Icebound | Ep. 5 | The Rest of Your Life
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Welcome to Legends of Avantris. I'm Barnabo's Dreadwake and you're listening to Icebound. Here's what happened last time. You're completely out of food. There's no lard, there's narrow and bone. Two polar bear cubs.

I will open my mouth, and from it, a polar bear roar will erupt. As you start to back away, its eyes flash just for a moment blue, and it... And you feel instilled by some form of thank you or some form of blessing. Well, you think things are finally looking up. Who I was at 12 when I left my uncle, and who I was at 18 when I caved in the skull of my...

fall there and spin. And every year, every decade after that, I was, I changed little by little. As ever changing as the sea. - Do you realize there's yet another day to survive?

I can't take this anymore! I think it's just the cold. On the other side of this river, this settlement, the first sign of some kind of place where people lived. We found a sled that can carry us north and away from the barren cold. We're naming it Salvation. Signed,

Roland Stonebridge and the date. You found a bunch of candles in the floorboards. I did. Twelve of them, to be exact. They're definitely magic. You have, for now, a sense of hope and camaraderie. A full two months remain until the winter solstice, but the terrible cold of this land betrays this fact.

Even in early fall, the temperature and snow and ice exceeds even the harshest winter you've ever known. More than a month has passed since you and your friends were icebound here in the harsh dominion of Drakkar, and it has taken all of your efforts to survive. You're not quite sure how you would convey what you've experienced to those who might listen, but you imagine you wouldn't care how the tale was told. Sharing the story would mean you've somehow made it through.

The five of you huddle alone now in the ruins of some ancient town or village settled along the side of a great iced river. The few remaining structures that stand offer the luxury of real shelter. Below the surface ice of the river, schools of long-headed pike offer not just essential nourishment, but rich and toothsome fillets that taste like hope made manifest.

With this reprieve, you ponder your options. There is no path to the west. The frozen, endless sea offers no passage. There is seemingly no path to the east, for the craggy, crooked mountain heights cut into the sky-like teeth whispering promises of deadly precipices and monstrous danger.

And there is certainly no path to the south, not just due to the coming winter, but because that line would take you back again to that isolate isle with its sinister, ominous tower, the very thought of which makes you tremble with a fear darker than the terror of death. What lies ahead of you to the north? Salvation or damnation? What has happened to the remaining crew?

Who raised this great system of cairns and arches that have guided your path to the ruins of this vacant river town? And what is the nature of the surreal, dreamlike lights now visiting you in the night, offering visions far greater than brilliant, luster skies? What happens next is up to you. So we're all in...

this little hut that we've made for ourselves, right? It was one of the stone huts that still had a roof attached to it and a chimney. And you all find yourself in glorious shelter and surrounded by foods, by delicious...

By delicious cooked fish, Pike, prepared by Barnabas on fire. And the fire is roaring. This space is the first time you've felt shelter from the winds, from the ice, from the snow. And it's the first time where you're actually loosening up your clothes a little bit and going, wow, I can...

I can breathe. This is almost like civilization. What a luxury to have a full belly, more food than you can eat, and a warm place to sleep tonight.

That is where you find yourself. Not only that, but I came in handy and I found all of these and I have laid out all of the candles that I found in the floorboards. Yes, and for the purposes of tracking, I'm going to hand you this. Each one of those represents eight hours of burn time. And because you had 12, there's a total of 36

coins in there and anytime you should light one of these candles no bigger than the candle that I hold in my hand no bigger than the candle I should hold in my hand yet when lit it produces the roaring heat of a bonfire and mechanically you would benefit from that being close to its warmth

But for now, you've got plenty of fuel too. You've been able to pull up boards from the floor, or perhaps use deteriorated doors from neighboring ruined structures, and have been able to put together a very clean burning firewood fire here in this small place you're temporarily calling home. There was also some fresh parchment.

which appeared to have been from people who had come here before us, which was essentially the remainder of the crew. - That is correct. Your first clue as to the destiny of the crew was the fact that you found the young cabin boy, and I'm gonna switch over to something a little less epic. - I'm helping. - Is that the song when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are in the deep sea? - If it was, then we're about to be copyright struck.

Oh no, Disney, sorry! Oh fuck! You think you're gonna use that kind of a medicine? There's a mouse mouse with a shotgun on Derek! Oh no. Yes, a piece of parchment with an illustration. The cabin boy, Roland, was pretty...

private person, very much a teenager of sorts. And so he would write in his journal and make illustrations. And you seem to have found a torn out piece of this parchment there just above the hearth that you're now enjoying this fire. And it had an illustration of the docks outside on this river that you were all neighboring. And...

where there is no ship now, there was some kind of a ice sled, something that had sails that could actually be ridden across the surface of frozen water. And the deduction that you've made is that it's missing now. The crew probably took it and continued wherever that river may lead. - See, I'm helping. I might whine too much, I might avoid work, I might drink too much, I probably eat too much of our food, but I'm helping.

Did anyone suggest you are not helping? Well, I just kind of got that sense from everyone. You didn't have to say it, all right? It's written all over your face. Do you require validation from me? Yes. Thank you. Mr. Zavascoche, you're welcome. You're doing a bang-up job, and there is more food than we'll be able to carry, especially if I go back out into that lake with my harpoon. This bite won't stand a chance. This is good for now, but...

You cannot stay here forever. So what is our next step? Well, we have a clarification, I think we found on the gliding, this is not like a schematic, right? It's just like a picture. It just looks like a rough illustration, not something that you'd be able to,

build to specification with like a like a instruction manual or an IKEA guide instead you know you've got that like smiling dude and he's like yeah nothing along those lines this is a well rendered for

You know, it's not pure classic art or what have you, but it's a relatively well-rendered illustration of the sled. And you would guess that you wouldn't have the materials for it in this ruined town. Okay. Do you think that we would have the materials for it in this ruined town? Make a intelligence check at disadvantage. I just want you to know that the first one was a natural.

How does an eight feel? With an eight, you think that you probably have enough material in this town to build another sled just like the one in this drawing. Queenie, I think that you can use this to build a sled to specifications. I'm going to smack your butt. I think you're right. You want to help me?

- Well, I'm no good at that, but scrim is great work. - He likes to help, he just said so himself. - I just said that I've been helpful. I did it, I'm done, I helped. I don't need to help more. - You're real tall and you got big muscles, not quite like Barnabo's over here, but you got big muscles. - Certainly not like Barnabo's. - We're gonna have to tear the roof off this place. I start looking at the roof.

Okay, well, I'm happy to help. No, I think there are other rooms you can... We should keep one for a smoking room if we have time to stay here and camp. Well, I can't imagine how long it would take to build this thing, but I'm not really eager to leave. This is nice. We have food and shelter. I don't want to go back out there yet. And if this takes a long time to build, I'm not going to complain. Trust me. I'm not saying that we should stay... We should leave immediately. But what I am saying is that

This is a temporary comfort that our fate does not end here. So you don't think I have time to make this boat? If you would like to stay and attempt to make this boat, do you have experience in such carpentry? No, just the experience I had trying to make that wiener boat back on the ship. That was a good five minutes. I mean, I learned a lot in that five minutes.

We can stay for several days if you wish, especially if we should smoke the fish that we catch for rations. But I just bring it up as far as when we do decide to move on. We go after the crew. How do you make fish oil?

Would I know how to make fish oil? I would assume that you would know how to make fish oil. I would say most of you would be familiar enough with the process. Even you, Queenie, but maybe you're asking rhetorically. I've never done it myself. Now, who I used to live with made fish oil all the time, and I've been afeard that you're supposed to just squeeze them until all the oil leaks out. I don't think my hands are big enough for that, but I think to make sure we can light fires, to make sure we have oil for all kinds of things, maybe I can even

I can even make flaming arrows. I got so many ideas. Can I have a piece of that parchment? I think we should make a list. And I'm just gonna grab it and start making a list. - Yeah, go for it. - So I think that we should make some fish oil. We should probably fill up all of our water jugs. We definitely gotta make this boat. How are we gonna bundle up all these sticks? Who's gonna carry everything? How strong are you? Is anybody running out of pack space? I'm near full up. - I'm good. I threw out all my rope and torches. - And all the stuff from your other character you played too. - And inadvertently from your groom.

Anyway, my porn is, I'm freaking out a little bit, 'cause I know that this comfort isn't gonna last for long. We gotta make sure we know exactly what we're gonna do before we leave. This is fine while you work on the boat, I would like to assemble some kind of sled or sledge that we could pull with supplies behind us if the boat thing doesn't work out. Is that going to that attitude? It won't there, Mr. Yarnier? Are you doubting our carpenters?

Are you a carpenter? Nope, just worked on a wiener boat for about five minutes. Oh, you said you're a journeyman carpenter. No, I do leather work and I can sew quite a bit. I'm a woodworker. Well, you know what they say. But there's a difference between a woodworker and a carpenter. A carpenter makes houses, woodworker whittles weird little bears out of branches and shit. Oh, I wasn't going to say that. That's good advice. We're a good scrimshaw. Oh.

Well, I'm gonna take the time to enjoy a nice meal with our crew, our surviving crew. I'll set up a smoking hut and I guess I'll fish and smoke until we leave. Can we do anything with fish bones?

I don't think we need to carry every unnecessary piece of the animal. Well, I'm just concerned. I don't know if you remember where we just came from, but there was nothing. And if it got down to it, I'mma chop myself to happiness on some fish bones. There's marrow in fish bones, isn't there? We could make a fish... Or are they hollow? ...broth or a fish stock?

With the bones, but then we have to carry it. I don't know what to do. I'm feeling hopeless. We should... From the first leg of our journey, we learned two things. We were woefully ill-equipped to move across frozen tundras, and we didn't move very fast.

Well, we learned three things. I mean, we spent time learning about the wiener boat. Yeah, I spent five minutes on that wiener boat. Give a man a wiener boat and he's set for maybe a couple days, but teach a man how to build a wiener boat and he's set for life. Oh, that's true. Three things. I've never heard that saying before, but I like it. Well, we're trading information. I think I've heard every saying about boats. I've never heard that one. Are you sure? Well, you'll learn something new every day, one of us. Don't assume you know everything. You're not the smartest man in the room. That's true. That's true, Mr. Zabaskatch.

All right, well, I still think we should address maybe those first two things. All right, so how do we address them? Oh, well, I think we gather the pike with Barnabas. We smoke them. We prepare as much food as we can carry. And you build that fancy windsled.

I'm building a sled now, not a boat. Is it not a windsled? I don't know. I thought I was building a sled. Then someone said a boat, and then I think I said a boat, and then somebody else said a sled. I don't know which one I'm building. I imagine it as the sand sled things from Avatar where they skate across the loons. I love that major image. That's what I was thinking, too. That's a great Nickelodeon series. Hot.

Yeah, I would say, picture the bottom half of Santa Claus' sleigh, right? It's two long rails with two great structures attached to it, like a ship or boat-like structure. Like in Snow Dogs. And then an actual mast connected with what is clearly some form of canvas or tarp that could be leveraged as a sail. It has a rudder.

a very tall rudder, more similar to or akin to the boats you would see in Moana as they are traveling from one direction to the other, right? And there you go. As long as the river is frozen and smooth and flat, then you'd be able to leverage the winds. Even if they're coming against you, you can cut and cut and cut and still make forward progress. It's a very effective means of transportation, especially in an environment like this. Well, I say we make that.

What he said? What who said? Oh. You just sat there in silence for a while. Are you going to finish that before you're lost? Oh, please. Please. Night is approaching. And you're all clearly almost drunk from the endorphin rush that came with the full belly.

Oh!

I don't know what's happening anymore. But what's important is that-- Well, it's 20 minutes in, you can't not know what's happening. We've already lost control. We own this session! That's right. This level of table has lost all authority. Oh, I'm sorry for you. We don't have any, like, rocks fall and you all die, get the fear back. Oh, gosh. Actually, let's do get the fear back before we go to sleep, and because you're enjoying shelter, because you enjoyed food, there are no, despite the fact that it is, um...

It's like negative 36 degrees outside. Wow. You are totally in the warmth. This wonderful little pocket of heaven that you guys call home for now. Some of you are still hurting. So very quickly, if we can go around the table and establish our statuses in the form of exhaustion conditions. I know that you all reset your number of days eaten to zero, but let's have a quick chat

tracking conversation to make sure that we all are on the same page in terms of disadvantages it's been so long I forgot I'm at one level of exhaustion I'm at three but I'm not hungry but I've got a full belly you know that you're going to sleep like a baby tonight yeah

I'm at one level of exhaustion. Okay. Yeah, you're all feeling it. It's been a long, hard road just to get to this point.

river outpost. Are you okay? Zero. And Barnabas, I think that you are fresh up. Hold on, I gotta go through these tabs on my iPad. 40 pigeon puns. The prisoner lyrics. While you're looking, Queenie, I wanted to say I laid out all of the elemental bone in the hut, so it's not in my pack anymore. You laid it out and I put down the sack of 100 gold next to it. Perfect. And then

And then that way we can free up some space while we're doing work amongst the encampment, and then we can figure out how to carry it later. 40 plus frog jokes. When was the trumpet? This is the secret to being a bard. You got S, friend.

Circle of death. Nagpul. So... I'm good. For the past four weeks of Edge of Midnight, I have made bullshit initiative cards because mine were lost. You found them. That is fucking hilarious. And in my mind, I have blamed Derek. Because...

Derek's the only person who, most of the time, who DMs beside me. And I always leave my shit out, and so he has to clean it up. And I'm like, he probably put them somewhere. I keep forgetting to ask him. And by the time I need them, they're in the back of my notebook. Yeah, I was taking them off the DM screen. I was like, hey, hey, hey, Nikki, fuck you. No, I was on the bottom.

- I literally, I destroyed Curse of Strahd initiative cards that I was gonna save 'cause I needed them like last minute. I'm stupid.

Are you gonna tell us what you're up to? No, I'm good. He's good. You get the long rest. I feel very good. I'm well fed. I think I'm worse now. Welcome to the campaign. Barnabas transforms into a bear of a man. A little fish of a man. Do you guys do anything before you attempt to sweep the night through? I'm gonna go through and take everybody's water skins and I'm going to empty them out and find fresh snow

and fill everyone's up with fresh water. - Okay. - And then set them out. - When you go out, it is blisteringly cold and it is not difficult to find fresh water

because it is falling in sheets outside. Visibility is very low. You barely have the time to do it before you feel like it's going to kick in and cause issue. Almost as if you could hold the water skins up and they would just fill with how hard it's coming down. And you push back through the door. All of you are hit with a brief...

blast of coal and then close the door, locking it shut. You have now achieved your aim. - And I would like to, over the course of the evening while we're hanging out, if I could, if there are enough like pieces of wood and the scales or whatever from scrim, I'd like to make 20 arrows.

- Yeah, I'd say now is the perfect time because the time that you would have spent setting up camp and huddling together and worrying about your fate is completely relieved at this point. So there's time for recreation and that's true for any of you. - So we have eight giant pike is what I've written down. How much would it take to basically fully feed five of us? How is it rendered? - I've been judging it as to say that

like a ration is like a pound or so. And so you had like 300 pound of pike. Each one of them is like 60, right? But by the time you debone them and clean them and gut them, they're maybe half that, right? So you still are staring at, let's say, 125 pounds of fish meat filleted. It's essentially more than we could ever consume in a short period of time.

Yeah, you could smoke all of it, fill all of your inventory right up to capacity, and you'd still have the majority left over, because that's how that works in reality. I would basically then spend the rest of the night gutting, deboning, filleting. I would just be with my knife.

and keeping it away probably if I have to find another hut to do it, and then start building a smoking room so that we don't smell like fish guts. - It would be, yeah, and because of your resistance to the cold being what it is, it's much easier for you to slip out the door taking, you know,

two big bags of this fish, finding maybe the nearest enclosed shelter area, putting a fire together. Taishan, perhaps you're helping getting it lit, or you use your tinderbox, and you...

because you know that this is an enclosed space, it's going to smoke itself. And so you're just hanging these fillets and what have you. They're going to lose a lot of their weight, but they're going to keep that same amount of value. We'll just hand wave it and say that you'll have 125 rations after 12 to 18 hours of smoking time. Okay. I have that written down. Do you carry that much?

Well, if we build the Wind Sled, yeah. I have six empty slots in my inventory for things that are, you know, essential that I have to have on me. So when we get to that point, we'll figure it out, I guess. Does that include the 100 gold pieces I gave you back? 200 gold pieces total. Yeah, I'm good. That's got gold that's going to come in handy. So do you need the bone tiles anymore? No. Okay. So I will double the number, right?

They fought an elemental in an earlier chapter that fell apart into bones that can be used to protect themselves from sun blindness. For those of you not familiar with every waking detail of Icebound. Imagine. Yeah, I think I'd just be helping kind of like clean up, like do the dishes, do

If Barmos needs support, getting like moving fish guts, throwing it out, like I'd be kind of like tend to the space that we're in. Okay. Trying to make it homey. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You make it as comfortable as possible for your brothers and sister. And you...

are also yourself comforted. This is the first time you've been able to pour yourself a good cup of tea and not see it freeze in less than a minute. It stays hot and warm in your mess kit and you're able to sit with it and to really take a moment of peace. Go ahead, Scream. Oh, what I'm doing? Yeah. I have a deck of cards. I'm playing with them.

I wouldn't do anything tonight, but I would... In the morning, I'd like to start building some sort of sled, just like a big sled. If you've seen The Terror, it's basically a huge sled for the purpose of carrying...

Okay, you're gonna do that in the morning? Yeah, in the morning. Okay, we'll get to the morning. And you're playing with a kit. Yeah, I have a deck of cards. Okay. It only takes up 0.2 of one of my slots. Yeah, I was gonna ask if you were tracking that. Trust me, I've got it written down here. I'm playing a solitaire-esque game, unless anybody would like to learn how to play, and I'm doing feats of dexterity with my hands and playing with colors. One of those snaps and it flips around and you catch it. Yeah, it's a bunch of stuff. I'm just entertaining myself and avoiding work.

You do that. Those of you who feel ambitious enough to crack on and continue to push through, do so until eventual exhaustion takes you and you all start to find yourself in a long rest, unless anyone else has anything else that you want to do? An actual long rest? I think I would collect some of the fish bones for the purpose of creating sewing needles.

So I'm not going to turn them into sewing needles now, but the ones that I had originally from the wolf bones are gone now. Pikes are notoriously bony and incredibly lean type of fish. So your hopes for an oil, it may be somewhat dashed, but your optimism for needles is unlimited. Perfect.

So I would like to collect like a slot's worth of pike needles. A slot's worth? These are tiny. Oh, okay. I would say, yeah, it would be like a sauce bowl's worth. Like a hundred needles? Yeah, it would be a hundred needles. So I'll do like 20 needles then. Okay. This is my new band, Optimism for Needles. That's actually... That ain't bad.

That's a great name for a band. I'm almost inclined to be like, you have 20 needles now, don't abuse them and they won't count against your inventory. Like, it's just fucking 20 needles. Put it in your bag. Just don't say no, no. Fuck! And you sleep through the night.

You do not enjoy the benefits of a long rest. You enjoy the benefits of a short rest, if that helps you mechanically, except for Barnabas. Bullshit! You continue to see the benefits of having shared yourself in the way that you did in the last session. And, um...

It's something that occurs to all of you as well, is that you had this experience. Maybe your dreams are still processing this experience, but you saw through him, through his life. You've walked in his shoes almost. You've seen what he's seen and experienced what he experienced in this parallel, strange manner.

When you wake up, even though it's not the benefits of a long rest, you may still reduce your exhaustion level by one. It's just not a long rest in the fullest sense. That's what I was going to ask. I didn't know if... I forget what the rules are. I have to find the rule book. I know we have one floating around here for...

Lowering anxiety. I'm just printing out one for every session, 'cause we always manage to lose it. We're gonna find almost like the number of chocolate pretzels hidden in this fucking studio. There's so many handbooks right now floating around here. Where are they? Oh man, that's funny. So if you were at one, you're now at zero. Yeah, yeah. Oh, sweet.

I'm at zero. And that shelter and warmth and food does that work for you. But whatever is suppressing you magically, spiritually nourishing you, it continues to be plugged up. Aside from Bornabos, who seems to have that spring in his step that he is renewed. I would wake up early, perhaps, because I'm a lot more rested. Still dark out, but more now. And I will feel...

I don't know if I notice, but I will feel that strength, especially after being fed and warm.

