And so we come to the end of our story. Youngs. Before the
ancient Magi, an energy that came to be known as chaos brought forth the
first of us all and the strongest of those rose to power. But with
power can come corruption, and that power remained for all too long. Now
the board has been reset, for better or worse. The decisions made by
only a few today will shape the world of Lacrine forevermore, for stories I
may never tell, for stories you may never hear. So let us read
this final page and cherish what stories we had together. This is the story
of Lacrine. Hyeah, all right, we're ready, Yes, under stage
of rolls. Yes, these robes are a little bit strange, but I
got it. I can. I can be an inquisitor, right, Diazy,
look down on you. Yeah, not like that. Your your shreds.
Right, it's more like newbies shred shreds right, great freshnation recruits whatever,
right, secret pockets And that's not going to be weird, you know,
us being recruits at a considering we've lost almost every member your replacements,
alright, just don't like to ask, all right, And it's probably fine
if we just don't talk, right, here, it's down. You got
it. Did you want accents though? Did you want us to do?
Accents? Doesn't matter? Down voice is low, the assumption I'm a shrub
shred shred shred, just and just just don't talk talking to us, right,
Okay, God, I can do that, right, Reggie, It's
gonna be staying here unless anything goes wrong and we all, yeah, kick
the bucket today, We're going to need someone to stay and back up and
account of what we've discovered so far. I'm sorry, what do you want
one of us to stay behind? I'll be staying. Reginald Jock's in.
He's not dressed in the inquisition where, but he does have a big bag
filled with stuff, mostly items and books and things. You're all kind of
stood around in this huge manor house at the northern end of Blona, each
of you with an inquisitor's robe on. Really that's it. You don't have
any other identifying factors. Most inquisitors get something like a badge, those badges
and magicals, so they're kind of redundant now anyway, but they usually have
a few extra elements that identify them as inquisitors. However, you guys are
really just in the robes. That's really all that Worston could get his hands
on. Yesterday, it's pretty early and it is raining quite heavily outside the
The sort of grungy, bleak, misty drizzle of the last few days has
turned into pretty constant downpour overnight. Worston is carrying his rifle over one shoulder.
You guys will have your full array of weapons. It's no different to
how you would normally approach things. I think the twins look a little uncomfortable,
kloogie kind of pocketing, you know, a drink here and a flask
there. And Zirah is incredibly uncomfortable. She insisted on keeping her armor on
underneath the robes, so she just looks ridiculous and it's kind of bobvious,
but nobody was able to overpower her and stop her from doing it this way.
So she's wearing a very large robe that is in fact not a new
one and did belong to Bob, who is upstairs. So it's covered in
dirt and ripped pieces, and though you can't see it in the black fabric,
Bob's blood. Worston walks towards the doorway, looks outside of a window,
double checking. He's been doing it a little more frequently as the morning
has rolled on, and turns to you all and says, right, we're
going to we're going to head to the fortress. We're going to be meeting
with I reveil. Right, he's got access to the dungeons. Right,
Hi, breath, But we don't need to say that. We don't need
to talk to him. We just say anything unless they're spoken to, right,
Okay, I can do that, right, Okay, We're going to
visit with Grim. He's the only contact that I've got the fortress. So
we'll be lucky to be going anyway, probably not going to get another chance,
So let's not blow it. Okay, Well, were you in twenty
minutes make it any easier on us? That just raises the pressure and makes
me a little bit more anxious. Yeah, how could we? How could
we screw this up? Like? How could it? How could we blow
it? In theory that that's taking it a little too far, because I
think maybe a loud voice or doing something stupid at the gate that gets this
access revoked. Just okay, heads down, mouth shut, heads down,
mouth shut, got it right, Anything you need to get done, get
it done. Now we've got to leave. What would we need to get
done? I don't know. Do you need to piss? Well? What
do I know? I think I want to have to pass some gas?
Is that you imply a room? Another route? I just I'm going to
finish my tea really fast. I'll well, we don't have no huh,
all right, you know, I don't know. I don't need it.
I don't need it. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to get I'm
ready. We can't screw this up, right, will be fine, We'll
be fine, all right, if we're ready, we're ready. I guess
we're ready. Is we'll ever be all right? Ready? Worsteron turns and
opens the door and steps outside into the rain. He looks up over cast
day. It's probably kind of mid morning, very bleak and cold outside today.
The rain drops large. Everybody following him. Yes, I would give
Reggie a hug if he'd let me before I will leave. Yeah, he
gives you a short hug, you as well. Cairo nods to both views.
You leave, Good luck, I'll be uh well, hopefully here you
done? Yes, take care of Bob. Well that's the plan you so
hope. I don't have to carry him out. I hope so too.
Make sure you are walking back comfortably and not carried back yourself. But try.
They're a sneaky lot, the fortress sometimes, but we can be sneaky
too, right, Yes, a god, a couple of fortress gods.
This is absurd, will be fine. Let's go, of course, speaking
of like sneaky Ellie is like nowhere to be seen. She's already outside and
every shing he's in like a bell tower somewhere about to jump off into a
bale of hay. I wouldn't go that far, that's realistic. You guys
step out, maybe walking out last, and closing the door, and you
start to head north through the north end of Belna. It's a pretty busy
day. It's been almost three weeks since the fall of Magic and the kind
of catastrophe of that. Most of the town seems to have come back to
a semblance of normality, at least on the surface, and for the most
part you just see people moving about going about their morning business. If you
can't strundling up and down the road. At this north side of town,
it's more nobility. You can see a lot more people moving around in fine
clothes as opposed to the usual riff wrap of the low town klugi's and bows.
You're seeing few people fire you, some odd looks, but for the
most part, every time somebody looks at you, their eyes are immediately cast
away and down, recognizing that you're almost certainly inquisition of some sort. If
you're not inquisition, you're probably a troop of majors, not necessarily too powerful
anymore, but people are used to avoiding the eyes of a group of higher
powerful mages moving through the streets. I could get used to this. Worston
leads you to the north end of town and then past the last set of
houses and merchants to an open area. There's a small gap that leads up
to the plateau. The fortress sits on a plateau at the very far northern
end of town, and there is a bridge that you walk over. There
are quite a few guards stationed here, but they don't stop you or anything.
They're just stationed here, and in case of any sort of breach or
tack or uprising and revolt, they mostly just kind of glance up and go
back to their business. Then you follow a little incline up to a stairway
quite a large thing that leads up to the fortress plateau, and as you
approach the fortress itself, it is of a strange and ancient design. Really,
it's quite gothic looking, many towers. It's more of a fortified village,
very small little thing up on top of a plateau, with a central
kind of palatial looking building surrounded by many smaller little buildings, many towers,
and its own kind of small walls. This used to be pretty much Bologna
in its entireties, where the city was founded here on this natural plateau,
the warring village at first that turned into the capital of Alexandria. And it's
actually it's quite a beautiful side. As you move along, although the day
is overcast, you can see that there are lots of little waterfalls that add
to the rivers and moats that surround the plateau and the entranceway and then move
and cascade down through Bologna and join the larger rivers that head west and south.
The last small bridge takes you over to a gate, a large thing
beside two walls and a port culis the fortress and the eventual palace looming above
you. Now at the partially raised portcullis, there's a very elderly looking halfling
stood in very fine looking robes, and on his hip you can see a
huge ring of about fifty keys. Next to him, there's an armored drowelf
standing with an umbrella over the halfling and a particularly long, thin blade at
his hip. The drought and several of the watchmen now here up near the
walls are standing in the Bologna Palace uniforms, which are very similar to the
uniforms that you might have seen on the knights and guards and watch around town.
That they have silver and blue lining. Several of them have a blue
sort of short cape coming off of the back of their cauldrons. And as
you walk up you can see kind of into the palace area. There's a
few people moving around in there, but for the most part it's quite empty
up here. For a few militant types. It's quite heavily guarded up here.
It really feels more like you're walking up to a military encampment than anything
else, I'd think. And as you approach Worston, make sure to step
forward first, and he doesn't hold out a hand like you would normally,
He kind of does a half bow to this halfling man and says, Irivesel,
thank you for seeing us. I understand the circumstances are not ideal,
but our investigation has led us to believe that Eldon Grimm is directly involved with
the attack on the Crin in the Fall of Magic. He glances back to
all of you, as you know, my team has been decimated. I
have brought with me inquisitor or Gaul points towards Piro and the several Shreds recruits
in training. The halfling kind of looks up at you all. He looks
pretty old for a halfling. Half things can usually hit around three hundred or
so in the Crin, and you'd think that maybe he was pushing towards that.
Either that or he had a terrible diet. And he looks across each
of you, these fine robes, dry his boots clean even in the mud
underneath this port palace, and glancing over you briefly, he returns his gaze
to Worston and says, of course, Inquisitor, anything for the inquisition.
Of course, we have a va be guessed taking care of much of the
business in the palace. Brings up my hands to assist you today please follow
me to the dungeons. It's a short walk. I hope your knees aren't
as weak as mine. It's the stairway down. It's quite the trick.
He glances over to the older looking members under their roads and then turns about
and immediately starts walking off. Worston turns to you, kind of shrugs a
little and begins to follow him. Guest, did he say, Guest,
sh I'm I just got all right, worse than an easel. Kind of
take the lead. They step ahead of you. You feel that you can
probably discuss quietly amongst yourselves a few things. You notice that two guards fall
in you can hear me, they're too far forward. What's this about?
A guest? Do you know anything about this guy of roll? Okay?
Well? Or do you sense anything? And when she asked me that I
try using my nemesis skill to see if I can sense? Do you ecky
being closer? Everyone rolled me a dice? No sorry ou yay yay?
Oh so no an apple? Which let's see here? Piro seven, Ellie
two both three or a seven? Post seventeen's UNA nineteen. How are each
of you feeling as you approach this place, Aura, don't tell me how
you feel yet. Okay, Well, since I rolled a two, I'd
say that Ellie is like really keeping the hood over her head because they might
the Inquisition in the palace might know who she is with her ties to the
assassin skilled, so I think like she's more so worried about getting spotted.
So I'm at a three. So my hands are clammy, I'm nervous,
and I'm sweaty, I'm a hot best. My arm pits are like waterfalls.
I've all been there at a seven, and I've not been around a
lot of shreds and and trained a lot of new recruits, and so even
faking it is just this is just a weird situation for me to be around
this many people pretending to be part of the Inquisition, and you know,
me newly having returned, so kind of nervous. I'm worried but anxious even
but I'm focused, you know, it's all right. Well, well,
I rolled in nineteen, so I don't know what happened. I think it
was like stage fright, and then the moment you got on stage it disappeared.
That's what happened to me. I'm don't I could do this in my
sleep. We thought, of God, he should fear us were coming for
him. Yeah, or uh, you well tape you p. Have you
ever had an anxiety or a panic attack in real life before? Yes?
You think you can describe that for us. Uh, it's like it's like
you can't catch your breath and the world starts swimming around you, and your
brain goes into overload and you feel like you were out of control. Yeah.
I think that's how you feel. As you get closer and closer to
this port colors in these gates and you hear worse than speaking with this gentleman
ahead of you, you just start to feel kind of a little overwhelmed.
Maybe your mouth drives up. You start to feel like your legs are empty
or wobbly, a little, a little disconnected maybe from your footfalls. And
feel yourself moving forward. You can feel your body moving through the motions,
but you've now got this sense of dread, this strange sensation that washes over
you. And as you pass underneath the port colors and everybody else starts moving
on around you, that feeling fades a little, fades a little, but
I think it sticks with you for a moment as you begin to follow the
ireeve along the streets and roads that make up this kind of palace area.
Right at the very center of this kind of relatively circular place, there is
a pretty gothic looking palace, like something you might expect to see out of
Dark Souls or Bloodborn, one of those kind of old looking, rustic and
not particularly well kept palaces, more of a battlement that seems to have been
adapted a little over the years. That being said, there are like great
windows that you can see all the way up the sides of this building on
the towers that come off of the side of it, and a lot of
them have stained glass and colored glass in the window, which is usually a
sign of wealth and expensive. The reef, however, moves suddenly away from
the northern route and then moves into a building, unlocking it with one of
the keys on his loop of keys, and looks down into this stairwell.
He turns around to everybody and says, we'll be heading down here. Yeah,
at the bottom. There's a set of guards. Ghastly folk, really,
but they're friendly enough so long as you're on the right side of the
bars. Just follow me, and he begins to head down and down and
down into an underground set of tunnels. Sconces on the walls. Light the
tunnel relatively well with torches, but I think for the most part it's not
a pleasant experience. Once you get down into the tunnels and the dungeons that
under that are underneath the fort Here, you can see and hear many people
immediately behind, lots of dungeon doors and bars. They're pretty packed out.
There is a person or multiple people in several of the jail cells down here.
Moving along, you can see that the tunnels begin to split off into
multitudes of different directions. One T junction turning into another T junction turning into
another is You can move in many different ways, and it becomes a kind
of maze. As you follow this halfling. There are lots of jailers,
I would say, rather than guards, big looking fellows covered in scars and
wounds, several of them with missing eyes, one of them with a missing
nose, like they instantly being attacked or dealing with escaping prisoners. At one
point, a huge goliath man turns and looks at you. All you hear
him speak in a guttural tone. The twins turn suddenly and look at each
other, and then they look up at you sooner, and then they kind
of remember themselves as they're about to respond, but they're not to speak or
do anything, and they put their staffs up and kind of nod at him,
and then begin to walk along. Tea turns back and looks at you
sooner and points at her mouth. No sh she nods and says, and
then begins Bow's hand. Actually, because I know that we've had a little
bit of time to talk over dinner, and I know he was in a
place quite like this, and I imagine this might be pretty horrific to come
back down here. So I just reach out and give his hand a good
squeeze. You'll be all right. I returned the squeeze and nod my head.
