Mirror and Key | Exandria Unlimited: Divergence Episode 3

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Hey there, critters.

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

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

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Welcome, fellow travelers.

I'm Liam O'Brien, and it is 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 Role 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 tonight's episode of Xandria Unlimited Divergence.

We return now to the world of Xandria in the moment of divergence from its reality as calamity to something strange and new.

The promise of fresh dawn and choices to be made about what the world shall become.

If you think about it, we all make choices every day about what the world will become.

Wow.

Wow.

Beautiful.

Deep.

Topical.

If you think about it.

I love topical.

As though shaping the world with your choices is a brand new thing.

It's like the internet.

It wasn't always around, and now for the very first time.

For the world to see.

For the world to see.

Before we jump in, we've got a few announcements.

Matt, why don't you come over here and take it away?

Sure.

We recently announced a brand new board game from Darrington Press, Solar Garden.

In this tile drafting game, players take on the role of a visionary architect specializing in carbon neutral engineering to build a rooftop garden in harmony with nature.

Gather points by farming things like solar farms, or building things like solar farms, and windmill systems to create tranquil garden environments.

Shock yourself.

You guys are so weird about this.

It's.

Laura, it's up to you.

You found something in the store.

This is, I'm really excited about this.

You might have been able to tell.

This is part of the Vox Machina Collection.

It's a part of the.

Part of the Vox Machina Collection.

It's a Vixalia sweater dress.

So clean.

It has pockets.

It has grommets here, like her little archery, her bracers.

That's really cool, actually.

That's really cool.

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Oh, my God.

You guys, it's so wonderful.

And it fits really, really good.

And it's so very, very soft.

Check it out.

It's in all the stores.

Love it.

Just looks crumbly.

Thank you so much, Laura.

Liam, you got a really cool announcement.

Yeah, I'm excited about it.

I got one for you, too, in case you missed it.

Critical Role is part of the Bellatro Friends of Jimbo 4-Pack.

It's released on February 24th.

I've been playing on my Steam Deck.

Players can enjoy customizing their decks with the Queen of Hearts, Vexalia, Natch, King of Hearts, Percy, and Jack of Hearts, Scanlon.

Oh, I'm in this.

Yeah, go grab this free update now on PC, console, and mobile.

Thank you so much.

I'm so excited.

Hell yeah.

And I think that concludes our announcements.

I am putting my sweater dress on.

Like, you can put a nice chunky belt around it.

That looks really leggy.

Oh, my God.

That looks really cozy.

That looks great.

That looks so good.

All right.

Well, that concludes our announcements.

Brennan, time to come back.

I'm going to go hunt Sam.

I didn't go anywhere.

Nikki, you're India.

Without further ado, let's jump into tonight's episode of Xandria Unlimited Divergence.

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We return to the world of Xandria in Torm's Hill.

It is the morning after

revelry, mourning, fierce battle and a taste of freedom the noise that

summons you up from sleep to wakefulness is the noise of the camp looking out to the west from a taller ridge up past the briars towards the edge near where arrow the night before you saw the dawn for the very first time as daylight broke and you see people mesmerized shouting and cheering looking out as they point towards a vast valley to the west.

Shaped in ages long ago, before the calamity, before even the age of Arcanum, for those learned few in Xandria that even know the name of that eon of the world.

Looking to the west, people cheer and weep with amazement.

As you see Nez, one of the matriarchs of Torn's Hill, going,

it was briar and ash, briar and ash alone.

There was nothing.

And for any who join, you see

through the gray clouds overhead

areas where the clouds go from gray to white.

No pure ray of light breaking through, but enough coming through the white clouds to illuminate

black and red stone, charred, rocky fields, and yet glimmers of distant grass or trees that seem to have sprouted up seemingly overnight.

The arms of dead forests reaching towards Ribad Coal that were sundered in the falling of the Strife Emperor.

Here, farther away from the realm of his influence, you see

cool, cold, dewy wind blowing across distant fields.

For many of you, the first time you have ever seen a field of grass in your life.

You gather

belongings and rations, spend another day preparing for your journey forward.

You see many similarly preparing.

Torms Hill is

enormous and more refugees and prisoners and escapees are pouring in every day.

But Torm's Hill, while it is a place of safety, is also the closest to those realms of the Strife Emperor and whatever his former soldiers or marauders like those that Kef Kedriel joined in the waste are doing back in that ash-choked land.

Torms Hill is a place of safety and strength and gathering, but not a place for the tender, for the weak, the innocent.

Those look to the west and to new fields growing and begin, perhaps much more slowly than you all, to think of their own preparations for what a free life would be under even the dim light of a sun behind the clouds.

The following morning,

you are preparing to head out,

and

many of you with a resurgence of belief, of hope, a certainty of the gifts that you now wield.

And for one of you, the only one who has not gained a level of a PC class,

Matt, I'll say on camera, your

wisdom of the Earth feature, which you can inscribe on your NPC stat block,

allows you to add a 1D 12 die of inspiration to any

arcana, history, investigation, nature, religion, or perception checks related to terrain and structures.

Ooh, I love that.

And

there is a deeper secret within that

if at some point we arrive in an area of Xandria

to which Garin has some ancestral familiarity, it may take whatever shape most pleases you.

As you prepare to disembark from this place,

the morning that you are set to leave, a small group gathers.

Arrow, you see Nez and Clissara embrace you once again.

You see,

looking up at you, Clissara grasps your hand, Nia,

kissing it and thanking you.

She's been working side by side with you on the injured and sick.

Since you've arrived, two more

doctors and nurses have arrived.

People with knowledge of medicine have arrived.

So even as you depart, there are two more to take your place.

And Garin, you see a large embrace from Bolray, the old bugbear, who now holds a small hammer at his side

and nods in a scent of the lessons that you have parted with him.

And

Phaedra, see Otto and Tavine both cross their arms looking at you.

You see Tavine sort of licks a tooth and goes,

shame you're leaving.

Now that we cut out Marlath's tongue, we could really run quite a game on this town, you know what I mean?

I know we could, but...

We have a different job now, all right?

I need you guys to stay here and help out Clasar Rendez.

Anything they ask you to do, you do it.

Alright?

You protect these people.

Because they're your people now.

They're our people.

You see both of them touch the roach tattoo.

Tavine gets lost in a moment, thinking of the life in the city you grew up in, the hardships.

how violent and angry his life was.

And the idea that that anger might serve some purpose

gives him pause.

You see, Otto smiles and says,

We'll make sure they're okay.

I know you will.

You're so sweet.

It's

nice to know that

if anyone shows up

that doesn't see how wonderful their kindness is,

will kick the shit out of me.

Yeah, you will.

I'm so proud of you.

We'll miss you anything.

Both of them are just so tight.

You see Javika's

each just going, oh, the world is so much nicer than that crazy volcanic prison full of iron barbs.

I know, I know.

And with your guys' work, you're gonna make it even better than it is now.

Yeah.

All right?

Emma, don't look at me.

Auto and Tavine smile.

Crocus,

you see that Celeste walks up with her two kids to you.

Hi.

I look up and go.

You're not really going, are you?

She said.

I look up.

You see Gond,

the bugbear, and Coswald, the green dragonborn, both walk up and sort of pat the kids on the shoulder.

Say,

it's alright, little ones.

Croaks gotta make sure Phaedra's alright.

Danger's past here for the moment.

Who knows what they're gonna find out there?

Beyond the edge of the briars, up the snowy mountains.

You see that

Zeldria says,

Why are you going somewhere dangerous, though?

It's safer here with all of us, isn't it?

Probably.

Yeah.

But there's work to do.

Crocus is real good at doing that work, so.

You see that Coswald says, we'll look after you at once.

Don't fret.

I mean, I can't do whatever that tail slap was.

That was was outrageous.

Okay.

Bye.

Go give them a hug.

The kids run up and

embrace you.

And you see that

Celeste reaches down.

and goes into a bag and takes out a little rusted, partially corroded, once beautiful silver amulet.

You see it has a pair of hands

sort of grasping at it.

And you can tell it's incredible contraband that she must have taken great pains to struggle because it is part of a holy symbol of the knowing mentor.

which has been damaged in the time that she's wielded it.

The hands sort of grasping an empty portion right now and

she

hands it to you and says, I'd love for you to carry this if you could.

What is it?

It

was whole once, but the hands

still await to hold knowledge.

Which is what the knowing mentor grants us.

And I think knowledge is the most precious gift there is in all the world.

And

the knowledge I most wish you to carry, because the amulet cannot carry it anymore, is the knowledge of how

you truly are and how you are seen.

Because my children love you, and I love you.

And

I don't know where you're headed or what will face you there, but

we met in a carriage bound for doom

because of how we were seen.

Being seen in that way

can

corrode us.

and harm us unless we take great measures to remember to see ourselves as we truly are.

Okay.

Yeah.

He takes it and kind of loops it through the storm girdle and like ties it around his belt.

And out of curiosity, is that real silver or

you know what?

You know what you guys are.

Never mind.

Thank you for your gift.

It's very generous.

You see see that

Nez looks over at you, Nia, and says,

I know

Luz's passing is a great sorrow.

Wherever she is, I know that she feels

the great

joy of those who are free because of you and your companions here

Your sister traveled that way many months ago, but

I have every

bit of faith that you will find her.

Thank you.

Thank you for housing us.

Of course.

Housing so many.

It's what do we do?

It is a joy to tend to them.

You see that

as the crowds continue to come in, you see that

Coswald looks over at you, the frightened one, one of the ones you that was freed with you back when this all started.

And you see, he nods, he looks over at Otto and Tavine

and Gond as well, sort of nodding to them all and says,

Nez Clusara, we should talk about how to make sure we keep people

safe.

And

Arrow is right.

This will not be the last time we are asked to stand for something.

But

there is is a fire in these people that did not exist but a few days ago.

You see, Nez nods her head.

There is a fire.

They will not kneel.

They will stand, Arrow.

You've shown them.

The fire is lit.

You see, Kars crosses his arms and says, Yeah.

And we have seven longswords now.

It's not enough, eh?

Slap.

I'm sorry that we couldn't stay a little longer, even

for the comfort of it, but

we have a calling elsewhere.

I understand.

Good luck to you on your journey.

You will need it.

These lands are changing, but change, even if it brings hope, is chaotic and dangerous.

Keep your wits about you.

I take a knee before the two married women and just for the two of them say,

I can't say if I will ever pass through these parts again.

But I have felt your hand in my life

and will never forget.

They each push a little face into the crook of your neck,

and you can feel the warmth of a tear down your golden scales.

And you see, they say,

you see Nazi goes, I'll miss you, dear boy.

And Closara, almost in contradiction, but meaning the same thing, goes,

We have touched each other's hearts.

We will always have loved each other.

No one that has done that ever truly leaves.

Look out over the countryside.

I have values for you.

Enjoy.

As you depart, you see they call out

cheers and hoorays and people waving goodbye as you guys set out.

And you just hear Nez look over at Clasara looking at the valley.

May it ever be a valley for free peoples here as the morning sets.

You depart from this place.

Doom with your sappy shit.

Making up for lost time.

Vain, fine.

I ain't judging you.

Trudging forward, guardi look out as you head forward up into the mountains, feeling the surefoot, that dwarven sort of solidness as you head up into the stones and peaks.

As you depart,

I would love a survival check.

This one, much lower stakes.

Because as you guys journey into areas filled with plant life up into the forest past the Larksbrook, your wanderer features kick into effect, meaning that you can provide food for up to five people each, which certainly covers your party traveling up this way now.

Oh, oh, we're so back.

Oh, we are.

We're so

back.

Five.

Five.

Cool.

Natural one.

Natural one.

Eight, eight, three.

Three.

Uh, 24.

Um, you guys begin to head up towards the pass.

Um, as you do so,

um,

uh, as you do, the altitude gets higher and higher, the clouds sort of taking up here, and what is sort of manifesting as rain farther below, um,

Actually, you get up in altitude and gets even a little bit snowier as

the snow is not cold enough to collect, really.

It's hitting the rain-soaked mountainside and immediately melting, but it's cold enough that you have to bundle up moving through here.

Crocus, you feel comfortable as can be.

You're totally fine.

This reminds me of a home I haven't seen in a very long time.

With that one,

he's just looking at grass.

On that group survival check,

you

fine for food, but you make slow going that first day, mostly focusing on like, okay,

let's get to know, like, especially our wanderers here.

It's like, let's get to know this forest.

Where's the good where's like the reindeer moss that you can boil and get a full stomach?

Where are we finding berries here?

If there is game, what's the easy game to get?

You manage to stay pretty well fed.

There's nothing huge coming through, but there's like, there's a nearby grouse that you get one night, and everyone gets a bite of actual meat that night for dinner.

So it's hungry work, but you're, it's a night and day from struggling through the ashlands to get to Torms Hill.

Um,

at the end of that first day,

uh,

you guys

arrive at basically you're gonna have to double back.

You've lost some progress.

You can see Snowgrave Pass, but the foothills have those long,

like the leg of a mountain that like ridges all the way down.

You get to one where it's just, oh, this is like a 1200-foot drop.

We got to go back and take, take a long way around.

You know, it was possible that this was going to like even out, and you get to the top and you're like, no, it's not.

It doesn't even.

It doesn't even slope.

It's a drop.

As you look

down,

deep in the shadow of this crevasse,

all of you see something probably again like a couple hundred feet down in the shadows.

There's like an eight foot gap

of this like lichen covered granite high in the mountains.

And looking down you hear, it's hard as the snow keeps falling, it's getting later at night, you hear a weird

scratching of like something like stone or wood wood against stone.

Anyone who wants to make a perception check for me.

Yeah, 12 also.

12, yeah.

Also a 12.

Also 12.

19.

19.

Crocus.

You gaze down.

All of you guys can see something moving down in the darkness of the gap.

It's a couple hundred feet away, so it's hard to get a bead on.

Crocus, you look down.

This crevasse stretches sort of across the mountainside.

Scrambling and scraping and falling on each other are

hundreds or thousands of humanoid skeletons animated

and struggling to crawl up out of the shadows.

The strength of their animated limbs failing, falling back.

You see corroded belts, rusted swords, this

fraction of some army of the dead

that has marched over the mountain and fallen deep into this pit.

And on that 19, you look across the gap and see

scattered bones on the mountainside here.

You think

that some army of the dead

in hasty retreat came scrambling up the mountainside.

Some number of them fell into darkness before the rest were laid low in a single act of great magic.

You see the rest of their battalion of the undead unmade on the mountainside and only these ones that had already fallen below are left in ruin.

It's like lifting a log and seeing the insects underneath or a writhing snake pit but of hundreds of these undead slowly but surely breaking themselves and losing limbs as they attempt to scramble out of darkness.

Bones down there.

As Crocus says bones, the visage of what you see becomes clear to all of you.

Does it seem like there is

a way to circumvent if we double back?

Yeah, potentially.

I think looking at it, it's just a little

image of horror in the cleansing

fire and light and all this other stuff.

The evil that has been visited on Xantria here

during the calamity

is

being withstood and confronted.

But as you look at a literal wrinkle of the mountainside,

you wonder if all the horror of the past centuries will ever truly be expunged.

And looking down, it looks

like the grade of this cliff is something they might not be able to pursue.

Standing here for a minute with the kind of stomach churning of seeing

undead monstrosities, the bodies of mortals animated against their will by foul necromancy, you don't see how any of them could successfully climb up.

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Go ahead and give me another survival check.

The reward for your group's survival check to see witnessing a horror

justifying haunting shit.

Better, better, better, better.

What do we got?

10.

10.

16.

16.

Hell yeah.

14.

14, you want me.

21.

Hell yes.

Um, doubling back, you guys make your way up and find the base of Snowgrave Pass.

This is the place that you are familiar with.

Journeying up the next day.

Once again, finding food.

You guys spend your nights,

you know, molding the earth.

It's very easy up here, creating a bonfire.

There's enough trees around here that you can actually just create it once and then burn normal mundane wood to keep yourself safe.

Going up through Snowgrave Pass, it's been a long time since you were up here.

Worried because you know that this place had been discovered by servants of the Strife Emperor.

You

walking up the pass on that 16

get to the narrowest point where you see a structure

of a

Obsidian tower, a watchtower.

Which I don't remember.

You don't remember.

Newly built here.

Uh, you see it well in advance on that high survival check.

What do you do as you behold it?

I throw a hand up.

It's been years since I've been through here, and that was not part of the landscape.

Is it in our path?

It looks like the watchtower is set slightly away from the path, but watching it, you see that there are pretty crude wooden ladders set on the little ravine wall that go up to a watchtower, where basically anyone traveling up through the pass, people in the tower could fire on them with impunity.

Okay, and are we are we relatively

close to the area where I once lived?

Yes, you're probably like an hour or two's walk from all right, okay.

Further away than I was thinking, though.

So

we have to pass through this ravine ahead,

and I do not feel good about

not inspecting that place, otherwise, we're just leaving ourselves open.

Is there any recognition to the architecture of the tower?

Uh, go ahead and give me a perception check.

Okay,

you can add your D12 of inspiration from your wisdom up here.

Uh that's gonna be

thank goodness, too.

Uh

twelve.

Uh

those

uh well do you know those slabs?

The construction of those blocks in the tower is quite familiar to you.

So going forward,

we either have to

stay hushed and sneak by or deal with it.

Is there any kind of cover in this area, like trees, or no?