I will wake up early and try to have breakfast ready. A very classic breakfast dish maybe that I experienced in some exotic part of the world that I think my friends would like. And I want it to be ready when I wake up. - Okay. - I would like to lay some Easter bunny eggs so that we can have eggs and fish for breakfast. Would that be possible? - How about eggs? - Make a constitution check. - We don't have special.

Exhaustion rules. No. I didn't think that we did. Just straight constitution? Yeah, so 21.

21, you try really hard and you think you're going to get an egg and then you just poop. Literally. Son of a gun. Garsh. I guess let's avoid the conversation of whether rabbit folk would have eggs or not. No. It was just an Easter bunny dress. That's fine. That's all. You wake up to...

You wake up to full water skins and delicious fish meatballs that have been seasoned with onion and garlic powder. Not actual onion, but very, very flavorful. Juicy and perfect on the inside, crispy and rich on the out. It's getting a little bit warm in here, actually. I'm sure I'm not gonna be, I'll be regretting saying that in a few days.

I'll wipe the briny sweat from my brow. This smells like the most delicious breakfast I've ever smelled in my entire life. I can't believe it.

Is it ready? Yeah, it's ready. There's fish meatball going everywhere. It's all over my face. I'm just absolutely ballistic. I'm picturing a Disney animation where you just hold the plate out in one arm and all the meatballs roll down in one arm. Nope, nope, nope, nope.

Oh Barnabus you have truly outdone yourself. Sorry Abby this is all about food and comforts in this harsh survival campaign. Yornir you trek out to start to see if you have enough materials to put together anything like a sledge or a sled that might

makes sense. It actually takes a moment for you to force the door open because there's been such a large amount of precipitation overnight that it's almost at your waist height and you're able to push it forward. Fortunately it is light and fluffy and you're able to trudge out into the street

of this river city, river town, it's not that big. I guess we, unless you wanna make a suggestion about how you're finding these things, you can make a general investigation check to look around the ruins for this purpose. - Yeah, I think what I would do is I would look for any kind of spare building materials. So any timber that I have, I'll break it down to size with my ax. And...

Are there any trees at all on the horizon? And could I help him? Since I was planning on making the boat, I would just, I think, help your ground. You wouldn't have been able to get over the snow, so you're following him. It's creating this, like, cavern kind of thing. I know, I followed your ground. And together you're able to go over to a ruin and find, like,

Oh, there's this one almost totally decayed but still relatively together beam of wood that would have been a part of the roof here. There's some planks over here. Make an investigation check at advantage because you are being helped by Queenie's keen ranger eyes. - That one and that one. - That is a, I think 15. - 15.

Not bad. I would say all told, by the time this process is over, Queenie, your hopes of building a sled the size of what was in Roland's illustration have been dashed. But that together you are able to bundle together what looks like you could put together...

pretty confidently something that's like maybe twice as big as one of those old-fashioned sleds, like Rosebud-style sleds. Like maybe about twice as big, with enough sturdiness that it could handle a long journey. Putting it together will look like finding nails or finding ways to...

put the pieces together and stuff like that. That's the next part of your story of crafting this sled. It would be something that would be dragged? Yes. That's up to you guys. Okay, that's what I thought you were describing. So my plan is to fashion rope to it. Um...

if there's enough timber to like build it I think we would just do another group of sledge but yeah so my thought is that to put it together if there's any anything that could be used nails lying around collect that otherwise making nails out of wood right and then right you could make literally those Ikea pegs that's Ikea twice tonight let's see if we can get to three you can make big

- Wood nails. - Sure, sure. And you also have the rope itself is twined rope. So you'd be able to actually de-strand it and have something like string if you wanted to go in that direction. - And Queenie, if you're still helping, I would have you start to put it together over the course of the day. And we'll resolve that with a, I don't know, what's crafting sled skill?

Sleight of hand always feels weird because it's like, oh, is it because you're dexterous or is it because you're trying to do something sneaky? Survival? Yeah. That's what I'd think. Survival, like, you know. All right, let's go with the survival. And the quality of your roll will determine for how long it can survive and for how much it can carry. You want to roll this one? Yes. Okay. Can't read the other one.

That is a 25. Monstrous. Monstrous. Okay. I was going to give you a small sled, but you, at the end of this process, feel that you and Queenie have, and her suggestions did actually provide some help. You may have just been literally repeating what you were told by Coombs, but you... She's just in the background the whole time going, Wienerbaum, Wienerbaum, Wienerbaum, Wienerbaum, Wienerbaum, Wienerbaum, Wienerbaum.

- It somehow inspires you. You focus on the wiener boat. - I've been etching bunnies hopping along the edges and the feet of it are bear paws. And I've been making a very decorative-- - Every time Jorner says sledge, he says, "Wiener boat." - Exactly.

I would say it would take you the entire day to get to a finished product, but working in the shelter, because of how cold it is outside, certainly, you would want to stay close to the fire. You were able to complete this sledge, and it has a capacity of 18, and can

and can be carried by two people at normal movement or dragged by one person at half movement. Or draft animal, perhaps? Or draft animal, perhaps. So if I was a caribou or an orc or something, I'm probably not the worst at playing caribou. Yeah. Could it just be me for that one hour? Exactly right. Okay, perfect. And you said how many slots? 18? 18. Are you going to be the sledge master? I'll be the sledge master. Okay.

because I don't want to deal with the inventory on that thing. Yeah, that's a nightmare. I'll probably be going back and forth from the smoking hut that we've made, and I might go also, I would understand that there's probably no reason for me to go back fishing, or would, maybe if there's a sledge, I'd probably go back fishing again, I guess. Oh.

We don't know how long we're going to be here for. Right, you don't know how long you're going to be here for. So we may need to fish more. Yeah. Even if it's not today. I'm just trying to remember. One. Okay, yeah. So the sledge that was just produced would carry 18 days worth of rations.

Okay, okay. And so I would pass Yornir and Queenie. I would say, Miss March, if you all are making harnesses, make at least one big enough for me. Appreciate it. And then I'll continue walking onward with my harpoon. You've gotten very good at repurposing fabrics and stuff for this purpose. You could accommodate that request. Yeah.

That is maybe leathers and fabric to make something that he could wear. And me, too. Yeah, I'm gonna have to figure out how to suit up your caribou. Yes, that as well. Your cariboonie! Oh-ho-ho! I got you. Perhaps one that could work for both myself in this form and as a caribou. Well, that way, your tall ways. As a cariboonie, your long ways. It's gonna be a little diff- You know what? I can do it.

I have faith. I gotta finish carving this little hopping rabbit first. I'm gonna finish carving my hopping rabbit. You break off a chunk of the wood, and then you just sort of like put it back, and it's just like... After the end of the day, the sledge resembles the general store of a cracker barrel. It's like random things. Yeah.

- Antiques made daily. - Taishan, Scrim, Barnabas is carefully tending to the fire of the smoking meat. You are seeing a sledge being produced. How are these eight hours going for you as you spend this clear and slightly warmer day after the storms passed?

I would probably spend a good portion of the morning not overexerting myself, let's be honest here. I gotta conserve energy. It's, you know, who knows how long we're gonna be here for. I would gather firewood and use the Brutal Blade to chop up extra whatever, you know, and just basically keep the fire going in our hut.

Provided that's what we want to do. Somebody needs to tend to the fire while Barnabas is fishing and they're building. So I would take it upon myself to the very arduous task of keeping the fire roaring. If I see that Scrim looks like he's just chilling... He throws in one plank and sits down, and that's like an hour's worth of field. It's like this. I get up. Okay.

Mr. Saviscotch! And as I'm like, you know, once I feel like the fish is done smoking, I'll gather all of my harpoons and I'll get ready, I'll do like stretching, get ready to swim. I'll reach into my pack or whatever I have and I'll pull out my fishing tackle that I don't need but I have. And I'm gonna go over to Scrim and I'll hold it out and I'll just kind of shove it in your chest and drop it and I'll say,

You want to be helpful, Mr. Sabascotch. It wasn't you that said teach a man to fish. What the hell is this? We're going to teach a goblin how to fish. Come with me. I am being helpful.

And I'll drag my feet as I follow Barnabas because I'm scared of him. He's much bigger than me. But I don't want it to come to physicality. I mean, he's been doing all of this and around his shoulder there's like a 500 pound metal iron anchor. So like he could pick you up like a toddler wearing an overall.

and just like, I sigh very dramatically and groan over the top and follow him outside into the cold. If you realize that it's not as severe as it was yesterday, it's perhaps only negative 20 degrees. And you're immediately hit with that cold. You pull your wolf pelt over you and head over to the river with Barnabas where you're going to learn to fish. Before you do, tie 10.

I think... Is the snow still pretty high up? Like...

Yes. For you and Yorneir and Barnabas, it's literally this high, maybe three, four feet of precipitation. For Queenie and Scrim, you're seeing bunny ears over there. You're seeing the tip of a hat. Now, unfortunately, this is not very wet snow, so it's easy to clear away. It's just very thick snow.

Well, that's what I was saying. I think I would probably spend at least a portion of the morning trying to, uh, like, cut pathways through the snow. Maybe, like, one towards the water. So it's like, you know, maybe we're traversing through it, but if Barnabas is coming back with a hundred pounds of fish, he's not, like, trudging through. And then for my smaller companions, there's more of, like, uh, like, walkways. Make an acrobatics or an athletics check for me. Your preference. That's a really good idea. Um...

Oh yeah, real good roll. 20. When you wake up, the comforts and luxury of shelter, fuel, and fire have emboldened you, and you're taken to a very meditative space. And so when you go out and you see what everyone else is dealing with, you come up with a two-fold solution. You will go through the meditative motions of something like Tai Chi, and

fire blast in this direction and then slowly center yourself and then fire blast and kick. You're combining practice with clearing of these streets and almost like something out of Avatar, firebending style. You're able to punch in this direction and that clears the front of this particular ruined building. You're able to clear down this way and you're pushing your way through the city. You actually make great progress. Pretty soon the...

what rock this village was built on top of adjacent to this river, you're able to see the wet floor of having melted so much of the snow in some of these areas. And it takes you back to the center of town during this process. And you look up and you're reminded, oh yeah, there's another one of these cairn structures here at the center of town. And there are many, many different columns, all of them indicating the distance

and the direction of the next settlements in this civilization, however long ago they may have been. Does it look kind of like the others I've come across? It looks identical, as if they're the same makers. And the runic images on the surfaces of these stone columns are the same sort of...

draconic-ish, but very alien and primal in comparison to what you'd be used to from your previous history. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Oh, this is nice. I like to try and open it, if I could, like take the top off. I don't know about that. Presumably-- Oh, oh, so the center cairn that Yornir found was the stacked rock variety. These are more like obelisks. They are whole masts just made of pure stone. My apologies. Got it, got it, got it. Okay, cool, cool, cool.

- All right, I don't try to open it. - There is a center circle, but you can see that it's been dismantled long ago. In fact, you would say this entire area has been picked clean. There don't appear to be any bodies. There don't appear to be any artifacts with the exception of what the Scrim found under the floorboards and only because they were hidden there.

if it weren't for the fact that there were stone structures, you wouldn't know there was a settlement here next to this river in the first place. - Okay. I'd like to just try and look at the symbols that are on it and see if I get a sense of like what's in what direction, maybe possibly further towards the north or if I know kind of where the other crew went from where we followed, like in the direction they're heading. - Okay. Make a, I think just raw intelligence, to be honest.

They're pretty good. You are very smart. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I think we twist this. I think we twist it. I don't know. I'm fine with that. Yeah. Let me determine one or two twists. I think one is... I think one is sufficient. Yeah, we'll see. I'm not very smart. Thank you, chat. Thank you, chat. This is just good information to have.

Faded. Faded. Two more four fours. I got a five. You got a five. I got a five, yeah. I rolled the exact same roll twice in a row. The mystery of this ancient civilization continues to evade you. You calm yourself. You work to push away the annoyance of feeling that eventually revelation will come.

And that is not today. You spend as much time as you want looking at these symbols. They don't produce any additional meaning. Turning your head, thinking back to the cairns that you've seen previously, comparing those symbols and markers with the symbols of the archway that you saw carved into the side of a mountain leading nowhere. You are unable to draw any conclusions right away. But perhaps with more experience with future cairns or...

just thinking upon the problem harder over the next however long you're here may eventually shed some light. And you all find yourself to the setting sun.

You've spent your hour-- oh, my apologies, you're gonna learn how to fish. Yes, fishing, all right, Barnabas, I'm ready. You're standing on one of the docks that point, pokes out into the river, and you're still staring down at the surface of ice ice. Barnabas, guide Scrim as you want to. All right, what do I do? I'm still holding the tackle. I'm looking for me. Well, I'll admit, I'm more of a spear or harpoon fisherman, but I did

learn how to river fish from a fella back in Karkinos. And so you gotta get your bait. You got your bait? No. You didn't bring the bait? I, I, I, what, no, no, I don't even know what bait is. What kind of bait? What am I supposed to use? Mr. Saviskotch, I am very disappointed in you. Am I supposed to find an ice worm? I mean, what does that even mean?

I wrote it on myself. And I'll reach in my pack and I'll get a strip of smoked fish. Okay. Mr. Savage Scouts, you're going to use smoked fish for bait. For fish that are used to eating raw fish. You gave me this. What are you trying... A death lighting screw.

You just handed me that! I want you to tell me why that would not be good bait, Mr. Savasgotch.

Pretend you're a bike in the river. I really want to eat this. Mr. Sabascott, go ahead and eat it. It's worthless for-- Oh, thank God! It's in his mouth. You are a bike. You are a bike. You are wet and you don't even know it. Right. All right. And? Do you expect in your normal diet that you'll have a beautiful smoky aroma of cooked fish? No!

Very good. All right. So would that be more appealing or perhaps the stinkiest fish guts you could imagine? I mean, well...

The answer is yes. Here, put it on your hook. And I'll reach into my pack and I'll do it. Anyway, we don't have to play the rest of this, but basically I would basically, from what I know, help him kind of teach him the ins and outs of actually using fishing tackle to catch a fish. And then once I feel like I can leave him without him injuring himself with the hook, I will then dive into the water

The first time you give him a hook, he tries to do the thing with the tongue and the quill, and you have to be like, no, no, no, no, no. But if you do find an ice worm, worms are, that's the best bait for river fish. So keep an eye out for an ice worm. I should be looking for them. Oh, yes, yeah, yes, you're in here. Those are a thing. I'll ask you when you're in here.

I'm gonna go take a dip and I'm gonna then just do, Albin's gonna sprint off of the dock and just dive in and then spend a couple hours harpoon fishing. Okay. The surface of the river ice being as thick as it is,

You've managed to plunge through surprisingly well. I'll pull out my anchor and just throw it down, and then... Yeah, yeah, yeah. You crash into it, and then cannonball style, everything separates, and the ice cracks in an actually beautiful shattered pattern. And then you can see the actual surface floating like this until fish after fish starts to come up. And it's midday, the afternoon, so that affects the DC, because fish have...

- Wow! It's an animal crossing. - Why don't you go ahead and make a survival check for me. - Just born of us, for me too. - You actually do have a line down into the water, don't you? - He's looking for us. - I would have gotten the line, I wouldn't have left until you had a line in the water. - Oh, right, right, right. - Yeah, yeah. - Okay, okay, so why don't you both make, why don't you both make a fishing check, that's survival. - This one, this one.

Naturally, having never done this before, I got a six. Okay, your first hour goes on fishlessly. Survival, a ten. Neither of you are able to find Pike. This is stupid. What am I doing? I thought the whole point of fishing was to get drunk. LAUGHTER LAUGHTER LAUGHTER

You're sitting there. It's starting to get colder. The water is starting to fade from your system. It's getting frustrating. For whatever reason, perhaps, and you look up and you recognize, maybe the ice is actually a bit thicker than it was even yesterday when Taishan had to burn through it in order to create the hole that you're now leveraging to get underwater. This river may be freezing even further than when you found it. And the pike are moving upwards

towards the warmer climate perhaps, but it's the bounty that you were able to find on day one has disappeared this afternoon. - I'll come back off and-- - That's just for the first hour. You can do another hour of check. You can do another hour of check. - Okay, yeah, I'll probably stay for a couple hours if we wanna-- - I'll do another hour. - Yeah, let's do it. - Okay, the DC is 17. - I got a 16, so I miss. - Okay. - But there's a nibble on the line.

Barnabus is a shitty teacher. I'm starting to think that ice worms aren't even real. You do feel a tug, and it does seem to be a fish. Uh,

Who knows how far out Barnabas has swum, swum? Swam. Swam? Swim it in. A river to see what he can find. It's been an hour that he's been literally underwater and you actually think that you have a fish on the end of your line. You start to pull, you start to pull and you feel the tug go free and there's no more

fish. This bait's defective. That's the only explanation. I'm good at everything that I do. I'm a perfect specimen. There's no way. This is Barnabas's fault. I'm 100% sure. I've never been more sure of anything in my entire life. Roll again. So I got a natural 20. Oh. Uh,

- So 24. - Well done, well done. - 24, so the DC was 17. So you actually, having gone far enough upriver to catch up with the school of Pike, you get 19, 21,

23, 25. You get four pike that you are able to harpoon and shish kebab style, you just get one after the other, all of them on your harpoon and you're able to make your way back down south. So as I make my way, whenever I get back, I want to see if I can find, if Scrim hasn't left, I want to find his hook and even though it has a whole lot

a huge harpoon wound in it, I wanna put like, try to hook it and then give it a tug and wait. - Okay, let's see how well he actually does with catching real fish before you attempt to continue to gaslight him. - I missed the check. So the third hour goes by and I'm sitting there and I say, wait a minute, wait a minute. Barnabas is a fool, he thinks this is work.

I'm not doing anything. I'm gonna fish every day. What a jackass! I got it made in the shade, baby. And I just set the tackle down next to me and I let it go and I'm just sitting there. All you need is a beer or a drink and you be-- And I just begin to whistle and try to stay warm and I don't think about the tackle or the fish. Make a deception check against your--

- However you wanna do it. - Am I doing a third roll for the third hour? How's that? - I assumed after you got four features, then you'd be back. But if you wanted to stay an additional hour-- - Yeah, roll a natural 24. - Again? Okay, so you've got eight fish again. - Okay. - And-- - Then I will come back. - The eighth fish you attempt to put onto the end of the line and you're going to simulate that there is actually a fish on the end of this pole.

You will need to make a insight check to see if you believe this, and you will have to make a deception check to see how well you see-- - Insight? - You may still be exhausted. - Okay, so all of those rolls would have failed anyway. - And now we come to the real reason. - I thought you lost one. - Yeah. - But you still did, the one is-- - I think two is-- - Your speed halved, so. - Yes, I'm also half speed. - But ability checks, yeah, you're disadvantage. - But ability, yeah, I always forget that abilities at number one and attacks are number three.

So this is insight?

Wow, a natural 20 and not a natural 20. A 15. I got a 13 plus 2 is 15, so my insight. So do I see the line start to move, though? You look down and an enormous humanoid shape starts to get closer and closer. You can see through the ice well enough that you can see what is very clearly the body of Barnabas pull a fish out and start to actually attach it to the end of this hug. And then you feel a tug. Does he think I'm...

Oh, no, this is perfect. Oh, whoa, a big one! And I'm like, oh! I dive for the tackle. Bonobos will kill me if I lose the tackle! And I dive for it, and I grab it, and I start to pull it in. Oh, I think it's getting away!

and I'm gonna reel it in as best I can. Do you make the fish fight, or does he just pull a dead fish out of the water? No, he just pulls a dead fish. I go, ah! I pull it out, expecting it to do a really awesome jump out of the water, and it just goes...

No! Barnabas, I got one, you'll be proud of me! And I reel it in real quick, and it's just dragging along. Barnabas, you see this dead fish, and when you move it, it's surrounded even by inky clouds of blood. You attach it to the hook, and then you see it immediately, you hear this, ooh, boo, boo.

and it disappears out through the fishing hole, and you're able to swim away. How do you eventually? I'm just gonna follow immediately. I'm not good at deceiving. You just burst through the ice. I just burst through the ice. I will definitely.

Bonobos, I did it! And I pretend not to notice that it's actively bleeding from the, like, it's bleeding. Yeah, no, it's bleeding. Just blood everywhere. Look, look, I did it! You taught me how to do an honest day's work. Oh, there you go. You teach a goblin to fish and it pays off. How about that? I was saying about the winger boat. Oh, and I'm sure that Miss March and Mr. Yornir will have a very lovely sledge for a sledge? Sled? So what you're saying is that I can fish with you every day?