In things, the the Reeve leads you down these tunnels. For the
most part, I think you you probably know your way back. It's not
like a crazy maze, but it's still very confusing. As you wander through
these tunnels, you can hear worst than speaking with the Reeve for a little
while before before Worston turns back and says, right, we're almost there.
He's got his own cell. It's a reinforced thing. How long has he
been here, oh, nineteen days? What about the rest of these people?
What have they done nice? Try to break in, try to steal
stuff? There could be spies. That dwarf there is probably from Don Durrah,
probably tried to kill the queen as well. Good be spies. You
mean you don't know for sure? How business? What is wrong with you?
Do you want me to there have some sense of morals? I guess?
But what if that one's a super murderer? It's not a what if
situation. If if he is a super murderer, then sure he should be
in there. But if we don't know, then he shouldn't be just sitting
there. You shouldn't just be wandering around going, oh, I don't know.
I'm sure they're in there for a good reason. Do you want me
to go to every single jail in the world, judge everyone individually and let
him out. I still on my own judgment. No, I just look
around the cells. Is there anyone I notice, like recognized the one that
you're in charge of When you're a part of okay, well you're not in
charge, but you're part of the you're part of a group or true that
puts me you don't even know, you haven't even asked already my jurisdiction.
This is local sort of Oh all right, right you hear? Or just
I just you like taking quick in hells of breath. They're just not as
the aquisition is not what you think it is as soon what they're just not
And I like look up underneath keeping out from my hood criminals too, Okay,
of course they are. They're all part of one big this isn't our
place. Also, see, well, you're all part of one big clan
and wants to keep the magic off of themselves. And magic isn't to be
possessed. It for everyone to ask not the time? All right, well
I just thought it was. It was important. Good. The halfling turns
around says, just up ahead here right at the very end. He starts
to walk towards a large door. Now, some of these jail cells have
been open, barred things. You can see these kind of people, most
of them relatively thin looking or emaciated, weak looking figures that have been treated
quite poorly. You would assume it smells terrible down here. Then some of
the doors are reinforced. You can see that they've had reinforcements around the edges.
The oak of the door has got iron bars across it and things like
that. You come to the end of this hallway. It's quite dark at
this end. There's a sconce a little further off, and there's a single,
small, tiny little window with a two bars through the center of it.
The halfling nods up and says, you need to speak through. You
need to speak through that little hatch. Ye can't you open it? He's
not going to do anything. Well, I'm afraid, but he killed a
lot of people, and you'll have to speak to him through that little hatch
there. I'm not opening that. Nope, no way, all right,
fine. The Worston kind of glances through the hatch and says, I can't
see anyone in there. Well, good luck. The Reeve takes a few
steps and steps away from the door, kind of leaning against a wall.
He spins the keys around quite loudly, and then puts them back on his
hip. I look at Ellie and look at the keys. I see we're
already thinking a light. I know we are. How many guards are in
this area within eyesight of us? Hmmm, so far you've counted six jailers
on your walk. There isn't any of them down this end, and you
seem to have kind of gone off the beaten path a little bit. This
is not a dead end, but it's at the end of one of the
holes splitting both left and right away from you and bank the way you came.
You don't see any gods in your immediate area. You have seen that
they kind of roam around. There have been a couple of places where it
opens out, or there are spaces where a jail cell would be, but
instead it's got a desk and a few things in there. What is the
lock situation and how close is the halfling brieve? You can see two locks
which are at the very top of the door and the very bottom, which
are bolts that just run across the huge things like not a tiny little thing
but very large, probably quite hard to pull back, but two bolts.
And then you can see that there is a standard looking lock, not the
type of thing that would be very easy to pick, but with the key
would unlock the door. Probably have a large iron key that goes with it.
And how close is that halfling? How close is the reeve? He
steps away a little bit and maybe about five six feet away from where you
are, so he's within earshot but not necessarily see us. He can see
you, Yeah, he's just off the one. He's just a little further
down the corridor. It just gets out of the way. Because it's so
many of you, it seems more like, oh, I want to use
an ability. I'm just gonna interrupt. I want to use an ability.
As Ellie steps up, she's not I think she looks in the door with
with uh. I forgot his name already, and then who western Yeah,
and she doesn't see or like I wouldn't see grim either, And so I'll
step up to the halfling and I'll say, listen, you're gonna need to
open the door. We can't even see him. Trust he's not gonna get
out. There's no way we're gonna let him out. And then I'm gonna
use don't you know who I am? And uh? With that one,
it's you and press common folk and minions. By pretending to be someone notable.
You initiate the ruse by giving a special wink to a party member.
Soona, each of your nearby party members must proclaim an incredible fact that creates
your identity. For example, a party member might begin by calling attention to
you as a fabled writer, or a storied warrior or a sports hero.
The other members of the party should build on this fake identity until everyone has
contributed. Oh this is fun. When everyone is finished, you draw a
captive audience of nearby creatures who crowd around you. All right, well,
I guess that does It doesn't have to be they crowd me. No,
no, no, it doesn't have to be as specific as that. But
yeah, you walk up and you I guess you would mention your building sooner
up as a famed person. No, no, myself. She's having you
build her up. He doesn't want us to get in because gret he thinks
Grim is like terror flying in a murderer and always gonna be like, don't
you know who I am? Yeah? Okay, so what who gives what
accounts to back up anything? Or we have to all do each day?
Right? Yeah? Like all wink too. Sooner she has to start.
Uh. I don't know if he knows who you are. But you're worried
about that man in there and all the people that he's killed. Will they
call they call her inquisitor nothing because nothing survives. Yeah, oh, kind
of looks you up and down. Honestly, I joined because of her.
True. If anything, he should be more afraid of her than we should
be of him. In fact, we'll all stand out outside and she'll go
in there alone. And you might want to ignore any screaming. You here,
if you know what I mean. She locked the door. I'm unsure
whether you should be executing him, and we might not be finished with him.
I'm not too close to him. Oh oh, yes, I don't
want to make her angry. Bird has it she can actually kill with a
glance, and that's not even using magic. You're just your heart seizes in
terror, and you're just over And as they say this, I get down
to like his level, crouching, and then I just have like a chess
air cat grin. He turns around and grabs bow and hugs bow. Oh
yes, I suppose, Yes, I'm here the hug. He thrusts the
loop of keys towards you, holding one of them up, and says you
you can open it right to me, though, Okay, you might want
to stand back. If you hear any screaming, just ignore it. Yes,
yes, I will I'm gonna walk back to the cell, but over
my shoulder, I'm gonna say, if looks could kill western, looks at
you? What are you doing? Well? I know we're not supposed to
talk, but we did it, didn't we. I'm gonna grab the key
and immediately walk over to the cell. Now, wait a second, what
if he does try to, you know, hold hold on? Can I
lean in? How far away is uh? Is the halfling? Can I
lean in? Movie he's backing away? Yeah? Okay, good, great,
great, So I just lean up against it, grim grim it.
Sooner, We're gonna open the door. Now. We need you to not
charge at us or do anything stupid. Okay, We're here to get you
out. There's no response from inside the cell. Okay, that's good.
That's good, all right, go ahead open the door. Based on my
senses, what does this seem like he's gonna burst out like Ellie just going
I'm afraid the door is gonna bash on me as soon as I unlock it.
Both you and Sooner get the sense that he is for sure going to
He's he's either real messed up in there to the point where he can't move,
or he is a trapdoor spider right now waiting. I'm gonna Lena go
up to the window. Gona say, Grim, you're gonna have to trust
me. You're gonna have to let me in without playing any games. It's
Ellie, by the way, Well he knows who we are. Don't be
silly, Grim, We're coming in. Don't do anything stupid. I also
used pray sense, by the way. You all right, okay, all
right, let's let's go open the door. I look or I'm just like
just get ready. Oh sorry, I look, I nod under the hood,
and I tightened my hand on my sword. Why did? It'll be
fine, it's Grin just in case he boss out. I mean, he's
been in here. We don't know what they've done to him. He might
really want out of here. Just a quick question. Is Kaluki with us
or no? Klugi is standing behind you the entire time you've been walking around
in the palace. He's been drinking quite heavily, a little more than even
normal. He's out on that a little bit. Khalugi. Can you just
whisper in and let him hear you? Let him know? All right,
let me tell you something. The last time I was here was one of
the worst nights of my evening. But I'm going. I'm just going.
He takes another swig and then he leans up into the into the bars and
says, hey, Grin, your boss says you are me fifty old.
Look what you hear a grumble from inside. Okay, there we go.
All right, see grim you know it's us. All right, we're coming
in. Calm down, I got loud. I start to unlock the door.
I immediately stand next to Aura as well. The it's fifty keys we
have. It's a loop with like around fifty keys on it. Yeah,
and they're not, you know, obvious. I assume they all look pretty
different. Well, there's like a you know, there'll be like ten that
look different to the next ten, and then five look different to the next
five. A little so while she's trying those all, go ahead and use
he held up the one right you know you have? Yeah, are you
copying it? I was just going to use my key because I thought we
would have to go through a lot of keys to get in. But oh,
I say, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean I could always
be like crap, I'd let it go. But I'm like no, no,
no, yeah, you you begin to slowly open the door. And
as I do, I'm going to step aside and hold out my foot.
If he's gonna bolt, I'm going to try and trip them. Yeah,
you do, you have an it slowly or quickly. I think I would
crack it slowly and see what he's gonna do. Yeah. You crack the
door and you look in for a second. You see nothing, and then
your eyes adjust to the kind of pit that is in there. It is
slightly lowered. You have to actually step down a few steps into this room.
You can see a sort of plinth, is a makeshift bed that's just
carved out of stone. In the corner, there's a rag on there,
little more than a a little more than an old coat or something like that.
There's a bucket in the corner. And other than that, it looks
almost just like a kind of cave almost, And you see in there,
Eldon Grimm. I think what you're expecting is to be rushed and to be
attacked, But really he does nothing. He's completely unarmored, and he probably
appears a little smaller to you all as you look upon him. You see
him stand up. As Ellie begins to open the door, his body is
older than you maybe suspected. It's still muscular from years of carrying around that
huge armor that he had. But he's only in trousers. He doesn't have
anything else on him. There are lash marks and welts across his back and
his chest, and his hair is quite long and unkempt, even more so
than usual. His beard is longer than what you remembered from when you last
met. One of his eyes is swollen closed, and the other glances up,
and then he starts moving a few feet before an iron chain. His
ankle stops him from reaching the door, and he looks up at all of
you and says, fuck, get me out of here quick, all right,
Shosh, put my hand over his mouth. Calm down, it's all
right, it's all right, Calm down. You can't be yelling. They
can't know that we're connected. He looks up at all the other people and
says, who are these goons? We don't know if we trust them or
not, so just keep your eyes on them all right now. But they're
helping us get you out, So just hope still. Oh. I give
the keys to bow and I'm like, you want to try see if you
needs work on the ankle. Oh okay, I take the keys from Ellie
and I attempt to unlock these chains off of Graham. Yeah, rum me
a d fifty oh no, fourty three? Oh shit, okay to me?
God wow forty two. You get the key next to the one you
need, and you try it in the lock and it doesn't fit. It's
not even close. Fuck does that mean the next one it might work?
I guess with meta knowledge that closes. Kalougi slips past Bow and says your
ship buss that you've got yourself caught. What the fuck does you even do?
Shut up? I mean, why did you come in here in the
first place. Now, now, let's stop throwing blame. Pieces were fifty
gold pieces. I'm not dead. We can worry about the fifty gold piece
when you're out and said give me, give me your pack please. I
need you to hold still, young man, sit down right now and hold
still, and I'm going to I'm going to need I'm going to need a
needle litten thread as well, and I'm going to heal him. Yes,
restores all of their hit points, and after a short time, the creature
will be relieved of any short term impairments. Okay, so you heal him
up. Let mean just write a little some summon and yeah, you kind
of sit for a moment and get to work on his wounds for a bit.
I think it's not an immediate thing necessarily. As you start to kind
of a look over his body and see the damage, most of his wounds
are kind of superficial. You can see that he's got a lot of bruises
that look old like most of the damage might have been done to him in
his armor and he would have taken a lot of maybe bludgeoning hits and stuff
like that from maces or hammers, and they seem to be a lot older.
These wounds that he has now, probably from some light torture, maybe
just some just misconduct from the guards. But they view this this is the
worst type of criminal in the world. This person rushed in and killed a
bunch of their comrades, so he has those wounds. As you begin to
kind of work him over bow, you start moving through the different keys on
the ring here, just kind of trying one by one. Outside the door,
you can hear worse than kind of sweet talking with the reeve. He's
kind of buying you a bunch of time. He's also speaking quite loudly so
that you can mask any conversation having in the in the room here, everyone
else is with you, but the door is kind of filled up. You
can see Zirah and the twins waiting by the door, blocking any view of
anyone that might come by as well. And while you begin to speak to
Grim, he's like looking over those of you that he doesn't recognize. What
were you going to say? I think I'm Bo's third or fourth key.
I'm just going to say, kind if I have a whack at that?
