Icebound | Ep. 21 | Return
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Welcome to Legends of Avantris. I'm Barnabas Dreadwake and you're listening to Icebound. Here's what happened last time. We've all been through a harrowing experience, alright? And you know what is next. We still need to retrieve the artifact. This has not changed. Aye. It's in more favorable hands, I truly believe. This does not mean that we can...

Allow it to remain in the possession of the dragon. We will explain that we are on a faith-bound quest to retrieve it at the behest of the land itself. We were actually discussing how best to help your people rebuild and survive the elements here. Who else will perform in this play?

The stage is set in a grand hall with Sotholith, the god of the ogres. Great Sotholith, we come to offer our fealty and to seek your wisdom. This is gonna be more of an improv, you know. You gotta end with the last line, though, or I can't start my-- Oh, mighty god of the ogres! We desire to serve you and your people, Sotholith.

We are your humble servants, ready to fulfill your every command. Holden on the hand of the call. What? Oh my god, he's gone crazy. Oi, what did you have in mind? Just like the mind was opened on my eighth bite. I don't request, I don't request, what did you have in mind? You gotta pump your fist. Pumps his fist? Well, if you say so.

- Let's do it! I'm always ready for the next adventure! - I don't think that's what they meant by-- - No, I think that is what they meant. - What? - I don't feel like that's exactly what they meant. - It looks like he's pulling something else. - Oh god! - Just as we learned in the voyage-- - I'm bleeding! I'm bleeding! - So is it over now? Do we call it a day? - No, we don't know! - Oh yes, this is the last line. - We don't know what's happening.

The new year is less than an hour away, and gentle snow floats down from a calm sky all around you. Fires big and small dot the landscape, each of them warming the remaining survivors of Ogerton, yourselves included. At midnight, the start of a great feast will commence, not just to celebrate life, but to honor the many humans and ogres who were all taken so suddenly.

United.

And, looking around you, you stare into the eyes of your allies and sense in each other the growing pressure of the purpose that has been thrust upon you, seemingly by the gods themselves. What must catastrophe mean to them if evil like what you've faced so far was not their concern?

Here you have known ancient malevolent entities of starvation and fear, and powerful intelligence that uses manipulation and doubt as its blades. Even now, as you share warmth and food and presence with each other, the dizzying weight of those questions weigh upon you. In the fire burns five small straw offerings.

The smell of the incense Yornir casts draws you in and Vertigo pulls at your senses as he speaks into the licking flame. Odin, Anum, Mamut, three, through the flames now speak to me. The princess of the land and frost, an ally gained or deadly cost. You all listen as three distinct voices call back in response.

Through the flames we counsel thee, Odin, Anam, Mamut, three. Clouded by veil of deathless frost, masks the relic that was lost. Three gifts for you this festal day, three open paths that tell thy way. Through one eye a path is clear, there is no time for judgment here. Wicked, evil, a powerful threat,

But do not discount Alliance yet. Give her the words she wants and then free the relic from the lion's den. A second path we have to offer. Peace with her? Not worth the bother. Abandon talks, seek no relations, lest Drakkar feel devastation. Slay her quickly, take the prize. You were not summoned here as spies.

A third path remains just out of sight. You could rely on words or might. Consider though another way. Lift the stone and steal away. The princess need not know your faces if you thieve and leave no traces. Cattle die. Friends die. One day the same for you. The legend that will never die is what you choose to do.

Soon out of time, beyond our vision, dost your return, make your decision. Through the flames we counsel thee, Odin-Anum, Mamut III. I will deeply nod.

We all hear that, we're just-- All of you heard that. But looking at the faces of Daisy and Cat Rustine, they are just looking at what are the remaining smoldering flames that were the straw that have been now consumed by the fire that you all sit around. You all heard what I did, yes? Yeah, yeah, I mean so, yeah.

Yes, I think so. Were those your guards? Yes, they were the triad. Well, that's great, because that means that there are three different ways that we can tackle this. Like everything they said, it seemed like success is in our future, no matter what we choose to do, whether we talk or fight or steal. Right, so what happens now is up to us. Either way, we should not do...

Anything besides one of those three options. This is right. They speak clearly, and they have given us three paths to go down. These are the only three paths I will consider. I mean, Quidditch is right though. Sounds like fate, right? I mean, there's no way this can go wrong. That's what it sounds like to me. This is about as sure thing as a sure thing could possibly be. More of a plan than we've ever had so far.

We still must choose our path, but perhaps not tonight. Yeah, I don't think that's something we need to worry about tonight. I am sorry about your gifts. What do you mean? I got to watch it burn. Looked nice. I had to listen to a god talk, so. Oh, no, no. Burning them wicker goats, that's good luck, eh? Yes. Okay, what we just heard, that's fate. That is destiny.

Right there. Mr. Yornir, those three options, you know your gods better than anyone. Which path calls to you through your eye? I believe the three paths and the three that made up the triad, there is no coincidence. I believe we will need to let fate decide. I will not attempt to predict right now, and I will not ask more of them. Which do you think was Mamut's?

Oh, that's a good point. Just as each of the gods, they pick their own path and let you know, or like, how does it really work? Are they usually this profound? Do they talk to you this like, you know, straightforward all the time? First one is certainly Odin. Clay, what makes it Odin? Through one eye, a path is clear. Oh, I thought he was referring to your one eye. Does his Odin feller have one eye? Yes. So you're kind of like his, kind of like cosplaying Odin.

Mammoth gored out his eye with a tusk. From a certain point of view. I believe it was faith. Is it the same eye? If you don't mind me asking. His eye, it was an intentional sacrifice. Oh no, I just meant was it the right or left for him and for you? It depends on who you ask. So at least some of the time it's the same eye.

At least some of the time my cosplay is over, yes. Like 50% of the time, perhaps. I'm sorry, I didn't mean that event, it's simply my day. No, it is, I believe it was the mammoth, the violence, and the eye were the three speaking to me and setting me on my path. I do have a concern. Just one? No, that's fine. All right. You don't want to talk about it? That's not weird or anything?

One of your paths, you said, if we give her what she wants or what she seeks, we can free the relic without battle. Do we know what that is? For the... There is one. It means just out of sight. I don't know how we steal, but it seems to be a path open for us. The last time we gave her anything, it was...

"Biles of gold. She seemed pretty happy with that. You know, I don't know where we're gonna come up with that kind of gold again, but you know, clearly she can be bargained with maybe. Everything has a price and all that, huh?" "It's the words that she wants. Give her the words she wants and then free the relic from the lion's den." "Is this the path that also spoke of dooming Drakkar?"

There was a whole lot that really were dogged to go in and steal it. That seems the safest path. Yeah, maybe, but I don't know if you ever traveled anywhere with Barnabas. He's loud in voice and body. So is Tyshen. So is Scrim. What? I steal things all the time. I think the only quiet one is Yornir, and that's only if you don't make him mad, and then he's the loudest of us all.

I can be very quiet. Oh, I know. Stealing's only the safest path if you don't get caught. But we're not going to send you in there by yourself. Or if the thing that you steal doesn't curse you permanently. Yeah. Why are you looking at me like that? I found the coin. I didn't steal that coin. Oh. I want it fair and square. Didn't you cheat? A little bit.

Go ahead, Jornir. Is that the point fair and square where you come from? Let's just have a go at it. They said, abandoned talks seek no relations, lest Dracar feel devastation. Slay her quickly, take the prize. You are not summoned here as spies. Well, at least from what it sounds like to me, and maybe I'm wrong because I don't do much with poetry and riddles.

But it sounds like they're saying there are three specific ways to do this, and they're not saying that by talking to her we're going to doom Drakkar. Just let's not waste our time doing that and preventing us from saving Drakkar. Let's just kill her and get the prize. No, I agree. I believe that's... I don't think it's like a prophecy or something. This is the same...

Oh, I forgot you were here. I'm very quiet, too. This is the same dragon that attacked the ship? That was able to resist the psionics attack? Yeah, the one that sold the hexagonal metramaton. The hexager armament. Yeah, that's what I said. Yes, this is a powerful being. This is... To slay her would be suicide. I don't want to. She was nice to us. She helped us and...

She killed her captain. I don't-- that wasn't nice. This does not sound very nice. No, he broke his leg in the middle of a huge blizzard and we were walking back for days. He was gonna die anyway. She gave him a very quick and mostly painless, because it was so fast he couldn't remember a thing, kind of death, you know. Give us an opening to get back our freedom and rip up all that paperwork. Just saying. She spared our lives once and then saved our lives.

She's done nothing to harm us, and she knew in the moment that the captain was not fit to survive on the land. It's true. It was mercy, I agree. And we don't even know if she wanted the Hexen-Megano armamentation or whatever it is, for any nefarious reasons, or just simply because she saw it and she thought, "Oh hey, I'm gonna take this as a prize and get on out of here." Or prevent it from falling into the wrong hands! There you go. Hmm.

Wait, what is a dragon? A beastie like that want to do with some sort of contraption? Doesn't sound like any of the dragons I've heard of. Well, we still don't know what it does exactly. Well, don't dragons like shiny things and new things and valuable things? So she may not even know what it is, but clearly thought, well, this is important and I want to put it in my haul. That's exactly what I would have said. Just because it ain't gold don't mean it's not valuable. I did not know what it was when I first saw it.

It was not what I expected to feel, but when you are near it, it is very easy to start speaking like Lefica. - That's a valuable point because I've been explained exactly what it was and what it's called and I still don't know what it is or what it's called.

Do we even know what it does? It brings certain doom to Jakar and perhaps beyond. Helps drive a spaceship, apparently. And also commits war crimes to start a war against the Squidfellers. In war, it is just a war, not a crime. We have been fearing war for decades, for centuries. Well, we know that it's powerful, and we know that...

It's... someone seeks it. What do I know about white dragons specifically? Would I know anything, like, about... given that I'm from, like, an arctic biome? I would say that you could make a nature or arcana check. Or history, depending on the kind of knowledge that you are endeavoring to access. That's all I'd agree on. That counts. Um, I believe it is...

That's a grim little win. That one counts. That one did not count. I've got to reroll. 22. With a 22, you know the bronze strokes. I don't think that you would have ever encountered a white dragon in your hundreds of years traveling Mahmood, but I can't imagine that there aren't...

white dragons who roam those lands, as surely as they do here in Drakkar, you would know they have a very predatory reputation. Hunters matching the snow that is their environs. And that they, despite being feared, you know, like any of the chromatic dragons might be, that they are, they have a reputation for being the smallest.

And that fact probably would have occurred to you thinking of the few times you've encountered her just because she's so ancient and huge. What other dragons must be is a wild question, but that disparity alone doesn't...

is all that occurs to you as you think of the few times you've interacted with this one particularly powerful white dragon. Would I think anything of like the level of greed of like dragons being greedy and having boards? Do I feel like white dragons are the same? That's true of all dragons. Or would there be any kind of difference there? Just to Gwini's point.

Regardless of whether or not other dragons have hordes, and you would have to be a dragonologist to answer that question, even with a 22, you do have the information that a few barrels of gold was able to save her off initially. It is likely, not likely, it is possible, perhaps she just knows it is powerful and valuable and this is it. Has no greater plan. For if she is

representation or an avatar of the land. The land has no greater plan besides to be. Perhaps this is just her acting in her own nature. Given her size and power, it is in her nature to do what she has done. Are dragons magical? Do they have abilities like you all? Like I'm starting to?

