Edge of Midnight | Ep. 18 | Revelations
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Welcome to Legends of Aventress. I'm Lethika Nightborne, and you're listening to the mysterious Edge of Midnight. Let me show you what happened last time. You must speak the name of the one who has your soul. The Dark Lady. The Lady of Loss. Shar. My pal, Virgil. You look around and nothing happens.

I gave my soul to the beast of blight, to Gorthos, the blighted one. I know her as the Red Duchess. Just know, I'm sorry for what you're about to see, the Maiden of the Mists. Something is not right. An old woman peers at you with deeply sunken eyes past a pointed nose. At last, my sacrifice. Give me back my soul.

You've made it so far already and learned so much, but you are still so very blind. All will be reborn in light. You see the shaggy-haired, twisted horn, red-eyed face of a colossal black goat as it lets out a fiendish, bellowing bleat that shakes you to the core of your souls, dark gifts and all.

Every good story needs a proper villain, at least in the humble opinion of this wayward vagrant. I've never been the type of those avant-garde metaphorical stories where there's no good and no evil and the villain is some abstract concept. Doesn't appeal to me. Besides, if there's one thing I know in this life and the next and all those to follow, evil does exist. And it's here, in Druskin Vault, everywhere.

But no more strongly than here, right in front of our band of strangers who are just trying to do a bit of good in the face of this overwhelming evil. If I was them, I'd be shaking in my slimy, hole-filled boots. You are standing in this outcropping in what had been the forest that had been trying to

inch edge ever closer to you as you were protected by the ritual that you had done the connection with the higher powers that own bits of your souls and he was able to keep it out for a time

But upon the ending of visiting the memories that resided within your grip, you were not brought back to that place, that safe spot that you had found, but instead to this glade here, where the trees with their gnarled arms look like they're almost in the midst of a scream as they reach out for help all towards you in the darkness of the night.

And standing in front of you is a woman that none of you have ever met, but you all know upon seeing her immediately and hearing her voice exactly who this is. Over her, almost shrouding her in darkness, is the, what had felt like for a while, a myth. This giant black goat with piercing red eyes.

And it makes very little sound, but it guards over her almost as if it's protecting of her, protective of her. Its eyes dart back and forth between all of you and Flora. And that's what draws your attention. Flora, almost frozen, shaking, horrified, scared. Her ears completely drooped over. She looks up at this image in front of you as this woman, Mother Midnight, speaks out to you.

And she finishes her villain's monologue and looks between all of you. I think that it is time we had a chat. Between all of us, here in my land, this is a place my tendrils reach. No matter where you go, I will find you. Always. My babies. My sacrifice. Where exactly are we?

In the land of Druskinbold, of course. I meant more presently, but... I'll pull up my... my gun. Oh yeah. Please pull the trigger. Let's see what happens, Rizzi. I have a feeling that... No. It's most likely not going to do anything. We are in a place of your making. I can't believe you would reach out to the entities that have...

place their mark on you. These evil, horrible in most cases, entities. She lingers on Shar a little bit, er, on Lethka a little bit, and you see a smile, a light on her face. All of you begging them to protect you in my land. You know not what you have done. Things will not go as you have planned. But you tried.

And as a mother, I have to appreciate when my babies may sacrifice when they try. Oh, are we your children too? Are we the 13th and 14th and 15th and 16th and 17th and 18th daughter? Does that add up?

You see the smile on her face. You are not my daughters, no. But everyone in the land of Droskin Bald is a child of Mother Midnight. So what do you want from us, then?

She looks at you and you see, roll an insight check. - That'll do it. - Oh, pretty good. - Wow. - 20. - You see a look of surprise on her face almost. As if she herself is wondering this question as well.

I know that you have a part to play in this realm. You cannot stop the Night of Sin. It is coming. We are on its doorstep. When exactly, perhaps? Like, is it tonight? Tomorrow? The day after? Tomorrow night, the witching hour. The Night of Sin, and then rebirth.

It is as I will it. It is as the land commands. I find myself intrigued by the six of you. You have done so much. You failed the Hag Coven.

And though they assisted me with my night of sin, they had lofty dreams they could never achieve. My daughters are from me. They are of me. Those hags could never wish to have what my daughters have. But they did help very much to bring about this night. They were strong, and you killed them.

But it does ease a little of my worry. Three angry hags not getting what they believe are their just deserts? It's not something I have to deal with any longer. Well, if you... if you so many daughters and you didn't... you just needed hags to help you, where the fuck are you? I've got twelve of them. Do you have twelve daughters? She smiles brightly, the smile of a mother's love.

My daughters, the work they do is very important. It was the first plan. It was for a while the only plan. Until the new plan, the Night of Sin. It is simply a way around. The first plan. I will get to see my daughters again. They have been so long toiling in the other regions of Droskenwald doing their mother's work.

I miss them. I love them. But now they will be able to come home. For the Night of Sin will grant us the moonlit rebirth. And their work will be done. Surely you must forgive us if we don't just simply roll over and accept that there's nothing we can do to stop this. I did not expect as much. For you see...

It is so easy to manipulate the mind, the minds of mortals like yourselves and like the city of Cyril, the entirety of Draskendold. I see you think you are fighting for the right side, but do you even know what reality is here, Marius?

I will show you. And she raises her arms and you feel a gust of wind and mist begin to swirl around you. And all of you, you all feel lightheaded, a bit of vertigo for a moment, as all of a sudden your vision completely fades. And you are looking into a house. A house you're all very familiar with. And you see two little girls sitting inside of a cupboard. One of them fast asleep, little Colette.

The other one, sorry, I almost called her something else, Anya. The other one, Anya. And you watch as Anya taps her foot, looking a little bit restless. And then all of a sudden it shifts and changes. And you see that the door to this cabinet is now open. Only one girl remains inside. Little Kola, sleeping on the floor of this closet.

And then you hear the sound of footsteps as Maggie McDuff, covered in a cloak, makes her way into the house. And she looks down and you hear her call out, which I thought there were supposed to be two little. And then her eyes flash for a second. Oh, yep. The one little girl, just as I need to get. And she picks her up and pulls her into her arms. And as Colette opens her eyes, surprised, she looks up. But where's... Oh, never mind. I'm so glad you came to get me.

I'm so scared. Give me some more safe. I'll do that just as quickly as I can, little one. She wraps her in a bundle and quickly heads out of the house, shutting the cabinet door behind her. And it sits on this house for a while. Quiet. Silence. No sounds of anything at all. And then your eyes begin to slowly make out the forms of the trees encroaching on your mind again as you come to in this room, in this glade.

of, as Mother Midnight says it, your own making. Do you see how easy it is for minds to be played with, to be toyed with? She even said it herself, did she not? I did exactly as I was told. Unfortunately for one Miss Macduff, her mind could not be trusted. How are we supposed to trust you? Did I ask for your trust?

I'm simply telling you what is going to happen tomorrow night when the moonlit rebirth is finally brought to fruition and my sacrifice, all of the sacrifices of Cyril, bring forth that which is necessary for this land. For me. You have Anya. Me no. I do not have Anya.

But neither do you. You see, there is a magic in orphans' blood. Most orphans do not know this. I don't even think your little Anya knows this. But there is someone in Cyril who does know this. You ask.

If I can be trusted, I've answered your questions. I've shown you things that you had been shielded from, blinded by. And I would yet offer you more. You simply have to ask. For you see, I have no doubt that tomorrow will succeed. I got a question I haven't...

Doodling on this entire time. Jericho, please, I ask one favor. Yes? You do not sing your question. Oh gosh, I had a whole number prepared. Even a little bit of a... Anyways, are you a part snake? No.

What? Of course, she was talking about cutting off the head of a snake. I thought that she would show up and suddenly there'd be a big head of a snake. You refer to the figurehead of Druskinwald, the silly man in the mansion. You mean Lord Philip, the most powerful man in all of the land? And yet, here I stand. Yeah, well, he doesn't like you very much, and that's why he gathered us.

Because he has something you want, the little trinkets he keeps in his treasure room. He does, and you've corroborated everything he said so far. You know, some of me chaps here, they didn't trust him so much, but now I'm glad that I'm going to be the last one laughing because he intends to make good on his deal. He wants to celebrate a party so that he can make his little wife happy. I mean, do you blame him? I do not.

for tomorrow is the night of the rebirth. He brought you together to stop me, but you have not. You have simply escalated the timeline. You've played into my hands. You've given me what I wanted. Because you did not look deeper, harder. You did not ask the right questions. You trusted, as most heroes will do, in the good.

Never once thinking the good was evil all along. I don't think most of these folks are as evil as you think they are. I think they're just having a rough week. Month. Year. Period of time.

Jericho's point stands. Whatever this reality is that you refer to and might be able to manipulate at your will, good is still good. And that is what we fight for. Fight hard, little ones, my sacrifice. The coven of the midnight moon will be successful tomorrow. Of that I have no doubt. And the clock ticks. But who's to say we're not going to stop it?

Huh? Who? You? Yes. And what if we do stop it? What then? Then my daughters will continue to work. They will continue my efforts. There will be a moon with rebirth. There is nothing you can do to stop it in the end.

Well, the reason I'll bring it up is, let's say we don't get in the way and we let the whole thing go off without a hitch. What are you willing to do for us? Briggs? Absolutely nothing. All right. Briggs, are you seriously becoming perhaps the neck of the snake? Noted. You're not needed for my plans.

You are simply a nuisance, an intriguing one at that. I find the connections you have with these greater beings a little... funny. That you would so easily call on them to help you in a strange land for people who've done nothing but... spurn you. And yet here you are, making your tether stronger. Pulling them ever closer to you to save...

That's a really good point!

Who's getting rebirthed then? Is it you? What's so bad about it anyways? It sounds very ominous, but I guess we don't have too many details. Everyone's going to turn into horrible sin zombies. Yeah, what you said. Be consumed by demon Balor. Allegedly.

...bemindless abominations to do to Willa, you know. Oh, that's right. She's not calling us her old pals. She's calling us her sacrifices. You do not have agency here. You are but dolls in a playroom. Characters in a storybook. This is my fairy tale. You merely exist on the pages. You have no control over what happens.

If you would like to try, I would happily watch. It gives me something to pass the time until the ritual begins. And all the while you notice that this goat is not really moving. I mean, you can see that it's moving. You can see that it's breathing. It's clearly alive. But it just shrouds her. And I would say with your perception roll, you can tell she takes comfort in knowing that it is so close.

Quick question, is it clear that this goat is the beast that's been stalked? It is gigantic. It is quite clearly like down on the ground and its head is still towering over her. Like a sphinx? Yes, essentially it is on the ground and it is still towering over her. You're answering questions. Why allow us...

To even reach out to these entities in the first place? If it was so strong, why not block them? Are they stronger than you? Your entities? No. They would be my equal, I would say. But not in my land. Were they to make their way to manifest here, even all six combined would be no match for Mother Midnight. Especially with her twelve daughters.

I am not concerned of them. They will have what they want and it is not me. What they want is you. I can smell her perfume on you, Marius. Even though how many years has it been? And yet... The scent of her flesh still overpowers the scent of yours. One mistake and you've paid for it every day since. That is not something I have done to you.

Name one thing that Mother Midnight has done to you. Now the hags that worked on their own accord, hoping for my favor, they have done many things to you. But what has Mother Midnight done to our sacrifice? Oh, nothing. Not yet, at least.

Oh, don't take Virgil. Oh, no. Don't take him out of my... He's right here. He's right here. Oh, no. Gosh. That'd be terrible if I lost such power. She just stares at you. She doesn't flinch. She doesn't seem scared at all. Even as your hand gets closer and closer to where the lock is. She doesn't even...

Not a single line on her face seems uncomfortable. I'm implying that if she has some way to rip J.R.R. off, Virgil would be very sad about it. I understand what you imply, but Briggs asked the question already. What would I give you for your allegiance? Nothing, for I do not need it. You belong to someone else, not to me.

Though you've had a little of my protection in this land. I have grown fond of you, some more than others. And I give you the opportunity to have questions answered, to learn things, and you... cower at the base of the treeline, afraid to speak? We don't have all the time in the world. Mother has things to prepare.

I think we've been quite talkative. Only Lethika is here cowering. That's, we're five out of six being brave speaking to you. And there's a really big fucking goat. Yes, and you see as she looks up and the smile on her face is one of tenderness and compassion. Yes, it is. My dark prince. Um, is prince...

Like literally or figuratively like you're a very proud pet owner? She blinks at you. A legitimate question! I guess it would depend on who you ask, but for me it is an affectionate term of endearment. Though, should you hear him behind you in the woods, I would make note of it and do nothing to incur his ire. You like your bro's familiar? She smiles.