Oh sure, without hesitation, I immediately pass the keys'll fer. I set
those keys down, and I pull a key out of my pocket and insert
it into the lock. And it's amusing an ability called inquisitor's key, but
you guys might be familiar with from when we used it, uh many many
moons ago. But it basically fits itself to form any lock. Yeah,
you put this strange device that begins to move and change over itself. Eventually
you hear a click and you see the shackle loosen and you pull the thing
off. It leaves it. There's a kind of a raw mark around his
ankle where it was he twists his foot while sooner you like, maybe touch
something on his back. He winces and then looks across each of you and
says, what the fuck are you doing here? What you went on a
rampage? Yeah, funny thing. We were going to ask you what you
were doing here? There's something fucking wrong here, queen right? Is she
a demon? And I look at Kalogi. He looks at Kaloogi and then
looks back at you. He says, magic's gone. Yeah, yeah,
still yeah, I think so no, yep, still gone. What were
you going to say about the queen? Well, what tricks I know I
got from Lord Baine, lord Bain being a god of tyranny, He says
that much, you know, But he's gone. They're all gone, aren't
they? Yeah, yes, we know. Yeah, you're going to want
to put this white williw wark on on here. Okay, he'll help put
this well in. That fucking stings. Now, we'll stop being a baby.
It stings, but it's not that bad. You'll be all right.
Is one eye that isn't swollen over kind of fixes you for a second,
I think as you look into his eye, roll me at dice. Okay,
that's not terrifying or anything. Thirteen thirteen. I think you you catch
something. This. Everything that he's doing right now is a sort of a
bravado. He seems incredibly terrified, something far more terrified than when you literally
dove into a demon's mind and fought against Higgan together. And he he says,
I've never felt anything like that before. Nothing, Yeah, felt anything
like what the dread his dread vein. It knocked me down. The clerics
who used to train me called it a divine sense. It was a curse.
But I caught it wave of nergy unlike anything I've ever known. And
I've known some black hearted men, we've seen some twisted things together, but
this and any times to Klugi Colugie was right. It's the Queen. I
don't know what she did. I don't know what she's become, but it's
something new, something that I cannot allow to live. Whatever she is now
will bring too much dread and too much destruction upon this world. Give me
my fucking sword and get the fuck out of here, all right now,
hand stop it. We're going together, all right. It's a bad idea,
well okay, but we're doing it anyway. So you're either gonna come
with us. And remember how this went down last time. You argued and
said we couldn't do it, and then weren't you great that week we came
with you? M Maybe Now, look, I know you don't want to
go in there by yourself, but you're doing what you feel you have to
do. Well, we're in all in the same boat together. You think
we're just going to stand back and let this monstrous queen do whatever. No,
soon as it gets me all worked up, and I say yeah,
and I point to Aura. You're seeing what that one can do with a
sword. Just seen, just seen, Bob. She's not bad, but
maybe you should give that sword to me. Now. I pull my hood
down and I look at him. Yeah, and I I like, screw
over. Uh, And I'm just like you probably shouldn't mention that. Cairo
grim is it? How are you? This is the army you amassed,
an old man and a child. Well, if you heard anything from maybe
the jailers don't each other about this VIP, Yes, anything, the prime
mark. I look over at Cairo Cairo, I guess in fact everyone,
but sooner you could roll me a dice. Yeah. See, if you've
ever heard of Primark, Thrimal three till Cairo and Ellie, you've heard of
this for whatever through whatever means, this is quite a powerful individual. He's
he's a kind of the head of the clerics, which isn't really a thing,
but if you had an arch cleric, he would be that. He
actually rules Dayton, which is where you just came from. That enormous place
was a cathedral almost pretty much belongs to him in a way. Quite an
old fellow. He's an old man. He's akin to the pope, that
kind of a thing. Very powerful, very noble. He is. You
would assume though, if anyone was the second in command of Alexandria, it
would be him. But really there is no prince or princess. The queen
has no children, there is no king. There's just the queen. So
he seems to be kind of the closest thing to what that would be a
successor, or as close to the king as you would get. But he's
far more kind of involved in the religious side of Alexandria's rule, that control
and that power coming from over there. I don't think you know much more
than that. I don't think really you would necessarily have ever seen him like
you, Cairo, and you Ellie would know that much. At least Grim
says he's here. I don't know why, I think, say I've never
seen him, but I'll then really, but we just learned. I look
back at Cairo and I'm like, well, if Grim thinks someone's sick,
they wanted us to hunt down some healer, some guy that could heal without
magic. But we never searched for him because we ended up getting well,
some of us ended up getting kidnapped instead. Do you think she's possessed?
You think or she's sick? Did you get to the Queen? Grim?
No? I got fucking close. How close? Do you know? The
way throw room is that where they're keeping her even though she's sick. That's
where I got all right, Okay, well let's think about getting you out
of here. We don't have much time. Do we have spare cloak?
I have an idea we could take this. No, Grim, we want
to get out here without no stop it. Let's take the halfling suit.
We'll make it fit. We getting in here to get you out, Share
me out before hear me out, take the cloak off her. I point
to the armored woman that looks ridiculous because it's probably a big cloak. It
was Bob's take it off her. We'll say she's a hired bodyguard. Now
that we don't magic, maybe we need one. Uh, people are going
crazy and obviously won't like magic users. So we'll just say she's a hired
bodyguard. She's escorting us around, and we'll put that on him. You
think he's not gonna notice that there's one more of us. I mean we
could take care come in. We can come him. I could fuck out
his eyes, all right, Can we just think about doing it without hurting
anyone. We can knock him in the cells. I can. I can
knock him out without killing him. We can put him in the cells.
I could try. I could try talking to him, like can confuse them,
say like this was always the amount of us that arrived. Yeah,
I think that's our best bet, because but if it doesn't work, he's
going in the cell. Well, I find we it's good to have a
backup plan. But but Grim wasn't speaking, and you couldn't see him when
you peeked in, so it could be days before they notice. But if
we put him in here, then they'll they'll notice sooner. Or sooner rather
than later. Right, let's let's be smart about this. We're so close,
all right, Grim, can you can you please just you know,
eyes down and shut your mouth until we get you out of here. Please,
lost everything to get you out. I want to Yeah, don't blow
or cover. I want to sort as soon as we can get one.
Right, Well, we'll do that for you, no problem, part of
the plan. Right does what does he know Abo Dave? I don't know.
Actually I will tell him when we get out. Okay, she's wondering.
Okay, I I point to the armored lady, like, we need
to drink the cloak, the cloak that you have on. She looks at
you and then looks at it. Yes, you're are a hired help.
We just we're just going to say that you didn't you know. We're not
going to say anything. We're just gonna walk on. Fine. She takes
a cloak off and hands it to you. Oh that's much better of this
anyway, Yes, okay, okay, here, just hold it out to
Grim puts it on. Kind of kind of fits him. It's he's slightly
bigger than Bob. Even. You need to cover the bruise there on your
eye pull pull, pull that down. Yeah there there you go, much
better. All right, don't talk. I'm sure they know that your voice
by now, Yeah they do. I've told them to fuck themselves every day
for the last how long How long have I Beenionaire? Eight eighteen days?
I think. But will good news is you never have to tell them to
fuck off ever again. All right, let's go. Let's get to keep
going, and if he gets suspicious to just leave it to me. Keep
walking. Okay, you guys, start walking towards the thing. As you
kind of move around, you can hear the reeves speaking to worst. And
so that's really mind you, is that it's really not quite as impressive as
you might might think. Oh, you're quite done. Make my keys.
If I could get my keys back, I grab the keys, close the
door, and I lock it, and I walk up to them and I
just I hold it up and just stared down at him like and just smile.
Yes, well, thank you so very much for the right. Did
I hope you had everything that you needed? Yeah? I lead the way
very well. Yes, Okay, a rather terrifying fellow, wouldn't you say?
He walked straight past and says it definitely seeming worse. Okay, well
to follow me. He starts to lead the way out, all of you
kind of following quietly behind. Grim shoots a few looks over Aora and glances
at the sword on her back, and I give him a dirty look,
like the kind of do not touch it. I know what you're thinking.
If you touch it, I will kill you. And then yeah, he
puts his head down and follows you all out. I try to stand in
between Grim and La. Nope, you keep going, Graham. Yeah,
you guys are lead now back out through the same way you came in again,
past all of these different cells and stuff like that. Every now and
then you hear worse than speak with Reeve about some trivial thing to do with
the meeting and how he's appreciative that he would let them come in today.
And he leads you back towards the stairwell and up out of the jail and
back up into the kind of courtyard that's outside. The rain is still coming
down. You can still see plenty of people coming and going, most of
them nobles or military types. Not too many people up by the actual palace
itself, and the higher Reeve moves away now heading back towards the gate worst
and looks back to you all as he follows him on, Oh team,
I love to I think Cairo, And I said, do you know if
there's an armory anywhere nearby? What? I know my way around here well
enough to know if there's. I don't think you've ever been here before.
The only really, I don't think there would have been any reason for you
to have come up here. And if there were any missions that involved you
coming here most certainly would have been left to some of the higher arts,
probably Lyra or Worston or see Stoker would have done it. I don't think
you personally would ever have been here. I think Worston might have an idea.
But he's kind of walking along with the reeve. Every now and then
he shoots a look back to you, and grim stops and doesn't start walking.
He starts just looking around. Now that you're in the daylight and everything,
you can see that he looks a little out of place. His feet
are staining. Sticking out of the bottom of this row is this huge figure
and the front of him isn't as covered up as you'd like it to be.
But he's kind of standing up now and looking about while some of you
moved towards where the reeve is walking along his half in feet, also nothing
on the bottoms of his feet, but walking through the mud and the rain.
I think i'd like to use an ability if I mean, oh,
yeah, then what are you doing? I would like to use monitor bird
and send keep you around two adjacent rooms. That says a bird can tell
you how many creatures are in space, but not what kind. It also
gives you a rudimentary mental map of spaces it travels through. So I'd like
it to send him just ahead, like one step ahead of us as we
go, and I'll spend as many points as I need to to do that.
It's two each time, so I'll go ahead and spend the first two.
Yeah, you you send PP up to get a decent sort of lay
of this this fortress area, it's a kind of uh again, it's more
like a military encampment. There's a lot of gods and knights and stuff here.
They'll be like, we'll probably see a few nights training in one side
of this courtyard with the dummies up and a few of them clashing swords.
You'll see almost every single building and every single doorway has at least one or
two guards on them. The closer you get to the gates, you can
see more guards standing around. There's even a sort of small squad or a
battalion that are kind of marching around. They're doing like drills. It's pretty
busy, and most of the people here are well armed and well armored.
I don't know if you necessarily know what's inside each of the buildings, but
you get the sense that the barracks area is on the opposite side of the
courtyard that you're on. If the few buildings around where you are are to
do with the dungeons, or maybe they're buildings for something else, you can
see that there seems to be a more open flow of guards and military types
coming from the buildings that are on the opposite side for you. If there
was an armory or maybe a barracks or anything to do with where they're keeping
military things, it would be in that side. With the north side being
the actual palace itself a lot further away from where you are. The south
side has a lot more kind of buildings and towers that you would suspect contain
other things. There doesn't seem to be so many people coming and going from
those, but it's probably like a library and where maybe the majors were kept
and things like that, and then the gate itself. Surely the Inquisition has
better access or access to better weaponry than average you know, military barracks,
right, yes, yes, kind of. I think it's probably better.
I mean, even if it's not magical, it's probably a better build of
a sword and armor. Then we can find it at a barracks. So
perhaps we should just do that. Then I have to get back in.
We can blend in a little better if we take the armor from here.
Weston did say, it's not going to be really hard to get back can
all right, So what's the plan? All right, We're going to go
back to the castle and try to get to the queen. Is that what
I'm Yes, that's the plan, But we first need to worry about armor
and maybe some shoes. We're going to kill that one there and take it,
right. No, please, you're absolutely not gonna do that, Grim,
You're not. You're just not gonna do it, all right, Look
at that one. You can barely hold the sword. Listen, I'm through
with your tantrums. Now, this is this is serious. Everything that we
do right now really matters, and I need you to understand that we can't
just go in, you know, willy nilly killing people. We need to
be very precise. We have shot myself with her, and you did you
make it all the way there? Because I think you made it part of
the way there and then you wound up in jail. That was not the
time to argue. No, now not the time to set the record straight.
Well, we can do that with your tantrum, not in the middle
of a Let's get into a room. If you're gonna grim, you're not.
You owe us. You can't. You can't just go killing people right
now. You owe us. You gotta at least try to listen. We've
got one shot at this, can't We can't screw it up, all right,
It's too important, all of us. The fuck is who going?
Like? Worston's quite far away now, he's like looking at you like yeah,
turns around and looks up and you see them having a conversation, and
worse than kind of waves back at you the reeve kind of shouts are you
are you coming along? Or just admiring the architecture? I've I've never seen
this up close before, and yeah we're coming so sorry, Yeah, well
very good. I'm gonna try and sneak away broad daylight, surrounded by people.
Roll me at dice. Okay, oh wow, everyone like in that
short moment there, everyone turns back. Ellie's gone. She's just gone,
h nicking away to where I think the armor of the barracks would be.