Exactly right. Oh, perfect. I'll finally be useful. Well, if we find any more fishable water, then you now can contribute. Oh, perfect. Are we ready to head back? Oh, yeah, sure. You're hooked real dead a number on that fish. Wild. I'll carry this one. You get the rest of them. After you, please, I insist. As soon as he takes a few steps away, I'm going to scoop my fish and go, jackass. And I'm going to follow him back to the...

You walk through Snowless Streets to get back to the shelter you were all temporarily calling home. You see that the work on the sledge is complete in a beautifully decorated, well-constructed, sizable sled that looks like it could carry perhaps one small creature. Uh,

is being pulled into the street by Queenie and Yornir, and the sun is getting low, the shadows are getting long. It's getting cold, but it is still not snowing. It is clear sky all day today, and slightly warmer, which is very pleasant. As soon as you're inside, that fire is still roaring. There being enough fuel in this town as there is, you're happy and content and all back together again.

We made this ledge. Wiener boot. How did it go? This dog is big and can carry quite a bit. That's pretty amazing. Wow. So we'll have to have two of us carrying it or dragging it, but it shouldn't be too bad. It should slide relatively easily across the ice into the snow. I'm genuinely impressed.

did you have a lot of fishing did we let mr savas coach here to land in the big one and i'll hold up this fish and it's still got a massive like this incredible right we show them to harpoon

No, no, no, no, no. This one hopped right on my hook. It was crazy. You wouldn't believe it, even if I told you exactly how it actually happened. How big was the hook you were using? Because that's... I could put my fist right through it like you. I could put my fist right through that. It's nothing but a hat. I, uh...

You know, I hadn't noticed, and I just throw the fish in the bottom of the rest of the bed. All right, well, congratulations, Scrim. Thank you. I've doubled our supply. So if my calculations and I are not learned, we should have about 240 pounds of pike.

I hope y'all like fish. Oh, we do. Certainly better than starving. It's anything like breakfast. I love fish. Well, we should, I believe, rest tonight and another night at least, to make sure that we are all rested and ready to leave.

Did you... Would I have noticed Taishan, like, in the middle of the town, looking at the cairns at any point? Oh, I didn't tell you what I found. A cairn in the middle of town. Oh, go on, tell us more. Now, it's different from anything I've encountered, but I'm sure I understand one of the symbols. To the west, you'll never believe it.

Fire Magnolia. It makes incredible tea. I think we should go to the west. Well, what? Just for a plant? Well, for some of the best tea you've ever possibly had. So you're saying that on this thing, this post, there was a symbol for a plant? Well... That's great news. I'm sure of it. You know what that means, right? If there's plants, there's fertile ground. There you go. Are you saying that there is Fire Magnolia? Yeah.

Do you know what fire magnolias are? At this latitude. I'm shocked you know what the fire magnolia are. I made it up on the spot. I'm just presuming. I mean, kind of.

Oh, speaking of a very real flora and fauna here, Jornir, you've heard of the fabled ice worm, haven't you? Ice worm? What's an ice worm? Oh yeah. Jormungandr worm? What? I guess. It's real? Yes. And I look a little scared.

In your mind, this is like an iced version, a cold version of a purple worm. This is like a dune-sized sandworm that is known to literally bore through whole glaciers. That's canon in the movie. Well, I was thinking worm in the dragon sense. Dragon sense. Yawning. Can you tell us more about this thing?

Yeah, I don't even know what you said. Can you say that one more time? So I can write it down? A grand worm that burrows through the ice. It is dozens of feet long. A big furry mane of disgusting worm hair. Large fangs and teeth. No eyes to speak of.

You told me to look for one of these? You were hunting the Yom and Gondos, Gandhi? I think there might be a bit of something got lost in translation. That is horrifying. The only worm I'm familiar with is the overly large avantris worm. They're about three feet long, about a foot and a half around. What the hell? I think it's a fey worm. Yeah, but we're

I come from and there's a thin line between the Fae and a Vantress so I just called them a Vantress worms you're describing extremely large breakfast sausage links well I had one once I named him Vienna not Jimmy or Dean nope why did you speak of this did you see one

Well, you've just been told that they make good bait, but, you know, I've never... I haven't spent too much time on land in the movie. How big are the fish eating one of those? You'd have to kill it and just dissect, I mean, probably millions of pounds of bait, it sounds like. Why wouldn't

you just eat the worm? What do they taste like? Ooh, probably poisonous. You think they're poison? Well, they will wipe out entire villages. I ate an average size of antris worm once and it wasn't poison. Tastes like dirt. You ate a three foot worm? No! A foot and a half around? I told you! That's the large of antris worms. You're a hungry girl.

Yes! You're a hungry girl! You get two rings! Not these fucking giant steaks! That's unprepared. Oh my god! Two shits! I have some willy. You've thought...

Long and hard about these stories, the very rare stories that you would occasionally be told by members of your order, and the fear that they would tell you, villages being destroyed. The fact is it could use this terrible breath weapon, not like a dragon, but that it was so foul that it was able to paralyze and stun an entire woolly mammoth and then in one whole gulp be able to consume and take it under the ground. These are terrifying beasts of legend.

That's why you, when you go far enough north, you build on rock and stone. You do not build on the glaciers. Because that worm's just going to pop up out of nowhere right into your house. Right around your house. Swallow it whole. Does it have a circular maw of teeth? Yes. As you've been talking...

As you've been eating, laughing together, enjoying each other's companionship and not having almost any care in the world. As you are eating and enjoying the warmth of the fire and being shielded from the terrible elements outside and having this conversation, the frame of the door that comes into this small abode glows through the cracks just

Just around the perimeter, keeping out what cold it can, a strong blue light has emerged. The door frame glows brilliant blue, and you recognize the color right away. You turn away from the fire, you turn away from the pound of unprocessed fish, away from the smoked meat that you are currently all dining and feasting upon, and you guess...

that if you had to walk outside, that the lights would be in the sky again, full of luster and beauty. And you think back to how your experience with the lights lasted last time and what you experienced with Barnabas right away. The five of you all huddled together in this makeshift home. Is that what I think it is? Oh, I believe so.

Look, I'm not going to say that it wasn't an interesting experience, but it was a little frightening. I don't know what kind of magic or whatever the hell that is out there is doing. I don't really want to see Barnabo smash his dad's skull in again. That was pretty upsetting. No offense. No, I think that that was... These are the lights of this land. Perhaps the shepherds are the souls of this place.

Perhaps guiding our very own souls, like the green flare. Do you think that means... I have no idea what you're talking about. The green flare? Of what? When a soul passes on, you can see a green light on the horizon. I can't. No, sailors can live for many years and never see it. The point is, perhaps it's a similar phenomenon. Do you think it's good or...

Like a bad... Oh, you're always talking about omens. Bad omens and bad luck. An omen is not always bad. Right. It can be good. An omen is just... As long as you crush your eggshells. A glimpse of what may come. A glimpse of fate. By the end of it, it only brought us closer together. Oi, that's... That's true. The last time we saw these lights... Two days ago.

Barnabas felt rejuvenated the next day, did you not? I still feel rejuvenated as one can in these dire circumstances. It was the thing trapped in the guts of that beast. The creature? You said that wasn't part of your memories! No, it was... It didn't happen that way! It was not that creature with the horn and the hair, it was... I found my true love.

The trolls found the woman in the shell. But why would it be different? How could it be? It was your life. Perhaps that is the meaning to be discerned from these visions. Dreams and the like. We haven't had many dreams that have been pleasant by any means, especially not without any meaning. Perhaps this is how these farriers of souls are communicating, but...

I am no spiritualist like you are, Mr. Yorneir. From where I come from, like I say, it's the footsteps of the gods. The bridge, you could say, that they travel. Or so we say. You think that those lights around the doorframe are a bridge that a bunch of gods are just walking across? This is a different land. It'd be similar.

But this is our faith, this is what we believe, the old faith. Every faith has its own beliefs of the light. You ask the dwarves, they will say something different. So, who wants to feel rejuvenated, this may be a rare opportunity, or maybe it's every other day, every other evening. We've gotta talk about our lives.

I'm not doing it. It's not for me. Why not? Because we all know each other well enough and there's no reason to look at the past. We gotta focus on the here and the now and survival and the future. I always say, right? Right. I'm glad you agree. But of us, you're the least fit for such survival. Okay, now that's just hurtful. This is just the truth. Look at you. Jesus.

I will have you know that I am well above the average growth of a goblin. I'm very strong. I told you this before. Unbelievable. I'm talking about the state of your exhaustion. You're above average for a goblin? Yes, very above average. Oh. The state, yes, I'm a little tired, all right? The weather was rough. He's got bags under his eyes as he's talking. It's just very cold. I'm not used to this weather. I've traveled around a lot. I've never been anywhere like this.

Doesn't make me weak. Doesn't make me unfit. Hold on, yournir. You're unfit. Why do you fear the past, Mr. Staviscott? Who said anything about fear, Mr. Barnabas? Dreadway. Excuse me, Mr. Dreadway. Oh, you're in that title. You saw it. You were there. You're right. That was a little disrespectful. Why do you fear the past?

Okay, okay, okay, you got me. That was easier than I thought. I'm a little scared of the past, all right? But you would be too. Why? You saw my past. There's plenty, perhaps, to not want to see, but there's one thing my lover whispers in my ear and inspires me every day to do is to change. Little by little, like the ebb and flow of the tides, you change everything.

Every moment you draw breath, Mr. Stabiscotch. You can't do that if you let go of the past. Or if you do, you're not gonna grow and you're not gonna learn. It's the fools who run from their past. They're the ones who wither and die. You say that without knowing what some people are running from. Um, fine. You know what? I'll do it. I'll tell you guys my story. You wanna hear my story? I'll tell you my story. What do I gotta do? Crack open the door, let the light come on in? Come on in, light!

Come hang out with us around our nice warm fire. All right? I'll hop up and open the door. You do. I love story time. Unlike the time when you were outside around the campfire, it has been a consistent and pure blue. It's shifting and fading and marbling the way that it does in the door frame, what light can peek through. It hasn't been responding to your voices inside.

You open the door and it's very plainly apparent. The surface of the street, the ruins that are across the path from the home that you now find yourself in, everything is basked, bathed in this blue color, shimmering and shifting the way light passes through water almost.

And all you have to do is walk outside and assume you will see that same curtain of light up in the sky, this strange serpent-like configuration, undulating, merging, these kinds of qualities. Do we feel as though we need to step outside? Uh...

And do we feel compelled to view it? I wouldn't say that you feel magically motivated, but you can intuit because you're talking and after Queenie opens the door, it remains fixed and unchanged. It's only perhaps under the stars in the raw wilds of nature that you would be able to resonate with it the way Barnabas did that one night.

All right, we'll step outside. And I want to take a look around before I say anything. I need to just make sure. I haven't seen anything since we've been on this god's forsaken land, but never hurts to be too careful. All right? And I march out. All right, we'll get cold for your story. One more hit of that tea, Mr. Fire Blossom, before we go out. Of course, here you are. Take it with us.

We'll take some tea to go before it freezes. It freezes immediately. I'm going to make a tea popsicle. Nice. That's a really good idea. I'm not smart enough to think about that. Once we all get outside, if you follow me, I will...

I make a big display of... I would follow immediately. Yornir, hold still, Yornir. And I'm actually gonna climb up your back and stand on your shoulders and do like a 360 degree like scan of the horizon. Okay. All right. Yep. I'm all right. I think we're all right. Nothing yet. I'll climb down. Okay. Where do I begin? Well...

It was a long, long time ago. I guess my first memories would be me being a small goblin and I guess what we call a horde of goblins. I mean, there were all of them, just many of them. So many brothers and sisters and relatives and

groups of different people and we're fighting and we're scrapping and we're raiding and everything is a struggle and to eat, to starve, the garbage, the raids, the thieving and the brutality of it all. I very, very, very quickly grew tired of it. Just wasn't for me, you know? So be it. A goblin that doesn't like to raid, okay? Well, they exist. I'm one. I, on the other hand, being, you know, near the very big city of Bargust, which you may or may not know about, is...

a little bit more refined and sophisticated. Wasn't very long before I was exposed to the finer things. You can tell by the way that I dress that I am one who is a bit more sophisticated than the average goblin. Clearly, I care what I look like. It wasn't long before I was exposed to these things and wanted them for myself. So I, you know, at the warning or the disgust of my

Goblin brethren, I left, went out on my own to experience and explore and see what was out there. You know, raise my station in life from a lowly goblin. You're all looking up at the sky and listening to the words of Scrim, and that blue light remains unchanged. It hasn't shifted into a new specific color yet.

It has continued to remain blue. As you continue to talk, there are these wisps, these moments of color loss, almost. But it seems that you haven't gotten to the heart of your story yet. Help me out here. All right, fine. We'll fast forward a little bit. So it's not long before I realize that, you know, I'm...

I need to survive, right? I'm a goblin in a big city. What am I going to do? Work? Please. It turns out that I'm pretty good with the knife and pretty good with...

My hands a little dexterous, a little sneaky if you will. Well, you know, it wouldn't be uncommon for me to learn to make money by the not most honest means. You know, look, some people don't take kindly to goblins. So I'd sleep in an alley or I might scam somebody out of some money to afford a hotel room for an evening in an inn. Or just enough to get some bread and a beer. Or, you know...

I steal some clothing to make sure that I try to fit in more. It's not every day you see a goblin who dresses as nice as me. The blue light, as he's starting to talk about conning, shifts and starts to change. It becomes colorless, this medium slate. Slate's not the right word.

a pewter gray, like almost a metal gray, overtakes the blue. And what, you look at the lit shadows of blue on each other's faces as this conversation starts to happen. And

everything grows colorless around you. With save the small orange light inside the settlement, inside of the settlement that you've called your, that you've made your home, the light starts to swim down and sink, but you're still not at the heart of your story. Well, you know, it might've been a little,

Rough at first, but it turns out that, you know, obviously it took me some time to pick up on different cultural things and learn the ways. But before I knew it, conning and thievery and using my words was second nature. It turns out it's very easy to separate fools from their money. Very easy. And I embraced it.

And it wasn't uncommon that I would bounce around from inn to inn and scam people for a little bit of coin here and there and trade it in for money or trade it in for goods to get by. And trust me, I did my fair share of running from the law, getting beat up, people looking for me, always on the run. I couldn't stay in one place for too long. You can't. People learn to your con man. It doesn't last forever. And then there was one night, an inn in a town,

Not too far away from the main streets of the main thoroughfare of Bargust. Very big city. Found a small inn. Been to once or twice, but never really hit any serious marks there. It was just a night like any other night, and that's what I saw. Seemed like the perfect mark. The magic takes hold, and you are once again enveloped by this light. It comes...

swimming down from the sky and scoops you up. And though you are standing in the middle of a cold night out in the wilderness, you forget the cold. You're just captivated by Scrim's story. You don't find yourself in a tavern. Not yet. That's part of the memory, and you're starting to experience it the same way you did with Barnabas. You are in a mausoleum.

It's the middle of the night, and you are all, four of you, not Scrim, standing in a strange crypt, what would be in a graveyard, a cemetery, a tomb, a mausoleum. The door is wide open, and before you, on what would have been the coffin of who knows what soul, is a sleeping Scrim. And...

Scream, you awake with a jolt, and you are immediately overwhelmed with deja vu.

You are telling a story, but there is this strange doubling of your vision and of your memory where you are standing here. The feeling of the mausoleum that you slept in this particular night, underneath the feeling of your goblin hands, underneath the skin, it's exactly, exactly what it would feel like to relive a moment, to be transported in this way. And this time, you're not alone. This time you look up and you know you're telling a story and the people you're telling a story are standing there right there with you.

all here. It's the night that you go to the tavern. Wow, this is even way different this side. All right. Well, I know what I have to do. We're headed to the tavern, and I will, you know, more or less talking to myself, but out loud, I'll hop off this structure and begin to go down the streets where I know this tavern to be. You jump down, and you start to make your way. Scrim seems eager to get to this particular location. What are the four of you doing?

Just following along. I look at this gram and I say, as we step outside, what does the landscape look like around? We're stepping into a graveyard or a cemetery? You step out and that is exactly where you found yourself to be. There is... Is it a graveyard or a cemetery? It's not attached to a church, whichever that one is. Cemetery. Cemetery. Um...

There are small tombs, molded tombs, I should say gravestones. There are twisted trees in all directions, and there is a foot-high mist that creeps along and swirls, and as Scrim bounces through it, little mini whirling devils of mist twist and play in his wake. And you can see that it is... It's actually...

Good thing that you are not telling a story in Winterfur. You would feel the temperature in this moment. All of you feel like you are inhabiting this space as if you were actually there. And it's not a cold night, but it's not a warm night either. It's very moderate and there doesn't seem to be a star in the sky. It's just a very dark, moonless evening. And you start to make your way. It's only a 5, 10, 15 minute walk.

unless anyone else wants to do anything before arriving at Old Shucks. Oh, I would just, I would look down at him and say, Mr. Staviskos, do you normally sleep in cemeteries and graveyards? I mean, every once in a while. The dead don't complain. I guess not. Peace and quiet? I don't think you need me to say this if I have any idea where this story is going, but it's bad luck to sleep in a cemetery.

Is the big city, is that Breeg? Is Breeg the big city? Or is Vargas also a city in the continent? No, sorry. Vargas is the continent. Vargas is the continent. Breeg is the city. Okay, this one is? Yes. This is very much on the outskirts of that region.

maybe perhaps days or even weeks of travel from the main city of Vargust. The amount of travel that Scrim has done. This is a town known as Freybug, and the destination that you're being taken to, once you arrive, you'll see the sign. It is called Old Shucks.

Would I have been, once I left Mahmood, I'll sort of leave it up to you, if I would have been to Breag, like, you know, as I sort of was just sort of making my way all the way from the north. Give me one moment. Okay. So I have some context here. Yeah. Ah, player journey.

What's that? Very literally, I have a map of the world and how you all got to the first session zero. So here we go. Love that. To answer your question, you traveled south through Mammut from the very northern heights. You crossed the channel from Mammut to Karkonos along the...

Along the eastern coast. Eventually you found yourself at a port that would take you to Yulong and continued south along the east. Sorry. Flip those.

Eastern Carcanos, western side of Yulong, eventually making your way to Wuzhe. So you avoided Barghest completely. Whether or not you would have gone to Barghest in your long life is a question that you can hypothetically answer, but I would probably assume that the answer is no if you were mostly from Yorn and Mammut. Okay, perfect. Yep.

I'm so glad I did all of this work. Good grief. You're standing now, having had this conversation, looking up at the front of a, what is very a caricature of a tavern in a town like Freybug. Old shucks. And being that it is quite late at night, you see that it is, the band is not playing. It's almost empty when Scrim walked in that night.

I will proceed in and I look over my shoulder as we go and this place is, you know, it's not bad. Trust me, it might look a little shabby from the outside, but it's nice and warm on the inside and the drink was good. Here we go. Here we go. And I put my hand on the door. Here we go. Here we go. I don't want to go inside. I know what happens. I don't want to go inside.

That's not the point of this. You're fit. This is great. Nah. I guess I can't change it. All right, here we go. For real this time. And I'll open the door, I'll go in. You push open the door, and there are a few very drunk patrons asleep in one corner. The actual bar itself is occupied by just one figure, and the barkeep is...

nodding but not listening intently to this person who is very clearly at the height of his drunkenness have I ever told you about the legend of graveyard jack do you know that legend you know that story yeah have you heard the whole truth of it

Yeah? I didn't think so. Well, let me lay it all out for you because it's spooky.

Spooky lady. I love stories. And I pull up a chair and sit down and start listening. You pull a stool out or a chair and you start listening. This gentleman, for as long as you'll let him, will tell you the story of old Graveyard Jack and how he will stalk through cemeteries, very specifically, if you're late at night looking for souls, lost souls from the people who have died. But if he can't find one of those, he might come after a living soul.

And that's when he'll get you. He'll jump out and he'll grab you. It's not a very well told story. It is portrayed through... Excuse me, why is he called Graveyard Jack if he goes through cemeteries? Well, I never thought about that. It's the same thing, isn't it? No, one of them's attached to a church. Really? Yeah. Yeah.

Perhaps the intent is that it's anything where the dead are laid to rest. The distinction doesn't matter. That's also just a story. Really. Oh, it's not real? We don't need to focus on it. He was telling it like it was a real thing. Are you lying to me?

- Oh my god, I mean, is this one of them fake stories? Is this fake news? - Folk tales and the like, you know? - You have to immediately stop sleeping in cemeteries. And also graveyards. - Well, keep in mind, Daishen, this is the past. I haven't done that in a very long time. - Good, listen to this man then. - Well, sort of, I suppose. And with that, I will look around the bar because I know what happens and I'm looking for a particular individual.