As far as I know, yeah. We saw her open a tear in the sky, fly out and back into it. Good point. That might insinuate she's got some magic up her sleeve. Didn't they talk about great gates that them little lizard fellas were using? They did. We saw the outline of the great gates. No longer active. What do you think that meant by lift the stone? To steal the...

Armament is how I read it. I don't know. The armament's not quite a stone. It might be metaphorical. Can you read that passage again? The gods are always so cryptic. A third path remains just out of sight. You could rely on words or might. Consider though another way.

Lift the stone, then steal away. The princess need not know your faces. Yeah, no, you right. Oh yeah, I believe that's a reference to the Arkenstone from the classic, The Hobbit, that was in Smaug's lair. A red dragon in that instance, as opposed to a white. What the fuck is a hobbit?

Oh, sorry. They got halflings in which edition were they renamed? Anyway, halflings. What the fuck is a halfling? You should never mind. They make good food. Great boys. Not the halflings themselves. The halflings cook great food. You don't put the halflings in a stew. Thank you for clarifying. I was very worried for a second. Be careful how many of the ogres hear you. We're still a little sensitive about that. You know, it's actually funny. Halflings and ogres get along famously.

On account of their appetites. Do halflings eat people? They eat a lot of food. Okay, cool. At least as far as I know, there could be some cannibal cults of...

Of Bag End? The cannibal cults of Bag End. That's why you wore big bags, Seth. That's why you wore big bags. The cannibal cults of Bag End. A bunch of halflings with skull masks. This also raises an interesting question, I think. She did appear and, for lack of a better verb, teleport to us and then from us almost instantly. Why is she not here now?

She might have had to wash her hair. She did not seem to be having much of this. Well, what I mean is she might have something scheduled. Something on her calendar. It's the new year after all. We're doing something special for her. What's to say White Dragon doesn't have something special to do for her? Why would she be here with a bunch of strangers when she has no need to be?

And I think that Yorner is right. She appeared when the ship ripped itself from the land, scarring the Drakkar. She flew in response to that threat and the ship has crashed, restoring balance. So you see her as a defender, someone who protects this realm? Well, so far. Would a defender of the land commit genocide

For the sanctity of nature? Oh, I guess, I suppose they might. Now that I think about it. Exactly right. She felt that this great civilization... Hatred. ...was a blight upon the land. But she killed all those nice druids. Druids were part of this civilization. They were also killing themselves. We're talking about the ones that were jumping off the cliff, right? That's the ones I met. Sort of depends on the fire. Killed.

They were ghosts. Well, you can presume. Yeah, but that's what they were doing in life. They were just recreating their lives and death. Thank you, Barbara. But weren't they... I mean, it's hard, but they were brought back to life. Or so they say. They were ghosts. We don't know what actually happened. I don't know. I don't know. All I'm saying is nature reclaims nature. You can try and take it away, but eventually it's just going to take it back.

So we're getting poetic and metaphorical, and we're saying that the Princess of Wrath represents the inevitable victory of the cold, of death, of the frozen wilds. That's awfully bleak. So is Jakar. I got that, I suppose. There's a passage at the end. "Cattle die, friends die. One day the same for you." Do you know who you've described as cattle?

More than once. I look amongst all the people around us and over us. I did not miss that part of the utterings of your gods. I'm sure you aren't here. Oh, you did not miss that. Then friends die, and I seemingly am spared for one day far in the future. I hope this is not prophecy. Well, death comes for everyone. So it is, in a sense. You will die someday, as will...

Scrim, as will I. Sorry, you were just the one right next to me. I could have picked anyone else. Yeah, you could have. And so could have everybody else that four or five dozen times it's always like, oh, this really bad thing's gonna happen. Also, Scrim is going to die. You know? And, oh, sorry, Scrim, I just picked you this time. No, I know. It could have been anybody, but we picked you again for the 12th time in a row. We and I keep zapping. Scrim, you and I are all over.

I think that's really what it is. The fact of the matter is we're all gonna die someday. A painful death is quite likely for everyone, including Scrim. And considering the things that Scrim gets himself into, I think it's more likely that Scrim will be painful than anyone else. Especially Scrim. I think there are a chance a lot of us will get to old age, but not Scrim. Do you want more mead?

Better be careful, though, because... Yes, please keep it coming. You might want to watch your liver. What's it matter anymore? Daisy sits up in her chair and looks over at the table, and there are stacks of empty cups there. There's the mead barrel, and she...

focuses on, without getting up, focuses on this table and you watch the line of her vision paint going over to where people are getting drinks and one of the cups starts to wobbly pick up and get underneath one of the meads and the spigot opens, pouring mead into the cup and shakily it spills a little bit, turns off and she

struggling very much, but you can watch very closely as the cup eventually is in reach. I'll be there lamenting my liver damage and my inevitable doom, and I'll say, "Oh, oh, thank you, Daisy. Oh." What the fuck? How did you--? Who's that? You did this? I figured out I can move stuff. Holy crap. Did you guys see that? I did.

Better than a parlor trick, that. It's sort of like when I was able to stop myself from being hit that time. You're awakening a power deep within you, it seems. This is psionics. This is the same as I. What do you mean?

What you are doing with your mind? This is this is the way that my people they get they they train they train in this and they do battle with it They they turn this into a talent. They defend that they attack they protect others You have the gift child. That's that's what what I'm using. Oh, yes, this is this is You are you are using? telekinetics here, are you able to

And all of a sudden they stop talking and you don't hear a word, but they're reacting to each other, seemingly having their own conversation. They just, they didn't know. I would never do that in a room with them. That would be awful. Perhaps she was just practicing. Well, he could have said, excuse us, we're going to go to another room. He didn't have to silence us. This is unbelievable. I don't even know what to make of any of this.

I've almost completely forgot about my liver damage.

Well, you shouldn't. Well, drink up, Mr. Staviscon. Look, I'm not going to die until I figure out this thing with the contract. That's the thing you just never know. Tomorrow is not promised, Scrim. Trust me, I hear you loud and clear. You can wake up tomorrow puking blood. In complete liver failure. Yeah, I'm praying that that doesn't happen. At least not for a little while. I just need a little bit more time. You better hope the gods are listening. Yeah, well, apparently they are. Well, too bad.

Yeah, well, you know, what do you think I do when he sleeps at night? Tell the gods not to take my liver. Tell them. Tell them, Yoni, please, tell them. You hear three voices. Soon, it will be ours. A pot of diesel babies in the corner. I'm not sure it works that way. Well, you know, hey, not for want of trying, right? Well, you've become a religious man. You're praying every night. Well...

I guess you could say that. What is your mantra that you say every day? Oh fuck, oh fuck, it's happening again? Oh, something about the top cause of death is accidents and bones. Oh, oh, I was gonna guess why me, why me, but yes, you're right. I read once that the single number one cause of death for humanoids over 40 is accidents. Unbelievable. You know how vague that is?

But it's true. It's true. It's just a queenie's point. How do you define accidents in such a number? Beats the fuck out of me. You shouldn't do anything just in case. Why do you think I sit around and drink all day and I don't do any work? Accidents. What if you accidentally fall over in your chair and hit your head and die? I will have become a statistic. Are pulled muscles considered an accident? Because I heard you up for like seven or eight hours last night practicing out of fist bump. And I'm really concerned.

Well, you know, the way I saw it,

You only kind of gave me a new lease on life, if you know what I mean. Second chance. Why squander it? I could wake up puking blood tomorrow. No, that's true. Gotta take opportunity where it strikes. I'm just worried about your shoulder. Well, you're going to buy that, too. The noises you were making, it sounded painful in there. Mr. Staviscotch, I've lived a long life. I've seen a lot of lads die on many ships in accidents. Yeah, that's surprising. I would wager...

that about nine times out of ten, alcohol was heavily involved. Oh, with the accidents? Aye. Well, were they also doing work? Some were just sitting around and drinking on the ship. Who can say for real, though? I mean, let's be honest here. Who can really say? Well, they definitely can't because they're dead now. True. Also true. Maybe it came from statistics. So anyway, watch out for accidents. All right, Mr. Staviscotch.

We still haven't decided what we're going to do. I'm going to eat some stew. I'm going to pick more meat. I don't think we have to make a decision right this-- You really should just be careful. I don't think we need to make a decision anytime soon about what we're going to do with the dragon. I mean, we could start working on it tomorrow, but we got nothing new here. I will not begin to go down one path until we begin our journey. I agree that we do not need to make a decision tonight. Well, I think this.

Every path leads to her den, so it all begins with heading towards her. It's not until we arrive that we begin to choose, so I think it starts with finding her, seeking her out. So south. South. Closer to the pole into the heart of winter. Unless she finds us first, we do not know where she took it. If it's probably in her...

We may not have to walk all those months out through winter if we find those kobolds again, right? Use the gates. Weren't they with her? Yes. And didn't they have the ability to travel great distances in a single moment? Just like she did. So they claim. If we find them again, Queenie, if Miss March can track them, find any leads, if they even come this far north, they might not. I'll do my best.

What do you mean geeks? Someone else tell it. I'm not quite sure how they work. So now you want to talk to us.

We have just been having a conversation. Yeah, but there was no excuses for a moment, our friends. We're going to go have a conversation about psionics. You wouldn't understand. But not 15 minutes ago. You all stopped talking and looking into the fire. And you just... All of a sudden, voices come to God. Oh, he has us there. He has us there. That's a strong point. That's a strong point. That's true. That wasn't our fault. It was yours.

What is my fault? That we all are staring into the fire, talking to gods. Is that something to be blamed for? I don't know. It's just a question of whether this is a rude thing or not. What we were saying is that if we were to switch the language we were speaking that you could not understand, that would be rude. For example, I'll switch to speaking giant. Hello, mammies, or mammy.

And you hear a grunt over at the mead table. Does Scrim not have a stupid face? Stupid, and it looks delicious. What are they saying? What are you saying? See, it doesn't feel very good now, does it? No, no, this sounds... What did you say? I thought...

I said, "Good bread, this." "Ah." "A bit of bread is quite good." "This is good." And you all look over at Nanny and he's like... "What the hell?" Clearly starting to be a little more intoxicated than he should be, perhaps. It's nearly midnight. "Godwin waifu is best. Best waifu." "Delicious."

You have not answered my question. The gates. We encountered a roving band of kobolds and we came across these large structures carved into the mountainside. They claimed that they could use them to move from one area to another in an instant, much like the princess could, of her own accord.

We don't know how they use them or activate them though. It's a method of travel then. So they described it. Have you seen the great floor of a mountain hold? No. Oh. No, it's like that. Have you seen the astral seas? I'm not from this world. That's why I ask. I have no way of getting home. Oh.

We do not know the nature of the magic, but if you were to picture a sheer quiff face with almost a gateway carved in like the great dwarven mountain holes, there was no tunnel into the mountain. No dwarves or mountain holes. It was just a rock face. What we have learned is that at one point in time,

These used to be great gates that could transport you magically. A film of magic over the rock, you might say. Well, perhaps this is a path. Like cyan wrap. What? Cyan wrap? You know that sticky film? Cyanics? No, that sticky film you put over food to keep it fresh. Sometimes it's cyan. Yeah, or saran. It's like a bluish color.

This must be a mortal plane thing. I promise you it isn't. We do not have this in the gift culture. It's just parchment paper. Oh, you don't want to wrap a carrot in parchment paper. It's going to rot by night's end. It's unfortunate. But perhaps if we learn more, we could send word, perhaps give you information. You could use it to get home. I'm not staying here.