All right, we'll catch up with you in a minute. What everyone else
is kind of moving partially somewhat towards the reeve and Worston. Yes, I'm
gonna yell at grim not yell, I'm gonna angrily hush tones. You know,
you're way around the castle. You need you need to help us with
that, and you need to focus. We'll get you a sword, but
you're just gonna have to maybe draw some map in case, I mean,
let's be real, in case you die, and then you can lead us
through the through the castle. You go through that fucking door and then through
the other big set of doors. Okay, well I didn't know it was
that simple. Yeah, you cut down every fucker in the way. Oh
for crying out loud, how many fuckers are there? She can do it.
She's almost as good as I am with that thing. Oh you should
see it now, sweetie. She killed a god, said she killed a
god, not your god. Settled down described to or roughly what keep you
saw in terms of guards. But then I'll say, maybe maybe I could
talk to the halfling and uh, we'll go on a tour. Oh like
like the new We don't need any keys or anything anymore. We just want
to just no, no, let's uh, let's say we need to go
to the scene of the crime. Oh, that's good, that's good,
right, that's you could see where he got caught and have him relay what
he knows of where what happened. And when yes, makes sense, I'm
going to go up to the reeve and use silver tongue. If you're caught
doing something prohibited or mischievous, you can use clever thinking to evade suspicion.
So I'm going to explain to him that we're not done with our investigation here.
We need to verify some things to see if uh, that creep downstairs
was was telling us the truth about even layouts rudimentary things. And yeah,
he looks up at you, He looks at worst and looks back and says,
well, I don't think I can. I'd have to have to go
training, you know we well, yes, I understand it only way to
train these not my place. I really don't go. Wait, look,
we don't need any keys or anything like that. And well, i'd have
to go and arrange that with of course, the scene of the crime partially
that would be necessary. I believe my inquisitor badge and just kind of idally
beholding that. I suppose Well, how about well, I suppose would you
and I'll actually use the ability? What's that wait right here? No,
no, I don't think you need to ask. That's the thing. I
think we need to take a look around here, and I'm gonna be holding
my badge and uh using silver tongue. Well, yes, I suppose I
could. I could take you in inside, but I wouldn't be able to
take you to the throne room without no, of course that was where he
was right. I suppose there's really no harm in taking you into the into
the main hallway. Perfect, perfect, yes, very well, yes what
I mean? Then, thank you, you're quite helpful, and he begins
to walk up towards the palace itself, heading towards the main doorways. However,
Ellie is creeping around the barracks. You kind of disappear and do your
thing for a moment before reappearing. We probably catch up with you in the
rafters of the barracks area. You've made your into this building where there are
plenty of people coming and going, and you can see that there are guards,
there are nights. There are people that are dressed in sneaking clothing that
were probably their own kind of roguish assassins at the behest of the fortress,
and the queen sitting around. This seems to be an area where they meet,
they hang out. There's some eating food, some drinking. A little
further in, you can see two other doors, one of them locked,
one of them open. The one that's open you can see a sleeping quarters
presumably where they actually sleep at the quarters and barracks themselves. The other door,
if there was an armory, it's probably this one, but it's locked.
Do I see enough in here to maybe properly disguise myself, Like you
said, there are roguish type people, so I would just try to maybe
disguise myself to look more like them and less like assassin skilled. Yeah,
romy and dice okay, eleven, you find a disguise, but it is
not the roguish disguise that you are looking for. It's kind of heavy armor
that would fit you. But it's the armor of these palatial guards, the
higher end military types that are trained up here at the palace. They're certainly
better trained than the basic watchmen. But will fit over my my leathers.
Yes, I'll start putting it on. Then you're not going to be very
effective at much in it, but you will fit in well. At this
point, the point is just a disguise myself. So that way I start
getting like questioned. Yeah. At one point you wait for the room to
clear and then you drop down. You start to quickly pull on these grieves.
These it's heavy armor that you're wearing, and by the end of it,
you're dressed like a classic looking night the type of thing that you might
see in attorney, with these large cauldrons. It's all heavy and very uncomfortable
to wear. I don't think you've really done any heavy armour wearing ever,
never needed to. But it's very heavy things. But I've never worn armor.
It's difficult and lumber center, especially with your your natural armor or your
leathers underneath, and yeah, once you sit there, it probably takes a
little while. There's a couple of people that walk past and they glance in,
so you get in change, but don't care. It just seems pretty
normal to them. Once you're dressed. I kind of like yell at them
to like turn their eyes and that they're like perves. Right, Yeah,
they like look away and they laugh and you hear them giggling as they walk
down the hall. By the time you're ready, you stand up, you
wobble a little bit and then begin to kind of clank out of the hallway.
Again. You're not your usual dexterous lithe self in these these items.
I want to go, is there a sword? I don't think there's the
one here. I think there are swords on each of the other nights.
This was just a discarded piece of armor. But at some point someone's gonna
come back for I'm going to go into the sleeping quarters. Is there anyone
sleeping in here? A bunch, I would imagine, yeah, And does
anyone like have their belongings near them? You can see that each of the
bunks has a little kind of lock box at the end of it. You
don't see anything. There are no like swords or bows or arrows or anything
leaning up against their beds. I'm gonna try and search one of the lock
boxes. Yeah, Romeo dies. Okay, but one you walk up to
this lock box in your massive armor and these huge armored gloves and just go
budging and hit the lock box and it hits the back of the bed.
There's a fellow that's asleep that wakes up and says, oh, what a
fun doing. Sorry, I'm I thought this was mine. I I think
I drank too much. Yeah, fuck off, Maybe take your ship off
put it in the armory like everyone else. Sorry, I told you I
drank too much. All right, I try to stumble out, rolls over,
grumbling shit. I walk back out to the guys that are like training,
and I mean there's got Is there someone that's like taking a break from
training, Like he's put his sword or something to the side, taking a
break. Yeah, roll dice. Okay. As you step outside, you
see everyone else walking up to the main doors of the palace, like we
look for them and they're not there, And then you realize they're at the
far north end of the courtyard. They're heading towards the huge double doors,
up a ramp and up a few steps into the actual kind of gothic looking
palace itself. Right next to you, you see a guard of a sort
of maybe a smaller stature, maybe a dwarf in there, walks up and
you hear behind the mask, fucking I'm doing and I'm tired. He rests
a huge double bladed axe against the wall and takes off his helmet and looks
up at you. You got to smoke. Oh no, I left him
in the sleeping quarters. You can have them if you can find them.
Just gotta be quiet. And some of the people in there cranky. They
I'll go all open them. He wanders off inside, leaving the giant double
bladed axe behind and put the face mass is down and I grabbed the axe
and start walking. Yeah, it's super heavy. And also I think you
see me like leave for a second that I'm like, Okay, you're in
this kind of slightly oversized armor, moving towards the group. You're catching up
with the group in this armor. Yeah, I think like, yeah,
I'm catching up with them. I'm we're gonna be walking behind them. Yeah,
the rest of you are moving towards this, this palace, this huge
gothic looking thing in front of you, And I think the rest of us
see this clanking armored recruit. It probably looks like wandering over with a huge
axe on one shoulder. Eventually she puts it down and drags it behind her.
As you start to move up, you can hear the the halfling kind
of mumbling to himself as he moves towards the doorway. And I don't think
this is really I'd have to speak with someone. I suppose I can show,
pretend, I pretend I'm showing you at first that well, maybe you're
inquisition. They won't they won't mind. They might mind, of course,
of course they won't mind. As you step up, you can you You
move up towards a huge doorway. It's flanked by five guards on each side,
all of them standing to attention. Two of them in the same armor
as what Ellie is wandering up behind you in not quite there yet, but
a much more heavy armored night. The others dressed more like the guard that's
been following around the halfling that you saw the drow wealth and the doors are
open enough to let one person throw, but you could easily fit a dragon
through these doors. The closer you get to them, you see they're huge
things that are probably pulled by ropes on the inside. When they closed,
they would act like a bowman. They're almost like the gate that you walk
through, and as you approach you can see now inside there's a regal hallway
with a huge carpet that leads down towards another door at the very far end,
and you step up. The halfling nods at the guards, who nod
back at him. They glance over towards you, but kind of stoically guard
style, don't really do anything. As he moves into this hallway, there
is another fellow dressed in kind of noble war an elf that steps in front
of the high reeve, and Esil looks up at him and says, he
startled me. Yes, I suppose I did. Ah, Inquisitors, you're
expected. This elf looked across all of you. He is dressed in the
very similar fineries to Il. He says, I am hy reeve, and
then he glances down to Essel and looks back up at you. We will.
I'm gonna let worst and handle this one. Worston glances forward and says,
yeah, we were hoping to look into the crime scene of Eldon Gwim.
Perhaps we could see the always in the throne room in which he was
competitive. I'm sorry, I'm using insight. That was weird. Why do
you need to look at somebody else? And then it sounds like he made
up his name just now and expecting us, And that's weird. So you
see the intentions of a nearby creature, discovering a prominent motive. I may
choose one effect each time you use this ability. Oh, this is so
tough. You learn something the creature intends to do in the next ten minutes,
particularly towards us, he is for sure hiding something. He really did.
Seem like he walked up and spun you a bullshit name, and you
get the sense, not necessarily that you know what his intentions are, but
that for him there is no pretense really, and that he intends to take
you further into the palace. He says, right, come with me.
You know, I'm going to use three I'm going to use more points.
I'm going to do it again. What's his long t her motive? Then,
what's his long term, long term motive? He turns to you and
says. He says, the Primark would like to speak with you all immediately.
He intends to take you to the prime Mark. Oh man, I'm
can I stock my own party. You're really obvious compared to everyone else.
Right now, there's a there's a night walking up the platform behind you,
dragging a giant axe. Oh I think I keep like correcting, like the
crotch a part of the armor, like, oh, come on. And
then I'm gonna interrupt you guys and walk like, excuse me, excuse me,
excuse me, and I'll bump into Grim and I'll like push the axe
at him. You immediately see him grip it. It was almost as if
he uh force pull it to himself. It was that eager to take the
acts from you. As he takes the thing, he grips it and leans
on it a little. As you kind of stumble up to one side.
I thank god, someone all right, and I'll walk up and I'm like,
I was sent to escort you all. You can't go in without an
escort, and we're gonna follow this guy. Oh hold on. I look
back at Sooner and I lift the thing a little bit. I'm like,
is there a problem? Yes? And then I close, I close it.
You just need to wait a moment. I just need to speak with
my colleagues here before we go straight in. I'm afraid this is an investigation,
after all, there is no making the primark way. Please follow me,
turns around and first kind of glances at everyone. Does he This is
such a dumb question, but I have a horrible feeling that that we've met
the man before. Does does he feel familiar to me at all? No?
All right, I'm most for a worse than to go in first,
so that way he can at least like start the line the feeling that I've
met him before. Crack at you all and looks over and says very well,
thank you very much, thank you. I whisper okay, then so
soon. I didn't feel very good when we were in the jail, And
I'm going to use pronesis again to see if I get a vibe from this
guy. All right, roll me and dives. What do you do?
Oh? I'd like to use relieve in maybe to to assist Aura in that.
So relieve you say something comforting to a nearby creature, elevating them of
anxiety, pain and discomfort. For one hour in the state the creature cannot
be affected by fear or confusion. And what do you say? I believe
in you, ware. I reached down and I squeeze Bo's hand like and
I hold his hand longer than just to and then I feel like this calm
overcome me. I take a deep breath. Do you think he's here?
I think he's close. Then the anxiety probably is quelled a little as Bo
gives you that sense of comfort. But yeah, you definitely feel like he's
close. I whisper that whoever like of our group, who's an earshot but
low enough that other people can't hear. I think we're getting close. All
right, Okay, that's all right. Well we'll follow him in there.
He's expecting us, and here's what we'll do. And then I'd like to
use plan while we're walking. Yeah, you guys, start walking down this
hallway. It's a huge thing. There are these paintings of all the Queen's
past that you see. There are several of generals and things like that,
and depictions of battles. There are many different doors that lead off to many
different hallways in this place. You can see some winding stairs that probably lead
up to some of the battlements and the towers that are on the sides of
this fortress. At the very far end, you can see another set of
double doors that presumably lead to the throne room, and you seem to be
on a track down there, but it's going to take you a few minutes
to get to that door. The hi reeve essel that was with you has
left. He turned around and did not come in, and turned back.
You're now with this other high reeve who claimed to be Weavil, and he
is walking ahead of you. This tall elf, dark hair, hands clasped
behind his back, walking proud ahead of you, leading the way worse than
keeps firing, looks back at you, but walks ahead quietly as well.
Klugi drunkenly stumbling behind you, and now Grim with an axe on one shoulder,
kind of now being relatively blase about the fact that he's Eld and Grim.
And then there's Ellie stumbling along. I'd say, I want to be
ahead of them, because I was trying to make up Let them talk while
I all right, you're like moving along, clanking along next to everybody a
little bit further ahead as well, And what are you planning? It's an
ability. If you have time to prepare before conflict and you can choose when
it begins, you may ambush your enemy and take the first round. But
means we all have to say what we're going to do during our first turn,
and then it happened simultaneously when when the ambush happens. I don't think
you can plan an ambush. Why not? Well, because they know you're
here and they bring you. They know we're here, but they don't know
who we are. Maybe potentially they don't know when we're going to attack.
Oh no, No, the plan your ambush. If you'd lie between each
other, what do you do? Well, okay, so here's the plan.
