallen chapels.

Go ahead and give me perception or investigation as you approach here.

I can't roll over sheets.

Same.

Nat 20.

Nat 20.

Uh, Phaedra.

Yeah.

Some part of you

hears

a voice down one of the passageways.

No, I

don't wanna.

Don't make me grant that wish.

Guys, guys, it's Mr.

Key.

I can hear him.

It's down that way.

Hell yeah.

Um.

And when we find him,

I will make myself noticeable.

You all try and sneak up on him.

Okay.

Look at my armored dwarven self.

I'll do my best.

He's got a big old sword now.

I don't know how.

Go ahead and give me a group stealth check.

Can I nod to Crocus

and park and go up a separate street?

Yeah.

Concurrent.

Yes.

On my own to try to converge, but from a different angle?

Yes, you can.

Yeah, I'm going to try to get

a vantage point.

Natural point.

Somewhere on the highway.

So there we go.

Hell yes.

Yes.

There are the rolls.

Bro.

Different.

Two natural twos.

Oh, that's 22, right?

Yeah, well, that's my lucky number.

Shit, 20, 19.

19.

22.

22.

So that's 19 is median.

Oh, yeah.

80.

Natural nine, which brings it to a six.

I love it.

Skulking through shadows, you hear the voice of Lord Callister speaking out.

As he does so,

you hear him say,

My lord, celebration has broken out.

You hear a voice distantly rumbling.

You know

what to do,

Carlister.

Uh, Nia, you feel yourself sweating.

There is something foul, that some divine sense within you.

You feel that suddenly everything is hot except for the mirror at your side, which is cool like ice and reassuring to the touch.

All of you sneaking forward.

Phaedra, you're back.

You're back in the kitchens.

The coals are burning.

It's ribad coal all over again.

Exactly where you started.

Dark stone.

Hot fire.

Something nearby is foul and wicked.

Crocus on that nat 20 stealth.

You are a shadow.

Moving forward.

Do you feel like a monster?

Or do you feel like something else?

I think he's starting to understand

that there is a part of him that will always be that,

and there is a place for that to be used to help people.

And he's accepting that that is part of him, and now is an appropriate time to use that.

You approach the door.

I need everybody here to roll initiative.

I am Crocus.

I am Cocus.

And initially it was add decks, alright?

Gorgeous.

Oh, cool.

Hell!

Hold on one second.

Let me grab some minis off of this.

A little pizza box.

Hold on one second.

Nobody look.

Nobody look.

Mushroom.

Mushroom, pepperoni.

Sausage, pepperoni, red peppers, mushrooms, auto-challenges.

Oh, yes.

Okay.

So this is a good barbecue chop.

Here we go.

Cilantro, a little

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

There we landed the plane.

You see peeking through this doorway right here, Statue of the Moon Weaver.

Hey, sis!

Hey, sis!

And within,

no longer invisible, Callister, his son.

The boy!

The little boy.

The key in his hand.

And

I will need...

What I will need now is

all of you to tell me what you rolled for your initiative.

What do we get here?

Nine for me.

Nine for Arrow.

What do we get here?

Eight.

Eight for Phaedra.

What did we get here?

18.

18 for Crocus.

What did we get?

What did we get right here?

11.

11.

What do we get here?

Negative one.

Let's go!

The plan!

Oh, damn down, down,

hell.

I didn't even know that's possible.

With a negative three decks, it is.

Oh, well, that'll do it, won't it?

That'll do it, won't it?

Hell yes.

As it used to be.

You all arrive with a median

stealth of 19.

So all of you are clustered and unseen right around the doorway here.

Where are your minis right now?

Oh, they would be.

Eric!

I ate mine!

I ate mine.

I went.

Clustered at the doorway.

By the way, I should say, darkness everywhere except for right around the base here.

Question about invisibility.

Yes.

Can you see it?

No, you can't.

Is it real?

I can only, like, if I, because old boy went invisible and his son was invisible as well.

I don't, I can't imagine his son also has invisibility.

Yes.

If I cast it and I am touching someone, do they also get invisibility or is it just me until I let them go?

Uh, his son was being was basically being treated as was unconsciously treated as an object.

Got it.

So you cannot pass it off to someone else.

Okay.

Everybody hold hands while being invisible.

Only

just want each other out.

So we are going to move through.

You guys technically have a surprise round,

having beat the sort of initiative here.

So, Crocus, you are going to be first to act.

Before I do anything,

are we just

going?

Or is there.

Or is there a do we want to talk?

I'm just asking the group.

I know what I have the instinct to do, but

I think

we should just go.

We would have talked this out.

Yeah,

yeah.

I heard the Lord of Hells.

I mean, yeah.

We know time is running out.

We know that there's a ticking clock.

I don't think there's...

I tried...

listen,

I tried having a conversation with this guy and it didn't go well.

So I think we just gotta- I think we gotta kill him.

The father or the son?

I mean, I meant the father.

The son I assumed we weren't killing.

Um, I

can't imagine there is.

We saw what happened when we tried to leave him alive the first time.

I think, yeah, the time for that is past.

Um, if I think we should knock him out before he opens a gate of some kind, and then it becomes it's us versus him and all his little friends.

Yeah.

Okay.

Um

Crocus steps in the door.

Uses his action to activate the belt.

Yes.

Just Just

all this lightning electricity starts like wreathing the doorframe as he's going through.

Yes.

Gets in the room and says,

I couldn't get the taste of your blood out of my mouth.

I needed to find you again.

And runs across the room

and

does the same thing, spins him around and just bonus action lightning bolt.

Incredible.

Uh, your Storm Girdle immediately moves to the exalted state.

Um,

in doing that, he doesn't run, he flies straight at him because now I have a fly speed of 30.

Uh, incredible on electricity and goes and shoots across the room and slams into the guy like a lightning bolt.

Um, he, uh, without needing to even see your attack roll, casts shield.

He's like, I don't like this.

Um,

so that is, uh, he has to make a deck save

of 15.

he succeeds on the deck save okay but then still take well hey take half damage from

uh that is

half of 18.

he takes nine points of damage

as lightning strikes him slamming him against the altar right up against him

And you see, he is holding the key in his hand.

That belongs to us.

Incredible.

Any bonus actions from you?

That was bonus action because I have to activate the belt as an action.

Gotcha.

Cool, cool, cool.

Boom.

Bonus action.

You fly into the room.

Crocus, that is your turn.

Nia, that's you.

Oh, snap.

Okay.

Nia

is going to.

She's.

I guess she's going to.

She has oh gosh so many things that Nia can do um she's gonna get up in uh get up in the get in there.

She's gonna try and hide behind here.

I got it.

Um hide behind this pillar

here

and um try and position her crossbow, her hand crossbow to shoot him, to shoot the hand that has the key in it.

Cool.

And it's so that he doesn't do anything next.

Hell yeah.

Yeah.

I'll say go ahead and give me the attack with

You can give me the attack straight if it won't do any damage and just knocks the key out of his hand.

Or you can roll with disadvantage and do damage and knock the key out.

Let's tell an interesting story.

I'll try and do damage.

Okay, here we go.

Yeah.

I know.

Ha!

Natural one.

Gorgeous.

Stunning.

That's what happens when you do that.

That's an interesting story.

That's an interesting story.

Bolt goes out.

You fire the bolt.

There's a one and a 17.

I should have just selected roll straight.

We're trying to be straight.

Ugh, brittle.

That is going to be Arrow, your turn.

Oh, geez, we're there already.

Well, so I'll charge in because it's going down.

Yeah.

I'm going to do a pivot around,

like, spin as I walk to see if there's anyone in the corners that I don't see coming in.

How far is your dark vision?

that's a great question.

I think it's.

I don't like that you asked that.

Yeah.

Don't like that.

It's 60 feet.

Well, then you see the devil right behind the devil?

You see,

devil.

Say turn.

Sharp turn from Brennan here.

You've already published the works.

We can't change the works.

Published the works?

No works.

Oh my.

You see that.

You see perched up on this boulder in darkness an impression.

And you see a horned cloaked figure in the darkness over here, all within sight of your dark vision.

You are surrounded.

Right.

Okay, so I was heading to back up Crocus, but spinning and seeing an enemy just past Nia, I course correct immediately and move on an angle this way past Nia

to gain focus from that opponent there.

And I will...

The scimitar flashes out right from my belt and will attempt to jam into his ribs.

Charging forward.

I did spend an entire life.

Charging forward in darkness.

The shield in your hand, your mother's shield, moves into an exalted state.

Oh.

Where am I then?

So the shield is shining.

The dragon emblazoned on the front of it glows with a light of its own.

And I will use a bonus action.

As I lash out with the scimitar, the shield goes up in front of Nia.