And she looks down at Flora and you see a look of repulsion on her face for just a second. And then she says, "Yes, similar, but vastly different." I mean, I can see the difference. "Well,

I think it is about time she looks up towards a moon that you see slowly cresting down into the line of trees. It is almost time for me to go. I will leave you with two bits of information.

I will leave you with one bit of information. And you see her raise her hands again as the mist fills the glade one more time in your eyes. Once again, you start to get dizzy and your eyes roll back in your heads and you are now looking into a stone room. And at first it appears to just be a stone room as your eyes are adjusting to the light. And then you see in the very center of this stone room

That strange, arcanic symbol magic on the floor. Off to the side, you see a beheaded goat's body. And in the very center of the room, bound, gagged, is Anya. I'm good.

And just as you begin to focus in on her, you can see the dried up tears that have been falling down her face. You can see where the ropes have been digging into her wrists and rubbing them raw. And just as you're really getting a good view of it, the change begins to take hold again and you feel yourselves once again with the trees coming in around you and Mother Midnight standing in front of you.

I have given you what you need to find your little friend. As I've said, the orphan's blood is special. And my hands are not the only ones getting dirty in Cyril. Though the little creatures beneath the cathedral are conduits and nothing more. For me, there may be others who want something of their own. But who is to say?

You know where she is, witch? Tell us where! Who has her? And I just gave you the tools you need. Think on the image. You will know these stones. You have seen them many a time before. I'll say it's very clear to you that they appear to be cathedral stones. The same color, the same size as inside of the cathedral. What I was gonna say was, do we look like fucking dwarves to you?

She looks at you a little confused. No. Well, I know I'm from the Confederal Stones. I know what Stones is, I don't know mine. I'll take it back. I just don't understand. Why even take the time to come tell us this if we're so inconsequential? You have done things that have surprised me. And with my daughters gone, doing their duties...

I've come to see you as family. Each of you has a part to play. Whether it ends tomorrow night, who knows? We are... You are right about one thing. We are a family, but we ain't taking an application, so we're capping it at six. Sorry.

She smiles again. Unless your daughters are pretty and then we can tell. Jericho, that's enough. Okay? A union of marriage. You had a very good point. Just leave it. Every single one of my progenies. Beautiful. In her own way. It's a good personality. Some of them lack in that regard, but mother loves them all. But to expand upon your question...

With this pleasant conversation comes a warning. Tool with the magic of the land all you want and with the dark entities that have you chained to them. But never forget, this land belongs to me and I am in it all.

And as she says these words, the giant black goat head rises up even further. Its mouth opens and it lunges down as if to swallow all of you whole. But instead, it swallows up Mother Midnight and quickly, in a moment, you see the hagmoon drop down and begin to cackle as all of a sudden, just out of nowhere, they disperse into nothingness. As you're standing in this glade, completely alone,

can still smell her scent lingering. It's almost like a spicy scent of incense and smoke. And the wet fur of the black goat still perpetuating in the air. Little bits of it here and there. Floating in the mist. Is Flora still there? She is. Why didn't she tell us that the child wasn't there? We asked if she took two children.

I don't know why you're asking me this question. I think it was pretty self-explanatory. Am I crazy? Did we not ask that she took two children? And she responded what she did exactly as she was told. And she did. Ask her again now. I don't even know where we are. I can't talk to her here. Maggie's mind was changed by Mother Midnight.

She thought she was only to find one child. Four people playing D&D, there's a spell called Modify Memory. And so I will pull back the veil and say for those that may be confused, that is more than likely, no, not confirmed, a spell that would have been used on Maggie to modify what she was told to do as well as Colette. This Mother Midnight holds great domain over life and death in this plane.

She was able to see through the illusions of the witches like Maggie McDuff's and her hidden cabinet. She was able to see all of it. She may even still be listening to us now, watching our every move, hearing our every word. Gosh, I should have asked her if... What if everybody seeing the Hagmoon go away was just...

Our own imagination being manipulated by Mother Midnight. I want to get out of here. I want to get back to the house.

- Why didn't you get us back? - Well, Maggie didn't tell me how to deal with something like this. I don't even think she thought herself that something like this could happen. So I saw it in a major image once where someone wanted to get home really badly. And so what she did was she clicked her heels together three times as if there's no place like home

think that would work. Maybe, do you think it would work? I don't know. Anyway, what if we just, what if we all held hands and just thought about where we came from really, really, really hard and wished for it, willed it? Then maybe it would work. You see her ears are still droopy and she's clearly like shaking, shaking, shaking. I think you're onto something. Maybe not in the exact vein which you're suggesting, but I'm not entirely sure that I believe everything that Mother Midnight said.

She was very blasé about these people, these entities that watch over us. I'm not so sure that six on one is anything that she wants to deal with. And she thinks that these entities are just as powerful than... just as powerful as her. And they can't seem to, you know, barely poke into this realm. My point is maybe they can get us back. And I'm just thinking, you don't keep tabs on people like us.

If we're just so inconsequential. That's exactly right. I feel nothing but hope, having heard her words. I am in complete agreement with you. I certainly do not like the person watching over me who's claimed my soul. But I'm not so sure Mother Midnight knows who she's dealing with. Let us find ways to surprise her again. I'll walk over to Flora, and seeing that she's shivering, afraid...

ears down, open my arms as if to say, you know, as if to say, will she jump up? Will she come in for a hug so I can pick her up? Flora. Yeah? Come, you had the good suggestion. Are you going to yell at me like Farron did? Because I'm not a witch and I don't know any of the answers.

I'm not going to... It's okay, you're still really cute, though. I'm not going to yell. I'm going to... Are you going to eat me? So that we can all join together. We just survived an encounter with Mother Midnight. You're a spirit guardian. Yeah, probably not, but maybe you could. I don't know, do they make spirit rabbit soup?

We promise. I promise. Because we will not eat you. I'm not so worried about you because you eat that weird moldy stuff. And I'm made of, I don't know. Goof stuff? Yeah. If you want to hold me, you can. If it'll make you feel better. I pick her up and give her a very tight hug. I only feel better because clearly you do too. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. She feels very soft. We need to get our way back to Anya's.

We have to hurry. It is bait. We are being lured. Doesn't matter what it is. No, I agree. If we have a chance to save that girl, we have to do it. It is effective bait. Let us try Flora's suggestion. All right. Let's gather round and try to put this in reverse, maybe. All right. So, um, we just all hold hands or hug each other or, you know, just hug each other.

That's probably the best. More physical contact, you know, not because we're scared, but because we need it. And we're just going to think to ourselves, we're going to manifest. That's what Maggie says. We're going to manifest that warm place in that basement with all that fire and the sweet smells. Let's just manifest right now. I will also click my heels together. Sure. Do you have ruby shoes worth a thousand gold pieces? They're very nice boots. I don't think it'll work, but go ahead. Okay. Ready? Ready?

Manifest now! Are you doing it? Yes, yes we are. Okay, you're still doing it? Okay, sorry, I'm gonna shut up. I mean, is there like a word we need to say or some weird chant, like ritual thing? Should we say like earth, water, heart, you know? Did it work? Someone opened their eyes. Oh. We're back! And you open your eyes and see that you are in fact...

I'm going to be honest, I know that I was seconding the familiar's suggestion, but I really didn't think it was going to work. We need to hurry. We have one more thing we must do before we... We must complete the ritual. Why we went to that plane in the first place. You did complete the ritual...

You have not granted Jorgrim. Look, I have fur again! No, no, no. When you changed color and you gave us all the... We did not have the opportunity because we were interrupted by Mother Midnight. You need to touch Jorgrim to finish the ritual. Oh. I don't want her to eat a rabbit. Touch me. Well, Jorgrim, this is where we part ways. She touches her paw up to you and her fur doesn't change in any way whatsoever. Oh, no! Oh, no!

No woolly mammoth. We had some good times. No colored cheesy rabbit. But you know, I think... Just please see yourself out. And it's not just because I have the guard of the world in my head. I think that it was really just confirming that you had completed it and that it wasn't necessary to complete it. No, I am sorry, your grim. You're going to die now. I don't care either way. She can have my soul as long as we get to Anya. Well...

Well, I'm very concerned that we don't really have a good plan to get to Anya. We don't know. We just saw a cathedral stone. You need to take at least two hours. Why? Because I'm stuck here for two hours. I don't want to be alone. You can come with us. We certainly do not have the time to wait. I have to stay in the house. Otherwise, the magic fades and I go into a pot.

Well, that's fine. You can come with us. It'll be perfectly safe and not scary. We're only going to a horrible demon place. She just said she cannot leave the house. Oh. To your point, Jericho, as far as the plan goes, we go to the cathedral, we kick in the doors, and we find the girl. There's no other way around it. Now's the perfect time. The guards are in complete disarray. The entire city has fallen into chaos. But not us.

We need to be ready for who's going to be there, whoever took her. That's exactly right. And just as I'm sure Jorgrim is thinking and I'm vocalizing, we'll cut down anyone who gets in our way. We're ready. The girl's been through enough. You have to be strong. You're a spirit guardian and a familiar. I'm a bunny. And a bunny. I like carrots. Carrots can be sherbet. And I've been through fields of grass. Yes.

Pardon yourselves, buddy. What is it that you're trying to give a small thing? I don't know, that's just what I do. She just wants to give the rabbit a carrot sword, you know, a knight's sword. How cute would that be? A little radish shield and a carrot sword. A gallon gun. A slingshot. Blueberries. Thimble. Yeah, thimble for a shield. Aww.

After that journey over the rainbow colors from the candles, I thought we'd be greeted by some gnomes that would say, "We resemble but are legally distinct from the lollipop barbecue!" That was my favorite song in the major image!

Sorry, I burp when I'm nervous. They're also contagious, so sorry, Farron. I think we can take a few hours to talk about our plan here and to ready ourselves for the coming day we have until tomorrow night.

If Anya has anything to do with the Night of Sin, you saw her, the dried tears on her face. As I said, I... She's been there long enough. I think that she is there because she is someone we care about. Wait a minute, is it tomorrow?

- Do we even know what time it is? - I would say you do know what time it is. You know that when you were making, I would say the candles that are still burning, they look like they haven't burned down at all since you left. It is very clear that it would be tomorrow night. So you do have time to come up with a plan.

that the townsfolk were waiting on the Archbishop to give them an excuse to go out and hunt down Maggie Macduff. These are the things on your table. William Van Brunt is trying to get a group of people to go out and kill Maggie Macduff. And they want a blessing from the Archbishop. But they will not leave, because even though

Billy doesn't care. The rest of the town cares about the Archbishop. They're not going to leave without his permission, period. And Billy knows that. And so he's waiting and making it seem like this big thing. The Archbishop is apparently holed up in the cathedral, awaiting some kind of...

that he's going to be giving. And you don't know if the vision that you saw of Anya was in that exact moment earlier in the day or a vision of what's to come is what I will say. But it was easy to be able to tell that that room, that stone room, was clearly in the depths of the cathedral. There were no windows. There was dampness on the walls like there would be in some

uh, subterranean stone basement or cavern, et cetera. Um, there was the symbols on the ground. There was a stake in the middle of the room. Anya was lying next to it. And there was clearly a decapitated goat that was off to the side. Um,

You could contact Maggie McDuff. You have her in your back pocket. - Yeah, that was gonna be my next suggestion. - And so far, as far as you know, no one is coming to bother this house, but you did hear whispers on the way of people talking about trashing the Keziah Jenkins house.

And so you know that this is, at this moment, this is your only place of safety and respite. And so you don't, you have maybe a couple of hours of safety in here to converse with each other, talk about the things that had happened, come up with your plan before you're more than likely...

going to be kicked out by the DM and the citizens of Cyril. Well, let's be realistic here. I mean, the house is what's keeping the city of Cyril safe from us. Of course, right? Not the other way around. I agree, yes. And so that's kind of the overview of kind of big picture what's going on. I mean, it's awfully presumptuous of you that they would all line up in an alley and come at us one by one, you know? Oh, I don't need to presume that.

This won't be my first or last, certainly last bloody campaign I've been dealt with, alright? That's fair. Can't we just spend the next two hours home alone in this house, with little micro-machines next to the bottom of the stairs and paint cans?

Actually, I propose that we contact Maggie and see if she can be convinced that there were two childs and not one. I'm sure that she will believe what we have to say. I mean, she's not going to think that we're lying, but we'll explain what happened. But ultimately, I'm with Jorgrim. We are not... We're short on time. And the sooner that we get moving, the better. Let's talk to her and see what she has to say.

