Edge of Midnight | Ep. 20 | Inner Demons
02:31:48 Share

Welcome to Legends of Evandris. I'm Nikki Scarlet, and you're listening to Edge of Midnight. Here is what happened last time. Now all you have to do is let go. You said I could finally eat my fill. Finally, I get to eat now. He's feeding on your connection to your dark entity. You do!

I'm...

You have one round to attempt to stop him. As Briggsie steps up, blast! One of his wings flies off. Blast! As he begins to fall. The last of the Baelor has been banished from Drusman World. Archbishop Renault is dead. The seven Baelor of Sin have been banished, and the Knight of Sin has been stomped. Mother Midnight is nowhere to be seen.

But it's clear to you now more than anything, you've saved the whole thing. There's always a calm before the storm. But what about after? Even when the violence is done and the battles are won, is there ever really any peace? Why do they never talk about the calm after the storm? I guess we'll find out. This story began with a ride aboard a ghost train.

Each of you, besides Jorgrim, had been going about your own lives. When one by one the Ghostlight Express emerged from the fog and stopped beside you, you were each greeted by the train's mysterious conductor, a vagabond frogman who introduced himself only as the Vagrant. He collected a strange train ticket that had mysteriously appeared on each of your persons, and you were all all aboard of the Ghostlight Express.

You all journeyed through the mists, and once you joined together, the increasingly violent aberrations from outside the train smashed through the windows and corrupted the hollow souls of the dead who had been your fellow passengers. You sprang into action, and your subsequent victory proved that your forces combined were far more powerful than alone. The Ghost Light Express concluded its journey, and you arrived in Druskinvald, a mysterious realm of eternal night imprisoned in the Lands of Death.

The first thing you noticed was the enormous, leering moon in the sky with the face of a gnarled hag hanging in the sky. The vagrant bid you farewell and left you on a foggy train platform in the middle of the dark woods, where you heard the breaths and steps of an enormous beast that seemingly chose not to attack. Soon, a black carriage driven by a headless coachman appeared before you and the door opened to a warm, inviting glow.

Upon entering, you found a much larger space than you had expected, and it felt more like a gaudy jazz club than a stagecoach. Inside, you found a tall, thin man with slicked back hair, a pencil-thin mustache, and a dapper outfit complete with cane, topped with a silver goat skull. He was joined by an arch-gravedigger who introduced himself as Jorgrim, and it was then that the party was complete.

The man introduced himself as Lord Philip Druskinvold, the lord of the land and leader of the Crescent Court, the government that oversees the 13 provinces of Druskinvold. He says there's a big problem that he needs help with, and that's why he's called you to this land. A coven of witches known as the Coven of the Midnight Moon has been terrorizing every province, and he needs witch hunters to put a stop to it.

The coven is comprised of a witch named Mother Midnight and her twelve daughters. And since the coven began operating in Druskinvald, only the vagrant aboard the Ghostlight Express can get out, making the entrance to the Dread Domain effectively one way. In exchange for your services, he offered all of you an incredibly powerful artifact from his vast collection. You all agreed, and he brought you to a large manor home that had been abandoned for twenty years, giving you the key and the deed.

The construction of the house was incredibly strange, leading the locals to call it the Crooked House, which they believed to be heavily cursed due to the mysterious vanishing of the former residence two decades prior. You were in the province of Folsense, mainly populated by humans who were devout worshippers of the rigid god Foltest. Philip said he had business at the capital city of Cyril with Folsense's lord, Archbishop Danton Alexander Renault.

Left to explore your new home, you immediately discovered that the place was indeed cursed and were greeted by a specter who called himself the Crooked Man. As you explored the Crooked House, you discovered that it had been the home of the Lockwood family. The lady of the house, Petunia Lockwood, had received nightmares that slowly turned her wicked, and she became a devoted follower of the Coven of the Midnight Moon as a servant of the hag Vessla Browntooth, who moved into the attic.

The hag served Mother Midnight and helped to advance her dark plans. With help from the ghost of the family's butler, Petrini, you survived the horrors of the house as well as the hag's weasel familiar, Filthy Jasper, and unearthed the secret of the house itself.

Deep in the earth beneath the mansion was a chamber where an ancient wicked archfey was imprisoned in amber. This fey entity, Kellen of the Crooked Teeth, was being used effectively as a magical battery to power dark rituals conducted in the attic of the Crooked House. For years, human teeth were brought to the Amber Monolith as offerings to Kellen to increase the power that Vesla could siphon. The party discovered that Petunia was Vesla...

that the party discovered that Petunia and Vesla murdered the entire family in a night of sacrifice. And ever since, Vesla had been conducting dark rituals in service of the mysterious goddess Mother Night. The party eventually defeated Vesla and cleansed the crooked house, but not without accidentally freeing Kellen from her prison and witnessing her amorphous shape fleeing to parts unknown.

After killing the hag, you learn she was just one of three, and part of the Vermintol Coven. The next night, Philip returned with his wife Adela, who promised to fix the house up for you as you investigated reports of Mother Midnight herself operating in Cyril and causing bewitching disease, famine, drought, and a general malaise over the entire province of Folsons. You bid farewell to the Druskinvalds, who were off to plan a grand masquerade for the Crescent Court.

You only made it a day's worth of travel before an angry mob discovered you and took problem with your relatively monstrous forms. Led by the charismatic and handsome William Van Brunt, the posse roughed you up, put you in chains, and dragged you into the heart of Cyril to bring you before the Archbishop himself. The Archbishop calmed the crowd and apologized to you, welcoming you to the city and thanking you for the assistance that Lord Philip had promised.

That evening, you stayed in an inn, encountering Van Brunt once more, who then challenged Jörgrim to one-on-one combat. With the help of a hidden poison blade, Van Brunt was the victor.

Later that night, the posse returned to finish the vigilante justice after drugging you with a tainted candle. Before they could harm you, however, the mob was dispersed in a brutal and bloody way by an enormous half-giant called Hugo the Gargoyle. Once more, the archbishop apologized for the people of Folsense over an uncomfortable dinner and allowed you to stay with his sister, Zephyrine Mirabelle, as well as her husband, Francois, and daughter, Colette, for your protection, of course.

Throughout your investigation of the city, you discovered that mysterious witch balls lurked in hidden places and were corrupting and making the townsfolk ill, especially affecting the children at the Cyril Orphanage. It was there that you met the precocious orphan Anya Adelaide, who took a liking to you, and the terse matron Maggie McDuff, who clearly had a problem with the Archbishop.

You met the High Inquisitor of the city, responsible for the brutal witch hunts occurring in Cyril, and learned that the best lead was the widow Keziah Jenkins, whose husband died under mysterious circumstances. She had fled to the woods and was believed to be Mother Midnight in disguise. You ventured into the woods and found a strange hut and a horrible centipede familiar that skittered into the earth.

You were then attacked by a masked Keziah Jenkins, who unleashed powerful witchcraft on you before being defeated and knocked unconscious. You returned to the city and handed her over to the Inquisitor, who burned her and dozens of other alleged conspirators alive in a public execution. With Keziah's death, the Hagmoon shifted back to a normal moon, and the city celebrated that Mother Midnight had finally been killed.

That evening there was debaucherous revelry and in the disgusting displays you happened upon the orphan Anya, alone and wandering the darkened alleyways. Fearing for her safety, you took her in for the night. You then awoke to the sounds of alarm bells. The orphanage was burning and every child had been killed in a pillar of flame as the hagmoon returned once more. You had all been deceived.

It was discovered that Maggie Macduff had been seen fleeing the city in the direction of the abandoned gold mine near Keziah's hut that had long been suspected of being inhabited by a witch. In retaliation, the Knights Templar led by Captain Marco rode out to the mine to bring her to justice, hoping to finally put an end to the curse on Folsense. However, when only their horses returned, it was clear that something was amiss, so you followed after and investigated the mines yourself.

There, you found a putrid horror show as you discovered the knights transformed into horse abominations. Stone walls turned to flesh and awful creatures made from flesh-crafted victims. And of course, millions of horrible centipedes.

At the bottom of the mine, you encountered the bloated centipede hag's Denoga Black Stinger, and if not for Maggie McDuff intervening with magic all her own, you would have been killed. However, you barely survived and were able to join her back at Keziah's hut where she revealed she was a witch, but one of the land, not the darkness. Mm-hmm.

She introduced you to her familiar, the spirit rabbit named Flora, and told you that Keziah had been a member of a coven of good witches along with her close friend and your patron, Zephyrine Mirabelle. You all had the realization that Zephyrine would be in great danger in Cyril. You rushed back to the city, but were sadly too late. The Mirabelle house had been invaded.

Francois was killed, his head smashed in like a gourd by Hugo's gigantic fist, and Zephyrine was taken by the Inquisitors. However, the child Colette was unharmed, and you sent her off to be protected by Maggie Macduff in her cabin in the woods.

Having concocted an elaborate plan, you made a rescue attempt by sneaking into the jail and facing the Inquisitor in the depths of the dungeons. You found that Zephyrine had already been killed and sacrificed to Mother Night, along with the revelation that the High Inquisitor was the third and final hag of the Vermindol Coven, Golub Greygullet.

After slaughtering her and killing the Hag Coven once and for all, you found grimoires that pieced together their plan. Seven Baelor demons imprisoned in amber beneath the cathedral, each one representing a deadly sin, were spreading their sinful influence throughout the city, and through some ritual, the sin would be offered upward to the moon and trigger something called the Moonlit Rebirth on the Night of Sin.

The town was whipped up into hysteria and was frothing to find the witches that had been cursing the city, and soon mobs of town folk were roving the streets and committing brutal acts of vigilante justice, much of it riled up by William Van Brunt. You holed up in Keziah Jenkins' old house within the city, but discovered that Anya, whom you'd been looking after, had now gone missing.

After being visited by the familiar Flora, you performed a ritual to steel yourself against the demonic influence of the Balor, which, while exploring each of your respective pasts, you were greeted by a vision of Mother Midnight herself, who showed you that Anya was imprisoned by the archbishop in the catacombs beneath the cathedral.

Immediately, you left your safe house as a posse began to smash down the door of the old house, and you snuck through the burning city to the cathedral, scaling the bell tower to infiltrate the fortress undetected. However, you were met by an enraged Hugo. Calming him down, you discovered the archbishop had plunged a statue into his third eye, blinding his true sight.

Your acts of kindness finally turned Hugo against his captor and he confirmed that Anya was imprisoned below, so you rushed to confront the Archbishop. Upon confronting the Archbishop, he promised he did not have the girl and that there was truly nothing to find in the catacombs. To prove this, he guided you through the cathedral, into the catacombs themselves, and to the chamber below. But sure enough, Anya was there.

Njörgrim rushed toward the little girl, filled with fear and concern for her safety, and as he approached, she began to transform and revealed her true form. Little Anja had been Mother Midnight transmogrified all along. In a flash, seven amber monoliths exploded to life, humming with a magical glow, the thrashing shapes of seven imprisoned Balor demons inside threatening to escape.

Mother Midnight attempted to have you all possessed by six of these Balor to help her, usher in the Night of Sin. This would turn the entire city of Cyril into wicker abominations, and the feast of all of the City of Sin would finally trigger the Moonlit Rebirth and bring Mother Midnight's plans to fruition.

However, just as the demons began to possess you, the Maiden of Mist, Yorghrim's dark patron, guarded your souls, banishing the six Balor and unleashing a withering curse upon Mother Midnight. She fled the scene on her broom, but not before using the final monolith and Balor inside to transform the Archbishop into an enormous demonic gargoyle and instructing him to be the sole herald of the Night of Sin.