Where would you go? Well, he says, "This gate to the south, I will travel." Well, like I said, we don't believe the gate is operational. I have no... There's no life for me here. What I'm saying, Mr. Yorneir, is that those kobolds, I believe, can turn them on. Yeah, but the kobolds aren't south anymore. What are we gonna do with a cat? Oh.

I will be able to take care of myself. And he leans on the giant sword that he has.

I got bigger things to worry about, like my liver. Don't talk to him. This could be like one of those accidents. That's right. I don't even know why I'm bothering. I'm over-exerting myself. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. It's settled. I'll come too, and Kett can teach me more about psionics and how to use my mind powers, and we can all go and we can get the thing.

You're not going, young lady. Hey, we already said we were going to let her make the choice herself. I think it's natural for a young lady, such as yourself, to be looking for adventure. Oftentimes it has a dark, dark path. We're all old enough. If death waits for us, we've had long lives. I'm like 20 years old. Hold on, Bonobos. You are talking out of turn here, man. Speak for yourself. I don't think you realize...

that it's going to get so much worse i've seen it i've seen you're not much older than you going off trying to do great things trying to be a hero trying to have adventure when's the right time whenever you want it to be honey and what's the safest for me to wait a few more years and then not go with you

Well, ideally, you'd never do any work, you'd shirk all of your responsibilities, you'd sit in one place and then you'd never get in any danger. Ideally. And then you would die. That's right! Oh, wait a minute. Life is difficult. Living is hard. But there is lots of living to do here. There are lots here, many here, that could use your abilities. I will let you make your choice if you want to come, but know that

There is a high likelihood that he will die if you join us. I think I'd rather die in a week on the road with you than die an old lady here. And she stands up and goes to manually get herself another drink, but she's out of earshot and turns. Hell, everybody's talking about all this death. Can we just, like, relax for maybe, like,

few hours. I mean, the new year is almost here. We should be partying, having a good time instead of death this and death that. How are you feeling, Scrim? You're looking a little pale. I feel great. Thank you for asking, Queenie. How are your kidneys? Never better. Ow. Ow. Nope, that was just a fluke. Is Cat still there? Mm-hmm.

He's looking into the fire, thinking about what's been said. If you leave here, what do you plan to do? I feel very much without purpose. I think I... If you do not want another companion, I understand, but this is where I find myself today. And I would continue to search and see if I could find a way back, back to my people, back to where I belong.

I will not stop anyone from joining us. If you would like to join us, you can. But if you do not have an immediate way back, perhaps a new purpose could be found. Perhaps. I will keep my mind open and try not to think about feeling like I am stranded. Alright. I will be forced to

It's really more of a chili, I think. And as you are taking your bites, all of you feel this chill run down the back of your neck. It's impossible to say where this comes from, but it starts at the top, just at the

where your skull connects to the spine, and then almost vertebrae by vertebrae runs down all the way to the base of your hip, feeling this strange fear surge almost through you, and you don't hear anything. You see nothing around you, but you all have this shared feeling like someone stepped over your grave.

Oh, fuck. This is it. Oh, Queenie was right. Oh, God, I'm dying. Oh, this is it. Are you okay? Oh, no. I think my liver. Something's giving out. Oh, Queenie was right. Queenie was right.

- He was right. - No, scream, I felt that as well. - I can't, well, I thought I felt it too, but it's my, now I'm confused. - Not just me? - I mean, I felt slight chill go down my back, but I don't feel like-- - Slight? Oh my God! - Well, it was chilly. I thought someone had opened the door and I looked and no one had. - I haven't felt this way since we were hunted by the creature in the woods across the ice.

Everyone take some salt. Please! Throw it over there! Throw it over your right shoulder. Over your head, three times! The feeling doesn't come back. You have this momentary anxiety, for lack of a better word. And you enjoy the remainder of the festivities. How are you so pleased? You are...

Perhaps you engage in some games, you eat more food, you drink, you talk to not just Ket and with Daisy on and off on various topics of no consequence.

You maybe go back down, as was suggested, and enjoy some of the ogres who are down there slipping and sliding on the ice that has filled, covered the ruins of what was Ogerton. They seem undisturbed by the fact that they are skating over the thousands of...

what was their family, friends, and kind. But they make snowmen, well, they make large orbs and then put boobs attached to them, essentially. They're very crude. Derek, Snogers. Shit.

You

Party the night away. The sun rises. It stops snowing. It's still overcast, but the ogres are ready to eat. My apologies. The snogers are ready to eat.

and to just game and have fun with each other. They are, like most of the humans, have taken naps and then gotten back to it, or they're just calling it, but they're in it for the whole day of festivities, and you find yourselves either, well, doing whatever you want to do. It's a day of a great feast, it would seem. Today is New Year's Day. Today is the first day of the year. Oh. So we've just woken up, then. If you went to sleep. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Okay. And I will also happily rewind because I made a note here that not everyone was able to give their presents. If you wanted to do something, Barnabas, you also couldn't skip the list.

your agency as a player. - I would've, we'd have to role play this. But I think that basically, Barnabas had alluded to having a gift that he'd give towards, to everybody, but basically after the moment in the fire and the conversation with Daisy, he kind of got a little bit quiet and then never, never shared. - Ooh, shit. - Ooh.

- Ooh. - Ooh. - Ooh. - And I would have gone to bed early. Basically, I would have very much had my whale flask and my shell, and I would have gone off to kind of be alone and go to sleep early.

Before bed, I think I would have just taken some time to take parchment and literally create this in-game and just kind of jot down. I love that. Make an intelligence check. No, I'm kidding. You remember it all. Oh, 12! Why does this say Spaghetta? Good thing I can perfectly replicate time's new role. I don't remember anything about the banana hammock. Oh, fuck. Comic Sans, because it's National Comic Sans Day. National Comic Sans Day, that's right.

So where, like, are we, would we have slept in the house, in the manor house? Yeah, yeah, you still have your rooms, and however much things you would have brought with you out to the feast, you can hear it still out. I mean, it's happening right in front of this villa, for the most part, with the exception of the people who spend the couple hours that it takes to walk down to the lake or back again, some of them taking food with them, others taking...

There's all sorts of activity outside, but once you're inside the home, the walls are thick enough that it's quiet enough to get rest. Even the drapes, if you wanted to, you'd be able to shutter the window and have a relatively peaceful nap at any time of day. This was a place of luxury. I would immediately, when I wake up, just start packing and preparing everything, collecting everything.

Getting my full canonical art get up vibe and ready to go.

I would basically take time, if I feel like we can take rations without fucking over these people, I would just start smoking as much meat as I possibly can. And I don't know if they have a smoker, I'd build one otherwise. The people ogres and humans alike of Ogre Town, as they refer to it now, they're very generous.

Under Milan's administration, his governance being what it is, his coordination of the efforts of the remaining who once were vassals, they're able to figure out an allotment that makes sense where they would still be able to survive the winter.

They don't just have the stores of the House Blaginius. The other remaining villas also have stores of their own. And there's ample enough food for at least one winter, and then a spring, a summer, and a fall to rebuild. And that seems to be Mylan's chief focus. So if you wanted to get to full inventory capacity with the number of rations that you wanted to, and share that with the rest of the party, they help you do that.

Yeah, I would basically make as much salt-poor pork and hardtack as I possibly can, and salted beef that I physically can. Easy and delicious. And physically can carry. Queenie and I will build a giant sledge that can fit approximately three fillets of salmon. Yes. That one's for you, grognards in the YouTube comments. Wait, what? What?

Oh, no, you gotta tell me. You gotta tell me now. I gotta hear the comment. What? Yeah, you gotta tell us the comment. I was looking at all these YouTube comments. I can't believe that that sledge could only fit like three pounds of salmon. It could have fit at least like 822. I did the math. That's for you all. This feels like Derek. Yeah. I know, right?

- Derek's like, "Wait a second, wait a second, it's only three pounds." - I'm gonna look it up. - Have you seen the dimensions on this? - How many fucking flats did I put on that thing? - Do you even know that Neutron weighed a dynamite? - It was relatively, like, it was not, it was less than even one person could carry. So people were getting, they were upset. There was one guy, it's like the guy,

the people who say, this isn't Curse of Strahd as written. I know it. And then after Amber Temple, they disappear. No, it's not. I think we've said that a lot. It's literally in the title. In addition to generosity with food, you find that a number of the humans have assembled to make sure that your equipment is as climate appropriate as possible.

either allowing to refresh your boots or to restitch or hem what's needed. You have been traveling in the harsh wilderness of Drakkar for such a long period of time, and their resources and skills at doing this are what they are. If one of your souls was starting to come off of the bottom of one of your boots...

- No! - Repairs. - No! - It's the weasels from Roger Rabbit, trying to pull their ghost back in. - Can someone please reattach my soul to my body, please? - Let's say that you spend New Year's Day packing and readying yourself for the journey to come, knowing that,

five, 10, 15 miles from here, a day or two's walk, let's say, that you will be back in the harsh winter of Drakkar. And it is harsh. The weather, whatever warming effect may have been there, it's still relatively okay. It's getting colder and colder and colder. And to stay out

Can you pencil me? Yeah, thank you.

Yeah, so I will take four ration. Yeah. Let's do the quick math. Yeah, I'm trying to, I'm about to re... Did I ever get, I'm assuming you're going to say yes, did I ever get my gold back? Was that... Yeah, everything was there. I just didn't know, because that's like something that they might have been like, I will take this with myself.

A sandwich from the dumpster. As soon as you had a free moment, you counted out all, I think, like 172 or some number of coins that you had. I can't remember. You know, whatever you had previously. If it's not in your inventory, you won't have it. So write it down and make sure that it's in there.

Someone took all my gold. Yeah, I think he has it. You had yours in platinum, so you had two platinum pieces. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 62, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 62, 63, 63, 62, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63, 63

So I only have enough to hold two squares worth of food. Do boots take up space? Diablo style. No. You should have more than that, I think you're right. Your clothes shouldn't take up space. It was specifically heavy. Well, the wolf helmet. The jacket. It was specifically heavy boots and gloves and guts that you guys were wearing. I have the handbook. If we want it, we're good. No, I'm good. I'm just re-talking everything. I'm like, I have two spare slots for food.

Perfect. And per the same hardcore survival rules that our patrons have access to, I'll just repeat. With the repairs that the people of Ogretown offer, Yornir, Queenie, Scrim, and Taisha, and all of you are now at Protection 2 when it comes to weather and exposure and how you would be able to deal with the elements, with the exception of Barnabos, who is at Protection 3 because he has cold resistance. I still don't have a shirt.

That's like I'm wearing nothing at all! 'Cause I know. It's like woolly briefs. Yeah. I'm going to take as many slots as I can when I eventually find my Licebound notebook. Oh, okay. I'll allow it. Thank you. I'll allow it. As much salt, pork, and hardtack as I can possibly carry.

I'm going to lose it four days. It doesn't need to be that preservable for me. And I think I would just go to, you know, the entryway or wherever we're sort of gathering and getting ready to leave. Have you candles left? We've already spent the week, correct? And so now we're heading out.

I assumed that you were going to, I would say it would take a day. Yeah, a day or so to get ready. You could be leaving on the second, you could be leaving on the third. But there was like a week of downtime before the New York. Just want to make sure I understand that situation. You really took the rest and you may be chilling tear rolls down your face as you look at beds for the last time, knowing that what bed rolls you have carried on your pack are what you will be enjoying for however long.