She might be able to tell us about whoever took the pneumonia. For what purpose they will want with an orphan's blood. I worry that it is a deception. We could find out that Anya is safe with Maggie right now, and that we were just being lured. Well, I mean, remember with how we asked her, there was some weirdness going on where she was like, yeah, I did what you asked me to.

And it wasn't like, "Oh yeah, I definitely have two children. One is named Colette, the other one's name is Anya." We never got that from her. I worry less that it is a deception and more that it is a reality. Maggie. Floor. Yeah, okay. Can you convey this in three? Did you see the vision that we saw of Anya and Floor? The child? Yeah.

Can you convey that to Maggie and ask her to reply? Because you don't seem sure. Well, as the DM, I was thinking about saying no, and then I realized that as Floor, I've already talked to you about your vision, so clearly I saw it.

Oh, I see. Yep. You relay all of it. Must be confusing. Yeah, it really is sometimes when you've got a lot of people in your head. We barely avoided a plot hole there, so good job. Yep, so hold on. And I see as her ears go down over her eyes. Her ears go down over her eyes and you see as she... Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh.

*whimpering*

Two hours pass. They're looking all in the dark! I think this- Oh, okay! Please hurry, we'll have to kill them all. What was the question again? Jordan takes a shovel and splats! Right next to the egg.

The question was whether or not she was aware that there were two children here. What name, what name, Danya? That we asked her to take two children.

Oh, well, I didn't ask her that question. I told her about the dream thing that we saw, and she said very clearly that she was only asked to pick up one child, and when she got to the house, the door was open to that little cabinet. There was one child named Colette sleeping on the floor, and she picked

Yes. And she said that there was a moment where the little girl seemed very confused and started to mention something about another little girl. But then she said that she shook her head and since she didn't know what she was talking about, she must have been dreaming. That there was only one girl and it was her. But you saw that there were two children. In that vision, yeah, created by a witch. And so you have to convey this to Maggie and tell her that she may be mistaken. Is there any way that she can check her memory or try to...

undo the magics that she may have been charmed by. So what question you want me to ask? Convey the vision so that she understands that there were two children. Actually, we may have our answer. Just ask her who would benefit from orphan's blood so we know who to kill. See, that's the question. Starting off with convey to her, I don't know how to do that.

You can't just touch it. Just do your rubbish thing and ask her about the orphan blood. Can I insight check her as well? Oh my god. I'm on my own sword. I don't think it's anything. You don't want to do this. If you roll, you're not going to trust anything. Hold on, here we go. Huh? Oh. Oh. Oh. Yeah. Hmm.

So she says she doesn't know because she's never heard anything about orphan blood being special in any way. I mean, we know where she is. We have a very good idea of where she is. It is very likely we're going to run into the Archbishop. She specifically said that the thing about orphans is they don't have any family and that that shouldn't change their blood at all because not having any family doesn't start when you're born in most cases.

She has a point. I mean, like, at least as far as the logic of it goes. But you also have, she also said that she is, oh, she is a woman of the woods and so she works with natural magic, that this could be some kind of creepy, like, you know, spooky witch magic and that they can do, like, maybe for them, orphan's blood because of the pain or something in it could do something, I don't know. Ask her if she knows of anyone else in the town practicing craft of any kind. I'm really excited. Yeah, I know.

Is that why they burn the orphanage? To do that thing? I mean, it certainly seems like there'd be more power in sacrificing orphans if that is the case. Yes. Hold that for a moment, because I don't want to hit you down in case she shows up with some information that's actually useful. I think we've only got about 15 minutes. Oh, well, anyway, that's a great point. That's a whole, and she keeps talking about sacrifice. So what, she said, wait, what was the question?

Is there anyone else in the town practicing any kind of witchcraft? No. Not that she knows of. You. But you don't even realize it. She keeps talking about sacrifice. Not me! No, not you. Oh, okay. You were trying to incite me? What was that dice that it said? It was a 22. Great. I seem like I'm being super sincere. And that you're actually... Yeah!

But totes absolutely. Totally.

Yeah. At least she believes she's talking to Maggie McDuff. At least with a 22, you totally believe it. Listen, everyone. The more that we begin to second-guess ourselves and doubt the farther down these no-offense rabbit holes, we're going to go, all right? We know what we have to do. But if we think that she thinks that we think that she thinks that we... We don't have time for this. Don't you

Don't you understand, Jorgrim? She made everyone think that the moon was A-OK and that I'm the head of the snake. Her mind tricks are so powerful, she could probably convince everyone the Republic credits would be fine. What? Listen, the point stands that Jorgrim... I'm going to say it for a fourth time. Jorgrim is right. We have to go. There's no reason to delay. What are you going to do?

I know that she likes you. Even you, Lethika. I propose.

That we move as quickly as we can once we decide where we are moving. We're going to the cathedral. Look, look, look. Unlike the rest of you, I'm coming up with a fucking scheme, all right? I have a plan. Please. Oh, what's your plan? Lay it all on the table for us. They were all around the city. We don't know the security detail of the cathedral. You understand? Yeah.

Two different sources of protection. But we do know that at some point tonight, I think, correct me if I'm misremembering, but at some point tonight, the bishop's going to come out and give some grand fucking address to Billy Bones and his goons. All right? And during that time, presumably, whatever security detail he has will be with him.

And at that point, the cathedral will be less guarded. We sneak behind the bishop. We go inside the cathedral. You're going to try to sneak behind the bishop when he's giving an announcement to an Ang Mob to go kill Maggie McDowell.

Flor took the words right out of my mouth. We can go in through the bell tower. I appreciate... You're right. We have a contact in there already. I appreciate the plan. I think that you're forward thinking. I certainly don't want to get to a point where the Archbishop has given Van Brunt free reign to go murder people. I would like to get ahead of that. There are no stupid ideas,

Briggsie, but that was a dumb one. I don't think that's as stupid of an idea. It's not. It's not stupid at all. No, I just said it wasn't stupid, but it was a dumb one. Well, we're going to just fight our way in and kill every fucking god in town and then kill every fucking townsperson in town? Yes, I actually think that that's not completely unreasonable. I would propose... If we're just going to kill all

all the townspeople, why don't you just let Mother Minda do what she's doing? Exactly right! I'm sort of like, you know, she's making sense. We have a relationship with the Archbishop.

What if we go and attempt to speak with him and see if we can get his attention, see if we can meet him in private? We may be able to prevent him from giving the speech altogether. We may be able to stop him from giving Von Braun permission to find Smaggy, confronting... Her name's Maggie. Why do you keep calling her Smaggy? Smaggy.

I've got these... You look at her ears and they're turned towards you. I heard what I heard. They're still smaller than mine. What is that? What? Have you ever seen Robert Ears before? Do you need a measuring tape? The point is, is that we... I propose that we kill Smaggy. LAUGHTER

I'm telling her you said that! Here's the question. We don't have any idea. We've been holed up in this here basement in the magical metaphorical land of fog. We don't know the state of the town. We're the town's folk. That's exactly right. I agree. 100%. Meaningfully important. So we step outside. No time has passed.

60 seconds. They also, yeah, yes, that appears to be the case. The egg is still a whip. Ew. We can just start making our way over to the cathedral. We can see the state of the town. And once we get there, we'll see if we can just walk into the cathedral. If there is a security detail, we'll, like you said, maybe leverage the

personal relationship we have with the Archbishop and go from there. Well, I'm going to peek out the window. I don't hate your group's plan of going into the bell tower. There is no option to peek out the windows. All the windows are boarded up. I would like you to roll perception check, though. We are about to get burned alive in

- In the Keziah Jenkins hut. - A Molotov cocktail. - Yeah, just right through the window. - I'm batting back. - 14. - That one counted. - No, no, 14. - That's more than good enough for you as you get closer to the window where you can see the glass had already been broken out of it, but it's now just boards that are keeping it closed that you know the town's guard had put up after the death of Keziah Jenkins.

And you are able to hear, as you get closer to the window, you're able to hear shouts, screams, and yelling. You're also able to see through a tiny split between two boards, flickering torchlight, as you hear what sounds like "kill the witches, kill the witches, kill the witches and their familiars." And it's getting louder and louder and louder.

You... What? What? No! You also hear things along the lines of...

Death to the city's heroes yelled out with disdain in the sound of a bunch of people spitting. I would say you can hear bits of indiscriminate chatter from people who've made their way ahead of the mob. Someone calling out, they gotta be in here, there are lights on inside, they're hiding out in the witch's house, burn, burn the house.

And then you begin to start hearing the sounds of people running. - I'll like peek through and I'll say, "Oh, good news. They're on our side. They're gonna murder the witch and all of their minions and the familiars." - Wait, wait, wait, we've already done that.

- Hold on. - Oh no, I think they mean us. - I really like this house. It's too bad. - Someone's gonna walk over to the cathedral, huh? - Maybe they mean a different witch's house. Maybe we'll be safe. - You hear a loud slam as something hits the front door.

And then it's almost like a silence. And then you hear the slam again. And then that strange, eerie silence. And then all of a sudden, you begin to see the lick of flame as whatever's being thrown against this door catches the dry wood on fire. All right. And the front of the house begins to go up into flame. I walk out the back door. There is no back door. Sure. We make a back door. No, wait. How do we get in? You went in through the front door. You've gone in through the front door every time. Make a back door. Sure. What?

Make sure that Maggie knows. I mean, I'm sorry. Wait a minute. I was going to forget. Are the windows only in the front? There are windows, I would say, front and sides. At this point, you see fire. Yeah, you see fire up on the side. There's a first and second floor. If we got to the top, we could maybe work it out here.

No, it's not a townhouse. It's a standalone house. It's kind of like sitting on a corner. Can we jump? And I would say it's very easy to tell that on all sides bar the back, there are people that are swarming it and now throwing things, trying to rip off the board.

They're yelling, kill the scarecrow, kill the scarecrow. That's a vampire in there. How did we ever let it in our town? An old manner of horrible things that these townsfolk are yelling about. She's got another hour and a half in this bitch. Well, I'm telling you it's tops. I mean, let's be real. I'm asking about the windows because if there are any boarded up windows in the back, I'll just knock the boards out. There are not. Well, the house is surrounded, right? I thought you said except for the back.

So the house is surrounded except for the back. So the back leads out to a small yard, which was probably what Keziah Jenkins used to till and make some of her verbal stuff. And it is completely blocked off by brick walls. And so even if you were to get out there, you don't know if there'd be any way, anywhere for you to go once you were out there. We're trapped. Well, we've waited too long. We can escape through the basement. Maybe there's a tunnel.

I would say you do have something in your possession that, whip out the thing and go look downstairs. Roll an investigation check. - Thank you. - Why is it with angry mob that they always wanna kill the scarecrow? - If I can.

- Not needed. - So natural 20? - Natural 20. - Natural 20 is an edge of midnight or natural one. - Oh! - Natural ones are also natural ones. - With that, Marius and Farron rush downstairs. Marius is looking for any kind of windows, anything in the back that would help.

And it is through this that I would say, Mary, you actually find something weird in the stonework down here. And Farron takes and shines the little witch's eye that was given to you by Maggie Macduff on it. And you see that there is very clearly a door that is hewn into the stone here that seems to lead directly out the back.

Is it closed? It's closed. You imagine now that you see it, you could open it. Oh, okay. And it's at this point that... I'm assuming you all went downstairs. You were all downstairs to begin with. That's where you came back. It's at this point you can hear that the people in the streets have...

officially broken into the house. You can hear the sounds of them looting things, destroying things, tearing the walls apart, setting things on fire. They want to raze this place to the ground. Are we in a basement right now? Is that where we're at? It's a cellar, right? It's a cellar, yeah. Okay.

Like the ceiling above you is wooden. It smells... There's a laundry machine over here. There's a bucket in the mud. Oh! I can picture it so clearly. There's a dusty treadmill. Wow. There's a banker's box over here with just one knotted ball. There's a laundry all over the treadmill. Probably a winter solstice gift. Look at all these National Geographic stuff.

This goes back decades. There's a shelf with nothing but canned tomatoes. These are going to be ruined. It's too humid for this. Well, the mob gets to you and they kill you. That was the end of Edge of Midnight. Thank you for joining us for this campfire. They gotta come downstairs one at a time. It's all on that.

I'm with you over and over. By goddamn time we got to this part of the story. You know, they walked into a burning house. We'll just wave the house a collapse. That's fair. They did, yeah. Some of them really did. Usually you loot them.

The next time we have the opportunity, I genuinely want to put a line and actually go through how many people you'd be able to kill. I mean, he'd probably have eight hit points. If they're lucky. Yeah, but he might miss. If they're in seat, negative. Yeah, it's negative. You can't not hit them. Oh, shit, he's dead!