A brutal battle ensued against the transformed Archbishop who attempted to devour both you and all of the sin of the city.

He gained the upper hand, but when all seemed lost, Hugo, his tormented ward, saved his new friends by smashing the bells of the cathedral upon the beast's head, causing him to change course. The demonic archbishop slammed Hugo against the catacomb walls and fled to the bell tower, where he would ring the bells and transform the inhabitants of Cyril into monstrosities of sin.

You paused, but only for a moment, in an effort to save Hugo's life before pursuing the transformed Renault to the top of the bell tower, engaging him in combat once more. The cacophonous bells filled all of you with feelings of sin as the entire city shrieked out in a dark revelry. In the end, you were able to overcome the curses and gravely wound him.

In one final attempt to fulfill his dark bargain with Mother Midnight, he attempted to flee to the moon to deliver the sins that he had consumed, hoping against hope that this would be enough to herald in the moonlit rebirth.

The four of you, still standing atop the cathedral, lobbed a final attack in desperation. And with one final blast of the voodoo gun, the beast's bloated form was ruptured and all of the sin exploded out of him in horrific death throes. The demonic gargoyle fell out of the sky and crashed down upon the fountain in the town square as the dark transformation reversed and all that was left was a withered corpse of Archbishop Danton Alexander Renault, crumbled and broken with a burst belly.

That is where our last session ended, and it is here that the next chapter begins. Just give it up for that arc. Holy shit, what a-- 19 episodes?

Oh, I really forgot how incredible that was. That's some tight storytelling. Holy shit. A lot of fucking shit happened in 18 sessions. Yeah, we really... Also, Skinny Dudley was there. Oh, that's what I was gonna say. Nikki, I really appreciate all of... You gave the...

recap in a way that very specifically didn't remind everybody how every single event was the problem of us fucking up. This Edgman is essentially the campaign of how the party makes every wrong decision after running a decision. You expertly didn't tell us. So you're agreeing that Van Brunt did nothing wrong? No, he never said that. You're putting words in his mouth. Okay, it's a good show. Okay.

Are we ready to continue? Yes. Yep. Yep. Holy shit. Brutal fight. Anya just betrayed us. We haven't processed that. Okay, yep. There should be sound. You stare down at the bloated corpse of the archbishop and you watch the mayhem of Cyril unfold before you. And yet all you can hear is the ringing in your ears. The ringing of the now broken bell. The ringing of your head from the ever increasing anxiety and despair. The quick pounding of blood rushing through your veins.

You can feel the pounding and the ringing and the pain as you watch the horror unfold. Time feels like molasses pulling you to a near standstill on the edge of the highest tower, and all you can do is watch. And then, in an instant, you are pulled back into this moment, and you are overwhelmed by the noise. The beating of your heart and the ringing in your head overpowered by the screams and wailing from below.

But even those noises are drowned out by the silence of near death. Jericho and Lethika lay at your feet, silent, deeply, unsettlingly silent. Neither body is moving or breathing, and all you can do is watch. Got him! Are you alright? Nah. More importantly, Farron, to Jericho, quickly!

I'll lean down and place a hand on him and see what I can feel. - I need everyone to close your eyes. We are going to use Icebound's death saving throw rules for this purpose as Jericho has two failed saves. So I'm gonna have you all shut your eyes. And Mikey, if you could roll a death saving throw for me, please. - Here we go. - Thank you. You may all open your eyes. - I've never done that before, that's fun.

After giving the directive to Faryn to check on him, you will see that Marius, I begin to undo my gauntlets and try to get my bare hands out of my gauntlets.

You do that. As you all rush towards Jericho, his body has never really been one that gave the impression of life. He is a scarecrow, after all. He's not flesh and bone. He has no beating heart or blood in his veins or breath in his lungs. Yet he lives all the same, and though those functions have never worked on him...

You've always sensed life. You've always felt the life that was within him. And as you rush to your friend, you don't sense life any longer. He feels empty and hollow. He feels like any old scarecrow would in a pumpkin patch or a wheat field or a cornfield. And as you lift him up, he feels lighter, almost as if life

or the soul could weigh something. And if it did, there's nothing here. I don't feel anything. What do you mean? I don't feel anything from him. Can you try and heal him? Certainly something of your magics must be able to do something. I don't think there's anything to heal. Jericho. Jericho! Jericho, everything has gone black. And for the first time in your approximation of a life, everything has gone quiet.

The voice in your head is silent. You don't even know how to handle having thoughts unimpeded. You relish in the peace of the void for a moment and gather your bearings. You stand alone in darkness. Well, gosh, weren't we just fighting on top of a big old bell tower against a spooky demon gargoyle? What was the Archbishop, after being betrayed by your little orphan Anya, that was Mother Midnight in disguise the whole time?

"Gosh, I bet your grimace, man. Mighty Krause is out there." "Hello? Marius? Brixie? Miss Fair and Miss Lefica?

Your voice echoes around you as if you're in a room with metal walls. Oh, in your room! I already mentioned you. And suddenly you see a small orange light that moves in the darkness. Oh fuck. Then you hear the tap of a cane on metal, followed by the slow, offbeat sound of staggered footsteps as the light gets closer.

You realize that this light is an eye. A bright, glowing orange eye with a black pupil shaped like a four-pointed star, but in the head of a silhouette of a man, not a crow. The eye looks at you briefly before looking beyond you as the shadow passes. You turn to watch him pass and realize you cannot move. As he steps behind you, you hear the loud screeching of what sounds like a rusty metal door on a hinge.

After a few more offbeat steps and cane taps, you hear a cacophonous crash of the door slamming behind you, and you're left alone in the darkness. You all watch as Jericho's body jolts and shakes. His mouth opens and he coughs. Not air, but black feathers. Ow, my gums! What's happening? Not something that any of us will be able to comprehend. Whatever.

thing resides within him is doing something. Could it be what happened to him in the mines? You all right, Jerry? Am I conscious? Mm-hmm. Well, you're becoming conscious. Yeah. I'll sit up. Jarka, can you speak to us, please? Lucidity. I'm sorry, what? No, that's Lefica. No thoughts. Did you hit your head, boy? Why do you sound like that? I feasted.

Well, hold on. It seems you lost your accent, or maybe dialect, I guess you could say. He's not Jericho. Oh, good point. Who are you? You know who I am, boy. What did you do with our friend? He is safe. If I am safe, he is safe. Fear not for him. I take a few steps back. You're sort of the same guy, though. I mean, is it the... Is he still a scarecrow? He looks exactly like

Jericho. This is weird, that voice coming out of your head. I feel like I should get you a top hat or something. As I realize that something is wrong, I will have dropped my gauntlets where they are on the floor, and I take several steps back to stand over and over Lethika between her and whatever's happening to Jericho. You take a protective stance in front of Lethika, almost guarding her body from your friend.

This will take getting used to. Clarity of thought. Need a hand there, Jerry? Yes, thank you. I'll pull him up. I'll walk over and look at the hat and I'll pick it up. Then I'll place it on my head. This is unexpected. Easy. Thank you. I mean, you know, should we fill you in on what happened? You missed a little bit of, you know, a few things. I stopped him. Don't worry about that. If you look down there. Shot him out of the sky. There's no trouble or nothing, but...

I mean, you've been here the whole time. I don't really understand. The Archbishop. His body. You mustn't let the townsfolk take it. It can be consumed.

Marius, what do we do? I don't know. I think you're wrong. Maybe this isn't Jericho. It's definitely not. And if I wasn't worried for where Jericho might be, Jorgren, I would tear this body limb from limb. Who are you? Speak your name. You know my name. Virgil. Once, yes. What is my name? Do we know his name? So you say your name was Virgil? I don't want to be on the side of the table.

Oh, look, am I in your arms? No, I am back! I am back! Big Z, Big Z! You creepy, clicking ass. Is Virgil the Crow gone? You do not see the Crow anywhere. We know the truth. Yes, yes. There's a power in names. You're foolish if you think that we'll just say yours.

Then? You do not know my name if you cannot say it. Well, no, isn't it the whole thing that like if you say the name, you have power over it? Right? So maybe you should say the name. I'm starting to think... That is correct. You'll gain power over me if you say my name. Your friend seems to be in distress. Do you not care for her safety? Are you that concerned for farm equipment? Keep an eye on him! Don't... Alright! Don't move! You...

And then as soon as I feel like Brizzy and Yorgam and Faron are keeping an eye on him, I'm gonna very like, I'm gonna turn my back to him and with my ungloved gauntlets, my ungloved hands, I'm going to lean down on one knee, kind of scoop Lethika up into my arms and pray, Lord of Mourning, please bring her back to us. And I'm gonna use Lay on Hands and I'm going to attempt to heal Lethika. Use Lay on Hands? How much does it heal for? Give 50 hit points.

I use half my pool. Sounds weird in the context. I said what I said. How much? 15 hit points. You feel very quickly the rise and fall of her chest. You feel her in your arms, that there is life in her, but she does not come to consciousness. It almost, you listen, and it almost sounds like she's struggling to breathe behind the mask.

Knowing what I know, we all know about Lethica, I would attempt to see if I could adjust the mask without removing it all the way to see if there's anything obstructing her airway. You attempt to do that. You move it a little bit to the side. You try. The mask isn't held on with string or rope or chain.

and as you detach even a little bit of it, it pulls from her face completely. Marius, as you look down at Lethika's face, something you haven't seen en masse but for maybe a side glance, you're taken aback by just how beautiful she is. Despite having fallen in battle, she looks so peaceful. And then she stirs, her chest rising and falling slowly, softly,

Feeling your presence so close to her, her eyelashes flutter slightly and her eyes open. You are immediately entranced by the color of her eyes. You're a beautiful sunset red. When you see those red eyes and such a pretty face, you feel a sudden pit of dread in your stomach.

and you begin to lose the present. In a flash, you're propelled back in time, nearly a century in time, as you feel yourself staring deep into beautiful red eyes, blood red eyes. You smell her perfume, roses. You feel her touch. Suddenly, you're back and your eyes are bleeding and your fangs have doubled in length. I need you to make a wisdom saving throw at disadvantage.

Just wisdom you say? Just wisdom you say? Oh, I'm pretty good at that. But a disadvantage, it's gonna be 18. Dread. Yeah, I figured. I'll use two, it'll be a disadvantage. Sure. Oh yeah, you got me. 14. Oh yeah, I definitely got you.

Time ceases to exist. And before you realize what's happened, you feel more full, sated, and alive than you have in decades, as every fiber of your soul relishes in the banquet you've indulged in. Your lips grace Lethika's neck, your fangs piercing into her flesh. Her body is your feast. Yet now, your will is your own once more. You come to, holding Lethika's body in your hands,

her blood dripping down your chin and you realize what you've done in that moment. This is not the Duchess of Sin. This is not that moment a thousand years ago. This is, this is Lethika and she, she's wounded by you. Did we see him do that? You're all watching Derek go.

I would, realizing what has happened, almost too quickly, I will drop her and fall back off of one knee onto my backside and grip my face and begin to push away all four feet, hands, as I'm backing away. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

I need you to roll a d20 for me, please. If I had seen that, if they're facing me and I'm facing toward that-- You are the only person who would have seen it. I would have just watched and you would have seen my mouth curl up and I would have gone-- In the most fitting role of the evening, I rolled a 13. Oh! Okay.