And as a bonus action, I will grant her a plus three to her AC until the start of my next turn or until you leave my side.

Thanks, Steve.

And...

That is a

17 to hit.

17 hits.

Okay.

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.

What?

What's happening?

What, what, what, what, what, what?

What?

What did I miss?

Hold on.

Oh, don't do that.

Not a strong hit.

That is just a three total.

Three damage.

Bam.

Scimitar slashes out.

You deal three points of damage.

Okay.

I hold my ground.

You hold your ground standing there.

Oh, that is Arrows turn Phaedra.

That's you.

Alright.

Is Lord Calister currently like grappling with the fight?

We're five not grappling

like like we're fucking

but you see he's holding the key in his hand.

I'm gonna just stay at the doorway like kind of using the doorway half as cover

and I

I'm busting out the condemner baby.

I'm gonna fire it at him.

Um as you pull this crossbow out

What are you feeling in this moment?

I am feeling that I am not going to let this fucker touch my son.

You

hold it aloft.

That's your son.

The Condemner moves into an exalted state.

Cool.

Go ahead and take your attack.

Exalted?

Well then.

Well then.

A bunch of first-level characters with exalted vestiges is sort of what I'm interested in.

Wow, I rolled it really bad.

Like Bilbo with the one ring.

You know, that's what I want to see.

Yeah.

Oh, remember, you're attacking from darkness, though.

Yes.

So you have advanced.

Yeah.

He's wreathed in light.

You are not.

Okay.

Wait.

This is breaking my brain.

So the increase to attack and damage rolls is plus three,

so plus one,

which means that I get a plus.

Oh my god, five plus three.

Plus eight to attack?

Plus eight to attack, yeah.

Then I get an 18.

18 exactly hits.

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

So then I roll one

D10, right?

Um, that is a five and then plus three

and then plus.

Oh, actually, no, instead of doing that

Instead of doing that, I'm gonna cast hold person.

Gonna cast hold person?

Hell yeah.

Okay, which is a save DC 15.

Save DC 15.

Wizard.

Is it?

Yes, Wisdom says, yes.

Okay.

Um, but but

now

I'm done.

Uh, cool.

Our dear Lord Callister, uh, what's the difficulty on that?

Does it say 15?

Our dear Lord Callister has to roll 15 or higher.

Okay.

Okay.

Do it, you won't.

You won't.

You remember when you were caught?

Brutal.

I gotta shut up.

I gotta shut the fuck up.

You cast all the money.

Wait, wait, wait.

No, no.

Okay.

If I get to exalt, it's exalted, right?

So then it says the save DC for the weapons whole person increases to 17.

Were you prepared?

I don't know.

Look at the other one.

It's 15 if it's 15 if it's awakened, but it's 17.

Yeah, 17 in DC.

Unbelievable.

Yeah.

So, Veidra, you hold him in sight of the contemper.

You hold him inside of the contemper.

He, looking at Corpus, wheels around, sees your eyes.

And I say, stop fidgeting.

He

freezes.

As he says that, you see the

screams from within a paralyzed throat, and you can tell is maddened, feeling illusorily the feet of thousands of roaches traveling over his skin as he is frozen there.

You have your movement left.

He is frozen and cannot,

the key is in a hand.

You could absolutely snatch it out of his hand if you wanted to.

I don't know if I could make it over there because if I'm at the doorway,

I have a movement of 35.

Can I make it over there and grab the key?

If you're at the doorway, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35.

Yeah, then I do that.

You, you rush up, snatch the key out of his hand.

Boom.

And the key immediately back in your possession goes, Oh, God, Mr.

Key, thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

He was bad.

I know, I know.

Um

better relationship with a key

damn damn uh that is Phaedra's turn.

Um uh the little

the sad little rust sort of like boy uh that looks up at you, the bandaged hand, he looks up at you in the soft light of the Moon Weaver's glow.

He just goes

Servant?

Hi again.

Hi.

Listen.

I don't think I can make this right for you, but I'm gonna try my best.

Okay?

Okay.

I wouldn't help me if I was you.

But I will.

Oh.

And

that is going to be...

That's going to be Garin's turn.

Oh, okay.

I don't have a reason to yet.

Matt's different from

Garin.

Matt?

Punctuation is important.

Yeah.

Garn, that is your turn.

I'm gonna turn!

Get a turn!

I didn't know if I was too far out of initiative to ever go.

Reminder, this is the surprise round, so you guys are...

It's bad out here.

So Garn's going to go ahead and integrate.

No.

About that far.

Yeah.

He's going to...

He's tripping, following the Marine.

Yeah, you know.

Make a lot of noise.

That's how he goes.

He.

Given the circumstances as they are,

with his dark vision, I would ask, does he also see that we're surrounded?

Or is he...

Yeah, dark vision, you can immediately see that you're surrounded.

Okay.

Then you're focused on that guy.

Seeing the devil on that side, and he doesn't quite have the full power to get into the fray, he's gonna go ahead and charge forward to this pillar.

Yeah.

And be like,

you know, I have a lot more practice breaking stone than people.

And he's going to go ahead and, with the uh, with the Hearth's hammer in his hand, try and strike the base of the pillar at the proper angle on like the opposite side to see if I can cause it to fall onto the distant devil.

Okay, um, your hammer moves into an exalted state.

Um, uh, the so the issue here

is these pillars have uh a hardness of 10 and then also have, let me just see here, I believe have 25 hit points each.

Okay.

So you need, like, if you can't do more than 10 damage, you do no damage at all.

Great.

In the awakened state, I ignore hardness

with the hammer.

And then

deal double damage against objects and structures.

As well as an additional

2d6 force damage when attacking objects or structures.

So this is this is what I'm good at.

Breaking fucking stone.

Okay.

Go ahead, make your attack roll.

Its armor class is eight.

That's your 20.

Like I said.

Fucking god.

Unbelievable.

So, Matt,

on that 20, that's a critical hit.

So, that's going to be the normal hammer damage.

It's plus 3 plus your strength modifier.

It is also

double the normal 1d8.

And

it's 3d6

doubled.

So, that's 2d8 plus 6d6 plus 3 plus your strength modifier.

Correct.

Oh, well, you're not exalted.

You're a waiter.

No, no, you're exalted.

You're exalted.

Oh, okay,

but not level one.

Not level one in MPC stat blocks still.

Not a great role in some cases.

But, well, hold on, we'll get there.

We'll get there.

That's eight,

thirteen,

twenty-three,

twenty-seven plus seven.

That's going to be 34 points of damage doubled because it's a structure.

yeah yeah yeah quadruple yeah i don't know if this has ever been said before about a piece of terrain matt how do you want to do this

um

so i think he like

he like jumps in sees it eyes it looks down at the base of the hammer uh

and is like You know, for being as old as the city is, kind of show the craftsmanship.

Is gonna swing back and crack it at the base with all the might that he has in his arm.

As it hits it, the symbol of the all hammer on the side of it kind of emblazons, and it's almost like the hammer hits once, and then some other force pushes it a second time from behind.

And as it does, the force energy

cracks out from that edge as it begins to fall and like dislodges perfectly, where it takes the entirety of the pillar down in the intended motion without

taking a section of the ceiling with it.

Crack

a all of you witness a feat of strength that you've never seen before.

From this old man.

Old man's strength!

Bow!

This pillar, no roll necessary, crushes and destroys this devil immediately.

This hallowed stone, absolutely bypassing any protections it has against mundane stone, crushed.

And I'll say on a nat 20,

this dude also gets partially covered over here

and is just boom as the stone falls.

Garin, incredible turn.

That's my turn.

It takes me a minute to get there.

Once you got there,

believable.

You see,

as you do that,

you sunder

that pillar.

Boom!

Through gritted teeth, the paralyzed Lord Callister's eyes dart to you and calls up and says,

The dwarf!

Kill the dwarf!

And

leaping from the top of this, an imp is going to fly across the room

right to Garin and he's going to attack you.

Here we go.

What is your armor class?

14.

He misses.

Yes.

The...

You see

this

devil right here

barks out a command.

Gleaming in red light.

Another devil appears.

Another devil appears.

Oh boy.

Preparing to surge forward.

They are going to take.

They are going to take running starts.

We'll go with this one first.

This one is going to attack Nia.

What is your armor class currently?

19.

19.

That is a miss.

19, you said?

So normally it would be 16?

Normally it's 14, but I get plus

plus.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah.

The mirror becomes exalted in this moment.

Oh, then I get, then actually, my AC is 20.

Your AC is 20.

So I have 14, and then.

You got plus 3 for me right now.

Yeah, plus 3.

Yeah, plus 3.

So,

yeah, 6.

Yeah, so it's 20.

20.

Exactly.

So

this one just rolled an 18.

So you see, it comes from you.