We're kind of there's trees, yeah.

Okay.

Go ahead and give me a perception check.

It's getting later in the day.

You could wait and see if a light was lit.

Right now, it's impossible to tell if the tower's occupied or not, because it's daylight hours.

Everyone perception?

Yeah, perception for everybody.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, mine is also not good.

Eight.

Once again, 11.

Not bad.

That's cops.

What do we get here?

19.

19.

What is this?

Perception?

Pressure dies.

Uh, 19.

I'm rolling my line, but but plus two to perception.

Crocus, looking up on a 19,

you don't see any visible forms of life in there.

You notice that

the tower, for whatever it's worth, if it gets to be nightfall, that tower is about a hundred or more feet up from the bottom of the ravine, which on a 19, you know, is farther than even most creatures that can see in the dark can see in pitch darkness.

That's good.

If anyone's there.

Dark never scared me.

Yeah.

As night falls, the snow gets thicker, and now you see with the coming of night, it begins to stick to the ground, which means that you'll only have a little bit of time before stealth becomes much harder through a blanket of fresh-fallen snow.

Go ahead and give me a group stealth check as you move up through the ravine.

Serves me right, I guess.

Two.

Two.

Nine.

Nine.

Seven.

Seven.

Twenty-five.

Twenty-five.

Okay.

Okay.

Seventeen.

Seventeen.

Okay.

As the snow comes down, down,

you are moving up through there.

And I think on that two,

Garin, you're sure-footedness notwithstanding, walking on the snow and the sleet.

There's just a moment where the stone gives out under your foot.

And up in the tower, you do notice as you're approaching, there is a tiny little light lit, but it does not have the sputtering red glare of a torch.

It looks more like the soft light of like a single candle up in the tall watchtower.

With the noise,

you hear a

hello!

Hello!

In common.

Does that sound like

a look?

Yeah.

It's just one guy up there, right?

If they feel like one guy speaking to us, and there's more of us than there is of them,

I don't see the harm.

We lay low for a minute, any more sound from above.

A crossbow appears on the parapets,

tumbles forward, falling through the air, smashing on the rocks, and from above you hear, damn it!

Just passing through.

You're all under arrest.

We mean you no harm.

You may pass.

Show yourself.

A

hobgoblin-sized Strife Emperor helmet appears over the wall, wobbling wildly on the head of a very small goblin.

Who are you?

I am the captain of the Watchtower,

the Snowgrave Watch.

I am a proud servant of the Strife Emperor.

All right, Captain, and how many of your men are up there with you?

All of them.

Proud servant.

So let's check that.

Oh, that was bad.

I got nothing.

Perception.

15 for me.

15.

For 11.

Yeah, this helmet is not standard issue.

On a 15, you look up.

And I think on a 15, we'll make it a little bit of an insight check, too.

When asked, a 22.

When asked how many soldiers he had, he says all of them.

Yeah.

Which is zero, presumably.

Yeah.

Which lets you know that whatever number there were maybe is not the number that there are now.

Are you hungry?

I'm starving.

I'm starving.

I won't eat my companions.

What if we want to eat you?

His companions are dead.

Uh

I

um

will you hold hold one moment.

What may we call you?

I'm Captain Dubling.

Uh Captain,

how's about this?

You're hungry.

We

may or may not have something to help you with that.

Your companions,

you give us their weaponry.

We'll give you something to eat.

It has come to this.

It has.

I'll be right down.

Wonderful.

In the livery of a

aide-de-camp, wearing sort of a

black tunic with the gauntlet of the Strife Emperor on it, belted pants.

Not far from being kind of like in the rags of a prisoner, this goblin is actually quite

well dressed, although the clothing has now become like matted with over a like week or more of lack of care.

But he arrives with a coming down the ladder and just drops a sack, which as it hits immediately is shredded because it's a bag full of swords.

So just

and he arrives down and goes,

I am

Gobling, the guardian of Snowgrave Pass.

I

am given to place any who do not travel under the banner of the Strife Emperor under arrest.

However, I do not believe there are any

mentions in the oaths of fealty or sworn vows of my order that would prevent me from trading weaponry that no longer has utility for food.

I must, after all, feed the garrison.

Have you any news from the south?

I am not given to treat with those who do not travel under the banner of the Strife Strife Emperor.

My lack of news from the south is of no concern to those subjects of the Strife Emperor.

Kirkus stands up at his full height and just towers over the goblin.

I have no news from the south.

I'd be sorry I said anything other than that.

We do.

The Strife Emperor is Emperor no more.

Rybad Coal is a smoking heap.

How does that sit with you?

I had suspected that perhaps strange things were afoot.

A winged being emerged from the clouds, pursuing a

what I can only describe as a pure nightmare made of shadow,

and he smote it upon the mountainside

in pursuit of a group of

a horde really of skeletons that moved by and spared us

the being smote the demon on the mountainside my captain commanded us to open fire with our crossbows

and the being turned and without opening its mouth simply glowed with light And I could hear its voice in my heart asking me

if I believed in a world

where all beings

should be free

and know peace and joy.

I of course verbally reaffirmed my commitment to the Strife Emperor,

but I could not stop my heart from betraying those values of conquest and tyranny I have devoted my life to, and I am afraid I answered that

shining thing in the affirmative.

Yes, I like joy.

Who doesn't like joy?

You sort of have to.

And when the light faded, all of my companions were dead.

Smoking holes in their head where their eyes had once been.

I guess they had a different answer.

Anyway,

I am now 100% of the garrison of the watchtower of Snowgrave Pass.

How long have you been up here alone?

Oh, about eight days.

I'm very hungry.

I'm gonna pull part of a rock hard crust of bread that was given to us down

in

Torm's Hill and just toss it out within a couple feet of his

you travel in a very deadly direction.

Snowgrave is no safe place.

The The

very few wanderers have come through here recently.

I know not what occurs on the other side of the mountains, but.

I'm familiar with the terrain.

What can you tell us?

It has been our job to, of course,

mainly patrol any coming from that side of the mountains, past the border of the Strife Emperor's influence, of which we are one of the farthest most outposts, but

occasionally escapees and those that would seek to betray the glory of the Strife Emperor.

A smoking heap?

The Strife Emperor is Emperor no more?

Yeah, we saw it.

Heard it.

You left a boop.

There's no banner to walk under.

You can serve your heart.

Oh, that's awful.

It is.

Yeah.

How do you know?

I mean,

how do you

if you serve your heart, you could be wrong?

You said that every single other guy you knew got immediately destroyed by this holy light.

Yeah, because they had the wrong guess to a riddle from a flying guy.

Yeah, but your heart is awesome.

But you had the right guess.

I don't know.

I don't know if you say so, ho.

There has to be some reason you are still here.

And I don't mean sitting here alone, abandoned in this outpost under some banner that could give a shit whether you live or die out here.

You know, there's

there's more.

There's more in this world.

You don't have to be here.

I'm gonna grip my hammer tightly and slowly walk towards this goblin, who I assume maybe is a little bit shorter than even my short stature.

And with his grim as a voice, I could say,

In the name of the Strafe Emperor, how many lives have you claimed, Goblin?

Here he weeps

Nan

and your heart was already on this path.

He lightens up and pats the shoulder with his cap.

He looks and he says,

I was always a faithless servant,

too much a coward.

I could never strike the disobedient.

I was always too afraid.

You know,

I don't know what I was afraid of.

Probably looks up at the huge, imposing black tower.

But

no.

At any test of my mettle, where I was called upon to wield the authority of the Strife Emperor, I always buckled and failed.

A great failure, it is surprised they didn't kill you.

Grateful they didn't.

They can't kill all the cowards because someone has to carry the stuff.

Well, can you lift a hammer

or drag a hole?

I suppose

there's nothing for you to to guard here any longer.

No banner to serve under.

You head a few days in that direction, and I'll point off down the very slope we came.

I can share a bit of food.

You'll find others who are trying to

figure out what to do next.

Strip of your title.

What do we call you then?

Takes the hobgoblin helmet and puts it down.

If I'm not a captain, I'm not a

valet or a servant.

I guess I'm just gobbling.

Gobbling.

I like him.

Well, that snow's not letting up, and it's pretty dark already.

They say if he doesn't try to kill us in the night, we can send him on his way down.

downhill.

He takes a bite out of the hard crust of bread.

Your kindness

flies directly in the face of all of my religious scruples.

I am very grateful for it.

Why?

I'm...

I'm...

If the Strife Emperor has fallen and you are escapees,

why not simply destroy me?

No quarter would be given to you in this circumstance.

Do you wish us any ill?

According to that winged man, I don't.

I mean this with as much respect as possible.

You are no threat to us.

Yeah.

You've given me a grave insult with which I cannot disagree.

This is my favorite embassy.

Safe passage.

The last who traveled through here, who was quick enough to escape our arrows, was some four months ago.

And you see his eyes sort of rest on you here, Nia, a little bit.

I know the traveler well.

I hope you find her.

She...

In one of my many failures to my god, as she escaped the arrows of our soldiers, I could not help but be impressed by her grace and cleverness.

Some small traitorous part of my heart cheered her on as she ascended to the snowy peaks.

You speak of yourself so

poorly when you talk of

mercy and forgiveness.

Let this walk back to where we once were

maybe

be a little kinder to yourself.

That mercy, that forgiveness, may be the reason why you stand while your

co-conspirators fell.

It's true.

You judge yourself by tenants.

That don't matter anymore.

Only you can judge yourself.

He reaches to the symbol of

Strife Emperor.

Pulls it from the tunic as the stitching

snaps off.

It's hard to leave the darkness behind, but I promise once you do

everything just gets a little bit brighter.

He smiles.

I tore it off

because I'm a coward and didn't want to be shot on sight.

But I won't lie.

It felt good for a different reason, too.

It's just very hard when you've realized you've wasted your life.

Not a waste.

I have spent my life groveling to the cruelest people I know

who look at me

with more disdain and cruelty

than those that I have just met and for whom the symbol I proudly served

was a symbol of all of their woes.

I will hate myself for a time.

Not too long, though.

You've known great cruelty.

You've seen great kindness.

Choose which path you continue to walk on.

Now that you have that choice.

Nods his head.

Briefly through the snow, a bit of moonlight illuminating.

He looks up

kindness

then.

Gets his little pack on.

Goes.

Good luck on your travels.

Thank you.

And when you get there,

find the two with that tattoo.

They'll

look out for you.

They'll have

understanding for someone who's

as pitiful as me.

If you're honest with them,

if you tell them the truth like you've told us, I think

they especially will understand

how difficult it is to leave behind the safety of the

darkness that you used to live in.

You know?

It's hard to leave that behind.

We've all had to do things that

we weren't proud of.

But this is the first day of a new beginning for you, and

you need to take advantage of that.

And these people will help you.

Or

you'll have a similar relationship

to the ones you've had before.

What?

You have to be different, or things will be the same.

It sounds so obvious.

What?

It's terrifying.

Arrow's gonna

pull out one of his pine cones, and then not a full-on blast of deadly fire, but

belch a little fire onto it, and

it blackens a bit and opens up.

And I hand him the equivalent of ten good berries.

And I say,

take this.

Go slow.

Will last you a few days.

Don't squander a second chance.

Tears freeze into ice on his cheeks as he goes,

well,

this is the strangest day of my life.

Goodbye.

And he,

bewildered by your acts of charity,

and transformed by a kindness that

perhaps he did not earn, but received nevertheless, he walks down the mountainside.

Is he transformed?

Give me an insight check.

15.

How much is this?

I guess I'm asking how much of this is him

adjusting his persona to survive versus legitimate honesty and cowardice

on a 15

you may never know

because he met you he is walking with a pine cone full of magical berries towards a community that will give him the opportunity to live kindly.

If he is found by a battalion of Strife Emperor soldiers and taken under their command,

perhaps he will return to the life he knew before.

It is hard to say if in this single interaction he has found the heart of a hero.

But perhaps the lesson here is the more places you can make like Torm's Hill

where someone like Gubling can find a path towards true kindness.

Perhaps the brighter the world becomes.

Uh, Arrow will turn his back on

uh our new uh associate to all of you and say, well,

he'll either turn over a new leaf or Klasara and as well tear him to pieces.

Uh, Nia checks out those that sack of swords and weaponry and daggers and whatnot.

Uh, you guys find a number these are so uh long swords, daggers, uh, plenty of crossbows, quivers of arrows.

So there's a lot of weaponry here.

Um, anyone that is not already outfitted with such can absolutely be.

I'll take a dagger and a crossbow.

Can you say I find a scimitar in the pile?

I'll say that you can find a scimitar in the pile.

Sure thing.

Hell yeah.

Feels the light of it, turns it.

Could I also get a crossbow, but then keep my stiletto, my armor stiletto as well?

Okay, cool.

For sure thing.

You must never let go of that stiletto.

Yeah, I know, I know, I know.

Mia will take a couple daggers, and if there's a

crossbows are quite bulky, if there's a smaller, I don't know if there's such a thing as like a smaller crossbow.

You see there's a hand crossbow in the sky.

It's like a hand crossbow and two daggers.

You got it.

For the soldiers that were destroyed,

are the remnants of this battalion still within this tower?

Yeah.

Do any of them...

Are there any pieces of intact armor?

I think you can find a breastplate in there no problem like the full plate is not shaped for you yeah but a dwarven torso is about the size of a like a human or hobgoblin torso just on a smaller more compact body i think he's going to take part of the early evening with his hammer i don't know probably not many weapons here that fit his aesthetic um but we'll take the hammer to the breastplate to uh pound out any particular shape and symbology that is reminiscent of battalion of the strife Strife Emperor, both just lack recognition, but also because he would not want to wear such a tainted thing.

Yeah.

Are we staying here tonight?

You guys spend your night in a watchtower of the Strife Emperor.

Up there at the height of that tower, Arrow.

You look over.

You can hear Garin down in a lower room of the tower fixing a breastplate.

You remove any symbol of the Strife Emperor from it, but it still has that almost like cast iron look to it, but it can be worn under a tabbard.

And, you know, you can put clothes on it and put like a tabard or tunic over it so it doesn't look as, you know.

Fair.

The

rest of you

suited up on daggers, hand crossbow, light and heavy crossbow.

You find a scimitar.

There are also a lot of these, some of the captains inside have short swords on them as well.

And as you look out over the night, the moon sails into view over the tops of these ridges, and you see in the distance,

about halfway through the pass, a beautiful snowy lake.

He stays at the window for most of the night

under the pretext of keeping watch,

enjoying the view.

Your

watch goes uninterrupted

and

regarding your map once again,

which the work of updating that with

this new, as you have your whole life, a new watchtower has been built here.

You look in that

little place where that phosphorescent glow was,

you look where it was on the map and its position close to Snow Vale or to the Snow Grave.

And

you feel like you know, your map is not mile to mile perfect,

but you look

and

get a feeling that one of the mountain peaks up past the lake.

There's a couple that you

remember from like following some wild.

There was some like caribou that came through one time.

There was some larger game that got up into that neck of the woods.

It feels like

where that

insect alighted and glowed on that map,

somewhere up there, maybe

is where you'd want to be.

Do any come to everyone else I assume beds down unless any go to relieve Arrow of his watch at any point.

I can at a certain point.

Crocus comes up.

I can watch.

What's up with you for a spell and then turn in?

Okay.

Nia can't sleep.

She doesn't go to watch because

she's lost in thought and planning of how she's going to find her sister.

So she's curled on a side, probably facing a wall, just

wired, wide awake.

Wide awake, you hear Garin working off in the distance.

Garn, give me a.

You finish the armor, getting ready to protect yourself on this next leg of the journey.

Go ahead and give me a perception check related to stonework.

It's gonna be a 12.

On a 12,

you look over,

and as you finish the armor, these volcanic slabs of stone.

So strange to cart obsidian and volcanic rock in these mountains filled with granite, workable stone everywhere.

But just the malignant will of the Strife Emperor to send people to vast corners of an empire to do these

bizarre displays of might and power.

And you look at this, the farthest watchtower of the Strife Emperor's realm.

Farthest north into Guasar.

And you see that one of the

basalt blocks is badly chipped.

You know, it's one of the interior-facing blocks, but you see it's like...

It looks like it was hacked at with tools.

And you look at exactly where the chisel marks came on this warped and damaged block.

And in a bizarre moment of recognition,

you've seen this block before.

It fell in the quarry and

crushed someone's left arm.

And it had to be hacked at to pull them out, and the memory returns to you.

Well, if fate just stained a bitch.

Pain as it is, it's a fine piece of material.

Shame for it to be left unfinished.

He's going to take a stone, chisel out, kind of tuck it under his shoulder.

And as he's learned to do, just kind of back up into it and start like chipping away at it.

You chip away at the stone, the mighty hammer blows ringing out.

How do you alter the stone?

Taking where the flecks were there, it's less of a moment of inspiration and more like following what designs are already there among it.

The kind of of amorphous shape of its kind of volcanic

kind of face towards me.

I can see where the elements are chipped and broken and even just at a flash glance,

I look down at the hammer that I'm holding and look up at him and be like,

I haven't seen that symbol in a long time.

Let's make a more welcoming sight.

And rearranging what bits of probably broken or scrapped furniture he can to get the height where he needs it, he kind of begins to put in the symbol of a hammer.

You put the symbol of the hammer in the wall.

And as you

finish it,

give me a perception check.