What is happening right now? I don't know about that one. Oh my god! I don't like it at all. You may continue. How will you know when it comes into effect? How's it going, MacNam? Is she all right? Marius, what's happening? I don't know. I tried to heal her and her mask was removed and all of a sudden I was back with the Duchess. The Duchess arrived.

Oh my god, what did you do? I guess if I see it, I'm going to take the gun off of Virgil and I'll just run up and check on Lethika. Keep me away from her. You take the voodoo gun off of Virgil and you rush towards Lethika. You pull her into your arms and you-- I'm going to get two in the middle. I am not going to let that happen!

I am-- Whoa! You grab her to check on her, and she is awake enough that she mutters to you, "Sleep, I need sleep." And you watch as her eyes flutter closed, and she dreams off into a peaceful unconsciousness. Farryn, you might want to take a look at this.

I'll keep an eye on him. And I'll rush over and lean down to her and just kind of investigate and see what kind of condition she's in as she sleeps. A rule of medicine check and an arcana check for me. I would run over to Marius and pick him up from the front of his plate armor. What have you done? No, no, no, no, no. I don't know. I don't know. Keep me away from everyone. What have I done? What have I done? What have I done? And I'm the one you're worried about. Ugh.

I got a 14 medicine and a five arcana. Okay. Medicine check. You can tell that Marius' magics, his healing magics have taken effect.

And she is not on the brink of death. She has life within her body, but there is something that is preventing her from fully reaching consciousness. And whether that is the bite that was administered to her or something that happened before or the protection of her goddess, it is hard to know. But there is something keeping Lethika from waking.

There's something preventing her from breathing. I tried to move her mask to see if there was something distracting her, and then I saw her eyes. What have I done? What have I done? And you gave in to your curse? I wasn't here anymore. It was almost 100 years ago. It was that night. I don't know what happened. We should get them off this roof. It's possible the bell is driving them crazy. The bell is broken. There is no more sound.

Look, we've been through a lot, alright? You know, it was just an accident, alright? I mean, you know, it's not like you chose to get cursed this way and maybe this is just a temporary symptom based on stress or everything else that we've had to deal with. This is no accident. I am what I am. Are you fucking around? I don't think you're consuming the body.

What the fuck were you talking about? While they were distracted-- Mm-hmm. We definitely were distracted. Yeah, we were very distracted. This is both-- You're-- He swan dives off the tower. He crew dives. You ever do a game? I will try to stealthily

make my way basically away from the party and try to creep my way towards an exit that I perceive. Roll a stealth check and then everyone check with your perception scores and meter. Passive perception, right? Oh, no, it would be passive perception because you were all busy doing something. Oh god, mine's awful. There's no fucking way. Someone's going to notice me. It ain't me. Oh, I'm a bard, though. It ain't me. I ain't no fortunate one.

Stealth, you say? Mm-hmm.

15. I don't see it. Not passively, no. I have a 15. Oh, yeah, fair one. Fair notice. Fair enough. I don't think I'd notice. You are doing your best to tend to Lethika in this moment. You are utilizing your druidic magics to clot the wounds on her neck that Marius had left. I'm applying some disgusting-smelling mud. It's fetish. It's awful.

It's a poultice and poultice. I like that. And you were able to do that. I will say you even reached down and grabbed her mask and affixed it firmly to her face. Almost like a magnet, it adheres to her magically. I'm picturing it like the mask with Jim Carrey where it like sloops onto his face when it gets too close. Yeah, it's great. It's magnetized. And...

You are slowly rubbing the poultice onto the wounds as you hear the crunch of bits of broken stone beneath the feet, the metal and straw feet of a scarecrow. And you don't have to look to know that Jericho or Virgil or the other name you dare not speak

They're attempting to move deeper into the shadows away from everyone. Should've used an oil can, bitch! This body! We told you not to move. I won't look at him, but I'll say what I said. I'm going to take another step back. Marius, do you have control of yourself? Yes, stop him! Do not allow him to leave! Don't move! You don't want to hurt your friend, do you?

I don't have to hurt you to stop you. We'll see about that. I run. I'll admit that I'm basically hobbling with an off gate and trying to run, and it's very awkward for me. So I would say I'm not sprinting, but I'm basically going about-- It's very clear that whatever is controlling Jericho's body

is not used to moving in this way. He's stumbling. I run as fast as I can with an 800 pound tombstone strapped to my back. Okay, do an athletics contest or athletics acrobatics contest to see who-- Goddammit. Who succeeds here.

Eight. Oh, you got it. You rolled an eight total? Yeah. Oh, okay, I got a 16. We're good, we're good. Why did you roll an eight? I rolled an eight! I thought you rolled an eight. I was like, "God, his life scarecrow body!" I would chase after him as I see him start to move away. Once I'm confident that Marius is in control of his faculties, then I will lunge at him and try and tackle him as

knock him to the ground, but try and shift my body weight so that I'll hit the ground first and he collapses against my body. So in the event that-- He'll fly across the floor. Yeah, I don't want to shatter all of his twigs and bits. He'll explode into straw. Yeah, into straw. You have utilized this strength for as long as you can remember. And though you are large and you are strong,

and you take up a lot of space, you are not ungraceful, and you are able to rein in the strength that you have at your fingertips, and so you are able to grab onto Jericho as you chase him down, and you are able to pull him up off of the ground and hold him to you in a way that he is unable to move. I don't know how he gets anything done in this body.

Well, it's very easy to catch him normally. You've kept that going. As I hold him, do I feel the key that he wears? Yeah. He's got everything on his person. That's a good question. All right, so my head will just completely turn around. Oh, there we go. Oh, look, and...

As my head turns, there's the glow of Jericho's eyes, and for a moment, two orange demonic eyeballs will rise up into the eye sockets with the four pointed star pupils, and I'll say-- Nope! How long do you think you can hold me? As long as I have to. All right, we gotta start getting some fucking answers from you, all right? If you're virtual,

He turns back, "Oh." Oh, sorry, and I tongue fall down. And then the eyes will go back down. "What the fuck is going on? "Where's Jericho? "What do you know about whatever the fuck just happened? "About the corpses in the fucking fountain down there? "You better start talking." Jericho, it is darkness around you.

You hear the creak and groan of metal. It gets louder and louder around you, but you are surrounded by darkness. You call out all kinds of things. Virgil, you're coming back for me, right? You bring some sarsaparilla? I'm a bit of fear to the dark. You call out for your friends and Virgil, and no one answers back. But as you listen and as you continue to walk,

You eventually find in the darkness that your hands are pressing up against metal. And as you feel, it's metal abyss, metal abyss, and it almost feels as if you're in some sort of cage. It's hard to know because it's nothing but pure darkness. And then you hear it, very faintly. Was that, was that Jorgren? Jorgren! Briggsie? Captain Briggsie! Is that Barrett?

It's hard to tell what they're saying, but it's almost as if somewhere far off in the distance, muffled under a cloud of mist or fog-- And the rest! Are your friends. No, just the one. Hello? Virgil, help!

I understand that this is a bit of poetic irony, but I'm awfully afeard of the dark and I'm starting to get a little lonesome and a little afeard. If anyone wants to find me, I'm here. Jericho is here, old Jericho stinks. But you can call me Jerifo, 'cause most folks do. You're back on top of the bell tower.

We have to get ourselves together and get out of here and assess the situation down in the square. We can't walk around holding this... this demon. If he's here, is it possible that Jericho is...

Locked away. Do you think the-- Jorgren will perception check for me, please. I'll look, well, my head will turn back from Greg Z to Jorgren, and I'll say: You're very lucky that I cannot play the banjo and I refuse to sing. Nothing. Nothing? You got nothing? I got nothing. That seems like you got a zero. You can twist it. You can twist it. I got nothing left. You can twist it. I got nothing left. You can twist it. We're getting twists.

No, it's a-- It's really not. Yeah, it's got even worse. It got even worse. He's doing another-- did you pull out another one? No, I pulled out the first one. Oh, the first one. So what did you get? We could twist again. Yeah, I'll twist again. One more. One more, one more. I'm telling you, go! Okay, okay, 18, 18, 18. That's not enough. Oh. Oh, no, no! I'm just kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

It wouldn't be Edge of Midnight if I didn't say it wasn't enough on Hyrule. You listen as the creak of Jericho's neck, Virgil's neck, Rome's neck, spins towards you. And...

It sounds like yelling. And then you realize that's not the sound of that neck joint. That was that squeaky metal on metal grinding sound. But somewhere far off in the distance, almost as if it's muffled by fog or mist, sounds for a second like you heard someone call your name. Almost like you heard Jericho call your name.

I'm in a metal cage of emotion. Mostly fear. Which is more irony on account of being a scarecrow and all. More poetic irony, Virgil. I get it. I get it. I've learned my lesson. Jericho. I may have heard him. He might be trapped within. Oh, that would be so terrible. If you think that you can hear him somewhere deep down in there, then...

Jericho can win this. Jericho can come back. What if we use the key? What if we unlock the cage? Summon the demon before? I don't like the sound of that. No, I mean, the demon last time was way scarier than the one this guy is. This guy has a pleasant accent. Briggs is right. For some reason, it was a miscalculation, and we were to unleash what we saw last time, none of us would be able to handle it. He's right. It's up to Jericho, then, to free himself.

Do you think? I'm gonna keep looking. Marius, you are overcome by a splitting headache. Absolutely wracked with pain. All you can smell is iron, the smell of blood spilt. You can hear the blood pumping through the veins of your friends standing around you. Just that little taste of human blood

That was, or a humanoid blood, was enough to invigorate you and it was enough to feed into your vampiric tendencies. But it wasn't truly enough. And like a lightning crack, the headache feels like it's splitting your head in two. And you know that the only thing that will fix it is more blood.

As we're having this conversation, I will immediately, my hand will immediately go to my head and I will wince in pain and suck teeth, my teeth for a moment as I immediately take more steps backwards from the group. You attempt to recoil your fangs. This is something you've done before to hide them. They are smaller than a full-fledged vampire fangs would be.

but you attempt to hide them and they feel like they're getting longer. And you feel them, they are definitely longer. Longer than the last, longer than you remember them ever being. And you cannot seem to hide them. Friends, I have a confession. I'm not doing well.

Things are spiraling out of my control, and I fear that it was my minor lapse in judgment that is putting me here. What do you mean you're not doing well? Try to fucking describe that. Lethika's blood. The little taste that I got is spiraling me, and I'm trying to regain my composure, but I'm not winning. I'm going to take a few steps back, and I would advise everyone just keep...

The distance, please. Meaning you feel like you need some more? Aye, I do. I'll take a stance over Lethika and try to guard her body. Oh, I do, I want more. Marius, you have to fight it. You're a proud warrior. You can overcome this. You feel nauseous. You feel clammy.

You feel both hot and cold at the same time. Hungry, thirsty, angry, guilty, disappointed. All right, look, maybe we just, well, I guess we're in the fresh air. I think we need to get away from, we should probably leave, go downstairs, get out of this bell tower, and, I mean, you seem to say that, you know, something about, you know, the archbishop. You don't know what the fuck I'm talking about, do you?

The Archbishop, Danton Alexander Remault. So you do. So have you been perceiving everything that's going on? You always ignore the bird in the room. Oh, the bird, that's right. I guess I kind of forget about the bird sometimes. The thoughts are muddied. This is the only clarity I've had in so long. Eventually... Okay, so what's going to happen with that guy down there? Are you saying we should just leave him down there?