Whoa!

And you see, the mirror shines, winces back, and is flop out of the way from Arrow's shield.

King!

And is ineffective.

These ones are going to rush across as fast as possible,

both heeding Calister's command and rushing for the dwarf.

Armor class?

Oh, 14.

That's a miss.

God, I'm rolling like trash.

That's a hit.

I mean, I'm one out of four thousand.

There's like something in there has to hit me.

Stop trying to hit me and hit me.

I said, you know what?

Let the man roll.

I'm going to need a constitution saving throw.

Yeah.

Is it.

Is this for poison?

Uh, no, this is a bleeding wound.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

Uh, that's bad.

Uh, that's gonna be

wait.

No, I misread that.

Use the dwarven dice.

Uh, that's gonna be a 21, actually.

You do not receive a bleeding wound, but you take six points of damage.

Oh, shit.

charging

um hold person does that give him that gives him another saving throw at the end of his next turn right uh does not save but sure i believe so i believe so

he's gonna look up the hold person

end of each of its turns the target can make another wisdom saving throw okay yes so he misses his turn he'll make another wisdom saving throw he's got a roll of 17 or higher on the die.

Yes.

Good grief.

Do it in front of the board.

I'll keep me honest.

That's a four.

Calister does not make it.

Still frozen there.

Clutch.

Absolutely clutch.

These vestiges coming in handy.

Liana's long life of mortal work paying off.

Thanks, Suz.

The

after Callister's turn, Crocus.

That's going to be you.

Crocus right up against

the Lord.

See, and here, seeing him tense and still able to give commands even though he's held,

says,

I think you need to stop talking.

And is going to take one hand and grab the bottom jaw.

Just like putting fingers in his mouth as a strike.

So making an attack roll to jam his hand in his mouth.

Yeah.

That's an 18 plus 8.

So I think that hits.

And then that's going to be one DC

That's nine points of damage.

Nine points of damage.

Lightning damage.

Nine points of lightning damage.

Lightning, everything's read than lightning.

Gotcha.

And then

grabs and

right into the mouth, shoots a bolt of lightning into his mouth.

That's a deck save.

DC 15.

And he's held, so disadvantage, he rolls a gnat one.

Okay.

So that's.

That's That's 10, uh, 13, all right, 10, 11, 12, 13 points of lightning damage.

Hell yeah.

Uh, Crocus,

how do you want to do this?

So, as he jams the fingers in his mouth and he pulls, he grabs the top and he pulls open his mouth, looks him in the eye, and goes,

Never touch my mother again,

just splits him directly in half down with a lightning bolt and pulls both sides apart.

of work.

Yeah,

Lord Callister is no more.

Yeah.

Problem solving, guys.

Problem solving fascist.

And then just like one lizard eye flicks at the kid, Alex Simmons just goes, don't move.

As you say, don't move.

Crocus, that is your turn.

Nia, that is you.

Oh, sorry, I do have movement.

Yes, yes.

When you just move.

I fly straight up in the air and hover and look around, finding where I need to go.

But it says I can hover.

Yeah, right.

It looks like Garin is beset on all sides by devils at the moment, but Nia also is being

beset.

Oh, thank you.

Yeah, yeah.

But you see that Nia is also in the corner with Arrow fighting this devil off there.

Garin, who's being attacked, is because.

What the fuck?

I'm just having a weird storm moment.

I'm just lightning everywhere.

Do you know what happens to a devil in the rain?

Same thing that happens to every other devil.

Or writing.

There's a devil behind me.

Yes.

Actually, no, first things first, I am going to cast guidance on Arrow.

Cool.

And that is one action.

I think that's my.

I don't.

That's your action, yeah.

Where's my bonus?

Bonus actions.

Bonus action healing work.

Oh.

I don't know who's injured.

No one's taking it.

Karin's injured, yeah.

Oh, then I'll cast healing word on my friend Karin.

I'll take it.

1d4 plus your modifier.

And my modifier.

Where are you, spell casting modifier?

Oh, plus three.

No.

Oh, modifier.

Oh, you can see it.

Yeah, my attack is five.

My modifier is three.

I'm not going to keep that.

Six.

That's exactly what I was down.

Yay.

Ooh, sweeteny.

Thank you.

Of course.

And that's...

I think, I'll, can I move at all, or is that everything I can do?

Because I still have movement.

You have movement?

Yeah.

Cool.

I

am going to get the...

I don't want to leave.

I'll keep within reaching distance of Arrow just in case things go south.

But I want to get us.

Actually, would it be helpful to sort of flank him for any

fighting?

You would flank that devil.

Yeah, I'm going to flank him.

And that way he won't get an attack opportunity on you.

Yeah, I'll flank him.

Great.

So you have your sword, mirror at your side, you're armored, you're ready.

You get in a position, healing word, guidance on Arrow, and that immediately moves into Arrow's turn.

Okay.

Yeah.

I feel a surge of the Moon Weaver through my friend touching my shoulder.

And the Scimitar spins once in my hand.

And the devil looks over her shoulder at Nia.

So I take that as a chance to strike.

That is a 17 plus stuff, so it hits.

17 plus 3 is 20.

Hell yeah.

Oh, no.

First stock, bonus action.

His eyes glint gold.

Hunter's mark, yes.

So that is four plus one is five.

And the hunter's mark, total of 11 points of damage this time.

Sword slashes across, shield up,

with your hunter's mark on this devil right there, who

snarls out and looks at you.

As Callister dies, you see his eyes dart over your shoulder to Garin.

And you see that something ripples in his eyes like a deep red light.

We end it here.

Poraba.

We certainly do.

He's got your hunter's mark on him.

And

da da da.

And we're going to move from Aero Phaedra.

That is your turn.

All right.

I am going to pull out Mr.

Key and I am going to say, Mr.

Key, this is Phaedra.

I formally request invisibility, please.

And I am using the Awakened state to be invisible.

Incredible.

The key goes to its exalted state

and looks at you and immediately for free.

So you, as an action, you make yourself invisible.

Yeah.

We will go ahead and make you invisible here.

But

you also, I think, see that the key goes, looks at you and goes,

please, please, please hide, Miss Phaedra.

Uh, and

uh, and then looks and says, says,

Look, the bad man, I he can't explain it.

He just got ripped in half by your son.

Is that your son?

Yeah.

Um, and he goes, The boy, the little boy, we gotta get him through the door, the main door.

Why?

That's the only thing that's gonna send these devils home.

Can I

insight check the key?

Uh, give me an insight check with advantage.

Okay.

This key is fully anthropomorphic in my mind.

Yeah.

Smile.

Mr.

DNA.

Nat 20.

Advantage, right?

Yeah.

Advantage.

Yeah.

Why don't you just do what you're fucking told?

Key,

I

fucking

trusted you.

Why don't you make your third wish?

The door blasts open.

Oh, shit.

And standing behind it,

you behold

imprisoned in his realm the Lord of the Hells.

Oh shit.

Are you fucking kidding me?

I would say that you're all first level, but actually one of you is still challenged rating 18.

Yeah.

Oh god.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Crogus just spins around in the air and looks behind him.

Just fuck.

You see he looks out.

Um

All of you will see that door.

Boom!

Behind this.

However, Nia, you see the Moon Weaver's statue

seals

this back area.

This whole space becomes a like liminal fire space.

It's like a threshold between realms.

Past the statue of the Moon Weaver, that temple is within the boundaries of the nine hells.

But she, that statue alone in her temple with her cleric here, is holding it at bay.

And you sense that the Lord of the Hells can neither pass past it, nor send magic past it, nor do anything like that.

But the Lord of the Hells witnesses you on a nat 20 fucking insight.

Unbelievable.

Oh my god.

You see, Mr.

Key.

That key sucks.

Mr.

Key is so

bad.

Mr.

King's bad.

So we've got like dimensional bleed overlap.

Dimensional bleed overlap happening in the back of the temple.

Oh my god.

As it is happening, you see, by the way, the Lord of the Hells, a vision of horror, an unending horror, pain, torment, but also bleeding from so many injuries.

The Lord of the Hells is freshly

banished to his realm.

Though it may not be something that your characters would know, the wounds he bears marks that the final battle of the calamity has just been lost by this horned god.

He reaches out to Euphra, going,

Come on, you little bug!

Don't you want to be somebody?

Don't you want to make your third wish?

I'll give you everything.

You want your mommy and your daddy back?

You want to be the big kitchen boss?

A little throat-slitting, murdering fuck like you.

You're gonna be by my side sooner or later.

This little sunlit world is gonna spit you out.

There's no home for you in a world that's not burning!

I don't care.

I have been abandoned, I have been treated with cruelty.

I almost died,

and I made it through, and we made it through because we make our own change.

And you'll die here with the rest.