Generally, or with stone cutting?

Let's do with stone cunning.

Okay.

16.

You regard the symbol

and

see this flawless work of artistry, beautiful symbol of a hammer,

that

thing which is both tool and weapon,

the crafter, the maker

shaping the world and here in this place

on the stone

that wounded you you carve a symbol of hope that the world can be changed through honest effort and the love of creation

as you walk away to get your final uh you get your rest that evening um nia

uh you can't sleep right

not

well

Wandering the halls, I think you look up

and see this symbol that Garin has taken time to carve into the wall.

And as you do,

the natural passing of the moon through the sky

hits that symbol through a slanted archer's window

and it ripples with gorgeous light.

Shimmering starlight, the symbol of the hammer drinking up the moon's beams.

And you feel almost a sigh

of something being

released from the world here.

Something deep and profound touches,

like the movement of great and noble spirits upon this world meeting after

long

and lonesome work.

The moonlight touches the symbol of the hammer and it is as if long-lost siblings are reunited.

You feel this tower go from a place of

tyranny and

sorrow

and instead

there is a sense

that wrongs can be righted and shadows banished.

The next day, you strike out.

Arrow, do you

follow the path

that leads you directly to the lake, or do you take a different path?

There is no way that I could travel through these parts without going directly toward that water.

As Arrow leads you all

up higher into the mountains here,

we pass over a ridge and you see

invisible to us further below, but

a mountain lock.

Water stretching out for hundreds of feet.

Mountains past it rising further.

And Arrow

wanders down towards the water front here.

It's like a stony, pebbled beach.

And you watch him lost in thought, and he is scanning portions of the coast here.

And

sort of stumbles over towards one specific larger stone sticking up

out of the edge of the water.

And he just

sinks down to his knees in front of it, lost in thought.

i think mia

sees him lost in thought and just goes

stands by him

puts a hand on his shoulder

and lets him take this moment but just reminding him that

despite the memory of this place he is not alone

he feels that he feels

everyone in this group that

have been thrown thrown together

and with his eyes still

out on the water

says, Um

Do you know why I'm not from Guasar?

Nope.

Where are you from?

There's a boy

that lived across the sea

in a place called Isilra.

What's it like over there?

This is the sea.

Much bigger.

My father and mother

were devout followers of the Platinum Dragon.

Ridio, my father, and Kor, my mother.

We lived in a place called Seagate.

And it was just as hard there as it is here, but

my mother and father and

their friends helped

receive refugees from across the sea on their way to Vassalheim, fleeing

the terrors of this life.

And one day when I was still very young,

I could hear the clashing of the Lord of the Hills

and some of his enemies

thundering

across the plains beyond our mountain paths

and his forces

spilled into my home.

And my father and mother, who had for so long taken people in,

scooped me up.

And I traveled with my mother.

After my father died there that day,

we fled across the ocean.

And when we arrived.

arrived,

there was nothing.

My mother and I and

a man named Skull.

Stone who taught me how to live out here.

We went in search of others.

Found a small community.

And when we returned to gather the other...

other Isilrans who'd fled with us,

they were gone.

Vanished.

Well, I spent

my

formative years here in

the wastes of Gwasar, and

we found a place to settle

by Torm's Hill, but

far more meagre.

That place fell to sickness.

My mother died.

I left with Skull.

Raised me like his own.

He died.

And I kept on.

And then I gave up.

Gave up on other people.

Gave up on belief.

And one day I found my way here.

Near dead from starvation and dehydration.

Just like we were

not so long ago.

And I met a woman here.

Scales as beautiful as the snow on these mountains.

Just as close to death as I.

Donea.

What's her name?

Well, we lived...

here.

Fresh water.

For over a year.

Scraped by together.

I found belief again.

And

Strife Emperor's forces stumbled upon this place.

Probably

as badly in need of water as we had been.

And they fell on us.

Slashed my throat, almost died that day.

She killed three of them

before they killed her.

Right there on that rock.

I murdered the last of them with a stone and fled.

I could hear more coming.

And I gave up

again.

It's been a long life.

I gave up again.

But when I lived here with her,

she used to say

that change was coming.

Maybe we wouldn't see it,

but it would come one day.

Now here we are again.

And she was right all those years ago.

You see, his dirty, dirty eye.

All his scale work has dust in all of the line work of it, and it starts to just

go a little molten gold as moisture creeps down through those rivulets.

Arrow, everything that you've done for us, for for Crocus, for everyone here, that is not.

that those are not the actions of a man who has given up.

That is someone with change in their heart.

I can see it so clearly in you, how that lives on in you.

Well,

sediment builds up, sometimes you need someone to chip it away.

Let it shine through again.

Nia

gets down to sort of be on the same level as Crocus

and just puts an arm around him.

Not Crocus, just kidding.

Love Crocus, though.

Sorry.

Sorry.

Arrow, yes, and puts an arm around Arrow.

And just

holds him and says,

She saw in you what we do.

You can give up and give up and give up.

But when you have change in your heart,

that will never leave.

Let's find your sister.

She still

wants to take in the moment of what's happening here and says

I can't imagine

the love that you two shared.

But I know that in your work,

in what you do for us,

what you've done for me,

that love lives on.

Just

that love lives on.

I like to think

that the changes that we see in this world

are the exact changes she foretold.

Just doesn't let him go until

she feels a shift in his posture, signaling that.

Takes some time, but it comes.

Garn, at this point, has stands up after taking a minute to catch his breath from the walk, listening to all this.

Without making eye contact with anyone, just looking off past the stone and the water, just kind of says out loud.

Even the smallest acts of creation

lie with the intent of changing the world in some small way.

For me, it

might be more physical than others, but

we all change each other in small ways that we can never truly understand.

And

for some of us,

people that we might never ever meet.

meet.

She changed to you.

You've changed us.

And who knows how much longer her influence will last beyond us moving on.

As he stands up and walks over to the stone where you say she fell.

And carefully, meticulously,

he carves into that stone.

Changes coming.

There rubs the

long scar on a slash of his neck.

Well,

fill your water skins.

You'll never taste

anything as clear and cold as what you have here.

When you say that, Crocus

kind of gets down on all fours and just sort of slides into the lake.

Having no idea how to swim.

It's cold.

Oh my god.

And just disagree with the water for a moment.

Get back up here.

Get back up here.

After

more

time than is probably healthy, Crocus shoots out of the water and stays at me.

I've never been underwater before.

How was it?

You can't breathe down there.

Yeah.

You be careful.

But if it was fun, you can go back to the time.

Okay, there you go.

But just one more time.

It's like,

it hurts.

It hurts to smile this much.

Give me a perception check.

Oh, no.

Aboleth?

Ableton?

Ableton.

Let's go.

Seven.

You swim in the water of the lake for a long time,

coming up and breaching out of the water and splashing.

I'm also very much keeping an eye on him like a mom at the beach.

You leave that symbol sort of written into the stone, change is coming.

And

I think your last look at the water here, Crocus, as you emerge and

brown.

Last brown leaves.

Oh god.

As you prepare to depart from this place, and Arrow, it's been many years since you were here, your eyes move,

looking for something under the snow, familiar, but it's been years and years and years.

Is there anything as you prepare to move farther on up into the peaks towards that spot on the map that you do in this moment to say farewell to the snowy lake?

I uh

walk down to the edge of the water.

I

don't go in

like Crocus.

She used to

love to swim in it and I could barely stomach it.

Too cold for me.

But I

dip both my hands in up to the elbow.

To feel close to her and stand.

Run the water around

on my hands and knuckles.

Pick up one small

gray white stone.

And just turn it over and over in my hand as we leave the place.

Turning the small gray white stone over and over in your hand.

You remember

her face here at the side of the lake, turning her holy symbol of the Moon Weaver, inscribed on a small gray white stone over and over again in her hand, smiling with a certainty that better days were ahead.

As you

move into the mountains,

I will ask for

another survival check to try to get where you're heading.

That beautiful moment, right?

21.

21.

19.

19.

8.

8.

18.

3.

Your lowest roll is an 18.

You ascend

the snowy banks.

It is a long, hard day's travel, but you know these mountains very well, Aero.

And surging upwards as you go,

you get to the edge of sort of the hunting area.

And I think there's a moment as well, Garin, where you like

recognize or spot hidden behind a small curvature that there actually are some like carved steps in the mountainside up here.

Not dramatic, the kind that almost like if you were

where people that were like ascending a mountain's face or bouldering would maybe have one masonry block because you need a step right here and the rest you can do naturally.

So it doesn't, it's not a carven staircase going all the way up, but it's clearly a path that was tended to by hand.

Adjusting and molding in careful places here and there in an ascending path up the snowy mountainside.

As you go,

the sun begins to set, but as dangerous as the snow is, there's not thick ice that's setting up here and the snow is enough and you're moving now sort of like the moon is getting a little bit bigger each night so you have some moonlight to get up and

as you get up to the very very top

um

there is

a

flat stone

and

a place where a scraggly high-altitude pine comes down and its roots hit the rock and stretch down around the outside of the rock.

And

anyone who wants to can give me a

perception check.

Give me the D12 for stone cunning here.

Hmm.

No.

Did anyone get above a 10?

17.

17.

18.

18.

Also 18 G10.

17.

Oh, I got a Nat 20.

Nat 20!

There we go.

The roots stretch down

the

face of a promontory.

So you're on a flat stone.

You look, you're high up.

The promontory is like, it's about like...

20 or 25 feet to the edge of this mostly level.

It's a little bit slanted up rock that's sort of surveying out over the valley.

But even up here, the winds are just like

and you can see open air.

You're way up on the mountainside now and look down.

You see far beneath you a day's work getting up higher

as the snowy valley moves out away from you.

Open sky, flurries of snow, little gaps in the clouds here and there where starlight or moonlight breaks through, but mostly just

I mean the snow is moving so much that there are places of the sky where the stars and snow commingle and it's hard to tell one from the other.

On a Nat 20,

you look and see that there's this promontory face

where the roots come down and the roots are natural, but they do come almost as like a perfect circle.

And...

You start to get like a twitchy

finger and your stiletto is there.

And there's, you swear to god, there's like, I mean, it's rough, it's a rough stone face, right?

It's unworked stone.

Gotta be unworked stone, right?

Arrow, garden.

Do you see

on the face of the promontory where those roots kind of go like that?

That looks that doesn't look natural, right?

Looks weird.

It's a rock.

Kind of looks like a face.

And I think you see a little crack in the rock that your stiletto would be thin enough to get into.

Huh.

Well, then I do that.

Just slowly stick my stiletto in and kind of wiggle it around.

Actually, I'm going to put my ear again inside and try and see how much here was it.

On a natural 2020.

On a nat 20,

you go to crack the safe.

Yeah.

And you guys see Phaedra sort of standing up on one of the root ledges there.

I don't think that's how this works.

And the stone slides back and rolls to one side.

And you see welcoming shadow.

The smell, rather than being the dim and dank smell of freezing stone collecting moisture inside,

smells richly of

herbs and dry wood deep in the darkness.

How did you do that?

I don't know.

Do you remember this?

Remember, you know this place, right?

I don't know this.

Huh.

How did it do that?

Um, I would like to,

I mean, check for any kind of like danger traps, I guess.

Oh, give me an investigation check.

Investigation is not great.

It's danger traps.

It's the danger traps.

My investig.

Another not 20.

You're fucking.

Do you move in ahead of everybody?

I think so.

I would do like a visual check first just to see if there's anything obvious and then step up.

I would like, so all of you are out on the promontory as Phaedra sort of slinks into the shadows for a second.

What's the noise they would hear upon Phaedra discovering an enormous quantity of treasure?

You just hear like a...

Crocus goes like, hears that that noise not understanding what it means and just goes barreling into the thing to find

I follow Crocus.

I mean

fuck come in here guys

As all of you enter into this new area

you walk in and

see a hidden chamber high in the mountains.

Immediately upon entering

Nia you see a a symbol of the moon weaver almost almost identical to Luz's holy symbol, inscribed on the back of the door hidden here.

A hidden secret place.

The smell is of like not only dry wood and safety, but like cinnamon and spices.

As you walk into this chamber, you move in and see

books,

works of art

piled high.

It seems almost like a dragon's horde, except there's no big massive pile of gold for a great worm to sleep on.

Instead, it

looks as though

the treasures of a world in the process of being destroyed have been carefully hidden on the tall peak of a remote mountain where none could find them.

This place feels like a

cache.

It feels, and truly, in this way, the way things are stored here is they are not necessarily stored

like an armory, although there are some things that are sort of out and more available.

But I think what you notice is that there's a loving order to the things here, but that that order

is based in matters of the heart.

I think immediately on a 20 investigation, you see that there is a like

massive, shining, silvery shield with draconic runes all around the outside, and a proud, rampant dragon that's like breathing.

It shines with captured moonlight, and the hands of craftsmen from another age have wrought the shield in shimmering starlight.

And right next to it is a collection of two little stuffed dolls that are completely mundane, but so well loved that they sit in an equal place of honor.

Fuck.

No, fuck.

This

must belong to someone.

Who

the fuck would be out here?

Hiding

this chamber,

small fireplace, you see that there is a table that doesn't have any provisions or rations on it, but you can see that like meals were well prepared here.

There's like some husks of like wild garlic cloves that have sort of blown as garlic paper, like garlic husk does, over to a corner.

So, this isn't a place where like an inch of dust sits.

No, this has been used and used recently,

and you see steps moving up out of here as if towards another entrance elsewhere on the mountainside.

The fire, the fire's not lit, though, right?

No, no, no, no, the fire's not lit.

Um,

uh, as you look at it, uh, as you go towards it, though, on that 20 investigation, uh, you hover hover a hand over the fire, and a little bit of dust falls, and there is a little bit of an...

Not an ember, but

the fire here was not that long ago.

It has died, but it was not that long ago that there was a lit fire here.

Look back towards the entrance and see if there's nobody coming from behind where we entered.

They're behind me, aren't they?

Sorry, yeah, you can answer me.

As you whip around to look, make sure that no one is following you, you don't see anyone out that way.

But there are

so many different belongings here as you all go around and search for them.

And I will say this as well.

As you

look around Arrow,

that

shield with the rampant dragon on it,

as your eyes alight across it,

you

are

stunned to behold your father's

sorry, your mother's shield.

The one?

The one.

The one and same.

You look at it and see this gleaming shining shield and as you look at the back

you see

a like,

it's like looking at the magical component of it.

It's like, oh, that can't be.

And then you look at the back and see a tiny piece of twine still tied around the handhold that you remember watching her tie there as a child to strap it to a saddlebag.

Uh, I, well,

you know, stunned, wander over to it and hoist it up in two hands.

There has never been a week like this week.

What is that, Arrow?

It's a shield.

Yes.

This belonged

belonged

to my mother.

Oh.

That shield belonged to your mother.

She wasn't up here with you, right?

No.

Core paladin of the platinum dragon of the order of the last banner

last seen when I was

maybe

11 years old.

Weird.

Is there a lot of other platinum dragon stuff in this room?

Or is there, like, does there seem to be any kind of specific religious, like, uh...

You begin to see other religious iconography.

On a gnat 20.

Yeah,

here's my notebook.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you want some stuff,

you behold your mother's shield,

uh,

which held the name, uh, in her time of honor's last stand.

Uh,

you, I think, on that 20, looking around for things that seem of like the most utility,

looking for the things that are clearly magical.

First and foremost, for yourself, having sort of jimmied the lock on this door, there is an extremely magical looking

key

dangling from a cord that you can see around the sort of,

away from the teeth of the key at the sort of handle, has a symbol of a maze or labyrinth on it.

Huh.

Okay, I take the key.

Here you go.

Oh,

a bunch of stuff.

This sort of work that has occurred here.

And I think it is not that this place is dedicated to the Platinum Dragon, but as a hiding place, you can see that whoever has been here has been

knowing that the world has been at war between the prime deities and the betrayers, those relics of the prime deities that would most be sought and destroyed by the forces of destruction have been hidden away here.

You also

think you do actually find some items of other deities that are in this place,

perhaps more than would make sense for you to be able to carry.

But

you do find

some, thinking of your friends who now travel with you, you do find some that are dedicated to

the Moon Weaver specifically.

And you do find some that are dedicated to the Allhammer as well.

I think that you look and see

over by the fire near some like pokers and tongs hanging from a hook

is a

gorgeous

steel crafted hammer with beautiful knot work

and dwarven runes around it

hanging from a thick leather cord that

seems to have that symbol of itself like embossed on the hammer is the all hammer.

And you see that there is a symbol sort of imprinted on the base of the haft of a fire roaring in a hearth and

uh you found find an exquisite silver wrapped hand mirror uh the hand mirror is just sort of lying on the table where it seems that like work was being done here

um

uh

So

those two objects you find here as well.

Hey, Garin, Nia, check this out.

Nia goes to look at the mirror.

Yeah, Phijra comes out holding a mirror and like dragging it.

Oh, right.

Size differential.

The size of me.

Yeah.

Who lives here?

Nia takes the mirror, inspects it, looks at it.

You mentioned earlier there was a passage leading to another room.

Yeah.

Was it?

Yeah.

Nia just clocks that that and

before making a move towards it, I think Future comes back with those goodies.

I think you take the mirror.

You see it is beautifully sculpted and

rocked.

It

seems to be spun of starlight and silver.

crafted by Fae hands.