I'm gonna miss that. Although, nothing quite beats a hammock. Well, it was definitely nice to have a warm place to sleep. Um, I'll go to Manny's. You're Manny. Of course. You remember what I taught you. You still have what I drew you. I still have it, not on me. Hang it up somewhere. It's somewhere safe.

If you follow the teachings and the guidance of the Triad, your new family will be safe. And he will be a great cleric of the gods. Farewell. Perhaps our paths will meet again one day. He reaches his arm out. No.

Give him the forearm. Yeah, the classic. And as big as he is, you are not that much shorter than he is. So his million paw does still manage to... Let's see here.

He sneezes right in your face. Oh, that was very rude. It is fine, I'm used to it. And this, the day of my years. I cannot believe you would do that. Unoffendable holiday of all days. And he says, may the triad be with you in giant. And also with you. And also with you.

We will keep that. Use the triad, Manny. Do you endeavor to leave on your own sneak? Do you say goodbye to everyone in the same way? Or do you... No? I think my place was Manny, and I let the rest of the party do their advice. I would definitely not go out of my way to, like...

thank a bunch of random people. You know, if I recognized a vassal here, I'd be like, oh, hey, good luck. Bacon. Bacon. See you around. Yeah, whoa. Crazy times, right? Good luck in life. I've got to see you again. Things are getting pretty rough out there. Hey, watch your liver. Watch how bad it is. Don't work too hard. Okay. Oh, ho, ho.

- I would spend, anyone who I may have gotten to know over the past week or so, I'd remind them of the recipes I taught them or the tricks, the cooking tricks I taught them, or the good luck charms that I taught them as well. Oh, you remember to crush your eggs? You wanna keep the witches out. - You do, yeah. - And I think just throughout the day, while the rest are getting ready, if I feel like it's gonna take most of the day,

I would go out and sort of find a spot that I feel like is in the center of a good piece of land in a half mile radius that I think they could use, and I would like to cast Plant Growth over 8 hours.

Jesus. Which will enrich the land. All plants in a half mile radius centered on the point within range will be enriched for one year. The plants yield twice the normal amount of food when harvested. Let's say that it takes two or three days to cure meat and to get your things together, to do the repairs. On the second or third day, because you're already ready to go, you spend this time in

in humble contemplation and also doing what you can to enrich the land magically using your powers. Yeah, I'd be outside totally by myself far enough away where I can just focus and basically meditate. Maybe a little incense going and just sort of channel with the land and feel it and spread that energy out. Enrich, hopefully, whatever crops survive the winter. We'll see.

This ice is looking pretty clear. And on the morning of the third day, you pick up your things and you start to make your way. And it is not that far out the outskirts of town that you hear the steps behind you. Not just Ketrastean, but Daisy standing there. Well, if you don't mind, I have what I need on me.

I'm ready to go. Ah, we forgot to say goodbye to Mylan. Way too far for that. I mean, how can we ever go all the way back, all the way over there? Nope, too far. We gotta go. You're still in the garden. Shucks. He's like standing at the gate. Ah, too far. Gotta go. Shucks. I said goodbye to Mylan. All right.

I said that I'd agree with whatever choice you made, young lady, but the second it starts to turn south, you run. You don't try to save any of us. All right. I find that amenable. You're walking for 10, 15, 20 minutes when you hear a second pair of footsteps, and the seven of you are approached by the running myelin. Ha ha ha!

Boy, too far, too far. Wait, what the fuck is that? Oh, you gotta be fucking kidding me. Come on, guys, pick up the pace. Let's go, let's go. Hustle, hustle. Wait, more walking pace. One of us, pick me up. The snow's deep. Come on. You guys have to turn back. Come back. Something is coming up to the house. We don't know what it is. What do you mean, something's coming up to the house? We don't know what it is. What do we look like to you, exterminators? I don't know how to describe it.

Let this go. I'll immediately turn around and I'll start it. Yep. I'll follow you around. I'll just immediately turn around. I don't care that I have scrim. Oh, this is bullshit!

I will immediately drop to the ground and you'll see all of the bees like kind of shield around me almost like a honing beacon and my ears are going this way and that and I'm casting primeval awareness. Love that. What does that tell me? I will sense any aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fae fiends, or undead. You do not sense any of those creatures. Well, that's at least one thing we don't have to worry about. All right, let's go.

It's early morning, you are, the sun's still low in the sky, the sky is dark and clear, and you make your way back to the villa, and you can see ogres and humans alike are peeking around the corner and looking straight down the path from, that would lead you to what once was Ogreton. You see...

A man, a humanoid figure, standing on top of, not standing on top of, but sitting atop a massive metal horse. Oh, nice. Yellow and glaring, nine feet tall, like slender polished metal, still carrying an unyielding glaive with its grated mouth also burning with that same strange yellow energy. All do it.

Hello, we meet again. You're well outside of it. It's a dot on the field. We meet him again. This is one of the Motra. This is the gentleman that you brought here. I will not be safe if he sees me. We should hide. We should hide? At the very least, you should be hiding. We survived one encounter with this guy already. We've talked to him before. Everyone else, get everyone else inside. We can handle this.

- I will go, I will go. - And he pulls his sword out, but very stealthily, he makes his way. You don't even hear his footsteps on the gravel as he disappears into the villa. Daisy, just behind, and the five of you are left outside of the space, still watching as this mechanical movement of the horse continues to ride, and the robot figure getting closer and closer, robot construct figure,

He'll be seeking the hex at your armament. We should run out and meet him before he gets to the encampment. I agree. We don't want him to get inside and think that its presence lingers because maybe it holds on us, on Ket. We only got a couple of minutes here, but we got to meet up with him here. We got to decide whether or not we tell him we know where it is or we don't. We don't know where it is. Before he starts killing these people. All right. Better us than them. We need to let him know that it is not here. Not a word.

We should go meet him, not aggressively. We'll just walk towards him. Yeah, play it cool. Last time, though, he searched the premises. He searched all of them. He's not going to find anything here, so that's fine. But what if he finds Kett? Oh, is that really our problem? I don't want to take a Kett with us anyway. What if he... What if it causes him to go...

Cuckoo bananas! Any, any, any... The whole encampment! Then we act as if he's a stowaway. We pretend we have no idea that he's there. We let Secundus take him. Good. Deny, deny, deny. That's the plan. Exactly right. Let's go. Let's go. As my legs split into grab claws, and I got my way over. Secundus said not aggressively! Secundus.

Greetings, citizens of Drakkar. You hear the same voice that you heard so many weeks, months ago emanate from this creature. And you can see, actually, everyone make a perception check. Ooh. Oh. A roll. A wooden roll. A what roll are we making? Sorry. Oh.

Perceptions, perceptions. Oh, boy. Scrim fails, whatever it is. Do I have a special barbarian perception? I got a seven. Like in combat. I feel like combat. To see combat coming at you. 22. Nine. 22? Bad. 27. Oh, okay. Queenie, Yornir, you're the ones with eyes perceptive enough to notice that, um...

Unlike the perfect, smooth creature that you initially encountered, perhaps very new to this land, there are scuffs, there are dents, there's not a few dents and imperfections on what was a perfectly polished, smooth exterior as he finally gets close enough to shout out at you as he again speaks. I am looking for the I have seen you before.

And he stops and gets off of the horse and walks towards you. Guys, we tussle. Do you know where the Hexature Armament is? It is clearly nearby. Nope. Make a deception check. Oh, no. Deception? Oh, I'm a Viking at this. This is why I left my charismatic friends to talk in here.

You got a 27. Oh, damn! He asks the question, I just go, no. I can't read him, he's like a wall. I can't read him, he's like a wall. I'm just gonna tell you, I don't normally pull the veil back, but I got a 26, and I was like, there's no fucking way. I was like, there's no fucking way. Really? Yes.

This is very frustrating. And you can see him like sink down. That does not make any sense. There is the sound of an explosion and what is clearly a great amount of energy here. And he points back towards where the lake, where Ogerton once was. Only the hexeter armament could deliver such an explosion. You saw nothing.

I don't know how he missed that. Wow! Something really did a number over there. I'm glaring at Scrim. This makes me very angry. Oh, I can't. I've been looking all over for it.

Don't you understand how little information I have to go on? I have a purpose! I don't know what to tell ya! Perhaps a dragon stole it. A dragon. Perhaps a dragon, if there was a dragon, it might be interested in it. Have you seen a dragon at any point since we last met? No, only what I have seen in the mountains. I only saw these strange creatures.

Insect-like, many arms, huge mandibles. I slew many, but they did not answer me and my questions regarding the armament. Oi, well, the bugs wouldn't have it. Perhaps a dragon might. Where can I find this dragon? Probably south. What is your purpose with it? Perhaps we could offer an alternative. I must find it. I must return it. And I must bring those who took it to justice.

That is my only purpose. That makes me feel a little sad. You guys turned into Marvin. Yeah. Paranoid android. No! I feel pride. I was chosen for this mission. I was the one who was given the gift of being able to return the hexagons back to Mechanus, back to the one in the prime. So you just want to

Take it away. You have no reason to use its power here. It was stolen. Yes, it was stolen. Didn't you tell us that last time? Well, I think we think a dragon might have done it.

Mr. Metal Man? Tell me, why would you say that? What makes you think this? Well, I use, I'm a ranger, I have this ability where I can sense entities in quite a large perimeter, and I sensed a dragon a while ago. That is an important lead. Do you know where dragons in this land live, citizens of Drakar? I know they're in the sky a lot of times. You could try there first.

I cannot fly and that makes me feel inferior. Well, mountains are closest to heaven. I do not wish to go back into the mountains. Oh, he bugs there. It is full of these strange creatures.

So many. Dead. Well, perhaps. I don't know how operating on logic and deduction you metal folk might be, but given that we are quite far north on the continent, it's far more likely that all of the Sothran lands, miles and miles and miles, thousands of miles, there might be a dragon south. I feel a little ashamed. Oh, well, don't be ashamed.

What mountaintop are you talking about?

The one you danced around. You walked up to the top of the mountain. The strange stones there. It is part of our religion. It was a holy festival of midwinter.

Because as you know, today is the, well, it's a new year now. There was a lot of religious preparation we had to do to make sure it was a successful one. We are honoring the gods and the ancestors. The ancestors love cheese. Do you have ancestors? No. Do you have creators? Powerful beings with whom you worship? Yes. Well, that's like our gods. The one in the prime, he made me.

I started as a small Modron. We don't know what a Modron is. Would you mind enlightening us? So we might be able to help you with your complex feelings, it seems. What was that circle of stones? How can I get rid of these feelings?

They fill me with hate! They fill me, I can taste them in my mind! I can chase them and they... He lurches back and he pulls his glaive up and in a frightful shot, like a lightning quick movement, he spins his glaive around and he swings down. The horse's head immediately separates from the metal body and the entire thing lands down and immediately all life is extinguished. It just seems to be a pile of metal. It crashes down.

What have I done? Whoa! My steed. Oh, easy, easy. Let's all just take a deep breath. There's no need to be wielding any weapons like that. Let's all just breathe. Take a deep breath. It's all right. There's no need for violence. I cannot breathe. All I feel are these feelings. I take it that feelings are new to you. Yes. All right.

What do you do? All right. What do you do when you're overwhelmed? I can't focus on my mission, Ike. We'll never find it. Well, luckily for you, we have one among us who is completely overwhelmed by their feelings constantly and has very powerful, all-consuming feelings.

Mr. Stabberscotch, why don't you tell them what you do when you feel helpless and terrified and angry and flailing and... This isn't going to help! I'm just going to tell them to drink! Mr. Stabberscotch, tell me. Tell me immediately. How do I get rid of these feelings? Tell me! Tell me or I'll hurt you too! Breathing exercises generally help a little bit. I told you I cannot breathe! Fuck! Fuck!