Boy, to me!

And Hamp puts up his hand.

And as you will take your turn, but you can tell that he is going to legendary action at the end of your turn.

And the little boy in front of you, the child of Lord Callister, looks to you and says,

They made me.

I don't have a soul.

I'm just supposed to be

home

for something greater.

And he begins to lift off the ground as the Lord of the Hells is summoning to Matt's no.

Something specially about a boy that doesn't react when he gets stabbed in the hand.

I don't want what do I need to know what I don't know right now.

Theegra, it is your turn before that legendary action unfolds.

Oh my god.

Is well, I already took my action, though, because turning invisible was my action.

Yes, turning invisible is your action.

So I think all I can...

You have...

You have movement and a bonus action.

You have movement and a bonus action.

And a bonus action.

Is he...

Is the Lord of the Hells

through the door way to hell, or is he still...

He's still on the hell side of the door?

Much like

when centuries ago...

A door was opened for him by Vespen Chloris.

You sense that he is merely at the threshold.

Your Nat 20 insight did not open the door.

What it did was undo the illusion.

And in all the ages of Xandria, what few mortals can claim to have undone a lie of the father of lies, Phaedromero is at the very top of that list.

So.

He is not through the door.

Rather, the door, to put it bluntly, has been made clear and truthful by you.

Your insight through the key.

The ruby light comes out from the center of the key, this cursed artifact, and you are looking at the Lord of the Hells, who needs

either your permission as the holder of the key or needs the boy to come through.

You sense that he is trying to escape the fate that has just been wrought by the prime deities in the continent of Wild Mountain.

Okay.

I'm trying to figure this out because it says as a bonus action.

Okay, so in the exalted state, the key

opens a magical

doorway, right?

Am I capable, am I,

like,

can I tell if that is how this current doorway that I'm looking at to hell was created?

Was with the key?

It looks like it.

It looks like this door was being created with.

Which means that the opening lasts until the key is passed through to the other side at which point it disappears, right?

Yes.

Yes.

Oh, give him the key.

I know.

But I'm trying to...

How else am I gonna fucking close the close the thing?

I think getting the kid.

Yeah.

Getting the kid?

Okay.

Or just keeping the kid from the door.

Okay.

Because if he can't, he can't pass through unless he has a key, either the Mr.

Key or that baby boy key.

Alright, so first of all, okay.

And in that case, I'm just gonna.

Okay.

Forget all that, all that.

I just need to take my movement, I think.

And I'm gonna

just try and get cover

probably off to this side, like underneath that, like little thing.

Fuck, that's kind of all I can do.

You can grab the boy.

Wait, should I

grab the boy?

I suppose, because he's

right now.

Maybe you could make sure he doesn't float over there.

I have his hand and try and hold on to him.

Can I try to do that?

Because he's like floating in the air, right?

Oh, I think you can't reach him.

You could, you could drink, you could jump.

I'll try.

I'll try.

Uh, give me a DC-10 acrobatics check.

Oh,

is that?

Oh, acrobatics is that plus decks?

That's plus decks, yeah.

Okay, I feel a little bit better than that.

14.

14.

Um, so you see, you use your turn, you have the key, you are invisible.

You jump up, the boy becomes invisible as well.

What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

You grab the boy.

I got no soul.

I count as an object.

So you grab him, and he vanishes into invisibility with you

as you hit the deck.

And the legendary action coming at the end of your turn,

even the Lord of the Hells is bound by the rules of the game he exists in, and he cannot target what he cannot see.

So

you see, he uses legendary action instead to

his eyes glow red.

And he looks out.

Where are you?

Phaedra, that is your turn.

Keeping it fun!

Keeping it fun!

Incredible.

Oh, my God.

You see

Timothy in Invisibility looks at you and goes, The baby's name is Timothy.

Timothy, he goes,

Why are you being so nice to me?

I listen, this isn't about.

Kind of is not about you in this particular moment, Cabe.

Take me, devil!

No!

You're worse!

It's not about you, kid!

You're a fucking MacGuffin!

Gorin, it is your turn!

Oh, God!

Alright, of these devils that are converging, which one looks to be the most dangerous?

The one with the big wings over there?

Probably the one with the big wings over there, yeah.

I gotta focus on keeping their attention.

So I'm gonna shoot is the one over there within melee with me?

You can move.

Right now, the only one you're in melee with, actually.

The imp?

Is the imp, yeah.

Alright, I'm gonna shift around to almost get kind of a little bit more or less facing back to back with arrows.

Yeah.

And see if I can get behind the winged one.

Also possibly leaving you open if you wanted to come in and attack.

If you're not distracted with trying to help out with this kid.

Yeah, I don't know where they went.

Nah, they just vanished.

I'm gonna go ahead and swing as I come around the backside of him, shield up on this and try and guard from the imp and then just

try and crack at the back of the shoulders.

Imp's gonna get an attack opportunity, misses.

Go ahead and take your attack.

That's gonna be a 24 to hit.

24 hits.

Go ahead and roll damage.

That's gonna be

18 points of damage.

Woo, doctor.

Boom.

Whack with

the hearth's hammer.

Boom.

Into the side of that devil.

Shrieking out in pain and misery.

Garin, you move with your back to the pillar behind you.

We go to the top of the order.

The imp

is going to fly.

Does the imp have any means of seeing invisibility?

As the voice from Beyond says,

bring the boy to me!

The

imp cannot see invisibility, so it's going to stay on the previous command from the devil and go for Garin.

That is going to hit.

It's going to deal.

I'm going to need a constitution saving throw from you, and you're going to roll with advantage.

Advantage?

That's going to be 17.

17, you take no poison damage.

Or sorry,

you take

five points of piercing damage.

Alrighty.

And then you take half, which you'll have again, I think.

So that's seven, half to three, half to one on poison damage.

Alright, so down six guy.

Thinking.

And now these other doubles are going to go.

This one

is going to

wheel around

on

Nia.

Rude.

Very rude.

How very rude.

What's your armor class?

20.

Oh, no.

But minus, because you're no longer side by side with Arrow.

Minus 20.

17.

Give me a Constitution Saving Throw.

Okay, alright, alright.

Seven.

Seven.

Seven.

So you take seven points of damage.

Gorgeous.

Uh, and you are poisoned for one minute.

So you have a disadvantage on attack rolls and ability chests.

Uh, while poisoned in this way, you cannot regain hit points.

Okay.

Okay.

Sure.

Yeah.

Can't regain hit points.

I just all I need is three.

So uh I can't even regain hit points magically?

Not magically.

Gorgeous.

Stunned.

This one's gonna turn on Garin.

This one's gonna rush.

The fuck.

None of them can see Phydra or the boy.

So, two attacks on Garin.

Armor class is.

Yeah, 14.

Give me a constitution saving throne.

This can be 13.

That saves.

You take four points of damage.

What are you at?

I am at three.

And one of them is going to take two attacks against Arrow.

Progress!

I'm coming.

That doesn't help for this.

Constitution saving throw.

20.

20 saves.

You take 6 points of damage.

You see that

looking around Crocus, that is your turn.

Okay, so Crocus up in the air, sees all of the devils converge around

his friends.

He saw Phydra go invisible.

Yeah.

But does not know where they are.

Assuming they went to get the kid.

Yes.

And says, boss, get the kid outside.

And then rockets from where he is in the air straight at that winged devil's back.

Cool.

On the ground there, and it's going to slam him to the ground with a dropping attack.

Hell yeah.

You can roll with advantage.

Okay.

Good, because one of them was a one.

That's a 19 to hit.

19 hits.

Okay.

That is

10 points of lightning damage.

Hell yeah.

And then

as he lands all four limbs, slamming the devil to the ground, he's going to bite the devil on the ground and shock him with a lightning bolt through.

Go for it.

And so he has to make a dex 15 save.

Fails to save.

Okay.

Okay, so 9-10.

11 points of lightning damage.

Badly injured.

This is the one that Garin had wheeled around and hit with the hammer.

Now badly, badly injured here.

I forgot to add my plus three to my save, my constitution save.

Do you remember what you rolled?

Yeah, I sit still looking at me.

It was

eight now and 11.

11 doesn't do it.

Alright, worth the shot.

That's what I'm trying to.

Get the boy out of here.

Um,

the uh crow, because that's you.

Nia, it is your turn.

I am going to cast greater invisibility on myself.

Um, uh,

and

yeah, I can, because of my mirror, I can do it without uh uh expending expending the spell slot.

Oh, yeah.

I'm going to cast greater invisibility on myself.

And

then

I

can't really do...

Yeah, I'm just going to cast greater invisibility on myself and then take my sword and try and get at one of these devil guys.

Does greater invisibility in action?

Yeah, yeah, it's greater.