I think. I think you know. We'll go in there. We'll
we'll talk to whoever this is and dev Or you let us know when when
you sense Dave, and then we all attack at once. Something's wrong with
the queen, Yeah, maybe maybe she's possessed or something, and let's try
to figure it out. No going in guns blazing or whatever. That's what
we say over and dust fail, But no going in with you know,
your with your towards or anything. All right, We're just going to pay
attention. We're going to listen. We're going to focus and can you do
that? Grim? Can you not just run in there and try to cut
her head off? Grim is walking along behind you, acts on shoulder.
He says, no promises. Okay, but Grim, please words first,
Okay, thank you? Before we go, I'd like to use one more
ability, just to add to Sooner's ability. This one's called valiant solely LoQ.
I don't know how to pronounce it locally. Okay, thank you.
So you inspire your allies with a rousing speech. You can when when completed,
each member of the party gains an option to redo the next role.
Oh so this This option expires at the end of your scene if it has
not been used. So I will let you just make a quick speech at
hell. Yeah, I hold everybody back up in their tracks. I I
just want to let you know I speak from the heart when I say this.
You are all my family, Hippo and Cairo included. We've been through
so much together and I know we can overcome anything. Have faith in each
other. We got this, got a boom, We got a boom?
Okay, Brad, I got a head to this. I'm sorry, do
I know this? Weavil guy, and do I know anything about him because
I knew about the the guy that we're going to see. Yeah, the
primark Roman dies Okay, yeah, No, I have no idea who this
is. Uh. My second thing is can I use curious case on him?
Because as an assassin, there's been several times where I've had to like
walk into traps and I knew we're traps. I would say, if you
hadn't rolled a one, you could, But because you don't have anything to
go off of with him and say, you really can't. You guys are
being led by this fellow to the doors ahead of you, and before you
even get there, you see two guards push the doors open. There are
a lot smaller than the ones that you came through, but they're still pretty
damn big doors. But beyond there's a throne room and that is where we're
going to go to a break. Oh fuck you sorry, anxiety damn short
break. We will enter the throne room together. Quick shout out to Jack
Black, who drew an amazing piece of fan art which I'm going to put
up on the screen again here. You might've seen it right at the very
beginning of the group having the last reunion last week at the ads haveing eating
a meal and drinking together and it's awesome. Jack Black, thank you so
much. Drew a bunch of fan art for us along with a few other
people, and this one was, ah beautiful. We're going to have a
short break and when we return we will have a meeting in the Throne Room
and the conclusion of the campaign. A loner fortress in Alexandria. You are
led through a set of doors by this very tall elf introduced himself as High
Weavil. He stands directly inside the doors and doesn't step forward with you,
but he kind of does a short bow and a kurt bow to allow you
all to pass through, and each of you walk in to the fortress throne
room. It is quite impressive thing. Compared to the outside, it's a
little more embellished and a little more regal looking. The sides of the room
have several marbled layers for nobles and regents to sit and stand on, casting
their judgments on whomever should come here for whatever reason. There's a central kind
of platform that's a little raised and carpeted that runs down the center of this
relatively large throne room. The throne itself sits raised even further a small stairway
leading up to it, and it's a grandiose thing, three times larger than
the man sitting in it. There is a huge golden overhang above him,
in the general shape of a bear. Beside his throne are two guards,
both of them drought fighters like the one that now stands at the entrance,
and at several points in the room around you there are knights and shadowed palace
guards that stand watching you walk in. There's a fair few of them.
It's a miniature army of the most well trained militia in Alexandria. And upon
the throne sits an elderly man. He is maybe in his seventies, gray
hair, clear pale veiny skin. He has pristine, fine clerical robes of
silver and white, and his hands are covered in rings and scars. He
has a very fine looking, polished cane that he holds with an enormous diamond
embedded in the top. And he leans forward as you all approach, and
he says, I am Prime Mark Trimal, the Prime Mark, head cleric
and temporary ruler of Alexandria. Introduce yourselves and be honest. They have no
time for your deceptions today, Worston shoots a look at all of you,
and as each of you stand before this prone room, Wurston turns and says,
worst and Red Bloom, commander of the Arc and Eye Inquisition, the
Belogna team, and this is Inquisitor Cairo Ogle, our field expert. He
looks towards a couple of the others of you that's standing there. I've started
taking off armor. Yeah, are you just standing there dropping? I think
you La, as it says, be honest. You see La just take
off her helmet kind of like throw it in front of her and just starts
removing all the heavy plate. Do you introduce yourself? I'm Ellie co leader
of the Assassin Skilled. I reveal myself. I am Bo Bobo. I
I have no title extraordinary bard Uh, it's you kind. I'm I'm but
a humble board. If we look at Hippo for a moment and mm hmmm
kah, yeah, I'm a boot with them winners of the city shooting contests
and several of the cooking contests also mm hmm h mh Sooner sayway h child
of de VICKI. When Sooner says that I glanced at her really quick.
My name is Aura. Doesn't react to that name at all, doesn't at
all know I'm our Oakville. I'm a farmer. Calugi steps forward and says,
Hellogi selatia, damon hunter, lady's man, sometimes man's man. He
does a ridiculous bow one foot, turns around, Grim says, fuck you.
You know who. Zirah looks back and forth and then says, is
Zirah victis your honor? I am knight of tr vem got it of the
divine Successor. And Tea and Veras just shift uncomfortably, grasping their staff,
looking back and forth. And they don't speak common and they're with me.
Mm. The primark is like slightly less interested in most of you and focuses
his attention on worse than for a second, and then Cairo and says,
do we really have need for an arcony inquisition? There is no arcony,
simply scrape. I have heard a little of you, even less of them,
but this and that, who is this divine successor? Then he looks
at you sooner since Sirah no motion to you when she referenced the divine successor.
Oh yes, my name is sooner. What makes you so divine?
Well, I used to have magic within her, the god Savras's will.
Oh well, I was trying to keep that a little discreet. Is Savras
considered a god in dragon's reach? I suppose to savages the tricks of a
soothsayer might be considered divine. Yes, I'm just a soothsayer, nothing more.
You've gone to a lot of trouble. Come here, free, this
wretched man. Why no one says anything at all? Why do you stand
before me? Well, you wanted to see us, so why don't you
tell us you were on your way to me? I don't think we were.
You step into my home, your home, Tempruary home. This has
been my home. How company is that throne for you? So nice?
Sense? Can I use Nemesis? Yes? Throw me it dies? Okay,
Anne, what are you sensing? Oh but this is not deveci Nope.
I I'm going to look about the room. Is there any movement at
all? Nope? They're standing very still. Everybody else in here. The
door behind you are still slightly open. But the figure that brought you in
here, I re Weavil, has left. He says, ah, so
you must know what is behind that door, and he points to a door
off to his left. There are three doors in this room, two to
the right, one to the left of him, and he says, tell
name, what do you intend to do once you get in there? For
it is beyond that door you wish to go, is it not? Yes,
it is why. It depends on what's she's sick with. You have
come to heal the queen hopefully. Yes, you have come to do but
so many others have failed. That's correct, because you are a simple soothsayer,
as you said, so you know that you are victorious in this.
No, of course not. But we'll try anyway. Why would you not
want us to try? Nothing's impossible. I do not know who you are,
why you are here, but you sneak onto these lands in disguises and
wish to see the queen. Would you have let us come in if we
had told you who we really were? Perhaps most likely not. The fact
that you are afraid this murderer does not help your cause either. Do you
have any other options? You bring an assassin, a murderer, a farmer,
elderly men, a soothsayer, and the inquisition. I see now healers
let him apart? Yeah, I do you salves and stitches. Ye will
not help our queen. Well, i'd say you're out of options, and
I've got some bum frazzle as well. Sometimes that just bounce things straight over
you. We've come all this way, and as you know, from all
over separately to try and help. You might as well let us help.
I need not your help. What do you need? Nothing? We're going
in that door one way or the other. You're gonna let us in or
we're gonna go through you. You would threaten me. You speak in riddles,
and I don't really have time for that. These are not riddles.
I have answered, you have I not. Now. Maybe you just talk
more than you should. If I walked into your home demanded to speak with
your loved ones, would you simply let me if they were sick? Yes?
Yes, aren't you some sort of head cleric? Of course? I
would you snuck into your home with a non murderer and the cloak sneak in.
We walked in through the front door. MM in disguise is yes,
because otherwise you wouldn't have let us in. You said so yourself. I
told you no time for deceptions, and you are not here to help me.
Are you Are you trying to help the queen? We are trying to
help thee Yes, you are here for your own answers. That's what I
think. We are not here for our own gain. We we are here
to help our people. Mm hmm. How will you help? Are saving
the queen and now room means to be seen? But you have failed?
M m hm. No, I have not failed. The Queen is already
saved. You already know what have you done? The Queen is saved,
You are saved. I am saved. We are all saved. The divine
power is not something I am willing to let fall into enemy hands. I
draw my sword, Brad. I wanted to ask how open is his room
and or are there places to sneak? You guys are in the middle of
the most open part of the room. It's a pretty open central part around
the room. There are lots of places that you could hide behind, pillars
and levels that you could move up, and chairs and things like that that
you could get behind. The throne itself is maybe twenty feet up and away
from you, elevated by maybe no more than ten feet as he speaks down
to you from it. Not many hiding places right here, You're just a
group in the middle. Here you pull your sword out? Yeah? Can
I used the ability size up? Yeah? I'm the guy the Why do
I keep forgetting his name? Primark? Name is Primark Thrimal arrived for you
in our chain? Yeah, Primark. Can I use my ability size up
on him? Yes? What does it do? You evaluate the capabilities of
a nearby creature or group of creatures, The GM will give you useful insight
to their capabilities, strengths, vulnerabilities, and or resistances. That minimum,
you'll receive an accurate assessment from the GM about whether they would pose it like
how they would fair in a fight. So you look him up and down.
This is an old man. This is an old cleric that at one
point was probably the most powerful cleric in the land. I'd imagine twenty days
ago, this guy would have been a handful even for you at your full
power when you returned. But now he just seems like an old man.
A well placed arrow would certainly kill him. He's not even armored. Around
him are a lot of gods, and these guys are very well trained.
These are the guys that stopped Grim. Basically, Grim got through all of
those guys that were out in the front and the guys threw at the gate,
and maybe a couple of the more well trained ones. But these are
the elite horses here. These are the palace guard. They're pretty scary looking,
some of them very heavily armored, some of them not so many of
them with bows, many of them with swords, some of them with axes
and hammers and club How many are there? In twenty twenty? He said,
we've been saved, and I want to ask him what are we saved
from? He sits back confident and says, you know nothing. All of
you draw your swords and kill me if you must, They will stop you.
That's not what we want. We want answers. Your answers enlighten us.
This would just come to w did you save us from? What?
Did you save the queen from? I did nothing? And how are we
saved? Has saved that? No? What you may be wrong about that
bar He will bring about a new age, one of complete global unity.
We shall all ascend under his rule. Who do you worship? I worship
him with him, and I hike my sort up higher in the threatening way,
not like I'm gonna run at him or anything. Is him so great
that you're afraid to name him? I don't think he knows it, so
for all you know, it's a big deceiver and you're just getting caught up
in it because you're scared to be your other. God's all been away.
This is no deception. The last of my power showed me the truth.
I have showed you. What what? What's the truth? Our new world
that suns an awful lot? Like everyone, all of these guys here here,
you protect you. You're just like, oh, they're gonna die.
There will be a new world, and that's it. I don't like saying
to that. I like this world already, in this new world of ours
and what they're well, they're going back and forth, gonna walk up and
nudge or and be like, let me know when you're ready. So you
wanted, you wanted no magic. Weeks ago, I would have wanted nothing
of the sort that I have seen now away. What do you mean the
way you say you don't speak in riddles? You're speaking in riddles. I
have someone I want to get back to. So if you don't mind,
just say what you mean, then, farm child, you have no place
here, None of you do, right, we're going to see the queen.
I M so sorry. I'd like to use evil eye. What does
that do? You pause, closeure eyes and quite your mind, and you
can tell the worst thing that's ever happened. Nearby, the Jim will describe
to you the type of thing that happened and what the people involved look like.
For example, you might learn someone who's murdered, a curse was created,
or an evil vow was taken. Roll. I want to know if
the queen was possessed, or I just want to see if I can figure
out what happened twelve twelve? What do you think happened? First? No,
I'm not playing this game with you, Bradley. I'm my own worst
enemy. I'll make something terrible happen if you. I hate that. You're
asking what do we think has happened? What would? Sooner says that's very
true. Well, I think she was possessed. I think de Veki's in
her. That's sorry, it's what I think. Then, that is what
do you think? All right? Is that what I see? Though?
Yah? That's what I see? All right? Okay, when Suna goes
quiet, I'll look over at her. I'm not sure what she's doing,
and I'll look back at the prime mark and say we're going in. No,
it is time for you to leave. That's not happening around. I
look over at Ellie over my shoulder and see what she's doing. Oh,
I got my bow and arrow out. I let you know already that I'm
ready when you are. I I nod at her and I charge at the
prime mark. All right, okay, Aura starts running forward, sword out.
I'm gonna use dead eye at a cost of three and any the closest
guard to the prime mark. I'm going to disable a limb. Okay,
everyone explained to me what you're doing in this moment, and she's or to
take up a step. I'm gonna run for the door behind the Primark.