Oh, wow. Okay. So I would open the door and take a quick look around the room as I'm kind of ushering them through just to see if there was anything that we needed that was like personal belongings to G'zaya that we should just take. I would say anything that seems like it would have been personal to her that you wanted to take, you can. From a meta perspective, there doesn't seem to... Okay. Anything that was in here...

They hadn't really found this space, but anything that looks like it would have been in here, she had already taken with her. Okay, that sounds good. Before she died. That's great. You easily open the door and you make your way into what is clearly a rough-hewn tunnel. There is an area where there's some wooden steps leading up to a

a like trap door. And I would say for the sake of brevity, it's easy to tell that this was probably how she got in and out through her garden, keeping it discreet so that no one would find it. But you do see that the tunnel extends quite a bit further. And as you make your way through it, it is damp earth all around you. You can see the roots of trees peeking out of the walls and the ceiling above you. And it takes you about,

five to ten minutes, not too long, until you find another steps up to what appears to be a circular grate, which would have, to most people, looked like a sewage grate. Um... Do we get a sense of what direction we're going? Like, towards the cathedral away, out of the city? It's twisting and turning, and you're completely underground.

As I once you're outside, you would be able to tell. And I would say you can hear from me. This isn't like a sewage grate that you would find today where it's like a big closed off disc. This is clearly like a wired grate. So anyone walking over could look down and with the right amount of light, see people standing under it. You can look up and hear and it sounds like whatever part of the city you're in is very quiet in comparison to the rest. I would say you can hear a few spatterings of moaning.

but it seems to be a bit off down whatever road this is. - Hold on, hold on. I wanna like peek my head out in like cartoon style. I'll take my hat off and I'll peek my head out and just literally I'll be sitting on my head. And I just wanna do a quick like look around to see if there's anybody nearby. - There is a roll investigation check. - I can't remember the placement of his eyes. He's literally built for this. - Investigation is a 13.

I might be proficient. I might be proficient, I'm not. No, it's a 12 actually. Looking around, outside of you see the shadows of what appears to be two people in some sort of sexy time tryst at one end of this alleyway. The other end, you see that the alleyway itself seems to be completely deserted.

There are bottles of alcohol lying strewn about this way and that, litter, bits of food stuff, bits of clothing. And at the very...

the opposite end from the people in the tryst, you see that it opens out into an area that is fairly close to the town center. It seems like the majority of the people who had gathered in the town center with William Van Brunt have made their way to Keziah Jenkins' house, and this is quite a bit away from that. So I would say you would know that it's going to be about a 15-minute, 20-minute stealthy time trek to get to the cathedral.

All right, I think the coast is clear. It's clear enough. And I'll push the grate to the side and let everybody up. I'll put my hand on Marius' shoulder. Of course, he will lead you through the darkness and you have advantage on stealth giants. Hot damn. Marius and Jorgen, why don't you go in the front and if anyone blocks our path with...

Act. Just knock them out of the way and try not to smash their head against the cobblestones. So if you guys can make a group stealth, that would be awesome. I think that Marius and you can handle either. Group stealth, please. 15. Uh-oh.

I'm gonna use my inspiration to reroll that. Oh! My inspiration. Do I want to use it? You want some twists. Yeah, pull a twist out for me. Here we go. That was better. Fifteen. I will kill them. Bye, inspiration. I got a sixteen. Okay. Uno, las dos.

I had a natural one. Derek? Shut up. A 15. Can you read? So what's the, this is a... Let's talk about his faith touch. No. Oh, okay. I don't recall it. No, no. Have faith. Well, I mean, I didn't want this whole session to be peasant killing. Much better. 17. Oh, 16, sorry. Why? It is with that that you all...

Utilizing the pleasurable sounds coming from the opposite end of this alleyway, you use that to mask the sounds of your footfalls and of getting out of the grate. As you... - - - Despacito! Despacito! - - Slowly. Slowly.

It is with that that you make your way down the alley in tandem with each other and slowly through the streets of the city. You have started to get used to Cyril at this point and you've learned a lot of the back alleyways, oftentimes trying to go about your business in secret.

And though there are times where you find yourselves in areas that are more populated, especially the closer you get to the square, the louder the ruckus in the town becomes, you seem to move through the city unnoticed. Everyone's so preoccupied with whatever sin they have given into on this penultimate night to the...

All right, let's imagine some guy on a curb just, I love chocolate. Potato chips are my weakness. I can't have just one.

I told you that in confidence. You've been in the game. He was doing horrible things. I thought he was going to blame me. You know this one guy who woke up and looked outside and the town's going down and he's like, I'm definitely too tired for this. This time the cake is sinful.

And so it is with that that you continue to make your way through the streets of Cyril. All the while, you hear the sounding of the gong of the bell in the cathedral as the bell tolls. It sounds like you're

it's gonging more slowly, or ringing more slowly, and at first, the first time it hits when you get out of this subterranean tunnel, you feel that same pull of your sin almost overtaking you, but then you feel the presence of that entity that you'd called out to, and you feel a warmth in your chest,

And the tolling of the bell no longer has any effect. As it is very clear that all of you succeeded in the ritual for the protection of your being. Even Jorgrim. Even Jorgrim. Jorgrim turns into this.

No, Jorgrim was, what is he, fucking Slaz? Like, sorry guys. I'm taking a deep stroganoff for lunch. My sleep schedules are messed up. I just, I miss my circadian rhythm. I knew I should have had coffee after party. I just can't. What's he? Jorgrim's the strongest of the party, but also so lazy. Oh,

I would give that reference. I just want them to line up in front of me. You're too much ass. Oh my gosh, anyway. I'm not gonna say it. He's gonna die! Wait until Evandra can chill. Write it down. Write it down. As you want. Well...

It's now a good time to talk about what we all saw about each other's past. I know they're like, "Oh, well that goes."

It's killing the mood to walk past like a peasant just doing something horribly degenerate. But I feel like we all really witnessed some really deeply traumatic things about our past, and I have a lot of questions. I do, but now is not the time to unpack this as we walk through streets of sin. Jordan, what happened to your voice? Oh, that's a lot of cheese danishes. LAUGHTER

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So, yes, with your stealth checks, you continue to make your way through the town. I don't remember where you're at, so this is where we're starting. So you're making your way through the town, through the back streets and alleys the best way that you can. Nobody seems to notice you. As you get towards the circular area that's directly in front of the cathedral where the fountain is with the large statue of Foltis,

It is here that you hear a familiar voice. The voice of William Van Brunt. As he calls out, he's lackey at his side, Percy Phipps. As they are calling out that they have new information. I'm not going to do his voice because I just don't feel like it. He's yelling out things of the nature of they have discovered that Maggie McDuff has been coming in and out of the city of Cyril unnoticed and she must be stopped.

But it has also come to their attention that they have the location of her hut now. They're just awaiting the orders from the Archbishop. That's not good. And it doesn't stop there. She is in possession of a familiar that takes the shape of a child. How wicked. The child must be killed too. Oh! Whoa!

We gotta kill this guy. We're gonna kill a pope. We're gonna save Anya. We gotta kill this guy. I'm just gonna say, not a character. In what order? In that order. He begins to call and yell out, and you make your way to the fringes of this area, and you watch as he stands there proud. You hear people shouting and calling. You hear, once again, as he calls out about the weak-willed tools of the witch, the six blacksmiths,

monsters that have infiltrated their town and brought about this horrible, the horrible destruction of Cyril. When they're done with Maggie McDuff and this horrible familiar that takes the guise of a child, they will, with the Pope's permission, be slaughtering the lot of you. And he seems so proud and so excited. The crowd around him cheers and you realize that it would be impossible

for you to make your way through this crowd and towards the front door of the cathedral. William Van Brunt is standing at the very top of the steps, almost as if he feels that he's akin to the Pope, as he delivers his wicked sermon out to the city in this town square, and they are all eating it up. You see that the people in the back line, you see that Van Brunt's men, the guys that were there with him during his fight with Jorgren, are

around the back line doing things intentionally to stir up the crowd, but they're also holding weapons at their side and constantly looking back in the alleyways and in the streets for any sign of anyone that they can use as an opportunity for more violence. Fips.

We'll have to find another way in. Well, your room suggested we try the bell tower again, which is certainly not a bad idea, while we look for some other entrance around back, which I think might have been your suggestion. I don't remember which.

One of my suggestions was to sneak in. I was hoping this would be more like in a town square area. Yeah, me too. You know, I was from a... Hey, again, I agree. I thought it was a good idea. You had the right idea. The bell tower would give us the added benefit of severing it from its perch and dropping it onto Vanbrut. That might draw a lot of attention to us. The entire bell tower? I think the bell will do.

I think perhaps death is too good for a long-term death. I'd be fine to deliver it to him all the same. Yeah, we don't torture people. That's not what you're suggesting, are you, Lethka? No. Are you suggesting an elongated legal battle with... ...numerous ideals? No.

That would be very costly. Training is a tire. Bank account and legal fees. Time is worth more than anything. Is that what you're suggesting? An elongated legal battle? No. What are you... No. What? No. I mean, that would surely lead to it leaning against all of his wages. LAUGHTER LAUGHTER

I mean, if he owns property, that would certainly hurt. Let us try the belt out. All right, fine. What a wonderful idea. I can run some rope up to the top, tie it off, and you guys can follow me. Because it's sort of on the opposite side of the door, right? It is.

It is on, yes. From where the door is, that's why you snuck in there the last time, is not visible from the courtyard area out in front of the cathedral. We steal the belt out.

I will use your same rolls for the sake of brevity. To make climbing up easier. You are a dampier, so you climb up. If you have enough rope. I would say you wouldn't even need to do it. You guys have climbed the bell tower before. You can all easily climb up together. Marius in the lead because he is able to scale it as a dampier, making sure, oh, well, that rock's a little shaky. Use this one, and you guide your friends up.

the bell tower. - That's true. - And you notice, as you get closer and closer, that the sound of the bell seems to be tolling just a little more slowly.

And you eventually pull yourselves up over the ledge and the sound now is just echoing against these stone walls. And you remember it when you came into this part of the room the first time, it was so overwhelming that some of you nearly turned to your sin. And you feel that pull once again for the first time since your entities slaved it off the last time. And you feel that pull again.

But yet again, your entity steals you against whatever mind magic is in hold in this bell. It's probably like, it's really loud though, right? It's super loud, which is what makes it harder to deal with. And it is then that you hear the sound of crashing and a loud slamming and a guttural roar as Hugo slams down directly in front of you, roars out and swipes at all of you. I need you all to roll for initiative.

What was the fucking idea was the bell tower, huh? Idiot. I hate your room. But he's our friend. That'll teach me to ever agree with your room, and I've agreed with him so many times. Yeah, you've done it like five times in a row. You go to the bell tower like an idiot. What have I done? Oh my god.

Fight him. It's going to feel really bad when I have to cut his head off. Is that the position that you consider yourselves to be in? Probably me and Marius. Face to face. Oh yeah, I guess we dropped out. Probably Marius. Because he is going to get an opportunity attack on you. We'll just marry you. None of your perceptions were high enough. I was in the back for sure. I was probably like, where are you, dude?

- I didn't see Marius. - So he is going to attack you. - He didn't show up to this adventure. - Yeah. - He's at the bottom of the tower. - Imagine Marius. - Hey, how's it fucking looking up there? I'm Australian now. - Are you gonna pay attention to this fight or no? Come on. - I'm paying attention. - Cats. - Oh, sorry.

Make it the big battle map, remember? I need the big battle map for my eyes. So he is going to make, he jumps down and immediately swipes at you. He is fighting with his bare fists. He swipes in and collides with the side of Jorgrim's face, doing... Jesus. This could set the whole turn. The whole fight right here. Do you know what my AC is? Not for that hit. Damn, got me.

17 points of bludgeoning damage as he swipes in to hit Marius. He misses and you all see as he groans in pain and rage and agony, you see the hood is pulled down over his face. There is blood clearly pouring down from underneath his hood.

and it is obscuring his eyes. He easily missed. Speaking of which, I didn't do that. Everyone's initiative, 20 to 25. 21. 25. Damn. Okay, I'll still go last. With my big 18. And then 21. He is big bad evildoer. You got an 18? I did. Okay, what did 15 to...

15 to 20. Oh, I got a 10. Okay. That matters. And then, I got a 14. Oh, you got a 14. So, Leffica, Brixie, Yoram, and the Frixie. Call her Leffica. I accidentally did that. My name is Leffica. I'm sorry. He jumps down. Whoa.

and yells as he punches directly into Jorgren. He attempts to hit Marius and misses as he wipes some of the blood from his face and lets his arm drop and it splatters against the floor and the wall as he yells out these inhuman cries. Jericho, it is your turn.

