Hello, I'm Josh I play the Dead Wizard Xenator Brisbane. We're an independent
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cbhpod Could Have Been Heroes is a role playing game podcast where six old friends
adventure as six total strangers who, after missing their shots at destiny, now
get a second chance to make a mess of everything the Battle of Briar Tower.
Throughout the history of the realms below, there have been many terrible conflicts
and striking wars, sky castles, wrestling amid the clouds, wars for supremacy
upon the seas and between the seas, conflicts between different eras, and even
interpretations of different eras. Let's say that the way you remember the eighties and
the way the eighties were had quite a conflict a few decades ago, the
fun version, one which I suppose is for the best. I do like
stranger things. All that to say that among the standard fantasy army clashes,
there have been order more esoteric battles that would stretch the human mind uncomfortably to
even perceive, let alone understand. The battle at the Briar Tower was not
one of the very strangest of but it did make a few lists of the
top hundred artist conflicts of the generation. The fact that it began with a
living, carnivorous circus swarming in and wrapping itself around the base of the tower
had a lot to do with jumping up the weird factor. It seems that
the Briar Tower was on Martin's mind, and when Sirk found he could not
exist on his own and went running back to the safety of his twin soul,
the carnival he had built marched on without him, leaderless and with the
tower their only imaginable destination. Whatever you are picturing when you imagine a huge,
interconnected, animate carnival sliding through the forest like a gigantic red, white
and black striped Yorman Ganda, you're not seeing it quite crazy enough. When
it reached the tower, the aggressive mobile Briar Patch instinctively struck out at it,
the two becoming a bloody tangle of performance art, Thorn's and calliope music
that more than a few bards went mad trying to adequately described these unlikely chroniclers
of the short brutal battle came from the crown Landers, Wicked Fay and Grimwood
natives, alike. The Queen of Spite had stationed several of her nastiest battalions
around the tower in recent weeks, causing no small amount of tension between the
tower ogres, who had been trained to see all visitors as intruders and besiegers.
The fact that among these battalions was the Black Iron Fomorian and the sickle
like Marauders was decidedly even more unhelpful. Still, when the heat and light
and shadow of fear hurtled above the wood, heralding the arrival of the dragon,
the residents of the tower were glad that such fierce warriors were at their
doorstep. The crown Lander's initial charge was swift, brutal, and if not
for the wall of flesh that was the Black Iron Fomorian, the tower may
indeed have been breached. Dragonfire evaporated thousand year old trees and scarred the side
of the tower. As the dragon cut a path through the forest, silvered
knights, charred black with the soot of their trail, gleamed dully. The
war bride Queen bevel her sword catastrophe, reflecting the dragon light like a crimson
star, rode down all resistance, making straight for the bridge of no Welcome.
A mighty spell from the Queen's wizard cut through ancient enchantments and turned the
massive gait to soap, which all the tower's ogres feared, and for a
moment it seemed the Queen and the knights would preach the tower. But a
shadow moved and a hill of flesh and black metal swung up from the darkness
beneath the bridge. The Queen's blade severed the black iron for maurians and at
the wrist, but the beast was not slowed, using the exposed bone to
skewer half a dozen knights mid charge. The initial charge was broken, but
a stream of armoured giants, soldiers and war machines barreled through the gap in
the trees, even as the dragon flames spread and consumed the ground south of
the tower. As the flames crept higher and higher, the magical emerald heart
of the tower began to quench them. Sheets of glowing green rain began to
fall, suffocating the hungry fires. But a crack and a thumb preceded a
tipping point. A chunk of the briar tower exploded, emerald green shard burst
forth like shattered bone from a wound, signaling the death of the Briar Tower's
mighty enchantments. The skies rang out with vibrations of transportation magics, dozens hundreds
of prisoners escaping on the wings of spellcraft, Dozens hundreds of plunderers, assassins
and vendetta seekers who had awaited a chance to breach the tower saw their opening
and took it. The dragon fire kicked higher on the winds of fate,
and if not for the timely arrival of Kell under the waters atop anew even
more ferocious mount with her lagoon in tow, it is likely the flames may
have consumed the tower entirely. Those with keen eyes even saw a manatee fall
from the buttresses of the Western Tower onto a longtime food vendor at the tower's
base. This is likely what allowed the whole affair to crack the top one
hundred lists. Elida the Snake Mother was not the only crazed matriarch to fall
after the tower's magical defenses came down. Gramma Nin and the demon Velskiath made
a wild, last stitch effort to control Gwen and Val, but the ladies
did not give in. It does seem that dangerous mothers and rebellious daughters is
a continuing theme. So the Queen of Spite is a six foot tall,
long haired, like like straight blonde hair, severe like razor sharp face,
very long ears, a very simple, sort of elegant black and white dress,
with you know, the white being these sort of phosphorescent crystals that sort
of dangle off of parts of it. And from her hips down, she
has strange articulated legs like those of like a marionette or a puppet, and
she's barefoot, but her feet seem to be carved out of wood, and
there are strange like runic forms like carved into the wood that of her legs.