As you look at it,

uh, what is Nia most feeling in this moment?

Um,

Nia,

after not sleeping well, she feels

weirdly restless and antsy.

She feels as though she is on the precipice of something great.

Um,

she's antsy to get through that passage and see what's on the other side of this, but she looks in that mirror, beholding her own face for the first time in a minute.

Goes to see if her locks in the front are not fusing or anything.

They're fine.

And

she just

looks at herself and reflects on

the lessons, the loss.

She thinks of loose in this moment.

Looks at that moon weaver symbol carved into the wall.

She feels very...

solemn,

but also has an understanding that this feeling may not last much

longer.

This feels as impossible as meeting a moon man from Ruidis.

What is this place?

Uh, Nia.

You look at the mirror and see your face.

Over your shoulder in the mirror, Liana smiles at you, raises a finger to her lips, and rushes up the back staircase.

Takes the mirror, goes to call, goes, dips.

Go ahead and give me a stealth check with your vantage.

She takes the mirror with her.

Yeah.

That's a nat 20!

Oh my god.

That nat 20 stealth check means that none of you see as Nia

actually and literally goes invisible

and vanishes.

The moon's mirror, a vestige of divergence.

Oh, my goodness.

As you rush away,

for the rest of you who are in here, go ahead.

That NAT 20 investigation is awesome.

Everyone else, go ahead and give me any perception or investigation or any other checks you would make in this impossible place.

19 perception?

19 perception.

Hell yeah.

12.

12.

Oh, good.

12 for me.

I think looking at this shield,

something,

it, it can't all be real.

And yet,

the only reason

this place is a miracle.

Can't exist.

Shouldn't exist.

Why would something good happen?

Why would something good happen?

And yet you came here

because an insect glowed on a section of the map that you'd never drawn over.

You've been following the advice of a bug to arrive in a room on the top of a mountain.

Why do good things ever happen?

And yet, from time to time they do.

You look, I think, on that 12 and behold Phaedra holding aloft this hammer from the fireplace

that you look at, and

much

like

Arrow

is that it's your memory has not ever been that good.

It's either your son's, or your dad's, or your nephew's, or somebody's from some time, but you recognize that hammer.

There can be no mistake.

I think they

very well have died died in those pits, and this has all been an illusion.

Let me see.

Thanks.

You hold it aloft,

and

my god, it looks like the holy symbol that you carved into the wall of the watchtower the night before.

That's what it is.

I was trying to figure it out.

Hammer seems simpler on the nose, but I've carved this a lot

in the early days.

Built a few temples

that didn't pay too much mind.

It was kind of strange to be trying to find faith in time the gods leave us, but

well, this is for a miracle.

Uh, the hearth's hammer

And Crocus, on a 19.

You're opening up.

You're opening up a wooden chest.

And you see that it is...

I don't know if you're able to read, but Phaedra, you're there working.

This key around your neck is pretty incredible here.

I'll also say on a Nat 20.

God damn, all right.

So much.

Keep it coming uh

on an yeah all those nat 20s brains gonna take my car in real life and fill it back up with gas and bring it back and bring it back but you gotta reward a nat 20 at a crazy story moment i'll say you grab that key and you notice that there is this beautiful little sort of dull ruby set in the center of the maze on it uh and the ruby sort of glows with a little bit of light and points you towards a leather tarp wrapped thing and you open it up and find it's about the size of your body.

You have to like brace yourself to hold it up.

There is a jet black heavy crossbow.

Um,

I'll go ahead and pass this over to you.

I made you all be zeroth level, and this is my contrition.

This is me saying here, thank you, sir.

There's a bunch of things.

Thank you, sir.

This is for me.

Can I use a heavy crossbow?

Yeah, uh,

the condemner.

Uh, uh,

and uh,

for you, you, my friend,

there is a chest that Phaedra, you can read

a

there's a name on it you can read that I'll write down as you're looking through this chest together.

There is some actual like gold in here if you guys want to take some.

It's been a weird life of mostly not

mostly not needing it.

Yeah, it kind of looks like trash.

Yeah,

I take one gold.

Yeah.

Yeah.

For good luck.

Yeah.

You never know what you having one gold can ever do you harm, I think.

Anyone else are concerned or perturbed that whoever is mighty enough to have collected such a fine assortment of objects likely is quite capable and

perhaps not very happy to see these go missing?

They're not here right now, I guess.

We don't know that.

It's true.

I want another powerful entity looking to subjugate us.

Yeah.

Where's Nia?

And right before we go to Nia,

Jasmine, you find this.

There is a label that I've written on this magic item

that

as you are passing through it, Crocus has just opened up and can't read the label on the chest.

This is Agrupnen Vault.

As you open that chest and find a number of scrolls, books, writings,

you see a beautiful gem-like orb

in the center of the chest.

And

you see

that

it rolls very gently as of its own volition towards you, Crocus.

And you see it rolls up

towards the gift from Celeste, those hands of the knowing mentor, and you see that

just about the shape and size of those hands.

Yeah, you can pass you the paper.

Does it fit?

It fits like a dream,

and

you can't help but feel

some degree of

comfort.

And

there's

some part of almost like having put two puzzle pieces that fit just right together.

They move and touch.

Outside on the mountain peak.

Nia.

focused on the mirror, sorry.

You wonderful mirror.

Holding the mirror invisibly, you rush up to the snowy.

You rush up the stairs.

Another entrance you get up to is already open and snow is pouring out of it.

Liana?

Go.

You rush out onto a snowy promontory.

Liana.

You look out.

Far off,

the valley dips and rises again.

The peak nearest to you,

distant but unmistakable.

Through the snow, your sister

turns to face you.

Flurry of snow

moves.

She turns around and smiles.

Uh, okay, now before I run, um, you said

I am atop a peak of something, uh, a peak of a a mountain.

Do I...

I just don't want to trip and fall and hurt myself.

Did you say she's on a distant peak?

She's on a distant peak.

How far away?

You stand on a ledge, look down at a drop of about 120 feet, opens up, and on a distant one, you have no idea how she's over there, but you see she's turning and smiling, the snow moving back and forth between you.

You see that she

smiles, holds a hand, goes, I knew you'd make it.

How did you get over there?

Come here.

Come here this instant.

Crying, cry.

Either you come here or I find my way to you and I might not survive it.

I've always loved you.

And I will always love you.

What are you talking about?

Come.

I...

You have to be my...

You have to meet Arrow.

You have to meet...

Come, come.

We couldn't think of any other way.

Snow swirls around her.

Her body collapses and falls.

Um.

Mia can't get to her.

She gets as far as she possibly can to her and then sees that there is a drop and falls to her knees and is just

confused and frustrated and

not understanding that

she just is really confused.

She doesn't know what's happening right now.

She

feels as though she's gotten so close to something and it's right there in front of her.

And the fact that

she flashes back to watching Luz fall and she's back in that moment of, I am here.

It should be enough.

This cannot happen.

I'm here.

You waited for me.

I told you to wait for me.

I'm here.

So close

to holding her again.

You

feel the depth of confusion

and hurt

at something that defies reason, doesn't make sense.

And in this moment of

loss

again,

you You have been saying to everyone that change is coming.

You have been giving the face of hope to everyone that you can.

And why, you,

why now do you have to lose this when you have tried so hard to make it easy to believe that a better day was coming?

And in this moment of loss, the clouds part,

and the brightest crescent moon you have ever seen shines on you.

She takes the symbol out of.

She takes Luz's symbol out of her bag and points it up to the moon and says, I.

We had a deal.

You took Luz.

I told you to keep her.

We had a deal.

Get me to her.

Bring her to me.

I cannot do this again.

Please.

Please.

We had a deal.

And she just

is

wordlessly bargaining with a god that she has

a really interesting relationship with at this very moment, but she is

bargaining with a god.

She's shaking.

She can't get those words out, but she is with every bit of her intention

holding this symbol with both of her hands and being like, I

did everything I could, I did everything right,

I stayed hopeful, I never faltered.

You cannot punish me for this, you cannot punish me like this.

You

remember

the scorn

with which Ondetra

dismissed Luz

and said, I will not have these words spoken near me.

And it struck you as so petty

and unkind to those that had just healed her.

Do you feel that your rage in this moment

in the face of this injustice,

this loss,

do you feel that your rage is petty and undeserving?

No.

Nia

genuinely feels that her rage is coming from a place of

deep,

deep faith.

She

believed with every bit of her that she and her sister would meet at the moon again.

And she let that

faith guide her through the depths of

hell.

And to see her faith

cast aside,

she feels

very

she feels her rage is properly

it may not be properly placed, but she

does not have the capacity to critique her feeling

right now

Your rage is an affirmation of your faith not a refusal of it

In this moment, seeing the snow begin to cover Liana's distant body, and the pain

and cruelty of not being able to rush to her, not being able to go to her side,

having been so close to that moment of reuniting.

Can Nia

understand

and give

and wholeness

to what it means

to rage against

and be

let

down

by something you believe in.

Can you be

disappointed in something you believe in?

Or is that a contradiction?

That's a great question.

I think it is possible.

Hmm.

I think

Nia's

disappointment,

her confusion, her frustration,

I think it is still rooted in that

belief.

She.

It's less a rage outward and pointed at something.

It's a rage that

sits within herself.

It's like

she has so much energy and no idea where to put it.

And she had a place for so long.

And that place is now gone.

I think

Nia's a walking contradiction.

She's constantly saying one thing and meaning another and meaning one thing but saying something else.

Because in her mind, it all makes sense.

Because it's all been drawing to this one point.

So in very Nia fashion,

I think it's a little bit of both.

In this moment, holding the holy symbol, looking at Nia's body.

sorry, looking at Liana's body.

Do you accept

that you are whole within the contradiction of yourself?

Or must there be a victor?

Must something break in the face of your rage?

Does something have to pay for this?

No.

i don't think nia's

i don't think nia's the type of person to seek

revenge in that sort of way if i'm hearing you correctly

um

nia

thinks back to the last time she saw her sister in the flesh and fully and recalled saying to her we're all we need

and she sees her body

and realizes that even in that moment she contradicted herself

she is whole

she can be all

that she needs in this moment

and also be so

feel

like she has lost something great.

Another contradiction.

But

yeah, she can be whole and still be contradicting.

Snow.

Wind.

Your God has let you down.

But you believe in your God.

The world has let you down.

But you believe in the world.

You hear your sister's voice on the wind.

If you believe,

come to my side.

Come here.

Nia gets up.

She listens to that voice,

and in her, I don't even think she says it out loud, but she's like,

Believe

you won't fall.

Nia

steps towards the ledge,

keeps all of her weight on her back foot,

and just sort of

no

with purpose.

She attempts to put a foot out.

As the four of you realize Nia is missing and rush to search for her,

Nia,

you step forward.

This is a really bad idea.

But contradictorily,

it's the best idea.

As all of you watch Nia step on a solid beam of moonlight and walk through the sky to her sister's body.

That's not possible.

There's no way this should be happening.

She, as soon as she realizes that this

will work as she knew it would,

scrambling, trips, hands and knees, getting to her sister's body.

Is it actually her?

You arrive.

You see Liana.

The bridge of moonlight stretches before you.

And

as you arrive, you see her.

Beautiful smile on the face of her body.

As you go to her, the moonlight keeps building around you.

As you kneel at your sister's side,

moonlight swirls

and

a beautiful woman with your sister's face

the size of a mountain made of moonlight is kneeling over you.

All of you see the Moon Weaver

here in this space

embrace,

and you feel tears of light streaking down her face and falling to you.

Do I also see the Moon Weaver?

Yes, you do.

Um,

Nia doesn't let go of her sister,

but she looks up

to her god

and just

she goes to question she wants to

Will I see her again

You don't recognize me

The Moonweaver

wears Liana's face, face.

Or perhaps it is more correct to say that Liana wore the Moonweavers.

You look

and see.

The Moonweaver's hand caresses your cheek.

She diminishes in size to be near you in this moment.

Just hugs her.

Um

she kisses your cheek and you smell your sister and she is with you and around you

and she holds you tight

and she says

I didn't want to say goodbye.

I didn't know how much I'd want to stay.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Don't say it now.

Just

please don't say it now.

Just

she hugs you and says,

I promise you that a day is coming

where we will be sisters forever in the moonlight.

And I hope that day is very far away.

Not too far.

Um

while holding her

beautifully glowing sister

She realizes that

she kept her promise

And it is not

nearly like how she imagined it

And she

like cupping her hands when the rain fell,

just says, Thank you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I don't know when.

I don't know how.

I'm not meant to,

but you do.

So I will follow you.

I will continue to listen.

I will continue to search.

And I will find you.

She looks and says,

We're leaving.

Who is we?

You keep saying we.

She looks up at the sky.

She understands.

Okay.

You have to know.

I grew up side by side with you.

And I knew that there was something strange inside me.

But...

Not strange.

Beautiful.

She weeps openly.

And she just says,

I found it all out.

I had visions and dreams that something was coming, that I was carrying something inside me.

And I, when we separated the last time, when I left you with Arrow to go and find our parents, and our parents, and you see, you guys watch a god of Xandria talking to her mortal sister, talking about their parents, and says, They they went, they made it to Vassalheim.

Oh my god.

So they're there.

They're there.

You can go find them there.

But

we're leaving.

And

we're making.

There will be a blanket of magic over this world

so that no God can ever touch it again.

But we couldn't leave the world on its own.

And

my

other siblings,

the gods,

weren't sure that we would be able to

share our gifts with the world.

And I said,

if our love for them is true,

Then it will pass

the mantle of protection.

It will pass through the gate.

And they said, How can a love be strong enough to pass the barrier that even the gods cannot pass?

And I said, looking at my siblings,

the love of one sister for another will be strong enough to pass.

And it had to be you.

And I'm sorry.

It has to be.

It is okay.

I'll be the first

to go.

And I know that you'll be strong enough

to show that this love is still here,

even when I'm far away.

She takes both of her hands,

kisses them,

and says,

as she often does say,

It is unending.

Unending.

You'll watch us, though.

From

that place you go to, where you cannot reach us.

She looks up at the moon and smiles.

In all all of the vastness of realms divine,

no gift was greater than one mortal life with you.

Jesus looks

she embraces you.

Sobbing, openly sobbing, weeping, shaking, crying.

Luz, Luz, um.

Do you...

Can you see her?

Thank you.

Can you see her?

is she with you too is she

um in that place we cannot reach as she fell but i i have this

um you hold the holy symbol and there is already a hand of light holding it with you as in shimmering moonlight loose is by your side

ne is stunned

Luce,

other smiling faces beautiful to behold.

Twinkling of light and snow, fairies of ice and wind surrounding this place.

Luce smiles, and the snow flurries and vanishes and reforms, and she is there again and gone.

Did you send those fireflies that one day?

You see that Liana or the Moon Weaver, whichever you prefer,

Liana smiles and says,

Huh?

Neil laughs, that being enough answer she needs,

and just

soaks in these moments with the person that she could not possibly imagine life without and realizes that she does not have to.

You'll never be without me.

But you will have to prove to them

that there is a way

that when we leave we're not really gone

you will be the first

i will not be the last i swear it

she kisses you on the cheek embraces you

super tight hug

she's like taller than her in the way that younger sisters are always taller than their older sisters just like leans her head

like the top of her head against her cheekbone or

moon bone cheek light bone,

and just savors

and it feels like forever and just savors and savors and savors.

Your sister departs having lived a mortal life in this place,

returning to her divine realm.

And Rhinea Saf

becomes the first cleric in Xandria who wields the power of a departed god.

That's where we'll take our break.

Yeah,

we will.

This is Matthew Mercer.

If you're enjoying the adventures of Xandria Unlimited and want to support the show, be sure to check out merchandise on the Critical Roll shops.

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

Hello, and welcome back to Xandria Unlimited Divergence.

We've just been crying our ass.

Slightly less bad.

Those of you who are here, behold a bridge of moonlight, and all of you witness

truly a miracle.

In this moment,

you are left holding snow and wind.

Your mortal sister,

bearing the spirit of one of the great gods of Axandria, swirls in snow and light, ascending to the moon, and a bridge of moonlight welcomes you back to the vault.

Your friends have witnessed this miracle.

You have now seen several gods striding the land.

This one, much less fearsome than the Strife Emperor and less imposing than the Storm Lord,

that knelt and spoke with one who now wields her magic.

Is that your sister?

The proudest she has ever been.

Yes, it would.

That doesn't make any sense.

It doesn't have to.

What things have we seen in the past day that have made any sense?

There's a lot.

You can see he has the amulet around his neck.

I don't know.

We were.

Your sister had the god inside of them.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Something like that.

Alright.

I'm figuring it out.

You got that.

I am.

And Kirk is kind of saying he's pacing back and forth.

You can see him that he's thinking, which is not something he does.

I am.

So she did this.

This is her place.

Collected all these things, put them together to stop them from being used

against good people.

I think so.

Right.

We didn't.

I didn't ask her many questions,

but I think someone or some ones

knew that this

artifacts, these objects, would be

incredibly important and

decided to protect them until

the right folks came in.

Right.

Okay, and she and her king truly are

drawing away from the world.

There.

She said that

her and her siblings

are

moving away from this world in a way that no...

none of their magic

will be able to touch us in the way it did before.

Like the stormlord had insinuated.

Yeah.

Oh, I just realized something.

Okay, the belt does that.

That's this is not just a belt.