Is it very clear that he's like bleeding from blood pouring from his mask? So it is hard to see his face under the hood that is on him right now. But there is clearly blood coming down from the top of his head somewhere. Oh.

immediately, not sure if he understands the concept of a bard, but presuming my band was a weapon, I'll put it away. And I'll raise my hand and I'll say, oh no, no, it's your old pals! We're your good friends, and you look like you're having a rough day. I've been there too. I'm going to use Healing Word as I do that, as my bonus action. And then I would like to

We'll do six points of healing to him. And then I would like to use my action to cast Minor Illusion. And I would like to have a little spinning effect

made of mist and have the little toy of the Ghost Light Express that the Archbishop had smashed, I suppose. And we haven't seen what happened to it, I guess. - Hugo yells out and the sound is like the mix of a scream and a cry.

Trick, lies, witch! And he's going to slam as his reactions slam into and try and disperse the mist. I would say it's easy to see that he is having a hard time seeing with the amount of blood that's pouring into his eyes. He's clearly fighting at a disadvantage. Shit. I'm sorry, Hugo.

- Hugo, it is us. You do not need to be afraid. You are not in danger. We are not your enemies. - I will walk up and I will, I want to reach out and see if I can

wipe his face clean, but I'm sure he's in a frenzied rage. It'd be almost impossible to get close to him. So instead, I'm going to kneel and almost be prone and see if I can touch his leg where I healed him the last time. Remember our healing touch. Remember, all of this can be repaired. Calm yourself. Find peace within.

- How much are you healing him for? - I will cast Cure Wounds and I'll heal him for acceptable money, eight of the healing points.

You reach down and you put your arms on his leg and you begin to heal him saying these words and you see him stop for a minute and he sniffles and he tries, he thrashes at his eyes trying to wipe the blood away, blinking, trying to blink the blood out of his eyes. Luthica! I'm here. No trick, not friend!

and he's gonna try and kick you off, but you can tell that he's not doing it as hard. He seems conflicted. He's both scared, but he, there's, I would say roll a, roll a perception check for me, please.

It's gonna be a no, I think. I'm gonna go with a 11. 11. You can tell that he is conflicted. He's scared, but he also is fighting with a belief. Maybe it was something he was told. Maybe it's something that's happened. But some kind of belief that you may not be who you say you are. But he can't see you, so it's hard for him to know.

Marius. Having dodged that initial hit as we come around to the tower, I'm gonna roll around to the other side of him, seeing what Lethika is attempting to do. And as I get near him, I'm going to look up at him and say, Hugo, halt! And cast Command on him. And wisdom saving throw 15.

I don't know. I'm gonna use a twist of dread. 19. Yeah, that's good enough. So nothing happens.

He is going to, you watch as he lowers both of his arms and raises his chest to the sky, his shoulders sagging back with the weight of the cages that are held aloft on top of him. And he is going to scream at the top of his lungs, roar. Oddly enough, the sound of this is drowned out still by the sound of the ever ringing bell.

of the bell. And he is going to swipe madly for you, unable to find you, but he doesn't seem to be swayed by you. - That's my turn.

I would come around the same side as Marius, seeing what Farron had done, what Lothica had done. This is really gonna be a problem. And kind of like on his, you know, back side, I would put my hands up onto his leg or whatever, I don't know how tall he is, however I can reach.

On his backside. I know. Like the little curve under the back and side. The curve on the back of his knee. Yeah, whatever. I would just, you know, trying to surround him with kind of the feeling of closeness. And I would put my hands on him and Hugo, you remember us. We were here before. We are your friends. Please trust us and I'll cast Cure Wounds on him again. Eight healing. Okay.

The healing warms up the underside of his leg. He's thrashing this way and that. He's wiping at his eyes. Friends, no! Wicked lies! And he just continues to scream. And it's his turn. And it is his turn. He is going, I have to make a roll. What about breathing in your breath?

No, Sir Marius, big bad evil doer. He didn't go. I thought he went like that and didn't hit anybody. No, that was just a thing that he did in his... Reacting to Marius. But that's fine. So I rolled on his emotional state table and he is so confused. He feels like he senses the presence of his friends and

No hurt friend. Wicked lies. And he just rocks back and forth and he's like squeezing his knuckles, but he is keeping himself from doing any kind of attack. He seems like he wants to, but he is holding his action. Why do I gotta be next?

I pull my flintlocker, or hexlocker, I don't know. I'll figure that out. I pull my gun out of my sack. Your blunderbuss. My 9mm pistol. I know we should have done this last time! Do I shoot him? Are you joking? Don't shoot him! Shoot the bell.

It's not a bad idea! And I will Elvish Blast the bell. Roll for damage on the bell. Well, I have to roll for hit or just damage? Oh, yeah, well, it's a huge fucking bell, sure, you can just hit it. Just roll for damage. You missed that. Well, to be fair, it is moving, so yeah, roll hit it. It is moving. Keep your damage up, because those are pretty high. LAUGHTER

There has never been a more Andy comment than that comment. Oh, what might this? Hold on. It depends what their AC is. What's the AC of the swinging bell? The AC of the swinging bell is probably 12. That's fair, that's fair. The AC of a window is 13. 13. Well, I just said it was 12, so. Okay, then you're good. I hit both.

for 15 damage. - You watch as Briggsy aims his blunderbuss or whatever it is at Hugo and then on Lethika's words, he immediately turns it behind him and lets out one blast, two blasts as you watch as it collides with this bell.

almost a simultaneous hit causes it to rocket forward. It is swinging faster. It is ringing faster, but you do see a small crack appear and then begin to split the belt. Hell yeah. Well done. Keep hitting it! Swinger.

What is your Grimm doing, not what is Mace doing? Oh no. You stand in between me and Anya, I will kill you. Just now, feel the flame a little bit. Just think about that poor child. You are so bad. I think...

that when he hit me, I would have... He probably hit me pretty fucking hard. Yeah, I would imagine that...

As I shirked to the side, my shovel would have hit the ground. Uh, nearest, like, the point of the shovel would have hit the ground, and it would have triggered the sound of my shovel piercing the ground. Uh, a sound that I hear every night in my nightmares as I persistently hear my shovel digging up

and planting into the ground, and I think about my clan, and I think about Anya, and I won't be late again. And I think I would...

I think I would hit him in the face. Let's go! You gotta do what your character would do. This is my favorite session of Edge of Midnight. Oh dear. Yes, do it. Andy! Andy! Oh god, I don't know. I need a spray bottle for this kid. I don't play D&D!

I'm sorry. Do it. You gotta do what your character would do. Stay true, baby. It's treason. You're on a roll here, man. I think my shovel would hit the ground and I would be in a very triggering moment and I almost wouldn't even notice what was going on around me.

And then I'd open my eyes back up, I would swirl with the mists, and I would cleave into Hugo with the broad side of my shovel and say, "Get out of my way!" Roll to attack. Well done. Well done. That's really good. 20. That hits. Spartan, that looks... Oh, there you go.

for 12 damage on the first hit. - How many spell slots are in the game? - What's Geogrim doing here, folks? - I thought about it, I thought about it, but I didn't. - Oh, you did? - Listen, come on. - Four or three. - 11, no. Uh-oh, I think I rolled a three. - You got 11 to hit him the second time. - The second time misses. - All right. - How much damage? - 12 damage, good.

Oh, 14 damage to him. Because of the mists. Oh, my windfury promise. You watch as Jorggrim rips his shovel up out of Jorggrim's

a spot between two of the stones where he had lodged upon Hugo hitting him and swings it around and slams it into Hugo's face. Hugo lets out a yelp of pain as his head flies back. You watch as the hood falls back. He's not wearing a mask because where his third eye had been is now lodged a statue of Foltus. Blood pouring down out of it.

completely obscuring his vision. As he begins, you see, he starts to cry in pain as he lashes out with his arms. I am going to say for rule of cool and I'm the fucking DM, he's gonna attempt to hit two of you, even though he doesn't have legendary reactions. - He does have a reaction back. - And it seems pretty legendary. - He's at disadvantage because he cannot see. - It's like that time I gave it a year. - I got a natural 20, but he's at a disadvantage. - Holy shit.

- Yorgrim, Marius, I'm gonna roll, I'm gonna flip a D2. You're the Kraken, you're the not Kraken. It landed on not Kraken, so it's Yorgrim. 18 to hit? - Yeah, that'll hit. - So he is going, he is lashing out and you were close enough to him that he smashes down on you doing... - Give me player actions.

16 points of damage. Is that what DMs feel? You just whip it up. Just whip it up. Shit. Now I'm dying. You guys have done stuff where I'm like, you technically can't do that, but that's kind of cool. So yeah, I'm like, fuck it. I'm the DM and this would be cool for him to do this right now. So he's going to do it. Oh,

of these fucks. It would be a lair action. I just should have thought of giving him one. Is it like bludgeoning damage? Yeah, it's bludgeoning damage. The lair action is 20 toy trains suddenly. I'm talking about Rena.

And then you see as he tries to fumble with his hood and pull it over, you go ugly, you go ugly, as he's trying to pull it over his head and hide the horrible mauling to his third eye.

Jericho, it's your turn. Oh, gosh, I don't have anything ready. You know what? I am going to say... How about a joke? Oh! It's not the time, Briggsie! Oh! He has quadruple advantage on saving for a few. In the state of emotion, yeah, there's no joke in history. Oh, oh, oh.

Oh, man. Hold on. Hold on a second. Everyone play amongst yourselves. What would it be like combat? So we only have six seconds. Oh. Oh.

- What the fuck? - Oh, and I'll recoil, recoil, as I look at what Briggs has done, and I'll look, and I'll see the things. Oh, your eye, your eye doesn't look so good, Hugo. All I can say is get Belle soon. - I can't see any laughter on him. - What is he after all? - There's damage there, doesn't it? - No, wisdom 16.

- I'm trying to get him to fall prone to like-- - I rolled a natural one. He will fall prone, but he does not laugh. He just cries and cries in pain and in anger and in fear, but he does fall prone and doesn't seem to get up. The fact that he can't get up seems to be scaring him even more. He begins to start gulping and wheezing, crying so hard that he's struggling to breathe.

Oh, uh, well, I think, Lethika, you're doing the best in this scenario here. Keep it up. Get down soon, Lethikana. Give him more good stuff.

Okay, let me stop saying it. Okay. For what it's worth, I tried to essentially do the same thing, so you did it better. So I feel bad that you had to feel bad about that. That's it, that's right. Latika.

I'll double down. I will jump forward and I feel how much pain Hugo is in. I see that he is hurt, that something special about him, his vision has been taken from him. I can't begin to process how this happened, but all I know is that he is in deep misery and suffering. I want that to end as quickly as possible, but I need my allies to help.

Destroy that bell. Stop what you're doing. Yorgram, get control of yourself. Please, Hugo, I know you are hurting, but we are not an illusion. We are here. We are your friends. Please.

And I will attempt to, I don't know if I have a cloak, but any fabric that I have. You can have whatever fabric you need to do whatever you want. I'm trying to almost blanket him to make him feel like he's in a comfortable, warm, safe space. And I'm basically throwing myself on top of him, just trying to let him feel that there's another person living this suffering with him to try and stop this panic. And I'll cast Calm Emotions, which affects your grip.

- Oh! - Let's fucking go. - Each humanoid in a 20 foot radius sphere centered on a point I choose myself must make a charisma saving throw. A creature can choose to fail this saving throw if it so wishes. You can suppress any effect causing a target to be charmed or frightened. When this spell ends, any suppressed effect resumes. - 15. - I don't know if there are any effects or conditions affecting you. This is just deep emotional pain, I imagine, but that is what I am trying to suppress. - What's the DC?

60. Wait, you choose the targets? Or... It's all humanoids. Let me just double check. Is that 15 feet? Each human that I choose. Oh, okay. So I'm choosing everyone. Even the fucking bell, it's gonna work. It won't. It's not a humanoid. It's covered in enough blood. And I want to get down to, like,

indifferent and bored. Not like happy, I just want to get like away from the negative emotions. Just like they popped a Xanny. Yeah, a centered place. And DC 16, my council wants to fucking not be feeling calm emotions at this time, can roll against it. And I will spend this council on it. That'll be the conclusion of my turn. And is it very clear that like you cast out this like Char magic spell?

And you said those words and then we feel the effect. I would say that there would be a thrum of energy. Do the noise then. No, I fucked it up. There would be this thrum of energy, but that sound is more like crickets coming to life on a calm night's day, just as the sun passes over the horizon as it sets. I choose to fail as well.