Her fingers are like longer than they ought to be, and she has
like a strange kind of insectile nature to her. But at a distance you
just see like a beautiful, thin woman. But up close there's something just
a little bit sharp and feral about everything about everything about her. And you
had her daughter, her favorite daughter, captured and is currently being held hostage,
and the plan was specifically to try to use that as leverage to like
keep her from taking the field, because were she to do so, that
probably you know that, you know, uh, swing things pretty badly.
So she is standing here in this cathedral cathedral like structure, and she is
looking at the hole in the wall from which the rest of you are entering.
On a scale of one to ten, one being the least and ten
being the most. How much do you love your daughter? Hi, I'm
Martin, by the way, charmed, I'm sure then, Martin just a
bat race. She just points that he had. Yeah, no, no,
So you can see in her head, like the wheels turning, you
can see a thousand grizzly deaths for each of you, just like flickering over
her mind like you can. You can like her eyes turn into like that,
like the like viewfinder. It's like and each one is a new,
like grisly evisceration of your body's and forms. I didn't need that, Spleen.
Apparently I love her just enough to stay off of the battlefield to ensure
her safety hostage taking. I can honestly say I didn't see that coming.
Really, You've been relatively predictable otherwise, but I didn't see that. Don't
be mad, you see mad. I'm always mad. That's my secret,
That's that's my brand. Are you looking at me. I never do the
talk. You didn't really answer the question, like I said, on a
scale of one to ten, and you said enough to stay off the battlefield.
That doesn't mean you, Gwolyn, not that I know you have any
children in your life that you love. Do you look at any young people
and see the future your legacy? No, that sounds really boring. Exactly
the answer I would expect from someone who would ask me to quantify my love
in numbers. It doesn't seem that hard, one to ten. It sounded
like a five, just just out of curiosity. What what did you envision
a future ruled by the glorious to look like for your daughter? You think
that I intend to hand the world over to the glorious, the abomina,
abominations from beyond the stars. This whole thing is going Uh. It was
a choice between that or you being dumb enough to ally yourself with them,
And I guess Intellgius this moment I held you in at least a little bit
of with a little bit of regard. Oh, you think you're gonna beat
them? How is that gonna work? You think you're the only ones who
can defeat the glorious. I mean so far there were lesions of them,
and they were defeated at last stand and shunted into the mirror world. You're
not special, Well, they're too less thanks to us. Oh too,
you've killed two. Yeah, that's very impressive. Thank you? Have you
killed any? A little like smirk plays over her face. So far,
I've just seen you create them. I have used them as ingredients in my
latest curse for humanity, the very same curse that you ruined that kiss so
very hollow, The curse that would have allowed humans and fee to live in
harmony until the end of time, The curse that would have wiped out half
of all humans. The curse distance that you ruined was a curse of fear,
the fear of trees. All humans who contract this curse would have obtained
an irrational fear of trees and stayed away from the forests forever. Or they
would have chopped all the trees down, because that's what humans do. They'll
do well with fear. A fear so potent that simply the sight of a
tree could cure a human in a few minutes. Seems like doubling down on
a strategy that hasn't been working for you for ever. I suppose then I
should thank you for ruining this latest attempt. Well, apology accepted, because
tonight it ends the way to the bones is opened, and a change will
be made for the first time in centuries and a cap where we sat on
the hated kind. It's a much more permanent solution. But as you have
my favorite daughter in custody, I shall not take the field as promised to
your witch. I just wanted to lay eyes on you. You are so
interesting, so unexpected. I have billions of seeds in silos within my kingdom,
ready to plant forests on every inch of this world if necessary. There's
not going to be a world. You have any idea what the glorious are.
How is it that you could ally with them, that you could empower
them while still fighting age old grudges that are going to be meaningless in the
face of what they're bringing us. What the hell is wrong with you?
Seriously? Seriously? He asks a good question we'd all love to know.
I see a tool, I use it. If the tool is within my
power to control, I wield it. It's not you ever heard that phrase
everything looks like a nail when all you have is a hammer. How does
that apply to this situation? I don't know, but it felt right.
You're banging up, you're fucking up everything trying to do this icies other thing.
So my grudge against the humans, I see the glorious and since all
I think about is my grudge against the humans, I see them as a
weapon. There you go. Do you see how maybe that could be a
bad idea? I don't. Okay, well but maybe I'm sick, maybe
maybe maybe I'm warmed. But whatever I am, they made me. I'm
willing to risk it all to get rid of them. I just wonder,
stay out of the fucking way tonight. We'll deal with you later. But
I do wonder, I do wonder do you have it in you? Do
you have it in you? To her turn? Yes? Persona shack kah
see what you would call? That's helpful in this scenario, though, vengeful?
Instinctive and empathetic vengeful double Yeah, that's it? Though? What's that?
What about the other two? Oh? Sorry, well the other one
was instinctive and empathetic. It's all emotions, Uh, you answered so quickly.