Let us not let his flesh go to waste. He wants to feast on him. I can help him regain some form of power. I have a suggestion. I don't want to be near any of you, but I can't feed on Jericho's body. Let me hold the demon, contain him. It will keep my eyes, keep my mind focused on the task at hand, prevent these cravings.

and you can keep Nothica and Faron in your room and everyone far from me. Roll a constitution saving throw at disadvantage. Yikes. Look, if you're just saying it's like a craving, maybe we just need to improve the habit. If you just like, I don't mind volunteering me, you know, it's just a bunch of gray sludge. I don't think it's going to do the same thing. I rolled double 17s. Oh! The plus seven would be a 25. By Lathander's might!

You are dreaded. Yeah, I figured. 17. Okay, cool. 17's enough. I was like, I almost didn't, I'm like, you know what, I'll dread it for just one more round. No, that was good. You say this, and you feel your teeth retract a little. Your stomach turns, you still feel nauseous. The pounding in your head is still present, but it begins to ease.

your body, the way that it regenerates more quickly than your average person seems to be filtering through Lethika's blood quite quickly. You didn't have enough and the

that thirst and that hunger begins to ebb much more quickly than you expected it to, though you can still smell iron all around you. You can still hear the way the blood pumps through the veins. You look to Farryn and it's almost as if you can see a roadmap of veins on her body. But you feel that you have regained some of your control.

Anybody in the room would see my mouth kind of moving a little bit and they would recognize it as me like saying a prayer to the morning lord. But anyone close enough would actually hear me pleading and begging to my god for help. It is a craving, but it's unlike anything I've ever experienced before. I think I'm alright. Please, just...

Give me Jericho's body. I will watch him. The task will help keep my mind on things. And you all can focus on yourselves and each other and keep Lethka away from me. I believe you, Marius. I will make sure that I have two hands on Jericho's body before Jorgen lets go, as I then rest him with my supernatural strength. I would say with the combined strength between the two of you, I won't--

Even if Jericho were to attempt to escape from the two of you, he wouldn't be able to in that situation. Still, I'm like, ah! You wrench him away and you hold him tightly to you. The smell of iron is replaced with the smell of copper and steel and hay and dirt. And this was a good call. You not being able to smell that...

that scent, it eases the pain. The headache begins to fade even more. You feel the hot and cold flashes begin to ebb away. You're sweating, but you have significantly more control than you have before. As I take Jericho's body from Yorgrim, I hold Jericho close to my face and I look whatever this creature is right in the eye and I say,

Jericho, I know that you are in there. We're going to help you. How did her secrets taste, boy? I say nothing, and I just continue to stare at him and hold him. Jericho. Come and knock on our door. We're waiting for you. The prison jerk is best jerk. Oh, oh.

Oh, now I'm bored. I've had this weather for four quadrillion years! I don't even know what a quadrillion is! Sorry. No, you're great. Roll a perception check. Ooh, finally a decent roll.

Perception, I open up my Chrome browser. Perception, you say, "Oh, me at 23." You very clearly hear Marius as he says these words, as he asks for his friend back. You are listening now and you realize that you are in a cage. You are not where you should be.

Sir Marius, it's me, your old friend Virgil, remember? We had a drink on a train once. Your name's Jericho. What, oh! Uh-oh. He's slipping. We're losing him. My name is Old Jericho Sticks. Old Jericho Sticks is my name. Don't forget me. I'm down here. I'm in here. Roll a perception check, Marius. Oh, yeah.

I would be honored to. My perception is absolutely terrible. I'm looking for my d20s that are all the way over there. And Virgil, can you please roll a wisdom saving throw? God, I'm on fire! I got a 24. Wisdom saving throw? Mm-hmm. I'm rolling hot! Which means I'm gonna start rolling absolute dookie soon here. The worm is gonna turn. What did you get? I got a 24. You...

You are saying this to Virgil, and you hear it. Almost clear as day for a second, Jericho calling your name. It sounds close, yet far away all at the same time. It's exactly as Jorgrim had described it, almost muffled, but it's there. Where it's coming from, it's hard to tell. Oh, I got a 13. Lovely. You feel Virgil. The...

That same pull. You don't belong in this body. You were allowed into this body for a mere second when the life was leaving. When the life was leaving it. When the rightful owner had left it vacant. You were allowed to slip in through the back door. But that owner isn't wholly dead. For you keep it alive as it keeps you alive. And it wants its home back.

Virgil. All this talk, all these scheming, you're losing control. He's back. There we go. Am I actually slipping back? Mm-hmm.

No, no, I'm the voice. No, no, no, no, pull-- And suddenly, I slip back in and I'm-- Jericho! Jericho! What's happening? I heard him deep in there. You were squeezing him! No, no, Sesperilla! Sesperilla! Jericho? Ah, Jericho! Oh, my friend! And instead of holding you, I will release you and embrace you and give you a hug.

and pull you in. Ooh, that's nice. Jericho, you're all right. Gosh, are we having hoods now? Did we get him? I heard you. I heard you deep inside. Is he all right? Marius, wait. It could be a trick. No, don't worry. I finished him off. He's dead. Gosh, we got him. What happened? You can feel him, Jericho. You know. You want to believe what they're saying. You wish that what they were saying was true.

Wait, you're talking about Virgil, right? I meant the Archbishop. Oh, okay, sorry, I was confused. I meant the Bosh Bishop, too. Okay, I was confused. Never mind, yeah, no, he's dead. As far as you're aware. Look right in there! We got him! Oh, gosh, that's a grim scene. We have a small problem, though. Something, the other thing inside you, it took over temporarily.

Are we slugging? Yeah, we're slugging! No, no, no, I will let go, and you're still holding onto me, so I'm like talking into your ear like I'm comfortably close. We have a small problem. The demon seemed to take-- Jericho, you can let go now.

Okay. That's fine. Just fine. Oh, my hat's still on. Well, that about that. Sorry, can you repeat that? I was just enjoying a nice hug. Virgil, the demon. It took over your body. Virgil? Yes. No, he just, you know, he just was going to run to grab a smoke or something. He was going to just, you know, he was just... He was speaking through you.

"threatening us." I took over you. "In full control." It wasn't you anymore. He seemed like he knew some stuff, and he probably suffered it, you know, six of us don't know. He warned us about doing something about the body and that it was consumable. "Do you know anything about that, Jericho?" Well, he's always liking to feast upon stuff. Secrets in the flesh and the soul and all that biz. Wait, is he gone? I look around for the crow.

You look around and at first you see nothing. And then peeking around one of these partially broken pillars, you see the small head of a crow. Yeah, no, exactly. Exactly right. In my animatic. Thank you, Andy. Surprise, motherfucker.

This podcast is brought to you by our Patreon. Become a patron today at patreon.com slash legends of Avantris and gain access to tons of exclusive perks, including a monthly movie night and a weekly Patreon exclusive campaign set on the high seas shroud over salt marsh.

You can also go to thecrookedmoon.com to pick up your own copy of our first published supplement, The Crooked Moon, a folk horror tome for Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition. And don't forget to snag all the extra goodies like dice, miniatures, plushies, a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. You all stand at the top of the tower, the cathedral. Jericho has returned to you. Lethica is stable. And there is...

mayhem down below. The sounds of the screaming, crying, the panic. People aren't sure of what to do in the city of Cyril. Their guiding light, their beacon of hope is dead in the city square. That's true. And he's not just dead, his body is bloated and unlike who they had come to know, they are

Uncertain, unsure, they are scared. As all of you stand around getting your bearings. I'm still covered in blood. Oh, of course, Miss Lelika. Did she get wounded by the Archbishop? Well, I can't speak to that, but Jericho, I did an unforgivable thing. What? What happened? I harmed her. It's been nearly a century, Jericho, and I've never once given in to

the cravings that I had for humanoid blood. Garsh! There's something about this... this land. I don't know what came over me, and I... I gave in to my baser instincts. I fed upon her. I don't know if I'll ever be able to forgive myself. Well, Garsh, I mean, we all do stuff that we regret later that we don't mean to. I'm sure Lethika would forgive you, so you should probably forgive yourself. I forgive you.

I don't know. I don't know, Jericho. I just, I don't, I don't understand. I don't understand what came over me and why the Mourning Lord isn't, isn't helping me more. Well, you think like the signal or the connection is a little, uh, on the fritz, so to speak? Perhaps like, you know, that it's, oh, the mist, it's hard, you're breaking up? I'm not sure. I, I pray to him daily.

I think I was able to heal Lethika and bring her back from the brink, but I almost sent her right back. Well, she seems to be sleeping peacefully now. She's all right. She needed the rest. But what are we going to do with her? We need to get out there and see what's going on, and we can't just take her around with us unless...

Unless... Yes. It's in this moment that you hear a pained cry deep from within the bowels of the cathedral. A cry, a voice that you're familiar with. No! No! No!

The cathedral begins to shake and rumble, and you feel that it is unstable. The archbishop shot from the very catacombs of this place straight up through to the tower. There are missing portions of stone and wood. The foundation has been shaken to its very core, and you realize you are not standing on solid ground.

Hugo is at the very bottom of this thing, and if this collapses, he will not survive. We have to get to him quickly. I have very little magics left, but I'm willing to use them all that I can to help save him. We can heal him. We have to get down there quickly. All right, somebody get a weapon, not you. I'll take a weapon. Okay, thank you. Let's get the fuck out of here, all right? Jeez! And, uh...

I'm scuttling down the stairs, Mr. Crabs style. Go quickly as well. I would say we hustle and shift Lethika to the classic nestling spot between my tombstone and my shoulders. Where who used to sit? And a single tear rolls down my cheek. Oh, gosh, I know that we need to save Hugo, but I guess we haven't really talked about Anya. There's no time. Not really being Anya.

I said there's no time, Jericho. Let's go. Oh, you're right. You're right, there is no time. We can't talk about how Anya was actually-- The building is collapsing beneath our feet! Let's go, let's go!

You begin to make haste. You feel the foundation itself shifting. You hear the sounds of Hugo crying out. You imagine you're the only people who can hear this. The sounds outside are so loud at this point, the sounds of Cyril in panic, that it would drown out any noise that's happening here at the cathedral as you

rush down. You take the rickety wooden stairs and spiral staircases. You run down, down, down, deeper into the cathedral. You dodge out of the way here and there as you notice bits of rock and timber fall and break away in certain areas. The overall structure seems to be holding strong for the most part, but there are areas of this place that have been severely damaged by the fight that ensued here.

And you catapult yourself down to the very depths of this place until you find yourselves once again walking that familiar path towards the room that the betrayal became evident to you. And this, Jorgrim, is where it becomes difficult for you. You feel that feeling that you felt the first time you stepped into this hallway. It was a sense of empowerment.

you were going to save this girl. This precious girl. This child that had become like a daughter to you. That you worried for. That you cared for. That you rescued time and time again from herself more than anyone else. And as you walk towards the entrance of this room, you now see that the dust has not settled. You can see the

bits of it that catch the moonlight and drift in the air. You see the bits of rubble that are visible from how far away you are from the door. But it's almost as if that isn't the reality because you see the room as it was when you headed toward this doorway to begin with and you feel the way that you'd felt in that moment, that hopefulness that she would be there, that you would rescue her.

And as you get closer, you begin to feel the sadness creeping in as reality really does return to you.

You see the rubble, you see Hugo pinned beneath a large marble pillar that has collapsed down on top of him, obscuring most of his body from you. You can only see bits of one of his hand and part of one of his legs sticking out from beneath it, and you hear his yelling and his calling to you, but all you can see is her.

The way she looked at you and smiled with that cute, daughter-like smile before her grin turned crooked and twisted and her body shifted into who and what she truly was. The witch that you had been chosen and tasked with killing. The witch that had fooled you. And it hurts. As you walk into this room, you hear once again, "Hugo! Pert!"