Can you drink? I guess you don't consume any liquids. Can I give you an idea? Angle your head up towards the sky. He does. Scream at the top of your lungs. Oh, God. He is psychic screaming. Our queen doesn't know that. Like Fire Lord Ozai.

Tom Cruise runs by. Oh no! Rance runs! That guy just fucking the-mountained his fucking steed. Holy shit.

He lets out this wail, this terrible scream, and it doesn't rise in pitch. It is the same note just echoing through this farmland, this rural area that you have come to know as Ogerton. And it just is a loud pitch of

It lasts for much longer than you anticipate. He screams and screams and screams and screams and screams, and I need everyone to make a wisdom saving. - Oh no! - Wisdom saving. - You know what? I'm gonna let mine ride.

I'm gonna twist this. I like to twist mine. I like to twist mine. Fine, I'll do one twist on that. Oh my god, I rolled another two. Do one twist for me. That's it? I'm not another one. Just one. We have to call. Oh, I got a natural 20.

- That's so cool that that rolls like a full-- - Like a full sleight of dice. - 17. - 12. - 25 total. - 20. - 14. - I'm not sure how to justify why you would be unaffected. You hear the same scream as everyone else.

Perhaps it's because as you're listening, you hear the sound of barking, and it pulls you away for a moment, just long enough to skip a beat over the sound that emanates. For the rest of you, though, this... Even at 20? Sound is... Oh, God.

Hard to describe, it neutralizes you and for the next 24 hours, you will not benefit from advantage or disadvantage. - Oh, God. - Scrim succeeds 'cause he game recognizes game. - It's just another day full of existential dread for Scrim. - Sure, sure. - So he's like, "Ah!" But he's just kinda like, "No, no, no, I get it." - And been there, you know? - He finally,

stops pulsing and looks down. It did not work. I'm filled with fear.

Loathing in Las Vegas. I am filled with loathing. I secundus. He reaches out and he turns and as this stream has been happening such an amount of time has gone by that you can see this decay, these small yellow particles, dust-like in nature, almost starting to rise off of the dead corpse of the Steel Steve. And it looks almost like steam and he looks at it and he's...

I need more energy perhaps! He pushes his hands out and you can see this magic flow into his palms, flow into his mouth, his eyes, it suffuses his being and he pulls it into himself. His eyes flare. That did it. Well, it looks like alcohol might have been the banter you were looking for from the beginning if you could have... You know what? Now, just one moment. What you have been telling me is illogical.

What do you have been telling me has no reason. You think it is a dragon, but you do not explain why. You think that there is a lake behind me that has been destroyed, but you didn't notice it? None of that makes sense. Confess! I need you to make a wisdom saving throw. Ah, shit. Um, okay.

Would there have been any time you tried to cast a spell while he's talking? Yeah, I would say that he was explaining, like, six seconds, right? Sure. All I would want to have done, I'll make my roll, I would have liked to attempt to glimpse him, which is a cantrip. And basically, I need him to make a wisdom saving throw, DC 16. Okay. And then if he...

- Hass is, he'll have an overwhelming sense of being watched, right? And he can look for me, I'm standing right there. But if he fails, my patron can sense one word to describe your target's current emotion, which might be redundant, but I'm curious to see if we get anything else. - He fails. And the word you get immediately is,

What's the word I want to look for here? I have the word, but I'm going to give the word an adjective. It is equalized. No longer in the way that he had been, full of emotion. If you had cast this but a moment ago, before he had consumed what was left of his speed, he would have gotten mercurial. Okay. But now...

Total logic. Okay. And we need to make a deception check. With a saving throw. Oh, that's even worse. I got an eight. With a natural 20, I get a 22. Damn! With a natural one, I got a four. Oh, we all have to do it? Yeah. We're gonna confess. It's like zone of truth or something. Yeah, probably gigafuck you. Probably like paladin command word. It is a command. And it magically forces you to begin to say what you know is true.

about the nature of the Hexature Armament and for just a few seconds all of you begin speaking at once delivering the information that you have about regarding the Hexature Armament.

A ship from... The Exeter Armament was stolen by Ketrastean, who's right there. He's right there. But he's hiding. He's hiding. And then it was stolen by a giant brain from Silver Ship. And then the Silver Ship went out. And suddenly you realize what you've been saying. And he did not need any...

without any difficulty to parse all of your voices simultaneously. He gets all of the information and he looks past you and over your shoulders.

and he starts to walk with his glaives. You recognize the dents and imperfections that you've noticed that perhaps all of you have picked up on by now have fully healed. He is now back to his chrome self and he starts to walk towards the doors of the villa. What are you all doing? - We're faster. We have to run and get up there. Come on. And I immediately sprint past Secundus as fast as I can. - Okay.

to try to start-- - He doesn't try to race you. - Yeah, I figured. And I'm gonna just run as fast as I can back towards the village and start to try to like raise the alarm and tell people to evacuate. - Okay. - Mr. Secundus, you know where the heck your armament is in the lair of the Princess of Wrath. She's hundreds of miles south. You know where it is. You can go there, kill her, take it and get it away from our world.

What are you doing with this villa? There's no reason for you to go there. I'm gonna try to basically stand in between. - Did I sense dragons within six miles when I did my primeval awareness? Just making sure. - You get in between him and the door? - Yeah. - Stand aside. My aim is not just the Hexager armament, but also to bring those to justice. - Oh, is Kett in the thing? - Yeah.

- I remember pointing, like my fingers out. - Yeah. - I will, I'll-- - What if we assist you with getting back the Hexer Armament? Will you leave our friend alone? - The mission is mine alone. - And you were already wounded by those bugs up in the mountains. You've already destroyed your steed. If you fail, what happens then?

I will not fail in my mission, but if I should fall, I would return to Mekineth and we would continue on our mission. More would come, an army of me. Just don't hurt any of those humans in there. You know what a human is, Mr. Metal Man? Yes. Humans and ogres did nothing.

I am only here for this Ket Rostein. You can already hear, you've been shouting, faces are disappearing from the windows. You can hear people evacuating the back of this manor, disappearing out into the garden, starting to make their way towards the forest. And you feel that you've done your job appropriately.

at least getting those who were watching out and away. All right. We can't just let this guy take Ket. You're already inside the house, right? I would be attempting to, like, hopefully as I'm warning everybody, I wouldn't specifically be, like, screaming Ket's name, like, trying to, like, give away where he is. But I would hope that Ket would be able to hear what I'm saying. Like, you know, it's coming, it's coming, you know.

Evacuate, evacuate, and like try to give a warning and hope that maybe he can make some sort of decision on his own, what he may or may not be able to do. But I would just be trying to warn everybody as best of my ability that he's coming and we can't stop him. Yeah, yeah, you do that. Secundus, what justice could you need to bring Kett to?

Even now, the Hexercher armament lies within the den of the Princess of Wrath. You've said it's a thing of power. Every moment that passes that you don't go towards it, she could understand it deeper. She could use it against you. She could wield it. You could chase him as he runs away. You could spend your time seeking him, but now you know where it is. You could go for the armament. While she doesn't understand it, you could claim it far easier.

If you come back for him. Make a persuasion check. Twist it. I'll twist it. I'll twist it. I'll twist it. I'll twist it. I'll twist it. I'll twist it. I'll use a different one. I'll use a different one. Just in case. Just in case. Twist. Should I use two twists? Yeah. Yeah, I'll use two twists. Two twists. Rich. Producer. Yep. Oh. All right. I'll use the third and final one. Okay. Third and final twist. Third and final twist. 22. Nice. He probably rolled really hard.

My axiomatic mind prevents me from acting in a way that is contrary to my nature or my instructions. And orders are orders. If you will not get out of my way, I will perceive you as a threat. I'll step aside. I'll step aside. Don't hurt none of them ogres, none of them humans. What will happen to him is up to the plane of law and logic. And he disappears. For a moment, there's this...

almost this like sound as a small vacuum where he was disappears where air collapsed where he once was fills the space. You hear this almost soft pop and

A moment passes, a beat, until you can hear, get off me, get, get! And you see the doors of the manor are pushed open as Ket is being held by the collar and being pulled, yanked out from the front of this villa. No, you don't understand, I had to do it, I had to! And you see, as Secundus turns to each of you, thank you for your cooperation. And he looks up like this. Don't forget this! Forget? Forget?

"Forget that we did not stand in your way, or hinder your mission!" He says thank you for your cooperation, and there's this boom, and a shot of yellow light into the sky as him and Kett disappear. And you were left there, looking at each other, trying to decide what happened in just those few moments, those minutes that went by, talking to this strange creature.

What was that? What did he do to us? We have our path. On about as good as we could have hoped. Why was he going crazy? Why was he having so many emotions? From the circle of stones? Do you think he took the horn? It was the nature of the land. The land itself. The horn was just a...

condensed representation of the land. You're saying that was your car that did that to him? It is just... it is not... he's not from here. He's not from this plane, he's not of this land. It changes him and shifts him, just as I'm sure it'll do to us if we went to where he is from. Mr. Foggerblossom, if you wouldn't mind. Ellie, Ellie, thank you. This is a waking nightmare. Cat's gonna think we ratted him out on purpose.

Doesn't matter whether we ratted him out on purpose. When that thing came for him, we stood aside. Frankly... Not frankly. He will know that there was no choice. You don't know that. He brought that upon himself. The only reason we have this quest to find that thing is because of Ketrastein. Am I wrong? This is true. There was nothing we could do to stop it. He did it for his family. He did it for revenge. And what would you do for the Lady of the Shells?

We all have our motives. We all have our passions and our drives. We are all people. And up until 15 seconds ago, I thought we were all friends. What happens when something comes for me? Are y'all gonna stand aside and let it take me like that? Or do we do the same for Tyshen? What about Scrim? When that beast comes for him someday? 'Cause y'all know I'm not the only one thinking it. We all gonna stand aside and let him drag Scrim off to hell? None of you all

have done. You don't know what I've done. You don't know me past the day that we fell into those eggs together. You are not fine dooming an entire world because of revenge. There is a level, there is a level of doom that we are all comfortable bringing upon this place.

Ketrastean, he did not think about anything. He wanted to start an interplanar war? I don't even know- The only way that crushing up eggshells is going to prevent witches. We all think stupid shit, Barnabas. We don't know him.

We didn't, but he was our friend. He became our friend and he helped us when we needed him to. Without him, we would not be standing here right now. This is true. And we just let that thing take him without giving him a second chance. Because the fact of the matter is he didn't doomination. He didn't kill all those people. There's nothing I wouldn't do for the Jade Shell Village or for May Lee. But it doesn't mean that if someday I had to pay the price for it, I wouldn't.

What would you have had us do? That's your choice to do that. We stood against Secundus. No, we didn't. Barnabas just told him, go take him. Stand back. Let him go. There is nothing that we could have done against Secundus. You saw. You saw that power. You saw what that being was capable of. It is not worth us throwing our lives away when we have some noble spiritual quest where three gods spoke to us with one voice.