Yeah, I think instinctive. I think empathetic would work against you.
So but so not that one. Okay, should be good. Uh,
well, think on that at a later date. Then, Do we want
to tell her that her daughter was running away from her? No, just
leave it, okay, hold on to that. Not yet right now,
she's in the love bubble and doing what we want. Oh yeah, she's
like, oh well in that case, well, since she was running away
from me, then I disowned her, and yeah, probably best to We'll
hold on to that for now, all right. So so she makes long,
lingering icye eye contact with Laveline and fines and iron will to do whatever
six ship is required, and gives her head a nod almost with a little
like bit of respect for the drink that she sees there. And then just
with a gentle like gust of wind, the Queen of Spike vanishes, and
uh, the way to the next The way to the next floor is open
in a staircase behind her. What a cycle. She's kind of hot in
a weird I mean, I see it for sure, I'm not going to
act on it. It's okay, I feel like it's the wooden legs for
me. It's like, I mean, like I know, oh, that's
definitely thing. Ah, so I I didn't know that I could do this,
but I pissed myself during the confrontation Congress. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's sort of a yeah, sort of a juice juice sap. I
don't know, but it was upsetting. But some of us can't come back,
can't revive from from mutilation and death, so that was scarier for for
some of us and others. She's saying, I should have told her that
she was the tool. Go back, you'll get her. We'll get that
lady, memory lady, the jerk store code and they're out of you.
Oh wow, good wo the glorious are tools? Your legs don't catch on
fire from that sick Martin burn? God? Well, should we continue forward?
We don't really have a choice. Oh whow? I feel like,
why do I feel like there's a trap or something? Now? Wouldn't it
wouldn't wouldn't Doesn't it feel like something bad is about to happen? It always
feels like that, al Right, it's felt like that since we got here.
Yeah, that's not new. I'm so tired already. How do you
people do this cocaine? Okay, we both acted, dude, how the
fuck did Applejack do this for all those years? This is when you all
find out that Martin's has been skiing? Yeah, whoa? All right?
So the stairs ahead lead up into like a strange void where on either side
just this glossy black darkness descends down from both sides and you can see like
the night sky spread out around you, and the staircase just ascends into into
the void, into the like milky nebula. And then there's a little door
ahead. And after you know, one hundred or so of these glass stairs
reach the salon. It has it has like ruins above the door that mean
like the salon or like place of rest or paradise. And the moment you
pass the threshold into the salon, your injuries fade off of your body,
and your essences recover and and all of your goodies reset as this like paradisical
place washes away all of your pain. Video games have taught me anything.
This is a very bad sign. Are you sure you want to go in?
Yeah? And uh? And then it asks you if you want to
save, and auto saves. This room is really big and kind of empty.
Oh fuck. And then it does that thing where it's like Hey,
if you have any side quests you want to finish before you go through this
day, do it now. Then it gives you a chest entering the end
game. In the salon, which is really more of a full idyllic glen
with a crystalline fountain in the center and like sort of a spiral, like
a little spiral river that goes out from it amid beautiful mossy mounds, and
lounging on them are a myriad of young women in like silver or like spiderwebby
kind of gowns with long blonde hair or or long red locks, you know,
and they look so happy and and paradisical, just sleeping and laying around
and like just sort of lounging and giggling with each other, braiding each other's
hair and playing like Cat's cradle and stuff. Maybe not know there's a war.
Yeah, And apparently none of the like should we ask them shaking of
the tower or anything reaches here. It doesn't seem to bother bother them at
all. Tell them, hey, l hello, young man, Hi,
I'm Martin. I don't know if you. She immediately puts like a daisy
laurel, like what are the daisy What do they call this daisy chain?
Yeah, like like a little floral crown on your head as you're talking.
Yeah, awesome, cute, pretty love it. You know, there's uh
siege, a war happening outside. Has been on the attack before. Nothing
to worry about. You're safe here, lay down in the grass with us.
Well, I start getting down, but like your hand touches the soft
moss and it's like all of your worries start to like ebb out through your
palms and with this dick again, senor, senator, can you tell if
there's spells? Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and say, yeah,
doesn't he doesn't like duetty like magic stuff. Yeah, you guys,
I think you should take a load off. No. So the women,
however, look at the spot that your hand has touched, and the moss
is starting to die and wither and like turn black, good girl, the
whole hair. God, damn it, why is that happening? They just
look at you with like sadness in their eyes. Okay, well I'm gonna
I'm gonna stop. I'm gonna go. Yeah, sorry about we have guests
come over here. They wave to someone like just on the other side of
that, like Crystalline Fountain, who is taking small objects like glowing stones and
stuff and putting them into like a bag. It looks like she's packing her
things. And the woman, the young woman from earlier, the spitting image
of Laveline with the the sw feathers and uh, the same dark hair and
luminous eyes, like looks up and sees all of you. Oh, I
don't want to talk to them. Why don't you want to talk to us?