Oh, greater invisibility is in action, then bonus action.

Can't cast healing word on myself because I don't do nothing.

Does anybody, I mean, Garren's.

Yeah, no,

that's my last spell slot I have.

So I will use it.

Yeah, I'm going to use it to cast healing word on Garren.

Hell yeah, go for it.

1d4 plus your wisdom modifier.

And my wisdom modifier.

Plus 3 again.

It's plus 3, plus 3, so it's plus.

Is it

modifier and wisdom?

No, just your modifier is your wisdom modifier.

Oh.

That's how that works, huh?

That's all good.

Seven.

I'll take that.

Thank you.

What's Garn at?

He's at ten now.

Uh

at the end of your turn.

At the end of your turn, Nia.

Yeah.

You greater's ability, incredibly potent spell.

Uh, the devil, looking at you disappear, turns around as the figure in flame in another world calls out.

You can see your sister's face in the statue.

You see that Lord of the Hill says, the boy,

find the.

And the devil out here goes,

Does anyone he speak Infernal?

I'm barely speaking.

The devil chatters in Infernal, pointing to Garin and the shattered half of the temple.

This dwarf just knocked a pillar down at the temple.

And you see that the Lord of the Hells turns his gaze to you, Garin.

He goes,

throws out his hand.

I'm gonna need you to make a strength-saving throw.

I think Garin at this moment, too, who has seen the face of a god once, seen a distant walking god of another that brought terror, but has never really made eye contact with one, especially when filled with malice.

And while as

old man confident he's been into this point, that moment has

just dropped everything and sees if he can muster his strength.

That's going to be a 19.

A 19.

A 19 is incredible and it is not enough.

I'm going to say, for the Lord of the Hells?

No.

No.

You enter the restrained condition.

Ish.

5,

10, 15, 20, 25, 30.

You're a sturdy fellow.

It's not often you get picked up.

You begin to move up up into the air, much like Timothy,

as the Lord of the Hells speaks in an infernal.

And you see a hungry, ravenous smile.

Can I retort?

Yes.

Indworven.

The stones rumble.

It's dwarven for get fucked.

Absolute,

absolute disrespect, almost sacred disrespect.

Arrow, it is your turn.

Oh, jeez.

Um

man, oh man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, oh, man.

Um, I'm going to, uh, I see Nia

vanish completely, but uh, I don't hear any footsteps, so I'm going to try to finish this thing off while it's still in front of me.

Uh, I w still flanking, even though she's invisible?

Yes, still flanking.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Good.

So that's a 17 to hit.

17 hits.

With the Hex, or not Hex, Hunters Marks, so that's there's four plus

10 total.

10 total.

And this is one you've hit a couple times before.

Hold on one second.

Let me find this guy.

How do you want to do this?

Thank God.

The scimitar,

it's turned towards Nia, and the scimitar you see just split through out of its chest, stopping like four or five inches away from you.

And then, like a lever, the sword just smashes it into the wall on the side.

And then you see him say, He yells, stay safe, and he's gonna run around this column

and try to get,

I guess, in between where Phaedra and Crocus are.

And he's uh yelling up to uh Garin.

Just need to be close.

Hell yeah.

Um, you rush up towards Garin.

Um,

as you are running, give me a

uh, Phydra's turn is immediately after you're taking your action.

Um, we're gonna come to the end of you running because you have movement left.

I'm gonna, as you run, Phydra, we're gonna do your turn here for a second.

You're here with Timothy.

Uh, what are you going to do?

I, man, I'm, I don't have like a clear line through this doorway.

Like...

Through this doorway, right?

Because people are like blocking me.

I'm going to...

It's bad out here.

Yeah, it's bad.

It's so bad.

It's...

Um...

Who is that right next to me?

Is that...

That's Timothy.

Timothy.

No, no, no.

On the other side?

That's arrow.

Oh, that's arrow.

Well, I just want to make sure that I'm going to the dragon.

I'm a voting devil.

I'm going.

I'm going to grab Timothy.

And I'm going to like run over for cover, like, down here, basically, kind of where all this rubble is where uh great where Garin like knocked everything over.

You've got a star in doom one day.

Uh you rush over with the boy.

Uh-huh.

Uh.

And then once we're kind of there in um

in in relative cover, I like without letting go of him, I say

um

I say, listen, you don't have to do this.

You don't have to go with him.

You don't have to live at the bidding of those who want to make you suffer.

As you look at him,

you

see in his eyes a familiarity.

There's always been something wrong with me.

I know exactly how you feel.

He looks at you, hearing those words that

you suddenly see

for all of the hardship you have passed through and all of the struggles you have had, all of the things you have done that you are aware kind and compassionate people do not do,

in this moment,

the weight of that life

brings truth to your words.

as this boy realizes you mean what you say.

You look down,

That ruby light in that key.

That key.

Nia's sister took it and hid it away for a reason.

You found it deep in those vaults, hidden away up in the mountains.

You look down at that ruby,

and you see deep within it

something

small,

sleeping,

curled up like a ball, like Timothy was.

This key,

if you keep it,

will serve you for the rest of your life and make you the richest woman in Xandria.

You also feel in this moment with the tip of one of Condemner's barbed bolts

that you could break that ruby right now,

in which case you will lead a life of

poverty, ignominy, and striving along with the rest of Exandria to scratch a life out from a rubble-strewn and ash-covered world.

I look at the sleeping child inside the Ruby,

and I say to Timothy,

If I have a soul, then.

you must have one too.

Is this yours?

Is this you?

He looks in the key, and his eyes start to water.

What is that?

The Lord of the Hell's eyes flash to you.

Idra, what do you do?

I think she's still invisible.

That was probably

true-sided at a certain point.

He switched his legendary action to activate his.

I think he could.

Yeah, I was like, I think he really.

I was like, there's no way he can't

see invisibility.

No, he's bound by the rules of the game.

I say, Timothy,

if I tell you

that you have the power to be good, to change this world for the better, to rise above all of this darkness and all of this hate that made you,

would you take that charge?

And would you do good?

And I need you to answer me truthfully.

You see, Timothy looks as Garn floating in the air, the Lord of the Hells, prepares the very end of this turn.

Like, having activated this, he's reaching out for you with some fucking

something.

Um, uh, he looks and goes, um,

uh, Timothy looks at you in answer to your question, and you can hear

the stirring of that part of him within the Ruby as he goes,

I don't know if I know how,

but I can promise I'd try.

Can I'd take that key.

Maybe this is a mistake, but I don't think it is.

And I'm just going to press it to his heart.

And then I'm going to say,

then that is a soul.

The ruby shatters.

Timothy breathes in.

Immediately his face is flushed with emotion.

You see in the images of ruby light extending from the key,

the Lord and Lady Callister engaged in acts better left undescribed.

Creating a child so that, as the war of calamity unfolded and things looked more and more dire for the Lord of the Hells, that a mortal vessel its soul suspended would be prepared for him to walk the world behind the gate in mortal form until such time as his true power could be restored.

But he wasn't counting on the fucking Roach gang.

Fire, Phaedra, you have restored the soul and condemned yourself to a hard fucking life.

Nothing new.

It's better down here.

You can mark off the infiltrator's key and add Timothy to your inventory.

Incredible.

He kind of has awakened sticks.

Yes, Timothy and his exalted Timothy.

You're all fucked up.

Incredible.

Just a being of pure childhood.

Unbelievable.

Phaedra, that is your turn.

Arrow, your movement.

Did you want to end up right down here?

Yeah, I mean, I don't have any more gas in the can to do anything.

I just want to get as close to my friend as I can to try to save his ass.

Yeah.

Satan.

Hell yeah.

At the end of your turn, as you're grabbing him, go ahead, give me

either

an attack roll, essentially, to try and grab Garin as he's like moving through the air here.

Okay.

Like an unarmed strike, should we call it 22 22 um you grab garin um

you can tell

that something is coming a legendary action is coming at the end of your turn um

uh as this unfolds here in this moment uh

you

can choose to as you grab garin uh to where you want to be positioned as you bring him close to the ground well i would say I don't know how the economy is going to work here.

I still have my bonus action after that matters, but I will both yank, I've got him by the scruff of one leg, and I'll yank him down while lifting my mother's shield up in front of his chest and face.

Hell yeah.

You

pull him.

The Lord of the Hells with legendary action, lifting Garin up, seeing this happen with Timothy, changes course, summons a bolt of fire into his hand, and prepares to obliterate Garin here in this space.

You grab him, move in front of him, shield up.

Shield, shoulder, back, torso.

This is going to be

a firebolt cantrip cast by a

Lord of the Hells.

No.

A cantrip.

Yeah.

I have some legendary action.

I have leather armor, though.

Take that.

That is a hit.

How many hit points do you have?