And I'm nervous. I would say that the rest of my party can tell that I am visibly nervous and looking to get this over with. I think he believes the story of Graveyard Jack. He's sweating. You recognize. He's nervous. I'm sweating. I'm nervous. It actually is a very strange anti-deja vu feeling, however you would describe it. Queenie is interacting with the gentleman that you picked for your con this night, Talbert.

I remember his name very specifically. He told the story of Graveyard Jack to anyone who'd listen, and you thought, boy, this guy is quite a few in. Maybe one more, and I could nudge him into some coin for myself. So I will crack my knuckles and look kind of at the group and say, watch, the master at work. I proceed to walk over to the man and say, I...

Didn't mean to overhear your story, but it sounded very interesting. Do you mind if I buy you a drink while you tell me some more?

That would be amazing! Uh, Barkeep, two drinks. You reach in and you find the coppers that you need in order to purchase the cheapest ales that they have, but they're full tankards and flagons are slapped down just a moment later and you and Calvert are able to cheers. Frothy heads of beers go splashing against the countertop and he's looking, "Hell's wise your name, friend?"

Name is Scrim. What's your name? Calbert. Calbert, it's a pleasure to meet you. Cheers. He gives you a wink. Thank you. What are you... You've got a whole friends here. Yes, these are my friends and we're just passing through for the night. Please drink up.

Please, it's on me. Thank you. And he drinks greedily and right away. And you remember in your original night, it was just the two of you having a quiet night. The barkeep seemed grateful that you would distract this gentleman from telling wild, crazy stories like he had. And maybe a game of sorts.

Yeah, I would coax him into letting him tell the story of Graveyard Jack, even though he just told it. I want him to feel comfortable, and he tells me as much as he wants. I'm asking him questions and keeping him interested to kind of get him excited. I show him how deft I am at playing Stabberscotch. Oh, yeah. You don't even have to roll for it. It's...

Just to show him how amazing it is. A feat of dexterity. And it's a great distraction from the story because he keeps coming back to the same points over and over. Yeah, I know. The sock cemetery. I know about Brickyard Jack. This is amazing. If you've been to every tavern in Vargas, you've heard it that many times. And this is just another drunk repeating that same old tale. Listen, I...

This is, we've become good friends, right? Have we not? Best friends. I would say that for a little bit of entertainment for the evening, why don't we play a few games of quartz, parchment, scissors, shears. How do you play? Oh, very easy. There's quartz, there's parchment, and there's shears. Okay? The quartz beats the shears.

The shears beats the parchment, and the parchment beats the quartz. Well, I'll win every time. I bet you will. All right. What do you have? I've got a few pieces of silver left. You want to start with that? Well, I have silver, too. It's exciting. We're getting to meet Spoon's best friend. I really shouldn't spend this, but I think I could win. Just for a friendly game, we could play a few times and see what happens. There, and I put my silver on the table.

- All right. - On the count of three, it'll be three, two, one, shoot. All right? - Okay. - Three, two, one, shoot. And as he is going to shoot whatever he puts out, in my more sober state, I lose on purpose. - Yes.

This is the hardest you've ever had to work to lose on purpose. He's like putting it down and then like, shoot. Oh, you got me. She is beast bot. Two silver. Two silver. We'll go again. Another silver.

I don't have, well, I can use one of these, yeah. That's right. You're already on house money. All right, here we go. One, two, three, shoot. One, two, three, shoot. I lose again.

- Amazing! Yes! - You're all watching this display and it is amazing how into Scrim's hands this guy is playing. He's just getting sharked in this very specific way. This guy can't possibly be this stupid or this drunk, but he seemingly is. - Another round, another silver.

Go for three. All right. Yeah, you're on a heater. You can't stop now. No. One, two, three, shoot. And I lose. Okay. I've got six holes to silver. Ah, well, you don't want to play again, do you? I mean, I'm kind of in the hole here. I mean, maybe we could double a nothing. Just one go for all of it. Why? All right. I mean, you could make twice that.

Do you have the silver? Well, I think I have a gold piece here. I've got a gold piece. Okay. I know it's maybe a little more than double or maybe a little less, but this is ten of those, right? So here we go. A gold piece. Do you have a gold piece? He reaches down and he pulls out. Really? All right, let's all in. I'll put my gold piece down on the bar top and take a look at his gold.

It's what you fear when he slaps down this gold piece. This is not the gold piece that you have, the Bargis coin mint. This is a piece that you've looked at thousands and thousands of times since you earned it here in this moment. It is unusual in its make and its look and feel. It is clearly a little bigger than the gold pieces around here. It doesn't have a hole in the center. It seems like it's heavier, weighty.

And when he slips it down onto the surface of the bar, it thuds with a faint-like resonance. What kind of gold piece is that? I just found it here in my pocket. Is that legal tender? It's gold. Yeah, all right. Double or nothing for both of the gold pieces. All right. Let me just...

Pick my choice. All right. Three, two, one, shoot. And I'll win. Choose to win. Oh, no! I'm really sorry, friend. Look, I'll just take these. How? I got lucky. Barman, buy him another drink and...

I'll be on my way with my friends. He doesn't even notice as a fresh ale slides across the counter. You get some change for a silver piece and immediately the four of you watch Scrim as he hops down from the stool and starts to make his way away from this almost sobbing, silent figure now having been bamboozled, conned in this way.

Unless you're doing anything. We should go. It's about time to be moving on to the next place. There's a nice place to have some meal down the... There's a nice place to serve a nice hot meal down the road. Yeah, come on. Let's get out of here. I was very upset for you beating him fair and square. Um, it wasn't exactly fair and square, Taishan. That was very easy to manipulate him into getting his money. Like I said, fools are easily separated from their gold.

You should probably stop listening to this. Now I'm all of a sudden Harley Quinn. Why? Because aren't we sitting right next to him? And he's like crying and we're saying that he's... No, we're both. Oh, okay. I was confused. It's around the dude. I'm like, why are we...

- I'm losing it, you stupid dog! - It's a fair point. In my head cannon, when he said we should probably get out here, you were like through the door. So you're out in the street now, and you're swept up by the pewter gray colors of the aurora, and pushed well past the moments of celebration that Scrim enjoyed that evening, full of food and additional merriment at some other inn or tavern.

Instead, it's the morning, well, late, late, late night.

There's still no peak of the sunrise, but it is clear that Scrim chose this particular evening to go back to the mausoleum for that particular smooth surface of that particular coffin slab made for a free and reasonably comfortable sleeping arrangement. You're back. You're back to that same place. Well, here we are. Home sweet home for the evening, right? Yeah.

That's a fair point.

This is why we get comfortable. Bury sailors in sea. This is where we were just told not to go. Look, it was... I know, I know, Taishan. I'm sorry, but this is where I rested for the evening. And I'm gonna just lay down here and do it again, I guess. Hey, Scrimm!

The sound is exactly the same tone and volume and quality that you remember from that same night. And you remember thinking, oh shit, Kelbert has like followed up on me, somehow managed to find and trace, to track me, has followed me here.

I sit up quickly. Oh, oh, uh, Calvert, hi. Yeah, hey, hey, buddy. Come on out. We're not gonna play again. What? Uh, what do you mean? You've been drinking a lot. We had a good time. We can play again another time. We don't need to do this tonight. Scrim. And you, Rick, suddenly realize, that first night, did I tell him my name? Scrim from the Shrieking White Moors. Scrim from the Shrieking White Moors. Come out. Oh, okay. Okay.

and I will hop off and I'll walk out towards the thing. There's no need for violence. It's all right. It's not a big deal. I'll happily buy you another drink, a meal. - You see Calbert standing there in front of this goblin, what appears to be an average human man with something of a paunch. He is looking at Scrim with intelligence, sober eyes, and speaking somehow different.

scrim scabascotch from the shrieking white moors. Yes. Very good. And he looks up and sees the four of you there. You see him make a gesture with his hands and a cloak hood where there was no cloak hood before.

appears in his fingers and pulls away, and the face of Calvert vanishes. Instead, you see standing there a six-foot-tall, well-groomed, immaculate-robed creature. It has red eyes and a huge jackal's head, like a coyote or a wolf head.

these wearing thin little spectacles that sit on the end of his nose. He's looking at you with small white horns and these robes that trumpet at the wrists. Come forward, Scrim. I won't bite.

I like take a step or two back when I see this. I look towards my friends and I say, "Run!" And I begin to run, I just book it, book it. Like that even, I take off. - This is an interesting move for today Scrim to make because this is exactly what happened in the original memory. And in the same moment, as soon as he turned around,

You feel paralyzed. You are held in place magically. You make it not even a single step. All you can do is barely lift up one of your legs and your knee is in the air and you are locked into place. You don't fall as if you've been paralyzed. You are held in this space and in this time. And scrim, scrim, scrim.

Okay, Calvert, whatever your name might be. That was rash. I'll admit that was rash. You can just let me go, and I promise I won't try that again. Try what again? To run. And? And what? Well, you've taken all of my coin. Oh, I mean, I won that fair and square. Indeed. Very good. We played some games, remember? I don't know who you are, or if that's what your real name was, but we played games fair and square.

You have won something else. What do you mean? Well, you've won the right to sign this. And he conjures an elaborate parchment that coils at both ends. This is your debt. Your payment, your service for a life of cheating and conning and, well, you know the rest.

He turns and he looks at it. Yes. Yes. And you look at it. It has lines of inked...

that makes no sense to you. And you can see that it is of two scripts. There's a more elaborate carved one, another one that's a little bit more jagged in nature, a little harsher. One flows into the other. The other one has very clear lines

and stops to it. And underneath, you can see that there's a line with an X next to it. Just let me go. Give me a quill. I'll sign it, and I'll do whatever you want. And we can talk about this. We can talk about this like reasonable people. You feel a quill emerge in your hand and realize that you can move it again. Oh, okay. You feel the energy start to relieve from your body. He puts the parchment directly in front of you, and he...

Continues to look at the four of you, giving you each actual eyes for just a moment before he leans in with a smile. A foxy, wolf-like smile. I sign this and you let me go, right? Deal? Deal. Done. I sign my name? He doesn't even take the quill back. It disappears into motes of magic and he rolls it up. Our business here is done.

Now, per the contract, you will be here again tomorrow night, yes? Oh, absolutely. No problem. Right here. Right here in this graveyard or cemetery. Tell your friends not to disturb what happens next. Oh, sure. Of course not. Why would I ever have them do that? No, it'll be fine. We'll be right back here tomorrow.

He pulls a...

cloak over his head. You can see his ears poke out from the back of that cloak and turns, and he starts to make his way across the misty surface of this cemetery or graveyard. And he starts to walk, and almost immediately disappears impossibly into the shadows. He just vanishes, not 15, 20 feet from where the five of you stand. Oh, God. Oh, jeez. Oh, my gosh. Okay. All right. All right.

Is everybody alright? We good? I don't like cemeteries. What was that creature? Are you stupid, boy? No, I don't think I'm stupid at all. In fact, we are not going to stand around here and talk about this because we're not going to be here tomorrow because we're leaving. Follow me.

That's why I play dice, Mr. Salisgotch. Well, dice are... Well, we can have a conversation about dice another time. Did you really just sign a contract without reading it on the... On the word of some random strange man that he's gonna let you go? I didn't get that hood. That was no man. And you heard what he was gonna do. I didn't have a choice. Look, we just don't have to be here tomorrow. We'll just leave. I mean, what's the worst that'll happen? We'll just leave. He's expecting us to be here. We won't show up. It's not the end of the world.

What? This isn't anything new. People leave. He knew where you were from. Yeah, that was a little weird. You think he's not going to find you if you don't come back here? Then he's going to be even more angry you didn't show up. I don't think he's going to find me. Why not? He found you this time. I outsmarted him once, I'll outsmart him again. He was the stupid one for letting me go.

Unless he did that on purpose and he outsmarted you first. No. Come on. That's not... No. That's not possible. Come on, please. We have to go. We can't stay here. I'm not staying here. I begin to march off. Come on, follow me. We're getting out of here. In the story that Scrim is telling, his version of reality is that he left this place. But as you're having this conversation, Scrim, you peek back into that same mausoleum where you woke up and...

This is when you see the eyes, red eyes that would haunt you from town to town as you skipped and moved in fear, as you tried to run from whatever agreement you just made, as you heard barking for the first time. Anytime you were near a cemetery or a graveyard, you would always hear the same howling, grotesque, monstrous barking.

You don't hear barking this time. Just through your friends all standing around you, you're able to peek through and in the shadow of the mausoleum, in the darkest blackness of that shadow, two eyes suddenly emerge like slits and then open, staring right at you and they jump forward. A bark and a scream. You are suddenly pushed down onto the ground. Huge muscular claws.

The four of you all of a sudden see this monstrous, muscled beast. It looks something like a dog, but it is hairy and matted fur, with matted fur. You see yellow, sick skin underneath that fur. You see monstrous jaws, these razor-sharp claws, hateful, glowing eyes. It is looking down and it is holding Scrim to the cemetery floor. Drools pouring out of its mouth. It is...

Breathing in your face heavily, ready to bark, ready to bite, ready to pounce, ready to do something. Don't do anything! Don't do anything! It's fine. We're just gonna get out of here. This is what happened and we got out and we left and I left and it's all gonna be okay. Don't do anything. Nobody make any sudden movements.

And you think this is the end. As soon as the four of you see, you know that things are starting to deviate now. You see the dog start to come in, not the dog, the bargust start to come in and with its mouth start to clench around your neck before any of you can move. It is pulled, launched free by some other force. And you are...

Shocked to see above you a raging woolly rhino has come in and with its horn smashed into the side of this creature, sending it flying 20, 25, 30 feet around. It hits a tombstone that cracks in half. It immediately spins around and starts to come back at the rhino. The five of you are standing there watching in horror. What are you doing?

Did that happen? This did not happen. I am extremely confused. I don't care who you are or where you come from. That thing is bad luck. I mean, that thing's not even native to this continent. Look at it, hairy in a horn? I've never seen anything like that. I meant the black dog. He's talking about the dog. Oh, yeah, well, I mean, that was a little weird. You can see it's lipstick the whole time.

This is part of the deal we made. Well, now I'm confused. Are we talking about the rhino or the dog? Dog! I mean, I can only presume so.

Like a snap, you are no longer standing in a cemetery. The lights have faded. Or graveyard. The lights have faded. And before you can see the outcome of this clash between this creature you've only seen once before in Barnamos' memory and the creature that you've only vaguely seen in shadow...

This is being the first time you've really, really gotten a true full three-dimensional look at it. You're out in the street in the ruins of some abandoned and ancient settlement. Clear sky above you, cold wind rushing around you, and you've returned. The story seems to have ended a bit early. And that's basically it. I hopped from town to town to city to continent to continent. Everywhere I went,

That beast was there. Not the rhino, the dog. But I haven't seen it since I've been here, and I think I may have finally gotten away from it. And the coin you carry on you is the coin you won that night. That's exactly right. No matter how hard I try, I can't get rid of it. It's probably nothing.

It returns to you. Yeah, but I mean like, you know, you saw that guy. There's obviously some kind of magics at play and when I've thrown the coin overboard or I've spent it on things or I've given it to somebody or I've donated it to a church, it just comes right back. He tried everything. And is that the same thing with your knife? What you play Stabberscotch with? Oh, uh, well...

You know, that's a little bit different too, because the more I've spent time running away from this thing, I've realized I have a little bit of extra oomph. Something isn't quite right. Magics, right? I mean, no different than this. I don't really know how else to describe it, but yes, the brutal blade that I keep with me, that's what I like to call it, can now just materialize it and dematerialize it.

So you have your powers because of that contract you signed? It would seem that way. Which, to be fair, I'm not really complaining. I mean, you know, obviously the dog is pretty horrifying, but as long as I keep running and it can't ever find me, then I get these extra abilities, this power, for nothing! For free! But it ain't really free. You can't have a home, you can't have a family, you can't have a life, you can't create a life for yourself. You gotta keep running and running and running to hope it doesn't find you.

Yeah, but I'm always happier on the move anyway. I mean, who wants to stay in one space for too long, regardless? And plus, you know, I had enough of the whole family thing. I had like 900 brothers and sisters. I don't need that anymore. I'm good. You're exaggerating, right? Not really, no. Wow. Yeah, there's a lot of us. How'd your mom manage that? Good question. Okay.

You make your way back inside for a long rest, for a restful night, as restful as it could be. No, you don't. My apologies. It's morning.

The story that Scrim is told seems to have taken the night. You do experience that post-Mausoleum moment. You remember going to the tavern and living in Scrim's shoes throughout. You remember leaving the town of Freybug and hopping from town to town, from living to living, existence to existence.

You remember everything all the way up to Muzei, when you met each other for the first time in a simple tavern and started to get into circumstances together, to have an adventure. And it's there that, blinking, you look around and the sun is just starting to peak over the mountain horizon to the east. And you realize the night has passed extremely quickly.

Despite having felt like you've lived an entire one in the mind of Scrim, Scrim, you feel rejuvenated from having freed this story out of you. You are... All of your exhaustion is wiped away, and you enjoy a long rest. Oh, well, thank you. And Barnabas, you enjoy a long rest as well. Everyone else enjoys a short. Let me tell you how refreshing this is.

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a tarot deck, and more. Thank you. The day is before you, and for the sake of brevity, let's talk through what you do with this day before evening comes. I think we would pack the sledge and get all of our provisions in order. Who will track this new pack? Thank you for being here, Becca. Good night. I just wanted to say that you don't hang out very often. We love you. Thank you for coming. Bye.

Sweet dreams. I'll help. Happy anniversary. So I'm tracking, so we have 18 slots. Plus 18. So do we think we need firewood? Yes. Oh, well...

Yeah. How many candles do you have? Well, we have no clue where we're going or how far it is. I have to count how many beans. I thought it was 10 times 8. No, what was it? 12 times 8? 12 times... It's over 30. So you have 12 candles. Right. Each candle burns for 24 hours. So I split them up into three 8-hour chunks, and that's how I arrived at 36 8-hour beans. That's what it is. Because...

- It would be 36 uses if you're just using them at night. If you burn one continuously for 24 hours, it'd be three gains per day. - All I know is Derek is a cruel mistress and there's no way he's giving us what we need to get where we're going. - I think, so here's my thought. - We definitely need something. - Yeah, we definitely need something. - But here's the thing, that is more than a month.

- Which is gonna go by really quick. - Which is gonna go by quick, but like if we don't find any trees or wood for a month, we are just dead. - We're fucked anyway. - We are dead no matter what. - Ah, yes. - Right? - Right, so it's best that we bring some wood while we've got it available, just in case. - But it would give us how many extra days, like? - I feel like how much space wood takes up versus the little candles, it's better to do get food for that, right?

I'll also say the sledge itself being made of wood would count as two or three days if you dismantled it. Worst case scenario. So we could only store 18 rations of fish on it, right? Yeah. So we could just fill it up with rations and we have...

240 rations. The whole 18 little pieces of jerky. It's a massive switch. And there's 18 small pieces of jerky. It's just like, it's just like, it's just like, you're in the middle and you're like, I know that it's weird to do a simulation where we don't have the actual thing. But you put a heat

- Think about how much food you'd have to pull on a sleigh to feed five people for 30 days or 18 days, right? That's how much actual fish meat you're putting onto the sledge. - The numbers be more like guidelines. - See, I think we would,

We could fill it up entirely with fish, or we do mostly fish with a little bit of water. I'm fine with either. I think we do fish too. Yeah. Do you agree? Well, no. I'm the only one who disagrees, so I don't think it matters. Okay, so we're gonna load it up with 18 days worth of fish. Mm-hmm. And, wait, is it each slot? Can hold five rations. Yes.

You can carry up to one day's worth of rations in one item. So it's only 18... It would be three days worth of food.

The whole sledge? Yeah. Because there are five of us, and each one of us needs one rashem. So if each one is only one... I'm going to literally just shackle a shit ton of fish to me as well. Yeah, you each have your own capacity. I've got six extra slots. You know what I have now? Find out I've been cheating this whole time. Tiny, small, medium. Let's take a look here. I think food's going to be rare. So I think we...

I think we do fish. So I'm just gonna write fish. Yeah. And I will fill up on my inventory only three slots on fish. Okay. You largely spend the day having this conversation of how can you equip for the next leg of this journey.