I'm gonna run for the Queen's door. I will follow Kimer. Okay,
I'm sticking close to suing you. Well, I have my fucking eyes closed,
so I don't know if I see her moving forward. To be honest,
I nudge I nudge Graham to go towards the door. Grim lifts his
Hugh jacks up. Klugi kind of stumbles left and right, and then pulls
out a blade in front of him the way he does in a kind of
off drunken fencing style. As you soon his eyes closed, I'm gonna just
grab by the shoulder and fill ittle with me with the right Okay, with
the primark lifts his his cain and hits the ground with it. Suddenly,
all of the gods along the sides of this room, a couple of them
up by either side of the throne itself on a kind of separate area to
the sides of him, and a few on the other either side of you
pull out weapons or are you run forward just running straight at the prime mark?
There's a hail of arrows that suddenly come in at the crew here.
And what are you doing, Ura, I'd like to use wild attack,
and I'm heading straight for the prime mark. Okay, Romia dice, Okay,
Then eight sixteen at sixteen is a hit. However, as you're running
forward, you run up these stairs, bringing the sword up with you.
As you lift it to swing at him, you run straight into what you
think at first as an invisible wall. You boom straight into some glass.
There is almost invisible glass around the underside of the overhang where the bearz kind
of form is and you hit this thing and he laughs behind it. An
arrow flies in and I'm gonna roll for an arrow and eight is a miss,
and then a second one, and eleven is a hit. An arrow
hits you take two damage. I look at him and I grab where the
arrow hits me. You're a fucking coward. Perhaps kill them more more arrows
fly in? So who was attacking? Who? Ellie? Roll me?
It dies? I don't think when I upgraded? I have to Oh you
did a I did? I did dead eye upgraded automatic hit. Yeah,
launches forward towards one of these guards. He pulls out a sword, and
then you see this arrow Pierce's neck. He stumbles backwards the A spurt of
arterial blood hits the the glass next to him and begins to run down it.
As he grabs at it, he drops his sword, falls off the
plint in front of him, stumbling and hits the ground pretty hard. Who
else was anyone else attacking? Everyone else was running? I think, yeah,
after that, I'll start running like at trailing the group. Yeah yeah,
all right, let's see. So an arrow or Ellie is an eight?
That's a miss an arrow or hippo or a miss an arrow for eight
a miss. You guys are probably ducking under this stuff. Suddenly everyone is
in motion. There are arrows flying in pinging off of the marble floor,
the carpeted floor. An arrow for Cairo. Damn, that's gonna steal Cairo.
You turn to run towards the the means quarters when an arrow flyes very
true and strikes you in the rib cage. This is bad. It hits
you hard. I think it hits you for double damage to you take four
damage off of your HP. Everyone has NHP reminder for people watching, we
are in quest and you only get ten. That is thing I've knocked on
my ass. Yeah, one, two, three, four five six.
So then we have one for Sooner seven a miss. One for grim A
thirteen is a hit. He takes two damage. There, one for Klougi
a miss, and then that's one to three, four, five nine,
and then one more. Who am I missing? Who has not taken an
arrow yet? There was a twins anxire Quins Zira. That was who I
was naming at nineteen Zira. Is you see Zirah moving forward? Now?
No? No, I will o Jesus Christ if a nearby NPC is about
to attack someone. You may shout and disrupt the attack. The NPC will
make their attack with minus five to the role, so it'll still hit,
but it won't be as bad, I hope. But when you intercept this
attack, they will immediately be affected by this provokability. So they're going to
focus on me for you in this attack. On next I believe I'm intercepting,
so they're going to hit me instead. You dive in front of it.
How does this look? Ah? I honestly don't think I'm fast enough
to dive in front of it. I think I just, oh, how
would I do this? I think? I I think I I think I
forget I don't have magic. Actually, I think I just hold my hand
out and I expect my my scepter to come up and do shield like I've
done so many times. It was reflex and the air goes right through my
head. Okay, take two damage. Zira screams out and then Dra like
she I think, reactively grabs you and throws you behind her really violently and
pulls her shield up. You're now kind of under this shield from her.
The few of you that start moving, so what was if? Oh,
you were just kind of moving with Sooner and Zira. I guess, yeah,
over there, and then we'll want to get them over there and want
to turn and take any and take a shot at one of the archers.
Okay, yeah, you can do that, give me a roll and then
what was bo doing? I went with Cairol so I I witnessed that she
took quite a nasty blow. I would like to use the ability to heal,
so use your knowledge of nature or medicine, restoring all of their hit
points. After a short time, the creature is relieved of any short term
impairentment. However, this does not remove permanent conditions. Okay, yeah,
I think you can all the head over and pull like snap the arrow,
and then you apply us a certain pressure to the area and then you just
hold it for a moment. The wound is bad, but you don't think
that this has hit any sort of lungs or internal organs or anything. So
it's a it looks and feels horrible, Piro, But with Bow's help and
maybe reassurance, and then just looking it over, you can see that it's
it's gonna suck for a couple of days, but you'll absolutely survive. At
thirteen is a hit. How do you kill one of these guards? Yeah,
I turned it into the one that's just had sooner a tea game and
reading the center of the chest. You see a spark as it hits his
chess, plating frush street through the crumbles. Next to you, one of
the guards jumped down, and a massive double bladed acts swings for him.
On a miss. You see Grim rush forward, but Grim is unarmored.
He's in this strange cloak. He's kind of weaker than you'd expect. He
lifts this axe up, the guard jumping down ducks underneath it. As the
two of them dig in to fight. Kluge swings wildly at one of the
gods and stabs him through the heart. It's a perfect strike. As he
stabs and just thrusts forward. He looks shocked at what he's done, and
then looks back and says that still got it, pulls the sword out,
and then another arrow flies over his head. The twins dash into action,
scattering one left of you, one right of you. Sooner as you deal
with your arrow in the hand situation, one of them bringing their quarter staff
up swinging at a guard. It hits the hard armor that they have this
guard, bringing up that you're now seeing Tear swing towards a heavily armored foe.
She hits the armor, jumps back, dancing away from him, readjusting
her attack as Bas does the same thing basically on the other side of you,
swings low to try and hit the legs of one of these guards,
misjudging how heavy they might be. Worston fires a gun and pretty much the
same thing. Two gunshots going off, one from IPO, one from worst
and you see the bullet fly through and you just you see a figure with
maybe a helm on. Suddenly the helm dents in one place and he falls
to one side with a perfect shot through the skull from Worston. I think
that brings us around to everyone. Where are we? Yes? Everyone done
something? Yeah? What are we doing next? Next top? And next
round? Anyone doing anything from the positions you are in? Uh? Healed
myself? Mine's quick? Uh yeah, what is it? Tell me what
you're doing. I'm using my heal ability, which is what bol just did.
It'll restore all of my uh hit points. Oh you can do that
too, okay, So you you you presumably snap this arrow pull out of
your hand and wrap it into something very quick, very quickly. Yeah,
yep, that's what you're doing. Sira in front of you, bringing one
of her two swords out and keeping you underneath the shield. Okay, I'm
okay, I just did I just did it without thinking. I'm starting.
I'm sorry anyone else doing anything? When we charged the prime Mark, did
you say it was like going through him? Just hitting the illusory wall?
There's a he has like a super clear glass pane in front of it around
him that would shield him from at least arrows Ora ran into a full pelt
and it didn't smash, but it it can't be that thick. You can
hear him clearly. I'm gonna take aim. I'm going to take aim at
him with my bow. Romio Dice eighteen. You've bring this arrow into songbow.
You aim it up towards the thing. Suddenly a gun lowers itself next
to you, resting on your shoulder for a second. Worse Than brings this
gun down to you, and as you turn around, he fires it.
He fires his gun behind you. Behind you, somebody is rushing up with
a sword. You see this gun lower in next to you. Worse Than
fires the gun. It hits the ground, causing the fellow who was running
up behind you with this ord to stumble and he dives behind you, and
you know what I'm gonna roll for that guy Oof gets stabbed, takes a
hit for you that is a worse than taken two damage. You feel this
all happen, but it allows you to get this shot off. It's a
perfect shot that flies true towards where the prime mark is just next to where
you're stood. Aura. An arrow hits the glass, it cracks the glass,
the arrow dings off of it, and you see a crack of the
glass in front of you that splits you deal two damage to the glass and
worse than takes too damage as well. Let's see what RA does. I
guess Okay, I just asking because you keep saying, like, what do
I think is happening with a lot of things that I'm doing. Yeah,
now's the time to consider this. I would I would like to. I'm
throwing this out there. I am enraged, and is there a little bit
of magic left in me where I can use some hellish rebuke on this guy?
You can roll me a D twenty, all right. I just feel
this, this thing deep in my soul that goes, I can do more
than what I'm doing right now. At eleven eleven, you see Aura kind
of stand there for a moment. She's so furious the teefling abilities to summon
up furious and righteous rebuke of fire. You see her raise her hand,
click her fingers. Nothing, Aura, nothing happens. I'm gonna channel that
rage and I'm gonna smash the shit out of the glass, all right.
That break it can do because and any attack now on the glass will break
it. So how does this look? I take the arrow out of my
side, I slam it into the already cracked part of the glass, and
I take my other fists and I slam it and it just shatters into a
million pieces and falls. Yeah, it's standing behind it. The Primemark kind
of sits back in his chair. As you hit this thing, it cracks
even more, and then you hit it one last time and it just explodes.
It falls into a thousand bits of glass around you around the Prime Mark.
As you look at him, he he looks shocked, but not necessarily
afraid. He doesn't do anything immediately as you as you stand before him,
But that is the end of your turn. Other party members who haven't been
yet. I'm going to use my upgrad rated flow the forecast. You become
wind until the end of the current fight. Minions cannot hit you with basic
attacks unless they roll a twenty as the BacT ends if you are hit,
So I'm going to use that and run towards the group. That'll be my
justification of becoming like a wind. Fuck. You start jumping over stuff,
dashing under things, a couple of arrows fly over you. The motivation would
probably probably be seeing sooner get hit. Yeah, so you start moving around
this room in a I don't know if I can do an attack as well
frighteningly expert manner. I don't think you can. Let's see if you get
hit by an arrow though you do not an arrow flies at you. Wait,
what does it mean you can't be hit or until the end of the
turn. I can't be hit till the end of the fight unless someone rolls
at twenty unless someone was a twenty. Right Yeah, yeah, okay,
d but so early somehow. Yeah, she's just moving around this battlefield like
she's at home, and she is really kind of is she is the wind
of death. That's my girl. Who else is doing what else. If
anything, I'm trying to go for the queen store. Yes that wre you're
moving towards. Yeah, yeah direction If are you doing anything specific? Only
back up and I'm going to shoot another archer. Another was close by,
and I trust her not to let anybody get close. But doing the shuffle
backwards Spartan style with the shield above, sooner it can look back up with
her. And can you use her shielded balance moneyful and take another shut off
than an archer. Okay, I'm going to read all that with the again,
you stone, you fire. You see the bullet just straight wide.
Maybe you hit the pouldron in one of these guards, but it's not enough
to do anything that would incapacitate him as he is moving into the fray.
That's beginning to become a little bit more chaotic. A shot goes off a
second attack from behind you as somebody fires an arrow right back at you on
an eleven, I think that's the success which is going with very very basic
rules. So you feel an arrow graze you, I think it probably it's
probably a nasty thing, but it just catches you and you take two damage
and another arrow comes in on bow. That's a four, another arrow Forooner
it's five. That's a mess, and then one for Zira. All of
these are hitting Zira's shield. Zarron now has like three arrows. Thung.
She's just taken them. She's eating them. It's easy. She's moving backwards
with you as you, guys, kind of progress towards the Queen's door.
However, there are two guards that step in front of the Queen's door and
bring out long swords to stop you from walking straight in behind Aura. The
twins engage two of the other guards that are next to either side of you,
or one twin swinging a miss again dinging off of this kind of heavy
armor. The second twin, Theereas, learning from the movement, kind of
positions himself in a way where he gets behind one of the guards. He
instead of using the staff, kicks the back of one of these guards knees
and just shoves them off of the plint that they're standing on the slightly elevated
area. The guard in all of this heavy armor falls really hard with a
massive plank, and for As then jumps off the top of the clints to
follow up with the attack. Then we have two shots towards them. One
two. Tia straight up fails to combat with her God the Guard kind of
deflecting the quarter staff shot and then bringing a sword down and leaving a wound
behind. Tia takes two damage as well. Now has a gash open.
Who am I missing? Kalugi versus God Guard strikes Kalugi. Kalugi takes a
bit of damage after finishing off one of the other guards. Second steps in
behind him and gives him a rather nasty hit with a war hammer. Where
are we now? Who hasn't been any of you? Grim? Grim attack
miss takes another two. Grim, not looking good, takes two more damage.
Kind of surrounded now to one on either side of Grim. As he
swings at one and misses, A second appears behind him and hits him.
He swings wildly backwards, missing this one as well. With this great act,
that is the end of that. I think two three, four,
I think shut the beginning the glass next? Yeah, all right, top
of the next one. Let's start with all that. Since you smashed open
this glass and you're announced ding in front of the prime mark this old man.
Oh okay, can I use two skills or you only let me use
one? Unless you have an ability that lets you use two skills, you
can only use one. I don't. That's when I wish I did,
but I don't think I have time. Does he have any weapons on him?
Can I see that? No? He has this staff. It could
technically be used as a weapon. He's just sitting in the throne, though
it looks like he's an easy kill. Honestly, yeah, I I my
gut is telling me to use insight on him, but I don't know if
I have time for that. I want to use my insight on him.