Yeah, we're chill. She just sets her jaw and keeps going about
gathering up her personal effects. Can we talk to you even if you don't
want to talk to us. Everyone is free to do as they please.
In the salon Libertarian, I'm doing my best loveling impression. Go ahead,
mess your impression of lovely just getting cold mean. I find it best to
start with, Hey, I'm an insert your name, you got this?
I know who she is? Well, hey, this is lovely. You
want to come in? She's your mom. I know that I'm no fool,
and I know exactly how I came to be here. How exactly did
you come to be here? You traded me for your freedom? Oh yes,
to escape a loveless, horrible marriage. You traded me to a monster
man in the wall. Okay, so you were just an egg? Yeah,
you were an egg and she didn't even know if you would be born
because it's not common that. But didn't she really didn't you think that that
was the most likely outcome if the little man in the wall was willing to
trade for me. No, that guy's an idiot. Okay, I mean
that is kind of it was kind of an idiot. Who I don't I
hold up the bag thresh around? Good God, I almost killed myself for
people, and you still treat me like shit? Sin you got this level.
I will acknowledge there was always a possibility that you would form, but
it was by no means a guarantee. And the second that I found out,
I have been doing nothing but trying to find you again. She has
been really been taking your sweet time, haven't you? Well? Some of
that's awful. How old are now? Thirteen? That was artificial? That
does sound like something that mother would do. How long has it been like?
Six months? Yeah? Like four months? Yeah? You should you
should be less than six months old. She should probably still be an egg.
Yes, I and that I had been my hope. Well, you
would never have to know. Assure you, I have lived a long thirteen
years trapped in this tower. Then you should have a little bit more sympathy.
Wow, Okay, walk it back. I know you're new as a
mom. She's Thirteen's not gonna go tell you she's basically a psychopath. She
has no empathy. Girl, Maybe you should make it clear that we're here
to rescue her. You love her, You got this leveling. Yeah,
we believe in you, We love you. Let those maternal instincts kick in.
Be nice for five fucking minutes, even two minutes. It's maybe one
sentence of mother's kindness. I don't have the fucking war. Eventually, it's
gonna be just don't sabber at any point. I don't have the milky mother's
kid. Yees. She just keeps putting her things. She gets a silver
mirror and like a bunch of books. And it's a quote, Senator,
ever read anything you ever watched a rested development. I will admit that your
beginning years were unfair to you, and I am trying to fix it.
And as I've said, the second I had the means, I've gathered a
party and have been trying to find you, and there's been a lot of
battles along the way, and I have considered every one of them worth it
just to find you again. Well, here I am. You did it,
quest complete, and then a golden golden line like strikes through the uh
like the thing in your mental questlog scowls at that. Oh that always feels
so good. We still have to get out and also avoid your father.
What makes you think that I want to leave? Well, you weren't packing,
and I am packing to go to the tower top to help grandmother with
her great work. Super not your grandmother, I know. It isn't my
actual grandmother. She raised me. Well, she like put a weird spell
on you and slowed time for you and trap you here for thirteen years to
you, but it was only like six months to everybody else. It's a
little manipulative. Don't you think she does have she does have the uh the
inside on manipulative grandmothers. Yeah, yeah, I have one of those.
I just killed her. Do you know what her eye like? I'm unpacking.
A lot of it was an axent. I was not that. A
lot's changing around here. So she glances at that silver mirror that she just
packed like its handle is like sticking out of the bag, and then looks
back over at you. Was that nothing? I just can I see it?
I actually I saw some of what transpired between you and the chipmunk.
Yeah, that's my grandma. She loved me too and wanted to protect me
so intensely that she harmed me. I don't think without even really realizing what
she was doing. And that's been my situation my whole life. So I
really do understand what you're going through. It's a real complicated relationship. Persona
check. I want to use do no harm, empathetic, double empathetic.
Okay, this might be a stretch, but I'd like to use brave because
I'm being emotionally vulnerable, being emotionally vulnerable, and not even that I'm being
brave, but that I want to call on her to be brave. I
believe in something else. I like, good job. Okay, so that
is twenty one, very nice. So she grabs onto the silver mirror and
hands it, hands it to you, I'll help you hold on to the
good times. And as it like touches your hand, you see like a
like flair in it, and you can see Grandma Nin sitting across from baby
baby Gwendolen and the two of them are like kneading kneading dough, and baby
baby Gwendolen is making like a mess and Grandma Nin like laughs and one of
the like little peanuts she was holding in her cheek falls out, and the
two of them laugh about that. And so it just shows you like a
really beautiful, happy memory. It used to be good. It used to
be so good. Don't Getting old really sucks and realizing that the people who
love you and care for you are also human and that makes them are well
not necessarily you felt like mortal, and it makes them in fall. I
love that they use human to mean like super foul, to fuck up trying
to do what's right by us, and it really messes us up. Sucks.