Seven.

Is that max for you or no?

No.

Okay.

You are about to go down.

We are going to determine

there is a possibility that you only go down.

If he rolls like four ones, you could stay up.

But there is also a possibility, given the math at this moment, moment, that this may be your last act in Xandria.

Seven

plus

seven plus thirteen is twenty.

Nine

you're down.

You have eleven more hit points before your hit point maximum is reached

past

zero hit points.

Seven

ten

striding forward, you pull Gorn down.

What is Arrow feeling in this moment?

After a lifetime of running,

scraping

and frequent solitude,

push and pull between

being on his own and

returning to life

and others.

He's just grateful that he

found his way again

before it was too late.

And as

I guess

the two of us sink down on the ground

with my weight,

only

Garin hears him say

thank you for getting me out of Rybart.

Thank you for setting me free.

A bolt of fire

aimed for Garin

streaks.

You hold your shield aloft.

You got Nia to Torm's Hill.

You got the word of the Moon Weaver to Vaselheim.

You saw the Lord of the Hells want for something

in this dwarf,

and you will serve, guide, and protect until your last

fire strikes Arrow in the chest,

and he falls.

Final moments,

golden scales

glittering

as though they could never truly burn.

As Arrow falls,

Lord of the Hells

cackles

to see you all unmade.

This

is my greatest joy

to watch you suffer.

He arises.

Garin, it's your turn.

Garin's seen a lot of death.

And he's very good at compartmentalization at this point in his elder years.

So the pragmatisti is he takes this moment in this flash, this

loss.

Kicks the shield off of his one arm,

slides it down into the now unused shield from Eros' arm,

brings that up

and backs up shoulder to shoulder

with Crocus.

It's time to go.

Let's get out of here.

He's gonna go ahead and backing up further, swing around and try and smash this devil that's blocking part of that path out of the way to continue to try and open the way for the rest of these folks.

Hell yeah.

Um,

you step towards this devil here, back to back with Crocus.

Arrow on the ground.

Garin, go ahead, and you can take flanking here and roll with advantage.

Uh that's gonna be a 19.

Bad hands, go ahead and roll damage.

Not great.

But still an 11 points of damage.

This one had been hit many times before.

Wheeling around, bringing the hammer down,

right between the wings, crushing the spine, this devil falls to the floor here.

Before the Lord of the Hells,

you see that this devil has fallen.

There is one in the doorway here that continues,

but the rest all throughout, that one falls under your hammer.

He's not even looking at the devil at this point.

He's still kind of looking out, kind of processing the memory of that last flash of Eros's faith.

And uses the rest of his movement to continue to move up to where the other devil is to draw its attention.

Right.

You use the rest of your movement, surge forward to this place here.

As you do,

the Imp is going to turn to attack.

You have

Honor's last stand.

You have a vestige of the Platinum Dragon also in its exalted state.

What's your current armor class?

Right now it would be 17.

17.

That is a miss from the Imp.

Hit.

I need a Constitution Savings Row.

That's gonna be a 19.

You take no bleeding wound, but you do take six points of damage.

Here we go.

This one lashes out and attacks you as well.

That's actually, you've just killed the last one.

This is the last one left.

Crocus, that is gonna be your turn.

Crocus

seeing Garan start walking.

He he looks down at Eros,

picks him up.

Got 23 strength now, it shouldn't be a problem.

I picks him up and he looks at the Lord of the Hills, and in Draconic,

that Erop taught him,

says,

Siko, Kikros, kis no kraxa,

says,

change is coming,

and you are not that change.

And Tan takes him out and takes, use his fly speed to fly with arrows in his arms,

slamming down, standing on top of the imp.

Hell yeah.

Go ahead and make your attack roll.

Okay, that's

a 17 dead.

That hits.

Go ahead and roll damage.

That is 12 points of lightning damage.

Destroyed.

We leave hell.

Crocus and Garren, one devil remains in your path.

Nia, that is your turn.

Nia's had a hard few days.

She called Arrow family today

and then he died.

She called her sister family,

she died

ish

called Lou's family, she died

and he is still

so greatly invisible.

Picks up

her mirror,

looks at it,

puts it back.

Decides to, before she leaves and follows her friends, to cast a major image

to attempt to

provide the illusion that this statue of the moon weaver has come to life.

She has it turn around

and face

the Lord of the Hells.

I don't know if she can make it speak or talk.

I don't know if that's

within her ability.

Yeah, I can move it.

Yeah, it can make different sounds as if to carry on a conversation.

She has her sister raise her hand and point to the Lord of the Hells

and says,

Do not fall victim to your folly.

You will not,

you cannot,

and you have not won.

And she

I think, she wants this statue to slap this Lord of the Hells.

I think she, I just want, I want her, I want her to smack him.

I don't know if he's gonna feel it, I don't really care.

I think Nia just craves the satisfaction

in this moment.

She reaches to a place of

a revenge that she once denied herself capable of,

and she wants her sister to smack this fucking lord.

If that's allowed.

As you reach to the mirror and hold this aloft,

it is capable of great illusion.

The Moon Weaver's domain is that of trickery, a domain that she shares with the Lord of the Hells.

You

wish to hear those words spoken.

Folly.

That this

is not the change that is coming here.

And

you reach for this illusion.

What cold comfort it can be.

The illusion of the Lord of the Hells is that of deception and manipulation, an untruth spoken to achieve an end.

Bedevil a mind, break a heart.

The trickery of the Moon Weaver is made clear to you in this moment, for as the statue turns in illusion,

the illusion is

a dream.

There is an illusion that we all share,

which is the dream we have of a world that does not exist, but might.

That illusion is more precious than gold,

and as dear as kin and home.

For as the illusion takes hold,

And Phaedra restores the soul of the boy here and the key shatters, Lord Callister lies dead, the Lord of the Hells rearing up,

The Moon Weaver turns.

And the words you most wished to hear, that you dreamed into being with your mirror,

you hear.

Truly spoken.

This is no illusion.

The fire vanishes, and wreathed in moonlight, the statue

takes the form

of your sister.

The Lord of the Hells, eyes wide.

You

had left.

You had left this world.

The gate.

She raises an eyebrow, turns back to you, and goes,

I lied.

And smacks him into the bottom of the pit of hell.

turns to you.

You gotta tell the truth about lying.

You gotta tell the truth about lying.

She comes out of invisibility,

places a kiss on her hand, sets it to the ground, looking at her sister,

and follows her friend.

The chapel restored.

Phaedra, you lead the boy, Crocus, you hold Arrow's Arrow's body.

This last devil vanishes with his master in flame.

And

you all depart from this place and return, Arrow's body, Timothy beside you.

The rubble of the chapel,

the fallen bodies, the flames of devils.

this ritual,

the final failsafe of the Lord of the Hells to skirt the destiny written for him across 300 years of calamity.

That failsafe is foiled.

His doom sealed.

As overhead,

dragon's wings, the size size of the sky, open.

And a line of light, breathed out across the stars,

begins to cover the world

in divine protection.

You look

as you exit the chapel.

Rubble and ruin behind you.

It is yet just one more place that must be rebuilt, cleaned and cared for in the days to come.

Around you there are celebrations, cheering

that seem to occur as if slowed in time with what you have just witnessed below.

We move.

into the final chapters of our story here.

And I will ask what it is you do

in Vaselheim

the night

that the Lord of the Hells and the betrayers

last laid eyes on Xandria.

Where do you think he would want to be

with his wife?

okay.

I'll keep him

until we can get back

in

the months

and

years

that follow,

choose whichever time you wish for.

Where is Arrow's final resting place?

I think that Nia had it exactly right.

High in the mountains.

In a healing

peak in Guasar

near a lock hidden in the mountains

plus by the Moonweaver herself.

Arrow

returns to the soil alongside Donaya

from a point in his life where he was

eminently happy.

Snowgrave Pass,

by those brave enough to tread it, for it is a far hike at the base of the Stormpoint Mountains,

is known by all those rangers and wanderers who have ever found it

to be one of the most beautiful sights in all Guasar.

And

Liam, I'll ask you to step away from the table if we can.

Thank you for playing.

And what of Phaedra's days

after divergence in the new dawn of Xandria?

In the new world,

Phaedra eventually returns back to Wasar,

back to the countryside where all the other

survivors from Torms Hill have started to build their lives.

She reunites with Otto and Tavine, hopefully.

I'm hoping.

They gleefully,

the first day you see them back in Torms Hill bringing word, because word has to be spread.

You see that

Tavine goes, boss, and runs over Torms Hill now has multiple structures and buildings.

Otto goes, You made it.

I did.

I missed you guys.

I really did.

Mushy.

I know.

Mushy.

I know.

Stop it.

Come here.

Give him a big hug.