A charisma saving throw. A charisma saving throw, DC-16, if you want to stay angry. Actually, I'm Bellman! Yeah, I'm mad as fuck. And I choose to fail too. You Bellman. What do you mean? Elizabeth is Patreon, a bell king. Yeah, 19, I'm still mad as fuck. So, you do that. And immediately, Hugo's head lolls to the side towards you. Lethercore. Yes, I am here. Friend.

Your very best friend. Marius, it's your turn.

I was gonna go for the bell. I'm gonna fuck all this up. The bell's still going. The bell's still going. Just shirking off the magic and not really understanding what you were doing and not, nah, it's fucked. I'm just saying if you're gonna attack Hugo, I just need to know. No, no, fuck no. All right. I whisper to myself, by Lathanda, this is going to hurt. I'm going for the bell and I am going to rear back with one hand and try to strike the bell twice and it's gonna fucking ring my bell for sure.

3d8 thunder damage to you uh those are pretty good this is gonna be a 26 to hit and 23 to hit the ac was 12 which we know the two attacks will deal oh my god nine plus five is 14.

plus 10 is 24, plus 14 is 38. - You take your, it's a broadsword, right? - Longsword. - Your longsword. You take your longsword and you take the hilt and you slam it into the bell, widening that crack even more. And as it swings back towards you, you shove the blade in and wrench it to the right, completely prying the bell in two.

It is still swinging, but it is no longer making that same tolling sound. Instead, it's just a sporadic clanking sound as the, I can't remember what that piece is called, the little nodule. The dangle on the inside isn't always able to, I think, yeah, I think it's called the hammer, is not able to find purchase on parts of the belt. Oh, God, it's my arm! And I'll stumble a bit. Oh, and then your arm falls off. Ah!

- Ah, my arm! - That's my turn. - And I'll be like, I guess over here by the bell. - Hugo turns, he's turned towards you and he is trying to wipe the blood from his eyes.

Letheka, Hugo hurt. Here's your inspiration. Hugo, Hugo make Archbishop angry. Hugo see what Hugo should not see. Hugo punish, Letheka. You did not deserve punishment. Whatever the Archbishop did, that is on him. Hugo ugly. No, that is a lie. We are not telling lies now. We are friends. Get it out, Letheka. Letheka.

I will. It hurts. I will. It will hurt to come out, but it must be done. He sniffles and sniffles. You feel as he holds on to part of you, his hands completely dwarfing your leg where he's holding on to you. There's a fear that if he squeezes too hard, he could snap your leg in two. Oh, yeah. I'm...

Like one of those hard breadsticks that are five times as big. You're like a pencil in ice cream. Ferren, I'm trying not to let go of Hugo. He reached into my backpack, not my bag, and grabbed my healing potion from it.

Are you sure? Yes. I need you to pour it into the wound immediately. As soon as it's... Rifle through. As soon as I pull the statue free. So this one? Yes. All right. Ready, Hugo? You're very brave, Hugo. One...

And he lets out the loudest scream that you have heard from him yet. The sound, there is a loud suctioning sound as the statue, which now that you're this close to it, you can see is pure silver, is pulled from his eye. Where his third eye had been, that eye that showed to you that he was not hill giant, but

part femorian you see as there's a large gaping hole in the very center that continues at first a large spurt of blood spills forth from it but now it slowly

trickles and drips whatever fey magic is within him seems to already begin the healing process as you see that hole slowly begin to close up. It doesn't seem like he can see from the third eye anymore but the bleeding is slowly starting to clot and it looks like it's slowly starting to heal. How long it will take who knows whether he'll ever get the use of that eye back it's hard to tell but you now hold within your hand the statue of Foltus and as you look down it you see it covered in

in the blood of your friend, Hugo, and you see that the head of the statue has been removed. - Like it's not in him? - No, it was clearly removed beforehand. - Okay, got it. - Shit.

Now Hugo just writhes on the ground. He is calm, more calm than he had been before. And now he's just rocks back and forth as pain, or in pain as he's saying, "Thank you. Thank you, Lethka. Thank you, friends." "You're all right. You're going to be okay." "Hugo love you."

I love you too, Hugo. And hearing those words, he begins to cry. Just crying and crying and crying. No one ever told Hugo they love Hugo before. Hugo has had a hard past, but there is a bright future ahead of you. I know it. You are very strong.

You see him kind of steal himself and he sits up and the blood has sort of stopped flowing from that eye enough that he's able to wipe his eyes and he blinks and you see that there's still blood in them but he begins to focus and he can see all of you and he smiles at you and it's a grotesque sight to see him like this and it is hard to look at.

But he looks so happy to see all of you as he reaches out and he runs his hand down your cheek or your mask. And you can see that there's genuine joy and affection for all of you. And you see he looks a little scared as he says, "You have to go beneath the cathedral. You have to stop him. He's not himself. He hurt Hugo."

The Archbishop. He's bad man. Yes, I think that we... Hungry bad man. Can you take us there? No, you're going to leave tower. No, it's fair, it's fair.

I won't say anything, but now that things have calmed down, I'd like to go and see if the pieces of the toy train that the Archbishop had smashed are around, and then I'd attempt to find it. He's going to continue saying some things, but in the meantime, roll investigation to see what you find.

Go to, go to Cathedral Room behind Altar Switch. Take stairs down, down, down. Dark room. Whispering voices, Hugo no go. It's alright, you stay here and you need to rest. Save us. Save Hugo. You will. We're going to get you justice, I promise.

You got scared? It's okay. You know, now that my emotions are clear, I mean, I can now realize I think we did this to him, really. Because he helped us.

It's kind of fucked up. I feel bad about it, weirdly. What kind of fucking magic is this? Not your fault. You think we are responsible? We did not drive this into this world. He flinches and looks away. We mixed him up in all this. I have to understand and agree with where Briggs is coming from. If it were up to me, I would have had Hugo just run away, but that wasn't an option, and I hated leaving him here. But what's done is done, and all we can do is move forward. Wait, hold on.

I'm gonna get to walk to the edge of the tower. Now that the bell's not ringing, I'm gonna look down to see if I can see any... Like, are people freaking out or, like, wondering why the bell's not ringing? It looks like they're still enthralled in their sins. Are there multiple bells, or is this just the one? It was just the one that was ringing. And you imagine it's just been perpetuating things, but the magics have already taken hold. Like, whatever was underway is underway. And you imagine that the bell was helping...

For all you know, the bell might end up being the catalyst and you could have done something very special here today. - Doubt it. We never do that, right? - Or it could have just been a tool that started the entire thing. - True. - It's hard to know.

Just for your knowledge, I got a 22 investigation. You make your way over to Hugo's bed and you are fussing around there a bit and you see just the front portion of the locomotive and you reach down to grab the piece. It's clearly broken. And as you do, the rest of it follows along. Pieces of ripped up dirty fabrics had been used clearly by Hugo to attempt to tie all the pieces back together.

and he had kept it with him right there next to his bed. Garbage is the saddest thing I ever did see. While, you know, the ladies are trying to calm Hugo down, I'll probably try to clean it up a little bit, and I don't have mending, but I'll just try to, like...

in any kind of repair on them to myself. I don't know if that's required, but like just try to figure out how it works and like try to piece it back together whatever way I would be able to. I'll say you, you work a little bit harder. You've got, you know, things attached to you, a screwdriver here, something else there because you're a weird mechanical scarecrow. So why couldn't you have those things on your person?

And you are able to put it back together in a way that is much more usable in the way Hugo had essentially sewn it together. It still won't work, but when given to him, if you choose to do that, it is clearly in a much better shape than it had been before. - I'll be doing that. - Hugo, I-- - Marius, Hugo's sorry. Hugo tried to hurt you. - No, no, do not apologize.

You must understand I meant what I said before. I hated leaving you up here as we left, and I hate to do it again. You must remember this one thing. If anything else, remember this one thing. You will never apologize for defending yourself. You will never be in the wrong for doing that. You are much stronger than you realize, and you have the ability to defend yourself. Hugo, we can no longer. Hugo have friends. Hugo have love.

Family. That's right. That's right. Where's your family? If you need Hugo, you call and Hugo come. And he looks at you all and he seems very serious. Hugo, protect the ones you go love. Even to Hugo death. It won't come to that. As far as my ability will take me, it won't come to that. Go. Time, move fast. Go. We will go.

Take care of yourself. It's the way you can help us best now. I'll pull Marius aside while I'll let the ghost talk me to Hugo. Do you think that we should send him away into the woods? Listen, that was the very first thing I thought of the first time we were up here, and I just... I don't think he'll go.

I don't know. He's very strong, but I don't know if he's ever been on his own. And even though it would be best for him to get away and make a life for himself, for now, holing up in this bell tower might be the best thing he can do. We could send him to Maggie. Child, they could protect each other. I mean, the townsfolk are obviously scared of him. He's been someone to keep the peace, but...

With everything that's going on, I wouldn't trust them to not make a bad decision if they see him. Wouldn't they be afraid of him? I don't know if they're in the right minds to be feeling fear. That's a good point. Well, I'm a little concerned...

Does anyone look to see what the state of the crowd and our old boy Billy Bones are doing? I took a look. I mean, it's like when I saw him. It's absolutely no difference. I didn't even notice that the bell stopped. I thought that perhaps the bell... I'm here now.

I thought that these... I'm still cradling Hugo, but we're all talking in a... Yes. Hugo seems to be calm. I'll say Jericho gave him the toy train and he pulled you in and gave you a hug that hurt a little more than it should. And he is dragging the train along the ground. Choo-choo.

And he seems very happy. That's real nice. That's my boy. Oh, gosh. I'm going to stay like this the whole rest of the campaign. I had thought that the bell was what was enraging Hugo, the way it compelled emotion in us. But that injury was rageful enough.

I think that we need to pay Danton Renald a visit very soon. Would you agree to go? We definitely need to at least ask him what's going on, get his side of the story, figure out why that statue ain't got no head, first of all. Second of all, where's the little one? Third of all, tell him not to go rile up that angry mob. Let us go find what the rightful place for this statue is.

Yoga. Yes? Are you alright? Yes. I think so. Do you need a rest? You took a bit of a wallop. There's no time to rest. We should keep moving. Gosh, you know, given that I'm the fella with the demon inside of me, I know this is very hypocritical for me to say, but I don't think we can afford, if you're feeling...

If we get into a tricky situation that requires us to be calculated and cautious, if the little one is in danger, we could end up doing more harm than good if you're running in there real angry. Do you want to talk about something? What he's trying to say is when you hit Hugo, I don't think you were seeing Hugo.

You've got to keep your eyes clear. I was reeling from reliving my past when we were creating our soul anchors. I just...

I don't want to be responsible for more atrocities. Very admirable. If we had not just shared our experiences in the mist, I would probably have very different words for you. But I see now much more in you. And I think we should move quickly now, but I think you will be able to perhaps find some form of redemption.

I just have one question. Did that Warchief fella, did he ever... Ner'gul. Ner'gul, that fella, did he get his comeuppance at all in any part that perhaps we may have missed? Aye. All I know is that when he raised the Mournhammer and burnt asunder the souls of my entire clan, he was...

So he survived like being a skeleton? Well I mean I just wanna say, based on what I saw

Again, I'm just an observer here, but I don't think you're that responsible. You were tricked. I mean, just like the rest of us. I mean, surely some responsibility in being tricked, but I mean, in your case, certainly, you were just doing what you were told. I should have known better. The spirit spoke to me, not to him. It's my blind loyalty and faith. I dug up every one of my clan, and that was...

Just the first. When I walked the fields afterwards, everyone was dead. Yeah, that's rough. And they hadn't just passed on. Never hear them speak to me again. Their souls were destroyed and ripped in a torrent of death. The energy harnessed, existing on the fringes of the realms of death, just outside of...

The Maiden's Lands. It's pure energy. Do they look like horrible mist abominations that have a penchant for attacking trains? What do you mean? Like horrible, like creepy ghoul type things? I think what he's trying to say is, you know, we got this land via train. On our way, we were attacked by, I mean, I'm presuming what you're describing is these horrible...

soulless soul type things, maybe not. You know, it might be just a similarity, you know? In the mist. They were in the mist. Let's move on. You're going to give Hugo a night, Paris. Yeah, that's fair. Anyway, as long as you're feeling good, I want to make sure everybody feels good before we go down there. We've all made mistakes and things that we regret, but you have to move forward and you can't let your blind trust be replaced by blind rage.

You have to open your eyes now. And if we gotta talk to this fella, we should make sure we talk until we get every little bit of information that we can. Because once that moment has passed, it's passed. There's so much I want to ask my best gals. What's in the wise? And because I made a rash decision, I'll never get that closure. And we genitals don't get closure, but all it takes is one rash decision to make us never know what we could have

we could have used to live a better life. My mind is clear. Okay. I'm feeling better if you're feeling better. I'm feeling better.