You watch as the hand flexes and tries to move a large stone off of its body, but he's too weak.

All of the strength that this gargoyle man, this Fomorian had had in his body, he had used to propel himself down from the bell tower where you had just come from when he knew his friends were in danger. You were about to die at the hands of the archbishop when Hugo came to your rescue, threw himself in the line of fire for you. He was already wounded.

The man that he loved, who had raised him, who had abused him, had shoved a statue, small statue of his god deep within the Fomorian eye that graced Hugo's forehead. He was already hurt, but he loved you and he fought for you. And now you watch as he struggles beneath piles of rubble and dust and broken pieces of religious effigy.

And he calls out to you, his voice becoming quieter, more labored, taking more deep breaths between every call out. He can't hear you. He can't hear the footsteps as you run closer to him as you call out his name. Your voices are drowned out by the silent sobbing. He feels completely and utterly alone, abandoned yet again by those he thought had loved him. Ugo!

And you watch as his hand goes limp. I would immediately try to find one of, any part of him that you mentioned, maybe his hand or foot, and rush to his side while this is happening, and recalling the conversation I had with Jericho, just thinking.

Please, Mourning Lord, one last, one more time, help me. Using the remaining 15 hit points in my Lay on Hands pool and casting Cure Wounds with my last spell slot, a low one. You attempt to do this, but you feel no light of the morning. You feel no sun in the darkness of night. There's only the moon that shines on this land, but you smell the scent of roses.

You feel the warmth. - Get away from me. - You feel a similar warmth of love and affection. Your god does not answer your call, but it seems that someone else has. You feel a surge of heat rush through your blood. You know you're not a vampire. Your blood does not have, or did not have, healing properties, but could it? Could it?

Drinking could, allowing your blood to heal something else, is that a possibility? The regenerative powers that you have within yourself, could you use that instead? The Mourning Lord isn't hearing your call. The choice is up to you. Okay, so having attempted to lay on hands and not getting any sort of a response,

I think Marius would instantly be shooketh. And then, you know, hearing what you're saying and smelling the perfume and feeling the embrace and getting this innate feeling, Marius would take a few steps back and...

having this innate feeling, reach for a small dagger at his side and just prick the tip of his finger to see if I can draw some blood. It comes easy. And then try, using this innate feeling, see if there's a way for me to maybe just see if I can give Hugo a little and see what happens. In this moment, the only thing you can see is Hugo's hand and a small part of maybe his calf.

You prick your finger. Everyone watches as you do this. Smooth blow. This is different, this is strange. You watch as it almost bubbles up out of your finger as if your veins are working overtime.

it spills out and it drips down your finger and into your palm where it pools and you watch as it forms the shape of a beautiful red rose before you smear your hands together and you place them down on top of Hugo's body and you're going to attempt to cast a spell again? Yeah, I would attempt to do the exact same thing

I would lay my hands on Hugo, calling forth whatever healing power I feel like I would have left, and if I still have my last spell slot to also attempt to cure his wounds, tapping into whatever this innate feeling within me is, because I want to save Hugo. You do this and you feel warmth.

It pulses and surges through you. You feel the wound not closing like you'd expected it to, and instead continuing to spill forth your lifeblood, your very essence, trickling down your finger into your palm and spreading out over his gigantic exposed hand. And you feel light. Not sunlight. Not the light of the morning.

but a deep red vibrant light as it pulses all around you. You're almost surrounded in an aura of red light. All of you smell roses. It smells beautiful. It's like a seductive perfume. You feel almost a sense of lust for just a moment, and then you watch as Hugo's hand clamps around yours and it tightens.

It's not at full strength. It's very, very weak. As Hugo holds onto your hand. Hugo, not alone. No, no, we are here. It's Marius. Marius is here. Friends, save Hugo. Yes, we're all here. We're all here for you. Yes, Garsh, we're here. We're all your best chums. Hugo, love friends.

Yeah, yeah, we're friends. You better get the fuck up. We should really get the fuck out of here. I don't know how long this town is going to last. I think there's more rubble than just fell on you, Hugo. Can you get up?

We've got to help him. He's not going to be able to get up on his own. And it's very clear that he cannot get up on his own. It is also very clear that what Jericho says is true. This is the weakest part of the cathedral, and you have been here for far longer than you would have hoped to. And there are bits and pieces of the ceiling that are falling around and crashing down on top of him,

every piece of block of stone of pillar, with every one that falls on top of him, you hear a loud, guttural cry and moan of pain as he's being pelted by these items, and you feel that you have very little time to rescue him and get out of this place with your lives intact. Gersh! If it's any consolation, 22 points of healing. Thank you.

We've got to go, we've got to help him now. All of you. Start digging, please, dig! And I will just attempt to use my awesome paladin strength to start heaving stones and pieces of rubble. You do? I'll take my sickly 90 pound body. I'll take my sickly wooden and metal arm.

We'll share like a 15 pound rock. Come on, Farron! Good job, you're real strong, Farron. I would like you all to roll a group strength check. Here's another one. You are doing what? I would not be helping. Me too! I would be at...

I would not have even noticed any of this going on. I don't know that I would have seen Marius in his red light or heard what he said or even notice Hugo at all. I am standing in the center of this room. Lethica on my shoulders. But it doesn't feel like Lethica to me. I feel the pressure.

that's so familiar, and I can almost feel the little feet pounding against my chest as I think about Anya and where she used to sit when she would come along with us on these adventures. I think about how when we thought that she had to defend herself, Farron gave her a knife and she took a spear and she looked so cute standing there, fully armored.

I think about the way she held her book, the way she smelled, the way she laughed, the way that for the first time in a very long time she helped me feel joy. And I see her in this room, I see her lying dead on the floor, I reach out to her and I see

her gnarled hand reaching back out to me, grabbing me by the throat. As the last time I see Anya is the first time I see Mother Midnight. Her hair, her long hideous hair would extend out and swirl around me. And as it swirls and tendrils and grips me,

it turns blue in my memory and I can see the ghosts of my clan, long gone, take the form of her hair. And I think back to my first, my greatest mistake when I destroyed my own clan, the Shadestone clan. And I can see Nurgle standing at the top of the hill, blasted, destroyed, skeletonized. And I can hear the screams and the death of everyone that

I loved. I knew. And this image plays out before you over and over and over again. You don't hear Hugo's screams. You don't hear your friends calling for your help. You don't feel them tug on you as they try and pull you back to reality. You watch as this image of the dying girl shifts back to the image of Mother Midnight and shifts back to the dying girl and back to Mother Midnight all the while.

The ghosts of your past surround you, and though they say nothing, you feel the guilt. You did this. You did this to us. This is your fault. Is it? Is it my destiny to be the fool for the Levellant forces? And seek to destroy everything I have come to love?

"We need some help, Yogi!" And you'll see all of my right hand will be picking it up and my left hand will be floating off of my wrist somewhere else, just chugging rocks, smaller rocks. "Yogi!" "There it is!" "Please!" You all realize very quickly that whatever has entranced Jorggrim is not something that's going to fade right away, and you

you very quickly come to the realization you are going to have to do this without your strongest member. If you want to save Hugo, you're going to have to do this without him. Marius, you know all too well, you are definitely not the strongest member of this group. I'm pretty sure I am, but I'm saying he is 19. You are one of the more weak members of this group. What? You feel that. Definitely weak. Oh, that's bullshit. I'm a dude. My muscles are rippling.

No, but you do realize that in this moment, you are going to have to do this yourself. And I need the four of you to roll your strength. 21. As I realize that Jorgren's not helping, may I cast a spell? Of course you can. You have one spell slot left. You're welcome to use an action. It's not, you know. I'll pull out my banjo after getting my senses back to me after dying, I guess.

and I'll pluck a few strings. Nighttime in Cyril and Hugo awakes.

♪ Sing the bells of blinding light ♪ ♪ And the bells, bells, bells ♪ And I'll just keep going as I cast Enlarge/Reduce and he doubles in size. Oh, that's amazing. You watch as Hugo doubles in size. He was already-- And he gets really strong. He was already gigantic. Wasn't a 15-foot tall elven guard.

But he was pretty large. That's pretty big. That's pretty large. Well, that's bringing it out. He's half a morion, all right? It was pretty large.

Bells of lightning light! You watch as he enlarges, and he is up against the wall. He breaks through some of the foundation. The cathedral is significantly less stable than it had been before, but you watch as a significant portion of the rubble falls away from him, enough for you to see the full extent of the damage.

Buried deep within his ribcage, head first, is a statue of Foltus. Goddamn. Yeah, Foltus, sorry. And...

you can see that the blood is bubbling up out of it as he tries to call and to breathe. He doesn't realize the extent of the damage there. As he begins to move, you see that it starts to shimmy out of place and you can see more blood begin to spill. You know that if that is removed improperly, Hugo will not survive it. I will look at him and see the blood and immediately

dive and put my hands where the blood is starting to bubble up. I'll try not to move the statue or anything like that. But you'll start to see, like, spores coming from my hands and patching around where some of this blood has, almost like creating a faux scab, like, staunching some of this bleeding. And I'll cast Cure Wounds at a third level. Oh! Damn, man.

Just saving that one in the boss fight? I wish I had some spell slots. I could do some cool stuff, too. Could you do that? I don't know, maybe not that, but I could do something. Hanging onto those. I don't know if I got that from leveling up. That was terrible! I did take the ability from leveling up. God, that was so bad. It's not about the number you roll for healing, but about the level of the spell slot. Okay. I rolled 15. Okay.

And Hugo has advantage on strength checks and strength saving throws. You... That's pretty good. You watch as Farron dashes to Hugo and she places her hands, the tips of her fingers blackened and covered in dirt. She places them up against Hugo's wound and you immediately watch as out of the palm of her hands, gnarled vines begin to fall

begin to unfurl and embed themselves into his skin, into his flesh. He shrieks out in pain for a moment, but your gentle voice lulls him back into a sense of safety. He trusts you.

He believes in you, you are the friend that came to rescue Hugo. And though it is painful, he relaxes as you channel this magic, not just healing, but you watch as the roots do exactly what you knew not to do, remove the statue from his wound, but they do. They force it out and almost like threads

of sinew, they begin to sew up the wound with these dark and earthy vines. And you watch as the wound is still there. It's still red and bruised and aching and sore, but it is closed, stitched together with the earth. You've got to get up, Hugo. You've got to be strong and get yourself out of here. We're not going to leave you. Hugo, move!

And he seems very, very weak. He's having a hard time speaking. He's having a hard time talking. Even with the extra strength, he wobbles on his feet as he slowly stands. You can still, you see the...

you still see the wound on his third eye. As all of his eyes attempt to blink, you see tears streaming down his face mixed with blood and dust and bits of stone and wood. He gets to his feet, wobbles a bit, steadies himself on your shoulder, and looks up towards the sky and realizes that

you're going to have to move quickly as you watch as more pieces of the cathedral begin to shake and begin to come down. You go follow friends. You heard him. It's time to move. Jorgren, you hear none of this. So you stare down at the floor, this shifting movement of Mother Midnight to Anya, Mother Midnight to Anya, Mother Midnight to Anya has stopped.

And instead, you're staring down at Anya. She looks up at you with her big brown eyes. Her brown hair is messy and disheveled. And she sits cross-legged on the floor looking up at you. She smiles. It's almost as if you can look through her. This can't be real. This isn't really her. This is your mind doing all of this. But it's almost like you can hear her voice in your head. "Yorgie?"