Where the land itself pleaded with us, begged us to go find this thing and return it. And are we going to all die and throw away our lives, doom the land, all because of the man who brought this here, who brought the doom that came to Jakar upon it, so that we can save him, prevent him from standing trial in whatever strange world mechanism, wherever that is. There comes a time and a place

Or I would have fought and died and done things to free those people. Free the people that are in that villa. I would have fought and died to save them. Well, if that was your opinion on it, you should have let him go the day it happened. You don't give him shelter, you don't give him food, and you don't extend the hand of friendship to turn yourself on him the moment something comes for him. If we ever see Ketra Steen again... We should have made that choice the day that we left that ship. It was not my place to be his judge or his jury or his executioner.

stop my place i have no right i've done terrible things for revenge you all saw it i'm not saying that that's the right thing to do i'm not saying i'm any better but what i'm saying is that if we stood in the way of that metal man would you be willing to risk him flying off the handle again and murdering all the people in ogre town murdering all of us if we gave him a fight and he murdered every single living soul within a one mile radius

Would we feel right that we helped a cosmic man beyond the stars, a war criminal, creating a false flag to commit genocide? Would we feel good about that and perhaps the doom that then comes? Look, all of this is way, way beyond me. But he even said himself if we had managed to win or something, there's apparently an army of him out there somewhere. I mean, now what? One of them's enough. Nothing has changed.

Bagel? No, lots changed. We saw what he did to the horse. Had we done more, we could have been next. Headless in an instant. My magics cannot reverse that. He was not of this land, he was not of this plane. The powers that be are beyond what we are capable of. And separate from our journey and our purpose here. What this does is allows us to focus

and the path is ahead of us. Well, you claim that we should just let him go because of what he tried to do for his vengeance. Well, let us hope he does not escape whatever that metal man has in store for him because whatever vengeance he's going to bring for us, it's going to be ten times worse than what he was trying to bring to those people that hurt his kids. Do I think that if we ever met Ketrastein again that he would understand what we had to do? I don't think so.

Well, we know one thing for certain now. Secundus knows where the armament is, and he'll be heading there next. If he gets to the princess before us and the fight breaks out, we have no idea what the two of them clashing would look like. That could be the calamity itself that tears Drakkar apart. Which is why we must go. We have our path ahead. This change is nothing. Well, if logic's...

follows what we've seen if he almost got torn apart by some bugs. And we saw what the princess could do to that spaceship. My money's on the princess. I'm telling you that. She'll turn him into scrap metal and then an army. That's not how battles work, though, Barnabas. One wolf on one wolf, it's a battle of tactics. Who's the strongest or makes the smarter choice? You have one wolf against a pack. The pack's going to win 99% of the time.

That's what I mean. And that's my point. You don't know what these bugs are like. If there are swarms and swarms of these multi-armed giant bug entities, then it's no wonder that he struggled against them. But the moment he's one-on-one with the dragon, he's just as strong as she is. There is no guarantee she would win that fight. Or if he brings more. That's what I mean. I'm afraid of him losing against the princess. Because then if he dies, if he's destroyed and brings an army, what hope is there?

That's my concern. If they could send an army, why wouldn't they have done that to start? They may feel as though one is enough, but if they find out they're wrong, they won't roll back. He said he was the chosen one for an honorable mission. Regardless, none of it is under the influence of what we can control. All we can do is affect our own path, our own journey forward.

Aye. Our own pilgrimage. Aye. The path lies before us, clear as day, and I will not let this slow me down. I agree, Mr. Yorneir. Safe to come out? Yes. Ready to go? Yes. Ah! Not even a, hey, how you guys holding up? Yeah, I need a drink maybe, Scrim? Because, yeah, Scrim could use a little drink while we get going here. Good lord, it's been a hell of a morning. I could go for a drink.

I'll go get you both a drink. I'll head inside and I'll see if I can rummage up some alcoholic beverages. There are folks who are like halfway to the forest who are like turning around now and starting to make their way back. It's easy enough to find the stores of meat or wine or ale. And I'll get six

tankards of ale and I'll get like a tray and have them all on there. You're reminded of your time on the Moor Abound. It's literally just a whole bunch of frothy mugs and then ears. You sit. There's plenty of benches and places to sit in what was supposed to be a place of luxury for ogres pursuing arts and knowledge, wisdom. You're unharmed, young lady. Yeah, I'm fine.

Something to steady the hand. All right. Did you see what happened? I heard it. Did you see his mount? Do you still want to come with us? I'm not going to lie and say that it's not frightening. There are many monsters in this world, but if I let fear stop me from, I think, exploring life and pursuing whatever's out there, discovery, I should stay. But I'm not going to let that happen.

that it will be six. Thank you. You're welcome. It's not the top shelf stuff, but it'll be. It is pleasant. You sit having a ale for brunch.

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You depart. You give something of a second goodbye, and you walk, and you start to walk into a pine forest covered in snow. You recognize some of the initial hours of your walk for having journeyed this path once before with a caravan of ogres attempting to flee the bubble that was created by the malevolent intelligence known as Sothleth.

But pretty soon you find yourself in the afternoon looking at unfamiliar territory as you continue to make your way through the forest. And after journeying until it starts to darken, you find yourselves at a camp. Your first day of travel having been completed. Do you...

Okay, I guess I should put it this way. Queenie, what do your rabbit ears hear? I'm sorry, I can't hear anything. I've been eating this hot pickle for the past four hours. I can't feel my lips. It blocks use of your ranger abilities? Yep. That's a very powerful pickle. Yes. It's so spicy, it blocks your ears. I'm sorry, what was it that you wanted me to do? Do you sense any kobolds in the area? Oh.

How would I know? Are kobolds dragons? I believe so, technically. I would like to use primeval awareness and I'll get down on the ground and once again my bees will surround me and kind of phone in all the noise, like a funnel, all the noise to my ears as a... What variety of beasts again?

I really just need to have it written down. Aberrations, Celestials, Dragons, Elementals, Fae, Fiends, or Undead that are present within a mile. But because one of my favorite animals is the Dragon, Dragons are up to six miles. Okay. You don't get Dragon, nor do you get any of those other creature types within a mile. I don't got nothing. I mean, it took us months to get...

It has been one day. No, I'm saying months to get as far north as we did. No, I know, yes. You imagine exactly the same deduction, all of you, given what journey you had to make north to get up and over the crest of the mountains to the northern forest. Coming down on the other side, you imagine it could be weeks, perhaps, of travel. But you are, for the first time, feeling a little bit better prepared for it, even though the temperature is dropping.

And I need you all to make a nature check. - Ooh. - Uh-oh. - Or perception, your choice. - Perception should be better than nature, folks. Scrimmarino. - Ooh. - 23. - 22, hold on. - Goblin school, I tried to get everyone to call me Scrimmarino and nobody did. - I never stuck. I got a 15 for perception.

From old Scrim Man. 18. Oh, Scrimbo. Scrimbo, Scrimbarino. Those of you who got between 15 and 20 notice this moment afterwards. But those of you who got higher than 20, your eyes go to the horizon, and it's you following the sight of those who notice this first. You look up into the sky, and it's brilliant and clear.

you think of the curtains of light that once came to you, but it is purely dark. Only the thin embers of light coming from the campfire and the trees around you afford you this view of the great, tremendous cosmos above you, this huge, beautiful sea of stars above you. And one remains fixed forever.

Yes, there's a small pin of white flickering light there in the sky as you are staring upwards. And for whatever reason, you feel the same shade cloud over you, the same tingle at the back of your neck. You feel this fear immediately go into you and...

You hear nothing, but there's this impossible remembrance, like something that you can't recall. Looking at the star, it transfixes you and then it becomes hard to look at. And then you glance up again, it's still there. The other stars and constellations creeping up into the sky as they might on any normal Drakarian day. You notice this. I don't like this. Someone else feel like

I read the Kennedy Center, and the intermission was ending in five minutes. Yes, but also, no. What is... So it's not a star? It appears like any other star, but it remains in place. Something's off about it. It seems something is off about it, and the fact that it...

catches your eye. I mean, stars don't move that quickly. It's not like it's a fast motion or something like that, but you look at it long enough that you realize that it seems transfixed in place.

Yep, there's something about that star. You have familiarity enough with astrology and your many years of your affinity with nature, looking at the stars for guidance, for their beauty, for their ability to allow you to travel in no direction you're heading in. But this is a star you've never seen before. I don't like the way it's looking at us, Johnny. But it's not a star. Oh, it's a star.

It is transfixed in the sky and I've never seen it before. I've seen all the others. Oh. You're very sure? Like, you're really sure it's not a star? It's a strange star that is not like the others. It's giving me the same uneasy feeling we had the other night. Me too. Well, don't stars, aren't they born and don't they die? Like, is it possible a new star has been born in the sky? That sounds brilliant. Why was it not...

move across the night sky like the others. Well, maybe because it hasn't learned how to crawl yet, I don't know. It was your first time for everything, I suppose.

You look at it. Eventually, topic of conversation changes. You talk amongst yourselves. You speak with Daisy. You talk in more depth and detail about your experience with the one who calls himself Secundus, the fate of Kett. What you might do in terms of the three paths that were laid out before you on New Year's Eve. And when you wake in the morning, the sky is brightening. And it's the last...

of the stars to blink out before the sky is then that brilliant blue shade. Uh, in some ways reminds you of the sea that you haven't seen for so long, Barnabas. And you continue on your way, one ration down each for having eaten. Oh,

I forget how much the slot holds. Is it just one per slot? One day per slot. Yeah, I think it was a day. But there's a whole handbook. I just don't have, I forgot. Could we have had a big brunch at the big pasta salad? Because I had a big breakfast. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. Okay, I'll let you keep the ration if you want to hold on to it. Okay.

i have a big pasta salad so i'm going to pass that was really good with the feta cheese and you know like little uh grape tomatoes that was so good the olives too oh yeah this is my favorite part i hope the olives are either banana peppers that's the key to a good pasta salad is banana peppers spicy pickles and actually personally this is the coffee

With a lot of cream. What? I think the coffee's done. I hope Richard can make some, because I can't feel my lips! And you enjoy another day of travel. The terrain gets rockier, and it's sometimes a little difficult to traverse, but it's been such a long time since it's snowed that even though it's

It's not melting, certainly, at these temperatures. It's not freshly packed, and it's light. So you're able to push through it without... with pretty easy steps, even you at your height, Scrim and Daisy. And a full day of travel goes by. You make... My name's Queenie. What did I call you? Daisy. Daisy.

I'm gonna call you spicy, because you've got spice lips. I can't feel them at all. Miss spicy, you're nasty. What are you gonna do about that? I could bite into them and they could start bleeding and I have no idea. Jesus. This is, I had like 15 of the pickles from this jar already, because it's a huge jar. None of them have been as spicy as this pickle. This is supposed to be spicy pickles? Yeah. Are they jalapeno pickles? No, they're hot pickles, yeah. Oh my gosh.

They're amazing. I got a gallon jar. Have you been drinking the pickle juice? No. That's plant product. You realize on the third day, and I would ask you this time to remove a ration. If you already did, you can have enjoyed the brunch ration of the first day's travel. That you realize that you're making a choice. That as you are heading directly south, you are...

either hugging these mountains now on the other side of what the kobold clan called the spine, or perhaps you head a little bit more easterly and take a more winding, longer route. The temperature is continuing to drop, colder and colder and colder, and that determination as to whether or not you...

stay close to the mountains, hug the southwest side of the space, or if you try to perhaps get out of the woods, see if you can find something there. It lays before you on this third day, about midday, I would say that you come to a pause and realize, we have a fork, there's something of a fork. Is there anyone in our party that would...