That's why I did the okay.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

Alright.

How do you all do this so much?

I don't understand.

Do I?

Yeah, what is what is what's up with you?

You're a lot more, like,

coherent than normal.

I think it's this.

Uh, give me an investigation check.

That's Martin.

Are you kidding me?

What?

Another natural 20.

You're

gonna be like, this is insane.

Dice is illegal.

What are you talking about?

Yeah,

Mr.

Natural 20?

I got one yesterday.

You had like three in one day, though, guy.

Let's not.

You hold this

orb in the palm of your hand hanging from this amulet around Crocus's neck.

And

flashing images throughout the orb.

Uh go ahead and read uh uh the the name of the magic item if you'd be so kind.

Orb of Avalir.

It is

a uh

an amu it's sort of an amulet on the thing, and it gives me plus six bonus to intelligence and plus four bonus to wisdom, a new tool proficiency, and a new language to any who carry it.

Whoa,

uh, the these are the the ambient effects of it.

Now, I think on a nat 20, if this were in the hands of wizards, then great and terrible workings could be wrought.

So if you want any great and terrible workings wrought, you would just hand this to a wizard.

In Crocus's hands,

flashes of images, whispers of various languages, the history of

a time

that has been long since destroyed.

Images of an original

time.

We're doing the fucking trilogy.

You gave Killer Croc all the knowledge of the ancient world.

Because when you give it to Smarties, we saw what happens.

Okay?

I love it.

I love it.

I love

you.

You see

images of

a winged man in Isphora flying across ash-covered skies, a family, a daughter holding an orb, seeing the image of a beautiful elven woman, a crown of gold and long strands of white hair.

Secrets and knowledge of a thousand, thousand years of plumbing the depths of arcane lore to seek the secrets of Xandria and the nature of magic itself, Pulled through time, handed from one talon to another across the centuries of the calamity.

You see an old and grey-feathered Isphora woman passing the orb on to someone else and warning of what it meant down through generations until, choked by fire and ash in a great clash of combat in a battle, a badly wounded Isphora warrior with an image of an eye on their chest, two hawks in their hands, these bladed weapons,

hands

to Liana

to remove it from conflict in the world, giving it to someone

who knows a secret hiding place where things this dangerous can be kept.

Cannot believe you're old a nat 20, where things this

should be kept on a nat 20.

I love when you say that.

I've said said it so much today.

You gotta.

I said it so much.

I get better every time.

My God, the fact that you guys came in, like, we must go to Vegas immediately after.

Hot, hot.

What you see on that 20 as well is

Liana,

you know, this young half-elven woman, you know, rushing across.

There's a reason Nia has the wanderer background.

Liana and Nia both were extremely well traveled, which is a dangerous thing to be able to say during the calamity, which you now wonder if that's even the appropriate name for whatever this age you are now in, where miracles abound and things have you feel like your mind is being stretched once a day past the breaking point.

Looking at the images here, you see the orb being handed to Liana in a moment of the Isphora, eyes narrowing, see See these

proud avian

warriors looking and seeing with eyes similar to the

narrowing of their own sort of eagle-like eyes, gazing and seeing something within Liana.

You see Liana collecting these goods throughout here.

You see her kneeling by the stone and I think on that now 20 you see her

laying the body of a white dragon-born, beautiful white dragon-born woman to rest in the ice and snow, looking at peace.

And it is in that moment,

seeing the symbol of the Moonweaver

on the holy symbol held within the hands of the woman that she lays to rest.

that she looks up at the moon,

truly opens her eyes for the first time, and recorded here on the orb, sees the truth.

Many times in Xandria's history have the gods walked the world in mortal form.

You see images of some walking in mortal form to board a ship to a flying city of strange and unnatural light.

The mortal forms that were worn there were bent to great and terrible purpose, And you see that it is not only the gods whose love mortal beings know that have the ability to wear a mortal form.

Other gods as well can hide themselves here.

Why Liana wore a mortal form, you cannot say, but you see recorded on the orb that can record images and events as they happened physically and materially here within the world of Xandria, but you cannot use it to see what was in Liana's heart or what she realized in that moment.

But you see her looking up and her eyes glow white as she beholds the moon and knows truly

that she lived a mortal life as the mortal sister of Nia

because something eternal wished to know the love of a mortal sibling.

Well, it knew that love.

Wow.

Okay, I pull my hand away from the orb and I say,

this this orb

it has knowledge of like history, of magicians, of mages, of gods, even.

And I saw, and I saw your sister, Nia.

I saw Liana

and

a white dragon-born woman.

I think this

can record events

as they're happening.

It's shown me it's just presumably showing you so much.

Yeah, like a scribe?

I guess.

But going back years and years and centuries of history and different faces.

At least it's in good hands now.

It's a lot.

don't know if it's better.

Do you want to take take a break?

No, I just.

We sh are we sure?

No one's gonna mind if we take these things.

It seems that Liano was helping assemble this for exactly this

purpose.

For people like us.

You recall too that the the miracle of this place, if a bug hadn't landed on a map you would never find this

was for us

Okay

good cuz I wasn't gonna give up the crossbow so

ulti lift up is like a heavy crossbow.

You're like holding holding it up on a knee.

I'm gonna end up carrying that, aren't I?

I mean,

mounted on you with a turret.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, that'd be so fun.

I guess you're gonna get a little swivel chair, yeah, a little howda on the back.

Garn kind of lifts the hammer in his hand and says,

I don't think I've ever felt this old

until this moment.

Which way's north?

I poke my head out of the main entrance that we came in and point out north from here.

Yeah, you see up through the mountains, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That way.

I fancy I'll make my last trek that way some point.

Thank you.

Sure.

So what's

what are we doing?

What are we doing?

Brennan, what are we doing?

Liana told you that your parents went to Baselheim.

Um

my parents are in Baselheim.

I would love to see them

although

I worry that they have been gods all along and that they will fall into a snowy bank and come together in starlight.

I feel like the odds of that happening two more times are slim.

Crazy things have happened.

That's true.

I would say that the odds of your whole family being gods and you being the only mortal is less than if your sister was the only god and your whole family's mortal.

I don't know if I like smart, Crocus.

It scares me.

That would make more sense.

Very astute, Crocus.

You're absolutely right.

Your sister led us this far.

And it seems

she's shun her light further down the path.

To Baselheim.

That's gonna take a bit of time.

Well.

I

can't imagine

what we have more than of time.

As Nia says this,

the weight

hits you.

You have survived.

You have fled.

You have

fought for the freedom of others and freed those you have found on the path.

The immediacy of Nia

finding Liana has passed as well.

And as she says the name Vaselheim,

The myth of Vaselheim

has

passed through different whispers, even in the height of calamity where straggling groups of survivors make their way through the wastelands created by the warring of the gods.

The dawn city, the last city where all is safe, that the deities would do anything to protect.

But who could make their way across stormy seas racked with monsters?

and endless choking ashlands to actually find their way there.

But you've witnessed as many miracles in as many days as anyone has.

Nia, you know

that it may be where your parents are, and more than that, you have been called the first

by a God

to witness one departing from this world.

Who knows

how else that knowledge may become by?

There is a weight of responsibility on you as well.

Um

Nia feels that, downloads that,

um,

and realizes that she has an incredible job to do.

Um,

and

it doesn't have to happen right now, but um,

if we leave this place, I would love to go back to that sort of armory treasure room and see if there's any.

You said books were in there, yes.

Many.

Are any of them blank?

Yes, you find a parchment, pill, and ink, yes.

She's going to take

one of those and

give herself the task of writing down as much as she can remember from what Luz has told her and write down the story of her sister,

the Moon Weaver.

She'll take that in one book and then she'll find

anything that will just give her more information about her sister.

You take as much as you can, write everything that you can in this first rest.

For the rest of you here, you bear treasures of an ancient world, artifacts that

in whatever days of conflict and of chaos and of change and hope that are on their way,

you carry knowledge

and great weapons.

You carry hope, and more than that, you carry the experience of having stood up for what is right

and survived.

There are other places in this world that need you.

And though

you do not have the urgency of short and scurrying survival, the certainty that you need just keep moving forward.

A new responsibility rests on your shoulders.

The battle for survival is over.

The battle that now comes is one of shaping what this new world will be.

Well,

Bessleheim's quite a ways away, and

lest you know of any, I don't

have any knowledge of any working ports.

But words I've gotten of societies on the western coast have long been

destroyed, but decades passed.

But

like I said,

I'm going north.

Well, we should check back in on Torm's Hill, I think.

Isn't that south?

Uh, yes, maybe that's south of where

it's back where he came from.

Yeah, you guys have gone a little ways north, um, but there's nothing stopping you.

I mean,

a far-long trek is completely in other words, a part of you would simply go,

you are not expected anywhere.

Your only thing to do with is the rest of your lives.

Just understanding how weird Kev Ketriel was.

I take it back.

I like smart croakers.

No, you get it, right?

Like, what is his whole.

Like, we've done some crazy things, but that guy.

Yeah.

No,

I'm glad you're seeing this.

In this moment of conversation, I think Nia

sidles up to Arrow and just.

Where do you want to go?

I have a

idea of where I'd I'd like to be, but it doesn't have to be today or tomorrow or

instantly.

Alright then.

She looks at

Garn's hammer

and

you say we

have no knowledge of ports or an ability to cross the great

oceans to get to Vaselheim.

You can have a tool to build one.

I mainly work in stone, but uh

I can certainly try to learn.

And just because I don't know of something doesn't mean it's not there to be found.

Well, I'll walk with you.

Error, when you first you crossed an ocean to come here?

Where did you first touch down?

Far far to the west and we're getting ahead of ourselves we have a whole continent to cross before we solve the problem of the sea by what remains of the expanse

at the very least

but

I'll walk with you to the shore till you find this ship

and then I'll decide there where I'm going

you'll have a lot more time ahead of you than probably I do Don't say that.

Very well.

Still a long time to be thinking each other, remember?

Fair.

Fair.

I think as we begin to filter out, I stop at one of the desks or tables with parchment on it.

And I haven't even written in a long time, but I pick up a quill and dab it in ink.

And on a piece of parchment, I write in

the celestial that I dimly remember being taught by my father Aridio a very long time ago.

If the world is just,

let hope be reforged.

And I pin it

just inside the door of this place and leave.

Pinned inside the door, this secret sanctum holds tight and fast

against the snow outside.

The five of you know its location and the secret stair to ascend to it.

The words in celestial written on the inside.

Uh, everybody here, make a perception check for me.

I think I grab some of the gold before I leave.

Yes.

I'll take a couple pieces.

Yeah, help yourself.

Take a penny, leave a penny.

Take a message.

That's

18.

17.

17.

12.

12.

Perception.

17.

17.

15.

15.

No one got a 20, right?

A weird, I know.

Come on.

So

as you leave,

none of you are capable of perceiving or beholding uh that the words in celestia on the back of the door ripple out over the belongings here casting the hallow spell on the camera in this place

uh

you uh you move forward uh and begin to travel uh as lock it up vedra

Oh, what?

Oh, sure.

I don't know if I can use it to lock stuff as much as

break into it.

Was there even a door?

It was just like a stone face.

It was a stone face that just, as you unlocked, it rolled.

Yeah.

Oh, I don't think there's even a lock on it.

You should close the door.

I'll close the door.

Yeah.

You close the door and it locks.

It's like a New York City apartment door.

It locks.

It's just so.

That's.

I don't know if it's far more spacious.

Yeah.

I don't know how many people have the experience experience as a little kid of a parent being like

check for keys before you close the door.

I'm gonna have burned into my head.

And

all of you begin to depart.

As you do so,

you are going to once again make some survival checks.

And

unlike before, we're also going to make some luck checks as you begin to

travel west.

Yeah, as you begin to travel west,

I'll go ahead and get this first survival check from her.

16.

16.

Also 16.

16.

18.

18.

18.

Brennan, that's a one.

Hey!

But you know what?

That's a group check, and that's why we do them as a group.

So

all you begin to head out, and on this first one,

you make your way over the countryside that in centuries to come will be known as the mornset countryside a land of free folk in the south of the continent that will as well centuries from now earn the name taldore

you head out over rock and scrabble um it is about uh a little more it's about eight days of travel uh and because you're not going to a specific location um i'm gonna say that that check is good enough to keep you traveling west

cloud cover still rains out

but you have about eight days of travel the the the land is filled with fresh rainwater as you descend from the mountains into the lowlands this valley sculpted out you can you know you can't see them but somewhere a few days east of you maybe those first families from torhams hill are getting ready to head out with tools and lumber and things like that to go find farming farming in the valley and hopefully start making some food to bring back to all the folks in Torms Hill.

As you head out,

I'm going to go ahead and

we're going to let that survival check, which was a really good one, get you guys where you're going.

I'm just going to roll some luck checks in front of the board because it is still a dangerous world out there.

If one of us dies, I'm going to be really sad.

You guys, just

miracles abound.

So on a 19 or 20, something miraculous happens.

But also there is danger everywhere.

So on a 1 through 5,

you're in a lot of trouble.

Let's go.

Day one.

19!

Something really wonderful happens.

As you are striding...

Go through the cloud or whatever.

As you are striding through, in the middle of the night,

all of you

are sleeping.

Who's keeping watch?

Probably first of the night.

Arrow's keeping keeping watch.

Something is moving towards you from the north.

And you look out and see

giants approaching you in the dark.

They're way out in the dark path where you can see, but there are giants walking through the night.

Quietly shake

Garin awake.

Hey,

I would have reached for Crocus, but I'm not convinced he wouldn't shout out.

There's giants.

What kind?

I can't tell.

Or can I?

Uh, go ahead and give me a nature check.

That's a 15.

Oh, you're wrong.

It's not giants.

It's you're there's a trick of the trick of the mind.

You're looking, it's a forest.

It's just windy.

But it's not windy.

So the trees are moving.

Why are the trees moving?

Massive trees

stride across the landscape, some 30 to 40 feet tall.

And you suddenly realize that you're seeing the back of the group moving to you as the little ridge that you're hiding behind suddenly.

A giant tree, you all wake up as a tree.

Deep green eyes.

What magic is this?

It's just here with us, you're saying?

And turns to move around you.

You see, it looks out and says,

What

servants of the betrayers?

No, not allowed.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

Walk around.

Walk around.

Servants of the betrayans.

These are not.

And from the walking forest that begins to surround you, you see treants moving south.

These treants are of like deep and ancient jungle trees.

You see some of them have vines or like deep moss hanging from them as they begin to walk.

and you see that as they sort of trudge across the land, they begin to split around you, like waking up at the vanguard of like a herd of elephants moving around your camp.

Just

you see, this tree looks down and says,

I am

Katomua.

Where do you travel to, Great One?

The land to the south

is blighted.

Nothing there may grow where the poison of the strife emperor remains.

My mother

has bidden me and my kin

here a great jungle to create

to surround

with all

that poison land

she has smoked him wrong.

Weirdly, we were there, hey, really?

Yeah,

well,

you're telling me

would you like

some

magic nuts?

Yes, it would be impolite to say

Coconut size.

You guys get...

I rolled a seven and an eight on 2d8.

You guys get 15

not potion, but nuts of healing.

I love nuts of healing.

Oh, what?

These nuts?

Now, sir.

Now, sir.

And you see as they walk that just like literally as they pass, this was arid kind of shattered rock.

And you wake up the next morning to thick, luscious grass.

Where they churned up the earth, it has already sprung up in their wake like a trail of footprints would be left by a normal human being.

They have left green growing things in their wake.

And in the distance, you can see that like these like saplings are beginning to pop up to the south of what will become a thick and mighty jungle.

Whoa.

All right, that's your first role.

I'll be good to start.

Again, again, again.

Can I toss something in?

Yeah.

I meant to pop it up before we got to that role.

I think on their travels, Arrow will start to slowly teach Crocus Draconic.

So here's the thing.

You're taking that one?

I don't have to.

I get to choose a language, but I will choose something else and allow this to happen.

Take the one you want.

No, no, no, no.

I think it's good.

I like it.

I think we can explain the language you're getting from that.

From this, yes, that's a good way to do it.

Because

I was wrestling with taking Traconic because I would have none of the cultural context of knowing a language that you were that what they why things mean.

I would textbook know it, but I wouldn't understand it, so I would rather have it be informed from this.

So I like this.

I like the idea of the two of them throughout the day, just

monosyllabic at first and then longer and right.

Don't day a style on bibliotech.

But okay, see.

Um, You

guys begin to trade Draconic back and forth.

Arrow sharing your Draconic, both probably having the, from your father being a cleric of the Platinum Dragon, having that like extremely specific grammatical knowledge, but also knowing how to speak it, actually, how people speak it conversationally.

I want to learn conversational draconic.

Exactly.

Whenever I speak Draconic at the bank, I can't kind of understand what they're saying because I picked it up conversationally.

I'm trying to order a meal at a restaurant in Draconic.

Let's just get through that.

Bathroom.

Great.

We continue on.

Six.

Narrowly dodged.

That's day two.

Day three.

Nine.

Okay.

Four.

Five.

There it is.

There it is.

Go ahead, everyone, and give me...

How are you traveling as you get through this vast countryside?

Like, are you traveling during the day, during the night?

Are you taking watches at night, I presume?

Like, yeah, if there's any way that you would be traveling.

Yeah, I mean, watches at night, yeah, I would assume.