We have to stop her. I know, I know, I know
she's she's tampering with things she shouldn't be tampering with. It's not that I
mean it is that, but it's do you know what she's trying to do,
specifically, exactly stop the humans? Do you know how? I don't
know, taking away their power? Her spell is going to murder half of
them half of all of them. Grandmother should never have gotten in league with
someone named the Queen of Spite. It doesn't, it doesn't seem. It
was sort of a red flag when we had Yeah, when we had the
Queen of Spite over for banquet, I yeah, that sort of struck me
as like a possible warning sign of something bad to come. Your grandma was
really vulnerable to her promises. When people are desperate, they'll take all kinds
of help. We have sometimes some of the most unexpected places. We've done,
some things we're not too proud of either to get here and get to
you. And hopefully I've been lying to these guys for months together. She
has your mom's up perfect either to wait, you to wait. All of
you just walk around relying on each other and lying to each other at the
same time. A lot of lies, some of us try not. I
sleep great at night, and everything's been going good. So I saw a
demon tell you that he out of murdered women's parts. Listen, it's not
perfect. Have there been a lot of lies, yes? Has there also
been a lot of love? Yes? And we're at a point of a
lot of trust. You people love each other. Oh yeah, oh,
yeah, whatever that means. I trust these these fools with my life.
You love me, and you can you can join us, you can be
a part of this. We're a family. There's something else though, You're
your mother is trying to live quite literally, trying to save the world.
She's a hero. And so yeah, she lied to us. There's there's
been a few lies. But what she was doing and trying to why she
lied to us was for you to get to you. And that's something that
we understood and that we forgave and never undermined our trust in her commitment to
what we're all trying to accomplish. She saved my life on this two mine
three probably fine, And then to murder me shut they to slip me up
guilty gizzards several times for selling you. I have so many broken ribs.
So she goes to she goes to respond and then like her eyes furrow a
little bit, does it feel hot? And then then there is an explosion.
Everyone, please make a this is a grit defense role. So the
side of the tower explodes in flame and light and heat sweeps in, scarring
the paradis surrounds rock and stone and debris and fire and shrapnel spray into the
room in a deadly deli. Huge shards of molten rocks singed with dragonfire.
Biggest spears come hurtling into the room as shrapnel. Thirteen ten, twenty,
fourteen, eighteen. I think Senator is the only one who evades it.
Oh twenty, I was like, oh really, wait, you hit a
twenty. You hit rolling at twenty but you know no, but you hit
till you hit twenty. Yeah, okay, I actually hit twenty two as
well. All right, so twenty plus. You can choose to try to
grab someone out of the way or protect someone this this might lead to you
taking damage instead, or basically you can put yourself in at risk for somebody
else. I think we need our wizard. So if you made it,
I know, so I don't want him to put himself at risk try to
save someone else. I do whatever I want to say. The girl,
Oh, yes, all well, then you can save me. Yeah,
still feeling real bad about gramminin. It had to happen. Yeah, yeah,
She's like, were we good? You can fucking fly? You're half
demons, So all right, those of you who succeeded and tried, Yeah,
those of you who succeeded and tried to protect somebody else. Make a
percentage check. I don't know. That's cool. You want to roll?
It was good? It was good? Yeah, yeah, seventy nine.
All right, So Vals sweeps her cloak in a spiral pattern and absorbs all
of the like dragon shards that are going to Pepper and Glenn, and they
just sink into into the cloak, which devours them, and Xenator gets a
spike through the back of the head that like comes out one of his eyes.
All right, three trauma, You are impaled. What did I protect
her? Yep? You put your body in front of her and this like
shield in between the two of you, and they punctured through the shield and
hit you in the back of the head and it comes out one of your
eyes is now dangling down onto your cheek. Oh hey, is this something
a uh yep? Does that trigger a power thing? Not had a chance
to use this since like the first session. Yeah, I also don't know
what that is attack area of effect attack Yeah, it's short, it's short,
it's it's RPG shorthand yeah, yeah, I know, I just like
know what this casual? Yeah, if I can find it with on bringing
the game to a complete standstill. It's a little late for that. You
I stopped us to ship, so we're okay. Aaron makes us all look
better. Yeah, flash barrier. Yeah, you know what, even after
all that, I think it's cooler if I take the thing to the head.
Look at that, Look at him. Put just now is manipula as
you know, I could. But there's gonna be some super fan who's like
wondering he should have played his flash barrier. That was a misplay. Yeah,
maybe it's gonna be Tony. Yeah, yeah, anyone, it's gonna
be Tony. We all know you can have freebody three trauma three, just
straight trauma. Ye, So it is a it's a it's an injury.
Called him paled ouch. So she's like like in your shadow, looking up
at you, at the chunk of rock that went through your head, And
for just a second she suddenly looked really young, like she was talking a
big game, but the fear and her all of her downy feathers have like
kicked out and making her look much rounder and younger and more like vulnerable.
She was talking a big game, but she's still just a little kid.
And the smoke and rock clears, and it's okay. It's gonna be okay.