So with that, you all gather your things, you say your goodbyes to Hugo, and he seems like he's in a much better state. I promise to Hugo that I will repair his train in full with mending, which I do have, if he defends himself and makes sure that he takes care of himself until we see him again. And he promises that he will, and that if you need him just to call.

that he will fight to the death for his friends, for his family. And that even though he doesn't have his eye anymore, he does see truth in you. And he does his best to give you motivation and inspiration.

and he gets up and he walks you all towards the door and gives you the directions to head down the passageway that leads the circular staircase in the bell tower. What rooms to go through, what doors to avoid, what hallways to creep through to get to the cathedral proper where the services of faith are performed. And you are able to do that quickly.

It doesn't seem like, and he lets you know that outside of him and the Archbishop at this moment there is no one else in the cathedral.

And so you are able to make your way through and quickly into the church proper, the cathedral proper. You're standing in this space which is open and echoing. Your footsteps no longer masked by anything. If the archbishop is anywhere, he will hear that you are here.

as you slowly make your way past Pew, past the aisle after aisle, the beautiful stained glass windows depicting images of Foltis, the one true path, all lining the sides of the walls. The iconography in here is beautiful, almost so beautiful that it's hypnotizing. The altar is pristine in the colors of Foltis and beautiful white marbles. Clearly no expense was spared in the creation of this place.

And you make your way closer and closer towards the altar, and you slowly hear a "Krrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

What do I owe this pleasure? He shuts the door behind him and walks over towards the altar and stands behind it with his arms spread almost as if he's about to get ready to give a sermon. You notice, strapped to his side, there is a pouch that is partially open. You can see some crumbs on his tunic. He's clearly recently been snacking. Archbishop, we have a few things to discuss. Please, I'm all ears. I have...

A few hours before my address to the citizens of Cyril. Well, that's one of the things we wanted to talk to you about. Go on, my good man. There's a man in town, I'm sure you know him, William Van Brunt. Yes, I've heard of him. He's trying to organize a literal witch hunt. He has riled up the city in quite a way. You're not thinking about allowing this, are you? No.

Catching witches is what we do. Do you not think this a wise idea, Marius? You know witches better than most. I think, given in light of recent events, that this particular witch hunt will help no one. It will be nothing but wanton and innocent slaughter. Then I will deny his request. And what if he's not exactly asking? You see, he smiles. He may attempt to do what he wishes, but William Van Brunt is...

And he holds his hand up.

Follow me. And he slowly starts to stride towards the front doors. Do you follow? Well, that was surprisingly reasonable. I don't think we're quite done on discussion yet, though. We will continue it, but let us address the matter at hand. I just look to Jericho. I mean, uh...

- Yeah, sure, sure. - He motions for you and he continues to walk. - Yeah, no. - He walks slowly, measured paces. Occasionally when he thinks that you aren't seeing, he attempts to sneak a sweet treat and he eats it. He eventually opens the doors and you hear the crowd roar. William Van Brunt looks nervous as he quickly jolts off of the stairs and down into the crowd. And the archbishop raises his arms.

Citizens of Cyril, I have heard your plea. But tomorrow night marks a momentous occasion.

and we need everyone in town available for the proceedings. There will be no witch hunt in the woods. I have prayed to Foltus and the one true path lies in this city and not the woods beyond. Anyone who wishes to deny this order, their fate is death.

And you see the crowd looks sad for a moment. But then they begin to start yelling, celebration, party tonight. Yeah, party at my house.

house. Let's go get a drink. You want to fuck in the streets? And they just as quickly as their minds were turned towards... Who was the fucking Danish? Just as quickly as their minds were turned towards the killing of Maggie McDuff, they are quickly shifted towards all the amazing things that they can do in the city. You do see that William Van Brunt

behind the Archbishop and he sees you in the shadows. You see a look of pure rage on his face. Exactly right. As he grabs Percy Phipps by the scruff and throws him into the throng, kicks him in the back, pushing him down, and he yells something like, get up, you moron. Get in, bitch, we're going shopping. And...

Take it easy, Fraser! He's just a toad! And they disappear into the crowd as the crowd disperses. And some people cheer for the Archbishop. He stays for about five more minutes, just waving his hands and follow the one true path. May Foltus be with you. Do not give in to the wickedness of witches as he does that. Sidebar, sidebar, folks. Sidebar.

"What?" "Uh, that's... yes, that went infinitely more smooth than I expected. I know we have a more awkward question at hand and that might get violent, but I'm confused." "We need to get him back inside. A favor done does not erase what he did to Hugo." "Oh, absolutely not. I'm certainly not withholding judgment. I'm just acting rationally until we get to the bottom of this." "He's done what we need him for." "I'm glad we agreed." "He's a thing. Maybe he is. Maybe he's just as mind-controlled as all the goons!"

Out of character, there were three things that you said you wanted to ask. It was, where's the girl? Step one. Stop Van Brunt. What was the third one? It was just a generic, like, what's going on here? Oh, the statue. The statue with no head. Why is it missing? I think...

Those are pretty confrontational questions. Well, it's going to get more interesting. You bought this Ted and then Jim statue? You know, I found this in Hugo's eyes. What I will say, I think you're smart enough to know if you show him that statue, he'll know you've been with Hugo. Oh, yeah. And is that something you would want him to know? It's in my bag and we'll cut it.

I won't even make you roll and he would 100% know exactly where you came from. This guy also might only take a few more steps in his lifetime. He better think about where he wants to take those steps. I don't want to. Is there any chance we haven't done anything right yet? Is there any chance keeping all of those townsfolk in the city tomorrow night?

It's gonna end up being a bad thing. Oh, that's certainly a possibility, absolutely. Uh, yes. The thought crossed my mind, but we certainly don't want them looking for Maggie, finding her, and then killing an innocent child. I think that we just save...

Matron MacDuff and the little one, they make a rain. I mean, it's my priority. If it dooms the rest of them, I don't really care at this point. Right, well then, you know, perhaps we'll just ask him where Hong is, and if it comes to blows, we will be ready. We heard that she snuck into the... Perhaps I... No, you should ask, I should not. Do we even need him for that? Hugo told us where to find her.

So my understanding is that the switch is behind the altar. In the room you're currently in with him. We don't need him, no. But I'm sure he would try to stop us if we just help ourselves. I'd rather be full. Well then why don't we return his statue and be on with it? And by return it, I mean shove it in his own eye.

That's still an option. I'd prefer to-- The other option is that we shove it into his ass. Oh, or that. I would prefer to keep Hugh out of this. Although if it doesn't kill him, then it's just a sex thing. So what I will remind you is that the Archbishop has retaliated on Hugo. If he finds out that was taken out of his eye...

To Briggs's point... There could be consequences. We didn't... Yes, we were in... How would you murder him? If I'm not being clear to the group. What consequences? If he's dead, he can't do shit? To Briggs's previous point, I agree that we are not responsible primarily for what happened to Hugo, but I would prefer to not involve him further currently. If we ask him where Anya is and he doesn't give us an answer we like...

We can cut his head off. Well, if there's magical keys or magical passwords that we need in order to find whatever creepy cell like down below the jail, we can at least keep his head alive or something that's talking.

I don't think now's the time to... You're right. And it's with that that the Archbishop begins to make his way back into the cathedral as he starts to close the doors. It's with the grinding of these heavy doors on stone that you have your last moments to say what you want to say to each other before they slam shut. I don't think now's the time to cross him. He's still powerful enough to set fire to 20 people with a wave of his head. I don't think we beat him in a heads-up fight. I did forget about that.

Oh yes, oh yes, oh Jorgrim, the stained glass in here is straight fire. Oh, it probably took 20 people in order to craft each of these windows. What is Pugh's made out of? Is this Mahogany?

And the door is slammed shut. And the archbishop steps towards you and waves you back towards the altar as he makes his way in silence, occasionally sneaking a treat, smacking his lips a little too loudly. It echoes across the room, but he feels like he's being discreet as he stands behind the altar once again, raising his arms to you.

You said there were other pressing matters that we needed to discuss. How may I assist my heroes? I make big wide eyes at Marius. Well, first off, thank you. That was...

extremely reasonable of you and I appreciate you stopping the malice that was potentially about to happen. If the heroes of Sira will say that I send my people into danger for folly, then I will stop at nothing to make sure that does not happen. That is the one true path. Thank you. As far as the next matter goes...

I want to be clear that this is simply a question and not an accusation, but are you aware of a young orphan girl named Anya being brought here to the cathedral? He looks up and, no, not to my knowledge. I apologize, my phone is... The Lord has his own truth, the Lord has his own truth, and I'm thinking about using it.

He probably just tells me to fuck off, though. Didn't Lafika tell us that at some point he tried to do something and said, "Go fuck yourself," with his mind? Yes, I would like to discern-- Until next time. I'm the cute of the visionary. You know what to do. I would like to discern if he is telling the truth. Insight check. 23.

He seems... You don't see... You don't sense anything that seems like he's lying. He seems sure of what he's saying to you, answering the question specifically that you asked. Why would you imagine that a child was brought here? Where would we keep a child? In a cathedral? Well, you know, that's exactly what my question was as well. That was going to be my next question. But...

If you're so sure that, and I'm looking at the rest of the group, so sure that the rest of, that a young orphan girl may not have wandered in here or been brought here by someone without your knowledge or even without you knowing it, then... Does a big cathedral on your airlock by yourself? It is true. Would you like to explore the cathedral with me and look for this girl? Me? I would be happy to give you a tour of the grounds.

If there's a place you believe her to be kept, I would be happy to take you there. Maybe she's playing the game hide and seek and just is a real performer in that realm. Children want to play tricks. Well, why don't you lead the way first and we will be right behind you.

Fuck, he's being so accommodating. It's very hard to kill him. What I would like to attempt to do is if, I'll suggest maybe a place to start and have him lead us there. And if he's a few steps ahead of us, I would just want to tell them discreetly,

I don't think that he's lying. I think that he believes that Anya wasn't brought here, et cetera, et cetera. Perhaps the pantry. And I will say, you are able to do that. He does keep his eye on you. And he leads you out through the entirety of the cathedral.

Every single room. He explains some things about it. You can tell he's very passionate about Holtis. All the while sneaking suites. But he takes you through every single room you want to go to. You pass a door that looks like it might go somewhere that he passes. And you mention, well, what about in there? He opens it to show you a room closet or a lavatory or a closet filled with priest's robes. He even goes as far as to open some of the pews to show you what's inside of them. Maybe the confessional.

And after a while, he gets so used to Briggsie doing this that he doesn't even watch. And he just allows Briggsie to do what he does, and then as Briggsie walks away, you watch as he goes over and straightens it and shines the silver. I cast Choke on Hard Candy. And then no one would suspect it. And you eventually make your way back into the cathedral proper, and he...

Unless there is anywhere else that you think she may be. So while we were going through, if there is like any of the tabernacle thing or anything that were like relics or things might be stored,

Roll your Decide a Hand to see if you can steal shit. No, no, no, no. What I'm looking for is if there's a place where it looks like the statue could have been and was then removed from. Oh, it was stored here. Roll a Perception check. How did that happen? Is there any additional silver statues? He likes to scheme. That's a really good scheme.

though he digs for treasure that's exactly right a good pirate has to be pretty smart or at least crafty yeah he's crafty exactly right prescription 15

15? You are walking through the hall closest to Hugo's bell tower where he mentions to you that these are the stairs up to the bell tower. It is where Hugo resides. Without his permission, he doesn't feel comfortable taking you up there. And it seems a little surprised when none of you are

especially with the way you've been, rearing to get back up there. But he doesn't seem put off by it and continues to lead the way. And it is as you pass it, you notice a small, like, wall table that is draped in religious cloths and effigies. And there are a set of two statues. And one is still there, fully intact. The other one is gone. But you can see the small ring of wear where it had used to sit on the fabric. Oh, my God.

Oh. Hey guys, I think I saw where the old statue was taken from. You whisper this to the earth. What was that, Big Z? I'm not a writer, I'm a man. I listen to MC Confucius. I'm fucking saying funny shit when I'm talking to you, Big Z. Here we go! Skull and stone. So you found...

Yeah, it was with a bunch of other holy stuff, like this jawbone of St. Fultonheimer. LAUGHTER

Also, can I roll to steal any kind of, like... Can we please? We did the whole thing, but we still got that. Any bone relic that might have been on that table, I would like to steal. Roll a sleight of hand. I want to steal bones.