You felt so powerless and unprepared for the circumstances of your being trapped in ice, of losing the captain, finding that the crew had abandoned you, and having to make your way this far. You've traveled 150, 175, maybe 200 miles in the month plus that you've since left.

the site where you were icebound, and this time, this time you are going to make the right choices and learn from your lessons, from your experience.

Filling up on fish, making sure that you, everything on your person is nice and warm, tightly bound. You spend the day readying for the coming journey and the next day or the day after perhaps, you maybe continue to trek onward, but night does come and you find yourself enjoying what bountiful fuel and food there is here in the temporary home that you've made for yourselves and you enjoy the fire.

Before we get all the way to Knight, can I show Yornir the cairn? Yeah, take him. Hey, Yornir, you wanna go take a look at that cairn I found before? No. I'm busy counting fish. I'm okay. You're good with runes. Let me show you what... Okay.

Here's what I was talking about. Do this while you're in the vicar. Here's what I was talking about. I am certain that to the west is Fire Magnolia. There's a small chance that the symbol does also mean certain death.

- Delectable T or certain death. - The one that he's pointing to you recognize and you've seen it on every single cairn that's pointed west since you've started seeing cairns in the first place. You can kind of see how it looks like a fire magnolia just based on it's like symbolic representation, but it's meant ocean every single time. That's the direction that it's seeing. - Oh, tight shit. - So I wanna get a sense of the ones that,

beforehand I noticed that there was like a structure looking one that pointed to where we are now. And so at least Taishen saw that there were multiple, like, I don't know if it's like multiple facets now pointing to other settlements. Oh, so this is a signpost. Yeah. I want to get a sense of if I can, if I can like ascertain, like,

distance and like size of settlement based on the runes or whatever. Do so with advantage with Taishen and uh... My intelligent Dracaric know-how. Since this is deduction-y... Perception? No... Just whiz?

No, I'm going in an int direction. It's a matter of can you put the pieces together. It's just a question. It's investigation or intelligence, your choice. But at advantage. Yep, I thought that might be the case. Twelve. Twelve. With a twelve, you and Taishen spend a better part of an hour. Mm-hmm.

having conversations about like, look at this one. This center mast here, this seems to be the symbol that we saw in the previous Cairns, but in its simplest form. So if we apply the same rules of how it diminished over the many times that we saw Cairns leading up to this settlement, can you apply the same rules?

yeah, I guess you kind of can. This one over here seems to be four pips away. This one over here seems to be three pips away. Is that day's travel? Is that a week's travel? Or is it some other form of measurement? Or is it conveying a totally different meaning? You kind of get a sense that they're

The ones that are more complex or have more additional pieces to it are farther in distance from you than the ones that have fewer or closer to this settlement image that they all sort of kind of share. So, and I guess I can pull out, because I think I've jotted down every rune that I've seen. You would have. So I'll pull that out and I'll sort of get it across reference. I want to get a sense of as far as what's north.

Are there multiple options that we could go forward and sort of... After I come to this determination, what options would a rational kind of... What a rational Eornir sort of think as far as if we want to go for another settlement?

What are our options there? It looks like the option heading northeast is not just the closest, but there's a rune that is totally new, and comparing your notes to the ones that you've seen before in these particular cairns. This one in particular has a swoosh, a curve, a line on the side. And do you take that...

Because the DC was lowered thanks to Taishin's help and because you have been taking such studious notes as a druid, that this is another town on the river, whereas these others may be, like, that's the capital, and it's like 20 weeks out. That's the one where, like, perhaps the settlement where the cliffside that you guys saw

bend up and out of the ocean where it finally meets the ocean and perhaps that's a beach side village or town or city. You can't get a sense of the size or nature of the settlements but you kind of get a sense that there's a middle route that would take the longest, a beach route that would take the mediumest and a shorter distance that would take you to this next river location. All right. I'll turn and walk back to the camp.

How wacky was that? What I thought was tea, turns out you'd never guess it was the ocean all along! No, no, I did guess. And I could have told you to not get your hopes up, but us finding any tea growing in this climate would be very unusual. No, you never know. You can make anything into a good cup of tea.

That's a fair point. And once we gather back with it, we'll say, "I believe our pack lies along the river. It's the closest settlement along the way. It'll be easier to travel. It'll be close to a source of fish. And we may find the crew if we move faster than they do. Unlikely with their vehicle, but if something waylays them or they perish, which is likely,

We'll at least learn what becomes of them.

Direction-wise, the crew is like skating on the frozen river? Yeah. Is that going towards where we're going? That goes northeast, right? Yeah. In the direction. Oh, okay, okay. We're basically following them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you could continue to follow the river southwest, and presumably it terminates at the ocean, perhaps creating a long and large waterfall. You picture in your mind remembering the heights of those cliffs. Yeah.

And would I know that, you know, given that we're in the southern hemisphere, right? Or, I guess, do seasons work that way, where it's getting colder as the months are going on? Yeah, I'm ignoring two realities. One, the days aren't getting, like, super short, and we're not going into that sort of level of southern simulation. And... Because I just don't want to do that. And then, two, the...

What a hemisphere, like, I don't even know if the water swirls in different directions. Like, I'm not gonna get that into the weeds. It's not important to my story. Okay. But I guess as far as seasons go, is it getting colder or warmer? It's getting colder. We feel like winter is colder. You've been outrunning the winter. Okay. And I would know that going north... So a hemisphere in terms of going north is warmer than going south. Yes. That's relevant and true. That has been your experience so far in Drukkar. Okay.

I believe we need to keep going north. It's getting colder, and it will only get worse where we are now. If we keep going north, we can hopefully outrun the coldest. But again, this land is new to me, so I don't know how bad things can get. So you're saying that we should probably head out tomorrow? In the morning, yes. Okay. I suppose we have everything we need. There's no sense to stay here any longer. Well, as we...

Decided to go onward. I'm going to drop all of my coin. Unless anyone wants it. It's useless in this land. Scrim, are you alright? I don't know. And you can keep that fishing tackle. I don't need it.

How much space does it take? One slot. Oh, son of a gun. You can also... I think I should be able to catch enough fish. You did a great job. No, it's very important that I help you fish every day. I'm going to keep my fishing tackle.

I was just hoping that maybe it was a fraction of the slot. Depending on how much coin you've got, we don't know if whatever town we visit up north is going to have some kind of... They're going to use currency. Getting rid of all of it does not sound like a good idea if we do make our way to a town where there are people who could provide us food and equipment and hospitality.

for coin. My coin pouch is really light. I followed, uh, your near's tip here and only got two platinum and we're paid out. So if you want me to hold on to your coin, I can do it. Cause I'm not letting my two platinum go. Well, that's a good point. Could I give you my coins and it would mechanically only just take more, take up more of that one slot. And I just clink my little coin birds and you just hear the two platinum clinking against each other. Let me see how much.

- I have 20 platinum? There's no way that's right. - I have 20 platinum as well. - Oh shit. - I think you have 20 platinum as well, not two. - Well, I got 20 platinum pieces. - What the hell? - Did I give everyone 200 gold to start? - Yeah. - You took out 20 platinum? - Yes. - There it is. - Oh, so wait, how many slots would that be? 'Cause I got 20 platinum too. - So it's 100 points per slot. - Oh, so it only has one slot. - So it's only one slot. - I only have, yeah, that's 100 points. - But if we combined it, that would still be...

- This would be 20, 40, 60 between the three of us. - Okay. - I wrote down 27 gold.

Yeah, you got 27 gold pieces. Did you spend some of your gold during the adventure at some point? Yeah, maybe. It's possible. It's very in character to buy 170 gold worth of tea. Take my coin. 20 platinum pieces and then I have 7 gold pieces and 5 silver pieces. I have 17 gold. And I'll just drop them on the ground and leave them there.

Oh yeah. So add 20. So I'm just gonna clear my inventory of coins. Yeah, me too. Me too. And so why don't you tell me how much coins in total? Because Queenie will go and just pick up those little pieces. Okay, so I'm giving you 20 platinum pieces. Okay, so hold on. This is real D&D, folks. This is real D&D, folks. These are the kinds of conversations you have in a survival situation. Learning to rely on each other and trust each other to keep a ledger, even.

And then gold wise? I have seven gold pieces. I have 17 gold pieces. I have 27 gold pieces if you want that. And four silver and eight copper. I'm gonna leave the silver and the copper. Okay, I'm leaving, then I'm just dumping the five silver. Wait, can you take 27 gold pieces? Probably. Nice. Nice, nice, nice.

So just mechanically, I can carry one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ten slots of food. Okay. I got three or things. Do you like a piece of pike? Or things, yeah. I can carry eight for real this time. Actually, I can carry eight. Checkmate. We have enough to fill up. I technically don't have to keep the brutal blade on me. No. No. No, Briggsie doesn't.

I have seven spare slots. Oh, I should probably check and see if I can carry some fish. I just don't want to. But if you're at capacity and you summon it, you just fall. Yeah. My arm would break. It'll just snap my arm. You pick up the spoon and go...

- And all of a sudden you can't move at all. - It's literally Skyra. - Oh yeah, Roman, we haven't gotten around to adding to the website. - And you don't wanna be. - It's only been a year and a half. - Wait, we have a website?

We do. Right. But we don't want to be at max capacity, right? Because max capacity is bad. No, no, it's past max capacity. It can go up to your stone core. Yeah, so if your slots is 20 and you are carrying 20 slots worth of things, it's when you get to 21 that you're over-concovered. All right. It's not meet it and beat it.

I could carry three. Okay. It should come as no surprise to you that you are once again visited by the light this evening. As you're counting coin, you look down and you see the familiar blue reflection as the light creeps through the doorframe, and you know that you could go out and perhaps share a story. They're back. It's our old friend. It's almost comforting in a weird way.

Ain't it? The Netherlands magic. Isn't it? It feels. Minus that weird rhino thing. It just kind of weirds me out that we tell these stories about things that actually happen and somehow things change. But, like, to be fair, in your story, the rhino saved you. That's true. It did. That's a great point, Miss March, which I can't square. I've been thinking about it ever since last night.

In my memory, this creature was in dire need of assistance. It was trapped in the guts of that fish, and then in yours, it was a savior. Savior from Graveyard Jack. So, you know, I'm just a little old rabbit from Backwoods, but I do have a little bit of wisdom here and there. What if these lights are some kind of manifestation of some ancient being, and it's telling us in these stories how we can help it?

Or how it can help us. Maybe you're supposed to help it and it's supposed to help you. Just like Mr. Yornear said, the road of the gods, perhaps it's a god that is walking along that bridge. Exactly right. Maybe try burying the coin. Oh no, I've tried that. Have you tried getting rid of it since we've been here? Well, I guess technically no. Maybe I'll just leave it behind tomorrow. He's worth the shot.

That's a great idea, Mr. Stavaskatch. Anything could happen with this visitor. Queenie, would you like to tell us your story? Well, my story isn't near half as cool as either one of theirs, so if you're in for more of a sad tale and nothing more, then...

Sure. You're welcome. Change of pace. I didn't like scrims. This was very scary. Yeah, you were shaking in your boots. I've come to find I don't like cemeteries. Or graveyards. Or graveyards. Church or no church to me.

You know, that made me think. If there's a church at a graveyard and it gets burnt down, and then there's no church anymore, does it continue to be a graveyard or is it a cemetery now? Oh, you think it gets grandfathered in. What does that mean? The graveyard status. It's kind of like the... So it stays a graveyard. I would say so. What's the difference between a ghost and a spirit? Well... Depends on your beliefs. Malevolence. Oh.

- What is your culture's belief about the dead? - I don't know. - The lights are still on. - Miss March, perhaps lead us out into the cold where we might share a story. - All right, well, if we're gonna go out in the cold, I want you to close your eyes, but keep them open a little bit so you don't trip and fall to your death. And I want you to imagine something. - All right.

Mountains off in the distance. Green sprinkled with pink and yellow flowers and big trees, tall as you can see. The sun shining down on a beautiful valley. You can see the wind rushing through the grass. A small little farm town. There's no delay. As soon as Queenie starts speaking these words describing her, um...

Hometown's a fine way of, yeah, your home, where you came from, your region of the world. Your village. The blue immediately shifts into a beautiful sunflower yellow. The wind blows through the grass. Your eyes linger on a small little house just maybe 300 feet from the edge of a beautiful, pristine forest at the base of the mountains.

And there, right on the porch, you see my mom and my pa in their rocking chairs enjoying their breakfast for the morning. The kids outside running through the yard, picking flowers, playing ball, laughing. That was my life, and that was my life for many, many years. I get older and start tilling the farms with my dad, learning the ways of the carrots and the taters and

As she mentions this bear.

The yellow sunflower curtains swim down and that doubling experience happens. You're standing out in the middle of the cold. You should be freezing to death. But that warm, beautiful, sweet air that you can almost imagine when Queenie started her story hits you as if you are breathing it, as if you are living in this beautiful town, the town of Foxbridge.

and it's Queenie's childhood. You are sitting on the floor. You still have your adult bodies. Queenie is very young, and she's listening to one of perhaps the first times that she'd ever heard this tale. And looking up, you can see this is Queenie's mother. She's sitting down, and she's tending to the fire, and she's telling this very story.

Now once upon a time there was a young rabbit folk kids named Harleen and Gregson. One time night they got up to no good, got into trouble, and her folks sent them to their rooms without supper. Harleen and Gregson weren't the brightest kids, neither. No, in fact they were both about ten copper short of a silver piece.

That night they sneaked out of that house and went into the woods looking for something to eat. Mama, wouldn't it be snuck? They snuck out. You sure are smart. She leans down and gives you a little rustle between your ears and a kiss. Love you, Mama. That night they snuck, thank you, Queenie, out of the house and went into the woods looking for something to eat. Berries or nuts or anything that would put an end to their growling tummies.

Of course, it wasn't long before they found themselves lost, wandering about the forest with no bearing, looking just for food, and they had no way of knowing which way was home. Then it seems as though fate smiled upon them, for they came upon a beehive hanging from a branch, and they could tell even in the night that it was full of honey.

Gregson, who like I said was only rowing with one oar, started throwing rocks and sticks up at the hive to see if they could knock it down. There was a sudden movement, a shadow, and a crash. Bang! Gregson was gone. He had been taken by the evil thing in the forest, a cruel spirit of the woods that can appear and vanish in an instant.

Harleen tried to run, didn't get too far. When she finally saw the beast, she stopped dead in her tracks. Paralyzed with fear as she was, the spirit revealed itself to her as an enormous vicious bear. She took her last breath, but before she could even scream out, the bear gobbled her up in one whole bite. There were no survivors.

Children, remember the story of Harleen and Gregson and why you should never venture out past the tree line. Understand? Yeah, Mama. Why don't bears like bunnies? If I knew the answer to that, we might be much farther along in life. I can't tell you for sure. All right, Mama.

You all are in the shoes of Queenie, but you're inspired almost like kids in this moment. You feel just like you are surrounding Queenie in this story. Queenie, there would have been friends sitting around you. You've heard this story told by your mom the same way hundreds of times it would feel like. Mama, can we sing the song, You Know the One?

I sure do. You want to start it? Can we sing it? Come on, Mama, please! I sure am tired. I think it's about time. Mama! Now, I already done told you a story, and you gotta clean up your ears, behind your ears, and clean your teeth before you go to bed. I might not be convinced the forest is so bad without that song, Mama.

Well, why don't you hum it a little? I can't remember how it starts. Shit.

You can say gloan for this. My brain racing. There's this classic story of an improv class where one of the great improv teachers of all time, he taught like Mike Myers and the rest of Second City, was asked like, what's the worst thing you can do in improv? And he was like, here, read this.

Sure enough, your mom, convinced by your persuasive and young, cute rabbit folk wiles, starts to hum, and then you join in song together. Get out! Run! Get out! Get out! Get out!

You sing the song and it gets softer and softer. And that same yellow curtain blows through the story. You feel as though you live this entire childhood with these two loving parents until about the age of 15 you find Queenie. And it's here that you find yourself in the farm.

A combination of farm and garden might be more appropriate for this is where Queenie's family grow these giant carrots. You would be very familiar with them having lived this story. These huge green stalks that poke out of the ground and being able to lift them out. These carrots are not carrot size. These are giant carrots the size of tree boughs. And

This year, unfortunately, however, they're not doing so well. The brilliant, vibrant green of this crop has been tarnished. It's browned and black in some places. And you can see webbed right around where the head of these carrots meets the earth, there's this sticky,

thick ergot, this mold that almost like a spider's web has clung to the surface of these carrots and pulling them out they already seem decayed, dying, not edible. And it's Queenie and her family are looking down at what should be this fall's bounty and despairing. There's very little to live off of this winter.

Well, I don't know what happened when it's never happened before. It's not your fault, Paul. There's not much you can do about it. I heard from Sally Jean the other day. We were just spending some time picking flowers and she was saying that it's happening to farms all across the land. It's not just you, Paul.

Well, there's something rotten going on. I don't know how we're going to live. There's nowhere... We can't communicate or make it all the way to the other rabbit folk communities in Yonah. We can't make it that far. We have to survive on our own. Well...

I'm okay with having half of what I normally have to make sure we can spread it out among everyone else. Well, you sure are sweet, Queenie, but you still got growing to do. I'm not comfortable with that. Well, then let me take extra shifts pulling the carrots out and you get some more rest, Pa. We'll both take an extra shift today. We'll see if we can make it through this and perhaps things will be better tomorrow. You can lean on me, Pa. I'm here.

I thank you, Queenie. I love you so much. I love you, Pop. We've got this. That night, after a double shift, you remember taking the circumstances into your own hand, into that if someone was going to solve this, that it should be you, and that

made you think of what options are possible. What could you do to solve this problem? And in your hours of pulling carrots, you remember looking up at the mountains and seeing, well, the tanner, browner mountains look sort of like the carrot tops, look sort of like the tree line, but very, very faintly, very far, right on the horizon, seems lushly green. Perhaps...

Perhaps there's an end to this or something that's preventing this blight from affecting those woods. You know, I reckon, based on the way the forest look, whatever's gotten into our land hasn't made it all the way up there. I know Mama says I gotta be afraid of that bear, but Pa was just looking so broken today. I gotta do what I can to help him. I'm fast. I'm on the edge of 15 now. I could run away from a bear.

If I could just get some soil and bring it back, I could fix the land for Pa. You know what? Gotta try it. Promised I was gonna help you, Dad. And I am gonna.

And he watches Queenie fills up her pack with a little bit of rations, some carrot seeds, a jar for some soil, and tosses it over her shoulder and sneaks through the house. And she will sneak into her parents' room and quickly give them a kiss on either one of their cheeks. I love you, Mom. I love you, Pa. Promise I'll be back. Promise.

She hops out of the room, climbs out of her window, and darts off into the night. Before you are carried along this journey, you still feel a level of agency. Talking to Queenie, you could do. Being able to take different actions, but you can see that Queenie is...

in this deja vu and ready to relive it as is, one for one. And this is exactly what she's saying in the moment of storytelling matches this dreamy memory-like quality of the vision that you're experiencing thanks to the magic of these lights. And you make your way through the woods. It's late fall, starting to get cooler, and it has

surprises all four of you, not just that she bravely and stoutly makes her way through a dark night wood path, crooked gnarled trees bearing down the sound of wolves in the dead of night also hustling around, but that she eventually makes her way to and safely through to a

something like a glaive, like a beautiful moonlit glaive, the shaft of light coming down from the moon illuminates it beautifully. What do you remember about this particular moment? - As Queenie was walking through the dark parts of the forest to keep herself from being afraid, she would have looked down. Good evening twig, good evening plants, good evening wolf.

And then eventually she makes her way through the underbrush. Wow. Good evening, Glade. Look at you. You're quite the beaut. And she'll just look around and it looks like middle of the night and it is so filled with the light of the moon that it almost looks as if it's high noon.

the way that the light sparkles and shines. It's a kind of beauty that Queenie's never seen a day in her life. Otherworldly, some might say. It's just as Queenie describes, you are looking at it. And the glade is lush with life. There isn't a single...

desaturated color. Every green is the greenest green, every pink, every yellow, every purple. There's a cottage on one end of the glaive with a small bridge that crosses a beautiful little creaky stream and an overabundance of flowers in all directions hanging from the windows surrounding the cottage and the ground. You can see this glorious, beautiful garden off to another side. And it's quiet, but you can hear this creaking.

this rocking and whistling um coming faintly from the cottage just uh on the other side of this glade and as queenie is looking around almost mesmerized by this glade that she's found herself in the her ears twitch and perk up as she hears the creaking of the rocking chair and she looks over and sitting in it is a large bear man and for a moment

Queenie is shocked and scared. This has to be the man that her mother told her stories about from the time that she... from her earliest memories. But this is far too beautiful and far too good to be bad. And he sits there rocking, whittling away at a piece of wood as he whistles, and there's nothing about him that seems evil.