The dragonflame like licks around the corner and striding out of the smoke and
debris and ash. It's Queen Bevil. She pulls the visor of her helmet
up and inspects the interior of the room, and there's like a glitter in
the air behind her as the magical transportation spell is just evaporating royal blood,
and it's you. I so hoped I had found him, but now I
am fairly set and I will never see him again. Awkwards lied to me.
Well, I feel like I ordered that there it carefully, So I
didn't lie, lave Aline. We were friends. Were we friends? Yes,
you said yourself. You knew and you did nothing. So the murder
of my son was payback. It was revenge for my inaction. You give
your parenting too much credit. That man was a monster, so you admit
it. My last heir, my only chance. That truly all you care
about? You? Yeah, you you lose your children and you have decided
that a legacy is more important. I am responsible for thousands and thousands of
people. I can see what you're doing with that responsibility. As she gestures
to the army fighting outside. It was you and your group that brought us
here, that lured us to the Brier Tower. Don't think I don't know
what you did to them in that treaty. He's a madman. You used
him to drag these armies here. What he made, all of his own
choices. I have done everything in my power to avoid him. I will
have justice for what was taken from me. This debt will be paid,
and it will be paid. Now, where's her justice for what was taken
from her? There's a curse going on upstairs that's gonna murder half. Nobody's
asking you anything, Wizards. Maybe you should, though, I'll just one
more time say we have moments to stop a curse that will murder half of
humanity that still currently includes you and all of those subjects that you profess to
care so much about. I have had enough of your lies and manipulation.
I theoretically shoot an arrow super quickly without her noticing. I want to shoot
shoot her into another plane of existence for three rounds, and we can just
like because that's she's not seeing reason. Yeah, I don't want to do
this. All right, We got a run. That's great, I think
that's means we do not have I was about to just say, we don't
have time for this ship fight, all right, so like, sorry,
your shitty son is old news. We don't have time for boring. What's
his name again? We killed Eric Trump once? We do it again.
I wasn't so funny. Wait what was his name again? By the way,
I don't remember, right, yeah, right, yeah. I will
leave this tower with royal blood one way or another. You have royal blood,
so just leave. I will spill the royal blood of yours if you
continue this. So then a small voice just behind xenatore, then take mine
what I have royal blood. I am the daughter of Laveline and Kingdom.
No, you said you don't have time for this, and I would really
like a way out of this tower. We are getting you away out of
this tower. We fought our way in and we're gonna fight our way back
out. I watched in the mirror. I know what you did. I
know what happened with his the wedding. And she looks at Laveline and says,
I see a way out for myself, and I'm going to take it.
Take me back, Take me back to Alembor. Say that I am
the say that I am the daughter of Oric and Jane in the Fay forest,
and and pass me off as your heir. It will work. I
have royal blood. And she runs from the other side of senator like waving,
like to do the queen, who looks down at her. No,
absolutely not. What were we gonna shoot the queen into your existence? Is
that still happening? What do we need to do? All right? So
if if we're if a role initiative, let's do it fourteen thirteen, eight
thirteen, bevl is going to go at fifteen okay yah, yeah, instigator,
okay okay. So at the beginning of this encounter, Elevra is running
towards Bevel and Bevll is looking like shocked, and Lavelone is screaming, no,
you can't and now valu're up. So she takes out the witch hairbow.
I'm going to use the thin existence which so there's one hundred percent chance
that the character's struck by this arrow will fade into another realm for three rounds.
She wants to get dock the arrow and put it on the thinnest spider
silk string and snap it out, all right, Her guard is ten.
I think Zenator is yelling, don't. I don't want you to stop,
right right? Xenator's like wait, wait, love. I love those moments
like this would be one of those moments where everything is slow motion and there's
lots of cuts to all the different characters. It cuts to Lovelie and she's
screaming, and Val is knocking the arrow, and Gwen is like throwing her
hands up on top of her head, and Martin is just staring there like
completely blind. I'm Martin, Hi, I'm ma don't shoot. So so
the accuracy is thirteen all right? So thirteen minercent is three, so you
need to roll a seven or higher. Tell me this all right? I
hate to tell you that she has sixty percent magic resistance, so you're gonna
have to roll forty or lower on one hundred. We're really good at those.
Gotta take those spell pen feets. Damn it. Seventy six all right,
the arrow strikes her in the shoulder. How much damage do you do?
We gotta deal with this fact. Twenty okay, plus how many power
do you have left after using that one? Five? Alright? So forty
five damage? All right? So that arrow still hits her in the shoulder
like a fucking thunderbolt, throws her shoulder bag. Blood sprays in the air.
Her blood is red tinged with like traces of blue as the royal blood
sprays into the air. Fuck. So, Elevra is running towards her step
after step. Bevel just got hit hard in the shoulder. Instinctively, her
sword comes out of its sheath, flings in the air. There is a
flash, and the blade goes up underneath a leverage fucking throat. Yeah,
so Bevil like stops her blade right underneath the young girl's chin. Okay,
who's next? It's me right, what did you get? I got fourteen
fourteen? You're next? Is there plant life in this room? There is?