Are we going to go outside and play a game? It's lonely in here. And it's cold. But her mouth doesn't move. You reach down like you're going to pick her up and you see your face shift for a moment. It's the horrendous face of Mother Midnight for just a split second before it's nothing but those beautiful, large brown eyes. And then I need you to make a dexterity saving throw. Oh shit!

At disadvantage. Oh! Okay, all right, okay. I didn't see it coming. How could this happen to me? 15. 15. You can forget the shift in her face. That wasn't really Mother, this is your little girl, this is Anya, and you reach down to pick her up.

But then you hear the noise of stones sliding on stone and it is that moment of being pulled out of this facade that you realize where you are. You're not in the cathedral before all of this happened. Anya is not who she said she was. And Mother Midnight must die for what she has done. As you realize

all too soon that the cathedral is collapsing around you and you are able to dart out of the way for a split second as one of the pillars holding up this place crashes to the ground and shatters directly in the spot where you had been envisioning Kenya to be and you watch as the ghost of this little girl is obliterated and drifts off into nothing but rubble and dust.

Not again. Never again. Jorgen! We're getting out of here, Mr. Jorgen! We've gotta go. It's all coming down! How's Hugo? Uh... He's managing, but we must move quickly. Then let's go!

I'm getting the fuck outta here! We hustle and we're all helping Hugo. Ooh, that's not stained glass! Oh, tabernacle! You touched the stained glass, it shattered. Ooh, is that a silver sensor? Blinzy, you have magic, can you use any healing magic on Hugo? I'm tapped out!

I'm sorry, what? This is all the magic on the left. And I just pull out my gun. What about the jawbone of Saint Fultonheimer? That's a superstition. The superstitions were not a go. You are having this conversation as you are rushing through the cathedral, doing your best to stay out of the spots that are

the most ramshackle, the most destroyed. But you see now that so much of this place has already come down and the foundation itself is no longer stable at all. The cathedral will fall. It is only a matter of time as you run through this place. I need you all to roll a dexterity save and throw a point. That is--

Anybody, I totally forgot, I have an aura of protection, so anybody close to me. I'm very close. Do I get advantage? Plus four on saves. Oh, I got a natural one. You get plus four. Should we twist? One twist. Oh yeah. Did you say advantage or disadvantage? Just normal. Just normal, okay. Just normal. Oh yeah, I smashed it. I smashed it this time.

Thank you, chat, for the twist. Actually, we need to keep track of this. We don't have any, right? No, we have-- The mods messaged me with the count. I have the total. Oh, thank goodness. And what is your-- Plus four. Ooh, that's not bad. Ooh! 31. Well, now mine seems pretty bad. For a dex save? Remember, you get plus four from my aura.

So this guy, I got a 14. I rolled a natural 20 and I got a 27. Well, you're a strength-based character. He's a dex-based character? Well, bards are like jack-of-all-trades. I'm proficient. I didn't know that bards were proficient with dex. Dex and charisma, that's really cool. 25. Jack-of-all-trades. Nice. I rolled low. I have to roll for...

That's pretty good. So despite Virgil clunking around and not being able to manipulate Jericho's body, Jericho's like, it's all he's ever known, so he's just like-- You're Mr. Beguiling. Exactly. I just lucked my way. Oh, gosh! That is close. That is some nice sea stains, lads. Oh, gosh. Who's untied? You are all able to rush through the hallway that you entered into the catacombs through

and you dodge the stones that are falling, the beams that are holding up the ceiling. You rush forward and you watch as the entirety of the cavern behind you collapses into rubble. As you rush forward and you take a quick turn and begin to head up a stairwell, I need you to roll another dexterity saving throw for me, please. Oh boy, remember, plus four. Plus four if you're near me.

Whoa! Keep that. Same as last time, 25. Oh, much better. Much better. 21. 18. I hold my shield up and block some. Yeah, that's not doing well. Good God. 21 this time, as opposed to the 31. I rolled low. What did you get?

You are running through as bits of the stairway begins to, bits of this stone spiral staircase begin to fall away. It is crumbling from the top down and you are diving this way and that, missing stones by inches, most of you. Farron, however, misjudges and takes

six points of bludgeoning damage as she's hit by two individual stones, one right after the other. It's incredibly painful, but you are able to propel yourself forward. As all of you make your way out of the lower floors and onto the main floor of this cathedral, you're now in the church portion proper, and you see around you that this place is in absolute devastation. The...

Parts of the walls have fallen apart. The stained glass window has blown out. The candelabras have been knocked over and the curtains in the altar have caught fire. And this place is-- Will you stop it? I mean, we don't know what you're doing. We've been revealing everything. We got poor Farin's like, "Oh my god."

Oh, my fucking deer legs. My fucking legs. Oh, my fucking deer legs. You have one more stretch of this cathedral. Oh, my fucking legs. You have to get through the cathedral proper and out the front doors before you find yourself in Cyril and to safety as you begin to book it and rush through this room filled with smoke, rubble, and debris, and I need you all to make another Disserted Saving Throw for me,

Plus four, plus four, plus four, plus four. Potato! Potato! Natural fucking 12! I'm crushed. I got an 11, I'm ready to meet my maker. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, there he is. 21. Oh, my fucking vampire legs. 22. 16. Me fucking curtains. Come on, Virgil! Come on, fly, fly like the wind! You all begin to run as

One of the wooden beams crashes from the ceiling aflame. The curtains that had been hanging along that side of the wall caught ablaze, carrying the fire up to the rafters. As one of these pillars crashes down, it pins two of you beneath its weight, Marius and Jericho. You find yourselves smashed and pinned by the weight of this beam, talking-- Morning load, curse it!

14 points of bludgeoning and fire damage. I'm in danger. Dungeon Mistress? Yeah? I realize I didn't heal. When I came back to life, how many hit points did I get? You had one hit point?

Oh god! Oh god! Oh gosh! I will come! Well, come on! This is unfair! I just had my... No, I had... No, I just got into my taste of life again! Demica! Demica, are you... Oh, we've lost him! We've lost him!

Do you have any healing matter? Do you have anything like good berries or anything like that? I'm out of spell slots. I use it on a larger base. So you have nothing. Okay. I should have met it and only used one point on Latika. Because if you had something like that, I would give you the ability to use that since we didn't have much time afterwards. We did take a break right away, so it would make sense that you would forget to do that mechanically. But if you have nothing, yeah, you die. Once I see this pillar...

This pillar crushed my friends. I would immediately move over to Marius's side of the pillar, slam the shovel under, and try and hand up and peel it off of them as much as possible. You are filled with a level of rage that you have never felt before.

You don't even need to roll for this. As you think about what you've just experienced and the anger that you feel, what was stolen from you? And you wrench your shovel into, in between two of the stones that line the floor of this place, wedging your shovel there for a second before flinging it backwards and the beam itself

up almost effortlessly slams against the wall shaking the entire wall you watch as two more candelabras fall over bits of the wall begin to rain down but you don't care you'll be out of here in a moment as you

You quickly grab Jericho, lift Marius to his feet. Thank you. And with Jericho in one hand, Lethika on your back, you turn and you lead the charge out of this cathedral. It's like that scene from "Ladies of Rob". This is the fastest Yordam has ever moved and he's going 15 feet per second. You don't even stop

at the door to open it. You charge into it, and with the full force of your body and the tombstone across your back, the doors fly open in your wake, and all of you spill out onto the steps of the cathedral into the center of the town square of Cyril, smoke billowing out of the cathedral behind you. And mere seconds afterwards, with a loud,

crack and pop, the cathedral levels itself. As stone and wood come crumbling down, the fire roars for but a moment more as it illuminates your silhouette to anyone watching on as all of you make your way out of this cathedral. And then it slowly begins to die and turn to embers, nothing left for the fire to feed on.

The cathedral in Cyril is no more. Archbishop Danton Alexander Renault is no more. But you have all managed to survive. Jericho, I need you to make a death saving throw. Please, everybody close your eyes. Oh! Oh! Wieners. Got it. Good? Okay, yep. I've smudged my glasses. You are standing here.

right off the steps of the cathedral and all you can hear is the sound of the stones behind you. As everything begins to settle, you look over and you see the bloated dead body of the Archbishop impaled on the fountain. All around you people are screaming and running and crying. You hear bits of conversation

He was our pope. Do you think this is all his doing? No, I think it was his doing. He was supposed to lead us against sin and look at him flying towards that moon. It is very clear that all of a sudden the people of Cyril are beginning to see the truth for what it was.

as you hear them nervously talking about things, they hide their children's eyes from the view of what's happening here. You hear bits of conversation, the cathedral wouldn't have fallen if the gods hadn't forsaken us. If he was an honest and just man, if he was truly religious, the gods would have shown their light on us this day. None of this would have happened, he is at fault. He was the heretic, he was the witch.

He was the evil in this city. None of them seem to be paying any attention to you.

I would like to take the opportunity while this is happening to go in my pack. As I'm reaching through my belongings, I turn to Jorgen and I say: Jorgen, hold Jericho still. And I will pull out my only potion of greater healing. I will bite the cork off with my teeth and I will pour the potion into his mouth. I'll wall his head back. Oh, too far, too far. And I believe that's 4d4.

plus four healing, provided he can drink it. Five. Is Hugo with us? Yes. I was waiting for you to be like, all of you get out, except-- 14 points of healing. You take 14 points of healing, and you come to with 14 points of healing. It'll pour into my mouth and it'll be as quiet as you hear.

Keep running! Keep running! Jellicoe, Jellicoe. Breathe, relax. You're all right. Are we okay? Is everyone all right? Are you okay? Gosh. I'm not a runner.

I don't even have lungs and I'm winded. You are being carried and you're winded. I'm being carried and I'm winded. I would look around amongst the commotion of the crowd, talking about the remains, and just take a moment to see if I could find a place, maybe a barrel or something, just to sit down and lean against

Because we'll all look like hell. From here, you know that there are quite a few darkened alleyways that lead off deeper into Cyril, and you skirt, you leave the stairs, and you skirt past the rubble of the fallen cathedral, and past the first, and then the second, and then into the third darkened alleyway.

Nobody seemed to pay much attention to what happened. Though you had been right in front of this, the visual of the cathedral falling was more than enough to catch their attention. The last thing they were focused on were people standing in front of the cathedral, no matter how different they may have been. But as you begin to move through Cyril, you do begin to hear

Sorry, honey.

And you-- Why would you think that? And you do hear bits of this. It's not as much as-- it's not as cacophonous as the noise of the people pointing the blame at the archbishop. But it is still there.

still the deepest layer of their subconscious. You are strange, you are different, you are monstrous to these people. You are an easy target for blame and should they get the chance, you would be all too easy to be the scapegoat for what's happened here. And so you hide yourself in the shadows. You feel that in this place, in this moment, you are out of sight, out of mind.

And Yuko, by the way, is normal sized, because he would have, like, Mario'd. Like, he'd hit a fucking Goomba. Yeah.

There's still two people fucking in the alley. You're not finished? We fixed that like 40 minutes ago. You can stop now. They don't. Oh, that's weird. I thought it was a good night's scene. Oh, no, we just don't ask. It's a night scene. Just a quick infractory period. Oh, no.

as soon as we get to like a place. Oh no, you caught us. I'll say, oh no, please don't keep watching. We did it, friends. We saved the city. And then like the last remaining retainer will have a cold. Yeah, a cold. All right. All right. Let's please just take a moment to regain our composure.