And knowing what she needs to do, knowing that this, whatever this glade is, is what's causing the forest around it to look so lush and to not be hindered by the burget that's overtaken her farm. She hikes up her britches. She steps out of the thicket of the trees. She says, Excuse me, Mr. Bear. My name is Queenie March.

I've traveled here over quite a few miles at this point. I'm 15 years old or at least on the edge of it, I'm not quite sure. And I need your help. Leave me be. I wish to be alone. Go away. I don't know how... It's the middle of the night. Leave. You don't look like you're sleeping. Stay out of my garden, girl. Just go, little one.

I don't want nothing to do with your garden, but I need your help. How do you make this place look so nice? Why are you affected by the ergot that's killing all of our plants? - I'm not about to, you know, why, you, the absolute gall. - The what? - The gall. - Like a seagull? - I'm sitting here in peace and quiet trying to carve up, just whittling and whistling. Why are we come here?

Urgot's gotten our plants, Mr. Bear. I saw that the forest weren't affected by it and it led me here and I was hoping that whatever you're doing to keep your plants looking so beautiful you could give me that knowledge so I could save my family. You can't just come up and ask for my...for my...for what I know, for what I possess, for all of it. You're not gonna eat me, are you? I hadn't planned on it. That's what I thought.

You don't want to help me either, do you? I want you to get out of my garden! Go home! Well, I ain't going home, but I'll get out your garden. I'm gonna be right over there. I'm on the edge of 15 and I can't promise that even if you won't eat me, the wolves won't, but I'll be right there, right outside of your property. If you decide you want to help me, I'll be right there and hear those wolves calling out in the middle of the night. I'll be right there.

"But if you do want to help me, I'll be right there!" And Queenie turns around, looks back at the bear, then walks and sits immediately right on the opposite side-- or right outside of his property line. The bear gets out of his rocking chair, puts down his tools and the piece that he was working on, stands, goes to his cottage door, and closes the door, leaving you completely empty.

"Goodnight, wolves. I don't think you're gonna eat me. I really hope you're not." "Goodnight, grass. Goodnight, moon." You hear the door creak just a little bit. And Queenie begins to start making a bed out of the moss and the grass and slowly nestles down into it, puts her head down and with her eyes just slightly open, she stares at the door and eventually falls asleep.

The four of you see that bear head as Queenie goes to sleep, peek out, and then morning comes. And Queenie, you remember waking to amazing magical sight as the garden came to life with all of these flowers in all directions suddenly buzzing.

You could see this army of bees in all directions and they're working on pollinating all of these beautiful flower faces, getting in there and then flying back to their home and then coming back for another round. And though you don't see the bear, he doesn't seem to come out, they themselves manifest and carry a pot of what you find to be honey.

It is delivered to you by this battalion of small bees working together in concert, and you feel that your prayers have been answered by the mysterious and ornery bear man. Well, good morning, bees. Am I supposed to do with this what I think I am? Boo!

And the bees dance around and form the shape of the word yes in the air. And Queenie nods. All right, bees, I'm picking up what you're laying down. And then Queenie will stand up, pack up all of her stuff and attach the honeypot to her side. And as she turns to leave, she'll turn around and

you weren't a bad person. I just knew it. I felt it in my soul. And if this fixes my family's problem, this won't be the last you see of me. We're going to be friends someday. I'm telling you right now. Remember my name, Queenie March. Promise you won't come back now. No can do. Have a good morning, Bear. Bye. And Queenie will march off into the forest and head home.

She does. And in a flash of brilliant sunflower yellow, you see the application of the honey. You see Queenie convincing the neighboring families to accept the honey. It came from the bear, but it's totally safe. And some agree and others don't. But those who do, the ergot is magically and miraculously disappear almost overnight. They...

Even the decaying carrots seem to be refreshed and brought back to their full and glorious carrot-y goodness. And Queenie saves her family, at least, from the danger of the coming winter. How do you make the decision that you make now? Time passes, and it's not long, but a lot of the people in town had a lot of horrible things to say about the day.

no matter what Queenie did, no matter what she tried to say. The stories that had been perpetuated over decades had clouded their minds. And though Queenie knew that this person was just misunderstood, there was nothing she could do to make them see otherwise. And she realized that her family didn't need her help anymore. But there was a lot to learn from this bear. And there was a lot that he could learn from her and she could learn from him. And she wanted to know what life was like outside of her

outside of her comfort zone. And so one night she sat down at dinner and had a conversation with her mom and pa and it wasn't easy, but they trusted her and she decided she was going to attempt to make peace with this bear. And all she could think about was how happy her life was with her family and that this bear was out in the woods alone, so alone that he wasn't even willing to accept friendship when it showed up on his doorstep.

And that to her was a fate worse than death. And so with her parents' permission and the promise that at least once a month she returned for a family dinner, she makes her way back out into the forest and back out to the Glade.

Your mother and father tearfully say goodbye. Your mother, having made for you your 16th birthday present, gives it to you prematurely, knowing that you've made this choice. They trust in you, and you receive a broad-rimmed hat that you'll wear for many years to come. The journey through the forest is not precarious or dangerous, and when you get there, it takes a long time.

before you even learn the bear's name, before he starts to warm up to you. It could be maybe even a year of determination and persistence of sleeping on the front porch and then finding a blanket wrapped around you, of finally finding accommodations inside the cottage. Eldred, the bear who was

was able to curate and provide this magical honey starts to take Queenie under her wing, his wing, and teach her about the woods, about the bees, about the plants and the fauna, the flora. What would you tell your friends about the next seven years? So almost like a

A movie montage passes as you've seen Queenie make her way back to the Glade. And for a week, she sleeps outside of the perimeter. And then she wakes up and she's inside of the perimeter. And she hadn't moved herself there, but that's where she wakes up. Another couple of weeks. It's warmer on this side of the, if you just sit up. Another couple of weeks pass and she finds herself on the porch when she wakes up in the morning.

then with a blanket over her and eventually in a bed in a room she had never seen inside of this house. Eventually she wakes up one morning and finds a second rocking chair next to his rocking chair with its own little wood whittling station. As a couple of years pass, they get to know each other and he's a little hard headed at times, but Queenie softens him up and they get to know each other really well.

And their life, you just watch as he teaches her to hunt, he teaches her to grow food, he teaches her to sew, to whittle wood, to crack the arrows. Here's how to clean a kill. Here's how to live in the forest all on your own. To mend a broken wind or a bone, should you ever happen to come across that trauma. Here's how to deal with this type of danger, should this happen to you. You can be prepared by doing this. The other thing.

And eventually, he begins to trust her enough that he starts to tell her of his past and why he's so alone. That the... He had a wife once, and they had come to this land from the Feywild, from Berheim, and she wanted to plant flowers, fey flowers, all over the world of Abantris. And they traveled for many, many, many years. And one day, she passed.

And his heart was broken. He couldn't imagine going back to Berheim without her, and he couldn't imagine continuing their travels without her. And so he came back to the place that was the closest he could get to home. He landed directly outside of the Fae Crossing that brought them to Evandris. And it was here in these woods that he set up this house. And they have their garden, but there is a small plot of land where he wants to plant her flowers, but he can't bring himself to.

No matter what he does, he can't plant those flowers because they're the only seeds that he has left of her. So every morning they wake up, they have their breakfast, they sit in their rocking chair, and they look out over the land and that small plot of tilled earth that he tills every single day and never plants those flowers. And that's when Queenie knows that they're not friends anymore. They're family. One morning, after having shared these seven years together, and you can

feel as though you've lived it. It's such a strange experience. If you've ever, in real life, woken up from a dream and felt like, man, I just lived 80 years, that's the feeling that you have about these visions that are being transported into you through not just the words that Queenie says, but by the very tactile living of them walking in her shoes. The morning that...

Queenie maybe fears most is the morning that is quietest. There is no buzzing, a sound that she'd grown very accustomed to and filled the air of this glade every day. The buzzing is itself silent this particular morning. It's still as beautiful as it ever was, as lush, but the flowers are not being tended to. The bees that sit on it just simply rock back and forth, looking. And it's that plot of soil

that Eldred talked about and refused to plant even though he kept it tilled that you look to right away because you have had this experience. And Eldred hasn't been in the best shape over the last few weeks. He's been starting to make arrangements for lack of a better term. And looking at the plot, you can see

This tiny little sprout has emerged up and out, and then just in front of it on the path, the cobblestone that leads to the bridge, there is an object and what appears to be a letter. You see as Queenie stares at that patch for, it feels like an eternity, realizing what it means. Her ears perk up and she listens, but there is no sound of Eldred. He's clearly left this place. He's reunited with his wife.

She sits down in his rocking chair. She puts on her boots and she puts on her pack and she fills it with what food there is. She closes the door and she makes sure everything is right as rain. She walks down that cobbled path and heads towards the object and the letter.

This time, you are doing this in a deja vu sense, and you have been in lockstep with your previous self. Deviations that may have happened in Barnabas's version of his story from the moment you said go, or in Scrim's story, you've been really true to the way that things have gone throughout the progression of this. But now, Queenie, you are walking forward, and you notice that it's different.

It's sprout is the same as you remember it, but the object, this beautiful, beautiful object that had been worked on for decades by Eldred, now complete, probably the most perfect thing that you've ever seen.

seen in your whole life that you've set it down and continued on your journey from there and then reading the letter addressed to you queenie in bear script on the front of the lettering opening it you remember the message for queenie don't let your sorrow stop you from traveling the way it stopped me we live on in you you remember that and you see that there is an envelope

but that the carved object is different. Is it a woolly rhino? It is. So where Queenie remembers there to be the beautiful carved form of a bear, the visual representation of Eldred's wife that he'd been working on since the day that she passed, that he'd left to her upon his death, where that once had stood on the cobblestone steps, is the carved effigy of a woolly rhino. What do you all do?

These climes don't agree with my allergies. Told you it wasn't gonna be a spooky one. It was just gonna be kind of sad. It's okay, Mr. Dreadwig. You can cry. I cried a lot. I'm crying right now. You just can't see it through my fur. This is not so bad of a change. A carved rhino? Yeah, but I wish you could have seen what Eldred made. It was beautiful.

Do you have it with you? No, I left it there. One day I'll return, that's my goal. I have her seeds, I'm planting them all over Vantress just like she wanted. Once I've planted them everywhere, I'm gonna return home, gonna pick up that little bear statue and anything else I can think, and I'm gonna head into the Feywild and I'm gonna retire there and tell their story for all the rest of my days.

You remember it was however long it would take for you to finally get together and decide to trek out from this glade to leave Freyba... Freybug. Um, to leave Foxbridge, uh, uh,

and truly start to travel, eventually finding your way to Yulon, to Wuzei, and to the companions that you find now. You remember that however long it took you to make that decision, it was as you left that the bees joined you, carrying a satchel of fey seeds with them to deliver onto your person. Aw, shucks. But we're not there yet. It's not that part of the story. You're stuck looking down. And...

There's just this small artifact of a woolly rhino, carved with dexterity, but not love. And the envelope. Did I read the letter already? You had recalled what it originally said. I would pick it up and read it to see if it was different. You pull it open, flip out the parchment, and you pull it open. And instead of lettering or words, there's an illustration. Okay.

The... I don't read pictures. What is this shit? It doesn't have any writing on it, but when you open it to see this fact, you are struck with a vision of your own. You don't just see the illustration of a mountain. You see the curved and pointed mountain, unusually thin and tall, tapering to a sharp peak. And you know...

You know what's at the top of that summit. A place of power and a fresh and frigid plot of land ready to be tilled. Does everyone else see that as well? They only see you look at an image of a mountain, but you have a little something something extra. I'll be goddamned. I know where I've got to plant these seeds here. I've been wondering how do you plant flower seeds in an icy tundra? Thanks, Eldred.

And in a flash of sunflower yellow, you all find yourself the next morning having enjoyed a short rest, Yornir and Taishan. Unbelievably awake and sleeping. But you have enjoyed a long rest, and so have you, Scrim, and so have you, Barnabas. That's a lot harder than it looked when y'all did it. That's all I gotta say.

That sure does pull at all of your, like, soul pieces and stuff. Well, I guess that means that settles it. That settles what? That we need to get off of this rock alive. I don't intend to die here. There's nothing... Nothing to go home to for me or Mr. Staviscosch, but there is for you. Well, I do have to say...

that if mom and pa ever meet either one of you you'll be like ken my home is your home anytime you want to come visit we have the best holidays and ma's oh my god scream he would love her carrot cake and sometimes when pa gets to it he laces it with scotch that's very kind of you to offer that's a very generous thing for you to say and i appreciate it

Well, we're all family now, right? I hope you get to meet him someday. I think you'd like him. And I know they'd like you. I think I would, too. I'd like that. I'm sorry about your bare friend. Death comes for everyone. It's sad, and I think of him all the time. He went peacefully, and I know what he wanted was to be with his wife. He's happy where he's at now.

He seems very wise. Yeah, well, he wasn't crotchety about something. Seems to me as though those last years would have been very different for him without you. I like to think so, too. He liked to tell me I was a pest, but I think he liked me. Well, I suppose it's very fitting with the rising of the sun. Yep. Nothing left for us here in this village. Well, thanks for going on that journey with me.

I thought I was gonna feel, I don't know, intruded upon, but I feel closer to you guys now. Let's take a page out of your good friend's book and begin to travel ourselves. I agree. Let's do it. It's the morning of, and it is a clear morning. You can see on the horizon that there is a...

cloud line starting to creep in, but you put your sledge on the path and you start to exit and pretty quickly you're no longer walking on cobbled rock and ground and earth adjacent to a river. Pretty soon you are once again walking on a surface of ice.

Let me just back up and make sure that everyone is comfortable that I'm pushing us forward, and you are entering the track. Barnabas would, whatever-- For the sake of brevity. When Yornir is not able to be a pack animal or a caribou, he will-- Given that it's only once per short rest, I would say Barnabas

Most of the time it will be you and me. What I expected, Mr. Urenir. Strap me in. I'm primitive. Why do you think I got a little bit more strength than a fancy reindeer, whatever you are? And we'll start pulling the sledge up the river.

Are you walking on the river surface or are you walking along the bedrock of the bed of the river? Do I, based on what I know... Edge. Is the river so frozen solid that there's zero risk of falling through? We're probably a sledge on the edge. Yeah, that's my... I'm on a sledge! I think that if you know about like moving water and all of that, it's not gonna be... It's never gonna be reliable enough probably.

We would presume that they went up the river. They have an actual boat. They have a sand skipper with rails. The trek for the first week after you leave the ruins of that settlement on the river are rather uneventful.

the weather comes back it's overcast so nights when you would normally have sat around the campfire are um uh spent in normal companionship uh you just have conversations looking up at the sky they're not opening up and suddenly lights are being revealed it seems that this is an occurrence that only happens when there isn't snow or weather or precipitation overcast clouds that sort of thing um

I assume that you are burning through the bonfire candles. That's our source of fuel for now. So I have the stones. I was also going to keep track of it in my notebook as well. Okay. Just to make sure we don't get confused. How many nights? It is the sixth night that the weather finally clears up. And for the sake of brevity, we will bypass the normal constitution favor.

- What's happened? - Just mark up the food. - Oh. - Yes. - Mark up the food. - You will need to start subtracting food again. You will subtract bonfire candles, and it's a combination of the fact that you are eating, and even though despite the cold, I will only make you roll one constitution saving throw for everyone.

- Do I need to roll yet? - DC is 10, you automatically succeed because you have cold resistance. - Did you say that it's 18 days or it's 18 individual portions of ration? - I believe that I have said that a portion of ration is a day of ration. So it is both 18 days and 18 portions. - No, I mean for the sledge? Is it 18 days or is it only? - It's 18 slots. That's how many things you can, that we're simulating with the numbers on the sledge, right?

And so you are taking off, oh, I see what you're asking. - Is it 18 individual portions or is it 18 days? - Yeah, am I crossing off five or am I using-- - One per day. - Yeah, five times six would be 30. - I think I can generously say that you are taking off one, you can remove six days. - Okay, perfect. - And I'll still be able to get you in trouble.

Okay. Six days. And I have seven food on me as well. I know that's fine. So once you run out of the sleds, we can figure out your-- Yeah, yeah. Well, I figure once we-- Well, what we could do is we took six off of there, so you could take the three out of my pack and add them there. You get what I'm saying? Well, since we're doing days on these slots, we don't want to basically mix and match about the slots, because Derek has been very generous.

I mean, I gave you guys a bucket of lard to eat. Me and like an angel playing like a devil. That was ten days worth, so yeah. That's how I made my carnitas, was with lard. But sure enough, this particular evening, it is finally a cloudless sky, and you look up, hopefully, optimistically, and it is later than usual, but...

glimmer of blue, a single strand, and then another serpent or a curtain weans in and merges with that one and combines this beautiful display of a show of light emerges crossing the entire sky, obscuring the stars coming from over and behind the mountains all the way to the horizon to the west. You are sitting around the campfire and you know it may be time to share perhaps another story.

I'll look between Scrim and then Queenie, and I'll look at your ear for like a millisecond. And then I'm gonna look at Clay Shen. Mr. Foyerblossom? Well, I suppose I could.

Is your story miserable and depressing or terrifying or... Yeah, I don't really want to cry. I'm not really in the mood. Yeah, but is yours perhaps... Perhaps I'm asking a little too much, but is yours a little bit more uplifting? I think mine is actually quite nice. Start talking. Comparatively. Well, where to begin?

I'm from the Jade Shell Village. None of you have ever been there, I'm sure. I've never been anywhere else. I think I planned to fly over there once. Oh, well. So I suppose it's possible. It's really not possible. Shrouded in mist, can't get there. Kai Chen reveals that the Jade Shell Village was in what they called his community, his...

culture called the Valley of the Setting Sun. It was beautifully surrounded by these tall, craggy mountains covered in lush green foliage. And beyond them was a mist, a veil, that surrounded the entire outskirts of this large swath of land. Beautiful, bountiful, lush greenery in all directions, and tea fields, certainly.

But they never were visited upon by strangers. They were an entirely enclosed and self-sustaining settlement. Oh, you're right. That was J. Jail Village. Completely different place.

So there I was. What was it like in your earliest memories? If you were to tell Taishan's story, how would you begin to tell the world of what it was like to grow up in Jade Shell? It's hard to find a word to describe Jade Shell Village other than paradise. Everything was great. People were

It was everywhere. It was community. We took care of each other. We laughed. We lived with the animals. It was beautiful. What's the catch? No catch. Sure enough, as he's saying, no catch. The

Shift of blue transforms to this unbelievably deep, beautiful red, very similar to the red of the campfire coals that you're looking at or of a sunset. And the curtains start to swing and swim down. And you brace yourself to be passengers on the journey of somebody's life, the journey of Taishan in the protected gold dragonborn village of

of the ballet of the setting sun, Jade Shell. Well, I suppose, Barnabas, for a man of adventure such as yourself, you may think there is a catch. For me, I couldn't ask for anything more than where I came from. I loved my family, the people that were there, my tea shop, award-winning tea. You've sampled it yourself. I like getting horny. You might find a...

Lack of sea monsters to hunt. That's a catch. It'd be a mark against it, but for us, it's kind of nice. You're transported, and you're still listening to the story as Taishen begins to recall it. Little details, broad strokes, but now you're standing in the middle of a tea field. These beautiful, large, lush bushes with their many leaves, and a much younger Taishen standing there between the rows of this tree.

almost orchard-like field, picking each delicate leaf and capturing it, making sure that they'll be ready to ripen or be dried or processed, depending on what her desired outcome of the product is wanting to achieve, whether it will be nourishing and reflective, or whether the tea will be

bring you energy and start you up for the day. All of these thoughts are running through Taishen's mind as you look around and you are enveloped by the beauty, the absolute stunning golden light of the sky, the mists flowing up and around almost like a dome of protection around this beautiful space. And it's just Taishen and the four of you standing in these rows.

That feeling of deja vu Taishan strikes you and you suddenly realize what a strange experience it must be to be, um...

in the center stage, in the spotlight of what the light is providing because you remember the smell. You are saturated with the serenity of this space and you can breathe the fresh tea leaves. You feel your younger body that you are inhabiting now. What day is it? Where are you in your story? Your childhood, your teenage years are almost behind you, but...

What particular day do you recall? And as it occurs to you, you're still surprised and shocked by what happens next, which is the voice of Mei Ling jumping out from behind Mei Li, jumping out from behind one of the bushes.