But I think traveling during the day makes the most sense of just like...

To me, it would seem, seeing as we're no longer currently in danger that we know.

Yeah.

It would just, that's the time when you're awake and you go.

Also, with the Mornset countryside being mostly open field for a lot of this, I imagine we probably want to utilize that field of vision while we travel to see anything that approaches, and then hunkered down at night where we don't have that.

And I have a question, not a comment, but the Strife Emperor sort of occupied that portion of Gwesar.

Do we have loose knowledge of any other shit like that on other parts of Gwesar?

Or was that that the biggest dark stronghold of the continent?

So I think Arrow, you would know that the area you were traveling in to get to Torham's Hill was some of the worst.

That was a nasty pocket of extremely dangerous area.

This area you would have not traveled through because it would have been impossible to find game here.

Like it's empty open plains out here.

Where we are right now.

Where you are right now.

But now there's river water um the ash was not as bad it was not as volcanic here as it was elsewhere um

and you see that like uh

the

i think like uh on a given day here

uh

you can kind of stay under the rolling hills like it's not flat flat like how kansas is flat there's like very slight slopes to the hills here just yeah just around the bases of those.

Yeah, stay low, stay low.

You would say we're not in Kansas anymore?

I'd say you're not in Kansas.

That's for the theater people at home.

So.

I'm right here.

Stand at this table.

Go ahead and give me.

So you guys are just traveling.

Go ahead and give me a perception, Shadow.

Call it a difficulty 15.

Can I use my passive perception, Brennan?

No.

Okay.

Sorry.

Okay.

Pendulum swing.

Ah, yes.

That's a one, naturally.

23.

23.

15, exactly.

12.

12.

As you are traveling,

you begin to hear something far distant.

And I think for Arrow and Nia, you can actually feel...

And I think for Garner as well, a little bit, you can hear the earth trembling.

Okay, cool.

Let's

draw to a halt for a second.

Yeah, Phedril loads her crossbow, which she has to do with her entire body.

You see, there's sort of a nearby little, there's like a nearby little tree stump, and a little.

It's like not much, but there's kind of a little divot in the earth that you can go sort of dive in to get low.

But there's something crazy happening, maybe, over the next hill

Do any of you make any attempt to investigate it or do you hang out where you are?

Does it feel like the vibration is shifting or changing at all in intensity?

It's getting more intense.

You can't tell if it's coming directly towards you, but something something huge is happening.

I'd rather not have whatever's causing that surprise us.

I could take a look.

I think I can cast a

second level divination spell to figure out what's augury?

Yeah, an augury.

Yeah, so that's possible.

So you propose a course of action you're considering and the augury will tell you if that will go well or go poorly um

if

i guess i want to know if we are to

get over that hill would that be like if we were to go see what's going on over there and like be visible to whatever is is

If we can see it, it can see us.

Is that a good idea to

like hedge that bad?

Proposing the course of action to investigate, you reach out to your sister, your

moon,

and she immediately in your head

sends a sense of urgency, panic, and danger, but one of you must, you must cross the hill.

That is the right course of action.

Those across the hill must see you.

You are in grave danger right now.

I

deliver that message as soon as possible.

We are in danger, but we must go see what it is.

Oh, I think then everything that we've seen in the past few days means we listened to that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

As you move in quickly, you move over, and whatever the sort of like gray rock and new dewy green grass has been, you cross the hill and see fire.

There are

thousands

upon thousands of devils in the fields before you.

Banners of the lords of the hells, some towering overhead.

You see them in all directions, and as they amass in this way, you see

coming from the north

a gleam of

radiant light.

And you see a

horde

of unicorns charging across the field towards the devils and tearing through them like a knife through butter.

Falling before you.

However, right behind you, you hear a

shriek.

I need all of you to roll an issue.

I want a unicorn!

Look at this.

No, they're not 20.

My

Jasmine!

Absolutely insane.

Yeah.

Unbelievable.

Unleash Condemner.

Yes.

Where are you guys minis?

Do you have them?

I do.

They're all right there.

Lovely.

Yeah.

Do you need any more field pieces?

You know what?

I well may.

Goodbye.

Goodbye.

Goodbye, Matt.

I think we actually got a green map for you if you want.

Oh, let's do that.

That's right.

Whole ground's moving.

Go ahead and let me know what everybody rolled.

Matt is coming up to his bedroom.

We got our desk to be quite a bit.

23.

I mean, yeah.

Okay.

Move his toys out of the way.

Hold on, let's go.

Speak under the bed.

We got a 23 over here.

A 23

from Phaedra.

What did we get from Arrow?

Eight.

Eight.

What did we get from Crocus?

11.

11.

What did we get from Nia?

Also, an 11.

How about that?

Hell yeah.

okay

um

and then we'll see did we know what Garin rolled?

I don't think he rolled.

He rolled cocoon, of course.

I think he may roll in a moment.

I like that we're watching Future turn into John Wagon.

Yeah.

All right, let's close beside you.

Hell yeah.

Great.

Three.

Here we go.

Great.

Boom.

Lovely.

A field is fun elevator.

Put out some scatter pieces.

There we go.

Just try to be helpful.

I love it.

As you were all gathered here, perfect.

I got into a fight by the big cup.

And again, it's pretty empty and open in these fields.

There's a lot of fire, right?

Yeah.

Hell yes.

You want to use any fire?

Go for it.

Thank you.

Your position has been spotted by a tiny little imp

flying out over the field.

Shit.

And immediately behind.

And what did you roll for initiative, Matt?

Oh, I rolled rolled

11.

11.

Three 11s.

We all got 11s on this.

Oh, hell yeah.

Three.

I'm not going to say.

Phaedra, you and you alone

got the jump on these devils that have appeared behind you.

You are first to act.

Okay.

Is there any way I can try to get down, like, cover between...

You see where that like little, there's like a little bit of a mini hill?

Yeah, yeah.

I'm going to like try and like get down for cover for that and just aim my crossbow at the one that's closest to me.

Hell yeah.

Go ahead.

Go ahead and give me your attack roll.

You have a plus two to your armor class.

I have plus two to my armor class?

Oh, because of the height.

Okay.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Um,

so to

that is a 16 to hit?

A 16 hits.

Yeah.

All right, which means I get to do

that's a six plus four

plus one d4 poison.

Hell yes.

And by the way, so you will not, you're not getting sneak attack on this.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's fine.

So it's, because it's pl it's 1d10 plus 1, right?

Because I get plus 1 bonus to attack and damage.

Cool.

Then plus 3 for dexterity.

Yeah.

So that's the plus 4 and then plus 1d4 poison.

Great.

How much is that total?

Need to roll the poison.

That's 13 total.

13 total.

Hell yes.

So you guys hear

behind you of these two advance party devils moving forward as fast as possible.

Um, uh, as they do so, uh, you see, uh, Phaedra whips around with this powerful heavy crossbow,

and hits one for 12 points of damage.

Uh, they are going to both leap

uh leap forward.

Um

uh

this one is gonna charge Phaedra.

This one is going to charge Gara.

No.

Ring.

Hell yeah.

This one is going to jump over,

wearing the symbol of the Lord of the Hells.

That is going to be a hit.

I'm going to need a Constitution saving throw from Phaedra.

Not a good one.

Oh, that wasn't a bad.

It was 17.

You are not poisoned as the barbs of its writhing beard lash out.

Slash you.

You do take seven points of damage.

I'm out.

You're down.

What?

You have seven hit points.

Seven hit points.

Okay, we're fine.

Slashes out with a glaive, boom,

and drops feature to the ground.

Leaping up here on the rock.

That is.

That is then going to be...

Where can you stand?

You're drunk.

You're drunk, man.

You got to go home.

Go home, Delta down, too.

This next one is going to attack Garin first.

What is your armor class now with a breastplate?

11.

I'm an old man.

Don't make me feel bad.

Give me a Constitution saving throw.

That's going to be an 8.

Do you have, as a dwarf, do you have resistance to poisons?

I do.

Oh, okay.

Or, yeah, so you have to have resistance against poison damage.

Do you have advantage on saving throws against poison?

You're right.

Yeah, I do.

That's better.

It's at 11.

11 still does not make it.

You do receive the poison condition.

You take five points of damage.

And the next attack is a miss.

That is their turn.

That is going to be Crocus.

Crocus, obviously seeing Phydra go down, just roars

and just...

runs beeline at that at that one devil

and jumps and is landing on his chest with all four, just like trying to take him down to the ground.

Hell yeah.

Go for it.

Give me your attack roll.

That is

22 to hit.

22 hits.

Go ahead and roll damage.

That is six points of slashing damage.

Okay, copy that.

And then as my bonus action, I will attack again.

Go for it.

And that's 20 hit.

20 hits.

And then that will

be

another six points of damage.

So I jump, land, and put all my claws into the chest of this thing.

And as we fall to the ground, I roll forward off of it to be on the other side of it.

And as I do, I slam my tail back down on top of it.

Hell yeah.

Hell yeah.

And then spin around to face it on the other side.

Whoops!

Hell yes.

And actually, Garin and Sophia and Crocos, you guys can go in any order you want.

That was just alphabetically what it gave me.

So

Nia, you can go, or Garin, you go.

You have the same initiative.

My instinct is to spare the dying, if that's possible.

You can.

You also have cure wounds, which could pop her right back up.

Oh, yeah, then I'll do, yeah, I'll cast it at a first level.

Or you could do healing word as a bonus action.

Or I could healing word as a bonus action.

I think I'm going to take an action and then use healing word as my bonus action.

With seven hit points, Healing Word made popper all the way back.

Yeah, I was going to say, like, how do you have that many max hit points?

Yeah.

Then

perfect.

For my action, I took one of the crossbows from our friend Gubbling.

I want to

get one of them.

Get the, whichever one is more wounded between the two.

Oh, yeah, the one that Crocus has just swung at is more wounded.

Go ahead and give me your attack roll.

I don't know what crossbow does, but 1d8 plus your decks damage-wise.

Um, but it's a 20 to go.

And then plus your dex, yeah.

Yeah, okay.

I don't know.

18 to hit, because I don't, I have no 18 hits, and then you have to.

1d10 plus your dex modifier.

1d10.

1d10.

Oh, sorry, this is a hand cross.

Yeah, this is a hand cross.

So 1d4 plus your dex modifier.

1d4

plus nothing.

That's one

so I get up I go

and I try and I hit the guy for one point of damage because my my uh uh the majority of my focus is to uh cast healing word on my friend so for it roll 1d4 and add your wisdom modifier 1d4

both goes whizzing

sorry grog

is stuck uh uh and then

that's another one gorgeous stunning uh but to make a four four points amazing that's about a half of my health back wonderful yeah

uh hell yes uh garin that's gonna be your turn all right the one that struck me uh it's in my face.

That one's unharmed, right?

Yes.

After taking the heavy hit, like,

locks me to one knee for a second.

I look down the hammer on the ground, and I go, I guess it's time to see if you're worth your weight.

I'm going to do a full-on back swing up towards the theme behind me.

Hell yeah, go for it.

I am.

Poison, sets of disadvantage.

Even so, that is going to be a 20-to-hit.

20 hits.

Go ahead and roll damage.

Alrighty.

So that'll be 18

And that'll be 10 points of blooding damage, I guess.

Doctor.

Hell yes.

Boom.

10.

You were...

Wow!

Connect with his chest.

Falls backwards.

Badly, badly injured.

Arrow.

That is going to be your turn.

Alright.

I see that Phydra has just been

brought back.

so that makes me prioritize Garin's situation.

I think he turns towards that foe, and he hoists up the old battered scimitar that he chose because it looks similar to what his mother used to wield, and then he lifts her actual shield, and his eyes glimmer for a second, and I cast Hunter's Mark as a bonus action.

And I begin to come around Garin with the blade drawn, and I'm going to just circle around and get into into a flanking position.

I should have enough movement to do that.

Yes,

oops, sorry, other way to opposite Garin's enemy.

This is so Garin swung back on this guy's.

Oh, did he?

He's like focus firing on this one guy up here.

Oh, okay.

But you can get flanking easily with

that.

Awesome.

Go ahead, roll with advantage.

That is a

that is a 16 to hit 16 hits.

Okay.

So.

7 for the sword and the hunter's mark is another 8.

So 8 points of damage.

8 points of damage.

Hell yes.

Liam, how do you want to do this?

He sees the thing lunging forward at Garin and before it can take another step the scimitar comes down at an angle and cleaves a whole horn and breaks off of its head and just lobe is exposed, and it

burns as it crumbles down onto the ground, flaming on the earth.

Hell yes.

As this writhing devil hits the deck,

having been laid low,

shield up in front of you, and you have that hunter's mark still because you can change the target to the next cool cool.

That is going to

go immediately after you.

Our nuts.

Seeing clerical magic being cast,

Imp is going to fly right for Rainia.

How very dare you?

Don't you even touch her?

I can't stand it.

I'm going to need a constitution-saving throw.

Okay.

I'm just going to fly through

something yummy,

I don't know.

A five.

A five.

You take seven points of piercing damage.

Round toes, round toes.

And then take another five points.

Cool, so Nia's down.

As this imp

sticks a stinger

into your back,

Nia collapses.

We have our nuts.

We have our healing nuts.

That's right.

You have your healing nuts.

Yeah, That's true.

You have 15 of them.

That's right.

Three.

Yes, yes.

Call me three nut gun.

This guy is going to advance

on Garin.

Yeah, let's go.

That is a miss, unbelievably, with an AC of 11.

That is impressive.

That is a hit, however.

That's fine.

I'm going to need a Constitution Saving throw.

You got it.

Uh, that's gonna be a 21.

21 is going to prevent you from a

wounding injury that would have dealt 1d10 damage at the beginning of every one of your turns.

You do not have that.

Uh, how many hit points do you have left?

Oh, five.

If this rolls a one, you stay up.

Let's go.

That's three.

Um, you drop to the ground RAAS!

This devil puts a glaive into your bag.

Boom.

Bad, bad.

Bad, bad, bad.

It's so bad.

It's so bad.

It's still dicey out here, gang.

There's been a lot of lovely scenes.

I have to remind you: the betrayers are down, but not out.

Hey, unicorns!

Oh, my God!

Nope.

That is going to be, um, that is going to be, uh, uh, oh, sorry, Phaedra.

That's actually your turn.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.

I get back up.

I am gonna

Fuck.

I see Nia down next to me, right?

Mm-hmm.

Is there, can I, will it do anything if I put one of the nuts in her mouth and just like

just try to like mash it in her mouth?

I'm just gonna try.

I forget, man.

Mash the nuts in her mouth.

I'm just gonna mash these nuts.

A deeply consensual thing happens, guys.

100%.

So with this happening in this moment,

do you,

I forget, is it a full action to administer a healing potion?

I mean, sometimes the gym, usually I say an action because it's you having to chew and swallow for the person, but whatever, you're vibing on it.

Okay, okay, okay.

I'll give you, I'll let you do it as a bonus action if you give me a DC-15 sleight of hand.

Oh,

let's see, let's see, let's see.

Um, that is it, 22.

22!

All right, over the back, 360 no scope, gonna toss a healing nut.

Nothing but nuts.

Nothing but nuts.

Okay, but not.

Now that's the t-shirt for this campaign.

Nothing but nuts.

That episode that they all were crying in, the t-shirt is nothing but nuts.

I'm trying to understand

why.

Nothing but this.

Oh, yes.

Incredible.

Then I am going to try and...

So it says that I can attempt to hide when obscured by a creature that is at least one size larger than you.

Yes.

Can I hide behind a crocus and then fire my crocodile?

Yes, I will absolutely have that.

I'm going to do that and I'm going to fire at that soldier.

Go ahead and roll with advantage.

Oh, cool.

All right.

That is a 20 to hit.

20 hits.

Go ahead, add your sneak attack damage.

Oh, sneak.

Nia, you awaken on the ground with something like a.

Was that macadamia?

Okay.

Some kind of magic as you go.

Which more is in that it breaks down as it enters your mouth that you are suddenly

and feel a sudden like for a moment it almost feels as though you have like roots growing out of your spine into the ground and are lifted up by the power of the earth propelling you forward.

It's an acquired test.

It's 16 piercing plus three poison.

Wow!

I love how deadly she is.

Yeah, you jump out.

You jump out from behind Crocus, and this devil who is standing gleefully over Garin, going,

and a crossbow bolt is stuck in his neck, 16 points of damage, stumbles backwards.

Incredible, Crocus, that is your turn.

Okay, how low is the imp in the air?

He's low enough that he he just stabbed Nia.

Okay, so, and

I'm gonna try something here.

Do it, do it.

I would like to run forwards, jump, grab the imp and try and impale it on the tip of the other

devil's spear.

Go ahead, give me an attack roll.

Dunk it on top of the spear.

Go ahead and give me an attack roll.

That's 10.

That would be a 17.

17 hits.

Okay.

Okay, that's

that's nine points of slashing damage.

Nine points of slashing damage.

Uh the imp is still up squirming on the end of the glaive.

You

and with my bonus action, I go and I just push it down farther.

I love it.

Go ahead and give me your attack roll.

Uh, that is a 22.

Uh, with one hit point left, you see!

And this little raggedy red scorpion-tailed imp is just dangling like a trophy from the end of its ally's spear.

I look at the devil and go, one left.

Incredible.

That's Crocus.

Nia, that is you.

How many hit points?

Garin is down.