Okay, it's like, remember there's all that like not around her.
There's like ash and stuff around her because the fire burned it all away.
Oh so I couldn't. Oh you want to do the entangling thing? Yeah,
yeah, you know what, there might be enough vegetation left under that
ash. On try, I'm gonna try. I'm gonna target the ground around
her and cast verdant lightning all right, numbing electricity channels through you and and
nearby allies spreading numbness. Great, So it's just like anyone within two spaces
or me and another ally within two spaces lose one mind? Got who's closest
to me? Wow? Okay, because she blocked you from the damage?
All right? Roller per cent of chick fourteen A okay, so water roll
low? Yeah, okay good. So's ash around her arms and legs and
and uh restrain and entangle her. So she's now like straining against the against
the vines and uh yeah, it's like rooted in place. So Martin,
are we are we trying to make an escape here? I think everyone's trying
to do different things here. This is a practice. No, no,
I think no, No, it's great. The scene is very we're all
doing different things and I love it. Yeah, how could you possibly be
on the same page in this moment? It's wild. No, you're good,
you're good, You're great. Wait wait, wait, calm down this
We have appeal to violence. We have appeal to calm like it just nobody
moved, like, it's all hold still and I love it. It's it's
we're all over the place. So swords still under Lavelene's daughters. Yeah,
it's under a Levro's neck. Yes, I'm going to try to pull her
out of the way. Yes, she's not. I'm gonna try to.
Yeah, I'm gonna try to like shoot my hands out and just you know,
rubber band her, spring her back towards towards You're going to try to
like grab her with your with extendo arms. Yeah, okay, okay,
So Queen Bevil actually like held her attack like on a ready action. So
as your hands flick out like stretch armstrong out towards her, her blade like
flicks left and right, and so you need to make a guard difficulty and
thirteen check right all right, well definitely failed. Oh all right, yeah
you said difficulty thirteen. Yeah, so yeah that was a straight zero for
me. Okay, so h esus Okay. So the blade sings in the
air as it slices through through your your palms and wrists keeping your arms away
from her. Uh and you take eight body damage puts me down to zero
at zero yep, okay, so you don't get these severed hands of their
severed hand affliction, all right, and that brings it to me, right,
Yeah, I'm gonna use my wizard. It's mind turn actually, oh
lovely, ok okay, because what I was gonna do was at I was
gonna attack Bubble, you know, the one who was attacking my daughter,
my daughter. Bitch. Senator is yelling, wait, everyone calmed down,
screaming, screaming, all right, lovely, and her guard is ten.
Okay, I'm just gonna use my sharp and silver toes because I really like
that as personal. Okay, so I need a seven. Okay, that's
not so bad. It's not bad. But last time didn't go so well.
Poor William guys alrip, all right, William guys, shit all right.
So Laveline Pirouettes kicks in the air and hits the back of Bebel's hand.
The sword flings up into the air, spinning and spiraling and sticks into
the like stone of the the at the base of that crystalline fountain. And
yeah, just a single drop of blood like moves down from down a lever's
throat and where it just sort of pricked her, and it is blue,
It is bright and blue. And he realized that that's what bevel was checking
for it. And she turns and looks at you just with like just desperation
and like like kind of a crazed look in her eyes, but you have
disarmed her. And then when something sharp stabs into your side and you turn
and look down, expecting to see like bevils, like dagger or dueling dagger,
it isn't. It's it is the sharp silver toe of your daughter.
A Levra jabbed into your side. And she has tears streaming down her face,
and she's gritting her teeth, and she goes get away from her,
and she shoves you back, blood like trickling out of a small wound in
your side. She's my way out, She's my way out, all right,
Senator's turn. All right, I will wizard's whisper. I actually thought
about acting, you know laterly, but I'm gonna Wizard's whisper so that stops
time and we can talk. Uh Laveline, we need to let her go.
I just got her back. I can't let her go. Fighting now
is gonna push her away forever. If you love her, let her make
this choice. Reach out to her when we're out of here. We've got
a curse to stop, We've got we've got work to do. Still.
You came to free her, that's been accomplished. Can't just give her to
bevil you can't to make this choice for her. She's like six months old.
Why are we listening to her? And also that kid is a brat,
really pissed off her. I think it's some bad choices, and that's
coming from me, the Queen of bad choices, Arbor Applejack just like looks
sad. You, of all people, should want the girl to choose for
herself. No, she's taken along with this gang of fools here and we're
finishing this. I'm with Laveline. We've seen what bevel does to her kids.
She's gonna fuck her up in like two days. It's gonna be an
endless psychopath. Yeah. And also passing her office Jane's and Yorke's is a
terrible plan. She us just one. She was born in the fade woods.
People will believe it. I don't believe anything, Senator. Well,
unbeknownst to you, that was like something she was kind of holding on to,
being like she physically looks like me, not damn me, and like
that was always gonna be my hold on her. And then you just destroyed
that. Wow, way it goes, Nataur, I just destroyed it.