Well, city folks seem to be perfectly reasonable. And totally understanding of what everything just happened. I'm not sure that we can stay here in the city. You think they're going to hunt us down? Oh, it won't be long until they start pointing the finger at us. What do we even have to do here anymore? Everything we came here to accomplish is done. Leave him. Just run? Wasn't the whole point for us to--

save zero because that's what lord druskin bald asked us to do if we show up and say oh hey lord phil everything's looking up he asked us to save the city from

Something terrible. Now all that's left is run-of-the-mill assholes and we can just leave. Yeah, we did the job from a certain point of view. Well, that's true and all, but we also didn't cut the head off the snake, neither. Well, do you see her around anywhere for us to cut her fucking head off? I don't think so. She's gone. It just means that our work isn't done. We've got more work to do. It's just not here anymore. Correct. I still don't understand what on you.

Mother Midnight was trying to do. What was he doing flying to the moon? What were they trying to accomplish here? What are those creatures in the amber? Trying to complete whatever the fucking ritual was they were working on, I mean. Those were demons. I think we stopped it, though. I mean, clearly they're physically capable of not doing horrible creatures. That's weird. Look over there. They're like, dipping away. Shit.

You can stop now. No, seriously, please stop. We're right here. Get out of here! We got a plan right here. Never mind. We're just going to-- Go on! Go on now, get! Let's get! Let's get! Well, we need to make sure that the little one and McDuff, Matron McDuff, that they're okay.

Wasn't that fellow what beat Yorgrym in that fair fight? Wasn't he going to round up a posse and do some sort of manner of vigilante justice? You're right, the mastermind of all this. He's still free. Mother of Midnight is! Well, quite frankly, with everything going on, I had forgotten about Van Brunt.

He is still out there and we need to make sure that he isn't harming innocent people. And a posse can be pretty fucking dangerous, too. The what? A posse. It's a group of friends. A posse. You might not be familiar with it. Oh, you're right. I'm about to end this whole man's career.

That's right, a posse. I love posses. I'd always hoped to be part of one. I always hoped to be part of one. Oh, there's... I was thinking we were going to go down that cul-de-sac. I thought you were confused about my... I checked my inventory. Ten pounds of pussy gold rock. What?

I'm holding a rock with gold bits in it, covered in gross pus. Anyway. That's right. I know I've encountered quite a few posses in my life, usually bitchforks, torches. Hi. Oh, you done? No, no. We all turn. You shouldn't be out here. Oh. Why do you say that?

Well, I heard some people talking about the fact that you might be the reason for all this, but I know that's not true. I know that you're just here to help. I've watched you help.

Who is this speaking? You are looking at what appears to be maybe a 14-year-old girl. She's wearing a simple blue dress, an off-white apron that's covered in baking-- I said paraphernalia, but that sounds weird.

Hand-keeked dust? Flour. Yeah, coated in flour and bits of syrup and things. She's clearly been in the kitchen all day. Her hair is a strawberry blonde and it's covered in soot. You see a smudge of soot on her nose and on her cheek.

But she looks sweet. And you see now, as you look towards her, that the back door to one of the bakeries along this, along the opposite road, is open. She clearly stepped out to, you see a bin. She was taking out the rubbish. And you see that she noticed you here. People have been talking about you and

I'm afraid if they see you out here right now when everything is like this, until they've had a chance to calm down, that they'll do something to you. If you have a safe place to go, you should go there. At least for the night. I'm sure everyone will feel better in the morning. We, we, we are deeply

Appreciative of your warning, Jorgrim, don't speak to her, she'll immediately turn into Mother Midnight. I was going to say, I was going to say-- Help me! Parrish, young lady, how do you feel about a-- I'll kill her! Dancing beside a bonfire on the Equinox? I think what she's saying is, "Let's get the fuck out of here. "We got to find a pirate hideout." Do you know a good hideout?

"I don't, but if you know of any place that you think is safe, "any place that you would be comfortable, "you should go there." Any good coves around here? Or like dense jungles? "Weren't you staying at the Mirabelle place?" We were, yes, that's correct. "I don't think anyone would touch that place, "at least not right now with everything that's happened. "They'd be too afraid of witches' spells and

Hexes and things. Maybe it would be safer to go back there. At least for the night. Perhaps we can find some back alleyways, sneak around, and perhaps get there unnoticed. What do we think? All right, you lead a way. Jericho's in rough shape. We need to rest up for the night. Agreed. That's true, so is Hugo.

All right. Oh yeah. You do. We can't sneak around with this big fucker. Well, he is actually quite stealthy. If you remember, he was actually quite graceful and agile, probably not with the statue in his person. Miss Lethica will be waking up real soon, Hugo, don't worry. And she'll help you out. None of us are qualified.

But she will certainly be able to help you out. You see that Hugo is standing directly behind Jorgren. He's looking down with Lethika with affection and panic on his face.

you occasionally hear him muttering things to himself as if he's almost trying to talk himself out of things. You listen a little bit now that your attention is drawn to him and you hear, Lethika came. Hugo not scared. Lethika alive. Hugo love Lethika. Lethika friend. He is horrified of Lethika's statements.

I will turn to the group and say: All right, let us make haste. And then I will turn to the young girl, and maintaining an unusual amount of distance, I'll just look there and say: Thank you, and please be safe.

You two, do you want a basket of bergamot cupcakes? I've been cooking them all night. No, bergamot's not really our thing. Thank you, though. Did you say cupcakes? Completely forgetting the prior instance. I touch my gums. I run my tongue along all my teeth. They have a lavender frosting.

Something I've been working on for the past month or so. I could take one. I slap an immediate blow out of his hands. We need to go. I worked really hard on that. It's nothing personal. Please trust me. She reaches down and picks it up. It's crumbling now and kind of crushed. She tries to wipe it off, but she looks sad. All right, well.

Virgil swoops down and grabs you like a seagull. She tosses it into the rubbish bin. Oh, Virgil's right over there. At least someone will get use out of it tonight. Anyway, you should get to safety. Thank you. Please don't tell me that's a secret family recipe. Oh no.

Oh gosh, okay. There's no secrets in there, Virgil, get out of the trash! It's not gonna make you more powerful. That's pretty good. Let's go. No, it's just a recipe my family's had for years, and she turns and walks into the bakery. Those were absolutely full-heeled muffins, but we're already on our way to the Mirabelle house. I would have my hand on my shovel and just stare at her until the door closes of the bakery. It does. Let's go. All right.

I need you all to roll a stealth check. I think I'm okay in that. Whoa! I did it again. No, no, no. Can I get a twist? I did it again. I did it again. Oh, yeah. You must twist, yeah. Stealth check, just straight up. Natural 20. Oh! Natural fucking 20. Shit, I'm at disadvantage on stealth. Let me get one of them twists. Oh, look.

Oh, look, I just cannot not roll awesome. That's pretty good. So my lowest was a 10. So I got an 11 for stealth after disadvantage. 24. 17. 19. Oh, you got a natural 20. Hugo. Oh, wait, no, it's just a skill check.

You've got to get a natural 20, so. Whoa! Gosh, he's good. He is good. 28! His need to protect Lethika and to protect his friends causes him to really watch every step that he makes. He knows this city like the back of his hand. He has traveled it since he was a wee lad, and he knows every stone

in Cyril, and he guides you quickly and stealthily through the back streets of Cyril, down streets you didn't even realize existed, until you find yourselves spilling out directly in front of the old Mirabelle house. It's quiet, it's empty. Colette is safe with Maggie McDuff, and her parents are no longer with you. So the house is quiet and dark and cold.

You look around you and no one seems to be coming down these streets, almost as if they're trying to stay away from them. There's something about this place makes them uncomfortable or nervous. Maybe that little girl was right. Maybe this is the safest place to stay the night. Her dad's not still in there, is he? Francois? No, he had been removed. Okay.

Oh. I don't want to freak anybody out. Does anybody eat that? My side! Vertal's like, "Darrius, no."

Oh, the blood's long dried. Oh no. I'm just kidding. I would say that if we are able to stealthily enter the house, we would continue to just quietly-- Marius will start to take a look around, survey the area, see what's going on, look at the state that we left it in, make sure there is absolutely no intruders or anyone hiding here squatting. Oh, and wish balls. I would say roll a perception check at advantage. I'll have you roll it for everybody.

Yeah, well, you're the one who said you wanted to do it. I change my mind. Look over there! Oh, baby, I don't change my mind 23. I'm on fire! You quickly dart into the house and you look around and it is quiet. You light a few candles, you taste the joint, and you see that this place is clearly empty aside from the group of you.

and there's no one hiding in here, there are no witch bowls that can be found. It is just as you had left it. You all usher yourselves in and begin to light some more candles and you maybe get a fire going in the hearth and you begin to make food. All the while, Hugo stands framed in the door, silently weeping. - Oh.

"Hey, Hugo, it's okay. "Nothing's gonna hurt you in here. "This is a safe space." You see that his eyes are staring directly to a smear of blood on the floor. A smear of blood you remember all too well. The spot where you had found Francois. You see how the blood trails out the door when his body had been removed.

Hugo looks down at this in what is very clearly shame and guilt. Hugo bad. Hugo monster. No, you're not a monster, Hugo. I mean, to be fair, he did stab you with a sword. And if I had giant arms like that, I think I would have done the same thing. This is a safe place. I know something rough here happened, but...

Miss Lethica needs this comfy spot to rest up and heal so you can get healed. So just come on in and we'll close the door and it's going to be okay. I'll play a little jaunty tune for you. What's your favorite tune? Father Renaud was right.

Hugo worthless. Hugo stupid. Hugo mean. Hugo bad. No, no, look, you're not bad, alright? You know, if it makes you feel any better, our very own Samarius is sort of doing the same kind of thing like 15 minutes ago.

You know, he let his kind of dark aside take over and, you know, did a little goblin on Lefica. And you let your dark aside take over because of past, you know, issues, which isn't your fault. It's like his past issues isn't his fault. Punched a guy until he died, you know. This happens to the best of us. You got it in one, two,

And no one's blaming you, all right? We don't blame Marius for draining Leffica of half her blood. Marius good. Marius friend. It's a bit more complicated than that, Hugo. Marius may be good sometimes, but we all make mistakes, as Briggs is trying to say. Hugo make mistake. It's okay.

Heck, after playing at a place or a small local festival, I blacked out and woken up covered in blood and gore and viscera and body parts. Hugo loved Jericho. Well, you know what, Hugo? Well, gosh, Jericho loved Hugo. Oh, Jericho fries.

And he goes in, he wraps you up into a huge hug, picks you up off the ground. He doesn't fit in here. He is very hunched over. His back is pressed up against the wall. But he doesn't care. As he looks down at all of you, he wipes the tears and snot across his face with his arms.

as he looks down at all of you, and then he throws himself onto the ground by the fire, picks Lethika up, puts her in his lap, and he just gently rocks her by the fire. Yeah, not just too long ago, 15 minutes about, Mary's smoking back to Lethika's blood. I'm trying to kill you. He doesn't seem...

campaign. He does not hear what you're saying right now. He's trying. He doesn't hear what you're saying right now. He is too busy. You hear that he's gently singing a lullaby. He's going to donkey tongue, but he's going to slam her. He grabs you, he throws you off, and just up air

and blows you up the stage. Back air is huge. I got too much in my doggy cup. He gives you a back air and you just get yeeted off the stage. And with that, you all find yourselves in a comfortable, cozy house for the night. You can finally rest after this long day. And though it is the land of eternal night, you know that it is well past your bedtime.