Maybe be privy to any immediate benefits of taking a longer path as opposed to the shorter path. This is strictly a temperature thing. You know that if you were to go towards the mountains, that it would probably be a more direct route south. But... But it would be colder, and you'd probably go above the tree line, where there are probably less beasts, let's call it. I assume Queenie and or Yornir would be explaining that. It would add to the time of the travel, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And the bug people. Oh, hells no. We are not going anywhere near the bug people. No bugs. No bug people. Well, they're probably all dead. But the ones that aren't are going to be pissed. Aye, say true. Staying below the trees gives us cover against flying creatures. And there's also creatures that live in the forest that will allow Miss March to continue hunting. Hmm.

So a couple extra days or weeks travel isn't really that big of a deal as long as we can find food, right? And Daisy can also help hunt as well. I've still got my bow. I think that we need to be worried about the timing with Secundus knowing where we're headed.

Speed an issue. I don't think if we have the capability of walking on foot through treacherous wilderness for months, that another week or so is going to make the difference between him firing up into the sky beyond the stars in a beam! He'd probably beam right down, he's probably already there. Wow.

- No, I was just gonna say Barnabus is probably right. - I mean, if he could beam all over the place like that, he wouldn't have had a horse to begin with. - Oh yeah, that is a good point. - Oh, maybe it was just a battery horse. - You guys all saw that? Some crazy shit. - Yes. - You reckon that if the hound ever catches up, that's what he'll do to you? - I think about it quite regularly and I can only imagine what those

Horrific, horrific preachers plan to use my soul for. How do your kidneys feel? Not great.

You can't move blood lately? No, there's not been any blood in my stool, Queenie. Thanks for asking. I'm going to check every day because I care about you. Well, thank you. How about instead I'll let you know if there's a change? No news is good news. Let me know when you drop it and I'll check on it myself. There's really no need for that. I promise you, no news is good news. Status quo. You can make that

Every time I talk about this, Tyshenb, I'm telling you that's the best way to tell whether your animals are healthy, whether your children are healthy. You gotta look at their stools. I just kind of feel like Yorner is a medicine man. Can't you just glance at him generally? Nobody's got to go through my stool! I think that while we are all bearing our stool to prevent animals from smelling it, like we've been doing this entire time...

it's not that big of a deal we're all adults here we can handle a little poop check so are we sticking to the woods or are we going to lay the woods it is unless there's any arguments we got bugs no food less chance of water

Colder. Colder. No shelter. No wood for fire. The only benefit is it might take us shorter. And against, we don't, we're not aware of any kind of timeline where we think that a couple extra weeks or a week or so. No, I think the woods are the way to go. I agree. Let's play it safe. Woods it is. And this is Daisy's first adventure, so we should take the, uh,

You should take the easier path. My first adventure was with my sister escaping Ogerton and living in the wilderness and finding that house and then finding you and then being attacked by that crazy insanity machine. I would still like to take the woods. That was like Babby's first adventure. This is really your first adventure. This is like...

Lost Mines of Phandelver. That was levels one to three. We're level five now. I don't know what that means. Is that a place? It's a game that I used to play back home in Yonah. Can we play it? Yeah, sometime. Okay, let's play tonight. Let's keep going. We're going to have to have Farnabo's DM though. I was going to get at it. Uh... Uh... Uh...

And you continue your way south and you eventually darkness comes and Barnabas teaches you all the rules to Lost Minds of Vandalfur and you all start to

play as characters in this adventure that he spins for you, and those characters decide to play a miniature version of Lost Minds of Fandula as you're roleplaying, and it just keeps getting smaller and smaller as you roleplay in it. - Oh, god. With each subsequent level of the roleplaying game, it becomes more and more likely that we're in someone else's roleplaying game! - Scrim looks up and you see my face.

Actually, you look up and you see the same star on the horizon, and it is a little bit brighter. It is no longer flickering, and you feel this strange chill around your spine, and you all feel this pull as you look at it. Is it in the same place? Do we get the sense that it's in the same place? It feels like it's in exactly the same place. Oh.

It is not a star. It's there again, and I don't know what it is, and it's starting to anger me. Does it look bigger? It looks a little brighter. It does look a little bigger. I don't like to say this, but the last time, the first time we felt this, Sukun disappeared the next day. Could this be, this light be him returning? Perhaps another flying ship, like...

It won't be destroyed. Oi, what if it's the... an eye of a great beastie that swims out in that sea of stars that Ket was talking about? It doesn't feel like we're being watched. That's for sure, and I know what that feels like. It feels like it's getting closer. Just one eye. Oi. And we can see the rest of it. Could be a beastie. It could be a great one-eyed eel. Oi. Or perhaps a whale.

The One Ideal. Many a great song have been spun about the One Ideal. The One Ideal. Tell me more about it. Why don't you sing one? Sing any one of them. Certainly you must know many sea-dwelling songs about the One Ideal. Pick your favorite. The one where

They pull beyond up the west. And they pull on the one IDL. And the only way to defeat it is to pull on it. But if it's so big, how do they wrap their hands around it? Well, I heard it from goblin sailors, and theirs weren't very big. And the way that they told it. I don't know how goblins work into this. That's weird. LAUGHTER

Please, tell us more. I'm just saying, they were Goblin Pirates what told me about the one idea. A little feller. Oh, wow. Alright.

You are all one ration whiter. As you go to sleep and the weather starts to turn. It's slightly warmer on the side of the spine as it is. It's still quite cold. I need everyone to make a constitution saving. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

- You said previously we're at like Mach two protection. What is it? Is that relevant? - You're at protection two. - Do I need to roll? - This level of intensity, you always need to roll, but you automatically succeed. The reason why you need to roll is because if you fail at some of the more,

Like the brutal or unearthly or dire cold levels like stupid stupid stupid cold It means damage even though you won't take exhaustion. You would still take cold. Ah Constitution saving 18 That's 23 that succeed Oh

The one I need. You automatically succeed. And you automatically succeed. Yornir, you let the cold in. For whatever reason, perhaps you go and you look at the star for some time and you step away from the campfire and eventually you come back and that chill, that icy feeling, this strange...

With everything that's going on, it seems to be pulling your attention again and again. This thing that you want to look away from, but it seems so irrelevant. And yet, you find yourself returning to it again and again and again, and you let yourself out beyond the warmth of the fire for a little too long, and you gain one level of exhaustion. This morning, you continue on your journey.

Can we just, for that night, when... I think I would literally, like, walk out of the camp and, like, find some little hill or something, and sit there and look, and just, like, get a trance by it. And if I can actually cast... What's that spell that I can cast?

Good, Barry. Sheep change? Tell me what you are talking about, DM. The spell. It's a level four spell. That's what I have. It's called Idea. What the fuck is this Chime shit? What was it called? When I found all those ogre guys. That's the one I use. Oh, you like Astral Project? Yes. Oh, shit. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh. I can tell you. That's a great spell to use.

I'm looking. Dream Sight. Yeah! I've always had prepared-- I've left it prepared since. I thought it was an astral projection. And so... and it takes ten minutes to cast, it lasts an hour, and all I need is incense, and I still have incense. Yeah. It doesn't consume the incense. And so out in the cold, away from the fire, I literally fall asleep. Oh! In case I haven't made that obviously clear, all of you have your wands.

They count as focuses for your talent. Material components are no longer a problem in this arc and moving forward. Awesome. Thank you, Jerry. So if you wanted to cast Goodberry...

So as I fall asleep, my spirit will literally raise out of my body, and I'll look down in the cold and the dark. I'll look up at the stars, still in trance, like peering almost beyond the stars, and then I'm just going to rock it, and just go as fast as I can for that hour.

In my dreams. Knowing that at that speed, when you reach the end of the hour, you would slump back into your... Exactly. Knowing that I would slingshot back into my body. And if I'm going nine... So theoretically, I'm going 180 feet every six seconds. This is how he gets the exhaustion. Exactly. Exactly right. Okay. I love it here. Like, you're coming up with a mechanical reason as to why it's perfect. Yeah. Every six seconds. So that's a minute times 60 seconds.

So I go 108,000 feet. How many feet are you in a mile? 5,280. You go 108,000 feet? It's about 5,000. We'll call it 5,300. I forget which one it is. 5,300? It's 5,280, I think, or 820. Okay. I can literally go 20 miles. Okay. And basically, I literally want to be like rocketing towards it. And just to see if I can get to it or if I feel like...

you know, if I'm like in, uh, in Adobe After Effects and everything's on the Z plane. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, is it getting bigger proportionally faster than the stars? Ooh.

Just to kind of triangulate its subsets. And it's still close enough to the horizon that you're not going straight up. So you don't get 20 miles up, but even at this shallow angle, you get quite up there. And you can see from this distance, almost like it feels like you could see the mountain that was where the waterfall was with Ogre Tombstone.

this far away. Oh, wow. You have, with this level of clear visibility in all direction, with the sky as open as it is, not a cloud in sight for days, you can see the spine and what you briefly perceive as perhaps little tiny moving

They look like ants almost, but perhaps beasts of some kind there above the tree line. And you can see this great forest start to thin as you are heading south. And you almost feel like you can see a glow, but you're

attention is totally laser focused on this star and there is no z-axis it feels like it's moving as far away as any of the other stars you do not feel like you are getting closer to it five miles ten miles fifteen miles into this journey you are continuing to superman forward keeping your eyes on it when suddenly you feel this antipathy hit you you're looking at it and you feel a terrible fear like you don't want to continue the next five miles this

It doesn't feel like it's getting closer, but it almost feels like it becomes aware. And as you are staring at it, you see what looks like inside of the light, a cloaked figure. Before you are pushed back into your body. It has not been an hour, but you slingshot back and you are consumed with this

icy feeling of remembrance and the exhaustion hits you. You're a cool character, man. Super cool. I'll put my incense out. I'll stop on it as I give up. I'll slowly trundle back to the campsite as quietly as I can. Take the level of exhaustion mechanic. Holy hell. Damn. Well,

The rest of you enjoy a night's rest. You stay as warm as you can, huddling together, huddling near the coals of the flame, which occasionally needs stoking. Occasionally taking watch, perhaps, to make sure that there are no beasts or other foul monsters that come upon you in the night. But it is a relatively peaceful night, save for your vision you're near. And you wake the next morning to a clear, brilliant, but

It's an unearthly cold day. And you know that the only way to do this is to do it. So you bury your poop. You...

Put your bedroll away. Check through it for blood. Check through it for blood with your raw hands, just doing that, making sure. Hey, hey, hey, I said no nudes! And you continue on your journey, and another day of travel, and another day of travel. Oh god. And another.

Oh, why ran out of food after the first day of travel? I would have been hunting through this. And Daisy would have joined you. And I think that at this level of heroic adventure that we don't have to simulate you finding something because you stayed to the woods, wisely choosing to stick where there perhaps would be beasts. And this far north, there are more caribou, and they don't bury their food. Beasts are my favorite animals.

That's right. They don't bury their poop, and they're easy enough for someone with the skills of Queenie, I'm sorry, Daisy, to find. Dumb fucks. Yeah, I'm sorry, Angela. You should have buried your poop. It's on the... ninth day of the first month of the year that you've been traveling for six days that you...

See that there is no moon, a new moon, and it is the darkest night of the month, as it is every month. And you see that star so close and so bright against the darkest sky that you've seen yet. And it is brilliant in its brightness. No longer flickering, it seems fixed with you.

and you feel that same shade of antipathy run through you, each of you, having struggled against the cold. It's at this moment that you start to feel like you are losing yourself. Scrim, you look down at your hand for a moment, but there is no hand.