Oh, right.

You, we should roll hit points for.

I think that's what, 3d4 or something like that?

For a standard?

The motion is 1d4 plus.

No, 2d4 plus 2.

2d4 plus 2.

Go ahead and roll 2d4 plus 2 for me.

For...

Jesus.

7 plus 2.

9, 9, 9.

Gorgeous.

Almost all the way back up.

And now that I am up and

Garn is down.

Garn is down.

I'm going to use my action to put one of the healing nuts that I have in because I'm not going to waste a spell slot.

I don't know how much we have left.

And I'm allergic.

But yeah, I'm going to use one of my healing nuts and bring my friend back to life.

I'm going to, and then very gently just chew, old man.

You just like nutcracker this old dwarf.

Yes.

There's a handle on his back.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

That's horrible.

That's a bit nutty.

He's a bit nutty.

The power of the nut.

Garin, you go ahead and roll 2d4.

That's 2 plus 2 plus 2.

That's 6.

6 gets like 3.

Thank you.

But you also, that's your action.

I have bonus action.

Do you have any bonus actions?

Let's see what I can do as a bonus action.

Healing word, but...

But I've already done...

I only have one spell slot left.

I have...

It's a bonus action tab.

Apparently it's...

Oh, bonus action tab.

All I have is two weapon fighting or a healing word.

Those you two.

I guess I'll do two weapon fighting.

I'm not sure.

Do you have two weapons?

I have the daggers.

I have my two.

Yeah, I'll take my two daggers.

And when you take an action,

you can make one extra attack as a bonus action later on the same turn.

Oh, it's but if I take an attack, no, never mind.

Gotcha.

So Garn, it is your turn.

It is my turn.

All right.

So I'm on the ground.

God.

God, it's a bit for me.

You know,

about to say thank you before I realize that the devil creature is like kind of standing over me at this point.

Yeah.

I'm not worried about it.

Yeah, don't worry, I'll deal with it.

Exactly.

Seen enough in recent weeks.

But if you're still around or looking down, I could really use a bit of guidance and try and swing upward with the hammer to see if I can slam it pelvically with the might of the all-hammers

weapon.

Let's go, baby.

Now, uh, I'm on the ground, so technically it would be disadvantaged, but I'll say I'll use half my movement of getting up as I'm swinging the hammer upward to just a regular attack.

Am I still poisoned?

Um, are you still poisoned after you're incapacitated?

That's an interesting question.

I'll say no.

Okay, very well.

The nut heal you, nothing about it.

That's gonna be.

What else?

Yeah.

15?

15 hits.

15 hits.

Sorry, cool.

Let's go.

Four.

Eight plus five.

Eight points of damage.

Uh, thundering upwards,

you find that the one in your mouth is not the only magical nut on this battlefield.

And with a sickening crunch,

this devil drops to one knee, his eyes crossed.

You,

you,

Garden, that is your turn.

Nia, you've gone.

Arrow, you watch this old dwarf thunder up out of unconsciousness and utterly humiliate the devil in front of him.

The all-hammer guiding your hand to strike true.

Show us the devil's open.

As the devil's like hunching over, I kind of look at his face and be like, see, it's what I do.

I like to chisel away at things that need to be reshaped.

Arrows, golden eyes flicker over to the devil,

bent low in front of Garin, and the hunter's mark transfers there.

I go running.

on an arch this way and I plant the shield into that tree stump like a

um oh what is it um

what is this oh like a gondola skiff.

No, no, no.

The Olympics

towards pole vault.

Like a pole vault and lifts himself into the air.

So one arm down on the shield as the scimitar flashes in the sun.

And I strike down as I land.

That hits.

That is a 18 to hit.

Hell yeah.

So 4 plus 1 is 5 plus the hunter's mark.

7 total.

7 total.

Hell yeah.

You slash into him.

You and Garin side by side facing off against this devil.

Uh, he sees you strike out at him and is not having it.

He's gonna take his swings on you.

What's your armor class right now?

It is 13.

13, hell yeah.

First attack, that is a hit.

Go ahead and be a constitution saving throw.

Natural 20.

Oh, Doctor!

There it is.

Amazing.

Welcome back, gang.

You take

five points of damage.

As you do so, he's gonna take his second attack on you.

Hold on one second, two.

Hell yeah.

On his second attack, he misses.

And I think in this moment, having vaulted over it but still having the shield in your hand, you feel something call out to you in this moment.

And

this devil standing before you as he misses this attack, some thundering voice from some distant place

calls out, maybe it's your

mother or your father going

when the enemy has told you that he will see to the destruction of all that you hold dear,

and he presents you with advantage, never let it go to waste.

He misses the attack, your shield enters the awakened state.

And

your shield enters the awakened state, which means whenever a creature against the wielder misses, they can use their reaction to immediately attempt to make a shove attack against that creature.

Great.

I will

wrench my shield free of the tree stump,

hearing my parents' voice echoing down through the decades and swing it.

So that the top of it rams into this guy and I'm going to attempt to smash him tumbling toward Crocus.

Hell yeah.

Go ahead and give me an attack roll.

And because it's a shove attack, you're just trying to beat a seven here.

That is a 22.

22.

That'll beat 7.

That'll beat a 7.

You send him sprawling towards Crocus, and you also deal 2d6 force damage as you do that.

Five total.

Boom.

The shield smashes into him, sending him tumbling prone right in front of Crocus.

That's the end of his turn.

Crocus, you are next to go.

Oh, no.

Oh, sorry, for you, yes.

Okay, cool.

Phydra, that's you.

Did I not get up on my last turn?

Or like, am I still prone?

No, you're not.

I guess I did.

Okay.

It doesn't super matter.

I am going to, yeah.

Once again, kind of falling behind Crocus.

I'm just going to hit this guy with my fucking crossbow again.

Go for it.

Go ahead and give me an attack roll.

Like a bat.

Just hit him with it.

That's a nine.

I think I miss.

You fire into the ground, boom, and thuds as he rolls to the side out of the way, screaming out towards the other devils on the plane farther away to come here because they have found some quartz.

As fast as he can.

Now, Crocus, it is your turn.

So Crocus is just going to take his claws and just reach, as he's yelling, is just going to basically put the claws through the mouth into the back of the throat to stop him from screaming.

Hell yeah.

If he's prone, do you have advantage?

Yes, you do have advantage because he's prone.

That would be 24 to hit.

That is a hit.

Go ahead and roll damage.

That is five, six, seven points of slashing damage as I go shh, and I just stick my hand into his mouth.

I'll use my bonus.

I can just go and just rip down.

Go ahead and give me another attack roll with advantage.

Great.

16.

Yeah, that's well over 20.

Hell yeah.

Go ahead and give me damage.

Five, six, seven.

Eight points of slashing damage.

Eight points of damage.

This devil looks on death's doors.

You rip his tongue out of his head.

Screaming.

Nia,

that is your turn.

Um, um,

uh,

okay.

Uh, what what time of day is it, do you think?

I think it's uh getting closer towards dusk.

Okay, it's clawburn time.

I'm just trying to decide if I uh want to use my last spell slot in this moment.

I don't know what we're gonna do next.

I'm not going to do that, just in case.

Um, I'm gonna just go at him with uh uh

my hand crossbow again.

Go for it.

On death's door, you said.

Yeah.

Um,

let's see.

You were being nice to me.

Okay.

Um, that is a 13.

Wait, do I add anything to this?

Oh, I don't add decks.

I have nothing to add.

13?

13 hits.

Wonderful.

And it's a

D4?

D4.

Okay.

That's a three.

Three points of damage.

He is looking so

close.

Oh, well,

I didn't attack.

I'm going to use my bonus action to do my two-weapon fighting.

Okay, sure.

Yeah, because I attacked once.

yeah uh and so i take my two daggers and i i think i'm just gonna i don't want to get close to him uh so i'm just gonna like throw throw yeah go for it go ahead and get and attack with your dagger um give me your attack roll oh right

six six

Twang!

You see the arrow goes and thuds into the ground next to him as he keeps rolling, his blood gushing out of his mouth as he attempts to scramble to his feet to return to the devils back on the field beyond him in the burning plane.

You deal damage to him.

He looks tattered to shreds.

I think everyone in the party has gotten a hit on him at this point.

Garin, you are the next act.

It is your turn.

Oh man.

I think as he's rolling around trying to like shift and move out of the way, he's stopped in place as a massive dwarven boot presses onto his throat and just kind of grabs the hammer in the one hand, taps it with his cap, and goes,

Calling this shot.

He's going to try and bring it down on top like he's

trying to win a prize at the carnival.

And that's going to be a 25 to hit.

Go ahead and roll damage.

Ooh, that's going to be 11 points of damage.

Man, how do you want to do this?

I'll say, like,

with the smear of blood, of fiendish blood out of its mouth, a panic in its eyes, he remembers similar cruelty of beings like this that have constantly whipped and gashed and punished him, sent endless, briefly appreciated allies in the pits who then disappeared three days later, never to be seen again.

And all that trauma and all that anger that he's kept inside, quietly holding on to for years, decades, even, all just kind of brims to a point.

And he quietly yells.

The need to just let all of that fury out is

more than his voice can carry, and he just

smashed down in a heavy crack.

The stone kind of

cracking beneath where the edge of where the base of the stump was.

Boom!

Scatter of devil's blood.

And you all see around you

that wreath of flame.

Badly injured, all standing.

Is everybody okay?

Yeah, but he was calling to his friends.

Did he get that scare though?

He screamed, but as you went to the top to behold those unicorns, you see that a group of about six or seven devils rushing in this scouting party after you turns to look and gleaming silvery manes, sparkling hooves,

long horns with which blood that touches their horns evaporates in the moment it is exposed to air.

About 20 unicorns run down these six devils,

tossing them hither and yon through the air like child's play.

What's that?

It's from legend.

It's what darkness says about the unicorns.

The unicorns have taken that personally and are seeing to change.

I would domesticate a unicorn.

One of the, yeah, you see one of the devils right before he dies goes, murder.

God!

I get the point, Lord.

And all of you witness here

that the devils sort of vanishing.

You look in front of you, fire spreading,

but all of them fleeing in this vast host.

And as they flee, you see the tide truly turns up above you in the clouds suddenly.

Distantly,

griffins begin to just pour out of the clouds, descending on the devils from on high.

And

there amongst the unicorns, you see sort of

appearing, these

elven warriors appear, bearing the symbol of the archheart far distantly,

moving as if from shadows to join these unicorns fighting on the field before them.

The devils fall before you, and trotting up, you see,

shaking its mane, the last of this iker evaporating from the horn.

An

eternal sylvan being regards you and goes,

Travelers,

Are you alright?

We have been worse for where?

You are injured, some of you.

And you see that the unicorns gather around you.

There is something,

as has happened many times over the journey you have taken, a kind of

sense of the extravagance of this moment.

It should be enough for one mortal to see a unicorn distantly in a glade one time,

and instead a group of two dozen surround you, some touching their horns to you.

You go to pet and he goes full horse girl.

Full horse girl.

So, so

Crocus is kind of just like backing up a little bit, like he doesn't like horses.

It's okay.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Turn to Arab, like, no one's gonna ever believe

I am

Lumia, servant of the Archheart.

We have come here to drive the devils from these lands, to lay them low.

It seems now their will is broken.

And turning to the thousands that are still left, you see...

Fiery, glowing glyphs of the Lord of the Hells begin to appear as these devils begin to willingly flee the mortal realm, returning to the pit, which is their rightful place.

Good choice.

I am sorry that you were harried and harmed in these fields.

Who fears your lord and father?

He is well.

You see that the heads of these majestic creatures lower lower for a moment

and a tear begins to assemble at the corner of one of their eyes.

Says,

I believe we have beheld him for the very last time.

Nia nods,

understanding their grief.

I do not think it is right that beautiful things should leave the world.

It is not given to me to question,

but I cannot be stopped from mourning.

I could not agree more.

It's our turn to make the beautiful things happen here now.

Here, here, to that.

And magic remains.

Magic remains

left to the hands

of those blessed with its wielding.

Do you require aid?

Our business takes us further south, but we would not see you, left to your own, if you are in peril or in danger.

Do you know if any more danger lies to the west?

We cannot say.

The events that have come to pass are strange indeed.

Many of the brethren of our Lord have fallen or vanished.

Others still must protect the Dawn City.

However, we believe the tide is turning.

Only two

of the foul betrayers yet stride

our world.

Their defeat will come soon enough, and with it,

a sunlit world of plenty and of beauty.

On the topic of tide and dawn city,

does the city still stand?

Ever does the dawn city stand?

And

you wouldn't happen to know

a place or a way to cross the tide to it.

Ancient to the west of here, from a time long since past,

there lies a road

flecked with white stone

and

veins of shimmering mica.

It has been much overtaken by grass, but one skilled in finding stones will see evidence of that road.

We believe at the road's end there should be a harbor of some kind.

Though of sailing ships, we do not know if there will be any therein docked already.

But those who know of ships do dwell there.

Let's find ourselves a path.

Thanks.

Um,

Nia

seeing our we're still pretty injured.

I think she asks, do you have any healing you could possibly impart on us?

You see, one lowers itself and a tear pooled by its eye heals you to full hit points.

Can y'all, can you could you cry on my friends too, please?

Cry on my friends.

I will cry as much as I am asked.

You should have to pay good money for them.

You are healed here before

this

vast

herd of unicorns continues to the south moving across the plains.

Can I keep going, please?

No room for a unicorn.

No, I know that.

Cellular.

Hey, you know,

I can't stop you from rolling a persuasion check.

It's up to you.

Let's roll four persuasion checks.

No, I'll do my good one.

She likes tries to find the moon in her mind and is like, please.

Seven!

What do you say to the unicorns as they depart?

I love you.

Just

Ni's gone through a lot today.

I think she's feeling a little hysterical.

I think she's like, she knows Celestial.

I think she's just like murmuring in Celestial to this unicorn how much she loves it.

It responds to you in Celestial.

Oh,

I love you.

I love you as well.

You walk in the light

of one who is no longer in this realm.

And yet,

again, clocking the moon in her mind,

ever-present.

a day may come when people don't see unicorns either

i hope they believe in us still

i think i can help with that

rears up

charges to the south with its companions

um and hysterical and i'm wet what's that

i'm hysterical and i'm wet

um

uh

uh you guys continue to the west go ahead and give me a um

perception check looking for these stones.

For the record, as we but a moment after the final unicorn steps away, Garin kind of

so

we just talked to unicorns.

Yeah, I was crazy.

She talked to me unicorn, told me she loved me.

I am loved by unicorns and by the moon.

Wonderful!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Somewhere a spirit is going, act like you've been here before.

Yeah,

the beautiful herd charges away.

What did we get?

15.

15.

Moving to the west, you do begin to find amongst the heather and sort of coarse sage brush, there are these little bits of what would have been like a gravel stone, some ancient Arcanum empire with the ability to like

pave an entire road in like white and gold flecked stone rushing across the landscape.

Now the road has totally been overtaken by the sort of rubble and now vegetation that comes up in this place, but you do begin to find them

and the road thus gifted to you by one of these unicorns proves much safer than traveling across the wide and highly visible plains.

It hugs a little bit more secret spaces as you travel in this way.

After long

traveling,

you realize that

the stones are becoming harder and harder to find.

You might be getting towards sort of where

the the road naturally ended.

The climate changes a little bit here.

But you do see that there is a small village nearby, sort of a natural gathering place.

And I think at this place, we've passed out of where Arrow's sort of like wanderings have taken him before.

But you look and see out in the sagebrush, there are a couple strange little like windmill contraptions and buckets underneath funnels to collect rainwater.

A living village, not ruins.

A living village, not ruins.

It looks like the village has maybe, you would say been abandoned and has started to be reclaimed because you see that the buildings are all human size, but it's mostly gnomes and halflings who are here right now.

So it looks like a place abandoned during chaos and now in the past.

And you've been traveling now for almost two.

So it's been coming up on like two and a half to three weeks since whatever happened in Rybad Coal.

So you see a couple little survivors.

As you guys come over the hill, you see

wearing a wide-brimmed hat with a little jerkin is an old bearded gnomish man coming up to collect buckets of rainwater as you sort of pop over

a little hill.

You haven't been finding any of the stones recently.

See, he goes,

We surrender.

We mean you no harm.

Not like that.

Oh.

Yeah.

Well,

what's the name of this place?

I don't know.

It's just by the road's end.

There's an old road right here, but.

By road's end?

I don't know.

Okay.

Oh, wow.

We've been looking for a road with Whitestone and Micah, have you seen yes, yes.

I don't know who built it.

It's been covered up by grass and rubble for quite a long time, but we followed it here.

There was some uh some shining spirits who who came by.

We were hiding out uh uh farther to the north amongst these

by the pools.

We have homes that we build, kind of like beavers in these dams, but it's wet and bad living.

So we wanted to leave as soon as we could.

And then the sun came out.

It was like the prophecy said, but we never believed believed it.

We come from the east ourselves.

Pretty bad.

Huh?

Pretty bad out that way, huh?

That is weird.

Oh, certainly.

Oh, I'm Armley.

Armley.

Armley, nice to meet you, Armley.

Hello.

Um, yes, uh, we don't know the name of this villa.

We we arrived.

If the if the rightful owners come back, we'll vacate immediately.

But the buildings seem to be

to, you know.