I'm going to find a blanket or a sheet or something and fluff it out and lay it over the bloodstain on the floor. And then I'll crawl up onto the hardwood floor. You are able to do that easily. And you... He doesn't say anything, but Hugo glances at you for a moment. And as you lay down, he...

reaches out and he pulls you closer to him and he puts one of his arms around you and he endeavors to keep you warm through the night. I love him. Well, I think we did it. I think everything's okay. We stopped the Night of Sin. Nobody got turned into gross, abominable nations. Yeah. The moon, nothing happened there. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not sure we've done much of anything. None of this has felt like a victory. Well, we stopped the fucking ritual, that was the goal. Oh no, Yulgrim smacked a cupcake out of my hand.

She could have been a horrible ancient witch, Briggsie. She was gonna eat a cupcake that she had. She didn't look like a witch. They never do! Well, look, I think we've dealt with all the witches in full sense, alright? I think we checked that box and I think she was just a nice girl trying to offer us a treat and I was the gentleman. And I said, "Of course, I would love to try your cupcake." And you were all rude about it and smacked my floating zombie hand right out of the sky.

"And you're welcome, okay? "You can't even taste food." You're very strong. "Well, thank you." I'm going to give you a defense. You blushes? "I'm going to blush. "Oh, wow. "Put it like that, I'll go back to the bakery, "I'll get you a cupcake." That was pretty good, raising that burning beam off of the two. You are very strong, aren't you? "Well."

Like that scene from Les Miserables! The second I saw Marius stuck under that pillar, I knew he'd need help. In this world, it's called the Miserable. The Miserables? Yeah, the Miserables. "Yulgrim, can this be true? "I can't believe what I saw. "An orc your age, to be as strong as you are. "A man restores! "You made me think of an orc from years ago.

"An orc that broke his parole." This is a romantic-- "He disappeared." This isn't Winx Day. This is not Winx Day. "Forgive me, sir, I will not tell. "Prisoner." I'm sorry, I'm sorry. "And--" Hold on, hold on. "I..."

I won't have a reach. Continue. You may be right. She may have just been a simple girl, but Yorgo's also right. We can't take the risk. That's fine. I'll get over it. All right. I appreciate the concern. It's the fault that counts. And in this case, you were thinking out for my own well-being. I appreciate that. There could have been teeth in the cupcake.

It was Bergamont that would track with the last time. That would have been pretty great. Well, Virgil, you're awful quiet. Your eyes are looking a little bit more clear and calculated. There's probably nothing wrong with that. Good night to you, too. Oh. That's ominous. Anyways.

Uh, Gar- you know, I'm gonna feel good. I feel like this is a win. We- we killed the Archbishop. Uh, we killed- we stopped the demons. Mother Midnight got that nasty curse from, uh, your fine lady. Respectfully, said. The maiden, yes. That was- that was very impressive. Well, I appreciate your optimism, to say the least. Well, you know, what I always say is always look on the bright side of life.

or approximation of life, in case you happen to be a scarecrow with a found consciousness, with a demon inside, it takes the form of a weird, gross crow. That's the full standard, but I shorten it to always look on the bright side of life. Or a dead vampire thrall. Oh, that's true. A zombie pirate. Et cetera, et cetera. Cursed by eternal rotting stink. We can look at this as maybe a victory for the moment, but...

Well, I don't hear any boisterous singing, so I think Van Brunt's probably nowhere nearby. Although, I mean, he went out in the woods to look for Macduff, didn't he? He said he was going to...

I mean, is there a chance he's on his way there? Well, no, I think he needed like a-- don't fellas like that need a round of a posse? Like we talked about, a posse? I think you remember that the plan was to do it in the morning. Oh, that's right. No, you're right. I recall that. And at the very least, I'd like to think that she's not easy to find. That's true. She's got all that fancy land magic. Faron, will the land magic work? What do you mean by that?

Work on what? You've got land magic, you're kind of a good witch. You remind me of a witch, but in a good way. I don't really know how to respond to that, but-- Do you think that maybe she and the little one are safe and sound, free of angry mobs or posses? I think they'll be all right for the night, but we should plan to get up at first light, maybe before first light, get ourselves out of town and into the woods and see what we can find.

And I have to say, I'm a little worried now that we're here that we've left the body of the Archbishop. Oh, that's right. I'm not sure there's much we could do about that, given our state, where they all were, and the accusations that were starting to arise.

It's true. And I'm starting to think that it was really just Virgil that wanted to chow down and not like in some more general sense, you know? That is very concerning, to say the least. If the body's still there in the morning hours, maybe we should, I don't know. Well, now that we know... Take care of it on the way out of town. Now that we know what was going on here, we could take it back to our benefactor. Maybe he could handle it. Do you think they're going to like...

have a grand funeral, because he was the leader. I mean, there was a giant crowd around him. Oh, yeah, they don't really know how fucked up that dude was. They saw him shapeshift from a giant gargoyle demon, from what I heard earlier. I don't know, I was unconscious. Oh, that's true. You told me that word for word, Briggsie. That was 15 minutes ago. Yes, it was about 15 minutes ago. A little long, though. A couple hours ago. A couple hours ago. Yeah.

Well, I mean, the dude was pretty beloved. And the thing is, you know, if anyone happened to see it, you know, would they be believed? Or would they think he'd be a monster that gets blamed on us? The people in this town are quite misguided. I don't know that we've got the time or the ability to change minds. Look, all I know is we did what old Philly D asked us to do, all right? We're gonna go back to that guy and tell him, look, mission accomplished. Now fucking give us what we've earned, right?

That's all that I care about. I mean, that's not all that I care about. All right, fine. But, I mean, that's really what I care about. So we sleep, and we get the fuck out of here. That is a fine and swell plan. Agreed. Well, at least we can start with sleep.

I'll check on Lethika and just make sure that she's still comfortably being held by Hugo. She seems to still be stable and she is warm and comfortable by the fire. He has a tin cup that he is boiling water. He waits for it to cool down and he slowly gives it to her. It's a nice...

It's a hot tea without the leaves, but he is doing his very best to keep her hydrated and to keep her comfortable as he sings a song in a language none of you understand. But he sings her a little lullaby as he rocks her to sleep. That's real sweet. And the rest of you sleep for the night?

I'm assuming you're all going to sleep in the main room. I'm going to get in the exact same bed that I slept in last night. Oh, you're going upstairs. Yeah, yeah. I'm going upstairs. I'm in the same bed. I don't know if it's been torn apart. Yeah, if there's still beds for everybody, then I would probably-- Same room? Yeah. We slept in the same room. We were all in the same room. We crammed in. I'm going to stay down with Hugo and Letha. Hugo, Letha, and Varyn, you all stay next to the fire, curled up. And you find sleep there. It comes to you easy.

The rest of you make your way upstairs to the room that you're familiar with. First walking into it, it is a little bit of a shock, Jorgren. You have memories here. Memories with your would-have-been daughter. And this room brings back a lot of them. The slumber parties, the story time. It's all here in this room. But you steel yourself to it and you too eventually find sleep. Sleep takes all of you.

And for this one night in Cyril, in Drosgenvald, you have a dreamless sleep. A peaceful sleep. A refreshing sleep. I go back in the broom closet, "Well, goodnight."

It is in stark contrast to the way that you wake up, which is to the shouts and screaming that is coming from the town square. You hear the lashing of whips, the neighing of horses. Whatever is happening in the town square is loud, and all of you jolt out of bed, caught off guard, all at almost exactly the same time as you hear a loud boom

screaming voice for but a second. You can't make out the words that are being said, but there is something important happening in the town square. I wait with a start. Virgil's startled. This cannot be good. Does Lethika wake up? Lethika does not wake up. Hugo, you stay here with Miss Lethika. We're going to go check out and see what's going on, right? Correct. Dragonhaven, along let's go!

Hold on. I have to take ten minutes to put on my armor. No, you sleep in your armor, I like that. I'm going to sleep--

I mean, I am going to sleep. I'm sleeping, and then whenever I woke up, I'm like, "Oh!" Yeah, feet. Feet up in bed. The stinger is Marius Leysback. "Good evening." "Oh, I mean, good night." Just kidding, none of that happens. I agree with my companions, and we decide to rush to find where the source of the shouting is coming from. We are way to the town square.

you rush towards the town square. It doesn't take you long. You know how to get there, and the Mirabelle house isn't that far from the town square itself.

The archbishop liked to keep his family close, and they had the nicest house closest to the cathedral. And as you pass the burning ruins of the cathedral, it is now nothing but smoldering embers, you see the scene at the town square much sooner than you would have if it still stood. In the very center of the town square, encircling the fountain, you see at least 20 men on horseback.

One of them, clearly taller, clearly stronger, clearly more handsome than the rest, William Van Brunt is leading the charge. As he is calling out with a booming voice and shouting to a mass of people who have accumulated in the town square, at first some of them seem reticent, hesitant about what's going on, but as he continues to talk, as his charm continues to infiltrate the town,

the citizens of Cyril, they begin to cheer and clap and rally with him. You sneak around the side and you find a place just off the smoldering embers or the smoldering ruins of the cathedral, a place that you are out of sight but can watch with a bird's eye view, or not with a bird's eye, you can watch with a front row view. A rat eyes view. Rat eyes view, perfect, thank you.

And you are able to see this image a bit more clearly. Whether it was William Van Brunt and his posse, or whether it was the town folks themselves, the body of the archbishop,

Bishop. Bishop has been strung up on the fountain and desecrated. You see that there are signs nailed into it. Villain. Witch believer. Heretic.

Sinner, ungodly. - Oh my god. - Enemy, horrible things written here about the Pope. The people of Cyril have clearly turned against him. And you watch as William Van Brunt hushes the crowd around him for a minute, as his horse rides up, it almost saunters. His horse, almost as cocky as he is, as he rides out into the very center of these people,

Citizens of Cyril, I am William Van Brunt. You know me. You love me. I love all of you. And today, we are going to kill the last witch in full sense. And all of the horse-riding men begin to cheer and clap. Not just them. For you know that evil lurks among you.

Those horrific monsters that the archbishop brought into our town fed us his lies so that they could get close to you and your family, your children, your loved ones. They are the enemy and they are led by one most evil.

"Maggie McDuff will die, and so will her child, Familia!" And they all begin to cheer and chant. You hear, "Kill the witch! Down with the witch! The witch will die!" And as he saunters forward on his horse one more time, "I, William Van Brunt, will save Cyril from the heretics!"

I will save this city. I will protect you. You have my word.

Ride out, men! He charges forward and all of them fall in line behind him, including on the smallest pony you could possibly imagine. One, Percy Phipps, sidles up right next to William Van Brunt and they all charge out of Cyril to cheers and applause and the shouts of burn the witch, save the city.

William Van Brunt for mayor. William Van Brunt, our new leader. Billy, Billy, Billy, Billy. And that is where we'll end the session. - I'm quite well in a single file line. - Get me that foot! - Well done. - Thanks for playing on it. - It feels good to be back.

Thank you so much for listening to the Legends of Avantris podcast. We hope you enjoyed the session. If you want even more campaigns to listen to, become a member of our Patreon at the Pearl Dolphin tier or higher to unlock Shroud of Versaltmarsh, a patron-exclusive campaign set on the high seas. You can find that at patreon.com forward slash legendsofavantris. If you want to chat about the episode with the Avantris community, join us on Discord at legendsofavantris.com forward slash discord.

We also post content nearly every day on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, so make sure you follow our socials at legendsofadventress.com forward slash social. And make sure you check out The Crooked Moon so you can terrify your friends with a folk horror 5e supplement published by us. Get your own copy at thecrookedmoon.com. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.