Um,

Crocus, do you come with me?

Do you return with me?

Before we leave.

Yes.

Vasilot.

Hey.

Um.

What are you gonna do with Timothy?

That's a good question.

I feel like we.

Is Timothy.

Oh, you

Timothy is

in the celebration of Vaselheim

just seated eating snacks and sweets and looking around.

He's like full of life and energy like making up almost for lost time

and looks up sort of shell-shocked and

not sure how to make eye contact with other people but seems like he knows that there are other people that have seen horrifying things and chosen kindness and stays close by to Phaedra.

I think

I think you have a second chance

to be someone's mom.

Don't fuck it up.

I'll do my best.

And

he will travel back to

at least to consult with you.

And he's gonna have an amazing older brother.

Maybe.

Then yeah, I guess, I guess I adopted Timothy.

I guess, yeah.

You adopt Timothy.

Timothy grows up.

He's like, you make him wait until he's at least 12 to get the roach tattoo.

And I do it myself because

I don't trust anyone else and I do it to make sure.

The first time you see him intimidate someone that pushes around, they go like, hey, that's that little shrimp who's got a roach tattoo.

And he turns around and goes, I was born to be a home for the devil.

You spend, you spend long days

attending to,

I think, if it makes sense, I think you end up somewhere far.

Torum's Hill is a wonderful place, but there's lots of other places to travel to.

And you get word

one day of some strange marauders up in the the northeast of Quasar.

And one of them mentions that one of the leaders of them has a roach tattoo on the back of his neck.

Oh, yeah.

Okay.

And I think you end up in some swampland up there where

taking a helmet off.

Timothy's like, you know, maybe like 14 or 15 at this point.

See, there's some place up there where suddenly one of these marauders, as people are trying to make civilization happen again, takes off a helmet.

Phaedra.

Kev.

Yeah.

Oh my god.

So we're thinking about starting a horde and sort of

laying waste to the countryside.

What do you think about that?

I...

Kev.

Yeah.

Come on.

Is that not what we're doing?

What do you think of all this?

We're in a new world.

Look around you.

Just feel the

sunlight on your face.

I know.

I know we've been through a lot, but

the world's plenty shitty enough without us adding to it, I think.

God.

Maybe you're right.

It is nice and sunny out, isn't it?

You see next to Kef Kedriel in Marauder goes, You speak insanity.

Let us kill the affluent woman.

And you see, Kef Kedriel just sort of grabs that guy's head and slits his throat.

I want to be different.

No!

It's a great point.

You know, these swamps are

not a bad place.

Go swim in.

Hang out.

Not a bad place to check out.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Let's be nice.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's fun.

It's a good plan.

I just like how you think.

Freaky guys.

Freaky guys.

And

Phaedra, once again, finding those that knew a crueler world and showing them that you don't have to throw all the lessons away, but you don't have to live in that world forever.

I give him a hug.

Give him a hug.

Yeah.

He goes,

you're a freak.

And

returns the embrace.

Jasmine.

Thank you.

I'll ask you to step away from the table.

Alright.

I love you all.

My son.

Jasmine, come back.

Oh, Jasmine, come back.

Wait.

Before you leave.

Yes.

When we do get back to Torrance Hill.

So.

I'm gonna go.

I'm gonna go.

Figure out who I am not with you.

But

I will send word.

And we'll see each other again.

Of course.

I will

you will always have

me to come back to whenever you're ready.

Whatever you do out there,

you're gonna do great.

Don't let them do anything dumb.

I'll see ya.

Alright.

He gives her a hug.

Oh, I give him a big ol' hug.

And so.

And then, thank you.

And then

he then travels for a while on his own.

He's learned from arrows

how to travel in the wilderness and how to take care of himself.

And I think he eventually makes his way up towards Wild Note

and finds a monastery there

and starts training.

Crocus,

one whom

a crueler world had dubbed a monster,

who began this story muzzled like a beast in the back of a wagon, to be sent to die on the front lines of a tyrant's war,

finds peace and wisdom

the orb of an ancient world in his tender care

years

from then

when monks of the cobalt soul defend the wisdom and secrets of this place

among the many

whose devotion

wisdom and guidance shaped the early roots of that order

as Crocus's monastery bear proud and noble beginning.

Thanks, Alex.

Thank you.

Nia

finds a moment to go

and

visit Aero's resting place.

She doesn't stay for very long.

She has a job to do.

After all,

she picks up a stone

and turns it over and over in her hand as she saw him do many times

and heads back to Baselheim

to go be a good cleric

and teach people

that no matter how lonely they feel,

they're never alone.

And yeah, she just does her cleric shit for as long as she can.

She throws herself into her work,

dedicating all of it to her lost friends and her family and her sister.

She does great work,

as she knew she would.

It takes you a long time

getting lost in your work.

You teach the clerics of the dawn father

how to love a sunrise that is not guided by their God's hand.

You teach the clerics of the wild mother how to hear the mother's voice

not as it once rang out

but in the birds and swaying trees of every forest.

It takes more work this way.

But that work

makes

love

appear.

Many years into that service,

as a cleric of the Moonweaver,

a familiar voice rings out in the marketplace.

Nia.

Nia

turns.

Her locks are a little longer.

They finally touch her shoulders.

She, her cloak that was once in blues and browns and greens are now whites and silvers and navies.

She

looks

older, wiser, has been through much.

Trying not...

to wear the grief as heavy as she does in the lonely hours of the night.

and she turns to whoever calls her.

Heading back to the home of your parents,

your father, human, starting to get some salt and pepper in his beard.

You see the face of a water janazi

that you saw many years ago in Torm's Hill.

Nia.

Um

detra.

We it's been a long time.

Right.

Uh

crazy to see you here.

Oh my gosh.

Hi.

Um the Dawn City felt like the appropriate place to make pilgrimage to.

I can't believe you're here.

I thought

I

you saved my life and then

I

yeah you were

she looks at herself.

You

were quite rude to my friend back there.

Rude to me.

I forgave you, but

clearly I w

I was on the right path.

She looks and goes, yeah, you've done, I'd say, extremely well for yourself as a person of faith.

You see that she, even hearing the venom in her own words, puts her head down.

I knew that I hurt you in that moment.

I've seen so many strange things since then

that it feels strange to have held on to that.

But I feel like I

want you to know I wish I could take it back.

Not because it didn't come from a genuine place, but because I didn't want to hurt you or insult you or give you pause.

I appreciate you saying that.

Thank you.

If it makes you feel any better, it

didn't change my path.

I'm glad.

Uh,

god, I've thought for years about what I would say to you if I saw you going.

You've thought about me for years?

Hey,

okay.

She looks and says,

Were you ever

curious about why I was such an asshole to you?

When I had the time,

when I wasn't

reconnecting with my sister, who's a god, and sort of teaching people how to be hopeful and full of love and really just changing

sort of the course of faith and everything when I have time, yeah.

But I don't have a lot of time, I'm very

busy.

Yes,

I wondered often.

My mother and father

were disciples of the Moon Weaver.

They were discovered by servants of the Strife Emperor

and they were killed.

Not an uncommon story.

Painful one, nonetheless.

The

sadness

I felt

was not only that their faith

hurt them,

but that

for all of their devotion, they never heard her.

Their prayers were never answered.

And when they died, it felt like they died for nothing.

And

I know.

And she thinks of her

golden friend.

Faith

cannot protect us from fate.

Faith

is the fate molder.

I'm sorry for the loss of your parents.

I'm sorry for the loss.

She thinks of her sister, of the gods from this place.

But just as my fallen friends

watch me,

guide me,

your parents

do the same for you.

I appreciate your kindness.

It is unending.

Would you object

to walking in the company of a faithless wanderer who's turned her back on the gods?

For a spell.

Spell's all we get.

I have plenty of spells.

Yeah, we walk arm in arm,

and I'm going to introduce her to

my parents.

Not in that way of like, this is the first time seeing, but just like,

my mother's a priest of the moon weaver.

I think I have some people who can

help widen your scope of what you believe faith is capable of.

I'm game.

It's a new world.

You walk from this place, sir.

Thanks, Elliot.

Hey, man.

What's up, buddy?

Where does Garin end up?

I think he doesn't rest that first night.

I think once everyone else kind of

lets the exhaustion take them,

he's a man who toils through emotion.

He's told through the absence of it for a better part of a century, so

he begins to look for a piece piece of stone.

And I think he misses

Desmond and the return troop to Guisar.

Because he's working it.

He wants to get it perfect.

And it's been a long time since he's really done something

artistically.

He's built prisons.

He's built.

and worked on repairing weapons.

He has been

a

tool and a means

of building other people's oppression for so long.

He's only just begun to build things again for himself.

And so he spends the coming weeks toiling over

a memorial statue for Eero.