- Ah! - Mei Li! - Taishan, Uncle Taishan, hi! - And a young golden dragonborn runs out from between the bushes and immediately grabs onto Taishan's waist. - What are you doing out here, Mei Li? - I thought I'd come help before we went to the tea shop to serve tea. - Oh, what a special morning it is. - Who are your friends? - I look at Barneyboast, my eyes are wide, I'm like,

Taishen, this is better. Stay as heartwarming as it is presently. She looks and she immediately looks at all four of you with intelligent eyes as if it doesn't matter that you're strangers. The fact that you're with Taishen means you're already trusted friends. And she immediately looks at each one of you. Where did the pig come from?

- The pig? - No, I was talking to your friends, Uncle Pig. - You're the pig. - Wow. - She really savaged you there, Tyshen.

You're right, this is paradise. You're super smart. Thank you. My name is Melee. What's yours? My name is Queenie March, but you can call me Queenie. Hi, Queenie. I'm Melee. Hi, Melee. You're taller than I am. Look at that. Oh, yeah. And she does a Superman pose and stares at you for a moment. It's like, we got to get to the tea shop. Yes, but first, a game. You see this one?

He's extremely good with his hands. Oh, I don't know. I don't know. He was just saying, as I was talking about you before you came up, that he thinks he could pick twice as much tea as you before morning brew. Well, yeah, of course. I'm pretty good. I'm pretty quick. Bet not. Well, there's only one way to find out.

He grabs your teabag that you've been using, the satchel that's hanging around over your shoulder, and immediately puts it on. You're on! Let's go! All right, ready? Go! And you guys start to race forward. Make a...

Straight dexterity competition. Oh, I let her just run off. I don't even try. I like pick, like, I'm like, I don't even know what T looks like. I like pick, I like pick.

It's a weave. I'm not even gonna roll. I just let her go. She turns her back and she's on one of these bushes and she's... She looks back at me, I weave my one leaf. I got one. You're gonna lose. Yeah, no. Please, I'm hyping. This is awful. Why are my hands in?

I won! She's tea, this is she. Oh wow, look at that, unbelievable. You're not very good at this. Never could have seen that coming. You want to play another game?

Yes, I love games. Uncle Pig, I bet you can't beat me to the shop. And she turns and she dashes and disappears through the bushes. I chase off after her. As soon as you take a step, you realize that when she hugged you, she tied your shoelaces together and you fall straight down into the hard pack. Oh!

I laugh, face in the ground, and just say, Mei Li, you incorrigible prankster. Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha!

And in a red curtain, you all flash, and you're in the tea shop that your family has owned for generations, that you are in behind the bar. And Taishen, for a moment, you are all alone. This is the first time, perhaps, in one of your visions where you are genuinely without the passengers that would normally be with you. And you...

You remember this particular morning as being somewhat different. This is not the same moment that you would have raced Meili to. You would have... This was perhaps a few months later from that wonderful memory of her mischievous prankfulness. This is the morning that Meili is missing and does not come to work on time.

What are you doing? You better not mean it. That particular morning. Also, do you recall the name of your tea shop? I do, yeah.

Okay, that's all. I just wanted to say, should you say welcome to blank, that you'd be able to say it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would be at the bar fixing tea, potentially going through a ritual of washing one of the teapots and prepare it for a new brew to kind of cleanse it out of anything that was in before. But starting to wonder...

Where Mei Li is? Yes. That's weird. She would be here by now. It was as these thoughts were occurring to you that the first customer of the morning arrived. It's early, and you've finished just barely your preparations for the morning rush. And in your original memory, and as you were telling the story, you remember that this was the morning that Chun Ho showed up. He was...

full of doubt. He had just told the girl that he liked that he wanted to meet with her and she'd agreed, but he was terrified that she was lying or that she wouldn't show or that something would happen. But instead, you turn to greet this customer as the bell rings and Barnabas walks in. Barnabas, you are full. Give it a game. Laughter

Welcome to the Serenity! Oh, Barnabas, my friend. You are full of doubt in this moment. Mr. Fireblossom. Barnabas. I don't think I can do this. What weighs on you? What I'm saying is that my... You know what we talked about? No. You're a terrible listener. I've never been accused of that before. I'm going to...

I'm sorry? I'm supposed to meet with you-know-who. No, I hope you know you. This is your memory, not mine. Barnabas is leaning in and being like, I think I'm someone else in this moment. This is very strange, but I am full of doubt. And you remember how you remedied Chun-Ho's doubts in that moment. What possible solution could you have in a tea shop? I can't go through with it. You're the surest man I know.

I know. I can, I'm fine going toe to toe with the Leviathan, but I get nervous around girls. Please. Enjoy a cup of calming tea. And by the time you're at the bottom of it, all will be right again. So I'll be calm when she rejects me? She won't reject you. Of course she will. Everyone always does. Oh,

No one has rejected you. And no one will. Not in Jade Shell. Enjoy your tea. All right. Perhaps this magic tea that will make sure that she finds me very attractive. And charming and heroic. Yeah, it's really good. Drink the tea.

- And as soon as you take a sip, Kysha's like, you fucking. - It's like the goddamn tea. - You take a sip and it nourishes you and you feel your doubts washed away. Who knows what might come in the future, but why doubt? Why not face it with an open heart? Because perhaps what is best is to be ready

for anything, and to have confidence in oneself. And you leave the unnamed tea shop in this moment. You said it was a Serenity! Feeling the wisdom of Taishen's words and the unbelievable medicinal aspects of the quality of this tea being what it is. I suddenly...

Worked through all of my abandonment trauma. All because of a cup of tea. Who would have thought all it took was stopping by this tea shop? Taishan, you are a miracle worker, lad. The power of the serenity. Thank you for stopping by. Oh, thank you for having me, Mr. Fireblossom. I'll be back this time tomorrow. It was truly my honor.

I hope so, and this better not turn into some horrible invasion. If Meili does not show up, I swear I will kill everyone in this village and then myself. Good day, sir!

And I will leave. The confident Barnabas I know. So I fucked up as a DM, is what I will say. I should have made your near doubt, and Barnabas, you were actually anger, so you guys are going to play reverse roles, and I just want to prepare you. I thank you for giving me this opportunity. For carrying your development and rage.

- It's working really well, but-- - Keep it in the game, Derek. - Yeah, I had to tap into an unknown side of myself, yeah. - That being said, as you leave, another gentleman enters, and you remember, Taishan, that this was when Wen showed up, and he couldn't stop talking about the fear he had, not fear, the despair that he had, thinking that the peace in the valley has been going on for centuries, and that it would,

It only is another day before it ends, before it's all over, before everything turns horrible, before the mist disappear and this protected, golden, wonderful utopia is destroyed. He is full of this deep level of despair, and when you turn to see the door open, it does in fact open, but you can't see the person who walks in over the countertop. Scrim, you've...

All you can see is the top of a hat approach the tea bar. Welcome to the Serenity. You are full of despair in this moment. Oh no. Scrim, is that you? Oh, Taishan, oh buddy. No, no, no, we're doomed. No, come on up to the counter. I can't see over it.

Well, we have seats. All right, give me a minute. Oh, no. Please, let me fix you a cup of tea. What's happened? What ails you so? Oh, hi, hi.

- It's just, it's all over. It's been peaceful for so long. I mean, how can this possibly keep going on? It can't, I'll tell you, it can't. It's going to end at any moment. - Scrim, where is this coming from? - We're all gonna die! We're all gonna die alone and naked the way we came into this world is how we're going out. - I've never known you except anything

Boundless hope! That doesn't sound anything like me! That's the scrim I've always known, from the pits of prison, where we escaped together off the back of your ideas. If you had lost hope in that moment, we would be in the ground.

We're gonna die. We're gonna die. It's all over. Drink the tea? Do you have any brandy? I could put some peppers in it. Hating with an alcohol content? It's just tea. It doesn't really... It'll help.

- Tai-Zhen, you go back and you think about the tea that you've set in front of him. It's the wrong tea for this moment. You pull out what you think would be right for scrim in this moment. A slightly different combination. You pull these particular leaves. You know the steep it for two minutes and not one. It needs to be slightly stronger.

You let it pull in, and as despairful as Scrim is, you set down what you think is going to be the right solution. No! No! Scrim? No. Scrim? What? Take this. This is exactly what you've asked. What's the point? The point is to enjoy life. Oh, all right. Bottoms up.

- It's hot and spicy. - Why are you warming? We're talking about it, we have no hope.

And yet, as the fire makes its way down your esophagus, as it enters your chest, you're not focused on despair anymore, you're focused on raw pain.

You realize that there's fight in you yet. If you can feel this level of pain, that you are alive and that there is still fire in you. That's right. Not just in your mouth and in your stomach, but in your spirit. And you leave the tea shop. You know what, Ty Ken? This has been really good. I'm a little worried.

I'm not going to happen later when I come down the other end. But, you know, I feel the fire in my heart. I knew that was the one for you. All right, I'm leaving. In this moment, the door jingles a second time. Almost immediately, as soon as the door closed, it opens again. In turn, expecting to see Jiang.

who you recall was afraid, afraid for his son, Woojin, that he was growing up dishonorably, that he puts his ambitions ahead of family and health, and that he's not doing what's right for himself and for his family, for his community, that he's on the wrong path. But when you turn, instead you see two floppy ears start to make their way towards the tea bar, and you recognize this to be your friend Queenie. So...

I just want to make sure I understand this. So this person is afraid of what? Afraid in general and afraid of... This particular person was afraid for their family, but in this moment, as with Barnabas and with Scrim, you're very much a representation of this aspect. Who's that? Who the fuck was that? I hear you back there. Where the fuck... Oh, I'm talking. It's just me.

I don't know, maybe some water is running? I don't know. How are you? You better not have left the water on. I mean, I could check now if it would... Why don't you sit on up at the bar? Do you hear that? Tyshan, is there someone standing behind me right now? No. Are you sure I can feel its breath on my neck, Tyshan? I'm so sure. Tyshan, look me in the eye right now. It's just me and you. I can feel its breath on my neck.

Queenie, where is this coming from? Behind me. That's just not the case. It's just not true. It's hot, wet, breath is on my neck. I'm going to reach back. I'm going to grab it, all right? Okay. Oh, it's gone. God, that fucker's fast. Oh.

This isn't exactly the problem you remember dealing with, but...

This is the adaptation of it. Suddenly a woolly mammoth kicks the door in. But it is a wild experience to know that as opposed to the foreign lands that you found yourself in, in Wuzay and on the sea and in Drakkar now, that here you've got all the tools to solve all your problems. Just behind you is a wealth of tea knowledge that

should you apply a pinch of this and a smattering of that that perhaps you might be able to resolve this fear what are you doing I'm getting you

Most delicious cup of tea you've ever had. You're not going to walk away, are you? You're not going to leave me here alone? I'm right at the bar. Right in front of you still. Because I can't look behind me right now. I've just turned from where I was. I've just turned. I haven't moved any additional distance from you to get the tea that's right visibly behind me that you can see.

And I'm crafting a perfect cup. Just keep telling me what you're doing right now. Okay. You keep your hands where I can see them. This is a little bit of fire magnolia. Is that poison you got in there? No, we don't carry that here. That wouldn't make any sense at the Serenity. All right. Okay, here we go. Some other stuff is in here, but it's not poison. Tashan, I need shut up. Did you hear that, Tashan? Queenie? Yeah? What are you afraid of?

There's something behind me. Queenie, when we-- I can hear it's heart beating. And it's actually my foot tapping in fear. Do you hear that? Oh my god, it's getting closer. It's getting faster, Tasha. Queenie, the only thing I hear is your foot tapping. Oh. It's going. Why don't you get your paws

You take a sip of that first. I ain't trying it. You ain't gonna fool me, Tash. It's not made for me. You don't have poison here. That's very offensive. Well, if you don't have poison, then you take a drink of it first to show me it ain't gonna kill you. Okay. Very offensive. Open your mouth. I see it's in there. Well, swallow it. Can you swallow? No, swallow with your lips open. I'd swallow. I'd swallow.

Something about this makes you feel with trust, even though you are full of fear. All right, I'll drink it. All right, but slowly. It is hot tea. Okay.

Well, I feel fine. Well, thanks for the tea, Tash, and I'll see you later. I'm going to turn around and walk out. You rocket through the door. You're the worst customer. Pew! Pew! Shrew! Shrew shuffled right out. Oh, no.

Okay. And as soon as she leaves, you find yourself alone again and you are reminded of the seriousness of this morning and the fact that Mei Li is still not shown up for work despite the fact that Morning Rush is gone. You've served three whole customers in this rush and

That's when the bell jingles and you look turning to see if Meili has come. No. - Meili? - It's not. It is... - Oh, it's Yorn. - It would have been Su-Jung. - Just come out of here. - Su-Jung was furious that his garden had been trampled by some kids at play the previous night. And he came in stomping around just full of fire in his belly.

really, really angry, ready to lash out at anything, ready to just wring his hands around those that he considered to be his enemies. - I can't wait for you to do it in your voice. - Yornir, the calmest person in the universe, definitely chose for this role play plot. - It's just a ball of rage. - It's a ball of rage. Slams the door open. - Welcome to the Serenity, oh.

You're in here. Hello, Taishan. Hello. Whoa, calm down. LAUGHTER LAUGHTER LAUGHTER LAUGHTER LAUGHTER LAUGHTER

Would you like to come up to the couch? I'm feeling very upset right now. Jon! Yes? What is weighing on you so? What is upsetting you? The scarlet rage that wells within my being. It's like pools of poison spilling from every orb of his might eating. I'm gonna throw up.

I cannot sustain it. You're showing off, Tyshen. This is the most upset you've ever been.

He's in-- he's in fury. A quiet storm ready to rain down. Peace for all things. Yorner, Yorner, my friend. Yes? I have never seen you so... with wild emotions.

Exploding out in every direction. I'm filled with loading. Please, please. I'm surrounded by... Have a seat. Yes. I should sit down, you're right. Yes, let me fix you something. While you tell me, what anger is you so? I'm surrounded by worthless beings. They believe that they are full of ability, but no, they do not.

They lack years and they lack experience and it makes me full of the rage of 10,000 suns. Which I cannot express properly. Scrim is the worst. Oh my god, he goes under my jaw!

"Short lived, with the experience of half his years, no wisdom at all. And the rest of them, you included, I guess. I hate your guts, Tygen."

You've heard this kind of angry talk before. And you know that when you're in this level of rage, when you're fighting this level of anger, you tend to say things just to hurt. That it's just about the fight and the rage itself, not about any particular thing. It's lashing out in all directions. And you remember it was exactly the same brew that you made Fu Yong about his garden. That would be the right remedy for this moment for Yorneir.

Jornir, please, take a drink of this. This resolves my unending fire within my being. No, that I think is permanent now. This is a permanent change from this memory. But this tea looks fine. If you're capable of it. Just remember, you are a force of the natural world.

Everything has its place and everyone their purpose.

Each sip soothes the savage beast, and you have an awareness now that that rage felt extremely unnatural, a little embarrassed perhaps even, but you are at peace now because this tea has done exactly what it intended to do, cleansed your soul of the malicious hate that you were filled with previously. - Oh, I shun. I feel.

Serenity. Oh, thank you. Your name, my friend. I'm glad you're back to yourself. That...

of emotions was so uncharacteristic. I don't have any money to pay for this. I'll admit. We actually don't use money in Chit Show Village. No. You don't.

Probably not. No, no. They would have come in for the tea and it was truly self-sustaining and almost utopia-like way. Coming in for a glass of tea meant that there'd be milk on the doorstep the next morning from the person who put the tea in for a very cyclical community.

and balanced in such a way that it was undisturbed by those kinds of forces despite the growing and shrinking of the community over many generations, seemingly endless peace and endless serenity.

Well, thank you. I appreciate this free tea. Goodbye. I'm just turning off the video. Yordi doesn't make it even to the door. Viewer all swept away. Thank you for your patronage!

You all witnessed as passengers along this journey, along this place. By the way, thank you everyone. For that joy. Man, I should do role play props more often. The next week is filled with a growing panic in Taishen.

You close the shop and you don't feel motivated to open it the next day. Instead of treating your customers like you would on any other day, because Mei Li is gone, you go to her home. She hasn't been home. You start to search and seek and try and find where Mei Li could possibly have gone. You go to the outskirts of town. You ask neighbors. You ask anyone who will talk to you and

Third day, fourth day, fifth day passes. You're struggling to sleep. You are filled with dread that, honestly, there's something wrong. Could she have been hurt in some way? Did she try to leave and she'll never be back? How could it be that no one knows, that no one's discovered her, that there's been no news? It seems impossible to you. Your family doesn't know. Everyone is worried.

What do you do in this moment when you finally make a radical choice? I would pack up my stuff, get everything, my personal teapot, a couple of tea leaves. This would have been a ceramic teapot. Yeah, like, kind of... You're one of the bread-and-butter ones, perhaps, from the Serenity tea shop that you manage. You take your walking stick, any of the other personal effects that you would want. Mm-hmm.

I've never really been out on an adventure before, so I don't know quite why I wouldn't take the right things. I'd take maybe an extra pair of pants and nothing beyond that. It's like whenever you pack for a vacation and you take 16 pairs more underwear than you actually need because you just assume, what if I shit myself every day? When Rich is packing for a con. Yeah.

Yeah, but then the judges are good. I always get home and I'm like, "I have 14 pairs of fucking underwear that I didn't wear. "What was I thinking?" So I would gather everything together. A couple of the things that bring me comfort

You know, I'm kind of freaking out in this time, but I know that my only choice is to go out and look for melee and find her out in the wilds. I would, as I'm heading out, I would go to the tea shop, I would unlock the door, and I would leave a note on it that just says, the Serenity will always be open for those who need it.

And I'll leap. He watches. And you join him. You walk with and in his footsteps, Taishan goes to the edge of the village and

There's a long path leading to these great tall mountains bathed in mist. This beautiful white, golden, silvery mist. And it's rising up from seemingly nowhere. It's almost like this valley is encompassed in one of those... What is the word for the glass enclosures where you put all of the things that you need for a complete ecosystem?

A terrarium? Thank you. It's almost like a terrarium, and he is crossing through the threshold for the first time. With your walking stick, you make your way. With your heavy burden pack, you make your way, and you reach the foot of one of these mountains, and you remember both the

hope that you felt to find Mei Li, that you were determined to make this happen in this moment. And now, because your memory has doubled, you're reliving this moment. You remember the treacherous climb in front of you. How are you feeling in this moment? What are you doing? Mei Li's not lost. She's merely hiding. We just have to find her. And I will. And I'd feel hopeful, but there'd be an edge of...

Maybe I won't. Maybe I won't find her. Like, what does that even mean? Daishan, you told me not to doubt. You better not have a shred of doubt in your voice about finding Melee. I warn you. I don't doubt Barnabus. I'll find her. I hope.

And you all make your way, starting to spiral around the thick of this mountain. These are mountains that push up from the ground. And some of them connect, certainly, but they're these large, almost arms or pillars. And Taishan has chosen for himself the tallest one, perhaps to see the greatest distance and maybe a spot where Mei Li could possibly have gone. And...

Making his way up, he... Taishan, you remember encountering a jump that you didn't think that you could make. That you decided that it wasn't as easy to make it from one side to the other. That you would go the long way around. Confronted with this jump again, do you make the same choice? Yes.

You turn and you take the party with you. The same path that you remember walking before and it is sturdy, confident. It takes a bit longer, but you make your way up the mountain. Then you remember this particular cliffside. Winds blow and howl as you step onto the very thin ridge clamped up against the wall, against the mountainous wall. And you remember feeling a lot of trepidation about this.

Doing it again now, do you feel those same feelings? I'm afraid. I don't want to fall.

And as you are just at the end of that terrifying precipice, finally free of the fear of falling, your walking stick, you remember this so clearly, fell from your hand and you watched it shatter on the rocks at the very bottom. And in this moment, in the original version, you were furious at the loss. How do you feel this time? Confused.

And finally, you remember...

shaking away that anger and trudging up the final journey of the final steps of this journey up to the top of the mountain and reaching the flat top where you would be able to see the horizon in all directions. The sight a gold dragon born like yourself from this culture, from this part of the world hasn't seen perhaps in centuries. And instead of beholding beauty and instead of feeling triumphant,

There is no Mei Li. She's nowhere to be seen in this moment. Mei Li! You cry out and expect what comes next. What did come next in that moment? Do you recall? The four winds. From the east.

from the west, from the south, from the north. You remember and you're describing it and you're all sitting around the campfire listening intently as this life story seems to be reaching its peak. You remember the four winds blasting you from all directions and from the sky, the clouds, the mists themselves seeming to part and a massive, beautiful gold dragon swirled into view.