I think we're in an era of uh shedding spaces for survival, if need be.

So maybe talk before you vacate.

Oh, all right.

Well, we aren't the rightful owners.

Aha.

Well, when the sun comes up for the first time, in living memory, I suppose it's time to not dwell on who owns water, who's where, or what, how anything happens, but just to be grateful.

Would you like some rainwater?

I love some rainwater, yeah.

Would you like some nuts?

Some magic nuts?

What do you say?

Oh, real magic nuts.

And you see that he...

My goodness!

An incredible kindness.

Thank you.

Things are real freaky in this house.

Real freaky.

He goes.

I've known where I've had coal for a long time.

You see that he goes, yes, well, thank you for the kindness.

Our community here can definitely use them.

Thank you very much.

You're welcome to stay if you're looking for a place to live.

Do you want to live here for the rest of your life?

We all do.

I don't know about the rest of our lives, but we were hoping to maybe set down here for a night.

A night?

Well, that's very doable.

We'd also heard rumors about a port nearby, probably abandoned one, but oh, how close we are to the sea?

Yes, yes, those of us who lived up by the lakes up north, there are some boatmen in the village, even some who've worked on ships before.

Really?

Resisting?

Yes, yes, absolutely.

Okay, huh.

How far north is is this, or from here?

Not too far, two or three days travel.

You said lakes, though, not by the...

not by the sea.

We're mostly lake folk, but we have some folk that have sailed more up up f farther farther afield.

North of the pools there are some narrows, and there should be deep water ships in a harbor up by there.

Well, that's a place to start.

That works.

works.

Stay for a night and then head that way.

See any unicorns around?

Sorry, it's just a joke.

Ah, no.

Why, have there been some?

No.

Hundreds.

A hundred unicorns.

Get a load of this guy.

Told you.

We saw him where we found those magic nuts.

But the magic nuts are real, right?

Sure.

Only one way to find out.

Well, all right.

Um, you see, uh, he says, are you

says, there are some here that

uh

have been staying with us for a time, but

know their way up to the narrows.

Be happy to to send them your way.

Um,

if I think some if are you looking to make a voyage?

I think so.

We are looking to cross the sea, if you can believe it.

Wonders never cease.

I can't believe it.

Well, why?

What's on the other side of the sea?

The dawn.

I'll see if anyone knows how to build a ship.

You see,

he sort of wanders off back towards the town.

And you just see, yeah, this little village of survivalists and scavengers and stragglers all kind of making do

in this little village by the road's end.

You

move from this place down towards the village.

You get some happy greetings from people nearby.

And I think for the first time,

the clouds well and truly part.

And

all of you are bathed in the warm glow of pure afternoon sunlight as it fades into the west.

Walking up to you,

you see that there is

what looks at first like he might be a

half-elf, but actually you see that he has sort of like dark skin that has like almost a blue or aqua tint as it goes down towards his hands.

And his hands have like a little bit of webbing underneath them,

almost as though he had some lineage far off from the sea, like part Merfolk or something of that nature.

He walks up to you all, and he's sort of humanoid, like a human height,

walks up and goes,

greetings.

I understand that you've met our de facto mayor, Mr.

Armley.

Didn't know he was the mayor.

Well, we didn't know either, but he kind of holds himself as such.

I'm.

I'm Tristan.

It's a pleasure to meet you all.

Tristan, pleasure's ours.

Nice to meet you.

He does have the gift for Gab, that one.

Very much so.

I've been

surviving in the lakes with them for quite some time,

but

I understand you're looking for a deep water harbor.

I know it's been done.

The seas are still very dangerous, but

it is possible.

I know the armies of the gods have come across in ships.

There was a rumor of

white-keeled vessels with silver sails moving along the coast towards the south.

You looked across the ocean

to

sail where, if I may ask,

Isura,

we are making our way to Vasili.

I made the journey from that place long ago, and I'm looking to

bring my friends here

to visit home

the Dawn City

The last time I was on a sailing

it fell beneath the waves

because my mother and father believed above all else that it was possible to reach the Dawn City.

I survived and they did not.

I will take you to where our ship sets sail.

There may be no ship there at this point, but

it is the best of any hope.

A place where at least

a great sailing vessel could harbor safely.

We brought a great deal of hope with us.

Hopefully, it will be enough.

It's taken us pretty far before.

Very well.

No longer needing to live in hiding, I've been searching for something to do other than

play checkers with Armley.

So

I will be happy to escort you at least that far.

We'll make it one of your time.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You see, this young man packs his bags

and

begins to uh lead you guys out of the town here should we rest here for a night yeah you guys can rest here for a night do we like the idea of taking a long rest and then heading back up

i seem safe yeah yeah we'll leave

first light tomorrow yeah

um

uh you guys get your long rest

The night unfolds.

You bid farewell to Armley.

You journey north for many days and we move through time as you eventually arrive at the narrows far to the north of this land.

The lands you now walk in require no

survival checks.

Your wandering skills

cover you easily and there are no roles for danger.

The forces of the prime deities have moved through here.

You see

lands that were choking under ash now feel the light of the sun for the first time.

Sprouts,

fresh and tender leaves everywhere.

Arriving at deep water,

you make your camp and

Tristan, standing with you, looks out and you see

scattered weapons.

here and there a few bones peeking out from under armor.

Some pitched battle that occurred here a long time ago.

No sign of a deep water ship here in the harbor.

Uh as you make camp,

uh

Tristan says,

This is the harbor.

Um

It.

Perhaps

we could wait here for one to come.

Looking at what has transpired here, I don't know the circumstances that last a ship came to this harbor, but uh this at least is water capable of bearing a great ship.

So

up to you.

Look, Tairo, I can't imagine there is much to be done

until

a ship arrives, or

I just

we know where we want to go, we just have to figure out a way to get there.

And

might have to consider moving up the coast,

maybe,

and someday finding

passage

Garin

We've

gone quite far west.

I think

maybe we try a new direction.

I can certainly

tumble along the coasts, keep an eye out for any possible sea vessels, and maybe look to build a large enough

bonfire smoke

to get our attention.

I don't know how these naval things work.

This is my first time seeing the Osmet, to be honest.

I'm still kind of sipping it in.

I've never seen this much water in my life.

But hey, north, I'd like to go eventually.

Okay.

As you all consider

what to do, like arriving here at this place,

knowing that it's possible that something could come here, some voyaging thing.

But again, I think Garin's point is true.

There are many sailing vessels that ferry goods between the cities of the betrayer kingdoms and their navies and things like that, but most of the world has fallen into chaos and calamity.

That night,

I think as you're resting after a long day of travel, figuring out what you're going to do next,

Phytra,

you're sort of getting ready to scoot down to bed as well.

And you're looking at your key that you got.

Its magic is profound and

you've seen like Arrow awaken

deeper power in that shield of his

I think as you're looking at it you hear

a

voice of some kind going,

hello?

I whisper into the key.

Hello?

Can you hear me?

Hello, Key.

Can you hear me?

Yeah,

who are you?

Key key?

The key?

I'm a key.

You can talk?

Yeah, you can talk.

Why can't I talk?

That's fair, I guess.

Never really considered that.

What are you.

Well, what are you talking to me for?

I th

I'm supposed to open stuff.

Doors?

Yeah.

You open a door because people are trying to get somewhere, right?

Yeah, pretty much.

Huh.

Okay.

I don't really know much about me.

Except

I want to do what I'm for.

Is that normal to feel like that?

I think so.

Just.

What are you for?

Huh?

That's a really good question that I thought I knew the answer to up until about two to three weeks ago.

But

I don't know.

Maybe it is the same answer.

I'm here to

look after my

look after my friends.

Oh, to protect them.

They need looking after?

Yeah.

It's a.

I don't know about if you've noticed, Key, but it's a fucked up world out here.

I don't have eyes or ears or a face.

That's so true.

But I do have teeth.

Hello.

Key humor.

I'm very good.

This is how we lose the world.

Are there any doors near me?

Are there any doors near me in the world?

Like, just in my immediate surroundings?

Oh, there are some doors.

Yeah, I can tell.

Yeah, and you see the ruby begins to glow with a kind of warm light and goes,

okay.

are you okay did that hurt you

yes but it's okay okay

yeah there's a door near me it's moving do you want a moving door what do you mean a moving

a mo which direction where it's sort of moving well it's moving

southy southish

uh but it's also kind of moving up no it's moving down no it's moving up no it's moving down moving up moving down it's moving up close to here or far away?

Uh

not too far away.

It's the it's like the closest door to near here.

Why is it moving up and down like that?

Oh,

it's in a thing.

It's in a thing.

It's in like a big thing, like a building.

Possibly, but it's moving.

Yeah, it's like on?

It's like a building that's popping up and down.

Is it on water?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh my god.

Is anyone else awake at this point?

Would anyone else be awake at this point?

No, I'm just like.

It's late, late in the middle of the night from

the middle.

Okay, yeah, okay.

I wake up, I wake up Nia.

Nia.

Yes, yes.

This is gonna sound crazy, but hopefully not as...

About as crazy as everything else that has happened.

My sister's a god.

Nothing's crazy.

God.

Well,

this key just talked to me.

And it says that there's something coming on the water like a door inside a big building.

I think we might be getting our shit.

Can Nia talk to the key?

Um, I think that you see that you only you can hear the key right now.

Yeah, you see, the key goes,

Wait, are you are you telling people my key secrets?

How is that your secret?

It's it's not

just a thing out there.

I'm not just an object

to be handed around.

Key, okay.

I am sorry.

All right.

I'm sorry.

Do we have to do this right now?

Well, when's it?

It's never a good time with you.

Oh my god.

I'm just like talking to this thing.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay.

You know what?

Thank you.

Thank you for your help.

I appreciate it.

I'm sorry.

Wait, wait, wait.

Do you want

do you need

the door door to come closer here?

Yes.

My friends and I do.

We've been waiting for this boat to come.

We didn't even know if it would come.

Honestly, yeah.

Yeah, it's not headed here now, but if you if you want I can because I've I open doors.

It's what I do.

Yeah

if you want me to I could try to

talk to the doors tell the door to tell the ship to tell the whatever to come here.

Yeah.

If you could do that, that would be amazing.

Wait, but you have to do, sorry, Phaedra.

Okay, so I can't hear the key.

Yes.

What?

All right.

Let.

Oh, he's going to talk to the boat.

The key is going to talk to the boat.

All right.

If I'm going to do it, it has to, this has to be formal.

It has to be buttoned up.

Okay.

It has to be above board.

Okay.

Please formally state, dear key, I wish for you to talk to the door to tell the boat to come here.

Dear Key, I formally wish for the key to talk to the door to talk to the boat to come here.

Thank you for being very formal.

Your wish is granted.

And you see red light pour out of the ruby in the center of the key.

All of you wake up, see light shoot out across the deep water harbor, shoot out across the narrows,

towards the west.

It's okay.

It's okay.

Long story.

But my key just talked to a boat.

There's a boat coming.

I wish I was still dumb.

Oh, that's good.

So, if, I mean, unless this key's fucking with us,

there's a ship coming.

Uh,

if you think I'm fucking with you, why don't you just wait till tomorrow?

You just wait till tomorrow.

Tomorrow, apparently.

No, I'm, Ki, I'm sorry.

Listen, it's been a long two and a half weeks.

But I shouldn't have taken that on you.

I am.

I'm listening and learning.

Hey, I accept your apology, and you don't have to believe me.

The proof will be in the pudding.

And a big bowl of pudding is sailing right here.

And you're all going to get as much pudding as you can handle tomorrow.

Okay.

That sounds great.

Get ready.

You are such a strange key.

Thank you for your help.

Tell all your friends to get ready for pudding.

Okay.

Like now, now you want me to tell them now?

Please.

Okay.

Um, guys, the key says to get ready for pudding.

You have to explain that it was in the context of a metaphor.

Well, okay, you didn't say that.

No, okay.

It was a metaphor.

This key is very clever.

I'm not doing it justice, but the

I, yes.

I'm going back to bed.

I can't fight these things anymore.

Yeah.

Uh

Mia's up now, uh, trying to figure out

just watching Phaedra, making sure that, like, this key doesn't drive her absolutely insane.

It's starting to drive her.

Yeah, she's like, there's pudding coming tomorrow in the size of a door.

Some vestresses are granted as gifts through family lines.

Others are more like a fruit cake at Christmas.

Oh my gosh.

I know.

I have to go to the house.

It's wonderful.

You're going to love it.

The next morning you awaken

through the fog

on

a day of sunlight that in the years to come will be more and more common.

For those of you here in the world of Xandria,

you see

sailing out of the fog,

white sails,

the glittering gunnels of a tall ship,

pennants flapping in the wind,

headed towards the pier in the early morning light.

Tristan, your companion, arises looking in amazement.

And as the ship arrives at the harbor,

walking

off of the harbor or sir walking down the gangplank towards the dock

you see a figure

announce himself

I am Grinalen

warrior of Vasselheim

And you behold a friend of your parents.

Old.

Old, old friend.

This old human warrior steps off and says,

We have been sent with the fleet, all ships of Assilra sent to the coast of Guisar to find survivors.

The seas are calm for the first time in an age.

Are there any here?

They require aid!

Aid!

Aid!

Out through the woods as gulls take off over the wing.

Oh, step forward.

Boy!

You see, he gives you a big hug.

My boy!

Oh!

Look!

You're your mother!

Skull!

No, it's alright.

It's been many decades.

They're alive.

Oh my goodness.

We received

the sailor in the crow's nest.

Saw a vision as they sing, saw a red light across the harbor.

We took it as a beacon for aid.

A lot is changing fast.

Have you heard word of

the gods?

The gods?

Oral in the dawn city.

now speak of the gods.

The victory is at hand.

The victory is close at hand.

The betrayers were four.

You can tell.

Clear skies have been seen.

Centuries.

They will be victorious and they will live amongst us.

Side by side.

Partially true.

Yeah.

Uh.

Nia steps forward.

And um.

I've communed

with

a god the Moonweaver

They will watch us

from afar

they will see us

We will not feel their magic as we once did

But they are not entirely gone

They're drawing away Granolan

What would we do without them?

We will do as we have done.

Figure it out.

All is not lost.

All is not lost.

Great things have happened.

They will continue to happen.

We just...

now must lean on each other in a way that

we may not have had to before.

The gods have cast long shadows

in their warring.

But now there's more sun.

You have spoken with the Moonweaver.

Nia pulls out her, um

pulls out Luz's holy symbol and the book and says

I believe I am charged

to tell people

of

the Moonweaver's tale.

It is

I have something of hers that I am looking forward to sharing with the rest of the world.

Then we must to Asilra at once.

To the Dawn City.

If you would come with us,

we must go and inform them.

Though I dare not think

what will befall their hearts if your message is

and he looks at you to even suggest that your message is not true, betrays the conviction that he sees within your eyes.

Moonlight flickers in my eyes a little bit.

Bitter triumph.

Mournful victory.

Come.

There is food and drink.

Beds in which to sleep.

The dawn city awaits.

Okay, here we go.

As they move down the boat and the gangplank, uh

Arrow asks as we fade out.

This is a strange question, but you don't have any pudding on your ship, do you?

You're

not gonna believe this.

No, we have no pudding.

What are you talking about?

No pudding whatsoever.

I just need to

need

it.

I was just gonna say, as we're kind of stepping towards the ship, Garn kind of looks at it and nods a bit and goes.

It's been a hell of a walk, hasn't it?

Yeah.

Come with us.

I got one more journey in me.

Yes.

And I.

I need to see what's left at the Cliff Keep.

I lost everything there

a hundred years ago and

I don't know if I have the strength in me to find my way back.

You do.

If it's not within you.

I know you do.

I'm so tired, and these years are weighing on me more than ever.

Something is holding.

We five together now.

Go a little further.

And I will get you the rest of the way.

I'm also scared to be on a ship.

It's a shit.

I don't like this.

I've never seen the image before.

Puts his arm behind Croak, puts his arm and the two of them like

slowly step onto the ship.

Get halfway across the game plank and and like looks back at Arrows.

Like, 300 pounds.

What?

This has gotta be a star.

200 pounds.

As you step up the gangplank, a little key in your pocket says, told you there'd be pudding.

I can't even be mad at you, Key.

Thank you.

Did your friend want real pudding?

I

mean, nah, I think he was just messing with the captain.

Don't worry about it.

You can't, like.

All he has to do is ask for it.

Pretty please.

I don't think...

I can't insight check this key, right?

Yeah, it can be an insight check.

Okay.

Uh, 13.

13.

Um, uh, this key is hard to read because it doesn't have a face.

It only has to be.

Listen, I don't doubt, I don't doubt your power to open doors.

I'm a little suspicious of your ability to procure pudding, but nonetheless, thank you very, very, very I haven't checked, but I have to assume that there is a door behind which there's so much pudding.

Then we'll find it together.

You and me, Key.

You and me!

You walk forward onto the ship, which begins to sail across the sea to Assilra.

And when next we meet, it will be at the gates of the Dawn City.

That's all for this episode of Xandria Unlimited Divergence.

Tune in next week for our final episode.

I'm going to throw up.

Is it Thursday yet?

Don't answer the question.

Is it Thursday yet?

This is Liam O'Brien with a hearty thank you for joining us on this episode of Xandria Unlimited on the Critical Role Podcast Network.

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There are unlimited stories to be told, and we can't wait to keep telling them.

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