And as they began rebuilding this temple to the Moonweaver,

I think they returned to finish elements of construction to find a statue that they didn't place there.

And

the exhausted dwarf that sits at its base passed out.

And probably utilizing the

fabrication spell, fabricate spell that he now has because of his hammer, the last

little piece of it

is holding aloft the Honor's Last Stand shield

and melding it into the statue

so that it cannot be easily taken, but only given under the sight of whatever god

the Moonweaver likely

see whoever's fit to wield it again.

Then he begins his trek back to Gwisar on his own, looking

probably looking for and asking around for Desmond.

Doesn't even have a last name, the only survivor he's met

of Uthtor and its destruction.

Traveling through free lands, your statue built, the hearth's hammer at your side, your age getting to you.

God, how long have you been alive for?

It's hard to remember.

Uh.

Someone says, Desmond?

Hey, hey, any.

Desmond, Dragonstrike.

Sure.

Yeah, Cragham.

You look at...

Yeah, you say,

you know Desmond.

Hey.

Hey.

You meet uh Desmond who is of the family

Dragonstrike.

Hi.

Clan Dragonstrike.

And

you participate in the founding of Craghammer.

There is

much

work to do.

And of those Shepherds of the Stone to which Desmond belongs, of celebrating Craghammer,

just like your dream.

Tankards of ale pushed into the chest, dwarves clapping on the back.

It seemed like it would never happen again.

How could it, after all that darkness?

How could light find a way back to this world?

The laughter of dwarven children running.

And

you see Desmond talking as you have this moment of sitting, knowing like a moment's rest finally.

Back here in what once was Uthtor and this new community rising up.

And as you feel a sense of pride and accomplishment, a hand claps on your back, and Desmond, one of the new lords of Craghammer, says, Garin, Garin!

Aye, Desmond!

Friend, you're one of the most gifted masons we know.

Listen,

there's an area

dwarves have scattered across Guissar, and we're looking for family records and stonework, runes around wherever we can find them.

Are you familiar with Catal Bay?

I know of it.

I've not been.

There's rumors that merchants have brought of some dwarves that have made it all the way out there to some far-off lands.

There's a town with some dwarves in it, a family that fled as far as they could, ended up in some god-forsaken swamp out there by the bay.

But if you were to head out there and warn them or give them some guidance back, I think there's we're sending out some shepherds of the stone to help with rebuilding.

I am

so

tired.

And I know that you know enough about masonry to know how to build something at least that will serve as some kind of foundation.

I guess I got one more journey in my

and he claps his shoulder.

Just let me just

let me finish my current project before I go.

Yeah, of course, Carney.

When I come back, I got some ideas.

I think maybe more than one slab.

A little deeper, eh?

Let me write that down.

A little deeper.

He turns around and then exhales.

The ears have caught up with him.

And he grabs his supplies.

He gets prepared for one last journey.

And as he finishes off his last little project here at the beginnings of a craghammer,

the sunlight behind him at the opening that exits the cliff keep,

he finishes

chiseling in

the arch of stones that greet those that enter the city.

Where it reads in dwarvish:

The gate is built by heart alone

Though hearts beheld by flesh and bone

And flesh and bone by earth and stone the door we make when lock we break

Who bridge the waters

Roads to take

the stones that stand to staunch the flood

Freedom found by toil and blood

by stone betrayed, the seal is made.

The hand that holds, the heart that prayed,

the stairs it shaped, the debts it paid.

The gate is shaped,

the keystone laid.

In departing from this hallowed stone,

a blessing left on Craghammer forever.

You arrive

in some god-forsaken corner of Gwasar, a bug-filled swamp.

You see Phaedra again and nearby.

There's some criminal element in this corner of the world that you feel like will be hard to expunge from this place.

There's just rogues abound in this corner of Gwasar.

But you find your way there.

And

I think

a day comes

where you find dwarven families, inform them that Craghammer, that

the glory of old Uthtor is found again in Craghammer.

They thank you.

And the denizens here could use a hand, the community they have in the swamp.

There's, you know, trying to build some little farm walls to help sheep from wandering off into the swamps somewhere.

There's a day where a family has asked for your help.

There's an opening in the farm wall where they're asking for a gate to be built so they can get their livestock in and out without having to take them the long way around.

I think you're

building a gate into the side of the wall there.

And

you hear over by the thing, there's like someone else from Vaselheim nearby who appears to be some sort of expositor going, like, What's the name of this town?

It's all right.

We're trying the maps are all higgledy-piggledy.

It's still Ben.

It's always been

Ben.

Still Ben.

Thank you.

No, it's.

And you see a figure walking down the road.

You know his face very well.

You've carved it in the past.

Uh, Liam, could you come on out?

Hold on.

Goodbye.

Hello, Gara.

I don't...

I don't understand.

It's good to see you in the flesh once again.

He stands up.

Claps him on the side of the face and kinda gets real close, looking at his sunken, wrinkled eyes.

I haven't the words.

Arrow looks

very similar to the last time you saw him.

He is wearing simple robes, and his scales are clean and shine.

I searched for you for

quite some time.

It took my whole, entire mortal life

to remember who I was

and

transparent golden wings flare out

behind his back

and vanish away.

And now it's time for you to do the same,

my brother.

You feel his

clawed golden hand rest on your cheek and turn you slowly back.

I I know it's a lot.

Breathe it in.

It's time, my friend.

You're right.

It is.

Our wars and squabbling have hurt our children.

It is not right.

It is not just.

It is time

we entrust our children to be stewards

of this world that you

created.

I look forward to seeing what they can make.

Now that we've given him a nudge.

You know,

there's something I liked about this.

Maybe one day we'll try it again.

Let's not go just yet.

Come with me.

And your vision blurs, and you find yourself seated on top of a gargantuan,

massive

golden dragon soaring through the skies of Xandria, crashing through a cloud and breaking out

over a massive valley

nestled next to Torm's Hill.

Mountains and peaks ringing it in.

The dragon banks to the side and dives into another cloud, and we shoot out over a volcano bubbling with lava on an island in the middle of a white-capped ocean.

Then over tundra and ice and fallen ruins.

Over a city with a smoldering crater

boiling at its center.

Islands moving in the sea,

obscured by mists.

You ride on the platinum dragon's back,

seeing a world shaped by your hand.

How

marvelous

that those steps were laid in that snowy peak in Snowgrave Pass.

How marvelous to remember where Torm,

Torm, your child, your great-great great great great great grandson, where did he hide that ale and beef?

Those voices as you drifted off to sleep

telling you that they were grateful telling you that they were scared

asking you to shape something for them so that they might have the tools to know that they were heroes

a valley for free folk

mountains and peaks shaped by the loving hands of the allhammer

what a world he made

You lose track of time sailing through all of your creation.

And after a time we pass through another bank of clouds and your vision obscures and returns.

And you stand in that same spot of work.

And Arrow now

looks exactly the way he did the moment you met him

in a prison

all those years ago,

filthy and bedraggled, and covered in dust.

Your friend and brother and kin,

all of your works and deeds have served as prologue

to this moment,

A humble life

in service of the good

shall serve as keystone

to this gate.

And I nod down at this gate that you've been building.

And I step through ahead of you, five or six feet.

And turn around.

There's only one thing left to do, my friend.

He goes,

As old as his visage is,

there is a quiet,

ageless strength

and assurance to his movement

as he carefully places the final keystone,

locking in that solid, final piece with communal

designed

and necessary gate

to protect all that we've witnessed and all that we've created

And he drops that hammer which sinks with a heavy impact

as he steps through to join you

clasping your shoulder

Two brothers,

from eternity until forever,

stride past the gate into the great beyond,

knowing that Xandria

is in good hands, ever loved and cherished by all who will come from this day.

Until the final days of creation.

May they be far, far removed.

Stories abound.

Adventures unfold.

The watchful gaze of the gods giving light to those who use their stories to find the way.

Thanks for watching.

And is it Thursday yet?

This is Matthew Mercer.

Thank you for listening to Xandria Unlimited on the Critical Role Podcast Network.

If you've enjoyed the show, please leave us a review on the podcast app of your choice.

Your review might inspire someone to give this adventure a listen.

There are unlimited stories to be told, and we can't wait to keep telling them.

Is it Thursday yet?

Going up.

Prices keep going up these days.

It feels like being on an elevator that only goes up.

Going up.

But not at Metro.

We're pushing the down button.

Going down.

We've lowered prices.

Get one line of 5G data for $40.

Period.

That's 20% lower.

And you get a free Samsung 5G phone when you bring your number.

Only at Metro.

Five-year guarantee on eligible plans, exclusions, applies.

See website for details.

Not available at Metro with T-Mobile in the past six months.

Tax supplies.