But that does not happen at this particular moment. The gold dragonborn who tells you he oversees the Valley of the Setting Sun does not make himself known, make an appearance in this doubled vision. Instead, you are standing with your four companions at the top of this valley.

you are not greeted by the gold's dragon that would imbue you with the power to cross the veil and begin traveling the worlds and lands of a Vantress to have that confidence to hear your story and listen

Fu Xiao does not arrive in this moment. You're, for lack of a better word, your patron. The person who believed in you and told you to go out and defeat doubt, defeat fear, defeat anger, defeat despair. Is it because you've made the same choices in this memory? No, maybe not, maybe so. It's confusing, but you look to the east, you look to the west, you look to the south, you look to the north. Those winds are not blowing. Instead,

You stand in the center of this mountaintop, looking just at the faces of your four friends. What are you all doing? What are you doing, Kaishen? This isn't right. Fu Zhao. Fu Zhao appeared now and gave me the strength to find Mei Li. What is Fu Zhao? Fu Zhao is the spirit god of our land. Progenitor. Wow. Started our...

race of dragonborn on this island existed to protect us. He awakened something within me at the top of this mountain. How long ago did that happen? I mean, did you ever find your niece? What leads you to think that she's here? Why this? Tell me! I sought out. She wasn't anywhere. I didn't know. I don't hunt. I wasn't an adventurer before. I don't know that I am now. But...

I knew I had to find her. There was no path but forward. And it was then I... It was then I met Fu Zhao, and he awakened a strength within me that I used to reunite with Mei Li. Eventually...

He's not here. All right, okay. Okay, yeah, that's fine. We can continue on with this. May it be fine. The last time you made the trek up to this mountain, he ignited that within you. But this time, that's been aflame for years. He doesn't need to show up and ignite it because it's already burning, Tyshep. But what could it mean? In everyone else's vision, Scrim was helped.

Barnabas was challenged or something changed. I'm just abandoned. Perhaps, I mean, a woolly rhino, a large beast, cannot fly, perhaps. Somewhere down the mountain somewhere. I want to go down and see. I want to see a woolly rhino driving by. Oh, you guys get there way faster than I did. Just go down the fucking way I did.

I didn't know this was such a steep incline. You see it try to make its way across the precipice and just tumble down. I'm not gonna lie, I thought that the wooly rhino was going to be one of the patrons in the tea show. That's what I was expecting. I like a dirty child, baby.

Rooibos tease! Holy fuck. You do retell the events that lead up to Meili being returned to you by Fu Xiao after imbuing with power and also gifting her with dragonglass.

literal obsidian that he produces and you remember that she turns that into the teapot that you now travel with. Not a simple and obvious ceramic pot but now something that gives you power and is perfect in nearly every way despite being made by a kid. It

She's very skilled. She accidentally nailed it. You know how that can be. And...

But the... true enough, the four winds have been replaced with nothing in this moment. You're being swept back to your lives. You're still transcendently here. But for perhaps another moment, you stare just into the friends that you have and think on the wisdom that Fu Zhao tried to impart upon you and...

try to come to some conclusion about what this could possibly mean, knowing that everyone's memories are themselves being adjusted, modified, twisted, or perhaps conveying some message. So you found her. She was returned to you. After I encountered Fu Zhao at the top of that mountain, I went back home, and she was there waiting for me.

Did she ever say what happened? Where she went? No. Did she not remember? Are you sure it's her? Not some kind of... horrible abomination pretending to be Melee? I don't know what came over me. I felt really scared for a second. You were quite afeard, but... No, but I'm serious.

Oh, about the horrible abomination? Yeah, how do you know it's her? Well, you know, I raised her, so... Oh, so she knew all, like, the secret handshakes and stuff? Yeah. She knew how to make tea. Really good tea. Abominations don't do that. You know, I wasn't believing what you were saying, but that is a fair point. I don't know what it was. It was my great shame in searching for her.

Many of the moments I had, I knew that minutes could mean the difference between finding her and bringing her home and not finding her. But there were times, choices I was pressed up against, and I took the long way. I paused, crossed the precipice. I let doubt in my abilities and fear for my own safety slow me down from finding her. But I never gave up. You realize that you have been swept back.

As you're finishing your story, and as you say those words, you're no longer standing on a mountaintop in the beautiful valley of the setting sun. You are standing on a riverbank in the frozen solitude of this drakkaran land. And it is morning. You enjoy a long rest. You all enjoy a long rest, except for Jornir. And the trek continues.

I think it is meaningfully important that you did not see that woolly rhino. I mean, I would agree. I just don't know what it could possibly mean. It rescued you. It did? What did it do for you? It was trapped in the guts. It was trapped and you needed to save it. It left me a note, but I don't remember what the note said. There was a picture of Mount...

I don't read pictures. That's why I don't remember what it said. It was a picture of a mountain. Then, in your dream, we're on a mountain. Were the mountains, God of the world, were those mountains similar in any way? I don't think that they would have been particularly similar. Those mountains weren't similar in any way, so I don't think they're related. But then, absence. The, uh...

real life analog would be the beautiful Chinese mountains that just lift up from completely flat fields and plains into the sky and these tremendous towers, a very unusual geological formation. But the one in Queenie's note was just like a regular old mountain. Yeah, that was more of a like this, that was more like a, honestly like the Nightmare Before Christmas mountain. We don't know what to think.

Well, I don't think we have all the pieces yet. Well, I feel a lot better. So I think it's safe to say that these lights have reached out to help us. Oh, yeah, that's true. And you were right. Yours was the best story so far. It really was. Thank you for not pulling a bait and switch. Thank you for not... Can you take us there? I want to meet Maylene. I would love to bring you all home. Oh, that would be awesome. I would love to truly be able to serve you a cup of warming tea from my shop. We'd like that for...

For sure. It's weird the tug that happens in your chest, in your heart, in your soul when you talk about, gosh, I'd love to visit because the sober reality of the blowing winds, the ice, the snow around you, it's getting colder. Uh,

a new storm, a fresh storm is approaching. This one particular clear night being an allowance for Taishan being what it is, you are immediately reminded that that would be not just a luxury because of the beauty you beheld in this vision, but it would be another reminder that you are beyond this brutal place. Perhaps the last of...

These five experiences will put the last piece together. If it is to come, yes. We should continue. Can you lower your voice? You don't need to be so angry this morning. We just woke up. Apologies. Did not mean to raise my voice. And we continue. To be fair, I don't think we actually ever went to sleep. Yes and no. And you continue to trek onward. You're near...

You must endure almost three more weeks before you see another clear sky. 20 days go by before you're sitting around a campfire. That is meaningfully important. Now, what I will say is that you are starting to see signs of life. You are not without just the fish. There are the occasional arctic fox. Oh, kill them. You see ermine. Ooh.

You see Arctic Lemmings. They're like weasels. They're like snow weasels. They're very aggressive. They're super cute, and they have great fur. It's really soft. And you're making gloves now. You're using your needles. I want to...

skip all of the simulation of survival so that we can very quickly get through those 20 days. You want to skip simulation of survival? So we're going to pick up where you are with the things that you have without any fucking subtraction and stuff because we'll do the math calculation at the beginning of next session. That makes sense to me. And I will be able to do that math with you to make sure that we're in a happy place because we're going well past 20 days after this night. Oh, wow. Okay. But...

- Jesus. - Enduring the snow, watching it drop to negative 30, negative 40 degrees, having it climb back up, the occasional beautiful day, even though it's overcast of zero, five, or 10 degrees in the positive direction, is just a wonderful bath of warmth before plunging again into these wintery climbs. It's night, and for the first time you're looking at the stars and going, oh please, oh please, oh please.

The blue shimmering light appears for perhaps the final time. You look up into the sky, Jornir, and you know there's just about one yet story left to tell. How do you begin to tell the story of your life? My story is long. I will not tell it all. I am from Jorn. It's a peninsula in the southwestern part of Mimnitz.

the northernmost continent and I am, as you know, a therbol a secluded race that ties to the Feywild but we live in our strongholds and we do not leave From a young age I felt a connection to the land more so than others and a connection and so I invested in that connection I began my craft my shamanism

Our faith is that of the Old Faith. We worship the triad, the Northern Triad, the Three Old Gods. They are geared around the Mutiny. That was not unusual. It was my connection to my druidism that was unique. It was... Seemed un... It didn't seem right to stay in a stronghold my entire long life.

I stay secluded in a single forest. I'm from the fjords. You know what a fjord is? I don't. I've sailed on the fjords of a moat. Large, deep valleys carved by glaciers many, many years ago. So high up on these cliffs, this beautiful land, I felt a calling to practice my craft everywhere in the moat.

I felt that that pull, like the moot itself, was calling me. So I decided to wander. I would spend a summer helping a pod of seals get through a fish shortage. I might spend the fall trying to cure a forest being afflicted by a blight. And in the winter, I might build a hut on the outskirts of

Man village and act as their medicine man. I became known throughout these remote villages as the one from Yhorm or Yhorny. This is why they call me this. I didn't know that what I was doing was druidism or being a shaman. It was just my craft is what I did. Then my reputation attracted a visitor.

and I was inducted into a circle. Circle is a group of druids or shaman that practice together. Still solitary, but I was inducted into the circle of the broken tusk. Secretive, but very devout group of druids. And our job was to defend the land, protect the animals, the plants, the peoples of the mid.

and to worship the Old Faith and keep our holy holidays. I'll skip the many, many decades that I spent doing this. I thought I was old. The lichen green curtains have swept you up already. Captivated as you are, Jornir might say, "I'll skip."

And he does. He says that right there as he surrounds the campfire, thinking about what his early life was like, what his winter's end was like, the spring of his life. Midsummer, the first day of summer. Being a medicine man on the outskirts of a town might not just be for a winter. Yorneir has lived many, many decades. And...

There were times when he'd come to a village or a town and say hello to a group of people and say goodbye to their grandkids, only to move on and continue to become this myth. The man from Yorn, this medicine man, who over those many decades perfected through intuition alone

their druidism, their ability to see, their ability to connect with nature itself. And in the conversations that fly past you, hard to make out. You don't always understand the language being spoken, but you understand the meaning. Sharing

Knowledge of verbalism, sharing druidic symbols, runic magic, giving and taking equally amongst the order of the broken dust. And it becomes all so real for you, solidified, walking in the shoes of a man who is of Mahmut. What began my pilgrimage was only the winter, only the holiest holidays of my faith.

I was making my pilgrimage to the northernmost circle of standing stones, the circle of the mammoth, when a blizzard rolled in. I am never surprised by weather. I can tell from the warmness. What the weather will do, but this I did not expect. You are, all four of you, waylaid by this blizzard. You are struck by the powerful winds

cold that you are very familiar with now, having lived in Drakkar for perhaps two, three months now. You are swept up by the downpour, the whiteout, but Yornir knows where to go, and all you can do is just stay about a few feet behind him as he starts to make his way.

Through these visions that you've experienced, through this impossibly long and almost eternal story, his eyes are both unchanged. This is a quality that you see in Yorneir that is very different from the visage of Yorneir that you've come to know. One eye being damaged, but the other being intact. He almost looks like a young man. Like when you see a photograph of a friend that...

from before when you met them, like they're not totally done yet. This is the impression that you get of Yornir, and he is determined to make it to this circle of stones, to the Mamushan Cairns, so to speak. This circle that was holy to the Order of the Broken Tusk. And

You push through the storm and find yourself standing there at the precedence looking down at a horror. I reached the circle of stone, but I was late. I knew I was late. What I found was that those of my order that came there that same day were all dead, slaughtered. I sensed their wounds. I could tell they were bored, trampled to death by

the holiest of the animals to our order. And that's when I heard a trumpet in the blizzard outside the stone. I looked and I heard the stamping of feet and charging me was the mammoth that had killed my circle. You're all standing now and you're filled with this deja vu and this sense of

remembering how quickly things would progress as soon as you started to hear that horn, that trampling, and you're listening for it, waiting to see if things should change or if things should remain the same. What are you all doing in these moments of trepidation? I would probably hide behind your ear a bit and, you know, and like tug on your earpiece

cloak and... How could this have happened? How could they have not known that the mammoth was here? You could sense the weather, couldn't you not sense the animals? No. No, I could not sense it. This was outside the natural order. This was outside nature. We've, at this point, faced a scary dog crippling sadness and sea monsters together in these stories. Surely a mammoth is not going to

be a problem for the five of us. I'm gonna walk up to your near and I'm gonna reach up and grab onto your hand. I'm sorry that... I'm sorry you had to see the people that you care about go through this. I'm sorry you had to feel all this. And that you had to feel powerless. Must have been scary. It was uncertain, but I knew that if this was the fate of my circle, then I presumed it would be my fate as well.

And I was ready to accept that. You can see Jornir there alone in the original version of this event, surrounded by the violenced bodies of his friends, the people he would have called friends, and the sound.

The sound of a trampling huge beast in this whiteout condition, visibility is zero. Looking all around, it's impossible to tell the echoing reverberation of these footfalls from what direction it's coming from. And before you see this looming shape emerge out of the snow, it's too late.

a wooly rhino is already upon you. Not the mammoth that you expected, corrupted in the way that it was in your original vision, but instead, a whole wooly rhino bursts forward through the blizzard and gores your face with its horn.

Your eye is crushed by this impact, and before you can get in the way or help your friend, Yornir, he is injured, pushed down to the ground, and all goes to the black. Four of you see this happen, and you'll be back in a moment, but for Yornir, you experience...

Something like what you experienced the first time. A vision of a catastrophe, but it is a very different vision in this moment. You're flying. You're in the sky, all like a hawk or an owl, flapping through the wind, flying over, not Mahmoud, but the realm of Drakkar.

You can see the mountains, the cliffs, the icy glaciers in all directions. Every blink, when you close your eyes and steady new vision, swims down, showing you just the terrain itself.

Vast forests of aspen, trees of spruce, of pine, massive mountains covered in snow, rocky tundra dotted with shrubs and flowers of all colors, a vast field of tall, tawny grass filled with herds of enormous beasts pushing through.

You're hurtling now, faster than any bird or animal could possibly travel. You are flying like a comet that is about to strike the earth and just as you are about to arrive and land into the ground and crush, you shatter through it and you see a new vision. Now you are as small as a snowflake. In fact,

Smaller. You're standing on the surface of a snowflake, looking around in all directions. You're falling and standing on it, spinning form like you might an ice floe drifting in the middle of a body of water. Huge crystals float and swim all around you in their geometric forms. There is no sky, there is no earth, you are in free fall.

The crystals have these wild, irregular, asymmetric shapes, arms twisted in this direction, structures, and they're filled with beautiful prismatic color until they begin to corrupt.

Branches that grow and twist, others that fall away. The variety of these crystals, all of them are made the same. Made symmetrical, made uniform, made perfect. They're colored dulls, and you're filled with shared dread. Shared with what? You're uncertain, but you are filled with...

Fear and horror and panic. You see dead beasts now. Creatures being scattered across the land, falling apart from decay. You see the trees themselves straighten into smooth, perfect...

pillars before crumbling to dust. You see mountains topple, leveling themselves to impossibly perfect flat planes. The clouds lose their natural shapes, taking on geometric ones like prisms. You see the stars in the sky themselves twist and warp into perfect patterns, a matrix of stars that are evenly spaced apart and share parallel light.

These images strike you as alien and strange and a front to nature itself and the dread you feel roils within you into drowning panic. Your heart feels as though it might burst through your chest and in a cold sweat, you jolt back to the circle of the mammoth, joining the others.

You look at Yornir. He's injured. The woolly rhino has seemingly vanished. For you, time seems to have stopped and started. Blank, blankness for just a moment. Your eye is now missing. It glows with a brilliant blue light, making sharp contrasts with the thin trail of red now flying down your cheek. This is not how it happened, as you might expect. Yeah, color me surprised. I saw a vision.

You mean that time or this time? Both times, different visions. What did you see? When it happened in reality, it was a mammoth. The broken tusk, the white tusk, gored me here. As you can see, it ruined my eye. But in that vision I saw a sunless sea, a deep abyss, a colossal orange eye, thousands of putrid fish heads gibbering as one.

Millions of teeth in the darkness. Then it flashed the bursting ice, crumbling fjords, birds and beasts covered in eyes, tentacles, tightness appendages. Then I was given vision of an arctic land that wasn't a myt, that wasn't home. It was a different arctic land. This is why I'm here. This is why I've come all this way.

But in this vision, I saw perfection in a success. I saw the land of Drakkar first, but then I saw prismatic shapes and symmetry which does not exist in nature. It exists in some ways, but not in ways you would think. I saw beasts dying of corruption. I saw mountains crumbling and flattening themselves.

I saw nature being twisted into order in perfect symmetry. You're still around the campfire, but you're also still here in the circle of the mammoth. The snow is subsiding, just howling winds now. It melts away almost in an instant as if time is moving now very quickly. And in the center of the circle, you see the bleached bones of the woolly rhino.

as if it has been decaying here for years and tanned by the sun itself. The snow is gone, the party, you all. You see the tip of the horn of this rhino is broken.

And from inside of it, impossibly, endless blood starts to pool out, spilling out and covering the surface of the stone circle and filling each of the cracks, joining and merging, disappearing and flooding over. It continues to pool out. It continues to grow out, soaking into the lichen that covers the earth and stone around. Does anyone do anything?

I don't know what to make of any of this. Is this real? What's happening, Mr. Yorneir? Did the mammoth do this? Use your seeing. No, the mammoth did not do this.

Wait, so is this in like reality or are we still like in the circle? You are at the campfire telling the story of Yorneir and yet you are also here experiencing this double vision where you can share the details of what actually happened and yet just like with all the other visions there are these modifications, this additional voice that's trying to push and twist things in this direction in this way.

And you're struck by the uniqueness of this vision, by the fact that it is nothing like what happened the first time. That mammoth, you were able to find it killed, and you woke up to that moment after you saw the vision and when your eye was gored. And that is why you wear its tusks on your back. Even in this moment, as you're sitting on this campfire, you could reach up and touch them. But...

Right now, you are not looking at a mammoth. You are looking at this rhino, its tusk broken and spilling out an impossible disgusting amount of blood, bleeding.

If there's any chance that the blood is going to pool up to my feet, I would climb up your ear to get away from it. You would need to do that almost right away, so much as the pool expanding in this space. Does it look like it's in pain? It is the complete fleshless bones leeched and sitting on the floor. There is no longer any animal material aside from those. I'm going to immediately just kneel down in the blood and just put my hands on it.

and just see if I can get a sense of, like, is there, is it like actual blood? Is it maybe not blood? Is it, you know, can I kind of learn anything about it, about the nature of what's happening? You jump down, taking agency, even in your own retelling of your story, in this moment that you are somehow being granted and transcended into, you touch the blood. It feels warm. It smells like bestial blood, irony and thick and gamey and...

When you put your hands on the bones, and especially when your hands gravitate towards the horn, you leave your fingerprints, your bloody hand marks on the bone, but you touch that horn and you're filled with a tremendous jolt of energy and power. You feel strengthened by it. You feel like you are a god, almost. Like you are nature yourself. And in that moment, you are swept away

waking back up and you realize that you're not looking at blood at all. You're looking at the red of a campfire of coals. You are looking at each other's faces. The lichen green nature of the lights has evaporated like it has so many times before, and the sky is clear. It is just you in the dead of night in the middle of the Dokkaran lands. What in the nine hells was that?

Perhaps this beast is in danger, is sick. Though it was well enough to help you, I don't understand. In reality, I was able to cast a spell as it charged me. And then when I awoke from my vision and my loss of consciousness, I found the mammoth dying in the middle of the circle. And I put it down. It was corrupted horribly, missing fur.

that should not be more than two eyes. It was a corruption of nature to atone for my sin of killing a mammoth. I wear these tusks as my burden and my connection to Namut. Light hits you now. The sun has just started peeking over the eastern mountains. It seems that morning has arrived. And as you're all taking in the

longest vision that you've been through and the strangeness of its ending. You hear a sound. There's singing. You turn and just at the horizon you see a gang of kobolds walking in marching order with their own sledge, brandishing flags of black with some symbol, a hammer perhaps on it, almost impossible to make out.

But it's the first sentient life you've seen in weeks. And that is where we will end tonight's session. Thank you, Derek. Good job tonight, Derek. Holy fuck. We got some lore, baby. Molding banner, you said? Yeah, with some kind of... Maybe a hammer. Do you think craws would be...

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