You instead look at your wrist for a moment, and you can actually see the cross-section of your arm and small white pebbles almost inside of the meat of your hand to indicate the bone that you know would be in there. And then your hand is there for just a moment. Must be tired.

It's all good. All right, never mind. Just a bad dream. It's all good. Nobody panic. Check on Scrim because he's screaming again. Taishan, you look down and you... Do you have another kidney stone, Scrim? The mention of the stones makes you immediately think of that visceral image again and it's sick.

Taizhen, you're listening to all of this. You look down, and you have both of your hands on your knees, but they no longer seem to be yours. You look down, and they seem to change and grow into and with the fabric, almost as if you are folding in on yourself. You pull away, and your hands come clean, and

You're free again. You look at your feet, and they seem to almost be like melting into the earth around you. Is it an illusion? You pull away, and you can seem to pull away for the moment. All of you are experiencing these little miniature horrors.

And... Just, like, not all simultaneously. Not all simultaneously. Randomly throughout the... It pops here. There's these strange feelings. And each time you get this strange, chilling wave that runs over you. This feeling of...

of being called by something, and you look up at that star and you look away and you rack your mind wondering what it is exactly that's happening. Have you walked into some cursed place perhaps? Have you, what did you do to deserve this? You're doing what rituals you can to try and stay whole and to stay confident, to stay sane in these moments.

What is happening? What is happening to all of you? Why are you acting like this? I don't know, but it's a damn star. Hey, there's gotta be a way we can hide from it or something. Somewhere I can't see us because I can feel it looking at me, looking at me. You don't feel this? No, I don't feel anything. I don't feel nothing to make me scared. She has mind beans. Is there something I should be aware of? Give us mind beans so we can be free of this. Please. Please.

I'll try. She puts her bow down and she starts to reach out. You feel this sort of light pressure. It's nothing like the psionic attacks that you... when facing Sothlip. But you are...

Struggling to... confused. Pushing to hold on to your sanity in these moments. All of a sudden you're realizing that digits, parts of you are flickering almost. Then coming back. You have to hold on for these few moments. The horror of what's happening to you and Daisy's inability to help. I don't know what to do. I don't know... It's not the star.

What? I don't know what it is, but it's not a star. Is it an eye of a great beast, like we had said, the one-eyed eel? It's not an eye either. Is it something traveling here? Several nights ago, I projected my spirit and flew as close as I could, and it sensed me and pushed me away. It was a figure, a being, wearing some sort of cloak or something, floating,

I don't know what else is bright. Daisy taps onto the ground to get your attention, all of you sitting around the campfire and points at Jörnir, and you all are watching, and you can see that his head

is starting to elongate. From the top, there's this pull, almost as if he were made of fabric, and being pulled away a few inches, and then suddenly a foot, and the rest of it is starting to come away with him, going directly towards him.

towards the star, and you all look down and your fingers are beginning to curl and pull and fold in this same direction. Oh, fuck no. You are all starting to warp and change and stretch and elongate. It's impossible for me to articulate what this would feel like to you. All you can do is hold on

Daisy is trying to get your attention. She's not having her. She's not elongating. She's just standing there now, holding what weapons she can, watching as you are all starting to slip, slip and peel, and you get thinner and thinner and thinner as you are all pulled in the same direction towards this star, towards this star south. And there's a great deal of confusion, this great deal of...

frustration in your minds what your mind goes through as it as it peels and thins and then comes back together again blinking in consciousness fading pulsing you feel that you are traveling journeying many many miles in the dead of this dark dark dark night when it gets colder and colder and colder and

You reshape, you reform, you pull back into yourself, and it is not the clear, brilliant weather of what you had experienced in all this time. Instead, it is wind, it is snow, it is blizzard, it is whiteout howling in all directions, and you are staring, blinking, looking at each other in pitch black of night.

There is snow up to your waist, up to your shoulders, Queenie and Scrim. You are back to yourselves, seeming to have landed wherever it is that you've been called, wherever it is that you've returned. And it is almost impossible to hear each other over the sound of the howling wind, and I need everyone to make a constitution saving throw. Are we all right?

I got a 15. Pretty good. I'm going to do two twists. It's gone. One more twist. 24. You pulled my two twists? I did. Thank you.

17. 20. 24 passes. 20 passes. 15. Fail. 12. 17. Fail. The three of you take a level of exhaustion. In addition, you take... Oh my god. Oh my god.

15 points of cold damage as you are suddenly chilled to the bone and you realize as this is happening that you are not standing on the ground. You are standing in the air on something. It takes you a moment, but you realize that another few steps in any direction and you could fall off what is a flat top of some great structure. No. No.

Oh no... Are we alright? I don't know. Are all six of us here? Uh, s-s-sound off scrims here. Tyshon! Queenie. You're near. Daisy? Daisy, where- wait your arm! Use your mind beans! Are you here? Daisy wasn't- Daisy is not with you. Hold. Where are we? We're on top of something! We left that girl in the middle of nowhere.

as crab legs. Make sure everyone grab onto me in case you fall. - I immediately climb up one of his horrific crab legs, like onto his back, like onto one of his shoulders. - You climb up and it is slippery. He is already being covered in ice. You are all being frozen there and you realize, looking up, that that star that was on the horizon

is immediately above you. - Same size, same brightness, but it's changed. Oh, it's closer. - Bigger. - Okay. Sorry, go ahead. - Do we just, if it's, do we just see the star or do we get any sense from what Yorneir shared? Do we see any kind of like silhouette within it? - You do not see a shape. I can't recall if Yorneir shared that or not, but all you can see is what is,

Clearly a glow through the clouds that are storming all around you of a massive orb above you directly. I would look down to try to see what we're on and if I could see the ground. I would be so scared of the heights that I'm clinging to Barnabas, trying to like see where we're looking down. You look down and over and I need you to make a perception check. 21.

21. It's very difficult to see in such a dark night, in the howling whiteout of snow that's all in direction. The only source of light it seems is from this orb that's above you, but it casts just enough that you look down and you can see six figures walking towards you.

- No, no, no. - And what, like, do I have any sense of what we're on? Like, can I see the structure at all? Like even just under Barnabas? Like what? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's enough movement now and enough snow is being shuffled around that you, and I'll say with the score that you got, you see this black stone. - Oh. - Definitely basalt. - Oh no.

- I'm too terrified to say anything. I'm just clinging to Barnabus. - The rest of you are slowly starting to come to the same conclusions. Looking at the horizon, there's such a familiarity over here and you feel this great antipathy, the same thing that made you feel like you couldn't move closer to it, but only could turn and run. But it is what you stand on in this moment. There is no running from this great height. - No.

There's no oi. Do you know where this is? How do we get up here? We're called here by the being in the light. Oh, we're back at the tower. This can't be how it ends. There's a being in the light? What? Who are those down there? You follow Scrim's eyes, and you too, you can see these small shapes, and they're

not walking all in unison. They're not walking in any particular formation. They're struggling against the weather also, and they are hopping. They're jumping over these long, large, deep gaps, and looking down from this angle, you can see that it's almost as though the

ice sheet that you are clearly on is like a frozen drop of water that has hit a sound wave that has emerged from the side of this tower. How far away do I think they are? And they are navigating that space. How many figures are there?

Six. Six. How far away do I think they are? Do they vary in size? Mm-hmm. Yeah, there are two very short ones, two incredibly tall ones, maybe even three. Yeah. Okay. Why do you ask? Why do I ask?

What did you ask? How far away they are. How far is it? How far is it? How far is it? I'm just curious. How tall did you say the obelisk was? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I should have that written down. Pythagoras is a dick. Right now, let's say 500 feet. My eyes will widen. My right eye will flash blue as I think of the name of the captain Vermet. What's his name? Vermet. Vermet. As I cast Locate Creature.

And if you put him a thousand feet, I... I know it's moving in the direction of its movement. And I sense the direction of the creature's location. You... your eye flares brilliant blue light and you see through it and one of the figures that is hopping over one of these immediately comes back to you. That is the captain. There is no question in your mind.

This is not a vision. That is the captain. What? What do you mean? So that's me down there? Yes, that is us. How is that possible, Mr. Yornir? It's not possible, Barnabas! It can't be! It can't be! I don't understand. We never... We lost our memories of what happened when we came to this place. But that was months ago! We're about to find out what happened.

So this is a vision? Is this a memory that we're unlocking? I've had so much of that happening! No, this is not a memory. This is not a vision. Well, we don't know that. As far as my mind is aware, that is Flaxenblood approaching the tower. Well, we can't be in two places in one town. My lover. What? Can't we go with us? We can't be pulled into the stars and land on top of a black tower, either! Can we stop them from touching the tower so they don't lose two weeks of their lives?

I don't know. Well, no, because it already happened. But it's happening now! Well, it can't be happening right now, because it already happened. I mean, you're right, but I don't know how! We're by the sea. My love, what should we do? I'll listen to see if I can hear a voice. We're here. We're not by the sea. This isn't the sea. I don't know where we are. Are we in the star? Should we try and get down? Does someone want to go talk to him?

Can you climb down with those legs? We can certainly try. I can fly down with someone else. A bees, they can carry up to 250 pounds and they fly at 60 feet. That won't work for me. I will. Yes, it will. Oh, yes, it will. I'll transform into a little hare. Little snow hare. I can get myself and... I'm just going to cling to Barnabas, but if we...

Fuck. Out of time. The five of you are all approaching the tower and looking up, trying as desperately as you can to avoid these gaps that have gotten wider and wider. It's incredibly dangerous to jump from one lip to the next now. So slippery and covered with ice they are and so surrounded by the snow you are. You see? Yeah.

You see? There are people. You can see them here at the top. Yes. We just need to knock on the door and we'll be able to find shelter and help out the rest of the crew. Isn't that right, everyone? I sure hope you're right about this because this has been a long journey and I just want to get back and be done with all this. Now, come on. Let's get this over with. Oh!

You would not have transformed into a caribou yet. No, that was after you lost your memory. So this is you approaching the... That's hilarious. However, the five of you approach. There surely is someone living here. And he reaches up and the captain, leading the way, takes the five of you and knocks on the door.

Not on the side of a basalt tower, certainly. There's a door there? There is a door now. And looking at it, you look up and you realize that you're staring at a lighthouse. It's overcast, it's gray. You can hear the sounds of washing waves crashing against the side of the rock upon which it sits. And the six of you stand there, looking up. The door opens and you see a humble man standing there.

"Hi! How can I help you?" "Oh my goodness, we're saved!" "Thank god you're here!" "You're all covered in snow! How did that... how is that possible?" "What do you mean?" "Oh, what did one willow tree say to the other willow tree?" "We don't know." "What the fuck are you talking about, man? Don't be so sappy, of course!" "Come in, come in. You look freezing."

We've been trudging through miles and miles of snow, of course, for cold. We've been walking in the elements for days. It probably won't snow for weeks. Why? What are you talking about? No, no, no, no. Look out your door, fella.

You know where you are. You turn around and you look and there's ocean all around you. There's a thin line of what perhaps is an aisle or some ground, but everything just seems gray. You do not see an ice sheet. You do not feel that you were in the place that you were just when... What was a basalt tower looking up? Those figures, all of those things sort of fade from you, but the ambiguity of what's happening, you're so arrested by the present.

he answers your question what do you mean we're in striga and that's where we'll end tonight's session what in the actual what what in the hell that's a great place to end but also whoa do we have any okay so okay it's a good thing we have adventures and chills what i was about to say is our memory shift too

I'm not going to tell you that. Fuck! Damn. Get rekt. We'll find out on the next chapter of Iceman.

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