Yeah, it was good. That's good. Yeah, that it's ephemeral,
not to mention. The wizard could change her appearance. She could pluck her
feathers out. There's if and in fact it might send that crashing down on
Lava in that like if Dem had gotten her back, he would have erased
any like claim you had to her. Right, yeah, he's really good
at that. Look you can still you can still rebuild your relationship with her,
but we just can't do it right now. And she's right. She
gets out of here, she gets to safety, bevil. Say what you
will, she'll protect her against Dem and take her army with her. Probably
I heard what you said, Kathy, leaving Dem and his army alone to
face the fee and making the likelihood of him dying way higher. You mocky
avelion thing. So Kathy is Kathy lovely? And I want your permission to
cast us though what spell? Oh you know a spell that will and this
and let her go for now. Don't listen to it, Loveline. It's
probably really tough wrists. Andy's doing a lot of physical comedy with a severed
risks that you can't see here. I know we've got your back so much
blood. You just got so much blood on her all right, So the
wizards whisper flashes through all of your minds, allowing emotions and yelling and all
of that to happen in an instant And then Laveline being shoved away from bevel
Senator is chanting and you can see like crumbling brick dust starting to form up
between where you're standing and where uh A Lever is standing. With the final
glance towards where she knows DEM's army is. She looks back at Queen Bebll
and like her face hardens and she does not look at her daughter again,
but says, just make sure that you serve her better than you have your
previous children, where I swear by everything above and below your throne will be
the last thing that you need to worry about. And then pigs wall comes
up, its smashes up, and the last thing, the last thing you
hear so a Leverra like disappears behind this brick wall. You hear Bevil's fists
smashing into the side of it, Cracks start to appear in it, and
the wind picks up in the room, sweeps across the ashen floor where the
dragonfire exploded. The interior of the room bevel, and she disappear inside of
the roar of the wind, And as the pigs wall collapses inward under the
force of it, a single white feather, flutter like than your own,
flutters down towards you from where ever was Upon tower top, the Brier Witch
tangled magic around the throat of a would be assassin until there was a satisfying
crack. She then wearily began pulling the daggers out of her back. Mother,
the most familiar voices said from the gloom of the chamber behind her,
do you need a hand dislodging those daggers? A few look like they might
be hard to reach. The witch hacked up, black sap and spit.
You've given me all the practice in being stabbed in the back one could ever
need. As her daughter moved into the light, the brier Witch could not
help but feel pride at how beautiful, confident, and strong her daughter was.
The towers enchantments have fallen? Why did you not take this opportunity to
escape? Rapunzel shook her head and set her gaze. The witch knew that
look, must we do this dance again? Her daughter's face contorted, No,
Mother, No, we must not. You can be done with this
madness. You can stop this. This is too far even for you.
The Briar Witch did not disagree that the plan she, the Queen of Spite,
and their glorious advisers had concocted was madness to alter the bones of the
world. This had only been done a handful of times, and always at
titanic cost. However, mad times needed mad answers. It is beyond the
ale, I admit, but you've seen the paths they are laying. Mankindly
is a mad dog, and I will put it down and muzzle it.
Zelle, her Sweetizelle, looked at her with disgust, which hurt, and
pity, which hurt more. You think I don't see you. You think
I don't know how personal this is. You play the wise woman doing the
hard thing, but we both know your motives. The Witch's eyes moved over
her beautiful daughter to the elaborate knots of her hair, That lovely hair,
that hair that was the masterpiece of her spellcraft, the hair that had become
a true thing of legend. Why would she not wear her hair down?
She tangled and knotted it, hiding her past, choking it out in braids
and buns. Why shouldn't I hate family? One of their princes stolen and
made off with your innocence, your virtue, your loyalty, like a thief
and a knight. They turned you on me, me who loves you with
no condition and no question. You were all I had, the mothers.
We ruled the world with wisdom and patience, and they stole it, stole
it from us, hunted us, and burned us. And when I fled,
made something beautiful for myself away from all others. They snuck in and
they took that too. So now I will take from them, take,
can take, can take? One in every three will go to dust,
and their wombs will become heavy with child, but the birth will not come,
for a cue has formed to enter the world. A death will allow
a birth for mankind. He's a toxin, and the realms above and below
can only sustain so much of its poison presence, my curse swearing out.
In all our many conflicts, I've not managed to talk you down once,
Rapunzel said, sadly. Still I feel I have to try. Lightning and
flame crackled in the sky. Mother and daughter each thrust a deadly arcane gesture
at one another. Between them, the magic caught the force breaking stone and
space, and for an instant even time, the shock wave from above curled
the clouds into a funnel and showered the battlefield below in stones of solidified sky.
The briar, which smiled a crooked smile as her daughter's hair, long
and fair, came loose and billowed to flee and the mad wis Thanks for
listening to Could Have Been Heroes. Production and editing by Aaron schoenrock theme song
by Bo Hoover and cover art by me Robert Knutsen. Could Have Been Heroes
is an entirely independent podcast, so if you like the show, please subscribe
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