I'm going to raise my sword, but I'm gonna I'm gonna study him before
I kill him. What do you want to learn? All right, choose
one effect. I can learn something that cre intends to do in the next
ten minutes. I can learn something the creature intends to accomplish over a long
period of time. Or I can learn something they intend to do a specific
creature of your choice. What do you want to learn? I want to
know what he's going to do over a long period of time. You get
the sense that he's not afraid to die at all. You get the sense
that he feels very strongly that whatever has happened here with the queen has trumped
anything he ever understood. He seems born again and very very confident in the
fact that he is nothing in this grand scheme of things. He as you're
looking him over. He says, you consider yourself to be a good person?
Farm girl? I do? Do you consider yourself a good person?
No? I know it? How do you know that we judge through our
deeds? He raises his staff and says, enough the fight slows to a
stop unless you all decide to continue killing people. I'm going to roll one
dice for grim who falls to his knees weakened. He swings wildly and then
the axe lets go and he just buckles under his own exhaustion. Am I
able to heal him? Everything kind of stops. You're kind of surround you
a little bit, Zirah holding a shield. Suddenly the men stand to attention
right fighting around you. All right, all right, all right? Nobody
does anything to continue fighting. I lower lower. I walk up to the
one that stabbed the twin, and I used sneak attack to incapacitate him.
Yeah, you grab him? What do you do? I? Basically,
what it says is that I exploit his focus and then by touching a pressure
point, they fall out of the ground unconscious. Yeah, you zena grab
him or spark or whatever. Yeah, one of there's a there's a sound
of armor. As one of them falls down. The twin standing back kind
of stops and looks over towards you. Sooner, another twin looks over to
you, and they slow and they stop, and they step back for a
moment before whereas runs over to Tear and starts tending to her gash. She's
kind of batting him off. It seems again, relatively superficial, not too
bad. There are a few bodies, some of the guards kind of laying
either incapacitated or wounded to the point where they can't move. Some of them
might be dead for sure. The ones that took a bullet worse than loading
his gun stops and looked forward or in front of you. The prime Mark
says, hmm, you think you are the protagonists in this little story.
Don't you that you were saving the world from some great evil? Is that
right? Oh? Bent on some moral duty? Oh, I didn't have
a choice in this a lower free yourself. I'm too invested now, I
can't do that. I've sacrificed too much. All of these people have sacrificed
too much for me to do that. He holds out a hand to you,
take my hand. Then, I don't know that I can trust you.
Why would I do that? I cannot trust you, and you not
me. I look over my shoulder at Sunna and Ellie and Bow. I'm
bewildered. I'm trying to pick lock pick this door. There's oh well,
I'm gonna walk up to it anyway, start walking up. They bring swords
down in that cross way that they do. I take out my two daggers.
I think I'm just looking directly at Aura. The primar looks at Ellie
and then looks to you Ora and says, must it be blood? I
Ellie, stop, don't do that. You're really gonna take his hand.
You're gonna take his hand? This guy, you know, he sounds a
lot like uh, that guy that we fought before we all got sent here,
right, you know, he sounds a lot like him. I tim
he says, the dancing, talking in riddles, never actually answering what you're
saying, and then there being a greater power than us, and we should
walk away and just let it be. Now you need to take his hand
and join him like this sounds This sounds like I'm reliving a moment, having
a little bit of deja vous. Now I need you to join me.
I'm not My word is my bond. I shall kill no more of yours,
you shall kill no more of mine, and I will let you pass.
I yell over my shoulder, Ellie, can you do that? I
don't respond. I think you can. I think that if you look at
Ellie, you could see that she's like visibly disappointed. I don't look back
at her. I just I take her silence as I don't know what she
she's gonna do, but I hope that she knows, like with our bond
that I am hoping that she will not draw blood. And I'm going to
reach out and I'm going to shake his hand. He takes your hand.
You believe you are good, and I know I have. These people have
families. I wish for the best future. He begins to stand up for
this, our country, our world. Don't what does that look like?
You will see Eventually you will all see what I have already seen, soothsayer,
Yes, you haven't even Let us see the queen pass. Let us
see her the gods uncross their swords and step away. He stands up.
I immediately opened that door. Yeah, I walk in, Western kind of
slowly meanders over towards the area. Kaloogi moves over towards Grim not I'll go
in, but I'm not going in first, because I just had a very
brutal reminder that I don't yes prediction is our going in? Laurah. I
look over my shoulder and I'll start walking down the steps, and I'll probably
be the last one to enter the room. You guys moved towards this doorway.
Ellie, you reached down and try the door handle. Finding that it
opens, you pull the handle, push the door, and each of you
moving up behind where Ellie is slowly one by one, he moves in to
the room as you each step in. This pretty large door opens to reveal
a room filled with reds and blues and golds and silvers, a chandelier hanging
above an enormous royal bed. Behind it, there are three oval paintings that
depict these ancient queens. You see that the different queen's faces in these three
paintings, in particular, are incredibly similar. There is a large window that's
casting a single shaft of light across the room, which illuminates the bed.
There's a serving girl that kind of steps back, a hand over her chest
in shock at the entrance of you strangers, some of you with blood.
Upon the bed is a bundle of red and blue wraps, and inside it,
as you each move into the room, is a child no older than
a month, helpless and squirming, his face curled into a little frown,
his eyes open as you approach. They looked towards you aura at first,
and then flicker across the rest of you, before closing them. But you
saw that his eyes were like fires, yellow, casting a little glow around
them. This his day of Aki. The cry Mark walked in behind you
and says the Queen was not human, nor was she a demon. She
was something else. Her long life expanded through generations. Although she tried,
she could not quicken with child until nineteen days ago when she vanished. And
here lying in her place was this boy. I, along with several others
of the divine Order, felt it a strength unlike anything I have ever known.
It lies within him. This here is the most powerful creature the Crine
has ever yielded. It is no coincidence that on that day magic was stricken
from the land, for we no longer need it. With him, like
our fair queen, we shall be born anew a new age has begun,
one of prosperity, and his birthright is everything. And every one he steps
back from the bed, My walk over to the bed and put my finger
out to see feel grab my finger his little hand. He does. His
little hand reaches up kind of blindly feeling around, and you see this tiny
little hand grab out and grab at your finger. It squeezes pretty hard,
quite strong for a baby. Is there a presence of magic? No,
but you do. His eyes are kind of When you saw them, they
were very yellowed and kind of like a like a fire swirling within them.
You haven't seen anything like that since the fall of magic. Anyone that had
any kind of magical eyes like Suna lost their kind of odd looking or different
looking eyes that they had. There was even a slight glow to them.
It's not super bright in here, so I think you can tell that he
has glow in the dark eyes basically, But I don't think you get the
sense of a strong resonance of magical energy or anything like that. Off of
him. I look towards sooner and I say, the eyes like my vision,
I see them. I love it Cairo, and I'm like, what
are you talking about? His eyes? Is it bad? And just not?
I can't kill a child. I can't kill a baby. Does is
that what it is? Yes? Look at it. It hasn't done anything
but the eyes. The Cairo brushed everything, the entire city. It's just
deeve ruined. Yes, sort of. This is not what he looked like
when I thought him, right, I mean, he was big and scary
and that big machine hands, all right, and it was that nineteen days
ago. When was it was about Yeah, it's been about that long.
So he survived. It would appear so well. It appears that the Queen
was his vessel. He disguised himself as a baby. I don't know if
he did knows he knows that maybe it's just a rebirth. She was a
vessel for his rebirth. How he could join this world one last time?
Try again? I mean, yeah, I agree with that. What what
what if he hasn't done anything yet? You said you don't. Yeah,
but that was before. This is now, This is a this is a
new creature. The visions, all the visions him. True, yes,
but but that's a great example. Actually, what about Worston. He didn't
shoot you destroying an entire city, but he didn't shoot you, right,
But the eyes it's not right. Well, they're talking. Can I use
insight and try to learn something the creature intends to accomplish over a long period
of time. I think I would do the same, honestly, both of
you look at this child. What do you think he intends today over a
long period of time. I mean, in my mind, it would be
what Cairo is saying now, Like he doesn't plan on being this justin and
good leader. Like this whole idea of like like a new world starting means
that he's going to level the current one. Okay, then that's what you
believe it's going to happen, Laurah, what do you think he's going to
do? I hear them all talking behind me, and I can see his
eyes lighting up, right, Yeah, every time he opens his eyes.
I think it's a chance to start new for him as well as everybody else.
And I think that with the right guidance, that's what I think too,
it could be a better future. I think, you know, we
could raise him more, but to see that. But he was just just
haten and said the baby. Now, wait a minute, I would I
had bad blood as it were, I mean, as as as consciousness as
being is. Just once he gets old enough to start doing what he was
doing before, he'll just do it again. Maybe with the proper guidance he
might not. What's one thing you know about de Evagi, It's that he's
always one step ahead of us. What's one thing he knew about all of
us? We wouldn't kill a baby. Give him a chance to come back
and do the evil that he was doing before. Oh God, I walk
over to this baby and I look at him. You remember me? Oh
he doesn't remember me. Look at this? Look at this? Are you
an evil man? Are you going to grow up to be a horrific h
devour of mortal souls? Is that you? Is that you? He's kind
of cute when soon it comes over. Can I use my nemesis just to
see if I feel a negative energy or a good energy coming off of him?
Yeah, or even a neutral one. Romeo dies, Okay, eleven,
do you think when you see this baby? What do you mean by
all this? Does it make you feel when you see this child. I
think about does it seem good? Does it seem neutral? Does it seem
like anything? First instinct? First instinct is I think back to in the
dream world how I was pregnant and like I was going to start my family,
and I just look at this baby that does have crazy eyes. But
if anything, I feel nothing in the sense of good or evil. It's
just neutral and a calm feel. I'll reach out and maybe touch or as
forearm, because I think she and I both know what it feels like to
be judged on appearances, grow up as outsiders a little bit. I put
my other hand, my finger's still playing with his little hand, and I'll
put my other hand on top of soon As and rest on my forearm.
Behind you. There's a dragging sound and you hear Grim say give me the
fucking knife. No, I'll do it. No, this fucking thing is
evil. This child hasn't done anything. It's just a baby. I felt
it. There's no magic and he has those eyes. I look at Or
and I'm like, sounds like you're gonna have to stop Grim if you don't
want them to kill it. You're putting no, he's a baby. But
you're putting everything at lesk everything and everyone. Well, who's to say we
don't kill him? And then did he explodes and all of the magic goes
everywhere and destroys the city. Who's to say that's not what causes it to
happen. Look at Caro, like, was it him that destroyed the city
or was it an explosion? Look like him? Yes, but you also
thought Worston was going to shoot you and he didn't shoot you. Look at
you, You're fine. How old does this baby look? He's born nineteen
or eighteen days ago. They're usually really tiny. He's really camping, so
he's like, he looks like he's eighteen days he looks yeah, or nineteen
days a month. Oh, you know, he's one of those looking super
fresh baby. I see too much of myself in this child without a mother.
I think I turned out Okay. I think we're just the proper guidance.
If we are there for this child, maybe he will not stray like
in Cairo's visions. But Ip always right, this is a great risk we
are taking if we if we spare the child, well, I think he
definitely shouldn't be raised on the on the throne thinking that his birthright is everything
in everyone that's insane. That's a risk that Deevaki is inside of him,
used to see literally inside him. I'll take him back to Bame. He
can help me plant turn ups. No, No, I don't think that's
safe. You want to risk Theyevaki being near Alvin. You're that guy that
you ended up being with. You want to risk him being a monster in
your own home. This looks like a baby, But I don't know that
it's a baby. Nobody knows if anything's a baby. You don't know if
you know the baby's going to turn out to be. And there's a baby,
and well, but what I mean is you can't just immediately assume that
someone who's going to grow up to be a monster or not. You have
to let them live. You have to let them make the decisions. It's
not our chance, it's not our choice to just immediately say nope, you're
assuming that it's a blank sleet. It's coming from the most powerful thing ever.
Think how to restart cycles, keep us in loops, make us die
and get tortured over and over and over. And now he lives to a
dreamland. Then doesn't do a dreamland for a full year, just to rip
us away from it. We're all mortal now, and guess what, and
so is he? Maybe what's one weakness that at least two of you have.
And I look at Or and I look at Bo. Both of you
all are about to have children, and he ripped that away from you.
But this is not a story of revenge. It never happened. It's dayovaki.
I'm not here for revenge. I look at Graham. What's he doing?
Grim looks like you could throw a tomato at him and he would pass
out. He's really kind of struggling to even stand. But he's probably leaning
in the doorway. Maybe he has a couple of new wounds. He's obviously
still exhausted. He looks like he probably hasn't eaten for like a month.
Really, he's listening to you all, but he looks like his usual grumbly,
angry self doesn't seem to be saying anything. And Khalugi Kalugi is sort
of tending to his wounds. He's not even in the room anymore. I
think he came in, saw the baby, shrugged and then walked out,
took some bottle out of his pocket and is now dealing with the wound he
took. The twins are also kind of stood at the outside of the doorway.
There's a few guards and stuff around. The Prime Mark is standing there
kind of listening to you. I think there's a look of confusion across his
face. You guys are discussing something he was definitely not expecting. Yeah.
I think that the conversation that's being had between you all is being left to
you all worst and also relatively quiet on this that you figure out, Yes,
do you ever see anything about this with your things? I try to
recall if I don't think I have, But did I? Maybe I did?