Archbishop, tell me of this tapestry. It looks very interesting. Oh, baby. I'm going to ask Crossroads to help me with this one, too. Archbishop, look over here! What I will say is I rolled a natural 18. Well, I rolled a natural 18, and my plus, hold on, hold on. My plus is plus 7, so we're at 25, and Crossroads really likes religious relics as well, so I'm going to, hold on.

I can roll a d6 and add the number on the check. Yeah, you got it. Everybody be ready to score. That's pretty good. 25 plus that. 29.

You steal the other statue. The top one. You passed by what was clearly a bowl that had been passed around during one of the services that is filled with coins. A collection plate. A collection plate, thank you. And you're able to pocket the entire thing, which totals around 500 gold pieces. Holy shit, I'll take that.

And you also find a small piece of Foltis, like a stained glass that looks like it could have fit in like a nice bathroom. And you imagine on a market somewhere you could flip a profit on this pretty well. If you can get it back without damage. Yeah.

- It's about this tall and it is peaked. - We're gonna clean up when we hit the market. - So wait, so I stole a statue? - You stole the other statue. - The other statue. - The magic statue. - About 500 gold pieces. - Silver, Fultus statue. - Okay, hold on. Oh, Atticus the Lion. - And here is where we collect the alms for the sick and the underlings.

- And the cute injured puppy dog. - Collection plate? - Oh, you take the plate too? It's a silver collection plate, probably worth a good.

50 to 100 gold pieces. And then, sorry, what else did I get? You piece a stained glass window that looks like it could hang on the wall. It's about a foot tall. So a stained glass like piece of art? Yes. Like they sell that at a cathedral in BC. Oh, dear. A little big shot.

And here is our gift shop. Anything else? No, that's it. You've seen that enough. Can I also get the jawbone of Saint? Yes, you got the jawbone of Saint. I love how we bullied the DM into just inventing our real thing. You're amazing. The jawbone of Saint. Fultonheimer. Fultonheimer. His name is my name, too. Let me write it down. Jawbone.

i'm sure that's gonna happen john jacobs i'm imagining this scene like if it was animated where like brinkley would have mary's been close i figured out the thing i also found him literally the jawbone has come up from stage bottom of the lower frame

Welcome, Peter Rothschild. Welcome. Thank you for being part of our family. And with that, you make your way back into the cathedral proper, and he says to you, Unless there are any other areas of the cathedral that you see fit that we should look, that is the full tour that we would show anyone.

Well, I've heard, and perhaps, I know Druskin Vault is a very unique place, but back where we come from, I've heard great barge stories of churches and cathedrals being built atop catacombs. Yes. And usually the saints and all of them folks are kept in them catacombs. Well, the...

The skeleton, bar the jaw of St. Fultonheimer, is kept beneath the altar of the church. Well, we shouldn't go there. What I'm asking is, is that if there is perhaps a crypt or catacombs where a child might think was an exciting adventure, especially one as precocious as our little Anya, that'd be the first place she'd look. You're telling me that you think the child...

found her way into the catacombs and the rooms beneath the altar. That's extremely reason. She's a slippery one and likes to get herself into trouble. Would it ease your minds if I took you below?

Yes, actually it would. Yeah, I mean, if you're willing. He looks up at the rose window, which is the circular stained glass window at the very head of the cathedral, and he looks out at where the moon is at the sky, and you see he puts some fingers up as if he's using this as a way to tell the time. We still have time. I will show you if it will calm your nerves. And he reaches for a large silver key at his waist, and he walks...

behind the cathedral. And you see that there is a, there is a plate there, um, that has what looks like some faint, um, it's like a metal covering, almost like a trap door. Um, but it has, uh, etchings in it and symbols of Foltis, et cetera. And there is a large lock on it.

He reaches down, he unlocks it and opens it up and you see steps that clearly go down into the underbelly of the cathedral. He moves to the side, he picks up a lantern and he lights it and raises it in front of him.

Well, we will have to make haste. We will not be able to dally the way we did through the rest of the cathedral, but there is not much down here. A few places for those of power within the church to rest when their time has come, and some ceremonial rooms. I will show them all to you if you would like. If there is one place where our little onion would be, it'd be down in the spooky catacombs.

Yeah, exactly right. And once we check, we'll find her for sure, but if not, at the very least, our old pal your groom will be able to sleep peacefully knowing she's not trapped underground. We need the heroes of Cyril more than ever, and I need you to be at peace.

So if this is what must be done to give you peace, I am happy to do it. But I will need a moment. And you see as he turns towards the altar and opens up a side placard. Say you don't need to roll for it, because brevity. And you watch as he pulls out a large sausage and begins to just devour it.

before closing the door, wiping his face off, and turning back towards you. Let us proceed. And then he begins to... Allergies. Allergies. And he begins to make his way down into the crypts. And you do find yourself in a crypt when you will be... Allergies on your feet. Mm-hmm.

I like to put my Carmex all over my face and my nose. I'm sorry it's a little oily. I need to eat some sausage and then enjoy Sarkutery. As he's leaning into the catacombs, I want to lean over to Bigsy and just say, I wonder if he's wondered what happened to the Hiding Prisoner, or if she's just mysteriously gone missing, or if he's missing his twist with her.

It's only been like a few hours. I'm just kidding, it's only been like a few hours. It feels like weeks to me. Yeah, because we lived a full lifetime through each other's shoes. Well, it's probably been like five or six hours. Well, then I'm glad I didn't say anything out loud. I was going to straight up ask him if he'd seen The High Inquisitor. That would have been atrocious. I think I'm going to ask him a question. And this is where...

Sir, Saint Voldenheimer was buried after the defeat of the- I'm sorry, what did you say, Jericho? Oh, yes. Well, I noticed that when we first came to visit your humble city, that you had a whole clergy here, and they don't seem to be present in the cathedral presently, at the present. Are they perhaps outside enjoying the festivities or angry mobitudes?

No, they have been summoned house upon house to produce or to perform exorcisms. Oh. Oh. Exorcisms. Are there spooky ghosts about? Or demons? Do you think they can exorcise me?

- This is the tomb, and he continues to explain. - Do we pass through the Sunsink Fulton Armour? - No. - We'll continue, and I'm ready. - He continues to show you through the catacombs and you eventually, it is not very large. There aren't that many here. He even shows you the place where eventually he will be buried.

And you get towards the end where there is an arched doorway with a grate and he looks for and finds another much older ornate silver key and uses a lock to unlock it. And you see that from this point forward, where the catacombs you'd been in before, where the walls were even made out of skulls and bones, think the catacombs under France.

Going forward, the stone matches exactly the stone that you saw in your visions as he leads you through twists and turns and you don't pass any rooms. It's all just hallways and hallways. And he leads you through it all until he gets to another door. This is, you will find a room that is empty, but it is for thoughtfulness, for praying,

And he pulls out that same key that he used, the really ornate one, and he unlocks the door and swings it open. And as he ushers you inside, he stays out in the hall. Or not stays out in the hall, he gets like right into the door. And you see that this room is almost like an exact match size-wise as the cathedral room above. These stones themselves are pristine.

and beautiful. There is light in here and it is completely empty. But you are looking at it. It is that sense of deja vu. This is the exact room that you saw. You can see in the center where that pole had been, where Anya had been tied up. You can see the area completely clean. No signs of blood or anything at all where the goat had been decapitated. And it is very clearly this room.

Well, I want to thank you for your time. This has been immensely easy. For me, at least. My mind. I don't want to speak for anyone else. But I do feel much better now. While Marius is talking to it, I'd like to discreetly... The thing dangling from my staff, the witch's stone? Is that what it was? I'd like to peek through that. You peek through it and you see...

Just an empty room. It's a large room. It's large. And you can tell it's the exact one you were looking in. It's just through the vision, it was much harder to really see the scale. And you are, I would say you're easily able to mill about and inspect and look at the walls. And the Archbishop seems happy to answer any questions that you may have. And I need you all to roll a wisdom saving throw for me, please. Oh, no. Oh, no.

As long as you don't change the music, we're gonna be fine. Oh, this is called Medieval Whisperers. Are you kidding me?

Yeah, I'm gonna stick with a 15 I'm feeling pretty good I'm five would you like to twist it Mike I

Wisdom? Yeah. Not charisma? No. Wisdom. Oh, I'm actually proficient. We got twists. Yeah, we got twists. I think it's going to be okay. If everyone else melts into a pile of hair, I think it's going to be alright. I got a 23. I got a 6. 21. 15 sounds like it might be the lowest here. Oh, so you're saying that... Jericho. Natural 20. 20. Sex. Fuck. Zero sex. Every single one of you

You feel a pull inside your head for just a split second headache. And all of a sudden, in the center of the room, you see the effigy of Mother Night. The effigy that you saw in the crooked house. That you saw just hours ago. But this time, the body is that of a small girl with the goat's head attached to where the neck should be.

Clearly, Anya's body dangling from the pole in the middle of this room as the goat's head sits atop the stump of the neck. And then just as quickly, your eyes adjust and the room is completely empty. There's nothing here. You all look around frantically for a moment and then you see the room start to come together. You see a pool of blood off to the side. The body of the goat. No head where a head should be.

And then a few feet away from it, the head lying there with its tongue lolling out of its mouth as the blood pools out of the skull. And in the very center of the room, exactly what you had expected to see when you walked into this room, the pole. And lying in front of it, tied up and wiggling and crying, is the form of Anya. Completely alive, completely unharmed.

You hear the sound of smacking as the Archbishop chews on candy behind you, not paying any attention whatsoever. What do you do? Can I ask? Sorry. So we see an image of her body with the goat and then it flashes away and then you see the blank room and then all of a sudden your eyes begin to actually see what's really here. And that is that Anya has not become that effigy yet. She is laying at the foot of the pole, but all the

all the pieces for the effigy are there. And in the very center of the room is that runic circle, much larger, much, it feels much stronger. And the archbishop is either different or not. He's not even, doesn't seem to, what I will say without needing to roll an insight check, he's not even looking into the room. He is, he's just chewing on his food and he seems completely nonplussed. He brought you to a room that was empty.

Yes, that's what I was gonna say. I was gonna almost as stoically as possible, without giving a single thing away, turn towards the door to look at him and just see how he was reacting, but you described it as such. I don't even want to say anything, because I don't know... You... Archbishop. May I call you that, though? You may call me Archbishop. Fucking ass.

I'm very mad at him. So, Ani is wriggling now. What are you going to do? I would slowly walk towards the center of the room. How far away am I? 30 feet? Uh,

I would probably like... Yeah, think about a cathedral. It's huge. I would slowly walk towards her and as I realize it's really her, it's not like a mind vision thing, I'd start running at her. You run at her and you're able to crumple to the floor in front of her. I'm just going to say you do these things. You begin to pull the...

from her hands and from her mouth. And you look down at her and she looks up and she smiles at you. There are tears, new fresh new tears coming down from her face. You can see the white outline of the dried tears that had dried maybe hours before to her face. Yorkie, it's you. You're okay, little one. You came to save me from whatever is happening here.

Of course! You're not in any danger anymore. She reaches up and she puts her small hand on your cheek and I need you to roll a perception check for me, please. Oh boy. This is gonna go south real quick. I know, I'm like so anxious. Before you roll the-- Pushes my face and I slam 50 yards into the wall. This might be a cheesy question, but when I made the wisdom saving throw, did it have any sense, did it feel like crossroads? Did it feel like any connection? No.

It did not. That's not a cheesy question, that's a good one. Oh boy. Perception, you said? Perception. I'm proficient. Alright. You know what? I use my own spray. We're twisting it. We need this one.

Big money. I'm just gonna give it to you. That's not big money. That's worse! That's the same money I got the first time! Give yourself that twist back, because I think this is narratively important. I'm going to give it to you. As she caresses your face, you reach down and you hold her small head in your giant orc hands, and you look into her eyes, and the green of her eyes is different. And there's something different about her face.

You can't quite catch it. And then you watch as the eyes shift to brown and the skin below her eyes begins to sag and her body begins to elongate as she lets out a loud cackle. Ha ha ha!

You're so stupid, Jörgrim. I'm going to follow this little girl. I'm going to give her her storybook back. I'm going to protect her from all the evils in this land, all the while giving me the tools I need. I miss you too, Jörgi. Thank you for saving me. Your mother, Midnight. And that is where we'll end the session. What the fuck? Derek called it. I'm so mad Derek was right.

What the fuck? You are not always right, don't you ever say that to me again! Goddamn brain. Fuck, I have- oh my god. I had so many theories that you just blew completely out of the water. We're going home. Yeah, no- no Avengers and children. We're just gonna fucking leave. We just gotta chill. We got a lot to talk about. We got a lot to do. Are you punishing us because we were goofy earlier? No. How could you do this, Nate?

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