I will write to you all right, I've I think that maybe it's
important though, to think about even when we were there fighting against him,
what did he say? He said he was doing his best, right,
he was doing what he thought was best. Still, even then he was
trying to be fair and just and you know, do what he thought was
best for all of us. And we were you know, it was mind
boggling. We thought, of course, that's not that's not right. He
had no moral compass, just completely neutral. He didn't care. But if
if he's with us, raised by us, by our hands, not in
some palace, no offense, primark. But we could just steal away and
raise him with responsibility, and we could do this. That's assuming he's a
blank sleep. Even when we big risk we broke in here, we killed
people, We've went through the ring room back, we broke the cycle,
and now we're all gonna rely rely on the fact that one of us has
to be a good mom. Well it's not one of us. It takes
a village, you know, Yeah, take and guess how many villages he's
destroyed over every cycle. But we don't know if this child is that.
It only took how many cycles for us to get here? You're willing to
put all of that in us breaking the cycle on the line right here?
Yes, I am for Yes, I am make a twelve percent chance.
I don't I don't that way, but I don't think. I don't think
that's fair. You're gonna and you're willing to let clearly there is some sort
of magic in this child right now, and you'll be the only one with
it, Yes, the only one that's right. I feel like I was
the one who's supposed to take over. I was supposed to be the one
even when we talked with him, he he didn't ended up another God's slave
like the other ones that tried. I just think, if you don't try,
then how do you know it's already gone to shit? Already We've come
this far. You have tried over and over, and this is how we
ended up here, all of us trying, going down a different route every
time, and we ended up here. And what was the one thing,
the one goal we had in coming here, saying the world not killing a
baby. No, it was to get rid of dayv Aki. I'm pretty
sure I know Ora was bent on it. I was never bent on it.
I wanted to find out what was going on and where he ended up.
I never said I was going to kill him. I was under the
impetition you're killing them. Yeah. I saw he wasn't going to be a
baby. We thought he was going to be the big It would have been
great to come in here and kill man just because he's wearing a different suit.
Do you know how backwards that is. I'm okay killing a grown man
or an old man. I'm not a decisions. A grown man has has
the ability to think and to and to make mistakes or to or to choose
to to hurt someone, or this is a baby, this is a child.
Pretty sure people can be born evil? No, I'm pretty sure this
isn't a natural birth. Do you know that I was considered evil? So
was I when I was a baby. I was heavily judged. Just because
somebody looks different doesn't mean that they're bad, or even if their parents were
bad. You remember my father. You can come from something bad and you
can still be good. Right. This is not my call to make,
but you know how I feel, and I think from the arrow in my
rib, even though it's been healed, I just pop down and sit.
I'm exhausted. Even if it's a trick, even if it's something that we
didn't plan on, I feel like you have to give it a chance,
and then God forbids something does happen later on we can kill him. Then,
yes, magic though when he'll love it. I don't think he's that
strong anymore. I think his eyes are like a birthmark, like something that's
left over, and it's a reminder that he will have to see as he
gets older. But I don't think it means anything. But there's a lot
of things pointing to it. I meaning something, though for some visions often
he was did not make thing I mean, and that failure there grim he
was saying that the divine, the feeling, that that big Oh no,
the ego or something. So I don't like, I don't want. I'm
just trying to make sense. If I'm not arguing one way or the other,
I just don't what is steak or remove the fact that he's a baby,
remove that completely and think about what he comes from and whatever you might
think he is. How does that change things? He randomly was birth from
a woman who couldn't have offspring vessel. She disappeared. Technically we don't know
that he was. So she disappears and he appears in her place. Well,
we don't know that it was his intention to do that. Well,
remember sick first, I was sick. I think that was a cover up
for her. I do think that was a cover up for her going missing.
She goes missing, and let's say she goes missing after the baby come
And you're just gonna say that that's a an maybe good not really bad thing.
Like I'm saying that magic does weird things. Ellie, what if her
dying or her her the one thing she wanted was to have a child.
What if when Magic was everywhere, she could do it, She could summon
up a child. We don't know that it was day of Vecky taking over
the queen. We don't know. They happened after Magic was gone. It
happened at the same time Magic left, did it not, Primark? How
long has it been since Magic left? It's been about a month there,
right, nineteen days happened to day Magic left? Yeah? Prime Mark looks
across each of you and says, she is gone. But hell could this
child have appeared if not through her? So you don't know how this as
he doesn't even know how this happened. I look rebirth, this is her,
you know what new way, But what you are saying confuses me.
One thing I know is this child is good and will bring about peace,
prosperity, unity to this world. And how do you know that? Because
I had a strong connection, stronger than any other, to the divine behind
from the doorway, Grimm says, fuck you bye, had a strong connection.
The thing's fucking evil, slit its throat. Let's go to the fucking
tavern. I trust him, when I trust this guy, and I'm talking
about I trust Grim Moore. Yeah, what what do you do you play?
When you saw the things? Was it look clean? Which sounds like
dying and going to have a sort of situation? And that doesn't say I
eld it. I feel it divine presences I always have been able to.
Can you still? That doesn't mean they're good. I can tell I've always
known, are you so have I? He's full of shit, we all
have. He's just under its spell. I think he's under the influence as
well. But what if the roles were reversed, you'd say they were influenced
the other way. I just don't want to and a liar. A liar
is not something I'm not saying. I'm not saying Grim is lying. I'm
saying that Grim fears this creep. Sure, that is true, and obviously
the Prime Mark doesn't fear. Well, there's the twins have had visions?
Aren't you let them see the baby? I look over at the twins.
Do they even understand what's happening here? I think they're I mean they're not
even in the room. I don't think they have any idea what's going on
there. Well, they didn't come in with me and not there they're just
outside the room. They're within view. But Whereas is kind of tending to
Tea's cut. She's got to cut across her stomach, so he's just kind
of looking at that at the moment. Maybe they saw something. Look,
I don't think we're gonna know one way or the other. We don't have
magic anymore. We can't see the future like we used to be able to.
We have to we have to resign to the fact that we need to
be able to live with our decision, whether it's wrong or not. We
have to do our best to make the decision we feel is right. Right
now, I've made mine, and that's something we can put out of that
doesn't seem right. I've made my own decision. You don't have to.
Oh, he's holding my finger. Can I try snapping my fingers to light
like I used to? Uh yeah, roll me and dice? Yeah,
fourteen. You start snapping your fingers as you do, so, he kind
of giggles. But no magic. Can I try to use a scrying eye?
What the scrying I do? No? It was my old ability,
okay, the one where I could look at at someone and and see like
their powers. Oh yeah, you don't have that anymore. I can't do
that anymore. Okay, that's become your like size them up ability. Oh
okay, can I use that? Yes, it's a baby. You can
kill it very easily. Well, I want to know more about the magical
side of it, Like the eyes. Does that remind me of anything that
I might have seen in the past amongst people that I have encountered or seen.
No, not beyond Devaki, who had very similar eyes. I think
great power rested or rests within all of us, but that didn't necessarily make
us bad or evil, but none of us magically appeared. And one also
possibly dear Aaki sou with the disappearance of a queen. And with that,
I'm going to step out in the doorway, not outside the room, but
just in the doorway. So I'm because I feel like I've said my piece.
Western is standing there as well, and he looks at you and says,
I don't know what the fuck is going on, but I think maybe
we should leave this to them. Thank you're right, I for luck ship.
Yeah, let's let's let them talk and I'll walk a little further out
of the room, steps away with you. Oh boy, I'll use an
ability. M hmm, I'm going to do my in my own brain thing
for a minute. Okay, ah, where is it? Sorry? Invoke
you leave your worldly body behind? Oh boy ah. You must be in
a quiet place with no other creatures around to begin the ritual. While in
this trance, you can only vaguely sense if there's danger around your mortal body.
You may exit the trans at any time. You enter a liminal plane
of existence and experience a place like a dream world in the stars. That
might be well, that is what I experience. So you may speak with
a mysterious version of yourself. They may appear to look as exactly as you
do as you once did or will, or perhaps they are you yet distinctly
different. You must describe what you see each time. You may speak to
this avatar for one minute about anything you like. If you ask any of
these questions, the GM will give you a truthful answer. Okay, I'm
going to ask two of those questions. How soon steps away for a moment.
Yeah, closes her eyes, and you find yourself in a field of
stars. Yes, maybe you have no real form yourself, but you can
see these stars all around you. Everywhere you see a form here before you.
Who does it look like? What form does it take? This is
bold, So tell me if I cannot do this, but I wanted to
look like this young boy will in fifteen years. Okay, all right?
And what do you ask? Are we on the right path? If I,
if I take you, if I help raise you, is this the
right path to saving the mortal realm? And you know yourself pretty well?
Oh yes, Then what do you answer? Yes? I believe in my
bones that it doesn't matter. He has powerful blood, not evil blood.
That's what we've all had, is power, not good or evil. The
next question, so, then, is that you answering truthfully? Then I
guess I've just answered my myself. I can take that as all right.
Then the other question is how can I redeem myself? And I already know
the answer to that too, And that is what is onst And I come
out of this liminal space with more resolve than I had before. I am
not killing this child. I am not killing this child either. I'm not
either, But I'm not letting him sit on some rich, wealthy throne being
told that he gets everything that he wants. That's absurd. Now we're taking
him away from this place away my expertise. Whatever you want to do,
like, I can still support you, but I'd rather I'd rather do the
very best. And I I think if we if we kill him now,
I think we're just we're becoming him, making the decisions out of fear.
I don't want to do that. I don't want to fear what he will
become. I'd rather give him the chance. Everybody, you can change a
person. So being good times, I have to apologize, but I'm going
to take aim and use dead eye. I will stop it. If you
can. I can't. I haven't a that will stop you, and I'll
take it. I take him and focus my senses automatically scoring a triumph and
then it disables targeted limb. I take it. Can I use cutting words?
Yes, If a nearby, nearby NPC is about to attack someone,
you may shout and disrupt the attack. That's what I've you bo, sooner,
hippo, all move in front of this baby, bo. What do
you say as you see Ellie, she's moving blisteringly fast. She's going to
get this shot off. Probably unless Ellie, if you really want to stop
it at the very last second, you can. But what do you say,
bo because yours is verbal. I have always loved you. Ellie.
Does that stay your hand? Ellie? Shot goes off sooner I take it,
I take it instead. Okay, well Hippo takes it instead. What
unfortunately that is what he has had a secret clause this entire time. What
and he kills shot is that's aimed at you is taken by Ito. You
fire and arrow, Ellie? If are you see this happen? Boe tries
to distract Ellie. It's enough so that Ellie can't fire this. I think
you see Ellie flinch and then her eyes start to water. And so when
that fires off, it just does not aim true at all. Yeah,
it hits Hippo. Hippo, You're struck in the chest and you stumble backwards
into Sooner. You hit the bed. The baby rolls over and begins to
cry. I'm going to pick up the baby and hold it close to my
chest, or it takes the baby from the doorway. You hear a voice
that some of you recognize that Soona doesn't recognize. Say enough you see the
high reeve Weavil standing there, but he speaks with Zack's voice and says,
come on, leave them. If you fight them, they will kill you.
I think you see. I think even Zach for the first time sees
Ellie like like start to cry, and then I would just turn around and
start walking towards him. Willy, we need you. Zach, in disguise
as an elven man, takes Ellie under one arm and says you are my
child and I I would protect you and I will do that. Now,
come leave them. H I think right before I leave, I just turned
so Soon and I'm saying I just don't agree with this decision. I'm sorry,
it's okay. I love you very much and I didn't want to hurt
you. It's okay. Sorry, it's okay, it's okay. You did
your best what you thought was right. I'm proud of you. I love
you all. And then I would just I would walk out with that hpony,
Papa, yel roll me a dice first. I'm probably right there with
Sooner, trying to stop the blood. Anything I can do to help Mend.
I would also I'd be trying to console the baby and trying to help
Mend as well. If you have an arrow in your chest, it's pretty
bad, but you're not going to die. Yeah, you have an item
in your pocket which just moved the arrow to one side. Oh no,
is it the fucking beard oil? There is beard oil spilling out, mixing
in with this blood through the front of his tunic. The frime mark turns
to you Aura and says, the baby give me child. I think I
can do that to go first decision, so definitely, she don't talk,
honey clean that. I suppose it would be against my word to stop you,
would it? Yes, and you would have to break yours. Get
out of here. Do you want what's best for everyone? Just let us
protect this baby. It should be bigger under she let the baby get hurt.
Did you not see what just happened? We all stood in front of
this child as one of our own two game mm hmm. I saw it,
and I believe that child will grow up to save us anyway, right
hands, good hands, what dark hands? H it does not matter.
Go then and take the child, only the hand. Oh, I've got
your money. You guys leave the spinning room. Yes, I mean if
we can, can I can I I'll pick up a bow and your pat
is already carrying him. Okay, speach, be gentle with him. You
know he can cranky if you're just a man. Moven S. The twins
rash up as well, probably to help. I put around an arm around
sooner to comfort her. Oh, I hope we're doing the right. Think
you listen to your heart, not your fear. Look at the prior mark
right before we leave and say, I'm I promise to take care of him.
Mm hmmm, we all do. He will take care of you and
all of us. Well, we'll see about that. I hope you're right.
Or you look down at this baby and he smiles up at you,
and that is where we end our campaign. Ura sits upon a lonely tree
stump in an open field. Buns flies joyfully around her, and a summer
breeze blows single strong gusts. Aura looks down, raises her hand and presses
two fingers together